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THE STANDARD AND EXPRESS. A MiRMHiLK ) __ W. A. miRsOHALK,/ Editors and Proprietors. ACIIOSS THK STKKKT. I do not know it if she knows I atcb her, as she conies and goes; I wonder if she dreams of it. Sittine and working at my rhymes, I weave her sunny hair at times Into my verse, or gleams of it. Upon her window-ledge is set A box of flowering mignonnette; Morning and night she tends to them, The senseless flowers, that do not care To kis that strand of loosened hair As prettily she bends to them. If I could once contrive to get Into that box of mignonnette. Some morning as she tends to them ! Dear me! I see the sweet blood rise And bloom about her chepks aud eyes And bosom, as she bends to them ! JOHN CO'NETI’S NOTABLE BIRTH DAY. Mr*. Ellen Ko*s (NeUle Brooks.) CHAPTER I, John Cosnett felt very much like “Mr. Ready-to-halt,” as he walked along under the gloomy sky of a cer tain 24th of December. John had not a very robust constitu tion, and he felt the influence of weather and surroun ding circumstances more than he would have done had he been a stronger man. He knew that it was to a great extent his own fault that he had destroyed the health he once enjoyed by years of excessive drinking; but this reflection did not make his trouble any easier to bear—far from it. It was now exactly twelve months since he had signed the pledge ; and instead of looking back with joy and thankfulness upon the happy change which had taken place in himself, his family and his home during that time, lie perversely chose to look at every thing in a light as gloomy as that of this gray, frosty, cheerless Christmas Eve. “I don’t see that we’re much better off than we were this time last year,” he said to himself. “Almost all we can say is, that we are quite out of debt; but home isn’t much better, that T can see. Fifty things that we wanted then to make it comfortable, we want yet; and I can’t see any prospects of getting ’em. It has been nothing but patch, patch, patch, alter all our striv ing ; and there are lots of things that wife and children want this cold weather, that can't be got and won’l be got for many a day. Then see how ill Tolly h?s been, aud what a sickly little might she is still; I shouldn’t wonder a bit if we lost her, and I think it would drive me well nigh mad to lose Polly. Ah, thiugs do look dark, and there doesen’t seem much encouragement to keep on. Wife and children don’t seem even to remember that this is the anni versary of the day on which I gave up the drink, although it was the hardest trial of my life to do it. Not a word have they said about it, and they don’t seem to care. I suppose if I did just a i Tom Hanvors wants mo to so much —go and keep Chrismas Eve with him aud the rest of ’em at “The Golden Goose.” Well, if I did it wouldn’t be so bad, after all. Haven’t I kept the pledge the whole year? And that’s more than many can say. If I did have ’a hit o? enjoyment, to-night, I could sign again after New Year’s Day.” John thrust his cold hands in his pock ets, and jingled the silver about in them that lie had just received for wages It seemed as if he tried to look and feel as miserable as he could. Ah, John, John ! Don’t you know how easy it is to make everything in life look as black as night, if we are bent upon murmuring and repining? And don’t you know that there is a sunny side to every cloud, and that oftentimes tilings are not nearly so bad as they see in te be ? Now if your “good augei”could have whispered into your ear just then, what might you have heard ? Something like this : “ Now, John, man, pray reflect upon what you have been saying. You are a deal better off than you were this time last year. Not only can you hold up your head before the whole world, and say, “ I owe no man a penny,” but your money lias done many blessed things besides putting you out of debt. Cer t.inlv there is not se much to show for it yet; but it has kept the children plentifully supplied witn good food all year; it lias kept tlieir shoes sound, and tlieir clothes tidy ; it lias brought many little comforts to your home, and made your wife a glad and thankful woman. And though many things are still wanted, they can be done without, a little longer, and you will get them in very good time if you hold on bravely. Then, although your darling littly Polly has been so ill, she is now aimost well, you may say, and, with care, may turn out as strong as any of the other chil dren. And if it should please God to take her. He would surely give you strength according to your day, and help you to say, “His will be done,” if you look to Him. Aud as for wife and children not caring about this im portant anniversary ! you just wait a bit and see. It is because they are afraid of letting the cat out of the bag, as your oldest boy, Arthur, says that they have not said a word about it dur ing the past two or three weeks. Bea man, John ! Don’t be so foolish, nay, wicked, as to go off to “ The Golden Goose” seeking enjoyment!’ You know well enough you wouldn’t find it there. Didn’t you try through many a weary year to get enjoyment in sucli places, and after all didn’t you find yourself in the very depths of misery and despair? And pray don’t let Satan deceive you with the notions that you would go and sigu the pledge very easily after New Year’s day. You might never sign again, if you want to only break it now, aud then woe, woe, 1 ° yourself and everybody belonging to you. Go home, John, go home! Home is the place for the tempted and the gloom. It is a haven to run into and e cape shipwreck. Ii things look dark to you now, go home, and hope for the sliming of the sun to-morrow ! Whether John’s reflections took a turn this way I know not; but certainly he kept straight on in the direction of home, turning not to the right hand nor to the left, where lay many of his well-known haunts, like man-traps to ensnare the weak and foolish. He quickened his steps, for it was in tensely cold, but before ho had gone tar, he saw, long way off, a little group turn the corner oi the street, to come towards him. “ I wonder where they’re oft’ to,” he said, “ aud Polly, too, I de clare ! I’ll just step out of sight, and follow them when they pass by.” So he stepped up a passage close at hand, and stayed there, hoping he would not be noticed. In a few minutes his children passed—Arthur and Willie, and Polly, and Susie—all so well wrapped up and so chatty and merry, that he thought surely thev must be out on some happy errand. Before we follow after them with the father, we will learn what took place before they started out. &rCHAPTER 11. X or many a day passed little Polly had been saying anxiously : “ Oh, mother ! I hope [ shall be well enough to go out with Arthur on father’s teetotal birthday. Even if it snows, I ma 7 P.o, mayn’t I? A bit of snow wouldn’t hnrt, if I get a deal better ; and oh, I do want to help to buv father's book.” “ No, you’d better not say any more about it till the day comes,” Arthur said one evening ; “ for if you keep on so about it, I know you’ll let the cat out of the bag before* father, and that would just spoil every thing. And seven and sixpence is too much to pay, after having our plan spoilt. Hi! seven and sixpence, mother,” he added, with a happy laugh, “isn’t it a lot to give fora book? I never spent so much money in my life before. Ido hope, when we go cut on Christmas eve to buy it, that we shan’t meet any pick pockets.” “You mustn’t trust in your pocket, Arthur ; you must carry it tight in your hand,” said little Susie, with a wise nod of her curly head. “There’s a knowing Susie,” cried Ar thur. “Now that’s just what I’ll do, if you’ll walk without holding my hand.” Seven-and-sixpence for a present for the father ! It may be asked how they could get such a sum for such a pur pose, and the answer is, that it was the fruit of self denial and affection, “ Father’s first teetotal birthday,” that was coming, had been talked of many times during the past year, aud the children has resolved that he should have some little present in remembrance. So they saved by every halfpenny they could get, Arthur frequently earning a few pence by running errands for per sons in the neighborhood. And when Polly fell ill, and kmd friends dropped in to see her, she had pence often given her with advice to buy eggs, or oranges, or cakes with them, or tempt her poor appetite. But not a penny would she spend on herself. She remembered the want and misery of the time before her father had signed the pledge ; and she thought he had been such a dear, good father ever since last Christmas that she could not possibly do too much for him. Besides, the present they had set their hearts upon getting was so expensive for them, that it was urgent they should save every penny that came into their hands. At first they were very undecided about what to get. They frequently sat down in solemn conclave over the ques tion, but could not ome to a decision. Arthur voted that they should get at least five shillings for the present, and that was too large a sum to be lightly spent. Should it be something to wear, to eat or to use ? They decided that it must not be anything either to wear or to eat, because they would like it to be kept for years in remembrance of the important occasion. “It should be something to remind father on every Christmas to come, what a happy day liis first teetotal birthday was,” said Mrs. Cosnett. “ Oh, mother ! ” he exclaimed, “ I’ve seen something that would be exactly the thing for father’s present. You know Robinson’s old book shop ? Well, I was looking in, and I saw such a grand Bible ; it isn’t new, but it looks as good as if it had never been used, anti it has such lovely pictures. It is a family Bible, a beauty ! aud I went in to look at it, and ask the price. Guess what it was.” “If it was more than five shillings it isn’t much good to know the price,” said Mrs. C^-mett. “ Well, it was nine, mother, and when I heard that I could have cried, I fell so sorry. I said to Mr. Robinson that we would not be able to have it, a3 it was too much ; and he asked me a lot of questions about who it was for and all that, and at last he said we should have it for seven and sixpence, and ha wohld keep it for us uutil I brought him a decided answer. Now you see there is half-a-crown of mine, eighteen pence of Polly’s, six pence of Willie’s, and six pence of Susie’s—five shillings. How could we manage to get the other half-crown! Do you think you could afford to help, mother ? ” Mrs. Cosnett thought of a small sum of money which she had put by, six pence at a time, to buy herself a pair of boots, which she had needed very much. “Just think,” Arthur went on plead ing, “ how nice this book would be; something to be always using, and yet something to last all our lives.” “And something to be a real blessing to us all,” the mother added. And while she spoke she resolved to wait for her boots, and add half-a-crown of her money to the children’s precious store. “ Ye3, you shall have lialf-a crown from me,” she said. “There could be nothiug better for father’s teetotal birthday than that.” So Arthur called next day to tell the old book-seller that they would come and buy the book on Christmas eve. And when the day came Polly prevailed upon her mother to let her go on the happy errand with the others; she was sore she was well enough and she didn’t care how much her mother muffled her up so she might go and carry her eight een pence to the shop, Off they went: and as they neared the place in the dim light of the fading afternoon their father overheard the words, “ Won’t father be glad?” from Willie ; “ Who’ll have to give it him?” from Susie ; “We shall seß when the time comes,” from Arthur ; and “ Mind you don’t lose your sixpences, Susie aud Willie or we shan’t be able to buy it,” from Polly. When the father had heard so much, a sense of honer forbade him to pry farther into their glad secret. He guesses that they were intending and hoping to give him a surprise, and a surprise he resolved it should be. He would not even look to see wmth&r they were going, but turned directly back towards home. What a change the sight of them, and the sound of their words, had wrought in his feelings! A great weight seemed to be lifted off his heart. He thought no more of Tom Hanvers’ pro posal, which just now appeared quite tempting to him. “The dear things are thinking of me,” he said, with fatherly fondness; “and I was think ing of turning my back upon them to night and playing the traitor to home. May God forgive me, and make me strong to do the right evermore.” CHAPTER 111. When John reached home, he did not say anything at finding his wife alone, though she supposed he would when he missed Polly, who had not been out for so long a t ime. Among other good tilings which John had learned since he became a total abstainer, was to have a great re gard for truth. Teetotalism does not add much dignity to a character when the more excellent virtues of truthfulness and perfect honesty are wanting. So when Mrs. Cosnett said, “ You don’t seem surprised at not seeing Polly,” he replied, “No, because I saw her out with the other children ; but they did not see me. Do you think it is safe for her to be out ?’’ “I don’t thick she will be hurt, John, They are not gone far, and the air is clear, though cold. I wrapped her up right well ; and they promised to walk fast.” “Yes, they were walking fast,” said John. “ I had better go and get dressed up a bit before they come back. I sup pose you will want us all after tea to help get the things ready for the pud dings. Well, it will be a pleasant bit of employment, rather new to us.” “ Yes ; and the dear children are so glad about it. It would do your heart good to hear them talk, John. They think they are going to have the happi est Christmas of anv people under the sun ! I’m sure it will seem a reward for well-doing, to see how joyful they are,” said Mrs. Cosnett, with tears of delight glistening in her eyes. “I don’t doubt it,” said John, as he left the room to make ready for their return home. They came in while he was still en gaged in “dressing,” and the large package which Arthur carried was put away in a drawer, out of sight. “ I wish you would look over it now, mother,” he whispered, “it is such a beauty, I think it must be worth Jive times the price we had to pay for it, mother!” Polly brought back such a color on her cheeks that her mother declared she looked as if she had never been ill at all. And what radiant faces they all had, and what sparkling eyes! Mrs. Cosnett folded away their walk ing clothes, and they stood around the bright fire warming their hands, when their father made Lis appearance; little Susie, the youngest of the four, began clapping her hands as her father came in, and said, mysteriously, “Ah, dadda, you don’t know somefia’!” Arthur pulled at her frock to stop her tongue. “ Don’t pull so, Arthur,” she said in an injured tone, “I isn’t going to tell him !” This only made matters worse in Ar thur’s opinion ; his face colored, and he proposed that Susie go to bed if she did not keep quiet. “ Youmusn’t say anything ’cept what you’re told,” said Polly. At which Susie opened her eyes wide, and said, *‘oh, oh! can’t I talk about tea and all that by myself ?” “ Yes : but not about anything else,” said Polly, feeling very anxious about their secret. “Well,” said Susie, “after tea we shall talk ’bout—now, ’member, I shan’t tell what about.” Mr. Cosnett burst out laughing, and very considerately began talking about something that he thought would divert Susie’s eager mind from the secret which they all wanted to keep a little while longer. The little ones sat down to the fire wi ll father while Mrs. Cosnett got the tea, and meanwhile Arthur was busy in another room. He had carried the Bible away unnoticed by the others, and was there inscribing within the the cover words that they had decided upon during the day. When that was done, Mrs. Cosßett brought a beautiful book-marker that she had worked in her young days, and put it between the leaves. Then they left it there, and went away to tea. I must not dwell upon that happy tea time. You may imagine all about the cozy brightness of the room, the chatter of the children, and their enjoyment of their father’s teetotal birthday. As soon as the meal was over and all cleared away, Susie said, joyfully : “Now Arthur’s got to go and fetch somefin’.” And, lest the secret should suddenly burst the bounds of her rosy lips, Arthur went and fetched the present. He brought it in with a flushed face, and placed it on the table in front of his father. “ There now, dadda,” cried Susie; “ we’ve bought that for you with our very own money, and I put sixpence to it.” “Did you, pussy,” said her father, laughing. Then he opened the beauti ful book and read : “ TO DEAR FATHER, FROM Arthur, Polly,'Mary, Willie and Susie Cosnett , in Thankful Remembrance of His First Temperance Birthday, Christmas, 1868.” He read the worls over more than once, liil at last they looked ail blurred to him, aud a bright drop fell just be low the inscription. “ Children,” he said presently, in a rather unsteady voice, “you are very good to remember father so. I can’t tell how much good your present has done me, how great a blessing it may yet be to me and to all of us. Come, I must kiss you all around for it, not for getting Susie, who has put the noble sum of sixpence toward buying dadda this beautiful book.” He got up and kissed each of them. Polly’s thin face was glowing with joy. “ You must kiss mother, too,” she said, “ for she put a good bit toward it, father.” “Yes, I’ll kiss mother, too,” he said, merrily, “ though till within the last year, I must confess, I’d almost forgot ten how to. There, good lass,” he ad ded, after kissing away a tear that was rolling down her face. “And now let us just look at two or three familiar old texts in this book, and then we will all look at the splendid pictures together.” He turned over the leaves and read, “Wuenlsaid My foot slippeth, Thy mercy, O Lord, held me up.” He turned the leaves over again aud read, “ Look thou not upon the wine when it is red, when ho giveth his color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. At the last it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder.” And, “ Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.” He turned again and read, “ God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able ; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” Once more he turned the leaves and read, “He that over cometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father and before His angels.” “Be theu faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” John closed the book and said, “ Ah, where could we find such inspiring words of counsel and comfort? They put new vigor into me. Never, never as long as I live shall I forget this, my first teetotal birthday, and I do pray that every Christmas we may yet be spared to see may find us all more pre cious to each other than ever. Yon have made this a happy Christmas in deed to me, wife and children, and I shall see how much I can do henceforth CARTERSYILLE, GEORGIA, THURSDAY, APRIL 22, 1575. to make Christmas and all time happy to you.” “Father,” said Arthur, presently, “ there is one text you ought to have spoken for u just now. I think we’ve got it quite deep hewn into our hearts, though.” “ What is it, Arthur ? ” “ This, father : 4 lt is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ” “Ah, that’s a beautiful text to have in your hearts and to practice in your lives, my lad—a text for Christmas and all times, for you and everybody else, if the world is to be made bright and happy as our little world at home here is to night.” THE COCOA. THUS. [Mr. Charles Warren Stoddard ha introduced into iiis book of South Sea Idyls the following poem. It is little known:] Cast on the water by a careless band. Day after day the winds persuaded me; Onward I drifted till a coral tree Stayed me among the branches, where the sand Gathered about me, and I siowly grew, Fed by the constant sun and the inconstant dew. Th 9 sea birds bnild their nests against my root, And eye my slender body’s horny case. Widowed within this solitary place Into the thankless sea I cast my fruit: Joyous I thrive, for no man may partake All of the store I bear and harvest for his sake. No more I heed the kisses of the morn ; The harsh winds rob me of the life they gave; I watch my tattered shadow in the wave, And hourly droop and nod my crest forlorn, While all my fibres stiffen and grow numb Reck’ning the tardy ships, the ships that never come. Is the World Round! A Scientific Heretic Loses $6,000 ami Lands In Jail tor His Unbelief. Let not the civilized New Yorker, then, hold up his hanus in Pharisaic horror when we inform him that there now languishes in one of her Britanic majesty’s prisons a worthy and respect able Englishman of good estate *who has brought himself to that sad condi tion solely by his profound and pas sionate conviction that the world is not in the least round, but, on the contrary, as flat as a pancake. He bears a heroic name—immortal in the annals of lib erty—no less illustrious a name, in deed, than John Hampden. He has worked out a cosmography of his own, which he calls the “ zetetic system,” in name at least a most modest and com mendable system, its vital principle, if its nape means anything, * being’ that the whole universe rests upon a mark of interrogation. His earlier efforts at undermining the accepted theory of things were as gentle and persuasive as became an innovator bent not upon uttering oracles but upon propounding queries. He addressed himself to no less a personage than Mr. A. R. Wal lace, the great ally of Darwin, and in duced that eminent man of science to join him in submitting the Copernican theory to an ordeal by wager. This sounds perhaps like a joke. But it was no joke at all. Mr. Hampden and Mr. Wallace each deposited in Coutt’s bank the comfortable sum of £SOO sterling, and, selecting Mr. Walsh, of the Field, as their umpire, proceeded to ascertain whether it could or could not be shown that there exists a perceptiblecurvature in the surface of six miles of water. The experiment was tried upon the ca nal of the Bedford Level. A couple of levelingrods were placed in the canal six miles apart, with a third rod midway between the two. This having been done, accurate obser vations made at each extremity with an ordinary theodolite showed in a mo ment that there existed in the distance of six miles a perceptible cur vatu ic, the extent of which proved upon careful mathematical calculation exactly to cor respond with the ordinary calculation of the length of the earth’s radius, and with the average curvature of her sur face. This result satisfied the umpire. It satisfied Mr. Wallace, who, upon the umpire’s decision, drew forth from Coutts’s bank the comfortable thousand pounds therein deposited. But it did not satisfy Mr. John Hampden. That gentleman wrote to Mr. Walsh and Mr. Wallace inviting them to make s new trial on the ground that they had failed “to make due allowance for the natural dip of the line of vision,” the effect of which, as Mr. Hampden assured them, is to induce a man unskilled in the ze tetic philosophy to imagine, when he looks along a plain surface, that he per ceives a convexity, the truth being that he perceives nothing of the sort, but is only suffering from a defect in his eye sight not remediable otherwise than'by the stimulating effect upon the mental facultie-3 of zetetic truth. Mr. Wallaoe replied by slapping his hand, as it were, upon his pocket which contained the thousand pounds. Mr. Walsh replied that he had other fish to fry, and cared not to dip any further into the dip of the line of vision. Whereupon Mr. Hampden naturally fell into a rage, and began straightway to persecute his hide armed antagonists. He sent them postal cards every day, denouncing them as “ thieves,” “ swindlers,” and “ common cheats ;” and as they took no notice of these observations he pro ceeded to send similar postal-cards to all their friends and acquaintances. Tnis at last drove Mr. Wallace into the courts for relief. The courts awarded Mr. Wallace £6OO sterling with costs, making, as it appears, something like £1,400 or £1,500 in all “sent to the bad” by the modern Ptolemaio philosopher in his vain attempt to bring a single Copernican to reason. How many men in this generation would spend asmuch io save a single heathen soul, or to c®n vert Brigham Young from the error of his matrimonial ways? Magnificent Pauperism in the Month The New Orleans Picayune is pub lishing a series of articles in the hope of doing something to lead the plant ing class out of what it calls the present slough of despond. During the past three years, the editor reminds them, the southern states have produced large crops of cotton, and sold them at good prices. Putting the incoming crop at only 3,650,000 bales, and tli9 total pro duction the last three seasons reached the enormous aggregate of 11,750,000 bales, worth about $725,000,000. The average crop for the ten years preced ing the war was 3,545,000 bales, worth $178,000,000. The average of the last three years is 3,916,000 bales, worth $234,960,000. Yet, notwithstanding all tuis, the Picayune savs, the cotton states are in a deplorable financial con dition. They have gone on producing cotton and purchasing supplies, appar ently doing a prosperous business, only to find. that each year leaves them deeper in debt. Now the merchants refuse to advance the means to put in large crops, the planter begins to re'J ize how desperately poor he is. More than one remedy may be requisite for this condition of things, but one of the most effective of these would be a greater diversification of agricultural interests, to tiie end that the planters may live more within their own re sources than heretofore. Animal Wonders. In each grain of sand, there are mar vels ; in every drop of water, a world. In that great spectacle called nature, every being has its marked place and distinct role ; and in that grand drama called life, there presides a law as har monious as that which rules the move ment of the stars. Each hour removes by death myriads of existences, and each hour produces legions of new lives. The highest as well as the lowest created organism consumes carbon and water to support life and its duties, and it is not uninteresting to glance at the food, the habits, and the ways and means, peculiar to some of the inferior animals. From their petrified ejections we know what such fossilized reptiles as the plesiosaurus, etc. are, aud may some day be able to discover the fish and Crustacea they hunted down. Ani mals, when not living by their own respectable efforts, are either parasites or dependents ; many would seem to have positive trades, or are connected with branches of industry. There are miners, masons, carpenters, paper man ufacturers, and weavers, lacemakers even, all working first for tnemselves, and next to propagate their kind. The miners dig into the earth, from natural arches and supports, remove the use less soil: such as the mole, the chin- chilla of Peru, the badger, the lion ant, as well as certain worms and molluscs. Trie masons build huts and places ac cording to all the rules of architecture, as the bees and tropioal ants : there are fish that construct boats that the waves never can upset, and Agassiz has drawn attention to a fish which builds its nest on the floating sea weed in the middle of the ocean, and deposits therein its eggs. The wasps of South America fabricate a sort of paper or pasteboard. Spiders are weavers as well as lace makers ; one species oonstruots a diving bell, a palace of lace. When the as tronomer has need of the most delicate thread for hia telesaope, he applies to a tiny spider. When the naturalist desires to test his microscope, he selects a certain shell of a sea insect, so small that several millions of them in water could not be visible to the naked eye, and yet no microscope has yet been made sufficiently powerful to reveal the beautiful variegated designs on the atomic shells ! Aristotle remarked, and he has since been corroborated, that a variety of plover enters the crocodile’s mouth, picks the remnants of food off the animal’s tongue and from be tween its teeth. This living tooth pick is necessary, as the toDgue of the crocodile is not mobile. The Mexican owl, when enjoying a siesta, puts itself under the guard of a kind of rat, that gives the alarm on the approach of danger. Parasite s are everywhere, depend on no particular condition of the body, and are as abun dant in persons of the most robust a3 of the most debilitated health. They are at home in the muscles, in the heart, in the ventricles of the brain, in the ball of the eye. Tney are generally either in the form of a leaf or a ribbon, and are not necessarily, as was once supposed, confined to a special animal. The parasites of fish have been detected living in the intestines of birds ; and there are some that, for the purpose of development, must, pass into the economy of a second animal. Mrs. Johnson’s Mistake. My friend, Johnson, has an establish ment for the manufacture of jewelry and silver-ware in Boston. Some time ago he sold a bill of goods to a dealer in Augusta, Me. About a month after ward his partner was on a visit to Ban gor, and while there Johnson wrote to him to this effect: “I have heard nothing of that jewelry I sent to Augusta. If you are around that way stop and inquire if it was re ceived all right.” He put the letter in his pocket and forgot to mail it. Next day he left the coat at home and Mrs. Johnson, as usual, went through the pockets, and she found the letter. When Johnson came home that afternoon and opened the front door he was amazed to see Mrs. Johnson with her bonnet on and an umbrella and handbox in her hand, sitting in the hall on a trunk, looking as if she had about twelve hundred pounds pressure of rage to the square inch. He said : “ Why, Emeline, what on earth are you doing ?” “ I’m waiting for a cab to take me to my mother’s, yon brute !” “To your mother’s? Why, what’s the matter ?” “Matter—matter? You know well enough what’s the matter, you wretch. I’ll not live with you another hour l Oh, don’t talk to me, if you please! Go and talk to Augusta—go talk to her if you’re so fond of her. I’ve done with you. This winds you up with me!” “What do you mean anyhow? You’re behaving ridiculously.” “ I know I am ! Abuse me ! Keep on abusing me ! Knock me down and stamp on me ! Augusta ’ll like it, I dare say ! I wish I had her here now, the wretch ! I’d give oer a taste of this umbrella ! I’d scratch her eyes out!” “ Really, Emeline, this is the most extraordinary conduct. “ Will you tell me, my dear, what you ” “ Oh, dont ‘dear’ me, if you please! Save your rubbistiing sweetness for her. It’s too late to soft-sawder me. I’m going home to mother’s. You can’t give me clothes io be decent, but Au gusta gets all she want •, of course. I go slouching around this house in an old calico dress, but Augusta, I dare say, has her silks and satins. I can’t get a decent breast pin, but you can give Augusta a cart-load of ’em. It’s infamous!” “Emeline!” “Well, what?” “ Did you read the letter I left in my coat yesterday? ’ “Yes, I did, and that’s the way I dis covered your villainy. ” “ Emiline!” “ Well, what d’you want?” “ That letter referred to some jewelry I sold to a man in Augusta, Maine. Emeline!” “ Well?” “ You’ve been making a fool of your self.” “ Was it really Augusta Maine? Oh, William ! I’m afraid I have. I’m afraid —boo-hoo !—boo hoo !” Here Mrs. Johnson broke down and wept profusely over the lid of the band box, while Johnson put her umbrella gently in the rack and carried her trunk up-stairs, while she gave play to htr feelings. She didn’t go home to her mother. Bat that night she fixed a dozen of Johnson’s shirts that he had been trying in vain for a month to in duce her to repair.—A r Y. Weekly. The South Africa* Diamond Fields. —A letter recived in Salem from a gen tleman of this city, now located at Cape Town, C. G. H , reports that the diamond-fields are in a bad way—a very few paying expenses. Many of the claims are 150 feet deep, and what with the labor of hoisting dirt and pumping water, to say nothing of the hundreds of tons of earth that fall in at short intervals, and consequent ex tra labor and danger, diggers are fast realizing that the old ways are giving out, and that stock companies most soon take their places. Not over 3,000 whites and blacks are now at the the fields, while a few years ago there were ten or fifteen times that number, The business of the fields has, of course, an influence upon the business of Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. Both ports are glutted with stocks of all kinds, far beyond present requirements. The Dying Lion. His Capture and Hislury—A Kecord of Blood. There is now lying at the hippodrome in a dying condition one of the most remarkable lions that was ever imported into this country. “ Jim ” —for such is his name—was captured by the agents of some London animal dealers when about two years old, and his savage nature has never been thoroughly tamed. With the exception of Pompey, Parker and Admiral, he is the largest and oldest African lion in captivity, his age beiDg nearly twenty-eight years. Following his capture Jim was taken to London and placed on exhibition, and after he had been before the public for some time it was thought that he was in a condition to be trained, and a tamer by the name of Ardent undertook the but the brute bandied him so roughly that he was confined to bed for the next six months. Jim was then sold to the proprietor of a show that was traveling throngh the country; and, finally, after reaching Edinburg, a man by the name of McArthur undertook to break him as a performing lion. He entered the cage of the brute before a large audience, and after petting and handling the leopards for a while he put his hand on Jim; but the animal did not like it, and with one blow of his terrible paw knocked the tamer down. Instantly all was confusion, and the leopards at once made a dash for the lion, and fastened their fangs in him. Whether or no they saved the man is doubtful, but certain it is they were fast giving their life for him and the lion was manglipg them in a fearful man- ner, when the trainer, with the rapid ity of lightning, cut him several times across the eyes with a cowhide, com pelling him to relinquish bis hold, when the gate of the training-cage that divided the animals was at once shut, and the keeper escaped. Shortly after this Mr. Bamum purchased the fero oions animal and brought him to this country. He was used for awhile in Forepaugh’s menagerie, where he killed one of his keepers. By crushing in bis skull with his ponderous jaws. He was afterward transferred to Van Am burgh’s menagerie, when Prof. Lang worthy tried his hand on him, but without success. He would not be tamed, and after receiving some bad cuts the animal was given up as a bad job. Jim was afterward sent with the Bailey menagerie and it was while with that party that he made himself fa mous by breaking out of his cage and attacking the huge “Jennie” elephant. The great beast caught him in her trunk, and, after holding him between heaven and earth for a few seconds, dashed him to the ground with such force as to break three of his ribs. He was then taken back to the Bamum show and Prof. Charles White tried hie hand at tamiDg him and partly succeed ed. But a few years ago, however, the brute badly injured him and he was then caged as an exhibition animal. The old fellow caught cold a few days Bgo, and, inflammation of the lungs setting in, he is about to be called to his fathers. His savage nature is ap parent even in his last moments, and but for the fact that he refused to be fed his life might have been spared. His career has been a most remarkable one for a dumb animal, and his loss will be severely felt, as his ferocity made him a great attraction. It was not thought that he would live through the night. Jim’s record foots up in killed, one man and thirteen different animals and a host of wounded. Spring Bonnets. A Paris correspondent writes : “ Not withstanding the cold weather the spring bonnets are out in full bloom and beauty. They are very, very pretty this season, and very becoming to almost any style of feminine faoa. The old graceful gypsy shape, set rather on the back of the head, yet coming well forward, and fitting closely and snugly over the back hair, is the" most in vogue. The high brim of the front stands up somewhat too much above the head for actual beauty, but when the space is filled in with flowers the effect is good. Flowers are to be worn in lavish profusion. Every fashion able bonnet now looks like a perambu lating bouquet. Flowers fill up the brim, load the front, wreath the crown, and dangle in long, drooping sprays over the wearer’s shoulders. Rice straws and the coarser straws are in great favor. Avery beautiful bonnet which was shown me was made of rice straw. The exterior disappeared com pletely under a wreath of wheat, oats, and poppies, and long sprays of oats drooped at the back. The high brim was lined with black velvet with a single bow of poppy-oolored silk set at one side. Another was of black straw, with a broad scarf of white matelasse Surah tied around the crown and held down in front by a large cluster of tea roses. Over the crown was laid a row of mingled white and black ostr.ch feathers, ten being employed to form this garniture. A wreath of tea roses inside the brim and broad strings of white matelasse Surah completed the whole. A delicate and graceful bonnet for a young girl was composed of rice straw, with a wide puff of blue silk around the crown ; the brim was lined with blue silk and filled in with pale pink rosebuds. All these were of the gypsy shape. Another very pretty and youthful looking bonnet of rice straw had the wide brim that was so popular last year; it was lined with pale blue silk, the brim raised at one side and confined with a bow, and a wreath of forget-me-nots encircled the front; the crown was shaded by two long and very rich pale blue ostrich feathers. A shape specially reserved for young girls is somewhat like an inverted sauoer, which does not sound very effective, but which on the head is very stylish and pretty.” When a common Japanese goes into the presence of an office-holder he must say : Great and distinguished chiid of the sun, deign to put your foot upon my neck.” There’s some pleas ure in b olding an office in that country. A New Story of the Creation. Mr. George Smith has written a letter to the London Telegraph concerning his efforts to read the cuneiform tablets, which were produced by him in Assyria and deposited in the British mneenia. Those tablets oontain the Chaldaio ac count of the creation and fall of man, and thus, at this comparatively latediy of the world, their report comes to strengthen or weaken the Mosaic his tory, as recorded in the Bible, of tie same great events. Mr. Smith, after giving an account of the discovery of the tablets, says that when complete, they must have numbered nine or ten, and that the history as recorded on them of what occurred “ in the begin ning” was much longer and fuller than the corresponding report in the book of Genesis. He continues as follows : “ The nairative on the Assyrian tal>- lets commences with a description of the period before the world was created, when there existed a chaos or confusion. The desolate and empty state of the universe and Ihe generation by chaos of monsters are vividly given. The chaos is presided over by a female power named Tisalat and Tiamat, correspond ing to the Thalatth of Berosus ; but as it proceeds the Assyrian acoonnt agrees rather with the Bible than with the short account from Berosus. We ara told, in the inscriptions, of the fall of the celestial being who appears to cor respond to Satan. In his ambition he raises his hand against the sanctuary of the God of heaven, and the description of him is really magnificent. He is represented riding in a chariot, through celestial space, surrounded by the Btorms, with the lightning playing be fore him, and wielding a thunderbolt as a weapon. “ This rebellion leads to a war in heaven and the conquest of the powers of evil, the gods in due course creating the universe in stages, as in the Mosaic narrative, surveying each step of the work and pronouncing it good. The divine work culminates in the creation of man, who is made upright and free from evil, and endowed by the gods with the noble faculty of speech. “ The deity then delivers a long ad dress to the newiy-created being, in structing him in all his duties and priv ileges, and pointing out the glory of his state. But this condition of bless ing does not last long before man, yield ing to temptation, fails; and the deity then pronounces upon him a terrible curse, invoking on his head all the evils which have since afflicted humani ty. These last details are upon the fragment which I excavated during my first journey to Assyria. “ I have at present recovered no more of the story, and am not yet in posi tion to give the full translation! and details ; but I hope during the spring to find time to search over the collec tion of smaller fragments of tablets, and to light upon any smaller parts of the legends which may have escaped me. When my investigations are com pleted I will publish a full account and translation of these Genesis legends, all of which I now have been fortunate enough to find, some in the old museum collection, others by excavation in As syria.” Havana Women. A writer in Lippincott’s, speaking of Havana society, 6ays : “ The ugliness of the women amounts to a vice,and is un redeemed by any quality such as some times palliates plainness of features. I have cried aloud for the beautiful Cuban, but in vain. lam nssurod that she exists—am told, “My dear fellow, you never made a greater mistake in yonr life ; am pooh poohed in various ways, but I cannot find lier. I hear it said that owing to the political chaos here she has retired from public view ; but it ia not denied that she will go to the carnival and the opera. I was warned not to expect her at the ball in AlfonseG honor at the Spanish club, and certainly it was a timely warning. Fancy a long hall of colored marble pillars running the length of it, form ing arcades; balconies on both sides hanging over the streets, and full of young men Rmoking cigarettes; men parading up and down the hall and quizzing the women, who were all seated—two rows of them, hundreds all together—seriously contemplating the male procession; enameled, pow dered, attired in the wealth of the In dies, saying doing nothing, not smiling nor blinking, just sitting there, an awful arrav of hideousness. After the band struck up and the danc iDg began I remained long enough to lose in the music the horrible impres sion of the opening scene, and then hurried home. At the opera and the carnival it is not so positively unen durable, but a handsome face, or a pretty face, or even an intelligent., ex pressive face I have not seen in a woman in Havana ; and at this season of the year, if Havana is Cuba, I don’t condemn them—l merely give my luck. ” Rejected Suitors. A writer in the Home Journal says : “ A woman never quite forgets the man who has ones loved her. She may not have loved him : she may, indeed, have given him the No of the Yes he hoped for ; but the remembrance that he desired a Yes always softens her thoughts of him, and would make him, were he reminded of it, a friend for ever. There may be girls who make a jest of discarded suitors ; but they are generally very young, and the wooiDg has been something that did not be token much depth of tenderness. There are mercenary offers, too, that only awaken scorn and hate in a woman wooed for money and not for herself; but really to have touched a man’s heart is something not to be forgotten while she lives. Always she remembers how his eyes looked into hers; how, perhaps, he touched her baud with his, and how her heart ached when he turned away without that which she could not give him. She loves some one else. Some ether man has all the truth of her sonl—always has and al ways will have—but she cannot forget the one who turned away from her and went his way and came no more She is glad when she hears of his success, grieved when she knows that he has suffered ; and when some day she hears that he is married—she who has herself been married lot g years, perhaps ; she who, at all events, would never have married him—is she glad then ? Ido not know. A woman’s heart is a very strange thing. I do not believe she knows herself. Glad ? Oh, yes ; and is his wife pretty and nice ? And then she says to herself that * he has quite forgotten,’ and ‘that, of course, is best,’ and cries a little.” Torpedoes are now sent into whales at the end of a newly-invented harpoon in use at Norway. They kill the fish without delay." VOL. 16—NO. 17. SAYINGS AND DOINGS. A belt, has recently been east in Ger many weighing 50,000 pounds. It waa made from cannon taken from the French during the la f e war. It is for the Cathedral church at Cologne, Spring brings joy to the heart of a western editor, who sings: “Soon the dnsky sqnaw will be seen straining maple sugar through her winter stock ings.” A fashion editor reports that the Easter bonnets have a hurricane deck, a bell tower, signal lights, birds of Paradise, qnail, Welsh rabbits and flower gardens ad lib. A three-ye ar-orp yonnsster saw a drunken fellow “ tacking” through the streets of Lowell, the other day. “ Mother,” said he. “did God make that man ? ” She replied in the affirm ative. The little fellow reflected a moment and then exclaimed, “ I wouldn’t have done it! ” The .Tardin d’Acclimatization, Paris, has a Chimpanzee which measures four feet in heigh*, is perfectly tame and ex tremely gentle. While its master lived at Sierra Leone it performed in the house the functions of a servant, salut ing visitors, opening the door for them, escorting them out, and offering them their hats. The removal of snbstanoes from the ear may be accomplished by doubling a horse hair in the form of a loop, and, placing the patient upon the side, passing the loop into the ear as far as it will go, then turning it gently. The substance will genera l lv come out in the loop aft°r one or two withdraw als. The application will do no dam age if the hair be carefnlly used. A party who was looking at a honse in the sixth ward the other day, said be couldn’t afford to pay so much rent. “Well, look at the neighborhood,” re plied the woman. “ Ton can borrow flat-irons next door, coffee and tea across the street, flour and sugar on the corner, and there’s a bier pile of wood belonging to the school-honse right across the alley!” The Innaties nsed to see tough times in the sixteenth eentnrv. Tn enlight ened England, in 1591, “ William Hack et, a fanatic, personated the Saviour, and was executed for blasphemy. James Naylor also represented himself to be the Saviour. He was convicted of blas phemy, whipped, and his tongue was bored throngh with a hot iron, by order of tli9 house of commons.” The villagers of Bexkah. near Anti och, in Asia. Minor, while digging near the old castle called Bnghazi, on the Akra mountains, the other day, came upon a leaden coffin having a lid re sembling woven feathers. These were supposed to be t.he feathers of the samandar, or phoenix, and on putting a piece of it into the fire it did not melt, but assumed a different hn<\ The gov ernment has given directions for the preservation of what remains of this relic. Gould’s St. Louis Directory for 1875, just out, gives the population of that, city at four hundred and ninety thou sand on Jannarv 1, 1875. Increase in the population since the census, fifty seven per cent., or more than ten per cent, yearly. Business and manufac tures of the city better in the agereate than ever before in spite of the general prortratioD. Annual value of produces of manufacture, two hundred and thir ty-nine million dollars. Very satisfac tory figures. At a recent blast at Crarae Quarry, Cumlodden, over thirty thousand tons of granite were dislndcred at a single explosion. A bore thirty feet long was driven into the rock, and was then con tinued at right angles for twenty-five feet, when it was again sunk a distance of one hundred and sixty feet. Here a powder chamber was formed, and a charge of five thousand pounds of gun powder introduced. The result was entirely satisfactory; the blast was one of the largest ever fired. Somebody wants to know “ who wrote that article” in the Houston (Tex.) Telegraph, and it promptly re sponds thus : “ The man who wrote that article early io life was a hard working blacksmith later he was a deck hand on a steamboat, then he was a oow-boy on the' 1 frontier, but of late years he has followed the profession of a prize-fighter. He only became an editor to reduce his flesh by starvation so as to become more of a success in his peculiar line.” The Telegraph re ceived no further inquiries. Rousseau once wrote, “Tf it were only necessary for you to hold ont, your thumb in order to cause the death of an immensely wealthy mandarin in China, whose heir you wouM be, are you sore that you would not extend your thumb?” This passage one day at tracted the attention of Henri de Lacrois, a young Frenchman of excel lent familv, bnt whose brain bad been a little affected by the loss of his for tune. He thought, “If I could stretch out my thumb and that would be enough to kill my uncle and cousin, I should become very rich.” In a sort of hallucination be extended his arm toward the photographs of his relations and said, “ Ret them die, so that I may inherit.” Fifteen days later his uncle and his cousin were carried off by typhoid fever. Within the last six months remorse preyed upon Lacrois’s enfeebled intellect, aßd he imagined that his spell caused the death of his relatives He heard voices from all sides of his room calling. “ Thou hast killed us ! Thou hast killed us!” He delivered himself up to the police and asked to be executed. He died a few davs ago in an insane asylum. THEREisnodaDger of our being claim ed bv Sydney Smith’s genuine Mrs. Par tington, if we say that sx>mehow—we are not bound to tell how—*he railroad brings rain. Would it not bs wonderful if that brace of iron bars across the con tinent should literally interpret that pleasant Scripture “And the desert shall blossom as the rose”? And it looks like it. The old devices for arti ficial irrigation are growing useless, and territory hitherto unproductive is beginning to do something for man. And this, not because of the pioneers to whom the railroad has made + he desert possible and accessible, but be cause of its direct influence upon the climate. Rain clouds west of the Rockies, that have never spoken a loud word within the memory of man, are now talking as audibly and emphati cally as if thunder had been their mother-tongue from babyhood, andrank vegetation is growing where nothing was ever before sown but fire. The vast system ©t iron net-work and the hair lines of telegraph, about enough to make a snare to catch the planet, have disturbed- the eleotrical equilibrium, and the results are seen in ths new and novel phenomena of thunder and show ers.—Benj, JB. 2ay lor.