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THE STANDARD AND EXPRESS
A.MARSCHALK )
W. A. U 1 AIISA’IIAIiK,/' Editors and Proprietors.
FROM EAST TO WEST.
BY SUSAN OOOUBBE.
Th© boat, cast loos© tier moorings *
“ Good-bye,” was all we said, ’
“Good-bye, Old World,” we said with a smile
And none looked back as we sped—
A shining wake of foam behind
To the heart of the sunset red.
Heavily drove onr plunging keel
Tnc warring waves between?
Heavily strove we night and day
Against the West Wind keen,
Bent, like a foe, to bar onr path
A foe with an awful nu*-n.
Never a token met our eyes
From the dear laid far away*
No storm-swept bird, no dr fling branch
To tell us where we lay,
Wearily searched we, hour by hour.
Through the mist and driving sprav.
Till, all in a flashing moment,
The fog-veils rent and flew,
And a blithesome South Wind caught the sails
And whistled the cordage through,
And the stars swung low their silver lamps
In a dome of airy blue.
And, breathed from unseen dista u “es,
A njw and joyous air
Careßsed onr senses suddenly
With a rapture fresh and rare.
“ It is the breath of home!” we erle tl
“ We feel that we are there.”
O, Band, whose tent-roof is the dome
Of Heaven’s purest sky,
Whose mighty heart inspires the wind
Of glad, strong liberty,
Standing upon thy sunset shore
Beside -he water high.
Bong may thy rosy smile be bright
Above the oedhn dim;
The young, undaunted’voice be heard
tailing the whole world kin •
And ever be thy arms held out’
To take the siorm-tossed in !
A SPELLING MATCH.
Ihe fire-light made fantastic shadows
in old Farmer Dobson’s kitchen; it
flickered up and down on the huge
brown rafters, and on the great dresser
where the quaint willow-ware dishes
were arranged, and where Mrs. Dob
son s wonderful wealth of tin-ware was
arrayed in shining ranks. A great far
cornered, shadew-haunted kitchen of
the old-fashioned type, with a fire-place
of the old-fashioned type, one of the
generous, provident, open-hearted kind
that is passing away with the woods
it helped to devour.
\\ e have more economical arrange
ments coming in fashion, - even in the
old country-houses, now, but there are
none so full of evening witchery, so
cure-beguiling and heartsome, as the
old wood fire.
What elfish pranks it played that
night! How it reddened old Farmer
Dobson’s smoking-cap, and shown on
his good wife’s spectacles, and tinted
Job’s high cheek-bones and sleek, black
hair, as he sat in the off corner bending
obtusely over his book, utterlv absorbed,
as a man might, be who had so little
time to explore the mysteries of Web
ster, and who was to take part in the
spelling match to-night.
Job was Farmer Dobson’s farm hand
—a tall, strong, patient fellow, who had
been so quietly the butt of us all this
winter that we had got to using him
like a big mastiff, who might be danger
ous, but under ordinary circumstances
could be safely teased and tormented to
the top of our bent. A mist gathered
in my eyes as I looked across the great
to where he sat unconscious,
plodding away at his task. I thought
of our glib and easily acquired learn
ing, and of poor Job’s hard struggle for
life, and I pitied Job.
Yes, I pitied l>j>, hut, yot, •oicnne-
Jess, as I sftAV him stooping eo pro
-1 undiy by the light of that witching
f 1 f,heedless of the Shadow and shine
oi the room, an imp of mischief—per
naps one o£ the pranksome elves ges
ticulating in the chimney-corner—got
possession of me. I aro3e softly, and
gliding over to where he sat, sprinkled
the absorbed student with a shower of
ean de-Cologne, and putting the vial
quickly in my pocket, walked demurely
back to my seat,. The start Job gave,
and the flush onnis face as he returned
to his book, wore comical. That Co
logne was Abijah Plummer’s present,
and T shouldn’t have wasted it, perhaps,
and perhaps Job didn’t like Cologne.
He shut the book presently, and sat
with liis slioulders stooped and bis
head drooping, looking into the fire.
Well, as I have said, we were to Lave
a spelling match that night, not our
first one by any means ; but the old
folks had put their heads together to
give us a prize this time, a beautiful set
of gold-andblue poets, six dainty little
volumes that stood gleaming in the fire
light on the round table, in the place of
honor along with the great gilt-edge
family Bible.
The young people dropped in one by
one, shaking off the snow as they came
in. for there had been a light snow fall
that evening, which made us all the
merrier. By-and-by the great kitchen
was filled up, the candles were lit,
Farmer Dobson laid aside his pipe, the
school master straightened his neck-tie,
and grabbed the big Webster before
him, and we all became properly im
pressed with thejnoportance of the occa
sion, though the¥e was a general nudg
ing of elbows and a sly grimace as big,
shy Job joined the class. But Job was
used to our merry-making, and took no
notice of it.
Round and round went the spelling—
big words and little words, words with
treacherous e’s and a's lying in wait in
unexpected places, and words without
us, and words with odd h' s, and all the
deceitful dictionary dreadfulness that
lies in wait to trip up the unwary. And
one after another our champions were
spelled down, and Job actually stood his
ground against half a dozen well
schooled fellows. All his face was kin
dled with eagerness, and the dull and
plodding look habitual to him had dis
appeared. The spelling was waking him
up. But there sat Abijah Plummer,
who didn’t join in the match—Abijah
Plummer, the well-to do beau of the
village, who had no need, mayhap, of
book - learning. There lie sat and
laughed at Job’s excitement. I saw an
uneasy light in Job's eyes, as if he were
being severely tried. The spelling
match was kindling hi;-a to the centre,
it seemed.
A few more words were yet on the
list, and there lay the beautiful books
smiliDg and shining on us.
“ Beautiful!’’ gave out the school
master ; and Abijah laughed as Job got
up to spell it. Job looked at Abijah,
nd began, “B-e-u —” aDd there was a
eneral scream of laughter.
Darn it!” said Job between his
teeth ; “ what can a fellow do with a
fool like that; grinning at him ?” The
mastiff was shaking himself up, and I
trembled for Abijah.
“ Order!” said the school-master,
and gave out the word again.
It was my turn. I don’t know, as I
say, what imp possessed me this even
ing, but I stood up and spelled the word
wtih a vim. just as if I didn’t care one
jot for Job’s defeat, and before I knew
it the blue-and-gold prize was put into
my hands. Then I looked at Job, and
could have cried.
But every one was merry, and all
were talking and chatting and laughing
as we broke up and said good-night. I
wanted to speak to Job, but there stood
Abijah in the doorway with my shawl in
his hands waiting to see me home, and I
on y nodded to Job as he stood at the
gate with ms lantern to show us the
path. One after another the merrv
P ar . .Y disappeared down the snowy road
and the winding lanes. Abijah and 1
were the last.
“ I’ll see you down to the creek,” said
humbly; “it’s a rough road to
“gat. And without another word he
stalked on ahead, his lantern gleaming
after him.
We did not say much either, Abijah
anu I, for we were flouudering through
the soft, thick-falling snow, and some
how it seemed awkward to be walking
in Job’s lantern-light.
Presently we came down to the creek
where every angle of rock and every
elbow of gnarled tree was flecked softly
with snow, and the creek, which I had
crossed a dav or two before on my visit
to Farmer Dobson’s, ran below, gray
and far, an unfamiliar stream, with
downy, treacherous banks shutting it
m—a strange white fantasy. Over it
two stout planks, crossing a few inches
apart, served as a bridge. They were
rounded and slippery-looking to-night,
and one of them had a slight warp, as
if weather-strained.
Abijah stood a moment on the bank
surveying it.
“It’s dangerous crossing that,” he
said. “I declare, Jennie, I don’t like
the look of it.”
The night was gray and soft and still,
and all about us fell the snow, which
seemed to be creating itself out of the
feathered and shadowy underbrush and
the white quiet atmosphere. The scene
was so strange and weird that I felt a
moment’s hesitation ; the next instant
the imp which had possessed me all the
evening set my blood dancing with
mischief.
“I promised to be home to-night,”
said I, eluding Abijah’s detaining hand;
and with a mocking, dancing step I
skipped upon the plank.
Abijah stood still on the margin and
looked at me. Job stood still also one
moment, and, bolding up his lantern,
looked at Abijah.
Then uesiid, sarcastically, “Byyour
leave, Mr. Plummer ; this is a bridge
for two, and if you’ve no mind to be
getting over, I’ll step along myself.”
And it was Job’s hand that, touching
me timidly, steadied my fool-hardy
steps, and Job’s lantern that flickered
over the phantom banks beyond and the
deep creek below that treacherous
plank. Half-way cross 1 felt a strange
quiver, as if the heart of the thing were
being broken, and my own heart leaped
up with sudden terror, a despairing cry,
a whirl of darkness and chaos, and I felt
the bridge totter and crash, and thought
I was being swept away into annihila
tion. Some strong arm grasped me then,
not tenderly, but with a clutch that
ronsed every faculty, and, trembling,
conscious, struggling for life, I found
myself clingiDg to the slippery edge of
the other plank, with Job bolding me
fast by my raiment, ns we hung for a
moment in peril together, while the lan
tern floated away below in the debris.
Job speedily regained some sort of
footing, and slipping, sliding, by slow
and painful effort we reached the otho*
Sl< L e hcuve a langfied then when I came
to myself, shook out my snow-encum
bered garments, and looking down, saw
Job’s faithless lantern gleaming like a
fitful fire fly away out of reach, and felt
sure that Abijah Plummer was still
watching on the other side.
Job stretched out over the brink,
looked down at the useless lantern, and
shook his fist, perhaps at the invisible
Abijah.
“Job, oh, Job,” I said, taking his
hand, •* I’m sorry I spelled ‘ beautiful ’
to-night.” I did not laugh now. I was
full of a strange excitement.
“ Who had a right to spell such a
word but you, Jennie ?” answered Job,
gravely.
“ But I—l’ve lost the books. Job.”
“ I’ve lost something too,” said Job.
We stood still for a moment and
looked at each other. And there was
that in Job’s face which never shown
but once in any human face, and which
all men and all women know when they
see it.
Then Job roused up and said, lightly,
“ Will yon get along the rest of the
wav without Abijah Plummer ?"
“ All the rest of my life,” I replied.
Since then Job has often said to me,
softly, as we sat in the twilight, “ They
can’t say I didn’t win a prize at the
spelling match.”
Wanted a Wtcd.
He felt of some factory piled on the
counter, glanced up at the shawl swing
ing from the top shelf, and when the
clerk got down to him he said he wanted
a weed for his kat.
“ A weed ? Ah ! So you have lost a
near relative ?”
“ Yes, my wife.”
“ Well, that's sad,” said the clerk as
he handed down the box of crape.
“ Death has never entered my happy
household, and I trust he never will.”
“You don’t know how it crushes a
man down,” said the farmer, with quiv
ering chin. “ How much apiece for
these?”
“ A dollar,”
“ What! a dollar ! ”
“ Why, that’s cheap, my dear sir.”
“ I’ll give you fifty cents, and not a
penny more!” exclaimed the widower,
losing the quiver to his chin.
“Couldn’t think of it; they cost us
more than that.”
“ Well, I loved my wife as well as
any man can love,” continued the wid
ower, as he started for the door, “ but I
won’t invest in a weed. I’ll have lots
of time after harvest, and I can sit in
the house and cry all I want to without
costing a cent.- -Detroit Free Press.
Impending Starvation in the South
—Should the drouth continue, starva
tion will stare this section in the face,
as crops will be ruined. Cotton is shed
ding as last as it can, corn looks as if it
had been boiled until all the life had
gone out. Small trees are dying for the
want of moisture. A gentleman who
rode into the country Sunday says he
saw at least five hundred dead trees,
in coming out of the court house yard
yesterday leaves twisted and browned
were falling as thickly as daring the
fall. Farmers are very gloomy. For
three weeks, now, no ram has fallen,
and the heat has been more intense than
any summer since the war.
We are tojd on good authority of one
one hundred acre' field near Snorter’s
depot on the line of the western rail
road, in Alabama, which was planted in
cotton between April Ist and 6th. The
drought has beeu so bad that not a seed
has come up.
In every quarter in Georgia and Ala
bama planters are supplicating for rain.
Same very little must have fallen around
Columbus last afternoon, but hardly
enough to wet the top of the ground,—
C*lu*nbiiß Ga>, Enqvirer,
A Bid SHOW OK PLANETS.
Jupiter, Mara, Saturn and Venue All in Sight—
Thetr Joint Appearance “For This Engage
ment Only ”
Not often do the starry heavens show
us four strongly-shining, bright planets
m one night, but this has been for some
time past the position of Jupiter, Mars
Krst into
view that giant planet—that vast orb
whose diameter is eleven times and his
volume about 1,300 times that of onr
own globe-Jupiter, the planet of the
mighty cloud envelopes, whose contin
ued overshadowing of the planet himself
nas led astronomers to doubt if tele-
X lßlOll has ever yet really pene
trated these enormous layers of vapor to
the surface of the planet itself. Jupiter
is seen soon after dark almost directly
mthe zenith—his position at 8 o’clock
being a little west and southof it; and his
slow and majestic sweep around the sun,
which requires twelve of our years
scaroely better comports with his vast
dimensions than does his apparent jour
ney every night through the skies of
earth. He sets not far from midnight.
Proctor believes Jupiter to be still a
mass of seething internal volcanic fire,
giving out heat like a sun, and having
but a very slight crust cooled as yet,
and that subject to continual fiery out
bursts and overflows; v hile the vast
cloud-belts, a thousand miles deep, are
either partly of volcanic origin, or are
discharging upon the planet itself such
floods of sulphur-charged rain as we
cannot imagine.
Mars next comes in sight. He rises
red away in the southern part of the
western horizon soon after dusk, and by
9 o’clock Is a conspicuous object, well
tip in the southern heavens, and easilv
distinguishable by his ruddy hue. It is
a good time to scan Mars through a good
telescope, for it will be two years before
he is again in so favorable a position as
he has been in for the last month, and
will be for a little time longer. The
bright star of the ruddy hue that comes
up almost in the southeast soon after
dark, is the neighbor world which of all
the planetary system has presented the
most interesting field for astronomical
study, and best rewarded such studies.
It is pretty definitely decided that this
ruddy hue is due to some quality or
characteristic of his soil. Mars, a small
er plant than earth, presents a number
of features that seem to warrant the
conclusion that his more general laws
and features are something akin to those
of onr own world. He has an atmos
phere ; he has his season of winter and
summer—the region of snow and ice
around the southern pole, annually and
visibly decreasing and increasing in
what may be summer and winter. There
are on that distant world oceans and
continents ; this much at least is cer
tain. Not sHch oceans as the Atlantic
and Pacific, but strange, bottle-shaped
eeas, of no great extent compared with
sarth’s greatest. Whether they are ever
frozen or not nobody on earfcn yet
knows; but it is Mr. Proctor’s belief
that Mars and other planets than ours,
has gone far past his period of greatest
life, and is fast approaching, if
not already entering, the ct^“„ a An onr
l£§&J?°#dife<? , &teAaT'lieat is exhausted.
Later, rising wan and far, a pale bnt
luminous ghost of a planet in the east
ern Bky, comes up great Saturn —the
ringed world. This, on some accounts,
is the most interesting study of all the
planets ; chiefly because of the mobility
and uncertainty of its occasionally shift
ing shape, and because of its giant il
luminated rings and its eight attendant
moons. Its enormous distance also in
vests it with a certain interest which
would be wanting in a near object.
It is ascertained that its density does
not exceed that of water ; ana the prob
abilities seem to favor the conclusion
that Saturn is stilJ a globe of molten
matter —a world of liquid fire. Its as
pect seen on a clear night through a
good glass, as the great lemmon-colored
planet, girdled with its vast elliptic
rings, goes sailing silently across the
field of vision, is beautiful and interest
ing beyond that of any other.
Much later—in fact the early dawn of
the morning—Venus comes resplend
ently into view. Most brilliant of all
the planets to us, because she is nearer
to us and to the sun, this remarkable
sister world, nearest and apparently
most like our own world, is never more
brilliant, never more beautiful, then
when, as the morning star, she sheds the
lustre of her golden (but borrowed)
beams upon the earth in the stillness of
the clear morning. Venus will probably
always be a difficult object to study,
because of her proximity to the sun, but
it is found that there are reasons for be
lieving some of her mountains to be
equal in height to the highest of our
own world.
What They i>o at Church.
It was after the evening service. Mrs.
Coonton and the three Misses Coonton
had arrived home. They sat listlessly
around the room with their things on.
Mr. Coonton was lying on the lounge
asleep. It had been undoubtedly an im
pressive sermon as the ladies were silent,
busy with their thoughts.
“ Emmeline,” said Mrs. Coonton, sud
denly addressing her eldest, “did you
see Mrs. Parker when she came in ?”
“ Yes, Ma,” replied Emmeline.
“ She didn’t have that hat on last
Sunday, did she ?”
“ No,” said Emmeline, “it is her old
hat. I noticed it the moment she came
down the aisle, and says to Sarah, ‘what
on earth possesses Mrs. Parker to wear
such a hat as that?’ says I.”
“Such a great prancing feather on
sncli a little hat looked awful ridiculous.
I thought I should laugh right out when
I saw it,” observed Sarah.
“ I don’t think it looked any worse
than Mary Schuyler’s, with that flaring
red bow at the back,” said Amelia.
“ I don’t see what Mrs. Schuyler can
be thinking of to dress Mary out like
that,” said Mrs. Coonton, with a sigh.
“ Mary must be older than Sarah, and
yet she dresses-as if she were a mere
child.”
“She’s nearly a year older than I
am,” asserted Sarah.
“Did you see how the widow Mar
shall was tucked out ?” interrupted Em
meline. “ She was as gay as a peacock.
Mercy, what airs that woman puts os.
I would like to have asked her when
she’s going to bring back that pan of
flour.” And Emmeline tittered mali-
ciously.
“She’s shiniDg around old McMas
ters, they say.” mentioned Amelia.
“ Old * McMasters!” ejaculated Mrs.
Coonton. “ Why, he is old enough to
be ber father. ”
“What difference do you suppose
that makes to her ?” suggested Emme
line. “ She’d marry Methuselah. But
I’d pity him if he gets her. She’s a per
fect wild cat.”
“Say, Em., who was that gentleman
with Ellen Byxby?” inquired Amelia.
“That’s so!” chimed in Sarah, with
spirit, “who was he?”
CARTERSVILLE, GEORGIA, MONDAY EVENING, AUGUST 9, 1875.
“What gentleman?” asked Mrs.
Coonton.
“ Why I don’t know who it was,” ex
plained Emmeline.
“They came in during the prayer.
He was a tall fellow, with light hair and
chin whiskers.”
“It couldn’t have been her cousin
John, from Brooklyn,” suggested Mrs.
Coonton.
“ Bother, no,” said Sarah, pettishly.
“He is short and has brown hair. This
gentleman is a stranger here. I wonder
where she picked him up.”
. “ She seems to keep mighty close to
him, said Amelia, “but she needn't be
scared. No one will take him unless
they are pretty hard pushed. He looks
as soft as a squash. Did you see him
tumble up his hair with his fingers ? I
wonder what that big ring cost—two
cents ? ’ and the speaker tittered.
“ Well, I’m glad if she’s got com
pany,” said Mrs. Coonton, kindly.
4 4 She’s made efforts enough to get
some ene, goodness knows. ”
“I should say she had,” coincided
Emmenne. “She’s got on one of them
\ uHoria hats, I see. If I had a drunken
father, Id keep in doors, I think, and
not be parading myself in public.”
Just them there was a movement on
the lounge, and the ladies began to
take off their things.
“ Hello, folks,” said Mr. Coonton,
nsmg up, and rubbing his eyes. “Is
church out ?”
“Yes,” laid Mrs. Coonton, with, a
yawn, which communicated itself to her
daughter.
“Did you have a good sermon ?”
“ Pretty good,” accompanied by an
other yawn all around,
“See many good clothes?” was the
next query.
“I suppose you think Mr. Coonton,
that is all your wife and daughters go
to church for, to look at people’s
clothes,” said Mrs. Coonton, tartly.
“ That’s just like pa,” said Emmeline,
with a toss of her head. “He is always
slurring church people.”
Pa sloped to bed.— Danbury News.
American Liveliness in the Surf.
Olive Logan writes from Long-Branch:
“It seems strange that the irrepressible
coquetry of the American woman should
not have niched itself (to use Mme. de
Sevigne’s expression) in her bathing
costume. Women of the most marked
elegance in drawing-rooms obey the law
of our land and make the vilest scare
crows of themselves to go into the surf.
More bathing dresses are let out in Long
Branch in a single week than are so dis
posed in a whole season at all the French
resorts combined. Every French lady
frequenting les bains de vnur pays spe
cial attention to providing herself with
un costume de bain. And this outfit is
as carefully selected in regard to its be
comingness in colcr and cut; its fit
must be as perfeot, its freshness as un
doubted as any dress that madam wears.
Some of these costumes are really
charming, and when donned enhance the
jjtiSJlJßo lauoi ua any uilUta*. *a uttrintrh
rose flannel, with knife-plettiug of wlG?*e
hat trimmed in accordance, pink hose,
and straw shoes, navy blue serge with
stripes of yellow, green and brown me
rinos—these are some of the combina
tions which dwell in my memory from
last season. Many ladies have several
such costumes—an extravagance scarcely
worth mentioning, as the materials from
which such dresses are made are very
cheap. But whatever a French lady’s
sea-bathing costume may be—her own
and three or four of them in the season,
or hired from day to day from la baig
ncur—one accessory is absolutely indis
pensable. I mean the long flannel cloak,
which it would be to offend the plainest
propriety not to wear from the moment
the bather leaves her cabin until she is
ready to plunge into the sea ; then the
cloak is thrown off, to be immediately
donned again on leaving the water.
Sometimes the beaoh is literally strewn
with these cloaks. Each claims her
own, and I never heard of a misappro
priation. To dispense with these cloaks
—warm and dry after leaving the sea—
and to ran along the sands exposed to
the wind in a dripping bath-dress would
be considered a piece of imprudence in
a hygienic sense, and to dress and go
away without having first equalized the
circulation by the use of the hot foot
bath would be looked upon as sheer
madness only worthy the barbarity of
American customs. Male and female
attendants keep all buttons, strings,
etc., in perfect order upon the bathers’
costumes, and it is considered necessary
to thoroughly wash away in fresh water
every trace of the sea for the proper
preservation of bathing costumes. It is
true that many American ladies here at
the Branch have their own bathing cos
tumes, but these are almost invariably
made of dark flannel, and no effort at
coquetry is attempted.”
Learning to Swim in a French Bath
ing-house,
The baignenr of the gala dress, hold
ing a lad on the end of a cord, is wordy
and severe in his instructions, consist
ing of a running something after the
following fashion :
“ Listen well, young man. Cut the
water with your closed hands straight
before you, then separate them swiftly ;
draw up your legs, heel to heel; sepa
rate and strike out; are you ready ?It is
well, let us begin. Now, then; one, two;
one, two ; one, two.”
The baigneur, oounting for each
movement as he walks along the plat
form, and occasionally holding a pole
before the swimmer to give him cour
age, resumes:
“Ah, Monsieur, that is not the way
to do it; let us begin again. Now for
it, courage. Strike out; one, two,” and
so on, the lad making strenuous efforts
to grasp the receding pole, for the pos
sessor only lets him catch it when he
shows a disposition to sink, which he is
never allowed to d~ completely, as be
ing too demoralizing. An occasional
gulp of water and the continual ha
rangue from overhead, are discour
aging, and the boy is dazed half the
time and does not know what he is about;
then the master asks him where his
courage is, and ventures the opinion that
he is a wet hen, this being the equiva
lent of our muff. The father of the lad
often stands by and watches this opera
tion with tender solicitude, and when
tha offspring comes out of the water
chances are that the father and son em
brace each other with effusion. To an
American who haß been learned on the
end of a board, or been thrown into
deep water, yet untaught, and allowed
to get out as best he can, this system of
ropes, belts and professorship is
singular.— Albert Rhodes in Scribner.
In China the Roman Catholic religion
is making rapid progress, Confucian
ism is gaining, Protestantism is spread
ing very slowly, Buddhism is at a stand
still, and Mohammedanism is losing.
KILLED FROM A CLEAR SKY.
An Extraordinary Death front- Lightning in lowa.
Sioux City (IfcJ Journal.
While the thunder storm of yesterday
afternoon was raging at a distanoe of ap
parently a couple of miles from this
place, a singular freak of nature took
place in the striking by lightning of the
depot, and the striking and killing,
subsequently, of J. H. Boyer, the post
master and blacksmith of this place.
At about 5 o’clock in the afternoon, at
which time not a cloud obscured the
sky overhead or stood between the sun
and the town, a terrible flash of light
ning followed by a deafening peal of
thunder, struck the wires of the tele
graph offl9 and set it on fire. The
damage done to the telegraphic ap
paratus was most complete, the wires
being torn to pieces and the different
instruments being almost without ex
ception distorted and broken and com-
pletely wrecked. Immediately after
the stroke John H. Boyer, who was in
his shop at the time, ran out in the
street toward the depot, where some
boys had been playing. He approached
them rapidly and said, “ Why boys, I
thought some of yon had been struck.
I was quite frightened on account of
you.” He evidently had it in his mind
that the terrible shock might have
frightened his family, as he started
toward his home immediately. When
within about 50 yards of the house,
from the front window of which his wife
was anxiously watching his approaoh,
another vivid flash of lightning dazzled
the eyes of all, and ere the thunder had
ceased rolling, the naked body of the
unfortunate man was seen to be lying
prone upon the ground. A number of
people, among them his wife, rushed to
the spot, and so horribla was the situa
tion that it was not until he had been
carried to the house that a full ap
preciation was had of the terrible death
which nature had inflicted upon him.
An examination of the bodv, from which
every vestige of clothing, not excluding
even a pair of cowhide boots, had been
instantly torn, showed that the subtle
and terribly fatal fluid bad first struck
him on the top of his head, whence,
though the skull was left apparently in
tact, the hair had been burned off for
the space of the size of a silvtr dollar.
Thence the flnid had run down the side
of the face, as was shown by a clearly
cut track to the shoulder, and thence to
the heart, where it appearently had
spread all over the body. The terrible
power of the fluid was shown by the
presenoe in the ground, on the spot
where the unfortunate man’s body had
been picked up, of a hole eight feet
deep by actual measurement. The
clothing of the deceased was found to
havo been shredded, and when first
discovered was on fire, while the silver
watch lie carried had been driven into
the ground, and when lifted up, it was
found that the works had been fused
into a lump of shapeless metal. The
scene at the house of the deceased who
leaves a wife and three children to
mourn his loss, was painful beyond
power of words to describe, and those
has B P°i through
in the town, where the deoeased was
both loved and revered by all who knew
him in either public or private life.
The Marvelous New Motor.
While Keeley and his Philadelphia
friends have been talking and writing
about hia great invention ef a motor
that is to do the work of steam at a
small fraction of its cost, John A. Hoc
tor, of Rochester. N. Y., and his back
ers, have brought the newly discovered
vapor to the tsst of utility for hauling
trains of loaded cars on a railway, and
driving balls and other missiles from
guns, large or small, employed in war.
We find in the Rochester Union over
two columns of details of these inter
esting experiments, the material facts
of which we shall state in fewer words.
~As steam is a kind of vapor generated
in one metal vessel called a boiler, and
used in another acting on a piston, so
this new machine has two metal globes,
in one of which vapor is generated of
prodigious tension, and passes into an
other globe by a connecting tube for
service as a motive power. The first
experiments in the presence of many
witnesses were made with globes about
the size of an orange applied to drive
the ball of an Enfield rifle 500 yards
into a target of three inch plank, backed
by a plate of iron one fourth of an inch
in thickness. The small generating
globe contained about a wine-glass full
of water. When the gun was to be
fired, Mr. Hoctor breathed air into the
globe holding water and the volatile
material, from which the vapor was
evolved, so much more expansible than
that of water, through an India rubber
tube. This breath of air with no ex
plosive chemicals, discharges the gun.
On examining the target there was found
a clean out hole three inch
plank and the thick plate of iron be
hind it. As there was no report from
the gun bystanders did not believe the
ball had left it. Whin several shots
had been* fired with like result, the
target was removed 100 yards farther
from the gun, which was elevated, to
suit the range, and fired again. The
ball passed through the plank but not
through the ir n. Without once re
charging the wineglass of water with
vaporizing material, over fifty shots
were made by count, and the inventor
said that he could shoot at a rapid rate
all day and use nothing but balls and
air in the operation, except the little
water and vapor ia a globe no larger
than an orange !
Several gentlemen breathed into the
globe through the rubber tube and fired
the gun repeatedly, satisfying them
selves and all others present that noth
ing more was necessary to develop the
wondeful force which drove the ball
from the rifle. With such weapons war
must be wholesale murder, and civil
ized nations will be compelled to find a
better way to decide and settle their
misunderstandings.
Mr. Hoctor proposed to take a train
of ears at the speed of a mile a minute
over one of the railroads coming into
Rochester, and the Ontario Lake Shore
railroad was tendered for the purpose of
an experiment. The metal globe in
which the vapor was generated held a
bucket of water, and air was forced into
it by bellows worked by a foot-treddle.
The little engine bad hardly weight
enough on the track to start the train,
which consisted of two passenger cars
and a baggage ear, well loaded with
deeply interested spectators. Our
Rochester namesake says:
At first the motion was slow and
jerky, but as the momentum increased
the pulse of the engine became more
regular, and in a few moments it was
moving as steady us a locomotive. By
the end of the first mile the speed had
increased to such un extent as almost to
take the breath out of those that were
facing the cool morning lake breeze.
Tiie second mile the train seemed fairly
to fly, the run beiDg made by several
timers present in five seconds less than
a minute. At the commencement.of the
third mile the cock was gradually turned
and the speed slowed '’own until a stop
was made at the Sea Breeze, where an
elegant breakfast had been prepared
for the occasion.
Our readers will aooept the fact as not
very important at this distance, that the
poet-prandial speeches of the mayor,
aldermen and others, were creditable
to those gentlemen, and learn with sur
prise that the new motor took the train
twenty-five miles to Sodus, and back to
its starting place, without accident. A
railway track and its rolling stock must
be in exceptionably good order not to
place passengers in considerable peril
when the train is moving at the rate of
sixty miles an hour.
Ia view of these marvelous develop
ments, we may well ir quire whether
steam, ooal and fire will not lose their
value as motors in travel,transportation,
manufactures, and all other industries.
A gallon of water in a globe no larger
than a man’s hat, will do the plowing of
ten mules, and consume no more in
valne than one mule ; giving bread and
meat to the million at prices never
dreamed of in all the past ages.
Another curious fact. The metal tube
which connects the two globes in Hoc
tor’s vapor Ynaohine is soon covered with
hard ice, because heat is absorbed so
rapidly by the within expanding vapor.
How wonderful are the operations of
nature ! In a steam engine heat is the
great generator of force, and aqueous
vapor its prodnot. Here is anotner va
por which, unlike incandescent steam,
cools iron down perhaps to the point of
freezing carbonic acid. - Cold things
have their significance in all industrial
economy as well as things that are hot.
The hot water that bursts a steam boiler,
cooled down in a common plantation
pot will burst that with expanding ice.
If traveling in the air in the face of
whirlwinds is devisable, it may now
soon be very common. But man and his
aerial ship must displace air enough to
be lighter than the atmosphere whose
place they occupy, else they cannot rise
from the ground. Once up, to contract
the balloon is to bring the frail ship
down perhaps into a stormy lake or sea;
not to contract it, is to let the tempest
or common wind drive ship and passen
gers to destruction. Better keep on
terra firma, and b© content to travel
000 miles in ten hours, for a cent a
mile, drawn by the Hoctor motor.
Tlie Gambling Hells of Gotham.
This city will always be a great center
for gambling, because the blacklegs of
all nations center here. Every game
known among civilized nations here has
it devotees, and even the “ heatlen
Chinee ” has a gambling resort. Gam
bling is here ingeniously adapted to all
ages and tastes, as well as to all nations.
There is the ten-cent keno hole for clerks
and apprentices, and there is the splen
did hell for men of better tastes and
more money. The fascination with which
the practice holds it followers in beyond
description. A few years ago a man
on the frauds which marked every lUfm
of gaming. This did not impair the busi
ness in the least, and I am under the im
pression that Green went back to gam
bling after the lecture season was over
in order to prepare himself for the plat
form. Just now our best gamblers are a
the watering-places. It is surprising
how neatly they manage to divide off,
so that no resort shall be overcrowded.
One would think the scheme was gotten
up in a committee of the whole. Here
are Newport, Long Branch, Saratoga
and Cape May to divide the attention of
the gambling fraternity, and each place
will have its due proportion. Dancer re
mains in town all the year round, with a
brief vacation. His place is in such a
center that it need never fail of business.
Besides the Astor House, which is im
mediately opposite, there is French’s
hotel, which is only separated by the
park. These provide an abundant out-
of-town patronage, and then there is the
rush of city youth, who like to play
down town because it is farthest away
from their residences and less liable to
discovery. If Dancer would give us a
book of his experiences and reminis
cences it would contain some curious
revelations. He is the veteran of the
faro table, and can remember such men
as Pat Hearne and Jack Harrison, who,
in their day, were the princes of luck
and the favorites of the blind goddess.
Dancer could tell some strange secrete
concerning the failures of eminent mer
chants and brokers, and the defalcation
of distinguished officials which was sim
ply due to nights spent in his company.
—New York Letter.
The Cause. —A citizen who was driv
ing along the Jackson road the other
day saw a man up a tre t near the road
side, and halting he inquired :
“ What are you doing up there ?”
The man made no reply, and the citi
zen continued :
“ What’s the cause of your being up
there ?”
At that moment a woman rose up
from the fence corner, rested a club on
the fence, and remarked :
‘•l’m the cause, stranger, and if you’ll
wait till he comes down you’ll see the
worst field of carnage around here that
ever laid out doors !”
The citizen drove on, and she turned
to the man up the tree and continued :
“ Polhemus, I can’t climb, and you
know it, but if you’ll drop down here
for two minutes I’ll give yon a quit
claim deed of the farm 1” Vicksburg
Her all.
A Striking Letter.
The following letter in the handwrit
ing of ex-president Johnson has been
found among his paper :
“Greenville, June 29, 1873.—AH
seems gloom and despair. 1 have per
formed my duty to my God, my country
and my family. I have nothing to fear.
Approaching death is to me the mere
shadow of God’s protecting wing. Be
neath it I almost feel sacred. Here, I
know, can no evil come. Here I will
rest in quiet and peace, beyond the
reach of calumny’s poisoned shaft, the
influence of envy and jealous enemies,
where treason and traitors in state, back
sliders and hypocrites in church, can
have no place ; where the great fact will
be realized that God is truth, and grati
tude the highest attribute of men.
Sic itur ad astra. Such is the way to
the stars or immortality.”
The following is written on the margin
of the page containing the above:
“ Written before leaving on Sunday
evening, while the cholera was raging in
its moot violent form.” It will i,be re
membered the ex-president left Greene
villo after being attacked by cholera,
when, as he said, all seemed gloom and
despair. ' ’ •
Lemon juice and glycerine will re
move tan and freckles.
The Last of the Ex-Presidents.
Writing of Andrew Johnson, the most
observant of chroniclers, Charles Dick
ens, said in 1868: “I was very much sur
prised by the president’s face and man
ner. It is, in its way, one of the most
remarkable faces I have ever seen. Not
imaginative, but very powerful in its
firmness (or, perhaps, obstinacy),
strength of will and steadiness of pur
pose. There is a reticence in it, too, cu
riously at variance with that first unfor
tunate speeoh of his. A man not to be
turned or trifled with. A man, I should
say, who must be killed to be got out of
the way. His manners perfectly com
posed. There was an air of chronic
anxiety upon him ; but not a crease or
ruffle in his dress, and his papers were
as composed as himself.” When John-
son went out of congress in 1853 he was
a pale-faced, black-haired man, brusqe
in his speech, abrupt in his mien, and
of nervous movement. As he grew older
he gained in self-esteem, and his ad
dress improved. During the last ten
years of his life he carried himself like
one used to command, and, though often
decisive, was not wanting in a very fine
and rare self-possession. Originally it
was easier to stir him to anger than to
move him to laughter. He made many
efforts to overcome this tendency, and,
toward the end, his outbursts of passion
were neither frequent nor conspicuous.
His mirth, however, was never violent,
expressed for the most part in a grim
humor about the lips and in the eyes.
Dickens does not exaggerate his person
nel. It was altogether n arked, and but
for a certain sullen shadow, which at
times darkened his countenance, it
would have been unexceptional. No one
could meet him without receiving a
distinct impression. He was the last of
men to be slapped on the back or treated
with levity. Even when a poor, up
country politician he was scrupulously
neat in his attire, punctilious in exact
ing courtesy for himself and meeting
no one half way.
The death of the ex-president mav be
said to have come to pass at an oppor
tune moment for his fame. It was
hardly possible for him to realize the
expectations of the country in the re
newal of his senatorial career. He would
certainly have disappointed the hopes
of those who regarded his reappearanoe
in the national capital as a partisan ad
vantage. His triumph last March was a
measure of poetic justice ; but with it
there hovered & menace which he was
little like to heed. The grave cuts off
the danger. He sinks into his last re
pose battle-scarred and care-worn, the
flag of his country folding his wasted
form and waving above bis resting
place. It may be written on his tomb,
“He was the poor man’s f-iend.”
Every pulse of his heart kept time to
homely music. He had nothing in com
mon with the rich and great, and will
be lamented chiefly by the humble,
over whom he exerted an influence un
equaled in our annals. —Louisville
Courier-Journal.
MARK TWAIN.
What He Jiememhers About Steamboat Eating
on the Jiiseiesippi,
gerous ; wnercae one .v,._ i
the case —that is, after the laws were
passed which restricted each boat to
just so many pounds of steam to the
square ircli. No engineer was ever
sleepy or careless when his heart was in
a race. He was constantly on the alert,
trying gague cocks and watching things.
The dangerous place was, on slow pop
ular boats, where the engineer drowsed
around and allowed chips to get into
the “doctor” and shut off the water
supply from the boilers.
in the “ flush times ” of steamboat
ing, a race between two notoriously
fleet steamers was an event of vast im
portance. The date was set for it several
weeks in advance, and from the time
forward, the whole Mississippi valley
was in a state of consuming excitement.
Politios and the weather were dropped,
and people talked only of the coming
race. As the time approached, the two
steamers “stripped” and got ready.
Every incumbrance that added weight,
or exposed a resisting surface to wind
or water, was removed, if the boat could
possibly do without it. The “spars”
and sometimes even their supporting
derricks, were sent ashore, and no means
left to set the boat afloat in case she
got aground. When the Eclipse and A.
L. Shotwell ran their race twenty-two
years ago, it was said that pains were
taken to scrape the gilding off the fan
ciful device which hung between the
Eclipse’s chimneys, and that for that
one trip the captain left off his kid
gloves and had his head, shaved. But I
always doubted these things.
If *tno boat was known to make her
best speed when drawing five and a half
feet forward and five feet aft, she was
carefully loaded to that exact figure—
she wouldn’t enter a dose of homeo
pathic pills on her manifest after that.
Hardly any passengers were takes, but
because they not only add weight but
they never will “trim boat.” They al
ways run to the side when there is any
thing to see, whereas a conscientious
and experienced steamboat man would
stick to the center of the boat and par*
his hair in the middle with a spirit level.
—Atlanta Monthly.
Honors to the Departed Statesman.
An order has been issued by Commo
dore Ammon, acting secretary of the
navy, directing, in pursuance of the pres
ident’s order announcing the death of
ex-President Johnson, that the ensign
at each naval station and of each vessel
of the United States navy in commission
be hoisted at half-mast from sunrise to
sunset, and that guns l>e fired at inter
vals of half an hour from sunrise to
sunset at each naval station, and on
board of flag ships and of vessels acting
singly on day of funeral, where this
order may be received in time ; other-
wise on the day after its receipt. The
officers of navy and marine corps will
wear the usual badge of mourning at
tached to the sword-hilt and on the left
arm for the period of thirty days. An
order was also issued from the war de
partment reciting the order of the pres
ident and directing that in compliance
with his instruotioiis troops will be pa
raded at 10 a. m. on the day after the
receipt of the order at each military
ppst, when the order wi'l bo real to
them and the labors of that day will
thereafter cease. The national flag will
be displayed at half-staff at dawn of
day, thirteen guns will be fired, and
afterwards at intervals of thirty min
utes between the rising and setting of
the sun, a single gun, and at the close
of the day a national salute of thirty
seven guns; the officers of the army will
wear crape on the left arm and on their
swords, and the colors of the several
regiments will be put in monrniDg for
the period of thirty days.
:.IbsT*pedpre are like eggs. Too full
of themselves to hold anything else,
VOL. 16--NO: 33.
SAYINGS AND DOINGS.
Canadian Boat Bono.
Faintly, as tolls the evening chime,
Our voices keep tone, and onr oars keep time;
Soon as the woods on shore look dim,
Wo’ll sing at St. Ann’s onr parting hymn.
Row, brothere, row, the a .ream mne fast.
The rapids are near and the daylight’s past.
Why should we vet onr stols unfurl ?
There is not a breath the bine wave to curl!
Bn;, when the wind blows off the shore,
Oh I sweetly we’ll rest on onr weary oar.
Blew, breezes blow, the stream run's fast,
Tho rapids are near and the daylight’s past!
Utowa’s tide! this trembling moon,
Shtll see us float over thy surges soon;
Saiat of this green isle! 1 ear onr prayers,
Oh! grant ns cool heavens and favoring airs.
Blow, breezes, blow, the stream runs fast.
The rapids are near and the daylight's past.
It is not right, but the man with the
least mind has the gr latest trouble in
making it up.
A man said his son had a well-stored
mild, but the neight*ors never eonld
find where he stored it
Incendiarism in Canada is so preva
lent that the insurance company have
cessed insuring property.
The trustees of St. Andrew’s Church,
at Hamilton. Ontario, have been em
powered by the convention to lock out
Rev. Mr. Burnett, their pastor, who has
refused to enter the united church with
them.
Miss Reed, an American Amazon,
entered the jumping ring at a recent
horse-show in London, and when, after
she had got her horse three times over
his fences, he jumped deliberately into
the pond, she kept her seat bravely,
and brought the ugly little hunter out
amid the applause of twenty thousand
people.
A poor Irishman who was on his
death-bed, and who did. not seem quite
reconciled to tha long journey he was
going to take, was kindly consoled by a
good-natured friend with the common
place that we must all die once.
“ WLv, my dear sir,” rejoined the sick
man, * ‘ that is the very thing that vexes
me. If I could die half a dozen times, I
should not mind it.”
It is important to know the difference
between toadstools and mushrooms ; but
it is not worth while trying to learn ihia
difference unless you belong to a very
long-lived family, and don’t object to
being poisoned at the end. It takes
years to find out, and authorities differ.
'Die only sure test is to eat one. If you
live, it is a mushroom. If you die, it is
a toadstool.— St. Nicholas.
Goats, according |to the bible, are
more wicked than sheep; but they are
smarter. The sheep-raisers of New
Mexico employ goats as leaders to their
herds of sheep, because they under
stand a person’s voice so well, and will
come whenever they are called. The
goats have to be trained, and the sheep
will always follow them. This shows
that the sheep know that hair covers
more wisdom than wool, though the
darlries do not like to be toid so.
She stepped into the car radiant with
youth, and looking cool and bright in
her flower trimmed hat and speckiesa
suit of linen. Four young men im
mediately offered their seats ; she ao
ten 4 blocks. 88>4e and
did not know whether to get up again
or not, and, tried their best not to look
foolish.
As an illustration of the extreme dry
ness of the soil during the dry season in
Brazil, it is stated that in June all the
vegetation ceases, the seeds being then
ripe or nearly so. In July the leaves
begin to turn yellow and fall off; in Au
gust an extent of many thousands of
square leagues presents the aspect of a
European winter, but without snow, the
trees being completely stripped of their
leaves; the plants that have grown in
abundance in the wilderness drying np,
and serving as a kind o:: hay for the sus
tenance of numerous herds of cattle.
This is the period most favorable for the
preparation of the coffee that grows upon
the mountains. The beans are picked
and laid on the ground which gives forth
no moisture, but on the contrary absorbs
it; and being surrounded by an atmo
sphere possessing the same desiccating
properties, the coffee dries rapidly with
out molding.
A professor of spiritualism who has
lately been visiting Cairo gives us some
interesting particulars of the manner in
which the soul leaves the body. The
vital spark of heavenly flame, according
to the professor, first withdraws from
the toes, travels slowly up the legs, re
cedes along the body, enters the head,
and finally condenses i self into a lumin
ous ball in the neighborhood of the
parietal bones, whence, as the last
breath leaves the lungs, it mounts up
ward like a balloon. The professor of
spiritualism says he has frequently seen
souls depart in this way. Indians, and
certain other superstitious people, be
lieve that the soul goes out through the
mouth, and that, if a man is hanged,
the choking rope shuts off that means
of egres, compelling the spirit to make
its exit the best way it can, and causing
it to labor under a disadvantage forever
afterward. If these aborigines could
be made to know that the soul goes out
through the top of the head in the man
ner specified by the Cairo professor, in
stead of through an af torture, the knowl
edge wonld afford much consolation to
such of them as might be under sentence
to the gallows.
How He Resisted Temptation.— A
member of a colored church in Vicks
burg was the other evening conversing
eixnestly with an acquaintance, and
seeking to have him change into better
paths, but the friend, said that he was
too often tempted to permit him to be
come a Christian.
“War’s yer baeklxme, dat ye can’t
rose np and stand temptation!” ex
c aimed the geod mao. “ I was dat way
myself once. Right in dis here town 1
had a chance to steal a pa’r o’ boots—
mighty nice ones, toe . Nobody was dar
to see me, and I reached out my hand
and de debbil said take ’em. Den a
good sperit whispered fur me to leave
dem boots alone.”
“ And didn’t you take ’em ?”
No, sah—not muoii. I took a pa’r o’
cheap shoes off de shelf and left dem
toots alone 1”
A Noteworthy Graveyard.— A cu
rious cemetery exists in Paris. Noth
ing human is entered therein, yet it has
its tombstones, its dead celebrities, its
fpraves, sought by the multitude that re
member the oeenjjants—the Toricks
who have delighted ahem in life. This
is the official cemetery of the Jardin des
Plantes. Over seven hundred bodies of
animals that have died are buried in it.
The favorite elephant Ohevrette, the
first giraffe ever seen in Paris, and the
huge rhinoceros which died quite re
cently, are all there. This rhinoceros
was one of the best known of all the an
imals in the Jardin des Plantes, having
been in captivity marly thirty years.