Newspaper Page Text
THE STANDARD AND EXPRESS.
A. HIKSI HUK 1
W. A. MAllsi'iiALKj Editors and Proprietor*.
FOOTSTEPS ON THE OTHER SIDE.
The following poem, olipt'eil from a copy of the St.
Louis Evening Nows of the 19th of April, 1862, as fine
a specimen of poetry as the Kmtlisa language con
tains. It may not be so grand or powerful as some,
Pint the sail, simple tale it tells, can but endear it to
the hearts of all who have ever endured the bitter
trial of waiting for something which never came.—
Sitting in my humble doorway
Gazing out into the night,
listening to the stormy tumult,
With a bind of sad delight,
Wait I for the loved who comes not,
One whose step* t long to hear ;
One who, thorn h he lingers from me,
Stiil is dearest of the dear.
Slit he coin's— • ow, I eari l* (piiet,
Leaning in triumphant pride ;
Oh ! it is a stranger footstep,
Gone by on the other side.
All the night seems filled with weeping,
Winds are wailing mournfully ;
And the rain-tears altogether
Journey to the restless sea,
I can fancy, sea, you murmur,
As they witu your waters flow,
Like the grief of single beings
Making up a nation’s woe.
Branches, bid your guests be silent!
Hush a moment, fretful rain !
Breeze, stop sighing, let me listen
God grant not again in vain !
In my cheek the blood is rosy.
Like the blushes of a bride;
Joy!—alas ! a stranger footstep,
Goes by on the other side.
Ah ! how many wait forever
For the steps that do not come !
Wait until the pityiDg angels
Bear them to a peaceful home.
Many In the still of midnight,
In the streets have lain and died,
While the sound of human footsteps
Went by on the other side.
Herrick’s Poetry or Country Life.
A writer in the Cornhill Magazine
says : Herrick was the earliest English
poet to see the picturesque of homely
country life, and all his little landscapes
are exquisitely precious. No one has
ever known better than Herrick how to
seize, without effort and yet to absolute
perfection, the pretty points of modern
pastorial life. Of all these poems of
his none surpasses “ Corinna’s Going
a-Maying,” which has something of
Wordsworth’s faultless instinct and
ilellicate perception. The picture given
here of the slim boys and the girls in
green gowns going out singing into
the corridors of blossoming whitethorn,
when the morning sky is radiant in all
its “ fresh-vuilted colors,” is ravishing,
and can only be compared for its pecu
liar charm with that other where the
maidens are seen at sun set, with silvery
naked feet and dishevelled hair crowned
with honeysuckle, bearing cowslips
home iu wicker baskets. Whoever will
cast, his eye over the pages of the
“ Hesperides” will meet with mvriads
of original and charming passaged of
kind:
“ Like to a solemn, sober stream
Hanks all with lillios, and the cream
Of sweetest cowslips filling them.”
ami “cream of cowslips” being the
rich yellow anthers of the water lillies.
Or this, comparing a bride’s breath to
the faint, sweet odor of the earth :
“ A savor like unto a blessed field,
When the bedabbled mom
Washes the golden ears of com.”
Or this, a sketched interior :
"Y6t can thy bumble roof maintain a choir
Of singing crickets by the fire.
And the brisk mouse may feed herself with
crumbs,
Till that the green-eyed kitting comes.”
Nor did the homeliest details of the
household escape him. At Dean Prior
his clerical establishment consisted of
Prudence Baldwin, his ancient maid, a
cock and a hen, a goose, a tame lamb, a
cat, a spaniel, and a pet pig, learned
enough to drink out of a tankard ; and
not only did the genial vicar divide his
loving attention between the
varions members of this happy family,
but he was wont, a little wantonly, one
fears, to gad about to wakes and was
sailings, and to increase his popular
reputation by showing off his marvel
ous learning in old rites and ceremo
nies. These he described with loving
minuteness, and not these only, but even
the little arts of cookery do not escape
him. Of all his household poems uot
one is more characteristic and complete
than the “Bride Cake,” which we re
member having had recited to us years
ago with immense gusto, at the making
of a great pound cake, by a friend now
widely enough known as a charming
follower of Herrick’s poetic craft :
“This day. my Julia, tliou must mako
For Mistress Bridge the wedding cake;
Knead but the dougli, and it will be
To paste and almonds turned by three,
Or kiss it thou, but once or twice,
And for the bride cake there’ll be spice.”
An Ideal Living Room.
It is by no means my notion, says
Mr. Clarence Cook, that the living room
should be a homely, matter-of-fact
apartment, consecrated to the utilities,
while the muses and graces are left to
kick their heels in the hall. On the
contrary, we want in the living-room,
for a foundation, that the furniture
shall be the best designed and best
made that we can afford, and all of it
intended to be used and necessary to
our comfort; not an article to be allowed
that doesn’t earn its living and cannot
prove its right to be there. These wants
being provided for first, then we admit
the ornaments of life—casts, pictures,
engravings, bronzes, books, chief nour
ishers in life’s feast; bnt in the begin
ning these are to be few, and of the
choicest, and the greatest care is to be
taken in admitting anew comer. The
room, from the very first, onght to rep
resent the culture of the family—what
1b their taste, what feeling have they
for art; it should represent themselves
and not other people ; and the trouble
some fact is, that it will and must rep
resent these, whether its owners would
let it or no. If youDg people, after
they have secured the few pieces of
furniture that must be had, and made
sure that they are what they ought to
be, have some money left to get a pic
ture, an engraving, or a cast, they
ought to go to work to supply this want
as seriously as they would the ottier,
'rhich seems the more necessary, but in
reality is not a bit more necessary. I
look upon this ideal living-room of mine
as an important agent in the e location
of life ; it will make a great difference
to the children who grow up in it, and
to all whose experience is associated
with it, whether it be a beautiful and
cheerful room or only a homely and
oare one, or a merely formal and con
ditional one. The relation of these
things to education is all that gives any
dignity or poetry to the subject, or
quakes it allowable for a reasonable man
t° give much thought to it. But it has
a real vital relation to life, and plays
important part in education, and de
serves to be thought about a good deal
®°re than it is. It is, therefore, no
tnfling matter whether we hang poor
Pictures on our walls or good ones,
whether we select a fine cast or a sec
°nd-rate one. We might almost as well
Sa y it makes no difference whether the
People we live with are first-rate or
second-rate.
* T is stated that the harvest prospects
* re brightening in England, and there
to be no danger that John Bull
be put on short commons. The
} “l>piy of foreign wheat is large, and
, 6 feports from continental Europe
“ 6 encouraging.
Watch-Making Machinery.
Au English journal, commenting up
on the fact that machinery is now being
applied to the manufacture of watches
in Prance, gives the following brief
sketch of one or two of the more ingen
ious now in use at the famous watch
manufactories at Waltham, Massachu
setts. With regard to the common
notched or cog-wheels we learn that
they are first stamped iu outline from
thin ribbons of metal. A numbe l ' of the
disks thus formed are threaded on a
fine rod and clamped together. The bar
thus formed is placed in the tooth-cut
ting machine, where a reciprocating
knife cuts a groove in it; the bar is
turned automatically a sixtieth or other
portion of a turn, according to the num
ber of teet, and a second groove is cut;
the process is then repeated til the re
quired number of teeth is formed. For
cutting the escapement wheel, with its
curiously formed teeth, a more elabor
ate apparatus is required. Each tooth
reqnires six cuts to finish it. For this
purpose the little rod of steel disks is
fixed diametrically across a circular
plate, round the edge of which are six
knives, each mounted so as to be capa
blee of traversing across the plate. The
rod is acted on successively by these
knives, it being turned radiajlyso as to
oome opposite each in turn. When all
six have operated a sing’e tooth is com
pleted, and the rod is turned on its axis
to present a fresh surface to the knives.
This is continued till all the teeth are
finished, when the apparatus is auto
matically throw on- of gear. The jewels
are cut by saws of iron laced with dia
mond dust, into proper shapes, and
drilled by a wire hair covered with dia
mond dust, all by machines. Even the
scsews, of which 230 are made from a
thirteen-inch length of steel wire, the
waste being more than the amount ac
tually worked, are formed by a machine
which makes the thread nuts off the
Bcrew, makes the slot in the thread, and
delivers the screw complete. About one
hundred and fifty thousand of these
screws go to the pound troy, so that
the minuteness of the mechanism may
be imagined. All the rest of the watch,
except only the dial, is constructed by
machines of equal delicacy. The dial
has to be painted by hand, though it
would seem as if so simple a printing
operation ought to be done readily
enough by mechanism.
Test of Courage.
Asa rule, it is not you* noisy, de
monstrative character who is the most
courageous, but the quiet, cool, and
apparently timid and sensitive individ
ual, who realizes the horrors of carnage,
but is soul-bound to duty and to the
canse he has espoused. We read a
battle incident not long ago, in which
an account is given of two soldiers
pressing side by side in the deadly as
sault straight up a hill into the muzzle
of hostile guns. Will catches a glimpse
of his comrade Tom’s deathly pale face.
“ By Jove,” he whispers, “ Tom. I be
lieve that you are afraid.” “Afraid!”
exclaims Tom, indignantly, “if you
were half as alraid as I am, you would
have fainted long ago.”
A friend of ours, who fought bravely
in the late war, makes no secret of the
fact that he rau away from the fight in
liis first battle, and never stopped to
take breath until far from the scene of
carnage. But when he returned to his
post all fear had left him, and he fought
like a hero. Mere auimal indifference
or stolidity is not bravery, and it is a
mistake to fancy that brave
men never feel terror, for few rush into
danger without feeling a momentary
qualm; ’tis in overcoming that fear
that true courage reveals itself. But
there is another kind of courage too
little appreciated by the we rid—that
which is shown by the young man who
inflexibly refuses to drink whisky, or to
squander his time in senseless and
costly laziness, or to fall into any of
ihe pleasant little vices that lie like
traps along our road, and which require
a great deal of courage to escape,
is very much braver than a prize-fighter
who submits to get beaten into a bloody
and disfigured mass, or any professed
votary of the “code of honor,” who
goes out to be shot at by a bully. The
world should encourage true courage,
and give it the place it deserves.
Until it does so, we may not be sur
prised if mountebanks usurp many
positions, and need not complain be
cause of the recklessness of coarse,
brutal men, and the insecurity of life,
or that thieves, liars, and murderers
greatly abound.
Things which are Caspar,
Among the many old comic yarns
which are floating about, attributed to
the wrong sources, we recall—and re
claim for their rightful owners—a few
that are of dramatic origin. On an oc
casion ..hen an affectionate but injudi
cious mother had been showing off her
children, as vocalists and declaimers, at
the dinner table, Quin, the actor, was
heard to mutter, “ Oh, the injured
memory of Herod.” This has been as
ciibed to Charles Lamb. George Bart
ley, actor and stage-man9ger, in Eng
land, need to say, with reference to the
intelligence of the British public, “You
must first tell them that you are going
to do so and so ; yon must then tell
them that you are doing it; aud then
that you have done it; and then, per
haps, they will understand you.” This,
in a slightly different drees, has long
been on its travels as the remark of
Dion Boncicault. David Morris, a Lon
don theatrical manager, of whom Plau
clie says that he would have been the
most perfect specimen of his class in
England, had he bnt possessed the tal
ent of a theatrical management, ob
served one mornißg, at the rehearsal of
some music at the Hay market theater,
that one member of the band was si
lent. Accordingly, he touched liim on
the shoulder aud asked: “Why are
you not playing, sir?” “I have twelve
bars, re6t, sir,” answered the musician.
“ Rest!” retorted the annoyed manager,
“ Don’t talk to me abont rest! Don’t
you get yonr salary, sir ? I p*y you to
play, and not to rest, sir ! Rest when
you’ve done your work, and not in the
middle of it.” This was iold of old
Astley, the circus manager ; but for a
considerable time it has been in circu
lation here as an incident in the career
of Mr. John Stetson, manager of the
Howard athenaeum, in Boston.
In an aocount of his adventures in
the Upper Nile, Col. Long, of the
Egyptian armv, says that the black
Kibg of Niam-Niam decapitated thirty
of his subjects in honor of the visitor,
who also accepted a girl as a rcyal gift.
Through an interpreter she slid : “I
want very much to go with yan, bnt it
mustbeoncondition that noteat
me.” The colonel said he Wnldn’t eat
her on any consideration. /
“ Diligence commands sdbces3.” But
success doesn’t always obey!
Who Was Hermann?
Arminius, or Hermann, a colossal
statue of whom was unveiled before an
immense multitude in presence of the
prinoes of Germany and other distin
guished visitors last week was prince of
the Cherusel, a German tribe, and was
born 16 B. C. He became a Roman
citizen of the equestrian order in his
youth, and served the troops auxiliary
to the Roman army on the Danube. In
the year 9 B. 0., he planued a success
ful insurrection against Varus, the
Roman commander, and defeated his
troops with great slang a ter, Varus
taking his own life to prevent capture.
It was after the news of this defeat
that the Emperor Augustus exclaimed.
Varus, give me back my legions.”
Gcrmanictis in a few years marched
against Arminius with 80,000 men, but
was defeated. He again attempted the
subjugation of Germany with 100,000
men, and after a severe battle was
driven across the Rhine. The Romans
never attempted to cross tlie river again,
and Arminius bears tho title of Libera
tor of the Ciermau nation, which he
seems to fully deserve. Arminius,
after driving out the Romans, had a
contest with Marbod. chief of the
Mnresmanni, who was seeking the
supreme power in the nation. He de
feated him and subsequently was him
self destroyed by treachery in his own
family. Tacitua, in his “De Moribus,”
refers to the enthusiasm with which
the name of Arminius was cherished in
his time, and the liberator has lived in
German songs to this day. The defeat
of Varus and that of Germanicus con
stituted two of the decisive battles of
the world. Thev prevented the ab
sorption of the German race into the
Latin race, as the victory of Charles
Martel, at Poioter, checked the pro
gress of Moorish domination in Europe.
The Philadelphia Times say of the
monument:
“ Not even the Cfesars, whose legions
he overthrew, possessed its equal.
The great statue, which was vmvailed
in the presence of Emperor Wilhelm
and a hundred thousand people, is one
hundred feet high, and standing on its
lofty pedestal, erected on ahighhill, will
tower far above the Colossus of Rhodes.
The latter, according to Pliny, who
lived during its existence, was seventy
cubits high, or one hundred English
feet, which is precisely tbe height of
the giant of the Thuriogian woods.
Phidias’greatest work,-the Jupiter he
framed for the Eleans, was only sixty
feet in height. The German work of
art was designed and wrought by one
man, Herr Ernest Von Bandel, who de
voted between thirty and forty years of
labor, mental and manual, to it, and
who has immortalized himself as well
as his hero.”
A Negro Prayer.
The following grotesque, yet solemn
prayer is a verbatim report taken in the
winter of 1862-3, at a Methodist meeting
held by plantation negroes in a settle
ment near camp :
“ O Lord God of dis glorious uni
verse, wilt dou look down in the omni
presences of dy eye upon dese, dy col
!ard children, bowed upon de knucklep
bone dis night. Take a solemn pee
upon us, and let a heap o’ light in. Dou
kuowest what dese poor darkies need.
Dere be Bam, dere be Jerry, and dere
be Pompoy. |Dey are in dere sins, dat’s
what I reckon. Help dem to git up and
git irom de wilderness of sin and come
into de clearing of salvation. Take a
solemn peep also upon de darkies in de
other cabin, who fiddle and whirl upon
de bombastic toe, while clv servant ful
minates words to dee. May dey rise
above the antiiratory things of dis world
and fly like Massa Link ame balloon,
heavenward. (Professor Lowe’s balloon
was anohored near by). Ruler of all
humans on dis earth, wilt dou bress de
generals in de field dis night, if it be
circumspection in dy eye. Bress de
colonels in de field dis night, if it be
circumspection in dy discreet eye, and
also bress de Union soldiers, who carry
de musket aud chew de cartridge, fight
ing for de Union and de stars aud
stripes. Dey fight in a scientific cause,
and be de bestest ob men ; but, good
Lord, may dey swear less and pray
more. And finally, bress dy humble
servant now BupplicatiDg dee in behalf
of dese benighted darkies. It behooves
dee to dig deep and sound in de very
bottom of his heart. May dere be nary
blimmage between myself and my Sa
vior. In de language of de mighty
Washington, dis world is all a fleetin’
show. To-day we are alive aud hoppin’
around like grasshoppers ; to morrow
de sickle of death cuts ns down and
spreads us out like grass in baytime.
( On every side, dou knowest, O Lord, is
| de evidence of de dislocation and de
struction of de human family. Dere be
fighting among one anoder, and natural
disease. But we die to live again, either
as saints or evil spirits. Dere be dis
cussions on doctrines, Elecshion, Be
fore ordination, Perfection, and sich
like, confuse de intellects of both black
men and white. But dou knowest, good
Lord, dat dese are vain allnsiona,
split in’ and dividin’ dy creatures into
sexes without mercy Many dere will
be with slick countegances, white col
lars, and fine clothes, who will find de
gates shut against them, while de blind
old woman, hobbling on crutches, she
go straight in, Amen.”— Educational
Monthly.
The Prairie Gopher.
Among the burrowing species belong
ing to the squirrel family, the prairie
gopher {Spennophilus Richardsoni)
holds prominent rank. Though one of
the most abundant animals in our coun
try, infesting hundreds of thousands
of square miles of territory, almost to
the exclusion of other mammalian forms
the prairie gopher has but lately re
ceived the honor of an adequate descrip
tion. This service has been rendered
by Dr. Elliott Doues in the pages of the
American Naturalist. The habitat ef
the prairie gopher appears to extead
from the Red river of the North to the
Rocky Mountains, and from latitude 38
deg. to 55 deg. So numerous are they
in Dakota and Montana that according
to Dr. Coues, should certain portions
of these territories ever be settled, the
little gophers will contend with tbe
husbandman for the land more persist
ency and successfully than the Indians
can hope to. The animal seems to be a
modification of the chipmunk; in the
language of Dr. Doues, “Jf we take a
chipmunk and crop its ears down close,
cut off about a third of its tail, give it
a blunter muzzle, and make a little al
teration in its fore feat, bo that it could
dig better, ” we have a pretty good prai
rie gopher. The holts they dig are
smalt, but many of them, like the bur
rows of tbe badgers, foxes, and prairie
wolves, will admit a horse’s hoof. In
some regions so numerous are these
holes that it is impossible to gallop a
hundred yards except at the risk of life
or limb.
CARTERS YILLE, GEORGIA, MONDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 6, 1575.
It is not easy to determine what par
ticular kind of ground the gophers
most affect. “ Passing over a sterile,
cactus-ridden, alkali-laden waste,” says
Dr. Coues, “there would be so many
that I would say, ‘ This suits them best;’
in camp that very night, in some low
grassy spot near water, there they would
be plentiful as ever.” If the animals
have any preference, it is a choice of
the lighter aDd more easily worked soils;
and tbev seem to haunt especially the
slight knolls of the prairie a few feet
above the general level. One gopher
to the hole is the universal rnle, nor
has the author ever seen any signs of a
burrow being occupied by a pair.
The female brings forth in June, bnt
the young are never seen outside of the
bunow till July, when they are about
two thirds grown. The number of
young produced at a birth is supposed
to be about eight.
Dr. Coues is of the opinion that the
gopher is torpid during most of the
winter. The animal hoaids up food, it
is true, but not in sufficient quantity to
suffice for so active a creature during au
entire winter. The author has often
watcbe l them, where tbe grass was tal
ler than usual, gathering their store.
They rise straight up on their haunches,
seize the grass-top, and bite it off;
then settling down with a peculiar jerk,
they sit with arched back, and stow
away the provender in their pouches,
with the aid of their fore pawß. Their
cheek pouohes, both together, would
hardly hold a heaping teaspoonful.
Though properly a vegetarian, the go
pher derives no small share of his sum
mer food from carcasses of buffalo.
Couldn’t Behave Herself.
A Saratoga correspondent of tbe New
York Commercial Advertiser overhsard
two young ladies talking, and this is
what they said :
“ Nell, I’m going home to-morrow.”
“ Going home to-morrow ? What for,
pray ?”
“ Because I can’t behave myself. ”
“ Well, out with it, Jennie. What
have you been doing ?”
“ Lots of things.”
“ Well, give us ihe first.”
“You know Frank Kennedy, Nell ?”
“That soft simpering fellow that al
ways tells you how “chawming” you
look ?”
“ Exactly. This morning I saw him
coming, and made up my mird to take
himdown.”
“I put my diamond brooch in a chair,
pin upward, and asked him to sit
down.”
“He sat, of course, and what then ?”
“He jumped up and yelled, * Oh,
my -’ ”
“ ‘What’s the trouble,’ I asked.
‘Nothing in particular, only I thought
of an engagement at this very moment;
you must excuse me.’ And ofF he went;
and would you believe it, Nell, the
brooch was sticking to him.”
“ That was awful, Jennie ;” and the
two girls giggled together for five min
utes. Nell broke the spell by demand
ing “ what next ?”
“Why, you see, I was talking with
that young sprig of a clergyman, the
Rev. Tom Parsons. We had nearly
talked each other to death, when, as
luok would have it, he made some re
mark about mosquitoes. I was on my
native heath at once, and began to teil
him of my experience at Rockaway.
‘ Did they bite very hard ?’ inqnired tho
Rev. Thomas. * I wish, Mr. Parsons,’
said J, * you could see my legs aud
judge for yourself.’ ”
“ That was a horrid speech, Jennie.
How could vou say such a thing ?”
“ Why, Nell, it popped out before I
knew it.”
“ Aud what did Mr. Parsons say?”
“ He blusued clean to the eyes, and I
ran away.”
The Silk Markets of the World.
According to a report, just published
by the Syndicate of the Lyonß Union of
Silk Merchants, the silk crop of Europe
last year was, in round numbers, 9,050,-
000 pounds, making upwards of twenty
and a half million pounds of raw silk
available for European consumption.
The countries included in the report are
Italy, France (with her dependencies,
Corsica and Algeria), Spain, Greece,
the Turkish empire, Georgia, Persia,
India, Japan and China. The first and
the last together supply four-fifths of
the silk used in Europe. China ex
ported, chiefly from Shangai, upwards
of 8,000,000 pounds. The crop of Italy
amounted to 6,300,000 pounds ; Spam,
about 310.000 pounds; Greece, less
than 30,000 pounds; the Turkish em
pire, 1,180,000 pounds; Georgia and
Persia together, 880,000 pounds ; India
(from Calcutta), 935,000 pounds; Japan,
something over 1,200,000 pounds.
Mineral Resources of Greenland.
—When the Swedish polar expedition
was on its way to the north in 1870, the
explorers discovered at Ovifak, on the
south shore of Disko Island, large
masses of native iron, of various sizes,
up to twenty tons, lying in a small
space among bowlders of granite and
gneiss. Specimens were brought home
and distributed among the mineralo
gists of Europe, and the result of their
analyses and investigations is, that
opinions are divided as to whether those
blocks of iron came from the sky or the
earth. Some argue that they fell;
others, that they were upheaved from
below. It is somewhat remarkable that
in the milder climate of Europe tbo
specimens sweat a yellowish-brown
liquid, consisting chiefly of a salt of
iron. One effect of the scientific dis
cussion above adverted to may be to
direct more attention to Greenland, a
country worth attention, for its min
eral resources, inclndicg lignite and
graphite, are abundant.
Bungalows for Summer Houses.—
An attempt has been made to introdne
into this country the kind of dwelling
house known in India as a bungalow.
For summer residence by the seaside it
offers advantages in which tne ordinary
dwelling house is deficient; it is simple
in shape, is usually not more than one
story high, and is covered by a simple
low-pitched roof, which may be pro
longed to form a veranda. What this
protection the inmates may pass most of
their time in the ooen air, and thus
have the fullest benefit of their sojourn
by the sea. Pnngalows can bs worked
and kept clean with a very Bmall amonnt
of labor, as many contrivances ti dimin
ish servants’ work have been introduced.
To keep out the damp, to which houses
by the seaside are liable, two thin walls
are built, with a space of about three
inches between them, in the center of
this space a close screen of slate is
fitted, and all the moisture blown
through the outer wall is stopped by
this screen, and trickles down to the
bottom. The inner wall consequently
remains quite dry, for the moisture does
not blow through the slate, and the
bungalow is habitable whatever the
weather,
DKAH-roqUIEK.
Abeu Adhem's Moral, Drawn from a Persian
Amusement.
One of the best things in D. R.
Locke’s humorous book, tUe “Morals
of Abou Ben Adhem,” is the following
travestie m a popular American amuse
ment :
Abou Ben Adheto, in an unpleasant
frame of mind one morning, was ap
proached by a long uosed, sad locking
man,who piopounded to him the qnery,
“What is remorse?” To which Abou
replied, “The humiliating sen°e of an
abjec* failuie. ” “WhafcY’ exclaimed
tbe seeker aftei truth, “is tli re no
such thing as sorrow and regret for
wrong doing ?” “Frequently, my aged
infant, frequently. There are minds so
susceptible to proper impreasious, so
spiritualized, if I may use the expres
sion, as to feel a pang or two after they
have done a wrong thing ; but they are
not oommon. Listen to my own experi
ence. A great many years ago, in Per
sia, I made the acquaintance of a party
of men who met frequently to indulge
in a game played with cards, which, I
presume, you know nothing of here,
called, in Persia, drah poquier. It is a
curious game. The cards dealt one at
a time, till each has five ; then those
who are playing put on the center of ihe
table a corn, such as has been deter
mined upon—say a kopeck ; then they
are allowed tc* throw as many cards as
they ohoose, taking from tlie pack an
equal number, then the man who sets
next to the dealer remarks sarcastically.
‘ I am the aged one, impoverish me,’
and the betting begins. It is a curious
game—is fluctuating, the players being
kept in a pleasant state of uncertainty
as to what the others have, till they
call a * show down.’
“ Well, I learned this game, and
played it with unvarying success for
some days, winning, on the average,
some four or five dirhems at a sitting.
As I gathered in my spoils I saw noth
ing wrong in the game. It seemed to
me a most desirable and, in all respects,
a gentlemanly game. *I am sorry,’l
said to myself, ‘ for Hatiz, the bellows
maker, and for Nadir, the seller of
shawls, but Allah knows I risk my
substance on the cards as do they, and
had they my luck they would have my
money. Be cliesm it is a highly moral
game, and had Ia hundred children,
1 would teach it to them. What is
there wrong in it ? It is my money
which I risk. There is no trickery or
cheating in this game, for the cards are
fairly dealt, and we make wagers on
our judgment of our luck. So doss the
merchant who buys tlie wheat of Khur
distan, believing that the crop will be
short, and that it will go up. So does
tlie merchant who sells the corn of
Kohmul, believing that the crop will
be heavy and the price will go down.
What is this but gambling ? If they
play with wheat or corn, why should
uot Hafiz and I play with cards ? And
then it strengthens the mind, it devel
ops the judgment, quickens the reas
oning powers, and broadens, widens
and otrengthens the mental man. It is
a noble game and a great pursuit.’
Thus rcasoued I, joyously. I had no
remorse, nor did it occur to me that I
was gambling.
“ But one night it so happened that
I had a oertaiuty ou Hatiz. I had three
cards alike in my hand—that is to say
three aces—and when tlie cards were
helped, as tlie phrase is, I took another.
Hatiz drew one card to the four he had
iu his hand, and the betting began.
Now, four aces is a strong hand, there
being but one that can beat it, namely,
a strate pblusli. I wagered a kopeck
to help Hafiz on to his ruin. How I
gloated over those four aces ! I saw
nothing wrong in those four aces, nor
iu making out of Hafiz, the bellows
mender, all that he should make by
his trade for a year. He saw my mod
est kopeck and said that he would wa
ger a dirhem iu addition. Exulting in
the strength of my four aoes, I gladly
put up the dirhem, and remarked that
such was my faith in my hand that I
would impoverish him to the extent of
ten dirhems more. Hafiz—on whose
head light curses !—saw the ten dir
hems, and boosted me (boosted is a
Persian phrase) one huudred dirhems.
I made sure that the four aoes was not
an optical illusion, and went him one
thousand dirhems, which he sa*, and
came back at me five thousand dirhems,
which, feeling that it would be cruel
to utterly ruin him, I called, 'without
further gymnastics. Smilingly I laid
down my four aces and reached for the
property. Smilingly he put away my
outstretched and eager hand, and laid
down beside my four aces his accursed
hand, which was a strate phlnsli. ”
“ The property is mine ?” sa id he. “ It
is !” said I.
“ Then I experienced a feeling of re
morse. Then I felt that drah-poquier
was gambling, and that gambling in
any form was a sin of the most benious
nature, and that I had been guilty of a
crime. ‘Ob, why,’ I exclaimed, ‘did
I ever permit myself to become infat
uated with the desire for gaming? If
I win, it is my neighbor’s diihems ; if
I lose, it is my owd. In ary ease, there
is nothing of actual value that passes.
While we use capital in gambling, we
produce nothing. One side is richer,
the other poorer, and there has been a
waste of precious time. Besides, it is
terribly demoralizing. It enfatuates a
man and enfeebles his mind. His mind
dwells on the game to the exclusion of
everything that is good ; it crushes out
everything that is high and noble, and
develops everything that is mean aud
small in one’s nature. It ruins tlie loser
financially, and ruins the winner mor
ally. Wretch that I am ! why did I
ever permit myself to play at all ? Why
did I permit this cursed infatuation to
grip me ?’ And remorse sat on me, and
beat my breast and pulled my hair.
Bewailing my wickedness, I determined
to purge myself of the unholy thing.
Would I had so thought and so done
had I held the strate phlush, and the
accursed bellows mender the four aces?
Ldo not know.”
Literary Curiosities,
The intended celebration this year of
the five-hundredth anniversary of the
death of Boecacoio, who would have
been a lawyer had it not been—so he
says—for a sight of Virgil’s tomb, sug
gests a remarkable addition to the mu
seum of literary cariosities. Poetry
could ill afford to spare
Petrarch was a law-student—and an
idle one—at Bolonga. Goldoni, till he
turned strolling player, was an advocate
of Venice. Metastasio was for many
years a dilligent law-student. Tasso
and Ariosto both studied law at Padua.
Politian waß a doctor of law. Schiller
was a law-student for two years before
takiDg to medicine. Goethe was sent
to Leipzig, and Heine to Bonn, to study
jurisprudence. Uhland was a practic
ing advocate, and held a post in the
Ministry of Justice at Stuttgart.
Rukert was a law student at Jena.
Mickiewiez the greatest of Polish poets,
belonged to a family of lawyers. Ka
einezy, the Hungariau poet, and creator
of his country’s literature, studied law
at Easohau. Coreille was an advocate,
and the son of an advocate. Voltaire
was for a time in the office of a pro
cureur. Chaucer was a student of the
Inner Temple. Gower ifc thought to
have studied law ; it has been alleged
th|t he was chief-justice of the com
mon please. Nicholas- Rowe studied
for the bar. Cowper was articled to an
attorney, called to the bar, and ap
pointed a commissioner of bankrupts.
Butler was clerk to a justice of the
peace. Tbe profession of Scott need
cot be stated. Moere was a student of
the Middle Temple. Gray, until he
graduated, intended himself for the
bar. Campbell was in the office of a
lawyer at Edinburg. Longfellow, a
lawyer’s son, spent some years in the
office of nis father. The peculiarity of
this list—which might be extended with
little trouble—lies in the eminence of
these six-and-twenty names it contains.
If they were omitted from literary his
tary, Italian and German poetry would
be nowhere, France would be robbed of
one of its greatest and most national
poets, English poetry would lose its
father, and in all respects be very ap
preciably poorer. If less classic names
in poetical history are taken, such as
Talfourd, Macaulay, Bryant and Barry
Cornwall, the list might be infinitely
extended ; and if filial relationship to
the legal profession be considered, as
in the case of Wordsworth, the close
connection between poetry and law will
look such a matter of course that the
few eminent exceptions will only tend to
prove the rule. Milton was the son of
a solivener. There is no need to in
dorse the fancy that Sbakspeare may
have been a law clerk, or to suggest
that Dante might have been influenced
by a residence at the great legal uni
versity of Bolonga. But there is an
other list strikingly to the purpote—
the long roll of great lawyers who,
like Cicero, Sir Thomas Moore, Lord
Somers, Blackstone, and Sir William
Jones, have found flirtation with the
muses no impediment to their marriage
with the law. It may be that this close
connection of two seemingly irrecon
cilable pursuits is due to some rule of
contrast; or is it that fiction, romance,
and verbiage afford to poetry and law
a common standing-ground ?—Gentle
man's Magazine.
Lead ns Not into Temptation.
The Rev. Julian Young’s journal con
tains the subjoined good story of a po
lemical parishioner :
In one of my ministerial rounds at
Fairlight., in Sussex, I visited Dame
Pankhurst—quite a character in her
way ; bluff, blunt., and shrewd, and close
on the verge of eighty. She was seated
at her tea-table, and, with knitted brows
aud a puzzled expression of face, was
poring over her baize covered Bible.
As soon as I entered she took off her
spectacles, wiped them with her checked
apron, and deposited them on the chair
by her side, and thus accosted me:
“ Muster Young, ’tis very handy your
coming in just now, for I be sadly put
about; and I ain’t, to say, easy iu my
mind at summut as I’ve been a reading
in this here book. I’ve stumbled, I
think, ou one of the things, as Peter says
‘is hard to be understood.’ ” She then
pointed to the first chapter of St James,
and desired me to read aloud for her
the second verse, which had so discon
certed her: “ Count it all joy when ye
fall into divers temptations.” When I
bad complied with her request, she
stuck her arms akimbo, and, shaking
her head f-keptically aud defiantly, asked
me “ what I thought o’ that ? If there
be meaning in them words, they mean
as we are to be glad to fall into tempta
tions ! Perhaps there's summut more
in tl)e meaning of that word ‘ tempta
tion ’ than I know ou. Anyhow I can’t
male head nor tail on’t.” She then
hung down her h< ad and repeated to
herself, in toneß of dissatisfaction, al
most of indignation, the words, “ tempt
e-tions ! tempt a-tions ! tempt-a-tions,
indeed ! What be nm, I’d like to know?”
I told her that the word had two mean
ings—one signifying “to allure or en
tice ;” the other, “to try ;” and that in
the passage to which she had directed my
attention the word “ temptation ” meant
“trial.” That St. James, in writing
those words, was exhorting Christians
“ to be patient under trial;” and that
though God could not directly tempt
his servants, yet that sometimes, as in
the cases of Job and St. Paul, he per
mitted them to be tempted, that by the
confirmation of their faith they might
win the greater glory, and therefore
have the greater cause for joy. In con
firmation of my assertion, that God
could not himself directly tempt, how
ever he might be said to do so indirectly,
I pointed her notice to the thirteenth
verse of the same chapter, on which she
fairly exploded. “What d’ye mean?
My mother taught me to pray to God,
‘ Lead us not into temptation,’ from tbe
Lord’s praver. Tbe Master himself
tells us, ‘ Watch and pray, tha* ye enter
not into temptation ;’ and this here S'.
James, an excellent good man, I sup
pose, tells us that we’re to be uncom
mon glad if we fall into temptations.
Why are we to be warned against tempt
ations, if, when they come, they are to
make us happy? Aud then, again, as
to what you’ve been saying out o’ your
own head—l mean that God cant tempt
—if he can't tempt, what’s tbe use of
praying to him not to tempt us ?”
What Savages Think of I wins.
In Africa, according to Dr. Robert
Brown (“ Races of Mankind,”) the
birth of twins is commonly regarded
as an evil omen. No one, except the
twins themselves and their nearest rel
atives, is allowed to enter tte hnt in
which they first saw the light. The
children are not allowed to play with
other children, and even the utensils of
the hut are not permitted to be used by
any one else. The mother is not
allowed to talk to any one not belong
ing to her own familv. If the children
both live till the end of the sixth year,
it is supposed that nature has accom
modated herself to their existence, and
they are thenceforth admitted to asso
ciation with their fellows. Nor is this
abomination of twin births restricted
to Africa. In the island of Bali, nea~
Java, a woman who is so unfortunate as
to bear twins is obliged, along with her
husband, to live for a month at the sea
shore or among the tombe, until she is
purified. The Khasias of Hindustan
consider that to have twins assimilates
the mother to the lower animals, and
one of them is frequently put to death.
An exactly.similar belief prevails among
some of the native tribes of Vancouver
Island. Among the Ainos, one of the
twins is always killed, aDd in Arebo,
in Guinea, both the twins and the
mother are put to death.
Production of India Rubber.
A writer in the Journal of the Soci
ety of Arts says that the finest caout
chouc of commerce is uot the prodnse
of any species indigenious to India,
but is produced by the Hevea Brazil
iensis. Attempts are being made to
procure and introduce this species.
The caontehonc of India is produced
from the ficus elastica, which grows
naturally in northeast BeDgal, in Chit
tagong, and in Cachar, from which dis- i
trict a good deal is said to ceme. It may
be seen in parts of Sikkim, where in
the moist but rocky side valleys of the
torrents that feed the Teesta and the
Mahanadi the huge stems stretch down
straight to the ground or twine in fan
tastic groupings of contorted roots.
These have originally started from a
young plant, long ago produoed from
seed deposited in the topmost fork of
some tall terminalia or toon tree, which
has in the course of years been smoth
ered by the giant growth. In nature
the Ficus elastica is always found
towering above other trees, from the
oiroumstanoe of its epiphytic origin.
When onoe it has got its firm hold it
sends down aerial roots that become
stems, and thus a single tree will form
a grove covering half an acre in extent.
The ehief habitat, for rubber is in the
moist lower hill forests of Assam and
in the moist forests of Burma beyond
British territory. It is well known that
the rainfall of Burma steadily dimin
ishes towards the north, till at last it
ceases about the region of Paghan in
the Irrawaddy; but thence again, in
fluenced by the mountain masses to the
north, it again increases; it is in the
moist forest of the northern rainy zone
that the Ficus elastica occurs. It has
recently been reported that a climbing
species of Willughbeia , yielding caout
chouc, has been found in forests in
Burma. In Assam the Ficus elastica
is fonnd in both the forests of the Him
alayas and in the low valleys of the
Naga hills. The Indian caoutchouc has
hitherto been collected by persons buy
ing the right not only to oolleot it, but
claiming also to monopolize the pur
chase of that brought from foreign ter
ritory, and this has given rise to many
disputes. The greater number of trees
are in the territory of some independent
hill tribes, who bring the India rubber
in and sell it. At present the collection
in British territory has been stopped,
partly owing to complications prising
out of the monopoly, but partly because
of the enormous waste and the injury I
inflicted by overtapping the trees and 1
working them at the wrong season. It
is to be hoped that- this flue source of
revenue will not long remain in abeyance
but that the management of the whole
work may be intrusted to the forest
department.
Tbeyieidin Assam amounted in 1873 to
11,000 maunds and in Sikkim to 700 j
maunds. The trees do not form pure
forests, but are scattered one here and
one there, the best forests containing
hardly twenty trees to a square mile.
They are cut all over with knives, both
on the stem and on the long, running 1
roots; no care is taken to prevent in
juiing the sap-wood. The cuts are
eliptical in’shape; the milk is received
in holes in the ground or in leaves
doubled up to form a funnel. A tree
tapped in August will yield 50 ounces of
milk, giving 15$ ounces of pure caout
ohouc. The milk is scanty during the
cool season, October to March. The
india-rubber is sometimes prepared by
stirring the milk in boiling water, when
the caoutchouc coagulates. It is shipped
in baskets made of split rattan,
weighing about 3 cwt. each. It iB as a
rule badly prepared, and mixed with
sticks and dirt. Mr. Collins, in his re
port upon this article, gives the import
of East Indian caoutchouc into London
as 1,347 tons from June, 1871, to Juno,
1872. It is obvious that there is vast
room for improvement in the collection
of the juice and the treatment of the
trees, as well as in the manufacture of
the material and in organizing the
method of production.
How She Fixed Him. —There is a man
in this city who is so affectionately fond
of his wife that he is jealous if a man
looks within forty-five feet of the direc
tion in which she may happen to be.
The other day a gentleman spoke to her
and he immediately threatened suicide.
His wife was dispatched for a bottle of
poison consisting of a little water col
ored with liquorice, and label outside.
"When he threatened to take some of it,
and actually poured it into a wine glass,
she screamed for help and ran out of
the room into another room, where she
could watch him- through the key hole
and saw him coolly open the window
and throw it out. She then rushed
back, apparently frantic with grief, and
implored him not to do the rash deed.
He merely pointed to the glass and lay
ing down on the floor began to kick out
his legs like a jumping-jack. She told
him she was determined to share his
fate, and swallowed the rest cf the
I quourice water, whereupon he became
really frightened, called the neighbors,
confessed he only shammed, and said if
she only survived he would never
trouble her again. Then she explained
the ruse, and he was so mortified he
tried to buy up the neighbors, but the
story was too good to keep. He is now
thoroughly cured. —Sacramento Bee.
In a Cab With a Tiger.— A recent
incident on the Ogdensburg road is thus
described by the St. Adams (Vt.) Mes
senger of the 7th inst: “ A cage of
tigers, which was on its way to a me
nagerie.now exhibiting south of here, was
plaoed in one end of the car, and a
zebra was tied in the other end. The
watchman lay down on a box and fell
asleep ; when he awoke he discovered
that one of the tigers had bent the iron
bars of the cage, forced its way out, and
was crouching in the opposite corner.
The regular keeper of the animals was
in the sleeping car at the rear end of the
train, and there was no chance to com
municate with him or with any one out
side. The poor watchman was fright
ened into motionless silenoe, and in that
awfnl suspense be made the long and
weary journey to St. Albans. After the
train came to a halt here, one of the
train men, in passing the car, saw a
large, cat-like nose thrust out of an
opening, and not knowing that any one’s
life was endangered in the car, but fear
ing lest the animal should escape, rah
to the sleeping-car and aroused the
keeper, who soon appeared, raw-hide in
hand, and lashed the beast back into
his den, to the immeasurable relief of
the poor fellow who had been curled up
for hours.
The little thirteen year-old girl who
was recently sentenced by an English
magistrate to forteen days in prison
and four years in the reformatory for
plucking a geranium has been released
by the home secretary. The magistrate
has not been removed, however, or even
reprimanded.
Twenty little children crowd around
and call Queen Victoria “ grandma,”
VOL. 16--NO. 37.
SAYINGS AND DOINGS.
The Japanese whittle false teeth out
of solid ivory.
Naturalists say that a single swal
low will devour six thousand flies in a
day. •
“ Putting a pnll-baek necktie on to
him,” is what the Missouri lynohera
now call it.
A local contemporary reads one of
itsoolumns, “After Thoughts.” That’s
what its readers are after in vain.
“ The* fired two shots at him,” wrote
an Irish reporter ; “ the first shot killed
him, but the second shot was not fatal.”
“The river Rhine, it is well known,
washes the city of Eologne, bnt oh, ye
nymphs, what power divine can hence
forth wash the river Rhine ?”
—The best of men
That e'er wore earth about Him wa*a sufferer;
A soft, meek, patient, humble, tranquil spirit,
The firt true gentleman that ever breathed.
Tkomeu Dtkkar.
It nmet be unpleasant for a stuttering
man in Berlin to hail a street-oar, be
canse there they call a street-car a pfer
destrassenelsebahnwagen, for short.
Jenny Lind dresses her hair in the
same style precisely as when she was
in America twenty-five years ago. She
has two daughters, one eighteen and
the other twenty.
A stalwart Indian is often seen about
the streets of Virginia City, dressed in
calico, like a squaw. He is compelled
by the Piutes to wear women’s clothes
for oowardice shown in battle sever
years since.
Edmond About is afraid that if they
let the sea into the desert of Sahara and
keep it there Europe will lose the
“ warm equatorial winds ” End become
an Arctic wilderness.
A middle-aged woman fell as she
was descending a pair of stairs on Ful
ton street, and the first man to help her
reach her feet was a banker who hap
pened to be passing.
“ Did you fall, madam ?” he inquired,
as he seized her arm.
“Fall! Of course I fell, you fool
you ! You don’t suppose I’d sit down
here to rest, do you ?” ohe snapped.
He didn’t say.
At the Louvre Hotel there is a Mr
Walker. Mr. Walker had a dog. His
dog has lost a running matoh. Aud
this is how Mr. Walker has to pay his
wager. He is, during one whole month,
to run into the arms of the fiist man he
meets at the corner of the Rue de Yalois
after 9 o’clock, and to say: “My dear
brother, at last we meet after twenty
years.” Then he is to apologize. Mr.
Walker has thus embraced fourteen
Frenchmen ! Ugh !— Paris Figaro.
At Kennebunkport, Maine, a remark
able mirage was recently seen. Look
ing southward, the Isles of Shoals, not
usually visible, appeared lifted about a
hundred feet above the water. Ths
hotel on one of the islands oould be
distinctly seen, and a dozen or more
vessels were also mirrored in the sky.
This appearance continued about fifteen
minutes, and then faded from view.
AJ irage is not uncommon in that locality
when the atmosphere is hazy.
Thomas Bailey Aldbich wants nearly
everybody to be weak-minded, so that
a few women can be glittering actresses,
and a few men poets like himself.
Thomas Bailey thus expresses his (?)
idea in the Atlantic :
Rachel— Riston. We shall taste of death
Ere we e spirits like these. Ia one age
dwell
Not ma iy such; a century mar toll
Its hundred beads before it braid i wreath
For two so queenly foreheads. If it take
Eons to shape a diamond, grain on grain,
Eons to crystallize its fire and dew—
£v what slow processes must Nature make
Her Shakspeares and her Dantes? Great
the gain
If she spoils thousands by making one or
two!
Don’t Breed from Pigs thai are Un
thrifty.
Our readers know how constantly we
have insisted upon the imporanoe of
good growing and feeding qualities in
cattle ; not only in the race but in the
individual. But in no variety of ani
mals is this so obviously essential as in
swine, where, without these qualities,
they are absolutely worthless. Breed
ers, therefore, who send out “ runted ”
pigs, not only wrong their customers,
however superior the blood, but do
themselves a great injustice.
Every breeder has observed the great
difference there is in individuals, not
only of the same blood, but of the same
litter, some fair, while one or two may
be found decidedly objectionable. Now
pigs of the latter description should
never be served as breeders. As we
have said elsewhere, the excellence of
our various breeds was originally estab
lished by a long course of careful
breeding, where only the best specimens
were reserved ; and we cannot hope to
maintain this excellence without re
jecting all individuals of objectionable
forms and qualities—we mean objection
able as affecting the useful qualities of
the animal.
These considerations we especially
urge upon the attention of breeders of
Berkshire swine, as, that breed being
now in great demand, the temptation is
great to reserve all individuals of the
pure blood for breeders, whether they
be good or bad specimens, so as they
have the fashionable color and marking,
comparatively unimportant as these
latter particulars are. In some sections
this evil has greatly injured the repnta
tion of this most excellent breed, and all
breeders should set their faces against
the practioe, as being neither judicious
nor, in the long run, profitable.—Na
tional Live Stock Journal.
The Floral Marvels. —The Horti
culturalist gives an account of two
novelties among flowers, which it is
almost tempted to treat as fables until
their verity is established by personal
inspection. The following is She de
scription of them : “ One is a black
lily in Santa Clara, Cal., with three
large blossoms, each one being nine
inches long, and perfectly black outside
of the green petals. The other us to be
seen at Constantinople, and described
by an eye witness as belonging to the
narcissus genus of bnlbs. The flower
represents a perfect humming bird.
The breast of a perfect emerald green,
is a complete copy of this bird, and the
throat, head, beak and eyes are a perfect
imitation. The hinder part of the body
and the two outstretched wings are of
a bright rose color—one might almost
say flesh colored. These wondrous
bulbs should have been sent to the Vi
enna exhibition. They will be ir. abun
dance by the. time of our centennial
celebration in 1876. And yet they can
hardly be greater curiosities than the
strange and mysterious ‘Banetu Spiritu’
flower from South America, with i ts life
like representation of doves,”