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STANDARD AND EXPRESS. A, & W, A. MARSCHALK, Editors and Proprietors. FROM ALL SOURCES. I lie following table shows the re jKirtcil production in each seventeen of the jaruo st corn-producing states in 1874, as re ported by the bureau of agriculture, the ag gregate acreage this year being estimated to he 8 per cent, greater than in 1874: .... Bushels. 11,1,0,8 133,579,000 l ' ) l ". a 115,720,000 ! )I| '° 88,422,000 Indiana 74,624,000 Kentucky 48,514,000 Missouri..... 46,049,000 I eniisylvania 35,821,000 i ennessee 31,953,000 lexas. 38,016,000 I'i aro,ma 22,186,000 Alabama 20,288,000 ' irgmia 1 9,082,000 M.ssissippi 18,357,000 New York 16,807.000 Kansas 16,064,000 Wisconsin 15,492,000 Other States 94,739,000 In all the States 850,148,000 The principal time-piece of the Paris observatory is located in the catacombs, so as t'_' be free from the disturbing influence of all vibrations, and by it are regulated all the numerous clocks employed in the observato ry. It is described as an instrument of such precision that it scarcely varies to the extent of one second in a twelvemonth. A proposi tion, it appears, has just been made by M. Leverrier, the director of the observatory, to place all the public clocks throughout Paris in direct connection with this time-piece. lie proposes to lay a telegraph wire which shall connect the regulator of the observatory with the clock of the Luxembourg palace, now used for the prefecture of the Seine and the municipal council; and that time-keeper in turn, it is proposed, shall be put in electrical communication with those at the Bourse, I'.tlace de Justice, mairies of all the arron dissemente of the city, churches and other public buildings. Agricultural returns for October show the wheat crop of the present year to be a diort one, and there is a marked deteriora tion in quality. The average is about eighty jer cent, ot last year’s production. If this indicates a total depreciation, it amounts to nearly 62,000,000 bushels, and gives the crop at 246,000,000 bushels. In qual ity, the crop averages fourteen per cent, below sound condition. The condition "t the corn crop is exceptionally high. The produce reported this year falls short of 1874, about 4 per cent. Oats— product 5 per cent, greater than last year. Potatoes promise to be extraordinary, both in yield and quality. Tobacco 2 per cent, ahnvc the average.* Barley is 87 per cent, ft last year’s crop, and buckwheat not far from the average. I he burning of Virginia City, the enterprising and thriving capital of Nevada, easts a cloud over the brightening prospects ul the country. The destruction of eight millions of property in a day by fire is a ca lamity that no insurance can cover and no sympathy can alleviate. The losses in Chi cago and Boston and Baltimore have taught us what such destructions of property mean and how much suffering they entail. The einises of the lire have not been reported. I hit the city was largely constructed of wood, and it only needed the conjunction of wind and flame to sweep it out of existence. It certainly seems as though we have had con llagrations enough to teach our people the criminal folly of building tinder-boxes to in vite destruction. The Russians are discussing the con struction of a canal to join together the Cas pian and Black seas. The Caspian is a salt lake of from four hundred to four hundred and fifty feet depth of water, which is con sitlvrably below that of the Black, owing to tiic copious evaporation under the fierce slimmer heat. The canal is proposed to he Sl v en hundred and fifty miles long, thus con stituting it a far larger and costlier enter prise than the Suez canal. Russia actually Ikis a coasting fleet of eight hundred vessels, ot sixty-eight thousand nine hundred and ten tonnage, on the Caspian, and it is exclusive mistress, with the exception of a few Persian skid's. -V medical cotemporary, lauding the '.'stem of international weather bulletins lately established by our signal service bu reau, goes on to hope that a similar scheme may ere long be applied to the record of prevalent zymotic diseases, in the form of “an international bulletin setting forth of ficially the movements of the ‘waves’ of epi demic disease from their initiation to their decline, medical ‘signal officers’ becoming the counterpart of the weather observers.” Foley’s statue of Stonewall Jackson, which was unveiled at Richmond last week, is thus spoken of by the London Athenaeum: “Gf it, critically, we are bound to say that "e wish it had been abetter work of art; and "e say this not only for the reputation of the sculptor, but for the honor of the heroic general himself, as well as on account of the sympathy which has led many English ad mirers of ‘Stonewall ’ to subscribe funds and present the statue to the state of Virginia.’ The merchants of Manchester, Eng., the eitv which has been supposed to stand unrivaled in the manufacture of cotton goods, have begun to import calicoes from the 1 nited States. This statement is made by the London Times on the authority of the drapers’ Trade Journal. The importers say that the American goods are much better in quality and appearance than those of English manufacture. Is it not astonishing that men, who have the whole world to conquer, will bother their great heads with the tightness of a woman’s skirt. How about your stove-pipe hats? They make your heads bald and creasy as a dish-cloth, yet you wear them. Would that some prophetess might arrive in Israel and tell the awful consequences of this fashion. Remarking upon the great rain storms of July, August and September, a writer in the Country Gentleman says: *• These great rains point to an open winter, and perhaps a stormy, changeable one for the west, for which reason those corn-growers who make haste to harvest their crop as early as it is fit for the crib will have advantage ously taken time bv the forelock.” Gen. W. D. Washburn, of Minne apolis, Minn., made an assignment of all his property for the benefit of his creditors a year ago, and now the assignees, after paying all debts in full, have restored to the general •<-sets to the amount of $300,000. If a man must fail, that’s the way to do it. Susan B. Anthony is severe. She -a vs, in a recent letter: “I couldn’t go five miles out of town, when I was in Missouri, without meeting a flock of grasshoppers that aid make a better bench of judges than the present supreme court of the United States;” Their woman suffrage decision worries her. The visitors to the gardens of the Philadelphia Zoological Society are so numerous that in eight months the receipts "’ere $48,000, and the average attendance "as ‘>36. With such prosperity the society '• ill before long possess one of the best col lections of animals known. It is intended r ° prepare a very full collection of American ‘'Uiinals for the centennial. The Rev. Father Murphy, who has 1 'een lecturing at Montreal, admits that the P (| pe can sin and is quite liable to go to hell ;herefor. This is a lecture on “papal infal libility.” JOST HOW IT IS. BY KITTY SOUTH. I am feeling ever .so cross and crab bed to-day. The ancient tabby that was crouching upon the* edge of the piazza, seeking to appropriate all of the waning sunshine that Old Sol grants these Indian summer days, and who was rudely pushed away just now' by Torn, to make room for his own pre cious climbing, is not more thoroughly at variance w ith fate. And yet, I am not ancient, nor am'l a cat; but I have lieen jostled away from the very edge of a gratification which promised me quite as much satisfaction as tabby's sunshine afforded her. Ah me! can any Euclid solve the problem of the taxes? Why must they get higher and higher with each return of pay-day, while the people who have to pay them get poorer and poorer in the very same proportion ? I shall take this opportunity now while mother has gone out (with her usual saintly pa tience and meekness) to try and arrange for the payment of this last “increased assessment,” to tell the whole story of my wrongs. Mother thinks it unwom anly and unchristian for me to talk as I do, and she constantly reminds me of my brave father, whose endurance of wrong was as sublime as his death upon the battlements of Fort Sumter. But it is all in vain for mother to try and inculcate the martyr spirit in me. * The lovely plant is not indigenous, and, un luckily, no matter how often she trans plants a healthy shoot, the soil is too foreign—it is dried up and withered without delay. Well, to begin with the beginning, mother and Tom and I constitute the family. I was four years old when father was killed, and Tom came to us some months after we had laid him be side little Allie in the church-yard. Of course, I can not recall much of the struggling, and planning which mother had to do in those years immediately follow ing the surrender, but a few facts stand boldly out and can not be erased bv succeeding years. I remember dis tinctly seeing her arranging and re arranging the bureau which contained articles ot father’s clothing. How ten derly and tearfully she did this work! I here seemed something almost sooth ing in arranging those drawers —some association of happy home-life, and a lovelight would come into the eyes even through the mist. But when she would open the trunk which contained his wearing apparel while in the service, where each article represented hard ship, separation and death, oh ! what a a hurst of wild weeping and moaning ensued ! I always dreaded to see her unlock that trunk. It was not long before mother had to part with one after another of these ar ticles, so sacred in her eyes, in order to procure the means of subsistence. I remember at first it was a fearful trial to do this, and the usual result was one of her terrible headaches, which is only another name for an illness. But grad ually that strength which is born of suffering in a woman of mother’s mould came to her, and she disposed of father’s clothing, and many, many other things which were sacred and dear, with won derful calmness, often resting her hand on my head, as I stood beside her, and saying, “ Only for you children can Ido this.” Once after this only do I remem ber seeing her give way entirely to her feelings, and that was when quite an enormous price, in our poof, confeder ate eyes, was offered for father’s sword, which was imported and prized as a Damascus blade. We had a very hard winter ; both Tom and I had been ill with tedious typhoid attacks. The bills of physi cians, apothecary and grocer, beside the debt incurred for fuel, which was no small item, from months of constant fires, were all unpaid. The price of fered for the sword was enough to meet all these expenses, besides leaving a surplus sufficient to defray our stay for a fortnight at a farm-house, which the doctor prescribed for us children. The sword was given up, the purchase money lay in her grasp, when suddenly catch ing up poor, feeble Tom from the sofa, she wept over him, saying: “ Oh! Tom, how could I help it? I wanted to keep it for you, but I could not —no, I could not.” Yes, as far back as I can remember, mother has practiced self-denial and the strictest economy, and, with it all, we barely gt along—simply keep soul and body together. She has been forced to deny me instruction in both music and drawing; and how specially I should delight in cultivating my talent for the last accomplishment! As to the music, it is the vocal branch that I love most, and, quite independent of all masters in the art, I do sing with all my soul. This is something that a girl can learn from the birds and the stars and the flowers, and all those things of l>eaiity which serve to call out music. I have sung in the choir at old Trinity during the past summer, thanks to my natural gift, and though no pay accompanied it, still a constant improvement in my vocalization has been the result. And now, since I have acquired a little no toriety in this line, Mrs. Beaumont, over the way, has asked me to join the choral union. I have attended two of these meetings, and think that I shall go quite regularly this winter ; that is, as long as my brown merino, is present able. About Tom’s education, mother has to bear sore disappointment. The Ixiy is by no means a fair specimen of the CARTERS VILLE, GEORGIA, MONDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 8, 1575. genus. He is very clever in mathe matics—the first in his class at the academy—but his specialty is ornithol ogy. His collection of birds would please Audubon himself; it is reallv quite wonderful, considering his limited resources. To give him advantages for the perfecting of this bent of mind ; to place him where he could be fitted for usefulness and distinction in this de partment has been the dream with mother and Tom for six years or more. But I am beginning to think that this hope, like many others, is but an touts fatum that leads vou on but to deceive. Tom is now in his fifteenth year, and without the coveted advnntngo pre sents itself pretty soon, it can avail him nothing. And now back to my cross and crab bed self. I can to-day ejaculate with Cardinal Wolsey: “Vain pomp anil glory of this world, I hate ye.” But not from the same sublime eleva tion of that great man, I hate the pomp and glory because I desire them so much and can not get them. Recall my previous reference to the brown me rino dress, and you have the key to my Pandora’s box. Let me whisper in your ear that I have dreamed of and pined for a black silk suit for lo! these two years. And just at this very time, above all others, I have wanted it, and, what is better, there actually seemed a probability of getting it until this last tax bill loomed up. And now my black silk is to Ixt swallowed up by this cormorant, the internal revenue man— may it choke him until he is the color of my hopes and my silk. Yes, I wished that suit above all things this winter, because Mabel Moore, my near est friend, is to have one, and because —because—l might as well confess it, Frank said I would look positively ma jestic in a silk robe; that I was already a queenly-looking girl, and that with this addition, I would look nothing less than an empress. Frank seems very fond of Tom; and vet he is more than five years older; at any rate, he is con stantly dropping in and asking about his last specimens of birds, bringing him a book, or even a slip from a news paper, or something bearing upon his specialty. We have always been inti mate with Frank’s family, but I never remember his coming so often to our house as he does now 7 , and is of course more companionable. Frank is a handsome fellow, and is always so polite to mother and me. He told us loot night that he had been assigned to the first desk at Coleman’s, which promo tion gives a decided addition to his pay. Frank’s taste about ladies’ dress is ex cellent, and he admires a black silk more than anything else. He hap pened to mention last night that the Moores invited him to spend Tuesday evening w'ith them, and that he found them so very agreeable as a family. Query: When Mabel gets her silk, will they not invite him around again, and will he not find them still more agreeable? Of course, Frank is noth ing special to me, but I would enjoy so much having opinion of my silk, and hearing him say if I did really look like an empress. Besides, I know he likes Mabel better than any of the girls in the town except myself, and I can not for the life of me help thinking that when she wears her “dimpling silk,” as the poet styles it, and I, as usual, my brown merino (with the over skirt lengthened, of course) she may outrank me with him. But here comes mother, with her face a shade paler, and those two lines be tween her brows deeper than when she went out, so I know she has had to make a sacrifice of that one hundred dollars which she has accumulated, al most cent by cent, to give me that dress, and she must not know that I have been all this while talking about my troubles. Well, I must say — “The hopes of youth fall thick in the blast;” and if Frank goes much to the Moores’ this winter, and takes Mabel to the Choral Union oftener than he takes me will it not he that she looks so elegant in her silk, and I look so old-timey in' my brown merino? —Sunny South. The Religion We Want. We want a religion that bears heav ily not only on the “exceeding sinful ness of sin,” hut oil the exceeding ras cality of lying and stealing; a religion that banishes small measures from the counters, pebbles from the cotton-bags, clay from the paper, sand from the sugar, chicory from the coffee, alum from the br *ad and water from the milk cans. The religion that is to save the world will not put all the big strawber ries at the top and all the little ones at the bottom. It will not make one-half a pair of shoes of good leather, so that the first shall redound to the maker’s credit and the second to his cash. It will not put Jouvin’s stamp oil Jenkins’ kid gloves; nor make Paris bonnets in the back-room of a Boston milliner shop; nor let a piece of velvet that pro fesses to measure twelve yards come to an untimely end at the tenth. It does not put bricks at five dollars a thousand into chimneys it contracts to build with seven-dollar material; nor smugg’e white-pine into floors that have paid for hard pine; nor leave yaw ning cracks in closets where boards ought to join. The "religion that is going to sanctify the world pays its debts. It does not consider that forty cents returned from one hundred cents given is according to the Gospel, though it may he according to law r . It looks on a man who has failed in trade, and who continues to live in luxury, as a thief.—— The Chridian. How to Sleep. The endless difficulties, perplexities and “states of mind” into which writers upon hygiene are constantly getting us with their contradictory notions about what we shall eat, and what we shall drink, and wherewithal we shall lx* clothed, is something fearful to contem plate. It has long since been said that if a man partook of food which all agreed upon as perfectly healthful, he would starve to death directly. It seems to be the delight of some writers to over throw the few principles which a por tion of mankind have considered be yond a question. For example, sleep ing with the window open lm long been regarded as “the” thing to do in order to live long and happy, and some of us has endured martyrdom for the sake of principle, and dressed and un dressed, and shivered and shook in our determination to live according to the rules of health. But all to little pur pose, if the following is correct: Dr. Hall says: Cold bedchambers always imperil health and invite fatal diseases. Robust persons may safely sleep in a temperature of forty or under, but the old, the infant or the frail, should never sleep in a room where the temperature is much under fifty degrees of Fahren heit. All know the danger of going direct into a cold from a very warm room. Very few rooms, churches, theaters and the like, arc even warmer than seventy degrees. If it is freezing out of doors it is thirty degrees—the difference being forty degrees more. Persons will be chilled by such a change in ten minutes, although they may he actively walking. But to lie still in bed, nothing to promote the circulation and breathe for hours an atmosphere of forty and even fifty degrees, when the lungs are always ninety eight, is too great a change. Many persons wake up in the morning with inflammation of the lungs who Avent to bed well, and are surprised that this should be the case. The cause may be often lie found in sleeping in a room the window of which has been foolishly hoisted for ventila tion. The uater cure journals of the country have done an incalculable in jury by the blind and indiscriminate ad vice of hoisting the window at night. The rule should be everywhere during the part of the year when fires are kept burning, to avoid hoisting outside win dows. It is safer and better to leave the chamber door open, as also the fire place—then thoro ie ix <lmft up the chimney, while the room is not so likely to become cold. If there is some fire in the room all night the window may he opened an inch. It is safer to sleep in a bad air all night with a tempera ture over fifty, than in a pure air with a temperature under forty. The bad air may sicken you, but it cannot kill you; and cold air can and does kill very often. A Famous Trio. “ On one occasion,” writes Mrs. Mos cheles, “ we had the happiness of enter taining the famous Son tag at a large party at our house. She was enchant ing, as usual. Sir Walter Scott, who happened to be in London, was present. He was delighted at meeting Sontag, whose introduction to Sir Walter, on the eve of her appearance in the‘Donna del Lago,’ was singularly well-timed. Lockhart, it is true, tells us, in his biography, that Sir Walter felt annoyed at being besieged by a crowd of flatter ers and strangers who made a pilgrim age to Abbotsford, and overwhelmed him with compliments, their knowledge of his works being based possibly on a single attendance at the ‘Donna del Lago,’ at the Italian opera; but in the presence of Sontag the great man was all ears, and eyes, too, I think. When she questioned him about her costume as the Lady of the Lake, he described to her with the utmost minuteness every fold of the plaid, and was greatly pleased when I produced a genuine satin clan plaid, the present of Lady Sinclair, while in Edinburgh, the loan of which I was delighted to promise to Sontag. He showed her the particular Avay the brooch should lx? fastened at the shoulder, and would not allow any alteration. Henrietta had two wor shipers that evening, the second being Clementi, who seemed as much fascina ted as Scott. He got up from his chair and said, ‘ To-night I should like to play also.’ The proposition was received with acclamation.” “Heextemporized with all the freshness of youth,” writes Moscheles, “and we listened with in tense delight, for Clementi very rarely played before company. You should have seen the ecstasy of the two old men, Scott and Clementi; they shook each other by the hand, took it in turns to flirt with Sontag without seeming jealous of one another , it was a pretty duet of joint admiration ; of course the poet, musician, and songstress were the observed of all observers.” Beef Tea. —Very few people know how to prepare this article of food, so perfect of its kind, so essential in sick rooms, possessed, we are told, of a re parative power which science has never lx?en able to define, but which she does not attempt to deny. Most housekeepers follow the army recipe, “Just put a bit of meat into a pot and kind of stir it round.” The following is the best way of making beef tea: Cut a pound of lean juicy beef into small pieces, put on it a pint of cold water, and let it stand half an hour or more, then put it in © a closely covered sauce-pan and let it heat on the range (hut not boil) for twenty minutes; then bring it forward and boil six minutes. Strain off and season with pepper and salt. SUBMISSION. The- sparrow sits anil sings, and sings ; Softly the sunset’s lingering light Lies rosy over rock and turf, And reddens where the restless surf Tosses on high its plumes of white. Gently and clear the sparrow sings, While twilight steals across the sea, And still and bright the evening star, Twinkles above th golden bar That in the West lies quietly. Oh, steadfastly the sparrow sings, And sweet the sound, and sweet the touch Of wooing winds; and sweet the Of happy nature’s deep delight In the fair spring desired so much! But while so clear the sparrow sings. A cry of death is in my ear ; The crashing of the riven wreck. Breakers that sweep the shuddering deck, And sounds of agony and fear. How is it that the liinla Vn sitig * Life is so full of hitter pain : Hearts are so wrung with hopeful grief : M’oe is so long and joy so brief; Nor shall the lost again return. Though rapturously the sparrow sings, No bliss of nature can restore The friends whos# hands I clasped so warm, Sweet souls that through the night aud storm Fled from the earth for evermore. Yet still the sparrow sits and sings, Till longing, mourning, sorrowing love, Groping to find what hope may be M ithin death’s awful mystery, Reaches its empty arms alwve. And, listening, while the sparrow sings, And soft the evening shadows fall, Secs through the crowding tears that blind, A little light, and seems to find And clasp God’s hand, who wrought it all. A SIGH. How can I live, my love, so far from thee, Since far from thee my spirit droops and dies? What is there left, my love, for me to see. Since beauty is concentrated in thin* eyes? My only life is sending theeiny sighs, Which, as sweet birds fly home from deserts lone, Fly swift to thee as each swift moments flies, Uprising from the current of my moan. But closed is still thy heart of stone. And my poor sighsdrop murdered at thy foet; For which while 1 in grief do sigh and groan, New hosts arise to meet a death so sweet. Then, love, give scorn; for if love thou didst give, How could I love thee in thy sight and live? Virginia Vaughn. SCIENCE AND ART. The Zodiacal Light. —During hi? residence in the island of Jamaica in 1868 and 1869, M. Houseau assiduously observed the zodiacal light for six months consecutively, and has now communicated the results to the Bel gian academy. M. Houzeau has for more than thirty years devoted great attention to this puzzling phonomenon, and he is fortunate in having now ob tained such a fine series of observations, the boundary of the zodiacal light is having been carefully determined by him on 56 nights out of the 179. As far as these results go, it appears that the zodiacal light is not appreciably in clined to the ecliptic, and does not ap proack to oomoiclonoo oifkor with tVo plane of the sun’s equator, as Cassini supposed, or with that of the moon’s orbit, as Jones has more recently sug gested. The observed deviations from the plane of the ecliptic arc explained by M. Houzeau as the results of greater absorption of the light of the lower or southern side by our atmosphere, which is, of course, less transparent near the horizon. From these obser vations, M. Houzeau concludes that we must reject both the hypothesis which regards the zodiacal light a? an append age of the sun, and that which assigns it to the moon; and since, if it were a ring round the earth, it would be seen as a complete arch in the sky crossing from the east to west, the author is driven to the conclusion that it is a fan shaped sector, somewhat similar to the tail of a comet, spreading from the earth towards the sun, thinning off each side of this direction, so that it extends to about 40° on the side to wards which the earth is moving, and 60° or 70° on the other side. This must, of course, be modified, if we ac cept these observations in which the zodiacal light has been distinctly traced right across the heavens from east to west; but M. Houzeau’s conclusions are founded on his own observations alone. For the period of his watch there was a sensible diminution of brightness, the zodiacal light being seen in January, 1869, as readily as a fourth-magnitude star in twilight, while by June it was not so bright as the fifth magnitude. From observations on his voyage to Rodrigues and back, with the Transit of Venus Expedition, Mr. Burton has been led to very different conclusions. He was provided with a binocular spec troscope devised by himself specially for this work, and with this he deter mined the spectrum of the zodiacal light to consist of a continuous band with a bright line in the yellow (forming the boundary of the spectrum on that side) and a dark line in the green. This same spectrum was given by every jin rt of the sky unoccupied by the Milky Way, a most important observation, which, in combination with the change of form of the zodiacal light seen when the ebserver passed from S. to N. lati tudes, shows, according to Mr. Burton, that it reaches and probably surrounds the earth. From the spectrum seen, as well as from the fact of polarization in a plane through the axis of the zodiacal light, Mr. Burton further concludes that it is emitted by matterpartly liquid and partly solid, intermixed with gas. Mother Songs. The Chicago Tribune is responsible for the following: “Say, can you sing that —or lovely new song, the —er—inn, about the fellow’s mother, you know?” said an indefinite but agreeable young man the other evening at a small social gathering to the prima donna of the oc casion. “Which young man, and what about his mother?” answered the lady, because there is a good deal of mother in the ballad literature of the present. “I—er—don’t exactly know, you know, um,” replied the young man. “Was it ‘ Mother, kiss me in my dreams,’ or Must before the battle, mother,’ or £ Lemme kiss him for his mother,’ or ‘Thinking,'mother dear, of you,’ or ‘Mother, come back from the ccholess shore,’ or ‘ Dear mother, I’ve come home to die,’ which?” responded the girl. “No, no,” said the enamored youth; “none of those; it’s something about the old woman’s getting old. Oh, I know,” he concluded, Avith a burst of relief, conviction, and intelligence; “it begins ‘Mother’s teeth are falling out.’ ” The assembled company rose with enthu siasm and unanimisy, and Mere just about hanging him to the front gate post, when his quick perceptions enabled him to discover that the title of the piece was ‘Father’s hair is turning gray.” The young man stated in justification that he had a poor ear for music and a had memory for dates. A Truthful Pilot. The passenger, who Mas going doM n the big river for the first time in his life, secured permission to climb up be side the pilot, a grim old graybaek who never told a lie in his life. “Many alligators in this river?” in quired the stranger after a look around. “Not so many now, since they got to shootin’ ’em for their hide and tal ler,” a was the reply. “Used to be lots, eh?” “I don’t AAant to tell you about ’em, stranger,” replied the pilot, sighing drearily. “Why?” “’Cause you’d think I Avas a-lvin’ to you, and that’s sumthin’ I never do. I kin cheat at keerds, drink Avhisky or chaw terbacker, but I can’t lie.” “Then there used to be lots of ’em?” inquired the passenger. “I’m mast afraid to tell ye, Mister, jut I’ve counted ’levcn hundred ally waters to the mile from Vicksburg cl’ar doAvn to Orleans! That Avas years ago, afore a shot aatis ever fired at ’em.” “Well, I don’t doubt it,” replied the stranger. “And I’ve counted 3,459 of ’em on one sand bar!” continued the pilot. “It looks big to tell, but a government surveyor Avas aboard, and he cheeked ’em off as I called out.” “I haven’t the least doubt of it,” said the passenger as he heaved a sigh. “I’m glad o’ that, stranger. Some fellers Avould think I Mas a liar Avhen I’m telling the solemn truth. This used to be a paradise for allygaters, and they Avere so thick that the AvheeLs of the lx>at killed an averaged of for ty-nine to the mile." “Is that so?” “True as Gospel, Mister! I used to almost feel sorry for the cussed brutes, ’cause they’d cry out e’ven most like a human being. We killed lots of ’em, as I said, and hurt a pile more. I sailed Avith one captain avlio alius car ried a thousand bottles of liniment to throw over to the mounded ones!” “He did?” “True as you li\*e he did. I don’t ’spect I’ll ever see another such a kind, Christian man. And the allygators got to knoAA' the Nancy Jane, and to knoAv Capt. Tom, and they’d sAvim out and ruh their tail agin the boat and purr like cats and look up and try to smile!” “They would?” “Solemn truth, stranger. And once when we grounded on a bar, with an opposition boat right behind, the aliy gaters gathered around, got under her stern, and humped her clean over the bar by a grand push! It looks like a big story, but I never told a lie yet and I never shall. I wouldn’t lie for all the money you could put aboard this boat.” There was a painful pause, and after a while the pilot continued: “Our injines gin out once, and a crowd of allygaters took a towline and hauled us forty-five miles up stream to Vicksburg.” “They did?” “And when the news got along the river that Capt. Tom was dead, every allygater in the river daulied his left ear with mud as a badge of mournin’ and lots of ’em pined away and died!” The passenger left the pilot-house with the remark that he didn’t doubt the statement, and the old man gave the wheel a turn and replied: “Thar’s one thing I won’t do for love nor money, and that’s make a liar of myself. I was brung up bv a good mother, and I’m going to stick to the truth if this boat doesn’t make a cent.”— Vicksburg Herald. The Western Rural disapproves of exaggerated statements about the or der, whether on the order of one in the Chicago Times to the effect that the order is dying out in the west, or in the Farmers’ Friend that §1,000,- 000 has been raised by the enemies of the order to be used in attempts to de stroy it. Both of these statements are without doubt greatly overdrawn and should not be given place in public print without a note of explanation. In some places granges have from some cause or another failed to work harmo niously, and in some places they were placed too close and have consolidated, thus reducing the number, but there is total want of evidence to sustain the as sertion that the order is dying out. As to the other, while there are many bus ine.-s men who regard the order with disfavor and would gladly see it broken up, we have not seen enough to believe that this opposition is so organized as to raise $1,000,000 to us used against the grange. Salvini is unmarried, and hence ihe grand gloom that characterizes his per sonations. VOL. 16--NO. 6. PARAGRAPHS OF THE PERIOD. When the Hon. J. P. Jones, of Nevada, was running for lieutenant governor there stepped up to him a free-born American citizen, a little un steady in his walk, and said: “Where’s J. P. Jones? I want to see him. I want to know who I’m a votin’ for be fore I vote, I do.” Jones struck an at titude, saying, “I am J. P. Jones.” “You!” said the voter, taking a delib erate survey from head to fi>ot and from there back again. “Oh! you won’t do, won’t and 5 hat and No. 14 boots.” And lie turned and stag gered away in sadness too great for tears. The Indies in particular will be glad to know just how things are conducted in a lodge of Freemasons. A pamphlet under the sanction of the bishop of Toulouse, has been issued and exten sivelv circulated, which declares that the Freemasons are possessed of a Sa tanic secret; that they perform a mock ery of the mass on an altar lighted by six candles; that every member, after spitting on the crucifix, tramples it be neath his feet; and that, at the con clusion of the ceremony, every one as cends the altar and strikes the holy sacrament with a poniard. The education of the girl as a house keeper should lie begun by the mother early, and continued until the marriage of the daughter, and no other duty of the mother nor study of the daughter should interfere with it. This and the school education should go on simul taneously. If anything is to lx? post poned, let it lie music and drawing and philosophy, which, as experience shows, are usually unattended to and unprac ticed after the ‘ happy event.” The more and higher the education the lietter. But let us have a real and practical, instead of a sham education. Female devotion goes almost wholly unrewarded in election times. Every man knows that there is every reason in the world why he ought to stay out until 1 or 2 o’clock in the morning if le wants to. His neighbor does, ami he makes up his mind to do it, too. Therefore, when he is steered home at an unusual hour, and, from glimpses of gaslight through the window shutters cnows that his wife is sitting up waiting for him, he feels it is not love on her part, but tyranny. It Is this that makes him open the door stealthily, take his boots off in the front hall, and go down and sleep on the basement sofa. A husband and wife were celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of their wedding, and when quite a little circle was gathered about them the husband, with not a little self-complacency, said: “Here my wife and I have been mar ried for twenty-five years, and in all that time neither of us has ever spoken to the other an excited or unkind word.” “Thunder,” said the witty Dr. M—, “what a stupid time you must have had of it!” If the orphan asylums are not for the shelter of orphans, what are they for? Such a question was propounded recently by Adam Seitz to the author ities of the German orphan asylum in Baltimore, when they vowed by his name that they would not admit him to the privileges of that institution. Adam Seitz is eighty years old, but he is unquestionably an orphan. Nothing tends more thoroughly to shatter one’s confidence in outward ap pearances than to see a young man, clad in the height of fashion, saunter into a crowded restaurant, pull off his kids, languidly seat himself at a table, consult the bill of fare, and then im mediately afterward to hear the w aiter’s voice ringing out the magic words, “One plate of hash and a glass of water.” A New England fireman rose hastily at the first alarm. He ran along the streets bellowing “Fire !” He was en thusiastically “jumping the old ma chine,” and crying, “Now, jam her down for our side, Johnny,” when by the light of the ascending flames, which were trying to toy with the pale-faced moon, he discovered that he had on his wife’s velvet barque, spangled with bugles and beads. An Illinois editor boasts of being the proud possessor of several ears of Egyptian corn that are quite a curi osity. Husks not only enclose the ears, but the kernels themselves arc each covered with a husk, the same in text ure as the outside husk. Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful. Beauty is God’s handwriting; a wayside sacrament. Welcome it in every fair face, every fair sky, every fair flower, and thank him earnestly with your eyes. It is a charming draught; a cup of blessing. A gentleman questioning a little boy, said: “When your father and mother forsake you, Johnny, do you know who will take you up?” “Yes, sir,” said he. “And who?” said the friend. “The po lice,” was Johnny’s reply. Employment is essential to happiness, and so generally is this recognized that there are times when even the laziest man feels inclined to thank his creator for having provided him with a mous tache to twirl. Forty cigars a head is number manufactured every yer in this coun try, which is less tkan one a week for us all around And yet we are said to be into’“i>erate in the use of tobacco. “Jta two years older than you,” said a little girl to a New Bedford boy the other day. “I don’t care,” was the re ply, “I’m going to wear trousers soon, and that you’ll never do.”