Newspaper Page Text
?
dk
4\o ?
THE
COUNTRYMAN
BY J. A. TURNER.
—“brevity is. the soul of wit ”—
$1 A YEAR.
VOL. HI.
TURNWOLD, PUTNAM COUNTY, GA., .MONDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1862.
• NO. 2.
Anecdote of Rev. Wm. Arnold.
Rev. Wm. Arnold was very much oppos
ed to dancing, but manifested no opposition
to a good joke at the right time, and in the
righf place.
Going home, one evening, with becom
ing solemnity and without cracking a smile
he said to his companion—(it was towards
the close of the year)—“ Wife, I am going
to have a dance here, Christmas !”
Mrs. Arnold was dumbfounderecf. What
in the world could her husband mean ?
He have a dance at his house? He who
of all others always opposed dancing to the
death ?
But Mr. Arnold still insisted that he
’’Would have the dance. There was no use
in opposing it. His mind was made up.
Have the dance at his house he would, let
what might be said, or thought.
Mrs. Arnold wms in deep distress. Re
tiring in sorrow and agony, she sought
her daughter, and said, “ Mary, I really am
afraid your father has lost his mind. He
says he is bent on having a dance here,
Christmas !” And a dance he did have in
'his own house. But before cliristmas
came, the good old divine’s family were re
joiced to be told that the dance would be
brother Thomas Dance of this county, a
good old man and a class-leader, who was
to be Mr. Arnold’s guest, some time during
the cliristmas. But Mr. Arnold did have
the Dance at his house, without being cra
zy, and with the full approbation of his
good wife, who always delighted to have
her friends with her, even if one of them
was a Dance.
Blondin on the Rope.
“ What have we here ? a man or a fish ?”
Besides the large company generally
congregated at Niagara during the summer
months, crowds of people poured in from all
directions for thirty or forty, perhaps a
hundred miles around, on both the Cana
dian and American side of the river—all to
see one of those “ walkings,” about which
the newspapers made so much noise, a few
years ago. A two inch cable was stretched
across the river, nearly a mile below the
falls, where the banks are two hundred
and thirty or forty feet high, and was stead
ied by ropes extending diagonally from
either side, to the shores of Canada and
New York, respectively.
Blondin mounted his rope from the Amer
ican shore, and started across in the char
acter of a galley-slave, with chains on his
ankles and wtists—the chains being con
structed of block tin, I believe, though that
fact detracts very little from the daring
character of his performance—cairying a
balancing pole, over twenty feet long, said
to weigh forty-eight pounds. He walked a
short distance, and, * stopping, jsliook the
rope. Going a little farther, he again slop
ped, and lay down at full length on his
back, keeping his pole at right angles
across his body. Assuming a sitting pos
ture, he moved along in a strange manner,
putting one foot out as far as he could
reach, the other hanging down below the
rope, then rising on the extended foot", put
ting the other out in the same manner as
the first, allowing the first to hang down,
and so on.
Again he started off in a run, and then
stopped to stand on his head, striking his
heels- together, while in that position. He
first placed the pole at right angles across
the rope, his head either on or very near it,
and then raised his body gently into an up
right position. While walking or running,
he held his arms extended, at neaily full
length before him, and the pole well bal
anced, at right angles with the rope. After
getting from his head on his feet, he pro
ceeded to the middle of the rope and paused.
There he was, his life, almost literally,
hanging on a thread. Two hundred and
thirty dizzy feet stretched from him to the
fierce torrent which rushed below. He
was over the centre of one of the broadest
rivers in the world. The only thing be
tween him and eternity was a two inch ca
ble, and this he was touching only with the
soles of his feet. Yet there is no doubt he
was as cool and self-possessed as if walking
on a brick pavement. The least trepida
tion would have resulted in instant death.
At length he commenced playing all
kinds of fantastic tricks. Encircling the
rope with his arms and legs, ho-whirled
over and over with singular rapidity; he
“ skinned the cathe let himself down,
head foremost, hanging by one leg hooked
over the rope; he suspended himself at
arms’ length, swinging back and forth like
-a pendulum. Finally, having exhausted
the li»t of daring and dangerous feats, he
proceeded to the Canadian side, where he
was received with deafening cheers, and
was soon swallowed up and lost to view in
the crowd.
After a considerable interval, he again
approached the river, in the dress of a
French cook, with a sheet-iron stove on
his shoulders. He walked firmly and rap
idly to the middle of the rope, where he
stopped, set down his stove, kindled a fire,
broke eggs, cooked an omelette, and let it
down in a plate, at the end of a cord, to the
passengers on the Maid of the Mist, as she
was moving about directly underneath
him ! This was the crosvning and finish
ing exploit of the most wonderful perform
ance I ever witnessed, and I can testify
that it was done fairly, without trick of any
sort.
After Blondin reached the shore, I had
an opportunity of observing him closely.
He was rather small, but looked hard, wiry
and muscular. His complexion was some
what cadaverous, his hair, moustache, and
goatee nearly white. This, I suppose, was
their original color, and age had nothing to
do with it, for he appeared to be about thir
ty years old.
Blondin was one of the wonders of the
age. w. W. T.
Epigram.
“New England’s dead, the poet said,
On every field they lie:
In fact a few live doodles do
As much before they die.”
Luther anti St. Bernard.
“ St. Bernard (said Luther) was the
best friar, whom I love above all the rest.
Yet he dared to say, ‘ It were a sign of
damnation it one quitted the monastery.’
He had under him 3000 friars, among all
which was not one damned, if his sentence
w.ere true. Sed vix credo. St. Bernard
lived in dangerous times, under the Em
perors Henry IY. and V., under Conrad
and Lothaire. He was an experienced
and well-taught friar, but he gave an ill
example. The state and calling of a true
Christian (which God ordained and found
ed) consistSth in three hierarchies, name
ly: in domVstic, temporal, aud church gov
ernment.”
So some will tell you, in the present day,
it is a “ sign of damnation” if one. either
quits a certain “ church,” or does not be
long to that "church.” This is all improper,
and at a future day will be cited as being
as much a wrong, as that of which Luther
complained.- “ The church” and “ Chris
tians” will never be right, until they be
come as perfectly tolerant of any and all
opinion, let it be whatever it may, as the
Lord and Master whom they profess to
follow, was.
7370