Funding for the digitization of this title was provided by R.J. Taylor, Jr. Foundation.
About The North Georgian. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1877-18?? | View Entire Issue (Oct. 28, 1880)
X >rtl| PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDA BEIiTON, GEA.. BY JOHN BLATS. Terms— sl.ou per annum 50 cents for sis fiionuis; 26 cents forthree months. rartie* away from Bellton aie requested to send their names with such amounts of money a> toey can pa re, 2cc. *o |1 OUR YOUNG FOLKS. THE GiiAMHOPPER OF THE ROT AL EXCHANGE. What are grasshoppers good fort Child, oome listen to me, An-i I’ll tell you about a grasshopper That hops th history. You have read of,mighty London— Its wonderful sights and strange — Its Castle, Abbey, and grand St. Paul’s T<»wer and Royal Exchange. Well, on the topmost pinnacle Os the Exchange appears A monster gra&<ho|>|>er weathercock That has hupped three hundred years. A woman once left a baby In a summer field to die, With a merry grasshopper chirping near With its noisy revelry. A happy-hearted schoolboy Listened as he skipped by; An’d, running to catch the grasshopper He heard the baby cry. Oh, ’twas a royal moment For the sorrowing stranger there; The buy the little one carried home To a mother’s loving care. The baby grew up to manhood, A manhood strong**nd great; He was a true and noble knight In the service of the state. And when the royal building * as founded in his naiue, He lifted the humble grasshopper To its pinnacle of fame. There, through the long, long centuries, By breeze or teiupeat shaken, It tells, “G<xl heard the voice of the lad By human love forsaken!” The Wild Bell-Ringer and a Brave Boy. Aquasco is such an out-of-the-way town that no doubt many of the children never have heard of it before. It is in the State of Maryland, and stands on a little hill near the mouth of Patuxent River. In the summer time no girl or boy of Aquasco need go to the seashore, for salt water flows at their feet and the same salt breeze that sweeps fleet after fleet of white-sailed ships up and down the Chesapeake Bay blows in the windows of the houses in Aquasco. The good people of Aquasco go to bod so s<x>n after supper that the whippoor-will cries and complains without one person to pity him, and the grunt of the bull frog is the only voice that answers the whirr and ring of the clocks when they strike twelve, midnight. Bo it was that when in the middle of the night of the 25th of last June, Cyrus Wallace, an Aquasco boy, heard the church bell ringing, he sprang out of bed and ran barefooted into the street. As he reached the gate he saw men run ning by at the top of their speed. ‘“What's the mutter?” shouted Cyrus, to bnfe of the flying figures. “A fire, I guess,” said the man. “ Fire, fire, fire !” shrieked Cyrus, as he ran after the others, and in a few minutes the whole town of Aquasco was aroused. Everybody was in the street and everybody was hurrying towards the church. Women seized water buckets and children gathered up pails. Aquasco had been very still five minutes before, but now Aquasco was beside itself with excitement But where was tl\e fire ? The first man who reached the church put lur hands to his mouth and hallooed to the top of the bell tower, where the bell was still clanging away. The second man did the same and the third called aloud and so did the fourth. Not a word would the person in the bell-tower answer, though he rang and rang, until all Aquasco gathered on the grass below. “The door of the steeple is locked !” said one of the men. “Nobody under stands it.” “ Maybe some rascal got locked in there yesterday and fell asleep,” said Mr. Rankin the Constable. “No, no,” replied Mr. Westcoat, the sexton of the church, “I was up there in the afternoon, and there wasn’t any body in the tower; it’s a spirit of a gob lin, that’s what it is!” and Mr. Westcoat shook his head, while some of the chil dren huddled together and hold their breath. “It’s old Tappan’s ghost.,” con tinued Mr. Westcoat. “Tappan was sexton before I was, and he rang that bell up there for twenty years. He's come back.” Cyrus laughed when he heard the sex ton say such things. Cyrus knew very well that only cowards believed in ghosts. He was afraid of big dogs and drunken men, but common sense told him that there was no such tiring as a ghost or creature of the dark of any kind. “Give me the keys,” said a man to the sexton. “ I’ll go up and stop that ring ing.” The sexton fumbled in his pocket only to find that he had left the keys at house, a half mile away. Glad enough to get away from the haunted church, the sexton started home after the keys. Meanwhile the bell still rang. Every now and then the strokes would be faint, but the next instant would’come a loud clang, as though the old l>ell didn’t like such mysterious work a bit. The wind was blowing stiffly in the tops of the tall oak trees, but all knew that the wind could not ring the bell because of the lattice-work around the belfry. While the people were whispering together around the church, Cyrus was busy look ing for away to get into the lielfry be fore the sexton should return with the keys. He knew that there was a little round window, just large enough for him to crawl through, some distance up the side of the tower, and when he at last got a ladder that reached to this little window he stepped boldly up the rounds. “I’ll bring ghost before Mr. Westcoat gets back,” laughed Cyrus, and the people could see him by the dim starlight as he put his head through the window and disappeared. Cyrus found himself in a queer place. It was so dark in the belfry that he couldn’t see where to move. He groped from one step to another, going up the lielfry stairs slowly, while the sound from the bell above seemed to crash The North Georgian. vol. in. down from alwve with ten-fold clangor. He reached the crank which the sexton turned when ringing the bell. No one was there. “Hello ! ho, there, ho!” shouted Cyrus directly into the bell’s throat But the bell’s roar drowned his words. He climbed still higher, and soon sat among the rafters above the bell. He reached down and felt the air around the bell. His hand struck something. “ Oh!” thought Cyrus. He felt the something and found that it was the limb of a tree. Following the limb with his hand, he found that the limb had thrust itself through a big hole in the lattice-work. Every time the tall tree on the outside rocked, this limb moved quickly forward and withdrew again. Cyrus laughed. He had found the ghost, for he knew that the end of the limb had caught the clap per of the bell, and so that every time the tree was rooked by the wind the clapper struck. He caught the limb with both hands and gave it a hard, strong pull. The limb bent and the bell stopped ringing. In the mean time the people were waiting anxiously below. As soon as the l>ell stopped Cyrus put his mouth to the hole in the lattice, and called ont that it was all right. The sexton soon arrived with the keys, and taking a hatchet, Cyrus chopped the bothersome limb in two. The people of Aquasco went to bed, and many laughed at the sexton’s ghost. On the following day a great number visited the belfry to see the curious bell-ringer. It was found that an army of flying squirrels had cut the hole in the lattice work, and that the wind had forced the limb of the neighboring oak through the opening. A little prong near the end of the limb had caught the clapper near its point, and so the wind made its novel bell-ringer.— Philadelphia Time*. cook until the edges curl. Have heated a teacupful of sweet cream or as rich milk as you can get, turn into the tureen, pour in the oysters and serve. Favbb Beans.—Boil some white beans until quite dry and tender. Into a four quart baking dish put an inch layer of the beans, seasoned with pepper and salt, strew over minced bits of salt pork, cover with a layer of raw oysters, sprinkle with powdered cracker crumbs and bits of butter and cover with another layer of beans, thus alternating until the dish is almost full. The beans should make the last layer. Pour over a pint, or more, if the beans were very dry, of oyster liquor, cover and bake half an hour, removing the cover toward the last that the top may brown. Chutney.—One pound salt, one pound mustard-seed, one pound stoned raisins one pound brown sugar, twelve ounces garlic, six ounces cayenne pepper, two quarts unripe gooseberries, two quarts best vinegar; the mustard-seed gently dried and bruised; sugar made into syrup with pint of vinegar; gooseberries dried, and boiled in a quart of the vine gar ; the garlic to be well bruised in a mortar ; when cold, gradually mix the whole in a large mortar, and with the re maining vinegar thoroughly amalgamate them. To be tied down close; the longer kept the better. Dueling in Florida. The bowie-knife was a favorite weapon with the Floridians. Only “dead game ” men could stand before this ter rible weapon. The usual method of fighting with knives was to clasp the left hands of the combatants together and put very keen, broad knives in their hamis; the seconds then stood within reach of the men, to interfere with a pistol ball if either combatant violated the rules of the fight. There were many affairs with bowie-knives in the ante-bellum days of Florida. One of the most noted was a meeting between Maj. Jim Jones and Col. Grinard, a Frenchman. The bowie in this case seems to have been a compromise be tween the sword of the Frenchman and the pistol of • the Floridian. The duel was fought in 1852. It was very bloody, both men being gashed fearfully, and Jones was finally cut into slices across his breast and killed outright. It is said that this duel was remarkable for having been fought in utter silence. Though the knives slipped in and out of the bodies of each man neither said 9 word. With their lips clenched and their teeth set like a vise they fought in silence. Not a sound came from the mouth of either, and when at last Jones fell in death Grinard turned, and, wip ing the blood from his face, spoke for the first time, addressing his second. Preserving Timber in Ground. In speaking of the well-known methods of preserving posts and wood which are partly imbedded in the earth, by char ring and coating with tar, it is said these methods are only effective when both are applied. Should the poles only be char red without the subsequent treatment with tar, the charcoal formation on the surface would only act as an absorber of the moisture, and, if anything, only hasten the decay. By applying a coat ing of tar without previously charring, the tar would only form a casing about the wood, nor would it penetrate to the depth which the absorbing properties of the charcoal surface would insure. Wood that is exposed to the action of water or let into the ground should first be charred, and then, before it has en tirely cooled, be treated with tar till the wood is thoroughly impregnated. The acetic acid and oils contained in the tar are evaporated by the heat, and only the resin left behind, which penetrates the pores of the wood and forms an air-tight and waterproof envelope. It is important to impregnate the poles a little above the line of exposure, for here it is that the action of decay affects the wood first, and where the break always occurs when removed from the earth or strained in testing. BELLTON, BANKS COUNTY, GA., OCTOBER 28, 1880. SOUTHERN NEWS. Gen. F. Akers has been re-appointed Fish Commissioner for Middle Tennessee. Rome, Ga., had but five bar-rooms three years ago, while it now has twenty-one. A seventy-acre field near Norcross, Ga., yielded seventy bales of cotton this ye;r. A nugget of gold weighing two and a half pounds has been taken out of the Christian mine, in North Carolina. Forty thousand dollars have been subscrib ed for a grain elevator in Richmond, Va. The amount needed is $60,000. The last grand jury impaneled in Claren don county, S. C., included four colored men, all of whom could read and write. The cotton oil works of Eufaula have been completed. They have 7,000 bushels of cot ton seed on hand with which to start opera tions. There are in Georgia 88,522 colored men who own, by the tax receiver’s returns for their respective counties, 551,199 acres of land. In Dodge county, Ga., a Mrs. Wright has made twenty yards of silk, having herself raised the trees, attended the worms and woven the silk into cloth. The receipts of the North Carolina colored State Fair, recently held in Raleigh, were something over $2,000. The expenses of all kinds, including premiums, will fall rather short of $1,500. Edward L. Strohecker, aged thirty years, son of a prominent physician in Macon, Ga., was found unconscious on the sidewalk, on IJroadway, New York, suffering from poison ing from using opium cigarettes. Mrs. Annie Perkins, the oldest inhabitant of Danville, Va., was buried last week. She was 104 jears of age, and was the mother of Rev. Wm. Perkins, a Baptist minister, of the old “hard-shell” denomination. There are in Chatham county, (>»., includ ing the city of Savannah, 10,917 school child ren, of whom only 4,031 are white. The de partments of modern languages and calis thenics have been abolished in the schools of Savannah. Vicksburg is making a movement toward improving her street’, but the new blocks of the Nicholson pavement are being laid on the snme planks that have rested under the old pavement Tor ten year , and the improve ment wifi hardly be permanent. At Henderson, Texas, a farmer named J. A. Tinkle was shot dead by a negro boy who had been in his employ several years. Mr. Tinkle had just sold his cotton for SIOO, and the negro secured this money mid escaped before bis crime was discovered. Two biles of cotton from Harris county, Ga., were received at Columbus a few days ago, which were ginned and packed twenty three years ago. The bagging and rope are in good order. The cotton was sold and brought nine cents per pound for one and ten cents for the other. Vicksburg Herald: What this town and county wants just now is labor—good, indus trious labor and plenty of it. Negroes have become so trifling that they can’t be utilized any more. Just think of a common rooster demanding a salary of $l9O per month and his board for rolling cotton. A correspondent writes from Amelia coun ty, Va., that twenty-five cents is the usual price for baptising converts in that section, and adds: “Several colored Baptist preachers in this county charged fifty cents a head for baptising; but, of late, one of them has agreed to do it for twenty-five cents cash, and now all have come down to that.” W. E. Hidden, the mineralogist, who was in North Carolina last year in search of platinum, to supply Edison’s electric light, is again in the western part of the State. He is now looking principally for chromate of iron, which is being usedin the manufacture of the finer kinds of paints, and in dyeing and calico printing. A horned snake is kept as a curiosity by H. C. Gregory, at his residence in Mansboro, Vft. It is about three feet long and has a horn on the end of the tail, about one and, a half inches in length, a little bent and resem bling very much the spur of a rooster. The snake uses the horn as a weapon, which is said to be very deadly. Even trees are said to have been killed by its blow. Tarboro, North Carolina, has a colored woman who was raised as a boy; does not rec ollect when she began to wear male clothing; still dresses and acts like a man ; does a man’s work and bears a man’s name. She has an aversion to being with women or doing their kind of work, and says she would go to the penitentiary before she would wear a bonnet. She is a mother, but not at all motherly, and her child calls her papa. In Georgia the number of children enrolled in the public schools of the State has risen from 19,755 iu 1873 to 62,330 in 1877, the last year covered by the State School Commis sioner’s report. The number of colored children in attendance at the pub ic schools has more than doubled in the last five years. The State makes the same appropriation for the colored State University that it does far the white. Georgia requires a poll-tax from all voters, and returns show that in 1879 the number of colored men who paid this tax was 8 ,522, and these tax-payers ownud 541,- 199 acres. 11 other words, from one-half to two-thirds of the adult male negroes are tax payers and property-holders. A young man named Noftainger was hanged at Gainesville, Texas, a few months since, for the murder of a mau named Kline. The evidence showed that th « murder was com mitted on a warm summer night, while Kline and his wife were sleeping out on the perch, his head being blown to atoms with a shot, gun. The widow of the murdered man was recently confined with twins, thought she was going to die, and confessed that she prepared the pallet on the porch for the deed to be committed, and was not beside him as was believed, but had arisen while her husband was asleep that the assassins might do their work. She says the shot was fired by one Gardner, but he was seconded by Noftainger. The Utter was her lover before her marriage to Kline. The woman is recovering and will probably get well. The monument erection in commemtnora tiou of the battle of King’s-Mountain is a gran ite shaft measuring twenty-six feet in height and eighteen feet at the base, a shapely fig" ure whose smooth outlines contrast pleasant ly with the jagged edges of the surrounding rocks. The design was gotten up by a com mi'tee appointed especially for the purpose, and con-ists of a shaft resting on a broad pedestal composed of five steps, and slopes to the top which is about two and a half feet square. It was originally intended to sur mount the whole with a bronze figure of a soldier in an attitude of expectancy, loading a rifle of the flint and steel variety in use during the Colonial period, but the present condition of the association’s funds would not permit of the purchase of the statute, and in lieu of thia, the monument has been surmounted by a pyramid shaped stone. The inscriptions are written on marble slabs imbedded two inches in the granite masonry. Seven Troys. Tlie famous archseologut, Schliemann, wrote from Athens to a Russian paper, ns fallows : “ I have just returned from Asia Minor, where I have at last finished that digging out of Troy which I began in 1870. During ten years I have strug gled with great difficulties, among whicn the most troublesome has been the large amount of debris under which the an cient city whs buried. It has been neces sary to dig down and dig up the ground for more than sixteen yards below the surface. But I am fully recompensed for all my trouble. I found the remains of cities; the last of them was the Ilion of Homer. That city was built by the JEolians, banished from Greece by the Dorians in the eleventh century before our era. In one of the buried cities I found many statues of Minerva with the owl’s head, whence her name of Glaucopis. In another city were found many images of the di vinities. But the most interesting and important of all the discov eries is, of course, the city of King Priam. Every article found in the ruins of that city bears unmistakable signs of having been destroyed by fire and in time of war. There were discovered many remains of human bodies in full armor. I dug out and cleared away the debris from the entire wall that sur rounded the city, and also from all the principal buildings. Now lam finishing a large volume in English describing with full details all my discoveries, and containing 200 illustrations of the most important of the discoveries. My Trojan collection is now in Rondon, but at the end of this year I shall take it to my villa in Athens, which is fire proof, built only of marble and iron. I have received large offers for my collec tion from the United States, England, France and Germany, but I cannot part with it for any money in the world.” Tributes of Audiences to Actors. Fruits, as well as flowers, now figure among the tributes proffered by London audiences to favorite actresses. To most of them, this is, no doubt, an agreeable innovation. A basket of luscious Bartlete or Oldmixons, if less poetical, is certain ly a much more practical present than the rarest bunch of camellias or jacque minots. These theatrical offerings vary curious ly in different parts of the world. In Spain a favorite matailor is ovewhelmed with showers of the men’s cigars and the ladies’ gloves and fans. On our Western coast the hardy miner testifies his de light in a popular actor or actress by flinging gold pieces on the stage. A stul more singlar or much less agree able sort of compliment was once paid to Tom Playside in New Orleans. At the end of a much applauded scene, when “bravoe” rent the air and flowers were falling thick around him, a carpenter’s broad chisel sped whizzing from the “flat” a few inches from his head. The offender was speedily discovered and brought before the indignant actor. “What have I ever done to you,” he said, “that you should attempt my life?” “Attempt your life, Mr. Play side I” cried the honest fellow, with tears in his eyes, “I never dreamt of such a thing. But they was all throwin’ you things, Mr. Playside, and I hadn’t noth in’ but my old chisel to show how I liked ye, Mr. Playside, and so I throwed yer that.” “AH right,” said the actor, laughing, “here’s your chisel, but next time let me take your liking for granted.”— New York Hour. Too High. At a camp-meeting last summer a venerable sister began the hymn : Mysoul, be on thy guard; Ten thousand foes arise. She began too high. “ Ten thousand I” she screeched, and stopped. “Start her at five thousand I” cned a converted stock-broker present. Spoiling Women’s Names. Many, if not a majority, of the names of 800 or 900 girls from the public schools examined for admission to the normal college gives us the impression that they belong to mere household pets rather than to young women who are ap proaching maturity, and who are en gaged in serious work. These girls ap parently prefer the nicknames by which they are known in the family circle and to intimate friends, and therefore take pains to adopt them in their signatures. In so doing, the public school girls are not exceptional among our young wo men, for it is quite the fashion now-a days for them to grow so enamoured of their nursery appellations that they cling to them as their fixed and proper names. They may even be offended when they are addressed by their correct names, which they imagine less pretty than these pet diminutives; and some grave, grown-up women will put Hattie or Gtusie, Mamie or Sallie on their cords as if they were in pinafores still. The fashion is American; but our pa triotism can not make us grow fond of it. The nicknames which appear in so large a share of these public school girl’s signatures would do very well for pets at a dog-show. When they are Used to ex press the affectionate regard of near friends and relatives, they also may be pretty and appropriate, but they look very silly in a formal signature, and surely do not befit the dignity of woman hood. We find, for instance, among these 800 names scores of Minnies or Mamies, and only here and there a Mary, a much more euphonious and dignified name. Jane is transformed usually into Jenny Caroline into Carrie, Ellen to Ella, Elizabeth into Lizzie and Bessie, Kath erine into Katie, Martha into Mattie, Margaret into Maggie, Anne and Anna into Annie, and Harriet into Hattie. Such absurb names as these appear quite frequently: Chattie, Lillie, Millie, Til lie, Kittie, Rosie, Nettie, Bibbie, Aggie and Maggie. The great aim seems to be to manufac ture a name which ends in io, and in ac complishing it the finest appellations for women who have names renowned in po etry and history, and of a sweet and mo lodious sound, are chopjied up into child ish diminutives. They convey an idea of pettiness, and do not belong to girls of dignity and character—girls like those who are going to the- normal college, so many of whom will have their living to earn. And yet these girls think it is pretty to be known by such i>«t names, and so discard, as ugly and old-fasliioned, the names by which they are christened. What would they think to see a college register which give the young men’s names as Jimmie, Billie, Bobbie, Tom mie, Charlie, Samie and Dickie. This fashion is extending among wo men, and girls are even named with nick names only, ns if they were always to be nothing more than nursery pete. And yet this is a period when women are con tending for higher consideration as ra tional beings, and when the range of their occultations outside of the domestic circle is constantly widening and grow ing in importance.— N. Y. Sun. Early Steaniboating on the Hudson. The Albany Argus has an article on Hudson river boating of early days. It says : “Opposition” in the earlier days meant a great deal more than at pres ent. The Captains and pilots of the different lines of boats mode it a point of duty to interfere with the business of their opponents in every possible man ner, and the feelings of passengers were frequently enlisted in behalf of the ves sel they chanced to be on. Many sto ries ore told of boats running into each other, of pilots exchanging pistol-shots, and of other like encounters on the river between opposition boats and their crews. One of these, occurring in Sep tember, 1835, is related in the Argus of the 22d of that month. While the North America was preparing to land its passengers at Coxsackie, the Emerald came along and collided with her, but so lightly as to do little damage. After the boats had left Coxsackie, however, and while, as the officers of the North Amer ica assert, she was pursuing her course quietly, the Emerald started directlv across the river toward her. She struck the North America’s wheelhouse with her larboard bow, carrying away side house, railing, boat-cranks, etc. The Emerald’s wheel passed over the North America’s small boat, which was lowered down, and stove it to atoms. Aa the North America slowly cleared from the Emerald, the Emerald raked her whole side, from the wheel-house aft. Im mediately after she cleared a cheer was started at the wheel-house of the Emer ald and responded to by her passengers. The Directors of the North America Steamboat Company assert that they had in their possession a certificate of a person on board the Emerald who heard the Captain and pilot agree to run into the North America and do her all the injury they could, and that in the ful fillment of this agreement the boat was steered directly across the river so as to strike the North America, and the pas sengers were requested to go to the star board side so as to put the Emerald in a position to do as great injury as possible. Thb scales of the red fish, famous in New Orleans markets, are carefully pre served and sold at about 88 per bushel, being in great demand by the fabricat ors of ornaments for wreaths and arti ficial flowers for ladies’ bonnets, and for various other purposes of fashionable use and ornament. From a fish of six or eight pounds the scales are as large as a quarter of a dollar. They are so hard and firmly planted that the scaling process has to be performed with an ax or hatchet. PuBUSHKD ETKRT ThUBSDAY AT BELLTON, GEORG-IA, urn or svasaiupTior. O«e year (M numbers), sl.o®; six wmths numbers) 50 oeutt; three mosth* number*), 26 sent*. Office in the Smith building, east es the depot. NO. 43 PITH AND POINT. Thb most popular cure among poli ticians—The sine-cure. • The first American inscription put up on the obelisk will be, “ Post no Bills.” “ Hb sleeps where he fell,” says a late ballad, which suggests that he must have been drunk. What a beautiful thing is a rosy cheek I How great the contrast when the blush settles on the nose. Hubband—“ Mary, my love, this ap ple-dumpling is not half done.” Wife— “ Well, finisn it, then, my dear.” It was a yonng housekeeper who set the cake she had baked for a picnic out of door one cold night to be frosted. “Bridget, the dust upon the furni ture is intolerable. What shall Ido ? ” “ Do as Ido, marm—pay no attention to it.” It’s a poor rule that won’t work both ways. A Milwaukee girl married a bar ber, and he turned out to be a rich Baron in disguisp. A modbbn novel has this thrilling pas sage: “With one hand he held her beau tiful golden head above the chilling wave, and with the other called loudly for as sistance.” A young lady wrote some verses for a paper about her birthday, and headed them “ May 80th.” It almost made her hair turn gray when it appeared in print “My 30th.” Thb average life of a fanner is sixty six years. At sixty-five he may safely begin to return borrowed tools, pay old debts and ask forgiveness for cheating in horse trades. “Is youb cough any easier?” said one of poor Hood’s acquaintances, on calling to see how he was. “It should be,” said thtf wit from his pillow, “ I’ve been practicing all night.” Thb negro’s definition of bigotry is as good and inclusive as that of Webster’s Dictionary. “A bigot I" said he; “why he’s a man who knows too much for one, and not quite enough for two.” At a celebration back in the country a female arose and began: “ This is our 104th anniversary.” A wicked young man back in the crowd yelled out: “ Good gracious! You don’t look that old.” Son—“ Father, the lecturer at the hall to-night said that lunar rays were only concentrated luminosity of the earth’s satellite. What do you think about it?” InfiJJHent parent—“ All moonshine, my son, all moonshine.” Miss Fdibtington—“Yes, I like the place very much, Major; yon have such a jolly set of men down here.” The Ma jor—“Yes, awfully jolly. You’d better steel your heart, Miss Flirtington, in case of accidents.” Miss F.—“ Well, while I’m about it, Major, I’d rather steal somebody else’s, don’t you know ?” A tendzb young potato bug Sat swinging on a vine, And sighed unto a maiden bug: “ I pray you will be mine.” Then softly spake the maiden bug: “ I love you fond and true, But O, my cruel-hearted Par Won’t let me marry you.” With scorn upon his buggy brow, With glances cold and keen. That haughty lover answered her: “I think your Par is-green.” “Ah l” said Gilhooly, yesterday morning, “I’ve done one good act.’’ “Sent a barrel of flour to the poor house?” “Better than that. Fve just told De Smith, who don’t stand a ghost of a show, that he will be nominated by acclamation.” “Well, that is one .of those kindnesses that do a great deal of good and don’t cost anything.” “The mischief it don’t cost anything I I bor rowed 82 from him on the strength of it.”— Galveston News. A dootob, being out for a day’s shoot ing, took an errand boy to carry the game-bag. Entering a field of turnips, the dog pointed, and the boy, over joyed at the prospect of his master’s success, exclaimed: “Lor, master, there’s a covey ; if you get near ’em won’t you physio’em 1” “Physio’em, you young rascal, what do you mean ?” said the doctor. “ Why, kill ’em, to be sure,” replied the lad. Afghan Etiquette. An Afghan never receives unceremoni ous calls. The visitor must send a few hours’ notice of his intention. He is then received at the door by some confi dential retainer or retainers, and con ducted through an open courtyard to the foot of a rude, winding staircase, which leads first to an uncovered landing, and thence to the ordinary reception room or balcony of the proprietor. Here he is received by the host in person, and con ducted with every mark of courtesy and respect to a small row of chairs, the use of which article of furniture seems to be general in good society in Cabul, and to have quite superseded the carpets and felts which satisfied an older gen eration. After a few words of welcome and inquiries in a set formula after health on both sides, a tray of fruits usu ally appears, and is placed upon the carpet at the feet of the visitors. The fruits are followed by the tea-tray, and a cup of highly-sweetened green tea, without milk, is placed before the vis itor. The conversation is then carried on with more or less spirit on the ordi nary topics of the day, and here, if the visit is a merely formal one, the inter view comes to an end and the visitor is conducted to the door with the same formality and courtesy with which he was received. If, however, a confiden tial interview is desired, the attendants are requested to withdraw. A Schenectady lawyer charged 87 for collecting a bill of $5, but os it was against another lawyer the court held that the services were worth the money.