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m—m
r* p ■
_* . Mjr sweet darling,
I will nurse thee on my breast;
Never leave thee,
Ne’er deceive thee—
Thee of all I love the best
See thy pretty dimpled chin,
Lovely eyes that know no sin;
Plump white arras, and shoulders white,
Smiles as soft as clow-worm’s light;
Toes like rosebuds, coral tipped;
Cheek o! damask, crimsoolipp-d;
sunny t-urls ot golden hair.
Clustering o’er thy Rrnw so fair.
0 my babe! upon my breast.
In thy peaceful slumber rest;
Calmly there in beauty lie.
While I sing thee lullaby:
Sleep, my darling,
My sweet darling,
1 will nurse thee on thy breast;
Never leave thee,
Ne’er deceive thee—
Thee of all I love the best.
AFRICAN JUSTICE.
A .MURDERER WHO ESCAPED BY SUBREN-
DERING HIS SISTER AND THREE
* PACKETS OP IVORY.
In the Marquis de Compiegne’s book
on Equatorial Africa, we find the fol
lowing story : He tells us, for instance,
of a slave who had assasinated a free
man in the village of Aieno. By the
law of the country not only the slave
but his master wa3 liable to capital
punishment for the murder, as slaves
count for nothing, and for the death
of a free man a free man must suffer,
The master of the slave, however, was
a sufficiently powerful cliief to demand
a palaver, which was granted. The
proceedings of this high court were ex
tremely simple. Two or three hund
red men assembled and shouted for
about the space of two hours louva !
iouva! [let him die! let him die!]. At
length the object of these solicitations
obtained a hearing. “ Know ” he said,
“ that the murder must be avenged,
but I am an old man, useful in coun
cil : I have a sister who is young and
pretty; sacrifice her in my place.” The
. assembly was far from contented with
'^the proposal. His sister, it was urged,
was but a young woman and no equiv
alent for a free man. “ Well,” replied
this exemplary brother, “ as a make
weight, I will throw in with my sister
three slaves and two packets of ivory; on
ly I entreat you not kill me.” After u
prololonged discussion the offer was ac
cepted. Meanwhile the sister, on see
ing the turn the debate was likely to
take, ran away as fast as she could,
and took refuge in a neighbouring vil
lage. Her retreat was soon discovered,
she was led back, and the execution
fixed for the next day. Here M. de
Gompiogne pauses to lay down the
principle that a stranger ought never
to mix himself up iu the quarrels of
the people among whom he is staying;
and he frankly avpws that lie and his
friends commonly allowed the negroes
to cut each other’s throats whenever
they felt so disposed. The wisdom of
the general rule was proved by the re
sult of the interference to which they
were moved by compassion in the pres
ent case. They remonstrated with the
king, who tried to laugh off the matter.
Finding them serious, and ready to
pay a ransom for the condemned wo
man, and that, moreover, they threat
ened to write to the French admiral
if he continued obstinate, N’Combe
promised to arrange the affair. Next
morning he informed them that he was
but that the
lated themselves on the successof th|dr
intervention. They were jnistaken,
however j? the release of the woman had_
been but a comedy placed to throw'
dust in their eyes. During the night
she was rearrested and put Jq death.
Before the end of the year this
N’Combe died, and his conscience, it
seems, gave him considerable uneasi
ness in his last hours. He became
| delirious, and fancied he was con
stantly swimming a sea of I»uuu and
j fighting with evil spirits who wish to
; catch him. On the day before his
death he enjoyed a lucid interval, of
which he profited to make his will.
He begged his wives not to leave the
village, and he was willing that they
should take lovers, but not that they
should marry again. His favorite
wife he bequeathed to his eldest son
Olymbo, and another of whom he was
very fond to Olymbo’s youngest bro
ther. On the morning of the 26th of
December. 1873, N’Combe passed
away, and his obseques were conducted
with much solemnity. But the spirit
of reform has penetrated into Equato
rial Africa, and two important features
in the orthodox ceremonial for the
occasion had to be omitted. Three
or four slaves were entitled to have
their coats cut in honor of their de
ceased master.
But all of them declined with not a
little decision to avail themselves of
their privilage. Custom, too, required
that all the widows of the departed
king should be whipped, but the wid
ows objected that N’Combe has ord
ered them to be kindly treated after
his death, and the demurrer was al
lowed. Women, as is pretty gener
ally understood, have not a very pleas
ant time of it in the tropics; among
the Okanda there is a curious law
which forbids them (of course, on
religious ground) to eat meat or fish
with the exception cf turtle: a prohibi
tion which reduces them to live almost
exclusively on banna’s and maize.
The greatest treat the French travelers
could offer them was a handful of salt.
One day a woman came to M. de
Compiegne with some ivory to sell.
He was ill and in no humor to bar
gain, so he asked her to wait for M.
Marche’s return and meanwhile set a
large pot of salt before her by way of
refreshment. She set to work, and
for an hour and a half went on eating,
every now and then casting a furtive
glance at M. de Compiegne, to see if
lie would tell her to stop; but he was
to polite. He calculated that when
his friend returned she had eaten a
pound and a half of salt. The Okanda
men, too, like salt; but they prefer
rum; nor are they singular among
African tribes in this respect.
. “This evening (writes Mr. de Com
piegne in his diary) the King of the
Apmgis came to see us, and brought a
sheep. He is not a bad fellow, and
we made him a present of a spahi’s
uniform and a few other things, among
them some tobacco and a bottle of
rum. Forthwith he was surrounded
by a crowd of Apingis and Inegas,
who wished to share the rum and to
bacco with his majesty. The good
man, however, did not lose his head;
he gave the stuffs and less valuable
objects to a slave to carry, and, clad in
his shahi’s uniform, he ran like a mad
man, holding his tobacco in one hand
and his bottle of rum in the other, . .
K-.~ trr? r.* *— T '-j and pursued
Paint and Whitewash.
There is no greater Evidence of the
poverty of cur Southern farmers than
the general dilapidation that is seen
about our farm premises. A traveler
passing through. the south by rail can
form no conception of the condition of
things, for as he approaches the rail
road station he sees evidences of thrift.
New houses have sprung up, large
stores are built, and many signs of
contentment and thrift, appear on all
aspirations. The mother laughingly
received them, told him they were both
mere children, and that if affair gradu
ating at West Point they both held the
same mind, she would smile upon their
intentions (not exactly as she did then).
A most loving and innocent corres
pondence has been kept up between
them; and an awful stroke it will be to
that fair young girl, iu her school days,
if that gallant young knight, has fallen
thus prematurely. —New York iAter.
sides. But these new buildings and I m, 0 —: “ T .. ,
;d premises do not lie to The Suppression ol Obscene Literature.
improved
farmers. Whose they are we know
not, but we have frequently enquired
as to their ownership and seldom found
a farmer the possessor of one of them.
But leaving the thoroughfares, and
taking the “dirt road” for our trip, it is
like an oasis iu the desert to find an im
proved farmer’s home. We oftener
see gates down or hung on a single
hinge; steps decaying, flow’er garden
given up to weeds, window sash with
broken panes, and the absent pane
supplied by a pillow or a board ; and
the old mansion, that once may have
been bright and cheerful looking, be
cause neatly painted and in good repair,
is now colorless and dilapidated, look
ing as seedy as the qwner in his suit of
clothes that he may have worn for the
past two or three years.
Alas, how true it is that these weath-
worn homes are everywhere and on all
sides amongst southern farmers! Well,
of course, there is cause for it, and w r e
all know this. But is there not a
remedy available to every man who
wishes to put a -J)yighter appearance
on things around mm? We think
there is, and would suggest that it lies
simply iu the brush.
Paints, ready mixed paints, can be
bought very cheaply, and it can be
told to a square foot how much surface
a gallon will cover, and any farmer
can spread it as well as the most expe
rienced painter. Buy a few gallons
and try it.
Or, if too expensive, a few bushels
of lime can be procured for a small
amount, and this made into a durable
whitewash can be applied by the far
mer himself, and will give attractive
ness to the most gloomy looking home
if applied carefully.
Whitewashing at this season has a
healthful effect upon the surroundings
and the occupants, and will add at
least ten per cent, to the value of any
place, if offered for sale. So that,
hygiene and economy both advise keep
ing farmers’ homes in good repair, and
we urge upon every farmer to look
around him and see if he does not feel
it incumbent upon him to take the
very steps we have advised in this ar
ticle should betaken.—Carolinian.
very sorry, but that the woman httu | v
been executed dialup the night with- i by aii his subjects.”
•ut his knoweldge. T hey loaded him When N’Combe died a special mark
with reproaches and stopped his grog. " e 1 ~ :J 4 - , !
After rune days the king confessed he
had told a lie and that the woman was
still alive. They agreed to pay the
price of.three slaves and of three pack
ets of ivory—-value about £84 in all—
to save her from death. A new palaver
Young Boucicault’s Romance.
But here’s Boucicault, the glacier,
the vampire, the intellectual Capt.
Kane of the aretic sentiments, broken
hearted over the first loss that has en
tered his family circle, losing all inter
est in his professional engagements,
and telegraphing that he was utterly
crushed in spirit by this dreadful loss’.
God comfort him and poor little Ag
nes, who loved her bairns so dearly.
It proves to be Dion, Jr., whose death
they are mourning away oft* in Eng
land. Then there’s a young heart here
to day experiencing her first great
grief. For when young Boucicault
was here last summer, he fell madly in
New.York has a Society for the Sup
pression of Vice, and the record of its
proceedings show that there is abun
dant need for such an organization.
Up to this time it has procured the ar
rest of 193 persons for selling obscene
books, pictures, etc., of whom 105
were convicted, while others absconded
or forfeited their bonds. No less than
12,101 bad books and 201,000 pictures
and photographs have been seized and
destroyed. Of the persons arrested 54
were Irishmen, 51 Americans, 26 Eng
lishmen, 14 Canadians, 14 Germans,
and the others represented seven dif
ferent nationalities, one being an Afri
can. It was mainly for the purpose of
giving additional power to this society
that the bill was introduced in con
gress which elicited such a discussion
last week. The burden of the opposi
tion to the measure was that, while it
was right enough to suppress obscene
literature, a grave danger lay in giving
almost unlimited power to certain men
over the mail matter of the whole
country, with arbitrary power to sup
press newspapers at will. It is a diffi
cult matter to draw the line between
what is strictly obscene and immoral
and what is not, and in view of a prob
able abuse of power, congress hesi
tates, very justly, we think, to clothe
an otherwise admirable organization
with a power that would jeopardize the
liberty of the citizen.—Nashville Amer.
was held and about four o’clock in the
afternoon N’Combe returned leading
die woman, whom he presented to them
and eouhd. Naturally, they
ager past, and congratu
of honor paid to his remains was to
empty four bottles of giu into his
coffin.
At a late prayer meeting iu St.
Louis one of the brethren directed at
tention to a stranger who was sitting by
himself near the door, and asked why
he wasn't invited to pray. “ Because,
reprovingly observed a deacon, “this
ain’t no place for practical jokes. That
man's the president of a gas company.”
A New Enemy op Submarine Ca
bles.—In 1865 the world renowned
K ial correspondent of the London
es, W. H. Russell, modestly gave
utterance to a prophecy which time
has since fulfilled almost to the letter.
He then wrote: “As a mite would
in all probability never have been seen
but for the invention of cheese, so it
may be that there is some undeveloped
creation waiting perdu for the first
S iece of gutta-percha which comes
own (to the sea bottom) to arouse his
faculty and fulfill his functions of life—
a gutta percha boring and eating ter
edo, who has been waiting for his meal
since the beginning of the world.”
This enemy of submarine cables has
already made his appeatance, as was
briefly announced in a recent number
of the Monthly. It is a crustacean,
less than a quarter of an inch in length
and known as Lhnnona terebrans.
“ One breakfast which he may take,”
says Dr. J. H. Gladstone, “may cost
more than the breakfast of any luxu
rious Roman epicure in ancient times,
because he may destroy a whole cable,
and it may take a year to repair the
damage which he may do in a minute.”
Pre-Historic Man.—The aborigi
nal man in geology, and in the dim
light of Darwin’s microscope, is not an
engaging figure. We are very glad
that he ate his fishes and snails and
marrow bones out of our sight and
heat ing.- and that his doleful experien-
lovc with the daughter of a famous ac
tor who died tu Loudon some years ces were got through with so very long
ago. She was with her beautiful — niM — —’ ’ ’'
mother at Long Branch. And cer
tainly no man ever tnet a fairer reason
for losing head and heart. The girl
is very young—not over 16—and in
herits the beauty of both parents who,
when they married, were called the
handsomest couple in America. She
has been carefully educated in a con
vent, and it was as clear a case of first
love as the Branch ever held. Young
Boucicault in the most manly manner
went to headquarters and unfolded his
ago. They combed his mane, they
pared his nails, cut off histail, set him
on end, sent him to school, and made
him pay taxes, before he could write
his sad story for the compassion or the
repudiation of his descendants, who
are all but unanimous to disown him.
We must take him a§ we find him,
pretty well on in his education, and in
all our knoweldge of him, an interest-
ing creature, with a will, an invention,
an imagination, a conscience, and an
inextinguishable hope.