The sunny South. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1875-1907, November 27, 1875, Image 3

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[For The Sunny South.] HE IP AND DOING. There's not a place in church nor state, 'Mong all the noble, wise and great, But what the youth in time must fill; And all the world is looking still For great abcievements to be done>— For greater battles to be won. ^ Be up and doing while it's day— The harvest time will pass away Like early dew and morning light; Then comes the long and dreary night Of age and life's declining years, With death and sorrow’s falling tears. Deep mines of truth lie unexplored; In art. in science, there are stored Full many a hidden, priceless gem To wreathe a starry diadem For earnest effort, patient thought That has its ideal beauty wrought Or has some useful knowledge brought From Nature's store-house wonder-fraught. And when you reach the final end, Where all the truths of science tend— The final goal where systems run— A crown of victory will be won; For Truth, her ample orbit run, Shall find in God her Central Sun. [Written for The Sunny South.] FIGHTING AGAINST FATE; OR, Alone in the World. BY MARY E. BUY AY. CHAPTER XIV. Tb ree days afterwards, 1st Mode, the vessel char tered by the president of the republic, dropped quietly out of the harbor, bearing United States colors and papers, and carrying arms, ammuni tion and volunteers from Mobile and other por tions of the country, as well as from New Orleans. Among the recruits to the hitherto unlucky cause were desperate and unprincipled adven turers, enthusiastic striplings and restless, ex citement-craving spirits who, like Harvey, were at odds with Fate. Ostensibly, this memorable expedition was a secret to the government of the United States; yet it was generally believed to be known to and covertly winked at by the ruling powers for rea sons of their own. The adventurers were in the wildest spirits. Harvey's mercurial nature rose with the fresh hopes that glittered before him, and he cheered his sister with his most persua sive eloquence as they sat clasped hand in hand for an hour before the parting hour arrived. “ Thar’s Mansfield !” and Mr. Hutchins lifted his double-chin from his chest, rubbed bis sleepy eyes, and told Esther. “ Here we are !” Driving through the little town, they stopped before a rather imposing structure, set in the midst of elevated and ample grounds, which Mr. Hutchins informed Esther was the college build ing, as he assisted her to alight and escorted her up the broad steps, while dozens of girl-faces watched them curiously from the windows above. After waiting half an hour in the chilly drawing room. the principal appeared—a tall man, with iron-gray side-whiskers, a cold, blue eye, and manners as formal and precise as the furniture of his reception-room. He touched Esther's hand with three chilly, inexpressive fingers, hoped that she had not Buf fered from the trip, that she would be pleased with this part of the country, and other plati tudes which Esther cut short by pleading fa tigue and begging to be shown to her room. When she was gone, Mr. Hutchins proceeded I to satisfy the principal as to the respectability and capacity of the new teacher, informing him that one of the first men in the city recom- . mended her to his attention, and that as to ca- j pability, all the ‘‘big piano-players said she was tip-top,” and though he did not pretend to be a judge in that line, it seemed to him “she got more music out of the piano than any one of those scientific chaps, who would charge more io teach a few lessons than the salaries of all the faculty amounted to; whereas he had got the lady cheap”—“a first rate article at auction “ And yon—do you not love music, too?” “Better than anything in the world!” she cried impulsively. Then drawing back into her shell with the chilling suspicion that Esther was pumping her for amusement, and with the view of caricaturing her to the girls, she said; “I don’t know anything about any music but the Jews’-harp and the dinner-bell, and I think they sound a great sight better than the strum ming that’s done on the piano.” “So do I.” said Esther, laughing. “Better than some strumming. Come, you are a good critic, I see. Sit down and listen to my strum ming, and tell me what you think of it.” The girl hesitated, and at last reluctantly sat down on a foot-stool at one end of the piano, and dropped her chin upon her hands. “Do you like lively music?” Esther inquired, looking with interest at the queer little face and figure. . “Yes, on dinner-bells and Jew’s-harps,” “ But not on the piano—the deepest-sonled of instruments, as Liszt called it Well, we shake hands there, Dusky. I think it an imperti nence, too. I will play no jig for you.” She chose, instead, bits of the tenderest and sweetest music she knew—bits from Beethoven, and Weber, and Handel, that mixed grandly with the sighing of the wind in the cedar trees at the window, and the light of the fall moon slanting through the gray twilight and falling across the room in silver bars. For an hour she played on, half-forgetting the silent listener, whose face she could not see. At last, at the close of a thrilling A NOBLE WORK^FOR WOMEN. HOW TO PREVENT THE GREAT MOR TALITY AMONG CHILDREN. The unparalleled number of deaths among children under five years of age shown in the records of various cities, especially of NewY'ork. has awakened inquiry among humanitarians far and wide. Committees of medical men have in vestigated the subject with the view of prevention in future, and the results of their inquiry show the most deplorable want of cleanliness and igno rance of the commonest principles of hygiene, 1 such as pure air. bathing and proper food in the homes and tenement habitations where so many children perished. An able paper in that ad- ' mirable monthly journal. The Sanitarian, asserts that these homes of the ignorant class are the missionary ground that is best deserving the la bors of noble-hearted, philanthropic women. Their exertions can do more to prevent this ter rible death-rate among the helpless innocents in j our large cities, and even in towns and villages, , than any elaborately prepared system of hygiene that could be published, or any quantity of drugs that could be issued. A wealthy and benevolent gentleman of [From the Daubnry News.] TALKED HIMSELF TO DEATH. THE PILL-BACK DRESSES WERE TOO MI CH FOR HIM. He got off the morning train the other day and meandered into the city, and stopped in front of a fine-looking residence on Munson street. He opened the gate, walked up to the door and pulled the bell. In a moment it was opened and he stepped quickly inside. “ Y'ou see,” he said to the astonished girl, “I much prefer to do the talking inside. It is so un pleasant to have the door closed in one’s face when only half through.” He walked into the parlor, and the frightened girl went to inform her mistress that a sewing- machine man ora book-peddler had gained access to the house. The lady entered the room and was greeted by the young man of cheek as follows; “They call me a blessing—the ladies do, and I am, madame. 1 am a labor-saving benefactor to the whole sex. I have a little invention which I am introducing—a perfect little gem. It is, madame, a small, silver-plated, gilt-point con cern, which will allow you to wear the new style of pull-back dresses as easily as the breeches.’ “What do you mean, sir?” demanded the lady. “No longer, madame, will you have to take your meals off from the mantle-piece. You can sit down as easily as in the old style of barrel- price,” as Mr. Hutchins put the fact of Esther’s , minor strain, the child’s head was lifted—her neighboring city, now an octogenarian, was led j shaped dresses. When you trave'l you won’t engagement in his elegant mercantile phraseol ogy, rubbing his hands and chuckling in admi ration of his own shrewdness. So, next morning, Esther was formally intro duced to her new pupils, and entered at once upon her wearying duties. Wearying, indeed, to brain and body is the office of music-teacher: to give similar instructions, hour after hour, to j a succession of pupils, many of them devoid of a single musical idea—to listen to the monoto nous bang, bang, of “exercises,” until the brain dark face flushed, her black eyes swimming with emotion. “It’s sweet!” she said, “as sweet as heaven. I’ll always like you for your music—I don’t care how much you despise and make fun of me. ’ “Child, child ' gering for affection, spise you; I will " of us alone; let us care for each other. Can you love me, little one ?” “Can you love me, do you think?” asked the to examine among the poor for the causes of the high death-rate of children, from having lost his only two children years ago by cholera infantum. Ha became convinced that the evil is in the man agement of the nursery, and recently remarked have to lean up against the water-cooler, nor sit on the sharp-edge seat arm. The little inven tion which will thus facilitate your movements retails for only one dollar. It is called the semi- cylinder, double duplex non-conductor, magical reels, and the sensitive, cultivated ear is tor- j girl, raising her eyes to Esther, incredulously, tured with disgust for the once-beloved instru ment. Esther's only preventive against this dis gust was the half hour of solitary communion with the masters of her art, which she managed to secure after college hours were over, and while the twilight built up fantastic shadows in the music-room, or the moon stole through the parted curtains and laid her long, white fingers upon the rapt face of the solitary occupant. One evening, when she went as usual for her honr of musical refreshment, she was stopped in the act of unlocking the door of the music- room, situated in the wing of the main college building, by hearing some one within softly singing an .tnfamiliar air, and picking out the tune a little uncertainly upon the keys of the piano. The air was plaintive and pretty. The But a foreboding hung ever Esther that not j words were Spanish, and sung in a fresh, sweet all liis cheerful words could lift. It deepened when he had gone, and she crouched by the smouldering fire and heard the November wind wail without, and felt how utterly lonely she was. A wild longing came over her to commu nicate with Vietoiine, by letter if no other way; but she reflected that it would not be well. “ It would bring trouble to the poor child if it should reach her hand, which it is barely pos sible it would be permitted to do. It would put the burden of secresy upon her frank na- voice that Esther did not recognize. On unlock- ; ing and opening the door, behold ! seated at the piano, the black sheep of the college flock—a | sallow, black-eyed, sour-visaged imp, whose ; name of Sadossa her unfriendly schoolmates I had transformed into “Dusky” in malicious allu- j sion to her dark skin. “Little Injun” was another I appellation they bestowed upon her. | She had been an inmate of the seminary for j over two years, having been left there by her father, who represented himself as going on a ture, and I know what a weight that is, and how trip to California and the Indian Nation. closely akin to shame. Then, by this time, she has lost her first impulse of faith in me. How could it last, after she had heard what Dr. Hay wood could tell her on his return ?" Sighing wearily, she put aside the thought of holding any communication with her sister, and wrote instead to Ellen—a cheering, comforting letter, in spite of her own aching heart, giving her the particulars of Harvey’s departure, dwell ing upon his regret at being unable to see her before he went, and Lis hope of returning with bettered fortunes. The letter finished, she set about making her few preparations for going away. For appear ance sake, she had purchased a trunk, though there was not much to fill it. When her clothes were neatly folded and laid in it, there was room for the guitar—poor Copley’s gift. At that moment, the little local was walking his tiny room, haggard and sleepless, feeling very bitter against this school-teaching scheme that would deprive him of the happiness of taking care of Esther. These past weeks had been a green spot in his barren life. All the romance that had been buried under over-wo'k and care and poverty had sprung into a life that would last forever, for in humble, faithful natures like his, an attachment is dog-like, and clings to its ob ject in spite of absence, neglect and wrong. This evening, in the chill, rainy twilight, he was waiting for her on the pier when she de scended from the carriage with her new protector. Nerved to unusual assurance, he ventured to claim the privilege of handing her across the staging and into the cabin of the steamboat. While Mr. Hutchins saw to the safe bestowal of his baggage and freight, the reporter stood for a few sadly-happy moments by Esther’s side on the steamboat guards. Esther was genuinely grieved to part from him. She thanked him with tears for his kindness to Harvey and to herself. “Oh! don’t speak of it. Miss Esther—don’t. The kindness was to me. It was a happiness to do anything for you—oh ! it was a happiness I am afraid I shall never know again !” cried poor Copley, carried away by his feelings, and begin ning to choke and stammer. “Never,” he re peated, "unless this music-teaching is a failure, and yon come back here. I hope—I mean I am afraid the school will fall through; so many fe male colleges do.” “I cannot tell. I shall try to do my part; that is all that will be required of me.” “I know you will; yon will do more than yonr part. You will work yourself down, and then I shall never forgive myself for letting you go.” “I’ll not be so unjust as to hold yon responsi ble for my breaking down,” Esther answered lightly, for Copley’s utterance was growing too ; fervent. "If anything should happen—if you need a friend, promise to apply to me—promise to let me know,” he entreated. “Remember, your Had paid in advance in gold doubloons for a year’s tuition for his daughter; but for the past eighteen months, nothing had been heard from him. Dusky’s bills for that time were unpaid; her clothes were outgrown and shabbv. She was still kept at the seminary, for it was not known what else to do with her. She seemed to have no home, no friends, and no relative, with the exception of this single parent, whom the trustees now abused as an impostor. Their suspicions extended to the girl. The teachers treated her with neglect, and even with harsh contempt. The ill-feeling speedily reflected itself in the minds of the other girls. The little dark- skinned, elfish child, in shabby clothes, too short and small for her, became an object of rid icule and a target for sehool-girl wit. Her case illustrated the wonderful capacity of the school- | girl intellect for devising ways of teasing, tor- : menting and wounding. She became the scape- ; goat of the school. All acts of mischief or I awkwardness were laid upon her. She was not ' trampled upon in this way without doing her j best to sting. She grew bitter, resentful, care- I less of pleasing, and defiant of blame. She in- ! vented schemes of malicious mischief for vic- ; timizing her persecutors. She turned upon them with fierce retorts, and, on several occasions, j with sharp assaults. Once, she came near stab- ; bing one of her tormentors with a little silver- - hilted Spanish dagger she carried concealed in her pocket. In short, she did what she could to deserve the bad reputation which had been ! given her. Esther had heard a full description of Dusky’s ! fiendish qualities the first day or two after her | installment in her new position. The girl’s | scowling, defiant face had borne out the reputa- ! tion, and she was well satisfied to have nothing | to do with her. and glad that she was not one of her pupils. Great was her surprise to find the , black sheep sitting at the piano and singing the plaintive Spanish song in a voice that was alto gether unlike her usual sullen tone. She started and looked around as Esther opened the door; her face took on its dogged look, and she got up from the piano saying: “Well, you’ve caught me. Now you can re port to the Grand Mogul that you found the Imp trying to smash the best piano, sacred to the use of young ladies who have money to pay for the privilege of strumming upon it.” “How did you get in ?” Esther asked, without , noticing the girl's sarcasm. “Climbed in at the window, as other cats do,” \ she answered, smiling grimly and looking down at her nails that she wore long and pointed for the benefit of her enemies. “ Put that in your report, too.” “ How do you know I shall make any report ?” “ Of course, you would not miss the chance of currying favor with the principal and the young misses. It would be such a pure delight ' yet oh ! how earnestly. “ Can you love a wicked, ugly, dark imp like me ?” “I will not believe you are wicked. If you were loved and happy, you would be good—yes, noble and unselfish; I know it by that brow, and by these eyes,—these beautiful eyes,” she said, lifting she girl’s fuce and kissing it. A flood of light and color broke over it from throat to brow, as she fell at Esther’s feet, sob bing passionately and kissing the hands of her new-found friend. The joy of being loved and believed in, was overpowering to this childish heart, that had been almost broken in the effort to steel itself defiantly against injustice and op pression. From that hour, she attached herself to Esther with a devotion which partook of the nature of : passion— a silent devotion, manifesting itself in thoughtful, unobtrusive acts, and in looks rather than in words. From that time, too, a change took place, as it seemed, in her very na ture. The scowl left her face; her sullen manner changed to one, not genial, it is true, but quiet and unaggressive. Gradually she ceased to re sent the slights or insults of the girls. “I don’t j mind it now,” she said to Esther, “since you I care for me.” And, finding their attempts to provoke her unnoticed, the girls in a little while i ceased their persecutions, and she was left com- ! paratively in peace. She made no friends among \ them, for she was not winning, and she took no ] pains to be so to them, but siie disarmed their j enmity by her indifference; so she was let alone, ) and voted a “queer thing that the new music i teacher had taken a whim to pet.” Nor was it long before an improvenfent” bTg ail to show itself in her appearance as well as in her conduct. To please her new friend, the tangled black locks were neatly braided, her clothes repaired and carefully put on. Two or three new dresses, gifts from Esther, made their appearance in her wardrobe—cheap prints, but neatly made by Esther's own fingers, as the two sat around the lamp in the music teacher's room in the length ening autumn evenings. So potent is appear ance, that these simple improvements in the girl's looks did more to create respect for her in the minds of teachers as well as pupils, than did the amelioration in her morals and manners. The bond between Esther and this little waif was destined to be more closely riveted by sym pathy and affliction. The shock of sudden, aw ful intelligence prostrated Esther upon a bed of sickness, and Dusky became her faithful, ef ficient nurse. Oh. so light, the little Spanish feet creeping around the bed; so soft the little brown hand in its untiring ministrations ! Days i went by in the alternate delirium and stupor of j fever. At last, one rainy midnight, Esther’s eyes I opened consciously, and rested on a wan little face that bent anxiously over her. “I am better,” she said in answer to the mute I inquiry that rested in Dusky’s eyes. But ah! j child, how weary and worn you look. Come, j lie down here by me.” J She stretched out her arms appealingly, and Dusky lay down beside her, and was clasped to her breast. With her head against the child’s bosom, came a burst of tears that brought relief. (TO BE CONTINUED.) his medicines. He has given practical effect to his convictions by bequeathing two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, the interest of which is to be a perpetual fund to be employed in the prevention of sickness among the children of the poor of his native city. On visiting any domicile of the poor, however repulsive it may be, you recognize at once how that home may be improved and made compar atively healthy by the housekeeper; you know how the walls may be cleansed with carbolic acid; how the floors may be deprived of dirt by scrub bing; how the furniture may be cleansed by rub bing; how vermin may be destroyed; how the bed and body clothes may be cleansed and made wholesome; how the various foods may be se lected, preserved and prepared, so as to be digestible and nutritious; how the children are to be bathed and taken into the open air. You do not doubt your ability to so improve the con dition of every poor mother's home, with the means at her command, as to save the children from the fatal diseases which now destroy them in such numbers. The saving of child-life is then largely a matter of good housekeeping and proper nursing. Cleanliness, pure air and suit able food will save the children confined to the nursery. But the housewifery of the poor can never be improved, except by personal instruc- j the invention. it under yonr skirts this way (illustrating with | his coat tail), and when you desire to sit down ' pull the right-hand string, which you can have come out in your pocket, and lo! down you j gently float until you reach the chair. If you j desire to get into a carriage, drop the invention j by pulling this string, put your foot on the i spring, and you’ll find yourself in the carriage I in an instant.” The lady called her husband to see the new ■ invention, and the agent explained its workings J to him. As the husband’s eye fell upon the | agent, a wicked thought flashed through his j brain, and he determined to be revenged. “This is a new invention,” began the agent, “to enable ladies to draw bacR their skirts J much tighter than at present and, at the same j time, allow them to sit down. It is called the ! high-fangled, draw-back and squeeze together, ! new modus operarali. Ladies say I am a labor- j saving benefactor—that I am an everlasting ” ] “Wait!” shouted the husband; “please ex- | plain its workings again.” j The agent did so. “Why, that would make a good hay hoister.” “Yes,” answered the agent, “but it is more , particularly designed for ladies.” The husband sent for his daughter to examine tion in their homes. You may reply that this is the work of the health authorities. No, it is not, except so far as they perform the work through your agency. They can remove the grosser nuisance, but they cannot teach the poor how to manage their domestic affairs; they can supply well devised ventilators, but they can not keep them open; they can secure the clean ing of passage-ways, areas, etc., but they cannot keep them clean. The real value of much of the work of Loulth officials depends upon Hie co-operation of the poor themselves. This must “This is a new, unparalelled, upright longi tudinal, square-shaped perpendicular, two de grees south by four west, extra strong, sling to gether and squash up pull-back dress invention which I am selling for ohe dollar. Ladies call me a—” “Hold on !” shouted the husband and father, “until I call my other daughter,” and he waltzed out of the room and returned with the hired girl and the chamber-maid. “You see, Vdies,” began the agent, “this is a flop-over and stand-you-up magical tragical, be secured as missionary service by women, j two strings to the right and one to the center, +1-./-vv.i~^^.1 i invP’nt.inn fnr rmllinor V»ar*lr vmvr rlrAcs ,,! and li* though it might be well incorporated as a branch of general sanitary work by health boards. You may allege that the poor are so perverse that such instruction would be rejected. This depends upon the manner in which the instruc tion is given. Long experience in visiting the poor will convince any one that there is no fam ily so degraded that you cannot entirely change gross domestic habits; that in the great majority invention, for pulling back your dress;” and he went on for half an hour, during which time the husband slipped over to the next house and induced the neighbors to come over and hear the agent talk. He returned with six women and four children, just at the winding up for the fourth time. Escorting one person into the room at a time, he had the agent to tell each one about the “invention.” He stationed a small boy out of instances you can secure all you attempt in j id the hall with a lead pencil, who was instructed Ill-Cooked Food. Ill-cooked food produces indigestion. A dys peptic is gloomy, morose, and irritable. Chil dren as well as adults participate in the ill effects of bad or indifferent food. They become peevish, fretful and fractious. A husband com ing home after a wearisome day of business has a right to be met by bright, healthful, shining faces at his own hearthstone, and to be furnished with a well-prepared, wholesome meal: instead of which he finds too often a languid and sickly, or indolent and incapable wife, and troublesome and quarrelsome children, and under-done or over-done slovenly dinner. These causes com bined often send a man from his home to seek, at club or restaurant, the comforts he is entitled to look for in his own dwelling. It is no longer impressed upon girls, about becoming wives, that the necessity of studying the tastes of hus- cleanliness, in the care of children, and in the preparation of foods. This radical change in the habits of ignorant people cannot be effected by one visit, or ten; nor can it ever be accom plished by those to whom the work is repulsive, and who stand afar off and simply say: “Be ye clean.” It must be undertaken, if at all, in downright earnest, by those who can bring themselves into full sympathy' with the poor, and enter heartily into the trials, troubles and difficulties which beset them on every hand. The well qualified visitor who calls regularly, week after week, upon a given poor family, in quiring kindly into all the family affairs, and advising and aiding to relieve sources of domes tic unhappiness, imperceptibly gains the confi dence of the children and parents; her visits are welcome, her advice is sought, and she becomes the mistress of the household. Says an experi enced sanitary missionary: “I am constantly appealed to to teach how to clean and cook, and I daily see the home-life of my families improv ing under my advice and instruction; their rooms are becoming models of cleanliness and good order; the food is well selected and pre pared; the children are daily bathed and taken to the parks; and scarcely a case of sickness is known among the children of my families throughout the year.” There are tenement houses in this city in which the annual rate of deaths has been reduced from fifty-five in one thousand to less than ten in one thousand, by improvements in the domestic habits of the fam ilies. In one instance, I attempted the experi ment of improving the domestic habits of the in mates of one of the most unsanitary tenement houses in the district, for the purpose of pre venting the high death-rate that had for years distinguished that house. The task was by no to make a mark on the wall every time the agent repeated his story. The stock he had brought in was exhausted about noon, when he sent a messenger around the ward to send in the neigh bors, and the agent was kept telling the story without intermission till near midnight. As the sun disappeared behind the western horrizon, the agent began to show signs of fa tigue, but the husband was as fresh as ever. Eleven minutes to twelve o’clock the agent, who had just completed his yarn for the two hundred and sixteenth time, looked up and gasped. A glass of water was thrown in his face, and the husband told the boy to run in half a dozen more persons, for he thought he could finish the agent now in about an hour and a half. The boy left to rouse up the neighborhood, to find half a dozen who had not yet heard the story of the “invention.” When he was absent frequent stimulants had to be given the agent to prevent him from fainting. Shortly the boy returned, saying that no more neighbors could be found, as they had all gone on an excursion. The hus band on hearing this was in despair, but he had the agent to repeat the story a couple of times to the boy and once to himself. YVhen he had finished he was so far exhausted as to be unable to sit up. A fiendish smile stole across the features of the husband as he said: “Y'oung man, I have hoped for this moment. I have been haunted almost to death by agents. The last agent that came along swindled me out of two dollars, and then I took a terrible oath that I would be revenged upon the next man that attempted to seduce me. Know, then, that I have induced these people who have listened to your eloquence, to come in, that I might turn your own weapon against you. You have talked means as difficult as I had expected, though the | yourself to death. Thank Heaven ! I have suc- people were the most stolid of their class. With cseded in my revenge. You can live but a few cleanliness, ventilation, more select and better- j moments longer, but before you die I pray you . _ i j r J .. 1, ‘ l l xl: . x ■ j i • ! tn rnneo f o rrm in that wall-lrn r.wri o fnrr ** cooked foods, daily bathing of the children in | the summer, suitable clothing in the winter, etc., to repeat again that well-known story.’ The agent backed himself up against the side brother honored me with his friendship—I have i to them to have me reported for punishment.” Ciim xx lifflxx nloi tv» ,xn. ’’ . ., T ii _ xi •_ i x *x N’. .. i. _ some little claim on “ Y'ou have the highest claim on my confi dence, ' Esther cried warmly. “I do promise to apply to you whenever I may he in need of a friend’s help and counsel. ” I shall say nothing about it. Y’ou have not hurt the piano or anything, unless you have done your hands a damage climbing in.” “Not any, thank you; not a finger-nail bro ken—I’ll take care of them. They are all the Ah! I leel a presentiment that the time will ' weapons I have, now they’ve robbed me of my come. She gave him her hand; he pressed it convuls ively in his. while she felt his hot tears splash ■ upon it. He could not speak another word. The warning bell rang, the steamer rocked with premonitory motion, and Mr. Hutchins, coming up behind them, informed Esther that i her trunk was “all right.” and her state-room had been engaged for her. When she looked back, Copley was gone. She leaned over the railing of the guards and watched through her tears the receding city, with its thousand lights a-gleam through the November mist, and its domes and pinnacles faintly penciled on the twilight sky. “You should never have left it,” whispered the foreboding voice in her heart. “ Before you see it again, you shall have passed through the fiery furnace of anguish—through the bleak shadow of despair.” CHAPTER XY. Two days of stemming the clear, dark current of the Mississippi, and "the dun. turbid waters of Red River; another day of jolting in an an cient hack through a wooded and sparsely- settled country, then the driver cried out: knife.’ She was going out, when Esther said gently: “That is a strange song to me that you were singing. What is it?” “ It was nothing. I don’t sing anything but ‘Dan Tucker.’” “It was very sweet, I thought,” contined Es ther, taking no note of the ungracious reply. “ I should like to learn it. Spanish, too, was it not? When did you learn Spanish?” “ When I learned to talk. That’s Mexican Spanish ?” “ Were you horn in Ylexico?” “ Yes. Don’t you hear the girls call me Mex ican Ylustang and Indian ? They would add nig ger. if they dared.” “I have heard a great deal about the pretty Mexican ladies and their little feet. Do they really wear silver slippers like Cinderella ?” The girl forgot her sulkiness, and broke into : a smile that flashed all over her dark face, lit up her eyes, and set her white teeth a-gleam. “ They don’t wear slippers or shoes either— , those that I knew,” she said; “but their feet are little, aud they can dance like mad, and they . love music.” . . ^ • - i • , , . . . I'xl v o UiliXlJUX« o UtWuoxv vivliiliiL AAA 111 w V> IHvCi « Ctv* . ' D X D ba “ ds 4 and . ministering jto them ^ in wise and I the s i c kness-rate fell until that house became I of the room, a'glass of water was given him, and he began: “Y'on see, I have a double-duplex—” And he was dead. The coroner was summoned, an inquest held, the jury returning a verdict that the deceased came to his death by too much circumlocution of the jaw, and they contributed their fees to the husband, and caused a diploma to be awarded him as a testimonial of the good he had done the public. Any one now passing Munson street can see a sign hung on the front door of a fine-looking mansion, which reads: AGENTS, BEWARE. wifely fashion is an incumbent duty. This del icate duty is transferred to ignorant and stupid servants who have neither the intellect nor the inclination to enable them to serve up food in an acceptable manner. A woman, whatever her station, can possess no more desirable accom plishment than that of being able to instruct others, or, if need be, to prepare with her own hands a good dinner, and to serve it daintily. “I thought you were born on the first of April ?” said a husband to his lovely wife, who had mentioned the twenty-first as her birthday. “Most people would think so, from the choice I made of a husband,” was the reply. “You say you love her, old fellow?” “Yes, to distraction.” “Well, then, there’s only one thing to be done—marry her.” “Ah ! that’s out of the question; I feel that I love her too ar dently for it to last long.” Coxstaxt success shows us but one side of the world, for it surrounds us with flatterers who will tell us only our merits, and silences our enemies, from whom alone we might learn our defects. noted for its healthfulness. It should be the duty of the visitor to aim to | instruct the family in all the details of house- j keeping in which the housekeeper was found J deficient. A schedule of her duties as teacher j would he somewhat like the following: 1. The j necessity of ventilation, and how to secure it in j the apartments. 2. How and when to limewash j walls, and how to use carbolic acid for that pur- ' pose. 3. How to dry scrub floors. 4. How to j wash, cleanse and disinfect dirty clothing. ! 5. How to destroy vermin, and preserve beds 1 clean and wholesome. 6. How to select, cook j and preserve suitable foods, and the kinds of j food adapted to children of different ages and 1 conditions of health. 7. How and when to bathe j children. In addition to such instructions, she could look carefully after the health of | the children, and correct, by advice, slight ; ailments which would become formidable dis eases if not promptly attended to. She should | organize parties of children to visit the parks, and spend much of the day in the open air. Marine Beauties.—One of the prettiest crea tures that live under water is the sea-mouse. It sparkles like a diamond, and is radiant with all the colors of the rainbow, although it lives in the mud at the bottom of the ocean. It should not have been called a mouse, for it is larger than a rat. It is covered with scales that move t a ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ j up and down as it breathes, and glitters like gold These are but few of the thousand practical de- , shining through a flocky down, from which fine tails in the care of a house and family where ' sl ^y bristles wave, that constantly change from After waiting four years, a Michigan lover finally popped the question, and the girl an swered: “Of course I’ll have you! Why you fool you, you might have married me three years ago.” the visitor’s advice and quiet, unobtrusive aid would be useful. And what amount of life-saving would grow out of such work it is impossible to conjecture. “Husband,” said the wife of a young clergy man, “read me one of your sermons; I feel dreadfully wakeful to-night and wish to sleep. ” one brilliant tint into another, so that, as Cuvier, the great naturalist, says, the plumage of the humming-bird is not more beautiful. Sea-mice are sometimes thrown up on the beach by storms. Be constant in what is good, but beware of being obstinate in anything that is evil. Con-} stancy is a virtue, but obstinacy is a sin.