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JOHN H. SEALS, - Editor and Proprietor.
W. B. SEALS, - Proprietor and Cor. Editor.
MRS. MARY E. BRYAN (*) Associate Editor.
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, MAY 11, 1878.
Burton Bros., of Opelika, Ala., are Agents for
The Sunny South.
Dogmatism Passing Away.—If you
wish to see how human thought changes—grows
in fact—turn to a file of old papers of fifty or
even twenty years back. Such publications re
flect better than books do, the mind of the age
that produced them. Books are often in advance
of their age. They are written by thinkers who
go ahead, and sometimes by solitary, excepted
souls who throned on ideal heights have little
knowledge of, or sympathy with the thought
of the masses below them.
No such isolation belongs to the newspaper or
monthly review. They photograph the thought
*of the people,and glancing over the pages of those
published, say a score of years ago, we see con
siderable difference in the fashion and quality
of the thought^ of that time and of the present.
For one thing, we see that Thought has broaden
ed if not deepened. Narrowness of belief is not
nearly so general. Dogmatism is at a discount,
even in theology. The mind that wraps itself
closely in the mantle of its own conceit, or in
the mouldy cerements of hereditary belief and is
dumb and blind to all new suggestions or revela
tions of truth is not the representative mind of
this day. Instead we have the open, humble
mind, patient and enthusiastic in its pursuit of
truth, but candid in admitting mistakes and ea
gerly receptive of every suggestion that may
contain a germ of knowledge. This earnest, for
bearing patient, open spirit, takes the plaoe of
the ever-bearing, self-confident mind that was
wont to dogmatize, abuse and assert whether in
the domain of politics, religion, sociology, or
philosophy. Dogmatic reiteration no longer
has power, like the beating of African tom-toms,
to stunt and stultify, nor can men throne
themselves on a narrow intolerance, miscalled
consistency, without hearing from their fellows,
the bitter sneer of Job; “no doubt ye are the
men, and wisdom shall die with you.” *
Two American Romeos.—The Capi
tal’s Green Room Gossipper thinks that the
great success of the two foreign stage lovers,
Montague and Rignold was owing to the fact
that they had no decent competitors. They
reigned alone—the Apollos of the Stage, and
were gone wild over by theatre going ladies who
were disgusted with the middle-aged, wrinkled-
chinned, full-stomached actor which it was cus
tomary to bring out in all ‘lover parts.’
There is no reason why our stage should not
have lovers of home growth. Among the nu
merous native aspirants for dramatic laurels
there is surely some one who has a nose as
straight as the Montague’s, or limbs as shapely
as those of the plump, beef-fed personator of
Henry Fifth. Green Room Gossipper thinks
the two promising young ‘natives,’ Thorne and
Forsberg, are the coming lovers of the stage,
destined to rival the handsome Britishers in ar
tistic effectiveness, though hardly, we imagine,
in the affections of New York and San Francis,
co beauties. Being only of home manufacture,
it is not probable that infatuated belles will erect
shrines for their worship, wherein ‘dainty paint
ed candles’ burn before their sacred photographs
‘framed with laurel wreaths,’ as they did in the
case of Messrs. Montague and Rignold. *
Fishing; in Foul Streams.—If people
were as fond of poking into material as they are
into moral filth, gutter-scraping and sewer
cleaning would be private pastimes. It was
funny to see how a portion of the press pricked
up its ears, like a donkey that scents oats, at
the prospect of a re-opening of the Beecher
scandal; and a letter from New York tells us
that during the trial (still progressing we be
lieve), of the notorious and disgustingly filthy
Newell divorce case, the court room was so
crowded with a fashionable audience, many of
them ladies, who came every day even in pour
ing rains, that there was no room ‘to breathe or—
blush.’
The fair attendants at this most indelicate
case, make a pretense at times of veiling their
faces with their fans, but still they sit there and
greedily absorb the revolting details, as they
are evolved from one witness after another, and
recapitulated by the counsel on either side.
There are many men (and women as well) who
gloat over the pages of the Police Gazette, and
find other reading tame and cool after that hot,
spiced diet
It is such mental garbage that early depraves
the intellectual appetites of our children and
crops out in drunkenness, rowdyism, and other
vices and low habits and pursuits. *
Army Red Tape.—We publish in anoth
er column an amusing article from the New York
Army and Nav$ Jouma , of April 27th, in re
gard to “Hines His Trousers,” whioh shows up
the circumlocution of “red tape” in the army,
and to what extent so small a thing as a pair of
old trousers can engage the attention for nearly
two years of the “best government the sun ever
shone upon.” As many of the parties concerned
are now in Atlanta, either at McPherson Bar
racks or Gen. Roger’s Headquarters, the article
possesses a local interest. At all events, we feel
sure that it will interest, amuse and astonish
our readers. Hines’ trousers will go down to
posterity as one of the “modern seven wonders,’,
and occupy a peculiar niche in the history of
the United States Army.
George Fawcett Rowe’s new drama, Scatterly
Jewels, will be brought out in Boston on the
20 th instant.
Americans a Reserved People —
Mr. Dale—a well known English litterateur
who lately made the tour of America writes his
impressions of the country to the Nineteenth Cen
tury. Unlike the average English traveler, he
finds much to admire in our government and
people, and draws comparisons with his
own country, which are most favorable to our
Republic. Among other conceptions of Amer
ica, which he finds erroneous, is tho belief in
the garrulous communicativeness of our peo
ple. Usually, John Bull represents his Wes
tern cousin as a creature of infinite gab; snre
to bore you with questions about your own bu
siness, and with volunteered information about
his own affairs. Mr. Dale, on the contrary, says:
‘I came to the conclusion—to me a very un
expected one—that the Americans are a reserved
people. They are not eager to talk to you about
their own affairs. Manufactu ers, except when
I asked them, did not ttell me how many men
they employed. Merchants were not anxious
to impress me with the magnitude of their bu
siness transactions. Nor, indeed, did I find
that the strangers I met were.very anxious or,
indeed, very willing to talk at all. I often
found it hard to discover whether the people I
was traveling with approved of Mr. Hayes’ South
ern policy or not, or even whether they belong
ed to the Republican or Democratic party. When
I was fortunate enough to find a man with a
cigar in his mouth standing on the platform of
a Pullman car, I could sometimes make him
more communicative; and occasionally, under
these conditions, I learned a great deal about
the country. But, as a rule, strangers opened
slowly and shyly.’
The good temper of American people impress
ed Mr. Dale very profoundly. He says, though
he traveled many thousands of miles on steam
boats and in railway cars—westward as far as
Chicago, and southward as far as Richmond, he
heard none of that noisy quarreling that sketch
es of American manners had led him to expect.
He saw the national temper put to a severe
test in British estimation, when owing to the
burning of a bridge, a train was delayed many
hours, where there was no refreshment room,
no ‘bar’ and nothing to divert the attention.
The average John Bull would have been plunged
into sullen despair, or have exploded in growls;
but the American passengers, Mr. Dale says,
accepted the delay without any resentment, and
kept in excellent temper.
Finally, he declares our people to be wholly
unlike the vulgar, self-asserting Americans of
caricature and popular fancy. ‘They were-
quiet instead of noisy, modest instead of esten
tatious and boastful, reticent rather than dem
onstrative. *
■trains Retailed at Reduced Prices.
A scribbler of the namby pamby genus, who
has written for every news-paper and magazine
in the country, and whose muse has croaked
herself hoarse on the highly original themes of
blasted hopes and unforgotten memories—has
concluded to sell out his remaining stock of
brains at auction, and no doubt at reduced
prices, on account of their damaged condition.
In his advertisment he says :
‘To the Public.—The undersigned being
well known as a writer, would offer his services
to all requiring literary aid. (He will furnish
Addresses, Orations, Essays, Presentation
speeches and replies, Lines for Albums, Acros
tics—prepare matter for the Prees—Obituaries,
and write poetry upon any subject.
Here we have the Pierian fount turned into ff
com mon city pump for the accommodation of
the public; Apollo, trigged out in an auctioneer’s
dress and cryiDg ‘going, going’ with uplifted
hammer! Let all who wish for a sample of
brains send their names and a ‘consideration
while they are going; for, judging from appear-
rances, they will soon be ‘gone.’ Nothing, as
you will see, come3 amiss. He will write any
thing, upon ‘any subject,’from ‘lines on receiv
ing a lock of hair from Augustus,’to a commence
ment oration, in the most oracular style; from
an epitaph on the death of a kitten, to a high
sounding obituary upon the deceaso of the dis
tinguished E. Pluribus Unum Esq.
Let all who wish for ‘ literary aid ’ apply to
this fountain head of literature. Aspirants for
fame, who look forward to Commencement oc
casions and Fourth of Julys as opportunities for
immortalizing themselves, would do well to
send on their names and their half dollars im
mediately, that this Universal Genius may have
time to collect up adjectives for a thunder burst
of eloquence, and have it stereotyped for future
applicants. Political Editors who have ex
hausted all their billingsgate and invective upon
t heir brethren of opposite parties, will find it
convenient to drop a line and a small ‘ consid
eration ’—Btating their politics, of course—and
be furnished with a plentiful infusion of nut-
galls. Amorous youths whose feelings for Mary
Ann can no longer be contained, but, like mur
der, ‘will out,’ and who yet find it impossible,
on account of overpowering emotions and bad
grammar, to tell the adored ‘being’ the state of
their affections, will, in their extremity, find
aid in this oracle, who will pour out those ‘in’
expre ssible ’ feelings in all the honey of Hybla.
Judging from his versified experience, he has
been all along there.
And t hen, too, ‘poetry upon any given subject!’
What a godsend to young gentlemen with hair
parted in the middle and turned down collars,
who affect the Byronic and are besieged by senti
mental Misses with gilt-edged albums! They
hayenothing to do but apply to this, U.G sending
him an inventory of the ladies’ charms, together
with a hint as to the amount of sugar to be
used in the composition of the versicles; for,
in these days of strong-minded females and
suits for breach of promise, there is danger in
making such effusions too sacharine.
This same Encyclopedia of knowledge can
also furnish aid to aldermanic D D’s whose
week-day dinings out and the onerous business
of digestion that ensues, do not prove very
favorable to pulpit lucubrations.
Also, he my have driven a good business in
his small way, in Washington this spring giv-
ng ‘literary aid’ to the wise ones assembled to go
through with that solemn little farce of Congress,
though to-be-sure eloquence counts for little in
the Halls of our Father’s at present, the busi
ness of government having degenerated from
statesmanship to jobbery, and ‘Kings’taken the
place of debates. •
The General Conference.—This high
ly important ecclesiastical body composed of
three hundred clerical and lay delegates is now
in session in this city. The basis of represen
tation is one delegate to each twenty-eight mem
bers of the Annual Conferences; but, the Lay
delegates to the several annual conferences elect
an equal number of their own body to the Gen
eral Conference. Ordinarily the two classes of
delegates sit and vote together—but provision
is made for voting separately in oertain contin
gencies.
The Bishops, at present seven in number, pre
side by rotation over the deliberations of the
conference. They have a qualified veto but no
right to vote.
The powers of the General Conference are
very extensive, and indeed, are only limited by
what are known as the restrictive rules. The
most important of these rules is that which pro
hibits the General Conference from altering
the articles of religion as contained in the Book
of Discipline. ■,
This General Conference like its predecessors
embraces a large number of the most notable
men of the Southern church. Delegates are not
however, always selected because of their supe
rior scholarship or overshadowing pulpit abili
ty. General fitness for the work of legislation and
practical acquaintance with the workings of the
church machinery is more frequently looked
to in the election of delegates.
If we may be permitted to classify the older
members of the present General Conference, we
should say that amongst the clerical delegates,
Dr. Shipp, of Vanderbilt; Dr. L. M. Smith, of
the Southern University ; Dr. Wiley, of Emory
and Henry College, and Dr. Summers, the book
editor, rank high as scholars.
Drs. Hargrove, Wilson, Young, Haygood, Par
ker, Register, Harrison, Craven, Miller, Boring
and An.derson, are amongst the most eminent
preachers, whilst Lee Edwards, Winfield,Evans,
Potter, Rush, Hinton, McFerrin and Johnson,
are prominent in shaping the final action of the
Conference on the various difficult questions
that arise.
As often happens however, some of the ablest
men are seldom heard in the discussions.
We have only seen this body of able minis
ters and laymen for 'a few days, but we are struck
with their imposing appearance, and welcome
them to our midst as fit representatives of a
very large and influential denomination of
Christians.
We invite the attention of the Conference to
the suggestions of our Kentucky editor as con
tained in his department.
A Surfeit of Sweets.—Washington is
said to be literally overflowing with pretty, part
nerless girls, in proportion of ten to one to the
men. They have been attracted thither, from
all parts of the world, it seems, by the malicious
assertion that theJtarty unmarried Congress-,
men were dying to^wive, not to speak uf the
host of other official^ and the military eligibles,
all eager to lay theirfiipfleshed words at the feet
of beauty. '
Never, it seems, there a greater mistak e
The forty unmarried congressional birds are too
old and cunning to be caught with the chaff of
a pretty face and a graceful waltz-step, and the
military and naval lights, when they conde
scend to marry, desire to exchange their brass-
buttons for greenbacks or bonds.
A correspondent draws a rueful picture of the
disconsolate wall flowers that grace the halls at
receptions and balls, and of the frantic efforts
of the poor girls to secure partners and escorts.
In such a case the miseries of one who has
charge of sweet girl debutantes are all the great
er that the poor chaperon has to smile and in
trigue, and use the wiliest arts to getjher girls
even temporarily “off* her hands.” Writes one—
‘Oh! dear me! I have to chaperone a party
of girls to-night, and I feel as if I had to lead
so many lambs to be slaughtered; for, poor
things, they stand no chance.’ There are some
very elegant and accomplished young men in
Washington—some who could be classified
with the Count d’Orsays, Beau Brummells and
Beau Marchais of history—but as a general
thing, the Washington beau is a churlish and
selfish cub. In most places young men take a
pride in rendering their cities entertaining and
attractive to young ladies visiting them; but
here, if a poor girl has few acquaintances, she
not only has no chance of making more, but
those shejknows avoid her, for fear, as|they say,
‘of never changing partners.’ Girls in remote
cities think, ‘if I could only get to Washington
what a dash I would cut; in no time I would
catch a rich husband.’ Poor, deluded chil
dren! Do you know there is more real fun,
more genuine enjoyment at any provincial Vir
ginia reel, any old fashioned New England
candy pulling, or Western house warning, than
at a baker’s dozen of these official receptions.
There, the old adage, ‘No goose so gray but
soon or late finds some honest gander for a mate, ’
is true. Here, old mdidism stares every girl
in the face. About a year ago Henry Watterson
threatened to summon one hundred thousand
men here to escort Tilden to the White House.
But they never appeared. Tilden did not reach
the White House, and Watterson has not been
seen this winter in Washington. But looking
on the fair rows of cousins that assist at Mrs.
Hayes’ receptions, at Mrs. Evarts’ five unmar
ried daughters, at the girls without partners
at the germans and assemblies, we often think
what a pity those one hundred thousand men
did not come and remain here, for what availa
ble escorts, serviceable partners and agreeable
beaux, a little training might have made them.
Tlie Southern Enterprise.—The May
number of this reliable immigration, agricultu
ral and horticultural journal, published in At
lanta for the remarkably low price of $1.00 per
annum, will be out this week and will be as in
teresting as usual. One man subscribes for 500
copies of this number, and many hundreds of
copies will be sent North, and to Paris. Suc
cess to our friends Jenkins & Newman; they de
serve success ; they have faithfully earned it -
they have it under remarkable disadvantages.
Dp. W. P. Harrison.—Our people are
all delighted to note the presence of this dis
tinguished and beloved divine in attendance on
the conference, and it has been announced that
he will preach the first sermon in the new
church on Sunday morning.
lligli-tonefi Wnsliiiixton Youths.
‘Roberts’ says she wishes she were a man that
she might go to the Theater Comique, or stand
on the corners, or on the hotel steps, dressed
in the latest style, and pull at that hirsute ap
pendage which to call a moustache would be giv
ing an airy nothing a local habitation and a
name, and say, ‘By Jove, she’s a stunner; a
pretty form she has got; damned pretty girl
that; like to get acquainted with her, just for
fun, you know.’ Or else one of those youths
who go around in bran new spring suits which
they fondly imagine they paid for, but they did
not, their landlady paid for them, for what they
paid on the suit was deducted out of their board
and rent bill, which proceeding left naught for
the unhappy female, who sat on the curb-stone
howling. I see plenty of men walking around
the streets, handsomely dressed, their bouton
niere properly adjusted, who are luxuriating in
all these things at the expense of some one else.
They don’t pay their honest debts or their board
bills, and thereby can spread themselves. Poor,
hard-working women support half of the ele
gant youths and finely-dressed ladies in this
city.
The Old Reliable.—Twenty or twenty-
five years, or so long ago that the memory of
Atlanta people runneth not to the contrary, a
gentleman established himself as a jeweler on
Whitehall street, and by close attention to busi
ness, honest and fair dealing, won and has
held and holds to this day, the confidence of
the whole people. What he sold for a genuine
article was always found to be just what he rep
resented it, and if it was spurious he notified
the purchaser to that tffeci. The wars came,
the city was destroyed and its people scattered,
but here again in the new city and at the same
stand we find this same genial, faithful and
large hearted jeweler, with a large and magnifi
cent establishment and still enjoying the entire
confidence of the public. Everything in the
way of solid gold, Bilver,plated ware, eye-glassesi
etc., he keeps on band and can satisfy any one.
He keeps the most skillful workmen, who will
repair in the very best style of the art any de
ranged watch, clock or broken jewelry. He can
tell you in a moment what kind of a glass you
wish for the eye, and will suit you perfectly. So
long and faithfully has he prosecuted his pro
fession that he understands your wants in his
line better than you do yourself and can fix you
up O.K. in a twinkling.
After this description need we call the name
of this individual who is so well known to the
people of Atlanta and those who visit it ? Every
one will recognize as the “Old Reliable,” Er
Lawshe, just now in the prime of life and
one of the best citizens Atlanta has ever hud.
Knowing him as we do personally and profes
sionally, it gives us great pleasure to speak of
him in this public manner.
Griffin Georgia-—Have you never been to
Griffin ? If not, you know nothing of one of
the best and prettiest inland cities in Georgia,
or the South. A passenger on the cars gets but
little idea of it from passing through, and no
little will be his surprise when he goes up the
main business thoroughfare to find so many
large and handsome stores of all kinds and such
throngs of stirring and active people intent on
business. We cannot now particularize. And
when he goes out the different streets his aston
ishment will be greatly increased at finding so
many beautiful and tasty residences. He will
find a great many elegant places which will re
mind him of the palatial southern homes of ante
bellum times—large and spacious buildings em
bowered in luxuriant evergreens and flowers of
every variety and shaded by venerable old oaks.
The most enchanting and home-like of all
American scenery is one of these Southern resi
dences, such as we have just described. One of
the best evidences of culture and refinement is
a flower garden around the dwelling, and almost
every residence in this delightful city is beauti
ful with them. And in those beautiful homes
are found a hightoned, generous and intelligent
people whose liberality is proverbial. They
have fine schools, one excellent female college,
and neat churches. They liberally sustain one
live daily paper, the News, at the head of which
is our fat, jolly and whole-souled friend Col. J.
D. Alexander, who is a veteran in the newspa
per struggles, and from his superior manage
ment has always been successful. He has re
cently associated with himself in the proprie
torship of the paper young Mr. Niles, a promis
ing and cultivated gentleman, and the son qf
the popular and successful President of the Fe
male College. In addition to the dailv paper,
they support a live and ably edited weekly, the
Griffin Sun, under the editorial management of
Capt. W. R. Hanleiter and Judge Pitt M. Brown,
with Mr. W. W. Randall as business manager.
Judge Brown is a gentleman of large and suc
cessful newspaper experience, and a universal
favorite with the people.
The soldiers cemetery which they have named
“Stonewall” is located in a beautiful grove near
the city, and the general arrangement and neat
ness with which it is kept reflects great credit
upon the patrio tism and devotion of the noble
ladies of the “Griffin Memorial Association,” of
which Mrs. A. O. Nunnally is the untiring and
universally beloved President.
Success to Griffin and all its people. We shall
have more to say of them after awhile.
The Rossini Club.—An audience gratifying,
both in number and appreciation, gathered at
Di Gives Opera House'last Monday night to enjoy
the third entertainment of the Rossini Club, on
which occasion they produced Yerde’s beautiful
Opera of 'll Trovatore.’ Owing to the illness of
Capt. Courteny, the difficult character of Count
De Luna was essayed by Mr. George Camp, who
only had very few days to give his subject a
study. Yet, possesing as he does, a fine baritone
voice and a handsome physique, he made it a
success and was greeted with marked esteem.
Miss Kennedy as Leonora sustained her repu
tation, and if possible, sang with more sweet
ness and vigor than she did on former occasions.
MisB Fisher entranced the audience by her ap-
perance as well as singing and the regret was
she could not be seen more. Mrs. Langgasser
we considered very fine. Her voice, her action
her wardrobe was excellent and with due respect
to the great talent there assembled, we accord-
ker the first honors. She was ably seconded by
Mr. Van Goidtsnoven who, as ever, did (veil.
Mr. Crenshaw, Mr. Hollingshed and Mr. Rich
were all well up. and gave much zest to the en
tertainment. The chorus was well delivered
and in good voice, especially in the ‘nun scene’
the melody of that still rings in our ears. We
must be pardoned in mentioning Mr. Miller, but
he entered into the play with so much life and
so much accuracy, that we cannot forbear.
The Rossini has done much for our social en
joyment, and we trust it will not be long before
they honor us again with another opera.
W03IEN WHO SATE.
Mrs. Hansen put fifty dollars in the oven of
her stove one night, to keep it safe. Next morn
ing after breakfast the national debt had been
diminished exactly that much. A student of
the curious would find it interesting to note
the places in which women hide their money.
One excellent and frugal dame used to tuck her
little savings away under a corner of the carpet.
The tiny roll of greenbacks grew fatter and fat
ter in the course of a ye&r or two, when, the
day after it counted up to two hundred and fifty
dollars, the house took fire burned to the
ground, and again the national debt was di
minished by a little roll of woman’s pin money.
There was that other careful lady, too, who used
sometimes to hide her diamond rings between
two teacups in the kitchen cupboard, sometimes
behind a certain brick in the cellar, and again
under the lining of an old hat. She had divers
other places of safety for her jewels also, the
only trouble being that she had so many hiding
places she occasionally forgot where she had
last put her precious things, and about every
three months would fancy she had been robbed,
and the house would be turned inside out, and
all therein made very uncomfortable until the
missing gems would be found carefully tucked
away in the folds of the bottom towel of the pile
in the left-hand corner of the lower drawer in
the clothes press at the east end of the dining
room. This periodical excitement about Mrs.
McGillicuddy’s diamond rings was the only
event which broke the monotony of an otherwise
rather dull life in a suburban residence.
Shakespeare knew the soul of the sex when
he made the “Merry Wives of Windsor” hide
Falstaff in a basket of linen, Their idea is to
hide things in places where people would not
be apt to look for them. It is unusual, perhaps,
for a woman to have much money to take care
of, therefore she puts it away in an unusual
place. An estimable lady used to hide her gold
watch and pocket-book under the inverted wash-
hand basin in the kitchen every night. A few
days ago a New York woman put her eight hun
dred dollar diamond ring in the folds of a lace
curtain. She put it there because that was a
place where thieves wouldn’t be apt to look for
it. A servant who was dusting the room shook
the curtain, and away went the diamond ring out
the window, and now its owner mourns for it as
one without hope. A most worthy lady not long
since died at her home, not a thousand miles
from Cincinnati, and after her death the family
found a large sum of money hidden away in an
ancient band-box full of old hats and bonnets.
It was her savings for several years, and nobody
knew she had it till after she was dead. When
ever a woman dies, who, like John Gilpin’s
wife, “had a frugal mind,” her anxious and af
fectionate heirs will do wisely to look for her
savings in all places in which money would not
all be liEely to be hidden.
Not for Joseph.
In Clinton, Illinois, there was a lovely maiden,
say of thirty-five, who fell desperately in love
with a rich young naan, and to prove the disin
terested rapture she felt for him and the ardent
nature of her gush, she hinted, as only a lady
of thirty-five, anxious to marry, can, that he
was the very finest man she ever came across,
and could make any woman happy by the sim
ple means of a preacherund a license. But the
rich young man didn’t see it. He didn’t nibble,
and in fact he staid away from there in a most
unproposing manner. But she was an enterpris
ing maiden, and so she went through some five
hundred novels in search of a good way to
catch a rich young man with a matrimonial
lasso; for,as the couple in a novel always marry
it is fair to conclude that the courting must be
good which results always in success. Well, at
last the fair reader came to ‘The Romance of a
Poor Young Man,’ wherein the point is that the
P. Y. M., being locked in a moonlight tower
with a lady, jumps off of the tower at the risk
of his life, sooner than stay up there and thus
compromise the lady.
‘I have it,’ said the fair reader, closing the
the book and going to the sexton of a lonely
Methodist church which stood some miles in
the country. Diplomatically besieging that sex
ton, she managed to wheedle him out of the
key to the steeple, which was high, and a spiral
stairway inside and only one window. Then
the rich, but cool young man and the designing
lady were seen one afternoon riding along that
road, and, stopping at the lonely church, to go
up in the steeple and view a fine article of sun
set. The couple climbed the stairs and stood at
the single window, admiring the lovely scene,
until the sun went down behind the west, and
the twilight crept o’er moorland and lea—see
any novel or poem for minute description. Then
the rich young man began to get skittish and
wish he was home, so he imparted a gentle hint
to his companion that they had better go, etc.
Now, the lady had locked the door of the steeple,
assuring the young man that it was the sexton’s
imperative command. Down the steep, nar
row stairs they came, and at the bottom the lady
felt for the key in her pocket, but no key was
there. ‘Gracious me,’ says she, in a most histri
onic manner, ‘if I havn’t gone and dropped the
key out of the window; it’s fifty feet to the
ground. What will become of us ? To stay in
this steeple all night with a man and show my
self afterwards unmarried would kill me,’etc.,
and she fell on the young man’s breast in a par
oxysm of weeping. That young man was cool
and businesslike ; he waited until she turned off
the water; then kindly seated her on the lower
step and started up stairs. ‘Heavnes, Joseph,
dear Joe, you ain’t going to jump?’ ‘Not if I
know it; you just wait.’
Presently he returned with a bright smile on
his face and the bell rope under his arm; gent
ly, but firmly, he took that thirty-five year old
young maiden up stairs up to the window, and,
in spite of her entreaties and cries, tied the rope
about her waist and lowered away. The con
ventional plowman, homeward plodding his
weary way, saw, as the moon rose, a party-col
ored ghost descending the face of the church
steeple, and he began to plod faster, at the same
time whistling a tune to keep up his courage
But curiosity, stronger than fear, caused him to
take just one more look at the apparition, and
what was his surprise to behold, against the
steeple two barred and stripped objects that
loomed like the clown s legs in the cirous. The
plowman stood rooted to the ground; an intense
fascination seized him; his eyes were set, and
he stood like a statue. Presently the object
touched the ground, and then down came ghost
number two, and, as it was a dark and mfscu-
line looking object, t^e plowman rallied from
approached the spot, when he be-
86n “ e “‘“ *