Newspaper Page Text
8
THE SUNNY SOUTH
MORSEL.
A TEXAS STORY.
BY MARY E. BRYA.Y
(See Engraving on First Page.)
“Dick, won’t you come and eat something-
only a mouthful of cassava, halted so nice,
and some fresh buttermilk. I’ve just churn
ed it. Pieai-e father, Dick.”
“Eat? How can I eat? how can 1 rest?
Good God! to think of sitting down to rest
and eat while she may be in the hands of
that villain gang. No Morsel; I am going
again; I’ve no time to eat. 1 must ride till '
find her.”
“But you have just now come. You
haven’t bad a mouthful to-day. You are
ready to drop. And your poor horse; he
white with sweat.”
“Rupe is saddling me the grey mustang.
He must be nearly ready. Here, hand me
my hat, little one. I must leave you again
in this lonely place. You are a brave girl.
Morsel—a good girl. If I get killed, or don’t
come back, remember there’s a little money
buried by the spring just at the foot of the
willow. Dig it up and go with it to Anita
Rey on the other side of the prairie. Ask
her to take care of you for the sake of one
she used to love, in spite of his faults.and has
forgiven—God bless herl Don’t cry, child. I
wouldn’t be any loss to you—I’ve never done
anything for you beyond giving you a shel
ter and a little bread.”
“You have done everything for me. You
picked me up in the streets of the big, cruel
city, you kept me from starving, you gave
me a home here with you, you never have
beat me or scolded me.”
“What would any one do beating and
scolding you ? I’d as lief hurt a sparrow.
There’s never a hand to be raised againstyou
in this house. Nina understood that from the
first.”
Morsel might have told him how often
Nina, the beautiful missing wife of a year,
bad disobeyed his injunctions, and slapped
the little pale cheeks, and pinched the tiny
ears of the waif, whenever she, the Spanish
bride, was irritable and nervous. And she
was often so when Dick was away. She fret
ted over the loneliness of the place and the
plainness of her surroundings. But the waif
who had called Richard Wilder “father
Dick” ever since he had found her four vears
ago half starved in the streets of San Fran
cisco, where he happened to be—the big eyed,
big hearted Morsel was too grateful to her
benefactor to make him unhappy by telling
tales out of school. She knew that he wor
shipped the beautiful woman he had brought
back with him from ano' her trip to the city.
She was a ballet girl who had fallen ill with
a fever thought to be contagious, and had
been left alone to die in the house w here the
honest ranchman was lodging while his wool
and cattle were being disposed of. Dick
found out the pitiable case, brought a doctor
for the delirious girl,nursed her with his own
hands and married her as sooif as she was
able to stand upon her feet. He brought her
to Lonesome Ranch, nearly restored and so
handsome that Morsel’s eyes widened with
wonder as she stared at the dark, delicate
face and silky, ebon curls of the Spanish
beauty. But unlike Dick, who worshipped
the ground his wife’s dainty feet walked up
on, Morsel had a vague, instinctive distrust
of Nina, and a fear that Dick’s happiness
would some day take wings and fly away.
This silent, bidden distrust mixed with the
feeling of pain and surprise that came to her
when it was discovered that Nina did not
return from the little village on the hills
where she bad gone to buy a new mantilla
and a pair of slippers, which she insisted on
choosing for herself, telling Dick that there
was no need for him to go with her, as Juan,
the mustang pony, would gallop the three
miles and back like a bird.
But the shadows lengthened, and no sight
of the black pony and Nina’s red plume
greeted the watching eyes of Dick. He
mounted his horse and rode to the village
only to bear that she had left there some time
ago.
This had happened the evening before. He
had been in the saddle ever since—he and
his friends, riding here and there, searching
for traces of the missing bride.
“1 can’t come back here without her, Mor
sel. I’d be no good if I did. I should be a
crazed man. No; I’ll live in the saddle from
now till I find her, or kill them that stole her
or dealt foully with her,” he said as he pre
pared to start out once more, fastening on
his spurs and examining his revolver, then
thrusting it back in his belt.
But he so far yielded to the child’s entreatie
as to consent to eat a piece of the baked cas
sava and a draught of the cool, fresh butter
milk.
He had approached the table when the
gallop of a horse was heard, then the ring of
spurs upon the floor, and two men burst into
the room and strode up to the table He
knew them both; one had been helping him
search for hi9 lost wife, the other bad gone
some days before on a trip to San Antonio.
Dick started to his feet.
“Bert,” he said to the first man, with a
quiver in his strong voice, “you have news;
what is it? Have you found her? Have you
heard of her?”
“Yes; Colton here has seen her.”
“Seen her! "Where? Did you bring her
back?”
The bearded traveler shook his head.
“You left her? You did not rescue her?
W retch ”
‘ Stop, neighbor,” said the other, leaning
across the table, and pointing his words with
a long, brown finger, “how was I to know
she needed rescue! She didn’t look like it.
8*.e was gallopin’ along mighty peart and
willin’ lookin’, side by side with a feller that
1 bear’s been sneaking around here lately—a
good-lookin’ chap, a soljer I’d swar, though
he wer in citizen’s clothes. She’s sloped with
him, Dick; that’s the upshot of it, ole feller.
She was a bad sort—some of us always ”
“Villianl Do you dare say that of my
wife?"
Dick’s hand was on bis revolver.
“It’s a liel” he cried as he drew the weapon
from his belt. “A black lie; coward!”
“I’ll not stand that, neighbor or no neigh
bor,” the other answered with an oath, and
his own revolver was out in an instant.
The two fired at the same time. Dick’s
shaking hand sent the bullet wide of the
mark. Colton’s ball would have pierced the
rancher’s heart bad it not been for the inter
vention of other bone and flesh—Morsel’s
arm near the shoulder received the shot.—
When she saw the pistol aimed at her guar
dian, she sprang upon his breast and clasped
him with her arms to shield him. She saved
bis life, but almost at the sacrifice of her
own. The wound and the nervous shock
nearly clipped her frail thread of life, and
for days she lay unconscious, nursed by
Anita, the brown-eyed, saint-faced girl
whom Dick had forsaken for the beautiful
sy« n. She had come with her mother in re
sponse to Dick’s desperate summons and she
helped him nurse back to life the child who
had saved him.
But for having to think and care for Mor
sel, Dick would,bave gone mad, or have fol
low! d his false wife and her companion and
killed them both in his jealous rage. And
she was not worth that an honest man should
stain bis soul with crime for her sake. She
bad not been wortn it when he married her
She had no right to bear his name—she who
bad already a living husband who had left her
in disgust. Her beauty had been her bane.
It was long before her image faded from
Die k’s fevered memory and be could realize
that be bad never loved her purely and truly
as be bad loved Anita—Anita, who was so
good and true, that he dared asked her to
forgive him and to stay evermore in his
borne at Lonesome Ranche and give him a
wife’s love and Morsel a mother’s care.
f When Adelina Patti was discussing certain
points cf the contract of her late Madrid en-
gegomonts. the following conversation be
tween the impmsario ard the artist took
place. “How much, medame, will be the
salary each time for you snd Signor Nico-
lini!” “Two thousand dollars, sir.” “And
bew truth for ycu alone, without Signor Ni-
oolini?” “Two thousand dollars,sir”— Herald.
N , ..iij'i 'ii t iiipi (in a dollar-ous
A. LETTER TO BILL. ARP.
From an Unknown Friend.
Dear Col. Arp: I have been wanting to
write to you for a long time, but being a
stranger to you, though you are none to me,
I have felt, as my old “maumer” used to say,
‘sorter timorish like.” But George Augustus
says that is foolish, and he is sure you must
have heard of us, and he has no doubt you
would be pleased to make our acquaintance,
being, as it were, fellow-agriculturalists.
The fact is George Augustus and I have
bought a farm, and though we have read a
great deal about farming, yet there are plen
ty of points every now and then on which
we would be so glad of the advice of a prac
tical farmer like yourself. For instance, is
there anything in planting on the full of the
oon? Old Uncle Tom (he is George Augus
tus’ “hand,” and such a good old mat, being
an exhorter in one of the colored churches
and a real Christian,be told George Augustus
the other day almost with tears in bis eyes,
that he would work for him so long as he,
George Augustus, bad a cent of money!—it
quite affected U", for it was so evidently the
genuine outburst of his heart.) says nothing
ought to be planted except on the full of the
moon, and everything that goes wrong in
the planting, somehow the moon has some
connection with; so I would really like to
know.
It is so pleasant to be able to sit under your
own vine and fig tree (although they have
no fruit on them, but that doesn’t matter, the
feeling is the same) and think you are “mon
arch of all you survey,” <t;bat is, as far as
your fence-line goes, and to feel the right of
proprietorship. To be sure, we have not yet
paid for our farm, but as George Augustus
says, that is a thing of time, and let the future
take care of itself, and why trouble to day’s
joys with to-morrow’s cares? and why worry
about paying until pav-day comes? Besides,
he says he has a splendid crop. Old Uncle
Tom says he will make a bale to tbe acre. /
have an acre planted. Won’t that be splen
did? I think I’ll come over to the Atlanta
Exposition on the proceeds. I would like so
much to see you there. George Augustus will
be over too. and it would give me such pleas
ure to bear you and him talk oh the different
topics of the day. George Augustus, my
dear Colonel, is no common man. He ought
to be in an eminent cfiice (which he ran lor)
but as he says true merit is never apprecia
ted But he says, should his ungrateful
country ever awake to a sense of her needs,
he will be found, a modern Cincinnatus, at
the plough, the marks of honest toil on his
brow. .1 do not think George Augustus means
this literally, for be does not know bow to
plough, but still, of course, every one knows
what he means.
Do you know, Colonel Arp, country life is
always represented as being so calm and
peaceful, and “far from the madding crowd,”
etc.; but really, I think it is rather ruffling,
on the whole. Somebody’s cows or bogs are
always breaking in, and really, it is so try
ing. Three strange hogs sleep under our
house every night, and they do groan and
snore so terribly that I cinnot sleep. Tte
other night aboil, tea-time one poor creature
groaned so dreadfully, and kept it up so long,
that I felt sure it must be in pain, and 1
begged George Augustus to go out and see
what was the matter with the poor thing;
but George Augustus is cold-hearted, I am
afraid, for he merely remarked that he would
give it something to groan about. Then he
went out and took a brick and threw at it,
and then it commenced to squeal horribly,
and the dogs got at it, and George Augustus
could not make them let go, (of course if they
killed it he would have to {lay for it) and so,
for about an hour there was a dreadful hur
rah going on between George Augustus and
the dogs and hogs. I caught up tbe broom
stick and ran out to try and help separate
them, but when I got out I was afraid to go
too near, for George Augustus and tbe dogs
and hogs were all in a sort of confused mass,
rolling about on tbe ground; so I stood off at
a little distance, and tried to hit at them
when they come near; but of course, in such
a cod fusion my aim was not correct, and after
striking out once or twice rather indiscrinr-
nately, and each time hearing an awful yell
from George Augustus, with an exclamation
that I had broken his head, and he wished 1 d
go back in tbe boose, I did so. When the
battle WES over, and George Augustus re
turned into the bouse, he looked pretty wild
eyed and exhausted, and said save him from
bis friends. And he said a dreadful word
besides, and which I don’t like to write, and
which makes me afraid that perhaps farm-
life is having a demoralizing effect on George
Augustus, who is usually a man of mild tem
per.
Well, I will write no more for the present
Ah! Colonel Arp, what a farm yon and I
could have run together. Why, oh, why, did
not we meet before Mrs. Arp and George Au
gustus crossed our paths! Bat what was to
be was to be; so there’s no use lamenting.
If yon are willing to assist George Augus
tus and myself in the agricultural furrow our
feet are endeavoring to tread, respond to this
appeal, and you will hear again from youj
unknown friend, Cornelia B limber.
RANDOM NOTES
Tom Nast was going to make a million dol
lars by investing $4o,or.o in a silver mine, but
be didn’t do it. All he did was to lose his
$40,000.
Mr. Tennyson’s latest poem is entitled “De
spair.” It bears the title on its face, and was
evidently written in a despondent, not to say
biilious mood.
The government has finally secured a can
non which will throw a ball twelve miles, and
the next thing is to bring on a war some
where within twelve miles of the cannon.
A Kentucky woman sat at tbe head of the
stairs while her daughter had a beau in the
room below. Bleep came to the old woman,
and ste rolled down and broke both legs.
L"rrt Bute is about to erect a new dock at
Cardiff, to be larger than any one now in ex
istence. Himself and family have already
invested over ten million dollars in docks
there.
It is now argued that the Venus of Milo is
n it a Venus at all, but a Victory, and men
are writing long articles to prove that the
rose of statuary would smell a great deal
8 wee ter by another name.
Daring a marriage ceremony at Topeka,
Kc. an old lover cried “fire.” The bride
fainted, the groom fell over a chair and
b oke h e eg, and two of the gues's fell down
stairs.
The rope with which Henry King was
hangi d at Plattsburg, New York, last
Friday, had previously been used to hang
fourteen other men. The Piattsburg people
are stingy with their ropes. They might
afford a new one for each victim.
Miss Florence Nightingale is sixty-one
years old, but does not look over forty-five.
She has an English face, round and fall, and
is pretty stou r , weighing about 165 pounds,
she is an iuvaiid, at least she cannot walk,
and receives al! her visitors either lyiDg upon
a lounge or sitting in a big chair.
Blind Tom, when at his Georgia home,
stays at his piano night and day, playing
most of the time. He has about seven thou
sand tunes in his head, and is constantly
picking up new ones. —Ex At a thousand
tunes (sheet form) to the square foot, it is still
a good head.
Ex-Governor Moses, of South Carolina, is
in j til for petty swindling in New York, so
friendless that he can not obtain bail. Ex
Governor Scott, of South Carolina, is on
trial for murder at Napoleon, Ohio. These
are sample relics of the reconstruction pe
riod. Time at last sets all things even.
Mapleson has a new tenor, a young man
named Prevost, who kuows nothing of music
as yet, but who has a magnificent voice, and
who, when he carried the high C splendidly
in “Trouvere” the other night, scored such
a success as to bring down the house. Tbe
critics think that in half a dozen years from
now Prevost will be tbe greatest tenor alive.
Baldwin who stole two millions of money
from the Jersey bank, of which be was Cash
ier, is not yet in jail, only somewhat embar
rassed socially by having a police to attend
him in his house. He has confessed his guilt,
bat hi w he got through with two millions of
money is an unsolved mystery. It will torn
out that he gambled tbe bulk of it away in
Wall street. He bad relations of one sort or
another with a score of bouses that deal large
ly in stocks, and among the men who talk
about him there isone whosayshe has known
him to plank down $150,000 at a single ven
ture. Must of his operations, however, are
believed to have been carried on through
third parties, so that the men in the bank
should not get a clue. Anyhow, he has
s-nasbed tbe bank to smitfaanecs, and both
the stockholders and the^^Wtors are in a
decidedly bad way. If to jail, as
seems certain, he will bthird distin
guished guest of the same kind provided with
prison hospitality by New Jersey. Two oth
er bank cashiers are enjoying it now.
Cholera is said to be spreading in the south
ern provinces of Japan.
Chicago ought to make a good show of
‘b.led” shirts. She has 367 laundries.
A quarter of a million dollars more will be
rf quired to help the sufferers by fire in Michi
gan through the winter.
If a bank cashier, with the whole board to
watch him, can steal $2 6oo,coo, how much
can the uuwatcfced board steal? Referred to
Cashier Baldwin.
A Texas judge knocked six months off a
ninety-nine year sentence in order to show
the prisoner’s friends that he was willing to
give him a chance.
The Elmira (N. Y.) Board of Education is
considering a proposition to establish school
savings bauks m connection with each of the
district schools of the city.
There will be a transit of tbe planet Venus
net oss the suns disc on the 6.h of December
1882, which phenomenon will not again occur
uotil the 8t*n of June, 2004,
Large numbers of tenant farmers in all
parts of Ireland are said to be paying their
rents, according to tbe instructions issued by
the Land Commission.
Boston has this year shipped 2,000 barrels
of rum to African ports, and will probably
decl ire hersell “off” on further missionary
work for some time to come.
«A company is forming with a capital of
£3,000,000, under tbe auspices of a member
ot the royal family, for the purpose of pur
chasing waste lands in Ireland to be relaim-
ed and let or sold to tenants on easy terms.
The tide of immigration continues to flow
with increasing force. Since January 1,328,-
650 men. women and children have been
landed at Castle Garden. Tbe commissioners
continue to report that the immigrants are
of a better cluss, as a rule, than ever before,
and that netirly every one brings a little cap
ital.
^H. B. T. Strangways, understood to be con
nected with South Australia, writes to the
L ndon Times respecting the rumor that the
Qieen was about to confer hereditary honors
ou tbe wealthy colonists, that any attempt to
create in the colonies an hereditary aristoc
racy would be strongly disapproved by the
great body of colonists.
A member of the ex-Khedive’s harem has
written such spirituelle letters from Monte-
catmi to a friend in Paris that they are to be
printed forthwith. The description of the
place and people, and, above all, of the com
position of the barest, with still more curious
details concerning its lord aud master, will,
it is asserted, render the forthcoming Lettres
d’uue Odalisque a most interesting literajy
production.
During the laying of a sewer trench in
Providence, R. L, a horse attached to a street
car, that was passing by tbe side of tbe trench,
becoming frightened, jumped squarely into
the excavation, which was so narrow that he
did not go to the bottom, but stuck in it. A
workman was immediately underneath the
horse, and tbe animal made his feet fly so
rapidly that be hit the man on the head and
back several times, and hurt him badly.
Both horse and man had to be hoisted out of
the excavation.
FOR LADIES ONLY.
Styles, Marriages, Anecdotes, Sociables
Slanders, and General Gossip
About the Sex.
The Queen of Sweden has for a device a
swallow with the motto, “To Seek the Best.”
Oliver Optic has put forth his seventy-fifth
book. He is a regular optician to see so
many.
Tbe Vienna journals went into ecstasies
over the dresses of Patti, ordered by her for
her American tour.
Madame Patti says tbat she is going to
sing for two years more and then retire be
fore her voice fails her.
A Philadelphia girl is pressing her third
breach of promise suit. She must have eith
er money or a husband.
An old lady out West, who sells eggs, has
over her aoor: “New laid eggs every morn
ing, by Betty Briggs.”
Tbe 6a: field fund is now $400,000. One
family alone in tbe past week has given $45
000, each three giving $15,000 apiece.
Madama Janauschek has a new play called
tbe “Doctor of Lima.” It is by Salmi Morse,
the author of that tabooed Paseioh Play.
As lawyers women are prospering in the
United States, there being 140 law firms in
this country conducted entirely by women.
Cincinnati girls dress so near like men this
fall that many mistake! might happen but for
the way they crowd pedestrians into the gut
ter. That reveals the sex.
Miss Howard, the author of “One Sum
mer,” is described as a tall, plump pretty
blonde, with tbe most golden of gold hair,
delicate complexion and blue eyes.
A Newark girl has traded herself and her
fortune of $3oo oco for the privilege of being
called the wife of an Italian connt who wears
one shirt three weeks without washing.
It is asserted by Western papers that many
Indian women are bought by white ranchers,
who work them as slaves; while their half-
breed children draw rations from the govern
ment.
A Vicksburg man carried a carpet-bag four
blocks for an old lady and she remembered
him in her will for $5,o.-o. Keep your eye
out for old women if you want to amass
wealth.
A St. Paul druggist has sold thirty-six
pounds of chalk to one young lhdy during
the past two years. She eats it to make her
white. That mnch chalk would have suf
ficed a carpenter to aid in shingling 780 horse-
barns.
Albany, N. Y., boasts of a female bill
poster. Washington goes her one better on
a female lamp-lighter, and says “she goes
about with her lantern as regularly as can
be, runs up tbe posts like a squirrel without
a ladder and knows no fear.”
Patti sings sweetly, but when she imagines
that Americans will pay $10 apiece to hear
her voice she’s way off the scale. We don’t
believe there are 2,coo people in the United
States who would pay over $3 to hear the
sweet toots of Gabriel’s own horn.
The electric light, as adapted to theatres
and tbe ball-room, is said to be death to
blondes, and one consequence is to be the re
vival of brunettes. This makes it bad for
families who already bave two or three
blondes on hand, unless they can exchange
them for brunettes.
HUMOR.
“Shall the husband keep a wife informed
of bis business affairs?” asked an innocent.
There is no necessity. She will find out five
times as much as he knows himself without
the least trouble.
“Did he teach you to lief’ they asked a
boy concerning his employer; and the lad
drew himself up proudly and said, “No, sir;
he couldn’t do it. I’m a son of a Congress
man.”
Sir Richard Steel, when trying to account
for some Irish characteristics, declared by
way of apology for them, that if an Eng
lishman were to be born in Ireland he would
undoubtedly do the same thing.
Has John obtained a situation yet?” asked
an old gentleman of bis daughter, John being
her betrothed lover. ‘ O btained a situation!
Why, pa, how disgusting! No; but he has
accepted a position]”
The following is hard to beat for pathos
and soul stirring sentiment:
Here pize and kakes and Bier I sell,
And Oisters stude and in the shell,
And fried wuns, too, for them that chews,
And with dispatch blacks boots and shews,
Patrick having been told tbat Dr. Peter
had found an asteroid, remarked: “Bedad,
he may have his asteroid, but as for myself,
I prefer a hoss to roid.” This is the origin of
their hoss -tilities, and they both saw stars,
for one come-et the other.
Ah! It is remarkable how physicians love
music. One hardly ewer comes without
bringing a vial in.—Syracuse Standard.
Yes; vials are the cymbals of their profes
sion-— Herald. They coru-et until loot-sore,
and notes still follow them on their charge-er.
Keep up with procession, young man • close
up to the band. If you ever full to the’ rear
w here the elephants are, you are apt to get
trod on .—Ex And thus the doDkey “is
marching on.”
An indignant old man whose daughter had
failed to secure a position as teacher, in con
sequence of not passing an examination, said:
“They asked her lots of things she didn’t
know. 'Look at the history questions! They
asked her about things that happened before
she was born! How v, as she going to know
about them? Why, they asked her about old
George Washington and other men she never
knew 1 That was a pretty sort of examina
tion!”
A writer in the Rural Home says: "I have
just made gates to replace some old-fash
ioned pairs of bars tbat 1 am heartily tired
of opening and shutting. They are cheap,
durable. and very easily made. Each gate
is twelve feet in length by four feet in height.
Five boards four inches'wide are used, be
sides battens and braces. Battens should be
placed on both sides,making three thicknesses
to nail through. It does not take more than
thirty-three feet of boards, worth, perhaps,
sixtysix cents, to make each gate. Add to
that ten cents for nails, and the value of one
hoar of time, and yon have the whole ex
pense. A gate of this kind will outlast a
frame one costing four dollars, and as no
hinges are used, that expense is saved also.
A bridegroom slapped his bride’s face two
hours after marriage, as they were about to
take a train at Whiteside, 111., for a honey
moon tour. Recovering from her surprise
she belabored him over the head with a cane,
and they had the satisfaction of being mis
taken by everybody for old mamea folks.
Ingersoll’s Tricks of Rhetoric.
One of Col. R. G. Ingersoll’s tricks of rhet
oric—tbat of writing his graceful prose in
unconscious blank verse—was pointed out a
few mouths ago, when his attack on Christi
anity and J udge Black’s reply appeared to
gether. It requires no great stretch of im
agination to detect the same peculiarity in
the eloquent orator’s new diatribe in tbe
North American Review. The following sen
teuces are iambic pentameters which halt
scarcely more than the labored productions
of some poets:
We did not get our freedom from the Church.
r l he great truth that all men are by nature free
Was never to d on Smia’s barren crags.
Nor by the loneiy shores of Galilee.
II the lot of countless millions is to be
internal pain better a thousand times
That ail the constellations ot the shoreless vast
Were eye.tss darkness and eternal space.
Better that all that is should cease to be.
Better that all the s< eds and springs of things
Should fail and wither from great Nature’s
realm.
Better that causes and effects should lose
Keiation and become unmeaning phrases and
Forgotten sounds Better that every life
Shou d change to breathless death, to voiceless
blank.
And every world to blind oblivion and
To moveless naught.
Batchering Day.
Kant, the German philosopher had plenty
of courage and presence of mind. As an in
stance of it-, in one of bis solitary walks an
insane butcher, a large knife m his hand,
rushed at him furiously. Kant looked straight
at him and asked : “Is to-day butchermg
day ? I believe it is t-omorrow.” Happily
the insane man was thrown off his guard by
tbe rerereuce of his calling, and allowed the
philosopher to pass undisturbed.
A Paris correspondent says tbat Mille
Alice Grey, who was recently married, is as
flat as a pan-cake, as cold as a Texas norther
and as grave as an owl. Neither is she grace
ful or attractive, and she is on the shady side
of thirty. But she has splendid eyes and is
enormously rich. Her husband, Monsieur
Nilson, is a clever Englishman of forty,
whose father first introduced gas into France!
Tae Queen of Spain.—The Paris Figaro
i3 responsible for this story: It is now whis
pered that the reason of the ex Queen of
Spain’s intimacy with our American princess,
Mrs. Mackay, was that the fair Californian
had loaned the Q leen some thousands of
francs, for which that lady had given her
note. Monsieur Mackay attempted to collect
the sum loaned when the note became due,
but her Majesty blandly informed him tbat
she never paid such things; that she consid
ered tbe debt canceled by the introductions
and invitations she had given.
Mrs. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. of Boston
has intnoduoed a novel kind of broidery,
which bears a relation to ordinary needle art
similar to tbat borne by the _ picture s of tbe
impressionist to ordinary paintings. There
is a dash about the patterns which has a
very striking eff tt. The work ts done by
combining fless-silk and worsted together
with silk and cotton thread on a background
of silk or satin. There is no regularity of
stitch, or parallelism of the threads, or exact
number ot darnings. One of these designs is
thu3 described by. an eye-witness:—’ On a
dark blue silk ground, imitative of an even
ing sky, there stands out in the foreground
the gnarled limbs of a New England fir tree.
Dark masses of foliage, made by the thick
onlaying of masses of worsted, indicate the
irregular growth! Tee sheen of the moon on
the water is expressed by silvery lines of
white thread, and off in the distance is the
red lamp of some lighthouse.” The scenes
are highly realistic, and remind one of the
Japanese method.
There is a story of a fashionable New York
lady, who, some few years ago, gave a mas
querade ball at her summer house in New
port. The dancing was on the lawn, and the
guests were requested to be there half an
hour before dark. Tbe hostess wore tbe cos
tume of night, and in the daylight her black
dress, covered with ivy leaves did not at
tract special attention, but when she appear
ed in the gay throng after dark she present
ed a perfect blaze of light-,and was tbe centre
of the admiring and wondering company.
Tremulous waves of reddish yellow flame
seemed to move over her entire dress, while
in a cap on her head gleamed one great fiery
star. The cause of this illumination was the
phosphorescent light of more than five thous
and fire flies. For weeks previous to the ball
the designer of the costume had been storing
away fire flieB,and on the day of the fete they
were rapidly put on tbe dress. As the light-
giviDgspot is on the ventral surface, each
one was placed on its back and held down by
a fine silver wire, so skilfully caught that it
could not turn over or escape, aud was not
injured. The star was formed of many
beetles.
Spiders Obstructing the Telegraph —
One of tbe chief hindrances to telegraphing
in Japan is tbe grounding of the current by
spider lines. Tbe trees bordering' the high
ways swarm with spiders, which spin their
webs everywhere between the earth, wires,
posts, insulators, and trees. When the spi
der webs are covered with heavy dews they
become good conductors, and run the mes
sages to earth. Tbe only wav to remove the
difficulty is by employing men to sweep the
wires with brushes of bamboo; but as the
spiders are more numerous and persistent
than the brush users the difficulty remains al
ways a serious one.
Corn and meat will command a higher
price next year than many can afford to pay,
10 invest in cotton raising on the present slip
shod system in the South. No question
about this. And no question about tbe
urgent demand that every farmer prepare for
tbe breakers of 1882. How shall he do it?
Save all the rough he can, save everything
that will feed man or beast. Chicken corn
can be cut, cored and housed until frost.
Where abundant, the heads could be cut,
even after frost, in such quantity as would
feed our stock of all kinds for several months.
The native water grass growing along oar
ditches and waste places, should be boused
for hay. Rust-proof oats, barley, rye,
should be sown—the sooner the better. If
we cannot sow largely let ns sow only a few
rctjs.
At a church in Scotland, where there was
a popular call for a minister, as it is termed
two candidates offered to preach, whose
names were Adam and Low. The latter
preached in the morning, and took for his
text, “Adam, where art thou?” He made a
very excellent discourse, and the congrega
tion was very much edified. In the after
noon Mr. Adam preached upon these words:
■ ‘Lo, here an L" The imprompt and the
sermon gained him the appointment.
None to Speak of.
The New Vicar’s Wife: “Who lives next
door to you, Mrs. Brown?” Mrs. Brown:
“The Jugsnus, Marm.” N- V. W.: “Have
they any family?’ Mrs. B.: “Well, marm,
their eldest boy, be were hanged; ana their
second son, he'sa-doin’ seven years; and their
gal, the eldest leastways, she’sa-doin’a year;
and two on their other boys, they’re in a
reform’try; so I may say as they ain’t got no
family to speak of!’’
Bar Girls.
An observer has taken 1000 notes of the
conversation of passing young women. Out
of tbat number 780 began with either “And
I said to him,” or *He said to me,” or “She
told me that he said.” 120 referred to dresses
or hats that were either “perfectly lovely”
or “just splendid,” ana the remainder were
pretty evenly divided between comments on
other girls, who were “horrid” or “stuck up
and hateful,” new novels, studies, the sum
mer vacation, and the latest scientific dis
coveries.
Practical Times.
These are practical days, very practical days,
Remote from the chivalric and weary long
ways;
Leanders and lutes, gallant knights and
spurred boots
Are never now seen, never seen—gone West.
The beau of the times—harshly practical
times—
Treats coldly theubject of love in his rhymes,
Talks dryly of gruel and clothing and fuel—
Is he green? Not much! Nut at all! No,
not he!
The belle of the times—God bless her—
How charming her dressmakers dress her,
She can talk of ceramics, evolution, dy
namics—
Of archery and cooking a thing or two knows.
“TENT THOUSAND THANKS.”
I M. Woolley’s Opium Antidole
Still Cures the Afllicted.
Sand Bridge, S. C., July 22,1881.
Mr. B. M. Woolley—My Dear Friend : I
leceived yours of the 16th inst., asking what
bad become of cue, and was glad to hear from
you. I am truly sorry 1 did not write you
ere this. I can now say to you that 1 have
left off taking your medicine ever since the
4th of February, 1881, and I feel no need for
opiates. My health is in good condition. I
feel that I can return ten thousand thanks to
you and your medicine, for I was almost dead
when I began its use, but am now entirely
cored. I sincerely hope and pray that you
may ever live to do good to all the Opium af
flicted. You can use the above as you see fit.
I remain Yours truly,
NELSON GROOMS.
The Power of* the Press.
In po way is the power of the press more
surely shown than in the universal knowl
edge that has in less than a year, been dif
fused throughout fifty millions of people of
the wonderful curative properties of that
splendid remedy, Kidney-Wort. And tbe
people from the Atlantic to the Pacific have
shown their intelligence and their knowledge
of what is in the papers, by already making
Kidney Wort their household remedy for aU
diseases of the kidneys, liver and bowels.—
Herald
Kahoka, Mo., Feb. 9, 1880.
I purchased five bottles of your Hop Bit
ters of Bishop & Co., last fall for my daugh
ter, and am well pleased with the Bitters.
They did her more good than all the medi
cine she has taken for six years.
WM.T. MCLURE.
IN MEIORIaH.
The angel ot death has for the first time enter
ed the Grammar Department of Walker Street
School, and gathered to his cold bosom one of its
fairest flowers.
On the morning of Monday. October 31, 1881,
the scbool-bell rang as it has morningaftermorn-
ing for ten years past, to call the pnpils to their
naces; but on that day one seat was vacant; one
iright little face was missing, snd the pupils ef
the first grade felt no desire to stud*’, forthey had
just learned that their loved class-mate, Bertha
Caldwell, had passed over the river of death to
the better life beyond.
Dear little Bertha! than whom no brighter, no
better loved pupil could hold a place in the hearts
of her teachers and classmates. Indeed, the dear
girl’s short life story might be told in in one
word- sunbeam. She was gentle, cheerful, docile
and affectionate.
If at any time she thonghtlemly violated a rule,
one look from her teacher was sufficient punish
ment. as the loving little heart would ache un
less the look were followed by a smile of pardon.
And if any littie misunderstanding arose among
her playmates, her’s was the hand first raised to
smooth away the frown from the ruffled brow.
Tes, dear little friend, we shall long miss you
from our midst; we mourn for yon, and deeply
sympathise with your bereaved parents in their
great grief. Still, to the stricken mother we
would say that,
“ Even for the dead
We may not bind our souls to grief;
Death cannot long divide ;
And is it not as if
Tour Bertha were a rose
That had twined
Above vour garden wall
To blossom on the other side"”
Her Classmates.