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£' > ^ r ? /- The Cedartown Advertiser [Published every Thursday by ID. B. FREEMAN. Terms: S1.50 per annum, in advance. OLD SERIES-VOL. VII-NO. 8. CEDARTOWN, GA., MAY 6, 1880. NEW SERIES—VOL. II-NO. 21. THE OLD GRIST MILL. By Willow brook, beneath the hill. Stands quaint and gray the old grist-mill. Spring mosses on his steep rrof grow. Where broad their shade the w lions throw. The pond near by ia clear aEd deep. And around its brink the alders sweep ; The lily pads spread gay and green, The lilies white and gold between ; While grinds the mil) with rumbling sound, The water wheel turns round aud round. Among the reeds tbe muskrat dives, And swift "the swallow homeward flies T^e robin sits in cedars near, Y/hen Willow brook runs swift and e'ear ; The children by the school house play. Where slumberous shadows softly stay, And warm and low the summer breeze Is whispering through the willow leaves, While grinds the mill with rnmbling sound, The water wheel turns round and round. The crows now wing their southern way ; The squirrels in the nut trees play ; With merry ehonta the echool boj'a run ; The mountains bltuh ’neath autum i*a sun ; Their grain they bring adown the hill, The farmers, to the old grist mill ; And faint from far o’er hill and dale Falls on the ear the thresher s flail ; While grinds the mill with rumbling souud, The water wheel turns round and round. Long years have come aod passed away ; The mill with age is gaunt and gray ; The roof gaps wide to rain and sun ; With oobwebs thick the walls are hung. The pond is overgrown with weeds ; The marsh-wren bnilds among the reeds ; The night winds throngh the willows moan ; The school house gone, the children grown ; The farmers sleep where w Id flow rs *row. Who brought their grain so lenj ago. When ground the mill With rumLliug sound. And the water wheel turned round and round. Red Wins. "Red wins!'’ It was tlie croupier's hoarse cry. ngain aud again reiterated, only diversified with that of "Red loses!” whicn broke the still ness in the superbly-appointed room at Homburg, with the gaming-table in its cen tre, round which were gathered its eager votaries, behind whom were the scarcely less interested groups of lookers-on. “Come away, my dear,’ 1 said a very love ly woman among the spectators, in a whis per to her husband. “I am sorry that wo came. This is no place for Pearl,” indicat ing with a nod of the head, as she spoke, an exquisitely beautiful girl, scarcely more tlian a child, of some twelve or thirteen summers, who stood beside them. "Come, Pearl,” the father said. But the girl stood entranced, her eyes fixed upon a man’s face seated at the far thest end of the table. It wns n strikingly handsome face, even when wearing, as it now did, an expression of calm, born of desperation. No tinge of color was in cither cheeks or lips. Ills eyes shone with a strange aud hard glitter, and were fixed upon the balls as they swung round, as though on the color uppermost hung his hope of life or death. And so it was. He had sat down pos sessed of a fortune; he arose a beggar! Fate had steadily pursued him with mock ing hopelessness, until he had placed liis last stake, only to see it mercilessly swept from him. He half arose from the table. What more was to be done, save to go out some where into the still night air and send a bullet through his heart or brain. It was at this moment the girl, with flushed cheeks aud lrnlf parted lips, darted up to his side. “Take this,” she pleaded, “far my sake,” and pressed a gold piece into his cold hand. He turned. To his excited imagination Bhe seemed scarcely mortal in her pure, childlike loveliness. Ills first impulse was to return her offering—-he was not yet an alms-taker—but again rang out the croupier’s cry of command to place the stakes. Tbe child stood breathless in her eager expectancy, her eyes burning with feverish interest. A sudden impulse overmastered him. Without speaking a word, he placed the gold upon the table. The next minute a small pile of gold was at his elbow. He staked it all again. Again he won. A bright spot of scarlet replaced the pallor in bis cheek, which spread and deepened as Dame Fortune, who had so persistently frowned upon him, now re served for him only her smiles. Morning was breaking when lie rose from tbe tables, no longer a desperate mau, but with his fortune threefold returned to him. After his first winning lie had turned to return to the child her offering, but she had vanished. Should he ever find her, ever repay the debt ? He knew not; but, stand ing at last out under the clear blue sky, with a great weight lifted from his heart and brain, Harold Clayton vowed that it should be his life-search, but that the lesson tanght him should never be forgotten, and the gaming tables should know him never more. Six years passed, and Harold Clayton was winning name and fame in his own land, in his profession as an artist. Standing one night in a crowded assem bly, some one in passing touched him light ly on the arm with her fan, and glancing around, he met the smiling face of his hos tess. “Come,” she said, “I want to present you to my belle. If you can prevail upon her to give you a sitting, and transfer her coloring to canvass, you will render your self immortal. ” “la she, then, sorbeautiful ?” he question ed. ‘.‘Judge for yourself,” she lightly rejoin ed, loading him to a little group doing homage to the fair girl in its centre. “MiasRayburn—Mr. Clayton,” were tha formal words of the introduction, as Harold bowed in acknowledgement before the wo man whom his artistic eye confessed the moat beautiful that in all his wanderings he had ever met. Before the evening was ended he might have added, the first woman whom he ever loved, Bince she had awakened in him an Interest as new as it was strange. Through the next week her face haunted him. Then they met again, and the charm grew and deepened. He could not define it; he scarcely acknowledged it to himself; only away from Miss Reyburn he was rest less and uneasy, until he again found him self within the scope of her fascinations. let her nature remained an enigma to him. Although so young in 'years, so beautiful in form and feature, she seemed cold even to haughtiness, reticent almost to scorn. It was as though some exquisite marble statue had risen in his pathway, which might some day warm into life. She welcomed him whenever they met. with a manner which, while it gave him no cause for complaint, yet chilled the hope springing within his breast. One daj% on going to her home, the ser vant met him at the door with the an nouncement that she was very ill. This knowledge brought other knowlege—the fact that he could no longer conceal from himself that he loved her, and that on his hope of winning her hung his life’s happi ness. He went back to his studio, wretched and despairing, and seated himself at his easel. Ho had not meant to paint her face —liia brain seemed unconscious of liis fin gers, toil—yet, when the morning broke, it was her features smiliDg upon him from the canvas, and he remembered the words his hostess had uttered on the night he first had met her—that thus should he render himself immortal. lie grew pale and wan in the days of j anxious suspense, when those who watched ; over her couch knew not which would J conquer, the angel of life or death. But' there came an hour, never to be forgotten, j when he was admitted into her presence. She was very white, very fragile, but more beautiful than in the coloring of per fect health. A new expression,, too, was in the violet eyes raised to welcome him. "I am very glad to meet you again,” she said, gently. “I hear you have been anx ious about me. You were very kind. Then the words lie had not meant to speak burst from his lips. “Anxious?” he8aid. “Can a man, Miss Reyburn, perishing of hunger, hear of the famine without a shudder? I am preaump- I tuous, you will say. It is true. What is j my life, with its many settled pages In which your eyes could never look, that I should dare offer it to you ? And yet, puri fied by your love, I would try to make it more worthy. Tell me—answer me I If I serve H3 Jacob served for Rachel, is there hope that 1 may win you? “My darling! my darling! I love you! I cannot live my life without you! Will not you share it?” Lower and lower drooped the lids, until the long dark lashes swept the marble cheek, while the sweet mouth trembled; but tbe in omeutary weakness passed as she spoke; “Forget all that you have said, Mr. Clayton. It can never he.” “You do not love me?” lie questioned sadly. Again that swift expression of pain flitted | across the lovely face. “1 shall never marry,' 1 she answered; “but,” and in iter voice crept an almost pleading tone, ‘ ‘I need my friend very much, Mr. Clayton. Do not desert me!” “I cannot, ” lie replied. “To desert you would be to desert the hope of one day forcing you to unsay those cruel words— the hope which will go with me to my grave.” What was the barrier between them? This was the question ever ringing in Har old Clayton’s ear. As she looked when she pronounced hi3 doom, so lie had fancied she might have looked when the statue wanned into life. Since then, she had been colder, more dis tant than before; but he had caught the momentary expression, aud transferred it to the picture on which his every leisure moment was spent. He was thus engrossed one morning, ever striving to add new beauty to his almost perfect work, when a low knock at the door aroused him. “Come in!” he callc-d, then bent anew to his task, without so much as raising his head until a low, laughing voice sounded close beside him. “We were caught in the shower, Mr. Clayton; and I persuaded Margaret to seek shelter with me here. I did not dream she would find herself forstalled.” It was Mrs. Somers who spoke—the lady who had first presented him to Miss Rey burn—whose instruction he had, unknown to her, carried out. “Margaret,” site added, turning to her friend, “you have been sitting for your portrait, and did not let me kDow. Why have you kept it such a secret?” He had now sprung to his feet in time to see the rosy tide spread over Margaret Rey- j burn's face. It was a liberty I took without Miss Rey-! bum’s knowledge, Sirs. Somers,” he ex plained. “I assure you I have never been j so fortunate as to secure a silting.” “Well, you shall have one now, and you | must thank me for it,” site rejoined, while \ .Margaret turned away to examine the! sketches and studies lying about in profuse , confusion. * ‘Here are some sketches taken while I was studying abroad, Mias Roy burn,” said Harold. “Will you amuse yourself by looking at them?” “I will return in a few moments,” in terrupted Mrs. Somers. “Wait for me, my dear.” A word of expostulation rose to Mar garet’s lips, but too late. The door had closed behind the speaker. Silence fell between the two thus left behind, when a low cry arrested Harold’s attention. He sprang to Miss Reybum’s side. Her eyes were fixed upon a little sketch she held in her hand. It represented a gaming table, at one end of which sat a man, haggard, desperate, despairing, and by him a child, holding out to him a single goldpiece, with a smile in her eyes, and seemingly a prayer on hetjips. “You would know the history of that picture,” he said. “Let me tell yon. Y ears ago I was in Homburg. The gaming tables attracted me, and every night found me beside them, losing or winning accord ing to the fortune of the hour. One even ing the demon ill luck pursued me. I lost and lost until I found 1 was haggard. Mad dened, desperate, I resolved to put an end to my miserable life, when some one touch ed my shoulder; a child angel stood before me and slipped into my hand a piece of gold. ’For my sake!’ she whispered. The croupier’s hoarse call warned me no time was to be lost. I staked the gold and won, but turning to give her back her own she had fled. When I rose from the table I had recovered ail and more, but 1 vowed a vow to my unknown deliverer that 1 would never again hazard a dollar of the fortune I considered hers. I have never found her, Margaret. The child will never know her work, but I am not afraid to meet her, for I havo kept my pledge. “Harold!”—it was almost a whisper, but something in the tone made his heart give a wild, joyous leap—“have I known you all this time, and have you just found me out? It was this, Harold, which sep arated us. I dared not give my life to a man whom I had first known as a gambler. I supposed you still played, and I thought that to see again the expression on your face I had seen that night would kill me. Tell me, is it true? Have you never touched a card since?” “Never!” he answered, solemnly. “And it is to you I owe it—it and life. Pearl— little Pearl, can you not trust the man who has been so long faithful to the child to be still faithful to the woman ? My. own, you will not doom the life that you have saved?” But at this juncture, Mrs. Somers, open ing the door, beats a precipitate retreat. Harold's statue has warmed into life, and, pressing the lovely lips to liis, he thanks God that it is his oreath which has awaken ed it. The Trials of an Engaged Girl. Yell Fire In his Ear. J ust about midnight the other night four men in a Detroit saloon sat looking at a fifth. The fifth one was drunker than the other four. While all men were created equal, some men get drunk twice as fast as otlrcrs. ‘ ’It will never do to send him home in this condition, ’’said one of the four after a silence. ‘No, it would break his wife’s heart, ” added a second. “But wc can’t leave him here, and if we turn him out the police will run him in,” observed the third. “Ihavebeen thinking,’’musedthe fourth. “He has a telephone in liis house. Here is one here. I will make it my painful duty to inform his waiting aud anxious wife that he won’t be home to night.” He went to the telephone, got her call, and began; “Mrs. Blank, I desire to communicate with you regarding your husband.” “Well, go ahead.” “He is down town here.” “I know that much..” “in descending the stairs loading from the lodge room he fell and sprained Ins ankle. ” “Are you sure it wasn’t his neck?" she asked. “It is not a serious sprain, but we think it better to let him lie on the sofa in the anteroom until morning. Rest assured that he will have thb best of care. We arc doing cv .” “Say!” broke in a sharp voice. “You bundle him into a wagon and drive him up here, where I can keep him hidden until that drunk goes off! He won't be sober before to-morrow night!” “My dear mad ” “Get out! If he’s sleepy drunk put water on his head! That's the way 1 al ways do. ” "Will you let me inform you that” “No, sir; I won’t! Throw water on his head, get him into some vehicle and rattle him up here, for it’s mo3t midnight now and it vr!! take me half an hour to get his boots off and push him up stairs! Re mem uer—pour water on liis head and yell ‘fire’ in his ear!” | After all, the yoke of marriage in an ap- ; paratus that shotdd sit on two pair of j shoulders; and there is nothing very seem- ! ly in seeing a girl wait to wear her own | part of it until it has been nicely padded with quilted satin. Looking at the matter from a less elevated point of view, long engagements are rather tiresome in restrict ing the liberty of girls. Miss Jenny, who is going to marry Sir. Simpson as soon as that hopeful young man gets a living, is I obliged in the meantime to deny herself ; many pleasures, lest Simpson should take offense. IShe must eschew balls; she must take care that nobody makes love to her; and for this purpose she is obliged to let all chance comers be speedily informed of her engagement. Unhappily, the symbolism of rings is always unregarded, else tbe chance comers might discover the fact for themselves by looking at the second finger of Miss Jenny’s left hand. If Jenny has no sisters to talk of her betrothal, and if her mother does not accept timely hints to mention it an every necessary occasion, or the engagement is not announced the girl is rather embarrassed for words in which to convey the Dews delicately to strangers. She cannot allude to Mr. Simpson as “Johnny”—that would bo too familiar; she cannot speak of him as “Simpson,” for this would sound strange; bat if she refers to him fstquently as “Mr. Simpson,” strangers might draw undesirable inferences from her apparent familiarity with a person thus coldly specified. Then the engaged girl has to put up with a great deal of chaff, which is only pleasing lor a while, and af terward becomes intolerable. The trials of matrimony are frequently commended to her impatient attention by way of paternal rebuke: “Ah, my dear, you will find out that I was right when you ore a wife your self I” and so forth; or a snub is pul, upon her too hasty wish to consider herself free by tbe reminder that there is many a slip between the cup and the lip. Sometimes Simpson is actually held up to her as a bogey: “My dear, I don’t think Mr. Simpson would quite approve of your wearing that cherry ribbon;” “Jenny, dear, I think Mr. Simpson would be sadly grieved if he heard you express those opin ions;” or, “Jenny, I am sure Mr. Simpson world not think it proper that you should play croquet with Capt. Mallet.” There is enough in all this to make a girl sit down and scream. Han&ruroo Hunting. The kangaroo, as is well knowD, is found ODly in Australia and Tasmania. It, means of locomotion and defense are so pe culiar, and Its swiftness so great, that the chase of it is attended with excitement and dangers wholly unique. The hunting of the fox in England is over corn parati vely smooth ground and moderate-sized fences, with well trained horses, while the kangaroo lias to be chased over new country, full of holes covered with wild grass, over ditches,fallen trees, among trees, and their branches, on horses that have no superiors in the world in spsed. Then the dangers that you are to encounter when you o vertake the kan garoo, though not in reality extreme, are as great as those met in the tiger hunt as usually conducted, while in the latter you have not the excitement and danger of the chase. The place where I write is about 200 miles from the ocean shore, on the banks of a beautiful river, shaded with en- caiyp'.us trees. These trees are the natural growth of the country, cover a large part of it, and are believed, both here and in Eu rope, to so destroy malaria as to he a sure guarantee against fevers of all kinds. The couches are examined before retiring at night to see if there are any snakes in them; but none are found: A native, with two women, is camped on the shore near by. Their camp is a half-eircle of piled-us logs, fences as we found, and we jumped several of a height of four to five feet, always ap proaching them at a full run. We divided the party, half going to each side of a partly open plain. I soon saw a large kan garoo and two small ones coming towards our party. We waited until they were near enough to see us, when they made a right angle and went off at an astonishing pace, in jumps of fifteen to twenty feet in length, going from eight to ten feet in the air at each jump. We “went for” the big one, but he quickly got beyond our sight, the three already having distanced the dqgs. The kangaroo dogs hunt by sight like the greyhound. These three were all lost, we learned as we met at the point agreed upon. We next surrounded another large tract of forest plain and meadow, this time divid ing the dogs. In a few moments a hun dred or more kangaroos came bounding to wards the party with me. The dog with me started tor them, and all the dogs and men were at once in pursuit The kangaroos divided into several parties, each dog selecting one to follow, and each man following some one of the dogs. Sly dog went for a boomer,and I also, in comapany with two others of the party. The boomer stood up, took a long look at us, and then flew. We followed him among tbe trees and branches, jumping logs and debris of ail kinds, and across plains at a fearful rate. The horsrs needed no urging; their blood was up now. The dog ‘ ‘laid to it, ” but made no sound. When he would get near the kangaroo the animal would make a jump at right angless and change his course, while the dog would shoot on a distance before turning. After a run of this kind for some distance, the kangaroo started for a swamp. After reaching that, and going in a distance, he turned his face towards us, standing up on his hind paws to a height of seven feet, and prepared for battle. The dog went for him and the fight commenced. The dog succeeded in ;etting hold of his tail, and was carried in the air some distance by repeated jumps. The dog then lost his hold, and was seized and put under the water. Owing to my having the best horse, I was first to come to the dog's aid. I was warned by shouts not to approach the animal, but dis regarded them and showed myself a good kangaroo hunter. The animal proved to be eight feet long. The rest of the party killed two smaller ones, und later in the day, at another chase, another large one was killed. The females do not fight, but run so swiftly that they are rarely over taken. Air and Food. An English scientific paper remarks as a curious physiological fact, that although open air life is so favorable to health, yet it has the apparent effect of stunting growth in early youth. While the children of well-to-do parents, carefully Loused and tended, are taller for their age than the children of the poor, they are not so strong in after years. “The laborers’ children, for instance, who play in the lonely country roads and fields all day, whose parents lock their cottage doors on leaving for their work in the morning, so that their offsprings shall not gain entrance and do mischief, are al most invariably short for their age. The children of working farmers exhibit the same peculiarity. After sixteen or eighteen, after years of hesitation as it were, the lads shoot up, and become great, hulking broad- shouldered fellows, possessed of immense strength. Hence it would scent that in door life forces growth at the wrong period, and so injures.” The inference is plausi ble, but is wide of the mark. The children of the well-to-do are tall, not because they are kept in-doors, but because they are well fed und srved from severe exposure. The children of the poor are stunted, not by too much sua and air, but because they are ill Cars in the Arabian Desert. Mr. Russel], gives an interesting sketch of a run through a portion of the Arabian desert b’y a new railway route. We sub join an extract: “Blanched bones of camels lie in dull whiteness on the sand. Not a bird fans the hot silent air. Stones and land, and sand and stones, are ail and everywhere stretched out dead and hard under the blue sky and the relentless sun. The rail which conveys us through this desolation is single, and the line is said by English engineers to be very poorly made, as the French engineers who laid it out took it over a ridge 1,100 feet high, instead of following a low level near the river, which would have greatly diminished the expense and cost of working. The water and coal of the engines is to be carried by the trains out to the various stations. 8o they are like commissariat animals in a barren country, which have to carry their own fodder and diminish the public bur thens. The stations are helpless, hot, oven like erections, generally eked out by forlorn old wooden huts, within the shade of which may be seen an undoubted Englishman smoking his pipe. At th tlwelfth station we coaled; the train ended in the desert here; but at long intervals, for miles in ad vance, we could see the encampments of Arabs, who for the time had come navvies, and were engaged in picking and burrow ing, and blasting through the rocks a way for the iron horse. In a long, wooden shed —the centre of a group of tents—were laid out long tables, covered with hot joints of recondite animals, papiere mache chickens, aud lignite vegetables. This was our din ner—it bad come all the way from Cairo— so had the wine, beer and spirits. If manna and quails were at all eatable, we had en vied ths food of the Israelites. .. fed. Give the first class plenty of out-door three feet high, while on the open side to- , with the dic ? an / t , will be wards the water glares a brilliant fire, ; strou ’ a3 we „ „‘ a t 4 Gi ’ e t0the 1 aboror8 . lighting up them and the darkness with a , dlild * CI1 the food 8uitable for the i r years, lund, fantastic sayagencss. These natives | and n0 amouut of sun and wind will stunt resemble the African more nearly than theln- 0n tbe contrary, they will not have either of the other tour of the human races, t0 wait till age brin ^ c^y t0 turn nnn onmo wit limit. nmint. frnm tnnt ctnnlr . . , . f r J , 3trong food to boue and muscle, and time to overcome the evil effects of hard times in early iife; but they will grow from the first, steadily and sturdily. and come without doubt from that stock. Their hair cannot be strictly said to be either hair or woo), but most nearly resem bles the latter. They are of good size, dark brown, well made, and flon’t encum ber themselves with much clothing. One of their weapons of war is the boomerang, and it is a curious affair. It is made of very hard wood, three feet long, four inches wide, one inch thick at the centre, and bends edgeways so as to make a third of a circle. With the hand they are said to throw this implement 150 yards, cutting off the head of an enemy, and having the weapon return to the feet of the Bender. I have seen it thrown that distance and re turn to the person throwing it. The full- grown male kangaroo is called “boomer,” and is about seven and a half feet long from his nose to the end of his tail, the tail be ing about three and a half feet of this, and one foot in diameter at its base. He lives on grass, sometimes invading the fields of the frontiersman and eating up all he has. He stands on four legs when feeding, and at no other time. His tail is full of power ful sinews, but it is used only to assist in the equilibrium while sitting, standing on the toes and running. In a sitting posture he is about four and a half feet high ; but when he stands on his toes to survey the country or an enemy, he is taller than a man. He has a soft, gazelle-like expres sion, but the white teeth gleam between Tile Wire Age. Whenever, in walkinc or riding through the streets of our great cities and towns, the eye is directed upward, a perfect network of wires is seen stretching from building to building and from chimney to gable. The appearance is as if some huge spider had been at work silently and covered in the compact city, holding it a prisoner in the meshes of its nest. The view is bewilder ing, and it seems impossible that any prac tical or important us e can be made of these iron wires, so numerous as almost to shut out the sunlight. It is but little more than thirty years since only a single onecould be seen connecting some important building with another in a distant city, by which telegraphic communication was maintained; and forty years ago not even one teas visible anywhere. We live in the wire age of the world’s history, and a most interesting and wonderful epoch it is. We know that these iron lillamcnts subserve the purpose of nerves of thought and sensation, and over them, or through them, the world’s com merce is carried on. In the human organ ization we. know that if any accident or the lips. His color is brown, tending' in j event happens to the extremities, the fleshy age towards red or grey, according to the i nerves transmit instantly the news to tl.c species. They weigh (the male) from 150 jseat of sensation—the brain ; and so it is the divorccset aside on the ground of fraud, to 170 pounds each. The meat tastes with the iron nerves in the external world, somewhat like venison, but is not very eood, though the tail makes excellent soup. The female is under six feet in length, and is different somewhat in appearance from the male. The young, when born, are only an inch long, and are first seen nurs ing the mother in the pouch in front,where which science lias arranged; not an event of importance can transpire in any part of the globe which is not instantly “wired" to the great cities, and the news spreads everywhere with the rapidity of thought. Until within the past four years the wires were capable only of transmittingsignalsaif she carries them. They remain in this a complex nature, but easily understood poach till they are eight months old and and interpreted by experts; now, human weigh about ten pounds, and long after wards return to it on appearance of danger. When the mother is hard pressed by tbe enemy in a chase she. throws the young one beings talk with each other over the iron, and it seems to make, as it were, a unit of the great family of man. Words, actual words, produced by the organs of speech, Strange Devices. Society women in Philadelphia are ac cused of strange devices by the shop-keep ers. One storekeeper in the artificial flower business says it is quite a common occur rence to have ladies call on the morning be fore a ball and have handsome flowers sent to their residence for approbation, which are faithfully returned the next day, with perhaps the purchase of a fifty cent rose, and occasionally without making any pur chase at all, having thus obtained the adorn ments for one evening’s wear at the mer chant’s expense. Some time ago a carriage customer, it is said, ordered to be sent to her fashionable residence, for selection, braids, puffs and curls of a color to match her hair. As it was on the eve of a grand reception, the messenger was told not to re turn without the money or the goods. The lady played sick, the articles were sent to her room for examination, and the mes senger politely dismissed. Determirtff not to he humbugged, the storekeeper Bent a pe-emptory message demanding the return of the articles immediately, which was re luctantly complied with. out of the pouch, who thereby makes its es- are ever winging their way, with tbe speed cape. There are kangaroo dogs, very swift of lightning, over cities, across rivere and and strong, especially adapted to hunting the kangaroo; but no experienced dog will tackle them without somebody to back him. They jump about fifteen feet at a time usually, but sometimes twenty or more, and their swiftness is prodigious. Nothing can apparently overtake them in a fair race, and the usual way is to practically surround them. When hard pressed they place their back to a tree for the fight; or, in preference, they always strike for the water If then is any Bear. They try to seize their enemy with the fore paws, and then rip it from top to bottom with the middle claws of their hind feet, which are very sharp. If they are in the water they try to hold their enemy under it until he is drowned. They will always leave a dog to attack a man. At 9 o'clock one morning ten men, in cluding myself, started on horseback, with four dogs, on a chase. All were experi enced in the business exoept a young Eng lishman and myself. We took no firearms, a large stick being ths only weapon to be used. We had no difficulty In finding ths animals. It was disdained to aroid such mountains and woods, and voices are recog nized scores of miles away. The wires needed in cities for transmitting fire and burglar alarms, for police calls, time signals and other municipal purposes, are many in number; and when to these are added the wires for telegraphic and telephonic pur poses, the question of space or room for them becomes an important one. These wires must all be independent of each other; there must be no contact anywhere; else serious errors and complications occur. In Pniladelpliia tbe fire alarm system has been so often interfered with that the chief engi neer has called the attention of the city au thorities to the matter. The time is not far distant when additional wires will) become necessary for electric lighting, and,‘perhaps, warming. In the years to come the whole country will be covered with them unless some plan is devised by which electric currents can be conveyed in the earth by wires protected in tubes of clay or metal. It is certain that some method of this nature must be adopted, and that quite speedily. There is no saulptor like the mind. Match Hunting. Most people have no doubt observed at one time or another, and perhaps at various times during their lives, that matches not made in heaven, viz: lucifersare very often apt to come up missing, or else prove worth less at the most critical junctures. If you are a married man and the father of child ren, your opportunities for observation in this line have been, like a kind of paper, manifold. It is during the cold and frosty hours of a winter night that the interview ing of the family match safe is generally accompanied by the greatest amount of ill- luck, and, unless you are careful by pro fanity. About 2 o’clock, a. in., on a winter night your wife wakes you with a shake and yells: “John Henry, strike a light, the baby has the croup! ” Turning over in bed you reach for the match -safe at the head of the bed, and find it empty. This is a great disappointment to you, but you say nothing. Meantime your wife speaks again : “John Heury, will you ever get a light I This ohild will choke to death. ” With one bound you are out of bed and the next moment with arms outstretched in front, you run full tilt against the edge of the sitting room door, which stands about half way open. Such little incidents are good for you. They start the sluggish blood from the nose which you have bruised on the door, and disciple you in the art of holding your temper. To render the dis cipline greater your wife laughs in a sup pressed manner at yourmisfortune. Finally reaching the dining room you plunge wildly for the place where the match-safe is usually kept, and find it not. Then your over-taxed patience begins to flow away, and you say, mildly, of course: “Angeline, where is the match safe?” “In its usual place, my dear,” she re plies. ‘I don’t find it.” ‘Feel around on the floor. Perhaps the children havo knocked it down.” Then you get down on your knees and “feel.” Just as you have run a needle into your finger aud are about to express your self in positive aud forcible language, your wife says: “Oh, 1 think the match-safe is in the book case, where I put it yesterday to keep it out of the way of Jennie.” Another effort and tbe book-case is reached, opened, and the match-safe found at last. It contains two matches. With frantic haste you rub or.e on the under side of the shelf in the case. It fails to ignite. You have tried the wrong end, you think. You essay another effort withthe other end. A dull rasp is heard, but no fire is stiuck. Who under the sun uses mutches and puts them back into tbe safe again ?” yon ejaculate. No answer from the lied room. Grasping the last match, you ascertain by tbe feeling that it is one of those thin emaciated specimens, about as thick as a piece of paper. You “scratch” it carefully and hopefully. It breaks in two as it ignites and the sulphur falls to the floor witli a fizz and a sputter, the fumes filling your lungs. At this important juncture your wife’s dulcet tones are again heard: “John Henry Frelinghuysen, what under the canopy are you about ? nave you fallen asleep out there?” “Oh, j’es, I’ve fallen asleep. I have. I’ve fallen asleep out here, with my knees knocking together, with the cold. To morrow I’ll buy two gross of matches. One gross I’ll piie up in the bed room and the other gross I’ll open and place the boxes all around the house, so that a fellow can find anything he wants in this house. ” Then you make a desperate rush for the kitchen and find a box full of matches the the first time trying. Lighting a lamp you prepare to fix up a dose for the croup, when the last straw is laid on the camel’s back by your better half, who says: “Never mind, now, John, I guess the baby hasn t the croup after all, for she has fallen asleep again. ” Then, after making a mental vow to keep a light burning every night the re mainder of the winter, you shake the stove down, and in a fit of absent-mindedness, blow out the light and retire. This performance is a matchless one, when well executed, and is capable of countless variations. Burning Burns. “I Might At Well Inquire.’ There are undoubtedly many barns Recently a card of “To rent’’ was nailed burned from carelessness. In one case to a house ou Brush street, Detroit. It was recently, a match, which had been lit to af- a large card, and the printing was plain, ford a momentary light, was thrown down A bold line at the bottom said that people in the dirt on the barnfloor, where it started should inquire next door, and pretty soon a slow fire, which gradually extended to the i the calls commenced. The first man who haymow. In another instance an enter- came began: prising owner shot an owl in the barn and “Js the house next dcor to rent?” killed him—and burned the bam. When- i “Yes.” ever it is necessary to fire a gun about' “Then it is not for sale?” buildings, wool should be used for wadding, ' “Xo, sir.” as it will not readily take fire from the j “Isn’t, eh? I thought it was for sale,*’ he said as he went away. powder. Spontaneous combustion, it is be lieved, caused the burning of the other two, one by the heat from a big pile of buck wheat chaff, and the other by hen manure under the shed, mixed with straw and other manure. In some instances buildings have barely escaped. One of our citizens w as sitting in liis house one evening in Autumn, and happening to put his hand against the wall he found it so hot as to nearly burn him. Seeking for the cause, he found it to l>e heat from the banking around the dwel ling, winch was buckwheat chaif. He did not go to bed until that banking was re moved, The house would undoubtedly liave been burned before morning. Another man jus? at night loaded his wagon with the droppings from the barnyard, and then added some hen manure and ashes, and as it was late left the wagon and contents stand until the next morning. Fortunately he did not run it into any building, for the next day he found it on fire in three places. The dirt from a large grist mill was swept out of the back door, and here too a lot of shavings were thrown. One night the mill burned down, and the fire started at the very place where the debris was rotting. A farmer who leaves the hen manure to ac cumulate during the summer, or lets the horse manure remain in the yard, runs the risk of having to build a new barn. Every building should be kept clear of litter, within and without, and no violence will be done to chemical laws nor to good taste. A Rise in Diamonds. The next man stood looking at the card for full five minutes, and then called next door and said: “I s’pose that house i9 empty, isn’t it?” “Yes.” “Tnen it is to rent?’’ “Yes.” “How long ha3 it been to rent?*’ ■‘Only one day.” “How long will it be to rent?” ‘‘Can’t tell.” “Well, if I can’t find out anything about it here, I’ll go to the owner. I s’pose he’s in Europe, isn’t he?” “No; he’s in New York.” “Ah! that’s always the way. Well, if T conclude to take the house, 1*11 call around again.” The third caller was a lady. She looked in to the empty house and then called next door and said: “I see that you have a house to rent?” “Yes.” “Will it be painted thi3 spring?’* “Yes.” • “Was the last family ver3 T respectable?” “Yes. * “Has it ever been a boarding house?” “No.” “It has a cellar and hot and cold water?” “Yes.” “And folding doors and grates?” “Yee.” “Well, we have had some thoughts of moving this spring. I don’t much thiuk we shall, but if we do, and this house is to rent when we get ready, I’ll look through it.” The fourth caller wa9 also a lady. She looked in at all the windows, entered the Whether it be on account of the increas ed demand for diamond earrings, or on ac- couut of the decreasing supply of the pre- cious stones, both from the Cape fields and I back yard'and cMhai nexTdror the “Distncto Diainantino of Brazil, cer- "Can yon tell me if this darling little tain it is, that the price of fine diamonds j house is to rent?” has risen fifteen per cent. Dealers com- j “it is.’ ? plain, however, that they cannot get the j “It is’the sweetest little place in all De. higher price to which they have gone, as i tr0 it, and 1 know that a family would be the majority of purchasers insist upon the happy in it. It reminds me of a romantic old average of *5U to $75 a carat. They i little house in the outskirts of Paris. How are therefore obliged to use inferior stones! much is the rent?” to keep their trade going. There is really no difference between a good Brazillian alone and a good stone from the Cape, and the outer}' recently raised in London by a lady who discovered that the diamonds she had bought as Brazillian were Africans was a fanciful one. The frauds of the Dutch “Eighteen dollars per month.” ‘ ‘Eighteen dollars! That’s highway rob bery! Why, it’s a squatty little pig-pen, no sun. no air, and as gloomy as a prison! Y ou must be crazy! Do you think war times have come again? Tnat’s all I want to know. I didn’t care about changing, and English dealers afe perpetrated mainly j anyhow, but being out for a walk and s5- in cutting the Brazillian and Cape dia- mg tbe card up I thought I might as well monds m the old-fashioned styles of the In-! inquire.” dian stones, which were in vogue before the i Brazilian fields were discovered in 1730' * * * and which now have the value of antiqui- j Cust«r city. ties. The only superiority of the Brazilian j over the Cape diamonds is that the per I Michigan men, who have lately returned centage of fine stones is larger in South! fr° m Custer city, assert that the glory of America than in Africa. Thus, for instance m a thousand Brazilian stones three hun- ered fine ones may be found, while the Cape will not yield more than a hundred specimens of the same quality. The mo mentary scare produced among the posses sors of a “wealth of jewelry” by the re port that Hannay, the Scotch chemist, had discovered tbe secret of making artificial diamonds ha3 now entirely disappeared. He acknowledges that he never really made anything but “very small quantities of a substance like bort.” Bort is known in the trade as a dark brown stone similar to the diamond in its properties and of use only in cutting real stones or for drilling pur poses. Decca Muslins. A Novel Divorce Case. There isn’t much humor in law but some things that come out of the law are rather funny. One of these happened the other day and caused smiles all around, except on one man’s face. This man had come from Nevada at the request of a lawyer to have a decree of divorce set aside. He had packed off from his wife several years ago, and the woman afterwards married the lawyer, first, however, going through the form of getting a divorce. She hod not been long married to the lawyer when he followed the example of her first husband by withdrawing from her company. Then learning that there had been some irregul arity about the divorce, he set out to hunt up the original husband. He discovered him in Nevada and persuaded him to come to New York. The husband had not be fore heard of the divorce, and when the lawyer told him about it he was mad enough to pitch ill and smash it to pieces, just for spite. He did pitch in, and was helped by a lawyer who was a friend of the lawyer who had hunted him up in Ne vada. Proceedings were opened to have or something of that sort, and everything went on very nicely for awhile. But by- and-by the first husband began to think. Then he went to the lawyer who was act ing for him and told him to stop. The lawyer said lie would if his fee was paid. The man from Nevada said she did not owe any fee. He appeared in the case merely to oblige the other lawyer, and the latter was the man to look to for a fee. “Very well,” said lawyer number two, “then I'll go on with the case.” And go on with it he did before a referee, and before the Ne vada man could help himself the referee had made a report to the court and the court had ret aside the decree of divorce. The effect of this is to release the lawyer from his marriage to the woman, and to reinstate her as the wife of the man whom the law yer had brought on from Nevada to help him out of a snarl. The Nevada man didn’t want his wife given back, and the woman did not want to be reinstated, but the law said that was how it should be, and the lawyer can put his hand in liis pocket and ask the reunited couple, who had hoped never to see each other again, what they are goin^to do about it. Let this be a warn ing to other husbands, who have once got rid of disagreeable wives, to be mighty careful about accommodating lawyers who may possibly want to get rid of the same wives themselves. Had the Nevada man stuck to his camp, instead of coming to New York to oblige a lawyer, he would not have a wife thrown back on bis hands by the law, after she had got a secret di vorce from him and married another man. —The State debt of Iowa Is only $•00,000. —The regular charge for cremating a body Is $83. Tbe Decca muslins of India are among the most wonderful evidences of the hand- skill of the strange people of the mysteri ous East. These fabrics, which are spun and woven entirely by hand, and are the product of obscure and curious processes, unknown to and unattainable by the West ern nations, like the fabrications of Damas cus steel and the making of camel’s hair shawls; are marvels of ingenuity and skill, and they illustrate the poetry of cotton. The most delicate of these fabrics is known by the name of “woven air.” It can only be made in the early morning and in the evenings, when the air is full of moisture and the dew is on the grass. The process es by which it is woven are kept secret, and people who do the work are compelled first to pass through a long course of training and initiation. Their delicate wares are of such ethereal texture as to be almost invisi ble, and yet so enduring that they will bear washing and wear in a wonderful manner. This precious stuff is monopolized for the use of the ladies of the oriental harems, and is said to be worth hundreds of dollars per yard. A Florida Lad?. the place has forever departed. In these days when a stranger in buckskin, loaded down witn knives and revolvers, enters the town and yells out that he is the great Rocky Mountain Ibex and spoiling to shed gore, no one gives him a second look. If he jumps into a saloon and slams down a buckskin bag filled with dust and calls for the drmks for the crowd, the saloonist won’t touch a decanter until he opens the bag to see if it isn’t filled with brick-dust. There was a time when a man could stand in the public square and hanker for a good old-fashioned rough-and-tumble fight and get it before he could flop his arms and crow twice, but that time has fled. He can stand there and hanker and crow and flop, and the old residents will laugh in contempt and ask him why he doesn’t start a taffy foundry in Custer. There is no fun there any more. When a man jumps into a hotel dining-room with a bowie knife in his teeth and a revolver in each hand, he can’t hit anybody if he shoots, and as soon as he begins shooting, the guest nearest him rises up and then knocks him down with a piece of cranberry pie, or hits him in the eye with a boiled potatoe. It used to be great sport for Wild Bills to ride into town on a mole and shoot aud yell and whoop and slash un til everybody was driven indoors, but it is not done any more. The last one who tried it was knocked off his mule with a quart can of tomatoes and taken before the court, when His Honor said. “Thoughtless and giddy boy, yon proba bly didn’t mean any harm, tut a fellow who can’t wound a cross-eyed dog in firing twenty-four shots into a crowd shouldn’t be seen in Custer City. The sentence of this court is that yon have your hair cut, your leggings ripped off, and then be kicked out of the city, never to return under penalty ot having your ears cropped. ” Men used ta go toiling up and down the main street picking their teeth with a huge knife and asking where the graveyard was, but even this game of bluff was cut short last fall when the constables attached the toothpicks for debt and chucked the pickers into the basement lockup on suspicion that they were looking around to steal old axes and buck-saws. Hardly a month ago the “Great Tornado of the Plains” was knocked down with an axe-handie and run in and fined twenty-live dollais because he stood on a barrel and yelled for some one to tread house near by reading One morning a figure was seen dimly amongst the flags and reeds of the distant lake shore. Presently we made out that it was a woman. She hailed us, and asked to come aboard to trade. Our small boat, with a gallant gentleman as escort, brought out this specimen of the South Florida lady. She looked abashed as her upturned face, , iver . pad , aod thereby disturbed four caught the glance of a dozen men, who all • whQ £5 in a bonse ne.r bv reading greeted her with pleasant raillery. They ] . politely lifted her on deck. Her short, 1 rac s ’ scant dress revealed cowhide shoes and ankles innocent of stockings, and, apparent ly, she wore nothing under her thin calico sacque and skirt. But back in the faded sun-bonnet I saw a cheerful, sun-browned face whose smile is, perchance, the radience of that which most blesses man’s earthly homt—woman’s love. She traded her beef hide for coffee and tobacco. About to leave us, she answered to a challenge to be our cook: “I’d like splendid to go ’long aud cook for you, but I couldn’t leave the babies.” A Precious Darling. There is a child in Bangor, Me., whom, according to the old theory, Providence manifestly designs for either pulpit or the gallows. This enterprising youngster has not yet reached age of live years, but he. is old in experience. Two years ago he swal lowed a quanity of paint, which the doctor finally succeeded in removing from his lit tle stomach. While the recollection of this exploit was still fresh, a mouthful of lauda num found its way down his throat to that bourne when such travelers seldom return, but again the physician was equal to the emergency. Not long afterwards his par ents took their darling to Belfast to make a visit, and, while there, he introduced into one of his nostrils a kernel of corn, which it required heroic efforts to dislodge. With out waiting for an encore, be repeated this puformance immediately upon his return tb Bangor. Narrowing a Railroad. Preparatory work for reducing the guags of the Great Western railroad, Pa., has been commenced. The chief engineer has selected the '22d of June as the day on which to perform the work of narrowing the guage, presumably because it is the longest day in the year. It will require an immense force of hands to do the work, probably from 2,000 to 3,000. F very thing will be in readiness, and even the inside spikes will be partly driven. Then at a certain hour the work will be begun simul taneously all along the line, and the line, which is over 300 miles long, will be nar rowed down to the standard guage in a wonderfully short apace of time, and thus will be annihilated the great scheme of McHenry, who planned to belt the conti nent with a six-foot guage railroad, and succeeded in getting from New York to St. Louis on his way from ocean to ocean. The line was made up of the Erie', the Alle gheny and Great Western, and the Ohio and Mississippi. But the scheme was not a success. The last named road was reduced to the standard guage in 1869, and when the Erie was narrowed it left the Allegheny and Great Western out in the cold, compell ing it to transfer ail its freigit before send ing it over the connecting roads. The track will be narrowed from Leavittaburg west and a third rail put down from Leavittaburg east. The redaction of tie guage to the standard width is but a portion of the work. This time the kernel of corn remained so long in the nose that, when howevir, as it will be necessary to put new finally extracted, it was found on tbe point | trucks under all tbe tin in t lie shortest of sprouting. | possible space of time.