The Middle Georgia argus. (Indian Springs, Ga.) 18??-1893, April 21, 1881, Image 1
W. F. 'IMITH, Publisher.
VOLUME VIII.
NEWS GLEANINGS.
I* iremen who have served five years
in Charlotte, N. C., are exempt from
jury duty.
A farmer iu Thomas county, Ga., is
going t#> plant *IOO acres in corn. More
corn in the cotton region is desirable.
Tho bonded debt of Selma, Ala., is
said to be about $400,000, or about
twenty five per cent, of the assessed
value of real estate.
It i-i estimated that the amount of
damages done in Georgia during the re
cent freshets will amount, in round
numbers, to more than $1,000,000.
It is predictc and that Mississippi will be
visited this yerar by the thirteen and sev
enteen year locusts—an event which is
believed to occur only every 221 years.
tor the purpose of protecting sheep
in Buncombe county, N. C., Commis
sioners are allowed, by law recently en
acted, to pay *s2o for the killing of a
wolf.
The Legislature of North Carolina has
passed nn act to prohibit the sale of
arden t spirits to minors. Right of action
is gi ven to the parent or guardian or
cir.ployer of such minor.
The New Orleans Times says that
there are 150 Texas veterans of the Mex
ican war, who served from 1835 to 1837,
living. They will each receive from
Texas 1,280 acres of land, under the new
law.
According to a £an Antonia (Tex.)
correspondent of the New Orleans Dem
ocrat, San Antonia contains about 7,000
Americans, 5,000 Germans and 5,000
Mexicans, with a liberal sprinkling of
Spaniards, French, Italians, Hungarians,
Irish am’, Poles, aggregating altogether
about 21,000 population.
A mass-meeting has been held at Dor
chester, Liberty county, Ga., to consider
the question of introducing steam navi
gation on the Ogeechee, Sunbury, Rice
boro and South Newport rivers. There
would be freight to and from Savannah,
and fruit and vegetables could be raised
for the Northern markets.
Only $5,000 is wanting, the Richmond
Dispatch says, to secure to the Univer
sity ©f Virginia the gift of the finest tel
escope in the world, an observatory, and
an ample endowment of the chair of as
tronomy, the whole valued at $120,000.
Tiie ap.iount must be secured by April
Ist in order to comply with the condi
tions of Mr. McCormick’s gift.
Steamers can now transport freight in
unbroken bulk from St. A.ntilony’s Falls
to the Gulf of Mexico, a distance of
2,161 miles, and from Pittsburg to Fort
Benton, Montana, 4,333 miles. Lighter
craft can ascend the Alleghany, an ex
'tension of the Ohio river, to Olean, New
York, 355 miles above Pittsburgh, and
the Missouri to Great Falls, near where
that river leaves the Rocky Mountains.
The Wheeling (W. Va.) Intelligencer
says that the counties in which the dog
law recently passed by the Legislature
is now in force, by which a tax of fifty
cents and one dollar is imposed respect
ively upon male and female dogs, are as
follows: Barbour, Berkeley, Brooke,
Grant, Greenbrier, Hancock, Harrison,
Jackson, Jefferson, Lewis, Marion, Mar
shall, Morgan, Ohio, Pleasants, Ritchie
Roane, Randolph, Summers, Taylor,
Tucker, Tyler, Upshur, Wirt and Wood.
In the other counties the law is left op
tional, to be submitted to the people on
the petition of 100 voters.
Scale of Titles.
A writer in Chambers' Journal , who
has traveled in the Western States, has
discovered the scale by which titles are
given:
A speaker at an Americau “Conven
tion," being addressed as “Colonel,” de
clared he was not even a captain.
“Don’t you live in Missouri?” he
asked.
He owned that he did, and in a house
with two chimneys.
“Then I was right,” exclaimed the
man. “Over there, if a man has three
chimneys on his house, lie's a general;
if two, he’s a colonel; if only one, he’s a
a major, arid if he lives in a dug-out and
has no chimney, he’s a captain, any
how.”
A gentleman* who is fond of horses
attended church w*here there was a
somewhat prolonged service before they
came to the sermon. “How were you
pleased with the services?” asked a
friend. “O, very much, though it did
strike me that there was a good deal of
scoring before they got off. ”
The public debt of the United States
France, §136; of England, §117; of Hol
land, $114; of Canada, §2B; of Mexico,
•89; of Switzerland, $2.
The whisper of a beautiful woman can
be heard further than the loudebt call of
auty.— Balzac.
tWidtlk OSconp %m\s>
Devoted to Industrial Interest, the Diffusion of Truth, the Establishment of Justice, and the Preservation of a People’s Eovernment,
The Match Monopoly*
Tito most complete monopoly now ex
isting in the Lulled States, according to
common report, is the manufacture of
1 notion matches. Some time during
winter, it appears a New England
corporation of large means bought every
factory then in operation, and it is not
known that there la iu the country a sin
gle establishment now engaged in this
business except those controlled by that
concern. The law taxing the manufac
ture of matches was ingeniously con
structed to convey the impression that a
purpose existed to make the burden as
light as possible upon match-makers of
united means, and thus prevent them
from being crowded out of the bus
iness. In its practical application, how
ever, the law was operated most effectu
ally to the advantage of the wealthier
ui. nin the trade. It permits the pur
chase of tax stamps on a credit of sixty
days, the buyer giving bonds to secure
the amount. The ostensible purpose of
this privilege was to give the poorer
manufacturers an opportunity to realize
the tax.by sales before the time at which
payment to the Government liad to bo
made. 13ut the owners of extensive con
cerns found important advantage in the
arrangement. The Government credit
gave them liberty to use their capital in
extending tlieir business and pushing
their product on the msfrket—a process
which is essential in the prosecution of
my successful enterprise in these days.
Another and more objectionable feature
of the law has operated directly and
strongly against manufacturers whose
means were small. Persons purchasing
m't more than SSOO worth of stamps at a
time are entitled to a discount of 5 per
v*ent., w hile upon larger quantities a dis
count of 10 per cent, is allowed. This
discrimination, for which there appears
to be no other reason than a desire to
lesson the labor of internal revenue offi
cers employed iu selling stamps, would
of itself suffice to give the large con
cerns control of the market. With these
advantages, it is understood, the large
manufacturers have liad another of some
importance in the ownership of pat
ents employed in making and boxing
matches.
And so it lias come about that a single
association of capitalists now controls
the match market, and establishes the
price which the public must pay for the
privilege of lighting lamps and kindling
fires. The thought of such a monopoly
is annoying to the people, even if the tax
it contents itself with for the present is
not particularly burdensome. Popular
repugnance to it is exhibited in an urgent
demand for the total repeal of tlie match
tax, the general belief appealing to be
that, if this obstruction was removed,
persons of moderate means might be en
couraged to re-engage in the manufac
ture, and thus secure the benefits of
competition in restraining the rapacity of
the monoplists. —Ch icago Times.
Remarkable Accident.
[Virginia (Nev.) Chronicle.J
A most remarkable accident happened
at the Hale & Norcross mine last night.
A cage with six men was coming up the
shaft at 11 o’clock—the hour for chang
ing shifts. When about 600 feet from
the bottom, at a point where there is an
irregular place in the guides, the cage
suddenly lurched to one side, throwing
the men to the other. Patrick Holland,
who was on the outside, was crowded
off Instead of falling to the bottom
and being dashed to pieces, he was safely
lodged on a wall-plate. The other men
on the cage supposed he had fallen into
the sump, of course. When they
reached the surface they got the usual
sack and boxes and started back to the
sump to gather up the fragments of the
body. As they approached the place
where the man was thrown off, they
heard a voice below them telling them
to go slow. They did not know what to
make of this strange discovery, never
supposing it possible for Holland to be
anywhere else than at the bottom.
When they saw him safe on his narrow
perch they could scarcely believe their
eyes.
Any one who has ascended a saft
knows how rapidly the wall-plates flit
by when the lantern is held so as to
bring them to view. The cage from
which Holland was thrown was coming
up at the usual rate of speed. How the
Sian could possibly have oeen lodged on
one of these pieces of timber without
being jammed by the cage or knocked
off as it went past him is a wonder. Ihe
wall plate is a square timber, fourteen
by sixteen inches, so that there was very
little standing room for Holland while
he was waiting for the cage to come
down and rescue him. If the shaft had
been so light that he could look down
any considerable distance of the 600
feet between him and the bottom, he
would scarcely have had the nerve to
cling to his narrow footing. The dark
ness of all mining shafts is a point in
favor of the miners, preserving their
coolness when placed in ticklish posi
tion. A couple of pumpmen will throw a
foot-wide plank across a shaft 2,000 feet
from the bottom. The darkness of the
shaft prevents the thought of the awful
abyss below from being constantly pres
ent.
>~ot Married.
The street-car was crowded, and the
driver was just about to start, when Gil
hooly remarked to a friend, “Jones is
not married yet, is he ?” “Of course
not.” “I thought he was not married
vet, for I saw him carrying home a
broom yesterday.” A red-faced woman
snapped her eyes at Gilhoolv, and
pushed a cadaverous, timid-looking man
ahead of her as she got out of the car.
If all seconds were as a verse to duels
as their principals, very little blood
would be shed in that way.
INDIAN SPRINGS, GEORGIA.
Sawing Wood.
No one ever hears a boy complain
about tbe back-breaking, soul-killing
hardships of wood-sawing. All such
talk is confined to adults, and it has no
real foundation. There is only one way
to saw wood and take comfort at the
same time, and every boy has that way.
Yesterday afternoon half a cord of four
foot wood was flung down at the gate of
a house on Second street, and the w agon
had only departed when a boy fifteen
years old appeared with a bucksaw in
his hand. All his actions indicated his
purpose to go through that wood-pile
like chain-lightning, but it took him ex
actly seven minutes to discover that be
had left tbe saw r -buck in the w T ood-shed,
and five minutes more to bring it out.
Some boys would have dropped the
saw-buck wherever it happened and
pitched right in, but this boy spent five
minutes in selecting a location of tbe first
water. By this time he bad the pres
ence of three other boys to cheer him on
to victory. These three boys made the
folio wring suggestions in the order given
below:
“I’d hire a masheen.”
“ I’d run away and fight Injuns.”
“I’d let the old man do it.”
But the hero went right ahead with
bis work. In twenty minutes after his
first move he liad a stick of wood on the
saw-buck. He turned it over four times
before it settled down to his satisfaction,
and then he picked up the saw. A buck
saw is a simple yet ingenious piece of
machinery. Men who were sawing wood
by the day have been known to stand
and gaze at the saw for an hour at a
time without being able to solve its mys
terious points. This boy picked up the
saw and carefully examined it. In the
course of seven minutes, with the aid of
tbe other three boys, lie was enabled to
discover:
1. That the teeth were all there.
2. That the frame-work was of beech.
3. That it was in perfect order, as far
as a boy could judge.
When these discoveries had been made,
a discussion arose as to whether a boy
could saw faster by sawing left-handed.
The vote on this question was carried in
the negative, and now the moment ar
rived for action.
The boy spit on his hands.
He removed liis coat.
He humped up bis back.
He pulled bis cap over liis ears.
He liad liis knee on the stick and the
saw in hand, when a little three-cent dog
down on the next corner run out at a
passing goat. The goat rushed into a
yard and a girl was heard screaming.
Tlie saw fell to tbe ground, tlie saw-buck
was up-set, and the boy went tearing
down to the corner like a cheap whirl
wind, and when darkness began to settle
down over the face of the earth lie re
turned to carry the saw and buck into
the woodshed for the night.— Detroit
Free Press.
Training Circus Horses.
“How long,” asked the reporter, “does
it take to break a horse in?”
“From eighteen months to two years,
for good and sure pad-riding. Care lias
to be taken that be does not shy, or
break his gait, but goes round the circus
ring at an even pace, so that the per
former can do whatever lie wants, by
time. If this is not secured tbe per
former can never tell where he is going
to jump. Much, however, depends upon
what the horse is being trained for, all
the best horses being used only for a
special performance. In most ca*ses tlie
riders, if they are experienced, train
their own animals, and thus, when they
are ridden, they understand much better
what is required of them. Ducrow,
Madame Dockriil, Melville, Sebastian,
Stickney, Cooke, Reed, and the like all
train their own horses and own them.
This system of private training has only
been in practice for a few years. Man
agers of a circus, under the old custom,
were always expected to furnish pad
horses, and those required for two and
four-act performances, so that a per
former going from one company to an
other would always find a horse ready
fur him to mount, and in a short time
horse and rider would be able to under
stand each other. Nowadays some ot
the crack stars have as many as eight or
ten horses of their own, most of them
trained for a special performance. They
are very valuable, most of them being
full blooded, and imported from En
gland and France. Great care has to be
taken of them, as they are extremely li
able to take cold after a ring perform
ance.—New York Evening Mail.
Responsibilities of Heredity.
Son and heir (suddenly dissatisfied
with his stature, his personal appearance,
and the quality of his intellect>—“Aw—
what on earth evah could have induced
you two people to mawwy ?”
Sir Robert and Lady Mawiali—“The
old, old stohwy, my dear boy ! We fell
in love with one anothah—aw—aw
Son and lieir—“Aw—well—you’re
both sueli awfly good old deans, that I
forgive you. But you weally should
have had bettah taste, you know, and
each have fallen in love with a ditfewent
kind of person altogethah, and given a
fellow a chance ? Yon see, it is all owin'
to your joint interfeawence in my aflfaaw s
that I’m under live foot one, and can't
say boh to a goose, and—a — justly pass
for being the gweatest guy in the whole
country —aw ! just look at me, confound
it” [They look at him and then at each
other —and haven’t a word to say. 1
A citizen of Richmond, Virginia, being
asked in London how his town had flour
ished since the fall of the Southern Con
federacy, replied: “Oh, exceediqglv
well; we live on red herrings and glorious
recollections!”
Might Take the Croup.
Several months ago Mrs. La Rubble
died, and since that time La Rubble has
been paying attentions to old MissWhee
zer, a rich old maid of Cleveland.
“I do wish that you would bring your
little girl to see me the next time you
come,” requested Miss Wheezer, the
other night, when La Rubble was taking
his leave.
“I will be rejoiced, but she is such a
little romp that I am afraid you will be
tired of the visit.”
“Oh, no,” answered Miss Wheezer,
with a sudden unbending ot frame char
acteristic of a heave, “I can never grow
tired of a visit which involves your own
presence. ”
“Thank you. Good night;” and after
lingering one moment more to squeeze a
prudish hand, La Rubble left, and, as
the young novelists say, strode down the
street.
Next evening La Rubble and his little
girl called. Miss Wheezer pressed the
child to her—well, say bosom—and cov
ered the little upturned face with kisses.
Releasing herself, the child ran to her
father, and, leaving him, went on a mis
cellaneous excursion around the room.
“How did you like Endymion, Miss
Wheezer?”
“ Oh, splendid ! and do you know the
work should endear itself to all women,
in that it places our sex so high in politi
cal influence.”
“We had eggs and chicken for break
fast when my ma died,” exclaimed tbe
little girl.
“ Beaconsfield well knew the influence
of woman,” said La Rubble, sending a
reproachful glance at liis daughter. ‘‘ I
have been a close student—”
‘‘ My pa took my ma’s clothes to a
place where there is three great big gold
balls, bigger than I could lift, and —”
“But do you think,” remarked Miss
Wheezer, “that in vivid portrayal Endy
mion is quite equal to Vivian Gray ? ”
“There is the same outcropping of
almost insatiate ambition, but—”
“One day,” began the child, “one
day—”
“ As I was saying, the same ambitious
outcropping— : ’
“ One day my—”
“Ambition that ever swells in—”
“ One day my pa come home—”
“Hush, Lena,” said La Eulible with
poorly counterfeited tenderness. ‘ ‘ Hush,
you are not well. I don’t know what’s
the matter with that child. ”
“Croup, probably,” suggested Miss
Wheezer.
“That ambition,” continued La Rub
ble, “ which boils in the cauldron of hu
man nature—.”
“One day my pa came home so sick
and my ma shoved him over on tlie bed
and pulled off his boots and my pa struck
at my ma and hit his band on the bed
post and said the awfulest —”
“Come, dear, you are not well to
night. I should not have brought you.’
“ It was no doubt injudicious to bring
her out into tlie night air,” observed
Miss Wheezer.
Ea Rubble walked so fast going home
that the child could not keep up with
him. Next morning he received a note
which read very much as follows :
“ Dear Sir—You needn’t call any more.
I am not in very good health, and my
friends think that if I expose myself I
might take the croup.” Cleveland
Leader.
Rich People of the Olden Times.
That we have some very rich people
in this country there is no doubt, but
where are they, asks the Cincinnati Star,
as compared with the Roman aristocrats ?
Vanderbilt may be able to give his check
for $50,000,000, but when Cyrus returned
from the conquest of Asia he was rated
at $500,000,000. Mrs. Astor may give
an entertainment at the expense of $25,-
000, and Mrs. Mackay may give dinner
parties that cost $50,000, but a festival
given by Ptolemy Philadelphus cost $2,-
239,000. Alexander’s daily meal, frugal
as it was, cost $1,700; and money was of
so little account to Claudius that he once
swallowed a pearl that was worth $40,000.
James Gordon Bennett has been known
to give many thousands of dollars to
people for whom he had acquired a fancy,
but according to Tacitus, more than
$97,000,000 was given away in a similar
manner by Nero. Queens of fashion in
New York and San Francisco have ap
peared at balh wearing jewels estimated
to have cost $200,000, which pales into
insignificance when compared with the
alleged fact that Lollia Taulina wore
jewels valued at $1,662,500, and that
when she wore these it was only on the
the occasion of a plain citizen’s supper.
Over $50,000 was spent in providing a
funeral for an eccentric New Yorker
who left directions how the money should
be spent, but the obsequies of Hephaes
tion cost $1,500,000. Americans have
died and left millions to their sons who
have squandered it all in a score of years,
but Antony “got away with” $735,000,-
000, and Tiberus left the snug little sum
of $118,000,000, which Caligula squan
dered, to the last penny, in less than
one year. The late lamented Sothern is
said to have spent SIOO,OOO in a year in
good living, but it is said that Pegellus,
the singer, spent money at the rate of
$40,000 a week. And then there was a
Darius and Heliogabalas and Lucullus
and Lentalus and—well, this will clo for
to-day.
Thebe are a great many men born in
the world who imagine that they were
bom with genius, and lie down on the
sofa and wait for an inspiration until
some other fellow*, who thought himself
a dunce, rises by hard labor to a compe
tency. buys the sofa, and leads the wait
15g genius out by the ear. This is not a
joke; it is a fact.
Whoever is suspicious incites treason.
Voltaire.
Expense of Fuel*
One of tlie discomforts of a winter in
Continental Europe is tlie lack of such
fires for heating as we think essential in
American houses. If oue has a long
purse, and does not mind the expense,
they can be had there as here, but were
one in Paris or Rome to indulge iu such
roaring fires as we keep constantly goiug
in furnaces and grates, it would be re
garded even by tbe wealthy as an ex
travagance surpassing that of tlie Roman
Emperors. To be sure, the houses are
so built as not to be as susceptible of
changes of temperature as those in which
the majority of our people live. The
walls and partitions are thicker, the
windows and doors closer fitted, and they
retain the heat longer. Then the stoves
iii use there for heating are constructed
so that a comparatively small part of the
heat is wasted. But even with all these
precautions an American, accustomed to
generous and blazing coal and wood
fires, finds the apartments warmed suf
ficient for the comfort of the native, cold
and uncomfortable, and shivers as he re
calls the fires blazing on his native
hearth.
He learns with surprise in Paris that
the wood with which liis dinner is cooked
or his shins warmed is sold by the pound,
and is weighed out to tlie purchaser as
carefully as butter, sugar, or coffee. A
handful of twigs, such as in America
would be allowed to rot, costs five cents,
and better wood at proportionate prices.
So fires on the continent are a luxury,
and in many houses, except for cooking,
no fires are seen the year round.
But if fires are expensive and fuel
scarce and high in Continental Europe,
wliat shall we say of Japan, where char
coal, split wood, brush and dried grass
are used for cooking and heating booths,
and is hardly ever used outside the cities,
for purely heating purposes. The char
coal is made in wooded regions, and car
ried to the settlements in straw sacks on
the backs of men and horses. It cost
from twenty-five to fifty cents tbe 100
pounds. Cut wood is sold iu small bun
dles of six sticks, each stick being about
eighteen inches in length by two inches
in diameter, and is sold at about one
cent a bundle. A good comfortable fire,
such as our people must have to keep
them warm, would cost several dollars a
day.
But our extravagance in fuel dimin
ishes with the years and the increasing
cost of fuel. We will travel a good ways,
and have then to seek communities re
mote from railroads, to find such wood
fires as kept the log cabins and thin
frame bouses of the pioneers w’arm. The
great fire-places, with tlieir w ide fronts
and immense chimneys, their great
andirons, back-logs, fore-logs, and sec
tions of seasoned split wood four or five
feet long, piled high, are hardly known
save in remote settlements. But we
make almost as extravagant use of coal
as our fathers did of wood, and will
probably continue to do so till the cost
of it compels a study of economy in tbe
methods of heating houses, and servants
are instructed liow r to manage fires so as
to secure the most heat with tlie leasi
amount of fuel. —Cincinnati Comma*
cial.
If elastic gum is warmed, then ex
panded and wound in a spiral upon a
glass tube or wire, and cooled for a short
time in a cooling mixture, it shows no
tendency to contract; but when it is sub
mitted to hot water it returns quickly to
its original length. The phenomenon
can also be made to appear without the
use of the cooling mixture. If one holds
heated gum a second in an expanded
condition it shows no disposition to re
turn to its original length, but if one im
merses it in hot, water it contracts to one
fourth or one-fifth of its original length.
Maxwell has found that similar phenom
ena are produced in gutta percha.
For the purpose of determining the
capacity of a horse to undergo the priva
tions incident to a state of siege, a series
of experiments have been made in Paris.
Tlie results show: That a horse may
hold out for twenty-five days without any
solid nourishment, provided it is supplied
with sufficient good drinking water; that
a horse can subsist on barley five days
without water; and, thirdly, that if a
horse is well fed for ten days, but insuf
ficiently supplied with w ater throughout
this period, it will not outlive the eleventh
day. A horse which had received no
solid nourishment for twelve days was
nevertheless in a condition to draw a load
of six hundred pounds on the twelfth day
of its fast.
A New York boarder asked a diminu
tion of his rent because of the dampness
of his house. It was naturally refused,
and the boarder gave notice that he
would leave. He got even with his land
lord by planting a beautiful mushroom
in his bed-chamber, and whenever any
one came to see the apartment he would
call to the servant girl: “Bridget, see
here, what is this mushroom doing in
this room? It seems to me that I told
you to take it away;” to which Bridget
answers: “I did as you told me, sir, but
another must have grown there since/’
Judge Caldwell, of North Carolina,
at one time was obliged to call upon an
old darkey to open his court. It was
evidently the first time he had acted in
the capacity of bailiff. He began: “O,
yes! O, yes! O, yes! De hono’ble, de
Co’t is now on de bench.” Then, after
hesitating a moment, as if not knowing
what to say, he seemed to hit it, and
ended by exclaiming, “An’ may de Lawd
have mercy on his soul!” Caldwell re
torted immediately, “That's right, my
man; that’s right; if there ever was a
Court that needed the mercy of God, it’s
this one.”— Harper's May mine.
Some men are so improvident that if
thousand dollar notes were selling for a
cent a piece, they couldp’t lift a mort
gage on a two-cent postage stamp.
SUBBCRIPTION-SI.M.
NUMBER 34.
HUMORS OF THE DAT
k
Damp cellars —bar-tenders.
Ice cakes should never be served liot.
“Give us a song!” is a plcase-sing re
quest.
The highest priced coal is about Le
high.
A misplaced switch may ruin a loco
motive or spoil a boy.
What is the prime object of soldiers’
drill? To make holes in the enemy.
Nothiko keeps a man from knowledge
and wisdom like thinking he has both.
A journal heads an article, “A Luna
tic Escapes and Marries a Widow.” Es
caped, eh? We should say he got
caught.
The condition of the Utes is said to be
out* of discontent. The last lot of paper
collars sent them had the button holes
omitted.
Adjectives are the millinery of litera
ture, and, like the trimmings of a dress,
they should not be allowed to obscure
the original fabric. —Boston Courier.
A sarcastic writer speaks of an enemy
who “is but one step removed from an
ass. '’ He'd better make it three or four.
The animal has a loug reach backward.
Did you ever see a woman slip down?
Of course you never looked, but then
you’ve seen them. She didn’t flourish
:iround like an intoxicated jumping jack,
tilling the air with arms and bad words,
as a man does; but she simply abbrevi
ates, so to speak, like a crushed hat or
patent drinking cup, while you stand by
and wonder you never noticed that hole
in the sidewalk before.
CONUNDRUMS.
’Twas Harry who the silence broke:
“ Miss Kate why are you like a tree ?”
H cause, because—l’m board,” she spoke.
“ Oh, no; beta use you’re woo’d,” said he.
“ Why are you like a tree,” she paid.
“ 1 have a- heart ?” lie asked, to low,
Her answer made the young man red:
'• Because you’re sappy, don’t you know ?”
“Once more,” she asked, “ why are you now
A tree?” tie couldn’t quite perceive.
“ Trees leave sometimes and make a l>ow.
And you eaa always bow—and leave.”
— H. C. i)oJye, in Whitehall Times.
“You look so happy that I suppose
you have been to the dentist and had
that aching tooth pulled,” said a Galves
ton man to a friend with a swollen jaw.
“It ain’t that that makes me look
happy. The tooth acres worse than ever,
but I don’t feel it.” “How’s that?”
“Well, I feel so jolly because I have
just been to the dentist, and he was out,”
and the happy man cut a pigeon-wing
on the sidewalk.— Galveston News.
A discussion arose in a coffee-room as
to the nationality of a gentleman at the
other end of the room. “He is an En
glishman,” said one, “I know by his
head.” “He’s a Scotchman,” said an
other, “I know by his complexion.”
“He’s a German,” said another, “I know
by his beard.” Another thought he
looked like a Spaniard. Here the con
versation rested, but soon one of them
spoke. “I have it,” said he, “he’s an
American; he’s got his legs on the table.”
They were watching the seagulls whirl
ing in graceful circles above the waters
of the bay, while the rays of the sinking
sun covered the landscape with a flood of
gold. Finally he turned to her, and with
a voice trembling with emotion, asked:
“Darling, if we were seagulls would you
fly away with me and be at rest ?” To
which she answered, with her gaze fixed
on a far-off mass of castellated clouds:
“No, George; I’d let you fly away, and
then I’d have all the rest I wanted here.”
A Soldier’s Dream.
Just before the battle of Cedar Creek
a camp sentinel who was off duty tem
porarily and trying to put iu a little
sleep, dreamed that he went out on a
scout. A mile to the right of the camp
he came upon a logbbad,r and, and as it began
to rain just then, he sought shelter, or
was about to, when he heard voices and
discovered that the place was already
occupied. After a little investigation he
discovered scouts had taken up their
quarters for the night in the place, and
he therefore moved away. The sentinel
awoke with such vivid remembrance of
the details that he asked permission to
go over and confer with one of the scouts.
When the log barn was described to this
man he located it at once, having passed
it a dozen times. The dreamer described
the highway exactly as it was, giving
every hill and turn, and the scout put
such faith in the remainder of the dream
that he took four soldiers, one of whom
was the dreamer, and set out for the
place. Three Confederate scouts were
asleep in the straw, and were taken with
out a shot being fired.
Three days before the affair at Reeley’s
Ford a corporal in the Sixth Michigan
Cavalry dreamed that a brother of his,
who was a sergeant in another company,
would have his horse killed in action,
and would almost immediately mount a
dark bay horse with a white nose. Within
five minutes both horse and rider would
be killed by a shell. This dream was
related to more than a score of comrades
fully two days before the fight. Early
in the fight the sergeant’s horse was
struck square in the forhead by a bullet
and dropped dead in his tracks". It was
scarcely three minutes before a white
nosed horse, carrying a blood-stained
saddle galloped up to the sergeant and
halted. He rememl>ered the dream and
refnsed to mount the animal, and soon
after picked up a black horse. The
white-nosed animal was mounted by a
second corporal in another regiment,
and the horse and rider were torn to frag
ments by a shell, in full sight of four
companies of the Sixth. —New York
Commercial Advertiser.
A man in a Pennsylvania town has
twenty-nine children. Strangers pass
ing the house on washing days are at a
loss to determine whether it is a school
or a laundry.