Newspaper Page Text
W. F. SMITH, Publisher.
VOLUME VIII.
NEWS GLEANINGS.
There wete 26 deaths in Pensacola
during the month of June.
An epidemic in Pulaski county, Ivy.,
is sweeping off the dogs.
The glass factory at Moss Point, Mis
sissippi, has commenced operations.
The wheat crop of North Carolina is
about twice as large as was expected.
The Springfield coal pits, of Henrico
county, Virginia, love been snlri f or
$286,000.
Three men recently killed in ten days
300 alligators in the Miaka lakes, Flor
ida.
Judge McGehee has ten century
plants in bloom on his place, thirteen
miles from Madison, Florida.
Tennessee is fait taking foremost rank
as the leading wool growing State of the
South.
From 3,000 to 4,000 pounds of toma
toes are being shipped daily from Chat
tanooga to Cincinnati.
One man in Tampa, Florida, has five
varieties of the Japan persimmon, and
also a Chinese prune.
Sam Clay, of Bourbon county, Ivy,,
has sold from his farm this season 1.5,000
bushels of blue-grass seed.
Over $1,000,004 in the Texas state
treasury to the general revenue, and the
total cash balance edges closely to
$1,800,000.
In Hernando county, Fia, the carna
tion pink, the calla lily, the verbena,
honeysuckle and the woodbine bloom all
the year.
Since the season in Charlotte, North
Carolina, $500,000 worth of steam en
gines and other improved machinery has
been sold.
Andrew Fitzpatrick, of St. Augus
tine, Fla., recently found on the coast
in St. Johns county in one evening
seventy dozen turtle eggs.
Every dollar of taxes paid by the
colored people of Texas, and every dol
lar of fines assessed against criminals by
the circuit courts of the Btate, goes into
the colored school fund.
A marble mine has been discovered on
the larm of Eph. Erwin, a few miles
from Columbia, Tenn.
The theory that a negro can net be
sun-struck is overthrown. A plantation
darkey was a victim at Madison, La.
Thirteen new babies have made their
appearance on one street iti Warrentoa,
Georgia, this year. The republic still
goes on.
The negro church of Cedar Grove,
Bibb county, Ala., was burned recently
by white incendiaries. The next night
the white church was burned by black
incendiaries.
An aerolite or meteoric stone fell
with a fearful report near Mr. Jack
Pearson’s, near Tuscaloosa, Alabama,
tearing up the ground with a tremen
dous hole. Mr. Pearson is going to dig
for it.
Over 2,100,0 0 feet of lumber was cut
by tbe Bt. Simon's mills, Brunswick,
during the m mth of May. The nine
forests ot’ Georgia would give out in the
course of time with many such mills
running.
There is an Englishmein living in Pen
field, Greene county, Ga., who makes
a good support for himself and a help
less sister by work; i- £it>trle acre ot
land. Of course, he has it very rich,
using only a spade in cultivation. As
soon as one crop come- oi he plants an
other. This shows what energy can ac
complish under adverse circumstances.
Mr. W. B. Williams caught out of the
Cauoochee river two uundred and thirty
fishes, nearly all of v hieh were lack.
His mode of catching them is very sim
pie, but reliable. •He takes a bateau
and builds tires to it, conducts it near
the batik of the river and strikes the
water with a piece of wood, at which
the fish be tome frightened and jump
out of the water towards the tire when
the boat catches them.
In many parts of Oglethorpe couniv
are vast beds of kaolin, only by
our good ladies to whiten their hearths
with. Tnis is a very valuable
and when purified sells for S4O a ton
It is largely used to adulterate sugar
candy, tiour, etc., besides supplying
other more legitimate needs. It an
swers the purpose of fire brick, and will
some day bo worth a fortune to lanu
owner* lucky enough to have banks of
it on their farms. Large quantities of
it are shipped from near Augusta to the
North ol Europe,
Pile (Georgia Übcips.
OfTotfd to Industrial Intwst. the Diffusion of Truth, the Establishment of Justice, and the Preservation of a People’s fioTerumeut.
EOWLEGGED JOE.
In ths dark and gloomy shadow
Of a cliff In Colorado
Sat Bowlegged Joe, a chieftain of ths Utss;
Frown as black m French oil blacking
O’er his features (beauty lacking)
Somber hung—tbe buck was mad, you bet your boots I
For bis painted, howling whoopers
Had been scattered by the troopers
In a scrimmage on the range sg hour before;
And bis heart was filled with sorrow
When he thought that, on the morrow,
They might come and wax it to his crowd some more.
Round him stood his warriors savage—
Heroes bold of many a ravage
On tlie smokehouse of the settler far below—
And their murderous eyeballs glißtenod
As they silent stood and listened
To the curses of infuriated Joe.
Suddenly the chieftain pointed
Skinny finger, ugly jointed,
At the homes of settlers far out on the plain.
“There,” he cried, “the pale face dwelleth,
And my nostril murder-r-r smelleth,
While thoughts of gory vengeance fire my brain!”
With a yell that loud resounded
’Mid the mountain peaks, he bounded
To his feet, and danced as ne’er he’d danced before,
Wss’t the war-dance he was dancing?
O! what meant that fearful prancing ?
Would he flood that settler’s peaceful home with gore ?
Was the dance preliminary
To a swoop down from his eyrie,
Or did the aborigine but jest ?
Jest ? Ah, no! a thousand swarming
Insects were Mb bronze hide warming—
He’d been sitting on a yellow-jacket’s nest,
—Kit Adams.
Progress of Christianity.
The Rev. Dr. Dorchester delivered an
address in Wesleyan Hall, Boston, on
the progress of Christianity, Papal aDd
Protestant, in the whole world, since
1500. Until the present century, said
the lecturer, there were no trustworthy
data of tlie world’s population. Prior
to 1830 it was variously estimated from
642,000,000 to 737,000,000. In 1850 it
was reckoned at 1,000,000,000. Prof.
Sdhem’s estimate makes tlie present
population 1,437,000,000. The progress
of Christianity from the fourth or fifth
century' up to 1500 was confined almost
entirely to Europe. The nominal Chris
tians in tlie world in the third century
numbered 5,000,000 ; up to the eighth
century they had increased 30,0(00,000;
in the tenth century 50,000,000 ; in the
fifteenth century 100,000,000; in the
last 300 years the increase lias been
200,000,000, or as much as in the pre
vious fifteen centuries. In 1880 there
were 410,900,000 nominal Christians.
In 1500 there were 80,000,000 Catholics,
20,000,000 Greek Christians, and no
Protestants; in 1830,116,000,000 Roman
Catholics, 70,000,000 Greek Christians,
and 42,01)0,090 Protestants ; in 1880, the
respective numbers were 209,200,000,
88,000,000 and 113,700,000, showing an
increase of 80 per cent, among the Pa
pists, 26 per cent, in the Greek Church,
andl76per cent, am eng Protestants. The
probable number of nominal Christians
in the w’orld in the year 2000 was esti
mated by Dr. Dorchester at from 1,200,-
000,000 to 1,950,000,000. The popula
tions living under Christian govern
ments in 1500 numbered 100,000,000 ;
in 1700, 155,000,000; 1830, 388,000,000;
1876, 685,000,000; divided as follows :
Papal, 80,000,000 in 1500, 90,000,000 in
1700, 134,000.0(H) in 1830, 181,000,000 in
1876; Greek, 20,000,000 in 1500, 33,-
000,IKK) in 1700, 60,000,000 in 1830, 96,-
0(H),000 in 1876; Protestants, none 1500,
82,000,000 in 1700, 194,000,000 in 1830,
408,000,000 in 1876. Of the 52,000,000
square miles of tlie earth’s surface 32,-
000,000 are under control of Christian
governments, and 20,000,000 under Pa
gan and Mohammedan. Of the area un
der Christian domination, 14,500,000
square miles are ruled by Protestant
governments, 9,500,000 by Roman Cath
olic, and 8,500,000 by the Greek Church.
But France, Italy and Mexico are in a
transition state, and the next thirty
years will settle the question as to which
side 75,000,000 people are to be counted
u [Kin. In 1800 the Bible tvas printed in
one-fifth the languages of the world ; it
is now printed in nine-tenths. Three
million Bibles had been printed in 1800;
160,000,000 in from 200 to 250 languages
and dialects have since been circulated.
In the Sunday-schools in 1830 there
Were 2,000,000 ojßo*-rs., ta&c.kars aud
scholars ; there are now over 14,000,000.
In tlie Protestant foreign missions in
1830 there were 70,289 communicants ;
in 1850, 210,957; in 1880, 857,332. Add
ing those at missions not reporting, the
aggregate would probably be 1,050,000
communicants and 2,500,000 hearers and
adherents. Of the 857,332 communi
cants, 663,813 were formerly Pagan, and
193,549 Papal, Jewish, or Rationalistic.
Amusing Blunders.
Blunders on public occasions are often
as mortifying as they are amusing. For
instance :
At a military dinner in Ireland, the
following was on the toast-list: “May
the man who has lost one eve in the
glorious service of his beloved country
never see distress with the other.” But
the person v whose duty it was to read
the toast accidentally omitted the word
“ distress, ” which completely changed
the sentiment, and caused no end of
merriment by the blunder.
Another instance may be quoted, if
only to show how careful people should
be in expressing themselves on public
occasions:
A church in South London had been
erected, when a dinner was given, at the
conclusion of which the health of the
baUder was proposed, when he rather
enigmatically replied that he was “ more
fitted for the scaffold than for public
speaking.”
A healthy city must have a perfect
Mvage qritem.
INDIAN SPRINGS, GEORGIA.
The Pueblo Indians and Their Religious
Beliefs.
The w'ord Pueblo means villages; and
the tribe of Indians that have lived in
this region take their name, Pueblo,
from the fact that they lived in Pueblos,
or villages.
The Pueblos have some peculiar ideas
of the future. They believe that at
death they will be carried away in some
mysterious manner to a place beneath a
vast underground lake, where melons
and peaches and beautiful maidens and
horses are in never-ending supply for
the good.
Tlie Zuni Indians have a tradition that ;
they w’ere placed where they are in order
to be out of the reach of the deluge, of
which they have some account. The
tradition relates how the Great Spirit •
set them apart as a chosen people, and
preserved them while all oflher tribes
and nations were drowned. They also
believe that all the people of the earth,
are descended from the Zuni thus saved
irom the deluge. This tradition has its
parallel with that given us in the Sacred
Scriptures.
They also believe that in Pecos (a vil
lage) Montezuma was born; that he grew
up with extraordinary mental powers;
that he traveled a great deal and taught
the people many good tilings; that he
usually rode on the back of an eagle and
always went ahead of those who trav
eled with him, and thus was, as was
the star to the wise men of the East, a
guide to them both day and night, ancl,
whenever the eagle stopped tit night,
there was planted an Indian Pueblo.
The sign where the great capital shouldfbe
built W'as the alighting of the eagle u on
a large cactus-busli, and there devour
ing a rattlesnake. This, tradition has
it, w'as on Montezuma’s journey south,
and w r as his great and last journey, 'The
eagle stopped where the City of Mejaco
now stands. The Mexican Government
has adopted the alighting of the eagle
as the design of the national seal, and
thus made memorable the legend. The
same design is also stamped on Mexican
coin. Montezuma never returned lijom
his southern trip, but in some mysteri- ,
ous manner passed aw r ay to the lan& of
the blessed, and since leads his pecple
by his spirit. The City of Mexico 'was
founded in 1325. —New Mexico Cor.
Chicago Tribune.
Among the Turks.
As to the character of the Turks, it
has been said by one of the highest con
sular authorities that the pooxor md
humbler he is, tlie better he its. As ho
gets money and power, he deteriorates.
In tlie lowest classes you my and do
meet w ith honesty ; in the mi ddle class
es, seldom ;in the highest, nerver. The
Turk, above all, is a good host. In
deed, hospitality is enjoined by the Ko
ran. We may well take a lesson from
him, too, in politeness, especially in
conversation. If you are privileged to
have an interview with a Turk, you w ill
find him a good listener; he never in
terrupts, and never wastes words to
make talk. When he has finished, lie
asks permission to go, and vanishes. He
is not given to the odious, because
abused, custom of the “shake-hands.”
His salute, the Temenas, is most guaee
ful. He makes the motion as if to
sweep the ground with his right hand,
bringing it to his heart, lips and fore
head, thus indicating that all he has on
earth is yonrs, as well as showing his
friendliness and constant thoughtfulness
for your welfare.
Listen to a true story illustrating the
Turk iu all his dealings, whether com
mercially, politically, or as a diplomat
ist. A peasant was summoned before
the Cadi for stealing a sack of onions.
“Now we have theo on the hip, and
thou shalt know' what it is tio incur our
displeasure. Bismillah! Choose, slave
—wilt thou pay 1,000 piasters, receive
100 blows of tlie bastinado, or wilt thou
eat the contents of the sack of onions ?
Quick; choose ! ”
“Gracious Lord, I have no money
wherewith to satisfy thee; I fear the
bastinado, and will choose rather to eat
my onions.”
He ate, and was fain to stop, and pre
ferred the bastinado. After somo fifty
strokes he repents, and thinks he can
find somewhere in his house 500 pias
ters. But (his money was not enough
to release him from his troubles ; he ate
more onions, then there was a little more
bastinado. Eventually he received eighty
strokes, ate nearly all the onions, and
paid the penalty of 1,000 piasters in full.
A Wicked Man’s Diary of His W ife’s
Temper.
Monday—A thick fog; no seeing
through it. Tuesday—Gloomy and very
chilly; unseasonable weather. Wednes
day—Frosty; at times sharp. Thurs
day—Bitter cold in the morning ; red
sunset, with flying clouds, portending
hard weather. Friday—Storm in the
morning, with peals of thunder; air
clear afterward. Saturday—Gleams of
sunshine, with partial thaw; frost again at
night. Sunday—A light southwester in
the morning; calm and pleasant at din
ner-time ; hurricane and earthquake at
night.
Wanted to Find Out.
A burly ruffian, who has already served
five or six sentences, is brought before
the police. Just as they are about to
begin the examination, “Sir. President,”
says he, “my lawyer is indisposed. I
call for a delay of one week.”
“But you have been caught in open
misdemeanor, your hand in the pocket
of the plaintiff. What could your lawyer
say for you?”
“Precisely, Mr. President; I’m quite
curious to know/%- Paris paper.
An old lady says it is remarkable the
number of people willing to take foreign
missions, and she fears the home mis
sionary cause will suffer.
Cobblers Who Went Beyond Their Last.
No one but a shoemaker could havo
thought Coleridge serious in his strange
saying that the shoemaker’s beucli had
produced more eminent men than auy
other handicraft. The Shoe and Leath
er Repot'ter has, however, compiled a
“bill of particulars” in tlae shape of a
list of famous cobblers, which seems to
act as an effectual estopel ©n all jealous
craftsmen. Hans Christian Andersen,
who needs no introduction, may head
the list, and Hans Sachs, of Nuremberg,
who, though he made shoes all his life,
yet also made 6,000 poems, plays, farces
and rhyming fables, may be put next.
Sir Oloudesley Shovel was a shoemaker
until he enlisted in the navy, and so w as
Sir Christopher Minns, another English
Admiral. John Hewson, one of Orom
well’s Colonels, and a signer of Charles
I. \s death-warrant; Samuel Bradburn,
the “Demosthenes of Methodism,” as
well as a Bishop; James Lackinton,
w hose catalogue of publications reached
the total—enormous for that time—of
30,000 volumes, iu 1787—ail these wrere
cobblers <it first, if not at the last. Con
tinuing the English list, William Gif
ford, whose memory is preserved by a
complimentary allusion in Byron’s “ En
glish Bards and Scotch Reviewers,” and
whose body is buried in Westminster
Abbey ; George Fox, the arch Quaker;
William Carey, a missionary famous a
century ago, and who read the proofs of
tbfe Bible in twenty-seven Oriental lan
guages ; Samuel Drew’, “the Locke of
tha nineteenth century,” whose experi
ence as an author led him to formulate
the sad truth that “ the man who makes
shoes is sure of his wagjes, but the man
who makes books is never sure of any
thing;” Thomas Holcrorft, whose name
is not nearly so well known as that of a
single one of his plays, “ The Road to
Ruin ;” the Bloomfield brothers, whom
Byron thus apostrophized :
Ye tuneful cobblers, still your notes prolong,
Compose at once a slipper and a song;
John Pounds, whom school-children
cried at being turned away from—all
these and lesser lights too numerous to
mention were English shoemakers.
Coming to our own country, Roger
Sherman, one of the “signers,” leads
the list in time, but Vice President Hen
ry Wilson in rank. Beside these were
Congressmen Sheffey andl Noah Worces
ter, not the lexicographer, but the
founder of the Massachusetts Peace So
ciety. And ex-Govs. H. P. Baldwin, of
Michigan, and William Claflin, of Mas
if they never made shoes, at
leas deajit in them largely enough to be
named here. Altogether, the list is suffi
ciently imposing and convincing to justi
fy a verdict in favor of Coleridge’s say
ing.
How to Dress the Children.
The capacity of our ancestors to ac
commodate themselves to every climate
depended not only on their physiological
faculty of adaptation, but also on their
skill in protecting themselves by artifi
cial means from the inclemency of the
higher latitudes. Houses and clothes
are a' blessing if they answer this pur
pose by a close imitation of nature’s owu
plan in. sheltering her children from at
mospheric vicissitudes, but in degree as
they deviate from that plan their hygi
enic disadvantages balance, or even out
weigh, the gain in other respects. A
s rilow s nest protects her brood from
coil and rain without debarring them
from the fresh air ; a human domicile,
too, should combine comfort with the
advantage of perfect ventilation, and our
clothes, like the furr. a squirrel or the
feather-mantle of a hawk, should keep
us warm and dry without interfering
with the cutaneous excretions and the
free movement of our limbs.
Measured by these standards, the win
ter dress of an American schoolboy is
nearly the best, the summer dress of the
average American, French, and German
nursling about the worst that could be
devised. At an age when the rapid de
velopment of the whole orgauism re
quires the utmost freedom of movement,
our children are kept in the fetters of
garments that check the activity of the
body in every way; swaddling-clothes,
undershirts, overshirts, neck-wrappers,
trailing gowns, garnitures, flounces and
shawls reduce the helpless homunculus
to a bundle of dry goods, unable to move
• turn, incapable of relieving or inti
mating* its uneasiness in any way save
by the use of its squealing apparatus,
fnd consequently squealing violently
from morning till night. Outdoors, in
the baby carriage, “cold draughts”
have to be guarded against, and a load
of extra wrappers completely counteract
the benefit of the fresh air ; faint with
nausea and suffocating heat, the little
dummy lies motionless on its back, re
splendent in its white surplice, a fit
candidate for the honors of a life whose
every movement of a natural impulse
will \>e suppressed as a revival of bar
barism, and an insurrection against the
statutes of an orthodox community.
Hence, in a great degree, the dispropor
tionate mortality in all northern coun
tries of Christendom among infants
under 2 years. In Spanish America,
where infantile diseases are as rare as in
Hindoostan, babies of all classes and
sizes toddle about naked, nearly the
year round; and the Indians of the
Tamaubpas, between Tampico and Mat
am-oras, raise an astonishing number of
brown bantlings who are never troubled
with clothes till they are big enongh to
carry garden-stuff to the city, where the
police enforces the apron regulation.—
! Popular Science Monthly for June.
Wasn’t it rough on Ella, just as she
was telling Frederick, at lunch, how
ethereal her appetite was, to hav# the
cook bawl out, “Say, will ye have yer
pork and beans now, or wait till yer fel
[ejr’i gout ?”
A Welsh Opinion of Royalltj.
It is, we think, to be regretted that the
Prince of Wales has declined to allow
his name to be used in connection with
the National Eisteddfod of Wales. The
loyalty of the Welsh people is beyond
question, but when they ask a little favor
it ought, if possible, to be granted. As
there must have been reasons why his
Royal Highness declined to have any
thing to do with the Eisteddfod it seems
a pity they were not stated. We make
these remarks because the refusal of the
Prince to patronize the Eistoddfod has
not only created a sore feeling in the
Principality, but it has also exposed him
to vulgar abuse, and has given the en
emies of the Monarchy tlie opportunity
of attacking not merely the Prinoe him
self, but also the Queen and the Royal
family.
Thus, a contributor to a Welsh news
paper elegantly declares that the inci
dent has “shortened Royality’s life in
this country fifty years.”
“Already,” he continues “the Welsh
press have been heard to grumble, not
only loudly but angrily, at this ungra
cious conduct of him who some day
hopes to be called His Most Gracious
Majesty. In the columns of an English
daily last week appeared an article which,
though not (because of the old absurd
veneration for Royalty so long prevail
ing) so outspoken as it might have been,
may yet be considered the first mutter -
ings of a storm which will one day burst
as surely as it is now brewing. Men,
who, if yon had spoken to them sneer
iugly or slightingly of the principle of
Royalty a few months back, would have
turned away from you in disgust, are
now beginning to see through the mists
of prejudice, and to question the use of
the thing. When not duly the utter
uselessness, but the positive*evil, of that
which they have to pay so dearly for
shall become apparent, then will it and
other fooleries and sins be sent packing.
Asa beginning in the right direction,
allow me to suggest the dropping from
all toasts lists of the insane custom of
drinking the healths of the Queen, the
Prince of Wales and the rest of the
Royal family. Welshmen have (although
not for the first time) received proof
positive that none of them are of auy
use to Wales. Even the musical aud
literary members of that family—the
fiddling Duke of Edinburgh and the
studious little Leopold, whom the ir
reverent believe to be in training for the
Arbishopric of Canterbury—have thought
themselves above patronizing Welshmen
of like pursuits with themselves.—Lon
don Figaro.
The Daughter of Ethan Allen.
In his reminiscences of Montreal, in
the Star, of that city, Mr. J. H. Dor win
writes: “I have one more little event to
mention, one that is scarcely worth re
cording, only that it interested me very
much at the time it happened, and re
calls the name of a man somewhat re
nowned in the Revolutionary War, and
connected with an important event in
Montreal’s history. On the 10tli of
December, 1819, there died at the Hotel
Dieu, on Bt. Paul street, a nun known as
Sister Allen. Her full name Mas
Margaret Allen, and she was the daughter
of the faincme Colnnel FtJian A linn wljo
it. will be remembered, accompanied
Montgomery in his invasion of Canada
iu 1775, and attempted, with a small
detachment, to surprise Montreal, but
was defeated and captured and sent to
England in irons. She came from her
home in Burlington, Vermont, in 1808,
M-hen twenty-four years old, and thus
spent eleven years iu the nunnery. I
never knew of her presence here until
one afternoon I heard on the street that
a daughter of the brave but unfortunate
old soldier had just died in the Hotel
Dieu, and I hurried over to see her.
Her l>ody Mas lying in state in the
chapel, aud, it being my first visit to a
Convent, the solemn stillness of the
place, the M T ax lights burning beside the
coffin, the nuns kneeling there repeating
prayers for the departed soul, and above
all the thoughts called up by the name
and presence of the dead woman, all
made a strong impression upon me.
The body lay thus for three days, and
Mas visited by a great many people.
She was one of the most beautiful women,
even iu death, that I ever saM’, and be
longed to one of the best families in
New England, and why she left the
M'orld to become a nun I never kneM\
It was strange, too, that the daughter
should seek refuge in the very city
which the father had invaded, and where
he met with his worst misfortune.”
Tillage Tree Planting.
Our enthusiastic young minister, with
an eye and a heart for what is beautiful
and good, devised the plan, and it was
executed to the letter. The sturdy far
mers, old and young, gathered on an ap
pointed afternoon, and planted a goodly
number of trees, elms, maples and ever
greens, about the church.
At the close of the day, the ladies pro
vided a sumptuous repast, and the even
ing was spent in social enjoyment.
Years have passed away, and so have
many of those whose hands wrought so
worthilv and cheerfully on that autumn
day. The youths and maidens of that
time are mature men and matrons now.
Fifteen years of toil and care have sprink
led gray hairs on many a head; bat
those trees are growing and increasing
in vigor every year—and now', in their
youthful prime, cast a grateful shodow
over man ard beast. -Connicticut Cour
ant.
The Fireman's Journal suggests that
the netting which trapeze performers
use to break their fall in case of accident
might furnish a valuable hint to the fire
department officials,
SUBSCR!PTION--$1.60.
NUMBER 48
HUMORS OF THE DAT.
“Bear with me for a while,” is what
Bruin said when he affectionately em
braced the tramp.
Will the coming man wear a stove
pipe hat? is asked. Not unless he
smokes,, replies the Elmira Free Press.
He had been telling her stories of him
self, and had done a great amount of
bragging. When he had finished she
kissed him aud murmured, “This is a
kiss for a blow.”
A Connecticut man has invented a
pipe that will light itself. This is an
underhanded attempt to force house
painters to tind some new way to kill
time.— Boston Post.
“Now I lay me down to sleep,” said
little Toddlepins. Then stopping a min
ute, “but I ain’t going to pray for mam
ma's sole to keep, ’cause it hurts. ” He is
regarded as the Bob Ingeraoll of tliefain
ily.
Damsel.” The most
charming decoration for a plate is a good
piece of beefsteak with well cooked po
tatoes and just a sufficiency of gravy,
it’ll lay over trailing vines or a sunflower
any day.— Boston Post
“The ripest peach is on the highest
tree,” says James Whitcomb Riley.
James shows his ignorauce. The ripest
peach is in the bottom layer of the bas
ket every time, aud it is generally about
nine shades too ripe.
New York's latest lali-da-dah: “Do you
play the piano?” “No; I don’t play the
piano, but my sister Hannah, who is in
Savannah, she plnys the piano in the
most charming maunah.” “Haveaban
aun?”—New York Star.
The difficulty originated in this way.
Said Gallagher to Ragbag—“l heard a
story just now that was funny enough to
make a jackass laugh. Let me tell it to
you.” “Don’t you slur me in any such
remark as that,” roared Ragbag, angrily.
“How r many of you are there?” asked
a voice from an upper window, of a sere
nading party. “Four,” was the reply.
“Divide that among you,” said a voice,
as a bucket of slop fell “like the gentle
dew of heaven,” on those beneath.
The Norristown Herald is accounta
ble for the statement that a New York
“ninety-nine cent store” was robbed of
eleven gold bracelets, six watches, three
diamond pins, fourteen gold brooches
aud fifty-four finger rings. The loss is
estimated at $2.20. —Oil City Derrick .
Said Maguire to Finnegan—“ When
you see me acting like a fool, tell me so.”
And Finnegan said lie would. Aud in
about half an hour he called out—“ M
aguire, you’re making a fool of yourself.”
And then Maguire got mail and*thumped
Finnegan. It always works that way.—
Boston Post.
Can any one tell us why a woman,
emerging from a crowded car, always
makes believe she is goiug to get out at
one side of the platform, until two or
three men have jumped off in the mnd,
and then steps off at the other side. She
always does it, and we want to know the
reason why. — P/tiladeiphia Bulletin.
A conundrum —“What is the differ
ence betweeu a man going to Plymouth
Church and a lover about to propose?”
asks the Boston Courier. Don’t know.—
Jir.atrui Posf. Then you had better go
back to sciiooi. kjh& *•
Beecher and the other, to beseech her.—
PI triad elphi a Bulletin.
There is lots of enterprise in this
world. A Chicago saloon-keeper offers
prizes to persons w'lio take the greatest
number of drinks at his bar in a given
time. And it may not be long before
enterprising undertakers offer premiums
to families in whicl> there are the largest
number of deaths during the green ap
ple and cucumber season. —Norristown
Herald.
Tlie Influence of Foe.
Poe, like Pope, threw himself into a
war with dunces. He hit and thrust at
them vigorously; he exposed a score of
cheap popularities ; he was merciless to
the inexpensive reputations then readily
acquired by every tootler on the whistle
of Miss Eliza Cook. jSince the time of
Poe American literature has wonderfully
advanced in the acquisition of force and
polish. American novelists, for exam
ple, almost give us lessons in careful
elaboration" of style, in reticence and in
well-calculated effects. American poets
are, perhaps, too numerous. That they
get a hearing as they do. and appeal to
a really-large public, says much for the
interest of the people in contemporary
verse. In form, in the mere art of versi
fying, even the minor American poets of
to-day show wonderful versatility and
deftness. Commonplace is much less
successful than it was of old. In fiction,
analysis is almost too careful. We can
not but think that this rapid ripening of
the American muse (who was a raw, un
informed school-girl in the life-time of
Poe) is due in part to the influence of
that critic. His method is as unlike the
method of Mr. Matthew Arnold as pos
sible. But he exercised the same kind
of influence. Like Mr. Arnold, he in
troduced some tinge of French thought
and of French literature into the work
manship of his countryman. Perhaps
he was not a wide reader, and the ele
ment of affectation in his nature may be
detected in his quotations of obscure
Latin authors and in his Oriental allu
sions. It is hard to say how much
knowledge was implied in these allu
sions—how rich the mine was from which
Poe dug these sparkling
Still, he judged the writers of his coun
try with some knowledge of other litera
tures. As he was quite ruthless in his
criticisms he did good, but at his own
cost. —London News.
Darkness, solitude and remorse are
grim and hateful company.