Newspaper Page Text
V/. F. EIVSITH, Publisher.
VOLUME IX.
keep both nr o from mother,
Tboy aat at the spinning together,
And they spun the lino white thread;
One faco was old and the other was youDg—>
A goiden and a silver head.
At times the young voice broke In song
That was wonderfully sweet;
And tho mother’s heart beat deep and calm,
For her joy wa3 most complete.
There was many a holy lesson,
Interwoven with sil#Dt prayer,
Taught to her gentle, listening child,
As they two sat spinning there.
“ And of all that I speak, my darling,
From my older head and heart,
God glvoth me one last thing to say.
And with it thou shalt not part
“ Thou wilt listen to many voices,
And ah! woe that tills must be!
fhe volee of pralaa and tho voice of iova
And the voice of flattery.
“ But listen to me, my little one,
There's one thing that thou shalt fear—
Let never a word to my love ha said
Which her mother may not hear.
“No matter how true, my darling one,
The words may seem to thee,
They are not fit for my child to hear
If they cannot bo told to me.
“I f thou’lt ever keep thy young heart pure,
And thjr mother’s heart from fear,
Lrlug all that is said to thee by day
At night to thy mother’s ear.”
TIIE 11 AUNI ED WELL.
I am an old farmer, living in the old
est house in Old town. The trees about
the place are the trees of the primaeval
forest. I have plenty of farming land
beyond their delightful shade, and the
only thing new upon the place is my
well. We have an ancient well with the
old-fashioned sweep, but no one ever
tastes tho water there, though it is as
■old and clear as crystal.
I supposo the place is worth a great
deal. It was valued £1,500 when I
bought it years ago. The house is a
handsome mansion ; the sort of a place
a gentleman retiring from business
usually buys to end his days in, and city
people came to see it and the grounds,
and seemed to be delighted. Now,
when I tell you that I came into Old
town with exactly £l2O pounds in my
pocket, and that I had no idea what I
should do when that was spent, you will
feel surprised that, six months after, I
owued this place. But I’ll tell you all
about it. It was what folks call a
haunted place, and for ten years it had
stood vacant. People tried to live there,
but were always frightened away. If
it had only been the house, that could
have been torn down ; but nobody would
even farm the land on shares.
Twelve years before this, tho proprio- ;
tor had been a jealous old gentleman,
who had a young wife whom he would
never permit out of his sight, if he could
avoid it.
However, she was as sly as ho waa
watchful, and blio managed to flirt suf
ficiently to make herself talked about.
Being very pretty, she set one or two
silly young fellows wild about her, and
oiio used to follow hor around, making
great eyes and sighing desperately like
a lover in a play.
Tho postmistress sai :1 that he wrote to
her, and I suppose he did. And at last
the news spread through the place that
she had run away with him.
He was gone, aud she was gone ; and
tho old man came one morning to Law
yer Tantivy, and sold his property at a
great loss to a man who had wanted it
for years—a rich man, who liked to have
it said that he owned tho finest place in
Oldtown.
It was plain that the poor old gentle
ntxa did not care what became of him,
and when he had got the money he
wandered away, and was never seen
again.
The new proprietor moved up to the
great house in state, but at dawn the
whole family—servants and all—re
rned to their old quarters.
What they had seen, or what they had
not seen, it was t-n tell, but they
were all nearly frightened to death. The
doctor was sent for for the ladies, and
they spoke of the most awful appari
tions.
After this the heat! of the family and
the constable spent a day and a night
there. They held" their tongues, but
those who saw them first knew that they
had been well frightened, and the man
pnt the place into the market at once.
Lawyer Tantivy privately told people
that only a coward would have been
frightened by rats in an old wall, and he
*°hl it to a city man. Mucn the same
l hing happened ■ but this time the house
is not sold again. The city man went
elsewhere, and tried in vain to get rid of
h?s bargain. It was let for the summer
o:ic *> bat the people did not stay a week.
AUyr a while nobody would farm the
ground.
gggggggggggg
borne said they saw a woman with her
throat cut. Somo that they saw a man
with a wound in his breast. Some both.
Voices were heard ; hands were felt; and
there, when I came to the place, the old
house stood, with moths and spiders for
its only tenants.
I went up and looked at it, and then I
talked to Jane. She had not a bit of
superstition in hex*, and she agreed to
what I proposed.
I went to old Tantivy and offered him
£25 a year for a four years’ lease of the
place, the £IOO to be paid in one lump.
“After that,” said I, “I’ll give you
four hundred for the property. Wife
and I are not afraid of ghosts. ”
Jhe old lawyer shook his head.
You say you’ve met with losses,
friend,” said he, “and havo just £l2O
left. Keep it. You couldn’t live in
that house one week. Tve tried it. I’d
make a bargain with a rich man, but I’m
not rasoal enough to take a poor man’s
all.”
“ I’ll risk it,” said L “I do it freely,
but the papers must bo made out fair
and square—four hundred after my four
years’ lease.”
And so I had my way. Jane and I
went up to tho house one day; I had
£lO in my pocket, and a wheelbarrow
full of groceries. She carried a broom
and anew scrubbing-brush. It was a
wonderful, grand, dirty old place. We
set to work to clean it—to drive out the
insocts and the rats; and we got some
fresh straw to sleep on, for tho beds
were all ruddering away. That nigh
at 9 we lay down with a lamp burn
ing, and went to sleep like two tops ;
and I think it must have been 12 o’clock,
or nigh to it, when Jane shook me vio
lently. I started up, and, holding each
other’s hands, we both saw what had
frightened her.
A man stood near the bed, a young
man, with fair hair curling about his
temples; his breast was bare, and we
saw a great bleeding wound there. I
had my pistol under my pillow, and I
drew it out and looked at him.
“ Go, or I fire,” I said ; “I’m not a
fool to be tricked in this way. ”
Instead of obeying he slowly moved
ioward tho bed. Jane shrieked and
drew the counterpane over her head. I
covered him with the pistol,
“ One step more and I fir©,” I said.
He took the step. I fired. A shriek
of laughter followed, and there was no
one thero. I arose and searched the
place. Every window was barred, every
door locked. I unlocked one of the
doors, and entered the adjoining room.
A great bed, with tester and canopy*
stood there, and upon this lay the figure
of a woman, all in white, covered with
blood. I rushed toward it, lamp in
hand. Again those hollow shrieks of
laughter, and nothing but tho stained
and yellow ticking of an old feather-bed
lay under the canopy.
“Silas! Silas 1” screamed my wife,
who had followed me. clinging to my
arm. “It is all true. Let us leave the
place.”
“ Jano,” said I, “it seems to bo true
that this place is haunted, but we have
risked our all on it. The things we
have seen have not hurt us, and I pro
pose to drive them away. I’ll take you
to the village, if you like, and leave
you there to board, but hero I stay un
til I beat these ghosts.”
“ Not alone,” said Jane. And she did
not leave me.
If you believe me, friend, day and
night for three weeks we were haunted
as people never were before—faces,
voices, hands —in the house and in the
field; and, worse than all, we grew sick.
I sent for the doctor, who wouldn’t
come ; and we went to him.
“ You are poisoned,” he said. “ "What
have you eaten, or what have you been
drinking ?”
Yve thought it over, and I told him
that wo knew of nothing harmful, and
that we cooked and prepared all our own
food.
“I never knew any one to pass a day
at that confounded house you live
in without being affected in this way,
said ke; “even those, who did not eat
there. Constable Collins says he touched
nothing but cold water, and he came
nef* dying.”
“It’s the well, then,” said L
“ They used to call it the best well in
the county.” said the doctor.
“It has a nasty taste now,” said L
“I’ll beg of ay neighbors until I've
cleaned it out.”
And that day I began. We got better
slowly, and I tried to hire two farm
hands to help me with my well. Not
one would be hired. ..I was weak from
sickness, an* 3 to tell the truth, it seemed
as if the old boy himself was in the
place. I was almost tired of living as I
did, and, feeling like a maniac; and one
Devoted to Industrial iDter.st, the Diffusion ot Truth, the Establishment of Justice, and the reservation of a People's Government,
INDIAN SPRINGS, GEORGIA.
day I went down to the well, and sat
there, wondering whether it might not
be best to give up and go somewhere,
as farm laborer, when I felt what seemed
to be an icy hand on my head, and,
looking up, saw my two ghosts, side by
side. They were horrible enough, lean
tell you, and they looked at me and
pointed into the well; and then I heard
two voices crying :
“Get us outl Get us out! Get us out
and bury us 1 The water is cold, and
our wounds are deep. Get us out.”
And then tho truth came to me,
Heaven knows how.
I went over to my neighbor’s house,
jusyfc able to crawl there, and I said to
him :
“Mr. Jarvis, will you send one of
your men to the people they ought to
go to, and have the police go to my
place ? There’s something in my well
that ought not to be there.”
Well, they came, and I was right.
They took out of that well two bodies
rolled up in sheet lead. By bits of jew
elry, and things of that sort, they found
out that they were the bodies of the
young wife of the old proprietor and the
young man who used to run after her
The old man had killed them both, but he
must have had help to bury them in their
leaden coffins. And now people began
to remember how two roofers, who had
a good deal of this sheet lead on hand,
grew suddenly well off, and went from
tho place about the time the old man
sold the estate, and they believed that
he had paid them for helping him to dis
pose of the bodies.
* They buried them in the graveyard,
and Jane and I never saw the ghosts
again. The farm-land and summer
boarders brought me tho price I had
agreed upon for the place, and I’ve been
a prosperous man ever since. And if
you want any one to tell yen a good,
genuine ghost story, come to me.
THE JPrMAMIDS.
Mr. G. \V. French, of Philadelphia,
presented some curious facte concerning
the results ©f the astronomical and geo
metrical investigations of the great
Pyramid before a meeting of New York
ministers. The -chief purpose of the
speaker was to prove that the Pyramid
records the prophetic history of Judaism
and Christianity. The Pyramid was
built before idolatry made its way into
the world, and, as was claimed, contains
no symbol of false worship, and this
confirmed tho Scriptural knowledge of
God hold by Abimelcoh, King of Gesar,
and of the Egyptian Pharaoh in the time
of Abraham. According to Mr. French,
the narrow passageway in the Pyramid
symbolizes tho voyage of life, which
slopes downward to a dark hole beneath
the earth’s surface and upward to the
“ King’s chamber,” where the temper
ature stands unchangeably at 68 de
grees. Tli© horizontal passage symbol
izes the departure of the Jews from
Egypt and also their rejection of tho
Christ. Then the perpendicular ascent,
the overhanging wall, and a particular
step in the pyramidal sign language
mean that tho higher a man rises toward
the divine and the heavenly the more
room there is for him, though the as
cent may be difficult. The inscription
on the Pyramid was taken by tho lect
urer to mean the unity of God and the
fulfillment of certain prophecies in 1881
and in view of the events of last year he
thought these symbols of the Pyramid
were something more than mere coin
cidence. The prophecies of Daniel con
cerning the destruction of Jerusalem in
seventy weeks and the 2,300 days were
said to bring out 1881, and also the
Apocalyptic vision of 1260 from the
I Mohammedan hegira in 621 give the
same date. But the Pyramid shows a
pins 1881, which includes part of the
current year, so that great religious
events may be looked for in this year of
grace 1882. A symbol of the Messiah
was also found in the capstone, as “ the
head of the corner.” These theories of
the symbolism of the Pyramid have
often been discussed before, and they
are very interesting, but general opinion,
we believe, has concluded that they are
simply an ingenious leading up of cer
tain facts and figures to fit preconceived
and already accepted ideas.
There had been a seeming coolness
between the lovers. One day Emily’s
schoolmate ventured to refer to the sub
ject, and asked her : “ W hen did you see
Charley last?” “Two weeks ago to
night.” “ What was he doing ?” “ Try
ing to get over the fence. 1 ‘ Did he
appear to be much agitated?” “go
much so,” replied Emily, “that it took
all the strength of papa’s new bulldog to
bold him.”
TER A CRUZ,
The city itself, compact and solid,
with a line of domes and stoeples black
ened with time, roofs of substantial red
tiles, plentiful balconies, and bits of
wall tinted blue, green and pink, is like
a little Venice. A large crane hangs
out from the end of an iron pier, and the
fancy hooks on to it at once—the ter
minus of the English railway which is to
bear ns away up the extraordinary slopes
from the hot lands—the (terras calien
tes—to the mysterious interior and the
capital.
In an existence of going on 400 years,
Vera Cruz has arrived at a population of
17,000. The intei’ior view of the place
doe3 not belie the promise of the first
glimpse. The churches are of irregular,
picturesque shapes, with nice bells. The
principal one, in a little shaded plaza,
has a dome of colored mosaic tiles, which
shine in the sun—a style we shall see
plenty of farther on. The principal
shops have a well-furnislied air, espe
cially in the branches of groceries and
heavy hardware, and the Custom House
square is stuffed to repletion with cotton
bales, railroad iron and miscellaneous
goods waiting transportation. The prin
cipal street is called De La Indepen
dence, and leads to a short concrete
promenade bordered with stone benches
and palm trees. It is early discovered
that the Mexican is very patriotic. He
names his streets after his battles, as
particularly the Cinco de Mayo, fought
at Puebla against th© French, and even
has a way of joining the names of his
heroes to those of cities. Thus Puebla
is Puebla do Zaragoza, commandant in
the same great battle of the sth of May,
and Oaxaca is Oaxaca of (President(
Juarez.
Grass grows in the joints of the stones
in the minor streets, and open gutters
run in the center. One might be in
some such Italian city as Mantua. The
zopilotes , of which travelers have writ
ten. sit on long, straight waterspouts
projecting from the houses. They are
large, raven black, dignified, and, aloft
there, against the deep-blue sky, have
an appearance of carved architectural
ornaments. Thera are street-cleaning
departments elsewhere which are far less
ornamental, at any rate. Notices of a
bull fight for the coming Sunday ar©
posted on the dead walls. A tram car
of a peculiar pattern runs out to th©
open fields, where there is a dancing
place and ball ground. There is a view,
in passing, of the cemetery, which should
be a leading institution at Vera Cruz;
and yet, when on the ground, as
is apt to be th© case, there ara mitiga
tions to be found even of yellow fever.
Pall bearers in gloomy weeds are natu
rally expected to form a considerable
part of the population, just as murderers
and kidnappers of all sorts are expected
to abound elsewhere. But an American
resident assured me that in four years
he had known but one of our country
men to die of the vcmito, as it is called,
and very few to have it. Its chief havoc
is among the poor and badly nourished.
The American Consul, himself a physi
cian, and a resident of twelve years’
standing, is strenuous in his views as to
the harm done to th© commercial inter
ests of both countries by ignorance and
misrepresentations on the subject. It
is certain that the local authorities do
not regard the disease as contagious,
putting those afflicted side by side with
surgical patients In Hie hospital; from
which it seems that if the case were re
ally looked into there may be as little
need of the annoying quarantine against
yellow fever, at least of this variety, as
if it were simple ague.— W. H. Bishop,
in Harper's Magazine.
HE SIGHED FOB HIS BIKE.
Borne few years since a melodrama
was played in a certain theater, the chief
actor in which had made himself, from
his haughty and overbearing conduct,
disliked by one and aIL In the last act
he was supposed to visit the tombs of
his ancestors. In the center of the
stage, upon a marble pedestal, stood
the statue of his father. A heavy fold
of drapery covered the figure. Enter
Albert “Once again,” he says, “to
gaze upon those features which in life
so often gazed on me with tenderest af
fection ! Father, thy mourning son now
comes to pay thee adoration. Let me
remove the veil which from the vulgar
gaze shields the beloved image of a onee
dear parent.” Off went the drapery,
and behold ! the father stood upon his
head. The shouts of laughter that sa
luted this practical joke put an end to
the scene, which changed to the next as
quickly as possible, amid the bravos of
the audience, the anger of the manager
and the uncontrollable rage of the actor.
UNDER THE BED,
Times When It Has Concealed the Oft-
Loohed-For Burglar.
The man under the bed docs not al
ways prove a myth. Perhaps it is an
actual fact that women who pray look for
him more regularly than others of a less
spiritual turn of mind ; when the good
woman kneels at the bedside to offer her
devotions it is the most natural thing in
the world for her to first explore that
historic territory and satisfy herself that
no concealed burglar is listening. It is
also a well-authenticated fact that a
pious woman in the suburbs of London
did discover the legs of a bold, bad
house-breaker sticking out just as began
her petition. She did not shriek, but
went on with a prayer for that particu
lar sinner that would have melted the
heart of a Newgate thief. 1 wish that it
might be added that he was converted
on the spot, cam© out and was pardoned,
and afterward married the petitioner.
But truth compels me to add that the
good woman was interrupted in the
most solemn part of her prayer bv a peal
of laughter from the graceless younger
brother who had enaoted the part of a
burglar.
More tragic was the story of the lady
who, traveling alone, stopped at an inn
and mentioned the fact that she had
been followed and watched by a villain
ous-looking man with a shock of red
hair, who she feared had designs upon
the valuables she carried with her. As
nothing was seen of him at the inn, she
retired for the night, oarefully locked
the door and was soon in bed, leaving
a light burning in front of a mirror. No
sooner was her head on the pillow than she
had a distinct view of th© man with the
red hair crouching under the bed. She
made no sound, but reached softly for a
scarf she had laid near, made it into a
running noose and waited. The next
morning, when her servants broke open
the door, they found the lady sitting up
in bed, grasping with both hands the
noose in which she held the fearful
weight of the dead man; she had
strangled him, but was herself a raving
maniac from whom reason had forever
gone.
Some time ago tr prominent Judge in
Birmingham, N. H., was found mur
dered in his own house, and no clew to
the murderer. It was immediately after
an adverse decision he had made in a
case of great importance, and the mur
der was supposed to have been instigat
ed by a desire for revenge, but as all
th© parties were respectable people it
was impossible to fasten the guilt on
any one. The Judge was a widower,
and lived alone with the exception of a
young daughter and the servants. This
daughter was beautiful, and on the even
ing in question had returned home from
a ball at a late hour and gone directly to
her own room, where she stood before
her mirror taking off her jewels. As
she did so, she held her white and
rounded arm above her head, and con
scious of its beauty said aloud : “ What
a beautiful arm ! ” little thinking the
remark of such consequence as it proved
to be in the tragedy that followed. The
girl both saw and heard her father’s
murderer, but as he was masked failed
to distinguish his features, but always
declared she should know his voice if
'she ever heard it. Several years passed,
and in another city she was standing in
a crowd observing some passing sight,
when she was conscious of the curious
regard of a stranger who stood neat.
Looking at her with a singular intensity,
he made this remark : “Oh, the beauti
ful arm ! ” She knew the voice in an
instant, and throwing herself bodily on
the man denounced him as her father's
murderer. He waa arrested, tried and
convicted, and told how he had lain hid
den under the bed and heard th© idle
remark of the young girl which she her
self had been scarcely conscious of. He
had recognized her on meeting her, and
involuntarily betrayed himself, as he
had been a stranger and an unsuspected
party.— Detroit Post.
Asunder : He escorted his sweet
heart to the gallery one day, and haa
her picture taken. She selected the
impression she liked best, and a few
days afterward a dozen photos were sent
home to her. When Charley called in
the evening, he asked her how she was
pleased with them. “ Pretty well,” she
answered, “ only they’re so awfully pale;
they don’t show the color of my skin at
all.” “Oh, never mind abont that,”
encouragingly added Charley ; “ I’ve
got some yellow ochre home and will
touch ’em up for you.” Then a big gulf
seemed to open between them, and it
remains open yet.
Berlin sometimes scores twenty
eight suicides in two weeks,
SUBSGRI PTION**SI.SD.
NUMBER 39.
PLEASANTRIES*
A serenade ought to be set in a night
key.
A dime novel is of course in-ten-oent.
sation.
When a business is “run down ” it is
time to have it “wound up.”
The vegetarian’s diminutive pleasantry
—“lt’s rare that I eat meat.”
“Here’s your ring,” said the bell to
tho belle, and the wedding went on.
At the Hub— “l am tired,” said the
wheel. “ Poor felloe,” spoke the axle,
wagon his tongue.
‘ ‘Fortune knocks once at every
man’s door,” but misfortune stalks in
many times without knooking.
Patti is thirty-nine years old, and has
been just that old so long she is used to
it and it doesn’t worry her a cent’s
worth.
A little girl being asked what she
was doing with her doll, replied that she
was making her an angel and was about
to sew on wings.
" An honest man is the noblest work
of God.” Nothing is said about an
honest woman, because she isn’t such
an astounding variety.
What can make more vocal noise than
a boy driving ten cows through a town T
Why, a boy driving two cows, of course.
The more cows the less noise.
“How old are you?” said an ancient
dame to a grinning little tar-pot. “ Well,
if I goes by what mudder says, I is most
10, but if I goes by de fun I’se had, I’se
most 100.”
One of the leading dailies of Chicago
has resolved not to notice base-ball
games hereafter. It wants all its space
for reports of divorce cases.—Norris
town Herald.
Deacon Jones was happy, indeed,
when he was told that his daughters,
dear girls, had gone to the revival.
Their mother didn’t tell him that it was
a revival of “ Pinafore,”— Boston Tran
script.
A Utica clergyman had occasion to
refer in a sermon to the prophet Jonah,
and the report says that he delicately
spoke of him as having “ passed three
days and three nights in the whale’s—
ahem—society. ”
A TURKEY was shut up in a cellar in
Clarke, Va., and lived five weeks with
out food or water. It is said thafcjyie
turkey was forgotten, but we are in
clined to think that is really the way
turkeys are fattened for the city market.
At a young ladies’ seminary recently,
during an examination in history, one
of the pupils was interrogated thus:
“Mary, did Martin Luther die a nat
ural death?” “No,” was the reply, “be
was excommunicated by a bull.”—Har
vard Lampoon.
Figures won’t lie, maybe, but you
can’t bet’on the breadth of a man’s shoul
ders or the girth of a'wman’g— ha—chest
by a measure outside the dress or coat.
Oh, no, they won’t lie, figures won’t.
But a Newark pashier can make them
dissemble a little.
A little boy asked mamma the fol
lowing question, to which all mamma’s
answers are not yet recorded: ‘ ‘ Mamma,
if a bear should swallow me 1 would
die, wouldn’t I? ” “ Yes, dear. ” ‘ * And
would Igo to heaven ? ” “ Yes, dear.’*
“And would the bear have to go,
too?”
THE USE OP THE BEAUTIFUL.
When falls the soulful moonbeam
Upon the backyard fence,
And tuneful feline chorister*
Their serenade commence,
Th% suffering sesthetic,
His utterance forgot,
Hurls madly through the midnight air
His too-too sunflower pot.
Prof. Bizzozero, of Turin, has dis
covered anew and important constituent
of the blood, which he oalls “blut
plattchen.” They are lenticular bodies
aggregated around the colorless corpus
cles. It is enongh to make a man sit
down and cry with mortification to think
that he has to go around with thing*
like that in his blood, and no way of get
ting them out — Burdette.
The national Teutonic beverage, beer,
according to the Paris Figaro , is large
ly used at the royal table in Berlin.
The Emperor William’s favorite dish is
beer soup, made rery sweet, with toast
ed bread in it; the Crown Prince likes
beef stowed in beer, which imparts a
peculiar flavor to the meat, and the Em
press is particularly fond of eels with
beer sauce. _
The wrong men always get rich. It
is the fellow without money who is al
ways telling you how much good he
would do with it iI he had it.