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EIGHT pages. VOL XXII PEDRO. The Story of a California Dog That Catches Flying Fish. Pedro was one of the most important personages on the island of Santa Cata lina. lie was owned by a fisherman and always went out in the boat, occu pying- a position in the bow and aiding in the work by barking vociferously, taking ropes in his mouth and pulling and hauling at every opportunity. When a vessel came in Pedro was al !l.vays on hand to receive it, and was sometimes the first to catch the line thrown by the crew to the dock. When the men heaved away he seized the hawser in his mouth and braced back and pulled with the rest, all the time uttering low growls to accompany the heave-os of the men. In brief, Pedro was a perfect sailor; he knew the ropes thoroughly, and there was little, apparently, that he did not understand about fishing and boating. He passed much of the time in the water in warm weather, and, when his master went along shore for a walk, Pedro would go into the water and swim the distance, preferring this method of procedure. One day his master was crawling over the rocks in search of lumber that had washed ashore, and Pedro was swimming along quietly about fift\ feet from the rocks, when something very singular happened. Directly in front of Pedro and not ten feet from his nose, up came a big black head, with round, shining black eyes and long whiskers. Pedro stopped short with amazement, uttered a loud whim per, and, as the head popped down out of sight, he turned to the rocks and swam in as fast as he could, climb ing out and running to the highest rock in the vicinity to catch a glimpse of the strange object, all the time bark loudly. f [Thinking posibly that he had been • deceived, he then entered the water again and swam along, but in a few minutes the shiny, black head came U P> this time uttering a loud guttural bark. Pedro answered, but in a very subdued tone, and swam quickly to the shore, while the head watched his retreat, uttering occasional barks, as if rejoic ing in the dog's defeat. It was some time before Pedro would enter the water again, and the sea-lion, for such it was, had a clean sweep o the beach, up and down which it swam every night. . . , Pedro had another adventure, which undoubtedly made an impression upon his mind. He was standing as usual one day in the bow of his masters boat, his fore paws on the cutwater, lookina- very much like a figure-head, whei one hundred or "*"'™** school of flying fishes ieft the w ater alarmed by some large fish and came rushing on with their wings • Two of them were headed for boat and one for Pedro. He £ coming and began to bark, but the fis was aimed directly at bun and masse ond more had skimmed jus o head and dropped into the wa feet below. , . , __ A few nights later Pedro . bother experience. It was Pf r , , r <}aiet on the little bay. The wind had gone down, when all at once a ro •ounds was heard; at first a pattering, then asplashing, and then a soun if heavy bodies were leaping fffffffffffffffffff tue water ana returning with loud splashes. Pedro was in a high state of excitement and his barking attract ed the attention of people on the beach, who found that the dog was being fairly bombarded with flying fishes. Alarmed by the onslaught of large fishes the flying fishes had rushed inshore, and in their fear were leaving the water in dozens, some landing in the small boats anchored all about, while others struck the beach and thrashed around on the pebbles. It was the latter that Pedro was at tending to. Standing in the water, al most crazed with excitement, he seized the flying fish as soon as they struck the beach and carried them up to a place of safety, then running back for others. Those of my readers who are familiar with the Atlantic flying fish would he surprised at the one found off the California coast. The latter is three times as large as the little flyer common on the Atlantic seaboard and a formidable object when dashing through the air. One came on board a steamer that plies between San Pedro and Catalina island, passing directly through the glass window into a room, and many fishermen have been struck by them at night and seriously injured. —Charles F. Holder, in Chicago Times. An Kuropenn Turned Indian Fakir. At Bishop Cotton school at Simla there was once an English boy named Charles de Reusselte. He got into some boyish scrape and, to avoid the consequences, absconded. Search proved abortive and nothing more was heard of the fugitive. It appears now that he had wandered no farther away than Mount Taktho, just above. There he had taken refuge with the fakir of a native temple. He became first the holy man's acolyte and eventually his successor. His identity with the run away schoolboy was entirely lost, and the sanctity of his life made him an exceedingly influential personage. Meantime, Charles de Reusselte h4d become entitled to a large fortune and was being advertised and sought for far and wide without success. One day a correspondent, who chanced to be at Simla, fell in with the fakir, and either discovered his secret or had it communicated to him. but the heir manifested no desire to claim his in heritance. On the contrary, he as sured the correspondent that he should never revert to the religion of his fathers, nor even return to civiliza tion. He was quite happy where he was.—Pall Mall Budget. Want of Confidence. Mama —Take this medicine now, like a good boy. The doctor says it will make you better. n ., Johnny— What does he know? Didn t he vaccinate me twice and it never took? —Puck. —The largest egg is that of the ostrich. It weighs three is considered equal in amount to twenty-four hens' eggs. Evenly Matched. Magistrate (to witness)—And where were you when this assault occurred. Witness—Just across the street, your why did you not go l to the plaintiff's assistance when * . saw him attacked? y Witness— Faith, I wasn't sure then be" wouldn't le the defendant, your honor.— Puck- $15,000.00 AT COST! OTJJR 332STTIEE STOCK TO GO -A.T ACTUAL COST! \ j f THOMPSON BROS., Prop’s. White Store. CROSSED THE RIVER. The Story of a Man Who Wasn’t Studying for the Ministry. The endless monotony of mountain and sage-covered plain, unbroken by the introduction of any foreign object, has, I imagine, at times a tendency to make one oblivious of his own immedi ate surroundings, at least so I have found it, and it was on one of those oc casions, after having indulged in a pe riod of wayside reverie, that I became suddenly aware of the loss of my trav eling companion. It was a day of early spring, and grim-visaged winter, pierced by the sun’s bright arrows, had retreated step by step till he en camped perforce on the topmost peak of the Sierras, and even at times the immense waste of sage brush and stunt ed cedars were almost beautiful in their verdure. I turned in the saddle and about a quarter of a mile back saw that the object of my search had dismounted and was kneeling in the sand close to the stream we had just forded. I wheeled and started back over tho trail, wondering what was so engross ing the attention of my quondam re tainer. I had hired him at Cheyenne to pilot me across the plains, and he was one of the relics of the early days that one so often meets out in the western country who never have lost the quaintness in dress, manner or general deportment that have ever dis tinguished them from their fellow mor tals. “What are you doing there. Bill?” I asked as I came within speaking dis tance. • “Jest pullin’ weeds,” he retorted somewhat gruffly. “It’s a peculiar place to harvest weeds, isn't it?” I hazarded. “Thet depends on what a feller is doin’ it fur,” was the answer in the same tone. I drew still nearer and found that my companion was removing the weeds and brush from a low mound that elevated itself above the genera] level of the sand, and closer inspection revealed a small headstone which bore the legend: “I’m gamblin’ thet none o’ the boys hev cum by this trail sence last fell,” said my guide after a pause, during which time he had been working in dustriously. “How* do you know?” “Them weeds wouldn’t be hyar if they hed.” There was another long and impres sive silence, and at length Billy looked up from his labors. “It war up yander thet Buck tried to cross,’’ he resumed, pointing with his sombrero to the point where the stream diverged and rolled swiftly toward the westward. I don’t know whj T it is, but Billy always commences his stories in the middle and works out in a manner completely his own. “Who was Buck Ford?” I ventured to fislt. “He war the whitest feller ever handled a pick,” retorted the plains man emphatically, “and,” he added, “he warn’t studyin’ fur the ministry, JACKSON, GA., THUSDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1894. “BUCK FORD Crost the River April 9,186 L” “It war up yonder lie tried to cross, j We war workin’ in the minin’ camp at t’other side, an’ when spring- cum we hed ter keep a purtv sharp watch thet the big- rains wouldn’t swell the river an’ flood us out. Late one night a rider kim down from the camp above us with the information thet the water war risin’ in the hills, an’ we hed bet ter cross to this side, whar the ground war high. “In course, we lit out fur dear life, women an’ children, bag an’ baggage. We didn’t have no bonanza gittin’ acrost, neither, fur the current war reasonable strong even then, but we i planted ourselves on this shore an’ figured thet we wuz all right, when a woman commences to holler an’ says she forgot one o’ her kids. “Ford was only a young slip of a chap, but I never seed one with more nerve, an’ he ’lowed right erway as he'd go back fer the child. We told him he couldn’t make it, but while we wuz palaverin’ he just turned his pony and plunged right in. “How in the world he ever got over is a mystery, fur the river war swollen high then, an’ runnin’ like a millrace, but he landed lower down, an’ purty soon we sees him takin’ to the water agin with the baby on his shoulder. “The stream was gettin’ wider and wider all ther time an’ it jest swept that pony eriong as ef it war a chip, but he kep swimmin’ till he hed got morn half way. It wuz bright moon light, an’ we could see Buck a-wavin’ his hand ter us as he kim by whar we stood, an’ it ’peared at fust ez if he might make it, but a log er so’then struck em furder down an’ it seemed as if they went under while you’d clap yore hands. “We found him ’bout two mile away a few days arter, with the little baby’s arms still about his neck, an’ we brought him up hyar an’ buried him. Thet thar writin’ don't mean as he crost this river,” concluded my humble friend in a subdued tone that had per haps some tremor in it. “It means ez thet he crost th’ big river an’ all.” And the sympathy of his toles made me turn and regard him, and mayhap the weather-beaten face was shadowed and the piercing gray eyes dimmed by something more than the dust of the plains, but still it seemed to me that, by some unknown beneficence, the bowed, ragged figure was clothed in the shining splendor that can only be acquired by a man rich in the rare commodity of true friendship.—Cin cinnati Enquirer.. Take Care of the Feet. If the skin is hard on the soles or heels it may be softened by repeated soakings in hot water and the wearing of soft stockings and shoes. To keep the feet in good condition they must, of course, be washed every day in tepid water. Then they should be gently massaged and rubbed with good toilet water. The nails should be cut level with the toes, but no shorter. Shoes too short or too tight and shoes too long and too wide all produce corns. Hard leather also rubs against and hardens the skin. So do “darns” of any dimension,' ? n stockings. It is necessary to wear smooth stockings and easy-fitting boots, with low heels, to obtain and retain a well-shaped foot.—Chicago Times WHEN YOUNG PEOPLE WED. j They Seem to Make a Hopeless Muddle of Their Domestic Life. Premising- that, bachelor though we ■ be, we are quite alive to the value of a good wife, appreciating to the full the heaven which such a one can make of home, and admitting that by nature there is a void in man's heart which can only be adequately filled by the ad- > vent of that “mysterious she,” we nevertheless confidently assert that the | fair sex of the middle and upper classes are themselves very largely responsible for any present falling oft' in the wor ship of Hymen. Thus writes a bach elor: The irrevocable step is not lightly to be taken by those who would deserve matrimonial happiness, and yet how many men and maidens change their condition without any prior inquiry into mutual antecedents although they would not purchase a blood horse, which they could get off their hands without muc#L trouble, without scru tinizing closely the pedigree —with scarcely a thought to the future, only in too many instances, thenceforth to wander uneasily through labyrinthine mazes in search of heart’s ease and con tent. Sensible, well-brought-up girls, domesticated, of good physique, and in every way calculated to become true helpmates, though unfortunately in a decided minority in the girl-world of to-day, are by no means altogether un known, and careful, intelligent re search will discover quite a sufficient choice for would-be benedicts. But such jewels,though they may be appre ciated to a certain extent by most, are too good for the average run of men, and if the seeker of a wife be not a Bayard in miniature, he would better avoid the probability of a refusal and seek his divinity among those who will not decline to accept him and his not too scrupulously manly habits. Though married, life is not without its cares, the case of the average bachelor is of too pitiful and lonely a character for him not to be willing to escape from it by entering the matri monial noose, could he only depend on some maiden to whom his heart flies out proving a real helpmeet. But, un fortunately, he has no guaranty that such will be the case. The playfulness which charmed be fore marriage sometimes develops into temper after the knot, which no efforts of the teeth can loose, has been tied fast by the tongue, having merely been assumed for the moment as part and parcel of the equipment matrimonial, while in other cases post-nuptial expe rience demonstrates that frugality and the proper rule of a household are ab sent virtues. Thus the presence of many showy imitations of the genuine article renders the task of the searcher after a true helpmeet no light one, but perseverance will usually meet with due reward. To deserve a wife of worth, however, the would-be benedict must choose his divinity for what she is, not what she appears to be. There would be some prospect of an improvement in succeeding genera tions, physically, mentally and mor ally, if the majority of right-thinking men, and women, too, for that part, contemplating marriage avoided as a pestilence the multifarious crew of fast, brazen-faced representatives of the opposite sex, wno, if appearances go for anything, have lost all power to appreciate wholesome home life. Their talk is of the sewage of life, and among them even women, who ought to be examples of better things, listen without a blush to double en tendres and seem to take a positive pleasure in the discussion of subjects of more than doubtful character. Out wardly not a few of the women may be fair to look upon, though all too fre quently close investigation goes to prove that all is simply another version of the old tale regarding the whited outside of the charnel house. But another and a vastly different type of womanhood calls forth the praises even of the cynic. Regard with feelings akin to those with which you welcome the coming of spring in the sight of the first snowdrop, in which pleasure and admiration blend into something near akin to veneration, any girl in whom maidenly modesty and unsullied purity are fitly framed in good physique and a fair modicum of that self-sacrificing disposition which has the effect of causing her to think twice before speaking once, lest in so doing something might unwit tingly be said that would hurt the feel ings of some other person.—Westmin ster Review. Egyptian Geometry. The Ahmes papyrus doubtless repre sents the most advanced attainments of the Egyptians in arithmetic and geometry. It is remarkable that they should have reached so great proficien cy in mathematics at so remote a period of antiquity. But strange indeed is the fact that, during the next two thousand years they should have made no progress whatsoever in it. All the knowledge of geometry which they possessed when Greek scholars visited them, six centuries B. C., was doubtless known to them two thousand years earlier, when they built those stupen dous and gigantic structures the pyra mids. An explanation for this stagna tion of learning has been sought in the fact that their early discoveries in mathematics and medicine had the misfortune of being entered upon their sacred books, and that, in after ages, it was considered heretical to augment or modify anything therein. Thus the books themselves closed the gates to progress.—History of Mathematics— Cajori. Matrimonial Dangers. A. —I hear that since you are married you are no longer attractive to your wife, that you never say a kind word to her. B. —Well, she is to blarne for it. I have had some sad experiences by be ing amiable and complimentary. Not long since I compared her teeth to pearls, and the result was she badgered me into buying her a £2OO pearl neck lace. so you see I can't afford ( to be complimentary.—Alex Sweet, in Texas Siftings. A leading express company has closed its mouey and valuable package business in the Indian territory on ac count of the frequency of train rob beries, which they attribute to the negligence or incompetence of the ter ritorial authorities. DO YOU TAKE THE ARGUS ? ’OFFICIAL ORGAN. SOME LIVING PRETENDERS. /Ln Amusing Spanish Duke with a lleraltl and an Enormous Fortune. The profession of the royal pretender is very much overdone in Europe just now. A Madrid editor has found six men who think they have claims to the one crown of France, besides any num ber who think they have paramount rights to the throne of Spain and the purple of small Italian principalities. The most interesting of the Spanish pretenders is not Don Carlos, but a man whose name is seldom mentioned outside the Iberian peninsula. He is the duke of Medina-Celi, chief defender of the faith fourteen-fold grandee of Spain, first of all Castilian knights, and direct descendant of Ferdinand and Isabella. For him and his family the race of Bourbon-Anjou, who now rule Spain, are nothing more than usurpers. As often as anew king of Spain is crowned the duke’s herald appears in the palace, and, in' the presence of all the grandees of Spain, protests in the name of his lord against this usurpa tion,sets forth the claims of the Medina- Celis to the throne, and challenges every knight who may venture to dis pute the legitimacy of the duke’s rights to defend his opinion in a duel to the death “on the mountain or on the plain, by day or by night.” As no grandee of Spain has ever seen fit to take the duke and his herald seriously, the head of the house of Medina-Celi has been left free to spend the income from his enormous fortune on beauti ful Spanish girls and to make peren nial tours of his numerous estates. It is said that he can travel from one end of Spain to the other and sleep every night in his own house. Under these circumstances he has proved a much less troublesome pretender than Don Carlos. This chief of Spanish pretend ers was once so impoverished that, with the help of his secretary, he tried to turn into coin the gold chain of his Order of the Golden Fleece. By the death of Count Chambord and some luck in matrimony, however, he was enabled eventually to lay up a fortune against a rainy day and keep his decorations away from the goldsmiths and pawn brokers. A group of pretenders, who are chronically bankrupt, afflict the Ital ian provinces. At almost any time one may find in the continental newspa pers brief paragraphs concerning the difficulties which a count of Aquila, or Trani, or Syracuse, is having with the sheriffs. A census of pretenders has not been taken. A partial list of those who think they have valid claims to the throne of France was published re cently, however. They are: “Don Carlos, duke of Madrid; Alfonso XIII., king of Spain; Francis, sometime king of both Sicilies; Francis, Sebastian’s son by his second wife, an aunt of the dead king; Robert, once duke of Parma; Louis Philippe of Orleans. All of these gentlemen are descendants of Louis XIII., of France. The last one to announce his pretensions to the world is Gen. Francis of Bourbon, who suddenly began calling himself the duke of Anjou after the count of Paris’ death, and sent out a manifesto con cerning his claims. This course has been rather disastrous to him, for he has been deprived not only of his com mand in the Spanish army, but also of the salary that went with it. He spare the command, but will *■ salary, for be is poor.—N. Y NO 48