Newspaper Page Text
Robin’s Nest.
robins who Uved in a nest
Ihree
winds that blew in the
west , , *
ttofA it to r0 „ »
n the leaves,
and singing among gathering sheaves,
cSe tie lrj-v world
pattern of life that weaves
5e shadows come and alone—that g°
there was cno all was
first
me
jfot very long ago;
came another, so strong and free,
ben sweet and low;
Whistling groat, soft melting eyes,
robin v th
a into my life like a glad surprise,
awn floVe in a robin wise,
yes or no. „
“littleone,
ho w the katydids, chorusing in,
Not very long ago, din,
to the stars with their musical
Over my joy, you know,
•ailed till the moon came over the hill,
touched all the ni^ht with a silvery
thrill, with its beauty to
! Ur i 0 ve-crownod n3st
while the katydids sang so low.
!Te built us a nest with loving care
Not very long ago,
hit in the west, I’ll tell you where,
By the beautiful river’s flow,
laughs up North in the little blue
Of L} lakes,
sings as its winding path it takes
f. [o the shore where the gulf’s green billow
breaks
And the salt tides come and go.
Kuo was the river and bluer the skies
[ Not very I flew long to ago, nest, where the three
ITben our
I hills rise,
I By the river’s murmuring flow;
lome lights on the hill sang “Home” as I
[ Ind sped, “Home” in its pebbly
» the river sang
| Ld the bed, starlight gleamed in the skies
over
I head
I And danced in the river below.
ine day while winging our happy flight,
■ ly Not very longago,
glad day shaded to dusty night.
I “Dear love,” I called, “must I go?”
But like moonbeams that brighten the mid
S’ I night tide,
Bis strong love hedged me on every side,
Ind my tired wiugs still in his strength
I abide,
■And the summer breezes blow.
le April mom, through tho white soft mist,
■Not very long ago,
I golden sunbeam lightly kissed
■(My story is old, I know)
■ wee “bron birdie” that cooed in our nest,
■essed to my heart his fluttering breast,
Be love in my life was threefold blest—
■Sweet was his song, and low.
ly Robin flies and my Robin sings,
■Fluttering to and fro,
■id my heart is full of the love be brings
lAnd the songs that he sings to show
■at love in the soul never grows a-cold
■d the heart is young while the head is old,
■d the tale of the morning is never told,
■Though the long years come and go.
|hi-tles Plough my Robin: “The sun looks west,
the clouds drift to and fro;”
Iffiy I answer him, “God knoweth best,
■ “hither our feet should go.”
I we swing in our nest when the June skies
I smile
P d we wi ng our way by “still waters”
111 awhile,
the path through “green pastures” leads
| I To a over garden, a stile
quiet and low.
SCALPED.
soldier's thrilling experience.
I I lead in a New York paper the
[ er Indian fighter Carroll
r aS0Q 3 stor 7 of how ho
piped was once
by Indians,” said a former resi
°f Laramie, “audit reminded
pt I have me
me t two mea in my time,
\ at ^ ort Laramie, who were scalped
u got well. The story
of one of
H Se ’ a soldier named Delos G. San
firtson of Monroe County, Mich.
first was
»e actual description, I
ttat any believe,
one has ever heard of how it
iels to be scalped. "While he in
was
os pital at Laramie I heard him tell
, ' nia ny times, and every time it
c me shudder, as it does still when
Ter I think of it.
"Sanbertson belonged to the United
Itates Infant r y, which part of Gen.
luster’s was
command in his campaign
gainst the Indians, in 1869. Ho
pcipated in par
that many of the engagements of
campaign, tho most important of
r i v as the fight with the celobrated
C ack Kottle ’ 9 baud tho Ouachita.
\ on
L a? bl that Sanbertson
!7 ed was
L aud scalped by tho Indians,
r 1 remember that nearly all of the
L “ 0n Hers men said that he was tho
, PCrSOn
Li ever knew up to that
! ? !l ° lla<P boeu thoroughly and
^takahly un
sca i pcd and livcd tQ teU . t
80me before the meeting
Black Kottie, Custer’s scouts had
*u bringmg in repo*. that the wiIy
w.kS camped with a large following
•°tn«where oa the Ouachita, and there
SCHLEY COUNTY NEWS.
he was sending out predatory bands of
hia waniors to plunder settlers and im
migrant trains. Custer decided to hunt
him up and punish him. Th e infantry
was two miles in rdvance of the cavairy,
when one day, just at daylight, it came
in sight of the enemy’s camp.
Li i Me were on a high hill overlook
ing the valley,’ Sambertson said, in
giving the account of the affair, ‘and
the Indians were below. It was in the
middle of winter and the snow was very
deep. The Indian camp was in a rocky
spot, and as the women and children
were there, it was evidently the head
quarters of the baud. It was de
termined to surprise the village, and a
portion of our command was sent
through the woods to the right to get
in the rear of the camp, while the re
mainder advanced quietly down the
mountain, from the top of which a good
trail led to the valley through the thick
woods. This manoeuvring was so suc
cessful that before our presence was dis
covered by the Indians we were with
in tour hundred yards of the
camp, and the detachment that
was sent to open fire in the rear
had arrived in position. We knew
by the yells of the Indians and the
great commotion among them that we
were discovered, and we began the at
tack. Firing began on both sides of
them at once, and this caused what at
first promised to be a panic among the
Indians that would make our victory an
easy one, but suddenly an Indian of
enormous statue and build, his face
hideously streaked in crossbars with
bright yedlow and vermiliion paint,
came dashing into the midst of the sur
prising and panic-stricken band from
some place among the rocks riding a
black pony. His yell could be heard
above everything else as he dashed to
and fro among his warriors, and the
effect of h s presence immediately
changed the whole situation. In less
than two minutes every Indian was in
behind some rock or tree, and
knew that the fight would be a desperate
one.
U t We were in a secure position, but
the Indians were just as secure as we
were. The only way w r e could hope to
defeat them was to charge upon their
stronghold, dislodge them, and settle
the affair by a desperate hand to hand
fight. We were ordered to charge down
the hill upon the enemy, and we rushed
headlong right into the Indian camp,
every man of us yelling as hideously as
the red devils themselves. As soon as
we had emerged from the woods we
were met with rifle balls from every
side, and a good many poor fellows
never reached the camp, The detach*
ment in the rear of the camp came into
the conflict from that side, and we
forced the Indians out from their hid
ing-places to the open ground, and the
battle waged right among their tents.
Black Kettle seemed to be everywhere.
His hideous presence alone prolonged
the fight. He held his warriors to their
ground, and the fight became free and
general. The Indian women, and even
the children, took part in it, and among
tho dead that soon strewed the snow
squaws and pappooses w T erc mingled. In
a few minutes the snow for rods around
was dyed as red with the blood from tho
dead and wounded as the paint on
Black Kettle’s face.
“ ‘In a hand-to-hand fight like thi3,
of course, it was every man for himself,
and I soon found myself on one edge of
the camp firing and bayonetting and
clubbing my gua just as the situation
for the moment required. A messmate
of mine, who was fighting by my side,
was killed by an Indian who fired from
behind a tent, and lie fell so I was
obliged to step over him. As I did
that a ball shattered my aim at tho el
bow, and it fell helpless at my side.
Immediately following that shot a big
Indian, doubtless tho one who had
killed my messmate, sprang from behind
the tent and rushc-d at me with his toma
hawk raised. My gun was empty, and
my left hand being useless I could not
load. I would have run my bayonet
through the advancing Indian, though,
before he could have used his tomahawk
ou mo, but an Indian woman had stolen
up behind mo, and she threw one aim
about my neck and jerked me backward
in the snow.
“ ‘None of our men were near me, as
the thickest of the fight was in another
part of the camp. Tho big Indian who
had come at me with his tomahawk
seemed to be also tho only warrior of
this band who was not in the general
engagement, The 6quaw who had
jerked mo down in the snow held me
there by the hair, and a lot of other
squaws and children came swarming
from tents in all directions to the spot.
They surrounded me, spit in my lace,
jumped on my body,kicked me, pinched
me, thrust the points of knife blades in
my flesh, and tortured me in every way
they could think of. Besides, my arm
was paining me tremendously and dy c
ing the snow all arouud me with
the blood that flowed from t he
wound. The big Indian stood by with
his tomahawk in his hand, and, fortu
nately for me, he gave the women and
their young devils too much time to have
their sport with me, for suddenly there
came the sound of a gun near by, and
two squaws fell dead in the snow by my
side. One of our boys had discovered
my situation. The other squaws and
their young ones scampered away, but
the big Indian determined to run the
risk of getting my scalp anyway, and
he pounced dowu on me, with his knees
on my chest, drew his knife, and the
next second, although it seemed hours
to me, the top of my head was in his
hand, and he was gone.
“ ‘Imagine some one who hater you
with the utmost intensity,’ Sanbertsou
said, in describing the sensation of the
scalping, ‘and he suddenly grabbing a
handful of your hair, while you are
lying prostrate and helpless, and giving
it a quick, upward jerk with force
enough almost to loosen the scalp; then,
while this painful tension is not relaxed
imagine tho not-particularly-sharp blade
of a knife being run quickly in a cir
cle around your scalp, with a s awin<T
like motion. Then let your imagination
grasp, if it can, tho effect that a strong,
quick jerk on the tuft of hair to release
the scalp from any clinging particles of
flesh that may still hold it in place
would have on your nerves and physical
system, and you will have an inkling
of how it feels to be scalped. When
that Indian sawed his knife around the
top of my head, first a sense of cold
numbness pervaded my whole
body. This was quickly followed
by a flash of pain that started at
my feet and ran like an electric shock to
my brain. That sensation was but mo
mentary, but it was terrible. When the
Indian tore my scalp from my head it
seemed as if it must have been connect
ed with cords to every part of my body.
The pain that followed the cutting
around the scalp had been frightful, but
it was ecstasy compared to the torture
that followed the tearing of it from my
head. Flashes of pain shot to every
nerve. My knees were drawn up almost
to my chin, and the fingers of my one
hand closed convulsively in the snow,
those of my left hand being powerless
owing to the shattered arm. That was
all I remembered. When I came to
I was in a tent. The cavalry
had come up in the meantime, and the
Indians were routed. Only a few es
caped, but Black Kettle was among the
few.’
“Sanbertson lay for weeks in the
Government Hospital at Fort Laramio
perfectly helpless and suffering untold
agony. He finally recovered, and in
the meantime his term of enlistment ex
pired. He had no desire to re-enter the
service, and General Custer jocularly
remarked to him that he made a mistake
in quitting the service. ‘For think,’
said the General, ‘how surprised and
disgusted some Indian might be, if you
should stay with us and happen to fall
in his hands when he went to raise your
hair to find that some one had been
there before him.’ I sa.v Sanbertson
several years afterward, and tho same
pale-red, flat, round, bare spot was on
top of his head, showing where his
scalp had been torn away, as I bad seen
it when lie left the h ospital. He said
that it was extremely tender, and in
damp or cold weather was very painful.
How Panama Hats Are Made.
A. C. Banks of Brunswick, Ga.,
wears a curiosity in the shape of a Pan
ama hat which is worth about $40. It
was presented to him by a captain of a
foreign vessel, who bought it of a native
of an island in the Pacific. The hat is
a large one, about tho size of a Mexican
sombrero, and can be folded compactly,
but yet retain its shape when unfolded.
These hats aro knit very closely from
the finest Panama straw, and the knit
ting of them is very tedious. They can
bo knit only in the cool of the day, as
the heat of the sun causes the straw to
draw loose from their holds. It some
times takes twelve and thirteen months
to knit the mo3t valuable ones, which
cost all the way from $50 to $125.— At
lanta, Constitution.
WHERE BABIES WED.
Deplorable Marriage Customs
Among the Hindoos.
A Youthful Bridal Couple in a
Grand Procession.
The wedding season in India is now
at its height, writes Frank G. Carpenter
in a I«tter from Bombay. I have seen
wedding processions by the dozen in
every town I have visited, and I have
had a fair chance to note some of the
peculiarities of Hindoo marriages. In
dia has the youngest brides and grooms
in the world. The grooms I have seen
have in no case been over fifteen, and
some of the brides were apparently only
just weaned. By the Hindoo law a
woman should be married before she
reaches the age of puberty, which here
is at twelve. Most girls a e betrothed
before they are six, and in a wedding'
procession at Agra I saw a little bride
groom of perhaps ten years gorgeously
dressed in cloth of gold, and with
heavy gold bracelets on his wrists and
ank es, sitting in a wed ling chair with
a little baby girl of not over two, who
lay asleep at the other end of tho chair
while tho procession moved onward.
Her sleep was heavy and she had pro
babl 7 been drugged with opium.
There was a marriage of two wealthy
families, aad the wedding procession
was Tei 7 g raa(1 - At the head of it were
two camels, with trappings of gold,
ridden by bare-legged mea in red and
gold turbans and wearing clothes of
gold cloth. Behind them came an ele
phant with gorgeous trappings, and
twelve Arabian horses followed. These
horses had gold bracelets about their
fore legs just above the knee, and there
were great silver bells running from the
saddle along the back to the crupper.
The saddles were of silver cloth, the
stirrups were of silver and the bridle
was decorated with gold. Between
these horses came the wedding chair,
and this was a sort of litter, perhaps six
feet square, containing a bed with cush
ions and pillows, and over it was
stretched a canopy of red and gold.
Within it was the bridal couple, and
the procession was accompanied by a
band which played during the march,
“We Won’t Go Home Till Morning.”
It was a native band, but it. had proba
bly had an English instructor, and this
tune served as the wedding march.
At Benares I saw a wedding procession
of the poorer classes and I had the pleas
ure of an introduction to the groom. He
was a sullen hoy of fifteen, who looked
as though he by no means enjoyed the
occasion. He had a cap of red cloth,
with long strings of flowers hanging
from its rim to his neck, and with taw
dry red clothes upon his body. He was
riding a white pony, which had gaudy
trappings, and walking with him was a
crowd of barefooted, barelegged, tur
baned men and boys, one of whom led
the horse. These were his relatives.
Just back of them, and apparently hav
ing no connection with the pony-riding
groom, was a party of men carrying
what looked like a store -box shut up on
all sides and covered with red cloth.
A cheap cashmere shawl was thrown
over its top, and I was told that the
bride was inside. I asked her age, and
was told that she had lived just eight
years. Behind her came a number of
women carrying her dowry upon their
heads.
One party bore the bride's bed. It
was a rack or framework of wood about
4 feet Jong and three feet wide, with
four rude feet raising it about eighteen
inches from the ground and instead of
wire springs there was a rude network
of clothesline rope stretched within tho
framework. Another woman had a
tray on her head containing the cooking
utensils, consisting of three or four iron
pots and a rice jar, and the whole outfit
would have been dear at $1.50.
talked wilh the father of the groom.
He told me the bride would come and
stay two days with her mother-in-law,
then go back homo until she w-as ten
years of age, when she would come to
live with her husband and be married
for good. In tho caso of baby mar
riages, the child is often brought up by
her own parents, and she only comes to
her mother-in-law’s house when she has
gotten old enough to learn housekeep
ing, which is at the ago of ten or eleven
years. In some cases, however, she
goes at once to tho house of her mother
in-law, and is brought up by her, often
being made tp do the drudgery of the
house and absolutely subjected to her
husband’s mother.
A Chinese Cook’s Recommendation.
The ordinary servant, when she leave?
one mistress for another, procures a
paper “character” to take along with
her; but Chinese servants, it seems,
have an improvement on this. A lady
who has long resided in California re
lates in Youth's Companion an anecdote
illustrative of the strong clannish feel
ing which prevails among the Chinese in
this country.
I had several Chinese cooks, one after
another, and finally one of them went
away very abruptly, so that I refused to
pay him a full month’s wages. Ilia
first successor spent only a few hours in
my house before ho gravely announced,
“Me go; mo no stay.” The two nex
stayed one day each and then departed
with the same brief, emphatic declara
tion. No. 4 ajipcared quite satisfied for
three days, but at the end of that time
he, too, followed his predecessors. In
some concern I called in my husband’s
office boy, a bright Chinese lad.
“Chin Foo,”Iasked, “what is the
matter? Chinaman no stay here.”
“Ah!” he said, i i we know, maybe,”
and he went into my kitchen, whither I
followed him, wholly perplexed. He
looked carefully all about, peered into
pots and kettles, upturned tubs and
buckets, lifted lids and turned over
chairs as if looking for something.
Finally he pushed the clock from its
place and uttered a quick cry of discov
ery.
“Lookee,” he said, and pointed to a
row of Chinese hieroglyphics on the
back of the clock.
Having had them translated, I dis
covered that Sing Lee, my disaffected
cook, had left my condemnation behind
him.
“She vellybad woman,” he had writ
ten; “she no payee.”
An Indian Palace.
Tho palace of Taugore, India, a
graceful, irregular mass of buildings,
with its zenana, armory and durbar hall
surrounds a courtyard, in which saun
ter and squat armed and unarmed retain
ers. The interior is decorated in a
compromise between Oriental and Eu
ropean taste—the more Oriental tha
better, as when an untravelcd native no
ble begins to iuvest in English furni
ture the result is apt to suggest a mod
dera hotel furnished on the sweating
system. The great object in any case
ss to hang the ceilings with as many
chandeliers and colored glass balls as
possible. The walls and columns are
generally gayly painted, and a favorite
fancy is a “half of mirror’ in
which walls and ceilings are
inlaid with innumerable little looking
glasses or pieces of talc, or of colored
glass. Occasionally you find a durbar
hall with real marble carved columns
worthy of all admiration. The idea of
order is still far to seek. At the en
trance of the finest palace you find the
shoes, bedding of the
guards thrown about and piled up pro
miscuously; and framed cuttings from
illustrated papers, cheap prints, or pho
tographs will be nailed up quite crooked
on decorated palace walls. The hall of
the old Palace of Tanjore in the south,
which is used as a depository for the
royal valuables, contains among its
treasures a framed colored advertise
ment of a famous cotton .—Nineteenth
Century.
Catching Flics.
The early Greek naturalists reported
that tho crocodile caught and ate
leeches. His plan of operations was
described as simple but effective. Tho
great reptile lay on the banks of the
Nile with his month open and his eyes
shut, as if off guard. The leeches at
tached themselves to tha inside of his
mouth, and when their numbers were
sufficient to give the huge creature a
taste, his jaws came together with a
sharp report. Mr. Powell found that
the c. ocodilcs of New Britain had a
similar habit.
At every turn m the river we saw a
colony of crocodiles of all sizes flop off
the bank into the water, where they had
been previously lying catching flies.
Their fly-catching is performed iu this
manner: They take up a position on
the bank, and remain perfectly motion
less with their mouths open. Flies at
tracted by the peculiar musky smell of
saliva in their mouths, settle in swarms
inside the open j iws. Presently there
js a sharp snap, and a hundred or so of
flies are entombed.
I was not aware before I saw this that
crocodiles were fly-catchers, as well as
fish, flesh and fowl eaters.