Newspaper Page Text
The Cheerful Toiler.
The bellows grim, with all his mighty
While at the biasing forge he stands
The blacksmith blows. His blackened
hands
With spotless honesty are white.
And while his strong arm swings.
This cheery song he sings:
' ‘The bellows I blow, for well 1 know
The love of friend and neighbor,
And many joys known here below
Are won by honest labor.”
Snow-white with heat he likes to see
The iron on the anvil lie,
And purpose glistens in his eyes
As he the bar beats lustily.
And while the anvil rings,
This is tbe iong he sings:
“The iron I heat, for work is sweet,
It is my only treasure;
It makes my humble life complete
With comfort and with pleasure.”
An untired wheel lies on the ground,
Placed there by his e'er steady hand,
And soon with a strong iron band
He binds the wooden circle round.
And as his right arm swings,
This is the song he sings:
“The wheel I bind, and joy I find
In this firm iron fetter—
The symbol of some great strong mini
That makes the world grow better.”
He is a plain and hearly man,
This worker by the foi-ga and fire,
His life has one supreme desire—
To do the very best he can.
And as his hammer swings,
This is the song he sings;
“Work on, work on, oh, toiling on
Be hopeful and not tearful,
And better will your task be done
If you but make it cheerful. ”
Ah, well for all who toil ’twould be
If peace within their hearts would sing,
And bid all discontent take wing,
And like a bird of passage, flee!
Then they to flying time
Might sing this simple rhyme:
“We toil, we toil, ’mid life’s turmoil,
And will not harbor sorrow,
For though we may be poor today,
We may be rich tomorrow.” *
—Caleb Dunn in Saturday Night.
AMBUSHED,
AN ADVENTURE IN SOUTH AFRICA.
I was stopping for a time at Win
burg, a small town in the Orange Free
State, in November, 1881. I was pass
ing my time in a hammock under the
trees, smoking, reading, and I must
confess, feeling pretty tired of the mo -
notony of my existence in South Africa.
The Basuto Land Kafirs had some time
previously taken it into their heads that,
taxes were things that no heathen
should be called upon to pay, and con'
3equently they were in rebellion. After
Borne small skirmishes had^ taken place
between the Cape Colony troops and
detachments of the rebels, it soon be
came clear that an extensive war was
coming. Cape Colony, awakening
slowly to tho enormity of the danger
threatening her, commenced organizing
corps "of colonial volunteers, and it was
at this time that I almost determined to
offer my services as an old imperial of
ficer to the Colonial government.
I was lying one morning as usual in
my hammock, having just finished the
latest Cape Town paper (fourteen days
old), half asleep, half awake, when I
heard my name shouted from the out
side of the inclosure. Glancing up I
was delighted to see an old friend,
Colonel Griffiths, R. E. C. M. G., as
genial, brave and true-hearted an Irish
man as Providence has moulded and
encased in a uniform. To jump up, to
shout to my worthy aboriginal to take
the colonel’s horse, was the work of a
second, and then, grasping him by the
hand, 1 inquired to what stroke of for
tune I owed the pleasure of his com
pany.
i e Well,” arswered the colonel, “the
Government wants me to get to Moseru
as quickly as possible and take over the
command, as that imp of a Larotodi (a
powerful Kafir chief) lias been making
things hum a bit for the residents and
the force of colonial troops stationed
there, and I am going to organize two
volunteer regimnits, one white and one
black, and if you feel inclined to do
some more soldiering I can offer you a
troop.”
My surprise was only exceeded by my
joy at this opportunity of relieving the
monotony of South Africau life, 1
lost no time in accepting the offer, and
during a capital tiffin, I arranged to
join the colonel at Moseru in ten days,
giving me time to fetch up from Natal
the necessary kit of an officer.
It was a bright summer morning
seven days after my interview with the
colonel that, mounted on my old and
tried hunter, a valise strapped on the
back of my saddle, a pocket full of to
bacco, a Martini-Henry express rifle (one
of my favorite weapous), my old regi
mental swo.d strung to my saddle, I set
out to join my colonel and assume com
mand of my troop. My destination
■was distant some one hundred and thir
ty miles, my road lying over a pretty
hilly country, thickly wooded in parts,
beautiful in its peaceful calm, broken
only by the shrill chirps of th«
birds or the trickling of some
small stream winding its silvery path
through its moss-covered forest banks.
Occasionally the cunning face of a mon
key might be seen intently watching
from behind some trunk or limb of a
tree the intruder in its. leafy home. The
open landscape, dotted occasionally
with some small farm-house nestled in
the shadow of a hill, the home of some
Dutch farmer, at all times the hospita
ble entertainer of the weary traveler.
The first and only town I came to was
Lady Brand, some three miles from the
Basuto Land border, Moseru being one
mile the other side. I arrived at Lady
Brand just in time for tiffin at the ho
tel. My horse and I both being very
tired, and feeling that attention to the
wants of tho inner man would not be
altogether misplaced, I determined to
dismount and refresh both man and
beast. I rode into the yad of the ho
tel, gave my horse to a Kafir, saw him
watered and fed, and then went inside.
As I came into the bar my attention
was attracted by a discussion that was
taking place among some Boers, As I
spoke their language I soon found out
that all night the incessant discharge of
artillery had been heard from the fort,
and from time to time the rattling dis
charge of small arms from the same di
rection. The firing had ceased for some
little time and the question being dis
cussed was whether the Kaffirs had
been repulsed or the fort captured. My
excitement can be imagined, but as it
was now no use hurrying, I let my horse
eat hi3 forage and snatched a feed my
self, and then with fear that the worst
had happened, I remounted and began
the last few miles of my journey. On
this side of the river Caledon the boun
dary separating the free States from
Basuto Land is a small hill overlooking
the whole of the immediate country,
and from which a distant view ot the
fort and residency, each of which is
situated on small hills some seven hun
dred yards apart, the village being be
ing between the two, was obtainable.
On the first bill were grouped some
Boers, from whom I inquired the news.
1 was answered by a surly young Boer
that tbe Kafirs bad retired after a des
perate attempt to capture the fort.
Tiiauking him and experiencing the
greatest relief, I leisurely walked my
horse down to the river and crossed.
I had walked some hundred yards
when “ping” came a bullet over my
head, followed by another aud another.
I looked up at the fort, thinking I was
being mistaken in the distance for a Kafir,
throuh the stupidity of the raw native
levies who, from former experience in
the Zulu war, I knew to be only too
glal of an excuse for firing off their
rifles. The bullets were now coming
pretty lively, but as I fortunately had
not been bit I detirmined to recross the
river. As I turned in my saddle I was
thunderstruck, for from under tlie
banks of the river curled the little puffs
of white smoke denoting so much. They
had got between me and the river, and
my retreat was cut off. Within thirty
yards, crawling on the ground iu
amongst the long reeds, was the black
carcass of a Basuto warrior.
Realizing at once the truth, I drew a
revlover, set spurs to my horse, and was
just bounding into a gallop, when from
out of the ground, as it seemed, in front
rose a dozen of the blacc-skinned
demons. I was surrounded.
I reined up. Retreat was
impossible, advance seemed equally so,
while to standstill meant certain death,
perhaps torture. I had presence of
mind to note that none of them carried
the deadly assegai, and I breathed freer,
as I knew what thundering bad shots
they were. That I win properly am
bushed was clear, for now on all sides
in the swampy reeds appeared the black
brutes, uttering their horrible war-cries.
My decision was quickly made. My
only chance was to break through those
in front and gain the fort. I rode
straight at what I concluded was the
captain of those in front, and he, not
noticing my Colt, awaited my charge,
edvidently believing me to be unarmed,
and as 1 cmne up lie snatched at the
bridle of my horse, and as he did so I
fired, putting a 44- Colt through my
dusky friend, and down dropped No.
1. I quickly emptied the reman
ing chain berB, and was past
the savages. I was just con-
SCHLEY COUNTY
gratulating myself on my success on
breaking through, when from either
side of reeds which skirted the narrow
bridie-path over which i was going at
full speed, jumped two stalwart sav
ages. My pistol was empty, but the
sword which had stood me in good
stead in many a savage fight was quick
ly unsheathed. With a quick pressure
of the knee, which ray horse quickly
understood, I turned him full upon the
left-hand Kafir so suddenly that he dis
appeared behind the feet of my horse,
and at the same instant gave point to
my friend on the right, and I was free
to continue my journey unmolested,
Ten minutes afterward I was in the
fort receiving the congratulations of
my brother officers. —Frank Leslie’s.
The Only Woman Circuit Preacher.
To the Lower Wabash annual Confer
ence of United Brethren in Christ,
whose thirty-second session closed the
other day, belongs the honor of giving
to the church its first lady circuit rider
in Miss Alva Button of Greenup, Ill.
The act authorizing the innovation was
passed by the session of the General
Conference held last May. Only a few
days ago M.ss Ella Mishwanger, a grad
vateof the theological seminary, Day
ton, Ohio, was ordained as an elder at
the session of the central Illinois Con
ference, being the first woman ordained.
At the same Conference Mrs. Elliot w r as
also admitted. Later Mrs. Bell, wife
of an itinerant preacher, was admitted
to conference. None of these were
assigned to fields of labor.
Miss Button is a young lady of more
than average attainments, common
sense, and pluck, and it may be added
tl at she possesses beauty, being tall
and preposessing in appearance. She is
a native of Chicago, She learned to
set type in the office of an Illinois news
paper when 17 years old and afterward
became a successful school teacher.
When her call to the ministry came she
was a member of the Methodist Episco
pal Church, but joined the United
Brethren, owing to the similarity of
their doctrine and in order to secure
admission to conference.
“She may do all right,’' said one of
the older preachers, “until it comes to
immersing some big six-footer in a
creek; then she will be left.”— From
Washington Star.
How Passover Bread is Made.
In the preparation of the Jewish
Passover bread the kneeding is done in
the ordinary way. Pure gunpowder
water is the only component added.
The time for the dough to be baked is
reduced to the minimum. It is broken
into flat cakes and then run between
rollers into very thin sheets. Over
these a workman rolls a prolonged steel
to perforate the dough, so that air holes
may be seen in baked cakes. A steel
hoop cuts the dough into round flat
sheets which are then ready for the
oven. The baker then stands with a
paddle, attached to a very long handle.
With the aid of a boy he thrusts the
cakes into the brick compartment, and
in half a minute pulls them out ready
for use. A matzath cake is round,
about four feet in diameter, somewhat
browned, and having slight air-hole
projections on its surface. They have
a rather pleasant taste, not unlike that
of crackers, and make a good substitute
for bread. In some places there is a
demand throughout the entire year for
the uulcavetic l cakes by dyspeptics.
About eight cakes weigh a pound. The
cake* are very brittle, and their pieces
are ground up into fine meal. This is
the substitute for wheat flour in tho
household during the Passover.
An Expensive Instrument.
The bass viol is the most expensive
of all musical instruments to its owner
Its first cost is not the greatest expense.
It is so large and awkward to carry
around that it is continually getting in
jured by accidents which would not
happen to smaller instruments. Some
body may kie s a hole in it by dancing
against it in a room, or it may bo
knocked against something while car
rying it around. It is most frequently
injured on street cars while the musi
cian is carrying it to the place where
he has to play. After a man has had
an instrument for a long time he comes
to look upon it as actually worth all
the money that it has cost him, and in
this way a bass viol sometimes is valued
at $1,000 or so by its owner. A musi
cian who sued a railroad company for
$5,000 for a viol lost in an accident
actually got $3,S00 ( — Chicago llcrald.
REARING COLTS.
Why California Breed Horses
Soon Play Out.
A Result of the Forcing Process
to Which They are Treated.
‘Why do these California bred
h° rses » both trotters and runners, de
velo P such tremendous speed at an early
a S e > ant d then retire for the rest of their
lives?”
That is a quest on that has been put
to every horseman of note in the coun
try, but not one seems able to answer
it. A gentleman, a horse fancier, and
now and then a buyer at the California
sales, being much interested in the phe
nomenal trotters that come from that
region, went down to Palo Alto to see
the famous Stanford breeding farm,
Talk about princes and princesses of
effete monarchies being reared in velvet
and fed from S old spoons; the nearest
a PP loach to that in this great republic
is this e< l uiae principality at Palo Alto.
As 90011 as the babie9 have ^gotten
their mothers comes the beginning of
their Iife ’ 3 work * The leadin S halter
and a soft rubber bit ke P fc m the mouth
* or bal ^ aa bour a da ^ 13 the ABC.
Then comes the kindergarten track to
discover if any of them have a natural
gait. Half a dozen are put into the
sawdust circle at once. A man stands
in the middle with a long whip, which
he waves furiously, but no little one is
ever permitted to feel its sting. All
start around the ring, first in a coltish
canter, and theq some little pupil more
promising than the others will strike a
trot. Soon another will do the same.
An apple or a lump of sugar is the re
ward of merit. Usually before the class
haSgfiuished all of them will be jogging
about on a trot. Then a new batch is
taken, and in a few weeks forty or fifty
fillies and as many colts have gone
through the kindergarten course.
Meantime every little one of either sex
is handled and fondled. The colts and
fillies are relentlessly parted at weaning
time, and never see each other again
except at a distance. Co-education of
the sexes is frowned upon at Palo Alto.
The little ones are very tame and fol
low one abound like a lot of kittens.
If you stop in the paddock they instant
ly surround you like a lot of
school girls, and begin to search your
pockets with their velvety noses for a
bit of fruit or sugar. Not one is ever
scolded or permitted to be frightened
in any wa ^> nor 19 the w!li P ever used
eXCept as 3 b f d » e of authorit r
hen the infant aristocracy is bridle
traiaed and ^roughly tractable, say at
ni ° e ° r ten month3 and ^om that to a
>
year old, comes the first introduction to
harness. It must be remembered that
by this time tllese y° lin g s ters are to the
non - critical al ““t full grown
llOrs0S ’ Their le s are stron ?< their
°
b ° dieS well - fi!led out » their necks plump
thdr 0709 bri S ht and intelligent, and
tbeir coats sb i ae satin. All this is
tbe rcsult of the forcin g process. On
the Stanford farm the two-year-old colt
* ooks b ke iL® well-matured horse of
five in Illinois. At one and one-half
years old ! egins their hard work on the
track. It is then that the most prom
lsln » are selected for a yearling record.
A building is set apart for the “kin
dergarten,” a great canopy covering a
saw-dust ring an eighth of a mile long.
1 his is when the little weanlings, six
aud e *S bt months old, are brought to
be taught their first
The weaning process is quite easy.
The youngsters are put on steamed grain
food at once. In the morning a quart
of steamed barley mixed with bran, in
tbe evonin £ two quarts of ground bar
ley steamed and moistened with lime
water is about their daily diet, That
is pretty high food for a weanling.
When I was a boy on the old farm in
Pennsylvania it was a pretty lucky col t
or filly that ever saw anything but hay
or grass until it was two years old. But
at Palo Alto the babies are stuffed with
giain from the start. I was there in
^ U * y ’ and t * lcre was 110 green food to
bpeak w *Gi the exception of green
corn tops, of which tho little ones had
three diets a week. Even then it was
chopped in a steam cutter and mixed
with bran. — Chicago Herald.
Time lor Action.
Auntie—Charlie, your father is call
ing you.
Charlie—Yc3, I hear him. But he is
calling “Charlie, 1 don’t have to go
till he yells “Cha
The IfODility of Russia.
Of all European countries Russia i
the most prolific in 9
the matter f
princes, and of late 0
we have had sever
al speciments of her princes and prin.
cesses in this country. The *-a! nobil.
ity of Russia consists of about a dozen
families, all of whom claim descent
from the house of Rurick, who occupied
the throne about a thounnd years
a <rr,
The Gortchakoffs, of which family the
late diplomat and statesman, p nnce
Gortchakoff, was a member, belong to
this nobility, So, also, do the Narish
kins and the Dolgouroukis, to whom
belongs the morganatic wife of the late
czar. Besides these there are thousands
upon thousands of princes and prl
found n .
cesses to be in every walk of
Russian life who have owed their el eva-,
tion to the caprice of some one of R
us .
s a’s rulers. Toward the close of the
last century the custom of bestowing
th<? high-sounding title of prince
of oa
men menial position become ridicu
lous, and it is related of the great Prince
Souvaroff that on his return from a vic
torious campaign he was welcomed by
the Emperor’s grand chamberlain, who
bore the title of Prince Suboff, but who
had been a barber at the beginning of
the war. Prince Souvaroff could not
conceal his astonishment and disgust.
He sent at once for his own barber and
said to him: ‘There, Ivan, liow often
have I told you to stop drinking? If
you would only follow my advice you
might become a prince as this man
has.”— New York Star.
A “Tough” Town.
“Speaking of tough towns,” said aa
ex-signal service officer recently to a
Washington Pitt# man, “reminds me of
a visit I paid to Dodge City, Kan., in
1880. I had been ordered there on
official business much against my will.
I found on arrival that the observer who
had telegraphed that he was ill and un
fit to perform the duties was as
well as the average man, but badly
scared by the natives and merely pinino
for some, one to share the awful respon
sibilities of the office. For a man con
nected with the weather bureau didn’t
stand well with the community unless
he could manufacture the kind of
weather the hoodlums wanted. My as
ociate told me a squad of cowboys had
come up one evening and said they were
going to have a riding tournament the
next day, and that if lie didn’t give
them fair weather they would first rid
dle and then burn the observatory. He
promised that the weather should be
just as they wished it and that he would
adjust his instruments accordingly.
He immediately put his promise into
exection by giving tbe barometer and
various other instruments divers twists,
which seemed to have a pacific effect on
the mob. Upon the departure of his
guests he began to pack up to jump the
town the next morning iu the event of
his prediction falling through. Lucki
ly it was verified, and ever after lie was
soldid with the cowboys.
Bear Hunting in Australia.
The Australia kaola, or native bear,
has its favorite haunts in the gigantic
eucalyptus trees, in which, the color of
its fur being so like that of their bark.it
is not, when at any great height, eashy
distinguishable from it. It lives main
ly upon the tender shoots and buds,
climbs with great rapidity, and clings 1
to the bark with wonderful tenacity;
the females, while climbing, carry their
young upon their backs.
They are destroyed in great numbers
for tbe sake of their hides and the way
in which some of the bushmen pursue
them, by cutting notches in the bark
aud digging their toes therein, in em
ulation of the black natives, is not one
of the least wonderful ihings in lb®
The bear’s cry of distress, when in
danger, is curiously like that of a terri
fied baby. In size they are small, and
resemble tho sloth bear species, so com*
mon in the jungles of India.
This animal, as well as the kangaroo,
opossum, and other qu idrupeds indig
enous to Australia, belongs to the mar
supial order.
Bees in a Cliurch Spire.
In New Portland, Me., a swarm of
bees, evidently tired of being disturbed
and robbed of their honey, have sought
refuge in the top of a church spire, the
hollow space of which they aro tiding
with sweets for their own bonefit. No
body can climb the steeple, and conse
quently those sagacious bees will n*
be