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AN AMERICAN VEGETABLE INDIG¬
NATION MEETING.
A notable Convention,
Which call* prompt attention,
At 4 ’iuri'to congregated in the field* the
other morn
There were present the Potato,
The esculent Tomato,
The dark green-leaved Tobacco, and the
paler Indian Corn
The pending agnation
Of (‘olnnibuVneelehration
IVas tin* burning theme that wakened in
i lies'- plants the power of speech.
Though of nature's calm, benignant,
Yet a resolute, indignant
Protesting was apparent, in the attitude of
each.
“My ears ha ve been alert,"
The M ai »,e rose to assert,
“To hear myself acknowledged a* a boon
the New World brought,
Worth special recognition
At. the coining Kxhibition,
And deserving of a temple, or of something
of the sort.
“A bar against starvation ''-47
I am iu every nation
A> yellow bread, and further in the form
of [sirk and beef;
And yet not e'en my juices
Have optn-si any sluices
Of eloquence m my behalf in speeches
or brief.”
The Potato then recited
That its eyes had not alighted
As yet 11[Kin the words or resolutions to
1 1 ue,
As a vegetable blessing.
Of a value past expressing,
Conferred upon the Old World’s hungry
millions by the Now.
And with » tone of ire,
betraying latent fire,
Tit i Tobacco Plant cried loudly out: “And
am I to be spurned?
Is the whole world to use me?
Then by- neglect abuse me?
’Twcre better that I never soothed, nor
fragrance gave, nor burned.”
The Tomato, very rod,
Raised too its voice and said
That though Inter came the services it
rendered unto men,
It gave sauce to the rations
Of the people of all nations;
And, native txirn, upheld its claim to notice
there and then.
Whereupon the roused Potato,
The deeply flushed Tomato.
The serious Tobacco, and tho rustling In¬
dian Corn
Res lived, unless fit mention
And adequate attent ion
Were quickly given to then, there should
soon be cause to mourn.
Their ultimate decision
\Va> a glorious provision
To stop, all four, if need be, the production
of their crops,
That people then could measure
The value of tb * treasure
i, Forgotten now by men absorbed in books,
r. machines and shoos.
A world without Potatoes.
Tobacco, Maize, Tomatoes!
The fancy is almost beyond the scope of
human thought.
Let the warning Vie not lost,
And. whatever be tho cost,
Let the Fair bear worthy tribute to iihese
gifts Columbus brought.
, —Amos IF. Wright, in Harper's Wethiij
A PRIZE PUMPKIN.
“So John is married? Sort of ouov-
footed, his lay ain't capacity it ?” said of Deacon lie Parker, as,
m out fourteen grocer, weighed
Mrs pounds of crushed sugar for
Parmalee, who sat upon a tail stool
j>u thoVustouKTs* side of the counter,
4 ‘John, continued the deacon, ns lie
carefully returned about a teaspoonfnl
over weight to the barrel—“John always
•coined kinder still when he was among
the gals and I calculated he’d be one of
our old bachelors; but there'# never anj
idling.
Mrs Parmalee gave a slight grrxut and i
ahook ' '
her head.
“if you loel that way, how must I
feel?” she said. “As for his [io, he's a
changed man. And Aunt Abby took to
her bed. Ami my daughters have cried
till 1 thought they'd cry their eyes out.
We’re an afflicted family Deacon.”
“I want to know!" ejaculated the Don-
pon “He ain't married the hired gal,
bas he?"
“1 wish lie had," said Mrs. Parmalee. |
>. Slie’d have helped about house.”
“I dunno," said the deacon. “My
grandmother's youngest son—an uncle of
mine, that warn't much older’u me—he
married his ma’s hired gal, and she jest
folded lier hands and wouldn’t fetch the
water to wash ’em with arter the ring
was ou. ’Tisn't one of the Jorkinses
that you’ve lied the family quarrel with
fur so long a time?”
“No," said Mrs. Parmalee. “She's
a set-up city thing, with all the airs you
ever saw. She’s fresh from boarding-
scho .il, and talks French, and sings
Italian. and plays, 1 must say, like a
professor. She’s all style, and despises
us, and hates the house and the farm;
and she’ll wean John from us. He’s
said more hateful things since he was
married than lie ever said iu his life be-
fore. We gave him the best bedroom,
and she’s got him. to new furnish it. And
I wish it had pleased the Lord to take
me years ago, for I don't expect ever to
be happy again while l live."
“l retry bad; pretty bad,” said the
deacon But perhaps shell turnout
natter thau you ealkerlate, as she grows
older. P’r’ap* it’s childishness. My
wife would begin by .giving her a regu¬
lar setting down, and settle her for
good." broken," Parm-
“My spirit is said Mrs.
alee, with a sigh. “Did I say a pound
of raisins, and a paper of allspice, and—
Oh, yes, I nearly forgot the tea—the
same we always got; a pound. And put
them in the carriage. I’m going next
door to the milliner's, to get my new
bonnet, i saw my daughter-in-law look¬
ing sideways at my old one last Sun¬
day;’’ and, with another groan, Mrs,
Parmalee carried her budget of woes to
Miss Trimmer, who wos.even more sym¬
pathetic than the deacon. wife hav¬
Meanwhile, John's new was
ing rutlier a forlorn time of it at home.
John was lecturing her.
“Don’t you think you could take a
little more interest in country life, dear?"
he was saying. “It would please the
family so much.”
“I do, John," said Rosa, with her big
blue eyes full of candor. “I’m sure I’ve
sketched everything. The spring, the
well, the locusts on the hill, and Rossie
the calf; aud I’ve got great bunches of
grass." don’t artistic in¬
“Yes—but I mean an
terest,” said John. “A real solid one.
Couldn't you feel a little like a country
girl, if you tried, Rosa?”
“I have driven my own pony, and per¬
haps I could drive the reaper," said Rosa,
plaintively. “And I wouldn’t mind
giving the pigs their gruel, or whatever
they eat; or I’ll churn.”
“The hired men and the servants do
all that, Rosa,” said John,rather severely,
“Don’t pretend to misunderstand me.
I’m a plain farmer, and my wife must not
be too much above things I take an in¬
terest in.”
“I’m not, John, cried Rosa. “What
do I do?"
John could not say. He only knew
that his home, which had been a place of
peace and comfort in the days when, as
the bachelor brother of five-and-thirty,
lie had been the adored of the homestead,
the idol of his mother, and the Admira¬
ble Chrichton of his younger sisters, had
turned into a sort of cabinet of torture;
that the little beauty who had left board¬
ing-school to marry him—and whom he
had thought perfect—was spoken of as a
“stuck-up, "as a thing of airs and graces,
as one who “put on airs.” The family
wore the air of having been through a
frightful trial. Sharp things were said—
bitter ones, also; and his amiable parents,
his cheerful old aunt, and his lively little
sisters were changed into beings as solemn
as grand Druids.
The change them had been brought about by
liis giving what he supposed would
he a pleasant quarreled surprise—in marrying Rosa.
He had with them; now lie was
lecturing his wife. She was wiping away
a tear when Jane, tho general servant,
knocked at the door, and brought in a
batch of letters.
11 Speers’s folks fetched them from the
oliice,” she said, as she dumped them on
her master's desk, and showed by her
glances that she plainly saw that his wife
had been crying, and that he was the
cause; and he bent over the letters, pre¬
tending to examine them.
Rosa, however, was forgiving. She
ran to the table.
“Two for me,” she cried. “This is
fer mamma, and this is from Lilly Grey,
1 know. Aud what a pretty envelope
you have there, John—the goddess
Pomona,- is it not, amongst her fruits?”
feA notice from the managers of the
Agridrftnral Fair,” said John. “Father
got the prize for pears last year. ■\\ r e
generally prizes.”
He handed the document to his wife',-
wll ° perused H carefully, aud the little
was over.
Still was not to be in the
old farm house. You chilly rim’ imagine it all.
The detail of days of coldness, of
evenings once spent In thCggheritf sitting-
room passed in upstairs IMrooms, of
formal meals and haughty ■tolitenm.
John often thought that a regular
quarrel, like those that took dn'thfc place
iu the cabin of Mike Granburg,
railway borders, where plates and glasses'
and chair-legs flew about, would be'prtfe
ferable- He went out as much as possible.
And Rosa had asked him for a little
piece for a garden of her own. He had'
given it to her, of course, and she spent 1
much time there, but she never asked
him to look at it. His sisters avoided it
carefully. The spot chosen was an out
of the way one beyond the corn field.
They worked iu their own as usual; and
even over (lowers these girls did not
meet on friendly terms.
His mother rather ostentatiously read
the more severe of the religious works in
the library in her arm-chair on the porch.
His father talked of his time being near-
ly over. His aunt knitted as sternly as
though she were one of the fates in
charge of the web of destiny; and no-
body called him Jack any more,
He was aware that the iadias spoke of
Rosa’s remote little garden as the open
air “conservatory,” or the “Garden of
Eden,” and ouce when he asked them
why they did not go and look at it,
Edna replied: might blight it.”
“Oh, our glances
And Ruth added:
“It is too, too utterly, I presume. We
country girls could not appreciate it."
Whereupon he called them “ill-na-
tured idiots,” and they began to sob I
violently, and alluded to him as “a
brute.” And really Rosa did carry her-
self in stately fashion, and met their Ro¬
land with an Oliver, as far as coldness
went.
It was not a pleasant August, and it
was a mor»~#apleasant September. His
only comfort was in his grape-vine. He
hoped to get prize for grapes at the Ag¬
ricultural Fair. His father was doing all
he could with his pears i -r the same pur¬
pose. They would have other exhibits,
also, and the Parmalee- had never failed
to get a prize of some * rt yet. the
The evening of the third day of
fair came at last, T! Parmalces were
all going—the fatnil in the carriage,
John and his wife in i little vehicle of
his own. She look* very beautiful,
anil her dress was ect. Her sisters-
in-law bad not djyi. -oed to make a sort
of rival toilet, 4 ** Mrs. Parmalee was
very grand, m felt that be was
left out in the s md Rosa was rather
pale and silt t they all warmed up
a little whe tered the ball.
A sort o ' 1 surrounded the
stage at tl< the great room,
Vines clam* it, water played
amongst d pots and tubs
of rare phsj the foreground,
A miracle ? scene painters’ the art
arose at tL , the stage, where
sun was &f r distant mountains,
and in thi tood Pomona amidst
a wen '•uits of all countries-,
while i ay a Yankee pumpkin
—a veriu iu.. icle—so large, so flaw-
less, so ._j.jen, SO perfect, that it was
the object on which all eyes lingered. It
dwarfed every other pumpkin ever seen
by the oldest farmer present. doufl,
All the tables were loaded
however, and the Parmalee exhibit looked
well. People walked and talked, and
the band -played, and at last appeared
upon the f^age the figures of three sages
who were 10 bestow the prizes.
Smiths and Joneses, Williamses aud
Browns, in turn grew happy. The Wid¬
ow Watkins almost fainted when she re¬
ceived the first prize for onions, and the
new member, who was a widower, whis¬
pered words of comfort. Farmer Pagin-
darm thought the committee unjust be¬
cause they overlooked the merits of his
“Jackson-whites,” but Mr. Parmalee re¬
ceived honors for ids Katharine pears
with calnmess—-.he was used to it.
John’s g rapes ffWs only third best,
llis mother felt it to be a judgment, and
was proud that her tes) roses were suc¬
cessful. the of thesuc-
One after another nantes
oessful were called, but as fit no men¬
tion was made of the great pumpkin.
Whose was it? There was a paoae; the
band played “Yankee Doodle;” a cal¬
cium light was turned on the pumpkin; a’fl
the orator waved his hand toward it;
were attentive.
“Next to pork and beans,” began the
speaker, ‘•‘our national (life is pumpkin
pie. I suppose nobody here can deny
that this pumpkin now before us is the
finest they ever saw. It is almost mirac¬
ulous. It is the first exhibit of its ex¬
hibitor, and I am proud to announce that
she i.u the wife of one of our mod ♦es¬
teemed young residents. It is in the
family to get prizes at our annual fairs,
and she seems to have got hold of the se¬
cret. Mrs. John Parmalee, I have pleas¬
ure in offering to you the first prize for
pumpkins. John, bring her up to get
it. You’ve got a first-class farmer’s wife,
and no mistake.”
The Parmalee family sat motionless,
their faces slowly turning pink. That
was the result of Rosa’s sly gardening,
Her “conservatory,.” her “Gar¬
den of Eden,” had productd that mighty John’s
pumpkin. There she was on
arm with her beautiful little face all
pale with excitement; and hero she came
back again with the medal in' her hand,
and she stood before her mother-in-law
and looked into her eyes.
“You can’t think I don't take an 1 in¬
terest in farming after that, mabuhtt,’'
•be whispered. “Tell me I am going
,fe be a good farmer’s wife."
And there and then the elder Mrs.
p arn ->alec kissed her, and said:
“I’m' Rroud of you, my dear."
As for' L'hn, he wanted to cry. He
knew the miserable coldness of the past
yC ^T^The ?J ,
as girls called him Jack
“. " petted him, his mother
‘JJV mft de Inin1 1 ttU tu mover rrn pies, and knitted i j to
^Oistlet* for lnm. lf , annpa et
+v 1 hed^d ; no . g rpim
ml <a*.ixk«» pumpkin ** the
ntiiily wouaads. They -Rosa _' as
a. , K tpr But
A "ivorite sister and a ,'T^
u n£)t
!,u tlie Parmalee fami. gQ
s year , . _ .
mu Ch>interested in the Agrie. c depths
a * ' ls ) la 'b They wish, from tli 'try fair
pt thew souls,, that there was a be ^ y
u ' -“t' county instead. lor, assurei
t J lcrc were * Rosas boy, little Jr . ’
plough 1 only four weeks old, would w.
principal pcizev He is more beauti-
p icre charming, huger for his age,
ant m every wa.y more wonderful than
< 'T ei | miraculous pumpkin. Aetz
^ or c
A Maryland Prodigy.
Maryland, not to' be outdone by Ger¬
many, which, produced Josef child Hofmann, which
has brought to the front a
promises to be as great a marvel as that
infant progidy. He is a manly little tot
only six years of age. His name is Guy
Hoppe. He was bora in> Emmittsburg,
and inherits his- musical talent from both
parents. His special instrument is the
cornet, one of the most difficult instru¬
ments upon which a child can perform.
His rendition of difficult selections is
marvelous. He has played before the
leading musical critics of Baltimore, and
has been engaged by a manager of feat
c ‘ t N-
Dr. Marion Sims, of New York, has
the la t collection of pearls in this
country They are of all colors, and he
never hesitates at the price when a nov#
pearl is offered for sale.
steak or a round and the meat sprinkled and
with red pepper. Then it was rolled
tied up and put into a stewing pan, well
covered with stock, vegetables, a touch
of herbs—vinegar and some sauce added
—the whole simmering four or five hours.
Then it was untied and laid in a deep
dish, the gravy strained, thickened with
Jiutter and flour, boiled up and poured
Hu- the meat, slices of buttered toast
it when served.
7T SIFTINGS.
Kjuifeems Kientury. was revived
I^Ath HbV lalions. n vast popula-
KvV. T. lias a rose
feet high.
,,f advertisin'*
^KrUlai was by Orlando
r ,W
&Ju<i.
an adult is 140
Plpanlla, * J£C
A I. er old is on ex-
-
1 J ‘ Paris, and the ink looks as
thirty-day note for $100.
YViK- Tf lt Britain produces over three-
Of the coal of the world, and
sWN.fe than two-fifths of the iron pro-
■
Gf'lUct. 2*
FARM LIFE IN ENGLAND.
HOW 4 ENGLISH YEOMAN
l AND WORKS.
iiigs
side m fa* ■
had sr 1
fatherT'eyjM loclflwui_
was
tennis to workf^HH
left he had
- u :i )o ^Kgfl
> "i -t
mantle '' “
I' > a '
: ?i: i!! > h'Ui-cbMHnBj
whose best rcHHB P
oo.l Icmp- I- a'l'HH
_
h’ 4
ters—genuine ■r
as I give recipes f<E»H Crurt'i
cialty. Market day* 11 .taV.ciua.
father’s table crow^ .
teamsters, etc., for the rt« deli _ Si.Wag
dinner and “Polly's” light, hand
at a pudding, or a roast, a “pasty" or a
a “slip" was well known aud appre¬
ciated. Moreover, she could cut and
trim, salt and hang or pack a piece of
meat with the best, and her “clotted
cream” and butter were famous. So
away went eightecn-year-old Polly to' a
small, snug little farmhouse of gray stone,
with a queer stack of chimneys—an odd
wing at one side and the most pictur¬
esque of latticed windows, which looked
forth on a tidy farm—a barnyard well
stocked with fowl—some good acres of
grain and an orchard that yielded well.
At the back of the house was a running
stream and a bit of delightful old gar¬
den. Little time is wasted over senti¬
ment among these people, although they
never under any circumstances which
have come to knowledge lose all feel¬
ing of romance—fee women do not fade
»*> they grow older like so many of our
farmer's wives, nor do the men sink into
the querulous and unhealthy condition
which I Verily believe is the. result of the
miserable cookery existing kt nearly all
the homes of our working classes.
And how, ii will be asked’, do the
English farming people live? Taking
the family I (rite as an example f-heir
general daily menu was as folio'Vs;
Breakfast (in summer at about half-pa A
five. and in winter shortly before seven)
consisted of bacon, cold or hot, some¬
times egg* nidely fried or cooked up with
cold potatoes, after a receipt I will
presently give. Tea or milk for the
young people—of whom in ten years
there were seven at II—— farm, the
»Y-home—and beer for the master of
the house; on wash days- Mistress Polly
had her glass as well, and the woman
who was hired to assist her' was allowed
the same. The potato-egg dish was
made as follows: The eggs,- beaten with
a light, swift hand, had added to them a
pinch of salt, pepper and a bit- of chopped
parsley and trifle of onion. The cold
potatoes were then lightly whipped up-
with two or three tablespoonfuls- of
milk; the whole mixed together and
fried in lard or butter a nice brown. Let
any one try this receipt (never published),
and she will soon testify to its being a
capital addition for any home lunch' or
breakfast.
Sometimes in summer when the men
were hard at work in the fields slices or
“hunches” of bread and bacon and a jug
of cider would be sent out to them about
10 o’clock, and at noon came the dinner
for all the family, as well as any “hands”
employed, the latter occupying a table
themselves in a sort of “house place" or
hall outside the kitchen. Sometimes pork
or bacon with greens and a pudding made
up the dinner. One day iu the week
there would be cold roast meat and a
pudding, another saw a pasty pie and
boiled vegetables set forth again bullock's
heart stuffed with some pudding, meat
pie and dumplings, or again roast mut¬
ton with a fruit pasty, and inevitably a
drink all around of cider or beer, in cold
or wet weather mulled and most palata¬
ble.
About 5 o'clock tea was served, which
always consisted of bread and jam, with
tea, sent out to the fields for the men as
s' rule and served lor the family indoors,
the children being soon after trundled off
tL ” Led, the elders partaking of a supper
o{ bread and cheese and beer or cider
abou t 8 or 9 o'clock. In all little more
than a fi uart of bcer would her drunk, in-
deed set that a mount, and 1 it was
home And^^^HIH|HHh*rt«s . V
Polly
fanmiM
vai
b #
r
:t aay^Feak-
served hot for
dil
Another^PPH * was a sort of
•tewed beef. The cut out of a
V
An ordinary iiiiich cow ill India is
supposed to be doing fairly well when
she yields three or four pints of milk
daily for six months.
Thebes of ancient Egypt has 350,000
citizens and 400,000 slaves. The ruins
of the city, even at this late date, nre
fifty-nine miles in circumference.
Nineveh was fourteen miles long, eight
miles wide, and forty-four miles around,
With a wall 100 feet high and thick
enough for three chariots abreast.
A monstrosity in the shape of a calf
with foto eyes, four nostrils and four ears,
and a mouth like a fish, is exciting the
citizens of Jennings Township, Ind.
Busy penc.% have figured out $60,- the
whole national wMfe to'be' about
000,000,000, upojf which an indirect
and direct tax is levied yearly of $7384,-
000.000.
A fully developed clfild weighing ex¬
actly one pound was b-ten to Mr. and
Mrs. Frank Wills, of New Philadelphia,
Ohio. 16 could easily be hid in a quart
measure with short clothes on.
While repaving the Strand recently
there were brought to light some curious
relics M Old Loudon—such as stWe of
the ancient wooden water pipes, v/Ah a
six-inch bore, apparently hollowed
of the trunks-of trees. V .V
A curious feature in ornithology isV re¬
ported from Edkmgton, England, where\a
hatched two-chickens- from one egg - ,
bolh- chickens being in a perfect state
except that they w joined together on
side of the membranes of the wing.
The greatest depth' of the ocean of
which souffldings have'been taken is off
the coast of Japan. The water at that
point is five miles deep,-at!® on the bot¬
tom, even at that enormous- depth,
traces of animat life have been found.
It is not generally known'that the cus¬
tom of keeping birthdays is'- many thou¬
sand years old. It is recorded 1 iti< Genesis
xl.,. 20': “And it came to pass the third
day,, which was Pharaoh’s birthday,-that
lie made- a feast unto all his servants,"
Miss Rebecca Fairbanks, the last- of a.
family that came over in 1635, is- still
living in> a house at Dedhajn, Mass,, that
was brought over in the year mentioned
a-nd Located on its present site at- that
time. The Fairbanks scale man catne ot
this family.
The Astor Library in New York-is the 1
quoted reference library in this country,,
and is regarded by scholars here precise¬
ly as the British Museum is iu England,
The average number of readers the past
summer, ar.d readers who are literary
workers, has been 200, while in winter
the number reaches 250.
Venezuelan Wonders.
The United States consul at Maracaibo,
Venezuela,, has described some singular
natural phenomena of an uninhabited for¬
est region rich in aspteiJjt and petroleum
between the rivers Saaafq, Ana and Zulia,
and the mountain of the Columbian fron¬
tier. One of these, near fee Rio de Oro,
is a horizontal cave constantly ejecting
thick explode bitumen iu large globules, which fo
with considerable' Soise and il
into a Inrge deposit at the' water’s edge~
At another spot some miles from the con¬
ffuense of the Tara and the Sardinete is
wh'st the few who have seen it call fee
“IufCrhife>. ! ' It is a sand mound twenty-
five to SOOO'sq'Jkrd thirty feet high, with' an area of
about feet, froin'Which innu-
merable streams of petroleum’ and hot
water Lie noise are constantly being ffeeed with'
of the blowing off t>f Several
steam boilers. One strefeais said to have
vie .wfe four of excellent petro-
MEd fifiC minute. The ihflSttrmrablc
Btui this fegion may give' rifec to
of whfeh Considerable lightning
deiy has long been
m the entrance'' to Lake
hat Tuttle Kent <,'$&• • ;
of turtles to New Jrc4 York;
1 ™: Phd adelphia, pay M siV
no for eight all turtles' c^» * under pound ^150 during the se.^u
not to buy pounds; but do,
care any over that weight for
shipping ^ceedmg, away. Tbe average & price paid
for all 1-75 pounds $5 each '
and the^ve usQrfly disposed off to local
conshmers'at fcfvirgr five: -cents a 1 pound.
Chicago Tima.