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THE BABY'S EYE.
A buby lay in H* motfiVr’* lap,
Concealed and warmed by a woolen wrap;
An inanimate masa of black it eeemed,
Except that from an opening gleamed,
A baby's eye.
The mother, coaiw, unkempt, unclean,
Wae clad in raga of a greaay sheen;
But she loved her babe, and nho held it tight,
And the only thing that wan left to sight
Was the baby's eye.
Like a sparkling gem in the cold, dull earth
Or a smile that in tears finds sudden 1 Irth,
The oue bright thing in thAt unclean whole,
Was the window of an immortal soul,
The baby's eye.
—Columbus (Ohio) DispaUk.
GHOSTS :
Ont in the misty moonlight
Tbo first snow Hakes I see,
As they frolic among tho leafless
Limbs of the applo tree.
Faintly they seem to whisper,
As round the boughs they wing,
"We are the ghosts of the blossoms
That died in the early spring."
It. K. Mtnkittrick.
THREE WEEKS BURIED.
TOE 8TKANGE STORY OF JOHN BROWN,
MINER.
One day in Ootober, 1835, the miners
who were at work in a mine near Dailly,
Scotland, heard sounds whioh alarmed
them. The noises were not loud, bat
to the miners, who knew what they
meant, they were terible. There was a
tow crushing aouud, and now and then
a slight cracking noise, while the bot¬
tom of the mino heaved a little and
trembled. It was not an earthquake,
but something quite as terrible to men
who were in the long dark galleries un¬
derground. The roof of the mine was
(ailing in t
There was an enormous weight of
rock and earth above, and the pillars of
coal whioh had been left to support it
were being crushed to powder by the
pressure.
The miners ran quickly toward the
«haft through whioh they were in the
habit of entering and leaving the miae,
but its walls had already tumbled in.
They ran next to another shaft,
through whioh coal was lifted out of the
mine, but that, too, waB already blocked
up. Then they stood and stared at each
other, while the orushing and grinding
noises continued and increased. Tho
part of the mine in which they stood
showed no sign of falling in, but what
of that ? They might as well be orushed
as imprisoned in the depths of the earth,
without food or water or air, to die of
slow torture. Indeed, it would be bet¬
ter to suffer death at ouoe than to be
buried alive in this way. Yet there
seemed to be no way of esoape.
At the supreme moment one of the
miners remembered that there was a
•mall tunnel whioh ran from the mine to
a stream half a mile away. It had been
out nioely to serve as a drain, and was
very small, bat the miners believed it
possible to esoape through it if they
oould make their way to it, which was
doubtful.
Just as they were setting off to try
this forlorn hope, old John Brown, a
miner 66 yean of age, who had onoe
before been shut up for days in a falling
mine, remembered that he had left his
cost where he had been at work. He
wanted to go baok and get it, bat his
oomrsdes refused to let him take such a
risk. Suddenly he broke away from
them and ran baok down the gallery be
lore they could prevent him, and as he
did so the root between him and them
came down with a mash, completely fill¬
ing the gallery.
The roof over the gang of miners still
held firm, but tbey could do nothing for
John Brown. Whether he had been
crushed under the falling mass of rook
or had been abut up in the end of the
gallery beyond they bad no means of
knowing, but in either case they could
do nothing, and so they set about saving
themselves.
Finding the end of the little tunnel,
they worked their way through it very
slowly and with great difficulty and at
last reached the upper world in safety.
There a strange sight met their eyes.
The surface of the earth heaved and
sank in places, toppling houses over,
rooking others like ships at sea and
frightening the people not a little.
Great seams in the ground were opened,
sometimes to stay open, sometimes to
olose again with a snap. It looked like
the doings of an earthquake, but was in
fact only the result of the gradual falling
in of the mine as one after another of the
supporting columns gave way.
This continued for three or four days,
and until it ceased nothing could be done
toward recovering tin body of poor old
John Brown, who had been a general fa¬
vorite among the mining folk. At last
the ground ceased to rock and sway
about and work was begun at the shaft.
At first it was hoped that Brown might
be alive still and that he might be saved,
And so the miners worked day and night
But the hard granite which had filled up
the shaft wae difficult to out away, and
at the end of a week the werk was only
fairly begun.
At the end of a fortnight the shaft
had been cleared out, but the mino
below was chocked up with rock, and
the work of driving a gallery toward the
point at which Brown had been left still
remained to be done. There was no
hope of finding him alive, of course, for
he had now been buried there for two or
three weeks. Still the miners worked
on, determined to recover their com¬
rade's body.
They drove a narrow gallery forward,
working day after day as fast as they
could, but at the end of the third week
there was still a wall of rook in front.
On the twenty-third day the man in
front broke through an open chamber. ‘
itfte *roof of whioh had not fallen, auMm
he did so, he distinctly heard a groan, ^
This frightened the superstitions man,
who believed the groan proceeded from
some evil spirit. He ran baok and re¬
ported, and another man went forward
in his place. He, too. heard a groan
and was frightened, for not one of the
men had a thought that there could be
a living man in the chamber. To test
the matter the miner called ont, asking
Brown if it really were he to groan
again.
“If it be trnly John Brown’s groan,
gie us anither,” he said, and another
groan was heard.
Encouraged now, the miners tried to
enter the ehamber, but the air was so
foul that they could not breathe. They
had to send back for selves, with which
to fan tho air and create a current. As
soon as it became possible for them to
x ti :« iVm iy.._onioi-Q^ on( j
take a lamp into aach an atmoaphere for
e8 ^° RU 09 ,0n \
There they found , poor old ., John _ .
Brown, aa oold a. a eorp-e bnt atiU
.lire. For twenty-three day. and
nighta he had been ahnt np there with
ont food, and in an atmosphere of fool
gaaea, and yet he was not dead! The
mineta sent a messenger up the shaft to
bring a doctor, and while waiting they
.tripped off their clothes and lay down
with their naked baok. against Brown a
*>ty. in order to gore lum warmth
-c£“e th r ."Srt a" SSIoSSS;
had spoken the miners oonld not have
been more surprised. They gave him a
little water, and then he said:
“Eh. boys, but ye’ve been long a
oomiu*.”
When Brown was taken out it waa
found that the fungus whioh always
oovers wood in a deep mine had grown
all over his .face and hands. He waa
wasted to a skeleton, but he revived un
der the doctor s treatment, and waa
able to tell of his experience in the
mine. He said that for a few days—as
he reckoned the time—he waa able to
get water, and to walk al>out a little,
but after that he had been too weak to
move, and, enduring tortures from
thirst, bad been forced to listen to the
dripping of the water near him. Ho
had heard the miners as they worked
toward him, and slowly as they came,
he never abandoned the hope of being
rescued.
John Brown was an old man, how¬
ever, and the terrible suffering had been
too much for his strength. He rallied
a little at first, but sank again and died
three days after his rescue.
For the exact facts of this strange
story, we are indebted to Mr. Archie
Gilkie, the geologist, who visited the
mine and questioned the doctor and
other survivors before writing his essay
on the superstitions of the Scottish
miners.
_
The Little Housekeepers.
I suppose you know that nearly all
kinds of birds take their flight to a
warmer part of the country in the far
distant South, upon the approach of cold
weather, and come back to us again with
the opening days of spring. Among
these are the blackbirds. But one win
ler, not many years ago, in a logging
camp, away up in the Minnesota Piner¬
ies, where the weather is very cold in
midwinter, two blackbirds remained all
winter, making their home in the build¬
ing used as a stable for the oxeD. The
rough lumbermen,who had never known
of a case like this before, were pleased
and were kind to the little birds; the
man who had charge of the camp and
cooked for the stalwart choppers, scat¬
tered crumbs for them in generous
quantities near the camp door, and the
birds soon learned to expect their food
at regular times each day.
When the weather was extremely cold
the little birds kept in the stable (or, as
ihe men call it, “hovel”) all through
the day. That is, they would “sit in
the,barn todfeep themfelras and
hide their heads under their win g®
poor things.” And when the oxen were
driven home from their work in the
evening, the birds would hail them with
cries of welcome, and alight on the
warm backs of the oxen and nestle down
in the thick bushy hair, probably to
warm their toes. And every night they
slept on their chosen perch, nestled
down snugly on the backs of the good
natured beasts, who either did not care
or were unaware of their presence. In
sunny days they flew about, alighting
in the tall pines and on the big log build¬
ing—whioh the men call the “camp”—
never, during all that long winter, did
tbey go far away from their chosen
home
Davy Crockett’s Gnn.
The _.... Little Bock „ , ^Ark.) . , . Gazette _ .. says;
^reasT
er’s office, where it had been left by
now ta
^ T began m.iong
btB#led silyer moa nted affair, and
^ the top ol the barrel( go i d let
£ er „ roads the inscription: -‘Presented
^ . the young men of Philadelphia to
David Crooketti o( Tennessee."
the nmzzle, just back of the bead,
th# mot to; -Go Ahead."
of the lette „ were go wor n as to
dmost indistinguishable, and some
of them were gone completely. The gnn
*>« °° me doTO from 8ire 800 the
Crookett |family ever sinoe it was pre
““‘o 1 * “ 1834 - To the “P”*® 8 “C® 1 -
Boh " wko now owns ^ n » 8ald :
“There is not a gnn in Arkansas to-day
wil1 shoot truer. I killed liun
of deera ^ink more
°* n * kan * can grandfather
l «ft at home wheQ ko went to Texafi -
taking with him his old flint-look.'. It is
a rare old gun and a great curiosity. I
have been requested to send it to the
Exposition at New Orleans, and shall do
so m a short time.” .
New Items or Dressmaking.
Pointed waists both in front and back
rival regular basques on imported
dresses, especially those of silk, lace or
Sicilienne. The point of the back is
sharper than that in front, but not so
long, and sometimes the short sides and
back are finished by a knife-pleated frill
of silk which is about four inches
deep in the middle of the back, but
slopes away to only half an inch under
the arms. Sometimes this frill is caught
up in a shell-like jabot in the middle of
the back to give it a more bouffant
effect. The folded surplice waists are
also seen on lace, surah, and wool
dresses alike. These usually have three
or four pleats in the shoulder seams,
and cross in various ways in front, some¬
times extending to a point at the waist
line, in others below this, and still
others reach only to the chest; a plastron
of plain velvet or of lace fills in the
pointed space below the throat. The
stiff high military color is on almost all
the dresses, and is usually of velvet, no
matter whether the dress itself be cotton,
silk, or wood. This collar is stiffly lined
with buckram, has square or sloped
corners instead of curves, and may be
edged with braid set in as a piping, or it
may be covered entirely with braid in
rows, or with lace. The double
breasted fronts and various kinds of
veBts have been described in former
papers; to these may be added the gen¬
uine Breton vest with clusters of but¬
tons set in groups of five or six each,
ride of the top and bottom of the vest.—
Harper's Bazar.
“A Child of the Prison.”
Under the above title we printed the
story of an episode of prison life in New
Jersey. It was that ofjpoor Rosa Mc¬
Carty, ruined by drink and evil living,
and of her little five-year-old daughter
and only companion. Mother and
child have just been arrested in Jersey
City and consigned to the Penitentiary
for sixty days. Born in a prison, this lit¬
tle creature has passed four of her five
years behind the prison bars with her
mother. The twain have refused
separation, and thus far have been so
fortuuate as not to be driven into that am¬
putation of a tie which is, perhaps,
not less sacred that its only associations
are vile. The picture of the little sunny
faced child accompanying her mother
to and from the scenes of degradations
and the scenes of incarceration within
prison walls is one whose incongruity is
its chief lesson to humanity—a lesson
of fidelity, of natural love that not all
sin and all wretchedness can uproot, of
mute, automatic self-sacrifice beyond
mortal ken. Is there not a way and
are there not instruments to redeem,
these two errant yet faithful lives ?—
Npav York Herald.
_
American Fables.
A Wolf having offered to give a Fox
a good Licking for two Cents, a loon
who was Passing by and overheard the
Liberal offer, halted and said:
“I don’t allow any Animal on Earth
to get Ahead of me on Liberality. I
will Therefore give this Wolf a first
class Walloping for Nothing ! ’
moral:
Don’t Petition for better Street Oar
service unless you want to see More
bob-tailed Cars on the Route.
THE THOUGHTLESS MECHANIC.
A Mechanic who was Driving a Nail
made a Mis-hit and brought the Ham¬
mer down upon his Finger. • In the
Pain and Excitement he cried out:
“I’d like to wring the Neck of the
Man who Invented this Deceitful Tool 1”
An Old Sage who was passing that
way after some Fish Bait stopped and
Replied:
“Use the Tool to Pound Nails Instead
of Fingere and yon will meet with the
Utmost Sucoess. ”
moral:
Where the Law is Rightly Applied it
seldom fails to give Satisfaction —/)«
trpit Free Press.