Newspaper Page Text
itt®nt§oiEcrg monitor.
D. C. SUTTON, Editor and Prop'r.
MY BOY STILL.
Do yon think I’ve forgotten the day
I carried him at my breast ? . ~
Many fair children I’ve loved lince then,
iftit I think that I loved him best.
For he was our first-born child, John,
And I have not the heart or will
To love him !ess; whatever may come
He's my boy still.
I remember when he was a little lad,
How life used to climb on my knee;
Bow proud we were of his beauty,
Os his wit and his mimicry.
And I know quite well lie’s a man now,
With a wild and stubborn will-,
But whatever he is to you, John,
He’s my boy still!
• 4 ’
He was just like sunshine about the house,
In the days of his liappv youth;
You know we said that with all his faults
He had courage and love and*truth.
And though he has wandered far away,
I’d rather you’d say no ill;
He is sure to come back to his moth' r; •
He’s my boy still!
I know there was never a kinder heart,
And I can remember to-day
How often ho went with me apart
And knelt at my knee to pray.
And the man will do as the boy did,
Sooner or later he will;
The Bible is warrant fur that; so
He’s my boy still!
A mother can feel where she can’t #ee,
She is wiser than any sage;
My boy was trained in the good old way,
I shall certainly get my wage.
And though he has wandered fur away,
And followed his wayward will,
I know whatever, wherever he is,
He’s my boy still!
—lndianapolis News.
OLD DRESDEN. 1
i.
OKI Dresden paused for a moment in
Lia task of breaking up the gnarled tnes
qutie roots, and with a long breath of
satisfaction and the air of a connois- !
Beur viewed the pink-tinted heap < be
side him. Pulling off his dilapidated
hat, he allowed the eool morning breeze
to play among tho somewhat nigged
locks which hung over his forehead.
The snn, like a great crimson hall, hung
sleepily above the Eastern horizon, east
ing a faint glow upon the tin-retted, faqg
of the Floridas, and gilding file distant
peaks of the Tres Hermanns, standing
in olose-linked embrace, like allied sen- i
‘trnels guarding the Mexican frontier.
In the long, level space which stretched
between the mountains, horn aloft.-on
the curling fingers of the morning mist,
oppeared a phantom city, its castel
lated heights and stately domes rearing
themselves as if in prophecy of the
years to come, when a noble civil Nation
shall redeem tho barren mesas of the
Southern territories, and raise the mon
uments of art and architecture .amid the
arid plains.
Tho echo of human voices fell upon
Dresden’s ear.
“Oh, John, why mustyou go ?” A wo
man’s voice, low and sweet, with a tre
mor of pain.
“Come now, Helen, don’t be a baby, ,
dear. Throe weeks will fly by if, 1 no ; 1
time. And who knows how rich a
strike I may make.”
“But I don’t want it, I need you
John.” Old Dresden addressed liimself
to tho woodpile with redoubled energy'.
A flying knot of mesquite struck liis
hand. The sting of the wound refresh
ed him, and a little later he heard .the
door of the cottage slam, while the clink
of a horse’s hoof sounded on the gravel
ly soil. As he watched horse'and rider
disappear at length in the direction of
the mirage, which had shitted it,s form
so as to resemble a huge beast of prey
couched for a spring upon its prey,
something like a very hot German oath
■ rolled like stifled thunder from his lips.
“A teufel of a fellow,” he murmured
j more calmly under breath an instant
later, accenting the qualification with
Btout blows of the axe on an obstinate
root, which had as many contortions as
a dying serpent. “A teufel of a fellow'.
Deaf a little frau like dat alone to go
to Mexico to tig golt in mittel de win
der. It might Ik; ferry goot for him,”
he added meditatively, leaning upon
the axe-helve, his face screwed into into
a quaint grimace, “as old Ju should
take off his scalp for him —hut de little
frau.”
With a sudden indrawing of his shoul
ders alul au accompanying droop of the
corners of his mouth, he seemed to
protest against his own harsh judgment
as he renewed the combat with the ob
stinate fact. |
Old Dresden was not the only one
who disapproved of John Meredith's
journey through the wild Sierra Madrc
at that season of the year, when storms
were frequent in the mountains .and
Apaches skulking in the valleys and
passes. His partner, David Rowell, had
entered r. vigorous protest, but to no
avaik John Meredith hail the pugnacity
of determination peculiar to men of
genius. From early' boyhood his career
had been signalized by a series of daring
and headstrong exploits, aud when, as a
crowning feat, he bad capt-ured pretty
Helen Gresham by an audacious move,
if David Rowell felt any soreness of
heart over her capitulation he clinked it
bravely down and harbored no bitterness
in his honest heart. ,
A. week after her husband’s departure
Mrs. Meredith received a scrawl from
Mesilla, where he had expected to meet
a friend, writt-eu just as they were taking
the trail. “And don’t l>e worried, my
dear,” he wrote in conclusion; “the days
will pass quickly, and three weeks w ill
soon be up. But you must count from
the date of our departure.” She dried
her eyes and count -1 the* days ftom the
10th of Fetanary.
On the Ist of March a warm W iiid
swept over the southern table lands. |
Under its breath the snow upon the ,
mountain peaks vanished as if by magie |
and tli«‘ dry bed of the Miembres became j
the course of a surging torrent, sweeping j
onward for a final plunge into the waters !
of the gulf. The fern-like foliage of the
nresquite commenced to cautiously un
fold, and the wild verbena and lupine
made tiny patches of purple and magenta
over the sterile wastes.
On the 2d of March Helen Mere* nth
i rose with tremulous eagerness at dawn.
The morning was calm and still, but a
1 peculiar obscurity about the. horizon
presaged the approach of the cew-.Me-;-
ican sirocco. Stationed at a bull's-eye
window in the attic, with a field-glass iti
her hand, the young wife kept her eyes
steadily fixed on the winding, silvery
ribbon attenuated to a thread in the
distance, which marked the line of travel
pursued by passers to and fro over the
Mexican 1 lie. For upward of an hour
nothing rewarded lier vigilance; then a
long and blurred mass developed into a
train of hay wagons, each drawn by a
score of stout limbed oxen and attended
by a deputation of lmlf-clothed swarthy
Mexicans. Another hour passed, aud
the rough wagon of a Texan rancher ap
peared, the horses strolling leisurely
along, while man and wife, perched on
the high driver's seat, stnsked their clay
pipes in placid content.
Absorbed in her anxious watch, little
Mrs. Meredith had not observed that
the wind had risen, and for n moment
was almost appalled to see road and
landscape disappear from view beneath
; a dun colored cloud, which, as it drew
near, effectually concealed every trace
of the cottages across the street, and
swallowed up the form of a passer by
on her own sidewalk. Shreds of cloth, j
j bits of pasteboard, and great sheets of
paper were caught up by the wind,
j along with the clouds of dust and gravel,
and borne onward in its mad flight. 1 u
! a lower latitude the great velocity of
the wind, coupled with the force of a .
' far weightier atmosphere, would .
| have given the storm the force of a I
cyclone. As it was, it would do little
! mischief beyond arousing the tempers of
mankind and uprooting sundry out-’
houses built upon nuseeurefoundations.
Mrs. Meredith, with a coolness and pa
! lienee born of experience, bore this as
sult upon her domicile with charming
equanimity. Moving about the house
she proceeded to collect a number of
long and slender sand bags, indispens
able adjuncts to the tidy Now Mexican
housewife, and to arrange them in their
accus-toiped places over door and win
dow sills, thus fighting the intrusive
j element on tho liom;eopathic principle,
j All that day, and tin- next, she waited
in melancholy expectancy, not knowing j
what minute the familiar step might be j
heard bn her little porch. On the third
day tire storm subsided, and the tearless
eyes of the despairing woman beheld
only a desolute plain, flanked by pitiless
bills, and intersected by the white road,
along which no sign of life could be
detected. The mountains in all direc
tions had renewed their crests of snow.
.Succeeding days moved by in tortur,
' ing suspense. As time progressed, the j
sun’s rays beat ever more warmly upon 1
the earth, and bv the middle of March
the heat at noon day was like a foretaste
of summer. Passers-by, as they neared
| tbes mall cottage, learned to expect to see
■) a vision of a pair of imploring eves atl
!! door or window, or at, nightfall a woman
form, enveloped in a worsted slmwl
pacing up and down behind tho double
caetli and trio of sickly cherry trees
which constituted the sole verdure in
the garden. “Mariana in the moated
i gange,” quoted a few of the more mis
j chievous, in wilful travesty of the sit- j
j nation, for his wife’s anxiety over Mere
dith’s prolonged absence was the subject
of general comment, meeting with little
sympathy among those accustomed to
the uncertainties of frontier life.
Two men failed to share in the pre
vailing apathy, David Rowell, on his
regular horseback ride before breakfast'
j each morning, never failed to circle
i about his partner’s house, and as the j
sad, questioning face presented itself to |
him a jocular inquiry left his lips.
“Well, Mrs. Meredith, has that miss
ing lord and master of yours turned up !
yet?”
A faltering negative would greet him.
“Exactly as I prophesied. You might
I as well make tip your mind you’ll never j
; see him again. Borne of those pretty
: Mexicans,down there have led him cap
tive.” At which the lady he addressed,
moved by her-wifely fealty aud love,
would break out in passionate protest,
and lose her anxiety in wrathful indig
nation, while the horseman, as he turned
toward the country, change his gay look
of banter for an expression of savage
ferocity, and charged his steed upon the
prickly yuccas, and mildly anathematiz-
I cd the recreant spouse.
, At twilight an insignificant figure
with bowed shoulders and a shock of
bushy hair, going silently about his
chores in the back yard, stole furtive
glances at the sad-eyed young matron
and returned to his lonely shanty to sit
and brood over a weighty project incu
bating in his troubled brain. It was
generally understood throughout the
community that some dark mystery at
tached to old Dresden, the concealment
of liis proper ap|K*llation and adoption
of the name of his native city being re
garded as most criminating evidence.
But the old fellow kept on the (son
tenor of his way, attending to his small
stock of poultry and selling his eggs and
chickens at an advance of twenty five
per cent on the market price, wholly in
diff*Tent to the praise or blame of the
rest of humanity.
Early in the third we*ek after the
young prospector’s promised return
there l>egan to be a little stir in down
town circles. News of a fresh Apache
outbreak had lieen received, which
argued ill for any unprotected prospec
tors in their vicinity. From langhing
indifference the businessmen begun to
discuss the cliaiices of Meredith’s safety.
“He was a gaiiunt fellow,” remarked
MT. VERNON, MONTGOMERY GO., HA., WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1887.
“SUB DEO FACIO FORTITER.”
one. It was noticeable that he employ
ed the past tense.
“It seems a puy to be inactive,” ob
served another. * “If any of the men
want to go out and look for him, I’ll be
one of them.” But it was generally
conceded that the time for help was
past.
David Rowell, who was a silent audi
tor on these occasions, persevered in his
daily rides and never flinched in his es
tablished programme; but the face lie
turned to the plains after these reeon
tres had lost its savage expression and
was fixed and stem in its pity for the
voting wife, over whose head was sus
pended a Damoelean sword, liable at j
any moment to fall.
11.
One evening, at sundown, the doctor
was summoned in hot haste to the Mere
dith household. At midnight David
Rowell, retreating with cautious foot
steps from the door, whither he had
gone to hold a whispered colloquy, was
start-led by seeing one of the row of
twisted cacti in the yard apparently
moving toward him. Drawing nearer,
he recognized t-lie stunted form of the
German.
“Will she be bedder ?”
“No change, Dresden.” It would
have been rank injustice to bold the
clear night air accountable for the husk
iness in his throat. “Only one thing
can save her. God pity him if lie’s
dead, and curse him if lie's alive,” he.
piously added.
Simultaneously with the intelligence
of Mrs. Meredith's serious illness it was
bruited about that old Dresden bad dis
posed of bis chicken ranch and, buying
a scraggy burro, set off with a pack of
notions to visit some of the Mexican vil
lages lying contigious to the border.
His departure aroused little comment,
although some of the more enterprising
of the masculine gossips hinted at dark
and mysterious reasons which ruled liis
movements.
A few days later a curious meeting oc
curred in the pass of the Sierra Madrc.
A stubby little man, hobbling along be
side a diminutive burro, with a towering
pack, at a point where the narrow road
wound about the side of a precipitous
gorge, heard the well-known whistle in
the distance, the usual signal warning
travelers of approach from an opposite
direction. From a note of warning the
whistle glided gayly into the strains ol
a popular operatic air. The small man
with the burro gave a sharp shout and
pushed on to meet John Meredith await
ing his approach at a place where a
evcHcent had been hollowed into the
rocky wall.
“Veil, Mr. Meredit ?"
The little man sitt down on a rock
and eyed the careless young horseman
with the eye of a Nemesis.
“Holloa, Dresden. What are you up
to now l Going to turn the heads oi j
tiiose Mexican women with a lot ol
nery, eh?”
Dresden stifled a savage imprecation,
p.v- a great effort ho composed himself.
“I vas thinking you been baling i
fery fine time in the moundains, Mr. 1
Meredit,”
“Oh, so-so. A bit too much rain and j
mow. But I have some fino specimens j
here. People will open their eyes when
they see them. Copper and native sil
ver till you can’t rest—but, of course,
you don’t know anything about such
things ” He broke off with a com
passionate laugh.
“Yon vas not afraid the little frau
would drubblc herself? and, indeed, dal
is fery goot, as a vomau should not make
herself drabble ven der isnotting wort.’
The man’s voice was dry and meas
ured, but the swelling veins on liis fore
head betrayed a severe inward strain.
The young man observed nothing ol
this.
“Not a bit, Dresden. To tell tin
troth,” he said, in a burst of confidence,
and with ft mild air of triumph at the
recollection of his brilliant artifice, “1
flatter myself that I managed that pretty
well. I told her to look for me in three i
weeks. I know a woman. They are |
all right as long as they have something ,
to take up their minds. I know look
ing for me would sort of break up the i
time and give her something to think
of.”
“And what tink you dat occupation j
will be already, Mr. Meredit? And in
deetit is fery nice for vomau to be tink- i
ing how the wild Apaches liuf maybe got
her man’s seal)), or be is fery likely to |
fall in under some big rock, or blowed
in pieces by a plast. ” The speaker lind !
risen to his feet, and his bowed form j
straightened as he confronted Meredith
in his wrath. “Mr. Meredit, when your j
wife lifs and your child is of right mint,
you need not tank yourself. ”
The rnari ho addressed stared straight
before him, as if be saw a phantom.
His easy confidence bad deserted him,
and he trembled from head to foot.
The possible results of his adroit strategy
marched in spectral procession before
him.
“Good Dord, Dresden !” he faltered.
“If anything lias happened to her, I
had better go over the precipice notv.”
“I know not dat de loss voo I lx; fery
great,” answered the other coolly. He
could not forgive the fellow in a mo-c
out. Only dial she is a fool -all vim
men are fools,” lie remarked, M-nten
tiously, “and if she lifs ”
Striking his spurs deep into the flanks
of his horse, Meredith dashed around
the bend in the road; and in a few sec- ,
omls the clatter of hoofs had died away
in the distance. ?>id Dresden, with a
queer smile on his plain face, touched
up liis lazy animal and continued liis
journey southward.
At daybreak the next morning David
Rowell, prowling about like a vvraiili
in the dim light, le-ard a horse corning
up the southern road. Meredith
checked his gait as he saw the tall fig
ure approaching.
“Don’t say it, Rowell,” he prote ted.
“’flare i- just one thing left to do.
He drew a revolver from his case in bis
belt, and deliberately cooked it. David
Rowell knocked it from bis hand and it
exploded harmlessly in a chimp of
sagebrush a couple of rods away. As
he lowed the pale face and staring eyes
an k ,he gaunt figure, still'and erect in
tiel addle, tho words of reproach, if he
hal mv ready, died upon his lips.
I “ourage, John,” lio said. “She's
alilr. I wouldn’t hnvo answered for
am* her day.”
“Dresden,” said John Meredith, one
morning a few months later, as he
strolled into the back yard, bearing in
his Itrms a small bundle, which he hand
led I with awkard tenderness, “you
haven’t done anything in the chicken
line this summer, I hear.”
The little man was wrestling with a
root shaped like a two-headed dog.
“Nod much,” he replied shortly, and
brought down the axe with a force that
cleft the heads in twain.
“Sorry. Wo miss tho fresh eggs and
spring chickens. I say, Dresden," he
went on musingly, “yon didn't make so
much out of those gimcracks as von
thought you would, now, did you? I’ve
always wondered what in time sent you
down into that forsaken country any
how.”
From beneath his bushy eyebrows
Dresden stole a queer glance at bis care
less questioner. Meredith sprang up
as if lu‘ lmil been shot.
“What? Confound you.”
Dresden nodded. Meredith stretched
out his hand to him. Two palms,
one grimy and hardened with toil, met
in a clasp over the sleeping babe, The
lnylt’side.
HETTY «11KEN~IN CHICAGO.
Lending Mmii'y mul liny ing anil
Selling Real Estate.
Hetty Green, worth twice as much,
probably, as l’liil Armour, weighs just j
about the same and gets down to her
Dearborn street olliee at just about thr j
same hour that the pucker roaches lib i
La Malle street hcadquityters. All these
statements are at variance with popular i
notions. Very few people, indeed, proh !
ably have had any idea that 1■! y
Green had a Chicago office. Then, too,
every popular picture of the woman
worth ;> 12,00ft,(MM) has been of a thin,
angular, vinegary female whose clothes
dragged on the ground, fine is, in fact,
n big, plump woman, who must turn the
scale at 180 pounds, and her togs lire
firs! class. The Howland block is hers,
and her private office is on the second
floor, in therooms of her Chicago agents.
Mini has been hero signe jiveeks, and her
son, "an amiable, umi .’mining sort of a
young fellow, is hero permanently,
over at 42 Ann street.
A broker who had a loan to make met |
Hetty Green on the street at!) o’clock
one morning tills week and presented
I the opportunity to her. “That was
/ offered to me at 7 o’clock this morning,”
she i-.aid sharply, “and I refused it.”
The broker bad laid an idea that women
with more money than they knew how !
to invest laid abed until about 10. Mrs. 1
Green doesn’t spend any of her money
| at the hotels. She takes lodgings wit)) j
| her agent down on the south side, cornea j
j down town on an early car, and during
! the day walking is good enough for her.
The boy doesn’t weigh much more than
half us much as liis mother, but bast
some of tile maternal instincts. To go
to the expense of printing a business
card would be abomination. Bo be has
a little rubber stum]), and when a card
is at all necessary he tears off a little
piece of paper—-from a newspaper in j
one instance that tho writer knows of—j
and stamps thereon: E. 11. H. Green,
Real Estate, 42 Ann street.
Hetty Green owns the Howland block.
Bln-loaned ilonoro $250,000 on it when
lie was Hying high, and when he couldn’t
pay the interest. Hetty took the proper
ty. A broker says lie would like to
have it to sell now at $760,009. She
had a 8250,000 mortgage on the Major
block at the same time, and was very
I much disgruntled because the owner
] wax enabled to get. around and redeem.
! She has big blocks of improved property
i all over the city. Her big investments
; here, however, are ill loans. They are
believed to aggregate about $3,000,000,
Aii Exchange of Eyes.
A German, one of whose eyes was se
vcrcly aff"<;te<l, went to an oculist for
treatment. An operation was nec.es
-1 sary, and the eye was removed. While
treating the socket previous to trans-
I planting one from a rabbit, one of the
! visual organs of the latter being pre
| pared and laid upon the table, a cat
stole in, and before any one could pre
vent had seized mid eaten the rabbit's
eye. No other rabbit being at hand to
furnish the eye, the oculist waited un
til his patient hail recovered from tin
state of amestliesia in rev • ary to the
operation, and explained the dilemma
to him. “Yah, yah, dr l.atz ate mine eve
up; so, so, veil put an«eyc of dot katz i'
mine eye. Dot katz got. mine eye, f ,
vill has dot katz’s eye. ’ The oculist
did so for the sake of the experiment,
when, strange to say, the operation was
successful and tin- cat’s eye work* 1 per
fectly. One day the German met a friend
who said:
“Hans, 1 hear dat you has a katz s {
eye in your head in, how ish dot?
Hans explained the circumstance, and
his friend said: “Oh, I see, dot katz
got your eye and you got dot hutz s eye,
• yah, mul how docs dot katz eye wo k ?
Gan you s'<- shust so goot tnit. de Oder.”
“Yah, shust so goot. only at night
veil I wants to sill - •!>, (lot verdamter
ev<- shust lies hwake looking for rats.
Maiden ( fort v u . t fomantic'i—l sup
pose it rnunt n;>pc. cr-' lonely to yon
when all the any have the sea
shore ? J isli-T . -Dr a Ifitl, inarm.
But yo; • it Ic.uc.'s to rest
our >nit ’ . i ■ aus w< r qus*
Ileus next vc cr
IIVSTKMI-S OF A DAY. 1
NOTABLE EVENTS RECORDED
IN THE I*.Vt»ERH.
.bosl Ills Park \ (lolil Mine Curi
ous Bools A <la miller’s Ex
cuse Itelicls in China, At., Ate.
—
Kiuhty-ekiht men, who are called
“rebels, belonging' to a certain religious
scot," have been bobeaded at, one time
; in Chang Chou, < liina. Tho offence
| of this sect seems to be that they appear
in the streets as venders of children's
toys, the chief of which are cash swords,
daggers and dragons, each formed out
of 1 iSO of the cash coins, strung together
in various shapes. They are said to
have annoyed the )>eople a great deal by
cheating tho children, aiul to have
outsell much disturbance by higgling i
about prices, and u Chinese paper naive
ly adds: “Since the above-mentioned
cases have been so severely dealt with,
not one of them bus been seen on the
street. The people highly appreciate
the enforcement of stringent laws and
prompt action.”
Ottek Beet, one of tho greatest of 1
Comanche chiefs, died in Indian Terri
tory a few days ago. Five minutes 1
before his death they held him erect !
and rigged him out in his best war
costume. They painted him red, set i
his war bonnet on Ihh bead, tied up his !
hair in beaver Hkins, and laid him down i
just as lie died. Then his five wives I
took sharp butcher knives, slashed their
faces with long, deep cuts, cut them
selves in other places, and beat their
bleeding bodies and pulled their hair. !
They also burned everything they had, j
tepees, furniture, and even most of the
clothing they had oil. A big crowd of
bucks looked on and killed ten horses,
including a favorite team of Press Ad j
1 dington, on whoso ranch Otter Belt j
| lived.
New Sor rn Wai.es has sent to tho
Queen for her approval an Act, fuoilitat
i r 'il« ’i < -unis the famous
Illinois ami i ounecUoat Laws. I
vides that whenever husband aud wife
remain away from one another for three
years without personal or written com
munication, either may get a divorce.
Cruelty continued for two years is a
legitimate ground against the husband,
but not against the wife. A continual
habit of drunkenness for two years is,
however, a valid pica for either party
to put in against the other, provided it
prevents the husband from providing
for the wife or the wife from performing
her domestic duties. A man, apparcptly,
may keep as drunk as ho pleases pro
vided he gives his wife plenty of money.
M. M. Fi.owhrh, a ten-year convict
in the penitentiary at Jeffersonville,
Ind., was deprived last, «' <•!( of a dock
of playing-cards wjii' h if had cost him
an immense amount of pains to make.
It is customary for the Warden of tho
prison to issue each month to every well
behaved convict a “reward of merit,”
i showing liis standing slid entitling him
to certain privileges. They arc printed
on heavy cardboard and were carefully
treasured by Flowers, who cut them to
the proper size with a sharp nail and
laboriously printed the spots and figures
on them with pen and ink. It took him
nearly four years to get, together enough
cards to make a full deck.
Tom Smith, an Alaska machinist
stumbled on a gold mine at Berner Hay
a few weeks ago that will make him
rich. While prospecting in a gulch’ono
; afternoon lie became thirsty and drop
ped down on his hands and knees to
drink from the stream of clear cold wa
ter which ran at, liis feet. To liis as
tonishment the bed of tho stream seem
ed sprinkled with gold, and lie saw
that lie had leaned directly over a rich
vein. Maniples of the quartz which he
bought to town assayed several thousand
dollars to tho ton.
A Them ii opera imtnuger was ■ n
despair at the prospect of having tr. j
produce “L’Africainc” with white ne- |
gi'ocs in the ballet, beeailHo the dancers .
infused to black their faces for fear it
would injure their complexions. Ho
issued an order, however, that all the
young and pretty girls must color their
faces, because it would do them no harm,
while the old and plain ones would bo
allowed to appear without black faces,
because they hud more need to take
care of their looks. The result was that
every blessed one of tho girls tried to
get on more black than any of the oth
ers, mid when the Imllet was on tho 1
stage a half dozen extra calciums had to
be used to keep the audience from think
ing the lights had all gone out.
“Ek( tovkr” is the name of a new
and murderous munition of war in Kus- j
sia. It was discovered by a Russian j
engineer, ami is as strong as pyroxy- :
line and ten times cheaper than salt- j
petre powder. It possesses great H'* j
periority over all explosives of t.hedy
I unmite class by the fact that when fired j
its force does not strike downward, but
entirely forward. It can be used, it is
said, for all purposes to which ordinary
gunpowder is now applied without any
damage to the weapon discharged, the I
; Minister of War is having a special sac- 1
tory built for its manufacture. The
composition is a secret.
I.nßebvia, Bulgaria, and iionmama '
boots made of bullock’s hide or leather,
and which are simply a flat piece of
leather drawn over the foot all arond
and fastened by b athe, thongs or birch
bark crossed over the leg, which is in- |
ease 1 in either stockings or a piece of red j
cloth, are worn by the peasantry. The
Slavonic peasantry in Austria also wear
boo: s of the same "description, and so do
the Turkish soldiers, but they make |
their own. The Russian peasants make
shoes of birch bark, and fasten them in
the aine way over stockings, except in j
winter, when high leather boots aro i
worn. j
VOL.* 11. NO. 41
A half-obown chicken in Richmond,
M<>., got into mi altercation with a grass
snake eighteen inches long. The
chicken peeked away at the snake furi
ously for a few moments, and then,
gathering the head of his snakeship in
his mouth, essayed to swallow him
whole. But the snake obstinately re
fused to go down. Finding he eon hi
not swallow the snake, which had
! tightly curled its tail around his bill, the
chicken disgorged it, and pecking at it
a few more times, he made a second and
successful effort.
Finn re Vattx lias just, died in penal
servitude at Cayenne. Thirty-five years
ago, being then a school teacher at
Longepierre, lie was convicted of Arson
through the efforts of the Imperialist
Mayor, who hated him because he was
a Republican, nisi was sentenced to im
prisonment in the hulk for life. Later
on the same Mayor caused the convic
tion of six other Republicans for the
same offence, but was charged with hnh
sdf having set all the tires, and being
arrested committed suicide in jail.
Meantime ten applications for Pierre
Vanx’s pardon had been made, and in
dorsed by the officers of tire hulks,
whoso esteem he won by his exemplary
deportment, but more exciting affair*
crowded them away from official atten
tion. Now the French Government has
decided his “rehabilitation,” which is a
certification that, lie ought to have been
pardoned, and the nearest thing to jus
tice that, chu be done for a dead man.
A San Fuanihco gambler has written
to the lii'iimintr a lettc, in defence of hi*
business, and ends with this chunk of
w isdom: “Putting aside the question of
wlial it costs to learn a profession, who,
1 ask, confers the greatest benefits on
the world, the lawyer or the profession
al gambler.' The latter unquestiona
bly. For tin' lawyer gets his wealth
from people who : re commonly account
ed wise, while the gambler makes a pre
carious livelihood from those who are
universally conceded to be fools, and
in euring folly I hold myself to l>e the
moral superior of him who discourages
wisdom.”
Pahis is Adopting woo Ipaviug. The
oii imil stone p, • ic.ds were done
away with because they were too handy
for tim people who wanted something
1,0 llirow in ease of revolution. Victor
Hugo called them “the last resonroe of
the people.” Macadam was next used,
and then asphalt, which, being too
hard on the horses, is now giving place
to wood. It is pointed out, however,
that, for insurgents, the petroleum
soaked wood will be as handy as the
shell i. were. A box of matches would
make torn up paving about, as efficient
an instrument of war as Greek fire.
Charles To Jackson, of Halifax,
Fla,, has a pet snake that catches rats.
Jackson heard a racket in a cupboard,
and, opening the door, found the snake
had captured a rat, and was trying to
swallow it nose first. The rat wan alive,
and strenuously protested against going
into such a hole, using his feet to eaten
hold of the floor or other surroundings.
The snake, wiser than the rat, raised
him up a foot or two in the air, and in
that posit ion continued the swallowing
process, dropfling down to the floor to
rest occasionally, until the rat was
swallowed.
A little hon of Leauder Hill, living
near Covington, 'J’cnn., went to his fa
ther’s giri Wednesday, and seeing the
press half full of the fleecy staple, lay
down and went, to sleep. Later the ne
groes filled the press to complete the
bale. The terrific pressure of the block
was brought down, and when the bale
was rolled up from the press bound with
iron ties the life blood of the boy oozed
slowly through it. The bale was at once
opened. To the horror and unspeaka
ble grief of Mr. Hill the body of his lit
tle son was found crushed to a jelly.
A Halifax servant girl who wished to
go out for an hour or so and knew of lie
writable excuse to give her mistress, in
vented the excuse that lior brother hod
been drowned. The result was that, a
morning paper published the item, and
there was a sensation in the “drowned
man’s” family. The hoaxed paper ex
posed the story and the author, who got
more unenviable notoriety Hum she
bargained or eared for.
Gait. H.T. Bullard of Coldwater,.
Mieli., gave a favorite old mare of his
to a friend, with the understanding that
the friend was to keep her. This was
not done, but the animal was sold to a
horse dealer, who did not treat her
kindly, and so the other day the Captain
walked up to her, us she stood hitched
to the dealer’s wagon, and put an end to
the had treatment by firing four bullets
into her head.
“I’m thinktno of building me a
; hows ,” said .tones to Smith last even
ing. “Good idea,” said Smith; “how
much money have you <” “About
000.” “Three thousand dollars; well,
that v. ill build a very neat §2,00 i house,
with economy.” P. S.—ls you have
over built a house von will see tha
point. —Ntuhville Americun.
Drr.'Mi the trial of a ease in Kingston
a day or two ago, a witness was oxarn-
I ined regarding a conversation which
: counsel thought lie should he able to
rob to in detail. Finally the witness
blurted out: “I could not tell all the
■ talk. You might, because you are a
lawyer, and ought to understand let
ter tli-m I do. You are practiced in tli“
business. Put you on a farm, the saliv
as I am, and urn wouldn’t l>e nowhere.
In Sydney, Australia, roughs of the
street are called “larrikins. The name
came from tie- reply of a policeman who
was asked by the Gourt what there was
against the prisoner whom he had ar
j rested. “ Just larrikin about the
sthrates, ver honor,” was the reply of
the policeman, who was no Irishman.
From that timo disorderly conduct was
I termed banking, and the rough was
/ called a larrikin.