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the mercury.
•Bund •* MMnd-elMi matter *t U« lu
*“ denrlXle Foetoffloe, April at, UHL
giBdenrllle, Waihlngton Ceaaty, 6a.
J. JERNIGAN,
Fionimi and PDiLun.
Bab* *crIptloti-
..|l JD per Tear
m
MERCURY.
DEVOTED TO LITERATURE, AGRICULTURE AND GENERAL INTELLIGENCE.
$1. 50 p«r Annum.
VOLUME IV.
SANDERSVILLE, GA., TUESDAY, DECEMBER 11. 1383.
NUMBER 35.
B- D. IVANS,
ATTORNEY AT LAW.
Bandtrsvllla, Os.
April I. IH*.
0* 0* BROWN,
attorney at law,
■endemvUle, On.
JSrSS&SSSigt?"**"*
Watches, Clocks
And JEWELRY
BIPAIMD BY
JBR1TICAIT.
Or. H. B. Holtifield,
nnicui in sworn,
.Having recently graduated at the Culver,
ilty of Maiyland and returned home, now
offen lila profeaalonal service* to the citizen*
of Hym envllle and vicinity. Offloe with
Dr.H N Holllfleld, next door toJMra. Bayne’*
millinery atore.
H. N. SOLLinXLD,
Physician and Surgeon,
Baadaravllla, Oa.
Off;* next doer to Via Barnet mllllnerr
■tore on Harris street.
MUSIC, MUSIC
QO TO—
JERNIGAN
IF
Bows, Strings,
Rosin Boxes, Etc.
BU Y YOUR
WTiCLES, SPECTACLES,
FROM
JERNICAN,
None genuine without onr Trade Mark
On hand and for tale.
SPECTACLES, NOSE GLASSES. ETC.
Machine Needles,
Oil and Shuttles,
JOB ALL KINDS OF MACHINES, for sale.
I will also order parts of M»chluea
that get broken, for whloh new
pleoee are wanted.
A. J. JEHNIGAN
A K. Hinas.
O. H. Koeam
HINES & ROGERS,
Attorneys at Law,
SANDERSVILLE, GA.,
WUl practice In the counties of Washington,
Aedtraon, Johnson, Emanuel end Wilkinson,
the U. S. Coqrts for the Southern Dis-
Georgia.
»ot as agents In buying, selling or
Rest Estate.
Ootu-tf0n WMt * id * of PobUe BfWW
0. w. H WHITAKER
DENTIST,
Banderavllle, Go.
TERMS cash.
a .SIPS? ^ tils Residence, on Harris street.
April 3d. 1380.
A Virtuous Man.
Ezra Ripley, the well-known Puritan
minister at Concord, a sketch of whose
life, by Ralph Waldo Emerson, is pub
lished in the Atlantic, onoe attended
the funeral of a father of a family, and
jessed each member separately,
‘Sir, I condole with you.” ‘‘Madame,
I condole with you.” And turning to
the eldest son, who was supposed to be
“temperate, “Sir, I knew your great-
Srandiather. When I came to this town
your groat-grandfather was a sulwhm-’
tial farmer in this very place, a member
of the church, and an excellent citizen,
lour grandfather followed him and was
* virtuous man. Now your father is to
e carried to his grave, full of labors
n <l virtues. There is none of that large
““yy left but you, audit rests with yon
boar up the good name and useful-
“V f y°ur ancestors. If you fail,
pray » ’ tlle g * or y * B departed. Let us
Ile BB id of the actress, “she Is
mail,, "^°* n ’ ar ' u the company; she has
«t°rt.fU8 ; namely their distempers,
■ditorial notes.
Thb Tennessee ootton mill, at Nash
ville, has just declared a dividond equal
to an annual dividend of fourteen per
cent., after having quite recently doubled
,ts capacity. The cotton mills north and
oast are complaining of hard times, but
in the south there seems to be no reason
for complaint.
Thb report of the general superinten
dent of the life saving service shows
4,617 lives, and $6,671,700 worth of
property saved during the past year.
During that period there were BOO disas
ters to vessels within the field of the sta
tion operations, and of tho 8,792 persona
on those vessels only fifteen were lost.
Of $7,176,640 worth of property im
perilled only $1,664,740 was lost The
number of vessels lost was sixty-eight.
At the olose of the last fiscal year theser-
▼ice embmeed 194 stations ; 149 being on
tho Atlantic, 87on tho lakos, 7 on tho
Paciflo, and 1 at the falls of the Ohio,
Louiaville, Ky.
Thb immense canned goods interest
in Baltimore have recently hold a con
vention, and agreed upon size of cans.
This was done to prevent the cutting of
rates by the use of small sized cans.
The convention also agreed to ask the
legislature to absolutely close the Chesa
peake oyster beds from April 1 tq Sep
tember 1. This is demanded to prevent
overtaken dredges from claiming that
they took the oysters in dispute in Vir
ginia waters. The proposition to make
the Potomac river forbidden ground to
all dredging vessels during the warm Sea
son, will^itis claimed, protect the beds
upon which the canned goods interests of,
Baltimore is based.
At the Louisvillo exposition Major E.
A. Bnrke spoke of tho recuperation of
the Southern States in a most hopeful
strain. He said that during the past
four yean the twelve states constituting
what is commonly known os tho south,
have increased their assessed values
from $640,700,000.on an average of $160,-
176,000, and the increase of 1883 over
1882 amounts to 1263,000,000, which is
nearly equal to the value of tho whole
ootton crop. Alabama, Georgia, North
Carolina and South Carolina, havo built
twenty cotton mills in the post year.
The coal fields of these state cover 6,830
square miles, and the outputof these fields
has increased from 10,000 in 1872 to
1,200,000 tons in 1882. No section in the
union has shown anything like such pro
gress.
| and tho current passed through him. II
I an eloctio-ligbt wire forms n connection
in wet weather with a telephone wire,
something or somebody is sure to be
meltod.
| r ms only confederate eye-witness of
the death of General A. P. Hill gives a
, thrilling account of that event in the
Philadelphia Times The writer Ser-
| 8 en nt G. W. Tucker, chief of General
Hill’s stuff of couriers, state that after the
general's right gave way in front of
Petersburg. General Hi 1 made an effort
to reach General Lee’s quarters. Takiug
Tucker with him hecrossedthe Bowdoin
plank road, and striking through an old
6el the two came upon a party of
federal! in Iho oover of ths woods. Two
of the blue coats were some distance in
advance of the others. General Hill and
his courier called on them to surrender,
but the only response was a bullet which
struck General Hill with fatsl effect.
Tucker mado his way into Longs treat's
lines, and thenoe to General Lee, to
| whom ho made his sad report Directing
the courier to aooompanyOolonel Palmer
to Mrs. Hill, General Lee said: “Col
onel, break the news to her as gently aa
pot-sib e."
The Bartholdi statue is made of cop
per, strengthened by an inner skeleton
of iron. For each piece a center or mold
was made of wood, on which the copper
could be worked and fitted. The sheet
eopper epidermis of tho figure is mode
of 300 pieces and weighs 178,000 pounds,
whi o tho iron frarno weighs 264,000
pounds. When flually erected tho
molded sheets of copper will be riveted
together by copper bolts, and tho iron
skeloton will bo secured to tho masonry
by twelve great foundation bolts. The
variations due to temperature are pro
vided for by elasticity iu every part, and
corroding will bo checked by painting
with red lead wherein iron and copper
are in contact. It is reckoned that tho
pressure of wind upon the statue, which
will bo 160 feet high, may go ns high as
190,000 pounds
Mu. Leo Daft recently made a suc
cessful trial of his electrio railway motor
on ilio Saratoga, Mr. McGregor and
Lake George railway at Saratoga. he
motor is a peculiarly shaped, box-liko
structure, pointed bright red, aid sur
mounted by a brass bell. The driving
seat holds only one porson, and the ma
chinery is covered from sight. Between
the rails of the trnck upon which tbe
motor T\ sted a third rail was insulat' d
from its frstening spikes at each tie by a
strip of vulcanized rubber. Tbe elec
tricity for the affair is manufactured by
a generating machine a quarter of a mile
away. The wheel under the motor takes
up the electricity and pnsses it into tlio
dynamo in the box. The electro-magnets
are set in motion and small pulleys com
municate the power to the axles by layer
pulleys on the latter, and convey the
current to the outer rails and complete
the circuit.
The dangers that accompany tho
stringing of etoctric light wires are be
ginning to be understood and dreaded.
If a wire of the Brush light forms "a
ground” it reaches a white heat, and a
fire ensues if it touches wood. If the
wood is wet. it becomes a conductor, and
a fire is almost certain to ocour. The
best insulating material can not render
roofs secure against all accidents of this
kind. The current is so strong that
death ensues instantly if it i» • passed
through the human body, and the fire
men are very naturally averse to too
close an acquaintance with these wires.
Not long ago the superintendent of the
electrio lightcompany at Dayton grabbed
a wire to keep from falling, and he wita
killed an by a tS
In England there is more land lying
Idle iu sporting grounds, game preserves
and landlords’ parks, than the whoe
kingdom of Belgium, whiclf supports in
happiness and prosperity 6,000,000 peo
ple, and sends large food exports to
London. An income of $176,000,000 a
year is received by 8,142 landlords as
rent on 46,600,000 acres, of land. They
do no work, but recall Carlyle’s picture
of tho French Marqait, perfumed » n d
petted, who sat in his castle window and
watching a poor woman gathering nettlos
in the rain, received one nettle of three,
as rent If England were cultivated as
closely and as thoroughly as Jersey it
wonl I not only amply feed its present
population but 60,000,000 besides. So
vast are its t Hcts of idle laud, however,
that * 150,000,000 a year is sent out of
England annually to buy food. It is
with such arguments ns these that the
land-hunger of tbe poorer English classes
is sharpoued by tho leaders of tho radical
movement.
The erection of large oil refln rics in
San Francisco by ox-Govemor Pei kins,
Churles Goodall, Captain Knowles and
othor capitalists, will enable the Pacific
coast to handle tho entire whale product
of that section, instead of shipping it to
Now Bedford. About 30 out of tho 160
vessels engaged in tho whaling trade are
emp oyod in Pacific waters. American
whaling dates from 1794, and the tonnage'
has increased from 4,129 tons in that
year tn 32,8(12 in 1882. At present the
chief use of whole oil is for lubricating
nxlos and machinery. The sperm is used
for candies, fancy nnd toilet articles
Tho old-time abuses on whaling vessels
havo almost entirely disappeared. The
seamen are well treated, they have an
interest in the catch, and it is to the in
terests of the officers and men to get
along harmoniously. Mtn get from $30
to $75 a month. The perils of the busi
ness ore very great, but the profits are
proportionately large, especially as the
price of bono has gone gradually up from
50 cents per pound to between $2.50 and
♦3.
The new canti-lever bridge over the
Niagara has been practically completed,
though it will not be opened until the 1st
of December. It is an enormous struc
ture of iron 910 feet long without the ap
proaches. The total weight resting on
the towers is under the maximum strain
6,400 tons, and the track of the Canada
Southern, which crosses the bridge, is
239 feet above tbe water at the central
span. This work represents the first use
in bridge building of the principle repre
sented inthenamo. Canti-lever expresses
the lev. rage obtained by an external
angle. Take two pieces of timber or iron,
join them endwiso at a very wide angle,
set this angular part upon a pillar,
balance the arms so that the ends are on
a leve with each otner, and you ave
the principle of the power which sup
ports the great bridge. This plau is
cheap and quick, while in strength it
compares well with the best of the old
methods of bridge building. Tho new
canti-lever bridge stands only 800 feet
above tho old suspension bridge and pre
sents a strong contrast to it. The wires,
railways, and fine work of tbe old bridgo
give i tho appearance of the finished task
of the basket weaver; while the canti
lever is stem, rugged and bold. At tho
foot of the tower of the now bridge tho
first ripple of tho Whirlpool Rapids con
be seen. So fast does the torrent increase
that tho water is boiling and seething
under the old bridge only 300 feet below.
•Fastidiousness lakes various forms
The man who will insist on a clean towe
on which to wipe his hands, in a barber
•hop will unhesitatingly wipe his mouth
u the community towel hanging in from
f the bar.
He who sedulously attends, pointedly
i-eates', oalmly speaks, ooolly answers,
ii ceases when he has no more to say,
, in possession of some of the best
equisitos >:
GENERAL NEWS.
Krt Wat, FI., j, to hm . ,tM.t
railway,
Mioa has been disoovered in Cobb
county, Georgia.
Rookbobo, N. O., is building a $12,000
court-house.
Florida is utilizing ooaviets on tur
pentine farms.
A hew silver mine haa been opened in
Wautauga county, N. 0.
“Libbbtt” street in MlUedgeville.Oa.,
leads from the penitentiary to the cem
etery.
Thbbb is a Mormon church east of
Aberdeen, Miss., just ever the Alabama
line.
Mb. Tttlanr’s total donatioa to tbe
University in Louisiana now amounts to
$1,000,000.
Lewis Hawkins, colored, is editing s
paper devoted to the internets of the o >1-
ored people in Rome, Os.
It is said that ten-pounds of solid gold
were recently taken ont of the Ball mine
in Georgia in one day.
A man in Fumpter oonnty, Tennessee
has gathered 600 bushels of hickory nuts
whioh he prop >aes to sell.
Two hundred and thirty-one children
are enrolled at the colored public school
iu Pine Bluff, Ark.
Vbssbus are in great demand for the
lumber business at Mississippi lity,
whioh is said to be thriving this season.
At the next session of the Mississippi
Legislature an effort will be made for
the establishment of a State female col
lege.
The Appling sword of honor, which
has hung in the Executive office for
nearly seventy years, is to be turned
over to the Georgia Historical Society
for safe keeping, until the new eapitol is
completed.
Clbmxnt Cato, colored, 104 years old,
walked from his home to Rome, Ga.,a
distance of four miles, to pay his tax.
He ia still hale and hearty. Floyd coun
ty also boasts of a white man, Mr. Huck-
by, ninety-three years old, who has
picked cotton every day this season.
Jackson county, Fla, beae's among
other things a natural well, formed by
the sinking of earth,'near Greenwood, a
few months ago, and a natural bridge of
limestone across the Cliipola river, about
three miles above Marianna, formed by
the river sinking for the distance of half
a mile.
The long-expected development of the
marble qnaries of Georgia is at hand. A
party of gentlemen have just closed the
purchase of two of tbe most important
fields, and the managers ot the Rutland,
Vermont, Marble Company are now in
Vtlanta for the purpose of investing in
some of the same property.
The passage of ths steamer Silverton
through the jetties below Now Orleans,
is considered the best evidenco yet given
of their success With the exception of
Ihe Great Eastern, the Silverton is the
largest freight carrier aflna , and there
are now only half a dozen ships in the
world that oan not easily land at that
city.
Atlanta Constitution : The failure
of the Mississippi Valley Bank grows in
magnitude as the facta come out. It is
now admitted that the liabilities are over
one million. The bank seems to have
oeen a family affair, the President being
Geo ge M. Klein, the ca-hier John A.
Klein, Jr., assistant cashier William M.
Klein, and John A. Klein, Sr., as a sort
of business director. The advertisement
mnounces that the bank is “not incor-
iiirated.”
The winter exodus from the North to
’lorida is nnnsually large this year
\bout 250 people leave New York even
.lay for Jacksonville, and probably 600
>eople arrive in the latter city every day
rom different parts of the country. I hi-
lumber will continue increasing until
February. A good many settlers are go
ng at present A majority of the set-
'lors go to south Flor.dn, iu the neiph-
lorhood of Sanford. Great numtiers are
filing from New England, New Yoik and
Pennsylvania.
After thb Wood.—Fifteen hundred
cab proprietors and drivers have peti
tioned the Berlin City Council that no
more wooden or asphalt pavement be
laid down. Some of the petitioners say
that the accidents are from fifty to sev
enty-five times greater than on the old
stone pavement, and it is farther alleged
that the expense of repair is much
greater. The worst stone pavement h
preferable, they declare, to wood or
asphalt. Yet in France the wood and
asphalt seem preferred, and only last
summer several streets oonld be seen in
London in which the stone pavement
was being replaced by wood.
A young man, apparently a commer
cial drummer, got on the train, and,
noting a pretty girl along in the forward
part of the car, approached her and
smilingly asked: “Is this seat engaged,
Misb?” “No, sir,” she qniokly and
pertly responded, “bat I am, and he is
going to get on at the next station.”
“Oh—ah — indeed — thanks — beg par
don 1’ and he quickly picked np his
feet, after stumbling over them, and
went into U19 smoking-ear to be atone
while, *
PECK’S BAD BOY AGAIN.
HR REI.IKVRK TIIK Ml KI-'K It INUH OF
AN Ul.lt Sl'IIIMliniaTS.
U* Tries III* IlimS nl n Little W.rk el
Charity nnS MucrertU vet* Well.
" You sny a word against that porn
girl, and down comes your grocery,”
said the bad boy to the grocery man.
“ She is a Christian, that girl is, though
she don't put on aim au l go to church
with silk dresses snd rich duds. But
she prays, by jingo, better than auy ol
'em. You see her father is a drunkard,
and ho takes half she makes pi ddli'ug
apples, to buy gin, nnd her grandmother
has got the consumption, and that taker
the other half to support her. I knew
that girl when 1 wont to soliool, and
yesterday she come to mo crying, and
said site was going to ask a favor of no
’cause I had a heart iu me. It seems her
drunken father hail taken all her money
and had .gone on an awful bum, and slie
didn't have any to buy some of tho<
cough syrup lozenges for her grandma
and the old lady was chokin’ tip prefy
rough, and she wanted me to lend In'
a dollar till she opuld realize on the np
pies she was going to gat trusted fm.
Probably you have noticed 1 haven't got
any watch this morning. I have got my
chain, with a bunch of keys on it in mv
pooket, but nobody will know I haven't
got any watch unless they ask me what
time it is, and then I will tell them it
hss run down, and I guess it has, ’oans<
pawnbrokers never wind np watohi*.
Well, sir, I got four dollars on my watch,
and I went and bought apples for her
and medioine for her grandma, and then
I went down home with her. When I
went in the little room, where tbe old
lady was on a bed, and beard her lot off
one of those regular hark-from-the-tombs
coughs, that sounded away down cellar,
where it is damp and mouldy, I tell you
it made me feel serious. And when that |
ragged little girl got down on her kncea
atia prayed, there in the dirt, and asked
God to bless the friend that had riaen
np snd lifted sneh a load off the sufferer,
do you know, I felt as though I bad
swallowed a piece of turnip or something
hard, and eonldn't get it Up or down,
and the tears came to my eyes just like
when you peel onion#.
“She didn't use any of this highfalutin
language, atteh as the high salaried
preachers use, where yon want a diction
ary in yofir pew to find what the words
mean. It wss no fnll dress formal
prayer. The littlo girl got right down
on her knees, and said, ‘Oh, Father in
Heaven,’ jnst as though God was sitting
right there in front of her on a three-
legged stool, nnd seemed oonfldent that
the Heaienly Father heard her. She
didn’t tell God anything about my
pawning my watch and buying the
apples, and she didn’t mention my name
at all, but I could imagine that He who
watches even the sparrows fall, was onto
the bunch of keys in my vest pocket,
hitched to the watoh obain, bigger than
a house. 1 oonld bnve listened to that
dirty, ragged girl pray for an hour, she
was so natural, and pitiful, and talked so
God oonld understand it whether He had
ever graduated at oollegeor not. But
she wasn’t talking against time, for
wages, snd she jiist seemed to have a
little conversation with the good Lord
just sa a child would with its father, and
then she got up and fired some medioine
down her grandma, and made her a oup
of tea on an oil stove, and toasted a picoe
of bread and poached an egg while I set
there thinking. Do yon know she broke
me all up. If it wasn’t for that old calico
dress, and the shoes run over at the
heftl, and the moth eaten stockings, I
should have thought she was an angel,
nnd by gum, I will pawn everything I
have for her to get things for her grand
ma, but somebody else lias got to chip in
to buy gin for the old map. I can’t run
a hospital and a distillery both, on one
oheap watoh, but I am going to work
for the humane society next week, snd
that girl can have all the money I make,
os long as the old lady's cough hangs on.
“Say, do you think there u nny bath
room in heaven where they can take
such a dirty girl as that and make an
angel of her that will pass in a crowd ?
Take the dirt out from under her finger
nails and soak her hands iu hot water,
and pnt cold cream on them, and let her
sleep a few nights with rubber gloves on,
and I suppose they could mak^ her pass
as an angel Well, I have got to go
down to the Humane society offloe. 1
was in a street-ear the other night, li
the car was full, an got off the tn I
iud the mules couldn’t pull it. A) 1 r!
men sat there, and wouldn’t, get mi
They read papers, and acted mail, wini
the driver pounded tbe mules. I wm.
on the back step, and I yelled, ‘The
members of the Humane society are re
quested to get out of the car aud help
push.' You ought to have seen ’em.
They all looked nt each other, aud tin .
they all got out. and some of them lo< >k -
ashamed, but they helped tne mnies.
The boss of the Humane society heard
of it, and he said he would give me a job
watching for butohem who maul cattle.
I guess I oan work my way up so I will
finally hold the proud position of looking
after lame horses that draw swill wagons.
Well, I must go and send the doctor
down the alley, to sound the old lady’s
cough, and have him charge it to pa. ”
As the boy went out the grocery man
told the carpenter that <he boy had a
heart in him as big as a barrel, but you
had to watch the raisin box, all the
same, when he was around.—Peck's
Sun.
Houses.—How many yean, asks the
English journal Land, mast elapse be
fore tbe entire surface of Great Britain
shall be covered with honses? Forty
years ago we built 40,000 houses per
annum in Great Britainj now we build
more than 80,000. During the forty
years we have erected two and a quarter
million houses, whioh gre “estimated
to be worth double the amount of the
national debt”
A WORD ABQUT CHRISTMAS.
Its Arrival tlaeapoetHI Every Year-Bente-
Ihlas A heat Presents.
When what was designed to OS
pleasure becomes a burden, it is time U
stop and examine It carefully, and set
if it is the thing itself which has grown
to be sueh a weight, or whether it if
simply an awkward manner of carrying
it. Certainly there must be something
wrong hi any celebration of Christmas
whioh results in serious fatigue of mind
and body. During the first three
months of the year, nothing la more
commonly given as a reason fur ill
health than an overstrain daring the
holidays. “She got so worn ont at
Christmas,” or “Hue worked too hard in
finishing h r Christinas presents,” or
“The week before Christmas she was
tired out with shopping,” are exouses
whioh appeer as surely as Januury and
February come. The question must
occur sometimes to every one, whether
all this worry and wear of heart aud
bund and braiu are really worth while.
Is there not some better way of celebra
ting this day of days than ior women to
wear themselves out in making or buying
pretty trifles for people who already
have more than they eon find room for?
Betting aside all effort of eyes and fin
gers, the meutal strain is intense.
Merely to devise presents for a dozen or
more people, which must be appropriate
snd acceptable, and whioh they do not
already possess, and whioh no one else
is likely to bit upon, is enough to weat
upon the strongest brain; and when
one’s means are not unlimited, end the
question of eoouomy must come iu, th<
matter ia still more complicated. Th<
agony of indecision, the weighing of
rival merits in this and that, the die
Irese when the artiole whioh is finally
decided upon does not seem as fascine
ting os one had hoped, tbe endless round
of shopping, the peeking to send to dis
tant mends, the frantic effort to finish
at the last moment something whioh
ought to have been done long ago, result
in a relapse, when all is over, into s
complete weariness of mind and body
whioh unfits one for either giving or re
ceiving pleasure. Now, when all this ia
looked at soberly, does it pay ? It is a
remarkable fact that, although Christ
mas has been kept on the twenty-fifth
day at December for more than a thou
sand years, its arrival seems as unex
pected as if it had been appointed by the
President. No one is ready for it, al
though last year every one resolved to
be so, and about the middle of Deoem
ber there begins a rash and hurry whioh
is really more wearing than a May mov-
‘ii
tt seems to be a part of the florae at
thrity of our time aud country that even
our pleasures must be enjoyed at high
pressure. While it is almost impossi
ble, in matters of business, to set upon
the kindly suggestion of intelligent
critics that we should take things more
leisurely, surely, in matters of enjoy
ment, we might make an effort to be less
overworked. Cannot the keeping of
Christmas, for example, be made to con
sist in other things than gifts? Let the
giving be for the children and thoee to
whom our gitta are real necessities.
As a people, we are negligent in the
matter of keeping birthdays. If these
festivals were made more of in the family,
especially among the elder members, we
should not find that we were losing the
blessedness of giving and the happiness
of reoeivi g, even if we did oinit pres
ents at Christmas time. In many large
families a mutual understanding that
the Christmas gifts were ell to be for
the children would be an immense relief,
although, perhaps, no one wonld be
S uite willing to acknowledge it. Some-
mes a large oirele of brothers and sis
ter* oan unite in a gift, in that way
making it possible to give something of
more value, and at the same time to
lessen the difficult task of selection.
Alxivu all things, if yon give presents,
l>e more auxious to give something whioh
“supplies a want” than to send some
pretty trifle which can only prove in the
end an additional care. A little fore
thought and friendly putting of yourself
iu another’s place will make this possible.
Iu the great world of books something
oa-1 be found to suit every taste. Flow-
era are always a graceful gift, and can
! e*er l>ecome burdensome by lasting
• fter one has grown tired of them.
" her.- are tiunibei lers other things whioh
can bo procured, without a wear and
tear of mind and body which moke the
reejpieut feel as David did of the water
from the well of Betbiehetn, that what
t -t ho much was too valuable to be ac-
- p d.— Susa' Anna Brown, in the
.< a' 7/ for D-uu-mbor.
The Twelve Months.
After Immigrants.—As a means of
getting a small part of fbe enormous
immigration that is pouring into the
Northwest, a writer in the Charleston
Courier suggests to Southerners that
they can find profit in parcelling out
their vast domains and giving away al-
temAto Pnffibfa pf Ait*
A widow lived many years ago in a
forest iu Bohemia, and bad two children.
The elder, her step-daughter, was called
Dobruuka; the younger, a girl, wicked
as lior mother, was named Kntinko. The
mother hated Dobruuka beouuse she
was beautiful, while her own daughter
was ugly. As the months passed Do-
brunka grew more beautiful and Ka-
tiiika more ngly every day, and the
mother became more vexed at the elder
every day because of it, aud determined
at last to take any means to put lier ont
of the way. Finally she drove her child
away to the forest in the middlo of Feb-
ruary. The white snow lay thick and
deep on every side, and it was not long
before she lost her way and almost per
ished with cold. She made np her
mind to lie down in the snow and die.
Just as she formed this resolution she
saw a light in tbe distance, and inspired
by new hope she pushed on to reach it.
It was high up in the mountain, nnd slie
had to climb over huge rocks aud deep
ravines to reach it, but she came at last
to the very apex of the mountain, upon
which a fire was built that touched the
snow-covered trees and ground with a
rosy radianee. Around the fire were
twelve stones, upon each of which sat a
motionless man wrapped in a long man
tle, his head covered with a hood that
dropped down almost over his eyes.
Three of the mantles were white as snow,
three green as the meadow grass, three
yellow os the golden wheat, three purple
as the blessed grapes. These twelve-
motionless, statuesque figures were the
Twelve Months pf the year.—African
THE MERCURY,
PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY
NOTICE.
SVAll wmmantaatlons intended tor Oris
paps* ssust be aesompanled with tbs toll
asms of tbs writer, not nscswortly tor yabU«
•ation, bnt as a gaarante, of good (SIlb.
Wo ora la ao way responsible tor tbs views
or opinions of eorrsapondtnts.
(1 EXEItAL STEEDXAX’S TITLE.
!»•«* t'nm* tab. Called «Old CMaBo.
. aiaasa.”
As we snf, one night in 1875, in ths
ditorial room* of the Toledo Democrat,
>t whicli Hti-edman was “leader” writer,
I asked him for the story of Ghicka-
matiga, where lie won his stars and the
Holdier title of “Old Chiokamanga,” of
which he was so proud. He tola it as
coolly ns if it was a dream to him :
"Why, my boy, there wasn’t muoh to
it. I was in charge of tho First Division
"f the Reserved Corps of the Army of
the Cumberland, and hud been stationed
at Ringgold, or RedLoaM Bridge over
tbe Chinkimauga. My orders wera ex
plicit, ‘to hold the bridge at all baaard,’
snd prevent the enemy from flanking
General Thomas. Tho enemy disap*
peered from onr front. The sound of
cannonading nnd battle to the northward
told me 1 bnt the enemy hod massed
against onr centre, and a gnat battle
was on. From the noise of conflict 1
judged, and rightly, rbat Thomas was
sorely pressed. I folt that my command
was needed, and yet oonld not under
stand tho- alweuce of new orders. I
waited impatiently enough from daylight
till near noon, hopiug for some word
from my command.ug officer.
“Finally I decided to nsk my neek
rather than see the Union army destroyed
through inactivity on my part. Calling
a council of officers and men, I explained
tho situation, nod my orders, told them
my decision, and that on my shoulders
should fall whatever of responsibility
attuohed to the disobedienoe of orders.
You know the inexorable military law is
‘to ask no qnestions, obey all orders,
snd scoopt oouHoqueucoH. ’ I knew that
if my movement was a failure, my judg
ment mistaken, nothing less than eonrt-
m or tial and death awaited me. But the
battle was on, and every fibre in me said
I was wanted. We burned the bridge,
and marched by the onunon’a sound to
Thomna’s aid. Through eora field*,
thickets, and oak woods we made a fear
ful lramp, for no man in the command
knew the country, and our only gnide
was the cannon’a boom.
“When I reported to Thomas he was
in despair at the loss of the key to his
iiosition, which had just been captured
i>v General Hindman’s rebel oorps. The
place was indicated to me by a flash of
S uns and the rattle of oenister on the
ry leave# of tho tree under whioli
Thomas end I stood. It wae a steep
ascent, with a densely-peopled orescent
ridge, that lay before ns. There was a
forbidding thicket and an oak foreat be
tween ns aud the belt of rocks that
marked the edge of the broad plateau
on which the enemy was jubilant with
victory. ‘Thero, thore,’ said Thomas,
us tlio guns flashed ngnin. ‘Now, you
see their exact position. Yon must take
that ridge.’ My reply was: ‘I’ll do it.’
In thirty minutes after we reached the
field wo were storming the rook of
Cliioluininnga. It was on awful contest
up that slope, every foot of whioh was
planted with death.
“We went in with seven thousand five
hundred men, and only four thousand
reported for duty at the next muster.
We went up, up, till we naohed tho
summit, ana planted ourselves there to
stay. It was a terrible hot place, and
we made the plateau a lake of blood be
fore we drove Hindman back. I rode
back and reported to Thomaa. I waa
bloody from head to foot He clasped
my hand, aud said with great emo
tion: ‘Gquerul Steedman, yon have
saved my army. I got my stars not
long afterward, and that’s about all
there was to it Yes, it was a big risk
I ran, but I was right, and I knew it”
As he rode to battle that day, he met
Genoral Granger, who said frequently.
“Sted, efid boy, it’s going to be hot in
there. If anything should happen,
huve you auy requests to make of me?”
The vein of sentiment was running deep
in the questioner’s L;'art, but the practi
cal soldier respond el iu words that have
since been memorable:
“Yes, General Granger; if I fall in the
fight please see my body decently
buried and my name correctly spelled iu
the newspapers,” and deliberately
spelled it.
About the Birds.
A bad boy on Tzeraont street the other
afternoon throw a stone at a pigeon whioh
was walking aboi t- in tho roadway, and
tumbled it over in the dirt, It immedi
ately recovered itself, however, aud flew
away before the boy could catch it. Au
energetic and rather muscular woman
who was passing caught hold of him,
however, and treated him to alternate
shakes by the ear and blows over the
head with an umbrella, accompanying
this exercise with shrill outories against
his brutishness and the despicable
cruelty to animals whioh his conduct re
vealed. “If I were your mother,” said
she, as she gave him a parting cuff, “1
would whip you within an inch of you
life, and if I were the Governor” (charm
ing feminine ignoranoe of affairs politi
cal this !) “I would pass a law to send
every boy to jail who threw stones at
poor, innocent birds”—and thus giving
vent to her emotions she sailed down the
street, very muoh aglow from her exer
tions. And os she departed a oynical
person who stood by observed that she
uad upon her bnt three stuffed swallows
and the pearly wings of two small sea
birds—beautiful, inoffensive creatures,
whose lives had been taken because u
passing caprice of fashion called tor the
sacrifice. And this philosopher said to
himself something very uncompliment
ary about woman’s inability to perceive
that the sauce appropriate to the goosu
gave a zest also to the flavor of the
gander.
Not long sinoe a little three-and-a-hnlf
year old was out'in the garden, when she
stepped on a beetle and killed it. The
gardener, in a sympathetic tone, said to
he#: “Perhaps that was a mother beetle
gathering food for her children at lioun ,
and they may suffer with hunger;” when
Ida replied, with apparent honesty, “J
guess, Uncle Frank, it was not the
mother beetle I killed, bpt was only ths
hired girl ’’
A Mormon is now os bold os a grizzly,
and Uncle Sam loves one quite as well
os the otber ; 1 '' ^
