Newspaper Page Text
The Sylvania Telephone.
C. H. MED LOCK, Editor amd Pum-muieb.
YOL. II.
The aymakers.
In the clover meadows
Sharpened scythes are swinging,
Hinging out their merry music to the mowers
there;
In the noontide shadows,
Fading flowers are flinging
Fragrant, dying odors to the fickle, fleeting air.
Like the lading flowers,
And as grasses wither,
Leaving only pot fume to the mooking morn
ing breeze;
Lot ns all the hours—
Flitting, none know whither—
Breathe out lives oi sweetness, though they
be devoid ot ease.
Hither come the rakers,
Carefully to gather
Heaps ot dead and well-dried foliage lor the
winter’s store;
So should pleasure takers,
Not dispel, but rather
Treasure hopeless memories—the withered
joys ot yore.
Only in the sunshine
Will our hay be making;
Greater its dead value than when growing
fresh and green;
So a mortal lifetime
Freed from all heart-aching
Finds it lull fruition in the closing ol the
scene. — S. T. Clark.
The Old Sea Captain’s Story.
Captain Gray, what is a land lub
ber ?’’
The old sea captain laughed one of his
hearty, rollicking laughs, as he met the
gaze of the serious brow s eyes lifted to
his faep.
“ A land-lubber ? Why, boy,
that’s my
what the sailors call one who has
never been on the wide blue sea. It
strikes me that two very good definitions
of the word are sitting close beside me
now, waiting for their sailor friend to
begin his yarn. Well, I’m ready —
what shall it be P”
“ A true story ,” exclaimed Walter.
“A love story,” coyly added fifteen
year-old Alice.;
The old sailor looked thoughtful a
moment; then he said :
Vt?l y weit, It aiiAii o– ‘ ootn a cm * 1
story and a love story—something
which happened in my own life.
“ Thirty years ago I was not the old
man you see me. These gray hairs
were as black as the raven’s wing then,
and these wrinkled cheeks had been
bronzed bereath the skies of maiiy
climes.
“From a mere 1 id I had always lovpd
the sea, and the sea must have loved me;
for from a poor cabin boy, I rose
through hard work to what the world
calls a successful man. aid the owner
and captain of as stanch a vessel as
eyes could wish to see.
“I had one daughter named Nellie,the
prettiest girl (so every one said) for
miles around. She was all I had to
love, and with a fond father’s pride I
gave her the finest of clothes and sent
her to the best of schools. Then, when
she came home from school for good,
such pleasant times as we had 1 But
after a while a cloud came over my
happiness for I began to see that my
pretty daughter could not always stay
with me.
“ Admirers began to be attracted to
our cosy cottage, and one, I soon saw,
Nelly liked better than any of the rest.
John Estey was his name, and that he
was a fair appearing lad I could not but
admit, but he was only a common sailor
before the mast, and in my pride I said
that never should the daughter of the
captain of the Ellen Gray wed with one
so far beneath her. Besides, quite lately
there had been another who had seen
and fancied my daughter, aud who had
confided to me his wish to make her his
wife. Mr. Morris was older than she
to be sure, by some ten or twelve years,
but he was very rich, and I thought to
myself how well Nellie, with her beauty
and lady-like manners, would grace his
elegant home.
"I hadn’t told Nellie as yet of my
ideas for her future; but as she had al
ways been one of the gentlest of girls, I
didn’t expect any opposition.
t i But one afternoon as I came home
from the river and walked; quietly up
the garden path, what should I see but
John Estey and Nellie seated close to
gether on the stoop. And, to my great
indignation, the audacious fellow had
his arm around my girl’s waist! They
were evidently far away in some world
of their own, for my presence was un
known until, like a bomb-shell, I burst
in upon them. What I said I do not re
member. I was very angry; but words
spoken in passion are soon forgotten—
and it is well for us all that it is so.
“ I know that I must have said some
cruel, bitter things, for when I had
finished John Estey rose from Nellie’s
side, and his face was very white as he
replied quietly, his manner in marked
contrast to my wrath:
“ ‘Captain Gray, I love your daughter,
and she has acknowledged that she
joves me. Surely that is no cause for
SYLVANIA, GEORGIA, TUESDAY, AUGUST 3, 1880.
the insulting things you have said
me.’
“Just then Nellie began to cry.
“ Suddenly his calmness left him.
If you were not her father,’ he said,
‘I would not^bear such words from you;
but as it is ’
Here Nellie came and wound her
arms around me, where I stood nursing
my anger.
it * Father,’ she said, ‘ we love each
other sol’
it * Love! between a boy and girl!’
nonsense!’” a
T exclaimed; ‘ stuff and
“Then I turned to John and pointed
to the gate.
“‘Go!’ I said, fiercely, ‘and never
come near my daughter again. She is
not for such as you.’
.iwn With a parting , p.tymg look toward , ,
Nellie who was sobbmg as if her heart
would break, John went
“The next day I told Nellie of Mr.
Morris’ pvoposa', and of his wealth and
high station. She listened till I had
finished; then she said gently, but with
a look in her eyes I had never seen in
them before:
“‘I love John Estey, father, and it
would be a sin for me to marry another
man.’
“ After that, when it came time for
my next cruise, I made up my mind it
wouldn’t do to leave Nellie alone In our
cottage home as I had always done
hitherto; for, for alt I knew, that scamp
(as I called him) might induce her to
marry him while I was away.
“ When I told Nellie of ray intention
of taking her with me, she only an
swered :
it i Wtiy, father, you know 1 have
always wanted to go with you on a
cruise, but you never would take me
before.’
“So we started. 1 had her cabin
fitted up as pretty as a little parlor, and
the days went by merrily. In the even
ings we sat together on the deck, aud
Nellie would sing, in her sweet voice,
‘Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep,’ and
‘A Life or. the Ocean Wave,’ and all
the familiar sea ballads I loved. The
three weeks were drawing to an end,
and I began to hope that Ne.lie was
coming round to my way of thinking -
2 OUL iilO-ub . 3 , J Mub «*•> rf o
the home port:
a % Now, Nellie, like a good girl,
make your father happy by consenting
to do as he wishes.’
“ She flushed an indignant, rosy red
as she sprang to her ieet and confronted
me.
“ ‘ Father, I have told you that Icm
never love any one but John. I would
rattier die than marry Mr. Morris.’
“Then, in rnv turn, I got angry.
“ 'Very well,’ I said: ‘ we will be
in port in an hour’s time, and I hav e to
go to L-(naming a town some miles
distant) before we go home. I had in
tended to have taken you with me, but
you shall stay here all day till I re
turn.’
“ That frightened her, as I knew it
would.
ti t Oh, father, please do not leave me
alone on the ship. What if something
should happen? ’
“ But I was obdurate; and when she
saw that her pleading had been of no
avail, Nellie saw me go without another
word.
“I smiled to myself as I locked the
cabin door.
“ ‘ I’ll see,’ I thought, ‘ if aseventeen
year-old girl can set her will against
mine.’
“ So off I went. But 1 was not so
hard-hearted as I tried to be; for
thoughts of my little Nellie locked in
her cabin all alone troubled me all day.
and as soon as I could I transacted my
business and hurried back.
“Itwa9 growing dusk as I reached
the dock where the Ellen Gray was
moored, and the first thing I saw was a
great crowd of people, seemingly much
excited over something. Then I missed
the Ellen Gray; though I strained my
eyes I could see no sign ol her.
“Trembling and shaking under the
influence of a terrible fear, I asked some
one who was passing:
it i What is the matter? What is the
crowd for?’
“ The man did not know me, or he
certainly would have used more cau.ion.
Bluffly he replied:
it i There’s been an accident, sir. A
barge loaded with iron ran into the
Ellen Gray, and sunk her. The captain
was away, they say, and the crew had
gone off on their own hook. Only the
cabin-boy was on board, and he was
picked up half drowned, and taken to
his home. So it isn’t so bad as it might
be, for no lives arc lost.’
“ I gazed for a moment wildly into his
face, hardly comprehending his words,
then flinging up my arms, I cried in a
voice of agony:
it t No lives lost? Man, I am a mur
derer! My daughter was on that ship!’
“ Then a merciful darkness came over
my vision, and I knew no more for a
time. When I came to I found
in a druggist’s shop, where I had been
carried, and I could hear as in a dream
low voices about me saying:
it i How sad! Of course the poor girl
must have gone down with the ship.’
tfi ONWARD AND UPWARD.”
“ Then suddenly I remembered all,
and cried out:
“‘My child! my child! I have
hilled my child!”
“ Then I lost consciousness for the sec
ond time,and when I awoke I was in bed,
and S ome one was seated beside me. It
was John Estey. With a sharp pain at
my heart, I recognized the manly, hand
some face of the lad my girl loved. No,
had loved, Alas! through her un
natural father's own act her sweet
young life had been made a sacrifice to
4 moment’s angry passion.
“John saw tint I knew him, and
bending over nay bed, he took my hand,
ashesaid:
^ you better, captain ?’
- * do wisb 0 be be tter > * an '
swered; if I , dared to pray T I would ask
tbfi Lord to let me die . But I am a
murder er-I have killed my child-I
darenot pray.’
“ ‘ Don’t feel that way, Captain Gray.
How could you know what was to hap
pen?’
“ His gentleness—he who had such
cause to hate me—went straight to my
heart.
“ ‘John,’ I exclaimed, ‘ can you for
give me for my angry words? I see
now how wrong I was, for I had noth
ing against you save that you were not
rich. Oh, John, how I wish I could
put my child’s hand in yours and say
take her. My daughter, my beautiful
child!’
ii i Captain,’ said John, huskily, ‘ are
you sure of that! Cou;d she not have
been saved by some chance?’
“Histone and the expression of his
face showed me he was keeping some
thing back. ‘John!’I almost shrieked,
‘why do you speak in that way? For
mercy’s sake do not wait if you have
any good news for me!’
“ Then he told r m? how shortly after
I had left, seeing that the Ellen Gray
was in port, he had gone down to the
dock, and rowed himself over to the
ship, to try and obtain some word of
Nellie, who he knew had gone with me
on my cruise. To his surprise he had
found the ship deserted by all of the
crew save the cabin-boy, who told him
that Ellen wa3 on board locked in the
cabin.
"Ina trice he had picked the look;
and that v°’’ ,r d-y th* ST3 V
fjero–w matters into their OWil ’ )
and, gging before a minister, ha!
plighted each other their vows.
n t Nellieheld back at first,’said John,
‘ for she feared that you would neve.
forgive her But I said i: would ail
come l ight in time, and that if we waited
we might be separated forever. So she
consented.’
“ As he told me all this, I, who had
always prided myself on my strength,
broke down and cried like a baby.
“ Then came a step outside, and a
sweet voice I had thought never to hear
again called out: ‘Father! dear father!’
and there was Nellie clasping me round
the neck with both soft arms as if she
would never let me go, and weeping and
smiling all together.
“They were happy days, and years
after that, John and Nellie came to live
with me in our cosy cottage near the
sea; and I hardly could tell which i
loved best—my son or my daughter.
“ As to the Ellen Gray, I scarcely felt
her loss at all. In my great thankful
ness that God in His mercy had kept me
from living with the dreadful thought
always before my mind that I had been
my child’s murderer, I had not room to
mourn.”
A Hungarian Tragedy.
A young Hungarian engaged coup Ie
entered a draper’s shop in Sepsi-Szent
Gyorgy for the purpose of buying a
wedding cap for the bride, who duly se
lected one to her taste, but, while her
bethrotLe 1 was paying for .his purchase,
she cast her eyes upon an uncommonly
handsome kerchief, and expressed her
eager desire to possess it. The enam
ored youth, however, peremptorily
refused to invest any more of his capi
tal in headgear; whereupon, after rat
ing him soundly for his stinginess, she
abruptly turned her back upon him and
left the shop. Indignant at this pro
ceeding, he betook himself to the dwell
ing of a rival village beauty, to whom
he offered, not only his hand and heart,
but the cap he had purchased for his
former fiance, besides the many-liued
handkerchief that had awakened her
longings All his offerings were ac
cepted ; but his forsaken love, unable to
bear the mortification inflicted upon
her by his faithlessness and the triumph
of her rival, promptly hanged herself in
her bedroom. Considerable sympathy
was manifested with her sad fate by her
fellow villagers, who followed her body
to the grave in lar s e numbers, and the
fickle bridegroom, meeting the funeral
cortege as it passed down the main
street, was so stricken by remorse that
he also put an end to his life the same
evening.
Our edition of Webster does not con
tain the words which the tiri d editor
utters when, as he is about to go home,
the devil protrudes his head into the edi
torial room and yells out: “More
copy!’’
The American Postal System.
A postoflice system for the e<
was established by the British g
ment in 1710. Under this system,
min Franklin was postmaster at
he was twenty-seven years old. II<
held the oflice until 1753, when he was
made the colonial postmasterg-eneral
him a salary of £600 “ for himself
his assistant.” The system was
completely organized until the gen
his hands. He held the oflice of post
master-general ’twenty-one years. He
was removed in a rather summary
manner, in 1774, because he was an out
spoken patriot, who couldn’t be a tory.
After the national constitution was
adopted in 1789, a postal system for
the United States was established by
Congress. The first postmaster-gene
ral was Samuel Osgood, of Massa
chusetts. In 1790, the first year of his
administration, the whole number
postoflices was seventy-five; the whole
amount of postage received, $37,935;
and the whole net revenue to the gov
ernment, $5,795. In 1800 the whole
number of postoifices was nine hun
dred and three; the whole amount of
postage, $280,804; the whole net reve
nue, $66,810. The first rates of postage
were as follows; For a single letter,
under forty miles, eight cents; over
forty and under ninety miles, ten cents;
over ninety and under one hundred and
fifty miles, twelve and one-ha!f cents;
over one hundred and fifty and under
three hundred, seventeen cents; over
three hundred and under five hundred
miles, twenty cents; over five hundred
miles, twenty-five cents. In 1816 these
rates were changed as follows: A single
letter, not over thirty miles, six and
one-fourth cents; over thirty and under
eighty miles, ten cents; over eighty
and under one hundred and fifty miles,
twelve and one half cents; over one
hundred and fifty and under four hun
dred miles, eighteen and three-fourths
cents; over four hundred miles, twenty
five cents. In 1845 there was another
change, and rates were established as
follows: For a letter weighing not more
than half an ounce, carried not over
three hundred miles, five cents; over
HUUV. X ■ V* • » ? , y
1851 Congress enacted „ that V letter
weighing not more than half an ounce
might be carried three thousand miles,
if prepaid, for three cents, or for five
cents if not prepaid; for over three
thousand, six cents, if prepaid, or
twelve cents not prepaid; but in 1852
the twelve was reduced to ten. In 1855
the rates were made to be three cents
for all distances under three thousand
miles; ten cents for all over three thou
sand miles, postage to be prepaid in all
cases. Finally, by means of several acts
and amendments, the rates were estab
lished as we have them now.
Cheap postage cannot as well b
afforded in this country as in Great
Britain, because the expenses of the
postal system are necessarily much
greater here than there. Great Britain
is a small country in extent, with a
great population. Ours is a country of
“ magnificent distances,” and large por
tions ol it, where there are postollicei to
be served, are thinly inhabited. In a
majority of the States, the amount ot
postages paid is far below the cost of
the postal service they receive. In
some of the States the amounts paid for
postage are much greater than the cost
cl the service. Nevertheless, the post
office department does not pay expenses.
Words of Wisdom.
Self-respect has more self-reliance than
self-assertion.
Proud hearts and lofty mountains are
always barren.
The poetic instinct turns whatever
it touches into gold.
Men exist for the sake of one another.
Teach them, then, or bear with them.
The man who cannot laugh is not
only fit for treasons, stratagems and
spoils, but his whole life is already a
treason and a stratagem.
Frugality is good if liberality be joined
with it. The first is leaving off super
fluous expenses; the last is bestowing
them to the benefit of others that need.
The first without the last begets covet
ousness; the last without the first be
gets prodigality.
In this artificial life of ours it is not
often we see a human face with all a
heart’s agony in it, uncontrolled by self
consciousness; when we do see it, it
startles us as if we had suddenly waked
into the real world, of which this every
day one is but a puppet-show copy.
After all, the profession of journalism
is the safest of all others. You never
hear of an editor losing his life in an
ocean disaster, or railroad smash-up. It
is, perhaps, a little more tiresome, but
it’s safer to walk .—New York Dispatch.
Change of Key.—“What carrot-head
ed little urchin is that, madam?”
“Why, he’s my youngest son.” “You
don’t s.iy so! What a dear little sweet
dove-eyed cherub?”
CURRENT NOTES.
A strange combat between a man and
a fish on the French coast is reported.
A shrimp fisher named Patey remarked
a black mass lying on the shingle a
short distance from where he was occu
pied, went to see what it was, and found
himself in’presence of an'enormous wolf
fish which immediately sprang at him.
The man had nothing but a thick stick
with which to defend himself, but Jie
called for assistance, and, with the aid
of two other fishers, killed it with
stones. The fish, which from its well
armed jaws is a dangerous adversary,
weighed 250 pounds.
Some remarkable long range shooting
has lately been done at Ilion, N. Y. The
weapon tested was a Remington mili
tary rifle (Spanish model) using seventy
five grains of powder, and 385 grains of
lead; the distance being 1,800 yards, or
one mile and forty yards. To obtain
this range, the rear sight was elevated
three and one-quarter inches. As near
as could be calculated, the bullets were
in the air a little more than five seconds.
At the distance named, they were shot
through a dry two-inch spruce plank,
and imbedded tour inches in solid
earth.
A French paper points out that am
nesty is more restricted than is im
agined. Six thousand communists who
were transported in 1871 have already
returned, and those of them who are
free from criminal antecedents have re
sumed their full political rights.
Scarcely 500 remain in Caledonia, and
as amnesty will only restore them to the
status they held before the Commune
such of them as had previously incur
red forfeiture for life of their ; olitieal
rights will still be under disabilities.
Sca;cely200 will be able to aspire to
seats in the etiambers or local bodies,
and only twenty of these are actually
notorious, namely; MM. Rochefort,
Felix Pyat, Jules Yalles, Bianqui.iTrin
guet, and others.
The steamship Calvert, which arrived
at Baltimore recently, brought in its
cargo a novel and great curiosity of tne
deep known as the sea-cow. The an .
ing the horns, and fins and tail like a
fish, was caught in the St. Lucie river,
Florida. It weighs nearly 1,000 pounds,
and is as docile as a child. The head
aud back is partially covered with
coarse, black hair, the skinjbeing lead
colored and very hard. The animal is
about ten feet long, with a large, un
wieldy body not unlike that off a seal,
and lias a large flat tail. Since it was
captured it has been kept in a large
wooden tank filled with salt water.
Not knowing at first what to feed it on
grass was given it, which was devoured
in large quantities.
The new railway up the sides of
Mount Vesuvius, runs along a road
steep as a ladder or a fire escape, and
860 meters in length; but as regards
danger, it is reduced to a minimum. It
is not a train in which the passenger
travels, but a single carriage, carrying
ten persons only, and as the ascending
carriage starts, another, counter-balanc
ing it, comes down from the summit,
the weight of each being five tons. Tlie
carriages are so constructed that, rising
or descending, the passenger sits on a
level plane, and whatever emotion or
hesitation may be felt on the starting,
changes, before one has risen twenty
meters, into a feeling of perfect security.
Dismounting at a little station at the
summit, you can scarcely be said to
clamber to the edge of the crater, for the
company have cut a convenient winding
path, up which all except the aged,
heavy or feeble can walk with ease.
The amount of capital which has been
sunk in the business of fire insuran ce is
much greater than is generally sup
posed. The Commercial Bulletin , which
has just investigated the mortality ex
perience of the joint stock fire insurance
of twenty-six States, shows in a pub
lished table that within ten years the
withdrawals have reached the large
number of three hundred companies,
representing assets estimated r as aggre
gating some $87,400,000. Of these with
drawals, fifty-two were New York com
panies, with assets of$18 000,000. Of the
total number of companies, one hundred
—or just one third—were swept out of
existence by the Chicago and Boston
fires of 1871 and 1872—leaving two hun
dred companies whose withdrawals
cannot be charged to any exceptional
disaster, but must be accounted for
upon the obvious general principle that
their business did not pay lor the cost of
doing it.
A gentleman was promenading the
street with a bright little boy at his
side, when the little fellow cried out:
“Oh, pa, there goes an editor!” “ Hush,
hush!” said the father; “don’t make
sport of the poor man—God only knows
what you may come to yet,"—Hubbard's
Advertise ”,
TERMS—f 1 50 rn Yea*.
NO. 2 .
The Mower.
Cutting hia swath in the sun, to-day,
He hears the bees on the clover hum,
He sees the birds at their darting play,
Ho looks where the great clouds stealthily
come,
And suddenly stays his scythe in air,
His heart in his eyes, lor one goes there—
Goes with the man she long since wed—
And the passion leaps that was dumb and dead.
Oh, heaven! what desolate years since then
Have written their rede on lite and brow,
When she was one ol the daughters ot men,
And he ol the sons ol God. And now
She walks in peace her perfect way,
And he is a vagrant cutting the hay
Cutting the honey-sweet clover blow
On the lands he lost long years ago.
What is the ciuel fate that bred
Her to honor and him to ruin ?
What is the pitiless power that led
Him in his strength to bis own undoing ?
Let the breez8 blow up and the cloud roll over,
Nothing cares he for cloud or clover;
But he blesses the grave that is just at hand,
And will give him his share of his father’s
land. — Harper’s Bazar.
MISCELLANEOUS.
The balloon business is going up.
If head work is so wearing, it is sur
prising how long-lived barbers are.
When banks become unsteady even
the depositor is likely to lose his bal
ance.
Denmark bas only 1,980,670 inhabit
ants, and that is 200,000 more than ten
years ago.
A blind bov, eight years old, in Ala
bama, can play any air he hears, on the
violin.
An Iowa county official walked five
miles to have some one explain to him
what the “ fifth prox.” meant.
Counterfeit trade dollars of date 1880
are circulating. The government has
issued no trade dollars this year.
The aggregate sales of the product of
the Bethlehem (Pa.) iron works for
the past year amounted to $4,000,000.
Minnie Westerfieid, of New York,
aged one year and four months, died
from facial erysipelas, caused by having
her ears pierced for earrings.
Nevada has a mountain which is
nodules are dug out or j grove?; 1 fike
potatoes out ot the hill. The r J
are the shape of half an apple, anti the
outside i s rorgh like that of a nutmeg.
San Francisco has been flooded wita
a small thin Japanese coin, worth about
three cents, but made to do duty so ex
tensively as a half-dime that speculators
are evidently responsible for its appear
ance.
Some one with a talent for economy
has discovered that the bright and
shiny appearance on black cloth and
cashmere which have been a long time
in use, can be removed by sponging
them with ammonia; or, if that fails,
with unsweetened gin.
Philadelphia claims be the greatest
manufacturing center in the world, and
the manufacturers of textile fabrics
publish statistics showing that the
yearly productions in their industries
amounts to $90,000,000, and of all the
city’s factories to $680,000,000.
Superstitions About Thunder.
Almost all the tribes in the United
States believed the thunder to be pro
duced by the wings of a great bird, and
that the lightning was the serpents that
were invariably connected with the
thunder bird, Among the ancient
tribes of the Mississippi valley the
thunder, therefore, soon became a thun
der god, who could be propitiated with
sacrifices. The Illinois Indians offered
up a small dog when a child happened
to be sick upon a day when there was
much thunder, supposing the latter to
be a cause of the malady. Many acci
dents, like conflagrations, were attri
buted to this angry god, and some tribes
did bloody penance of propitiation, often
burning to death their own children.
Statements that the Indians adored the
thunder, however, seem to be erroneous.
It was the cause of the thunder that
they worshiped, and before which they
burned tobacco and buffalo meat, or cut
off the joints of their lingers, or threw
their children into th3 fire when they
were overcome with fear. The Peru
vians had as an ideal a stone that had
been split by the lightning. They
offered it gold and silver. The natives
of Houduras burned a cotton seed when
it thundered. Other southern tribes
made no sacrifices on the approach of a
storm, but abased tnemselves in the
most abject fear. The wild rice being
aquatic and looking like an arrow or
spear, it is also attributed to the thun
der spirit as its origin. In Mexico great
tempies were built upon the sacred spots
where the lightning had struck. A
curious notion among Peruvians was
that the preserved bodies of twin child
ren who died in infancy should be wor
shiped, supposing that one of them was
the son of thunder, the origin of this
idea being the fact that the thunder god
of that people was one of the celestial
twins ot Apo ’atcquin and Piquerad.
This tradition was utilized by Pizarro’s
missionaries to teach the Indians the
doetrijie of the trinity.