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the ivy.
- & ring . i dart where , l foul summer things sun. hide,
fefelodea, it8leaVe8t ° 3 e
freedom won;
«* U “' for thee!
up as the 6eas(ms go>
things below
” iwe if m the branches high,
frail thing owned the sky;
il ' si soul, earth, like the is ivy the place be, for thee.
jjeav en . not
^ ^aml ,”i brave secret, is the frag how He to thing, cling;
for ! l n ows one
q niy soul, there’s strength for thee,
the Mighty One, “bean on Me!”
gear
are its leaves when the world is white,
jrw“ ivy sings through the frosty night;
fir the of oak awake,
peeping the hearts
shall bloom and the spring
go. m y soul, through the winter’s ram,
>\i Sing the sunshine back again.
Q; and fluttering breast,
m W its green birds neBt;
:.a the timid a
j D g ont from tbe winter wild,
T(ffl 6 ie a wreath for the Holy Child;
go let my life like the ivy be,
i help to man and a wreath for Thee!
Hexbt Bustos.
d Martha’s Experiment
n
■■One cop of butter, two cups of sugar,
Hree cups of flour and four eggs. Do
L remember when teaching I me ten that rule old, for
I making cake was years
^‘Dkl I? remember Well, it is easily. a good Are rule—
| Aing me you cake can this morning ?” yon
«y eB ; am all done now but this one
(jfce. I have worked fast, for I want to
be ready to visit with cousin Martha,
ghe said she would come over early.
jjuoie and aunt will wait till afternoon.
I (here she is!”
Cousin Martha had returned home
day before, and had not yet
■ jjjn her grandmother, who had come
from her Eastern home to spend the
rnnumer with her two sons and their
families in Iowa.
"go you really have a farm of your
)f n m Dakota, ” said grandma to Martha,
^ eD two girls dinner. were seated by her
in the parlor after
“ies; I first made went a claim out there next together, to Ned’s
then we timber claim. After
jad took up a we
bid pre-empted them we took up our
homesteads, and are now living on
them.” pre-empting like
"Ion talk of a man.
Did you live in a shanty I of have yonr own good ?”
»0f course I did; as a
jhanty as Ned’s, and we lived in. it part
of the time, until we were ready to pre
■ mpt. Now we live on our homesteads.”
Susie’s fingers flew with her crochet
i S l fork, and she bent her head to hide the
jS unused look in her eyes as grandma
wtnred another question. do
“What did you have to to pre
rapt?”
"When we first went there we filed a
notice of our intentions to have and
hold those particular quarter-sections residence of
land, and after a six months’
on them we went to the land office and
proved that we had complied with all
the requirements of the law, paid our
two hnndred dollars each, and took our
deeds. We had selected our home¬
steads, and now paid the fee of fourteen
dollars each on them, which secures them
to us without further payment if we con¬
tinue to live on them five years. The
timber claims are the same. If we shall
at the end of eight years have ten acres
of growing timber, with six hundred and
seventy-five trees to the acre the land is
ours.”
“Well, I don’t see what your father
1 and mother were thinking of to let you
doit.”
Possibly Martha thought it a little
hard that they and all avoided telling
grandma about her plans and work in
the two weeks she had been with them
before her arrival home, knowing her
prejudice, and that her ideas on suoh
| subjects differed so enterely from theirs;
. bnt she was too glad to be with them
again to be easily annoyed, and went on
she pleasantly explaining to her whatever it.
"Why, thought would interest hor about make
farm grandma, Dakota I am going I to old
me a in as soon as am
enongh,” ’ laughed Susie; “won’t 1
lather?”
"Silas Hartwell, I hope you and Sybil
won’t encourage that child in any suoh
unladylike that sememe. I am surprised
you, James and Alma, should have
allowed Martha to do it.”
"Ill tell you, mother,” replied Silas,
"the land will be all taken up in that
of part of Dakota before this young lady
ours will arrive at the mature age oi
womanhood, and her brother, being
younger, will not aid and abet her as
Ned has Martha.”
Siay,” "Perhaps some other girl’s roguishly brother
said Martha, peeping
Into her little cousin’s face. She was
surprised to see the color mount in rosy
flushes to her face for an instant, as she
replied to her father without appearing
to notice her banter.
"I shall be twenty soon; old enough
to aspire to a shanty of my own in one
year land when more. You took up government didn’t
father?” you came to Iowa, you,
here "Yes; we have the deeds of our homes
from government. We were among
the pioneers of our county here, and be¬
cause we prospered here is probably the
reason why our children are so ready to
do pioneer work farther on. You re¬
from member, mother, this was a long way
home when we came here, thirty
years ago, in our Hoosier wagons. You
hardly taking expected then to ever visit us by
a two days’ ride and find us sur¬
rounded with so many 3 comforts, did
you?”
"No; I must say it turned ont better
I expected, and it does not look
hedly to see the children going farther
®ut to new places, as things are now,
yut I must say it does look out oi place
lDr a girl like Martha to take up such
rmmnish ways."
‘‘You saw Anna Holland when she was
“era l M t week, how tired and worn out
♦he looked,” said Some, “She left home
J*® 1 don't years believe ago to teach h« enjoyed in a city it school. half
she as
well ;is Martha has her work, Do you,
father?”
“She does not look as well, certainly,”
he answered; “but seriously, mother, it
is easier for girls to make money that
wav than to lie confined to teaching or
sewing, especially when they have al¬
ways lived on a farm and know how to
manage. Tastes differ, of course, and,
besides, every girl would not have the
requisite knowledge to make such a
scheme successful.
“I know,” said Susie, “but most girls
could if they would. Cousin Martha
told us of two girls who took up claims
near them last summer. One had money
enough to pay for her claim, the other
had only money enough to pay expenses,
but her brother promised to advance her
the money when she was ready to prove
up. lived They built their shanties together
and together. After paying for
their claims they sold them for a thou¬
sand dollars apiece. Pretty good for
them, wasn’t it, grandma ?”
“Yes ; 1 am glad they made so much.
Some women do have a hard time earn¬
ing their own living.”
“There are Helen Marston and Philip
Tiffany coming up the walk,” said Susan.
‘ ‘They will be pleased to see you, Martha.
I suppose Helen wants to hear about
Ned.”
They were soon seated in the parlor,
and naturally the conversation turned
upon the subject of Dakota farming.
Philip said he wished to ask some ques¬
tions before he could decide to go there.
He was anxious to go, but not quite cer¬
tain that it would be best to do so.
“You want to know how large a home¬
stead you can hold,” said Susan.
“Yes ; something like that. You all
know my means are limited, and I need
to be reasonably sure it will pay before
I make an investment. ”
They all knew his life had been one of
hard work and rigid economy, and that
only by his assistance keep had his parents
been able to their home and edu¬
cate their children. His younger
brothers were now able to fill his place,
and he was free to make a home for him
self; bright-eyed perhaps some day for Who a certain
“Ned and young lady. there in knew? May,
I went np
two years ago,” said Martha. “Father
gave ns two hundred dollars apiece, but
Ned was two years older than I, and had
saved five hundred for himself. We
each bought us a good strong team of
work horses, wagon and harness for
three hundred dollars. Together we
bought a good breaking plow,
what furniture we should need, and a
good dred supply of provisions, We saved for one hun¬ fare
and fifty more. car
by having good oil-cloth covers over our
wagons, and, packing our outfit snugly
inside, drove our teams through. Father
and uncle knew how to arrange it, for
they moved to this State in the same
way, only they camped We did out and slept do in
their wagons. not care to
that, preferring to stop nights had with oil-stove farm¬
ers along the way. We an
and prepared our own dinners.”
“You drove a team from here to Da¬
kota ?” said grandma.
When “Certainly I did, and enjoyed Ned it, too. had
we arrived at the place
selected for our homo, I stayed, with only
a neighbor’s little girl for company and
slept in one of the wagons, or rather
wagon-boxes, while Ned went after lum¬
ber to build our first shanty with. The
little girl’s father helped him take the
boxes off and pack the goods snugly on
the ground, then drove one team for him
going after the lumber.”
“Oh, my !” said Helen, “I wouldn’t
have stayed there for anything. Didn’t
you feel afraid ?”
“No, I think not, though I must say
it was lonely. We slept well. We were
favored with dry weather until we had a
roof to cover us."
“Didn’t you feel like Robinson
Crusoe?” asked Helen. “How near
a ere your neighbors ?”
“Two miles the nearest, and it was
twenty miles to town.”
“Did yon put in any crops that year ?”
inquired Philip. comfortably
“Yes; as soon commenced as we were breaking
settled, Ned his, and up
my claim, for the shanty was on
he wanted to get in his crops before
making other improvements. He broke
twenty acres and planted corn on it. On
the next ten he planted potatoes; then
ten more he sowed to flax. I tended
the garden, and we had plenty of father vege¬
tables for our use. I forgot to say little
gave us a cow, some hens and two
pigs. In Angust Ned month. bought They a mower put
and hired a man for a
up sixty tons of hay, besides digging a
well.”
“Did you have that much hay on your
own land?” asked Philip. all laud.
“I don’t think he cut it on onr
There is good hay on part of it, but
there was so much unclaimed land then,
he could go where he found the best cut¬
ting. This year he had to stay on onr
own land, but cut.” there was as much hay as
he cared to
“You did not get your land all in one
body, did you, even going as early as
you did ?”
“No; we made our first claims adjoining. together
and took a timber claim
There can be only one timber claim on
one section. In November we paid in the for
our claims and our homesteads
best place we could find where a timber
niaim could join them. That brings our
farms in good shape—three quarters they to¬
gether in each one. though art
three miles apart. We moved our build¬
ings all over to the homesteads, and are
putting all improvements there now. ”
our
“How much did you raise the first
year on the forty acres ?”
“We had two hundred bushels of com,
five hundred bushels of patatoes and
one hundred bushels of flax seed.”
“It most have been dreary enough for
you there in winter; one neighborin two
miles; I think I’d see myBelf living in
such a place,” said Helen.
“It was very different from living here
at home, but we had our compensations. reading, and
We had plenty of time for
we studied German. We had our mail
once a week, and Sundays we met with
our neighbors for religious services. In
the spring neighbors came on every side
of occupied us, and now and every there quarter good-sized near ns
is is a
city two miles from oar home. Oar
crops the next season surpassed our
most sanguine expectations, Ned sowed
oats on the old breaking and broke
twenty acres more for corn and potatoes.
Then he bought fencing and inclosed s
pasture of twenty acres.”
“Plenty of room for our little Jersey
and her calf, I should say,” said Susie.
“As if she didn’t know all about it,”
said Martha, patting affectionately the
shoulder of her favorite.
“She came with father to visit us at
that time, and stayed with me while
father went with Ned to buy calves.
He bought twenty. They, with our pet
Jersey and her calf, make our farm look
a little more like home. Ned was par¬
ticular, in taking up our homesteads, to
find a place with a creek miming
trough it. That makes our pus tun
very fine.”
“You certainly have done well, but you,
went before there were many settlers,
and could choose your location. Now
it would be Hobson’s choice for me if I
decide to go, wouldn’t it?” said Philip.
“You wouldn’t even have that in onr
neighborhood, but not more than twenty
miles from us you can get as good a
place as ours.”
“Then I’ll go,” said he, rising to his
feet. “Many thanks for your kindness
in answering my questions. ”
-Are you ready, Helen ? You know wr
promised to help arrange the tables foi
the festival this evening. I nearly for¬
got about it.*"
“Yes, we must go; we shall see yon
all this evening; till then, good-by.”
Grandma took up her knitting-v¬
an d knit very fast for a few mime
then said: “If Philip can go there it
do as well as you and Ned have done,
shall be glad for him. He is a woriliy
young man. ”
“One thing I would like to inquire,’
said Susie, “how you are going to man¬
age when you want to divide up. H
would not do for either of you to leave
the homestead before your five years art
up, would it? that is, supposing you
should wish to marry.”
“Oh, you matchmaker ! The way is
easy. Either of us could pay for out
land any time we wish to and get ilie
deed. But what scheme have you in
your head that makes you so much inter¬
ested in the ways and means, I would
like to know ? If Ned was some one
else I should suspect you of having de¬
signs on our peaceful home.”
“You need have no fear in that direc¬
tion. Ned is too good a cousin to lose
in any such way as you suggest. I’ll
tell you some time what I was thinking
of,” said the sancy girl.
One week later Susan came home
from a day’s visit with Cousin Martha,
just as the lamps were lighted and the
family gathered in the sitting-room. like
“What is it, Susie ? You look an
electric ball, fairly ablaze with news,
and ready to explode at any moment,”
said her father.
“You’ll not wonder when I tell you,”
she retmraed. “Cousin Martha is going
to be married to Philip Tiffany. She
has told me all about it, and it is ju»i
what I wanted her to lo.”
Her mother regarded her closely a
moment, while an expression of relief,
came over her features. She had some¬
times feared that her daughter’s interested affec¬
tions might become too in
Philip, for though she would have con¬
sented willingly to her marriage with him
rather than grieve her petted child with
one word of refusal, she felt that the fu¬
ture held in store something better for
her darling than a life of farm-work in a
new country. had thought of that,
The father no
but he, too, had his secret. He held
the promise of a young merchant in a
neighboring city that he would make no
offer of marriage to their darling child
until she arrived at the age of twenty. weeks
“They are to be married two
from to-morrow,” she continued. “Cou¬
sin Martha said she promised Ned she
would return in four weeks, and would
not disappoint him, for he will be all
ready for work on the new house.
Philip is a carpenter and can go right
to work. They can all live together till
Ned finds him a wife. That is what I
was thinking of the other day, only I was
afraid Philip would never ask her, he is
so sensitive; I hardly believe he did,
now.”
“Why, Susan Hartwell! You don’t
think she would ask him, do you?
though it would be off from a piece with
the rest of her work if she did.” said (
grandma. “I don’t know, bn. suspicious
am
that she introduced the subject. She
wouldn’t tell how it came about, and I
, don’t care, so long as the arrangement
is made. Still, it looks odd, don’t it, for
her to come home on a visit, marry, and
take her husband back with her to her
own home?"
“Yes, it is odd; I don’t like it at all,”
said grandma. “Martha is a good girl,
but she does do very unladylike things.”
“After all, grandma, why is it any
worse for her than it would be for Ned
to come home and take a wife back with
him ? No one would think anything
strange of that.”
•‘I don’t know as there is any thing really
wrong about it, but it is different from
the usual course of events. We old
people are apt to look critically at such
innovations on established customs."
“Well, I hope they will be happy the as
lovers in a story book. I’ll make
best wedding cake I can for them and
throw an old shoe after them when they
go .”—Demote si’s Monthly.
Spanish Beauties.
I almost think, says finest a newspaper beauty cor¬ in
respondent, that the
Saratoga this summer is Cuban or
Spanish, and there are many of them.
They are worth watching in social in¬
tercourse, having a slight fire and more
affection. They roll off the Castillian
language like a battle going on in a sea
shell : it comes from such lips, too, and
such lashes release the amber eye to do
its flashing, and the nostrils swell as if
they also ought to have eyelashes sensi¬ to
modify the tranaulence of their
bility. I hear that their beauty does not
wear. It wears on me from year to
year. Some of these maids are white as
snow. You think they are going to talk
to you in the Vermont or the Iowa
tongue, till suddenly they shoot out a
sentence which sounds like “0 hoto
poto, cas ada tornado, bang!”
His Motions.—E very telegraph ope¬
rator who send* 500 average messages i
day—and this is a fair day’s work— make*
360,'{lOO motion*, each requiring a din
tiaot, intelligent volition.
TOWED BY A SHARK.
THE ADVENTURES OF A BOAT’S CREW
OFF THE COAST OF MAINE.
The Bi* Hone Shark, the Earnest Fish
Known—Shark Fishing as a Business
nml Shark Riding—Something Abont n
Seventy Footer.
“Hard start'd,” yelled the off man Monhegan in the
crosstrees of a mackerelman
Island. shouted again “Daown at the with her,” at he the hoarsely wheel,
man
who was winding away at it as if for life
or death. The schooner shot into the
wind, her canvas quivering to the chorus
of the clanking blocks and dashing
waters.
“What’s the matter with ye ?” shout¬
ed the mate, starrng about, and seeing
nothing. “We’re off soundings, ain’t
we?”
The man aloft pointed to the eastward
and yelled back, “Wrack I” Sure enough,
about a thousand yards off the beam,
and dead ahead on the former course,
was a wreck, or something that ap¬
peared like a fair-sized coaster, bot¬
tom up, about thirty feet of her hull
showing. big center-board
“Looks to me like a
sloop,” said the mate, who had climbed
into the rigging. “If we’da-struck her,
we’d a been swimmin’ now.”
It certainly looked like a center-board,
rt was about four feet high, separate and
distinct from the rest of the craft, and
rising above it. Above this object a
cloud of birds were hovering, while many
were roosting upon it. The schoonei
fell away on her course, and now rapidly
approached the strange object.
“Holy Moses !” exclaimed the skipper,
who had been examining the wreck with
his glass, “it’s a shark as long as the
schooner. Amos get aout that Ifiy. I’m
a-goin’ to have that liver or give up. ”
The true proportions of the monster
were now visible. It was of a dull,
brown hue, and what had been taken
for a centre board was its enormous dor¬
sal fin, upon which perched walked several about
large gulls, while others
upon its broad back, on which the waves
were beating as upon an island. All
was confusion aboard the schooner.
She was now lying to, and Amos, who
could not find the lily iron, was bewil¬
dered by flying invectives. But finally
the big seine boat was manned by a
crew of six rowers, a steersman, and a
harpooner, and slowly they pulled to¬
ward the floating mass of flesh, which,
after all, might be dead. The oars were
lifted gently, and gradually the It looked boat
drew near the great creature.
more like a whale than a shark, and
seemed to be abont fifty feet in length.
The birds rose with plaintive cries as
the boat came on. Then, at a word
from the harpooner, the men backed
water, the steel harpoon flashed in the
air, and with a slosh sank into the great
fish.
“Starn all J” shouted the mate, as the
huge fin swayed to one side. All hands
made a rush.' A seething whirlpool for
a moment opened beside the boat, and
the next they were rushing off behind ahead
the shark, which carried a wave
that fairly rose above the little craft.
The men were crowded in the stern,
yet the bow was nearly submerged, stand and
finally the order was given to by
and take in the line. Two men took it
in hand, and slowly the boat was hauled
toward the unseen steed whom every
haul seemed to spur on to fresh endeavor.
Suddenly, after a terrific spurt of speed,
the line slackened.
“Look out, my lads!” yelled and the
steersman, grasping an direction. oar ready But
to turn the boat in any
the fish was not coming up under them,
and a moment later a great black mass
rose up into the air so that the water
line was seen beneath it. It was a
shark of gigantic proportions, that fell
back to the water with a crash that
could have been heard a mile away.
“I never see a shark do that afore,”
said the harpooner, who now had a
lance in hand.
“Give way, lads !” shouted the mate
as the fish was seen rushing along at the
surface in a direction nearly toward
them. On it came, the immense dorsal
cutting water like the cut-water of a
yacht. In a second they were alongside,
and the lance was sent whizzing. The
blow caused the fish to turn, and with a
desperate lift of its tail it i airly hoisted the
the boat from the water, throwing
crew, oars, and various implements pell
mell to one side.
“Stand clear the line!” yelled the
mate ward. as everybody scrambled to wind¬
The warning was none too righted soon, she as
almost before the boat had
was ruehin g away, bow under, in a npw
direction, t throwing the spray and tak¬
ing everything as it came. The pace,
however, soon slackened, showing effect. that
the last dose of steel was taking and
The line was manned again, slowly
they drew near the great fish. Slosh
went the lance again, the man fairly
leaning on it. The men backed water,
and then laid by to watch the flurry.
The shark nearly doubled itself in two,
and then seemed to straighten out like a
spring, hurling the water into the air,
and beating it with its powerful tail. A
few such gyrations and desperate aud av
tempts to rid itself of the harpoon,
the game was up. The great shark
floated on the surface, dead, The
schooner, that had been following the
movements of the crew, was soon along¬
side; a rope was thrown around the tail,
another around the, fore fins, and the
shark was shortly hauled alongside by
the windlass.
“Wall,” said the skipper, surveying
the fish, “I’ve caught a master sight o’
sharks, but this ’ere beats the hull lot;
nothing less nor a whale.”
The fish by actual measurement was
thirty-five feet long. It belonged to the
variety known as sunfish, basking or
bone sharks. They are not voracious,
living upon small sea animals, which
they strain through a series of rays or
fringes of an elastic, hard substance, ar¬
ranged along the large gill openings.
Its scientific name is Selachus ynaxim.ua.
It is the largest fish, so far as is known,
that swims. One of the earliest indus¬
tries known in the United States was the
pursuit of these monsters, which were
fallowed so ek»ely that they were well
nigh driven off the ooaat, and are now
only occasionally seen. One was cap
tend off Long Island several ye*™
that measured twenty-eight feet in
length, an paws sixteen feet in circum¬
ference. De Kay saw one thirty-two
feet long, and Sir Charles Lyell ob¬
served one that measured fifty-five feet
in length, It came ashore Head, in a Stronsa. gale of
wind at Rathesholm
Parts of this monster are now in the
British Museum. The largest specimen
ever recorded, however, was described
to York, The Me. Sun reporter by according a gentleman the at
This fish, to
narrator, was abont seventy feet long,
and as all fish stories require substautial
backing, the reporter wrote to his in¬
formant and received the following re¬
ply, which is given as the biggest true
fish story on record :
“Your remembrance of the shark
story was mainly correct. The facts are
these: The schooner Virgin, of Glou¬
cester, Captain Charles Merchant, of
which one of my neighbors, now de¬
ceased was one of the crew, caught a
shark off Block Island from which
twentv-eight barrels of liver were taken.
They‘lashed tail extended its tail to past the windlass the stem, bits,
aud its so
that he was longer than the vessel, which
was of sixty-eight tons burden. They
also struck another shark the same day,
which they reported as larger, but he
took their harpoon and line * * ' * *
Several well-authenticated stories of
sharks of nearly equal size are reported.
My great-grandfather emptied which a pan of
coals on the back of a shark was
lying alongside of his vessel on the
Grand Banks and which he said was
higher than the vessel.”
Captain Atwood, a carefnl observer of
the Cape Cod region, refers to three
specimens seen by him that came ashore
at the Cape. One was visited by fisher¬
men to obtain blubber. They thought
from a dist ance that the fish was a whale.
The liver of this specimen yielded six
barrels of oil, valued at one hundred
and six dollars.
In 1848 large numbers of these sharks
were caught off Cape Elizabeth, Me.,
and there is a tradition there that in
early times a regular fishery was how¬ car¬
ried on to great profit. To-day,
ever, about the only profitable Naorkanek, shark
fishery on this continent is at
Greenland, four or five hundred of the
great fish being captured off the place
every summer. About 2,500 barrels of
oil are got in this way. It is preferred
by many deal era to seal oil, and in Eu¬
ropean markets brings a higher is price.
At Proven, Greenland, there an im¬
portant shark fishery, and similar fisher¬
ies are found in various parte of Ice¬
land, where the Hoowealder, as it is
there called, is caught, and its blubber
used as a medium of exchange.
“I’ve seen one that’ll beat this,” said
the mate, who stood on the body the liver. over¬
seeing the excavation of
“Two seasons ago I was master of the
mackereler Mary Blake, of Duxbury,
and I reckon I had about 8800 in the
seines. One mornin’ we thought sighted a they’d shoal
o’ floated sharks so big of yo’d water, and I, like
a- us aont a
darned fool, ordered them seines
joined, and we run the two of ’em
araound ’em, and was closin’ in when
of the boys sayB, 'What’s that a-bilin’?’
And, sure enough, there was a reglar
whirlpool right among the fish, and the
next minute one of the boys yelled aout,
‘We’re a-movin’!’ and I’m blamed if we
wasn’t; bote (boats), seine, the hull
mackerel haul, and everything else.
First I thought of whales, and sings,
aout to line aout the seine, but afore we
hod a chance a shark rose up that I’ll
swan was sixty feet long, and daown he
went, takin’ eight hundred dollars’
o’ the nets and a hundred worth o’
mackerel. And we never see hide nor
hair of him since. He was a gormer,
and no mistake.”
“Talkin’ abont sharks," said an old
salt, who was watching the proceedings sight from in
the rail. “I see curiostest
Barbadoes once, fit to make yer bust a
laughin’. We had far a second mate a
sort of a smart Alick, who was always
tollin’ what he’d been a doin’ in whalin’,
and haow he oome up on a whale and
struck it, tossing the iron over the other
boats, an’ sich, and if I do say it, when
he shook aout all reefs and got on the
wind, he could lie as close as they Barbadoes make
’em. Wall, when we struck
the port watch got liberty soul started
aout over the reefs skylarkin’ and sech.
One o’ the lads took along the harpoon
to take a few crawfish, fresh meat bein’
kind o’ scarce. About half a mile from
the ship we struok a white sandy black shoal,
where we see a heap of big crit¬
ters movin’ araound—nurse sherks fifteen they feet
call ’em—big hookers abaout
long, with small champers (teeth). wind, Biga¬
by, this ere chap with the grampus
smgs aout for the iron, and says he, ‘jest
put me in twenty feet of water, that’s
my measure.’ So we pulled and I up reckon to one it
that was acomin’ daown,
was abaout five feet when he let drive.
“Hit?” exclaimed the old sailor taking
ont his pipe to contort his face into a
noiseless laugh. “Sort o’ hit. Ye see
the jinker had forgotten to hitch on the
line, and, the fish bein’ so near, he jist
jammed the iron into him, and the next
minute we see him a kind o’ flyin’ off in
the air with a yell that raised the very
craw-fish aout e’ the coral. Ye see he
jammed in the iron, socked it home, and
the fish give a jump and yanked him
right clear aout o' the Dot, and in a jiffy
he was astride o’ the sherk a hangin’ on
to the iron for a bridle, goin’ mad. like The a
steam engine, and yellin’ like
poor cuss didn’t know enough to cast off,
and there we sot a chokin’ and langhin’
fit to kill. Danger? No, not a bit.
The water was only about six feet deep,
and every time the fish went daown he’d
have to come up. After a while we
pulled after him, and somehaow he got
washed off, and the fish got off into the
channel, iron and all. We picked
Bigt-’oy up after he’d been standin’
amongst the crawfish, but he didn’t
have nothin’ to say; broke him up com¬
plete. Ridin’ shark knocked more hoss
sense into him than thirty years o'
livin’.”
The liver had been taken from the
shark. The lines were oast off, and the
great fish was left to feed others and the
more voracious of its kind.
A man urged, should as one of him, tne that reason* he
why a collection girl of marry four hundred
had a over said
different kinds of wood. She if it
otu, kindling wood she’d think about it
—Burlington Hauykeye.
ROBBED OF THEIR PREY.
United States Troops Protecting Women
from Forcible Degradation.
In the spring of 1854 a party was or¬
ganized at Salt Lake City for the pur¬
pose of crossing the plains to California,
a majority of its members being newly
enlisted recruits for the army, designed
to fill up a number of depleted com¬
mands on the coast. So serious indeed
had the situation become that on one oc¬
casion early in the spring the Mormons
violently assaulted a detached portion of
the command and seriously wounded
several members of the party, necessita¬
ting the commander, Colonel Steptoe, to
place the men under arms and station
double guards constantly about their
barracks to prevent their being sur¬
prised and possibly massacred. In the
midst of all bad feeling a Mormon wo¬
man came to the camp, accompanied by
her daughter, a young woman almost
grown. She was admitted into the pres¬
ence of General Ingalls, then a captain,
and Colonel Steptoe, commander of the
party, being absent for some reason, her
conference was held with him. Her
story was one calculated to inspire sym¬
pathy in the heart of almost any one,
and Captain Ingalls, without any further
questions of hesitancy, guaranteed her
the desired protection, She had mar
ried a Mormon gentleman in the States,
and had not long been a resident of
Utah. Her husband was not a polyga¬
mist, however, and their married life
had been a happy one. About a year
previous he had died, and lately the
leaders of the Church had been making
persistent efforts to induce her to marry
sufficient another man, one already possessed Her daugh¬ of a
number of wives.
ter bad also been importuned entered objection. to marry,
to which both had
The persistent efforts of the Mormons to
force them to do as they dictated were
akin to persecution, and the mother and
daughter determined upon flight as their
only means of immunity from further
persecution. Captain Ingalls fully of the
was aware
consequences of his action, but deter¬
mined to afford them a safe conduct to
California, and accordingly provided the
quarters for them. Just before train
was to start on its journey westward the
Mormons learned that the two women,
whose disappearance created quite a
commotion, and for whom search had
been instituted in every quarter, were
with the accursed Gentiles, who Accordingly proposed
to frustrate their designs.
a gTeat party of their “minute men,”
over a thousand strong, armed to the
teeth and fully equipped, and headed by
no less a personage than Brigham Young
himBelf, was hastily summoned and
marched to the Bear River. The Mor¬
mons outnumbered the United States
troops five to one, and were fully armed
and well disciplined. Only a few of the
Gentile party had suitable arms, a major¬
ity of them being civilians on their way
across the continent, and the troops
were perfectly raw, new recruits. The
little party was surrounded and every
preparation made for a fight, but they
showed no symptoms of weakening. All
trouble could be avoided by surrender¬
ing the women. Bnt this the officer
would, not do. Brigham Young went to
them—Ingalls did the talking. When
the Mormon apostle made his demand
for the surrender of the women the
young officer stoutly refused to give
them up. “You may wipe this little
command out of existence,” said he,
“bnt you can’t have these women. I
have promised them protection, and they
shall have it. Yon have got force enongh
to annihilate a bigger force than ours,
but you will have the United States to
whip before you are through with the job.
Whenever you are ready to commence
operations, open fire I” The men were
ordered into line, aud the Mormon es¬
cort withdrew with Brigham to the main
body of their force. They had a oon
snltation and concluded to let Ingalls
take the women.
The New Road Overseer.
A letter from Virginia says:—Among had
the families which have always a
share in the conduct of affairs in the
State are the Tylers. President Tyler’s
old neighbors in Charles City county
deal oftener that they liked; nor would
he accept any excuse, or allow the cus¬
tomary commutation in money from the
rich planters. Every one of them he
mastered out on the roads at he daylight
whenever he wanted them, mean¬
while riding around and exasperating he
them by his presence, while saw that
no man shirked his work. Soon every
rood in the began county improving was like a the turnpike. private
Then he hid
roads. His rule by this time bo
eome so trying that various plans for
getting rid of him before hie term of of¬
fice expired were canvassed. But the
ex-President had been too wary for them.
He could only be turned out for malfea¬
sance in office, and nobody could accuse
him of that. So for whole two yean populate)* they
never knew when the
would be called upon to turn out on the
roads for a hard day’s work under the
ex-Preeident’s own eye. When his ten*
expired the laugh was on the other side.
A KCNOCUAB PKHHOMEHOll.
"There are a great many funny oocar
renoes in this world,” observed an Aus¬
tin attorney.
“Been reading the Congressional inquired -Rec¬
ord, have you?” flippantly a
young physician. read fiction, It is
“No, sir, I never different."
something “Well, what entirely is it that bothers you?”
“Well, it is this. Isaw quite recently
a chicken’s head cut off, and the body of
the bird flopped around for a few min¬
utes afterwards. I cannot understand
it.”
"Oh, that’s simple enough,” head was the
reply. “You see the bird’s was out
off, wasn’t it?”
“Yes, short off.”
“Well, the seat of intelligence is in
the head. The chicken’s being off—en¬
tirely disconnected with the body—it
didn’t know for some time whether
it was dead or not ”—Texas Siftings.
Thb first dude, we believe, was Yan¬
kee Dudle, who went to town upon m
little pony._
A tramp called his shoes corporation®
because they had no sole*.
