Newspaper Page Text
editorial notes.
ijhb Tennessee cotton mill, at Nash
-ffle lias just declared a dividend equal
to „ n annual dividend of fourteen per
Dt afterliaving quite recently doubled
•fs riparity. The cotton mills north and
east are complaining of hard times, but
in the south there seems to be no reason
for complaint.
_____
The report of the general superinten
deut 0 f the life saving service shows
4 617 lives, and 15,671,700 worth of
property saved during the past year.
During that period there were 300 disas
iere tovessels within the field of the sta¬
tion operations, and of the 3,792 persons
those vessels only fifteen were lost.
on worth of property im¬
Of $7,176,540 lost. The
perilled only $1,564,740 was
number of vessels lost was sixty-eight.
At the close of the last fiscal year the ser¬
vice embraced 194 stations ; 149beibg on
the Atlantic, 37 on the lakes, 7 on the
Pacific, and 1 at the falls of the Ohio,
Louisville, K y.
_
The immense canned goods interest
in Baltimore have recently held 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 to 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 Louisville exposition Major E.
A, Burke spoke of the recuperation of
the Southern States in a most hopeful
strain, He said that during the past
four years the twelve states constituting
what is commonly known as the south,
have increased their assessed values
from $010,700,000 on an average of $100,-
176,030, and the increase of 1883 over
1882 amounts to $253,0tX),000, which is
nearly equal to the value of the whole
cotton crop. Alabama, Georgia, North
Carolina and South Carolina, have built
twenty cotton mills in the past year.
The coal fields of these state cover 5,330
square miles, and the output of 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.
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
copper epidermis of the figure is made
of 300 pieces and weighs 178,000 pounds,
■ffhi e the iron frame weighs 264,000
pounds. When finally erected the
molded sheets of copper will he riveted
together by copper bolts, and the iron
skeleton will be secured to the masonry
by twelve great foundation bolts. The
variations due to temperature are pro¬
vided for by elasticity in every part, and
corroding will he cheeked by painting
with red lead wherein iron and copper
are in contact. It is reckoned that the
pressure of wind upon the statue, which
will be 150 feet high, may go as high as
190,000 pounds.
Mb. Leo Daft recently made a suc¬
cessful trial of his electric railway motor
on the Saratoga, Mr. McGregor and
Lake George railway at Saratoga. 1 he
motci is a peculiarly shaped, box-like
structure, painted bright red, and sur¬
mounted by a brass bell. Tbe driving
seat holds only one person, and the ma¬
chinery is covered from sight. Between
the rails of the track upon which the
Motor r< t ted a third rail was insulated
from its listening spikes at each tie by a
strip of vulcanized rubber. The elec
tricity for the affair is manufactured by
a generating machine a quarter of a mile
Way. The wheel under the motor takes
"P the electricity and passes it into the
dynamo in the box. The electro-magnets
^e set it motion and small pulleys com
Mnnicate the power to the axles by layer
pulleys cm the latter, and convey the
current to the outer rails and complete
Ihe circuit.
The dangers that accompany the
Ringing of electric light wires are be
PMring 11 to be understood and dreaded.
a wire of the Brush light forms “a
Pound” it reaches a white heat, and a
ensues if it touches wood. If the
*ood is wet, it becomes a conductor, and
* fire is almost certain to occur. The
“ es t insulating material can not render
secure against all accidents of this
The current is so strong that
®"th ensues instantly if it is passed
“^ongh the human body, and the fire
to® are very naturally averse to too
an acquaintance with these wires.
• °i long ago the superintendent of the
^tric light company at Dayton grabbed
^ re as to by keep flash. from falling, It had been and raining. he was
a
f the current passed through him. If
^ hectic-light wire forms a connection
** *et weather with a telephone wire,
THE WEEKLY.
VOLUME Y.
something or somebody is sure to be
melted.
The 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¬
geant G. W. Tucker, chief of General
Hill s stafi 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. Taking
Tucker with him he crossed the Bowdoin
plank road, and striking through an old
fiel t the two came upon a party of
federals in the cover of the 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 fatal effect.
Tucker made liis way into Longstreet’s
lines, and thence to General Lee, to
whom he made his sad report. Directing
the courier to accompany Colonel Palmer
to Mrs. Hill, General Lee said: “Col¬
onel, break the news to her as gently as
possibe.”
In England there is more land lying
idle in sporting grounds, game preserves
and landlords’ parks, than the whole
kingdom of Belgium, which supports in
happiness and prosperity 6,000,000 peo¬
ple, and sends large food exports to
London. An income of $175,000,000 a
year is received by 8,142 landlords as
rent on 46,500,000 acres of land. They
do no work, hut recall Carlyle’s picture
of the French Marquis, perfumed and
petted, who sat in his castle window and
watching a poor woman gathering nettles
in the rain, received one nettle of three,
as rent. If England were cultivated as
closely and as thoroughly as Jersey it
would not only amply feed its present
population hut 50,000,000 besides. So
vast are its tracts of idle land, however,
that $150,000,000 a year is sent out of
England annually to buy food. It is
with such arguments as these that the
land-hunger of the poorer Euglish classes
is sharpened by the leadersof the radical
movement.
The erection of large oil refin lies in
San Francisco by ex-Govemor Perkins,
Charles Goodall, Captain Knowles and
other capitalists, will enable the Pacific
coast to handle the entire whale product
of that section, instead of shipping it to
New Bedford. About 30 out of tlie 150
vessels engaged in the whaling trade are
empioyed in Pacific waters. American
whaling dates from 1794, and the tonnage
lins increased from 4,129 tons in that
year to 32,802 in 1882. At present the
cliief use of whale oil is for lubricating
axles and machinery. The sperm is used
for candies, fancy and toilet articles.
The old-time abuses on whaling vessels
have 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. Men get from $30
to $75 a month. The perils of the busi¬
ness are very great, but the profits are
proportionately large, especially as the
price of hone has gone gradually up from
50 cents per pound to between $2.50 and
$3.
The new canti-lever bridge over tlie
Niagara has been practically completed,
though it will not be opened until the 1st
of December. It is an enormous strac
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
Soutliern, which crosses the bridge, is
239 feet above the water at the central
span. This work represents the first use
in bridge building of this principle repre¬
sented in the name. Canti-lever expresses
the leverage obtained by an external
angle. Take two pieces of timber or iron,
join them endwise at a very wide angle,
set this angular part upon a pillar,
balance the arms so that the ends are on
a level with each ottier, and you lave
the principle of the power which sup¬
ports the great bridge. This plan is
cheap and quick, while in strength it
compares well with the best of the old
methods of bridge building. The new
canti-lever bridge stands only 300 feet
above the old suspension bridge and pre¬
sents a strong contrast to it. The wmes.
railways, and fine work of the old bridge
give i. the appearance of the finished task
of the basket weaver ; while the canti¬
lever is stem, rugged and bold. At the
foot of the tower of the new bridge the
first ripple of the "W hirlpool Rapids can
be seen. So fast does the torrent increase
that the water is boding and seething
under the old bridge only 300 feet below.
GA.. DECEMBER 7,1883.
GENERAL NEWS.
Key West, Fla., is to have a street
railway.
Mica has been discovered in Cobb
county, Georgia,
Rockboko, N. C., is building a $12,000
court-house.
Floiuda is utilizing convicts on tur¬
pentine farms.
A new silver mine has been opened in
Wautauga county, N. O.
“Libekty” street in MilIedgeville,Ga.,
leads from the penitentiary to the cem¬
etery.
Thebe is a Mormon church east of
Aberdeen, Miss .; just over the Alabama
line.
Mb. Tulane’s total donation to the
University in Louisiana now amounts to
$ 1 , 000 , 000 .
Lewis Hawkins, colored, is editing a
paper devoted to the interests of the col¬
ored people in Rome, Ga.
It is said that ten pounds of solid gold
were recently taken out of the Ball mine
in Georgia in one day.
A man in Sumpter county, Tennessee,
has gathered 600 bushels of hickory nuts
which he proposes to sell.
Two hundred and thirty-one children
are enrolled at the colored public school
in Pine Bluff, Ark.
Vessels are in great demand for the
lumber business at Mississippi City,
which is said to be thriving this season.
At the next session of the Mississippi
Legislature an effort will be made for
tlie establishment of a State female col¬
lege. Appling sword of honor, which
The
lias 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 capitol is
completed.
Clement Cato, colored, 104 years old,
walked from his home to Rome,Ga.,a
distance of four miles, to pay his tax.
He is 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., boasts 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 Chipola 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 quaries of Georgia is at hand. A
party of gentlemen have just closed the
purchase of two of the most important
fields, and the managers ot the Rutland,
Vermont, Marble Company are now in
Atlanta for the purpose of investing in
some of the same property.
The passage of the steamer Silverton
through the jetties below New Orleans,
is considered the best evidence yet given
of their success With the exception of
the Great Eastern, the Silverton is the
largest freight earner afloa', and there
are now only half a dozen ships in the
world that can not easily land at that
city.
Atlanta Constitution : Tlie failure
of the Mississippi Valley Bank grows in
magnitude as the facts come out. It is
now admitted that the liabilities are over
one million. The bank seems to have
been a family affair, the President being
Geo ge M. Klein, the carrier John A.
Klein, Jr., assistant cashier William M.
Klein, and John A. Klein, Sr., as a sort
of business director. The advertisement
announces that the bank is not mcor
porated.”
The winter exodus from the North to
Florida is unusually large this year.
About 250 people leave New York every
day for Jacksonville, and probably 500
people arrive in the latter city every day
from different parts of the country. The
number will continue increasing until
February. A good many settlers are go¬
ing at present. A majority of the set¬
tlers go to south Florida, in the neigh¬
borhood of Sanford. Great numbers are
going from New England, New York and
Pennsylvania.
A Subscriber Lost.
The Richmond (Va.) 'Religious Her¬
ald says: “A melancholy young ask man
came m a few mornings ago to us to
discontinue the Herald, which he had
been sending a young lady, Not wish
ing to lose even one subscriber, and feel¬
ing a compassion for the young woman
who was about to be deprived of such an
excellent journal, we ventured to ask
the young man why he proposed He hesitated to per¬
petrate so rash an act. a
moment, » and remarked with a jerking
emphasis of manner, ‘Why, she is go
ing to marry another fellow.’ We ex
cused him.”
PECK’S BAD BOY AGAIN.
HE K El.I EVES THE SUFFERINGS OF
AN OLD SCHOOLMATE.
II. Trio* Hi* Hand at a Little Work ol
Llinrity nnd Succeeds very Weil.
“ You say a word against that poor
girl, and down comes your grocery,”
said the bad hoy to the grocery man.
“ She is a Christian, that girl is, though
she don’t put on airs and go to church
with silk dresses and rich duds. But
she prays, by jingo, better than any of
’em. You see her father is a drunkard,
and he takes half she makes peddling
apples, to buy gin, and her grandmother
has got the consumption, and that takes
the other half to support her. I knew
that arirl when I went to school, and
yesterday she come to me crying, and
said she was going to ask a favor of me
’cause I had a heart in me. It seems her
drunken father had taken all her money,
and had gone on an awful bum, and she
didn’t have any to buy some of those
cough the’old syrup lozenges for her grandma,
and lady was chokin’ up pretty
rough, and she wanted me to lend her
a dollar till she could realize on the ap¬
ples she was going to get trusted for.
Probably you have noticed I haven’t got
any watch this morning. I have got my
chain, with a hunch of keys on it in my
pocket, but nolxxly will know I haven’t
got any watch unless they ask me what
time it is, and then I will tell them it
has run down, and I guess it has, ’cause
pawnbrokers never wind up watches.
Well, sir, I got four dollars on my watch,
and I went and bought apples for her
and medicine for her grandma, and then
I went down home with her. When I
went in the little room, where the old
lady was on a bed, and heard her let 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 lier knees
and prayed, there in the dirt, and asked
God to bless the friend that had risen
up and lifted such a load off the sufferer,
do you know, I felt as though I had
swallowed a piece of turnip or something
hard, and couldn’t get it up or down,
and the tears came to my eyes just like
when you peel onions. this
“She didn’t use any of highfalutin
language, such as the high salaried
preachers use, where you want a diction¬
ary in your pew to find what the words
mean. It was no full dress forma!
prayer. The little girl got right down
on her knees, and said, ‘Oh, Father in
Heaven,’ just as though God was sitting
right there in front of her on a three
legged stool, and seemed confident that
the Heavenly Father heard her. She
didn’t tell God anything and buying about my
pawning my watch the
apples, and she didn’t mention my name
6-t 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 watch chain, bigger than
a house. I could have listened to that
dirty, ragged girl pray pitiful, for and an hour, she
was so natural, and talked so
God could understand it whether He had
ever graduated at college or not. But
she wasn’t and she talking just against seemed time, for
wages, to have a
little conversation with the good Lord
just as a child would with its father, and
then she got up and fired some medicine
down her grandma, and made her a cup
of tea on an oil stove, and toasted a piece
of bread and poached an egg while I sat
there thinking. Do you know she broke
me all up. If it wasn’t for that old calico
dress, and the shoes run over at the
heel, and the moth eaten stockings, I
should have thought she was an angel,
and by gum, I will pawn for everything her I
have for her to get things grand¬
ma, but somebody else has got to chip in
to buy gin for the old man. I can’t run
a hospital and a distillery both, on one
cheap watch, hut I am going to work
for ihe humane society next week, and
that girl can have all the money I make,
as long as the old lady’s cough hangs on.
“Say, do yon think there is any bath¬
room in heaven where they can take
such angel a dirty girl as that and make crowd an
of her that will pass in a ?
Take the dirt out from under her finger
nails and soak her hands in hot water,
and put cold cream on them, and let her
sleep a few nights with rubber gloves on,
and I suppose they could make her pass
as an angel. Well, I have got to go
down to the Humane society office. I
was in a street-car the other night, and
the car was full, and got off the track,
and the mules couldn’t wouldn’t pull it. All the
men sat there and get out.
They read papers, and acted mad, while
the driver pounded tbe mules. I was
on the back step, and I yelled, ‘The
members of the Humane society are re¬
quested to get out of the car and help
push.’ You ought to have seen ’em.
They all looked at each other, and then
they all got out, and some of them looked
ashamed, but they Helped me muies.
The boss of the Humane society heard
of it, and he said he would give me a job
watching for butchers who maul cattle,
I guess I can 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, aDd have him charge it to pa. ”
As the boy went out the grocery man
told the carpenter that the 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.
A Moemon is now as bold as a grizzly, well
and Uncle Sam loves one quite as
as the other.
NUMBER 37.
A WORD ABOUT CHRISTMAS.
Its Arrival Unexpecled Every Year—Some¬
thing About Presents.
When what was designed to be a
pleasure becomes a burdan, it is time to
stop and examine it carefully, and see
if it is the thing itself which has grown
to be such a weight, or whether it is
simply an awkward manner of carrying
it. Certainly there must be something
wrong in any celebration of Christmas
which results in serious fatigue of mind
and body. During the first three
months of the year, nothing is more
commonly given as a reason for ill
health than an overstrain during the
holidays. “She got so worn out at
Christmas,” or “She worked too hard in
finishing her Christmas presents,” or
“The week before Christmas she was
tired out with shopping,” are excuses
which appear as surely as January and
February come. The question must
occur sometimes to every one, whether
all this worry and wear of heart and
hand there and brain are really worth while.
Is not some better way of celebra¬
ting this day of days than for women to
wear themselves out in making or buying
pretty trifles for people who already
have more than they can find room for ?
Setting aside all effort of eyes and fin¬
gers, the mental strain is intense.
Merely to devise presents for a dozen or
more people, which must be appropriate
and acceptable, and which they do not
already possess, and which no one else
is likely to hit upon, is enough to wear
upon the strongest brain; and when
one’s means are not unlimited, and the
question of economy must come in, the
matter is still more complicated. The
agony of indecision, the weighing of
rival merits in this and that, the dis¬
tress when the article which is finally
decided upon does not seem as fascina¬
ting as one had hoped, the endless round
of shopping, the packing to send to dis¬
tant friends, the frantic effort to finish
at the last moment something which
ought to have been done long ago, result
in a relapse, when all is over, into a
complete weariness of mind and body
which unfits one for either giving or re¬
ceiving pleasure. Now, when all this is
looked at soberly, does it pay ? It is a
remarkable fact that, although Christ¬
mas has been kept on the twenty-fifth
day of 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
he so, and about the middle of Deoem •
ber there begins a rush and hurry which
is really more wearing than a May mov¬
ing.
It seems to be a part of the fierce ac
tivity of our time and country that even
our pleasures must be enjoyed at high
pressure. While it is almost impossi¬
ble, in matters of business, to act upon
the kindly suggestion should of intelligent
critics that we take things more
leisurely, surely, in matters effort of enjoy¬
ment, we might make an the keeping to be lees of
overworked. Cannot
Christmas, for example, be made to con¬
sist in other things than gifts ? Let the
giving be for the children and those to
whom our gifts 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 receiving, even if we did omit pres¬
ents at Christmas time. In many large
families a mutual understanding that
the Christmas gifts were all to be for
the children would be an immense relief,
although, perhaps, no one would lie
quite willing to acknowledge it. Some¬
times a large circle of brothers and sis¬
ters can unite in a gift, in that way
makmg it possible to give something of
more value, and at the same time to
lessen the difficult task of selectipn.
Above all things, if yon give presents,
be more anxious to give than something send which
“supplies a want” to some
pretty trifle which can only prove in the
end an ad ditional care. A little fore¬
thought and friendly putting of yonrself
in another’s place will make this possible.
In the great world of books something
can be found to suit every taste. Flow¬
ers are always a graceful gift, and can
never become burdensome by lasting
after one has grown tired of them.
There are numberless other things which
can be procured, without a wear and
tear of mind and body which make the
recipient feel as David did of tile water
from the well of Bethlehem, that what
cost so mnch was too valuable to be ac¬
cepted. —Susan Anna Bbown, in the
Centum for December.
Women Lawyers in Italy.
Italy is getting as much ahead of us
as America. La Signora Lydia Poet
has just been admitted to practice at the
bar of Turin, and appeared for the first
time in her barrister’s gown to plead the
cause of a young painter whose pictures
had been unjustly detained by his land¬
lord, and much injured by the damp oi
the garret to which they had been con¬
signed. The lady barrister obtained a
great success for her humorous descrip¬
tion of the subject of the pictures, and,
amid much applause, obtained a verdict
with goodly damages in favor of her
client. She was escorted home, still en¬
veloped in her lawyer’s who robes, by a large
conconrse of people, gave her a sere¬
nade in the evening, in which the tenor
voice of the young painter was conspicu¬
ous by its deep expression.— Loudon
Herald.
Going South.— Twelve locomotives
were shipped from Philadelphia foi
Brazil in one week.
A CHRISTMAS CLUB.
How It was Formed and ihe Good Work I*
Accomplished,
[We reprint from the Christmas 8t. Nicho¬
las the following account of the formation at
Portland, Me., of a Children’s Christmas Club,
which gave last year a Christmas-tree and din¬
ner to six hundred poor children of that city.J
A number of notes were written, ask¬
ing two or more girls and boys from
every Sunday-school in tbe city to meet
at a certain house at five o’clock, on the
following Tuesday afternoon.
Did they come ?
Come ? They did not know what th»
call was for, save for a whisper about
Christmas work; but they came: came
in pairs, in trios, in quartets and quin¬
tets—a whole squad from the Butler
school; big boys with big hearts, wee
tots only four years old from the kinder¬
garten—one hundred children, ready for
anything. could have been there
Oh, I wish you
at the forming of that club.
A lady came forward to speak to them,
and then: voices were hushed in expecta¬
tion. I can’t tell you just what she
said, but her words were beautiful. She
spoke of their Christmas festivities
every year, of their presents and their
friends; then of unfortunate children
who had fewer, some none of these joys.
When she asked: “Does anyone here
want to do anything for these others ?”
the thought that they could do any¬
thing was new to almost all—to many
even the wish was new; but like on#
great heart-throb came their answer :
“Yes ! II I! Ill want to do
something I”
“Children, what can yon do?”
A pause, and then one little voica
cried :
“Dive ’em a cent!”
That was the first offer, but it was
followed by many another : “Give ’em
candy!” “Give’em a turkey I” “Give
’em a coat!”—each "Give.” beginning with that
grand word, that meeting this
The result of was r
To form a club which should last
“forever”; to call it “The Children’s
Christmas Club”; to have for its motto:
“Freely ye have received, freely give”;
to place the membership fee at ten
cents, so that no child should be pre¬
vented from joining because he was not
“rich”; to make no distinction in regard
to sect or nationality; to permit to join
the club any girl or boy under eighteen
years of age who accepted its principles,
which were : To he ready at all times
with kind words to assist children less
fortunate than themselves; to make
every year, in Christmas week, a festival
of some kind for them; to save through
the year toys, books, and games, instead
of carelessly destroying practicable, them; in to good save
and, whenever clothing; put
repair all outgrown to bog
nothing from any source, but to keep as
the key-stone of the club the word
“Give”; to pay every year a tax of ton
cents; and to make their first festival in
the City Hall on Thursday, December
28 . 1882 .
IN A GYPSY CAMP.
A Graphic Description at a Romany Pettiest
■uent in (Sussex.
The London Telegraph says: “Of
the younger fry there were as many as
half a dozen, four of them girls, whose
ages may have ranged from eleven to
fourteen, and they were worse clad even
that the two women, nor were the grow¬
ing boys better covered. As for the lit¬
tle children, whose lack skins, poor little
wretches, for of washing, were of
the color of light mahogany, several of
them were as naked as they were born,
and there in an atmosphere pungent
with the odor of onions and misty with
the steam of the stew, they were all
huddled biggledy piggledy on the
ground, some reclining at full length,
others squatted ‘nose and knees’ to¬
gether, discussing their supper with an
tappetite only to beobtained by a day’s
oil in a hop garden.
“The tent contained no single article of
furniture in the ordinary sense of the
term. An empty barrel, that apparently
had once contained flour, stood in the
centre with a board across the top of it,
and od this stood a shallow brown pan,
which contained what had been cooked
in the large kettle, and beside it were
several loaves of bread. Two of the
woman presided. The three men squat¬
ted cross-legged, with a large zinc wash¬
ing-bowl filled with the savory mess on
the ground in their midst, and a four
pound loaf, from which, with their clasp
knives, they hacked a ‘chunk’ as they
required it. Plates and spoons there
were none. They thrust their wedges
of bread into the bowl, aDd so extracted
the broth, and they helped themselves tearing
to meat with their dirty fingers,
it asunder with their teeth when the
pieces were too large to put at once in
the month, in a gallon stone bottle
they had beer, which for convenience of
drinking was tilted into a yellow pint
basin.
“Even less ceremony was observed by
tlie children in eating. The female in
charge of the bread cut a substantial
‘round’ from a loaf and tossed it to the
eider ones as they reclined on the ground,
and then the custodian of the stew fished
out a piece of meat and thrust it all hot
and reeking at the end of a fork toward
the eager hand held out for it, and the
meat was clapped aid'of atop of the bread, ration and
so, without the a knife, the
was devoured. The smaller children
were served in the same way, but less
liberally. When the men liad had their
bowl replenished and the women bad
enough, the pan with the remains of the
broth and some bread broken up in it,
was placed on the ground, and squealing
and greedily hustling each other like so
many other little pigs, the gypsy infants
made short work of it.
Not long since a little three-and-a-half
year old was out in the garden, when she
stepped on a beetle and killed it. The
gardener, her: “Perhaps in a sympathetic mother tone, said beetle to
that was a
gathering food for her children at home,
and they mayjsuffer with hunger;” when
Ida replied, with apparent honesty, “I
guess, Uricle Frank, it was not the
mother beetle I killed, but was only tha
hired girl ”
Of all the actions of s man’s life his
marriage does least concern other peo¬
ple, yet, of all actions of our life ’tis
most meddled with by other people.