Newspaper Page Text
County W.
MINERAL BLUFF, GA.
Insanity shows a decrease in New
York State, according to the latest
statistics. A forthcoming official re¬
port will show 523 cases of lunacy in
1890 as against 598 in 1889. About
one-half the afflicted arc from. New
York city and Brooklyn.
An eminent bacteriologist at St.
Petersburg, Russia, has dicovered that
glanders may be cured by inoculation.
This disease is dangerous to human
beings as well as to horses. In the
experiments with it the statement is
mado that five scientists lost their
lives. It is said that Dr. Koch has
gone to Egypt to study leprosy, which
he thinks inoculation will cure.
According to the Portland Oregon¬
ian the seal for the State of Wyoming
contain the figure of a woman, from
Whose uplifted arm hangs a broken
chain, while the motto of the state is
“Equal Rights.” This seal was adopt,
ed by the first Legislature, and is em¬
blematic of tho political status of a
slate which is different in tho respect
symbolized from every other in the
American Union.
Tho following very significant
woids, in the Emperor Wilhelm’s own
handwriting,were appended to a photo¬
graph which His Majesty sent to the
Postmaster-Genera),Ilcrr von Stephan,
on the occasion of his sixtieth birth¬
day:—“The world, at the close of the
nineteenth century, stands under the
ensign of intercommunication, This
breaks through the barrier* which
separate peoples and establishes new
relations between nations.”
Epauleted statesmen are common in
South America, asserts the New York
Mercury, but not civilian statesmen
Brazil has sustained a great loss in tbe
death of Benjamin Constant, Minister
of War. He was a rare man. An
early democratic-republican, a teacher
in the Polytechnic School of Rio
Janeiro, he proved himself to be a
Bkilled and conservative statesman.
Constant had the North American
features, wlipch is an exception to the
Spanish and Portuguese rule of hered¬
ity.
_
The Australian colonies havo dis¬
mally failed in their effort to keep
John Chinaman out by imposing a
heavy poll-tax, alleges the Argonaut.
Each immigrant from tho Flowery
Kingdom has to pay when lie enters
tho colonies about one hundred dollars,
and yet, in spite of this drain upon
his resources, he sends for his
brothers and cousins, and thero are
to-day in Australia four thousand
more Chinese than nine years ago.
There arc over forty thousand Chinese
in Australia, and forty-seven thousand
in Tasmania and New Zealand, a
rather large pig-tail population.
English writers have frequently re¬
ferred to the phrase “too thin” as an
“execrable Americanism;” but, as a
matter of fact, discovers the New
York Tribune, its paternity is English.
The Rev. Dr. William Cave, who was
born in 1637, in his life of St. Althan
asius, said: “For procuring a synod
to be called at Antioch, Eustachins is
charged as heterodox in the faith,
though they knew that too thin to hold
water.” And many years later Lord
Chancellor Eldon, in one of his opin¬
ions, declared: “I cannot agree that
reasonable notice is a subject too thin
for a jury to act upon.”
Statistics just published concern¬
ing Portuguese finances are of an
alarming character. The debt of
Portugal has increased 400 per cent,
in the past 40 years, and the Govern¬
ment expenses have increased 500 per
cent. Tho revenue lias only trebled
meantime, and the annual deficit haB
become fourteen times greater than at
the beginning of the period named.
Negotiations are being conducted be¬
tween the Portuguese Government and
a French syndicate for the consolida¬
tion of the floating debt of Portugal.
If the negotiations are successfully ac¬
complished before the maturing of tho
existing debt tho syndicate will receive
certain.privileges.
The Minstrel.
He thought he once could sing.
A soug of love and spring,
But stammered, though he held a full-strung
lyre;
Because he lacked the art
Which later years impart;
Because the skill was less than the desire.
And now he seems to know
Just how the tune should flow;
But misses the young ardor once so strong.
The impulse of the heart
Is slower than the art;
The skill to sing is better than the song.
The sobering touch of time
Holds back the hasty rhyme
That in the heat of youth once spurned con¬
trol;
For snared in webs of thought
His flying dreams are caught;
Age looks beyond the senses to the soul.
Ab, could the singer’s art
Assume the loftier part
As once the lowlier in tbe realm of songl
Ah, could life’s grander themes
Flow like the early streams.
What minstrel then would say he had lived
too long?
—[Christopher P. Cranch in Harper’s.
MARTHA’S MISSION.
Like a lily, tall and slender and
gracoful, Martha Fairfield looked in
her deep mourning dress, waxen white
complexion and liquid gray eyes, as
sho she stood at tho window, waiting
for the rumble of the omnibus wheels
en route for the station, while close at
her side a heavy-eyed widow reso¬
lutely endeavorod io keep back the
tears.
“It will not be for long, mamma,
dear,” said Martha, encouragingly.
And Mrs. Fairfield answered,
bravely, “No, darling, it will not be
for long.”
“And only to think, mamma,” went
on Martha, cheerily, “I am to have
£150 a year and a six weeks’ vacation
in tho Summer, and all the duties I
am to perform aro being companion
to an invalid. You don’t know how
rich I feel, mamma, dear. And I shall
send you a check for the very first
quarterly payment I receive; for what
do I need of money, mamma, with my
uice, new outfit of dresses?”
Mrs. Fairfield sighed softly. A sit¬
uation for Martha had been tho most
earnest desire of mother and daughter
for the past six months—ever since
Col. Fairfield’s death had left them
comparatively penniless; but now
that it had actually come, by means
of a newspaper advertisement that
Martha had valiantly answered, she
felt a vague sense of coming danger
and misfortune, which was inexplica¬
ble even to herself.
A long, loving embrace—a tearful
parting—and the moment, so long
dreaded by both, was over; and the
future had begun for Martha.
The first page of the volume was
simple enough—a long, wearisome
journey by rail, a lumbering coach
ride afterwards, into the very heart of
the Welsh mountains. And as the
purplish tinges of twilight were be¬
ginning to settle down in the gorges,
the coach stopped.
“Cross-road for Campington Hall!”
called out the driver, hoarsely.
“Now, then, mis*, look alive; there's
a carriage waitin’.”
“Miss Fairfield?” said the chariot¬
eer of this latter equipage, rospectfully
touching his hat. “Please, miss, Dr.
Campington sent me down here to
meet you.”
“Dr. Campington!” Martha re¬
peated, “Oh to be sure?” as it flashed
upon her mind that Dr. Campington
must be the medical attendant of her
invalid patroness. “Is it far?”
“No, miss—a matter of two miles
or more”
“Two miles!” Martha leaned
wearily back in the oarriage, and drew
down her veil to conceal the drops that
stood in her eves.
It was a sad and desolate ride, spite
of the sublime scenery, that spread it-'
self, like a panorama, on either side
of her; and Martha Fairfield could not
but rejoice when the man said:
“There’s the Hall, miss.”
It was a spacious aud rather gloomy
looking structure, standing on a
height, with a terraced walk extend¬
ing along its whole front.
“What a large house!” she ex¬
claimed.
“Yes, iniss, it is lai'ge,” said the
driver. “We’ve had fifty patients
there at a time.”
Again Martha etared, and again her
read wit suggested a solution of the
difficulty. Was it not possible that
this lady for whom her services were
sdStired was an inmate of a “Water
Cure,” or “Hygeian Home,” or some
retreat for the ailing?
“Miss Fairfiold,” spoke a cheerful
voice. “Pray let me assist you to
alight. I am Dr. Campington."
And a tall middle-aged, handsome
gentleman advanced down the steps—
a gentleman with a high, Shakespear¬
ian brow, and mustache slightly
grizzled—who led the way into a pret¬
ty octagon study, or reception room,
with a red carpet, crimson curtains
and walls lined with books, whose
gilded bindings reflected the cheery
blaze of a good fire.
“Pray be seated, Miss Fairfield,” he
said. “The servants will bring you
some tea directly; and w'hen you are a
little rested and refreshed, my house¬
keeper, Mrs. Bland, will show you to
your room.”
And he left the apartment before
Martha could ask the eager questions
which were trembling on her lips.
Presently a maid camo in with a
tray containing cold fowl,ham,French
rolls, and a small china pot of frag¬
rant tea; and while Martha was enjoy¬
ing her repast with the apetite of
eighteen, a tap came to the door, and
a tall, slight girl, all in white, with a
wreath of flowers in her hair, glided
in.
“May I come in? We were all for¬
bidden to disturb you; but I knew you
wouldn’t mind me.”
Martha looked admiringly at her
soft, brown eyes, and the mass of
golden brown hair that flowed down
over her shoulders.
“Do yon live here?” asked sho.
“I stay here,” said the girl, until he
comes after me.”
“Until who comes?”
“Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.
Don’t you know,” she said impatient¬
ly, “I am Ophelia? Ah, you may
well look surprised. People think I
am dead, but here I am, you see. And
Hamlet loves me through it all. He
will come; I am suie he will come.
You have arrived from the world,” she
cried suddenly. “Perhaps you have
seen him—my Hamlet?”
A cold thrill of terror shot along
Martha Fairfield’s nerves. Was the
fair young girl crazy?
At the same minute a servant, in a
mob cap and plain gray stuff gown,
tntered.
W“Miss Ophelia,” cried she, “How
ever came you here? Come away di¬
rectly, miss, or I’ll call tbe doctor.”
The girl shrugged her shoulders im¬
patiently.
“I am not afraid of the doctor,”
said she. “He is always kind to me.
Besides, he knows that his position as
court physician depends entirely upon
my good word with the King.”
“Como away, miss, dear,” coaxed
the woman. “You must get to bed
early, you know, or you won’t be
fresh when he comes, as may be he’ll
do tomorrow morning.”
“That is true,” said the girl, her
dark, sleepy eyes lighting up. “Yes,
Hester, yes, I will come.”
And kissing her hand to Martha,
with a gay gesture of farewell, she
skipped away after the maid.
Martha followed her to the door,
and there, pacing up and down the
wide passage, by the light of a sus¬
pended lamp, was a silver-haired wo¬
man, with a large wax doll in her
arms, over which she bout her head,
making an inarticulate cooing sound
as she walked.
“Who is that?” she asked of the
woman who wa3 leading the passive
“Ophelia” away.
“It’s Mrs. Jessup. Poor thing 1”
She added, in an undertone, “she
thinks that’s her baby as died and was
buried thirteen good year ago. There
comes the doctor now.”
As Dr. Campington entered Martha
Fairfield confronted him with a pale
face.
“Sir,” said she, wildly, “what place
is this you have brought me to? A—
mad house?”
He sat quietly down, beckoning her
to an opposite chair with an air of
quiet authority that she found it im¬
possible to resist.
“You are qnite right,” said he. “It
is what the world calls a mad house,
but we, who are wiser in the history
of moral and mental disease,term it a
Sanitary Retreat.”
“But you have deceived me. You
advertised for a companion to an in¬
valid.”
“Have we not many invalids here?”
Dr CamDinsrton asked with a smile.
“I put it to your own reason and good
gense how many answers we should
get to nu advertisement worded thus:
•Wanted—A Keeper in a Madhouse.
Now, Miss Fairfield, I see protest
and refusal in your eyes. But tako
time to reflect. Your duties will bo
light, merely the supervision and com¬
panionship of the two or throe refined
and delicate invalids who cannot be
entrusted to the coarso and uncul'
tured attention of menials—your sala¬
ry double what was mentioned in the
advertisement. I will await your de¬
cision tomorrow morning in this apart¬
ment. Betsy,” to the little maid who
hal brought the tea, “Show Miss
Fairfield to her room.”
And in a large and airy apartment,
with casements which overlooked the
mountain slopes, Martha Fairfield sat
down to decide.
There was something in Dr. Camp
ington’s calm eye and calmer words
that reassured her—the “Madhouse”
seeming no longer to possess terror in
her sight.
“We have outgrown the supersti¬
tious ago of the world,” she told her¬
self; “and 1, in particlar, havealways
prided myself on my strength of mind.
I have—a mission—three hundred a
year. With that sum I could give dear
mamma even luxuries. Yes, I will
stay.”
“Well, which is it to be—Yes or
No?” Dr. Campington asked on the
morrow, when Martha met him, with
clear, violet eyes and looks of quiet
resolve.
“Yes.”
“I thought so. In fact, I knew it,”
he said, laughing. “For I am rather
a physiognomist in my way, and I
read your face yesterday.”
And Martha stayed at Campington
Hall; but she never wrote to her
mother that she was in a—madhouse!
At the end of the quarter Dr. Camp¬
ington paid her £75.
“Well,” said he, “havo you found
it very hard work?”
Martha smilingly shook her head.
“On the contrary,” said she, “1
liko it. Ophelia is one of the sweet¬
est girls and best companions I ever
knew, when she can forget her one
delusion; and”—
“Yes,” said Dr. Campington, “and
they all like you. So do I.”
Martha smiled and colored. Dr.
Campington watched her face intently.
“Miss, Fairfield,” said he, “you
have never asked me what nearly
every one else does—why I do not
marry?”
“Because,” said Martha, “I can im¬
agine the reason. Your standard is
high—you never yet have met the
woman to realize it.”
“You are wrong, then, Martha,”
said he. “I have met her. She stands
before mo now. Martha, I may as
well confess the truth—I have allowed
myself to fall in love with you, hard
headed, hard-hearted man of medicine
though I am. Will you become my
wife?”
And Martha Fairfield answered,
“Yes; I will.”
Gracious, graceful and gently she
presides over Campington Ilall, the
sweetest and happiest of young wives,
proud in her husband's marvellous
power of doing good; proud in her
mother’s happiness; still prouder of
her own success in soothing the jarred
natures of those in whose minds Rea¬
son sits unsteadily.
“I used to long for a mission,”
Martha says. “I have found it now.”
Wave Power.
Only a small portion of the world’s
energy exists in coal, and our indus¬
tries have iq reserve the power of tho
sunbeams, of the tide and of the waves.
Even the last might suffice for man’s
necessities, a rolling wave twenty feet
high exerting a force of about one ton
to the square foot. The average force
of ocean waves has been estimated to
be 611 pounds per square foot during
summer and 2086 pounds during the
winter months. A force of 6983
pounds has been known during a heavy
gale.— [Sturdy Oak.
What a Minute Holds.
In a minute, over all tho world, about
eighty new-born infants have each
raised a wail of protest, as if against
thrusting existence upon them; while
as many more human beings, weary
with the struggle of life, have opened
their lips to utter their last Bigh.—
I [Boston Globe.
SCIENTIFIC SCRAPS.
Electric engines for dock use have
been introduced.
Passenger elevators having electric
motors are much in use in England. .
Several marine fossils have been
found on the top of Farmington Moun¬
tain, m Connecticut.
The cockroach is universally voted
a nuisance, yet he is said to be of use
to the doctors. His powdered remains
contain an active principle called' anti
hydropin, which is of value in the
treatment of dropsy.
Inventors have long been trying to
invent a means of aiding street-car
horses in starting cars, and the feat is
said to have at last been accomplished
by an English engineer, who proposes
soon to have his invention on the mar¬
ket.
A movement is on foot to celebrate
in Washington on April 15 next the
beginning of the second century of the
United States patent system, Edison
will be a sort of “lion of the hour,” if
people can persuade him to accept of
a little lionizing.
Dr. Corput, who had been charged
by the Belgian government to examine
the sanitary institutions of Germany,
states in his report that the annual
army death rate is in Germany 2.87,
in Belgium 4.07, in France 6, and in
Austria-Hungary 6.94 per cent.
A new application of the telephone
for military purposes consists of a so
called telephonic bonnet, to be worn
by each officer when in charge of a
gun, which will enable him to receive
the instructions of the commander-in
chief or other in the quickest possible
time.
It has recently been shown that the
bad effects of fog were felt most by
tropical plants, which in a state of
nature were exposed to the sunlight.
Plants winch grew under the shade of
forest trees did not suffer so much.
Soft, tender plants and aquatic vege¬
tation seemed to come off worst.
Ingenious machines for the various
operations of manufacturing matches
have been in use in Scandinavia for
some time, and more aro expected.
Machines for packing the matches have
recently been introduced; one of these,
the invention of two young Norwegian
engineers, having a capacity of 1000
boxes per minute.
At the last meeting of the Physical
Society in England an electric lamp
was exhibited which lighted itself
when darkness came on and extin
guished itself when daylight or an¬
other strong light was brought into
the field. The lamp is worked by a
selenium cell on the principal that tho
strength of the current varies with
the intensity of light falling on the
selenium.
A valuable discovery of mica has
benn made on the farm lands of Mrs.
Henry Day, near Mendhain, N. J.
Tho find is reported to be worth thou
ands of dollars. Capitalists who were
informed of the existence pf the mica
hastened to the spot, and, after ex¬
amining the land, offerd a gcrat sum
for it. Mrs. Day has refused all these
offers, and announces her intention of
working the mine herself.
Work of Women.
The work of the women of the
United States, to be illustrated in the
World’s Exposition in Chicago, will
be one of its most interesting features.
That of the early part of the century
will, of course, be crude; but of the
latter part, beautiful. It will typify
the progress of the sex industrially
and intellectually. It will tell the
story of the household frftm the spin
ning wheel to her last labor-saving
device. What woman has done in art
will be exemplified by her paintings,
tapestry and designs that men work
from in fabricating objects of luxury;
and what she has achieved in literature
will be shown by the books, magazines
and journals that have come in multi¬
tudes from her progressive brain. Her
work in the kindergarden school and
college will also be there; her inven¬
tions will amaze; in brief, when the
visitor has finished the inspection of
the department of the Exposition to
which she has been assigned the con¬
trol, he will feel as if he had looked
upon one of the great object lessons of
life. It was a happy idea—that of
effecting a special organization of the
women of America and giving them a
conspicuous place in the picture.