Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

VOL. V.-NO. 20. ■>’ “A BAPPYNEW YEAR." Krr x'pw Year 1” savs one and all, ■iTOaveof Joy it t'lls tlie Bir ' „ the age d lips k ' nd greetings fall, wor'ds from the young and fair. Vpw Year!” Oh ring It out organ’s tone, and the peal of bells. ■S he ittle children sing and shout, ■oli gladness and joy each bosom swells. ■ mtoll that a little year ago ■w? fresh and sweet as a glad surprise, ■» spotless and pure as a veil of snow, ■hm slowly unrolled before our eyes, ■nd (layby day, as the year went by, ■ a linei was written upon the scroll; ■e -ave to them each a smile or sigh, ■lie have only smiles to give the whole, ■he fair white page of the coming year, ■oh what is the i ecord It will bear? ■ill faith and courage our pathway cheer, ■au'l loving hearts all our sorrows share? H<i-> those it comes like a wave of light, ■Gilt-edged and bright as the morning’s H dawn; ... , ~ . ■ others, perhaps, like a rayless night, ■ From which moon and stars have been ■ withdrawn. Knt the Hand that has held us hitherto ■ is able to keep to the very end; ■hough the way lie leads us bo strange and ■ Hislustice and mercy together blend. Ko with stronger faith in the God we trust, ■ Let us greet with smiles this happy day, ■And wait for reward, if wait we must., ■ Till the scroll of the year has rolled away. I Clara B. Heath. A NEW-YEAR’S GHOST. f I The wind races wildly through ths ■town, making a weird, moaning sound ■in desolate places near the coast, where ■ great, dark rocks cast their uncanny ■shadows, and around the village gables. ■ The few stars which glimmer between ■ the heavy clouds look" pale and shiver | ing, but the village windows are red I with light, and it is evident that an | event of no small importance is at hand, f Lanterns gleam along the main street, footsteps echo on the frozen ground, | for there is only the lightest sprinkling : of snow over the rough hubbies. But I lanterns and footsteps all wind toward the village store just now, where every evening the sailor and farmer, even the squire, the aristocracy, ae well as the humbler portion of the town, congre gate to discuss the weather, the crops, the news, and to relate thrilling stories of adventures at cea. To-night conversation is unusually brisk and interesting. The parson himself is there, and condescends to joke a little with the cozy group at the back of the glowing store, while wait ing for his purchases to be weighed and tied up in separate brown paper parcels, and, in spite of himself, waits a moment to hear the denouement of a thrilling ghost story, told with the as surance that it is a solemn fact, by a brown old sailor, who shakes his gold eat-rings as he proceeds in his recital, with a great deal of nervous energy. "Now, this is ez true as I set in this cheer, gentiemen,” he announces, gravely, at the end of nearly every sen tence. J And though he is not sitting at, all, but leaning his stalwart length over a hour barrel, no one seems "to doubt, ihe squire l°°ks as gravely interested as the boys. The parson smiles, but it is noticeable that the smile affects only one side of his mouth, and is as lacking in amusement as is the open mouth of hhe man who is waiting for the forceps •I !° d ': nt ’ lst in the advertisement of the S. laChe n me ,rl CiQe which adorns as 'i - Jh ° teller seems to be The ff as his hearers. the dn ft n i Ct -? f the l ? le is heightened by Ki’th ) nCG rV he P late - the di “- ews n 5° lam P h £ht, the weird shad wreiib rf o c ® rntJl-8 ’ and mcanderlhg V- f smoke whlch curl up toward -e FS ?r head ’ J e °clrcle him the look n? ° M giving i m he look of an enchanter or a o-enii of oh working over the tire. ° the Kh?T-r the tro «bled voice of of uperst tion Spe; n S ?? aiDsfc the folly when ffhostl it n tn ° wonder ’ parson, stre“ts g on dl k Se - e m Walk,n ’ these hcr « er oldlishernim ni » b l s ’ spoke up anoth- omtisheiman. “I seo j olui Nortolf3 &i 8t < nipht as P laln a8 I see you my b± S hL min ' lte ; 1 ™nt about eiJl toV? t here , lothe landin ’ jestez. fun, clo f k ; an a comin’ back, trees afore tbem tew tall pine he was stamlin’ gl ’V O i ni L h ’ lOUSC ’ 1 er ° face. The mon„ , lookin 1110 in the features. ’ n ® r, £ , ? t onto his mistakin’ ’em ih U '° " an t no more er’s. 1 dhhi’? ? nust akin’ my broth ki“der took lS * I was so ghosts aforo, ‘ k Ilot believin’ in woods road that u . turned into the place i Bt J o ead ? totheoldNor- Pja'n’t like w®‘ I tTO’ ernu,F ’ bnt » 6 a«» .hMfatV. glided mer, n his coat looked white.” ® la >med a johv i’ f J. ha ’ n ’t dashed!” ex h st -bMy J ’fen f .T UCr ’ rubbin £ ? her sister “ M y wife hey’d seed the ar °d to Moses that ra lkin’ past the P” 10 feller last night. ' ut *’4 that sn ® r bout twilight, ccn here in th? J' allst ,. w °man has -eein’ ’ n - . f they’ ve been h 1 <r "ln’t nS SOrls °’ things, ‘ * GSt ’ no “ore ’ n . ho W ( na t i H. P A arson . whotas aS°nf” L- i 5 B eaCap’in u i a new -coiner. loun ( , yearß a g"> and gotwrcekeds omo Kn g ” I " an a * we e L S P ronb «>ng a ’ i; -he Salton 2lrgns. his first voyage as Captain, and those who were saved say that he stood by the ship until the very last minute. He was found frozen to death on the wreck after the storm was ever by a vessel which was bound for Boston. John was known by the Captain of this vessel, and he brought the body into port with him, and it was sent on here and buried.” "Then there is no doubt but what the man is really dead,” said the parson. ‘•Sailors have sometimes the faculty of coming to life again, you know; that is,” he added with due seriousness, " ’-ere are false reports of their death. H z many sailors have come back to ~ ..mouth safe and sound, who have been reported drowned?” "Never but one sence I’ve been old enough to remember,” said an old man, who had hitherto been silent "That wuz Luke Higgins, ’n’ he’d ’a’ done hisself ’n’ the taown both a favor if ho bed’a’ died. It’s them kind o’ chaps what dew turn up, not stallin’ good fellers like John. John, he wuz a dret ful loss.” "Oh, there’s no possibility of John’s being alive,” said the Squire, nervous ly. , "I saw him buried myself, poor fellow. He was engaged to my daugh ter Elsie, and she, poor girl, lias done nothing but mourn for him all these years. I objected to the match at first, but before he went away on his last voyage, I became fully alive to his good qualities. He was a brave, manly fel low.” Enter Mrs. Blagg the wife of a fish erman, quite out of breath, and look ing very wild. "What is it, Mary Jane? You look as if you’d seed a ghost, too.” said her husband, who was one of the circle by the fire. "So I have, Lemuel, true ez you are alive. I come right face to face with John Norton coinin’ through the field from our house to the main road. I sec him just as plain ez I sec .you folks neow, but I didn’t wait to see him long, I ken tell ye, but just scud by him like lightnin’, ’n’ run intew the Squire’s, ’n’ told Miss Elsie all about it. I wuz dretful scart, but I thought she'd orter kneow about it. so I kep up till I got there, ’n’ then I went off intew a kinder faint. Bein’ sorter weak after a fit er phthisic, I couldn’t stan’ it.” "Haow did he look?” inquired one man under his breath. "Dretful nateral, only kinder white ’n’ peaked, ’n’ he kinder halted ’n’ looked straight at me kinder wild ’n’ s’prised. They say ghosts don’t never like to be overtook, ’n’ I don’t s’pose he spected to meet nobody in that lone some field.” "But how could you see his face so distinctly on so dark anight?” said the Squire, seeming considerably disturbed. "Good grashus, you don't s’pose I went through that "there field without no lantern? Still, after giving him one good look, 1 wuz so flustered that 1 dropped the lantern on the spot, ’n’ run screechin’ along as fast as I could. You'll hev to git that there lantern, Lemuel, fur ’t wouldn’t dew to lose it, no haow; we can’t afford tew git a noo one. ’ "Well, good people,” said the Squire, “we mustn’t let ghosts inter fere with our New Year’s festivities. It is time that all invited guests should be at my house, and here am I, the host, away from home.” And the Squire hurried out of the store, and a'ong the dusky wood until he came, to a brilliantly-lighted old man sion on the hill. It had long been his custom to give a house-warming, as ho called it, on New Year's Eve. Nearly all the town were bidden to these festivities, and they were enjoyed hugely by young and old, rich and poor. Some of the old families thought the squire somewhat democratic in his way of giving entertainments, and rather turned up their noses at the small sailor’s and fishermen’s families; but neither the sailors nor the fisher men took it to heart, and everything went merry as a marriage bell, as a general thing. The squire entered the house, greeted a few guests who had already arrived, and then sought Elsie, his daughter, who was standing by the window at the end of the long hall, looking pale and distressed. “Don't be troubled by Mary Jane Blagg’s nonsense, dear,” lie said, “she is a foolish woman, and is always imag ining all sorts of mysterious things.” “But, father, I’ve had such strange dreams of late. I don’t believe in such things, of course, but they say several other people have seen the—appari tion.” “Nonsense! it is all imagination. May be one of the Port Nortons is about here just now. There is a strong family resemblance between them all, you know. The mystery will be explained in a few days, I am sure.” Elsie cleared her brow, and entering the parlor, greeted the coming guests with her usual quiet cordiality. She was a tall, handsome girl of twenty seven, with the brow of a madonna, and large, dark eyes, which, even when she smiles, are intensely sad, though tilled with a Warm, kind glow, which cheered one like a fire on a frosty night. I'he large, square rooms arc soon filled. Heartsome fires leap on the wide hearthstones. There is gossip in the corners, playing of games by the young people; there are quiet flirtations on the stairs aud in the halls, and after supper there is to boa dance in the great din ing-room. “Elsie looks paler ’n soberer ’n ever to-night, don’t she?” asks one of the gossips in the corner of her crony. “Yes, she dnz. I was a hopin that DALTON, GEORGIA, SATURDAY, JANUARY 6, 1883. she’d quit thinkin’ or John Norton, ’n’ give Tom Rollins, that ’s worn to a shadder waitin’ fur her, some encour agement. They did sav, jest before John went away, that she was ruther turnin’ the cold shoulder on him, ’n’ favorin’ Torn; but, lor’, there warn’t no truth in it, fur I see she and John part the day he went away, ’n’ though they was both quiet ernuff, there warn't no coldness between ’em. I kin tell ye.” "Did you hear heow John Norton’s ghost hed been seen raound here by four or five different persons?” says an other gossip in a mysterious whisper. "Elsie’s heerdon it, and she's terribly out about it.” "For gracious sakes, no! When? Who? Wall, I kneowed suthin’ wuz a goin’ tew happen. I told Siah so this very night, fur there’s bin tew lookin’- glasses broke here tew the squire’s within the past month—all shivered to pieces. Phebe Ann, the help, told mo so.” - " Mis’ Lemuel Blagg, she was so took aback by seein’ or him, thet she went intew a faint, ’n’ it took tew glasses or sperit to bring her tew agin.’” " You don’t say so! I never heerd tell o’ such a thing. Where wuz she? ’n’ hoaw did he look?—like a corpse, or like a live man, ez I heem some dew?” " Wall, she was so flustered when she see him, thet she dropped her lantern, ’n’ cam’t tell fur’s I kneow jest haow he did look. Hiram Pratt ’n’ Al is’ Job Johnson ’n’ her sister hez seen him tew, ’n’ they say he looks dretful nateral, only some older ’n’ he did when he died. They ’re a settlin’ up the old Norton estate in a putty queer way, them Norton wimmen over tew the Port, ’n’ that’s why his ghost is alurkin’ around these parts, I s’pose.” "Speakin’ o’ ghosts,” says Captain Riley, an old sailor who had had more strange experiences, known more mysterious happenings, than any other man in the town, anil that was saying a good deal; "I saw a dretful strange apparition out tew sea abeout twenty years ago.” "Do tell us about it.” said several of the young people in the same breath, leaving their games and joining the circle around the lire, for Captain Riley’s stories were famous in the town. “Wall, naow, I s’pose I’ve told the story a hundred times over at one time ’n’ another in this place, but if you arc anxious to hear it 1 can tell it again.” Nearly all the people in the room were anxious to hear it, and after tilt ing to and fro in his chair several t'mes, and clearing his throat with a great deal of vigor, he commenced to relate the thrilling tale of a ghost which appeared on shipboard duringoneof his foreign voyages—the ghost of a sailor who had been wronged by the former master of the vessel, and was mysteri ously murdered on shore after the ship reached port. Elsie, her large, dark eyes dilating with interest or emotion, joined-the listening circle, though she usually cither laughed or frowned at the Cap tain’s weird recitals. “Let us take the lamps out of the room, the story will seem ever so much more real,” says one of the laughing girls, who enjoy nothing so much as the blood-curdling which arises* from the contemp’atiou of the .supernatural. So the lamps are removed, and the glory of the scarlet coals and flickering firelight only half illumine the large room, with its dark wainscotings and deep window embrasures. As the tale goes on the fire grows lower and lower. Shadows gather in the corners and creep in among the silent group of listeners. The old man’s voice has a strange, weird quality in it, like that of the sea when it whispers to sands where there are graves, or around rocks where there have been wrecks; like that of the wind when it moans in the chimneys of haunted houses, or in ghostly woods where some murder has been committed in years gone by. Perfect silence reigns. But just as the interest of the tale js at its height, and the young people are clinging to each other with awe-stricken looks, the fire flashing into sudden life shines on a face framed in one of the window panes, the face of one who has been buried in the old grave-yard behind the church nearly eight years. The eyes are fixed upon Elsie with an eager, searching glance for a moment, and then thebaine and it vanish together into the darkness. Elsie, who has met the glance with her own eyes, utters a wild, scared cry, and falls fainting into the arms of her companions. Shrieks sound from dif ferent portions of the room. “John Norton, if ever I see him in my life. Why. his face was as plain as daylight,” is heard in awed whispers from every side. The ’Squire, who has been drawn to the room by the screams of the women, on learning the state of affairs, rushes immediately to the front door, and there upon the steps, with his hand upon the knob of the door-bell, stands the ghost —John Norton! The ’Squire involuntarily takes a few steps backward, and stands in speech less amazement and fear. “Happy New Year, ‘Squire! You don’t seem very glad to see mo,” come from the ghost' in a hearty, most un ghostlike tone. “1 am atraid I fright ened the ladies in the parlor. It was so dark that I didn’t think I should be seen.” ’ . “Who in. the world are you?' in quired the ’Squire, looking somewhat re’.jjo'n’t vou know John Norton 3 Have I changed beyond recognition in these eig ’ But voulbut John Norton is dead ” j said the’Squire, with vfiidteK xtmem . brances of what he had read about ma- I terialistic spirits in his mind. The ghost laughed merrily. “If lam dead, I am profoundly ig norant of the fact,” saidhe, “andl am surely John Norton.” Elsie, who had recovered from her fainting fit, at the sound of his voice rushes into the hall, and is Immediately folded in his warm, strong arms. “ Ghost or man, you are my John,” she says. Several ladies became hysterical at this point, and the squire in a state of the wildest excitement walked to and fro. rubbing his hand across his forehead in a dazed manner. "What is ths. matter?” inquired John, finallyreleasing Elsie from his embrace, but still holding her closely by the hand. "I know that I was reported drowned, but how many sailors have come back under the same circum stances.” "But you are buried in this town. I went to Boston myself and identified your body. Have —-haven’t you seen your grave-stone ?'' John stared at the squire in blank amazement. " No, I can’t say that I have. A man doesn’t often see such a fight. What do you mean?” " Why, a body was picked up from the wreck of your ship, which Captain Graves, who knew you very well, took to be yours. The face was disfigured a good deal, but the body had on a coat with your name sewed into the lining. It had the same mark on the left hand, and the hair, complexion, height and size corresponded exactly with your own.” "It must have been poor Thompson. Everybody took him to be my brother. He was very much like me certainly. I was saved by a miracle, and was taken on board a ship bound for Australia. T— ” "But, John, why did you not come home before?” said Elsie, loosening her hand from his grasp, and regarding him with reproaching dignity. "Because I heard that Elsie Newell was married to Tom Rollins. I heard it from his brother, whom I saw often while in Melbourne. Tom has known that I was living all the time, the scoundrel! He left town as soon as he heard that I was on my way home. I hoped to find him here, for 1 have an account to settle with him.’’ "He is. indeed, a scoundrel,” says Elsie; "but. John, this is New-Year's Eve, and we are so happy, let us for give him. Let us forgive everything that was painful in the past, now that we arc to commence the New Year to gether. Surely, it cannot fail to be a happy one.” "Amen!” exclaims John. But the squire says after a moment’s meditation: "New-Year’s Eve or not, daughter, I believe if that man doesn’t keep out of my way, I shall throttle him.—Bal lou's Magazine. A Deep Mine. The depest coal mine in America is the Pottsville, in Pennsylvania. The shaft is 1,576 feet deep. From its bot tom, almost a third of a mile down, 200 cars, holding four tons each, are lifted every day. They are run upon a plat form, and the whole weight of six tons is hoisted at a speed that makes the head swim, the time occupied in lifting a full car being only a little more than a minute. The hoisting and lowering of men into coal mines is regulated by law in that State, and only ten can stand on a platform at once under pen alty of a heavy fine. However, care lessness can not be prevented, and unaccustomed visitors are appalled by it. “A person of weak nerves,” says a correspondent, “should not brave the ordeal by descending the Pottsville shaft. The machinery works as smooth ly as a hotel elevator, but the speed is so terrific that one seems falling through the air. The knees after a few seconds become weak and tremulous, the ears ring as the drums of these organs are forced inward by the air pressure, and the eyes shut involuntarily as the beams of the shaft seem to dash up ward only a foot or two away. As one leaves the light of the upper day the transition to darkness is fantastic. The light does not pass into gloom in the same fashion as our day merges into night, but there is a kind of phospho rescent glow, gradually becoming dim mer and dimmer. Half way down you pass, with a roar and sudden crash, the ascending car; and at last, after what seems several minutes, but is only a fraction of that time, the platform be gins to slow up, halts at a gate, and through it you step into a crowd of creatures with the shapes of men, but with the blackened faces, the glaring eyes, and wild physiognomies of fiends.” —-—. Nasal Paralysis. A candidate asked a man, who war, working against him, if there was not something the matter with his nose. “ Not that I knows of,” was the reply. “ Isn’t your nose paralyzed ? ” “Why, no; what makes you think so?” responded the other, feeling his nasal organ. “Nothing, except that my opponent has been leading you about by the nose for the last four or five years, and you don’t seem to know it, so I thought you could not have much feeling in it.” —A novel funeral cortege was re cently seen in Wyandotte, Kansas. On one side of the hearse walked six young ladies, and on the other side six J*” 1 ’ 1 # men The former wore bla< k gowns, white gloves and white craiie . and the young men wore the conven- j tional black.— Tnbunc. Texas Land Corners. We rode out last week with a surveyoi and his assistant, who said they were going out on the prairie, some twenty miles, to survey a thousand acres that a stockman wanted to enclose for a past ure. The land had been surveyed be fore,but the corners had been misplaced, or carried off by some one, and to find out the boundaries a new survey had to be made. We often wondered how a man could identify his land on a flat prairie where there were no apparent landmarks to guide him. In wooded lands the corners are known by marks cut in trees with an ax, but where there are no permanent natural objects, the surveyor marks a corner by driving a small wooden stake into the ground? This is a very unsatisfactory arrange ment, because the first teamster who comes along will probably carry off tbe southeast corner of the survey, and cook his breakfast with it, or appropriate the northwest corner, and use the ancient landmark to whittle on as he rides along. In the absence of wood, a few stones or bones are piled up, and form a cor ner, and we have seen a cow’s horn stuck in a buffalo chip make one of the marks of the corner of an eleven league grant. When corners are lost or mislaid, the surveyor, to find the place again, has to go back to some plainly defined starling point, called an "established corner,” on some other grant, and survey from that. He often has to run a line ten miles in length, from a known to find an unknown point. There is one kind of corner that a teamster has never been known to carry off. It is made with a spade. Teamsters may have attempted, but have never succeeded in carrying off a hole in the ground. There are certain old Texans in every locality who knew, or pretend to know, the location of most all the old Span ish grants in the State. These old frauds are continually appearing in the courts as witnesses in cases where bound aries are disputed. They can point out and identify corners, follow mean ders and give the biography and pedi gree of the original grantee of every piece of land within a radius of a hun dred miles from where they bear wit ness. They have wonderful memories. We knew one of them who testified to having carried the chain in a survey made in 1806. Ashe only claimed to be 80 years of age at the time he gave his testimony, the fact that he was able to carry a chain in 1806 goes to show what a precocious and robust race the early Texans were—figures proving that this man was butfour years of age when he was engaged in the surveying feat al luded to. I The extraordinary memory exhibited in the matter of the identification of corners by the old Texans is explained by a quaint custom common in the early days of the Republic. When a settler received a grant of land from the Span ish Government, he would get it sur veyed and have the corners established. Then, that the identity of the bounda ries might be preserved in the family, would take his children out periodically, and whip them on the corners of the land. It was no uncommon thing for a traveler, ’as he journeyed across the prairie, to see a rugged old pioneer standing on the northeast corner of his league and labor of land, thrashing his oldest with a raw-hide strap, while, un der the ministrations of his mother, a younger son was howling on the south west corner. In such manner was nurtured the boy, who has since developed into the old veteran of to-day, so eloquent and unre liable, “As scones long past ot joy and pain, Come wandering o’er his ngod brain ” Texas Siftings. The Frigate Bird. “ I see,” says Michelet, “ a small, blue point in heaven. Happy and serene re gion, which has rested in peace above the hurricane ! In tluiiblue point, and at an elevation of ItJjWO feet, royally floats a little bird with enormous wings. A gull ? No, its wings are black. Au eagle ? No, the bird is too small. It is the ocean eagle, first and chief of the winged race, and daring navigator who never furls bis sails, the lord of the tempest, the scorner of all peril—the man-of-war or frigate bird. Wo have reached the culminating point of the series, commenced by the wingless bird. Here we have a bird which is virtually nothing more than wings; scarcely any body—barely as largo as the domestic cock—while his prodigious pinions are fifteen feet in span. The great problem of flight is solved and overpassed, for the power of flight seems useless. Such a bird, naturally sustained by such sup port, need not allow himself to be borne along. The storm bursts; he mounts to lofty heights, where ho finds tran quillity. The poetic metaphor, untrue when applied to any other bird, is no exaggeration when applied to him; liter ally, he sleeps upon the storm. When he chooses to soar his way seriously, ail distance vanishes ; he breaklasts at the Senegal • he dines in America.” —Sheep should have airy, well-lit tcred sheds, with plenty ot / . sunsb, " c ! and protected from snow. One gicat advantage of keeping sheep is to con vert straw into manure. Hence mud inter is usually strewn in sheen sheds, to the .listross of the have hard places to 1 their feet and eh Cll n be I >)|atforms, like old 1 by turning/ shifted about es ’ c 'T Pn jovpd,'ami wilt : over, will be ’ promote both health and conn ehanac. TERMS; SI.OOA YEAR SCIESCE AND INDUSTIIt. —A Florida youth has discovered tint strong, soft, flexible rope can be mt<le from the fiber of the common cocklobur bush. , —The deepest mine in the world, ac cording to Prof. 11. Hoefer, is the Przi bram silver mine in Bohemia. The lowest depth 3,300 feet below the sur face. —A progressive Atlanta (Ga.) man claims to have invented a milk pail that is kept in motion by a spring, and when he gets through milking a cow the milk has been churned into delicious butter. —Salting, M. L. Fouriment asserts, is not necessarily fatal to trichina; imbed ded in meat. These parasites may live in salt provisions for fifteen months. Salting, indeed, often serves to preserve the vitality of trichime, as it protects them to some extent from the destruc tive influence of heat. —A needle manufactory has been es tablished at Brooklyn, and is the onlv one in the country, all needles hitherto having come from Europe. They are lobe made by machinery, which will be the first attempt of the kind. The manufacture has been entirely by hand and requires many operations; the con version of the wire into rough needles requires twenty; the tempering and an nealing nine; polishing five, which are ’ repeated seven or eight times, and sort ing live. The Brooklyn enterprise will, it is to be hoped, prove a success.— Brooklyn Eagle. —Mr. James B. Smith, of Hackets town, N. J., has invented and patented an improved signal for railroad cross ings, tunnels, and dangerous places, which is declared to be cheap, durable, and incapable of disarrangement. A bowed spring is placed near the rails, so that the wheels of the passing train operate upon it, and by means of a lever and wire attachment work a gong bell and signal which are placed at the re quired distance ahead on the track. The signals remain exposed until the trains have passed, and by means of another spring are restored to place.— Christian Union. —A new building material called "fossil coral,” has been discovered in a small island in the Bay of Suva, Fiji. When it is first removed it is soft and easily cut into square blocks or any oth er desired shape, but when it is exposed to the open air for some time it grows very hard and assumes some of the characteristics of fire-brick. What the actual origin of this substance may have been is uncertain and will form an in teresting problem for geologists. At any rate it has been found so useful for building purposes that the Fijian Gov ernment have given a large order for cubes of it. PERSONAL AND LITERARY. ■ —Mr. Parnell writes that his doctors forbid him traveling, and that he can not address constituents until after tin session. —The Rev. J. P. May, of Memphis, refused communion to an excommuni cated member of his church, and the latter attempted to whip him. lhe dominie was equal to the occasion, and the other is in the hospital. —John Steele, better known as “Coal- Oil Johnny,” the fame of whose mag nificent fortune and reckless extrava gance still lives, is now engaged in man ual labor at Williamsport, Pa., and re ceives $2.50 per day for his services. —The new heir to the Swedish crown, son of the Crown Prince, will be called Prince Oscar Frederick Olaf Gustavus Adolphus. Duke of Shoonen. Had he been born a week earlier his birthday would have fallen on his namesake s 250th anniversary, which would have been thought a happy omen. —Queen Victoria has conferred a baronetcy on *Mr. William John Clarke of the colony of Victoria. 'I his gentle man is probably a son of the man known as Big Clarke, who made the greatest fortune on record in Australia. I his is fprobably the tirsthereditary honor con erred on an Australian. —Minister Hamlin was impressed with the informal politeness with which he was received at the court of Madrid. At his first presentation King Alphonso, who speaks English, but not so, fluently ns the Queen, said to him: “Now, Mr. Hamlin, come into the next room, and let me introduce you to my wife, not calling her the Queen. —The late Philip Turpin Johnson, of Chesterfield County. Virginia, left all his property, including “the country scat of the great Revolutionary orator and Governor, Patrick Henry, to Dr. J. W. Johnson, of Richmond, to whom the deceased was not related. Mr. Johnson was a bachelor brother of the late Major-General Edward Johnson, of the United States and Confederate service. Charles Gordon Greene, Jr., son of Colonel Greene, formerly editor of the Boston Post, whose death in Pans was recently announced, hail lived abroad for nearly twenty-five years. He was an energetic and successful man or business, and strongly endowed with the family taste and talent for liteia ture. To the leading magazines of Eu rope he contributed many papers. (in<l did. besides, aomo work as a corre spondent. h ! -To clean steel forks fill a i, I with tine sand < } r x b i 7 e /2 < »jw»ys kep* r down well, and let r f the'fork in ’ moist. Kun the stains will ' this once or t^ rice : ' f from them disappear. o „t of 'he leather*. — CfiitaW Journal.