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THE LINCOLNTON NEWS
J. X). COLLEY & CO.,
VOL. I.
Mt* FOUR SEASONS*
bpbino.
Laughing xxxaiden, how I love you 1
Gay as any woodland bird,
Sparkling as the stars above you,
Of your t»eauty all have heard.
Happy as a t>ee in clover,
Singing not, nor being stung,
Full of joy and running over,
Binging songs the sweetest sung.
Now you have found a milk-white blossom
Of the early red pocoon,
It is sweeter to your vision
Than a "world of dowers in June.
Not a shadow ever lingers
Where your fair footsteps fall,
For your "wise and wand-like fingers
Touch no pleasures that can fall.
Gathering only thornless roses,
Stranger to the pangs of love,
Keveling "Where it reposes,
Could you be more blest above?
SUMMER. .
Pensive, t»lushing girl I love you;
You’ve n secret hard to keep ;
God’a blue sky, that bends above you,
Watches, while you pray and weep.
Buds must bloom if earth has blossoms,
Death is life—life bitter sweet,
Let the rose leaves lie and moulder
In the grass beneath yonr feet.
Joy and sorrow round you hover;
You have gained and you have lost—*
Gained a true and faithful lover,
But your heart is tempest tossed.
You’re a captive—but your master
Is your slave. Be true as steel.
Chains of love are no disaster—
They, life’s wounds like magic heal,
When the conflict hot is over
Then the sun will brighter shine,
Till the world with light runs over,
And its joy shall all be thine.
AUTUMN.
Mother sitting so serenely
With tiiat cherub face to thine,
Never prouder or more queenly
Looked a dame of royal line.
What is all the world about you
To the new-born soul that lies
Helpless, hapless without yon,
Mute with wonder, witching eyes?
Happy heart, you scarce remember
When the blossoms hung on high,
Hinting that in soft September
Golden fruit should round you lie.
Sing aloud your songs of gladness,
Tho’ life’s rose hides a thorn,
Let no minor Btrain of sadness
Prelude be of sorrow born.
Trusting mother, how I love yon 1
Earth has not a friend so true,
Constant as the stars above you,
Looking nightly thro’ the blue.
WINTER.
Lady, qniet, stately lady,
Lovely as a lake at rest,
Over which the wind blows lightly,
Lest he shonld disturb its breast.
Dusky leaves of gold now cover
Baths with dead ambitions strewn;
Only hannting memories hover
Of the hopes forever flown,
Bitter grief has burned yonr bosom,
Graves are green that hold your dead;
Yet yotr* still are brave and loving,
Lofting np the drooping head;
Leading others, faint and weary,
From the valley of despair,
To the tranquil plains of patience—
How I love yon for yonr care!
You are waiting as a snowflake
Waits the sunbeam’s warm embrace,
Till the gates ajar shall open,
Showing you the father’s face.
—Mrs. J. V.
HALLIDAY AND SON.
In the cozy little private office ap¬
pertaining to their business house sat
Halliday and son. Halliday was a
bluff, heavy old fellow of fifty or
thereabouts, with a pair of keen, bright
eyes, which twinkled incessantly, and
was seated in his chair with heels upon
his desk. Son was a young man of
twenty-five, tall, dark and handsome,
clad in a suit of navy blue flannel, and
was seated on a corner of the desk look
ing down upon his father.
“Who is the object of your all-de¬
vouring passion, eh, Dick, my boy ?”
The old. gentleman asked. “Some chit
of a school girl?”
“Her name is Wilkins,” replied the
young man. “She is a widow—a
double widow, I will say—for she had
been married twice,and is—come don’t
let your chin drop to such an alarming
extent, for outside of all she is worth
$50,000, although that, in my case, is a
feather’s weight in the scales. She is
actually thirty-six, but looks ten years
younger, and is pretty as a picture.
She has one child, a daughter who is at
school in Paris, but as she is heiress to
a cool $100,000, she is not an incum¬
brance toy any means.”
“Dick Halliday, you’re a fool!” ex¬
claimed. the old gentleman. “The
woman, is almost old enough to be your
mother.”
“Not quite as bad as that.”
“I say sir, she’s almost old enough
to be yonr mother! Have you com¬
mitted yourself—has she ensnared
you?”
“Don’t you remember the old agree¬
ment, father, that when I thought of
marrying I would consult with you
before taking the step? I will there¬
fore introduce you to Mrs. Wilkins, let
you study her character, and then
abide toy your decision; for I have no
doubt as to what it will be.”
“Ah !’ ’ said the old gentleman,“that’s
better, That’s decidedly better. You
may introduce me, Dick, and I will
promise you my unbiasing opinion of
the bewitching creature."
"All wight. When will you go!”
"To-zxight, to-morrow, any time you
THE ATJGi-TJSTA, ELBERTON A1ND CHICAGO RAILROAD.
please; but see here, Dick, to change
the subject, how about this London
business ? It’s going to ruin.”
“Well suppose we will have to
send a man to look after it.”
“Send!” cried the old man, “that
won’t do at all; one or the other of us
must go. We’ve'trusted entirely too
much of late, and home interests are
almost as bad as our foreign. Now,
Dick, I’ll tell y*ou what I’ll do. If you
will go to London and straighten things
up, I’ll give youtmy answer concerning
your flame the‘moment you return.^
I’ve been over so* often that the* very
thought of going makes me ( sick.
Come, what do you^say, Dick ?”
“If you desire it, tfather, I’ll go, cer¬
tainly.” settled.^.Where -
“Then that’s are you
off to now?” f 1
“I was going up to the.'Astor, but I’ll'
wait until evening,, andithen you can
accompany me.”
“All right, Dick, all right; only don’t
commit yourself. Beware of widows,
know.”
That evening Ilalliday and son re¬
paired to the Astor House and were
conducted to one of the private parlers.
In a few minutes Mrs. Wilkins entered,
and it was plain to be seen that the old
gentleman was amazed. IIa did not
wonder at his son’s infatuation, and
afterward acknowledged her to be the
most beautiful woman he had ever
seeen. When at length they took their
departure after spending a delightful
evening, the son said :
“What do you say, father?”
“Give me time, my boy, give me
time,” was the reply.
The next day at 1 o’clock Dick started
for London. The weather was fair,
'the passage a prosperous one, and he
reached his destination safe and sound.
He found the business in a terrible
state and had his hands and mind fully
occupied, and a week slipped by. One
morning he received a letter from his
father, a portion of which ran as fol¬
lows :
“Concerning the widow, I am well
pleased with your choice. She is a
good woman—as good as beautiful. A
trifle too old for you is my only objec¬
tion.”
Another week went by and another
letter came, in which, speaking of the
widow, the old man said:
“I am astonished at your extraordi¬
nary good judgment in such a matter.
The more I see the lady the better I am
pleased. She is a most excellent lady
in every respect. A trifle too old for
you is my only objection.”
“Good!” said Dick to himself. “I
guess I will stay a week on my own
account, now that the business is
cleared up, and go to London. The old
gentleman seems to be well pleased,
and guess by the time I get home his
only objections will have been over
come. Not that I care a straw for his
opinion one way or the other, but
peace is preferable to war at any
time.”
And taking a picture of the widow
from his pocket he embraced it most
affectionately. week
So Dick remained another and
did London thoroughly. On the day
before he was to have sailed for home
he received another letter from his
father, saying:
“My Bear Boy :—I never was more
pleased with a woman in all my life.
She is an angel. I don’t wonder at
you loving her. She is pure, honest,
everything you imagine her to be, but
she can never marry you. It is impos¬
sible. I don’t like to be severe, but it
can never be. The truth is, Dick, she
has become my wife. Don’t be a fool,
now, but come home at once. A trifle
too old was my only objection.
Your affectionate father,
Riciiaed Halliday.”
To say that Dick was enraged would
but faintly describe his feelings; he
fairly boiled. He wrote immediately
to his father, telling him:
“In the future your foreign business
may go to the deuce, and your home
interests, too.”
Then, after drawing a good sum of
money, he started for the continent.
For two years he wandered from
place to place, and at the end of that
time found himself in Paris. Here he
fortunately fell in with an acquaint¬
ance he had made while in London; and
who had since married, and was then
doing business in Paris.
At his friend’s house, one evening
he was introduced to an American
young lady of whom he became enam¬
ored at first sight.
The young lady, Miss Julia Kent¬
ridge by name, was to start for New
York in a few days, and, on hearing
this, Dick engaged passage on the
steamer. The voyage was a pleasant
one, and - before they reached Sandy
Hook, Miss Julia promised that, with
her mother’s consent,she would become
Dick’s wife. When they reached the
city the young lady found a carriage in
waiting for her, and Diok, having de¬
termined not to enter hi*f ether's home,
LINCOLNTON, GA., FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 1883.
for the present at least, went direct to
an obscure hotel.
The next day he mounted the steps of
the Madison avenue mansion and rang
the bell. A servant ushered him into
the parlor, and shortly afterward en¬
tered Miss Kentridge.
When they had greeted each other
after the usual manner of lovers, Julia
said:
“If you will excuse me for a moment,
Richard, I will go and inform my
mother that you have come.”
Dick was seated under a window
looking out, and did not notice her re¬
turn till she said;
“Mr. Halliday, allow me to—”
Dick had turned at the sound of her
voice, ready to appear at his best, but
he staggered back fairly thunderstruck
for there behind him stood the late
widow—his father’s wife.
“I really—” he gasped, “I—that is, I
“Of course you did not,” said the
lady, help'ing him out. “How could
you ? But here is your father.”
“Yes, here I am, Dick, my boy,”
cried the old gentleman, rushing in.
“How are you, lad, how are you?”
They shook hands cordially, and the
old man said r
“Dick, my lad, you’re trapped—you’re
ensnared. My wife and I were in
Paris to bring Julia home, and when
she told us of her meeting with you we
just put our heads together to make a
match of it. We came over with you
on the same steamer.”
“Really, though,” said Dick, address¬
ing his step-mother, “when I heard you
speaking of your daughter being at
school, I imagined her to be a little
girl, n6t a young lady!”
“Oh, no! I was married to Mr.
Kentridge when quite young, and Julia
is now nineteen.”
“I’ve no objection this time, lad,
non'e at all. A trifle too old was my
objection before, you know ; ha ! ha !”
and he went off in a fit of laughter that
nearlr choked him.”
After dinner the old gentleman said;
“Well, Dick, our foreign business is
going to the bad, sure enough, and I
think the best thing you can do is to
marry at once and take your bride
abroad and look after it. I did not sell
the old house when I bought this one,
and upon your return I will have it
ready for you to occupy.”
And thus it was arranged.
The house of Ilalliday & Son still
flourishes, and the children, grand-chil¬
dren and what-not bearing that name,
for their relationship is rather mixed,
are numerous.
Rertnuda’s Coral Reef si
“There’s hills and mountains down
there, sir,” said an old sailor to the
writer one day as we were scudding in
toward the sound; “and fields and
forrests, all made of coral. Of a clear
day eight or ten miles outside, sir, with
my water-glass, I’ve seen things as you
could hardly believe if I told you.
Mighty big trees, and places like grass
plats and onion fields, bigger’n any in
Bermuda, groves like palmettos, and
churches—cathedrals, I believe you
call ’em—-like they have in London,
with heaps of steeples, and big fish go¬
ing to meetin’!”
“No fairy tale, no Captain.”
“No, sir; all fact, except ’bout the
meetin’. Fish hain’t got much feelin’
specially sherks, and marays, and gray
snappers, you know.”
The coral reefs on which the Bermu¬
da Islands are built extend a distance
of from ten to twenty miles beyond the
land west, north and east, much of the
intermediate space being dotted with
islands and darkened by innumerable
shoals that are of endless torment to
sailors. The shores are with little ex¬
ception rugged, broken, made up of
over-hanging cliffs and peculiar terrace
like layers of rock. In places the cease¬
less action of the waves has made deep
caverns, bored holes, carved fantastic
shapes and made decorations that re¬
,
semble stucco work. Sea moss carpels
many of these weird looking structures,
and hangs in long wreaths from es¬
carpment and cornice, where mermaids
and mermen can go to housekeeping
and find all sorts of beautiful and
esthetic articles to embellish their in¬
teriors. Hermit crabs scramble awk¬
wardly along the sharp ledges near the
water, looking like criminals trying to
hide, scudding for an untenanted peri¬
winkle or vacant couch shell when
pressed for time, while here and there,
in natural acquarin, little tanks and
bowls of water in the rocks, you can
see pretty small fry that seem to have
concluded to drop in there and rest
till the tide comes up again and en¬
ables them to rejoin their congeners in
the deep green sex
Fortress Monroe, Virginia, is the
largest single fortification in the world .
It has already cost the government
over $3,000,000. The water battery is
considered one of the finest military
works in the world.
DANGEROUS OLD HULKS.
One of the Greatest Perils Encountered bj
the Sailors on the Seas.
Abandoned vessels or other floating
obstacles are the cause of many disast
ers at sea. These obstacles are
ially dangerous because they give no
warnings of their presence until too
late to avoid a collision. Besides the
abandoned wrecks, which are apt to
become water-logged and sink just be¬
low the surface, there are other float¬
ing obstacles which are liable to prove
dangerous to the vessels which run
into them. Ships have been crippled
and even sunk, owing to their having
come into forcible contact with portions
of wreckage, logs, pieces of timber,
whales or other sea monsters, icebergs
and ice Doubtless some,
of the vessels which left port in an ap¬
parently sea worthy condition, bu
were never afterward heard from, went
down with all on board, after coming
nto collision with water-logged wrecks
which had not been observed by the
men on lookout. Such obstacles are
not as apt to sink a large iron steam¬
ship, but with small craft it proves
very different. “The water-logged
wreck is the most dangerous of these
floating obstacles,” said an old sea capt¬
ain. “Many a vessel has been lost ow¬
ing to those abandoned hulks. And
the worst of it seems to be that it is al¬
most impossible to get rid of them.
They are mostly the wrecks of timber
laden vessels. Almost any other cargo
would sink a ship when she became full
of water. The longer such a wreck
drifts about the more dangerous it be¬
comes, for it gradually sinks below the
surface, but remains just high enough
to knock a hole in the bottom of the
first ship that comes along. A great
many sailors are altogether too apt to
give up a ship before there is any real
reason for such a course. And then
they leave a dangerous obstacle float
ing about which may sink half a dozen
other vessels before it goes to the bot¬
tom itself. I remember the case of a
three-masked lumber-laden schooner
named Louisa Birdsall, which was
abandoned about five years ago. Her
crew were taken off the wreck by a
passing vessel, and were landed at some
port along the coast. The abandoned
vessel drifted about off Hatteras, where
I once passed close to her and where
she \\;as sighted by a number of ves¬
sels. You couldn’t pick up a paper
j>rinted in any large American, British
or continental port without reading
that some ship which had just arrived
had passed the wreck of the Louisa
Birdsall.
ran foul of her and were more or less
crippled in consequence. For over a
year that water-logged hulk drifted
about in the track of shipping. Scar¬
cely a dark night passed without some
vessel running into her. It got so that
whenever a ship would be towed into
one of the ports along the coast with
her bows well stove in the captains in
that harbor would say, ‘Well, that
Louisa Birdsall has been prowheg
about off Hatteras again.’ At last,
after long watching and waiting, the
insurance underwriters received a cable
dispatch from Bermuda, by way of
Halifax, which announced that the
Louisa Birdsall had at last drifted into
shallow water and had sunk, leaving
her masts sticking out of water. The
whole maritime world rejoiced at this
intelligence. A good many captains
made it a rule to set fire to every water¬
logged wreck which they came across,
but even then the chances are that the
hulk will merely burn to the water’s
edge. It is now almost as dangerous
an obstacle to run against as it was be¬
fore, but as long as it is burning there
is little danger that it will be run into
No one can say positively how the ill
fated City of Boston, with her hun¬
dreds of lives, was lost some years ago.
But the disaster was probable caused
by some floating obstacle. It may have
been that she ran into an iceberg or
that she ran over some hulk which
was floating just beneath the surface of
the water.—Yew York Times.
Boots and Shoes.
Exclusive of custom work and re¬
pairing the number of establishments
in the United States in the census year,
1880, manufacturing boots and shoes
was 1959; they had an invested capital
of $42,994,028; they employed 3,483
children and youths; 25,122 females
above 15 years of age; and 82,547 males
above 16 years of age; they paid $43,
001,438 in wages. The material used
was: 6.831,661 sides of sole leather;
21,147,656 sides of upper leather, in¬
cluding calf, morocco and other skins;
35,960,614 pounds of other leather.
The value of materials used by these
. factories was $102,442,442. Their
product was as follows:
40,890,896 JM, 887,616 pairs pairs boots shoes valued valued at.............
Value of unspecitied products.............. at............ '717, - MS
746
Total products. .«!&>, 060, SM
lumber Puget daily Sound foreign ships a million feet of
to ports.
Churches on the ’Welsh Const.
Along the entire coast of Wales cer¬
tain striking characteristics are ob
served in the churches. Here is a
group of Welsh churches; look at their
towers, each more ponderous than the
next. It needs no argument to con
vince us they were meant for strong¬
holds as well as campaniles. They
could almost defy the waves of
ccean, like the cliffs; have done so, in¬
deed, in certain instances when the
seas have risen in storm and fury, and
plunged roaring inland to the church
doors. The aspect of these places of
worship is well in keeping with the
shore scenery to which they give char¬
acter. The rough weather they are
often doomed to encounter in their
generally exposed situations, is pro¬
vided against by an entire absence of
externa! ornamentation, and a rugged
solid simplicity of construction. Many
of them have been restored in the pres¬
ent century—some rather too much
restored; but others err in this regard
by omission rather than commission.
The feelings of the antiquary are of¬
fended by the introduction of incon¬
gruous pointed or staring square¬
headed windows and such like base in¬
sertions ; but even this is more endur¬
able than the neglect which has been
allowed to fall on many of these old
sea-coast temples.— Wirt Sikes in Har¬
per's Magazine.
An average day’s work for a brick¬
layer is 1,500 bricks on outside and
inside walls ; on facing and angles and
finishing around wood or stone work
not more than half of this number can
be laid.
There were 466 more liquor saloons
in Georgia in 1881 than in 1882. There
are still 2,517 saloons in the State.
Savina Ten Thousand Hollars.
The feast was set, the guests were
me' when a young man entered in.
j
“Sir;” said he to the master of the
house, “I have come to you on, a very
important mission. Were it otherwise,
I should not have ventured to call upon
you upon this auspicious day, when, as
I perceive you are about to celebrate
the betrothal of your fair daughter.
Still, as it may save you $10,000—but
if you are engaged I will retire.”
“By no means, my dear sir, by no
means,”said the father of the bride ex¬
pectant, warmly; we are just about
sitting down to dinner, join us, and
after dinner we can discuss matters.”
The young man allows himself to be
induced to join the jovial company,
where he eats for two and drinks for
three.
At the conclusion of the feast the
father escorts him to a private depart
ment and begs him to reveal his busi
ness,
“I think sir,” he says to the stranger
offering him a cigar of prime quality,
“that you observed that you could show
me how to save $10,000.”
“Precisely,” says the stranger, light¬
ing the cigar. “Now, you intend in ar
rying your daughter to that amiable
but somewhat weak-minded youth
down stairs, and giving her a marriage
portion of $20,000. Give her to me.
sir, and I’ll take her with half the
money. That’ll leave you $10,000
ahead !”—Chicago Tribune.
Bee Thieves.
Butcher, in his physical lives of
beasts, speaks of thievish bees, “which,
in order to lessen their labor or dis¬
pense with it wholly, made attacks in
mass on provisioned hives, committed
violence against the sentinels and the
inhabitants, pillaged the hive, and
carried away all the store of honey. If
this exploit was successful for several
times, they, like men, acquired a
stronger taste for pillage and violence
than for work, and ended by constitut¬
ing real colonies of brigands.” There
are isolated individuals which are ad¬
dicted to theft and endeavor to slip,
without being perceived, into a strange
hive; their sly tricks demonstrate that
they are forced to concealment, and
are conscious that they are trans¬
gressors. If they succeed in their at¬
tempt, they afterwards bring other
bees to their hives to tempt them to
similar thefts, and thus form a society
of thieves. Buchner adds that bees
may be artificially made thieves by
feeding them a special food "consisting
of honey mixed with brandy. “Like
man, they readily acquire a taste for
this beverage, which exercises the
same pernicious influence upon them
as upon him; they become excited, in¬
toxicated, and cease to work. Do they
feel hungry? Then, like man, they
fall from one vice into another, and
give themselves up unscrupulously to
pillage and theft.”
The daily earnings in the cotton
factories of the United States are
nearly double what they were in 1840,
The total number of spinning spindles
is 40,653,435 ; of looms, 225,759. The
actual consumption of cotton last year
was 1,760,000 balm.
CLIPPINGS FOB THE CURIOUS.
At Stalvenfels-on-the-Rhine there is
an ancient church reduped to ruins
through a law-suit about tithes, which
lasted forty years.
Bats in a mine give warning of dan¬
ger by running about uneasily, and in
great numbers. The miners are in¬
clined to treat them with great kind¬
ness.
In 1816 Lord Schworterbuy gave
16,595 francs for a tooth of Isaac New¬
ton, which is now set in a ring and
worn by the eldest branch of that
family.
The oldest tree on earth is probably
the cypress of Santa Maria del Tule, in
the Mexican state of Oaxaca. It is
still growing, and in 1851 it measured
forty-two feet in diameter.
Among the Romans of the first and
second centuries were certain societies
called Colleffia, the members of which
took their meals in common, and by
regular payments prepared a fund for
their burial and for festival.
There are at present no fewer than
ten establishments in F ranee devoted
to the propagation of bait for the use
of anglers, and one of these breeders
sells from 30,000,000 to 40,000,000 of
worms per annum, deriving a handsome
income from the business.
Four empires were constituted from
the fragments of that of Alexander.
Selencus Nieator had control of the
countries between the Mediterranean
and the Indus; Lysimachus of Thrace
and Asia Min or; Cassahder of Mace¬
donia and Greece, and Ptolemy of
Egypt.
Among the antique articles in pos¬
session of Mr. Sewell, of Maine, are a
set of pewter plates bearing the seal of
King Richard and supposed to be more
than 400 years old; also, one large sjj
ver spoon, which represents all the
money received for building a saw and
grist mill—the payment having been
made in silver and then cast into the
spoon.
When Darius set out upon his famous
expedition against Athens, in 492 B.C.,
he took with him a block of marble to
be set up as a monument of his victory;
but by order of the people, after the
battle of Marathon, Phidias cut this
into a statue of Nemesis. The arms
and shield gathered from the field
were melted and cast into a statue of
Pallas, which was placed on the
Acropolis.
A number of years ago Henry Clay
was presented with a cane. The staff
is of live oak cut from a tree that over¬
shadowed the tomb of Cicero ; and the
head is made of verd antique, obtained
from the house of Columbus, at Genoa.
It is octagonal, and ornamented with
exquisite meda lions of those two
famous orators of ancient and modern
times—Rome’s Cicero and Aonerica’s
Clay. claimed be the most
In what is to
delicate pair of scales in the world, ac¬
cording to the account given in the
scientific papers, the beam is made of
rye straw, and together with the pans,
which are made of aluminum, weighs
only fifteen grains. In the most deli¬
cate scale heretofore made the beam
and pan weighed sixty-eight grains,
the beam being made of aluminum, and
and the instrument was capable of
weighing to the 1-1000 of a grain.
This new scale, however, weighs to the
1-10,000 of a grain. A piece of hair
one inch long, on being weighed with
this wonderful apparatus, was found
to represent the almost infinitesimal
quantity of 1-1000 of a grain.
Protecting the Reporters.
Touching the various definitions
which are being given of “obstruction,”
the St. James Gazette says that news¬
papers were largely indebted for their
privilege of reporting parliamentary
debates to an act of downright obstruc¬
tion committed on their behalf by Ed¬
mund Burke. When in March, 1771,
Lord Mayor Crosby was sent to the
tower for protecting the reporters of
the London Evening Mail, who had
been ordered into arrest, Burke took up
the reporters’ cause in the house. Mr.
Reginald Palgrave, in his interesting
little monograph on the house of com¬
mons, of which he is clerk assistant,
tells us how this was done: “Burke
could not prevent the committal of the
printers, but he made the proceedings
look absurd; he made them sick of the
job. For twelve long hours—from five
o’clock one afternoon till five o’clock
next morning—by twen*y-three divi¬
sions, by facial motions, by jest, by
every kind of absurd proposal, did
Burke delay and make contemptible
the attempt to silence the newspapers.
The result of that victory of March 12,
1771, is most conspicuous—the gallery,
namely, which runs aoross the house
above the speaker’s chair.
The first streebear line in the world
was the Fourth avenue line to Har¬
lem, opened in New York in 1832.
A company at St. Louis turns out
100 dosen shovels a day.
PUBLISHERS.
NO. 24.
SCIENTIFIC SCRAPS.
It is asserted by a Brazilian that
coffee is a natural antidote to alcohol,
and that the consumption of alcoholic
stimulants is comparatively small
where coffee is a popular drink, as in
his own country.
What has been called “sewer gas” is
composed of air, vapor and gases in
constantly varying proportions, to¬
gether with living germs—vegetable
and animal—and minute particles of
putrescent matter.
The skeleton of a Dinosaurin reptile
thirty-five feet long, has been unearthed
in the Bad Lands of Dakota. The
creature is supposed to have stood
twenty-five feet high. The weight of
the skull is 694 pounds, and of 1 the
whole skeleton 1,900 pounds.
Dogs, under favorable conditions,
live to an age much beyond that whioh
is usually assigned to them. Mr. B.
Cordiner, of Oxford, England, knows a
black ratriever aged thirty-one, and
there is no doubt that others are ao
quainted with like aged individuals of
the canine species. j
It is well known that minute metal¬
lic particles are often collected in
places remote from terrestrial sources
of dust. Recent investigation shows
that many of these particles must have
undergone fusion, which evidently
proves that they have come from the
smoke of factories, from volcanic fires
of that they had a meteoric origin.
A mixture of twenty parts of hard
soap, forty parts of kerosene, and one
part of fir balsam had been found very
effective in destroying the inserts-
which damage the orange tree. Pro¬
fessor C. Y. Riley is the authority.
Other valuable plants, notably the vine
might be similarly protected by a spray
from an application of the same recipe.
It can be dilutod at will with water so
as not to interfere with the constita
tion of the plant.
The coal supplied to the Nagasaki
market comes from a field in Japan
situated along the coast line between
Cape Momo and the mouth of Nagasa¬
ki Harbor and thence to nearly the
most northerly of the Goto Islands. It
isjef erred to the tertiary period, and
is highly bituminous, of irregular frae
ture, but somewhat eubicaL When
freshly broken it has a lustrous black
appearance, which changes by pro¬
tracted exposure to the atmosphere to
a dull, rusty black.
PEARLS OF THOUGHT. i
On the day of victory no weariness
is felt.
A wise man reflects before he speaks,
and reflects on what he has uttered.
The head, however strong it may be,
can accomplish nothing against the
heart.
The most important part of every
business is to know what ought to be
done.
The wiseman looks for happiness
beyond the narrow ken of personal
interest.
Infinite toil would not enable you to
sweep away a mist, but by ascending a
little you may often look over it
altogether.
Never leave what you undertake
until you can reach your arms aroimd
it and clench your hands on the other
side.
You can’t judge of the value of a
man by his talk any more than you can
judge of the value of the tree by its
bark.
One should be careful not to carry
any of his follies of youth into old
age; for old age has follies enough of
its own.
Do not despise the opinion of the
world ; you might as well say that you
care not for light of the sun because
you can use a candle.
Some minds are so constructed as
not to be amenable to the ordinary
rules of judgment; they deserve pity
rather than censurff
Sorrow itself is not so hard to bear
as the thought of sorrow coming.
Airy ghosts that work no harm do
terrify us more than men in steel with
bloody purpose.
The bean-blower with which the
modern school-boy loves to torment
the children round about him and his
teacher on the platform is only a
feeble imitation of the “sumpitan,"
with which tho original DyrXs of
Borneo goto war. Thesumpit? L is a
blow-pipe, about five feet lon^j, and
the arrows which are made of wood or
fish-bones; are thin and sharp, and are
generally dipped in the poison of the
upas tree, which, though virulent, is
not always deadly. This singular
weapon is used with the greatest ac¬
curacy at a range of twenty yards, but
it will carry a hundred.
Within six months 138 car-couple*
patents have been granted