Newspaper Page Text
Columbia Sentinel.
haklem. Georgia
PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY.
Bnllarcl AlU_ln«on,
rnoi-iurroßa.
The «■! I ’.iw ••Hint there i« nothing
new und-r the un” i* lieing constantly
•xen.plifi <!. A■< * ago, upon the bank*
of I! Nile. •oinc of Iho recusant F.gyp
ti .n «l.'i-ii I n<>' join with their com
patriot* in rowan" lor the gentle
crocodile slew the playful creature and
utilized it* sk.n f r covering* for their
roll* of papyri. N »w, after nil tho yean
int< wiling, the latest er z • in bibllope
gim matter* in for crocodile akin, and
when properly tri ated it form* a most
effective binding, rivalling in apjicar
ance the best morocc >.
The lofty wooden spire* of the
churcho* in Mattoon, 111., have been
pierced in bun II I* of pine sby woo 1-
pc< kers looking for food or for place*for
neat*. Th' hole* in the Methodirt
church steeple be< nine so unsightly that
a man w» employed to ..hoot the bird*.
Then b< es took up their abode within,
and tlie r honey drip-, from the hole* and
amears the steeple. The Congregational
church steeple i. well fill" I with homy,
and »o are the st< < pie* in neighboring
town*. Hix »w* in* of bee* were seen
to quit tho spire of a Paxton church in
one day.
A story can w from Mexico that tho
native* of M' xieo on the coasts inocu
late themselves with the virus of adder*,
Cobra* and rati 1< snakes, and persons who
have been thus vaccinated are rendered
forever proof against injury from any
bite or sting. An eruption immediately
break* out, accompanied by fever and
much swelling of the body, after whic h
tho skin gradually flakes iff in scales, n»
in leprosy, It is said that people who
have been vaccinated in this manner can
not only handle the most poisonous ser
pent* with impunity, but tho bite of
these persons themselves is ns fatal a*
that of the snake whose virus has been
transferred into their blood.
The Chicago Tribune tells a pathetic
■tory of the eldest daughter of John
Brig ham Young, one of t he wealthiest men
in Utah. She was the favorite niece of
Brigham Young, was liberally edin ated
■nd was an exc Hi nt musician. Iler father
wanted her to marry a Mormon e dor,
but she clop <1 with n young newspaper
man, a Gentile. They went to New
York city, win- e ho worked ns a repor
ter until hl* eye* failed. Ho became blind,
■nd sho sung in a concert saloon there
and supported her husb.in I, to whom sho
was devoted. Thon sho lost her voice J
by nickui **. and tho two were likely to
starve. They drifted to Chicago, and
now the wife, no longer young, grinds a
wheezy h ind organ day after day, rain
or shine, and still supports her sightless
husband.
At various times for fifty years smoko
has been seen issuing from the swamps
of Florida, and every cone ivablo theory
projected to account for it. The swamp
is impassable, but men have penetrated
very nenr to where tho smoke ought to
l>c. There, however, they could see no
sign of it. Il is even claimed that some
have gone directly through it without
knowing it, and Judge White, an aged
citizen, is poitivo ho was
once within five or six miles
from it, when it «>« perfectly
plain. 80 the weight of scientific opinion
I* that It is a vapor collected by peculiar
Condition* in the great swamp, invisible,
of course, to one in it, but opaque to
those n few miles away. Wo nil love mvs
tcry, however, and so the common voice
run* that an opening in the swamp dis
charge! a blue smoke from some under
ground source.
When the Eup ror William travels,
My* the Pall .1/ ill Gitette, every possible
measure is taken to provide for
bi* comfort. Tho tinpi'ror'i
■pecial train consist* of three
Mloon carriages, connected with each
other by a covered way. The imperial
carriage proper is richly hung with blur
damask, and at one end there is a small
compartment, in wh eh the emperor
like* to stand at the window when mak
ing short journey*. A small saloon next
to this c.-upo contains a sofa ami a spring
scat, opposite wh eh is tho emperor's
camp bed. Near the saloon is the s;udy,
in which stand* n desk with writing ma
terials, whose appearance show* good
wear. Upon a bracket alrovc the desk
is a small model of the Column of Vic
tory iu Berlin. Adjacent to the
study is a dressing room, fitted up with
extreme c«rv and good taste. A final
room contain* two small sofa*, a leaf
table and a Urge mirror. With the
emperor's own carriage is a carriage for
hi* suite, and this is, of course, quite
different y fitted up. It contain* five or
six apartments each contain ng a table
■nd two sm«ll couches. All the rooms
■reconnected by telegraph with the
emperor 1 * apartment*. The car
riage* are provided with gas through
cut.
After • somewhat checkered career,
the Great Eastcra *eem« at last to Irave a
fair chance of a green and useful old
age. Her rv—r at I. v -rpoo! as a float
ing temple of an'.u loment ha* proved so
su i < ss'ul that s he is to become n peripa
tetic variety show, aid will b ■ taken
about the British coast and finally to the
Australian colonics.
Ace rding to the New Orleans Timu-
Denoerat L iuisian*lost 300,000,000 lb*,
of sugar last year by imperfect sugar
milling. Tim quintity of sugar actually
m ide last y< ar wa> 250,000,009 jxiunds.
There i* only one first-' hi** sugar mill in
th State, rno-t of th" other* arc clumsy
dTiir-, which leave nearly one-half of
the saccharine matter in the bagasse or
refuse cane. Tin- planter! arc aware of
this enormous waste, but say they cannot
afford to throw away their old machin- I
ery and buy new.
Tim President Im* far beaten the veto
record of any of hi* predecessors. Wash- ;
in .ton, during his tw > t rm, vetoed
only two bill*. None were disapproved .
of by Adam* or Jiff -rson. M idison ha*
in vetoes to hi* ere lit, and Monroe one.
John Quincy Adam*, Van Buren, Harri
► in, Taylor, Fillmore and Garfield did
not exercise the power once. Eleven
bi I* w-rc vetoed by Andrew Jackson;
nine I y Tyler; three by Polk; nine by
Fieri i■; three by Buchanan, and only
one by Lincoln. An Ircw Johnson, dur
ing In* stormy term, returned seventeen
bill* to CongrcH* without his approval; I
Glint, twenty five; Hayes, twrtve;
Arthur, four; mid Chvcluntl, so far iu
hi* udministration, 115.
Tin or. tothe amount of 35,000 pounds
arrived in N'-w York the other day from
th" Biack Hills, and if representation*
are to be relied on, *ays the IForM of
that city, it is the forerunner of an im
portant development of our mineral re
sources. All the other lending metals in
use in the civilized world we are known
to have an inexhaustible supply of, but
it tin is to be added to the number it
will materially increase our economic in
dependence. It is claimed that this tin
ore is richer than that of Cornwall, Aus
tralia or Sumatra, whence the supply
has hitherto been mainly derived. It
r.'Migcs from 3 to 15 per cent., while that
elsewhere averages but 2 1-2 per cent. It
Is stated that there is practically no
limit to the deposit*. We imported i
nearly $<1,000,000 worth of block or pig
tin last year, and ov. r $17,000,000 worth
of tin plates or taggers tin. If the home
product is to supplant this a revolution i
in the tin trade will ensue, much to the
inconvenience of the Cornwall interests, i
Light Coins.
The following notice has been posted
on thi bulletin-board of the sub-
Treasury :
“On mid after August 1, 1880, nil
gold coin below legal weight will, under ,
instruction* received from the Secretary
of the Treasury, be stamped ‘'light," as
the same is presented at the ȟb-Treas
ury.”
The necessity for this new rule, as ex
plained at tho sub-Treasury, is this:
There is a law which fixes the coin
“limit of tolerance" -the point to which
coin* may bo worn or abraded and st.ll
be worth their face value—at one-half of
1 p-r cent. This means that when a
gold dollar in the course of its use loses
one one half cent of it* value in weight
it ceases to be worth $t as it legal tender,
and is worth only it* weight a* gold mer
chandise. Until about four years ago it
was a rule of the offic rs at the New
York sub-Treasury to stump all coins
outside of the limit of tolerance with a
letter “L,” signifying that they were of
light weight.
B it depositors raised an outcry against
the multilation of national coins, and an
order came from Washington directing
the sub-treasury hero to quit its stamp
ing business. The result was that,
though light-weight coins were once re
jected at the sub-treasury, they still kept
coming in a regular stream. The same
abraded coin would be offered over and
over again L ur or five times during one
week. There was nothing to distinguish
their light weight, and often they were
detected only because the clerks of the
sub-treasury, with their delicate touch,
the n suit of years of practice, could de
t > t the lightness of weight, when to an
ordinary business man the coin would
have nothing in its appearance out of the
ordinary. Often it happened that in one
bag of gold coins tlie abrasion of tho
piece* w ill make a total of sls or more
u.dcr the full weight value, though the
loss to each coin is scarcely perceptible.
.Ve*e F.rX 77 .irs.
hot a Heavy Weight.
;• i Collector - -“You told me to call
to-day, sir."
M in of the House—“Oh! yes, yes, cer
tainly; quite forgot about it. Wonder
what I did with my pocket-book! D ck,
I laid my pocket-book down on this
table a few minutes ago. Did you see
i ur
Little Dck—“Ye*, pop; it blew out
of the window."—OiaiA* W-, ts.
Noone need hope to rise above his
present situation who sutler* sm.i.l things
to pass by unimproved, < r whe ncglccu,
’ metaphorically speaking, to pick up *
farthing because it is tot a shilling.
8 >nietime.
Well, either you or I,
After whatever 1* to say Is »al<l,
Must >ee the other die
Or h'-ar through distance of the other I
dead
Houi' time. i
And you or I must bide
Poor empty eym, and face* wan and wet,
With life's great grief, t*-»i.le
The other • coffin, sealed with silence, yet
Bometime. ;
An I you or I must look
Into the other's grave, or far or n ar.
And r*-ad, a* in a tssik
Writ in the dust, words w<> mode bitter
here
Sometime.
esse * • •
On! fast, fast friend of mine!
Lift up the voice I love so much, and warn;
To wring faint hands and pine.
Tell me 1 may be left forlorn, forlorn,
Homctimo.
• » * » • » ♦
Kay you may think with pain
Os some slight grace, some timid wish to
please.
Ham eager Io k, half vain.
Into your heart tomo broken sobs like
these,
Sometime.
M B. Piatt.
A Novel Matchmaker.
The following clever little sketch,
adapted from the French, appeared iu
the New York (Irai/hic:
I must confcs! that I always had a
weakness for elephants.
You have no idea how much of ex
quisite sensitiveness, extreme delicacy,
nay, of genuine poetry is concealed un
der this rough and wrinkled exterior.
To me the eli phant is a lyric poet spoiled
in the milking, but with all the irritabil
ity that charm t riz.es the genus. What
do I say? In fact, he needs only his lit
tle blue cloak to be thoroughly equipped
for his rythmic task. It is a case of a
philanthropist turned pachyderm. Isaw
one one • at Bumir. s sprinkle fresh water
with his trunk upon tho head of an
English soldier nearly dead of sunstroke.
What hum in goo I Samaritan c uld have
done more? Indeed I have often won
dered why the Academy has not before
thia awarded the Montyou prize to an
elephant. But man is so unjust. He
treats this noble being like a beast—
this being at once so strong and so gentle
—in order not to be compelled to pay a
debt of gratitude.
I believe there is much truth concealed
in the Brahmin legend. You remember
that, according to that fable, when
Vi-shnou had created man and discovered
what n wretched mistake he had made
he at once invented the elephant in or
der that by means of his charming at
tributes saddened nature might find in
him a compensation for all the
shortcomings of the wicked biped.
Some years ago I visited a small town
in the south of France, to assist one of
the friends of my boyhood in an electoral
contest. Every day I managed to pass a
portion of tho afternoon at the local
Jardin des Plantes.
Three eucalyptus trees, five palms, two
specimens of the ailantc and lix Italian
pines—all very dusty—together with a
dozen orange trees, were tho only exotic
representatives of the vegetable king
dom.
The fauna of the tropics w as suggested
by four phthisicky monkeys, several
hyenas, a porcupine, two very grouty
brown bears, n rather melancholy young
dromedery, a flabby old lion, and—the
gem of the collection--an elephant from
the coast of Coromandel.
He was culled Belisarius, from his be
ing blind of one eye.
I at once male friends with this noble
animal. A strong sympathy drew me
towards him, while he, in turn, was
not long in getting acquainted with
me,although manifesting, but with great
fact, a sense of his own superiority.
As soon as he saw mo coining the cap
tive would greet me with a low trumpet
note of satisfaction, and after having
swung round his long proboscis as a sign
of welcome, he would raise it above the
iron barrier which separated us and re
ceive from my hand the delit ate rye-broad
rolls with which I had taken care to pro
vide myself. And fixing on me his eye,
his only eye, which gave to his intclli
g nt face an air of paternal gentleness,
and which secme 1 to sadden his charm
in.; smile, he appeared t > thank me for
the thou, lit fullnc s that thus ministered
to his tus'es.
His keeper’s dwelling, a pretty cottage
complct ly covered with honeysuckle,
opened on the enclosure where he was
u-u.i.ly cxhib.t ,d. I noticed at tho win
d'W ayo nig woman who w.h generally
singing as sho rocked the cradle of a
sturdy pink-and-wbite, chubbv-fa -ed in
fant. The delicate beauty of the mother
and the inviting appear.iuce of the neat
ittle rustic home served tothrow around
the Colossus of the Jungle an atmosphere
of peace and happiness. From time to
time Belisarius would aproach the win
dow, and, with his trunk thrown back in
the air, would seem to send a k.ss to the
baby asleep in its wicker ucst.
II secured to me that the family must
be very fond of this great, kind brute,
who* m mifestations of dumb affection
were evidently so sincere.
A voice disturb d my reflections. It
was the keeper wl.o, while performing
hi* usuui duties in his boarder's cage,bad
sp-vko ito me. He had understood bow
much ictcn st I took in hi* pct, and cvea
*e«-me<l to guess my thought*.
“Ah, yes, Monsieur. Every one adores
him, but no one more than I, I assure
you. Belisariu* made my fortune and
made me happy.”
At the word “fortuhe" I had involun
tarily summoned before mv mind's eye a
vision of the mine* of Golcondaand Mo
gul fetes; but I reflected that the modest
jiosition held by the speaker was incon
sistent with the extravagant conceptions
of my imagination.
Construing my silence into a desire to
hear more, the man continued:
“A few years ago, Monsieur, I did not
occupy the enviable position in which
you sec me tc- lay. Instead of being the
keeper of the elephant I was only a
common gardener, spading the beds,
raking over the walksand watering flow
ers in this same garden. But I was in
love—madly, rapturously in love!
“Very often I was guilty of a serious
infration of the rule* that regulated my
professional duties. The rarest and most
beautiful of the flowers I was paid to
guard and care for found their way to
the little cottage you see there. She who
lived there was the object of my affec
tion, and she loved me in return. But
when I made so bold as to ask for her
bund, her father, who then occupied the
position I now hold, brutally showed me
to the door! He said that lie wouldn't
I
have h.s daughtar marry below her sta
tion, and that he designed her to be the
wife of the man who took charge of tho
bear pit, who was in time to be his (the
father’s) successor. And I was only, as
I have told you, a common gardener!
But why, I aked myself, could I not
make as good an elephant keeper as any
other? Love made me ambitious.
“From that time I summoned all my ‘
courage, and surreptitiously entering
the enclosure I set my wits to work and
lavished upon the elephant all the atten
tions of a real keeper. My future father
in-law, it must bo added, had been
somewhat neglectful of Belisarius’s com
fort.
“The worthy animal appreciated my
trouble. Ah I what intelligence—what
a mind I—as clear as amber. After a ,
while he saw through my little scheme, .
for when I was there his one eye would
turn roguishly towards the window
where, as if by accident, Lucie, the
daughter of the real keeper, would ap
pear, having chosen that very moment
for shaking her crumb-cloth over poor
Belisarius’s head.
“Well, my love was to receive great !
assistance from this dumb beast, as you
will see.
“The elephant’s disposition, hitherto
so mild and peaceful, changed suddenly.
Belisarius, in spite of his having
come to years of discretion, began to
play tricks worthy of the veriest school
boy. Thus one day, when the doors and
windows of the cottage had been left
open, this sly old pachyderm amused
himself by moving all the furniture of
my predecessor within reach out into his
enclosure. On another occasion, when
his keeper was entertaining a few friends
at dinner, there was discovered in tho
soup not the single permissible hair of or
dinary domesticity, but a whole mass of
something resembling fur. Itsecmsthat
a dromedary, who occupied the next in
closure to His Royal Highness, had that
day been deprived of his hirsute cover
ing, and the elephant took advantage of
the incident t> introduce this novel
flavoring into his keeper’s soup without
the knowledge of the cook.
“But these are only specimens of the
tricks that Belisarius was constantly
playing in his new role. At last it be-,
camo evident, even to the not very acute
intelligence of the keeper, that he would
have to retire from hi.* post in favor of
some one more agreeable to the powerful
and cunning brute. He therefore re
signed, and all tho employes of the
Jardin were tri d in turn as his succes
sor. In vain! B.disarius had quite
made up his inind as to the keeper he
wanted, and was not to be driven from
his fixed determination. I thus found
myself master of the situation. Lucie’s
father was compelled to admit that I
discharged tlie duties of the position bet
ter than anyone else. But what a long
step in advance for me and at my age—
all the way from common gardener to
elephant keeper!
“The poor man, who was really
anxious that his daughter should make a
good match, did not show me out when
1 asked for her hand a second time.
“A month later Lucie and I were mar
ried. The wedding dinner was spreal
under the arbor covered with clematis
that adj >ins the elephant’s enclosure,
which permitted Belisarius to attend as
one of the guests. He also deigned to
consume that portion of the feast which
had b en prepared for h's special bene
fit. Eighteen of the little rye rolls he al
ways found so toothsome and eleven
bunch sos carrots probably made his
majesty feel almost as contented as if he
were about being married himself. At
all events they had a quieting and hu
manizing effect upon bis disposition. No
boyish tricks disturbed our frugal ban
quet—no dromedary hairs were found in
the soup. With his single eye he gazed
cheerfully upon the happy scene, and as
you have seen, Monsieur, he still watches
with the same thoughtful care over my
wife and little one.”
ELECTRIC LIGHTS.
Perils of the Attendants in
Thunder Storms.
Treating a Suffirer from S’. Vitus Dance
With Electric Shocks.
“Put few jwople realize the danger,
attending the vork of an electric light
lineman and lamp attendant,” remarked
one of the corp* to un It in reporter, as
he shot down one of the circuit poles
Sunday night, in the pouring rain, and
exhibited a badly blistered hand, the re
sult of a shock received from a “leak
in the wire.
“It is particularly dangerous” he
added, “just before and during a thun
derstorm, and extremely vexatious in
wet weather. During the storm of Fri
day morning almost every fl ish of light
ning was attracted to the wires, and the
way it went snapping up the c.rcuit wa<
enough to make one shudder. During
the height of the sterm a ball of fire
was seen to shoot along the wires on
Westminster street, and when in the
midst of the 2000 wires that run into the
Butler exchange, it burst with a report
like that of a cannon. The next flash
saw forty-three of the lights out, and it
was evident that something had gone up.
We traced the ‘break’ right to the works,
where, to the surprise of all, it was
found that the lightning had struck the
first light on the circuit outside of the
works, and followed the line into the
room where the ‘arresters’ are. and
burned them in such away as to make
them assume the appearance of a piece
of burned brown paper. When tlie light
ning struck the ‘arrester’ a terrible re
port followed.
“But then, while it is dangerous to
mount a pole during a thunderstorm, the
men become accustomed to it. The
most aggravating work is to tackle a
pole during a storm, as there are many
which will give you a shock the moment
you touch them. These poles are all
marked by the men, and the worst
among them are those at Turk’s Head,
the car depot and two on the Westmin
ster street circuit, where, if you get up,
you will have to dance to get down
again, that is, if you are not knocked
down, as several circuit men have already
been. The shocks received in this way
are due to “leaks” in the wires,
which are only detected by a line man
getting in contact with the nearest pole
to the leak.
“Did you ask about inside work?
There is nothing fascinating about it
and one must have a great faculty of
keeping his hands at home. The men
who work about dynamos, as a rule have
worse looking hands than baseball
catchers, but they think nothing of a
small shock. One of the worse cases
at our works occurred quite re
cently, when our superintendent
went to attach the wires
‘positive and negative,’ to the ‘post’ at
tached to the dynamo, not noticing that
the comb was down and the dynamo run
ning full force. He attached the wires
all right, but the instant the connection
was completed he was knocked across
the room. It was a wonder the shock did
not kill him instantly. He wa* a terribly
scared man, and it was fully two weeks
before he fully recovered.
“Just at the present time we have at
the Rhode Island Electric Company’s
works quite a rare case, that is attracting
no small amount of attention. It is that
of a 10-year-old girl who, until recently,
wa* a terrible sufferer from St. Vitus’s
dance. She could not stand still, and
so was in a sad state. Some one sug
gested that she be treated with electric
shocks, and accordingly a medium wire
—such as is used for the inside incandes
cent lights—was run from the works to
the street circuit wire. The girl daily
comes to the works and will seize the
wire with both hands and hold it as
though it were a piece of wood. The
shock that this wire will give is enough
to knock a man out, yet the girl laughs
at the idea, and is rapidly improving
under the treatment.”— Providence Item.
Uses of Insects.
“All flesh is grass,” in a literal sense.
For take the plant louse, or aphis, whose
bloated body appears to be merely an
animated green bladder of the juices of
the plant upon which it exists; this is
eaten by the lady bug, which,in its turn,
becomes the food of some bird or fish,
whose flesh serves to nourish that great
omnivorous animal—m n. Were there
no insects what would become of ail the
insectivorous birds, and still more of the
fresh-water fish? An old hen confined
in her coop with her chickens loose
around her will clear a large space of in
sects in a short time; yet a spring chicken
is considered a dainty, although a week
previously it may have been rioting on a
fare of crickets and caterpillars. Iu many
tobacco plantation* flocks of turkeys are
turned into the field to eat off the tobac
co worms; yet what is better than a good
roast turkey? Nay, in several places, if
we are to believe travellers, men cat in
sects. A palm tree grub, well roasted, is
considered a great delicacy in some coun
tries; in others, grasshoppe: s, or rather
locusts, are preferred. Insects also act
as scavengers in removing decayed tnimal
substances; others, again, r. tten wood
and decaying vegetable matter.
A Great Georgia Fruit Farm.
Twenty years ago nearly everybody!
Macon and Houston countie*
Mr. 8. H. Rumph as a crank upon t|„
fruit question. They argued that tli -"
was no demand for fruits and tree*
grown in the South, that th ' Yankee lu]
already a monopoly upon that bus in „~
Also that but few varieties could I
grown here; that the growing of app „
and raspberries, especially, was an
ploded iden, and that nobody b ut (
northern man could successfully condu/.
a nursery. These and a thousau I otb r
objections were urged by every one, aud
it was with great difficulty that Mr
Rumph, then quite a young man, ail! i
with unlimited means, could get a; i
of land upon which to lay the foundatio i
for an immense business, and mt (l r
which he is to-day making • a fortune
Nothing daunted, however, he estab,
lisned his fruit farm and nursery known
to-day in every state and market in ti e
United States. He gets the first red
raspberries every season into Jackson,
ville, Savannah, New York and 8...
ton, and lie realizes fully
cents per quart for the yield
from a five-acre patch. He ha*
propagated a variety of peach believed to
be the finest in every particular grown in
the South, if not in America, which hr
christened “Elberta,” in honor of her
who, in his young manhood, plighted
her love and fate with his, and rejolc ,
with him in prosperity and sympathize
in adversity, as only a devoted and lov
ing wife can do. He has a large num
ber of E.bertas, and last season the crop
paid him an average of 11 cents prr
peach in New York and Boston. He ship*
car loads of peaches of other varieties
every season that pay satisfactory prices,
and ho yearly increases his acrea-e
which already numbers several hundred.
Apples are grown to perfection,and even
week in the year he fills orders for this
delightful fruit, sweetened by Georgia
suns and on Georgia lands. But it is
said that his nursery is the biggist tiling
in the South. Suffice it to say, at pres
ent, last week he sold 85.000 trees, to be
shipped to different States the cotnin'i
fall. His home is one of the loveliest in
the country, surrounded by fruits and
flowers of every variety and species, and
is visited annually by hundred of trav
elers and excursionists who pas* this way
and can stop off for a period.—AlarMl
rille (Ga.) Tim n.
The Bee’s Sting.
The hive and its inmates afford, per
haps, a more interesting field for mier •
scopic sosearch than anything else in the
whole insect kingdom. Take the bee';
sting; why, that alone might occupy ail
the rest of this paper. The sheath
makes the first wound, and, inside it,
managed that they enclosa a tubehill
space down which the poison runs, are
two darts, all built in such a strictly me
chanical way that—Mr. Chesire says—
they remind him of the guide rod* of a
steam engine. The poison is gummy,
but it is prevented from clogging the
machine by a gland which secretes a lu
bricating oil. The queen’s sting is big
ger than the workers’ drones have
none - but it is practically barbless, and
can therefore be easily brought away in
stead of being left in the wound and
thereby causing the death of its precious
owner. It is a formidable weapon, tlie
sheath so hard that it turns the finest ra
zor-edge; but a queen never stings ex
cept in contest with another queen; she
may be handled with impunity. Os the
worker it is a mistake to say that it al
ways leaves its sting in the wound, and
dies from the loss. If it generally docs
sv, the fault often lies in your impa
tience; bear it like a hero, and the bee
will work it sting round and round till it
is able to withdraw it without impedi
ment. Os course you get pierced deeper
> and deep, but then, consider, the crea
ture’s life is saved by your suffeiing.—
All the Year Hound.
Breast Plales.
William Turner of Runnels, Texas,
tells the following war story in the Chi
cago Ledger-. Without the means of
knowing to what extent, or if this is the
only solitary instance of wearing breast
plates, I will proceed to state the facts
regarding at least one breast plate worn
at Shiloh. I was a subaltern officer in a
Miss ssippi regiment, and wc had cap
tured quite a number of prisoners from
Prentiss’ command.
Among these prisoners was a Captain
H. of the Seventeenth lowa, who entered
into conversation with mo. After a little
he took off his vest, and taking from it a
metallic breast plate, presented it to me,
remarking that it had saved his life, but
that he should probably have no further
use for it.
Upon examining the plate I found, sure
enough, an indentation made by a mime
bullet directly ever the reg.on of the
heart. The relic was esteemed a decided
curiosity by all who saw i‘.
I have often wondered whit ha* Ixt
come of that handsome, patriotic young
man, then our prisoner.
■
Biand to be Seen.
He—“ You are holding that umbrella
on the wrong side to protect you from
tho sun.”
She—“l know it, but there is tnat
dreadful Miss Briggs, and I intend her
to see my new bonnet.” — F/t Pritt.