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THE SOUTHERN WORLD, OCTOBER 1, 1882.
Tbe Water-Caddies.
They were a very curious tribe of Edin
burgh residents, consisting of both men and
women, bat the former were perhaps the
more numerous. Their bnsiness was to carry
water into houses, and, therefore, their days
were passed in climbing up lofty stairs, in
order to get into flats.
The water was borne in little casks and
was procured from public wells, which were
then pretty thickly planted in the principal
streets; and as there was far more candi
dates than spouts, there was a group of im
patient and wrangling claimants who, when
not eloquent, sat upon their kegs.
These encampments of drawers of water
bad a striking appearance. The barrels
when filled, were slung upon their backs
suspended by a leather strap, which was held
in front by tbe hand.
Their carriage was made easier by leaning
forward, which threw the back outward, and
hence stooping was the natural attitude of
these sons and daughters of the well. They
were known by this peculiarity, even when
off work.
Their backs, which would otherwise hare
never been dry, were protected by thick
layers of hard black leather, on which the
barrels lay; and the leather had a slight curl
up at its lower edge, which, acting as a lip,
threw the droppings, by which they could
always be tracked, off to the sides. Still,
however, with filling, and trickling, and
emptying, it was a moist business.
They were all rather old and seemed little;
but this last might be owing to their stoop
ing.
The men generally had old red jackets,
probably the remnants of the Highland
Watch or of the City Guard ; and the wo
men Were always covered with thick duffle
great coats, and wore black hats like the
men.
They very seldom required to be called ;
for every house had its favorite "water-cad
die," who knew the habits and wants of the
family, and the capacity of the single cis
tern, which he kept always replenishing at
his own discretion, at the price of a penny
for each barrel.
Their intercourse with families civilized
them a little; so that in spite of their plashy
lives, and public-well discussions, they were
rather civil and very cracky creatures. What
fretted them most was being obstructed in
going up a stair; and their occasionally tot
tering legs testified that they had no bigotry
against qualifying the water with a little
whisky.
They never plied between Saturday night
and Monday morning; that is, their employ
ers had bad hot water all Sunday. These
bodies were such favorites, that the extinc
tion of their trade was urged seriously as a
reason against water being allowed to get
into tbe houses in its own way I
A Commercial Experiment.
Grimaldi, otherwise Honore V., ascended
his throne of Monaco in the year 1815, and
did not die until 1840. Three times only
during his reign of twenty-five years did he
set foot within the principality of Monaco;
but he never ceased to bear his subject in
mind.
From his capacious mind he evolved a
tamous fiscal scheme.
Through the Intermediary of a French
"man of straw" called Chappon, his High
ness Honore V. became the Farmer and
Miller General of his dominions. In his
creature Chappon was vested the monopoly
of dealing in grain and grinding it into
flour.
The wretched Monegasques were compell
ed to tell their corn to the Prince's agent,
who duly exported the sound grains to for
eign parts, and he was good enough to sell
them for the making of their daily bread
flour ground from spoiled cargoes of wheat,
which was the sweeping of the wharves of
Marseilles and Genoa. Every one, the for
eigner and the native alike, was compelled
to eat this bread, and no other; captains of
trading vessels who arrived in port with any
surplus bread or biscuit on board were
liable to a fine of $100 and the confiscation
of the crafts; and the bakers of Monaco
were forced to placard outside their shop-
doors a statement of their daily consump
tion of the staff of life by the families who
dealt with them.
If, in the opinion of the police, the peo
ple did not eat enough bread, they were In
duced to mend their appetites by means of
domloillary visits, lawsuits and evictions.
There was also a heavy tax on every lamb,
calf, foal and kid born. Fruit trees were
likewise subject to a grievous impost, and
but that In the fullness of time Honore de
scended to a more congenial world he might
have crowned his fiscal scheme by taxing
new-laid eggs, onions and shrimps. As it
was, this unmitigated old rascal managed
to amass in the course of his twenty-five
years of plunder a fortune of over $1,000,-
000.
Leas Crime Among Women.
Tbe following is tbe relative number of
men and women in the penitentiaries and
reformatories in January 1880. Notice tbe
comparison:
Hale. Female.
Arkansas
13
11
1
Connecticut
63
Delaware
8
Florida
3
Georgia
34
Illinois
2031
28
Indiana
68
Iowa
57
Kansas
5
79
551
38
408
22
Maryland
162
Massachusetts
839
Michigan
98
331
12
1075
151
Nebraska
3
Nevada
0
New Hampshire..
2
New Jersey
119
New York
798
North Carolina...
55
189
o
Pennsylvania
521
Rhode Island
75
South Carolina....
16
33
Texas
20
Vermont
J1
Virginia
80
West Virginia....
5
0?
23
1
Montana
1
Washington
0
It is observed that the territories are given
last, as far as reports from them had been
made. The criminals of Dakota are sent to
the Michigan prisons, and are enumerated
in the list from that state. The complete
ness of this table precludes the necessity of
any analysis from me.— Woman's Own.
A Welsh Servant.
In Wales, a maid in servitude is consider
ed much more respectable than the factory
girl, or indeed any girl who works with her
hands, unless it be the girl “in business,”
who is what Americans politely call a "sales
lady,” though in Great Britain she is not in
frequently a seller of gin and beer—or in
other words a bar-maid. Bar-keepers of the
masculine gender, it may be remarked by
the way, are nearly unknown to Wales, un
less as an exotic of American origin. The
masculine bar-tender of America Is an out
growth of pioneer roughness—a condition
of society in which pistols and bowie-knives
were many and women few. There is hardly
a better servant in the world than a really
good Welsh maid. She more nearly ap
proaches the best French model than any
other I have known. Of course she has not
the training in certain polished customs
which the French servant has, but her deft
ness, alacrity and politeness are equally
great. The politeness of a servant to an em
ployer is as clear and fair a thing as any po
liteness on earth. Its proper expression is
far removed from servility. The servant in
Wales who is not polite Is thought to be
lacking in tbe social culture befitting his or
her station. The wages of servants, while
very much below those now so common in
the United States, are, as a rule, better than
the earnings of any other women on their
social plane. A situation in a wealthy fam
ily is something to hope for and dream of—
a genuine social elevation to the daughters
of the humble cottagers.
It is a bad policy to despise small persons
or small things. A single grape-ehot settles
the destiny of an empire, and a diamond
necklace has contributed largely to a bloody
revolution. The gabbling of geese s&ved
Rome. The accident of two spectacle-
glasses at proper focus gave the world tbe
telescope. The fall of an apple revealed to
Newton the law which hangs the world in
space, the grandest law of the material uni
verse.
Written specially for Thb Southbbx Wools.
THE PHENOMENA OP THE CLOUDS.
The fundamental law of all cloud forma
tion is to be found in the rising vapors from
the earth. It is not a fact, however, that all
this moisture comes from the water surfaces
of our planet. A considerable portion of it
is evaporated from the solid ground and Its
fruits or vegetable matter. There is an im
mense quantity of vapor lifted into the air
daily from the decomposition of matter go
ing on around us continually. It Is impos
sible to estimate tbe tons of water thus taken
up from the solids of the earth, much less to
comprehend the processes of the compensa
tion in the mystery of exhaustion and sup
ply ; for the earth is a compound system of
infinitesimal water ducts connecting with
the main arteries or streams which flow
through it and on its surface.
But I have chosen the cumuli, as the most
common of all clouds, as a starting point in
the consideration of the phenomena of con
densed vapors as observed in the air. It
must be understood that in speaking of the
cumuli as the most common, the remark ap
plies to that zone area where tbe four seasons
of the year are defined by the actual changes
of temperature, and where the clouds vary
most from one class to another. I doubt
these being most common as we approach
either the poles or the equator in any sea
son. By observing the cumuli, it will be
noticed that those driven up in the form of
monuments or tall steeples, frequently break
off at the top and topple over, the creet de
scending like an avalanche down the sides.
The fall is perceptibly slow, but it is much
more rapid than we are apt to believe at the
distance it is from us. The building, or car
rying-up process of the pile of moisture, is
due to the ascent of heated air below more
especially in the reign of the dense volume
at the base when the collection of moistures
generate and give up vast quantities of heat.
The tumbling of the upper pile results
from a loss of equilibrium, due to the con
densing and packing of a volume of vapor
above its normal height. Electrical phe
nomena often results from the condensing
or vibration of molecules and pressure en
suing therefrom. Nothing is more sublime
in all nature than these electrical demonstra
tions at times from the tops, sides or bases
of these huge towers in the air. Some times
instead ol toppling over and settling down
the sides of these steeple clouds, the upper
crest of vapors is pressed down, as it were,
through the main body, giving it a more
compact shape; and where a large collection
of these gather in a given direction in the
evening, we are reminded of volcanic groups
pouring out fire and flame; especially is this
the case, if, as the shades of evening gather
over the heavens, we behold tbe electrical
demonstrations that so frequently are seen
from these groups of clouds in the distance.
Where such a collection forms over our
heads, the scene is quite different, for we are
beneath the cumulo-stratus or the nimbus,
and only are conscious of the effects as wit
nessed at the base of tbe vast collection. At
a distance from one point of observation the
phenomena presents other, and, perhaps,
often more Imposing appearances.
But the cumuli are as often inclined to
dissipate. They spread out into gause-like
shapes, or are not unfrequently spun by the
air currents into threads, some times like a
knotted skein, some times In straight paral
lel lines, and at other times in curled or
folded fibres; and often these faint or airy
threads die away until not a particle is left
in view. This transition from a cloud to
apparent nothingness proceeds frequently
very rapidly. In this process of disintegra
tion the particles either ascend higher or
spread outward. They are never observed
to descend, but the whole body of moisture
is lost sight of in the separation of its
vesicles Into Infinite numbers outward or
upward. This is the explanation of the cirrus
formation. We observe the cirrus as it ap
pears in the disintegrated patches of other
clouds, Invisible it may be for a time, but
frequently reappearing in a clear sky upon
the re-condensation of the moistures as they
remain hidden in the atomic air interstices.
The cirri, like the cumuli, belong to tbe
primary division of the clouds. They are
more conspicuous just before or after falling
weather, and according to the law of their
formation must be the most elevated as well
as attenuated of all clouds. Carried upward
in the ascent of warmer currents from be
low, they rapidly radiate their heat and are
congealed into frozen mist. So minute and
transparent are the particles that they remain
invisible, unless brought together they de
scend to a lower air stratum. When any in
crease of moisture by vapors from below
causes these particles to unite and descend,
they often settle down forming into the cir
ro-stratus or cirro-cumulus. The cirrus is
tbe haze cloud of our Indian summer. It
not unfrequently deceives us in the distance
as the sun goes down; for looking through
its horizontal longitudinal mist we may im
agine a cloud approaching which vanishes
in tbe twilight of tbe setting day. We were
only deceived by the bands of the cirrus,
perspectively extending from horizon to
horizon in longitudinal slopes. These are
sure indications of rain, especially if the
bands approach nearer and become denser in
the evening. The shapes and appearances
of the cirrus are varied. We see it sweeping
above us like a huge feather, or spread out,
ribbed at regular intervals like a fan. At
one time it is the cat’s or mare's tail, hair-
locks, trellis-work, etc., at another it lies in
swirls like huge vortices, or rfses like a wave
broken backward by the force that impedes
its movement onward; or all these variety
of forms of the cirrus may be presented at
the same time. From its numerous appear
ances of curled hair or threads it is called
the curl cloud. When formed from what is
left of original clouds we see the frame-work,
as it were, of the primary formation; when
coming into view from tbe dissipated parti
cles of other forms of mlstures or vapors, it
presents itself according to the quantity and
direction of these vapors, and as it comes
into sight its formation and movements in
dicate the air currents and changes of tem
perature going on.
Not only are the longitudinal bands of the
cirrus regarded as an indication of a change
to wet after fair and dry days, but the weath
er-wise think the waving-to and fro of the
mare’s tail presages variable and falling
weather; while after severe spells groups or
threads of cirri indicate fair and pleasant
days. All this is reasonable enough because
we might expect the appearance of the cirri
preceding foul intervals after fair or severe
spells as the upper regions of the atmos
phere, over-burdened with congealing va
pors, not unlikely, and frequently do, reveal
the fact in this manner first; while in pass
ing from an interval of foul to severe weath
er the disintegration of tbe lower strata of
moisture is manifest in the cirri formation
indicating a return to dry or settled weather.
Nothing would seem more certain after very
dry spells than rain indicated by the move
ments of the cirri in the atmosphere wheth
er in the shape of the mare’s tail or in thread
like parallels; and after the exhaustion of
the air by a precipitation of a great part of
its moisture, nothing is more certain than
the appearance of the cirrus clouds—the
remnant of the dissipated vapors.
I have observed tbe deep gray streaks of
the cirri in the moon-light or star-light ex
tend and contract suddenly, while the thin
veil of their moisture spread out over head
rose and fell in swells as if disturbed by
some invisible force. These exhibitions only
lacked the grand luminosity that gives viv
idness to the aurora borealis to connect them
with that phenomenon of the heavens.
Not only in these features do we find in
terest in the study of the cirrus clouds as
distinct from all others, but in their transi
tions from their primary form to the cirro-
stratus their is much to excite wonder in
their contemplation. It is then we have
the marked and vivid exhibitions of those
phenomena presented in halos, coronoe, para
selenes, and some times parhelias or mock
suns and moons, though the latter ate more
often obscured as the stratus or nimbus is
dissipated into tbe more attenuated cirro-
stratus. And to these clouds we owe much
of the beauty of breaking or closing day;
for owing to their elevated position they
hold tbe rays of the sun latest in the even
ing and catch its first golden beams earliest
in the morning. They tinsel the heavens in
gaudy hues at early sunrise and give glory
to the fading day ere evening twilight gath
ers in the west, and oft as the sun quietly
and serenely sets in a glow of light their
zones of gray, blue aud silver threads, so
well defined as to excite the wonder of the
beholder, perspectively bind together the
west and east in bands of beauty.
Qxo. R. Cathbb.
Aihville, Alabama.
A beautiful eye makes silence eloquent;
a kind eye makes contradiction an assent;
an enraged eye makes beauty deformed.
This little member gives life to every other
part about us; and I believe the story
of Argus implies no more than that the
eye is in every part—that is to say, every
other part would he mntllated were not its
force represented more by the eye than
even by itself.
Two silk pocket handkerchiefs make a
pretty tennis apron.