( 4. '1 HENRY A. PARSONS, Jr., Editor and Publisher. NIL DESPERANDUM. VOL. IV. KIDGWAY, ELK COUNTY, PA., THUltSPAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1874. NO. 37. Hi 1 A A. n I. BEFORE SCHOOL. " Quarter to nine 1 Boys and girls, do yon lioar r ' " Ono more buckwheat, then be quick mother dear I" " Htiore is my luncheon-box ?" " TJndor the Bholf, Just in the place you left it yourself !" "I can't Bay my table!" "O, find me cap !" my "Une king Tor mamma and sweet eia in her lap." -Be good, dear!" " I'll try-9 times 9s 81." Take your mittens !" " All right." " Hurry up, Bill j lot e run." With a elam of the door, they are off, girls and boys, And the mother draws breath In the lull of their noise. AFTF.ll SCHOOL, " Don't wako up the baby ! dear !" Come gently, my ." O, mother ! I've torn look hero t my new dress, just I'm sorry, I only was climbing the wall." "'0, mother ! my map wa the nicest of all ! " And Nelly, iu spelling, went up to the head ! "0, say ! can I go on the hill with my sled f l to got such a toothache." " The teacher's uufuir !" "Is dinner most ready? I'm just like boar!" Da patient, worn raothor, they're growing up last, These nursery whirlpool.?, not long do they lasi ; A still, lonely home would noise ; be far worso than .Rejoice and be glad in boys I your brave girls and "A FiUEND UP TOWN." Nurso Maycock was sitting in a dis 'ooneokto attitude, her cop ribbons Gauging limply about, her nnder lip almost iu contact with her nose. My youngest-born, sprawling idly on her lap, found hardly holding room there, and was sliding down tlio inclined plane of her knees nil unheeded. Nurse, like her master, has occasional fits of. gloom and depression, and her sadness, as his, generally proceeds from, the same cause, that is, lack of money. 44 Well, Maycock," I said, glancing round the nursery, "how are you get ting on here ? Children all right ?' "Yes, sir; there ain't nothing th matter with them," with a sigh, "I don't feel just right myself." "Spasms again?" "A vi'leut pain in the small of the back just there, you know, sir," said Mrs. Maycock, giving herself a sharp blow with tho fist on the part affected. "Liver, uo doubt," I said. "Take .a pill." "I'vo took 'em till I'm tired of 'om, sir. Not but what I should feel bettor, I dr.re say, if 1 was more comfortable in my mind." ""What's your socret grief, Mrs. May cook?" J " Money, sir monoy. I don't know where it really goes to, really ; and children, sir, they're always dunning of you. Here s my daughter Mary going out to service, and money wanted to get her things, and where it's coming from I don't know 1" 4 1 wish I know where money would come from when it's wanted." "Ah," said Mrs. M-.iycock, resigned ly, "you can't got blood out of stone. Well, thauk goodness, I've got a friend up there," she said, with a backward jerk of tho head. " A happy frame of mind, nurse," I said. " I wish I had such confidence in the powers above." "Bless you, sir, he's the same to one as another, as long as you've got anything for him," " Your meaning, Maycock ? I don't exactly understand your doctrine." " My friend up town, sir Mr.Gedge, the pa W'j broker." Mrs, Maycock knew that I should not be shocked at this allusion ; nor was I. Still I felt bound to offer up a moral maxim or two. " It's a wasteful VT9.J of getting money," I said. " You 'pay about thirty per cent." " Ab, but it'3 better than borrowing, after all, sir, There's n remarks made, and he don't ask you for your money back again. Not but what there's some people sets their faces against it, and my sister-in-law was one as 'ad never go nigh such places, till at last she was drove to it, and made her fortune by it the very first time she went." "Made her fortune," I cried, my curiosity excited, " out of a visit to a pawnbroker ?" " Yes, sir, her fortune. He's a mas ter builder, sir, now, her husband, and they live in a height-roomed house as he built hisself, and was having parish relief no longer ago than that." " Tell mo the story, nurse. I should like to know how it's done." Mrs. Mayoock vigorously stirred the nursery lire, hitched her young charge into a more easy position, adjusted her cap, and began : " My sister-in-law Emma, as was for merly a Maycock, was in service for many years with Admiral Brown, living at Withei field Lodge, Kingston, till she met with Rogers, being a carpenter, a journeyman, but a very good hand, as kept company with her for a good while, and then married. The admiral's family was very kind to them. They give her her wedding clothes and a breakfast the day they were married, and the young ladies presented her with a beautiful silver tea-pot. And as they were going off a fly and a pair of 'orses and every thing grand the admiral oomes down the steps, and says he, 4 Good luck to you, Mrs. Rogers,' says he. 'My daughters have found you a tea-pot and I've found the tea, and I hope it'll do you good.' 44 Well, sir, Emma was crying a good deal, through having been in her place ever since she was a little bit of a girl, fifteen years in one plaoe ; and, 4 Thank you kindly, sir,' she says, 4 for all your goodness to me you and the young ladies ;' and nothing did she think about the tea exoept that the admiral meant as it was the breakfast, where they'd had taa, for to be sure, and everything first-rate. " Emma had saved a bit of money, and with that her husband went into business. He were a hard-woi-kimr juiiu, uui umoriunaie tnrongu sperm vn I 1. r . .. . O mting m buying timbor. And then he was taken ill with rhonmatio fever, and iniio uener man a cripple for years j and Emma had a lot of children, seven in as many years, and had her hands full with them, as you may judge. And by degreos they was brought very low. Nothing in tho cupboard and seven children tugging at your apron strings ain't no child's piny, is it, cir ?" x can sympathize with Mrs. Rogers, How did she manage ?" 44 Well. sir. she went t.n Mia non'ol, She'd got some friends among them as was on the boord, and she told 'em as how she'd struggled hard to keep her home together, and would the gontle men kindly give her some relief till such times as her husband could got iuu worn again, well, sir, they hum d and ha'd ; it was against their rules, they said, and so on ; but the end of it was as they gave her a shilling week for caoh of the children, and three and six for her husband and her. And with that and what she made going UM wnniuug nicy Kept ooay ana soul luguiiuer. " They'd always managed to keen a decent house about them, for that was her pride, poor thing ; as I should have ooen too proud for to go to the parish. and would have sold every stick and stocK J. had soonor than do it. Tint tnem wasn t her feelings. We've paid rates ourselves,' she says, 4 as long as we could, and now let them pay for us,' says she. And there was a reason in that. " Yes. sir. she'd a nice little house. with a parlor as they never used, that was as neat as a new piu. A little car pet on the floor, a little round table in the middle, two little cupboards, one on each side of the fireplace, and on ono f 'em a mat in violin-work, and atop of that the silver tea-pot. " " Do yon mean that it was the fiddle pattern, Mrs. Maycock?" " I don't know what pattern it was. but it was a beautiful tea-pot, as al ways stood on that mat of violin wools. She'd never used it. bless vou. never had made no tea in it ; not when she'd company or nothing. There it stood, just as she'd had it from the admiral's family, with the silver paper inside it and all 1 Sho cleaned it every week on Saturdays with whitening, and brushed it over with an old tooth-brush. ' Well. sir. Emma had iust coma home from a day's washing, and was tighting herself up the best way she could afore she sat down to mend the children's things, when thoro was a knock at the door, and Emma answers it ; and, lo and behold 1 there stood a lady in a black silk dress with a drawn bonnet, and says she, 4 Are you Mrs. Rogers ?' 4 Yes. ma'am, and what's your pleasure ?' says Emma. Says she, X III " Not the district visitor aenin." snirl I, laughing, as. by Mrs. Mavcock's knitted brow and pursed-up lips, I con jectured mat sue had conjured up be fore her mind's eye an imago of her bete noire. Mrs. Maycock shook her head in a way that implied a good deal. " Yes, the district visitor," she went on ; 14 and so imma says, indeed, ma am ! and shows her into the parlor, being a bit Hummed in her mind through getting parish relief. So the lady looked here and there, and up and down, and axed Emma ever so many questions about this and that and the other ; and in tho middle of it all the baby cries, and away goes Emma to 'tend to it. Well, when she comes back the lady looks very cross and uppish, and she says, 4 Mrs. Rogers,' says she, 4 may I ask if this here's your tea-pot ?' 4 Why, yes, ma'am,' says she, 4 as was gave mo by Admiral Brown's family.' 'Ohl' says the visitor, in a towering rage, 'and you receive parish relief, with a silver tea-pot, as 1 never could afford sueh a thing for myself 1' says she ; and with that she flings away. 41 And what do you think she does? Writes a long letter to the head board in London ; and down comes a gent ready primed with everything a-pur-pose to make inquiries as to Emma's tea-pot. And after a bit the gentlemen send for her, and say they, 4 We're very sorry, Mrs. Rogers, but our masters say you ain't to have no more relief,' and struck her off the books. "And then she was druv to it, as 'ad never been to a pawnbroker's in her life ; but go she must with her silver tea-pot, as she cried over as she packed it away in her basket. And she shook and trembled that vi'lent, as she went along, and v. as that pale, as people turned round to look at her. And she come to the pawn-shop, and her heart failed her, and she walked on and on, ever so far beyond, thinking as every body was watching her ; and at last she turned back, quite desperate, and went right in. And when she got inside the door she didn't feel so bad, and she says to the man, 4 Being in a little bit of difficulties through want of money, says she, 4 wculd you kindly advance me as much as you can without incon weniencing yourself,' says she, 4 on this piece of silver ?' and brings out her tea-pot. Well, the man snatches it up, and he looks at it all round, and here and there, and rings it, and makes a little tiny scratch inside it, and then he fetches out his weights and soales. 4 Don't want this ma'am.' savs he. flinging out the paper as was inside ; and Emma takes it up to fold it out, as it might be a sort of remembrance to her of the tea-pot as was gone, and, lo and behold I there was a hangvelope in the middle of the silver paper, as must have been there ever since it was give her. 'Mrs. Rogers' was outside it. ' with Admiral Brown's best wishes.' Oh, la I' she says, I never see this,' and opened it quite faint-like, and there was a fifty-pound note I And that was the admiral's tea, as flashed into her mind after all them years. 'Thank you, sir,' she says; '111 not trouble ou now, says she, and she sets on ome hugging her silver tea-pot to her heart. "And she spent five pounds of it in sending her husband to Margate : and he come back quite another man, and got a oontraok, and with having a bit of ready money, he made a good thing of it, and never looked back afterward, bnt come to be the man I told yoa of, with houses of big own, and money laid out at intoreat, and all through her going to her friend up town, which must bo my journey when I've soon tho children to bed. La, there's the post UiHU o AUUl'& 1 liio postman h knook it woh ; and the cuiiareu tumbled ono over the other in uieir eagerness to bring mo tho letters, and mere was a letter that inclosed one of those pleasant crisp papers, yolept checks, which are so grateful to iuo cmpiy netting palm. And for this timo I was able to save Mrs. Mayoock . J TU, Hording on the Plains, A correspondent of the Chicaco 7W bune, writing from Wyoming, describes tho system of cattle herding iu vogue there, and the habits of tho animals : A herd of cattle, left to Itself, forms a sore ot organisation, and is governed by set rules. In approaching the herd first we see a few stragglers on the hills that look like Indians, and which are tho sentinels for the groat body quietly feeding under their protection. If these wardorB, or sentinels, are alarmed, the wnoio nerd rushes together and pre pares for flight or battle. The bulls command, and tho dams and calves render them a cheerful obedience. The cattle graze in families of two, four and six head : then erroups of a dozen and lastly wo come upon the great body of bulls, steers, oxen, and cows, mixed Eromiscuously together. I visited i erd on the Laramie Plains, and ob served them olosely. I . saw their warders, or sentinels, their families and next the mass of the herd. We drove for miles and miles young bulls bellowing around us, heifers kicking up inoir neeis and scampering awav. unuoia aoms Hastening to their young, 7 T 1-1 n i , . . . , . ' as if fearful we camo to rob them of their pretty calves. It was a grand signr, mis nerd ot ntty bulls and 3.0U0 cows, with their 1.800 calves. It seemed mountain of beef, and a laree for- tuna for one man to possess : vet I was told the gentleman who owned this herd had three others larger still. If pasturing on high ground, about the middle of the day, tho cattle leave tho hills and go to tho bottoms for water. About four o clock they go back to graze on the high grounds, on the rich gramma and bunoh grasses. Hero they remain until nightfall, when they lio down on tho warm, sandy soil, and sleep until morning. The little family herds of four, six, eight, and ten stick close together and seem to have interests in common, de fending each other, and exhibiting con siderable signs of ooncern and affection f one of their number gets lost or falls into trouble. In traveling back and forth to water, thev march in single file, and follow the same path, like the buffalo, wearing deep ruts into tho earth. TllA oattlo fvoquontl o font or five miles for water, and having slaked their thirst, nearly always re turn to the place from which they started out. Not more than two-thirds of the men who try stock raising on the plains suo ceed. With one it is bad luck ; another's stock is stolen ; another is lazy ; another drinks ; and a fifth gam bles off not only the profits, but some times the whole herd. A man, to raise stock, must be not only sober, but in dustrious ; and, when the storms come, he must be brave, and keep his cattle together and feed them, even at tho risk of his life. In time of peril or danger, the herder must never let go his grip ; if he does, the herd is ruined, and the labor of years lost. The Home of IJnnyan. Bailey, the Danbnry News man, while in England, visited the home of the late John Bunyan, author of " Pil grim's Progress." He says : The elder of the two women in charge of the house took me up stairs into the garret, and showed me the room where John slept and pondered over the great question ho was wrestling with. Then we returned to tho kitchen, where I signed my name, and being a trifle hungry, asked if I could have a pot of tea and bread and butter. I thought it would be something to tell of in a grocery when I became an old man, and full of rheumatism and snuff, that I had eaten a meal of victuals where the youth Bunyan had taken his bread in Lis hand. There were an abundance of gooseberry bushes in the garden, and so I had a plate of the fruit with the tea and bread, and took them on a bench just outside the back door. The bread was dark, and there was no milk for the tea, and the sugar for the berries was lumpy and hard ; but I straddled the bench, and chewed up the food and fruit, and gulped down tho tea as de corously as the hero himself could have done it, although I was far less deserv ing of it. While I was eating I learned that the family took care of the cottage for the rent, and were in no wise de scended from the famous proaoher. The women were lace workers, and the husband and father was a laborer. Tho younger of the two worked at her trade in the yard near to where I was sitting, and plied her needle with sush mor velous dexterity that I was fasoinated into asking her how much a good lace maker would earn in a day, and she told me a half-crown, which is sixty three cents. That ended the conversa tion, and I returned to my supper. There is but little to learn of Ban yan's habits of life from the people of Elstow. They were born since he lived, and have preserved no traditions. I talked with my hostess and several old people of the village, but they knew nothing of Banyan. All they knew was Canada. Some one had left Elstow fifteen years ago for Canada with hardly a penny in his pocket, and had just re turned with 12,750, or nearly $65,000, and had bought Squire Wilson's plaoe, and was making great improvements about it. These people I talked with had no especial feeling against Bunyan, but thev thought the time could be profitably employed in oonveising about Canada. They never lived so close to Canada as I have. At Sheffield, England, people drown themselves in the reservoir from whioh water is drawn for publio use, and in the time of one keeper ninety bodies have been found in that reservoir, AIJOVE THE CLOUDS. the karlli a seen from a Balloon at I he Height of Sixteen Thonsand Feet. We clip tho following from an no count of an ascension with Professor Donaldson, in tho Baltimore American: Now came the most stim'no inm. dent of our trip. From tho height of four thousand feet we steadily ascend ed, tho oountry dwarfing into a pano rama of toya . below us. I had tho aneroid barometer in my hand, and so marked our progress Upward. At six thousand six hundred feet our breaths became visible, just as they would bo on a frostv morninc. Wn nlrandv ha. gan to feel cold in tho body, but the mys oi me sun ueni in upon us with a fierce intensity. Tho index of the barometer steadilv nrnnt. nrnnnrl Mm dial, marking off the thousands until it reacned tno lourteentn, then flying oacK again and starting from zero, from whence it nrocresRed nnco mora ormin.1 the dial, until it halted on the verge of me two tuousanotn, teiiing ns that we were only about a hundred feet less than sixteen thousand feet abovo Mm earth. At this Iir.iVht tho World tuna nn r, scurity to us, a vapory haze shut it out from our view, and wo vinll Jt0f nothing of it but tho silver lines that marned tne great Days and rivers. From a contemplation of the indistinct scene I revert to mv own fanlinoa Tlio air was very cold, and the sun was very warm, ine tnermometor stood at 82 degroes, tho sun was intensely hot, as its- ravs fell upon ns. bnt fnr nil n,nt wo might as well have been in an Arctic region. This is ono of tho most curious phenomena of life above the clouds. Tho rarefaction of the nir hnrdlv nn. counts for the chilling cold whioh pene- irmes you tnrougn and through, while the thermometer nnd Mia Viant nt tlm solar rays are indicating a high sum mor temperature. At a Vi fifteen thousand feet I was shivering, wuuo my nead seemed to bo burning tip, and all the blood in my body rush ins: toward it. I felt a vnrv Rlicht Aitft. oulty in breathing, but my ears were stopped up, and 1 could hardly hear what Mr. Fox was saying to me when he was standing by my side. We did not remain lnn ot. Miia fro. mendous elevation. We slipped down through the atmosphere to between eleven and twelve thonsand fpot. hWa tho earth, and it was there that we had our grandest view. Ave had within our range of vision at the same moment Philadelphia. Baltimore, and HnrriR. burg, tho Chesapeake and Delaware bays, and all their upper tributaries, and also Annapolis and the most of the smaller towns were included within this extended vision. But the grandest feature of all was when gazing east- Vi.l l'' J1 I'nrnciveu LL1 Atlantic? ocean. ThprA wnn rn miki.,,v about it ; tho mist had lifted a little, and we could piainlv sao where tho Waters of the Delaware hnv minorlerl with those of the Atlnatic. The View at this timo won ahnvn Mir- possibility of language to picture. The peninsula of land between the Chesa peake and Delaware bays was but a thread of dark green upon the land scape ; tho Susquehanna river was hardly perceptible, exoept for the dark lino which we knew to be the great bridge aoross it ; the country below us was but a checker-board of indistinct green and white sqnares ; Baltimore and Philadelphia were onlv masses of shade upon the map ; but the great ocean was a reality, and to a view of it we cuDBianuy turned our eyes, with a foelincr that here was somethinc wr. lastincr and endnrinc. TIia that came within our scope of vision was orobablv not less than t.wn hun dred square miles, but from our height Of Sixteen thousand feet it roptti,1 t.n be dwarfed to a space you might cover witn your nanQKcrcuiei. it seemed to us as if we were looking through the wrong end of a field glass. Whn at this height of sixteon thou sand feet, or over three miles above the oarth, Professor Donaldson told us that the balloon had obtained its equilib rium : that it was poised on an nxant balance, and that as soon as the cas commenced to condense, even in the slightest degree, we would descend rapidly. And it was precisely in this fashion that we did go down. The lost Boy's Father. The report that comes of the sinking condition of the father of little Charlie Ross is a sad climax to a sad and mys terious story. Few events that have occurred within the past few years have excited more comment and attention than the abduction, in broad daylight, of the little Philadelphia boy. From tho moment of his disappearance all trace of him has been lost. Every con ceivable metliDd of discovery has been employed, every link taken up and fol lowed to its conclusion, but all without avail. During all this time the unfor tunate parents have been racked with doubts - and fears, and disappointed hopes, almost too much for human en durance. Now, it is said, the mind of tho father has succumbed to the strain placed upon it, and there is every prob ability that he will go down to the grave a broken-hearted man. Assuredly, if there be such a thing as retributive juBtioe, there will bo a terrible punish ment meted out to those who have bro ken up a happy household and driven its head to a lunatio's grave. A Lucky Shot A young man residing with his f athei in Patohogue reoently heard a noise in the direction of tho watermelon patch, and looking out of his bedroom window saw ft man in the act of "hooking" one. Ho seized a gun, loaded with small shot, which he kept handy for suoh purpose, and blazed away at the sup posed thief. A yell followed, and the young man was horrified to disoover by the voice that he had shot at his own father. She 44 old man" came running into the house with a big watermelon under his arm, which he had been se lecting for breakfast the next morning, and it was found that fortunately the entire charge had lodged in the melon not a shot having struck the person of the supposed thief. ' ." SELF.fJOJTKOL A NECESSITY. Whjr BuelneM Men Succeed and Why 1 licy Do Not. Before a man can be a kinc of bus! ness or a king of men, says Parton in his new lecture, ho must bo monarch of himself. A great part of the secret of Doing auie to control others is self control. I remember Robert Bonner pointing out a person going by the office of the Ledger and saying : 44 1 worked by the side of that man for years sotting typo, and a very good workman he was. Do yon want to know tho reason why he is still a journeyman printer and I am not ?" I did want to know the reason. "Well," said he, 44 tho reason is this : He used to buy five-dollar pantaloono, nnd as soon as they began to look shabby ho cast them aside j but I bought coarse, strong threo-dollur ones and wore them out. That's the reason." There is a great deal in merelv beinir able to fori money in your pocket, and not spend it. I must own that it is a very rare gift with the literarv class. I have known a young writer, in receiv ing $30 for an article, invite a friend to dine with him at Delmonico's, and or der two bottles of $6 wine. Such men, whatever their talents, usuallv remain drudges and slaves all their lives. Tho simple reason, in fact, why property always and everywhere gets into suoh enormous masses, is that it is the na ture of the strong to husband their re sources and themselves, and it is the natnre of the weak to squander both. If you want to test a young man and ascertain whether nature made him for a king or a subject, give him a thou sand dollars and seo what he will do with it. If he is born to conauer and command, he will put it quietly away till ho is ready to use it as opportunity offers. If he is born to servo, he will immediately begin to spend it in grati fying his ruling propensity. That pro pensity may be, usually is, perfectly innocent. In my youth, for example, books were my temptation, and many a fierce tussle I have had with it while standing before the window of a book seller. The first time in my life that I ever had two dollars all at once, I in stantly bought a Shakspeare with it. Knowing my weakness, I used to leave my money at home, when I had anv. in order not to bo surprised into buying a boon : out reeling that this was base cowardice, a contemptible avoidance of the enemv. I afterwards made it a point always to have monev in mv pocket. Often I have courted tempta tion, standing long before a window. gazing upon some particular book that I had been longing to possess for many months, and then stalking awav with a proud consciousness that I might have Dougnt it and didn't. But, in my case, this was not strength, but more they who really might lawfully and properly indulge an expensive taste, and yet can wait till they can indulge it with absolute safety. in tho stray counties of Pennsyl vania, now enjoying the fifth genera tion of solid prosperity, thev build a stone barn beforo they build a house of stone ; and though the houses are usually good enough, the barns are generally better. "To be thus is nothing," says the strong man, "but to be safely thus." This feeling is very powerful in men who conquer the world ; it is weak in the men over whom the victory is gained. Christophe. black emperor, used to say. "Put a bag of coffee in the mouth of hell, and a Yankee would be sure to go after it." Of course he would ; why not ? The happiness of a human being rests upon three pillars : First, a clear conscience; second, good health ; third, a sound pe cuniary condition. If that bag of cot fee is necessary for tho attainment of that third main stay of happiness, let us by all means go whero it is to be found. Of courso there is such a thing as going too far for your bag of coffee. Some men do really forget that, after all, business is only a means to an end. Their minds run entirely to business. A Harvard professor told me that he went down to one of the beaches on the New England coast to bathe one stormy day, but those in charge refused to let him go in on account of the dangerous swell. On his way back he expressed his disappointment and indignation to the driver of the omnibus. " Well," said the driver, 44 I'll tell you how it is. We don't like to have strangers come down here and got drowned. It hurts the beach." This man evidently had business on the brain. How Dry It Was. An honest old fellow from the conn- try g.we his reoolleotions of the late hot spull as follows : 44 It was so dry we couldn't spare water to put in our whis ky. The grass was so dry that every time the wind blew it flew around like ruuehashes. There wasn't a tear shed at a funeral for a month. The sun dried up all the cattle, and burnt off the hair till they looked like Mexi can dogs, and the sheep all like poodle puppies, they shrank up so. We had to soak all our hogs to make 'em hold swill, and if any cattle were killed in tho morning, they'd be dried beef at dark. The woods dried up so that the farmers chopped seasoned timber ull through August, and there ain't a match through all the oountry in faot, no wedding sinoe the widow Glenn mar ried old Baker, three months ago. What few grasshoppers are left are all skin and legs, and I didn't hear a tea kettle sing for six weeks. We eat our potatoes baked, they being all ready, and we couldn't spare water to boil i. All the red-headed girls were afraid to stir out of the house in day light, and I tell you, I was afraid the devil had moved out of his old home and settled down with us for life. Why we had to haul water all summer to keep the ferry running and say, it's getting dry." Landlady (who has just presented her weekly bill) " I 'ope, ma'am, as you find the bracing hair agree with you, ma am r Jjady u yes, our appetites are wonderfully improved I For instance, at home we only eat two loaves a day, and I find from your ao- oount that we can manage eight r A 44 Sew Community" Abroad. A recent iiondon letter gives a graphic description of a curious com munity established in one of the corners of the JNew forest, in Hampshire. It recalls the experiments of Fourrier and others, and as a parallel to an intended establishment in our own State of Ver mont, tho " experiment " may be worth the reading : It is said that they number in all, men, women and .children, 130 souls, with an estate of thirty-one acres. They began in January, 1872, with a nucleus of about fourteen persons, but the estate is already in a fair state of cultivation, though not sufficient to be self-supporting. There aro stated to bo a number of persons waiting to join tho brotherhood" as soon as fresh land can be obtained, but at present there is no room for more. The society has more than doubled since last year. Of the thirty-one acres, about an acre is devoted to spade culture, the remainder being laid down for grass, wheat, etc. There is a little fruit, and the flowers are the special charge of the women. The community includes a variety of craftsmen, such as tailors, shoemakers, woodcutters, brickmakers, etc. There is a miller, too, but he has not yet got to work, because his mill is not ready. Besides the flowers, the women also attend to th washing, sewing, and gen eral housekeeping. Tho members of the community are supposed to be capable of making and repairing their own clothes, with, we suppose, the as sistance of tho tailor in an emergency. The men appear to be wearing out tne clothes they brought with them from the outer world, but the women have characteristically invented a new style of costume. Even in Eden Eve's mind runs on robes. Tho sisters wenr an attire nearly uniform in pattern, though varying widely iu color and material. It consists simply of a plain bodice. short skirt and trousers, and "none can realize, without actual observation, the peculiar yet pleasing and attractive effect of this dress, worn by nearly every female in the family, whether of early or mature years." Earrings, chignons, and othor vanities are rigor ously abolished. Tho hair is worn curiously, with or without curls, but generally loose and flowing down be hind. The head of this society is a lady, who is called Mother. She is supreme among them, governing by the law of love, and is consulted on very subject. There is neither marriage nor giving in marriage in this community, and all live together os brothers and sisters. Property is held in common, and everybody is supposed to cret what is good for her or him. " Each con tributes according to his powers, and receives according to his necessities " the old jargon. Tho community takes the Bible as its only law-book, o.. in j7 i w..uL i a-.i--u i. sister, and there is also a well-to-do village shoemaker, a farmer, and a Lon don shopkeeper in the society, But the majority of the members are poor, and many of the poorest class. Music is the chief amusement of tho brothers and sisters, and there is the " fullest liberty with tho most perfect unani mity. ' It is needless to anticipate tho fate of this society, of which there have been many forerunners. There is no reason ta suppose that human na ture is likely to be transformed in tho Ne Forest any more than at Brocton or elsewhere. The majority of the members are poor, and yet thero is said to be 44 no poverty in the austere sense." This would seem to mean that they are living on the means provided by tho well-to-do section, and when these are exhausted it is easy to imag ine what will happen. Rats on Board of Ship. Rats greatly infest ships, and are by them carried to every part of the world. So industriously do they make homes for themselves in the numerous crannies and corners in tho hull of a ship that it is almost impossible to get rid of them. Ships take out rats as well as passengers and cargo every voy age ; whether the former remain m the ship when in port is best known to themselves. When the East India Com pany had ships of their own they em ployed a rat catcher, who sometimes captured 500 rats in one ship just re turned from Calcutta. The ship rat is often the black species. Sometimes blaok and brown inhabit the same ves sel and, unless they carry on perpetual hostilities, the one party will keep -to tho head of the vessel and the other to the stern. Tho ship rat is very anxious that his supply of fresh water shall not fail ; he will come on deck when it rains, and climb up the wet sails to suck them. Sometimes he mistakes a spirit cask for a water cask, and gets drunk. A cap tain of an American merchant ship is credited with a bit of sharp practice as a means of olearing his ship from rats. Having discharged cargo at a port in Holland, he found his ship in- juxtapo sition to another which had just taken in a cargo of Dutch cheese. He laid a plank at night from the one vessel to tho other ; the rats, tempted by the odor, trooped along the plank, and began their feast. He took care that the plank should not be there to serve them as a pathway back again ; and so the cheese-laden ship had a cruel addi tion to its outward cargo. Would Women Yote, It is an error to suppose but few women would vote if they could. We have faots to the contrary in England, and from the better classes, so called. It is said none but the lowest order of women would vote. We know better the high character of the women earn estly demanding the ballot refutes the assertion. A London paper says : " In 66 munioipal elections, out of every 1,000 women who enjoy equal rights with men on the register, 516 went to the polls, which is but 43 less than the proportionate number oi men. And out of 27,949 women registered, where a contest occurred, 14,416 voted. Of men there were 162,781 on the register, and yu.UBU at the pons. Making allow. anoe for the reluctanoe of old spinsters to their habits and the more frequent illness of their sex, it ia manifest that women do exercise the franchise as freely as men. Items of Interest. According to official statistics just published, there were 5,275 suioides in France in 1872. DuriDg the past year the United States imported 19,804,000 pounds of ten from Japan. The birth of tho Duchess of Edin burgh's baby increases the number of Queen Victoria's grandchildren to twenty-six, of whom twenty-three are living, A Boston philosopher says that yon want to look at men's boot heels to discover their energy. A slow, sloth ful man runs his boots over at tho heels. A Missouri man swears he won't pay any taxes on his farm, and he has ereoted a fort, supplied it with arms and provisions, and the tax collector keeps out of rifle shot. The Zoologioal Garden of Cincinnati was reoently tho recipient of a package weighing 650 pounds, containing live specimens of all but three kinds of native American snakes. Thanksgiving hint. Charooal is recommended for fattening turkeys. It should be pulverized and mixed with mnshed potatoes and corn meal, as well as fed to them in small lumps. The local authorities of Auckland, New Zealand, are reported to have in stituted a yearly tax of $5 a head on bachelors, the proceeds of which are to be devoted to educational purposes. Tho only excuse a Tennessee man had for shooting a stranger was that the stranger's name was Moses Bogar dus Smith. He said nobody could bring that name into Tennessee and live. Some enterprising wasps started a nest over night in the trousers of a boarder at a St. Paul hotel, and when the gentleman thrust his leg through the next morning the whole town wasn't large enough to hold him. In a certain Paris restaurant in Rue de Trindad a plate of meat, a plate of vegetables, a dessert, and half a bottlo of wine, are now served for nine cents; and a writer on the Figaro, having eaten, pronounces it a good meal. A lunatio from the Hartford. Conn.. Retreat, who was taken out to have a tooth drawn, liked the operation so well that he insisted upon having the rest of his teeth extracted, and it took half a dozen policemen to get him back to the asylum. Tho celebrated Merrifiold ranch of 2,000 acres, in Colusa county, Cal., has been sold for SaU.OUO. The parties sell ing the ranch purchased it two years ago for $24,000, and have raised about $40,000 worth of wheat upon it since then. A Mobile man, on returning home recently, was surprised to receive the congratulations oi nis tamuy on nis nappy escape from drowning. He thought somebody had been playing a joke on them, and laughed heartily until ho found that they had given his best suit of clothes to the colored man who brought the news, and who said he was sent for some dry clothes. A young man at Paducah, while romp ing lately with his cousin, the only daughter of a widow, and scuffling with her for the possession of a pistol, seized it, and, playfully presenting it, called upon her to surrender, when it went off, inflicting a wound from which sho will probably die. Twice before the same young man has come near killing the young woman by accident. A young lady, in a note to the Wo man Jouraal, says : I have read with interest all you have to say on dress reform, and now wish to ask why we have not the independence to give up skirts at once ? Warm, full trousers, buttoned to a shirt waist, with a band below the knee, a full-plaited skirt reaching to the knee, with handsome boots, would make a graceful costume, which would be admired by all so soon as the eye became accustomed to it. Life In a Lighthouse. The Scilly Islands are situated near the southwest coast of England, far out in the Atlantic Ocean. These islands consist of a group of rocks and reefs, interspersed with habitual islets. Ou one of the rocks that stretches farthest out into the ocean tho Bishop's Rock lighthouse is located. It is a lonely dwelling place at any time, but its un fortunate inmates had a fearful experi ence to undergo during the morning of the 14th of April, on which a gale of great violence occurred. As the mas sive stone building was struck by the enormous waves in quick succession, it swayed to and fro so violently that every article within fell from its place. One wave reached the lantern with such force as to break the great lens in several places, and another caused ad ditional trouble to the apparatus. The keepers state that, although the watr is one hundred and eighty feet deep by the rocK, sand from tne bottom of the sea was found heaped upon the light house gallery. It would be difficult to imagine a more frightful position than that of these lonely lighthouse Keepers in that swaying tower, surrounded by the roaring ocean and with hardly a hope oi esoape from a fearful death. But the staunch lighthouse bore the buffeting of the waves, and the inmates escaped the threatened danger. A Stringent Law. Under the " Damage Law" of New York State, any person giving liquor to another is liable for damages. The man who sells a glass of spirits, beer or cider to a man per fectly sober, who afterwards becomes drunk though he may have visited ntty liquor shops and tippled nfty times te " get up steam " is, in the eyes of the law, as fully responsible for the drunKen antics ot that person as if he had sold him the last glass which fired his brain and set him on his round of mischief. . All the sellers may be sued sued severally or jointly. A man who gives liquor to a friend, in his private house, may be sued for damages re sulting from that friend's subsequent intoxication, though the drunkenness may have been wholly caused by his purohase of liquor at a common bar later in the day or night.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers