,( f..., t ,,: t:. i ,-t r t HENRY A. PARSONS, Jr., Editor and Publisher. Nit. DESPERANDtJM. Two Dollars per Annum. YOL. Y. KIDGrWAY, ELK COUNTY, TA THU11SDAY, NOYEMBEll 4, 1875. - NO. 7. fiiiii At tlie Stile. The leaves are growing ruddy as the sun be gins to dip. The birds are twitt'riiig forth thoir even IMiln Lucy sits expectant with her finger at hor lip Wlint wakes her sister Alloe stay bo long ? There are butterflies and dragon-flies all ready to be chatted, There a,e daisy chains to weave, there are blackberries to taste ; Why not play about the meadows for a while? Why linger, linger, linger at the stile t Impatient little Lncy Is a simple-witted mite; Hor sweetheart days are future joys, 'tis clear ; Why should Harry keep his arm around her Bister's waist so tight? Why make her blush by whisp'ring in her ear? The sun will seon be setting Lucy does cot love the dark ; She does not love the silent bats that flit acroes the park ; Since he met her, Alice might have walk'd a mile Why linger, linger, linger at the stile ? This dialopue, small Lucy, which seems tedirnm as you tarry, To Alice ii a rather serious thing ; For it means that she and Harry have this evening vow'd to marry s It means a cke, lace veil, and wedding ring. And when a little bridomaiden, uncommonly like you, Comea into ehureh so trippingly, all dreg'd in while and blue, You'll diBcover, as you reach the middle" aislo, Why they linger'd, linger'd, linger'd at tho stile. LUKE'S LOAD OF HAY. This n.fftir which I nm going to relate Thnppeiied some years ago, in an ancient fishing town on the const of New Eng land. The boys of this place were rudo fel lows, with an unreasonable and half savage antipathy to strangers, upon whom they vented their dislike as often they appeared among them, by cat calls and hooting, aud not infrequently l.'y f-howers of stones. It was really a serious matter for strange boys to enter the town, for it was almost certain that they would be attacked rind roughly treated, and there is moro than one case on record of fdchts between tho young ruffians of Marlow and the lads of neighboring towns that ended seriously for both parties. One flue September duy, towards evening, a laughing group of these same quarrelsome urchins spied in the dis tance a load.jof hay slowly advancing along one of the village" streets. The load was drawn by a yoke of 'oxen, and the driver was a brown-faced, white- liaired boy, whose simple appearance "markeu him as an easy subject for in suiting fun. Instantly signs of intelligence passed among the mischief -makerR, aud in a moment more the group was re-enforced by half-a-dozen other boys, but strange ly enough not a hoot was uttered nor a stone thrown. The boy with the hay came on in peace. The Rtrei ts of tho town are very nor row, and often steep, and in places they are.so crooked that new-comers are likely to get most ludicrously bewildered in trying to follow them. Seated on the nearest fence, the town boys, to the. number of a dozen or more, awaited the approach of the young rus tic aud his hay-wagon, in solemn and ominous silence, lie came on, staring u'xmt him with a perplexed look, aud presently stopped his oxen. " Say you !" he culled out to tho boys on tho fence. " la tliis the way to Hiuekley's tavern?" : " Hinckley's tavern !" cried the whole group together, aud most of them tumbled off their seats with roars of laught-.-r for Hinckley's taveru was a mile the other side of the town. The questioner off first looked red, and fumbled his driving stick in awkward embarrassment. Then he grew angry. Tlie ringleader of tho boys, perceiving this, got down aud said to his compan ions: " Hold up. can't yer? Of course it's the way to Hinckley's." Then approuch - lug the driver, he asked: "D'ye want to go there?" "Yes," was the eager reply. "I'd like to g t rid of this load of hay 'fore night." "Then corao along I'll Bhow yer," cried the boy. Then, winking to his companions, he continued: "Eight ahead here, and arouud the first corner into Parsons street. There's where Hinckley lives." " Hurrah for Hiuckley on Parsons street I" yelled the boys, and broke into another roar of laughter. The confused driver put his team in motion, and before and behind the cart the noisy crowd trooped on, fairly dauo iug with mischievous delight. Parsons street was the most crooked in tlie town, aid it grew narrower as it went on, until it finally ended at a cliff of solid stone, beyond which was the sea. The boys were gradually conduct ing the unsuspecting farmer lad into a trap. More thou once he stopped short, as if suspecting some trick; but as often ha was induced to start again by the inge nious leader of the gang. As they went on, every house they Eias-jed lookt d p orer and older than the ist, "and more .directly in. the way, and the road grew all the time rougher, and crookeder and narrower. The load of hay began actually to brush the fences and dwellings on either side. Cross women rushed out to scold the driver, and crosser dogs barked around the oxen's heels. The poor farmer boy D.gan to be really terrified. "Oh, ko 'lone," shouted the others, " Go 'long till the next turn, then you're all right! The next turn! The road was all turn, for aught that he could see. But t- urged and pushed by his tormentors, he kept on, until a rickety om nouse, jut ting almost into the street at one of the narrow winnings, caugni me oi and wedgod between that aud the oppo site tree, it stuck fast. Men, women and children rushed out. and set upon poor Luke the driver, scolding and clamoring like so many crows. The boy stood and stared in helpless perplexity and anger. He saw no way to get out of hia pre dicament. He could not go on. He could not make his boasts back up the hill. Once he caught sight of his chief tormentor standing in the doorway of tho old house that had stopped him, but the exultant rascal laughed and dodged out of the way. No person present seemed sensible enough to extricate the victim from his difficulties, or cool enough to hear any explanations. Everybody shouted, and asked questions, and threatened, and poured a chorus of abuse upon help less Luke. At length some one called out that the hay must be unloaded. 'Men from the neighboring streets began to arrive at the scene, and one of them happened to be the local oonstable. It was now almost dark, aud Luke's situation was miserable enough. Dis tressed for tho dunger to the property in his charge, he was trembling by this time for his own pafety, too. The gamins who had trapped him darted shrieking round the cart, call ing : " Ho, here's Hinckley's tavern ?' ' and mingling with the crowd, succeeded in starting a fight. A man climbing the load to help throw off the hay was hit by a stoue, and shouted angrily to the constable to "arrest that boy !" Tho constable, confused by the tu mult and darkness, grabbed Luke roughly by the collar, without stopping to make sure whether he was " that boy " or some one else. "I ain't to blame !" screamed the un lucky farmer lad, struggling to get away. " It's them fellows thtit cheated me, and told me to drive into " A louder uproar drowned Luke's voice, and with furious exclamations two men leaped off the cart almost upon the heads of tho constaWo and his pris oner. Just then a bright glare shot into the sky, accompanied by smoke. Some one of the boys had put a lighted match to the hay ! It burned with alarming ra pidity. In a few moments the whole load was a mus t of flame. The people made wild dashes at the wagon to draw it back from the house, but their efforts were vain. The blazing load was immovable. Only one man had the courage, and preseuce of mind to hastily unyoke the oxen and set them free. A few minutes more, and the old house was burning in half a dozen places. By this time the town bells began ringing the alarm. All Parsons street was in imminent danger, if not the whole town. The weather had been dry for a long time, and the breeze blew in from the sea. A hundred hands were throw ing water, but their labor did nothing to stav the flames. Tho engines came thundering and clattering down ; but the street was so narrow that much time was lost before they could reach the fire. Meantime the officer, called off by greater matters, had quitted his hold upon Luke, and the lad, half wild with terror, crept through a hole in the board fence which protected a sort of side yard to tho burning house, ne jumped down some rocks toward a lower street, amid a shower of sparks, and in his flight turned a sharp corner and fouud himself iu a bi ightly-lighte 1 garden-patch, with two or three very small sheds on the fnrther ndo. In the very center of this garden tood an old man with a bucket in his band, pale as a ghost, and trembling like a leaf from head to foot. He was hatless and shoeless, and the yellow glare of the hre streaming full upon hira, made him look like a specter. His lips moved, and Luke heard him groan, and mutter : " Tho powder ! the powder ! Oh, Lord, forgive us! Ob, Lord, protect us !" "Powder! Where is it?-' cried the boy, forgetting for the moment every thing but the present danger. "It's mine," said the old man, "aud it's stored over there in that shed with the hole in tho door. They'd put me in jail if they knew I had it, but I got it cheap, and I marked it 'Herrings,' and brought it home in the night. Oh, dear! and now it'll blow up the town, and kill all the people I Seo the fire come down ! Oh, it's ketched ! It's ketched !" It was true the shed wos burning a little on tlie roof. Here was peril iu deed. With a feeling of desperation that he had never known before, Luke leaped towards the building, crying : " Bring me water from the well there ! Get that tin kettle ! Hurry ! Hurry !' Ruuuing upon the roof, he stripped off his coat, and with the garment in his hands succeeded in smothering the small flames. But now several houses were on fir. Sparks and embers were flying everywhere in the hot air about him, and fell upon the dry shingles and kindled new flames faster than he could extinguish them. The fahed seemed doomed, but Luke the farmer boy, parched with heat, and every moment increasing his risk of lifo by a horrible explosion, fought the tire with fierce and reckless courage, He drenched his jacket in every pailful of water that the trembling old man brought him, and beat it about him on the burning roof, and threw the rest of the liquid in splashes upon the flames, All this time he was shouting ; "Help ! help! powder I powder!" " Don't holler powder," shrieked the old man, above the noise ; " they'll put me in prison ! It's agen the law to have it here!" But Luke paid no attention, and back wards aud forwards the wretched old man trotted, shaking the sparks from his shoulders, and growing weaker and weaker with fright. . The upper part of the shed was now fairly in a blaze. The hencoops had already gone, and a pig sty in the next yard was beginning to smoke. " If a smirk should get at the powder, " thought Cuke ; and he lifted up his voice once more, and shrieked for "help help help I" but in the turmoil hia voice was no more audible than the chirp of a bird. " Ob, dear, will no one bear me I" thought he, half fainting with exhaustion and distress. There was a large tenement house just in the rear of the garden that must certainly go to pieces if the fire caught the powder. Many people were even now in the house, darting to and fro, carrying out goods, " It'll blow up In a minute 1 Bun, boy run, I tell ye I" screamed the pnuio-stricken old man; and he throw dowu his pail and fled in the smoko. " Holp ! help !" cried Luke once more. " There's powder here !" He felt one of the boards giving way under him. At the same instant a dizziness seized him; he cried once more: " Holp ! Powder I Powder I" His dress caught fire. He did not have strength to extinguish it. But now he heard some one answer his cry, and saw a blanched face appear and suddonly disappear at one of the win dows of the tenement house, and other voices shrieked : "Powder! Powder!" Just as he was falling, and had thrown up his arms iu a last endeavor to shield his face from the flames, he dimly knew that a crowd of men came pouring down into tho yard, bringing hose with them, and calling upon him to leap. He felt the blow of the water upon his shoul ders, and its cold Rpray upon his face, and then ho sank down unconscious. When he awoke the fire was over, and he found himself surrounded by kindly and gentle faces. His bravery and faithful service at the place of danger, and all the story of his misfortune through the dastardly trick played upon him by the boys of "tho town had been told. 'This, together with tho injuries he had received, created universal sympathy for him, and indignation at his persecutors. The head selectman, learning the facts, had caused him to be conveyed to his own house, and tenderly cared for. Tho Eoor boy's face and limbs were badly urned, aud he must lie a good while under constant nursing before he could be moved. It would be a wonder, they said, if ho recovered without serious scars. The indignation awakened in tho town against Luke's tormentors did not die out with its expression. Before Luke recovered sufficiently to be carried home, the authorities had suoueeded in finding the leaders. They were arrested and punished, and a fruitful Bource of dis grace to the community was effectually put away. The injured farm-boy was looked upon by the citizens as a public benefactor. ioutns Companion. Detroit Free Pressings. It has been ascertained that only two Smiths will serve in the next Congress, and neither of these are .black Smiths. ' If you should die, my own true love, Then, while the sun was risiu', I'd go out in some vacant lot Aud kill myself with pizen. It has been decided that any railroad conductor who kisses a passenger against her will lays the railroad company liable for damages. There are eighteen different patent clothes-pins in the market, and any one of them will make good paving for the back yard if you get the right kind of a hired girl. Florida papers report an almost total failure of the sponge crop, while North ern f reo-lunch clerks soy that there are more sponges around this fall than they ever saw before. It i3 given for solemn fact that a hired girl in Savannah fainted dead away be cause she broke a teacup. It may be true. It may be that she hadn't a chance to hide the pieces. When you see a Detroit girl come out of a store with a hop, skip, and a jump and a pleased expression, you may know that the milliner has told her she can press her old summer hat over into a $20 winter style. A grocer on the Ohio river had to make an assignment because some vil lain stole eighteen pounds of sugar and a whole cheese from his stock, lou can get an idea from this how sensitiye capi tal sometimes is. One passing through Arkansas doesn't see half as many revolvers as he would have noticed two or three years ago. It isn't particularly because everybody is trying to be real good, but more because they have found out that a good shot gun is more to be depended on. Two years ago a millionaire named Johnson was riding on the cars in Indi ana, and he saw Ellen Rogers sitting on the fence, fell in love, and the other day they were married. Will this little episode be carelessly forgotten by any marriageable young lady in North America? A Shaky Prisoner, The first prisoner out to be tried in the Detroit police court, says the Free Prcs, was shaking with a fit of the ague. He was bent over, his lips were blue, his short hair stood up like bris tles, and as the shakes ran up and down his back the chairs almost danced around. "This is a pretty state of affairs, George Cain!" exclaimed his honor. " Tell me, sir, what business you had to have the ague just as I want to try you for being drunk." " I d-o-n-'t k-n-o-w," gasped George, shivering as if a cold crowbar had been rnn down behind his collar. "Is this the real ague, or are you try ing to deceive me ?" "It's the the a-g-e-r '" gasped the prisoner. "Do you feel cold?" " Y-y-yes, sir.". "And can't you keep your teeth from knocking together ?" " No-np-no-no, sir.". "Well, I'm going to let you shake yourself out of court ; but harkee, boy ! If they trot you in here again on the same charge, and thg ague cornea on, I'll send out after ice, oilcloth, and all the other cold things I can think of, and I'll freeze you to death and sell your body for a lawn ornament ! Paste those words in the crown of your hat, George Cain, for I'm terribly in earnest. Go home now, and if you meet an old friend on the street and he holds out his hand and asks you to ' shake,' do you oblige him." Lying, for Luck. ' Walkiug in the early morning at a small station -m northwest India, the writer, on pnxsing a shrubbery, observed a man stealthily moving in the bushes. The intruder was asked- what he wanted, when he replied r "The Both is dead." This Seth was the principal man in the native city adjoining the station, and a merchant nniversauy Known in the com mercial world on account of his great riches. Forgetting, in his surprise at the announcement, that the reply was scarcely An adequate one to his question, the writer took his walk, and, on return ing, expressed his astonishment to the servants that they had not told him the Seth was ill, mentioning the catastrophe he had learned from the trespasser. One of the servants having happened, on his way from the city that very morning, to have seen the Seth hearty and well, it was decided on all hands that the in formation was moorreot. Thereupon one present remarked : "The mau wno toia your honor was probably a dyer. "A dyer!" cried the writer; "but why should a dyer tell falsehoods?" "He was prooaDiy lying lor luck, was the answer; and then it was related that when a vat has been prepared for a dye, some anxiety is felt as to whether it it will turn out well and the blue dye was said to be the most ticklish and that during this doubt the dyers go out telling falsehoods, in the hopes that, if they are believed, the vat will turn out well. Further inquiries were made after ward, and the facts were found to be correct ; and, indeed, allusions to the custom were subsequently pointed out in native poetry. A lover would, per haps, be made to address his mistress in some such mad hyperbole as this: " Yon deceived me, it may be, lest the blue vat of heaven; jealous of the heaven of your face, should wish to spoil itself." Philopena.. " Will yon eat a philopena with me'r' said a young lady toTne one dfry. ' What is a philopena?"; I asked, for having recently come into the country 1 had never heard the word before " You eat half of this double almond. and I eat tho other," said my fair inform ant. " Then the one who calls philo--pena to morrow, or i the next time we meet, is entitled to a present from the other." I ate the half of the twin almond she offered me, and the next day she Was the first to call philopena, aud I had to make her a present. But I was puzzled to acoonnt for this custom, and I made many inquiries as to its meaniirg and origin, but all in ain til the.other day I found tthe following eiplaoatiou iu a French journal 5 . ". The people of Alsffoo and Lorraine' were formerly under German, rule, as they new are ; but whuVapart of France they lost, in a great measure, the use of the' German language, aud what they re tained became corrupt. ' ' It was an old custom among them for young couples to engage themselves by eating the halves of double almouds,- and then to salute each other as " well beloved " each time they met. The word in Ger man was " vielliebchen ;" but having forgotten the meaning ot this word they srraduallv chanced it' into " philippo, ' which sounds like it, and " philippina." This is now their form of salutation. Here it is not restricted only to those who are betrothed ; but thou young peo ple here behave towards each other in many respects as they would only be permitted to do in Europe if they were " fiances." Over-Dressed Women. I am convinced, says a "newspaper correspondent, that there will come a time when man will rise and assert his preference for plainly dressed women. He is just now ground , into the dust with, the tyranny of over dress, it an noys him to think that the soul-harrow ing SKirts anu sensc-wnnering Donneis are sent out by the importers to be ex hibited, and that the goddess who night ly gathers her laurels from mankind is only touting for a dry goods firm. Plainly dressed does not mean shabbily or inelegantly dressed ; by no means. It means, I . think, appropriately dressed.. It is opposed to too-much and too-often dressed. A richly attired lady is one of the abiding incentives to virtue and re spect. A tawdry and flashily dressed woman is a standing menace to respecta bility. 1 ' ' And here let me say that the church has attempted this advertising business. I am told by a 'New York milliner that those peerless ladies who appear in the sanctuary ever Sunday in new bonnets have them supplied regularly and gra tuitously by up-towu houses. The ladies recompense the houses bymention ing the names of their firms when their bonnets are admired- How shockedv these dear creatures would be if, their beloved pastor should appear in his pulpit pn Sunday with a placard on his, breast inviting his con gregation to buy their underclothing of J olios and Jobson. Waiting Dinner. Nothing is more trying to the mistress of a house in any grade of life than to be compelled to "wait dinner!', for the convenience of tardy guests, to say nothing of the discomfort inflicted on other visitors. The ..busy people of the world are punctual -people ; the man whose every moment is worth - money to himself and the others always manages to be in time. It is hard that such per sons as these should be 'Compelled to waste a long time in waiting dinner for' the arrival of some man or ' woman whose unpunotuality is merely the result of 'an impertinent want of forethought. The proper'mode of treating such per sons would be to ignore them altogether. If, when the dinner hour arrived, dinner were served, and the drawlers were com pelled by their late arrival either to go without dinner or to sit down in the middle of the feastrrJia bringing back of i: j:..f! ' . 4l;Q :l . k euriier uisiiob ruuwto wub cvii ui ixuo- less lateness would soon be remedied. "So sorry to be late," ought to Jje met by ." So sorry we couldn't wait, but glad to have you join us at this stage."- If ladies . would take this matter in their own hands, the habit of late arrival, which is a positive social nuisance, would soon be cured. UXDER THE WATER AXD ROCKS. Condition of Ihe Mabmarlue Onrrntlon at Hurl Utile, la New Yarlt Hat bar. A few rods above the village of As toria, on the East river, N. Y., is Hal leu a Point, whore extensive ojierationa looking to the improvement of the chan nel have been going on for the past six years. The operations consist in under mining the bed rock of the river for a considerable distance by a system of tunnels, or "headings," as engineers term them, leaving columns to support the roof until the charges are ready to be fired. As no external evidence of the character of tho work exists, but few persons are aware of the great labor in volved. ISO less tnan iwo ana a nan acres have been tunneled under, with an aggregate length of tunnel of one and one-half miles ; the width and height being respectively eight feet and twelve feet. A plan of these excavations ap pears like an irregular checker board ; the black squares representing the piers which still remain holding the roof. These will be removed in the final blast, which is expected to throw down the whole rock bed involved, and probably much subjoin t. AH of the headings have been driven and the only remaining task is to bore the piers for the admis sion of charges. The roof is also being bored in each chamber with holes lead ing diagonally; in these nitro-glycerine, or its equivalent, is to be placed and the whole exploded by one battery. To iusure certain ignition of this im mense quantity of explosive material, 6,000 charges of about eight pounds each, every charge connects with the others by a system of pipes, or iron tubes, probably half an inch in diameter, filled with explosivtJ in quantities to al most constitute a charge of itself. The work is a system of gigantic pockets cut in the solid rock charged with-explosive, connected intimately with fuses, and to be fired by one battery at the proper time. The sneatest depth of water over the works is twenty-six feet ; the greatest thickness of tho roof eighteen feet, and the longest heading 315 feet. All the bodies have been bored by drills driven by compressed air, and about 2,000 holes yet remain to be made. The leakage through the roof amounts to 500 gallons per minute. This is all led into one of the headings, which also communicates with a well at the end of the tunnel, whence it is removed by pumps. The successful termination of this work will straighten the shore line ma terially, add much to the width of the chaunel, and alter some of the currents,, which set so strongly now at flood and ebb tide as to greatly endanger com merce. At this place the tide sweeps through with a velocity of nine kuots, or over ten miles, per honr, and as the channel is only "a few hundred feet wide aud hedged about with rocks above and be low, it is easy to see that navigators will have reason to pray for the. success of the undertaking. The cost of the work up to the pres ent time has been about $750,000, and it will require at least 8500,000 more to complete it. It is expected that the final operation, that of firing the charges, will transpire some time early in the summer of 187G. It will bean event well worth witnessing. The effect of 00,000 pounds of glycerine fired at once. would create a small earth quake if in one mass, but it is stated by Cant. William H. Hener, of the United States engineers, that subdividing this quantity into numerous small charges very greatly lessens the shock. The Children. No weak,- nervous child can sleep with one of stronger physique without Butter ing a loss pf nervous vitality and power. Each child in a family should have its own bed, says Scribncr, and at tho proper age its own chamber; beds. and chambers to be clean, orderly, and as prettily furnished as the parents' means will allow. Especially is this a necessity with the daughters of the house. Every mother will remember how dear to her self, in her girlish days, was the chance of seclusion the chest of drawers where she could store away her laces, ribbons and other dearer trifles: the locked desk with the diary inside; the white cham ber, with its snowy curtains, where she could hang her dried ferns and photo graphs, and sit alone to ponder over her compositions, or read her Bible. A boy has his fancies, tastes, hobbies, as well as a girl. He may not want seclusion, but he does want elbow room, and he ought to have it. Bob is a miguty fish erman, and clutters up the one closet with poles and lines, hooks, and books of flies. Jim has reached the autograph stage, and must have a desk and quires of paper witu which to assault every bddy mentioned in the newspapers, from Longfellow to Buffalo Bill. Tom has a mass of old rubbish collected at "junk shops, having caught the curiophobia from his mother; and Bill heaps on top of all his balls, bats, old shoes, and half-. eaten apples, Stylish but Sensible, A plucky Iowa girl thus tells her ex perience in eetfeiue on in this world I am the -only daughter, of a farmer of moderate means ; have taught school Ave years. I began when sixteen years of age. This present summer I walked one and three-fourui miis night and raorninff and taught my summer school. Harvest came on, and we were in want of a hired hand. - lJlenty could be had at S2.50 per day. but ibat seemed like loss without profit, so I donned my driv ing ffloves aud bioad-brimmed hut and drove the reaper to cut eighty acres of grain. Besides I took a inusio lasson once in every week. All of my young lady friends said : " Oh, you 'will ruin your hands and complexion," but for aught I see, they are as white as the day I closed school. Since reapinaia done I've done all the cooking for the harvest Liolks. I carry a gold witch and chain, and surroort amethvst iewelrv. and move in the best society: am considered rather stylish, but am of that disposition that I can adapt myself to circumstances. I am well aware tkata delicate dress and crimped hair become me in a ballroom, that a modest, dress and neat-fitting gloves are designed for church, and last, but not least, that a calico dress is pre ferable for kitchen work. Female Labor. In England. Lord Sliaftesbnry' calls attention to the recently issued report of the inspec tors of factories, and to the painful in formation which it contains on the sub ject of female labor in the " black coun try," or in "the nail and chain district." irom both the nail and chain trades there are, he says, " strong representa tions made against the labor of women, whether a to numbers employed, or the size of the articles made. Tho women take the place of fathers and husbands, while the men are idle and drunk. The root of the evil in tho "black country" appeals' to be" 'drunkenness ; no matter whether the drinker be puddler, collier, chain or nail maker. The outcry against the colliers' and puddlera' wives working is very great ; not perhaps so much from their influx into the trade, but from the fact that they work night and day, toil and slave, and not for the price that straightforward masters would give, but for any price any crafty knave of a mas ter chooses to offer. In the meantime the husband is in some public-house, at his ease, and training his " whiffet " for some future running on beefsteaks and the best of gpod fare. Nor is it only in tho ball and chain trade that the practice of husbands liv ing on their' wives' labor prevails. A young woman, addressing one of the in spectors, said: "I say, master, I wish you would make my man do a little more work, and me less. I married a swell, I did." To the inquiry what she meant by a swell, the reply was : " Why, wheu I married him in the morning he hod a smart gold watch and chain, and a smart dickey, but when we came to go to bed at night I'm blessed if he had ere a shirt on, and" ever since I've had to keep him by working in the brickyard, and not only keep him, but find him money to drink." And it is, it seems, a growing custom for idle, lazy young lads to look out for skilled, industrious wives in or der to obtain an "easy life." The sanitary condition of the shops, the report says, is often bad. . Women work often in an advanced state of preg nancy, and a shocking story is told of a girl at work in a brickyard " looking ex ceedingly ill," and who to a remark of the manager, " that she did not look up, to much this morning," replied : "No more would you if you had had a child during tho night." Tho report shows clearly enough that the trades of which it speaks involves a speces of labor which women are not fitted to undertake at all, which some women undertake under compulsion from idle fathers or husbauds, and which they occasionally pursue at Times anu unuer conditions in which such labor must be seriously injurious to their health. .Nothing short of an absolute legislative prohibition of female labor in these trades will, in fact, meet the complaints, Italian Tunnels. Charles Warren Stoddard writes There are forty tunnels between Pisa and Genoa; the railroad threads the coast so closely that but for its fortunate ele vation above high-water mark it would incrust with the salt crystals that plunge shoreward in the spray of many a gale So treqnent are these tunnels between Pisa and Genoa, and so long the gal leries,. which arein other words, tun nels with rows of large windows or arches hewn out of tho wall against the sea, that it seems almost as it this pic turesque and stupendous chiRselingwere the work of the sea and the storm. Tho coast is very abrupt; cliff after cliff juts out over the water like the wings in a theater, all looking very much alike, aud a half-dozen of them usually being visi ble at one time. The chlis 'are hung with creeping vines and decked with ferns and aloes. They are each one picture, aud from each I got some pleasant little surprises, for as the train emerged from the tunnel I was sure to find a kind of toy city, exceedingly small, but complete in itself, clinging to the bluff ahead of us, and not very many rods: -distant. ,,In ,60iae -cases we had scarcely time ta get used to the daylight blazing all around the coast, before we were dragged into the pitchy blackness of the next tunnel. Sometimes x we stopped in the midst of a tunnel or gal lcry, and were amazed to find passengers alightiug at least I was, fc r it was all a novelty to me and when I looked out of the car window I found that the bluff above usVas split in ' two, and through the chasm very narrow and very steep stairs out in the rock led up to the sum mit, where the edges of the houses were visible, with their blank walls glowing in the sunshine. The next moment we were rushing on from cliff to cliff, above smooth stretches of sea sand as yellow as gold, and below a long slope of the hills-inland, sprinkled thickly with villas even to their summits, where the clouds leaned heavily and threatened rain. . . The Hard- Times.- The "hard tiihes, says the New York 'lYibune., have now lasted two full years. The extreme point of depression may or may not have been -reached., There is no infallible test. Former experience teaches that the process pf recovery is not a rapid one, but in the nature of things its commencement cannot bo long delayed. England is the country whicu most nearly resembles the United States in its methods of business and its bank ing system. In England during the last ninety years there have been seven or eight periods of strongly marked depres sion iu. business, such as that through which we are passing. In no case, how- - , ever, has the extreipe inaction lasted years. By the end of the three full third year the exports and imports, the revenues of the government, and the rate of iuterest have invariably begun to mark some improvement. All the ac cepted authorities on the subject of commercial crises have treated them as reactions f6Uowing an excess of apecula- tion. Speculation carries tho prices of I houses and lots, goods,: bonds, railroad stocks or other commodiiies, to a level at which they cannot bo sustained, and the resulting fall, )s ju proportion to the extent of the previous speculations and the abuses of credit by which they have been attended. An abuse of credit take's nlaoa where, for instance, a farmer parts with his grain for a worthless railroad mortgage, or other security, or whsrt) be is the victim of bad debts. Items of Interest. One million six hundred thousand dol lars' worth of wood will be necessary, according to the estimate of the build er', for the St. Gothard tunnel. , Baron von Kalchstein and a number of ex-officers of the Prussian army are traveling through Georgia, proRpecting for a location for a large colony of Ger man artisans. Tlie trees at Galveston, Texas, Which were denuded of their leaves during the late blow, are already in full leaf, and present a very springliko appearance in their new dress. A boy of nine and a girl of eleven, half-timers at a mill at Euxton, near Preston, England, quarreled and fought, and the girl received such injury' that she died directly afterward. Nearly 600,000 persons were employed during last year in and about the coal, fire clay, ironstone, and shale mines of Groat Britain and Ireland, about four fifths of whom were occupied under ground. ' An Indiau woman at Nanaimo, Brit ish Columbia, had lent another native $100, for which she was to receive 810 per month interest. Failing to get the money back, she took the disappointment so much to heart that she hung herself. An Osceola (Pa.) woman wont out to hunt up her drunken husband, and found him lying in the gutter. She gave him several raps with a piece of board before she discovered that she was " correct ing " another woman's husband. She takes no pleasure in having the subject mentioned now. BcU's Li fe, tolls of an extraordinary hand at whist: W. T. and three friends were playing whist. During the third game T. M. s partner dealt ana turneu up me ace of spades. On looking at his hand he found the whole of the same suit. T. M. says he has seen whist played for more than fifty years, but never remem bers such a circumstance happening be fore. A Montsronierv fAln.) paper soys : There is a merchant in Montgomery who has goods on his shelves bought in New York in 18G5. He never advertised in his lifo, aud prefers to keep his goods to seeing his name iu print. Wo are hap py to state, however, ladies and gentle men, that tlie mercnant in question is not a married man, and that there are but few of him iu this city. A curious story was related at a coro ner's inquest in' Bath, England, the other day. Four boys went into a field by the side of the river Avon, and two of them agreed to bath. One entered the river, and was quickly drowned ; the other intimidated his companions by threatening to half murder them not to say anything about tho accident, anu having hidden the clothes of the drown ed lad under a. Hjone, went composedly home. A Romantic Story. The other afternoon, while the mana ger of a French provincial theater was sitting on the terrace in front of the Cafe des Varietes, in Paris, talking with tho proprietor, he was surprised by tho ap proach of a handsome, eiegautiy uresseii young woman, who said to him: " Sir, l see uy your ring imn you ui v u uuui leu man. I also am married, and must speak with you. Come with me." The manager.astonished but curious, obeyed; and following the fair unkuown into her coupe, was driven away. " 1 am not an adventuress," said the young woman; I have money (at the same time showing 6,000 francs). " But it is essen tial that you should aid mo in escaping from my father and husbaud, who maKe me very unhappy." She continued iu this strain till the coupe reached tho Pont des Arts, when she suddenly cried out: "I am about to commit a crime," and jumping from the carriage, ran to the parapet of tho bridge, and mounted it, in order to plunge into the river. The police fortunately seized her in time to prevent this. A crowd immediately col lected, but the manager said to the gendarmes, with great presence of mind: " This lady is my wife, who is merely suffering from a little aberration of mind and wished to frighten me." The lady was released, and getting into the coupe with her new friend, they returned to the Cafe des Varietes. The young lady, during the return drive, did not say a word. When the cafe was reached, she gave her father's address, who of course was at once sent for, and took his daugh ter home. Sho belonged to one of the most fashionable families iu Paris, and her parents are of high rank. She was laboring under an attack of hysteria, which rendered her, for the time being, insane. The Small Boy's Diary. A correspondent of the Jewish Messen ger says: The small boy snarpeneu ms pencil and wrote the adventures oi mo day. The diary was passeu arounu, anu we admired the graphio description of sea life couched in sentences like these: June 13th, Very Run. June 14th, Buffer to-day. June ICth, To-day we went ninety-one nots. It is still very, ruff. June 17th, There were not many at dinner to day, and I liked the plums. June 19th, I didn t keep a diary yester day. Ma said it was the plums. Ninety four nots to-day." Innocuous Hatches. The Figaro told a thrilling story the other day about a wicked cook who tried to poison a whole family by boiling a box of matches in the soup. Stung by remorse, she confessed her crime as soon as the soup was eaten, aud a doctor was summoned post-haste. He found the family well, but quite alarmed. "Did you use government matches," he inqured of the weeping -culprit. Yes. sir." was the reply. -"Then there is no danger, whatever; there is not-enough phosphorus on a whole box of their matches to poison a fly." Wn.ii CoNimuB. " Yes, purty tuff times," replied a Detroit bootblack, the other day, " and Bill says they is to be still tuner afore spring, id go on the stage this winter, but 1 haia t no good clothes. . I'd like to git to be cashier in a bank, 'but' I hainl't high 'enough. I've thought some of being a lawyer, but they say that lawyers lie so. I guess, if the weather holds bad, I'll go to hold in' an oflioe of soma kind in the city bail,
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers