I I I J ' ' ' HENRY A. PARSONS, Jr., Editor and Publisher. NIL DESPERANDTJM. - Two Dollars per Annum. VOL. VIII. RIDGWAY; ELK-COUNTY,-PA., THURSDAY,, MAY 23, 1878. 20.14. .1 n Good Might. Good night I Now the weary rest by right, And the bnny fingeri bending Over work that seems unending, Toil no more till morning light Oocd night 1 Go to rest 1 Close the eyes with (lumber prest In the streets the silence growing, Wakes bat to the watch-horn blowing, Night makes only one request Go to rest ! Slumber sweet I Blessed dreams each dreamer greet ) He whom love has kept from sleeping In swett dreams now o'er him creeping May he his beloved meet . Slumber sweet ! Good ntgbt ! Slumber till the morning light, Hlnmber till the new to-morrow Comes and brings its own new sorrow. We are in the Father's sight Good night I -From The German of Theodore Korner WHO IS MY NEIGHBOR? " O what a lovely bunch of pansies ! Is it possible they are for me ?" I ex claimed to a tiny, brown-eyed girl who placed a fragrant bouquet of the gold and purple dewy blooms in my ham mock in which I was idly swinging un der the big maple. Aunty Lee sent them," said tho wee chihl, " and she hopes the moun tain air will soon make you well, and she's your neighbor, down under the hill." "Who is this neighborly Aunty Lee?'' I asked the woman with whom I board ed when nest sho came within hearing of my voice. ' O, then, she's sent ye some posies," replied talkative Mrs. Evans, coming briskly from the garden and sitting down on the steps of the little porch so that she might entertain me while she wax shelling her pease, thus killin' tew birds with one stun," as hue said. "1 was a wonderin' tew myself not tew minutes ago how long 'twould be afore she'd find out about ye an' send ye suthin'. I can't see, for my part, how she tan afford to do as she does." "Why, what does she dol" I in quired, " " Oh, she snys she aims to be neighborly, and if anybody happens to be sick anywheres around she sends 'em little things to eat an' flowers to cheer ' em up, us (-he says ; and she al ways has her knittin' work in her pocket Mid her odd job o' knittin' ' as she calls grows eout like magic into gloves and mittens and wristlets an' btockin's that she gives away." "To her friends, peeple fully able to buy them, I suppose." "Oh, dear, no. To poor children an' tew old men an' women that, I spose, are real needy, an that set great store by her warm and handsome presents, for her yarns ore as bright as her flow ers, an' I've told my man a good many times that the color went half toward makin' her little gift so welcome. An' then she has so much comp'uy." "Rich people from the city, whose visits she returns ?" "Oh, laud sakes, no; poor folks that are tickled most to death to get an irvi tatiou to her pleasant little home. Yis, her home is an amazin' pleasant one, though her man is only a poor me chanic. She's always a sayin' that she'd rather dew a little good every day as she goes along, than tew be a waitin' to dew some great thing when she gets able, and then, p'raps, lose her opportunity and never do nothin'. I told her one day last year, pays I, 'Miss Lee,' says I, 'I should rut.her be a puttin' by a little - sumthiu' in the bank for a rainy day, than to be a givin away all the time.' And, says she, 'Mrs. Evings,' says she. 'That's your way an' it's a good way. I don't find no fault with it, but all these little things that I give away would never git into the bank, an' so, you see, they'd be lost, an' I should pass away without ever doin' anything for my Master. An' I don't want to go to bed a night without thinkin' that I have that day tried tew lighten some fellow mor tal's burden, brought a smile to somo face, or a streak o' sunshine tew some heart, if it's oly a givin' a bunch o' posies in the right speret.' " "And these flowers cost her a good deal, first and last, I suppose 1" said I, caressing my pansies. ". Oh, 'iwould cost me a good deal to run sich a flower garden as she does, but Miss Lee says she's not strong, so she gits fresh air, sun-baths and exer cise in her garden aud spends her time workin' in there instead of visitin. She returns all her calls by send in' her compl'ments with a bunch o' posies." " She hires some one to carry them about. I presume ?" "Mussy.no. There isn't a child in the village bat what would run its legs off for Aunty Lee," and having finished shelling her mess of pease, my talkative little hostess trotted about her work . again, saying, as she disappeared through the door-way, "It's well enough to be neighborly, of course, but Mis' Lee may see the time when she'd a wished she had a leetle sumthin' eout at interest" The Vermont mountain air agreed with me, my health graduallyimproving, and I stayed on and on, we k after week, spending a great part of my time, when the weather did not positively forbid, in my hammocs under the maples. As yet I had not once seen my neighbor, Aunty Lee, but grew to love her on account of the pretty nosegays that daily found their way from her hand to mine by one and another child messenger. One night, late in August, there was a heavy thunder shower. The sudden downfall of rain swelled the little river that skirted our village to a veritable mountain torrent A mill-dam some miles up the stream had broken away and the angry flood came rushing down sweeping all before it. "Aunty Lee's husband's shop has gone," shouted my hostess, Mrs. Ev ans, as she knocked at my door in the eirly morning after the storm; "and that's not the worst on't, for her garden is all washed eout and undermined so that it'll take a party pile o' mo'aoy tew fix it up (gain, if ever 'tis fixed I wonder now ef Mis' Lee don't wish she hadn't been quite so neighborly,and so had a little sumthin' eout at interest," and it really seemed to me as if the brisk little woman chuckled to herself as she patted down the stairs. In less than half an hour she came back to my room with as doleful a look ing visage as I ever saw. "Whatever is agoin' to become o' me and my man," cried she; "an we ft gettin' to be old folk, tew. Our savings were all. in the stock comp'ny np to Minotsville, because they paid more interest than the bank; we only tuk it eout o' the bank a little while ago, and neow their old mill has gone clean off, an' they'll all go to gin eral smash and we along with 'em;" and this time she went slowly groaning down the stairs. I could not help pitying the woman from the bottom of my heart. There was great excitement in the little village, as a matter of course, but Aunty Lee was reported to be as "chip per" as ever. The noRegay came to me everyday as usual, not quite so many, nor so great a variety as formerly, for a part of the garden had been washed away, but enough to give me an increas ed admiration for the sweet old lady who was so persistent and unwearying in her neighborly acts of kindness. The next Monday's local newspaper had this unique notice at the head of the village items: " All who have ever been the recipi ents of kindly deeds from ' Aunty Lee' and who would like to reciprocate now in her day of misfortune are invited to bring their supper to Oak Grove on Thursday afternoon at five o'clock, and talk the matter up over a neighborly' cup of tea. At the time appointed I had a car riage come to take my hostess and me, and my basket of cakes and bnnB fresh from the bakery, to the beautiful grove. As we were driven along I was sur prised to Bee so many people, lunch bnskets in hand, speeding in the same direction. " Almost everybody in town is going," said Mrs. Evans, "high an' low, rich an' poor." As I was being assisted to a eeat a gentle, motherly little woman spread a soft shawl over the back of the chair intended for me and quickly folded an other shawl for my lume foot to rest upon. " This is Aunty Lee," said Mrs. Evans, and the sweet-fuced little woman ai'd I looked into each other's faces with a little curiosity, perhaps, as well as sympathy, and shook hands cordially. " I don't know what all these good peo ple are to do with Elijah and me," she said with a smile that was as genial as a sunbeam, " but the minister would have us come, and he and his wife drove around for us." The minister ascended the platform just then, and after tenderly yet im t ressively invoking the Divine blessing, he looked down benignly upon the faces upthrned to his and with a touching intonation of voice asked : " Who is my neighbor ?" He then went on to tell how Aunty Lee had answered that question in regard to himself. " When I first became acquainted with Mr. and Mrs. Elijah Lee," he said, 'I was finishing my theological ptudies here in the village with Dr. Mills, and they had just married and settled down in their little houso yonder, which they had inherited. One day I was sent for to preach on trial in the adjoining town of Luxboro. My only coat wan worn threadbare and extensively patched, and I hod no way of procuring another. Feeling sorely grieved and dispirited I started out for a walk, and for the sake of telling my troubles to some fellow creature and with no thought of receiv ing any aid in the premises, I turned in to Mrs. Lee's house and read to her the invitation I had had from Luxboro' and frankly told her why I could not go at present." " Leave it to the Lord," said the good woman, and forthwith she proceeded to take my measure with a piece of tape. "Go home," she continued, "write your sermon and come here again Satur day morning." I obeyed. I subsequently found that the woman had actually taken a piece of cloth that she had laid by in the house for a cloak for herself, and tailorees as she was by trade, had cut and made me a coat from it. I preached my first sermon in it, and shortly received and uccepted my first call." "Oh, dear," whispered Aunty Lee from her seat by my side, "he's paid me for that coat ev-ry New Year's Day since, and it wasn't much for me to do, after all." Major Sanford, the richest man in town, was the next to take the stand. The old ppople smiled and nodded their heads, but the young folkB looked at each other and wondered what he could be indebted to Aunty Lee for. "When I was a boy, "the major be gan, "I was bound out in H to a very, very bad master, from whom I determined to run away. I availed my self of an opportunity to escape one Saturday afternoon, when I was sent to the pasture to salt the cattle. I came straight over the mountain to this place. I wanted to get out of the State as soon as possible, so came directly to the bridge down here at the river, which is, yon all know, the New Hampshire boundary. Just after I had stepped upon Vermont soil I overtook, on the road, Mr. and Mrs. Lee, young people then. They had a basket and a spade, and had been digging up wild flowers to transplant in their garden. Although an entire stranger, they accosted rue kindly. Noticing that I had been crying, Mrs. Lee asked me my trouble. Before I knew it I had blurted out the whole story, and had been invited by her to go home with them and stay over Sun day. I was, of course, only too grateful to accept the invitation. After supper we set out the plants, and then Mr. Lee took me with him down the hill to the bank of the 'brook,' as we called it then, and into his little machine shop. I soon evinced my fondess for tools, and confid ed to him an invention that had, in a crude form, long had possession of my braiu. Being a natural mechanic, he saw the utility of my invention at a glance. The subject was not mentioned on the mor row, which was a quiet, restful day ct me. Mrs. Lee loaned me a clean linen suit belonging to her husband, and I went to church with them. The next day Mr. Lee went over to H and made terms with my master, because Mrs. Lee said she could tot allow me to feel like a 'runaway.' Then Mr. Lee took me into his employment and gave me a corner in his shop where I could, at odd moments, work at my model. My invention proved a success and made my fortune, as you all know. I am thankful, my friends, that I am able to-day to repair the damages done to the dear little homstead and to rebuild my old friend's shop," and Major Sanford sat down, wiping his eyes with his hand kerchief, while his delightful audience applauded vociferously. "Dear heart," said Aunty Lee to me, ' 'what was he talking about ? He's paid us over and over, and he's tried and tried to make Elijah go into partnership with him, but he wouldn't, and I would not let him." Then followed one minute speeches by the score. "They kept me three months when I was sick and homeless," said one. "I made their house my home for weeks when I was out of work," said another. Ten homeless working girls were married in their parlor and went out into the world with their bless ing. There was a great number of touching little speeches from those who had received flowers and delicacies in illness and warm garments in times of need. And so from them all flowed out con tributions of money, the greater part of which was safely placed in bank for the benefit of the Lees when old age and failing strength should overtake them. "Dear me," said Mrs. Evans to Aunty Lee, "you've been lendin' to the Lord, and He pays the best interest, arter all. I never could understand before; but I dew now." "There are none of us so poor that we cannot give such as we have. A smile or a kind word even will come back to us in kind," said Aunty Lee, and we all brushed away the tears that we could not suppress while those touching speeches were being made, and went to our homes. How Wood and Morrissey Gambled. Speaking of the recent failure of Ben jamin Wood, puolisher of the New York Kvtning News, the New York corres pondent of the Detroit Free Press gives this reminiscence: It is well known that he once kept up intimate relations with the " tiger and had a strong penchant for " bucking " that animal in his lair, and since his failure sat old gossip going again, some of his quondam chums have been re hearsing the famous bout he once had with John Morrissey, in the latter's club house in Twenty-fourth street. Ben was in the habit of droppiug into Morrissey's place occasionally, and one night about ten years ago he sauntered in as usual, and fell afoul of the bank. Morrissey was there, and many men about town, all of whom knew WoodV pluck and hang-on-ativeness, and tho party set down for some lively work. Wood had about $3,000 in his pocket, and as the betting was heavy he man aged to get to the bottom in about au hour. In fact, he was cleaned out. But his blood was up that night, and as his reputation for pluck was at stake am ng the boys, he decided that once for all it should be " make or break." His ready cash was all gone, but he owned valuable property on Tryon Row, where the Staats Zeilung building now stands, and he prooosed to hypothecate the same to Morrissey against whatever sum, up to its value, he should lose. The offer was accepted, and the great fight began. It lasted all night and up to nine o'clock next morning, and, when a truce was finally called, Ben had won back the $3,000 he started with, and se cured about $120,000 ahead besides. With the money that Morrissey had ad vanced to him ou the hypothecated pro perty, he turned round and gave John the worst whaling he ever received at the card table. Not a sign of wincing was shown on either side till physical exhaustion forced a cessation of hostili ties. Both men were true grit to the last and neither showed the least ill temper from beginning to end. It was on that occasion that Ben performed the extraordinary feat of smoking ninety dollars worth of cigars in one night, Morrissey had a special brand of cigars at one dollar each for his flush patrons, and Wood, who is a tremendous smoker (or chewer, rather, for he merely chews furiously at a cigar and then flings it away), managed to spoil ninety of them while the fight lasted. A Queer English Custom. The ancient ceremony of tossing the pancake, as it took place this year in the great sohool-room of Westminster, is thus described by an English paper: After the Latin prayers at twelve o'clock the college cook, preceeded by an Ab bey beadle, marched up the school-room carrying the pancake in a frying-pun. This pancake is made, not of flour and eggs, but of putty, and well greassd to make it fly from the pan. The cook's object is to throw this pancake over an iron bar, from which formerly hung a curtain, separating the upper from the under school. Ou the further side of the bar, which is some twenty-five feet perhaps from the floor, stands au ex pectant crowd of boys, every one of whom is eager to seize the pancake as it falls, and bear it off entire to the Dean ery, where the reward of a guinea awaits the f oi tunate possessor. The cook also, if he does not fail to throw the pancake over the bar, obtains a guinea. This year tho cook was successful in his first attempt, and sent the pancake flying well over the ear into the middle or tne crowd awaiting it. Then came the bat tle, or rather, iu Westminster parlance, the "greeze.". Up and down, back wards and forwards, surged the crowd of boys, and finally, when Dr. Scott interfered to disperse the mass, a broken form remained as evidence of the strug gle. No one, however, was fortunate enough to obtain the pancake in its en tirety, but several possessed small por tions, wbioh were afterward exhibited as trophies to admiring groups of friends and no doubt will be kept as reminis cences of the " pancake greese" of 1878. It is now six years since any one suc ceeded in getting the whole pancake. There were a few visitors present, who, with the masters, watched the proceed ings from a respectful distance. Lon don Week. The Press. The following is taken from an ad dress on the Press, delivered before the Psi Upsilon Society, in Boston, by George Corming Hill, ft journalist of that city : Obedient as the Press may seem to be, it is, nevertheless, sleeplessly jeal ous of its standing and influence, lest they should be underrated or misap plied. It is an unerring measurer of public men, and alone knows the little ness of great ones. An integer in the fabrics of society, it has a scorn of be ing thought to represent merely individ ual interests. The personal organ is deod the day it is born. If to-day, therefore, it is the advocate, to-morrow it is the judge. If it is the eulogist now, it was the censor yesterday. Though it have three hundred and sixty-five opinions in the year, it is nevertheless consistent always. Not as yet has it found its ranks among learned professors, and it is doubtful if it ever will, for it must needs be practical rather than learned. In this country it i not recognized as the stepping-stone to public preferments, and it perhaps gains by the dissociation. In England it is the accepted touchstone of intel lectual capacity, retruiting Parliament, the Bar, and the schools of authorship. In France it is the acknowledged finishing-school of publicists and statesmen, and the entree into the best society. With us, politicians would fain make a whetstone of it to sharpen and polish their blades; advertisers find it almost the whole of their intangible capital ; lawyers and doctors resort to it as birds do to the hedges for shelter; the grand army of grievance-bearers marches up and flings down its knapsacks full of complaints at its feet ; the accused run to it with their ready explanations; the defamed with their denials and defences; the philosophers with their remedies, the poets with their fol-de-iol, and the other sex with their sleepless causes. The world at large seeks the cover of its sheltering fold. Everybody is eager to proclaim his existence aud something more through its effectual agency, they alone excepted who are in the real secret and sit silent at the source of its power. It is Argus, Briareus, Hercules and Hermes rolled into one. Day and night it keeps its messengers running, flying, swimming, delving, looking and listening, and with their faithful assist ance it manages to turn the world in side out. For it Schliemann uncovers Homeric Troy to veiify the immortal story; Stanley cuts the dark core out of the long-forbidden fruit of Africa; gov ernment despatch astronomers to the far-off capes to report the transit of Venus and correct the distance of the sun; Sitting Bull harangues his harle quin braves and swings round the circle of Indian villages; the tireless interview er pulls the boll at all front doors ; and the local gosip glues his capacious ear to every piivute keyhoie. ' ' All this purely for the production ond dissemination of intelligence, the valuable and value less. It supplants the orator, compresses verbose debate into pregnant statement, makes only straightforward business of legislation, and turns eloquence into the raw staple of facts and figures. It edits the telegraph, the mails, the caucus and convention, the Legislature science, art and invention commerce, law and agriculture. It is the free publish er for them all makes their announce ments adjusts their .differences and assures their influence. It boils down books; extracts the soul from treatises; culls bouquets from the garden of the portts; gives flexibility and present uso to learning; sets professors of Greek to writing on international law; and, in general, sifta, assorts anddistributes literature. Its remorseless appetite for news presenting horror and humors in parallel columns will, however, create a surfeit some time, and after that is ver will yield to the finer suggestions of its palate for thought. Just now it is not greatly given to the nicer moral shadings, but flings the pigment on the canvass with a rapid brush and exhibits all things in the same fierce glare of light. But its loudness will gradually be disciplined down to a low-keyed sug gestiveuess, with steadier aim and more practised engineering; and it will yet become the true living outline of the national literature. A Narrow Escape at Minneapolis. A Minneapolis (Minn.) paper gives the thrilling experience of a survivor of the recent terrific explosion in the Washburn flour mills, which was attend ed with such heavy Iobb of life and property. Tho survivor referred to is Joseph Monti. Jr.. the watchman of the Gulaxy Mill, who was discovered by the reporter in all the plenitude of full health. He said he was iu the basement of the mill, one story below thj canal. engaged iu putting in an alarm bell upou the shafting. The concussion lifted him fully six feet, when he fell and was stunned for five minutes. He was in a dazed condition when he re covered from the shock, and only heard one explosion. If there were other ex plosions they must have occurred while he was stunned. When he realized his position, he found the water pourincr in. and naturally thought the thud of the explosion was merely the result of the breaking in of the canal. lie rushed to a window up-stairs and looked for a place to jump. When there he saw John G. Rosienius, of the Zenith Mill. looking out of the window. Monti called out to him. " Are yon eroinar to jump ?" but Bosienius either didn't un derstand or did not hear, and that was the last of him seen alive.' Monti took in the situation, ?aw the elevator in one tremendous sheet of flame, and was momentarily paralyzed. Looking below the' window, Monti observed an ash heap, fifteen feet or so below him. He straddled the sill, swung himself over, hung by his hands a second or two on the sill as the roar of the flames boomed hissingly around him, and then dropped and rolled thence into the seething waters. Once in tho water he swam out despairingly aud exhausted, until he struck a protruding rook, npon which he olimbed and rested to recover his presence of mind and courage. His senses being gathered, he waded to the paper mill. Beaching the under portion of it, be rose before some of the em ployes putting out a blaze. As a voice from the dead, he asked, " Wbioh way oan I get out ?"- He was then directed to a place of safety. .- FARM, GARDEN AND HOUSEHOLD. Horse Feed. ' Every eood groom knows that sound oats and beans in due proportion, and at least a year old, are the very best food for a galloping horse the only food in which it is possible to get the very best condition out of a race horse or a hunter. It also has recently become known that horses do slow work and get fat, indeed too fat, on maize, Indian corn, which 1b freqnentty one-tuird cheaper tnan tne best oat. In the East horses are fed ou barley, and it is a popular idea with English offloers who have lived in Persia and Syria that the change of food from barley to oats often, when imported, produces blindness in Arabian horses. Now, although no men under stand better or so well how to get blood horses into galloping condition as Eng lish grooms, they do not, and few of their masters do, know the reason why oats and beans are the best food for put ting muscular flesh on a horse. The agricultural chemist steps in here, makes the matter very plain, and shows that if you want pace, Indian corn, although nominally cheaper, is not cheap at all. When wo feed a bullock, a sheep, or a pig for sale, after it has passed the store stage, we want to make it fat as quickly and as cheaply as possible; but with a horse for work the object is to give him muscle in common language.hard flesh. There are times when it is profitable to make a horse fat, as, for instance, when he is going up for sale. For this pur pose an addition of about a pound and a half of oil cake to his ordinary food has a good effect. It is especially use ful when a horse that has been closely clipped or singed is in a low condition. It helps on the change to the new coat by making him fat. A horse in low condition changes his coat very slowly. When from any cause there is difficul ty in getting a supply of the best oats, an excellent mixture may be made of crushed maize aud beans, and the pro portion of two-thirds of maize and one of beans, which exactly afford the pro portions of flesh-forming and fat-forming food. Bran is a very valuable food in a stable for reducing the inflamma tory effect "of oats and beans. Made into mashes, it has a cooling and laxa tive effect; but used in excess, especially in a dry state, it is apt to form stony secretions in the bowels of the horse. Stones, produced from the excessive use of bran, have been taken out of horses after death weighing many pounds. London Live Stock Journal. Unrden Nates. Grated horse chestnuts mixed with ten times their bulk of water, will expel worms from the soil in flower pots. Many farmers think it doesn't pay to bother with much gardening; but a good, large garden, well planted and well worked, will give a liberal profit from .the . sale of surplus vegetables, after supplying the home' table the season through with all the vegetables desired. A good supply of manure for a garden may be made from the refuse of any household. A shallow pit may be made and some chaff, short straw, the con tents of a worn mattress, grass, sodr, weeds, woolen rags, burned bones, waste from the kitchen, wood-ashes, chimney sweepings, scrapings of roads, earth, chip-dust, saw-dust, manure from the poultry-house, old boots and shoes chopped into shreds, and all such mat ters may be thrown into this pit, and the waste slops of the house, soap-suds, etc., may be thrown upon them. In the course of a year a large pile can be gathered , and if a cow and a fowchickeus are kept the waste from these may add largely to the heap. The heap should be built up squarely and hollow at the top. A bag of bone-dust added to the pile would greatly increase its value, aud a stock of manure that would cost at least ten dollars to purchase could thus be made. A pile six feet square and three feet high would richly fertilize a good sized garden, and help to produce sufficient vegetables to supply a large family. Household Hints. Mutton and Beef. Four pounds of beef lose one pound by boiling, and a pound and five ounces by roasting, and one pound three ouuees by baking. Four pounds of mutton lose fourteen ounces by boiling, ond one pound six ounces by roasting, and one pound four ounces by bakiug. Orii Out of Woolen. You can get a bottle or barrel of oil off any carpet or woolen stuff by applying dry buckwheat plentifully. Never put water to such a grease spot, or liquid of any kind. To Makb Toast- Watku. Toast some fcliccs of bread quite brown, put them in a pitcher, and pour on them boiling water, and let it steep. Bed Clothes. On getting up in the morning the bed clothes should be thrown over a chair by the open window, to air for two or three hours before the bed is made np; otherwise the sheets and coverlids and be s, being charged with the moisture of perspiration, be come unwholesome. Heat. More than nine-tenths of the heat of a common grate or fireplace, be ing lighter than the atmosphere and subject to a direct draft, passes np the chimney and is wasted. Why Do Eggs Spoil t We find lining the shell a thick skin, which when kept in a healthy conditian by the albumen of the egg is impervi ous to air, but if the egg remains in oue-'position too long the yolk being heavier than the albumen gradually sinks through it and comes in contact with the skin. As it has none of the qualities requisite for keeping the skin lubricated and healthy, the skin bo comes dry and pervious to the air, which penetrates it to the yolk, causing the mass to rot. Therefore the true plan is is to keep the yolk in its central posi - tion. By doing this the egg can be pre served for a long time. My plau for accomplishing this is to take a keg or barrel'and pauk the eggs on the side end to end, laying a tier around next to the staves so continuing until a layer is made, and so on until the barrel is full. Use oats for packing. Jar them down as much as is required to deep them firmly in their places, and head up the barrel ready for market. By rolling the barrel about a quarter around every few days, the yolks of the eggs will be kept a requireo.. Amerioan UtooM Journal A Tirglnia Tragedy of the Past, Among the numerous moss-grown eld tomb -stones in the graveyard of Williamsburg, Va., is one which bears the following inscription: Sacred to the memory of SARAH SEMPHTXJi, Who died at the age of twenty -five, slain, with her two infant daugh ters, by her own husband. She was fair to look upon, pure as snow, and beloved by all who knew her. Divine Providence alone knows why she had to perish so miserably. This epitaph, some of the words of which are hardly legible any longer, is the only record left of one of the most terrible tragedies that ever took place in the Old Dominion. It was in 1798 that John Semphill, a young man, who said he was from Santa Cruz, in the West Indies, arrived at Williamsburg and settled there as a tobacco planter. He had plenty of money, and was able to purchase about one thousand acres of the finest soil within a short distance of the old town. Being apparently a gentleman in every sense of the word, Mr. Semphill was admitted to the best society in his new home, and a year later he was married to Sarah Jones, a beautiful heiress, the wedding festivities being celebrated with extraordinary pomp and splendor. In course of time two daughters were born to the young couple, and everybody predicted a long career of cloudless hap piness for them. Alas I How terribly those bright anticipations were to be disappointed. It was on Christmas eve, in 18ul, that a strange-looking man, in a sort of military uniform, appeared at the house of Mr. Semphill, who was in Richmond at the time. Mrs. Semphill received the stranger in the parlor. " Do you speak French, madam ?" he said to her iu very broken English. She replied in the affirmative. " Then, madam, please send your two nurse-girls with the children out of the room." She did so, and looked interrogatively at her visitor. The latter hesitated a moment. Then he said in a tono of deep emotion: "Poor lady, I have terrible tidings for you." " Heavens 1" she cried, turning very pale; " my husband " "Your husband is an infamous vil lain." " Sir 1" she exclaimed, indignantly. " He has basely deceived you. Ho is an escaped galley slave, a thief and a murderer I She uttered a heart-rending scream. " Do you tell me the truth ?" she gasped. " He is a Spanish thief, and was sent to the galleys of Barcelona for lite, lie made his escape from thence, and fled f m n It ii nrl-toi-a tin v.itiliod nn1 iyiiii.1oi,i1 A rich planter. I am here to take him to Cuba, where the scaffold surely awaits him." The afflicted lady had become strangely calm. " Sir," she said to the stranger, " be fore you arrest him, will you permit me to hold a private interview with with" " His true name is Juan CeBrio. If you will let me remain in an adjoining room until he returns from Richmond, where he has gone, I uuder&tund, you may see him privately." "I expect him back every moment. Half au hour later, Cefirio, alias Semp hill mado his appearance. His wife briefly told him everything. He flew into a terrible rase. He shot her t hroueh the heart, aud rushed out of the room to the nursery, where he stabbed his two little daughters. The next moment the Cuban officer, who had rushed after him, grappled with him, aud suooetvWM, after a desperate struggle, iu shaokliu him. The news of tins horrible- tragedy spread like wildfire through the old town, and in less than twenty minutes a large course of people had gathered in front of Semphill alias Ce Brio's house. Vociferous threats to lynch tho murder er were made, and the deputy sheriffs, who were promptly on hand to arrest him, had the utmost difficulty iu taking him to jail, where he wus chained to the floor, having threatened to commit sui cide. The villain was hung on the 17th of May, 1803. Words of Wisdom. Common sense is nature's gift, but reason is an art. The man who assumes to kuow every thing generally knows very little about anything. To be comfortable and contented, spend less than you can earn, an art which few have learned. Knowledge, when the possession of only a tew, has always been turned into iniquitous purposes. It is easy to piok holes in other peo ple's work, bet it is far more profitable to do better work yourself. When we are young we waste a great deal of time in imagining what we will do when we grow older; and when we are old we waste an equal amount of time in wondering why we waited so Ipng before we began to do anything. Honor your engagements. If you promise to meet a man, or do a certain thing at a certain moment, be ready at the appointed time. If you go out en business, attend promptly to the matter in hand, and then as promptly go about your own business. Do not stop to tell stories in business hours. If you have a place of business, be found there when wanted. Contempt naturally implies a man's esteeming himself greater than the per son whom he contemns.' He, therefore, that slights, that contemns an affront, is properly superior to it; aud he con quers an in jurv who conquers his resent ment of it. S XJrates. being kicked by an ofh, did not think it a revenge proper i l - -i- i. T iur oooruitB to kick me ass again. Wantxd. Mould for growing flowers of speech. A handkerchief for the weep, iog willow. E eotricity for thunders of applause. Teeth for the mouth of a river. Gloves for the hands of ft clock. Spokes for the ladder of fame. A few grains of e tmmon sense to sow in the hot beds of rowdyism and orime, Kerns of Interest, Coming to blows The fruit trees. Indians are not at all contagious. They are very difficult to catch. When do one's teeth usurp the func tions of his tongue? When they are a chattering. " Experience is a dear teacher "old maxim. Not half so dear as a pretty school marm. When is a mad bull as objeotionable as an absent husband? When it is getting on towards one. The Minneapolis fire has raised the question, "Will dust explode?" We have known it to blow up. Ten per cent, of the husband's income is what it is legally decided in England he shall pay for his wife's dresses. " Brilliant and impulsive people," says an exchange, "have black eyes." Impulsive people are only too apt to get black ey.s. The amount of British capital invested . in various Wiys in the United States and American securities of all descrip tions is roughly estimated at $700, 000, 000. A wit, on being asked what are the most common monosyllables in the language answered: "1 don't know; but the most common money symbols are I. O. U. "What are Russia's terms t" asked ft visitor, referring to the San Stefano treaty. " Two dollars a year, in ad vance," replied the abstracted editor. Ilawlccye. While a little girl was playing in a graveyard at New Lexington, Ohio, the other day, she suddenly ran against a gravestone, which fell over upon her, inflicting fatal injuries. The United States sold to France in 1876, $52,900,000 worth of raw cotton and other stuffs, and bought in return $45,920,000 worth of silks, velvets, dress goods, and ether articles. A man at Evansville, lad., in a fit of jealousy, cut his wife's eyes with a butcher knife for the purpose of " spoil ing her beauty." The unfortunate woman will be totally blind for the rest of her life. When you rut your pen-holder be hind your ear be sure that you have the pen to the front. Ideas of great pro fundity are sometimes banished hope lessly from tho mind by failing to ob serve this rule. In 1877 there were 2.9D9.G77 electors in Great Britain and Ireland, or more than one in twelve of the population. There are about nine million qualified voters in the United States, or one in every five of the population. It's all very well to talk about econo my, but the difficulty is to get anything to economize. The little baby who puts his toes in his mouth is almost tho only person who in these hard times man ages to make both ends meet. Scene in a ear: Seats all occupied. Lndy enters. Elderly gentleman rises. "Dou't rise, I beg of you. I much pre fer yon should keep your f-eat, sir." "Should be very happy to accommodate you, madam; but I want to get oat here." A. B. Robeson has probably the larg est poultry yards iu New York. He keeps 6,000 ducks, 4,000 turkeys aud 1,200 hens. They consume sixty bush els of corn, two barrels of potatoes and other food daily. His fowl hout-o cost $7,000. Ho was fully six feet tall, yet he straightened up and exclaimed: "Talk ing of short men, look at me!" and no one could tell what he meant until he turned both pockets wrong side out and saped, "Who is there in the crowd that'll lend me a quarter?" Te Emperor of Austria, on his visit to Veutie in lS75,conferred a decoration npon a colonel of the Italian army in command of the fortress of Mantua. The latter, in accordance with the rules of the service, was compelled to accept it; but a few weeks ago, having resigned his commission, he at ouce returned the decoration to the Austrian Government, snying that he did not wish t hold aty honors from Emperor Francis Joph, who in 1852 had caused his brother to be (.hot aud had condemned himself la Co tamo death. How a Man Reduced His Sixe. Bnuting, "Undertaker io the queen and royal family," recently died ut the age of eighty-five. He invented a sys tem of diet hich became as famous in our age as that of the Cirnaro was three centuries ago. In a curious pamphlet which he wrote, and which had a cosmo politan circulaf ion some ten years ago, Mr. Banting related his sufferings from his enormous obeisity in terms as mov ing as those of "Falstaff." For years he had not tied his shoes, and he was obliged to walk down stairs backwards, lest the protuberant weight of his trunk should pitch him down head foremost. He adopted a regimen by whieh he gradually shrunk himself within such bounds that he became quite a nimble pedestrian. The fact that he lived through this process to die at the age of eighty-five, may be taken to show that abstinence from farinaceous and saccha rine food worked as well in l is case as living on an egg a day did in the case of Cornaro. But others who have adopted his system have fared worse. Still his work has borne good fruit, if only in making people think about what they eat and drink in its relations to their vitality as well as to their appetites; and the man cannot be said to have lived in vain who enriohed his native language with a new verb, "to bant." Unknown Regions of tho Globe. According to an English writer there are four vast areas wl io'i have never been traversed by civi ia d man, and which among themoonsiit ite about one seventeenth of the wb.il i area of the globe. Of these the greatest is the Antarctio region, the extent of which is about seventy-five times that of Great Britain; the second lies about the North Pole; the third is in Central Africa, and the fourth in Western Australia. The areas of these unknown regions of the globe are estimated, approximately, at about 11,600,000 square miles
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