HENRY A. PARSONS, Jr., Editor and Publisher. NIL DESPEB ANDT3M. . Two Dollars per Annum. VOL. X. RIDGrWAY, ELK COUNTY, PAV, THURSDAY, AUGUST 19, 1880. NO 2G. . i " . i i. I Augnst. Gay trips along through morning dew Bright August, clad in rosy hue; And all the hills their voices raise And myriad so;g3ttrs sing her praise. Her reign is one ol quiet grace; The sollOBt bl ashes wreathe her face; Sweet soonts she pours out to the breoie She gilds the fruit on bending trees; Her wand she lilts o'er fields of grain, And gladdens enrth with tides ol rain. The sun may scorch, but still she showers Refreshing duw on drooping flowers; And hoards ol good cheer August flingoth And bounteous blessings August bringeth. So pleasantly ,sweot month, thou comest now ; At thy approach the curled coin blades bow, And, as thy perfumed bret-zos slowly pass, New daisies smile nbovo the freshened grass; Or when thy copious moisture Alls the land The parched lips of earth with joy expand. Now gather we the pumpkin yellow, With luscions apples, ripe and mellow; Sale lrom the rain the sheaves of grain The bursting granaries lully fill; While 'neath the hill the cider mill Awaits the heavy-loaded wain. In shadeicss paths the fevered, panting sun Its stilly flight through lervid paths ascends, Till sullen Siiius his rnce hath run, And August's dicamy, dallying influence blends With lustier Septcmbor in the end; Then gltuUlening breezes from the sighing we9t At eventide shnil bring us longcd-lor rest. . Lvtitr (i. Riygt. GUY'S DISAPPEARANCE. As little Miss Bertha Finch came down the village street to the railroad station in a high wind, with that dry brown hat of htrs curling up acutely on her head, and a glimpse disclosed of tlie sweet pink face which she carried Lent down agaimt the dust-clouds, you might naturally have thoughtof arbutus b'os sonis in their pale brown leaves. She was so small and young, and flower like and shv. As I remembered her she seemed to be looking down half the time, or else it was only that she was so short as to make direot glance into her face no easy matter; so that whtn she looked into one's eyes she had to turn her own upward Yet she could be saucy, too. There was a good deal ot independence about thissiuuil slip of womanhood, in spite of her shynes-t, hi r pathos, and her tiny figure. " U'rtu.V her mother once re marked, "is, as set as a cat if sbe chooses to be; nni you can't tell why sh! takes her whims, no more than yon can why a cat does thus and so; but when she's once got a n tion, she acts it out..'1 And she hod taken a whim, this par ticular dav, to go to town by the rail road th t went poking around the coun try in the m-ighborhood of Glyddon as informally as a p low, running such mild little trains up and down, that Bertha felt as if all she had to do was to call out " Gee-whoal" to the engine, and it would obey her. This whim of taking the cars was a mild one, however, compared with her freak of a few days before. Not to put the reader in suspense. I will state that she had refused a proposal of marriage from Guy Atlee, a reasonably good and promising young man, who had been to the high school with her in earlier days, and proposed now to graduate from the position of a bashful lover to that of a proud husband. Guy had a position as clerk in the postoittVe and chief store of Glyddon, while Btnrtha's father was a not very well-to-do larmer; so that the young man had the argument ot worldly pros pcrity on his side. But then he might lose his position ; and somehow Mr. Finch, though he lived in a rather broken-down old house, was always important in town attuirs. At any rate, Bertha rejected the young man gayly, yet with u sense of her superiority that was quite serious. "What is your reason? Don't you love me?" asked he, in a business-like way. They were standing at the time on a little, unfrequented stone bridge, with a blue and white sky reflected in the water below, and bird singing around them in the young green boughs. "If I did, do you suppose I'd tell you," reluriaed Bertha, with irrepressible mirth. " I suppose it's because you're proud, then," Guy inferred, becoming gloomy. " I think I nni proud of knowing my own mind," she admitted, " which -ail girls don't." " I wish you'd tell me the real reason," the unfortunate lover resumed. "Well, then," said Bertha, more roguishly than ever, "you're too young." Guy kicked the bridge in his impa tience. " I m a month older than you are," he declared, peremptorily. 'I never should bo able to look up to you," his companion assured him. This was so absurd that Gay laughed in spite ot his state of provocation. He was nearly six feet tall, and she hardly five, so that, taking the proposition in its linear or perpendicular instead of its spiritual seme, Bertha was egregiously wrong. However, ' Then you can look down to me," he replied. And as they were both at that moment peering over the side of the bridge, she adopted his counsel literally ; for there he was, or appeared to be, gazing up out of tin placid steum from the midst of a mimio sky. A white cloud reflection encir cling his head made him look prema turely venerable, and Bertha confessed to herself that he was really handsome. "Well, I'm gobs home now," she said, presently. " You wait here. I think it will be better." Upon this Guy became sarcastic. " How long shall I wait?" he inquired. " Abo'it thirty years, I suppose, till my hair turn3 gray." " If you like," said Bertha Finch, not daunted in the least. "It's nothing to you, I see," the young man replied, bitterly, suddenly ieeiing very suieinm. "What! waiting thirty yearaP" laugnea sue. un, yes, that would be a very serious thing to me. But I don't suppose I shall." Sbe had turned back to say this, but as s he resumed her retreat imniediatedly, ho was left alone in another moment. iiuy aeoatea with himself what he would do. He was terribly Btung by what he considered Bertha'a ness, and for a moment or two the idea oi tnrowuig uiiuteu into tits river, where he had just seen his own image lying so seductively, occupied his mind as a lacile though watery solution of his trouble, lhen he thought how hne it would be to marry another girl, and let Miss Finch mature into an old maid. But to this there were three objections. In the first place, it was not certain an other girl would have him; secondly, Miss Finch might not become an old maid: and finally, he loved Miss Finch. At last he said to himself, " I know what I'll do: I'll disappear." And he did. No young man could have been better situated for indulging in this popular town; nis accounts were correct to a cent; his habits were irreproachable. There could not be, consequently, any distress to parents, or suspicion of pecu lation, or disgraceful reason for his dropping out of sight; and the mystery oi tne tiling would be complete. In fact, when it became known that he was no longer in the village, the theory ot suicide was the one immedi ately adopted, for the usual reason that there was no evidence to sustain it. Sui cid. P And howP For what motiveP Nobody could tell, but it was settled that the cause must have been disap pointment in love, although all testi mony on the subject went to show that tor a day or two before he was last seen the missing voung man had been in exceptionally good spirits. It was pro posed to organize a search after him, and even to drag the river and the ponds; but Postmaster Pound an nounced that this would be useless. "Atlee left a message," he said, "stating that all such doings would be labor thrown away," in corroboration of which he uroduced a paper signed by his late clerk. It could not be learned, cither, that any one had seen him near the water, or, for that matter, anywhere about the railroad. The last person who had had sight ol him had met him on the street toward evqning; Atlee had parsed on into the dusk, and that was the last seen of him. It was with some idea of relieving her mind, I think, that she betook herself to the railroad this windy day for a trip to town. An old man with copious white hair, gold-bowed glas3es, and a flat crowned felt hat, who sat placidly at one of the car windows, reposing his hands on a cane which he kept remarka bly perpendicular, was a good deal struck by her fresh and sweet appear ance as ne saw her blown along by the wind to the depot; and, as luck would have it, when she entered the car true to hrt instinct of preferring age to youth, and finding all the seats half tilled by very dapper young men, or very dirty and disagreeable middle-nged ones Bertha selected the unoccupied por tion of this very scat where the old man was meditating, and nestled down into it as cozily as a young martin in the maternal martin box. It was in keep ing with the slight recklessness of her general character that she should im mediately extract a paper novel from her pocket, and begin to read, despite the industrious efforts of the train to jggle her eyes out of her head and the print out ot the page. "Windy day, young lady," said a mild voice in her ear, so affably modu lated that she felt as if it could hardly be the voice of a stranger. It was the old man speaking to her. "Yes," she assented, pleasantly; "I thought it would blow me away." " You air rather a mite ot a body to fight it out, with such a breeze." re marked her new acquaintance. " But it don't seem to hurt ve. to iudge on it from the roses in your cheeks. Lord, I remember in the days when 1 was courtin' how I used to like a day like this. It made my gal's face shine just so; and I ain't too old to take pleasure in it vet." Bertha felt her face "shine" still more than before at this speech, whi ch she rated as a trifle familiar, coming f.oni a stranger. But then the man had white hair, and, after all, it was not un pleasant. She smiled, with some em- bi.rrassnicnt, but said nothing, and re sumed reading, while her fatherly com panion seemed to become absorbed in reco.lectionsof his youth. Before long. however, he said : " I suppose it hurts your eyes a good deal, reading in the train, don't it?" " It does sometimes," she admitted. somewhat annoyed at this second open ing ot a conversation. lor her story was interesting. But determining to resign herself, she laid the book down abruptly, and looked straight at the old man, who returned her gaze genially from the midst of his whiskers and spectacles. bo you aye in liiyddonr" he in quired. Xes." I'm acquainted there some. I used to live there." " You did 1" exclaimed the voune girl. brightening up at once. The old man began asking Questions about various people in the village, aud nnally mentioned Atlee. " He came from "the place where I live Woodruff. Vermont and folks thought he was a likely enough young mau when he started down to Glyddon. How's he doing now?" Poor Bertha blushed and shook with as much feeling of guilt as if she had personally superintended the closing of Guy s career with a violent death. Somehow this Diana, latueny old per son's interest in him gave her a new perception of the mystery and awful- nes.s of his fate. "Oh!" she exclaimed, "hadn't you heard?" " What! he ain't dead !" responded her neighbor, with a quaver in his voice. But immediately he addei: "No. he can't bo. I should have heard of it. Per haps you mean he's married?" At another time Burma would have laughed at this absurd juxtaposition, ana even now had the impulse to answer, "No, it's not quite so bad as that." But the mention of marriage came too near her last interview with Guy t j make it wholly comical, so she merely said : " He's gone awav. nobodv knows where; it was quite sudden and unaccouniaoie." Atter a good many expressions of grief and wonderment, the old mm wound up with: "And so you can't think of any possible reason? That seems singular. What do you suppose P" His young friend hesitated and looked down. She could not fib. and s e could not confide; soshesaid.simply, "I can't tell." Her hps tremoiea a little. "Oh. well, he'll turn up all right. I guess." concluded the other, soothing v. " It reminds me of a foolish thing I did myself when I was young. I went off and left tte place I was staying in too. But that was because I was kind of spooney about a young woman that wouldn't marry me. Atlee used to have the name of being too level-headed for anything like that. He wouldn't be such a fool, would he?" The small brown hat went slightly upward with a sudden movement. "I don't know," said tne owner oi it, -wny you should call it being a fool." . " You know better than I do about it, of course," assented the white-haired critic. "Perhaps that's exactly what he's done. Is it?" "I heard some one saying they thought ha was riisaDDointed in love." Bertha answered, rapidly and ungramatically. "And you don't blame nimr naz arded he, indulgently. ... " No, I don't. It shows mat ne ieeis deeply, anyway." " Well, now," continued the old man, with a drawl which indicated an ap proaching relapse into garrulity, " it's queer enough I should have met ye, ain't itP And you from Glyddon, where I used to live: and learning news of Atlee this way. Queer enough ! Well, I must see his folks when I git back, and find out if they know where he's gone." After this thev talked of other things. until they came to Wingfield, the end of the journey, he maKing nimsen agree able all the way, so that when the mo ment came for parting, Bertha was aware that the journey had seemed very short, and that her casual acquaintance was really an entertaining one. Mavbe I - shall see you again," he suggested, as they descended to the platform together. " Do you ever come to Glyddon P" she inquired, with polite reserve. " Guess I shall before long," he re plied. " You wouldn't be surprised, I suoDose! if old Gilford shouid drop in to see you some day? Ana now I think of it, what's your nameP Will you tell me?" She told him. and he promptly wan dered off, after giving her a nod, appar ently intent upon his own affairs. " I should think he might have said good- bve a little more as it he was interested." mused Bertha, not wholly pleased at having him appear to dismiss her so easily. And yet, what else could a mere stranger, a fellow conversationist of an hour, doP Besides, Bertha reflected that old men could not be expected to show the same interest and gallantry as well, as Guy aud other young men. When she got home that evening, she bethought her to inquire ot her lather whether he had ever heard ot an old man named Gifford who had lived in the village. Mr. Finch dimly recollected him years before. "But! thought he was dead," he added " No : I met him to-day in the train," his daughter informed him, " pnd had a very pleasant chat. He was so nice. I do so like old men. Somehow when they pay you compliments it doesn't embarrass you, and they seem to be true ; for what can an old man expect to gain by paying a compliment that he doesn't mean ?" " I'm afraid the appetite for feminine approval only increases in us with age," laughed Mr. Finch. In less than a week from the time of his departure the village was as ton ished by Guy Atlee's reappearance, "I went up to woodruff to see my folk3." was the explanation; and he expected to make light of the manner of his going. But though his escapade was a good deal criticised, he appeared to have gained rather than lost in pub lic esti nation by it. When he went to see Bertha Finch he declared that jealousy had brought him back. "I learnea ot a flirtation you were carrying on with an old gen tleman in the cars old Gifford; and knowing your preference for mature men, I thought my chances, if I had any left, were in danger.-' "You are very impertinent to sup pose you have any chances," was the retort to this. "But is it true about Gifford?" he persisted. " It is true that I met him. Oh, he's a perfect lovely old man!" " He would be very much flattered if lie knew you said that, bnall 1 tea him ?" " Ycu can if you like: I don't care.'' said Bertha, airiiy. "I believe ha's coming to call on me." "Did he tell you so? Then he prob ablv wants to sell you some pills." " Mr. Atlee, what in the world do you mean?" " Simply that he's a patent-pill ped- dier.'K "How disgusting!" exclaimed the fastidious maiden. "Never mind, he's a real pleasant old fellow. ' " It s part ot his trade to be so." ex plained Guy. " But I judge, from your admiration tor mm, that you still scorn JUL JTUUUg UUJ a tlAU Uli " I never said ' scorn.' " she an swered, "and 1 think it was cruel of you to make us an minis you had per nana committea suiciae. it was cow ardly to make me feel I might have caused it." " I didn't mean it so," he pleaded. 1 hardly toougtit. i wanted to go away out of sight, and I didn't want any search. Couldn't you forgive me for being foolish, and, as you call it, ..nnrarHlnP " " I don't t know." ' You see. I didn't suDDOse. from whnk you said, that you cared what became of me." The little face that so often seemed to be looking down was really bent with some confusion at that moment ; but its owner, obeying a whim, said, "Per haps 1 didn't, atter all." Guy's manner changed at once. " Oh, do forgive me!" he oried. mock ingly. " I would do almost anything to secure that ev3n to growing several years older, if you would only stop grow ing, ana wait tor me." " There, that s just use a boy. You can't be serious two minutes together," Bertha railed back at him. And so they parted. The very next day Gifford drove bv in a withered little buggy, apparently fresh from Vermont, and stopped at the Finches'. But Bertha was not at home. so he went on, after leaving a box of puis, wrapped up in a boastful adver- tisement. Toward evening, a few days later. Guv came to see her again, and persuaded her to walk out in the attie lane that ran he hind the Finches' house. He did not talk about himself, but discussed the arrangements for a picnic in which they were interested. As lie was leaving her, however, "Old Gif ford," he observed, "has been seen about here lately. ' "Ihe dear!' said Bertha, nrovok. ingly. " How sorry I was to miss his caul" "Did you?" Gay chimed In, sympa tnetioaiiy. " 1 wonder 11 It wouldn't be desirabli for me to become acquainted with such a delightful manf He might improve me in your eyes." " Oh, yes, he would do you ever so mucfi good," sneassurea htm. - " I'll be on the lookout for him," said the young man, cheerfully. ' Good night." lie sauntered down the lnnn toward the woods, and Bertha remained stand ing under the applo- tree where he had left her. entoywg tue rising sunset light. Thus employed, and idly nulling to pieces a bit of grass, she did not notice the approacu oi anotner person, until an aged voice close by her hailed her with. i;V3 almost to prolong Atlee's "Good-night, which was sun in ner ears. It was Gifford. She turned her head and greeted him with decided coolness. " Glad to see ye at last." he continued. sitting down on a stone. " It's awful warm." And he removed his felt hat, to sponge out the interior carefully with a bandana which he produced for the purpose. "Did you get those pills P First-rate to brace up with this weath er. Good for lassitude, rheumatism, gout, neuralgy, headache but I sup pose you read the billP" "No, I haven't yet," announced Bertha, with threatening Ifcevity. " Now that disappoinfsme," said Gifford. "You don't know their vir tues. Why, my second wife, she couldn't get along without them." ' TTr.ri'i(t silfl nrrotnh 1'' nnwimoMf o4 lila listener, internally.and proceeded aloud : " You mean they saved her life?" " Yes, yes," returned the dealer, de liberately, "they did as long as she lived." " Well, mine seems to be pretty well saved without them," said the girl; " and anyway I don t have any of those troubles that you mention. So I don't think I need the pills." "Wot just now, maybe." Gifford ad mitted ; " but then you won't always be so young as you are now, and you're bound to have rheumatism. You'll be an old woman before you know it, and an ounce of prevention's worth a pound of cure." "I think I'll wait," said Bertha, find ing her venerable idol very repulsive on this second interview ; " and if you 11 excuse me now, Mr. Gifford, I must go into the house." " To get the box?" he inquired. "All right. But I wi9h you'd wait a minute. I've got something particular to say to you." " something particular f" " Yes. Thinking of that young Atlee . I made some inquiries, and, as far as I could sec, you are tue young lady." "What young lady? Anyway, Mr Allen has come back now." ' Oh yes, I know that. But you never fancied hin much, and I guess he don't stand in the way." " I don t understand what you re talk' ing about." ' That's just what I've come to now,' said Gifford. " I'm sort of lonely, but I've got some property laid by. and I'm looking round for a wife. What do you say o me?" "lou! i think you are horrible," tsertha cried, frankly. "An old, old man like you, that' been twice married, looking lor a wile! ' She recoiled invol' untarily. " There s nothing like an old fellow that knows his own mind, and the ways ot the world." he argued. Then sud demy Bertha could hardly believe i true he dropped on his knees. "Won't you have meP" he entreated. She moved toward the house rapidly. as it escaping from a hideous sight, "Stop! Istoo!" cried the ancient suitor, m a remarkable vigorous voice. "If you do that 11. tear all my hair out." Something in the tone arrested Bertha Finch's flight, and she looked around. At the same instant the anoma lous old man, standing up very tall. flung his entire head ol white hair at her f eet, and stood revealed, felt hat in hand, as liuy Atlee! She covered her face in confusion, but both of them burst into a hearty laugh the next instant, as he advanced toward her " This is more foolish than my disappearance," Guy was confessing, but the temptation wai too great, Are vou angry?" " It was you all the timeP" demanded she, stii: slightly bewildered. Ul" course, ihereat iTinord died a couple of years ago. Ihat day in the train I was iust going to get out here to try my experiment, when I saw vou at the depot, and you walked right in to sit aown next to me." Bertha turned hot and cold as she ran over the car conversation in her mind to see whether she tad committed herself .in anv wav. "You have rejected me twice now," continued Guy, coming very close, and standing in tail uuminty before her " once for being too young, and once for being too old. Don't you think you could make a sort ot compromise now, ana take me apart lrom my age, as a man who is willing to devote himself to you, young and old? You are not angry?" "No," said Bertha, looking down very much indeed. " 1 have been fool ish too. Guy." tshe made the compromise. Harper s tsazar An Enormous Rattlesnake. While Mrs. Charles Wells, residitsr at Woodtown, Tike county, Penn., was passing through a piece of woods a short time ago, she was suddenly startled bv a rattling noise, which seemingly came from no great distance She stopped to listen, ana tue souna was repeated, Airs, weug Knew it to oe mat ot a rattlesnake. Thinking the reptile was in the brush alongside tha road, she started on. She had taken but a few steps when she sawj, a few feet in front of her, lying coiled in the road, with its tieaa erect ana its tongue darting, a monster rattlesnake, ihe reptile con tinued to rattle, and showed no inclina tion to get out of the way. Mrs. Wells was accustomed to seting snakes the local ity abounds with them and sho gattr eretl up several large missiles, and. approaching within a few feet of the reptile, opened warfare upon it. The battle was of brief duration, for a well- directed stone struck the reptile, render ing it neipiess. dub men suowerea a voiley of stones upon ner antagonist. and soon dispatched it. The snake measured nearly five feet, and was the largest one of his species that has been killed in that neighborhood for several years. Within five miles of the spot where this snnke was killed is the famous Ball Hill rattlesnake dens, at which "Sam" Helms, a celebrated nake catcher and tamer .used to capture most ol tne snaaes wniuu us exhibited throughout tut ainerent Btatei. TIXELI TOPICS. Forestry, so neglected in the United State, now receives very careful atten tion in France as well as Germany. One of the French under secretaries of state is director of forests, and has a large staff. An eminent French scientist, who complains that meteorologists too often neglect observations on animal or vegetable physiology, recommends that the dates of the arrival and departure of migratory birda, the leafing and flowering of plants and the ripening of corn snail on noieu in euuu uisiiiut. made oy foresters of such natural-history phenomena as fall within their notice. A horrible case is reported from Lon don where the punishment received by the culprit seems wholly inadequate to the enormity ot the ouense. A nurse in Guy's hospital becoming enraged at a trivial offense committea by a patient, a young married woman, dragged her from the bed and plunged her into a bath tub filled with cold water, whereby the woman's disease was so aggravated as to result in her death. For this crime the nurse was arrested, convicted of manslaughter and sentenced accord ingly. The barbarity ot hospital nurses is very frequently the subject of remark, but the crime spoken of above is a little beyona the ordinary run usually cuargea against these officials. Illinois still leads all the other States in the number of miles of its railroads. The position Illinois has occupied since lavo. at wnicu time it passed rennsy4- vania, wuicn previously naa been me leading State. The railway mileage of the former State is 7.578 ; Pennsylvania is second, with e.Ubu miles; New Xork follows i-lose behind, with 6,008 miles; Ohio is fourth, having 5,521 miles; Iowa fifth, with 4,)99 miles, and Indiana sixth, with 4,336 miles; Missouri, Michi gan, Kansas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Texas, Georgia and California follow in the order named. Therels no State or Territory which is totally devoid of railroads, though Montana Territory can boast of but ten miles of com pleted road. The denizens of New York city may now look forward to the prospect of peaceful slumbers, undisturbed by the nightly howls of the feline race. The board ot aldermen have passed what will be known as the "cat ordinance," which orders the capture and destruc tion of .11 the cats at large "in anyot the public streets, lanes, alleys, high - ways, parks or other places within the corporate limits ol the city of iew York." Should this not include the backyard fences, it may be a very seri ous omission. The war projected ngaint mo cats may not seem so useless in view of the fact that a wealthy and promi nent citizen of San Jose, California, died a short time ago from the effects of a bite on the thumb by a kitten a few weeks previous. The hand began to swell soon after it was bitten, and the poison extending uo the arm. hnallv caused death, The city of Szegcdin. in Hungary. which from time immemorial has been greaUy troubled with gypsies, and which has imprisoned. Hogged and threatened them with the wheel and the gibbet, but all in vain, lias lately revived an old device which it seems did once before drive them away. Expelled one day they would return tho next and steal everything tucy couia lay tneir lianas on. until the heads of the city authorities came near bursting in their efforts to devise some means of securing immunity from the thieving hands of the " Pharaohs," as they are called by the Hungarians. At last the authorities caught a caravan of gypsies and shaved them cican, leaving not a particle of hair on their heads or faces. Thus sacreiigiously handled, the Pharaohs long gave the town a wide berth. Ihe memory of the truly bar barous treatment having grown dim with the lapse ofjpears, the gvnsics have settled down again upon Szegedin. So hzegedin has revived the old tactics. and in spite of t.ie wanderers threats of dire vengeance has once more shaved them all, without regard to sex or age, They have departed in wrath and hu miliation, and rzegeain hopes aain to pass some years in the peaceful enjoy ment of its own eggs and chickens. A Book of Beauty. A New York publishing house has commenced work upon a subscription book designed to illustrate American beauty. This volume is to contain one hundred choice steel-plate engravings of living American v. omen, remarkable for their beauty. Daintiest of letter ress, on highest grade of printing pa per, is to explain the portraits ot the one hundred beauties, and the binding is to be executed in the highest style ot the bookbinder's art. Our large country is notable for the number of its beautiful women, and one hundred could not be gin to do justice to tie aggregate of American feminine loveliness. Who is to select the comely ladies, who'e coun ttrteit presentments are to embellish the forthcoming volu i.e of loveliness, is not stated. To say the least of it, the task is one ot great delicacy, and, no matter how impartially performed, will be cer tain to give grave displeasure to the tens ot thousands of acknowledged American beauties whose pretty pictures will not grace the volume. If the friends of the one hundred favored lair are numerous and chivalrous enough to subscribe for one or more copies of the work, the pub iisuci Lutvv uc Batiaueu, uub uie uuilttcu beauties will not. iven the courageous canvassers for subscriptions to the book are deserving ot general sympathy whenever they happen among a group of belies, not one oi whom has been se lected for the " Book of Beauty." len or a dozen years ago an enter pi ising publisher issued a book of por nans ui iuuics caueu uueens oi Auicr ican Society." The pictures purported to be likenesses of leaders of society, tew oi wnom maoe any pretensions to sur passing beauty. We believe the novel work was a pecuniary success: tnere was no disputing the social position of the leaders of society : but who can or dare decide as to who are the one hun dred transcendent beauties of America's array of feminine loveliness? How that book will be praised and pitched into bv the critics! how it will be pro- nounced charming and stupid by hosts of fair readers ! how publishers will be overwhelmed with indignant letters! but how American literature is to be benehted by so invidious an illustrated work ws cannot for the life of us mat- "riiHtr t Circular. A Scout's Lous' Fast. "Big Foot" Wallace, the noted Texa9 scout, tells tha following strange story: In the year 1862 I was in the north western portion of Texas, a private in Company K, Duff's regiment, C. S. A., and stationed at Fort Davis. While on a scout two companions and myself became detached from our compnny, and camped on Providence creek, a few miles northwest of the fort. We were attacked at night by the Indians, my two companions killed, and our horses stampeded. 1 escaped in the darkness with only the clothes on my back, my revolver and bowie knife. The next morning while attempting to reach a pool of water in a rocky ravine I tell and fractured my left leg about midway between ankl and knee, both bones being broken. At the edge of tho water pool was a deposit of tough, tenncious wet clay. I bound my broken iimb with my shirt torn in strips, and then plastered it over thickly with the clay, keeping the limb as quiet as possible, and frequently renewing the clay poul tice. After the second day I experi enced no pMn from the fracture. Dur ing the first three or four days I suffered much from hunger. I used water spar ingly, and kept my belt comfortably tight about my waist, which apparently afforded me relief lrom the griping pains that occasionally annoyed me. For one day only, I think it was the ninth or tenth, I became flighty t intervals, but not sufficiently so to Vianisb from my mind that absolute rest of the injured limb was necessary. The twenty-first day after the accident I removed the bandae, and found, to my grea' joy, the broken bones were reunited. After a few efforts I raised myself erect, and stood on my feet, holding on to a little tree until I became satisfied I could trust the i:'jured limb. I then cautiously and slowly, with the assistance of a forked slick that answered as a crutch, worked my way for several hundred yards, when I became exhausted and sought the Bhelter of a shelving rock where I soon dropped into a fitful sleep that I was aroused from by the howling of a cayote wolf, which was but a few yards from me. 1 took as good aim at tnrr I took as good aim at him with my revolver as mv nervous and ex hausted condition permitted and blnzad away, providentially killing him ; then I cut his throat and sucked his blood until I had swallowod a pint or more, when I was compelled to stop by violent cramps in my stomach. After suffering untold agonies for an hour or more the pain gradually subsided, and 1 tell into a sound and refreshing slumber. This was the first food that had gone into my stomach for twenty-one days. When I awoke it was late in the night. An al most insatiable desire seized me to nil my stomach with the raw flesh of the wolf. I knew, however, it would be death to do so, and partially relieved my hungry cravings by chewing the uesn and only swallowing the juice. As soon as daylight appeared I collected brush and wood, made a rousing tiro, and Sixm roasted the hams of the wolf, on which I subsisted for the noxt two days, swal lowing very little of the flesh, but all the juice I could extract by constant chewing. Dm ing the two days I walked eight miles and reached the fort, where I was received as one of the dead. I was put in the hospital, and under the kind care and skillful dietary manage ment of Dr. Arthur Stevens, surgeon. 0. S. A., I slowly recovered my health and strength. Myordinary weight prior to my starvation was about 205 pounds. 1 he second day after my return to the fort I weighed 1264 pounds. Mv height is six feet one and a haif inches. Never (Juite Content. Rev. Robert Collyer holds that it is both the curse and blessing of Ameri can lif-J that we are never quite con tent. We all expect to go boaiewheie before we die, and have a better time when we get there than we can have at home. The bane of our life is discon tent. We sav we will work so long, and then we will erjoy ourselves. But we find it iust as Thackeray Ua3 re pressed it. " When I was a boy," he said, " I wanted some tally it was a shilling 1 hadn't one. w uen i was man I had a shilling, but 1 didn't want any tally." But we say not one wor-l against that splendid discontent that all the while makes a man strike for something better. We like this idea that every boy horn in America dreams of being President. No man has any right to be content to do his best, and not to do better to-nion.w man ne is doing to day. But all that will come hy keeping close to a manty ana autitui liie. While we are going steadily along to whatever future awaits us, the grand est thing we can do is to tel sure that what we are doing tor a day s work, with all that we do besides, is just the most blessed tiling, so far as we can do, and that we are very likely having the best time that can ever come to our lite ; that this work, and wife and home and children, all they are and all they mean beat the world. The saddest tiling in our hie is our discontent when we ought to be more contented. It is our birthright to get the good of life as we go along, in these s .tuple and pure things that to all tiue man and womanhood are like rain and sunshine to an apple tree. Bat when we do not believe this, and dream that the best cf our life is to come when we have made our fortune, then we sell our birthright for a mess of pottuge. But worse than Esau, the pottage gives us the dyspepsia, and then we lose the good ot birthright and pottage together. The Wouderful Man Without Limbs. Mr. Kavanagh. the Irish member of parliament whose lack of arms and legs is accompanied by a plentiful supply of brains, had in his youth a very sorrow ful life. After the early death of his father and mother, he was under the control of his two elder brothers, who, mortified by this strange deformity, are said to have secluded him in the country from the sight ot mankind. The boy, full of intellectual z 3al and manly spirit. would not allow his mind to rest or grow morbid; and when, alter several years, his brothers died, leaving a very large estate to his guidance, tie emerged lrom his library a rarely cultivated ana brilliant man, with a brain and will so trained that it was a very easy matter for him to grasp practical hie and affairs. So delightful are Mr. Kavanagh's intel lectual and spiritual graces that he wen for a wife a very beautiful and charm ing woman. His children are all bright and h ndsomo, and he is greatly beloved by both them and his tenantry. In spite ot his bodily misfortune Mr. Kavanagh is a noted Ninirod, riding after hounds in u saddle which he himself invented with th greatest energy and daring. At Evening. Upon the hills the wind is sharp and cold, The sweet young grasses wither on the wold, And we, oh, lord, have wandered from thy told; But evening brings ns home. Among the mists we stumbled, and the rooks, Where the brown lichen whitens, and the lox Watches the straggler lrom the soattered flocks; But evening brings us home. The sharp thorns prick us, and our tender feet Are cnt and bleeding, and the omhs repeat Iheir pitilul complaints oh, leBt is sweet, When evening brings us home. We have been wounded by the hnnter's dart, Our eyes are very heavy, and our hearts Search for thy ooming when tho light departs, At evening bring ns home. The darkness gathers. Through the gloom no star Rises to guide us. We have wandered lar. Without tby Inmp we know not where we are At evening bring us borne The clouds are around ns, and the snow drifts thicken, Oh, thou, dear shepherd, leave us not to sicken In the waste night our tardy footsteps quicken ; At evening bring us home. ITEMS OF INTEREST. The rest of the week Sunday. Machines for catching cold Ice tongs. If an old sheep an only jump a fence they call it a spring lamb. An attack has been made on Chicago rumholes for selling liquor to minors. California's census shows a population of 863,000, being an increase ol over 303,000 since 1670. fiveat Britain now has 1,703 news- papers, against 624 in lct54. I here are 1411 uuiiiro, " F The shark is the most sociable offish. He never calls upon a bather without wanting to stop and take a bite. A picture recently appeared in the London 2'inies the first ever admitted to the columns of the " Thunderer." Chicago claims to have the largest bookbindery in the United States nex to that in the government printing office at Washington. Several of the brigand chiefs of Italy have, in the course of their careers, figured as champions of Mazzini, ot the Pope, of Victor Emanuel, and as Gari baldians. An apple tree in the" orchard of Wm. Plymive, of Washington ounty, Pa., bears nine varieties, bouic ui ui now rips, while others will not ripen until late in the fall. The barley crop of Canada is esti mated at from 9,000,009 to lO.O'JO.OOO bushels, which, after allowing about 2,000,000 bushels far home requirements, will leave a surplus of 7,000,000 to 8,000.000 bushels. It seems that New York city is sink ing beneath the waves at the rate of several inches every century, and the Rochester Herald is already beginning to worry about, the luture fate of the obelisk Buffalo Courier. "Edward, you have disobeyed your grandmother, who told you just now not to jump down these steps." " Grandma didn't tell us to, papa. She only came to the door and said: 'I wouldn't )Ump down inose stairs, ooys; and I shouldn't think she would, an old lady like her." The VikingV ship lately discovered at Sand fiord, in Norway, has been taken to Christiania. and plnced under covr in the Uni.ersity garden, near the old boat found at Tunoe some years ago. Tlic damaged part is to be restored, and the colors, which rapidly faded in the sunlight, freshened up. A cow that wore a tell having been run over and killed on a railroad, the owner brought suit against the railroad company for damages. It was proved that the engineer rang the bell and tried to frighten the cow off the track, but the farmer's lawyer also proved that the cow rang her bell and tried to frighten the engine oft' the track, and so the jury decided in his favor. What dirterenc U there 'twixt a boy That as a MoVer enters, And some c"od wlimr at war Wltli wicked legislators ? Ol course you give it up. Because The one. I.e ligms the fires, Anu t'other, the editor, He fiercely flstits ihe liars. Mtridtn Recorder. The boy wa never known to dislike work. II i always willing to da anything required of him, but he always Knris it dilTiuuit to parcel out his work to fit his time. That is to say, he finds it difficult to make up his mind. In tim mnrninsr he is tirmlv of the opinion that the evening is the proper and only time fitting lor labor, lhis would be an right and as agreeable to his parents as himself, but it so Happens tuai evening cooks his matutinal convictions have undergone a complete revmsion. and he is now thoroughly convinced tbe morning hours should alone be conse crated to toil. Words of Wisdom, Patience and gentleness are power. Character is a perfectly educated will. More lives have been bettered by afflictions than by sermons. lie who goes through the world more purely ani nobly than other men, does so because be wills to do to. Hope is the very soul to an heroic action. Hope is the main-spring to every well-regulated life. Hope Is the morning star to every brighter i'ay. How beautiful are the smiles of inno cence, how endearing tbe sympathits of love, how sweet the solace oi friend ship, how lovely tho tears of affection! These combined are all characteristic in woman. They are the true poetry of humanity, rich pearls clustering around the altar of domestic happiness. How wonderful and how true are these words of Heine : Quite a strange elevation of soul take possession of me when I walk alone at gloaming by tho sea shore; behind me nothing but flat dunes; before me tbe braving, im measurable seat over me the tky, like a great crystal dome. 1 seem then, to myself, so ant-like In my insignificance. andyet my soul takes such a world wide Hight.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers