The Johnstown Democrat. | PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY MORNING, No. 138 FRANKLIN STREET, JOIINSO tv Y, CAMBRIA CO., PA. TERMS—ISI.no per.1 ear, payable tn advance ; outside the county, fifteen cents additional for postage if not paid within three months *2 will lie charged. A paper can he discontinued at any time by paying arrearages, and 1101 otherwise. The failure to direct a discontinuance at the expiration of the period subscribed for will be considered a new engagement. AWa Stitmrip t (rtux must be accompanied by the CASH. 1.. I). WOODRUFF. Editor and Publisher, FRIDAY DECEMBER 20, 1830. IT IS COMING. Yes, coming it is coming soon, coming with force, coming with virulence, cost ing us it came upon all Europe. Don't , say, "well, let it conic." But come to think of it. your saying it, will not hasten its coming, ami nothing could be said or done would prevents its coming. We re fer to the wide-spread scourge of influenza that is prevailing in Russia, Italy, France, England and Germany. Many of the more aged people of tins country have t reason to remember its visitation back in the winter of 1842 3. It was popularly called " The Tyler Grip." While its victims ran up into multiplied thousands, fatal terminations were exceptionally rare. But all the same, it caused intense suffer ings, partaking as it did of all the aggra vated features of the worst kind of Catarrh. From reports coming across the watarour medical men think it is the same kind of a malady now. What produces it is an unsolved problem. Among other theories ad vanced the one most generally believed is that it is produced In inflnitesimally small atmospheric insects. This opinit 11, however, is at best, only a conjecture, and while its o.igin is a mystery, we can say with Walls, in one of his hymns, that it "moves in a mysterious way, its wonders to t perform;" but, iu the meantime, in a most astonish ingly accelerated manner. L. ten hours after reaching London, it is so id seventy thousand well defined cases of it were re ported. The extent of its prevalence in Euro] e is something truly marvellous. In Berlin the number of persons suffering from it at latest advices is put at fifteen thou sand. with no signs of abatement. While there is no known preventive, physicians say its attacks can be greatly modified by proper and timely tieutment. There seems to be 110 doubt of its pres ence in this country already. A number of eases were reported in Beston on last Molality: and a New Yoik dispatch of the Kith hurt... says eight eases in that city have beeu reported to the Boartl of Health. The first vsetim was lady, who it is thought contracted the disease from a family just relumed from Europe. Her first symtorn was vertigo, followed by some chills. Then she-became deathly sick with pains lit her limbs and muscles. This was succeeded by bronchial catarrh, soreness of throat ami a high fever causing the pulse to run up to 120 in a minute. Seven other members ot the family are down with the malady. Such is the dread of it that the Board of Health is in favor of quarantin ing all eases trom abroad. The treatment recommended is, the spraying of the effected membrane freely and often with a solution of quinine; and tin- internal administration of quinine, belladona and camphor. IM I.HI l It.ITE 'I EMFEKANCE. Not byway of a homily MM a moral question, but simply to point a moral, it may be said that the action of the local W. C. T. U. down at Norristown, int., the other day. in passing a resolution of censure upon Mrs. Harrison, our Presi dent's wife, was uoi. only busty but ex ceedingly foolish. Without knowing the facts in the case, anil evidently without _ taking any pains iu ascertain them, the good ladies composing said organization got themselves hurriedly together in order to In* first in the Held, we suppose, and resolved thut tliev were not only sorry for what Mrs. Harrison had done ou a public occasion, but protested against it. It is another case of much ado about nothing. These very temperate ladies— temperate as far as Alcoholic liquors are concerned —intempcralely did that for which there was not even the semblance of a reason for doing. Under the erroneous impression that Mrs. Harrison had entertained the distinguished for eigners composing the l'an-American Congress, at a ladies, tea party these ladies were highly incensed over the assumed fuct that she served them will) lemonade with a stick in it. Hence they " resoluted ' as befoic stated. What will they do to try ant undo, what they so hastily and iutcnipi lately did do, is the question of the hour. A full, humiliating apology is next in order, from the non-reflecting and for too intemperate women of the W. C j T. U. organization of Norristown. Next' ] time it woultl he well to draw the line at j all diplomatic dinners; at least they should ! not the confounded with a quiet, conven- : tional ladies tea party. Would it not be well for'such impulsive i ladies to lung a few Pauline mottoes up : iu their places of meeting, such us " Let your moderation lie known unto all men." j " For I hear them record that.they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowl- | edge." Certain things •' Zealously affect | you, but not well." STILL A MISTEKY. Tlie verdict in the Dr. Cronin case has not cleared up the mystery of the doctor's murder. The most thut can he said of the verdict is that it was affected 011 a compromise busis; and like all compro mises is not satisfactory to anybody. If the jury believed that the three, O'Culli vau, Cougklin and Burke, killed him, which the sentence of life imprisonment implies, then the sentence should have been in the direction of the gallows. Compromising on imprisonment for one of the most fleudish murders of the age, is nothing short of a travesty upon justice, law and common sense. But the con clusion reached indicates doubts in the minds of the jury as to the guilt of the prisoners, and while circumstantial evi dence bore heavily upon them, the jury may have thought that the future might possibly develope something to exonerate them. This theory is strengthened not only by the acquital of Beggs. hut, also, by the comparatively slight sentence of three years in the penitentiary in Knaze's case, against whom the testimony was about as strong as against the three who have a life-time sentence. The verdict has rot. therefore, solved the mystery of the brutal murder further than tracing it to the very doors of the oath-bound secret society, to which all of the live implicated persons belonged. If there were any truth iu the old chest uut that •' murder will out," we might hope to sec all the mystery hanging over the case cleared away. But like many other murders that have been enshrouded in impenetrable darkness for ages, this one muy never have the light of day shed upon it. The well-known murder of the beautiful cigar girl in New York, nearly half & century ago, is as much of a mys tery 10-day as it was on the morning her lifeless body WHS found; so of that rich New York merchant who was murdered over a quarter of a century ago in one of the most prominent residences on Broad way. Because an occasional deed of a criminal is discovered the old saw of '• murder will out" comes to the front; while in point of fact the vast majority of cases never come " out." PUTTING THE Itnor (IN THE OTHER LEG. One of the reasons assigned by anti smokers against the habit is that it ceates an appetite for strong drink; therefore it is alleged if there was less smoking there Would be less drunkenness. Illogical as this is, and as far from the facts in the case as it is, yet it is a tiiecry with some of the denouncers of tobacco. But now comes an aged divine forward, one that is not only full of years but of honors, (the Rev. Dr. VV. 11, Furness) and says, " I am now eighty-eight years old, and con tinue to smoke cigars daily." lie gives it ax his opinion, founded 011 observation, that instead of causing intoxication it is a preventive; and that if smoking tobacco were abolished there would he ten drunk ards where there is now only one. ♦., A CHANGE OP ISA-.E. Who would have thought it? The somewhat notorious Sum Small, who gftiued his notoriety by setting at naught all the rules of propriety, and by brush ing aside all that is implicit in doing things "decently and in order," has vaulted from the free and easy modes of a Methodist to the stiff and hampered oues peculiar to a staid Episcopalian, concerning which, an Eastern journal says, " this may he to the mutual advan tage of both preacher and church, as a little 1 xpansion of the one and a slight impression of the other would do no harm." MK. HENRY M. GRADY of Atlanta, made some statements last week at Bos ton ou tlie occasion of the annual banquet of the Boston Merchants' Association, thai ought to be universally known and pondered. Wo give, said he, to lite world til's year a crop ot 7,500,000 bales of cot ton, worth .*450,000,000, and its cash equivalent in grain, grasses, and fruit. The progress of the negroe is thus given : I present the tax books of Georgia, which show that the negro, twenty-five years ago a sluve, has in Georgia alone •*10,000,000 of assessed property, worth twice that much. The educational out look is bright under the following state ment: The South, since 1805, lias spent 1*122,000,000 an education, and this year is pledged to $37,000,000 more tor State and city schools—although the blacks, paying one-thirtieth ot the taxes get nearly one-half of tlie fund. 1* rum AMIIVHIU. Civil Service Reform (?) necessitates the removal of the post office in this place. Immediately after lite election, three prominent Republicans applied for the position. Each thought he had a belter right than anyone else, and did all in his power to gain the end. Each o.ie, too, felt that he would win. But great was their dismay when official notice came that an entirely different man had secured tlie prize, and that too, in the face of the fact, that lie had beeu in town a few weeks—not long enough to be a voter. The disappointed parties feel very in dignant toward certain powers. From Foreign Tim money received from foreign countries by tlie Flood Commission is as follows: Ireland, *18,202 24; Mexico, $l3O 4(1; Canada • 4,404 And one tvos hers and one was mfna Their minds were Just exactly one. These good old fashioned, gentle creatures— They never told the same joke twice. Nor failed to watch each otuer's features To note the proper time to langU. And wife and 1 would watcn these fine Old fathers, in their harmless mirth. For oue was hers, and one was mine. They'd talk about the herds and crops, And often Cell their old time stories, i Of Landlord Jones, the tavcrner. Of trainings, 'lections, Whigs and Torlea And wife and I the evening through Would listen to their talk till iiiue, And then they'd hid us both it.lft-i. For oue was hers, and one was mine. They could not live alCsne, and so They walked along life's way together. And hand In hand they graveward went And slipped the coil of earthly tether. They clasped their hands lu mute farewell Aud clasped again where glories shine. While wife aud I together wept. For Imih were hers. au>l both were mine. There are two graves on yonder hill. Ami side by side the fathers lie, Their Jokes ore hushed, the mirth has flown, And softly each has said " flood by " To earthly friends, and earthly homes And wife and 1 Just sit and pine. For these old gents, our fnlliei-s once, And one was hers, and one was mine. —Albert Lew is in Springfield Homestead. Scarlet the Sacred Color. In Italy, Turkey, Greece, Asia Minor, Egypt anil many of the oriental coun tries the archaic images of the deities were puinU.i red. and it has been said that the traditional practice was intend ed to please "the color sense." by which is meant that these images were regarded as pretty gewgaws. This is not likely, and the true explanation is that the color of red was sacred. All pristine creeds can. with probability, be traced ultimately to two origins. They are, in different disguises, the worship of the sun and the worship of humanity. Red became therefore an exceptionally odious color when the ascetic temper gained possession of religion. The author of "The Wisdom of Solo mon" betrays a profound antipathy to the color in the following "Or make it like some wild bpast, laying it over with vermilion, and with paint coloring it red. and covering every spot therein." The coloring was very offensive to him, and he describes in another place the voluptuary as crying: "Lot lis crown ourselves with rosebuds before they are withered." Afterward a fresh associa tion was added, and scarlet typified not only the sins of Babylon, hut their pun ishment also.—Exchange. A Cat That Live* on Cutiuric!*. George Fair, of the Haymarket thea tre, says: I have a tiger cat, a pug dog, seventeen gold fish, aud forty canaries. The dog is the most submissive of the lot. He has been licked so many times that his tail won't curl. Ever see a pug dog with the curl taken out of his tail? I've got one. Hut the cat is the boss. Mrs. Fair is very much attached to the cat. I wanted her to sell the cat, or let me bring it down here, or kill it —any- thing to get it out of the house. No, sir, she wouldn't have it. Said the cat could stay in the house as long as she did. One day she went home and found st lot of feathers on the floor, and the cat 'Asleep on top of the piano. The cat had eaten the eanAry—several canaries. I said to Mrs. Fair, "1 guess the cut will go now." hut she said no. For two ot three days we noticed that the cut didn't eat nnvthing. lie refused beefsteak, mutton chops, whipped cream, and all of the dainties, lie had tasted the cana ry, and nothing hut canary would sat isfy him. So we are raising canaries now to a| pease the cat's appetite The dog eats tli" hone.-and the qyuinhs which fall from his master's table.—Chicago Tribune Limits (if tii* Mind. One is curiosity; that is a gift, a ca pacity of pleasure in knowing, which if you destroy you make yourselves cold and dull. Another is sympathy; the power of sharing in the feelings of living creatures, which if you destroy you make yourselves hard and cruel. Another of your limbs of mind is admiration: the power of enjoying beauty ot ingenuity, which if you destroy you make your selves base and irreverent. Another is wit, or the power of playing with tho lights on the many sides of truth, which if yon destroy yam make yourselves gloomy, and less useful and cheering to others than you might he. So that in choosing your way of work it should he your aim, us far as possible, to bring out all these faculties, as far as they exist in you, not one merely, nor another, but all of them. And the way to bring thetn out is simply to concern yourselves atten tively with the subject of each faculty. To cultivate sympathy you must he among living creatures, and thinking about them: and to cultivate admiration you must he among .beautiful things, and looking at them.— J. Huskin. A Lucky Mail. His highness the gaekwar of Haroda, a Bombay paper remarks, is a tuan whom fortune has smiled upon from his youth. The romance of his life would read al most like a dream from the "Arabian Nights." Taken from tho hills a poor little herd hoy, adopted by a princess, he is clad in purple garments, decked with jewels, and lias a scepter thrust into his hands. With loyal and peaceful sub jects. a beautiful stretch of country for his state, magnificent palaces and well filled coffers from which lie can afford to indulge his artistic tastes and his love for wh:4 is beautiful, he is a prince whom even princes might envy -Mon treal Star. Circiim.stuntiiil Evidence, Clara—Yes, 1 knew you were there last night, though I did not see you. Ilayvlosso— Darling girll It was a man ifestation of that subtle influence which is felt by the souls of those that truly love. Clara—No. I saw the reflection on the ceiling, caused by tho light falling on your head'.—Pittsburg Bulletin. THE RAZOR BACK. rhe Rarer of the Tenneasee Mountain* la Alwaya Hnngry, . Whoever places the horse or the dog next to human beings in tho scale of in telligence and sagacity has never made tIK acquaintance of the Tennessee hog, the razor back. One who knows the pig only as tho fat. sleepy, grunty occupant qf the sty lias no idea of the spirit and wisdom, the daring and enterprise of the species; when horn and reared among the rugged mountain regions of theCuin berlands. In contrast with the close pen which is all the world his northern cousin ever knows, freedom is the very air his pigship breathes from the time when he opens his narrow, speculative eyes, in the beechen shade of the hills, until the un lucky day when he is cornered by human croft and numbers and reduced to bacon. His education begins in infancy, guidetj by his mother, who shows him the way Into all the best gardens, orchards and cornfields. "He is a shifty fellow" was the recommend given by a Cumberland valley farmer to a recent northern settler of the porker he was about to sell him. "He lias alius shirked for hisself." The purchaser gave fine thought to his own garden patch; but not enough, for bis summer was spent in devising barriers over which, or under which, otthrough which it was pastime for that hog to make his way. and the man's anger was finally lost in admiration of the sagacity of the animal, whose feats of agility and' ingenuity enabled him to maintain his own healthy condition; and also to treat his friends, for ho is not wliollv selfish. 1 have seen hint plant his long snout under a gate, and raise it more and more, until he had wormed himself hallway through, then hold it, resting on his strong "razor back" until the drove of half a dozen or more followers under itis charge had squirmed through, then, with an expressive grunt, he would lead a raid on the corn field, where a forest of tall stalks, from twelve to seventeen feet high, had been left supposably bare, to decay during the short, wet winter. Piggy knows, however, that now and then an ear has been overlooked; and lie enters the rows, cocking his head, now on this side, now on that, squinting up at the top of each tall stalk, until he sees an ear at the top; then quickly he strad dles the bottom of the stalk, and "rides it down" within his reach. Quickly it is devoured and another sought out and captured, until the field is gleaned: when ho rallies his troops and guides them into pastures new. Gates and bars are a laughing slock to him. Barbed wire is an agreeable irritant to his rhinoceros like hide; and the -hopeless farmer is often at his wits' end until the time when friendly autumn strews the mount ain sides with "mast," which proves more attractive to these übiquitous mon archs than are the cultivated gardens. The Tennessee hog knows that the laws of his native state protect him, while the human would be masters of the soli must look out for themselves; and !:• .-'-is accordingly. An unpleasant thi::v > meet is a drove of these pets win : i! of temper. - They will turn in a !>.• nd chase a man mid dog till bni" lad to mount out of reach on a fallen l.": and there they will hold them at hay. with hacks elect, in a sharp line of bristles-*whence their name— and with gruntings which cannot he de scribed, gnashing their long, savage teeth, remind one forcibly of the wild boar, whence sprang their ancestry, Vuieriean Agriculturist. Told by the lIHIMJF. V rather unusual case of a policeman') sagacity is told by a gentleman of cen tral Missouri. Some years ago Col. Will iam F. Switzler, of Columbia, in com puny with an old gentleman of Howard comity and a St. Louis physician, were in this city together witnessing some ex hibition. During the performance a lady spec la lor exclaimed: "I'm robbed!" To prevent the thief from dropping the purse into another's pocket. Col. Switz ler exclaimed: "Hold your pockets!" A policeman standing near by immediate ly and energetically ordered all the men in the immediate locality to stand in a line. Walking around the line twice, lie begun at the gentleman from Howard and said: "You are a carpenter;" to the next, "You are a literary man:" coming to the next lie said: "You are the thief," and. searching him, found tlie pocket book. Asked by one of the gentlemen how lie could designate a man's calling, the officer said: "The doctor there has caustic on his lingers; the carpenter has cuts on iiis hands; the literary man has ink on Ids fingers) the thief lias hands which show no evidence of good work of anv kind."—St. Louis Republic. ItralUlio. A number of literary people in Brook lyn indulged from time to time, in ama teur theatricals. They produced a com edy. One of the actors played the part of a burglar, and iiad to climb up the outside of the house in which the enter tainment. was given and enter through a window which was at the rear of the improvised stage. Me hurried around from the dressing rooms anil valiantly commenced to st ruggle up the wall, when a policeman grasped him I t the neck, think..ig him a veritable burglar. He started in explain, hut th 6 minion of the law would have none of it The audi ence v.-..s wondering in the meantime why lis play ilid not proceed, and the you ti. anil actresses on the stage wen - ;T. waiting for the burglar to entei ;■ . f in? tliein their cue, when they I shrieks, yells, oaths and three nlhe garden. Rushing out, they i • 1 the amateur burglar thrash ing v. . round the grass while a brawn i .-man sat on his shoulders haunt: .a his neck into the mud.—San Fram i • i Argonaut. Do Vs. THE WEAVER. ' Beside the loom of life 1 stand And natch the Imsf shuttle cro. The threads I hold within my hand Make up the filling: strand on strand They slip my flnjers through, aud so This iveb of mine Hits out apace While 1 stand ever In my place Oue time tho wool Is smooth aud fine And colored with a sunny dye; Again the threads so roughly twine And weave so darkly line on line. My heart misgives me. Then would I Fain loose this web—begin anew— But that, alas! 1 cannot do. Some day the web will all lie done. The shuttle quiet in its place. From out my hold the threads lie run: And friends at setting of the sun Will come to look upon my face, And soy: "Mistakes she made not few, Yet wove perchance as best she knew." -Mary Clark Huntington in The Independent The Divining Rod. Professor E. Ray Lankester, having recently expressed some doubts upon the alleged powers of a hoy "water finder," who has been in the employ of the Grin ton Mining company, in the north of England, the chairman of tho company, Dr. McChire, has replied to them, deny ing emphatically that the boy, whose name is Rod well, is an impostor. He says that the lad when tcsteil never failed to eiifber find water or mineral veins, the lodes having always been found exactly at the places indicated. The divining rod which he holds only moves in obedience to the muscular con tractions of his hands, and a rod of any kind of wood or even of any material substance whatever can bo used, pro vided it he a conductor of electricity. Rod well usually walks with his hands tightly clasped before him, and us soon as he steps upon a mineral vein of water he is powerless to unclasp them until he moves away from the region of the lode or conduit. The lad is ahout 14 years of age.—London Times. Nature'!* Transformation!*. Therefore many wonderful transforma tions in nature besides those which are common to the eye of the ordinary ob server. Take for example the Medusa or common jelly fish. Horn of the sea, the young hydrozoon become^primarily a distinct free germ, resembling a grain of rice, next a fixed cup having four lips, which subsequently turn to tentacles, and it becomes a hyatine flower, which presently splits across the calyx into segments, whereupon it is made to re semble a pine cone crowned with a tuft of transparent filament! Now the cone changes into a series of sea daisies threaded on a pearly stock, and these one by one become detached and float away, each a perfect little Medusa with purple hill and trailing tentacles.—Hull's Journal of Health. Scctilur Education in Japan. A returned missionary, who has been many years in Japan, has just been showing some curious effects of culture in that country. It seems that the Japanese have seized upon the idea of secular education with great avidity. While only 7.000 children go to school where religious knowledge is a part of the curriculum, over 3,000.000 attend where the teaching is purely agnostic. The young men develop a keen love for metaphysical doctrine and research, hut their favorite authors are Mill, Spencer, .Darwin and Huxley. As this tendency is accompanied by a great demand for English teachers, however, one would think that the juissioiuiries had the means of opposing it in their own hands. —New York Star. Little Child mid Isig Dog. An atiwsing scene occurred on Essex street, near the Phillipssclioolhouse, this noontime. Two large dogs, weighing perhaps 100 and 130 pounds respectively, engaged in a short and savage battle, which ended by the 100 pound dog re tiring. Just as he turned tail a little girl ahout 0 years old rushed in on the scene, grabbed the 130 pound dog by the collar, kicked him in the ribs, cuffed him soundly over tho ears, and then dragged him triumphantly from the scene, the lag brute submitting with a shame faced air. and his head and tail down in an attitude indicating that he realized his naughtiness, and acknowl edged the kicking and pounding as de served.—Salem News. A Remarkable Fiat. A most remarkable -feat that I saw performed while on- a recent hunting tour in southern Missouri was that of a native of that part of the country, who skinned a coon, or rather removed the coon from the skin through its mouth, thus preserving the skin intact, which I brought home with me and nin having it mounted by a taxidermist. The feat I considered a most remarkable one. This is no fish story; it is the truth. The operator removed the tiesh and bones, even the hones of the tail, feet and fin gers. through the mouth, using no other instrument than a sharp penknife.—ln terview in St. Louis Globe-Democrat. Behind the Times. We fear that Dr. Stevens, of Philadel phia, lias been imposed upon. He tells us that he has discovered the location of the human soul; that it is situated iu the corpus oallosum. We are con strained to think the doctor has been ex ploring in some old-fashioned cadaver, for we are assured by many authorities in the social world that it is no longer deemed good form to wear souls in the corpus callosum. Indeed, the most fashionable people, we are told, have discarded tbs practice of wearing souls at all; it is bothersome to look after a soul and a pug dog at one and the same time. —-Washington Post. i Look iii Your Lingers. Fingers which aro smooth denote a tendency to act upon instinct, impulse or intuition, rather than by reason, cal culation or deduction. Knolty fingers denote u tendency 1" order and arrange ment. People with short fingers are quicker, more impulsive, act more on the spur of the moment than people with long fingers. If the fingers are very short it signifies.cruelty ami want of tact.--PhU:hl -'lphia Record. The Bid Wiu Withdrawn. In Jacksonville, Fla., in the winter of 1848, an auction sale of the personal (state of a deceased planter, comprising jomo seventy or eighty slaves and other "chattels," was held in the public market place. 1 was glad of the opportunity to lee for myself how such things were done On beginning the sale the auc tioneer announced that families would not bo separated, but would be sold in "lots." After a number of "lots" had been duly brought to the block and knocked down to the highest bidder, a bright looking boy was brought forward and plat ed upon thestand. The auctioneer at the same time called an old colored man among the crowd to come up and stand beside the boy. He did so, and the auctioneer then said: "Gentlemen, the old man is this boy's 'atlier; he lives in the West Indies, and \s a free man, lie wants to buy the boy and take him to his home and make him free. He bids §4OO. tyliicli is all the money lie has." The intent of this statement was evi dently to discourage any advance on that bid, and it touched a sympathetic chord in Ids audience. The. crowd watched the proceedings for a minute or two in silence, while the auctioneer dwelt upon the bid of §4OO, and was calling it for the third and last time, when, from the ouiskirts of the crowd, a voice hid "Fifty." Every eye was at once turned in the direction of the bid der, who was a rough, dissipated look ing fellow, a typical slave trader in appearance. The auctioneer paused a moment, looked annoyed, and then re peated his previous statement concern ing the old man, emphasizing the re mark that §4OO was all the money he had. "And now," said he, "I am bid four hundred and fifty." From a dozen voices came the cry: "Withdraw your hid!" The auctioneer awaited the re sult. The bidder growled a surly refusal, saying he "wanted that hoy, t,ud had as good a right to hid as anybody." "Four hundred and fifty," came slowly from the lips of the auctioneer. The shouts of "Withdraw your hid!" were repeated in angry tones on every side "Well," said the bidder. "1 with draw it." The Auctioneer quickly went hack to the original bid. on which he dwelt two or three times, when down went his hammer. "Sold at four hundred. Old man, tho hoy is yours: take him down." The' crowd cheered, and the principal figure in this little drama who, the mo ment before, had been the picture of despair, hurried down from the stand smiling and happy.—New York Sun. Tlie Natives of Seraplt. The population of Sera pit turned out. to see us. The women were a strange contrast to the men in appearance. While the latter were as lean as whip ping posts and uglier than most monkeys, the former —at least those under 20 or so—were plump, solidly built, full bos omed creatures, and there were at least half a dozen in tho crowd before us who might fairly be termed good looking. But tho older members of Hie com munity, tho women especially, almost pass my powers of description to give an idea of their weird ugliness. K. tersely summed them up as "bakoil monkey," but a monkey would at least have had a covering of hair, whereas these dreadful persons had nothing but their very scanty clothing to conceal auy part of tho I. i'.cry integument that was so tight, shrunken over their skeleton bodi : looked so hard and dry lhs6 yon d to hear it crackle when the: !. Their faces seemed JO con sist of skin drawn over a tkuil wil particle of ilesb and looked preci. i. aif some one had tried to make a mask out of old leather, and failing hail thrown it down in disgust and stamped on it. Yet they seemed neither decrepit nor idiotic. The < men carried tin ir complement of arms; one old fellow had girded on the longest and crookedest sword there. He looked like Death with his scythe. A woman, who resembled one of the dried mum mies of blacks found in North Queens land loanituatc.l, was pounding paddy (n a wooden mortar, so i concluded that appearances were dec plivo and that they were not nearly so old -as they looked. Indeed, the Malayan races are not long lived and really old people are very se.irce—such an instance as the late Sultan of Brunei, weo lived to nearly 100, being almost u ilieard of. —lxindon Field.- Chunked tlie llubii.t. In Nordliausen there is a cafe in which mo room is specially reserved for the eahmon belonging to the rank outside. Tho other evening tho large hall of the cafe was hired for a fete, and after supper, when dancing began, those fathers and mothers who had brought their babies with them found that the latter interfered with their enjoyment. The perambulators containing the sleep ing infants were accordingly pushed into the adjoining cabmen's room to be out of the way. * Tho cabmen, angry at the infantile invasion, remonstrated, hut, as no notice was taken of their objections, they hit upon a plan of revenge. Wait ing till the pleasure seekers were com pletely engrossed with their dancing, they secretly changed the babies When the fete was over, the parents came, looked out their own perambulators, and wheeled them home; but found, to their horror ahd amazement, when they lifted i i.t the occupants, that they had got tho wrong babies.—Court Circular. Comfort for tho rati.on "Arc you feeling better this morning, Unete Henry?" "Yes, Angie. dear." "You'll soon lie well now, won't you, Uncle Henry?" "I don't know, dear; 1 may never g.-t up again; Uncle Henry is a very sick man." "Oh. yes, } know; hut you 11 soon get well. I heard the doctor tell pa this morning that all the doctors in America couldn't kill us mean o man as you." (Uncle Henry rallies and is well enough the next time the doctor calls to get his head under the sofa and maul him till the police break into the rnonx The diagnosis, was cor cot.) —Burdette in Brooklyn E.i :10.