PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY IN MUSSER'S BUILDINa Corner nf Mnln nnd Ponn Bt*. n SI.OO TER AUfUM, TC ADVANCE; Or $1.85 if not p*id in adrjinco. Acceptable Corrcspcsflettca Solicited. t3f*Adilrw* nil letters lo " MILLHEIM JOURNAL." The Skein We Wind. If yon and I, to-day Shoo Id stop and lay Our life work down, and let onr hands fall where they will— Fall down to lie quite still— And if eome other hand should come and stoop to find The threads we carried, so that it could wind ( Beginning where we stopped; if it should come to keep Our lilework poing, seek To carry out the good design, Distinctively made yours or mine, What would it find? Some work we must be doing, true or false; Some threads we wind; some purpose so exalts Itself that wo look np to it, or down, As to a crown To bow before, and we weave threads Of d lb rent length and thickness— -some mere shreds— And wind them round Till all the skein of hie is liound, Sometimes forgetting all the time To ask Hie value ot the threads, or ohoo e Strong stuff to use. No hand hut winds some thread; It cannot stand quite still till it is dead But what it spins and winds a little skein. God made each hand fur work—not toil-stain D required, but every hand Spins, though but ropes of send. It love should come, Stooping ahove w hen we are done To find blight til ends That we have hel f, that it may spin them longer—find but shreds That break when touched —how cold, Sad, shive ing. portionless, the hand will hold The bi\ ken shreds, and know Fresh cause for more. HIRAM'S VISIT. "Going to git married, be yon, Iliram?" Hiram Iloneydew colored at the ab rupt question, but he answered, truth, fully: "1 don't see what else I kin do, Aunt Peggy. Sister Susan is bent on a-marryiu' the school-teacher an' a-goin' off to the Black Hills or som'eres away out of all creation. An' here's all the fall work a-comin' on—that medder hay to stack, an' corn to cut, pumkins to gether an' all them wind falls an' Siberian crabs to make up in cider fur the apple-butter, an' no help to be got fur love or money. An' it stands to reason I can't tend the farm and cook the vittles, too. So I thought soon as thrashin' was over—you've promised to stay till then. Aunt Peggy —an' then I thought I'd go round som'eres nigh about Clover Creek where some of our kinfolks live, an' stay a week or so, an' git a—a—some body that can housekeep an' the like— do the milkin' an' churnin', 'tend to puttin' up fruit, makin' apple-butter, take kecr of the chickens an' ducks, an' do the cookin' an' cleanin'. Sister Susan was a powerful good housekeep er, an' she couldn't be beat a-cookin', either. If I could linda good sort of a woman that 'ud cook ekal to Susan, I wouldn't mind a-marryin' her." "Humph!- So you expect to git a wife an' a good one, too, in a week or two, hey? You're a gunip, Ilirarn Iloneydew, an' nothin' else. Besides, you'd ought to git aw ife you could keer fur, as well as a good housekeep. er. Housekeepin' an' cookin' ain't everything, I tell you. There's sech a thing as alfeckshin between man and wife." But Hiram scouted at this idea. "One woman is the same as another to me," he returned, loftily. "I want a housekeeper, an' that's why I'm a-goin' to marry at all." "Wal then, Iliram, if you're bound an' determined to go an' hunt up a wife that a-way,raebbe I kin help you a little. I know ? ed the folks about Clover Creek like a book when yer Uncle Eli was alive, an' we lived on the old Honeydew farm. An' thar was Mahala Nutter. She married Job Perky, an' they bought a farm on Clover Hill, t'other side the creek- There wan't nobody could beat Mahala a housekeepin' them days, an' most likely her darter, Marthy Jane, hes tuck after her. They are sort o' kin folks o' yourn, too. Mahaly was yer Uncle Eli's own cousin. An' ef you like, I'll wTite 'em a feAV lines, an' telj 'em you're a-comin, an' sort o' perpare 'em, fur nobody likes to hev comp'ny unexpected." And so it was settled, much to Hiram's relief, and he whetted his scythe and went out to mow a feed of green clover for his horses with a lighter heart than he had had for a week. For he had made up his mind that if Martha Jane Perky was as good a housekeeper as Aunt Peggy said, he would bring her home with him as Mrs. Honeydew in a week's time, if she was willing. And no doubt she would be, for Hiram was quite a good-looking tnan ( with pleasant brown eyes, curly brown hair, and a thick, brow T n moustache. Moreover he was "well-to-do," and almost any of the girls in his own ■neighborhood would have jumped at the JlUlhciiH Journal DETNINTIFR Cr. TIITIYHI.T.FR, I dilors and Propriclorp VOL. LV! !. the chance of presiding over his broad acres and picturesque cottage farm" house, half buried in sugar-maples and tall Lollard poplar-trees. But to Hiram, as to most others, distance lent enchantment to the view, and he was "bound and determined, as Aunt Peggy had said, to seek his fate in some of the wide old farm-houses dotting the fertile borders of Clover Creek. ****** "He'll be a mighty good ketch fur you an' no mistake, Marthy Jane," I commented Mrs. Perky, when Aunt Peggy's letter had been duly received ;unl read. "A mighty good ketch, an* you must do your best to ketch hiin # 'Tain't oft in a gal has seeh a chance throwed at her head, an' if you've got a mite o' pluck about you, you won't let them stuck-up Briggses git ahead of you. Delilah Briggs would give her ears to git ahead of you, I'll bet a button!" To which bit of logic Martha Jane assented, with a toss of her head, and 1 the assurance that Delilah Briggs, nor no one else, wasn't a-goin' to git ahead I of her. Consequently, when farmer Perky drove his gray team to the gate, with Iliram Iloneydew on the seat beside him, the necessary preparations had al ready been made—floors scoured, baking done, and a substantial country dinner, with a dessert of apple-dump, lings and sweet-cream sam e, ready to be served. While Martha Jane, in a pink plaid frock, with lluted ruffles, stood waiting to welcome the expected guest. "She's mortal humlv," thought Hiram, as he sat smoking, after din ner. on the porch, and mentally review, ing Martha Jane's narrow forehead hard black eyes and high-colored cheeks. "But, then, I ain't a-!ookin' out fur beauty, an' if she s . me other ways, I reekin 'tain't no great matter how she looks. A girl with them kind of eyes an' a mahogany colored skin kin do the chores an make butter, an' sech, as good as if she had blue eyes an' goldy-lookin' hair like that girl they call Ilitty, that brought In the dumplin's an' passed round the dip lur "em at dinner to-day. She's the hired girl, I reekin. 'T any rate I ain't got time to hunt round much, an' i reekin Marthy Jane won' mind changin' her name to Honeydew O v afore long, an' I've got to hurry up I ain't got no time to waste a-'ourtin". I reekin if nothin' happens we kin be married in a week, an' git back home. I don't like to stay here a-settin' round doin' nothin', with all the fall work a-gittin' behind at the farm." ****** "Oh, dear!" Down through the long grass and crimson clover-bobs, under scrubby haws and tall persimmon trees, wont Ilitty Mavis, a dcep-capcd sun bonnet shading her violet eyes and tangled yellow curls. She was after the cows, standing knee-deep in the tall aftermath, where they had been turned for pasturage after the meadow hay was cut. "Oh, dear!" sighed Ilitty again, "I'm so tired, and here's the cows to drive home, milking to do, sponge to set for the baking to-morrow, and goodness knows what else, and—Oh!" She started back, with a little scream 9 for seated on the fence, under the shadow of a crimson-leafed sassafras tree, sat Hiram Honeydew, coolly watching her. Ilittv's cheeks turned from pink to scarlet as she met the admiring glances of his frank, brown eyes, and he r heart beat fas er than common. But Ilitty was a sensible girl, so she said, "Good evening, Mr. Honey, dew!" quite coolly, and began driving home the cows. But Hiram sprang down from his perch on the rail fence and followed her. "Let me help you, Miss Ilitty!" he begged. "I ain't used to loalin' around, doin' nothin', like I've been fur some days now; and it'll be a treat to drive home the cows, even." So they walked together through the velvety aftermath, dotted with scarlet butterfly-weed, and crimson-petaled "nigger-heads," the lowing cows filing slowly home, lazily chewing their cuds, and switching their tails at the flies. . Iliram let down the bars, and turn" ed the cows into the yard, while Ilitty brought out the milk-pails from under a bunch of burdock-leaves, where she had left them. And somehow, in spite of the milk ing and setting the sponge, and doing up the chores, Hitty's heart beat more lightly than it had for many a day. And instead of one week Iliram Iloneydew stayed two, but still Martha Jane had not been invited to change her name. "She's a mighty good housekeeper," thought Hiram, meditatively. "If little Ilitty could only cook an' house- MILEIIEIM, l'A., THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1883. keep as good as her. I—don't— know—" He ended by building a castle In the air, wherein Hitty Mavis, with her vi< let cy a*,and"goldy"colored hair, was th chief flgurA ****** "Ilitty Mavis!" Martha .lane's hard, black eyes look ed harder than ever, and her sharp features seemed sharper still as she bounced wrathfully into the kitchen where Hitty sat slicing a b >wl ol yellow Crawford poaches for supper. "You kin pack up your dials and go! You a-settin' up to ketch a beau, as if Iliram Iloneydew would look at you." "I—Martha Jane, what on earth do you mean?" Hitty's eyes expanded, and the pink in her cheeks deepened to a glowing scarlet. "You know well enough what 1 mean!" sneered Martha. "You needn't to look so innerceut, like butter wouldn't melt in your mouth, an'you a-strainin' every nerve to ketch Iliram Iloneydew—a-cajolin' him to help you milk, an' drive up the cows, an' the like. It's jest like your owdacious doin's, an' you kin pack up an' leave right away, too!" "But 1 don't know whereto go!" Hitty's heart beat like a frightened robin's at the thought of being driven friendless into the world, but Martha Jane was implacable. "It's nothin' to me where you go, so you leave here," she sniffed, as she flounced angrily away. "Go with me, Hitty!*' said a tender voice; and Hiram Honeydew stepped suddenly into the little kitchen. "Go with mo, Hitty, and be my wife." Hitty's checks grew redder than before, but she did not draw away from his offered embrace. "Not gone yet?" cried a shrill voice, as tho door was jerked viciously open. "Didn't I tell you to pack lip - Oh, Mr. Iloneydew, you here? Come and have fea— we're a-waitin* fur you." "Excuse me!" was the cold reply. "1 shall just have time to take my wife—that is to be—over to the par. sonage. AN" i l l you come to the wed. ding?" But, with a scornful sniff and toss of her hea 1, Martha Jane flounced oIT again. ****** "An' so you didn't marry Mahala's darter, after all!" cried Aunt Peggy, who was waiting to receive them. "N-no!" stammered Hiram. Ilitty kin learn to keep house, 1 reekin—" "Learn?" cried Hitty. "Why, 1 did all the housekeeping at Aunt Mahala's. She is my aunt, though they wouldn't let ine call her so. Marthy Jane never did a lick of work in her life." And so Hiram Iloneydew got a wife and a housekeeper all in one, after all. Harvesting Throughout the World. That the harvest of the world, or the reaping of the cereal crops on the earth, takes place in different periods, on account of the different latitudes and consequent different seasons, is a well known fact; that these periods embrace altogether more than three fourths of the year might not be known. In Australia, New Zealand, the greater part of Chili, and some dis tricts of Argentine Republic, the liar vest takes place in January; in the month of February it commences in East India, and progressing toward the north, terminates in March—Mexico Egypt, Persia and Syria harvest in April; the north Asia Minor, China, Japan, Tunis, Algeria, Morocco, and Texas in May. The following coun tries reap their harvests in June: Cali fornia, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece and the l uth of France. In the other parts of France, in Austro-Hunga rv, the south of Russia, and the great er part of the United States the crop is gathered in July. In the month of August the following countries har vest: Belgium, Germany, England, the Netherlands, and Denmark; in Sep tember, Scotland, Sweden, Norway Canada, the north of Russia, the latter continuing until in October. A Hen Hatches Snakes. On the farm of George Logan, near Lebanon, in the county of Warren, Ohio, a hen has long evinced an ardent desire to become a mother, by persis tent efforts to hatch door-knobs and anything else that bore tho remotest resemblance to an egg, that her owner finally had pity on her, and placed in her favorite barrel fourteen curious eggs that lie had discovered in turning a furrow. Then he went off to camp meeting and thought no more about the matter until his return, when ho was amazed to find that the hen had hatched into this wicked world four teen little snakes for which she was caring with the utmost affection and solicitude and from which she received constant demonstrations of filial affec. tion. Next. A PAPER FOR THE HOME CIRCIF. THE T A I'll AMONtt MAORIS. Wffjdng nnd I !tliaer*a—OruKa wriui Can nlbnltam. The Maoris are a people who not only weep in church at the pathetic passages, but laugh uproariously at anything in lessons or sermon that tickles their fancy. Mr. Hay has seen a church full of them waving their arms, stamping their feet, grinding their teeth with rage, w hen (he treach ery of Judas was being related. To such people Christianity cauie as a new form of tapu (taboo). They are ready for any number of Vites and ceremonies, and it was only w hen they began to read for themselves, and to contrast the teachings of the Book with the conduct of the land-grabbing pakehas round them; when, moreover, their implicit faith in the missionary had been weak ened by the coming in of rival faiths, each claiming to be the only true way, that they got to be eclectic, giving up the New Testament, in its practical portions, and sticking by the Old.b -e! cause it allowed polygamy and rovengft 'and strictly forbade the alienation of I land. This tapu had many uses. A river j was tapu at certain seasons, so as to 1 give a dose time for iish; a wood was tapu when birds were nesting, fruit ripening, or rats (delicacies in the old Maori cuisine) multiplying. To tapu a garden answered -till Captain Cook brought in pigs -far better than the strongest fence. A girl, tapued, would he as safe amid tho wild license of unmarried Maori life as if she had been in a nunnery. Tapu was proba bly never intentionally broken, so weird \ was tho horror which surrounded it 1 But in this ea e 'sinning in ignorance was no excuse; and tho most furious wars were those which arose from breaking it. The sign of tapu was easily set up—a bunch of flax or hair, a bono, a rag on a carved stick, that was enough. To lift it was much harder, needing the intervention of the tohunga (priest), who, by muttering incarnations, and, above all, by making the tabooed man eat a sweet potato (kumora) charmed it away. Mau\ a massacre of whites was due to an unwitting infringement of tho tapu. The historic massacre of Du Fresno and his crew was brought about ! by a deliberate breach of tapu; and I such outrages on native feeling were so dangerous that Governor Ma (plane, of Sydney, in lSl'l, tried to make every skipper in the New Zealand trade sign a bond fur £looonot to ill-treat Maoris, not to break tapu, not to trespass on burial grounds, not to kidnap men or women. His efforts were fruitless. Maoris were line, sturdy fellows, and though there was, as yet, no Kanaka labor market in Queensland, no Queens land at all in fact, a ship that was short-handed was very glad to get some of them on board by any kind of device The worst thing connected with the | carrying off of native women was that the poor creatures weie generally put I ashore in some other part of the islands | —i. c., among enemies. There slavery or worse, was sure to he their fate, j Another cause for bloody reprisals was the treatment cf the men who were taken on board. "I'm a chief," said one, who was being driven bv a rope's end, when incapable through seasick ness, to some menial work. "You a chief!" scoflinglv replied the master of the Boyd, for that was the name of the ill-fated ship. "When you come to my country you'll find I'm a chief,' was the reply. The Boyd happened to sail into the harbor of Whargaron. the i very place to which the flogged chief i belonged. He showed his tribesmen , his scored back, and they vowed ven geance, for even a blow to a chief is an insult that can only he wiped out with blood. The captain and part of the crew, leaving some fifty souls in the ship, went ashore to select tim ber. The Maoris waylaid and mur dered them, dressing themselves in their victim's clothes, went at dusk to the ship, climbed on board, and killed every one except a woman, her child ren, and a boy who had been kind to the chief during his distress. The vessel was plundered, and the chief's | father, delighted at securing some fire arms, snapped a musket over an opsn barrel of powder and was blown to pieces with a dozen of his men. Tapu was successfully broken by the early missionaries in the Bay of Islands. One of their settlements was up the Kerikeri riv.er, tho tapu of which for lish during the close months was very vexatious to them, for it blocked up their only road to Te Puna the h°ad station. Stores must be had; and at last, in defiance of tapu, they manned a boat and rowed down, amid the rage and terror of the Maoris, who expected to see them exterminated by the offended atua (spirits). When the mission boat came back it was seized, and the crew bound ready to be slain and eaten. Happily, to eat the stores seemed the proper way of begin ning, and those stores were partly tin ned-meat, jams, etc., and partly drugs Having greedily devoured the former, (he plunderers duly fell upon the latter, finishing off the jalap, castor-oil, and so forth, as part of the ceremony. The result may be guessed. The "inana" of the missionaries began to work mightily, and with grovelling supplicut ons the anguished Maoris re leasod their prisoners and sought re lief. The whole tribe was converted. How could (hoy help it? Had not the gods of the stranger proved their superior might by utterly disabling those who had stood forth as the avengers of their own insulted deities? Wonderful Precocity. Oliver Madox Brown, a son of the well-known artist, was born in 1855. He seems to have been a precocious child, though lils precosity never took ( tiie form of book-learning in any shape, and it was not till he was six that he began to read. Hut if backward with I)is books he was a born artist, with pencil and paint-brush first, as after, ward with his pen. When he was ! eight he had completed his first picture in water-colors, and w hen he was four teen he exhibited "Chiron deceiving the Infant Jason from the Slave" at the Dudley gallery. He painted three other notable pictures: "Obstinacy," *'Prospero and Miranda" and "Silas : Maimer." Hut Oliver Madox Brown ' was beginning to show himself as an artist in the world of letters. Before ! he was fourteen he had written some ! sonnets of singular beautv, and at sev enteen he had written a tide called "The Black Swan," which was lirst given to the world as "Gabriel Den \er." The historv of this book is * rather curious. Oliver had shown it to Mr. Williams, who was connected with the lirra of Siincn, lUder & Co., and Mr. Williams had been much im pressed with it and was anxious to as sist in its publication. Nothing could have been kinder, but nothing less ju dicious, than .Mr. Williams's conduct' He lirst insisted on the singularly pic | turesque name of "The Black Swan" til ing altered into the very unmeaning one of "Gabriel Denver." He then in ; sisted on the beginning of the story being altered; on a deserted wife being changed, on grounds of propriety, into a deserted cousin, and on the terrible tragedy at the end becoming a com fortable marriage—in short, with the best intentions, lie did everything pos sible to spoil the book. He watered it and toned it down, but the strange, tierce power of the plot and the vigor of the writing still remained. It was greatly injured as a work of art, but as a work of imagination it was a re markable production. It was not, how ever—it could never be—an agreeable book. It was too crude and violent. Some of the scenes were simply horri ble, and some of the incidental re_ marks seemed to show a strange know], edge which repelled sympathy. But when it was known that this was the work of a mere boy the feeling of dis like passed off into a stronger feeling of wonder and admiration. What was painful and repulsive was the fault of an unfortunate story. The essential matter was the literary power, which might prove itself equal to very great efforts and might produce works of lasting value. Stock Speculation in Japan. The Japanese government forbids stock speculating, and the authorities recently determined to arrest at tho same moment all offenders on the stock exchanges at Osaka, Yokohama anil Kobe, as well as on the rice exchanges at Tokio and some other important centers. The police received their or. dors only on the morning of the day fixed, and in strong force, all wearing some sort of disguise, proceeded to the vicinity of the exchanges and mingled with the crowd so as to escape obser. vation. At a little after 11 o'clock all was in readiness, a sign was given, and before the amazed spectators could make out what was going on the ex changes were in possession of the po. lice, the doors locked and the prisoners secured. All the books, papers, etc., were then taken possession of, and the police's whole "haul" removed to the central police station. Over 700 de linquents were sent to prison, their offense being "speculating in margins.'' The Strongest Electric Light. The strongest single light that burns in the United States is suspended in front of the Philadelphia Record build ing, ninety-live feet above the Chest nut street sidewalk. Its power is equal to 10,000 candles. At night the entire bloek between Ninth and Tenth streets, is made so light that under the powerful rays of the lamp a person standing anywhere within these limits can read editorial print with ease. Tcrmf, SIOO For Year in Advance. SCIENTIFIC SCRAPS. Mosquitoes are accused by Professo* A. P. A. King of originating and dis Beminating malarial disease. By a comparison of analyses of soils from different vineyards, the last re port of the Scottish Horticultural asso ciation shows that the soils on which the grape-crops fail are delicient in Siino and potash. Professor Dclgudo of Lisbon has come to the conclusion that the ances tors of the modern Portuguese were canihals. He has found the remains of 140 persons urhosi hoiiAi were blackened by lire split lengthwise to secure the marrow and hearing other indubitable marks of having served as food for man. The deepest sounding evrx' Natlnes *3.50. TnvnSlont jul vert * . laculit 10 i-onlß ix'r lino for l>r*< twrlion *nd ft cants JM*r lu't for aach additional inaorllou. NO. 38. Loveliness. )nci I kiiesr a little girl, Very plain; ro;i might tiy her hair to cnrl, All in vain; On hor cheek no tint of rose Puled and blushed, or sought rcpoee; She was plain. Hut the thoughts that through her brain Catne and went, As a recompense for pain, Angels sent; So full inany a beauteous thing, In her young soul blossoming, Gave content. Every thought was full of grace, Pure and true; And in time the homely face leveller grew With a heavenly radiance bright, Prom the soul's reflected light Shining through. So I 101 l yon, little child, Plain or poor, II your thoughts are undefilod. You uVe sure Of the loveliness o! worth; And this beauty not of earth Will endure. HUMOROUS. Green corn—a young bunion, i High-toned—The screech of an eagle. When does a tree feel contented? When its sappy. The only difference between one yard and two is a fence. Just so long as woman retains her maiden name, her maiden aim is to change it. "Emile," asked the teacher, "which animal attaches himself most to man?" Emile, after some reflection—"The leech, sir." The tailor's apprentice, when com mencing his trade, finds there is truth in the text that "What a man sews he shall also rip." Simpson says that when he asked the girl who is now his wife to marry him she said, "I don't mind," and she | never has minded. A Lowell man had his head frac tured by a bath tub falling upon him. This will teach him hereafter not to fool around a contrivance that he is not familiar with. "Yes," said tiie father, "I like to have my daughter have a beau on the 6core of economy. If she didn't, some one of the family would occupy the parlor and burn the gas." A young man who went into the kitchen, where he saw his girl and inadvertently sat down on a hot pie just from the oven, now boasts that he "descended from the upper crust." "What are you going to do when you grow up if you don't know how to cipher ?" asked a teacher of a slow boy. "I'm going to be a school teach er and make the boys do the cipher ing," was the reply. The Popular Science Monthly ask: "What are crowds?" It is not quite certain how science will handle this question, but the average common sense educated man knows that under some circumstances three is consid ered a crowd. Sending Their Dead Back to China. Wong Foo, the editor of the Chinese American, published in New ex. plains why Chinamen wish to be buried in their own country. He says: "If any one going back to the old country has dead friends here he takes them along. I do not believe that more than five per cent, of the China, men who die in the United States are permanently buried here. Friendless Celestials are left here, and no one cares whether they go to heaven or not." "Cannot one of your race get into Paradise unless his bones rest in Chinese soil?" "No, sir; Chinamen believe that the only road to heaven lies through their country." "But if a good, virtuous Chinaman who has kept his pigtail and his conscience in tact dies in a strange land, will he be excluded from heaven because he is poor and friendless?" "That's the doctrine," said Mr. Wong. "Accord ing to Christians, no man can be saved except through a certain belief, no matter how good he is; according to Chinamen, there is no salvation outside of China. One belief is about as rational as the other." "When you dig up the remains of your countrymen do you have any services at the grave?" "We burn a little incense-paper, maybe, and take a drink, just as Americans do on all occasions." "What does the drink signify ?" "It's what you would call a toast. We drink peace to the soul of the departed, and a prosperous journey to the body. We use any liquor that comes handy. Sometimes tea, or whisky, or in extreme cases, water." "How are the bodies pre pared for shipment ?" "They are em balmed if they are fresh enough. If not, the meat is scraped off and the jjones only are carried away."