Be DEFERRED HOPES. One year ago, on budding bough The robin gaily singing. The laughing stream, the budding flowers, The fine green grass blades springing, Found me with sorrow as my guest, And Fear and Pain attendant ; I had but tears wherewith to greet Spring, and his train resplendent. as she closer came, ¢ To me with lips all sm I could but lend a willi To accents so beguili “Fear to ignoble souls “Come, let us laugh at tr Another year thy hopes shall Fulfilled in measure double.” Ah me! Ti As then the As then the ro From budding bough i And Spring! I hear he In far-off cadence trilli Her light foot Faintly my du ous voice rkened door . Hing. But still grim Sorrow is my guest, And doubt and Fear attending Proffer the bitter br ing cup Of pain and care unending. Then here's to thee, thou c Thou dear, familiar Sorrow ! This tear-wet bread together share To-day and e’en to-morrow. 1stant friend ! And after that, the bitter end, And then—the rest eternal ! © God, forgive the weary soul That asks no joy supernal ; That only craves surcease of pain, And fret, and strife, and wee That only longs for folded har Closed eyes and dreamless sleeping. Julia Schayes. RECOMPENSE, Straight through my heart this fact to-day, By Truth’s own hand is driven, God never takes one thing away But something else is given. I did not know in earlier years This law of love and kindness : But without hope through bitter tears I mourned in sorrow’s blindness. And ever following each regret For some departed treasure, My sad, repining heart was met With unexpected pleasure. I thought it only happened so— But time this truth has taught me ; No least thing from my life can go But something else is brought me. It is the law, complete, sublime, And now with faith unshaken, In patience I but bide my time, When any joy is taken. No matter if the crushing blow May for the moment down me ; Still back of it waits Love, I know, With some new gift to crown me. —Ella Wheeler Wilcox. HANGED ABOARD SHIP, Fat of a Mutinous Son of [44 St cretary of War. “ “To hang from the yardarm !" “How well I remember that dread sentence | I heard it pronounced on the first day of the winter of 1843. I was a boy then in the United States Navy, and the impressions those words and the scene which followed made upon me have never faded from my memory.” Thus spoke John WW. Davis, a vet- eran of the late war, as le tapped his club on the pavement and talked about his early life as a sailor. © He wasa policeman in Washington then, but since those days has become an inven- tor and spends much of his time abroad. His whole life has been a romance that mn intensity of action and occurrence ontrivals the wildest freaks of the imagination. I met him not long ago, looking older and more serious than when he was a conserva- tor of the peace at the national capi- tal. He is a man of much intelligence and recalled again in an interesting way the death sentence which was so indelibly photographed on his mind, and continued his story : “About one hundred miles trom St. Thomas, the Somers, of the United States Navy, ‘lay to’ on the afternoon of December 1, 1842. There was in- tense excitement on board. The offi- cers paced the deck doubly armed and with anxious looks upon their faces. The crew went about their duties sul lenly, speaking to each other only under their breath. Three men were to be hanged to the yardarm, and nreparations for the execution were be- ing rapidly made. The death penalty on the high seas on an American man- of-war has seldom been pronounced in the history of our navy. But the most notable and dramatic case of capital punishment ever on its records was made up that afternoon and evening. “The vessel had left New York on the 13th of September of that year for the southern coast of Africa. It had been cruising for nearly three months in the West Tudia waters on the look- out for slave traders. The ship was in charge of Commander McKenzie, who had the reputation of being a brutal martinet, and who was exceedingly un- opular with nearly every soul on iy In those days whippiny was allowed in the navy, and McKenzie delighted in having the cat o’-nine-tails vigorously apphed for the most trivial offense. * “For more than two months we had cruised about without an adventure to disturb the quiet routine of life ‘aboard ship.” One day late in November Midshipman Spencer was seized, dou- bly ironed and sent into the: hold. There was not even a hint of the causes which led to the arrest, and all sorts of rumors flew thick and fast among the crew as to what was going on and what was likely to happen to him. “Young Spencer was a fine-looking, good-hearted, jovial, dare-devil sort of a young fellow, with good impulses, but a mischievous temperament. There was not a malicious bone in his body. He was the son of John C. Spencer, the Secretary of War at that moment in Tyler's cabinet. His father was a man of great ability and influence. He had occupied many im- portant positions in the State of New York, and had been on the frontier in the war of 1812, In [816 he served in Congress, and was one of the Dem- ocratic leaders in that body for two i turbed crew. the affairs of the United States bank, then one of the most important mat- ters before the National legislature. He was a very popular and important citizen before he was called into the Tyler cabinet. The summary arrest of the son of a cabinet officer, and a very distinguished and powerful one at that, only added to the general con- sternation that bung like a pall over the crew as soon as he was placed in irons. Later in the day a man named Small, captain of the maintop, and another named Cromwell, who was acting as boatswain, were arrested, doubly ironed and sent below. The next day four other sailors shared a similar fate. Then it became noised ed for mutiny, and would soon be hanged from the yardarm. “Naturally there was great excite- ment on board. The officers cast sus- picious glances at the nervous and dis- 1 The sailors avoided each other as they went about their duties and spoke only in whispers, and then only when unseen by the alert, suspi- cious officers of the day. “Three days of this wearing sus- pense continued, during which both officers and men were restless and ex- cited. On the afternoon of the third day anumber of the officers met in the wardroom as a court to try these men for their lives, the men charged with mutiny. The trial was a farce. They simply called in a numberof the ship's crew and examined them as to their knowledge of a conspiracy to seize the vessel. Their statements and even their opinions were taken down, and all sorts of rumors and theories were made togweigh in the balance agaist the accused men. Neither Midship- man Spencer nor any one of the pri oners was permitted to face his accus- ers, Neither were they informed of the charges against them in detail nor were they granted an opportunity for statement or explanation. The offi- cers were apparently so frightened that they neglected every legal form and simply accepted anything they could get against the accused as testimony, whether it was rumor, statement or opinion of any kind. I was too young to be called as a witness, but I kept my eyes and ears open and no phase of the tragic event escaped me. “The purser’s steward was the chief witness against Spencer and his com- panions. He had caused their arrest by informing Lieutenant McIntosh, our executive officer, of the conspiracy. Spencer, he declared, approached him on the subject of seizing the ship. For a time he pretended sympathy with the intended mutiny and claimed to have secured a fuil list of the men en- gaged in the movement. He declared it to be their intention to seize the ves- sel, turn it into a piratical craft, fly the black flag and rob all the mer- chantmen they could run down. The steward’s statement was the only basis for the arrests and trial, and on his statement were built the wildest fan- cies from some members of the crew. The trial naturally ended in a ver- dict of guilty, and the awful sentence, “Death at the yardarm,” was commu- nicated not only to the prisoners but to the men, few, if any, of whom believed it just. “On the Ist day of December, four days after the first arrest, three ot the accused received th: summons, “Pre- pare for death,” followed by the order, “All hands on deck to witness the ex- ecution,” “While this order was being obeyed a dramatic scene was going on below. Midshipman Spencer, with the air of perfect composure, was telling the Cap- tain of the plan he had formed to seize the vessel. He denied the statement that he intended turning it into a pi- ratical craft, but acknowledged that for certain acts of cruelty committed by the commander, he had intended to take the ship and return to the United States. Small, the captain of the maintop, also made practically the same confession, but Cromwell protest- ed his entire innocence of any part of the scheme. Both Spencer and Small also assured the officers that Cromwell had nothing whatever to do with it. The tribunal refused to revise their the men were brought on deck for exe- cution. The crew were already assem- bled and swod about with blanched cheeks and sullen looks. Old tars who did not know what fear was al- most broke down during the solemn scene then passing before them. “The signal for death was to be the firing of a gun, and the condemned men were not kept waiting long for the final moment. All three bore up man- fully under the terrible ordeal of prep- aration, and died game. They were allowed to bid their friends a hasty goodby, and as they went about their last earthly pleasure it was plain to see on the faces of every one the uni- versal opinion that a great crime was about to be committed. The vessel ‘lay to,” while all hands, breathlessly, and in many cases tearfully, awaited the final signal. There was very little eeremony in preparing them for death. Caps were drawn over the faces of the doomed men, and late in the atternoon, on one of those hazy days so common in a tropical climate, the boom of a cannon from the ship's prow rolled out over the water and the three men were swung from the yardarm and strangled to death. “Tt was a horrible sight ! “I shall never forget it. The scene often comes back to me and the im- pressions it made on my boyish mind can never leave me. The look on the faces of the crew at the moment of death or the temper they displayed in the days following the execution will never vanish from my mind. Before, at the time and after the terrible pen- alty had been inflicted, the officers walled the deck doubly armed and with sharpened cutlasses in hand ready to cut down any one who ex- pressed an opinion adverse to the inhu- man work of the day. The bodies were allowed to hang for some time, and while they were swinging to and years, drawing the committee report on ' fro Commander McKenzie made a about that these men had been arrest- | judgment, however, and all three of spread eagle speech to us about the ne- cessity of rigid discipline and the ter- rors of the crime of mutiny. His re- marks had uo other effect than to in- crease the hatred of the men toward him. No officer on land or sea was ever more thoroughly despised. “After atime the bodies were cut down and hastily prepared for burial. | No one who has never witnessed a funeral at sea can have any concep- tion of its awful solemnity. It is sad enough when looked upon in the sun- light, but at night it is ghastly solemn, and nearly all sailors are superstitious about dropping dead bodies overboard after dark. Commander McKenzie, as if to add to the terrors of the day and still further menace the crew, decreed that the burial services should take place at night. The bodies were shrouded, placed upon the tilting board and all the preparations care- fully made for the last scene. The services for the dead were read by the flickering light of the battle lanterns and a deathlike stillness hung like a pall over the ship. At a gtven signal the three bodies were droppe | into the sea as the Somers headed towards St. Thomas, as if to leave behind as quickly as possible the scene of a hid- eous tragedy. “In all my lifeI never witnessed so solemn an affair. It often passes be- fore me and I see the execution and burial of these men in my dreams. I have traveled nearly all over the world and have seen a great many sad sights but of all the scenes that was ever set by the brutal t lents of men to wring the heart strings this death and burial of young Spencer and his companions was the most agonizing. “A day or two afterward we ran in- to St. Thomas, and all of us breathed a sigh of relief. Almost immediately we set sail for New York and arrived there on the 14th of December. As soon as the news of the mutiny and the execution was given out there was great excitement all over the country, and hundreds of people flocked to the docks to get a sight of the vessel which had but just had such a fateful experi- ence. The execution of Spencer and the other two men aroused a great deal of indignation, and his father, with bitter in denunciation of the cruel act. It was then held, and still is, by those who were on the ship that the men should have been brought back to the United States as prisoners and properly tried. Full opportunity for defence and explanation should have been given them, and the indecent haste with which they were hanged was one of the worst features of the whole affair. “The feeling against McKenzie in political circles was very bitter. A court of inquiry was called for and then a court martial was ordered for his trial. It was composed of his brother officers, who evidently felt the necessity of standing by their comrade in so important a matter of discipline. After sitting for forty days in trying the charges against him he was ac- quitted. The friends of Mr. Spencer then endeavored to have him tried for murder in the courts of New York, but the judge decided that the civil law could not reach the case. McKenzie, I believe, afterward met a violent death. At any rate he never got over the odium of having hanged these men. “In looking back over these events [ have not revised my temper of that day and I do not believe any man who witnessed the execution has. My opinion is that the hanging of those men was nothing more nor less than murder." —New York Herald. Fired Him Out, The Shamokin Dispatch of the 5th inst. records the following: “There was quite a surprise party on Spurz- heim street last evening, and a small sized man came out suddenly through a door helped by another man's foot. A certain conductor, who is employed on the Reading road, has a very pretty little wife, real plump and cute, and this fact 1s known to another conductor on the same road, and it seems that No. 2 has been quietly dropping in and spending the evening with the plump lit- tle wife, while her husband was out on the road. Last evening her hubby, as usual, was out on the road, and con- ductor No. 2 thought he would call. He did so, but in some manner hubby got home very unexpectedly and com- ing into the house suddenly he saw his little wife real close to the condue- tor and the conductor's arm around her waist. As was to be expected there was a row at once and it kept getting warmer and warmer until the husband, who was the bigger man, grabbed the gay deceiver and fired him out neck and heels. Then silence set- tled down around the house and the shutters were still closed and no signs of life were inside. It is supposed the hours of night were whirled away in argument and sleep came this morning. He Gor Ovr or 11 Prerry Wen! ,— A friend brings a good story from New Orleans at the oxpense of Mrs, Frank Leslie. At one time Mrs, Les- lie was a very beautiful woman; indeed, her charms of today are well preserved, but it is violating no propriety to say she is no longer young, Upon the occasion of a visit to New Orleans, which by the way is her native city, a young Frenchman, who was a reporter on the Times Democrat, was sent to in- terview her. Ile wrotea very brilliant description of the noted lady, and af- ter its publication called to see her. Mrs, Leslie received him graciously and expressed herself as being delight- ed with the article, ‘only,’ she added, ‘why did you say that *Mrs, Leslie is a lady apparently 45 years of age? I'm sure no one would take me for a day over 35." The reporter looked dis- trozsed for a moment. and then a brightidea struck him,when he replied: ‘Oh, Mrs, Leslie, that must have been the fauit of the electric light.’ thousands of others, was exceedingly Plucky Ola Hickory. A Queer Entry on the Records of a Tennessee Court. On the records of the court of Sum ner County, Tenn., for the year 1795 there is thia: “The court thanks Andrew Jackson | for his brave conduct.” There is no information concerning what Mr. Jackson did to deserve thanks in this form, at least at the court in question, says William Hosea Ballon in the New York Herald. “01d Joe Guild,” aprominent lawyer and State character, who died a few year ago, removed from that county to Nashville. He used to relate that when he grew up and became a Jack- son man there were still magistrates living of the 1795 period. Of them he inquired concerning this entry. It seems that the county court had the trial of misdemeanors. A gangof bullies defied the court, juries and sher- if and persisted in terrifying the sur- rounding country. They were indicted by the grand jury, but came into court and declared that they would not be tried, that it was against the laws of nature which governed the conduct of gentlemen and protected them from such undignified prosecution. By the next, term of court Jackson had been chosen district attorney. On his arriv- al he hitched his horse, carried his sad- dlebags into court and placed them beside him while he perused the dock- et. The first thing he did, to the amazement of every one, was to call the cases of the bullies. The entire gang came into court and declined to be tried, repeating their accustomed argu- ment. Mr. Jackson remonstrated and assured them that there was no way to avoid a trial; that the law must be obeyed, no matter whom it hurt; that it was no respecter of persons. The bullies became boisterous and threaten- ing. Instantly Jackson puiled his pistols from his saddlebags and a free fight began in the court-room. The leadership of the young lawyer inspired the people present who were in favor of the enforcement of thelaw, and they joined with Jackson, whipped the entire crowd of bullies, took them into court, where they were tried, convicted and sentenced to the full penalty prescribed by statute. That was the last of the bullies and the occasion of the unex- plained entry on the records of the court of Sumner County for 1795. Samuel B. Morgan, who built the State capitol of Tennessee, died some ten years ago. He had in his posses- sion a merchant's books of account. In these were the purchases of An- drew Jackson for five years after 1790. An examination of books show that the only purchases made by Old Hick- ory of this merchant were powder, lead and whisky. Mr. Morgan used to relate that he once witnessed a cock-ficht shortly at- ter the battle of New Orleans. Jack- son was present, sitting on his horse, while some follows down in the pit awkwardly tried to heel the chicken. Jackson became first uneasy, then mad. He leaped from his horse into the pit, brushed the fellow aside, and heeled the chickens after the most ap- proved fashion. Then he returned to the saddle and witnessed the fight. Jackson was originally a backwoods specimen of the rawest type, but he at once evolved into perhaps the grandest man that everlived, having no equal in the ball-room, no peer in his politeness, courtesy and admiration for women. The same 1s largely true of the Ten- nesseean ofto-day. 'Takehim trom the farm, array him in fashionable clothes, put him in the ball-room or in society and his thoroughbred blood instantly manifests itself, exhibiting in him only the refined man of the world. Jack- son’s letters, which remain, are in many respects more interesting than Wash- ington’s. hey exhibit a man abso- lutely devoted to his family, from whom notjthe smallest thing cone ning them escaped, and whose every interest was his. No man ever wrote in the same spirit, and his social letters are models from which Chesterfield might have learned much in politeness. Nothing escaped him. To show how the men of his time worshiped him the incident re- lated by [Willoughby Williams, “Old Man Willoughby,” of years ago, will suffice. When Lafayette visited Jack- son, in 1825, he rode in a carriage with General Hall, while Jackson was on horseback. Great a man as Lafay- ette was, the people all looked at Jack- son and confined the expressions of ad- miration to him. The duel between Jackson and Sevier seems to have escaped history and bio- graphy. Sevier was Jackson's equal as a soldier, and during his Indian fichts of over a quarter of a century he never lost a battle, hecanse he always charged into the natives when in a body, and the Indian could only fight with a tree in front of him. In 1796 Sevier was the first Governor of Tennessee, and fortwelve years. During his first term Jackson was on the Supreme bench of the State. The two men had difficulty about a military election, both bzine candidates. On the day when Jackson arrived at Knoxville to hold court Se- vier came also, mounted a block in the square, denounced Jackson in unmens- ured terms, calling him all the names in early vocabulary. There could be but one result, and that evening Jack- son challenged him. Sevier accepted, and then came a question as to where the fight should take place. Jackson wanted to fight on the Cherokee reser- vation and Sevier in Virginia. Asa result letters passed between, in which the word coward had the most frequent use, Finally Jackson started for Vip ginia and notifled Sevier, Ile reached Virginia first and remained several days awaiting the arrival of his oppo- ent, Sevier not appearing he started for home, meeting his rival on the way. They met in the road, exchanged several shots, neither one being hur when friends interfered. They neve forgave each other, and there is still a tradition that this was the most dis | out I and literature is graceful episode in the history of the State. ———— T he Difference. Since the sun rose in Eden on that first, perfect being, our much-maligned grandmother Eve, woman has been a mystery to man. Every adjective, with variations, has been employed to extol and condemn her. History bears the inconsistency of her nature built on her moods. (Governments have heen made and re- made by her glances, and kings and princes have sacrified thrones and honors for her caprices. There is no mystery about a man : no changing, varvine lichts and shades, Te is not a spectrum of vivid rainbow hues nor kaleidoscope of bewildering combina tions. He is a plain, simple sort of an animal} one man differing from anoth- er, vet each taking color from but one predominant trait. : In the animal kingdom man is a specialist. He is recognized as an ob- stinate, or cunning, or ambitious, as an indolent, or energetic, or a penuri- ous, or generous man. A woman is all these and more. A man is an in- strument of one string. Learn to play upon that and you own that partienlar music box. A woman isa harpof a thousand strings, and while the master hand may draw forth harmony that beats the music of the spheres, the ~mateur can develop a discordant crash of sound that swallows peace and hope, desire of life, and faith in love at one tremendous gulp. A shrewd, tactful, industrious woman, after one weeks’ opportunity for prac- tice, can find the particular chord which moves the particular man. But men spend whole lives and go down to unsatisfactory graves never having learned to play correctly a solitary bar on that rare instrumen!, a woman.— Washington Post. Appetizing Salads. Nothing is more pleasing to the appe- tite on a warm day than a well-made salad, which, with thinly-sliced bread and butter and cold coffee or tea, forms a most appetizing lunch. An excellent salad is made of cabbage: Chop very fine first, remove the core as if left in it willimpart a bitter taste. Take alump of butter the size of an egg and melt, place in a saucer and mix with it one- half teaspoon cach of mustard and salt and onefourth of a teaspyon of black pepper: when all has been mixed smooth, pourinone cup of vinegar and set it on the stove to boil: when it has boiled up good stir in two eggs weil beaten, stirring it constantly; when cold pour over the chopped cabbage. It is a good plan when making chicken salad to boil the chickens one day and prepare the dressing the next, as the meat can be left to harden and thus produce better salad. Chop the meat of one large fowl, bing careful to re- move all the skin and fat. Add to it the same quantity of white celery chop- ped fine. For the dressing beat togeth- er two tablespoonfuls of melted butter, two teaspoonfuls each of mixed mus- tard and salt, and one teaspoon of white pepper. Beat to a cream and stir in the yolks of eight eges well beaten; set on the fire and when it comes to a hoil add one-cupfnl each of vinegar and sweet cream; after it has pour over the chicken. When ready to serve garnish with celery tops. This dressing may also be used for potatoe salad. Slice cold boiled pota- toes very thin to cover the bottom of a salad bowl, pour over a little of the dressing, then another layer of the po- tatoes and so on til! the bowl is full, If liked a little grated onion and chop- ped parsley may be mixed with the potatoes. cooled The Tras Woman. From an artistic point of view there Is a great diversity of opinion as to what constitutes even physical perfec- tion in women. No two great master- | pieces of sculpture or painting agree on | the outlines, much of beauty. their women above the angels. This is rank nonsense. Some of the old masters kept themselves to facts. Homer's women were strong, vigor- ous and modest. marked individuality. Chaucer, who dwelt with people as hie found them, gives us in the “Pri- oress’ a womanly woman. She is com- posed of flesh aud blood, and as gentle as she is strong, refined and earnest. Shakespeare gives us the greatest variety of women, no two being alike, Ophelia, Juliet and Imogen, Lady Macbeth, Constance and Cleopatra, Por- tia, Beatrice and Rosalind, all as dis- tinct as day snd night, yet each perfect in her way, even in her imperfections. While he paints his characters in strong colors he is the champion of gentleness, tenderness and modesty. To him the true woman was something more than a doll, a plaything, an ornament. [He gives all his women missions in life, and shows how it is possible for all, no matter what their rank and station, to so live and so act that the world will be the better for their having lived, — Pittsburg Gazette, A ————————————— A GLANCE AT THE CAMEL.—A cam- el’s hind legs will reach any where—over his head, round his chest, and on to his hump; even when lying down an evil disposed animal will shoot out his less and bring you to a sitting posture. His neck is of the same pliancy. He ‘will chew the root of his tail, nip you in the culf, or lay the top of his head on his hump. He also bellows and roars at you, whatever you are doing—saddling him, feeding him, mounting him, unsad- dling him. To the uninitiated a camel going for one with his mouth open and gurgling horribly is a terrifying specta- cle; but do not mind him, it is only bis wiy. I heard of one or two men having a leg broken from a kick at various times but it was the exception and not the vale, for a camel is really a very docile inimal, and learns to behave himself in most trying positions with equanimity, through I fear itis only the result of want of brains.—Count Gleichen. less on the lines | Poets are given to exalting | ( The Greek dramat- | ists all gave their women distinct, well | £1! Soris of Paragraphs, —A man who lives near Lima, 0, wears his long beard in plaits. —The only cross-eyed cow in the country is owned by George Williams, of Comley, O. —California will have the largest grape crop this year ever grown, and Spain reports the same prospects. —At the funeral of a young man named Rice, at Shamokin, Northunber- pall-bearers. —The number of visitors last vear to Shakespeare's birthplace was 16,800, Americans constituting one-fourth of the number. —The Stradivarius violoncello which belonged to Davidow, thie violinist, is reported for sale and the price asked is £5000. - -A great many people down in Chin used strawberries as a dentifrice. It is said to be elegant for the teeth, as the sand takes off the tartar. —A regular customer in a Philadel- phia restaurant pours mayonnaise dress. ing over his boiled cabbage, which he eats for lunch every day. —At a fancy dress ball held recently in Paris a lady appeared with a minia- ture Eiffel tower on her head, a vard high, set with diamonds. 7 —An infirmary for dumb animals covering 100 acres was recently opened at Bustleton, Pa. The patients will be principally horses and dogs. —Chinese commissioners are examin- ing American systems of electric fire and police alarms with a view of intro- ducing them in Chinese cities. —A deaf and dumb life insurance agent down in West Virginiais running all the other agents out of the country, Men know a good thing when they sce it. —>Sarah J. Mackin,a widow of Johns- town, who lost all her earthly possessions by the flood, has just been awarded a pension and back pay amounting to $5,966. —A whale, it is reported, was driven ashore on the coast of Labrador, which had a dozen wraps of chain about his body and a big anchor to tote around with him. —The vicinity of Stroudsburg, Pa., is one of the most honest sections in the country. In proof of it, George Rhein- fels has an umbrella he has carried for over 40 years. — While Pete Woodall was lying in the grass back of his home in Kunz- ville, O., in a drunken stupor, a rooster picked quite a large hole in his cheek. The doctors fear he will die of blood poisoning. —A family in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, was poisoned by eating fish which had been ignorantly rolled in cornmeal that had been mixed with rat poison. All will recover. —Somebody put a lighted fire-cracker in a letter box in Allentown, Pa., on the Fourth. Tt was found by the post man on his rounds, but luckily the fuse was imperfect and it failed to explode. —The family of W. F. Strouse, of Shamokin, Pa., have odd luck in birth- days, His wife was born on Christmas, his second daughter on St. Valentine's Day, bis third on the Fourth of July and his only son en Thanksgiving Day. --The cape dam, near Ellenville, N. Y., owned by the Del. & Hud. C. Co., and which confines the waters of Cape Pond, has been removed and the pond drained. The citizens of Ellenville feel that there is now no danger from that source. | —One of the inmates of Altoona,Pa., [jail night before last proved to bea | musical genius. He took off his shoes [ and, with one of them in each hand, pro- ceeded to render “Call Me Back Again,’ [ with the latest variations, on the iron | bars of Lis cell. | —C. A. Bell, a dime museum mana- | ger in Wilkesbarre, was washing two | rattlesnakes in a bathtub the other day, | having been assured that they were | fangless, when one of them bit him on | the hand. A doctor cut the bitten part | away. | —=It is said that Cullman county, Ala. is the only level, arable and fertile tract {of land in the Southern States in which | there are virtually® no negroes. In a census population of more than 15,000, including an area of over 1,500 square miles, there are only 14 negroes. —-A big fire cracker was dropped in- to the water at Devil's Lake, Mich., by the side ofa sailboat loaded with people, and when the cracker went off it blew such a hole into the boat that it sank. The occupants of the boat were all saved, ringing wet and hopping mad. —The “Julius Pam” diamond, which is valued at from £15,000, £20,000, has arrived in London from Kimberly. It weighs 24} carats, It is longish in shape, and exquisite color—a pure blue white. The only larger diamond in existence is the Imperial, but it is inferior in quan- ity to the “Julius Pam.” ——A man named Cole fell asleep while sitting in a cart in Alcona county, Mich- igan, the other day, and when he awoke both his jaws were broken. His head, while he slept, rested upon the side. of the cart, and the horse walked under a chute, which caught the man an the jaws. h —Thousands of tons of culm, which have been accumulating for thirty years, are now being rapidly consumed by the steel mills, electric light and other works, in Scranton. The railroad companies also use large quantities in a compressed state on their mogul engines. The Scranton steel rail mill consumes 300 tons of culm daily in turning out 700 tons of rails. —A man down in Markam, W. Va., nearly died of thirst the other day. He will drink nothing but rain water, and as they had a dry spell, his supply aave out. He could not be persuaded to drink anything for a week, but his neighbors got tired of his foolishness and held him down and poured water down his throat. He was pretty far gone, but is getting along nicely now. land Co., four young ladies were the
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers