vr ——————
JM AMERICAN SONG,
I
Over the mountain wave,
See where they come;
Storm-cloud and wintry wind
Welcome them home.
Yet where the sounding gale
Howls to the sea,
There their song
Deep-toned and free,
Pilgrims and wanderers,
Hither we come:
Where the free dare to be,
This is our home,
1s along
England hath sunny dales,
Dearly they bloom;
Scotia hath heather-hills,
Sweet their perme,
Yet through the wilderness
Cheerful we stray,
Native land, native land,
Home far away.
Pilgrims and wanderers, eto.
Dim grew the forest path,
Onward they trod;
Firm beat their noble hearts,
Trusting in God,
Gray men and blooming malds,
High rose their song:
Hear it sweep, clear and deep,
Ever along.
Pilgrims and wanderers, ete.
Not theirs the glory-wreath
Torn by the blast:
Heavenward their holy steps,
Heavenward they past,
Green be their mossy graves
Ours be their fame,
While their song peals along
Ever the same.
Pilgrims and wanderers, ete.
RI BRA CO RR.
THE GAMBLERS DEATH,
advanced, and he reached the gambler,
and was standing almost at his very
feet, ere the young man was aware of
his presence; but as the form of the
Trapper passed between him and the
shining water, he turned his gaze up to
the Trapper’s face, and, after studying
the grave lines for a moment, sald:
“You've won the game, old man.”
The Trapper for a moment made no
reply. He looked steadfastly into the
young man’s countenance, fixed his
eyes on the red stain on the left breast,
“Shall I look at the hole, boy?"
The gambler smiled pleasantly and
to do in those cases, I
Lafting his hands, he unbut-
unscrewed the
studied the edges of the
At last he drew
“Ig it my last deal, old man?’ asked
3eyond the balsam thicket the gam-
bler made his stand. Carson, the de
himself within twenty feet of
antagonist. Both men stood for an
instant, each with a pistol in his hand,
each looking full at the other.
were experts.
“You
coolly,
“One, fwo, three,’
“Fire!”
One pistol alone sounded. The gam- |
bler’s had failed to explode!
“You've won, you needn't deal
again,” said the gambler. And then he
dropped. The red stain on his white |
shirt-front showed where he was hit.
*““There’s some lint and bandage,”
said the detective, and he flung a small |
package into the gambler’s lap. *'I
hope you won't die, Dick Raymond.”
Each knew the other.
count,” said the gambler |
* said the detective.
i
“Oh, it was all fair, Carson,” said
the other, carelessly. *‘I've held a poor
hand from the start—"’
He paused; for the detective had
rushed on, and he was alone.
Twenty rods further on, the detec-
tive caught up with the Trapper, who |
was calmly recharging his piece. On
the edge of the ledge above, the half-
breed lav dead, the lips drawn backy
from his teeth and his ugly countenance |
distorted with hate and rage. A rifle,
whose muzzle smoked, lay at his side;
and the edge of the Trapper’s left ear
was bleeding.
“I've shot Dick Raymond by the
balsam thicket,” said the detective,
“I’m afraid he’s hard hit.”
“I'll go and see the boy,” answered
the Trapper. “You'll find Henry |
furder up. There's only two runnin’,
You and he can bring ’em in."
The detective disappeared like a flash |
in the direction the Trapper had poin- |
ted, i
“Ah me,” said the old man, **I hope |
the boy isn’t bad hit,” and he turned |
on his trail and moved quickly down |
towards the balsam thicket,
The gambler was seated in a reclin-
ing attitude, his body resting on the
mosses, his shoulders and head suppor- |
ted by a rock, which, covered thickly |
with other mosses itself, wade for his |
growing weakness a natural pillow.
i
‘ " we
within reach unopened. Only a stain |
on the white linen showed where he was
hit, for the hemorrhage was all inter- |
nal. Through the trees, here and there i
the bright water of the Jake showed |
clearly. The little rivulet that issued |
from the Trapper’s spring ran with
tuneful gurgling through the swale,
and filtered itself into the lake through
sands pure as its own limpid stream.
In the pines overhead were soothing
noises, The young balsams yielded
their gummy sweetness to the damp
air. The pistol, by whose failure to ex-
plode he had escaped the crime of mur-
der, lay by his side, while a dozen cards,
that had been flung from his pocket as
he dropped, were lying scattered about
—a suggestive commentary on the
frivolity and sinfulness of his life. His
eyes were open, gazing through the
branches of the intervening trees at the
bright patches of the shining water
beyond, and the little rill soothed the
stillness with its lapsing sound. One
would hardly think that so unprincipled
a life could come to its close as peace-
fully as the peacefulness of nature,
which, because of its inanimateness,
perhaps, had committed no sin, and
could therefore be disturbed by no re-
morse, But such apparently was the
case; for the look In the eyes was as
placid as the lake at which they gazed,
and the lines of lus face were as calm
and peaceful as a child’s, when, just
before he falls asleep, his memory is
busy with the happiness of the day he
has enjoyed, and to which, ere he sleeps,
he would say a pleasant farewell.
The old Trapper saw, as he descended
‘the hill, the body reclining on the mos.
ses at the edge of the balsam thicket,
The earth gave back no sound as he
“I have seed a good many wounds,”
he direction of a good many bullets,
and I never knowed a man live who
1
has gone into ye.
ance. He turned his eyes from
off towards the water. He even whis
tled a line or two of an old love ballad;
then he paused, and, drawn perbaps by
the magnetism of the steady gaze whick
he looked again into the old man’s face,
and said:
‘What is it, John Norton?”
“1 be sorry for ye, boy,” answered the
“I be sorry for ye, for life be
sweet to the young, and I wish that yer
years might be many on the arth.”
“1 fancy there's a good many whe
will be glad to hear I'm out of it," was
the careless response.
“1 don’t ye have Yer fan
boy," answered the Trapper, “and
doubt Its
They whipped in their rage, and not in
thelr wisdom; they whipped, because
they was strong, and not because of
their love; they whipped, when they
ghould have forgiven, and got what they
‘arnt—the hatred of their children.
Hut the Father of Heaven be different,
toy. He knows that men be weak, as
vell as wicked. He knows that half of
»m haven’t had a fair chance, and so
he overlonks much; and when he can’t
overlook it, I conceit he sorter forgives
in a lump, Yis, he subtracts all he
an from the evil we have did, boy, and
of that isn’t enough to satisfy his
foelin’s toward a man that might have
ben different ef he'd had a fair start,
he jest wipes the whole row of figures
clean out at the askin’,”
“At the asking?” said the gambler;
“that’s a mighty quick game, Did you
aver pray, John Norton?"
“Sartin, sartin, I be a prayin’ man,”
said the Trapper sturdily.
“At the asking!”
gambler, softly,
“Sartin, boy,” answered the Trap-
per, ‘‘that’s the line the trail takes, ye |
san depend on it; and it will bring ye
to the eend of the Great Clearin’ in
peace.”’
murmured the |
the best use of life be to learn how %o
live, and I feel sartin ye'd bave go:
last half of yer life wipe out the fust,
that the figures for and
would have balanced in the
ment,
“You aren't fool
what the hypocritical church members
80
enough
do you?"
“1 don't
I've never been in the settlement;
leastwise, I've never studied the habits
of the creturs. and I dare say that they
seen some that was sartinly vagabonds,
No, I don’t know much about church
members, but I sartinly believe; yis, I
know there be a day when the Lord
shall jedge the livin’ azd the dead; and
the honest Trapper shall stand on one
side, and the vagabond that pilfers his
skins and steals his traps shall stand on
the other. This is what the Book says,
and it sartinly seems reascnable; for the
deeds that be did on the arth be of two
sorts, and folks that do ‘em be of two
kind, and atween the two, the Lord, of
he notes anything, must make a dividin’
line.’
“And when do you think this judg-
ment ig, John Norton?’ asked the
gambler, as if he was actually enjoying
the erude but honest ideas of his com-
panion. The Trapper hesitated a mo-
ment before he spoke, then he said:
“1 conceit that the jedgment be al-
ways goin’ on. It’s a court that never
adjourns, and the deserters and the
knaves and the disobedient in the ngi-
ment be always on trial. But I conceit
that there comes a day to every man,
good and bad, when the record of his
deeds be looked over from the start,
and the good and the bad counted up;
and in that day he gits the final judg-
ment whether it be for or agin him,
And now, boy,” continued the old man
solemnly, with a touch of infinite ten-
derness in the vibrations of his volce,
“ye be nigh the Jedgment Day, yerself,
and the deeds, ye have did, both the
good and the bad, will be passed in
review.”
“I reckon there isn’t much chance
for me if your view is sound; John
Norton.” And for the first time, his
tone lost its cheerful recklessness,
“The couit be a court of mercy; and
the Jedge looks upon ’em that comes up
for trial as ef He was their Father.”
“That ends it, old man,” answered
the gambler. “My father never show-
ed me any mercy when I wasaboy, If
he had, I shouldn't have been here now,
If I did a wrong deed, I got it to the
last inch of the lash,” and the words
were more intensely bitter because
spoken so quietly.
“The fathers of the arth, boy, be
not like the Father of Heaven, for I
have seed ‘em correct their children
beyond reason, and without mercy.
“It's a quick deal,” said ‘the gam-
bler, speaking to himself, utterly un-
conscious of the incongruity of his |
speech to his thought. “It’s a quick
might end as
he says, if the feeling was right.”
For a moment nothing was said.
The Trapper stood looking steadfastly
at thq young man on the moss,
as he
the
Up
Neithes
rifle cracked.
A red squirrel ran
b, twenty feet above
the gambler’s head, and shook the sil- |
ence into the fragments with his chat-
sat gazing with startled
eyes at the two men underneath.
mountain a
stirred,
tering; then
“Can you pray
gambler quietly.
“Sartinly,” answered the Trapper.
“Can you pray in words?" asked the
gambler again.
, old man?’ asked the |
For a moment the Trapper hesitated,
Then he said:
“1 can’t say that I can. No, I sar-
tinly can’t say that I could undertake
it with
a reasonable chance of gittin’
ugh: ieastwise, it wouldn't be ina
way to help a man any.”
**Is there any way, old man, in which |
we can go partners?” asked the gam-
bler, the vocabulary of whose profession
. é 3
n 1nsel-
n the solemn cot
or
ng.
“I was thinkin’ of that,” answered
conidn’t and each
in' his own part
Yi." continued the old man,
after a moment’s reflection, **t
sorter jine works,
help the other by d«
he plan's
a good un—vye pray for yerself, and I'l]
pray for myseif-—and of 1 can git in
anything that seems likely to do ye
, As ya can on
a pooved barrel.”
“And now boy,” said the Trapper,
with a sweetly solemn enthusiasm, such
as faith might give to a supplicating
saint, ~—which lighted his features until
his countenance fairly shone with a
light which came out of it, rather than
upon it from the sun overhead—'‘now,
boy, remember that the Lord is Lord
of the woods, as well as of the cities, |
and that he heareth the prayin’ of the |
poor hunter under the pines, as well as
the great preachers in the pulpits, and |
that when sins be heavy, and dealh be |
nigh, His ear and His heart be both
open. There was no use of His Son’s
dyin’ if the Father can’t be forgivin’," |
The Trapper kaelt on the moss at the
gambler’s feet, He clasped the fingers |
of his great hands until they interlaced, |
and lifted his wrinkled face upward. |
He said not a word; but an Eye that
was watching noted that the strongly |
chiseled lips, seamed with age, moved |
and twisted now and then, and the |
same Eye saw, as thesilent prayer went |
on, two great tears leave the protection |
of the closed lids, and roll down the |
rugged cheek. The gambleralso closed |
his eyes; then his hands quietly stole |
one into the other, and, avoiding the |
bloody stain, rested on his breast; and
thus, the old man who had lived beyond
the limit of man’s day, and the young |
one, cut down at the threshold of ma-
ture life—the one kneeling on the mos-
ses, with his face lifted to Heaven, the
other lying on the mosses, with his face
turned toward the sani sky, without
word or uttered speech, —prayed to the
Divine mercy which beyond Heaven
and the sky saw the two men under-
neath the pines, and met, we may not
doubt, with needed answer the silent
upgoing prayer,
The two opened their eyes nearly at
the same instant, They looked tor a
moment at each other, and then the
gambler feebly lifted his hand, and put
it into the palm of the Trapper,
Not a word was sald, No word was
needed. Sometimes men understand
each other beter than by talking. Then
the gambler picked the diamond stud
from the spot where it rested, slipped
the solitaire from his fi , and said,
as he handed them to the Trapper:
“There's & girl in Montreal that will
like these. You will find her picture
inside my vest, when you bury me. Her
address is inside the picture case. You
{
will take them to her, John Norton?"
»
“She shall have them from my own
hand,” answered the Trapper, gravely.
“You needn’t disturb the picture,
John Norton,” said the gambler, “It's
just as well, perhaps, to let it lie where
it is; it’s Leen there eight vears, You
understan! what I mean, old man?”
“Y understand,” answere | the Trap-
per, solemnly; ‘‘the picture shall stay
where it be ”’
*“The pistols,’ resumed the gambler,
and he glanced at the one lying on the
moss”? “I give to you. You'll find
them true, You will accept them?”
The Trapper bowed his head, It is
doubtful if he could speak, For sever-
al minutes there was silence. The end
was evidently nigh, The Trapper took
the gambler’s hand, as if it had been
Indeed, per-
haps the young’ man had found his fa-
ther at last; for surely it isn’t flesh that
makes fatherhood, Once the young
man moved as if he would rise; Had
impulse, He lifted his eyes to the old
man’s face lovingly; moved his body as
if he would get a little nearer, and, as
a child might speak a loving thought
said, *1 glad 1
am met you,
But the water gleamed as
through
11}
rivuiet
brigh
the trees as before: the litt
sang as tunefully; the balsams
poured their odors forth with undimin-
little
ished measures, and the squirrel crept
with new courage from his hiding place,
of the
5 merry chatterings
The Trap-
‘A
gambler in
and, scampered out to the
branch, poured hi
forth upon quiet air.
per lifted the body of the
his arms and bore him tol
and
mt
the
is own cabin,
him
closing the
to the bank
and
1 3 $. bey
laid on his own bed; thea
the cabin, he went
1
that overlooked
th fy
the two
h
O01 f
0
he lake,
sounded signals for the
return +
flow old are English Kisses?
5
was
4
Le
* ant p $e a Yea ws
Kissing, in England,
known and practiced in sixteeuth
and seventeenth
i
4% gi
ES
centuries
an easy
and prac-
with familiarity which
shows
80 general was the use of the
bx
man taking a lady to ker seat
dance invariably ki
had not would
padly-bred fellow,
How much
kiss that
it was as usual as the ww. A gentle
¥
from the
wed her, and if he
3 3 } ¥ x © wv yr
have been voted a Very
older English kisses were
is not
the custo ved to
though fashionable and
HOUgn As al na
our
general games,
Kissing formed a prominent
ning ih
day,
in which
DEO
part, are i
of
Ji
HOW rarer ial
they were a quarter (
The literature of ki
There
“Broad Stone of
knight riding th
Field of the Cloth
cast at a
seignenr whereof
same
a century ago.
S868 18 curious,
story
"0
I
tnd
ugh
is a retailed in the
mor’ of an English
France 0
of Gold, His he
certain
the
Te
a shoe
had departed to
rendez but the
lady hospitably entertained the trav.
eler,
the
1% ‘a
Yous, seignen
She came out of her castle, at-
tended by twelve damsels fair to see
t And.” said the dame, ‘‘forasmuch as
in Nngland ye have such a cnstom as
that a man may kiss a woman, there.
fore I will that ye kiss me, and ye
shall also kirs all these my maidens.”
Which thing the knight straightway
did and rejoiced greatly thereat,
The quaintness of the last phrase an-
indicates the young man's
feelings at the salute with considerable
exactitude,
In Africa, and other parts of the
world outside the circle of civilization,
kissing is as yet an unknown art.
An African traveler once offered a
a young lady of King Mumbo Jumbo’s
Court, but she recoiled in great alarm,
observing that she was “not yet worthy
"
A ]———
Short Weight Coins,
A merchant on State street, Chicago,
sent a boy to the wholesale department
of the post office, a day or two ago, for
$5 worth of stamps. The boy tendered
a $5 gold piece in payment. The clerk
weight. The boy returned to his em-
ployer and came back with another $5
piece, The clerk weighed that, and it
He again re-
fused to accept it. The merchant visi-
floulty was. He was told that both
coins were below standard weight.
“‘Bat I took them to the bank from
which I drew them, and the cashier as-
sured me they were legal tender, and
that the postal clerk was mistaken,”
1 the merchant,
“Bat I am not mistaken,’ replied the
impertarbable clerk, and the merchant
went to Mr. Patton, in Postmaster Pal.
mer’s office,
“That is the law,” said Mr, Patten,in
answer to the complaint, ‘The stand-
ard weight of half-eagles is 120 grains.
1f the actual weight of the coin is one-
half of 1 per cent. less it will be 128.36
grains, and we will take it. If it does
not weigh that much we will not re-
ceive it under any circumstances.”
“It is on a par with the government's
refusal to redeem the trade dollar,” said
Treasurer Beveridge to a newpaper man
“and I regard it as very unjust, Since
it is the law, however, there is no hélp,
but the banks ourht not to give the light-
weight coin out.”
Ben Nevis, Scotland,
When the Meteorological Observatory
was first started on Ben N evis, Scotland
very few even among the natives of
the district could give us any clear
idea of what weather and conditions of
life to expect during the winter,
Although the hill is besieged in summer
by an innumerable multitude of tour-
ists, when itl assumed its wintry cover-
ing of snow it was regarded as inacces-
sible. A few daring spirits might be
found to brave its dangers, and bring
down tales of twenty, thirty, even fifty
the ravines at the side,
information was forthcoming,
no very great depth of snow lies on the
top—only some six to ten feet
that when
able neighbor,
ing squalls, and piles itself up against
every obstruction. Our first experience
of this was the blocking up of our
doorway. The snow formed bank
ten feet high against the
house befere
i
the
passage
three had fallen on
open ground. utti
Wing
( a4
through this drift was easy, but, un-
fortunately, il
easily,
filled up again just as
and helght of the snow
door an ever-growing labor. This
difficulty, however, is now got over by
the erection of
unique far as the British Isles are
concerned, tl
a luilding probably
as
igh common
des, we
r
e a staircase of boards, lving
ou in
latitu From the door
mad
northern
ha vi
on steps of snow, and have roofed the
over with an archway of
This
vy away from t
® Fu nt 1) us
OW, eLecLuan
he door
DIOS
sky round the honzon gl
IW %
ge hes
YOICAN NM
sirar
more
with
picture; but
mountain
sights the chances are tha
with
Ben,
the moreonrdinary weather o
He will find everyt
MIiIcies «
up in mist, the j
eg 4 TY
| ach
aver of
fice and snow ervstal
sh weather is not without
its compensations. The ice forming on
every exposed surface assumes the most
fantastic shapes.
thick as an ordinary clothes-line, will
grow in less than twenty-four hours to
A thin rope, not so
a massive cable six or seven inches in
will before the day is over break under
the weight of ice deposited on 1 by the
mist and
once, after working outside, 1 have
in with my water-proof made
doubly damp-resisting by a complete
outer glazing of ice
that really tests the strength of the
observatorybuilding and tries the mettie
of inhabitants is when one of the
westerly gales of our stormy coast
comes sweeping up from the Atlantic,
burying the top of Ben Nevis in mist
and snow, and cutting off all communi-
cation with the lower world. Then
little can be done out-of-doors
when once in an’ hour
observers makes a dash into the storm
to read the instruments outside. The
box containing these is only about
twenty yards from the mouth of the
snow porch, yet sot hick sometimes is
the drift and snow, that it is quite n-
visible, and the observer has to find his
way there and back by following the
guide rope stretched between them.
At night he is happy, if after repeated
trials, he can keep his lamp alight
long enough to let him read the ther-
mometer. ete., and struggle back to
peace and quiet mside. Of course any
detalled account of the observations
made would be eut ot place here, but I
may state that no very low temperature
has been recorded as yet, the lowest
being 16° Fahr, on December 16. The
usual temperature runs from 25° to 30°,
occasional interludes of thaw, when it
rises above 32° and everything drips,
Whether the barometric indications
will be useful for storm warnings
cannot be definitely stated until the
records here are compared with those
of other stations, but it is evident from
the unusual character of its readings
that we are in a region where it changes,
properly interpreted, will give valuable
results,
Animal life, though scarce, is not
altogether absent. A colony of weasels
have established themselves in the
outer walls of the observatory. What
they find to eat it is difficult to see u
drizzling snow.
come
its
less they live on each other. But no
doubt there are many smaller animals
e¢king out a precarious existence here
that supply them with food. They can
get their little or nothing from the
observatory, for all the food used here
is of course in the form of preserved
articles, the empty tins and refuse of
which are thrown over the adjacent
cliff, safely out of their way and ours,
The other day one of these weasels,
with the impudence natural to iis race,
came and looked in at a window in the
It was a beauti-
its Arctic coat of white
fur, tipped with black on ears and tail.
In this, as in many other respects, liv-
ing here strongly resembles an Arctic
i ful object in
| dangers, and none of its privations,
_—_—
Gymnastics for Girls.
H. Percy Dunn, F, R. C, 8,, writes
| as follows: The progress of education
| among young ladies moves apace, and
with the general advaneement—
HE
noted an extended development of the
The condition
which Mr, Wilkie
{ Collins raised his voice some years ago
in respect to yoling men seems in the
present day to be on the verge of being
realized in the casas of
practice of gymnastics.
ryt
Iss
of things agal
young
however,
women.
With
ject in view do pareats permit
The question Arises,
what ol
1
their daughters to engage so exieasive-
it for the purpose
members
ity, of which
typica
figure as
3 Are
it this,
5 4 1 4 a lin
the most part sedentary Lives.
a1 $ § #3 $s ds
wim f truth in this and
f
warm fal
A INogicutn «
5 are not |
of them
Bat here is the
wint of my contention.
iy person, if the practice
" properly conducted.
y fundamental facts the
which should regu-
¢ + “4 " ” 5
of gymnastics among
1a 4
1.
iS essential 10 recollect
ch as the muscular devel-
s naturally less than
ne
FAB,
INAny reas:
rwise, for believing
in severe
FAG
i
4
in produce
( in of the frame,
For instance, the large mass of mus.
composing the
abdominal wall,
owing to the « f movement
gymnastic
hypertro-
fact
movements in
nply a bending forward of
ith the
t of the body, causes the
in common parlance, to
time exhibits
ungraceful rotun In
appear expedient to permit
ing girl to acquire an abnormality
rent advantage ?
of
lity. View
iis, does it
i yO
s
wii
out any concur
Secondly, it seems evident thal many
ris are allowed to “take up" gymnas-
shysically unfit for snch
exercise, and then to require one such
girl—she may not object, but this is her
| weakness, not her fault—to perform a
| severe gymnastic feat savors of an un.
| pardonable indiscretion, when on the
| completion of her task she relires to a
| seat breathless and deadly pale, indica-
| ting the extent to which her heart has
| suffered from the exertion. It is poor
kindness to accord praise in sach cases
| upon the successful performance of a
| feat which is purchased at such a price.
| But I donot condemn gymnastics for
| girls beyond the excessive exient to
| which they are practiceds Confined
| within limits they are even desirable;
| exceoding these limits they are un-
| doubtedly harmful.
And, therefore, I say, no parallel-
bars exercise, no trapeze, no hot izontal
bar or ladder exercise should be per-
mitted; but dumb-bell practice ad 1libi-
tum, combined with as much drilling
as may be desirable. Everyone should
be drilled during the early period o
adult age, but the physique of a woman
18 more adapted than is that of a man
to profit by this form of healthful, use-
ful exercise, In conclusion, no girl
should be allowed to enter a_gymnastie
class unless she can produce a medical
certificate confirmatory of the fact that.
she does pot suffer from any erganic in-
sufficiency which might be aggravated
by the physical efforts indulged in.
Friendship,
ol
gi
tics who are j
Some live under the line, and the
beams of friendship in that position are
imminent and perpendicular. Some
have only a dark day and a long night
from him (the sun), snows and white
cattle, a miserable lifeand a perpetusl
harvest of catarrhs and consumption,
apoplexies and dead palsies; but some
bave splendid fires and aromatic spices,
rich wines and well digested fruits, great
wit and great courage, becamse they
dwell in his eye and look in his face, and
are the courtiers of the sum, and wait
upon him in his chambers of the east,
Just so it is in friendship.
ssmsimramanissss SII ANAS I
«Only three executions for murder
took place in France during 1883,