THE CORAL GROVE. Deep in the wave 1s a coral grove ‘Where the purple mullet and gold fish rove, Where the sea flower spreads its leaves of blue That never are wet with the falling dew, But in bright and changeful beauty shine Far down in the green and glassy brine. The floor {sof sand like the mountain's drift And the pearl-shells spangle the flinty snow; From coral rocks the sea plants lift Their boughs where the tides and billows w. The water is calm and still below, For the winds and waves are absent there, And the sands are bright as the stars that glow In the motionless fields of upper air, There with its waving blade of green, Thesea flag streams through the silent water, And the crimson leaf of the dulse is seen To blush like a banner bathed in slaughter, There with a light and easy motion, The fan-coral sweeps through the clear,deep sea And the yellow and scarlet tufts of ocean Are bending, like corn on the upland lea, And life in rare and beautiful forms, Is sporting amid those bowers of stone And is safe, when the wrathful spirit of | storms Hag made the top of the wave his own. And when the ship from his fury flies, Where the myriad voices of ocean roar, When the wind-god frowns in the murky skies, And demons are waiting the wreck on the shore; Then far below io the peaceful sea, The purple mullet and gold-flsh rove, There the waters murmur tranquilly i Through the bending twigs of the coral | grove. ON A RAFT. Two hurdred miles below Vicksburg | tL ere lies, or did in 1857, a litile place | pou the western shore of the Missis. | s1ppi, known as Rufltown. i The method of spelling the name is | malice afcrethought, for when the set- | ticmment was first christened the rafts. | men and steamboat hands meant | ‘rougl,” but a thinner skinned genera. | tion sold provisions and wood and peor | whisky to the traveling public more | generally in the year 1857 than when | the name was first given, and by their | efforts the orthography was modified as I give it above, i The town consisted of a long wood | dock where steamers occasionally came | for fael, full a half dozen slab “‘ho- | tels,” where all the “accommodations” | to be had were sold by the quart from | 8 jug, two stores, mere fraps for the | unwary, & score of shrunken houses, and away back, almost on the bluff, a log school house, In the year of which I write I was the teacher in that log school house at a salary of seven dollars a month and board, the latter, in New England style ‘boarding “round.” 1 thirg I earned my wags. That may be as it may, Certain it was that | when spring came and the term closed the trustee could have been no better pleased to pay and discharge me than 1 was at being discharged. Had he | forgotten to psy me I should have dis- | charged myself, The fact was I was disgusted with Rufftown and Rafftown people and had determined to voyage to New Orleans. Consequently the close of my engagement pleased me better than its continuance. School “finished” as the boys had it, on Saturday, On Monday I had found a place on a great raft bound for the | ehd of the river, From teaching the | young how to shoot I had changed to teaching logs how fo float—from = landsman I had become a sailor. The orew were one and all strangers to me, tough and brawny !lumbermen from the up country. I was probably the only green h aboard, For a few days all went well. I could push an oar or boil potatoes and was able to fill the dn‘ies of steersman or cook; but I was young and foolish enough to think that my book knowl- edge, shght though it was, placed me above the other men upon the raft, and 1 prebably showed it. This engendered strife, At first the scorn which grew in my companions’ breasts showed itself in! looks and sneering words: but, as the | days and nights passed and I smoked | my pipe apart from the others and did | not join chem in their games and | dances after the sun went down, a more had cast at one of the raftsmen. fended mysel! as best I might and rather flatter myself now as I look back that 1 gave as many hard knocks ss I received, but the bad blood was out now and my life became wretched, continued Nicholson,” *‘he more lickin’ to make him know . He's like a dog, the more ‘em the more" ye wont fight him he'll strike ye in the dark. Ye must fight,” I reflected 8 moment, What this man said was doubtless true, Nichol. son hated me and wished to do me an injury, My safest course wouid be to have it out at once, “What does he propose?” said I. “A duel with knives,” I shuddered. The man meant to kill me as 1 had feared. “*But this Nicholson is twice my size, He could seize me and ont my throat while I struggled nelpiessly,” 1 return- 1t would not be a fair fight,” * Zach has tuought of that and pro- poses to fight like this: Each man shall choose a log from the raft and set it afloat behind the raft. The you shall both jump into the river and swim to and so fight,” I laughed logs might be a hundred feet apart and we could vot do each other much harm,” “The logs to be fastened together by thirty feet of chain,” would die game, ‘‘Agreed,” said 1 hoarsely. shall the duel take place?” ‘““Now,"” said Nicholson's friend. *‘It's as good a time as any.” I bowed my head in silent assent, “Who's your second?” gaid the other. “Name him and we will fix things up ready.” I choked a little and a sense of my “When dropped my knife! At the same instant the head of my enemy appeared at my side, followed by his sifiewy arm and the shining blade. He threw himseif upon me and raised his haud to strike, I was lost! But even as I closed my eyes in the horror of despair, a sudden rush soun- ded in my ears, a dark something passed olose by me, the knife that had sought my throat fell glittering through the water, and with a strange groan, and with a quivering outstretohing of kis hands, Nicholson, a lifeless body, followed it, The log upon which he had ridden had been thrown by the current end on against his head, erushing it like an ogg shell, | was saved, Old-Style Nric.a-Braeo, ““The business is about as dead as I am,” said a white-haired dealer in old- style brie-a-brae in New York, The place was a second floor fraut, nsed { a8 both store and living-room. “Fifty | years ago there was lots of money in (it, but there's none now, We can't Waylaying a Grecer. One afternoon not long ago a very innocent looking middle-aged man en- tered a grocery on Michigan avenue, bought a nickle’'s worth of tobacco, and suddenly bean laughing. “What's |.appened?” quoried the as- tonished grocer, “Bay, I'v, got a friend who roosts on the top limb of Amerfoan hist: ry, What he doesn’t kuow about the R volution- ary war isn'c worth knowing, nd he's mighty glad to air his opinions on every possible occasion, Bay, I've .ot him dead to rights,” “How?” “We got to talking about Lord Corn- wallis the other dsy, and he «aid the surrender was on the 17th of th. month. I said the 276th. We disputed «nd got hot, and I've been over to the Public Library to settle the matter, I've got the date in this book, and now I'm going to get a bet of $10 out of Jim, Hello, there!” At that moment his friend entered the store, and the first comer at once said: “Say, Jim, do you stick to the 17th?” © compete with machinery and new fangled notions, appropriately framed, white silk, and on it The field a bereaved husband, You see the in looser stitch than all the rest, have some other name mserted, It used to take three weeks hard work aad independence arose again, “I have no friend and will fix things for mysell, Get your chain and come to the rear of the raft. We will pick I turned away. “But youn will have some one to act for you—1to see fair play-—to —" “No!” will never look for it among this gang, Get your chain.” chain and two ironsin his hands. “Select your log,” said 1, He picked out one large and not very long with the bark gone but with many knots roughning its surface, 1 Some- | times a husband would have an ‘ele- j gant mortuary,’ as we call this sort of | 4 thing, made from his deceased wife's hair, On cardboard it didn’t much, but on silk it How did we make the hairs sonked them in hot water, aud ironed the whole thing with a The sampler tie flat? & I showed you I sold in 1842 for & I bought it back ct an auction last released both logs from the them and uniting our strength we dragged them across the raft and lsunoched them at the stern. Then and end to the logs, binding each near When pushed free from the raft they floated some twenty-five feet apart, fol lowing its own motion in the current and eddies, occasionally swinging so close as almost to touch and again separating until restrained by the chsin, “They'll do,” said my companion, “11 go for Nicholson,” Perhaps I ought to have prayed, I had time while waiting and I knew how, but my heart was not filled with prayer, nor yet fear, but hatred. I felt that I had been haunted dowu and a flerce desire to kill inflamed me, Had I prayed, it would have been “South sea and West India shells and corals used to sell well. They were for the mantelpiece and for what- nots, Whatnots are gone out of what they used to have on them, Handsome shells would bringsin the ola days from 25 cents to 81 a piece. To-day you 250 good ones, for $20, cas aud the case cost $12 times. The high-toned folks wanted Bat it didu’e. We'd take a branch of cheap coral and put it in a pan or trough and cover it with water in which we'd put a little muri- atic acid, At the end of a week all the and only It looked juss and mount it in a glass or a wives of old sea captains and shipping JAMers, orgaments were carved ivory and ebony articles from China snd Japan, These oost then, as now, a good deal in the east and were very expensive. One I had was a carved ebony box, which eon. boxes. The last one had inside four or for mmple safety. beans, but beautifully turn, The man had returned and my lor of Nicholson's face. “He is afraid! I shall kill him!” whispered to myself, “Now strip to your shirts and breeches, take your knives in your teeth and when I give the word jump in and swim for the logs. Either maa to either log,” said the third party to this strange encounter, Silently we obeyed, disrobing our. later side by side upon the edge of the raft, *‘Are you ready? Go!” The plunges that were but as one, two dark heads above the mnddy foam of the dark river, and an instant later, two men astride of two logs, facing eath other, each with murder in his eyes! I had seoured the smaller log per- haps by chance, perhaps because my antagonist had sought the other one but I felt it to be an advantage, I could move my support more rapidiy and easily than he could his—could attack or retreat with much less exer. tion, Eaock held his knife in hand and set. tled himself on his log; then Nicholson began with his anarmed hand to pad. dle slowly toward me, Perhaps this motion of our logs af- fected our relative position to the raft hated and both were preparing, with tense nerves for the coming contest, a sudden jlaage of the logs forced us both to to our individual safety, snd I aiced So ay satusish is t that instead 0 the eo the great raft wo had drifted to one side and now abreast of it, §risiop peed than the MA ett and evidently bound upon an ependent journey te the gulf, The sight startled me and I orfed out: “We are being swept away,” Nicholson half turned, then, careless of all else, looked back at me our 3 and Green collections. Bat I never “Then there were the relics: Pieces of wood from the favorite war ships of America sud England, and bullets, bay- onets, and pieces of shot and shell from famous battlefields. These paid well, because we oould always make ‘em when we didn’t have 'em on hand, The demand for them is not quite dead yet, Then, in the old days, peeple liked hor. rors to ornament their parlors with the ropes with which criminals were hung, the knives and pistols with winch wurders were committed, and the jim mies and pickliocks of celebrated thieves, Women were just as crazy for such things as men, and paid very high prices, for those times, for some partio- ularly bad weapon. But there's no use of complaining, Chromos, modern bric-a-brac, and domestic art have killed my business forever, and there's an end to iL” a sn A Quaeer Clty. Santiago de Cuba isa very strange city. The houses and stores are so built that the walls can be almost en. tirely thrown open, while the interiors have courts that are unroofed and un. obstructed to the sky. A Yankee who had just landed, thus expressed lumself: “Somehow I cant’t tell when I'm in doors and when I'm out. I've gol a room or somethin’, ina hotel here, and I've been into it quanfarying around, but I could not tell when I was in the parlor or when I was in the kitchen or back yard, so I'm standin’ about here in the Park, not to make any mistake, I started down the street # minute ago, Ju} I got afraid I might make a m eo and git arrested for bein’ found in somebody’s back parlor, I've got a lot of money in the place, but I can’t make head nor tail of it, I took some of it back whar I got it, and passed it over the same counter, so I reckon it's genuine, “I could write the history of the already. All I need is the dates, was evidently built the year after shook down by earthquake, burned by a voleano, reset. tied, and left just as "twas found, The whole coun is best whar its been left alone, V ever the people have touched it they'ye made a mess of it.” “Of course,” “How much?’ ‘*Any sum you like?” “Well,” said the first as he winked at the grocer, “I don’t mind going 85 even { ap.” grocer, The $20 was handed to the shoemaker | rubbed his hands and remarked: | ‘Awl right, | paralyze him,” | The book was opened. { his finger along the lines to a step, | little, and finally said: “Here, grocer, what does it say?” “It says: ‘There was no escape, and on the 17th Lord Cornwallis surrended.’ | Hang it! you said it was the 27th!” “Yes, I know, but I must have got it | mixed!” “I'll take that £20,” said the student | of history, as he reached out his hand, He got it and the two skinned out, | The grocer sat dows in a tab of onions to think it over, and when he became | satisfied that it was a gum-game to beat | him, and that the two men were ocon- foderates, he rose up and kicked a | dozen washboards sky-high and marked | the price of strawberries up four cents | per quart, Muldons’ Mastaches, It was the face of a handsome bru- | netie just verging into womanhood, | On ber upper lip and slightly shading its scarlet hue grew a dark silken | mustache that on a dude would be | cherished and cultivated as the choie- est treasure on earth. Her head | rested on a motal plate connected by a ! wire with a galvanic battery on a table, The doctor took up from the table at lus elbow something that looked like an ebony pen stafl. This also was connee- ted with the battery, In the end was 'a very fine gold-plated needle, The | doctor looked cautiously over the | young lady's dainty little mustache, | sorted the point of the needle down by the hair bulb, and, pressing a little i spring in the handle, turned on the | current from the battery, When the electric current ran down {the point of the needle the young lady winced and olinched her hands, | while the tears came to her eyes. {soon as a little froth appeared around the needle it was removed and the halr dropped ont, about a dozen of the hairs on the the metal plate, wiped hor face with a | soented handkerchief and tripped gayly { to the mirror, Bhe took a long glance {of intense satisfaction and gleefully | remark ad that they would soon all be igone, Then she pnt on her hat and | loft, after having made an appointment | for another sitting. | **So you remove mustaches from the (young ladies who are anfortuaste | enough to have such hirsute adorn- | ments?” remarked the reporter, “Will you teli me how if is done?” : | was the reply. “It has been known | and practiced for several years, especi- | ally in the East. The electric current | decomposes the salts in the skin into | ackd, which goes to the metal plate and | alkali, which aconmulates around the that the bair can never reappear, This method is also very useful in re- moving the ugly bristles that grow in moles, for the hairs are then large in size and few in number. It is only nec- essary fo spend a fow seconds on each | hair, and but a fow minutes on a dozen, | after which a rest of several days is taken to allow the inflammation to dis. apea r, before undertaking any more.” A Lofty Voleano, Many have attempted to scale Coto- pax, the loftiest ot motive voloanoes, t the walls are so steep and the snow is so deep that ascent is impossible, oven with scaling ladders, Oa the south of Cotopaxi is a t rock, more than 2,000 feet high, ed the “Inon’s Head,” Tradition says it was once the summit of the voloano, and fell on the day when Atahsulpa was strangled by the B Those who have seun Vesuvius can judge of the grandeur of Uotopaxi if they can a voleano 16,000 feet higher, shoothing forth its fire from a crest covered by 8,000 feet of snow, with a voice that has been heard 600 miles, I r ments show that the heating value of wet coal is twenty-five per cent, loss than of that which is dry, Sea waves, according to observations of the United States Naval fo officer, show a height ot from - four to forty-eight heigh THE FASHIONS, ~Bouquets of flowers worn at the belt Increase in size. ~Daggers, jeweled or plain, are worn a8 halr ornaments, as well as for fas. tening the eorsage bouquet, ~The Parisian dresses her hair on the top of her head, while the English- woman wears basket plaits, ~Shoulder capes are longer and lighter than formerly, They are made of crepe de chine, lace or chenille, —Old-time balzarine bas been revived this year for dresses. It is in large checks, resembles “lace bunting” and is very durable, ~ Parisian dresses of striped material have the back draperiesarranged so that half the stripes are horizontal and half perpendicular, ~Small pins or brooches, no ear-rings, few finger-rings, and very slender summer jewelry of a woman of taste, ~A petite young woman had a stalk | of annunciation lilies reaching nearly to | ber chin and uprising from a Inass of | pink roses. She looked really like “‘Jack [In the green.” | Fine wool stockinette jerseys with- | out trimming are stamped all over with i small gilt flowers, These are black and all eolors. Others are | trimmed with white Hercules braid with the addition of a white cloth ve for tennis and yachiing, a full f PS W WN box plats, dome very fine jerseys of of the same gray shade, {ecru and golden hues, | rose pattern are produced hand-made | an the (inest cobwebby grounds, or the figures are outlined with fine gold thread on black as well as colored laces, quently made with a false skirt bor- this the soft albatross, which is em- browdered in silk by hand, is placed, the | front draped, apren trimmed with Ori | ental lace laid on scantily, and over the lace is placed at regular intervals white | satin ribbon, each end finished with a plush ball; beneath this a narrow knife- i plaiting is disclosed; the basque has a uminously with lace and the satin rib. bon; this covers the back of the false | skirt perfectly. A handsome toilet of {| China silk has a front laid in plaits and ! the drapery curved up on one side and adjusted with wide golden-brown satin hows ard sash ends; full, long black draperies fall straight down to the edge of the skirt to adouble box plaiting; the round basque has a draped fan back of creamy lace and China silk; the sleeves corres; front of lace and sili. *- Fashion is extremely liberal towaid those with superabundance of flesh and those who are deficient, fullness of the draperies and are equally regarded and disregarded. large shapes, particularly in the vest fiat large-figt fer polonaise red and stiff fabrics and pre- to basques and short color and deeper tints have stripes, and are made with the stripes only for trimming. For mountains and with drapery in front and on the sides, | relieved on sides by regular bars of parrow silk braid of the same shade as the drsss laid in rows down to the top of the box-plaiting on the edge of the skirt; these are finished with tailor On- | ish of arrowheads; the back drapery is { in double plaits below and full above; | the round basque 1s short on the hips, | coat back, and a Breton vest is braided | nuns’-veiling costumes of gray, fawn threads; the skirt is laid in deep tucks, edged with lace, and a fine knife-plait- que are trimmed with lace also, | It is no longer unfashionable er ! considered bad taste to allow the fair | ness of necks and arms to gleam i through the transparency of mulls and | muslins or the black meshes of rich | lace, Simplicity is studied, but itis | the simplicity of the finest and most expensive fabrics. cloud-like with ex. cess of lace and illusive draperies. There are charming new features of American manufacture. China crape of delicate texture, perfectly imitating the Chinese fabrics of old, is seen in delicate ecru, pale beige, fawn, pale straw-color, Another of the domestic silk industries is the manufacture of graceful and del. icate crepe de chene. A very elegant costume of potato-color Momie cloth bias an apron front trimmed with gold gimp two inches wide, edged with a fine fluffy fringe: the bottom of the skirt, basque, sleeves and the side of one breadth on the side corresponds. A superb black toilet is a combination of satin rhadames, Spanish and gulpure lace. Others are of foulard silk. One of these costumes has a very wide French lace flounce on the bottom; over this or reaching the top are plain breadths front and side, like panels; the back of the ue has fans inserted of silk, and velvet half-beits fastened from the side seams are clasped in front with hammered silver Buckics) whol hack | ih. hangs straight in @ Pe the front of the ue is V shaped, admitting a little vest of vel. vet. The fronts of some of these ele. gant toilets are made of beaded grena- or lace, and the patterns of the brocaded grenadine fronts and basque are outlined with jet. Other costumes of stately beauty are com of black Bengaline and surah; these with watered silk, wide — HORSE NOTES, _ ~The Erdenhelm string has left Baratoga and taken up quarters at Monmouth, —There is talk of the Gentlemen's Driving Club giving a fall meeting at Buffalo Park, ~The victory of Ban Fox in the champion stallion stakes, has raised Kung Ban, his sire, in public estima. on, ~It has been settled that the New York Driving Club, shall give a fall meeting, the parses to aggregate $5,000, Bis —Pat Meany has resigned as trainer of Mayor Nolan's jumpers, and Dick O'Leary has been engaged to fill his place, —Hickok is working St. Julien, Elma the pacer; Guy Wilkes, Arab and Garfield at the Bay District Track, California, { (~The two stallions Almont Gift and Mobawk Gift have been matched to | trot another race at Cleveland in Sep tember, —There will be a public sale of thoroughbreds at Commodore Kittson’s farm, Chestnut Hill, after the Jerome ’ Purk mes ting. A match has been made between David Boanner’s brother to Majolica, { and J. H, De Mott's Serranto for $1000 | & side, to be trotted at Fleetwood { October 12, | ~——Allie Wilkes, bay five-year-old | stallion, by George Wikes, dam by Honest Allen, second dam Agnes Don- ovan, by Lexington, has passed into the on ~The track at Cleveland, O., and Detroit, Mich. , have joined hands for a fall trotting meeting, at Cleveland | from September 15 to 18, and at De- | troit from September 22 to 28, Palo Alto, by Electio out of Dame Winnie, by thoroughbred Rianet, trotted a mile in 2.23{ over the Bay | District Course as a 2-year-old. The Leer, | colt is now in the East, ~—Fred Archer rode five winners ; | Leicester on July 21 and three at down Park on the 26th. In his si mount on the frst named ocecasio vas only beaten a short head. ~The brood-mare Fanny Fisher, {foaled 1860, by Charley Ball, dam by imp. Monarch, died at the home of her owner, John B, Nixon, near Charleston, { 8. C,, about August 1, of old age. ~The mare Leona Turner, foaled 1875 by Pilgrim, dam Mary Farms, by Daniel Boone, died of what is thought to have been a snake bite on the throttle, at San Marcos, Tex., a week ago. ~The track at Rochester + in the spring, but it} season as it will be nex! of the complaints mad caused the horses to — Efforts are being made to Pottstown Trottin Two-thards of t NECEBSRTY has already been subscnibed. The Pottstown track is a full mile and fa- | vorably known among the trotting fra- ternity. —Major J. R. Hubbard has sold to | Brighton Beach parties the bay colt Strabismus, by Alarm—Flora, by War | Dance, and to George Work, of New York, the bay colt Sayre, three years, | by Alarm—Lady Lumley (Rataplan’s dam), by Rataplan, —The summer has been one of com. fort and ease to Jay-Eve-Ses. As | there has been no satisfactory demand for his exhibitions this season he has been permitted to rest upon his wall. earned laurels. He isbig and lusty | and has every appearance of being in the bloom of health. His coat is a { deep black, 8 marked contrast to the | faded black hair that covered him while in racing form last season. | =-The great trotting match between (J. 1 Case's brown stallion, Phallas (2.133), and W. C. France's bay geld- ing, Harry Wilkes (2.15),for a purse of | $4,000 of which $1,000 went to sec- { ond, best three heals in five, on the Belmont course on the 13th, was won by Harry Wilkes, who took the first, | second, and fourth heats. Upwarls of 5,000 people witnessed {the race, apd considerable money { changed hands. Pool selling was | brisk and Phallas was a strong favorite | at an average of $251087. The tra k was in fair order though somewhat { dusty, Shortly after three o'clock Ed | Bither, in a purple silk jacket and cap, {drove Phailas on the track, while {| Frank Van Ness, wearing a black and {red silk cap, followed with Wilkes Three false starts were made be- fore they were off Wilkes being in the lead by a head, At the quarter pole he had increased the dis tance between them by half a length, Phallas gained a few feet after the half mile was passed, but fell back at the third quarter; and Wilkes trotted under the wire three lengths ahead in 2.16, The start was perfect in the seecond heat, with Phallas twelve lenghts ahead at the quarter pole, ana nearly thas distance at the half mile. Here Wil. kes made a great burst of speed and was three lengths ahead at the three. quarter pole, keeping this lead until passing under the wire in 5.20, In the third heat the betting had changed to $30 for Wilkes and twelve he Bem Re al \ a len 8 t the quarter he was ten lengths in advance, at the half mile a dozen lengths separated them. Wilkes then made a slight spurt, and reduced the lead to eight lengths, at which lead Phalias finished in 2 yo n led off by a length in the fourth and at the quarter was seven lengths belund the Sh A suiinoer. was that tL 18g- Weary. to re the g Associat sit ainount
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers