“ The Firefly and The Thunder Storm. ————— RAIA 1 sat and watched the walls of night With cracks of sudden lightning glow, And listened while with clumsy might The thunder wallowed to an fro. The rain fell softly now; the squall, That to a torrent drove the trees, Has whirled beyond us to let fall Its tumult on the whitening seas. But sitll the lightning erinkled keen, Or fluttered fitful from behind The leaden drifts, then only seen, That rumbled eastward on the wind, Still as gloom followed after glare, W hile bated breath the pine tree drew, Tiny Salmoneous of the alr His mimic bolts the firefly threw. He thought, mo doubt, “Those flashes grand, That light for leagues the shuddering sky Are made, a fool could understand, By some superior kind of fly. +'He's of our race's elder branch, His family arms the same as ours, Both born the two-forked flame to launch Of kindred, if unequal, powers," And is man wiser? Man who takes His consciousness the jaw to be Ot all beyond his ken, and makes God but a bigger kind of Me? ESR CHARMED BY GAMBLING. The Strong Hold Which This Vice Has on Its Victims. ——— Of all vices gambling, perhaps, takes the strongest hold upon its victim. There is no other passion that a man will follow with such a blind infatua- tion. Home, family, friends, all are forgotten by the individual who allows himself to be led into the vortex of gambling. Gambling has been common among most patisns, civilized and uncivilized. Tacitus informs us that the anclent Germans were SO addicted to it that when stripped of everything else, they would stake at last their liberty and even their lives; the loser going into voluntary slavery; and though much younger and stronger than his antago- nist, suffering himself to be bound and sold. The Romans were passionately fond of gambling during the Empire, and various enactments were made against it. In England, also, gambl- ing was early made the subject of legis- lation. how infatuated peo- | pursuit of gambl- | It 1s astonishing ple will become in the ing. It is reported of Charles Porter, | who. in the reign of Queen Anne, pos- | sessed one of the best estates in North- | umberland, that he lost the whole of It | at hazard In the space of six months. | This madman, for we can call him | nothing else, when he had just complet- | ed the loss of his last acis at a gamb- | ling-house in London, aud was proceed- ing down the stairs lo throw himself in- | to a carriage to be conveyed home to his house in Lown, resolved to have one more throw to try 10 retrieve his losses, | and immediately returned to the room | where the play was going on. l Nerved for the worst that might | happen, he insisted that the person he | bad been playing with should give him | one chance of recovery or fight with him. Ilis proposition was this: That his carriage and horses, the loose money he had in his pockets, his town house, | plate and furniture—in stort all he had | left in the world, should be valued in a | lump at a cgriain sum and be thrown in a single cast, No persuasion could | prevail on him to depart from this pur- pose, He threw and lost; then cou ducting the winner to the door, he told | the coachman there was his master, and | marched forth into the dark and dismal | streets without a house or home or any creditable-means of support. Thus beggared, he retired to an ob- scure lodging in a cheap part of the town, subsisting partly on charity, sometimes acting as markerat a billiard- | table, and occasionally acting as a help- | er in a livery stable, In his miserable condition, with nakedness and famine staring him in the face, exposed to the | taunts and insults of those whom he | had once supported, he was recognized by an oid friend, who gave him ten guineas to purchase necessaries, He expended five pounds in procuring de- cent apparel; with the remaining five he repaired to a common gaming house and increased them tO fifty; he then | adjourned to one of higher order of | houses, sat down with former assocl- ates, and won 26,000 pounds. Return- ing next night, he lost it all, was once more penniless, and after subsisting many years in abject poverty, died a ragged beggar in St, Giles, It is impossible to conjecture the total amount of the annual ruin caused by gambling. Fortune, trust money, pro- vision for children and widows, sums raised on house and land, have disap- peared in a short time. Bank clerks and cashiers gamble away hundreds of thousands of dollars and become “de- faulters.” “Gift enterprises” extend all the way from the Metropolitan stock exchange to people who buy prize pack~ | ages of candy, And it 18, perhaps, in thelr lower variations that the commer- cial aids to gambling are most to be dreaded. The boy is entrapped into a fondness for speculative purchases by prize packages of popcorn, and the lab- oring man is confronted with food for the same passion in prize packages of tobacco. ‘The policy sho which swarm in every section ol the great cities of this country, supply to the masses the same stimulants to the reck- jess and demoralizing use of money which the capitalist and speculator find “Playing po seductive vice and is certain to ruin its victims. We hear of occasional inef- fective raids made by policemen on these swindling devices for robbing the poor. “There are public men who bave made and are still making Jortuncs out of the wiserable dubs Sf ee Rmoun : sins papatls of deterring y-player from ris Avarter pa dollar on i It ‘he has not yet lucky number, he has heard who have done 80, turn next. another, and Hus he : the interpreter of out of the victims of the policy shops, Th ye are who will produce lucky nutsbers to the policy player, for a consideration, from a pack of ecards or from the bottom of a teacup. And so the increase of fools and knaves ad- vances side by side, a vast amount of bard-earned money is diverted into the pockets of the heartless swindlers, and a number of people who might have be- come honest and industrious members of society are dragged down to the low- est level of self-caused poverty which is next door to crime, All the notorious haunts of gambling which come within the statutory defini. tion of the term ought to be rooted out, Whether it be the keno tables, where the young clerks and artisans learn to gamble, to cheat and to embezzle, or whether it be the golden faro saloons, with their recherche suppers and their choice wines, where judges, legislators, merchants, lawyers and others of their class meet to stake their hundreds of dollars on the tur. of & card, all ought to be impartially stopped. The prize- package men, 100, ought also to be summarily suppressed. So should the cheats who trade in oroide watches and paste jewels as a blind to the *‘en- velope game.” Gamblers have curious notions of su- perstitions, ln an old work on games the player is gravely advised, 1if the tuck has been against him, to turn three times round with his chair, ‘‘for then the luck will infallibly turn in your favor.” General A. S., of Ken- tucky, called one of the best card- players of the stale, would never play a hand or risk a dollar if there was a black cat in the room, An ex-Gover- nor from one of the western states, an inveterate gamester, would never sil down to a table in a room where there was a looking-glass, refuse to play if on entering left foot crosses the no persuasion can induce them to do 0 until they leave and return with the “right foot foremost.” To put your foot on the chair of a player is a cer tain premonition of bad luck. Some men will never play on Friday. A remarkable case of throwing dice occurred in London in 1813. A Mr, Ogden wagered 1,000 guineas to one that ‘‘seven’’ wou a pair of dice ten successive times. The wager was accepted (though it was egregiously unfair), and strange to say, his opponent threw “gaven’’ nine thoes running. At this point Mr. Ogden of- fered 470 guineas to be off the bet, but his opponent declined He cast yet L. a room the Mr. Ogden won his guineas. markable ke of which has never been recorded. r——— Crrried for Good Luck. season and who went to San Francisco the other night with Frohman’s com- carries an odd sor tof fetich about with her which she believes in with all her might, and attributes ‘“The Wife's’ success to her having worn It every night of the long run. charm given her in New she was playing **May four years ago by an old kept the rooms where she boarde is a tiny, red silk bag, chopped hair of a black dog galt, the dried eyes of a lizard and the nails of a wildcat, which combination is the most powerful © voudooism, and will not only bring you Orleans when 1. emy's house away and pine to death. Bernhardt's when it rmeath and will permit, and wad it of Abdellah Bey. Terry has a leaden seal, Mary Anderson wears a pearls around her neck most wrist. Mrs. Langtry's ring given her by the Prince of Wales, od to her the night of her debut. Hading, who is coming to in the autumn with Coquelin, wears a ring on her right thumb for luck, and all actresses avoid wearing lavender, because under such circumstances they would be sure to fail in their part, Studies for Spare Moments. I: is plainly impossible to learn every thing that deserves to be learned, and, on the other hand, tc give up in de- spair and let all study go by the board is, of course, both foolish and wicked. The first thing is to select the three or four branches most congenial to one’s disposition and capacity, and set one’s self to master them thoroughly. The next thing is, as Emerson says, to “lop off decisively ones miscellaneous activi- ties.” Three or four subjects of study are better than one alone, because a devotion to one promotes narrowness of view and a wrong Jogmwective. Ove of be, naturally, the main subject—the man’s business or profession. The others should be en- tirely distinct and different. I know a man who 1s at the head of an important and elaborate railway en- terprise in Boston, and whose whole time before dinner Is engrossed by this business, But in the avenings he studies astronomy, finds in this pursuit both refreshment and intellec- tual enlargement. Music isa favorite tsgecond love” with many, and chemis- try, geology, botany, h , sociology and a dozen other special’ of study are replete with attractions. 1 : | POPULATL MELODIES, ————— Compoacrs of the Tunes that Please, ! — How many of the thousands upon thousands who daily whistle, hum or sing the catchy melodies known as the popular songs of the day pause to won der who com them? How many think of where, and under what cir- cumstances they were written and how much money they put into the pockets of the authors? It is safe to say very few. Yet there are many interesting facts connected with the birth and su uent popular- ity of these songs. A new air is intro- duced, and for a time no one knows it, But the orchestras take it up, the bands play it in the streets and soon the small boy is whistling it on every thorough- fare. Even the business man uneonsciously hums it as he hurries to his office, Lastly the hand organ man tortures the public with its too often heard and worn-out strains, Some of these melodies have made the fortunes of the COMPOSErs, while many others of much greater merit have been sold for a trifle, and have afterwards brought the purchaser & handsome return upon his speculation, The musical ear of the public is exceed- ingly fickle, and when a new song is launched upon the ocean of public opinion, to sink or gwim, its fate is but a matter of conjecture. Some of the well-known songs which are now ut the zenith of their popular- ity were composed in one of our State prisons and were published when the author regained his liberty. SINGERS GENERALLY ( OMPOSERS, Nearly all of the really successful song-writers are singers upon the stage, and ‘t seems to be an indisputable fact that those who sing before the public acquire the faculty of catching the pub- lic ear and of producing melodies that take. When a song is sold outright the composer receives any where from $5 to $25 for his work and relinquishes all claim to money received from its subse- quent possible popularity. The more conservative of the writers, however, give their productions to a publisher and retain a royalty upon them, usually about ten per cent, and if the song scores a hit they reap large returns from its sale, Of this latter class who was a tenor sin Frank Howard, | ger with the imine | ape one of the most noteworthy Howard composes both the i ar stand point be plac- f Hie has been writing for about six | years, during which he has produced | “When the | “178 Await My | fleather Dell,” and | many others, It is estimated that be Wie has cleared over $30,000 by the sale of Robins Nest Again, 1 Sweet Another very popular composer is tanks Winter, who sang tenor in the same minstrel company with Howard. Wigter made his reputation singing Howard's song of “I'll Await My Love." fe th wrote White Wings" and scored success which 1s It was this song | én a only too well known, which established his fame and fortune as a ballad writer, He subsequently wrote “Dear Robin I'll Be True,’ and “I'm Waiting My Love's Return," both of which had a successful run. JORDAN'S CONTRIBUTION, Thatcher, Primrose & West produc- | poser in Julius Jordan. He wrote Picture | greatest | my Heart,” which is now familiar to | nearly every one, ! An exception to the rule is Paul | 3= § He has nevertheless written among | which are “The Letter That Never | Came,” “Mother Told me So" and | +The Convict and the Bird." Jolin F. Mitchell, while his songs are i most He mple melodies which popular. “Her Own “The Exiles Lament,” “Have You prolific of successful composers. usually writes si productions, Mitchell is a strong contrast to Frank Howard, for the reason that he usually richer for his many compositions. “White Wings’ seems to have been remodeled from an old Irish reel, and “The Letter that Never Came’’ is sim- ilar to an old Scoteh air, “The Song that Reached My Heart" is of course a rearrangement of *‘Home, Sweet Home,” but even this has been done vefore in England by Mitchel Watson when be wrote “That Was the Song For Me.” In some instances the alrs are im- proved, but in others very much the re- verse, Something entirely new in the way of ballads has yet to be produced, but after all, the public might refuse a novelty the popularity which it readily accords to these revisions, so 0 speak, of old melodies. “That ‘there ia noth- ing new under the sun’’ seoms at pres- ent to hove become a musical truth. sis RIANA Farnishing Compressed Air. ————— USDA, A company in Birmingham, Eng- land, are completing a large central plant for furnishing compressed through mains to the owners engines, Trials alread shown that i LAVING ON THEIR SHAPE, How Two Harmless Dudes Were Taken In by a Southern Hotel Proprietor. Two perfectly-dressed young men met recently on upper Fifth avenue, They greeted each other with that ex- aguerated assumption of ennui which dudes affect so much, “Hello, old chapple.” drawled one, making a vain attempt to slightly raise his eye-brows and retain ln its place a single eye-giass at the same Lime. “Thought you were out of town.” “Just got back, dear boy,” said the other, stroking with his gloved hand the merest suspicion of a moustasche. ‘*Been to the Branch?” “No; I'm tired of the Branch, 1 took a run down to the Springs in Vir- gina. Beastly place, but awfully cheap, you know, Stayed a month and only paid $16.66 for hotel bills.” ‘Gad! that is reasonable. How'd you work it?” “Didn’t have to work it at all; the hotel people did that. First I went to the Rock Island Springs. Thought I'd stay a week at $2.00 a day. At the end of the first week the hotel proprie- tor told me he only charged young men two-thirds regular price, Said there were too many girls there for the men and he had to hold out attractions. 1 stayed there three days later, and then paid my bill and gave the hotel man & blowing up. Found he'd been cheating mel” “How?” “Why, I discovered that they were boarding young men at the White Sul- phur Springs for nothing. Of course, the chappies had to be good dancers and know how to flirt, But I didn't mind the work so much. Dandy lot of girls there, Stayed there for three weeks, I couldn’t stand it any longer, so I struck. 1 wanted the hotel man to pay me & salary. He wouldn't do i Lh He must have been beastly close, Cholly.” “He was, dear fel’.” Then the two young men turned into Delmonico’s and drank two glasses of milk, ——— A ———————— How Americans Inv ite Sanst roke. Before Crockhart assumed steamship Devonia he served many years as first officer on steamers plying through the Mediter- ranean and Suez canal to East India On his last trip to New York a reporter about the Capt. ons and sunstrokes found in the newspapers here during the torrid ++1t is astonishing,” sald be, “that a so long unchecked, for the vast ma- jority of sunstrokes are easily prevents able by affording proper protection to the head, Almost every man I meet New York has his hair trimmed diminutive lawn mowers in the hottest months, and wears the flimsiest sort of a hat, wheth- That is a weak rays of scorching sun. Women safeguard in their abund ant hair, especially when they wear it coiled on the top of the head, Of are pot as much exposed to the ratio of prostration would be much larger amobg the males cropped hair, sSunstroke is almost un- known among the natives of eastern countries, You may think that the heavy and ungainly thing to wear above one’s brain, but instinct and experi- ence have taught him the advisability the head, no matter how coolly be may apparel the rest of his body. Then, too, the general in countries near the equator. Europeans in the east realize the value of light but thick helmets, You in New York will kind of hat in summer. Then there will be few sunstrokes, except such as are produced by sheer negligence or al- cohollc excess.”’ C—O. Social Tactics, There is a thirteen-year-old boy in Cambridge who is a great “society man” and who is referred to by his friends on all points of etiquette. He was overheard one day giving some “pointers” to a boy about his age, but who had Apparently none of his friend’s aplomb, Boy No. 2, whom we will call Fred, was saymg anxiously, “But I never know what to say toa girl at a party. What do you talk about, any- way?" “Oh, that’s easy enough,” replied the society man. “First you say ita a lovely night for a party; then you hsk her if she doesn’t think the rooms are a little warm." “Yes?” interrogatively, from Fred, “Well, then ask ber it she's fond of waltzing; {hen-then-—oh, say that the floor is very slippery.’ “Well, what next?” wOh!"—evidently a little strained ‘gall her you like her step; then” —sud- den inspiration—*‘ask her if she doesn’t want a glass of water; be a long time getting it and by the time you get back some other man "ill be wi her." ——— A A Whale of Reddish Brown. “Persons who think a whale is black,” “will be disappointed if the go to see the monster now on exhib! tion in New The { FASHION NOTES, ~.Yereu es and the open woven wool braids are used to trim flannel und serge bathing suits, China crepe neckerchiefs, fringed and embroidered, are the prevailing fancy for piazza Wraps. ~ Old-fashioned large embroidered white muslin collars are features of many of the dresses recently brought from abroad. ~The newest India silks are in cash- mere designs, and next summer’s cos- tumes will doubtless, a majority of them, show these effects. ~The very finest stockings now im- ported are of silk, in white or pale col- ors, with the fronts of lace, or elabor- ately embroidered in colors. ~The ecru pongees this season show a decided suede shade, These are most effective when made up with skirts of biack or brown silk or of lace. ~The English toque is also much worn in Pans, It has & round, ball shaped crown, and is very simply trimmed with velvet and a small bou- quet of flowers, —1vy leaves are a very favorite trim- ming, especially the tiny, roundish ivy, which 1s called *Ruines de Rome,’’ be- cause it is saad to grow nowhere but on the ruins of Rome, —A pretty little sailor suit for a tiny girl was of serge. The skirt was in box plaits; blouse waist with wide sailor collar, and vest front trimmed with fancy braid, Full sleeves, gathered with cuffs, were trimmed with the same braid. As hinted above, hats are larger and more fanciful in shape than ever. Besides the Tosca and the Derby, we have now the Aureole, which, is put on very much at the back of the head, with its broad brim frames in the head with very good effect. One 1s of black chip, trimmed with black velvet and feathers. Another, of golden bronze siraw, is trimmed with hop blossoms, clover and dande- lion flowers run to sead. —Among the latest {mportations was & lovely dress for a little girl of bengaline in two colors. The body and princess back were of the dark color, | the back of the skirt being in box plaits. | The front was made of pufls and a deep flounce of hight material, The | vest was of the same goods, the front | being in one continuous piece from the | collar to the bottom of the skirt. The | collar was made of shirred folds of the | light colored goods, 21bbon bows with | ends were | tervals down the front of the dress and {also at the sides, where the shirred | lounce mot the back plaits,. A VY | shaped scarf trimming passed over the | shoulder and was fastened at the walst- | line at the front ani at ihe back; the | point at the back was large bow of ribbon or sash of surah. On the shoulders were epaulettes of the ibbon at | the poluts, ~The redingotc dress 18 very useful and practical for a traveling dress, or for walking in the couniry, or on the beach, It 1s made in different ways, but generally falling in straight panels at the sides and front, and slit open behind to show a plaited under skirt. | A pretty redingole of this style 1s of granite—a fancy woolen Ina~ terial—and brown and beige striped sThe front is finely piaited, and trimmed above the hem with a | border of brown ribbed galloon, three bands of the same are placed on each side of this front part; the sides are quite plain; the back 18 slit open in the middie, and shows & plaited skirt of the pekin. The bodice 1s trimmed with strips ot the ribbed galloon, and astron of while piaited surah, Coat sleeve with facing trimmed with galloth, In other toilets the redingote style is combined with some few draperies, one result being very elegant and eJective, Of this mixed style is & very pretty dress of fancy woolen crepe and peau-desole, shade of hellotrope. Panels of the peau de sole fall straight irt of thin silk. The i 1 i | 1 | the woolen crape is loosely plaited in and at the back there is a short drapery of the same. Close fitting bodice of peau de sole peaked in front, The back pieces and the jeft front piece are trimmed with embroidery, and a drapery of crape is crossed over the right side front from the shoulder to the waist, Coat sleeve with draped facing of crape. —Simple costumes and extravagant bats, such is the verdict for this sume mer’s fashions. Flan skirts Quaker-like sloaks are associated with the most fanciful and bizarre of head- goars, We mentioned In our last Bonne Femme, 1tis useful, a little singular. There are, happily, besides this, a number of other models—mantelets and jackets, We have taken note of one which is simj ly exquisite; it 18 tight iting jacket of peau-deso rather long on each side, style. This jacket derives from its trimming. This con- ornaments of passemen- beads and handsome the cloak but just [HORSE NOTES, —~John E. Turner has been sick. —T. Wood Martin, of Philadel phisg started the horses at Buffalo. —Mike Welch, the well-known trai- per, died at Chicago on July 20. — Budd Doble shipped Oliver EK. back to Chicago from Cleveland. —Rody Patterson refused $5000 for his young pacer Dessemer, record 2.15. —~Clingstone worked a mile at Cleve~ land on Friday August 10th in 2 15%. first haif in 1.084. —W. H. Forbes, Boston, Mass, has purchased in England and imported to this country several Engligh thorough bred mares. In America and Australia a two- mile race is just what its name im- pHes—in England it means preliminary gallop and a mile race. ~Harry Morris, the amateur jockey, has entirely recovered from tbe acci- dent received while nding Warrington in the steeplechase at Saratoga. ~T,. J. Miadagh, of Patterson, Pa.. has taken his stable of trotters to Port Royal, where he will put them into training for the (all campaign, —The breaking up of the Appleby & Johnson statle will release Hayward, and his services will probably be se- cured by Mr. Belmont for next season. —A Gentlemen’s Driving Club was organized at McKeesport, Pa., last week. It was decided to build a half- mile track betore the close of the sea son, There were three gray horses fa one of the races at Monmouth on Tuesday August Tih, & very rare sight, and two of them ran frst and sec- ond, ~The ankle of one of Dry Monopole’s front forelegs is very much swollen, and it is feared that his racing days are over. Fletch Taylor, another of Wal- ter Gratz’s cripples, may see the post again. —Why Van Ness should make such a drive against a horse like Prince Wilkes no one can imagine, One might as well try to kill a steam engine by rapid work as do up ihe Prince, and the result was Rosalipe felt ber punishing brush. —The prize of a handsome cuit of horse clothing to tho handsomest win- | ner at the Cleveland meeting was | awarded to George A. Singerly’s ch. 8. Prince Wilkes, E. A. Buck, David Bonner and J. H. Perkins were on the committee, J. I. Case says that Jay-Eye-See | always had a foreleg under suspicion, | and It nas twice been blistered. He | was started in his work too s00D this | season and went lame and bad to be | fired. The veterinary says that the { leg with rest will grow strong and | should stand campaign work next | year. | At the Cleveland meeting recently | there were forty-nine beats trotted or | paced 1n harness, and the average time was 2.19 1.7. This is the fastest on record for four days meeting. The 2.13 | heat of Johnston under saddle, and |the 2.05% of You Bet, with running | mate, reauce the average to 2.18 13-17. | —The Detroit Driving Lub has ad- | ded to its programme for mber 4 ‘to 8 a breeders’ premium, Known as | the Detroit Driving Club Roadster | Stallion sweepstakes, The premium is | $1000, to be awarded to the best stal- | lon, with five of his gel of any age, | to be shown at will : | —Black Hany died at 8. D. Town- | send’s farm, Dear Kembleville, Pa., on | July 25. He and his mate Momtor | were sold by W. C. France to Frank | Bower. of Philadelphia, in 1871, and | were for many years the fastest pair of | horses in this section. He trotted | Point Breeze track in £.28. | ~-Elkwood bas not broken down. { The injury to his Jeg is similar to that { which befel Emperor of Norfolk | There is nothing whatever the matter with the tendon proper, the trouble being entirely with the sheath or cover- ing of tbe tendon. It is thought that the horse must have struck himself at | some time or other. Ekwood will probably be given a resi until next spring. There is still considerable talk ers buying or leasing another race track. The jatest is that they recently made Mr. Shults, the trotting breeder, an offer of $1000 a day for the lease of bis track at Park. ville for an sutumn meeting. The track is about two miles from Bay Ridge, and the Dwyers, it is said, of- fered to go as far as to offer to build a nd suitable for the occasion. —**Lucky Baldwin hasquite a string of racers in the spring, but what with accidents of one kind and another, and particularly the enforced retirement of the Emperor Norfolk, Miss Ford and Volante, the stable is by no means a formidable one just now, Of the stake animals, Los Angeles Was relied on 0 capture a number of 3 yerr old Eastern 8 § Eg Lit 8
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers