•VOL. 48.
The Huntingdon Journal.
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AP. W. JOHNSTON, Surveyor and
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BF. GEHRETT, M. D., ECLEC
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DISAPPEARED.
YES, I can tell you the story of my dear
old friend Bayle; no one better. Some of
my friends here may have heard it before,
but it will bear hearing again. I can't
say I'm proud to say it, because it's too sad
an ending, as far as be was concerned, poor
fellow, though I myself bad a lucky escape.
James Bayle was a very peculiar man.
I don't think any one understood him ex
cept myself. He was certainly more open
with me than with any of his other friends
or acquaintances. It was three years ago,
in November, when he came up to London
to stay with me, in this very house. Ho
used to go out on long walks by himself'
every day, and I knew his object, for he
had confided to use the &et that he was
going to marry a young girl somewhat be
low him in station, and he was looking for
a house in London, as he intended to work
hard on two or three journals, to the staff
of which he had long been attached.
The sort of house that he looked for,
was, as you may believe, not a very dear
one Ho naturally wished for a very quiet
situation; and as he was a man who had
always lived in the country, and was very
fond of flowers, he said he would put up
with any inconvenience as long as he could
have a piece of ground to himself. He
told mo the sort of a house he required,
and I told him the direction in which he
would most probably-find one. It was one
Wednesday, I remember, four days after
he had been with us, that he went out
rather earlier than usual. We never ex
pected him to return very early; but when
the dinner bell rang, and we found he had
not come in, we felt a little uneasy. He
was a very shy man, as you know, and ve
ry particular; the last thing he would be
likely to do was to be purposely late for
dinner, without giving us any warning
We waited twenty minutes, and then sat
down without him. He never came back
at all that night, nor the next day, nor the
day after that; in fact, as you all know, he
never came back at all.
We went to the police office at once;
and I was very much amused at the theo
ries set up by the excellent detectives to
account fbr his disappearance. I told them
I believed it very likely that be had been
looking for a house, or if not, that be had
gone to the British Museum ; but they got
it into their heads that he had been decoy
ed into the slums of St. Giles or Westmin
ster, or had committed suicide ; and noth
ing would dissuade them at first from these
two ingenious theories.
They asked 1130 if he was not a man of
studious, solitary habits, rather eccentric.
I answered : "Yes, certainly."
"Then depend upon it," said the ser
geant, 'he's in the Regent's Canal or the
Thames."
This reasoning was so unanswerable that
I did not attempt to answer it, but I de
termined to test my own theory first.
Hitherto we had been able to find nobo
dy who had seen him. He knew very
few people in London, and he was not the
sort of man to attract attention. I began
my endeavors to trace his movements in
rather a novel manner.
I started every morning from my own
house at the same hour as he had done. I
stood for about five minutes in the street,
and then I set out in whatever direction
chance suggested to me. For eight days
I walked about fifteen miles a day, looking
everywhere for any house to let which
would have been likely to attract Bayle's
attention, but I did not get any clue. I
found several which he had been to, but
not on the dayupon which he disappeared.
On the ninth day I started at the same
hour ; this day I selected a district which
I knew to contain one or two houses such
as he required. I walked on in the same
unpremeditated manner, turning down any
street as chance led me. I was very much
dispirited, so much so that I had forgotten
I was hungry, when I found myself in a
very quiet part of one of the western sub
urbs. I was just going to try and find
some place where I could lunch, which
promised to be no easy matter, as there
seemed to be no shops or public houses
near, when my eye caught a very crazy
looking board which was peering over the
dingy corner of a dead wall straight in
front of me. I walked up to it and read :
"This eligible villa to be let, unfurnished,
with one acre of ground, stabling, etc.
Terms very moderate. Inquire within."
I could only see the top of the house,
which seemed very low, and some little
way from the road. The front looked on
to Duddon's Grove; on one side was a
Dissenting chapel, standing in a - small
piece of ground; on the other, a very qui
et, lonely lane; there was a door, evidently
leading to the stable yard ; it was bolted,
and there was no bell. I tried to make
the people hear, and failing, I returned to
the front entrance, which I had not seen
before, and after some little trouble, I
found the bell, and rang it. Five minutes
elapsed before any one answered the sum
mons, and then a man opened the door,
and asked me what I wanted He was a
cunning, dirty-looking fellow, with very
peculiar eyebrows, growing in patches, as
if he had the mange. He looked as if ho
had been drinking, but he did not speak
quick, nor was his gait or hand unsteady
but the bloodshot eyes and blotchy face
made me feel sure that he was not a man
I should care to leave in charge of a house.
One other peculiarity I noticed then, and
that was the great length- of his arms,
which gave him the appearance of a great
ape.
He led the way down a damp gravel
walk, overgrown with weeds, through what
had been a little garden. On the right
hand side I noticed a largo patch of very
very rank grass round a broken sundial.
I remarked to the man that the soil seem
ed pretty rich there.
"Yes," he answered with a kind of hoarso
chuckle, "the grass do grow very thick
and sweet juit`there ; and it ought to, con
sidering wba'ts underneath."
"Why," I inquired, "what is underneath
there ?"
"Clay, of course," he answered, with
another chuckle, and by this time I found
myself at the front door of the house.
It was a singular little place. The win
dows of what was probably the dining-room
opened into a rickety, moldy veranda,
which terminated at the porch. This porch
projected some little way from the house,
and at once struck me as space very ill
utilized, since there was no room above.—
Two urns, that looked as if they were af
flicted with gangrene, surmounted the
front door; the lattice-work that had once
been put up for the creepers was nearly
all rotted away. One or two chimneys
were quite ready to drop, and the whole
place looked as if it \vas built of moldy
cheese.
"Not in very good repair, this house,"
HUNTINGDON, PA., WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 20, 1873
I observed to my hideous guide.
"Oh, quite good enough. Only wants
a little touching up here and there."
I can't tell you when it was that the
peculiar feeling which had taken posses
sion of me ever since I looked at this un
inviting' property, pronounced itself so
strongly as to become a distinct sense of
horror. But it was so now, and as I look
ed up at the puckered faoe of this ape-like
man, I saw something that almost made
me utter a cry of dread. But I restrained
myself. I should not have been such a fool
any other time, but I had been now walk
ing about for seven hours, and my break
fast had consisted of one cup of tea.
We entered the house, and in the pas
sage we found a woman waiting for us.
"My wife," said the man, "she will go
through the rooms with you," and then
he disappeared through the house into the
bad: yard.
The woman took me into the rooms on
the ground-floor. I observed nothing par
ticular about them, except that they were
very gloomy. There were no rooms on the
basement, except cellars. The kitchen,
scullery, etc., were on the ground-floor. I
say that there was a yard, with stables and
wash house in it; I went into the stable,
and found that it was a little more than a
shed; the wooden back abutted on some
waste ground, enclosed by the low wall of
tane which I have mentioned before. Al
together, I never saw such a lonely house
so near the busy part of the west end of
London. I asked the woman how fur it
'cas•te Piccadilly, and she told me only
tfteen minutes walk. She turned out to
be quite right, for I had wandered round
and round so much in that day's expedi
tion that I was much nearer the civilised
region of Belgravia than I thought.
The peculiar feeling which I have men
tioned was still strong on me. I was per
fectly sure that, somehow or other, I had
lighted on the real clue to my dear friend's
fate. I dare say you will laugh at me, a
practical old money-getting fogy, when I
tell you that I felt, as I ascended the stair
case of this house, that James Bayle was
close beside me.
As I said, there were only two stories to
the house; but it was a straggling sort of
building. The woman took me through a
sitting-room, which she called a drawing
room, but which in its present state was
much more like a lumber•room with noth
ing in it, and through this, across apassage
to a much smaller room, which she and
her husband used as their dwelling-room.
There were two children of very unpre
possessing appearance—a boy and girl.
They were fightinc , for something when we
entered, and we had hardly got inside* the
room before I saw that the boy bad wrest
ed from his sister a small pencil case.
"What have you got there, my little
man ?" I said. "Let me look." He show,
ed it with pride. There was no mistaCing
it. It was a somewhat peculiar one, made
of ebony and silver, and I recognized it at
once as having belonged to James Boyle.
I suppose my face must have betrayed
my agitation, fot the woman looked at me
closely and then remarked :
"It's a pretty little thing as little Johnny
picked up the other day when he was out;
If I could find who it belongs to, I should
be very glad."
"Oh, its not worth much," I said; "it
is well it has fallen into such honest
hands."
We now went up three steps, and into
a larger room.
"This is the best room," she said;
"there is another one next it, in which
rubbish can be stored."
I saw nothing in the room worth no
ticing, and followed my conductress into
the next one. These rooms had all doors
opening into the passage. I thought I
heard the handle of the door move as we
came in. There was a peculiar smel here,
a very sickly smell.
I began to feel uncomfortable, and was
at a loss how to act. There was no reason
to disbelieve the woman's statement about
the pencil-case ; and yet I felt sure that it
was untrue. I went to the window in
order to gain time. I heard the passage
door open, and when I turned around, the
man was standing there.
"I hope the gentleman likes the house,"
he said. "It's a little damp, but it is very
cheeerful in the Summer, and so quiet.'
"I suppose there is net much more to
see. It's rather a gloomy place,"
"Well, you see, it's a dark sort of a day,
but with a little trouble it might be made
a beautiful villa." The man moved the
door leading to the bed-room as if he was
going through.' When he said this he
turned around from the door; he had one
of his long arms in the pocket of his coat,
which was open. I noticed that many of
the waistcoat buttons were torn off.
I stood reflecting a moment calculating
the chances I should have in a struggle
with him.
They seemed in his favor.
"I think I may as well be going if you
will give me the address of the landlord, I
will write to him."
"Here's twe more nice sleeping rooms
on this floor," said the woman, and she
opened a door at the further end of the
room, which I had not seen. I followed
her down two steps, into a fair-sized room.
The sickly smell grew, stronger here.
There was a stain in the middle of the
floor, which looked as if it had been lately
washed.
"You can go out this way, sir; the
landlord will re-paper these rooms, and do
all necessary repairs, he told us to say, sir.
I tries to keep this place as clean as I can,
but of sours; it looks rather dull." She
had got to the door, and stood still to allow
me to pass, and with her hand on the hen;
dle. I could not see the man. I was
feeling in my pocket for a small coin to
give her, when she opened the door half
way, and courtesied. I passed on. and
before I had time to turn back, the door
was shut on mc. The smell I bad already
perceived was horribly strong here. I
turned giddy. I had almost lost my
senses, when a blow from behind knocked
me down . I had jest time to get a glimpse
of some chemical apparatus in the corner
of what seemed more like a dark closet
than a room, when I felL
I remember nothing of what happened
then. The first signs of returning sense
was the perception of a pungent odor.
Then I felt something run over my head.
Then I tried to move. I was covered with
straw. I was in the shed of the stable
evidently, and the smell of the manure
acted beneficially in rousing my brain. I
was very weak from loss of blood, but I
knew that if I didn't exert myself at once
I had little chance of escape. I crawled
to the door of the shed ; it was locked.
If it had been open I did not know how I
I could have escaped across the yard without
being seen. I examined the outside wall
of the abed. I found a place where the
boards had been mended, about three feet
from the ground.
Fortunately I had with me a large
pocket-knife, containing, among other
things, a saw and a screw-driver. I worked
away at the boards as quitely as I could ;
it was very bard work. My head was very
bad all the time, but my arms were not
hurt. I started at every noise; sometimes
it was a rat running across ; sometimes the
horse in the stall; but no one came to the
door. In about half an hour, as near as I
can reckon, I had sawed through three
planks, and loosened them sufficiently to
make a hole big enough to crawl out. I
put the knife in my mouth, and slowly
crept on my hands and knees into the open
air. It was raining, and the rain refresh
ed me very much. I could not walk up
right very well, so I crawled on till I got
to the wall, which was luckily very low.
I managed to pull myself to the top, and
then reeled and dropped in a heap on the
other side. There was a gutter in the
lane, and it was full, for it had been rain
ing very hard. I washed my mouth out
with the water, which, dirty as it was, was
grateful to my parched throat. Keeping
by the wall, I staggered along till I came
to a lighted street. Here I got help;
the police office was close by. I got a
couple of policemen ; then we got into a
cab. They made me stop to have my
head dressed ; but I could not rest, though
the surgeon insisted on me doing so, till
I found out what had become of James
Bayle. •
We got to the house. The police got
over the wall and lifted me over. We'
found the an and the Woman sitting in
the kitchen. When they saw me, all pale
and bandaged she fainted away and he',
was paralyzed with terror. He made no
resistance. We went up stairs, and I
showed them the place where I was struck.
The little room, or closet, at the door
of which I fell, had been fitted up as a
labratory. An old retort, on a spirit
lamp, stood' in the corner. The window
was blocked up; there was no chimney.
The strange smell was still very strong,
and the poisonous vapor had not yet all
dispersed. We searched the rooms, and
found some clothes and other articles
which I identified as belonging to James
Bayle, and which be. had on or about
him when he left my house. The man
denied all knowledge of Bayie, and swore
the things bad been given him. But we
had no doubt as to his fate.
Both the man and woman were taken
to the police station at once. I bad
fainted, and they took me home. A po
liceman was left in charge of the place.
The next day, on examininr , the garden,
his attention was =directed to the spot
where I had noticed how rank the grass
was. He got a spade, and about two
(feet under the ground he found a body.
When the sergeant came they worked
together, and dug out three corpses, two
in a very advanced state of decay; the
other was still recognizable as the body
of James Bayle.
I was very ill for some time. I owed
my life to an accident. Almost immedi
ately after I was knocked down a ring
at the bell came. They thought I was
dead, and, hastily throwinr , ' a coat over
me, carried me into the shed. They hid
my body in the straw. Meantime the bell
rung twice. It was the landlord's agent,
who had called upon some matter of
business. He did not stay long; but al
most immediately after he had gone, a
friend of this respectable couple came in,
bringing with him a most welcome guest
in the shape of a bottle of gin. To this
happy arrival I owe my escape.
The murderer and , his accomplice, as
you know, Both committed suicide. He
bad been a chemist, and was by birth an
Italian. The two other bodies were
never identified, but there is little doubt
that they were murdered in the same way.
poling fa the ii; Min.
A Favored Planet,
IS THE EARTH THE ONLY INHABITED WORLD?
The idea that in other worlds life may
exist in conditions widely different from
those prevailing on this world in which
we live, however plausible at first, becomes
highly improbable when tested by the light
shed on this subject by the accumulated
knowleclge of modern research in the fields
of astronomy, geology; spectroscopy, and
chemistry, especially that branch of the
latter science pertaining to organic com
pounds. Thus it has been suggested that
granted even that when the temperature
of the moon, and other satelites of planets
has been cooled to such a degree as to
freeze all water—living ereaturos may ex
ist there, having a liquid in their arteries
and veins as uncongelable as mercury, gly
cerine, alcohol,. etc. ; or, inversely—grant
ed that the planet Jupiter is red hot, and
the sun much hotter—living beings may
exist, consisting of fire-proof materials, and
of such an organization as to feel happy
and comfortable in an atmosphere of su
perheated steam, as in Jupiter, or even
while swimming on a surface of melted
lava, surrounded by an atmosphere of white
hot iron vapor, rig would be the case in the
sun.
Astronomy, now so powerfuly aided by
the modern tools of the scientist, having
proved that the terrestrial, elements exist
throughout the whole universe, only dif
ferently distributed, and chemistry having
studied the behavior of these elements un
der extremes of temperature, we know now
that the possibilities of the existence of
organic life are comparatively within 'very
narrow limits, and confined to a range of
not much beyond 100 degrees among the
6000 or 8000 degrees to which our inves
tigations have extended. We have learn
ed that the wonderful properties of that
common but most marvelous substance,
carbon, aided by liquid water, at atemper
ature below 110 degrees, are the absolute
and essential conditions which make the
development and continuation of life a
possibility-. Without these, no life can
exist.
It may be objected that in other worlds
there may be another substance, as effec
tive in its function as carbon in our re
gions, and that therefore we cannot make
any conclusion as to the necessity of car
bon for the existenc of life. In order to
meet this argument, let us consider the
properties of carbon, which, by modern
scientists, has rightly been called the
great organizer. _ _
A substance, in order to take the place
of carbon in the economy of organized ex
istence, must be able to combine in differ
ent proportions with itself, to form a com
plex molecule, in order to enter again into
complex combinations. It must exist as a
solid, but also easily pass into the atmos
pheric condition by combination with
another substance, equivalent to oxygen,
so that all vegetation may bo surrounded
by an atmosphere containing carbon in
such a state that the plant may obtain it,
and complete, with this substance as a solid
basis, its organic tissues. We may go on
and sum up other conditions which this
supposed substitute of carbon would have
to fulfill, in order to take its place; but
then lee should in the end be driven to the
conclusion that a substance which possess
es all the properties of carbon would be
carbon itself. But now comes the spectro
scope and teaches us that even the comets
consist chiefly of carbon dust, and that
their purpose may be to supply the plane
tary atmospheres from time to time with
some of this necessary element, when
sweeping close along them, as is often the
case.
As the latest investigations prove the
identity of the elementary matter in our
whole planetary system, (and this even
extends to a great number of the fixed
stars), we can come to no other conclusion
than to accept a unity of chemical opera
tions, of crystallization, cell building, or
ganic growth, and organic life in general,
of course greatly modified in accordance
with the conditions of gravitation, atmos
pheric pressure, distribution of elementary
matter on surface, and especially of tem
perature. If now we look carefully on all
the conditions required to make life pos
sible on the surface of a planet, we see that
these conditions are very complex, that
not only the elementary matter, possessing
the different required qualities must be
present, but also in the exact relative
quantities, in order not to annul the re
sults of this distribution. Let us, for ex
ample, only consider the amount of hydro
gen present on our - earth's surface, We
know that nearly all of this element is
combined with oxygen, forming the exten
sive oceans, rivers, lakes, clouds and mois
ture in general, in fact, the only source
from which we can obtain this element is
by decomposing water. This compound is
indeed burnt up hydrogen, and this burn
ing up, tf course, took place at an early
gbological period of our earth's history.
Therefore all the hydrogen has thus been
burned up, consuming an equivalent
amount of oxygen ; and the latter now
forms eighty•eight per cont.•of all the ter
restrial water. But suppose that there
had been some more hydrogen, just enough
to combine with the small portion of oxygen
(21 per cent.) contained in the atmosphere;
the result of the combustion would then
have been some more water in the ocean,
raising its surface only a few feet,. while
no oxygen would have been left in the at
mosphere. In this case, life would have
been simply impossible, and the earth
would now be desolate. It would be easy
to adduce other instances proving how
complex the conditions of life are, and how
improbable it is that all these conditions
are fulfilled everywhere at once.
We conclude, then, that our earth is a
highly distinguished planet, at present
favored above hundreds, and perhaps
above thousands, with conditions which
have not alone rendered the existence of
vegetable and animal life'possible, but de
veloped it to the highest stage of organic
existence, namely : civilized and enlight
ened human races, able to investigate and
discuss the highest problims in the uni
verse, which are the laws of its creation,
progress and ultimate purposes.— Scientific
Ames-ken.
What Public Men Owe to Newspapers
Col. Forney complains, in a well-written
article in the Philadelphia Press, that
public men are, as a class, ungrateful to
the newspapers and the journalists to whom
they, in many instances, owe their position.
Nobody is more competent to speak on this
subject. than Colonel Forney himself. He
has made more statemen out of small ma
terial than any meg in America. He has
taken snore active part in the personel of
American politics in the last twenty years
than alniost any other man. Much of his
work has been that of a politician rather
than that of a journalist, but in either ca
pacity he has always been able to serve his
friends well, and has always served them
faithfully. His reward has been very
small. If he had let polities alone, and
devoted himself exclusively to journalism,
he might have made a greater name than
Greeley's, and a greater fortune than Ben
nett's. But he was always very fond of
helping some friend to an office, and his
experience of ingratitude has, no doubt,
been that of a hundred others who have
operated in the same way on a smaller
scale. Make a governor out of an alder
man to-day,, and to-morrow he'll tell you
that he owes his elevation to his own su
perior merits. Forney made a President
of the United States out of James Buchan
an—but before the old public functionary
lad taken his seat he repudiated his paten
tee and manufacturer in the most ungrate
ful manner. Congressmen are made by
country newspapers—yet when they go to
Washington, it wouldn't be safe to tell
them so.
There is too much puffer . ) , of small men
in the newspapers now-a-days—too much
disposition to exalt gentle dullness and
amiable imbecility into intellectual great
ness and real ability. Every chuckle-head
in Congress gets more praise from tho press
of his party now than could truthfully
ha . re been bestowed upon Daniel Webster
in his palmiest days.
The Pennsylvania Central Extending
to Halifax.
One of the most important railroad com
binations of the period is to be consum
mated in a few days, resulting in a direct
line, under a single management. between
Halifax, Boston, New York and all the
principal American cities of the South
and West. The Pennsylvania Central is
the chief figurehead in the movement, and
all the intervening roads between Boston
and Halifax are to be swallowed up by
that giant corporation. A large party of
railroad officials interested in the combi
nation left here this morning on a tour of
inspection of the line, and their journey
will not end this side of Halifax or Prince
Edward's Island. The party included the
Directors of the Eastern Railroad, some of
the Directors of the Pennsylvania Central
Railroad, and others. Along the route
they will be joined by Directors of the
Maine Central Railroad, and the whole
party will remain in Bangor to-night.
'Tomorrow morning they will start for
St. John, N. 8., over the European and
North American Railway, the officers of
which will accompany them, and from
thence they will extend their trip the fol
lowing day to Halifax, via the European
and North• American Railway and the
Nova Scotia Railway. The object of the
tour is partly one of observation, and to
this will be added the consummation of
the proposed consolidation of the Eastern
Maine Central and' European and North
American roads by the signing of the con
tracts between them. The presence of the
Pennsylvania Central people is significant,
from the fact that they are large owners
L I in the European and North American
road, and that they and the Eastern man
agement are both largely and directly in
terested in the New York and New Eno ,
land, formerly the Boston, Hartford and
Erie Railroad. *
Through trains between Halifax, Boston
and New York will be run at an early day.
—Cor. N. Y. Herald, Av. sth.
The Release of Kuklux Prisoners
Speaking of the recent action of the na
tional Administration concerning the South
Carolinans accused of taking an active part
in the Kuklux outrages, the Charleston
News & Courier says: "President Grant
has done a gracious thing in ordering the
discontinuance of the pending prosecutions
under the Enforcement Act, and in virtu
ally promising that. most of the persons al
ready convicted shall be pardoned. In
exceptional cases no pardon will be grant
ed, nor will the prosecutions be discontin
ued, and we trust that the President will
see fit to designate by name, or in some
other unmistakable way, those whom the
Government includes within the excep
tional class. Unless this is done a dan
gerous latitude will be left to prosechting
officers. * * * It is not pretended to be
said that the peace, in public matters,
which reigns in South Carolina, was a
bait to secure a pardon, or a mitigation
of punishment, for persons accused of Ku
kluxism. The State is at peace because
the public rights of the freedman, as se
cured to him by the - Constitution of the
State and of the United States,are frankly
acknowledged by all classes of citizens. In
elections the effort is, not to prevent the
negro from voting, but to persuade him to
vote a particular way. In like manner we
do not pretend to say that to the clemency
of President Grant will be the continuance
of friendly public relations between the
whites and blacks. Those relations would
have been cultivated as a matter of self
interest and self-protection, irrespective of
the result of the petition presented by
Messrs. Porter. Kershaw, and Sims. The
value of the action of President Grant lies
in a dificrent direction. It is grateful to
us, because it is an indication that the ear
of the President is open to the appeal of
Southern men who now obey the laws as
faithfuly as, during the war, they served
the South. It is highly esteemed by us
because it encourages the feeling that Gen
eral Grant is President of the whole coun
try, of South as well as North, and is not
swayed by prejudice or vindictiveness in
considering requests which can Ise granted
consistently with his ideas of public duty.
In a strictly material sense, moreover, the
discontinuance of the Kuklux prosecutions
will have a marked effect upon the South.
At one time the stampede from the upper
counties of South Carolina caused large
tracts of valuable land to be abandoned,
and left hundreds of women and children
dependent one private charity. There has
been some improvement of late, but the
President's order will bring peace of mind
to thousands, and in that way will encour
age
and help those who are working hard
est to give new health and strength to the
State. The action of the President does
him honor, and time will show that his
conduct in the Kuklux matter was as wise
as it is generous and just."
Tit-Bits Taken on the Fly
The watch factory at Elgin is asseFsed
at $882,000.
Rome is reported to 14 very unhealthy
this summer.
Five women have applied for seats in
the Graphic balloon.
Wild horses are abundant in Southern
Texas, and the hunters are after them.
The health of King John, of Saxony, is
such as to occasion apprehensions of drop
sy.
The Graphic has secured the exclusive
right to the newspaper sale on the air line
to Europe.
Vienna has sixty splendid orchestras,
each as full and perfect as that of Theo
dore Thomas.
It is perfectly safe to turn horses into.
fields of potatoes where Paris green has
not been used.
The health officers of New York are in
vestigatino•b two deaths alleged to be from
Asiatic cholera.
The spring clip of wool shipped from
San Diego county, Cal., for New York this
year was 249,004 pounds.
Stars, it is said, make men dizziest dur
ing the early morning hours. Hundreds
of wives can testify to that.
A Buffalo man•probed the head.of his
son•in-law the other day with a pitchfork,
to see if he had brains.
Horses should not be allowed to nip at
potato tops on which has been sprinkled
Paris green to kill the bugs.
Kentucky has 3390 manufacturing es
tablishments, and ranks in this respect the
fourteenth State in the Union.
The brewery of Valentine Smith, at
Jeffersonville, N. Y., was destroyed by fire
on Wednesday. Loss $lO,OOO.
. "I come to steal," as the rat observed
to the trap. "And I spring to embrace
you," as the trap replied to the rat.
The man who comes on the stage exactly
at his cue is prompt; but the man who
does not - come on at all is prompter.
The Indianapolis Sentinel thinks the
regretta news, as set forth in Massachu
setts papers, worse than the cholera.
If you want a ride on Lake Winnebago,
Wis., inquire for the little steamers. Suet
en awbexuon and Ni nnogivan ishkote.
The photographers recent convention at
Buffalo decided that members of the pro
fession were entitled to be called artists.
A strictly temperate young gentleman in
Virginia recently shot his brother to cure
him of habitual inebrity. It cured him.
It is announced that until the end of
1876 the commercial treaties of France
with foreign Powers will remain unaltered.
Six thousand blue fish, averaging three
pounds each, were taken with a net at
South Bay, Long Island Sound, the other
day.
A big bottle of prime rye whiskey has
been dug out of the ruins of a building
that was burned in 1860, at Jackson, Mi
ohigan.
A Cleaveland youth had his hand taken
off in a planing mill lately. He was to
have given it away in marriage next day,
anyhow.
Advioes from Berlin announce the fail
ure of Herr Hoff, a well-known manufac
turer, with liabilities estimated at 600,000
thalers.
NO. 33.
Surgeon Kidder has been ordered to the
Naval Academy; Acting Assistant Sur
geon Owen to the Philadelphia marine
rendezvous.
American newspapers and magazines
published in German have been forbidden
by the German government to be sold in
that country.
The Emperor of Germany proposes GO
proceed to Baden-Baden about the Ist of .
September, to spend there the latter half
of the month.
The total loss by the Portland, Oregon,
fire is $1,158,666, which is comparatively
greater than that by the conflagration in
Chicago and Boston.
Oue hundred and sixty Russian families
have just arrived in Omaha, and will take
up homesteads in Nebraska, one hundred
miles west of that city.
Controversy and Chemistry—Why is
absolute dogma, your reverences, like ab
solute alchohol ? So please you, because it
is utterly above proof.—Punch.
William H. Whalley, a member of the
British House of Commons, has arrived at
New York for the purpose of soliciting
subscriptions to aid tho Tichborne claim
ant.
A New Orleans juryman was asked•by
the justice if he ever read the papers. He
replied "Yes, your Honor; but if you'll
let me go this time, I'll never do so any
more !"
Van same man slaps me on der shoulder
und say, "I vas glad to hear you vas so
well," und den sticks pehind my pack his
fingers to his nose, I half my opinion of
dot yeller.
The engineer who had charge of the el
ectric light for a recent illumination in
Constantinople found himself totally blind
the morning after. The intensity of the
light did it.
The Sha's visit to England has given
the burlesque writers ample material for
Christmas pantomimes in London. In
Paris they have already 'shown him up"
at the cheap theatres.
The Congregationalist says: It is only
in the pulpit that striplings are formed.
The professions of medicine and law de
mand maturity. The congregations seem
to have an appetite for veal.
Two New Orleans dry goods clerks
fought a duel with pistols in an empty
Warehouse last Monday. At the first fire
one was wounded in the hand, and honor
vas declared to be all right.
On Thursday morning, in the New York
Supreme Court, Judge Pratt granted a
writ of error which operates as a stay of
proceedings in the case of the condemned
murderer William J. Sharkey..
The English government has succeeded
in finding coal in the central provinces of
India. The mineral extends over a sur
face area of 'sixty miles in length, and
front fifteen to twenty miles in breadth.
The New York Street Commissioner,
who is backed by most of the people and
the press in his conclusion, thinks that the
city must return to a good stone pavement
and waste no more money in testing wood.
The total amount of the consumption of
tea in the United States is about 50,000,-
000 pounds, of which 20,000,000 is green
tea of various descriptions, about 15,000,-
000 Oolong, and the remainder Japanese
and other varieties.
Senator Ramsey is on his way home to
St. Paul from Washington, with assuran
ces that the good officesof the government
will be interposed, and no doubt success
fully, to secure the release of the party of
Minneapolitans now languishing in the
British bastile at Fort Garry.
The whole number of dead letters re
ceived and disposed of at the Post-office
Department during the month of July was
321,379, a larger number than for some
time past. Of this number 7701 were re
turned from foreign countries, and 19,510
were returned to foreign offices.
A project is on foot, says the London
Times, for a subscription of about £60,-
000, to establish a short line of railway in
China as a present to the Emperor; with
the view of bringing the Imperial mind to
a sense of the advantages to be derived
from the introduction of such works.
On Tuesday, iu Newark, during the ab
sence of the family, a storm occurred, and
the water poured down through the open
trap-floor on the roof into the closet. It
passed through an American flag, and then
on to a number of light silk dresses, dye
inn them all red, white and blue. Loss
about $4OO.
Some of our young lady friends are
wont to observe that the only decent thing
about Adam was his rib, and that was ta
ken from him to 'make something better.
An old bachelor asks, "Can any one tell
why, when Eve was formed from one of
Adam's ribs, a hired girl wasn't made at
the same time to wait upon her ?"
A philosophical Kentuckian who had
but one shirt, and was lying in bed while
the garment was drying on the clothes
line in the yard, was startled by an ex
clamation from his wife to the effect that
''the calf had eaten it." "Well," said the
Kentuckian, with a spirit worthy of a
better cause—"well, them who has must
lose."
Scene : crowded horse car. Strong
minded female—" Sir, I would have you
to- understand that, in this enlightened
century, no one but a brute would suffer a
lady to stand in this manner." Mild
looking old gentleman savagely—" Madam,
I belong to the dark ages, and, if you call
me a brute again, I'll shake the life out of
you." Female faints; grand hysterical
tableau.
A man of Springfield, Vt., has invented
a new suspension bridge. It consists of a
single wire stretched across Black river,
and a car that will contain two persons,
that travels back and forth on the wires.
The east end of the wire is the highest,
and the momentum of the car serves to
carry it across, a distance of two hundred
feet, iu fifteen seconds. Returning the
car travels to the centre of the wire with
out help, and from thence is drawn up by
a cord attached to the ear, the entire trip
occupying only thirty seconds.
A curious battle took place, recently, at
Pelham, N. IL, between a hen and a snake
which wanted to dine off some of the
young chicks. The matronly lien made a
loud out-cry, and at the approach of the
reptile flew at it with ruffled feathers and
threatening beak, which its adversary eva
ded as best it could, but finally, after re
peated efforts to secure a chicken, and as
many rebuffs by the hen, it crawled off
into a wall, and the frightened and enraged
bird clucked a retreat and got away with
out the loss. of a single member of her
family.