in? the ixittles to the table, his face
quite a blazof benignant satisfac
tion.
Betty. lying upon the sofa, arrayed in
a pretty plaid dress, unconsciously took
care of all the nitro-glycerine of princi
ple that threatened to blow up their new
social platform.
u O dear Mr. Mohen!" said she, "I'm
so sorry! hut we never drink wine at
our Thanksgiving dinners."
" Not trink vine?" exelamed the
amazed Karl.
" X<ir said Betty. "And I'd a
great deal rather not have it, you see.
because / belong to the Temperance
Band, and so does Miss Jones. I'm
awful sorry." added Betty, just ready
to crv at displeasing her kind friend.
"Veil, mine little Petty, have it shust
de vev you like," and he at once set his
offending donation aside.
Betty's mother asked God's blessing,
and thanked Ilim for inclining their
hearts to each other, and after that the
wit, the wisdom, and vivacity of 310
flowed out in unstinted measure.
Such very interesting people as they
all turned out to be!
Betty's mother was only a washer
woman by reason of weak eyes, her nat
ural talent lying in the direction of fine
sewing, paper-flowers, etc. The Misses
Jones belonged to decayed gentility, be
ing grand-daughters of the late' Col.
Jones, of Jonesville. The Bents had
a second-cousin in Congress, and Myn
heer's uncle was a Lutheran clergyman
over the river. Tiiey grew extremely
polite as they discovered what highly res
pectable |>eople they were: and ai't< rdin
nerthe gentlemen brought up the asthma
tic melodeon, and Miss Eliza produced
two hymn-books, out of which they all
sang. Then Mynherrgave them rousing
solos, and at last they sang merry-go
rounds, and nearly deafened each ot .t r
in the chase and catch of "Scotland's
a-bu ruing."
What a delightful time it was. and
how they thanked Betty for the loving
spirit that had dared* to suggest a
Thanksgiving dinner among the incon
gruous elements of a city tenement
house!
How Mynherr walked to the Mission
door on the following Sunday with Miss
Eliza, and how he went in and sat down
the Sunday after, and how his orders
increased until he had no room for all
his coats and vests and journeymen, and
how he and Miss Eliza one day took
Betty to look at a new house in a tidv
row, I am unable to tell, because it is !
always lest to keep to one's text; and
mine, you know, was only No. 310.
The Potter Journal
AND
NEWS ITEM.
COUDERSFORT, PA., Dec. 20. 1872
TO THE PUBLIC.
/ The reader has already been in
formed that the POTTER JOURNAL lias
a new proprietor, or rather an old
one has come back to it.
The generous words with which
Mrs. Dyke commended the new en
terprise to the patrons of the JOUR
NAL, will aid us in securing a kindly
welcome; and incite us to greater
efforts to deserve as much of the fa
vorable mention madeof us as is with
in the compass of our abilities.
It is the ambition of the present
owner to make the JOURNAL one of
the best local newspapers in the
State. Knowing full well that he is
incompetent to do this with his own
pen, he lias engaged the best writing
talent of the village to contribute
regularly to these columns.
A local editor of experience, tact
and ability will give our readers each
week a fresh and graphic picture of
passing events, and take note of all
matters of interest in tiie County.
Other writers devoted to the suc
cess of the JOURNAL,and to the pros
]>erity of the County, have been en
gaged to assist in the editorial de
partment. These arrangements will
secure greater variety and make the
paper more useful and instructive
than could well be expected if but a
single mind dictated all the editorials.
Early in January the paper will be
enlarged to seven columns and will
be otherwise improved in its mechan
ical appearance.
These changes and improvements
impose considerable expense upon
the Proprietor, and he solicits from
POTTER JOURNAL & NEWS ITEM.
all persons who desire to assist in
advancing the growth and increasing
the prosperity of this favored county
of Cotter, active support in extend
ing the circulation of the JOURNAL.
More brain work will be put on it
than ever before; more labor of all
kinds will be given to it and more
capital invested in it. I have un
doubted faith that the people of this
County will generously appreciate
these increased expenditures and will
respond with a large increase of sub
scribers.
The I'OTTER COUNTY ITEM, con
ducted with so much spirit for eight
months past, has been merged in the
JOURNAL, and S. F. Hamilton, pro
prietor and publisher of the ITEM,
will, under tlie new arrangement,
publish the JOURNAL. This announce
ment is sufficient guarantee that the
paper will be all that can be desired,
so far as its mechanical appearance
it concerned.
So, the enterprise is undertaken
with hope and confidence. This
County-is about entering upon new
life and prosperity. I have an ear
nest desire to make the JOURNAL a
litting opponent and representative
of this new and better life we are
just entering, and to give etlicient
support to every honest effort for
improvement.
✓T he JOURNAL was established in
IS4S, in the interest of education,
temperance, justice, integrity, true
democracy and the best interests of
the County. It lias bravely held to
its original purpose, and now, after
almost a quarter of a century, pledges
new energy and greater zeal in the
advocacy of the same grand ideas.
With this explanation oft he change
that has been made in the ownership
and publication of the JOURNAL, we
commend the enterprise to the atten
tion of all the people, and bespeak
for it such hearty support as the men
and women of" Little Potter" usual
ly give to a worthy movement.
THK PROPRIETOR.
THIS village of Coudersport is a very
pleasant one, neat, orderly, thrifty look
ing. andcontainsas much good society as
any village of its size in the state. The
citizens. y< umgaiul < >l<l. arc generally well
disposed, well behaved, well dressed and
good looking. But we are sorry to
notice now and then, as we go up and
down our pleasant sidewalks, and in
and out of our stores and other public
rooms, that some of our hoys are defici
ent in good manners. We desire to say,
in all kindness to the lmys of the village,
that no good, but much harm, will come
to you by forming coarse and ill-man
nered habits; that you will he more re
sjiected, and uns)>eakahly more happy,
if you will cultivate courteous habits to
all, and shun coarseness and rowdyism
as you would a miasma.
" IT IS necessary that by the very con
stitution of tilings power should be a
cheek to power," foi Doctor Priestly
wiseh said, "Then* is no earthly power
that has not grown exhorhitai.t when
it has met with no control."
A MAJORITY < f the stock of the Tri-
Inmt Association has been purchased by
the friends of lion. Schuyler Colfax,
who haveoflfeied that gentleman twenty
thousand dollars a year to take charge
of its editorial department. The offer
will undoubtedly he accepted, and the
I rilrui will again be a Republican pa
]KT. Although Mr. Colfax cannot till
the place made vacant by the death of
Horace Greeley, he can do very much
to restore the paper to confidence and
respect. This nation contains many
able but very few better men than Hon.
Schuyler Colfax.
New Books.
Books arc new to us when we first find
them, though they may he quite familiar
to our less tardy neighbors. As a late
riser looks out upon the morning and
exclaims upon its loveliness, a voice at
his side may say, "(Hi! it has been de
lightful these two hours," or "There
was a slight shower early, that makes it
so fresh now," so we late sleepers re
mark or things as we find them now.
Ilere is "Mother (foose for Grown
Peop'e," by Mrs. Whitney, author of
so many good books that scarce any one
needs to lie told who she is. T can re
member thinking Mother Goose very
silly, and wondering why people kept it
j up through so many ages; but long ago
I learned to see great wisdom in Simple
Simon, and to think whether it might
not lie in some others. Mrs. Whitney
1 solves this question to all our under
standings, though she does not mention
Simon, thinking, perhaps, his lesson
was manifest to all.
'• Hojw beckoned Youth, and bade him keep,
On Life's broad plain, his shining sheep;
; And while along the sward they came,
lie called them over, eaeli by name;
This one was Friendship, that was Health,
I Another Love, another Wealth,
One fat, full-fleeced, was Social Station,
Another, stainless. Reputation;
| In truth a goodly flock of sheep—
I A goodly flock, but hard to keep."
—as we most of us know.
We must ever lie grateful to those
: who show ns new and better meanings
| in simple things—meanings we may
! have had glimpses of but could not fol
| low out ; thankful that some write
| poems and prophecies with the A 11 C
| we scarcely learn ; and, liest of all, to
; know there is no end to the jioems and
prophecies—to the meanings and teach
ings that shall yet unfold from the sim
ple words of our humblest i>enple. As
this author says in her "Conclusion,"
" For many a fool, and prophet too,
Hath spoken wiser than he knew."
—so doubtless we all do.
Here is the closing melody;
Tint ion SCORE AND TEX.
'• How many miles of the weary way?
Three score miles and ten.
Wheic shall I l>e at the end of the day?
You shall be back again.
" You shall prove it all in the life-long round;
The ioy. and the pain, and the sinning;
And at candle-light your soul shall l>e found
Rack—at its new beginning
" Down in4he grave the old man lies
In from the earthward wild,
At the open door of Paradise
Enters a little child."
Mother Goose seems to he the style
this year; for here we have her songs
set to music. Pleasant, simple tunes,
as they should lie, but we fear all the
time that they are not quite the same
as when crooned over cradles in the
days when our great-grandmothers were
little folk. We have the same old words
—we would like the same old music.
| Who will give it to us? This compiler
does not claim to do so; but if this is
accepted now. and is, as I trust it is,
eminently suitable, it will probably lie
sufficiently ancient in the course of two
or three hundred years.
"WHOEVER is strong enough to tell
the truth will invariably find it to his
own interest to do so."
Christmas.
Christmas is coming once more, with
its one great break in the ordinary rou
tine of life; with all its reminders, social,
historical, and sacred, and we can hard
ly let it pass without some word of all
it brings to us.
In these short days and freezing nights
the thought of the watchful shepherds
011 the plains of Gallilee. brings restful,
cheery visions of milder skies: of climes
where the winter is less severe, while
the vision of glory that hurst on their
enraptured sight, the announcement
i made through the darkness and the still
| ness;of the light and joy and glory that
: had come to the world, swells our hearts
| and makes them overflow.
So, as the year conies round, the
time laden with all these associations
brings us nearer to each other, makes us
| long for all kinds of brotherly commun
ion, brings the wish to share the good
gifts we have received, makes it easier
to share them, since, in the spirit of
brotherhood, anything, whether great
I or small, can lie offered without offense
| and accepted without humiliation.
Everyone, (from the highest to the
i lowest, we were about to say, but that
there is no high or low for all are breth
ren at this holy time,) can give good
gifts, and many are the loving thoughts
and deeds that make homes happy and
the homeless less desolate.
We have not the vast charitable insti
tutions. for which in the cities every
body is called on to provide, but we have
our own few poor, whose Christmas day
can lie made brighterto them, and we hope
none of these will lie neglected. There
are enough in our village who are able
and willing, nay, glad to give, to sup
ply every humble household with abun
dant comforts for that day at least, and
the cheer of one day is a brightness that
will last through many dark hours of
the coming year.
But there are pains and miseries far
worse than poverty in our neighborhood;
a darkness of sin and shaine against
which we should all lie roused to new
watchfulness and more earnest work.
Even here, where the whole Christian
feeling and even the law is outraged by
it, is intoxicating poison sold and given
to those who have within them a terrible
temptation, and homes that would other
wise be peaceful are made places of ter
ror and misery, and little children ex
posed to danger of life and limbs.
Let every one of us. warmed by some
inflowing of that I )ivine love that comes
in blessing to the sorrowing and sinful
world, seek new and stronger power
against this curse of our friends and
neighbors, for they are some of them fal
len among far worse than thieves. Let us
labor anew to reclaim even those who so
guiltily tempt them, that they may not
bring the worst sufferings they offer to
others,on themselves and their families.
So shall this he a blessed Christmas
to us all. charity and loving kindness
reacli to every heart and home, and every
good thing he strengthened and every
evil weakened for His sake, who was
born among the lowly, labored among
the guilty, and died to turn mankind
away from drunkenness, from all that
leads to it, and all its brood of crimes.
Brightening Prospects.
The Buffalo. New York Phila
delphia Railway is nearly complete.
Trains will run regularly to Emporium
after the lirst day of next month. Five
miles of the new road, including Keating
Summit and station, arein this County,
and will very soon develop a large terri
tory, now an entire wilderness, into life
and activity. This road has already
been of great benefit to the farmers of
Potter County. In fac tit has been the
chief market for their beef cattle for six
months past, and lias kept the prices of
i all kinds of farm produce from sinking
; below remunerative figures.
We know of several men having but
moderate improvements, each of whom
has already realized five and six hun
dred dollars for the surplus crop of the
present year; and we do not know of a
single farmer, who has kept reasonably
industrious, that has not done well.
Every ton of hay and every pound of
lieef in the County has been increased
in ils market value by the construction
of the B„ N. Y. & P. R. R.
The people in 11 lis section are greatly
benefitted in many other respects. It is
now only thirteen miles from Couders
port to the railroad; and no more labor
to goto Philadelphia. Buffalo, or New
York, than it was before the construc
tion of the new road, to goto Emporium
lor Wellsville. For these great improve
ments let us all he duly thankful, and
let us prove it by increasing ourf ait It
in the capabilities of our County, and
by greater activity in all efforts to im
prove the situation.
GENERAL I)EXT said a pretty good
thing the other day to the Washington
correspondent of the Cincinnati Om
mnri'if. Speaking of the failure of the
great newspapers in the late campaign,
the General said: "this country aint run
bv papers. They are good tilings in
their places, but when they try to do too
much the people snap them up."
Going to School.
This morning, Decemlier 10. we again
see the eager gathering of scholars;
crowds of boy s streaming by with hooks
and slates, some too, with balls and
; sleds, equipjied for the new campaign.
Girls in bright woolen hoods and warm
wraps, with their books tucked under
their shawls, and only tlieir dinner pails
held in the inittened hands, go cheerily
through the snow. We never see them
without quickened pulses and brighter
eyes. They are a part—no small part—
of our daily cheer; and if by ••< >nr dailv
bread " is meant, as we believe, wliatev
er is needed for the sustenance, toneftt
and growth of soul and body, then
this glad going to school of so manv
children some of it.
A friend says: "1 never see theni
going, particularly on the first day, but
I feel as though I mxsf go too." That
is the way many of us feel as we grow
too old to sjtend our time in that way.
though we may not have felt it so much
when we were young. Then, frosted
feet and aching lingers, tumbles and
bad colds, may have taken a share of
our attention; while headaches over
hard tasks, and sometimes what seems
to us, miserable failures, made us long
for the time when lessons should In
over.
The road in front of us has no stones,
that far behind has neither ruts nor
mudholes; which is. perhaps, the reason
that school days look so bright to us old
children. But let any wearied man of
business, worrying over the dangers of
this or that investment think whether
he was not as much harrassed onceover
the multiplication table or by Tom's
getting above him in class.
So while we rejoice in the little JK-O
ple's zeal and earnestness, and share
their enthusiasm, let us not forget their
trials but give. them hearty sympathy
in every way.
Vcn and syrtesors.
Tm- WEEK OF PRAYER.—The otli
cer> of the different branches of the
Kvangelical Alliance have issued their
annual programme of topics for the
week of 1 'raver, extending from .hum
an-.">th. "78, to the lgtli. The follow
ing are the subjects selected:
Sunday. Jan. sth.— Subject— Tbrlwik
dat ion. security and universal extension
of the Christian Church.
Monday, Jan. Htli. —Devout Acknowl
edgment—Remembrance of God's mer
cies to the nation, to families and to
the churches; providential and spiritual
blessings to ourselves; confession of
sin.
Tuesday, Jan. 7tli. —Prayer for Chris
tain churches; their increase in love,
activity, fidelity to truth, and the clear
er manifestation of the unity in the
faith; for ministers, missionaries and
evangelists.
Wednesday, Jan. Bth.—Prayer for
families; for sons and daughters of
Christian parents; for a blessing on
home influence, and on the services and
ordinances of the "Church of God;"
for schools, colleges and universities;
for children at sea or in foreign lands;
for young men in business and profes
sions; for servants, and for all in sick
ness and tribulations.
Thursday. Jan. 9th. —Prayer for na
tions; for kings and all in authority;
for the spread of religious lilierty; for
the growth of sound knowledge; for
contentment, concord and good will
among all classes; for the discernment
of God's hand in national judgments,
and for the removal of intemperance,
immorality and the sins which arc a
"reproach to any people."
Friday, Jan. 10. —Prayer for mankind;
for the circulation of the Holy Scrip
tures. and the spread of pure literature;
for the overthrow of all forms of tyran
ny and oppression: for the removal of
every form of antichrist; for all prison
ers and captives, and for the increase
of that kingdom which is "righteous
; ness. j>eace and joy in the Holy Ghost."
Saturday, Jan. 11.—Prayer for Sun
day schools; for missionary, tract and
! other religious, societies, for raising up
and sending lbrtli of more " laborers in
to His harvest," and for the removal of
! hindrances to the spread of the gospel
and the conversion of the world.
Sunday. January li'. —Sermons—"Let
the whole earth be tilled with glory.
Amen and amen.
HOMESTEADERS in the West, if they-.*
get their land without money, do not
get it exactly without price, for we
hear of these pioneers in places where
timber is scarce, who live in sod houses,
with p-'per windows, and who burn
river-bottom grass, twisted into ropes
and dried, for fuel, and actually bring
themselves to believe that it gives out
great heat and is very nice. There are
two sides to this Western business.
"MB. PRESIDENT," said a member
of u school committee out West, "I rise
to get up, and I am backward to come
forward in the course of edication.
Had it not been for edication, I might
have lieen as ignorant as yourself, Mr.
President."
A CORRESPONDENT asks; " Don't
you ever get tired of getting up in the
morning, eating, drinking, loafing
around, and going to lied, wondering
why in the devil you were ever born?"
Answer reserved.