lit'painoter Nultingencer, -PtralAsnan ziriarrritsititritritat nt . .= jc •I&co ' , A.'J. STEIDTIIAN H. Brattit:' ' Dollati Per a 711113111, payable all MUMS In advance. th/V1 L&NCAEITER DAILY INTELLIGENCE - 4 1/I publiched every atrenlng, Sunday excepted, at 36 per Annum An advance. • for.Toz—sournwror comm. or CIMITSE 8¢170¢7....;...: Notirm. , Written for the Intelligencer. LINES ON REVISITING THE HOME OF CHILDHOOD. ==! Hell! scenes of youth to memory deer, HOW oft in dreams I've wandered here, Od It awl o'er pleaturea keno: But far where other zephyrs llst, Where other flower. the stream lel k in,ol I'd wake an oche lone. But now that dream no longer fade•, I rest beneath thy forest shades, And hear ihy w tern roar: I see thy wild blue mountains rine ! do d lift their peaks to greet the sic,. I hall my home one : more. 'low oft when on some prairie wild, Ave dreamed I was a aweless child, • Playing around thy dour; I've fowled When some gent e breeze, Would pay no mi , dly through the trees "Twos mothent ♦ olce once more. But never once In all my dreams, Came there a shade o'er fancy's beams Wafted by rutllla, , Time; I saw her lu my childhood's home, I thought not of the deep, each tomb. Ur the dull funeral chime. , Borate Its moss•grown walls I stain] Waiting to clasp a fath. is hued. • . . . . . Receive n skter's kiss I'm PM. , leg now a nuaber's Jo). When sho beholds her lung-10,l b,y And then a brother's bill.— But BOOrt a 'granger turns the dour. And naks. What boon dust 'huh Implore Why nook a refuge here"" Alt: stranger, 't s my chin; hood's hoot•, 'l'o greet thong loved ones I have eome, Then, where the forms so dear:' Oh! wanderer, ask me not I pray, I would not speak thy doom to-day, weep thy der Inl ; Thatet , eum 11111 whule Ile pebbly a uy, Theme dowers still bloom o'er earth's droop But, wanderer, not for thee. "Ana %ould'At thou Neel; illy par ruts deur Clu to your churchyard, lone and drear, When black night gathers there; And thou, perebut.ce, tuey'll wander liwt I/ Awhile return to einfal earth, And breathe fur thee a prayer,' .11arki hear that a reet and Maven!). 4.11 d Buret from that mu-wehvironed 1110111:11. Like SoMa S W eel MU:, 0 IX LOIIV 00100! 'Us thy hinter's voice That bids thy aching heart , rejoice, And aing—" Thy w dono.'' "AU! mounds too sweet for earthly tears, They've flown, and bow we abed rho tour • Of memory o'er her tomb; J.! whom that sighing cyprewl creeps, Neath Its lane glade thy brother sleep, Wrapped In Death', Ithadowy gloom. There mouldering tenth the grui..) . 41“1 Their epirlur flown unto their trod, The friend.. of youth repute; 'rhe night %elude, o'cir U 1 em nudly weep, Unheard by tho- e w hii cal rnly n: rep Wrath where the wild newer grew, Ilu paused—thu nad'ollnA tale wee 10111. The teurn of grief' la sorrow rolled, Adown my cure-worn cheek "At.l I have crown:. the Where peak on peak laid nature Ink .1, 'thy dearer hllln to seek." braved the Morley °mum Ivor, When da.liing :Badly igninst the shore, To view thy milder domains; 14,11 now 1 weep m d y Impale. own, Fur thou art changed, the Light of Hume For 1111. 110 longer gleam, Thou, fare thee well my native laud, Throughout sumo il Intent foreign etraiiii Illy thought. , uhal I turn to thee, And tho' mY home llns o'er the wave, Nenth thy lone willows mut e my gutty And thy flowers plant o'er ale. fditoaq. Family Ghosts What Is the reason why ghost stories have a peculiar charm at this period of the year? Is it that the long nights naturally recall our thoughts to the shadowy beings of whom night Is the peculiar time? Or is it that we want to increase the relish of the Christmas fire side by tinging ourcomfort with a little imaginative fear to make it more pi quant? For if there was no fear, or suggestion of fear. at all events,—even to minds thoroughly incredulous about ghost-storles, there would be no pleasure in them. The lurking sentiment of awe Is as much necessary to their enjoyment as the lurking sentiment of pain to the enjoyment of a tragedy. You know that the tragedy Is only a play, and you kuow that the ghost story is only a yarn. Nevertheless, the halt conscious coming and going of pain and fear, in both cases, is an Indispensable elementof the admiration and the joy. I. am going to , deal on the occasion with a special class of ghosts, and a class, let me tell you at once, of the highest respectability. There are ghosts and ghosts. We are not to deal just now with your'plebeian apparitions,—your murdered miters, haunting old tumble down places, and that kind of thing,— but with spirits boasting the entree into the best houses of the kingdom. There are parvenus among them to be sure, but they are parvenus whom the high est people are obliged to receive,—to re ceive, ay, and to treat with great respect into the bargain. They make themselves quite at home, indeed, and find their way to rooms In the highest mansions, where none but members of the family are in the habit of dwelling. Family ghosts, I say, are a special class of ghosts. Let use add that they are a modern class of ghosts. I find no trace of the family ghost proper among the ancients. Like heraldry, family ghosts aro essentially feudal—not clas sical. They belong to a life of castles in the country- to races living for gen erations surrounded by the same woods, dying in the same bedrooms, being buried in the same church vaults; to a kind of isolation throughout, which made the consciousness of common blood or klnsmanship all the stronger. It is to this concentrated sort of exist ence, with all that it implies, that we must look for the germ of the particular belief under review. The family ghost belongs to the fam ily, as a family, though it is not neces sarily seen only In certain places.— Nevertheless, as the old families of Eu rope have generally lived most of their time at their principal seats, these seats have In most cases come to be consider ed the peculiar haunts of the family ghost. The White Lady of the Hohen zollerns, for instance, has usually been talked of as loving to appear at Berlin. Her reputation had reached England as early at least as Charles the Second's time, for she is mentioned by Aubrey In his Miscellanies. "Also at Berlin," says that quaint old gossip, " when one shall die of the electoral house of Bran denberg, a woman drest in white linen appearsalways to several w (thou tspeak lug or doing any harm forseveral'weeks before." The father of Frederick the Great fancied that he had seen this su pernatural lady-In• wai tin gon one oc casion; and her appearance was gos sipped about In the newspapers during the revolution of 1848; but she has not, •f believe, been heard of lately. As the White Lady is associated with Ber lin, so the Little Red Man belongs to the Tuileries. The Little Red Man,—a fearful hunchback, with a squint, dressed in scarlet, and having a serpent fora cravat,—ls said by the tradition to show himself in tile Tuileries before any.calamity which may befall its mas• tars. This legend Is sure to live, for Beranger has based on it one of his best songs, "Le Petit Homme Rouge." With admirable philosophical humor, Beranger makes him appear In 17112, in gahots, singing the "Marseillaise"; and gain, during Charles the Tenth's reign, Ina big Jesuit's hat. There was an at tempt to set going a story that Bona parte had seen the malignant little bob• goblin in Egypt; but this never took root, The little Red Man belongs to the Tuileries and the Bourbons. In these two conspicuous instances, the apparitions invariably portend dis aster. And this is true et the vast ma jority of the apparitions which such legends record. Very commonly the family ghlist has injuries done in a long pet age to avenge ; and he comes to predict Calamity, because he loves the office. Thus, the Monk of the By inns, as their decondant the poet tells, was wont to visit Newstead, for no good. He had been expelled by the Byrons at the Reformation from the Abbey, and his spirit came to vex those who had succeeded to his order. The wrongs of Drummer of the Ogilvles, Earle of Air lie, in Scotland, are more strictly per sonal. Mapy generations ago he was murdered and flung out of the windows of their castle, with his head sticking in his drum; having been found, it is said, aspiring to the love of a daughter of the house. Fver Since that time, his drum has been heard beating when misfor tune has bees impending over the race ; end it is said that a lady visit ingliae family during the present gener ation•, and ignorant of the • tradition, heard .him beating his tattoo while she was' dressing for dinner, and startled her' host tit'table by asking who his drummer ? A premature death In the family elrol4—so runs the story—fol:; tgelnplijent, ash/21144141nd was: tie Leda), tallton o a ghost which was , Wont•talveici the anclentialltens, ofliUtono in he °minty of Durham, one of theifireetunilles in the North. A ryitdn', of ElLlPinHer,tlaey were always risHwhose Servant had not ptiePgll tn gettApg his horae r ,114wAth. a hay4ork t " ILO /4; fahkil.Y , were ted Oust ever after. What 11.. . r -.' '. .T.:: Ir) I. :::r:r:;‘ , . -- c4 tai;....: - * cc :c - ; -i I t ~, . • z: ' • .1 F - 4 F,, P :Y 1"."2. ;1" .•.r.;:•-. .. .. ...,, g __,,,... 0 ..„ 0r:: , ,i . r. _ .... _ .. ,.. '7 — _ — __ ~ _ a 0.1.; ~....,,,,._:•_ •,-; - -.'..f- 7 !--• ..1. .i 'IC) ~. ....:L i, .....i '', ,'. -., ' ...; : - ' 1 .".• - ,: T "c‘i.. - •-.., '.:.:: .' • . . . ~: . . .„ . , b, ‘). ~... ~.',: .: 1. ...7 : ....- 1 . ( r. i, . :: ~,,I.L , : i 1:. : ::::: , . : i.:..f .,.. ,2 L.-o.i: _ . - ,, - 15. 1. 00. .: • r .-.' , _. , L. • ...;::. • ..., ; , : i ' ,, , • -...L • ;_:... - : ._•,1,7:1.1 1 .. . :-. • •, -•• ~ : i ~•'::' ! 1 k p ., 3'. : . ; ' , " P. . •_•,..c. i . i . j . .. " ''''' ... , : o'3." '.• 11;3'1= h - F '- , ''.`l -- .::71, - ;:;t1 7 ,.!:, r- L;i - , , • - ii..,'-' , ,•;.;. 7 .7:?7,: ~.i u ,- - . !.. ,ol 1 f • - I . ar il .' 0. .: rr::::1 77 :Id 1_ •,• .71:1 . . ~.1 GC - ._ . . .... l.ll —;, :q .: , '.O. 1•• ;I'.. ".."• r:•:' L:-:''!:?..; ....y 3' .: r: ' ',- • • n • •.,:11 ;!. %I -: - ..1 •:,•oi 1:31 ... . . .. .. • 0 01t I. •• :.. l' • - ll'S': 1 “ ~. . - '-' • , . ~ $). ..., ; 0 • In '., . • ;,- . Lil' ', . , . .. . . # • Si • , . . .. - - - .. I s i ' . • VOLUME 69 is curious, too,. and shovis that super ' national legends, like globules of quick j silver, run naturally into -each other, this Lad of Hilton came to be mixed up in the popular imagination with a famouS Brownie that'had - for ages at tached himself to Hilton Castle. You the Brownie v a kindly and useful sprite, is not a famlly ghost strictly so called. He Is a fairy, and the fairies have always been a people by themselves. All superstition Is doubtless more closely related to the passion of fear than the passion of love ; but the Irish Banshee gives her warning to families not in thespirit of hate, but in the spirit of sympathy. She attaches herself only to the old houses of her native land ; and when her sobbing and her wail are heard on the wind, she is sorrowing, not rejoicing, at the impending doom. The awe, then, that she inspires is mixed with tenderness; and the watching care of a hereditary Banshee adds to the dignity of a M'Carthy, a Butler, or an O'Neill. The Banshee of the O'Neiils was believed to have been heard before a fire which took place not very many years ago at Shsnes Castle; and it was affirmed by the peasantry that on the extinction of the legitimate line in the person of the !ate chief of the O'Neills, the Banshee would drown herself in Lough Neagh. When the race was at an end her mission of centu ries was over. I have heard a Banshee story more striking than any of those In Mr. Crofton Croker's book, and which was a great favorite with my late friend Alexander Smith. An Irish chief, who • had heard the Banshee, and wished to , escape her, came to Ihtidon. But her ' sorrowful cry, mixed with little heart breaking sobs, rose und6r his window in Park Lane. He went away to the opera, where, surrounded by all that was brilliant of the modern world's prose, he Loped to shake himself clear from he terrors of the old world's poetic dreams. In vain. No sooner did the orchestra break into the overture, than the fatal mournful cry pierced through the sound of all the instruments. The musical critics, we may be sure, did not hear it. 'Twas meant for one heart only in all the gay throng, but it knew how to reach that. One of the few family ghosts I have met with of which the associations are cheerful, connects ifself with the name of Lord Castlereagh. He was staying on a visit with a family in the north of Ireland, and waking in the night in an old chamber, he saw a singular vision. Et was that of a youngster, beautiful as Cupid, with tt, kind of aureole round his head and a sheen of light playing about him. Lord Castlereagh, not without some suspicion that a joke had been played upon him, mentioned the appa rition to his host. " Indeed," his host said, "that confirms an ancient tradi• tion about the room in which you slept. You have seen the Radiant Boy. His appearance is usually regarded as an omen of good fortune; but let us talk of him no more." Sometimes the family ghost is him self an ancestor of the race about which his spirit lingers. In such cases, he is always seen in the costume of his own age, and the legend about him is most commonly a gloomy one. A myth of the kind - sprang out of the career of Alexander de Lindsay, fourth Earl of Crawford, a stormy feudal noble of the fifteenth century, remembered in Scot land ae the " Tiger Earl." " The Tiger Earl," writes Lord Lindsay, •' is be lieved to be still playing at the de'il's bucks' in a mysterious chamber in Gla• mis Castle, of which no one now knows the entrance—doomed to play there till the end of time. He was constantly losing, it is said, when one of his corn panions advising him to give up the game, 'Never,' cried he, ' til the day of judgment.' Phe Evil One instantly ap peared, and both chamber and com• pany vanished. No one has since dis covered them ; but in thestormy nights, when the winds howl drearily around the old castle, the stamps and curses of the doomed gamesters may still, it is said, be heard mingling with the blast." In a few cases, one seems to recognize the action of a friendly family ghost, akin to that of the personal "good genius" of the classical world. A sea story occurs to me in illustration of this. During the great war, Sir Henry Dig by, afterwards an admiral, was bowling along In command of a frigate off Cape Finisterre. He had shaped his cburse for Cape Saint Vincent, and was run ning S. S. W., with a fair wind. He had "turned in" in his cabin, when at six bells in the first watch—eleven o'clock—he heard a voice close to him say, "Digby, Digby, Digby, go to the Northward!" It was so distinct, that he rang his bell immedtately for the officer of the watch, and asked if any body had been in the cabin. Nobody had been there. He composed himself again, supposing that he had been dreaming; and again, at twoAC'clock in the morn ing, came the same voice, with the same energetic advice, "Digby, Digby, Digby, go to the northward!" 'Phis time, Captain Digby acted upon the mysterious suggestion. He ordered the ship to be hauled to the wind; amitold the officer of the watch to tack every hour, and to call him at daylight. Great was the surprise of the lieutenant of the morning watch, when, coming to relieve his messmate at four o'clock, he found the vessel close hauled. "What does this mean?" he asked his friend. "Only that the Captain's gone mad," was the answer. But at daylight a strange sail was seen on the bow. She proved to be a Spanish prize with aheap of dollars and a rich cargo ; and that prize money laid the foundation of Sir Henry Dlgby's fortune. How explain this story, which rests, I may observe, on excellent naval authority? For my own part, I believe that the voice was that of one of the old Digby's,—perhaps of the ghost of the famous Sir kenelm, celebrated by Ben Jonson and many another wit. Sir Kenelm was a scholar and philosopher; but lie had fought a naval action himself, and could not but have a kindness fur a Digby serving England afloat. Here there was not an apparition ex actly, only a presence and a voice, and this brings me to another branch of the subject, where supernatural communi cations, though still of a gentle or family character, are made by other than ab solute ghosts in the narrower sense. They are made, we shall find sometimes, through the medium of our humbler fellow-creatures of the animal creation. Our ancestors used to associate these with themselves more closely than we do—nay they sometimes derived their pedigrees from them, and one of the great German familes professed to de. scend from a bear. It was held as a faith in some parts of England that the laboring ox used to kneel at midnight ou the night preceding the Nativity, and that the bees used to singatthesamehour. Naturally, then, what we superciliously call the lower animals were brought by our old sires within the magic ring of spirit. ual influence and affinity. For example, there is an ancient stock in the English peerage which receives its warnings from a white bird. A near cadet of these earls was one of my most Intimate friends and brother middies on the Mediterranean Station, more years ago than I care to remember. He has since told me that after he became a lieuten ant, being again fu the Mediterranean, he was sitting. In his cabin, at sea, when a white bird flew unexpectedly in at the cabin window. Of course, he thought at once of the family tradition. The very next mall which arrived at Malta brought him news of the death of his nearest and dearest, relative,—of the worst calamity, except one, that can be fall a man in that way. Another old line where' a bird was the link with the unseen world, was that of the Kirkpatricks of Closeburn, In Dumfriesshire, frum a cadet of which the Empress of the French is Bald to be descended. Impending calamity was announced to them by the apparition, on the lake before their chateau, of a swan with a bleeding breast. The story went that an ancestor had slain a swan in setae cruel and wanton way, and that the unseen power used the form onhat bird in which to remind them, .by the saddest association, of the Wrong Since I am talking of birds I may add that the better son sonar West Indian fam ilies suppose themeelves to receive these premonitions from owle,-en ill•omened 'bird among themegroes, as' it was (In spite obits place on Athenian coins) in this ancient world. !There are, however, some pleasant associations bet Ween birds and old leaflike. It is reported of the Dykeses Of.Dovenby, in Cumber land, that when' a daughter is to be married, the rooks follow the wedding party fgon2,the rookery to the church, and swarm pn the roof and on the tomb stones In the ohurohyard during the ceremony. ~zy__~ssi=~~: . . . . Finally, it may be.retriarked that ap- paritions of the genus under review are occasionally apparitions of some Mani , mate object, like the •marble head— ' spotted, according to some versions, with blood—which rises Mysteriously at Intervals, through the dinLng-table of We noble house of.Cirey; and on this legend the , late N. P. Willis, of Ame rica, founded a somewhat picturesque story. He made its chief interest turn on the fact that the head would not be seen by anybody who was not the blood of the family. And this is in harmony with the general spirit of such legends. They belong to the feudal or aristocratic side of modern life, which owes no lit tle of its poetry to them. But, besides their historical suggestiveness, they are strikingly Illustrative of the belief of I bygone times; and when carefully thought over, will be found pregnant with moral interest, into the bargain. Osculatory Anecdotes Distinguished kissing In the Pant When the Cardinal John of Lorraine was presented to the Duchess of Savoy she gave him her hand to kiss, greatly to the indignation of the irate church• man. "How, madam," exclaimed - he, "am Ito be treated In this manner? I kiss the queen, my mistress, and shall I not kiss you, who are only a duch ess?" and without more ado he, despite the resistance of the proud little Portu gese princess, kissed her thrice on the mouth before he released her with an exultant laugh. The doughty cardinal was apparently of one mind with Shel don, who thought " to kiss ladles' hands after their lips, as some do, is like the boys who, after eating the apple fall to I the paring." When Charles I. was making his triumphal progreaa.through. England, certain country ladies who were presented to him, instead of kiss ing the royal hands, in th'eir simplicity held up their pretty lipt4 to be kissed by the king—a bfunderho one Would more willingly excuse .than the red-haired lover of Nell Gwynn. Another poet, the countryman of Chartier, had two centuries later the honor of being kiss ed in the stage box by the young and lovely Countess de Villars ; but, in Vol taire's case, the lady gave the osculatory salute, not of her own free will, but in obedience to the commands of the cla mors in the pit, mad with enthusiasm for the poet's Metope." Georgianna, Duchess of Devonshire, as our readers will remember, gave Steele, the butcher, a kiss for his vote nearly a century since; and another equally beantiful woman, Jane, Duchess or Gordon, recruited her regiment in a similar manner. Duncan Mackenzie, a veteran of Waterloo, died at Elgin, Scot land, in 1888. He delighted in telling how he kissed the Duchess in taking the shilling from between her teeth to become one of her regiment—the Gor don Hiahlanders, better known as the Ninety-second. The old Scottish vet eran of 87 has left one behind him to tell the same tale about kissing the blue-eyed duchess in the market place of Duthill. The late Daniel O'Connell hit upon a novel mode of securing votes for the candidates he had named at a certain election, which test, considering the constitutional temperament of his coun trymen. is said tohave proved effectual. He said in reference to the unfortunate elector who should vote against them, "Let no man speak to him; let no wo man salute him." Gilbert Stuart, the portrait painter, is I said to have once met a lady in the streets of Boston who accosted him with, "ah, Mr. Stuart, I have just seen your likeness, and kissed it because it was so much like you." "And did it kiss you in return ?" "Why, no." "Then," said the gallant painter, "it was not like me." Some of our readers, who are not so young as they have been, may remem ber the famous Yankee kiss, and kiss of the last king of England before he came to his estate. While in New York the prince called at a barber shop to be shaved. When the operation was completed he stepped up to the barber's wife, who happened to be present, and giving her a kiss, remarked: "There, now. you can say you have i been kissed by a member of the royal family " The barber, greatly incensed by what he chose to receive as an insult, seized the prince, and helping him out of the shop with his foot, exclaimed : "There, now, you can say you have received a royal kick from an American I freeman." Chevalier Bunsen, who rose from an humble position in life to a great honor, was a man of vast savoir, but little eru dition. As a theologian, a character to which he most aspired, he was severely criticised by the celebrated Dr. Merle D'Aubigne. These two 'pavans met at Berlin at the Evangelical Alliance, held several years ago. Bunsen kissed Merle. , Of course the polite Genevan could not but return the compliment. Great was the ado about the " kiss of reconciliation as the Germane called it, much to the annoyance of Dr. Merlle, who had no idea of compromising the solemn wri ters of theology by a kiss. Besides, he said, he preferred the English custom lu kissing to the German. A delicate insinuation that, but the professor meant nothing wrong. At Boulogne, during the reception of Queen Victoria, June, 1855, a number of English ladies, in their anxiety to see everything, pressed with such force against the soldiers who were keeping i the line that the latter, in some in stances were obliged to give way, and generally were—to use the expression of our policemen—" impeded in the ex ecution of their duty." The officer in command observing the state of affairs, shouted out: " One roll of the drum—if they don't keep back, klee them all." At the first sound of the drum the English ladies took to flight. "If they had been French," said a Parisian jour nalist, " they would have remained to a woman." A CERTAIN constable, a short thus since, espied a tin peddler pursuing his trade, and like a pickerel after a min now he rushed at him and inquired : " Have you a license to sell?" "No," coolly replied the itinerant vender of pots and pans, " I haven't." " Well, sir, I'll attend to your case," says the Dogberry. "All right," says the peddler, "do." The eager official rushes off to the nearest trial justice and obtains a war rant, and armed and equipped with the awful document, starts on a chase after the itinerant. Some time, we believe the next day, after a long chase, the representative Yankee was found, and hustled before the justice, who rend to him the warrant, and as a matter of form, of course, asked him whether he was guilty or not guilty. "Not guilty," says the unabashed peddler. The justice and constable opened wide their eyes to such contumacy. They had not been in the habit of seeing such. " Not guilty," quoth the former, " don't you peddle goods around here?" " Yes, ' replied the alleged culprit. " Well, have you a license?" asked Rhadamanthus, in " sarcastical '' tones. "Oh, yesrsaid the traveling agent. "Why," said the justice—quite an other expression coming over his coun tenance—" didn't you tell this gentle man that you had no license ?" " No sir." "Yes you did," shouted Tipstaff "No I didn't," quietly replies the peddler. "I say you did," vociferated the con stable. "I swear I didn't," still persisted the peddler. " Well, what did you tell me, then 2" " You asked me if I had a license to sell, and I told you I hadn't; and I haven't a license to Bell," continues the peddler, in an injured tone, " for I want it to peddle with." Lost year there were 3085 deaths In Cin cinnati; the losses by fire were $1,600,000, $500,000 more than the Insurance; the city expenses, $2,883,421 71. Mr. William Cullen Bryant receives from Mr. Robert Bonner $3OOO for three poems for the joedger—the largest sum ever paid any autWr for the same number of words. The newly appointed State officers of Georgia have gone to Milledgeville to take Ifossession of their offices. The money in the Georgia Treasury Is said to have been removed some time since. A resolutions has been introduced In the Georgia Convention, recommending Con gress to give lands to the freedmen. An ordinance has .beenreported, disfranuldaing all. persons unable toi register under the Reconstruction laws. LANCASTER PA. WEDNESDAY IWORM - G JANUARY 22 1868 icibutono. England's Antagonist, Theodore King of Abyssinia. Some forty years ago there lived in the neighborhood of Gondar a poor widow, who gained a living for herself and sou by gathering this herb, kousso. Her son was named Kassa Kuarauya, and now occupies the throne of the once so mighty kingdom of Ethiopia, whose treasures Makada, Queen of Sheba, brought as a testimony of her admira tion to King Solomon at Jerusalem.— As tradition hath it, when the queen returned to her native land, she pre sented It with a proof of the admiration King Solomon had had for her in the shape of a son, who was named .Meni lek. From this Meullek, who eventu ally became King of Ethiopia, Dedjas' Hallo• Mariam, the father of our hero, Kassa, traced hie descent, and some times his mother is also supposed to be a lineal descendant of the great Jewish king. The versions vary. At the death of his father, Kassa was placed in the monastery of Tschanker, near Lake Tanja, where he was to have been edu cated as a priest or debtera. According to an ancient prophecy, a mighty man named Theodorus was to arise, rescue the Holy Sepulchre from the hands of Turks, chase them from I Europe, and destroy the whole Moslem race from the face of the earth. This same king was also destined to restore the holy city of Jerusalem to its ancient splendor, and reestablish the Abyssini- I an Church in all its pristine power and glory. This circumstance exercised no small influence on the mind of young Kassa, especially after he had become versed in the legends and traditions of his country during his stay at Tchanker, and at last, like Mohammed, he began to apply them all to himself, and be lieved that he was the man destined to restore the ancient kingdom of Ethiopa to its former power and extent. This fact, coupled with his natural inclina tions, caused him to seize the first op• portunity to give up his clerical I position, and exchange the pros pects of a mitre for a crown. This opportunity presented itself on the oc casion of Dedjas Mara's attacking and pillaging the monastery, from. which Kassa only managed to escape with great difficulty. He now collected a number of kindred spirits, and led a wild robber's life until he felt himself powerful enough to attack Meuene, the mother of the nominal King of Abys sinia, Ras Ali, and who kept the pro• vince of Dembea under her rule. As soon as she was advised of Kassa's in tentions she placed herself at the head of her troops, and led them against the daring intruder to punish him in per son ; but at the first shock they fled, un able to withstand the wild impetuosity with which the young warrior assailed them, and there remained no other choice for her but to yield up the pro vince of Dembea to him as her vassal and oiler him the hand of her grand daughter Tsoobedie. Fortunate in love ' and fortunate in war, Kassa's career was one of almost uninterrupted success. His forces increased daily, and attack ing one prince after another he soon suc ceeded in subjugating the whole of the country. At divers times the vanquished chief tains rebelled again, and amongst them Menene, who sent out one of her gen erals, Ounderad, against him, a boast ing, conceited Gascon of an Abyssinian, who had sworn to take Kassa dead or alive. The battle was fought near Tchako, and the issue most disastrous for Ounderad, who was taken prisoner with the rest of his officers who had not been able to escape. According to an . ancient custom they were all invited to a banquet, and Ounderad's fear may easily be conceived when he and his fellow-prisoners were each served with a bottle filled with some black, evil-smell ing mixture, which might be poison, and certainly was not rakee. When Kassa had amused himself sufficiently at their euense, he quietly said, "My friends, you have very justly remarked that my mother was but a Kousso woman ; and that reminds me that she has not yet sold anything to-day. It is but reason able, therefore, that you should buy some of her ware. Drink, therefore, my friends, and If you do not like the flavor, remember that it is at least wholesome!" and therewith be forced each one to empty a bottle of the horri ble purgative. Ouce,Thaving been defeated by Gocho, a powerful prince, he had re-collected his scattered forces, and led them against his enemy in the vicinity of Lake Dem bea. In live minutes he had again lost the game; It was acaseofßauvequipciit, and with the greatest difficulty did Kassa manage to escape with some thirty or forty of his companions, and seek refuge among the reeds and jungles bor dering the shores of the lake. Scarcely had they found a hiding-place, however, when Gocho himself came upon them, and shouted from the back of his horse, " Who will take me this Kollenya,' —this vagabond prisoner?" But scarcely had the words slipped out of his mouth when a bullet pierced his brain, and he sank dead to the ground. The Kollenya' had aimed well. Without hesitation, Kassa sprang forward, tore the ensanguined covering from the head of his fallen enemy, and cried to the men of Gocho— "Behold your leader is dead, and ye are but dead dogs before me ; what will ye do?" Discouraged by the death of their prince, and filled with a certain admi ration for the daring and courage of the young warrior, most of the men sub mitted and joined him, whilst the rest were massacred by the returning fugi tives. The most powerful enemy Kassa had to contend against was the vice-king of Tigre, Ouble, who had the advantage of great popularity, arising from the fact of his having been able to have kept his province in a state of peace for a term of twenty-three years, whilst, on the other hand, Kassa had gained the syzn pathies of all the young chivalrous Abyssinians by hiA daring warlike character, and the success that attended all his undertakings. When Oubie received the summons to submit to Kassa and acknowledge him as his liege lord, holding his prov ince of Tigre in fief, he entered upon a Fabian policy, sending Kassa money and presents by the hand of his " be latta," or general, Kokoble, to whom he had intrusted the delicate mission of arranging the question iu abeyance.— Kassa very soon discovered the true character of this man; and after having signed some temporary agreement, en tered into a plot by which Oubie was to be betrayed and dethroned, and ho him self raised to the summit of his ambi tion to the Abyssinian throne. When he had once arranged his plans, Kassa soon gave Ouble to understand that he must stake -his fortune on the sword. The two forces met in the plains of Dereskie, and a sanguinary struggle took place, during which, Kokobie, faithful to Kassa, detached his troops and turned against his old master. Ou bie was taken prisoner, his son Chetan killed; and the .Amharas remained mas ters of the field, thus leaving Kassa chief of the whole country. When Ko kobie presented himself to Kassa, ex pecting to reap the reward of his treach ery, Kassa very coolly said, "I will have nothing whatever to do witha traitor !" The unfortunate man was cast into the dungeons of Tschelga, where he remains to this day. This battle of Dereskle was fought in February, 1&35, and the next day Kassa entered the churchwith great pomp and display, which had been erected by a German botanist, Dr. Schimper, for the coronation of ()tibia. The ceremony was perform ed with great pomp and splendor, Kassa receiving the crown from the hands of the Abuna, under the title of Theodore 11. A crowned head is, how ever, by no means bedded on roses in Abyssinia, and Theodore's progress was considerably retarded by different re bellions headed by various chiefs, of whom the most powerful was a certain Negousle, and a man named Garet, who made himself notorious in our own coun try by the murder of the Brlybh consul, Mr. Plowlen, .a particular /fiend anti s u pporter of Theodore. At the time of his murder Theodore was warring against Negousie, but on the news reaching him he immediate ly proceeded to avenge the murder of his friend, and in the neighborhood of Woggarra forced the rebel to accept battle. Garet, a man of great agility and courage, dashed at the king and threw his lance at him, which wou l d In evitably have pierced his breast had not Mr. Bell Interposed his own body, thus sacrificing his life for the man to whose services he had devoted himself. This Mr. Bell, after leading a hunter's life on the banks, and in the vicinity °abet blue Nile, had strayed, during the mune of his adventurous life, to the of Abyssinia, where be became acquaint ed with Theodore in the year 1854. 0 n e of those eat raord i n ary attachments, which baffle all theories, seem to have sprung up between the two men, and It is owing to this fact that Theodore knows as much as he does of European affairs, and gained a knowledge im measurably beyond any acquaintance we may have of theinternal institutions or character of his own country. The Fleur•De•Lys " The lilies toil not, neither do they spin," was the vainglorious motto of the ancient kings of France • from the de vice which Louis VII. France; Jenne) first placed upon his seal, in reference possi bly to the abbey of Fleury, the favorite retreat of the French kings, the burial• place of his grand-father, Philip I. Our quaint authority upon heraldry, who wrote under the name of Guillim, demurs slightly to the identification of the lily with the fleur-de-lys ; but adds, that a quibble was founded upon this motto in support of the salle law, which debarred females from succeeding to the I crown of France, as if it were meant to exclude the spinster part ofct eation only from the honors of the lily. At any rate, the figure idedtifled with Frank sovereigns has given occasion for much ingenuity and ample diversity of conjecture. It has been called a monogram or capital letter, the head of a spear, a buckle, the final of a spire. say, the ingenious malice of English heralds discovered that three toads were the original arms of France ; and this statement was absurdly paraded I within the last few years by a fanatic who desired to prove tnist ttferpreeent emperor was typified brihebeast men tioned in the sixteenth chapter of the Revelation, out of whose mouth came frogs. The form of this ornament is so grace- ; ful, and capable of being adapted with ' so much ease to architectual or embroi dered decoration, that it must be famil -1 iar to most of our readers; and those who remember the old-fashioned lily, to be found in the formal gardens of our youthful associations, will be able to judge of its likeness to that upright stem crowned by a flower mitre-shaped in the centre, but curving back in its side leaves almost to the shape of the letter M. in mediaeval alphabets. It is perhaps from thisresemblance,as well as from the associations of the lilly with purity and innocence, that if has been ranked as a symbol of the blessed Virgin Mary; while others have found in its three leaves, bound together by a link or tie, an emblem of the Holy Trinity ; both suppositions serving alike to make it a favorite item in the decorations of Chris tian art. While it thus acquired a sa cred character in this country, it became a national emblem in France, where legendary fable invested it with a ape cial sanctity. Dame Julian Healers re- ' lates that the arms of the King Clovis were certainly sent by an angel from heaven; that is to Bay, three flowers in the form of swords in a field or•azure (viz. a blue shield with three golden ; fleurs•de-lys upon it), in sign of ever lasting trouble to befall him and his successors; a melancholy fate, which the patriotism of Master Gerard Leigh, a herald of Queen Elizabeth's time, discovers to be by way of retribution " for rebelling against their natural liege lords, the kings of England," an accusation he would find it hard to sus tain against Clovis, the contemporary of the earliest founders of the Saxon heptarchy, The fact, however, seems to he this, that the similarity between the words Lys" and " Louis" led to the adoption by Louis VII. of a con ventional representation of his name sake flower as his badge; a figure already familiar from its use in classical and Christian art, to surmount pinnacles, sceptres, and sword hilts, to besprinkle e.nbroidered garments, or fasten them as a buckle ; and that subsequently the arms of the latter Louis were tradition ally referred to the founder of the Frank monarchy, whose name was only the earlier form before the initial C was dropped) of the denomination so popu lar in the successive royal families of France. So completely was the fleur de-lys considered to be identified with the regal insignia of France, that Guil lim expresses his regret that a figure once so honored should, by tract of time, have become a more vulgar (i. e. com mon) bearing; " even as purple was in ancient times a wearing only for princes, which now bath lost that prerogative through custom." The fleur-de-lys does not figure in English politics until the tenth year of Edward 111., A. D., 1340. When claim ing the crown of France in right of his mother, he quartered his shield, and placed the blue field, powdered or sprinkled with golden fleurs-de-lys, in ; juxtaposition with the three lions of England on the red ground; hence the royal livery of red andblue worn by our soldie and official personages. In the , year 1530,1, Charles V. of France, in ac• cordarice with the more formal heraldic . fashions of his day, reduced the num ber of fleur-de-lys upon his shield and banner to three, a variation promptly followed by our Henry IV. It is thus that they usually appear on the seals of the Plantagenet, Tudor, and Stuart' princes, and the earlier kings of the house'of Hanover; and thus they are to be found in many beautiful examples of architectural ornament In the edifices , of the Middle Ages. The causes which led to the disappear ance of the fleur-de-lys from the royal arms In 1801, were briefly these. It was desirable to show some mark of sympa thy with the exiled king of France, then residing in this country, and, as the union with Ireland rendered a re arrangement of the national insignia necessary, it seemed a suitable occasion to disuse a portion of them, which only conveyed an empty menace to the fam ily of Bourbon,—all idea of a serious claim on French territory having been for ages abandoned,—and by royal pro clamation they were dispensed with on the Ist of January in that year. They were expunged from the national ban- ' ner of I , ranee in 1830. The mention of shields sprinkled with fleur-de-lys reminds us of the frequent use of this pattern in what is termed, heraldically, diaper, from the fine cloths made at Ypres, in Flanders; a word which has survived to our own day in relation to a crossbarred pattern of linen cloth, the donated patterns having re ceived the appellation of damask from the fabrics of Damascus. Heraldical ly speaking, any flowered or pat terned ground was known as diaper, and in nine cases out of ten the pattern chosen was that of fleurs-de-lys. We only mention this as an additional in stance of the way in which apparently by-gone matters turn out to be mixed up with the details of our everyday life, and for the purpose of noting the change of fashion revolving in a clearly trace able circle. It is quite possible that we may see armorial bearings transferred again to articles of dress, and coats of arms no longer a mere technical ex pression. And one more association deserves noting. - We may remember that anec dote in the Spectator of the Westmins ter boy, who could , neither sleep nor play for thinking of the banners which were hung in the hall. These were trophies of the great Duke of -Marl borough's victories over the generals of Louis XIV., the Grand Monarque, the most potent and longest bearer of the lilted shield. Still, in memory of these victories and the munificent re ward by which the country paid its debt of gratitude to the great warrior, does his descendant, on a stated day, present at Windsor Castle a small silken banner bearing the embroidered copy of the lilies of France, once the terror of Europe, now only retained in a mimic symbol of homage, to preserve the re collection of their humiliation at the hand of the first otner of Blenheim. Death or Romulus L.,nener. Romulus L. Baker departed this life at Economy, on Saturday morning January 11th, in the seventy-fUth year of hie age. In the death of Mr. Baker, the Society of Economy loses one of its oldest and most important members. When, on the death of George Rapp, In 1847, "thesociety select ed seven elders for the management of their social concerns,r they cboee two trustees to conduct their foreign business, 01 these trustees Mr. Baker was one, and in addi tion to his share of the duties of this office, he has for many years officiated as the spiritual leader and instructor of the com manlV with occasional assistance from Mr. Henrioi, the other trustee. In both these characters—we have always under• stood—he was greatly reverenced by the people of Economy .; while among the gen eral public he has enjoyed an enviable re. potation for integrity in business name lions and for kindness of heart, Raisins and Currants, All raisins, whether they be Musca tels, Valencias, or whatever variety, are in reality true grapes, differing from the wine grapes only In size, or the absence of the juicy principle which to a con siderable extent develops into flesh or pulp. The best raisins are grown on the - Spanish shores ofthe Mediterranean, the climate about Valencia and Malaga apparently suiting them better than anywhere else. But raisins are also ex tensively cultivated.in the lower parts of Greece, as well as in other parts of the Continent. The Muscatel is the finest kind of , raisins imported. The preparation or drying, upon which the value of the fruit to a great extent depends, is in its-' ' case conducted differently from that of I the more common kinds. Usually the grapes are gathered in bunches when fully ripe, and hung up or spread out to dry. These are afterwards placed in vessels full of holes, and dipped In a ley madeof wood ashes and vanilla, with the addition of a little salt and oil. This brings thesaecharine,jutee to the surface, and causes the dark brown color as well as the crystallization of sugar which is 80 characteristic of the cheaper fruit. The best varieties are simply dried in the sun before removal from the tree. The fruit is carefully watched, and when at the proper stage of ripeness the stalks of the bunches are partly cut through and allowed to hang till dry, the fruit by this means retaining its bloom, and being a light color when dry. Amongst the many varieties of raisins known to commerce are Valencias, Denias, and Lexias from Spain, and Malagas from Malaga in Granada. All these vu. rieties of fruit are imported into this country in what are com mercially called boxes and half boxes of half a hundredweight and quarter of a hundredweight gross. The small light-colored raisins known as Sultanas we receive from Smyrna, and as everybody knows these are de void of " stones," or more properly seeds. This seedless form has been brought about by a higher state of cultivation and usually fetches a higher price in the market. A common cheap fruit is also imported from Smyrna, quite the reverse of the little Sultana, being of a very dark color, and having very large seeds. The little black fruits which in a cul inary sense are of so much value, and which common usage and the corrup tion of a word has taught us to call Cur rants, are likewise a seedless variety of grape. The word currant Is derived from Corinth, which was origually the principal place of Its cultivation. If the,ancient Corinth no longer supplies us with the bulk of this most useful fruit, the whole of our imports are still brought from the numerous islands of the Archipelago and the neighboring shores of Asia Minor. The vines for producing currants are usually planted in rmi's about eight feet apart, to leave room for their spreading on the poles, against which they are trained. The plants for the first three years yield no return, but at the fourth year a small profit is derived, which in creases at the fifth, and at the sixth year the expenses of cultivation are covered. It is however between the 'seventh and twelfth years that the profits are the highest, each stremma of laud, which is equal tol,ooo square yards, then yielding from 500 lbs. to 1,0009 , 5. of fruit. The pe riod of the gathering varies according to the nature of the soil upon which the plants are grown. In dry places they are generally considered ready about the end of July; but in damp situations a later period is set down. The fruit does not ripen all at once ; sometimes, indeed, as many as four different gath erings are necessary. In the lonian islands some few years ago, a very dangerous custom became prevalent amongst the vine-growers, of removing a portion of the bark in the form of a ring from the stems of the plants, when they had attained about three or four years' growth; the effect of this was in a measure to arrest the free circulation of the sap. and so to confine it to the branches: more fruit was thus produced, but what was gained in quantity was lost in quality, the fruit being devoid of the sweetness peculiar to good cur rants. The fruit was also much larger in size, but owing...to the imperfectly formed juice it was not adapted for keeping, as it soon turned sour. The introduction Into Patras of this system, which not only affected the quality of the fruit, but which also went far towards sLortening the life of the plant by overloading the branches with sap, and weakening the lower part of the trunk, met with a strong prohibition from the Greek government. Currants usually arrive in barrels of about two and a half and three hundred weights each, As many as 755,4.82 hun dredweights were imported into this country in 1864, and these chiefly from Patras, Corfu, Ithaca, Licata, 'Zan te, and the Lipari Islands. The quantity en tered for home consumption in the same year was over 750,000 hundredweights. Of raisins the imports were 359,216 hun dredweights, and of these 303,082 huu dredweignts were entered for home consumption. Raisins and currants are charged with a uniform duty of seven shillings per hundredweight. As regards age, it may be said that a vine, like the oak, remains sound for centuries. Pliny, Indeed, speaks of a vine of the age of 600 years ; and there are proofs of whole vineyards in Italy and France that produce abundance of fruit now, having performed like duties three or four centuries ago. At the close of the last century there was an old vine at Northallerton , in Yorkshire, the stem of which measured about fifteen Inches in diameter, and which was then about 100 years old. But vines have even been known to produce trunks large enough for sawing up Into planks, and working into articles of furniture, for which pur pose the wood Jewell adapted,as itis very tough. The vine in this country does not, of course, grow to so large a size as abroad, and we should look in vain for such a monster as that which Strabo mentions, and of which he states that two men with outstretched arms could not encircle its stem. Of all the products of the vine, wine, as we have before said, Is the most im portant. Next in importance are grapes in their dried state—namely, raisins and currants ; and lastly, grapes, properly so called,—undried, or fresh grapes. The quantities Imported of these are not very great; what are seen in our shops are chiefly known as Portugal and Ham bro' grapes, the latter being grown on the Rhine and brought here via Ham burg. They come in neat round baskets, each containing twelve pounds of fruit and from Portugal in jars, packed in sawdust.—Good Words. The Bell Bled Wandering in a tropic forest amidst the gorgeous growths and wild garlands of climbing vines and brilliant blossoms in early morning, one's ears are literally pained with the mingled din that comes from everywhere ; above, below and be hind, before, right and left; curious cries, jubilant songs, angry discussions, growls, snarls, croaks and hisses, from birds, beasts, insects and reptiles, make the jungle a very Babel of unintelligi ble sounds. Then as the scorching sun rays pierce the clustering tangle of vege table life, one by one the sounds die away, they close their petals, the leaves drop languidly from every branch and spray; not a breath of air stirs even the delicate tree ferns ; the stillness is that of death, as if the world of things had ceased to be. As you Crouch under the wide leaves of the plalntain, seeking shelter from theVheat, suddenly a loud sound is heard, like a deep, full-toned bell; a short time elapses, and again it sounds, and so on at Intervals of three or four minutes' often other singers Join in the peal, and then the "forest chimes" toll their mournful music from far and near. You cautiously creep out, and peep curiously in the direction of the noise, to discover what Jiving creature could produce a sound so exactly like a bell. At last you spy him out and catch him in the very act, seated on the top of a dead palm—his belfry. By travellers he is aptly named the''bell On the top of the head there is some thing like the horn of a fabled unicorn. This tube of flesh is hollow ' and nom• municates with the palate. When the "bell•bird" is silent this strange spire affair,hangs down over the beak,justaa' the red fleshy wattle dangles on the front of a turkey-cook's head; but when• sounding his bell.llke voice it is filled tightly with air, and stands erect and stiff as a born. A late traveller says: "At a distance of three miles you may hear this snow• white bird tolling every four or •five minutes like a distant convent bell." Female Duelists The mania for dueling was not con fined to the sterner sex in France; wit ness the exploits of the better half of Chateau Gay de M.urat. This Virago used to appear on horseback In great boots, with her petticoats tucked up, and carrying a sword at her side, and pistols at her saddle bow. Having a bone to pick with aM. Cordieres, she called him out. He "came up smi ling," and played about with his sword till he found that the lady was seri ously bent on sending him to the an cestral vault. Changing tactics, he pressed her so hard, avoiding wounds, that at last she dropped to the ground through sheer fatigue, and had to cry for quarter. Quarreling afterwards with some gentlemen, she happened to meet them at tne chase, and made prepar ations to charge. Her groom cried, " Corneal', madam—come oft; theyare three against one." "Never mind," quoth the dame; "no one shall say that I met them without charging them." And charge she did, for the last time, for her adversaries had the I bad taste to kill her. In the gallery of. femmcs salliantes, La Beaupre holds a foremost place. After an exchange of strong language with La des Urlis she rushed away, and came back, bringing two swords. Dee Urns took one, thinking no ill ; butLa Beau : pre pre: Bed her hard, wounded her In 1 the neck, and would certainly have killed her had not timely help come. Further on in the point of times comes La Maupin. This magnificent I swordswoman had been lightly spoken of by Dumesnil, a male fellow per former at the opera, and, in fact, the eccentricities of her manners afforded wide scope for comment:. Determined to have satisfaction, Without any waste of words, she dressed up as a man, and waited for Dumensil as he lea the theatre. As souu as he appeared, she touched him with her sword, and bade him draw. Dumensil, who was not in a dueling humor, tried to sheer off, when La Maupin produced a stick, and laid it lusytil about his shoulders, finishing by taking his watch and snuff box. The next day the actor was com plaining at the theatre of having been set on by a band of robbers, who had ill-treated and despoiled him. "You lie," broke in the virago. "It was my doings. I thrashed you because you hadn't the heart to accept my chal lenge; if you want proof, look here at your watch and snuff-box." On another occasion she was at a ball in male cos tume, and mauves:l to provoke three gentlemen. They all went out to fight, and the actress killed the three, one after the other. Another sinzular affair was the duel between the Marquise de Nesle and the Countess de Polignac, in the Bois du Boulogne. The former proposed pistols ; the countess accepted, and generously gave her adversary the first shot. The marquis fired, and missed, breaking a branch from atree. "Anger makes the hand shake," was the cool comment of the countess, who fired, and carried away the tlp of her adversary's ear. The Man Who Ate the First Oyster. An article illustrating the philosophy of maniac contains the following : He was a bold man who first swallowed an oyster, says De Quincy. Conceive a shipwrecked Phmolcian sailor scram bling over the wet rocks, perhaps one who has tasted no' food for three days. He notices these little bivalves for the first time in his life ,• accidentally he touches the open shell of one, and it closes. He tries to insert a splinter from his broken ship, which is floating by him, where he saw the two shells close together, but is unsuccessful. At last he separates the lower shell from the rocks by striking it with a loose stone, and makes an opening for his splinter, and thus at last tows apart the ligaments by which the oyster holds hie own. He stares at the strange, and to him disgusting lump of fleshy substance,: then he touches it with his finger, then smells of it. He hesitates, and finally throws it away. An hour after, impelled by gnawing pains in his stomach, and fear of a horrible death, he goes to the place where he threw it, searches for it, washes it clean in a limpid pool left by the tide among the rocks, and after many wry faces and futile efforts, and a prayer to Jupiter, swallows it. His heart heaves once or twice, but as his tongue rolls round his palate, he is kneed to admit there is nothing un pleasant in the taste left in his mouth. He imagines once or twice he feels symptoms of a griping pain, but that passes off. An hour later he feels so much better that he looks for another oyster, and before the sun goes down behind the watery horizon he has eaten two. With another prayer to the god's he makes for himself a hole in the warm, dry sand above the tide mark, and goes to sleep with his last thoughts turned to the home which, after hie rash venture, added to the other dangers of his situation, he hardly expected ever to see again. When, ou the next day, he meets his comrades and persuades them to eat oysters, he finds that it is less difficult for others to follow his ex ample than it was for him to see it, and within a year or two all the sailors in the Pheniclan navy, and all the inhab itants in ports visited by Phenician ships, eat oysters regularly. So oysters became scarce, and the original dis coverer of their value as food, on some occasions, when sitting on the beach taking a friendly meal, complains that there are so many folks hunting after oysters that he cannot obtain over six or eight dozen a day. Ordered to the Front Bishop Ames, at the reunion of the Indiana Conference, told this touching story: A general in the late war told me not long since, that among the troops that were under his command was a youth hardly fifteen years of age, who was taken violently sick, and the boys be longing to the company sympathired with him—his mother was a poor widow, living in southern Illinois—they saw the little fellow growing worse and worse, so they 'made up a purse, and sent for his mother to come and see her soldier-boy die. She came. He was fast sinking. The general sympathized with him and visited him frequently. He came in one morning—the mother was sit ting up by her son's bedside and sing ing: Jes LIM CIIII make a dying bed Feel soft as downy pulnwsll;l3." The general listened till she lied fin ished, and then came forward, took him by the hand, and said, " Ho w are you this morning, John .."' Said the dying boy, "Not very well, General—/ ant ordered to the ,front!" and to the frouthe went. Angels came down to conduct him to the realms of glory. When God is ready to order us to the front, I trust we will be like the soldier boy, ready to march at a mo ment's warning. What Will he Do With It? "James," said Gunnybags, "it is a festive season. Day after to-morrow Is the day of gifts. I am going out of town, but before I go, I desire, to give you a full testimonial of my apprecia tion of your attentive service during the past year. I trust you will make good use of the money." And he handed the Grim Waiter a twenty-five cent bill. Now we, who were bystanders at this scene, looked for an outbreak. For the Grim Walter is a man of mein. He always manifests man ner, perpetrates presence, displays de meanor. in fact. putteth on airs. do we looked to see a grand display of dignity —a show of scorn. Not so. The Grim Walter carefully put the t wenty-five cent bill into a large pocket-nook ; and, after returning the large F.ocket•book to his pocket, asked mildly: "Now what would you considw: making a good use of It, sir? A carriage and horses; a house and lot; fl ve-twenties ; Pacific Mall or Erie? It won't do to let It lie Idle, you know, sir."—New York Commercial Advertiser. The probable destruction of theseatof Mormonism 19 argued from the fact that the water of Salt Lake lest yetcr roes three feet and continues to rise at the same rate, and that a further rise at tiro same rate for a few years longer would drown out the Saints entirely. The Lake Is 1:15 miles long and about 75 miles aoross,at eta widest place. ~ am informed that ...int4lt are draihed and Poured, by river and ri vhleits, the watersof aucarea donntry of over 800,000 square mges, A vast,amonnt -of water, , and yet thU 'lake has 33o,ontlet. What becomes. of this , water? Om; evripOrhtion alone dLr pose of it? NUMBER 3 Annual Report of the State Treasurer. To the Senate and Mouse of Representative of the Orrnmemeeallh of Penneylvonia : It is my fortune in this, my last annual report, to be able to congratulate you on the continued prosperous condition of our finances and the stilll brighter future that awaits ns. During the pest tures) years we have re duced our indebtedness nearly five mil hone of dollars; redeemed all our overdue liabilities; relieved real estate from State taxation; and the Treasury is iu such a condition that the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund have felt instilled in pro , fftn s g d to ue phy l , y in is6 ad s v , a u n n c j e ou l ti m pg at t u o rig, se t 6 he . 434.88 and this too without overtaxing any kind of capital or industry; for I be. lieve it true that iu no State of the Union is taxation so light as in Pennsylvania, whilst not one is to day in as good credit, judging by the market price of their loans. The improvement in too condition of the Treasury during the past year has been $870,521,38, and the looms redeemed by the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund amounts to $8.5:i.0120,94. The revenue from ordinary sources has been $5 070,071.95, and the ordinary expen ditures $-i,230,438,87. There is yet outstanding of the over-duo loans $2,037,978,55, funds for the redemption of which have been set aside. The interest ou all over due loans now outstanding ceased lust August, so the Commonwealth is incurring no loss by the neglect of holders to send them in for redemption; most of them will, no doubt, be redeemed the coin ing month. The loan authorized by the act of the 2d of:February, 1867, was all, with the excel, [ion ofabout three million of dollars, taken by our own citizens, and this, too, notwith' standing fifteen millions of dollars of the twenty-three to . be redeemed were held in Europe. Some few of the foreign holders have received their mciney under' protest, contending that they were entitled to receive the principal of the old bonds In gold, but this has been done to u very limited extent. It is but justice to state that no citizen of Pennsylvania is included in this list of pro• testauts. My uniform reply to such pro tests has been " that it was no part of the original contract to pay in gold." 'I he act of 1867, taxing the stock of na tional banks, realized to the Treasury dur ing this year but $8,292.43. The banks have ' pretty generally agreed to pay this tax, and a large amount is now being paid to the county treasurers; but, owing to the ditTi culty of organizing a now system, it was late in the year before the assessment lists could be. completed, which prevented the collecting of the tax in time to appear in this report. The amount of tax tram this source for the year iB&4, will probably reach V 2.50,000. There are very serious obstacles to the proper collection of this nix 01l no. tional banks, owing to the restriction In ' the act of Congress authorizing their organ. ization. The national banking act requires the tax to be the same as on other personal prop erty, and to be assessed and collected in the same manner to wit: in the hands of the holder. This compels us to have machinery in every county of the State for its collec tion, and allows non-r.wident..l to entirelg escape their just share of taxes. The national law should be so amended as to allow each State to assess and collect the tax as they deem proper. The only re striction should be us to the rate of said tax. The entire capital stock of a bank should be liable tn.taxation in the State where the bank is located. There is no more reason why the capital of a bank located here should escape taxation because its owner re sided without the State, than theta house should be exempt because its owner hap pened to be a non-resident. The right to tax should follow the property, and the property of a bank is where It Is located, and nbt in its certificates. A cer. tilicate of stock is simply an acknowledg ment that its owner has so much interest in a certain corporation located in some named .place. There can be uo honest reasons why stockholders should object to have the - law amended, and I recom mend that resolutions be passed request our members of Congress to have It so amended. A few of the banks paid the tax under the law passed •L'Sd day of February, 1666. An act should be passed authorizing the State Treasurer to refund It, as the law was declared unconstitu [tonal by our courts, and it is unjust to take advantage of the few who may have paid it and were unwilling to enter into a contest with the State. The tax on coal has yielded $101,936.59, and for the year 1868 it is estimated at $lOO,- 000, and it will probably largelyoxceed this sum. The receipts for the fiscal year ending November 30, .1868, are estimated at $✓,485,- 500. The increase will be principally from the latter sources. The expenditures are estimated at $3,800,- 000; this will be considerable less than for the year 1867. I respectfully call your at tention to the expenses of government; by proper attention they can be reduced two hundred thousand dollars ($200,000) below what they were during 18137, and all neces sary expenses be provided for. By the estimate hereunto annexed it will be seen that should the expenditures be carefully watched our revenue will be $1,600,000 in excess of our expenditures. This is a much larger revenue than it Is necessary'or wise to collect, and I there fore recommend the repeal of the three (3) mill tax on porsonalproperty, bonds, mort gages, and moneys at Interest, except the bonds and mortgages issued by corpora tions. There are many reasons why this tax should be abolished, not the least of which Is the utter impossibility of obtaining an equal and just assessment of it. But the principal reason why the tax on bonds and mortgages should be repealed is, that it has become a penalty a man pays fir being in debt. This tax was originally Intended as a tax on capital, but it lies long since ceased to be paid by the capitalist, but it Is now paid by the borrower. Most mortgages aro now so drawn as to obligate the borrower to pay the tax. On real estate it is taxing the man who is in debt for his property three mills on every dollar he owes on it, whlLst lie who is able to own his real estate free of debt is entirely free of State tax. The revenue for 188 S Is estimated at .95,4ti3,000.00 The tax on personal property, bends, mortgagee and money at in i crest... :i50,000.00 Leaving a revenue from other sources or 5,135,000.00 Deduct estimated expenses 3,800,000.0 e Leaving one million three hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars for the redemp tion of public loans. Adhering to my opinion, an expressed in my annual report of 1865, that It should be the endeavor of the Commonwisilth to col lect her revenue from much sources as can not be reached by counties and towns, I hope you will at once repeal this tax and thereby relieve a clues who need and will appreciate this act ofiustlee. Very respectfully, W3I. IL KIE?dISLE, State treasurer. A Went Virginia Horror—The Perpetra tor of Three 31nrderft Make% Conte. A Parkersburg dispatch to the Wheeling Register of yesterday says: The murderer. John Schaefer, mode a confession this afternoon, under the coal 01 confession, in the presence of J. H. Ms De bar, as the Interpreter, and the prosecutor, Mr. Hutchinson. lie had spoken to Father Park of confession, but the worthy father refused to admit hint to religious ccinfett :don until ho bad made a public tine, or until he had been tried and convicted. This morning he seems to have Met all the stubbornness and stolidity that had before characterized him. us he had notto the most close obnerver, exhibited the slightest emo tion since Ida arrest, except on the occasion of Mr. Beeler being questioned at hl., pub lic examination. his confession to-day was brief but he Is writing a full one. He is s native of Baden; served two years in the Papal army, only one of which was spent in Peant; from this he deserted and probably wont to the brigands of the moun tain, as is common with deserters. Ile mime to this country about three years ago, and was married about a year ago. Ho was a worker in wood, but not a good carpenter or cabinet-maker. Ile was often at Lillenthal's saloon, and acquainted with him. He called up Lilien thal and murdered him as he was found, and took all the money he could find. With that he paid oil came debts of which, singu• ler as it may seem, he evinces great honor, and paid some expensea. This money hav ing run out, and having but little work, he inveigled Ulrich to Wheeling under pre tense of having a situation for him. Early in the morning after their arrival they started out for the situationostensibly. In a lonely place on the roads, near a cul vert, he murdered Ulrich, took his money, aboutseventr live dollars, and watch; came to the Pemberton Ilouse, traded off the watch, keeping the chain, which is now in the possession of Capt. Taggart. Ile came home that day and went to work again. He became acquainted with Tauter, and being out of money he watched 'rsutor, murdered him, took his money, about $l5, went across the river and afterward come home. lie owed Dr. Koch $33 for attend ance on him, and agreed to pay It Monday eroenloa. He obtained $lO from loather Park for Mr. Beeler, but paid it to Dr. Koch, and promised the balance the next day. The attack on Mr. White is elsewhere stated. He had sent one hundred dollars during the last year to Germany. He has always seemed to entertain great &leaden for his. wife and now, as he has. learned that he has a sou, be evinces *nob feeling. for h.tai and, the disgrace he baslnnicbM bn Mau - -We leant that • Mr. Beeler ;'hitit tiectid bind at Etie gaolers for some Weeks put and had sent An a deteatira. l_JULYZAT:U______._ InsnlsesMawr) wiFireiTs, 812 , a mg per I t=lll 4 MT "r"."9"r". -- RzAZIOIVETT/CDY 1.4.0. - toretrurs ttneU - -the aritialid 6 den* tor,Wll ittbioatui, t 4claucki...itrylittTliriget 7 eedtm s' , ltuo) for the ttracoind cents.l9r. cacti er IP ' 4 ECIAL trraCNl insert PM 15 cents per line. • • • . • J •' .• {racial, NOVO= irroaadini Marriage* . and der/Alm/0 itenti par nue for first Insertion, Prld. &Cord& for every subsequent Lnaertion. LIOAV AND OTH rIOT/CCIF ExaCtdors' . 2.50 Administrators' 2.50 Asstanees' 2.50 Auditors' .notless,.. 2.00 Other "Notioes,” ten lines, or lea, throe 1.50 Reeountruetion °Weide the Consitte tlen—Bontanistlag the Sedan. Reconstruction moves onward on swervingly in its revolutionary career. The Houseof Representatives will have before it to day, from its " Reconstrue : don Committee," the bill to establish an imperient within the limits of tile I United States. It seems that the aye- Lem of five military districts is not, In Its operation, sufficiently destructive to suit the Radical purpose. It does not stamp out the States. It does not crush beyond all semblance of recognition the I old social and political forms with which we were familiar lu the ten Southern communities. That system does not satisfactorily put the white man's. head under the nigger's heel. State lines I are left—State Courts, State Governors and State spirit. If the Inv presses too hard—if the Radical will Is toe despotically put In force by sumo tyrant schooled in the small dominion of his regiment—there is a remedy for the people; the national Executive re duces the suddenly exalted captain gen eral to his little level, and puts In his place some Man less ready to pander to the mad extravagance of political pas diem And this, In the radical view, Is all wrong. Radicalism - holds that It blundered when it recognized the States even as geographical quantities and de fined its districts by State lines. II argues that it has no power unless It has all power ; admits that purpose is so little consonant with our national spirit that it cannot be executed so long as there is authority left anywhere to dispute it. Hence it new proposes to merge its five military districts into one grander district exactly analogous to the Roman imperium. Under the Roman republic all the great dependencies—as °alai, Spain, Germauy, Syria, Greece and Africa—were held by absolute mili tary power, subject only to a comman der and the Senate. No courts existed save by the will of the commander. There were no local governments ex cept on sulTerence and as managed by hie creatures to plunder the country more completely. And tills is a model of the form of government that the Con gress of the United States now proposes to set up in a territory comprising ten States of this Union—ten States of a na tion whoseprimary polities' principle is the sovereignty of the people. In setting up this imprriunt within our borders Congress abolishes the States In all their political and legal forme, sweeps away the governmental system anti the courts, all the machinery that gives stability to order and security to property, and puts in the place of everything one military commander—General Grant. It de clares the constitution of the United States null and void by saying that in ten States of the Union the President no longer has executive authority, and that he will be guilty of a misdemeanor it he exercises in those States the duties the Constitution imposes upon him. And in all this there is no principle no great point of national safety to se cure—nothing whatever but the nigger and a party result. In view of order anti law and au old established system the nigger cannot rise. But return to chaos, throw down all the present rela tions of things, reduce society to the primitive barbarous level, so that the nigger and the white man may start even, then give the nigger an army for his ally, and perhaps he may come out ahead. This le the idea that underlies the new Y. Herold. Great Moral Ideal We hear a good deal in these latter days about the party of "great moral ideas." So far as we are able to dis cover, the "great moral Idea" of those who specially sport that pretension Is to hold on to power at any cost, and the most immoral of all ideas, a disloyal, traitorous and rebellious idea, in fact, lc Lo try and get it away from them. It was a happy conceit to describe the gorging of u party at the public crib, the greedy and voracious clinging to the public udders, never letting go the same except to snap at all who are suspected of entertaining like virtuous appetites, as "great moral ideas." finless this Is what is meant by the phrase, we know not what is. It is true that the leading characters thus distinguished, have ii• lustrated their ' disinterested philan thropy by the great moral idea of abol ishing slavery in other people's States, giving suffrage to other people's colored population, and repenting generally of other people's sins, but these are only means to an end, which end is the great moral idea of Aidal flesh pot and plum-pudding sinecures.— It is edifying to behold the air of conscious sanctity with which the party of moral ideas regales itself with physical comforts, looking daggers at the same time at all carnally-minctedsin - ners whose mouths are:lminorallywater ing at the sight of so much; marrow and futnesii,when they have done nothing to deserve it, never having meddled with other people's business, nor proved that " great moral ideas" are entirely con sistent with the most Immoral political practices. Plain people might be in clined to look upon it as the greatest of moral ideas to restore the mutual confi dence and peace of the American peo ple, but the party of "great moral ideas," who, in that event, would lind their vocation gone, and look upon this as so near akin to a vice that It i 6 little better than rank treason.—Ballimore Sun. a!MIllelliEMI!!1!1 I=J== Alexander H. Stephens, In conversa tion with a friend who saw him recent ly in Philadelphia, took a very despon dent view of affairs in the South. He pronounced the future before that see titan of the country fraught with gloom and disaster, and can see nothing In the policy of reconstruction but the opera tion of a fearful scheme, whose ultimate result will he the destruction of either the black or the whiterace. livery day, he says, it becomes more painfully evi dent that the estrangement between the races Is widening—on the part of negroes from the effects of such instruc tion as teaches them to distrust and op pose the whites, and on the_,part of the latter from au abhorrence of the negro leaders arid an instinetiveaverslon to be ruled and legislated for by Ignorance and semi-barbarism. From what fell under his own observation In Georgia he was unable to detect anything like a spirit on either side tending to mutual sympathy of sentiment and interest. Radical emissaries from the North have sown the seeds of evil dissension with a terrible earnestness, and the diametric opposition of the races now viand° all over the South must, in the very nature of things, lead, at some time or other to fearful collisions. This inevitable result, Mr. Stephens declares ' as a dis passionate war of races, desired by some and indifferently heeded by others, is, to his mind, a consequence as sure to hap pen, under the radical method of recoil struction, as It is impossible to avoid if the precedents of history or the im pulses that control human nature he taken into account. lEBEE=I Tho Increase of the Gold Impply • The new gold field lately discovered at the mouth of the Amoor river will probably swell the annual production of gold to higher figure thou it has ever yet reached, and when we consider that, with rho im provements constantly being made in min in 7, end reducing processes, the supply of the fields already known becomes every year larger and Larger, we must expect a continued increase in the prima OXebangf.- able articles all over the civilized world. What that increase has been here, with our paper money, we all know ; but if we were to resume specie payments at once, we should by that means return to the prices of eight years ago. In .Ilr. Ruggles' report nn the coinage, some very interesting statistics are given upon the subject of this Increase of the gold supply. It appears thut the gold coinage of the United States for the illty-seven years preceding that in which the gutd fields of California were first discovered (1849) was only eighty-live millions of dollars, while for the next two years it was ninety-four millions, and for the next fifteen years Rix hundred and sixty-five millions; and while the t o tal coinage of the United States, Great Britain and France, previous to 1831, was less than n thousand millions, it was, in the fifteen years following, two thousand mil lions. That is, these three nations 'have now in use three times as much gold coin us they had Mean years ego. Under such txmulidonsitheipricenof everything must ad vance, paper money or no paper money and, as swatter of fact, they have advanced ill Europe us well as hero, though of course not to so great an extent.—N. 1. atm. Robert Tyler, son of ex-Pieeldent Tyler, is said to be editing the MontgoinerY Advertiser, and We daughter. setting, type in tits °dice. . The 110 u. Allen. G. Thurmeh emoorat, was yesterday elected United Mute Senator from Ohlo,lor the tem& beginning . . March 4th. 1869. The Republicans voted Wpm. Benjamin F. Wade.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers