Centre Democrat. (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, January 19, 1882, Image 2

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    Che € Mitre Democrat.
BELLEFONTE, PA.
Th* Largest, Cheapest wad Best Paper
PUBLISHXI) IN CXNTHK COUNTY.
ANDREW JACKSON.
His Last Day, Death and Funeral.
An l'npublished l.rtler Oonunnnlcnlsd l Ibo Bun.
NASHVILLE, .JUNK 11, 1845.
MY DEAR SIR: I helped to per
form the melancholy office yesterday
of consigning to his last place
here below our old friend, General
Jackson. He died ou Sunday evening
the Bth. He had been sick unto death,
with now and then slight amendments,
for six or seven weeks, was swollen and
in a dropsical state.- But his mind
was not only clear, but unclouded and
bis memory perfect, not only ot for
mer events, hut of recent ones. This
was very much the consequence, I
think, of his much newspaper reading,
in which he amused himself half the
time, or nearly so, there being sent
htm an immense number,so that he was
most familiar with the politics of the
day, and excited to thought in regard
to them.
A month ago I first saw him since
last November. Ho said to me lie
could not recover from his then afflic
tion, as he had no frame left. 1
thought so, and said so to him, and
there the matter ended. He then
asked me to give him an account of
the start our friend President Polk
had made, saying I knew the inside of
the troubles aud workings of the polit
ical machinery. This I did for an
hour, at which he laughed heartily,
understanding to the letter the office
seeking hord, "each one for himself
and God for us all," iu Scotch phrase.
He then went into English, Mexican
and Texas matters, compared men and
things in Europe, Mexico and United
States with a brevity, force aud clear
ness equal to his best days, and ill the
best temper , declared his opinions as
to the reacquisitiou of Texas had not
changed in twentv-five years; that
he foresaw and told Mr. Monroe, when
it was parted with by the treaty of
1811); we must have it in the end, so
as to command the Gulf of Mexico for
the protection of New Orleans and the
security of the West. In this state
mind —the body falling olf —he con
tinued up to the day of his death.
Duriug Hunday he was too feeble to
talk, save to give instructions, I am
informed, not being there myself. He
went out like a burned-down candle,
those staiidiug by not kuowling when
he ceased to breath.
One thing may be safely said of
General Jackson, that he has written
his name higher on the temple of Fume
than any man siuce Washington, of
those belonging to history in this coun
try. And what is more remarkable
in him than any American is, that he
maintained his power from 70 to 80,
when he had nothing to give. This
he did by the force of will and cour
age backiug his thorough out-and-out
honesty of purpose. In this lay his
strength always. His intuitive facul
ties were quick aud strong, his instincts
capitally good. The way in which a
thing should lie done struck him plain
ly, and he adopted the plan. If it was
not the best, it would still answer the
purpose if well executed. Then, to the
Executive he brought a hardy indus
try and a sleepless vigilance few could
equal. But this was not the liest quali
ty he brought to the task. He cared
not a rush for anything liehind ; he
looked ahead. His nwful will stood
alone, and was made the will of nil he
commanded it would and did. If he
had fallen from the clouds iuto
a city on fire, he would have been at
the head of the extinguishing host in
au hour, and could have blown up a
palace to stop the fire with as little
misgiving as another would have tory
down a board shed. In a moment lie
would have willed it proper, and in
ten minutes the tliiug would have been
done. Those who never worked lie
fore, who bad hardly courage to cry,
would have rushed to the execution
and applied the match, lleucc it is
that timid men and feeble women have
rusherl to onslaught when he gave the
command, fierce, fearless, and unwav
ering for the first time. Hence it is
that for fitly years he has la-en follow
ed, first by all the timid who theu
knew him and afterward by ,thc
broad land,as a matchless man, as one
they were ready to follow whenever
he led, who with them never was
wrong, and who could sweep over op
posers abroad or at home, terrible and
clear as a prairie fire, leaving hardly
a smoke of the ruin behind.
Not even death could break the
charm. The funeral yesterday was a
great mass meeting of women, children,
men, black, white, and colored of
every grade, mixed np by the acre
outside; the h'<u*e .-rained within.
There was not a loud word or a smile
so far as I heard or saw. See him they
would and did ; nay, they would see
coffin cased in lead. It was just pos
sible to have room for the soldiers, a
rather tedious process. Thejr claimed
it as a right to see the thing done.
The vast crowd followed him to the
tomb, a stone grave by the side of
Mrs. Jackson's laid there in 1828,
covered with a copper-roofed canopy
aome ten feet bigh, resting on stone
pillars. He was tediously put in, and
the tombstone left ofl*so that all could
• look once more. It was a scene for a
painter to see, the dense crowd at the
particular spot, the slave women in au
agony of grief laying their heads on
the shoulders and bucks of the ludy
friends of their old master, leaving la
ces wet with tears. Nor did the cir
cumstances elicit a single remark so
far as 1 heard. Death uld not make
all more completely than did
this tuneral. Being there to perform
the office of seeing my friend's remains
consigned to its final earthly abode,
and thiuking death a blessing in the
particular ease, and having especially
promised hint to aid in that duty, I
was unmoved, and observunt front ne
cessity. In an hour all had departed,
except n few intimates of the family,
aud this so noisely that one iu the
house would not have heard it.
I sat down to writo you a short note
and have ruu into a lung scroll. Ac
cept my sincere regards.
J. CATRON.
HON. JAM I* BUCHANAN.
♦
TIIK FATHER OF RAILWAYS.
From London Porlety.
In 1817 Edward Pease, in the face
of strong op|H>sition, appealed to the
public to assist him in forming a com
pany for the promotion of u railway
between Stocktou and the West Auck
land coal field; but the public fought
shy of the project, and if it hnd not
been that Mr. Pease's own family and
immediate friends had embarked in
the enterprise with him, the title of
"the father of railways," which was
subsequently given to Mr. Pease,
would in all probability have bud to be
shifted on to some later projector. But
Edward Pease, when once he had ta
ken a thing in hand, and made up his
mind that it was expedient and prac
ticable was not giveu to with
drawing from it; so, before be had
ever seen George Stephenson, be bad
made bis application to parliament for
sanction to his scheme, and would have
had his railway in course of forma
tion but for the duke of Cleveland's
powerful objection that the proposed
line would pass too near otic of his fox
covers. Parliament in those days was
stronger on the side of the fox hunters
than on that of the railway promoters;
and no wonder, retnemberiug the npa
thy, if not open hostility, of the com
mercial classes —the people who were
destined to derive the greatest Itenefit
from the project. The duke of Cleve
land,therefore, succeeded iu getting his
brother jx-ers to throw out the railway
bill in 1818; but in the following year,
when Mr. Pease bad chalked out a
new route for bis liue between Stock
tou ami Darlington, steering clear of
the duke's cover parliament was in
duced to accept the scheme. 11l 1821,
when the royal assent hnd made the
bill law, the work of construction waa
proceeded with, It was at this stage
that George .Stephenson came over
from Killingworth to Dnrliugtou and
tried to interest the good (Quaker in
his new machine, the steam horse.
Up to this jKjiut the projector of the
first railway had had no idea of pro
viding auy motive power other than
horse; the rails were his leading fea
ture; the locomotive had not even been
thought of in connection with the
.Stockton nud Darlington scheme.
When Stephenson waited upon Mr.
Pease, however, and, iu that North
umbrian dialect which never left him,
sought Mr. Pease's adoption of the
new engine for the uew line, and when
Mr. I*ea<e promised to run over to
Killingworth to see George's locomo
tive for himself, the first link in the
mighty railway chain, which was
thereafter stretched over all the coun
tries of the world, was forged. Mr-
I'easc went, saw the engine, approved
of it, and from that time the Stockton
and Darliugton railroad project Ix-gan
to assume, iu the eyes of oulookers, a
more chimerical asjiect than ever. Ed
ward Pease became a convert to the
locomotive, and an amended act of
parliament was obtained in 1823, era
powering the company to employ lo
comotives on their lines, under certain
restrictions, from that time the in
terests of Edward Pease and George
Stephenson were in a great measure
identical. Mr. Pease aasistcd Stephen
son—now appointed the engineer of
the new line at a salnrv of JC3OO a
year—to found bis locomotive factory
at New Castle, and in many other ways
hcl[>cd on thcmighlv movement which
both-lived to ee-> extended with so
much Itenefit to human progress, iuto
everv centre of industry throughout
the kingdom.
Why It I'ijri to Adifrtlw.
Jnftmftl*
A reporter dropped into one of our
largest retail establishments Wcdnes
<lay ami held a conversation with the
proprietor.
"You have a great rush," remarked
the rej>orter.
"Ye*," replied the proprietor, a big
rush—partly INK-SUM it is holiday sea
son, hut uaturally on account of adver
tising."
"How can you tell whether adver
tising pays, and what |taper* are good
mediums ?"
"I can tell that advertising pays by
stopping my advertisements. I've
trieo iu Trade drop* not at once, but
the tide of purchasers flows some oth
er way. The cash receipts tell the
slorv.'
"Is there ony difference in thesharp
na of the buyers—l mean do they
haggle much over prices V
"Oh, no; we sell at one price and all
the best stores in Boston do the same.
They will sometimes say they can buy
such and such an article cheaper else
where. When they mention tne place
wo send and see if it is true, and if bo
wo mark our stock down."
•'SupjKWo you should give up adver
tising. '
"Well, I should save a big pile of
money tho first year, but I should
lose a bigger pile tho next two years.
You must keep tho boiler heated if you
want steam. Jfyou bank your fires too
long it tukca time to start up, Adver
tising is tho steam which keeps busi
ness moving ; I've studied the matter."
The Democratic Plan.
Under the above caption, nn able
writer in a metropolitan journal of re
cent date, Bays:
"When Mr. Jefferson came to tho
Presidency, in 1801, the country had
undergone u process of consolidation,
liberal constitutional construction, and
consequent extravagance, looking to
ward monarchy, not unlike that which
it has undergone sinee the accession of
Grunt. The Republicans, however, of
this day have bettered the instruction
of the old Federalists. Steam, elec
tricity, and other modern instrumen
talities being ptaccJ iu the hands of
the monopolists, controlling sums of
capital undreamed of half a century
ago, the power of the Federalist. Im
perial or 'Monocratie' party, as Jeffer
son designated it, is infinitely greater
now than then.
"Hut when Mr. Jefferson put his
hands to the work, after a long |>erii>d
of misrule, the task of reform was per
fectly simple, because the principles
upon which it was to proceed were sim
ple. Mr. l'urton elucidates the whole
theme in this brief passage : 'The sim
plicity of bis political system was such
that lie could give a complete state
ment of it in a few liucs; and it was
so sound that the (teneral Government,
from 1789 to 1873, has worked well so
fur as it has conformed to it, and
worked ill as often as it has departed
from it. Jefferson was bo right that
every honest, patriotic man who has
since gone to Washington after hav
ing learned his rudiments from Jeffer
son, and has had strength enough to
vote up to the height of his convictions,
has made a very respectable public
career, no matter how ordinary his en
dowments ; while every public man
who has not accepted this simple clue
to the labyrinth of public business has
made a career which time and events
w ill condemn,though lie may have had
the talents of a Webster or a Clay.
This is the Jcffersoniau system in brief:
'I/et the General Government be re
duces I to foreign concerns only, and let
our affairs lie disentangled from those
of all other nations, except as to com
merce, which the merchants will man
age the better the more they are left
free to mannge for themselves and our
General Government may lc reduced
to a very simple organization and a
very inexpensive one; few plain duties
to lie performed by a few servants.'
"This plan did indeed work to ad
miration—to the ndmiration of all
mankind. Iu twelve years of Demo
cratic administration the relatively
enormous debt was reduced from 8-83,-
(KM),(MM) to 815,0<M),()00, notwithstand
ing the Ixiuisiaoa purchase for 815,• j
000,(KM) and the doubling of the terri
tory of the nation. And this was done
not by increasing the number or
amouut of taxes, but liy wise and fru
gal administration, beginning in the
removal of every needle** tax con
sumer in the persou of every super
numerary officeholder. Jefferson lop
ped off"the excise on stills and domestic
distilled spirits, on refined sugar, on
licenses to retailers, duties on carriages
and stamps, and with these taxes were
swept away three-fourths of the beef
eating officeholders. It will he ob
served that Jefferson, Madison and
Gallatin struck first at those taxes
which brought the Federal power most
immediately into contact with the peo
ple in their homes and business. There
were no administrative scandals iu
those days ; uo complaints of an army
of pampered placemen using their
money ami official influence to over
hear the people in elections. The busi
ness of the geucral Government was
reduced to the proper objectsexpressly
enumerated in the Constitution, a 'few
servants' tiansnctod it honestly,prompt
ly and cheaply. They had no lime,
if plain Democrats could have had
the inclination, to concoct third term
or other plots designed to make their
power permaneut. We commend this
simple system of Thomas Jefferson to
the reform associations of every kind."
A Romance of Ike Went.
IIOW A WAV MARRISD III* n*"T UIVR ATTIR
THE HIKE Or HAST VEAEA.
fron lb* Dontrr THtm**.
A wedding of a very romantic cha
racter occurred in this city yesterday
morning. It was the denonement of a
courtship of thirty-four years ago —a
happy consummation of youthful love
—showing how incurable are the
wounds invisible that love's keen ar
rows make. I)r. John Smith, now on
a visit to Denver, is a wealthy mer
chant and influential citizen of New
Mexico. When quite a young man
he loved a young lady in an eastern
State, and in return received the most
undying assurances of her affection
toward him. But fate intervened. Cir
cumstances of a peculiar nature pre
vented their union, and, after the first
Cngs of disappointed love were past,
th were married and went their sepa
rate ways with their companions. A
few years later they lost sight of each
other, but never forgot their youthful
attachment. The lady married a gen
tleman named Kilpatrick, with whom
she moved to Minsouri. A few years
ago her husband died, and near the
name time Dr. Bmith became a widower.
Two weeks ugo Dr. Hmith resolved to
take a trip east in search of his boy
hood sweetheart, whose place of resi
dence was unknown to him. His first
stopping place was Denver. Arriving
here in the early part of last week he
took a room nt the Kt. James Hotel
and commenced looking ufter some
business among the merchants. Two
days after his arrival, while looking
over the hotel register, Dr. Hmith, to
his great surprise, read the name of
Mrs. Kilpntriek, from Missouri. He
sought an interview at onccaud for the
the first time in thirty-four years be
held his old-time sweetheart. The
rest of the story is of necessity brief
and already anticipated.
INTKUKSTIWJ FIUIKKS.
Comparutire Areas of hand and Water
In the I'nitcd Mutes.
A bulletin just issued from the census
office, show the approximate areas of
the several states and territories, con
tains much matter of curious interest.
Texes, the largest state, has an area
of 202,290 square miles, ami lthodc
Island, the smallest, has 1,0*5 square
miles. Nye county, Nevada, is the
largest county in the United States,
covering *24,0(M) square miles. San
Uurnadino, California, with 2'1,000
miles, is the next largest. California
has four other counties, each of them
its large as Massachusetts, three that
are each larger than Connecticut, and
fiftecii others that are each larger than
Delaware. Sioux county, Neb., con
tains 21,070 square miles. Oregon
also has several large cuuuties —Grant
Umatilla and Lake —containing re
spectively 17,500, 14,200 and 12, (MM)
square miles. Presidio, with 12,500
square miles, is the largest county in
Texas. The smallest county in the
United Htates is New York, state of
New York,and it lias the largest impu
tation.
The largest of the territories is Da
kota, with 147,1KK) square miles, and
the largest county iu any of the terri
tories is Custer county, Montana, with
36,500 square miles.
The statistic* of water surface —
takes, ponds, havs and rivers—in the
several states and territories present
the extreme aridity of New Mexico
ami Arazotin, with only 120 and 100
square miles of water resj>ectively,and
the marked contrary characteristics of
Florida with 4,440; Minneaoto, 4.160;
North ( 'amlinaf 3,670 ; Texas, 3,400 ;
Iuisiana, 3,300, and Maine, 8,145
miles of river, take and inlet nrea.
'i he total water surface of the country
is given at 55,600 square miles, and
and the gross an-a,inhabited by sixdsn
|ktsodb and a fraction to each mile.
A Hold Scoot.
AN INCIDENT or rns WAR SHOWING A NAN'S
COI'BAQR I N DEE TRTINGCIBCt'MSTANCKB.
M. Quad, in the Detroit Free /'re**,
in iin interesting article on Castle
Thunder, in Richmond, gives the fol
lowing iucideut of the war: One of
the occupant* of the castle in the
winter of 1864-5 was a Federal named
James Hancock, claiming to he a
scout attached to (iranl's army. He
was raptured under circumstances
which teemed to prove him a spy, and
while waiting for his rase to be invea
ligated he was sent to Castle Thunder.
Hancock was a jolly, rollicking fellow,
having wonderful facial expression,
and great powers of mimicry. One
evening, while singing a song" for the
amuscmeut of his fellow prisoners he
suddenly stopped, threw up his hands,
staggered, ami then fell like a hog of
sand to the floor. There was great
excitement at once, and a* some of the
men inspected the body and pro
nounced it without life," the guards
were notified of what had occurred.
The post surgeon was called in to say
whether it was a faint or a case of
sudden death. He had just come in
from a long, cold ride, and his exami
nation was a hasty one.
"Dead as a door nail!" he said as
he rose up, aud iu the course of twenty
minutes the body was deposited in a
wagon and started for the hospital, he
there laid in a cheap coffin and for
warded to the burying place. When
the driver reached the end of his jour
ney he wa gone! There was no tail
board to his vehicle, and thinking he
might have jolted the body out on the
way, be drove hack and made inqui
ries of several persons if they had seen
a lost corpse anywhere.
Hancock's "sudden death" was a
Cart of his plan to escape. While he
ad great nerve and an iron will, he
could not have passed the surgeon
under favorable circumstances. On
the way to the hospital lie dropped
out of the wagon and joined the pedes
trians on the Avalk. When the driver
returned to the castle and told his
story, a detail of men was at once scut
out to capture the tricky prisoner, and
the alarm was giveu all over Rich
mond. To leave the city was to be
picked up hy a patrol; to remain was
to he hunted down.
Hancock had money sewed in the
lining of hia vest, and he walked
straight to the bcstghotel, registered
himself as from (feoms, and put in a
good night's sleep. In the morning
he proeoWd a change of clothiug anil
sauntered around with the greatest
unconcern, carrying the idea to some
that he was in Richmond on a govern
ment contract, and to others that he
waa in the secret service of the confe
deracy. Shortly after dinner he was
a treated 011 Main street by a smiad of
provost troops who ha<l his ucscrip
tion to a dot. ISut lo! no sooner had
they put hands on him than the pris
oner wu* seen to bo cross eyed and his
mouth drawn to one side. The men
were bewildered and liaucock was
feeling "for letters to prove his iden
tity," when the hotel clerk ha ( ipened
to pass and at once secured his liberty.
hour days after his escape from the
C'astle the scout found himself out of
funds, and while in the corridor of the
posted)oo he was again arrested. This
time he drew his mouth to the right,
brought a squint to his left eye, and
and pretended to be very deaf, lie
was, however, taken to the Castle, and
there a wonderful thing occurred,
(iuards w ho knew Hancock's face |*-r
--feet I y well were so confused by his
squint that no man dared to give it cer
tain answer. Prisoners who hud been
with him four months were equally at
fault, and it was finally decided to
lock him up and investigate his refer
ences. I'or seven long days the scout
kept his face skewed around and his
eye on the squint, and then got tired
of it and resumed his accustomed phiz.
'1 he minute lie did this he was recog
nized by everybody, mid the confe
derates admired Ins nerve und JMT
severance fully as much as did his
fellow prisoners. The close of the war
gave him his liberty with the rest, hut
ten days longer would have seen him
shot as a spy.
♦
Othello llrnertedi
THE OLD ITALIAN TAI.R I* THE LIGHT OF A
MODERN INSTANCE.
I'foni (be Xrw York IMJB.
Mkano wus a prince in Natal. Now
he exhibit.* himself in a museum for
money, and is known a. Zulu Charley.
When he first came here lie wan bright
anil lively. But in the latter part of
August last be became melancholy,
and threw the assegais in a limp and
li.tless manner. The heat could not
have ellected him so, for it was the
nearest approach to his native climate
which he had experienced since he left
his home. His fellow-countryman,
Vskftli, was consulted, but Mkano had
not unbosomed himself. At la-t it was
discovered that ouc of Cupid's darts
had pierced his dusky bosom. A
pretty young Italian girl, Ainta Cor
sini, had for a long time been paying
daily visits to the museum. But the
living skeleton, the lady flutist, the
giant, thed warf, and the double-headed
womau had no attraction for her. She
was absorbed in Mkano. His gaudy
plumage was grateful to her sense of
colors ; to her his war whoop was like
the "sweet south that breathes Upon
a bank of violets;" to her there were
the grace and lieauty of movement in
his throwing olf the assegai*, (iradu
ally the modest maiden unfolded her
love to Mkano, and Mkano promptly
reciprocated. It was Othello and Dee
demona over again. But there was
also a llrabantio in the case. Bignor
Corsini no sooner heard of his daugh
ter's matrimonial hopes than he ap
pealed to the Doge of the museum, w ho
removed Mkano to Brooklyn. But
the girl followed her lover across the
raging waters on a frail ferry-boat,
thus braving not only her father's an- ;
ger, hut also the fury of the elements, j
One night after Mkano has osscgaicd
six men in red coats who represented
the British army, he and she were
married for $8 by the licv. C.J. Rage.
The happy pair pas*-d their honey
moon in the museum, exhibiting them
selves to admiring Brooklynites. Then
they traveled through the south with a
show, and finally brought up again in
the museum iu this city—the place
where they had first met and pledged
their love beneath the silver rays of
the electric light, which was the near
est approach to the moon at their dis
posal. Their contract with the mana
ger expired last week, and Mkano ac
cepted an ofler to appear yesterday at
a show in Pittsburgh, Pa. He is not,
however, in Pittsburgh. Aud this is
why he isu't: He and Mrs. Mkano
ami Yskali were to start Saturday eve
ning by the Pennsylvania railroad.
Mkano and Yskali gave Mrs. Mkano
•50, and sent her iu a carriage with
their trunks to purchase tickets ami
berths aud rhcck their baggage. She
was to await their coming at the depot.
At eve the unsuspecting Zulus wended
their way to the depot, They found
the depot, they found their trunks, but
they did not find Mrs. Mkano or her
trunk or the $-'>o. .She had left this
message with the baggage-master:
"If any colored gentlemen call tell
them I have gone."
Mkano heard the message and re
lumed disconsolate to the museum.
Prom melancholv he changed to an
ger, and it is said that the assegais
were never thrown with surer hand
than at the show that evening. On
Monday Mrs. Mkano appeared at the
museum door, but on hearing that her
lord was still in towu she departed
hastily, stating that she was going to
brave another stretch of angry water
ami fly to Iloboken, where she thought
she would be safe. I,aat night Mr.
Starr said she had not appeared again.
Mkano, however, states that she re
turned to him at noon, and that she
liegged his forgiveness, saying that she
had left him because she did not want
to go to Pittsburgh, as she feared she
would catch smallpox there. Bhe had
even preferred a few days in Hoboken,
added the Zulu chieltan with a shud
der.
THE man who stops his paper to
economise ought to cut his uose olf to
keep from buying a handkerchief.
A Wonderful Dwelling.
TIIEJUOVIK TII*T IS oocrrien ur * toiii.i
or onto ui.txrs.
From Ki. ( in-r
Captain Martin Van Iluren Ha ten,
who lives on u farm n<*ar Seville, 0.,
is 7 feet 11 \ inches high and weighs
•178 pounds. Mrs. Hates is 7 feet 11
inches high and weighs 413 jtound*.
It is a difficult matter to convey an
adequate idea of the proportions of
such a dwelling as the one occupied
by the Ohio giants. A door that is
six feet six inches high is a large-sized
opening in the side of n houw—that
is, u dwelling house, not a' cathedral. I
But the doors in the domicile of the
Hates giants are ten fen high,and the
knobs are nearly us high a- the repor
ter's head.
The house was built by Captain
Hates in 1870, and is elegantly fur
nished. In the main building on the
ground floor are, besides the spacious
hall, the bed-chamber of the giants, a
sittiogroom and a parlor. The couch
upon which the big couple sleep was
made especially for theru, and it is a
curiosity to look at. It is extensive
enough to give the great people room
to stretch in, and it look - as big as an
ordinary sized floor, it is really ten
feel long, wideiu proportion und aUui
twice as high as a common ln-d. The
magnificent dressing ( ai- i- also a huge
affair, with a gluss ujsm it nearly as
big as the side of a house. In the
sitting room is a piano of ordinary
size itself, hut it is mounted on blocks
two feet high, s> that the instrument
is away up the air, out of the reach of
I common folks. There are two rock
| ing chairs iu this room that are so big
; that the reporter had to climb up into
one of them the same as an infant
would clamber up into a "high chair."
It is very expendvc for the giants to
live, as they have to pay such an ex
orbitant price for everything they
wear. For instance, it costs the Cap
tain S3O a pair for loots.
It is the in<t astonishing sight to
come across the two giants out for a
drive. City folk* who have seen the
ponderous wagons with wheels reach
ing to the second story of a house, UM I
to haul stones weighing tons and tons,
can form an idea of the vehicle Used.
It is pulled by six stout Normau borstal
aud it is enough to make a man think
he has got 'cm, sure, to suddenly meet
such a sjecuielc ou the road out in
the country, l'a-siug WHgons have to
let the rails down and drive into the
adjoining fields until the giants go by.
A WoXDKntTL TREE. —A farmer
living near Schooley Mountaiu, N. J.,
has excited hi# neihgU>rs by an ac
count of a wonderful tree which he
discovered several years ago, and
which he has been watching ever
since. He says that for three year- it
has gone through the cold weather
without shedding a leaf. It is a maple
gree, and its sap makes very good ma
ple sugar. The farmer noticed it first
while following the trail of a fox over
the mountain early in Decern her, 1878.
All the other trees, even of the same
species, were entirely hare, while this
tree had not, to all appearances, lost
a single leaf. There were no dried
leaves underneath it and the leaves oti
the branches were all green. It was
with great difficulty that a leaf could
be pulled from the twig to which it
was fastened, and a strong breeze, which
was blowing at the time, had no effect
upon the leaves. 80 astonished was
the discovery at the phenomenon that
he forgot all about the fox he was af
ter and the cold character of the day,
and spent several hours cx-tmiuing
the tree.
He went home greatly puzzled and
returned several days later with a
clergyman living in the vicinity.
They determined to mark several of
the leaves and see how long they re
mained where they were. They also
resolved to keep the thing a secret and
watch its progress until spring. This
tbey did. When April arrived the
leaves which they had marked were
just as green and fresh as iu Decent
ber, and the tree itself was not affected
in the least by the severity of the
weather and the many windy blast*.
The bark was tap|>ed every week
and yielded a plentiful supply of sap;
enough to keep both the fanner and
the minister's families in syrup all the
winter long. The same has becu tried
ever since; not a leaf ha# fallen to the
beat of their belief since the day the
tree was noticed, and the sap has flow
ed with the same regularity and pro
fusion. As far as can be ascertained
there is no cause for the mysterious
vitality of that particular maple.
There is nothing iu the soil or sub-soil
to render growth more available or
make the trunk and branches Utter
able to stand the storms and cold
weather. A number of people have
lately visited the curiosity, but each
one conies away perfectly mystified.
At the present time not another tree on
the whole mountain, with the excep
tion ef several evergreeus near the ho
tels, has a leafon it and the trunks and
branches stand out bleak and I aire.
This manle is in an exposed spot, un
protected from the winds and surroun
ded by rocks, dust why it is as it is*'
baffles the ingenuitv of all beholders.
Kven the regular f)cecnibr fox hunfv
is cast in the shade by ibis jierpttunl
ly green maple tree.'
A WESTERN editor, in response to a
subscriber who grumbles that his
morning paper was intolerably damp,
says "that is because there is so much
due on it,"