SIP gUUISIJifil ffitlltlFSi
F 7J 1 A'v Jf 0 11 T I ME R ,
Editor and Proprietor.
rol. XV.
The Bloohfield Times
Is Published Weelily,
At New Illooiu field, Fcnn'a.
BY
FRANK MORTIMER.
strnscnrrTioN terms.
ONE DOLLAR PER YEAR!
IN ADVANCE.
AnVKRTIBIXG KATES.
Transient 8 Cents per Hue for one Insertion.
13 " " " two insertions.
15 " " " tlirce Insertions.
Business Notices In Local Column 10 Cents
per line.
Notiees of' Marriages or Denths Inserted free.
Tributes of Respect, Ac., Ten cents per line.
YEARLY ADVERTISEMENTS.
One Square per year, including paper, $ 8 00
Two Squares per year, Including paper, 13 00
Three Squares " " 10 00
Foursquares ", " . " 20 00
Ten Lines Nonpareil or one Inch, is one square.
The Reason Why.
t
Somebody a emsty old bachelor, of
course inquires, why, when Evo was man
ufactured of a spare rib, a servant was not
mado at the same time to wait on her ?
Somebody else, a woman wo imagine, re
plies intho following strain : Because Adam
never camo whining to Evo with a ragged
stocking to be darned, collar string to be
sewed on, or a glove to mend "right away,
quick now !" Because ho never read the
newspapers until the sun got down behind
the palm trees, and then stretching out,
yawned, "Aint supper most ready, my
dear?" Not he. He make tho firo and
hung the kettle over it himself, we venture;
and pulled tho radishes, peeled the potatoes
and did everything clso ho ought to do. Ho
milked tho cows, fed the chickens, and
looked after the pigs, himself, and lie never
brought home a half a dozen friends to din
ner when Eve hadn't any fresh pomegran
ates, lie novo-, tt.iyed out till late
at a political meeting, hurrahing for an out
and out . candidate, and then scolded be
cause poor Evo was sitting up and crying
inside the gates. Ho never played billiards,
rolled ten pins, and drove fast horses, nor
choked Evo with tobacco sinoko. He never
loafed around corner groceries whilo Eve
was rocking little Cain's cradle- at homo.
In short, he didn't think she was especially
created for the purpose of waiting on him
and wasn't under the impression that it dis
graced a man to lighten a new wife's cares
a little. That's the reason Evo did not need
ahiied girl, and with it was the reason that
Iter fair descendants did."
Xot so Bad.
Maeready's handwritng was curiously il
legible, and especially when writing orders
of admission to tho theater. Ono day at
New Orleans, Mr. Brougham obtained ono
of these from him for a friend. On hand
ing it to the gentleman the latter observed
that if he had not known what it purported
to be, ho would never have suspected what
it was. " It looks more like a prescription
than anything else." ho added.
"So it does," said Mr. Brougham, "lot
us cro and have it mado up."
Turning into tho nearest drug store, tho
paper was given to tho clerk, who gave it a
careless glance and then proceeded to get a
phial ready, and to pull outrtiveru boxes.
With another look at tho order, down pnmn
a tincture bottle, and tho phial was half
lined. 1 lien there was a pauso. Tho gen
tlemanly attendant was evidently puzzled.
At last ho broke down completely, and
rang for his principal, an elderly and severe
looking individual, who presently emorgod
nom uio inner sanctum. Tho twowhisper
ed together an instant, when tho old dis
penser looked at tho document, and with
an expression of pity for tho ignoranco of
his subordinate, boldly filled tho phial with
somo apoehayphal fluid, and duly corked
and labelled it. Then handing it to tho
gentlemen who woro waiting, ho said with
a bland smile, " cough mixture and a very
Ifood ono. Fifty cents if you please."
AN INDEPENDENT FAMILY
ottknl Elections.
A MOTHER'S PRAYER,
DY AIIIIY HAOK.
riMiri (lowers are shut and bowed with dew.
X The trees stand hushed, and tall, and dim,
As in the soft and tender light.
Two children sing their evening hymn.
One singer's clustering locks am dark,
And one has locks of golden hue;
One looks through black and flushing eyes,
The other's eyes are sweetest blue.
Then joining hands in loving clasp,
They mingle dark and golden hair,
As bending at their mother's knee.
They each repeat an evening prayer.
One asks that o'er her little bed.
The angels' gentle watch may keep;
The youngest lisps, In reverent tone,
Iiis " Now 1 lay me down to sleep,"
Deep In her heart the mother prays,
While tear drops dim her lifted eyes;
The listening angels gathered near
Slay hear her voiceless prayer arise.
She knows how weak arc earthly tie.
The mother's love, how poor and frail
And for her helpless littio ones.
She seeks the love which cannot fall.
She prays that, with His fondest eare.
The lender Father up in Heaven,
May help her guide to noble ends,
The preciom lives his love has given.
Thus from tiiat hushed and holy hour,
Their softened spirits drink repose '
Till gently round thoir-hlending rornn
The deeper shades of evening elose.
My First Patient.
A DOCTOR'S STORY.
A N ORPHAN, almost from birth, atari
J.. ago beforo my recollection, my grand .
father, a man of largo property, had die I
intestate, and to me, as tho lineal heir, tr.o
property had fallen. In tho belief that
this property was mine, Iliad grown up ',o
manhood, a gay, light-hearted, impulsi vo
fellow, who had never seen aught of liOo 'jut
a bright, easy sido. Tho only touch of tho
practical there was about ruo was a -pasision
for tho study ot medicine, and th's I had
pursued to a really considerable e j tent, for
the mere love of it.
Ono day, as I was rummaging among somo
old papers in the 'ibrary, I happened to pull
out from a corner where it had lain undis
turbed for many a year, a paper, yo:iow and
worn with ago. I unfolded it with idle cu
riosity. There at tho end, was tho signature, firm
and bold, of my grandfather, and above it
my eyes read tho words that mado my brain
spin liU-o a top, for it was tho last w ill and
tcsta-jient of William Lannce, and it gave
and bequeathed all hisjnoperty, not to me,
but to Alicia Orton, a .person whoso very
iiamo and existence wcro hitherto urJcnown
to me.
Tho shock was a severe ono in everyway,
but most of all my prido was touched. I had
lived on what was not my own all my days.
Could I live another hour without giving up
this property to its rightful owner? I was
young and impulsive with a full sharo of that
prido which had always been a leading trait
of tho Launces, and I thought loss of what
a mighty change this involved for mo than
of dispossessing myself of that which was
never mine.
But who and whoro was th is A'l icia Orton?
Who would know? Grandfather lawyer
was dead, the witnesses were dead. " Bah ''.
I said, impatiently, "Everybody in" dead.
Ho, wait, there is old Aunt Rhoda, sho may
know." And locking tho will carefully in
tho drawer where I had" found it, I went in
search of this individual.
I found her knitting, smoking, and work
ing with equal vigor in tho full enjoyment
of undisturbed possession' of that chaotic
region, her own room.
At sight of me a smile of delight spread
2Vew Illooiuliolcl, Januniy 1870.
over her broad dusky face, whoso color was !
nnely set oil by the snowy whiteness of her
kinky hair.
" Well, bress do Lord !" she said iovons-
ly, " ef here aint my boy, a coirdii' to see
me in my own room, de room bo irib mo all
for myself. Set down, chile. Well, there,
clairfor it, the chain is poofy much occu
pied. 'Tis ma.in' how things cots licaned
up with mo claim' up all the time. Yis,
honey, jist turn dem tines Tito out on de
floor. Dev aint much Vimnt iisf . Yr
stockings I was gwine bo exit over for Nan
cy's chil'cn."
"Aunt Khoda," I said, as soon as I could
get in a word, "do you. know, or did vou
ever know a person by tho name of Alicia
urton.
" Lord, massy, yes I Well, no, not'zactly
eider, but I know about do moder ob her,
she dat was Margrj-et Reeves, an married a
Orton, but oif or carried your grandfather.
an' I'll Ray dat eC I am talkin' to you. But
dar do Lord, Allows yo aint noways to
blame, sodon't. ycr trouble verse! f. lioncv."
said site, with the rambling garrulity of old
age
"Ought, to have married my grandfather?
Why?" luaid, trying to bring her back to
that head of her discourse.
"Y!iy? Hadn't a man ortcr marry a
gal wliou he hangs around her a vear or
two, an d gets her so sho aint no eyes nor
notlun' for nobody but him? His folks
beat 1 ,im out of it, yer see. Nobody neber
was rood enough for de Launces dem days.
But lie repented on it, 'pend on dat. He
nev ir took no comfort wid do woman he
married, and neber was like himself artcr-
w ird. But ycr aint in no wise to blame
a'aout it, cf sho was yer grandmother, hon
ey." Poor old aunt Rhoda ! Sho had always
a soft placo in her heart for her boy, as sho
always called me big and little."
I began to see through this matter. My
grandfather had willed his property to the
child of his o!d sweetheart as an atonement.
There was something of spite mingled with
this moro Christian-liko spirit, I thought
afterwards, when aunt Rhoda explained his
cruel and complete ignoring of me, by in
forming mo that ho never manifested
tho slightest fatherly feeling for his own son
my fathor, seeming only to regard him as
tho child of tho wife ho hated.
" Do you know where this Alicia Orton is
now ?" I said again.
" Wal, no ; yis, p"raps I do. 'Pears now
I head Nancy say somethin' about a Miss
Orton that was teachin music to Niss Price's
chil'cn, when sh was down to Fairbank's
on a visit. Nancy," sho said, elevating her
voice to a higher key, "what was that mu
sic teachin' Orton's fust name ?"
And from somo invisible quarter camo
back the fateful reply :
"Alicia."
"Aunt Rhoda,,' I said. " this nlaee. and
all I havo so long thought was mine, is this
Alicia Orion's. I havo discovered today,
that grandfather left a will and by that
will every dollar of this property is given to
her."
Tho good old creature's aged eyes filled
with tears, and she rocked herself back and
forth in a state of great dismay and sym
pathy. " Don't yer neber say nothin' 'bout it,
honey, neber. He hadn't no right to will
his propel ty 'way from his own blood that
way. I neber sco sich a topsy-turvy world
as dis is. I 'claro for it I'm glad I'm 'most
down to Jordan's shore. Dat's what your
grandfather wanted to tell 'cm an' could
n't, whar dat nr was. Ho had. a stroke you
see. en' neber could speak or lift a linger
nrtor it, an' all tho timo a tryin' to, three
days" an', nights. Ho was an awful
closo communioned kind of man. . Nober
told nobody nothin'. J)oy asked him (his
lawyer man died jint beforo ho did yer hoc)
of dar was any will, an' somo thought ho
meant yes, an' somo no, but dey neber
found none, so nobody don't know nothing
NEWSPAPER.
'bout it, an, don't you, honev. Mv 'vice is.
jist say not hin' 'bout it. You've had it so
long, and you ought to have it any way. r
Blood is blood, 'member dat, my boy.
"Aunt Rhoda," I said, feeling very chiv
alrous and strong to do and dare, " do you
suppose I'd live a day longer on what is
another's? I'd starve first, there is not
much danger of that. If a young girl can
get her own living I should think that I
might."
Yis, chile, but yer sco that yer warn't
brought up to it. Makes all tho difference
indowoild.dat does," said aunt Rhoda,
with a dubious shako of the head.
But I paid littio attention to her croaking
and a feverish hasto possessed mo to divest
myself of my unlawful riches. I could
scarcely bear the air I breathed, the food I
ate, the houre I lived in. I communicated
tho discovery of tho will at once by letter to
Miss Orton, and commenced settling up
matters as fast as possible preparatory to go
ing to tho West which was then a popular El
Dorado. I thought that I had knowledge
enough to set up for a physician there.
I did not wish to stay and meet my suc
cessor. It did not seem to mo that I could
face her, for I had a strange unreasonable
feeling of shame at having kept her proper,
erty from her so long. She answered my
letter in a womanly yet business-like style,
begging mo in a delicate manner to con
sider the old place my home and remain there
as usual.
In return for this I wrote a cold, proud,
letter declining the offer, and pledging my
word that I would as soon as possible make
up tho value of the only piece of property I
had sold.
Then I disposed of my guns, fishing ap
paratus, and a number of other expensive
articles which I did not see that a woman
could have any use for and started, cutting
myself adrift from all my old moorings and
setting myself afloat on the world's untried
sea, as ignorant of its shoals and deeps as a
man could well . be.
I settled in a Western town, and waited,
till hope deferred, pride, disappointment
and hard fare wrought such a change in
mo that many an hour I sat doubting my
own identity. " This way madness lies,"
and so at last I came to the rash resolve to
leave a world which mado mo despise my
self for my inability to conquer.
Ono doesn't often como to suicide all at
once except in lovo affairs, I think. Tho
idea had haunted and dogged me for weeks.
First it was a thought whose cntranco into
my heart shocked me, and was shown out
in high haste. Then, material objects be
gan to haunt and tempt me. I got afraid
of my littio medicino case there were cer
tain littio bottles there that took on a
strange fascination. Sometimes the gleam
of a knifo in a shop window would give
mo a turn " there's a short cut to death"
I'd think. Get on, get on, for the lovo of
llcavcn Launcelot Launce ! Then tho
times grew harder and I never crossed a
bridge but I whispered, "drowning is an
easy death to die. A littio plunge and all
is over." Set your foot quick on tho firm
shore, Launcelot Launce, or never upon
tho firm shoro shall you set your foot again!
Well, I wrestled with and fought it for
a while, then I dallied with it, and then I
hugged it, and hero I was an able-bodied
man, and all that, and about to kill myself
because I couldn't get bread to put in my
mouth. You despise mo ? So should I in
your placo.
I suppose hunger made me a little light
headed. At any rate, tho strongest feeling
I had as I sat aver my last stick of wood,
with my pistol in hand, was that it really
was a most stupendous joke, that I should
be freezing and starving and about to take
my own life. The idea of dining oil Sevres
and silver ono New Years day, and commit
ting suicido the noxt for want of a crust!
To bo sure neither Sevres nor Bilver was my
own but I had been laboring under tho mis
take of supposing them to bo so all my life
so the effect was tho same.
(Term: IX ADVAXCE,
I One Dollar tier Year.
IVo. 1.
I had a strange feeling at tho moment of
sing not one, but three-tho me ofol.h.i.
be
time, tho me of latter days and the me
contemplating these two former personnels',
as ono might a couplo of his own photo-
rapiis.
"You wcro a gay, debonnair sort of f,1.
low," I said, turning to one of these, "and
merry uanco you mado of life, and if I
ere to introduce you to this." tnrnino-
the other, "It would be somewhat. .afWth;u
fashion, self to selfs ghost."
lu that hour which ono would nafiirniw
havo supposed to be a solemn one, I was
rauier possessed lof a feelimr of stran.m ,;.
zrrelightness, and I laughed at fancy, while
cAuuuneu my pistol with a touch almost
caressing.
At this moment a most remarkal.lo O.lnu-
happened a most uncommon and unusual
tiling. My office bell rang.
I had waited so long in vain for this same
event to occur that I had half a mind to
treat it disdainfully, with' contempt at this
eleventh hour. But after all when one
plays at balance with life and death, each
ono siroultl have a fair field and no favor,
ko I laid my pistol by with a whispered
" Wait !" and answered the summons.
I recognized' the porter of-the- Darley
House as I opened the door.
" Yees wanted at the hoose." ho said, in
his broad Irish brogue, "there's a grand
letioy suit toryees."
"Very well, Tim," I answersd as non
chalently as if "grand leddies," were in the
habit of sending for Doctor Launce nt nil
hours, "I'll bo along directly."
As 1 stepped back into mv room for mv
overcoat, tho pistol shining on the shelf
bcemeu somehow very different from what
it had a few moments before. I even was
conscious of a littio shudder as I glanced
that way, and as I walked alone over t.bn
crisp snow, the keen, bracing air seemed
to rouse ana awaken rne as if from a night
mare.
But if I had any visions of achievimr n.
professional reputation from tho difficulty
oi tins providential case of mine, they were
dissipated at once as 1 entered one of thn
parlors of the Darley llouso and saw beforo
mo my patient. .Never was tho seal of nei-
fect health moro plainly set on lip and
cnecK, or displayed in tho full flowing of
a woman's figure than in hers who awaited
me, half reclined on a deep luxuriant arm
chair. .
Doubtless my faco betrayed my astonish
ment, for, dismissing the servant on some
trifling errand sho said, tho roses deepening
in her cheeks, and a shack) of embarrass
ment perceptible in her voice, despite her
assured coolness :
"You are right Doctor Lannce. I am n-.
more sick than you are. And yet for rea
sons that I cannot explain, but which I as
sure you art not in tho slightest degree re
prehensible, I wish to appear so. "if you
will only treat mo as nearly as possible
as you would if I were afflicted with violent
pneumonia, I will bo so very, very much
obliged."
Tho large, soft, brown eves looked plead
ingly full into mine, and the rich voice
was full of entreaty as sho proffered this
singular request.
I hesitated a little, moro from astonish
r incut than anything else.
" I pledge you my word you shall nevei
regret it," she said, " not I" she addeda lit
tio proudly. '
Just then the seivant re-entered. ' A
well simulated Expression of pain crossed
her fair face and she quickly put her hand to
her (ijdo. , '
There was no time for further considera
tion ; I acceptod the situation.
Tho pain is almost constant , now, is ii
not ?'.' I said gravely. Then seating my
self at tho table, and remarking that I quite
frequently put up my own prescription, ?
proparcd a potion supposed to bo vctj- pow
erful, but of course perfectly simple utnl
harmless.
V A littilo gleam of pleasure in her eye did
' " 'X
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