Mb Wm 1 I I i !L i Lip U .i fW Wvv' liill "ZKZSZ' AN INDEPENDENT FAMILY NEWSPAPER. r"'rer Vol. V. Nov Uloomflold, Xn,., Tuosdny, December lf, 1871. IVo. 51. P Ioomfitlb hnfs. a Published Weekly, At New Rloomfleld, Penn'a. BY FRANK MORTIMER. SUBSCRIPTION TERMS. M.f? PKIt VKAll! 70 Cents for 6 Months; 40 Cents for 3 Months. IN ADVANCE. MY FRIEND THE PARSON. I HAD jus't arrived from Oxford, and wan standing at the bookstall of th Paddiugton terminus, inquiring for n cheap edition of one of Leber's early novels, when a middle-aged man, a clergyman, ramo up to the same stall, and asked the hurtling newspaper man, who was busy folding a bundle of newspapers still wet from the press, for a second-hand copy of Warburton's "Crescent and the Cross.' I hardly know why, but tho face of my fellow-purchaser struck mo as a remarkable one ; and being a little of an artist, and ulKHit as much of a physiognomist, I gave him a long and a studious look. lie was a tall, strongly-made clergyman, in high church costume collarless coat, cassock waistcoat, and Roman collar ; and there was a deep band of crape round his hat. A high wido brow, rather deeply furrow ed by contemplation ; keen, cold, gray eyes; a close pressed mouth ; and a full bold chin, indicating an inflexible will wero tho chief points I observed, combining to pro duce tho face of a man of strong sense and determination. For a missionary bishop, or a Havelock allying tho soldier and tho man of religion such a face seemed to promise every qualification. His manner, quiet, self-possessed, imperturbable, was just what might have been expected from Mich a countenance. As a head of my col lege, as my colonel, as the head of my firm, as iny doctor in tho hour of danger, as my priest, as my bishop, I could have believed and confided in such a man. A magnetic sense of power, physical and mental, seem ed to pass from him and instantly over come my weaker will. "How much?" I said ; " two shillings'.'" "Two shillings." I took out my purse, but found, to my mortification, I had no more silver, and only tho two twenty pound notes my fath er had sent mo for my trip in Cornwall. " I am so sorry," I said to the bookstall keepor ; " I have no silver, and only two twenty pound notes. I suppose I could not take the book, and pay for it when I return from Cornwall ?" "Not exactly," said tho man, insolently us ho slapHl the damp pajiers together ; "I've done that oneo too often. No, not for Joseph 1" "You need not bo insolent," I said rath er ru filed. "We don't give credit, sir, at this es tablishment." " Pray allow me to have tho pleasure of paying for the liook in question," said my fellow purchaser, stepping towards mo. " I think 1 heard you say you were going west to Cornwall. So am I. We are perhaps going to the same hotel." I thanked him, accepted his offer, and explained that I had somo notes in my put so, hut no silver. I was going to the Oreat Western Hotel." So was ho. My luggago and his, lie l3 lievcd, had just gone on by tho same truck. We walked together to tho hotel. Ho proved most agreeable ; a thorough travel ed man of tho world, full of anecdote and humorous allusion. The Reverend Henry Atkins, Vicarage, Ragshot, that was the name and address ho gave, as we stood in the hotel-office taking our bod-rooms. Wo were both, wo found, going to Exeter by tho 7.15 P. M. train tho next day. I changed one of my notes, paid back tho small sum borrowed, thanked him, and we parted. "I hope we shall meet again," lie said, on parting. He followed the porter who carried his trunk and bag up stairs. I watched him its he went up out of sight, and said to myself, " That man was born for a states man or a general ; what a pity such a mind should be restricted to tho potty cares of a small parish I Well," thought I, "if every one was in Ids right place, the world would be very different." I went to the theatre that night to see tho last burlesque, as eager for London amusements as an Oxford man who had been reading hard for his degree might bo pardoned for being. I did not stay for t he last piece, and got back to tho hotel about half-past eleven. To while away half an hour, I strolled into a billiard-room near tho hotel. Thero was a roueish sort of a pseudo military mar. there playing with a friend a little Jow. They played reason ably well ; and once or twice the Captain (as ho was called) mado a winning hazard that rather astonished me, had it not boon obviously the effects of luck more than of skill. At the end of the game the Jow left, and the Captain, after one or two ex perimental strokes, in which he failed, asked mo if I had any objection to a game. I accepted the invitation, being rather proud of my play. Just as I had soloctcd my cue and chalked the end, the little Jew returned, and perched himself on a high seat close to the marker. Five shillings a game the Captain proposed, just to pro- vent it from being insipid. " One gets so dooced careless," ho said, " if one doesn't play forsomcthing. Mosy, bo kind enough to touch tho bell. I must havo some brandy hot ; that infernal cham pagne we had at Greenwich has, I declare, made mo fool quite queer." t Tho waiter camo ; and after a gulp of tho brandy, tho Captain said ho felt more him self, and mado ono or two very fair strokes; than he fell off again, and missed twice. " Fred, you're no good to-night ; not a bit of good," said the Jew. "I shall put my money on this gentleman, for ho plays a good steady game." " I mado three very good strokes in suc cession encouraged by this praise, (ass that I was!) and every time I scored, tho little Jew rolled back in his scat, and exclaimed with unction. "Stroke indeed !" As I turned round to chalk my euo and take the red ball out of the left-hand top pocket, into which I had struck it, I saw to my surprise, tho stern calm face of my friend of tne morning fixed steadily on me. Ho had coino in unnoticed by me, and was sitting near tho marker, and speaking to him in a low voice. I nodded to him and went on with the game, which I won in a canter. " Like my confounded luck !" said the Captain, tossing down tho fivo shillings, and spitefully digging his cuo into tho chalk till it squeaked with pain ; "but I'm al ways a happy-go-lucky. Come, I'll havo another go." Touch tho bell, marker ; thank you. Excuse me a moment, sir ; I must go and secure my bed. I didn't tell them I should sloop hero. Come along, Mosy, and see about yours." Tho moment thoy had gone, tho Vicar of Ragshot camo straight up to me with a very serious and earnest expression on his faoe, " Von may think mo intrusive," ho said, "but do let me strongly advise you not to play another gamo with that fellow. That is Macdougall, one of tho most notorious billiard-sharpers in Londou ; tho Jew is an accomplice. Tho rascal has let you win tho first game ; he'll now promise higher stakes, and win. They've gone out now to get something to make it go into your head faster before tho betting liegins. I have no motive, you must see, but the interest I feel for a young man unacquainted with Lon don tricks. Hush I hero they come." Just at that moment tho brandy and the two thieves camo in. I observed tho Jew instantly go towards the smoking glasses and stir ono of them round, as ho turned his back to mo. Tho captain pulled off his coat, turned up his right shirt-cuff, and spotted the rod ball with his usually gay nonchalance. " You begin," ho said. " Thank you," said I, putting on my coat, "I don't think I shall play uuy more to-night." " Not play 1 not play ? why, you engaged with me," he said, looking round tho room In surprjse, half in suspicion, half in anger. " May I ask, sir, what has produced this sudden change of intention?" "Marker," said I, " You may take that brandy and water I have had enough j I'm afraid you'll find it rather strong." "O, 1 see," said the Captain, unmasking at once and advancing threateningly tow ards the Vicar, who was watching him like hawk. "This fellow here whoever he may be, has been good enough to slander me and my friend while my back was turned. And pray, sir, .who are you?" As he said this he walked up to the Vicar, fio'irishing the butt end of his cue mena cingly. " I don't know your name," he said, with a long impudent fixed stare, "or where you are from parson, but you're as like a lag I once know in Australia as two peas. You remember gentlemen Jack, Mosy?" "Of course I do, and s'olp mo, but he's tho very image of him," jabborcd the Jew. "You wero, then, I prosumo; in the same chain-gang," said the Vicar,asho rose and clenched his fist, " I'll bear tho inso lence no longer. You aro both notorious billiard-sharpers ; tho marker knows it, and has been paid for admitting you. Tho police all know you. Ono word more, and I'll ring tho bell and send tho waiter for a constable, and givo you in charge. Now you be off. I won't take the trouble to knock down this sham Captain for his inso lence a feather would do that. Go, both of you; I'll not let my friend here be rob bed by two such pitiful thieves." Tho Captain was a poltroon. I saw that he could havo stabbed tho Vicar on the spot. His color camo and went. Ho had once resolved on a rush ; then a fear seized him, as ho saw his adversary standing liko a marble statue a phalanx in himself. Muttering and sursing, tho two rascals slunk away, like Patau from the spear of tho archangel. " Perfect strangers to me, I assure you, gents," said tho marker ; " never seed 'em afore in my life." "You don't take your brandy," said I. " Don't seem to care for any more, thank you, sir. You pay for tho table, sir?" " Ho doesn't deserve it, but still pay," said tho Vicar. So I paid. " Tho police shall know how these rooms are conducted, depend upon it," ho said to tho marker as we left ; "you might as well garroto a man at once. What a city !" ho said to mo as wo turned to tho hotel, and I thanked him for his good advice. " What a whirlpool of godless iniquity 1 Adulterated bread adulterated wine adulterated beer adulterated medicines tho very adulterating ingredients them selves adulterated 1 At every foot one walks a snare; in every street a pitfall; virtuo only disguised, and vice itself as liko virtue as il'sho was her twin-sister ; sham everything ! When will tho fire de scend upon it ? when will tho tiro de scend ?" In tho coffee-room, whore we sat talking for half an hour, I expressed my surpriso at tho Vicar's entering a public billiaid room. "You do not know me," ho said. "I am liko Paloy ; I am novcr afraid of hum bugs. I like to sco tho devil's schemes, that I may counteract them. Wo Church of England men know too littlo of tho world ; that is why tho Bolials and tho Asmodci of cities cheat and fool us so often and outrageously. I make a point, when I visit tho metropolis, of occasionally going to such places. Another night you might have met me at Crcmorno, or at the equally dangerous Alhumbra. It is iny duty, sir, and however unpleasant, I go everywhere to see sin and folly at their ilood-tido. You will at least admit that my experience of rascalty has been useful to you to-night ?" " I owe you a thousand thanks," I said. " I had heard of billiard-sharpers, but had never met any before." " I think I'll wisji you ugood-night now," ho said, "as I am accustomed to early eqnntry hours, anil I begin to feel what tho children call 'tho sandman' busy at my eyes. To-morrow, then, at 7.15, we meet. Good-night." So I wished the Vicar good-night, and wo parted. I was out nearly all day, mak ing calls and transacting business. I got back to the hotel alsmt half-past six, or dered down my luggage, and asked at tho bar if the Rev. Mr. Atkins was gone. The porter said lie was on tho platform wait ing for mo. He had just paid his bill ond taken his luggago forward. I took my ticket but did not see him. I got my luggage labeled Exeter ; still he did not apiear ; but whon tho guard open ed the door of a first-class carriago for mo, I found a plaid and some books on the op posite scat. " There's a gentleman, sir, a clergyman taken that seat. He's beJIi looking for a friend. I suppose that's you, sir. If he don't look sharp, he'll miss the train." The guard had already come for the tick ets; Tho sharp cry, " Take your seats !" had just gone forth, when the Vicsr took his place, laughing, opposite me. I hard ly knew him at first, for he wore a large dark great-coat, and had on a traveling-cap drawn down over his eyes and with (laps over his ears. He hud a roll of pa pers and two magazines in his hand. "How I hate this fuss and fury 1" he said, as he folded his plaid over his legs ; " how I hato this destruction of all individ uality ! When I was young the coach journey was a deliberate quiet affair the traveler was a recognized individuality. The coachman and guard knew you and chatted ; the landlord chatted ; tho ostler chatted ; tho insidos and outsidos know you, and chatted. There was interest In every village ; tho people came out to see you pass ; the inn-dinner was amusing. Now you are a mere parcel sent by train. Tho pointsman, tho singnalman, aro mere machines, not eared for by you. Whiz, rattle, battle, scream, hiss I away you aro flashed, and tho only thing to break lourney is the namo of a station so pro nounced as to bo unintelligible." I laughed, and hinted at the annoyances delays and dangers of tho old system tho overladen coaches, tho exorbitant land lords, tho endless fees. " Well," ho said, perhaps in a future ago of balloons or eloctric-spark expresses peo plo will talk of the delight of railway trav eling. Tho past is always praised in order to spito tho present." Then we fell to reading. We had scarce ly begun before whirr ! the darkness of a tunnel fell upon us. " It is always so," said iny amusing com panion. " I never began to read in a rail way car in my life that wo did not pass through a tunnel before I had read the first page." My travelling companion was an extra ordinary person. Ho hadbcen everywhere, and seen everything. No capita', of Europe but lie knew intimately. " You seem surprised," ho said, "at my having traveled so much ; but whon I was at Oxford I spent all my long vacations in traveling ; and during tho little timo I was in the army, before more serious convic tion induced mo to enter the church, I saw something of tho colonies." Tho Vicar's information seemed bound less. Ho discussed tho Geology of Devon shire and tho mineralogy of Cornwall. Ho had views on military tactics and artillery. Ho was interested in engineering and chem istry, and seemed quite conversant with all the latest discoveries in tho latter science. " I went the other day," ho said to mo, as it began to grow dark, "to a lecture on alchemy. Tho professor expressed Iub be lief in great discoveries shortly to bo mado in something that would supersede coal and steam in areial navigation, and in tho transmutation of metals. But I tiro you." " Not at all." " lie expressed his own and Licbig's be lief that tho manufacture of diamonds ami gold would soon bo possible by the morest tyro. Ho showed us small rubies that had been produced by chemical action. There seemed no bound to tho discoveries this thoughtful man did not suggest tho prin ciple of beef and corn from tho common earth, gold and jewels from the very road side flints: gold would soon, ho said, lie of no value, poverty would disappear from the earth; new manures would soon turn tho deserts into prairies, and doublo the resour ces of tho world. Ho ridiculed steam; he " All this was profoundly interesting; but, somehow or other, wearied by a long day's fagging about London, I felt drowsy, and tho words of my companion seemed sud denly to change into a buz, buz, buz, that kept in cadence with tho sound of the train as it tore through part of Devonshire. I fell asleep, and a dream arose before me. I was alono at night in a railway car riago with a man who thought me asleep. Ho stolo towards tho door, unlocked it qui etly with a railway-key ho drew from his pocket, and ojiened it. Then rifling my pockets, (somo strango numbness prevent ed my crying out,) ho dragged mo to the door, and shut me out into tho darkness. Tho horror of that moment and somo rus ling movement of tho carriago awoko me. I scarcely know why, but a strungo instan taneous caution prevented me moving or at once opening my eyes. At that moment I felt a light baud with practised care, touch my breast-pocket, whore my money was, and felt hot breath upon my cheek, as if somo one was listing to my breathing. Presently I felt the breath no longer, nor tho motion of the hand, and heard my com panion for tho breath and hand were his return to his seat. A moment or two after, without moving, I opened one eye for an instant only, and to my horror and surpriso saw tho Vicar sitting at tho farther window perfectly bald and with a wig in bis hand a pair of block moustaches aud a beard were on his knees, and be was slipping a pair of huge green spectacles into a ash green case ; a little bottle and a small sponge wero on the cushion by his side. What did this mean? Was it possible this intellectual, thoughtful clergyman was, after all, only a common swindler flying from justice ? What should I do? Should I at once arouse, and denounce him ? No ; he might be armed, and might shoot or stab me before I could summon the guard to arrive at tho next station. No. I re solved to lie still, and wait till I could eithcrchango carriages or inform tho police The train rattled on, as if bound to rush forever through illimitable space on, on, through the yielding darkness. All at onco a strango medicated Bmell spread around mo, and before I could open' my eyes, a spongo steeped in chloroform was pressed chokingly tight over my nose and mouth. I tried to resist, but I felt an irresistible faintness creep over me ; at the same moment my watch and purse flow from my pockets, and I was dashed back contemptuously upon tho seat a living corpse. When I awoke, I was lying on a bed ill the Exeter Hospital, faint, exhausted, and scarcely able to movo. Tho doctor said I had had so heavy a dose of chloroform, that my recovery for a long timo had seemed doubtful. I need hardly say I had been stripped of everything by my friend tho Vicar, who was a professional thief of tho highest class. . About two years after that event, tho following paragraph met my eye in a Leeds paper : "Stranok Death of a Thiek. On Thursday a llrst-class passenger by tho night-mail north fell from a carrago a few miles beyond Carlisle and was killed on tho spot. It is supposed that ho was a profes sional thief, anil having chloroformed and robbed a fellow-passengor, a rich manufact urer from Bradford, was trying to creep, into an empty second-class carriage, tho bettor to escape at tho first station, when he lost his hold and fell, and tho train passed over him. A guard had recognized him as John Rogers, alias, "Gentleman Jack' a returned convict, long notorious for railway robberies. Rogers, who was an accomplish ed and well educated man, had onco been in tho church ; but having had his gown taken from hiiu for disgraceful conduct, ho left England, and obtained a commission in tho Neapolitan service ; being eventually driven from that also, ho turned swindler, card-sharper, and swoll-mobsman. Lat terly, having escaped from Australia, ho has infested the chief English lines of rail way under various disguises, and from timo to tiilfc chloroformed and robbed any pass engers who wero unlucky enough to travel with him by night alone." - Painless Extraction of Teeth. Dr. A. C. Castle states that ho has for thirty years extracted teeth without pain, without giving chloroform.other, or nitrous oxide gas. Ono method is tho application of ice to tho temples, which is somewhat distressing, tho sensation of cold striking deoply. Tho other, to which ho gives tho preference, is done by an ossistant with each of his middle fingers, pressing tho points of tho fingers with persistent firm ness and force Into tho hollow behind tho ridgo of the temporal bono, which forms tho external bono circle orbit of tho eye. Pressure for ono minute is all that is nec essary, so benumbing tho whole nerve asto allow tho teeth to bo removed with sensa tion so slight as to bo scarcely noticed by tho patieift. Tho practice is as simple as it is harmless, and leaves no after unpleas ant sensation. It is an instinctive method often adopted by people themselves, who press their temples witli their fingers to al leviate temporarily tho acute paroxysms of nervous headache. - -- , C2TBow-Iegs aud knock-knees aro among tho common deformities of humanity ; and wiso mothers assert that tho crook edness in either case aviso from the af flicted ono having been put upon his ot her feet too early in babyhood. But a Manchester physician, Dr. Crompton, who has watched for. tho true cause, thinks differently. Ho attributes the first mentioned distortion to a habit some youngsters delight in, of rubbing tho solo of ono foot against that of the other ; somo will go to sleep with the soles pressed together. They appear to enjoy the contact only when tho feet aro naked they don't attempt to make it when they are socked or slippered. So tho remedy is obvious ; keep the baby's soles covered. IW An old fanner who was asked by an impertinent attorney if thore were any pretty girls in tho neghborhood, answered, "Yes, lots of Vm so many that they, can't find respectable husbands, and lately some of 'em 's boon taken up with lawyers." 4 HT The trial of Mrs. Wharton, charged with poisoning General Ketchum, is now in progress at Anapolis. Tho prosocution have closed their testimony. The defence will probably occupy tho whole week.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers