7TV
. 'II r
j: . : -rrz:: ' ' TERMS $2.00 A TEAR, IS ADVANCE.
: A LOCAL AND FAMILY JOURNAL. .
.T P.. T.TTTHEli. EDITOR AND PUBLISHER. -
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V
;yoL. ii.
VCRTHEH LANGIAGK FROM TRUTH"
. .. , , FUIi JAMES.
, , nr. UBBT HARTE.
Do I leep j Ao I rtre.ro 1
Do i wauder and doubt 1
Are thin s wnat Hi -y oem.
Or t. vision, about 1
I. our civilization f illnm
, . Or is the Caucasian played out 1
' Wliich expression, arc strong ;
- - Yn. w.mld feehly tmplv
Some account of a wrong
Not to call It a lie
As was woriced off on William my pai-Juer,
Which hi. name It was W. Xve.
' .v
I He came down to the Ford
On the very same day
Of that Lot ery, ornwert
l '. By tho.3f.harp.at the Bay ;
And he uy a to ine, "Truthful, havt goes 1M
J 1 replied, - it is lar, m iroui gay
" For the camp ha. (rone wild
On this Lottery fcsiue,
And a- even b.-gntltxl
' Injln Dick ' hy the same."
Wliluh said Nya to me, ' Injln I. plzcu
Do you know wuat hi. number I. JaruesT"
I replied, "7,5,
1 9. H, 4, is hia hand
SVhU.h he started and drew
Out a 1. at, whlcu he scanned ;
' Then he a jfily wml for his rovo'ver,
. With language i cannot command.
' Then I said, " William Nye!"
But he turned upun ine,
And the look In his eye
1 Was quite painful to see.
And be says: ' Yon mistake ; this poor Injtn
1 protect f ram such sliarps as you he !"
I was ahocke land withdrew ;
But I grieve to rtlnte.
When he next met my view
Injln Dick was his mate,
And the two aiound town waalylug
Ju a fruitfully dissolute state.
Which the war-dance they had
Bound a tree at the Bend,
Was a sight that was sad ;
And it seemed that the end
Would not Justify tlte proceedings, " '
Am I qulut remarked to a Irlenil.
l'nrthat Injln he fled
The next day to his band ;
And we found Wi.Uam apreud
Very louse on the strand,
Wltu a peaceful-like smile on hia fen t urea.
And a dollur greonback in his hainl.
Which, the same when rolled out,
Wa observed with surprise,
Wnat the Fnjln, no douut,
Had believed waa the prize
Them figures in red in the corner.
Which the number of notes specifies.
Was It gnilo, or a rtrcnm 1
Is it Nye tunt I doubt I
Are thing)) what they seem,
Or U vision about 1
la ur civilization a falltirel
or Is tue Cancss-an piaved ont !
Overland Monthly for January.
V
I
t.
K
A NIGHT ADVENTURE AT SEA.
A Curious Iitciilenl.
A short time since I happened to be
iu Valparaiso, where I made the acquain
tance of an American, one of the officers
of the United States whaling-ship Xan-
tucket, which had run in from her nan
mg-grounds in the i'aciho to obtain a
supply of water and fresh provisions:
and one day, in talking over the differ
ent events ot the cruise, which had lasted
tsvo years, ho narrated the following
curious incident which had Delallou
rheni :
One morning at daybreak, when lying
becalmed, they found themselves in the
midst of a shoal of sperm whales, and
U four of their boats were speedily
I lowered and chase civen. Two of them
j proved successful, and by the afternoon
! had returned to the ship, towing their
I captured prey ; but the others were not
so fortunate. Having by some blunder
)' missed their iirst chance, it was not un
til after an arduous chase f many hours
that their leading boat at last succeeded
in overtaking and making fast to the
whale. A long and desperute struggle
ensued, the second crew quickly coming
to the assistance of the first; but line
after line from both was expended by
the animal, which proved to be of the
largest size, and of immense strength
and tenacity of life. He tried every
means to escape ; sometimes "sounding,"
that in, dessending perpendicularly to
a vast depth into the recesses of the
ocean, until the enormous pressure of
the superincumbent water was more
than even its huge strength could bear,
and it was forced to return to the sur
face, along which it would then rush
with such velocity, dragging both boats
after it, that the water, divided by the
sharp bows, curled high in two solid
walls on either hand.
At length, however, its speed began to
slacken, and the whalemen, anxious to
secure their prize before darkness set in
advanced to hmsh him, and tour more
lances were rapidly hurled into the body
of the monster, whioh, apparently ex
hausted by its preceding efforts, lay pas
sive on the water. .No sooner, however,
had the last steel penetrated, than, as it'
the stimulus bud aroused anew ail its
vital energies, it hurlei itself half out of
the water, and swinging its ponderous
flukes high up in the air, struck two
tremendous blows in quick succession,
one of which full upon the foremost boat,
cutting it completely in two, and scat
tering its occupants (one of whom had
his thigh broken) in all directions.
After doing this mischief, it again
sounded ; and, hastily picking up their
companions, and placing the wounded
man in the bottom of the boat, the rest,
undaunted, impatiently awaittd the
coming up of the animal to breathe.
But they waited in vain ; their prey
. had escaped them. In his last desperate
effort to free himself, he had (so I was
told, at least,) dived so deeply that, with
his strength exhausted, he was unable
again to rise, and dying below, sank still
deeper. The disappointed whalers gat
in silence, watching their lines disap
pearing fathom after fathom, until their
last yard was gone, when the bowman,
who held his tomahawk uplifted ready
to strike, was compelled to let it fall and
sever the rope, lest the weight of the
descending body should drag the boats
down with it into the abyss.
Wearied with their long day of fruit
less toil, and depressed at their ill-fortune,
the men prepared to return to
their ship, which had long before sunk
beneath the horizon ; for, being calm,
she could not make sail to follow them.
After pulling for some hours, however,
they felt a slight breeze spring up,
which they knew would briag her down;
and, after a while, a rocket ascending
showed her position; and this signal
was repeated every half hour, until the
Teasel waa within ft few miles. They
had been resting on their oar for some
time, but had once more resumed view
upon noticing that the breeze was dying
away, and their ship likely to tjo again
becalmed, when all at once a sounu
struck upon 'their ears which made each
mau pause in astonishment, it was a
groa'h, or rather a hoarse, heavy,
smothered kind or. moan, whicn seemed
to be borne to them from across the wa
ters ; but whether from near at hand or
far away they could not tell.
The men stood up in their Doat and
listened. The night was cloudy and
dark ; but the line between sea and sky
was suihciently distinct to show to their
practised vision the form of their own
vessel, which was only three miles
away; but no sail was vimble on that
part of the horizon from whence the
sounds appeared to come. Thinking it
possible, however, that some shipwreck
ed boat's crew might be in their neigh
borhood, they joined together in a snout,
but there was no response audible. All
at once, however, some flashes of light
gleamed across the distant darkness, and
a bluish glare shone out tor a minute or
two, flickered, and disappeared. At the
same moment a distant, piercing cry,
followed by moanings similar to the
first they had heard, rose on the night
air. In all their experience, whether on
sea or land, they had never heard sounds
like these, and, amazed and startled,
and with all the superstitious fears ex
cited to which sailors are prone, the
men in the boat whispered their con
jectures to each other.
" There's nothing as I know of that
swims the sea or hies in the air could
make those sounds," said one. " If
there was any craft anywhere within
miles, we could see her sails plain
enough; we are too far out at sea for
any coasters carrying cattle. Beside,
there's no such trade on this coast, and
we're eight hundred miles from it.
" If it's from a boat, what kind of a
crew must she have? That's what I
want to know," said a second. " I know
what it is to be adrift and perishing.
was one time on a raft with twenty more
for two-and-thirty days, and a whole lot
of 'em went mad and died raging, from
drinking the salt water, and yelled and
fought and throttled each other till
they were pitched overboard : but, then,
these here sounds aren t human like.
" Couldn't be a whale, Bill, that made
that moanin' noise '(" asked another of
the boat-steerers, who was a veteran
salt, having followed his calling as
sealer and whaler in all parts of the
world.
" Well, it might be that noise might;
though twarn t exactly like it, neither,
I've heard 'em too often not to know
them. Sperm whale don't roar much;
but right black, or Greenland species,
common all over the world, you cau
hear, at times, miles away. 1 remember
once, when I was in New Zealand we
was a Bay whaling near Hokianga we
killed a cow whale and her calf and
towed 'em into the bay. Well, the old
bull, he came in from sea at nightfall,
and kep up such a moanin' and roarin'
it was pitiful to hear him. He knowed
his missus had gone in there, you see,
and he was a callin' on her to come out;
and for -nigh-hand on to a week, evory
night, he'd tack about in the offing until
daylight, waitin and caliin her,
'Twarn't till we stripped the blubber off
her, nud towed the carcass out to sea,
that he gave in and left.
For some time the men listened, but
nothing further was heard or seen,
They also rowed for some distance in the
direction of the sounds, and again shout
ed, but got no reply; and an hour after
wards they were picked up and taken on
board. The captain, when he heard
their story, swept the horizon with his
night-glass; but detecting no sail, he
concluded that the vessel from which
the light had proceeded (if they really
bad seen it) had passed out ot sight in
the interval; and as for the sounds
which had startled them, he made light
ot them.
" You heard a grampus grunting, or
some seals suorting, or maybe some pen
guins trumpeting," he said. " You were
all knocked up and half asleep. Turn
in, the whole lot of you, and take
snooze till daylight, for we must finish
stripping; and trying out this fish. A
set of lubbers you were to lose that other
whale ;
The men did as they were ordered
but were perfectly convinced that the
sounds they had heard were not caused
by any such agencies as their command
er had mentioned. The tight, strange
as it was, certainly might have proceed'
ed from a passing ship, although in that
case it was odd they could not see it,
Each of the noises separately also might
ba thus accounted for, perhaps ; but the
whole occurring together, and proceed
ing from one quarter, was to them inex
plicable.
rney had Deeu asleep some hours, ana
day was about to break. The breeze
had slightly freshened ; but the ship, al
ter having picked up the boats, had
been hove to, and consequently had re
mained nearly stationary during the
night, the carcass of the whale having
been placed alongside, secured by tack
les, preparatory to stupping the blub
ber, or " Dlannetpiece, as it is technic
ally called. Some of this had already
been taken on, noisiea on aeck, cut up,
and placed in the huge coppers used in
the sperm whale fishery for boiling (or
" trying out," as it is termed) the oil
these coppers being imbedded in brick
work, on the upper or open deck. The
fires beneath them being laid ready for
lighting, the mate was busy with his
reparations, when the captain, who
ad been in bed, turned out and came
on deck.
"Do you know," said he, "that I
really think that there was no mistake
in what the hands said? There's some
thing out of the way going on, or afloat
near us. My cabin window was open
the head of my bunk is close to it and
as I lay there 1 heard something I can't
make out what. Did you not near any
thing V"
, No ; we've been busy knocking about
the decks. What was it like r' - f .
WelL ftt first it was like what the
men said deep groaning, moaning, and
rumbling kind of noises, a good distance
off apparently. Then I heard ft scream ;
then some one laughing rum sort of
RIDGWAY, PA., THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 1871
- - zzzzz - I
aueh it was. too. I should have thought
myself dreaming, only for what the men
bad said.
How long since was thisr asked
the mate.
" Within this last Quarter of an hour.
But is everything ready for trying out,
Mr. Smart V" And the captain exam
ined the preparations made. " Call the
watch as soon as it is ligni enougu, auu
ri,o miuri a.
charged, bo you may as well light the
fires, and then pass the word along for
silence fore and aft. I want to listen,
set all hands to work.
and try and make out what those noises
maan
He went out and stood by the talirail,
while the men on deck, ceasing their
work, went to the side or mounted the
riccine".
For a short time they remained thus,
looking and listening, when the captain,
bearing again the deep moaning ne nau
described, raised the speaking trumpet
he held, aud hailed. As the hoarse sound
died away, a startling reply was given.
A burst ot strange, harsn laugnier came
ringing across the water, graauauy
chansinsr into a wild cry, which rose
upon the night air, sounding inexpressi
bly sad and mournful. At that moment,
as the seamen, thrilled and awe-struck,
listened, the fires which had been light
ed beneath the coppers, and which had
been fed with pieces of refuse blubber.
began to burn up brigntiy, tue names
presently shooting up half way to the
tops, and casting a broad red glare over
tho surrounding waters. And, as if the
flame had been a spell to conjure up tho
demons of the deep, from the thick dark
ness beyond the verge ot tho circle oi
light issued a succession of sounds of the
most extraordinary character. Yells
and howls, shrill screams and roars
now commiugled. now separato at
times dviner awav. and again, as the
flames shot up fiercely, rising in hideous
chorus assailed the ears of the astound
ed whalers, while at intervals, mingled
with the uproar, was what seemed to
some on board to be the sound, indis
tinctly heard, of human voices. This
continued until the -vessel had passed
on her wav some distance, when the
nniaua riirfl.mn more and more indistinct.
nn-l finally? fliori ftWAV.
Before the fires had been lighted the
ship had been put before the wind, in
order that the smoke and flame might
Tmss forward and not endanger the rig
ging or incommode the men at their la
bor. Some of the latter, alarmed at the
sounds, would willingly have had her
continue her course and leave the vicini
ty ; but the Yankee, skipper was not so
superstitious ; and, being determined to
ascertain thoir cause, he ordered the
fires to be put out, (so that the vessel
might sail against the wind), and re
turned. While the lookouts aloft were
trying, to catch sight of any vessel or
other obiect in the neighborhood, the
sounds again reached them ; and, sailing
in their direction, the ship was hove to,
and a boat lowered ; but vhe men hung
back when the captain ordered a crew
in, and wished to wait for daylight.
" Why, what are you afraid of, men '(
uo you think mere are evii spirits crui
insr r"
He paused iu surprise, and all hands
uttered a cry. A strange phenomenon
was presented to their view ; a pale
blue, phosphorescent light gleamed out
of the darkness, and showed them a
wreck, dismasted and drifting. Through
the open ports and breaches in the bul
warks, broken by the waves, me un-eaithlv-looking
radiance shone, glim
mering and flickering on the stump of
the mainmast, the only fragment of a
spar left standing. Its bows were to
wards them, and from their own mast
heads they could at times, when it
pitched and rolled, look down on to its
dock. Close to the after hatchway burn
ed a blue, tremulous flame, sometimes
shooting up vividly, and at others sink
ing down until nearly extinguished, by
the light of which all on deck was ren
dered visible. All hands looked eagerly
for signs of a crew ; but nothing in the
shape of a man was to be seen. The
deck was cleared, the long-boat and
spars gone ; there was nothing to con
ceal them from view, had any men been
on board.
But although nothing in the guise of
mortal man was visible, other objects
presented themselves to the view of the
awe-struck sailors. Gaunt and weird-
looking Bhapee of hideous animals were
plainly seen flitting restlessly to and fro
in the ghastly light of that unnat
ural illumination of a lonely wreck at
sea.
" I can tell you, sir," said my infor
mant, at this portion of bis narrative,
" that I for one was scared, ana no mis
take about it. I was brought up in a
part of New England where a belief in
the supernatural prevails. I had heard
that evil spirits appeared at times in me
form of beasts, and haunted the places
where they had when on earth commit
ted their crimes ; and we were off that
coast where, for two hundred years, the
desperadoes ot every clime pirates and
buccaneers had pursued, when in life,
their horrid calling. As the blue light
flickered and the veils once more broke
out, these tales of my early days might
have made me fancy myself in the pres
ence of some phantom Rhip with its
phastiv crew.
- A
But daylight soon came, the blue
light went out, and we then saw that
the wreck was a real one, and that a
boat was towing astern ; and when we
pulled to it and hailed, voices from the
cabin aft replied, and we rowed round
and saw a man with nis nead ana snoui
Aura nroieeting out of the window.
" I say, strangers !" he shouted, " don't
Tinn of vou offer to"come aboard. Some
nf the critters got loose last night, and
they're dangerous." Aud dangerous
enough they appeared to be, for at that
moment came to me laurau uu ieuou
down on us several hyenas, whose eyes,
SDarklinar with famine, glared most
ferociously ; and no wonder ; they had
bad no food for nearly week.
The brig was in faot complete me
nagerie, which ft speculative American
was taking to California, visiting all the
South American ports on his way. He
had been blown out to sea by ft hurri
cane, which ftt last carried ftwfty his
masts, and be had been drifting about
ever since, till his beasts were nearly
starved, lie had a miserable crew, half
of them being his showmen, and ne nim
self was his own captain, trusting to his
mate to navigate for him. They had
prepared the long-boat for leaving,
should no vessel fall in with them, but
had made freauent abortive enorts to
ricr iurv-masts as well. In their last at
tomni. t.hfl snar had fallen, and the heel
of it smashed the cage containing the
hyenas, and all hands had to make a
speedy retreat to the after cabin, and
Keep oeiow im uayugu
them to shoot or otherwise seoure them.
Onr fire, bv exciting the beasts, attract
ed their notice, and at first they thought
it waa a burning ship. The light Been
hv the boat earlv in the night was made
by burning some spirits of wine out of
the cabin window, ana tnoy now pre
pared to repeat the signal, hoping to at
tract our attention ; but this time, in
stead of hanging it out of the cabin
window, they managed to open ine
hatchway and push it out on the deck,
where the beasts were prowling about,
restless with the hunger which torment
ed them.
The crew stayed three days with us ;
we rigged tneni up jury-masis, aim,
what was of greater consequence, sup-
Elied the captain with plenty of the
eef from the whale for his animals, and
thus saved him from ruin ; for the poor
man bad invested all be had in the me
nagerie. We heard afterwards that he
got safe to Callao, and I suppose is in
California long betore this.
The Chinamen.
A common Chinaman has no other
idea of life than to work steadily, do his
own cooking, washing, ironing, and
mendine-. and spend a great deal less
than he earns. His father and all his
ancestors, as far back as to the time of
Aaron or of Abraham, had no otner idea
of life. A hut, a few yards of cloth, a
double handful ot rice and wheat,
slice of pork, a frying-pan, and a strip
of rush matting for a bed these are
what ho is born to, and with these, in
his own land, he expects to die, and die
content. When he
comes to America,
his simple aim is to lay up a small sum
ot money on wnien
he can live at ease
when be goes back
I saw a miner, fifty-
two years old ; ho looked thin and worn,
as though he had never known anything
but steady toil and rougu iare. iie nas
been here five years, and has three hun
dred dollars in gold. Last Monday he
took the steamer to Uanton. no win go
home to his wife, and be a man in easy
circumstances the rest of his days. They
make no eight-hour protests ; they have
no strikes; they cannot understand
what a trade-union means. They will
work for fifty cents till they hear of
some man who gives sixty. Then they
go to work for him till they know of a
chance to make seventy-five. They have
no bar-rooms; they drink no strong
drink ; they do not fight, or curse, or
break things. But they love to smoke
in the evening, and it amuses them
greatly to throw a pile of little brass
coin, ten of which make a cent, on tho
middle of ft table, and bet that, when
the heap is counted off, it will turn out
odd. Some bet a dime that it will count
out odd, as twenty-seven or thirty-one.
Others bet twenty-five cents that the
count will be even. I did not see any
body bet over twenty-five cents, but I
was told that late at night they grow
reckless and bet their pipes and their
clothes, all their tobacco, and at last a
wife. But the class ot gamesters is not
large. Most of them, after work, cuddle
down by a little fire, where rice and the
legs and head ot a nen are coning, auu
chatter about tho day s work, about
what some other miner or laborer has
found, about what some wicked " Meli
can man " has done, about home, and
having their ashes carried back to China
to sleep besides tue oones oi meir ances
tors and under the grim smile of some
ancient wooden god. Presently the
chatter lulls away, the little rush beds
are spread, and Uhang-iy, in dreams, is
far away in the Flowery Land. But,
with davliirht. he ties up the little roll
of rush carpeting, lays it on a shelf, eats
a cup of boiled wneat ana sucks a
chicken-wing, and anon the pick, with
slow but unceasing swing, is hacking
into the bank ; the barrows are filled,
the planks are handled, the rails are
spiked, and the work goes on as fast as
though pushed by Irish muscle or Amer
ican nerve.
How It was Done.
A man cannot well describe that which
he has never seen nor beard ; but the
absolute words of one such scene did
once come to the author's knowledge.
The couple were by no means plebeian,
or below the proper standard of high
breeding: they were a handsome pair,
living among educated people, sufficient
ly given to mental pursuits, and in every
way what a pair of polite lovers ought
to be. The all-important conversa
tion passed in this wise. I he site ot the
passionate scene was the sea-shore, on
which they were walking in autumn.
Uenueman" Well, .Bliss , tne long
and the short of it is this : bere I am
you can take me or leave me."
iMaii iscratuumg a truiwr iu me sauu
r i , J
with her parasol, so as to allow a little
salt water to run out of one hole into
another! " Of oonrse 1 know that s all
nonsense."
Gentleman "Nonsense! By Jove, it
isn't nonsense at all. Come, Jane, here
I am ; come, at any rate you can say
something.
Lady " x es. I suppose I can say
something. ' .
uentuman " well, which is it to be ;
take me or leave me f
Ladu (very slowly, and with a voice
perhaps hardly articulate, carrying on
at the same time her engineering work
on a wider scale) " Well, I don't exactly
want to leave you. lrouope.
A new line of steamers is to be estab
lished between Portland and Boston in
the spring, to run in connection with
the .Portland and Ogdensburgb au-
road.
Compressed Air as a Motor.
TTnvftftn H. Dav writes to the Peterson
Preu in reforence to compressed air as a
motor: ....
Perhaps less than two per cent, ot me
water power of our vast country nas
yet been utilized. The force now run
ning to waste is destined to add untold
wealth and play no mean jjuii. hi mo
nation's destiny. The time has indeed
come for a fuller investigation of this
most important subject.
Thanks to Bommeiiere ana nis associ
ates ; thanks to France ana xtaiy, wnose
money was at his disposal j we can to
day, and with great profit to all who
will engage in tne Dusiness, uuiuo up
and transmit to places where wanted,
and use this waste torce turougn com
mon engines, without nccetmrily adding
anything new.
Ao-day a company lor mis purpuso is
nro-B.ni7.inff in the city of Rochester, New
Ynrk. It has purchased the Lower
Genesee Falls, one mile from the R. E.
depot.. and can utilize five hundred horse
nnwpr. Thia company will place pipes
through the streets, similar to me orui
nary gas pipes ; these will always have
r . - .- ' .. .- - -j.
a regulated pressure of condensed air,
nfT.-ir.linor -nowor to factories and work
shops, and carrying large profits at less
than ten dollars per horse power per
annum for its use.
Every other building every dwelling
may have a small pipe connecting
with the main and then avail itself of
the recent discovery at a trifling addi
tional cost. The cooking can be done
in the kitchon : gas-light sent through
out the house, and never-failing streams
of cold, pure air. to lower the tempera
ture and for ventilution, with no other
trouble than to open and close a small
stop-cock. Our churches need no longer
be closed against the excessive heat ot
summer. The pipes through which the
gas Hows to illuminate may in time be
channels for conveying streams of very
cold air regulating the temperature at
will.
By the discovery in both Europe and
America of machinery to be run by
steam or compressed air, the drilling of
rock, its raising and removal, tunnels,
canals, and all rock excavation, muBt in
the future be done bv machinery. The
Biirleich Rock Drill Company, of Fitch-
burtr. Mass.. is building thousands of
these simple machines, whose perform
ances are as wondertui as tney are cer-
tain, and of liuht COSt.
The nation's necessities, the demands
of increasing commerce, the completion
of the Northern Pacifio Railroad, the
stoadv increase of population penetrat
ing the nroductive North-west, will
soon combine to override all local oppo
sitions. and make indispensable the con
struction of the Niagara Ship Canal
and the other connecting links through
Lake Champlain and down the Hudson
Kiver to the ocean.
When this time comes the power
Niagara Falls, by the aid of compressed
air. will operate machinery to bore the
rock and raise it from its bed, and the
whole work will only afford amusement
for a hundred men for loss than twenty
months, and when completed the ma
chinery used can bo turned to account
in running mills upon its banks and the
lakes, united at a cost so much below
the estimate of engineers by old pro
cesses of work as to make its construc
tion a certainty.
A Russian Wolf-hunt.
The programme of a regular " wolf-
huut" in the provinces is always the
same. At some abnormal hour " be
twecn the night and the day, you are
aroused, (almost, as it seems, before you
are well asleep) from a rough couch in
one of the little log-huts of some outly
ing village, by a violent shake of the
shoulder, and a hoarse voice admonish
ing you to " got up, and look sharp
about it, tor there s no time to lose.
You make a hasty toilet, and, sallying
forth, see in front of the hut, in the dim
light of the coming morning, a huge,
dark, shapeless mass (which, as your eyes
get used to the darkness, assumes the
lorm ot a broad, heavy, three-horse
sledge, with very high sides, not unlike
an enormous washiug-tub), around
which are flitting three or four spectral
figures with lanterns, the fitful glare
making their grim, bearded faces look
grimmer and less human than evt-r.
Guns, ammunition, haversacks, are
stowed away in the bottom of the con
veyance and (last, but not least) a
young pig ; your query respecting which
elicits from the leader ot the party only
the oracular answer that " it 11 come in
handy by-ond-by;" and, ell being now
ready, the hunters squeeze themselves
into their places, the driver shakes his
reins with a " wo-o-oi 1 and away we go
into the darkness. Mile after mile of
the frozen waste goes by like a dream,
till at length the spectral Bhadows of
the forest slowly gather round us, and
the squeals of our unlucky pig (whose
ears one of our party is now pinching
lustily) begin to be answered by another
sound, which no one who has heard it
will easily forget not the long melan
choly howl wherewith a supperless wolf
may be heard bemoaning himself on the
outskirts of Moscow, almost any night
in the week, but a quick, snarling cry,
as ot one who sees his dinner coming,
and wishes to hasten the bringer of it.
And there they come at last, the gaunt,
wiry, slouching fellows, with their
bushy tails, and fiat, narrow heads, and
yellow, thievish, murderous eyes. There
is perhaps nothing on earth more thor
oughly mean and hateful-looking, at
first sight, than the genuine Russian
wolf; but the rascal has ft certain pic
turesqueness of his own notwithstand
ing, though of ft disagreeable kind.
There is something grand in the dogged
and sinister tenacity of his pursuit;
coming on, with head thrown forward,
and sharp white fangs unsheathed, un
tiringly and unrelentingly, like a haunt
ing Fate,
" With his loug gallop, which can tire
The hound's deep hale and hunter's fire."
But there is no leisure for moralizing
now; for the wolves are already almost
level with our sledge, end it is time to
let fly. Bang 1 The foremost of the
.
pack rolls over on his side, kicking con
vulsively ; but the rest gallop on un
heeding. .Bang l bang l ana two more
fall dead, blotting the snow around
them with a smear of dull crimson.
Some of the boldost pursuers swarm up
to the sledge, and attempt to leap over
the encircling barrier; whilo we ham
mer them with the butt-ends of our
pieces, and chop at their paws with
hatchets, and siasn mem acrots iu eyes
with hunting-knives the two hindmost
of our party meanwhile cracking at them
ovor our shoulders as fast as they can
load. So for a time the runuing-ngbt
goes fiercely on, making altogether a
very striking tameau. inn wuno, nun-
oton tracery of the trozen toresi; me
lorig, snaky line of the pursuing pack,
shadowy and spectral, as if bodied of the
mist from which it emerges , mo wuui-ino-
fiornrfis of the foremost wolves amid
the tossing spray of snow and curling
clouds of bluish smoke; the ceaseless
flash of the buBy rifles; the steaming
horses, urged to their utmost speea ; me
driver, with his broad, sallow tace all
ablaze with excitement, shaking the
mini, nnrl banking forward to ply the
whip; the huge, cumbrous sieage, ruck
ing and reeling over the bhow with its
crVif. of atrnecrling forms all this,
seen in the dim, uncertain light of the
narlv dawn, has a weird and ghostly ap
pearance, suggestive of an attack of gob
lin hie-hwavmen upon one oi mose
phantom mail-coaches in which the bag
man's uncle made that marvellous jour
ney which so much astonished Mr. fick
wick. But " the pace is too stiff to last,"
as our leader observes with a knowing
grin. A run at full speed through halt
tries the feet of even a full-
grown wolf too severely to be continued
hpvnnd a certain time : and, in the face
of a stout resistance, the beast's inherent
cowardice is sure to come to the surface
sooner or later. Already three or four
gaunt, shaggy-haired veterans, who have
nrnbablv made a good supper over
night, begin to hang back, as if doubt
in a the wisdom of risking their lives for
a hypothetical breakfast ; the speed of
the rest slackens by degrees; and at
length the whole pack drop oft, as it by
tacit agreement, leaving us to pursue
our way unmolested. As wo emerge
again into the open plain, across which
. . I . , .1- ,1 : ,.n ...,,l
the nrsi oeams oi me rising sun mo ju
beginning to fall, we see the last of our
grim followers slinking away like a be
lated Bpectre into the ghostly shadows
of the forest that we have quitted.
I Acknowledge tho Coi n."
This popular phrase, it seems, was first
used in Congress, being a remark made
by Hon. Charles A. Wickliffe, Member j
of Congress from Kentucky. It was in
acknowledgment of the deductions of
an argument for protection made by
Hon. Andrew Stewart, just elected to
Congress from the Westmoreland District
(Twenty-first) of Pennsylvania. Mr.
Stewart was in Congress when Henry
Clay and Daniel Webster were there,
and advocated protection. He recently
made a speech, in which he referrod to
the fact. At tho same time he related
an incident which gives the origin of
the well-known phrase, " I acknowledge
the corn."
In 182S forty-two years ago this
subject (protection) was before Congress,
and we were discussing it. I was try
ing to show to the farmers of the coun
tay that they were purchasing foreign
agricultural productions in the form of
goods, while they left their own pro
duce at home without a market. I said
Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky sent their
havstacks. corn-fields, and fodder to
New York and Philadelphia for sale.
Mr. Wickliffe, of Kentucky, jumped
up end said :
" why, that is absurd, ivir. opeaKer,
I call the gentleman to order, lie is
stating an absurdity. We never send
hay-stacks or corn-fields to New York
and Philadelphia."
Well," I said, " what do you send ?"
' Why, horses, mules, cattle, hogs."
" Well, what makes your horses, mules,
cattle, and bogs ? You feed a hundred
dollars' worth of hay to a horse, you
just animate and get upon the top of
your haystack and ride it off to market,
f Laughter. ) How is it with your cattle ?
You make one of them carry fifty dol
lars' worth of hay and grass to the
Eastern market."
Then I came to the hog question,
Said I :
" Mr. Wickliffe, you send a hog worth
ten dollars to an Eistern market; how
much corn does it take at thirty-three
cents per bushel to fatten it ?"
" Why, thirty bushels."
" Then you put that thirty bushels of
corn into the shape of a hog an4 make
it walk off to the Eastern market."
Mr. Wickliffe jumped up and said :
" Mr. Speaker, 1 acknowledge the
corn."
The Sew Paris Police.
Among the other changes which the
revolution of last September effected in
Paris, was the reduction of the police
force of the city from the military-looking
being he was with cocked bat, long
sword and enormouB mustaches, to tne
simply dressed citizen. The police of
Paris in their old uniforms were obnox
ious to the people because they had
learned to look upon them as instruments
of the Imperial tyranny and intimida
tion. In this the ijommittee ot baiety
acted with unusual discretion. They
doubtless prevented a second revolution,
and " saved the Republic The oom s
pondent of the Loudon Standard thus
describes the new Parisian police : " I
saw three of them this evening, and
thought at first they were undertakers'
assistants out of place. They are got up
most funereally, in pilot coals, with enor
mous trowsers and cheese-cutter caps, all
raven-huud, and just one little bit of
color in an unhappy little tri-colored
cockade in their bead-gear. After look
ing at them, for some minutes a light
broke upon me. ' The new guardian of
the public peace is the old terfent-de-nilU
with clean-shaved face, his pocked hat
and rapier removed.
A history of tobacco is announced in
press, illustrated with nne cuts.
NO. 12.
JUSCELLASEOUS ITEMS.
Territory wants to be pro
moted to the " State of Ocmulgee."
A fon.wpar old bov of Cario, lib, has
cultivated whiskers four inches long by
taking great care of them.
Peanut oil, used in the South during
the war as a substitute lor butter, is
again coming into use in view of the
high price of the latter.
In an obituary notice of an elderly cit
izen of a village in Maine, it is stated
that he had killed forty-seven bears
within the limits of the town.
The Predmlerian Banner advocates the
addition of sacred music to the studies
to be taught in the theological semina
ries, and says every minister should know
how to sing, and to sing wen.
In Canada the mink fur season is said
to be very productive. In some sections
of the Dominion minks ara so plentiful
that they approach the farm houses in
largo numbers without fear.
A couple out West have been divorced
on account of a difference of opinion on
the subject of baptism one maintaining
the necessity of immersion to salvation,
the other, the suffiency of sprinkling.
Large numbers of the officers of the
French armies in the field are said to be
votaries of absinthe a species of decoc
tion which takes the mental and bodily
pith out of a man faster, probably, than
any other known deteriorative save opi-
Mark Twain, in o letter to a friend,
speaks of bis baby in this wise : " He,
fancying that people down hero dress
as they do up there, has come without
his bandbox; and I wish you would
buy hiin a cloak and cap, and order the
groceryman that you buy them of to
send them express to me."
An Atlantic paper of last week says : " A
lady in this city tied her hubby's hands
and foet, the other day, just for fun, and
then went through his pockets for a
certain billet-doux, and found it. His
physician tells him that his face won't
be badly scarred, tnougn ne may remain
permanently bald."
The bulk of the American families who
used to spend the winter in Paris and
Rome have emigrated to Germany. Ber-
lin, Dresden, Stuttgart, and Munich are
all full of American idlers, and the result
is that the proverbial cheapness of living
in these cities has become a thing of the
past, the tendency of an influx of trans
atlantic tourists being to make shop and
hotel keepers more extravagant in their
pretensions.
Grand Kuulil", Mieh., is tirft- 3trong- -
hold of tho women-righters. The city
physician is a woman, one of the city
pulpits is occupied by a woman, who
has a good salary, the city library, con
sisting of soveral thousand volumes, has
been gotten up by women, and to crown
all, they have a history class, composed
of ladies, which has been organized sev
eral years, which has regular lectures by
a lady from an adjoining city.
The unsatisfactory nature of winning
a case at law is evidenced in a suit re
cently tried in Cincinnati. A young
lady sued a shoemaker for making her a
pair of shoes too Bmall and ref using to
givo her another pair, ine litigation
has wasted a great deal of the time of
the parties, who can ill afford to lose it.
Tho young lady gained, after a long le
gal tight, a verdict tor $ i.zo. ine costs
amount to $25, and the lawyers' fees
about twice that sum. What is gained
by such going to law as that ?
Mrs. Stover, the daughter of Andy
Johnson, who presided with so much
quiet dignity tor three years at tho
White House, is now Mrs. Brown, the
wife of a country storekeeper in Green
ville, Tenn. Mr. Brown is a plain and
elderly-looking gentleman, well to do in
the world through his dealings in dry
goods, groceries, and notions. Andy
Johnson's only living son, a youth sev
enteen or eighteen years of age, is a
clerk in Mr. Brown's store.
There is a curious condition of affairs
in Rutland, Vt. All the hotels have
been closed, even to the exclusion of the
regular boarders of the various estab
lishments. The cause is the enforcement
of the prohibitory liquor law, the pro
prietors having been repeatedly prose
cuted and fined for the sale of liquor.
They therefore combined and closed
their doors. The town authorities have
leased a house in the outskirts of the
place and opened it as a hotel; but
whether the Mayor and other officials
do the honors, and whether the place is
run on temperance principles, we are
not informed.
The Kngbieer states that when the Rus
sian American telegraph is completed the
following teat will be possible: A telo
grnm from Alaska for New York, leaving
Sitka, say at 6 40 on Monday morning,
would be received at Niooleaf, Siberia,
at six minutes past one on Tuesday
morning; at St. Petersburg, Russia, at
three minutes past six on Monday even
ing ; at London twenty-two past four on
Monday atternoon ; and at JNew xors at
forty-six minutes past eleven on Monday
forenoon. Thus, allowing twenty min
utes for each re-transmissidn, a message
may start on the morning of one day, to
be received and transmitted the next day,
again received and sent on the afternoon
of the day it starts, and finally reaches
its destination on the forenoon of the
first day, the whole taking place in one
hour's time.
A New Haven dentist has reconstructed
the face of a person who had suffered
from a cancer. The left cheek had fallen
in and presented a very sunken and hag
gard appearance ; so much so that one
side of the face seemed at least fifteen
years older than the other. By means of
this artificial appliance the cheek is
brought out again to its original fullness,
and made an exact counterpart of the
other. The invention consists in a wing
of elastio rubber, whioh is attached to
the ordinary rubber plate, and readily
yields to the various movements of the
face. This wing is about one inch in
length, takes an upright position, and is
about half an inch outward from the ex
treme back tooth.
J