J I HENRY A. PARSONS, Jr., Editor asd Publisher, ELK COUNTY THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. Two Dollars ter Annum. VOL. I. RIDGWAY, PA., THURSDAY, AUGUST 31, 1871. NO. 26 ' ' . 'l . . V '.. A GREVFOKT LEGEND, (l97.) Tliey ran through the streets of tbe senport town, They peered from the dec ks of the ships where they lny. The cold sen-log that came whitening down Was never ns cold or white as they. "Ho, Stnrhuck and Flnckncy nnd Tcntci dun I Run for your shallops, gather your men, Scatter your boats ou the lower hay." Good cause for fear 1 In the thick midday The hulk that lay lv the rotting pier, Filled with the children in happy play. Parted Us moorings nnd drilled clear. Drilled clear beyond reach or call Thirteen children there were In all All adrift in the lower bay I Said a hard-fated skipper, " God help ns all I Blie will not float till the turning tide 1" Said his wife, " My darling will hear my call, Whether In sea or heaven she bide 1" And sho lilted a quavering voice nnd high, 1 Wild and strange as a sea-bird's cry, Till they shuddered and wondered nt her side. The fog drove down on each laboring crew, Veiled each from each nnd the sky nud shore. There was not n sound but the breath thev drew, , And the lap of water nnd creak of oar ; And they felt the breath of the downs, fresh blown O'er leagues of clover and cold gray stone, Hut not from the lips that had gone before. They come no more. But they tell the tnle That, when fogs nro thick on the harbor reef, The mackerel tishers shorten snil, For the signal they know will bring relief, For the voico ol children, still at play In a phantom bulk that drifts away Through channels whose waters never fail. It is but a foolish sulpumn'S talc, A theme for a poet's idle page, Hut still whon the mists of doubt prevail, And we Ho becalmed by the shores of Age, Wo hear from tho misty troubled shore The voice ol tho children gone before, Drawing the soul to its anchorage. Bret llarta, in the Atlantic Monthly. JOHN HARLOW'S CHOICE. A DOMESTIC SKETCH. There whs u voung lawyer by the name of John Harlow, in New York. He told Lis partner that he wanted to go homo for a week. He said he wanted to see his father and the boys, and his sister, but that he especially wanted to ride old Bob to the brook once more, and to milk Cherry again, just to see how it felt to be a farmer's boy. " John," said the old lawyer, " be sure you fix up a match with some of those country girls ; no man is fit for any thing till he is well married, and you are now able, with economy, to support a wife. Mind you get one of those country girls. The paste and powder people here aren't fit for a young man who wants a woman." The next morning John had a letter from his sister. Fart of it ran thus : ' I've concluded, old fellow, that if you don't marry you'll dry up and turn to parchment. I'm going to bring home with me the smartest girl I know. Of course she don't know what I'm up to, but you must prepare to capitulate." In the old home they were looking for the son. The family proper consist ed of the father, good Deacon Harlow, John's two brothers, ten and twelve years old, and Huldah, the " help." This last was the daughter of a neigh boring farmer who was a poor and help less rheumatic, and most of the daughter's hard earnings went to eke out the scanty subsistence at home. Aunt Judith, the sister of John's mother, " looked after " the household affairs of her brother-in-law, by coming over once a week and helping Huldah darn and mend and niako, and by giving Huldah Buch advice as her inexperience was supposed tore quire. But now Deacon Harlow's daughter had left her husband to eat his turkey alone in Boston, and had brought her two children home to re ceive the paternal blessing. Not that Mrs. Amanda Holmes had the paternal blessing chiefly in view in her trip. She had brought with her a very dear friend, Miss Janet Dun ton, the accomplished teacher in the Mt. Parnassus Female Seminary. Why Miss Janet Dunton came to tbe country with her friend she could hardly have told. Not a word had Mrs. Holmes spoken to her on the subject of matrimonial schemes. She would have resented any illusion to such a subject. She would have repelled any insinuation that she bad ever dreamed that marriage was desirable under any conceivable circumstances. She often declared, accidentally, that she was wedded to her books, and loved her leisure, and was determined to be an old maid. And all tbe time this sincere Christian girl was dying to confer her self upon some worthy man of congenial tastes; which meant, in her case, just what it did in John Harlow's some one who could admire her attainments. Mrs. Holmes and her friend had ar rived twenty-four hours ahead of John, and the daughter of the house had al ready installed herself as temporary mis tress Dy thoughtlessly upsetting, revers ing, and turning inside out all the good Huldah's most cherished arrangements. All the plans for the annual festival that wise and practical Huldah had enter tained were vetoed, without a thought that this young girl had been for a year and a half in actual authority in the house, and might have some feeling of wrong in having a guest of a week over turn her plans for the next month. But Mrs. Holmes was not one of the kind to fcuiun oi mat. iiuiaan was Hired an.l paid, and she never dreamed that hired people could have any interest in their work or their home other than their pay and their food. But Huldah was pa tient, though she confessed that she had a feeling that she had been rudely " trampled all over." I suspet she had a good cry at the end of the first day. I cannot affirm it, except from a general knowledge of women. . , iJn drove up in the buggy that the boys had taken to the depot for u hl? fir8t care was to shake hands with the deacon, who was glad to see him, but could not forbear expressing a hope that he would "shave that hair off his upper Hp." Then John greeted his sister cordially, nnd was presented to Miss JJnnton. Instead ot sitting down, be pushed rip.ht on into the kitchen where Huldah, in a calico frock and clean white apron, was baking biscuit for teo. She had been a schoolmate of his, and he took her hand' cordially as she stood thero, with tho bright western sun half-glorifying her head and face. " Why, Huldah, how you've grown !" was his nrst word of greeting, lie mean1 more than he saiJ, for though she was not handsome, she had grown exceeding ly comely as she developed into a woman, ' Undignified as ever 1" said Amanda, as she returned to the sittintr-room The next day the ladies could get no geou out or, Joan iiariow. lie got up early and milked the oow. Ha cut wood and carried it in for Huldah. Ha rode old Bob to the brook for water.. He did everything that ho had been accus toinea to ao when a boy, finding as much pleasure in forgetting that he was a man, as he had once found in hoping to be a man. The two boys enjoyed his society greatly, and his lather was de- lighted lo seejthat he had retained his interest in farm life. John was not insensible to Janet Dunton's charms. She could talk fluently about all the authors most in vogue, and the effect of her fluency was really dazzlini; to a man. John was infatu ated with the idea of marrying a wife of such attainments. How she would daz zlo his friends I How the governor would like to talk to her I How she would shine in his purlers ! now sb would delight peopte as she gave them tea and talk at the same time ! John was in love with her as he would have been in love with a new tea-urn or rare book. During that week he talked and walkod and rode in tbe sleigh with Miss Dunton, and had made up his mind that ho would carry this brilliant prize to New York. But, with lawyer-like caution, he thought ho would put off the committal as long as possible. If his heart had been in his attentions tbe caution would not have been worth much. Caution is a good breakwater against vanity ; but it isn't worth much against the springtide of love, as John Harlow soon found. For toward the end of the week he be gan to feel a warmer feeling for Miss Janet. I do not think John wus serionsly in love with Miss Dunton. If he had been, he would have found some means of communicating with her. A thousand spies with sleepless eyes all round their heads cannot keep a man from telling his love somehow, if ho really has has a love to leu. Ho observed often during tho week that Huldah was depressed. He could not exactly account for it, until he no ticed something in his sister's behavior toward her that awakened his suspicion as soon as opportunity ottered ne in quired of Huldah, affecting at the sat time to know something about it. "I don't wont to complain of your sister to you, Mr, Harlow." " Phew I call me John, and as for mv sisier, x mow ner lauits Dutter than you do." " Well, it's only that she told me that Miss Dunton wasn't used to eating at the same table with servants, and when one of the boys told your father, he was maa, and came to me, and said, ' Uuldah, you must eat when the rest do. If you stay away from the table on accourt of these city snobs, I'll make a fuss on the spot, bo to avoid a fus3 I have kept on going to me table." John was greatly vexed with this. He was a chivalrous fellow, and he knew how such a remark must wound a tier sou who had never learned that domestio service had anything degrading in it. And the result was just the opposite of wnat ms sister noped. John paid more attention to Huldah Manners because she was the victim of oppression. But, sitting in the old " best room," in the dark, while the ladies wore getting ready, and trying to devise a way by which he might get an opportunity to speak with Miss Dunton alone, it oc curred to him that she was at that time in the sitting-room waiting for his sis ter. 10 step out to where she was and present the ca3e in a few words would not be difficult, and it might all be set tled Deiore ms bister came down stairs. lhe fates were against him, however. For just as he was about to ast upon his thought, he heard Amanda Holmes's abundant dresses sweeping down the stairway. He could not help hearing iuu uuuveiBuuuu mat xoiioweu ; " You see, Janet, I got up this trip to night to keep John from spending the evening in the kitchen. He hasn't a bit of dignity, and would spend the even ing romping with the children and talk ing to Huldah, if he took it into his head." ' Well," said Janet, " one can overlook every thing in a man of your brother's culture. But what a queer way your country servants have of pushing them selves. Wouldn't I make them know their places !" And all this was said with the kitchen door open, and with the intention of wounding llulduh. John's castles tumbled. The erudite wife alongside the silver tea-urn faded out of sight rapidly. If knowledge could not give a touch of humane regard for the feelings of a poor girl toiling du tifully and self-denyingly to support her family, of what account was it r" 1 wo minutes Deiore ne was auout to give his life to Janet Dunton. , Now there was a gulf wider than the world between them. He s'ipped out of the best room by the outside door and came in through the kitchen. The neighbor's sleigh that was to call for them wus al ready at the door, and John begged them to exouse him. He had set bis heart on helping Huldah make mince-pies, as he used to help his mother when a boy. His sister was in despair, but she did not say much. She told John that it was time he was getting over his queer freaks. And the sleieh drove off. For an hour afterward John rnmned with his sister's children, and told sto ries to the boys and talked to his father. When a man has barely escaped going over a precipice, he does not like to think too much about it. John did not At lust the littlo children went to bed. The old gentleman grew sleepy and re tired. The boys went into the sitting room, and went to sleep, one on the lounge and one on the floor. Huldah was just ready to begin her pies. '' She was deeply hurt, but John succeeded in making her more cheerful. He rolled up his sleeves and went to rolling out the pastry. He thought he had never seen a sweeter picture than the young girl in clean dress and Apron, with her sleeves rolled above her elbows. There was a statuesque perfection in her well-rounded arms. The heat of the fire had flushed her face a little, and she was laughing merrily at John's awkward blunders in pie-making. John was delighted, be hardly knew why. In fixing a pie-orust bis lingers touched hers, nnd be started as it be had touched a galvamo battery, He looked at Huldah, and saw a half- painful expression on her flushed face, For tbe first time it occurred to him that Huldah Manners had excited in him a feeling a thousand times deeper tuaii anything be had lelt toward Janet, who seemed to be now in another world For the first time ho realized that ho had been more in love "with Huldah than with Janet all the time. Why not mar ry her 'i And then he remembered what the governor had said about marrying a woman's heart and not her head. He put on his hat and walked out out, out, into the darkness, the drizzling rain, and the slusn ot melting snow, fighting a fierce battle. All his pride and all hia cowardly vanity were ou one side, all the irresistible torrents of his love on the other. He walked away in to the dark wood-pasture, trying to cool his brow, trying to think, and (would you tbelieve it r) trying to pray, for it was a great struggle, and in any great struggle a true soul always finds some thing very like prayer in his heart. The feeling of love may exist without attracting the attention of its possessor, It had never occurred to John that he could love or marry Huldah. Thus it had grown all tho more powerful for not being observed, and now the unseen lire had at a flash appeared as an all-con suming one. Turning back, he stood without the window, in tho shadow, and looked through tho glass at the trim young girl at work with her pies. In the modest, restful face ho read the story of a heart that had carried great burdens patiently and nobly. What a glorious picture Bhe was of warmth aud light, framed in darkness. To his heart, at that moment all the light and warmth of tbe world centred in Uuldah. All the world be. tide was loneliness and darkness and drizzle and slush. His fear of his sister and of,his friends seemed base and cow ardly. And the more he looked at this vision of the night, the more ho was de termined to possess it. You will call him precipitate. But when all a man's nobility is on one side and all his mean ness on the other, why hesitate T Be sides, John Harlow had done more think ing in that half hour than most men do in a month. The vision vanished from the window and he went in and sat down. She had. by this time, put in the last pie, and was sitting with her head on her hand. The candle flickered and went out, and there was only the weird and ruddy fire light. I cannot tell you what words passed between John and the surprised Ilnldah, who had thought him already betrothed to Miss Dunton. I could not tell what was said in the light of that fire ; I don't suppose Huldah could tell that story herself. Uuldah asked that he would not sav anything about till his sister was gone. Of course John saw that she asked it for his sake. But his own cowardice was glad of the shelter. JN ext day a brother of John s (whom I forgot to mention before) came home from college. Mrs. Holmes's husband arrived unexpectedly. Aunt Judith. with her family, camo over at dinner time, so that there was a large and mer ry party. Two hearts, at least, joined in the deacon's thanksgiving before din ner with much fervor. At the table the dinner was muoh ad mired. " Huldah," said Janet Dunton, "I like your pies. I wish I could hire vou to go to Boston. Our cook never does so well." John saw the well-aimed shaft hidden under this compliment, and all his man hood Tallied. As soon as he could be sure of himself he said : " You cannot have Huldah ; she is al ready engaged." " How is that t sid Aunt Judith. " O, I've secured her services," suid John. " What !" said Mrs. Holmes, "engaged your your help before you ve engaged a wife i" Not at all," said John ; " engaged my help and wife in one. I hope that Uuldah Manners will be Huldah Har low by Christmas." J The deacon laid down his knife and fork, and dropped his lower jaw and tared. "What! How! What did vou sav. John'r" ' I say, father, that this good girl Hul dah is to be my wife." "John, gasped the old man, getting. to his feet, and reacbiug his hand across the table, " you've got a plenty of sense if you do wear a moustache 1 God bless you, my boy ; there ain't no better wo man here nor in New York nor any where than Huldah. God bless vou both. I was afraid you'd take a differ ent road, though." " Hurrah tor our Uuldah and our John," said George Harlow, the college boy, and his brothers joined him. iwen the little Holmes children hurrahed. Vegetable leather is now extensively manufactured, the principal materials being caoutchouc and naptha. The product is only one-third as costly as ordinary leather.' which it resembles so closely that they can be distinguished only by close inspection ; and the vege table) leather has the additional advan tage of being made in entire pieces of buy yards in length if desired, one and a half yards wide, of anv thickness de manded, of uniform quality, and ample strength. Story ot a Welsh Colony In Fatnzoniu. The colony of Chupat, on the west coast of Patagonia, was formed by a par ty of Welsh people, under the superin tendence of Mr. Jones, an Independent Minister of Bala, in North Wales, in the year 1805. Since its establishment the oolonists have been more or less depend ent on the Argentine Government for their subsistence, and. news has been oc casionally heard of them at Buenos Ayres,to which place they made periodi cal trips in a schooner. This vessel was, however, wrecked in 1869, and another small schooner, which they purchased with the assistance of the Argentine Government, also coming to trouble, their means of communication with the outer world were cut off. In the month of March last, no news having been heard of the colonists since the month of May in the previous year, considerable anxiety was felt on their account, and the British gunboat " Cracker " was des patched to ascertain what had become of them. That vessel accordingly ar rived in Engano Bay on the 4th of April last, and Commander Dennistoun pro ceeded by boat up the river about six miles to the village of Chupat, and had the satisfaction of finding the colonists in excellent health and spirits, although they had been thrown on their own re sources for so long a period. Their grati tude for the anxiety displayed on their behalf is desoribed as most touching. The colony had suffered for two years from drought, and the whole wheat crop of last year, estimated at 16 J tons, was just about sufficient to support the pre sent population, (estimated -as equal to iiu adults; at the rate ot eight pounds a wees eacn until next harvest, suppos ing nono were 'kepS for seed. Two fami lies were found utterly destitute of grain, while ten others had certuinlv not enough left to last more than two months or so ; and as Mr. Lewis Jones, to whom Commander Dennistoun granted a pas sage to Montevideo, could not return to the colony with supplies for four months. Commander Dennistoun took upon him- sett tne responsibility ot leaving what provisions could be spared to assist the poorest families. He also left them two hundred pounds of soap, an article they had been destitute of four months. The whole colony had been without any description of groceries for over ten months, living chiefly on bread, butter, and milk, and what guanaco and ostrich meat they could obtain by hunting. At present there are only seven sheep in tne coiony, and tne only means of com. munication that exists with Buenos Ayres is by land via Patagones : but to reach it an unknown tract of country of some two Hundred miles has to be tra versed, with little or no water to be found. Yet, in spite of these little draw backs to comfort, not one individual ex pressed a wish to leave the colony. Torn to Pieces by Dogs. Yesterday at noon, Willie Biersch died at his grandfather's house, near Camp Washington. He was a lad 7 years old, and the son of Ernst Biersch, a tanner at the above place. At noon on Tues day he was sent by his mother to the tannery to carry a message to his father about a still younger brother who was sick. At the tannery he found his father had gone away to a neighbor's, and that most of the workmen had left, and those who had not were leaving to go to their dinner. Learning from some of the lat ter where his father had gone, he start ed to find him. On his way Willie climbed a fence. When he crossed this he was confronted by a fierce hybrid slut, holf-bull and half-Newfoundland, with her five half-grown pups. The cruel brutes seized him, threw him to the ground, dragged him some distance, and were steeping their savage jaws in his blood, while some neighbors, drawn by his cries, sa,w the bloody spectacle, but feared to interfere. A man at last got a pistol and shot the grown dog, whereup on the others fled, but were afterwards shot. Willie was carried horribly man gled to his grandfather's house, and Dr. Bichardson dressed his wounds. All night he suffered and grew worse, until death came at noon yesterday and re leased him. The savage beasts tore the entire scalp from his bead, baring it al most to the skull. In his right arm, near the shoulder, their fierce fangs left a terrible gash, large enough to bury a man's two fists in. On his left side they bared his ribs, and tore them asunder so as to expose the lungs. The relentless brutes left not a feature of his face un torn by their rapacious teeth. Other wounds there were on that little body which alone would have been looked upon as fearful, but which, in compari son with those described, were nothing. Cincinnati Gazette, Aug. 10. Cyclical Changes. There is a storv afloat that Ruiuta nnd Sweden are both after tha Inland nt Spitsbergen for a future summer garden the fertility to be occasioned by changes in the Gulf Stream. But this comfortable prospect of grapes at the North Pole is defeated by tbe established fact that the Northern hemisphere is cooling, and that th Southern i cumulating heat. The Arctio ice is steadily encroaching on the yet unfrozen portions of Europe, Asia, and America. In th thirtAnnth Aantnrv ma fruited in England freely where now it : 1 1 i j, . i f . wm uaruiy pun zortn leaves, u these things are so. Russia and Sweden nud not go to war about a future vegetable garden in ripitzbergen. Besides we are to have another deluge. Deluges, it is now discovered, come once in about 10,500 years. Hence it is about 6,600 years to the next flood when the ocean will take possession of its former bed in the Northern Hemisphere. All those measureless waters south of the Equator are to be poured over Europe and Amer ica, new continents are to rise in the south, and Australia is to be the future great country of the world. Suoh is the prediction of Adhemar, which is now taken up and discoursed upon in a re cent scientific publication. In view therefore of the statement that sixty three canturia are to finish us nn. it. a full time that we began, to prepare for iue outer ana inevitable ena. Studies or Faces. It is a very trite remark (says the Sat urday Review) that while one observer notes the form of a face, twenty perhaps will note its expression. A twitching of the mouth or eye, or any other peculiari ty of facial movement, is sure to Btrike attention, although the form of the fore hoad and chin entirely escapes observa tion. And this greater attention to ex preesional or other movement is always the more observable in proportion as the face is familiar. Every reader may easily persuade himself of this by think ing of some intimate acquaintance, of whoss face perhaps he remembers only some singular movement of the eyes or mouth. He cannot very probably recall the image of the whole face, but his idea consists of a distinctly marked move ment of some feature on a dim back ground representing nothing but a very general type of facial outline. The fact appears to be that though we may be struck by the contour of a head or the disposition of the features at a first im pression, familiarity very soon renders us indifferent Philosophers tell us that change of impression is a universal con dition of consciousness. And it is prob able that a familiar face, so far as it does not undergo change that is to say, in its general outline, and the form of the less mobile features, tends to impress the consciousness with less and less distinct ness. Being frequently recurrent and unvarying impressions, they come, like the perpetual din of a neighboring forge to be scarcely noticed. On the other hand, a peculiarity of facial movement does not partake of this dead uniformity ot character. It recurs but compara tively seldom, and impresses us always with some degree of intensity as a change from the accustemed position of the fea tures. A curious importance is given to this subject of facial knowledge by its legal bearings. When a question of life or property is found to depend inter alia on people's power of identifying acquaint ances, the right apprehension of what such power actually amounts to is a very desirable attainment. If every body could be brought to study peculi arities of face as an object in itself, there would certainly be a great simplifica- i: iJ j:m ii. Ti . , i nun ui uuo uimuuit prooiem in legal evi dence. Possibly at some future dav wa shall hear of an educational reformer ad vocating for our elementary schools some amount of practical knowledge of form such as can only be obtained by drawing from natural objects. And certainly if this resulted in nothing else than a higher average of intelligence about the subject of faces, it would be of scarcely inferior utility to an acquaintance with the elements of music. But. however this may be, the difficulties in the way ui a general accurate Knowledge of the human countenance in its individual di versities do not seem capable of easy re moval. How Cnido Rubber Is Collected. Greytown, Nicaragua, is the principal port for the export of India rubber on the coast. It is collected by parties of Indians, Caribs, or half cast Creoles, seldom by Europeans, to whom the deal ers, who are also storekeepers, advance the necessary outfit of food, clothing, and apparatus for collecting rubber, on condition of receiving the whole of the rubber collected at a certain rate. The rubber hunters are termed Uleros (Ule being the Creole term for rubber.) A party of Uleros, after a final debauch at Greytown, having expended all their re maining cash, generally make a start in a Canoe for one of the rivers or streams which abound on the coast, and having fixed on a convenient spot for a camp, commence operations. The experienced rubber hunter marks out all the trees in the neighborhood. The rubber tree is the Castilloa elattica, which grows to a great size, being on an average about four feet in diameter, and from twenty to thirty feet to the first spring of the branches. From all the tress in the al most impenetrable jungle hang numer ous trailing parasites, lianes, etc; from these, and especially the tough vines, are raade rude ladders, which are suspended close to the trunks of the trees selected, which are now slashed by machetes in diagonal cuts from right to left, so as to meet in the middle and central channels, which lead into iron gutters driven in below and these again into the wooden pails. The pails are soon full of the white milk, and are emptied into larger tin pans. The milk is next pressed through a sieve, and sub sequently coagulated by a judicious ap plication of the juice of a Bejuca (an ApocynaT) vine. The coagulated mass is then pressed by hand, and finally rolled out on a board with a wooden roller. The rubber has now assumed the form of a large pancake, nearly two feet in diameter and about a quarter of an inch thick, on account of which they are termed tortilla by tbe Uleros ; these cakes are hung over the side poles and framework which supports the ranclio, which is erected in the woods, and al lowed to dry for about a fortnight, when they are ready to pack for delivery to the 'dealer. Cheap Postage In England. New and still cheaner ratps nt nnolarra - - r e went into operation in England August 1st. Letters and parcels of all sorts, closed or open, without any distinc tions, are charged as follows : Not exceeding 1 oi , Seta. Above 1 oa, but uot eicuodiHK Joi....3 ' " 2o 4 " ....4 - " ot. i " ....6 - " Bo. " ".... " Soz. " 10 " ....7 " " ,.10o. " - U ".... " 12 ounces is the limit of weight for letters. ' In , this oountry, our rate for letter Eostage continues to be 3 cents for each all' ounce, or six cents an ounce, which is just three times higher than the new English rate for an ounce, and nine times more than the English rate for twelve ounces. . . ; , We think our government might take a lesson from England in the matter of cheap letter postage. But for parcels of certain kinds, our rates are less than the British charges. An Old-Fflshioncd New England " Rate Ing." Some one who cherishes a love for old customs, writes from a rural retreat in New England to the Liberal Christian : It was a peculiar pleasure, up here in the country, where we write, to hear of a real old-fashioned raising last week. True, it was a tobacco barn I And the suddenness and rapidity with which that peculiar Southern staple has shot up into importance in the Connecticut Valley may account for the renewal of the old custom. The crop is so valuable that the housing of it for a single season is a matter of first-rate importance. And people in this far North have discovered the favorableness of theland and climate to tobaoco so recently that more barns are wanted than there are hands to put them promptly up. And so the old con ditions come back, and people go to raising a little as they used to. On this occasion, sixty men from six miles round assisted, and raised two good-sized barns in the course of the long summer day. The old abundant provision less the rum and whiskey were made, but the old jollity was not so apparent. There is no longer the same sense of equality, the same sense of mutual dependence, tho same necessity of making the most of every opportunity of merry-making, the same freedom of speech and action I There were ladies there looking on, and the proprietor was not at work himself, and the whole thing was not quite gen uine. Yet it was very pleasant to see even a little of the old village friendship left ; a little of the old sweet and whole some local acknowledgment of mutual dependence. The Metric System. The London Spectator of July 29 says : Wednesday was taken up in the Com mons with a great discussion on a bill which proposed the revolutionary step of making the French metrio system compulsory on England, a proposal which, though the Government resisted it, was only negatived by a majority of 5 (82 to 77). The discussion showed clearly enough the real need for a uni formly decimal system of weights and measures in England; but it also showed great reason to doubt what tho units of that system ought to be, whether those taken by the French or Borne of those now in use in England. Sir John Her schel preferred the English foot to the Frenoh metre, and the English ounce to the French gramme; but as no practical statesman has yet proposed to take our foot and ounce as the basis of an English decimal system of lengths, weights, and (solid) measures with the pound, or measures of value, this has been pro posed and steps taken toward effecting it the authority of Sir John Herschel is used at present only to deter from the French system rather than to help the solution of the difficulty. It may be that we shall come in the end to the me trio system, and translate our old pro verbs from " Give an inch and take an ell;" "An ounce of sense is better than a pound of learning ;" into " Give a mil limetere and take a centimetre," or, " A gramme of sense is better than a pound of learning." But in the meantime much has to be learned and a good deal forgotten. An Old Burglar. According to the Hartford Timet, Wil son, the murderer, who is to be hanged on the 13th of October next, is the wick edest man in Connecticut. He has writ ten a book of 100 pages entitled " Thirty-three Years in the Life of a Crack." He savs he has hrnlren mif. nf nina Wtotn prisons, and that he has committed a 1 . i c , 1 . vcijr ittjgo uuiuuur oi uurgianes, two or three hundred we believe. The first of his burs-laripfi wan pnmTniforl in PK;ia delphia, when he was 19 years old, in mail. Thev WPr fn crt linlvao in Ya J O w lUU plunder. Entering a jewelry shop they iuuii wuiuues auu geweiry on wmcn they realized 7.000. and hia half .t F.OIW - ' ' VD him a capital to start with. Since then he has tried his hand on banks, safes, iewelrv and nilk ntnrpa in mam, r,l.na rf 7 - ''-, J lavd He proposes to continue the narrative ouu bajjubo certain receiving snops in New York and nihpi nlanna Ti.tnV.ti A -- ..-wku, ii iii ia kept by men who " carry their heads high in Bociety." Wilson seems to be quite confident he can take his own life at any time. But how he is to do it is a puzzle to those whose eyes are upon him at all timpo. RlnAd-lpf fr.ino. r! aortic. nnl son, choking all these, it' is believed, buu uo ji c V Oil J J UL BU.il VV lltJOU 18 confident that be holds tbe pulsations of hia own lifa in thn nalrn nf hia hon a-nA w UUUUy UUU has only to close his fingers to stop the 1 i : r l j ii , vr . ueauug ui a imruuueu neari. lie Ignores religious counsel, and is as much a bur glar to-day, defying the laws of God and man o a li a Yi a a Ytnnn all 4 V. -V. VI reer of crime for 33 years. . Why Circles Tlcaso tho Eye. - Prnfrnflnr TWnllAr In ft. . yaa rf 1rti til ran i n Rfr 1 i n . nfFr,(l a. tiimnla art A mechanical explanation of the univernal admiration bestowed on these curves. The eye is moved in iU socket by six muscles, of which four are respectively right, and to the left The other two uo'o em nuuuu cuiitrturjr vj una anotner, and mil i.ha pva nn it ktm m frrtm tv.n wj UVW IjUO outside downward, and inside upward. TIM .LJ..1 . i , T? lieu nu oujout is presented ior inspec tion. ha flruf an.f. ia tliar s' ntn.1.nJn: or going round tbe boundary lines, so as t Vil"i n , rtAnouiniiiinln ...... 2 J ! " 1 1 w wiioovuib.,OJjr CVCrjr lUU.VlUUai Tinr t i nn nf tha nirniinifAMnnii , V l ----.-vlVJ V4A IUD UlUDb elicate and sensitive portion of the a: T it i ... teuua. now, ii ngures bounded by straight lines be presented for inspection, it is obvious that but two or three mus cles can be called into action ; and it is equally evident that in curves of a cir- 1 .11: ,ii . . i i , i Mm ui cuijjoo on must alternately De brought into action. Tha otfuit lii ; O " V IMCU that if two only be employed, as in .flA.ii: a xi . . itouuubm ngures, xnose two nave an undue share of labor j v v J tvvuuiug the experiment frequently, as we do in buuuuuuu, ui uuuon ox tedium is in stilled, and we form o-rftdnullw a Ateiat for straight lines, and are led to prefer AV. 1 1 i vuuso uurves wuiuu supply a more gen eral and equable share of work. MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS. The Auburn State Prison now has over 1,000 inmates, nearly ISO more, it is said, then it has had at this season for several years. The fashionable season there for incarceration is Btated to be the winter. The Chicago Common Counoil are go ing to Salt Lake city, and an exchange says it is understood that their purpose is to strike a decisive blow at polygamy by distributing Chicago divorces among the Mormons. The simplest and cheapest way to cool a room is to wet a cloth of any size, the larger the better, and suspend it in the yiuuo you wan i cooiea. jet the room be well ventilated, and the temperature will sink from ten to twenty degrees in less than an hour. A Wyoming husband advertises him self as a monthly nurse. He says his wife formerly supported the family by that business, but since she acquired the right to vote and sit on juries she does nothing but talk politics, and so he must keep the business up or himself and children will starve. Constantinople is to be connected with the opposite Asiatic coast by a rail road tunnel, consisting of Bheet-iron double tubes, under the water of the Bosphorus. The tunnel is to be about twelve hundred feet long, ten feet in diameter in the clear, and to be thirty six feet below the level of the water, in order not to obstruct navigation. A couple of children were lost at Delhi, la., recently, and much grieving was done, the church bells were rung and the whole village organized for search, when it was suggested to look in their bedroom for them, and there the little innocents lay, fast asleep, and un conscious of the excitement they had caused. The Apache Indians are rather luxuri ous in their warfare. Not long since a party of miners and prospectors in Ari zona had a fight with some, and defeated the "red skins," with a dead loss to several. In the pouches of the slain Indians were found golden bullets, ham mered out of the nuggets which they picked up. Togolanda, a small island in the Malay archipelago, about fifty miles northeast of Celebes, has been visited by a terrible calamity. An outburst of the volcano of Buwang was aeccmpanied by a wave one hundred and twenty feet high, which swept all the inhabitants and cat tle from the island. Four hundred and Bixteen souls perished. The Berlin Correspondent, in an ac count of the German navy, says : " Every ship in the German service, even the smallest gunboat, is provided with detailed drawings and sections of every foreign war ship. Its weak points are specially stated, and details given as to the spots to be aimed at with most likelihood of disabling the machinery." A romantio pair were blessed with a number of daughters. The eldest was called Caroline, the second Madeiwi, the third "Eveline, the fourth Angeline, when lo I the fifth made its appearance, and no name could be found with the desired termination. At length mamma pounced upon a name, and forthwith the baby was baptized CnVioLlKE. A farmer cured a baulky horse in tho town of Eden, Fond du Lao county, Wisconsin. He hitched a pair of cattle w a ug-t;iiaiii nruuuu vue iiorse s neuK, and prevailed on 'era to lean a few tons weight on the yoke. The horse didn't start, but his head came out by the roots. The hide, a set of shoes, and a lunch for the crows are all that is left of the indocile steed. A young and newly-fledged Justice of the peace out in Illinois was recently ' called upon, for the first time, to marry a couple. He nervously looked through "Every Man His Own Lawyer," and "Haines's Township Laws," but failed to find the desired form. The crowd grew impatient, and he told the couple to hold up their right hands. This done, he pronounced the following charge: " You and each of you do solemnly swear that in the cause now upon hear ing you will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and that you will love, honor, cherish, and obey each other during the term of your natural lives, so help you God." Both answered solemnly, "I will," and the Judge charged them a dollar each, and pronounced them man and wife. The editor of a newspaper in Bich mond, Va., received, on Thursday lost, & polite note from a lady of respectability in that city, signed by her full name,, announcing that she would, at eight o'clock in the evening of that day, pro- ' ceed to take her own life by the most i available means, and respectfully solicit ing the pleasure of a reporter's company ' to witness the ceremony, irunctually at the appointed hour, the reporter and On ITU .1 1 4.1in. i n tt, .1 rl i . . 1- .1 viuoi .uubou gucaw prcDCUVCU - themselves at the residence designated, . but, owing to the interference of friends or some other circumstances, the attempt was ' indefinitely postponed. But the Eurpose of the writer came very near, eing carried out Of course, the lady . is deranged. - TV. in: : T 1 Ti -i a r. 4.uuviB iutuu oi xvaiiroau iom . missioners are preparing to enforce tho statute passed lust winter by the Legis-' lature of their State, reducing the rates of freitfht and rjasaenper fare nn rail roads. They have calif d upon the vari- -ous railroad companies for statements of their earnings up to July 1, ia order to make the classification provided for by the statute. The officers of the compa nies profess their readiness to furnish the statements as soon as they can be prepared, but protest against the oonsti- tutionality of the Btatute, and aver their readiness to bring the question -of. its validitv hpfnra tha rnnrta. . The Com missioners have replied that they will use every means to aid the companies in obtaining the judicial decision they de- ' Dire, ruu to vuib vuu wu nibuer individuals in bringing suit for tha penalties provided by the statute, or take proceedings in their official capao ity for forfeiting the franchise of com panies guilty of violating it
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers