HENRY A. FAKSONS, Jr., Editor asd Publisher, 4 VOL. II. RIDGAVAY, PAV THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 1872. NO. 4. fc r POKTJi v. A Sl'MMEH-UAY MOIVU. liV (JKr)H(ll M AC UONAUi. The iiiuro nwnke like ur-mtliiiK dove, Wtrti onUprcad wing if giity : Her toaOtery clouds clone In above. And roof a inbcr day. "So motion in the derpn or vlrl No trembling In tho leaves ! A ftllUccntfnitwent pvervwhrr, TluititelthorlanlM nor grieve. A til in of slicoU'd 1 wr gray y lint a In tin or.tti hue ; White-win Kd ff-im'Cwh-avu their way tlt'hind tu ffo; Ku iUHbhu'. hraam on, liiiuni on, O ilremnydtiy Thy vo:y chmtln a'edrramn; Yon child in dreaming far away lip n not where h wenm. Till! STOIIY-TELLBR. THE BROTHER'S REVENGE. A correspondent of the Philadelphia l're writes the history of a tragedy on the Plains in the Far West : Riding out abovo Julesburg, n rook was pointed out to 1110, at the foot of which had been enacted a tragedy, the mere recital of which made my blood run cold. The place was in a deep canyon, surrounded by high bluffs, and there was a loneliness and silence in the frovn ing rocks that oppressed every visitor, mid made them glad to hasten their de parture from the gloomy dell. Many years ago two young men came from the East, and ascending the Missouri, en gaged in the fur business. They were bosom friends, and prospered in nil their undertakings; money flowed into their coffers arid they became wealthy ; still they stayed in the West that had been so generous to them, nnd finally deter mined to make it their permanent home. Ono of tho young men had a sister, who lived at St. Louis, where the partners went annually to sell their furs and divide the profits of their business. The girl, infatuated by the tales of ad venture told her by her brother, longed to visit the great West, and begged ro hard that her brother hnally consented. For a whole year she lived at the hun ter's I audio on the head waters of the Missouri, and when the time came for tho partners to go down the river and sell their furs, the brother was sick and ould not go. The girl was loth to leave her brother, but ho urged her to go home and see their mother, saying he would soon bo well and follow after her. Intrusting his darling to his friend and partner, the two set out in a Mackinaw boat, well manned and provided with every comfort. The brother grew worse and the summer wore away before he was able to travel. In the meantime, tho partner returned, bringing him news from home and a division of the annual profits, which were larger than ever be fore. The brother, pleased with tho manner in which their business had been uiaungod, readily yielded to the suggestion of his partner to delay his visit home, devote the winter to active operations, and go down in tho spring with furs. All went well until mid winter, when the brother received a let ter from his home that nearly crazed him. The letter was from his mother, and gave a long, circumstantial account of the ruin and seduction of hia beloved Nina by his partner. Tho girl had con fessed every thing, nnd told how he had seduced her while bringing her home down the Missouri, and then abandoned her. Tho poor girl, unable to bear her shame, had become a maniac, and soon would be a mother. Tho first impulse of tho brother on reading this letter was to seek out at once and kill the villain who had ruined his family, but li thought the momentary suffering in flicted by a ball not enough punishment for such a scoundrel, and so devised a plan for revenge that no Indian could have outdone for cruelty. Keeping the receipt of his letter a profound secret, he went on with his business ns usual, and every day met his partner on the same terms of friendly intimacy as for merly. When tho skins were packed and all in readiness to go down the river the brother went to Fort Benton and there had executed a will, leaving tho name of the person wlio made it blank, after which ho returned to his camp on tho Jefferson Fork. lie then represented that on tho Platte great irohts were to be made in the iur trauo, A ,trnindiil tn lim 1111 ,, mi' flint indtnilll .itiiv l.ni.ii lifi ri.!ur.li,., liOTT ulinillll their bouts at the mouth of tho tho Missouri. The induce- li.if it thnv tjtimjl nil na rn- ii.rtiilil nut til, liuli a licimili I - .... . i ii.: tit.- 'IM. I ..... g, . assented to proposals so ur iiiu uuvuuuigc ui uuiij, i pv iu'f nnf. fulfill, with them I hi, lf n ru i-Tir ttia t,;,,t u,ii, I used on the lniirnev. 1 nev 1 many days, and hnally came I ilnu'ii wliiuli fliov fiillnw- I lirl.il an, i.D nritnnoii ni fitlifil 1 i , uiuuui ilia iui iiiui iu ai- i ; i , l . i i i v lull, iutA tli.i l.nlir much I uioiti iiiiuu iiiiii, iiu Becureiv nuu 1, llllli. .UULi 11 1 1 VI L 1 1 1 1 1 MUNIIU 111,11 I II rOCH. AL 111HL 1.I1H TlMTTTllir T.nniifrriT. I . 1 . ili i.l I II 1.1 it was some cruel joke, but when tho brother produaed the letter and read it, tho poor man knew but too well his tiino had come. He confessed all and asked t) be shot, but he Lvotlior had another jute in store fur his victim. Oqolly en camping by the. rock, he sat down to see his partner starve to death. On the third day the ill-fated man signed the ileed bequeathing all his property to the injured girl, and the brother attached a iictitiqus name as witness to the instru ment, by the terms of which he was made the executor of his partner's estate, lie then wrote letters saying he had fullen very ill of -fever on the plains, and if he did not recover those letters would be delivered by his beloved partner. All this the infuriated brother compelled the poor man to do, and then quietly awaited the end. Day by day the part ner grew weaker and the brother gloat- I ed over his misery, often reading to him the letter from his mother. Tho poor man promised to marry tho girl and make all the reparation in his power to the family, but the brother was deaf to entreaties. At last the part ner dwindled to a skeleton died and the brother, after burying his victim's emaciated corpse in the snnd, resumed his journey to St. Louis. There he gave out that" his partner had died while on his way through tho ltocky Mountains, and in proof of his assertion delivered the letters. The will was also proved, and the girl beeamo the dead man's heir. Two years afterwards tho brother was shot by Indians, and before ho died con fessed what ho had done. Some hunters visited tho place and dug up tho skele ton, around tho neck of which still was tho chain by which the poor man when living had been fastened to tho fatal rock. The spot is still pointed out to travellers, and the talo told of how the brother, day after day, eat his meals in the presence of his wretched prisoner, but would not givo him so much as a crumb or a cup of water to slake his thirst. Always Begin Right. We once knew an old Friend who had but one piece of advice to young begin ners : it was, " If thee'll only begin right all will go well." We havo often thought that there was more in the recommen dation than even the good Quaker saw, for there is scarcely anything to be done in life to which the adage, "begin right" will not apply. Success is but a syno nym for beginning right. Who, for example, is the healthiest, the early-riser or the sluggard r It is the man who begins tho day right, by leaving his bed with the sun, and inhal ing tho fresh air of morning, not the one who remains till eight or nine o'clock in a closo chamber, sleeping a dull, stupe fying sleep. Who gets through his day's work the earliest '( Tho early riser. The man of business who is at his store soon est, is always best prepared for tho cus tomers of the day, and often, indeed, has sold many a bill before his laggard neighbors were about. Sir Walter Scott used to have half his day's writing fin ished before breakfast. A shrewd ob server has said that a Lite-riser consumes the day in trying to recover the hours he lost in tho morning. Mind and body are both freshest early in the day. The lawyer should think, tho minister study, the author write, the valetudinarian walk or ride, and tho mechanic or far mer bo nt work as early as possible. Nor is this all. The great bulk of en terprises that fail owe their ruin to not having been begun right. A business is undertaken without sufficient capital, connection, or knowledge. It ends un favorably. Why '( Because it was not begun right. A young professional man, wlioso probationary period of study has been spent in pleasure rather than in hard reading, complains that he cannot succeed. Why, again 'i Because he has not begun right either. A stock compa ny blows up. Still why ? Ten' to one, tho means employed are not adequate to the end, or else it was started with inef ficient officers, and in either case it was not begun right. Two young house keepers break up their guy establish ment, the lady going home, perhaps, to her father's, taking her husband with her. Why They did not begin right, for they commenced on too large a scale, forgetting that the expenses of a family increase every year, and that, in no event is it safe for a man to live up to his in come. An inventor starts a manufac tory, in which his improvements in ma chinery are brought into play ; but after a while he finds himself insolvent ; his factory is sold ; another reaps where he lias sown. Why 'i Alas ! like too many others, ho has undertaken more than ho has means to cany through ; he did not begin right, and his ruin was the conse quence. But, ubove all things, life should bo begun right. Young men rarely know how much their conduct, during their first few years, affects their success. It it not only that older persons in the same business form their opinions of them ut this time, but that every begin ner acquires, during these years, habits for good or ill which color his whole fu ture career. We have seen some of tho ablest young men, with every advantage of fortune and friends sow the seeds of ruin and early death by indulging too freely in the first years of manhood. We huoo seen others, with far less capacity, and without any backing but industry and energy, riso gradually to fortune and influence. Franklin is a familiar il lustration of what a man can do who be gins right. If ho had been too proud to eat rolls in the street when he was a poor boy, he would never have been Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of France. Always begin right! Survey the wholo ground before you comiuenco any undertaking, and you will then bo pre- Iiared to go forward successfully. Neg oct this, however, and you are almost sure to fail. In other words, begin right. A good commencement is half tho bat tle. A false first step is almost certain defeat. Begin right Fire Without Flame. An experimenting Detroit chemist took a piece of threadbare cotton cloth, smeared it with boiled linseed oil, and placed it in the centre of a chest filled with paper and rags. Although the room was not tight and tho weather was cold, there was a smell of fire about the room in eight days. Unpacking it tho experimenter found the rag half charr. ed. Jn April ho made a similar experi ment with a pair of painter's overalls, which he rolled up with pine Bhavings and crowded in next to the roof-boards of a'loft. In a week tho smell of sinoke alarmed a workman in tho next room, and the overalls were found to be. on fire. And during the hottest weather a handful of old cotton rags, not smear ed with oil, became hot enough when hung up in a tin box in the sun to light matches which he had placed among them. These facts show the necessity of caution in putting away rags, especially those that may be saturated with oil, benzine or other inflammable substances. Exchange. Dickens's Humor. The humor of our go. id Genie seems, when we begin to uu.nyze it, averyBim- )lo matter merely tho knack, as we lave before said, of seeimr crooked of posing every figure into oddity. A tone, a gesture, a look, the merest trait, is suf ficient ; nay, so all-sufHcicnt does the trait become that it absorbs tho entire individuality ; so that Mr. Toots becomes a Chuckle, Mr. Turvcydrop incarnate Deportment, Uriah Heep a Cringe ; so that Newman Noggs cracks his finger knuckles, and Carker shows his teeth, whenever they appear ; so that Trad dlcs is to our memory a Forelock forever sticking bolt upright, and llegaud (in Little JJorrit) an incarnate Hook-nose and Moustache eternally meeting each other. Enter Dr. Blimber : ' Tho Doctor's walk was stately, and calculated to im press the juvenile mind with solemn feelings. It was a sort of march ; but when tho Doctor-put out his right foot, ho gravely turned upon his axis, with a semicircular sweep toward the left ; and when he put out his left foot, ho turned in tho samo manner toward tho right. So that ho seemed, at every strido ho took, to look about him as though ho were saying, ' Can anybody have tho goodness to indieato any sub ject, in any direction, on which I am un informed ':' " Enter Mr. Flintwinch : " His neck was so twisted that tho knot ted ends of his whito cravat actually dangled under one car ; his natural acer bity and energy always contending with a second nature of habitual repression, gave his features a swollen and suffused iook ; ami altogether he had a weird ap poaraneo of having hanged himself at one time or other, and of having gono about ever since, halter and all, exactly as sonio timely hand had cut him down." This first impression never fades Gl obalises us long as we see tho figure in question. Akin to this perception of oddity, and allied with it, is the perception of the incongruous. Never did tho brain of human creature see stranger resem blances, funnier coincidences, more side splitting discrepancies. This man was for ull the world like (what should ho say ?) a pump, the more so as his feel ings ran to water. That man was a a spider, such a comical spider " horny skinned, two-legged, nioney-getting, who simn webs to catch unwary Hies, and re tired into holes until they were entrap ped." Yonder trips the immaculate Peck sniff, " caroling as ho goes, so sweetly and with so much innocence, that he on ly wanted feathers and wings to be a bird." Here, as elsewhere, tho wholo power lies in tho incongruity of the wholo comparison, in tho reader's perfect knowledge that Pecksniff is a humbug and an impostor, and that there is no thing bird-like or innocent in his na ture. Tho vein once struck, thero was nothing to hinder our good Genio from working it for ever. His path swarmed with oddities and incongruities ; Wag-ner-liko ho mixed these together, and produced the Hoinunculus, Laughter. And just as the perception of oddity and incongruity varies in men, varies tho enjoyment of Dickens. Quiddity for quiddity tho reader must givo as well as receive ; and if the faculty is not on him, ho will turn away contemptu ously. A weasel looking out of a hole is enough to convulse some people with laughter ; they see a dozen odd resem blances. Other people, again, walk through all this topsyturvy land with scarcely a smile. Life in all its phases, greut and small, seems perfectly congru ous and ship-shupo ; much too serious a matter for any levity. St. l'aith Maga zine. A Plea for Tolerance. A large and varied survey of the miseries of mankind has led me to con clude that every man is a being much to bo pitied. One cannot bo angry with men, or bo otherwise than tolerant of all their errors and shortcomings when one thinks that most men have teeth that some men shave that we have to get up and go to bed (both of them de testable operations) every day that there is hardly any place, however re-' mote, in which there is not more than ono delivery of letters in the course of the twenty-four hours that any human being, however foolish, can annoy any other human being, however sensible (though thousands of miles should se parate thcni,)by informing hiin abruptly in a brutal telegram, of all the unpleasant things that can happen that ploasures are taken in such largo doses as to be como rathor like poisons, dinners lasting sometimes three hours that wo have to live with creatures, very liko and yet very unlike ourselves, who are strangely attractive to us, and whom we fondly and vainly endeavor to manage (they every day in these times becoming more unmanageable) that children will scream at the top of their voices and wear out shoes in tho most reckless man ner that most of our abodes are but vertical continuations of sewers that there is no good weather anywhere ; it it always too hot, or too cold, or too rainy, or too shiny, or too misty, or too dazzling that old ladies will have the windows up in a railway carriage when the wind is south, and young ladies tho windows down when the wind is east that thero is such a thing as public speuking, and that no one can say or write anything with reasonable brevity I say again that a male human being in a creature whom one cannot regard but with the utmost pity ; and even his Blight aberrations from perfect virtue are results which may naturally be expected to follow from the adverse circumstances that surround him. il.iemUlait Ma gazine. ' Ixiiiax Record of Time. There is no word in the Indian language' for the word " year." Indians reckon time by the return of snow, or the springing up of flowers, and the flight of tho birds announces the progress of the seasons. The motion of the sun marks the hour of the day ; and these distinctions of time are not noted in numbers, but in language and illustrations of highly poetical character. Tu Those About 1o Marry. My advice is to marry as quickly as possible, for nono but those who are, un happily, versed in such matters can be awaro of the manifold minor, to say no thing of major, evils which a long en gagement entails. The position of an affianced pair, after a time, becomes al most ridiculous. Premature congratula tions aro poured forth by some over-en-thusiastio friends, whilo others cease to believo in tho reality of an ultimate set tlement, and become suspicious of the sincerity of your professions, and almost personally affronted at your delay. Then the difficulty of sustaining, with appro priate effect, the character of an en gaged man is something enormous. I say nothing of tho difficulty which a ludy in that delicate position has to encounter, for wc all keow that they ex perience but little difficulty in making themselves perpetually agreeable at least before marriage ; but with regard to a man, think of tho amiable and ex cusable deceptions ho is forced to be guilty of tho real distaste, but profess ed pleasure, with which he accompanies " the beloved object" to tho festiuo board of some oppressive family friend, where, for two mortal hours at least, he has to sit, the observed of all observers, next to the idol to whom ho has been paying un ceasing devotion for the greater portion of the daa, and to whom now ho has to make himself agreeable having ex hausted every scrap of news, every con ceivable subject of conversation ! Ho is afraid to venture upon any tender aside, for fear he should be thought silly ; or to keep much to generalities, tor fear he should be considered slow. I have, indeed, remarked engaged couples who have been content to sit in blissful silence, wrapped in contempla tion of their approaching happiness ; but such a state of quiescence is rarely observable, andean scarcely be preserved for an indefinite period. One of my earliest recollections of such a couple is when they were sitting in this slate of tranquil calm, and form ing a very limited hand-in-hand mutual assurance company of their own ; but their example is scarcely to be quoted, as the partnership was shortly afterward dissolved forever, and tho lady and gen tleman aro at present thousands of miles apart, and each belonging to another firm. It is impossible for a man of business not to sympathize with on eminent phy sician, who informed Ms futuro wife that ho hud no time for courtship ; but that if she would marry hiin, and bo ready on a certain day, he should bo happy to meet her at tho church and make her his bride. Temple, liar. Saturday Xlght. What blessed things Saturday Nights are, writes some one in the Trilmne, and what would the world do without them V Those breathing moments in the trump ing march of life ; those little twilights in the broad and garish light of noon, when the pule yesterdays look beautiful through the shadows, und faces " chang ed " long ago, smile sweetly again in the hush ; when ono remembers " tho oKl folks at home," and the old-fashioned fire, and tho old arm-chair, and the lit tle brother that died, and the little sister that was " translated." Sat urday Nights make people human ; settheir hearts to beating softly as they used to, before tho world turned them into war-drums, and jarred them to pieces with tattoos. Tho lodger closes with a clash; the iron-doored vaults come to with a bang ; up go tho shutters with a will; cKck goes tho key in the lock. It is Saturday night, and business breathes freo again. Homeward, ho ! The door that has been ajar ull tho week gently closes behind him ; tho world is shut out. Shut out ': Shut in, tho rather. Hero are his trea sures after all, and not in the vault, and not in the book save tho record in the old family Bible and not in tho bunk. Maybe you aro a bachelor, frosty and forty. Then, poor fellow, Saturday Night's nothing to you, as you aro noth ing to anybody'. Get a wife, blue-eyed or black-eyed, bnt abovo all, truo-eyed get a little home, no matter how little, and a little sofa, just to hold two, or two and a half, and then get the two, or tho two and a half in it, of a Saturday Night, and then read this paragraph by the light of your wife's eyes, and thank God, and take courage. Tho dim and dusty shops aro swept up ; tho hammer is thrown down, the apron is doffed, and labor hastens with a light step, homeward bound. " Saturday Night !" feebly murmurs the languishing; as sho turns wearily upon her couch, " and is thero another to come '(" . " Saturday Night, at last !" whispers tho weeper above tho dying, " and it is Sunday to-morrow, and to-morrow '." Rewarding Honesty. Tho Detroit Five Preen, of Wednesday, gives this : Yesterday morning a lady from tho East, who crossed from the Great Western depot to tho Detroit and Milwaukee road to go West, dropped her pocket-book in the depot at Windsor, and made outcry enough to scare every one within a block. A ragged little boy, with his hair sticking up through an old hat, and his toes pooping out of his boots, came forward with tho pocket book, which he had found. It contain ed, as the Lidy informed the ruib-oad of ficials, $7,000 in bonds, $7,000 in notes, and $ 1.0(H) in greenbacks, making its cash value to' her as good as $15,000. She was, of course, well pleased with the boy's action, and asked his name, ago, tho circumstances of tho family, and finally opened the pocketbook to To ward him. She hunted all through it, found two ten cent shinplasters, and, handing them to the lad, told him to al ways remember that a good action was sure to bring a good reward. The boy jerked off his old hat, thanked her, and ran off to buy ten cords of -wood and a barrel of flour and other stuff to last his widowed mother until spring. He'g going to look for pocketbooks all the rest of the winter, and when he finds another, he's going to hand it right over probably. Prof. StoweN Mistake. An exchange gives the following amus ing anecdote of Rev. Prof. Stowe, hus band of Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe : Whilo visiting at a little town in Massachusetts, last summer, Prof. Stowe desired a friend to secure a horso and vehiclo to tako himself and wife to a town nine miles distant, where ho do sired to consult some genealogical re cords. His friend said that ho would do his best, but fl,at thero were no decent turnouts in the village. A littlo in ad vance of tho hour appointed, Dr. Stowe noticed a phaeton at tho door of his host, and, hastily summoning his wife, entered t and started on his journey. To his surpriso tho horso was a very fleet one, and tho phaeton exquisite, with its silk and sating linings, ivory finishing and easy springs. Bowling along on his journey, the doctor expressed his great delight, and announced his intention of securing tho etablishnicnt for tho season. Arriving at his destination, ho fastened the horse and went to work upon tho dusty records at tho town hall. He had been thus engaged for nearly an hour, when he was suddenly interrupted by tho abrupt entrance of his host at the town whence he started, who exclaimed : " Dr. Stowe, have you been stealing a horso and phaeton '(" To the astonished doctor it was then revealed that ho had by mistako taken the establishment of a newly-married Episcopal clergyman, who hud come to call upon the doctor's host, and who was astonished, an leaving, to find his beauti ful turnout a wedding present gone, and replaced by an old worn-out horse and chaise that had been brought thero by the livery stable-keeper for Dr. Stowe. A stem chase ensued, but the doctor was not captured until ho had reached his destination, as stated, whence, after mutual explanations, he drove home in the old chaise. Tho comment of tho Episcopal clergyman on the case was this: " This comes, Dr. Stowe, of not attend ing the church where tho command ments are read every Sunday." A Japanese Carousal. A correspondent in Japan writes the following : " On the west coast, during our homeward journey, the Governor, who had accompanied us for two days, managed to let us see an Aino dance. We seated ourselves in our tea-houses, the sliding doors on one side were all re moved, and tho Ainos, under a Japanese officer, assembled in a littlo yard adja cent, and were directed to dance and sing for our entertainment. The feast commenced by a generous distribution of said (rice whiskey) to thorn to warm them up to their work. They drank prodigious quantities of this before man ifesting any excitement, but when it be gan to work they cut some eccentric capers in a wild style, singing songs that appeared to have been buried for a hvng time low down in their stomachs. Their dance consisted of hopping, bow- J ing, clapping their hands together, and then striking their tliighs and breasts. Ono of their songs was translated to us, when it appeared to bo a song of thanks to the Japanese, from whom they had learned how to make saki, and were wonderfully indebted for such civilizing influences. During the singular per formance they imitated birds and beasts quite well ' in drinking they were pro vided with peculiar shaped sticks ; theso they laid first across tho bowl, then raised the whole to their foreheads. We felt conscience-stricken at having been instrumental in inflicting upon theso poor wretches tho duty of indulging in such a drunken orgie as this proved to be, and imagined from the amount of liquor that they drank, that they would bo " off duty" for a week ; but early next morning, when we rodd out of town, wo found them all apparently in tho best of spirits, waiting to sec us pro perly off on our journey." A Curious Incident. Mr. Fluuddin, in his narrative of a residence in Persia, relates a curious in cident which occurred while ho was at Ispahan : " The Persian servant of a European had been stung by a scorpion, and his master wished to apply ammonia, the usual remedy in such cases, but the man refused, and ran off to the bazaar. When he returned ho said he was cured, and appeared to bo so. The European, rath er surprised at this almost instantaneous cure, questioned him, and found that he had been to a dervish, who, he said, after examining tho wound and uttering a few words, had several times touched it with a littlo iron blade. Still more as tonished at tho remedy than tho cure, tho European desired to sco tho instru ment by which tho latter was said to havo been effected. At the cost of a small pickech ho was allowed to have it for a few minutes in his possession. Af ter a careful examination, finding noth ing extraordinary in the instrument, he made up his mind that tho cure was a mere trick ; that tho dervish was an im postor; that the scorpion sting had not Iienetrated, and that his servunt had loon more frightened than hurt. He throw tho blade contemptuously upon the table, when, to his great surprise, he beheld it attach itself strongly to a knife. Tho quack's instrument was simply a magnet. But what power had the load stone's attraction over venom '( This dis covery was vey odd. Incredulity was at a nonplus, and yet the man stung by the scorpion was cured, and he who had cured him was in great renown at Ispa han for tho treatment of that sort of wound. A remarkable fact in connection with good ventilation is that men will eat more when they have plenty of fresh air than without. Dr. Reid mentions 'that men in largo manufacturing establish ments have struck for higher wages when a gook system of ventilation hag been introduced, as their former wages were insufficient to procure the increased amount of food demanded, by their im proved appetites, Abont flag Measurements. The following articlo from tho Journal f Applied Chemistry (New York), will bo interesting to those who live under the gas light. The writer says: Tho custom Df paying for gas by the cubic foot, without regard to its illumin ating power, is like buying all cloth at a uniform price per yard, without any questions as to the fineness of the wool. No one, would like to pay as much for shoddy as for cassiinere, and yet shoddy gas is tho principal articlo now furnish ed to customers, whilo tho price actually paid calls for tho best gas" that can be made. It is really surprising that a monopoly of such a monstrous charac ter should bo permitted to maintain itself so many years in an enlightened community, and tho cause must bo sought for in tho want of confidence in any legislative enactment to correct tho evil under tho corrupt government that has afllictod our city during tho past few years. Tho peoplo havo preferred to bo heavily taxed rather than to get into any altercation on the subject; but now that honest days begin to havo dawned upon us, it seems to bo a good opportunity to appeal for more light to those who sell that commodity in the shape of gas. Tho city companies should bo oonipelled to furnish gas of a prescrib ed density and fixed caudle power. Some of the London companies pride themselves on keeping up the illuminat ing powers of their gas to tho maximum standard of fifteen candles, and in twen-ty-two English works the gas from the best coal ranges from twelve to fourteon per hour It is difficult to say what tho average in New York may be, but from some observation made by ourselves with Bonson's photometer we aro dis posed to put it, in cold weather, at be low ten candles. Besides tho loss to tho consumer in the amount of light afford ed by a poor gas, thero is another differ ence which tells in favor of tho company. Assumin g r'.iu specific gravity of the poor gas to be .", and that of a rich gas 7i30, tile former will pass through tho burner much faster than the rich, and increase the bills of the consumer from U0 to oO per cent, without any corresponding in crease in tho photometic power of tho gas. There, ought to bo a fixed stnmd ard, say sixteen candles, prescribed by law, and an inspector appointed to see that tho companies comply with it, and in case of any breach of contract a heavy penalty should be imposed. It is not darkness that wo want, but light, and for the sake of tho thousands of poor sewing women nnd wprkinginen some thing should bo dono to save money and eyesight. Let' quality, not quantity, govern in this matter. " We have plenty of gas, but not enough of light. The Late Eclipse. A gentleman who writes' from Bom bay, tho station at which Professor Lockyer, of tho British Eclipse Expe dition, viewed tho itceent eclipse, writes to Suture as follows : "It docs not hap pen more than once in u lifetime to see such a glorious and magnificent sight as that from which I havo just returned that is, tho total eclipse of the Bun. I have seen many eclipses before, but never anything 'to equal this. I was engaged to go wifch the Morgans to the top of tho hill to see it. Got up ut six, and found it a lovely morning ; rode up to Morgan's, about half a mile, carrying with ino glasses, smoked glass and sun hat. Got thero beforo seven and found the eclipse already begun. Got out two mirrors and watched tho hole in the sun grow bigger and bigger. It began from tho top, ami wo all went off to tho highest point on tho hill, from whenco wo could see all Ooly and the mountains around. When tho eclipsg got so far, the cold on the mountain grew much greater, the gruss was so wet that no one's boots kept it out, tho feet and hands grew cold, and with your back to tho sun the light over the country was like tho twilight or tho earliest dawn. Gradually the lower streak got thinner and thinner, until at last thero shone a light like the famous limo-light, and in a moment or two that went out, and tho sun was totally concealed; many stars were visible, tho wholo country looked dark that is, half dark, like moonlight tho crows stop cawing, and for tw minutes and a half tho total eclipso lasted, a sight I shall never for get, and then tho limo-light again ap peared at tho bottom rim of tho sun, and gradually more and more of hiin uppearod, the crows began at once,- and tho cocks began to crow, tho shadow now was inverted, and by degrees got small, until at nine o'clock the eclipso was over. I cannot but suppose that the scientific men must have had grand op portunities of observation, nnd that to day's pencil will carry home many a description. Anything more beautiful, more sublime, or perfect it would bo impossible to conceive." The Test for Burning Oils. Pour a small quantity of oil in a saucer, or other shallow dish, and pass a lighted match near the surfaco of tho oil. If you detect any small bluish flashes, or puffs, or if the vapor takes fire, then in either caso tho oil is unfit for use. Bo Bure and havo tho dish and oil at as warm a temperature as they would bo in the Bhade on a hot summer's day. Re cently, in a single month, three women were burned to death in tho City of Pittsburg by kcroseno explosions. Wo have before us a sample of the oil used in ono of these casos, and any person familiar with kerosene can tell instantly that it has been adulterated by the ad dition of benzine. On tho application of a match, as above described, it takes fire as instantaneously as gunpowder. The oil was purchased for a good article, but if this simple test had been applied its true character would have beon'dis covered and the life of the wife and mother would have been Baved. JCx ehange. The contested will caso of tho late G. Dainin, Esq., of New Orloans, still pro gresses, and causes some tall swearing among the contestants. Facts and Figures. Hartford women propose to estublish an insurance company. A quondam governess to the children of the King ef Simn is lecturing in Bos ton. ' The O'Briou I'ioiw, Iowa, goeg forth to the world from a wooden printing press. Tho best customer of the shaving cup of an Aberdeen, Scotland, barbor is a woman. A resident of Indiana is reported to have had seven wives all named Mary. Like Byron, ho had "a fondnc for the name of Mary." Kansas brags of a pumpkin vino with 100 branches, measuring in tho aggre gate, l,;5(i8 feet, and bearing pumpkitis five feet fivb by six feet six. An able-bodied North Carolina negro, tho other day, swallowed two dozen raw eggs, shells and all, and washed them down with a pint of raw whiskey. Clarksville, Pike County, hafh a young gent with a hole in his back, and a young lussio who exclaims, " I did it with my little pistol." Kantoi City Times. Michigan University fenialo Sopho mores haze good-looking Freshmen by blindfolding and then kissing them. Wo shouldn't think that was capital pun ishment. A microscopic examination of flesu from the body of a young lady who died at Urbanu, 111., from eating ham, revealed fifty thousand trichina to the square inch. A drover who sells his cattle by live weight, always gives them as much wa ter as they will drink before driving them on tho scolos. That is his way of watering stock. A woman in Iowa compelled to go to tho Poor Houso wlio is 103 yuars of ago, has raised a largo family, and is tho mother of a wealthy citizon who refuses to support her. A Philadelphia woman who had broken her leg was so modest that she would not permit tho surgeon to set it, and there being no female doctor 'around, mortification ensued which resulted in death. Swindlers tried to seduce a AVrsioi man on a railroad train into betting that ho could open a patent padlock which they carried about. Ho took the bet and opened tho lock w;ith a slodge hammer. Tho Supreme Court of tho United States having decided that a husband can recover damages for tho loss of his wifo proportioned to her usefulness and capacity to earn- money, .a Boston ma whoso spouso perished in a recent rail way accident was allowed by the dis criminating jury exactly six cents. Mrs. Mary Mjrtler.who rode from Exe ter to Pottstown, Pa., on horseback, to attend tho funeral observances of George Washington in that borough on the 12th of January, 1S00, is stilljving at Mount Airy, Berks County, aged ninety-two, but looks and acts and talks liko a young thing of sixty or thereabouts. They claim to havo a clergyman in LowelL Mass., so familiar with the hymn and tune book in uso in his church that if any page of tho book is mentioned he can tell what tune is thereon, and all tho hymns set to it, and if tho namo of any tune is mentioned, ho can tell what page it is on, and repeat tho first lines of the corresponding hyunw. Tho Norwich Bulletin, says, next to Massachusetts, Connecticut has the largest deposits in sfwings banks of any of tho New England States. The amount on January 1, 1871, wus $55, 207,705, and now niupt exceed 110,000, 000. In tho six New England States theso deposits now exceed $275,000,000, and perhaps reach $:J00,000,0()0. Prof. Silversmith, of Chicago, has in vented a machine for making coppertypo by cold pressure process. The value of cop Xer is about three times that ot' ordinary typo metal, but the typo mado by this pro cess, it is said, will lust ten times as long ns tho old cast type. It is a curious fact that hardly any improvement has hither to been made in the manufacture of type for the last three hundred years. A handsome young gentleman walked into tho Adams Express office tho other day, and desired to express a package of letters to n ludy, to whom ho desired to return thorn. '" What aro they worth ?" asked tho clerk, who, in making out hig account, desired to know what was the risk. Tho young gentleman hesitated a moment, then clearing his throat from a certain huskiness, replied, " Well, I can't say exactly, but a few weeks ago I thought they wero worth about four hundred thousand dollars." There is an obsolescent proverb to tho effect that shoemakers' children alwavg go barefoot. The significance of this is, of course, that mechanics and profession al men aro slow to give themselves or their families tho benefit of their special avocations. The proverb is strikingly corroborated by some vitality statistic that have rocently been elaborated by a loarnod gentleman at Berlin. These show that of all classos of mankind the shortest lived are the doctors. Thero i.s another fact developed by these figures that conveys a grim sarcasm ; among the classes whose average of longevity is tho greatest are military men. The in evitable inference is that to destroy hu man life is healthy ; to save it, fatal. To young men going to college or desiring to go there, the question of eoi penso is sometimes an important one. The last number of the College CVurat has an article .on thig subject, in which it gives figures showing what student at Yale, have actually paid for their tui tion and subsistence. In the class of 1871 there, were those who lived on $250 a year, and others who spent $2,500. It depends mainly on the students them selves, of course. It is easy for young men to spend a large amount of money if they have it at command ; and, on the other hand, an indigent and am bitious youth can approximate to the scale of expenses of an aacient philoso pher to a surprising degree, if he tries.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers