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HENRY A. PARSONS, Jr., Editor end Publisher NII DESPEHANDUM, Two Dollars per Annurn.
HI. RIDGWAY, ELK COUNTY, PA., THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1873. NO. 30.
Harvest.
Spring bath the morning gladness,
Tho hope of budding leaven ;
And Bummer in her queenly lap
The wealth of noon receives
But Autumn hath the twilight's crown,
; The joy of gariibred Bheaves.
Whore late in stately phalanx
The ribboned corn was seen,
Where the goldon wheat was waving,
And the oats in silver sheen,
And where the buckwheat snow was white,
. Hath tho reaper's sickle beon.
In clouds the purple aster
Infolds the hill-sidos bare i
The Bumach lifts its vivid plumos
Like flame ; tho misty air
Hath hints of rainbow splendors
Estray and captive there,
Tho hidden seed that slumbered,
So safe beneath the snow,
When the bridegroom sun with kisses
'. Made earth's wan check to glow,
With thrills of lifo was quickened,
And could not help but grow.
By softest love-caressing,
By sweetest drops of dew,
'3Iid sudden Btorms of passiou
And heats of wrath, it grew,
Till the fields were ripe to harvest,
And the year's long work was through.
The mother-earth is tired
No child on mother breast
Lies soft till after birth throes
Toil giveth right to rest ;
And all the joy of harvest
With the peace of God is bleBsed.
ItOJIAXCE OF AN OLD BUREAU.
In the summer of 1867, after a pro
longed course of Russian steppes,
Crimean hill-sides, Moscow churches,
St. Petersburg boulevards, Finnish
lakes, and Swedish forests, I found my
self at Berlin, and during the first week
of my stay was bnsy from dawn to dusk
in exhausting, with the systematic in
dustry of the genuine British tourist,
the "sights" of that methodical citv,
which Mr. Murray's " Koran," in red
binding, politely defines as " an oasis
of brick amid n Sahara of dust," and in
studying all the niinutire of that pipe
clayed civilization which appears to
advance, like the national army, in time
to the music of the "Pas de Charg."
Just as my lionizing fever was begin
ning to abate, a slight service, rendered
in a pouring wet day in the park,
brought me into closer relations with a
pleasant-looking elderly German, who
had frequently crossed my rambles, and
more, than once halted to exchange a
few words with me in the frank, open
hearted fashion of the hospitable Teu
tonic race. Our acquaintance, how
ever, was still in embryo, when, on the
day of which I am speaking, the old
man, having taken shelter under a
thinly folinged tree, was in a fair way
to be thoroughly drenched, I came to
the rescue with my umbrella. Observ
ing yiat he had got wet through before
gaining his impromptu refuge, I in
sisted upon taking him to my lodgings
(which were close at hand), and drying
him thoroughly before I let him go; his
own residence, ns I found on inquiry,
being at a considerable distance The
old man's gratitude knew no bounds,
and next morning he reappeared with a
hospitable smile upon his broad luce,
announcing that he had told "his folk"
of my kindness to him, that his " Haus
fraii" and his "kleine Gretehen"
wished to thank me themselves; that, in
short, I must come and eat tea-cakes
withtheni that very evening, and smoke
a German pipe afterwards, which Herr
Ilolzraann, in common with the major
ity of his countrymen, regarded as the
acme of human felicity. In order to
secure himself against any evasion, he
added, with a resolute air, that, as I
might possibly lose my way, he would
come and fetch me himself.
Punctual as death or acollector of water
rates, Herr Heinrich Holzman present
ed himself at tho time appointed, and
marched mo off in triumph to a neat,
conifortable-looking little house on the
southern side of the town, with a small
garden in front of it. The garden was
of the invariable German type ; the
same trim little flower-beds, accurate as
regiments on parade; the same broad
gravel walk, laid out with mathematical
regularity; the same trellis-work sum-mer-liouse
festooned with creepers at
the farther end, and the same small
table in the centre of it, are mounted by
a corpulent teupot of truly domestic
proportions, presided over in this case
by two female figures, who, on our
approach, camo. forward to greet us,
and are introduced to me by my host as
his wife and daughter.
Frau Holzmann (or, ns her husband
calls her, Lieschen) is a buxom, moth
erly, active-looking woman, apparently
about fifty years of age, with that snug
fireside expression (suggestive of hot
tea-cakes and well-aired sheets) charac
teristic of the well-to-do German matron;
but a close observer may detect on the
broad, smooth forehead, in those round,
rosy cheeks, the fiiiut but indelible im
press of former trials and sufferings ;
and through ths ring of her voice, full
and cheery though it is, runs an under
tone of melancholy that would sem to
tell of a time in the far distant past
when such sadness was only too habitual.
The daughter, Margarethe or Gret
ehen, as her parents call her who may
be about eighteen, is one of those
plump, melting damsels, with china
blue eyes and treacle-colored hair, who
never appear without a miniature of
Schiller on their neck, and a paper of
prunes in their pocket, and who, after
flowing on for a whole evening in a slow,
steady, canal-like current of sentiment,
will sup upon sucking pig and apricot
jam with an appetite of which Dando,
the oyster eater, might have been justly
proud. Both welcome me with true
German cordiality, and overwhelm me
with thanks for my courtesy to the
head of the family, reproaching him at
the same time for bringing me in before
they have completed their preparations,
and made everything comfortable for
me ; to give time for which little opera
tion, Herr Heinrich marches me into a
trim .little dining-room opening upon
the garden, and thrusts me into an easy
chair and a pair of easy slippers, while
I take a hasty survey of the chamber
into which I have been thus suddenly
ushered.
It is one of those snug, cozey little
rooms, spotless in cleanliness and fault
less in comfort, immortalized by Wash
ington Irving in his description of the
Dutch settlements in North America.
The floor is polished like a mirror ; the
tasteful green and white paper (which
looks delightfully fresh this sultry
weather) seems as fresh as the day it
was put on ; while the broad, well
stuffed sofa, which takes up nearly one
whole eide of the room, seems just made
for the brawny beam-ends of some port
ly German burgher, or the restless rolly
pooly limbs of his half-dozen big ba
bies. Above the chimney-piece, along
which stands the usual china shep
herdesses, " Presents from Dres
den," and busts of Goethe and Schiller,
hangs a staring, highly colored medley
of fire, smoke, blue anil white uniforms,
rearing horseB, and overturned cannon,
which some crabbed Teutonio letters
beneath it proclaim to be "Die Schlacht
bei Konniggartz, 3 Juli, 18G6 ;" while
facing it from above the sofa is a rather
neatly done water-color likeness of a
chubby, fair-haired lad, in an infantry
uniform, whom I rightly guess to be
my host's soldier son William (a house
hold word in his father's mouth), now
on garrison duty at Spandau.
But the object which especially at
tracts my attention is a tall, grim
bureau of dark oak, in the further cor
ner beyond the fire-place, decorated
with those quaint old German carvings
which carry one back to the streets of
Nuremberg and the house of Albrecht
Durer. There stand Adam and Eve, in
all their untrammelled freedom, shoul
der to shoulder, like officers in the cen
tre of a hollow square, with all the
beasts of the earth formed in "close or
der around them, and the tree of knowl
edge standing up like a sign-post in the
rear. There the huge frame of Goliath,
smitten by the fatal stone, reels over
like a falling tower, threatening to crush
into powder the swarm of diminutive
Philistines who hop about in the back
ground. There appear the chosen
twelve, with faces curiously individual
ized, in spite of all the roughness of the
carving, and passing through every
gradation, from the soft, womanly fea
tures of the beloved disciples to the
bearded, low-bred, ruffianly visage of
him "which also was the traitor." And
there the persecutor Saul, not yet
transformed into! Paul the Apostle
(sheathed in steel from top to toe,
armed with a sabre that might have
suited Bluebeard himself, and attended
by a squadron of troopers armed cap-a-pie),
rides at full gallop past the
gate of Damascus on his errand of de
struction. "The bureau must be a very old
one," remarked I, tentatively.
" It is, indeed; but that's not why we
value it," answers the old man, with
kindling eyes. "That bureau is the
most precious thing wehave; and there's
a story attached to it which will never
be forgotten in our family, I'll answer
for it. I'll tell you the story one of
these days, but not to-night, fcr we
mustn't spoil our pleasant evening by
any sad recollections. And" here, in
good time, comes Lieschen to tell us
that tea's ready."
I will not tantalize my readers with a
cataloguo of the good cheer which
heaped the table; suffice it to say, the
meal was one that would have tempted
the most "notorious evil liver" that
ever returned incurable from Calcutta,
and seasoned with a heartiness of wel
come which would have made far poorer
fare acceptable. Fresh from reminis
cences of " Hermann and Dorothea," I
could almost have imagined myself in
the midst of that finest domestic group
of the great German artist. The hearty
old landlord of the Golden Lion, and
his "klnge ver stindige Hausfrau,"
were before me to the life; the blue
eyed Madchen, who loaded my plate
with tea-cakes, might, with the addition
of a little dignity, have made a very
passable Dorothea; while " brother Wil
helm," had he been there, would have
represented my ideal Hermanu quite
fairly. Nor was the "friendly chat"
wanting to complete the picture. The
old man, warming with the presence of
a new listener, launched into countless
stories of his soldier son, who, young as
he was, had already smelt powder on
more than one hard fought field, during
the first short fever of the seven weeks'
war. Frau Lisbeth, who was an actual
mine of those quaint old legends which
are nowhere more perfect than in Ger
many, poured forth a series of tales
which would have made the fortune of
any " Christmas Number " in Britain;
while the young lady, though rather
shy at first, shook off her bashfulness
by degrees, and asked a thousand ques
tions respecting the strange regions
which I had recently quitted; the sandy
wastes of the Volga, and the voiceless
solitudes of the Don relics of former
glory which still cling around ancient
Kazan wicker-work shanties inhabited
by brawling Cossacks and Crimean cav
erns tenanted by Tartar peasants bat
tered Kertch and ruined Sebastopol
Odessa, with her sea-fronting boule
vard, and sacked Kiev, with her dim
catacombs and diadem of gilded towers
the barbario splendor of ancient Mos
cow, and the imperial beauty of queenly
Stockholm. It was late in the evening
before I departed, which I was not al
lowed to do without promising once and
again not to be long of returning.
And I kept my word ; for the quiet
happiness of this little circle, so simple
and so open-hearted, was a real treat to
a restless gad-about like myself. Be
fore the month was at an end I had
strolled around the town with Herr
Holzmann a dozen times; I had par
taken fully as often of Frau Lisbeth's
inexhaustible tea-cakes; I had present
ed Fraulein Mafgarethe, on the morn
ing of her eighteenth birthday, with a
pair of Russian ear-drops, accompany
ing my gift ( as any one in my place
might well have done ) by a resounding
kiss on both cheeks, which the plump
little Madchen received as frankly as it
was given. But the relentless divinity
of the scythe and scalp-lock, who pro
verbially waits for no man, at length
put a period to my stay in Berlin ; and
one evening, a few days before my de-
Earture, I reminded Herr Heinrich of
is promise to tell me the history of the
old bureau which had attracted my
attention. The old man, nothing loath,
settled himself snugly in the ample
corner of the sofa, fixed bis eyes upon
the quaint old piece of furniture which
formed the theme of his course.and be
gan sf follows :
" You must know, then, mein Herr,
that in the year of '52 business began to
rather fall off with me (I was a cabinet
maker, you remember,) and from bad it
came to worse, until I thought some
thing should really be done to put mat
ters to rights. Now just about this
time all manners of stories were begin
ning to go about of tho high wages paid
to foreign workmen in Russia, and the
heaps of money that sundry Germans
who had gone there from Breslan and
Konigsberg and elsewhere were making
in St. Petersburg and Moscow. And
so I pondered and pondered over all
these tales, and the plight I was in, till
at last I began to think of going and
trying my luck as well as the rest. My
wife and I talked it over, and settled
that it should be done ; and we were
just getting ready to start, when one
night a message came that my old uncle,
Ludwig Holzmann, of the Freidrich
Strasse (who had taken offence at my
marriage, and never looked near me
since), was dying, and wanted to see
me immediately. So away I went
my wife wanted to go, too, but I
thought she had better not and when
I got there I found the old man lying in
a kind of a dose, and nobody with him
but the. doctor and the pastor, who
lived close by.
"So I sat down to wait till he awoke ;
and sure enough, in about half an hour,
his eyes opened and fell full upon me.
He raised himself in bed I think I see
him now, with the lamp-light falling on
his old, withered face, making it look
just like one of the carvings on the old
bureau, which stood at the foot of the
bed and said, in a hoarse whisper,
' Heinrich, my lad, I've not forgotten
thee, although the black cat has been
between us a bit lately. When I'm
dead thoul't have that bureau yonder ;
there's more in it than thou think'st ;'
and he sank back with a sort of choking
'laugh that twisted his face horribly.
Those were his last words, for after that
he fell into a kind of stupor and died
the same night.
" When his property came o be di
vided, every one was surprised, for they
had all thought him much richer. I
got the bureau, just as he said ; and,
remembering his words about it, we
ransacked all the drawers from end to
end, but found nothing except two or
three old letters and a roll of tobacco ;
so we made up our minds that Jie must
have cither been wandering a little, or
else that God forgive him he had
wanted to play ns one more trick before
he died. In a few weeks more all was
ready for our going, and away we went
to St. Petersburg.
" When we got there, we found it not
at all such a land of promise as the
stories made it out ; but still there was
good wages for those who could work ;
and for the first year or two we
get on well enough. But after a time
in came a lot of French fellows, with
new-fangled tricks of carving that
pleased the Russian gentry more than
our plain German fashions ; and trade
began to get slack and money to run
short. Ah ! mein Herr, may you never
feel what it is to find yourself sinking
lower and lower, work as hard as you
like, and one trouble coming on you
after another, till it seems as if God
had forgotten you."
The old hero's voice quivered with
emotion, and an unwonted tremor dis
turbed the placid countenance of his
wife, while even the sunny face of the
little Fraulein looked strangely sad.
I' Well, mein Herr, we struggled on in
this way for two years longer, hoping
always that our luck would turn, and
putting the best face we could on it ;
though many a time when the children
came to ask me why I never brought
them pretty things now, as I used to
do at home, I could almost have sat
down and cried. At last the time came
when be could stand against it no long
er. There was a money-lender close by
us, from which we had borrowed a't
higher interest than we could afford,
who was harder upon us than any one,
(may it not be laid to his charge here
after !), and he, when he saw that we
were getting behind in our payments,
seized our furniture, and announced a
sale of it by auction. I remember the
night before the sale as if it was yester
day. My boy Wilhelm was very 'ill just
then, and no one knew whether he
would live or die ; and when my wife
and I sat by his bed that night, and
looked at each other and thought of
what was to come, I really thought my
heart would have broken. Ah ! my
Lisbeth, we have indeed been in trouble
together."
As he uttered the last words the old
mnn clasped fervently the broad, brown
hand of his wife, who returned the
pressure with interest, and, after a
slight pause, he resume thus :
"On the morning of the sale a good
many people assembled, and among the
rest came the district inspector of po
lice. He was a kind man in his way,
and had given me several little jobs to
do when I first came over ; but he was
not very rich himself, and nobody could
blame him for not helping us when he
had his own family to think of. How
ever, I've no doubt he came to our sale
in perfect good faith, meaning to give
the best price for what he bought.
"Well, in he came, and the first thing
mat caugut ma eye was the old bureau,
which stood in a corner of the room.
It seemed to take his fancy, and he went
across to have a nearer view of it. He
began trying the grain of the wood
drawing his nail across one Dart, rat)
ping another with his knuckles till all
at once I saw him stop short, bend his
neaa aown as n listening, and give an
other rap against the back of the bureau,
His face lighted up suddenly, as if had
just found out something he wanted to
Know ; and he beckoned me to him.
' Do you know whether this bureau has
a secret spring anywhere about ?' asked
he : "lor the back seems to be hollow.
I said I had never noticed anything of
tne sort nor, indeed, had I ; for, when
we found that the drawers were empty,
we looked no further. Now. however.
he and I began to search in good earn
est ; and at last the inspector, who had
plenty of practice in such work since he
entered the police, discovered a little
iron prong, almost like a rusty nail,
sticking up from one of the carved
figures, He pressed it, and instantly
the whole top of tho bureau flew up
like the lid of a box, disclosing a deep
hollow, in which lay several packets of
bank-notes and government shares,
about a dozen rouleaux of gold Freder
icks, tightly rolled up in cotton, and
two or three jewel-cases, filled with
valuable rings and bracelets the whole
amounting, as we afterwards calculated,
to more than 20,000 Prussian thalers.
"Well, you may think how we felt.
saved as wo were in the uttermost strait
by a kind of miracle ; and how we
blessed the name of my old uncle, when
we saw how truly he had spoken. The
inspector (God filess him !) refused to
touch a pfennig of the windfall, saying
that ne was suiucienuy rewarded by
seeing so many good people made hap
py ; so we paid our debts, packed up
all that we nad, and came back to our
own folk and our own fatherland, never
to leave it again.
A Romantic Will Case.
An extraordinary will case is now at
tracting attention in Michigan. For
twenty-five or thirty years everybody
about Troy, N. Y., had supposed Abra
ham Schryver dead. When his wife's
father died, he settled up the estate and
decamped with the proceeds, amounting
to nearly a million dollars, leaving his
wife to provide as best she could for
four children nnd a young babe. For
months she suffered agonies of suspense
and griel on account of the mysterious
disappearance. Then came the news
that he was in Canada, and later still
the deserted wife received a newspaper
from Canada containing an obituary
of "the late Abraham Schryver," and
thenceforward sue and her children gave
him up as dead. She struggled on and
brought them up well, and now when
she is old and her middle-aged children
are married and settled about her, tho
story of his wanderings is revealed to
them in a most startling and dramatic
manner. Schryver appears to have set
tled in Port Huron, Mich. He was re
cently on his death-bed, and his house
keeper allowed no one to watcn over
him in his dying moments but herself.
He died, and his will, made at midnight
and witnessed by hotel servants, left
the bulk of his large property to his
supposed wife. Only $500 was be
queathed to a daughter whom ho had
adopted, and dissatisfied with this will,
and knowing that the testator had not
been exactly in his right mind, she
wrote to Troy for some information
about Abraham Schryver and his rela
tions. The Schryver children investi
gated the affair, and will contest the
will on the ground tnat the lather was
not in his right mind, and that the in
strument is a forgery, as shown by mis
takes he could not have fallen into con
cerning his own family.
The Nettle Tree or Australia.
The most remarkable nettle of this
country is the Urtica ffigas, or rough
nettle tree. This tree has a largo leaf,
something like a sunflower leaf, hirsute
beneath, and every bristle has a most
painful sting. Some gentlemen who
had been in Illawara, collecting speci
mens of trees for the Paris exhibition,
told me that they had measured one of
these wonderful trees, which was thirty
two feet round, and, I think, one hun
dred and forty feet high.
Such is tho potency of the virus of
this tree, that horses which are driven
rapidly through the forests where they
abound, if they come in contact with
their leaves, die in convulsions. I have
seen a statement of the actual death in
convulsions of his horse by a traveler
through these parts ; and one of the
gentlemen of the exhibition committee
told me that, as they were riding in the
Illawara forest, a young man who had
lately arrived, and was ignorant of the
nature of the tree, breaking off a twig as
he rode along, had his hand instantly
paralyzed by it. His fingers were
pressed firmly together, and were as
rigid as stone.
Fortunately, a stockman who was
near, observing it, came up and said," I
see what is amiss, and will soon set all
right."
He gathered a species of arum, which
grew near, for nature has planted the
bane and tho antidote together in the
low grounds, and rubbing tho hand
with it, it very soon relaxed and re
sumed its natural pliancy.
This is precisely the process used
by the children in England. When
nettled, they rub the place with a bruis'
ed dock-leaf, saying all the while "Net
tle go out, dock go in."
A Regular Pest.
Like the locust swarms of Egypt have
the so-called " Croton bugs " taken pos
session or nearlv every -dwelling house.
office, warehouse, and other buildings
in the various parts of the city of New
lorn, cscarceiy a uesK, bureau drawer,
closet, wardrobe, or even the refrigera
tor, is exempt from the presence of
these annoying insects. The flour bar
rel is a special hive for them, resting
and breeding there by the million un
der the hoops, headings and wherever
a crevice can be found. Even the
sanctity of beds and bedding is not ex-
empt irom tneir visitations, and, no
matter how careful and tidv a house'
wife may be, she cannot overcome the
myriads of these pests as they swarm
iroro. wainscotings, mantels, surbases,
dining tables, window sills, floorings
under carpets, from cupboards, and
elsewhere and everywhere. They revel
in the " dead shot " powders that are
represented to be their " sure extermina-
tors," and dance it may be the "dance
of death," in the dough trough and
bread basket, if they are dosed with
Paris green, a poison so fatal to human
life, and which they can track with them
wherever thev travel. Thv ta nnid
to be as harmless as crickets, but unlike
the cricket, which is seldom visible,
they are to be seen with the naked eye
almost everywhere. The cricket is
heard, but not seen ; the Croton bug is
seen, but not heard. It does not bite
but pinches and scratches, and is de
clared by the papers to be an infliction
of tne worst description.
About 25,000 made the ancient tl
ent. It takes considerable talent to
make mat sum now-a-days.
The Commercial Press.
(Prom tho Shoe and Tin Trade Journal.)
Mr. James C. Bavles, in his remarks
before the Stove Manufacturers' Con
vention at Niagara, gave voice to truths
which are well known to those who con
duct the newspaper press, but which
are forgotten or ignored by those who
should derive most benefit from the
press which represents their business.
A newspaper that seeks worthily to rep
resent any class should nave lull and
abundant information; it should be
fresh, up to the period, and not only
represent the latest theories, but give
information concerning the latest facts.
As one of the veterans of the profession
remarked to un years ago, the editor
must keep assimilating knowleJge in
order to pour it forth. I.Ir. Bayles ut
tered this idea in other language, but
there is a substantial agreement as to
facts. And in this respect the public
do not as yet second our efforts. Great
improvements may be introduced in
manufacturingthe editor is left to hear
of it by chance. There may be im
portant changes in foreign markets with
which but few houses have daily rela
tions; scarcely one out of a hundred of
such firms will think of sending a note
giving an intimation that news has ar
rived. Finding intelligence under such
circumstances is very much like gold
prospecting. You may possibly stum
ble across something by accident.
Our brethren of the political press
have many advantages over us. Intel
ligence comes promptly to them, and
they have the whole range of the news
of the world to comment upon. The
political significance of the visit of the
Shah of Persia to the Occidental na
tions, the probable solution of the
struggle between the Pope and the
King of Italy, the unification of Ger
many, and the Vienna Exposition, are
few among the many topics "anorued
by Europe alone. None of these ex
cept the Exposition can be touched by
newspapers which are founded to rep
resent a special trade or class. The
editor may feel the warmest interest in
metaphysical and psychological studies,
yet Herbert Spencer, Kant, Mill, or
Comte cannot be spoken of in its col
umns. Di Cesnola and his collection of
antiquites are just as completely barred
from his pages as Mommsen's research
es in early Roman history, although
there may be the strongest attractions
in his mind for these speculations. He
has but one path, and must keep to it.
It is not too much, therefore, to asu
that those who are interested in the
questions he considers shall sometimes
contribute of their knowledge. Knotty
points may be unravelled, and obscure
ones made plain.
The held of tins special journalism is
to be in the future very great. The
prices of the raw material throughout
the world and the state of the principal
markets will be described, improve
ments in the art will be reported, and
and theoretical advantages will bo rea
soned upon, while nothing of import
ance will be omitted. Correspondents
will be sent to examine and report upon
every new process, and scientific men
of the" highest capacity will be called
in to review this work. Class journal
ism has but just begun. May not the
day of good and praiseworthy work in
this line be hastened if the subscribers
co-operate with the managers, and im
part that intelligence they are so wil
ling to receive ?
Coal and Iron.
The following statistics of the iron
production of the United States will be
particularly interesting at this time,
when the growth of this business in this
country and the decay of it in England
are attracting so much attention. Tho
figures are furnished by the American
Iron and Steel Association, and convey
the latest information on the subject,
First, for some deductions from the
tables :
According to Henry C. Carey, the
whole number of blast furnaces in the
Union in 1810 was 153, yielding 54,000
tons of metal, equal to 16 pounds per
head of the population.
The estimated production of pig-
metal in 1872, by all the furnaces in the
Union, is estimated by this oilice at
2,100,000 gross tons, equal to about
110 pounds per head of the population.
in 1854 the total production of antn
racite pig-iron was 339,435 net tons, of
which Pennsylvania made 267,747 tons,
or 77 per cent. Xnlsa the total pro-
duction of anthracite was 956,007 tons,
an increase of nearly dUU per cent, over
the production of 1854, of which Penn
sylvania produced 714,700 tons, or
about 75 per cent.
in lol'J there were manufactured m
the United Stutes 24,318 tons ( net ) of
rails. In 1872 there were manufactured
941,992 net tons' of which Pennsylvania
made 419,529 tons, or more than 44 per
cent.
Bessemer rails were first made in the
United States in 1867 to fill contracts.
In 1871 this branch of the iron industry
had been so well developed that 60,042
net tons of steel and steel-headed rails
were made in that year. In 1876, 94,
070 net tons of Bessemer rails alone
were made an increase in one year of
56 2-3 per cent.
The blast-furnaces in the United
States now number about 600, of which
about 100 were built in 1872 and 1873.
A Fiendish Murder.
The death of Miss Maggie Hammill, a
wealthy young New York lady, at the
residence of James and Sarah Merrigan,
Williamsburgh, no longer remains a
mystery. A confession has been made
by the woman, from which it appears
that Miss Hammill visited the Merrigan
family and that Mrs. Merrigan and she
quarreled. After the quarrel Mrs. Mer
rigan made up her mind to kill her, and
succeeded in doing so by strangling her
with a piece of clothesline. Finding
that Miss Hammill was dead, Mrs. Mer
rigan, fearing that her husband would
return, hid her between the bedtick and
the slats. Then, not knowing what to
do with the body, she concluded to keep
her husband out of the room, and suc
ceeded in doing so until the third night.
at half-past nine o'clock, when she set
nre to the place, with the hope of de
stroying all traces of the murder. The
body was lound badly burred, and the
husband and wife are under arrest for
the murder.
An Old, Old Story.
The following tale of terror, which
has been told at different times of every
country on the globe, now finds its
American adaptation in the Opelousas
(La.) Journal, in these terms : " Down
in the parish of St. Martin an old widow
lady, whose children had all married off
and left her alone, had been persuaded
to sell her little place and live with
them. She sold her land, buildingp,
and improvements one day for $2,000,
and received the money in cash on the
spot, in her own house, where the act
of sale was passed before two witnesses,
the number required by law, and who
witnessed also the paying of the money.
In a short time she was to give posses
sion, but she remained in the house the
night following the sale, all alone, or
with no masculine adult inmates, as
was her custom. That night two negro
burglars broke into the house and de
manded her money or her life. She
gave it to them, but begged them to let
her have 8100 of it, as she owed that
amount, and wanted to pay the debt,
when she would be satisfied. They final
ly consented to let her keep the hundred
dollars. They then ordered her to
make some coffee for them to drink. In
doing so, she bethought herself of some
strychnine she had in the house, and
quietly dropped it in the pot of steam
ing coffee, and placed it on tho table
with cups, spoons, and sugar for them
to pour out and sweeten to their taste.
This they did, and drank in a jolly
mood, each one having nine hundred
and fifty dollars in his pocket. But in
a few minutes the tables were turned.
One gave up the ghost where he sat at
the table in his chair, and the other got
up, staggered off a few feet, and tum
bled into eternity. The good old lady
recovered her money, and on examining
the persons of the black, burglarious
robbers, they turned out to be the two
witnesses to the act of sale, both white
men blackened for the occasion both
her neighbors, and one was her
cousin.
Those Emp(ings.
You have probably noticed, says the
Danbury iVeu'8, what a thoughtful
woman your wife is. She never forgets
anything, and when she goes down cel
lar after an article she is sure to bring
up something beside that she may need.
She calls that " making her head save
her heels. Once m a while she may
neglect something, but that is because
she has so much on her mind she can't
think of everything at once, and if some
people had as much to do and keep
track of as sue lios, there would ue
nothing done at all. After she says
this, it is time you either left or busied
yourself with something else. We
never knew a man who continued the
conversation to appear satisfied after
wards. She exhibits this thoughtfulness
in many ways, but more particularly
some night when you have just got to
bed, and neglected to leave a match
near the lamp. Then she starts up
with the exclamation : " I declare, I
forgot to set emptings to-night, and
there isn't only bread enough for break
fast." So you got up, and skim around
for a match, and after securing a light
accompany her to the kitchen, where
you hold the light while she goes through
with the operations required in "setting
emptyings." And after you have stood
around in your bare legs for ten min
utes, holding the lamp in one hand and
frequently slapping yourself with the
other, you go back to bed oppressed by
the consciousness that in some way you
are responsible for the whole trouble.
An Industrious Preacher.
Father Taylor, the great pioneer
Methodist preacher of California, is a
notable personage. Coming here in
1849, says a California letter, he served
seven years as a missionary iu churches,
prisons, mining camps and hospitals,
meeting the strangest experiences ever
encountered by any herald of the Gos-
pel. In 18o5 he was burdened with a
church debt of over $50,000, occasioned
by fire and depreciation of property,
for which he was personally responsible.
He gave up every dollar of his own
estate, and the Pacific Mail Steamship
Company preseated him tickets for
passage for himself and family to the
Eastern States. He reached New York
with less than 100 in his pocket, to be
gin tho task of paying that debt, by
writing and publishing books.
In 18G9 he paid the uttermost dollar
of it. through his agents, of San Fran
cisco. During that period of thirteen
years, he wrote nearly a dozen books,
gave an occasional lecture, preached
twelve or fourteen sermons a week, sup
ported his family, and traveled con
stantly, in our own and foreign lands !
No collections are ever taken up for
him, or donations made a rule which
he rigidly enforces ; hence the debt
was paid, and all his own and his fami
ly's expenses met, from the proceeds of
the books and lectures aione.
To-day, and for several years, many
men in California nave been anting,
" Where is Father Taylor f Jie is
now in India, doing missionary work.
A Lotion for the Ladies.
A Southern lady sends the following
receipe for glycerine lotion, to those
who persist in using dangerous cos
metics. The pain occasioned by sun
burned and freckled skin, often so
troublesome, can be relieved, and the
shining morning face of youth restored
by the application of glycerine lotion
made thus : Take one ounce of sweet
almonds, or of pistachio-nuts, half
pint of elder or rose water, and one
ounce of pure glycerine ; grate tne nuts.
i 11 - 3 i 1
put ine powuer iu a utue uug oi linen
and squeeze it for several minutes in
the rose-water ; then add the glycerine
and a little periume. The lotion may
be used by wetting tne face with it two
or three times a day. This must be
grateful appliance of the toilette-table
tor a parched, rough skin. It should
be allowed to dry thoroughly into the
skin, when, if,i$ feels sticky or pasty, it
may be washed oft with warm water.
"Small thanks to you, sir," said
plaintiff to one of his witnesses, " for
nrV. af wsvi. ani A in tViitf A.llSd " All
sir." said the conscientious witness,
" but just think of what I didn't say,"
Facts and Fancies.
Many of the newspapers are calling
upon delinquent subscribers for their
back pay.
It is now believed the farmers granges
will secure the next United States Sena
tor in Kansas.
Three Socialists have been sentenced
to death by the Tribunal of Justice of
Valencia, Spain.
Bad temper bites at both ends ; it
makes one's self nearly as miserable as
it does other people.
In Richmond they take note even of
the fall of a sparrow, and fined the
New Yorker who did it $3.
The scalp of a " Modoo warrior, killed
in the lava beds," recently came through.
the mail to a man at iSrattleboro, vt.
The man who was recently lynched
in Missouri had thoroughly trained his
eleven children in the burglar busi
ness. A Detroit man brought his cooking
stove to town last week and sold it to
get money enough to take his family to
the circus.
Persons who are liable to be sea sick
are recommended, on the eve of a sea
voyage, to take mucilage with-their
food, to keep it down.
More than half the acreage in Illinois
is in corn. The Chicago Tribune indi
cates from one-half to two-thirds an
average crop this year.
Interesting Invalid " Doctor, I want
my husband to take me to Paris. Now,
do tell me, what complaint ought I to
have?" And that's what the bill was
for.
A Colorado justice of the peace
sentenced a man to be hung for horse
stealing, and the gallows was ready be
fore the official found out he had no
jurisdiction.
" Good morning, gentlemen," says a
book peddler, entering a railroad car.
No one responded. " Beg pardon, if I
have said too much; I withdraw the
last expression."
"What should I talk about this
evening ?" asked a prosy speaker of
one of his expectant auditors. About
a quarter of an hour would be just the
thing," was the reply.
Two young ladies of La Crosse were
standing by the side of a ditch thirteen
feet wide whicli they didn't know how
to cross, when their escort said "snakes,"
and they cleared it at a bound.
A correspondent of the Country Gen
tleman has discovered that, as a law of
nature, every spotJed dog has at the
end of his tail white, and every spotted
cat at the end of the tail black.
The Montgomery (Ala.) Journal says:
" Some of the two-cent politicians are
trying to make a point for the next elec
tion, on the fact that the city is working
tne women vagrants in me uurjiug
grouud." A smart man of Sandusky put arsenic
a bottle of wine, hoping that a
burglar would drink it, and his wifo
placed it among 100 other bottles. The
smart mau is now wondering which is
the bottle.
A young lady in Gloucester is charged
witli keeping a light burning in the
parlor until very late on Sunday night,
in order to harrow the sensitive iceiings
f an envious neighbor into the belief
that she has really got a beau.
The Boston Daily Advertiser says
that Col. J. H. Devereux, the new
President of the Atlantic and Great
Western Railroad received 8100,000 as
bonus far taking that oflice, and an
annual salary of 820,000 besides.
Two gentlemen are prospecting Was
co County, Oregon, with a view to en
gaging in the sheep uusiness. iney
are from Australia, and, should they be
favorably impressed, will bring a largo -
flock of sheep from that country.
A Wisconsin newspaper says: " Our
farmers have now secured all their rye,
barley, wheat and oats in good condi
tion, and it is not only tne largest yieiu
they have had for years, but the wheat
especially is of a better quality than we
have ever seen.
The New London (Ohio) Record gives
an account of the falling of a meteoric
stone near that place. I- was heard
passing through the air by a Mr. Hotch
kiss, and struck close to where he was
standing. It came from a southeasterly
direction, and when taken from tho
ground was quite hot.
Recent experiments have shown very
conclusively that cold-blooded animals
behave like plants with regard to freez
ing temperatures. Thus, they die at
diilerent freezing temperatures; tne
houev-bee at 1 degree ; the spider at 3
degrees ; the flesh-fly survives at a tem
perature of 6 degrees ; tne sim-worm
egg at one of 21 degrees.
The way the shoes fly is shown by a
seoemaker at Lynn, who makes two
pairs in forty-eight minutes. He re
ceives for his work forty-five cents a
pair. How they fly in other ways is
discovered by the unlucky folks who
buy them, and who, to save their soles,
can not make them last much longer
than it takes this man to make them.
A dissipated but wealthy citizen of
Cincinnati, while too full of spirits,
saw a flag hanging out of an enlistment
oflice, and went in to see what day was
celebrated. Seeing a number of men in
uniform sitting around, he was con
vinced that the liberty of his country
was in danger, and at once enrolled his
name among the recruits. When he
became sober he discovered that he
could not make a joke of the affair, and
his father, mother, and wife, who are
greatly alarmed at his prospects, will
use every exertion to get him discharged.
The Nathan Murder.
We publish, says the New York Her
ald, an account of an interview with the
man Irving, who puts in a claim as
being the murderer of the late Benja
min Nathan. Sifted thoroughly, it is
evident that his story is a sheer fabrica
tion from beginning to end, and that
the fellow himself is a fraud of the first
water. Per contra, several of the New
York papers believe and assert that Irv
ing is interested in tho murder, and
that the late Chief-of-Police Jourdau
knew it. The present chief, Matsell,
does not believe in Irving,