1 c I i - L v I - HENRY A. PARSONS, Jr., Editor and Publisher. , NIL PESPERAJSTPUM. Two Dollars per Annum. YOL. HI. HIBGWAY, ELK COUNTY, PA., T1IUHSDAY, JANUAIIY 29, 1874. NO. 48. k y "Keep a Stiff Upper LIp. There has something gone wrong, My brave boy, it sppears, For I see yoiir proud struggle To keep back the toars. That is right. JV'hcn yoa cannot - Give trouble the slip, Then bear it, still keeping " A stiff upper lip 1" Though you cannot escape Dienppoiutment and care, The next beBt thing to do Is to learn how to boar. If when for life's prizos You're running yon trip, Get lip start again, " Keep a stiff upper lip !" Let your hands and your conscience Bo honest and clean ; Scorn to touch or to think of The thing that is mean. Hut hold on to the pure, And the right with firm grip, And though hard be the task, " Keep a stiff upper lip !" Through childhood, through manhood, Through life to the end, Struggle bravely and stand By your colors, my friend. Only yield when you must, Never "give up the ship," But fight on to tho last With "a stiff upper lip." Phebe Vary, MY FRIGHTS. There are some people who aver that they have never been frightened. As I am far from being a strong-minded woman, 1 cannot sny as much. Perhaps I am too easily alarmed. I am, for in stance, afraid of a cow. It may be very silly, but I cannot help it. All the pleasure of a country walk through a line landscape has been often spoilt for me because of cattle in a field. If I pass through them without fear of being tossed or gored, the recollection that I have got to come back again remains with me for the rest of the day. As for a bull, I would rather never see the . country than run the chance of meeting with such a creature. A dog is thought to be a very harmless animal a domes tic animal and the "friend of man." He is not, however, the friend of woman r at least of a nervous woman like me. I should be afraid to write down how often I have been prevented from calling at a friend's house by the pres ence of a little poodle or terrier upon their doorstep. I should as soon have thought of disturbing an adder. The Romans (a people quite remarkable for . their courage ( used, I am told, to paint i Cave canem, "Beware of the Dog," at their front doors; but such a warning would have been unnecessary in my ' V vvfsp" Every farmyard in the country Y - 1MB a dog, and that is why I .don't like farmyards. ' My widowed sister-in-law (the fat . one) and myself once lived in such a ".y "place a whole summer, during which I ' lost more flesh than if I had been all the time in a Turkish bath. From sun set to sunrise I was in a perpetual fright, from fear of robbers; and when the days grew shorter, and the nights longer, the place became insupportable,-. ana 1 ncd from it. The usual nightly programme was as follows: My sister-in-law, who occupied the same apart ment as myself, would fall asleep as soon as her head touched the pillow, and leave me, as it were, alone, a prey to my terrors. She always reminded me of the irritating bedfellow described in ghost stories, who will not wake while the apparition is peeping through the bed-curtains at you, and who, when all the .dreadful things are over, cannot be persuaded that they actually oc curred. If the wind was up, I at once began to picture to myself a band of ruffians effecting a forcible entry into all the rooms below-stairs, and giving shouts of triumph at the ease with which they accomplished their purpose; We could not afford to-keep a man-servant, and even if we had done so, I should have always imagined him the accomplice of the burglars, or coming up-stairs upon his own account with a carving-knife concealed in a scuttle of coals, as I had once read in a book. Our house pre tended to no means of- resistance, and I always placed the plate-basket and its contents upon tho landing of the stairs, in hopes that the gang might take what they came for, and go away without asking for my money or my life. On a particular occasion, being unable to sleep, I fancied that I heard the ap proach of robbers up the stairs. Being uo longer able to contain myself, I with nn effort roused Charlotte, who, how ever, pooh-poohed the whole affair and dropped to sleep again, leaving me to my fears. However, one very wet and dark night she got a pretty fright herself. It was a little past midnight. The drip, drip, drip of the rain was ceaseless, but for all that, as I lay awake, I could hear men's steps without, splashing in the pools it made, as the wretohes walked round the house looking fer the most convenient point of entry. Then I heard the back-door "go" it burst open with a sort of muffled violence, like the sudden outpoor of a waste-pipe and then that "pit-a-pat" I knew so well, of feet coming up the stairs. . Then a pause of frightful significance. " Cknilotte " cried I, in an agony, "they are really here. They really are, this time. Wake, wake 1" " Rubbish," cried she. I am wide awake, and I hear nothing." "They are just outside the door," whispered I ; "they are listening at the key-hole. Hark I" " I certainly hear eaves dropping," was her heartless answer, (she was a woman who enjoyed a joke, and her fat sides wobbled with mirth at this one) j " but it's only the rain from the roof." "I tell yon," said I, solemnly, "there are robbers in the . Here something fell in the drawing room beneath us with a hideous crash. In an instant, and before I cpuld recover from the "sort of collapse into which this shock had thrown me, Charlotte had flopped out of bed, seized the lamp, ana was about to hurry from the room. ' "No," said shepausing In the doorway.; " it is better that they should not see me, but that I should see them," , . It was certainly much better, con sidering Charlotte's very slight attire, that the robbers should not see her; dud wny sue siionld want to see the rob bers was quite unintelligible to me. " Stop r cried I ; but the fatal deed was done, and I was left in darkness. Dreadful us it was to accompany her upon such an expedition, it seemed a thousand times worse to remain in the room alone, and, trembling in every limb, I hurried after her. To reach the drawing-room, it was necessary to pass through the dining room. It was pitch dark, but I could hear her breathing hard (for her stout ness made her very short of breath) as she made her way round the table that occupied the centre of the room. Fear lent me wings, and I hurried round the other way to meet her, and rushed into her arms just as she was feeling for the drawing-room doorway. Directly I did so, she uttered a shrill scream, and fell on the floor in a dead faint. I had for- fotten that the poor dear did not know was pursuing her. and she verv natu rally took me for the robbers, 'i sup pose I fainted too, for the first thing I remember was hearing a loud purr close co my ear, winch proceeded from our favorite cat, who, having knocked down the fire-irons in the next room (which was the noise we had heard), had come, as it were, to assure ns that there was nothing the matter. That was the last night we spent in our country house, and I remained in town for three whole summers afterwards. Though fresh air and "change," I was told, were indis pensable, I resolved to do without them, since one might just as well die as be frightened to death. In the July of the fourth year, how ever, 1 received an invitation to the seaside, which I really thought it safe to accept. My host and hostess lived at a place called Disney Point, a very lonely spot, it is true, but one in which no burglary had been committed within the memory of woman. " There were no bad people," wrotj my friends, who were aware of my nervous peculiarities, " within a hundred miles of them." When I reached their house, I was in clined to believe that this was the case. A more beautiful and retired spot than the little village in which they dwelt, or one inhabited by a more simple and inhosent set of people, it was impossi ble to imagine. It was situated in a wooded ravine, through which a trout stream ran down to tho sea ; and upon the hill-top between it and the ocean, were the most picturesque church and churchyard I, or anybody's eye ever be held. From the house we could only hear the distant whisper of the waves, like the murmuring hum of bees, but tney were giant waves, and the rocks were torn and split with their fury into weird and horrid shapes. It was the grandest sea coast I had yet visited, and all day long I sat beside it with my sketch book, or merely watching the white wrath of the breakers, and lis tening to the thunder in the caverns at my feet. I was not at all afraid of the sea when I was upon the land. In deed, I am not alarmed at anything (notwithstanding what pome people say to the contrary) unless there is a rea sonable cause for fear. For instance, I am not afraid at least I was not, until the terrible catastrophe occurred which I am abont to relate of supernatural apparitions. When I announced my intention, one evening, of going up the hill to sketch the churchyard by moon light, there arose quite a rude titter in the drawing room. " Surely not alone, Mary Anne 1 Let one of the girls go with you," said my hostess. " What is there to be afraid of in a churchyard? No, I thank yon," said I, proudly. "The miserable superstitions of the country do not affect me, I as sure you. " But it is so lonely up there, my dear 1" - " What of that ? Solitude and still ness are the accompaniments of such a solemn scene. I had much rather go there by myself." I was resolved to exhibit my inde pendence, as well as to do away with any false impressions my excellent hostess might have" received from Charlotte or others with respect to my courage ; but at the same time she need not have re minded me that it was "so lonely up there." I did not expect to find Disney churchyard the centre of fashion, or the scene of an excursion picnic at ten o'clock at night, of course ; her remark was officious and unnecessary, and at the same time- it made my blood run cold. However, when the moon rose, so did I, and, sketch-book in hand, toiled up to tho old church, which was also, from its prominent position, a landmark used by sailors, which taught them , to avoid the rocks at Disney Point.' Whatever might be the matter, there tiw triwaya tt -wind -op-there, and even in that still summer night it was wandering about the grasses of the graves, and whispering into the ears of the stone statues of the church, which seemed to grin in malice at its news of storm and wreck to come. ' I seated myself on my camp-stool just in front of the porch, and began what I intended to be a hasty sketch, just a few strokes, to be filled in at my leisure, for I felt the situation to be "uncanny," and already wished my self at home. My fingers shook a little, certainly not with cold, and, though the architecture was said to be a "fine speoimen of the perpendicular," it did not appear so in my sketch-book." Suddenly I heard a subdued sob; the utterance, as it seemed to me, of some poor creature of my own sex in distress. It eame from an obscure corner of the churchyard, where the graves were not so well cared for and tended as the others were a spot, I had been told, where those were laid whom the pitiless sea had drowned. When a ship was cast upon the rocks yonder, it was rare even for one of its crew to reach that rock-bound shore alive; and alter a great storm, whole ship's companies were sometimes buried at once in the chnrohyard of Disney Head. I listened with beating heart, and the sound was repeated ; and this time I felt sure it was as I had supposed. Doubtless, some woman had ome to weep in secret over the grave of her sailor son or husband. There was no need to be frightened in such a case. It might be that I should be able to give her comfort. I rose, and .moving towards the wreck-corner,' (as It was called,) could dimly make out a wo man s figure kneeling at the head of a grave. In the presence of so great a sorrow, 1 seemed to lose all selfish fear, and ventured softly to address her. She did not reply, not even so much as turn her head, though I felt certain she must have heard me ; and' since she was a woman, and did not speak, I felt there must be something wrong with her. As I drew nearer, I beheld a spectacle that overwhelmed me with pity, The un happy creature before me was naked to the wasit, and with her arms straight down by her side,' was gazing on the grave beneath her with a look of inde scribable despair. She shed no tears, but her eyes wore a look of hopeless woe and yearning beyend all ordinary sorrow. . " Yon are killing yourself, my poor woman," reasoned I, " to kneel there in such a plight. The dead you mourn can ask no such sacrifice as this that yon should join them." But again she answered nothing; and then, to my horror, I observed that she had dug another grave, at the head of that she was watching, and was already buried in it up to her waist 1 Was she then bent upon committing suicide, or was she herself an inhabitant of the tomb, like those around her, and were the graves indeed giving up their dead at that witching hour of night, as I had read of, but had not believed ? In an agony of terror, such as even I had never before experienced, I flung down my sketch-book, and rushed from the churchyard and clown the hill. " What is the matter, Maiy Anne ?" cried my amazed hostess, who was sit ting up for me with her husband in the parlor, as I tore into the room shriek ing for help. " Matter I" cried I. " There is a-poor young woman, with nothing upon her, half -buried olive in the wreck-corner of the churchyard. She has already lost her sight and hearing, for she took no notice of me at all." "Impossible 1" cried my hostess. "But I've seen her, shrieked I. " Not a moment is to be lost." " Ah, bless you I we've seen her too," said my host, laughing. " It's the fig urehead of the Bella. When the ship came ashore, we stuck it up at the cap tain's grave, by way of headstone poor fellow ! She has not got much on her, it's true; but I don't think she'll hurt.' A Califoiuian Wonder. The tract of oountry known as the Slate Range Valley is probably one of the most curious that southern Cali fornia can boast of. It is there the im mense deposits of borax were discovered something like a year ago, and at that time the whole lower or central part of the basin was covered with a white de posit, breaking away in some places in large soda reefs, in others resembling the waves of the ocean, and in still others stretching out for miles in one unbroken level, from which the sun re flected its rays with a glare almost un endurable. But one of the most sin gular features in connection with this section was the absence of rain or moist ure; the days were ever sunny and hot, the nights without dew and gener ally warm. For more than five years, it is said, by those who claim to know, there had been no rain there, until some three months since the spell was broken. Suddenly, and with scarcely any warn ing, rain commenced to fall, and for thirty hours came down steadily and unceasingly, unaccompanied by wind, but yet a thorough drenching rain. For two or three days it remained pleas ant, when suddenly a water-spout was seen winding its way through the valley. It came in a zigzag course across the upper end of the lake, striking the range of hills on the east side, and coursing rapidly along them. The canyons and gorges were soon filled with water, which poured from them ia fearful volume, and spread itself out upon the bottom. In a short time it was over, and denizens of the place now look for another dry season of five years. The Masked Ball. Nioholas the First was very fond of masquerade balls, and one night ap peared at one in the character of the devil, with grinning face, horns, and tail, and appeared to enjoy his charac ter very much. About three o'clock in the morning he went out, and throwing over him some furs, called a coachman, and ordered him to take him to the Quay Anglais. As it was very cold he fell asleep, and when he awoke he found the man had taken him in a wrong di rection, for the Quay Anglais is one of the most elegant portions of St. Peters burg, while before him were only some miserable houses. Nicholas began to re monstrate, but the coachman paid no heed to him, and presently passing through a stone gateway, brought him into a cemetery, and taking a large knife from his girdle, and pointing it at his employer's throat, said : "Give me your money and your furs, or I will kill you." "And do you give me your soul," ex claimed Nicholas as he threw off the furs and disclosed bis personification of the devil. The Russians are very superstitious, and the coachman was so terrified he fell senseless on the ground, and the emperor drove himself back to his pal ace. Influence of a Dream, The Troy Press says that the site of the State Street M. E. Church, in that city, was selected through the instru mentality of a dream. Dr. John Lou den, a prominent physician, who died upward of fifty years ago, was a leading member and worker of tho Methodist denomination, and about the time it was proposed to erect an edifioe.in the vicinity of State street, the good doctor dreamed that he saw a flock of wild doves alight on the lots at the corner of State and Fifth streets. The impres sion of the vision was so vivid that the doctor could not shake it off. He in sisted that it was a good omen, and that the church should be erected on the lots above named. So strenuous was he in this that he carried bis point, and the old State street sanctuary was erected, to give way in time to the beautiful edi fice now located on the site of the old brick structure. ' Story of a Seed. . Once upon a time, ' awiy down in Georgia, a man planted a little seed. The sun Bhone warm on' it, and the rain came and softened it, and it soon began to sprout. ; Day and night 'it grew, till it was high as a man's head. Buds formed all over it, and one night they burst into bloom. Beautiful cream colored flowers they . were, something like a morning-glory. By noon the sun was too warm. The beautiful blossoms shut their leaves and hung their heads, and before night each cream-colored flower dropped off. Where each one had been was a little germ. This little green germ grew and grew till it was as big as an egg, when it burst open and threw out a long beautiful fluff of cotton several inches long. It was a cotton seed, of conrse. Then a man a negro came and tore the cotton from its boll, put it into a basket with others like it, and carried it to a room where were hundreds of pounds of cotton. In the room was a busy machine, and into that machine the cotton was thrown. This cotton, you must know, is full of seeds. Very troublesome little fellows they are. too. for they have no idea of leaving their comfortable home and it's very hard to get them' out. - 1 11 tell vou how the madLine docs it. As the cotton goes in it comes to a roller covered with wire teeth. These teeth seize the cotton and draw it through a sort of grating, so fine that the seeds can't get through, so they .just stay on the outside. As the roller goes around it comes to a brush rollei, which brush ts off the cotton as nicely as any brush can do it. Then the cotton is packed in a bale and sent to the cotton mills. Now tho Antfnn flint Cime from flm little seed away off in Georgia is by this time very dirty, and what do you sup pose comes next ? A bath ? No; what's good for boys isn't so good for cotton. It gets a beating. It is laid on a sort of net-work, and beaten with bundles of twigs. The dirt falls through the net work, and then the cotton is called "batting." But the cotton irom tne seed 1 m tell ing about don't stop at batting. It is very fine and nice, and it goes to the carding-machine. This machine lays all the threads one way by drawing it through sets of wire teeth. it comes out on to a roller, and is taken off by still another roller.on which it looks like a wide fleecy ribbon. But it don't keep that pretty look very long. It is drawn through a funnel, which makes it small and much firmer. . It isn't fine enough yet, however, and it goes between another set of rollers. I wonder if there s any thing that can t be done with rollers I hen it ' OOmoa nut nreMtfil iiulte firm it is called roving, and is ready to be spnn. You 11 hardly believe me, but the spinning is done on a mule! It's a very peculiar mule, I must ad mit, made of wood and iron, and carry ing twenty-two hundred spindles. So it spins twenty two hundred threads at once, and is a wonderful machine, if it has a funny name. It spins the loose roving into a much finer thread, slightly twisted. This thread next runs through a gas - flame to burn off the little fuzz, then over a brush to take off the ashes, and then through a hole in a brass plate just the size ot the thread. Then it is wound in skeins, and put up in five or ten pound bundles. After all these travels the thread has a little rest before it starts through the last machine the one that makes the soft cotton into the solid strong thread we buy on spools to sew with. The skeins are wound on to bobbins. and put on the machine Six of the tine threads start together. Look on a spool, and you'll read, " Best six-cord cotton." That means, as I said, that six of these threads are united to make our sewing-thread. But I must tell you how they go. First over a glass rod, and through a little trough of water; then between rollers to press them tightly together. Leaving the rollers, they go down, twisting as they go, .to where a spool is fastened. There it is regularly wound on, a firm, smooth thread, while the spool moves slowly up and down as it winds, so as to make regular layers of it. Now the fruit of the little cotton seed has become a beautiful spool of thread. ready for a useful life. Before it goes out into world it is ornamented at each end with a round paper, gummed and stuck on by some child. The last paper is put over the end of the thread to keep it from getting loose, and then . it is put into packages of a dozen spools. lou nave seen line thread, perhaps as fine as No. 200, which we use on sewing-machines, but what would you say to thread No. COO, only one third the size of that ? And how would you like to see the cobweb thread actually woven into lace? At the great Exhibition in London such fine lace was shown. And, almost as wonderful, a pieoe of muslin woven of thread No. 400. It was so delicate that when laid on the grass and wet it could not be seen. Yonjknow how large a roll of batting is. well, it can be stretched out to be more than a thousand miles long. That is thread No. 2100. It seems too wonderful to be true, but many fictions invented by poets and story writers are not half so wonderful as many common thiners that every dov pass under our observation. . Pleased. A good story is told of a gentleman in well, we will not mention the plaoe who has been.unfortunate of late in his finanoial affairs. While walking one evening in a lonely spot he was met by a ruffian, and told to " stand and do liver." We must let the victim tell his own tale: "I never was so pleased in all my life. Tho idea that I had' any thing to deliver was exceedingly grati fying, and I thanked the fellow for the compliment. It showed that all confi dence in me was not lost, notwithstand ing that little affair in stocks, and I felt onoe more with Mr. Micawber that I could look my fellow-man in the face. It was very pleasing to know that, this gentleman, thought I bad moneyf , ' The Snn's Might. Prof. Proctor in a lnte lecture on the sun, said : Now let us consider the might that resides in the sun. If the sun were a mere quantity of matter very much larger than the earth, as we see he is, there would still not be the force necessary to tho sun as a ruler over the earth. Let me give you an idea of how large the sun is. 1 am in the habit, in England, when I wish to speak of the size of the sun, of inform ing my audience that "this country (England) in which we live, which seems to us so large, is nevertheless small by comparison with ' the earth, for . if the earth were one inch in diameter Eng land would be a small triangular speck, which you could scarcely recognize. But 1 am at raid that to an American audi ence that comparison would be im perfect. In fact, I have heard that an Ameiican traveling in England found the country so small that he at once sought the central counties, and was even then afraid to go out in the eve ning for fear of falling off the little island. Laughter. We in England, whether it be the natural courage of our disposition or the effect of long habit, are not troubled with that feeling. But yet, even America is so small compared with the sun, that if there were a spot upon the sun as large as the whole of America, it would be quito invisible to the naked eye. Indeed, if an object as large as the earth were placed immedi ately before the sun, and there appear ed as a black disk, it would neverthe less require a large telescope to make it visible; 107 times does the sun's di ameter exceed that of the earth, and the surface of the sun exceeds that of the earth 107 times 107 times, or 11.G0O times, while the volume of the sun ex ceeds that of the earth 1,250,000 times. But the mass of the sun is not so much greater than the earth. It would ap pear as though the body of the sun were constituted of matter about a quarter lighter on an average than that which constitutes the earth, and the result is that the sun's mass instead of exceeding the mass of the earth 1,250, 000 times, only exceeds it 315,000 times; but only consider what that means 1 If this earth were to grow in density until its mass were equal to that of the sun, then a half-ounce weight one of those which are used to balance our letters would weigh 4 J tons. A man of average weight would be drawn to the earth at a weight of 20,000 tons. An object raised from the earth a single inch would, in falling that short distance, acquire a velocity three times greater than that of an express train. Such is the might with whioh the sun rules this earth. George Washington's Hatchet. Pnrann Weems, rector of Mt. Vernon parish, and of course intimately ac quainted with Washington, first told the story of the little hatchet which, is now known by every schoolboy. The following is the story as told by the parson : When George was about six years old he was made the wealthy master of a hatchet, of which, like most little boys, he was immoderately fond, and was continually going about chopping everything that came in his way. One day, in the garden, where he often amused himself hacking his mother's pea-sticks, he unluckily tried the edge of his hatchet on the body of a beauti ful young English cherry tree, winch, he barked so terribly that I don't be lieve the tree ever got the better of it. The next morning the old gentleman, finding out what had befallen his tree, which, by the by, was a great favorite, came into the house, and witn much warmth asked for the mischievous author, declaring at the same time that he would not have taken five guineas for his tree. Nobody could tell him anything about it. Presently George and his hatchet made their appearance. Ueorge, said his lather, "do you know who killed that beautiful little cherry tree yonder in the garden?" This was a tough question, and George staggered under it for a moment, but quickly recovered himself, and, looking at his father with the sweet face of youth brightened with the inexpressible charm ot all-conquering truth, lie bravely cried out, " I can't tell a lie, Pa, you know I can't tell a lie ; I did cut it with my hatchet. " Run to my arms, you dearest boy, cried Iiis lather, in transports, "run to my arms glad am I, George, that you ever killed my tree, for you have paid me for it a thousand fold. Such an act of heroism in my son is more worth than a thousand trees though blossomed with silver and their fruits of purest gold." Parson Weems had small idea, when this little story shaped itself in his head, that it was destined to descend to posterity as it has. A Minnesota Trout Pond. A trout pond started in Minneapolis last spring has become an attractive in stitution. On visiting the pond a re porter was informed by the proprietors that they had already placed in position for hatching 135,000 eggs, from which they expeot to save 100,000 at least. Already 15,000 have hatched out. in forty-five days about the shortest time on record. It will be remembered that they procured from 1,000 to 2,000 breeding trout out of the streams abput Lake City the past summer, and as soon as the season opens again they will en deavor to add as many more. This number of breeders together, with the young fry which will be coming alone. will enable them to supply the markets about here in a few years; but not until the stock is amply sufficient will they attempt it. Laugh and be Health y. The physiological benefit of laughter is explained by Dr. E. Heoker in the Archiv fur Psychiatre: Tbe comio-like tickling camses a reflex s.otion of the sympathotio nerve, by which the caliber of the vascular portions. of the system is diminished, and their nervous power increased. The average pressure of the cerebral vessels on the brain substance is thus decreased, and 'this is compen sated for by the forced expiration of laughter, and the 'larger amount, of blood thus called to the lungs. We al ways feel good wheU we laugh, but un til now we never knew the scjeatiflo reason why. ; . , Remarkable Tale of Business Vicissi tudes. The January number of the Spectator the well-known insurance review contains the following story of an event ful career, as related by its Hartford correspondent: One of the most striking instances of the ups and downs of life that ever came under the observation of your cor respondent is afforded by the history of a gentleman, now an agent for some of our Hartford companies in a small town in New York State. At the age of twenty-three the man', now fifty-seven, started in business as a country mer chant, in which, from that time till 1857 eighteen years he was very suc cessful, dealing largely in wool and produce, as also in real estate, of which lie was a considerable owner. Imme diately after the bank crisis in 1857, he enteied into the banking business as half owner of the Bank of Canandaigua, Canandaigua, N. Y'. In a few years he became the Bole individual owner of the Bank of Canandaigua, the Bank of Ontario, the Bank of Canton, a Bank at Cortland, four-fifths owner of the First National Bank of Geneva, had a bank ing office at Marathon, N. Y., one at Herkimer, N. Y., and one at No. 139 Broadway, New York city, holding de posits to' the amount of $3,000,000. He also owned a fine private residence ; $200,000 worth in the best business blocks, and other first-class real estate. Then came reverses and heavy losses, and after paying to depositors $2,500, 000 from personal assets, in May, 1868, lie was compelled to suspend, owing $500,000 to 2,000 depositors, scattered from Philadelphia to Omaha. Asking for a little time to convert, not to com promise, the circuit of creditors proved too large, and he was put into bank ruptcy, with $000,000 of assets to pay $500,000 of liabilities with. But the temptation to assignees and lawyers was too great, and the circumstance too rare, to allow an administration of the estate for the interest of creditors. There was a splendid chance for sharp ers, and they improved it, so that debts were only partially paid. Our hero's wife surrendered her dower right in $200,000 worth of real estate for the small sum of $8,000 at the solicitation of her husband, and a dwelling house in New York city, purchased for a mar ried daughter, was put in with the rest. He has never asked any discharge from his indebtedness, and is still pushing the life and fire insurance business in his native town, which ho himself built up, in the hopes of yet paying the last dollar. Is not this, on the whole, a re markable history ? Tho Sun's Crust. Professor Charles J. Young caused considerable discussion at the Ameri can Science Association's meeting at Portland, lately, by some unique theo ries regarding the sun. The eruptions which are continually occurring on its surface render probable the supposi tion that there is a crust of some kind which retains the imprisoned gases, and through which they force their way in jets with great violence. Acoording to Professor Young, this crust may consist of a more or less continuous sheet of descending rain that is, a downfall of the condensed vapors of those materials which we know, from the spectroscope, exist in the sun. The continuous efllux of the solar heat is equivalent to the supply that would be developed by the condensation, from steam to water, of a layer about five feet thick over the whole surface of the sun, every minute of time. As this tremendous rain descends, the velocity of the falling drops would be retarded by the resistance of the denser gases underneath ; the drops would coalesce until a continuous sheet would be formed ; and these sheets would unite and form a sort of bottomless ocean, resting on the compressed vapors be neath, and pierced by innumerable ascending jets and bubbles. It would have an approximately constant depth, because it would turn to vapor at the bottom as rapidly as it grew at the sur face ; though probably the thickness of this crust wjuld continually increase at a slow rate, and its whole diameter grow less. In other words, Dr. Young would regard the sun as an enormous bubble, whose walls are forever thicken ing, and its diameter ever lessening, in proportion to the loss of heat. A Banditti's Banquet. The history of the robbery cf Judge Emmett's house by the gang of ruffians just captured in their den in New York city, and as told by members of the Judge's family, shows that long impu nity had made the robbers extraordina rily bold. There were lour grown men in the family besides the servants. The robbers went to the room of each, frightened him to silence wheu awake, and then collected all the household in the dining-room where one bandit could . .. -.IT. . A 111.. guard all. When they entered the room of Mrs. Emmett the concentrated stare of four dark lanterns and four rough men bidding her to arise did not fright en her. One ot the men seized, her, by ai.- a i. 1 1 11 TT1 1 L. tne wriBb kj uiuu iicr. muuitu we. ttir." she ftxclaimei. with unrli ilurn itv. and determination that the robber dropped her hand and all fell back a Btep. "Are you men? Do, you. dare , . . . . . to J n suit a lady ?" she continued. One of the robbers replied that they would not bind her if she would promise to make no alarm. She promised, and suffering her to put on a wrapper and slippers, they locked her securely in a room adjoining that in which theothers of the family were bound. After they had blown open the safe and stolen everything of salable value, they com pelled a servant to show them the pan try and wine cellar. They spread a ft ast. at which thft.owners of the good c'aeer were imprisoned spectators. As Uiev ate and drank the banditti mock ingly drank Judge Emmett'B good health and ms iumny s. it was nearly six o'clock when they departed. Neigh- AAA. . " " . h. on than ast ir and feveral of them saw what they supposed to be a gang of prize fighters triug to shove off a large boat leu mgn ana ary iy me falling tide. Colorado's gold and silver crop this ,J year will amount to o,uuu,uw. Gossip. " Because I plainly express my opinion of the conduct of others I will not be called a gossip," said a plain spoken lady friend. "Wrong-doers must submit to that one penalty being talked over ' by their neighbors. And so great is my ownfearof popular blame that I walk very straight indeed to avoid it. Are not others similarly re strained ? And is not Mrs. Grundy, the much-abused, a benefactress, there for ?" A popular journal aoquiesces in this view of the matter. " Mrs. Grundy, with all her busy interference, is com monly in the right. When has she up held a vice of any kind ? You may say she has upheld some of the greatest of evils, such as dueling, slavery, etc. Well, Mrs. Grundy is conservative, it muBt be conceded, and is not commonly found in the front ranks of tho reform ers; but if a proposed reform is really a sound one, she is sure, very soon, to take up its defence. It is very wise to be conservative and slow, in order, eventually, to be right, and, when Mrs. Grundy has upheld that which you have set down as an evil, it has been in pro found conviction that it was rio evil at all. It has been a mistake of judgment, not of morals. Mrs. Grundy, slandered dame as she is, is almost uniformly on the side of right doing. She condemns private and public malfeasance; she deplores drunkenness, gambling, incontinence, extravagance, profanity, vice of all kinds. She is sometimes a little too fond of purely successful men, and yet is not adverse to a rigid inquiry into the conditions of the success; she is per haps too little regardful of unfortunate men, yet after all will, in a majority of instances, understand accuritely the cause of their misfortunes. If not al ways charitable in her judgments, she is an earnest admirer of charity. If altogether too prone to give importance to dress, and similar little things, and too easily shocked at an offence against mere conventionality, she yet always approves what may be caueu minor, but which, are yet nigniy important virtues, such as neatness, cleanliness, order, and propriety of demeanor." All things considered, Mrs. Grundy does a good work, and cannot yet be dispensed with." A Romance. Having made an imprudent marriage, the son of a wealthy English family was disinherited, and doomed to poverty, which killed him hefore his only son had entered his teens. Left alone in the world his unfortunate widow was obliged to place the boy, then twelve years of ago, under the care of a dis tant relative -a sea captain who grudgingly offered him a place on a steamer in the East Indian service. From the time of entering upon his du ties on shipboard the widow's son was treated like the rudest cabin-boy, with a positive brutality of treatment by the captain, which the lower officers were not slow to imitate. So harsh, indeed, was his lot, that the common sailors commiserated him for it, and, the steamer happening to be at San Fran cisco in August last, one of them was prompted to connive at his escape to American soil in California. By the same kind and humble friend he had a hiding place and temporary home se cured for him with a lady of well-known benevolence in the southern part of tho Golden City, who, after the departure of the steamer, obtained employment for him in a local drug store. Very soon tho young sailor adapted himself diligently and efficiently to his new vo cation, his old sailor-friend having promised to carry back the news to his mother in London. And a druggist's clerk he is yet, though in reception of intelligence calculating to make his fu ture life very diflerent from the past. The very first letter from the widow, after the arrival of the Indian steamer in England, informed him that his grandfather, the rich magistrate, had just died, unrelenting toward the un fortunate mother to the last, but leav ing her son a fortune of 10,000. Ac companying this motherly revelation was an epistle from the lawyer em ployed by the executors of the dead man's estate, assuring the grandson of his riches, and in a few more days the former cabin-boy will receive money to take him back to home and opulence far different from that in which he be gan his youthful exile. Story of an Amazon. Here is a story of an Italian Amazon recently discharged from the army, having served out her enlistment: Julia Marcotti, the Amazon in question, belonged to a numerous and poor family, living at Ban Ambrozio, near Turin, and worked in the mines of Upper Piedmont, to which latter cir cumstance her extraordinary physical strength may, probably, be attributed. She enlisted in 1866, at the time when Italy was about to engage in the strug I 1 " -Al- k J 1 - 1 UA.n- , gle with Austria, her motive being to save her brother, wno was marrieu anu had six children, from being obliged to serve. Not only did J una penorm ail a soldier's duties as well as her com rades, but she fought in the first rank ... . ... . niA .1 at the battle of Custozza. and obtained 1 . , ... 1 1 the medal OI mimary vmur. yju iicui- ing of the case, King Victor Emmanuel sent for tae woman, Destowea upon uer the Cross of the Order of the Crown, and desired that she should be sent home with a pension of 300 lire. No Panic About That. Clerking in a dry goods store isn't so bad a business if yon can be at the head. A Boston paper says that one of Claflin's $8,000 clerks began January 1, 1874, in Boston, at $i3,uuu. une oi Stewart's old $3,000 clerks doubles his salary in a Boston house this year. A. bid.bv a New York house with a $20,- POO Salary for a cloak buyer in a Boston hotute couldn't touch him. An old Boston dry goods empleye has just , . . W - - f , gone abroaa as a buyer tor a isew lorn house at JMO.uuu a year hubuhm. A New York firm is to-day trying to tempt a Boston cotton goods salesman mw iw -uiiujuv . A worsted goods clerk in New York is anxious to get back to the fold and his old employers in Boston for $3,200 year, v . V
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers