) c HENRY A. PARSONS, Jr., Editor and Publisher. NIL DESPERANDUM, Two Dollars per Annum. VOL. IV. IIIDGWAY, ELK COUNTY, PA., THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1874. NO. 7. The Infinite Presence. I gaze aloof, On the tissned roof Where timo and apace are the warp and woof Which the King of Kings A a ourtam flings O'or 11 le dreadfnlneRs of eternal things, But could I see, As ia truth thoy be, The glories 'jf Uoaven that enoompiws me, . I should lightly hold The tipsued fold OS that marvelous curtain of bine and gold. Soon the whole, Like a parched scroll, Shall before my amazed sight nproll j And without a screen, At ono burst be seen 'She Fresonoe wherein I have ever been. Oh ! who Bhall bear The blinding glare Of the Majesty that Bhall meet us thore ? What eye may gaze On the unveiled blaze Qf tho light-girdled throne of the Anciont of Days ? Christ us aid 1 Himself bo our shado, Tl int to tho dread day we be not ftsmayed. Whitehead , THE STORY OF JEFFREY, Eclipses, comets, and extraordinarily 'high tides can be predicted with aoou raoy ; there even seems to be a proba bility that in time tho weather will also strike its flag to science, and that means will be found of disentangling the conflicting influences which send an aneroid up and down. But in the art of foretelling tho probable current of public enthusiasm there is no sign of progress. Tho keenest observer of hu man nature can no more guess whether the career of uy particular suitor, war rior, espl.owr or criminal will simply appear m the newspapers and excite no more (Mention, or will be generally takja up as a matter of national im portance, than the merest tyro can. It tvns more than a million to one that -Robert Jeffrey's wrongs would remain unnoticed, or raiRO but a feeble and passing notice. He became a popular idol, however a representative victim of the press-gang system, and the tyran nical customs which naturally grew out of -it, and so a very curious story has been hn.uded down to us. In 1807 a privateer, named the Lord Kelson, was fitted at Polperro, in Corn wall, England, a place famous for its .hardy race of smugglers, the entire population being brought up to look upon coast-guardsmen as natural ene mies, who might be killed with as good a conscienoe as though they wore Frenchmen. The profits of privateering were often greater even than those of smitfrfling, and the Lord Nelson had no difficulty in gathering together a first-rate crew. Amongst them was a man who had been brought up as a blacksmith, but had found both excitement and profit in an occasional sea-trip, and indeed was as good at the tiller as at the forge, per haps a trifle better. The name of this amphibious Cor nishman was Robert Jeffrey, and his career as a privateersman was a short one ; for tho Lord Nelson, at the verv K'jiiiuicuuciui'ui tn ner cruise, was forced to put into Falmouth, where she was boarded by a press-gang. It was a perier-Uy illegal proceeding , the press-gang had no more right to take a man out of tho Lord Nelson, than you or I have to break into a house and take tu piate-DasKet. liut at the com mouuuiiitm oi tins pentury private rights ware very iittlo respected where mU j.iun,, odr u!B was concerned, un less the porson whom it was proposed . ? -"'u pieucy oi money or politl oai muueuee. Robert Jeffrey had vt iVir' nu1 118 was carrietl n board tl. M. S. Keoruit, and converted into a man- A-war's man quite against his will,' and in defiance of his clear and undoubted protection. viiiuHuuuuor oi uie itecruic was a .young omeer ut that time, well-known in me navy as a reckless, self-willed, passionate, man, the foibles of whose natui e vere forced and exasperated by deppocic powers and drinking habits. j" 1 ais normal tlurst were not enough. ie was now sent to cruise in the Ca ribbean sea, where the heat of the sun whetted it to such an extent, that he was seldom or ever sober, the mildest vocation mat no used to quench it being spruce-beer, of which ho kept a cask ulways on tap in his private ajL-juro no uaa ueen on noard many 1 . r 1 i i . i uuys, jenreys prohciency as a smith was discovered, ana lie was made arm orer s mate. So that there was a fair cnance of his making his enforced trip pretty comfortably, and returning after a few months to his native place, with a ljuuueiiui oi prize-money after ail. But an uufortunato group of circum stances gt in the way. The captain was not the only thirsty man in the snip ; His armorer's mate, for example, occasionally had a drought upon him, which waa considerably aggravated by the extremely hot weather, and the small allowance of water served out daily, for the ship ' was.running short of that treasure, which we never prize while we have. During this state of affairs, J effrey was'sent toexeoute some job in the captain's room, and being left alone with the barrel of spruce beer, he began to ogle it. " There was a drinking' cup, "which had Ebeen used, lying very .handy ; the captain was on deck ;no one .could see him ; he was very thirsty 1 ' He snatched up the'eup, aud desisted from his work, a moment to draw off half a pint and toss it down. Very good it was, and very refreshing; if stolen waters are sweet, what must purloined epruoe-beer be ? Presently another drink was taken, with equal success. A third, however, was spoil ed by the thick and wrathful voioe of the captain, who had come below un heard, unnoticed, in time to witness this outrageous act of daring presump tion. It would burn a hole in the paper to write down Captain Lake's remark upon the occasion, beventy years ago all gentlemen swore a little; naval officers swore very much, increasing ia vehe mence as they rose in ran: ; men in liquor swore, as at the present day, hardest of all. You may imagine, then, what the language of a drunken sea-captain must have been when he saw his beloved spruoe-beer flowing do wn the throat of a oommon armorer's mate. That audacious wretch was clapped in irons presently, while his Infuriated commander, having refreshed himself, returned to the deck, which he paced with unsteady Bteps, revolving in his mind what punishment would be suffi cient for a crime so heinous. It ought to be something unusual, startling, ap palling as the act which it avenged. Suddenly his eyes caught sight of a small island, now turned into a jewel by the rays of the sun, which was sinking in the west, and the inspiration came. Lieutenant I" ho cried, "Sir r " Man the gig pud send for that fel low I hare had confined." It was done, and then, to the lieu tenant's horror, his superior officer ordered him to take the prisoner, land liim on thfl barren rnMr nnrl lnouo 1 him. I'll have no thieves on board ship," he said. my The captain was evidently tho worse for drink, and his lieutenant hesitated. " Do you hear me, sir I" thundered tho astonished commander, and disci pline prevailed. Deeply as he loathed the act, tho lieutenant had no option but to obey ) tho crew, though they murmured, dul not mutiny, and Robert Jeffrey was put uBnuru wiuioub ioou or ariuK. He had his knife, and one sailor gave him his handkerchief, and another a long stick which he had thought to throw into the boat as they shoved off, for tlio de serted man to signal with. By this time the sun had sunk, and when the boat returned to the ship it left the poor fellow behind, alone, iu tho dark He fully believed that the captain only meant to frighten him, and bore up pretty well tluovgu the night with that idea. But when the morning dawned the Recruit was a mere speck in the distance, which slowly but surely passed away beyond the heriiou. Then the unhappy man realized -that he was a castawny, rtu. - T ! . . . auo xvecrun, inaeea, naa caugut a favoring breeze, which earned her quickly to Barbadoes, where she joined tho squadron under Admiral Sir Alex ander Cochrane. Her officers and crew, mingling with those of other ships, spoke freely of the affair, which pres ently reached the admiral's ears, who sent for the captain, questioned him, and finding the story true, severely reprimanded him for his brutality, and ordered him back to rescue the man. Tho island upon which Jeffrey had been so barbarously loft was one of the Leeward group, a "desolate rock called Sombrero, and the Recruit got beck to it just a fortnight after the event. A careful search was instituted, but all that was found was a pair of trowsers, not Jeffrey's, and a tomahawk-handle, no trace of the missing man being dis coverable. This result being reported on the ship's return to Barbadoes, Sir Alex ander Cochrane felt satisfied that the man had been rescued by some passing vessel, and let the matter rest for the time. But a good many formed a c if ferent opinion and suspected that Jeffrey had come to some violent end ; and when the squadron returned to England the affair was taken up by people at home, and made so much noise that, after two years htfd elapsed, the captain was brought to a court martial, condemned, and dismissed the service. This, however, instead of ap peasing the public excitement, only in flamed it the more, by tho authentic details which were brought to light iu tho course of the court-martial. The illegality of the man's having been pressed at all tho veniality of his of fense, especially considering tho cir cumstances of thirst caused by short allowance of water in so hot a climate. and the ready temptation to appease it placed directly in his way, combined with the inhuman cruelty of his abandonment to stir the public indigna tion. Meetings were held, articles written, petitions signed, urging the propriety of endeavoring by all means to discover what had become of tho missing man ; and Sir Francis Burdett lost no opportunity of keep ing the question before tho Govern ment, iu the House of Commons. Illegal pressings, keel-hanling flog gings to death, were not so very un common in the navy at that time as to account for tho usually indifferent pub lic's espousing Robert Jeffrey's cause so warmly ; but it did so, and mado a representative man of him. The first authentio news came from George Hassel, mariner, who deposed on oath before the Mayor of Liverpool that he had just returned from Beverly, a town in Massachusetts, and that a man was living there who was nick named the Governor of Sombrero, whoso real name was Jeffrey. Where upon this Jeffrey was communicated 1 1 ' and in due time a letter in reply purporting to come from him was re ceived, giving a full account of his ad ventures. When the Recruit had quite disap peared, he remained for sometime over whelmed with despair, but after a while he grew calm, and felt very hun gry, so he explored his island to see if there was anything to eat nnon it. but could find nothing except birds, which flew away, as birds will, when he tried to catch them. At last he discovered an egg, but, alas I it was an election egg a very good missile, but not edi ble. Soon, however, the paDgs of hun ger gave place to the severer sufferings of thirst, which he tried to appease by swallowing the sea-water, and that of course made matters worse. But heaven, more merciful than man. sent him a shower of rain, which lodged in the crevices of the rocks, and in flicted the'punishment of Tantalus upon him until he thought of cutting the quills, of which there were plenty strewn about, and suckinsr ud the pud- dles as we moderns do sherry cobblers. In addition to hunger and thirst, he ortrlriiA1 i.liA flfrnnv nf ItswtA A a fawn A ; ships were (constantly passing, but failed to see his signals till the ninth day, when some one on board the Adams, an American schooner, notioed Jiim waving the stick to which his hand kerchief was tied. The master, John Dennis, sent a boat, and brought hlrd off in an apparently dying state, so ex hausted R9 to be unable to speak. With oare and kindness, however, he recovered, aud was carried to Marble head, in Massachusetts, where he sup ported himself by his trade of black smith. This oiroumstantial acoount satisfied people at first, but when the lotter was shown to Robert Jeffrey's mothor she pointed out that rtot only was it written in a strange hand, but that it was not oven Bigned by her son, who could write well enough, and was very un likely to make his mark, as the man Vno vouched for the genuineness of this rspiBtle had done. The objection natural ly carried weight, and many people sus pected that the evidence of George Hassel and of the letter had been got up by the captain, who was anxious to prove the man alive, and so escape from the odium which. aUaohed to him. Finally a Bujp Wfta sent to Dring tuis professing Robert Jeffrey to England, where he arrived in due course, and proved to be the right man safe enough, a certain Bhyness and diffidOniJo which he felt in the presence of the gentle men who had drawn up his report be ing the cause of his making a crossMn stead of signing it. He landed at Tott'imcuth in the Oo tobe? of 15i0, three years after the event which had caused him to become a public character. The Admiralty for warded him under the charge of a navf.l officer to Polperret where tho entire population recognized him, and his ar rival was made the occasion of great public rejoicing. But before Bottling down in his native place, he accepted an offer from the manager of a London theatre to exhibit himself for a certain number of nights, and as it became the rage to go and see "Jeffrey the Sailor,' ho made rather a good thing of it. These profits were presently swelled by a sum of six hun dred pounds, which was paid him by the family of the captain in acquittal o'f all claims he might have against that officer, who was still liable to civil ac tion, and in the excited state of public opinion was likely to be cast in heavy damages. After the lapse of a few months.when he ceased to " draw," Jeffrey returned to Cornwall with money enough to pur chase a coasting schooner ; married, and, it thi3 were fiction, would have lived happily forever afterward. But the story being a perfectly true one, Robert Jeffrey was subject to all those ills which afflict ordinary mortals who have never been the subjects of popular sympathy or curiosity. He failed to make his schooner pay, and he died early of conottmption, leav ing hii wife and daughter in great poverty. Tew York Milk Trader The milk trade of New York city and its vicinity is a very large one, and gives employment to a great number of persons, besides forming an important portion of the traffic of seven lines of railroad. In order to give a clear idea of this trade it may be interesting to show the plan of operations between the producer and the consumer. The milk dealer first arranges with the farmer or dairyman as to tho price to be paid to him per quart, delivered at the station of the railroad, and the probable quantity to be supplied daily, after which the former has to pay the freight to this city, and provide means to transport it to his customers. In numerous cases the dealer will agree to take from the farmer the whole of his production, and in these instances the trade is sometimes uncertain, and often unprofitable. When the weather is hot or the winter severe, there is often a greater demand for milk than the farm era can supply, and the dealer is coin pelled to buy the required extra quan tity from speculators ; and iu these in- tsiuuces $o lias oiten ueen reiusea lor a can of 40 quarts. Should the weather be cool, or a large number of con sumers be absent from tho city, the supply will exceed the demand, and the dealer will often be unable to sell his extra stock for even SI per can. which. in some instances, is lower than he pays the larmer, and he also loses the co"st of freight. Before a farmer can enter upon the work of supplying a milk dealer he requires some capital, as it is necessary for him to have a double r triple set of cans, and in some instances four or five cans for every 40 quarts of milk he sends to market. First he must have one can to hold the milk. Tnis is filled on the day prior to being sent during the night to market. This can is held the next day the day of ar rival by the dealer, and returned to the milk depot the next night, at the same time when removing the following day's supply, and is forwarded to the farmer by the returning train. The can has then to be thoroughly cleansed, and placed for a time in a running stream to cool off, so as to be fit for the reception of milk. Should there be. the slightest particle of old milk or cream left in the can the probabilities are that the whole can of new milk will be spoiled. Where streams are not con venient ice is often used. Meanwhile the milk has to be sent to market, and cans are thus detained, others must take their places. As each can costs from $4 to $5, a capital of about $100 is necessary to send even five'eans, or 200 quarts of milk, to market daily. Some large dairymen have over $1,000 thus invested in cans alone, and many have lost a large amount in consequence of cans having been lost, stolen, or misap propriated by the consignees and others. Tlie total daily supply from all sources is between 9,000 and 10.000 cans, averaging 40 quarts each, and the revenue to the railroads from freight of milk alone aggregates about $6,000 daily. About 2,000 cans of milk come in on private wagons, or ate supplied from oows in the city and suburbs. There is scarcely a fashionable ca price that doesn't do good to some one. Thus the ornaments of white and black i'et which have become the voguo in 'aris have restored prosperity to the working classes of Venice, who were in a state of great distress before the revival of the taste for jet trimmings, KILLED BY RiTUESXAKES. A Iloime Full of the Reptiles Burned with the Corpse of Its Owner, A distiller named Jones, who lived with his family near the lower bench of the Big Smoky Mountain, Tennessee, had been annoyed a great deal by the revenue rangers last fall, and de termined to change his lpcation and business Id a more secluded Bpok To carry out this purpose he selected the head of a deep gorge some four miles distan t, walked iu with cliffs, where during the winter, assisted by some of his friends, he erected a log building. As soon ps the cold weather wes over fttid the spring fairly opened, the still and othei things necessary were moved to the place, and the work of violating the revenue law ws resulted. Several " .uina " were made, and Jones began to congratulate himself that he had at last found a refuge beyond the prying eyes of the Government hirelings, where'he could pursue his avocation in peace Tho still-house being some distance from where his family lived, Jones rarely visited them more than once in a fortnight. Everything went on well enough until about four weeks ago, when he failed to appear at the accus tomed time. . Nothing was thought of this for a day or two, but when another week elapsed without tho return of Jones, the family became alarmed, and they thought that he had been captured by rerenue jayhawks and carried to Knox ville or some other place where violators of the law are occasionally .convicted and punished. The alarm was given through the sparsely settled neighbor hood. A small number of men gathered, and accompanied by Mrs. Jones and her son, a youth of ten or twelve years of age, they started up the gorge in the direction of the still-house. On reaching the building they found the door closed and fastened, and no sign of Jones or any one else eonld be Seen. Mrs. Jones called the name of her husband several times; no response, however, came back to relieve her anxi ety. But upou attempting to force an entrance they were greeted with those peculiur notes of warning which the ear of tho East Tennessee mountaineer never fails to recognize. The door was at once broken down, and a sight met them that caused all to start with fright and horror. Tho form of the distiller lay upon the floor, with eyes starting from their sockets, the features horribly distorted, and body swollen to twice its usual pro portions, while the whole interior of the building was alive with rattle snakes, some in coil and ready for bat tle, but the larger proportion stupid and inert, as though they had been im bibing liberally of the illicit fruit of tho still. The mother and son fled hor ror stricken from the place. A consul tation was had, and it was impossible to secure the body of poor Jones with out incurring fearful risk, it was de termined to reclose the entrance and other apertures and fire the building, which was done. The party stayed un til the house was entirely consumed, aud nothing remained but the now use less still and the calcined bon3 of the miserable distiller. It is supposed that Jones had built his manufactory close upon aden of the deadly reptiles in the overhanging cliff, and that attracted by the heat, or pos sibly the fumes of the whisky, they found their way into the buil.ing in large numbers after he had closed the door and laid down to sleep. The Corn Crop. The August returns to tho U. S. De partment of Agriculture from New Eng land show a general improvement in the corn crop during July, though it is still backward. Maine averages 92 per cent, of a full crop ; New Hampshire, 98 ; Vermont, 97 ; Massachusetts, 101 ; Rhode Island, 100 ; Connecticut, 107. It is very promising in portions of the Middle States, but in other parts it was injured either by drought, or ex cess of rain. A decline is noted in New York, it averaging 94 and New Jersey 91 ; Penn sylvania and Delaware have both risen to 1 per cent, above tho average of the South Atlantic States ; Maryland aver aging 96, shows the crops damaged by drought, especially on stiff soils ; Vir ginia averaging 90, also shows a decline from the same cause and from insect ravages ; North Carolina 91, it lost 1 per cent. ; South Carolina and Georgia have risen to 10 per cent, above the average ; Florida 102, maintains her July average ; Texas declints from 106 to 102. A Deadly Spring. A writer in the Colusa (Cal.) In dependent says : " About one-half a mile over a mountain from Bartlett Springs there is what is called the Gas Spring. This is probably the greatest curiosity of the mountains. The water is ice cold, but bubbling and foaming as if boiled, and the greatest wonder is the inevitable destruction of life pro duced by inhaling the gas. No live thing is to be found within a circuit of 100 yards near the spring. The very birds, if they happen to fly over it, drop dead. We experimented with a lizard on its destructive properties by holding it a few feet above the water ; it stretched dead in two minutes, it will kill a human being in twenty minutes. We stood over it about five minutes. when a .dull, heavy, aching sensation crept over us, and our eyes began to swim. The gas which escapes here is the rankest kind of carbonio, hence its sure destruction of life ; also, quench ing of flame instantaneously," Theodore Geer, a crazy man of De- witts ville, N. Y., nearly cut off his thumb with a chisel last winter. It was roperiy dressed, and the wound ealed. Lately Geer got the idea that the piece of thumb should not have been put on again. So he took an axe, and chopped it off. Then he looked at the stump for a moment in reflective criticism, decided that ' it was still too long, and cut off another piece. He is now perfectly satisfied with the job. Somebody defines flirtation to ha at. tention without intention, The Old Letter. 1 found it this i ruo'rniu'g where it had blown with tud dr'ie'i JaiWedj Under the pVuSb, faded and creased and yelldty H Flanders laee, and written in & fine cramped hand, with school-girl flour ishes and queer, old-fashioned d's. "tinkn .TnTftf fit rani " You say Ton have lost all love for me since last flight, at the ball because I flirted With the doctor's flo'ri. " Oh. Johti, I meant ho hansi ; yotl do not know I was always such A nilly little thing, and it is so pleasant to be told one has bright eyes and a sweet voice I When you passed me without speaking, I thought my heart would break. " Only forgive me, and 1 will be so good you won't know it is Olive at all -yoti will think it ia some one else. Emrria aud Henry will go to the Son cert to-night, but I shall be aloue, and watch for you at the south window. I shall always now be so discreet, so pro per, so careful ; and I love you, John. Olive Wilde." No ope would suppose that the little old maid, who lives with her brother on Bleedker street, was ever young and girlish and impulsive enough to hafe written that letter; but here is her name in full, on the faded margin, I saw John pass yesterday in his family Carriage with his fleshy, comfortable-looking wife And his four rosy children, a Wealthy, portly, lofty old gentleman. Perhaps Olive saw him, too, knitting by the same south win dow where she had sat and watched in vain twenty years ago, till the sky and her life darkened together. Little things make mountains of diffi culties to lovers, and John never came. He married some one else, and per haps soon forgot entirely the saucy, af fectionate, coquettish Olive Wilde, whose bright oddity had chiefly at tracted him. Women do hot forget so easily as meti. Olive thought of him when the morn ing colored tho bit of sky at the end of the street ; when the evening clouded the south window ; when her parents died ; when her brother and sister mar ried ; through every joy and sorrow of her life she carried this ono memory. Poor Olive I if there was anything harder than to get a fixed idea in her head, it was to get that idea out again when once there. She never saw any one she fancied, peihaps no one eVer fanoied her. Her freshness and vivacity (she had no beauty) were soon gone. The red in her cheeks and the " light in her eyes began to fade. She ceased to take any pains with her dress. The Slate Trade of tho Nile. In 1870 or 1871 Sir Samuel Baker, the well-known English traveler and ex plorer, entered the service of the Khe dive of Egypt for the period of three years, at a salary of $50,000 per annum. He was ordered to suppress the slave trade of the White Nile and to re-establish the Government of the Egyp tian Viceroy in the Nile basin of Cen tral Africa. His expedition to that country was partially successful. He reclaimed much territory, which was added to the dominions of the Khedive, and he captured many slavers and re restored their victims to liberty. But notwithstanding his glowing and self-congratulatory accounts of briliant victories, it may well be doubted whether Sir Samuel Baker succeeded in seriously crippling the slave traffic. It is true that he had a great deal to strug gle against. The feeling of the Egyp tian people is strongly in favor of the continuance of the slave trade, which is regarded by them as a domestic neces sity and as a source of commercial profit. Nor was the suppression of the traffic the main object in view with the Khedive. Sir Samuel Baker has very recently written a letter expressing his surprise that Abou Saood, the great slave hun ter of the White Nile to whom he at tributes much of his trouble on the ex pedition should have been appointed by the Khedive to be the right hand man of Col. Gordon, Sir Samuel's suc cessor in the present expedition. Ac cording to this letter, Abou Saood is a most unmitigated rascal. He is the son-in-law of the head of a Cairo firm of slave hunters, Agad & Co., and every year he leads an armed force of 2,500 cutthroats on a slave hunt from Khar toum in the Soudan. He massacres, plunders, and burns through the inte rior, and kidnaps tho women and chil dren to sell them into Blavery. Home Luck. A young lady in San Francisco is en gaged to a gentleman who, through his recklessness, has well nigh caused her death on several occasions. About three months ago this young man, when on the point of separating from his affianced until the next evening, made a mistake in his selection of overcoats in the hall, and, finding a revolver in the pocket, he drew it out and com menced toying with the weapon. It wag acoidently discharged, as a natural consequence, and the young lady re ceived a severe wound in the arm. This mishap retarded the courtship for a time, but the maiden finally recovered, and the current of true love was glid ing very placidly again, when she ac cepted an invitation to ride out with her lover. The couple had scarcely started when the horse ran away, the buggy was capsized, and the young lady was thrown down a bank, sustain ing a fracture of the leg and severe bruises. This accident will again defer the culmination of this disastrous courtship for several months longer. With patienoe and the exercise of much prudenoe, however, they may be happy yet. What to Do. That was shrewd ad vice of a learned lawyer to a pupil : " When the facts are in yonr favor, but the law opposed to yeu, come out strong on the facts ; but when the law is in your favor, and the facts are opposed to you, come out strong on the law." "But," inquired the student, "when the law and the faots are both against me, what shall I do ?" " Why, then," said th lawyer, " talk around it." FROPERTI 15 LOSDOJf. he Vast Poneion of (He Noblfltj- lit the MtlrrtpolU. Hh$ h tfity " of London is a mere vil lage, right in the tlO&tt d( a vast wilder ness of houses, says Mai'k Twain like the central square of a cheSti' board ; and, as the hordes that inhabit it daily dwell miles away on the out skitts, it has a ridiculously small population In the night compared to what it has in the day time 800, 000. in the day and 80,000 at night. Anybody, a Tncchanic, or anybody else, who rents or owns n house, has a vote that is to say, a man who pays rates, or taxes for there is no law hero which gives a useless idler the privilege of disposing of pnblio money furnished by other people. The " City " has its own police, and its own government. 7he rest of the metropolis is composed of a grent hive of once separate villages, which still retain their own names at Charing, Holborn, etc. but they are welded together into a compact mass of houses now, und no stranger can tell when he passes out of one of these towns and into another. The estates of the nobility are stristly entailed, and cannot be alienated from the family. The town property which those great landlords own is leased for long terms from half a century up to ninety-nine years ; in Scotland nine hundred and ninety-ninoyears. I was visiting a house in the West End, the quarter where dwelling-house property is the most valuable. My host said he bought the lease of the house he was living in (a three-story brick, with basement) twenty years ago, for seven thousand five hundred dollars, when it had forty-one and a quarter years to run. Every year he has to pay one hundred and fifty dollars ground rent. But in these days property has so greatly advanced in value all over Lon don, and especially at the West End, that if this lease were for sale now it would require something like a fortune to buy it, and the ground rent would be placed at one thousand dollars a year, instead of the one hundred aud fifty dollars tho present owner will go on paying for the next twenty years. The property belongs ts the Duke of Bed ford, and when he reflects upon what that property will hare soared to, ten or fifteen years from now, and still pay ing him only the trifle of ono hundred and fifty dollars a year, he probably wants to go and dig up his late ancestor and shake him. This house is one of seventy-five just like it that surround a beautiful square containing two or three acres of ground ornameutal grounds, large old trees, broad, clean-suaven grass-plots, kept scrupulously swept free from twigs, fallen leaves, and all other eye-sores. His grace the Duke owns all those seventy-five houses, and he owns the orna mental square in the middle also. To each house he leaves a key that will open any of the numerous gates (there is an iron railing all around) to the square, and nobody can get in these but tho occupants of the seventy-five houses and such persons as they choose to in vite. They do a deal of croquet. The seventy-five pay a small sum yearly to keep the square in repair. it was a pleasant clay, and we walked along down the street. Every time we crossed a new street my host said : ' This property belongs to the Duke of Bedford also all these stately blocks of buildings both sides of the street.' isy-and-by we came to another orna mental square like the other, and sur rounded by large dwellings. " Who owns this square and these houses?" " The Duke of Bedford." We turned and walked about half a mile in another direction. Still the same. . All the way it was, " This all belongs to the Duke of Bedford ; this ornamental square is his ; this is the statue of the late duke ; all the smoky statues we have seen represent dukes of the lino, of former generations. We are pretty well tired out by this time, else we might go on till we could show you the great Covent Garden Market one of the sights of London." "Who owns it?" "Tho Duke of Bedford." " I suspected as much. Does he own tho property around it ?" " He does." Does he own any in the country ?" " Whole counties. I took a cab and drove about seven teen miles, or such a matter, to my hotel. No candels in my room no water no towols. I said to the land lord, " I have a very seiious notion of complaining to the Duke of Bedford about the way you keep this hotel." He said, " What has he got to do with it ?" I said, "He probably has a good deal to do with it ; I suppose he owns it ?" " Well, he don't do anything of the kind ; I own it myself." The item was worth something, any way, and so I entered it in my diary : " London is owned by the Duke of Bedford and a one-horse hotel-keeper." But I found afterward that the Duke of Portland, the Marquis of Westmin ster, and other noblemen, own as large ly here as Bedford does. Indeed, Westminster is much the richest peer in England perhaps the riohest man in the world. His income is some twenty thousand dollars a day, count ing Sundays. But what it will be next year or the year after, baffles arithme tic, for the old cheap leases and ground rents are constantly running out, and the property being let at more than quadruple prices. The Duke of Port land owns the huge piece of ground on which the British Museum stands. It is no hardship here to own real estate, for the taxes on it are trifling, as they are also on foreign wines and luxuries which only the well-to-do in dulge in. The revenues come from the manifold things which Tom, Dick and Harry of the great middle and working classes have got to have and cannot do without. If any carriage upsets or injures an other carriage in the streets of St. Pe tersburg, or if any passenger is knocked down, the horses of the offending vehi cle are seized and confiscated to the use of the Fire Brigade. Items of Interest. This is called Ministers' Leap Year bocauso the vacation month, August, hau five Sundays. Phineas Battle, who committed sui cide at Orange, Mass., gave .$10,000 to" tho Universoiist church of that town. A wealthy English widow, whose passion is small feet, offers to marry the man who is over five feet tall and can wear her shoe, number three's. Talking of Goldsmith Maid, it may be woll to state that she is seventeen years of age, is owned by nenry N. Smith, of New York, who says ho won't sell her for one hundred thousand dol lars. Fifteen hundred persons aro em ployed at Key West in making cigars. More than half of thorn ore Cubans. This industry has raised the place to one of the most prosperous communi ties in the South. A beggar posted himself at the door of an English chancery court, and kept savinir. "A nennv. please, sir I Only a penny, sir, before you go in." " Anil for what, my man?" inquired an old country gentleman. "Because, sir, the chances are that you will not have ono when you come out." "Papa, do you think Beech " "Hush, Johnnie." " But, papa, don't you think Beech " "Didn't yon hear me tell you to stop your noise, sir? I won't have you talking about these things. Go in and get your face washed." And Johnnie, with tears in his eyes, wants to know why papa won't tell him whether beechnuts are ripe. The South Kensington Museum, in London, has cost the nation since its establishment $5,958,549. A corres pondent writes : " Those who have visited this matchless museum will know that I understate rather than overstate its actual present value, when I Eay that if its contents were disposed of at auction to-morrow, they woukl not bring less than twenty millions sterling." Hamburg, Conn., has recently had a curious love affair. Two brothers courted the same girl, and she engaged herself to the younger, but as the time set for the marriage drew near, the youth had difficulty in obtaining a cer tificate. Meanwhile, . tho girl trans ferred her affections to the older one, and, he having armed himself with a certificate, they were married on tho very day set for the marriage with tho younger brother. A Romantic Story. Excellent material for a sensation story is furnished by the following well established facts : Victorine Lafour Qade, young, beautiful, and accomplish ed, had a great number of admirers. Among them was a journalist named Jules Bossouet, whose chances of being the successful suitor seemed to be the best, when suddenly Victorine, contra ry to all expectation, accepted the hand of a rich banker named Renelle. Bos souet was inconsolable, and his honest heart ached all the more when he learned that tho marriage of his lady-love was unhappy. Renelle neglected his wife in every possible way, and finally began to maltreat her. This state of things lasted two years, when Victorine died at least so it was thought. She was entombed in a vault of the cemetery of her native town. Jules Bossouet assisted at the ceremony. Still true to his lovo, and wollnigh be side himself with grief, ho conceived the romantio idea of breaking open the vault and securing a lock of the de ceased's hair. That night, therefore, when all was still, ho scaled the wall of the cemetery, and, by a circuitous ronte, approached the vault. When he nad broken open tne door ana entered the vault he lighted a candle, and pro ceeded to open the coffin. At the mo ment when he bent over the supposed corpse, scissors in hand, Victorine opened her eyes and stared him full in the lace. Me uttered a cry and sprang back ; but, immediately recovering his self-possession, he returned to the cof fin, covered its occupant's lips with kisses, lifted her out, and soon had the satisfaction of seeing her in the full possession of all her faculties. When Victorine was sufficiently recovered they left the church-yard and went to Bossouet's residence, where a physician administered such remedies as were necessary to affect the complete re covery of the unfortunate woman. This proof of Bossouet's love naturally made a deep impression on Victorine. Sho repented her past fickleness, and re solved to fly with the romantio Jules to America. There they lived happily together, without, however, ever being able to fully overcome their longing to return to their native land. Finally, their desire became so strong to revisit tho scenes oi tneir youth that they decided to brave the danger attendant on a re turn, and embarked at New York for Havre, where they arrived in July, 1830. Victorine, in the interim, had naturally changed very greatly, and Jules felt confident that her former husband would not recognize her, In this hope he was disappointed, lie nelle had the keen eye of a financier, and reoognized Victorine at the first glanoe. This strange drama ended with a suit brought by the banker for the reoovery of his wife, whioh was de cided against him on the ground that his claim was outlawed. Duelling. Duelling is to be legal ized in Germany, and " Councils of Honor " are to be formed, to consider personal difficulties between officers in the army, to adjust them if possible, and if not, to officially authorize a duel. Officers fighting under suoh circum stances, will not be subject to criminal proseoution. This regulation may seem of questionable propriety, but there can be no doubt, that it will have tend ency to diminish the number of duels. It will probably be the determination of this counoil of honor to prevent all duels, if possible, by effecting a com promise, and not to give permits au thorising parties to fight it out, except in very rare cases. As it is, officers haying personal controversies will in sist upon settling their grievances with sword or pistol, but hereafter they will be compelled to refer their difficulties to the counoil of honor for arbitration,
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