1 HENRY A. PARSONS, Jr., Editor and Publisher. NIL DESPERANDUM. Two Dollars per Annum. VOL IV, RIDGAVAY, ELK COUNTY, PA., THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1874. NO. 30. Sorrows of Werther, Werther had a love for Charlotte, Buch as words eould never titter. Vou:d yon know how first l:c rout her f Bl u vas cutting bread and butter. Charlotte was a married lady, And a moral man was Wertlier, And for all the wealth of Indies Would do nothing that might hurt her. 80 he eigbed and pined and ogled, And his passion boiled and bubbled i Till he blow his pilly brains out, And no moro was by them troubled. Charlotte, having gep.n his body Borne before her on a shutter i Like a well-conducted person . Went On (cutting broad and butter. THAT BAT WINDOW. I suppose I am what you 'would call an old fogy. Yes, I am undoubtedly on oiu logy, and 1 think you will agree with my verdict upon myself when you hear a little about me. Well, then, to Begin : i am an old bachelor of sixty, and I live in a small village on a cer tain prosperous railroad, near enough to a certain prosperous town to allow me to run in every day to my bnsiuess, I enjoy life after my own fashion, anc am friends with every one, only I some times half suspect people think me t foolish old bore : but I am not so fool ish as some suppose, for I consider l ve escaped some portion, and a pretty large portion, of the bothers of life by not marrying, which is a very clever thin g to have done on my part.you must conioss. xiij uome is just as snug and vjomfortable without a wife to worry rao, and my stag parties are a great cleal more cosey than stiff dinners, where one's better-half (honor to the laoies) tits grumpily at one end, not allowing a wretched", ignorant man to say a word regarding anything, but severely frowning upon him if he chance to ask, merely for information, you knov.'.how he is to help the dish in front of him, and what it is, anyhow. JNow I am privileged to discuss my own tlinhes, and to say to Charles my waiver, occasionally : ry weorge, unaries, nere is some thing to surprise us. What is this con coetion, anyhow ? ihen nil my crouies can disouss the nisii and wonder with me, and there elands Charles grinning delightfully, nj- . i. 1. l i-tm jxwiti ujuuieiib ue explains " Nothin' in this wide world, massa out vollevan. Had it a dozen times aiore. only you forgets." uuevuu is supposed to mean " Vol ea vent." And so you see I am very swell in my tastes. But how I do digress. It is my pur puse.io ion you me story of a person very different from myself, but who, Btrange to say, exerted for a time quite a happy influence over my life. 1 suw her every morning on my way tu uiwii, ana j. someumes spoke to tier, vc inrcw ner a kiss, or Drought her Duncii oi nowors, and sue and I were great friends. There she used to sit in the bay window of our picturesque station, with the pink and blue bnwn in her haii, aud those bright eyes of hers gazing out at a fellow, enough to set him wild. Her hair was one mass of golden curis, and her complexion deli cate as a wild rose, and her name was Kathie Kathie Ellis and she was the telegraph operator for our depot, you must know. 1 wonder if people noticed how friendly she and I were ; but I do not care ir they did. One morning in June I brought Ka- buia u uimquei oi pink rose-buds from my garden; and as I placed them upon her desk I noticed a similar floral offer ing ry their side. "Some one is beforehand with me. I CIAA 0" ' Click, click went the wires. "Yes, but bolh are so pretty," and np went the blue eyes, and the dainty -woo t,mut,i uu my onering enjoyabiy, uieii me sweei voice said : " How kind everv one is to me !" "As though they could help it I" I replied gallantly. And then she plucked a flower from my bouquet, as she always did, aDd placed it with the uiuBi, uuiniy coquetry possible m the button-hole of my coat. Just then I glanced toward the window of a car, Btationed for the moment at the depot, and I saw some one laughing immoder ately ; a good-looking fellow enough, but excessively impertinent. "Who is that young scamp?" I asked, aud Kathie looked up hurriedly. "Oh, sir!" she said, "it is Cousin James laughing at my awkwardness." " Cousin James !" I repeated. " Your cousin ? Where did he come from? I never heard of him before." "No, sir: he only came home last night from Nevada. He's ever so rough and rude, being out in that wild region, and it's real unkind of him to laugh so at me," and she shook her finger at him playfully. I resolved that moment but, dear me ! it sounds bo foolish to tell what I resolved upon after all my asseverations about matrimony. Well, to confees the truth, I was never in such imminent danger as then. The train containing Kathie's cousin had sped away, and I, too, was soon off, " Good-by, Kathie," I said ; " you wouldn't mind, perhaps boing an old man's darling?' " Foolish fellow I" said the pouting lips, and then I was cff. I considered this enooura&enient.and "went into town and hinted to my part ner, when I arrived at my office, that scraping my hands together in embar rassment notwithstanding one was a great deal happier single, matrimony, after all, was not suoh a bugbear. Soimmins that's the name of my part nerlaughed heartily. He is the fath er -of six children and two sets of twins. Then he slapped me on the back, and eaid : " What's up now, sir ?" "A blonde's np, sir ; young, bloom ing, and sweet-tempered," I replied. " A pity, sir, for you must go Ea6t, and leave her for awhile. Here's a let ter just received, which requires one of ns shonld undertake the journey, and I cannot leave my family." " A most unfortunate time for mo to get away." " TruU to the lady's constancy, old fellow I Here's a chance to test wo man s faithfulness." " She's very much in love with me, x replied, " and i d trust ner any length of time." Scrimmins laughed then. 1 am sure I don t know why but he is one of those men who are al ways laughing at everything and noth ing, so I smiled disdainfully upon him, and didn t mind. That night I departed from my vil lage bound eastward on my business trip. I visited liathie in ner window, of course, before I left, and I asked her what I should bring her from Boston. "Only yourself, back safe again she said in a trembling voice. " There are so many accidents on the cars nowa days. Oh I what, what should 1 do one were to occur and they should sud denly telegraph book that you you were injured. I resolved then and there to get Kathie the most expensive present my purse would allow, and went on in the hall-past seven express a blissful man, even though I was an old fogy. L took my trip to Boston and, arrived there, I bought the most extravagant ring I could find. I never even once thought of what my dainty relatives would say to my marrying a telegraph operator, so self-abnegating was my Jove, and n was nil ior nothing yes, absolutely for nothing, as I must tell you. That ring reposes in my bureau drawer to this day, and upon it is marked, " To be delivered to my niece, xaoiiua strong, alter my death by her to be sold, the money accruing tneretrom to do expended tor the re generation of the Hoodoo Indians. most worthy charity." Tabitha is an old maid, but ehe is a most charitable creature, and that diamond will be rightly expended in her hands. When I returned from Boston, which was two weeks afterwards, in the even ing, I arrived at our station in a great state of excitement. I caught my bag 5 1 J t Al 1 , ana rusnea ior me uay window. " Kathie, dear," said I. Click, click, went the wires. xnere ain t no jvainie nere. ex- claimed a nasal voice. "Dear mel but that gal's a pesky "ji.atnie goner assed i. "is is she ill ?" I peered at the person I was addressing, and made out in the dark a tall, spare individual in spectacles and screw curls. " No, she ain t ill nuther. She's ben married. " Married ?" I shrieked. " Yes, married, and she's gone out to JN eevaddy to live. " Cousin James I 1 exclaimed. " He warn't no cousin o' hern, man alive. That was one o' her jokes. She was engaged to him two years ago, and they've kept company four years or more. " Heavens I She was a mere h ild, Four years 1 You mistake." i-suaw, now, i am t no croose. Kathie s thirty if she's a day. Look nhere, old gentleman, you needn t to leel bad, lor you am t the only one taken in. There's ben loads inquirin' ior Kathie, and l ve ben called " dear est " and " sweetest " ever so often. You see she didn't expect to be off so soon, but 1 m glad she s gone, I m sure. for now we shall Bee work in this office if I ain t greatly mistook." X retired in disgust, listening a went to the familiar click, click of the wires, which seemed to-night to possess a nendisn sound. I never glance toward the bay win dow now, carefully avoiding it on every occasion, l even complain if it as an unnecessary ornamentation to our un pretentious country depot. 1 nave given more stag parties than usual lately, and am gaining immensely in popular favor that is with the men. especially the Benedicts ; but as for the women, bless you I 1 avoid them as I would the plague I Poisoned by Lead. At Lennoxtown, in Scotland, recent ly, a lady's death was caused by lead poison contained in soda water. She ad been in delicate health, and had been in consequence ordered to drink freely of soda water. She did so, and shortly afterward manifested all the symptoms that would attach to a pa tient suffering the effects of poison, Suspicion eventually fell on the soda water. A bottle was sent for analysis to Dr. Wallace, Ulasgow, with tee re suit that the aerated liquid was found to contain lead in the proportion of lOths of a grain in a gallon. The el feet of that is stated in the following sentence in Dr. Wallace's report : "Or- inary drinking water is considered dangerous if it contains 1-10 of a grain of lead per gallon, and some authorities consider even 1-20 of a grain deleteri ous to health if the water is used con- inuously for a series of weeks or months. In the case referred to the patient drank this soda water fo the ex tent of six or seven bottles daily, swal lowing in the same time no less than three-eighths of a grain of lead. Gone. Colonel Congreve, the cele brated inventor of the destructive Con greve rocket, was a musical amateur, and one day accompanied Mme. Yes- tris, the greater singer, to view a monu ment that had been erected to the mem ory of Purcell, the composer. The Colonel read aloud the epitaph with good emphasis and modulation : " He is gone to that place where alone his harmony can be exceeded." Vestris immediately cried out, " La, Colonel 1 the same epitaph will serve for you by merely altering one word, thus : "He is gone to that place where alone his fireworks can be exceeded." That house is no home which has a grumbling father, a scolding mother, a dissipated son, a lazy daughter, and a bad-tempered child. It may be built of marble, surrounded by garden, park and fountain ; carpets of extravagant costliness may spread its floors ; pic tures of rarest merit may adorn its walls ; its tables may abound with dainties the most luxurious ; its every ordering may be complete ; but it won't be a home." Bayard Taylor writes from Ioeland that he offered an Icelander a piece of money for some small service, and the man laughed and ran, away I In n Bursted Balloon. While the balloon is on the ground it is customary to close the neck of the machine by means of a handkerchief tied in a slip-knot, in order to prevent the admixture of the heavy lower stratum of atmospheric air with the more buoyant carburetted hydrogen in side the balloon. Directly the balloon ascends the prudent aeronaut slips of the handkerchief. Our aeronaut did no such thing. The assistant may have been unaware that the thing eught to be done. He cried out gleefully that we had risen to the altitude of one mile that we were just over Fulham Church, and that we were about to oross the Thames. Just then I heard a sharp crackling report, probably like that of a mnsket-shot, above my head. The balloon had burst. It could scarcely. under the circumstances, have done anything but burst. The gas in the machine had become rarefied, and had rapidly expanded. It could not escape from abovo, the valve was closed ; it could not escape from below, the neck was closed. So it went to smash, just as an inflated and air-tight bag of paper goes to smash between the palms of a Bchoolboy's hands. So we fell, as stone falls, lialt a mile. When we as cended it had appeared to me that the earth was sinking beneath us. Now the globe fields, houses, lamp-posts, chimney-pots seemed to be rushing up to us with literally inconceivable rapidity. There was in particular one tall church steeple, which, by the celen ty of its approach, appeared to be hor ribly anxious that I should be impaled on its apex. It could not have beeu Fulham Church ; but whatever and wherever was the edifice, it was there ruehing up at mo ; and I declare that the grotesqueness of. the position of im palement all legs and wings, like a cockchafer distinctlv and visiblv oc curred to mo. I declare also, sans phrases, that there arose before me no panorama of mv earlv life or of mv Dygone acts and deeds, as bucn pano ramas are said to have arisen before the eyes of persons rescued at the very last instant from hanging or drowning. Yet I do plainly and literally remember several things : that I heard a voice cry witn an oatn, "juet go i" and "Cut I cut !" and that a knife was thrust into my hand : and it seemed afterwards that the assistant and I had pitched out all the ballast in the balloon bags and all and that 1 had cut away the grapnel or ancnor irom the side of the car. That I had done so was plain from two of my fingers being jagged across by tne unite. What becamo of the grap nel we never knew ; but if it had fallen in a populous street it would in all probability havo killed somebody. The neavy bags of ballast, too, must have fullen like stones. Meanwhile the term is well-nigh inappropriate, since mere was scarcely any "while to be mean the aeronaut, who looked like a sailor, had not lost his presence of mind and not been idle. He saw at a glance, this brave little old man al- tnough he had been forgetful in the matter of the slip-knotted handkerchief wherein our single chance of safety lay. ue jumped out into me shrouds of the balloon ; cut the cords which at tached the neck of the machine to the hoop : and away to the very top of the netting flew the whole of the exhausted silk body of the sausaae. Then it formed a cupola of the approved um brella pattern it formed a narachute ! It steadied instantlv. There was no collapse, and down we came swiftly but easily, in a slanting direction, alighting among the cabbages in a market-garden, Fulham Fields. George Augustus The Canada Thistle in Missouri, The foothold which this formidable weed to farmers is getting in Mis souri, ought to attract attention. In England, the thistle ia held to be so noxious, as to be a common enemv to the whole population. No farmer. undowner, or gentleman will pass one growing on the roadside without stop ping to cut it down with his pocket knife ; and it is the habit in some com munities for landowners to carrv a pocketful of salt, with which to salt the fresh stump, as an additional se curity against its sprouting up again. Even cutting and salting, however.does not always destroy the life ol the stub born plant ; and the only sure method of extermination is to dig up each plant, dry it in the sun and burn it. Plowing under scarcely makesany impression on it is generally said amongst farm- era, that a lodgement of the Canadian thistle on a farm, impairs its; value to the extent of five dollars per acre. Five years ago it was comparatively un known in Missouri, but now its purple heads and thorny leaves can be fre quently seen along the railroads, whence it is generally creeping into the adjacent fields. When the seeds are ripe in the fall, they are borne abroad on the down which supports them, and scattered far and wide. If the plant is to be kept down it is too late now to keep it out relentless war will have to be waged against it. not onlv bv land owners, but by county courts, and even by the State. The legislature ought to enact a law, requiring railroad com panies to keep the margin of their road clear of it ; county courts ought to pass orders, instructing road over seers to out down or rip np all the plants along the publio highway once a year; and farmers and landowners ought to carry the same prooess into their fields. Crazy from Wealth.. A singular case of suicide recentlv occurred in Gessenay, near Berne, in Switzerland. The man, who killed himself, had by immense efforts, in which be was seconded by his wife, who was even more avaricious than himself, succeeded in amassing a con siderable sum of money. Not long ago he was informed that a legacy of ?5,000 francs had been left him. This piece of fortune gave him the mvrtal blow, a profound melanoholy seized him, and ha fear of death from hunger haunted hi aa day and night. To avoid this fear ful prospect, he stealthily left his house. went into the neighboring forest, and hung himself to a pine branch. He left 100,000 franos. The Wild Sheep of California. I have been greatly interested in studvintr their habits during the last four years, while engaged in the work of exploring these high regions. In sprinor and summer, the males form separate hands. Thuy are usually met in small noons, numbering from three to twenty, feeding along the edges of glacier meadows or resting among the castle-like crags of lofty summits : and, whether feeding or resting, or soaling wild cliffs for pleasure, their noble forms, the very embodiment of muscu lar beanty, never fail to strike the be holder with liveliest admiration. Their resting places seem to be chosen with reference to sunshine and a wide out look, and, most of all, to safety from the attacks of wolves. Their feeding grounds are among the most beautiful of the wild Sierra gardens, bright with daisies and gentians and mats of blooming shrubs. These are hidden away high on the sides of rough canons, where light is abundant, or down in the valleys, along lak3 borders and stream banks, where the plushy turf is greenest and the purple heather grows. Sweet grasses also grow in these nappy Alpine gar dens, but the wild Bheep eats little be sides the ppicy leaves and shoots of the various shrubs and bushes, perhaps reiishiuz both their taste and beautv. although tame men are slow to suspect wild Bhoep of seeing more thau grass. When winter storms fall, decking their cummer pastures in the lavish bloom of snow. then, like blue birds and robins. our brave sheep gather and go to warm er climates, usually descending the eastern flank of the range to the narrow birch-filled gorges that open into the sage plains, where snow never falls to any great depth, the elevation above the sea being about from 5,000 to 7,000 fee. Here they sojourn until spring sunshine unlocks the canons and warms the pastures of their glorious Alps. In the months of June and July they bring forth their young, in the most solitary and inaccessible crags, far above the nest of the eagle. I have frequently come upon the beds of the ewes and lambs at an elevation of from 12,000 to 13,000 feet above sea level. These beds consist simply of an oval shaped hollow, pawed ut among loose disintegrating rock chips and sand, upon some sunny spot commanding a good outlook, and partially sheltered from the winds that sweep passionately across those lofty crags almost without intermission. Such is the cradle of tho little mountaineer, aloft in the sky, rooked in storms, curtained in clouds, sleeping in thin, icy air ; but, wrapped in his hairy coat, nourished by a warnl, strong mother, defended from the tal ons of the eagle and teeth of the sly cayote, the bonnie lamb grows apace. He learns to nibble the purple dais-y and leaves of the white spirsea, his horns begin to shoot, and ere summer is done he is strong and agile, and goes forth with the flock, shepherded by the same divine love that tends the more hopeless human lamb in its warm cra dle by the fireside. Overland Monthly. Blowing It Out. Judge Pitman's chimney has been foul for some time, and when he men tioned the fact at the drug store. Mr. Squills said he could easily clean it out by exploding a little powder in the fire place. The idea seemed to Pitman to be a good one, and lie bought almost ten pounds of powder in order to do the work thoroughly at the hrst blast. The men were busy gravelling his roof that day, and just as the Judge was about to touch off the charge, a work man named Snyder, leaned over the top of the chimney to call to the man be! ow to send up more tar. Then the Judge lit the slow match. The view which met the eye of Mr. Snyder as he went up was a fine one, embracing as it did, Cape May and Omaha and Constan tinople and Baltimore aud the Sand which Islands, and when he got enough of drinking in the scenery, he came down in the river, apparently with the intention of exploring the bottom. When he was fished out he was glad to learn, not only that the Judge's chimney was thoroughly clean, but that it would need about four cart loads of bricks to repair damages. After this the Judge will clean his flues with a brush fasten ed to a clothes prop. Imparting Disease. It is not rften that dogs are instru mental in the spreading of small-pox, but an instance showing how the dread ed disease was imparted in this manner has just come to light at Yonkers, N, Y. Not many hours subsequent to the death of a man named Van Orden from the loathsome malady indicated, and which occurred in that city a few days since, a neighbor's dog found its way to the bed from which the corpse had been removed, and indulged in a roll on the covering. On returning home the brute was fondled by its mistress, the result being that she soon after wards developed unmistakable symp toms of the contagion. The infectious dog was then summarily shot, and the patient has since recovered. Another illustration of the facility with which the pestilential disorder can be trans mitted may be cited in connection with the same case. It seems that the wife of Van Orden, fearing that the health officer would order the clothing worn by her deceased husband to be burned, concealed a bundle of it in the house of a friend, and as a consequence the lat ter was attacked with a mild type of small-pox, which ultimately yielded, however, to prompt medical treatment. " My father was a farmer berore me, and I thank God that I am a farmer born." Such was the soft soap with whioh a well-known Western lawyer ex pected Ito soothe the Grangers with on the occasion of meeting them just be fore an eleotion. It reminded a speaker of the Illinois orator who addressed a rural audience : " Gentlemen," said he, " I am proud to be one of you. My father was a farmer, and I am a farm er born. Yea, I may truly say I was born between two rows of corn." At this junotuie a tipsy agriculturist at the further part of the house hicoough ed out : "A thiol pumpkin, bv thun der I', A LOYE STORY. Mlnlnterlng to Rick Soldleri Beneficial Effect! of Chicken Soup. We were sitting in our room at the Glades Hotel, in Oakland, Md., one day, says Don Piatt, with a charming lady who had dropped in on a visit. Ono of our windows looked into that of another room so placed by the projec tion of the main building that half of its interior oould be seen. We were looking at and admiring a little chubby, blue-eyed two year-old, white as snow, who was pulling a bouquet to pieoes and toBsing out the fragments, or clap ping her little hands with delight as a train went thundering by. " These rooms," said our fair visitor, "have some very tender associations for me." "Why so ?" we asked. " Well," she answered, " during the war the greater part of the hotel was seized by the Government as a hospital, and we were crowded into a few rooms. My sister and I had this. In that room where that little beauty is were two Union officers, one sick of the fever and the other of a wound. It was hard to tell whether they were slowly dying or slowly getting well. I never saw such ghastly skeletons to be alive. We were 'secesh,' and not modest about it either, but still our hearts ached f or the poor young men, so ill, perhaps dying, so far from friends and relatives." " It bothers one to know how this should be a hospital," we said, " it is so far removed from active opera tions. "It was thought," she answered, " that the mountain air of the glades would be more favorable to reooverv than elsewhere, so this was made a hos pital. One day one of these officers dragged himself to the window, and under the impulse of the moment my sister asked if we could do anything for them, and he answered, gasping for breath, that a little chicken soup would save their lives. Chickens were rare in those days an army is hard on poul try. The men will work all night, after marching during the day, to secure a few chickens ; so that while the hos pital nurses and physicians had an un limited supply of actual luxuries in the way of wines, potted meats and canned vegetables, they were without anything iresn. " We knew where a few chickens were hid in a collar, by a neighbor, and we coaxed one out of tho owner, and after a deal of vexatious trouble for at every turn we were met by a fixed bayonet and an insult we cot the soup readv. and as the guard in the hall would not permit us to approach our patients, my sister attempted to hand the bowl to the officer in the window. Just as he was feebly reaching for it, and she stretching herself half out to give it to him, a harsh, ugly voice below cried aloud. Look out there poison.' She nearly dropped herself, soup and all. Drawing back, she hesitated for a sec ond, and then she took the spoon and began eating the broth. ' Oh ! bother 1' cried the officer, don't waste it that way l m not afraid : and sa she eave him the soup. It seemed to revive them, and they continued steadily to improve, as day after day we supplied them with chicken broth until the cel lar was empty. During this time we sat at the window talking, and we sang to tnem sang sly Maryland, and all the Southern songs we knew, until thev were well enough to leave the hospital and return to duty. They both seemed sorry to go, and forced on us a quanti ty of hospital stores and some coffee, wnicn last we needed Badly. Then one gave a ring, and the other a brooch, as tokens of their kind feelings." " And did they never return ? " One did not, for, poor fellow, he was killed in the very next battle in which he was engaged. His companion wrote us about it. and the writer insist ed upon opening a correspondence with my sister ; and soon nis letters grew into love letters, and after a time they were engaged. Nearly a year subse quent to this, our patient got leave of absence, and came on to be married. tie put up at a hotel, and. will von be- lieve it, our own brother, who was in tue uonfederate service, and knew nothing of my sister's affair, led a band of guerrillas at night into town and captured his intended brother-in-law from his bed. This not only deferred the marriage, but deprived the young xuiuwr ui uis pruiuouou, mac had been promised for gallant services in the field. It was really aggravating, for exchanges had almost ceased, and it looked as if the lovers would have to wait until this cruel war was over ' be fore they could be united. Procuring passes, we went through the lines and appealed to Jeff Davis. Jeff said he would put my brother's prisoner in his sister's keeping. They have been hap pily married these many years. He is brevet brigadier-general now, and it all came of our nursing the enemy in that room." His Patience Explained. I have heard the story of an incident at one of the Richmond hotels, which made me laugh, although all readers may not see anything funny about it. A Boston man and two Virginians sat at the same table. The Boston man was shocked to hear the Virginians call the colored waiter "a black rascal" and "nigger." Sure, he thought, the spirit of slavery is strongly upon this people. He was careful to call the waiter "his friend." when ordering dishes, and to speak to him in the kindest and most polite manner. Not withstanding his honey speeches and bland smiles, he noticed that the waiter brought the Virginians altogether the best dinner. When the Virginians left the table, the sympathetic, but rather poorly-fed, Boston man, hastened to get the ear of the waiter. "Here were those two men, who insulted you and swore at you, and talked rough, yet you brought them a much better dinner than me, who spoke to you most kindly and politely; how is this?" "Well," re plied the Afrioan, as he cast a sly glance around, and wiped the perspira tion from his forehead with the corner of a napkin. " I know these men talk sorter rough like, but they gives me money, and you don't 1" The Boston man retired with a slight feeling of disgust. A Hundred Dollar Outfit. If a girl has but a hundred dollars to get herself a wedding outfit she should buy a white muslin if it is summer, a white alpaca if it is winter, and make it herself. Then she should manage out of her money one good black silk, at two dollars per yard, or an alpaca at seventy-five cents per yard, a linen or brege suit, a striped polonaise, and blaok silk skirt and two cambrics ; or for winter one dark English print and one delaine. Of course, if the black silk is achieved the black silk skirt is omitted, and the striped polonaise may or may not staud in the place of the more useful alpaca. The possibilities all depend upon the cleverness of the girl, her faculty for making a little go a great way, and put ting her own intelligence, her own ideas, and her own fingers' to use. If she is very smart she ought to have twenty-five dollars left for a hat (straw or felt), shoes, gloves, and out side garment underwear having been previously made by her own hands. it used to be considered disgraceful for a girl not to have a handsome stock of uuderclothtng, neatly stitohed and embroidered by her own deft fingers, and there is no excuse for it now. It is easily obtained piece by pieoe, is in finitely more satisfactory than machine made and store bought, and is valuable as giving her an experience in indus trial art. Five hundred dollars is the average spent on bridal outfits, and those who think that a large sum must remem ber that the whole of it would not pay for many a wedding dress, or for any one out of dozens of articles which go to form " fashionable " bridal trous seaux. A velvet cloak or a lace shawl might easily cost as much, and an ele gant India scarf (an indispensable) twice that sum; so that prospective brides who have made up their minds that five hundred dollars will buy "everything " must be prepared to de cide between what they want and what they decide to get, and not sacrifice too much to point lace, which is only fit for a dowager, and a train which has to be out off at the third time of wearing. If a sensible girl is going to settls down . into a plain farmer's wife, and does not want a white dress at all, has no use for it and does not know that she ever shall have, she should provide herself with a nice gray or wood-brown all wool suit or poplin if she prefers and can afford au Irish poplin have hat and gloves to match, and white silk or crepe necktie, with a sprig of orange blossom in it instead of a brooch. This will be tasteful enough for the most fastidious if it is well made, and useful and economical enough for the most saving. A Iiattlesnake Story. If it will not fatigue you, I will tell you a snake scene of the olden time, said an old Tennessean. A neighbor with a wife and one child built his cabin on a fiat rock among the cliffs. The rock furnished him with a substan tial floor, impervious to floods but not to snakes. Upon this rock Peter built his cabin : his winter fires were built in the centre of the house ; the chim ney stack of rocks and mud protruded through the roof and carried off the smoke. The fires being kept during the winter upon this floor, early in the spring thawed the snakes. He and his wife and child occupied their only bed in a corner, elevated some two feet from the rock. Just before day he was awakened by the crawling of snakes over the bed, and their hissing all over the house. He soon became satisfied that his cabin was infested with snakes. It was dangerous to attempt to walk aoross the rock floor to the door, as he could not avoid being enveloped by snakes, so he whispered to his wife to cover up her head and that of the child with the bedclothes, and hold them down, and remain in that condition until his return, as he was going to es cape through the roof of the house and bring her relief by morning. He thus escaped, and alarmed the neighbors, who assembled at the break of day, with guns and ropes. They examined the situation and found that the floor and bed were covered with snakes. They got to the roof, made an opening, let down ropes that had "running nooses," and after great care and diffi culty they were placed under the arms of his wife, and she, holding to her child, they were safely drawn up, and thus saved from destruction. The rattlesnakes herd together and lie dormant under the rocks and cliffs, and this rock happened to be their win ter headquarters, and being thawed by the tire that night, took np their line of march. There were upward of a hun dred slain that morning, and found among the embers of the burned cabin. I do not know how it is now, but I know that sixty years ago this was an awful snake country. But I suppose that tho snake, like the bear, the pan ther, wolf, and Indian, has retired be fore the approach of civilization, and is now seldom seen. Xlght Work. "Aye maister," said a Cornish miner in Colorado, " it be true a hard loife, but we nns are brought up to it like, and begout the danger we'll enjie it some loike o' you the air 'bout you. Aye, it be, maister, dark, but don't think'ee we cawn't tell 'e day from noight. Aye, can we, and make a moighty differ atween 'e noight and day. No man can sleep 'e same in the day as noight ; he cawn't fix it up no how, an' we do know when noight oome on to e' minute, when e' sun go down. But worst o' all be what we nns calls e' dyin' hour o' the night ; its fro three or four o' momin'. There'e best o' nns gins 'e hammer a slight pop an' feels his strength a goin'." Experience in the mines proves that curious fact that there is a "dying hour" between three and four o'clock in the morning ; and though one would think day and night the same in this Egyptian gloom, the miners find a vast difference. At Richmond, near London, the ants, red and black, and without wings, have suddenly assumed the character of a plague. A London Five Tolnts. Whiteohapel, says the Danbury man, is but one of the boundaries of a seo tion of London of which Petticoat Lane is the heart. It Is but a lane crooked chough and slimy enough to be a snake. Its entrance from Whiteohapel is ap propriately flanked by two low rum shops, from whose several doors escapes a coti vivial stream that is not in the least inviting. I was particularly warned by friends, newspaper articles and guide books.not to venture within- its precincts unless under the guardianship of a policeman. With a feeling of almost hysterical ex ultation, Englishmen had dwelt upon the striking cuteness of English pick pockets, and Petticoat Lane became especially known to me as the place where the stranger lost his pocket-handkerchief at one end and found it hang ing up for sale at the other. I thought I should like to see my handkerchief thus expobed for sale, and intensely wondered who would buy it. I didn't think I could afford to. It was late in the afternoon when I got into Petticoat Lane, and for full three hours I kept up a ceaseless tramp along it and through the narrow and noisome alleys and courts leading out of it. There were seoond-hand shops in abundance, meat stalls and groceries iu every direction. The lane itself had about eight feet of roadway, and from a foot to two feet of sidewalk. There were bloated women and one eyed men, and deformed children, and repulsive dwarfs among the dirty horde who lounged on the walks or loitered in the streets. A striking peculiarity of the tenements was in the size but few of them exoeeding two stories in height. There were no half-dozen flights of crazy stairs to climb or fall down. No fourth, fifth, or sixth story window to topple out of and injure the pavement. The houses were of brick, defaced by age and dirt, and the first floors to all of them were either on a level with the street, or a foot or so below it. There were an abundance of courts and alleys adjoining, and in them the pedestrian found much difficulty in making his way. Some of the alleys were so nar row that four people could not walk through them abreast, and when their smallness was considered, it was really wonderful the amount of stench they contained. I found boys and girls here in the full enjoyment of happiness, nnd acting dreadfully natural. It brought the tears to my. eyes to see seventy-five of them helping to raise a kite to the un bounded exasperation of the boy who had hold of the string, and when a half dozen of them came rushing by me with a dead cat attached to a cord, I felt too full to breathe. And I took every care not to breathe until they got by. Petticoat Lane is the home of the costermongers whom we meet in the more respectable thoroughfares at all hours of the day and night. But it is of a Sunday that Petticoat Lano shines forth in its happiest light. At the hour of noon on that day it is the busiest. All the shops are the busiest ; the costermongers fill the road ways ; and those who feel that they ha70 received a call to go into business, un- aocompanied by sufficient cash to rent a store or buy a cart, plank down their stock on the narrow strip of pavement which forms the sidewalk, and sing out the attractions and advantages of their goods at a lively rate. Tho people in their holiday attire, consisting princi pally of a breastpin, flock about and among the venders, bickering about the prices, chaffing each other, and getting in everybody's way. 1 don't under stand, really, why this neighborhood, so abounding in elements of vice and contention, is yet so free from distur bances. In my three hours among its lanes and courts I saw neither a row nor a policeman. Of course, at home, I should not expect to see both of them at once. Perhaps it is beoause the po lice here are so efficient that their sim ple reputation is enough without their presence to keep down the turbulent mass. And the simple secret of their suocess is that they have the full respect and sympathy of all respectable people, and . thus backed up, are almost omnipotent in maintaining order. A Startling Crime. The crime perpetrated near Henry villo, Ind., says the New York World, was one of the most horrible that a set of blood-thirsty criminals could con ceive. The victim, August Gardner, appears to have been a perfectly peace able man. In very straitened circum stances, with only $5 in his pocket, he was, according to his statement made just before dying, walking to Louis ville, where he hoped to get employ ment. The three wretches who over took him, after robbing him of the lit tle money he had, tied him to the rail road track to be run over and killed by the cars. Was not the man drunk and asleep on the track ? and did he not invent the horrible story to excuse his own fault and create sympathy ? are questions which at once suggest them selves, and they were the first ones put to the dying man by the physician who went to attend him. But on inspecting the track at the spot where the man said he was laid, the ropes were found still tied fast to the cattle-guards, the ends that were fastened around the rail having been cut off by the wheels as they passed over. The crime was per petrated in the middle of the dark, rainy night, and the victim lay bound to the rail for half an hour, struggling and shouting for help before he "heard the cars whistle." Then he lay still and " shut his eyes." His left leg was cut off, the train passing over the rest of his body without crushing it. When a crime so hideous as this is committed it seems as if the populace should not wait for the regular authorities to hunt down the perpetrators. Every man in the country should come to the help of the officers of the law, A Chicago gentleman has sued the Times of that city for $100,000 damage to his character. The Timet asks him to knock off the cyphers, take a dollar, and call it square. L.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers