: v HENRY A. PARSONS, Jr., Editor and Publisher. NIL DESPERANDUM. Two Dollars per Annum. VOL. V. MDGWAY, ELK COUNTY, TA., THURSDAY, MARCH 25, 1875. NO. The Return Home. Von won't be hard on her, father ? It is Jeanuie, our eldcHt born Jeannle, the little girl-baby God gave us one Christmas mora. She has given ub many a heart-ache i And, oh ! 'twas a bitter day When we hunted all over for Jeanuie, And found she had run away. You cursed her that morning, father : And bitterly then you swore That the home that she left behind her Should never receive her more j But I know that you couldn't have meant It, Aud you won't remombor it when, Sick and broken and hungry, Our Jeannie comes home again. Tou won't be hard on her, father? It was years aud years ago, And I think you have fretted for Jeanuie More than even you know. She is looking so pale aud Bickly, And see how thin she is dressed : Look at the poor little baby That is lying on Jeannie's breast. You are forehanded, father, And thcBO are our flesh and blood, And yet they ere cold aud hungry, Htarving, perhaps, for food. You know we pray of a Sunday, Aud every day that we live, To bo for our sins forgiven Eu as we forgive. Beth was a shiftless fellow, Rut he waau't bad, you know s And Jonuie was young aud reckless And then she loved him so ! Our girl bad a good many chances To marry a likelier man, But after a thing is done, you see, We should do the best we can. Jia is only poor aud ihiftless, Or he wouldn't come back again. I'orhaps if he had a chance, father, To take his place among meu If we could do something for him, Give him a lift, you know, Get him somehow to work again Terhaps he might make it go. Wo'll take them back to the homestead It has been such a lonely place : Just think how the dear old kitchen Will welcome Jeannie's face ! Jeannle will help get supper You know I am getting old And you shall sit in your arm-chair, With Joannie'B baby to hold. REDEEMED. The fact is, we were both too young io marry. She was eighteen, I was barely in my majority; but she was a poor desolate little orphan sent out into the cold world to do the beat she could for herself as a governess; I was madly iu love with her, aud I was my own master; we had no wiser heads to advise us and no more experienced hands to guide us so we took our own way, as was but natural, and married on my clerkship of three hundred a year. I need scarcely say we were happy. For the first two years indeed it seemed to me as if I had never really lived until now. Our pretty little home at Kilburn was bright and cheerful. Edith was always affectionate, and alwuys good tempered, and like Annabel Leo seemed to live " with no other thought than to love and be loved by me." My work sat on me easily; aud being youug peo ple of moderate tastes, wo had money enough for all we wunted. There was not a flaw anywhere, and the days were scarcely long enough for the joy that tilled them with sunshine from beginning to end. All this continued for two years, aud then my wife became a mother. This was the first break in our manner of life, the first shadow east over the brightness of our happy love. It changed the whole order of things, and the chango told heavily against me. Edith was no longer my coinpauiou as sho had been. The baby was delicate, and her health also gave way. She was obliged to go to her own room quite early in the evening, sometimes Ht seven o'clock or so, and even when she was well sho was up iu the morning with the child, and the evenings hung on me heavy and long. I was no student in those days. Ijva? social, and if not in ordinotely yet undoubtedly fond of atuusomont; hence, sitting alone for all these hours after my solitary dinner for Edith dined early by the doctor's orders was dreary work for me, and I grew daily more fretted by the dullness of my once sunshiny home. I tell the story just as it was; not to excuse myself, but to explain. Also. too. the desire for more experi ence natural to my age began to makem. itself felt, aud more than onee 1 found myself confessing " Wo married too young." Yet I did not wish for dissipa tion ; I was not conscious of a reserve of wild oats that I was longing to sow, but I did want a little change from the dead monotony of my spoiled home. I was yearning for the society of men of my own age and standing, and naturally the boy, though I loved him well enough for all that I thought hiin the ugliest and oddest little imp I had ever seen was not to me what he was to his mother. To her indeed he was everything. The mother had superseded the wife, and the husband was nowhere in comparison with the child. Edith was engry too that I did not, as she phrased it, " take to him more," and I was angry that she took to him so much. May be that I was jealous. On looking back I should say I was. Just when Bertie was three months old a fellow in our office introduced me to Jack Laughorne. Handsome, well mannered, rich, gay, good tempered, generous, Jack was just the man to fas cinate a comparatively raw lad, as I still was. He knew everything, being one of the kind who start at seventeen as men, . and "see life" systematically from that time. Thare was not an accomplish ment in which he was not a proficient ; not a game he could not play, giving long odds aud winning. He was lavish of his money, aud a gambler by inbred instinct, He was always staking his fate on chance, and hitherto chance had been his friend. He used often to say that he had been too lucky, and that he should have to pay for it before he hod done. Nevertheless the day of payment gave bo Riga of dawning, and J auk want on staking and landing, backing the right color and the winning horse as if he hnd a private Nostrodamus at his elbow, and could read the future as other men could read the past. I dare say many of my readers will laugh at me for the confession, but Iliad never seen a race until Jack Langhorne took me down to the Derby on his drag. It was a day both of great enjoyment and great excitement to me, for under his auspices I netted fifty pounds, and I folt a millionaire. I was wild with plea sure : perhaps, too, the champagne counted for something in my hilarity, as I took home to Edith a sixth of my yearly income, made in fewer hours thon it took me to earn my paltry diurnal guinea. Visions of fortune, golden and bright, passed before my eyes, and al ready I saw Edith queening it in the park with her high-stopping bays and faultless turn-out. She should have everything money could command. Whatever else my visions showed me sho was always foremost iu my thoughts and highest m my hopes. But when I gave her the money she turned from me coldly, and a minute after had buried her face in the pillow of the sofa where sho was lying and was sobbing. I was a good deal surprised, a little shocked, and greatly hurt I had better use the harsher word and say vex ed at this outburst. I did not see the good of it, and I did not understand it. Besides, it chills a man so painfully to be received with coldness and tears after such a day as I had spent ! It makes the contrast between bfo inside and outside the home too sharp, and only sends him further off instead of drawing him near er. However, tears were too scarce yet for mo to disregard or withstand them, so I kissed my wife and did my best to soothe her, aud by degrees brought her round sd fur that she left off crying and began to kiss the bnby, as if it was some thing quite new aud sho had never kiss ed it before. Though I was sorry to see her cry this vexed me again. She had not seen me all the day, and she had had the boy. I thought she might have paid a little at tention to the one who hud been absent, to put it on no other ground. But when I remonstrated she only an swered : "I know, George, you do not care for baby. You never have cared for him, and if it were not for me he might die of neglect." I began to laugh at this. It struck mo as too corniced that a wife should re proach her husband for not taking care of the baby; for surely if there is such a thing as " woman's work" in the world, they are not meant by nature and the eternal fitness of things to be soldiers and sailors and lawyers and doctors and the Lord knows what besides, that work is to be found in the home and the nursery. But she was angry when I laughed, and raising herself on her elbow drew a picturo of the infamy, ruin, de gradation that was to follow on my tak ing to bad courses, founded on my not caring for baby and my having won fifty Sounds at the Derby, that I seemed to e listening to a maniac, not the Edith I had left in the morning and had loved for so long. Perhaps I was too im patient, and ought to have remembered that if I found my life dull hers was not too gay; I ought to have made allowance for the morbid nervousness and brood ing fancies of a woman loft alone for the whole day; but I was younger then than I am now, and the thing ended by our having our first grave quarrel, wherein we were both silly, both unjust, and neither of us would give way. The bad blood made between us to night grew worse as time went on, nnd the circle we were in was a vicious one I kept away more and more from home, because my wife made it too miserable for me by her coldness, her tears, her complaints, her ill-humor; and the more I kept away the more she resented it. She took an almost insane hatred and suspicion of my friends aud my actions, and did not scruple to accuse me and them of vices and crimes because I was often late, from no worse cause than playing pool and billiards. Her reproach es first wearied and then hardened me; aud by degrees a kind of fierce feeling took possession of me akiudof revenge ful determination that I would be what she imagined me to be, and give her canse to denounce me as she did. Harmless amusement became amuse ment not so harmless, petty little stakes of half-a-crown and a shilling grew to gold; the glass of beer became the glass of brandy and more than one; and the facilis dcxoaiHUH had one more selt- directed victim on its slippery way. Work was intolerable to me. What I did I did badly, and I shirked all I could. I was often late, I as often left too eiuly; and my employers were really good and lenient. As it was, however, I wearied out their patience, and they re monstrated with me firmly but kindly. This sobered me tor a moment; but 1 had gone too fur to retreat; until I came out at the other side I must go on. The fortune winch had so long be friended Ja k Langhorne deserted him now, ana with his fortune nis nerve. Where he had staked with judgment he now backed wildly, recklessly, and the more he lost the more recklessly he staked. His fortune seemed to influence mine. Hitherto I had been immensely successful ; now the luck ran dead against me, and I lost more than I could afford, and soon more than I could pay, and so came face to face with ruin. During all this time the estrangement between Edith and myself grew doily wider. She took the wrong method with me, and being a woman she kept to it. She thought to dragoon me bock to the quiet of my former life, and made my private actions personal to herself; seek ing to force me into rendering an account of all my doings, and of every item of expenditure, then taking it as an affront when I refused to answer questions. But now there was no hope for it. I must perforce confess. With that writ out against me it was useless to attempt concealment, and if marriage is not femi nine superiority, yet it is partnership. You may be sure it was a bitter mo ment for me when I had to tell my wife that all her worst anticipations were realized ; that she had been right throughout, and I wrong ; and that the destruction she had prophesied had overtaken us. In her temper of bo many months now, it was doubly hard. But it seems that I knew as little of women as she of men, and had miscalcu lated the depth of her goodness under neath all her wrong-headednoss, just as she hnd miscalculated my power of will and truth of love when airly pulled up. She hoard me out to the end without making a sign. There was no interrup tion, no angry expression, no scornful look. I saw the hand with which she hold the child tighten round his body ; the one playing with his curls tremble. But that was all. When I had finished she looked up, and said.quietly: ' It is better to know the worst, George, for then we can meet it. Now that I know the worst I know what to do." " And you do not reproach me, Edith '" I asked. She rose from her seat and came over to me. Her eyes were full of tears, her lips were quivering, and yet there was more love, nioro softness in her face through its sorrow than there had been for all these long bad dreary months, passing now into years. She slid the boy from her arms and pressed them round my neck. " Why should I reproach you ?" sho said. " Is not your burden heavy enough without that? While I thought I could help to keep you straight I tried if clumsily ana to no good, yet loyally. Now I know that all is over I have only to try and help you, both by my work and my love." Sometlung seemed to choke mo while she spoke. I could have been hard enough, if she had been angry, but this sudden return to the old love this un expected magnanimity was too much for me. Still, I am thankful to say I did not break down. I was man enough for that ! " Will you trust me, Edith ?" said I, in a tone so rough and husky I scarcely recognized it as my own. " Love me as you used, be to me what you were, and I swear you shall never have cause to repronch me again. I am young, I can work, I can be resolute. I have bought my experience of life, and I find the taste too bitter in my mouth. A man may be a man, aud yet not be ashamed to think of his wifo as well as of his pleasures, and I will think of you now." She sighed and then she smiled. " l'ou come back to what you left," she said, in a tender, caressing kind of way that seemed as if it buried now forever all that had gone wrong between us. Of course the struggle was a tremen dous one. I lost my clerkship and every sixpence I possessed, both in goods and money. My wife had to give lessons and I had to accept anything that would keep us from starvation; but wo pulled through in time, and the suffering we had to encounter was perhaps a good thing in the end. It taught us to value each other iu a deeper and truer manner than ever before; and it gave us a friend. For dear old Jack's luck turned with his uncle's death, and he used bis influ ence to get me a situation that began at five hundred a year, aud has steps up in the future. "Things have gone well with me since then. Edith's health has come back, and my boy is at the head of his class. I have traveled a good deal, and lately I have taken up chemistry as a study. Edith declares I will blow the houso up some day, but I have not done so yet, and I think I am on the track of a discovery that will do a great deal of good make me a nnme, and bring in a lot of money. I find that as one grows older work is a more satisfying thing tliau pleasure, and knowledge goes fur ther than excitement ; and Edith fiuds that a wife's influence is greatest when least visibly exerted, and that when a woman abandons the persuasion of love for authoritative command and tender ness for ill temper, she loses her power and only deepens the unhappiuess she aims at preventing. Oil a Foul's Errand. The sad fite of certain Nevada miners who neglected their honest labors in a paying silver mine to go in search of mythical money, furnishes an admirable example of the foolishness of listening to tales of "treasure-trove." Certain of them being recently engaged in a quar rel, ono of the number was so grievously wounded, that he was constrained to die with his boots on ; but, before drawing his last breath, ho told them a wonderful story. Once upon a time, he said, he had committed a robbery, and had buried the money an immense sum iu gold in a wild corner of a remote valley, which few even of the prowling miners had ever visited. He accurately de scribed the place ; and the miners were iu such haste to go iu search of it that they did not wait to bury the unfortu nate man who liad told thorn the secret. They left their mining claim and wan dered into the valley, many days' jour ney, to the spot where the supposed treasure lay. Before they reached it, however, they were shut up in a blinding snow storm, and it was not until after twenty days of terrible suffering and privation aud the death of a member of the party that the rest succeeded in re turning to their claim, to find it oc cupied by strangers, and to learn from persons who had recognized the dead man that he had never been in the valley mentioned, had never committed a rob bery, and had simply, with his hist breath, avenged himself on his fellows for playfully killing him, by sending them on a fool's errand. He Has Read the Tapers. The other evening when a father boxed his son s ears as a punishment for uu pudence, the lad stood before him and remarked: See here, father, I was reading this morning that the drum of the ear is one of the most sensitive tilings in the human system. A sudden blow upon the ear is liable to produce deafness, and the practice of cutting chil dren cannot be too severely censured. It is but a relic of that dark period when a man with a wart on his nose was put to doatn as a sorcerer. Who Pays. As there are a vast amount of corre spondents about now a-days, a New York paper says, and Mr. Beecher and his affairs are pretty thoroughly sifted, it may be well to satisfy publio opinion on two points: 1. Mr. Beecher pays his own trial ex penses out of his own pocket. 2. He has had to mortgage everything he has in the world to enable him to do so. THE ECLIPSE OF THE SU Observnlious to be Mnde The Inforntnllon to be (Jalnetl. The observations affordod by such an opportunity as will be had on the 5th of next April for noting a total eclipse of the sun, if successfully made, may mark an important era in all future solar and stellar physics. The practical benefits from eclipse observations have long been known and unconsciously realized by the world. They serve to increase the per fection of our lunar and solar tables, so necessary to the science of navigation. They have furnished the data for deter mining geographical longitudes and the relative situations of different part) of the globe. The accuracy with which they have been predicted demonstrates to the populur mind, by the most palpa ble evidence, that there is something iu the occult science of astronomy which can be brought home to the most rigid utilitarian. But tho most important scientific end nimed at, and now hoped for. from eclipse observations, is the auidysis of the sun and the discovery of the wonderful constitution of its fiery mass. The study or investigation of solar chemistry is, in itself, one of the most interesting of all physical inquiries, and has become doubly so since the spectroscope has enabled us to tost the materials in tho solar atmosphere almost as accurately as if a specimen of the sun's mass could be obtained and subjected to a chemist's laboratory tests. The mind is awed by the mysterious affinity now known to exist bet ween tho earth and the far off planetary bodies. It is a discov ery which stamps the whole planetary and stellar world as of one kindred in creation, and as coming from one crea tive hand. There may be many varie ties, but a substantial unity of constitu tion, and this is made more palpable to the eye when the solar spectra reveal the presence of metals, such as zinc and iron, which we daily handle, existing iu an orb more than ninety millions of miles away from us. Imagine our own planet on fire, its entire surface glowing as the fiery furnace, its coal beds sending forth their stored-up energy in flames higher than the summits of Chimborazo, and even the rock and metallic ores vola tilized by the inconceivable heat, and we have some faint image of what the sun is and would appear to us could we ap proach it. As knowledge and reflection go on the mystery of the sun's heat, never abating in tho long lapse of ages, becomes grow ingly darker. A few years ago the great scientist Muyer undertook to show that the sustained solar heat was due to masses of meteoric bodies falling into and supplying fuol to its fires. But Sir William Thomson exploded that idea so completely (by showing that, under such a hypothesis, the sun's mass would in two tliouinJ Tonni he so IncreuM tii as to sensibly affect the earth's revolution and change the length of the yean) that it has been abandoned. Tho sumo fate has overtaken many other solar hypotheses, which, for a time, carried all tho scien tific world after them, and the mysteries of tho past, slightly modified by frag mentary discoveries, still rise up un solved before the most profound re searches of the age. The present attempt to photograph tho eclipsed sun is to be directed mainly to the corona, or exterior envelope of glow ing vapor, which has been called the solar atmosphere. The expeditionary parties will be well prepared for their work and enter on tho field with the best instrumental advantages ever possessed by any eclipse expedition. The most courteous hospitality has been offered them by the King of Siam, through whoso dominions the moon's shadow will make its transit, and where alone, with tho exception of a few insular stations in the Indian ocean, the eclipse will be visible on land. To tho other instru mental appliances for such observations, which have been accumulating many years, tho astronomers, now cn route for Siam, will add the siderostat, which gives immense effectiveness to their ap paratus aud puts them on a vantage ground never before occupied by eclipso observers. The Transfusion of Blood. The subject of the transfusion of blood from one person to another is attracting much attention among medical men, and many experiments are being made. At the Buffalo medical college an experi ment was tried, the details of which have been published. The subjects, upou which the operation was perioruied were two dogs, one a good sized mongrel and tho other a smaller animal, having some thing of the coach dog in his composi tion. The small dog was bled antil he to all appearances was dead. He was then supplied with blood from the large dog, the blood flowing for three min utes, when the animal gave sigus of life. Both animals were under the effeots of ether, and both recovered, having ap parently suffered no pain, and the ex periment having ueon declared most successful. The professor having the experiment in charge concluded his illustration by instructing the students that before try ing the experiment upon human beings they should repeat it two or three times on animals. Changing tho Government. The natives of Strong's Island, in the Pacific ocean, not long ago got tired of their king and queen, on account of their personal vices and general bad character, and they niado up their minds to depose them. So they gathered in the church to the number of about a hundred men, and, after opening the meeting by prayer and singing " There is rest for the weary," one of the chiefs broached the topio, and suggested an other chief for a new king, Each of the chiefs spoke in order, followed by a num ber of the common people. The chief who first spoke (Kanku) was the choice of a good many, but they yielded their preference, and went for his candidate (Sigera). The old king was deposed, and Sigera elected by a unanimous show of hands. The old king had got wind of what was going on, and had packed up his things ready to leave his palace. The new king went in without delay, had family worship in the evening, and all was quiet and orderly. The old king also had worship at his new residence, himself leading the devotions, and so ndsd a bloodies revolution. OLD TIME SPELLING MATCH. TwcnIT-ii CnniHrintr In I.lncFnllnre of Twenty-are to take the I'rl7.r Antoiiinh In Amendments to Webster. On Staten Island an old-fashioned spelling match was held, and it is thus described : The room was crowded, and every face ms expectant with the expression of hopo of being called, if only for the pleasure of having a chance to refuse, and this interest did not cease until name after name had been called, and eleven gentlemen were ranged in each opposing armv. Then Mr. Eadie led a lady to liis si(fe, and while Mr. Sexton looked on in dismay, Mr. Herman Brown of Wall street, one of Mr. Sexton's men, balanced the honors by securing nnothor lady and leading her to his seat. Two more were afterward induced to compete, and then the t wenty-six sjiellers were ready for work. "Embarrassment " was the first word given out by Pioneer Sprague. "E-m-b-a double r-a-double s-m-e-n-t," quickly reptiod Mr. Sexton. " Intelligible, said the pioneer. " I-n-iu-t-e-l-tel-iutel-i-i-li-intt!lli-g-i-gi-intelligib-l-eble in telligible," responded Mr. Eadie, amid the applause of the house. So things rau smoothly on until one of Mr. Eadie's men tried to make " t-y-r-a-n-i-c-l-e " spell "tyrannical," aud Mr. Sprnguo invited him to step down and out. " A-q-u-e-s " for "o-q u-e-o-u-s" cost Mr. Sexton's army a man, and " e-x-h-i-l-l-i-r-a-t-e " carried off another. " D-i-s-c-e-r-n-a-b-l-e " and "i-r-r-e-p-r-o-b-l-e " paired with each other, one slaying a soldier of Eadie's, and the other knocking down and out a very disgusted man who had been spelling with more confidence than correctness. Then camo a word over which the de bate ran high and warm. ' A-p-o-s-t-a-c-y ' ' was the way an Eadie man spelled it, and when the pioneer announced that it was wrong, there was rebellion everywhere in the air. There were many speakers to uphold the unfortunate speller, and the poor pedagogue who had ruled other wise was iu a hopeless minority until a Webster's Unabridged proved that he was right. Thon Mr. Brown, of Wall street, rallied around him with an "I told yon so." Oscillate was the next word that brought death in the camps, and it killed the man dead who tried hard to spell it with ono 1, aud indirectly deprived Mr. Eadio'of one of his ladies, who took it for a model fortho word " ossify," which she ai'gumentatively dissected into "o-s-c-i-f-y." When the truth was forced upon the hons(that her logic was bad, and that her effort would not satisfy the demands of orthography, there was a look of stunned dismay on the JVCte of more if.j uu .t u.- .-niHouce QU(i it was easy to read in their ej.o, wi,,, js our language coming to, if such gigantic reasoning won't master it ?" In the moment of confusion Mr. Sex ton missed an cosy word, and as he step ped down and out, resigned tho leader ship of his band to a pale-faced man, who tried to palm off " i-d-i-o-s-y-n-c-r-a-c-y " as all right, and who was com pelled m consequence to yield his place to a young lady who wore a pink rose at her nock. " C-i-s-ni-a-t-i-c and "a-s-c-a s-s-i-n-a-t-e " were the nets which entangled two phonetic spellers, and one too many l's carried off auother of Mr. Sexton's party. " A-l-l-e-d-g-e," called out ono gentle man in response to the pioneer's call, and he was asked to step down. He de murred, and friends rallied around him, but still the pioneer would not succumb until a reference to the dictionary showed an old but satisfactory authority for the gentleman's method. Then some misera ble boys in the gallery, failing to sympa thize "with their discomfited teacher, started a shrill, exasperating hiss, which made the pedagogue's face for the mo ment brighter than his hair. "I have a personal statement," said he, savagely, "to make to those boys who hissed," and he looked very much 3 though he would settle the account with the ferule at the very earliest school session. " JJiat way oi spelling allege, he continued, " is more than fifty years old, but is admissible. At this stage tho losses on both sides were equal, but there were only ten left of the original twenty-six. " C-o-n-d-e-n-s-c-e-n-s-i-o-n" and "p e-r-s-p-i-c-a-c-o-u-s " made the opposiug parties four to four, and "p-l-e-b-i-a-n "and "s-i-b-i-1" left them three to three, besides depriv ing each of its leader. " I-c-t-h-y-o-l-o-g-y," slowly spelled Mr. Brown, and when he was warned that he ehould have used another h, he cried out: " I meant to put it in, indeed I did." But his plea availed him noth ing, and he looked sadly at his diminish ed colleacrues as he moved away, and then glanced at liis opponents across the room, who just then lost a man on " m-i-cr-a-o-n-e-t-t-e." Mr. Cary and Mrs. Ford then were left to contest the victory with .Messrs, Simonton and Bend. The lady had spelled promptly and well, but " m-i-1 1-e-n-i-a-l " it was that beat her, and " h-e-m-o-r-a-c-e " carried off Mr. Bend. Mr. Simonton spoiled diphtheria " d-i-p-t-h-e-r-i-a," and was upheld by the pioneer, but coniessetuy iaueu on " innuendo," from which he omitted an n, leaving Mr. Cary, a lawyer of 69 Wall street, sole survivor and, therefore, win ner of the prize offered, which consisted of a set of Macaulay's History of Eng land or a Webster's Unabridged, at the option of the victor. Domestic Servants. A correspondent of the London Court Circular tells the following as illustrating the attitude of domestic servants in England. He says: A lady having twelve servants in her house gave a small article of dress, known among the initiated as a chemizette, and composed of muslin and lace, to her lady's moid to wash: the ladv's maid passed it on to the laundry maid on the plea that the article was muslin, and belonged to her depart ment. The laundry maid declined to do it because it was lace, and, as such, must be " got up by the lady's maid. A neither would do it, the mistress ordered the necessary appliances to be got ready, and herself descended to the laundry and washed the article. Ohio has ten Springflelda. The Amateur Fire Brigade. Mr. Bolink owns and runs a cooper Bhop in Detroit, and as he keeps a dozen men at work ho is bound to have his shop run on "system." The other day ho was reading a newspaper article in re gard to the prevention of conflagrations. The article advised all employers to lay out a regular programmo as to what should be done when a fire was discover ed in the shop, and drill his hands until they understood it. He bpught fifty feet of hose for the penstock, detailed a man to use it in case of fire, and then instructed each other man and boy just what they should do when an alarm was given. One was to roll out barrels, an other to save tools, another to throw staves through a window, and each one knew exactly what to jump for. This was all right, aud Mr. Bolink had a good mind to cancel his insurance Eolicies aud depend on his local fire rigade. Before taking this step, how ever, it occurred to him to give his pro gramme a triid. Ho had a little curiosity to see if his employees would spring to their posts according to instructions, nnd ho studied out a plan. Ono morning he passed up stairs, kicked a pile of shavings together on an old piece of zinc, touched a match to them, and the next minute ran down stairs crying out: "The shop is on fire I Fire! fire!" Tho man who was to use tho hoso grabbed it up, threw it out of the win dow, and jumped after it, shouting "fire !" until he was heard three .blocks off. Tho man who was to save tho tools threw an adz nnd hit Mr. Bolink in tho back, and then hit him again with a draw-shave. As Mr. Bolink was pawing around on tho floor the man who was to save tho ready-made work rolled five pork barrels over him, kicked in the heads of three more, and then dug out through the back door. One man saved a piece of board six feet long; another took up a stave and broke two windows before ho fled, while a tliird throw a hammer at the clock, uttered a wild shriek, and kicked i open the side door. In two minutes the shop was clear of every one but Mr. Bolink, and he was crawling out from among the barrels when Bteamer No. 6 camo galloping down. The smoke was rolling up through the roof, the boys yelling "tiro !" and the firemen were determined to save that coopershop or perish in tho ottompt. Mr. Bolink heard them calling to "git them hose around hyar," and to "play her up to eighty-five," and he got to tho door and shouted: " Hold on, gentleman, there is no fire here !" " Git out'n the way I" cried tho pipe man; "yere's yer mineral water!" " It's only a joke, gentlemen; there is no "- Mr. Bolink was shouting, when the Stream of water lifted Mm over the barrels out of the back door, where he Ks'feT.peSflnote Ste8fl-ta 'witil water, and the shavings had burned out. During the afternoon tho next day his whole force were engaged in emptying barrels, wringing out draw-shaves, hanging broadaxes up to dry, and other wise getting tho shop on a working basis. Finishing up the Tunnel, The clearing of the central shaft of the Hoosoc Tunnel was brought to a successful issue. The work has been uuder the charge of Mr. Bond, a bright oung fellow of say twenty-three years, sou of Austin Bond of North Adams. The shaft, it will bo remembered, is 1,000 feet deep, and, in excavating it, floors were put iu once in eighteen feet ; and these floors, with their heavy sup porting timbers, have now been taken out, one by one, from the bottom up. To enable the miners to cut away these timbers a movable platform was constructed, to fill the shall, being sus pended from the top by a wire rope cable and secured by several independ ent fasteniugs, each capable of support ing the platform. In place of the cage was introduced one of the old buckets) used in digging the shaft to bring up the stone, to remove the dt'br'm and dis lodged rock. And so, carefully, a step of eighteen feet at a time, have the slip pery, treacherous timbers been lilted out ; together with ono hundred and twelve yards of loose stone, near the top of the shaft, some of these last hang ing pieces weighing live or six tons, and all without any blasting. Brick work was put iu to secure a soft vein of rock near the top, the platform was lifted out and the shaft was one clear, deep hole, without timber or rock that can ever fall into the tunnel. All Full or Poison. In a lecture delivered in Baltimore, a well-known professor of chemistry told his audience of the dangerous character of tho nostrums so widely advertised as toilet articles. A lady of fashion of the present day, he said, considers her toilet table incomplete witnout nair tonics, iiair washers and restoratives, depillatories, enamels, Balves and powders. By means of a peculiar arrangement of the ordinary microscope, the root of the hair and a section of the human skin, showing the roots of the hair, sweat-glands, ducts, etc, weie thrown upon a screen, aud their construction and functions ex plained. A number of the so-called "hair tonics," ."washes" and "re storers" were taken and their composi tion shown to the audience by chemical tests, several bottles of metallic lead be ing taken from one of the so-called "hair restorers." In every case, aud among the most extensively used articles, large quantities of lead were used. The professor explained the danger in using these articles, and more than one lady present promised herself that she would use them no more. Spabe Beds. Here is a hint fjr housekeepers, and a very important one. Merely covering up a bed with blankets and counterpanes will no more keep it dry than a pane of glass will keep out light. The atmospheric moisture will penetrato all woven fabrics. Hence, the importance of keeping the bods in spare rooms regularly aired. Many a dear mend or welcome visitor lias been sent to an untimely grave or afflicted with disease by being put into a bed which had been permitted to stand un occupied. Keep the spare beds, when not in use, free from all covering but a light spread. Items of Interest. The tenor and soprano in a South End choir are to be married soon. They met by chants, the usual way. In Contra Costa county, California, the squirrels destroy a million dollars' worth of property every year. A man of large experience said his ac quaintance would fill a cathedral, but a pulpit would hold all his friends. The spelling schools that aro spread ing all over Ohio are said to have demon strated the fact that a woman can spell four times better than a man. The Mount Cenis tunnel co:;t about $975 a yard, and at tho same rate tho proposed tunnel under the English chan nel would cost about $80,035,000. Mrs. Walworth is working in right good earnest at Washington for signa tures that will influence Gov. Tildon, of New York, to pardon her poor Frank. Tho Mayor of New Orleans has adver tised for proposals for planting around that city a great number of the F,uca liptt(8 globulus, or Australian fever tree. In a jubilee iu 1775, two boys who ac companied the cross as acolytes quarreled and fought ono another with tho golden candlesticks. One of them became l'ope Leo XII., the other Pius VIII. Joshua Bailey, of Cohoes Falls, N. Y., promised the bulk of his fortune to whichever of his nephews raised tho largest family of boys. W. W. Bailey, of Waverley, Iowa, raised five boys, nnd got 2,000,000 at the death of his uncle. Alexander Dumas, it is said, never sketches a scheme for any of his pieces. He takes for a four-act piece seventy seven big sheets of blue paper. Ho de votes twenty pages each to the first, second and third acts, and seventeen to the last. The contractors who have undertaken to furnish 240,000 headstones for tho national cemeteries cut the names iu their works at Rutland, Vt., by menus of the sand blast. This cuts a name in four minutes, and thev complete five hundred stones daily. An outbreak occurred among the Chinese prisoners in the criminal jail in Singapore, in which Superintendent Digby Dent was mortally wounded. Six teen warders were also wounded. Fif teen prisoners were killed and thirty five wounded in the repression of tho outbreak. The following notice is conspicuously posted in a small hotel at a country town in Kansas: "At a proper hour at night the. houso will be closed for retirement, by which time each boarder is expected to be in his room by that time as near as rjracticable." To a pastor who had been condoling with a female parishioner in poor health, the good woman made reply: "Ah, yes, Mr. Cribbs, I've had the cholery womau wfli sle'lf iPM? Jfl.tS. 2 hovcrin' around her." We learn from the New York Timm that " Michael Sandford, the receiver of tho suspended Union Bank, iu Jersey City, has announced that he is now pre pared to pay fifty cents on the dollar to all editors who are not themselves debt ors of the institution." Mr. Sandford will find our card inclosed. Phenia Epps, of Hamilton, Ohio, asked her mother to take a note for her to a friend of the family living in a near street. The note when opened was found to read: " This is a little ruse of mine to get mother out of the house. Before she can get back I will be on tho cars with dear Lorenzo, and before night will be married." Cremation appears to have been prac ticed in this country in ages anterior to its occupancy by our present race. In tho reerion of North Carolina the cus tom was to cover the body with clny and build a fire upon it, which not only consumed the body, but converted the clay into a hardened mass or sar cophagus. A clergyman in Fond du Lac, W is. , publicly prayed: "Oh, Lord, Thou knowest that my hated wifo is ono great obstacle in the way of a revival in my church. Wilt Thou, in Thy goodnesc, remove her '." The next day tho wife re moved herself to her father s house, and row tho petitioner is likely to be re moved by his congregation. A cannibal has been arrested iu Hnyti with his dinner in a basket. A black man was brought into Jacmel the other day from the interior to answer a charge of cannibalism. Unfortunately for tho accused, when taken into custody he had iu a basket the head of a victim, who seemed to have been only recently killed. He was sentenced to be executed. According to tho last census in Eng land and Wales the females of the popu lation outnumbered the males by upward of half a million; but above tho age of twenty five the males exceeded tho females in number. While there are 400,000 widowers, there were 873,000 widows. Above the age of ninety, females numbered two to every male. A benevolent erentlemon from a West ern State applied to a gentleman for aid in sending a missionary to iurKey. Tho reply was as follows : "I have in vested much in Minnesota securities, and lost many thousands by the acts of your railroad men, sustained by the peo ple and the courts. I have also lived in Turkey, and had much intercourse with her people. I would far rather give my money to send Turks as missionaries to Minnesota. The late Hon. Sam Galloway, of Col umbus, Ohio, was a remarkably homely man. On one occasion, while dining with a personal and political friend in Chillicothe, the six or seven-year-old daughter of his host, who had been in tently studying Galloway's face, eoid, loud enough to be heard by all at table : " Ma, didn't that. man's mamma love cliildren mighty we'll V " Why so, my dear '" asked her mother. "Oh, just 'cause she raised him." A New Haven clergyman lately re ceived a present of a horse from a friend in New York, the donor saying the ani mal was too slow for his use aud would, he thought, just suit his clerical friend. The clergyman-drove out one day and was much startled to find the horse an exceptionally fleet one. The New York man explained that he bought the animal for a fast one, but was sick of him when he found h oould only make 2:16.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers