: 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.