Jcf W
HENRY A. PARSONS, Jr., Editor and Publisher
VOL. V.
NIL DESPERANDUM.
Two Dollars per Annum.
IUDGWAY, ELK COUNTY, PA., THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 1875.
NO. 8.
K
Just ni of Old.
I saw my love in dreams last night
Pass up the Bleeping moon-lit lands,
The love beams in her dear eyes bright,
A rosebud in her loso-leaf bands.
And round me, as I isea er stopped,
I felt her soft arms steal and fold,
Whilo ch'so agaiiiBt my heart she crept.
Just as of lid.
The gay dawn broke, my love was gone,
Tiie gnldon ilioa.n was past and dead;
I got too to Iho churchyard lone
Wherein my lovo lay buried.
I found a hoadstone gray with years,
I bowed me t J the morn mlbts cold,
I wept, and know she Baw my tears,
JuBt as of old.
But ever while I live alone
This comfort comes and soothes my care
W'e two may meet, when all is done,
Far oiT in heaven's gardon fair,
And by the light above, beyond,
Cliastoncd, each other's face behold,
Stainless, more pure, but true and fond,
Just as of old.
FETCHING AND CARRYING.
"You hco," said my great-auut,address-ing
usgivls, " it was well-nigh thirty yews
that I followed sowing for a living. I
could do tailoring nud dressmaking and
mending and quilting, and such, as well
as the best, and so I was sent for far and
near. Now suppose I had allowed myself
to fetch and carry from house to house
whatever I might happen to hear of peo
ple's affairs, like some folks, I should
have got myself into a muss mauy's tho
tune. My mother taught me better.
Now, Sally,' says she, when I first
went out to work, 'be mighty careful
how you carry newslrom house to house,
or tell what you kuow of people's private
matters, even when it doesn't seem as if
it could do tho least mi to of harm. And
she went on to say that some people
never liked to have a tauoress or seam
stress or even a washer-woman around,
because some of them are apt to be full
ot gossip, nud to tetch and carry from
house to house. Even when there isn't
n single thing they are ashamed to have
know, people liko to feel that they can
keep their private business to themselves
So my mother said, and I fouud it to be
exactly so. I thought all the more of it
after mv mother was dead and gone
Most peoplo seemed to liko my way of
keeping myself to myself, and again
there were others who acted as if they
were really provoked because they
wouldn't get any more out of me, and
they pestered me to death, hinting round
to see if by putting that and that to
gether they couldn't make out something
without asking me outright. There
were tho two Snuffer girls, Lyddy Ann
nud Betsy J ane ; they wanted to know every
body's business, and were always trying
to hud out something. And such ridi
culous things! how many table-cloths
the Snowdons used in a week (that was
our minister's family), aud how much
they paid their hired girl a week, and if
she ate at tho table with tho family. If
n straugor enmo to church with any of
the girls, they couidu't listen to the ser
mon until they had fouud out who and
what ho was, and the next day they
made a business of collecting informa
tion about his family, his property, and
all such.
" I always hated to go thereto work
when any of the girls in Shrews
bury or iu the towns round were to be
married. They most generally sent for
me to help a spell, and of course I knew
pretty much their affairs. Hut I wasn't
going to tell what tho wedding-dress was
to be, or just how much it cost a yard,
or whether they bought it iu Boston or
nearer home, nor how many pounds of
cako they wero going to make, aud all
Bueh. Tho girls said it kind of took the
edgo off to tell everything beforehand;
they had rather come out new. Well,
when it camo time for Deacon Goodman's
daughter to be married, there was a
;great stir among the girls. Matildy had
Jived in Boston considerable with her
Undo Joshua, who ws rich and lived in
a great deal of style, aud so tho girls all
expected that her outfit would be some
thing pretty handsome; and so it was.
Why, her wedding dress, with her gloves
nud slippers and little notious, cost well
nigh thirty dollars ! Matildy said her
fcelf that sho thought a part of the money
ought to bo given to tho missionaries,
but thou it was a present from her uncle,
and so there was nothing to be said. I
was going thero to help about some mat
ters, nnd so I happened to say that
there would be a great curiosity among
the young peoplo to know tho partieu
' tars of the wedding.
"' Lawful sakes!' says Mrs. Goodman,
do, dear, tell them all they want to
Sroow;' and Matildy said tho same, for
. she wasn't iu tho least stuck up. They
were only waiting for Spring to get
1 home from Ohio. That was a cousin of
Mutildy's who was going to stand up
with her. Ho was named Aminadab,
sifter his grandfather; but as people that
had known him from a baby would keep
ou calling him Miuny, and the young
men called him Dab, his folks concluded
to call him by his last name Spring. 1
Kaid to Mrs. Goodman that she would
miss Matildy when she came to go away
for good. Oh yes, of course; but she
went on to say that she and the deacon
might go with the young folks to Bos
ton, and that would make it seem not
quite so sudden. Matilda was very
anxious to have them go and stay untd
after Thanksgiving. The deacon in
sisted that his wife should go, but he
said, what with his rheumatism and
some chores he had to do on the farm,
. he thought he had better stay at homo
and see to things. His wife would
hardly agree to this. She said it would
be the first time they had been separated
for thirty years, and, as the deacon said,
the first time they ever had a serious
disagreement; and he laughed as if it
was uncommon good joke.
" Well, as I left the deacon's with
such a budget of news that I was at
liberty to tell, thinks I to myself I shall
be quite a welcome visitor at some
houses I know of. As it happened, I
was going to, work for the Snuffers the
very next day, and so I should have a
chance to make up, in a manner, for be
ing so closed-mouthed, as they called
me, by speaking out for once as free as
other folks.
"I got thero the next morning rather
before they expected me, and as I
stood ready to knock at the aide door I
hftard my name, and waited a moment.
A window was open, and as one of tho
girls was laying tho table in tho kitchen,
and the other out in tho back room iron
ing, they spoke pretty loud to each
other, aud I could hear every word they
said, though they didn't hear mo knock
ond knock. One of them said: Don't
toll me about Sail Barker's prudence,
aud her being so mighty conscientious
and all that. I warrant you she is as
glad to poke that great long nose of hers
into other people's business as anybody,
and it is only because she is so contrary
that she likes to keep things to herself.
She feels so important when she has
some great secret that sho can keep from
everybody else I It is tho way sho
takes to pester folks.' And she went ou
about old maids in a way that was
scandalous. But I am not going to re
peat it. Yon may be sure that I felt
pretty well riled up, and I had half a
mind to go straight home; but I had
sent my goose and lap-board along, for I
had a jacket to press off for Keuben
Snuffer, and so I concluded to put down
tho old Adam, and go right in. I ought
to explain that what set Lyddy Ann out
so fierce was that her mother had been
taking her to do for letting out some
secrets that had made mischief, nnd she
had held me up as a pattern. Evory
bodjknows that nothing makes some
peoplo disliko you more than to have
some other peoplo nlways praising you.
Well, I went iu and sat down to break
fast, and they had a buttermilk cake
that Lyddy had made and baked on a
board beforo the fire on purpose for me,
because sho know' I liked them so much.
There are some folks thnt always like to
have you eat their victuals, eveu if they
hate you. I ate it and praized it, though
I hadn't so much appetite as common,
for I kept thinking about my great long
nose, aud of being called an old maid.
" We sat pretty much without speak
ing for a spell, for tho girls mistrusted
that I overheard them talk; but beforo
long Betsy Jauo gave a little hem to
clear her throat, and observed that they
must bo middling busy down at Deacon
Goodman's if Matildy was to be married
in a week or two. 1 said: 1 Sho isn't
to be married till Spring comes;' and I
was going on to tell tho rest; but they
didu t give me time to finish.
"'Not till spring! What on earth
could that mean I' Now what possessed
mo I couldn't tell. I don't pretend to
say that I did right; but you must re
member that it was only half an hour
since I had heard myself nicknamed and
called an old maid, just because I
wouldn't tell all I knew. ' Well,' says I,
' strange things happen sometimes.
You haven't heard that the deacon and
his wife have had a disagreement, and
are talking of a separation.' Now, mind,
I didn't tell them that I had heard so;
I only said that they hadn't heard it.
Ut course they wero amazed beyond all
account. They couldn't soy much but
'Did I ever!' aud 'If that doesn't beat
all I ever did hear in my born days!'
Their mother wasn't a talking woman,
and she asked me if I didu't think there
must bo some mistake. I said time
would show. But the girls said that
they had noticed for some time how red
Mrs. Goodman's eyes had looked, and
now it was all explained.
" It wasn't long after, as I sat by a
window at work, I spied Lyddy Ann,
with a shawl over her head, slipping
across from their side gate into Miss
Jones's, and iu another half hour I saw
one of the Jones girls, with a shawl and
cape bonnet, going across the road; and
before dinner I counted half a dozen
capo bonnets going hither and yon.
Well, the long and the short of it was,
that by the end of two days thero wasn't
a man or a woman in Shrewsbury that
hadn't heard that Deacon Goodman and
his wife had had a great quarrel, that
Mrs. Goodman had cried her eyes out,
aud that the mutch between Josiah and
Matildy was all broken up.
" Old Deacon Walker was greatly ex
orcised in his mind when he fouud there
was no such thing as putting dowu tho
rumor, for ho was a peaceable man, and
ho and Deacon Goodman had served the
srimo communion-table for many a year
tie couldn t bear to go to ins brother
about such unpleasant business, though
he didn't believe the stories. Alter
making it a subject of prayer, he con
cluded it was better that tha minister
should take it in hand, aud so to the
minister ho went. Parson Suowdon
didu't believe the stories. It wasn't
long since he had called at the deacon's,
and nil was pleasant enough at that
time. Still, ho hated rumors and he
huted misunderstandings, and ho would
go aud put a stup to such goings ou iu
his parish, ho iu the afternoon tho par
son s old yellow chaise went jogging
and teetering along tho road to Deacon
Goodman's house. He hitched Ins
horse, and then rapped at tho frontdoor,
instead of going to the side porch as
usual, and Nancy that was their hired
girl supposing that he must have come
on some solemn business, took him into
tho great solemn parlor, where, I ven
ture to say, not one of the family sat
down six times iu a year. The deacon
was out doing some fall planting. His
wife brought out his other coat aud
helped him spruce up a little, and then
he went, with a little cough aud hem or
two, and feeling very stiff, into the
great stiff room. ' How d'ye do, Parson
Suowdon ? Glad to see you. Aud how
is your wife?' The parson and his wife
were both pretty smart, aud how was the
deacon and bis wite ? Well, both clev
erly, except that the deacon's rheuma
tism held on in spite of his good wife's
great care ot him, and she herself was
troubled with weak eyes. They looked
red and watered all the time, and pained
her considerable. The parson had no
ticed along back that her eyes had look
ed red, and he was afraid that she was
taking on, maybo, about losing Matilda'
so soon. ' Well, no ; it wasn t exactly
that, for Matildy was going to wait a
while till her cousin spring got home,
and then, very likely, his wife would go
to Boston to stay with her while she set
up housekeeping.' And he told the
rest, about her wishing him to go with
her, and about their never having been
separated since they were married, aud
he repeated his little joke about their
never having had a disagreement before.
" The parson's face grew broader and
shorter, and presently, as the full light
broke iu, ho brought down his foot
with a 6tamp. and threw back his head,
and laughed so long and loud that Naucy
declared if Parson Suowdon wasn't a
master-hand to laugh, then sho didn't
know: and Mrs. Goodman ventured to
show herself to ask him not to go homo
without taking along a few notions for
his wife. The chaise box was packed
with fall sweetings, a pair of chickens,
half a peck of doughnuts, and cheese to
go with them; and soon tho parson, in
the best of humors, went teetering
homeward.
"Tho whole matter was soon explain
ed, and the stories tracked to the
Snuffer girls. They were dreadfully
cut up, and laid the whole on my should
ers; but nobody else blamed mo; and
as for Betsy Jane and Lyddy Ann, they
knew it wouldn't do a mite oi good to
keep put out with mo. It was only
cutting, off their own noses, for they
couldn't do without me, anyway. The
best of it was when .Lyddy Ann came
to bo getting ready all of a sudden to
marry a widower with five children, and
didn't want a soul to know of it till the
last minute, especially as she had al
ways declared that sho. never would
marry a widower no, not' if sho had to
livo an old maid till tho day of her
death and tho girls would nevor bo
done hectoring her !
" Now, girls, let me give you one
piece of advice : never bo telling before
hand who you will or who you won't
marry. According to my way ot thiuk
ing, it is more prudent aud more modest
to wait until you are asked.
" As for JUyddy Ann, she owned that
-I was all right in keeping things to my
self, aud that she had been ugly in
running out so against me; and she
went on to say that she had learned one
good lesson from mo, and one that she
would try to indoctrinate her step
children with, and that was, not to fetch
and carry from house to honso what
they might happen to see and hear. '
A Mexican's Weapon.
A correspondent, referringto the Mex
ican weapon used with such deadly re
sults in the religious murders iu Mexi
co, says: The machete, when wielded
by the hands of a powerful Mexican, is
just as much to be dreaded in this coun
try as the Spaniards have found it in
Cuba. It is like the Irishman's shilcllah
an arm that never misses fire. And
then, tho multiplicity of uses to which
tho Mexican dedicates his machine are
something wonderful to the uninitiated.
It serves as his weapon offensive aud de
fensive; it clears the ground of brush
wood and the forests of timber for him;
in the streams, rivers and arms of the sea
he fishes with it; it helps to build his
jacat, or hut; aids him iu numerous de
tails of his duties as a muleteer, serves
in the capacity of a universal tool iu car
pentering about the houses; cuts his urn
blicul cord when he is ushered iuto tho
world; occasionally. shaves him when his
razor (if ho has one) is dull, and is his
closest companion at all hours of the day
aud night. How that machete , with its
saber-like curve, horn handle, broad
blade aud keen edge is hugged by the
owner can only be understood by those
who for years have seen the terrible in
strument of many purposes wielded in
every imaginable way. Some of the peo
ple manifest a good deal of taste in tho
manner of keeping their favorite ma
chete. The blade is frequently well pol
ished and inlaid with initials or desigus
in gold and silver; the leathern sheath
and belt are ornamented with quaint
chasings or embroidered in threads of
the precious metals; while the buckle
fastening it to tho waist is usually of
ma sive silver. But the more numerous
portion of the men, being those who
cannot reach the elegancies just men
tioned, are content to sheathe their ma
chetes iu a home-made scabbord, or let it
rest, bare, with the hilt iu their hand and
the blade embraced in tho hollow of tho
arm. Over tho steely surface of tho
sharp aud trusty cleaver a wing of the
omnipresent scrape is thrown, and your
Mexican gentleman of the unpolished
classes is ready for anything from cock
fighting to manslaughter. The tough
worsted folds of his well worn serape af
ford an excellent substitute for a shield;
aud thus rmed the half Indian peasant
of Mexico is as tough a customer as one
would wish to encounter. His machete
and serape remind me strongly of tho
targe and claymore that onco made old
Scotland famous.
Tho Apoplectic Stroke.
A middle-aged physician said one day
to the writer r As I was walking down
the street after dinner I felt a shock iu
the back of my head, as it some one had
struck me ; I have not felt well since.
fear I shall die, just as all my ancestors
nave, of paralysis. W hat shall 1 do f
The answer was: " Diminish the tension
on tho blood vessels, and there need be
no fear of tearing thorn in a weak placo,
Now, this expresses in plain terms tho
cause of apoplexy iu the great majority
of instances; and it is ono, too, which
every ono has it iu his power to prevent
A blood vessel of tho brain, from causes
which will presently be mentioned, has
lost some of its elastic strength; food is
abundant, digestion is good; blood is
mado in abundance, but little is worked
off by exercise; the tension on every
artery and vein is at a maximum rate
the even, circuitous flow is temporarily
impeded at some pouit, throwing
dangerous pressure on another; the ves
sel which lias lost its elastic strength
gives way, blood is poured out, a clot is
formed, which, by its pressure on the
brain, produces complete unconscious
ness. This is the apoplectio stroke. It
will be perceived that there are two lead
ing conditions upon which the produc
tion of the stroke depends; a lessened
strength in the vessel, aud an increased
tension on it.
Want to Pay It Back.
The New Jersey Senate passed a reso
lution, offered by Senator Hill, of Mor
ris, directing the Representatives of the
state in Congress to urge the settlement
of a certain class of claims against the
several States. In 1836 the United
States general government found itself
iu possession of 828,000,000 of surplus
revenues, and redistributed it among
the States, with the understanding that
should it ever be wanted it would be
called for aud must be restored. Iu
most if not all of the States it was used
as a school fund. Mr. Hill's resolution
is for the repayment of the moneys. Tho
amount due from the State of New Jer
sey is $ 76i.670.44.
Tho Slavery of Prosperity.
The London Gbtbc prints tho follow
ing readable article: In tho full swing
of medical practice, it says, tho pouo is
tremendous. w lieu once me indennabio
stamp of fashion is set upon a doctor
every one wants to engage his sf rvices.
You may go to the great man's houso
again and again, and tho great man will
not be able to see you. Yon may write
to his secretary, and the secretary may
make au appointment for tho week after
next, but it by no moans follows that he
will be ablo to keep tho appointment.
As soou as tho clock strikes two ho
makes a dash from the consulting room,
swallows an apology for a lunch, and you
presently observe him driving past tho
windows. Iu vain the unpunctuality is
notorious, in vain tho consulting fee is
doubled. People are determined to have
the great man, and the great man they
accordingly get; they will bring him
dowu two hundred miles, though they
have to pay two hundred guineas for tho
journey. They will have him, though
tho patient may be in art inula mnrtm.
For thero are circumstances under which
some rich men tluuk that no consultation
is too costly. They will have him and
no ono else, although the case, scientifi
cally considered, may be as simple as a
cut finger. Sometimes they resort to
him because tho case has really baffled
tho average skill of the averoge practi
tioner, and it not luifreqnently happens
that the celebrated physician makes a
diagnosis and suggests a remedy that
sets his brethren to rights. But when
the fashionable physician has really ob
tained this immense practice, tho charm
of the practice must depart. The great
physician becomes a great slave. Ho
lives iu a stato of gilded captivity. Ho
cannot call his House ins own, or lus
hours his own, or his family his own.
He is at the beck and call of the public.
He takes his meals with his loins girded;
or, rather, he may be obliged to exist on
Liebeg's extract for want of time to par
take of solid food. When the tide of
fashion steadily sets iu he is almost sub
merged beneath the wave. He bids fare
well to leisure, friends, private life all
that makes existence endurable. The
guineas accumulate, the checks, tho
bank-notes; thero are plethoric invest
ments, a lordly income. But a mau's in
come for all purposes of enjoyment is
not what he gets, but what he spends.
Many men who imagine that they are in
the enjoyment of a stately income are
often, like children, playing with little
bits of paper that come in aud little bits
of paper that go out. There is not so
very much use in a man getting 15,000
a year if he cau hardly spend 1,500.
But as a rule we acquit great physicians
of any mean love of filthy lucre. They
hardly know the sums which roll out of
their pockets when, worn out and
harassed, they tumble into the uncertain
bed from which tho night-bell mav
arouse them. They would willingly take
less of lucre for more of leisure.
The Washington Monument.
As an effort is now being made to
finish the Washington nioiiumeut, a few
items relative to the monument may bo
of interest. The plan of the monument
is an obelisk 517 feet high, with a colon
nade surrounding the base. I he esti
mated cost of the whole work was
$1,222,000. Iu six years from the laying
of the corner stone the obelisk had been
raised 170 feet aud $230,000 had been
expended. After an meuectual effort,
in 1855, to get Congress to appropriate
the 8200,000 originally voted, in 1850
the National Washington Monument
Association was incorporated by act of
Congress. In 1847 contributions to
ward the monument aniouuted to more
thau S'J.000, in 1818 to 14,000, in 1849
to 800,000, iu 1851 to 830,000, in 1852 to
831,000, in 1853 to 830,000, iu 1854 to
831,000. hilSOO to 84,500,hil8Gl to 80,000,
in 1802 to 810,000. Since that tune the
association has received about 81,000 per
annum. In 1872 ail effort was again
made to get Congress to appropriate
8200,000 to tho monument. It was re
ferred to the committee on appropria
tions, but has never been acted upon.
Although each State, two of the Terri
tories and different governments and as
sociations all over the world have con
tributed blocks to go into tho monument,
it is now only 174 feet high.
In this, as in many other enterprises
of the sort, the pertinent question is,
" What has become of the money f " In
this case the answers are numerous. In
tho first place, much of it was collected
by agents, each of whom received a per
centage on the amount collected. For
example: Mr. A. is appointed township
agent; he collects some money, and iu
handing it iu he deducts five per cent,
for collecting. Mr. B., who is county
agent, hands in the money collected by
the township agents, deducting five per
cent, for his trouble. Mr. C, who is
State agent, hands in whatever he re
ceives, again deducting five per cent, for
his labors. Thus, of every dollar five
cents goes to the object intended, aud
tho other ninety-five to collectors, agents,
clerks, secretaries, etc.
About a Wife Whlpper.
Justices of the peace do not liko wife
whippers, and when one ot these fellows
appeared before a Detroit justice he was
sentenced after tho following fashion:
It's mighty good for some of these old
grizzlies that I hain't a woman ! Do
you know that if I were a foud wife and
mother, and my darling husband should
come home from his daily toil and black
my eye that I'd hit him with the whole
woodshed at once ! Yes, I would. About
the time he struck mo he'd think
meetiug-houso Had tumbled over on
him 1 Yes. it's a good thing for these
old wife-rjouuders that my father wasn'i
a woman I (And he walked up aud down
breathing hard and clenching his coat
collar.) I wish I could have yon
wliipped, he said to the prisoner. I
wish I could Vivo you tied to a grating
and whipped round the fleet, until there
was not a sound piece of flesh as big as
a hazelnut on your whole body, I do.
But I can't do that, and so up you go to
the county house for sixty days, and if
you don't come away from that place
entirely satisfied with wife whipping,
then I mistake the character of the place
where you aro to spend your next two
months.
Apoplexy is less frequent with women
than with men.
THE MANIA FOR STRIKES.
The Innocent Tropic who Pnfl'rr by Them
Nome Iteflectlon on Strikes In Jrnrral.
One of the most interesting facts in
the history of the long period of depres
sion and disaster through which the
business community has been passing,
Rays tho New York Times, is the num
ber of strikes that have taken place.
These illustrate very forcibly the unsat
isfactorv condition of the relations be
tween employers and employed. At a
time when the interests ot both classes
aro, in reality, peculiarly conuocted, and
when it is not only desirable but neces
sary for both that there should be the
least possiblo friction, tho employed have
felt impelled to resort to the most ex
treme of oil measures to protect them
selves from their share of the general
distress. The consequence, in nearly
every case, has been that they have not
only failed in carrying out the immedi
ate purpose of their coercive measures,
but they have inflicted great injury on
their employers, on themselves, and on
thousands who wero involuntarily and
helplessly involved with them. It is
estimated that tho strike of the Pitts
burgh puddlers, somo seventeen hun
dred in number, compelled the idleness
of nearly twenty thousand laborers, and
produced a loss in the business of ten
millions of dollars. Supposing that this
estimate is an exaggerated one of which
wo have no certain knowledge it must
still be obvious that the loss to innocent
personsmusthave been very great. The
strike m the coal mines along tho lino
of the Heading railroad is a case still
more remarkable. This began on the
1st of January. Is is still in force. It
has already reduced many families to
the verge of starvation. It must either
fail of its immediate purpose, or it must
produce an advance in the prico of coal,
that will satisfy the operators that they
can afford to comply with tho terms of
tho strikers. In tho former cose, the
loss in wages will be very great, but will
onlv cover a small rart of the loss ac
tually inflicted. The strike has been so
strict and general, that in many collieries
the operators have been unable to pro
cure the labor necessary to keep their
mines free from water, or to protect
them agaiust the injury, which is not
only immensely expensive but very dan
gerous. It will cost large sums of mouey,
and, in all probability, a number of
human lives, to bring these miues into a
condition where general labor can be
resumed in them at nnv price.
- . . . .. : . ..
If the strikers Bucceed, not only the
difference they claim in wages, but the
cost of these repairs will have to be
borne by the consumers. Who are the
consumers ? Directly or indirectly, they
are laborers liko tho miners themselves.
Every dollar added to the prico of the
manufacturer's coal, must, iu the present
condition of business, be mostly deduct
ed from tho wages of labor. Demand
for manufactured goods is dull; competi-
ls, , not. only active but desperate.
x these uinueuces tend w iuu
wages, and if this is resisted in the coal
mines, the difference must be made up
elsewhere. How certainly this is the
case can be seen from the returns of tho
coal trade itself. The supply sent for
ward this year is less by more than half a
million tons (573,222) thau it was last
year, which is a falling off of nearly
twelve per cent. This is an approxi
mate indication of the falling off in the
demand for labor iu manufactures, but
that has been greater rather thau less
than here indicated, because tho severe
winter has increased tho domestio con
sumption of coal, and so far compensated
for the reduced consumption in manu
factures. We need not here recite the strikes
that have taken place in other trades
during tho past winter. Our readers aro
sufficiently familiar with them. As a
rule they have been failures, and the
authors of them have suffered severely.
We wish that we were able to say that
thev alone had suffered. These strikes
show, as we have remarked, how very
crude, unsatisfactory, and costly are the
relations of labor and capital. Instead
of co-operation thero is practical war,
It may be, and intelligent men know
that it is true, that labor and capital have
at bottom a common interest, and that
there is a common policy which those
who control both could l rofitably pur
sue. But ou tho surface and for the
present, nothing but a continual, irrita
ting, costly conflict seems to bo possible.
There is, of course, tho encouraging
reflection iu this case that the experience
of all parties to the conflict tends to ulti
mate harmony. The first condition of
that harmony is that it shall be plain on
both sides that self-interest demands it,
and the only way in which this can be
accomplished is by experience. Dis
cussion, based on recognized facts, will
go a great ways, but the chief insl ruc
tion must como iu the time-honored
school. In this light it cannot be de
nied that the reoeut strikes may prove
lessons as valuable as they have been
expensive.
The Cities and the Working People,
There is hardly a city in the United
States, says the Boston Transcript, which
does not contain more people than can get
a fair, honest living by labor or trade, in
the best times. When times of business
depression come, like those through
which we have passed and are passing,
there is a large class that must be helped
to keep them from cruel suffering. Still
the cities grow, while w hole regionsof the
country especially its older portions
are depopulated year by year. Yet the
fact is patent to-day that the only pros
perous class is the agricultural. We
have now the anomaly of thrifty farmers
and starving tradesmen. The agricul
tural class of tho West are prosperous.
They had a good crop last year, aud have
received good prices for all their pro
ducts: and while the cities are in trouble,
and manufactories are running on half
time, or not running at all, the Western
farmer has money in his pocket, and a
ready market for everything he has to
sell. The country must be fed, and he
feeds it. The city family may do witn
out clothes, and a thousand luxurious
appliances, but it must have bread and
meat. There is nothing that can prevent
the steady prosperity of the American
farmer but tha combinations and
L" corners" of middlemen, that force nn
natural conditions upon the finances and
markets of the country.
A Mammoth Sheep Farm.
The Victoria stock farm is in the heart
of Kansas, nnd is already an immense
estate, and Mr. Grant is now iu treaty
for the pureboso of the whole county of
Ellis, comprising about nine hundred
square miles or 670,000 acres. This
would be larger, with one exception,
than any estate held by any dukedom
in Europe. It is tho intention of the
owners of the farm to devote themselves
to stock raising, much of the stock
now being sheep. The flock Lumbers
10,000, and the success in wintering
stock lias determined Mr. Grant to in
crease his flock, his aim being to havo a
flock of 100,000 of improved breeds with
in five years. He has also largely im
proved his stock ot cattle, having upward
of five hundred young cows, which have
been crossed with imported bulls of the
highest pedigree.
Mr. Grant believes in sheltering cattle
through the winter and feeding them
when necessary. Many of the sheep ond
cattlo owners of the West, during the
past winter, lost nearly one-half of their
stock, through exposure and cold, while
Mr. Grant has not lost more thau ono
prrcent. The cost per head for feed
averaged about tliirty cents. His feed
for sheep on stormy days is an allowance
of crushed corn, which co its about one
cent per day per head. In deference to
his head shepherd, who was an advocate
for hay, Mr. Grant divided a flock of
2,500 young sheep, feeding one-half on
hay and the other on crushed corn. The
death rate was twenty-four to one, in
favor of those fed on crushed com. Iu
stormy weather, he now feeds on crushed
coru altogether, which can be done at
a great saving of labor. One man can
easily provide the crushed corn ,aud put
it into the bins for 10,000 sheep per day,
while it requires five men to feed hay.
Mr. Grant has experimented success
fully with alfalfa clover, and intends to
sow three hundred ocres this season, be
lieving it to be the best feed for cattle
and sheep. Convinced that prevention
is better than cure, ho has a sheep-bath
in which he dips his sheep twice a year,
immediately after shearing and at tht end
of the summer, and by his arrangements
he cau dip 3,000 sheep per day. A solu
tion of twenty pounds of tobacco and
five pounds of sulphur to the one hundred
gallons of water is prepared by being
boiled for two hours in two tanks, hold
ing each 1,000 gallons, and usod in the
bath at a temperature of one hundred
and twenty degrees Fahrenheit. The
solution is then run into a trough twenty
four feet long and six feet deep, and the
sheep ore driven up to it in single file,
through a narrow parage ou a level
with the top, and fall into the water.
After swimming through tho water, the
sheep ascend from the bath by steps to
a dripping corral or iuclosure, where
they remain until the wash runs back
iuto the bath, so that nothing is wasted.
Tho r ost is about two cents per head for
each bath, and yields to the owner a ro-
i i, - -i -i:
turn in wool, irom tue uivnroveu ctmcu-
tirrn rj H'fYr of at least half a
pound, aud worth twenty cents per umu.
This bath also Keeps out scaus, uck, uuu
other vermin to which sheep ore sub
ject Several mterestuig experiments in
crossing imported siock win uo uuuiu
thi3 summer, and tho results carefully
noted.
Fashion Notes.
The prettiest overskirts for wash
dresses of linen, gingham, muslin, or
batiste, says a fashion journal, have all
their tulluess neiu by suirring ou niu
sides, ond this shirring is arranged in
drawing cases that can be loosened and
easily laundried. Gray undressed linen
is perferred to bull, but ecru uansio wui
still be worn, and associated with black
velvet bows and skirts, also with shir
rings of black silk let iu the sleeves, aud
Bet on the corsage in vest shape or as a
pompadour square; in the latter caso the
lower skirt should also be of black silk.
Ecru muslin wrought all over iu open
Hamburg patterns is also offered again
for polonaises and overdresses. This
will be; worn, even during midsummer,
over a brown or black velvet skirt.
Later iu tho summer suits of fine
Scotch gingham will be worn at tho
watering-places, in the country, at pic
nics, and for traveling short journeys.
These fabrics are sent to Paris in tho
niece, and our merchants import cos
tumes of them os elaborately and with
as much attention to stylo as are tho
handsomest dresses of camcl's-hair or
silk. Irregular plaids of brown or black
with white are largely imported, whilo
striked suits show gay contrasts of blue
with rose or with ecru, or eise urowu
and buff with black, or almost any color
.. ..." - , ,
with white. The Madras colors and
combinations are well represented. This
genuine Scotch gingham costs seventy-
five cents a yard, and is very umereui
from much that is offered under that
name and sold for thirty or forty cents.
The objection to imported suits of. wasn
materials is that they are so often made
with close-fitting basques, and this is the
case with the fresh aud pretty gingham
suits. Tho basques of plaid gingham
are cut to show the plaid bias, and this
has a very pretty effect, but does not
wash well. The overskirt has a deep
apron, either pointed, round, or square,
ami there are loopeu taus ueuwu.
Striped gingham suits are similarly made,
but are trimmed with knife-plaited ruffles
arranged to make a particular color up
permost on each plait.
A Victim of the Measles.
The measles aro visiting the Upton
(Mass.) famides now, and the latest vic
tim is a pet dog iu the laniily of George
Walker. Major was a valuable New
foundlander, who regularly " took " the
disease from the children, having a
cough and every symptom that attends
this sickness in tho human family. They
doctored him and he got along nicely for
a few days, but ho perversely ran out in
the snow, which apparently gave him a
chill, the measles btruck in, and death
closed tho scene.
Te-rlble Death.
A boy in New York' went to the eleva
tor entrance of tho third story of the
Union Telegraph building and thrust
his head through the opening at the side
of the door to look down to the base
ment. The car, which was rapidly de
scending, struck tha boy's head at the
base of tho skull and cut off his head
above the ears and eyebrows.
Items of Interest.
Alwavs marrv tho cirl vou love best
that is, if she'll have you.
There are two hundred and sixty
miles of street railways in Pennsyl
vania.
Ole Bull is sixty-five years old, nud
he has a collection of twenty-four
fiddles.
Eveiiy husband thinks that ho can
tamfl a shrew except tho poor fellow that
has her.
If a man is insane upon tho subject
of money, is his disease monomania, or
mouoymauia ?
An entire family in Harrison, Ohio,
has beeu made insane by a stroke of
lightning which hit their house.
An impudent adventurer having mar
ried an heiress, a wit remarked that tho
bridegroom s brass was outshone by tho
bride's tin.
Mr. Moody, the American revivalist,
who is now making so many converts in
London, was a colonel in tho United
States army. '
Mysterious Little Johnny " I heard
somebody crying in there, and it wasn't
ma nor tiie doctor." Sissy " Maybe it
was the kitten."
A veteran shopkeeper says that, al
though his clerks are very talkative dur
ing the day, they ore ulways ready to
shut up at night.
When a Dtroiter was asked the other
day by a traveler if he had ever been in
Brooklyn, he hastened -to reply : " Do I
look like one of that sort of men, sir ?"
The Vanceburg Kcntuckian remarks :
A farmer lives on the average sixty-livo
years, a printer thirty-three. Tho
former should pay tho latter promptly.
New Zealand prohibits females 'from
attending public schools, holding that a
woman does not need book learning
to euablo her to split wood aud hoe
corn.
The paper makers say that the rags
they have received this year aro more
threadbare thau usual, which they at
tribute to the general prevalence of hard
times.
It is estimated that 65,000,000 bushels
of wheat will be marketed in tho United
States within the next ninety days. At
present prices here, this would bring
$78,000,000.
A five hundred pound Parrott shell,
lately used for breaking iron, in Pcekskill,
was filled with water which froze solid
and burst the shell into three pieces, al
though tho iron was upwards of three
inches thick.
The Lewiston Journal says that tho
word "mosquito" vanquished a social
gathering in that city, in which tho
spelling mania had broken out. It was
too much for a doctor of divinity, a
judge, a professor of language, to say
nothing of less learned people.
" Jack in tho Pulpit," in SY. Xicholas
for April, says: For five years past a
rich farmer in our neighborhood has
P"1o n standing offer of 810,000 iu gold
for a double sei oi cum o
is, the upper and lower rows complete.
Yet his offer has never been taken up.
A captain in the navy, on meeting a
friend a3 he lauded, boasted that he had
left his whole ship's company tho happi
est fellows in the world. "How so?"
asked his friend. "Why, I have just
flogged seventeen, and they are happy it
is over; and all the rest arc happy that
they have escaped."
Cowden Clark tells a story of a gen
tleman who, lately, iu making a return
of his income to the tax commissioners,
wrote .on tho paper : For tho last threo
years my income lias oeeu hoiucvwuui
under 10U; in iuture it win uu w
precarious, as the man is dead of whom
I borrowed tho money.
A Pittsburgh critic remarked that
" Miss Soldeno's mouth was suggestive
of the Mammoth cave," aud tho next
night, when he presented himself for ad
mittance, the l'rencn uusiuess luuiuigw
told him: "Not at all, zur; you no seo
zee Mammoth cave to-night oonder ainy
zeerkooniBtauces. Vo vill zell you no
toekets."
Jekyll told Moore of a man who had
said his eating cost almost nothing, for
" on Sunday," said ho, " I always dmo
with au old friend, and then eat so much
that it lasts until Wednesday, when I
buy some tripe, which I hate like tho
oldbov, and which accordingly makes
me so "sick that I cannot eat any nioro
until Sunday again."
It takes a Pittsburgh paper to grasp a
problem and wring the juice out of it.
Says the Leader: If an ice bridge
thirty-five miles in diameter were built
from the earth to the moon and pro
tected from dissolving till everything
was ready, the heat of the sun turned
on suddenly would melt it, boil tho
water and dissipate the whole business
in vapor in one second.
The contents of the stomach of a trout
weighing forty pounds lately sent from
Michigan to Washington in this State,
wero found to consist of eight distinct
fishes, six of which measured twelvo
inches in length each, and tho other two
eight niches each, making a total of
seven feet and four inches of fish in a
trout forty -three inches long, lhe eight
lay side by side, the heads and tails
being partly digested.
The Cattle of Life.
A newsboy arrested in New York testi
fied., and to the satisfaction of the court,
that since he was seven years old he had
made his own living peddling papers.
During this time, his mother, paralyzed,
was in a hospital, and lus lamer, wno
was blind, was under charge of tho
county. The little fellow had battled
manfully lor life, ana most oi me iun
had paid three dollars a week for his
board, besides sending his mother and
father delicacies frequently, lie waa
discharged.
1
Keep Away.
The son of a subscriber of a New York
paper receives tho following in reply to
a letter asking what chance there was for
him to get work in the city: If you aro
wise you will not think of coming to
New York at this time to work at your
trade. Many thousands of persons as
competent as yourself to earn a living
are now out of employment, and either
subsisting on the earnings of more
prosperous years or almost at the verge,
of starvation.
V