-.
wife
iiiiii
HENRY A. PARSONS, Jr., Editor and Publisher.
Two Dollars per Annum.
NIL DESPERANDTJM.
vol. y.
Ill DG WAY, ELK COUNTY, PA., THU11SDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1875.
NO. 35.
In the Storm.
Night on tbo nrr an, (lurk and ontd t
A shadowy beach where the wild waves rolled,
The foam-capped waves, an witbmllnn roar
They angrily charged on the desolate shore.
Over the sands a feeble light
From the fieheriuan'a hut gleamed thro' tbe
While a woman waited and watched alone,
And shuddered to hear the storms wild moan.
" Bbine out thro1 the gloom, O light I" she
cried,
" My boy's frail bark o'er the waves to guide.
He will know the lamp that his mother's hand
Has net to beckon him safe to land I"
Loud and.louder the wild winds roar,
Lashing the lonely, helpless shore,
And none may hear the pitiful wail
That floats ashore on the cruel gale.
But ere tbe morning has dawned at last, "
The wind, the etorm, and the gale are past,
And one by oue in the shadowy sky
The starry lamps are hnng on high j
And they beckon the soul of the fisher boy
To a world of wonderful unknown joy,
E'en while the light in the wiiidow burns,
Where a mother's heart for Her boy still yearns.
Morn on the ocean, bright and fair ;
Sunbeams tangled in Bea-wet hair ;
Sunshine kissing the face so white
Of him whose life in the angry night.
Stranded for aye on the unknown shore,
Should never know Btorm or shipwreck more ;
But the wail from a mother's broken heart
Tbe gates of heaven have cleft apart.
A HAY'S BETROTHAL.
"Well, Jenny, it will be hard to part
on the morrow."
Jenny auswered not a word, but turn
ed away her head, looking out to sea
witli a wistful, sorrowful glance. The
next moment, my arm was about her
waist. She did not repulse me. "Jen
ny," I cried, why should we part at all?
If you will take me for a skipper, we'll
sail through life together."
We ore on board the bark Petrel of
Greenock, bound eventually for Lon
.don, with a miscellaneous cargo from
the Mediterranean ; and we are now an
chored in the roadstead of Havre, a little
to the north and west of the pier-head.
Jenny is the skipper's daughter, and I
am only a passenger.
Wo had called at Havre, to dispose of
part of our o irgo, and the captain and
mate having gone ashore to settle some
disputo with some of his crew who had
nuwarrai.tibly deserted the ship, left
Jenny and me on board, in charge.
We were practically alone on board.
The steward was busy in his caboose,
the black was asleep somewhere for
ward in the sun the ship was riding
easily at her anchor with almost imper
ceptible motion. The town was shim
mering pleasantly in the sunshine, and
the white villas on the wooded heights
above shone like so many caskets of
ivory. It was low tide, and a strip of
wet glistening sand was visible along
the shores of the bay ; bathers were
splashing about ; amateur shrimpers
wero pushing their nets before them in
the shallows. Beyond, the bold head
land of the Cape la Hove, crowned by
its two white lighthouses, assumed the
appearance of some lazy pacific beast
couchant on the sands. Time and place
were alike propitious. I turned to Jen
ny, and spoke to her of our approaching
separation ; then I .made the final
plunge.
The tide had turned, the flood began
to make. The ship was swinging slowly
around, presenting to us the opposite
half of the horizon. A loud warning
crash from the awning above made us
both look up. Never shall 1 forgot the
shock of altered scenes that met our
eves. The suu was still shining bright
overhead, but to seaward avast livid wall
of vapor shut out everything from view.
A shrill blust of wind trumpeted loudly
in the rigging, which began to flap and
creak and strain. The sea was rising
rapidlv. ana waves came rushing in,
crested with driven foam. Then the sun
was obscured, visible only as a faint
and w. tery blotch ; the hilU crowned
with sunshine, the busy, happy town,
nil wero blotted out; we were alone amid
asudden f-torm and fierce rising sea.
Jeuuv sprang to her feet, and, with
admirable calmness, began to lower the
awning : but in a moment the wind was
upou us in full force ; the canvas flapped
wildly, and then, torn away from its
fastenings, flew away to the leeward,
visible for a moment in the sky, like a
white sealurd, and then lost in the
gloom.
" Won't father be angry 1'' cried Jen
ny, clasping her hands ; so many yards
of good canvas.
" Are wo not in frightful danger
hire?" I w.M. "Why, I wonder, has
vour father not returned I"
Jenny shook her head "One can't
foresee everything. Perhaps he is now
on his way. hue took up the binocu
lar, and peered anxiou-ly through the
mist. But no boat was to be seen. The
sea seemed of a sudden deserted, except
for oue or two fishing smacks to the
south vard, thut, with great brown sails
half lowered, wero soudding rapidly for
ttie harbor. But for us, in the teeth of
this southwesterly gale, the harbor
month was as inaccessible as the moon.
Jenny left the poop, and ran forward
to the forepart of the vessel. I followed
her as well as I oould, holding on by this
and that, for our ship was now pitching
beavilv upon the swell. I found tier Dy
the bowsprit, watching the rise and fall
of the ship with anxious eyes. The
ixreat black chain that, as the vessel fell,
would be invisible in the waves, as she
rose, stretched itself tight as a bow-
btring, with a clank and a groan that
ma le me Hiu Jder. uur lives nung upon
that chain that the waves seemed to
sport with as a toy. As we stood there,
a wave larger than the others rose upon
us without warning, and swept the deck
with irresistible force, bearing every
thing moveable with it. I clung desper
ately to a belayingpin, and Jenny clung
to me ; and after a while the Petrel rose
gallantly to the shock, the water stream
ing from her sides. Drenched and
cowed by the violence of the shock, we
made our way back to the poop.
As we reached the cabin door, the
tteward was reeling across the sloppy
deck, carrying a steaming dish of pota
toes. It was three o'clock, the hour for
dinner. Sink or swim, he would have
the dinner on the table by three ; then
his cares were over for the day.
" You surely can't eat, Jenry," I
cried, as, after she had changod her drip
ping garments for dry ones, she sat down
at the table with what seemed to me al
most fiendish indifference.
' Eat ! You must eat 1" she cried.
" Who knows what an hour may bring
forth I If yon have to swim for your
life, will you have any chance if you
start exhausted ?"
I saw that she was right, and we
snatched a hasty meal together as best
we oould. Just as we had finished, a
quiver ran through the ship ; the mo
tion changed J she began to roll heavily.
The sofa on which we wero sitting broke
away from its fastenings, and we were
thrown violently from one side of the
cabin to the other, in the midst of an
avalanche of all the movables that were
unfastened, or had broken away.
As soon as we regained our feet, we
made for the deck. I thought that the
last moment had come, and desired only
to see daylight once more. We had
parted from our anchor, aud were drift
ing rapidly away toward the dark brirt
ling cliffs to leeward.
The sight seemed to restore confidence
and courage to Jenny. " Go forward,"
the screamed in my ear ; ' go forward,
yon and the steward, and get the lower
sail on the foremast ; black Jem and I
will steer the ship."
J nnv's voice inspired me ; the pros
pect of doing something to avert our
fate gave me new strength. I stumbled
forward, holding on to anything that
came to hand. The steward stood at the
door of his caboose, having jammed him
self iuto a secure position ; a pipe was
in his mouth, and a black bottle iu his
hand. He looked at me with lack-luster
eyes. -"Come along, man," I shouted
iu his ear ; "come and help me to get
up sail."
"What's the odds?" he replied in a
milieu voice; "what's the odds. Let's
be happy while we may 1"
rue mau was drunk. 1 cast a despair
ing glance behind me when the poop,
raised high in the air by some towering
wave, seemed almost to touch the fky.
Jenny was at the wheel, shading her
eyes with her hand, looking anxiously
forward. Ah I what could 1 do among
all this beVildering maze of cordage and
rigging, all shaking and rattling in the
wind 1, who hardly knew one rope
from another ? But the sight of Jenny
at the wheel, looking out for me, nerved
me to do something. I made my way to
the foremast, and clambered up the rig
ging, looking down to a precipice of
water beneath me. Long ropes and fly
ing blocks threatened me every moment
with destruction ; but I held on to the
ropes like grim death, and, inspired by
the courage of despair, I essayed that
which at another time I should have
never dreamed of : I crawled out on the
yard, with my knife iu my teeth, and
cut, one by oue, the lashings that bound
the sail to it.
The sail flew out with a tremendous
report, aud threatened every moment to
tear itself to tatters ; but, seizing a rope,
I slid down to the deck with a rapidity
that took every morsel of skin off my
ankles ; and getting hold of the rope
that I saw controlled the movements of
the sail, I hauled it iu bit by bit, aud
succeeded ill making fast one side of the
sail. The other offered less difficulty.
Jenny waved her hand triumphantly
trom the poop. Ihe ship began to move
through the water. We should clear the
headland, that now looked so ominously
upon us, crouching there like some hun
erv aniui d awaitiucr his orev.
1 crawled back to the poop, and Jenny
rewarded me with an encouraging grasp
of the hand. " lou did that beautnui
ly," she cried. "Now, if the gale mod
erates, as I think it will, and doesn't
veer round more to the westward
As she spoke we shot past the head
land, and gained a clear view of the coast
beyond. The sun was sinking low, aud
showed for a moment a blood-red streak
between two angry cloud. The lurid
light it cast upon the red frowning cliffs
was something appalling. They ran
along for miles, as far as the eye could
reach steep, inaccessible heights, with
the surf beating angrily against them
and flying up in clouds of sprty half way
to their summit.
As the suu went down it came on to
blow harder aud more from tho west
ward. Tho line of cliffs to leeward
loomed nearer aud neurer. The sail
ceased to draw, beginning to shake aud
flap with a loud noise.
" She will go no nearer to the wiud,
Willie," cried Jenny, knitting hfcr brows;
"and we drift continuously to leeward.
You must haul that sheot tighter, Willie;
it's our only chance."
I was running forward to my work,
when a block, detached from the rigging
by the force of the wiud, struck me vio
lently on the head, and I fell to the
ground insonsible. When I came to
myself, my head was achiug violently,
although it seemed to be supported by a
soft pillow. It was quite dark, and the
air was full of hideous noises, the scream
of the wiud, the loud roar of the surf,
tilled the air witha tumult indescribable.
" Where am I " I said, feebly, stretch
ing out my arms iuto the darkness. I
felt arms about mine, a soft kiss im
printed on my forehead.
" We shall be ashore, dear, in five
minutes," said a voioe in my ear, " and
all our troubles over."
I raised myself up, with a groan, and
tried to gain my feet, but fell back ex
hausted. The scene about me struck me
with terror; the thought of drowning
helpless in this raging gu'f of waters had
an ineffable bitterness for me.
" Willie," said Jenny once more in my
ear, "if you get safe ashore, will you
give my love to father I
Then I found that I was lying beneath
the shelter of the poop-deck, protected
a little by that from the seas that were
breaking over as, and that a life belt was
fastened under my arms. Jenny was
crouched beside me, holding my head in
her lap. chafing my temples and bands.
The few minutes that elapsed before
we struck seemed as an age. The wind
beneath the cliffs was not so violent, and
the back-current of the waves kept us
for a moment away from the rooks whioh
we almost touched. But the respite was
not for long ; we grounded upon an out
running spit of rook, and instantly the
sea made a clean sweep over us. carrying
away masts, spars, rigging everything
went by the board. I had seized Jenny
at the moment of striking, and we were
harried away together in a hideons
trough of cordage and timber. Dashed
violently against a mans of slippery
chalk, which afforded no purchase -for
hand or foot, I lay there, fairly exhaust
ed, expecting every moment the retain
of tbe wave that would sweep us back
into the gulf, when I thought I saw a
lirjbt close beside me shining into my
eyes, and a face peering anxiously over
the waters. It was a delnsion, one of
the hallucinations of approaching death.
Next moment we were covered with
blinding surge, aud a great green wave
swept over us, driviug us pell-mell be
fore it with inconceivable fury. I lost
my senses for a while to find myself
jammed iu between two fragments of
rock. Jenny was gone. I had lost my
hold of her, and she had been carried
away into the boiling gulf.
I had nothing to expect myself but in
stant death. The next wave would wash
me out of my hole, a mere crevice in the
precipice. I had hardly strength enough
to breathe, and could fight no longer
against my fate.
But though I was constantly covered
with surf, and nearly suffocated, yet the
waves did not reach me with full force.
The tide was retiring.
Time passed on, I hardly knew how,
till the inoon rose red and menacing.
The tide was down now, but the surf
reached to the very base of the cliffs.
The flood would come presently, like a
lion to his half-devoured victim, and I
should perish. Theu I.heard voices bo-
low me, and saw by the moonlight some
men draped iu short smocks or blouses
groping about among the rocks beneath
me. They were countrymen, evidently,
who had beeu attractod by the wreck.
and who had found their way down tho
cliffs by . some concealed footpath. I
shouted they heard me, and clambered
to my retreat. They were lull of com-
1 IV ", m, .
passion ami munness. xney earned me
along the base of tho cliffs by a footpath
among the debris, till they reached a
smooth gap iu the wall of chalk, by
which they ascended. I was presently
carried to a house, stripped, aud placed
iu a warm bed. 1 recollect just this
much, and then memory fails mo. I had
a long illness, I am told, and was near
death's door, but recovered at last, and
found myself the guest of a worthy Nor
man farmer, who occupied a charming
little homestead on the heights above
the sea.
As soou as I could get about, 1 went
down to Havre to inquire about the
Petrel, at our consulate. She was lost.
I was told, on such and such a night,
with all hands ou board at the time.
The captain had returned home two
months ago. I determined to go home
at once, and leave a place so fraught
to me with sad memories. Now that
Jenny was lost forevor, I realized how
much she had been to me. Her kind
ness, her courage, her devotion, her
charming gayety and animation, recalled
themselves to me, and 1 told myself that
I. should never see her like again. I in
quired as to her last resting place.
Only two of the bodies had beeu found,
it seemed those of the cook and the
black cabinboy.
Well, it remained only for me to return
to England, a saddened, melancholy
man. 1 left my watch with the good
farmer who had taken care of me, as
some recompense for the trouble aud
expense to which he had been put. The
captain of the John Bull gave me credit
for my passage money, and I landed at
St. Katharine's wharf without clothes
but those I wore, sadly stained with
sea water, aud with only a f6w shillings
in my pocket. But there was money
due to me for my pension, a couple of
quarters now, and I took a cab to the
paymaster-general's office to get it.
"William Thornley," said the clerk,
looking at his list. "Why, he's dead
struck off tho list two months ago.
You're the man, you say. Well, I'm
sorry to say that only a treasury order
will bring you to life again."
The personnel of the office was almost
entirely changed since I was last in Eng
land. The old clerk who used to pay me
hud been pensioned off', and there was
no one who recognized me. Tho infor
mation came, I was informed, from my
old office, and there I went in much cha
grin. There could be no difficulty in
eventually getting the matter put to
right, but in the meantime I wanted
money money, aud I didn't know where
to get it.
I went to the old office. The place
once so familiar to me, now knew me no
more. One of my old chums was still
there, aud him found out. He looked
at me, stared, burst into laughter.
" hat ! yon re not drowned, then?
he cried.
" Drowned ? No ! but precious near
it. Who stopped my pension, pray i"
Oh, some friends of yours came
here ; a seafaring party, aud a pretty
girl in deep mourning a deuced pretty
girl," said my friend, pausing, and bo
ginning to bite the stump of his peu.
" Well, they gave me a long account of
your loss ou board the Petrel. Why he
came to me was, that ne remembered
my name as a fellow who knew you,
don't you see ? Of course, I was very
sorry to hear it, and all that ; and then
the old captain asked me who your re
lations were, and I couldn t tell him ;
but I said I'd make inquiries ; and as
they were going to Scotland, they prom
ised to call and see me again on their
return. And, by Jove, here they are 1"
suid my friend, rising as the room door
was tin own open, and the messenger an
nounced a gentleman and lady to soe
Mr. , by appointment.
I was sitting with my back to the
door, and turned my head towards it. A
young woman in black ran forward with
a scream. I sprang to my feet, and
clasped Jenny in my arms Jenny, safe
and sound, but pale and worn suffering
for me!
Her father, it turned out, had been on
the cliff, and had followed the Petrel
along the shore all that eventful night ;
he had offered five hundred pounds in
vain for a tug to put out to the rescue ;
and the life boat, although she had tried
to get out, had been beaten baok. He
had seen the ship ooming ashore, had
lighted a bluelight, which I now faintly
remembered to have seen, that revealed
our position. Just above, on the cliff,
it happily chanced that there was a
crane, used for raising blocks of chalk
from a quarry half-way down, which was
provided with a chain and bucket ; and
sided by some douaniers, he had de
scended by this means the face of the
precipice, and had caught hold of his
daughter as she was swept away from
me in the last mad rash of waters. He
was an eye-witness, as he thought, of my
Ions in the abyss, and had never dreamt
that I could possibly have escaped.
" 1 wish yon d have stoppea drown
ed," said my friend between his teeth ;
but for all that, he stood nest man at my
wedding, and my rough day s betrothal
has beeu followed, thank God, by a
nuiou of constantly increasing happi
ness. The Modern House.
The nineteenth century house, says
Popular Science Monthly, has no spe
cial provision for the admission of fresh
air, and, except in warm weather, its
entrauce is jealously prevented. Venti
lation is change of air, and, unless
scientifically ' arranged, and especially
warmed iu cold weather, such change of
atmosphere means cold ourrents with
their attendant train of colds, catarrh,
bronchitis, neuralgia, rheumatism, ca
aud tho evils that spring from
them. Again, perfect ventilation means
the realization, in a great measure, of
the condition of the air out of doors ;
and few persons, probably, have esti
mated the enormous flow of air requisite
to effect this. The ordinary notion is,
that the proper renewal of the air an a
room ought to be measured by the
quantity passed through the lungs of on
individual in any given time. But an
ounce of poison may vitiate a gallon of
water, and nothing short of the removal
and renovation of the whole of the taint
ed portion, as fast as it becomes tainted,
can insure perfect salubrity. Dr. Dal
tou estimated tho average respiration of
a man to be twenty-four cubio inches,
and the average number per minute to
be twenty ; consequently four hundred
cubic feet pass through tho lungs of an
ordinary man in twenty-four hours,
while the fallacy to which we have al
luded assumes thot a supply of four
hundred cubic feet iu the room in
twenty-four hours insures sufficient ven
tilation. Certainly, if any oue would
draw breath out of one bag, and dis
charge the tainted air fiom his lungs
into auother, he would always breathe
good air. But it is calculated that a
man will taint and render unwholesome
by mixture 17,500 cubio feet of air in
the twenty-four hours ; for every respi
ration not only robs the imbibed twenty
four cubic inches of a certain portion of
its oxygen, but it has mixed with it a
quantity of carbonic acid gas and some
vapor ; aud theoretically, at least, the
second respiration, drawn from a room
in which the air is stagnant, begins the
process of blood-poisoning.
The Book of Thanks.
Young folks are often encouraged to
keep a diary. Little harm aud some
good may come of the practice, pro
vided the diary is made au honest record
of deeds done, places visited, books
read, studies pursued, aud of thoughts
suggested by reading and observation, j
But there are two " shall nots " which
should govern the practice. Oue is that
the diary shall not contain affectations
of sentiment. The second' is that the
diary shall not bo shown. The one will
make you sincere, the other will train
you to honesty. But a bettor practice,
as it seems to us, is to keep a record,
either in the memory or in a book, of
the kind words and deeds shown to us
by otheis. Here is an account of a
" Book ot Thanks," kept by a boy:
"I feel so vexed and out of temper
with Ben," cried Mark, "that I really
must "
"Do something iu revenge " inquired
his cousin Cecelia.
" No. Look over my book of thanks."
What's that ?" said Cecelia, as she
saw him turning over the leaves of a
copy-book, nearly full of writing, in a
round text hand.
" Here it is," said Mark. Then he
read aloud:
" March 8. Ben lent me his hat.'
"Here again: 'January 4. When I
lost my shilling Ben made it up to me
kindly.' Well," observed the boy, turn
ing down the leaf, " Ben is a good boy,
after all."
"What do you note down in that?"
asked Cecelia, looking overhis shoulder
with some curiosity.
"All the kindnesses that are ever
shown me. You would wonder how
many there are. I fiud a great deal of
good from marking them down. I do
not forget them, as I might do if I only
trusted to my memory, so I hope that I
am not olten ungrateful ; and when L am
cross and out of temper I almost always
leel good-humored again it 1 only look
over my book.
Something Entirely New.
The latest dodge, and one 'of the
sharpest sort, has been attempted upon
several sporting men of Cincinnati re
cently, and successfully in one instance.
Here is how it was done: Eph. Holland
aud a friend were rolling ten-pins at the
Empire, when a note came to Eph.,
asking him to call at the Grand Hotel to
see a particular friend. It was written
on a Grand Hotel "letter-head." He
walked down to the hotel, but found
nobody there that he particularly cared
to see. While he was gone, a note came
to " Doo." Martiu, at the Empire, writ
ten on a Grand Hotel lotter-Bheet. signed
"Eph." and askinor the doctor to send
him a hundred dollars by. the bearer, a j
yung man of respectable appearance. I
The doctor knowing that Eph. had gone
to the hotel, and supposing he had met
some friend and wanted to use that
much money, promptly inclosed one
hnndred dollars in au envelope and
sent it "by bearer." When Eph. re
turned the doctor merely asked him if
he had received the money all right.
Then the little game was discovered.
In the San Francisco jail is a girl only
sixteen years old. She is excessively
shy and demure, blushes when looked at
by visitors, and faints when drunkards
ore brought bleeding and yelling into
the prison. Her face is delicate and ex
pressive of retiring modesty and gentle
ness. Her name is. Annette Gillard, and
she is awaiting trial for stabbing a man
four times with a big batcher knife, and
then smashing bis skull with a brick.
AN UNHAPPY LIFE.
The English Pnrm l.brfr IHhter. and
the manner iu which she Uveas and Is
Treated.
At seven or eight years old the girl's
labor begins. Before that she has been
set to mind the baby, or watch the pot,
and to scour about the hedges for sticks
for the fire. Now she has not only to
niiud the baby, but to nurse it ; she car
ries it about with her in her arms, and
really the infant looks almost as large as
herself, and its weight compels her to
lean backward. She is left at home all
day in charge of the baby, the younger
chddren and the cottage. Perhaps a
little bread is lrft for them to eat, but
they get nothing more till the mother
returns about 4 :30, when woe be to the
girl if the fire is not lit, and the kettle
on. The girl has to fetch the water
often a hard and tedious task, for many
villages have a most imperfect supply,
and you may seo the ditches by the road
side dammed up to yield a little dirty
water. She may have to walk half a
mile to the brook, and then carry the
bncket home as best she may, and repeat
the operation till sufficient has been ac
quired, and when her mother is washing,
or worse still is a washerwoman by pro
fession, this is her weary trudge all day.
Of course there are villages where water
is at hand, sometimes too much of it. I
know a large village where the brook
runs beside the highway, aud you have
to pass over a " drock or small bridge
to set to each of the cottages, but such
instances are rare. The girl has also to
walk into the adjacent town aud bring
back the bread, particularly if her mother
happens to be receiving parish pay. A
little older at ten or eleven r twelve-
still more skinny and bony now as a rule,
she follows her mother to the fields, and
learns to pick up stones from the young
mowing grass, and place them in heaps
to be carted away to mend drinking
places for cattle. She learns to beat
clots and spread them with a small
prong ; she works in the hayfield and
gleans at tho corn-harvest. Uleaning
poetical gleaning is the most unpleas
ant and uncomfortable of labor, tedious,
slow, backaching work ; pickiug up ear
by ear the dropped wheat, searching
among the prickly stubble. Notwith
standing all her labor, aud the hardship
she has to endure coarse fare aud
churlish treatment at the hands of those
wflo should love her most the little
agricultural girl still retaius some of
that natural inclination toward the
pretty aud roinautic inherent in the sex.
In the spring she makes daisy chains
and winds them round the baby's neck ;
or with thehtalks of tho dandelion makes
chain several feet in length. She
plucks great bunches of tho beautiful
bluebell, and of the purple orchis of the
meadow ; gathers heaps of the cowslip,
and after playing with them a little
while, they are left to wither iu the dust
by the roadside, while she is sent two or
three miles with her father's diuner.
She chants snatches of rural songs, and
sometimes three or four together, join
ing hands, dance slowly round aud
roundj singing slowly rude rhymes de
scribing marriage. She has no toys
not ono iu twenty such girls ever have a
doll ; or, if they do, it is but some stick
dressed in a rag. Poor things 1 they
need no artificial do) In : so soon as ever
thev can lift it they are trusted with the
real baby. Her parents probably do
not mean to be unkind, and use makes
this treatment bearable, but to an out
sider it seems unnecessarily rough, aud
even brutal. Her mother shouts at her
in a shrill treble perpetually ; lieu father
enforces his orders with a harsh oath
and a slap. Prater's Mafatinc,
The Great Showman.
The Hartford Times has just discov
ered an old card, showing that P. T.
Barnum kept a boarding house iu New
York about 1831. Ho had just been
treated to sharp treatment in his native
State for his liberality iu matters of re
ligions belief. For his attacks on Judge
Daggett and the court's decisions in his
newspaper, he was arrested and put in
the Danbury jail. He served out his
sentence, aud then went to New York,
where, it seems, he set out as the keeper
of a boarding house. A few years later
he conceived the brilliant idea of launch
ing out into the showman's hu?iuess.
He got an old Maryland colored woman,
took her to Boston, and had circulated
and read in the churches au appeal for
aid for her, to purchase her freedom
she having raised enongh money, into
about 8300, and was, moreover, the same
old aunty who had nursed Oeorgo ash-
ington I The "sell" was perfect. The
ministei-3 went to work to aid the contri
bution, a larger sum than was asked for
was raised, and Harnuin s career as a
showman began. His old colored woman
" drew like a house ou fire not only
in Boston, but all about the country ;
and the success of the scheme led later
to the "woolly horse," and various other
wonders, and finally to the New York
museum, then to the traveling show.
Making a Change.
I got chatting with an acquaintance
the other day, says a correspondent, and
asked him what be was doing.
" Well, he replied, 'Must now 1 am
doing nothing, but I have made arrange
ments to go into business.
" Glad to hear it. What are you go
ing into r
" Well, I am going into partnership
w ith a man.
" Do you put in much capital ?"
"No; I put in no capital."
" Don't want to risk it, eh ?"
" No ; bnt I put in the experience.
" And he puts in the capital i"
" Yes, that is it. We go into business
for three years; he puts in tbe capital, I
put in the experience. At the end of
three years I will have the capital, raid
he will nave the experience i
An Accommodating Town.
i. it i i
as an innocent looking oia ma'j was
going up Washington street, Viohijburg,
a drayman nodded at him, ami asked:
" Want a dray, mister f " " Ncv I cuess
not," replied the old man, ' I'm too far
from home, and can t pay Ire jn-lit on it
Much pblecged, though. Vicksburg is
a powerful nioe town. '' fellow 'hack
there asked me if I didn.t want a goat,
another inquired ll waited a hack, and
now you oner me a. dray, I wish I
lived here.
Letting tbe Animals Lome.
Lucy Hooper writes to the Philadel
phia Telegraph from Paris: The Me
nagerie I5idel closed its doors wiw a
grand farewell performance, which was
likewise a gratuitous one. This me
magerie added to the usual display of
wild beasts and the feats of lion-tamers a
new and popular attraction. M. Bidel
was in the habit, at the close of tbe per
formances, of letting loose a nnmber of
tame and harmless animals to receive the
caresses and admiration of the audience,
particularly of those spectators who had
reserved seats on the front row next the
ring. First came three men, bearing on
their shoulders an enormous boa-constrictor,
with head erect and quivering,
darting tongue. Nobody cared particu
larly to touch him, so his bearers march
ed around the ring with him and then
disappeared. Next came a huge alliga
tor, earned in the same way, the first
man carefully keeping down his threat
ening npper jaw. He was not a popular
pet either, though maiiy curious indi
viduals ventured to touch his scaly back
and dangling paws. Then came a group
of soft-eyed clumsy llamas, who blun
dered about and walked over the specta
tors and tumbled on the children and
behaved themselves absurdly in general.
Then the giraffes and the elephant were
turned loose, and were immensely ca
ressed. A race was organized between
the elephant and one of the giraffes,
wherein the former got beaten, and tes
tified his sense of his discomfiture by a
series of horrible howls. But the great
success ol the evening were the lion
cnbs, five jolly little fellows, looking
like kittens on an exaggerated scale, and
all perfectly wild to be let out for a
frolic. As soon as the door of their cage
was opened out they all tumbled, down
the inclined plank that led to the ring,
and all mightily inclined to play. They
were picked up and patted and hugged
by everybody who could get hold of one
of them, their tails were pulled and
their ears were pinched, and they were
generally treated with a familiarity to
which members of the royal lion family
are totally unaccustomed. They took it
all in good part, however, growling a
little sometimes when a royal tail was
pulled too hard, or a royal ear unduly
pinched, bnt never at tempting to scratch
or bite. Alter a generalfrolio ail rouud,
some of them got under the seats, curl
ed themselves up, and went to sleep, in
a comfortable, domestic-cat sort of
fashion. It is au interesting question to
me as to what influence the training will
have on these specimens of a usually in
tractable and savage race. Will they
grow up to be ferocious brates, growling
at humanity from behind the bars of a
cage, or will their baby gentleness and
domesticity continue ?
A Young Heroine.
The Houston (Texas) Telegraph says :
Ono morning reoently a man and wife
who live about nine miles east of Willis,
left home on business, leaving the house
iu charge of their eldest child, about
twelve years of age. Toward noon the
girl heard the infant, aged fourteen
mouths, who had beeu laid while asleep
on a bed in an adjoining room, utter a
horrid screech, upon which she imme
diately ran to its relief, aud imagine her
leeliug, upon opening the door, to see a
huge panther with the babe in its mouth
leaping from au opon window imme
diately over the bed. But she, like a
truo heroine, sprang upon the bed and
then ont of the window, screaming at
the height of her voice, and, upon being
joined by the other child about the
house, pursued tho panther at her utmost
speed. They followed about forty rods
to a pair of bars which separated the
clearing from the forest, at which place
the girl states that she approached to
witbiu fifteen or twenty feet ot the pan
ther, when it relinquished its hold of
the child, leaped the bars and made its
way to the woods. The infant was
picked up, much strangled from its
rapid movement through the grass aud
sand, which filled its mouth and eyes,
but soon recovered and is uow well, save
a few scratches about its bodv, which
have the appearance of having been
made by the panther's teeth. These
murks nre very plain, and there are sev
eral blood blisters where the teeth in
slipping came in contact. The girl states
that the panther dropped the child once
before arriving at the fence, aud it is
supposed the giviug way of tho clothing
was the cause, as it was much torn.
Wo obtained the foregoing particulars
from a gentleman living in Willis. Too
much praise cannot be bestowed on the
brave girl who saved the child's life.
A Scene from Life.
Of all the terrible curses that havo de
stroyed humanity, intemperance is the
most learlul. A yonug man entered the
barroom of a village tavern and called
for a drink. "No," said the landlord,
"yon have had delirium tremens once,
and, I cannot sell vou anv more."
He stepped aside to make room for a
couple of young men who had just eu
tered, aud the landlord waited upon
them very politely. Tho other stood
by, silent and sullen, and when they had
untuned ho walked up to , the landlord
and thus addressed him:
"Six years ago, at their age, I stood
where those young men are now I was
a man with fair prospects. Now, at the
age of twenty-eight, I am a wreck, body
and mind. You led me to drink. In
this room I formed the habit that has
been my ruin. Now sell me a few glass
es more, aud your work will be done !
shall soon be out of the way ; there is no
hope for me. But they can be saved.
Vo not sen it to them. Ben to me ana
let me die, aud the world will be rid of
me ; but for Heaven's take sell no more
to them !"
The landlord listened, pale and trem
blinar. Setting down his decanter, he
exclaimed:
"God help me! this is tbe last drop
I will ever sell to any one I
And he kept bis word.
Two sailors belonging to the crew of
a bark lying off tho coast of Nova Scotia
made an effort the otner uay to reacn
Halifax by launching the hatches of the
vessel and paddling toward me snore.
A stiff breeza sprain up. uowever, Diow
ing their raft out to sea, end nothing has
been beard of them since.
Items of Interest.
A new stvle of kid cloves is striped
from the eiids of the fingers to the wrist.
So dark, and yet so light," as the
mnu said wnen no iookcu as nis ion m
coal.
ftl was overheard to sny to hira:
" Our pailor stove is up now; do call
and see what n little spark it takes to
kindle a flame ?
The Milwankee Sentinel remarks that
" times will continue hard as long as the
$2,000 a year man strives to appear as a
$10,000 a year man."
Is the millennium approaching ? Ihe
conductor and engineer of a tram that
recently killed a man in Chicago havo
been held lor trial lor mnraer.
For many years every table of State
areas has set Cahfornia down as covering
188,984 square miles. The hues, as es
tablished by recent United States sur
veys, show that the area is in reality
only 156,120.
An old sailor, passing through a grave
yard, saw on one of the tombstones : " I
still live." it was too niucu ior uuca,
aud shifting his quid, ho ejaculated :
"Well, I've heard say that there are
cases in which a man man lie ; but if I
was dead I'd own it."
Mr. Walker, a Cincinnati scientist, has
allowed himself to be stung once a day
for three weeks by bees to ascertain the
effect. He says that after about the
tenth time the pain and swelling were
slight, the body seeming to become in
oculated with the poison.
A man in the last stages of consump
tion was recently found in the New York
and New England railroad station at
Boston. He had been sent away from
New Milford, Conn, (wherehe lived), by
the selectmen, who feared he would die
on their hands, and bad but ninety cents
in his pocket.
A citizen of Springfield, Mass., last
spring planted a sweet potato in a hill of
sand, with n liberal supply of compost.
This autumn he found the hill well filled
with a potato weighing three pounds
and a half, from which radiated roots to
which six pounds of potatoes of ordinary
size were attached.
Feeling makes a lively man ; thought
makes a strong man ; action makes a
useful man and all these together make
a perfect man. Now, abide theso three :
Feeling, thought, action, and the great
est of these is action. Somo men think
much, feel little, and act less. They aro
universally unsafe men.
John Chinaman's method of warfare is
slow, if not sure. The troops who
started from Pekin for their western
frontier three years ago to repress Ya
koob Khan, happening to get out of
provisions en route, stopped to supply
themselves by planting graiu, and ore
now awaiting the harvest.
Since the first issue of postal cards
two years ago, 255,478,000 havo been is
sued, for which the government has
paid tho contractors $357,34!.85, and
has collected $2,554,780 from the people.
The entire shipments of the cards
weighed nine hundred aud six tons, and
would fill a freight train of ninety cars.
The French court of cassation has
just given a decision of interest to
gleaners, and they have in this genera
tion driven the gleaners out of their
fields as thieves. It is now decided ns
contrary to law for a farmer to turn
sheep into his fields for two days after
harvest or to glean the fields himself, or
to sell the right, because "tho poor
would thus bo deprived of the benefit
which humanity and law have reserved
to the indigent." Is there any other
county where the pitiful thrift of a
gleaner could become a subject of litiga
tion t
The voiuig wife of a merchant in
Baruesville, G.i., during his absence in
ew lork to buv gvods, gave evidence
of aberration of micd, and when friends
iu her presence proposed to telegraph
him, she said : " Y ou need not telegraph
him. The good Lord has euabled me
to apprise him of my condition." But
they telegraphed him and in a very short
time he was home, and says man me
night during which she screamed out ho
dreamed that sho was in the condition
he found her in and when the telegram
come he was fully aware of her condi
tion. Common Sense Yeutilatlon.
The best practical statement I have
met about ventilation was contained in
the remnrk of a mining engineer in
Pennsylvania : " Air is like a rope ; you
can pull it better than you can push it."
All mechanical appliances for pushing
ir iuto a room or a house aro disap
pointing. W hat we ueed to do is to pull
out the vitiated air already in the room ;
the fresh supply will take care of itself
means ior us aamissiou are provuicu.
It has been usual to withdraw the air
through openiugs near the ceiliug, that
is, to cany off the warmer and therefore
lighter portions, leaviug tho colder
strata at the bottom of the room, with
their gradual aeenniulation of cooled
arbonio acid undisturbed. Much the
better plan would bo to draw this lower
air out from a point near the floor, al
lowing the upper and warmer portions
to descend and take its place.
An open fire, with a large chimney
throat, is the best ventilator for any
room ; the one-half or two-thirds of the
heat carried np the chimney is the price
paid for immunity from aiseaae, uuu
arge though this seems from its daily
draft on the woodpile or eoalbin, it is
trifling when compared with doctors
bills and with the loss of strength and
efficiency that invariably result from
living in unventilated apartments.
Homesick Exiles Returning.
After the war three or four hundred
Southerners went to Brazil, where they
intended permanently to reside. They
were, however, disappointed in their
hopes, and soon expressed a desn-e to
return, many of them being in actual
distress. The government, on Doing in
formed of their condition, tendered to
them free passage on board of naval ves
sels. In puisuance of this offer twenty
four o! them returned to New York iu
1871.. Since that time others have
reached this country by the same means,
and now the United States steamer
Swatara will soon leave for Para, in
Brazil, to bring to this country the re
mainder of the expedition, and will land
them at Port Royal, S. C.