.
HENRY A. PARSONS, Jr., Editor and Publisher.
NIL DESPERANDUM.
Two Dollars per Annum.
VOL. V.
RIDGWAY, ELK COUNTY, PA., THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1875.
NO. 30.
Crossing the Brook.
(lushing and Bplaghing,
O'er tiny rocks dashing,
Iown flows the brook on its way to the sea j
Warm in the meadow.
Or cool in the shadow,
Ouward Btill flowing with murmurs of glee.
Why dost thou fear thee ?
Child, I am near thee !
Bister will carry thee safe o'er the stream
, Dace thee securely,
Where thon oanst stand sorely,
On the soft grass, where the butteroups gleam.
Round the neck grasp me,
Cling so, and olasp me.
Set how my feet on the stepping-stones tread
Oreen fields before us,
Bustling leaves o'er ns,
Blue sky, yet higher, and God overhead.
Life has its gladness,
lias, too, its sadness ;
Would I could carry thee, child, through it all ;
Give thee the brightness,
A.11 the heart's lightness,
Keeping the troubles, what'er might befall.
Vainly I'm sighing !
Life is replying,
"Man on this earth his own burden must bear;
Carry his sorrow
To-day and to-morrow,
Till life is over, and death shall be near."
Peace, foolish voices 1
Faith still rejoices,
Fears not the years, be tbey gloomy or bright.
Through sun and shadow,
Through vale or meadow,
Gel shall guide Bafely on, into the light.
THE T10XEER BOYS.
So long ngo as it takes for little boys
to grow great men, it was not so easy to
Jive iu Nebraska as it is now, when the
groat laud commissioner of the great
railroads hangs a buffalo's head in every
depot iu Boston, to show the world how
much more delightful is the society of
buffaloes than the society of Bostonians.
When John, and Susan, and the
children, Titus and Tom o' Shauter, and
Betty, and the new baby came to Ne
braska, that plucky young State was, for
the moot part, an ugly, howling wilder
ness. In the thick of the wilderness Mr. and
Mrs. John Jacobs dug out for themselves
n homo. Literally, they dug it out with
their own hands. Susan was a tough
little woman, with stout hands and a
stout heart, and she dug too. I think,
if the truth must be told, she rather en
joyed leaving Titus and Tarn with the
other babies there's no guessing how
much care one baby will take of another
till you've tried and taking an ax to
help her husband fell trees and cut un
derbrush, or talcing a hoe to hoe her
row iu tin darling little garden, out of
which they meant to make a living, if
they died for it.
It was only because they meant to, so
very hard, I faUCY, tUat thoy maxLo tha
living without dying for it. It was al
most worse at first than coachman's
wages in Mother England. There was
the newness, and there was the home
sickness, and there was the distance
from the market, and there was the bit
ter cold, and there was the blighting
heat, aiid always there were the babies,
and besides, there were the Indians.
John, and Susan, and Tarn, ard Titus,
and Betty, and the new baby, and the
newest nowbuby (when it camealong) got
along pretty well with everything else ;
t it wasn't pleasant to see an Indian
come walkiug by with a tomahawk just
as you were quietly sitting down to sup
per ; and they got a little tuvd of sleep
ing with one ear open, listening for the
awful, echoing sound of the cruel In
dian war-cry ; and whatever might be
urged atpiiu'tt life as a coachman in
England, at least it was a life in which
ono's attention wasu't called so frequent
ly to the top of one's head.
" Mine is fairly sore," laughed Susan,
"with thinking how it will feel to be
Si-alped. I'll have a gun," she said. So
sho had a gnu. " I'll be a good shot,"
she said. And quickly she became as
good a shot as John. And when John
was at work in the woods or the garden,
Susan gathered her brood about her in
the house, and, lynx-eyed as a sentry,
and fine-eared as a mother, mounted
guard.
Now, there came a time when nobody
Lad seen any Indians for so long a while
that evou the wise heart of the mother
forgot to feel keenly, about anything in
this world. If we do not see it an ab
Heut duty, or an absent friend, or an ab
sent terror all alike they grow a trifle
dim or dull.
And one day, when Titus and Tarn
said: " J mt one gallop on the prairie,
mother, wirh old, Jerusalem, their
mother said : " Well, I don't know,"
and their father said : "I guess I'd let
'em ;" aud the lynx eyes, and the keen
ears, and the wise head of the mother
said her not nay and so it happened.
Old Jerusalem wai the big white
horse ; the faithful, ugly, grand old
horse, that took stops almost as long as
a kangaroo's, and was more afraid of an
Indian than Titus and Tam.
So Susan kissed Titus good-bye ten
derly for he was the good boy of those
remarkable twins and that was why
they called him Titus ; and kissed Tam
a little more tenderly still, because he
wasn't so good as Titus, and so hod got
called Tam ; and she said : " Hold on
tight 1" aud John came out and said :
"Come home pretty soon ;" and Tam
rot on first, and Titus got on behind
him, aLd Jerusalem gave one great
bound, and away they shot, clinging
with shining bare feet to Jerusalem's
white bare back for they were magnifi
cent little riders, seven years old now,
and brave as cubs.
Susan stood watching them after
John had gone back to his work stood
watching long after they had swept away
into the great, green, beautiful sea of
the treacherous prairie grass.
Uneasy I Not exactly. Sorry she had
let them go f Hardly that. She was a
sensible little woman, and having done
what she thought was right, had no idea
of beiug troubled by it, till the time
came. But still she stood watching, her
hand above her eyes this way an J she
did not go into the house till the newest
new baby had cried at least five minutes
at the top of its new little lungs.
Titus and Tam and Jerusalem got
pretty far out on the beautiful, terrible
prairie. How beautiful it was ! It did
not seem as if it ever could be terrible if
it tried. The green waves of the soft
grass rolled madly. The wind was
high. The sun was so bright they could
not look at it. The strong horse bound
ed with mighty leaps. The boys could
feel the muscles quivering ana drawn
tense in his soft, warm body, as they
clung. It was like being a horse your
self. They did not know which was
horse aud which was boy. They laughed
because they could not help it, and
shouted because they did not know it.
Hi 1 Hi t Oh, the sun, and the mad
grass, and the wild wind I Hi 1 Hi I
Yi-i-i I Who could be two boys on such
a prairie, on such a day, on such a
horse, and not yell like little wildcats ?
" It's pretty," said little Titus, softly,
when they had got tired of yelling.
" You bet I" said Tam, loudly. " Hi !
Hi ! Hi ! Yi-i-ee-ee I"
" I guess we ought to go back," said
Titus, pretty soon ; Titus was so much
more likely to remember to be good,
"Oh, no," said Tam, who was gen
erally a littlo bad, when there was a
chance.
" Father said to come home pretty
soon," said Titus.
" But," urged Tam, with a bright
air, " mother said to hold on tight. Hi 1
Yi! Yil"
Ah ! what was that ? What was it I
Could Jerusalem answer? Can the
wild winds talk ? Will the mad prairie
speak ? The sunshine is tongue-tied,
and the great sky is dumb. But some
thing answered Tam O'Shanter's shout.
Oh, there I Oh, Titus I Quick,
quick, quick 1 Turn him round, Tam I
Turn Jerusalem round 1 Injuns I In
juns I Oh, I wish we hadn't come 1
What shall we do, what shall we do f
Oh, Tam, what shall we do ? Oh, Tam,
they've all got horses, aud they're com
ing straight I Get up I Get up I Oh,
Jerusalem, do hurry ! Old fellow, do
get us home I Good boy t Good old
fellow !
Oh, Tam ! they've got arrows, and
they're going to shoot I
Pretty little Mrs. Jacobs had got the
newest baby to sleep, and got the baby
that wasn't quito so now to sleep, and
given Batty her patchwork, and swept
the kitchen, and built the fire, and
started supper on the way, and I don't
know what else besides, when that fine
mother's eats of hers detected, through
the sough of the wind upon the prairie
a sharp, uneven, and, to her notion,
rather ugly sound.
Betty was sitting in the door, but she
heard nothing. The sleeping babies did
not stir from their baby dreams. John
was in the garden, but John heard never
a sound.
Only the mother heard it. Only the
mother grew lynx-eyed in an instant,
and in an instant was out with hand up
raised, bareheaded, stern-mouthed, anxious-hearted,
watchirg as those watch
who have lived much face to face with
death without a word. She did not
even call her husband. The time hod
not come to speak.
It might have been three minutes ; it
might have been less or more ; who could
tell) when John Jacobs, digging heavily
over an obstinate potato, felt a band laid
lightly upon his shoulder. His wife
stood beside him. She was as pale as
one many hours dead ; but she stood
quito still.
"John," she said, in a low voice,
" oome into the house a minute."
He obeyed her in wonder and in
silence. He just dropped his hoe aud
went.
"Now, shut the door," said Susan.
Ho 6hut it. " Shut the windows."
"What's the matter, Susan? Any
thing wrong ? Ain't the boys in ? You
don't inean "
" Hushsh ! Before the children !
Don't, John 1 I'll tell you in a minute.
Bolt the front door!"
He bolted it.
' Lock everything. Draw the shut
ters. Fasten them with case-knives be
sides the buttons. Is the cellar door
tight ? Is everything tight ? Betty,
take care of tho babies a minuto for
mother. John, come here!"
She led him to the little attic, and
from the narrow, three-cornered window
pointed to the prairie, still without a
word.
Aud still, how beautiful it was ! How
the wind played like one gone crazy for
joy with the tender tops of the un
broken, unbounded grass. And soft, as
if the world had gone to bleep for very
safety, fell the magnificent western sun.
Beautiful, terrible, treacherous thing !
Cutting through the soft horizon line,
sharp as the knife through shrinking
flesh, six dark figures loomed against
the sky. Wildly before them, with the
gigantio strides of a long-stepped
ro;dster, fled a big, gaunt,' homely,
grand old horse. And clinging with lit
tle, bright bare feet to his white sides,
and clinging with little, despairing arms
to one another,
" My God ! They are our boys !"
John Jacobs threw up his arms and
ran.
Quick as woman's thought ran, his
wife was before him, and had bolted the
attic door.
"Where are you going, John?"
She spoke, he though, in her natural
tones, though she trembled horribly.
Where was he going ? Why, to meet
them, save them get his gun blow
these devils' brains out what did she
mean ? Why did she keep him ? Quick,
quick I Open the door !
"My husband," said Susan, still in
those strangely quiet tones, " we cannot
save our boys. Look for yourself and
see. They will be shot before they
reach the house. We have three chil
dren left. You must save them, aud for
their sakes, yourself, John. Keep the
door looked. Keep the windows barred.
Keep the shutters drawn. Give me the
old pistol and my gun. Take your own
and guard the door. There's a chance
that they'll live to get here and be let in.
But not one step outside that door, John
Jacobs, as you're the father of three liv
ing children 1 Oh, John, John, John 1
My poor little boys 1"
He thought she would have broken
down at that. He thought he could
never get her from the attio door, where
she lay trembling in that horrid way,
with her chin on the window sill, and
her eyes set upon the six dark figures,
and the grand, old, ugly horse, upon
which the slipping, reeling, hopeless,
Erecious burden clung. But all he could
ear her say was " mother's poor little
boys !"
Mother's poor little boys indeed and
indeed 1 Leap your mighty leaps,
Jerusalem; they'renone too large; your
great legs that Tam and Titus have so
often made fun of, are none too long
for their business now. How the splen
did muscles throbbed beneath the tiny,
terrified bare feet I No wond ring
which was horse ana whioh was boy this
lime. It was all horse now. There was
no will, no muscle, no nerve, no soul,
but the brave soul of old Jerusalem.
Will he got us home ? Can he ever,
ever keep ahead so long ? Oh, how the
arrows fly by I We shall be hit, we shall
be hit ! Oh, mother, mother, mother 1
"Tam, why doesn't father come to
meet us ? Why don't they do some
thing for ns, Tam ? Has mother for
gotten as ?"
That, I think, must have been the
cruelest minute in all the cruel story.
And yet, perhaps, not so cruel as the
minute when the mother, at the attio
window, gave one long, low, echoing
cry, and came, staggering from her
post, down stairs to say still in that
strange voice that mothers such as she
will have at such a minute: "John,
they are hit; the arrow struck them
both. Let me to the kitchen window.
You stay at the doof. There's just a
moment now."
There was but a moment, and like a
wild dream, the whole dreadful sight
came sweeping up, over the garden, into
the yard.
Now John could not see anything but
the mighty form of tho horse Jerusalem.
To this day, he says that the saddle, to
his eyes, as the magnificent creature
leaped by, was empty as air. He only
saw the horse and tlyi horse made
straight for the bar.
But why did the savages pursue a
riderless horse ? And whooping and
shooting cruelly after it, into the barn
they plunged.
" The boys are on the horse," in a
hoarse whisper said the mother;- " I saw
them both. They are bleeding and
falling. The arrow has pinned them to
gether, John, but they have kept their
seat."
"My boys are pretty good riders,"
said John, turning his white face round
with a grim, father's pride, even then ;
" bv.t even ray boys can't keep ahorse
after they're shot tlirough the body.
Fright has turned your brain, Susan."
I tell the story just as it was told to
me ; and the way of that was this : how
Jersusalem leaped into the barn, with
the boys, or so the mother thought,
bleeding upon his back ; how the sav
ages scoured the barn, the yard, the
garden, plundered a little here and
there, and fitfully attacked at intervals
the. barricaded house ; how John, brave
and white at one door, and Susan, white
and bravo at the other, abundance of
powder and unflinching hearts, and the
love of three helpless babies, drove
them by-nnd-bye sullenly away: how'
when they had been a" long, safe hour
gone, the parents, shivering and sad,
crept out with white lips, little by little
as they dared, to hunt for the bodies of
their murdered boys.
" They ain't in the barn," said the
father, bringing his hand heavily across
his eyes. "I'll go to the woods. I sup
pose they scalped the little fellows and
left them there."
But the mother, when he was gone,
went arouud and around stealthily as a
cat about the barn. Ah, blessings for
ever on the mother's ear, and blessings
on the mother's eye !
From a pile of fresh earth thrown up
in the barnyard, a little stream of blood
came trinkling down and she saw it.
Deep from the middle of the mound a
little cry come, faint, terror-stricken,
smothered but she heard it.
To bo sure. When Jerusalem went
leaping through the barn door, just an
arrow's length ahead of his pursuers, off
tumbled Tam and Titus, and out into
the barnyard, and down into the pile of
mud and gravel, deep and safe. And
about and about, and here and there, the
Indians had searched, and scoured, and
grumbled and gone; and there they
were.
Pinned together with the arrow?
Truly, yes. Just under the shoulder ;
and how they ever did it and lived, I
don't know.
I'm sure they never would have, but
for their bravo, black-eyed little mother,
who picked them up and washed them
off, and carried them in (but she pulled
out the arrow first) and put them to bed,
and bandaged, and contrived, and cared,
and kissed, and cried, and prayed and
tbey got well. They lived to be six feet
high ; and as they are living now, I pre
sume they measure six feet still.
It is a pretty long story, I know, but
It is a true one, for I've seen the arrow.
John gave the arrow to a gentleman ;
and the gentlemen gave it to his daugh
ter ; and the daughter no, she wouldn't
give it to me ; but I held it for five
minutes in the very hand with which I
write these words. And if that doesn't
prove that the story is true, what could ?
And Jerusalem? Oh, Jerusalem lived
to a good old age, and was buried in the
barnyard with great honors. And Tam
'and Titus cried, and John and Susan
cried, and Betty, and the new, and the
newest, and the very newest, and the
very, very newest, and all the babies
cried, and it would have been very sad
if it hadn't been a little funny.
A Strange People,
In Urimi, at Suna, says Stanley, in
his report of his African expeditions,
we discovered a people remarkable for
their manly beauty, noble proportions
and nakedness. Neither man nor boy
had either cloth or skins to cover his
nudity ; the women bearing children
only boasted of goat skins. With all
their physical beauty and fine propor
tions they were the most suspicious peo
ple we had yet seen. It required great
tact and patienou to induce them to port
with food for our cloth and beads,
They owned no chief, but respected the
injunctions of their elders, with whom I
treated for permission to pass through
their land. The permission was re
luctantly given, and food was bogruding
ly sold, but we bore with this silent
hostility patiently, and I took great care
that no overt act on the part of the
expedition should change this suspicion
into hatred.
Notwithstanding the consumption of
oysters they are considered healthy.
The Destruction of Lisbon.
A writer is IAppincotl'a gives the fol
lowing description of the destruction of
Lisbon : The morning of November 1
dawned serene, but the heavens were
hazy ; since midnight the thermometer
had risen one degree, and stood at nine
o'clock at fourteen above freezing,
Reaumur. As it was the feast of All
Saints, the churches were throngd from
an early hour, and all their altars bril
liantly illuminated with thousands of
tapers, and decorated with garlands of
various-tinted musliua aud thin silks.
At a quarter of ten o'clock the first
shock was felt. It was so slight that
many attributed it to the passage of
heavy wagons in tho street, and even to
mere fancy. Three minutes afterward a
second shock occurred, so violent that it
seemed as if the heavens and earth were
passing away. This agitation lasted
fully ten minutes, and ere it diminished
the greater portion of the city was in
ruins. The dust raised obscured the
sun ; au Egyptian darkness prevailed,
and to add to the universal horror the
fearful screams of the living and the
groans of the dying rose through the
air. In twenty minutes all became calm
again, and people began to Jook around
them and consider the best menus of
escape. Some were for going to the
hills, but were soon discouraged from
so doing by tho rumors that those who
had already gone thither were suffocat
ing from the effects of the dense fog of
dust which still roso from the falling
buildings. Then they rushed toward
the quays which line a part of the
Tagns, but only to learn the horrible
news that these had sunk into the earth
with all the people and edifices upon
them. Those who thought to put out
to sea were told to look at the river, and,
lo ! in its center they beheld a whirlpool
which was sucking in all the boats and
vessels in its vicinity, and not a frag
ment of them ever being seen again.
The royal palace had been entirely swal
lowed up, aud over its site is now the
vast square of tho Paco, or Black
Horse, one ot the largest public places
in Europe.
The great library of tne Holy Uhost
was in flames, and its priceless Moorish
aud Hebrew manuscripts fast becoming
ashes. The opera house had fallen in,
the Inquisition was no more, and the
great church of San Domingo was but
a heap of stones, beneath which lay
crushed to atoms the entire congrega
tion. The Irish church of St. Paul was
tne death-place of one thousand per
sons, and the palace of Bemposta, where
Catharine of Braganza, widow of
Charles II., lived and died, had fallen
over from the heights on which it was
built, and utterly destroyed the poor
but populous part of the town which lay
beneath it. Inajvord, where but an
hour since was was now nothing
but desolation.. - aa to the people, who
Mm tlnwnib fclioir fnmcUUn 9 A I I
70,000 persons had perished, and the
majority of the survivors were cruelly
wounded and iu agony of mind and
body. Some went mad with fright,
some lost forever the power of speech ;
sinners went about confessing their
secret crimes, and fanatics, believing
the last day had come, cried out to the
horror-stricken multitude "to repent,
for that Christ was coming to judge tho
quick and the dead.
Detroit Free Pressings.
The grocer who knows his business
will set his snow shovels out now aud
get the public worked up to a winter
point.
The Maiue mau who kicked a can of
nitro-glycerine out of his path won't be
bothered with any more earthly obstruc
tious.
Michigan has fifteen more boys in its
State reform school than Ohio has, and
it also offers other advantages over Ohio
to the settler.
The man who argues that a city of
6,000 inhabitants ought to support a
daily paper can lose 5,000 in finding
out why it will not.
Some of the New York ministers con
tend that coffins should not be opened
at funerals to allow Tom, Dick and
Harry to gaze on the face of the dead,
aud there's sense in the objection.
Ells, of the Charlotte Leader, was
voted the handsomest man at the Eaton
county fair, six hundred ladies voting.
But you ought to have seen him after
his wife got the news !
The government wants 81,500,000
from the firm of H. B. Claflin & Co.,
and we can't see why they don't hand it
right over aud have the thing off their
minds.
Boys, if a man comes along with a
buggy and asks you to take a ride, do
you peg it for home. He wants to steal
you, and prove to the world that the
average detective is no sharper than the
average man who is not a detective.
A Porter street lad secured two boards
and an old bedquilt, set up a grocery
store in the back yard and stocked it
with an apple, four potatoes, whistle,
two steel pens and an ancient horse
radish grater, and he sat on an ash box
all the afternoon and finally closed the
whole assortment out on trust without
a complaint.
Suffering the Penalties.
To all who know the early history of
Carl Schurz the name of Herr Krueger,
of Spandau, Germany, is fraught with
interesting memories. After the trying
days of 1848, when Mr. Schurz escaped
from confinement in the fortress of
Spandau, Krueger gave him shelter be
neath his own roof. In a country where
everything savoring of treason was as
harshly dealt with as in Germany, this
act demanded no small degree of cour
age. Indeed, Krueger soon learned
what it cost to trifle with the law. A
rumor reached the ears of the authorities
that he had given aid and comfort to
two rebels ; and forthwith his estate was
confiscated, his business broken up, a
small office which he held under govern''
ment taken away, and himself thrown
into prison. He survived these trials,
retrieved his fortunes to some extent,
and passed his remaining days in com
parative ease. Lately ho died at the
ripe acre of seventy-six years, surround
ed by loving relatives and friends, and
all the peaceful, pleasant associations
whioh rob the long valley of its shadow.
Treating the Girls.
People have noticed that one of the
handsomest young men in Burlington
has suddenly grown bald, and dissipa
tion is attributed as the cause. Ah, no ;
he went to a church sociable the other
week, took three charming girls out to
the refreshment table, let them eat all
they wanted, and then found he had loft
his pooketbook at home, and a deaf man
that he had never seen before at the
cashier's desk. The young man, with
his face aflame, bent down and said
sof tlv :
I am ashamed to say I have no
change with "
" Hey ? shouted the cashier.
" I regre t to say," the young man re-
Eeated on a little louder key, " that I
ave unfortunately oome away without
any change to "
" Change two? chirped the deaf man,
" Oh, yes, I can change a five if yon
want it."
"No," tb9 yonng man explained in a
terrible penetrating whisper, for half a
dozen people were crowding up behind
him, impatient to pay their bills and get
away, " I don't want any change, be
cause "
" Oh, don't want no change ?" the
deaf man cried, gleefully. " 'Bleeged
to ye, 'bleeged to ye. Tain't often we
get such generous donations. Pass over
your bill."
" ISO, no," tne young man exclaimed,
" I have no funds "
"Oh, yes, plenty of fun," the deaf
man replied, growing tired of the con
versation, and noticing the long line of
people waiting with money in their
hands; "but I haven't got time to talk
about it now. Please settle and move
on."
" But," the young niau gasped out,
" I have no money"
"Go Monday?" queried the deaf cash
ier. " I don't care when you go. You
must pay, and let these other people
come up."
"I havo no money 1" the mortified
young man shouted, ready to sink into
the earth, while the people all around
him, and especially the three girls he
had treated, were giggling and chuck
ling audibly.
"Owe money ?" the cashier said. "Of
course you do ; $2.75."
" I can't pay 1" the youth screamed,
and by turning his pocket inside out and
yelling his poverty to the heavens, he
finally made the deaf man understand.
And then he had to shriek his full name
three times, while his ears fairly rang
with the half-stifled laughter that was
breaking out around him ; and he had to
scream out where he worked, and roar
when ho would pay, and he couldn't get
the deaf man to - understand him until
some of the church members came up to
see what the uproar was, and, recogniz
ing their young friend, made it all right
with the cashier. And thn y.iurusuJiuuj.
irli ani'l lnkbil
himself, and shred his locks away until
he was bald as an egg.
The Origin of Coal.
The discovery of diatoms in coal, by
Count Costracane, recently announced,
is of much interest, as throwing addi
tional light on the mode of formation of
carboniferous coal. These minute forms
of plant life have not been recognised
in any but very modern formation ; but
Count Costracane has succeeded iu show
ing that they date from the palteozoio
epoch, and as far back, at least, as the
carboniferous period. He says: "All
the forms I have been able to observe
among the ashes of the coal present such
an appearance that the most practiced
and sharpest eye could not detect the
slightest difference between them and
actually living diatoms: outline, struc
ture, shape, and number of the flutings
in short, all the peculiarities which
characterize the species that we meet
with in the state of actual vegotation
agree exaotly with those of the carbonif
erous period." It can scarcely be denied
that the existence of these minute
forms of aquatic vegetation in the sub
stance of carboniferous coal goes to
confirm the view of those who hold that
this mineral has been formed in pres
ence of water, and the great preponder
ance of fresh water forms of the diato
niacese proves that this was fresh water ;
still the occasional occurrence of marine
forms leads to the inference that the
waters of the ocean occasionally had ac
cess to the lagoons or inland lakes.
In line, the presence of diatoms, taken
in connection with the Btrategraphical
phenomena of carboniferous coal beds,
appears to bear out the views of those
who hold that the mineral has been
formed from the decay of successive
generations of plants and forest trees,
growing with their stems partly lm
mersed iu the stagnant waters of vast
lagoons, these lagoons being nearly on a
level with the waters of the sea, which
sometimes gained access to them, and
carried with them marine forms.
Buying on Credit
The practice of buying on credit the
necessary articles of the household is
fatal to good economy. The housekeep
er has always to pay dearer when she
does not pay cash. The tradesman
must have interest for his money, for a
man will never in a busy community be
willing, and is seldom able, it he were
willing, to forego it. To the ordinary
cash price of the article he therefore
adds the interest whioh may accrue dur
ing the time that credit is allowed,
This, moreover, is not all ; there must
be a premium exacted by the dealer for
the risk he runs in trusting his goods to
that class of more or less dangerous cus-
mers who never pay ready money
Even the most honestly disposed of
these are often unsafe debtors ; for they
are generally such ,as are imprudent
enough to anticipate their incomes, and
to overrun them m expenditure. The
credit system, moreover, is a tempta
tion to unnecessary purchases. There is
a sort of check in sight and touoh of the
hard-won money to the disposition to
dispose oi it iigutiy. ua me other hand,
ttere is something in 'the facility of
credit, removing as it dote tho disagreea
ble necessity of pay nent to a . vague
future, very seductive t o the buyer who
can gratify his love of possession with a
momentary sense, at any rate, that its
gratification costs hira nothing. There
is no such cheap and. cautious purchaser
as cash.
Splitting Wood.
I was expecting John home a litt'e
earlier that night, so I determined to
have some nioe spring chicken broiled
just to a turn already for him when he
came. All went very well until, just as
the crisis came in the broiling of those
chickens, I disoovered that the wood was
out. What should I do ? If I waited
till John came the chicken would be
quite spoiled.
I picked out a nice, straight maple
stick, and leaned it up against another
stick, just as I'd seen John do, and then
I actually laughed at the idea that a
woman couldn't split wood. I placed
the tip of one of my toes against the
stick, arranged my dress gracefully, and
then taking hold of the extreme end of
the handle, I raised the ax high over
my head and brought it down with all
my might, the blade striking not the
stick, but beyond it. Oh I oh 1 how
my hands did sting t
I rolled them up in my apron for a
lew minutes, and after struggling a mo
ment to keep back the tears, I took up
the ax and went at it again. -
This time I took hold of the handle
nearer down to the blade, and when I
came to bring down the ax I remember
ed my former experience. I hesitated
just half a second before letting the ax
strike.
Fatal hesitation ! It turned the ax a
hair's breadth, and it glanced off the
side of the stick and struck deep into
the soft earth. I wasn't prepared for
this, and losing my balance, over I went
head foremost, stick and all. I can't tell
exactly how I landed.
I placed my stick in a new position,
shut my teeth hard, and no I didn't,
though. There was a clothesline just
behind, which I had not noticed ; my
ax caught in this and jerked me back
wards over a big chunk, the ax falling
almost into my face. There was a sharp
twinge in my back and a buzzing in my
head, so I laid quite still, until I was
startled by the strained voice of dear
John : " Mollie, Mollie, are you hurt?"
He picked me up in his great strong
arms and carried me into the house. I
wasn't very much hurt after all, but I
had a good cry on John's shoulder, and
ever since that I've had a whole wood
house full of nicely split wood always on
hand. If a woman can't do a thing one
way she can another.
Want Some Xitro-GIyceriue J
The Laramie (Wy. Ter.) Sun of recent
date says : About ten days since the
engineer of a freight train, near Bryan,
heard a terrible cracking noise, and
thought something must be wrong with
his engine. The tram was stopped,
when it was discovered that something
was leaking from the car, near the engiue,
and that the loud reports wore caused by
tne wlieels passing over drops of the
rlnid whioh ilA-I l-Uian -cfa bub.
Tlie car was opened, aud a number of
large tanks found upon the inside
labeled "Glycerine." The horrible
truth then burst upon the train men that
they were hauling a whole car load of
that terrible explosive compound, nitro
glycerine. The car was side-tracked
and left at Granger, where a spur track
was built, and the car run out upon it
away from the main deck. It will re
main there, and the citizens aud railroad
officials are alike at a loss to know what
to do with it. The car is consigned to
some firm in San Francisco, but the
shippers cannot be found, although the
company have made most stringent
eflorts to discover them. The owners
are respectfully requested to come for
wrad, prove property, and take it away.
Perry's Flagship.
The remains are a queer looking mass.
The port side has been cut down nearly
to the keel, planking having been torn
off and ribs sawed off by those who
thought it was no harm to steal a piece
of wood off the Lawrence, and this has
been kept up until at least a tlurd of her
bottom has gone. The Lawrence lay
on her starboard side, and that side is,
therefore, tolerably whole to her deck
beams (upper works all gone years ago),
and the timber is, in general, sound and
m good condition, but is a purple black
the result of the action of the water.
Of the twenty-seven killed in that
naval engagement twenty-two were
killed on the Lawrence, on board of
which was the intrepid Perry. The
Lawrence was one hundred feet long,
twenty-eight feet beam, and nine feet
depth of hold. In her time she was a
model war vessel, but in these days of
iron-clads, monitor rams and heavy ar
mament she would not last as long in an
engagement as a yawl boat in a hurri
caue. She fulfilled her mission, how
ever, and gave our English cousins
cause to remember her contemporary
and Perry's famous victory.
An Analysis of Love.
As a frisky colored youth was walking
up Ulay street, VicKsburg, the jieraia
tells us, he was accosted by a colored
acquaintance, who remarked:
" Well, lirutus, dey Bay you iz in
love?"
" I iz, Uncle Abra'ra I don't deny
the alleged allegation."
"And how does you feel, lirutus? '
"Youhas stuffed your elbow agin a
post or sumthin' afore now, hasn't you,
Uncle Abra'm ?"
"I reckon.
" And you remembers do feolm' dat
runs up yer arm ?"
" 1 does.
Well, take dat feelin', add a hun
dred per cent., mix it wid de nicest ha'r
oil in town, sweeten wid honey, and den
you kin magine how I feel i
Trousseaux.
New wedding dresses, says a fashion
journal, are of soft lusterless faille, trim
med with a galloon of white tulle
wrought with pearls, and also with pioot
ereoe lisse that is scalloped and fin
ishedwith a narrow " purl edging" or
braid. These dresses have square court
trains, elaborate tabueis, aud cuirass
basques. The flowers are white crushed
roses and eglantine. Fichus and scarf
sashes are on other wedding dresses and
on the tulle dresses ot bridemaids.
Keen your patient alive," said an
old doctor to a graduating clivss of stu
dents. Dead men pay uo Dills,
(Jolting Married.
Every young girl, now-a-days, expects
to get a rich husband, and, therefore,
rich men ought to be abundant. In the
country we admit that girls are some
times brought up with an idea of work,
aud with a suspicion that each may
chance to win n steady, sober, good
looking, industrious young man, who
will he compelled to earn by severe
labor the subsistence of himself and
family. There are not so many brought
up with such ideas now, even in this
country, as thero used to be ; but there
are some, aud they, consequently, learn
now to become worthy helpmates to
sueh worthy partners. "But m town it
is different. From tho highest to the
lowest class in life the prevailing idea
with all is that marriage is to lift them
at once above all necessity for exertion,
and even tho eervaut girl dresses and
reasons as if she entertained a romautio
confidence in her Cinderella-like destiny
of marrying a prince, or, at least, of
being fallen in love with and married
by some wealthy gentleman if not by
some nobleman iu disguise.
That is why so many young men lear
to marry. The young women they meet
are all so imbued with notions of mar
riage so utterly incompatible with tho
ordinary relations of life in their station;
they are so wholly inexperienced m tho
eaonomy of the household ; they have
been taught, or have taught themselves,
such a " noble disdain " for all kinds of '
family industry ; they have acquired
such expectations of lady-like ease and
elegance in the matrimonial connection,
that to wed any one of them is to secure
a life long lease of domestic uuhappi
ness, and purchase wretchedness,
poverty and despair.
All this is wrong and should be amend
ed. Such fallacies do not - become a
sensible people. Our grandfathers and
mothers had more wisdom than this.
The present age is much too fast a one
iu this respect. Let us sober down a
little. Let every young woman be
taught ideas of life and expectations in
marriage suitable to condition, and she
will not be so often disappointed.
Should she be fortunate and wed above
that condition, she may readily learn
the new duties becoming to it, and will
not have been injured by having pos
sessed herself of those fitting a station
below. Let her anticipate always a
marriage with one in the humbler walks
of life and then should Bhe happen to
do better her good fortune will be more
delightful.
A Sight Among Vikings.
The scene is laid in Gamie Norgc, in
Norway, visited by some English lady
travelers, one of whom describes it: I
have not told you of tho interruption of
our first night s repose in our new home.
Nestled in eider down and lulled by the
.la-era rtf Alaa. Mil t)l ivmii ill f 1 alovnptfl.
I had fallen fast asleep while sending
home thoughts and longings over tho
wild waters which we were so glad to be
done with. I woke suddenly, my heart
beating wildly with fright, to find tho
room quite dark and filled with a sound
so unearthly that for an instant I daro
not move. The cry ceased and arose
again long, weird, melancholy, dis
cordant. Before it died away I was at
the window with Janet, who was equally
startled and had hurried to my room
that we might meet the catastrophe to
gether. Again it came. This time
louder, nearer was taken up at some
distance, swelled into a horrid chorus
and ceased just as all tho neighboring
clocks struck twelve. " The watchman;
only the watchman, affirmed Janet.
She was right; and calming ourselves to
this bit of common sense we went to bed
again, to sleep till morning. Now please
don't think I exaggerated the hideous
unearthliness of the sound; how it can
proceed from human lungs I am at a loss
to imagine. I believe they do assist na
ture by using some kind of horn. Im
agine a number of donkeys, lunatic,
heart-broken and gifted with articula
tion, parading the streets at dead of
night to awake the inhabitants with the
information that the clocks are soon ex
pected to strike, that the wind is blow
ing (generally) southwest, and conse
quently rain pouring from a cloudy sky,
but that otherwise "all's well," and
everybody may go to sleep again im
agine all this, and you have au idea of
what the Bergenese endure every hour
of every night all the year round. I
never hear it without thinking of the
dead-carts plying tlirough the streets of
a plague-stricken city to the doleful cry:
" Bring out your dead."
Children in Factories.
An eminent Englishman of science re
ports, after careful investigation, that
the physical stamina of the children em
ployed in factories is steadily deteriorat-
' mi.:- a i. L .. 1 i 4.1, n 1, 1
lUg. J.U1B la ULliriuuteu luna iu iao utuu
labor these poor little creatures have to
undergo than to the wretched liabits of
the factory operatives. Too early mar
riages, slovenliness, intemperance, want
proper open air exercise, and the ex
cessive use of tobacco, are noted, as main
causes of the deterioration. Whatever
the causes, the foot is an alarming one.
It is a serious question whether children
should be allowed to engage in exhaust
ing factory labor at all whether the de
votion to this hard work from an early
period is not in itself a prominent cause
of the bad habits observed. But, if
children are to be so employed, there is no
doubt that their hours of labor should be
limite 1, aud a further duty is cast on the
mill owners. T his is, to so loon alter the
habits of their operatives that the chil
dren may have a chance of entering upon
their cheerless life work with tolerable
good constitutions. In Germany parents
are not allowed to derive any income
from the labor of their children until
they have had a thoroughly good school
ing, and have grown well-nigh to man
hood ana womannooa ; tne consequence
is, that Germany contains both the
healthiest and most efficient race of
laboring young men and women in the
world. The English law is as yet notori
ously defloient in protecting the health
and condition of the children of the
manufacturing districts ; and unless
more vigorous reforms are made, the
prospect is that factory labor will be
came more weak and more scarce, while
the bill for parish relief will beoomo a
heavy burden to the taxpayers and a dis
couragement to the philanthropist.