.- 7 i M I. ' r -..! ' 1 ' I ' 'M. I HENRY A. PARSONS, Jr., Editor and Publisher. .NIL DESPERANDUM. Two Dollars per Annum. VOL. V. RIDGWAY, ELK COUNTY, PA., THUESDAY, JANUAKY 27, 1876. KO. 4oT . I t ' ' : 6 J? The Model Charcli. . . . Well, wife, I found the model church I I wor shiped there to-day I It made me think of good old times, Wore my hair was gray; The meetiu' house was fixed, up more than they were years ago, But then I felt when I went in, it wasn't built for show. . The sexton didn't eoat me away back by the door; ' He knew that I wag old and deaf, as well as old and poor; He must have been a Christian, because he led me through The long isles of that crowded church to find t a place and pew. : I wish you'd heard the eingin'; it had the old timo ring t . The preacher said, with a trumpet voice, " Let . all the people sing 1" The tune was Coronation, and the music up ward rolled, Till I thought I heard the angels striking all their harps of gold. My deafness scorned to melt away; my spirit caught the fire ; I joined my feeble, trombling voice with that melodious choir. And sang as in my youthful days, " Let angels prostrate fall; Bring forth the royal diadem and crown Him . Lord of all." I tell you, wife, it did me good to sing that hymn once more; I felt like sonio wrecked mariner, who gets a glimpse of shore; I almost wanted to lay down this weather beaten form. And anchor in the blossed port, forever from '' t'ja storm. The preaohin'? Well, I can't just tell all that the preacher said; I know it wasn't written; I know it wasn't read; lie hadn't time to read it, for the lighten' of his eyo Went flashiu' 'long from pew to pew, nor pass- ed a einner by. The sermon wasn't flowery; 'twas simple gospel truth ; It fitted poor old meu like mo; it fitted hopeful youth; 'Twas full of consolation, for weary hoarls that bloed ; Twas full of invitations to Christ, and not to creed. The preacher made sin hidoousin Gentiles and in Jews; He shot the golden sentences down in ,- . - - ' ; . And though I qpu't see vory well I saw the falling tear That told. m( bell was someways off, and heaven very near. How swift the gollen momenta fled, within that holy place ; How brightly beamed the light of Heaven from every happy face; Again I longed for that sweet time, when friend . shall meet with friend, " When congregations ne'er break up, and Sabbath has no end." I hope to meet that minister that congrega tion too In the dear home beyond the stars that ehino from heaven's blue; 1 doubt not I'll remember, beyond life's even lnggray, The happy hour of worship in that model .". cburqh to-day. Dear wife, the fight will soon be fought, the victory be won; The allium' goal is just ahead; the race is nearly run; O'er the river wo are nearing they are throng ing to tbo shore, To shout our safe arrival where the weary weep no mora. Autumn Blossoms. How was it that I came to bo an old bachelor ? Not because of hating women, I am sure, for I liked them very much, and never could have spoken to one rudely or discourteously for my life. As nearly as I know, it was in this wise: My father died, leaving a familv nt children, a wife, and an old father and mother, or whom only myself was able to earn a shilling. He had never saved anything. , 8o, after the first great grief, when we had calmed down ami were able to- look matters quietly in the face, there was a wretched sort of prospect for us. I was Nonly an accountant, and had a' young fellow's habit of wasting my small salary in'a thousand different, ways. I had been "paying attention," too, to Elsie Hall; who, young and childish as she was,' had a way that some girla do have of leading their admirers into extrava gance. Qf all the trials of that never-to-be-forgotten time, I think the greatest was appearing niggardly in those baby blue eyes. I did not mind wearing plain suita, discarding kid glovesand renounc ing the opera; but not to lay those bou quets, and. books, and musio, and dainty bits of jewelry, and multitudinous trifles at Elsie's feet, was a very terrible orde'al. I passed it, though; and if ever man had roaaon to do tnauKiui x had, lor the ac quisitive little beauty jilted me in a month for Tom Tandem, who.' was rich and lavish of gifts, and who ran away from her after a marriage of ten months. I worked day and night, and managed iu neejj mo won irom me door. Sometimes I used to think how well it was for Elsie that she had not really loved me, for she could have had noth ing but a dismal prospect of wearing out her youth in a dreary, hopeless engage went to one too poor to marry. , That was until Tom ran off. Then I thought it would have been even better for her to have shared our humble home and poor fare and the love I could have given her than to be deserted so. And I pitied her, as if she had not proved herself heartless. But I never , went near her, of course; and I never even spoke oi her to my mother. I grew no younger all this while, and every year seemed to add five to my looks. I had never been very handsome or very merry, and soon I became con- scions of a peculiar middle-aged look which settlos down upon some people very early. Strangers, too, began to take mo for the head of the family; and once, in a new neighborhood, the butcher alluded to "my wife." I found out that he meant my mother, and only wondered that it was not dear oia grannie. She was eighty, graudfather ninety, and they died one bright autumn day, before prosperity came to us, died with' in an hour of each other lor grannie just said : " I think 1 11 lie down a bit, now Jjemuel Uon t need me. 1 m very tired. Then she kissed me, and said " You've been a good boy to your grand- pa, Edward. You'll have that to think of." And when next we looked at her she was dead, with her cheek upon her hand like a Bleeping child. So two were gone, and we were sadder than before. And then Jean, my eldest sister, married at sixteen a physician who carried her off to Hindostan in her honeymoon. And we could none of us feel the wed ding a hnppy thing. But prosperity did come at last, had worked hard for it, and anything man makes his sole object in this life he in very sure to attain. Wo were comfortable easy. Ah what a word that is after years of strng gle 1 At last we were rich. But by that time 1 was iive-and-forty a large, dark J-UAVVIaU llW. 11IUU tTltlU HIUVjU IUI L U 1UWUVU to myself in the glass as though it were perpetually intent on figures. The girls were married. Dick had taken to the sea, and wo saw him once a year or so, and Ashton was at home with mother and myself the only really handsome member of our family, and lust two-and- twenty. And it was on his birthday, I remember, that that letter came to me from poor Hunter the letter which be gan : "When these lines reach you, Ned Sanford, I shall have my six feet of earth - all 1 ever owned or would if 1 had lived to be a hundred." Wo had been young together, though lie was really older than 1 ; and we had been close friends once, but a roving ht had seized him, and we had not met for years. I knew he had married young Kentish girl, and knew no more but now he told mo that she was dead and thai his death would leave a daugh ter an orphan. " She is not quite penniless," ho wrote ; "for her mother had a little in come, which, poor as I was, I was never brute enough to meddle with, and it has descended to her. But I have been a rolling stone, gathering no moss, all my lif-ft,iwvl we never staid long enough ia viiu piuuo bu uwbo .uiido. Will jrnu lx her gunrdian ? it is a dying man's last request And then he wrote some words, coming from his heart, I knew, which neing oi myseii, i cannot quote even here I could not think that I deserved them. And the result of that letter, and of another Irom the lawyer who had Annie Hunter's little fortune in chorge, was that one soft spring day found me on board of a steamer which lay at rest af ter her voyage in the protecting arms of i-iiverpooi, with two little hands in mine, and a pair of great brown eyes lifted to my face, and a sweet voice choked with sobs saying something of "poormiia.1 and of how much he had spoken of mo. and of the lovely voyage, and the green graves left behind ; and I, who had gone to meet a cnud and found a woman. looking at her and feeling toward her as I had never looked upon nor felt to any oilier. Not to Elsie Hall. . It was not the poyish love dream come again. . Analyzing the emotion, I found only a great longing to protect and comfort her to guard her from every pain and ill ; and I said to myself : " This is as a father must feel to a daughter ; I can be a parent to George Hunter's child uo every truth." And I took her home to the old house and to my old mother, thought only of' those; somehow, never thought of Ashton. Shall I ever forget how she brighten ed tho somber rooms 1 How, as her sadness wore away, she sang to us in me twilight How strangely a some thing which made the return home, and the long hours of the evening seem so much brighter than they had ever been before, stole into mv life ! I never went to sieep in church now; 1 Kept awake to look at Olive Hunter to listen to her pure contralto as she joined in the sine ing. Sometimes I caught her eye, her great unfathomable brown eye. for she had a habit of looking at me. Was she wondering how a face could be so stern and grim ? I used to ask myself. Ashton used to look at her also. He had been away when she first came to us, and when he returned she was a grand surprise to him. " Uh, how lovely sho is I ho had said to me. . " She is very pretty," I replied. Ashton laughed. " May I never be au old bachelor if it brings ma to calling such a girl very pretty,'" he said; and I felt conscious that my cheek flushed, aud: felt angry that ho should have spoken of me thus, though 1 nover cared before. lhev liked each other verv numb those two young things. They were together a great deal. A pretty picture - J mo , uuemu W1UUUW 1X1 the sunset. He a fair-headed, blue- eyed, Saxon looking youth; she so ex exquisitely dark and glowing. . Every one liked her. Even my old clerk, Stephen Hadley, used to Bay her presence lit the office more than a dozen lamps, the nearest approach to a poetical speech of which old Stephen was ever known to be guilty; and I never knew how much she was to me until one even ing, when, coming home earlier than usual, I saw in that Venetian window where Ashton and Olive had made so many pleasant pictures for me, one that I never forget that I never shall for get as long as I live.' She stood with her back to me. Ash ton was kneeling at her feet. The sound of the opening door dissolved the pio ture; but I had seen it, and I stole away to hide the etab that it had given me. 1 sat down in my own room and hid my face in my hands, and would have been glad to hide it beneath mv coffin- lid. I knew now that X loved Olive Hunter; that I loved her not as an old man might love a child, but as a young man might love the woman who ought to be his wife better than I had loved Elsie Hall; for it was not boyish pas sion, but earnest, heartfelt love. I in love I I arose and looked in the mirror, and my broad-shouldered reflec tion blushed before my gaze. The springtime of my life had flown, and my summer had come and gone, and in the autumn I had dreamt of love's bud and blossom. I knelt beside my bed and prayed that I might not hate my brother that I might not even envy him. His touch upon my door startled mo. He came in with something in his manner not usual to him, and sat down opposite me. For a few moments we were silent. Then he said, speaking rapidly and blushing like a girl: " Ned, old fellow, you you saw me niakiDg a fool of myself jnst now, I suppose ?" " I saw you on j'our knees," I said. " And thought me a silly fellow, eh f But you don't know, Ned. You can't understand you've been so calm and cool all your life through, you know. She's driving me mad. Ned, I do be lieve she likes me, but she won't say yes. I'd give my right hand for her love. I must have it, and I think you can help me, Ned. From something she said, I believe sho thinks you would disapprove; perhaps you are one of those old fellows who want every one to marry for money. Tell her you're not. Ned dear old fellow tell her you have no objection, and I'll never forget it in deed, I won't I" " Tell her I have no objection," I re peated, mechanically. " You know you are master here, and as much my father as if you really were one instead of a brother," said Ashton. " If I did not know how kindly you had always felt to us both, I shouldn't con fide in you, for it's a serious thing to be in love, Ned, and you may thank Heaven you know nothing about it." Know nothing about it. Ah, if he could have read my heart just then I " I'll do what I can, Ashton," I said at last. "I'll try my best." And he flung his arm about me in his own boyish fashion, and left me alone alone with my own thoughts. He had said truly; I had been like a father to him. I was old enough to be hers, and no one should know my silly dream. I would hide it while I lived. As I had said once : " I've only the old folks and the children now, I said then ; " I will only think of mother and of Ashton. Let my own lif e be as noth ing; I have lived for them if needs be. hi will die for them." But I would not seo pr speak to Olive that night, nor until the next, dajr wa quit tlonn. Then, in the twilight, I nut beside her and took her hand. " Olive," I said, "I think yon know that Ashton loves you. I am sure he has told you so. And you can you not love him ?" She drew her hand from mino, and said not one word. "I should rejoice in my brother's happiness. I should think him happier in having your love than auything else could make him. I told him I would tell you so. " And then she spoke. "You wish me to marry Ashton?" Beproach was in the tone reproach and sorrow. " If you can love him, Olive," I said. She arose. She seemed to shrink from me, though in tho dark I coiJd not see her face. "I do not love him," sho said. And we were still as death. Then sud denly Olive Hunter began to sob. " You have been very kind to mo. I love you all," sho said; "but I cannot stay here now. Please to let me go somewhere else. I must I cannot live here." "Go from us, Olive?" I said. " Nay. we are not tyrants: and once assured you do not love him, Ashton will " " Husn !' Bhe pleaded " hush 1 Please let me go away ! Please let mo go away !" Tho mooa was rising. Her new-hnrn light fell upon Olive's face. Perhaps its whiteness made her look palo. She leaned against the wall with lmr little hand upon her heart, her unfath omable eyes full of pain. How had I hurt so ? A new thought struck me. "Perhnrm you love some ona plan. Olive?" And at that she turned her face from me, and hid it in her hands. " loo much too much. You miVht have saved me that," she said. "Let me go away. I wish you had never brought me here." And 1 arose and went to her. I bent over the woman I loved. I touched her with my hand; her soft hair brushed my cheek. "Olive." I said. " if coming hera has brought pain upon you, I wish I had not. I would have died to make you happy." ' And my voice trembled, and mv hand shook, and she turned her face towards me again and looked into my eyes. What she saw in mine I do not know the truth, I think. In hers I read this : I was not old to her ; not too old to be loved. I stole my arm about her, she did not untwine it. I uttered her name. "Olive," huskily. Afterwards I told herj of my.' struggle with myself, not then. I said : " Olive, I love you, but it cannot be that you care for me. I am old enough to be your father." And again I saw in her eyes the happy truth and took her to jiy heart. But we kept our secret for a while. for we both loved Ashton, and both knew that this wound was not too doeD to find a balm ; and within a year, when me Doy Drought home a bride, a pretty creature whom he loved, and who loved him, I claimed Olive. And she is mine now : and the autumn blossoms of my heart will only fade on earth to bloom again through all eternity in paradise. Mrs. Timntbv M. Allwrv nf TTarttrwA who has been blind for seven years. Iihh had an operation which partially 're stores her sight. One of the first things that astonished har u tn haa hm iA all her friends had grown ; the nei't was me qneer neaa dress lasiuons of the women. What tlicy Wore. Among the handsomest dresses worn by ladies present at the leading stylish party in New York the infant osvlmn ball was a pearl blue silk with four bias flounces put on lengtnwise instead of across. The flounces were very full. standing straight out at the back, the skirt was pulled bacK vory tight and covered with a long blue tulle overskirt edged with silver fringe and adorned at the hip with a wreath oi berries and ivy. Pearls and coral wore the jewels worn. Another lady wore a dress of navy blue velvet and salmon oolored silk, with a train composed in equal parts of velvet and silk, and trimmed with silver and velvtt leaves. The-sleeves were shirred botweon bands of vclvot, and were cut short to the elbows and trimmed with point applique and tulle. A dress of flesh colored silk and maroon velvet and one of black nok over black silk, the train inserted inW the skirt, which was tied back very tfehtly so as to show a little pocket, matle of moss leaves and roses and supported by two strings of roses, were two'ol tho Handsomest in mo nan. Anoiner aress, wnicn was much admired, was of white tarletau over white glaon silk, one side very tightly shirred, and tho other trimmed with a number oi little flounces extend ing back to a long train formed of four large bouillionsof tarletau. The corsage, out low, was primmed with Spanish Dionae and uanasK ana blush roses, worn in a bunth in froht. A dress, known as a matteau de ccour, of sap phire blue faille and velvet, trimmed with velvet foliige and plaited tulle. covered with a lace flounce, was worn by a lady in rtne of the front boxes. Most of the dresses were worn with high necks and very long trains, the latter thrown grac6lidly over the arm while their wearers were dancing. A Jfe Year's Diary. The Detroit Frea Press says : A large number of the Detroit young men have purchased diaries for 1876, and have taken up their pencils with a firm de termination t keep track of every day in the year, y Every young man should keep a diary. When he is old and gray his grandohililren will fish it out of the rag bag and find it more valuable than gold or silver, There is no set style of jotting down thoughts and events, but perhaps it zaay be well to give the record of 1875 as taken from the pocket diary of an average young man : "Jannarjj 1 Wont to see my girl. Shall leave off swearing, drinking, euchre, smoking, chewing, being out nights, bettifig, going to the opera, and shall try to swe $10,000 this year." " January T ,ert to see , my girl. Lost a box of cigars somewhere." "February 1 Won 825 betting on a dog fight. Thft's the way to scoop 'em. Am trying to get along oil fifteen cigars per day. Weit to see my girl. She says I shouldn't swear." "April 20 Vent to see my girl. Nothing new." "July 1 Thii is the glorious Fourth. " " September Went to see my girl." "November 11 Glorious weather. Went to see my girl." "December I This is tho firet of December." "December 55 This is Christmas." " December 31 This is the last day of the year. I uust commence to-morrow to save mony and break off my bad habits. Went t see my girl last night, and made her hippy by telling her that I was going to save $10,000 next year." A Disgusted Miner. Frank Gobdwir, a Black Hills miner, arrived in St. ioe, in tho condition known among financiers as busted. Goodwin says he left Baltimoro, Md., last summer and arrived in Omaha about the first of August. From that point, in compamy with four others, ho set out for the Black Hills, lured by the promise of gold held out by that new country. From Chey enne the party proceeded on horseback to the hills, experiencing little or no difficulty in runriug the gauntlet of United States soldiers. Goodwin and his comrades made a thorough survey of the country, but nut with little or no gold. At last, completely impoverished, thoy returned to Omaha to engage in a more legitimate pursuit of wfcalth. Goodwin says that Omaha is crowded with returning miners ; that there are fully one hundred in the city at this time. As for himself, he ia completely disgusted with gold hunting. He says there ia some surface gold to be found in the Black Hills territory, but then only in exceedingly small quantities. Goodwin is a native of Maryland, is about twenty-four years of age and a painter by trade. Leap Year Parties. Louisiana, Mo., leads in the leap year festivities. The young ladies of the Harmonica club gave a centennial leap year hop January 1st. The young gen tlemen were invited by the ladies and requested to assemble at a certain dry goods store, where the girls called at the appointed hour and escorted them in an omnibus to the hall. Instead of gentle men rushing around with pencil in hand to mark engagements on the pro grammes the order of the evening was reversed and the fair damsels besieged their gentlemen guests, calling for their cards and engaging their partners for the different dances. When the inter mission for refreshments arrived, fair ladies were to be seen leading brave men to the oyster supper. Supper was served under the hall, where the girls showed true leap year grit by paying for the Doys supper, xue gntiemen wore their ooats pinned back, and were ad dressed as "miss," while the bewitoh ing ladies assumed the role of "mister." It was altogether an enjoyable affair, and conducted throughout in genuine leap year style. Not t i be Sold. The Fall Mall Gazette, of London, has a special telegram from Copenhagen as follows : I am authorized to contra dict the report of the proposed sale of the island of St. Thomas, in the West Indies, to Germany. The idea was moot ed in 1873 of exchanging St. Thomas for North Schleswig, but was dismissed as impracticable. A Colorado Zephyr. They have some furious winds, or, as the local papers call them, zephyrs, out West. The Denver News tells us of ono in Colorado that is worth an item. It says: The heavy wind . registered on Pike's peak the other day seems to have struck earth about tmcharas, and judg ing from the reports received from that quarter it must have been a pretty se vere zopnyr. uonsidorablo damaga was done along its track, and all work and business was perforce suspended during the prevalence of the gnlo. A Cucharas correspondent of the Chieftain relates the following among other elleots of the storm: "While the proprietor of the Cucharas sample room was at breakfast ono morning, the back door of his os tablishmont was burst open by the force of the wind, and his bar and bar fix tures were carried through the front window and scattered over the broad pampas in wild and dire confusion, Mr. Mitchell? one of tho leading mer chants here, has been engaged all the morning removing his goods from the shelves and putting them in a place of safety. His house sways and vibrates so much that he fears it may go down at any moment." Ho also relates a touching story of a mule being blown out of its harness, at a grading camp, and carried away bodily. Tho same paper also learns from a gentleman just arrived from Waisonburg that tho most tremendous storm of wind ever known in that section commenced about day light in the morning. The air was full of flying dust, the roar of tho hurricane was deafening, and it was almost impos sible to stand on one's feet on account of tho power of the storm. Houses were unroofed, and the timely use of ropes alone saved the xpot of tho Masonic Hall from being carried out on the prairie. Doors and windows were blown in in all parts of the town, outbuildings over turned and uuroofed, and the whole place looks as though it had experienced a heavy bombardment. Fortunately during all the uproar no ono was in jured, though the air is said at times to have been full of flying boards, shin gles, etc. Stopping a Panic. In the spring of 1864, says a writer, we wore marching along in a broken woody country in southern Arkansas, southward, when one day the infantry, about two hundred strong, acting as es cort to my mule train of about one hun dred and sixty wagons, was moving just in advance of it. As they passed a sharp turn in the road by a corner of a field fence a strong body of the enemy suddenly ruehad out from the timber and brush and attacked them, killine and wounding the officers and some men and two of tho threo musicians. Our escort was thrown into confusion and ran back; so did the little drummer boy, with hi3 drum over his shoulder. The head of my train was just approach ing the turn of tho road, but I had now halted. Fivo of ua myself, clerks, and orderly were sitting on our horses, re volvers in hand, as the infantry came running back toward us; but tho little drummer boy, on arriving at the fence corner just before me, looked up, bare headed as ho was, and, seeing us and the train, at onco wheeled round and be gan beating the "long roll," which means " fall into line. The little black-haired fellow plaved his level best, and the flying men hear ing the roll call, and seeing the brave boy beating so furiously and resolutely, with his face to the approaching enemy, began falling into line, and soon nearly all of them were in battle order and blazing away at the coming enemy. The drum, however, could still be heard above tho din and rattle of the mus ketry. Wo discharged our revolvers at the enemy across the comer of tho field fence, and the fire of our now rallied escort was so hot and effective that the enemy soon n treated and ran into the timber out of sight, leaving many dead and wounded. I roda up to the little drummer boy. and. patting him on his head, told him he ought to have a cap tain's commission, for he by his coolness and courage had stopped the panic and saved the train from capture. "Well," said he, " the long roll will stop a panic if anything will." That Butter Compound. Tho butter compound man has now turned up iu Connecticut. Ohio was not long ago the headquarters of the stuff, but its star, unlike that of empire, wena us way eastward. II people would take a commou sense view of such things, they would not write to ask our opinion, says tho Agricutturiat. The circular claims that butter uudistin guishablo from tho true article can bo made at a cost .never exceeding four cents per pound.' Now, if there was any truth in this claim, do you suppose that the makers of the compound would send out elaborate circulars entreating people to buy the compound, a box of which will make one hundred pounds of butter, ot fifty cents wholesale ? Not much. They would make the butter themselves. On ono hundred pounds of butter costing four ceuts per pound, thoy would mako from 820 to $25 at fair market rates, while by selling the compound, if it were all profit, they make only fifty cents. That tub hold water. won t A Tramp Turns Hangman. Thomas Love was arrested in Worces ter, Mass., for a peculiar crime. Love is a vagrant, with no ostensible means of support, and has port of the time lived on the bounty of A. J. Duncan, who re sides in Worcester. The other morning Mr. Duncan went to his barn to feed his cattle, not in the meantime seeing Love, and, after he had finished, came down on a ladder from the loft, going down backwards. When Mr. Duncan had nearly reached the foot he felt a rope touch his head, and a slip -noose was thrown around his neck. Mr. Duncan turned round and found himself in the toils of Love. Love had a long rope and one end around the neck of Duncan. Love pulled at the other end fiercely. A struggle ensued which ended in the escape of Duncan from an untimely end and the hasty flight of Love from the barn. Love was captured. Living in Cities. At the late annual meeting of the American Social Science Convention, the committeo on social economy in their report made the following slate ment: In general terms it may be said that mere were in 1870, when tho last na tiona census was taken, about sixty cities in me united Btatos witn a popu lation exceeding 25,000, of which seven .New York, Philadelphia. Brooklyn. St. Louis, Chicago, Baltimoro, and Bos ton had each a population exceeding 250,000, and seven more Cincinnati. New Orleans, Sau Francisco, Washing ton, Newark, Buffalo, and Louisville had a population of more than 100,000 each, lhe aggregate population of tho hrst-named seven, then soniowhat ex ceeded 3,200,000, Now York alone con taining 942,292. The aggregate popu lation of the second group of seven cities did not quite reach 1,000,000, Cincin nati, the largest, containing 216,239 in habitants. The remaining cities of the sixty had Bn aggregate population of about 2,000,000, so that tho wholourban population of the United States dwelling in towns of more than 25,000 people wns not tar from 6,200,000, or nearly one sixth part of the whole population"of the United States. So rapid is the increase or. our urban population, however, that in the year 1875 the eight cities contain ing more than a quarter of a million in habitants each have an aggregate popu lation of not less than 4,000,000; the ten or twelve cities containing more than 100,000 inhabitants each have au aggre gate population of more than 1,500,000, and the seventy or eighty cities ranking above the 25,000 standard hnve prob ably more than 8,000,000 inhabitants, or nearly one-fifth of the whole present populatiou of tho United States. Ten years hence it is probable that the Uni ted States will have a hundred cities larger than Boston was at the beginning of the century, and that nearly a fourth part of all our people will dwell in such cilies. Hence tho great and growing importance of the question wo are now considering tho ownership, situation, and quality of the homes iu which so many millions of our pooplo aro to livo and where their children are to be brought up. Shall they be tenement houses like thoso of New York and Bos ton, in which so many of tho industrial classes now dwell, or shall they be small er houses in better localities owned by the occupants, like tho hutnbla homes of Chicago, Philadelphia, Syracuse, De troit, Worcester, and so many of the smaller American cities ? How Uabbciles are Carried Out. The New York 2V&!nehastho follow ing : The other day in Hartford, Conn. , a banking house wua robbed in broad daylight of some $4,100 in cash nnd a large amount of valuable securities. The sufferers kept to themselves tho fact of the robbery, and quietly went to work to recover so much of the stolen proper ty as they could. It is now snid that shortly after the robbery a well-known attorney of New York city, of some prominence as a politician, put himself in communication with tho victims of tho robbery for the purpose of negotia ting a settlement between them and cer tain clients of his who had possession of the securities and the cash, tho object being to arrange for the return of the securities upon payment of a stipulated sum. The negotiations ended in the payment of $1,250 in addition to the $4,100 cash proceeds of the robbery, and the return to the bunk of the securi ties stolen. So that as the mat er stands, these clients of tho attorney, having planned and carried out their littlo en terprise, and found themselves in possession, among other proceeds of the same, of certain securities which thoy could not use and which were of no value except to the owner, went immedi ately to their attorney, and informing him of all the facts employed him to what f Weil, to the unprofessional mind it looks very much as though they em- Eloycd him to finish up the work they ad only partly done, to secure for them not only immunity for the offense but $1,250 additional profits from the rob bery. That is the way it appears to the unprofessional mind, but wo are aware that the relation of counsel and client is not thoroughly apprehended by the average layman. Thoy " retained " the legal gentleman, then as their counsel and attorney. Keeping up Appearances. A touching incident is related in a St. Louis paper of the way a little girl in the public school attempted to " keep up appearances. " The pupils were ac customed to bring their luncheon, which at noon they ate together, but ono day the teacher noticed that this little girl looked wistfully at her companions as they went out with their lunch, but never brought any herself. The child was neatly but poorly clad, and always attentive to her studies. On another occasion the toacher observed that the little thing had apparently brought her lunch with her; but when the noon hour came she still remained in her scat, with the package wrapped in paper on the desk before hr. The teacher went to the child and asked her why she did not go out with the rest, at the same time putting out her hand toward the package. Quick as thought, the little girl clasped her hands over it, and ex claimed, Bobbin gly : "Don't touch it, teacher, and don t tell, please I it s only blocks." And that was the fact. Having no dinner too bring, and too proud to reveal the poverty of her fami ly, the child had carefully wrapped up a number of small blocks in paper, and brought the package to present the ap pearance of a lunch. Came Back. Newport ia excited over a curious matrimonial complication. Some forty years ogo- three-day-old bride suddenly and mysteriously disappeared. Some time after she returned, announced that she had obtained a divorce, and again vanished. Nearly half a century goes by, and the husband has now a family and is rich. The other day, after forty years of silence, she put in an appear ance and asked for her husband, claim ing that her story about a divorce was a falsehood. The matter will probably oome before the courts. Items of Interest. Seeing is not believing. There are many men you can see, and yet cannot believe. A beautiful seven inch centipede will be one of Texas' contributions to the centennial. " But fow men can haudlo a hot lamp chimney, and say there is no place lik home, ai the same time." Louisa Alcott used to feel that it was a mistake that she was born a girl, be cause she did not like girls and did like boys. The wonderful man in Detroit who puzzles the doctors by being able to make his heart shift sides cau rest as sured that he will be beautifully cut up as soon as he dies. Mr. Meagher, the present owner, has offered to the Centennial commissioners a portion of the gallows on which tho thirty-eight Sioux Indians wero execu ted in Mankato in 1862. " Why," asks an exchauge, " do they bury a Japanese with his head down ward when ho dies?" We really don't kno, unless it is because they think that's the only proper time to do it. A pauper inmato of Horsham work house, England, died on Christmas day from tho effects of gluttony. He attack ed his Christmas dinner so ravenously that in a few minutes he was choked. Snowfalls under a cloudless sky aro common in Virginia City, puzzling strangeis. The snow is blown from Mount Davidson, which is close by the town, and is whirled through the streets by the wind. A Richmond paper says that in that vicinity they no longer say " sinco the wa" or " befo' the wa, but use the earthquake as the marking stone for dates, as: "That happened befo the earthquake." Au exchange says : The other day. when they stopped the Columbus con victs from making counterfeit nickels. the said convict3 rolled up their eyes and sighed : " How worry wirtuous they expect a jailbird to be I" The United States ships St. Lawrenco and Macedonian were sold at auction at Norfolk recently. rfThe former brought $17,900, and tho latter $14,071. Thesi are among the oldest ships in the navy, and have been famous in their day. A San Francisco saloon keeper, grate ful for business prosperity, gave to each patron a bottlo of whisky. Lewis Loseo finished his bottle, went home drunk, and whipped his wife to death, inflicting nearly two hundred great and small wounds. It is said that since his release from confinement, Brigham Young nets ns a changod man. It is only necessary for one of his wives to bint that the fire is getting low, and he will trot crut to tho woodshed as if ho was thankful for tho exercise. Commodore Stephon Decatur who died lately at Boston, when three of his m igh- bors were attacked by ship fever, and no one dared to nurse them, tended them through their illness, aud when they died he dug tho graves and buried their bodies himself, reading the funeral ser vices over them. You just imagino fivo big loafers working all Saturday night and Sundtiy to pound a safe to pieces and divide np three cents and a bundle of Litters, and you have a faint idea of what took place in Iowa a few days ago. That much hard work on a woodpile would have returned $10 in canli. A rhymo for " month " is now iu de mand. Here is one that is very old, but the best wo know of : " I've tried a hundred times I guess, To find a rhyme for mouth ; I've failed a hundred times, I know, But suoceeded the hundredth and one-th." While service was being conducted iu the parish church of Cherry Burton, an English village, the other morning, the clock weight came crashing through tho belfry roof and alighted on a young girl, housemaid at the rectory, who was in jured beyond hope of recovery. A young man sitting hy her was also hurt severe ly. The rope on which tho weight was hung was renewed only the week before. The two injurod were to have been mar ried the next day. Mrs. Buffington was missed by her family, in Lausiugburgh, N. Y., and, after an absence of three days, was found in a room of an otherwise unoccu pied house. She was standing in a cor ner, and sho begged to be allowed to stay there, declaring that the Lord and the devil hud commanded her to stand immovable until she died. She had nearly obeyed the imaginary injunction, for hunger, cold, and tho fatigue of the position had almost killed her. Limited Assets. The most complete failure on record is recorded of a man in Hatfield whose liabilities are some $21,000. Several of his creditors proved their claims tho other day. Tho assignee visited the place to inventory bis property, and found only sixteen spring chickens and an old wagon. Fearful that the chickens might take to thoir wings and fly away, he at once sold them fer seventy cents each; and being in for the whole job he bargained the old wagon for making total assets of $16.20 to offBet $21,000. As the expenses of settling ?he estate will be about $100, the remainder, be sides the $16.20, will be assessed upon thoso creditors who were so unfortunate as to prove their claims. A Court Case. The chief justice of Cape Colony, South Africa, has given a decision in a law suit of an unprecedented kind. Kruger sued Schalwyk for damages to reputa tion. A game of forfeits was iu progress at Schalwyk'B house, and Miss Schal wyk, a pretty damsel, incurred the penalty of having to kiss every man in the room. She kissed a dozen persons, but stopped the osculatory process when she came to Kruger. In the very next round of forfeit it devolved on Kruger to kiss Miss Schalwyk. Ue refused. The male Schalwyk then denounced Kruger aa a drunken Hottentot. Hence the suit, which resulted in a farthing damages for the plaintiff.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers