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HENRY A. PARSONS, Jr., Editor and Publisher. NIL DESPERANDUM. Two Dollars per Annum.
VOL. VI. RIDGWAY, ELK COUNTY, PA., THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 1870. NO, 5.
Willfulness.
I offorod band and heart and self
To somebody a willful elf
Who beard me through, then turned away,
And answers! but a scornful " Nay 1"
In vain I strove to plead my eaee ;
No gentle pity touched ber face j
But listening with polite surprise,
Blioturnotl from mine her careless eyes.
Love driven back within my breast,
Pride volunteered to do the rest.
I oeasad to argue and implore,
And vowed to trouble her no more.
Then, lo 1 the maiden's cheeks grew red,
And downward bent the haughty bead i
The sweet lips loit their careless Bmile,
And quivorod as I paused the while.
A snddon hope within me grow i
I dare 1 to think her heart was true.
E'en though her lips, for miaohief a sake,
Had tried mv proffered heart to break.
Jut what I whisporod, never mind 1
But she she answered : "Men are bliud :
When will they learn a woman's nay
By dint of ooaxing means bnt yea ?"
A TURQUOIS RING.
Hattio Thorpe, the nursery governess,
sat playing at building block houses
with her two little chargos, Artie, aged
nine, and Louis, aged seven. She was
only eighteen herself a tiny girl for
that ago, with a sweet face, and evident
ly so much of a child that it seemed
perfectly natural to see her withyoanger
children, and as much interested in
their childish games as themselves. A
most efficient nursery governess Mrs.
Langley found her, as she gave the chil
dren their reading and spelling lessons
daily, and played with them at addition
and subtraction in a way to make the
horrors of arithmetic quite fascinating.
She slept in their room at night, dressed
them in the mornings, and romped with
them all day, us well as kept a gentle
surveillance over them at the table,
wheie she always eat with the family,
except on grand company occasions,
when she disappeared with them into a
small temporary salon, where the three
dined together, enjoying these meals
most of any.
As Nelly Langley told her cousin Ed
ward, with a laugh, sho was not even
called upon to play the part of elder sis
ter except when sho was in the humor.
It was a perfect comfort to have a girl
like Hattio. She took all responsibility
abont the children off one's mind.
Mr. Edward Montague was a wealthy
young man, and, indeed, the great catch
of the set in which Miss Langley was a
bright, particular star; and that ambi
tious young lady left nothing undone to
captivate the heir of the family; be
sides which she greatly admired her
cousin, and was as deeply in love with
him as any society young lady permits
herself to be before marriage or a posi
tive engagement warrants an extrava
gant amount of feeling.
The cousins smiled at each other as
their eyes met, after a minute's survey
of the three children playing block
houses. Nelly put out her hand as if
inspired to assist at the game; and then,
catching sight of her slender forefinger,
sho uttered an exclamation.
" Oh, my ring ! my lovely ring,
Cousin Edward, that you gave me 1"
' Have you lost it '" the gentleman
inquired, languidly.
" I hope not this time. It has been
mislaid so often, and turned up again.
But I shall lose it some time, 1 know.
I'm unfortunate about it. You see, on
account of the pearls, I take it off every
time I wash my hands, and then I forg. t
to put it on again."
"Pooh! It isn't lost, Nelly. Send
Miss Thorpe to see if you have left it on
your dressing table."
Miss Thorpe didn't wait to bo seut,
but ran away at once to look for the
missing trinket. It was a lovely ring,
and many a time little Hattio had looked
on it with almost covetous glances,
longing for Mich a ring to wear oh her
own pretty finger. She returned from
her quest in a few minutes, looking dis
appointed, and saying sho couldn't find
it anywhere.
" You couldn't have half looked," the
young lady declared, impatiently, " be
cause I know I left it on the dressing
table. I remember quite well now, and
so must you, riattie. It was just before
dinner, and you were there, because
you dressed my hah'. Go again, Hat
tio, and look on the window sill ; it's
just possible I might have laid it
there."
Hattie went, and was gone a long
time ; but she came bank looking more
disappointed than before. She had
looked on the dressing table, on tho
buroau, behind the bureau, on the floor,
on the window sill everywhere ; but
not a vestige of the turquois ring oould
she find.
" How provoking I Was the window
open, did you uotioe ?"
"Yes, Miss Helen, the window was
open."
Then it must have fallen out. Come
with me, Edward, aud we will look ;"
and the pair went out together, while
Hattie and the boys resumed their em
ployment. Mr. Montague and Miss Langley
sauntered round the house, and looked
in the gross under her window, but
without success ; and then they plucked
roses, and playfully pelted each other
with them, and very soon forgot all
about what they came out for, and pro
ceeded to flirt and make love in a non
committal but delightful style, after the
most approved fashion made and pro
vided for suoh cases.
The new moon was glittering like a
silver sickle in the sky before they
thought of returning to the house; and
they were brought back to tho contem
plation of such an idea by Helen re
marking that the dew was falling, and
she dare not remain out any longer.
" And I haven't found my ring I They
call turquois a lucky stone; I'm sure
I've had the wrong kind of luck with
that one. Who could have taken it ? I
know I left it on the dressing table.
Home one has stolen it"
" Oh, nonsense, Nell; and never mind,
anyway. I'll get you another, and a
prettier one, without pearls on it, and
then you won't have to remove it all
the time."
Once or twice that evening, and again
the next day, Miss Langley spoke of
her missing ring; the servants were in
terrogated; mamma was complained to;
Artie and Louis were Ordered to divulge
its hiding place, if, in the spirit of prac
tical joking which those young gentle
men often indulged in, they had secreted
it; bnt questions, complaints, threats,
were all in vain; the turquois was
gone.
Something over a weok had passed
awny, and Edward Montague, in order
to redeem his promise to his cousin, had
ruu up to town, and wns returning in
tho late evening, carrying in his breast
pocket a small velvet case, inside of
which reposed a lovely turquois ring,
having on it Helen's initial in tiny dia
monds. It was such a lovely ring that
the salesman had smiled and given Ed
ward a knowing look, 8 if to intimate
that he knew it was intended as an en
gagement ring; and Edward, smiling t
himself as he walked up the garden
path rouud by the summer house and
toward the sido door, half determined
to ask his cousin, as he slipped it on her
fiuger, to wear it there in token of a
promise to give him not only that fiu
ger, but her whole hand and heart. As
he passed by the summer house tho
sound of smothered weeping fiom with
in smote painfully on his ear. Could it
be Helen I He rushed in, and nearly
stumbled over a little black bundle of
something that crouched on the floor,
with his head bent over its arms, crying
aud sobbing in a perfect tempest of
tears.
Edward nearly fell, aud did, in fact,
stumble, so that he caught the crouching
bundle of black, and as he steadied him
self he also picked it up aud set it on its
feet. And then, with the moonlight
shining on ita little flushed, tear-wet
face, and its luxuriant brown hair all
hanging about its shoulders, it proved
to be little Hattie Thorpe.
" Miss Thorpe I Why, I'm so sorry 1
Is any thing the matter?" Edward
asked, gently, fearing some misfortune
to the girl, or that she had lost some
relative ; for he waB not aware that the
little governess was fatherless and moth
erless, and without a blood relation in
the wide world.
Hattie'g tears and sobs redoubled ;
she placed her two hands before her
face, and sunk down on a seat in an at
titude of nhamo and despair.
"Do tell me what is the trouble," ho
said, kindly.
" Oh, Mr. Edward," sobbed the poor
child, " how can I say it ? Miss Helen
thinks 1 have stolen her turquois riug."
" Impossible I" exclaimed Edward,
shocked.
" Oh, yei, sir. Thank you, sir. It
is impossible, but she thinks so."
"Helen can't think anything so cruel.
I'm sure you must be mistaken."
" I'm not mistaken, sir. She said so,
plain, two or three times that I stole
her ring because you gave it to her, Mr.
Edward, and that I wonld like to steal
yon too."
iMlward laughed, but a warm blush
stole over his cheek. The silence be
came a trifle awkward, and too break it
he said :
"That's worse nonsense than the
other. You wouldn't steal me either,
would you!"
'I wouldn't steal anything, Mr. Ed
ward, of course ; and betides"
"I'm not worth stealing," Edward
interrupted.
" You are worth anything," cried lit
tle Hattie, with unnecessary fervor.
"But still you wouldn't steal me,"
said Edward, laughing.
"I couldn't, you know;" and the
large innocent eyes were raised appeal
iugly. "I'm not so sure of that," thought
Edward, unconsciously pressing the
soft little hands he still held between
his own. He bent over hpr in a gentle,
protecting way, and whispered :
" lou are a dear little thing, aud 1 m
sure you could do nothing in the world
but what is good and sweet like your
self." And then, what with the moon
light, which made the girl more child
like than ever, and the wet eyelashes
and pretty quivering mouth that
trembled like a baby's, and the two
faces being so close together, Edward
kissed little Hattie, and bade her not
cry any more, aud he would see her put
right in every way.
Hattie wasn't angry. He was just
like a nice big brother ; but she thrilled
aud trembled under his kiss, and she
dreamed all night of n lair young prince
with a beautiful torquois ring, and he
could find no finger that fitted it till he
tried it on hers just like Cinderella and
the little glass slipper. Edward was as
good as his word, and spoke to Helen
very seriously about the accusation she
had made against Miss Thorpe ; but that
didn't mend matters, for Helen really
believed that llattie bad stolen the ring.
aud was very indignant with her cousin
for asserting the contrary. A lovers'
quarrel was the result, and Edward
kept the new ring in hU pocket, aud de
layed the important question he had in
tended to put when presenting it.
Mis3 Langley had a scene with mam
ma, and iusisted that the little chit of a
governess, with her make-believe child
like ways, and her deceit and hypocrisy,
should be turned out of doors; but
mamma chose to take time to think
about that she knew she had a treasure,
and she wasn't going to throw it away
for the sake of a mere suspicion, possi
bly unfounded. Besides, she had con
scientious scruples about discharging
Miss Thorpe without a character, and
perhaps ruining her prospects in life.
Mrs. Langley very soon saw that
Helen was right, and that-Ed ward was
quite too much interested iu the little
governess; and Hattie received her dis
charge on the following day, being per
mitted to finish her week, to allow her
the opportunity of finding another roof
to shelter her poor, homeless head.
But we all know the fate of " vaulting
ambition," and even the cleverest mam
mas do at times o'erleap discretion, and
suffer in a similar way; and it happened
so on this occasion. If, as Mrs. Langley
and Helen declared, Hattie was playing
a deep game, these ladies threw her a
trump card aud played it for her. Ed
ward found the little governess crying
again: and this time her despair was
complete, for she was thrown on the
world with blemished reputation and the
suspicion of theft attached to her. The
young man overflowed with pity and in
dignation, and having been gradually
falling in love with the childish little
creature, her present misery brought his
feelings to a climax. He took posses
sion of her, bade her consider herself
Lis promised wife, and with many ten
der assurances and several kisses on the
trembling lips, vowed she should never
know care or trouble again. Then he
put the new turquois ring on her finger,
and ns tho diamond initial was H, little
Hattio did not know it had been first in
tended to signify Helen.
Edward was no hypocrite, but he was
angry with his aunt and cousin, and so
ho went away to town and did not con
fide to these ladies the news of his en
gagement; and Hattie had little induce
ment for confidence on her part.
Mrs. Langley believed Edward to be
really attached to Helen, and so he had
been, and was still to a certain extent;
sho made no effort to keep him, there
fore, feeling sure that he wonld soon re
turn of his own accord, and she was
quite as well pleased to have him away
from the house during Hattie's last
days there, for she felt convinced his
only danger from that quarter was in
constant association. Hattie was a dan
gerous girl to have iu the same house
with a young man of Edward's dispo
sition she was such a sweet, pretty
looking, babylike thiug, and he was so
good and kind aud generous. As for
the little governoRs, her behavior was
perfect, nut Mrs. Langley's heart smote
her often, and she determined to do her
best for Miss Thorpe, who took her dis
missal so well, and went about her
duties sadly and quietly, with such
sweetness and gentleness toward her
young pupils.
"Whatever I can do, Miss Thorpe,
you must command me," said Mrs.
Langley, on the morning she paid the
young girl's wages. "If yon should
need a reference, you know "
" I would send to you, madam, and
you would say I was a thief," Hattie
interrupted, bitterly.
" I would do nothing of the sort,
Miss Thorpe," and a faint blush tinged
the lady's pale cheek; " but if you
choose to bo impertinent "
" I have no such intention, madam;
aud for your favor I thank you, but I
don't think I shall require it.
The color on Mrs, Langley's cheek
deepened to an angry red; she bade
her little governess "Goo'd morning"
stiffly enough, feeling justly aggrieved ;
and so soon as they were aloue she re
marked to Miss Langley that such were
a lady's thanks for trying to be kind to
" that sort of person."
Hattie said, "Good morning, Miss
Helen," kissed Artie and Louis, who set
up an ear-piercing wail at losing her, and
then walked quietly away, leaving her
modest little box to be Bent after her.
At the New York terminus she was
met by Mr. Edward Montague, and
the two got into a close carriage, were
speedily driven to the house of a cleri
cal friend, aud in ten minutes more were
pronounced man and wife.
Edward had now been absent from his
aunt's for nearly a week, and the good
lady was getting anxious for his speedy
return. Sho was consulting with Mr.
Langley on the expedieucy of sending
him word to come back and finish his
visit, when a letter was placed in her
hands. The envelope was very elegant
and betrayed the natnro of its contents
at once. Mother and daughter smiled,
and Mrs. Langley said, breakiug tho
seal : "I wonder what two turtle doves
have paired now t"
A couple of cards dropped out that
solved the question at once, and not to
Mrs. Langley's satisfaction, for she be
came very pale. She sileutly passed the
cards to Miss Langley.
"I told you so, mamma the cnu
ning, deceitful little minx I" and the
young lady flung aside the harmless bits
of pasteboard as if they had burned
her.
"Nelly! Nelly! here's your ring!"
and Artie and Louis burst into the room
with shouts of triumph. " Where do
you think we found it f Why, Grip, the
crow, stole it, and we found it in a nest
of his, with lots of other things. Ain't
you glad to get it f "
Miss Helen dropped the ring at her
feet, and stamped viciously on it.
"I wish to Heaven I had never seen
it!" she said. " Luoky, indeed ? But
for that miserable turquois ring I would
have been his wife now."
The System of Awards.
The system of awards adopted by the
Centennial'commission of Philadelphia
is original, and appears to be one that
will give satisfaction. Two hundred
judges, one half of whom will be for
eigners and the other half citizens of
the United States, are being selected for
known good character and qualification,
and each will receive $1,000 for his ser
vices during the exposition. The
awards will be based upon merit, and
will be made by the United States com
missiou upon written ieports signed by
the awarding judges. They will con
sist of a diploma and a bronze medal,
accompanied by a special report of the
judges, which exhibitors will have the
right to reproduce and publish. Over
forty foreign nations and their colonies
will exhibit in the main building; most
of them also occupy space in the other
Erincipal buildings, and many of them
ave special structures. Thirteen of
them are over five thousand miles dis
tant from Philadelphia; seven over
seven, and two over ten thousand,
the latter being about as far as one
country can be separated from another.
Offices for the foreign commissions are
to be placed along the side aisles of the
main building, in close proximity to the
exhibits of their respective countries.
The following special events are to occur
during the exposition: Opening cere
monial, May 10; grand ceremonies of
the fourth of July; harvesting display
Bucks oounty, in June and July; trials
of steam plows and tillage implements,
in (ne aame place, in September and
October; exhibition of horses, mules
and asses, September 1 to 15; exhibition
of horned cattle, September 20 to Octo
ber 5; exhibition of sheep, swine, goats
and dogs, October 10 to 25, and the ex
hibition of pomltry, October 28 to No
vember 10. The main exhibition will
close on the tenth of November, and
all exhibits must be removed by the
thirty-first of December.
The Savage Prisoner Tamed.
He was sent to Sing Sing, branded
not only for immediate orime, bnt as a
desperate character, who would be cer
tain to tax the constant vigilance of the
authorities, and give them trouble.
In prison he beoame known as one
who knew well how to seize secret op
portunities, and would stop at nothing
to aid his escape back to his old sinful
life. Ouce he actually did escape, and
carried out his plan so shrewdly that he
arrived in New York, nailed up in a shoe
box, on board one of the Hudson
sloops.
Some time after his capture and return
to his old quarters, new officers were ap
pointed ovor the prison, aud the severity
of its discipline greatly increased. This
convict, being already a marked man,
seemed to bo singled out as a special
subject for punishment, and sometimes
received the lash without mercy for dis
orders or offenses against prison rules
which others had oommitted. Any fault
or provocation which the keepers could
not trace they laid to him, and made him
suffer accordingly.
Bad as he was, this persecution made
him worse. All the demon in him
awoke. When they tried to break his
rebellious spirit by harsher inflictions,
he only grew more ferocious, and, at
last, when, one day, a squad of keepers,
armed with implements of punishment,
approached the forgo where he was at
work, he attacked them with his red-hot
iron, wounded two, and drove the rest
away.
By the help of several fellow convicts
he was finally overpowered and secured,
and then followed the inevitable lash.
He was whipped nntilhe could not stand,
and then confined till he should recover,
only to be taken out and whipped again.
But before this sentence could be
carried out, the prison inspectors in
quired iuto the caso, and found that the
blame had been misplaced. The result
was another change in the prison govern
mnnt, and keepers who treated the old
olTonder with fairness and mercy.
Under this management he improved
so much that, from being the oontinual
object of dread and suspicion, and al
most a wild beast in ferocity, ho became
a favorite with all, gentle, tractable,
quiet and obedient.
As a reward for his good behavior, the
warden promoted him, gave him a little
garden to cultivate in the prison yard,
aud allowed him to raise chickens. The
chaplain warmly befriended him, and
erelong had the pleasure of seeing him
deeply interested in religious things.
Before the term of his sentence ex
pired he became a decided Christian, and
asked for baptism. Within the walls of
Sing Sing a new life opened to the hard
ened transgressor, who had grown up
from a neglected street boy, and had
never known, till he- became a oonvict,
the teachings of the Gospel.
The gentleness which that Gospel in
spires first softened his heart, and made
him listen to truths that saved his soul.
The above is, in brief, the story of
"Jim, the desperado," first published
in the columns of the Outlook, a religi
ous paper of New York. Jim was re
leased, aud became a preacher of right
eousness to the wicked class among
whom he had once been a fellow crimi
nal aud ringleader.
Currents In the Living Eye.
The existence of a continuous, though
sluggish, current in the eye, flowing
from behind forwards, has been demon
strated by Dr. Max Knies. The follow
ing was the method of investigation
pursued : A minute quantity of a solu
tion of potassic ferrocyanide was intro
duced into the posterior part of the
vitreous humor. After the lapse of from
one to four hours the animal was decapi
tated, and the eyeball soaked in a solu
tion of ierrio chloride ; it was then
hardened in alcohol, and subjected to
microscopic examination. The distribu
tion of the precipitate of Prussian blue
furnished evidence of the displacement
of the particles of ferrocyanide during
life, and betrayed the paths along which
it had traveled. The current mentioned
above was found to exist in the interior
of the lens as well as in the vitreous, tho
fluid required to nourish the former
percolating through the latter, and thus
following the 6omo course as the blood
in the hyaloid artery of the foetus. The
aqueous humor consists partly of a tran
sudation from the ciliary body, partly
of liquid which has made its way through
the lens and vitreous. It serves to
nourish the cornea. The nntrient fluid,
whether in the vitreous, in tho lens, or
in the cornea, is conveyed along the
intercellular substance; and the author
is inolined to extend this proposition to
all the tissues of tho body, regarding
the intorstital substance everywhere as
the channel alone which the nutrient
juices are conveyed to the corpuscular
elements of parenchyma or connective
tissue.
Confidence with Wives,
In connection with the reported re
remark of a gentleman, who said
he didn't believe the ladies he met iu
Washington street knew that the times
are dull, and that their husbands are
having a hard time to keep their heads
above water, the Boston Journal relates
the following: All husbands do not
make their financial affairs a topio of
conversation at home, and some better
halves know less of their husbands' af
fairs than they do of their neighbors'.
Some weeks since a lady was first in
formed of her husband's suspension by
reading an announcement in a paper
which she accidentally took up in a
store while waiting to have an order
filled. Whether it was pride or fear
that prompted the secrecy cannot be
stated, but what can be expected from
wives in the way of true economy if they
are only silent partners in the mitri
monial copartnership f In 1857 a large
jewelry firm sold a costly set of jewels
to a lady. The firm knew that her hus
band was in a failing condition, bnt the
lady had been a long and profitable cus
tomer. When the partner ordered his
elerk not to charge the set which had
been delivered, but to make a memoran
dum on the blotter, he paid the lady's
integrity a high compliment. When her
husband failed the jewelry (&mz back
with a note couched in such terms that
the 'dealer only regretted that a gift of
the set would be construed as an insult.
IN A WKSTERX POUT.
The Bxperleaee at Fart Pease where
Forty Men have Spent Months Fight ln
the Indian.
Fort Pease, the garrison which has
been relieved by the troops, is on the
west side of the Yellowstone river, six
miles below the mouth of the Big Horn
river, and is a strong fort. It was gor
risoned originally by one company of
forty men.
From the very first day of the occu
pancy of the fort, the Indians have been
around it, and have amused themselves
by shooting at the inhabitants. The
colonists had an old iron twelve-ponnder,
and when their guns would not reach
their annoying enemies the border men
threw a bolt of iron at the savages, and
laughed to see them run as the missile
went hissing and whistling through the
air. When the savages crowded and
came closer,- stones, old boots, shoes and
pieces of wood were fired, and kegs of
tenpenny nails were made to answer the
place of grape and canister. The old
iron gnn did not seem to be at all par
ticular about what it was loaded with, and
was most accommodating in hurling all
sorts of projectiles, to the evident dis
comfort aud -annoyance of the enemy.
How the Indians came to allow the
colonists to establish Fort Pease and the
colony is explained by the fact that they
were away at the time the fort was built,
and it wns some time before Sitting Bull
heard of it. Then he came over in great
wrath and ordered the fort to bo pulled
down, but the colonists threw a bolt of
iron at his head from the old twelve
pounder, and he retired to think about
it. Since that day Fort Pease has been
the grief of Sittiug Bull's heart, and he
oould not even get close enough to have
a good look at it for that old guu which
threw cord wood, stones, spikes, boots,
shoes, nails and everything at him.
The forty men of Fort Pease have,
perhaps, had as rough an experience as
ever fell to the lot of any settlers of a
new country. Almost constantly since
June last they have been in a state of
war. At times they were entirely shut
up, but occasionally rallying, they
would sally out tnd attempt to drive off
their assailants. In these battles they
lost six killed and nine wounded out of
their litttle band of forty souls. The
battles of these men would fill a volume.
The last man from the fort was Mr.
Hubbell, who came with letters to the
commander of Fort Ellis, from the men
of Pease, asking him to come and got
them out of the country. The garrison
divided; thirteen men coming out with
Mr. Hubbell and fourteen remaining. It
was not known if any party could get
throngh the Indian lines, but it was con
sidered prudent to risk only half the
garrison in .attempting to communicate
with the settlements and military posts.
A few days before Hubbell came out Mr.
McCormack started to come out and
bronght nine men with him to guard a
wagon. They waited a week for a storm
and started in the night in the midst of
a blinding snowstorm. The nine men
came forty miles with McCormack, whon
he told them to lay by until night and
then go back to the fort. They started
for the fort but have not. been heard
from since, and it is believed they were
surrounded by Indians and all killed.
Mr. McCormack and the man with him
got throngh toBozeman with the wagon,
laying by in the daytime and traveling
by night.
When the nine men who went out
with McCormack did not return the men
at the garrison became uneasy aud be
lieved they had all been killed. Mr.
Hubbell was surprised to find McCor
mack and the other man had got
throngh, and he now thinks the niue
men may have abandoned the idea of
going back to the fort and gone into tho
settlements at some other point.
Hubbell reports that after McCormack
left the Indians beoame very bold,
pushing up quite close to the walls of
the fort aud confining the men entirely
within the stockade. The ammunition
for the twelve pounder had given out,
and the besieged could drive the savages
'off but a short distance with their rifles.
One man, Jesse, who saw two Indians
warming at a fire, and evidently watch
ing the fort, was so enraged that he
crawled ont of the fort, and, creeping
up, shot one of the Indians dead and
wounded another, but his temerity cost
him his life, for before he could Ret
back into the stockade he was hoaded off
by other Indians, driven into some tim
ber, and there killed and scalped. The
Indians next morning called to the men
in the fort and said they had killed
Jesse aud the body was lying over in the
timber.
Sutler's Posts.
Au army officer, who has spent a great
many years on the frontier, and who has
long been familiar with the profits am
ing from these traderships, furnishes
tne following statement as to the num
ber and profit of these posts. The capi
tal necessary for a trader to start a
single post is $15,000. A five company
post of infantry or cavalry is called a
single post. The annual profits to' a
trader of a five-company cavalry post
ore about SjuO.UUU, with additional
profits derived from contracts for forage,
The profits at a single post from the sale
of croods alone amount to 84U.0UU,
Three posts, as they are managed by
most traders, yield from regular sales
fully $150,000. The best three posts
are Fort Laramie, with from six to ten
companies: Fort Sill, with ten compa
nies; Fort Buford, with from seven to
ten companies. These yield from fifty
to one hundred per cent, profit. Other
posts are Fort Russell and Fort Rich
ardson, eight companies; Fort Sully, six
oompames; Fori union, ten companies.
Treating Hydrophobia.
Chinese physicians treat hydrophobia
in a highly original manner. Two sand
stone bottles, half filled with wine or
spirits, are placed upon the fire until the
liquid boils. The contents are then
emptied, and the red-hot mouth of the
bottle is applied to the bite and held
there until it is filled with blood, when
the same course is pursued with the
other . bottle. A decoction of rice, in
which cantharides have been boiled for
an hour, and then .removed, is also
given to the patient, who is required
to keep perfectly quiet for eight or ten
days.
DRIFTING SABLY DRIFTING.
Tosncd Abont on the Oeenn ol Lire.
She was a fragment a bit of wreck,
or seaweed, drifting about on a great
ocean, which sometimes bore her calmly
forward, and again roared and raved
around her and took malicious pleasure
in dashing her against the cruel rocks.
A girl of twelve or thirteen ragged.
forlorn, wicked, and drifting on and on
and knowing not where, even if she
cared. Sin there ; poverty there ; wretch
edness and misery there. Everything
there in her heart and mind but a bright
hope. If she had ever seen one happy
hour in her life it Was some hour when
she sat in the sun without fear of the
foot of a brutal fattier or the fist of a
drunken mother. If she had ever
thought to shade her eves and peer into
the future, as some starving, drifting
sailor might draw himself up and scan
the glassy sea for sight of sail, she had
seen nothing but darkness not one
single hope that she would ever be better
fed or better loved.
Hearts which beat under rag some
times almost cease their beating to think
of the future. Eyes peer into the mist
shutting down over the path shadows
spring up and make the way darker, and
a sigh and a curse sets the heart freo to
beat again.
It is awful !
It is terrible for men and women and
children, each with a soul to be judged
and punishod and rewarded, to float on
the ocean of uncertainty to drift near
to green shores to be carried by some
current almost to the base of a beacon
light to feel tho sandy beach under
their feet, and thn bo carried to sea
again, with night shutting down to hide
them from rescue. Every city is such
a sea. Every such sea has its bits of
floating wreck and cruel rocks and reef.
Matted hair, ragged garments, the
playmate of the vile and an offspring of
the wicked and depraved, she heard a
hundred curses to one kind word. There
was no one on tho green shreto cast her
a line. There was no one at the beacon
light to understand hor heart. There
were scars where sticks and clubs had
forced to obey. There was hunger and
woe and wickedness, and the tiny splin
ter, shivered from some great hull, was
a toy for the vagrant currents androcen
tric eddies and roaring whirlpools which
beset the sea of vice.
Her offense was not great, yet why
send her back to abasement den to starve
and to receive further scars ? Good food
might bring her good thoughts. Better
treatment might make her heart better.
Imprisonment might be salvation.
When the audience went out a hand
had dipped down into the bubbling,
seething ocean and lifted up the bit of
wreck. It was tired of floating. Tho
treacherous reefs and jagged rocks were
bruising and reducing it. It may drift
again, but it will be stronger, aud its
path may be more clearly marked.
lhe suu shone dimly through tho cu
rious old windows, whose panes look
down into the courtroom. The shadows
danced across the floor and played over
the wall. There were dark shadows and
light shadows. By-and-bye, when the
suu shone stronger and brighter, the
shadows joined hands and held firmly to
i . ii i- . i i
iue wuii iu curious lines, a. gray naireu
old man, looking up from his reverie, saw
that the shadows formed words. Ho read :
"If ye shall save one soul, your re
ward shall be eternal !"
Wasn't it strange ?
A Chinaman's Project for Revenge.
Ah Ping, alia Ah Sow. a Chinese
thief who is under arrest for having
made a murderous assault upon Officer
Byraw, in San Francisco, while in
prison awaiting an examination, con
ceived a terrible plan to punish a fellow
countryman who had on ono occasion
"given him away" to the police. He
requested a friend who visited him to
bring him a piece of sole leather and a
paper of tacks, without stating what he
wished these articles for. The China-
mau brought aud delivered them to
Ping, who out the leather in the shane
of his right hand, and then affixed a
strap to it, to slip over the back of the
hand and hold it in position. After that
he pierced the leather, and in each hole
inserted a tack, until it presented the
appearance of a brush. The tacks
proved too short to satisfy him, and he
requested his friend to bring him a
paper of oopper tacks an inoh long. At
that time he explained to his friend that
he intended to put the leather on his
right band, with tho points of the tacks
outward, so as to be able to strike his
enemy across the face and put his eyes
out. He also said that ho' wanted the
oopper tacks because they, being pois
onous, would produoe more pain. The
friend thought that he would no longer
be a party to such a scheme, and noti
fied Ping s enemy of Ping s intention.
The Cherokee Indians.
The estimates of the board of United
States commissioners fixes the land,
farms, etc., cultivated by the Cherokee
Indians in the Indian Territory, at 204,
677 acres; wheat, corn, etc., annual pro
duct, 6,739,355 bushels; value of farm
products, including stock, $1,663,610;
number of horses, cattle, etc., 464,465;
personal property, not including real
estate, 816,987,818. The government
holds in trust for these tribes about $8,
000, 000. Their common schools number
200, with an aggregate attendance of
6,000. The investments of the Che
rokees are about $3,000,000, the annual
interest of which is applied as follows:
fifty per cent, to the support of the
goverment, thirty-five per cent, to gen
eral school purposes, and fifteen per
cent, to the orphans' fund. The citizen
population numbers about 19,000, of
which there are 14,850 native Che
rokees. They have 65,950 acres in culti
vation, and own 12,185 horses, and 41,
550 cattle. They have twenty-two saw
mills, twenty-two stores, sixty-five smith
shops, seventy-five day schools, one
orphan school, one female high sohool,
and one male high school. These schools
have an aggregate attendance of 2,300.
The Cherokees have lived under a writ
ton constitution fifty years, and have
expended during the past year about
$90,000 for school purposes.
Items of Interest.
One coHnty in Illinois sold its pep
permint crop last year for 8500,000.
Why should wo celebrate Washing
ton's birthday more than miue I" asked
a teacher. "Because he nover told a
lie," shouted a little boy.
Mary (questioning her little brother
on the gender of nouns) "Now,
Tommy, what is the feminino of beau?"
Tommy "Why, arrow, of course."
A doctor attending a punster who was
very ill, apologized for being late one
day by saying that he had to stop to see
a man who had fallen down a well.
"Did he kick the bucket, doctor?"
groaned the punster.
A good cement for covering the joints
of ovens, which beoomes very hard and
does not crock, is made by mixing equal
quantities of finelv sifted wood ashes
and clay. Some solt is added and then
sufficient water to form a dough. The
cracks should be covered while the oven
is cold.
The Nagasaki RMng Sun says that
the Buddhist religion is fast declining.
In Yamashima Ken alone soventy-ono
Buddhist temples have been abandoned
since 1873, and during the past six years
neorly 700 temples have been converted
to other purposes than those for which
they were built.
A few days ago a man living a short
distance from Hudson, N. Y., was in
duced to test his strength by lifting a
barrel of cement and placing it in a
wagon. Tho feat was accomplished, but
at the cost of the life of the modern
Sampson, as he ruptured a blood vessel
and died in a short time after reaching
home.
A young man in London having trod
on a dog's toe, was bitten so severely
that he died five days afterward. The
relatives summoned the proprietor of
the animal before a magistrate, who ren
dered the remarkable decision that, there
being no evidence that the dog was fero
cious before being trod npon, ho miu-t
dismiss the complaint.
A certain clerk in a Western village
recently made the following comment
on Pocahontas. Said he: " Pocahontas
was a great man ; Pocahontas was a
kind-hearted man." "Hold on!" cried
his companion; "Pocahontas was n
woman." "She was, eh?" said ho.
Well, that's just my luck. How am I
expected to know ? I never read the
Bible."
If your next door neighbor has a littlo
patch of ground which he intends to
convert into a garden this spring, it is
your duty, as a free-born American citi
zen, to purchase ten or a dozen chickens
and let them run at large after he gets all
his seeds in. Nothing lends so much
excitement and healthful exercise to gar
den making as driving out your neigh
bor's chickens.
Those who buy colored hosiery are in
formed that many of the brown stock
ings, both worsted and cotton, are so
poisonous as to endanger life. Those
who wear them assume an unlovely yel
low color and are taken with violent
vomiting, headache, and otiier unhealthy
symptoms. The poisonous color is
used in brown shades, and is Known ns
picric acid. It may be detected by the
taste of the article, being exceedingly
bitter. Its cheapness is the temptation
to dishonest dyers to use it, notwith
standing its unpleasant and possible fa
tal effects. Persons buying brown
hosiery would do well to test them be
fore purchasing.
Revenge i Sweet.
The other day the dearly-beloved
daughter of a plumber in Chicago bow
ed to the daughter of a wealthy house
holder on Ashland avenue, but tho
haughty aristocrat, though she had
formerly known the plebian at school,
cut her dead, as she was walking with a
young man who could bore a hole
through a pine board with the end of
his mustache a young man whom she
did not desire to think that she had any
vulgar acquaintances. The offended
girl went home, wounded to the quick
of her sensitive nature, and tearfully
told her father. That worthy man called
for the family Bible, and, raising his
eyes to Heaven, took a solemn but silent
oath; then, turning to his daughter,
said : " My child, my own, your wrongs
shall be terribly avenged." Next morn
ing when he went to his establishment
he called the foreman and hissed into
his ear : " Next time Mr. Perkins'
Eipes freeze, don't send out a man till
e has seen me."
Composition of the Human Body.
A complete analysis of a man, recent
ly made by Dr. Lancaster, of London,
has been described by him in an inter
esting chemical lecture. The body op
erated upon weighed 158.4 pounds, and
the lecturer exhibited upon the platform
23.1- pounds carbon, 2.2 pounds lime,
22.3 ounces phosphorus, and about one
ounce each of sodium, iron, potassium,
magnesium, and silicon. Dr. Lancaster
apologized for not exhibiting 5,595
cubio feet of oxygen, weighing 121
pounds, 105,900 cubio feet of hydrogen,
weighing 15.4 pounds, and fifty-two
cubio feet of nitrogen, likewise obtained
from the body, on account of their
great bulk. All of these elements com
bine into the following: 121 pounds wa
ter, 16.5 pounds gelatine, 13.2 pounds
fat, 8.8 pounds fibrine and albumen, 7.7
pounds phosphates of lime and other
mineral substances.
Something of a " Strike."
Speaking of " strikes " bofore the
Legislature of New York the Times
says : A common trick is to get some
preposterously "striking" bill intro
duced, and then go to the persons or
corporations it is aimed at, and tell
them that Jor, a certain amount of money
they can get it defeated. There is no
possible chance for the bill passing, and
perhaps it is never heard of after its
reference to a committee ; but the ob
ject of the lobbyist is gained by its in
troduction. It gives him all the ground
he needs to work upon, and it would
certainly appear that he does not often
work in vain. In fact, his occupation
seems to be a profitable one, for very
little money ever gets out of the hands
of the professional lobbyist when once
it is placed there,