HENRY A. PARSONS, Jr., Editor and Publisher- NIL DESPEKANDTJM. Two Dollars per Annum. VOL. XI. EIDGWAY, ELK COUNTY, PA., THURSDAY, APRIL 7, 1881. NO. 7. The Peanut. A large and healthy peanut Lay cozily abed, And it chucklod, oh, go gleofullyl And to itself it said: " There's a great big world before m And my mission yet to do; And up I'll bo and doing it, Ere the sun has dried tho dew. " There are greedy boys to conquer, And .hungry girls as well; What a world of power I've hid Jen Within this little shell. Though they slay me in tho battle, Though they crush mo like a worm, Though they bako and crunch my body, If I can I'll make 'cm squirm." And the small boy grabbed that peanut And ho cracked it 'tween his teeth, But when ho would have swallowed it, It choked him e'en to death; And the peanut's work was ended It had fallen in the strife It had dune its mission nobly, Though tho doing cost its lifo. AN APRIL FOOL. Helen was our beauty; there is no contradicting that. A haughty, high spirited beauty, almost dark enough for an Asian; but so perfectly made, with such a glow on the olive oval, such a ruddy ripeness on tho full lip, such a luster in the great dark eye. And, like most beauties, she felt as if the world was made for Ciesar. Of course, none of us in tho little vil lage group ever thought of denying her supremacy. In fact, we all admired her too much for that, although I doubt if any of us loved her. 5nt we all took a certain pleasure in seeing her arrayed to suit her beauty; and many was the scarf and ribbon and rose given her, like timid offerings at a shrine, from Clara and me, and, for the matter of that, from Maria and Emily, and all the rest of our girls except perhaps Jane, who had not so lunch to give and who never indulged herself in fineries a little Qnuker-like body in her gray gown, with her light hair put back smoothly from her white forehead ; not pretty in most eyes at nil, but always so fair and pure to me. Helen, however, looked at Jane with a lofty disdain ; which Jane appeared to think all right and natural, fur little Jane shared our popular feeling thnt Helen's movements had something to do with keeping the earth in equipoise. And, in fact, I ha.vt often noticed since that anybody with some one -rait of pronounced mental or physical superiority, well sustained bj a bad temper behind it, can role all the world it bin reach, just as Helen did. We were, the most of us, better oil', as the phrase goes, than Helen, so fai as money was concerned; for she v. as only Mrs. Knowlo's companion, ond except little Jane, who was an orphai . and had just enough' income to dret herself meiigerly and pay her board a' Aunt Elt-oy's, we all had our happy homes. .lane had set out to lit herselt for teaching. She played rather von dorfully, and she could have spoken to you in one or two different languages, it she had not been always so shamefaced. As for Clara and me, we were the hoi dens of the village. Maria was the flirt and Emily was the religieuse. She and Mrs. Knowles used to have the most marvelous mornings together, talking of albs and chasubles and altar pieces and candlesticks, which somehow made Emily rather interesting to the rest of us, although Cousin Stanhope laughed at us aiiout it, it lie didn t laugh at lier. Cousin Stanhoiie, be it understood. was tho light of our eyes in that moun tain hamlet, so tar as connection with the outside woild went. He was, in one degree or another, tho cousin of almost all of us, for we were all more or less distantly related. He had a position in the state department at Washington that allowed him some leisure ; and, as we were not a great way from his head quarters, he often ran up for a Sunday and brougl us news of that great world, anil oecav ',!.iii'y brought some one of the peoi'.- figuring on its scenes now and then an atta'ho cf one of the lega tions ; once in n while a traveling for eigner ; once, indeed, a South Sea island chief, who boldly asked Helen to go back with him to Otaheite. A primitive savage Stanhope called him ; but, if that were true, the primitive savage was a very calm and noble gentleman. " I don't know how you can say so," Helen remarked, as we were talking him Dver on Aunt Elroy's piazza, our usual phice of congregation, one bright spring morning, April Fool's day, as we had learned, to our cost, iu a series of Stan hope's jests through the niuil. " A great, swarthy barbarian ? I biippose it is be cause I am so dark myself; but I have no affinity with your dusky-skinneJ people." I saw Dr. Malatestata lower his book from his own dusky face and look at her curiously a moment. "Being a blackamoor myself," contin ued Helen, "what I admire is my antipodes." " Little Jane, for instance," said I. "No, indeed. That colorless mor sel 1 A yellow-haired Norse, some de scendant of one of the old Cimbri, a blue-eyed and red-haired Spanish grandee. He would like me, too," said Helen, laughing and putting up a great dropping curl, " on the same principle. I expect to fall in with him yet." " Or fall out with him," said I. " Nothing less than a Spanish hidal go, with a string of titles as long as his rent-roll." " Then I suppose a poor, swarthy Roman doctor noud never hope to find favor with those of your way of think ing, Miss Helen ?" said Dr. Malatestata, in his smooth English, to which the slightest accent in the world was like sauce piquante to flavorless meat. "Oh," said Helen, coolly, with her finest air of insolence. " I did not no tice that you were there, Signor." "But you will notice the hidalgo, with the string of titles and the rent roll ? Well, hidalgos are often poor." "Then I should have no use for them," said Helen. "Do yon mean to 6y, Miss Helen, that you would not marry a poor and untitled man? What is the matter with you American girls ? What better title is prince than doctor ? I fail to see the secret of it. There is a legend in my land that once the Roman purple was put up at auction. Diavolol Is all this beauty for sale, too, to the high- est bidden" Helen stared at him a moment, an swering nothing. " By the way, Clara," then she said, entirely ignoring him and his remarks, " did you see the Spanish lace cape Mrs, Knowles gave Emily ? I should have liked it myself; and, indeed, it was not expensive. " She made a real April fool of Helen with it," said Clara; " for when she un folded it, Helen thought, of course, it was tor her. " And I had just began to thank her, when she turned it over to tho nun. However, it is the only time that I ever was made an April fool," said Helen, with her most superior gesture; "and defy any one to do it again.". " hy, Helen I How you forget !" exclaimed, " Little Jane has made vou one every year since she has known you." Oh I Little Jane I Her fooleries I Sweetmeats under vour breakfast-plate I Yes, if you count that, little Jane has." "And will next year too, 111 be bound," said Dr. Malatestata. "At least. she would if " And I was thankful that he wheeled his chair owav and round the corner of the gallery, for a knew he was coiug to sav. " if nature had not been before her; " and if he had said it Helen would have had her foot on all our necks before peace could have been declared. Dr. Malatestata was Cousin Stanhope's last importation an Italian gentleman who was visiting America, a graduate of some wonderful old university, who per haps might settle down and practice in America if he had inducement, Cousin Stanhope said, with a laugh, and who had found his way to the Italian lega tion at Washington, where Stanhope had met him. It was quite unfor tunate for him that he fell on the slip pery pavement and broke his ankle; but Stanhope, who had taken a fancy to him, hud brought him up to our village as soon as he could be moved, and had installed him at Aunt Elroy's, where he was waited on by inches, Aunt Elroy outdoing herself in fancy dishes, and little Jane now and then venturing lest he might be homesick to let him hear his native tongue again, while she spoke a little of her timid Italian with him, half 6ure that he was laughing at her, but willing he should laugh if that di verted tho poor gentleman any from the nain in his ankle. "As if it wouldn't make him home sick," said Helen, high and mightily. But it didn't seem to do so. He used -o watch little Jane a good deal. Per haps it amused him. When she came baek.with her basket on her arm from Aunt Elroy's errands among the poorer people of the mountain (and she was always sure to have one or two cases of want ;n reserve as her own property), he would ask her a swarm of questions and apparently derive infinite entertain ment from her answers. But he was occupied the most part of tho time with notes that he seemed to be collecting and arranging for a book. " yingutar person !" said Helen, in her sweetly scornful tone. " What could Cousin Stanhope have been think ing of to bring him here ? He hasn't even the manners of a gentleman." " Why, Helen !" came a chorus. " I think he is a consummate gentle- i man," said Aunt Elroy. "Just about as much of a gentleman as Jane is a lady," continued Helen. " Look at her now, bringing in the eggs. She hasn't a soul above her hens." " She gives every egg to the poor and sick peoplo up tho hills." "Goody! goody! Just my ideal of an old maid. Scanty gown, puritanic collar, plain hair, generally drab. Well. there must always bo one such in every circle. " One such !" I cried, were a dozen such." "I wish there " Oh ! well," said Helen, quarrel over little Jane, small, dear." we won't She's tco It was lovely April weather up our hillsides. Everything was blossoming into May. All lifo and the future seem ed to our hearts as bright as the bloom ing world was. Wo passed the time in one long picnic Mother and Aunt Elroy and Uncle John and Mrs. Knowles and all climbing the mountains, catch ing the brook trout and broiling them on our wood fires, and coming back with our arms full of flowers. At least, wo all did but little Jane. She said she had not the heart to leave their lodger alone in his condition to the mercies of Old Sally ; and she used to do her little gardening around the house, and carry her pensioners our flowers of the day be fore if we had left them with her, and be back again at short intervals. And the last I saw of her one day she had her davenport on tho piazza and wns writing away at his dictation, as if there were no such thing as May breezes and flowers and mountain rambles, and life were good for nothing except to make it pleasant to his swarthv, lean, ill- favored foreigner. But it was only Jane's way with ever' body. "iuat is ono o the troubles with her," said Helen. "She hasn't any identity. She forgets herself in the next person always. A bit of white glass that is all she is." And there was such an assumption of authority in Helen'sayings that, after a few repe titions, one was apt to take them as gospel. Only Dr. Malatestata never did; and his polite way of looking over her and through her as if she were a transparency or did not exist at all, was the only way he had of moving Helen. And that did move her. Presently I thought I saw that Helen had deter mined to change it; and although she did not care a sou for him himself, she could not brook a rebel within her dominion, and she meant to make him care for her. Iu the full flow of admiration long received her pride had sailed upon a smooth cur rent, without an obstruction. This ob struction 'of the oblivious Italian doctor caused a disagreeable commotion in the tide. What made me first think of it was Helen's picking to pieces a bunch of yellow blossoms she had brought in from the woods, and as she passed the doctor in his chair scattering a rain of them all over him, and then looking back with a laugh that showed her glittering teeth and brightened nil the carnation on her olive cheeks and the luster in her eyes. Well, she was too beautiful for anything but dreams. The doctor must have seen what I thought where I sat in the window-frame, for presently he snid to me: " Too brilliant for use, is it not ? As for me, I prefer What was it Miss Jane read to me to day?" "You mean " ' A creature not too bright and good For human nature's daily food ?' That would be Miss Jane herself," said I. "St. Jane," said ho. " I suppose," 1 said, " that one sees a plenty of such faces in Rome ? " As Miss Helen's ? Plenty." " I always thought Helen looked like a Koman ladv. " Like a Roman peasant girl," said he. But I knew better than to repeat his words. " So your peasant girls have that golden tinge under the carmine?" I usked him. " All of them." In a day or two Helen, who often came over to Aunt Elroy's, where she saw a group of us, when Emily and Mrs. Knowles were having one of their seances; was standing by a pillar of the gallery, twisting a budding vino about herselt, and a humming bird came dart ing along, and hovered a moment, just as if he took her mouth for a blossom. We all exclaimed and laughed, even the doctor; and when the next moment a saucy robin in the black-heart cherry tree gave forth a burst of his music. mid Helen opened her lips and answered it in delicious trill on trill, we felt as if the scene was something ideal. "You could lmrdlv do better tlinn this in Italy," said I to the doctor. The robins take you for one of themselves, Helen," said Aunt Elrov. "It is one of tho wise birds," said the doctor. " He wants another song from you, Miss Helen, as I, indeed, do too." Ana then Helen sang again. She had been chary of her songs before; but after this ou always knew when Helen was coming by the music that ushered her, and where she was going by the sweet Bounds that went dancinc after her. " How can he help falling ather feet ?" said I to Cousin Stanhope, on one of his Saturdays with us. " Ho is lame," said Stanhope. " Nonsense !" "And then I should have fallen in love with her myself long ago, if it had not been for her temper." " ion, Stanhope f " Yes, I; and if" " If what ?" " If I had not fallen in love with somebody else." But just then the doctor, who had so far improved as to bo able to use a crutch, came down the garden-path and took Stanhope off with him. I saw lit tle Jane gaze after them intently a mo ment; and 1 wondered vaguely if she were too fond of Stanhope, and I felt vaguely disturbed and unhappy, and went home and practiced a sonata till I was tired out. How fair and sweet Jane was in those June days, as they came I There was such an unspeakable tranquillity about ler. i never looked at her without thinking of perfect, placid dawnings. What a complete ladv Jane is. I said to Stanhope once, as we were walk ing in the wood. " That is because her temperament is so quiet. It gives her manners repose," he answered. " 4 All her ways are pleas antness and all her paths are peace.' " And I knew I had no right to be vexed with him for speaking so. Who could lie blamed for loving Jane? " Ouly I never could see," added Stan hope, " how any man could fall in love w ith Jane. I should as soon think of kissing a statue. But then, I suppose," he said, looking half askance at me, " when one is iu love with somebody else " And he stopped, because two people were slowly coming through the wood, although they were not observ ing us. It was Dr. Malatestata, who could now walk tolerably with his stick, and Helen, whom he had met. " Yes," he was saying, " I have quite recovered so far that I shall be able to resume my journey in a short time. And, Miss Helen, shall I tell you ? When I go homo I hope to take a wife there with me." "Why iu the world should Helen think he meaus her?" whispered Stan hope. " Look at her !" Tor Helen had suddenly averted her face, and, thrust ing her hands out before her iu a beau tiful forbidding gesture, had cried: " Oh, no, no, no ! I could never leave America !" Dr. Malatestata stopped short in his walk, in blank amazement. " I beg your pardon, Miss Helen," he cried. " You misunderstand me," hb said. "Believe me, I had no thought of asking you." And then he drew himself up proudly. " I was about to tell you," he said, " that I am the promised' hus band of Miss Jane." But at that time Stanhope, .who had been in the secret for some time, could not forbear a moment longer, and burst into a roar of laughter. And then such an angry man as Malatestata was may I never see again, when he began adjuring Stanhope in foreign tongues, while the latter leaned against the tree and laughed on. " At any rate," said Helen to me.that night " the fact remains that I refused him. He didn't misunderstand mo." Well, it was the loveliest little wedding that we had two weeks later on Aunt Elroy's broad gallery, with all the flowers and vines and birds. And a grand Italian gentleman came up with Stanhope, too, who treated us all like nobles, and delighted Emily and awfd Maria. The doctor would have his wheel-chair present, for he declared it had been the best friend he ever had; ond he looked at Jane in her white muslin and jesamines, as if it were too much that any of us should touch her. And then he took her off on the journey over the continent; "for we will see America before we go back to our homo in Italy," he said. So letters came to ub from Niagara, from a shooting season in Colorado, from Mexico, from Californian ranches; then from the islands of the Pacific seas, from Japan, from India; and Jane was going to her home by way of the Red sea and Egypt and the Mediter ranean. " Just think of our little Jane !" said I. " She is putting Marco Polo in the shade." " It's about time he settled down to his practice now, though," said Aunt Elroy, not meaning Marco Polo, but the doctor. "I declare, what a gap it makes in life to have Jane gone; and now Mrs. Knowles and Helen too. I wonder if Helen is having the triumph ant time she hoped for in Rome." For Mrs. Knowles had gone to Rome, and Helen had been buoyant with expecta tion. " Are you speaking of Helen ?" said Emily, coming up with on open letter from" tho post. "She has seen some very pleasant people. She has been a guest at a grand villa, been present at a superb festival in the country and been received by a prince and princess. Do you want "to read about it V" And this was what Helen had written on that page: " It was just a morning of mornings, this April day; and Mrs. Knowles and I, having left the city and come up here on the Apennines, were taking our stroll a stroll where we crushed tho violets at every step when we saw that the vil lage was all aflame with flowers and banners, and tho people decked out like a scene in a theater, and there was music, and there were throngs of children, with garlands, and I don't know what and all. It was the home-coming of the prince and princess, they said. And we had time to hear no more; for, as we stood just inside the gates of the lovely gar dens, we stepped aside, to let the low car- I riage, with its four cream-colored horses, dash by. And all of a sudden there was a cry, and the horses were pulled up, and two people sprang out of the car riage. And oh, Lnnlyl I had reason to remember, all in a rush, that it was April Fool's dav, and I the merest fool that ever was I, who had actually re fused this man ! For who do you think the prince was but Prince Malatestata? And the princess was our little Jane !" Independent. Pearls of Thought. There is a right and a wrong way oi rubbing a man's mind, as well us a cat's back. The law can never make a man honest ; it can only make him very uncomfort able when ho is dishonest. Even the weakest man is strong enough to enforce his convictions. What reason, like the careful ant, draws laboriously together, the wind of accident collects in one brief moment. There's a sort of human paste that when it comes near the fire of eathusi- asm is oulv baked in harder shape. No story is the same to us after the lapse of time ; or, rather, we who read it are no longer the same interpreters. Angry and choleric men are as uu- gniteful and unsociable as thunder and lightning, being in themselves all storm and tempest ; but quiet and easy natures are like fail- weather, welcome to all. Men do not often dare to avow, even to themselves, the slow progress reason has made in their minds; but they are ready to follow if it is presented to them in a lively and striking manner, and forces them to recognize it. If tho memory is more flexible in childhood it is more tenacious iu mature age; if childhood has sometimes the memory of words, old age has that of things, which impress themselves ac cording to tho clearness of the concep tion of the thought which we wish to retain. He that gives good advice builds with one baud; he that gives good counsel and example builds with the other; but he that gives good admonition and bad example builds with one hand and pulls down with the other. Man being fallen from his natural estate, there is no object so extravagant as not to be capable of attracting his desire. Ever since ho lost his real good, everything cheats him with the appear ance of it even his own destruction, though contrary at this seems both to reason and nature. An Indian Boy's Love-Letter. A love-letter picked up on the floor of a school with Hampton's views on co-education need not inevitably shock even pedagogic sensibilities. Written in an unknown tongue, however, with only the names to betray it, a transla tion by the private interpreter, seemed only a proper precaution. If I confide it to the gentle reader, the Indian lov ers will be neither the worte nor the wiser, while some others may find in it valuable suggestions for similar corre spondence. Normal School, February 3, 1879. Miss : I said I like you and I want to give you a letter. When ever I give you letter, I want you to answer me soon. That's all I want, and I will answer to you soon after. When you give me letter, it raises me up. It makes me heart-glad, nister-inlaw. When I talk I am not saying anything foolish. Always my heart e y glad. I want you lot me know your thought. I always like you and love you. I am honest about what I f.ay, I always keep in mind. I want always wo smile at each other when meet. We live happy always. I think that's best way, and you think it is and let me know. And I say again, when I give letter, keep nicely and not show to any one. Jf they know it, it no good way. They take ui away, find that is the reason don't show it. Hear me, this all I am going to say. I like you, and I love You. I won't say any more. My whole h?art is shaking hands with you. I kiss you. . Your lover. . . Harper't Magazini. It is better to be blamed for doing your duty, th.in praised for not doing it. A Dear Chronometer. Meanness not infrequently resembles the Vaulting ambition which oe'rleaps Itself, And falls on tho other. An excellent illlustration of this " o'er leaping" is furnished by a certain trans action of John Jacob Astor with one of his captains. The story is told by a writer m tho Boston Transcu'pt: The captain had sailed six voyages to China without a chronometer, depend ing on " dead reckoning" and "lunars;" just starting on his seventh voyage, he suggested to Mr. Astor that it would be safer to have a chronometer. " Well, get one," said the merchant. The captain did so, and entered its cost in his account current. When As ter's eyes fell upon the item he drew his pencil through it. The captain ex postulated. Said AV. .ir: " I told you to get one; I didn't say I'd pay for it." The captain sovered his connection with Astor then and there, and went into Wall stieet, engaged with other owners, and before night was in com mand of as fine a ship as ever floated in New York's beautiful bay. In three days she was ready for sea, and set sail. At tho same time Astor's ship, under the command of a new cap tain, set sail also. They had a race for Hong Kong, but the captain who, as lie used to put it, had discharged John Jacob Astor, by keeping the men at the braces, took advantage of every puff of wind and won by three days. Then there was lively work. The ship was loaded iu the shortest time possible, and before Astor's vessel, which had arrived meantime, was half loaded, our captain weighed anchor, and with a full cargo of tea set sail for Sandy Hook; arrived in good time; got his ship alongside the wharf and began hoisting out his cargo, which was sold by auction on the spot. This glutted the market, for the consumption was comparatively small in those days, and when Astor's ship came in prices had fallen. Two days later, as the captain was sauntering down Broadway, he met his former employer. "How much did dat chronometer cost you 1" asked the latter. " Six hundred dollars." "Veil," said Astor, "dat vas sheap. It cost me sixty tousand dollars!" Tho merchant and the captain have long since paid the reckoning, but that chronomoter is still a good timekeeper and a treasured relic as woll. Weather Prophets. Speculations about the weather are not wholly useless ii we are to accept the testimony of Professor J. Hyatt, who has been engaged for a long time in sudying the relations between the phases of the moon and the rainfall at certain stations. It has long been known that when the moon is full tho sky is most likely to be clear. This is not only the testimony of sailors and farmers, but also of eminent astrono mers and scientific men. It appears that the rays of tho full moon have the power to dispel clouds, and it therefore seems not unreasonable to suppose that the moon exerts an appreciable influ ence upon the weather. Professor Hyatt's observations have led him to divide the lunar month, of about twenty-nine and a half days, into eight pe riods, or octants, of three and two-third days each, and he has found that every luu.-tion is apt to acquire its character as regards rainfall within the first oc tant, or within throe and two-thirds days from tho time of the new moon. It also appears that the same kind of weather, as regards temperature, cloudi ness or rain, is apt to occur on or about tho same day of the week, or more ac curately, nt the same stage in the lunar quarters. A number of instances are given, extending over a considerable period of time, which seems to bear out tho truth of theso conclusions with re markable accuracy, and it would seem that if seven-tenths of an inch or more of rain fulls within three and two thirds lays of the new moon, tho entire luna tion is very likely to be a wet one ;- but if very little rain falls during that time the remaining seven-eights of the luna tion will probably bo dry. These ob servations verify tho old saying that the first three clays rule the month. As a result of observations conducted at. two localities, extending over a period of three years, the rule has been found to hold good in at least eleven cases out of twelve, and they would doubtless hold good for all places in the hilly country between the Appalachians and the Atlantic, not too near either the sea or the mountains, hucn conclu sions ar only reliable for places simi larly situated, since peculiarities of location, elevation, tho prevailing di rection of tho wind, etc., necessarily affect the result, and these character istics must bo studied for each place. The distribution of rainfull is very ir regnlar throughout the year ; two or three dry or two or three wet lunations are apt to be grouped together. Inaction. Great evils result from physical in action. It is well known that through the whole human system strength and development come only by exercise. Every unused muscle shrinks iu size and loses its force, Knd the man cr wo man who lives chiefly a li e of passive repose will gradually lese the power as well -8 the desire for activity This, however, is by no means the whole of the evil involved. The connection be tween the mind and the body is verj intimate, and the mental faculties can not obtain their full power, nor the character attain its highest excellence, unless the body be kept in healthful condition by salutary exercise. Pure air and regular physical exertion are necessary in order to think clearly, to decide wisely, to reason acutely, to plan with discretion, and to execute with vigor. Strength of will depends largely upon strength of muscle, and he who is weak and flabby in the latter will in all probability be feeble and ir resolute in the fomer. Accounts from Foochow China speak of two natives who had been steeped up to their necks in quicklime for counterfeiting " cash," the smallest of Chinese coins. Both speedily died. TENXY SOXGS. Extent ol Tliclr al The Ktnil Thnt Tnke Hem. The demand for war songs is con stantly diminishing, ond it is only dur ing exciting political campaigns that they sell well. A New York paper says of the penny ballads : There are about 11,000 penny Rongs, and over 50,000 copies are supplied to the trade every month. Some of theso date back as far as 1798. Sometimes when a new song comes out, 2,000 copies will be Bold every day for about a week. Such has recently been tho case with the "Bogie Man," "Mary Kelly's Beau," " Wst! Wstl Wst!" and many numbers of the Harrigan & Hart series. Mary Kelly's beau describes his lady love as : Littlo Mary Kelly, A darling, all m all, Makes artificial Howevs On JSroadway, to Wall. The continued popularity of the songs dating as far , back as 1798 and thereabout is due to tho fact that they are mostly Irish rebel songs, and huve their interest preserved by the agita tions in Ireland. During the present troubles in Ireland the demand has been larger than ever before. Among these songs are somo of Tom Moore's best Irish melodies, such as " Aveng ing and bright fell the swift sword of Erin," and " Forget not the field where they perished;" songs by Bryan Maguire and Maurice O Connell, and tho famous " earing of the Green. There is also a steady demand for the old Chris tin minstrels' songs, the most popular of which Reem to bo the plot of "II Trovatore," and the verses "I come from Alabama," ending with : I had a dream tho other night, When everything was still ; I dreamt I saw Susanna A comiii' down the hill. The buckwheat cake was iu her eye, The tear was in ler month. Sin s I, Susanna, don't eiy, I n) comiii' from the South. The most popular modern penny songs are those written by Tony Pastor, Harrigan & Hart, Pat Rooney, J. K. Eiumet, Sam Devere, Tom Barry and George S. Knight, and brought out at their variety shows. When a song has been received with more than usual favor at these performances it is with held from publication for a short time until its success is widely known. Then it is published and eagerly bought up. One of the most popular of PatRooney's songs describes the " Cats in Our Mick Yard" who play "Pinafore" every night u"d have walking matches on the fence, T'h"V sing alto, basso, and tenor ; Oil, they ought to bo feathered and tarred ! Oil, they are worse than llavcrly's minstrels, Yes, the cuts in our bin U yard! Emmet tells of a mau who wants to reform things so thoroughly that Streets would bo all paved with bretzels, Hchweizer kase grow on der trees, Ile'd make it a holiday alwavs, I'nd peelilu should take of dcro ease. Ile'd give every pour man his rights, He'd make the rich folks shell out, Ile'd make all deni l'.it heebies thin, Und make all dem thin heebies stout. Ono of the most popular songs was sung bv Adah Richmond. It is en titled " When Charlie Plays the Drum," and the first verse runs as follows ; I'm in love with such a charming littlo man, A musician iu tho military band, And 1 lovo him better far than gold or wealth, When I seo him iu his uniform no grand. The lirst time tiiat I met him, Witli lovo I was struck dumb, And in v heart was in a flutter, When Charley played the drum. " Tho Donkey," words and music by .Tas. Bradley, has been sung with suc cess all over tho country. The donkey seems peculiar in many respects. Brad ley describes somo of his peculiarities in the following verse : I've got a donkey; ho stands six feet high; I'll sell to the man that wishes to buy, lie drinks Seltzer water whenever he's dry; In a nice on the turf he has never proveil shy. He makes good time about one mile a day; I'll mutch 1 ii in again any stallion or bay. He" fought ti r country; he's been through the war; I feed him on herrings, hay-rope and tar. " I've a Baby in Kalamazoo" has also had a largo sale. Sarah Bernhardt comes in for the following tribute : Have you seen Sarah ? Ain't die a teaser ? None could bo fairer than Miss Sarah 13. I'rog'ir s and poodles, claret and noodles, And a lot of 1'itzdoodles; oh, parly vous qui. Among the sentimental and pathetic songs the best known are "The Little Oreen Leaf in our Bible," " Baby Mine," and " Cradle's Empty, Baby's Gone." The last-named sells quite"as well as the best known comic songs. It was written and composed by Harry Kennedy. The following is the refrain: liuby left her cradle for the golden shore, UVr the silvery waters she has Down; Gone to join the angels, peaceful evermore.' Jmpty is the rrailh-: baby's gone. Fresh-Water Spring In the Atlantic. Ono of tho most remarkable displays of nature may bo seen on the Atlantic coast, eighteen miles south of St. Augustine. - Off Mantanzas Inlet, and three miles from tdiore, a mammoth fresh-water spring gurgles np from the depth of the ocean with such force and volnnio as to attract the attention of all who come in its immediate vicinity. This fountain is large, bold and turbu lent. It is notieeuble to fishermen and others passing in small boats along near tho shore. For many years this won derful and mysterious freak of nature has been known to the people of St. Aucrustine and those living along the shore, and some of tho superstitious j ones have been taught to regard it with a kind of reverential awe, or holy hor ror, as tho abodo of supernatural influ ences. When tho waters of the ocean iu its vicinity are otherwise calm aud tranquil, the upheaving aud troubled appearance of the water shows unmis takable evidences of internal commo tions. An area of about half an acre shows this troubled appearance some thing similar to the boiling of a washer woman's kettle. Six or eight years ago Commodore Hitchcock, of the United States coast survey, was passing this place, and his attention was directed to the spring by the restless upheaving of the water, which threw his ship from her course as she entered the spring. His curiosity becoming excited by this circumstance he set to work to examine its surroundings, and found six fathoms of water everywhere in the vicinity, while the spring itself was almost hornless. 8tvctiai (Qa.) Nevi. HUMOR OF THE DAY. . Cast thy money upon the newspapers and after many days it will return to you fourfold. Sunday may be a very solemn sort of a day, but there's a sadder day comes just before it. Steiihnnville Ilwald. Favorite music for a soldier A march Fcr a hunter A schottische. For a horseback rider A galop. Waterloo Observer. - A member of the Colorado legislature in addressing that august body began: " My fellow-statesmen." His bill passed unanimously. James Gordon Bennett has paid out 30,000 for music in Pau. But that's all right. He got his money from pau. Louisville Journal. Tho New York Dispatch says that the best way to raise chickens is to chuck a fish-hook loaded with a kernel of corn over your neighbor's fence. A candidate whose principal support ers are tavern-keepers and shoemakers, proudly alludes to them as members of the" bar and bench. Philadelphia Chronicle, The mnn who took a seat in the or chestra when his ticket was for the sec ond balcony, felt badly at having to change. In fact he was moved two tiers. Boston Post. " Why, I'm so glad you've come. Did you know that I've been worrying about you, John, all the evening?" "That's jnst what I married you for. It is pleas ant to think that there is some me home worrying about you." Somehow this view of the matter didn't exactly coin cide with her idea of marital amenities. " The digestive process of a mosqui to's stomach is so slowly performed that when the insect has dined on a human being, it continues for forty-eight hours to (xhibit blond corpuscles." Not if tho human being gets a good square whack at him with a tow 1 he doesn't. He merely exhibits a spot on the wall. liostn I'ost. A Hartford man sent a pair of trousers to his tailor to be repaired. The tailor found SnIOO in a roll in the pocket and returned it, receiving the tha.dis of the owner thereof. AN hen we send i. pair of trousers to our tailor to be reconstruct ed and he finds S?:!(I0 in the pocket and returns it, wo always tell him to keep the trousers for his honesty, which is the best policy. XorrMown Herald. Washing Awny the Earth. No particle of sand which goes down into tho sea ever comes back. Yet tho particles leave tho surface of tho earth every second and are earned, suspended in tho waters of moro than twenty thousand rivers, out into the oceans. There are more than a hundred streams, classed on the maps as livers, in Louis iana alone. Each one of these has several hundred creeks, brooks and spring branches tributary to it. Each brook or sjiring branch, with its count less rivulets.clasps the hil lsides and drags down the sunaees thereof down into the brooks down into tho creeks down into the rivers down into tho ocean. And there the atoms rest pat ion fly; each atom waiting for its listers and its cousins and its aunts still lingering in tho fields and on the hills, yet creeping toward the gullies and thence to tho sea. This process has been going on since the time when "the world was without form and void;" whereby tho primeval rocks were disintegrated and spread abroad in fertile fields; whereby the fertile fields are slowly beingwashed back into the oceans; whereby the bot tom of the oceans is being prepared to bo elevated again to the light and to form other fields whereon cotton and wheat or semething or other will grow. This is the very apotheosis of "demnition grind." He who originated that phrase spoko more scientifically than he knew. Life, animate and inanimate, is simply a grinding down of the higher parts and the distribution thereof in the hollows. The final outcome of earth, aftei millions of years, must be something in the nature of a largo billiard ball whirling through tho sky, with nothing in the world on it except a smooth, dead sur face. A Remarknbltt Fact. One of the most remarkable instances of phosjihorescent light appearing on living creatures is found among tho herous. Among the keys and the ex treme end of Flo ida these birds are found in countless numbers. Mullet fishermen and sportsmen have often no ticed peculiar dim lights standing mo tionless over tho water among tho mangrove thickets. They were discov ered, however, to depend on the pres ence of the birds. hen they were ap proached in the dark, the flapping of wings as a crane flew away would be the last of the lights. The writer has examined many of the birds, especially the Ardea Hero dias or great heron, and found on the breast a spot ubout as large as the open palm where the feathers aro covered with a thick yellow powder, that is easi ly shaken off and evidently exudes from the body at this spot as a hecreti- u, dry ing into a powder when exposed to the air. The bird stands motionless in the water, and thU f.pot is undoubtedly ' used for or accomplishes the end of at tracting the smaller fishes within reach of the bird, aud if it is a decoy it is a mst remarkable provision of nature. Thread from Wowl. The manufacture of thread from wood for crochet aud sewing purpose, has, it is said, recently been started is the mid dle of Sweden. - Ic is wound iu balls by machinery, either by hand or steam, which, with tho labeling, take one min ute and twelve seconds, and the balls are packed up in cardboard boxes, generally ten in a box. Plenty of orders from ail parts of Sweden have come in, but as the works are not in proper order, there has hardly been time to complete them all. The production gives fair promise of success, and it is expected to be very important for home consumption. A novelty in the form of a lace pin is ' a golden fishing-rod and silver line looped over the rod, with a gold fish danglmg from the end,
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers