mm
HENRY A. PARSONS, Jr., Editor and Publisher.
KIL. DESPERANDUM.
Two Dollars per Annum.
VOL. XII.
KIDGWAY, ELK COUNTY, PA., THU11SDAY, NOVEMBER 30. 1882.
NO. 41.
()
The Farmer's Son?.
The harvest fields aro stripped of Brain)
The late-sown corn is shocked in dun,
And husked beneath a chilly sun;
The ragged stnbble checks the plain.
The hills are desolate and cold,
The maples stand in grim array,
And through the forest's muffled gray
The winds of heaven strike the wold.
Vet while the harvest splendors fail,
The grain is sold, the barter made,
And work, and care of crop, and trad
Are put a3ide with plow and flail.
The bins are filled, the barns are stored,
The orchards robbed of scanty fruit,
And in the garret cold and mute,
The thrifty squirrels shnre the hoard.
Although the drought was long and sore,
And scorched the field beside the road
Till half the crop was left unhoed,
lor aftermath repaid the mowor;
Though half the ryo was winter-killed,
And here the when wns struck by blight,
Yet all is good in hoavon's sight,
And still the waiting barns are filled.
And still, through every empty mood
Beyond the moment's harsh surpri.se,
At last a truer knowledge lies
The sense of tome essential good.
So, since the harvest moon has waned,
By yonder Binning crescent's edge,
Our hands are struck upon a pledge,
And mnch is lost and more is gained!
The Tilgrim sood has taken root,
Despite the land so hard and gray,
And, flowered to this Thanksgiving day,
Ehnll yet bring forth abundant fruit.
Dora Head Goodnlim
IN THE HILLS.
That old Anstice Purcell loved her
nome was not to be wondered at. She
had been born in it, and so had her
mother before her. She had remem
brance of no other, and it was as much
a part of her existence as the sky and
air. It would have seemed no stranger
to her to bo without a coping of blue
sky than it would to see four different
walls from these about her and to call
them home.
And, certainly, if beauty could. give
one reason to love a spot, Anstice had
reason enough. For was not the long,
low stone house perched on a crag, so
that it looked like nothing but a lichen
on that crag? And did it not overlook
purpling hilltops below and far away,
and elm-fringed intervales, with silver
streams looping and doubling through
them? And was not old Greyhead
towering above her, with all his
woods and precipices and storm-scored
sides, and casting a shadow over her ;
and Redcap, taking the sunset fires on
opposite upper heights ; and greater
peaks, looming blue in the horizon?
And did she not know when the
weather was to be fine by the. vapors
round great Monasset? And, when
tempests of rain or snow set in, did
she not feel that Monasset and Redcap
and Greyhead stood, like three power
ful genii, and shut her in and kept
watch and ward over her and her
grandchildren, in their sad fortunes,
as they had Ttept it over her ancestors
for generations?
For her only son had been smitten
with a strange unrest among these
mountains an unrest new to the Fur
cells (and lie twice a Purcell, since
Anstice had married her cousin) and,
spurred by the fear of poverty, per-
ips, and his children s lortune in the
jCuture, should Greta give him chil
" i i. i , ..., i- .
til t-n, no jiiiu gunu mcty lu oca, ien
years ago, as if only boundless hori
zons, alter these imprisoning hills,
could lill his yearning for space. He
had left Margaret ,his young wife, with
his mother; for, although the Purcell
acris had shrunk with every genera
tion, there was yet a pittance which
would support the household till he
could send back or bring back the
riches that he meant to have. Rut the
moment when she saw his bright black
eyes Hashing through her tears, as he
ran down the rocky path to cross Held
and wood, and take the coach, and
turned a moment to wave his hand
joyously, was the last in which Anstice
hail ever seen him. The bark Alba
tross, the owners a!'t.r a time wrote
her, had gone down, with all on board.
For a season, then, it did not seem
to old Anstice that she lived. The
world was blotted out, the crags and
hills, Greyhead and Redcap and the
rest were not, and she saw only the
gray waste of waters for days and
weeks and months, till she was awak
ened from her apathy by the sound of a
child's voice in the night, the quick,
amazed cry of a new-born baby. Of
one? Of two of them! She rose tot
teringly to her feet, looked about her
in a half-bewilderment, then hurriedly
dressed hersplf, an she had not done for
so long, and went out into another
room. "Greta," she said, "you have
given me back my boy." And Greta
used to think in after days that An
stice really felt as if the babies were
her own, and she herself was only a
well-meaning nurse. Rut she never
grudged the care of her boys to their
grandmother, great as the comfort of
that care was to herself. She knew
what their love of their mother must
needs be; and she used to tell thein
that it was became of them, stung to
madness by the thought of their com
ing to live the life of poverty and care
that ho saw stretching out to old age,
that her own son had gone away to
come back no more. A woman, this
sweet' Greta, who shut her sorrow
up In her own heart, a.id never
whispered it except to her babies,
In the watches of the night,
when she would say to them how
oeautiful, how bright, how brave a
man their father was ; how he loved
ner and she had worshiped him ; how
-liey must grow like him and make
msto to bo strong and good enough
.o take care of their little grand
nother, and let her herself away to
h r husband. The only trouble that
vir came between her and Anstice
was that she would not give either of
the boys the father's name. "No,"
she said. "It Is like parting his rai
ment. Call them what you will, but
not John." And so Anstice called the
one Renoni, the son of my sorrow, and
the other Asher, because of her hap
piness that had been restored to her
with him. And little Ash and Ren,
as they presently were known, grew
and thrived, and ruled the household
with rods of iron. "What pretty little
darlings they were, rolling round
the floor in their dimpled play,
their . curly yellow heads in
the sun j their dark-fringed
eyes, their father's eyes, dancing with
mirth and mischief; "their rosy faces so
velvety soft and sweet. Anstice would
catch one to her heart, and drop him
for the other, and go back to the first,
and hardly let them alone at all, in t he
swelling ecstacy of her love, but for
tho kicking and struggling and loud
voiced protestations that they set up;
but Margaret would only pauso in her
work, and follow them with wistful
eyes, wondering if this was the way
that their father looked at their age,
and silently thanking Heaven, that, if
the father had been taken, it had, at
any rate given them each other.
They needed each other, the little fel
lows, as they increased their days. They
had nobody else. It was long since
Anstice had kept a servant, and, al
thouf 't the old furnishing remained in
other rooms, the small family lived
chiefly in the narrow quartcrs-of two,
opening into one another. Neighbors
were scarce in that hill. country. Child
ren did not exist at all. The only per
son within reach was the man round
the side of the mountain, who managed
Anstice's little farm for her. There
was no school, of course (the nearest
was down in the valley, ten miles
away); no church any nearer; way
farers did not fare that way ; no
soldiers marching through bannered
streets with music ; no streets ; no
other torchlight procession than that
of the eternal stars ; nothing to break
the calm monotony but the mail-coach,
that once a day could be seen, a mere
speck, winding down the distant high-
wav. Rut it all made no odds to the
children. The day was not long enough
for their pleasure. They knew nothing
of any world outside ot their kites and
balls and gardens andbirds'-nests in tho
lovely, swift summers ; their snow
forts iind snowshoes and sleds in the
long winters. If it had not been for
their perpetual longing and yearning
for what was not Greta and Anstice
might have felt something like a re
flection of their happiness in looking
at them.
" Do other little boys have fathers?"
asked Ash, one day.
"Only when they don't have
brothers," answered Ren.
"Rut fathers are nice to have,"
reasoned Ash. "Don't you remember
the tart the minister over at Hareback
brought us? And he said his little
boy had one."
"Yes. It-had raisins in it. Raisins
are so good!"
"Rut I think I'd rather have a
brother," urged Ash. " The brother's
there next day to plav and the raisin
isn't."
"Hear the darlings," said Anstice.
" They will be father and brother both
to each other. Oil ! and they .will have
need of it."
For poor Anstice's age was even
more troubled than her youth had
been. Then she had seen, piece by
piece, the substance of the old estate
depart farm by farm, field by field.
For two generations, except to sow
and reap the few acres left the home,
place, her people had done nothing but
to sell their patrimony, till, at length,
it had reached a point where all the
fertile glebe was gone and there was
nothing left to sell. The Porter place
had kept them alive so many years,
the Green property so many more.
"When her father went to college
tho sale of tho Rye farm paid the
bills big bills too. "When ho was
buried tho great funeral cost the
bailey fields. The long acres down in
the valley had furnished her and John
with food and clothes, after her own
husband's deatli from the mountain
fever. And then there was no rem
nant of it all, but the home place, that
any one would take so much as a
mortgage on; and it was when she
mortgaged that that John, in despera
tion, went away to sea.
Anstice had depended on the rent of
two or three little outlying spots to pay
the interest on the mortgage; and
now, this cruel year, they had been de
serted by their tenants, who left the
sterile heaps of stone and moss for the
rich "Western lands, and there was no
other tenants to take them. She had
no money; and, come the" last part of
November, the mortgage would be
foreclosed, anil she and Greta
ami the boys would be
turned loose upon the world,
without a dollar. Greta could work,
maybe; but she herself and the litte
lads there was not even the poor
house before them. Up in that hill
country the abject poor were so few
that they were farmed out and boarded
from place to place. And that was the
end of all tho Purcell wealth and Pur
cell hope. Death would have been a
kind thing to old Anstice in com
parison. She used to lie awake in the nights,
thinking over the possibilities. The
horror of them grew upon her. She
would start up and pace the ttoor, and
flinging something on would run out,
as if to get help from all outdoors the
stars, the wind, the sky and end by
wondering, as she leaned over the para
pet of the old stone wall, if it would
not be best to put an end to themselves
at once down ihe precipice below her.
" When I think of it," she said,
as Greta came once to fetch her
in "when I think that as far
us the eye could see an object
and tell what it was, so fur the land
was the land of my family, yielding
revenue, and now a bare two days and
their children will not own a foot of
their inheritance cr have a roof over
their heads, I doubt Providence nnd it
drives me wild 1"
"No, mother, dear," said Greta's
gentle voice, as, with her arms round
Anstice, she led her back to tho house
"no, mother, dear, if we doubt Prov
idence, then all is gone, indeed."
" To think of it 1" erica Anstice,
again, "lnuj old rarson juuaredge s
daughter and my son's wife, adrift
on the world, to earn your bread or
starve I And the little lads the last
of the Purcells with no future before
them, no clothes to their backs!
Think of the Thanksgiving dinners all
this country over, and not a tart will
my boys have. Other boys"
"Rut, indeed, mother, so long as they
have bread and milk andask for no more,
Ave need not fret at that. Such happy
little rogues "
" Happy they'll be in the state alms
house t"
" It will never come to that I I have
a pair of hands "
" Much you can do with your hands,
you as fragile as a reed I"
" I can work for you and the chil
dren with them. Don't fear."
" If you can get work !"
" I shall see. "We will go down to
one of the great mill towns ; and it
will go hard but "
" Go down to a mill town !
Down in a dark, stilling alley
of a town ! Away from all the
light and freedom here the hills, t.e
glory of them, the strength of them !
Oh ! I will die first. I had rather die !"
" Rut we can't die, you see. And if
wo doubt Providence, that is worse
than death " " Oil ! we are tried,"
half, sobbed llteta. " "We are being
tried I Rut somehow I seem to feel
I know ! I know ! that help is on the
way to us, just as much as though I
heard a voice from heaven saying so."
And she went to bed and took the
shivering little mother in her arms,
and tho nervous storm throbbed itself
oil iuto sleep for the weary old Anstice;
and then Greta took her turn to see
the sttu-s slide by the window, pausing
to look solemnly in, while she thought
that, somewhere in the wide world,
they were looking down on tho spot
where her husband slept. Once or
twice she rose, after Anstice had
been soothed to slumber, and
moved abcut the room. "When a
great meteor went slipping by, in a
swift blaze of glory, her heart gave a
plunge; ami then it seemed to be as u
the stars themselves had sent her mes
sages of comfort, and she slept.
"Ren," said little Asher, in tho
morning, sitting up in bed, with the
sunshine breaking in new luster on
his pretty golden head and tho color
flushing freshly up his face, "did you
ever see an angel?"
" No," said 15en. " Did you ?"
"Once I did. Yes. I saw an angel
last night, lien."
" I guess so."
" I did. Really and truly, I did,"
siiid Ash. " I saw two of them, Ren.
I woke up in the night when it wa.i
dark and tho fire was out, and one was
standing by tho hearth, and the stars
shone all over it. And I saw it all in
white; and it went away. And it
looked jiu-t like the angels mother
reads about to us in tho Rible."
" I guess it was mother," said Ren.
"The other wasn't mother I" an
swered Ash, indignantly. " The other
was a real angel, any way. It went
sailing by the window with great wings
like fire, and it left a path shining be
hind it. And I know it was the Angel
of the Lord."
" Do you really suppose it was, Ash ?"
"I know it was. And, of course, it
came for something, you know, Ren.
I shouldn't wonder if we were going to
have Thanksgiving to-day, after all."
" I hope there'll be raisins in it, then,"
said Ren. " I like raisins so !"
"Just hear the darlings," whispered
Anstice, after her custom, to Greta.
" I'd give my hand to get him raisins
for the day. Going to have Thanks
giving alter all I Thanksgiving for
being cast adrift upon tho world 1"
And she began to cry bitterly.
"Come, boys," called Greta, who
had been gently moving about
till tho iires were bright in the
two rooms, for of wood they had
i-till plenty. " Ono should be stir
ring early on Thanksgiving morn
ing. Porridge is ready when you have
said your prayers." And she sat down
where the rose and purple of the sun
rise fell over her like an aureole, as the
two little chaps came pattering out to
the snapping fire, in their long white
nightgowns, and, kneeling before her,
hid their faces in her lap while she said
the prayer.
Ono would have thought it little
enough that Greta Purcell had to give
thanks for that day husbandless,
homeless, portionless, and with three
helpless souls hanging on her for help.
Rut to one hearing the simple words
that she offered in her morning sacri
fice it would have seemed as though
princes hail no more to be grateful
for as she gave her thanks for
life, for health, for hearts not
yet broken altogether, for the
bright morning, the lovely earth,
for hope of heaven, for each other.
"Amenl" Baid a voice at the door.
None thought of fastening any door in
that unvisited country.
The children lifted their faces as
they kneeled, and Greta turned her
head, to see a tall man standing in the
doorway, with a loose cloak wrapped
about him.
" Perhaps it is the angel," whispered
Ben, still a little under the spell of his
mother's prayer.
" John ! John 1" came a cry from
the inner room. " Oh ! John I" cried
old Anstice. " My son ! my son 1"
And she would have fallen before
she reached the bearded, black
eyed stranger, with a sort of wild
beauty on his dark, sweet face, bad he
not caught her on on arm while the
other already folded Greta, who sat like
a white stone. '
"I knew him! I knew him first!"
cried Anstice, presently, to Greta. "Oh!
trust a mother's ! instinct. He's my
flesh and blood i"'. '
"And do you suppose I did not know
him?" flashed back Greta, not yet quite
herself. " He is my very self! And
I always knew he was alive. I always
felt it. I was sure half of me was not
dead!" ' -
" Rut half of you came mighty near
it twice," said John, from where he
was sitting then, with an abashed and
undraped urchin on either knee and
his cloak about them both. " I shall
never be any nearer deatli, after last
night, than! was on tho day the Al
batross went down. I have thought,
nil these ten cruel years, that I had
better have been dead; for I was
picked up by a .craft that carried
me into a Formosan port, and
I have been a slave," he said.
" I have been a slave, with slavery
made moro terrible by' thought of
what had become ot my mother, my
wife, my child. I dil not know that I
had two of them!" said John with
half a sob.
" Oh ! John ! Dfar John 1"
" To think of us," cried Anstice, lift
in g up her voice, "when you were suf
fering so yourself; ruy boy !"
" To think of you I" he exclaimed,
with a flash in his eyes that melted in
the dew that followed. "There never
was dav or night, sleeping or waking,
that I did not. The agony of it passed
all tho rest, and I see now my worst
forebodings almost true. You would
have been starving in a little "
"And the mortgage is foreclosed
to-day," cried Anstice, wringing her
1 lands, witli the sudden remembrance
thrust upon her jo'.
" Not exactly," he laughed and lie
was fumbling in his breast for a
little goatskin bag as he spoke
-"although heaven knows what
might have been if lat night,
just as I was going over "N'hitehorse
ledge, a huge meteor had not suddenly
blazed out and showed me the chasm
into which tho next step would lead.
Not exactly; for, when I escaped,
months ago. and found my way to tlu
Cape South A f rica, you know I went
to the diamond fields while I waited
for a sh'p. Great Heaven ! How good
it was to go where I would! Do you
see this, Greta? Do you see this,
mother? These little crystals are
worthless-looking things, are they
not ?" And ho poured them out in his
palm. " They are diamonds, and of
my own finding. I have sold enough
already for emergencies
" And I need not leave my home,
my father's home, this spot of heaven
to me, and all of earth, full of the Pur-
cell's life and death !' cried Anstice,
sharply, springing forward, to look in
her son s lace again.
"Never, mother. And
make it what it used
for, worthless as they
that handful lies a wholo
wo wil.
to be ;
look, in
universe
of happv possibilities for
us. Oh !
Greta, my faithful wife ! there lies
home regained, my mother blessed, my
children educated, and you without a
care. There lie all the Purcell fortunes
and all the Purcell acres once again
our own."
"It was the angel, you see,'
whispered Ash.
"And raisins, father?" asked Ren
Harriet l'rescott tfpoff'orU.
One's First Earlhminke.
A private letter recently received
from Miss Fanny Snow, containing an
interesting account of tho earthquake
in Mexico, is so full of interest that
we have been permitted to make the
following extract. It is known to
some of Miss Snow's friends that she
went to tho City of Mexico last Octo
ber to bo associated with Miss M. L.
Latimer, formerly of Rochester, in or
ganizing a mission school for girls, un
der the Presbvterian boaid of foreign
missions : "This has been a day to bo
remembered. This morning we invited
tho Q -s to come up to tea to
night. After school we sallied forth
to buy clams for a clam-chowder, cake
and various things. o were
walking briskly along San Francisco
street, in the not sun, wnen l ieit my
self suddenly whirling could not see.
I called out, frightened, ' "Why, Miss
L , I in dizzy: ' So am I, . sho re.
sounded; and then 1 think tor a mo
ment I l"st my senses, for I had
n wild idea that I must get sjme-
where under shelter. As 1-sawpeo
plo all around dropping on their knees,
1 did not want to be tho one eonspie-
uous personage on tho street who
could not kneel to the archbishop or
tho holy sacrament. hatever 1
thought I staggered into a shoe store,
and just as I got inside it struck mo
that an earinquaKe was in session,
They wero repairing sommung or
other in tho store, and I vaguely felt
through my dizziness that 1 must get
out from under tho scaffolding, ana
somehow found myself in the
street, standing on the corner
and clinging to a building. Ry
that time I had recovered my senses,
and could philosophize on the subject,
It was very interesting to watch the
people. They poured out of the stores
into the streets, ana very generally
knelt. I took in tho height of the
buildings around, and concluded that
should they fall into the narrow streets
ono might as well be in one spot as in
another, so btaved in tho shade. It
was very quiet, not a word spoken
anywhere. I don't suppose it lasted
three minutes, but it was the queerest
sensation imaginable. l-or the mo
ment that I did not know what it was
I was dread fully frightened, but the
moment it occurred to me it was only
an earthquake, I was as composed as
if 1 had taken earthquakes for a daily
exercise all my life. 1 was quite sea
sick for alittle while, and never was
seasick at sea. 1 am actually bo dizzy
now, at 10 o'clock, that 1 can hardly
lite. Itochetter Vemocrut,
SCIENTIFIC NOTES.
A very durable artificial ivory has
recently been prepared by dissolving
shellac in ammonia, mixing the solu
tion with oxide of zinc, driving oft
the ammonia by heating, powdering
and strongly compressing in molds.
Professor Rurns, of Tubingen, has
made some experiments on dogs which
he regards as proving that bone-mar
row, completely separated lrom the
bone, may be transplanted under the
Bkin of the same animal at a remote
part of the body with the result of
giving rise to the formation of new
bone and cartilage.
The law that bodies evaporate the
moisture they contain tho faster the
more surface they have will remain
true in regard to earth, and it will fol
low' that the finer tho soil is pulverized
the faster it will become dry under
given circumstances; but evaporation,
to be rapid, requires dry air to receive
the vapor. And to give soil the most
benefit from dew, it must be made po
rous so that the moist air can touch the
greatest surface.
Vaccination is henceforth to bo com
pulsory in China. One cause for pop
ular opposition to it Is that it is the
practice there to vaccinate children on
the tip of the nose. A reward of half
a tael, which tho government has of
fered for every child vaccinated, has
not been sufficient to persuade parent3
in easy circumstances to disfigure their
children in this way; and a law lias
therefore been promulgated punishing
by line and imprisonment tho failure to
vaccinate.
During his recent researches Mr.
Brown-Sequard has proved tho possi
bility of introducing a tube into the
larynx of the higher animals without
causing any pain or any subsequent
bad result, although the experiment
was performed repeatedly, in at least
one case, on a single subject. 'The
local insensibility to pain was caused
bv directing a rapid current of car
bonic acid upon the upper part of the
larynx through an incision, for from
fifteen seconds to twoor three minutes.
After the operation was completed the
imestheuc effect lasted lrom two to
.ight minutes.
A Rank Clerk's Sacrifice.
A good many years ago a cashier
took a little lad from a neighboring
poorhouse and when the boy had be
come a youth lie was given a respon
sible position in the bank of which hi
patron was practically the head. Later
the cashier stole more than $15,000
from tho bank. Exposure was threat
ened every day, and the guilty ollleer.
in a period of depression, confessed t.i
the youth that lie proposed to kill him
self. Young Kay, the protege, was
smitten with horn r as he thought of
tho terrible turn in affairs, but having
weighed the matter, tho next dav he
threw himself into the breach. He
suggested, and the cashier eagerly ac
cepted the suggestion, that lie should
fasten the guilt upon himself and a!
scond, thus leaving his pilron honest
in the world's eyes, though blackened
in his own. "What the public he,nl
of the West port robbery was th-it
hank clerk named Ray had stolen
$15,000.
Detectives found several clews, but
not until years afterward was the
secret disclosed. One of the detectives
who lyul been employed in the case
liimc up with Ray under still more
romantic circumstances. The detec
tive, according to his reminiscences
published in a San Francisco paper,
was called recently to a estern city
to ferret out the person who had
robbed a private house of 200 gold
eagles. The only man under arrest
was one, Jlenry Martin. As soon as
the detective saw Martin the former
said: "You aro Dallas Kay, who
robbed thcWestport bank." Ray then
told the true story of tho robbery and
the story has been verified since. Hay
claimed thut ho was innocent of the
gold eagle burglary and asked the de
tective to take a note to his sweet
heart, a Miss Morse. "When tho latter
heard of her lovcr'3 predicament she
threw her whole soul into obtaining
proof of his innocence. She went to
the house where tiie robbery had been
committed. Having asked if tho bur
glar had left iinythingin his flight, she
was given a handkerchief that had
been dropped by the intruder. She
put the handkerchief to her nose and
exclaimed: "Find the thief who uses
this perfume (naming the peculiar
brand) and you will find your eagles."
It was found that only on.a drug store
in the city sold that kind of perfumery,
and that only one bottle had been
bought within tho preceding month.
Need it be added that the purchaser
was traced, tho eagles regained and
the lovers married!
HEALTH HINTS.
A handful of flour bound o a uit
will immediately stop tho Heeding.
' "When suffering from sour stomach,
Dr. Foote, in his Health Monthly, ad
vises the sufferer to try sv allowing
saliva.
A good wash to prevent the hair
from falling out is mado with on
ounce powdered borax, half an ounce
at powdered camphor, ono quart of
boiling water. When cool pour into a
bottle for use, and clean the head with
it, applying with a flannel or sponge
once a week.
For dyspepsia, pour one quart of
cold water- on two tablespoonfuls of
unslacked lime; let stand a few rrln
utes, bottle and cork, and when clear
it is ready for use; put three table
spoonfuls in a cup of milk, and drink
any time, usually before meals.
in
A Chicago policeman shot eleven
times at a burglar and each time
missed. lie made the serious mistake
of aiming at the fellow.
THE OCEAN'S DEPTHS.
iiartho Won4rrfnl Thing Dlsoorerta
t lb Bsttom oflh Atinntlc,
At a meeting of the National Acad
emy ef Sciences in New York Profes
sor A. E. Verrill, of Yale college,
described the physical and geological
character of the oa bottom off out
coast, especially that which lies be
nath the Gulf " stream. IIo has made
1,500 observations this summer for the
United States fish commissioners. He
has cruised from Labrador to Cheat
peak bay and about 200 miles out to
sea. About sixty mile- outside of
Nantucket is a streak of Very oold
water, and animals .dredged up are
like these caught In tho waters of
Grcenkind, Spitzbrrgen or Siberia.
The water is fifty fathoms deep, and
the lfd of the ocean is ot ciny.
Boulders Weighing 800 er 1,000 pounds
aro dredged up. Professor Verrill be
lieves they are brought down by ice
bergs from the Arctic regions and
dropped when the ico melts. Tin
boulders are found as far south as Long
Island. Further out to sea, seventy to
120 miles south from the southeastern
coast of New England, the bottom ol
the sea, which has inclined very grad
ually eastward, forming a tableland,
takes a sudden dip downward, so that
whereas the water on tho edgo el tho
bluff is 100 fathoms deep, at the bot
tom of the basin it is 1.000 fathoms
deep. The slope Is as high and as
steep as Mount "Washington, and
on its summit, which is level.
a diver, could he go to so low a depth,
could not put out his hand without
touching a living creature. The bot
tom of tho eea is covered just there
with a fauna which has never been
heforo found outside of tho Mediter
ranean sea, the Gulf of Mexico, the
Indies, or other tropical regions. The
number of species of lish dredged up is
BOO, and over half of them have never
before been seen by naturalists. Sev
enty kinds of fish, ninety of Crustacea,
and 270 mollusks havo been added to
our fauna. Tho age of many of the
specimens shows that tney must be
permanent in that region. The trowel
let down lrom the ships by a mile ot
rope brings up a ton of living nml
dead crabs, schrimp, ctar fish, and
as the trowel simply scrapes over n
small surface, the ocean bed is plainly
carpeted with creatures.
Sharks are seen by thousands in this
region, nnd countless dolphins, but it
seems strange that not a lish bone, is
ever dredged up. A piece of wood
may be dredged up once a year, but it
is honeycombed by the boring shell fish
nnd falls to pieces at the touch of the
hand. This shows what destruction is
constantly going on in those depth:
If a ship sinks at sea with all- on board,
it would be eaten up by fish with the
exception of the metal, and that would
corrode and disappear. Not a bone of
a 'human body would remain after a
few days. It is a constant display of the
law of the survival of the fittest,
JNothing made by tho hand ol man
win dredged up after cruising foi
months in the track of ocean vessel
excepting coal clinkers shoved over
board from steamships. Hero Profes
sor Verrill corrected himself. Twenty-
fivo miles from land he dredged up ai
india rubber doll. That, he said, wa
ono thing the, fish could not eat.
Here the Gulf stream is forty miles
further west than any map shows,
Professor Verrill continued ; and this
stream of v. arm water from tho south
nourishes the tropical life near Massa
chusetts. The temperature further in
shore is thirty-five degrees in August,
on the edge or tho submarine Mount
"Washington fifty-two degrees, and
toward the bottom of the basin thirtv-
nine degrees, while further out to sea
the temperature ol the water grows
colder. On the surface the jelly fish,
nautilus and the Portuguese man-of-
war, with other tropical lish, are found
In this belt the tile fish, about which
so much was said a year ago, were
found in immense quantities, but this
summer, although expeditions have
been made for the express purpose ot
catching some, not one could be taken.
Undoubtedly they had been killed, to a
fish, by a storm which carried the cold
water into the G ulf stream; indeed, it is
known that a cold current of water
resting on the ocean's bed may contain
Arctic fish, and a current of warm
water filiating over it on tho surface
may be alive with tropical fish
As to the quantity of light at the
bottom of the sea there lias been much
dispute. Animals dredged from below
700 fathoms either have no eyes, or faint
indications of them, or else their eyes are
very large and protruding;. Crabs' eyes
are four cr five times as large as those of
a crab lrom surfaco water, which
shows that that light is feeble, and
that eyes to be of any use must be
very large and sensitive. Anothei
strange thing is that where tho crea
tures in those lower depths have any
Dolor, it is of orange or red, or reddish
orange. Sea anemones, corals, shrimp
and crabs have this brilliant color.
Sometimes it is pure red or scarlet, and
in many specimens it inclines toward
purple. Not a green or blue fish is
found. The orange red is the fish's
protection, for the bluish green light
in the bottom of the ocean makes the
orange or red fish appear of a neutral
tint and hide.i it from enemies. Many
animals are black, others neutral in
color.- S.aiie fishes are provided with
boring tail 4, so that they can burrow in
the mud. Finally, the surface of the
submarine mountain is covered with
shells, like an ordinary sea beach, show-
ing that it is the eating-hcuso of vast
schools of : 'carnivorous animals. A
codfish takes a wholo oyster into its
mouth, cracks tho shells, digests the
meat and spits out the rest Crabs
crack the slie!U and suck out the meat,
In that way come whole mounda of
shell-i that aru dredged up.
There aro In the German empire 17.
501 physicians and 4,457 apo'thecarlea
TlirtnksjiTing-.
Through centuries the golden links have ran
Our fathers' fathers, like their girls and
boys,
E'er blessed the mellow Indian Bummer sun
That pave thin crown of all their house
hold joys.
It brought the dear and distant wanderer.
back,
It placed the infant on the grandsire's
knee,
And wondrous! y it smoothed vexation's track,
New warmth rekindling for the time to be;
Oil, rich the garners by our fathers stored,
And glad and deep their dear Thanks
giving glow;
Our own bnt echo round tho festive board
The voices of a hundred years ago.
For now as tli"D, Thanksgiving goeth up,
For every earnest impulse mito truth,
For blessings lingering in old age's enp,
And all the proniiso round the feet ot
youth.
Oeorrte II. Coomcr.
llUMOltOr TrlE DVT.
Josh Rillings says
"Next to a clear
conscience for solid
comfort comes an
old shoe."
Marriage makes men thoughtful.
About half their time is spent in form
ing excuses.
It is the rich oyster dealer who
knows how to shell out. New York
Commercial, '
Anv good-looking lass is perfectly
happy when left to her own reflections.
New 1 ori J e.ivs.
The man who "couldn't stand it
any longer" has taken a seat and now'
feels more comfortable.
The circus rider who was elected to
the Italian parliament is, we believe,
the only politician who can success
fully ride two horses at once. Phila'
ch'lphia News.
A woman was offered $1,000 if sho
would remain silent for two hours.
At the end of fifteen minutes she
asked: "Isn't the time nearly up?"
and thus lost.
He was making a call and they were
talking of literature. " Tho Pilgrim's
Progress," she remarked, " always
seemed to me painful. Of course you
are familiar with Runyan ' Jlo said
ho had one on each foot and they
bothered him a good deal.
Association of ideas : " That was a
powerful sermon the dominie preached
this morning, said old farmer i urrow
to his wife as they sat at tho dinner
table yesterday. " 'Deed it was," re
plied she ; "but do you know, John,
every time the parson spoke or tho
golden calf that them 'ere heathens
worshiped 1 couidn t help thinking or
you and tho brindle heifer what you
won t sell tor love or money i JScw
York Commercial.
iiorir DKI.VDKO.
"Your girl may be pretty," said Harry,
"May be, as you call her, divine;
A girl any fellow would marry.
But wait, Charlie, till you've teen mine.
Ah 1 then, my dear boy, you'll see beauty
United to sweetness and grace,
With such a high notion of duty .
Why, candor is writ on hor face."
"Indeed," replied Charlie, "Buch graces
Might well adorn maiden or dame;
'Tis seldom we look on such faces
l'ray tell me, old fellow, her name."
" Her name," replied Harry, " 'tis Etta
The daughter of old Deacon Stone,
And I would be willing to bet a
Small snm that she loves mo, alone."
" What, Etta !" cries Charlie, in passion,
" Yon can't mean that sweet little elf?
She knows not of flirting the fashion
'Twas Etta I spoke of myself !"
"That so 1" muttered Harry; "then surely
We've both been deluded 'tis plain.
And ere she has hooked one securely
She's got to go fishing again."
For Young Folks Winter Nights.
The following may serve to while
away some long winter evenings : Can
you place a newspaper on the floor in
such a way that two persons can easily
stand upon it and not lie able to touch
one another with their bands'' An
swer Yes, by putting the paper in
the doorway, one-half inside and tho
other half outside of tho room, and
closing tho door over it, two persons
can easily stand upon it and still bo be
yond each other's reach. Can you put
one of your hands where the other can
not touch It Easily ; by putting one
hand on the elbow of the other arm.
Can yo"u place a pencil on tho floor in
such a way that no one can jump over
it r i e3, if i place It close enough to
the wall of the room. Can you push
a chair through a finger ring? Yes;
by putting a ring on the finger and
pushing tho chair with the finger.
You can put yourself through a key
holo by taking a piece of paper witli
the vords ."yourself" written upon it
and pushing it through the hole. You
can ask a question that no one can an
swer with a "no," by saying what does
y-e-s spell? You can go out of the
room with two legs and return with
six, by bringing a chair with you.
There is no element that enters more
largely into the happiness and general
comfort of society titan the disposition
to make tho best of what happens.
Good and evil, or what we esteem as
such, come to us at different times and
in various ways, but the messasu
they bring and the effect they produce
uro cnieuy determined by the way we
receive them. To make tho best of
the thousand details of every-day life,
as they arise, is a great power for
good in human lives, and one which
every man and every woman can
wield.
" Robt. II. M.," Selma, Ala. : You
seem to know a little about almost
everything, and I hone VOll Will DnaurAn
this question : How can I permanently
remove an indelible grease spot from
a broadcloth coat ?" Tho nni J
permanently remove an indelible grease
epot from a coat is to saw it out of the
coat, but that vould nrmsibiv nt,..
the coat, On the other hand it
..wv.- me 1,-uak irom me- grease
spot but really we feel fnmior., .,.
Will -,i unit, Vl.n - .
tl.o task of furnishing the right brand
of advice in this case Tea mu.,.