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VOL. XII. NO. J5.
TIONESTA, PA., APRIL 0, 1870.
$1,50 Per Annum,
mil
V"
JOSEPH'S ADVENTURE.
f
"Can't you Icll wimp of your adven-
f'lVfor" I naked
of Unfriend Joseph.
iio had returned frohr his many years'
ivcls in the bush, and was sitting witli
nd my wife. And, though lie had
i absent so long, h was, ho to spmik,
a young man yet.
" Adventures? "tYell.I lve met with
plmtyi Rough ones, Mine ol them.
OU1I1I
tell
" riiiiusc
UH
of one," chimed in
' o'V.
Joseph laughed. "I enn' tell you of a
cr one that I met with in the moun-
. ...
' )h, yes, do! Which mountains?
in California; up in one ofJts wild
Gitrirt." , .
."That will be the very thing.
"Well," said Joseph, running his
tapering fingers through his iiair and
smiling at my wife. " I'll Hoften down
things in the telling as well as my blunt
upeech and uncivilized modes of thought
will admit of, mid you must "excuse the
rest,"
"Oh, 1'11'exeusc anything. Please be-
B,n."....
v nen
I
started from home to settle
, . . ,, i i i.
in UnlroqUCIllett (lisiricis, ncgau urorpii.
"I set up a theory that no man should
ask a woman to marry him until lie bus
f.repnred a home for her. It is surpris
Dg how much you begin to think of a
wife West yonder; which arisen, I sup
pose, from the extreme loneliness of one's
existence. I was no exception. The
land 1 took up was in the Rogue river
valley, and after I had got it a bit ship
shape 1 worked uway with only one ob
ject in view to liring home a wife."
"But, Joseph, had you a selected u
wife?" 1 asked.
" No. I intended to do that as soon as
I could, though you may say I was
rather young to be thinking of it. I
workedou, and was pretty successful. 1
built me a house, got a considerable
stock of cattle, made a flower-garden for
my wife, and even put up the pegs and
nails she would want to hang her dresses
on. I intended thut same autumn to
mount my horse, ride through the Wall
auiet valley, find my wife nd bring hr
home." ,
At the notion of courting in that off
hand t vie we laughed a little. Joseph
laughed too, as if the recollection pleased
l.:m.
' You think it strange, I see. It was
i-.ot bo very strange in those days out
there, where girls were ns scares as
angels. There was not a girl within forty
miles of me; and as I assure you that the
very thought of one, as I drove in those
jviifs for her tnrnicnts to hang on, went
1'irough me l'ke a thrill. You don't be
lieve? (io West yourself and try it."
." But 1 do believe'
" 1 had about two hundred and fifty
head ef cattle, a good house with a gar
den, a young orchard, vegetables grow
ing, sweet-scented flowers all in readi
ness for the wife 1 hoped to bring home
to bless me and to take care of thei-e my
possessions. And what do you think
fiaiponisl to them?"
We could not tell.
"There came such a plague of grass
hoppers upon the valley that everything
perished. Crops, orchard, flowers, grass
?very green and delightful and promis
ingthing; the grasshoppers destroyed all.
You remember the second chapter of
Joel?"
I nodded.
'"The land is as the garden of Kden
before them, and behind them a desolate
wildfunis,'.,, L.was. Jiigned. My Block
died at leiislnttitTVeater portion of it;
the cattle had nothing to foed upon. Yes,
it was complete and absolute ruin."
Joseph paused a moment, mentally
looking at the past.
" I considered myseii disappointed in
love too," he resumed in the quaintest of
tones.. "Though I had not been out to
find my girl, 1 knew she was somewhere
in that other valley wn'ting for me; and
when the greedy grasshoppers ate up
everything 1 felt that I had been jilted.
It actually gives mc a pang now to think
of those useless pegs on which my iuiagin
ation had so often seen a girl's pink cot
ton dress and white sun-bonnet."
Joseph gave a great sigh. lie was an
eccentric fellow.
" I became misanthropic said to my
self that between fate ami the grasshop
pers 1 had been hardly used. Tacking
up my books and a few other traps I bade
adieu to the Uogue river valley for ever
and started for the mountains. It was a
longish journey, as 1 had to drive before
me the stock which was left me. There
iu the mountains l settled down again,
built myself a fort and played hermit.
No jilting girls should come near me
now."
"A fort?"
" A regular fort ; a stockade eighteen
feet high, with an embankment four fin
high around it and a strong gate in the
middle. My tent was in the midst of the
inelosure, with my books and household
goods, firearms and alt the rest of my
property stowed away in it."
ere you atraid ol Indian? r i
"Indians arid white men. Yes, 1 saw I
a good many Indians, at first, within the
range of my rifle. They learned to kiep
away from my fort, finding it did not pay
to attempt an invasion. Ilown in the
valley below there were mining enmps;
and you perhaps know what some of the
hangers-on of such camps are. I sold
beef, that is, heads of cattle, to the
miners; and as 1 had sometimes a tidy
sum of money by me, it was necessary Xo
be. cartful." L
" W hat a strange life for a young'ml J?"
Baid Mary. " For you, Joseph ! "
"I herded my cattle, drove them to
market, cooked, studied, wrote and in
dulged in a mixture of misanthropy and
rifle practice, liy the time I had entered
on the second summer in the mountains
I felt quite at home and was getting rich.
After all, the life had its charms. A
man cannot quite tire of it when lie is
but a few years out of his teens."
" A nd the girl-wife "
"1 am coming to her. Having had
time to forget my ill-usage, a reaction sot
in, you see, and I thought, after all, I
roust ride to the Wallamet to see after
my girl. Hut I was not in the hurry
over it that I had been before. This is
all very dull, you will say, but thero'll
b some stir presently."
" It is not at all dull."
"One Sunday afternoon (How did I
know it was Sunday? you ask. Because
I had kept count of tlie days all along;
kept my diary regularly) one Sunday
afternoon 1 was sitting outside writing,
when a shadow fell across the paper, and,
looking up, I beheld a skeleton standing
there before me. Accustomed as I was
to lonely encounters with strange men of
all kinds, my hair stood on end as I
stared at t he specter. He was the merest
boy in years, pretty and delicate by na
ture, and evidently reduced to this
shadowy state by starvation. His story
was soon told. He had left Boston on
board a vessel bound for the northwest
coast, had been wrecked at the mouth of
the Umpaqua, and been wandering about
in the mountains ever since, subsisting on
roots nnd berries."
" He was"
" No, 1 assure you," interrupted Joseph,
with an amused look at my wife, "the
boy was not a young woman in disguise,
if that's what you are thinking. He was
just a poor, weak, half-starved lad named
Kd wards. ' I fed and nurse'd him until 1
got Sam Chong Sung to let him take up
aclaim alongside a Chinese camp, promis
ing to favor the Chinaman in a beef eon
tract if he would be good to the boy. 1
still continued t see a great deal of
him."
" And did Ed wards succeed?"
" Yes; he got on. One dav two China
men stole some of Sam Chong Sung's
horses, and he offered four hundred dol
lars to Edwards if he would go after the
thieves and track them. Edwards asked
mv advice, aud 1 encouraged, him to go,
telling him where 1 fancied he wou,ld find
the men. Sihestarted iu pursuit, and
I confess I mi.wvd him.
Again Joseph paused. We did not in
terrupt him.
" A man came to my fort one day who
was naked and starving. He was a
bad-looking fellow, very; but you will
say a man naturally docs look bad when
Ins clothes are nowhere and ins bones
protrude through his skiu. I clothed
him, fed him, card for him kindly until
he was able to travel, and then he went
away. The next Sunday 1 was sitting
outside my fort, as was customary on
that leisure day, reading some transla
tions from the Creek poets for I iliire
sav you remember I was never much of
a hand at the original when, chancing
to look offmv booK, I beheld a vision."
"A what?"
" A vision. A vision of a lovely
woman. She was riding up the ap
proach to my fort on a fine liorse, riding
gracefully and slowly, as if to give me
time to get over my surprise; and 1 bo
ieve 1 needed it. The picture sho made
is in my mind now ; 1 see the very flicker
of the shadow Snd the sunlight across
ihe road, and the glitter of some steel
tlitt fastened her horse's trappings as lie
arched his neck in impatience of her re
straining hand. 'Are you tired, old
friend?"
" Never less, so in my life."
"That vision, breaking in suddenly ns
it did, upon my solitude, gave me the
queerest sensations. I was just spell
bound. Not so she. Iteming in her
horse at my gate, she squared round on
her saddle and looked at me, silently ask
ing my assistance to dismount. I helped
Iter down what else could I do ? and
then, at her request, gently preferred,
went tm put up aud feed her horse. Had
she drooped from the clouds ? I did not
know.' .
" Well ?"
" If you'll believe mc, when I turned in
doors, my guest had got her habit oil".
Evidently she meant to make herself at
I home. A tall, young, beautiful, well-
dressed woman ! Her eyes were large,
j black and melting; lmr hair was superb,
I her manner easy. She was hungry, she
said; would I give her something to eat?
And while I was making preparations to
give her of my best she read aloud one of
i the ( i reek translations, an ode to Diana.
commenting upm it herself.. That she
! was a woman of culture and education
! whatever might have brought her into
: her present strange position, was obvious.
Well, now," continued Joseph, "you can
guess whether a young man, isolated on
the mountains, ruined by the grasshop-
, pers lunl jilted bv tlie girl ot the Walla
: met valley, was bewildered or not. -Kn-j
tertaining goddesses was not in my line."
llow long did she stay.'
I " Wait a bit. What with reading aud
i eating, our acquaintance improved fast
Vint ilVti(tit ti uitinr n initio urn) iraru mi
Kate Kearney.' I might have Tost mv
head to her perhaps, to say nothing of
my heart, but lor a certain inward latent
I doubt. I did not care that my girl
should ride about, elegantly attired, on
prancing horse, and drop down unex
pectediy on hermits. Mill, it was a
pleasant feeling to find one's self near
her, and certainly a novel ne. I asked
her history and she told it me. She was
of a good New England family, reared
in affluence, well educated and accom
plislied, tmt by a treak of lortune she
had liecome reduced to poverty and exiled
trom home.
" What was it, Joseph?"
"Ah! what indeed? The old storv. I
suppose; but I did not ask her. She had
made her why to California, resolved to
get on and get money ; and she had gofl
it. Mie went about from camp to camp
with stationery and various articles
needed by the miners and others, sold
them these things, wrote letters for
them, sang to them, nursed them
when sjck, and carried their letters ex
press to San Francisco to be posted. Fr
all these services she received large pay
ments, and she had also had a good deal
of rough gold given to her as specimens.
Did she like that kind of life? I asked
her, so contrary to her early habits, and
she answered mo quickly: 'It is not
what we choose that we do in this world,
but what fate chooses fr us. I have
raade a competency and gained a rich
and varied experience. Life is not what
I once pictured it would be, but I am
content.' She sighed as she said it; and
I didn't believe in the 'content.' "
"But what had brought her to you
that day?"
" She had not told me herself then, but
prudently I asked her. I shall never
forget the smile with which she turned
to answer. It pretty nigh disarmed mo.
We were sitting pretty olose, too; her
flowing silk gown touched my knees.
Altogether, 1 began to think of those
useless pegs in the house down in Uogue
river valley. But what she said pulled
up my wandering thoughts and turned
them to present tilings. 'Shall you be
surprised to hear that 1 came to do you a
real service?' she asked. And she went
t !
on to relate that, having had to pass the
previous night at a place not many miles
away, in a house where the partitions
were thin, she had chanced to overhear
a plan for murdering nnd robbing me,
the villain-in-chief of the plot being the j
starved and naked wretch whom I had j
sheltered nnd sent away rejoicing not !
many days previously. All in a mo
ment, while I was pondering ou the
doubtful problem of gratitude, a fancv
came over mo that she mighUnot bo telf-
J
mg the truth; that it might be just an
excuse got up to justify her own visit;
and I playfully hinted as much. ' A
woman does not trifle with subjects like
these, nor does she deceive when she
goes out of her way to do a service." she
answered. 'I rode off from that house
the other way this morning, made a long
detour, and came here to. warn you.
And now that I have done it. if you will
please to get my horse, I will ride away
again.' All fair, that. I, full of thanks
ami repentance, asked her to stay longer
if she was not perfectly rested ; but she
declined, and I brought the steed round
and helped her to mount him. Once iu
the saddle her humor changed; she
smiled and reminded me that I had not
been 'polite enough to invite her tore
turn. A week of reading, talking, rid
ing, trout-fishing and romancing up in
those splendid mountains would be very
charming; perhaps she would come if I
asked her."
" And did you ask her?"
" 1 did not. A young man with a repu
tation to sustain up there in the mount
ains couldn't invite a young lady to stay
a week with him; could he now?'' cried
Joseph, quaiutly ; which set us both
laughing.
Sol parried the question as easily
as 1 could, and she rode away, in
going slowly down the trail she turned
and kissed her hand to me with a gracious
sweetness. I assure you the struggle
within my own mind was great at that
moment; and I don't know whether I
have forgiven myself even yet for what
happened afterward.
" What did happen?"
" She came back again. She wwie back
again and I drove her away. That is, I
made ttie best excuses 1 could for not re
admitting her, saying we should pej.
haps have fighting and murder and what
not in my fort that night, and it would
be no place for a delieateTy-bred woman.
The pretty and modest girl who was to
come from the Wallamet valley and hang
up her pink garments on ray pegs had
rushed into mv mind, vou see. But I
never like to confess to this part of the
story, because I get laughed at. But
don't you think I did right, having my
reputation to keep up?"
While we had our laugh out Joseph
was pushing his soft, fine hair off his brow
with those slender fingers that looked as
if no rough work had ever come near
him; and what must they have been be
fore it did come?
He went on thoughtfully : " She final
ly rode away, not having been invited to
get off her horse; leaving me in anything
but a pleasant frame of mind. From tell
ing myself I was a bear I turned to the
other subject, the contemplated murder
and robbery of myself. Had she simply
invented that little fable? or was it a
true bill? I felt inclined to believe it to
be the latter. Anyway, I deemed it well
to be prepared for al) contingencies, bar
ling and bolting my fort against intruders
and sitting up late over the fire. This
was Sunday night. On Tuesday morn
ing three or four men rode up, one of
whom was the traitor, my former naked
and hungry protege. He no longer at
tempted to conceal his true character
from me, but said he and his comrades
were determine to 'clean out' the Chinese
camp, and he asked me to join them in
the raid. 1 was on my guard in answer
ing him, simply saying that 1 would have
nothing to do with robbing the Chinese,
that they were my friends and customers,
and I thought they had best be let nloue.
With that he went oft'. That same after
noon Edwards came in, having recaptur
ed some of the horses. He was very
tired, and asked leave to stay with the
horses at mv place till next day. I said
nothing to Edwards of the gang just gone
away, or that (as 1 suspected) they had
talked of making a raid on the Cliinese
only to throw me off my guard; for it
was my fort on which the attack was un
doubtedly to be made.
" Dusk came on. 1 sent Edwards, dead
tired, to bed, made a great fire in the tent
and sat by it, facing the window. My
expected visitor came, the villain! He
made believe to have been drinking, and
put that forward as a plea for asking
shelter until the morning. The instant
he' was inside I made the gate fast, driv
ing the big wooden pins home with an
axe. I caught a gleam from his eyes as I
was doing tins winch
" But why not have made the gate fast
before he entered?"
"Because he was safer inside than out.
A conviction had come over me that this
man was some most desperate character.
His comrades were no doubt waiting
neur, and his plan had been quietly to
open the gate ta them."
" Had you no arms but your rifle?"
I wanted none; for we understand
each other, my rifle and I. This villain
understood us too. 1 don't think, either,
that he liked to see Edwards sleeping in
the tent. The lad was not good for much.
but still he was somebody. It wonld now
be a contest of kill between the fellow
and me. He was waiting his opportuni
ty, and so was I. Of all villainous-looking
men he was the worst looking. Tall,
swarthy, black-bearded, and with a hard
face ,that must have been handsome once,
and fierce black eyes gleaming with evil.
Ho sat on one side of the hearth, I sat on
the other, our eyes fixed on one another.
" You guess, I dare say, that I have a
quick ear, for you know what my tem
perament is all sensitive consciousness.
My good hearing had been cultivated,
too, by listening for the Indians. By.
andVy I detected a very stealthy movct
nient outside the fort ad then a fain-
chirrup, such as a young squirrel might
make. Up sprang the man, but I covered
him with my rifle, cocked. He saw the
movement, showed his teeth nnd drew
out a pistol, but not before 1 had ordered
him to throw down his arms or die! He
hesitated ; lie saw that in my eye and as-
1)(V
jivt which made him quail. While 1
held the rifle leveled and my finger on
the trigger, he threw down his arms,
pistol and knife, with a dreadful oath,
I had the best of him, and he knew it,
for before he could have put his pistol
into form or rushed on me with his knife
the ball from my rifle would have been
in him. His language was awful and
! we are not very nice in that respect, you
i know, in California the foam lay on'his
lips. He demanded to be let out of the
house, denouncing me as a murderer and
a robber. To all his ravings I had but
one answer, to be quiet, to obey me and
he should live; dare to disobey me and
he should die. He sat there, cowed, on
the opposite side of the fire, not daring to
make even a doubtful motion. Then I
told him what I knew; that I lieurd
who he was and what he intended to do.
With that he broke down utterly, or pre
tended to do so ; cried like a child, de
claring that now he knew my pluck, and
I was the first man ever to get tho better
of him, he loved me like a brother. All
the same, love or no love, he had to sit
where he was. and 1 in front of him with
my rifle ou my knees. There was a long
night before us; he could have no liberty
in it, and the restraint was horrible to
hiiu. One moment he laughed uneasily,
the next cursed, the next cried. It whs
a strange experience, was it not? To
pass away the time I asked him to relate
the history of his'life. He said lie would,
but would lirst of all just shake hands for
the respect lie bore me. Touching mv
rifle siguitieautlv, I pointed to the stick
lying across the hearth-place between as.
'"That's your boundary-line, my man,'
said I; 'don't go stretching your hand
over that.' This sent him Into a fit of
hulleiiness."
What came of it?"
" We must have remained in this posi
tion until midnight. Several times I heard
slight sounds outside the fort, but, though
he too listened, he dared not respond to
them; he could do nothing. After a
while these sounds ceased ; his associates,
rightly judging that something or other
had gone wrong and fipoilt the scheme,
hail uo doubt made off, tired of waiting.
The fellow's head was bent, his chin
resting on his breast, his shaggy beard
spreading over it like a mantle. "He suf
fered martyrdom. By-and-by we got to
1 1 1 ' T 1 3 . 1 ' 1
uiiKin, uui i u iu noi reiax my viiuuice
for an instant. Once started on his awn
history, the sulyect seemed to have a
fascination for him. He had been hon
estly ' raised,' he said, by good and lov
ing parents iu the State ofMissouri ; had
passionately loved a young girl in the
town where he lived, and his description j
of her was so pretty and vivid that I de-
clare it brought into my mind that other
girl who was waiting for me down in
the Wallamet valley. To get the means
to many her he resolved to go to Cali
fornia. He went, was successful, and,
full of joyful anticipations, returned to
find that she had married another. The
man, the husband, had played them
fa'se, told the girl that her "lover was
dead, and married her himself. When
he came out of the,brain fever which this
news gave him, he was invited to an
evening party in the town. To this party
came his love aud her husband; and
when he put out his hand to welcome
her their eyes met, and both knew then
how they had been betrayed. From
that hour the man took to evil courses,
and his first victim was tho false hus
Hnnd. He became a desperate outlaw.
Once again he saw his love; he met her in
the streets of Sacramento; she was mar
ried again; and she turned from him
with a cry of aversion. Yes, lie might
lie a desperate man now, he added, but
he had had his trials. 1 suppose I
should have done society a benefit had I
shot him as he sat there, but I did not.
l'erhaps you won't believe that I felt a
sort of pity for the fellow, but 1 did.
Well, morning came at last. I sent
Edwards to get the gate open, and es
corted my visitor out, telling him that
there was not room for him and me in
that part of the country, and that he had
better quit it for another.
"And did he
" 1 suppose so, for he never attempted
to molest me again. Not long after I
heard of his death. He met his fate east
of the mountains."
"And what of that pretty Amazon,
Joseph ? I am sure she w;us almost as
good to you as a guardian angel, coming
i on horseback to give you warning."
" Was she not ? And I had returned
j it by behaving so unhandsomely to her !
But now, 1 just ask you, would it have
j U'cn proper to let her come in on that
I week s visit, and I a young m n with a
reputation ?''
i " At any rate, you did not. But have
i you ever stvn her since ?"
"i nice; it was in rrisco, Mie was
married and staving at the same hotel
with me. Her husband was a tall, dash
ing man, what with you would be called
a gentleman, and very wealthy. She hail
been lucky, you see. 1 knew her as
soon as she came into the dining-room,
arid in a few minutes I saw that she
recognized me ; but she did not take any
notice and neither did I. She told me
with her eyes that she remembered, but
J there was an appealing glance in them
i which I interpreted rightly. After din-
I ner wp mil. into con vprnntion tho
! three of us, just as strangers will do in a
hotel, and l lotina the husband a very in
telligent, well-informed man. In parting
I got just a word aside with her. ' I am
gl ad to meet you again, and thus,' I said.
' Hush !' she answered, ' I thank vou far
your reticence. In the past of a life that
has been composed of ups and downs
there is generally something or other ly
ing on the memary that we don't care to
recall or proclaim to the world.' "
" And about the young girl in the
Wallamet valley ?"
" I never found her," replied Joseph,
plaintively. "Truth to say, I never
started fairly to look for her. Perhaps
it's as well.''). C. Mwdonald.
j Each frtalk of the banana plant
j due from seventy to 100 bananas.
pro-
TIMELY TOPICS.
At a Western Canadian manufactory is
being made an implement which is" to
plant potatoes, at the same operation
markiug out the drills, dropping the
manure, mixing it with the earth, nnd
covering the seed. It will also hoe and
hill the crop and pick potato bugs, ami
in three minutes can lie so altered that it
will dig 800 bushels of potatoes in a day.
Could not the inventor, while his hand is
in furnish his machine with a patent at
tachment for washing, paring, cooking
and dishing up the potatoes?
One of the most ruinous habits of the
Russian peasants is displayed at marriage
celebrations. A peasant, "to celebratethe
marriage of his son, procures twenty-five
gallons of whisky, to got money for
which he sells his horse, cow or pigs, and
is ready to become a tiauper. lie cannot
resist "the practice, for custom requires
that the population of the village, men,
women and children, must get drunk.
A rich peasant at the marriage festival
will procure one hundred gallons of whis
ky, and the neighboring villagers are. in
vited to take part in the carousal.
During a terrific storm at Venice, tlie
square of St. Mark's, the piazretta, and
principal streets were completely inun
dated by the high tide. A large number
of people were held captive in restaurants
and in small by streets so elovated as not
to be covered by water, while in the
flooded parts masked revelers wading
about bare-legged, noisy uchins and
porters conveying on their hack women
fresh from balls and dressed in all sorts
of finery and toggery, presented an amus
ing spectacle. 1 ravel on the canals was
suspended, as the gondolas could not pass
under the bridges, and considerable dam
age was caused on all sides.
linto, the Portuguese explorer, who
has aruived at Pretoria, telegraphs to the
Portuguese government as fidlows : "In
concluding ray journey across Africa, 1
strugglixl with hunger, thirst, the natives.
floods and drought. I have saved all my j
pnpers twenty geographical charts, j
many topographical maps, three volumes
of note, meteorological studies,drawings, i
nnd a complete exploration of the Upper I
Zambesi with its seventy-two cataracts." j
Pinto left the coast Oetoler25. 1877. with I
400 followers, only eight of whom sur- j
.vived the struggles with tho nativos and
the privations of the march.
There was a great hue and cry over the
capture of one poor fox near Dayton,
Ohio. Nearly 5,000 men and boys from
all parts of the country formed a line
around an entire township in which
many foxes were known to dwell. The
arrangements had been carefully made,
and the discharge of heavy cannons at
three points was the signal for a general
imnement toward the center. Every
person had a hrn or bell, or something
else with which to make a din, the idea
lieing to drive the foxes to a certain gulch,
and there dispatch them. But one division
did not start promptly, and a gap was left
in the line, through which all the foxes
but one escaped. The lone victim hid in a
hollow tm', and was killed by a dog.
A famine next year in Russia is p re
dinted by Russian journals. I.ost year
about one-third of the crop was destroyed
by beetles and marmots, so that the seed
has been deficient ; and the cattle plague
took off nearly ninety per cent, of the cat
tle in many places. To these things must
be added the extraordinary drought of
the past half year. Then in Russia there
are too many holidays (about one hun
dred in the year): drunkenness is also a
widespread vice, whose wastefulness is
greatly felt. Most of the land in Russia
is under mortgage to bankers, the pro
prietors are hardly able to pay their in
terest, and the arrears ore everywhere
alxiut twenty per cent. The grain, which
is the chief article of export, and which
furnishes taxes and supplies, is devoured
by parasites while growing, after being
gathered, and on railroads.
A Distinguished Foreigner.
About a year ago, Messrs. Charles j
ltciche and brother brought five chini-i
panzii-s to the New York aquarium, of
which only one remains. Recently, an- j
other arrived from Central Africa, and ;
there was much curiosity to see how the
two creatures would act at their first
meeting.
When the stranger was put in the
cage, "Tommy," the old inhabitant,
looked at him for a moment with some
little distrust, then he approached nearer,
and after a little hesitation threw one
arm over his shoulder in a manner that
was almost human.
They looked in each other's eyes with j
serious faci, and then, clasping their
long arms about each other, embraced, j
Then they separated, and "Tommy " ex- i
tended his hand, which the newcomer !
took and shook. Then "Tommy" offered j
the eourtesit's of his cage to the new- j
comer, gave him a part of his blanket
and the remains of his dinner.
When the new arrival was given his
first bath, he objected strongly, and
fought against soap and water and brush
ami comb like an obstinate child, while
"Tommy " looked on. in apparent glee.
At ten o'clock at night, the new chim
panzee was wrapped up in his blanket,
sleeping soundly, and "Tommy," with
his blanket pulled up over his shoulders,
sat a few feet away, watching him with
great solicitude.
One of the oldest customs or preroga
tives in regard to fish, 'Was, in the time
of Henry I., the right to what aro now
termed " royal," but which were former
called ''great," fish, namely, the sturgeon
and the whale. " Of sturgeon," says the
royal autocrat, " caught ou our lands (ic)
we will that it shall be ours, saving to
the finder his cobts and expenses. Of
whales, so found, we will that the head
shall be ours, and tho tail our consort's."
Wise discrimination for the head was
considered the daintiest part, the tongue
being the tidbit. Fishermen would offer,
as their costliest gift to the church, a
whale's tongue, and it was, no doubt,
highly relished by the ecclesiastics, for
William the Conqueror gave a yearly
grant of one to the monks of Matmoutier.
AU the, Year Hound-.
ITEMS OF INTEREST.
A woman's glove is to her what his vest
pocket is to man.
Definition of nothing: A footless
stocking without a leg.
What class of women are most apt to
give tone to society ? The belles.
The kind of food that ' hungry tramps
most dislike is a "cold shoulder."
Senator Jones, of Nevada, pays 817,
000 rent for his Washington residence.
There were nine hundred and five sol
diers killed by the Zulus at Isandula.
South A frica.
Hint to thoie affected by the "walk
ing" fever: The most useful pedestrian
is the man who walks the floor night
with the baby.
"On this head," said the lecturer,
"there is nothing left to be desired."
The bald-headed man in the front row
immediately rose to a call to order.
Tramps are defined by Michigan law to
be "persons refusing to work for the
usual and common wages given to other
persons for like work iu the place where
they may be.'"
Some idea of the size ot the State
of Texas may be gathered from the
fact that, though the population is a mil
lion, there are are only four people to
every square mile of territory.
There are 350 Protestant Sunday schools
in New York citv, with 88,237 scholars
on their rolls. There are likewise of
Roman Catholics, Jews, and so forth,
sixty-two Sunday schools, having 27,
588 scholars on their rolls, making total
of 418 schooLs, with an enrollment of
115,826 scholars.
There is in Chicago a Sunday school
for Chinese, which meets every Sunday
afternoon. Of tho hundred or more China
men in that city, twenty-six attend the
school regularly, and there is arteachor
for every scholar. The converts are said
to be generous contributor for religious
and charitable enterprises.
Many Italian emigrants- have written
home from Brazil that the country they
expected to find a paradise is quite the
reverse, and that they are treated like
beasts while alive and when dying ore
without the benefit of triet or doctors.
Hence a uiembvr of parliament has in
troduced a law to restrain the insane
desire of emigration."
An Exciting "Tag or War."
A "tug of war" is a trial of strength
between two teams of men, who grasp a
rope and try to draw each other over a
mark. A correspondent of the Iindon
Sewn in Afghanistan describes a contest
of this kind between two teams of native
soldiers as follows:
The tug of war which excited the most
interest was that between the Hazara
vnountin-litterv tmm. and one from
the infantry of the (.in ides. In both
rases they seemed powerful sets of men.
The tuq; lasted for about forty minutes;
live minutes lieing the usual time in
which such trials of strength are settled.
The bull dog-like firmness with which
thee men held on was an evidence to
any of those w at the moment may
have thought back on the past history of
India, that if these races had liecn pro-
perly drilled and led by the right mri
" the haphazard frontier" of her ma
jesty's Indian empire would still have
been the river Sutiej. The (iuide infan
try are chiefly Patans, while the mountain-battery
are Sikhs. One or two of
the latter lost their pugrees in the strug-
?;le, and their hair fell down over their
ace, neck and shoulders in wonderful
black masses. There was one man whose
jet bluish-black locks were in such a
quantity that his whole head and upper
part of his body was completely vailed
by it; so dense was the mass that lie
could not seelhrough it. Although the
skin was comine off his hands he would
j not let go the rope to throw back his
j hair, which hung down so long that, his
: body being bent, it trailed in the diyt.
If any one can conceive a lion with,
a magnificent black mane, he will
, have a picture of this herons he lay
! on the ground holding on to the rope
like a vise. Not only was the skin of
his hands peeling oil', but he began at
li&t to spit blood : but not a sign oi re
linquishing his grip was given. The
thick mass of hair hanging round his
face like a curtain prevented the air from
getting at him it must have been suffo
cating and when at last his team had
won the victory, this splendid fellow
tumbled over on the ground and all but
fainted from sheer exhaustion. There
was an instant rush of his comrades, and
tlie restorative they employed was that
of shanipooning him all over the body ;
but he was not the only one that n1
q uircd it. About one-half the team re
ceived similar attentions from their
friends: their exhausted condition will
in itself tell how hard the struggle had
lieen. The (iuide infantry, who lost in
this struggle, had nothing to be nshamed
of. They held on manfully, and wurcely
lost an inch of rope till the end. During
thirty minutes it would have been hard
to say which would have gained the vic
tory. and at the close it Uvame only a
question a,s to which side could sustain
the struggle a minute or so longer than
the other.
A Chance Accepted.
Here's a chance for some enterprising
paragrapher who wants to get up a poet
ical paragraph" All you have to do is to
fill up the blanks; we'll furnish the
rhymes:
gear
rifcky
beer
whisky
-temp runee cuum
-thren hurrahs.
H Keokuk Constitution."
We are not enterprising, but can fill
this out for you just as well as not, on
the condition that you will not sue us for
libel:
The " Constitution' " out ol
Its liubits are so very
Its paragrapher will take
Whenever be Ouii got uo
Ho ad voontc the ....
And then for gin giv9"
" Rons fentiuol-