(Ihc Rarest ftrpuWom.
1 11 I'l lhULU tVEHY WKDNKSHAV, BT
Rates of Advcrti: tr:
On Mqnare (1 inch,) onn insert ion - $1
OnpSijuare " one mouth - - .If"
OnoK'iuaro " three inonl 1m - ()(!'
OneNqiiare " onn jphi -- 10 do
Two Squares, on year -- 1" r(i
Q n.i rU;r Col. .!() Of.
Hall " " - . - 50 00
One " " - 1 - 100 cn
Lngal notices at established rates.
Mnrrinxe and dentil notice. Krutix.
All bills for yearly advertisement eo'
locted quarterly. Temporary advertise
mnts must be p:iid for in ndvnee. '
Job work, ('aii on lolivory.
fl rl
t. 33. 'wiaivruc .
OrriCE IN ROBIMiON & BOWER'S BtJILDIHO
ELM BTKJXf, TfOKraXA, PA. '
TERMS, $1.60 YEAH.
v" "lH'riptions received for a nhorlor
! i i'.d llian throe months.
. '! TcNpondenw solicited in. hi nil parts
' !io country. No notice, will bo taken of
r.i Miymous communications.
VOL. XIV. NO. 20. TIONESTA. PA., AUG. 10, 1881. $1.50 Per Annum.
Artvloe. . . ' '
"j luiiMt ild ne you do?" yottr way, I own
In a very good way; and (till . '
The.ro aro aometimes two straight roadu to a
town
One over, ono tinder the hill.
Yon ri o trcadini? the safe and well-worn way
mat trie pnulent choose each time,";
And yon think me reckless and rash to-day
Buea'iHi) 1 profur to climb.
Yo'ir path i the right one, ami no ia mini, "
Wo aro nut like peaij in a pod, -Compelled
to lio In a curtain lino
Or olne bo urattored abroad.
Tworo a dull world, methinkK, my friuud,
If we all wont JitHt ono way,
yet our patlm will meet no doubt at tho end,
Though they lead apart to-day.
You liko the Hhado and I like the sun;
You like an even pace;
I like to mix with the throng and run,
And then rent after the raee.
I like danger and atonn and at rife;
Yon liko a peaceful time,
I liko panHion and surge of life;
You like its gentle rhymo.
Yon like buttercups, dewy sweet,
And erocnaea, framed in snow;
I liko the rosea, born of the heat,
And the red oamationa' glow.
I must livo my lifo, not youra, my friend,
For so It was written down.
We luuat follow our given. path to the end,
But I trust wo shall nioet in town.
GRACE'S DESK.
Margaret looked up from her sewing
machine for a minute to glance across
the room at the quiet little figure sit
ting at the window a round, graceful
little figure, whose attitude of thought
ful gravity was full of suggestion.
And then Margaret, always more or
lesa cruHty, but kind-hearted, gave an
impatient sigh and increased the speed
of her machine by a savage motion of
her n)iM-red fee', and compressed her
li.s and puckered her frrehead all up
in a rfect n-st of wrinkles; whih
Grace, ni, con scions of it, sat lookinp
out of the window at the gloomy pros
pect lialf-melted, dirty, sluHhy-browi.
snow tha' whs rapidly m owing slnahiei
and more melted under the drizzling
rain "U at. was falling ; and, of course,
v. thmkit.g about Laurie Marcellus.
""Fr Keiral months Grace had no
thought of much else but him, and yel
ther had not been an hour or a mo
ment of that time that she had not trie
. not to think of him and grieve for him
It had been very similar to the eami
old story Laurie Marcellus, handsome
elegant, aristocratic, fairly well-to-do it
the world's estimation of riches, hac
beon Grace Warrener's most devoted loi
several months, until by one of thorn
venomous waves of fortune's wand social
position and wealth had suddenly van
ished, and the Warrener girls found
themselves obliged to take in dress
making for a living.
Frionds who had always been friends,
who redeemed the dear name, who knew
them for what they were worth, did not
desert them ; but first and foremost in
the ranks of those who so conveniently
preferred to dispense with the society
of the two dressmakers who lived in
Appledore row was Mr. Laurie Marcel
Ins. He had dropped out of Grace's life as
a brilliant comet disappears from the
sky. He had called one evening, the
same as ever, wi h the sweet, caressing
tenderness in his voice the glad, eager
light in his handsome eyes that made
the girl's heart spring within her; and
she had never seen him since nor
heard from him.
That very next day the crash came,
through which the great spice house of
Warrener fc Gray suspended; and a
month later Caleb Warrener died with
apoplexy, and as soon as decency per
tuitted the splendid mansion and furni
ture, the horses and carriages, the sil
ver snd jewels, nil were sold under the
rea nag.
Margaret came grandly to tho fore in
those dark days, when her keenest grief
was to witness little Grace's dismay and
astonishment and Buffering at Laurie
Marcellus' defection; and yet her words
were usually more bitter and sarcastic
than gentle it was Margaret Warren
er's way to use heroic treatment.
lie's not worth the everlasting fuss
you make about him, Grace. I'm
ashamed of you downright ashamed;
and he not your betrothed, either 1"
That was true, so far as formal words
went. Laurie Marcellus had never
asked Grace Warrener to be his wife;
ho h'd never in so many words told her
he loved her; but he had known just as
well at ho had known he was alive how
the girl's heart was all his own how
she ioved him dearly und truly, for all
her sweet reserve.
Grace smiled faintly when Margaret
spoke of the "fuss" she made about
him. She knew well enough that the
"fusa" was only her grave, sad face,
her quiot ways, her listless manner,
that bhe tried desperately hard to con
quer, and ia all the months that had
passed had not succeeded, and seemed
no nearer succeeding than in the be
ginningso noarly hopeless a task is it
for a woman to coupler thoughts and
heartsick longiugs lor the man she
loves. Pride and shame may do valiant
battle for the victory, but pride and
shame are buby foes in comparison with
; the Kiant they oppose woman's strong,
) enduring love for her chosen beloved.
J And Kfi the drpurv H.nu unf r
" 7 - " V -J V V -J 1 J
Grace, and by steady, persistent effort
she disallowed herself to be dull or
notnphuuiug, or a kill-joy. Bhe reso
lutely determined to at least be cheer
ful and patient outwardly, no matter
what the inward commotion. And to
day this cheerless January day Rhe
had only given a momentary rein to her
thoughts, enough to make her lay down
her sewing and lean her head against
the window, and wish she might never
have known the sweetness of Laurie
Marcellus love.
Until the unusual whirring of the
sewing machine wheel made her aware
that Margaret had observed her and was
.displeased. So, with a little, desperate
effort, she forced herself back to the
basting of the satin fold in her work.
"I was thinking about that auction
sale at Dempsey's to-night," Margaret
said, almost crossly. "You want a
desk, you said, and Maggie Rich Bays
there's a very good one to be sold there.
I'll go and bid on it for you, I think, if
I ever under the sun get these bands
stitched on ! It seems to me that those
Rich crirls are not hannv unless their
dresses are absolutely loaded with trim
ming." Graco looked up, with such sweet,
sweet eyes it was no wonder handsome
Marcellus had liked to look into the
pure brown wells of limpid light.
"You are so good, Margaret! I do
want a desk, if you are sure you can
afford it."
" You needn't say if I can afford it,
Grace. You have as much right to the
mouey as I have. I'm going to buy
myself a cashmere polonaise you can
have the desk if it is reasonable in
piico."
8o that was how Miss Warrener came
to be at the auction sale at the big
house on the hill that evening Demp
sey's grand mansion, whose prince had
taken a whim to sell out and spend a
few years abroad.
And the next day the desk was deliv
ered at the cottage in Appledore row,
and Grace put it in her room a small,
beautiful article, standing nicely in a
cozy corner, and just the very thing for
Grace's few books and her stationery.
It was very handsome, and Grace
cried a little over it, because it brought
back so many thoughts of the dear old
lays when she was surrounded by just
mch elegancies of furniture, and when
everything seemed, somehow, to lead
to that one pivotal thought when Lau
rie Marcellus had been her friend.
So the mouths went on, and the two
sinters led their busy life, and Grace was
rowing sweeter and paler, and more
'MiUently thoughtful, with every day
that widened the distance between her
tnd her memories.
New friends gathered around them
'.rue friends and there was more than
one opportunity for Grace to have
accepted a lover, only she had no love
t.o give, no heart to win.
Uer happiest and her saddest hours
were spent at her desk, or it seemed to
her that it was like a link to the past ;
and one windy, wildly-stormy night,
five years after she had taken up her
cross, for Laurie Marcellus' sake, she
was sitting before her desk making
out a score of bills to the "Misses
Warrener, artist dressmakers,"and going
back to one other stormy, snowv niarht.
when she had said the good-night that 1
mean good-bye, although she had not
known it.
She was leaning her head on her
hands, her elbow resting on the slant of
her desk, when, with a little crushing
noise, it broke, revealing a shallow
aperture, of whose existence she hod not
the slightest knowledge.
She looked in, and all the blood in
her body seemed to rush madly to her
brain ; for there, lying in the little
secret place, fresh and clean, as though
laid there an hour before, was a letter,
stamped, for mailing, and directed
plainly to herself Grace Warrener,
The Willows," and in Laurie Mar
cellus' handwriting.
She dared not touch it for a minute.
She feared she was in the midst of some
improbable dream ; she wondered if it
were possible she had gone suddenly
daft.
Was it a letter to her from him?
But how how could it have got there,
when the desk had been locked, in her
room, for years ?
Then she touched it, half expecting
to see it vanish before her eyes. But
it did not vanish; it was all true
a letter, for her, from him, and it had
laid there all these years, so near, so
far!
She sank trembling on the chair and
opened it Laurie Marcellus' proposal
of marriage; his avowal of love; his
manly sympathy and pitiful tenderness
because of her father's financial trou
ble ; his caressing pleading to be al
lowed to comfort and protect her as his
wife shoidd be comforted and protected
and cherished, lie begged for an im
mediate answer, and he would come to
her at once if she loved him and did
not say him nay. But if if there was
no such blessed answer for him if he
had been presumptuously mistaken
her greatest kindness would be not to
answer him at all.
And she had just received it, after
five years.
Poor little Grace ! White and trem
bling, amazed and bewildered, she Bat
there long after Margaret had gone to
her own room, so unconscious of the
drama enacting so near her.
He had loved her he had loved her
after all ; and Grace's heart thrilled at
that thought, slender though the con-1
solution was. , .
She thought of it all, keeping virgil
with her thoughts that night. How the
letter had ever come in that desk she
had bought at Dempsey's, she dared not
imagine. Grace only realised that some
tremendous fate had discovered it tohca.
She kept her strange, sweet, pitiful
secret in her own heart for days, won
dering with every hour if she could dare
take a step in the matter.
And then, one day, the auctioneer
who had sold the desk to Margaret War
rener went to her and told her that a
gentleman who had just returned from
Europe desired to regain possession of
the desk sold at Mr. Dempsey's auction,
as it had been a gift to Mr. Dempsey
from himself, on the eve of his depart
ure abroad, five years before. And
Grace listened with dilating eyes and
throbbing heart, whose beats almost
choked her utterance.
"Tell the gentleman to call here and
he may have his property."
And that evening, when she went to
the door at the sound of the bell, and
opened it, with her face slightly paler
than usual, Laurie Marcellus stood
there.
" I expected you come in," she said,
gently, while amazed and bewildered he
could only bow and obey.
Then she explained ; then he remera
bcied leaving the letter in the desk, and
understood how, by accident nay, by
grim fate the slant was not fastened
and the letter had slipped into its living
grave to be resurrected after all these
years.
" I do not know that I should tell
you even now," she said, bravely, " for
I do not know whether you are are the
same or not. But," and she looked up
in his grand face, " I want you to know
I did love you."
He stepped up to her, quietly enough
lor the minute.
"And now?"
" I am Grace Warrener still."
And then he snatched her in his arms,
held her to his heart, kissed her sweet,
nalo face.
" I never have once thought of another
woman, my darling. When no answer
came I was crushed to the very eaath,
and got myself away as well as I could
So you are my darling yet, Grace ?"
And then Margaret came in, half an
hour afterward, in surprise that the gen
tleman required so much time to make
a bargain for the desk.
Learn a Trade
One of the mauy false notions which
the rapid increase of civilization in our
country has given rise to is the mistaken
idea, so prevalent among our boys and
young men, that to learn a trade is be
neath the dignity 'of a gentleman. I
hoard a young man the other day ex
pressing his views on the subject to an
elder. He was the son of a dry goods
clerk in moderate circumstances, and
he had no means of accumulating wealth
other than by his own efforts. The
elder was one of Pittsburg's wealthiest
iron merchants ; a man who had risen
to his present position from tho anvil
of a blacksmith, in the mill which he
now controls.
"Mr. Blank," said the young man, "I
wish to present an application for a po
sition as clerk in your office."
"Well, Mr. Smith," replied tho mer
chant, "I have no vacancies in my office
at present, but I can offer you a situa
tion as apprentice ia our machine shop
if you wish to accept it."
1 he young man s nose was elevated a
trifle as he replied in a fupercilious
tone:
"I would not feel that I was doing
myself justice in learning a trade, as I
hope to make my way up the ladder by
mental abilities, rather than by physi
cal exertions."
The merchant dismissed him without
farther ado, and turning to me, said :
"When will the average boy learn
that a trade is worth more to him than
all the clerkships in Christendom V
, Returning home in the evening I
pondered over his words. I was but a
clerk myself. Was his remark really
true ? I looked around me ; I had a
comfortable house, but the house which
I occupied was a rented one, and cost a
large percentage of my salary as rental.
Thinking over some few of my old
friends, I made the following memor
andum : One of my schoolmates had,
on leaving school fifteen years before,
learned ehoemaking. He now owns his
own home, besides leing proprietor of
a shoe store in which another school
mate (who was too proud to loam a
trade) clerks at a salary of 8500 a year.
My own employer and myself had
gone over our arithmetic and algebra
together, and I was considered the
smarter of the two ; but he learned a
trade, and I am now his clerk,, at a sala
ry which is a small percentage of his
own earnings.
Boys, give up your false pride in this
matter. You are standing in your own
light. None of your acquaintances will
think less of you if you come home with
sooty hands and face from honest toil.
No one will think less of you for earn
ing your wages at the blacksmith's fire
or the carpenter's bench than they
would were you a clerk in a bank, ana
spent all your money on your clothes.
But, if you are determined to be a clerk,
learn a trade first, and learn it well, for
the time mav come when you will need
it badly. n'averly Magazine.
"It will be three dollars, ma'am.''
said the photographer at the close of the
sitting. "Three dollars!" exclaimed
the woman. " I thought I was to sit
for my picture. You didn't say anything
about money. Is this the way you
swindle your customers ? If you won't
give me my picture you can keep it,
that's all; but I shall take good care to
warn all my friends against coming
here, sir." And out she flounced, leav
ing the poor photographer the picture
of despair, beside her own.
It is in the power of the meanest to
triumph over fallen greatness.
TRICKS SMIKJCJLEKS TLAY.
ItUmond Hid In natch hrenr. asd Hllka
In Balen of Hopa Haocrplibln Vvnxnmn
Inspectors who Yield to Woman' Wllea
aerr Receptacles for Smncgled Cigar
A Chase alter a CofDn.
"There is no end to the means smug
glers employ in their business," one of
the oldest' custom house inspectors
said. "I have known them to bring
diamonds from Holland nicely packed
in the center of the celebrated cheese
of that country, and silverware, silks,
laces and diamonds from England
packed in bales of hops. Laces and
diamonds have also been brought into
this country tightly packed in the cen
ter of iron tubing.
"What poods can be most easily
smuggled?"
"Laces end diamonds. There is
nothing that occupies less space than
hey do. They can easily be concealed
in false shoe soles and heels and in
wigs. Notice of the sailing of smug
glers from the other side is often re
ceived here. In such cases they seldom
evade having their stuff confiscated on
arriving here. The professional, as a
rule, has a confederate, who is ready to
jump aboard at the first opportunity.
The two meet, go to the stateroom, and
while they are to all appearances effu
sively showing, their gladness at meet
ing each other again, one is passing
laces or diamonds to the cfher. It is
as often done while surrounded by a
crowd."
" Who are the best smugglers?"
" Women as a general thing. Why ?
Because tho manner in which they clothe
themselves enables them to conceal
many things from the most Argus-eyed
searcher ; because they can call tears to
their aid at will, and tears, as perhaps
you know, are a mighty powerful argu
ment with men, and, for that matter,
also with women ; because they are full
of blandishments and taking little ways,
which, particularly if they are pretty, a
fellow with any kind of a soft heart
can't resist. Now, just you take a
handsome woman, handsomely dressed,
with fascinating conversational powers
and manners. By Jove ! if she doesn't
get tho best of a male inspector I'll
give it up. She'll first deny she has
any contraband goods, and play Bweet
on him. If he proves obdurate, and,
for example, insists on examining her
trunks, she'll begin to cry, assert her
innocence of anything at all underhand,
and tell him how distressing it is for a
lady to be subjected to such an indig
uity. What does he do? It all de
pends upon the man. If he is hard
hearted and insensible to the charms of
a woman he will proceed with his ex
amination of her luggage, and turn her
over to a female searcher. If he is sus
ceptible the fair one will gain her point.
'Cigar smugglers are troublesome. A
great deal of ingenuity was displayed
some ten years ago by some profession
als I managed to catch. One day what
purported to be a dead body was re
moved from one of the Havana steam
ers. It was stated that tho dead man's
relatives were Americans, and desiring
to have him buried here, had gone to
much expense in having the body
brought to this country. This btate
ment was made by one of two men who
had the body in charge. I have a splen
did memory for faces, and I recognized
one of the two or thought I did as a
man I had caught smuggling cigars
about five years before. At any rate,
my suspicions were aroused. I came to
the conclusion there was something
wrong about the body. When an un
dertaker's wagon containing the body
drove away from the wharf I jumped
into a cab and followed it, directing the
driver to keep it in sight, but to drive
right past it when it came to a final
stop. The cabman had done such work
for me before, and knew just what was
wanted of him. The wagon pulled up
at a house in Greenwich street. The
body was taken into the house, and I
drove down to the custom house. Ac
companied by two inspectors, I returned
to the house within two hours. We first
represented ourselves as health officers,
who had heard there was a man in the
house whe had died in Havana of yellow
fever. They said it wob untrue, that ho
had died of h art disease, and refused
to allow us to examine tho body. Then
I told the two smugglers that "we were
government officials, showing my badge.
and that I believed the coffin was packed
lull of cigars, lliey finally caved in.
"Another ingenious ruse was discov
ered a few years ago. As I presume
you know, cedar is quite largely im
ported from uuba. omalX-sized Jogs
of this wood were procured by the
smugglers, which they sawed, or had
sawed, into boards, leaving, however,
one end of the logs uncut, so that the
planks were carefully removed, leaving
a hollow space. This space was filled
with the finest kinds of cigars packed
in boxes, and the logs then carefully
tied together, giving them the appear
ance usual to cigar-box lumber sawed
into planks. The nature of this cedar
would not have been discovered had it
not been that while being removed from
the vessel here one of the logs was
thrown heavily on the pi?r and its con
tents dislodged. If I remember cor
rectly there were fifty such packages.
Since then inspectors have always care
fully examined Cuban cedar imported
; V . l M r r t.
in buou asnape. ivu xotk Dun.
Miss M.B- Williams, of England, and
Miss Belle Cook, of California, are to
ride a twenty mile race at the annual
fair of the Minneapolis Association in
September.
A lover is like a tug-boat when he
goes out with a toe. Snlrnn Sunt am
Texas Pasture Fields.
A correspondent in the Baltimore
American, who is visiting tho immense
cattle pastures, describes a visit to the
one of these, the Fulton and Coleman
Companies grazing lands in Texas.
"We left Fulton after an early break
fast, on the morning of the 31st of May,
and were soon out on the open prairie,
approaching the lands of the Peninsula
Pasture Company, which are but a short
distance from Rockport. There were
but six in our party, four of whom were
ladies, with Col. George W. Fulton as
pilot. Eight miles from Rockport we
passed through the gates of the Big
Pasture of the Coleman-Fulton Pasture
Company, and entered on its broad
domain of 1(58,000 acres, or 206 square
miles, of what is regarded as the very
best pasture land in Texas. We were
to stop at the ranch, the herdsmen's
headquarters, ten miles from the gate,
for dinner, and to rest horses, and after
wards to continue our journey to Mr.
Coleman's mansion, eleven miles fur
ther on making twenty-one miles from
the gate to the house.
" When fairly on our journey inside of
tno iig Pasture, on casting the eye
around, the horizon was seen to be as
sharply defined in every direction as it
is at sea. There were a few small motts
of live-oak trees, and some scattered
cattle browsing on the plain, but noth
ing else, not even fences, obstructed the
view. By the unpracticed eye there
was really no road to be seen, but dur
ing this and subsequent drives both
Colonel Fulton and Mr. Coleman
seemed to know every cowpath. These
cowpaths are made by the cattle going
to the lakes for water, as on such occa
sions they always walk in single file,
and pursue the same course day after
day. This was the case before the new
pasture system was adopted, when an
instinct seemed to guide the cattle in
the pursuit of water. Then there were
no artificial lakes, with the winter rains
stored in them for the use of the cattle,
as is now the case, and it often hap
pened that the distance between water
and the grazing grounds was twenty
miles or more. In a dry season thou
sands of them would die from burning
thirst, and leave their bones along the
cow-tracks, or, on reaching the water,
drink to such excess that death was
sure to follow. Now there are five oi,
six of these lakes on this great pasture,
one of them three miles in length and
from fiftv to five hundred yards in width,
while the Chiltopin river forms ite
northern boundary.
"The Coleman-Fulton Pasture Com
pany's lands are by careful estimatt
capable of sustaining at all seasons ol
the year about 85,000 head of cattle
and horses, though at the present time
there is not more than half this number
there. During the past year the stock
of cattle was reduced to about one-hall
the full complement, and the grasf
allowed to renew itself by seeding. The
pastures aro consequently now covered
with a heavy coat of mesquite grass,
and tho company are filling up the
pastures with cattle purchased from
Texas and largely from Mexico. During
our sojourn a lot of 2,000 head arrived
from Mexico, and a despatch announced
that 4,000 head more, purchased by
their agents at 86, 89 and $12 per head,
were on their way, this price including
their delivery in good order in the jhis
ture. When they arrive the beeves will
bo fattened, and shipped to New Orleans
as soon as in condition for market, the
cows will be driven to the Barada pas
ture of 39,000 acres, used for breeding
graded stock, and the male yearlings
driven to the Big Pasture of 103,000
acres, which is devoted to beeves and
stock for the market. The sorting and
separating of the cattle require experi
ence and good judgment, and a vast
force of men and horses. The prospects
of the company were never so good as
at present, they having just declared a
cash dividend of 4 per cent, for the past
six months, while they are very confi
dent of increasing it to 12 per cent, per
; mum.
Modified by Circumstance!,
There is no doubt that the early riser
accomplishes more work than does his
less energetic neighbor ; for as the old
proverb has it, the morning hour has
gold in its mouth. Still it is ono of
those things which by common consent
are set very high in the list of desirable
virtues, and yet which are open to cer
tain doubts and objections. Early ris
ing, unless preceded by early bed-time
and sound sleep, may be anhealthful.
Delicate children Bhould never be
wakened till they have fully had their
sleep out, and nature will then awaken
them. We do not underestimate the
pleasure and propriety of having the
family all seated at once at the break
fast table, but in many homes an elastio
breakfast hour would be a boon. If one
or two people in the house, by reason of
engagements, must sally forth very
early, it is often better to let them have
their morning meal by themselves, while
others rise and breakfast later. Many a
worn and ailing mother, whose sleep is
disturbed by the cares of her nursery,
owes it to herself and to her family to
take her morning nap. and to make up
the arrears of repose by late rising. No
one who regards his health will sit up
till midnight and rise at dawn. Over
work is slow suicide. It is better to rise
at eight o'clock in the freshness of ren
ovated powers, than to rise at five,
jaded, achiog, and half asleep, to drag
wearily through the first quarter of the
day, domg nothing well, and exasper
ating one's friends by fretfulness and
fault finding. If you wish to indulge in
the luxury of earlv risiDcr. to to bed
early, that your rest may be sufficient I
for your strength.
Ills' Water on the Mississippi In IS II.
Thefollswing is taken from an article
on the " Levees of the Mississippi," in
Scribner : Life in the Mississippi swamp
is unique, but perhaps never so much
so as during that memorable snmmer.
The shallowest water, for indefinite
miles in any direction, was two feet
deep, the nearest land, the " Hills of
the Ark ansa w," thirty miles away. Tho
mules were quartered on the upper
floor of the gin-house; the cattle bad
been all drowned, long ago; planter,
negroes and overseer were confined in
their respective domiciles; the grist
mill was under water, and there was no
meak.sr.f preparing corn for culinary '
purposes except a wooden hominy
mortar. The hog-ani-hominy diet (so
highly extolled by some people who
have never lived on it) was adopted of
necessity, the former being represented
by mess pork, Salter than tongue can
tell. There were no visitors, except
now and then a sociable snake, which
no doubt bored by swimming around
indefinitely in the overflow, and craving
even human companionship, would
glide up on the gallery cf some of the
houses. There was no means of loco
motion except the skiff and the humble
but ever-serviceable dug-out nowhere
to go and nobody within a day's jour
ney otherwise or more comfortably sit
uated. The only Bense of sympathy
from without was had from remote and
infrequent glimpses of the gallant
steamer J. M. White, which, leaping
from point to point, made better time
from New Orleans to St. Lon's than was
ever made before or many years after.
That year nineteen plantations out of
twenty failed to produce a single pound
of cotton or a single bushel of corn, and
when the flood was over and the swamp
Noahs came out of their respective
arks, they were, to say the least, mal-'
content. They were not ruined, of
course, but they had lost a whole year's
gross income. Moreover, the prestige
of the 6wamp as a cotton country was
wofully diminished. The planters in
the " bills," as the uplands are de-
nominated, began to hold up their
heads, no longer overcrowded by the ex
traordinary crops alleged to have been
heretofore produced in the swamp.
The swain p planters set to work to
redeem the disaster, and to provide, as
far 8 possible, against its recurrence.
With the purpose of retrieving their
financial fortunes they took some unique
measures. There is a tradition that, st
a public meeting held in Greenville,
Miss., in October, 1844, among othtr
more commonplace resolutions, one wrs
gravely and unanimously adopted to
the effect that a demand of j aymett
a-ithin twelve months from that datetf
any debt, great or small, upon any
planter who had been overflowed that
vear, should be considered distinctly
"personal" a clear case for pistols
and coffee. The code was certainly
a curious institution, but probably this
is tho only instance in which it wa3 ex
pected to do duty as a stay-law.
A Village of Terrors,
A Dctroiter who had business in a
village in Washtenaw county drove out
there in a buggy, and of course went to
the inn for his dinner. The landlord
made no inquiries until after the meal
was eaten and paid for and he then
found opportunity to inquire :
"Were you going out to 'Squire
Brown's place ?"
"No."
I didn't know but you were a lightning-rod
man, and I was going to say
that the 'Squire had threatened to
shoot the next one on sight. Wo don't
go much on them fellers around here, ,
ond I'm glad you are somebody else.
Maybe you are going over to Judge
Hardy's to sell him some fruit trees for
fall settingV"
" No."
" Well, that's lucky. Only yesterday
the judge was remarking to me that the
next frnit-treo agent who entered his
gate would want a coffin. Fact is, I
myself have got to do Borne kicking to
pay for being swindled on graie vines.
You are not a patent-right man, eh V"
"No."
"Well, that's a narrow escape for
you. We've been swindled here on hay
forks, cultivators, gates, pumps, churns
and a dozen other things, and I'm keep
ing sixteen dozen bad eggs for use
when the next patent-rightcr shows hi
face in this town. Pcrliaps you are a
lecturer?"
"Oh, no."
"Well, you haven't lost anything.
We never turn out very strong here to a
lecture. The last man who struck us
lectured on "Om Currency," but dida't
take in enough to pay me for his sup
per. You are not a book-canvasser V"
" No."
"That's another escape. We've been
laid out here so often that if an agent
should offer to sell a Bible for fifty
cents we'd suspect a trick to beat us.
Strikes me now you may be a lawyer."
"No."
" Good 'nuff. Last one who settled
here had to leave town at midnight, and
we don't want any more. Say, what are
you, anyway?"
"A politician," replied tho Detroitcr.
"A politician ! Then git ! For heav
en's sake ! don't stand around here if
you value your lifo ! We've just im
peached our pound-master for embez
zling the publio money, and the excite
ment is so intense that the Democrats
will ride you on a rail or the KoimMi
oans duck yoa in the water trorcgh. Git
right up and scoot I "Detroit F " Fren.
A lady resident of Buckingham
Oo,,Va.,gavo birth to twins, oue of iv honi
was born with a full set of tvtth both
npp;r and lower,