J
BY S. B. ROW.
CLEARFIELD, PA, "WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1857.
VOL. L-HO. 9.
"Sms JiLNG" ON TIIE STREET.
The following lines, very appropriate just now,
r from the Sew York Evening Post.
. Rmhing 'round the corners,
Chasing every friend,
Plunging into banks
Nothing there to lend
Piteously begging
Of every man yon meet;
Bless me ! this is pleasant,
'"thinning" on the street
Merchants very short,
Kunning neck and neckt
Want to keep a' going,
1 Praying for a check ;
Jalblcri in stocks.
Blue as bine can be,
Evidently wishing
They new -fancy free.
All our splendid railroads
Got such dreadful knocks,
Twenty thousand Balls
Couldn't miss their stocks ;
Many of the Bears,
In the trouble sharing, .
Xow begin to feol
Thoyve been over-Bearing.
lticky speculators
Tumbling with the shock,
Never mind stopping
More than any clock ;
Still they give big dinners.
F'coke ard drink and sup,
Going all the better
i'or a windiag-np.
Banking institutions.
Companies of "trust,"
With other people's money,
Go off oc a. "bust;"
Houses of long standing
Crumbling in a night
With so many "smashes,"
Xo wonder money's tight.
Gentlemen of Sloans
Having lots to spend
Save a little sympathy,
' Nothing have to lend ;
Gentlemen in want
Willing to pay double
Find they can borrow
Nothing now but trouble.
Half our mon of business
Wanting an extension.
While nearly all the others
Contemplate suspension ;
Many of them, though.
Don't appear to drend it ;
- Brry cent they owe
is so much to thoir credit.
Brokers are all brenktng,
Credit all is cracked,
Women all expanding
As the banks contract.
Panic still increasing
M'hcre will the trouble end.
While a!! hands want to borrow,
And nobody oan lend ?
Banning 'round the corners.
Trying every source ;
Asking at the banks
Nothing there, of course ;
ileney getting tighter,
Misery complete
Blexs me ! this is pleasant,
"Shinning" on the street.
A MOTHER'S LOVE.
CHAPTER I. THE PRISONER.
Descending down seven stone steps, crown
ed with an iron door, tho heavy footsteps of
two men, with a clank of iron chain between
them, were beard. Daylight shed its last
swet beam on that iron door, and ten long
years roust pass ere it could bestow another on
one of those who walked there then. But not
tho sunlight parting sadly with him at that
door for it grew faint to death then nor the
cold cheer of wiudowless granite, the dull light
of tho lantern, nor the savage face, (more sav
age in that light) of his conductor, sent any
thrill to the young felon's heart, or touched it
with one new emotion. Anger was in his
scornful face, wrath in his proud heart, wrath
in his gestures and on his blasphemous
tongue.
Growl, young tiger ! We'll give you a nest
of granite, and a steel collar and a bed, where
your tongue may tire before it gets an answer I
A gnash of his teeth was the young man's on
ly an?ver to the mocking of bis grim guardian.
"He be cub snarl and gibber ! I owe you
a little, top o'the law's account; and now
ye'er here, see if I don't quit tho score !" and
the brutal keeper gave the irons a wrench on
the wrist of bis prisoner, that made him gnash
Lis teeth for pain. Clank, clank, tramp,
tramp, along a narrow, dark passage, flanked
uto cither hand by narrow cells with grated o
peoings into the dismal hall, the two proceed
ed. Dimly the haggard faces of old criminals
showed through the gratings, some with eager
looks, half-hopeful, till the clank of irons told
ttem that the unwontod light came to lead a
nother victim into, not out of that foul place ;
and some, with unquenched hate still glaring
iu their eyes.
Long, shrivelled arms thrust out through
the bars, now writhed with scornful, hateful
gestures; now stretched supplicantly to the
passers, and a low chuckle of delight out of
tfie dark that showed no form or feature, came
from ono cell, as the clank of chains went by
a flendisj triumph" from the ''Murderer's
Grave" s. cell devoted to the last hours of
i'be cos4ned-for there a lost wretch greet
ed thus each neww as he passed.
At the end of this bjack passage huge
door, whose great bolt, sunk n tFlgl beds on
'thVfour sides thst bounded it, glided back,
and let them pass ; and here, as the gate fell
to with a sullen clang, the keeper paused.
Looking Into a ceU on the right, to which a
current ol air, fresh and- pure, and a little
li.hi. came from a deep windo high np out
pi reach, the jailor shook bj head, muttering
to himself, "No, no, that.' too extravagant s a
tnnnMt ha shall KO farther." A
f.w ata more brought them fo a djungeflq,
no kind beam had ever found its way ,
and no sweet breath conld come a low, cold,
daaip cell,' with grated opening, twiee as deep
as it was broad, where food could only be taken
piecemeal through the bars, the very turnkey
set not his foot there in bis rounds. The cell
had long been vacant, and would have remained
so now, but for the spite of the official mon
arch of this cheerless realm ; for but a little
resistance to the chain that was being fastened
on his bands, the prisoner gained that dark
ruler's displeasure,wbich was vented by thrust
ing him into this den of night.
Mockingly the turnkey thrust the young
man in, and before loosing his chains from the
prisoner's limbs, lie raised the lantern to his
face, with a black grin, as if it were a joy to
gloat over a fellow being's misery.
But he saw something there in the calmness
of stern and horrible purpose that made his
own dark features ghastly. A rattle of the
chain as it fell from lis hands told of his ter
ror another, as it arose with the two arms Of
the desperate youth, and fell with a crash upon
the coward's shoulder, told what cause he had
to fear !
The blow fell not on his brain, only because
he shrank from it; and before the shackled
prisoner could lift his irons for another, the
wretch was past his reach ; the door was thrown
between them, and the courageous officer of
the State fired a pistol shot at random through
the grating, and fled, careless of what might
have been the result, and determined to tame
by starvation the spirit he provoked by brutal
ity, t .
The shot had no effect but to fill with stifling
sulphur the narrow cell, and to wting an oath
with a cry of regret that his body had not
been in its path, from the frantic prisoner.
He sunk where he stood, for in the darkness
nothing was discernible; and clenching his
fetters with his hands, he cursed aloud, and
howled till his voice grew weak ; then he drop
ped his head upon bis knees and muttered to
himself. One near him could have beard such
words as these : "Ten years ! O, God ! Ten
years of darkness, and stone and iron 1 Ten
years here I Forgery ! The curse of the with
ered and heart-scalded light on the wretch
who first invented traffic ! and doubly Lot on
him who made words stand for things, and an
ink-blot a horrible significance! Forgery!
they lie ! 1 only wrote the name of my em
ployer, as I had done an hundred time before;
and only that I wrote it on my own account,
and not his. I must take this .'" His chains
rattled with his anger. "It is much," be con
tinued, that I should counterfeit a petty
scrawl, a thing of their invention who use it ;
but the lying wretches whose whole life is a
counterfeit of honor and truth, and God 's hand
writing, law fit tool for such sanctioned has
no terrors for them ! To counterfeit a smile
and the warm pressure of friendship, when the
whole heart is black and icy cold, is ths daily
lie of cursed society, and neither God's law
nor man's revenge has any retribution. Bonds
of dues owed from man to man arc sacred, and
surrounded with terrors ; but tho hypocrite's
prayer and the sycophant's smile, and all the
forms and scemings which are bouds on human
hearts, may pass current as the winds, and
none may say them nay."
Ah, wretched youth, hush ! Those stones
there in the black night may have ears, and
thou hast mingled witli thy evil words enough
of truth, bitter and bitterly said for wrath's
sake, to have doomed thee at once to a darker
fate than thine, though thou hadst been white
from all olTence, and only inspired by honest
good-will and integrity.
Well," said the forlorn youth, "let the ac
cursed world triumph ! I did forge a name ;
but the base fawning of humanity the craven
bow of servility to law or custom I will not
forge or pass. Nay, curse on the law and the
law's minions I can bear ! Curse the day that
laughs over me it cannot come here to laugh!
Curse man and beast, and the free air, and all
that would mock me, but for my dungeon for
tress cannot! Curse the friend who mined
me, the grave fools who would have saved me,
the beggary that made me seek wealth, and the
fortune that, cursed me with its poison influ
ence ! Nay, curse all that is myself and all
that know me the father who begat me, and
the moth"
A hot hand, smiting on his very brain and
heart, struck dumb the wretch before his lips
could fashion the horrible imprecation.
A dew-drop, sweated from his cold cell,
struck on his check with a rebuke that it
should be dry at the memory of his mother,
and a pale blue light, a dim phosphorescence
from the damp filth of his unused cell, flutter
ed before him, as if to hint to the guilty youth
how closely he treads upon the brink of hell.
Who, in whatever place he may be, dares to
curse bis mother. The youth fell mute on his
dungeon floor, and a tender voice the fare
well voice of his mother seemed to sound in
his ears as it had sounded when he left their
poor home for the great city : "And now Wil
lie, my boy, shun wicked company ; and if
evil suggestions come, remember your poor
old mother. God bless you, Willie ! Good
bye."
lie saw her lift her spectacles to wipe off a
tear from her old eyes' as she turned back to
her wheel, while he, full of young hope and
promise, went forth into the world to seek his
fortune. chajtkr JhXu search.
a woman, leaning on. a staff and covered with
. ard cloak-an old, gray.witbered woman
I -old in years and very old in heart-rapped at
the keeper's door, in the Walnut Street Pris
on, in the "City of Brotherly Love." A gruff
voice bade her in, but the old palsied, hand
only knocked again when it strove to lift the
latch.
"Why can't you come in, and not stand
there fumbling and numbling f "
At last the latch rose, and the poor woman,
not unused to snch rudo greeting, came for
ward. The jailor, half abashed, muttered some
thing about "Didn't know 'twas a woman
men bother me too much company" offer
ing at once a wound and an apology in his mo
rose way.
"Don't mind me, sir," said the poor woman,
"I'm a poor old creature that has looked in
a'most all the dark places that man has made
for his brother, sir a looking for my poor
boy; God bless him! Can you tell me, for the
love of God and pity of a poor creature like
me, if my boy is in this prison V
"Is the old woman a fool or mad," mutter
ed the man of office.
Kicking a chair towards the woman as he
spoke, he growled, from habit rather than a
will to growl "There's boys enough here ;
how should I know."
'To be sure, dear me, you could'nt know
my poor Willie, and it's likely he's changed.
But, conld you tell me If there's a lad here
named William Byron or rather, he was a lad
ten years ago, when he left nie, and since I
hear, he lias changed his name, poor boy, as
he did his nature."
The prison-keeper run bis eye over a list of
commitments, till he heard the last words of
the bewildered woman.
"Why, bless me, did you come here to both
er me T If you don't know where your boy is
who appears to be an 'old boy' how should
I know f"
The weak and wasted old woman dropped
into a chair from exhaustion and misery, and,
with a look of sincere deprecation, which nei
ther her faultering nor his rudeness demanded,
she said, "I beg your pardon, sir : God knows
1 would never have come but for the love of
my poor boy."
"But what do you know about him V asked
the jailor, in a subdued tone.
"Ten years ago, sir, he was as good a lad as
ever need look at the only help of his old
mother, for I was old then, sir ; and it is mis
ery, m or o than years, that makes me so much
older now. If there was any fault, sir, it was
that he felt too sharply the bite of poverty yand
the scorn which it will sometimes meet, un
justly ; and I fear that was his hurt."
"And he's in prison, eh ?"
"Yes, sir, to the shame of my old grey
hairs ; but I'll tell you what I know, though it
breaks my heart. Ten years ago I sent him to
the city to try his luck in business; and who
he served I can't tell, for he never wrote the
name to mc, nor the busircss ; tho dear child
was waiting to surprise me.
"But at last I heard no more from him, and
thought he must have died. Searching all the
papers I could find, I tried to get a word of
him, though it were a bad word. I sold the
dear boy's clothes, and advertised him, only I
saved the littlo 'slip' he had when he was a ba
by. I couldn't bear to part with all, and that
was full of dear memories."
And for a moment the grief that made her
garrulous, melted to tears, and made her
dumb.
The jailor was silent, and looked sour,which
was a sign that he was touched.
His hard and flinty heart was softened at
the recital of a tale of sorrow from a mother's
lips, who had suffered many severe trials while
in search of a long lost son. She continued:
"For all the little I could do, I could get no
trace of him, till somebody once sent me a
paper with a passage marked in the dying
speech of a murderer, who was hanged in New
Orleans. . I have it yet. O, dear ! its all the
trace I have of him, my poor, dear Willie !"
She drew from her pocket a little bit of lea
ther, loldod and tear-stained, and opening it,
a fragment of a newspaper was shown pasted
on the inside.
"Here, sir, I have carried it long, and the
tears I shed have dimmed it some, and my
eyes, too."
From the dying speech of the murdcrer,the
jailor spelled out starameringly these words :
"And if my dying words can never reach
him, let them warn the last of my young com
panions in crime, before it is too late the
bright Will Byron have reached the last
step; Ac has reached only the felon's dun
geon. When he shall again see the light, I
shall have been ten years' in "
The rest was obliterated.
"Ah !" groaned the poor unfortunate, heart
stricken mother, "that was my poor boy my
poor Willie and eight of these ten terrible
years have I spent in seeking from prison to
prison for him. Now, tell me, for the love of
God, if he is here !"
"I guess not, inarm ; I don't see his name
in the file."
He mumbled over to him self a list of names,
John Jones, June 7tb, five years for barn
burning ; James Smith, alias Simpson, July
1st, two years for house-breaking," and on
through the year all the commitments of the
eight years from the dat.e of his present
speaking.
No Willie Byron there, though the mother
listened with so much anxiety and desire to
catch his name in that dark list, as once she
would to bavo heard his fame.
. Bending forward to take every muttered tone
in her ears, the absence of the one she sought
fell on her heart like a want.
She begged the keeper to let her go through
the prison "It may be he has changed his
namo, and will know the voice of his poor old
mother."
The man could not refuse, rough-hearted as
he was, and soon bis lantern was lighted, and,
taking a huge bunch of keys from an iron safe,
proceeded to lead the way.
The aged mother noticed her companion no
longer; her old eyes glistened, be r step was
not now so faltering, as she followed on with
hope in her heart, though often so sorely dis
appointed. "O, Willie !" she cried, as she entered a
mong the cells, "will you hear the voice of
your poor mother, and speak to me, if you
are here V
So from cell to cell she went, uttering with
tremendous voice, "Willie Byron ! are you
here ? You needn't shame to be known. The
world may say what it will, but your mother
loves you still." Old men wept to hear her;
the icy fountain of their tears burst, and found
vent through the head pumps, as the sailor says.
Young men hid their heads to think of their
own mothers, forsaken and left to shame and
sorrow. But no answer came to give her heart
its long and sole desire.
Through all the passes of the prison she
went, all that the light of day could visit ; and
now the iron door of the great dungeon lets
them in. She shuddered as the clanging door
fell back, to think it possible to find her dar
ling there. The lantern was raised to the grates,
as each prisoner was called forward to receive
the scrutiny of those tear-wet eyes.
"O Willie, Willie Byron, are you here ? my
dear boy, are you here in this dark place 1 If
you hear me, Willie, it's your poor old mother
that speaks, and you'll answer mc for the mem
ory of the time when yoa were a little child.
O, Willie Byron, are you here 1 Speak for
the love of your old mother, who loves you,
whatsoever you have done ; let me see you
once more ! O God, let me see him once be
fore I dio !" "
She turned from disappointment after disap
pointment, her wrinkled face to heaven, and
supplicated God to help her.
The hard, rough keeper, stood fixed with
wonder, and a touch of the human seemed to
vibrate in his bosom, for be stood sullenly still
and scowled, without fixing his eyes anywhere,
or moving them sure mark that such a na
ture has been humanly stirred. He suffered
the lantern to be taken from his hand by the
poor mother, whose strange words thrilled the
darkest lairs of crime, and started tears where
they would never flow but in the dark. Not a
doomed felon in that blackest cave of penalty
that mocked ber, and, alas ! not one that an
swercdtocr darling's name.
Another blank in the long annals of her aw
ful search ; and the poor mother, struck by
another blow, went farther into the open air,
to wander whither f
CHAPTER III. TUE LOST FOCXD.
Down seven stone steps, topped by that iron
door which more than eight years ago received
a form it had not let pass out, two persons trod ;
the one a kind, good hearted man, who had
superseded the cruel keeper of former times
in his office ; the other, an aged woman lean
ing on his arm.
"The man you seek, perhaps, is this way,"
said the attentive guide.
"God bless you, sir. I shall be happy if it
proves so, for I came to this very door near
seven years ago, and the man who could not
done less to a robber, wouldn't let me in here,
and many and many a mile have I walked, by
the help of kind chairity, only to come back
to this place again, and now I am just ready to
die if my hope fails here."
The prisoners attracted by tho light, came
forward to their windows, and even among the
deepest sunk in crime, there shone some hu
man meaning in the glances they bestowed
upon their keeper, for he had sought by kind
ness to undo tho wrongs which hate and the
world's scorn with their own dark passions had
done to them.
"Far ahead is a prisoner. I could wish, if
you will find your son, it were he. When I
came here, there was in the foulest dungeon
of the prison, a hard, sour man, bitterly taunt
ing every one to whom he was allowed to
speak.
The former keeper had abused him beyond
the measure of his common abuse, andfa prond
spirit that would not break, only turned from
vain revenge to sullen bate. I went into his
cell to take his chains off, which bad been left
on him without warrant, and though I spoke
with kindness, he trusted me not, but struck
me with the manacles from which I had freed
him, a very cruel blow. I told him I should
not use my privilege to whip and chain bim
for it, as the law allowed, and for all private
wrongs he had my forgiveness. lie was silent
and savage, and for all my notice, remained
so for days. At last I wrung a reply from
him. I asked him to be a man, for he was yet
to go among men. -
"A butt tor their vile mirth," . he answered
bitterly.
The ice was broken, and I continued : "But
conquer your stained name, and win a good
one by a strict Tfe, which can be yours thro'
a trust in God."
"In whose just providence," ho said, "huge
crime walks unrebuked, while little sins are
avenged sevenfold."
"I appealed to every memory, hope, or as
piration that I believed yet lurked or ever liv
ed in his bosom. They only awoke new to
kens of despair, and utter hardness, but at last
a thought came to me, and I said, 'Young
friend, God keep me and you, as I pity you ;
but I shudder to think your fate is not the
worst your act may have produced. It may be
you have a mother, whose trembling frame
hangs over the grave, heavy with agony for a
loved son in prison and in shame.' "
" "God reward you tuat you said it, whoever
he was," said the poor mother, who, beguiled
by her interest in the prisoner, had been led
into a vacant cell to hear the story, uncon
scious of the pause, though eager to test ber
last hope.
The jailor continued : "The poor youth lift
ed his pale hands, and smote .bis breast, ex
claiming : 'O, forbear, forbear my mother, O,
my mother!' and I turned from the sight of
his tears to hide my own. That day he con
sented to let me move him into anothers cell,
where a little sunlight, a little fresh air, and
the waving of green grass about the dungeon
window, might le some solace to imprison
ment. Since then he has been a growing and
generous spirit. Contrite and humble, yet not
meanly crouching. Ceasing to accuse man
kind or himself bitterly, he waits in patience
for the time of his release, no never told his
name. It is not for you to ask. But a few
steps now," be said, for they bad resumed
their walk, "will bring you to his cell." The
great door yielded, as its fourfold, triple bolts
fell back.
A little stream of light ponred across their
path from a cell within. The great door clos
ed again with a jar, the cell was opened, and
the dimmed eyes of the grief-bowed .and age
bent woman, fell upon a pale, sad-faced young
man of about thirty, who lifted his eyes with
a faint smile as the keeper of the prison en
tered, but turned with an instant's glance of
inquiring wonder on the changed form before
him.
It was but for an instant. The mother spoke :
"Willie, my boy, is it you T"
"My mother!"
The jailor retreated, leavfng mother and son
locked in each other's arms. Ask not of mc
how passed the next hour in that lone cell.how
memory flooded all tho past with tears, bow
the long heaviness of eight distressful years of
pilgrimage rolled in a moment from that mo
ther's heart, and left no thought there of the
erring, and the lost, but only one deep glow
ing, overwhelming sense of gratitude and joy
in the penitent found, the darling of that poor
old heart so long wearied, now so blest !
That hour passed, and left no cloud between
them ; and short as it was, it sufficed the jail
or to do some business in, for when be came
back he brought the Governor in person to
the cell, with a full pardon iu his hand, if he
should find the prisoner worthy; and before an
other half hour Willie Byron and his happy
mother were on their way home again, where
the kind charities of the good had given her
the means to retreat, and see her son a pros
perous farmer in the neighborhood, before she
closed her satisfied eyes in death.
A Sea Devil. A sea devil was caught on
the coast of England recently, which, says
the Greenock Advertiser, is anything but cap
tivating. It is flat ; four feet eight inches in
length ; two feet six inches in breadth ; its
mouthy in which there is a single row of can
dated sharp teeth, measures 12 inches hori
zontal, and, when its jaws are fully opened, it
measures betwixt the lower and upper 16
inches; on its belly, near the lower part of
the head, are two hands, having five fingers
on each distinctly exhibited, and webbed.
It has also two anterior fins, and two lateral
bags cf great capacity, with ono of a triangu
lar form on the belly. It weighs about eighty
pounds. It is altogether a formidable and
strange looking fish, and the name by which
it is known is not inappropriate.
K7"SheriffSrnith, of Peoria county, Illinois,
started on Saturday night, with five prisoners
for Alton, and when two miles above Be-ds-town,
Archie McDonald, a Scotchman by birth
and a noted burglar, and one Houston, managed
while in bed, about 10 o'clock in the night, to
sever the chain which united them, and they
both sprang overboard while the officer started
to get them a drink of water. It was general
ly supposed they were drowned.
KFThe State laws require the New Orleans
banks to keep an amount of specie on band e
qual to one-third of their liabilities. The pen
alty for falling below this is $100 on each di
rector, for every day that the bank is "out of
line" a pretty effectual bar to expansion.
"Earthquakes axd Gold. Gold countries
seem to be asfull of earthquakes as of precious
metals. New mines have been discovered in
California, and another earthquake hasvisited
that country.
IIoset Bees. A practised aparian recom
mends that bees should be covered np in the
winter, giving a small vent for the air. They
live on one-third less food by so doing.
The MAsrrACTCRX or Molasses from Scoab.
Cask. The Cincinnati Gazette baa a commu
nication from a Warren county agriculturist
who gives some straightforward practicable)
ideas upon the culture of sugar cane and the
manufacture of syrup. lie says s v
"On our farm In Warren county we planted
an acre of sugar cane the last week in May.
It grew finely tall and plump. We 1st tbo
stalks become ripe, seeds well matured and
brown ripe, for the better matured and ripen
ed stalks all the better even a frost or two
thrown in will make the juice the sweeter and
more of it. We then cut them ; cnt the tops
and stripped the blades off we then ground
them in a common cider mill, placing the
grinding apparatus as near together as possi
ble. Running through a couple of times,
took out all the juice a full pint to the stalk
on an average. We then strained the juice
cleverly, placed it in kettles, and commenced
the boiling operation. We put into each
thirty gallons, on beginning to boil, a table
spoonful of officinal lime water, (lime and wa
ter mixed will do) adding the same occasion
ally, and skimming off the green scum when
ever it arose. About four tablespoonfuls of
lime water to the thirty gallons is sufficient,
though it is better too much than not enough.
Going on in this way for eight or ten hoars,
we bad pure, beautiful and finely tasted mo
lasses. It is no more difficult to make syrup
from the sugar cane than to make it from th
maple tree the one being just as simple as
the other. Two or three strainings, proper
attention to skimming, well boiling, the prop
er addition of lime water to neutralize tba
acid, and we have just as good molasses, bet
tcr than what we now pay one dollar a gallon
for." m. w
Two gentlemen residing in Wabash county,
Illinois, write to the Chicago Press, Oct. 2d,
that they are making a barrel of superior Sor
ghum molasses daily, and shall continue to do
so until cold weather. They also say that the
fodder saved will pay the expense of raising
the cane. They have twenty acres of the
cane, and the yield will be about one Lnndred
gallons to the acre, of syrup superior to Lou
isiana. .
Tue British; East Isoia Compart Accor
ding to recent and authentic documents, this
company now rules, directly or indirectly, an
empire of 500,000 square miles, with a popu
lation of more than 160,000,000. The nominal
money capital of the company is set down at
$80,000,000,and its anual revenues are estima
ted at $ 135,000,000. The salaries of the prin
cipal officers are: Governor General, $125,
000 perquisites, $200,000 ; Members of Govt
ernor's Council, $48,000; Bishops, $12,000 1
$15,000 ; Law Judge, (30 in number,) $15,000 .
Collectors and Magistrates, (45 in number,)
from S 6,000 to $IG,000. In striking contrast
with these graet salaries is the pay of the
native soldiers, being eleven cents per day. .
The standing military force of this powerful
company is about three hundred thousand men,
European and natives the former the flower
of the British army. The department of the
topographical engineers is remarkable for ita
skill and efficiency, and has done much for
the material development of the country.
Railroads completed and in construction, now
tpan the whole extent of the empire, from Car
natic to tho Himalayas, opening a brilliant
prospect for the agriculturist at no distant
future. There are also in operation at tho
present time more than four thousand miles
of the magnetic telegraph, with which con
nection will soon be made along the sontheru
coast of Arabia, and through Egypt, subraar-i
ining the Red Sea, with the Mediterranean
lines, thus communicating directly with tho
wholo of the western world. 'There is special
interest attached to this company, at this mo
ment, growing out of the terrible re be Hi 03
now fearfully progressing in India, for upon
tho company devolves the momentous duty of
stopping the progress ol the insurrection, and
the heavy responsiblity of its consequences. 7
Close Gcessixo. Some time ago, the edi
tors of the Mobile Tribune offered a handsome
silver service, worth $300, to the person who
could make the bet guess as to the amount
of the cotton crop of 1856-7. W. B. Hamil
ton, of Mobile, estimated 2,939,537 bales.
The total crop is 2,939,515 bales; the estimate
being only 22 bales above the actual receipts.
The Capitol at Wasuiscto.v is to be a mag
nificent structure when completed. The old
buildings cost $3,000,000, and it is estimated
that fhe extension will cost 7,000,000 more.
$1,500,000 is to be expended on the new dome.
It will be a work of great architectural beauty.
Patent Office. The newly appointed Ex
aminers are reported being very liberal In
their views towards inventors, and will giro
them the benefit of .y doubts that may arise
in the examination of their cases. This will
be good news for inventors.
Coal Mixes. A large party of men bav
commenced to work theSan Diego coal mines.
It is thought that in a short time these mines
will yield a better quality of anthracite coa"
than is now sent to California from Pennsyl
vania and New York. '
What is stronger in death than In life f An
old yoilow-kgged ben. If you don't beliavo
it, try to dissect one after roasting. -
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