:-. XT W W Visa P U W W W dbP MkiVJI&HT
BY S. B. BOW.
CLEARFIELD, PA., WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 1860.
YOL. (T.-JT0. 52.
LIGHTS AND SHADES.
Tbe gloomiest day hath gleams of light :
The darkest wave hath white foam near it.
And twinkles through the cloudiest night,
Some solitary star to cheer it.
The gloomiest soul is not all gloom ;
The saddest heart is not all sadness,
And sweetly o'er the darkest doom
There shines some lingering beam of gladness.
Despair is never quite despair,
'or life, nor death, tho future closes;
And 'round the shadowy brow of care
Will Hope and Fancy twine their roses.
K02NING AND AFTERNOON.
It was the freshest of April mornings, with
a soft wind that bad rifled all manner of sweet
scents from dimpled hollows, purpled over
with young violets, and solitary brook-sides,
fringed with white anemone stars, and wafted
them into the city streets to revive many a
weary dweller among. paving-stones. Mrs.
Arden, standing at her window, looked down
at tho few feet of earth that city people dig
nify by the title of "garden," and felt the
suni.y spring influences even there.
"What a lovely morning," she said to her
self; "this is the very time to put my dahlias
into the ground, and take care of tbe roses,
how fortunate that to-day will be a compara
tively leisure time tome! Women don't of
ten get released from the domestic treadmill,
and what with spring sewing, company, and
house" cleaning, I have been literally a slave
fur the last three months. Once out in the
open air, among the flower roots, and I shall
feel as though I were entering a new life."
Ignorant Mrs. Arden. Had she lived to be
Cl) years old, without knowing that a married
woman ought not to breathe, without first
asking her husband if it's perfectly proper
and convenient ? Mr. Arden had laid out an
entirely different programme for his lady-wife.
Jn he came,discontentedly eyeing a new over
coat he had been buying.
"Nelly, can't you fix this coat somehow ?
There is something hitchy about the collar
you can tell where the trouble is, you're so
niart with your needle !"
Mrs. Arden took it out of his hands and
looked at it despairingly there was full three
hours work about it.
"And, Nelly if you wouldn't mind alter
ing these shirt bosoms they're all in wrinkles
" the p'attefn was a bad one."
"You insisted on having them made accord
ing to that pattern entirely against my advice."
'rtVell, l'know I did," replied Mr. Arden
rath?r sheeplslriy. "Martin said it was a good
. on", but Martin don't know everything.'-"
"I wish you had "found that out before the
ihirts were made," said Mr. Arden petulantly.
. "i say," interposed her spouse, apparently
rather desirous 1 1 changing the subject, "what
are you going to have for dinner ?"
"I don't know, I'm sure," was the vexed
reply. "I believe men arc always thinking
about eating no sooner is breakf ast over than
dinner begins to disturb them."- - . , ,
"I wish you would make one of those pud
dings I like make it yourself, for Susan al
ways mangles it. We haven't had one for a
long time now. . , . '4
"There goop the day of leisure that was to
Miave put my garden in such beautiful order,"
sighed Mrs. Arden. - 1
O, pshaw," said her husband, contempla
ting his whiskers in the glass, i what do you
care about garden work ?. A woman ought to
find her chief happiness in; domestic duties.
1 don't approve, of this everlasting fidgeting
about flowers."- . . ' . , .
"Harry," said his wife, "yon would not bo
at all contented' if your office "work was so
t ndless that yon nevcrgot a moment's time to
"N no," replied Mr. Arden hesitatingly,
t'bnt then you are not a man.", , ,
. "No I knovrl'm not," said. Mrs. Arden
qniekly ; "if I were, mvife should have a
little leisure to breathe" occasionally.".
Mr Arden went ont, shutting the door with
some vehemence behind him. - -'
. "I never did see such a complaining set as
women are," was his internal reflection as he
walked rapidly down tho street. :
Two or three hours steady work soon dis
posed of the press of office business awaiting
him, and he threw himself back in a chair to
rest and look over his newspaper. But tho
balmy wind fanned bis forehead like narcotic
incense, and the sensation of dolce far nicnte
wis inexpressibly delightful, the closely prin
ted columns became a mere confused blur,
and the first Mr. Arden knew, he was not ex
actly asleep, perhaps, but certainly not very
wideawake.
Something carried him back to the time
nhen Nelly had been a bride fresh and bloom
ing as a rose. How well he remembered the
blue light of her eyes and the satin bright
ness of ber complexion. She had grown wan
and weary looking since those days. Was
it possible that he had been lacking in care
and tenderness? It was rather an tneasy
twinge of conscience, for he did loye her, rattle-brained
and thoughtless as be was..
He thought of her, sitting alone through the
glorious April day, bending over the work he
had assigned to her, until the pallor deepened
on her cheek, and the eyes grew dim and
lustcrless he remembered the many, many
days shohad spent in the same wearisome oc
cupation. No wonder that the little garden
was a sunny, spot to her no wonder that she
loved tbe flowers whose freshness seemed to
revive her whole nature.
- A man may be very crnel to a woman with
out either beating her or denying ber tbe ne
pessaries of life.
Suppose she should drift away from him,
like a delicate leaf upon a, swift rushing
stream! He shuddered at the ; mere idea.
She was not trong the : time might, corue
when a narrow grave and a white headstone
would be all that remained of hii - little wife.
And then should he not remember all these
things ? "
He started up from the troubled net-work of
'ancy that had woven itself into a vague
dream ; the sunshine lnv iri-v.Mt sn tu fl
and
tbe fingers of the cl
"ur at wnich he usually went home to dinner.
ine pudding was made the coat in prime
CrCTthe "Satisfactory shirts ripped apart,
and Nelly, though pale and tired looking,
came to the door with a smile to greet her
uu&oana.
th'erVy' 1Iarry' .wl,at on earth have you got
-waimeu, as mr. Arucn came up
or th fctaggering under the weight of two
Mkeu 880m,DS geraniums and verbenas
r-rt i ?ad oug11 fro down town with in
c.editio difficult yT ' ' -
"Thought you'd like some flowers for your
garaen, my dear," explained ho ; and Nelly
straightway gave him a good old fashioned
kiss that amply sufficed for porterage fees
"Ana now," said he after dinner, "there
isn t mucn to do at the office to-day suppose
you ana i aevote the afternoon to garden
work. . We can make the little place as neat
as a pinK.
"Oh, Harry, that would be so delightful ;
exclaimed she, with brightening eyes: but
those shirts "
"O, hang the shirts, Jet 'era wait, I want to
see your cheeks a little render, my love !
Mrs. Arden wondered in her secret heart
what had wrought this agreeable change she
didn't know anything about her husband's
dream !
Texas. 1 here appears to be an actual panic
in xexas, resembling the John Brown panic in
Virginia. The 'laveholders are forming vigi
lance committees all over the State, resolving
to expel white persons suspected of abolition
sentiments, reprobating giving slaves general
passes ana selling liquor ana arms to slaves,
and recommending to all ministers of the Gos
pel to abstain from preaching to the slaves du
ring the present year. The Gospel is put un
der the ban as incendiary in Texas! The Vig
ilance committee of Dallas have made discov
eries "under the lash" so says the Texas
Ranger implicating nearly all the negroes of
x. His and adjoining counties. The negroescon
fessed that they had deadly poisons to be ad
ministered to the families of their masters in
their food, and have gone to the kitchens and
produced the poison. Meals must be taken
with misgivings in Texas! An attempt to
burn the town ot Austin is reported, and in
Fayette county a bard of runaways was
thought to have organized to make a break for
Mexico. Tho town of Quitman as well asAus
tin was guarded by a night watch. It is also
stated that a large amount of arms and ammu
nition has been discovered in the possession
of negroes, and a white man who was impli
cated at Fort Worth was hung on the neatest
tree. The plan of raising was to have been
executed simultaneously in several counties,
and in the same way in all. All this seems
senseless, and doubtless is so. All the dis
coveries made have been extorted under the
lash, from negroes who have invented stories
to suit the wishes of their tormentors, in or
der to escape torment. The recantations ex
torted by the Inquisition under tho pressure
of its tortures aud cruelties were analogous
to these confessions. No other evidence has
been found to coroborate the confessions, and
nothing but the scare into which Texas has
resolutely worked herself could make her peo
ple put the least faith in them. When the
end comes, as it soon will, they will find that
they have made bigger fools of" themselves
than the Virginians did in the John Brown af
fair. Gagette.
Killing Larger Game ! One of the an
thors of Mr. Lincoln's biography relates an
interesting instance of tho lattcr's political sa
gacity. lie had tmtmphantlv answered that
set of interrogatories which Mr. Doughs cal
culated would crush him, and in return had
made up his mind that his antagonist should
be presented with a collection. His plan was
to compel him, by public interrogation, to re
pudiate the Dred Scott decision or the doc
trine of unfriendly legislation in the Territo
ries. Before the discussion commenced at
Freeport, Mr. Lincoln informed his friends of
Ins intention. They unanimously counseled
him to abandorThis purpose ; "for," said they,
"if you put that question to him, he will per
ceive that an answer giving practical force and
effect to the Dred Scott decision in the Ter
ritories inevitably loses him the battle, and he
will therefore reply by affirming the decision
as an abstract principle, but denying its prac
tical application." "Hut," said Mr. Lincoln,
"if he does that he can never be President."
II is friends replied. "That is not your look
out you are after the Senatorstip." "No,
gentlemen," .said be, -" ant killing larger
game! The battle of 1860 is worlh a hundred
of this!" From tho day that Mr. Douglas
promulgated this doctrine of "unfriendly le
gislation" to save himself in Illinois, he was
a doomed man in all tho South, and the "bat
tle of,, 1860" was won for the Republicans,
though Mr. Lincoln of conrsc could not know
that ho was to be their gallant leader.
. A neat and charming maiden in Indiana, the
fortunate possessor of a considerable property,
became engaged for marriage to a green, un
attractive, clumsj boy of 18 years. The diy
for the wedding was fixed, and the course of
rustic love was running smoothly enough.
One day the groom-expectant appeared before
his mistress with wrinkled brow, quivering
chin, eyes filled with tears. "My father says
I shan't marry unless I first pay him lor my
time.". This was all ho said. The woman at
once sent him to the sharp parent with instruc
tions to learn the lowest rate of exchange at
which the time could be transmuted into mo
ney. "I will sell you" said the father "for
$200, and not a cent less." "And I will buy
you," returned tbe damsel, when the offer was
cooimuuicated to her. She paid the money,
married the property, and has since so assidu
ously cultivated it, that a great improvement,
personally, morally, and intellectually, has
taken place.
The New Orleans papers of recent dates con
tain the particulars of an unexpected return to
life. It appears that Mr. Fleury, a merchant
of that city, was on board the steamer Arc
tic, and was supposed to be lost.no trace of
him appearing. His wife, young and attrac
tive, mourned for him, then married the chief
clerk of the late husband. Together the pair
lived happily for several years, and to their
family three children were added. On the 4th
of the present month' the wife received from
New-York a letter written.by her former hus
band. ,;ile had been picked tip from a piece
of the wreck, with five other survivors, and,
being taken on board a whaler, had gone on a
long voyage- with her. This ship was subse
quently sunk, and fifteen of those aboard sav-
ed themselves upon the island from which
they were taken by another whaler, which was
just commencing her cruise, and which only
returned to New York a week or two ago.
A man named Watts was recently arrested
near Sacremento, Cal., for murder, and after
being handcuffed was placed on a wagon and
accompanied by three men to jail. While on
the way be slipped his cuffs and stealing a re
volver from one of the guards with it shot and
killed tbe three men who had charge of him.
THE AMERICAN "DESERTS."
in a nook just published, called "The Cen
tral uoid Region," the author, Wm. Gilpin,
who has spent twenty years in the wilderness,
presents a view of what is commonly called
iue ueseri,- widely differing from the popu-
iai uuHuiia, ue says :
mi -
iiiero is a radical misapprehension in the
popular mind as to tho true chaiacter of the
"Great Plains of America," as complete as
uiai nuicu pervaaea Europe respecting the At
januc ocean during the whole historic period
prior to Columbus. These plains are not des
erts, but the opposite, and are the cardinal ba
sis of tho future empire of commerce and in-
austry now erecting itself upon the North A-
niencan continent. They are calcarious, and
lorm tne pastoral garden of the world. Their
position and area may be understood. Tire
meridian line which terminates the States of
Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri and Iowa on the
west, forms their eastern limit, and the Kocky
.uouniain crest their western limit. Between
these limits they occupy a longitudinal naral
lelogram of less than 1,000 miles in width, ex-
lenamg irom the Texas to the Arctic coast.-
lliere is no timber upon them, and single
irees are scarce, iney have a gentle slope
iram me west to the east, and abound in riv
ers. iney are clad thick with nutritious
grasses, and swarm with animal life. The soil
is not silicious or sandy, but is a fine calcari
ous mold. They run smoothly out to the nav
igable rivers, the Missouri, Mississippi, and
St. Lawrence, and to the Texan coast. The
mountain masses toward the Pacific form no
serious barrier between them and that ocean
No poition ol their whole sweep of surface is
more than one thousand miles from the best
navigation. The prospect is everywhere irent-
jy unuuiaung ana graceful, being bounded, as
on the ocean, by the horizon. Storms ore
rare, except during the melting of the snows
upon tho crest of the Ilocky Mountains. The
climate is comparatively rainless ; the rivers
serve, like the Nile, to irrigate rather than
drain the neighboring surface, and have few
affluents. Thev all run from west to east, hav
ing beds shallow and broad, and the basins
through which they flow are flat, long and nar
row, lhe area of the "Great Plains" isequiv
alent to the surface of the twenty-four States
between the Mississippi and tbe Atlantic sea,
nut they are one homogeneous formation.
smooth, uniform, and continuous, without a
single abrupt mountain, timbered space, des
ert, or lake. From their ample dimensions
and position they define themselves to be the
pasture jieids of the world. Upon them pasto
ral agriculture win become a separate errand
department of national industry.
lhe pastoral characteristic, being novel to
our people, needs a minute explanation. In
traversing the continent from the Atlantic
Beach to the South Pass, the point of ereatest
altitude and remoteness from the sea, we cross
successively the timbered region, the prairie
region of soft soil and long annual grasses, and
finally the great plains. The two first are irri
gated by the rains coming from the sea, and
are arable. Tbe last is rainless, of a compact
soil, resisting the plow, and is, therefore, pas
toral. The herbage is peculiarly adapted to
tne cnmate ana the dryness of the sou and at
mosphere, and is perennial. It is edible and
nutritious throughout the year. This is "gram
ma" or "Buffalo grass." It covers the ground
one inch in herght, has the appearance of a
delicate moss, and its leaf has tho fineness and
spiral texture of a negro's hair. During the
i i . . . .
melting oi me snows in the immense moun
tain masses at the back of the great plains,
the rivers swell nice the Nile, and yield a co
pious evaporation in their long, sinuous cour
ses across the plains ; storm-clouds gather on
the summits, roll down the mountain flanks,
and discharge themselves in vernal showers.
During this temporary prevalence of moist at
mosphere, these delicate grasses grow, seed in
the root, and are cured into hay upon the ground
ty the graauai returning drouth. It is in this
longitudinal belt of perennial pasture upon
which the liuilalo finds his winter food, dwell
ing upon it without regard to latitude, and
here are the infinite herds of aboriginal cattle
peculiar to North America bufialo, wild hor
ses, elk, antelope, white and black-tailed deer,
mountain sheep, tho grizzly bear, wolves, the
hare, badger, porcupine, and smaller animals
innumerable. Tho aggregate number of this
cattle, by calculation from sound data, exceeds
one hundred million. No annual fires ever
sweep over the great plains; these are con
fined to. the prairie region.
The great plains also swarm with poultry
the turkey, the mountain cock, the prairie
cock, the sandhill crane, the curlew; water
fowl of every variety, the swan, goose, brant;
reptiles; the horned frog! birds of prey, ea
gles, vultures, the raven, and the small birds
of game and song. The streams abound in
fish. Dogs and demi-wolves abound, and buf
falo are found in great numbers. The im
mense population of nomadic Indians, lately a
million m number, have, from immemorial an
tiquity, subsisted exclusively upon these ab
original herds, being unacquainted with any
kind of agriculture, or the habitual use of veg
etable food or fruits. From this source the
Indian draws exclusively his food, his lodge,
his fuel, harness, clothing, bed, his ornaments,
weapons and utensils. Here is his sole de
pendence from the beginning to the end of his
existence. The innumerable carniverous ani
mals also subsist upan them. The buffalo a-
lone have appeared to me as numerous as the
American people, and to inhabit as uniformly
large a space of country. The buffalo robe at
once suggests his adaptability to a winter cli
mate. The plains embrace a very ample pro
portion of arable soil for farms. Tbe "bot
toms" of the rivers are very broad and level,
having only a few inches of- elevation above
the waters, which descend by a rapid and even
current. They may be easily and cheaply sat
urated by all the various systems of irrigation,
azequias, artesian wells, or flooding by ma
chinery. Under this treatment the soils, be
ing alluvial and calcarious, both from the sul
phate and carbonate formations, return a pro
digious yield, and are independent of the sea
sons. . Every variety of grain, grass, vegeta
ble, the grape and fruits, flax, hemp, cotton
and the flora, under a perpetual sun, and irri
gated at the root, attain extraordinary vigor,
flavor and beauty.
Tbo great plains abound in fuel, and the ma
terials fordwellings and fencing. Bituminous
coal is everywhere interstratified with the cal
carious and sandstone formation ; it is also a
bundant in the flanks of the mountains, and is
everywhere conveniently accessible. The dung
ot tho bufialo . is scattered everywhere. The
ordor of vegetable growth being reversed by
the aridity of the atmosphere, what ehow above
as tbe merest bushes, radiate themselves deep
inv 4-1 . . .
iiu ine eann, ana lorm below an immense ab
orescent giowth. Fuel of wood is found bv
digging. Plaster and lime, limestone, free-
oiuuc, ciay ana sana exwt beneath almost ev
er acre, lhe large and economical adobe
brick, hardened in the sun and without fire, su
persedes other materials, and, as in Syria and
Si pi. resists decay lor centuries. The dwel
lings thus constructed are most healthy, being
impervious to neat, coia, aamp, and wind.
The climate of the great plains is favorable
to",health, longevity intellectual and physical
development, and stimulative of an exalted
toneot social civilization and refinement.- The
American people and their ancestral European
people having dwelt for manv thousand vears
eiuu!nciy in countries or timber, and within
the region of the maritime atmosphere, where
"liner aiituuuaies an vegetation annually for
half the year; where all animal food must be
sustained, fed and fattened by tillage with the
piow; wnere the essential necessities of exist
w-in.c iuuu, cioming, iuei ana dwellings are
securea only by constant and intense manual
toil ; why, to this people, heretofore, the im
mense empire of pastoral agriculture, at the
threshold of which we have arrived, has been
a$ completely a blank as was the present con
dition of social development on the Atlantic
ocean and the American continent to the ordi
nary thoughts of the antique Greeks and Ro
mans ! Hence this immense world of plains
and mountains, occupying three-fifths of our
continent, so novel to them and so exactly
contradictory in every feature to the existing
prejudices, routine and economy of society, is
unanimousl3' pronounced an uninhabitable des
ert, lo any reversal of such a ludsment. the
m - ro
unanimous pnblic opinion, the rich and poor,
the wise and ignorant, the famous and obsenre,
agree to oppose, unanimously, a dogmatic and
universal deafness. To them the delineations
of travelers, elsewhere intelligent, are here
tinged with lunacy; the science of geography
is befogged ; the sublime order of creation no
longer holds, and the supreme engineering of
UOd is at fault and a chaos of blunders !
THE LAST DRINK.
uan Jones has a wwe, an amiable, accom
plished.and a beautiful lady, who loves" him
devotedly, but she finds too many bricks in his
hat. One night he came home tight and was
not very much astonished, but rather fright
ened, to find his worthy lady sitting up for
him. bhe always does, bhe smiled when he
came in. lhat also she always does, "lou
stayed out so late," she said, "that I feared
you had been taken sick."
"Hie aint sick, wife; b-but dofl'tyoii thihk-
rra a little tight."
"A very little, perhaps, my dear, but that' is
nothing you may have so many friends, as
you say, you must join them in a glass once in
a while."
"v He you're too good the truth is, I aril
d-drunk."
'Oh, no, indeed, my dear I'm sure that
even another glass wouldn't hurt you. Now
suppose you take a glas3 of Scotch ale with
me, just as a night-cap, my dear?"
"You are too kind, my dear, by half. I know
I'm d-drunk."
"Oh, no, only a julep too much, love, that's
all ? Well, take a glass of ale at any rate: it
cannot hurt you, dear; I want one myself be
fore I retire."
The lady hastened to open a bottle, and as
she placed two tumblers before her on the side
board, she put in one a very powerful emetic.
Hung the glass with the foaming ale, she han
ded tlial one with a most bewitching smile to
her husband. Suspicion came cloudily upon
his mind. She had never before been so kind
to him when he was drunk. He looked at the
glass, raised it to his lips then hesitated.
"Dear, won t you taste mine, to make it
sweeter!" said he.
"Certainly, love," replied the lady, taking
a mouthful, which she was very careful not to
swallow.
Suspicion vanished, and so did the ale, e
nietic, and all, down the throat of the satisfied
husband. After spitting out the taste, the
lady finished her glass, but seemed in no hur
ry to retire.
She fixed a foot tub of water before an easy
chair, for which the husband was curious to
know the reason. A few minutes later, the
gulp and splurge from the throat of the hus
band gave the answer.
The brick was gone when he rose from the
easy chair, and he never after carried one home
lo his wife.
Skcxks have a history, as many a New York
trader has learned at his cost. A year or two
ago they were exported to Europe in such
quantities as to promise the purification of our
atmosphere from one of the most disagreeable
odors, before the lapse of many years; but
this demand suddenly fell off, and several
found themselves "skinned" to the amount of
$25,000 , and even twice that figure. Some
European Isrealites, it appears, had substitu
ted them successfully for fitches, which com
manded from one to nine dollars each in mar
ket. Forthwith, from being considered worth
less, skunk skins rose in prico to 1,50 each;
ships were freighted with and fortunes made
out of them for a few months. But an unlucky
snow-storm in Russia, during which one of
these collars or capes was drawn over the wear
er's head, proved fatal to the trade. The dis
agreeable odor leaked out! Now, it is said,
as many as o0,000 of these skins are stored a-
way in .London, without being able to. find a
purchaser. ....
By a recent Act of Congress, any person
mailing a letter, who may wish to have it re
turned, m case the person addressed should
not call for or receive it. need only endorse
his or her name and address on the letter, and
then the postmaster at the office to which it
may bo sent is required to return it to tho
writer after thirtv days. Such letter will then
remain, in the office from which it was sent for
one quarter, unless previously called for by
the writer. The manifest advantage of this
arrangement will be that important letters,
those containing money, valuable papers or
other articles of value, or those of a private
nature, will be secured to the writers in case
the persons addressed should be prevented
from receiving them, and will return to hand
much sooner than when they all mnst go. to.
the Dead Letter Office. -
"Will you have some cat-sup?" asked a
pedantic gentleman of Aunt Pricilla, at a din
ner table. "Dear me, noJ she repliea wun
shudder. "I'm fond of cats in their places;
but I should as soon think of eating dog-boup."
A REMINISCENCE OF OLD DATS.
Richard Yates. Republican candidate for
Governor of Illinois, delivered a speech at the
Republican Ratification Meeting at Springfield,
in that State, on tho 7th August, from which
we take the following extracts :
"I recollect the first time I ever saw Mr.
Lincoln, and I have a grea.t mind to tell you,
though I don't know that fought to. "Yes,
go on, go on." It was more than a quarter of
a century ago. A voice, he was Young Abe'
then.' I was down at Salem with a friend,
who remarked to me, one day, "I'll go over
and introduce you to a fine young fellow we
have here a smart, genial, active young fel
low, and we'll be certain to have a g'ood talk."
I consented, and he took me down to a collec
tion of four or five houses, and looking over
the way I saw a young man partly lying or
resting on a cellar door, intently engaged in
reading. My friend took me up and introduc
ed rne to young Lincoln, and I tell you as he
rose up I wouldn't have shot at him then for a
President. Laughter. Well, after some
pleasant conversation, for Lincoln talked sen
sibly and generally, then, just as he does now,
we an went up to dinner. I ought not to tell
this on Lincoln. Great laughter and cries of
"go on !- "go on !"J 1 ou all know very well
that we all lived in a very plain way in those
times. The house was a rough log honse.with
a puncheon floor and clapboard roof", ahd might
have been built like Solomon s Temple, "with
out the sound of hammer or nail." for there
was no iron it. Laughter. Tbe old lady
wnose nouse it was, soon provided us with a
dinner ; the principal ingredient was a great
bowl ot milk, which she handed to each
Somehow, in serving Lincoln, there was a mis
take made, and his bowl tipped up and the
bowl and milk rollad over the floor. The good
old lady was in deep distress, and burst out.
"Oh, dear me! that's all my fault." Lincoln
picked up the 1kw! in the best natnred w.iy in
the world, remarking to her, "Aunt Lizzy,
we'll not discuss whose fault it was only, if
it don't worry you, it don t worry me. rRoars
of laughter and applause. The old lady was
comforted and gave him another bowl of milk.
Renewed laughter.
"My friend Green, who introduced me, told
me the first time ho saw Lincoln, he was in
the Sangamon river, with his pants rolled up
some five feet, more or less, fgreat merriment
trying to pilot a fiat-boat over a mill-dam. The
boat had got so full of water, that it was very
difficult to manage, and almost impossible to
get it over the dam. Lincoln finally contriv
ea to get ner now over, so tnat it projected a
few feet, and there it stood. But he then In
vented' a new way of bailing a flat-boat. He
bored , a hole through .the bottom to let the
water run out, and then corked ber up, and she
launched right over. fGreat laughter. I
think the Captain who proved himself so fitted
to navigate the broad-horn over the dam, is no
doubt the man who is to stand upon the deck
of the old ship, "the Constitution," and guide
ber safely over the billows and breakers that
surround. her. Enthusiastic and prolonged
applause'.
"I do not mention these hardships of Lin
coln's early life as evincing any great merit in
themselves. Many a man among you may say,
"I am a rail splitter. I have done many a
hard day's work, and if that entitles him to be
President, it entitles me to be President, too.'
All I mean to say, in regard to his haviDg
been a poor, hard-working boy is, that "It
don't set him back any." That's- it. As
the young man who courted and married a ve
ry pretty girl ; when, on the next morning al
ter the wedding, she presented him wtth a
thousand dollars ."Lizzie, (said he,) I like
yon very much, indeed, but this thousand
don't set you back any." Roars of laughter
and cheers. So if Lincoln has all the other
qualities of a statesman, it don't set him back
any with us, who know and love him, to know
that he was once a hard-working boy.-"
Them Cals. A philosophical old gentleman
was passing by a new school house erected
somewhere towards the setting-sun borders of
our glorious union, when his attention was
suddenly drawn by a crowd of persons gather
ed around the door, ne inquired of a boy
whom he met, what was going on.
"Well," said the boy "you see Bill, that's
our biggest boy, got mad tho other day at the
teacher, aud so he went all over and gathered
dead cats. Nothing but cats and cats. Oh,
it was orful, them cats them cats!"
"Pshaw! what have them cats, to do with
the school committee?"
"Now, well, you see Bill kept bringin' cats
and cats; always idling them up 3'onder,
pointing to a pile as large in extent as a pyra
mid, and considerably aromatic and he piled
tnem. Nothin' but cats, cats .'"
"Never mind my son, what Bill did. What
has the committee met for ?"
"Then Bill got sick handlin' 'em, and every
body got to nosin' 'em ; but Bill got madder
and did'nt give it up, but kept a pilin up the
cits and "
"Tell me what the committee are holding
the meeting for ?"
"Why the school committee are going to
meet to hold a raectin' to say whether they'll
move the schoel house or them cats!"
Tho old gentleman evaporated immediately.
A correspondent, writing from Knoxvillo,
Tenn., thus describes the effect upon animals
produced by the meteor of the 2d inst: "A
gentleman on horseback states that bis horse
bounded as if he had been shot, and tried to
run off; the report frightened the animal still
more ; he succeeded m stopping mm at tne
front door of an old lady. She had run out in
her night gown, exclaiming, Gread God,
stranger, has the world busted ?' '
"Potatoes." said Pompey, a learned darkey,
conversing with another gemman ob color, "is
a barbacious, zoological vegetable what grows
all under ground 'cept de top, an' dat bears a
carnivorous flower at de bottom. Potatoes is
bery good biled, an' dey am better roasted ;
but it you steal de lard, de bes' way ob all is
to frv dem, 'kase den de potatoes am meat,
drink, an' sleep. Such am de great merits ob
dis 'ere escurlent." .
Mr. Lincoln's appearance on the grounds
where the great Republican demonstration was
made at Springfield, Illinois, was the occasion
of so much enthusiasm, even after be had ad
dressed the crowd twice, that he was obliged
to exclaim with characteristic humor s "I came
here, fellow-citizens, expecting quiet, bnt as
it seems -I am a great disturber of tbe peace,
I wish you would allow me to depart."
THE "GROUND OF DEATH." -Bladensburg,
in the District of Columbia,
the celebrated duelling ground, is thus des
cribed by a correspondent. The place, so no
ted for its polite aud refined murders, is about
five miles f rom the city of Washington, fresh
and handsome, in full livery of green, adorned
with flowers, and should blush in its beauty for
the scenes it has witnessed. Here, in a beauti
ful little grass plat, surrounded by trees, forms,
made after the image of God, come to Insult
Nature and defy Heaven. In 1814, Edward
Hopkins was killed here in a duel. This seems
to have been the first of these fashionable mur
ders on this duelling ground.
InT819, A. T. Mason, a United States Sen
ator from Virginia, fought with his sister's
husband, John McCarty, here. McCarty was
averse to fighting, and thought there was no
necessity for it ; but Mason would fight. Mc
Carty named muskets, loaded with grapashot,
and so near together that they would hit heads,
if thej fell on their faces. This was changed
by the seconds to loading with bullets, and
faking twelve feet as the distance. Mason whs
killed instantly, and McCarly.who had his col
lar bone broken, still lives with Mason's sister
in Georgetown. His hair turned white so soon
after the fight as to cause much comment. Ho
has since been- solicited to act as second in a
duel, but refused in accordance with a pledge
he made to his-wife after killing her brother.
In 1830, Commodore Decatur was killed in
a duel here by Commodore Barron. At tho
first fire both fell forward with their heads
within ten feet of caeh other, and as each
supposed himself mortally wounded; each ful
ly and freely forgave the other, still laying on
the ground. Decatur expired" immediately,
but Barron eventually recovered.
In 1821, two strangers named Lega and Sega
appeared here, fought, and Sega was instantly
killed. The neighbors only learned this much
of their names from tho marks on their gloves
left on the ground. Lega was not hurt.
In 1822, Midshipman Locke was killed here
by a Clerk of the Treasury Department, nam
ed Gibson. The latter was not hurt.
In 1820, Henry Clay fought (his2ddne!)with
John Randolph, just across the Potomac.
In 1S32, Martin was killed by Oarr. Their
first names are not now remembered. They
were both from the South. . ,
In 1833, Mr. Key, son of Frank Key, and
brother of Barton Key, of Sickles notoriety,
met Mr. Sherborn and exchanged a shot,when
Sherborn said : "Mr. Key, i have no desire to
kill you." ?No matter," said Kev, "I came,
to kill you." Very well, then," 'said Sher
born, "I will now kill you," and he did.
In 1838, W.J; Graves of Kentucky, assume
Ing the quarrel of' James Watson Webb witiv
J on 'a Cilley of Maine, selected this place for.
Cilley's murder, but the parties learning thst
Webb,' with4we' friend?,-Jackson arid Morrel,"
were armed and in pursuit, for the purpose of
assassinating Cilley, moved toward the river
and nearer the city. Their pursuers moved to
ward the river but missed the parties.and then
returned to the city, to which they were soon
followed by Graves and the corpse of Cilley.
In 1815, a lawyer named Jones fought with
and killed a Dr. Johnson.
In 18-51, Ii. A. Hoole and A. J. Iallas, had
a hostile meeting here. Dallas was shot in
the shoulder, but recovered.
Tn 1852, Daniel and Johnson, two Richmond
(Virginia) editors, held a harmless set-to here.
which terminated in colfee.
In 1853, Davis and Ridgway fought here ;
Ridgway allowed his antagonist fo fire with
out returning the shot.
THE WAY IT TS GOING.
ft is worse thau folly to attempt to disguise
the fact that the popular current hns set in
strongly lor Lincoln. From every section
comes intelligence of pnblic demonstrations of
an unusually enthusiastic character. On th
8th inst., an immense meeting of the Republi
cans was held at Springfield, Illinois. The
lowest estimate of the crowd in attendance was
20,000 others fixed it as high as 50,000. Tho
procession was two hours and a half passing
Mr. Lincoln's residence. During the afters
noon Mr. Lincoln appeared on the ground in at
carriage, when he was immediately seized up
on by the crowd, drawn forth, and forced to
respond to the cheers of a wildly enthusiastic
multitude. His speech was wholly unintend
ed. It was as follows :
My Fellow CrrrzExs:I have appeared a
mong you on this occasion with no intention'
of making a speech. It has been my purposo
since I have beeu placed in my present posi
tion, to make no speeches. This meeting
having been drawn together at the place of my
residence, it appeared to be the wish of those .
constituting this vast assemblage, to see nie.
As it is certainly ray wish to see all of you, I
appear upon the ground hore at this time, otily
for the purpose of seeing you and enabling
you to see me. I confess with gratitude that
Ijdidnot suppose my appearance among you
would create the tumult which I now witness.
I am profoundly grateful for this manifesta
tlon of your feelings. I am gratified because
it is a tribute which can be paid to no man.
It is a testimony which, four years- hence, 3ou
will pay to the next man who is the represen
tative of the truth cn the questions which now
agitate the public mind. fChecrs.l It is an
evidence that yon will fight for this cause
then, as you now fight for it, and eveu stron-
ger than you now fight, though I may be dead
and gone. Cheers. I most profoundly and
sincerely thank you. . .Having said this much,
let me now add that you will hear (he publio .
discussions by others of our friends, who are '
here for the purpose of addressing you, and
let me be silent. Immense applause.
Mr. Lincoln retired from the grounds amidst.'
the wildest enthusiasm, being seized upon and
carried hither and thither by the immenso
crowd which filled the grounds to overflowing.
No such demonstration has ever beh witness
ed in Illinois. The meeting in tlVe evening
was the most imposing ever assembled in the
State. The square about the Sfafe House re
sembled a sea of fire, through which solid?
ranks of Wide-Awakes marched and counter
marched by thousands. There was speaking
from five stands at once, besides the immense
meeting inside the Wigwam. Among the
speakers were Senators Trumbull and Doolittle.
The telegraph posts, as far as Los Angelos, '
California, on the Butterfleld route, are near
ly all up, and in two weeks the line will bo
open lo a point 480 miles from San Fracisca.
The same of the present husband of the
late Mrs. Burdell-Cunningham is - Sheenan, a
TJniTetsalist preacher of California.
ii