B. F. SCHWEIER,"
thz ooasTiTonos thi mnoH nn thi xstokcimist or thi laws.
Editor and Proprietor
VOL. XXX.
MIEFLINTOTVN, JUNIATA COUNTY, PENNA-. AUGUST 23. 1876.
NO. 34.
f '4,
LITE.
BT CHAKIjOTTE BBOSTE.
Life, believe ia not a dream
So dark as sages say ,
Oft a little morning rain
Foretells a leaeaut day.
Sometimes there are cloud of gloom.
Bat these are transient all ;
If the shower will make the roaea bloom,
O, shy lament iU fall ?
Rapidly, merrily.
Life' runny hours flit by,
Gratef ally, cheerily.
Enjoy-them as they fly!
What though Death at times step in
An J calls our best away ?
What though our sorrow seems to win
O'er hope, a heavy sway ?
Yet hope again elastic springs,
Cnconqnered, though she fell ;
Still buoyant are her golden wings.
Still strong to bear as well.
Manfully, fearlessly,
The day of trial bear.
Tor gloriously, victoriously.
Can courage quell deopair!
Grandfathers Bank.
There were four of us : Beck. Wyman
and fat littie Bunuie, besides me. We
all lived iu grandfather's house. It bad
been a grand place in its day, and the
boys and girls of long ago used to walk
out in the summer twilight to admire
the great wooden pineapple and its
green leaves carved and colored over
the front door. In our day it was an
old-fashioned house in a shady city
street. Mother died when Bunnie was
but a baby, so grandfather took us to
live with him. The stage brought us,
under the charge of Mrs. Stocking, and
wes cared and wondering, stood in a
row before him. He said :
"Well, well, children ! Nurse, take
them in to get some supper." Then he
rubbed his hands and went out Into
the garden to potter about some plants.
While we were eating at a small table
iu the middle of an immense dining
room he came and stood in the door
way. "Retecca is the eldest," said he, re
ferring to a paper iu his hand. "Fif
teen ! Want your nurse yet?"
Beckie 's eyes filled with tears.
"Tut! Tut;" exclaimed grandfather;
"don't cry ! I can't bear crying !
'Sir," began Beckie, resolutely, "I
can do whatever you think best; but
I'm afraid I do not know enough to
take care of Bunuie all alone."
"Then nurse must stay till you do
know enough. Learn as fast as you
can."
He then made some agreement with
Mrs Stocking about wages, and our
dear "Stockie," as we called her, afier
Bunuie's perversion, staid a year.
There was the great house, nothing
changed for more tlian half a century.
A wide, shady garden ran down to an
other street. We bad free range with
out and within always excepting
grandfather's rooms.
On the rainy davs. or when we felt
particularly full of fun, we used to go
to the garret, where our racketing
could disturb tobody ; and in that great
cob-webby space we had royal times,
till we needed other things, attiring
ourselves in the antiquities we fouud
there.
Wye and I wrote a thrilling drama
of the war, in which he represented a
Union officer taken prisoner, and Beck,
the lovely Virginian, who set him free.
Buunie was a sentinel. I, a spy. There
were scenes w ith soldiers, iu which we
four appeared, and hospital sketches in
which bolsters laid out made capital
sick soldiers; and Wye was a surgeon
to cut off arms.
We all felt out of sorts when Beckie
grew too old for this entertainment
and used to walk alone in the garden,
like an imprisoned princess. We inher
ited from our mother an income of oue
hundred dollars a year; that was punc
tually paid to Beck by grandfather, in
quarterly instalments, to be spent for
the four. What a life we led her!
How we insisted she should buy aecor
deons. pistols, dolls, work-boxes for
getful of ragged hats and toes sticking
through our shoes.
All this time the great civil war was
" raging, and grandfather, who hated
war, and thought everybody wrong,
and everything going to perdition,
talked nothing but politics to his neigh
bors, and to us, when we were still
enough to listen.
He particularly hated the paper cur
rency, and Bunuie once came in glee
with a dirty fifty-cent note fisherman
had given her grandfather in change.
It had fallen to the ground, and he, be
ing irritated that morning, told Bunnie
to take it away. He had never given
us anything before, and we sent Wye
out to buy chocolate candy.
When Beckie was eighteen, Wyman
was in his last year of the High School,
where Stockie had told us we ought to
send him. For a long time one hundred
dollars had to be expended on this
youth. We knew he must have an ed
ucation, and wear decent clothes. We
looked forward to his getting a situa
tion sometime, and our having each a
new alpaca in consequence. He would
grow so! One of our most wretched
experiences was when he insisted on
having a sage-green overcoat that
faded in streaks, and that he had to
wear. Buunie's little clothes, even to
his i-Ai.s. we contrived out of his
r j
brother's. He was independent.
Beckie and I for several years exer
cised in the shades of evening, or now
aud then, spasmodically appeared sep
arately at the little mission chapel near
us. We had a black alpaca between us
oueskirt, and two basques. Beckie had
a sash when she wore hers. I had
some bows I pinned on mine. One
summer we asked grandfather for two
linen sheets they were superbly fine
and made Beckie a dress, which she
wore In triumph to a pic-nic with a Mr.
Van Aster, the young man who took
such an interest in Wye. He belonged
to the academy, and taught Greek and
geology in the High School. Wyesome
times brought him to tea.
Beck had the best clothes. It was
necessary. If I happened to have a
fresh calico, I presented myself, If not,
some excuse was made for me. I re
member we made ourselves wrappers
out of some soft Canton silk, covered
with great flowers that we found. It
had once been used for curtains when
the house was in its pride. When hard
pushed for a costume, one of us would
make the most of a little cold, and ex
tinguishing the glory of the wrapper
by a shawl, would sit near the lire.
Wye bringing tea, and Mr. Van Aster
suggesting hot loinenade or violet tea,
such as bis mother made.
Grandfather was always kind to us
that is, he never scolded us; but he
never petted us. He never thought of
our wanting money or clothes, I sup
pose, any more than we thought of ask
ing. Betty was pretty a pale, wild
rose beauty with brown hair and soft
shining brown eyes; but what was the
good of her being fair with no one to
see?
Grandfather had his bed-room and
library down stairs, on the south side
of the hall. Pleasant, sunny rooms
they were, opening into others never
used, and tilled with the gigantic fur
niture our ancestors preferred. In the
evening he used to open his library
door, and we could see him reading
under the light of his tallow lamp.
When bed-time came we said good
night to him at his door, aud he would
pleasantly respond. But one evening
he did not answer. His book was open
before him, his head upon his breast
be was dead.
The neighbors came. Among others
Mr. Thompson, with whom grand
father had been accustomed to hold
long debates over the garden wall. He
was a cute business man, kind but with
no time to waste. He showed us how
we stood in the world. There was no
will. We were the heirs. But except
a few hundred dollars in the secretary,
and the certificates of good-for-nothing
insurance stock, there was no property
no trace of income.
"Most singular!" said Mr. Thomp
son. "How has the old gentleman
been living?"
"We do not know. We did not even
owe the servants but that oue week's
wages."
There were but fifty dollars left
when the funeral expenses were paid.
We had the place to be valuable in the
remote future; but how were we to eat
and drink meanwhile?
Mr. Thoinpsou said he would advise
us at any time, and went home.
We girls cried. We said he should
talk ith Van, Aster, and get a situa
tion at once. He was within a month
of graduating, but if he could have the
place in the bank at three hundred a
year he should go now.
This he did. Van Aster's uncle was
the bank president, and, perhaps, was
influenced in our favor. For a week
we felt rich. Then we soon found that
wood, coal, flour, tnxes and things
counted up so fast that we were poor
even in the matter of clothes. Wye
must look nice to work in the bank.
We grew thriftier every week, aud
bv-and-by Wye said he thought we
would be able to bring it down to a
straw a day.
Poor, boy, he did have such an appe
tite. All the time I had it in my heart
to hone we should come upon some
hidden treasure, aud I scoured every
corner of the house. I found old wine,
a chest full of rich brocade and lace,
boxes of yellow letters, but of money,
not a dime.
"Do you suppose," said Beck, "that
he turned his whole fortune into gold,
and spent it during these years of war?
I have beard of such things."
"If he did not, wliere is it?" said I.
When spring opened we established
Wyman in grandfather's rooms. They
were pleasant, and convenient for his
friends, and gave him a certain dignity
as the head of the house.
We had little of anything else; we
thought much of our family dignity
We bad no servauts, but we cleaned
the rooms ourselves, and the whole
work was completely done, all anima
ted by the forlorn expectation of mine,
of finding some biding place, or at
least a paper, to throw some glimmer
of light on grandfather's past. But
nothing happened. Nothing happened
till months and months after. Wyman
came home from the bank, sick.
Then we felt this was our first real
frizht and misfortune. Bunnie ran to
the end of the street for a doctor, and
came holding him fast by the hand
He had made a friend, and so it turned
out. had we. He was a young man, I
found out in the course of a few days,
and he seemed wonderfully taken with
us all, and what of our story he learned
As for Wyman, he was not danger
ously ill at all. Staying iu bed was the
best thing he could do. He needed
but little medicine: we must give him
nice things, talk to, and amuse him.
So we did ; and getting over our anx
iety, had quite a jolly week, doctor,
Van Aster, and all. The doctor had
never been in so old fashioned a house.
ne thought it beautiful, and talked so
much about the great chests of drawers
the tables and the chairs, that we
opened our eyes.
'And the bed !" exclaimed Wyman,
"Don't you believe one mahogany tree
was sacrificed to each post, to say notb
ing of the crowning cannon-balls, big
enough to hold a pium pudding each !
As he spoke an idea flashed through
me. I was always having inspirations
Beckie said. I mounted a chair, from
thence to a table at the head of Wymans
bed. Thev were huge balls, divided in
the centre by a projecting band like the
equator of a globe. I began to un
screw.
'Look at that girl!" said Wye. "She
is always searching for Captain Kidd's
treasure. She harrows the life out of
na. Vow she thinks she has it In an
old West India pickle jar, and now in
the stuffing of a chair. Once she made
me crawl over the floor to sound for
hnllnw nlace. and eood gracious, but
she's found it at last!"
So I bad. The top of the ball of the
bed-post unscrewed. The hollow was
full of gold eagles. A post apiece,
Wye said.
as
A rsytleiaa Bale Health far the
Heate Terse.
Rise early ; the morning air is pure
and cool. Take a hand bath, going
over the whole person with water at its
natural temperature; any one can do
this who can command the use of a ba
sin and one or two quarts of water. Use
nothing but the hand ; once or twice a
week put a few drops of ammonia in
the water to cleanse the skin, or use
white castile soap avoid all others. Do
this all the year round, no matter what
the temperature of the weather is; be
ginning now, the skin will become ac
customed to it, and cold will not effect,
but tone up the system, bringing the
blood to the surface and preventing cold
from sudden changes ; besides not half
the clothing will be needed. At this
season do not discard flannels altogether,
but wear thin ones without sleeves; the
best are made from white bunting,
which is not heating, and yet absorbs
the perspiration, and will last for ever
if properly shrunk before being made
up. On rising, if feeling faint and loss
of appetite, take a teaspoonful of char
coal stirred in a little water, and re
peat the same at bedtime; it must be the
fine willow charcoal, and to be found
(with twenty-five cents) at all apothe
caries. This absorbs the gas from un
digested food, and sweetens the stomach
and prepares it for food, and should be
taken at any time when there is any un
pleasant fulness in the stomach before
eating. Avoid ice water, except one or
two swallows; the habitual use lowers
the temperature of the stomach and
prevents digesting. Soda water in im
moderate quantities should also be avoi
ded, certainly not more than a single
glass per day. Let the diet be a gener
ous one, but avoid mixtures; never
more than two or three dishes at each
meal. Pastry of all kinds should be es
pecially avoided in hot weather. Plain
yeast bread a day old, with good butter,
sparingly, and in hot weather with milk
when fresh well salted; all kinds of
fruit and vegetables in their season,
well cooked and salted salt allays thirst
hen taken fresh upon food. Go slow
about your business or work. Never
try to do two men's work in one day.
There is nothing gained by it. Keep on
the shady side of the street if there is
one; if not, carry an umbrella, if you
can ; if not, your hankerchief iu the top
of your hat; if in the country, greeu
leaves. Never get in a passion, as it
shortens life. Finally, make haste slow
ly to get rich ; remember that without
health riches are of no account.
Hotel Life la Baa Fraaclaee.
A story is told of a San Francisco
house, says the Helena Star, but as it is
not localized, we cannot possibly saddle
it on any or them. A man boarding
there thought prudent to settle terms
beforehand, to be sure that his money
would hold out. Two dollars a day.
He staid two months and sent for his
bilL Carramba ! the $2 a day for board
was only a small part of the items
charged. Sixty dollars for fire loomed
up conspicuously. Boarder demurred.
Can't help It," says the landlord,
-'we can't afford to furnish the fuel and
a man to attend to it for less than a dol
lar a day."
"All right," says boarder, "I'm wil
ling to pay you a dollar a day for fire,
but don't want to pay you any more
than I've had. Now, out of all the time
I've been here, it's impossible that I
could have had a fire more than half a
dozen days In the whole sixty."
"Well," says the landlord, "that's
not our fault; the fuel was there and a
mau to attend to it; you might have
used it if you had been a miuJ to."
But the boarder remonstrated still
further. "Now, if you'll come up and
look at my room, I think I can convince
you that there never was any fuel there,
and what is more," continued he rising
to the sublimity of thesituatiou, there
is no place to put it. if it were there.
There is no fire-place in the room, and
no stove. There's not even a chimney
in the room for smoke to get out at, nor
a 6tove-pipe, nor a hole to put a stove
pipe in."
The landlord "went down in his
boots." :
Bar lace Cereasoalee.
The ancient practice of mariage by
capture, which has left some traces even
in our customs and sports notably In
that popular game of kiss-in-the-ring, a
mimic representation of the great game
of marriage finds many illustrations in
Mongol life. Kubruquis, who visited
the hordes of Tartary, and was enter
tained in the tent of the immediate suc
cessor of Yenghis Khan, described a
Mongol marriage thus: "Therefore,
when any man hath bargained with an
other for a maid, the father of a damsel
makes him a feast; in the mean time
she flies away to some of her kinsfolk
to hide herself. Then the father says
to the bridegroom, "My daughter is
yours; take her wheresoever you can
find her." Then he and his friends
seek her till they find her, and having
found her, he takes her by force and
carries her to his own house." This
simple form of marriage contract is still
preserved among the Koraks and Tchuc
tchus, tribes of north-eastern Siberia.
There the damsel is pursued by her ad
mirer, and hides herself among the po
logs, or cabins made of skin, which
form the internal compartments of their
dwellings. The woman kind assist her
in her pretended evasion, and not till
the bridegroom has caught his bride
and left the impression of a finger-nail
upon her tender skin is the betrothal
completed. The analogous customs in
Roman marriages here strike one with
the myth of the rape of the Sabines ;
but we need not go so far afield. The
customs of a Welsh wedding, up to a
very recent date, included a mimic pur
suit of the bride by the bridegroom,
both on horseback : and even in our
English manner, when the bridegroom
Invariably goes to seek his bride on the
weddinz morn. But the value of wo
man-kind in a pastoral life.where there
is so much for her to do ia the way of
milking, cheese and butter making, and
so on, brings a further element Into the
relationship. A price must be paid for
the future companion, and the kalim or
wedding portion enters largely into the
question. A more modern Mongol
wedding is described by Hue, that most
amusing of Jesuit fathers. The relig
ious ceremonies are those of Buddhism.
The marriage Is arranged by the par
ents, who settle the dower that is to be
paid to the father of the bride by means
of mediators. When the contract baa
been concluded, the father of the bride
groom, accompanied by his nearest re
latives, carries the news to the family
of the bride. They prostrate themselves
before the domestic altar, and offer up
a boiled sheep's head, milk, and a sash
of white silk. During the repast all
the relations of the bride receive a piece
of mouey, which they deposit in a vase
filled with wine made of fermented
milk, (we have, or had, a similar cus
tom of hiding a ring or money in the
wedding cake,) the father of the bride
drinks the milk and keeps the money.
The lamas, or priests, fix an auspicious
day, when the bridegroom send a depu
tation to escort the bride. There is a
feigned opposition to the departure of
the bride, who is placed on a horse,
and led three times (note the three mys
tic circles) round the paternal house,
and then taken at full gallop to the tent
prepared for the purpose near the dwel
ling of her father-in-law. All the Tar
tars of the neighborhood repair to the
wedding feast and offer their presents,
which consist of beasts and eatables.
These go to the father of the bridegroom,
and often recoup him the sum he has
paid for the sou's bride. Rather a shame,
one would think, of that selfish papa,
did we not reflect that he will have to
support his son aud daughter, or at all
events set them up in sheep and cattle
from his flocks aud herds. Beljratia.
Strategy.
"Monkeys should be looked after and
educated," says a sarcastic writer; and
certainly these animals possess a taleut
for mimicry which gives them the ap
pearance of possessing brain power.
Man, however, is more than a match
for them, as the following story will
show.
A company of Brazil hunters had a
lot of little boots made, just large enough
to be drawn over a monkey's foot, and
filled the bottom with pitch. With
these they set out for the woods,
and soon fouud themselves under the
trees where the lively little fellows were
leaping about among the branches,
banging by their tails, swinging them
selves easily from one tree to another,
and chatung noisily together, as if mak
iug observations upon the strange visi
itors that had come into their quarters.
The hunters quietly sat down under
the trees, while the little chatterboxes
were rattliug on over their heads, but
never for a moment removing their
eyes from them. Then they placed the
little boots where they could be seen,
and commenced biking off their own
boots. Having done this, they let them
stand awhile near the little boots. All
this the monkeys very closely noticed.
The hunters, now taking up their boots,
having carefully looked over them, drew
them slowly, oue after another, on
their feet. Not a motion escaped the
observation of the monkeys. Having
replaced their boots tuey hurried away
to the thicket, where they could, un
seen, watch the monkeys, leaving the
little boots standing in a row. lhey
were no sooner out of sight than down
from the branches dropped the mo
keys. They looked at the boots took
them up, smelt of them, and finally
seating themselves as the hunters had
done drew them on over their feet. As
soon as they were fairly in the boots,
out sprang the hunters f rom their hid'
ing place, and rushed upon them, I he
monkeys, affrighted, at once started for
the trees, but only to find that they had
destroyed their power of climbing by
putting on the boots. So they fell an
easy prey to their cunning enemies.
Hlata aa te Beaaty.
There is nothing more unfavorable to
female beauty than kite hours. Women
who, either from necessity or choice,
spend most of the day in bed, and the
night in work or dissipation, have al
ways a pale, faded complexion and
dark rimmed wearied eyes. Too much
sleep is almost as hurtful as too little,
and is sure to give the person unwhole
some fat. Diet, also, has a marked in
fluence upon personal beauty. A gross
and excessive indulgence in eating and
drinking is fatal to the female charms,
especially when there is great tendency
to "making flesh." Regularity of time
in the daily repast and good cooking
are the best means of securing not only
good health, but good looks, the ap
petite should never be wasted during
the intervals between meals on pastry,
confectionery, or any other tickler of
the appetite, which gratifies the taste,
but does not support the system. Exer
cise is. of course, essential to female
beauty. It animates the whole physl
cal life, quickens the circulation of the
blood, heightens the color, develops the
growth, and perfects the form of each
limb and the entire body. It also gives
beauty and grace to each movement.
DlTlac far Drlak.
One of the hotf&t regions of the earth
is along the Persian Gulf, where little
or no rain falls. At Behrein the arid
shore has no fresh water : yet a com.
paritively numerous population con
trives to exist there, thanks to copious
springs which burst forth from the bot
tom of the sea. The fresh water is got
by diving. The diver, sitting in his
boat, winds a great goatskin bag around
his left arm, the hand grasping Its
mouth ; then he takes In his right hand a
heavy stone, to which is atttached a
strong lite, and thus equipped he plun
ges In and quickly reaches the bottom
Instantly opening the bag over the
strong jet of fresh water, he springs up
in the ascending current, at the same
time closing the bag, and is helped
aboard. The stone is then hauled up,
and the diver, after taking breath, plun
ges again. The source of these copious
submarine springs is though to be in
the green hills of Oman, some five or
six hundred miles distant.
Taaatie ta Persia.
The system of taxation is one of the
moat onerous that can be imagined, and
its burden is placed with blighting in
cidence wholly upon the producing
classes. For each plowing bullock the
poor peasant pays nearly the value of
the animal yearly. Be contributes of
his produce, he pays for every date-tree,
he is subject to a poll tax ; no w and then
he is called upon to protect his village
against an attack by robbers, and in
case of defeat must submit to be spoiled
of any portable property he possesses.
If there is a highway robbery within
the boundaries of his village, he must
pay his Bhare of the losses Incurred,
which It is not at all certain will ever
reach the empty pocket of the plundered
man. He can never calculate the amount
of his taxation, for while the Governor
of this year may be lenient, his succes
sor next year will be rapacious. As a
rule, the Governors purchase their of
fice, and sometimes, over and above the
sum which they are obliged to return
aa revenue, make annual presents to
the Shah. To repay themselves for this
outlay they ravage the district with tax
ation ; and a Governor is successful or
not, from his town point of view, in
reference to the sum, in excess of the
assessed amount, .. hicb be or his vizier
(for the greater Governors rarely do this
themselves) can force from the peasants
and from the traders iu the bazaars of
the towns. We were unable to present
the letter which the Sadr Azem had
given us to the Governor of Bushire,
because a few days before our arrival
bis Excellency had started with a large
number of soldiers upon a tax-gather
ing expedition. The crown of a most
iniquitous system is the exemption of
the moollahs and in fact of all who are
not engaged in trade, commerce, or
griculture. It follows from this sys
tem that men hoard money to the utmost
of their power and conceal their riches
as far as their tastes permit ; that repro
ductive expenditure is restricted to a
minimum, and that this is declining
every year as the demand for foreign
goods increases and the balance of trade
is augmented against Persia. Already
the gold coinage has virtually disap
peared. The common talk of the ba
zaars is of tomans, but the traveler may
spend a hundred thousand without ever
seeing one. And now, year by year,
the silver ktrnm, which with the copper
thihee form the currency of Persia, are
passing away in millions to pay the bal
ance of trade, which, if native produc
tion were encouraged, might so easily
be discharged by exports of wheat, cot
ton, wool, and opium. The value of the
specie exported from Bushire, the chief
port of Persia, in 1S73, is reported by
Col. Ross, the Political Resident, to
have been Rs. 1,053,396. When the
American War of Secession so greatly
raised the price of cotton, there was for
some years a considerable export irom
Persia; but now that American cotton
is once more cheap and pleutiful, it is
falling off, and production is further
checked by the heavy export duty, but
a share of which reaches the Persian
treasury. We have already referred to
the Khan who farms the customs of
Southern Persia. For the privilege of
collecting as much as he could get un
der this head In the port of Bushire for
the year 1873, this person paid 32,000
tomans or about 12,800. None but
his dependants are employed in obtain
ing the revenue; there is no interfe
rence of any sort by employees of the
Government, and no returns or reports
are required of any of his transactions.
It is surely mild language which the
British Resident uses in reference to
this monstrous abuse of fiscal authority,
when he writes to the Indian Govern
ment that "the system is felt to be in
convenient by traders." Cvnieritn-9f
Review.
AeeeasUe rrepertleaert'hareaea.
Though modern church architecture
is constructed on acoustic principles,
it frequently happens that the voice of
the speaker is lost. Especially in this
the case when the building has numer
ous subdivisions,8uch as of vaults, aisles
and chapels. In many of such larger
edifices the use of sounding boards back
and above the pulpit becomes necessary.
The American Architect and Building
News gives a brief notice of such con
structions. It explains that, in addition
to peculiarities of form which must be
adapted to the configuration of the
building, such screens should have a
certain solidity of construction. It is
not required that sounding boards
should have a vibratory influence.which
would be the case if they were made of
thin wood; but that, being built solid
and of heavy oak, they should nave the
Dower of reflecting sound. Mention is
made of such a defective sound board,
due to a firm of piano makers, the wood
employed being such as was used in the
construction of their instruments. This,
instead of reflecting the sound as it was
intended to do, and as a heavier wood
would have done, absorbed the sound
into its own mass, and vibrated with
the air.
The Baaalaa Fair at 9HJal-eva;ered
The great Russian fair, which sixty
years since was transferred to Nijni-
Novgorod from Its ancient locality in
the meadows near the Monastery of
Macarieva, opens on the 25th of June
(old style), and comes to a close early in
September. Dr. Doria, secretary of the
British embassy at St- Petersburg, re
ports that it is calculated that a million
persons visited the fair last year, and
about 130,000 of them were resident at a
time, for a longer or shorter period.
during the fair. The value of the mer
chandise actually sold at the fair has
risen from 49,000,000 roubles in 1847 to
163.000,000 in 1S74. In the last-named
year upward of 6,000 shops were let.
The site, at the confluence of the rivers
Oka and Volga, is unrivaled in the
whole empire for water communication.
Between the immense market halls and
the moat which surrounds them is the
celebrated subterranean gallery, washed
by the water from Lake Mestcherski,
which, rushing with great impetus into
the gallery, cleanses it thoroughly,
carrying away all rubbish into the river
Oka, whose level ia six yards lower thin
that of the lake. The wholesale trade
in iron, in different forms, amounted at
the fair in 1874 to 5,557,800 poods of 36
pounds each, sold for 13,953,000 roubles,
equal at 33d., to 2,193,813. Tea of the
value of upward of 10,000,000 roubles
was also sold. Along the banks of the
lake enormous pyramids of chests of tea
are heaped upon the ground covered
only with matting made from the inner
bark of the birch tree. These chests of
tea, called "tslkiki," are so packed as to
be impervious to rain or damp. Out
side the ordinary wooden chest is a
covering of wicker-work of cane or
bamboo, round which, at Riakhta, raw
bull hides are tightly stretched, with
the hair inward. These chests arrive
at Nijni from China, having been re
ceived In barter, at Kiakhta or Maimat
chin, on the Chinese border of Russia,
for Russian manufactures of cotton or
wool; the transport thence being on
the backs of camels to Orenboug, and
then in rude carts to the rivers Kamma
and Volga. It is these "taiblki" which
contain that peculiar Kiakte, Baikoff
tea, whose taste and aroma are un
equalled by any other kind of tea im
ported into Europe from China. But
Kiakhta tea now encounters a formida
ble rival in the tea imported through
the Suez Canal and Odessa, as well as
from England, and which bears the
name of Canton tea. Large sales are
made of corn and of leather at the fair,
of fruits from Persia, of madder and
wine from the Caucasus, and of cotton
and skins from Bokharia.
Ecjrptlaa Beaearthes.
Dr. Birch, of the British Museum,
thinks the origin of the Egyptian race
is enveloped in mystery. The Egyptians
at the earliest periods represented them
sclve as "men," and mythically were
supposed to have been created by the
gods, or to proceed from the eye or
mouth of the demiurgos. As early as
the third dynasty, their type has been
recently, recognized as European, dis
tinct from the Nigritic and Semitic
races. Philologically considered, the
ancient Egyptian language belongs to
the Semetic and not the Aryan family
of speech, and favors the hypothesis of
an early Semetic wave of emigration
which flowed into Egypt; but the only
solution that remains is the considera
tion that the Egyptian was a type pro
duced by a fusion of different races alter
a period of miscegenation and climac
teric influence, and varying afterwards
with the olitical relations.
Nor is there any indication of an abori
ginal race subjected to a more powerful
one, or reduced to servitude, and the
existence ol a stone period, as it has
been called, in the valley of the Nile,
during which an uncultivated race rose
gradually to a higher developement.
Geological considerations, too, do not
aid to any great extent in determining
the highest chronological limit of in
habited Egypt. The Egyptian belongs.
after all, to the recent race of men, and
has nothing to distinguish his first ap
pearance ou the earth's crust from races
actuaMy existing. There is no trace of
evolution or development. Even the
earliest monuments exhibit some of the
finest arts, and there is no evidence of
the primeval savage race inhabiting the
banks of the N ile and plains of the Del
ta gradually ascending in the scale of
civilization.
In the investigation made in this his
tory nothing has been too insigniflcent
for notice. It is not a history compiled
from payri or literary documents alone.
A portion of it is inscribed on the walls
of the courts of Egyptian temples, or
on the sides of the propyla a, the gates
or the doors of which were the triumph
al arches of Egypt. Here the hiero
glyphic details of war are blended with
sculptures representing the incidents of
Egyptian campaigns, the list of van-
quishel countries aud conquered cities.
The eldest of all treatises copied on the
walls of the court of Caranak, remains
long after the original engraved on a
plate of silver has forever disappeared
in the crucible of time.
Yet even these are secondary in im
portance to that researen wnicn nas
opened every tomb and joined the bro
ken clue of history and contempo
raneous monuments inaccessible to the
Esrvntian and unintelligible to the
Greek historians of the country. Criti
cism in this respect has supplanted tra.
dition. Not only rocks and metals,
however but the most fragile of all ma
terials, papyrus, has hauded down de
tails of Egyptian history. About 2000
rolls and fragments have been discov
ered and preserved. Unfortunately,
the Turin papyrus, the canon of histo
ry or list of all the kings with their suc
cessions, years, months, aud days of
reign, and in some instances the dura
tion of their life, has only escaped the
ravages of time in tatters, and it is im-
poisible to patch them together.
It is supposed to be a system compiled
from all extant and contemporaneous
sources, representing the idea of the
date of the world as known to the
Egyptians. Much difficulty exists in re
conciling these data with Cynchronistic
history. Still it is wonderful how
manv of the important outlines
of Egyptian history have been discov
ered. A great deal still remains to be
done to fill up defective portions, for
the subject is by no means exhausted.
Fresh and younger students would find
a new and attractive inquiry of a novel
kind reward the efforts of research.
The atmpllf tly ef Creatae .
Manv rears ago the licentiates of
Princeton Seminary were in the habit
of preaching at a station some distance
from that place. Among their habitual
bearers was a sincere and humble, but
uneducated Christian slave, called Un
cle Sam, who on his return home would
try to tell his mistress what he could re
member of the sermon, but complained
that the students were too deep and
learned for him. One day, however,
he came home in great good humor.
saying that a poor unlarnl old man, just
like himself, had preached that day
who he supposed was hardly fit to
preach to the white people; but he was
glad he came, for his sake, for he could
remember everything he had $id. On in
quiry it was found that Uncle Sam's
"unlarnt" old preacher was Rev. Dr.
Archibald Alexander, who, when he
heard the criticism, said it was the high
est compliment ever paid to his preach,
ing.
The Mewspapsr la Ceart.
Before the time of newspapers people
could not hear promptly of the crimes
committed at a distance; now the pub
lic must have a general jail delivery of
three or four continents at the break
fast table. The morning journal makes
the criminal and the charlatan welcome
in a million households with the day.
It enables a single offender to pour
forth his story of conceit, imposture, or
crime, for years together ; it raises up a
party in his behalf, and occupies a
whole nation in discussing his pretence
to an estate, or his domestic troubles, or
bis ignorance of French. It has not,
perhaps, been sufficiently remarked
that the modern press does not merely
discover ill things; it creates them also
by giving popular voice to every one
who is interested in darkening counsel.
The journals are the making of the liar.
They, or rather the public taste which
they consult, in spite of their despotic
prerogatives, enable the pretender or
criminal to raise up such a following
as princes could not command in old
times. The press gives expression to
all the lower forces of society, hitherto
unorganized; if it aids intelligence, it
aids ignorance just as well. Look at
the Tichborne case, for instance ; could
the claimant have disturbed English so
ciety for years if he had had to deal
with judge and jury only? It was the
newspapers which gave him vogue,
which raised up a great party of the ig
uoraut in his behalf, whicn supplied
him with money, counsel, and support,
for a five-years' raid upon society. AH
this is a modern abuse. Imagine a
claimant in Federigo's time distracting
Italy for years with a civil suit, and
putting the defendant to greater ex
pense in holding the property against
a single rogue than the Duke ever spent
upon the fortification of his cities! -
It is curious to observe, in great mod
ern trials, the darkeningof counsel. The
accused person sit in court for months,
locking up the discussion against a
thousand journals the mystery that two
words could explain, battling the law,
the judges, the counsel, the jury, the
witnesses, the cross-examinations. How
can he do it? The press enables him to
divide the community into two contend
ing factions, modern Guelphs and
Ghibellines; divided, however, about
no question of civil and temporal power,
but about the personal virtues of two
rival sentimentalists. It is the press
that gives him the opportunity to con
vert his private affairs into public af
fairs. Imagine the couciousness of such
a man, holding his secret safe from the
curiosity of a nation ! The Galas;.
II arses Listealaa; te Basle.
The other day, a German band struck
up a lively air, and at the same instant
two horses, in a field adjoining the
Deaf and Dumb Institution grounds,
rushed, scampering and galloping in
hot haste down close to the hawthorne
hedge which separated their field from
the roadside where the musicians were
performing. I observed them from my
back window, to which I had been
called on purpose by uiy boys. The
horses, with necks craned out and ears
erect, stood motionless, as If sjielled,
and eagerly listened during the erfor-
niauce of the first piece, as if they did
not wish to lose a single note. When
it cauie to an end they began to graze,
but iu a listless manner, and, every
few seconds, kept turning and looking
round in the direction of the ban d, evi
dently expecting the music to begiu
agaiu. Then as soon as the first note
sounded the grazing stopped, and "all
ear," they listened again. This same
process was repeated with every piece
the band played, and no auditors could
have been more attentive than these
two horses. When tiie Germans lifted
their music-stands and finally moved
off, the horses for some time continued
to gaze in the direction they went, fol
lowing them with marked interest.
They then began slowly and reluctantly
again to climb the hill, but all the
while continued to look back, as if on
the watch for the strains to come again.
It was singularly interesting thus to
note the evident and unmistakable en
joyment of "the concord of sweet sounds
displayed by these Intelligent animals,
and we wondered if there was any
thing in their past lives which could,
by the association of equine ideas, ac
count for this their peculiar sensibility
to music ; or if it only afforded another
illustration of that innate love of lost
harmony, which, although dimmed
and shattered, still underlies and per
vades the whole universe Amlretn
Jatne SpHtnitOH, in Animnl World.
Trae Eeeaesay at Life.
The true economy of human life looks
at ends rather than incidents, and ad
justs expenditures to a moral scale of
values. De Quincey pictures a woman
sailing over the water, awakening out
2, sleep to find her necklace untied and
one end hanging over the stream, while
pearl after pearl drops from the string
beyond her reach ; while she clutches
at one just falling, another drops beyond
recovery. Our days drop one after an
other by our carelessness, like pearls
from a string, as we sail the sea of life.
Prudence requires a wise husbanding
of time to see that none of these golden
coin are spent for nothing. The waste
of time is a more serious loss than the
extravagances against which there is
such loud acclaim.
There are thousands who do nothing
but lounge and carouse from morning
till midnight; drones in the human
hive, who consume and waste the honey
honest workers wear themselves out in
making, and Insult the day by their
dissipation and debauch. There are ten
thousand idle, frivolous creatures who
do nothing but consume and waste and
wear what honest hands accumulate,
and entice others to live as useless and
worthless lives as themselves. Were eve
ry man and woman honest toilers, all
would have an abundance of everything
and half of every day for recreation and
culture. The expenditure of a few
dollars of taste is a small matter in com
parison with the wasting of months and
years by thousands who have every ad
vantage society can offer, and exact
every privilege it affords as a right.
A small California town sent 26,000
pounds of honey to market in the month
of June.
5IWS IS BBU7.
General Israel Putnam used to oc
cupy the house at Peekskill where Mr.
Beecher now lives.
The only female Journalist running
a paper in Iowa, is Mrs. Swalm of the
Fort Dodge Mttsengtr.
Galveston, Texas, is now shipping
wheat direct to Liverpool at twenty
eight cents per bushel.
Woman's Rights. Ladies now have
to take off their hats in the California
theatres, just like men.
Bethlehem, N. II., in the White
mountains, is the highest village east
of the Rocky mountains.
A nickel mine has been found in
Seymour, Conn., and the metal is said
to be in paying quantities.
Mrs. Tyner, the wife of the new
Postmaster General, was before her
marriage about three years ago a Treas
ury clerk.
A Salem (Mass.) girl, who is to be
single but a week or two more, has
twenty-four dresses, all made up, at a
cost of $5,000.
The Chinese navy consists of forty
five ships of war, divided into three
squadrons, and the army is composed
of 1,200,000 men.
A burglar just discharged from the
Massachusetts Penitentiary has passed
twenty-five of the forty-six years of
his life in prison.
The two hundred women painters
studying at Cooper Institute have
earned about $5,000 iu the past year by
painting pictures.
A letter from the Northwest says
that 120,0)10 head of buffaloes were
slaughtered on the Northwest plains
during the past year.
A company of 1,200,000 tradespeo
ple daily wainiij- to their hops and
dish out commodities by the pound,
gallon and yard in the United States.
A company has been organized in
St. Louis to build a new hotel that will
cost $2,000,000, coutaing 2,000 rooms
nd accommodate J.jOO guests.
A Detroit firm of meat and fruit
hiers are the lessess of 15 refrige
rator cars, which are run on last trams
between lviroit, Chicago and New
York.
Professor Winchell, lately of Cor
nell university, has been offered a pro
fessorship in the Vauderbilt university
Nashville, Teun., at a salary of $3,0110
year.
Kice culture in Ixmisiana employs
30,000 people, on 1,200 plantations; pro-
uces a crop wortfi J.l.ow.uuu, and ue-
veloiis business to the extent of 10,-
000,000.
. lady in Georgia who is the pos
sessor of a bonnet 150 years old hopes
one of these days either to catch up
with the fashion or have the la.-uion
catch up w ith her.
The Bank of England is run in an
old shabby and dingy dungeon of a
uilding, but it has never "burst up."
Iti
akes one of our latter-day "palatial
institutions to do that.
The Grjnd Order of Accepted
Bakers are on a strike in New Vork for
ight and pure air. lhey work eigh
teen hours a day, make the bread under
ground, and bake themselves.
The tonnage of vessels that passed
through the Suez canal within the last
twelve mouths amounted to 2,940,708
tons, and the number of .-hips has been
nearly quadrupled iu six years.
An enilowniuent has just been
unded by an aged and wealthy citi
zen of Baltimore, of a large pecuniary
dt: to furnish fresh-air treatment
ncli slimmer for the children of the
Hior.
Beer, it is alleged bv some imbibers
will not intoxicate, but Berlin statistics
show that in that city, wliere beer Is
occasionally used as a beverage, 16,000
arrests were made for drunkeuness last
year.
'alifornia is building half a dozen
new railroads. The most iiiixrtant one
is the Southern Pacific, which will
probably be in running order between
San Francisco and Los Angeles iu Sep
tember.
The largest sponge ever found in
the Floridas is now on exhibition iu
New York. The sponge when wet is
eight feet in circumference aud when
dry twelve feet, and weighs nineteen
pounds.
Eph. Morris, champion single scul
ler of the United Suites, proposes to
make a match with Henry Coulter ac
cording to the challenge lately issoe-I
by the latter. Morris defeated Cot Iter
twice last year.
The Bank of England clips every
iirht sovereign that it receives. The
weighing is done very quickly, 3000 au
hour being weighed by one machine.
In 1875 the bank weighed 22.100.000
worth of coin, aud rejected 840,000.
The "big tret;." as it was called.
which grew in Calaveras County Cali
fornia, contained half a million feet of
inch lumber, and was recently lolled
by five men working twenty-two and
a half days, making one hundred and
twelve ami one-half days' labor.
Burns, a butcher of Terre Haute
Ind.. has just completed a bird house
about two feet square that is very novel,
ingenious and handsome, it Is In
walnut, with marble trimming, in
Swiss cottage style and shape, and con
tains 3,000 pieces of wood and weighs
but six pounds.
The venerable Dr. Charles Avery,
now in his .Mst year, who has for thirty
five years Professor of Chemistry in
Hamilton College, says that in going
up and down College Hill during that
... . . i - r . i
period, lie nas maue me circuit oi me
earth once, and reached the quarter-
pole on the second turn.
During the year ending June 30,
1876, there arrived in the Cuited Mates
22,572 Chinese immigrants, of whom
only two hundred and fifty-nine were
females. I wo previous years ine total
immigration was lb, IS,, of whom
eighty-two were females. This shows
an increase in lib of !,!.
Jeremiah Whalev, aged ninety-two
years who lives at Narragansett Pier,
R. I., had never seen a train of roilroad
cars until a few days ago, when he saw
the locomotive used in laving tne tract
on the Aarraganseu 1'ier ruiuroau.
What makes this case more remarkab.e
is that he lives within a few miles of
the Stonington Railroad.
A negro began business as a phy
sician at Oxford, N. C, several years
ago, but was not very successful, ex
cept pecuniarily. The mortality among
bis patients seemed greater man me
circumstances justified, and recently
his neighbors, convinced that he knew
nothing about doctoring, took him into
the woods and whipped him soundly.
Miss Amy Roselle, one of the pret
tiest and piost charming actresses in
London, is about to retire from the
stage. On the 18th of September she
will wed a member of the House of
Lords, equally celebrated for his talent
money, and his charity. It isn't every
day an actress marries a Duke, and,
what is better, the Duke has got the
best of the bargain, for he will have
the prettiest wife in England.
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