1 0m '1 c-t 4yw B. F. SCHWEIER, . THB 00HSTITCTI05 IHI rJflON AND TBI ENFORCEMENT OF THE LAW! Editor and Proprietor TOL. XXXI. nMIEFLINTOWN, JUNIATA COUNTY, FENNA. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 28, 1877. NO. 13. FIFTY TEARS APART. The; ait in the winter gleaming. And the fire borne bright between ; One bee paeeed seventy summers. The other jtut seventeen. They ait in a happy silence, - . ' Aa the shadows deepen fast ; ' ' ' " One Urea in a coming future. And one in a long, long past. Each dreama of a rash of moeio. And a qoea:ion whispered low ; One will bear it this evening. One beard it long ago. Each dreama of a loving husband. Whose brave heart la bera alone ; For one the joy U coming. , For one the joy baa flown. Each dreama of a life of gladness. Spent under the sonny akiea ; And both the hope and the memory. Shine in the happy eyes. Who knowa which dream is the brightest ? And who knowa which is the beat t The sorrow and joy are mingled. But the only ei.d is rest. Pistols for Two. While the old frigate Brandywlne lay at Gibraltar, the American Consul Mr. Sprague, came on board with man who wished to join the ship, and, after some consultation, said man was received bv the captain at a sort of steward, he having agreed to work for his passage and board, and some slight coin-idcration besides, ilia name was Joe Latlit, and he waa a regular specl meu of the strolling Yankee; but be dressed well, and wag remarkably good-looking, though there was in Lis face a peculiar look which indicated that be preferred fun to sound sense, allowing, however, that the fun bad some sense to it.. . The moment I placed my eyes upon the man I knew I had seen him before, and when I bad aa opportunity to sieak with him, I found that he bad been a performer of legerdemain and ventriloquism iu the United States, and there I had seen him. lie bad traveled through England, France and Spain, with his implements of decep tion, aud had just brought up at Gi braltar when oi.r ship came in. lie Drought bis whole kit on board in a large chest, which he got permission to stow in the bread-room, where it would be kept erfectly dry. lie bad quite a "pile" of money, which he placed in the purser's hands for safe keeping, but he would tell none of us how much But he was liberal and open-hearted, and it was not long before the crew blessed the hour that brought him on board, for be was the very soul of wit and humor. At length our ship went to Port Mi hon, and here our Yankee tars were at home. One pleasant morning a party of us went on shore, and Joe Lattit was among our numbers. Joe was dressed in a perfect shore-going rig, and ap peared a gentleman of conseqeuce. Near the middle f the forenoon a few of us entered a cafe, and the only occu pant, besides the keeper, was a Spanish officer, evidently an infantry captain, from his dress. We called for wine, and had It served upon a table next to the one at which the officer sat, Joe seating himself so that- his back came against the back of the officer; but he did not notice when he sat down bow close he would be. Our laugh and jest ran high, and just as Joe said something more than usually funny, be threw himself back, and thereby hit the Spaniard with such force as to cause him to spill a glass of wine upon his bosom- The fellow leaped to his feet, and before Joe could beg pardon for the unintentional mis hap, he commenced a torrent of oath and invective, partly in Spanish and partly in broken English. His language was so abusive that Joe's temper was np In a moment, and instead of asking" par don, as be had Intended, be surveyed the raving man from head to foot, and then said : "Go on, 6ir. four language Is beau, tliul, very beautiful for a gentleman." 'Ah! you call me no genteelnian, eh ?' uttered the officer, in a towering passion. "If I wera going to call you any thicg, I khould call you a jackass!" calmly and contemptously returned Joe. Aha-a-ah!" half-growled the Span lard, rolling his black eyes wildly and furiously. "Now, by Santa Marie, you shall answer for that. I am a genteel man ! But you you one lectle cursed puppy ! Ah-a-ah ! Xow you shall fight !" Joe would have laughed the matter off, but he found that the captain was determined to fight, and at length be resolved to accomodate him. The keep er of the cafe called me on one side, and informed me that the officer was Cuptain Antonio Bizar, one of the most notorious duellists of the place; that he was always quarrelsome when under the influence of liquor, and that his companions always left him alone, rather than have a fuss w ith him. "Xot five minutes before you came In," added the keeper, "four of bis fellow-officers left 1dm, because they saw he was ripe for a fuss. So you had belter get your friend away." I pulled Joe away, and told him all that had just been told me, but he only smiled, and assured me that there was nothing to fear.' I felt sure at once from his very manner that he bad some safe fun in his bead, and I let him go. "M name is Joseph Lattit. sir; a ci tizen of the United States, and General of the Order of Sublime Darkness," said Joe, pompously turning to the Spaniard. "Your name, Sir f" "Antonio Bizar, Captain in Her Most Catholic Majesty's seventh regiment of Infantry. But your office, sir? I don't eomprehend." "O, you wouldn't know if I should tell yon. I am simply general of a body of men who have sold themselves to the gentleman who burns sinners aud heretics down here." And Joe pointed most mysteriously down to wards the floor as he Bpoke. The Spaniard smiled very bitterly and sarcastically, .nd. thereupon Joe took up two large knives which lay upon the bar, and tossed them, one af- ter the other, down his throat, making several wry faces as they took their passage downward. The fellew had evidently never seen anything of the kind done before, for be was astounded. "Xow, sir," said Joe, making one or two more grimaces, as though he still felt the knives somewhere in the re gion of the diaphragm ; "you will wait here until I go and bring my pistols, and you shall have satisfaction. Will you wait?" "I can procure pistols," said the of ficr, forgetting his astonishment, and coming back to his anger. "I shall fight with my own I If you are a gentleman, you w ill wait here." Joe turned to us, and bade us wait for him. "Here! here! O, Cn!" cried the keeper, "where be mine knifes? "I'll pay you for 'em when I come back," said Joe, and then he beckoned for me to come out. I did so, and he took the knives one from his bosom and the other from his 6leeve and told me to keep them until he returned. It seems that Joe found a boat ready to take him off to the ship at once, for he was not gone over three-quarters of an hour, and when he came back he had two superbly-mounted pistols with him. He loaded them with powder in the presence of the Spaniard, and then handing him a ball, he asked him if he would mark it so he would know it again. The fellow hesitated at first, but at length he took it with a mad gesture, and bit it between his teeth. "I shall know that," be said, "unless it is battered against your bones." "Xow select your pistol," said Joe Tne man took them both, and exam ined them, but be was satisfied that they were both alike, and both good, aud he told Joe be had no choice. So our stew ard put the balls in, and rammed them carefully down. ! lue whole party now adjourned to a wide court, back of the cafe, where twelve paces were marked off, and the combatants took their stations. I trem bled for poor Joe, for I saw not yet how he would make fun of this. "Count!" cried the Spaniard, impa tiently. "One two three ." The captain fired first, and with a most deliberate aim. Joe fired into the air. then the latter walked deliberately up to his antagonist, and taking a bullet from between his teeth, he handed it to hiin. "Tou can use this next time," said Joe. The officer looked first at Joe's teeth, and then at the ball. It was surely the same one he had seen put into the pis tol, and now he had seen his foeman take it from his mouth. He was unmis takably astounded. 'Come," cried Joe, "let's load again." "San Pablo!" exclaimed Bizar, "you use soine what you call him some trick, he? By San Jago, I shall load the pistol myself." 'Do so," said Joe, calmly, and aa he spoke he handed over his powder-flask. The Spaniard poured out an extra quantity of powder, and having poured it in the pistol, he called ailed for the ram-! mer. He then put in the same ball be had used before. Meanwhile Joe had been loading his own pistol. "One moment," said Joe, reaching out his baud. "The caps are in the butt of your pistol. Let me get them". The fellow passed over his pitol, but he kept his eyes upon it. Joe opened a little silver spring at the end of the butt, and, true, there were some per cussion caps there. He took out two, and having capped his own pistol, lie gave it a toss in the air, catching it adroitly as it came down, and then hauded back tbe other to the Spaniard. I bad watched Joe most carefully, but I saw nothing out of the way. And ytl he had chiwgtd jiittolt teitH hi foe. Xow," said he, "I'll put a ball into my pistol, and then we U oe ready." He slipped something in which looked to me like a cartridge, but no one else saw it. Xow," cried the Spaniard, "let's see you hold this in your mouth." Again they took their stations, and again they were ready. "On two three !" And tha Spaniard fired first by aim. Joe fi i ing into the air as before. And again Joe stepped forward and took the self-s:me bullet from his mouth and handed it to bis antagonist. The fellow was completely dumfounded, and so were the rest. "You no fire at me !" gasped the cap tain. I'll fire at you next time!" said Joe, in a tone of thunder. "Thus far I have only shown you that powder, and ball can have no effect on me. Twice have you fired at me with as true a pistol as ever was made, and both times have I caught your ball between my teeth, while I have fired in the air. I meant that yon should live long enough to know that for once in your life you had seen, if not the old fellow himself (pointing meaningly downward), at least one who is in his employ! The old gentleman will like the company of a captain of Spanish infantry, and I'M send you along. Come, load np again !" But the astonished Spaniard did not seemed incline-) to do so. A man who swallowed carving-knives as he would sardines, and who caught pistol-balls between bis teeth, was not exactly the man for him to deal with. : While be was pondering upon what he had seen, Joe took a handful of bullet from bis pocket, and began to toes them rapidly down his throat, and when these were gone, be picked up half-a-dozen good sized stones and sent them after the bullets. - "Holy Santa Marie I" ejaculated the Spaniard, while bis eyes seemed start ing from their sockets. "What a man. By my soul, 'tis the devil." And as he thus spoke, be turned on his heel nd hurried away from the place. After he was gone, Joe beckoued for me to give him the knives. I did so, and then saw him slip them up his coat-: sleeves. When we returned to the cae he approached the keeper. : -' "You want your knives?" he said. But the poor fellow dared not speak. Joe put bis band to bis right ear and pulled one of the knives out; then from his left ear be drew the other one. The keeper crossed himself in terror, and shrank trembling away. But we fin ished our wine, and having jald for it, turned to go. - .. "Here,'! said Joe, "I haven't paid for the use of the yard yet." And as he spoke ha threw down a piece of silver upon the counter. - "Aoi jioi no: shrieked the poor fellow. "O, trietl don't leave your money here, don't I" - Joe picked it up and went away laughing. When we were alone he ex plained to me the secret of bis pistols. Ther were a pair he had used in his legerdemain performances, and such as all wizards use to perform tricks of catching balls, etc. The main barrel of the pistol had no connection whatever with the nipple for the cap; but what appeared to be a socket for the rammer was, iu fact, a second barrel to be sure, smaller than the other, but yet as large as the bore of any rifle-pistol and with this secret barrel the priming tube con nected. So the apparent barrel of the weapon might be filled with powder and ball and no harm could be done. When Joe returned with his pistols, of course he had both these secret bores loaded with blank charges, and then the other load was nothing but effect in ap pearance. At the second loading Joe had charged the secret barrel of his own pistol, while the Spaniard had been fill ing up the main barrel of his. Then, of course, it became necessary to make an exchange, else Bizar never would have got his weapon off". As soon as Joe got the other pistol into his possession, and made the exchange which we spoke of at the time, he had only to press smartly upon a secret spring on the side of the stock, and he had the whole charge which the other had put in, emptied into his hand. So he had the murked ball to dispose of as he chose. Ever after that, while ho remained in Mahon, Joe Lattit was an object of both curiosity and dread on shore, for an account, all colored to suit the ex aggerated conceptions of the cafe-keeper, had been spread over the city, and the pious Catholics there wanted noth ing to do with such a man, only to be sure and keep on his good-uunioreu side. Tbe Jaaaad-Bolldrrs and their Fred. The earth of this coutiuent shows us that before the Indians there has been a people whom we call the Mound builders that is, mouuds were thrown up here by men whose bones we find in them, lying anion rough tools and ntensils, and after the mounds we name the race, who perhaps, were not a dif ferent people from the Indians. Hut for these mounds we would not kuowof the men who built them. They are mentioned in no history, human or diviue. What was there before the Mound-builder t I would speak of what must have been lone before hit time of early, though perhaps not earliest man in North America, We must know this early man by our ex perience of his traces. New observa- "ouul a.ll"u l" i -v- "- ' so that you may judge of the reason ableness of the conclusions. And here any boy will afford a competent illus tration of the evidence. Almost the first thin that our hoys do is to throw stones. It is one of their way of say Xo. There is more than one parallel between savages and our boys to be maintained. Just as the state of mind of the adult savage is paralleled by that of our child; eu, so we must expect that so common a weapon as a stone is to our boys must 1-e extensively used by savants. And this, iu fact, is what we do tind. There was also a time when this stone throwing was the oc cupation of grown men of our own race. Stones were used in the warfare of the Celt and the Roman. We re member that David, a Semites, nsed a pebble from the brook. And we shall tind that men of other races, and before David, resorted to the same weapon for all the purposes which in David's time, a-id with bis race, were partly served by metals. There is, then not only a parallel to be drawn between our boys and savages iu certain ways, but there exists one between these boys of the present and our men of the past. Just as, when cutting into the crust of the earth, we tind the remains of animals aud plants which once inhabited its former surfaces, the simpler forms be low, the more complex above, so we find the remains of man's tools and im plements in the clays and gravels of the last geological peliod of the globe, and with a like sequence in their character. The oldest and lowest forms of tools are simplest; the newer and nearer to the present surface, the more varied and complex. We have seen the sim plest weapon man could ose would be a stone. Even now a wagouer with broken cart looks around naturally for a stone to pound with, and so mend bis ways. He picks np a stone on occasion as his ancestors did on most occasions. For the moment he is in the Stone age. And be osea what the earliest man must have nndonbtedly used, a stone just as it is. There must have been a time when men picked up snc'i stones as came in their way at the moment with which to throw at animals, to break their food, to injure their fellow meu. Such stones, unaltered by use, can no longer Ihj identified. Popular Seiene Monthly.. Tw Odd Itreaaaa. An exchange tells a story of a gentle man who, on going to bed, lost a collar button, which, on coming detached rolled to a distant corner of the room. He searched for it about ten minutes, and then gave it up for lost. In the night he dreamed that he found it under the washstand, and on walking up found it in that spot. This jsn't half so odd s the case of a man who lost a valuable horse, and before going to bed ate a Welsh rarebit. He dreamed his horse was in a village church fifteen miles away, and was quietly consuming the hair in tbe pew-cushions, having left the buggy on the pulpit steps. When he awoke the next morning be found that In reality a neighbor's . boy. had found the horse and vehicle and had put it up in a livery stable nntil be could claim a reward. BESSIE AND LUKE. Tbe stage driver was a rough looking giant, his big paws hidden away In fox- skin gloves, and his body well covered by a buffalo skin overcoat. He flung the mail into the sleigh, untied the po nies, and his shout of "All aboard" brought out a solitary traveler for the cold ride of eighteen miles over the snow oovered bills of Wisconsin. "Weather Is breakin' a little just now, but it. has been awful on this route, remarked the driver, as the ponies got away. "I kin git long fust rate with five or degrees below, but when it comes to ten in the vallevsthere's a good fif teen on the hills, an' the wind e'ena most cuts the ponies in two." Wisconsin winter weather never makes a failure, and when a snowstorm begins there is no let up until the heavens have sent the last flake. The snow was two feet deep either side of the single track In the center of the highway, and where the wind had a good sweep there were drifts covering the fences, with several feet to spare Xo other teams came after none were encountered. The fierce cold was too much for farmers and ordinary trave lers. The United States mail had the track to itself. Wrapped in furs, blan kets and robes, and with hot bricks. steaming away on the straw, stage dri ver and traveler rode in silence for miles. By-aud-bye, as the ponies slack' ened their pace a little to climb a long hill, the driver pointed to the right and asked : "D'ye see that log house up thar? Bar it in mind an' I'll tell ye a story, It was a gloomy pile of logs, curtains down over the windows and snow drift ed clear to the sills, and most of the land around it was sterile hill or tang led thicket. Over the hill and half a mile beyond, and the driver pointed again aud said: An' now take a peep at that place an I'll begin the story." It was a small frame house this time, partly surrounded by a wind-break of poplar trees. The bouse was old and weather beateu. The windows were covered with frost, the path to the gate was hidden by drifts, and the only liv ing thing to be seen was a poor old horse standing on the lee side of a hedge. His ribs could be traced clear from the road, and he greeted the ponies with a neigh, telling of hunger and lonesome ness. "Three weeks ago," begun the driver, as he cleared his throat, "both o' them places were full of cheer. The one back there held an old man, his wife, an' handsome daughter, an' this one w as occupied by a bachelor named Luke Warner. I don't know how be came to live here alone, but here he was, an' he not only worked hard au' took good care o' things, but be had a bite to eat for all beggars an' a good word for trav elers. Them folks back In the log house were kinder new to this section. I've hearn tell he was a broken down mer chant, who had to give up everything au leave Xew Yerk. I saw him dozens o' times, and he was high headed, even if he was poor. He walked along like a lord, and he wouldn't notice such as me." The driver pulled the roles away from his mouth a little more, and went on: "Cracky tograshus! but didn't they have a a handsome gal? She was as trim as an angel, liar, (Home as a June day, and it was natcral that Luke should fall in love w Ith her. He was at least thirty-five, and neither good lookin nor edecated, but you can't tell when a gal is goiu' to love or hate. I 'spect it riled the old folks to think she'd take up with a farmer, an' I suppose they forbid liiin comin' there, leastwise that was the talk along the road last fall. Luke pegged away same as ever, an' the gal didn't look any the less handsome as I saw her at tbe gate. As winter set in, I didn't see much of a ly of them, and by-and-bye the gossip began to die out." "How old was the girl?" asked the traveler. " 'Bout eighteen or uinetcen, an' she had hair like gold. It just makes my heartache to remember her. Well, it seemed that her an' Luke were bound to marry. The old folks wouldn't give in, an Luke fixed it to be married down here a bit at the big red farmhouse. The preacher was to be there, a crowd was comin' to dance, au' the gal was to slip away from home au' come down with Luke, kinder haiid-in-baud, as the news papers say. The gal got away in the eveuin', walked over to Luke's, an' he had his horse and sleigh ready. It was the fust snow, but not very good run ning. They got started all right, hap py as two doves, but they had only turned out o' the yard when it began to snow. I was out in it, too ; an' great snakes ! how it did come down ! It just dropped down in chunks au' patches, an' in half an hour the road was out o sight under six inches of snow, an' the wind was flingin' it ten feet high wherever it could strike." The driver looked back over the lone ly road, drew a long breath, and went on : "The Lord only knows bow it came about, but Luke's horse fell into the ditch aud broke its legs, an' then the lovers sot out on foot. They went right agin the drefful storm, determined to reach the red farmhouse. Right ahead here, just half way between the bouses, is whar we found 'em. The storm raged for three days, an' in some places the drifts were ten feet high. When it cleared away the gal was missed, Luke was missed, an a gang of us sot out to search the road. We found the horse, dead an' stiff an' then we knew it was all up with the children. We had an awful time diggln' through the drifts an' trackin' the pair, an' just under this hill here Is whar we dug 'em out. How d'ye g'pose we found 'em ?" I He waited half a minute for the an swer that didn't come, and then said : . "May tbe Lord bless Luke Warner ! When tbe snow got deep he had taken that gal op his back. When be found she was freexin' to death he bad taken off his coats aud put them around her, and bis vest was buttoned around her head, to take tbe place of her lost bat. He stripped right to his shirt sleeves, sir, to save that gal, an' no man could have done more. When the snow got too deep he stopped, an' crouchin' agin the fence, with the poor gal's face close to his, an' their hands clasped, death came down through this lonesome val ley an took 'em. It was an awful sight, sir, an' the gal's father took on so that men had to bold him. Tbe neighbors had to lay out the corpses an' bury 'em, an' it was right to put 'em both In one grave. The mother went dead over it before the grave was covered, an' the father Is gone no one knows whar. It's awful to think of, sir,-an' when I git to rememberin' all about it, such a lump comes np in my throat that I can't talk, The traveler looked up Into tbe rough giant's face, and two tears, frozen to ice by the bitter wind, rested on bis cheeks. "An' I just believe," whispered the man, alter a long pause, and pointing heavenward with bis whip, "that Bes sie an' Luke are the brightest angels of tbe bull crowd yonder." Oriental Carp fa a ad tire Arthl- A few years ago, the carpets were al most all highly reprehensible. To say that they were barbarous would be to pay them a compliment, for no barbar ous people ever mao. such crudities of line and color as Ue old "Brussels" and "ingrain" earpets shown us; though the ''ingrain" designs were often better than those of the more ex pensive kinds. This was because fewer tricks were played with tbe warp and woof in the cheap carpet, and the de signs were more evidently structural. Tbe objection to all the carpets of the former time, cheap and dear alike, w as, that the patterns were too defined; whether "set" or "flowing" they could not be made to blend with what was placed upon them, but pushed them selves so impertinently to the fore, that tbe carpet became the chief thing in the room, instead of being, as it should be, only a background for the rest. Of late years, there has been a great iiu -provement in tbe designs of all carpets, from the most expensive Wilson to the cheapest ingrain. In the richer sorts, dark, soft tones w ith patterns if pat terns they can be called of spots and stains, that now appear, now bide, but are never in the way, are to be bought in many of the shops. Some of the best English carpets are as thick and soft as the best of Persian make, and the de signs, w hen they are not too daring, or when the makers are content with copy ing the quieter Eastern patterns, are a great improvement on the older manu factures. But one may as well spend bis money for an Eastern carpet out right, as buy one of these English car pets. There would be the certainty of getting a design that had no taint of South Kensington In it, and that would be sure not to be the same through any square foot of its space. For one thing Eastern art is valuable to us ; it rebukes at every turn our scientific love of pre cision and symmetry, shows us the charm of irregularity, and teaches us how to make two sides of a thing alike, while keeping them quite different. Whether we shall ever get this Into our blood, I don't know. It is an essential principle of all the best decorative art; and necessarily so, because all such de sign is as far removed as possible from mechanical assistance, and has no other rule or measure than the eye act ing through the hand. Xo two Ionic capitals of Greek workmanship even in the same temple are alike in anything, except general size and character. Xo more are any two Doric caps alike, nor any two mouldings of any style, nor any two successive feet of any Greek ornament. The notion instilled into our minds that the Greek architecture Is all monotony and repetition Is of England or German origin. People We Like. The trouble is, we are apt to like those people whom our judgment tells us we should not even tolerate. For instance, there's a certain style of young ladies that I like, but of which I heartily dis approve. They are pretty, fashionable, elegant and accomplished. But I know how full of ill-humor and vanity they may be, teasing and tormenting each other without sincerity or reverence. I know that dress, amusement and flirta tion form their whole notions of the scope and object of human life. I know how worthless such an existence mu-t really be. How is it, then, that I like such girls nay, more, that I once lost my heart to one of the species? There was nothing in the world that I would not dare or attempt for her sake. I would, at ber bidding, pluck her glove out of a den of wild beasts, and, if she liked, she might slap my fare with it afterward, instead of my slapping hers, as Schiller's hero did. Of course she jilted me. I fancy she took the high pecuniary ground and thought there was a belter speculation in a man next door, who was in the process of drink ing himself to death. I always think that there is a peculiar Xemesis for jilts. I have seen a great many of them in my time, and they have never turned out well. At all events my jilt did not. Twenty years after my love-dream I met the object of my passion, and found, to my surprise, that she was still un married. We chatted and laughed con siderably; still I think one mutually took stock of the other. I am a grizzly bear myself, and I allow that the Objoct retained her symmetry of form and taste In dress. But the silly ten min utes' talk showed a vulgarity of life and thought. Instead of the yielding soft ness of youth, there was a fierceness of eye, an acridity of speech, characteris tic of the most odious type of old maid. The poor jilt, after the manner of ber kind, bad run to seed. I was n t sur prised to bear that her keen, acid tongue made her the terror of her dis trict. Alas, poor jilt ! The Object, an Imaginary being, fell forever from ber pedestal. That ague of the mind, the hot and cold fits that had been on and off for years, was totally cured; tor judgment bad never approved of her; but now even liking became extinct. Over three thousand persons outside of the almshouse are receiving aid from the Board of Poor Directors of Erie county, Pa., being over a thousand more than at this time last year. t. Isaac's Charea, St. Peterabara;. By all means mount St. Isaac's, eveu If you have to stay In all day after ward, for In no other way can you form an adequate notion either of tbe prodigious audacity which planned a vast city on a wet bog, and at the mercy of both river and sea, or the extent, and symmetry and picturesqueness of a city which the Moscow people, sneer at it as they may, find only too successful a rival as the residence of the Court and as the seat of Government. This St. Isaac's Church, built on piles forced deep down into a yielding morass, and continually requiring repairs, from an awkward habit of slipping, has already cost three million sterling, and to an impartial mind Is hardly worth the money. It is a four-square building. approached on each side by a grand flight of steps, and supported by a mag nificent peristyle of columns sixty feet h'ijh. granite monolyths from Finland. There is a central cupola, richly gilt, and supported by thirty granite pillar, the whole surmounted by a golden cross three hundred and sixty feet from the ground. The capitals of the col umns are iu bronze, and there is much metal oruamentation on the exterior or In the-shapeof bas-relief-, statues, and busts, a mingling of materials, which, to me seemed infelicitous. Imposing, however, as tbe exterior undoubtedly is, the interior Is yet more striking to an eye accustomed to the austere sim plicity of Protestant churches. The walls are of polished marble oovered with pictures, many of which are in ex quisite mosaic. The roof is painted in fresco. The iconostas, or screens, which In Greek churches separate the body of the church from the sanctuary, are adorned with columns of malachite and labis lazuli, and profuse gilding every where gives a rich and splendid effect. Roughly describe, St. Isaac's Is a sort of dwarfed St. Paul's without nave or choir, and the Restoration Committee might do worse than study the decora tion of St. Isaac's as a possible uiodel for their own cathedral. Read Laagaaga. The long fingers, with large knuckles and narrow pinched waists in between, are painful indications in tbe matter of health. They threaten consumption; betoken scrofula; are never associated with a robust physique, whatever the appearances of things may be. When the tips are very pointed they are like the hands of a skeleton, and suggest he most distressing thoughts. We have seen hands of this kind, with the skin just wrapped loosely over tbe bones, that were fearful to look at and terrible totonch. Opposite to these are tbe fingers swollen by chilblains into tbe semblance of small sausages, where there are no knuckles at all, and the whole jointless member is like a stuffed pincushion, doughy, without resistance or elasticity. And some fingers, long, lean, shapeless, have no protuberant joints and no slim waists between, but are like pipe-shanks, of the same thick ness all through. And a roan with these lingers is invariably fond of waving his bands about, when yon are irresis tibly reminded of spiders' legs, and like the comparison. If finger-tips have a language of their own so have the nails; and the manner of keeping them is as eloquent as all the rest. Some keep them long and pointed like reminiscences of claws; others bite theirs close to the quick; some pare and trim and scrape and polish up to the highest point of artifi cial beauty; and others, carrying the doctrine of nature to the outside limit. let them grow wild, with jagged edges, broken ttacts, and agnails or "back friend' as the agonizing consequences. Sometimes you see the most beautiful nails, pink, transparent, filbert-shaped, with the delicate filmy little "Half- moon" indicated at the base all the conditions of beanty carried to perfec tions hut all rendered of no avail by dirt and slovenliness; while others. thick, white ribbed, square, with no half-moou, spotted like so many circus horses with "gifts" and "friends and the like that is, without beauties and with positive blemishes are yet pleas ant to look at for tiie care bestowed on them, their dainty perfection of clean liness being a charm in itself. Nothing, indeed, is more disgusting than dirty and neglected nails, as nothing gives one such a 6ense of freshness and care as the same members well kept. But one of the ugliest things in nails is when they are bitten; which, to judge by what one sees, is a habit havirg ir resistible fascinations for those given over to it. It is au action, by the way, that has more than one significance. It may mean consideration, doubt, hesi tancy; or it may mean anger or aunoy ance; or, as a habit, it may point to the not remote possibility of madness. In any case it is ngly to look at, and worse than ngly in is results, bare fin ger tips, with the protecting cover gnawed to the bleeding flesh, belong ing to the list of things mutilated and wilfully spoiled therefore taken out of the category of thing ugly by na ture, hence misfortunes for which the sufferer is in no wise accountable. There is tbe animal loving hand, large, the broad aud firm; beauty lov ing hand, with palm noticeably pink in hue, and warm and slightly moist in feeling. There is the artist's hand, wich is all this and something more; and the poet's hand, which has less practical capacity than the artist's. There is the surgeon's band, which is for the most part the perfection of a band, seeming to nnite every distinct ive quality of all other well-fashioned hands in itself, and to be made ex pressly for the delicate, firm, percep tive woik it has to do; and yet there bave been before now eminent sur geons with immense bands, who bave achieved as much success as those of their brethren whose bands were seem ingly more directly fitted for their task. There are bands with those crooked little fingers which seem as if they had been broken, and bands with "fly" thumb, bending back aa if double- jointed; bands whence the cold, clammy damps can never be dried and these bands are the apologies for gloves as are their congeners, tbe hands which are warm and moist, as if they had been newly plunged in bot water, and neither washed nor wiped after. Less disagreeable to the touch than these bat more disastrous to the possessor are those dry and burning hands which leave on yours the impression of fire. and are indeed signs of the fever, whether of mind or boil y, sure to be consuming those who possess them. And then there are bands neither wet nor burning; neither cold nor hot, but just what healthy living flesh should be warm, elastic, fresh, and which give you real pleasure to touch, as any thing perfect of its kind always does. Extremes meeting the Xorth Ameri can Indian brave and our modern tine ladies stand side by side in their desire to possess small, white, nnworked bands. The brave reserviug all bis sttength for banting buffalo and tak ing scalps, disdains to harden bis hands with other work. If wood is to be hewed, tents pitched, skin dressed, and what not, the squaw, whose bands are only useful, not refined, must run the risk of abrasions and callosities, while her warrior husband lounges idly by, keeping his hands white and soft as a gentleman should. So in our drawing rooms. Our pretty women, those use less marvels of creation, would bold serviceable hand-, as a stain on their gentlehood. They, and the Indian braves, and tbe pickpockets, all bave to keep their fingers tine aud theis hands unused to work, else the sign of their condition would be gone with the first two, and with tbe third the possi bilities of his profession. It is not the only odd connection brought about by false refinement and an affected repu diation of natural uses. Xo hand can be really beautiful which carries with it the look of incapacity. Aa I torn for BaajsTaa; Ilea. Those are reek le8 boys at the depot baggage room. Tbe way they handle things this cold weather is a caution to travelers. Some of them will get hurt some day. But they got a set-back re cently. We wandered around that way about two o'clock to see them make the brass-head trunk nails fly in tbe frosty air. A drummer was standing against the butting post just outside the door. and he winked at us as we went In, Smith was on duty with Drury, and he hauled a Saratoga down from the top of a great pile of trunks and let it fuU with a smash that jammed in one ban die aud loosened the top, and then be uncoiled a rope aud tied ber up and threw a small sample case across the room on to a truck. A great big sample case was pushed off on to a little cheap russet trunk, and the pieces of the little trunk with the contents were shovelled Into the bag and the check was tied on by a string. The next trunk was a dirty-looking, worn-out, black, little trunk tied up with a rope, and it was dreadful to witness Smith's eves dilate as he approached the tender and de fenceless trunk. But just as he touched the handle of that trunk he wilted. His eyes bulged out w ith horror, and the boys took their feet down off tbe stove and gathered around him with anxious faces. He muttered "Thomasen !" and pointed to the floor, whee a handful of ! powder lay, evidently sifted through the bottom of the trunk. Silently, but persistently, the loafers recalled sundry business engngements and departed. The Hawkeye remained only taking the precaution to present the side of his lace to the imminent explosion. Smith and Drury consulted. "Its jnt that kind of a trunk," said Smith. "It looks suspicious, anyhow," said Drury. "Wbat'U we do with it?" "Let's open open it and see what's inside." "How does it go?" "East." "Well, then let's send ber off and get rid of her."i . r . I t and got over-coats and And they went and got piled up on the floor, and both of them engineered that trunk, carefully, solici tously. They wouldn't trust it on the truck with the other trunks for fear that the jar would explode It. But they carried It down the platform be tween them. We followed them out until we were attracted by that drum mer again. He winked asain ; "That's mine; I always do that," says he. "Al ways do what ?" we queried, with a re porter's instinct. "Always wear that trunk and sprinkle powder on the floor. Quite a spec, you see, Saves my sam ples, and then every three weeks I charge the bouse with a new sample case. Clear gain. Clear gain." And he chuckled as he turned into the wait ing room for cup of coffee. Burliinjton Hebrew Poetry. All deep personal feeling, such as a noble and earnest lyric expre?ses, stands In close relation to some univer sal trnth. What the poet experiences in bis own heart must have a validity go ing beyond himself; and in particular the religious conviction that animates the Hebrew hymns has as its necessary source and counterpart a body of gen eral religious truth. The worthless modern subjectivity which separates the religious sentiment from all persua sion of objective realities is remote from the spirit of the Old Testament: but, conversely the general truths of the re ligion of Israel except in so far as they are embodied in ritual, precept or his toric narrative, are always spoken to the heart as well as to the intellect. The Israelite never thought of framing a system of theology. His interest in religious truth was not scientific but personal. The deepest truths of the dis pensation were not reasoned out scien tifically, but felt as personal necessities. The doctrine of immortality, for exam ple, to which Socrates attained by ar gument on tbe constitution of man's nature, is grasped by the Israelite in personal-assurance that death itself can not part him from God his Redeemer. Truths reached by such a process by reasoning of the heart, not of the head necessarily assume a poetic form, which insensibly merges into pure lyric. If the hymn of the Old Testa ment express a personal emotion em bodying and resting on a general truth, the corresponding didactic poetry ex presses general truth in the tone of per sonal enthusiastic conviction. Xearly eight thousand persons worm out a living in silk manufacture In the State of Xew Jersey. There are $20,000,000 in it. 3ii73 El BSTSF One firm at Fort Worth, Tex is, have received aud shipped 30,000 buJTalo niues tins season. England has 140 dally papers, 84 of them morning journals. 19 of which aro published in Londou. The judges of Persia receive no sal aries, and have nothing but bribes to depend upon for a living. The library of Harvard college con tains 200,000 volumes. $10,000 are ex pended annually for books. Tin is found in Great Britain iu large quantities. This is tbe only coun try that possesses tin mines. Governor Colqult, of Georgia, Is a zealous Methodist, and preaches every Sunday to the negroes in his employ. A beginner at the business of being president of a Xew York life insurance company gets 10,000 a year. A tali forn ian proposes to sail to Liverpool, by the way of Cape Horn, In a boat only twenty feet long. A San Francisco bride made her bridal trip upon a vessel on which she was born twenty years ago. A firm In Portland, Me., have shipped twenty-five hundred barrels of apples to Liverpool this season. A purchasing agency and supply station for the Grangers is about to bo established in Pittsburg. A newspaper printed in English I to be established In St. Petersburg, and will be the first of its kind there. The new Church Property Tax law of Maine, exempts from taxation church property worth not more than $5,000. The Italian lottery system brings in not less than $12,000,000 in each suc ceeding year to tiie national exchequer. Mr. Wilson, a farmer near Decatur, 111., lights and warms his house with gas from a well on his premises, and iiag since 1S70. Two of the Khedive's wives cost hlui $T3,000 each, but in this country wives sometimes cost as much as that in a sin gle year. Mr. Gatllng of Indianapolis has brought out a new mitrailleuse, from whicn 300 rounds a minute can be fired. The Knights of Pythias are stronger in Pennsylvania than anywhere else in the L" ii ion. They have 450 lodges and 40,000 members. In the "Sugar-bowl region" In Louisiana land can be bought at $5 to $20 per acre that will produce crops worth from $100 to $200. Alex. Hamilton, Jr., grandson of the great Federalist, who was killed bv Burr, Is a member of the Xew York State Society of the Cincinnati. There is a society clamor in Wash ington to have the Goddess of Liberty on the dome of the Capitol glided and Cm alter the fashion of her coiffure. A Portland lawyer has Jefferson Davis's receipt in his own handwriting for his last quarter's salary, amounting to $0,2.V, as President of the Southern Confederacy. Ohio was represented at the Centen nial by 1,000 exhibits of which 258 re ceived awards, a proportion larger than any other State for the same class of articles. The area of the public domain of Texas is now 57,032,320 acres, ont ol which mu.-t come the 13,393,000 acres of the Texas and I'acttio railroad reserva tion. The Lake Shore Railroad Company pays Its train employees by the trip, in stead of a stated salary per month. The conductors receive $3 per trip, and many average $100 per mouth. Anarte-ian well in Charleston, S. C., is now 1,200 feet deep. It has got down now to lignite which the Stv and Courier says burns with "an eropv romatic odor." Although there are 17,000 hymn known to exist in the English language, only 216 of them have received approba tion enougn to De admitted into ten dil- 1"-tfhrch hymn-books, acvordingto "-i English newspaper, , ,. . icinruiiig i me ncvoimi mane up from the returns filed in the Internal Revenue office at Sail Francisco, 2tM,H7 barrels of beer were sold in that city during the year of 1870. This is equ il to one barrel of beer per inhabitant. The actual revenue of China is be lieved to amount to $125,000,000, raised by taxes on land, grain, transit ol goods, foreign imports, and a few other sub jects, aud by sale of rank and degrees less than $30,000,000 bv the land tax. The manufacture of the wire for the great cable for the East River bridge is oeiug pushed forward as rapidly as pos sible. It will take atvout twenty-two months o draw the 6,'0,000 pounds re quired for the cable. The $1,500 left over from the Wo men's Centennial Union from Xew York w ill be ued to form a scholarship fund in the Cooper Institute in that city, to aid young women iu the study of art. Red Cloud has presented to Profes sor Marsh, as a token of gratitude, au elegant red-stone pipe. The professor also has a pipe presented to hiin by Red Ivg. and another which was given to him h Old-man-afraid-of-his-horses. The moneyed men of Winnecoune, Wis., have subscribed $50,000 toward the establishment of a glass factory in the town named. I .e site for the buildings has been svl cted, and work on their construction will be begun at soou as the frost is out of the ground. According to l f. o4icial statistics, the Indian population has decreased nearly one-half during the last fifteen years. Yet the Indian appropriation. hich in 1861 amounted to $2,865,000 perannum, had grown In 1875 to $3,334. 000. Bartholdl, the sculptor, telegraphs from Paris that he has completed all his plaster casts for the statue of "Liberty Enlightening the World." He will im mediately begin to mould the remaining portions. He expects to have the statue completed and ready for shipment within a year. A singular suicide recently oc curred In Drowana, Australia. A Greek who had become insane by reason of poverty and misfortune poured a quan tity of molten lead down his throat. He died in agonies, and after death a lump of lead nearly half a pound In weight was taken from his stomach. Michigan has gone into the business offish culture with an enthusiasm and discretion that must produce a marked effect in the cost of living to the masses of that State. Last year there were de posited in the waters of that State nearly 10,000,000 spawn, embracing salmon, white fish, bass, pickerel and otner varieties of valuable food fish. The new Hotel de Ville, in Paris, will be finished by the end of this year. The walls are already np to the first story. 1 he reconstruction of the Tull eries baa also been Agreed upon. The idea seems to be to eflace the marks left by the Commune by the time that the great Exhibition of 1S7S U held.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers