SUIUMJHIPTIOS BATES : Txt TfAT, in adTan.-a > No subscription will be diaoootinned until ml! arrearages ue paid. Fcwtmsfcters neglecting to on when niUicribera do no* take oat their paper* will be held liable for the subscription. r>'iUcribers removing from one poetofflce to another should give as the name of the former a* * til as the preeent office. AH communications intended for publication in this paper mast be accompanied bjr the real name of the writer, nut foe publication, but ae a of good faith. Marriage and death notieea moat be accompa nied by a responsible name. AddreM THE BUTI.BRCITIXEI, BCTLER. PA. NOW IS THE TIME TO BUY! GALL AT THE Boot and Shoe Store OF* John Bickel, MAIN STREET, BUTLER, PA. ' Tlie largest and most complete stock of Goods ever brought to Sutler is now being opened bj- me at my store. It comprises Boots, Shoes, Gaiters, Slippers, Misses' & Children's Shoes, in great variety. All the?e Go<>ds were purchased for CASH in the Eastern markets, and therefore I can sell them at the Old Prices, and NO ADVANCE. Lines of Philadelphia, New York and Boston Goods embrace my stcck, and customers can take their choice. I ]VTean TVlia/t I ©ay: *s?.\o advance on old prices All can call and see for themselves. The best of satisfaction will be given for CASH. THE MAKE, STYLE AND FINISH of Goods in my store cannot be excelled by any other house in the county, for proof of which a personal inspection is all that is necessary. ' and at Pittsburgh prices. Shoemakers should corne and purchase if they wish to obtain material cheap. TRAVELERS' GUIDE. EI7TLRH, KAKJM OITT AND PARKS* BAII.KOAD (Bntler Time.) Train* leave Batter for St. Joe, Millerstown, Karri* City, Pelrollr, Parker, etc., at 7J4S a. in., and 2.06 and 7.90 f>. m. (Bee below for con nection* with A. V R. K.J Trains arrive at Better from the above named point* ;it 7. B ft. ra.. and 1.59, and O.M p. m. The 1.55 train connects wllli train on tbe West I'ctm road through to Pittsburgh. • IIEXANOO AMD AI.I.BOHBST RAILHOAD. Train* leave Hilllnrd'a Mill, Butler county, lor Harrlsvllle, Greenville, etc., at 7.40 a. m. nnd 1 '<{.l9o and 2.20 p. ra. Binge* tea l e Petrolia at 530 a. in. lor 7.40 trnin, and at 10.00 a. in. tor 12 20 train. *Ui(c-a leave Milliard on arrival of train* at 10.27 n. in. nnd 1.50 p. in. (Hoce leave* at 0.80 for 12.30 tnlo. r. A w. a. *. fNarow flange.) The morning traiu leave* Zellenople at 6 11 Harmony 8.18 anrt Evansbnrg at #.Bv, arriving at Rina Station at S.!io. and Allegheny at 9 01. The afternoon train leave* Zelienopie at 1.26, Harmony 1.81, Kvanabnrg 1.68. arriving at Etna Matlou at 4-11 and Allegheny at 4.46. My getting oil at Bharp*hu'g atation and crossing the bridge to the A. V. R. R., pnsaen ftr.ru on the morning train can rcocb the Union «l<'i»ot at {I o'clock. Train* connecting at Etna Station with tbia road Inare Allegheny at 7.11 and 9.81 a. m. and £.41 p. m. I'BRRSTLVANIA RAILROAD. Trn'n* leave Hntler( Bntler or Pittsburgh Time.) Market at 5.06 a. in., goea through to Alle gheny, arriving at #.Ol a. ra. Tbla train con l e<l« *t Hri-eport with Frecport Accommoda tion, which arrive* at Allrgheny at 8.80 a. m., raliiond tlim*. Exprttt at 7.21 a. m, connecting *t Bmler Junction, withoat change of cara, at 8.36 with Ex pies* we*t, arriving In Allegheny at V./il a. in , nnd Express (wt arriving at Blalravllle ' at 11 0(1 a. in. railroad time. Mail ut 2.36 p. in., connecting at Bntler Juno tion without change ol ear*, wltb Ex pre** weat, arriving In Allegheny at 526 p. ra., and Ex pre** eaat arriving at Binlravllle Intersection nt «.!0 p. ra. railroad time, w tilth connect* w'tb i'biiudelpbls Kxprei* eaat, when on lime. The 7.21 a. m. train connects at Blalravllle at 11.'15 a. in. with tbe Mail east, and the 2.86 p. m. train at QM with tbe Philadelphia Ex |>re«* en*t. Train* arrive at Bntler on Weat Penn U. R. at y..'»l n. ra , b 0* nnd 7.20 p. m., Butler time. The U'>] nnil 5.06 train* connect .with train* on the (Sutler A Parker R. R. Sun' ny train arrivea nt Untie* at ll.lt a. in., connecting with train lor Parker. Main Lint. Through train* leave Plttabargb tor tbe En*', at 2.56 and 8.26 a. m. and 12 51, 4.21 and 5.06 p m., arriving at Philadelphia at 8.40 and 7.20 |i. ra and 8.00, 7.0 and 7.40 a. m.; at Baltimore about the name time, at New York three bcura later, nnd at Washington about one and a half • hour* liter. PHYSICIANS. JOHN K. BYERH, PHYSICIAN AND SUIiGEON, wy2l-1y) BUTLER. PA. DENTISTS. DENTISTRY! 0 1# WALDRON. Graduate ol tbe Pbll ■ adelpbla Dental College,ls prepared • l« *to do anything to tbe lio« of bis profnsilon in a sail*factory manuer. Office on Mala street, Butler, Union Block, up *Mlr*. apll PENSIONS!" Procured for Holdiers disabled In the U. S. service fr<,m any oanse, also for Heir* of de coar' il' nokluir*. All ponaions date bank to day of discharge, and to date of death of the sof ilier. I'ennioiia increaaed. Addre**. with stamp HTODDABI>T * 00.. Jeu7-lm] 918 U. Bt. N. W., Werfilogtflu, D. 0. VOL. XVIf. LAND FOR SALE. FOB SALE. A hsnd'ome six-room frame bouse, located on Bluff *treet, northwestern part of Butler. Lot 50*176. All nect'**ary outbnlldinu*. . TERMS— Ore-Cltlrd cash and balance ill lour equal annual payment*. Inquire at thi* office. janHlf For H«l«» or Rent. Tbree acres of gronud, large house and More room, with ontbuiHii gs. good water at the door, and good young orohar 1. Is eix mile* from Bntler, and a good location for a country xtore. If not nold liefore April l«t next, will be for rent to a good tenant. Inonire of JOHN H. NEOLEY, janl2-llt Untler. I'a. lor Hale. The under*lg-ied will *ell the I irrn of Jacnli Khanor, dee'd, sitnaled in Centre towiiahip, ihree mile* Irom Roller. It comh.ts ol 175 acres, übout a huiidnd cleared, the lial.ince In rood tlrulier, Iwo orchards, fr.ime Imnk burn, frame hou»<*, (runic «n»h bouse and ursnary If not sold In a body It can be divided v iihout injury. Inquire ol DANIEL HIIANOR, ) _ . j. o. Mumrz, j Hr * janl-i-2m Hutler, Pa. Valuable Farm for Sale. The undersigned offer* at private wale the farm latelv owned by Robert Oilleland. dee'd, late of Middlesex township, containing 102 Acrra, more or lesH. with a two story brick house and bank ham, hay bOnse wagon *hed and other '■nthnildiiig*. Two good oieh*rd* thereon. 180 acres cleared, balance in good timber, ea*y of tccess, 1/v about oi.e-balf mile from llutler and Pittsburgh plank road and Imiles from new narrow-g»ii«e railroad, is wnll un|iroveil and in good condition, arid is well adapted for dairy purposes. For term* a.iplv to ■tAMEH WILHON. Agent. decl7tf) Bakerslown, Allegheny Co., I'a. tr^ale. Tlie well-improved farm of liev. W R. Hutch ison,in the northeast corner of MiddleKei town ship, Bntler countv, Pa . is now offered for ssile. low. Inquire of W. K. FRIHbEE, on the prein- j ise*. apt fit f WANTED I •* of Ikt«ir« In* hj •U' a- pi lon. 1* awe I. MR, Willi go'xJ rcf<-rciK««, "t (urMt«h tl.r wtillil fr» r f •r»d {,*9 that will l«.*rr work>f o«*r fHHi « mwll.. I KTfcM H Al lO% A I* Yl 11. Hog ti»2, Hi, U'.n, Mo. BANKS. TIIK 111 TIiF.H SAVINGS BANK II UT L K 14. I* A. NEARLY OPPOSITE LOWRY HOUSE CAPITAL STOCIT 60,000. Wm. Caktrbll, JAS. D. Anurrsoi), Pre*ldent. Men Preeideut. W*. Ckunn.L, Jr., Cashier. niHKCTOKR William Campbell, J. w. Irwin, In. D. Anderson, (ioorge Weber, Joseph L. Pun-is. Does a Oeneral Banking A Exchange Imsinees. Interest on time dep<sntn. Collections madn and prompt returns at low rate* of Exchange. Oold Exmiange anil Ckjvoniinent ISomls bought and sold. Commercial paper, bonds, judgment and oth«rsecurities Wuglit at ftlr rate*. fO0:ly VELOCITY OF A BULLET. INTERESTING EXPERIMENTS MADE BY I'ROFES.SOR SPICE IN NEW YORK. Professor Robert Spice, the Brook lyn chemist and physicist, apy»eared last Saturday evening at the Cooper Institute, New York, in a lecture on j projectiles. The great hall was crowded ii» every part—many standing in the aisles. When the well-known face of ' Mr. Pooper appeared the andienee, as usual, gave him a very hearty wel come, and the applause was renewed when, on the introduction of Professor Ilaymond, the lecturer eanie forward. the task which Professor Spice was to accomplish was to determine the actual velocity of a rifle bullet fired across the stage. The distance meas ured on the platform was thirty-three feet, which the lecturer explained was shorter than usual, as the ordinary distance used in determining this question was about 200 feet. To carry this performance out he had secured the co-operation of Lieu tenant K. L. Merriman, ol the Brook lyn Thirteenth Regiment, who has gained some reputation at the Creed moor Range, as evidence by the med als which he wore*. In the first place. Professor Spice explained the appa ratus to be used. lie called tho atten tion of the audience to a mahogany base, twelve inches by fifteen inches, on which were placed two levers which carried bent wires to make marks on a piece of smoked glass un derneath the points. One of these wires was connected with a pendulum at tached to an Atwood machine, vibrat ing seconds. Ry means of electric cur rents the lever connected with the pen dulum came down on the glass pre cisely at the beginning of each second, making a series of lines separated by spaces somewhat similar to the old Morse alphabet. Consequently the dis tance from the beginning of one line to the beginning of the next represented a second of time. The second lever, exactly opposite, had a spring attached to one end, which kept the point off the glass It also had two electro magnets, one at each end, which had electric currents passed through of different strength— the weaker current tending to pull the lever down on the glass ; the stronger current tending to keep it elevated. In addition to this, the current from the stronger magnet passed through a loose wire resting on two globules of mercury, and immediately in front of this wire was to rest the muzzle of the rifle. The weaker current passed through a precisely similar loose wire, also on two globules of mercury, which wire was placed thirty-three feet dis tant from the first wire. Lieutenant Merriman now came for ward and loaded his rifle. It was a regular ('reedmoor, 45 calibre, 34-inch barrel, and placed in it a cartridge containing a 450 grain ball and 45 grains of powder, explaining that this was not a full charge. He then took his position. The object was to shoot away the wires on the mercury. A box of sand was placed to receive the ball. The pendulum above described was *ct in motion. On its striking the fifth second the plate of smoked glass wan dwwn along by the descent of a weight on the top of a column of sand which ran out of a tube. On the sixth second, Mcrriman pulled the trigger awl both wires vanished. On the first wire being broken the point of the cor responding lever descended on the glass, but immediately rose again by the action of a wire spring, when the bullet broke the second wire. The consequence of this was that the point connected with this lever scrajied a very short line on the smoked glass, while the other point, being kept down during the swing of the pendulum, scraped a longer space. Then the was withdrawn and placed in the stereopticon, projecting a magnified image of the lines on the screen. The relative lengths of these lines were ascertained, thus obviating any source of error in measuring the minute lines on the smoked glass. This method of measuring the lengths was claimed to be original by the Pro lessor. On tlii.t fticaKtirctncnt it wan found that the shorti r line tvaw f» inchisu and tlie other line V, f«j«t :l inches. Tin-He nutnlxTH wcro brought down to the common fraction of inches, the rc- Hiilt giving 110 incheH for tl.c longer Kpaco. It vviiM then ascertained how many times the former wa« contained in the latter, and the fraction tlniH ob tained wa« clearly the fraction <>f a second that the bullet took to paws from one wire to the other—that is, 1.22 of a second. Multiplying the distance between the wires feet,) its above, by the denominator of the above fraction, the velocity of the bul let in feet wan obtained, namely, 7~2 r > feet in a second. The result WHS long applauded; and the lecturer, to make matters sure, determined to repeat the experiment. The second attempt was equally suc cessful. Prof. Spice then proceeded to give illustrations of experiments of the well-known magicians, showing how science arid art arc resorted to de ceive the senses. Ilis performances and explanations were of great interest to his hearers. HUE A KINC A 11 ALKY HOUSE. \ young man in Lawrence, Kan sas, tried a novel method of breaking a balky horse, a borrowed liotse at J that, and regrets that instead of r<-Iy j itig upon his own resources he took [ counsel of some boys who no doubt were aware of the fact that nothing so encourages a dug to "go as you please" as to tie a tin-p.iil to his tail. Blows and coaxing being of no avail, the boys advised unfastening the traces and tying tbe horse's tail to the cross-bar of the wagon. The effect wai electric. Id half a second the horse was jump ing like a steeple chaser, and every jump the wagon described 11 parabolic curve. At the point where both thills were broken and the horse was lodged in the mud, the boys disappear from the story. —lt is a fraud to conceal a fraud. BUTLER, PA., WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1880. THE LAW OF TRESPASS. ! What constitutes trespa-s is a ques , tion that ari.»es continually, especially among farmers and owners of smaller tracts of real estate, and the ideas con cerning it are about as vague as they well can be. An interesting article on the laws govering this question ap pears in the quarterly report of the State Board of Agriculture, which de serves to be read by every farmer in the land, as they are oftcne- called on to face the troubles arising out of such cases than any other class of men in the community. Trespass is defined as "any transgression or offence against the law of nature, of society or of the country in which we live, whether it relate to a man's person or his prop erty." This is its widest meaning. Ordinarily, however, it has reference only to an entrance on the property of another without authority, and in doing damage while there, whether much or little. The laws give the owner exclusive control over his prop erty. Any infrigement of his rights without his permission, or justified by legal authority, therefore constitutes a trespass. It does not need that the land should be enclosed by fences. The law supposes an imaginary en closure, wh'eh answers every purpose, and the simple act of passing through it constitutes trespass, although no harm should result to crops, cattle or aught else. Even a person legally authorized to seize certain goods on a man's premises dare not break open doors for that purpose; if he does his authority avails him nothing, and he becomes a common trespasser. Neither is a person justified in so arranging spouts as to discharge water on another man's land, even though he never steps off his own grounds, nor to permit filth to pass a boundary line without due permission. When a spout first discharges on a man's own premises and the contents then find their way to a neighbor's premises, it does not constitute a trespass. Hunt ing and fishing, however, constitute the most common and annoying source of trespass to which our farmers are subjected. Xo matter that neither grass nor grain are trampled down, whether gates are left closed, bars left up and no rails broken, the pursuit of game on the lands of another without |)crmis»ion is trespass. To even en ter an enclosed piece of wood, where there are no crops to be injured, in pursuit of game, which may have taken refuge there, is a vio lation of law—quite as much as if a wheat field in ear had been trampled down. In fishing, as in hunting, the ordinary ponds and streams are the ex clusive property of those through whose lands they flow or in which they happen to be situated. In the case of navigable streams, any one may boat up and down them anil fish in them, but has n;> rijfht to land on the shores and do so.— Lancaster New Er«. A S T<)l;y FROM WA SUING TON. [Washington l.eXur in Philadelphia Pre**.] An Irishman one night wont to the house of a friend and asked if the host was awake. "Indeed I am, sir," wa.s the reply. "Tim, lend me five dollars?" To which Tim replied, after turning over for another snooze, "Oh, I'm aslape, Pat." This is an old storv, which the other ni«ht had a new application, and one which caused considerable chagrin to on eminent Southern jurist and a swell Secretary of a Southern Con gressman. ' The story had been told the South ern jurist by a lady whom he was visiting, and the Judjre, meeting the Secretary soon after at the Ebbitt House and being applied to for a loan, adopted his pretty hostess' story as the easiest way out of the difficulty. The young man failed to recognize the j"ke and left the friend to whom he had applied for financial relief in a great huff. The next evening the .Judge was making a call upon the same lndy, and related the story of his adventure with the Secretary. Soon after a prominent Southern Congress man and the swell Secretary to whom the Judge had refused a loan came in, and the lady having been told the joke, without any mention of names, insisted upon repeating it to her new callers as something too good to keep. Dur ing the recital the animated hostess was a little puzzled to notice the very dif ferent expressions upon the faces of the Judge and the Secretary, and she therefore lo»t no time in turning the tide of the evening's chat in another and plcasanter direction, although she had repeated the whole story before it was seen that she had gone wrong. When the Judge got a c lift nee to ex plain the situation to the hostess the Secretary was on the hunt for "a friend" who would wait upon the Judge and inquire when and where, outside the district, he could be com municated with. LIFK ANI> PKATH TI KNINO ON TRI KI.KS.—The haphazard of life and death was illustrated in many ways by the Tay Hridge calamity. One lady, who traveled with her maid, had ordered a cab for the morning train, which reached its destination in safety, but the cabman overslept, and they were obliged to take the next train—the one which was buried in the quick sands at the bottom of the river. An other instance of train missing turned out more happily. A gentleman was determined to go to Dundee, notwith standing his wife's entreaties, and that prudent lady took pains to have the cabman behind time so that her hus band missed the ill-fated train, lie was angry at the time, but is reconciled I to the situation now, and entertains a favorable opinion of his wife's weather wisdom. Auotbcr man lobt Lib life through tbu buuiness shrewdnesb of the ffirl to whom he was engaged. lie ! was v visiting at her house in Kdinburg, and was anxious to remain until Mon : day, but she persuaded him to return rather than incur the displeasure of his ; employers by breaking faith with them. —Sonic one that one of the hardest tbiajff) to aweur off ia awwiopr- TllE POISONING OF WELLS. [Rural New-Yorker.] It is probable that ninety-nine cases in a bundred of diseases in rural dis tricts are the result of poison absorbed into the system either from the stom ach or the lungs. The blood is manu factured in the digestive organs from the fowl, passes in great part through the liver, and all of it through the lungs, in both of which it is filtered and purified, and in the latter it is brought directly into coutact with the air which is breathed by inspiration and is subjected to any deleterious matter which may be contained in it. As the foot! and drink are the materials of which the blood is formed, any un healthy or poisonous influence at this prime source, of course poisons the stream; and as the function of the lungs is to aerate and purify the blood, anything wrong in the purifying ma terial interferes with this important vital process. Hut we propose only to call atten- I tion to what we believe to be the most prolific source of rural diseases, ma larial, functional and organic in their character. This is the water supply. A case in point ap;)ears in our column of inquiries and answers, and we have taken the trouble to illustrate it for the purpose of showing distinctly how wells are poisoned. In this case a cesspool eight feet deep receives the excreta of a family, the wash from a bath room, water clo. e et and sink included. Thirty or forty gallons a day, ecpial to nearly 15,000 gallons, or 2,000 cubic feet per year of the most poisonous kind of filth, are poured into this pool only eight feet deep, and, of course, soak into the soil and saturate it. Twenty feet only from this deadly sink is the well which is probably sev eral feet deeper than the ccesspool. The drainage from this cesspool will flow then in every direction in a circle of twenty feet radius only, before it pours into the well. For each foot in depth of this area there are about 1,200 cubic feet. In a year the 2,000 cubic feet of waste will'completely fill this space of twenty feet around the well to a depth of more than a foot and a half, and in two years to a depth of three and a half feet. But two things cannot occupy the same space, and this filth will then l>e distributed over a much larger quantity of ground in proportion to the ratio of solid soil to the small interstices, or spaces among the gravel, in the mass. Taking this ratio as only ten to one, the 2,000 cubic feet of waste will saturate 20,000 cubic feet of earth in one year. It ia true that the soil near the cesspool will retain the largest portion of the solid matter, and the first water which reaches the well will be filtered to some extent. But it is only a question of time—the lapse of which will depend upon the nature of the subsoil—how long or short a time will elapse before the poison pours undiluted into the well, and from it into the stomachs of the unfortunate and unsus pecting victims. If a bed of clay lies close to the bottom of cesspool, there will be no esca|)e down wards, and the period required to reach the well will be probably six months. If the soil is gravelly and the waste sinks down wards, there is an absolute certainty that a stream of water which flows into the well will be reached sooner or later. A similar frightful certainty, slowly but surely approaching in thousands of cases, threatens in time to sap the life of unsuspecting people, who will by and by exhibit every symptom of insidious but fatal disorder. The hectic cheek, swollen glands, dry hot skin, disordered digestion, bilious derange ments, headaches, tremors, diarrhtea, dysentery, cutaneous eruptions, tumor*, coated tongue, foid breath, ami all the varied symptoms by which blood poisoning first becomes apparent and the final deadly typhoid and malignant fevers are predicted, alarm the con sciousness, while the source of the very poison itself is hourly used to allay the fever and thirst occasioned by it . We do not desire to be sensational or to make too much of this. The danger exists and it is everywhere. The case liefore us, to which we call the closest attention, is by no means an unusual one. In fact, there are thousands that are greatly more dan gerous than this, and every person who cares for his own health and that of the loved ones whom he shelters from harm with tendercst caro, should see to it that this prevalent source of danger is eliminated from his house hold ; and remember that decomposing organic matter in the mo A deadly of all poisons. LCAP YKAR I.N LAW. —The Supreme Court of Indiana has affirmed a prin ciple in respect to the computation of time, which is likely to prove of seri ous trouble to hankers and others. It is that the 29th day of February and the 28th day of February are to be computed as one day. The question becomes of special importance now that leap year (1880) is at hand. To illustrate, suppose that a note be drawn on the2Bth of February, A. I). 1880, at one day after date. If the 2Hth and 29th bo counted as one day then the note would mature on the 4th of iMarch, but otherwise on the .'{rd. If on the 3rd, clearly protest on the 4th would not hold the indorsers. Vice versa, if the rule of computation be to count separately the 28th and 2iM.li of February, the protest on the 4th will be of no avail. The question in Indiana was sujf gestcd by the fact that there ten day's previous service of process is neces sary for a judgment. And the cause having been begun in the last leaf) year, 1 87 #», the process was not served in time, if the 28th and 2!Mh days of February were to IH> computed as one day. And the Court held that they must be so counted.— St. Louis Times' Journal. —A modern philosopher say* that men do not go to » pantry to buy pants. —The ladies of San Francisco have decided that fcvo must and shall have 0 rttuWe. ANNUAL HE VIEW OF THE PETROLEUM BUSINESS. The petroleum business during the year just closed has been marked by many results never before attained. Sto well's Petroleum Reporter savs: The enoimous production of crude (nearly 20,000,((00 barrels), exceeded the production of any previous year by about ">,000,000 barrels. The average price of crude at the wells lor the year was 91$ cents por barrel, being 39* less than for the year 1874, which has been considered heretofore the cheap oil year. The number of wells drilled during the year was 3,038, which number was not greatly in excess of former years, only about 6J per cent, of the wells completed proved to be dry or worthless against 11£ per cent of dry holes developed in 1878. The shipments out of the producing regions have been larger than in any previous year, amounting to nearly 16,000,000 barrels, which exceeded the shipments of 1878 nearly two and a quarter mil lion barrels. The accumulation of stock in the producing regions of Pennsylvania during the year has been without a parallel in the history of the trade; the amount of stock January 1, 1879, was 4,615,299 barrels, and on January 1, 1880, 8,470,490 barrels, being an increase of 3,855,191 barrels in 1879. The great Northern, of Brad ford district, has contributed largely to these results; in fact, for the last two years this field has been the chief point of interest in the oil * country, where most of the operators have congregated and most of the developments have taken place. In the last five years about 6,000 wells were drilled, 5,100 of which are now producing oil at the rate of about 45,000 barrels per day. The total production in that district from August, 1875, to December 31, 1879, has been 21,991,544 barrels, and the shipments out have been 25,771,- 214 barrels, leaving a stock in tanks of about 6,250,000 barrels. The exports of petroleum for the year have been unprecedentedly large, exceeding all former years by many million gal lons. The stocks held in European ports are also quite large, exceeding the amount held at the same time in 1878 some 500,000 barrels. The maximum production of crude petroleum in the Pennsylvania oil fields was reached in August, 1879. Since that time the production has undoubtedly been steadily on the decline, and from present indications we may look for a continued decline, slowly but surely, until some new and now unknown field shall be found which shall yield the precious fluid bountifully. There was a steady increase of stock at the wells during the first eight months of the year which was not reported and did not go into the account in making up productions and stocks. The pipe lines prior to September did not take from the wells their production, which was evident from the overflow ing tanks everywhere to be seen in the Bradford district. Since the month of August the wells have not only been relieved, but the lines have been taking all the productions and steadily draw ing on well stocks. The month of Deceml)er shows that the stock at the wells has been re pie ted about 182,250 barrels, which we have credited to pro ductions and stock bv distributing 7,750 barrels a day through the first eight months of the year. COST OF ILLINOIS The Chicago Tribune prints an old document of considerable historic in terest. It is a deed of conveyance of land hearing date July 20, 1773. The parties of the first part in the transac tion are ten Indian chiefs of the dif ferent tribes of the Illinois nations of Indians, representing all of them, and the parties of the second part are 22 white men of Philadelphia and Pitts burgh, Penn., and London, England. The premises conveyed by the Indians to these white men are two several tracts of land, viz: First, the tract now commonly known as Southern and, second, the remainder of the State to the northern border, and a portion of Southern Wisconsin. The consid eration for this immense traet of land, including the whole of the StaU* Il linois and a good part of Wisconsin, is thus expressed in the deed : "Two hundred and sixty strouds, 250 blank ets, 350 shirts, 150 pairs of stroud and half-thick stockings, 150 stroud breech cloths, 500 pounds of gunpowder, 4,000 pounds of lead, one gross of knives, !0 pounds of vcrmillion, 2,000 gun Hints, 200 pounds of brass kettles, 200 pounds of tobacco, 3 dozen of gilt looking-glasses, 1 gross of fire-steels, 16 dozens of gartering, 10,000 pounds of flour, 500 bushels of Indian corn, 12 horses, 12 horned cattle, 20 bushels of salt, and 20 guns, the receipt whereof we do hereby acknowledge." These articles having l»een "paid and deliv ered in full council," the deed was signed and executed before a French notary public at Kuskaskia Village. ONCK upon a time, "not very long ago," a certain man got mad at the editor and stopped his paper. The next week ho sold all his corn at four cents below the market price ; then his property was sold for taxes liecause he didn't read the Sheriff's sales ; he was arrested and fined $8 for going hunting Sunday, simply because he didn't know it wiis Sunday, and he paid $:$00 for a lot of forged notes that had l>een advertised two weeks and the public cautioned not to negotiate them. He then paid a big Irishman, with a foot like a forge hammer, to kick him all the wuy to a newspa|>er office, where he pai«j four years' subscription in advance, and made the editor sign au agreement to knock him dowu and rob him if be ever ordered his paper stop ped again. —Down at New Orleans the other day they were going to try some new heavy guns, and set out the target— made of 18-iocb iron—tbonlgbt before. The D«xt morning it wa» found to be split and battered, and several irregu lar holes knocked clean through It. A thought less man had turned his mule out to grae io tbkt vfdflity, THE DEAD LETTER OFFICE. SOME INTERESTING INFORMATION TOR YOUTHFUL LETTER WRITERS. [From Harper's Young People.] Of course all of you have heard of the Dead Letter Office at Washington, and I suppose you have the same vague idea that I had until I went there and learned better, that it is a place where letters are sent when they tail to reach those for whom they are intended, and are thence returned to the writers. Really, now, I believe this is what most grown up people think too; but in truth, it is such a wonderful place that I am sure you will be surprised when I tell you souie of the things you may find there, and I think when you come to Washington it will be one of the first places you will wish to visit. You will be surprised to learn that something over four millions of letters are sent to the Dead Letter Office every year. There are three things that render them liable to this: first, being un claimed by persons to whom they are addressed ; second, when some import ant part of the address is omitted, as James Smith, Maryland; third, the want of postage. For the second cause mentioned above about sixty-five thousand letters were sent to the Dead Letter Office during the past year; for the third, three hundred thousand, and three thousand had no address whatever. When these letters reach the Dead Letter Office, they are divided into two general classes, viz.: Domestic and Foreign, the latter being returned un opened to the countries from which they started. The domestic letters, after being opened, are classed according to their contents. Those containing money are called "Money Letters;" those with drafts, money-orders, deeds, notes, etc., "Minor Letters;" and such as inclose receipts, photographs, etc., "Sub-Mi nors." Letters which contain any thing, even a postage stamp, are re corded, and those with money or drafts are sent to the Postmasters where the letters were first mailed, for them to find the owners and get a receipt. From $35,000 to $50,000 come into the office in this way during tho year, but a large portion is restored to the senders, and the remainder is deposited in the United States Treasury to the credit of the Postoffice Department. When letters contain nothing of value, if possible they are returned to the writers. There are clerks so expert in reading all kinds of writing that they can discern a plain address where ordinary eyes could not trace a word. And such spelling! Would you ever imagine that Galveston could bo tortured into "Calresdon," Connecticut into "Kanedikait," and Territory into "Teartoir ?" Recently the Postmaster General has found it necessary to issue very strict orders about plain addresses, and a great many people have tried to l>e witty at his expense. I copied this address from a postal card : Alden Simmons, Savanah Township, Ashland County, State of Ohio; Age, 29; Occupation, Lawyer; Longitude West from Troy 2°; Politics, Republican ; Street Main, No. 249, Box I.OOS. Color, White; Sex, Male; Ancestry. Domestic; For President, 1880, U. S. Grant. TOO GREAT A TEMPTATION. [MiiMouri Republican.] Some years ago a very fine echo was discovered on an Fnglishman's estate. Ho was proud of it, of course, and ex cited considerable envy by its exhibi tion. One of his neighbors, who owned an adjoining estate, felt especially cha grined, but was greatly encouraged by an Irishman, who went over the lands with the hope of discovering one some where. He declared himself successful in finding the most wonderful echo ever heard, and stood ready to unfold his secret for a large of sum money. The nobleman listened to the echo, and al though there was some thing peculiar about it, ho paid the money. An after noon was set for his friends to come and listen to the marvelous discovery. "Hullo!" cried in stentorian tones the Hibernian who had promised to find an echo. "Hullo I" came back from the hillside yonder. "How are you ?" yelled one of the company, and echo answered in a suspiciously different key, "How are you ?" All went well until just before retiring one of the company, putting his hands to his mouth, cried: "Will you have some whiskey ?" Such a question would dis cover the character of uny reasonable echo. It was certainly too much for the one which had been discovered on that estate. Judge of the surprise of the party when the answer came back in clear, affirmative tones: "Thank you sir; I will, if you please." The poor fellow, who had lieen stationed at a distance to supply the place of an echo, simply submitted to too great a temp tation. HE ON THE WATCH. —Another new swindle is going around, and this time on the agriculturists. A gentlemanly fellow drives up with census blanks for statistics of the farm—bushels of wheat, number of cattle rnisnd, acres under cultivation, etc. Between the tables and the foot of the page, where the farmer signs his name, attesting the statement, is a blank space, whose existence is accounted for as affording room for miscellaneous information In a mouth moro the farmer receives no tice from a neighboring bank that bis note for $l5O is due. He knows noth ing of tho Bote, hut investigation shown that the "census taker" has tilled in tho blank with a promise to pay, which, being now in the hands of to innocent bolder, must be paid by the unlucky dupe f m i*m —The reason why a man steals an umbrella is because he does not like to I go out io tbo nfa sod bomrvotj* APYEKTIBISW BATEI, Otfl cue luvrfir.n, «1 rs. h "r.i.o queut itittoitiun, M rutit*. l.arly ativeumi-iii, i,ra exceeding one-fourth of a column, tS per inch. . Figure work doable these rite*; additiunai charges wUare WMUJ or monthly change* are made. Local advertisements 10 cents per line for ttr»t insertion, and 5 cents per line for each additional insertion. Main ages and deaths pub lished free of charge. Obit nary notices charged as advertisements, and payable when handed in Auditors' Notices, t-4 ; Executors' and Adminix trators' Notices. #3 each; Estray, Caution au<* Dissolution Notices, not exceeding ten lines, each. From the fact that the CITI7.ES is the oldes' established and most extensively circulated Re Eublican newspaper in Butler county, (a Repufc can county) it most be apparent to busineei> men that it is the medium they should use in advertising their business. NO. 11. CHAPTER ON COURT HOUSES Burdette, in a recent number of the Haickeye, gives a chapter on Court Houses which will be appreciated bv all who have heard the echoes rever berate in our own court room. It reads as follows: "The meanest thing in the world to speak in is a court house. I have of ten wondered whv the architects of court houses were not always hanged at the dedication of the building. A court house is built to talk in. The court room is made for that purpose. The architect, the contractor, and the builder well know that. And if the court house is a very cheap, shabby, old fashioned sort of an affair, worth $950, the chances are that a man speaking from the bench can he heard half way to the door. But if it is a handsome affair and costs the county anywhere from one hundred and fifty thousand to half a million dollars, then the lawyer, climbing into the laps of the jurors, and bellowing his elo quence in their several respective ears, can make himself heard. Why, the reason why the judge always writes out his charge to the jury, and the foreman always brings in the verdict in writing, is because, in most court houses, the jury would never know anything about the charge, and the court would never know whether the prisoner had !>eon hanged or awarded a premium of #2OO, if the human voice alone was the medium of communica tion. Did you ever hear anything a judge ever said in a court room ? Not if the court house was any bigger than a smoke house von didn't. "Why, in the finest court rooms in America, the jurors never hear any of the evidence, and the judge doesn't hear as much of it as they do. And then, when the beautiful court house is completed, and the people find they have a court room that harbors more echoes than a l>eer garden has voices, they usually, acting on the counsel of the architect who spoiled their room, kill the echo by stretching wires across the ceiling, back and forth, until the room looks like the general office of the Western Union telegraph company, outside view. Then the flies roost on these wires, and the spiders decorate theiu with festoons, in which wander ing bugs and things are caught, and it adds greatly to the beauty of the room. "Sometimes, in rare instances, I have heard of several, though I never knew of one, these wires kill the echo. Sometimes they tangle half a dozen small ones up into one large one. of the guttural, rumbling kind, and then you couldn't hear a gun if you fired it off in that room." LEAP YEAR LAW. —For the benefit of the young "ladyes" and "old inaydes" of ye ancient borough our bachelor has hunted up an old law whose predecessor had bben enacted in the chivalrous days of "merre Eng lande." This one' made liberal pro vision for young women troubled with young nun who would spark but never blaze into a proposal. The one un earthed by the aforesaid bachelor was, in fact, the incorporation of this one in colonial times into the statute books of Penn's colony and there it is still, never having been repealed and unre stricted in its application to modern cases of long-drawn-out courtships. Stripped of its verbiage its provisions are as follows: "Any girl who has sat the customary number of nights until 12 o'clock since the last Leap Year with the same young man, has an in alienable right to pop the question. Should the same girl devote all Sunday _ afternoon to the same young man, and feed him liberally and frequently during this period, his refusal to take her makes him liable to l>e fined and in carcerated in the deepest dungeon beyond the moat. if it can l>e shown that any "mayd" beyond the age of thirty-six and so on has for the said jieriod of time (viz: since the last leap year) focused her affections on any particular young man —that she has" diligently sought to keep and hold him by divers means known to the sex, and striven to kindle the anient flames in his boßom—can, under the provisions of this act, drag the said hardened young man to the nearest Magistrate and give him his choice of supporting her for life as her lawful husband or enlisting in the ser vice of his graeious Majesty the King.'' CONCERNING THE CENSUS.—The pen alties for obstructing the census takers, who begin their labors on the first Monday in June, are severe. The law says: All persons above the age of twenty-one years who shall refuse to furnish the information required by the Supervisor or enumerator shall forfeit and pay a sum not exceeding SIOO, to !>e recovered in an action of debt. Presidents, Directors, or other officials of private corporations who refuse to furnish information required of them are made liable to a penalty not to exceed SIO,OOO. Only two weeks are allowed for' the completion of tho census. man has no objection to Angelina con sorting with an autograph album full of ladies, one laddie at the garden gate for five minutes will make him look as black as a new base burner. Why is this thus? No matter how low down a man gets in the world, there are two things he can always get somehow or other good advice ami hail whisky. The small boy never wishes he was twins except when two different Sundav school Christinas trees are l>c ing hold the same evening. —"Foregoes" was the wort! given out at a written spoiling o*rcise re cently ; and oue llttlo l»oy bonded in, "Go, g<>, go, go." "This IB a high-handed outrage," as the boy remarked when be found that his mother had put the cookies oo the upper sbelf. —Fried oysters aro declared un healthy and dangerous, bat lots of folks : vflfl tfn rtafcioff tb# obnfc**
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers