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VOLUME XVII.
TERMS OF PUBLICATION:
THE " HUNTINGDON JOURNAL" is published at
the following rates, viz:
If paid in advance, per annum, $1,50
If paid during the year, 1,75
If paid after the expiration of the year, • 2,50
To Clubs of five or more, in advance, • • 1,25
THE above Terms will he adhered to in all cases.
No subscription will be taken fora less period than
six months, and no paper will be discontinued un
til all arrearages are paid, unless at the option of
the publisher.
MISCELLANEOUS.
LOVE AND CATNIP.
BY EDGAR SO3IERS.
The dim light of the lamp illuminates
the apartment for a while, but at last went
out, leaving the room in darkness, save
when an occasional flash of light from the
half-extinguished fire gleamed for a moment
upon the obscurity.
In one corner, seated upon a sofa, where
the forms of a gentle maiden and hor ador
ing lover. The youth was pleading his
passion with all the burning eloquence of
impetuous love and imploring his charmer
to name the happy day that was to unite
them forever. But what was his grief to
find that she did not meet his fond wishes
with corresponding ardor.
"Ah, Susan," he sighed, "have I then
deceived myself in fondly believing that
your gentle heart reciprocated my pas
sion?"
She fixed her liquid eyes upon him,
but her words were few and coldly utter-
"I rather think you have."
What! you cannot mean that you do
pot love me! You will not tear from the
sky of the future the bright sun of hope
and leave line to grope forever in darkness!
Oh, Susan! by the happy hours we have
passed together—by all the bright dreams
and happiness we have cherished—by the
vows you have sworn to love me,—l con
jure you to revoke what you have just ut
tered and promise to be mine!
But all unmoved by his appeal, she
curls her ruby lips and scornfully an
ewers—
"l shan't do no such thing!"
Merciful heaven! do I hear aright?
must I then live on in loneliness, with all
my hope-withered and dead like a solitary
sunflower stalk in tho winter?—
Nay, by the whole universe I swear it
shall not be? Mark me, cruel ono; thou
hast been the bright polar star by which
I guided my whole existence. Thou vast
the rock on which I founded my hope of
happiness; and if thou wilt not consent to
be mine, I swear by the blazing sun, when
he rises as usual to-morrow morning, be
fore breakfast, his rays shall shine on me
a cold corpse, beneath the angry waves of
the raging Merimac—or perchance my
bloody remains will be found upon its
banks; and if these means of death fail me,
I will swallow poison! do you hear? and
expire for the love of thee. Then you will
have naught to remind you of him who
loved you better than a thanksgiving din
ner, save the consoling reflection that you
are his murderess!"
But his agony, his threats, affected her
not. She was as cold as the icicle that in
midwinter hangs front the nose of the town
pump. Cruelly—deliberately did she
crush his last hope, and with a mocking,
incredulous smile she said,—
You daresn't do it."
He sprang to his feet; despair was paint
ed on his features; desperation glared in
his eyes. With his hands clasped in agony
he turned an imploring look towards the
mistress of his heart and exclaimed,—
“Once more I implore you to reflect re
call those cruel words or I go to fulfil
my threat;” and with his hand upon the
latch, he awaited her decision. It came
like a thunder to the unhappy youth.
"You may go—if you wish--to grass!"
With one bound ho gained the street,
—furiously he dashed along and turning
the first corner ran against a gush of wind
that was rushing the other way. The
breeze knocked off his tile; it had cost him
a V the week before; yet he heeded not
its loss. Like a whirlwind he swept along
the sidewalk, and espying a blue bottle in
a druggist's window ho made traoks like a
longitudinal stripe of crude and solidified
city milk, to wards it. Opening the door
with an impetuosity that made the clerk
spring over the counter and seek safety be
hind a glass case, ho fixed his eyes with
the ferocity of a bereaved maternal tigress
upon the slim and trembling attendant and
hoarsely growled,—
“Poison! give me poison.”
"Eh—ah—whatt" gasped the horror
stricken clerk from his place of refuge.
"Poison! do you hear!" thundered the
youth furiously.
With a shaking hand the clerk filled a
phial and overrun the liquid on his new, in
expressibles, but not heeding this mishap he
placed the significant label 'poison,' on the
bottle, and standing on tip-toe reached it
over the show-ease to his dangerous cus
tomer. Clutching it fiercely the doomed
young man hurled a quarter at the head
of the clerk, and then hurried to his lodg
ings.
When he reached his own room the ex
citement had passed away, but it was suc
ceeded by a cool deliberation and determi
nation that it was as absolutely blood-chil
ling as a cold duck in December. Un
dressing, he prepared for bed, and then
seizing the phial of poison he drank its
contents unfaltering. Getting into bed
he aroused his chum, who had slept
through the whole of the terrible scene,
and bade him arise and call his parents and
also send for his false lady-love to come
and see him die. His request was com
plied with, and soon his weeping parents
arrived to bless their dying son. While
they were lamenting over him the door
opened and Susan—the cruel, but now re
pentant object of his love—entered the
room. As she approached the bed side of
the expiring youth, he raised himself feebly
and said,—
"Susan for thee I die!" and sunk back
helpless on his pillow.
Who shall paint the anguish, the agony
of the lovely maiden? With shrieks that
rent the air into shreds and drove the an
cient tabby from the room, she rushed to
her doomed lover and implored his forgive
ness. She called him by every endearing
epithet, but alas it was too late,—too late!
Fondly she embraced him,—tenderly she
parted the hair from his brow and kissed
his pale forehead. They were reconciled
while he was on the brink of eternity.
But the poison was at work within; ho
felt it coursing its burning way through
every vein. He was conscious that he had
but a few short moments to live, when his
chum, who had entered to bid him a last
farewell, inquired what he had taken.—
Perhaps there was an antidote.
"Alas—no" murmured the unhappy
victim; "it is too late to think of remedies.
lam almost gone. The bottle of poison
is on the mantle: I do not know its name."
The chum seized the phial; he looked at
what remained of the fatal draught,—
dubiously he sighed, and extracting the
cork applied it to his olfactory proposcis.
Three long sniffs took he and the phial fell
with a crash from his almost palsied hands,
while in a tone of wonder ho ejaculated—
" Catnip! by thunder!"
'What!' exclaimed the expiring lover,
springing bolt upright in bed.
"Extract of catnip, sure as skunks; you
are not poisoned at all.
With one bound the dying man gained
the middle of the room. His lady-love fled
in dismay and picking up the fragments of
the phial, he soon satisfied himself that it
was indeed catnip be had swallowed.
Great was his rage at the discovery;
with horrid imprecations on the luckless
wight who had deceived him, he got into
his clothing, and arming himself with a
big stick he sallied forth to wreak bloody
vengeance on his devoted head. But to
his deep disappointment the drug store was
closed and the attendant was gone. Ta
king the edge off his wrath by shaking out
of his boots a small boy whom ho encoun
tered on his homeward way, he swore a
deep and terrible oath of vengeance on the
druggist's clerk, to be inflicted the first
time he encountered him at largo and in
the open air after sundown. Horrible to
hear wore the words ho breathed, and the
oath was registered—somewhere.
And now each night may be seen a slon-
HUNTINGDON, PA., THURSDAY, MAY 20, 1852.
der stripling wending his way homewards
at a rapid pace. He has a big bowie
knife and revolver in each hand, yet he
starts at every foot step and trembles at
every shadow! ever and anon ho casts
looks of terror behind, for he fears the
avenger. It is the, doomed druggist's
clerk, and since the threat of the poisoned
man has been told him, he has grown so
thin that his employer intends to use him
as an illustration to a course of lectures on I I
anatomy.
MORAL.—When a rejected young man,
bent on suicide, seeks to purchase poison,
let him have it, it is decidedly the best
thing he could take, and by complying
with the request the apothecary may es
cape a further drubbing.
Secondly, young men—when you
, gget the mitten," don't commit suicide
in a hurry, if you do you, may live to re
pent it.—Carpet Bag.
THE PEEL FAMILY.
110 W =EY BECAME BO AIM
Below is an interesting history of the
inventions by which old Peel became the
founder of a family so eminent in their
country. We are inclined to think the old
woman was as hard working, industrious a
person, as the grandmother of the Ameri
can Minister's daughter:
Almost every person has been led to
suppose, from the notices which have ap
peared about him, that he was the descen
dant of some haughty house, the offspring
of a lordly raoe. But this he is not; his
great wealth was acquired by the sagacity,
enterprise and ingenuity of his grandfather,
and the purchase of ono useful invention
for a small sum. An account of this will
not be uninteresting, and it will enable tts
to review briefly the progress of one art,
namely, calico printing. During the early 'I
part of the last century, calico printing was
not known in England. This kind of
goods derived the name from Calcutta,
from which place they were taken to Eng
land. Among the men in England who
took a lively interest in her rising manu
facturers, was the grandfather of Robert
Peel, a small but industrious farmer of
Blackburn, in Lancashire. Ho was the
inventor of the card cylinder for carding
cotton cloth—cutting his own blocks, ma
king his own colours, printing the goods,
and then his wife and daughters set
to work and ironed them. This was a clum
sy way to finish calicoes, but it was the
only way known then, and there was an
abundant sale for them, however coarse
their finish. But the old farmer was not sat
isfied with this slow process, and no doubt
he was a considerate man, for he set his
inventive faculties to work, and invented
the mangle, which at onoo relieved his
wife and daughters of their severe toil, and
finished his goods much quicker and far
better. He afterwards got other machine
ry for finishing, kept it secret, and produ
ced the best finished goods then in the Eng
lish market, and he was soon at the head
of an extensive business and possessed of
groat wealth for he was prudent and eco
nomical also. His son, the father of Sir
Robert, greatly assisted him, and became
a very rich man. He was also a man of
great ingenuity, and is accredited with
printing calicoes with the pattern engrav
ed on a copper revolving cylinder—impres
sing the pattern on the cloth which is fed
between it and another cylinder covered
with a blanket. This was an improvement
for great speed over block printing; but
the styles of block printing long and suc
cessfully competed with all other kinds,
and only for the successive quarrels be
tween the printers and their employers,
would still be a good and extensive busi
ness. In France block printing is still
carried on quite extensively. It is stated
that Sir Robert Peel's father purchased
the secret of making resist paste, from a
person named Grouse for twenty-five dol
lars and that ho realized fifty thousand
times that sum out of it. This paste is
printed on white cloth, the cloth, then
dyed, and afterwards washed, when all
those parts which have been covered
with tho paste, appear white—the white l
and the blue common calico putt erns.
Without Benefit of Clergy.
We often hear this phrase, but very few
comprehend its real meaning. Most per
sons suppose it means that a criminal shall
have no spiritual adviser, or roligous con
solation previous to his execution. But
this is a popular error. The dark cloud of
barbarism which succeeded the downfall of
the Roman empire having nearly effactod
literary pursuits, the attention of the no-1
bility, and the body of the people placed
above labor, was wholly absorbed by mili
tary exercise and the chase, while the re
gular and secular clergy, became for ages
with some exceptions, almost the sole de
positozies of books, and the learned lan
guages. As It is natural to respect what
we do not understand, the Monks turned
the advantage to good account, and it gra
dually became a principle of common law,
that no common clerk, that is to say, no
priest should be tried by the civil power.
This privilege was enjoyed and abused
without restriction, till the reign of Henry
the Second, when the council, or parlia
ment of Clarendon, or the sense of the na
tion, was provoked by murder, rape, and
other crimes, to set bounds to ecclesiastic
licentiousness, by a salutary regulation on
this subject, but a law so necessary was
evaded by the insolence of Becket, and the
base pusillanimity of King John, and his
successor.
During a period equally disgraceful to
the monarch and the clergy, a provision,
artful because it seemed to wear the face of
a remedy, was enacted, by which any per
son tried for felony and found guilty, was
pronounced to bo exempt from punishment
si legit ut clericus, if he was able th read
as a priest. From this finesse the monks
derived considerable emolument, by teach
ing prisoners to read, which, however odi
ous or bloody their crimes—rescued them
from the penalty of the laws, and also an
swered another important purpose as by
those means, men of the most desperate
character were thus rendered humble and
obedient tools of the church. This lucra
tive monopoly remained, till it was provi
ded against in the twenty-seventh year of
the reign of Edward the Third; but the
noxious weed grow up in a shade of ignor
ance and confusion, during the bloody con
tests of the houses of Lancaster and York,l
till it received a considerable check under
Edward the Sixth, when it was determined
that no person convicted of manslaughter
should claim the benefit of clergy, unless
he is a peer of the realm, or a clerk in
priest's orders; and by the ninth of James
the First, it was entirely taken away from
those delinquents.—Gazette of Union. ,
Universal Relationship.
You cannot go into the meadow and
pluck up a'single daisy by the roots, with
out breaking up a society of nice relations,
and detecting a principle more extensive
and more refined than mere gravitation.—
The handful of earth that follows the tiny
roots of the flower is replete with social el
ements. A little social circle had been
formed around that germinating daisy.—
The sunbeam and dew drop met there; and
the soft summer breeze came whispering
through the tall grass to join the silent
concert. And the ear took them to the
daisy germ: and they all went to work to
show that flower to the sun. Each mingled
in the honey of its influence, and they nur
sed the “wee oanny thing" with an aliment
that made it grow. And when it lifted its
eyes towards the sky, they wove a soft car
pet of grass for its feet. And the sun saw
it through the green leaves, and smiled as
he passed on; and then by starlight and by
moonlight they worked on.
And the daisy lifted up his head, and
ono morning while the sun was looking, it
put on a silver-rimmed diadem, and show
ed its yellow petals to the stars.—And it
nodded to the little birds that were swim
ming in the sky, and all of them that had
silver lined wings came, and birds in black
and gray and Quaker brown oame; and the
querulous blue bird, and the eourtsoying
yellow bird came; and each sung a native
air at the coronation of the daisy.—(Elihu
Barrit.)
A Cmtz FOR SORE EYES.—The dust on
an honest miller's hat,
4,tiorttaL
The Men with Teihe
A year or two ago some Prohch travel
lers in Africa reported the existence of a
negro tribe with tails. Lately, Count do
Castlonau, the Wcplora of South America,
well known and highly esteemed in the
United States, communicated to the Geo
graphical Society of Paris, the result of
some personal inquiries at Bahia, which
seem to confirm in a measure the direct re
port:
found myself there,' ho says, in the
midst of a host of negroe slaves, and thought
it possible to obtain from them information
of the unknown parts of the African eon-
tinent. I soon discovered that the Mahow
cdan natives of Soudan were more advan
ced in mind than the idolatrous inhabi
tants of the coast. Several blacks of Ha
oussa and Adamo.wah related to me that
they had taken part in expeditions against
a nation called Niam Niaws who had tails.
They traced their route on which they en
countered tigers, giraffes and wild camels.
They reached at length a people of the
same complexion as themselves but with
tails from twelve to fifteen inches long.
The Haouses massacred the greater part of
the tribe; among the bodies wore some fe
males with the apendage and both sexes
went entirely naked. Some lived in hov
els, but the greater part in caves. The
only article of furniture seen among them
was a wooden bench pierced with a hole to
accommodate the tail!"
This circumstance is comical enough; the
witnesses declared that they had handled
the excrescence and cut it. The Count
does not guaranty the statements; he in
tends to publish separately the interroga
tions and answers along with the maps, &c.,
of distinct tribes which ho procured in his
researches in Brazil.
Singular and Fatal Accident.
The following singular and fatal acci
dent is stated in the Norwich Courier. It
occurred at Danielsonville, Ct., a few days
since. A young lad of about fourteen--
only son of Mr. Edwin Ely, of that place,
and a member of Mr. Abbot's family school
of Norwich, rose early in the morning with
the intention of going a fishing. But as it
was only three o'clock, his father remon
strated with him, and induced him to re
turn to bed. At four o'clock he again got
up for the same purpose, but was finally
persuaded to wait until he should got some
breakfast. Immediately after getting his
breakfast, he harnessed a horse into a small
wagon and started off, as his parents sup
posed, to a trout brook, two or three miles
distant.
Instead of going to the trout brook,
however, ho drove down to Killingly Pond,
and was afterwards seen driving in various
directions, sometimes fast, sometimes slow,
sometimes in tho road, sometimes on the
sides of the road, and sometimes in the
field, urging the horse over the roughest
places and oven over the stone fences; at
last was soon to drive with headlong speed
down the steep bank of the Quienebaug
river into the middle of the stream. The
horse was soon drowned, and the boy float
ed off on the wagon seat, and was also
drowned. His body was recovered the
next day. Ho had just recovered from
sickness, and it is supposed that he was la
boring under mental derangement at the
time of the above accident.
I:l7"Why art thou sad, my love, to-day?
what grief is frowning o'er thy heart? Why
dolt thou droop and turn away, and why do
tears unbidden start? When first I wooed
thee in thy islo—Erin emerald of the deep—
I saw thee, sweetest, only smile, nor even
1 1 thought that thou couldst weep. The sun
1 1 of summer lights the earth, the zephyr's
kiss is on the cheek; and nature calls thee
back to mirth, then be not, prythoo, love,
so weak." While thus I spoke, my
som's queen, one deep, fond glance up
on me stealing, exclaimed, "Bejabors, but
you're green! It's onions, sure, Pans af
ter peeling."
ltrAn Irishman ruminating in his bliss
upon tho bank of a Southern crook, espied
a tarrapin pluming itself. "Ooh honor
exclaimed ho solemnly, "that ivon should
come to Amoriky to see a snuff box walk."
'Whistl' said his wife, "Don't be after ma
kin' fun of the bird."
NUMBER 20
A Tale of Sadness.
We loath' by the New Orleans papers
that a woman of rare beauty has for some
days past been wandering about new Or
leans; asking every ()nestle meets for her
child. Poor demented creature, her ques
tion IS a Valli one,-for the child she seeks
is sleeping its last sleep in the chill bosom
of the grave! But it were useless to speak
to the'ehirdlesemother. She has a mona
maniac's" belief in the existence of her dar
ling,- which no words of cold dissuasion can
alter or efface. Though one and another
tell her that they know nothing of the Alit],
still she persuee the calm tenor of her way,
and to the next comer repeat's her inquiry
with hope unwavering.- The youth and'
beauty of the poor,- demented one, added'
I to the palpable cause of her insanity, have'
' created a lively interest in her behalf. She
was as it would seem, married young, and'
l yonng she became a widow and a mother.
The loss of her husband was woad blow to'
her, but the loss of her child slid could not,
bear, and it left her what she is—insane.
Alas! poor childless one!
INTERESTING FROM TEXAS.—WO have
dates' from Texas to the 23d ult., from
which we learn that the corn and cotton
crops were very promising, although tho
web worm was doing some damage to the
cotton. The great fair at Corpus Christi -
was attracting much attention, and five or
six vessels were about to leave Galvestion
for the exhibition. The anniversary of the.
battle of San Jacinto was celebrated at-
Galveston on the 21st, by the Odd Fellows,'
and also at Houston—a grand ball closings
the festivities in each place.
A Convention of the Whigs of Eastern•
Texas was to be held at Tyler, Smith coun
ty, on the 20th ult., and one of the Whigs'
of Western Texas is to be held at Houston ,
on the 6th of May, to elect delegates to the
National Whig Convention, nominate Pres
idential electors for the State, and appoint
a State Central Committee.
The town of Goliad has been selected as
the site of the Presbyterian College in
contemplation. The town gives to the Pres
bytery the old Aranama Mission build
ing, together with twenty acres of land on
which it stands, and one league of the unsold
land of the town tract.• The citizens of
the country also subscribed 20,000 acres of
land.
Two trains, consisting of twenty largo
wagons, five carriages, and a number of
persons destined for California, loft Indi
anola on the 16th for El Paso and New
Mexico. At San Antonio about 75 Cali
fornia emigrants were to join the party.
LOST GOLD RECOVERED.—The Louis
vino Journal states, that a few days ago
the trunk belonging to Mr. Merritt, of
Nashville, containing $12,000 in gold dust,
lost on the steamer Robert Rogers, was
fished up from the bottom of the river.- The
gold was the total result of two or three
years labor in California, and the recovery
of the trunk was certainly an extra pieoo of
hick.
117 - No two things diffor more than hur
ry and dispatch; hurry is tho park of a weak
mind—dispatch of a strong ono.
117°This may bo said for lovo, that if
you strike it out of the soul, life would
bo insipid, and our being but half anima
ted.
l3Thero is nothing Me a fixed, steady
aim with an honorable purpose. It digni
fies your nature, and insures you success.
--- 'llen often aro not aware of what se
vere and untiring labor they are capable,
until they have made trial of their strength.
11'Love of praise dwells moat in great
and heroic spirits, and those who best dea
-1 erve it have generally the moat (Aguish
relish of it.
rrThat calm and elegant satiafaotion ,
which tho vulgar call melancholy, is the
true and proper delight of mon of knowl
edge and virtue.
it "Wife," said a man, looking for
bootjack "I have places whore I keep my
things, and you ought to know it." Yes,"
said she I ought to know where you keeg
your late hours."—Old but good.
Custon gives the name of poverty
to the want of surattitcs.