SULLIVAN REPUBLICAN,
W. M. CHEIi'EY, Publisher.
VOL. VII.
LIFE IS ALL RIGHjr.
Tho summer winds is round- the
bloomin' locus' --trees,
And the clover in it he a. big dayfor
tho bees,
And they been la-swiggm' honey,, above
board and- on>the sly.
Till they stutterjiiiitheir 1 uizzin'fandt stagger j
, as the fly.
They'e been aheap\of rain, but thejsun'siout.
to-day.
And the clouds-of tlieftwetospell is . all clear <1
away.
And the woods is all -W ho greener, and«the
grass is-greener IstSll;
It may rain again - twmorry,but Iwdon't
think it will.
Some sav the crcps is nlined,-andttho corn's
drownded out,
And propha-sy theivheat*will lie a failure,,
without doubt;
But tho kind Providence that,.has never
failed us yet,
Will boon hand oue't ♦ more - atSth o. 'leventh
hour, I hot!
Does tho medder-larlt«complain,ias hoiswims
high and dry,
Through the waves of thotwind and t the blue.
of tho sky?
Does the quail set up and-whistlednai disap-.
pinted way,
Er hang his head in silence and rsorrow all
the day?
Is the chipmuck's health a failure? Does he
walk, ot does he run?
Don't the buzzards ooze around rup tharc,
jus* like they've alius done?
Is there anything the matter with tho roos
ter's lungs or voice?
Ort a mortal be complaining when dumb ani
mals rejoice?
Then let us, one and all, be contented with
our lot;
The Juno is here this morning and the sun is>
shining hot.
Oh, let us fill our hearts with the gfory ol
tho day,
And banish ov'rji doubt and caxe and sorrow
far away I
Whatever be our station, with Providence
for guide,
Such tine circumstances ort to make us satis
fied; '
For the world is- full of roses, and the roses
full of dew,
And the dew is full of heavenly love that
drips for me and you.
—James Witcomb Riley.
GRANDFATHER'S CLOCK
BY CORNELIA JiEPOS.
I was coming up the street to-day,
hurrying home to dinner, when a brass
band struck up "My Orandtatlier's
Clock." I -was in haste, but I stopped
to hear it, not because I particularly ad
mire the air, but because there came be
fore my mental vision a most distinct
memory of a childish adventure of my
own, connected with my grandfather's
clock. In recalling it, lam well aware
that much of the story must have been
told me by older people, but my own
share will never leave my memory.
I was six years old when my father
died, and my grandfather offered a home
to my widowed mother and myself.
I know now that poverty alone would
not have driven my mother to accept this
offer, but she knew that she had an in
curable internal disease that might spare
her life for years, but would make it diffi
cult for her to earn a living. She could
take charge of my grandfather's house
keeping, but was often compelled to re
main for several days together in her own
room.
To sny that my grandfather was an ill- |
tempered tyrant gives but a faint idea of
his utterly unreasonable demands and
love of power. Sometimes he would not
speak to any member of the whole house
hold for a week; he would refuse to come
to the table when meals were served, and
give way to furious rage when, two
hours later, the food was set before him
utterly ruined by delay. Only the ex
treme gentleness of my mother's disposi
tion made her life endurable, and she was
happy only when alone with me, direct
ing me to sew and knit, and allowing me
to help her when she was able to make
delicacies for the table.
Our sitting-room was on the first floor,
and was a combination of study, library,
sewing-room, and school-room, for in the
cold weather it was the only place in the
house, excepting the kitchen, where we
were allowed to have a fire. The dining
room between sitting-room and kitchen
shared the warmth of each. In one corner
of this sitting-room, where every article
was of the fashion of a century before,
was the clock that governed the household
movements. It was ten feet high, and
four wide, with a mahogany case and
two partitions as the sides where the
weights hung. The pendulum swung
Dy itself in the central division, and
Above was the big white face with the
dial. There was no mechanism about it,
excepting the clock-work to record the
time and strike the hour, but it was a
reliable time-keeper and the especial ob
ject of pride to my grandfather. I think
LAPORTE, PA., FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1889.
my childish awe of it was so great that 1
should have expected to be hanged or
otherwise put to death-if I touched'it.
Every Saturday night my mother held
the candle while my grandfather wound
it up, and I stood and watched the two
.heavy weights slowly rise from the floor
to the top, -making "the ascent in a few
momentsthat it would take them -a wliolo
week to re-travel. My grandfather al
ways spoke of it as a precious Jegacy that
•would one day be mine, thereby filling
me with horror, as if he were going to
to leave me a skull or a skeleton. I was
a timid child, and my greatest terror was
that clock. The whirr of its-wheels be
fore striking the slow, loud strokes, the
solemn tick, all inspired me with a fright
as great as it was entirely unreasonable.
Our household' jonsisted of two women.
'servants and one ian besides4he family,
and. our days were passed in a dreary mo
notony. My gram. v ather was proprietor
of a large calico 1 story that was man
.aged entirely by at usted clerk, except
ing the payment of the hands. Every
"Friday he went to Stockton, the nearest
town, to draw from .l bank the money for
this purpose. And every Saturday after
noon he drove to the factory and paid the
.wages for the week. It was a custom of
such long standing that no one associated
any idea of danger with it, and no sick
ness or weather had ever, to my knowl
edge, .prevented the weekly journeys.
I must explain here my own state o£
mind when I had been three years with
my grandfather. I feared him with the
most intense fear, having felt the weight
of his heavy hand for every trifling of
fence that came to his knowledge. I
hated him as only a child can hate, hav
ing no active sense of the duty of sup -
pressing that emotion. I hated him for
always speaking unkindly to my mother,.
,for his mean, saving spirit that kept us
all half clothed and half-starved, when I
knew he was a rich man. I hated him
►for denying me every childish pleasure,
and trying to make my mother bring me
up by his own iron rules. And with this
hatred was the knowledge that"when he
died I would have all his money, lie had
a superstitious horror of making/his will,
believing that it would be followed by his
death, and I was his only heir-at-law.
He made no secret of this himself, but
delighted to taunt mc with his robust
health and my sickly weakness, and tell
me I would never live to spend his money,
much as I might desire it.
He had been particularly savage on that
point one Friday evening in December,
when he had returned from Stockton to
find me lying on a sofa with ucrvous
headache. He shook the tin box in
which he had his money in my face,
and told me that I would never spend
it, as his life was worth ten of mine.
"Lying there with your pasty, white
face!" he growled, ''and eyes like goose
berries. A nice substitute you are for
my son! You are not worth your funeral
expenses!"
Something had made him more ill
tempered than usual even, and he kept
up a running fire all the cveniug of try
ing speeches, scolding my mother for
waste and extravagance, threatening to
cut down the meagre housekeeping "al
lowance still lower; swearing at me for a
wretched, sickly mite, not worth iny salt.
It was a miserable three hours, and at
ten o'clock, when he went to bed,
mother and I cuddled into each other's
arms and had a good cry.
It was a bitter cold night, and I was
curled up in a nest of shawls in a warm
room, and gave a little shudder at the
prospect of the icy-cold chamber and
sheets above us. Mother noticed it.
"Suppose you stay here," she said.
"I will come down in the morning be
fore your grandfather is awake and call
you; and you are so comfortable you
will soon fall asleep."
Stay there! Stay alone, with that hor
rible clock in the room, all night! I,
who had never slept alone in all my life!
And yet, it was so cold up stairs, and my
nest so deliriously comfortable. The
.physical sense conquered, and I saw my
mother depart with the candle, for we
dared not have a light left burning. I
tried to sleep in vaiu. The clock ticked
as if every stroke was made with a ham
mer on my brain; the darkness was in
tense, and suddenly I heard stealthy steps
in the hall. The climax was too much
for my strained nerves, and I sprang to
the door of the dining room, forgetting
that it was always locked at night, and
the key in my grandfather's room. No
chance of a stolen crust, in that house.
A hand on the hall door drove ine
nearly frantic, and with the instinct of
concealment only. I opened the clock case
and curled down the door, holding the
pendulum fast in my shaking hands. The
door opened, and the steps came into the
room. Darkness all around us, and my
terror of burglars almost an insanity, my
situation may be imagined.
"He's- not asleep yet," a voice said, and
I knew the speaker was. our man-servant,
Robert. He always sits up o' -Friday
night to count the - money and sort it
sout."
"Sure he's got itr?" said a strange
.--voice.
"Sure? Of-course yl'm .sure. Don't
I drive him over every Friday of his
blessed life to-dfaw it out o' bank?"
"We can get it now, then. If we knock
him on the head, there's only a lot o'
.women in the house."
"No," said Robert. "We'll get tho
money, but I'm. not hankerin' for a rope
round my throat vet. We'll wait awhile."
"Let's go outside and-see if tho light
is-burning in his room yet."
Creeping.softly, slowly thoy crossed the
hall to the-kitchen, and I lay almost un
conscious, too much terrified to move. It
was some minutes Inter when a light
came across the room, striking the glass
of the clockface, and I heard my grand
father say:
"H'm! 'I was mistaken! I thought
only one of'em went to bed. That brat
is coddled ?to death! Sleeping down
here next!"
, He pokediaboutiawhile, stirred up the
shawls, on thei sofa and went off, having
passed the enftire time in muttering abuse
.of my mother; and myself.
"Let themasteal his money!" I thought,
in guilty delight. "Let them knock
him-on the bead. Serves-him right!"
Then in the darkness I seemed to see
him with a great gaping wound in his
gray hair, and the blood streaming down
his face. Would I be hung, too, if the
men killed him? 1 1 would have all his
money!
It was terriblii—was it not?—for a
hesitate, but I did; and when I
crept out of the clock-case and wont
softly up the stairs, 1 lingered, half re
solved togo to my mother'rmd let the
robbers do their-worst.
My timid knock was answered by a
! snarling permission to enter. Before the
torrent of abuse I saw* preparing was
uttered, I said:
"Grandfather, Robert and another
man are down stairs, waiting for you to
goto sleep to steal your money and kill
you!"
A grim look came into his face.
"That's a nice lie!" he said.
"It is true! They came into the sit
ting room, and I was getting warm.
They did not see me, and they said they
would wait till you were asleep, because
Robert don't want to kill you."
"Highly considerate of Robert!"
"You don't believe me," I said, "but
it is true! They are watching your win
dow now, to come in when your light is
out."
"I do believe you. Will you help me
'to save my life and my money?"
"Yes," I answered, afraid to refuse.
"They cannot jump from these win
dows, and there is only one door. I'm
going for the police, to Stockton. I can
slip down to the barn aud saddle Jupiter
while they are at the front watching my
light. Will you stand close to the door,
and as they creep in, will you shut it on
them, aud lock it? Wait until you hear
me bark like a dog, then blew out the
candle, stand close to the door, and trap
them. Can I trust you?"
"Yes! I will do it!"
Cnlcl :is ice,mmrj r heart beating like a
hammer, I saw my grandfather wrap up
for his cold ride, take the cash box out of
the room, and go softly down the stairs.
In one hand he held a pistol.
"In case I meet them," he said.
But he did not. I could hear his
stealthy steps cross the hall, creep through
the kitchen, and, after a time that seemed
hours to me, I heard the bark like a dog.
I blew out the candle and pressed myself
against the wall close to the door. Colder
and colder I grew, my heart seemed chok
ing me, my head ached frightfully, but I
never stirred.
After what seemed hours of time, the
creeping steps came up the stairs, and
two shadowy forms passed me into the
room. I caught at the door, shut it, and
turned the key. One shout I heard in
side and then fell in a dead faint in the
hall. My grandfather came at last with
policemen and found me on my mother's
bed, murmuring deliriously, but with the
key of the door clasped tightly in my
hand.
I was ill for weeks, but came back, J
not only to health, but to happiness. My
grandfather never again spoke harshly to j
ine, but would tell friends and neighbors I
of his "plucky little girl, who was worth
two boys."
He forgave mo for stopping his clock
for the first timu in his memory, and was
gradually won to a sort of surly good
nature to my mother, and more liberal ex
penditure in housekeeping. Indeed, it
was-soon remarked that I "could do any
thing with the old gentleman," and I was
his favorite until he breathed his last in
my arms, leaving me his fortune, includ
ing his clock.— New York Ledger.
Two "Scoops."
When the Prince of Wales visited
America, the New York Herald m;.n got
a scoop on all his esteemed contempora
ries by holding a wire against all comers.
This was at Niagara Falls, and there was
but one wire at-that time to New York.
The Herald reporter started sending in
his messages, and until he had finished
none of the other men could send in
theirs, lie telegraphed every mortal
thing that he could think of, described
all the suits the Prince of Wales wore
and what the Duke of Newcastle said and
did, aud what, every member of the suite
thought and were likely to think about,
and finally he had to fall back on the only
book available, a copy of the New Testa
ment, most of which was telegraphed to
the Herald in New York. By the time he
had finished with the volume it was then
too late for any of the other newspaper
men to send in a special. If the men in
the Herald office read all the dispatches
that came in from the New Testament,
the big sum of money paid for the tele
graph bill would not have been alto
gether wasted.
In America the only trouble that corre
spondents have is to get the news. Once
they have that, there is no doubt about
its being telegraphed. In Europe the
correspondents have another difficulty to
contend with, and that is, even after they
have their special information, and after
they hand it into the telegraph office, it
is some times not pent. During the trouble
some times in Spain a while ago, a news
paper correspondent found that no matter
what information 1.; managed to get it
was never forwarded from the Spanish
telegraph office. The Government of the
day took care that no news that it did not
wish togo abroad should be sent. This
correspondent then wrote to his friend in
London that when he received the next
dispatch he \\as to count every fifth word
and cable only every fifth word to New
York. He wrote his dispatches after that
on this principle. Whenever he got a
good piece of news he telegraphed a long
rigmarole to his friend in London, which
when read as it was sent appeared to be
a long talk of financial and domestic
troubles which were bothering him at that
inie, but when every fifth word was taken
out it gave the news he wanted to send.
This the Spanish people never got "onto,"
and so the correspondent secured many
scoops for his paper.— Detroit Free Press.
Parchment.
The use of parchment was known at a
very early period. The invention is ac
credited by some historians to Eumenes
11.. King of Pergamos, who reigned 197-
159 B. C., but according to Herodotus
the Indians wrote on skins before that
time, and it is certain that parchment was
made and used i i Egypt centuries before
Kur.ier.es lived. Parchment that in color
and delicacy might well compare with
modern paper was manufactured in Syria
and Arabia. The ancient processes of
making parchment did not differ essenti
ally, probably, from those now in use.
For certain purposes to which parchment
is applied no substitute for it has ever
been found. The finer sorts are called
vellum, and are prepared from the skins
of calves, kids and lambs. The skin is
first freed from hair, then putin a lime
pit to cleanse it from fat. The pelt is
then stretched on a frame where it is
first scraped with a flesh knife, then care
fully rubbed down with pumice stone.
Lastly it is polished with finely powdered
chalk or fresh slacked lime and then
dried gradually, being stretched occa
sionally to prevent its wrinkling. A
green color is given to the parchment
with a solution of crystalized verdegris,
to which a little cream of tartar and nitric
acid have been added, and a blue color
with a solution of indigo. The heavier
parchment that is used for drum-heads is
made from the skins of older calves, he
goats and wolves; that for battledores is
from the skins of asses. The kind of
vellum sometimes used in binding is
made from pig skins. All of these are
prepared by essentially the same process
used in making vellum.— Chicago Jvter-
Oceiin.
Aluminum for dental purposes is said
to be coming into favor.
Terms— sl.2s in Advance; $1.50 after Three Months*
POPULAR SCIENCE.
The comet discovered by Professor
Barnard in September, 1888, has lost its
tail.
Dr. Gyrus.Edson, of New York, de
clares that tea is intoxicating and ex
plains why.
The great geological map of France,
commenced in 1852, has just been com
pleted, making .48-pages.
AiSamaden, Germany, a hot<d-proprie
tor utiliws-his electric light -plantain the
daytime -'for cooking?purposes.
Since-1880 encouraging progress has
been made, under an efficient superin
tendent, toward restoring the forests oi
Cape Colony.
By a new method of cementing iron
the parts cemented are so effectually
joined as to resist the blows even with a
sledge hammer.
An analytical balance of variable sensi
tiveness, adapting it to ordinary weigh
ings or delicate determinations, has been
brought out in Germany.
Nitric acid, a compound- of nitrogen
and oxygen, formerly-called aqua-fortis,
was first obtained in a separate state by
Raymond Sully, an alchemist, about'l2B7.
Wlieatstone concluded that electricity
traveled at the rate of 288,000 miles per
second, and Maxwell considered it to
travel at that or about the same speed as
that of light.
The British have built an ironclad of 12,-
000 tons, about twice the displacement of
our heaviest cruisers, which has developed
a speed of between seventeen and
eighteen knots an hour.
Paraguay is in the path of the mon
soons, which blow from tho northeast.in
the dry season, from December to the
end of April, and from the southwest
from July to the end of October.
Saws have been discovered in Germany
and Denmark which belonged to tho
bronze age. The metal of which they
were composed was cast into a thin sheets
arrd serrated by breaking the edge.
The "regal red poppy" has recently
been found to have the valuable powei
of binding with its roots the soil in which
it grows in such a manner that it will
prove most valuable in supporting em
bankments.
A large darning needle was found in
the liver of a deer recently killed in the
presence of a nobleman near Vienna. A
Viennese mieroscopist, who examined'the
liver, found it to be sound save in the
immediate proximity of the needle.
A Vienna man of science has published
statistics showing that one smoker con
tracts diphtheria to three non-smokers.
His theory is that tobacco smoke pro
tects the throat against microbes very
much as it destroyes parasites on rose
buds.
The British Museum authorities have
secured from South Kensington, at a
cost of S3OO, a section of the finest
meteorite known. No other specimen
has been found to contain such large
crystals of olivine and other constituent
matters. The main mass fell in Eagle
County, Oregon, a year or two ago, aud
is now in the Vienna Museum. Except
ing the latter collection, the show ol
meteorites at South Kensington is tho
mosv complete in the world.
Animals Wlih Hindsight and Foresight.
Nature has enableel some animals tc
see objects behind them as well as in
front without turning around. Tne hare
has this power in a marked degree. Its
eyes are large, prominent, and placed
laterally. Its power of seeing things iD
the rear is very noticeable in greyhound
coursing, for though this dog is mute
while running, the hare is able to judge
to a nicety the exact moment at which it
will be best for it.to double. Horses are
'mother instance. It is only necessary tc
watch a horse driven invariably without
blinkers to notice this. Let the drfver
even attempt to take the whip in hand,
and if the horse is used to the work he
will at once increase his pace. The gi
raffe, which is a very timid animal, is ap
proached with the utmost elifficulty, on
account of its eyes being so placed that
it can see as well behind as in front.
When approached this same faculty en
ables it to direct with great, precision the
rapiil storms of kicks with which it de
fends itself. Chicago Herald.
A Big Trout Farm.
Pennsylvania has a bit? trout farm neai
Emans station, 011 the East Pennsylvania
Railroad. There are eight ponds at the
farm, "which number by actual counl
24,700 brook trout and 2500 Californin
trout from one to four years of aire."
NO. 48.
FUN.
Electricity is a mighty dangerous force,
but some people make light of it.— Life.
The grave digger is always finding
himself in a hole in-the pursuit-of his'oc
cupation.
Speaking of classic lore the employment
of a Latin professor is an instance of
classic hire.
How happy our .neighbors might >be. if
they would only do as wc think they
ought to do!
Love is blind, and that's why lovers
think lighting the'gas is unnecessary.
—Boat-on Cotiric)'.
Old Maid—"Don't tell such blood
curdling stories; you make my teeth
chatter." Old Beau—"Look out they
don't fall out."— KpocK.
"The brave Dame Fortune's smiles
command," which brings this fact to
view, that 'tis the man who has the sand
who gets the sugar, too.
Education without experience is of
about as much use to a man as a lace pet
ticoat would be to the wife of an Eskimo
fisherman.— Boston, Courier.
The following contradictory inscrip
tion is on the door of one of our public
offices: "Positively no admittance.
Please close the door."— Life.
Lady (who has just missed her train,
to porter)—" Porter, how long will the
next train be?" Pbrter—"Oh, er, six
teen carriages and a van, mum."— Pick-
Mc- Up.
Mrs. Struckitt (who recently enter
tained a Count) —"Have you ever had
any foreign noblemen as gueßts?" Mrs.
Manorborn (quietly)—"No; only as ser
vants."
Low Comedfan—"Ah, old friend, have
you seen De Ranter in his new play?"
Comic Villain—"No, by all things malt,
I have not. Do the gods look kindly on
him?" Low Comedian—"Well, he
doesn't have much to do in the first or
second act; it's in the third where he wins
his laurels and the public heart." Comic
Villain—"Ah, some happy stroke of gen
ius." Low Comedian—(with touch of
nature) —"Yes, he don't come on at a 11.'."
—Time.
A Sun Dial Formed of Flowers
Probably nowhere in New England, and
probably nowhere in the United States,
are there more wonderful floral designs
than on the grounds of the State Lunatic
Hospital, in Danvers, Mass. The Italian
florist and landscape gardener, Ettore
Jassiuari, has completed his designs for
the season, and shows over one hundred
different beds, of which three large ones
attract great attention.
The main one is about seventy feet in
circumference at the base, and the foun
dation is a nuge mound, eight feet high.
In each side is a grotto, with back and
sides of masonry. Prom the top of each
grotto a stream of water is forcibly driven
and distributed in a trickling flow to a
pool beneath, from which another foun
tain sends a tiny stream into the air. Iu
each interstice, also, are numerous plants
—lobelia, century plant, palm, nirem
bergia, geranium, vinea, ivy and manj
other suitable varieties. On the front is
a calendar, the year hemmed in by a
scroll, and the day of week and mouth
in an oval frame. The top of the mound
is flat, and on it rests a great vase, made
wholly of plants. The vase is five and
one-half feet high and six and one-hall
feet in diameter and contains about three
carloads of loam. The vase is filled with
choice tall plants, so that the whole mar
velous design has quite an altitude.
"Sol's Clock" are the words on anothei
design at one corner of the principal
driveway. A pole of growing housclcek,
placed at the proper angle and toward the
north star, casts a shadow on Roman
numerals of St. Helena set in a horseshoe
of althernnnthera, the center of which is
a bed of blue lobelia.
Another design is in the shape of a
mound, surmounted by a handsomelj
formed turret of houseleek, supporting a
neat weather vane. In the bed beneath
are letters of growing plants which mark
the ]>oints of the compass. On the front
the weather predictions are given daily.
The word "weather" is permanent, and
over it is placed each morning the word
"fair," cloudy," or "rainy," according
to the forecast in the morning papers, the
boxes containing the words being porta
blc, as are those used iu arranging the
calendar on the main design. In thii
bed the moon's phases are also given. A
true-colored moon of proper shape repose!
in a dark bed, and over it appears tin
appropriate description: "New moon,'
"first quarter," etc.—JVow York Mail a—
ffrmw