W. 11 CHENEY, Publisher. VOL. IX. According to tho Mail and Krprtsz the United States now leads the world in the production of pig irou. Ohio oleomargarine men want natural butter inspected, claiming that three fourths of it isn't as good as oleomar garine. "It will not be long at the present rate of progress," believes the Washington Star, until the oyster will have joined the buffalo in the happy hunting grounds'' Within the past thirty years, estimates the Atlanta Constitution, the population of our cities and towns has increased 251 per cent., from 5,000,000 to 13,000,000, while the rural population has increased less than one-third as rapidly, or about seventy per cent. At the recent convention of strcet-car men in St. Louis, Mo., it was shown by statistics, avers the New York Worhl, that after fifteen fares have been rung up on an ordinary horse car all the re mainder of the money taken in for that trip is profit for tho company. There <trc 5000 Indians still living on reservations in Now York. They are civ ilized, well educated and never give anybody any trouble. The same is true of the Cherokcea in the Indian Territory. Tho ludians of the Northwest and far Southwest give us more trouble than alt of the others. The New York Mail and Express al leges that one of the great railroad cor porations paid $300,000 last year foi towing car floats arouud the harbor. The amount paid by the five great trunk lines would equal the interest on #30,000,000 —enough to construct two or three bridges and tunnels. The United States opened this yeai with 167,255 miles of railway in opera tion—enough, boasts tho Cincinnati En quirer, togo around tho globe seven times, and enough to reach more than two thirds of the way to the moon. If it were all in a continuous line, and in ab solutely perfect condition, it would take our fastest express train six months to ruu over it. With regard to Germany, who can wonder, asks the St. Louis Republic, at the increase there of socialism in view ing facts like these: In Saxony 73.51 per cent, of the population have an in come of less than S2OO a year; and of this number 45.49 per cent., are wretchedly poor, having an income of less than $125 per annum. The middle class embraces 23.47. Even these have less than SB2O a year. Only 0.60 pos sess over $2400 per annum. America is credited with many labor saving devices, but there are some of English origin, acknowledges the Boston Transcript, that throw our best into tho shade. One cf these—for the benefit of authors—is described in an English con temporary. There are persons, it says, "gifted with no faculty of writing, who for a small sum are prepared to contrive you all the involutions and evolutions of a story, with a full complement of heroes, villains, lovers, heavy fathers, scheming mothers, and all the rest of it." Captain J. M. Johnson, now a practic ing lawyer at Kendall, Kan., tells an in cident of tho battle in which Custer was killed. He and Colonel Myers, com manding a troop, were riding on the charge when they saw a squaw prone upon the frozen ground dead, and be tide her a four or five year old babe cry ing and begging her to arise. Taking pity on the papoose the Colonel ordered the First Sergeant to dismount and se cure the youngstor. Ho did so, and turning to the Colonel nonchalantly and pitilessly asked: "What shall I do with it— kill it?" The announcement that the Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin wanted Prince Bismarck for President of his Council of State was sufficient to prompt Em peror William to abandon a pleasure trip to Cannes. Now comes tho news that the people of Bavaria decidedly object to a review of their army by the German Emperor, although that army is au in tegral part of the defense of the Empire. On the horizon of Germany signs aro abundant, observes the St. Louis Star- Sayings, that the Bismnrckian fabric of Confederated States under Imperial rule is not so solid as it was on a certain day in March, 1 890, when its founder «u asked to step down and out. SULLIVAN REPUBLICAN. THE WAYSIDE WELL. Ho stopped at the wayside well, Where tho water was cold and deep; There were feathery ferns 'twixt the mossy stones. And gay was the old well sweep. Ho left his carriage alone; Nor could coachman or footman tell Why the master stopped in the dusty road To drink at tho wayside woll. He swayed with his gloved hands Tho well swoep, creaking and slow. While from seam and scar in tho bucko t's side The water plashed back below. Ho lifted it to the curb, And bent down to tho bucket's brim; No furrow of time or care had marked The face that looked back at him. He saw but a farmer's boy As he stoopod o'er the brink to drink, And ruddy and tanned was the laughing face That met his own o'er the briuk. The eyes were sunny and clear, And the brow undimmed by ciro, While from under the brim of tho old straw hat Strayed curls of chestnut hair. He turned a way with a sigh; Norcould coachman or footman tell Why the master stopped in his ride that day To drink at the wayside well. —Walter Learned. BRIGITTE'S FORTUNE. Short, thin, dry and wrinkled as an apple that lay withered during a long ■winter, such was the good man, Farmer Landry. Indeed, he was one of those close-fisted old peasants of whom it is graphically said that they can shave something from an egg shell. Since the death of his wife be had re tired from agriculture aud lived alone in a little house at the end of the village. And yet, not entirely, alone, for he had with him his old servant Brigitte. But the poor woman counted for so little in the household, a little above the dog, but not so much as the donkey, that cost a huudrcd and twenty francs. She entered his family at the age of twelve to guard the ccws, and had been there ever since. I She knew no other family life than this one, and the exceeding parsimony of the master seemed to her entirely natural. She was now a tall, hale woman of fifty, red-faced, square-shouldered, with feet and hands that might have been the pride of a pugilistic trainer. While ex acting very little in the way of compen sation, she drudged like a pack horse; for indeed, she could not do otherwise in Farmer Landry's house. Besides, in her simple mind existed a canine attachment and real admiration for her master, who was uot ashamed to take advantage of her good nature. 01" course, in the service of this* miser Brigitte had not earned a fortune. But the honest creature was amply satisfied when the old peasant, in a patronizing tone, praised her zeal: "What a good, simple creature you arc, Brigitte, are you not?" Then the good woman's moutli would open into a loud laugh. "He! he! he! master! You have al ways your little manner of joking; he! he! lie!" One day while Farmer Landry was him self replastering his garden wall, so as not to pay the mason, he made a false step aud fell into the pool just over the point whore the deepest hole was. He splashed wildly about for a few moments, calling vainly for help with all the power of his iungs. At last, worn out by his efforts, he was about to sink from sight, when Brigitte at last heard him. The devoted creature courageously jumped into the water, at the risk of diowning herself. She succeeded in pulling him to the bank; he was entirely unconscious, but she raised him in her strong arms, as she would a child, put him to bed, and with rubbing and remedies recalled him to life. On seeing hiin open his eyes, the good Brigitte shed tears of joy. "Ah, good master, how glad I aui that you aie uot drowned and buried in that hole!" The old peasant was glad of it, too, although he had one lively regret—t'uc loss pf his trowel, which fell into the water at the some time with himself. However, he had the decency not to ex press the wish that Brigitte should return and jump in after that also. Indeed, in the first impulse of gratitude, he said to his servant with a touch of emotion; "It is you who pulled me out of the hole; I shall never forget it, my good girl, you may be assured of that. lam going to make you a present." "Oh, master, indeed there is no need of that!" "But I tell you I will give you some thing; don't doubt it!" And really, the same evening, after a thousand hesitations, he drew forth his long leather purse aud called Brigitte to him. While making a grimace like one having a tooth drawn, lie selected a sil ver piece of twenty cents. Here, Brigitte, is your present. It shall not be counted in your wages, you know. Do not be extravagant with it; that would be a sin. For the service rendered it was not unbridled generosity on the part of the giver, and the former had some dim in timation of the fact, for he added (as if to enhance its value): "It is just the price of a lottery ticket. Buy one, my girl, and you may wiu twenty thousand dollar*." LAPORTE, PA., FRIDAY, MARCH 6, 1891. It was the first time In his lifo that the poor man allowed himself to be liberal, so the thought of it haunted hfm for a long time; he constantly wondered about the fate of his bright silver pieoo. He often asked the servant if sho had yet bought her lottery ticket. •'Not yet, master," was her unvarying answer. But at length she decided to end this constant questioning by pacifying him. So one day she replied : "Yes, master, I havo bought one." "Indeed! What number?" "Oh, the number is 34." "Very good!" said her master, repent ing the number to impress it on his mind. Be careful not to lose it!" "Never fear, master." "Because if you do fear sometimes to lose it " "Eh, master?" "Well, you need only give it to ine uud I will hide it in my bureau." "Oli, I shall certainly not lose it!" The habits of daily life in the little household, disturbed by these events, soon settled into their regular course; eating sparely, very temperate drinking, few hours for sleepiug and many for work. Farmer Landry was almost consoled for his forced prodigality, when one morning, in the barber's shop, where he went from time to time to read g<ratis the Gazette, a terrible emotion struck him. lie read the result of the lottery drawing and at the head these words, lilac lines of lire, flashed before the dazled spectacles of the good man: "The number thirty-four hosfwon the great prize of 100,000 francs. The old gentleman gave such u sudden cry that the startled barber, in turning towards him, almost clipped a corner from the ear of the schoolmaster, whom he was shaving. "What's the matter, Father (Landry?" he neked. "Oh, nothing, nothing," answered the farmer, who quickly recovered Tiis calm ness. Rearranging his spectacles, he read again slowly, spelling each syllable to "make assurance doubly sure." There was 110 mistake; tiie number .14, Brigitte's ticket, hud won.j lie dropped the journal and started off in great agi tation towards his house. Brigitte had prepared her master's frugal breakfastof nuts and cheese. lie placed himself at the table, but he could not eat, for his emotion seemed to clinch his throat and prevent him from swallowing. "What is the matter, master?" anx iously asked Brigiteo. "Nothing at all." •'You are not ill?" "No, I tell you," hetansweredangrily. During several days he secretly ob served the poor woman. Did she know that she had won 100(,000 francs? No ludccd ! Eutirely gnoa-ant that she was the object of such close scrutiny, she per formed her daily Inslcs with hor usual good humor, while her master was in a lever of unrest. One dny lie dared to asked her, tremb ling while doing so: "Is there any news, my good girl?" "Nothing, master, except that one of the hens has the pip." Very good ! She knew nothing about her good fortune. As for announcing it to her—that was entirely too much for his nature and long life habit. It seemed to him monstrous that another should prolit by this marvellous windfall of a hundred thousand franes, produced by his pieco of twenty sous—his own bright, silver bit! Time was lengthened from days to weeks. A notice in the journal (he really bought a copy of the one con taining the announcement) formally stated that after u delay of three months the unclaimed prizes would be employed for a new capital. The poor man had no more appetite for eating or drinking, or power to sleep; he was dying of uneasiness. Twenty times ho was on the point of speaking of the ticket to Brigitte; and twenty times he bit the tip of his tongue. One word only might put his servant in the way to learn her good fortune. One morning, after an uuusually sleep less night passed in turning and return ing in his bed, he with a smile on his thin lips. He had found the key to the problem. He commenced by order ing Brigitte to kill the plumpest chicken, and to cook it in the oven with a good piece of pork. And finally, ho gave his servant money to buy coffee and sugar. Brigitte asked herself if her inciter bed gone mad? "Surely some demon has taken pos session of his mind!" she thought with a thrill of fear. It seemed a fearful increase of tic malady when the old gentleman, aft;r having ordered her to lay the table fir two, asked her to take her place as his vis-a-vis. 'Oh, master, I should never, neter dare to do that!" "Sit down there, I tell you, foolish woman!" Brigitte had heard that one must not oppose the wishes of maniacs. So, without answering, she seated h<r sclf in great embarrassment on the edge of the chair. "Come, cat and drink, Brigitte, ny girl," he said, tilling her plate gentr ously. However, this was not the last surprise for Brigitte. When the coffee *os served the eld gentleman suddenly sai l: "You sec, my good Brigitte, tlis means that I am going *0 get mtr ried I" "Indeed, master, it is not yet too late; If you are old, you are (till hale Had well," answered tho simple servant, ap provingly. •'Since that is your view, if you like, we will marry each other." After the roast chicken and pork, and the coffee and sugar, Brigitte expected to hear almost any strange thing on the part of her master. But that! Oh, not that! "You arc joking me, master!" "Not at all," answered the old peas ant. Ho explained that he was growing old, was without children or family, and did not wish to die alone like a dog. Be side he was grateful! Ho could not ior gct that Brigitte had saved his life—his faithful Brigitte. One must not be for j getful of such a service. | Finally, the worthy woman, whose head was turned by this stroke of good fortune, believed in his sincerity. She, a humble servant, marry her master? Think of it! It was, indeed, something to turn one's brain. The bans were published, and the marriage followed. The couple were greeted at tho church by the good na tured smiles of the whole village. After the ceremony the new husband hurriedly conducted his wife home. Having crossed the threshold, hi hastily demanded in a joyful voice, while energetically rubbing his hands: "Brigitte, my girl, where have yoi! I put your ticket?" "What ticket?" "Your lottery ticket, No. 34?" "What lottery?" know very well," he cried, im ,-uently. "The one you bought with my twenty-sou piece, that I gave you!" The bride began to laugh stupidly. "All! the twenty sous! Listen, Mas ter. One seldom wins in those lotteries. It was very cold last winter, very cold." "Well, well?" interrogated Landry, who began to grow very yellow. "Oh, indeed," she concluded, "I did not buy the ticket. With the money 1 bought me some good fur-lined slippers, which I was sure would do mo good. Yes, indeed."— From the French, i? American Cultivator. The Indian Witch Dance. The Indittn witch, or medicine dance is very different from the performance! before described. It is really a weird affair, and almost as difficult to witnesi us tho celebrations that New England witches were said to indulge in in the olden time. It must have some religioui meaning, although the writer was nevet able to got exactly at what tho meaning was. The medicine men of tho Sioux d< not seek publicity in their incantations, and it was entirely by chance that ) came across three Indians going througt some peculiar operations, at a point ro mote from their camp. A stick about threo feet in height was stuck in the ground, and from it hung out in the breeze a long-haired scalp. The hail was dark, and looking on from a short distanco I could not tell whether the scalp was that of a white woman or an Indian. It might have been either. The three Indians were leaping and gesturing and at intervals mumbling something, not a song apparently, but disconnected words. Occasionally they would poiut toward the scalp. Then they would mumble again and jump about. They were not painted, and their attire was different from that of tho ordinary braves. They noticed me, and, while they made no demonstration of hostility, their expression meant plainly that they would rather be left alone. The shades of evening were falling on prairie and hill and river. The Missouri stretched like a mighty serpent below, its yellow waters tinctured with a ruddy stain by the final jDflcam of the setting sun, and here on this hill, away from the painted tents and tho silent Cottonwood, these children of nature were enacting their strange enchantment to move in some way that supernatural power which seemed to have deserted the Indian race. With eerie feelings I withdrew, leaving them to their superstitution, and conscious that perhaps its parallel might be found among more enlightened nations.— Chicago Herald. How to Visit the Qnceii. Should you be invited by Queen Vic toria to dinucr, the following, according to Edmund Yates in the New York Tri bune, is some of the etiquette that you will have to observe: Guests are expected to arrive in time to dress for dinner, aud they leave after breakfast the next morning. The rule is for guests to repair to the corridor in full dress at 8:30 o'clock, the dinner be ing 8:45, and the Queen comes in from her own apartments just a3 tho clocks chime the quarter, bows to the company aud proceeds into the oak room, where tho meal is served. The dinner is al- - ways excellent and the wines are superb, but tbe conversation at the table is of course most vapid and conventional. Af ter dinner the company usually stand about the corridor, or go into one of the three drawing rooms which adjoin it. Tho Queeu speaks a few moments to each person in succession, then retires, and the guests see her no more, as she never appears in the morning; so that a visit to the Castle does not involve mucli personal intercourse with her Majesty. After the Queen is gone to her rooms, the company remain in one of the draw ing rooms for music or whist, aud when the Indies retire the men adjourn to the smoking room, in which is a billiuru table, a very comfortable snuggery. Electricity has just bet a applied to the reeling, weighing and linking up into ball* of silk and similar woven fabrics. Terms—Bl.2s in Advance; $1.50 after Three Months. How She Impressed It 011 His Hind. Have our readers ever tried to remind themselves to attend to something of im portance by tying a knot in their hand kerchiefs and then when they came to take it out, racked their brains in vain to recollect what the knot was intended to recall to them? The housewife in the subjoined anecdote was evidently de termined to take no chances in the mat ter. A wife recently gave her husband a sealed letter, begging him not to open it till he reached his place of business. When he did so he read; "I am forced to tell you something that I know will trouble you, but it is my duty to do so. lam determined you shall know, let the result be what it may. I have known for a week that it wa3 coming, but kopt it to myself until to day, when it has reached a crisis, and I cannot keep it any longer. You must not censure me too harshly, for you must reap the results as well as myself. I do hope it won't crush you." By this time cold perspiration stood on the husband's forehead with the fear of some terrible unknown calamity. lie turned the page, his hair slowly rising, and read: "Tho coal is all used up! Please call and ask for some to be sent this after noon. I thought by this method you would not forget it." Ho didn't. Race Changes. Professor George Barbour, in his work ou the resources of Florida, describes the strange race of bipeds which isola tion and abnormal climatic influences have developed on the border of the tropics, in the next neighborhood of en terprising Yankee-like communities. But it is not possible that those com munities, too, will by and by experience the influence of a winterless climate? Thus far their energy has been sustained by a constant influx of Northern immi grants, but that influx will cease after the population of the North and South has reached the equilibrium of its dis tribution, and the "cracker" of tho hum mocks will then come to form the type of a new race. Strange metamorphoses have happened in Southern Europe, and only tho incontrovertible testimony of historical records can persvade an eth nologist to recognize the present in habitants of Sicily as the direct descend ants of athletic Grecian colonists and of the heroic Normans who followed Robert Guiscard across the Strait of Xv-ssiuu.— New York Voice. Han-Food. On tho large islands in the delta of the Amazon River there aro banana gardens which have continued to produce enor mous crops for nearly a hundred successive years, tho 'gh the cultivators never use iiny kind of fertilizers or think it neces sary to practice irrigation, or rotation of crops. Two hundred bushels of fruit per acre is considered only a moderate j'ield, while on the Irish potato farms in cessant toil and the use of all available fertilizers fails to insure the tenth part of that produce, and too often even fails to prevent complete degeneration of the plant of which millions have staked iheir hope of survival. It is true that the potato is not indigenous to the soil of the British Islands, but would it be possible to substitute any perfectly re liable food-plant, and might it not, after all, be the best plan to adopt Paul Courier's suggestion to devote the colder latitudes to pastures and factories and ruise our field crops in the tropic 3?—? — New York Voice. A Mexican Farm. "On one farm in Mexico I saw enough of the luxuries of life produced to make any man L.xppy," remarked C. F. Wood, of El Paso, Texas. "The farm was not large us some farms go in Moxico,it was, to use a slang phrase,a 'stunner.' I don't think the mind of man could imagine a vegetable product that could not be pro duced on that farm. At any rate I saw growing there coffee, sugar, rice,potatoes, rye, wheat, oats, c >rn, berries, cabbage, tomatoes, apples, bananas, cocoa, figs, cochineal, and a dozen other products. On the upper end of this farm you could find gold, silver, sapphires, onyx, and other precions stones. 'Some of these articles were not produced in quantities large enough to pay to market them, but they wore all found there, and all at the service of the owner of tho land. Oh, I suppose tho contained 10,000 or 20,000 acres of land, but it extended through all temperatures aud all eleva tions."—Kansas City Times. Something Abont Coal. It is said that when coal was first used in England the prejudice against it was so strong that the Houso of Commons petitioned the King to prohibit the use of tho "noxious" fuel. A royal procla mation having failed to abate tho nuis ance, a commission was issued to ascer tain who burned coal within the city of London and its neighborhood, to punish them by force for the first offense, aud by the demolition of their furnaces if they persisted in transgressing. A law was finally passed making it a capital offense to burn coal in the city, and only permitting it to be used by forges in the vicinity. It i.s stated that among the records in tho Tower of I<ondon a docu ment was found according to which a man was hung in the time of Edward I.for no other crime thau having been caught burning coal. It took three centuries to entirely efface the projudice. NO. 21. A TWILIGHT STORY. "Auntie, will you tell a story?" said my little niece of three, As the early winter twilight fell around us silently, So I answered to her pleading: "Once, when I was very small, With my papa and my mamma I went out to make a call; And a lady, pleased to see us, gave me quite a large bouquet, Which I carried homeward proudly, smiling all along the way. "Soon I met two other children, clad in rags and sad of face, Who grew strangely, wildly joyous as I neared their standing-place. Twas so good to see the flowers! 'Give us one—oh, one!' they cried. But I passed them without speaking; left them with their wish denied. Yet the mem'ry of their asking haunted me by night and day. 'Give us one!' 1 heard them saying, even in my mirthful play. "Still I mourn, because in childhood I re fused to give a flower; Did not make those others happy when X had it in my power." Suddenly I ceased my story. Tears were in my niece's eyes— Tears of tenderness and pity—while she planned a sweet surprise: "I will send a flower to-morrow to those little children dear." Could I tell her that their childhood had been gone this many a year? —Mary J. Porter, Harpers Bazar, HUMOR OF THE DAY. A peck of trouble—Henpcck. Can't bo curod—The stage ham. Brevity is often a sign of the poverty of wit. The gilded youth is simply fashion plated. Losing caste —An operation for stra bismus. Sunshine is molasses on the bread of nature.— Washington Star. We hate to see girls throw kisses. The average girl is such a bad shot.— Mercury. Take love and taxes out of life, und not much is left.— lndianapolis Journal. The man who can'J sing and has a baby if usually made Uf sing.— Elmira Ga zette. The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that wields thojßlfppera fow years later.— Life. People who live in glass houses should raise early vegetables for the New York markets.— Life. The New Theory: "Do you believe in a single tax?" "Not a single tax!" —Lowell Citizen. You cannot tell from the number of its feet how long a run a poem will have.— Norristown Herald. Funny, when a man starts out on a business career the more checks he re ceives the sooner he gets there.—Bing 'lumton Leader. It is one of the curiosities of natural history that a honse enjoys his food most when he hasn't a bit in his mouth.— Texat Si/lings. "It seems that lam not in it," said the boy to tho shark. "No," replied the shark, picking its teeth, "you're out of sight."— Chicago Neu>». What is more pathetic than to see tho simple faith with which a bald-headed man will buy an infallible hair restora tive from a tald-hcaded barber? Canine Person—"lam extremely sorry my dog has bitten your wife,sir." Affable Old Gent—"Don't mention it, I pray, sir; I likea dog to be a dog."— Judy. The kiss I stole from Eulle, With my choicest poem ranks, Because, to tell you truly, It was, "Returned with thanks." —Judge. Barker—"She didn't return your bow, did she?" Parker—"No. The next time I meet her 'l will explain to her tho rea son I was with you."— Muusey's Weekly. "That Sallie Ilarkins is tho greatest girl for getting bargains at second hand." "Isn't she? I understand she's poing to marry a widower."— New York Sun. A lady who advertised for a girl "to do light housework," received a letter from an applicant who said her health demanded sea air and asked where the lighthouse was situated. Mrs. Ilomcseekcr—"Thcso apartments arc charming and the price is certainly reasonable. Are you sure there are no nuisances connected with the building?" Honest Agent—"Well, mum, it haa a janitor." Where Coral Comes From. The largest quantity and the hand somest corals come from the Algerian coast. These coral pounds have been worked since the middle of the sixteenth century. Other coral grounds are found on the coast of Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia, Spain, the Balearics and Provence. More than 500 Italian barks and over 4200 per sons are engaged in the coral fishery. Besido these, French and Spanish barks are engaged in the same occupation. The Italian fishermen pay a high royalty to the French Government for their right of fishing for corals on the Algerian coast. There are more than sixty work shops in Italy, forty of which are in the little town, Torre del Greco, at the foot of Vesuvius. These shops give employ ment to about 9000 persons, mostly women and children.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers