ABOUT WATER WITCHES.
BMALL PEACH TREE BRANCHES USED
AS DIVINING RODS.
Whm Forked Branch the Ft rut Care of Its
Owner—Doc Wise, the Beet Known Water
Witch—How He Struck Lock and Became
Independently EUch.
j The articles in The Times in relation
Co the extraordinary results obtained by
the use of the divining rod in finding
[water and mineral deposits have had no
more interested or appreciative readers
than the people in the mountain ranges
of the Blue Ridge and Cumberland.
The doings of the water witches have
been part of the life of these people fur
ther back than any one can remember.
It is not every community that can boast
the possession of one of these gifted per
sons. The respect in which they are
beld is in inverse ratio to their numbers.
(Families willingly deprive themselves of
comforts in order to provide them for
[the water witches. In return they ex
pect services in locating wells. If it may
not be quite true that every well in the
(mountains was located through this kind
of agency, there is no doubt that the
(majority were so located, and that the
Ifaith of the people in the mystic power
iof the witches is boundless.
A SIMPLE COMMUNITY.
So far as the natives are concerned
this is a country of poverty. They do
not call themselves poor, for all are
nearly on an equality in the bare furnish
ings of their houses, and the shotes that
they raise on the free forage of the woods
in summer aud fall, with the corn, hom
iny, tobacco and moonshine they can
lay up by smail trading with the valley
farmers, supply their modest winter
needs. Money is a thing that enters very
little into tlieir calculations. A mountain
(community enjoys more than average
{prosperity, in which the cash earnings of
the heads of the families reach as much
as S6O per year apiece. But all being on
about the same basis there is no compara
tive poverty. They get along from year
to year, and never having known any
other condition they are content.
( As a matter of course, they cannot re
pay the services of the water witches
with cash. The most they can do is to
make them comfortable. This is satis
factory all around. In some way the
impression has become general that a
water witch is a supernatural sort of
creature, not made for common toil, and
,whoee magic will be impaired by the
kind of labor that ordinary mortals en
dure. As witches airs too scarce to be
•pared, they receive very good care, and
as they are endowed along with their
mystical gifts with the natural indolence
of the mountaineer nature, they are ex
pected and are entirely willing to save
themselves always for the smail service
required of them by those who bring
them yearly tributes of stores. The
witches thus get no richer tiian their
neighbors, but they have an easier time
of it Sometimes, months will pass in
■which one will not be called upon.
Whenever a call is made, however, he
must be ready to respond to it
A forked branch of a peach tree is the
only divining rod known in the moun
tains. Every witch is as careful of his
branch as if it were genuine treasure.
He selects it when he begins to practice
hiß magic, and never changes it willingly.
When not in use it is carefully hung on
the walls of the best room in his cabin.
Whatever else may happen, that must
not be disturbed. It would be the first
thing to he saved if his cabin caught fire.
Afterward ho might go back for the wife
and babies. On every trip he carries it
out of reach of the brush and rock that
may line his pathway, and his mission
ended he returns it as carefully to its
banging place in the cabin's beat room.
Whether from his own belief that he is
gifted beyond men, or because of the
awe in which he is held by his fellows,
the water witch always means that his
{work shall be impressive. When armed
[with his t'wig and in search of water he
seems to lose himself, as if he were lifted
out of the common Bphere into a relation
with something more than human.
There are no incantations such as negro
voodooism employs, but the scene be
comes suggestive of that class of super
stition. With his face set and apparent
ly with no thought of his surroundings
beyond the intensity with which he fol
lows and watches his twig, he walks
solemnly up and down, holding the
twig by its forks in front of him, and
seeming to let it lead him instead of
being propelled by him. When the free
end of the twig drops from the horizon
tal at which it lias been carried to the
perpendicular he stops suddenly. His
mission is over. The twig points to
■water. Men mark the spot, and the
water witch goes away. The well is dug
through the markings. Tho mountain
eers say that water never fails when
(found this way.
OLD DOC WISE.
The water witch best known in this
part of the country is old Doc Wise. He
lives in the mountains over beyond
Christianshurg, and rarely leaves home.
Indeed, it is only with tho greatest diffi
culty that the mountaineers can get him
to point a well for them, lie is above
the need of help from their stores, and
of late years when he has gone out with
his rod it was to oblige his friends rather
than for prestige or pay in any form.
The mountaineers understand that he is
in some way related to the old family of
Governor Wise and that he was chris
tened Decatur. At any rate, the abbre
viated twist of the name by which he is
known did not result from any financial
doctoring of the gentlemen from whom
'he got his money, although such a deri
vation might be suspected by those who
{date his record with his fortune. He was
always Doc Wise, and whether the blood
of proud aristocracy was in his veins or
not, he came into the mountains after
the war with as little of earthly substance
as the most scanty native, and for sev
eral years picked up a slender living as a
water witch.
About ten years ago a party of pros
pectors otopped at Christianshurg for tho
■winter. They were looking for coal and
iron deposits, in which the mountain re
gions abound.
When they were very nearly ready to
give up the search aa a failure they met
Doc Wise. Like other water witches, he
could find minerals with his peach twig
aa readily as he could find water. His
talents in that direction had never been
employed because the natives did not
want anything except water. He was
ready, however, to employ them for the
visitors. They agreed to pay him well
in case of success. He was shrewd
enough to drive a good bargain. In a
few days he Bhowed them a rich vein of
coaL Then they wanted iron and he
found it for them. It did not take them
long to satisfy themselves that they had
secured valuable mines. Wise worked
for them well into the spring. By the
time lie had done all they wanted of him
he was $5,000 in pocket—agrand fortune
for a mountaineer. —Roanoke (Va.) Let
ter in New York Times.
Marvelous Phenomena.
At Rome, in 1232, it rained dust, mixed
with blood, for three days, and when the
heavy clouds drifted away it looked as if
the sun was swimming in a sea of fire.
Four years later, in 1226, a snow fell in
Syria, which presently melted and flowed
in carmine rivers of blood, or some fluid
much resembling it in every particular.
Many of tho old writers record a three
day shower of blood red rain in the
Island of Rhodes and throughout South
em Italy in 1236. A monk, writing in
1251, tells of a loaf being cut out of
which blood flowed as freely as from a
fresh wound.
In 1348 there were many great tem
pests. Several towns and thousands of
people were swallowed up and the
courses of rivers changed or stopped.
Some chasms in the earth sent forth
poisonous fluids, as red as carmine ink,
as at Villach, in Austria. Ponderous
hailstones fell in many parts of Germany
the same year, some of them weighing
from twenty to seventy pounds. At
Lamech it rained flesh, dust, comets and
meteors; firebrands and coruscations
were in the air; mock suns, with fiery
tails, sailed through the skies. Soon
after these terrible scenes at Lamech it
began at Cataya, near the sea, and went
sweeping throughout southern Europe.
An igneous vapor or sulphurous fire
broke from the earth at Caahery, Asia,
and utterly consumed men, beasts,
houses and trees, so infecting the air
that a great plague followed. Young
serpents and millions of venomous in
sects fell from the clouds.
In 1301 Burgundy experienced the
novelty of a shower of blood red rain,
which ensanguined everything it touch
ed; and in 1508 the Antiura reapers found
all wheat heads to be as red as bleed. In
1588 bread put in the oven at Nuremberg
was taken out covered with a bloody
sweat. Wurtemberg had a shower of
brimstone and ashes in 1034. In 1095
Limerick and Tipperary, Ireland, had
many showers of a soft, fattv substance
resembling butter. It •> .is oi u dark
yellow color and always leil at night.
The people gathered it and used it as an
ointment, reporting many astonishing
cures. —St. Louis Republic.
Novel Way of Propsgatiug KOMI.
Recently I was conversing with a po
liceman who is a rose enthusiast, and
he told me he had strong bushes of some
of the beat hybrid perpetuals upon their
own roots, that he had rooted himself
in away quite new to me. Having ob
tained a suitable shoot, or several of
them, they were p'w.J i -n 0.-dinary
bottle which contained some water, and
this bottle was hung upon the wall of
the house in a sunny position and there
left, water being supplied to make up
the deticieney caused by evaporation.
In this water, which often becomes very
warm from the heat of the sun, the cut
tings remained, and after a short period
they calloused, when they were taken
ont and dibbled into pots in the ordinary
way, the formation of the roots soon
taking place.
The above plan was claimed as expedi
tious, as the cuttings calloused much
sooner in water than they did in the soiL
It is known that many things root read
ily in water, and oleanders are frequent
ly propagated in that way, whilst some
Bedum spectacle thst I have lately had
in a cut state had rooted fi !y long be
fore the flowers faded. With the ro6es,
if cutting is once nicely calloused, success
is almost a certainty, and if this needed
state can be brought about by immersion
of the base in water, we then iiave a
simple and valua' b aid to rose propaga
tion, because it is much easier to pi aervo
alive a cutting placed in water t iaii it is
one in the soil during its early stage.—
Vick's Magazine.
The 1 Tforn'-iV Itlet,
According I > L'r. <r. Monro Smith, in
The Bristol Medico-Cliirurgical Journal,
the daily destructive metabolism, which
is the great criterion t.l work dene, does
not vary much among different occupa
tions. Premising that he does not con
sider moderate over eating injurious, lie
finds that very many men eat consider
ably more than the most liberal tables;
it is not an uncommon thing for an aver
age sized man on very moderate wc rk to
eat twenty-five or twenty-seven ounces
of chemically dry food a day. Women
eat much less than men, after making
allowances for differences in weight
and work. Where a man eats nineteen
ounces, a woman of the same weight
and of active habits eats only fourteen
or fifteen ounces.
On a diet from which all meat is ex
cluded, he has found that twelve to thir
teen ounces per diem will comfortably
feed a hard working man. A moderate
amount of stimulants appears to increase
the average; moderately free drinking
diminishes it. A diet consisting of one
part of nitrogenous to seven or eight non
nitrogenous is a good combination; it is
greatly exceeded on the nitrogenous side
by the majority of men and women, es
pecially the former. A diet of twelve to
fourteen ounces of chemically dry food,
digestible, with the ingredients in proper
proportion, is sufficient to keep in good
health an averagesizedmanon moderate
work. The majority of people (in Eng
land) eat literally twice -*>s much as this.
A Dog's Friends.
Did the reader ever see a dog perform
the ceremony of introducing a human
friend? The writer has himself seen the
thing done in away, but never, perhaps,
so plainly and prettily as a friend of his
has lately witnessed it, the friend himself
being the introduced "party." His friend
—call him • Mr. J.— lives in Roxbury.
For a near neighbor he has a man who
keeps a carriage and also a fine setter
dog. Mr. J. does not enjoy the acquaint
ance of the neighbor, but he has come to
be on excellent terms of friendship with
the dog.
Every day Mr. J sallies forth at
about the same hour. Every day he
meets the dog whose salutations have
gradually passed from mere friendly
formalities to affectionate greetings.
Yesterday as Mr. J came out of his
house, he found the dog—who always,
when the carriage starts, goes circling
about the horse 1 s head, barking with joy
—waiting for him. The carriage, with
the horses attached, stood waiting for its
occupant. The dog at once came bound
ing up to J , and then went bounding
back to the horse. He licked the horse
on the nose, and came back to J
again, and again returned to the horse,
evidently laboring under the stress of
something that he wanted to say or do.
It was quite plain, in fact, that he
wanted his human friend to take notice
of his equine friend; he was doing hie
best to introduce the man to the horse,
and make tlicm friends too. So J ,
whose big heart can include horses as
well as dogs, yielded to the dog's earnest
solicitations; he went up to the horse
and patted its head and rubbed its nose.
And then the dog's satisfaction and gay
ety were simply inexpressible. He gy
rated about until it seemed as if he were
in danger of swallowing his own tail;
and his affection, both for the man and
for the horse, was plainly greatly in
creased by the consciousness that they
now knew each other.—Boston Tran
script.
A CoartMU Prlnoe.
"Do not be afraid, Louis," said the
Empress Eugenie, holding her son in hex
arms.
"I am not, mamma," answered the boy
of ll; "I have not forgotten that my
name is Napoleon."
The cutter in which the empress and
her eon were being conveyed at night
from a steamer had struck a rock, and
the waves were dashing over it at the
time this conversation took place.
The young prince, who afterward lost
his life in the war between the English
and the Zulus, had one trait not common
to children—he treated his playmates
and all who served him with marked
courtesy. The favorite companion of his
sports was Louis Conneau, the son of the
emperor's physician. They were daily
together, and many storms ruffled their
intercourse.
One day, when there was to be a state
dinner at the Tuileriee, at which the
prince was not to appear, he invited
Louis Conneau to dine with him. Both
lads were very fond of strawberry cream,
and tho prince, in order to give an agree
able surprise to his playmate, requested
that dish to be prepared for the dessert.
During the morning the two boys
quarreled, and I/juis Conneau returned
home. The prince, too proud to show
any emotion at his playmate's departure,
took his seat at the dinner table and
tried to eat. But when the strawberry
cream appeared his self control gave
way. The tears rolled down his cheeks,
as he said to .a servant:
"Take the cream to Conneau, and tell
him I haven't the heart to eat it without
him!"— Youth's Companion.
The Chinese 811k Festival,
We, who are always grateful to our
benefactors, honor the inventor of the
art of silk culture with a real perpetual
cult. Besides the temples which we have
erected in all the corners of the empire,
her majesty the empress goes every year
at the hatching season, in person, with
all her suite, and in great pomp, to the
held of the mulberry, to sacrifice to the
goddess who was the queen of the Em
peror Uoang-Ti. After the ceremony at
the temple, her majesty, followed by her
ladies, goes into the field, and, surrounded
by the farmers' wives, cooks some mul
berry leaves and lays them on a basket
containing the newly hatched worms.
The festival is closed with her winding a
cocoon byway of setting an example, in
the presence of the people, and distrib
uting gifts to those persons who have
been reported by the authorities of their
villages as most worthy by reason of
their fidelity in attention to the care of
the silk worms.
This ceremony, which is one of the
most important of those her majesty has
to perform during the year, is a great
incentive to the silk raising population,
who cannot neglect their own work
when they see their sovereign occupied
in the same way. An old proverb says
that "an idle fanner causes two persons
to die of hunger, and a woman who will
not weave will see ten dying of cold."
The proverb illustrates the value of en
couragement, and shows that silk worm
raising and weaving are duties of the
women.—"Chinese Silk Lore," by Gen.
Tcheng-Ki-Tong in Popular Science
Monthly.
A IterahiiHceiice.
In the state archives at Albany is a
bill of expenses incurred by Abraham
Lincoln in Albany while on his way to
Washington to be inaugurated as presi
dent of the United States, which shows
that at least his suite were very patriotic
if not demonstrative in their celebra
tion of Washington's birthday.
The bill was as follows:
PEIJEVAN HOUSE, Albany, Feb. 22,1981.
The state of New York,
To T. Roselle & Son.
J One day's board of Hon. A. Lincoln and
| suite, parlors, rooms, dinner and break-
I fast in parlor $576 80
I Wines and liquors 687 00
Segars 10 00
Telegraphs 1 13
Congress water $2.50, baggage 7 37'
Carriages 12 00
Sundry broken articles—stoves, chairs,
I etc., etc 150 00
$1,120 00
—New York Telegram.
A MODERN HOME.
The hearthstone and the home
From ancient times came down.
Like pedigrees of British peers
That antedate the crown.
The poet twinee his verse
With grace around the theme,
And plot or proee ts incomplete
That drops them from its dream.
But iu this age of change
That cultivates the new.
Patrician habits step aside
And greet the parvenu.
Improvement is its name,
Convenience is its throne.
And rhyming writers lose their grip
When sentiment has flown.
f or now ore countless homes
Exiled within the flat;
What facile poet has the nerve
To try his charm on that?
And hearthstones are but pipes.
Back in the corner set;
Rude foes to all alluring thoughts
That dancing flames beget.
The imagery of each
Is banished from one's dream.
When home is hired per month en suite
And the hearthstone holds the steam.
—J. B. Aldeu in Boston Transcript
Something About Gnod-ltys.
Every now and then, as we journey
through this vale from the cradle to the
grave, it becomes necessary for us to
say good-by. Generally it is said in sad
ness and with a sigh. We wring the
band of the departing friend, the sor
rowful tears are shed, then the bell rings
and the train goes around the curve.
This is the good-by that sticks in the
throat like a large three cornered lump
and persistently refuses to be swallowed.
After this kind of a farewell we go home
feeling that something has gone out of
life. We are like the man who puts his
foot for another step at the top of the
dark stairway and finds suddenly that it
isn't there.
Then there is the farewell that is said
with a hilarious chuckle of joy. We say
it to the bill collector, whom we have
with us always, or have had for a long
time. We say it to the bore, the spring
poet, to the man who reads the exchangee
and to the writer who invariably refers
to a bear as bruin.
The sweetest good-by is that of the
girl at her father's front gate, when only
you or I and the girl and twinkling stars
are present. To some of us it is only a
memory, this kind of a farewell, but it
is a memory that will remain freeh and
green long after we have passed that
callow age.
Ths saddest good-by is the one that is
said by the side of an open grave.—
Hie hard 8. Graves in National Weekly.
■ ■
Split Gold Coins.
"Two tens for twenty, please," said a
gentleman to the cashier in the oounty
treasurer's office.
The cashier took the "twenty" and
rang It on ths counter. It had that pe
culiar dull ring that characterize# coun
terfeit coins. He rung it a second time
and then inspected it critically.
"Is that bogus?" asksd the owner of
the coin.
"Oh, no," answered the cashier; it's
geod ss wheat, but split."
Continuing, he saidi "That is the first
split twenty I ever ran across. The
stamping machine at the mint some
times comes down too hard on the coins
and splits them; but it is seldom the
larger coins split. It's mostly 'fives' that
sutler. But they are very careful at the
mint nnd stop every split coin they de
tect. Now, in the thousands of dollars
handled here every year I rarely find a
split coin. I don't think I've found more
than four or five In a year, and, as I say,
the coins were mostly $5 pieces."
The split S2O piece looked perfect, and,
so far as the eye could detect, bore no
flaw of any kind. The only fault with
it was in the "ring," and the split made
it sound "dead" when thrown on the
counter.—San Francisco Examiner.
Fno for Arithmetician*.
Talk about mathematical puzzles! Here
Is one that beats out the hen-and-a-lialf,
egg-and-a-half algebraical nightmare. On
a Rondo street car Alderman Patrick
Kavanagh put a quarter into the change
box in the front door. An instant be
fore a young lady had deposited a dime
in the same sub-treasury. The driver
returned from the outside two change
packages, a blue and a white one, simul
taneously. With true gallantry Mr. Kav
anagh waited for the young lady to help
herself, which she did, inadvertantly
taking out the blue one, and, by mis
take, dropping two dimes into the "Pay
Here" lock box. Kavanagh demanded
his change, but the driver obdurately re
fused to give any mo :e. Hard words
ensued, to the great embarrassment of
the lady, and the alderman refused to
take the ten cent package, which re
mained in the possession of the com
pany. Kavanagh, of course, paid no
more for his ride; the young lady paid
twenty cents, and now how much was
tho company ahead on the deal?— Che
ster (Pa.) Local News.
Cowliiflo Iloraehlioe*.
In England, and on many parts of the
continent, they have been for a long
time using the Yates horseshoe, one
made by compressing common cowhide.
It is composed of three thicknesses of
the cow Rkin pressed into a steel mould,
and then subjected to a chemical prep
aration. It is claimed for it that it is
much lighter, that it lasts longer, and
that split hoofs are never known in horses
using it. It is perfectly smooth on the
bottom, no calks being required, the shoe
adhering firmly on the most polished
■uriace. Its elasticity prevents many
sprains, the horses' steps being lighter
and surer. Straw, treated with chemi
cals unknown, has been used for horse
shoes for centuries in Japan. Perhaps
some American genius will give us a
paper horseshoe, who knows?— St. Louis
Republican.
A writer in an eastern journal, talking
about church choirs, says they have be-
I come the training school for the comic
opera stage. "The good deacons may
not believe it possible, but a glance at
the history of the most popular sou
brettes and prima donne shows that they
| gradu-i; •-! i -nm church choirs."
A TALE OF LONELY GULCH. |
TRUE STORY OF TWO GRAVES IN THE
ROCKY MOUNTAINS.
Ai Old Proi>ctor Tells of an Affecting !
Separation Between Man and Wife. |
"Over the Range" from a Miner's Cabin
In North Park.
"I noticed a few weekß ago in your
paper a description of lonely graves in
the mountains of Colorado," remarked
a gentleman to the writer Monday. "At
the time I read it I was traveling in the
southern portion of the state, and it re
called to mind two lonely graves that I
know of which lie hidden in the recesses
of the mountains in Routt county. Of
course, tliere is a history attached to
them, and if you have time I will spin
the yarn."
Being informed by the scribe that he
always had lime to listen to a good story,
the gentleman said:
"In the year 1872 I was prospecting in
the neighborhood of Hans' Peak and the
Rabbit Ear range, and at that time very
little was known of the rich silver veins
which traversed that portion of the state,
There were other prospectors in the coun
try and the few of us felt elated over the
finding of several leads that contained
gray copper, and we went to work with
a will to open the veins up. You have
no idea of the many difficulties that one
has to contend with in a new country
and the privations one has to suffer. But
the excitement attending the life of a
prospector that some day he will strike
it and be recompensed for all his trouble
buoys him up, and he endures all hard
ships and privations with good grace.
The country at that time was well
stocked with game, and we never had
any difficulty in procuring all the fresh
meat that was needed. 1 had built a
rude cabin at the head of a small gulch
and not far from my claims. It was a
lovely spot, with groves of quaking as
pen trees surrounding the cabin, and
about fifty yards from the door stood
two majestic pines that I named the
sentinels.
THE TWO VISITORS.
"One day when I returnd from work
I found two strangers, man and wife,
had taken possession of my house, and
was a little astonished at first to see a
woman in that part of the country.
They asked permission to remain there a
few days, and it was readily granted.
I was indeed glad to see strange faces,
and welcomed them to my humble
abode. From the very first I noticed
that the woman was not strong, and
this aroused my curiosity, as I could not
figure out why a woman in delicate
health should be in such a wild part of
the country. She had been a very pretty
woman once, but consumption, the mal
ady from wliich she was suffering, had
robbed her of most of her beauty. She
bad a sweet temper, that won for her
friends wherever she went. She was
also perfectly resigned to the inevitable,
and knew that her pilgrimage on earth
was short. But she bore up with the
greatest fortitude.
"They had been at the cabin about a
week, and everything about it bad been
changed. Alice—that was the woman's
name—had remodeled the place, and all
things showed the touch of a woman's
hand. Well, one evening after supper
we were sitting in front of the cabin,
enjoying the beauties of an August even
ing, when the husband, Alfred, told me
what brought him to that section of
Colorado. His story was brief. He
stated that after being married in the
east for two years, his wife had shown
unmistakable signs of consumption, and
the doctors had advised him to take her
to California, and, if possible to go across
the plains by wagon, as he would find
that journeying that way she would gain
strength. They found a party of emi
grants at a small town in Nebraska, who
were going to the coast and engaged
their passage. For the first week out
Alice gained strength, but one evening
she caught cold and this malady in
creased with awful rapidity. When
Laramie City was reached she could go
no farther and the trip had to be aban
doned. At that town they were ad
vised to go into the mountains, as the
fresh air ladened with the perfume of
pine was beneficial to consumptives. A
wagon was procured that took them to
Nortli Park, and by easy stages on horse
back they had reached my cabin. It
was by the merest chance that they
found it, and I was glad they did.
TIIE LAST FAREWELL.
"A month passed, the happiest in my
life, but I saw that gradually Alice was
sinking, and that she would never leave
the gulch. Her husband noticed the
change and was unconsolable. He ad
ministered to her every want, which were
not many, and realized what an awful
change it would be when she was taken
from him. One night the end came. She
called me into the little room that I had
partitioned off for their use, and in a
feeble voice thanked me for all my kind
j ness to her, and hoped that when my time
came to cross the mysterious river that
she would meet me in that land where
i sorrow is unknown. She told Alfred it
J was hard to leave him, hut that ho must
| be strong and hear the affliction that a
wise master had in his just wisdom sent
| him to carry, and that all things were
I done for the best. It was a scene the like
[ of which I wisli never to witness again,
i the feeble girl, full of hope for the future,
i bidding good-by to the man she loved,
j and the strong, powerful man, bowed
down with grief at the thought of losing
her who was the only tie which bound
him to this world. The end came; with
her head pillowed on the breast of her
protector, her spirit winged its flight to
eternal rest. Underneath one of the pino
trees wo laid her, and carved her name
and the date of her death on its trunk.
"Alfred was broken hearted, and wan
dered about tiie hills like one lost. He
j had no purpose in life, so I used to ask
! him to do the chorea about the place to
engage his mihd with something. One
day I asked him to go out and kill a deer,
as we wero out of meat. Whether he
committed suicide or whether the gun
I was accidentally discharged I shall never
lie niu All Mu*ic.
To the people who lived in Fsyetto
forty years ago and earlier Aaron Wine
low was well known. He hail u never
failing ftirnj of wit and humor, and wa
an inveterate practical joker. When bo
was a boy. if there was any drollery or
deviltry going on he was sure to have a
hand in it. lie was a noted old time
singing master and taught many singing
schools in this and the neighboring
towns. He would get so engrossed fct
music as to forget everything else.
Once be worked for Mr. Moses Walton,
of South Chesterfield, in haying timsi
A shower was coining up. One load ot
hay was hurriedly put on and started for
the barn. Aaron drove the oxen.
Said Mr. Walton: "Don't go to sing
ing, Aaron, for if you do you'll be sura
to upset tlie load."
He drove carefully at first, hut soon
the musical spirit got hold of him and bs
began to sing. The cattle went any
way; one wheel dropped into a stone
hole; the load of hay was overturned
and drenched by the rain.
When he lived on the farm where Mr.
N. P. Fellows now resides he worked
away one day in winter with his cattle
and came home late. He turned the
oxen into the barnyard and went into
the house to warm himself. Ere long he
took down the violin and singing book
and commenced to play and sing. The
poor beasts stayed, yoked, in the yard,
without food or shelter, all through the
long winter night, owing to the all ab
sorbing passion for music of the absent
minded Aaron.—Lewiston Journal.
Mental Capacity of Splden.
Experiments on the mental powers of
hundreds of spiders have been made by
Messrs. O. W. and E. Q. Peckham.
Evidence was given that the faculty f
smell is fairly developed in all but thim
out of twenty-six species, but the por
tion of the organ of smell was not
found and is not known. Loud soontli
were apparently unperceived; the epci
rids wero sensitive to the sound of a
tuning fork, while the spiders that do
not make webs gave no heed to it.
Love of offspring was manifested ia
all spiders by eagerness to receive back
cocoons within twenty-four hours, though
few recognized them after a longer pe
riod, and none seemed able to distinguish
their own cocoons from--another spider's
or from pith balls of the same sixe.
Sight appeared to be good, though from
familiarity only through touch ooooans
were found with difficulty, even wheu
within three-fourths of an inch. The
color sense seemed fairly developed, with
preference for red. The authors dis
credit the notion that spiders feign death,
accepting Darwin's explanation that the
habit of lying motionless has been as
quired in different degrees to serve dif
ferent purposes.—New York Telegram.
Told by the Sewing Machine Man.
"Gentlemen," said the sewing machine
man, "one spring father and I had a
sugar camp down in the edge of the
grove. About half a mile from us was a
corn field owned by a widow, and this
widow never picked her corn clean. Ou
the other side was a man who owned a
blind sow. She had one pig, and they
used to go over into that corn field every
day to eat corn. Right in front of our
camp was a creek. At one place about
forty rods from our camp there was a
tree felled across the creek. This was
the only place that the sow and pigcouU
cross. Of course the sow could not nee
to cross on the log, so the way they used
to do was for the old sow to take hold of
the pig's tail and the pig would lead her
across. Well, one day we were sitting
in front of our camp when the old sow
and pig were crossing that log. I said to
father, 'Hand me the rifle and see me
cut that pig's tail off.' I took aim and
fired, cutting that little pig's tail off
smack smooth. The pig ran for the corn
field, but the old sow didn't know which
way to go. So father went over and
took hold of the pig's tail and led the old
sow clear into camp."—Lewiston Jour
nal.
When Woman Malls a Letter.
Femininity in the postoffice is an amus
ing study. In the matter of dropping a
simple, ordinary, white, every day letter,
for instance, she affords an insight into
the character of the average woman.
The looker on had nothing else to du
the other day than to watch this little
operation for five minutes. Out of thirty
young women who went to cast their
epistles in the slot, twenty-two, by exact
calculation, withdrew the letter befosa
quite letting goof it to scan both sides of
the note to be "very" sure the letter wa■
securely sealed, properly addressed,
stamped, and to be certain no one could
look through the envelope to read its con
tents. Out of these twenty-two ladies
three had forgotten to put a stamp ou
their letter, and two had to add some
thing to the address on the envelope,
while another carried off with her the
i letter she had intended to mail.—Boston
j Record.
A Stove lined as a lied.
I In the north of China the climate is
j quite cold, and there are no stoves or
i fireplaces in the wayside inns. In soma
\ of the general rooms arc small charcoal
j braziers, hut the bedrooms, which are
very scantily furnished, contain neither
stove nor bed. In their place is a brick
I platform long enough for a man to
| stretch himself at full length upon and I
j raised a foot or two from the floor, with
an opening in the side. Into this aper
i turo the servant pushes a pan of burning
j coals, and when the bricks arc thorougk
' ly heated the traveler spreads out upon
them the bedding ho has brought with
him, and lies down to rest on his stove.
—Exchange.
Apt Scholars.
There have been only two train rob
beries on the Mexican Central railroad
i since it was completed. The robbeiij
started in with great enthusiasm, but aoj
did the government, capturing and kill-j
ing every one implicated, and now up
veteran brigand sits on a rock and sees is
passenger train whirl by without evenj
wondering how many drummers andj
diamond pins are aboard.—Detroit Fresp
P