THIS TIMES, NEW BLOOMFIELD, PA., SETTEMRER 25, 1877. MRS. HARDING'S SIGN. IN THE doorway of their cabin In the fur West, BuBan Harding stood and gazed out on the milling scenes around her. The afternoon's sun showered Its golden light over Held and forest, and turned the river which floated so quiet ly by, into a mirror that Bhone like pol Inhed steel. But the woman standing there gave no thought of the beauties which surrounded her. Blinding her eyes with her hand, she gazed long and earnestly away to the westward, as though she was expecting the coming of some one from that di rection. Long and steadily she looked, but the coming of no human being re warded her gaze. A look of disappoint ment mingled with anxiety, and she said aloud to herself as she turned away from the door, " I can't see why "Wil liam doesn't return. He said he would be gone no longer than noon at the most. I am afraid that some harm has come to him." " I shouldn't wonder If there had," said a voice from within the cabin. " The redskins are on the war-path, you know. I told William that he had bet ter stay at home to day. I wouldn't wonder a mite if we had trouble with them before he got backt" " You are always talking pf evil, mother. Why is It that you will al ways be a bird of ill-omen V The red skins have never as yet done us any harm, and I trust that they may not." " But they have other people, if they ain't us, Susan," said the old lady, in a half offended tone. " You ain't forgot how they murdered the Bnilth family and then burned their cabin to the ground. They said that they had two or three signs of danger, but they only laughed at them. If they had given them heed it may be that they would be alive now. " You are always talking of signs, mother. Why will you do so 5 You know there is nothing In them. It makes me nervous to hear you talk of them." " But there is more in signs than you think, Susan. I don't believe that any body ever died yet without some sign being given them. Sometimes it conies In one way, nnd sometimes in an other." "Don't think of such things any more, mother, you make me nervous, although I don't believe in them. But I do wish William would come. Now that puts me in mind that I have his frock to mend." Saying this, the young wife stepped across the room, and reached up to take down the garment where it hung upon ft peg on the wall. As she attempted to do so, three drops of bright crimson blood fell and rested upon her arm. She turned as pale as death at the eight, and a cry of half terror, half sur prise fell from her lips. " What la it, Susan ?" demanded the old lady, her husband's mother. The young wife at first could not find words to answer ; but she extended her arm, with the bright red drops upon it, toward the questioner. " Oood heaven I" cried the old lady. "What did that come from V" " I know not," apswered Susan. "It fell from something upon my arm." " Did it come from the frock ?" asked the old lady, with a blanched face. " It seemed to. I had just laid my hand upon it." " It is a death sign," cried the old lady shrilly. " The redskins have lther killed William, or we are going to be murdered here before he comes back." As pale as though the life blood was flowing from her, the young wife sank into a seat. "Do you think so, mother V" she gasped, forgetting for the moment her recently expressed disbelief In such matters. " Yes," she answered, solemnly. "I am sure that is a warning to us. There is trouble in store, and 1 am sure we shall see it before long. What elsecan the sign mean V For sign I am sure it is!" The young wife made no answer, but she rose from her scat and took a step towards the spot where the garment hung. But she did not reach it. As she stepped forward she gave a glance out through the open door, and there she saw that which at once arrested her attention. The forms of four savages, in Indian file, were gliding towards the cabin. Another glance showed her - that they were fully armed, and as hideous as war mint and feathers could make them: ' , , J'or a moment she stood as motionless as though turned to stone. Could it be that the death sign was so soon to be made a verity V It certainly looked like it. Oft times the savages had visited their cabin and departed without doing them harm. But she had pever seen them come in the- guise they now wore. ., ' Surely it must be that they meant them harm. Perhaps her husband was Indeed slain, and now they were com lug to aocompllsh their destruction also. , By a violent 'effort she burst the spell that was upon her, and springing for ward, she closed the door of the cabin and threw across It the stout oaken bar, which served to hold It still firmer In its place. " What Is It, BuBan V" cried the old lady, startled from her seat. "The savages, mother," she answer ed. " What, so soon V I knew that sign was not meant for nothing. What shall we do?" " Keep them out of the cabin If we can. We will not die so long as there Is a chance left for us to make good our de fense." , There was the light of a heroine In her eyes now, and a look of determina tion upon her face. The spell which the omen had cast upon her was gone. If the worst was to come, she would sell her life as dearly as possible. "Oh, William, why did you leave usV" groaned the mother. "If you were only here with your good rifle we should be safe." A moment more and the sound of the savnges' feet without fell upon their ears. Whether their errand was of friendship or of hate would soon be de termined. A little later they tried the door,whlch shook, but stirred not from its place. , " You cannot," answered Susan, In as firm a tone as she could assume. " Some other lime when the white hunter Is at home, we shall be glad to see you." " White woman, open door, or Injln break down and take her scalp," ex claimed the voice from without. To this she returned no answer. Again was the demand made for their admittance, but a profound silence on the part of the women was their only answer. Again and again was the door shaken, with all their strength, but to no pur pose. Bravely It withstood them. That It might continue to do so until her husband's return was the prayer of the Imperiled w ife. But then If the omen was true, and her husband had fallen V Then, sooner or later the savages must triumph. With all their strength the Indians threw themselves against the door. Still it did not give away. Then they attacked it with their tomahawks. Blow after blow rained upon it in quick succession. They were attempting to cut a hole through Its centre large enough for them to creep through. Unceasingly they worked, and at last the trembling women within saw the. edge of their tomahawks. A little longer, and the aperture would be large enough to give them admittance. Grasping her husband's axe, Susan Harding stood ready for the final con flict. One of the savages thrust a hand in to pull way a portion of the wood. In an instant her weapon descended, and the hand of the savage dropped to the floor. A howl of pain and rage follow ed from without, and the success of her blow gave her new courage. Undismayed by the accident which had befallen their companion, the other savages worked on. At last the hole was large enough to admit of the body of a man passing through. Not benefitting by the fate which had befallen their companion, a savage thrust his head In through the opening. In an Instant the axe descended, and the skull of the savage was clove in twain, while the blood and brains be spattered the floor. " Courage 1" cried old Mrs. Harding. "May Heaven help you, Susan, to triumph yet." Hardly had the words left her lips when the ringing report of a rifle sound ed in their ears, followed by a triumph ant shout, which told them that the son and husband had returned. The dead savage lay with his head through the door until William Harding removed It, so that he might gain an entrance himself, as he did a minute later when the redskins were all dead or put to flight. The Joy of the meeting we will leave to the reader to Imagine. ' A little later Susan told him of the sign which his mother had declared to be an omen of evil. With a, smile the settler removed the garment from ' the wall, and thrust his hand into one of the pockets. '' This morning I killed a squirrel, which I meant for the cat. Look at this pocket. I placed It in here, and the cloth Is Boaked with blood. - Old Mrs. Harding was silenced, al though it must be confessed that her faith in signs was by no means dimin ished. : 2" Who becomes every day more sa gacious in observing his own faults, and the perfections of another, without en vying him, or despairing of himself, is ready to mount' the ladder on which angels ascend or descend. MISS WILSON'S LEG. TWENTY-SEVEN years ago Miss Wilson of rinevlllo, North Carolina, lost her right leg. She was then young and pretty, and had she merely mislaid her leg every chivalrous Carolinian In the county would have joined in the search for It. Unfortunately, her loss was an Irrevokable one. Having unin tentionally Inserted her leg under the wheel of a heavily loaded wagon, she found that the once shapely limb was so completely ruined that Bhe consented to have It cut oif and thrown away. Its place was in time supplied with a cork leg,and Miss Wilson sorrowfully resigned herself to limping through a loveless life to a solitary grave. There never has been any active de mand for women with wooden legs. A man with a wooden leg su flora a certain amount of inconvenience, but he loses nothing In character or popularity, whereas, a wooden-legged woman Is, whether Justly or unjustly, under a so cial ban. In fact, for a woman to lose a leg Is ordinarily to lose all hope of mar riage. A man who Is about to marry cannot be blamed for preferring a whole wife to one partially made of cork es pecially as the former costs no more than the latter. A superficial thinker might, perhaps, fancy that a husband whose wife had but one original leg would save fifty per cent, in the price of striped stockings and kid shoes ; but a little reflection will show that a cork leg requires just as much clothing as the usual style of leg, and hence is not an economical contrivance. Of course it Is mean and selfish in a man to permit the presence or absence of a mere trifle of leg to affect his feelings toward an esti mable woman; but human nature is weak, and he would be a bold man who could calmly look forward to marrying a woman who might some morning in terrupt him while shaving by asking, "James, would you mind handing me my leg? I think you'll find It behind the rocking chair." It is alleged by Miss Wilson's neigh bors that as she grew older she grew hard and cynical. This was, perhaps.to have been expected. She saw herself ignored by all marrying men, while girls with half her beauty, and whose sole superiority consisted In a larger number of legs.capturcd husbands with out any difficulty. Gradually she be came embittered against her bipedal fel low creatures, and the local Baptist min ister was probably right when he char acterized her as a hard-hearted, worldly woman. 0 day, however, Miss Wil son attended a camp-meeting, and was softened by the eloquence of the preach er and the shouts of the worshipers, and soon after Iinevllle was surprised and pleased by the announcement that on next Sunday Sister , Wilson would be baptized. Now the public performance of the rite of baptism by Rev. Mr. Waters, of the Tineville Eleventh-Day Baptist church always drew a large audience. That powerful and agile prencher was admitted to be without a rival as a rapid and effective baptlzer. On one occasion when a Presbyterian minister preaching against baptism by immersion showed that St. John the Baptist had once bap tized a multitude of persons at the rate of two men and a half per minute, and that hence he could not have Immersed them, Mr. Waters publicly baptized twenty-flve persons In eight minutes thus beating St. John's best time by two full minutes, and completely over throwing the Presbyterian argument. With all his unequaled rapidity of exe cution, he never was careless or incon siderate. There was a rival Baptist minister in the next county who would sometimes become carried away by his emotions, and would sing an entire verse of a long metre hymn while hold ing a convert under water ; and, al though a stalwart teamster who was thus treated once fell from grace, and upsetting his minister in the water, held him under until he was nearly drowned, the reverend enthusiast was not cured of his careless habit. When, therefore, Miss Wilson consented to be baptized by the Pinevllle minister, she knew that Bhe would be treated In a considerate and skillful manner; and the public knew that the spectacle would be well worth witnessing. It Is very easy to say, now that the affair is over, that Miss Wilson ought to have left her cork leg at home. In that case she would have been compelled either to limp to the water on crutches or to be carried thither by self-sacrificing deaoons. Moreover, her appearance in public without her customary leg would have detracted from the solemnity of the scene. When,' in - addition to these facts, we remember that she was a wo man residing in a country town, to which champagne boskets . rarely, pene trated, and was hence presumably igno rant of the scientific fact that cork is light and buoyant,her neglect to remove her cork leg prior to baptism seems en tirely excusable. ,17!". I So long as the water was only two feet deep Miss Wilson, who weighed fully two hundred pounds, managed to wade toward the minister, but so soon as the latter took her hand and led her Into deeper water the cork asserted Its buoy ancy and Miss Wilson was suddenly re versed. The minister, with muoh diffi culty, placed her on her feet again, and rather surlily requesting her not to do that again, began to make a brief and formal address. Before he had spoken ten words Miss Wilson, with a wild shriek, fell backward, and her cork leg shot swiftly upon the surface. Perhaps this is the point where a veil should be dropped. To finish the narrative in as few words as possible, It may be said that after half a dozen futile efforts the attempt to baptize Miss Wilson was abandoned. With all his Skill and strength, the minister could not coun teract the eflbrts of the cork leg, and could not keep the convert right side up long enough to baptize her. She bore It with patience until the minister called for a fifty-six pound weight, with a view to ballasting her, when she Indignantly scrambled ashore, hastened home and subsequently Joined the Fresby terlans. We thus learn that there are times when cork legs conflict with the most Important duties. The leg-makers should take a hlnt from this suggestive Inci dent, and devise a light metallic leg wherewith to supply the Baptist market. A Man who was too Sharp. OLD JACOB J. was a shrewd mer chant In Burlington, N. J., and, like all shrewd men, was often a little too smart for himself. An old Quaker lady of Bristol, Penn., just over the river, bought some goods at Jacob's store, when he was absent, and In crossing the river on her way home, she met him aboard the boat,and, as was usual with him upon such occa sions, he immediately pitched into her bundle of goods nnd untied it to see what she had been buying. " Oh, now," eays he, " how much a yard did you give for that, and that V taking up the several pieces of goods. She told him the price, without, how ever, saying where she had purchased them. " Oh, now," says he again, "I could have sold you those goods for so much a yard," mentioning a price a great deal lower than she had paid. "You know," says he, " I can undersell everybody in the place;" and so he went on criticis ing and undervaluing the goods till the boat reached Bristol, when he was In vited to go to the old lady's store, and when there the goods were spread out on the counter, and Jacob was asked to examine the goods again, and say, In the presence of witnesses, the price he would have sold them at per yard, the old lady, meanwhile, taking a mem orandum. She then went to the desk and made out a bill of the difference be tween what she had paid and the price he told her; then coming up to him, she said. " Now, Jacob, thee is sure thee could have sold those good at the price thee mentioned ?" " Oh, now, yes," says he. " Well, then, thy young man must have made a mistake; for I bought the goods from thy store, and of course, un der the circumstances, thee can have no objection to refund me the difference." Jacob, being thus cornered, could of course under the circumstances, have no objection. It is to be presumed that thereafter Jacob's first inquiry must have been, " Oh, now, where did you get such and such goods V instead of " Oh, nowhow much did you pay 1"' Curious Detection of a Thief. The wife of a well-known citizen re siding on Broad Street, Philadelphia, entered her sleeping apartment late, one night recently, after having returned from an evening social, and was some what annoyed at smelling whiskey. Knowing that liquor was not used in the house, she became frightened, and thought perhaps some Intoxicated per son had entered the premises during her absence. She called her husband and another gentleman who were in the parlor, and when they arrived an Inves tigation of the room began. The hus band ciawled under the bed) and while groping about his head came In contact with something projecting from the un der part of the mattress. The latter named article was removed, and, snugly secreted between the slats and ticking was found a rough-looking man. When discovered he sprang up, struck' one of the gentlemen a stinging blow on the forehead, drew a revolver, rushed down the front stairway, out of the door and was lost in the dark. It was very evi dent that the intruder was a thief, who knowing the lady had valuable jewels in her possession, had secreted himself with a view of robbing her w hen she retired for the night. Now comes the important part the whiskey detective acted, i The fellow, whoever he was, had carried a bottle or flask in his pocket, and the cork had fallen out, thus caus ing the liquor to run out on the carpet and warn the lady. , SCHENCK'3 PULMONIC 8YRUP, for tht Curt of CotuumpUon, Caught and Coldt. The grant virtue of this medicine It that It ripens the matter and throws It out of the sys tarn, purlflot the blood, and tuns effect a cure. Bchmck'i Bta HVd Tonic, for tht Curl of Dy ptptla, IndigntUm, tit. The Tonlo produces a healthy action of the Btomacb, creating an appetite, forming chyle, and curlug the moat obstinate cases of indiges tion. Schmck'l Jfandrakt rait for tht Curt of Liver Complaint, tie. These Fills are alterative, and produce a healthy action of the liver without the least danger, as they are free from calomel, and yet more efficacious In restoring a healthy action of the liver. These remedies are a certain cure for Con sumption as the Pulmonic Byrup ripens the matter and purines the blood. The Mandrake Fills act upon the Liver, create a healthy bile, aud remove all diseases of the Liver, often a cause of Consumption. The Bea Weed Tonic gives tone and strength to the stomach, makes a good digestion, and enables the organs to form good blood ) and thug creates a healthy circulation of healthy blood. The combined action or these medicines, as thus explained, will cure every case of Consumption, If taken In time, and the use of the medicines persever ed In. r Dr. Bchenck is professionally at his principal ofllce, corner Birth and Arch fits., Philadelphia, every Monday, where all letters for advice must be addressed. Bchenck' medlniclnes for sale by all druggists. 85 lm. jypSSER & ALLEN CENTRAL STORE NEWPORT, PENN' A. Now oITertlie public A HARE AND ELEGANT ASSORTMENT OF DRESS GOODS Consisting sf all shades suitable for the season. BLACK A LP AC CAS - AND Mourning Goods A SPECIALITY. . BLEACHED AND UNBLEACHED MUSLIN'S, AT VARIOUS f RICES. AN ENDLEiS SELECTION OF PRINTS! We sell and do keep a good quality ot SUGARS, COFFEES & SYRUPS, , Aud everything under the bead of GROCERIES 1 Machine Needles and oil for all makes of Machines. To be convinced that our goods are CHEAP AS THE CHEAPEST, IS TO CALL AND EXAMINE STOCK. , No trouble to show goods. Don't forgot the CENTRAL STORE, Newport, Perry County, Pa. $10 TO $25 DAT I MADE by Agents In elties and conn try towns. Only necessary to show samples to make sales and money, for any one out of employment and dispos ed to work. Used daily brail business men. Bend Htamp for clroulur, with prices to agents. Address ' SPECIAL AGENCY," Kendall Huildiug, Chicago JEATHER C. THE subsorlbor has now on hand at LOW PKICES, ' Good Sole Leather, - Kip of Superior Quality, Country Calf Skins, 'r . French Calf, LININGS, ROANS, &c. F. Mortimer, NEW BLOOMFIELD, PA. TRESPASS NOTTCE.-Notlc Is hereby by giv en to all persons not to trespass on the grounds of the undersigned, situate in Madison and Jackson townships, by picking berries, flsh liiK. hunliiiK, or otherwise trespassing, m they will be dealt with according to liw. J. B. Oovp i ' Mku. Mkt B. Smith : V. JOUSSON t JAMK8 A. ASDgRSOM i W. B. WHAT X JiaBillAH HENCH t , ANOKJtW TBOSTLB ; jAMKSWOtllW, 0. ii. smith: JY hrASfBin.li- June 19. 1877. pd otaj.baiob,
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