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,