Port Royal standard and commercial. [volume] (Beaufort, S.C.) 1874-1876, March 09, 1876, Image 1
St i
VOL. IV. NO. 14
People will Talk.
Yon may go through the world, bat 'twill be
very slow,
If yon listen to all that is said as yon go;
Ytu'll he woriied and fretted and kept in a
stew,
For meddlesome tongnes must have something
to do,
And people will talk.
If quiet aDd modest, you'll have it presumed
That your humbl9 position is only assumed?
Yon're a wolf in sheep's clothing or else you'r
a fool;
But don't get excited?keep perfetly cool.
For people wiU talk.
And then, if you show the least boldness of
heart
Or a slight inclination to take your own part,
They will call you an upstart, conceited and
f vain,
But keep straight ahead?don't stop to explain?
For people will talk.
If threadbare your dress and old-fashioned
your hat,
Some one will surely take notice of that,
And hint rather strong that you can't pay your
way;
But don't get excited, whatever they say?
For people will talk.
If your dress is in fashion, don't think to
escape,
For they criticise them in a different shape ;
You're ahead of your means, or your tailor's
unpaid,
But mind your own business?there's naught
^ to be made?
For people will talk.
N<w, tbo best way to do it is to do as you
please;
Fir your mind. if you have one, Mill then be
at ease.
Qf couree you will meet with all eorts of abute;
But don't think to stop them?it aiu't any use?
For people will talk.
BRAZIL COXYICT LIFE,
How the Convicts are Tnken Care of?
'I heir Island Home?A Sad Life to Lead.
In Scribner for February is an inter
rating article on tho penal settlement of
Fernando Noronha, belonging to Brazil:
There are one thousand five hundred
convicts on the island, chiefly Brazilians,
negroes, and half castes, with a few
Italians, etc. Sixty of the m are women.
The children number about two hun
dred. The total island population, including
convicts, roldiers and their
wives and children, is about two thousand,
thus :
Conviots(including sixty women).. 1,500
Soldie: s and c ffioert* 150
Wives of soldiers aud convicts 141
VUilUiVU, ?
Total 2.000
The chief crimes for which they have
been banished are murder, embezzlement,
coining, forgery?all of frequerif
occurrence in the Brazils ; and in the
case of maoy of the women, husband
murder or poisoniDg, another common
felony. Of the one thousand fiye hundred,
only one-third, or five hundred,
including the women, live and work in
the village. The women are mainly employed
in sewing, tailoring, etc., and
the men at their special trades. Those
v who have none have different tasks allotted,
e. g., fishing, cooking for the
governor, landing cargo, workiEg in the
stores, etc. Fi^hiEg is carried on single
handed in Rmall rafts, or catamarans,
like those used along the coast of
f Hindostan. With these the convict has
little chance of escape to the distant coast.
This is seldom attempted, and even if
L successfully accomplished, the prisoner
* is almost sure to be recognized and recaptured
in Brazil. All the able-bodied
artificers work iu the general workshops
under surveillance, and only the aged,
infirm, and crippled are allowed the
privilege of working at home. Of the
village convicts, four hundred occupy
the prison, the remaining one hundred
being women and married men, who
liavo huts of their own. The women
are seldom compelled to live in the
prison 8o-cailed, which is merely a stone
built structure, consisting of an open
yard, and on either side a long, rough,
and bare looking, comfortless stone
floored room, along each side of which
the closely packed convicts sleep, feed,
and keep" their scanty and generally
worthless stock of clothing, on long
wooden tables. At the further end is a
primitive, dirty kitchen, where they
grind and cook their principal article of
food, maize. The only fettered man on
the island was here?a large boned,
flabby, ungainly, scowling individual,
evidently despised by his fellow prisoners
for having murdered a man iu bis
shep, and being thus " good for nothing
"?according to my informant, the
half ca^to who first boarded us on
arrival, and who, with the Englishman
who accompanied him, had murdered
eight Brazilians m a drunken brawl on
shipboard at Rio. This, however, was a
fair stand up fight, and he evidently
considered himself a hero of a very different
stamp from the coward he was
now pointing out.
As a rule, the convicts spend half of
their exile in the prison. If well behaved,
they may afterward live outside,
build their own hut and cultivate their
own garden, government giving all,
whether in prison or out of it, a oertdn
allowance of food. It specially well behaved,
particularly if married, they may
sooner live outside, a boon grantee! by
the governor on application. A married
convict can insist on having his wife and
children beside him; and, thongh free,
they often come from the Brazils to
share a husband's or father's exile. Marriages
occur between convicts' children.
As might be expected, the standard of
morality is low. If lazy or refractory,
various punishments are inflicted, e. g.>
solitary confinement in the prison "cell."
The lash is quite often and freely used in
the square, and every convict must be
present to see it administered. For
laziness they get from fifty to one hundred
strokes, but sometimes from one
hundred and fifty to three hundred.
Very recently one thousand five hundred
were administered at one whipping to a
B azilian convict for stabbing his wife.
The man was in hospital recovering
from this at the time of our visit. There
^NDA
are no capital punishments in the Brazils.
What is most dreaded is banishment for
six months or a year to Bat's island,
where they live a Robinson Crusoe life,
and nay starve unless they fish and cultiva'^3
the soil, no provisions being sent
from headquarters.
The convicts generally are not fed by
government, but are allowed about $5
fV? nn?nliooo onfl \r}"lpn
I'Cl lUVli IU UV ^/Ull/UOOV iWVlj v.uv?j
they can, toba co and other luxuries.
The entire farm produce and manufactures
are claimed by government, the
farm laborer getting nothing beyond a
few heads of maize after a day's work.
Their clothing is coarse but strong, and
they appeared to have no distinctive
dress. Their usual food, purchased
either at the government or private
stores, consists of maize, manioc, white
and black beans, all island produce, and
jerked beef from the Brazils. Food and
other necessaries are, on the whole, dear;
and the scanty pay makes luxuries like
tea, coffee, etc., for which they are
charged enormously, for the most .part
beyond their reach.
The private stores are small dirty
dens, ^he stock of which might be purchased
in any American city for 825 or
$50. They usually belong to privileged
convicts, some of whom are wealthy,
and do not scruple to enrich themselves
by preying on their poorer fellow prisoners.
One said to be worth 8300,tXK)
was formerly a bank cashier and had
been sentenoed to twenty years' banishment
for embezzlement. Some of the
women, transported for hr.6band poisoning,
are also well to do. Neither wealth
nor possessions are forfeited to the
crown, nor is Brazilian society less lenient,
inasmuch as, his time having expired,
the convict may soon, especially
if rich, regain his old social pos tion.
Here, as elsewhere, however, banishment
does not always prove an effectual
* " * * i* At
euro for crime, a detective was men
oil the islaDd to ascertain whence certain
counterfeit coins occasionally circulated
wore emanating. He must be an adept
who contrives to carry on secret coining
under such adverse circumstances, and
to pass base money in a community of
this kind.
Some of the life prisoners who have
been long on the island, and have grown
old in the place, like it, and are contented,
if not happy. On the whole, there
does not appear to be much discontent.
Many of the prisoners would not be
taken for other than well-conducted laborers,
farm servants, or artisans. But
the majority have a demoralized, selfconscious,
hang-dog look.
How they Cured the Tutor,
He was the pink of perfection. If the
cream of human excellence was to be
churned the butter would lump up in the
shape of Professor Porteous Prye, tutor,
of Detroit. He had contracted the
bad habit of stealing up stairs,
in his stocking feet, to see if
the lights were out at teu. It
is hard teaching old dogs new tricks, but
boys sometimes succeed better with old
professors.
Tommy Tayre is a cadaverous youth,
with a sulphur-colored mustache, but the
iron had entered his soul, and ho 6aid
| he must do what he could. So he
I Ixrught three-papers of carpet tacks one
i night, and stood the innocent little nails
j on their heads all the way up and down
i the stairs, and retired with his faithful
foLlowere to the wood closet above to
; await results. Promptly the chapel bell
i struck ten, then a season of waiting and
j whispering followed. Presently came a
; furry, creeping sound like woolen stock
ings feeling tueir way over rougu uuiu ue.
Tommy tucked his hat in his mouth?
his month runs clear around, except a
small isthmus which connects the top of
his head with the nape of his neck?and
held his nose till the first burst of glee
had subsided. Now came a suppressed
scream, one foot on the stairs; then anoiher
foot down; then a scream that
wasn't suppressed; then a howl; he bad
struck the second stair; then he sat
down on the next step, but he got up
again, and a groan, with exclamation
points after it, came tearing up to the
wood closet. The boys stood back to
give Tommy room to kick, then came a
scrabbling and shouting of heavy words,
j and Tom promptly appeared and asked,
in a voice fresh from the valley of Nod :
44 What Beems to be the matter?"
44 Matter!" 44 The boys;" 44 the demons;"
44 confound it;" 44 see here;"
44 lielp !" and he shifted about and hung
to the railing, and tried to stand on his
knees.
Tom brought a light, and the boys
carried the wounded man to his room;
offered sympathy; got a clawhammer
aud drew out the tacks. The professor
wears slippers and sits on a cushion.
Tom sits on nettles, for seventeen boys
know the secret, and it is spreading like
smallpox iu an Indian camp.? Free
! J*res8.
The Newspaper Exhibition.
One of the most unique and interest !
ing features of the CenteEnial exhibition
| will be the collection of American newsj
papers. Nothing will give to intelligent
: visitors from abroad so clear an insight
I into the peculiarities of our civilization.
; The 7,870 periodicals that are now pub!
lished in the United States show all the
j phases of onr varied activities, tastes,
* - ?
laiosyucraczt^, jjvuuw, iiu?u,
social and business and professional
I life. We are more given to newspaper
reading than any o lier people. In our
newest frontier settlements the newspaper
is the first "institution " to b3
founded. From the local "organ" of
the shanty village in Montana to the
great dailies of New York, there are all
sorts of sizes and variations of development
of " American ideas of journalism.
i The following suggestion, given in
j Scribner's Magazine, is worthy the con!
sideration of parents :
Nervousness with a child is almost
> | tilways a ma ter of the stomach. A
' | c ust of bread will usually put an end to
I the most obstinate preverseness. Chil'
j dren, for this reason, should never be
allowed to go to bed, after a fit of cryI
i icg, with an empty stomach. A bit ol
II bread and jelly or a cup of custard will
; bring back smiles and happiness wher
;. all the moral law fails, and for the soundJ!
est of reasons.
POR'
RD A
PT?ATTrrVRT ft
uun. u x v/Ai A ^
A Struggle for Education,
On the ninth day of October, a. d.
1800, a poor insane woman of Rutland,
Vermont, the wife of a helpless cripple,
gave birth to a puny baby, whom the
good neighbors were moved to hope that
God would mercifully recall from so inhospitable
a world as this promised to
prove to the new-born child.
On the twenty-fourth day of August,
a. d. 1873, there died in Pittsfield,
Massachusetts, a venerable clergyman,
loved and honored throughout the country,
and known in his books the world
over. The unpromising infant who
came unwelcome into the world at the
beginning of the century had become
the Dr. John Todd whose influence for
good has been felt to the very ends of
the earth, and whose published writings
are read in more languages than one can
well count on the fingers.
The childhood of the young John was
passed, after the fashion of rural childhood
in New England at that early day,
chiefly in hard work. His crippled
father died about six years after the
boy's birth, leaving a large family,
which, by reason of extreme poverty and
the helplessness of the maniac mother,
was necessarily scattered. John found a
home with an aunt in North Killingworth,
Connecticut, where he remainejl
several years, working hard " for his
food and part of bis clothing," ana
trapping wild animals for the rest.
When ten years of age he passed a brief
time in New Haven, attending school,
and earning his bread in the capacity of
" chore boy" in the house of a kinsman.
It was during this residence near Yale
College that he first came into contact
with people of a higher culture than was
common among the rural folk of North
Killingworth, and the accident appears
to have determined the whole course of
his life. His ambition was awakened,
rnd from that time forward his purpose
.cas fixed?to secure the benefits of a
thorough training in the schools. The
task he thus set himself seemed a hopeless
one?so much so, indeed, that from
first to last his friends labored diligently
to dissuadfe him from the undertaking.
He was without money, without prospects,
and without friends able to help
him; but young as he was, the iron will
which served him so well in after life
was already his, and he appears never to
have faltered in his purpose, after it was
once formed. He lived poorly, by such
work as he could get to do, saved every
moment of time, studied under any masters
he could find, and finally, in the autumn
of 1818, entered Yale College, having
traveled thither on foot from Charlestown,
Massachusetts, ' * with his entire
wardrobe under one aim and his entire
library under the other." At'the time
of his matriculation, ho tells us, he had
but three cents ia the world, two of
which he paid out for toll in crossing a
bridge on the same day.
Particulars of a Horrible Affair,
Silas Wilder, who killed his father
and mother with an ax at East Lyndon,
Vt., cut his wifo's throat, then his own,
and afterwards hanged himself, was
thirty years old and a well-to-do farmer.
His parents opposed his marriage, and
made his marital relations very unpleasant.
A difficulty arose between them and
the result was the terrible deed. He
had been married but a year.
There was terrible excitement at East
Lyndon over the tragedy. It is supposed
that Wilder was laboriDg under
temporary insanity superinduced by ex
' A -- J : rru?
cessive excitement nnu pu?siwu. xuc
details of the tragedy arc most horrible.
His father and mother were aged respectively
seventy-three and seventy
years. The immediate cause of the
affair was an altercation with his wife,
who iu altering a pair of overalls had
made them too short. After angry words
Wilder started for the shed saying he
would get an ax and end the trouble.
His wife followed him and seized the ax,
when he drew a dirk and stabbed her.
He left her for dead, and taking the ax
started for his father, who had followed
him, and struck him a fearful blow,
the ax crushing through the old man's
head. At this point he appeared still
further infuriated, and next attacked his
mother, killing her with three fearful
blows over the head aud breast, and
leaving her lying at the front door ho returned
to the shed and found his father
j had crawled into the kitchen. He struck
him as he lay upon the floor, and the ax
crushed through his head and remained
fixed on the floor. He then cut his own
throat, and, death not ensuing at once,
I he ran to the barn, fastened a rope
J around his neck and jumped from a
beam. The fall broke his neck and he
died instantly.
Obtained His Fee.
Recently a minister, residing near I
| Crescent, N. Y., went three miles from
! home to perform a weddi; g ceremony,
| and his experience is thus detailed: After
the couple had been pronounced man
i and wife, the happv groom drew up a
; chair, and, seating himself, said, in a j
voice loud enougn to ue neara an over
j the room: "Well, how much is it?"
i The clergyman's surprise may be easily
I imagined. As soon as he recovered from
! it sufficiently to do so, he replied:
j 44 Oh, I never set any price on such little
j matters." 44 Well," replied the groom,
44 but I want to know. How much is
it ?" 44 Anything you like," replied the
clergyman. 44 That won't do," said the
groom; 44 I'm bound to know, so ycu
| may as well tell me." Seeing that
I things were getting desperate, a friend
J of the newly married man called him
j aside and whispered to him. This
I seemed to do no good, for, returning to
j the vacant chair, the groom again commenced
conversation, with the remark:
I 44 Pretty hard times, ain't it?" 44 Yes,"
j replied the clergyman. 44Oh! come
1 now," said Benedict, 4'tell me how much
| it is, and have done with it." But the
I minister didn't tell, and the father of
?j the bride relieved him just then by re;
marking that he would attend to the
. matter. And thus it stood for awhile,
11 when, to the dominie's great surprise,
J the bride appeared upon the scene. She
> I walked up and laid three one dollar bills
upon his knee, one Rt a time, counting
I in a loud voice as she did so: 44 One,
[ two, three," and ending with 44 there !"
t i She had been a factory girl, and it was
?! very evident that she was the 44 moneyed
! man " of the new firm.
X! RO'
lND *
C., THURSDAY, M
MURDER THAT WOULD OUT.
Proofe Agnln*t Murderers FnrnUhed by the
Very Means that they Employed lor Concealment?Parallels
of the Williamsborgh
Tragedy.
The discovery of the mutilated remains
at Williamsburgb, N. Y., calls to
mind some notable cases that seem to
confirm the popular belief that whatever
disposition may be made by a murderer
of the corpse of his victim, sooner or
later it will " cry out from the ground "
against him. In England what was
known as " The Waterloo Bridge Mystery,"
about fifteen years ago, created
great excitement there, remains of a
human body being found crammed into
a carpetbag, as did recently the discovery
of the murder of Harriet Lane by
her paramour, Wainwright, by the finding
in a cab a package containing part of
her remains. In America, the killing of
poor Alice Bowlsby of Paterson, N. J.,
by Rosenweig, discovered by the finding
of the body crushed into a trunk for
transmission to Chicago, is still fresh in
the recollection of the public. From a
number of cases showing the difficulty
of keeping murder out of sight, the following
three cases, which have become
historical, are interesting examples:
The case of Prof. Webster, who was
hanged for the murder of Dr. Parkman,
was one in which guilt was brought
home to the perpetrator througo the
identification of a body after it had been
separated limb from limb, submitted to
chemical processes, and to the inordinate
heat of a furnace, and mingled with
tin unnumbered bones of anatomical
subjects. It was shown that Prof. Webster
had urgent pecuniary motives for
getting Dr. Parkman out of the way.
The prisoner lived at the Medical College,
Boston. He made an appointment
to meet Dr. Parkman at two o'clock on
Friday, Nov. 23, 1849, to discuss money
matters. Dr. Parkman was seen entering
the college at a quarter to two
o'clock, and was never again seen alive.
The prisoner said that the doctor did
not keep his appointment, and was not
in the college at all that day.
For a whole week no traces of the
missing man were found. On the Friday
week and the day following were
found in a furnace connected with Webster's
laboratory in the college, fused
together indiscriminately with the slag,
the cinders and the refuse of the fuel, a
large numberof bones and certain blocks
of mineral teeth. Some gold that had
been melted was also found. Other
bones were discovered in a vault under
the college, and in a tea chest, embedded
in a quantity of tea, the entire trunk of
a human body and more bones were
found. The parts thus collected from
different places made the entire body of
a person of Dr. Parkman's age, about
sixty years, and the form of the body,
when reconstructed, had just the peculiarities
of Dr. Parkman.
It was further shown that the remains
had been separated by a person possessed
of anatomical skill, though not
for anatomical purposes. Finally three
witnesses, dentists, testified- Miat the
mineral teeth were those made for Dr.
Parkman three years before. A mold
iaw Tens made at the
VI kUU UWW& w .. W?
time, and it was prodnced, and shown to
be so peculiar that no accidental conformity
of the teeth to the jaw could
possibly account for the adaptation.
This clinched the evidence against the
prisoner.
The murder of Samuel Adams, a
printer in New York, by John C. Colt, a
teacher of bookkeeping, and brother of
the late CoL Samuel Colt, of revolver
fame, is another example. As in the
case of Prof. Webster, the motive was
to get rid of an importunate creditor.
The scene of the murder was the building
on Broadway and Chambers street,
now occupied by Delmonico, the restaurateur.
John C. Colt occupied a room in this
building for his business. One September
morning in 1841, Adams, who
was printing for him a work on bookkeeping,
called for 850 or 860 due him,
and was not seen again alive. Inquiries
were made by his family, and it was ascertained
that he was last seen going
into Colt's appartmcnts, in Chambers
street. On the day of Adams' disappearance,
suspicions noises were heard
in Colt's room. The body finally came
boxed, directed to a gentleman in St.
Louis, by way of New Orleans, and was
traced back to New York to Colt, and
ho was arrested.
Colt's story was that Adams and he
bad a dispute as to the correctness of
the bill presented, and that the latter
called him a liar, which he resented by
slapping him in the face. A scuffle en
sued ; Adams seized him by the throat
and Celt, in self defense, caught up a
? i i ___
hatchet lying near by ana strncK nun 011
the forehead, killing him. He went out
of his room and locked the door, hurrying
to the City Hotel, where his brother,
Samuel Colt, was staying, intending to
tell him his secret and take his advice.
Samuel Colt, who was in the barroom
with some friends, told his brother to
go up to his room and that ho would
join him in a few minutes. The prisoner
waited, and his brother not coming,
he went back to the room in Chambers
street. The body lay there covered with
blood. He took a large box, crammed
the body into it, wrapped in a piece of canvas,
tying the legs up close to the trunk,
and then scattered salt and sawdust over
all. He washed off the marks of blood
on the wall and floor, and smeared them
with ink to hide their traces. He stayed
in the room until Lite at night, and tben
returned to his lodgings. Next morning
he nailed up the box, sent for a carman,
and had it put on board the steamer
Kalamazoo, lyiugat the foot of Maiden
lane. Colt was convicted of willful
murder, and was sentenced to be banged.
On the day fixed for the hanging he
stabbed himself in the heart.
A remarkable murder trial in Boston,*
in many respects like that of Professor
Webster, but resulting in the acquittal of
the prisoner, was that of Leavitt Alley,
who was accused of killing Abijah Ellis.
Some workmen near the Cambridge gas
J works discovered two barrels containing
the mutilated body floating in the Charles
river. They were packed with horse manure
and shavings, and in one of the
barrels a piece of brown paper was
found with the name of M. Schonler, a
billiard table maker. It was known that
Leavitt Alley, a teamster, was in the
1TAJIL,
Coma
[ARCH 9, 1876.
ha' t of removing these shavings to his
sta \ Following the clew to the stable
it v as found that a dry manure heap had
been disturbed and blood was found on
some boards near by.
It was proved that oil the previous
morning Alley started from his stable
with four barrels, and a teamster, in
jumping from a v agon, had ascertained
that two of them were heavy. Two of
the barrels were not satisfactorily accounted
for, and a man testified that he
saw the team and barrels with a man
strongly resembling Alley on the mill
dam, whence they wore supposed to have
been thrown into the river. Alley owed
Ellis about 8200, needed money, and
Ellis was known to have been looking
for the suspected man on the night of j
the murder. A new ax that Alley had
bought was missing. Stains were found
on his clothing, which experts declared
to be the blood of the murdered man. A
woman had heard strange noises on the
night of the murder, like the rolling of
barrels. Alley, it was shown, had plenty
of money after Ellis' death. An examination
of the stomach of the murdered
man showed that he must have
died between six and nine o'clock on the
fatal evening. Seemingly, here was a
perfect chain of circumstantial evidence.
But the defense met the theory that Alley
had committed the murder in a quarrel
by showing his peaceable disposition
and his high reputation for honesty, and
controverted the assertion of the prosecution
that Alley was in debt to Ellis,
and without money to meet an engagement
that fell due at the time of the murder,
by showing that the prisoner owned
real estat? in New Hampshire, and had
memoir in <1 bank Allfiv's abnndance of
U4VUV J 1U M J _
ready money after the murder was explained
by his son haying repaid him
8125 the evening before. He gave a satisfactory
accobnt of how he had spent
his time on the day of the murder. Experts
called by the defense swore that
the blood on the prisoner's clothes, being
dry, could not be distinguished from
the blood of a beast. This conflicting
scientific testimony confused the jury to
the advantage of the prisoner, and he
was acquitted. If he was not the murderer,
the murderer was never found.
A Terrible Isolation.
Porters' island, Lake Superior, is a
bit of rock, upon which was built the
" government house," the residence of
that high and potent individual, the
United States agent, who reigned over
the copper land, countersigning permits
and dispensing favors of a consular
nature to visitors to Cooper Harbor.
In the summer of 1846, says an exchange,
we saw a half-breed woman who
had been Crusoeing on the island; she
and ber husband had been placed on the
island in charge of property. Owing to
the wreck of the brig Astor, in the fall
of 1815, supplies failed to reach them.
Long they w?ited for succor, but in vain.
Winter came on, snow covered the
ground, and ice gathered on the waters;
then this lone pair were left to their fate
on this .savage, desolate island, " out of
humanity's reach." The shrieking winds
as they swept through the fir trees, and
the black billows of the 6tormy lake,
spending their sullen fury upon the
rocky coasts, were the only sounds that
could greet the ear during the long,
dark winter of that high northern latitude.
For companionship they must depend
upon each other. But, before the
winter was half spent, the husband sickened
and died, and the poor woman was
absolutely alone. Wrapping the remains
^a iinoUnH in n blanket, she
UA iiCl U^au UUV>vmmv% 9
removed them from the hut and deposited
them in the snow, where, frozen solid
like a pillar of ice, they were preserved
until the return of spring permitted of
their burial. The widow passed the
long winter as best she could, subsisting
upon the flesh of rabbits which she managed
to mare; her bereavement, hardships
and the terrors of isolation, wonderful
as it may seem, did not affect her
health or mind. She was taken off from
the island in the spring, and was happy
enough when she reached the mainland.
Domestic Bankruptcy.
He had been telling her for weeks
past, says the Detroit Free Press, that
times were tight, money scarce, bank-1
ruptcy stalking abroad through the land,
and so forth, and she had consented to
the discharge of the nurse girl, and up j
stairs girl, and had wheedled the cook
into doing general housework. That j
wasn't enough. He came home one
night and said he wasgoing to discharge
the hostler; that money had gone np to i
thirty per cent.; that he could 't afford
to carry his life insurance any longer;
I that she mustn't ask for any more new
| clothes for a year. She went over the
house and pinched expenses down j
again, and things ran along until the |
nrl-ian romorlf : "We've
Ul/UUJk Vlltj ) nuvM ux/ - _ _
got to reduce still further or bust I" She j
was pondering over his remarks late ]
that evening when he came home. He !
was so long getting his overcoat off j
that she went into the hall. He gave the |
coat one awful jerk just then and fell i
over.
"What on earth ails you!" she ex- I
claimed, as she tried to help him up.
" Nozzing," ho replied.
As lie got up she peered into his face.
The fact was as plain as if it had been
written on a whitewashed fence with
tar*.
"Ycu are drunk!" she said, as she
drew back.
He gazed at her without replying.
"Here you've been yelling 'reduce! j
reduce!' all winter, and while I am try-1
ing to reduce you go and get drunk!
You'd better reduce your whisky!"
" Yi said anyzing 'bout rcjuce !" he j
asked.
"Yes, you have!"
" Whaz want rejuce for?"
?Only to-day you said we'd either got
to reduce or bust."
"Di say zat?"
"Yes, you did."
"Well'ju rejuce?"
" No; how could I ?"
"Zen didn't I bust!"
Cnoup.?Cronp may be cured in one
minute, and the remedy is simply alnm
and sugar. The way to accomplish the
act is to take a knife or grater and shave
off in small particles about a teaspoonfnl
cf tdum, then mix it with about twice
its quantity of sugar, to make palatable.
Almost instantaneous relief will follow.
IERCI
$2.00 per 1
AX OBSCURE LIFE.
Whnt a Poor Woman Did for Humanity
Witbont Oatrntation and with no Hope
of Earthly Reward.
i Here is the record of an obscure life
I which may be worth the attention of
' that intelligent^ well-to-do majority,
which is made np, after all, of obscure
people. It is a story which suits all
classes or any time, yet perhaps this
especial time best, when men and women
in the cities who have anxiously tried to
be of service to God and their fellow
men are apt to be daunted and depressed
by the contrast between the great work
accomplished by others and their own
domestic quiet labor. The story is of
a poor seamstress in a mill town in Indiana,
who was left a widow some fifteen
years ago, dependent on her needle for
her daily bread. She lived near one of
the factories where hundreds of both
sexep were employed, and night and
morning large gargs of girls and men
passed her door miserably hungry and
gloomy, or more miserably boisterous.
It was a mill where the hands are driven
like cattle and regarded as cattle in
every other sense. The woman who saw
the young girls pass so often that she
learned to know their faces pitied them
as a mother might have done. Indeed,
we question if sue had any exceptional
quality or means of influence in the
world other than her motherly nature.
au" "">? ?" **naAnnafxs/1 Knmfllr liktlfi
JUO WOO (Hi uuvuuvwwv*) . ?
body, bat with patienoe and tenderness
enough in her heart to serve all the
children^n the world. "I wanted,"
she said, " to give these girls a chanoe
like other women ; they had no chanoe
as it was to be anything better than the
mn'es which drew away the stuff they
spun."
Oar poor reformer took one?just one
girl into her kitchen. She half starved
herself to do that. She made the girl
clean, and taught her to remain clean;
taught her to scrub, wash, cook, and tell
the truth. It took years to accompli' h
so much; years of patience and self-sacrifice.
When she had finished, instead
of a coarse dirty animal, she had molded
for use and service in the world a cleanminded
honest woman, with skillful
hands and intelligent brain. She took
one after another of these wretched girls
and trained them as seamstresses, cooks,
chambermaids, at her own cost of time
and money. Situations were readily
found for them; the housekeepers of the
town soon discovered how different the
women were whom she had trained from
any others; but she never parted with
them unless she was confident that the
work she had begun would be carried
on in the same hearty spirit. In two
cases the girls whom she thus adopted
were deformed and sickly. These both
remained with her until her death, supporting
themselves by some light handiwork.
In other cases they were rescued
from worse places than the mill. A few
of the girls became sincere Christians,
but all (except one) led virtuous, honest,
useful lives. One peculiar effect of
her training was that her pupils caught
from her her own genial, helpful spirit;
they were missionaries of kindness in
their humble world; and a cheerful face
in a cook, or gentle, tender manner in a
nursemaid, are not merits so common as
to be despised.
The widow and her work were never
known to fame, even in the town where
she lived. People supposed when she
took a larger house so as to accommodate
more inmates that she kept a kind of
intelligence office, or cheap boarding
house, and there were not wanting many
in her own rank of life to hint that she
paid herself somehow from the labor of
11 i( fnofVizxvo/l Vuay
10680 pOUr y tliUU DUO luavuvi vva mv*
nest well." None of the women whom
she had helped ever wronged her by a
suspicion. Next to God, whom she
faithfully tried to teach them to serve,
they believed in her. If she had proved
a humbug, the faith of many a poor soul
in His goodness would have been shaken,
for all they knew of the goodness or
! beauty or pleasure He has sent into the
world they knew through this poor
woman. There were other women who
could preach of Christ by words more
| effectually than she ; some of them,
[ quite as uncultured, had a "gift of
i prayer," or a real native eloquence which
j moved their hearers in class meeting or
I the chnrch. Aunt Hannah, as she was
, called, never spoke in class or meeting;
i she was slow and dull of speet h any
| where. She often no doubt felt her deficiencies
bitterly, and wished that she
could serve her Master in some great
and striking way. It seemed a poor
commonplace thing to her, as it may to
our readers, to teach girls how to make
or wear clothes neatly, or to cook a
savory dinner; to watch and labor incessantly
day after day, year after year
to wipe out this or that little faolt, to
strengthen a weak virtue. She would
have been glad, no doubt, as we all
would, to convert the great masses of
vice and uncleanlinees in the world into
purity and goodness, in an hour?to
play Divine Providence, in a word. In
. - ?11 ?-i.
stead, sue naci smaii, cuiuoo WUl MX CCD |
before her, and did it. Of another
woman it was said, " She hath done what
she could," when she anointed her
Savior's head with precious ointment.
How it Went.
In "Williamsburgh, N. Y., is a mansion
that was tenanted for several years by an
estimable family, who wished to remain
Rtill longer ; but the landlord desired to
increase the rent, and told them to move.
He let the place to a person at the
increased price, received one month's
rent, and at the end of the third, dispossessed
his tenants for non-payment of
two months' rent. Since that time the
place remained vacant, until it has entirely
disappeared. Several persons apl
plied, promising to tike care of it, if
! allowed to occupy it, bnt the owner said
j he would rather see it go to ruin than
| not to get his price, and so, as though
I in response to his desire, one after
j another of the neighbors took a piece,
i Doors, windows, and frames were taken
away for firewood, until to day naught
remains but the bricks, constituting the
foundation and the cellar.
A burly Briton, maddened by some
stage reflections on John Bull in a Milwaukee
theater, a few nights ago,
charged upon the actors, revolver in
hand, and cleared the stage in a jiffy.
And yet they call this the glorious centennial
year.
I
AT j.
in. Single Copy 5 Cents.
Resignation,
Let nothing make thee ead or fretful,'
Or too regretful;
. ?n_
i^V >9MU
What God bath ordered most be right;
Theu find in.it thine own delight,
My will.
Why ahould'et thou fill to-day with sorrow
About to-morrow,
My heart!
One watche^all with care meet true,
Doubt not that He will give thee, too.
Thy part.
Items of Interest.
" 'Tis false," as the girl said when
lier lover told her she had beautiful
hair.
" The rich," said a wit, " eat venison
becaase.it is deer. I eat mutton because
it is sheep."
The Prussian government compels
bakers to keep their bread at least one
day before selling.
Buckingham, Ferry and Starkweather,
all from Connecticut, and all taken away
within a few montlis.
A Roman once said : " Build me a
house where I shall be seen by every one
every hour of the day."
London is estimated by the registergeneral
to contain now nearly three millions
and a half of people.
The Legislature of Minnesota passed a 9
bill to borrow $6*3,000 from ths school
fond to pay its cm-rent expenses.
" Perley " insists that" cold tea " in
the Capitol restaurant at Washington is
a liberal translation of " whisky.
Thirty-two sales of short horns took
place in Kentucky last year, in which
1,553 animals were sold for $665,946.
There are 21,255 Baptist churches in
the United States with 13,117ministers,
and a total membership of 1,815,000.
" John, if you're going to be out till
two o'clock to-night you'll have to stay
at home and let yourself in, for I won't.
A Lycoming county (Pa.) farmer took
home a freshly painted wagon; three
cows licked the paint off and died the
next day.
Eleven shillings and the same number
of pence constituted the entire capital
of a London banker when he failed for
about $200,000.
Under the Iowa civil damage law the
wives of drunkards in Sioux City have
sued liquor dealers for sums amounting
in all to $60,000.
Laziness is said to be one of the oauses
of insanity. In the Virginia bedlam
there are two women and one man who
became insane from indolence.
A chandler having had some candles
stolen, a person bid him be of gcod
cheer, "for in a short time," said he,
" I am confident they will all come to
light."
One of our merchants sat his umbrella
against a tree w hile he stepped into a
store to ask a question. When he came
out the tree stood there. No one had
taken it.
A counsel was asked by the judge for
whom he was concerned. He answered:
"I am concerned, my lord, for the
plaintiff, but I am employed by the
defendant"
Minnesota Falls, Minn., was organised
as a town over three years ago, and al"
'-1-'? Vtnn.
tnougn me popuLttviuii ao vrn ...
dred, not a death has oooored there dorthe
three years.
There has been a good deal of fun
made over the Chinese birds' nest soop,
bnt it is said by Americans who have
tasted of the dish that it will yet be
served at oar restaurants.
A school insj>eetor visiting a school
said : " Now, children, who loves all
men ?" The question was hardly pat
before a little girl, not four years old,
answered : " All women."
Speaking of the depression of trade
the world over, the Pall Mall Gazette
says : In Austria and Germany the recovery
will be slower than in England
or the United States, for -the simple
reason that their resouroes of all kinds
are less.
David. T. Simper, of Sandown, N.
H., who is totally blind, is able to reap,
mow, thresh, chop down trees, cut up
cord wood, make ax handles, ox goads,
and can go roun d the neighborhood with
assistance or direction from any one,
and never finds time to spend in regreting
the loss of liis eyesight
The arithmetic man of a Western
paper has discovered if every one of the
8,000,000 families in the American
Union would only skim the soap grease
off their dishwater, and invest its proceeds
in a sinking fund at four per cent
compound interest, the proceeds in 169
years two months and eleven days would
pay off the national debt
. A minister offered a prayer at
the laying of a corner stone. A brisk
young reporter bnstled up and said:
" I wish you would give me the manuscript
of that prayer." " I never write
out my prayers," said the preacher.
" Well," said the reporter, " I couldn't
hear a word yo a said." "I wasn't pray
- ? - i at
ing to you," quickly repnea wie pmevu.
A Wisconsin trader discovered two
men, disguised with veils, robbing his
store one night recently, and went for
| them with a revolver. The rognes fled
and he followed, firing as he went, bnt
the thieves apparently escaped. The
next morning a man was found dead in
the road with a veil over his face, and he
proved to be the trader's brother-in|
law.
| Mineral Wool.
1 The method of manufacture at the
Krnpp works, Essen, Prussia, is as fol:
lows: The pig iron furnace is provided
with a tap an inch in diameter, out of
which a continual stream of slag is allowed
to flow and to fall a distance of
j two feet six inches, at which point the
I falling stream of slag is met by a strong
1 1 * 'J r\t wKiaK in fn
OlHfil OI CUJU ttu J vuc CUW ? VTA nw*vM *W
separate the f lag into myriads of hairlike
threads, as white as snow, resembling
the finest wool. These fibers,
like spnn glass, if'handled, will,penetrate
the skin. The mineral wood is
used for packing steam pipes, boilers,
eta, and is a valuable product. '
m