The Beaufort tribune and Port Royal commercial. [volume] (Beaufort, S.C.) 1877-1879, March 22, 1877, Image 1

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4 \ THE BEAUFORT TRIBUNE AND PORT ROYAL COMMERCIAL. ' I : , ? ? ?? ? . VOL. V. NO. 16. BEAUFORT, S. C., THURSDAY, MARCH. 22, 1877. $2,00 per Anim Siii?le Copy 5 Craft. i =====?= v Lack and Labor. i 1 11 Luck doth wait, standing idly at the gate? j Wishing, wishing all the day ; , j And att night, without a fire, without a light And before an empty tray, t Doth sadly say : ; l " To-morrow something may turn up ; L To-night on wishes I must sup." Labor goes, plowing deep the fertile rows? ! j Singing, singing all the day ; And at night, before the fire, beside the light, \ And with a well filled tray, Doth gladly say : ] "To-morrow I'll turn something up; 1 To-night on wages earned I sup." < - ?St. Xictwlas. 1 __ 1 PAPA'S STRANGE GUEST. j 1 1 It was a warm June evening, and mv ( father and mother and I were seated in ] our drawing-room, with the long doors t leading on to the lawn thrown open, to ] admit the air. I was sitting at n v bureau, examining some of mv jewelry, < which I kept there, when the doer j opened, and M. Menton (a friend of my t father's staying with us at the time) : j entered. He was a French Canadian ; | < rather a fine-looking man, but a man I ! , never liked ; there was a look in his black, beady eyes which, to me, was at < once repulsive and distrustful. He ' ] looked curiouslv at me, and approached, i "Mademoiselle is busy?" he asked. j < "Yes," I replied, shortly. < My father and mother had dropped j ] asleep, so, much to my disgust, M. Men-> 1 ton took up his station on a chair by my < side. I say disgust, because I loathed j the man ; his politeness always seemed \ to me unreal. 11 "Mademoiselle has some fine jewels, j he remarked, presently, taking between i ] his finger and thumb a handsome broach ! i of rubie3. j 1 "All of this jewelry is not mine," I , answered. " Most of it belongs to my i ( mother." 11 Soon after, tea was annoimced; after ; which meal M. Menton and my father j adjourned to the latter's study, to talk 1 on business, and my mother and I re- ^ turned to the drawing-room. 11 I had finished putting away the jewelry in the bureau, but had not sliut or locked j it, when I turned to my mother. i " What is this business that so often i keeps M. Menton and papa closeted to- , gether?" I inquired. < "Some money matters, my dear," re* 1 turned my mother. ; < " Is papa in any difficulty !" I inquired, 1 anxiously. j i " No, * no ; but, between ourselves, j Louisa, I think Monsieur Menton has : j some heavy bills due, which I fancy he can not pay ; but if he expects that your i father can help him, he is grievously j mistaken." i My mother took up a book and com- l menced to read, whilst I went over to the ; piano and played. j ] In about half an hour our visitor and ; ] my father entered the room, the latter i j again taking up his station on a chair by j % my side, as close as he possibly could, j Song after song he made me sing; and, j much as I would have liked to, I could ; ] not, with common civility, refuse. ! ] It was ten o'clock when I rose from the i j piano and prepared to retire to mv own 11 room. I shut my bureau and locked it, | kissed my father and mother, and bade j Monsieur good night. : j ****** I ( Tf -a-na oVwvnf. V>alf-r?ftst one. when I was i awakened from a light sleep by hearing a j ! stealthy footstep 111 the corridor outside < my room. It approached my door; the j1 r person, whoever it might be, walking ' softly and cautiously, as if fearful of 1 disturbing me. Who could it be ? My i first impulse was to jump out of bed and see; but I was of a timid nature, anu < imagined burglars and all sorts of horri- 1 ble things, so I remained still, listening ; 1 with suspended breath. ; f Presently the handle of my door was < turned. Oh, heavens! I felt paralyzed, j 1 A man entered my room -with a small i dark-lantern in his hand, and, after paus- < ing for a moment, slowly approached the 1 J bed. I had just sufficient presence of ? mind to shut my eyes and feign sleep as he bent over me. I felt that he had 1 turned the light full on my face; his 1 breath fanned my cheek. My heart beat to suffocation, and I felt that if the ordeal lasted much longer, I . j could not control myself, and should scream or faint. j, Happily, however, the next moment 1 the light was -withdrawn, and my nocturnal visitor left the room. I heard the footsteps pass along the corridor, and descend the stairs leading to the drawing-room. Then it flashed upon me, though I had locked my bureau containing my jewelry, I had not taken away the key. I have remarked that by nature I was timid; but, at this juncture, I felt as brave as a lion, *nd, springing from my bed, threw on my dressing-gown and went to the head of the stairs. I paused A dreadful fear came over me. All was dark, and I heard not a sound I began to descend. When I get opposite the door of the j drawing-room, which was partially closed, I saw a dim light proceeding thence. Oh! my agony of fear lest the : awaoIT AVh/3 Vvofrov mol KUUIS Bliuiuu lir?a ouu *"v. On reaching tlie door of the room, I saw to my delight that the key was in the lock out?ide. But if I should not be successful in making this villi an prisoner. ' I shuddered at the thought. How this , man had got into the house I could not tell. He must be a friend of one of the servants, I conjectured. My hand was upom the key of the door, when the handle, with a sharp click, betrayed me. J heard a quick step across the apartment. A moment decided me. I must feign somnambulism. In another instant the door was opened, and I, with my eyes fixed wide open, entered the room. The thief started back with a smothered exc'amation of surprise. I dared not look at lim, but walked straight past him to -the bureau, and spoke the following words disjointedly : "I left my key here. Where can it be?" The'xnan walked over to the other end of the room, where an ov*?eea* m mng 011 the back of a chair, and began 1 o search the pockets. i I had in that moment time to regard 1 lim. I could hardly forbear a cry; for, in < his room, trying to rob my mother and ; nyself of our jewels, was Monsieur Menton. He returned to the bureau (where I vas still fumbling to find the key), and breed one into my hand. ' . I then pretended that I had found i] jvhat I wanted, and, turning round, left i( he room. ;' I have often wondered since then why |! [ did not raise the house, but, truth to j; :ell. mv movements on that night were }uite mechanical; my faculties seemed ! :o have given wav under the unnatural | 1 ension to which tliey had been subjected; ! [ felt in a sort of stupor, and hardly I 1 inew whether I was asleep or awake. I ! 1 returned to my bedroom, and, looking at :he key as I placed it on my dressingable, saw that it was that of the front ' loor of our house, which Monsieur 1 Menton must have taken from my father's ; study after we had all retired for the light. 1 Then I returned to bed, leaving a thief i town-stairs ransacking the place. After ! ibout a quarter of an hour I heard a stealthy step ascend the stairs. I closed ny eyes, and as I did so my door was < opened, and again I underwent another < examination by the light of the lantern. Presently I heard my persecutor go j over to the dressing-table. There was : 10 article of jewelry there; so if that was what he wanted, lie was disappointed. ' 3oon he withdrew from my room, and i iescended the stairs once more:' I heard aotliing more. I cannot say that I slept, out the heavy stupor which had been creeping over me deepened into complete i insensibility, and I remained in that state till morning. It was my habit to wake without being called by the servant, but it was late when I arose the following morning, and I was informed by thp maid that my father and mother were at breakfast. I could not wait till I was .lressed to tell my adventure, so I tlirew on my dressing-gown, and went to the breakfast-room. I opened the door. My father's back was turned to me, and my mother was facing me. She looked up as I entered the room?looked up, j res, and, with a terrific scream, rushed j toward me. My father evidently thought, as I did, ( Lhat she was deranged, till he looked at ! aie, when he in his turn uttered a cry of j surprise and horror. My parents both j Iraggecl me to the chimney-piece, above ; which there was a looking-glass. It was then my turn to exclaim. When I took lown my hair to brush it the night before, it was black as jet; now it was streaked with gray. The work of years had been accomplished in one terrible night! An explanation was asked, and an explanation given; after which my mother [eft the room, and in a few moments returned, bringing with her the key of the bureau. " You must have been dreaming, my love," she said; "evidently not a tiling aas been touched. Our jewelry is as safe is it was this time yesterday." " Well, where i6 Monsieur Menton ?" I , isked. "In his room, undoubtedly," answered ny father. So saying, he went from the room, but quickly returned with a pale face, and in his hand a note, hastily i written in pencil. "Read it aloud," he said, handing it i to my mother, who took it, and read as follows: i " My very dear friends: < "I write to say farewell to you. We i 'hall never meet again. When you read the confession I am about to make, you trill think yourselves well rid of one who icce]?ted your hospitality and then turned j traitor. I 44 Yes, I am a poor, despicable wretch. | i'ou, my benefactor, remember that last ?vening I asked yo;i to help me^in some ! ' money matters, which you said you could !1 [lot do, and you know I^ad asked you j several times before, ana fbu" had de- j .'lined; but yesterday night you said you : bad given me my tinal answer. I tlien ! 1 Xi'ew desperate (though to your face fair enough), and determined to steal the money iro n you, if I could get it in no j other way. I 44 Earlier in the evening?before our conversation in your study?you may remember that your daughter (who, by the way, never seemed to like or trust me) ; was seated at her bureau, looking at Bome jewelry. An idea seized me that if | I could onlp get possession of these j jewels?for some of them were very costly?I could sell them at a price which 1 would not only pay my dents, out woiuu , leave me enough besides to enable me I to get clear out of the country. " Your daughter, iu having locked her bureau, did not take the key, but left it i in the lock; therefore, eo far the way was i paved for me. "I did my best to conquer these! temptations, but alas! we are but weak creatures, and I at length succumbed, ard resolved to turn (oh! my friends, pass over the word as soon as possible) thief! So at a quarter-past one this morning I descended to the drawing-room, opened the bureau, and was about to take the jewels, when, hearing the handle of the door move, I went to see the cause, and imagine my feelings at seeing your daughter standing before me. I soon perceived, however, by the fixed look* in her eyes that she was asleep. She began talking disjointedlv of having left the key in t?e lock of her bureau. I went to my overcoat, which was in the room, and got a key?that of the front door? which I had taken from your study, and forced it into her hand. She believed herself to be the possessor of what she wauted, and, turning round, left the room. "For some moments I stood where she had left me, looking after her, as if I myself were in a dream. When I had seen her standing before me, with a face as pure and innocent as her mind, uncons -ions of all evil or danger, I seemed to realize for the first time what a mean and ! guilty wretch I was. "Contrition seized me; I recoiled with horror from the thought the ac tion I had been about to commit, and thanked Heaven it was not too late to resist the temptation. After the lapse of a few moments, I went up to her room to po ?seas myself of the key I had put into her hand, which I found on her dressingtable. I then went back to your study, put it back in it# place, wrote the present j ; etter, opened the window and shutters, md bade farewell to the house where I iad spent so many happy hours. " And now that you know what I have j lone, try and forget my ingratitude if rou can. " Ever yours lovingly, '4 My dear friends, \ " Eugene Menton." So ended the letter. Poor man ! I inquired of my father if nothing could be lone to trace him, and get him to return. He replied that lie would do what he ;ould. We succeeded in tracing liini to i i ii x1 _ .1 U.i .New iotk, ana inere me ciue w<ia msi. We tried every means which occurred to us for discovering his whereabouts, and inserted advertisements in the New York and the Canadian papers, begging him to let us know at least that he was alive and well; but all our endeavors were rain?we never heard of him again. We often think of him with pity and regret, for, whatever were his faults, there must have been some good in a man who was capable of feeling such profound and sincere contrition for a guilty intention.?Illustrated Weekly. A Victim to the Opinm Habit. The following particulars of the suicide of M. M. Wishard, late superintendent of the Soldiers' Orphans' Home, at Knightstown, Ind., are gleaned from the New Orleans Times : With erect bearing and deliberate movements, he entered the St. James Hotel and straightway sought one of the closets, from which he emerged wounded to the death. He first cut his throat with a penknife and then inserting a pair of scissors into the wound, vainly attempted to sever the main artery to better consummate the end, but before he accomplished his purpose he fell exhausted to the floor. Here he was found still breathing. A stretcher was improvised and the man was borne to the hospital, but ere many squares had been traversed he breathed his last. Upon his person was found the following letter, written in a bold, firm hand : My own true name is M. M. Wishard, late superintendent Orphans' Home, Knightstown, Ind. I am paying dear for my sin. Opium is the cause of it all. Write Dr. Hannaman some one, please, when I am gone. God only knows how I have fought this terrible habit, but whenever it gets hold of the system, it is too late. I am expecting every moment to be arrested and taken to jail, where I shall never come out alive. God pity the opium eater. Am almost past going now. In the inside of the sheet, evidently written while nerving himself to the desperate deed, w;is the following : Oh! that I had been wise in the day of this visitation. I have a faint hope of forgiveness. I then began to fight it with the desperating that almost crazed me, and when nearly well, would become discouraged and go back again. My dear family is my regret. Oh ! that I had been wise in time. No man ever had a dearer family than I had. A better wife and children no man ever saw How cruel I have been. If through Jesus' blood. Although I have been a great sinner, I was so much intoxicated by opium that I thought I was a Christian, but alas, alas, when too late, I fear I find I was not. The opium habit was contracted more than ten years ago, though not confirmed until only about eight years since. I live, of which I have little hope, I Avould cheerfully serve them. 1 fear my wile ana attie ones are dead or insane. God knows I cannot recall my life. Rusiness in Ancient Poiupeii. One of the most interesting discoveries in recent years at Pompeii was made in 1875, when a wooden chest was brought to light, containing the business receipts of one L. Csecilius Jucundus. The chest crumbled to dust 011 exposure to the air, but the tablets on which the receipts were written liave at length proved to be legible in many instan#es, and the result of a careful study of these tablets by Moramsen and others has been io clear lip several points in what was among the Romans a matter of great consequence, viz.: the position of the middleman in affairs of business. There was not among the Romans the same extensive system of shops as with us, supplying every possible article of necessity or luxury, and for this reason there arose innumerable occasions of private persons desiring to dispose of this or that article, as for instance, a surplus of agricultural produce, old carts, plows, or even old aud invalid slaves, as Cato recommends the landowner to do. The tablets in question are dated, according to custom, by giving the names of the consuls for the year. The greater part of the dates fall between A. D. 53-62. A few are as early as 15 and 27. Since there is no more recent date than 62, it becomes highly probable that the tablets of Jucundus had been overwhelmed in the earlier eruption of Vesuvius. The majority of the tablets are triptychs, and are written partly with letters on wax, spread on the tablet, and partly in ink on the bare wood. Among them there is only one which gives the amount of commission which lie received, and that proves to be two per cent., whi h is known from other sources to have been the general rate. Usually he merely says "minus the commission." The person to whom this expense fell was the buyer. Evenings at Home. When the evening lamps arc lighted, says an exchange, the children now gather with school books around the table to con the morrow's lessons. To many of them the tasks hssigped seem dreary and hopeless; definitions are hard to remember ; the geography lesson is difficult to comprehend and won't stay fixed in the mind ; history is dull and dead, arithmetic a hopeless tangle of figures, and gramma more puzzling than any possible conundrum. The little folk need help ; they need cheer and encouragement, and wfio should be so ready, so willing, so able to give it as the parent ? Even if the parent's education is imperfect, he will bring to the comprehension of the lesson in hand a wider range of knowledge and a broader manner of looking at things than the child can do, aud thus great!v aid in the clear comprehension of the Waon to be -earned, PROFESSOR BELL'S TELEPHONE. The Iluninn Voice Carried a Hundred and Forty MHes. Professor A. Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, comes from the staid old city of Salem. About five years j ago he first began to think about the 1 possibility of the transmission of sound ' by telegraph, and the idea took posses, sion of him completely. His invention ! had so far taken form eighteen months age, that with the assistance of a practical electrician, Mr. Thomas A. Watson, I be began to experiment, using lor tne j purpose a wire between Boston and Cam| bridge, about two miles long. The first time the practical success of i the telephone was demonstrated to the satisfaction of others was on Oct. 9, 1876. The telephone then spoke for itself, and the conversation of the operator in Cambridge could be distinctly heard at the Boston end of the line. An interesting dialogue took place, the speakers talking in their ordinary key. One of the experiments, which occurred on Jan. 21, was eminently gratifying in its results. Not only every word spoken in Boston, but even the tones and inflexions of the several voices were accurately transmitted and readily recognized by those at the Salem end of the line. Other experiments demonstrated the fact that a lady in. Maiden could sing " The Last Bose of Summer," and every note could be heard in the room at - ^ i -i - - rrrt j o Jtxeter place, uoBion. xne souna was perfectly clear, and had about the same effect as if the listener were at the rear of a concert hall, say one hundred feet away from the singer. Subsequent trials showed that laughter, applause or instrumental music could De equally well transmitted. In the case of the latter, not only the key could be transmitted but also the quality of the music. A violin could be distinguished from a violoncello. The greatest distance that has been vanquished by the telephone is 143 miles ?from Boston to North Conway, N. H. The most recent improvements made on the instrument do away with batteries altogether, and premanent magnets are now employed instead, the electric wave used in transmitting the sounds being generated by the voice itself. This is regarded as a very important step in advance, as the bother and expense of keeping batteries in order has been the great drawback to the employment of the instrument for private purposes. The honor of having received the first newspaper dispatch ever sent by means of the telephone belongs to the Boston Globe. A report of a lecture by Prof. Bell in Salem was transmitted verbally to it last Monday night. This lecture was about the telephone, and in the ! course of the evening a series of remark- J ub'e experiments was made in the presence of the audience. Bongs and brief SpWohes were sent fronJ"Bo6ton, and the applause which greeted their reception in Salem was distinctly heard in Boston. Imagine sitting in a hall and hearing a man, eighteen miles away, sing "Hold the Fort." "I haven't the slightest doubt," Mr. Watson said, "that in a few months tilings will be so that a man can make a lecture here in Boston and be heard by an audience in any part of the country." " Do you 'expect that the telephone will entirely supersede the present system of telegraphing ?" I asked. " Yes, we expect it will, eventually. A company is now forming for the purpose of manufacturing and introducing the instrument. In time it can't fail to replace the old dot and line alphabet system entirely. We expect, at first, it will be used mostly on private lines and for city business. It will probably take the place Of the present district tele- j graph companies and the like, as it will j be especially convenient for that cla38 of | business." " Won't the receiving operators have | to learn shorthand ?" "Yes, I suppose they will. In our : experiments we have generally paused j after saying a sentence, so that the re- j ceiver had time to write out in long i hand." Mr. Watson remarked that the intro- ; auction of the telephone would probably J have the effect of increasing the telegraph business to such an extent that it would hasten the time when the wires would have to be laid underground instead of being strung on poles. Apropos i : i.".. T :e :t V mnglii^ uY ncicgiujiii, JL tt.-sa.ru u it i would uot save a good deal of expense to i our American opera managers. "An ! | American audience could liear Nilsson, j Patti, or any European jirima donna, j | without bringing them across the Atlan- 1 j tic," I suggested. "Just place the re! ceiving machine in the Boston Music I Hall, for instance, and let the songstress ! I put her mouth close to the mouthpiece ! in Paris, London, Vienna or St. Petersburg, and the effect would be the same , as if the prima donna herself were present in the flesh." "Certainly," said Mr. "Watson, smiling, "and it would be curious to obseiwe what effect the presence of the voice and absence of the person would have on the critics. Homely singers would probably advance in public esteem, while some of the beautiful cantatrices might j suffer a corresponding set-back when | their voices were judged on their merits." No trial has yet been made, however, ! of the transmission of 'sounds to so great i a distance as across the Atlantic. Mr. ; Watson said that as far as they had been ! able to ascertain, there seemed to be a limit to the distance over which the j sounds could be made to travel; but he expressed himself as confident that in due time any given distance could be annihilated "We have, in fact," he added, "talked through a wire arranged to j give an artificial resistance equal to 40,! 000 ohms, which is more resistance than ! the entire length of the Atlantic cable would offer. But there are other obstacles to be overcome in order to transmit ' the sound of the voice correctly to such a distance as that. 1'ror. liell ana I are i constantly at work here perfecting the j systen, yon see. When a favorable op! portnnity offers, we shall try and have a j | practical test over one of the transatlan- 1 tic cables." The wonderful little instrument of whose future value to civilization the in! ventor is so saDguine, consists of a pow- j j eriul compound permanent magnet, to the poles of which are attached ordinary j : telegraph coils of insulated wire- In front of the poles, surrounded by these ' coils of wire, is a diaphragm of iron. A mouthpiece, whose function is to con- j verge the sound on this diapliragm, sub- j stantially completes the arrangement. The n operation of the instrument is thus des- g cribed by Prof. Bell: The motion of t steel or iron in front of the poles of the 1 t magnet creates a current of electricity in coils surrounding the poles of the mag ! net, and the duration of this current of p electricity coincides with the duration ot; c the motion of the steel or iron moved or ; fc. vibrated in the proximity oi the magnet, j r When the human voice causes the dia-1 g phragrn to vibrate, electrical undulations are induced in the coils around the magnets precisely similar to the undula- 1 tions of the air produced by the voice. , J; The coils are connected with the line J wire, and the undulations induced in them travel through the wire, und passing ' ^ through the coils of another instrument of similar construction at the other end jc of the line are again resolved into air in- f dulations by the diaphragm of this un- j strument. The voltaic battery is entirely : dispensed with. The line wire may be e of any given length, provided the insu- i t lation is good. Prof. Bell further says c that soft tones can be heard across the 1 e wires even more distinctly than loud ! J utterances, even a whisper being audible. ? 1 !! Patti, the Singer. j t Adelina Patti, who is now creating * something of a sensation in Europe on 1 account of her separation from her hus- 11 band, the Marquis de Caux,is now thirty- < six years of age. She was born of Italian ( parents at Madrid in 1843 (according to i t lier biographer). Her mother, Madame j6 Barili Patti, was the prima donna of the . < ftmnd nf Madrid, and soon after ' 1 Adelina's birth ehe removed to Milan, i She had four daughters, Clotilda, Amalia (Mrs. Strakosch), Carlotta and Adelina. Strange to say, Midfue Barili Patti i soon after giving birth to Adelina completely lost her line voice. Adelina came j to this country with her parents when j only a few years old, her father appear- , ing in the old Chambers Street Italian Opera House with the Languirico company. At the age of nine she appeared in the provinces when Strakosch made a concert tour with Ole Bull and other artists and sang the songs made famous by Jenny Lind, Sontag, Bosio and others. It is related that Sontag predicted al- j ready then that Adelina would become ' the greatest songstress of the age. Her ' first great starring tour, however, w;as undertaken at the age of fourteen, when f she went with Strakosch, Gottschalk and others to the West Indies, and it is men- j tioned that at that early age already she ' had an offer of marriage at Porto Rico i from the richest planter of the island. In 1859, then a girl, "not yet seven- ; teen," she created a furore in opera in j ^ia country, and then returned to Eu- j rope where she met with a fervent wel- : come everywhere. She was a great fav- J orite of European sovereigns, and sang , ^ before no less than thirty of these, j i When she married the marquis she was ! ( twenty-five years old,end the bridegroom, I, who was equerry to Napoleon, was nearly ! ] seventeen years her senior. The Duke j, of Manchester and Mr. Costa gave away 1 the bride. Napoleon and the empress !, used their influence to bring about the ! marriage, and it was through them that , it was accomplished. He was of an aristo cratic family, but poor as poverty itself. ; Patti was wealthy and ambitious, and ( the new union gave her au undisputed , entrance to the magic circle of the j French court. No happiness could be i expected to result from such a marriage, j in which the wife, on the one hand, | sought a title, and the husband, on the other, a fortune. She could well afford to pay 100,000 francs in order to get rid 1 of the marquis. When she married the i J marquis one-third of her future earnings ! | was to go to her personally and two-thirds ? were to go to the joint account of herself | and the m:;rquis after having paid their < expenses, the marquis to accompany her on lu r musical trips. C >ni?terfeit Coin. There is a large amount of counterfeit , coin in circulation, the New York >Shh \ says, judging from the complaints of j people engaged in all branches of busi- ; < ness. The counterfeits are of all denom- ; inations, beginning with a five-cent j i nickel and ending with the trade dollar. | j Only a few of the latter are in general . 1 circulation. Half dollars, however, are j ] handled by everybody, and upon these j . the counterfeiters have exerted their j j highest art. There are at present coun- ( terfeits of four or five different substances ' ? .'11 which closely resemuie ine genuine an- ; vcr lialf dollar. The most dangerous of ( these is conceded to be made of glass, ; silvered over by some process, which makes the counterfeit similar in appear- < ance and feeling to the government coin. Saloon keepers say that it is exceedingly difficult to detect the fraud, particularly ; as the ring is perfect. In an uptown ' barroom one was taken from a customer, and the fact that it was counterfeit point- ; ed out to him. The barkeeper then gave him change, saying : " We get these glass half dollars in every day, and they are aii nut.. 1 tliof with onr p.iiRtomers we sel dom say anything, as they pass out with- j out difficulty." The counterfeit quarters are exceedingly numerous, and are well calculated to deceive people who are not used to handling coin. The stage lines and the street cars without conductors suffer considerably from the abundance of counterfeit coin, as passengers can slip bad money into the boxes in payment of fares with'out discovery. The losses in consequence are so serious that the advisability of taking out the boxes and employing conductors is under consideration. There was great excitement around the de 1 o? the bears on the first of February at the .Tardin des Plantes, Paris. A nurse held a b >y of five on the railing that he might see the animals, and accidentally let him drop. The spectators ali thought that the bears would have attacked the child, but they refrained. It was necessary that some one should descend into the pit to withdraw him, but only one man volunteered. Ho was i lowered by a rope under the armpits and withdrew the boy without molestation, j His courage was rewarded by profuse felicitations, but be escaped without giv- : j ing his name, ' | 'ARM, GARDEN AND HOUSEHOLD. The Housekeeper. Waffles.?One quart of milk, one md a half quarts flour, four eggs, and alt. Beat milk and eggs together; stir he flour in until it makes a smooth bater. Coffee Cake, without Egos.?One md one-half cupfuls cold coffee, the amo of sugar, one cupful butter, half a aipful molasses, a heaping teaspoonful oda, one cupful each of raisins and curants; a Little citron and spices to taste; itir with flour as stiff as fruit cake. . . i 9iire remedy ior me Dorer is me *uuxe. He advised cutting out the worm as soon as it is discovered that the grub is at work in the wood, and covering the denuded places with grafting wax. In regard to preventives, he alluded to the one sometimes practiced of building littje fires in the orchard at night during the early part of the summer, while the insects are mating. Seeing the light they fly into the fire and are burned. Another preventive often employed, of which the speaker appro veil, is tyiDg a piece of oilcloth tightly about the trunk of the tree, drawing down one edge to the ground and covering it with earth. This prevents the "nsect from reaching the bark, and as soon as the season for j depositing eggs is over it can be re- I moved. A Cure For Hob Cholera. According to the experience of Mr. Wiley Davis, of Illinois, a large cattle grower, fresh meat is a preventive of cholera. He says his hogs were about to take the hog cholera when the cars killed ! two steers, and his hogs gorged them- j selves, and have been healthy ever since, j He thinks that forcing hogs afflicted with : the symptoms of cholera to move about! is one of the best tilings for them, next ' to feeding flesh and providing them a ! mixture of ashes, salt aud lime. John ; Allen, of Urbftna, in leply to a question I us to the cholera, said he had arrested it j among his swine by feeding meat; and when asked what sort of meat was best for that purpose, said that " cracklings are the best if you can get them, but re- ; fuse meat from the smoke house, surplus fat or lean, shanks, rinds, etc. ?any kind of meat will answer the purpose." Mr. Allen added, so far as his experience went, there was no other remedy worth anything. Let those, then, who have hogs suffering with cholera, or the symptoms thereof, feed fresh meat of almost any kind, and see if it proves effective. ' Cultivation of tlie quince. "Will you be kind enough to give me some general information in regard to growing and attending quince trees ?" Reply.?If it is desired to grow quinces, the trees should be procured from a nurseryman and planted out now I or else early in the spring. The ground in which the young trees are planted should be deeply dug ov$r and manured j with rotten stable manure. For fruit, the orange quince Is preferred. If it is desired to propagate the young plants, i this may be done by procuring cuttings consisting of strong shoots taken off from near the old wood and at least six inches long. These are put oat early in the winter, or at the present time, in trendies two feet deep and secured from frost by covering with dry soil. They are planted out in the spring in rows eighteen inches apart in the row and kept free from weeds. The proper afterculture is to train the young trees to stout stems two to four feet high and to form a well balanced head. The variety mentioned is very hardy and productive of fine flavored and popular market fruit. >_ A bill was introduced in the Nevada Legislature by a Chinaman. It was a wash bill against one of the members, and lobbied through by its author. t Potato Puff.?Any left over mushed j >otatoes may be made into an excellent ! lisli for next day's dinner. Maslied po- , ato, two cnpfiils; melted butter, two j ablespooufuls, work well together and idd milk, one cupful, and two well )eaten eggs. If the potato was not suffi:iently seasoned for the table salt will be , equired. Bake in a quick oven until i he top is a light brown. Cream Cake.?Cake?One cupful ofmgar, one and a half cupfuls flour, hree eggs, one-half teaspoonful soda, ! me teaspoonful cream tartar, a little lalt; bake on round tins and split with i sharp knife. Cream?One cupful sujar, one-half cupful flour, three eggs; )eat together, and stir into it pne pint of wiling milk; stand or the range a minlte, stirring all the while; flavor to aste. . Plum Pudding. ? One pound of jread, or six large crackers pounded, one piart of milk, one large spoonful flour, me teacupful sugar, one nutmeg, one easpoonftil cinnamon, one-half teaipoonful ground cloves, butter the size r" pr egg same quantity of suet, chopjed. one pound raisins, stoned. Boil he milk and mix all the ingredients together. These puddings are served vitli p. rich sauce and eaten warm, but ire excellent cut up cold like cake., rhey will keen several weeks, and when hey are to be used, pass a knife around I he pudding, pour >a a little hot water, j ;over close and put iu the oven half an j lour before serving. Bake id deep i farther dish. How to Prevent Borern in Apple Trees. G. C. Reese desired to know of the 'armers' club if tar will prevent borers n apple trees, and will the tar injure the I ;rees. A member replied that wrapping trees ivith tarred paper from eighteen inches x> two feet high, letting the paper fit die ground snugly, and make a little noimd up to the paper, will furnish both i tree borer proof and a rabbit proof. In ais opinion, half of the young orchard :rees are injured, if not killed, by these two pests. Care should be taken that the borers already in a tree are destroyed before the tarred paper is applied. This may be done by enlarging the opening af the hole and forcing the shoot of an apple after tlism and crusliing them; a wire may be used for tkjjj purpose, but the member preferred the apple shoot as being elastic. This insect deposits its eggs often on the body of a tree when the bark has beeu injured. Washing the body with strong soapsuds was advised as excellent. Another member thought the only * * n - l _ iL. 1 Items of Interest. \ We are told of grass in Colorado that is so short you must lather it before you can mow. Fifty Illinois cities have increased one hundred and twenty per cent in valuation in ten years. Mrs. Partington says that Ike has bought a horse so spirituous that he always goes off in a decanter. Caroline Lambert, of Omaha, lived to be a hundred years old, and was then burned to death in a kerosene accident. Blue glass windows are recommended to cure all kinds of panes, and the lights are said to be particularly fine for the ! livers. The State tax in Maine is only a third of a cent on a dollar of assessed valuation, or about a sixth of one per cent on real vaiue. A domestic scene?" I haven't another word to say, wife; I never dispute with fools." "No, husband; you are very sure to agree with them." Two young women cowhided a man in the street in Lexington, Ind., and he, lapsing from politeness, nearly killed one of his assailants with a club. An Aurora man sent his boy down town with a pair of boots, giving him instructions to have them half-soled. Shortly the boy returned with the one boot and a dime. The pair of boots were half sold. .. A Baltimore inventor is ruined. He invented a kind of air cushion for women's bustles, put all his money into their manufacture, and now a chaBge in fashion has left the stock valueless on his hands. Another warning?A Cincinnati man recently received from a plumber an exorbitant bill of $800. He sued the plumber and recovered $2,000 on account of the bad way in which the work was done. A young man in Ansonia who mistook a bottle of varnish for hair oil, concluded that dancing was a frivolous entertainment, and keep away from a masquerade ball. But when inquisitive friends asked why he stayed away, he told an unvar Dished tale. When a man without cash or credit attempts to leave a hotel, and lowers hie valise out of a back window by means of. a rope, it makes charity seem cold to hear the voice of the landlord below, yelling up: "All right I've got the valise; let go the rope. In Worcester, England, a farm laborer was fined $12 and costs by a petty sessions court for having refused to obey the lawful commands of his employer. He had been working fourteen hours, and the "lawful request" was that he should continue and load three wagons more. A country editor received the following: " Dear Sir: I have looked carefully and patiently over your paper for months for the death of some individual I was acquainted with, but as yet not a single soul I care any thing about has dropped off; you will please to have my name erased." had been in the habit of making ve^r frequent calls on a very agreeable lady of his acquaintance, and, on entering her parlor one evening he said : " Well, Miss Sims, here I am again, you see, as regular as the fever and. auge." " ^ ?">" co?l nhp v#?rv dcmnrelv. Vyil, uvr, ? , . ?w . , " that comes only every other day." A gentleman in San Francisco, whose Chinese cook left him, was unable to retain any of the numerous "Johns " for over a day, until he induced one of them to explain that some apparently meaningless strips of red paper on the kitchen wall contained the Chinese inscription: " Boss woman long time tongue. Muchee jaw, jaw." Geo. Pleasonton's blue glass theory is assailed by the Scientific American. His idea that electricity is generated by the passage of b'ght through the glass is declared to be absurd. Nor have colored rays any beneficial effect on life, the reverse rather being the truth, as a pure, white light is best The only good that can possibly come of blue glass is in its use as a shade for decreasing the intensity of solar light. Spitz Yenom. Two cases of hydrophobia are reported from Staten Island, and in both the victims were bitten by Spitz dogs. In one case it is reported* that the dog was not rabid, and he appears to have been only irritable in the other. Before the great increase now noted in the frequency of these accidents it was thought that society paid sufficiently for the advantage it derived from dogs by the deaths they caused in communicating rabies; yet that was when there were no * ^ - -ij (logs aDOllt duj Uie um ttU/llUKU^U breeds, that did not go mad often, and bo far as close observation could discover did not cause hydrophobia save when | they had it themselves. It was bad J enough that way, and certainly it is inj finitely worse to have in all our streets j and in many houses an animal which j seems to possess a virus capable of ! causing hydrophobia while the animal ! himself is to all appearance in a normal I condition. Persons who care for the j lives of their little children should take : notice that the number of cases reported j is now large in whieh this dog, while i himself apparently jttt mad, has caused | hydrophobia by his bite. They have not, therefore, in regard to this species, even that slight assurance of safety which, inxegard to other dogs, is derived I from the warning of evident sicaness m the animal himself.?New York Herald. A Short Memory. Some people have very short memories. An individual recently called at a prominent jeweler's in ?<?ton, says the Bulletin, and had on expensive bronze sent home and charged. The proprietor afterward ascertaining that his customer was a bankrupt, sent him a polite note to call, and when he did so, questioned the propriety of the purchase under the circumstances. Whereupon the insolvent scratched his head reflectively for a moment, and then remarked : "Now I think of it, I am in bankruptcy, but it happened last December, and it's so long ago that it must have I escaped my memory, when I made a j purwaee here the ether day."