The Beaufort tribune and Port Royal commercial. [volume] (Beaufort, S.C.) 1877-1879, December 20, 1877, Image 1
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THE BEAUFORT TRIBUNE
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AND PORT ROYAL COMMERCIAL.
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VOL. VI. NO. 3. BEAUFORT, S. C., THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1877. $2.00 per Amtom. Sinjle Copy 5
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The Husband's Happy New Tear.
Bright and fresh, if a trifle too frosty
For scent were we after the hare,?
The morning is splendidly bracing,
The country delightful, though bare.
The sky is a turquoise in color,
The sun, while it dazzles the eyes.
Warms the skaters, but six solid inches
The ice on the brook-water lies ;
The wood in the distance is purple,
With barely a leaf, green or sere ;
It is surely a day of good omen
That brings in a Happy New Year.
What, darling, astir, and so early ?
lournanas, Dotn your nanas, wuiuu uuui;,
Yonr face is as fresh as the morning,
Your eyes with its happiness shine ;
The snn turns your hair to its color.
There's nothing in Nature so bright;
Forgive if my words seem to flatter,
They only express my delight.
My heart like a bubble is floating,
So buoyant, and yet so sincere,
As. with all its intenest devotion,
I wish you a Happy New Year!
All that happiness means I desire you,
All that Heaven bestows on its own,
May it be without bounds, or its limits
Be set by your wishes alone;
Life is chequer'd, but then the pure metal
Is Hghten'd, you know, by alloy,
And life sometimes gives by its sorrow
The zest that we find in its joy.
Bat there, I am growing didactic
And wrongly detaining yon here,
Hand in hand, while I only intended
TV*. ?*/vn o Ilannv Vnw Vhftf '
'XV W19U JVU ? 4wn * WW
Three Remarhahle Christmas Days.
CHRISTMAS DAT Di THE TIGRIS.
I had been for some time residing at
Bagdad, in 183-. Curiosity to visit a city
rendered so famous by the "Arabian
Nights' Entertainments" led me from
India first to visit Bassoria, the Balsorah
of the Thousand and One Nights,
and then the city of the Caliph, whose
fame has supplied the title to a pretty
opera now rarely performed. And when
I had supped sufficiently full of all the
attractions of the quaint old city, which
? " - 1?j -i.
nau not men mvuiveu its xmuou
in dark-bine woolen vestment and the
scarlet ftz, I made preparations for a
journey across the desert to Damascus,
for the Holy Land was the ultimate object
of my travels. To effect this in
safety, it was necessary to don the garment
of an Arab to allow the beard a few
weeks' growth, and to study the phrases
which would be requisite to help me on
my perilous journey. My previous residence
in India facilitated the acquisition
of the accent, and I could soon pronounce
the Salaam Alee Koum with
orthodox accuracy. The science of eating
a pilaw with my fingers, and tearing
away pieces of roast lamb as if I had
never known the use of knife and fork,
was acquired after a little greasy practice.
At length, having negotiated the
hire of a horse and camel with the chief
of *a cafilah (caravan), and paid in advance
for protection, I bode adieu to my
old friena, Colonel Taylor, the British
agent and resident, and set forth with
some fifty companions, viz., three mer?'*
A?^ ^l?Vi? ft- iiiiiiq] tninr i
UXiUXl LSj lilfU illWliauOj c9 oywAMi vwv#\%? |
ray servant, a sheikh, and forty-two
thieves under the denomination of pilgrims,
returning from Mecca and acting
as guards of the merchandise. We had
made a four days' journey, mid had halted
for the night in the desert at a spot
where the camel-thorn was tolerably
abundant. It was Christmas Eve. J
had eaten a good supper of Iamb, stewed
in dried apricots, preparatory to a
snooze, when my attention was attracted
to a wailing cry in another part of the
bivouac. I listened ; gradually this was
followed by a murmur, and then another
cry, and soon the whole party was in a
state of excitement very unusual among
orkKov Vnosnlmfltlfl T told TTIV SfrVflnt.
Hummud, to go quietly and ascertain
the cause, He was not long gone when
he hurried back with tottering steps to
tell me that the plague had broken out
in the caravan, and not a soul was safe.
Two men were dying, one had died;
others were sick, and all were apprehensive.
I knew that the fatal disease
of Asiatic cholera hod appeared in the
city just as we were leaving. Taking
counsel with Hummud, I removed my
rug and saddle-bags to some distance to
windward of the whole party, and pen
dered the widest course. It would never
do to go on in fellowship with fell disease,
and perhaps be left a corpse in the
middle of the desert. It might l>e
equally fatal to return. Before midnight,
however, I resolved on the latter course,
and saddling my horse I was soon on the
way back alone, bidding Hummud follow
on the camel. A few hours sufficed
to accomplish, at a trot and a gallop,
the distance which, walking with a caravan,
. required nearly four days (absolutely
forty-eight hours of looomotion)
to master.
Arrived at the principal gate of the
city of Bagdad, horse and man equally
jaded, I was about to enter, when I
found my ingress barred. The gate was
closed, an<Mrom a wicket I was informed
that the plague was in town, and no one
was permitted to enter until he had
served twenty days' quarantine ! Here
was a situation?and on Christmas Day,
too ! It was in vain that I protested I
was a friend of the resident's. Colonel
Taylor had fled with his family to Bussornb,
and the Armenian substitute did
not know me. I offered money?I made
promises?all in vain. I was doomed to
nold high festival in the desert with the
hungry vultures hovering above me,
rather offering them a scanty meal than
getting one myself. As evening ap
? V * * 1 iL A
proacnea (ior 1 naa amveu at me western
gate in the middle of the day) I began
to feel very nervous and somewhat
faint. No one went into the city, and
those whe came oat bore with them the
dead, all recent victims of the terrible
visitation. It was clear I could have no
# hotyB of ingress, even if it were safe to
be m the iufected place. I at once resolved
to abandon the poor camel, and
putting my servant behind me, we rode
down to the banks of the river (Tigris)
and sought a boat. Not one was to be
seen I The people had fled to Bussorah
in every available vessel. There were,
however, we were told, some boats a few
miles lower down the steam. We set off
for the locality, but had not gone far
before we came upon an encampment of
^v^^elouins? thieves and murderers of the j
worst dye. With the keenness and rapidity
of vultures, three or four of them,
lance in rest, rushed out to stop, and ol
oourse to rob me. Resistance, I knew,
would be futile. There was only one
escape : I turned my horse's head to th?
stream, then a few yards off, and putting
spurs to his flanks, leaped in, and wae
1 soon floating down with the rapid current,
which the Arabs appropriately
enough call the 'Djeer, or javelin. The
' leap dislodged the faithful Hummud,
i ana deposited him on the bank. Narrowly
escaping the random shots of the
Bedouins, and keeping close to the bank
for an hour and a half, I was carried
down to a little cane-built village, where
my horse was brought up (nothing else
could have stoDDed the poor wretch) bT
a cluster of boats. We got on to the
bank, and were hospitably treated ; and
I then made arrangements for a trip to
Bussorali, after spending my Christmas
holiday in the Tigris.
CHRISTMAS DAY IN A LAZARETTO.
In the winter of 183?, I had arrived
at Odessa from Asiatic Turkey. The
unlucky yellow flag, hoisted by oomm&nd
of the visiting surgeon of the port
compelled t^e brig I was in to toss about
in the roadstead for a week before it was
admitted to the mole, or quarantine harbor.
Then I was required to send my
clothes for fumigation, and at the end
of another week the authorities peri
mitted me to land and take up my
quarters in the lazaretto for fourteen
days more, 44 on suspicion of plague."
The Odessa lazaretto is built in the
form of a quadrangle. Each room is
separated from its neighbor bv a double
wall, between which a sentinel takes his
station to see that neighbors hold 110
communication with each other. Thereis
a small court-yard in front of each
room, and a double iron grating?one
row of grating a few feet before the
other?keeps the prisoners from any personal
tact with the outer world, represented
by the restaurateur and his aids,
the surgeon and the chaplain, in tne
room adjoining mine were confined
a Greek and a young woman, who
passed a portion of their time in singing
to the music of a guitar and occasionally
a tambourine. Much of the rest was
spent in eating, drinking and sleeping,
to judge from the long intervals of
silence. But there were noisy episodes,
which conveyed strong proofs that, the
lady oonld scold as well as sing, and
sometimes the quarrels rose to a terrible
pitch, a thump, followed by a scream,
furnishing the climax.
It was Christmas Day. The snow fell
heavily, deadening the sound of the
church bells, which, through a broken
pane, reminded me of the holy festival.
1 expected to hear my neighbors sing
hymns. My own time was devoted to
mv books?the onlv relief to an enforced
solitude. Towards evening, while the
guard slept, I distinctly heard the voice
of the man Greek. He seemed to be
growling rather than speaking, and in
the intervals of his silence I heard the
female sob. Not a very "merry Christinas,"
thought I. Sometimes one
voice rose above the other?the one was
shrill, the other loud and angry. Then
there was a scuffle, then all was tranquil.
Night had fallen, and I had hoped the
parties had gone to sleep. But again
the murmurs, the expostulations, the
outbursts, disturbed my quiet. And
qow the woman became voluable, and
spasmodic bursts of grief alone interrupted
the torrent of her eloquence.
Ever and anon the man called out what
appeared to be " Silence!" adding a few
words (none of which were distinct
enough to be caught) in a minatory tone.
Then came another struggle, words?
bitter words?stifled cries, a heavy fall,
a scream?silence again.
I could not sleep ; what had been the
issue of the last quarrel? Had the
4 peace and good will' taught by the Redeemer,
whose natal day the outer
Christian world was celebrating, ultimately
prevailed; and were the recent
antagonists illustrating the Horatiau
maxim, that the falling out of levers is
the renewal of love? Or had the last
fall so stunned the feebler of the two individuals
as to render the revival of
either love or anger temporarily impossible
?
I was not long in doubt. It was past
midnight, when I was awakened by
dolorous cries and heavy sobs, vehement
protestations and earnest apostrophes
in the voice of the man. I knocked
loudly at the "wall to suggest silence.
He evidently did not heed the knocking.
I called out in good Italian, * Be quiet
it was no avail. I roused up the guard,
and asked him what was the matter with
the gentleman. My custodian suggested
he was drunk. I could not, however,
divest my mind of the idea that a deed
of darkness had been perpetrated.
The night wore away. I could not
sleep. I no longer heard the voice of
the woman?even the man's voice was
hushed ; but,iratead of the usual sounds,
my ear was asAiled with knockings on
the floor, and a noise as of a saw or file
at work. "When the restaurateur came
round in the morning to take orders for
breakfast, I told him what I had heard,
and suggested that the lady might be
ill, and need medical aid. He went next
door, but was sent away with the infcima*
? a _ w m
uon tnat notning was waniea. j. wo or
three more days elapsed ; the time had
arrived for my release. On the very day,"
indeed, when I was to be emancipated
my neighbors were also to bo freed. I
heard the officers arrive next door.
Some words were uttered, followed by
on altercation ; then the man cried bitterly.
What conld be the matter ?
More officers came; the man was fetteied
and taken away. Where was the
woman? He had stabbed her in his
antrer : and. under some absurd notion
that her existence would be forgotten by
the authorities, he had taken up two
planks, and deposited the dead body of
the poor girl beneath them. This explained
the operations which followed
upon the silence. When I was released,
I saw my quondam neighbor sitting in a
verandah of the place where I went to
reclaim my fumigated apparel, guarded
by two soldiers. He was a Little, old
man of malignant aspect. I remembered
having seen him on the mole with
a liaidsome young Greek whom I supposed
to be his child. No one kpew
exactly what their relative position was.
It was enough that he had shed her
blood on Christmas night.
A CHRISTMAS GALF,
It was in the African summer of 1826.
> We were rounding the Cape of Good
Hope in the good ship "Nancy Lee,"
f whereof James M'Culloch was master,
, on our voyage from Bombay to Liver>
pool. I was the only passenger. The
> vogage had been tedious, for the bottom
; of the vessel was covered with barnacle^
i and the captain was not a very enter
taining or instructive mariner. He had
r one mate, Smith by name, whose only
i diversion during the watch below was a
} daring attemptjtoconquor "Life let us
. cherish" on a one-keyed flute. I was
) consequently cast upon my own resour:
ces. The table was not very lurunant[
ly supplied, but there was always a suffi;
ciency ; and on Christmas day we had
i an extra feast. We dined at three
r o'clock. The weather was beautiful;
i all sail was set, and we were congratui
lating ourselves upon so propitious a
"double" of the terrible Cape of
i Storms. We were not very sensible of
a sudden change in the motion of the
| vessel until a heavy lurch to larbeard
sent-bottles and glasses on to the deck
^ of the cuady. The captain looked up
1 at the barometor over his head, turned
deadly pale, and staggered out on the
aaarter-deck. Mr. Smith was asleep on
le poop; the crew, with 'the exception
of one sick mAn, were drunk and quarreling.
The position was perilous, in
the extreme. Craok! and the mainroyal
with its yard vid sail flapped
against the top-gallant. The captain
staggered to tne halyards and called
out, as loud as he could: "Let go
everything!" The wind became fiercer
each moment; the jib was torn to shreds;
the mizen-royal went; the vessel was
almost on her beam ends. I rushed
out, and aided the captain in "letting
go," to urge them to reef and furl and
get down the shattered masts?all to no
purpose. Only one or two were suflii
ciently in their senses to make an effort
to do their duty. I jumped upon the
Sop, and shook Smith out of his lethargy,
e stared, bewildered for some moments
; and when he seemed to realize
the condition of things, he began to
brawl and use his whistle (for he was
bos'n as well as mate), and wonderec}
that no notioe was taken of it. The sea
had now risen considerably, and every
now and then heavy seas dashed against
the " JHancy bee," or swept clean over
lier. By great effort* the " letting go "
had been accomplished, and every vard
being loosened, the sails flopped about
tremendously, breaking from their lifts
audbraces. *The man at the helm, who
ought to have been relieved two hours
previously, now declared he could hold
on no longer?the pressure upon the
rudder was beyond his powers. He
called for some comrade to take his
place ; he was unheeded. So, in his
desperation, he made the wheel fast,
and went forward?only to drink his
share of the liquor, which had been put
into his keg for him. The captain was
frenzied?he stamped, swore, prayed,
invoked, ordered?all to no purpose.
Out of a crew of fourteen, only four persons,
myself included, were fit tojJo anythin?.
The elements took advantage
j of our helplessness, and made terrible
i havoc with every tiling on and above
j deck. Happily, the hatches were
hermetically closed, to protect the cargo.
The foretopmast, unable to bear
the strain, now went, and in its fall
killed a sailor, who bore the rather inappropriate
soubriquet of, "Happy
Jack*." The men became frantic. One
went up aloft to cut loose the main-royal,
which still hung by some cordage to the
lower stem. He got up with difficulty,
and affected his purpose. The mast fell
on the deck, ana struck Mr. Smith ; he
staggered towards the gangway, and fell
overboard. I screamed with affright
on/1 wioVio/1 t/\ tha oi/lp A rnrvp ihnf
hang below the main-chains had caught
him as the vessel heeled over; but instead
of proving his salvation it aided
his destruction, for I saw his poor body
swinging to and fro, stAing the ship's
side with force enough to kill him if lie
had ten lives. To shorten the story,
the gale slackened at midnignt, and a
dead calm rapidly ensued. We had
then nothing but the rolling of the helpless
ship to trouble us. But to what a
miserable wreck was the full moon witness
! Every effort was now made to
repair damages, but although two
months more elapsed before we entered
the Mersey, our condition was so dilap y
dated, that, in spite of the efforts made bi
the skipper to tell a good story to his own'
' 1 n #
era, tney mulct mm ana tne crew 01 an
that was due, and resolved that, in
future, no more such " merry Christmas es"
should be passed by poor M'Culloch
in their servioe.
A Lady's Long Trance.
The Des Moines (Iowa) Register of a
recent issue, says : Yesterday evening
there stopped at ffie Given House Mr.
and Mrs. Shadle, of Guthrie county, aci
companied by some attendants. They
> are escorting to Mount Pleasant Mrs.
| Shadle, who has been in an almost con!
tinual trance ever sinoe last June. Some
j time last March, without any premoniI
tory symptoms, the lady became insane,
1 wild at firit, and finally violent She
1 tvas visiting a sister near her own resij
dence. Soon after her arrival there she
j began to talk strangely, and a few days
{later was raving with insanity, and at times
j very violent On the 12th of June Mrs.
. Shadle had a spasm, from which she !
passed off into a comatose state, which j
continued without intermission until 1
October 1, when she awakened and con- |
versed, although incoherently. The
next day she again fell asleep and has
not since been awake. She is fed by
forcing her month open and placing the
food inside. Her respiration is regular,
but a little more frequent than that of
most neoDla of her afire, which is twenty
j nine. She has one oLild, a boy of fohr !
{ years. The first evidence of wakefulness j
she has exhibited since the 2d of October j
was the day before yesterday, when she j
was carried from her home to a vehicle ;
to be transferred to the cars. ' The I
little boy climbed into the wagon
and placing his arms about his
mother's neck, kissed her. Tears immediately
rolled from the closed "eyes,
but they*remained closed; and there was
no other sign of waking. She is to be !
taken to the asylum for the insane nt I
Fort Madison.
When a man is "rooted to the spot 4 ;
by fear, does he branch out before ho j
leaves ? i
A VICTIM OF EARTHQUAKES.
An Acronnt 'of the Earthquakes that have
Visited Lisbon, the Pertnffaese.Capltnl,
It is as a city against which the internal
forces of natnre have conspired with unparalleled
frequency and fury that Lisbon
is popularly known in other countries.
With the memory of previous
disasters from the same cause, extending
back more than eight hundred years, it
was hardly to be expected that the recent
shocks would not excite considerable
alarm among the population. Between
the years 1009 and 1146 three
cases of earthquake occurred. In 1356
the visitation was repeated with in'
? * . VAB 11 1L
creased seventy, in jlooy me earui was
convulsed at intervals of three successive
days, 'when twenty-five hundred houses
were destroyed, and thirty thousand
persons perished. In 1579 three streets
were destroyed, and in 1699 and 1722
the earthquakes were marked by peculiar
violenoe. But it was on the 1st of November,
1655, at ten o'clock in the morning,
the weather being bright and
serene, that the capital, then in the
height of its splendor,was overwhelmed,
in less than a quarter of an hour, by the
most stupendous catastrophe recorded !
in human annals. First there was a
tremulous motion, so slight as hardly to
attract attention. In two minutes afterward
the earth shook with such violence
that the houses were split in every
direction, and the sun was obscured by
the clouds of dust which arose. At
length the third and most disastrous
shock succeeded, which laid the city in
ruins in a moment. An eye-witness relates
"the screams of the living, the
groans of the dying, and the profound
darkness increased the horror." In
twenty minutes the silence of the grave
reigned over a locality which had shortly
before been a scene of cheerful activity.
But the havoc had not yet reached its
height, hires bro&e out in various
quarters of the city, and were fanned by
a strong wind. So intent were, the hap- less
survivors on saving their lives that
they left the spreading flames to take
their course. On the morning of the 7th
of the same month, at five o'clock, all
the terrors of the previous week were
repeated under greatlyi aggravated cir!
cum8tances. The em rose nine feet
higher than the grentdft recorded river
' flood which has ever iinndated Portugal.'
.The affrighted crowfl oongregated on
the banks of the Tag us were overtaken
by a moustreus wave, and, with houses
and streets, were overwhelmed in the act
of endeavoring to escape. A vast
throng of persons fled for refuge from
the falling ruins to the marble quay now
[ known as the Praca*de Oommercio,
' which suddenly sank with the dense living
mass collected upon it, and not one
of the bodies ever rose to the surface.
Boats and vessels crowded with wretched
fugitives were s wept down by a whirlpool,
and no trace of them was ever found.
The results of this abnormal movement
of nature could not be confined within
the limits of the locality in which it produced
the greatest devastation. It ex|
tended to Morocco ; and one-half of Fez, 1
including twelve thousand Arabs, was
destroyed. Its influence was felt as far
north as the Orkney Islands, and ships
in mid-Atlantic were tossed by the fear- ,
fnl agitation of the elements it had generated.
The number of victims to which
the disaster proved fatal is estimated at
fifty thousand, and the value of the
property sacrificed at $100,000,000. So
crushing was the effect of this misfortune,
with its attendant consequences, to
the court, that the question was gravely
debated whether the seat of government
should not be removed to Brazil. But
the ill-fated capital gradually emerged
from its ruins, and, though severe shocks
have oocurred since the great earthquakes
in the years 1761, 1796 and 1807,
no visitation has been so serious as to
interrupt the growth of the city. Indeed,
by a sort of poetic law of compensation,
the most handsome portion of it to-day is
in the valley created by the earthquake,
through the oollapse of the hill on which
the principal section of the old city stood.
As the visitor crosses the Black Horse
square, and wends his way to the Praca
de Dom Pedro IV. and the public gar/fona
it ronnirpa ft akronc fiflfnrt of fancv
"to realize that any such occurrence as we
have described could have taken place
on that spot,
^? i m
That Colorado Stone Man.
A Denver assayer gives this account
of the origin of the Colorado stone man
with a tail: In August, 1875, five of us
were prospecting in the vicinity of
Pueblo. In coming upon a sandstone
: quan^, ono of the party observed a sort
of likeness of a man drawn upon the
rock. The incident occasioned a deal of
talk about ancient creations, and the
' idea of getting up a second Cardiff
giant was then favorably discussed.
The party agreed to undertake the task,
and a stonecutter named Saunders, who
had been working in the vicinity and
known to be ? clever hand at modeling,
was at once sought out and an agreement
made for tne figure. While the
plan wa? in progress one of the party,
in a joking way, said the thing ought to
have a tail, as in ancient times men had
T 1 Ti
tails six or seven muuw uug. j.i? wi?
decided amongst the party that the figure ]
should be known as a petrified Aztec 1
Iudian, and they would resurrect him j
after six months nnd impose him on the
public &a such. The stonecutter, not |
seeing the joke, set to work and made
the figure, with tail appended. The
prioe paid the artisan was $185, and after
lie had completed the figure it was buried.
'Hie 41 Mhldoon " was made out of sandstone
and dried by the cabin fire, which
partly accounts for the little moles on
the surface. After the burial?two feet
from the surfaoe of the ground?the
party went on their way to await the
resurrection. A few of the prospectors
had got wind of the proceedings and
were keeping an eye on the party, and I
so they dispersed in different directions. I <
F'nallv they became scattered, some in 1
on /I rAmftindfir in different !
iicw iuia I0ftv? vmv -w?
portions of the country. I had for- i
gotten nearly about the matter when (
the discovery was chronicled in the i
papers.
A young man, who is paying his ad- j
dresses to a lady-love, Rtayed so late b , i
few evHiiiugs siift'c, that the family were j i
compelled to whitewash the w?tli next 11
morning, to obliterate bis shadow, j ]
Fashion Notes
Amber jewelry is revied.
Pleated waists are fashionable.
Arabesque galloons are very fashionable.
Plush is used for collars and cuffs of
cloaks.
A new color in artificial flowers is
French pink.
Ribbons with fringed edges are coming
in vogue.
Satin ribbon is very fashionable for
bonnet trimming.
Silk and feather boas are among this
season's novelties.
Double breasted sacks and cutaway
coats are both worn.
Ttnnnpf nfrinom fashionable for
even very young ladies.
In spite of all that is said against high
heels, they are still worn.
Yellow kolinsky, a dyed sable, is seen
among the novelties in fnrs.
Egyptian types fer jewelry and fancy
articles is a fashion of the passing momoment.
Cocks' plumes and cocks' feather
ruches are favorite trimmings for felt
hats.
Cut steel buckles on velvet bows are
used on Louis XIY. and Louis XVI.
slippers.
Princess dresses and princess polonaises
take the lead as fashionable garments.
N
Bonnets are more fastfflHkfcthan
hats for young ladies for
matrons.
Black silk and black veT^HHonnes
to be the favorite combination costume
of American women.
Moonlight pearl beads and variegated
pearl beads take the place of moonlight
jet for evening toilet.
Among novelties are earrings of silveenamelled
with small shells, a pearl exuding
from each shell.
A new lace for flannel skirts is knitted
in a variety of patterns of Saxony yarn
the color of the skirt.
Four or five bows are used on each
slipper, fastening high on the instep by
means of kid or elastic straps.
Light cashmeres in the evening colors
are combined with gros grain silks of
the same shade for evening dresses.
Stanley neckties and standing collars
are affected by fashionable young ladies
with the waistcoat and jacket.
Uncut figured velvet having a white
ground, with the figures in colored de
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signs, is exquisite lur imuw wwiwmo,
Grecian bodices and yolk waists, with
gathered or pleated backs and fronts,
are among the late imported dresses.
For and feather tippets, with long
tabs down the front, in the style of the
Victorines of thirty years ago, are coming
in vogue.
Large Russian collars and cuffs of fnr,
and lapels of fur ou the pockets, are the
only trimmings seen on some of the most
fashionable cloaks.
Among boudoir novelties are elegant
work boxes with slanting sides, suspended
upon crossed ebony sticks, so that
they must always maintain an upright
position.
The mdst fashionable way of arranging
the hair is a braid fastened low in
the neck, running upon the head1, the
fastening on the crown hidden by two or
three puffs, or a comb.
Gold threads iu all the tints of the
rainbow are used for embroideriee on
evening costumes and opera bonnets by
those who object to the weight of moonight
and variegated beads.
The passementeries an 1 braid trimmings,
which come especially for cloaks,
are of such eleyant designs and richness
of material as to give the effect of lavish
costliness to the plainest shaped garments.
Among fashionable trimmings are
pleats, gatherings, shirrings, galloons,
ribbed beiges or corduroys, variegated
bean, silk and chenille fringes, silk,
variegated gold, silk and beaded'embroidery,
feather bands, bands of fur,
velvet and brocade.
Habit basques of velvet, shaped very
much like a gentleman's swallow-tailed
coat, with the masculine effort modified
by a profusion of bows, pleatings and
other trimmings, are worn over princess
trained skirts, or skirts and tunics of
faille.
Stories of Children.
A pair of twina about a month old
were dropped on a street corner in Chicago
one morning recently, and the
mother, being in haste, did not return
for the basket A policeman took the
little fellows to ^the Foundlings' Home,
where they received the names of LinRcott
Rutherford Hayes and Martin
Burchard Hayes.
Four little boys in Sacramento, Oal.,
have built a little cabin close to the old
chain-gang yard, and there they live bv j
themselves, scorning the homes which
their fathers offer them. They have no
6tove, but do their scanty cooking on a
brick fire-place, while a plentiful supply
of blankets keeps them comfortable at
night, They earn a few pennies by running
on errands and doing odd jobs.
A lad returned from school in Warrensburg,
New York, one noon not long
ago, to tell his mother that he was going
to drown himself in Schroon River.
She streamed as he set out as fast as he
could run, but before she could overtake
him he threw himself into the watef and
vob
A bright little nrchin ran away from j
the Soldier's Orphan Home, at Normal- j
Illinois, the other day, and went to Chi, I
cago, as he said, to see some big ships, j
He walked the greater part of the way, !
occasionally stealing a ride on a freight
train. When he was rescued by the
police his face was disfigurod by
scratches, which he bad received in encounters
with farmers' boys and, as he
said, " with a crowd of fellers on the
river." *The yonng tramp was eent
back to school.
A three-year-old in Orange, New Jersey,
when his grandfather says grace at
[able, explains in a pilrouizing aside to
the company, " Tt's grandpa's little
prayer!"
I
The Talley of the Jordan.
The Jordan Valley, from Lake Tiberj
ias to the Dead Sea, ia about seventy
miles in length. Three miles is its
average breadth, although it widens at !
places into plai^ ten miles broad. These
plains are beautiful oases, which fact j
will remove the impression,now popular, j
that the whole region is a sterile desert. |
There are many streams running out of
the mountains on either side, and in
every case, where the river leaves the
foot of the hills, there is a ruined village.
There is little difficulty in picking put
among these many of the localities mentioned
in the Bible. Along the course
of the Jordan we find ruins of many of
the bridges built by the Bomans. One
of these, just below Lake Tiberias, con!
oiafa r\t f.on Vine? AmhcH. and must have
been a handsome structure. By irrigation
the valley of the Jordan, embracing
200 square miles, may be made as fertile
as the Nile, and will support half a milf
lion of people. "The expense would be
trifling, and anything that grows in the
hot-beds of the world can be produced in
the Jordan Valley. The valley and adjoining
ones have numerous hot sulphur
springs. Some miles east of the Jordan,
just below Lake Tiberias, is a small
j basin containing a large hot spring and
some ruins which indicate that it was at
one time a popular resort. There are
remains of a large theater and many
I houses that must have been magnificent
in their day. The whole country is filled
with ruins.
There are popular traditions that
Sodom, Gomorrah and other wicked
cities of the plain are submerged. The
belief is erroneous, and the Dead Sea
has never exceeded its borders. These
cities must have existed at the northern
end of this body of water. Every link
in the chain of evidence leads to this belief.
On the plain at the northern, end
of the sea are some rebuilt cities, exactly
corresponding in number and position
to the cities of the plain that were destroyed
by the great conflagration mentioned
in the Bible. At one place are
three cities, above ground, iu " layers."
First are the mud houses of the Arabs;
next nnder these is a city built by the
Romans ; still under tlxat is a Hebrew
city, and still lower down, where m^n
have turned up the earth thirty or fony
deep, there are the ruins of still another
age.
In ancient times, there cannot be the
slightest doubt, this land was densely
populated by a wealthy people. Hie
ruins which dot the country and the
fact that the Romans thought it worthy
of conquest prove the assertion. There
are to he seen still, among other things,
the remnants of more than live hundred
miles built by the- Romans. The workmanship
was superb, and even at this
day the chives are frequently well preserved.
These, too, go to show the
former importance of the country, which
demanded such a costly means of internal
intercourse. The valley is intersected
with irrigating canals, built by
the ancients, showing that they had
more intelligence than any that have
lived there since.
llome-Made Christmas Gifts.
a wall letter-holder.
This is something which quite a
little hoy oonld make. Cut ont three
pieces of thin weod, a foot long by six
inches wide; smooth and sand-paper
two of them, bore a hole in each corner
and in the middle of one side, and
fasten them together with ?pe wire,
cord, ribbon, or the small braas pins
which are used for holding manuscripts.
The pieces should he held a little apart.
Cut one end of the third piece into
some ornamental shape, glne it firmly to
the back of one of the others, and sub
pent! it from the wall by a hole bored
in the top. It will be found a useful
thing to hold letters or pamphlets. A
clever boy could make this much haudsomer
by cutting a pattern over the
front, or an initial, or a monogram, or
name in the middle. The wood shoald
be oiled or shellaced.
SHOE CASES.
These cases are meant to take the
place of paper when shoes are to be
wrapped up in a trunk. They are made
of brown crash, bound with red worsted
braid. One end is pointed so as to turn
over and button down, or the top has
strings over the braid to tie the mouth
up. There should be three or four made
at a time, as each case holds but one
pair of shoes; and you will find that
mamma or your unmarried aunts will
like them very much.
A NEW KIND OF CHRI8THAS-PIB
Nothing can be droller than to hang
up one's stockings, and nothing prettier
or more full of meaning than a Christ~oo
TOnt onmA rtf VOTI who maV
II?W? UQCt A# 14If 1VA WVMAV w- ^ ~ ?
like to make a novelty in these timehonored
ways, we will just mention that
it is good fan to make a " Christmaspie
" in an enormous tin dish-pan, with
a make-believe crust of yellow cartridge
paper, ornamented with twirls and
flourishes of the same, held down with
pins, and have it served on Christmas
Eve, full of pretty thingB and sugar
plums, jokes and jolly little rhymes j
fastened to the parcels. The cutting j
should be done beforehand, and hidden i
I by the twirls of paper; but the carver
I can pretend to use his knife and fork,
and spooning out the packages will insure
a merry time for all at the table.
Aud one more suggestion. Little articles >
| wrapped in white paper, can be put j
inside cakes, baked and iced, and tnus ;
I furnish another amusing surprise for '
the "pie" or the Christmas tree.?tit. !
I Nicholas Magazine.
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Journalistic Ingenuity.
I Everybody knows that newspapers j
keep biographies of most livinar celebr- j
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tics ready in type, bo mac wuen uue ui
them happens to die his career is in the ;
hands of the pnblic an hour or so after
his last gasp. The other day, however,
the sadden death of AL Theirs caught
an Italian journal napping, and this is
how its editor filled up the void till the
literary notice of the dead man was
written : " The sorrow with which we
are so suddenly overwhelmed entirely j
prevents as from saying anything about :
this illnfdarions statesman ; but when j
our tearu cease to flow to-morrow we |
shall givo account of his life,"
*
The Reason Why.
You wonder at the change, yon say,
And can't yon guess the reason why
What brings the brightness of the day
What gives the color to the Ay?
Just light and sunshine. Even so.
The brooding shadows of the night,
With all the clonds that oome and go,
Are lost forever in the light.
What then ? The eld, old smile;
The son is shining in my sky ;> ,i!<
And if yon see a change in me,
Oh, love, yon know the reason why.
Items #r Interest. 1
The population of Richmond, Til,
has doubled since the war.
Nevada enjoys the luxury of pnbliely
thrashing its convicted wife-beaters.
Mrs. Lon. J. Jennings has presented
her husband with seven daughters j in
eight years.
^Thej are called " Indian supply contracts
" because the supplies always eontract
before they reach the. Indians.
A paper says of a vary prominent
militia general that " his sword was
never drawn bnt once, and then in a
raffle."
Three drnnken young men, with pistols
in their hands, recently dispersed the
congregation from a church id JPfJaski
| county, Ky.
The man who owns a $20,000 cow dan
drink milk costing him eighty-four cents
a quart. That's all the advantage he has
over the rest of us. n ?
One dollar put at compound-interest
upon the day Columbus discovered
America would amount, in 1879, to the
j paltry sum of $6,240,000,000.
i A man in Newburyport, Mass., is
fattening for his table five hundred
frogs. He keeps them in a 4yurrel and
feeds them upon Indian nieaL
Mr. Coolbaugh, the wealthy Chicago
banker who recently committed' suicide,
| is said, by the Advance, to have been led
to the deed by intemperance. y
The St. Lonis Journal of Agriculture
says: "Farms can be bought in any
county of the United States to-day, for
less than the improvements cost."
A French gentleman has left $80,000
as a pfize to be awarded to any person
discovering either a cure for Asiatic
a? fK a MntM nf fhfl disease.
Utuiua ut nuu ..
There is a female blacksmith in the
suburbs of Pittsburg, Pa. She is about
forty, a German by birth, and for nine
years past has worked at the trade as a
helper to her husband. ' -,r
A Shaker community at Pleasant Hill.
Ky., have had a series of matrimonial
misfortunes recently yfhick threatened
to destroy the society. Fiiit, a young
man and a young woman eloped, then
an old man and old woman traveled the
same road; and within a month nine
more marriages have taken place!
LIKE.
A baby on her mother's knee, *
A child at play;
A man with poises bounding free,
A voiceless dayAmi
life bas passed beyond the West!
The weary tread
Goes oat to bo an dices fields of rest?.
O blessed dead! *
Pilloried and Flogged,
A recent dispatch from Wilmington
Del., says: This morning, at a few
minutes past ten o'clock, in a cold, drizzling
easterly rain storm, the first of
the culprits to be flogged as a punishment
for felony in this county at Newcastle
was marched into the jail yard,
attended by the warden and sheriff.
Mounting a rickety old ladder, two
prisoners -were promptly prnoneu. xwr
an hoar they stood there in-the face of
the few spectators who ensconced themselves
in corners of the yard to be
sheltered from the rain whfeh pelted
pittilessly upon the victhhrf' of the pillory.
At the expiration of an heurvthey
were released. One yetired. i< The
other, WilUfca Barry, a banned
criminal, by the way, who coasted that
he had been in thirty-six different jails
in the country, was strapped to the
whipping post, stripped bar* to the
waist, and received qmte a severe hogging.
He felt the pwMfkmenfc severely,
and looked imploringly at the sheriff as
the lash descended twenty times on his
bare beck.
A lad named McGuire, evidently of
delicate organization, was next stripped
(and tied to the post. He was very anxious
and frightened. The sheriff dealt
mercifnlly with him, and the twenty
lashes didmot much mere than well redden
his back. .
The next was Monk Austin, who was
convicted of a petty larceny, and although
he shivered and was anch affected
by the cold rain on his naked skin,
he bore his punishment with nonchalance.
A young fellow named Kiefly,
the companion of Austin, stepped up to
the poet, threw his coat off jauntily and
received ms twenty iwucn
enoe.
[ The next three were colored men; one
convicted for larceny, the other two for
felonious assault. They each received
| the nsoal twenty lashes and wriggled and
roared under the infliction.
How the Texas Cow-Boy f.fves.
A letter, from San Antonio, Texas,to
the New Orleans Democrat, says : One
of the distinctive features of Western
Texas is the oow-boy, so-called. Hereto-'
fore there have been but few inclosed
pastures. The cattle and horses have
ranged at will* over the prairies, and
when a norther prevails they become
widely scattered. When the spring of
the year returns, then a dozen or more of
the young men of a neighborhood mount
their mustangs, taking each a spare
horse, the company having several
sampter horses, and scour the prairies
for many miles, some times fifty or sixty
?Miminna last
n one (QTQcdoil. iuabo t*vui??uu .
aboat ten days or two weeks. They
bivouac at night, oo>k their own meals,
seldom rater a house, drink quantities of
black coffee, generally without sugar,
kill a yearling when they need meat, and
I are truly rough and ready ridjera, This
kind of I:fe sesans to have an inexpressible
charm for the yocng men. It is an
exciting scene to see them in full cbaee,
with their lariats whirling over their
j bends, their mustangs as much excited
by the race as themselves. From this
school comes the noted Texas ranger,
and it would be hard to find a better
I taiuing for a cavalry soldier.
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