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WEEKLY EDITION. WIXffSBORO, S. C., WEDNESDAY, MAY 17, 1882. ESTABLISHED IN 1844. ^ w _ My Sorrow. 1 saw Death's angel as it came from Heaven '5Iid cloud and blast; I said, "I pity those who mourn to-morrow; Ruch comfort from my own their hearts shall ooitow When it has passed V And taken from the mourning ones their cl:crished; ffiL When they have seen B Their loved ones suffering, changing, dying! Hr Have looked their last Upon them 'mid the roses in tho coffins' " So like?so strange. Yes, I will comfort them while saying, With upraised finger jLuruing incir eyes 10 ine uiue ssy u emcau, 2e hopeful; but a moment you shall linger, Then join your dead ^Mid beauty fadeless and 'mid joy ecstatic, To dwell for aye. This and much more of faith and resignation 3Iy lips shall say; For all is well that is?the Father orders. Go, stricken one, ilourn not the dead; they rest from toil and danger; ? His will be done! Death's angel nearer came. Lo! my poor cot He did not pass, But took from out my aims ay cherishod darlings; And now, alas! W Ncc one of all the words can I remember \ I wonld have said, Had Death left me my own loved ones and ^ taken 3tly friends instead. ?Millie C. Torneroy, in Our Continent. IWATTIE'S MISTAKE. . ihi-V i tt*_3 T 1, Aiiu LULUOU x JUVO licit? o; Mattie Fox, despairingly, as she clasped her hands on the low ledge of the open window. "Here" was no earthly elysium, to be ^ sure. A lonely farmhouse, perched half-way np a desolate mou-fain ; -whippoor-wills moaning ;n the edge of the woods; owls hooting solemnly by the lake; mournful winds soughing through the tree-tops, like the rush of an un seen garment?all this was so different from the crowded city life to which she had hitherto been accustomed. And ^ even as the tears of vague homesickness rose to her eyes, the voicc-s of the old farmer and his wife, in the room below, 1 t Al V ^ 2 rose auaiDiy up iiirougu im; stovepipe bole, which, had not yet been sealed for the summer months. > ""What are you going to do with her?" said Mrs. Fox. * 'We must do the best we can," said 8* Elihu, her husband. "She's my brother's orphan daughter, and she's -V: J. 1 )> gui nuwuertj eisw tu "And why, in the name of goodness," querulously demanded Mrs. Fox, B "couldn't she stay where she was, instead of rushine out here and takirg us all by surprise V "Well," slowly answered the good farmer, "I ain't quite clear about all that myself, Rhoda. But" as nigh as I can calculate she's been disapp'inted in love. She was a shop-girl, Ehoddy, don't you know? and it seems ihere was a genteel young man used to come there to buy neck-ties and ribbons, and sich fol-de-rols. And this girl, she i s'rsosed he was dead in love with her. ?and all of a sudden it come out as he had another sweetheart, as he was goin' BSk to ba married to this very next week." jfcpSK *'Bless and safe us !:' said Mrs. Fox. vgr - "Yfhile Mattie, sitting as silently by Wftmt ^ ihe window as if she had beer? frozen juto stone, felt a peculiar sensation of dull c iriosity to hear what would come next, as if all this was spoken about * some other person, entirely indifferent 60 herself. t'rAnd she is a proud girl, Mattie is," slowiy went on honest Elihu. "It runs in the Fcxes to be proud; j.nd she wouldn't stuy there to be jeered and made game of by the other shop-girls. So she came here because she had no other place to come to ; and that's all I know about it. I guess we'd better see as the doors and wiadys is all safe and T go to bed; for its past ten, and them ^ hayiag-hacds will be here afore dayW light, to sea about cuttin' the twelveacre medder." Mrs. Fox had a "talk" with her neice ?he next day. 'MfttfiA" sr.p "T am trnimr t,r> show you how to bake apple pies this morning; because if you stay here, of fik't course vou'ii wani "to make yourself >. useful.'5 ' Of course," said Mat-tie, listlessly. "Anil as it happens, I hain't no girl," ^wentX'U Mrs. Fox; "and there's the work-people and my summer boarders aie coming next month." ^ "Summer boarder;?" Mattie looked nni^lrlv Ttrk Tc?fT> a 1 -fTrKih r.wr. spreading her cheek. She had come here for soliiude, for rest, for titter isolation; and nt^, almost before she had unpacked her little tmnk, a horde of city fashionables would be npon her. uOh, Aunt Fox, do yon keep snxnmei si boarders?'' "Every summer of my life,'' said Mrs Pox, briskly. "They comes in July and jnostly goes away in September, with J the first frost. There ain't many ways ior us mcnncain-ioiEs to earn a dig 01 spendin* money, yon know, Mattie; and of course, if you help me I shall expect to divide with yon, square and even. ~ And remember, it's sinful to spend your time weeping and wailing and* gnashing your teeth for a lost bean," piously added the good woman. ''There's as likely fish in the sea as ever come out of it; and p'raps one tiie hay hands will take a shine to you?who knows?"' And thu3 Aunt Fox dismissed ihe question 01 ner niece s neart tnais. Wr. After ail, perhaps it was the best treatment that her poor, festering wounds could receive. A sharp, sudden cauterizing?a merciful cruelty! t And Mattie set herself diligently, if spiritlessly, at work helping to feed the m huge, hungry farm hands, to shine the glittering rows of milk-pans?even to milk the homed beasts, of which she was at first so nervously afraid. She learned to bake white, sVeet loaves of bread, to churn butter, to raise young L - chickens; she gathered wild flowers, and rr>o<^A a fr>r a hlrm hird K which she found with a broken wing and ' treated" successfully. And she began to smile now and then, and Mrs. Fox remarked complacently "that Mattie was really quite a c cent-looking girl now that Ler color h^o. come back a little." Sfek But one day the mountain stage, lum-1 Fwenug ?iu>vji> uva wc iua^u ruaus, >vnu its four horses and luggage-covered too/, stepped at Mrs. Fox's porch, and down came the avalanche of city guests. Mattie was straightening the muslin curtains of the upper windows and ^ hurriedly filling the large blue pitchers with water when the trunks were orongai; np. "It's Mr. Basset and his bride, all the way frc-ra BostoD," said Aunt Fox, corai placently. "Is everything ready ? Because they're coming np stairs directly. And I never did see any one dressed as ISr 2071 ^$1 as sli3 is. A regnisr beantv, "3. i. m * l/Wl "ft Ma'tie stood quite pale and silent-, wiib the homespun towels in her hand. ' liassett!'' she repeated. "And from Boston ! Ob, -why, of all places in the world, did they come here ?" And the next moment the homespun towels lay like a drift of scattered snow ^ at Mrs. Fox's feet, and Mattie vras gone. LJT~ ^ 4-Mercy us!" eaid Mrs. Fos, stopping to recover her lavender-scented treasures, "has the girl gone crazy ?" The soft, crimson glow of the 'sunset , was irradiating the lonely glen, when | Harold Basoett parted the overhanging j boughs with one hand, and plunged j into the leafy wilderness where, on one side, the mossy rock rose almost perpendicularly, and on the other a brownwaved brook ran, with clamorous gurgle. "Mattie F he exclaimed, stopping < snorr. "Am 1 dreaming?" Mattie For sprang angrily to her feet. Would they leave her no solitary s-pot of refuge ? Must the be thus hunted down like a wounded deer? For Harold Basselt was the man she had allowed herself to love?the eoftvoiced, violet-eyed deceiver who had fed her with soft glances and whispered words, until?until that dark day when the other shop-girls, with sidelong looks and tittering whispers, had told the storr of his armrnaoVnTvo- marriyiCA ? -- ~ JTi" O O" to Mies Belfort, the Boston heiress. She made an involuntary movement to escape, but he placed himself directly across the narrow gateway of rock, which alone afforded an egress. "No," said he, firmly, yet not without the lurking shadow of a smile around hi3 lips?"you shall not leave me until you have explained all the mystery of your sudden departure from Boston, leaving behind you neither name nor address." "I am not responsible to you!" she breathed. "You are responsible to me!" he retorted. "I loved you, Mattie Fox, and you knew it." "This is simple folly," cried out Mat-ie. if not something worse! Go back to your bride, Mr. Bassett. It is to lier ears only that you need whisper love!" The young man opened his violetblue eyes very wide. "Mattie," said he, "what on earth are you talking about? My bride ? I have no bride I never shall have an-v bride but von!" "Who is the Mrs. Bassetfc who came to my aunt's house this morning?" gasped Mattie, marveling at the hardihood which could thus deny an absolute and apparent fact. "Oh!" said Karold, "is that what vou mean ? It is my brother's wife. And I she and her husband are putting up their hamaocks and establishing their rustic tables under th-j pine-trees back of the house, at this very moment. Ol course, I couldn't remain with them. Is not a third r>ersnn alwaYS de tror> when a young couple are on their wedding trip ? So I came here, and I think that heaven directed my footsteps; for the verv last person in the world whom I could have expected to see was you, dear Mattid!" "And >cu are not married?" repeated Hattie, with a great, overwhelming thrill of happiness at her heart. "No!' he answered, with emphasis. "And it was your brother who was reallv to be married, when I believed it was yon, and broke my heart over what I considered yonr treachery and deceit?' she pnrsned. ' Well, it certainly was not me !" declared Harold Bassett; "for now and here, at yonr feet, dearest, I speak the first declaration of love I ever spoke. I love yon, Mattie! I have been wretched in your absence. Let me take yon back to Boston with me as my own treasnxed So Mattie, shy and beautiful as seme drooping wild-flower, was brought back to the farmhouse, to be presented to the city bride and her husband as Harold's engaged wife. Mrs. Hardy Bassett pat up her eyeglasses and smiled condescendingly. ' Very lovely!" said she, in an audible sotto voce; "and so sweetly unsophisticated ! I can always tell these country rosebuds at the first glance." "But I'm not a country rosebud," srid Mattie, crimsoning. "I have only been here at the farm for a few weeks. I am a shop-girl, Mrs. Bassett." The bride stared first, then simpered. "How very romantic!" said she. Exactly like a novel." Mattie might almost have been vexed, if cV>a V?r?/3 />onr?hf cnnrvx/iCPA/l laughter in Harold's eves. And Annt E!Aoda declared that the Fox farmhouse had never been so lonesome a3 it was after Mattie went away to be a grand city lady. "But she has promised to come back every summer," said Mrs. Fox. ' She says the old farm will always be the /laoracf in flio hr\ "her n U^UAVUW j^-UUV iAJL Tt Vi* At-* W UV1? Coral Fishing. Coral fisheries on the coasts of Italy and Sicily begin abont the middle of T?brap.vy, and continue till the middle of October. The value of the coral varies according to its color and size; the pale pins is the most prized, especially if it be of a uniform color throughout, without stains. Off Torre del Greco, near Naples, a large quantify of coral is found every year ; from 400 to 600 boats are sent out in search of it, each boat being of from six to ten tons' burden, with a crew of at least twelve men, and costing from ?2,500 to S3,000 a boat. The valuable pink coral is found chiefly on tne coasc 01 oicny; m une yea^ io<o a bed was discovered in the Straits of Messina, in which the coral, though found only in small quantities and of a small size, was of immense value, owing to its beautiful pink, of a uniform color, and without any of those stains which detract so much from its worth. Unfortunately, the supply of coral in this bed seems to have run short, and for the last few years ^oral merchants have not found it worth their while to send boats in search of it. In 1S75 a local bed was discovered about twenty miles off the coast of Sciacca in Sicily, which was invaded for the nest two vears bv 700 boats. This number, all crowded together in one spot, caused great confusion, and the Italian government sent a man-ofwar to keep order among the fishermen. Another similar bed was discovered in 1878, about ten miles farther from the coast, and in 18S0 yet another still fnrther, The coral found off the coast of Sciacca does not grow, as at other places, attached to rocks, but is found clinging to any small object it can lay hold of, such as a cVioll nf a r?r f?nrn_1_ Tf; is supposed that hs dark red or black color is caused by the muddiness of the water in which it lives, although the depth of the sea at such spots is from 300 to 450 feet. This coral is not much esteemed in the English market, but is prepared in large quantities for the Indian market at Calcutta, by being exposed for months to the heat of the sun, and by being kept moist, wh^n iu time the black color gradually disappears. A few years &go a large quantity of Japanese coral found its way into the market at Naples, and fetched as much as $750 the kilo, in raw branches, in spite of its being a bad color and some what clouay. This high price was given on account of its extraordinary size. It was the largest real coral ever known. Nothing has been heard of it since, excepting that the fishery was prohibited in Japan. Some English scientist has invented a machine for magnifying the sounds of j a fly's footfall till "they seem like the ! tramp of a horse walking over a wooden bridge." That's well enough in it's i way,'because we can hear the varmints ! coming a good piece off and get ont of i the storm track, so to speak; but if he'd : invented something that would run . them down and step on them as heavy ! as a horse's foot dropping on a wooden ' bridge, he'd win a bigger medal.? [Borne Sentinel. " 1 THE " LEAP FOR LIFE." William Hanlon'* Graphic Dexcriptioa ol a Fall from the Roof of a Theater. " Gymnastics are bad medicine when taken for anything but brief and pleas- j ant exercise,'' said Mr. William Han- ! Ion, one of the Eanlon brothers. The j talk had turned upon the life of pro- j fessiona! athletes, and the reporter yen-1 tured the opinion that gymnasts, as a j rule, must be men of more than ordinary nerve. To the writer's surprise Mr. Hanlon was quick to challenge the statement. "I've heard it remarked," said he, " that a man must be very pluciry to toss himself about on a high trapeze. It is not true* Ee may be plucky enough at that, and yet a coward in almost any other direction. It is simply the custom of going "upon the trapeze and his training that make a performer appea r to be braver than others. He is just lite strained soldier, who, when he gets the order to charge, does so, though he may not feel a bit like it. He acts like a piece cf machinery, in fact. Now, a recruit wouldn't do it. Say charge to the veteran and he charges; say charge to the recruit and he don't ; that is all the difference." I c'Whof V)qc Kaon vnnr r?lon fnr r??T7o1nn. ing your muscles F' ' Constant work with light weights. Many make the great mistake of tiring themselves with heavy weights. They put themselves under a constant strain, and soon wear out. It is mucb better to put up a little dumbbeli fifty times than a h avy one ten. The mus'cles get iust ihat much more play, and hence a greater development with no strain." "You have had several very nasty falls. "What is the sensation like JL Jjavc JJ.au wLLXOC Ut bug JiCilJiO that marked the Hanlon family. You will probably think it singular that I neither lose consciousness nor presence of mind when I fall. My worst tumble, I think, X go!; in Havana. We were playing unde:: the management of Jim Nixon,and we made a great success. The same people in Havana go to the theater ? every night, and fchev demand constant changes in the bill. My brother Tom was taken sick suddenly. Eis ladder was up in the dome ready for < - * T ? - 1 1 i-T- "J _ 1 tee leap ior ine, ana tue people uegan to clamor to 'have it done.' I finally agree I to do it. The feat consists, after the x?rformance of a variety of trick i on the ladder, in swinging yourself into motion, and jumping to a taut rope, running from the ceiling at an incline to tho wings. The jump was a long one, and the house was very quiet when I began to swing, preparatory to 1 taking the leap. I threw myself at the rope, and when I was in mid-air I saw j it was no go an 1 that I was done. I strnrtt nnt; flpsneraLelv with mv feet. ir> hope of helping myself forward, but I J only reached the rope with the tips of the fingers r' my left hand. Both j hands and 1 were extended in j spread-ea, ^ ;f yon like. I ought . to have rn i ^ rope with both ; hands, fai V T center of my body, with the 1 - ross the line, so as to distribute tne strain of sustaining mv weight ever my whole body. As it was, it all fell on my left arm, and my body swept in toward the rope like a whiplash. Of course I let go, and then I began to turn spirally like a corkscrew, and then go down. I instantly realized that I must not land all spread out. I gath erea my left area close into my body, pushed my head forward, and drew my. legs togetner, straggling to gee into shape to fall on my side. I did fall just that way forty feet on a wooden stage. My arm was driven into my side and a rib was broken. The arm was shattered and I was laid up for many months. While I was going down, in an instant I saw over again, as vivid as life, sverv fail tnat 1 ever 'witnessed. : They came up in my mind one right af- 3 ter another like successive flashes of 1 lightning, and I seemed to be experienc- f ing all of them in my own person. Bnt worse than everything else, a great deal ' worse than the shock of arriving, was the terrible shriek of agony that went 1 np from the audienc e. It was like one ( heart-breaking wail of agony. ? can ' hear it yet, and hear it every time I j think oi the accident. That is a pe- ] culiarity of our family. We all heard 1 that shriek, and none of ns ever fcrget * it. How did that accident occur ? My ( brother Tom made a mistake ia the ^ measurements because of a miscalcula- ( tion of the space in a round dome. The ] rope was two feet farther away from the ^ ladder than it ought to have been." 5 The Nightingale. ] V^vrr nn-Kiro+onrUnrr in an^ in. 1 f W J ~-.~0 ? - ? J significant in size is the bird known as j the "king of songsters." The whole of the upper part of the bird is a brown, j and tlie throat and belly a pale gray, i the tail reddish brown, long and ] rounded. The full length of the bird 1 is about sis and one-half inches. He < is imported from England and Germany, ? the larger part coming from the latter j country, but he is met with over the t whole continent of Europe, from Swe- s den to the Mediterranean, and over a ] large poition of Central Asia as far i north as the middle of Siberia. Ho ] also visits north-western Africa in the 1 course of his migrations. Woods, groves i snd leafy forests, in the immediate vicinity of water, afford the favorite i retreats of these most masical, most < melancholy songsters. In such localities tbey live, each pair within its own especial domain, which, although i "wrtl 1 in />"nor/^A^ , iO JDOiUUOi^ ^ UUi C+jWWJkuij J defend* d from ell intrusion. Some " parts of Southern Europe are especially i frequented by these delightful birds. ( Spain, in particular, is extremely fortunato in this respect, and in certain j districts their enchanting voices are i heard from every bush and hedge. The ; declivities of Sie:rra Mcrena may be literally described as an extensive nightingale garden. The fiicht of the bird is nndulatorv. but, though light and rapid, it is rarely sustained beyond a short distance. That these birds, however, are capable of great ereriion while on the wing must be evident to any one whc has witnessed the endeavors of two contending rivals in love matters to drive each other from the field. No sooner have the nightingales arrived at their nesting places in Enrope, about the middle of April, than their songs are io be heard almost incessantly. Some pour forth their thriiiing notes through the long, blight night, just as the American mockingbirds whistle during the moonlight mgms 01 bpritig-iiCLie auucany sijoimur, but generally they sing only in the daytime, except during the breeding season, when tbe desire to pleas9 and attract j their mates renders the male birds ez[ cited and restless. The nest is built cf j leaves, dried grass, bits of bark and I roots, lined with finer grass and horseI hair loosely put together and p;.aced in | some hollow in the ground in the roots or stump cf a tree. There are live eggs in a nest, md only ono nest in a season, unless the eggs of the young get destroyed, in which case there 13 a second laying. The molt in g season commences in July, after which, when tho birds are in new. full plumage, the autumn migrations begin. These journeyings are accomplished in families or small parties, tho birds flying with great rapidity to very distant countries. In Anril rhat rmtrmear in "EnrnnA. fh a males about two weeks in advance of the female?, and at once seek their former haunts and greet the old homes in joyful strains. The prevailing opinion ia that the bird is delicate and seldom lives long 1 X ! in a cage. This opinion is jast conj trary to the facts in the case. Not only ; dees the nightingale live in a cage for I muny years, but he grows stronger and I sings better constantly ; and there are ! mitny authentic cases cf the bird's breeding and rearing its young while so confined. When properly cared for th9 bird will live fifteen years ; and one case is stated where a bird lived for twenty-live years. Witinn the past three or four years the sale of these birds has greatly increased, because lovers of the grandest and sweetest bird music have learned how to so care for thy performer as to elicit from him most charming harmonies. He has a natural 6ong, and like tne American mocking-bird, is also a mimic. His cage may hang by itself in a less freqeated part oi the bird-room, but the more singers there are in the same room for him to contend with and surpass, the wider will be his range of voice. Each country has its nightingale. Ataerica has the red bird, called the Cardinal Grosbeak, or Virginia nightingale. The "hedge-singert" or "tree nightingales of Africa, ana the beautiful. and very lively nightingales of China, are all fine songsters ancl -whistlers; but the bird known as the English or German nightingale is the trne nightingale. The prices vary from $15 to ?20 ami $25. The bird may be found on sale in the shops from October to May. YHiy Meeting Didn't Break. It may not be known to the reader ' that Friends' mestiog is dismissed, |j when the worship is over, by two aged , -n 1-- - 1.? iV, ? WTTrv. J3 - ! melius, WUU Ufy *~LLUWJLl aD lUC JLLCtiUO I of Meeting," shaking hands with each other. In any Friends' meeting house on First-day an observer may sea the worshipers sit in perfect quietness? excepting when there is a sermon or a prayer?until one of the heads of meeting extends his hand to the other, who clasps and shakes it. Then everybody rti-sao V? f>rv> TrifllATlf O TT7r\r/l gcio AUU nAv??vu.v vt n v*u of dismissal. But until the handshaking occurs no Friend would think of moving from his seat. A few Sundays ago Elias Warner and Thomas Brown sat as usual at the head of Bonnyberg Meeting. The meeting had been in session about an hour and nobody had spoken. Elia3 had his head bowed fc-rwurd, resting upon his cane. Thomas's face looked d ownward so that his broad-brim hat almost hid it from view. People began to wonder why they did not shake hands and break meeting, and some, even of the old Friends who had been disciplined to patience by half a century of meetings, became a little restless and fidgety. Suddenly a faint snore came from the place where the heads of meeting sat. Ihe worshipe:rs looked up with surprise. The painfal fact then appeared that Elias Warner wa3 a?leep. When Ihomas Brown heard the snoro he , looked calmly around and then pnt his head quietly back, with his forehead on [lis hands, and his hands on his cane. The Friendu saw there was no hope ; }f getting away until Elias should wake ; ip, so they made up their minds, in Jipir nsna.1 amiable fashion, to endure i ;he wrong in peace. So Eiias slumbered and snored calmly ( ilong for about half an hour, when a 3y that was promenading about on his aose happened to buzz into hia nostril, thereupon Elias suddenly awoke, sat ip with a jerk, cleared his throat, and jned to look as if he had not been tsleep at all. The meeting drew a long breath of relief, and there was a little bustb'ng novement indicating that the ."Friends < jxpected to go homo at once. 3 Elias Warner noticed the fact and he j extended his hand to Thomas Brown. < Ji'homas tooi: no notice ot it. ine meet !ng looked at the operation with intense : mxiety. Just, then, amid the breathless silence another faint snore was heard! , It ispainfal to have to admit snch a ;hing, bnt the fact is Thomas had dropped off into a gentle slnmber while he i?as waiting for Elias to wake up. The meeting began to feel indignant. Some of the old Friends scowled. Wiliam Benton leaned over and suggested :o George Wabbins to get np and prod ] ?~lvr.* iLie fcitseper wiiiu mo uiiik/icii.iv, on*. Seorge would rather have died than to lo anything so irregular. There were Foung and sicfal Friends who thought , jf going out of the meeting without waiting for it to break, but they confuted themselves by coughing loudly 1 ind shuffling their feet. But Thomas went swimming along in placid peace through the laud of , ireams, and his snore grew louder and louder until it vibrated like a miniature , 1. iUv/\n /?T\ .Ug?JUUIIi, bUiUll^U tuu ~UV/J-LU I The Friends whose dinners were'get- , ;ing cold at heme were growing excited. Suppose Thoma3 should sleep for an iour? Suppose before he woke Elias ( Warner should drop off for another inoo2e? The situation began to grow , jerious. Even Elias himself felt a little perturbation,and some observers thought :-hey detected in him a movement to scourge Thomas with his elbow. But ie didn't. He remained quiet, trying ;o appear as if he were wrapped in the nost. solemn meditation. Thus half an lour or more passed, the Friends meanwhile getting madder and madder. Suddenly Thomas Brown was heard ;o laugh in his sleep. Then he exclaimed: " Hannah, why don't thee get the pie?" Then his eyes opened, and as the tricked boys in the meeting laughed he sat up, blushed crimson, grasped Elias Warner's hand hurriedly and sailed swiftly out of the meeting to hide his :on fusion. The managers of Bonnyberg Meeting intend to reorganize on a basis that "will put younger men at the bead of the meeting after this. Recollections of Longfellow. Mr. Longfellow spent the winter of 1869 in Rome with G. W. Ohilds, of the Philadelphia Public Ledger. The latter gentleman gave a dinner in his honor at the Hotel d' Espagnu, and relates an incident \>hich portrays how constant was the recollection in the mind of the poet of Mrs. Longfellow's horrible death. He was taking Mr. Childs into dinner, and on their way through the corridor of the hotel thej passed, a scries of lighted wax candles placed candelabra surrounded bv flow ers. inr. : Jjongieiiow immeaiaieij shaded Lis face with his hand and begged his partner to hasten Lis footsteps, it was throngu th9 flame of a lighted candle when in the act of melticg some sealing wax that Mrs. Longfellow was burned to death. The poet had three daughters and ono son, Charles. Oiie of the daughters married K. H. Dana; the third, Buchanan Read, the poet and artiot, "who painted a likeness of Mi. Longfellow, one of the best be ever had taken. It now hangs in Mr. Child's library. Read also painted the three Miss liongfellows as children. One c( the young Jadies was so depicted on the canvas that she appeared to be without arms. So natural was this appearance that en the picture being engraved and sold to tie public the poet received over 100 letters askiDg him if Ids child reallj was born without arcs. The original Scottish National Covecant of 163S is still in existence. The venerable parchment was exhibited recently at the sittiDg of tba Victoria (Australia) Presbyterian General Assembly. The present, owner, the Hon. "W. Pearson, is a lineal descendant of ons of the signers of the covenant. jSSSSS^oSaHSii . ' 'v.. DRUXK 02i PETROLEUM GAS. A Canoes Kind of Intoxication?flow a Peraun Feels under the Influence cf GasFro m nearly every well from which petroleum is .obtained c large amount cf gas escapes, m some cases an aoundance of gas exists wh<ire no oil is found. It is the rising of the gas in the wells which causes the oil to flow. Hometimes the gas pressure is such that it is used to rnn ihe engines, in the place of steam, and under a large majority of the boilers gas i3 used for fuel exclusively It arises not only from the wells, but from the tanks in which the oil is stored; It is dangerous, and many serious accidents have resulted from ignorance of its effects. It "has caused numerous conflagrations aiad disastrous explosions, and when inhaled is frequently fatal. A short time ago-; a little boy m un uity was playing about a small tank. While looking into it- he was overcome, tumbled in and was drowned. But a short time before two lads were suffocated while watching a well flow into a tank, and not Jo*^?ago^ar itum was found standing dead ^ the side of an oil tank, bis chin resting on the edge, which was also grasped by the hands of the corpse. He had been standing in that position, breathing the gas which arose from the oil until he was overcome. Probably his senses were acute after his body be L ?j T-.V- -~t J Came numo auu mis mus lauscu perform their functions in obedience to his will. The Times correspondent met a gentleman a few days ago who was once in a position similar to that described above. He had just completed his first oil well, and every cent he Iwd in the world was invested in the venture. It was beginning to flow, and the next few moments would determine whether he was penniless or wealthy. Naturally enough he was interested. Standing on a board which was placed at an angle against the side of the tank, he rested his elbows on the edge of the huge tub and leaned forwarc", watching the foamirrr steaminc liauid as it was forced ? 0, o ?from the month of the well and boiled about in the bottom of the tank. Tho gas rose from the oil in a cloud, but the novelty of the sight and the pleasure afforded by the thought that it was his own property, and that every drop of the boiling, bubbling fluid was equivalent to so much cash in his pocket, canssd him to forget the danger. He said he felt a buoyancy of spirit never before experienced. He wanted to shout for joy as tho oil poured out. His enthusiasm momentarily increased, and his happiness rose to such a pitch that he was tempted to spring forward into the foaming oil and "danco with it in its giddy whirlpool. The transition from a state of consciousness to one of unconsciousness was so gradual and imper Am A < CPpilUitJ IXiii'j UU HiiO W JL1VULL1JJ?J awut ill, The feeling was similar to that experienced bv a man who drinks too much champagne, only a thousand times more pleasurable. The gaudy colors of the rainbow appeared before his eyes and his body felt as light as the air. How long he remained in this state he could not say, but he was recalled to his senses by his brother, who was near by in the derrick. He attempted to turn his head when called, but the muscles refused to obey his will. He endeavored to move bis "feet, but could not do so. They felt as when they axe "asleep." It was simply impossible to move a muscle. He still felt tbeA greatest happiness, ilihon?fcfful iy aware ot his danger and the neces&ity for immediate action. "Indeed," said be, "it is highly probible that in thirty seconds more the effects of the f;as would have been such that, though I knew death was imminent, such was the ec3tacy of my spirits md the b&ppy, exhilarating state of my mind, I would have embraced it with pleasure rather than move a single muscle to break the enchanting spell. Bat I was not yet so far gone but what s/vif.r.rpo^rv!ition overbalanced the nleas- I are. I made another effort to move my feet, and as I did so I can remember my thought was "Oh, how happy I am! Why shouldn't I die now, in perfect bliss ?" Whether I actnallv did move my feet or not I cannot state, bufc at any rate they slipped along the slanting board and fell to the gronnd." "Were yon injured by the fall?" ' I felt no pain whatever when I got p, but the next day several large discolorations on my body, a scraped elbow and soreness all over my body, tesunea that the fall "was quite a severe one. The effects of inhaliDg the gas did not leave me for forty-eight hour3. During the balance of the d^y I was in the best of spirits; could laugh heartily at the feeblest jokes, and thought every person around me the best fellow I ever met. I was drunk on gas, and the next day my head ached aB if I had been on a protracted spree." As liquor has different effects upon different temperaments, so it is with gas. A few years ago oil wells were drilled differently than they are now in some respects. The well was started by digsine a "conductor hole" in the rock in the same manner an ordinary well is drilled. A man whose name was Smith, owned a well which had been drilled to the usual sand, but not proving bo productive as anticipated, the owner determined to drill it deeper. The sides of the condactor hole caved in, and it became necessary to clean it out, which was a difficult job to perform, because in the first sand a large quantity of gas had been found, which was coming from the well. The diillers hesitated about going down, although the point where the dio-giug was to be done was not more than twenty f get below the surface. Smith was displeased with their timidity and lack of courage, and when the windlass was ready he descended into the hole himself and began digging. This was early in the day. As backet after bucket was sent np, the drillers who were pulling them out noticed that Smith was getting excited. He worked with redoubled energy; shouted to the men above to hasten their efforts; called them "lazy-bones," and acted in a most peculiar manner. In an hour he had dng far below where it was necessary to go, and the drillers advised him to come np. He refused to do so, and proclaimed his intention of digging the weil down to the second sand?abont 600 feet. "I can dig it faster than yon lazy loafers can drill it," he shonted. "Send down that bucket. Why don't yon hnrry ? I can dig to China while yon are emptying a pailfnl of dirt. Noon came and the dinner bell rang, yet Smith refused to come out, ana angrily ordered the men to continue their work. The labor was far beyond his ordinary strength, yet he continued without cessation. He gave himself no rest. Perspiration poured down Lis body and he trembled with excitement. The drillers finally became alarmed and began devising rceans for getting him ont of the hole. One of them suggested lassooing him, and the suggestion met with approval. A slip-noose was made in thA sand-line and it was cast <3owe. After several futile attempts, they succeeded in getting the rope around his body and pnlled him exit, the victim in the meantime kicking, jelling, swearing and threatening them with all manner of punishment. As he emerged from the hole, his gray hair hnns matted over a face dripping with perspiration; there was a wild, nnnatural lock in his ej6?, his clothing was dirty and torn, and, while one hand held the handle of a 1 T. - _? 1- ~ -4.1. *1 ? plCKas, ne ohoujs. uiiier aogniy as the four men who were pnlling him out. No sooner did he get on his feet than he flew at the men, flourishing the pick over his head. They avoided him, and finally found it n<jcessary to bind him. ... i He raved and tore abont in a most f> ighfc| fnl manner, bnt at last quieted down and | was put to bed. The next day he was ; himgelf again. The gas had made him ! crazy for the time being. A QUEER PEOPLE FOUSD. An Asiatic Rnce Without Government and Neither Plato nor Sir Thomas Moore, ProfessorOwen nor Thomas Hughes.ever heard of a Chukch. In iheir ignorance, therefore, they constructed an ideal republic, laid out an Utopia, founded a New Harmony and established a Rugby, heroically, it blindly, trying to fashion an ideal society and to teach men the way to true happiness, and ail the while the Chukch has been wandering in his seal-gut wraps over Northeastern Asi3, the ideal citizen of the world, except in so far as soap must play a trivial part in the life of the ideal citizen. It was left for the greatest navigator of our time to find a people without kings or rm'fVirtnf r\rf><5f>TiArs nr nnlTHoianfi Ipj.i.COt'O, VT iVUUUW fsjhWMW**?, without laws or the necessity of laws. The Chukehes are the men. A knowledge of this anomalous society is one of the most startling results of Nordenskjold's circumnavigation of the old world. After sailing along a coast of several thousand miles tbat is a literal desert, and of course, uninhabited, the Vega found, as soon as northern Asia begins to slope down toward Behring's straits, that the natives were so much pleased at the sight of a steamer that they gave everywhere the most earnest invitations ' J * * m? - TT _ ? ?- ? ? A. XI. _ x ,^XL^ to land. Xlie vegaspem. ujb itju mujums of the polar winter of 187S-79 on the Chnkch coast, and its commander was thus the first European to get d. sufficiently extensive knowledge of these people to explain their society. The men of the Vega learned their infiectionless jargon, visited their tents, kept them from starving, and came to know the Chnkche3 better than they kne;? themselves. They are not a tribe of Eskimos, as has been supposed. They have a different origin, in all probability, from the Eskimos ; their language is not by any means the same, nor is their civil life greatly like the life of aUiUAiV/UiU A UWWI M*V/ not as ugly as the Eskimos, nor as the tribes of 'western polar Asia. They j possess an extensile territory for their i wandering, but do not number in ail more than 5,COO people. They are of two kinds, coast Chukches and reindeer Chukches?a difference, however, that is, a difference wholly of occupation; One class are fishermen, the other herdsmen. They are not divided into tribes. They nn trr>TArnmpr\f and nn rftliffinrjs w ? ? O organization, indeed no institution except the family and the village, and the last is determined rather by accident and circumstances than by design. Every man is the equal of his neighbor, every woman of her husband. They never quarrel, except when drunk, and are never drunk except when they happen to meet traders who have liquor. They have no system of punishments, no civil nor religious law, no military organization, no ecclesiastical code. Indeed, it is a life of primitive innocence. This is anomalous enough; but stranger than all, in such a society the family is quite as sacredly regarded as in Christian countries. A Chukch has but one wife, to whom he is generally faithful, ? T_; i."L ana wno is xaibUiUi s<u xnuju j.eo wiefc no penalties, social or legal, to sufferfor unfaithfulness. They are honest, and yet it would not be disgraceful to steal. They seem never to have thought of government, or theft. Their lire lacks ambition and passioi), and is less like other savage life than like civilized life. They are not as ugly as the Eskimos, bnt equally as filthy* In winter they do not bathe at all, 5?nd the snow is left to do the only work of cleansing the body when it falls on their bare heads. The vhole family sleep and eat in a single tent. They have no knives nor forks, and their few vessels are put to a />P iieoo kuv {jicriiuou u;ruio;u? vi AUC children are regarded with affeccion and ipride, and reared healthfnl and robust in the ancesiral filth. The women are not slaves, although they do much of the heavy work, such as harnessing dogp, building tents, cooking, fishing and moving, but they are regarded by the men as their equals in every particular. The women plait their hair and the men cut theirs close except in front, and th^re they have "bangs." The whole household furniture of a family consists of a lamp or two, made of iron with I moss wicks in which train oil is burned; an ax, reindeer skins, a fire drill, a comb, a medley of old ocois and cooking utensils. What they covet most are such things a3 large needles, pots, knives, axes, saws, woolen shirts, tobacco, sugar, liquors?which they call vam?and matches. For these things they will sell almost anything. Oris of their most striking characteristics is their love of everything red. i'or a red einrt or lor a vam a unuKcn will sell anything but a drum or a reindeer's head. The drum has certain superstitions associated with it, and is more nearly than any other instrument or utensil a sacred thing. They are the most improvident of savages,and during a severe winter they almost starve. Yet they will not steal, although they are the most persistent beggars outside of Italy. When they capture seals or walruses they eat an incredible amount of blubber and blocd, and can fast afterwards almost as long as an eagle. Whence they came is a difficult qurs- I ticn, philolcgically and ethnologically. They have no recollections or traditions of war, bnt they have always been independent. Their language seems to have no dialects, andfe* foreign words have been admitted into its vocabnlary. Althongh it is probable that within the last 200 jears they have donbled in number, Nordenskjold is inclined to believe that they are the remnants of a race, and represent a decadence and not a growth. They were probably driven east or north centuries ago, and changed by climate or occupation into their present condition. There are traditions of another race which once held this territory, of which the old mariners have given meagre acconnts, and of which archseological evidence can yet be found. If the astronomical view that the moon was once a part of the earth's mass be true, the moon in its early age mnst revolved nearer the earth than now and mnst have caused prodigious tides upon its parent planet?as recently shown by Professor Ball. Professor J. S. .Newberry tinds m geological eyidc-nce a refutation of this theory, to the extent, at least, proving conclusively that no such tides could have existed since the commencement of the geological record. He does not hesitate to asser.% therefore, that the astronomers are in error ia regard to the moon's genesi3 ; or that if it were once a portion of the earth the separation took place st a period so remote that it had receded to nearly its present distance before the dswn of life on the earth. Daring the recent diphluertt c epidemic in Dcnison, Iowa, three children of a Mr. Hable died of the dread disease and were bnried side by side. The remains hive since been taken np for the pnrpose of removing them to ? */\n r.f tlia fcmo+nw cnrl in making the removal it was discovered that one cf the children had been buried alive. It hftd ttirned over on its ;'ac^, thrown its little arms over its head and tGrn the hair from its scalp. It Is reported that 2,252 vomen are engaged in farming in Indiana. "FATHER OF WATERS." Some luterestJnjr Statement* ConcernSaa the 3Iiuhty M.l?sls9ippi. A Chicago Times correspondent s^js; Numberless are I ha efforts that have been made to control the stream and restrict its waters. Mark Twain's scheme to take the river np and straighten it so that- a sidewalk train on a line from Cairo to New Orleans would strike Canal street, is as practicable as the plans of half the learned engineers. :As well try to sweep back the tide as to dam up the river or head it off when it takes a notion to go anywhere. If there was onlv a solid foundation to build levees cn, it might be within the power of engineering skill to construct walls strong enough to resist the attacks of the mighty liver, bat there is nothing but sand and soft mud and dirt from the surface to a depth of hundreds of feet, except at isolated points two or three hundred miles apart. When the water subsides after a freshet it is no unusaal thing for whole plantations to cave in, where the bank has baexi undermined for a long distance back. Ii there should happen to be a levee a mile high on the ground, or a Chinese wall two hundred feet thick and nine stories high, it would make no difference. The undermined territory would go just the same. The Mississippi is continually stealing land from one bank and building new land a little X* J avn/5 noMnl i<rr At> 1UJ.Liici uunuj anu. uouanj wn tuo utuci side. A flood comes along, and when it is gone it is discovered that a sand bar has been formed in a place "where the channel may have been twenty cr sixty feet deep a few weeks before. The bar gets higher and extends further into the stream. The next year, or perhaps the same season, cottonwood sprouts spring up as fast as blades of grass, and in two or three years more a forest covers the spot. Nothing grows so fast as cottonwood trees. They shoot up ten and fifteen feet in a single season. In a few years the planter who owns the land to the rear clears away the forest, plants a crop, and, perhaps, build3 a levee, to protect his recent territorial acquisition from the assaults of the water that gave it to him. Meanwhile, the men who lost the land are calling on the state or government to baild levees to beep back the water. Every once in a while the river breaks across a peninsula and either makes an island or lifts hundreds of , acres bodily from one state to another. | The river is fall of islands formed in this way. I kept track of them till I passed "Island No. 98," and that was considerably above Viclisburg. Thus the uncertain river goes cutting and slashing through the country. " ilia w'j.ya ui me tivci ma iiiiuiu table as those of Providence," said a venerable steamboat captain to me as we sat charting in bis cabin the ether day. "I have been following this business for nearly half a century and I long ago gave up trying to divine its purposes or predict its movements. It will take something more than human ingenuity or power to guide it in a given path. It runs through made ground for maDy thousand miles from the gulf?made by itself?and it is going to do pretty mnch as it pleases with that land. We are told by geologists that where Baton Kougenow stands was once a promontory <-?? +Via nnoat nf fV<o ornlf /"if TvTatiwi on/1 no doubt that the salt waves of the sea once beat up against the base of the Chickasaw bluff, clear up to Mempnis. It must have taken countless ages to have built up the land, and the building process is not yet completed, It is going on all the time. Fill a glass from the river and in two hours there will be half an inch of sediment on the bottom. That is what the land known as rbe Mississippi bottoms is made of. I he bottom of the river is getting higher every year. The land recedes from the banks on either side excepting where it touches the bluffs. It runs aloDg on the top of 3 natural ridge or 'hog-back,' as the monnt&ineers cjII it. The back country is a basin which would be nothing but a morass were it not for the creeks and bayous that drain it into the river lower down. The surface of the river in very high water is from five to thirty feet higher than these basins, and when it rnns over its banks or breaks through the flimsy levees, it very natur- J ally fills them up. Some day the river will get down from the ridge on which ' ** * 1.3 1 - e _ ! it is now iccaiea ana mase ior useii a channel in lower ground. It tried to do it this year and will eventually succeed. It is my belief that the general side drift of the river, between Memphis and Vicksbur 2)SOO miles by water), is from west to east, and that the channel will wash the Chickasaw blnfTd all the way down as it has done in times past. De Soto's grave is believed by many to be fcr?y miles west of the present channel of the river away over there in Arkansas. When tlie liver builds tip its bed on the east line it will once more drift westyard, leading the land many feet higher. The creation is going on all tha time, unceasingly. Nature is her own engineer. She knows what i-he wants I better than Eads or any of his kidney. If the natural bent of the river is ob structed it will find a way, over, under or around the obstruction, sure as fato It may be regulated for a year, or ten, or even twenty years, or longer.at enormous expense, but that will amount to nothing in the end and will not affect the result of natural processes." "The trouble is," said another gentleman, a "busted" 6ugar planter, "the Mississippi and Yazoo deltas were discovered and settled on about 1,000 years too soon. The whcle territory is artificial and liable to overflow all the time, and the more it overflows the better it is for the land. Every flood leaves it I higher. It may be rough on the resi dent population, bnt it win De tne making of future generations." Mesquite Gum. It has bean found that the mesquite tree of Texas is identical with, cr at least vastly similar to, the aeyacia tree of the east, from which is obtained the gum arabic of commerce, and an industry in the direction of collecting and utilizing this gum is being developed. It is held to bo equal or superior to the imported gum, and qnite large quantities were gathered last year and sold readily at fifteen cents per pound A mesquite grove ie a novel and interest1 4^ A An/ioainrro f?rto jLU )? Sl ti Liij, lu^ CXXV'AOIJLI^O K/L U iU U\.V/ branches being likened to transpareut crjstal armor, reflecting the sun's rays, and glittering and glowing like unto some gclden harvest. The gum is capable of being handled with great expedition and facility, the trees always growing in gioves and to medium height. Cattle are also fond of the gum, and eat it from the trees whe-re it is in reach. It is believed that wero the mefqaifce cared for like the maple, an-1 proper operations followed, the project of gam-raising would be a feasible and profltaDie one. A performance cf the "School for Scandal," in the opera-honsa of Madison, Wis., was diversified by the appearance in the parqnet of the Sergeantat-Arms of the State Assembly, who began to pick ont a member hc-re and there and notify them that there had been a cali of the Honse aud they &nst ! go. The rest of the andience langhed i when they saw a bald-headed legisI lator led reluctant to the door, especially as he was observed first to expos talate earnestly with the officer, then grow red in the face and gesticulate | fiercely, and finally gc-t up and go out ' in a towering rage. celebrated cheeses. I Foreign and Do:ii<M!ic I>Ianufactares. : j The manufacture of cheese,which now I plays so important a part in the dairy ! industry of nearly every country on the ! glcbo, is said to have been learned by , ! the English from the Romans about the ! dhristiim era. There are manv different j kinds and qualities of cheese, varying in richness from cream cheese, made | entirely of creani, to the famed Saffoik, made of milk "three times skimmed." With but one or two exceptions, all the celebrated varieties of other countries have been transplanted to the United Spates, and although they are of fine favor and splendid quality they do not acquire by age the richness of flavor that English cheeses do. Of the foreign varieties. Stilton is the highest priced. It is made in Leicestershire, England, but obtained its name from a small town in Huntingdonshire, whore it was first publicly sold by retail. The process of making it was kept a secret for a long time, but is now generally known. The cream of the preceding n:<rlit's milking is added to the whole milk of the morning, with a small quantity of rennet. The curd is taken out very carefnlly and placed in a sieve to dr&in, when it is gently pressed till it becomes firm and dry. Wh-n ripe a green mold appears on its surface. Two years is about the time it requires to mature. Gloucester and Cheddar cheese referred to by Bloomfield in the lines: "Ye Cheshire meads, Or Severn's flowery dales,where plenty treads, Was your rich milk to suffer wrongs like these, Faiewell your pride J farewell renowned cheese," j Are bosh highly prized. The latter is | produced on the rich grass farms near the Cheddar rocks, the most romantic part of Somersetshire. The celebrated Parmesan, which is nVvfo-ima/l Pjrmo in flia nnrt.n r\f UVta;u^/il x U1 wauj VMV MVA??* V* I Italy, owes its excellence to the superior herbage on the banks of the river Po. It is made from skimmed milk, and the coagulation is effected in a caldron hung over a fire. This cheese is kept a long while, generally three years, and none is considered fit for sale until it | has been ma<^ six months. Westphalia ! cbeese, which is also much liked by the j English, is said to derive its flavor from I the cnrd being allowed to become putrid j before it is pressed. Cheshire cheeses made in Cheshire, i England, weigh from 100 to 200 pounds ! each, and about 14.0C0 tons is produced annually. Gray ere is a Swiss variety made in ! the Cantons of the Alps ; it is a small, green cheese, in which the cnrd is j mixed with the dived leaves of themeliI lot reduced to powder. When eaten it j i3 grated and mixed with fresh butter | and is spread on bread. The farmers who make this cheese send their cows Ilia 4l-i Alrto /vn I UUiiJg CAi.0 i. tu 4* VU vv^ i raon pasture; the milk of all is turned j into one stock, and each owner at the j end of the season receives his proportionate share ox the profits. The Swiss also make a cheese from the curd left in the whey after better cheese has been made; it has little flavor but serves people living in the mountains for bread; they cut slices of it, spread over butter and a thin slice of cheese over that, ana wash it down with a cup of fresh whey, or, if they can afford it, a glass of kirschwasser. In the United States Swiss cheese is made in New York, Wisconsin and West Virginia. In "Wisconsin it was first made by tbe Swiss emigrants who settled in Green and Winnebago counties in 1845. The quality was at first often poor, but aftei many experiments a very fair article was produced, and the quality and quantity have steadily increased. Limburger cheese made in New York, Wisconsin and Illinois is an imitation of a variety made in Limburg, a province of Belgium, from which it takes it3 name, and from Harve, a neighboring province. | Fromage de Brie and Neufchutel are ! made from tte milk of goats and sheep; I ? 1- 1- il-.-.l j V/IUUii is luucu iliiUiicr ai-u ciuo uuio I cream than cow's milk. The former is | much esteemed at Mont d'Or, Central France. Beth varieties are manufactured ia New York State. The cheeses are very rich, and are wrapped in thin white paper and then encased in tinfoiL In Lapland these cheeses are made from the of the reindeer, these beautiful ana useful creatures being brought home every night to the Lapland lasses to be milked, -which produces a very gay icene at the gamme or encampment Each deer has to be held during the time of milking by a cord slipped round its horns, as they are very restless. In Germany a small cheese is made by turning the milk sour by the heat of the fire; the whey is then pressed out. and the curd is then broken fine with the hand in a tub. It remains in this state nnt-il the pntrid fermentation be tcics, when it is made into little balls and dried. Sometimes caraway seeds "? " ? m-M _ _ L t _ a a are ao'de t. 'iney are not Daa 111 navur, bat have a most nnpleasint tmell. Dutch cheeses are made of skimmed milk, the curd being well washed and saturated in c=alt and water before it is pressed into the mold. Many kinds of cheese are artificially colored, whicii was no doabt originally +/-\ wmJJ-A +T->n fhfiAa/z l/mlr ri/^hpr UUJC 1>W UiaUU bUV V**VVW 4 WM Annotto, a red dye, produced from the pnlp of the seed-vessels of a tree called bisa, and brought from the West Indies, is the substance most frequently used; but the juice of parsley, sage leaves, marigold flowers, oranges and carrots is also employed. Prating 121 China for Snow. It appears that the temperature has been so abnormally hi^h and the weather so uoiformally mild ;n North ern China, as well as in Europe, throughout the last "winter season, that not a single snow-fail occurred dnring the months of December ana January in regions usually visited by frequent and heavy snow storms at that time of year. The inhabitants of those district^ apprehensive that a spring and summer drought might result irom the absolute dearth of snow in its customary places of winter storage, petitioned the emperor to intercede in person on their behalf to the supernatural authority whose special business it is to regulate the annual die Iribution of frozen liquid to the inhab-1 itants of the Flowery Land. On receipt I of this application the Brother of Mcon! betook himself to the Temple of the Snotv God and fervently entreated that deity to f^vor the suffering people with a first-class snow-fall at his earliest con venience. A* no immediate result accrued from this suppiica'ion, his imperial majesty repeated his visit to th^ temple evening after evening, thirty-five times in succession, renewing bis request for snow upon e*ch occasion with a pertinacity that did him I""""' A ) tnn fiTntrit.inn nf firrh Ai Vi-lWi *.JLW fcM-w ~ ? week, however, findiag the Snow God still insensible to his prayers, the emperor pave up personal intercession as a bad job, and resolved, as Mrs. Glas .e has it, to ' try another way." By imperial decree, signed with the Vermilion Per.oil, and published in the Pekin dazette, he commanded a certain number of jrinces of ihe blood and military commanders to form a deputation and convey to the recalcitrant deitv ! an address setting forth the misery en ! failed upon Northern China by this nnj accountable reluctance to dispense the I -ncnal /I& r\P cr*ATEr HPh/a omnorrtr ! so runs the decree's conclud ng i-ent? nee, " ventures to hope tbat the pleading? of so illustrious ani distinguished a deputation will have more weight than his own with the SaWime K-vaDg-fco," 1 A Bit of Table Lore. Did you wonder, as you sat at the table last Thanksgiving Day, why the great fowl before you was called after a -vHB country of Europe? Perhaps you did not, but others have wondered. Prob- -|3| ably you know that the turkey is indigenous to America, and that it came very near beii*g the emblem of the United States, instead of the eagle. Benjamin Franklin, who suggested it, was a sagacious man in' most respects, but he argued that this bird was a native of the republic and was common, while the eagle had been all through the ages the symbol of royalty. The turkey was first introduced into Europe more than three hurdred years ago, and became almost immediately a favorite on the table, but people seem to have forgotten where it came from. ??j-jSi The French called it dindc, meaning ^?1 -1- - A. -A T iliac in came xruw muxa. ouuio u-ojrp thought that they have meant Wei? India, but as the Germans called it the"" Calcutisher hakn (Calcutta fowl,) there is reason to believe that it was generally thought to come from Esst Indie, "^2 There is a difference of opinion about the meaning of the name of the gram from which onr buckwheat cakes are L ' made. In Worcester's dictionary we are told that Daniel Webster said that it was named because it looked like the beechnut, and I am inclined to think that he is right; but I have a book by a learned man which says chat there is a tradition that it was named became the first specimens were bronght from the East hidden between the leaves of a book, so that it was not "beach-wheat," but "book-wheat." No doubt buckwheat did come into Europe from the East, and it is called by the French "Saracen wheat" (file Sarrasin,) but ifc is called by the Germans beech-wheat (buchweizen.) I will tell you another word the true history of which was long unknown*..^ The best kind of almonds were called ''j|| "Jordan almonds, and as lately as 1706 a writer who wrote a book ealled "A New World of Words," eaid tint the tree that produced them '.'grows chiefiy -i^jg in the Eastern countries, especially in the Holy Land, near the river Jordan;" and in 3757 another writer, who vas a celebrated English botanist, made the same remark. In 1877 the statement J. was repeated in Smith's ''Bible plants," where we read that "the best so-called 'Jordan almonda' come from Malaga, and none now come from the country ~ 'J|f of the Jordan." It might nave Deen added that none ever came from that country, for we have learned from an old book that Jordan almonds are simply almonds that axe raised in gardens?the French for garden being gcardin, which was corrupted into Jordan very easily, and the man who corrupted it forgothow he made the mistake, or, perhaps, he nevei noticed his error. It is a great deal easier to make a mistake than it is to correct one. This shows, too, how readily people follow one another. No one thought for centuries whether Jor aan aimonas actually came irom ipo country of the river or cot. They believed what they had been told, and when one man fonnd that there were no WS almonds in the Holy Land, he did not for a moment think that it might be that none hai ever been raised there. "? It shows that we onght to be careful to know what we are talking about, and that it requires a good deal of study to be sure of anything. _ A. Victim of Circumstantial Evidence, j: uriy uuu jr tsaara a&u a wciuuiu. came to New York and took lodgings, where he was allowed to do his own " cooking in the same room with the family. The husband and wife lived in a perpetual quarrel. One day the German came into the kitchen with a claspknife and a pan of.potatoes, and he began to pare them for his dincer. The quarrelsome couple were in a more violent altercation than usnal, but he sat with his back toward them, acd, being ignorant of their language, felt no dan- _ ? ger of being involved in their dispute. But the woman, with a sudden and unexpected movement, snatched the knife -a from his hand and pluneed it in her husband's heart. She had sufficient presence of mind to rush into the street and scream murder. The poor foreigner in the meanwhile, seeing the wounded man reel, sprang forward to catch him in his arms, and drew out the knife. People from tne street crowded in and found him with the dyiug man in his arms, the knife in his hand and blood npon his clothes. The woman swore in the most positive terms tbatbe bad been fighting with ber husband, and had stabbed him with a knife he always carried. The unfortunate German knew too little English to understand ber accusation or to tell his own story. He was dragged off to prison, and the true state of the case was made known through an interpre V\n+_ it toqo nnt Hal toTVJ/l on/1 thATPal Utl J VUV IV nwvj MWH wv**viv?) mmv ? criminal s^ora unhesitatingly that she saw him commit the murder. He was *3$ executed, notwithstanding the most persevering efforts of his lawyer, John Anthcn, whose convictions of the man's innocence were so painfally strong that J from that day he refused to have any connection with a capital case. Some years after the woman died, and on her deathbed confessed her agency in the diabolical transaction. Society, according to Mrs, Lydia Alum unuas, who tens iue m-vcy, woo intensely agitated by the discovery, but the power to atone for the wrong had . been thrown away, ard the poor victim did not profit by this tardy repentance. ^ -Swedish Girls and Swedish Manners. correspondent of the Boston Bullc ^ , traveling in Sweden, writes : I was decidedly astonished not to find the Swedes almost exclusively blondes, for the prettiest Swedish women I saw were nearly all brnnettes. A slight fee, which by the way is unnecessary, ' -\j? earned me a hearty hand clasp and . many a warm expression of gratitude as I said good-bye. This cnsfcom of handshaking at the receipt of a gift is very eommon?more in Norway than in Sweden?and is cerrainly very pleasant to the giver. Another little politeness that I noticed all through Scandinavia - ;i|j was the well-nigh universal practice by gentlemen 01 raising ice aai wiieu ww ; ing, regardless of the sex of the person addressed ; a decided improvement on the brusque nod of Anglo-Saxons on both sides of the ocean. Another evidence of culture is the general ability to speak foreign languages, especially English. This is by no means confined to the npper classes, for in remote val leys and stations peasants and po>.t-boys wonld address me in my native tongue, and somevSmes politely wonder that I oonld not st>eak theirs. For all ordi nary travel a courier is an (Unnecessary appendage. ~-^?a Figaro says that there is in Paris a writer who "does the descriptive part of novels for novelists whose genius ; dees not lie in that line of writing. . From him they purchase, cash down, every kind of description of Pans scenery. The ripe seed of the mangrove is not spattered, but remaics attached to the capsule, still hanging on the mother *j3 plant. The seeds germinate, the rcct seeks the ic'id. and the plant is growing before the mother deserts it. The U. S. soldiers, od the Eio Grande, J|Ih| are deserting and going over into Mexico. The came is not gi^en, but the -/jig soldiers, no doubt, Lavs their private ;f|