Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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?? " - - - 1 ~ _ " * t ABBEVILLE PRESS & BANNER. BY HUGH WILSON. k ABBEVILLE, S. C., WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1877. VOLUME XXIV.--NO. -37. The SewiDtr Machine. ' Got one? Don't nay 60 ! Which did vol get ? One of the kind to open and shet ? Own it, or hire it ? How mnch did you pay ? Does it go with a crank or a treadle ? Say. I'D! a single man, and somewhat greenTell mo about your sewing machine." Listen, my boy. and hear all about it? I don't know what I should do without it. I've owned one now for more than a year, And like it so well I call it "my dear." "Us the cleveresf thing that ever was seen, Thi wonderful family sewing machine. , It's none of our angular Wheeler things, With ste?l-shod beak and cast-iron wings; Its work would bother a hundred of his, And is worth a thousand! Indeed it is ; And has a way?you needn't stare? Of combing aud braiding its own back yau-1 Mine is uot one of those stupid affairs That stands in a corner with what-nots ant chairs, And makes that dismal, headachy noise. Which all the comfort of sewing destroy*; No ri^id contrivance of lumber and steel. i;ut one with a natural spring in the heel. Mine is one of the kind to love. And wears a shawl and a soft kid glove. Has the merriest eyes and a dainty foot. And sports the charmingest gaiter boot, And a bonnet with feathers, and ribbons ant loops, With any indefinite number of hoops. None of your patent machines for me. Unicsa Dame Nature's the patentee ! I like the sort that can .laugh and talk, And take my arm for an evening walk ; That will do whatever the owner may choose. With the slightest perceptible turu o! th( screws. One that can dance, and?possibly?flirt; And make a pudding as well as a shirt; One that can sing without dropping a stitch. Aud play the housewife, lady or witch? lieadv to give the sagest advice, Or do up your collar and things so nicc. What do yon think of my machine ? Ain't it the nicest that ever was seen V Tisn't a clumsy, mechanical toy, But flesh and blood ! hear that, my boy ! With a turn for gossip, and household affair*. Which include, you know, the sowing of tares. Tut, tut?don't talk ! I sec you're in thrall; You needn't keep winking so hard at the wall; I know what your fidgety famblings mean : Would you like yourself a sewing machine 'i Well, get one, then?of the same designThere was plenty left where I got mine. A Mountain Daisy. Wo had traveled together for many a weary mile. I was on my way to mj usual summer retreat iu the mountains; but even before I took the stage coach my journey by steam had exhausted me, f-o that I was in no lmmor to join in the hilarity of my fellow travelers. We jolted and plunged and crawled over the hills to the paradise beyond; and while they talked and jesied, and oh'd anil ah a, as travelers will, we kept an unbroken sileuee?this fellow passenger and I?striving in vain to shut ont the hubbub within by gazing upon the sweet solitude without; and the bond of sympathy between this straight, stem, eoldierly, middle aged man increased when I found that he wjis determined to rid . himself of the g<x>d-humored confusion about him by climbing on the top of the stage. While we were changing horses, he clambered up among lnggage'so considerable as to prevent the usual accomodation for deck passengers, and my face must have shone a sort of despairing envy, for he looked over anil said: "There is room, if you will venture up here; but the evening air grows chill. If you are not afraid of taking cold "? I am afraid <>f nothing," I said, desperately, "but this gabble and din." He put down his hand, and up 1 climbed. With his portmanteau and shawl and an old mail bag he compassed me comfortably alxmt, and presently the stage jolted on. I was alone with my mountains, with the night, and the stars, and my fellow passenger, who counted for nothing, because he neither moved nor spoke; his side face was as rigid as if carved from one of the bowlders by the wayside. It must have beeu five milt** after this that this bit of bowlder startled me by a slight movement. I found that he was bending forward, gazing eagerly, with his whole soul in his eves, upon tlie window of an old farmhouse on the outskirts of the village. It was one of the upper windows, half raised, and the head of a woman appeared there in a shadow so deep that not a feature could lie distinguished; but as we slowly passed, an almost convulsive sigh escaped the lh.is of mv fellow traveler. He rcJsed his hat from his head. Then I plainly saw the woman's face, for it seemed to start forward suddenly, and cv-ui the dim starlight revealed a surprise upon it that almost partook of terror. No longer young, but still beautiful, that face was stamped with a melancholy so profound it haunted me. I looked at that of my companion. It was sunk upon his breast, and just then I saw the sweet young moon climbing up into the sky. Aud I thought what u pity il would bo if he should look up and see the new moon over his left shoulder, The thought was so tormenting to me that I spoke on the impulse of the moment. "Don't, sir," I said?"don'1 look over your left shoulder at t'*( moon. Look over your right shoulder, and wish. It is a good omen, they say.' He started, paused as if to gather tin meaning of what I Baid, then looked ovoi his right shoulder at the moon ; his fact was full of a strong emotion, and his lipt moved. Then he turned to me, his face melting into one of those rare smiles thai are so nice because they are so few, anci stretcher! over his hand. "Thanks,' he said, and we rolled up to the door ol the hotel, where Mrs. Aiken was waitiup for me, with her comfortable carry-all filled with the usual parcels and packages for the farm. But she could not tind a welcome foi me, so taken up was she with my fellow passenger. Her comely, motherly face was all agape upon his straight, stiff form, as he lifted me down anci ?? said good-bye, and disappeared in the corridor beyond. "Wa'al," she said, drawing a lonj breath, " that's either Major Jacques 01 his ghost. That does beat everything. After all these years?Lord o' mercy, i: that don't go ahead !" " And who is Major Jacques ?" I sait at last, finding myself the prey to a de vouring curiosity. "Do, please, Mrs Aiken, tell me -who is Major Jacques ?' " Well, child, he made a sight c rouble here a good but y??re ago but I can't say (is it was his fault. You t may blow your lungs out sometimes to boil a kettle, and then, agin, a spark from a pipe '11 set a liav rick in a blaze. Good Lord ! I wonder if he's come after Daisy M'Lean ? He'll find her a broken down humbly critter now, but a purteir gal than Daisy the sun never shone upon ; her skin was as white as milk, and her eyes like the stars up there, and the city folks that come out here to board christened her Daisy, though her I name was Hanner?Hanuer Hitehner ; i and spite of everything she would go 1 and throw herself away on Hugh M'Lean. They do sav that love '11 go where it's Ht'Ill, UUl 11 S 11 pilV It Rltuuui ur ou headstrong. Get up, Nig," pursued the farmer's wife, whipping up her horses, . and, like the dear good body she was, ' never halting with her story. " She had plenty o' chances to settle, i needn't say. David Hitehner was a forehanded num. and there warn't chick nor child but j Daisy. Judge Bates' son?he that went off to Indy or somewhere afterward? he'd 'a given his eyes for Hanner ; and as for them painter chaps, they just went wild over her,, and she might 'a had a dozen o* 'em, though to my mind it'd take a baker's dozen o' them idlers to make one decent man. "But she turned her back on the whole kit nud boodle of 'em, and stuck to Hugh M'Lean. It was ft dreadful j spite to the Hitcliners, for the M'Leans warn't thought much of hereabouts; they'd allers lived way up on the top o' tho mountain, and Hugh grew up as wild as a young won. ne raised a uiach. colt up there, tliat, atween you and me, Mrs. Smith, was a spawn o' Satan; fire used to fly out o' its eyes and shako off its hoofs, and not a livin' soid could get on its back but Hugh M'Lean. As for 5 harness?I'd like to see the harness that could hold Black Dan. It seemed as if Hugh and that colt was one piece o' stuff, for they was part and parcel o' one another, and I guess wherever one is t'other is now; leastways it seems to me ; only nateral. But as much as he thought ! o' that colt, he used to cuff and kick it in his tantrums; and one day, when I was down to Hitcliner's a-quiltin' that starpattern patchwork for Daisy, I was lookin' out the winder, when Hugh rode up, and he got mad at siitliin, and drew his whip clean across that critter's face tit to take out his eyes, and I told Mrs. Hitchner then that if it was me, I'd sooner see Hanner in her grave thau belong to Hugh M'Lean. But, you see, he was as gentle as a lamb to Daisy, and allers had been since she was a little mite o' a thing, i I 1 i.. i i .i ^ ?.;n anu ue uiseu wj uutiru uuwii iu uic > imi^c to git his winter schoolin'?for you might as well be out o' the world as up on the mountain ir: winter; there's fresh ets there too in sp -ing that shut 'em off, and Hugh was clown here a good part of his time. And lie used to just own little Daisy Hitchuer. It was a pretty sight to see him skating along, drawm' that little apple blossom after him 011 the white biivh sled he made for her. He was handsome enough?there wani't no fault to be found with hia looks, only to my mind handsome is as handsome does, Mrs. Smith. Wa'al, lie put in a claim to Hanner then, j and no boy durst stand in his way. i There was my poor Zekel, he came home with a black eye only for sharpenin' her slate pencil, and Hugh hadn't a knife handy to do it with; but it was allers a word and a blow with Hugh M'Lean, and he held to Daisy right along through thick and thin. "'Why,'he says right up to David Hitchuer, ' do you s'pose I'd staid around f I here if it hadn't been for Daisy? Don't you know I'd 'a been off to the north or the south pole afore this ? It's as hard for me as it is for you, for I hate to settle ilrmni Vipre wnrufl Hmn but T hate worse to leave little Daisy. I can't do it, ami I won't.' " So they let 'em get married, for what else could they do ? And for quite a spell there it did seem as if everything was goin' to turn "out right. Old Mr. Hitchner he made him promise not to take Daisy fur away, and give him the old place by the mill, and furnished it from top to bottom. There must 'a been nigh on to a hundred yards o' curpet in that house. I helped Mrs. Hitchner sew and color many a pound o' them rags myself. And the dimity curtains , was the prettiest things, and that yallcr caliker coverin' for the sofy and cheers , made everything look cheery like. Then , old M'Lean, not to be behindhand, he sot 'em up with no less than thirty cows; good milkers all of 'em ; and I will sjiy ; for Hugh that he could get through with , more work in a day than auv two men I ever saw. Everything went along as , slick as could be, and Daisy went singin' about the house like a medder-lark. , " But the 6ecoud summer after she was , married poor Daisy took it into her head r she'd hev some boarders from town? , she was naturally thrifty, and had plenty o' help, and she felt somehow as if that big house was runnin' to waste. Hugh . lip lot ltr>r lipr own wnv in everv thing then, and was as lmmorsome a1 if j i she was a baby ; and I shall never forget, if I live to be a hundred, the first (lay I laid eyes on Major Jacques, when ' he come down with a lot of other boarlI ers from town. 1 was sittin' at Mrs. Hitchner's front window, and the stage stopped at Daisy's door, and out got that , man ; and if it had been the good Loid's will that he'd been tumbled out somewhere else and broken his leg, so's he I couldn't get away, a deal o' trouble [ might have been saved. " For Hugh M'Lean kind o' scorned [ most city folks that come our way,- and had.a fashion o' srailin' at 'em in a sort , o' contempt. But this Jacques was half [ a Frenchman, and lia<l a deal o' tire in |. him; he'd been all over the world, or 4 pretended he had, and, if you could believe him, had as many lives as a cat to '< lose. And Hugh \I sit there and drink , all that nonsense in by the hour together; . aud, for that matter, so would poor little j Daisy. The major could talk a bird off , a bush, and Hugh got to comin* in and j nuuxu ais wuc imuiuf i-iiuiv ubicuiu iv t some tale o' the major's, her eyes per[ haps full o' silly tears and her cheeks all > pale -with excitement. r, " Soon after that, my Miranily was r teachiu' school and boardin* 'round the [ village, and she went to M'Lean's to i stay, and she told me that Daisy lind stopped goin' in the room when the ma. jor was there, and got out o' his way all sli^ . could, but Hugh was as black as a thunder r! cloud, and Mi randy said that Daisy and t she would both bo glad when the board[ ers all went away .and never came back . again. 1 " But this waa only midsummer, and * r*r\4- l\n<1 +/~v Il'AVOfj O 11 rl nl)D j CS V ?'?v? W "WiO*., *M*V? v/?JV r, night the men were out late in the hay . field, and DaiBy went out in the barn to [ help milk the cows. It was only play to her, she'd bin used to it at home, and I 1 dare say the poor child was so sick and - sod she was glad to be busy. But what . must that jackanapes do bnt follow her ' out there and take the pails from her >' hands to bring them in ! She couldn't get > courage, you *eet to tell him to go about ln's business, but if he'd had an eye in his head, he could see how things was a-goin'. Howsomever, Hugh came in at the big gate, and saw Daisy empty fingered, walkiu' along by the major's side, while he had a pail in either hand ; and as he set 'em down on the stone floor of the wide room, and turned with some pleasant word to Hugh, the pails went flyin' out in the stubble, the milk streamed at his feet, and Miraudy said?for she was standin' by?she never saw such a surprised look in a face before as in Major Jacques. Than he flamed up and got mad, and Hugh got madder, and if it hadn't been for Daisy there might 'a been a murder there. "That night poor Daisy had her wish, for the city boarders were all scuttled away, and not a light was burnin' in the house at nine o'clock ; but my Mirandy she couldn't sleep, find 110 wonder, con| sideriu' what she'd been through, and about midnight she heard the clatter o' hoofs, and just got up in time to see Black Dan fly out the gate with Hugh on his back. Soon after that she heard a low sobbin' sound, and lookin' down, there she saw Daisy in her white gown, dippiu' water out o' the pen-stock and puttin' it to her face, cryin' and sobbin' as if herheart would break. " My Mirandy was just goin' down to her, when she heard the click of the gate, and in walked the major, and up he went to Daisy, straight as an arrer. "And 'Madam,' said he, tremblin' all ; over, and a blaze like liglitnin' in his eye, " I've come to take you from that brute and put you under your father's protec, tion.' | "Oh, you haven't told my father?" said Daisy, holding up her hands. "'No; but I will,' said the major. ' Do you think I can look on and stand nil this ? Curse the scoundrel ! I never had a thought of yon till he put it into my head with his brutality. But now he'll find I care enough about you to shield voti from harm. Come, Mrs. M'Lean, put a shawl about you, and come with me to your father's house, i I'll deal with him when he comes back.' Then, if you'll believe me, that poor child fell to begging the major not to tell her father, and declarin' she'd rather die at Hugh's hands than live away from him. I "'Do you love him so, my poor baby ?' said the major. "'As God is my judge, I love liim better than my own life,' said Daisy. ' I will stay. I am not afraid.' "Then the major turned upon his heel and went out the gate, and Hugh M'Lean was brought home the next day i with a broken spine. He and Black Dan had rolled down a gully together, and they had to shoot the boast to get liim out of his agony; and they do say that but for Major Jacques, Hugh would 'a died there, for the major was the one that found him. He was a g<x>d rider, you see, and could make his way where others would be afraid. And something he said to Hugh made liim gentle as a lamb. All the wav home he held his hand in his, and was with him after the doctor left. Hugh fell into a kind of faint. When he opened his eyes, they fell upon the major; and Mirnndy said that Daisy was 011 the other side 0' the bed. "'So I'm goin' to die,' said Hugh. 'Well, I'm ready.' And then he put Daisy's hand in the major's. ' Take care of her,' he said. "'But you're not goin' to die,' said the major. ' You're to live, the doctor says.' " 'To live !' said Hugh. ' So much the worse. In that caSe, major, get away, for God's sake. I think it's best.' " 'Just as you say, Hugh,' f>aid the major. "'I think it's best,'said Hugh; and the major went away that mornin', and from that day to this nobody has laid eyes on him. "And the judgment of God was sore on Hugh M'Loan. He lay hi that bed t\>r seven long years, and Daisy never left him night or day, save when he'd free her to go, and, if you believe me, that girl never seemed happy out o' his sight; and my Mirandy said it used to make her cry to see the way Hugh M'Lean followed her about with his big fierce eyes, that had plenty o' tire in them vet for evervbodv but Daisv. Miraudv ac tually got to likin' Hngli ; and I never dared say ft word about that night nor the bruise on Daisy's cheek to Mrs. Hitclmer, though I've been that buruin' to sometimes that I've had to jump up and run out o' the room. And uow the old woman's dead and buried this three veal's, and Mr. Hitchner lie went afore she did. Hugh outlived 'em all ; and a I queer thing when lie died : he wanted to be buried by his horse Dan, J and there they lie, up on the mountain together; and Mirandy says that Daisy's sworn to be put on t'other side. It's tit to make shivers creep down one's back, j the hull 'o it. And there she's lived i ever since, all alone in the old house, j save when school is keepin' and Mirandy's there. And yonder may be the major's ghost; but if it ain't, it's Major Jacques himself. Queer, ain't it ?" "Very queer," I said; and just then we drove in at the open gate. The very nost morning, as I was gatli enng grasses a mne or uvo oeiuw, a ?hw a tall straight foi*m approaching me, his eyes upon the ground. I could not step aside, for a ditch was there. So he raised his eyes, and his face lighted up with that rare smile of liis. " God bless your womanly heart !" ho said. "It was a good omen; and the next time I Bee a new moon over my right shoulder, I shall wish for you happiness, with, I hope, the same success that I did last night for my own."?Harp< / '? Weekly. LooKing After their Families. A very searcliing investigation was carried on a few years ago in the north of England by "two families who were searching up their respective ancestry. The strife was great between them, each one determining to look back into antiquities further than the other. One of the families, whose name was Spencer, employed an artist to paint an historic scene, representing the building of the ark nnd the loading up of the Bhip by Noah and his sons with its multifarious and various cargo. On the gangplank leading to the deck of the ark two men were seen rolling up a large box, on one side of which was painted in large letters: "Relics, insignia and papers belonging to the Spencer family." This was considered a cqup d'etat hard to beat, but the other family, determined not to be outdone in the antediluvian pretenses of their name, prepared at a great cost and research a record of their antiquity. In describing the exploits of one of their ancestors, at a very early day, who was represented ns a man of some authority, this remarkable passage oecure : "During this year Adam and . Ere were drivia out of Faradiiti" A Lightning Calculator. A great deal has been said and written 1 about the great mathematical prodigy, I " Reub " Fields, who lives at Fayette- ! ville, Mo., says a local exchange, aud the I j more that is' known of him the greater { wonder he becomes. He does not pos- ; i seas the simple rudiments of a book edu-! j cation?does not know a single letter or j j figure by sight?and yet he can solve the j most intricate probiem in an instant, or can perform a calculation in less than a i ; minute that would require the work of , ! an hour by the ordinary* modes. For in- j j stance : We gave him the day of the j month and the year of our birth and he 1 told, in less than half a minute, our age j j in secomlfj, minutes, days and years. I Give him the day of the month and the I year of any event, however remote, and i j he will instantly give the day of the j ! week. i We spent two hours with him, and, : notwithstanding we have often talked j with him and seen him display his won- j j derful gifts, yet we always find some-! thing new in him. I We placed a column of figures upon a | paper, equal in length to the columns of I : an ordinary sized ledger, and called.them j i off to him in rauid succession, and when I I the Inst number was called lie gave the ! i sum without a moment's hesitation. He | i did not see the paper, and would not i i have known a character on it if he had. j j One hour later he repeated those num- | bers in the exact order in which we called i them to him. We then began at the hot-1 | torn and would call two or three numbers I correctly and then one incorrectly, and | ! he would correct us by giving the proper ! | number. More mysterious than this to us is the Tact of his ability to give correctly the j time of the day or night, whenever called ; upon without any reference whatever to a timepiece. In this place the timepieces are all i ; regulated by railroad or St. Louis time. If you ask " Reub" the time he will say:, J " I am fifteen and a quarter minutes past i one ; if you have railroad time you have j i so and so," giving the exact difference i j between sun time and railroad time. Another remarkable fact is that he crK-ps flip pvn<rf. time of his localitv. If lie is in "Washington city lie giv($ Wash- I ! iiig+on city time, if in San Francisco, the time there. He can not possibly ilo these . j things by any method of calculating the i passing t'*me, for he will give time as ac- i ! curately while waking from sleep nt night as if it were daylight and the snn ! shining. i There seems to be nothing too great in j nnmbers for his mind to grasp, and yet j nothing too small. He can tell what the ; ! interest on one cent wonld be for three ! seconds at the rnte of ten per cent, per annum, as readily and as ensily ns we could tell the interest on one dollar for one | year at the same rate per cent. ' He is indeed the wonder of wonders. | Hot Water for Injuries and Bruises, j The New York Medical Journal re-[ ports this case: The patient was en-! I gaged in a mnchine shop, and while his ! hand was upon the anvil of a trip ham- ' iner, the hammer?weighing seven linn-' dred pounds?fell. It so happened that i a file was on the anvil, and in this way j i the force of the hammer was arrested | about half an inch before it reached its , bed. When the hand van examined.it j : was found tlint the whole palm was a : , mass of pulp. The metocarpcl bones \ ' were comminuted extensively, and there j was apparently but small chance of sav-1 ing the hand. It was, however, placed ! in hot water, and kept there for two or throe weeks, and then taken out and I dressed. In three months the patient was suffi- j ciently well to leave the hospital, and! now?nine mouths after the accident? he is able to move the lingers, and has ; quite a useful hand. Bruises and in- ; 1 juries do much better when treated with ' hot than with cold water. The tempera- j ture should be r.bout 103 degrees F. An-: ; other case is reported of compound; fracture and dislocation of the ankle! joint, iu which the proximal end of the j first metatarsal bone protruded from the foot. The dislocation was reduced and the foot placed in hot water. At the end ; of a week it was taken out and dressed : in the ordinary manner. The foot is I now doing well, and promises a good j result. An Absent Minded Senator. United States Senator Goldthwnite, says an exchange, has long been afflicted with absent mindeduess. He has great difficulty in keeping track of his wearing apparel. He constantly loses his coat or hat. One or two pages are kept running a good deal of the time to supply the gentleman's lack of intellect. If lie goes ! i,;? i,,,f ; tu U1C I1WUW, I1C7 V?H1 umuiitr? u?vauuvi\'(ku there, and be sure to leave one or both of them on a sofa or on some member's desk. He has often had to wait for hours while pages and anesseugers were ; hunting up stray garments. He ever j has the habit of taking other people's coats by mistake, particularly if they happen to hang near his own peg. One | day a senator missed his coat, containing about $3,500 in money. The disap- j pearance was attended by such pecu! bar circumstances that the detectives called at Senator's Goldthwaite's bouse, | j and asked him if he had his ?wu coat. | After searching his clos^ for a time they | 'returned his lost coat, saying: "This does quite look like my coat." The lost money was found safe in the pocket. : This story told was by an officer of the Senate. An Amusing Incident. i A rather amusing incident is told its having occurred recently at a church in | Connecticut not many miles from Fairfield. The clergyman, it would appear, j desired to call the attention of bis congregation to the fact that it being the last Sunday of the month he would administer the rite of baptism to children. Previous to hi having entered the pulpit he had received from one of his elders, who by the way was quite deaf, a notice to the effect that a? tlie children would be present that i\ m. and he had the new Sunday-school books ready for distribution, he would have them there to sell to all who desired them. After the sermon the clergyman began the notice of baptismal service, thus : " All of those having children and-desiring to have them baptized will bring them this afternoon." At this i)oint the deaf elder, hearing the ' mention of children, supposed it was something in reference to his books, and rising, said : " All of those having none, j and desiring them, will be supplied by me for the sum of twenty-five cents." "My son," said X., kindly, to his youthful ho;r, "accustom yoursen w be polite to the porter, the servant girl, j the.coachman, to all the servants; thus you will come in time to be courteous to i all ptopla, ?rsn to your parents." ! A PICTURE OF POVERTY. A Family SulmNtiiiff Two Unyn on a Pint of .Milk. "Want to see ft picture of poverty?" said tlie visiting agent. " No," answered the reporter, " not a picture of it, but the real thing." " Then come up here." It was Mulberry street. Not a stone's toss from Prince. Tenement houses as fllV IICI Toll f>r>1llll ' T)n/>B t.llft "Rpl (lens live up here ?" asked the agent of a crowd of urchins who were sliding down a hill of frozen swill. They ail looked suspicious. Some of them put their tongues in their cheeks. They evidently suspected a sell. So the agent pushed into the grimy hallway and up the dirty dark staircase, followed by the reporter. The steps were wet with the slush that many feet had carried up, and the cinders that had been dropped there crunched under the reporter's boot. The hand rail felt greasy. One, two, tliree, four flights. Each one darker than the other. Finally?with a pain in the knees?at the top. One minute under the dirty sky light to be sure that the name on the card isn't Baldwin or anything but Belden, then a respectful rap in the gloom at the door. A sound of shuffling, a shox*t wait and the door is slowly opened, and n crivl with n uliawl aliniit. Iipr looks lin at the visitors wonderingly. It is the regular patent tenement (len. Ten thousand of them within a few miles ; a narrow carpetless room, with two windows, a water faucet and iron basin, two broken chairs, and an old woman down on her knees trying to kindle with her breath. the three or four pine sticks in the little earthen furnace that is in the fireplace. Three people altogether. This old woman and two children. One of the children is a boy, and stands on a chair at the window. He turns round now, but he has been watching the flock of pigeons that wheel and flit over the roofs. The girl pulls the shawl about her in such a way that the intruder shall not see she is barefooted. She is fourteen at least. There is a regular formula of questions. Yes, she did apply to the chari- ! ties on Third avenue. It was for coal, j She is not the mother. No, she is the grandmother. The mother went away, j "Wentaway" is vague at first. But i iv j. 1 :l ^^i.1 ^ i ine agent is uiuua uuu (ji;uuc, unu pico ently the old woman blurts it all out. j Jenny went up for thirty days. She was ' starved, ill-treated, desperate. So the! authorities said she was disorderly. Then it turns out that when Jenny was committed she thought of the two children in this den without a morsel of food or a splinter of fuel, and she fought the policeman and bit at the keeper, and ! altogether must have been quite unrea- i sonable. That was three days ago. Yes, three ' days ago. " Well, you see she'd always . managed to keep a crust among us, and j when she was taken I didn't know what to do (apologetically), so I went to the : charities. Law, sir, I had no idea thereVI1 be such a crowd there." Then the old; woman stood up and smoothed down her j old gown, and pushed back her white j hair off her pinched, wan face, and tried to say "there were lots worse off than, us, sir," but somehow it was a failure. In her heart she didn't believe that any- j body could be worse off. Necessity is ! somehow allied to candor at bottom, and want, evtru wnuu yiiuc puiuijiico ico tongue, has a must miraculous organ. 1 " You flee, John and me?John's the lad at the winder?we was a sayin' only j (this morn in' that we ought to be thank- i ful that we had a place to put out heads . in this bad weather. Hie father was took with the fpver last spring. It's been pretty rough for the babbies since. Did you come from the charities ?" " How are you going to support your-} selves ?" asked the blunt agent. There was a look of supreme bewilder- ; ment in the grandmother's countenance. i She had been all her life putting the 1 best face on matters. She couldn't, quite get over it now, even in this ex- . tremitv. She thought they could keep along if?if the coal came. Her poor 1 old blue hands betrayed how she had i suffered from the cold. ' You could get along if you had coal. ; Have you got plenty to eat ?" The old woman stroked her dress. ; The two children came and buttressed her on either side, as if their instincts , made them afraid of her weaknoss. " Well, no, sir. As for plenty, sir, it's a long time since we've heard of it." j Then she looked up in a dazed wav and ' ' ' ! - - * P Al - - .1 1 S J. on mro luiuriiY, uh 11 iu? ma wunuer in the mystery of her lot had come over her afresli. The girl had 110 audi wonder. All at, once she broke out. " She's not had a mouthful for two days, sir. Upon my ; sacred honor. She's starving now." At that the three of them fell to cry-: ing, and between the sobs and such exclamations the girl told hev story. The last meal was a pint of milk. The old , woman had pawned her shoes for ten cents and came back in her stocking feet. The girl had guessed it. She pulled away the old gown as she told it. j "You can see for yourself, sir," she . said, as she pointed to the woollen stock-, ings. " We drank it every drop before wo knew it." " It's God's truth, my dear," added the grandmother. "That was day before yesterday," said the agent, sensible that this was a . genuine case. " Well, what did you do yesterday ?" The girl went over to the iron water basin and lifted out a pan. In it wero ! nun a aozt n crusts, imrci anuiurty. one was goin' to soften 'em with water, but she couldn't git the fire to burn." "No, I should think not," remarked he agent, leaning over and pulling out , the fuel that was slightly charred by a ' piece of burnt paper. There were two splinters of a cigar box and the rung of a chair. It was very absurd. " And these," he went on, slinking up the crusts and lifting his nose and eyebrows. " These canie from "? " She brought 'em in her pocket." "A poor man's dog wouldn't eat them," said the reporter to himself. "We're all hungry," remarked the boy. " I can't go out because I aiu't got no coat." i "That's a fact. It's God's truth,", added the grandmother, with resignation. After which she sat dowu on the range and began to draw her dress across her wrinkled face with curious imbeeilifcv. The reporter took a good look at the children. A pair of healthy, clean, intelligent babies, that hadn't ealon anything for two days. It was pretty hard . to be'ieve it; because the reporter per ' sisto 1, with the infernal self-conscious nonsense of his tribe, in fancying that he was in New York city, and thnt those j were the flag.stnfls 011 Broadway that he saw from the window, and that food wns bo plentiful over ther? that it was ww*t^J by the tea. ! When they were coming out the ngent j turned hack and said: "Well, it's irreg- j nlarj but you haven't got any shoes. I'll | send it up." It went up in a banket. 1 "To-morrow," said the agenf, "I'll, send a lady there, who'll do the right j ; thing." The reporter understood by that re- j [ mark that the right thing was the immediate thing.?Xcw Yorl; World. 1 I | J The Insane. ! ' In a lengthy article on lunatic asylums ! : aud their inmates the New York World j ! says: In New York State, and in most others, i | the certificate of two physicians is sufii-1 j cieut warrant for imprisonment in an ; insane asylum. It is not too much to ; ; say that in at least nine cases out of ten , : such a certificate can be got by any vil I lainous husband, by any scheming wife, : ny any nungry neir, or oy any secret i ] enemy. It is not necessary even to snp ' pose ft corrupt or a grossly ignorant! physician. Physicians got at their (ling- j nosis in bodily ailments from the symp- . : toms as described by the patient. In i mental ailments they must take their i | symptoms from the description of those j ; whom they suppose to be the patient's j j friends. It takes an extraordinary physi- [ ; cian to find ont from a hurried exaruina- j ; tion of a casual patient that the patient's | j friends have been stuffing him with lies, i j Tlie ordinary physician makes out the j ! certificate of what he has been told. In ; ! nine cases out of ten this works well, ! perhaps in ninety-nine cases out of a: ! hundred, for the reason that ninety-nine j 1 people out of a hundred are not hated or ! feared by their kindred and acquaint-; ' ance. But it is the hundredth case that I j is pitiable, in which there is no easy es- i : cape from a life of misery, and no ade-1 ; quate redresB for it. A person accused i 1 of crime is tried by a jury, with counsel, j | A person accused of misfortune, of i which the penalties are quite as serious, : , is tried only by two doctors, who get all ' j the facts from the prosecution. In the [ I hundredth case, where the man is said , | to be insane is sane, it is plain that this ! is an outrageous cruelty. And there is, j 1 as we say, no adequate redress for it. ; The doctors who certify the insanity are j not answerable, if their certificates are j given in good faith. The plotter him- ; self is not liable criminally, unless his ! Dad motive can ue snown; anci 11 is very i ? Law and Equity. In 1870 Charles Fox, of New York, j died, leaviug about fifty thousand dollars i in real estate and ten thousand in per-; sonal property. His will was found to j give the wholo, after payment of his I debts, to the government of the United States for the purpose of assisting to pay j the war debt. The deceased left 110 i Children; but a niece and two nephews, < infanls, his brother's children mid his j next of kin, contested the singular will, j The heirs were living in comparative j poverty in Brooklyn. The surrogate de- | cided the will invalid and void as a de- j viso of real estate. The United States ! appealed first to the supreme court and ! next to the court of appeals, and the surrogate's decision was unanimously bus- , tained in liotli courts. By writ of error the cause was then removed to the su- 1 preme court of the United States for review, and was argued at Washington, the decision being reserved. Meanwhile, } the personal property has been swallowed . up and neither the United States gov- i eniment nor the heirs have received a ti,n ??"ii +i,of UUX1U1, XUC ^5cril^x41X U^IIUWM nm tuuu the man who could ho dispose of his ! property and leave three infant children, his near relatives, in poverty, could not have been of thoroughly sound mind. ; At all events it fleems like a very small business for the United States authori- j ties to carry the case beyond the court of appeals of the State of New York, j and it is to be hoped the State decisions i will be sustained by the United States j supreme court. If it should not be, 1 Congress should at once pass an act re- i storing the property to the infant heirs j before it is all swallowed tip by the legal , advisers of the general government.? New York Herald ( An Old Story Retold. A woman, accompanied bv three of her children, were one day in a sledge on the steppes of Russia when they were attacked by wolves. On this she put the 1\/-n*or? o r*oll/vr* oil/I <lrnvd fnwflivl lior 1 homo with nil possible speed. It would | not avail, however, for the ferocious ani-! mills gained upon iier, and at last were on the point of rushing into the sledgo. For the preservation of her own life and those of her other children the poor fr.au tic creature took one of her babes and threw it to the bloodthirsty pursuers. They stopped their course for a j moment, but after devouring the little innocent, they renewed the pursuit, and a second time came up with the vehicle. The mother, driven to desperation, resorted to the same terrible expedient, and threw her furious assailant another of her offspring. To cut short the melancholy story, her third child was sacrificed in a similar manner. Soon after this the wretched being, whose feelings it would be impossible to describe, j reached her home in safety. Here she related what had happened, and tried to palliate her own conduct by describing the dreadful alternative to which she had been reduced. A peasant, however, who was among the bystanders and heard the recital, took up an ax, and with one blow split her head in two, saying at the same time that a mother who could thus sacrifice her children for the preservation of her own life was no longer fit to live. The man was committed to prison, bnt the emperor subsequently gave him a pardon. TJic Composition or me Nun. If we could approach the sun at the moon's distance from the earth, says Professor Young, apparent jet? of fiame would reach us. Could we reach its apparent surface, we would hud it composed of clouds of tine particles or globules of molten metal, tossing and heaving, rising and falling. Thousands of llawhes of lightning or of peals of thunder would be as nothing to the light and noise. But the nearer the center should be approached, the more quiet all would become, and we would discover that the main body of the sun was composed of molten metal in a sort of gaseous state, which, bursting out here and there into eccentric action, produces the strange appearances we so often observe. It is estimated that the sun is contracting at the rate of 125 feet per yeiir. At tins rate, after the lapse of a few million years, it would be no longer a sun. But God lias made some law to regulate this as well as all the other heavenly bodies. Whnt it is, uo man can sav. We can follow God a little way in His worka, but after all it is only a little wayj The Bee that Saved a Kingdom. ; Here is a fable that has never been told in print, though it is very popular in the Bee country : Once upon a time, there was a bail king, and the people wished him to make a certain good law. "No," said he, "I will not make that law?it is too good. It will make peace. Here is the law I wish to rhake. Then all my peo-' pie will go to war." The two documents lay in front of him on the table all written out, and which ever one he signed would be the law of the land. He took up a big quill pen, drew the bad law nearer to him, and dipped the pen in the ink. Just then a bee began to buzz. It was a wise bee. " Z-z-z-zz ! No zuch zlaw zliall pazz !" buzzed the bee, over and over again ; but no one noticed him. "Zign ze 1 ozzer?ze ozzer?ze ozzer !" The king would not listen ; so the wise ' bee lit on his nose and stung him just a I little, still buzzing : " Zign ze ozzer? ; fr\cm rrn 7P nv.Tflr "ZP A'/7PV ozzev!" " Open the window," roared the king, i " and drive out this bee, or kill him !" They opened the window. Out flew j the bee, and in rushed the wind. It blew in very hard. The papers flapped j and flew across the table. The bad king was so mad that he stamped his : foot, seized one of the papers, and i signed it in a rage. There wus his name ?" King Blunderbuss "?and nothing > could alter it. Then he saw that in his j haste and rage he had signed the good law. But he was too proud to own his mistake. The bee hurried to the garden and whispered to the honeysuckles : "Zome of your bezt?zome of your bezt! The good law is zinged, and all zhall be peaze and happinezz!" So the honeysuckles gave him all their . best honey, and the people outside of the king's palace built great bonfires and shouted with joy: "Long live the king ! Long live the \ good king Blunderbuss!" " Oho!" said the king to himself, I "that is the best sound I have heard for many a year." And after that, he was afraid to give i way to anger, for fear that he might sign a bad law, by mistake. The bee ' did not have to light on hia nose again. . The king made only good laws, and to : the end of his days his people shouted :! " Loner live the king!"?" ./ack-in-thc Pulpit," St. Nicholas for Feb. * Mr. Chittenden's Funding Bill. i Mr. Chittenden's bill on the currency, ! before the United States House, is en- ' titled " A bill for paying the legal tender debt in harmony with justice and the re-! peatedly pledged faith of the government ] of the United States." A preamble re-! fers to the fact that the legal tenders were originally fundable into six per cent. I bonds, and would not have been issued , except on that consideration ; recites that | the amount of paper money now in cir-; culation is in excess of the demands of ! trade ; that it is now apparently practi- j cablc to fund the notes into forty-year j four per cent, bonds, and that the United States must like all other debtors pro- j vid-? for its honest obligations or he dis-, credited. The bill itself is as follows : Be it enacted by the Senate and House j of Representatives of the United States j of America, in Congress assembled, That j the secretary of the treasury be and is , hereby authorized to "w ithdraw, a? soon I as the necessary preparations can be i made, the legal tender notes of the j United States, whenever presented by the holders thereof, and issue therefor, , tlollar for dollar of face value, coupon or registered bonds oi the United States in j flu* crn'rif. nf fliA i?rifrillfli T.Pirnl tf>Tldf>V 1 "r*"" ?- n n? . act; Provided, That the bonds authorized i by this act shall be payable in gold at, the expirtion of forty years from tlie first I day of January, 1877, and bear interest' at the rate of four per cent, per annum, : payable quarterly in gold. Sec. 2. That the bonds authorized by ; this net shall bo available for deposit in the treasury of the United States for 1 banking purposes under the various pro-1 visions of law relating to national barks. : Sec. 3. That the legal tender notes re-, ceived in exchange for bonds under this : act shall be destroyed, under such regit-. lations as tlie secretary of the treasury may prescribe. Sec. 4. That all laws inconsistent with this act are hereby repealed. ? ' A Western Lynching Case. Phil. Ames, living in Iowa on the Platte, had a wife and a five-year-old, but loved his sister-in-law. The little girl died suddenly ; there was a rude country funeral in a bitter cold wind under leafless trees, and the heartbroken mother went back to her cheerless home j crushed and despairing. Her husband j had no words for her, but consoled his sister-in-law. The neglected wife opened j her heart to a village gossip, and a vigi- j lance committee visited the house at mid-1 ? 2?1.1. 1... ,1 1 infill, Ulltg?CU win iiuuutoo uhquuuvi I from liis bed, and would have huug him j to n tree if his wife lmd not pleaded for ! bin life. They took the rope from liis J neck and set him free. After the neigh-1 born had departed he took a heavy curb ; bridle from the biuii and going up stairs! struck the poor woman as she was kneel ing at prayer with a photograph of her : child in her hand. He dragged her to the head of the ".tairs, threw her down, and : used the bridle until she was deiul. Her i sister now appeared on the scene ; two horses were saddled, the sister-in-law was put 011 one aud the corpse 011 the other; he led the ghastly cavalcade to the river, where he cut a hole in the ice and dumped the body. A villager espied , him at his work and bore the tidiugs to the settlement. Armed men started in pursuit and came up with the murderer and his companion just as they were mounting their horses at the bridge. Shots were exchanged ; the woman fell dead; the murderer's horse was shot uowu ; ii rope wus uiuu^in ivi nmu, mm the confession was wrung from him that liis little daughter had been poisoned by her aunt. He was hanged without delay, and his body was burned. Such is lil'e in the breezy West. 3Iade Happy. "Oh, mammn, if I only could have one of those new style of dresses male to button down the ba-jk from the ueek to the heels." " Well, my daughter, yon can." "What! lean?" " Yes, dear." " Button (ileal- down ?" " Cortaiuly, my darling.' " With smoke pearl buttons V" "Yes, pet." " And galoon trimmings f" " YeB, dearest." " Oh, mamma!" The; bug. What Will Happen. The Nottingham (England) country folk have two sayings relating to the appearance of severe weather: If there's ice in November that will bear a duck, There'll be nothing after but slush and muck. If the ice bear a man before Christmas it will not bear a mouse after. There is a proverb of a similar character attached to Hallowe'en, Nov. 1, N. S., or the evening before All Saint's day : If ducks do slide at Hollaudtide, At Cluistmas they will swim ; If ducks do swim at Hollandtide. At Christmas they will slide. T4 nmo aP Tn fnt'AO f lwim vi xuiui^ii Turkey Las five hundred thousaud meu under arms. Dairymen are. getting richer than anybody else in Wisconsin. "What would you do, madam, if vou were a gentleman ?" " Sir, what would you do if you were one ?" The man with an ulster, a pair of boots and a shirt collar can wear other clothes, but they are not absolutely nee eBsary. The present is the youngest legislature ever assembled in Georgia, there being six members under tweuty-six years of age. Every young man needs to learn how to drive a horse with one hand. If he can't do this, he might as well give up sleighriding with the girls. An eccentric Englishman, some time ago, left his daughters by will their weight in one pound bank notes. The eldest received ??.>6,000, the yonngest $280,720. A paper thinks that when a Republic*? woman refuses to use a Democratic jou* unl for a curl paper, it is time for tbtf country to pause iu its mad career o# political discussion. . The Minnesota farmers hare taken hold of the business of planting trees in earnest. Over ten millions cf cuttings were set out during the past year, most of which are doing well. A sign in a neighboring city reads : " Hickre nuts for sails." An intelligent old gentleman says he doesn't see any joke in it, except that the fellow has spelt "nuts " with one t. A female preacher is said to be writing a " Commentary on the Life of Joshna." It is reported that ehe will observe that Joshua was successful with the sun, but he never commanded the daughter to be still. " Eternity, past and future flashed before my eyes," he said, "and I saw where the crack of doom began and ended." This was his experience the first time a base ball struck him in the stomach. An Alabama paper says the well-to-do privates of the late war taie great comfort in seeing fiery generals, colonels and majors of other days now selling peanuts, drawing beer or in other ways making a humble living. Horace Greeley said that of the thousands he lent the* most he ever received back was a five dollar note inclosed in a letter, and upon tracing out the writer of the letter he found it came from a lunatic in the Utica asylum who never owed him a cent. ilmm (fn-m +1irt eplinr?lrrw?m TfMtrllPr! " Now, who was the oldest man mentioned in tneScriptures?" Young scholar: "I d'unno. Who was the cove ?" Teacher: "Why, Methuseluh; he wao over uine hundred years old." Scholar: "Golly, what a lot* of centennial shows lit must have seen!" Thanks and a thousand of them to that unknown genius who intrusted a trunk, with a hive of bees in it, to the tender mercies of u Syracuse baggaga master, the other day. The company will pay for the bees, and the doctor thinks his patient will be around again .in a fortnight or so. "That story is salty," said Brown's eldost son, as Brown rend the latest news on the Eastern question at the breakfast table the other morning. "How so, my son?" inquired Brown, "if fvime hv ruble." "Well, hasn't it passed through the ocean's brine ?" answered the hopeful. Brown loft at onco for his office down town. It is said of the Rev. Phillips Brooks, one of the most popular Episcopal clergymen of Boston, that on one Christmas day he received twenty-six pairs of slippers, and that he is the one of whom it is said he has two barrels in his studio, aud when ladies bring him th?ir offerings of slippers, he says : " Lefts in that barrel, madam ; rights in this." A man named John G. Dawes left Kern River, Cal., recently with 2,000 sheep for the north. While crossing tho alkali lauds lands near Tulare lake ho camped for the night, 'and in the morning when he awoke he saw his sheep all lying down but one, and on examination found that there was but that one alive. They had all quietly died in the night. A Connecticut beau sent a telegram to his girl, who was in New York, wishing her a "Merry Christmas," but omitted to pay the charge. It cost her twentylive cents to find that she was remembered, and in her gratitude she expressed him a package containing several coal chunks, which cost him fifty-live cents to get. He is carrying his confectionery to a new place now. The evidence is accumulating that the Ashtabula horror was caused by train wreckers i'or plunder. Tho body of one man was certainly robbed of ?7,000 in money, and other bodies were despoiled of watches and jewelry. One wounded man, in climbing the bank, was knocked senseless by two ruffians, who robbed him of watch and money. Other similar eases are reported by survivors. An advocate went to visit his client, who was in prison, waiting to be tried on a charge of robbery. The prisoner, in describing his case and protesting his entire innocence, was overcome with emotion, and wept piteously. At the end of the interview, as the advocate-was leav in# the cell, lie turned round and, holding the bundle of the door, remarked, naively, to the prisoner: "Above nil, don't forget to cry like that when you appear before the jury." The li'.iv. Murk Tralton says that the roa.si'U of the falling oft' in Methodism is the abandonment of circuit riding. He exclaims : "Israel was mined because she would be like the people of the land. Methodism is weakened by the same cause. Other orders have a stated ministry; we must have one. Other churches have pews to sell or rent; we must have them. Other ministers read sermons; oiiis must do likewise. Come! oh, ye chief shepherds in your wisdom, put the work into the circuit form again, and bring back tlw glory, power aaa BUOOfM of foratr days.