University of South Carolina Libraries
THE OLD STORY. You may call it flirtation, or what not, But I don't see that I was to blame. How could I know that you loved me, When you never once mentioned the same? Pre walked in the starlight with many, And have risked my life on the bay, Y?t among them I've never found any But had something decided to say. You thought that your silence had told me? The silence that's golden we've heard; But the girl of to-day prefers silver, Coined into words sweet and absurd; There are lovers whom tneres no miscaKiug, Whose language leaves no one in doubt; There are others who leave one's heart aching For a word there's no living without. But since the sweet year has grown older, And you've failed as a special pleader, Bhall I be left out in the cold, sir, Because I was not a mind reader? You blame me, I think, without reason; If you really had something to say. What matters the time or tha season} Why can't we be happy?to-day? ?Harper's Monthly. SOME NOTED DUELS. The recent duel between General Boulanger and President Floquet calls to mind many similar incidents where insults have been avenged on the field of honor. The French have from early times been the most zealous promoters of the code. In fact, Francis I. declared that any Frenchman who would be called a liar and then not tight, was a base-born churl, a precept that President Floquet appears to have not only borue in mind, but carried out to the letter. Duels were not known to the Greeks and Romans, but originated in the middle ages, when devotion to women, chivalry and knight-errantry were the customs of the times. In the middle ?ges, when there was scarceiy a vestige left of the glories of art, science and ? - ' -A ~ - ?-? ?? 1 I am in puilie ui'i'Um jniMiuiCLi to, ?ucu iu?;n scattered ruins and tbe traditions of them alone remained, then the duel was born. Swarms of barbariaus overran the great empires, and the right of the sword -.vas the only one recogni. ed. The deity was supposed to be propitiated by deeds of blood. Tribes and individuals avenged the wrongs offered to them, and the ordeal was considered as the only way to settle a dispute or difference of ny kind. In the sixteenth century duels, like the age, were bloodthirsty and ferocious. Everybody wore a sword, and fought at the d;op of a hat. J ives were a romance of war. love and conspiracies. The dueling blade was heavy, flat, straight, double-edged, pointed, and aboui three feet in length. The combatants handled it with one hand or two. Cut and thrust were equally permissible, but the thrust was made at the /n/./i Ansl WA! > f V*/* KfAO o f I 1 j?v,? ouu uut aL iu^/ wi taoi. t General Boulnnger called Floquet a liar,and they fought. This was a serious charge with serious results, but men have often fought for the most trivial of causes. There is a story of an Irishman who called a man out for doubting that he had seeu anchovies grow on trees, and when his opponent lay wounded on the. ground repentantly owned that it was capers, not anchovies, that he meant. One of Louis XYIlI.'s body-guard fought threo times in one day, first with a gentleman who had given offense by looking cross at him; second, with a tranger who looked hard at him, and third with a man who passed by and didn*t look at him at all. PRESIDENT LINCOLN was once challenged by General Shields to fight a duel on account of a letter written in a newspaper reflecting on the Geueral, which Lincoln claimed to have written so as to save the real author from the consequences. The latter having the cnoice ox weapons seecteu to ngut with the broadsword, uot that he was skilled in its use, but having such a tremendous length of arm, combined with great muscular power, that he calculated upon being able to chop his adversary's head off before he could give him a scientific thrust. Lincoln was the first on the field, and when Shields arrived was hard mt work with a hatchet cleaning away the bushes. It was decidcd to sink a plank perpendicularly in the ground, leaving lour feet of it protruding from the earth. The combatants to fight up to, but.not beyond it. Shields examined the swords, then looked doubtingly at Lincoln's arm. Colonel Hardin, Lincoln's second, saw the look, aod urged the combatants not to make fools of themselves, and, like wise men, they concluded they wou'd not, and played a game of "old sledge" to decide who should pay the expenses of the trip, a | pleasure that fell to Shields. QCEEIt WEAPONS'. There have been many queer weapons selected by duelists. A Missouri backwoodsman insisted on a combat with 1 raw hidc3, limiting the time to half an ! hour's duration. An old whaling cap- ; tain said he would fight with harpoons : or not at all, a proposition that his op- j ponent declined. A French ournalist. ; more fond of fun than fight, accepted a challenge, saying: "Of cou:se I claim the choice of weapon. You want to kill me. I will do my best io kill you. Good. I have in my house twenty loaves of siege bread, which I have kept for j ouvenirs. We will sit down and eat against each other. One of us is sure to j die." The challenger, who knew what! iege-bread was, declined to run the risk, t General Isaac Putnam, of revolutionary ! fame, was challenged lo fight a duel by a young officer, and proposed that each should sit on a powder ke^ with a lighted fuse in the bung. As he would hear of no other terms, the general had his way. At the appointed time the beligerents took thir seats astride tho kegs, nd the fuse was lighted. The veteran watched the progress of the burning j fuse with unmoved couutenance. but his 1 opponent was not so cool. He took intense interest in the fast-lessening match, and when it got su?ge tively near the bung-hole, deeming discretion the better part of valor, he jumped off and ran for the woods, when old General Putnam yelled out: "Hold on, man, it's only onion seed 1" ^ WhcD Egau and Curran met to de-ide * .V their quarrel with the pistol's aid, the 5 former complained that he nvght as well j tire at a razor'* edge a3 his adversary's | tnm Doay, wiiue ne o ierea as fair a mark i as a turfstack; whereupon his leady-i iritted foe declared that he had no d"e- \ fc lire to take an undue advantage,and was i willing to let his size be chalked out on Mr. Egan's side, and agree that every I shot outside the mark should go for nothing. XOTED AMEIUCAN DUE'.*. The four most noted fatal duels ever fought in the United States were those between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr at Weehawken, X. .T., July 11, 1804; Stephen Decatur and James Barron at Bladensburg. Aid., March 22, 1820; Jonathau C'illey and William I. Graves, near the boundary line of Maryland and the District of Columbia, February 24, 1830, and Hon. David Broderick and Judge David S. Terry, near the Laguna de la Merced, about twelve miles from San Francisco, September 13, 1859. All of the challenged parties in those duels were mortally wounded or killed. None of the others were injured except Barron, who, though dangerously wounded, survived. The weapons used in three of these duels were pistols, while Messrs Cilley and Graves fought with rifics. Hamilton was a General in the army, and Burr was Vice-President of the United States. Decatur and Barron were Post Captains in the navy. Cilley and Giaves were members of Congress from Maine and Kentucky. Broderick was United States Senator from California, and Terry ex-Chief Justice of *V.? CnnrnmD f'rmrfr nf flip samfi Stfltfi. Wli cur.vu..v. MAYNE REID's DUEL. Captain Mayne Reid, the well known novelist and boy story writer, once fought a duel. During the Mexican war, after the army had entered the city of Mexico, the young officers had little to do except shine their boots, dress well and call upon the senoritas. Among the Kentucky troops was Mayne Reid. One day he was shining his boots, and at the same time repeating the lines: ' At midnight in his guarded tent The Turk lay dreaming of the hour "When Groece, her knee in suppliance bent, Should tremble at his.power.'' When Ed. C. Marshall, afterward Attorney-CJeueral for California, put in with "Urease her knee, Reid?'' "Now, why did she grease her knee?'' "That's the question that agitates the whole contineut." Reid looked at him with a glance of withering contempt, and made the laconic remark: "You are a fool." A duel followed, and Marshall lost a finger and got the worst of it all around. PKEACHElts' DUELS. i It may seem strange that men of the cloth would fight duels, but so late as 1791) Rev. Henry Bate, an Episcopal clergyman, had fought and killed three 1 men in duels lie died in 1821, holding .< a high position in Ely Cathedral, England. He was a dead shot, but was < winged at last by Captain Stoney Robin- J son. who was dangerously wounded by < the unclerical parson, a lady having < been the cause of ihe trouble. < In 1782 an Episcopal minister, named Rev. Bennett Allen, challenged aud killed a Marylander named Lloyd Delany. The duel took place at Hyde Park, London, shortly before midnight, < and -was fought with pistols at eight i paces. Delany fell to the ground, rose \ like a flash, and tottering backward, fell : into the arms of his second mortally 11 wounded. The difficulty w:is caused by i the publication of anonymous articles in 1 a London paper reflecting upon Delany j and other American loyalists, and a subsequent publication where the writer was called a scoundrel and coward. The 1 most interesting Christian fighter, how- ' ever, was !!ev. Dr. Bla kburn, who, in the early part of his life, was a hue- > caneer in the West Indies. During one of their cruises tho First Lieutenant i had a difficulty with the parson, and said that if it was not "or his grown he would treat him in a different man- ! ner. "Oh," said the parsoa," and stripping off the garment, added: "-.Vow I am your man." At this it was agreed . that they should fight on a small island whe:e the ship lay, and th;it the one who 1 fell shou'd be rolled into the sea by the 1 survivor, so that it might seem that 1 while he was walking on.the clitf he hud 1 stumbled and fallen in. The lieutenant 1 fell, to all appearances, as if shot. Blackburn at once rolled the prostrate ' man down the eliff, but just as he reached ' the last shelf of the declivity the lieu- 1 tenant recovered su liciently to cry out: 1 "For God sake, Blackburn, hold out vourhand!" I' "Aha!" said Blackburn, "you called : 1 just in time, for in another raomont you 1 wou'd have been in the sea." "WOMEN* DUELISTS. As a general thing, women have been as opposed to dueling as preachers; yet still there are some noteworthy excep- 5 tions. Lola Montez was handy with the < pistol and rapier. Once she challenged j' a journalist of Iron Valley, Cal., to meet ? her with pistols according to prevailing j rules, and upon his refusal t,o do so threatened him with a cowhide on a' public street. In 1S4'> she was a witness 1 ( in ihe trial of M. Bonvalon for killing 1 ? M. Dujarier, at Paris, and in her testi- j i mony swore: "I was a better shot than Dujarier, and if Bonvalon only wanted I < sati-faction, I would have fought him ( myself." Dujarier was the friend of j Lola Montez, and in his will, written a j few days before his death, he bequeathed ( the afterwards Countess of Lansfeldt : 100,0 )0f, or $-20,000.. ] A Buffalo (N. Y.) paper of August, ' ' 18">3, gives an account of the arrest of , Catherine Hurley and Ion Hall, who had ! j met on the toll bridge, on Ohio street, in j i the presence of a vast assemblage, to j i fight a duel with Allen revolvers. ! 1 i ady de Xesle and the Countess de , j Polignac once fought aduel in the <-'ar- 1 dens of VerugUag, France. The ladies < had engaged"in a most disgraceful <]uar- ; j reltwo evenings before at a grand fete, j over which the Duke de Hir-helieu pre- ] sided. I.adv de Nesle lost all control of ] herself, aud, springing like a tigress upon her lival, attempted to take her t diamond necklace from her. Failing in < this, she s-natclied the ro.;e* from her ] bosom and flung them in the lace of her < rival. The Countess of l'olignac now ( took a hand in the fray and attacked < Lady de Nesle. Hair, diamonds and < jewels were strewn upon the floor, and '' the enraged ama ons were finally sepa- i rated bv Marouis de Malbuisson and i Mile. Nathalie de Condaccnt. Out of i i the quarrel grew the dnel, the Countes3 1 of Polignac being the challenging party, t The ladies met at 0 o'clock in July, 1721, j < und fired one shot at each other without { elTect. The seconds rushed in to prevent, ] further hostilities, but the fair demons I would not have it, but. calling for fresh j pistols, blazed away, this time with sat-' j lsfactoiy effect, for the marchioness fell 1 ( dangerously wounded by a bullet in the left side, while the countess was just ' touched by a bullet in the left ear. A duel took place in Paris, January j :!1, IT7?, between Mile, de Gu gnes and j Mile, d' Aguillon, two ladies of "quality, | , who had quanelcd about precedency at 11 a soiree, and retired to a garden adja- . cent to the scene of the disturbance and I ( fought with knives until both were i , j ^ J 4.1. ~ r : _ xi . J Ai _ ! J wouuueu, me iwinier in me arm anu tne ] latter in the neck. It is st'd Mile. Moussin, the French j prima donna, after killing three men in ! \ the woods near Paris by swords, quar- ; i reled with htr fencing master, Serone, .. and killing him, fled to Brussels. GENERAL JACKSON'S DUEL. General Jackson's marriage was the j cause of a good deal of trouble, both to himself and the country. His wife was ; the cause of both his duels with Gover- ; nor Sevier in 1S03, and the cause of his | duel with Charles Dickinson afterward. Dickinson was a lawyer and trader, a patron of the turf, who ran horses and bet his money on them. He was bright , enterprising and popular, and reported to be the best pistol shot in Tennessee. He bad for some reason conceived a dislike to General Jnekson, and when drink- < ing made remarks about him. The Gene ral know this, but the difference in their ages?Dickinson was only 25, while Jackson was nearly 40?forbade him giving it any attention until the former spoke disparagingly of Mrs. Jackson. When informed of this the General called upon him and demanded an apology. He denied having said anything; said he must have been in his cups, and apologized. The matter there dropped. Afterward trouble arose about a horse race, in which cne of Jackson's horses ran. and a correspondence ensued in which General | Jackson called Dickinson a coward and a poltroon. A challenge was sent, and Mav 30th, 180G, the parties met at Har rison's mills, in Logan ConDty, Kentucky, pistols the weapons, distance twentyfour feet. At the word, given by General Overton, Dickinson fired instantly. A puff of dust flew from the breast ol Jackson's coat, just where Dickinson i boasted he would hit him. The muscles of | his face contracted. He placcd his left arm firmly across his breast, steadied himself, and took deliberate aim. Dickinson, astounded at his failure, stepped back from the peg, when Overton called to him to resume his position, which he did, presenting his side to his adversary, and averting his eyes. .Tacksou pulled the trigger of his pistol; it stopped at half-cock. He cooly recocked it, carefully aimed, and fired. Dickinsou reeled and fell. The ball had struck him just ab:>ve the right hip and passed clear through his body. When assured by his surgeon that the wound was mortal he insisted on another fire. "General Jackson must go with me," he said excitedly. He was carried to a neighboring house, where he died at four o'clock " 4 ? ? ? 2 * - cnff/iri nnr LilC ue.\t Illuming 111 gtoav ouuvu..b. Jackson and his friends remounted their horses and rode to the tavern. When Jackson took off his clothes it was discovered that he was wounded, having two ribs broken. Though Jackson livca to be seventy-eight years of age, Dickinson's bullet gave him considerable trouble, causing frequent hemorrhages of the lungs. The press of the country was especially severe upon General Jackson, and one editor put his paper in mourning. From his sick-bed .laokson iefeuded his conduct, and the matter jontinued to be the source of newspaper ;omment for over a year.?Cincinnati Enquirer. > Historical Toasts. How the word toast should be used at the same time to name a plate of food and the drinking to the health or welfare of a purson, is not without curious ' A ?- ?? - J 1 1 interest. vv e ueou gu uuun. uuij auuuu | two hundred years to find the use of tea | and coffee almost unknown in England and the colonies. Our ancestors of good substantial estate were accustomed to drink toasts at their meals as a regular beverage. Slice3 of bread or the crusts of the .family loaf were toasted at the lire until they were quite brown, and were then put into boiling water. This made a drink that was relished even without sugar. Rye used to be roasted in the kernel for this purpose, and it was sold as "domestic coffee" at New England groceries not more than seventyfive years ago. There are a good many traditions of wit and humor connected with the old practice of drinking toasts, just as tea-driuking has its connection with soc-ial life. Some of these stories ire historical, and occasionally one is met with good enough to deserve to be perpetuated. About two hundred years igo the Karl of Stair was ambassador from England to the Dutch court at the rT- LT^ 4-U/v p/irvntofmn nf aa^uc? iiu ivcpu up tug iv/^uwuvtwu v? tiis country for hospitality. The ambassadors from other governments did the same. On one occasion, he was dining it the table of the French ambassador, when the host gave as the toast: "The rising sun, my master," alluding to the ievice and motto of Louis. The Austrian ambassador then gave : "The moon," in compliment to his empress. The turn then came to the Earl of Stair, who proved himself equal to the occasion. His toast was to "Joshua, the son of Nun, who made the sun and moon stand still.** There was no need of formal reference to his master, King William, rhe political situation was exactly ihown..?Anjonaut. Gossip With an Optician. "You wish to know whother all my sustoinera are really near-sighted?" said in optician to a New York Telegram reporter. "Or course they are! Withthe Exception of dudes, who consider an eye jiass as essential 10 meirgi-uerui appear- i ince as clothes, few wear glasses who ire not absolutely in need of them." "Yet more men and women wear glasses now than in former years?" "Quite true, for Americans have earned to use their eyes with di6Cietion. rakiug into consideration cur increase 3f population, the proportion of nearsighted persons is not greater than twenty or thirty years ai;o. Formerly, svhen children complained that it hurt iheir eyes to read and study, well-meaning but inexperienced motheis either believed that they were trying to avoid joiog to school, or supposed that they biad caught cold, and immediately adninistered a poultice or gave them nedicine. They forgot, no doubt, that nyopy is hereditaiv. "Xcai-sighted eyes arc elongated; as arno floffan onH tllO I ?IIU Y JJIUrt UlUCl lav^ tj wo uaiic\,u right becomes sti anger, if pnper carc las been takeu in (he use of suitable glasses. It's singular that the majority jf near-sighted persons have light blue >r grayish blue eyes. Possibly the lighter :olors indicate greater visual ivcakness. rhe Germans are a blue-eyed race. You urould be surprised to see the number of 3erman students in the universities who ivear spectacles. Pondering over their Dooks at night ihe constant strain of :heir eyes mast have prematurely weak1 '1 ii xl-_ 3DCCI tneru sooner maa me uur& uuca. Sewing also strains the eyes as much as ending. In fact, it is the case with any ine work. Look at my clerks, for nstance. Most of ihera, who have been n my employ a number of years, are compelled to wear glasses." rhe Largest Rattlesnake on Record. The greatest set of rattles ever cut from a rattlesnake are now on exhibition in the office of the Treasurer of Lycomine County, at Williamsport, Penn. The rtriug measures inches and contains 15 rattles. The biggest string of rattles 5Q record previous to this was taken from the big snake killed near Westport last week. That string measured 4 inches in length and contained 21 rattles. The jnakc that bore it was the biggest one aver kil'ed in the state, being 7 lcei long. The most curious fact connected with the monster Williamsport set ol rattles is that it was taken from a snake less than 3 feet long, the rattles forming almost one-fourth of the reptile's entire length. If it is true that a rattlesnake grows a rattle every year after the first year the snake must have oeen 4G years old. This freak among snakes was killed by County Treasurer Eldred in the I'ine Creek region.?New York Times. Outwitted. "Ill be hanged," said a farmer in Maine, "III don't scare them crows from that grain!' So he sr. read his "umhruller," Of most dubious color. "There now," said the crows, "let it rain!" ?New York Graphic. ~ WOMAN'S WORLDT PLEASANT LITERATURE FOR FEMININE READERS. Women Wood-Workers. "Talking about employing women in factories," said a Manistee, Mich., lum berman to the Timberman, ''brings about Ihe fact that the hoop factory at Manistee employs women feeding the planers and other light work of that nature, and finds that they do the work well; and at ; the dairy salt factories all the sacking! and such work is done by girls, who work j on piecc work an;l earn about $1 to $1.25 ; a day, and seem to like the employment. The only size sacks they seem to ob ject to is the ten pound size, which they say are a little heavy to handle at arms length. As they work in pairs, though, they can change off and rest themselves in that way. A Dressy Queen. An occasional Rome correspondent informs me that Queen Margherita of j Italy has recently appeared in public in some really remarkable pretty dresses. : At a court ceremony which took place a short time back she wore black velvet, witli beautiful old lace, wnue iouna ner neck were her famous "ropes of pearls." At a ball given at the Spanish Embassy her majesty wore a dress made by Worth, which was universally admired. It was a combination of lilac and blush silk,and was profusely embroidered with silver, as well as with many bunches of lilac. In her hair she wore a blush-pink feather, fastened by a diamond butterfly, j A magnificent diamond spray also decorated her hair. At some races the Queeu appeared in yellow, covered with Oriental embroidery, a gorgeous dolman also made of Eastern work, and a plain straw bonnet of a light bronze color.? St. Stephen's Review. Work for Women. The work of house decoration now gives employment to many women in New York, writes Jenny June, but the field does not begin to be covered. The majority follow too much the "Kensington" school, insteid of taking the natural aud admirable principles wh'ch underlie this school as a basis, and diverging from it into ideas suggested not only by the splendid flora aud characteristics of the country, but also by the difference in means and resources. j There are plenty of people here who would like to impart some appearance of modern finish to their rooms and dwellings, but they cannot think of doing it, because to employ a decorative "artist" would mean more than the house perhaps cost to build. Women are quite as capable of staining floors, papering walls, draping a corner or a window, as men, and, in fact,have succceded so well iw tu suuw Liie ui u spuuiai faculty of this kind; but they should adapt themselves to various needs and purses. They should be as ready to make covers and curtains of cheap chintz as rich plush, and do it as well, and they should adapt pretty mantel draperies and window finish to the poor as well as the rich. Europe to be Governed by Women. The close of the nineteenth century promises or threatens to be a period of i petticoat government. A proable Em-1 press-Queen is growing up in Austria, ! there is a regent in Spain, and next a baliy k ng afflicted with a nervous dis/t.tr-A ^ An Ifl\ nV*i 1/"1 ron m**la Ciru. x uu iicaiiuici uuiiuilu, b 11 ? 'stand in the order of succession. The heiress-apparent to the throne of the Netherlands is a girl, ir'aid to me an exminister to the cou-t of St. Petersburg, "the Czar's two sons are maUn-jre* et chit iff, and there is a prospect of a Czarina in her own right." The imperial crown of Brazil must soon fall to the crown princess, a woman of moral1 stamina and tine emotions. She has carried against a high and threatening tide of opposition, the abolition of slavery. ' The Czar has been brought to ei tertain the idea of marrying the c/arewitch to a young lady of a hardy mountain race not consanguine in any degree with him. Her offspring, if she had any, might be an improvement on the existing Pomanoffs. The Montenegrin Princess and the Czarewitch would form such a couple as Mary Stuart and Francis II. The Queen of Greece, the same diplo* i matist tells me, has gone to St. Petersburg to induce the Czar to prefer her daughter to the princess from the Black mountain. ? Universal Jieview. I New Style in Buttons. There is nothing more noticeable than the wonderful change in the buttons that women wear that has taken place in two years. Perhaps I notice it mo'e on i account of being in the business, but it is so radical that any one would perceive it if he hud his attention called to it. i Formerly the buttons were fancy and large; now they are small, plain and cheap. When merchants can sell manufactured buttons for three cents a dozen it reduces the profits of the manufacturer. Style has de.ided that buttons shall be .small and plain. In consequcnce it is very seldom that a woman pays more than twenty cenis a dozen for the but-, tons she uses on her dress, and the ma-, jority use five and ten cent buttons. But1 this style will not last long, it will get around to the old price where it was profitable to manufacture buttons. Two years ago the style was to wear novel- ( ties, and the buttons used on dresses never cost less than fifty cents a dozen, j The size of the buttons began to increase, and it was not uucommon to sou buttons . two inches square on cloaks. Many ladies paid as high as $2 apiece for but-; tons. They were made in faucv shapes, i and there are few ladic3 who have not I pretty collections in their scrap bags. They will be useful some day, for tlip fashon in buttons is always changing. ' Trade fluctuates accoidingly. "With im- \ proved machinery it is now easy to make ! a cheap plain button. Bone is tho prin- I cipal material for these buttons, and ' vegetable ivory is also used, as well as | composition.?Graphic. . j Silk in the Roman Era. Heliogabalu3 is said to have been the \ Href to weir a rohft of r>uro silk. This I Emperor, one of the most unworthy of 1 rulers, who made his horse a consul, had ! a senate of women, over whom his mother presided, which prescribed all | the modes nod fashions. The Emperor ' Aureliun is said to have refused his wife ! a robe of pure siik, on account of its ex-1 cessive cost. Indeed it whs not until j more than five centuries after the Christ- i ian era that silkworms were brought! from the East, and introdcced into Coastantinople by some monks, in the time of Justinian. Purple was always much admired by the ancients, the dye coming from the ; murex, as is well known. The color was I thouaht finer the darker it was. I'nder ' Augustus violet and bright red became j fashionable colors, a3 well as scarlet, and j were soon worn by all who could alford to do so?but Nero and C:csar afterward ; reserved amethyst and purple for im- \ perial use exclusively. Bright colors were disused in mourning?when the Romans wote black, or a . rJ'. -*,? .e '-^ 'W; ^' - ' - <*> * dark gray, and matrons, especially, appeared in public in dark clothes, dia? heveled hair and without ornaments. In the autumn respectable ladies who were at all religious dressed themselves upon a certain day in robes of "murrey," 01 dead-leaf color, in which they made expiatory sacrifices, the clothing being afterward scrupulously destroyed, the idea being that any evil which impended upon the wearer might pass into her tunic and thus be carried off in flame. This expiation, if fully carried out, was most comfortably supposed to be sufficient for a whole year of peccadiloes.?Go Joy's. An Obituary Poetess. One of the very queerest ways of earning a living among the endless eccentricities of ingenious necessities in this city, says the New York World, is that of a woman who lives in a little flat on Nineteenth street, and who writes obituary poetry, thereby avoiding the necessity of an obituary for her own tombstone. She is a genial person on ordinary occasions and pos-esses a notable facility for _i tit\ ~ ruyiuua. trueusuu ja jutcrvicwiug uuatomers this geniality subsides into a delicate and dramatic sympathy"which is very soothing to the bereaved. She says of herself: "You see I am not a poet The newspapers f.nd magazines won't buy my poetry, and I don't wonder at it; but at the same time I have a genius for rhymes. I have found rhymes for window and silver even?the two unrhymable words ?and quick as a flash I can find a word in assonance w th any name, Christian or surname. I am a lightning rhymer, in short. I can make verses, too, of a certain sort with the same facility, and happily the people who come to see me don't demand poetry up to the level of 'In Memoriam,' and 'Lycidas.' There's my 'Hood's Hhymster,' Koget's 'Thesaurus' and Crabbe's 'c'ynonvmns.' They are my tools, and by their aid I make a living. The most curious people come to me all the way from an a'flicted washerwoman lamenting the late bibulous Patrick, to old,gentlemen who have lost their grandchildren. Bereavement, like love. seem9 to loosen the intellectual fibre, and when people are in the first throes of grief they find comfort in the strangest things. They like my verses more than you would believe possible, and make me read them over again and again, the feeble lyrics and halting lines evidently soothing them more than volumes of the most eloquent prose. My prices? Oh! they are in a sliding scale. For celebrating the martial virtues of the late Mr. O'Donovan in six four-line stanzas I charge $ but as I rise in the social scale, aud the measure used is more complex, why I ask all the way from $ > to $23. On one occasion I asked aud was paid ?50 for a memorial ode to the dead bride of a sorrowing widower. It was something like two hundred lines, and if I do say it myself, it was very nice poetry and fully worth the money. The widower is married again, but he didn't seem to think any epithalamium was required, or at least I wasn't asked to write it. Poetry about dead children is the sort oftenest asked for, and yet I don't like to write it because I really throw more feeling into it than any other. Over Bome of my best ones I've wept myself. But mothers will take anything. They don't seem to know whether it's good or bad. Fashion Notes. Ribbon four to eight inche3 wide appears on the newest hate. Garibaldi waists of lace arranged in stripes are quite the thing. Full lace fronts, decorated with knots of ribbon, are worn on dresses of figured challis. For traveling there are dust cloaks of gray glace silk that are the acme of elegant quietness. Cherries and similar small fruits, in wax, figure in fashionable millinery trimmings for the season. A chaplet of flowers is worn by brideamuids as we'l as by brides, this season, and are of artificial blossoms, too. A Parisian costume is made of a soft amethyst lampas, the front draped, and the sides open to show a petticoat of silver embroidery. Gauzy cream blond combined with moire or brocade and lightly trimmed with gold or silver is much worn by youthful matrons. Honey suckle, lilac in white, and corn flowers are appropriate for a bridesmaid aod are somewhat newer than daisies, forget-me-nots and ro3es. The huge, eccentric-brimmed rustic hut of yellow straw, trimmed with flowers is in fashion at garden parties and also for wear in the countrv. Quite the feature of directoire gowns are the big buttons of gold and silver filigree, or else of china, hand-painted with flowers, busrs or landscapes. In London garlands of massed foliage, in which even parsley finds place,divides favor with those showing hazelnuts,raspberry sprays or bunches of currants. As the months go by full dress cos- 1 tumes increase in splendor. Silver and gold brocades of every kind are used and j the embroideries arc lavish and expensive. Scarlet and yellow poppic9 are the 1 favorite flowers on black lace hats and I large bonnets, but the small black lace j bonnet demands the use of small; flowers. A Bit of Revenge. A stoiy tomes from Brewton, Ala., j wh;ch may be read with interest and i vki-nKt A crpnt.lrmfin sr>r>Vinnr a resi- ! r*~"- ? n* (3 - | deuce, found one just suited to his taste ; in all but the inside ornamentation of j the house, but being a gentlemau of j means as well as taste, he accepted the house and turned it over to the uphol- j sterer for renovation. The most elabo- I rate inside decorations were soon made | by the skillful painters, the walls papered j in the highest style of art, and in perfect j unison with the furnishings. The papering was a subject of pleasant congratulations from the gentleman's guests, and the landlord, hearing of the improvements, concluded it would be a good time to exact "rack rent." He had j several offers to rent the house, so he j pulled down on the tenant for a big rise , of money. The tenant could not stand that. lie concluded to leave, but kick - r? T J _ J J as tie leit. tie tieciucu revenge?ueep, | solid and lasting. So a happy thought j struck h:ra. It was a dark and villain- j ous thought, but perhaps justifiable j undsr the circumstances. He hied him again to the wall-papering man, and with agrin on his countenance looked over the samples of paper, and finding one, a horror in bad figures of black and mud color, contracted for it to be put up, so as to completely hide the beautiful blue and gold paper of the j first edition. The papering was scarccly | completed before the landlord dropped | in to sec whether the tenant had not relented a little. He was shown into the parlor. Hardly had he touched the soft cushions of the chair than he sprang to his feet, and with the yell of a Comanche fled the house. He had seen the paper on the/ wall. It was a perfect nightmare. ?Mobile Register* . , .. ?,vv ..., .. it l v?? COURTJ ESTERS" THE EVOLUTION OF THE MERRY KING S POOL. Fellows of Infinite Jest and Scathing Sarcasm Who Were Famous?Origin of the Institution?Modern Successors. People who read mediaeval romances says the New Orleans Picayune, find that j the court fool or professional jester was 1 not only an established institution, but also an important personage. When they encounter him in the history ol those times they realize that he was a real character, often taking important parts in prominent political and social events, and it not unfrequently appears that so far from being a fool he was the only QAnA flnrl cpnaihln nprenn in mnnxr an ns w ?? J semblage of people f rank and consequence. It was often the case that the King's fool was the on'/y person at court who dared to speak the truth among the hordes of flatterers and sycophants and parasites that surrounded the monarch and infested the precincts of royalty. It was often the court jester who alon* ventured to criticise the follie3 and denounce the vices of those who occupied the high places of government and fattened on the wealth wrung from an oppressed people. The court Jester dates from a period so early that it is difficult to trace his beginnings. He was in U8e in China, where th.' art of making him a deformed monster existed. In order to make his wit more pungent and his satiies more scathing it was thought necessary to have them uttered by a dwarf or a hunchback. The fool whose business it?was to expose, and ridicule the follies of alleged wise men, being peculiar in mind and morals ought to be twisted and deformed in body. The Greeks and Romans imitated the use of jesters from the Persians, but Greece and Rome possessed also inimitable satirists and masters of sarcasm like Sophocles and Juvenal, who did nothesIf ofn f a i(/va line onrl AvSmna A f iiaib cis Ov,uui^g buv iviin-o auu wiuito vi the highest as well as the lowest. ia the middle ages the fashion of maintaining jesters was introduced into Europe from the East, and it was maintained for a long period. Among the most noted of these professional fools were Triboulet, the celebrated jester of Francis I., of France, and Chicot, who was more distinguished thau his royal master, Henry III. Other French fools of note were Brusquet, Cailette, Sibolot and Mathurine, who, by the way, was a woman. Angely, who appeared in the ; reign of Louis XIII., was the iast of the line. In Germany, Pfaff Cappadox,who adorned the court of ltudolph of Hapsburg; Kunz von Rozen, the jester of Maximilian I.; Jodel der Narr, at the co irt of Ferdinand II., and Klaus Narr, the fool of the Elector Frederick the Wise, were most noted examples. In | England, Edmond Ironsides had a jestet I known as Hitard or Hithard. "Will ) Somers was prolessional humorist to i Henry VIII., while Mary, Queen of I Scots maintained John Heywood in a I like capac ty. Charles I. was the last ! of the English kings who kept a fool. : One of his, Archibald Armstrong, known | as "Archy," was disgraced and banished : for his violent satires upon Laud, Arch! bishop of Canterbury. He was suej ceeded by Muckle John, so called be| cause of his small size. Long after i jesters had disappeared from the rest of ; Europe they still were in favor in Russia, i where Peter the Great kept twelve, and ! the Empress Anna, who had been a nun, maintained a large number. The decline and disappearance of the court fool was undoubtedly due to the rise of the art of printing. The court ; fool had only a select a'na limited au1 dience for his sarcasms and satires. The press w;is able to address itself to the i people at large. Nothing is so pleasing i to a ijreat muss of mankind as to hear others sharply criticised. A touch of slander even is not to be objected to if i it be spicy. The art of printing placed j these privileges in the reach of all, and as a consequence the professional fool' took to writing books. He was able to | criticise without being required to flat J. J t "u:? 4. ? ^ lui uuu iswu uu uia puuuu auu jjiwcv/lvi, , and he thus became a greater power than ever. Probably no satirist ever exerted a greater influence in his day than did the anonymous author of the "Letters of .Juni.is," while others who wrote over their dwii names have been also distinguished. Kabelais, Swift, Voltaire, and others whosi' names would make a long and illustrious list; could be mentioned. To-day, however, the.writer has been able to bring to his aid the pencil of the artist, ana the humorous and satirical illustrated publications may be taken as the last and most distinguished evolution of the court fool. Punch, the earliest of these interesting publications, has bcea followed by similar products in the chief nations of the civilized world until no country is without them. A "Tonch of Nature" in Congress. There was a striking and somewhat amusing illustration in the Hou e of Representatives at Washington recently, of the truth of the old proverb about "cue touch of nature making the whole world akin." For a long time Hepre sensitive Enloe has been trying to secure the passage by the House of a bill to pay back to Mr. P. E. Parker, of Memphis, $233C>, which had been collected by the Government from him as one of the securities for Frank Travis, who was at one time Internal Revenue Collector foi the Western District of Tennessee, and who became a defaulter, the securitiej having been subsequently released bj act of Congress from liability of tht bond. Many times Mr. Enloe had attempted to have the bill considered, out" he h;id never been able to catch the Speaker'j eye. Meanwhile the bill had been passed on by the Senate. Mr. Enloe, however, succeeded in securing recognition from the Speaker pro tempore (Mr. McMillan) and "asked immediate consideration of the bill. Objection cam? from Mr. Hopkins, of Virginia, who de mantled the regular order. Mr. Enloe at this remarked that he was much interested in the passage of the bill, and had almost worn the soles oil his boots in walking from his desk to a point on the floor from which he might catch the Speaker's eye. "I h:ive a good and sufficient reason," said he impressively, ''for my particular desire to have this bill passed. "When I was a boy the man whom this bill will benefit gave me my first pocket knife." This brought down the House. Every man then instantly thought of the pleasure derived from his first pocket knife, and amid cries of "The bill ought to pass," and the general laughter, Mr. Hopkins withdrew his objection and the bill was passed. But for Mr. Enloe's remembrance of that knife it is doubtful if Mr. l'aiker would have ever got his money.?New York Star. Henry Carey, the author of "Sally in Our Alley," was an English poet who died in 1743. . 'iy-' 1 1 " 1 FOP ULAB SCIENCE, The iodide of mercu]7 is now used t? some extent in France in tanning skins. Chausuer dried a man in a kiln and there resulted only twelve pounds of solid matter. '-}jh Photographing ip colors seems to be the object of considerable experimenting,. but so far with little or no success. Paris has thirty miles of pipe for.carrying compressed air for power. The; . engines are 8000-horse power and the coal , consumption fifty tons daily. I Numerous cases of sickness have been traced to the use of fruit from tin cans. \ Such fruits contained salts of tin whichhave been, hitherto supposed to be harm- i less. It is found practicable at last to make' ) the waste of pine saw-mills available forfv-j paper pulp. In reducing the wood to pulp bisulpbate of lime has been used, this powerful chemical acting on the fibre '? only when heated. A Vipnna on^nonr 'n.a +olr?n nnf ?tV patent for a new smoke abating process.^. B.v means of electricity he proposes la, condense the solid part of the smoke it arises from the coal, the carbon thus formed falling back into the furnace. A new instrument for the measure?1 . ment of color, as applied to the estima* ; ' tion of carbon in steel, has been patented;. by J. W. Lovibond of Salisbury, and may be used for matching carbons ia,\. *j steel by the Eggertz color method or by^ Stead's alkali method. The principle of the anemometer, the r ^ instrument which-is generally used fox|$$ measuring the velocity of the wind, and;^ which is, essentially, a small, delicately.:poised, self-registering windmill, wita',1 j flat or cup-shaped arms, has been applied^ to a device for registering the speed .of-; vessel*. Telegraph poles are preserved in Norway by making an auger hole about two;'-' feet from the ground, in which four of '-;; nve ounces 01 suipnate 01 copper ia -.. coarse crystals are placed and plugged / in. The chemical is gradually absorbed by the wood until its whole outer surface tarns of a greenish hue. The sulphate' requires an occasional renewal,.^'! and is said to be a perfect preservative- ? A novel electric railway is undergoing construction in a suburb of St. Paul, I Minn. The railroad is an elevated struc- _ ture, and the cars are Sung below it close to the street level. They hang from set* of wh'.els taking their power from the tracks, which are charged withelee-'Y tricity. The Engheerln-j and Building Record says that a speed of from eight to ; ten miles au hour is claimed for the cars. Grant Allen suggests that the evolu-^ ' tion of pottery may be traced to the^ | gourds of various forms used by the primitive savages for containing water. | The gourds were probably smeared with j wet clay to protect them when held over the camp-fire, as is still done by savages, and the durable coating thus produced,. ? outlasting the inner shell, gave the aqci-** dental lesson in molding dishes fromnatural objects. To furnish the music of the harp, * without requiring the skill of the harp-. r ist, has been the object of M. Dietz, ot-1^ Brussels, in desiging the claviharp. The fy instrument is provided with a keyboard, upon which any pianist may play, but the strings are mechanically'/' plucked as by the fingers of the harpist * instead of being struck by hammers. The slirings are of metal, with an , insalated covering to give the tone of catgut W. A. Lyman, of Milford, Conn., is making the smallest possible specimen of an engine. It will be made from * i silver half dollar. The boiler is to hold about eight drops of water, but with^i four drops the engine can be worked, *'> 6everal minutes. When finished it is < to be. placed under a glass case threequarters of an inch in diameter and an ;| inch and one-eighth in height. Some of the parts will be so fine and delicate that /vJ they cannot be made without the use of a magnifying glass. * ^ _ \~'W3 m ^ A Penny-Wise, Pound-Foolish Kin';. ,, King Ludwig I., of Bavaria, whose * name is being recalled at the present time in various ways, was as much noted Wi for his lavish expenditure of money in beautifying his capital as for his economy ~:i] in minor matters. It is said he wore " I the same old coat to be shaved in for -.<< ! forty years, and whenever it rained sent ^ a lackey for his old umbrella, saying it la. was too bad to use the new one, ior it/id had cost seven gulden. The following" <=anecdote is quite characteristic of the -sti King: Among the many privileges enjoyed by all persDns in the slightest way connected with the court, during the ,*s reign of his easy-^oing predecessor, King Max, from the chief marshal down to the i oven-heater, was that of having their soiled linen washed in the royal laundry.; 's Shortly after King Ludwig's accession, as he was staniing one morning looking out of the palace window, his wonder . and curiosity were aroused by seeing numerous wagons drive up, one after jr the other, in front of (he royal residence, p all laden with mysterious looking bundies, which disappeared within the palace walls. Sending for his castellan, .3 the King inquired the meaning of thia .. strange procession. "May it please your Majesty," replied the astonished cast el* lan, "it was ever the custom of our late King of blessed memory to allow a few needy and deserving persons to send their washing to the royal laundry." A few persons!" exclaimed Ludwig; "nearly an hour have I been standing - - ?I?J?? still fliacA ia n n nnn ill I Li IB WlUUUWj nuu QVilt iu^iv w uv vm?* to the procession. This is an imposi- *=>i tion, and it shall go on no longer.'' And he gave strict orders to have the handle* remain unopened, to keep them tillEaster Tuesday, when they were to be returned unwashed, with a strict injunction never to be sent again. The result was, adds our chronicler, that half of Munich s had no clean shirt for Easter.?New York Pjst. ' , *7 Change ef Color In Fish, Mr. St. John says that the change of color in fish is very remarkable, and takes place with groat rapidity. Some of his experiments and observations will be of interest. If you put a living black brook trout into a white basin of water, it will become, within half an hour, of a light color. In the case of some lish the change is perceptible in live minutes. Keep the fi3h living in a white jar for some days, and it becomes absolutely white; but put it into a dark-<rolored or black vessel, and, although, on first being placed there, the while-colored fish shows most conspicuously on the black ground, in a lew minutes, it becomes as: dark colored as the bottom of the jar,1 and consequently difficult to be seeu. No doubt this facility of adapting its. ' - ? a- ~ f * V?r\ nffitnc in coiur IU LUU UUUUUl U1 iuc " i u .. U.VHI it lives, is of the greatest service to the. fish in protecting it from its numerous enemies. All anglers must have observed that in every stream the trout are very much of the same color as the gravel or sand on' which they live. Whether this changa of color is a voluntary or involuntary acts od the part of the fish, I leave it for tha scientific to determine.?Youth's Companion* I J