The Abbeville press and banner. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, September 26, 1888, Image 6
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