Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, November 11, 1880, Image 1
V
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VOL. 26. YOEKVILLE, S. C., THUESDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 1880. . . 46.
Selected fflcttg.
WORK TOGETHER.
If all men had the self-same mind,
And sought the same position,
The world would be, as you'll agree,
Chaotic in condition.
Thus some must sow, and some must reap.
And some must plow the mighty deep;
And some must wake while others sleepEach
has his given mission.
And tho' they seek quite different paths,
In bright and cloudy weather,
And seem to stray, each his own way,
They really work together;
The oue who weaves, the one who knits,
The one who cuts, and he who tits,
Bound by a silken tether.
Thus the great world thrives and grows,
As each man helps his brother,'
Tim srreat and small, the short and tall,
They all help one another.
For s >ine must print and some must fold,
Some must carve and some must mold.
And some count silver, scrip and gold.
Each one pursuit or other.
Then banish envy from your hearts,
And keep your soul well lighted,
The world should be, as vou'll agree,
At peace and all united.
The watercourse will turn the wheel?
Tue mill will grind the corn to tneal?
And Hod will reign through woe and weal,
And every wrong be righted.
?ltC ?diet.
THE MYSTERIOUS NOTE.
CHAPTER I.
In 1805 I was working on the southern fork
of the north affluent of the Yuba, at a point
two or three miles below Sierra City. I was
at work alone, in a ravine making down into
the river. Half a dozen other miners had
cabins not far from mine, and were at work
in gulches or on bars in the river. All of our
cnhins werp nn the south side of the river, and
mine was at least half a mile further south
than any of the others, which carried it well
up toward the main ridge or range of hills
walling in the stream. *
One day, at noon, I went home to get my
dinner, and on opening the door of my cabin,
saw in the middle of the floor, a small scrap
of white paper folded in the form of a note.
I thought this not a little curious, as my door
. was secured with a padlock of peculiar construction,
and no man could have entered unless
through the ucat-holev at the bottom pf
the door.
As I took up the note I saw that there were
two or three spots of blood on it. The note
alone was sufficient to startle me, but, when I
saw the blood, a chill ran through my veins,
and I said: "Here is some villainy afoot!
Somebody has been murdered, perhaps 1" My
next thought was that some of the boys might
i*? nl:iviiirr a. trick on me. Instead of at once
oi>eiring the note to read it, I began looking
into all the comers of the room; I even stooped
and peeped under my bed.
Xo one wjis to be seen. My cat, old "Clispa,"
was the only living thing in the place.
He came purring about my legs, as was his
habit when I came home; though often he
was out on his own hook, hunting and prospecting
about, for he was not one of your homestaving,
lazy kind of cats.
After speaking a kind word or two to old
"Clispa" I o{>ened the note, and as I read,
l>egan to open my eyes. The little note?
merely the folded leaf of an ordinary memorandum
book?read as follows :
June 9.1K65.
This is to inform the person into whose
hands it may come, that I am in the old Maldanado
shaft. By the breaking of a ladder I
fell to the bottom of the shaft tln ee days ago.
I am almost starved. For God's sake come to
my assistance at once.
Jacob Pritciiaki>.
"When I had read the note?scrawled with
a very dull lead pencil?I hardly knew what
to think. My brain was in a whirl, and I
made no headway in trying to think. As I
turned the paper in my fingers, I observed
that the blood came off it and stained my
hand; I saw, in fact, that it was quite fresh.
This astonished me not a little, ' for,'*
thought I, "if he fell into the shaft three days
ago and hurt himself, how does it happen that
the blood on this note is still fresh, and almost
warm ?"
My next thought was this: "If he is in the
bottom of the Maldanado shaft?more than a
hundred feet below the surface?as he says,
how could he leave me this note ?" Clearly
the thing was improbable, and I could make
neither head nor tail of the business. Who
Jacob Pritchard was I did not know. I did
not remember having ever heard his name."
I sat down on a stool and tried to think.
"Here," thought I, "is a man in the bottom
of a shaft, where he has been for three
days, and where he is now supposed to be
starving, who leaves a note on my cabin floor,
asking me to come and get him out. There is
blood?fresh blood?on this note, which makes
things still worse !"
I sat and thought, and thought, till things
got so mixed up in my head that I was no
more capable of forming an opinion in regard
to the business", than a born idiot.
I talked to the cat?to old "Clispa"?al>out
it, and the old fellow seemed willing to assist
me, and he got upon my knee, and snuffed at
the note as though he knew that the cause of
my trouble lay in that. He then jumped down
and running to the corner of the room, brought
me the remains of a little crippled squirrel,
which he had lately caught, as I could see,
just as if he thought I might be in trouble 011
the grub question, and as much as to say :
"Here, old paid, eat and be merry 1"
"Clispa, old fellow, you mean well, said I,
"but your kind of grub is not to my mind."
"Clispa" looked disappointed when he found
that I could see nothing in the "wreck" of the
little squirrel. He seemed to be of the opinion
that this ought to bring all my troubles and
doubts to an end.
The more I pondered on the matter the more
it puzzled me. Being unable to arrive at any
satisfactory conclusion in regard to the mysterious
affair, I made up my mind to see some of
the "boys," on the river, and lay the matter
before them.
Having got four or five of my neighbors together,
I produced the note, told them where I
found it, and asked what they thought of the
"business."
They all said at once that the note was an
"infernal lie on its face." Said they: "If the
man is in the shaft, how is he able to leave ii
note on your floor, telling you so V"
This was nothing more than I had myself
thought of in the start. After much talk, we
all concluded that there was in it a trick of
some kind ; however, Ave would see it out.
We determined tOAisit the shaft named, the
whereabouts of which Avas Avell known to us
all, we having seen it scores of times. It was
decided that each man should l>e armed with 11
six-shooter, and that Ave should take with m
three or four candles and a long rope; also, e
canteen of water and some brandy, thougl
these last-named articles were mainly intendec
for our own comfort and sustenance. Happer
what might, we would thoroughly examine the
shaft.
About three o'clock in the afternoon all was
in readiness and we set out?set out on what
seemed one of the wildest of wild goose chases.
The Maldanado shaft is situated on the sharp
ridge of a high and steep hill, nearly a mile
; south of the south fork of the north aflluent
of the Vuba ; it was about half a mile above
where my cabin stood. The shaft was sunk
by Gabriel Maldanado, a man well known to
all the early silver miners of the Comstoek
lode, but now some years dead. It was sunk
after the old Mexican fashion, and was about
eight feet by fourteen in size, and in it ladders
of notched poles weai used, instead of rope
and windlass or other hoisting apparatus, the
i miners walking up and down the poles, and
; carrying the ore poised on their heads, in rawI
hide sacks. These poles were placed in the
( shaft in such a i>osition that they formed a zigzag
line, like a worm fence, from top to boti
torn, there being a little platform on which
| rested the foot of one ladder, and the top of
the next below. Thus, in descending the shaft,
?1 * .vl.%4idoffAvm
j UIIC 11 Will 1'iatlVlUi VV |?mnviui, uuu
from side to side of the opening, until the bottom
was reached. "When the news of the discovery
of silver in Washoe reached Maldanado,
he abandoned tins mine?which was hardly
paying expenses?and all of his Mexican followers
left Sierra county, California, and the
gold mine there was completely deserted ; the
buildings, at and about the shaft, were crushed
in by the heavy falls of snow, which occur
in that elevated region, and soon all about
that place went to ruin.
Such was the old Maldanado shaft at the
time I found the note on my cabin floor.
Nothing was left at the place but a few stakes
about the old blacksmith's forge, and a section
! of a stake roof that had fallen across and covered
about half the mouth of the shaft. It
was a lonesome, dreary old place.
CHAPTER II.*
Arrived at the top of the hill and at the
mouth of the shaft, one of the men said:
"Well here we are! Now to make known our
presence to the man in the shaft?to Jacob
Pritchard!"
"Well, call down to him,'' said another,
laughing ; for, now that we stood at the mouth
of the shaft, we felt quite silly, and half exI>ected
to see some one peep out from behind
a tree or rock, and "raise the laugh" on us.
The man who had first spoken stooped over
the-shaft and shouted : "Jacob, are you down
there'?"
Almost instantly there came up from the
shaft a faint cry, that was half moan, half
shout. We all heard it, and were thrilled and
startled.
Most of the faces about the shaft suddenly
grew pale. We all stood silent for some seconds,
when some one said: "Sure as fate,
there is a man down there !"
"Who are you V Who is down there V" again
called out our men, stooping down close to
the dark mouth of the shaft.
"Jacob Pritchard !" was the answer that
come up the shaft. The name was so distinctly
uttered that all heard it, and hearing it, all
turned a shade paler than before.
"It beats the dickens !" said one of the men.
"That was the name signed to the note,
and here is the fellow still in the shaft!"
"Ask him about the note,"' said one of our
party.
"Did you?write a note?and send it out^
asking for help ?" cried our spokesman, stooping
over the shaft and sending the message
down in sections, much as the sailors on rivers
call to each other from vessel to vesel.
"I did,''was the prompt response from the
bottom of the shaft, and again we all gazed
at one another in amazement.
"It is either the devil himself or the.biggest
liar in the mountains ?" said Bill Wallace.
"IIow?could you?send out?a letter ?" asked
Bill.
"(Jet me out. I can't tell now!" came
from the dark in a vexed and gasping voice.
"lie is right," said Bill; "we ought to l>e
ashamed to stand here questioning the poor
fellow when there are enough of us to eat him
up without either salt or pepper! J^ight a
couple of candles and get the rope ready.
Two of us will go down and see how he can
l.r? Cnmo nf flio lirU-frmi loilrlorv miief
UC gut Ulili IJ'MUC V/L lilt/ UVVVW1II U.MUV
l>e broken, or he could come out himself?that
is, if his legs are both sound. Mike Murphy,
you are stout and active, come with me and
we'll go and see that fellow.
"B?but h?how could he bring up the letter
?" stammered Mike, shaking his head, and
looking anything but ready to descend the
shaft.
"Blow the letter!" said Bill; "he'll tell us
all about that when we get him out. Are we
to keep the i>oor fellow there all day, while we
stand here parleying like cowards ?"
"I?I'm not afraid to go down there, av
course," said Mike, "but we all know that
this here is a quare kind of business, from
first to last?that is as far as we've got into it."
"Well, then, Mike, you and I will go," said
Bill. "Just drop the end of the rope into the
shaft, and we'll work it along to the bottom as
we coon it down the ladders. Take your candle,
Mike V"
Mike took the candle into a rather an unsteady
hand, and then waiting until Bill was
down a few feet, got upon the top of the
pole and began descending backwards, as a
crawfish travels. As his head was descending
below the level of the shaft, he halted and cast
a lingering look on all the bright world he was
leaving. lie looked like a man whose hours
on earth were numbered. His pride carried
him where his legs did not want to go.
Slowly and steadily the two men descended
the shaft, slipping from notch to notch in the
long, slender poles. As we stood at the edge
of the wide opening and eagerly gazed down
into it, we could distinctly see our two companions
and mark their slow descent, by the
llickering light of their candles. They toilsomely
zigzagged their way down, the light
' of their candles growing smaller ancl smaller,
till all we saw resembled two little stars.
Finally the two twinkling stars went over
to the west side of the shaft and stopped side
by side. A murmuring, as of the voices of
1 persons in conversation, then came up the
shaft.
t "Pay out more roi>e V" shouted Bill from
! somewhere far down in the bowels of the earth,
i The rope was slowly run out.
"All right! That's enough !" cried Bill.
l Again a hum Of voices was heard; then
> came the older from Bill: "Haul up; haul
' slowly and carefully ! Slowly?slowly?slowly
! Hold ! Hold on now ! That will do 1"
There was more buzzing of voices, then
s Bill called out: "Hello, up there !"
> "Hello !" cried we.
i "I am going to?bring him up?the lad?
ders," said Bill, sending his message up in seci
tions, so that it would not become tangled on
i the way. "I shall leave the roi>e around him.
I Keep the slack rope hauled up?but don't pull
i hard. Do you understand V"
(j "All right!" cried I. W? know how it is."
They then started up the ladders. They
> halted to rest at each platform.
; j Finally, as tliey approached the top, we
j were able to catch occasional glimpses (over i
1 Bill's shoulders) of a pale face and a black, !
!! bushy beard. Then, when they reached the
last ladder, sloping up "toward us, there was :
added to the picture a pair of black and eagerlooking
eyes?hungry looking is probably the
better expression.
! The man was at last safely landed at the
top of the shaft. He was a stranger to us all. I
A tall young fellow, apparently about twenty- j
six years of .age?stood before us. lie wore ;
a black felt hat and ordinary miner's garb,
j The man was weak, and tottered jus he oj>en- j
ed tlie noose at tlie end of the rope, dropped
it to his feet, and stepped out of it.
Suddenly he sank upon his knees. We
, were about to go to his assistance, thinking j
he had fainted, when he raised his hands, and
i 7 '
i we saw, by the motion of his lips, that lie was
| doing a thing that we did not often see done |
i in the mines.
I We took off our hats and stood by, in silence.
When the young man .attempted to rise
i from his knees he fell over 011 his side, and
came near rolling into the shaft again, for he
had fainted. Some water from the canteen
revived him, and a spoonful of brandy soon
gave him strength to stand, and even walk
I slowly, supported 011 either side by one of our
men.
We were all (tying of curiosity, and as we
moved down the side of the mountain toward
my cabin, we could not refrain from asking a
few questions, weak and sick as the young
man looked.
"Your name is Jacob Pritehard ?" asked
one of the men.
"It is," said the stanger.
"Did you write this note ?" said I, exhibiting
the scrap of writing I had found.
"I did." said the man ; "but there is blood
on it! How came that ? I am not hurt!"
"T1 ? T ' 1 ..... rtnftr Ytrltoro
"ll is as 1 luiuiu ii< uii iuj Hum,
you left it," said T.
"Where I left it! How could I ?" said the
young man, giving me a reproachful look.
"Well," said I, "that .is what I want to
know?and you all the time in the shaft!"
"Was it really brought to your cabin ?"
"Of course; how else could I have got it ?"
said I.
"It is a miracle!" cried the young man.
"But how could you have sent the note up
out of the shaft ?" asked one of the men.
"The story is too long to be told now ; besides,
what you most want to know is so simple?I
might say so silly?that you will be inclined
to laugh at me when I tell you. But
when I am rested I will tell you'all."
This was grasped out a little at a time, and
so feebly that we all saw that the young man
was in no condition to tell a long story, such
as his promised to l>e. Bill, who felt proud of
his part in the business of the rescue, swore
that the man should not say a word until he
had swallowed something in the shape of food,
and till he felt himself able to talk.
As the two men assisted the stranger down
the steep face of the mountain?much of the
time almost carrying him?some of us fell behind
to discuss the words he had said.
After we had reached my cabin, and after
the stranger had partaken of such food as we
thought suitable for him in a weak state, we
asked him to tell us his story.
"I ought to ask you to tell me your story,"
said he, "as there are things that puzzle me
not a little, ana wmcn yon ougnt to ne auie to
explain. I think you have said that you found
my note here on the floor of your cabin ?"
"I have said so," I replied, "and cannot understand
how it was left there."
"The circumstance cannot astonish you
more than it does me," said the young man.
"The hand of God is in it! When you shall
have heard my story, you will probably be able
to tell me how the note was brought to you ;
indeed, that is a mystery which it will remain
with you to explain ?it is what I do not understand."
"Then, it will never be explained," said I.
"We don't know that," said the young man.
"lint I will tell you all I know about this
curious business."
"Good ! Let us have it!" said all hands.
CHAPTER III.
"Well," said the young man, "to begin : I
had been mining about Downieville?up the
river along Sailor Ravine and off that way?
for some months, making littlemorethan grub.
I had often heard of the shaft abandoned by
Maldanado, at the time of the Washoe silver
excitement, and I thought that where so much
gold had been found, some must have been left.
I managed to get a description of the location
of the shaft, from a man who had not the
slightest idea of what use I intended making
of the information he was giving me. Three
days ago I stole out of Downieville and came
up here alone, determined to descend the shaft
and examine the vein for myself.
"I was provided with a candle and matches,
and when I found the shaft, after a long search,
I unhesitatingly entered it and began to descend,
by means of the notched poles. I never
once thought it possible that any accident
ronld hannen to me.
"All went well till T w:is on the hist ladder
from the bottom. I was about the middle of
the pole or ladder when, without the least
warning, it broke in the centre, and I fell a
distance of about ten feet, to the bottom of
the shaft. I was not at all hurt. The upper
part of the ladder fell across my thighs, but
did not hurt me. I felt at once that I was
completely trapped. The pole had become
quite rotten, besides, the middle notch had,
by accident, bejm cut a little too deep.
"In falling my candle was extinguished, but
I had a good supply of matches, and soon
lighted it again. Holding the candle aloft, I
found, to my dismay, that to the first platform,
and to the foot of the nearest ladder, the distance
was nearly twenty feet. To this height,
on all sides, I was shut in by a smooth and
solid wall of rock.
"I next looked about the bottom of the shaft.
The space was about eight feet in width, by
fourteen in length?it having been excavated
in this shape in order to give room for planting
the ladders at a proper angle. Only half the
bottom was dry ground. The east side of the
shaft, into which the vein dipped, had been
sunk about three feet lower than the west side
and contained over two feet of water.
"When I had made these observations, I
again looked aloft and carefully examined the
wa41s on all sides. They afforded not a chink
by means of which I could hope to climb to
the platform above. I planted two pieces of
the broken ladder against the wall, climbed to
their top, and again looked for chinks in the
, rock, in which I might gain a hold for my fingers
and toes. All was solid and smooth.
[ "I then placed one piece of the ladder
against the wall, and, carrying the other,
1 climbed up and tried to plant it upon the first
section. I could not make it stand, and to
I * V
have attempted to climb it, even though it had
stood, would have been folly, as it was quite
vertical. I tried planting its base in some of
the notches in the first sections, but they were
not deep enough, and I could not make it
stand. When I stood my first section against
the shaft, at a smaller angle, I could plant my
second in the notches, but then it would not
reach higher than within six or eight feet of
the platform I wished to gain.
"All this time my candle was stuck in a bit
of clay, at the bottom of the shaft. It was
fast being consumed, which I could not afford;
therefore, I blew it out and sat down in the
dark. .My feel nigs*may, perhaps, be imagined,
but I cannot describe them. I wanted to
think?to do some good, strong thinking?but
my thoughts and my brain seemed to spin
around in a circle, and all I did was to rejieat
over and over the one word: 'Lost! lost! !
lost!!!' Lost was all I could say?all I could
get my brain to comprehend.
"I.lay down and rocked myself to and fro
on the ground, not remaining still for a moment,
save when I occasionally paused to gaze
if fa*, liffiu animrp nf lirrlit. that marked the
top of the shaft. Once, in thus tossing about,
I struck my head against the wall of the shaft.
This gave me an idea that I stopped for a moment
to consider : it was that I might at last
dash out my brains against the rock when
there seemed to he nothing else left to do.
"This did me some good, and I began to
think again. It appeared to me that I had
seen something floating in the water, in the
other part of the shaft, during the time my
candle was burning. I tried to rememl>er
what it was. There were several objects.
They were not bits of wood or bark, but something
else?just what I could not recollect.
This bothered me so much that I determined
to light my candle and see what was in the water.
I found two dead rabbits?all bloated
and green?three or four small striped squirrels,
one tolerably large gray squirrel, of a
burrowing kind, and half a dozen mice.
"All these were more or less decayed: but I
considered that it might yet become necessary
for me to eat them ; therefore, I fished them
out and placed them in a corner of the dry
part of the shaft, where I could find them if
my candle was all gone, when the time came
that I must eat them. This done I blew out
my candle and again lay down to roll and toss,
to gaze at the specks of day far above me, and
groan
"Some one might pass that way and hear
me. The moment this thought came into
my head I arose, and, leaning against the
wall and looking upward, I began shouting.
Hours after I did nothing but shout. I shouted
till hoarse, and till I could hardly stand.
Finally, completely exhausted, I fell asleep.
"When I awoke it was all dark above, and I
said as it is now dark, no use of shouting.
When daylight came again I resumed my shouting,
and kept it up until I became very hoarse
and weak, when I gave it up as worse than
useless.
"I studied all manner of combinations to
be made with my two pieces of ladder, and
two or three times lighted my candle to look
at them, but soon blew it out again, as I saw
that they couid not be made any longer than
they actually were. The bit of daylight above
did not reach me, and did me no good except
to let me know when it was day, and when it
was night.
"It is useless to prolong this part of my
story. 1 soon suffered the pangs of hunger
and thirst. It was not hard to bring myself
to crawl to the water and drink of it, foul
as it was, but it was hard to undertake to eat
of the dead animals. SeveraltimesI attempted
it, but gave it up, feeling that the time had
not yet arrived.
"I found myself taking naps at all times
of the day and night. On waking from one
of these short naps, I thought I heard something
on the bottom of the shaft?there was
a slight rattling of the little quartz peb-1
bles or broken fragments of rock. I listened
for some time, and finally became satisfied
there was something moving about in the
T n wofoli oiul lirrliffirl mv liif
MIclLL. 1 AtlllUIV <1 Hid11 <m*i ii^uuwi aimj viv |
of a candle, when I saw near me a little
striped squirrel. I was delighted to find that
I had some live thing in the shaft with me.
I advanced and took up the little animal,
which hardly made an attempt to escape, j
As I held it in my hands I could feel its
heart beating so rapidly that the pulsations
could not be counted. 'Here,' thought I, 'are
a few mouthsful of food that may l)e eaten
without loathing. As I held the squirrel in
my hand, thinking whether to kill and eat it
then, or to await a still more dire extremity,
I happened to cast my eyes upward toward
the ladders, when 'now,' thought I, 'if this
were a carrier-pigeon, a sparrow, or a bird of
any kind, it might be the means of saving
me.' Then it occurred to me that I might
make a better use of the squirrel than to
eat it1
"Taking out my memorandum book I wrote
the note you found on your cabin floor, wrapped
it about the body of the squirrel, and tied
it there with a bit of thread drawn from my
hankerchief, and wound it many times around
the little animal. I then tossed it to the
platform, which I longed so much to reach.
I saw it land on the platform, and then saw it
make its way up the first ladder above, after
which I saw nothing more of it. I prayed
most earnestly that something might come of
this silly-looking experiment, then fell asleep,
and awoke and prayed again.
"All seemed of no use, however, and I was
on the point of trying once more to eat one
of the digusting dead squirrels in the shaft,
when a voice?it seemed from Ileaven?said :
'Jacob, are you there V' and you came and
found me."
"All is now clear as day," said I. "The
squirrel, with your note tied upon his body,
wandered down the side of the mountain, was
seen by my old cat 'Cliispa'?the greatest
hunter in the State?who pounced upon him,
and brought him home to show him to me ;
fooled with him about the cabin and finally
killed him. when the note was dislodged and
fell upon the floor, where it was found by me.
Yes, and old 'Chispa' even had the sense to
bring me the remains of the squirrel when he
found me wondering about the note?as much
as to say, 'I found it struck upon this fellow.'"
"Why, that's the simplest thing in the
I world, after all,'' said Jacob Pritchard, and
all hands said, "It is 110 mystery, after all."
ijjgj," A11 old gentleman who was in the habit
of prefixing "I say," to every sentence to
which he gave utterance, having heard that
his man-servant mimicked him, thus addressed
the ill-behaved domestic when he met him : "I
say, John, they say that you say that I say lI
sayand if I do say 'I say,' I say that is 11.0
reason why you should say I say 'I say,' I say,
John."
MAKING HOME ATTRACTIVE.
It lias latterly been discovered that the reas-1
! on why men, whether young or old, take to ;
j dissipation and drunkenness, is the fact that
j home is not made attractive to them. Form-!
j erly we were told that intemperance was the I
exclusive work of the rum seller, who com-;
pelled his fellow men to drink. As a matter I
of fact, no one except a professional temper-!
ance lecturer has seen the rumseller engaged
in his favorite occupation of invading peaceful
homes, dragging fathers and sons from ;
their beds, and by force of arms compiling ,
them to come to his place of business and buy j
vast quantities of rum. Such, however, must j
formerly have been the constant practice, or j
else there was some mistake in the assertion
that he is alone responsible for intemperance,
and that the poor innocent drunkard is his defenceless
and pitiable victim.
After the public has grown tired of hearing
of the infamous exploits of the rumseller, it
was discovered that men drank rum and went
to objectionable places of amusement because
their homes were not made attractive. Such
was the defence which Mr. Higginbottom, of
West Thirty-eighth street, urged in his own
behalf. He admitted that lie was accustomed
to drink more than was good for him, and that
he frequently ^ent his evenings at low concert
saloons, but he insisted that the fault was
all his wife's. She did nothing to make home
attractive. It Ts true that she furnished him
with a comfortable dinner, but after dinner
nothing was done to make him happy. He
could either put on his slippers and sit down
before the grate fire to read, or he could talk
with his wife, who was a bright, affectionate,
and cheerful little woman, but such occupations
as these could not have any possible
charm for a man of intellect and taste. Mr.
Iliggiubottom deeply bewailed his fondness
for rum, and concert saloons, but he appealed
to all unprejudiced men to concede that he was
really blameless. "If my home was only made
attractive to me, gentlemen," he was in the
habit of saying to the members of a leading
temperance society, who periodically called on
him to urge him to reform, "I would gladly
spend my evenings at home ; but as it is I am
literally driven to seek comfort elsewhere,
though I am a man eminently fitted to enjoy
the pleasures of home life." So struck were
several temperance men witli the force of Mr.
Iligginbottom's remarks, that not long ago
they called upon his wife and begged her to
make an effort to save her unhappy husband
by making his home attractive.
Mrs. Iligginbottom consented to make the
desired effort, and, as a first step, visited her
husband's favorite concert saloon, under the
protection of a disguise and a detective officer.
When she had learned what were the attractions
which most powerfully appealed to Mr.
Iligginbottom's mind, she proceeded to reproduce
them, as far as practicable, in her own
house. She had the parlor carpet taken up
and the bare floor nicely sprinkled with beer
and the stumps of cigars. She removed the
pictures from the walls, and hung in their
places cheap and gaudy chromos, representing
impossible young women in undesirable costumes.
Two dirty wooden tables and a supply
of wooden chairs from the kitchen, completed
the furniture of the room, and it began to assume
a really attractive appearance.
Before the hour of her husband's return
from business, Mrs. Iligginbottom hired a man
to play 011 an accordeon and another to torture
a violin, besides three professional drunkards
of great indecency of appearance and conduct,
and a notorious burglar, kindly furnished for
the occasion by the police captain of the precinct.
There were in the kitchen two Irish
girls who were decidedly ugly, but who were
clean, decent, and modest girls. These two
she instructed in the art of serving beer and
spirits, and dressed them in costumes that
were extremely vulgar, though they could not
i.? i i.~ :?, tt : 11 j
uk sum to uk uupiupKi. imving inusarrangeu
things, slie met her husband at the door and
escorted him to the dining-room, where he ate
his dinner, unconscious of the transformation
that had been wrought in the front parlors.
After dinner, Mr. Iligginbottom lit his cigar
and remarked that he must go out for an
hour or two to see a friend. His wife, with a
sweet smile, told him that he need not go out,
for she had finally discovered how to make
home attractive to him. So saying, she led
him into the parlor and showed him to a seat
at one of the dirty tables. The fiddler and the
accordeon player immediately struck up; the
drunkards, at a sign fromMrs. Iligginbottom,
began to swear and wrangle, and the burglar
sidled up to Mr. Iligginbottom and invited
him to take a drink. The two Irish girls
brought beer and spilled it on Mr. Iligginbottom's
table ; they called him "Dear," and ask:
ed him to "open a bottle of wine," and Mrs.
Higginbottom apologized for the fact that
they were undeniably decent girls, assured her
husband that nevertheless she was confident
that she had finally learned how to make home
attractive ; that she hoped to spend many jolly
evenings with him, and would like a hot whisky
without any further delay.
Mr. Higginbottom was at first completely
dazed, but in a few moments he recovered his
reason. He ordered the girls to go into the
kitchen and stay there, and he pitched the
drunkards out of the front door and ordered
the musicians and burglars to follow them.
Then he informed his wife that he had been an
idiot of the very largest size, and that if she
would restore the parlor to its former condition
he would stay at home and make no further
complaint of its want of attractiveness.
Mrs. Iligginbottoni's plan cannot very well
be followed by other women, but it was certainly
a brilliant success. Mr. Iligginbottom
has ceased to spend evenings away from home,
and he has informed his temperance friends
that the real reason why he formerly frequent
ed disreputable places was the fact that he
was a fool and a scoundrel. The temperance
people are, of course, glad that he reformed,
but they still maintain that men become dissolute
and drunken solely because their homes
are not made attractive.
Elkphnts.?The Kev. Mr. Collins, a naturalist,
twenty-five years resident in Ceylon,
says that elephants there live about 130 years,
and "come of age" at 40. There are three
sizes of them in the same herds, and when they
are young the size which they will attain is
pretty nearly known by the number of their
toes. Those which grow to the largest size
have eighteen toes, five on each of the two fore
feet, and four on each of the hind ones. Those
which grow to a medium size have seventeen
toes, five 011 each of the fore feet, and four on
one hind foot and three on the other. The
least size of elephant has sixteen toes, five 011
each fore foot and three on each hind foot.
No Singhalese elephant has a fewer number
than sixteen toes. The mahout, or elephant
driver, rules his elephant by means of an iron
hook, with which he touches the most sensi
tive part behind the ear, which causes the
most unruly elephant to become submissive.
When Mr. Colons was in Kandy, an elephant
which hud killed his keeper, and which had
been shot in the head before it could be captured,
had to undergo the operation of having
the bullet extracted, which was performed by
the native doctors, the elephant lying quietly
down while the mahout kept his hook on this
sensitive part. The elephant drivers are a
drunken set of men, and sometimes while
drunk will treat their charge unmercifully,
and the elephant itself is an animal which
bears grudges?the result being that nearly
all the elephant keepers are sooner or later
killed.
Till? * PT ftP 1(TTPPIVC.?
A petty but endless trouble of the traveler
in Europe for the til'st time is the matter of
gratuities. You give a trifle to every one
who does you the least service. Even for an
apparently friendly word of information on
the street you are expected to pay in this way.
In England it is a "tip in France, the pour
boire; in Italy, buom maim, the good hand ;
trinkyeld, drink money. It is not much money
in any instance, but foots up pretty well after
an active day's work. Tlie practical trouble,
however, is to know what to give. The inhabitants
and the servants themselves know exactly
what they are entitled to, for it is a matter
of right, just as any other charge, although
the amount is never fixed or published in any
written form for the information of strangers.
They must learn it by experience.
For the gratuity of cab drivers, waiters at
restaurants, etc., the recognized European
usage is, in England, one penny for every shilling
spent in fare or at the table, and in France
and Italy two sous for every franc spent.
This rule disposes of a large portion of the
cases.
For porters, two pence in England and two
sous 011 the Continent, for every piece of luggage
handled, if it is only to cany it across
the pavement. An umbrella or a shawl is a
piece as well as a trunk. The driver of an
omnibus, cab or fiacre, as a point of etiquette
and out of professional consideration for the
porters, will refuse to touch a piece of luggage
himself, even to lift it from three feet,
away into his vehicle.
Visiting at private house of the upper classes
in England, the servants expect their tips
in gold coin if your stay is over a day or two.
The smallest English gold coin is a ten shilling
piece?$2.50. You see the footman, who attends
your bedroom; the maid, if you have
ladies, who serves your chamber ; the butler,
who has charge of the dining room and force.
of waiters the keeper, if you hunt; the
groom, if you ride, or the head of the stables,
if there are several, and generally any servant
that you specially use. You will soon learn
by intuition how to grade these fees according
to the rank of the servants and the length of
your visit.
On first-class ocean steamers the gratuities
are much analogous to those in a gentleman's
house. The steward who waits on you at the
table and the one who attends your stateroom
will each expect a fee in gold?10 shillings,
$2.50, at least?from a siugle passenger; a
pound, if you have baths brought into your
room every morning,- are particular about
having your wines warmed or iced, or, in short,
use the servants up to their full capacity.
When the passage is 860 to 875, or less, these
fees are less?about one-half of the figures
above. The "boots" also looks to be remembered,
about one-half the amount given the
steward.
The usage degrades, and demoralizes, and
unmans him who takes the veil, or gift, or
tip, or bounty, or whatever you please to call
it; yet a very great portion of the people of
Great Britain and Europe do receive their
wages in this way, look for it, and feel no
humiliation in the transaction. You can
hardly insult anybody across the water by
offering them anything, no matter what appears
to be his or their official position. I
have given a shilling in London to uniformed
policemen and a franc in Paris to magnificent
looking hotel managers.
A Philadelphia acquaintance in London had
several hundred dollars brought to him from
his banking house, one of the largest there,
by a clerk of the establishment, and the nattily
dressed young gentleman asked for a shilling
for his services. Imagine the consequences
of offering 10 cents to a conductor of the
Pennsylvania railway who had shown you to
your seat in the car and given you information
as to when to get out, yet this is done
all over England every day, and the uniformed
and respectable looking guard hangs around
stickily till he gets his sixpence.?Philidelphia
Press.
Tiie North Pole.?Some people have asked
: "What good can result from finding the
pole ?" The late Professor Henry is on record
as saying the magnetism of the earth requires
more observations in this direction than have
been made; that we cannot complete oui
knowledge of the tides of the ocean, or of the
winds of the globe, without finding the pole ;
besides that the whole field of natural history
will be enriched by it, especially botany, geology
and mineralogy. The facts about the effects
of extreme cold on animal and vegetable
life cannot but be interesting. As Professor
Henry said, it will lead not only to enlarging the
sphere of mental pleasure of man, but will
promote the application of science to the arts
of life. Professor M. F. Maury puts it in this
way:
"Within this polar area the tides have their
cradle, and whales their nursery. There the
wind completes the circuit, and the currents
of the sea their sound, in the wonderful system
of oceanic circulation; there the aurora
is lighted up and the trembling needle brought
to rest; and there, too, 111 tne mazes 01 tnat
mystic circle, terrestrial forces of occult power,
and of vast influence upon the well being
of man, are continually at work. It is a circle
of mysteries, and the desire to enter it, to
explore the untrodden wastes and secret chambers,
and to study its physical aspects, have
grown to a longing."
There is an unknown area of 1,131,000 square
miles of the surface of the globe that is now a
blank. We cannot tell whether this area is
land or water. This question, among others,
these explorations will determine.
Oiut.in of Familiar Phrases.?The well
known saying that the shoe-maker should
stick to his last, originated with Appelles, the
celebrated Greek painter, who set a picture he
had finished in a public place and concealed
himself behind it in order to hear the criticisms
of passers-by. A shoe-maker observed a
defect in the shoe, and the painter forthwith
corrected it. The cobbler came again the
next day, and, encouraged by the success of
his first remark, began to extend his censure
to the leg of the figure, when the mad painter
thrust out his head from behind the picture
and told the shoe-maker to keep to his trade.
"Going the whole hog." This phrase originated
in Ireland, where a British shilling has
been called "a hog" time out 01 mina. m
Ireland, if a fellow happened to have a shilling
when he met a friend, he would announce
that he would stand treat, even if the expense
reached the whole amount?in plain words,
that he would "go the whole hog" to gratify
him.
There is a mode of declaring by the words
"he has kicked the bucket," that a person is
dead. There is a tradition that one Balsover,
having hung himself to a beam while standing
on the bottom of a pail or bucket, kicked the
vessel away in order to pry into the future, and
li 11 ?ill. 1. : ? ?
Ill was ail up Willi llllll iiUlU Ult?l luuuiwjy.
PROPER EDUCATION OF GIRLS.
"We frequently hear of the fact that women
are not given the same chance to earn a livelihood
as men, and that women do not receive
for the same work the same compensation that
men receive. Hearing we say, these complaints
so frequently made, set us to thinking deeply
on the subject. We believed there was some
reason, and a good one, for this state of affairs,
and our solution of the problem we wish briefly
to offer for the consideration of our readers.
We believe the trouble lies in a great measure
in the fact that girls are not taught as boys
are, that they must rely upon their own exertions
for support, and the comforts of life;
and, therefore, they do not prepare themselves
properly for a successful competition with men
in the different pursuits of business life. The
fault lies principally with the parents. You
instil into the minds of your girls, both by the
manner of their education in the school-room
and by your home teachings, the very strongest
principles of dependence. On the other hand,
you do all in your power to teach your boys
self-reliance and a manly independence. You
say to them, learn while you are boys to take
care of yourselves when you become men.
It is neither fair nor right to make this distinction
; give your girls the same chance that
you do your boys; teach them, too, self-reliI
ance while young. Give them not only a good
I but a useful education with a view to sup|
porting themselves, even if tl\ey are never
j called upon to put it in practice. One would
not abolish the carrying ot lire-preservers on
our steamers merely from the fact that they
are seldom used. Women do not succeed in
business so well as men, for the simple reason
that they are not, by their early teachings, so
well fitted for it. When women fit themselves
for and do the same work as men, they will be
able to obtain employment as readily as men
obtain it, and will receive as high a compensasation
for the work done. Let the parent,
then, when he gives his boy a business education,
do as much in justice to his girl. The
ladies' department of our colleges has much
increased, of late, in size. We think it is a
goOd sign, and hope that parents will reflect on
what we have said.?College Journal. ,
LONG LIFE.
A great many people are worrying about
this and that as being injurious to health, and
living in dread less they should do something
to shorten their days. But it may do us all
good to remember that longevity is largely a
matter of inheritance, and depends very little
on what we do or do not do, provided we do
not commit suicide. Whether we live long or .
briefly on the earth is a matter'that was largely
settled before we were born. Our ancestors
and yours, reader, had more to do with the
solution of that problem than we can have.
The truth is, as science teaches, longevity
is a family trait.- Sobriety, and a regard for
principles of hygiene, will not necessarily insure
long life. These may maintain a condition
of health and vigor, but length of life is*
largely determined by inheritance. Longevity
is a talent. It may be improved like any oth.
er talent, or it may be wasted, but no amount
I of cultivation will create it. In spite' of in
temperance and exposure, a man who has this
talent for long life may become a centenarian.
A saddler, aged 113, whose grandfather died
at 112, and his father at 112, was asked by
Louis.XIV what he had done to attain to
such length of days, and replied : "Sire, since
I was 50,1 have acted upon two principles : I
have shut my heart and opened my wine cellar."
Again, Golombrewski, a Pole, notwithstanding
the hardship of eighty years of service
as a common soldier, the fatigues of thirty-five
campaigns under Napoleon, the sufferings
of the terrible Eussian campaign, the effects
of five wounds, and the recklessness of a
soldier's life, survived, and in 1846 was still
living at the age of 102. But, it is to be observed,
his father attained the age of 121, and
his grandfather 130. A well-known literary
character, M. Quersonnieres, was living at
five-score in the full possession of all his powers.
He said: "My family descends from
Methuselah; we must be killed to die; my
grandfather was killed by accident at 125 years
of age, and I," he added, smiling, "invite you
to my burial in the next century."
? ?
Sixty Miles . a Minute on a Tin Pan.
Arthur Fitzpatrick, who returned from Colorado
a short time ago, gives the following
glowing: account of an occurrence in the mining
districts of which he was an eye-witness:
"A miner and some companions were crossing
the Continental Divide when it was covered
with snow. Three miles below them,
down a decline of forty-five degrees, deeply
covered with frozen snow, lay the spot they
desired to reach, while to go around by trail
was fifteen miles. The miner took a tin pan,
used for washing gold, spread his blanket over
it, got in himself, in a squatting position on
his haunches, tucked the blanket around, held
his rifle and other traps over his head and got
one of his companions to give him a push,
lie informed me he went down at the speed of
sixty miles a minute, and shot far out into the
valley at the foot of the mountain. When he
stopped he found the soldering of the pan
melted from friction, his blanket on fire, and
it was his impression that had he gone much
further he would have been burned up, together
with all his traps."?Pittsburg Tclegrap/i.
The Montenegrins have customs that
might teach civilized nations many a lesson.
They never :;o to law. Lawsuits, costs, fines,
damages, fees, replevins, mortgages, appeals,
decisions, etc., are unknown to these simple
children of nature. If a Montenegrin has a
dispute with a neighbor about a piece of land,
do they have surveyors, and then go to court
about it ? Not they. They quietly and peaceably
take their rifles, and a couple of swords
like scythe-blades, and have a friendly discussion
about the matter on the edge of a cliff
half a mile or so high. One gets cleft down
into his boots, and the other, or perhaps both,
tumble down the half mile, and "the whole
matter is forever settled. Yet so-called civilized
people would haggle years and years about
the thing in chancery.
A clergyman, who was consoling a young
widow on the death of her husband, spoke in
very serious tones, remarking that he was
"one of the few, such a jewel of a Christian?
you cannot find his equal, you well know.' To
which the sobbing fair one replied, with an
almost broken heart: "I'll bet I will!"
i