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& . " lewis m. grist, proprietor. | Inbfpfnirml J'amilg ftetospper: tjje |romation of tlte |olrtical, Social, ^grinxltnrai anH Commercial Interests of t|e Sontj). |terms--$2.50 a year, in adtance. VOL. 28. * YOEKYILLE. S. C.. THURSDAY. DECEMBER 21, 1882. HO. 51. Original ?odrg. . Written for the Yorkville Enquirer. THE RECKLESS SPIDER. BY EZEKIEL SMOKER, ESQ. Behold, what comes here? It is a spider! Descending on a thread with lightning speed ; Indeed, he's a bold and daring rider, And he'll be on me, too, without great heed. Puff! Why has he thus dared to leave the ceiling, Where, it seems, he's made firm and fast his thread, To be attracted down by the gleaming Of the candle here, shining so bright and red ? Puff! Or can it be this veturous insect I Has been induced to take this downward tlight, Because he thinketh all his deeds correct, And so very jnst that thev will bear the light? Puff! Be this as it may, he's fast descending, Heeding not the breeze that drives him to and fro; . But I'll be patidnt and see the ending iLI "J n.t.o.o ho rot mov trrt. KJl IU1S WliU rouic, auu nuovuv J~. ? ? Puff! 'Pon my word, he's making rapid headway, For some daring purpose or reckless gain; 'Tis, perhaps, to make some frail thing his prey, Regardless of its rights, if he but gain. Puff! But in mercy I'll fight the creature back. I take no pleasure in beholding pain, And I see he's on a dangerous track, And if not turned will perish in the flame. Puff! See hanging now, he swiflgs o'er the taper, O, headlong wanderer, get thee back again, XV But he will not heed, and through the vapor Fast he sinks down into the burning flame! Puff! Mercy! how he twists and writhes in agony! I saw this end, and warned him of his shame; But wild and reckless he plunged on his way, With speed down to fire and unending pain. Puff! This was but a poor, unreasoning insect; Time and all else will soon be o'er with him. Behold, that's his last struggle; his life is spent, And there he roasts?a spirit black and grim. Puff! Yea, even now to a cinder he's burned. Poor thing! he went as all the reckless goMost rapidly, and even unconcerned, The shortest way to death and endless wo! Puff! But, O my soul, why should any mortals, Like spiders, run the brittle thread of life, Till at last it snaps at death's dark portals, There evermore to sink in endless grief ? Puff! But men, like the spider, oft refuse to turn, ^mvn QnmA riskv ? nen lurtju i\v uusv tiguio .. .. 4. track, Till Death has laid tliem in his silent urn, And God, for judgment, calls their spirits back! Puff! Mia??j???i^?<?OM?w?! She ftartr idler. i THEMISSUfW WITXm ! . "I'm afraid it's a bad case," I said to myself, as I laid down my brief, after reading it "" over for the third or fourth time, and leaned back in my chair to reconsider it for about the twentieth. "A bad case, and I am sorry for It." I waS a barrister, young, l>oth in years and professional standing, and this was the first brief of any importance I had ever held. My client was an Italian sailor named Luigi Bernini, and the crime of which he was accused j was robbery; the plunder being the lifelong | savings of a woman upward of eighty years of i age, which the poor creature kept hidden in ! the thatch of her little cabin. The witnesses were the old woman herself, who had been stunned by a severe blow from the perpetrator of the theft, and a neighbor, who denosed to having met the prisoner in the immediate vicinity ofthe cabin. When Ber-1 nini was arrested* some days later, a curious foreign coin, identified as a part cf the stolen j hoard, was found in his pocket. This, howev- ; er, he accounted for by saying that he had j picked it up on the road. The weak point in the chain of evidence was a scarcely percepti-1 ble hesitation on the part of one of the wit- { nesses. She had at first declared positively that the prisoner was the man whom she had seen going toward old Joan's cabin, and had afterward adhered to this statement with what afterward appeared to be dogged obstinacy, rather than real conviction. ? The prisoner himself positively denied having been in the neighborhood at all on the day of the robbery, but unfortunately he could not speak with certainty as to his whereabouts. He had been lately dismissed from hospital, j scarcely convalescent, after a bad fever ; his own ship had left the port, and he had been rejected by the captains to wiiom he had offered ; his services, as not being sufficiently robust | for a sailor's work. He had a little money left j and, therefore, took to wandering aimlessly ' about the country, intending, as soon as the Columbia returned, to ship aboard of her again. , His mind had been weakened and confused by j his illness, and although he knew that for sev-: eral days preceding and following that of the j robbery, he had been in a part of the country i fully twenty miles distant, he could not posi-; tively say where he had been, or to whom he had spoken on the day in question. Many in- ; quiries had been made, and many persons in- j terviewed, who remembered "the poor foreign ; chap," but no accurate information as to dates | was forthcoming. As the testimony of the person who had extended her hospitality to him, ' "either of a Tuesday or a Thursday, she could j not say which," would not, unfortunate- j ly, carry much weight in a court of justice, I had to trust for a defense to the cross-' examination of the witnesses, whose character for veracity I hoped, by judicious management of the usual forensic weapons, to compel them to annihilate with their own lips. I much regretted this want of evidence, as I was strongly prepossessed in favor of the prisoner;soinething frank and honest in his face making it difficult for me to believe him guilty of the cowardly crime of which he was accused. Besides, it was, as I have said, my first important case, and self-interest and professional instinct alike prompted me to desire the successful issue. But of this I had little hope. T 1.,ia ooi/ln mtr at lonrrHi iirifl ivpnt nn J. 1CV1U (bOIUV ik/tiv*. I?V v,.% ..J, to the drawing-room, where I was greeted by my cousin and hostess with a somewhat petulant reproof for having lingered so long over those musty law papers. Alice and I had been children together?a big girl and a little boy?we had grown from playfellows into friends, and since her marriage her house in Carrigarvan had been my restingplace in assize times. I was at no loss to understand the cause of her vexation at my tardy appearance. She was somewhat of a matchmaker, and having no one but myself on whom to exercise her talents, she had devoted them exclusively to my serviee. She had already decided on a suitable wife for me, and was exerting herself to the utmost to bring about the marriage. The chosen young lady was present, and I knew that Alice was much annoyed with me for devoting the evening to my brief instead of to Dora Lyne. The latter was the daughter of a solicitor in good practice, and was herself a very pretty, bright-looking girl, who would, I was compelled to admit, be a most desirable wife for a young unknown barister. I was thoroughly fond of Alice, and she was my chosen confidante whenever I needed one ; but I could not tell her even that the true reason which prevented Dora Lyne's brown eyes and sweet voice making their due impression on me wa9 the remembrance of a face seen but during a three-hours' railway journey, a face with dark gray eyes and quiet, thoughtful expression, and of a voice heard at somewhat intervals in the space of time, whose lowpitched tones still vibrated in my imagination. ; Alice would have been too good-natured to | laugh at me, but I felt sure that, had she : known the state of the case, she would have 1 entertained, and probably expressed, fears that i over-study had affected my brain?an opinion | that would probably have been shared by all ! persons whose characteristic was common j sense. Miss Lyne, perceiving that Alice was vexed | with me, and wishing, I think, to show that she did not share the feeling, called me over to look at some prints and photographs which she was examining. "Alice," said Miss Lyne, at length, "did you show Mr. Lest range the sketch you found in that book V" "No," said Alice ; "I forgot it. You will find it in that volume of the "Stones of Venice" on my table, Richard. It is really a beautiful sketch. I wonder how it came to be forgotten in the book." I brought the book to Dora Lyne, who turned over the leaves until she found the drawing, which she put into my hands. The moment I saw it I uttered an exclamation of surprise, which brought my cousin at once to my side. It was a spirited water-colored sketch of a man's head?a dark, foreign-looking face sur mourned oy areu cap. il was, iiuwcyw, unmer the skill of the artist nor the picturesque beauty of tho model that attracted my attention ; it was in the fact that in the somewhat peculiar features of the latter I recognized those of my client, Luigi Bernini. "What an odd coincidence !" said Alice, when I had explained. "I wonder who could have taken the sketch?some one who knows how to handle a brush," she added, looking critically at it. "See, here are initials and a date, buc they are so faint that I cannot make them out." "Let me try," said Dora ; "I have good sight." She took the sketch over to the lamp and scrutinized it closely. "W. M. D., but I cannot make out the date. Stay, I have it. May 10th, 13? "May 10?why, that was the very day of the robbery," I said. Then the full significance of this date flashed suddenly upon me and I adsolutely turned giddy. "T1 e alibi 1" I gasped?"If we could find the man who did that sketch, we might succeed in proving the alibi." Dora Lyne grasped my meaning with ready quickness* "Morrison's library that book came from, was it not, Alice V They ought to be able to tell you there who had it on, or immediately after, the 10th of May.". 'And the person, whoever she or ne is, will have to be hunted up," I said, "and there's so little time. This is Monday and the trial is fixed for Wednesday.. I supjwse Morrison's is closed by this, Alice ?" "Indeed it is," she answered. "You would find no one there now but a caretaker. You must just wait patiently until to-morrow, Richard." I had perforce to wait ; as to the patience with which 1 did so, the less said the better. The following morning found me at Morrison's library. On explaining my business, I was referred to the clerk in charge of the library department, from whom I totally failed to obtain the required information. The young man who usually attended to that part of the business was away ; i# I could call next week?" I intimated with what appeared to me, at the time, most praiseworthy self-control, that next week would not do, giving a partial explanation of the circumstances. But the clerk, although apparently willing to help me, professed himself quite unable to do so. "You see, sir," he said, "if you wanted to know what book any subscriber had out at a given time I could probably tell you, but as for ascertaining the whereabouts of a special book?it's an impossibility. If you like to look over our entries for yourself, you tire welcome to do so." I accepted this offer, and spent a good part of the day in turning over the blotted pages wherein were inscribed the names and course of reading of Morrison's. And an unprofitable morning's work it was. The record in all appearances imperfectly kept, and I failed to trace the second volume of the "Stones of Venice" through a period longer than three weeks, during which time it had twice changed hands. Some hours more were spent in hunting up the persons in whose possession it had been for that length of time, neither of whom could give any information concerning the sketch. An application to Bernini himself was equally fruitless. lie remembered that a lady and gentleman whom he had met during his wanderings had asked him to sit to them, but he did not know who they were, nor could he even make it clear where the incident had occurred. I returned home at dinner-time, tired and baffled, to report my failure to Alice and her husband, from whom I received much sympathy but no suggestion of any practical value. I had given up hope, and was endeavoring to dismiss the subject from my thoughts, when late in the eveing the hall door-bell sounded and a message came up that a person wanted to speak to Mr. Lestrange. Going down I found a bright-looking boy, one of the sbop assistants at Mr. Morrison's, who had been for a short time aiding in my investigation of the entries. "I think I have what you want, sir," he said, as I entered the room. "It was in my mind all that day that I had given out the book to someone, I couldn't think who, and a chance word that I heard this evening brought it all back to me like a flash. It was to Mrs. French, of litdeourt. that leave it., and it must have been on the 3rd or 4th of Miiy. Here is the lady's name and address, sirand he handed me a slip of paper on which was written "Mrs. French, Redcourt, Kilearran."' It was in Kilcarran or tiie neighborhood that, according to Bernini's own statement, he had spent the day of the robbery. Thanking and dismissing the lad, I returned to the drawing-room with my prize. The next step was to communicate with Mrs. French. Kilearran was fully fifteen miles from Carrigarvan, and the trial was to begin the following morning. "Hand me over that railway guide. Dick," said Alice's husband. "I thought so?no train before ten. There's nothing for it but for me to drive to Kilearran the first thing in the morning?the mare can easily do it in two hours?and if 1 lind that any one there can give evidence worth having, I'll bring them back with me, and have them in court before the case for the defense opens." The trial began next morning, proceeding at | an unusually rapid rate. It seemed to me ! that the learned counsel for the prosecution j had never before put forth his wisdom and I legal knowledge in so condensed a form. The j cross-examination of the witnesses was of i course in tny hands, and I did my best to make ; it as tedious as possible, totally failing, how CI", III III jtllr-Ull'lO III l/Ulllll^c llll lll ?<1 vuu.n, j them to contradict themselves. My only hope i lay in the unknown witness, and of him there ; were no tidings. The case for the prosecu! tion closed and the court adjourned for lunch ; I was standing in the barroom, thinking over my speech for the defense, and mentally re-ari ranging my sentences after the manner of the ; most prosy member of the circuit, when a note ; was handed to me: "All right?the witness I is in the sheriff's room." Going into the sheriff's room 1 found my j cousin, accompanied by a strange lady and gentleman. j "This is the prisoner's counsel," said the j former, as I entered. "Allow me to introduce , Mr. Lestrange?Miss Darey, Mr. French." I j turned to the lady as her name was pronoun ! ced, and. I am afraid, forgot to bow, in my i surprise and delight at recognizing iti the tall, j fair-haireil girl before my dream of the last | six months ; my unknown love, another i glimpse of whom had been my chief desire ; ever since I lost sight of her as she stood on I the platform of the little roadside station where she had alighted. "It was Miss Darcy who did that sketch," j said my cousin, "and she remembers all about i it." j "Yes," said the girl, "the sketch was taken j at Killcarran on the 10th of May. 1 remem| berall the circumstances perfectly, and should ' have no difficulty in identifying the original." Having by a few hurried ijuestions convinced myself of the value of Miss Darcy's testimony, I took her and her brother-in-law, placing them where they had a full view of the prisoner. Miss Darcy looked attentively at the latter for a minute and then said, decidedly : "Yes, that is the man." I opened the case for the defense in as few words as possible, and then called up my witness?Winifred Darcy. She gave her evidence very well, in grave, concise language, without irrelevance or circumlocution. She stated that she lived at Redcourt with her sister, Mrs. French and that on the 10th of May she and her cousin had spent the greater part of the day sketching by the river-side at Kilcarran. At about 2 o'clock a gust of wind had carried her hat into the stream, whence it was recovered by the prisoner, who happened to pass by the moment. Interested by something in his appearance, they tried to enter into conversation with him, but without much success, his English being very imperfect. They, however, managed to make him understand that they wished to employ him as a model, and he sat to them patiently for more than an hour, at the end of which time he went away with many expressions of gratitude for the money they gave him. Miss Darcy would have been certain as to the date, even if it had not been affixed to the drawing (which was produced in court), as her cousin I had arrived at Kilcarran- on the SthmfMay, j and left on the 11th. j Cross-examination failed to cast any doubt ; on the accuracy of Miss Darcy's evidence, ! while her veracity was of course above suspicion. The j 1117 professed themselves satisfied with the evidence, and declining to hear counsel for the defense, returned a verdict of ''Not Guilty." The prisoner was seized upon by some of his compatriots, who were serving on the mixed jury, and carried off in triumph, somewhat dazed by the change in his prospects. Some months afterward, a man, dying from the effect of a hurt received in a drunken brawl, acknowledged himself guilty of the crime of which Bernini had been accused. He also was an Italian, and bore sufficient resemblance to his countryman in height and complexion to account in some degree for the mistake of the witness. As for me, I date the beginning of both my professional success and of my life's happiness fjom the day of Bernini's trial. Mormon Faces.?The Salt Lake Trimne, published in the Mormon country, says: Uiere are three distinct types of faces, denoting stubbornness, ignorance and superstition. The stubborn face first strikes the observer. A forehead like the end of a filbert, crooked nose and a protruding lip. Such faces belong to men who will take the minority side of aiy question and stick to it clean to the gme. Every town has some odd, cranky character who is willing to bet two dollars atd a half that the world is fiat; who denies :hat water . will seek its level, and if 011 a jury always stands out against the othereleven. If he ever lias to leave his native town, he will fetch up in Salt Lake in the Mormon Clurch to a d.ead certainty. He embraces the faith, content to know that 9,999 out of 10,00 look upon it as the grandest sham in tie century. The superstitious class have faces if another type entirely. There is strength 11 the stubborn facp, but none in the soerstitious. | Their under lip retreats ; their chis are hardly discernible, and, sitting with ilated eyes I and open mouth, they drink in tie flood of bosli and drivel from the preacher! absolutely believing that the meaningless lanuagc is the divine inspiration of God. Thencomes the vast array of ignorant faces?whle rows of men who look like chimpanzees fron the jungles of Central Africa ; men with ttlc dimini utive noses, big mouths, cunnin; twinkling I eyes and protruding teeth. The frige of neck I whiskers about the lower part of tj face comI pletes the general resemblance tohe baboon, which is never lost when viewed iim any di- 1 rection. front, side or oblique. These faces only belong to the ccgregation, 1 the tithe-payers. The tithe-eato,, who sit up and do the talking, are of a diflrent order. ] Their faces are stamped withaslet, plausible cunning, and they maintain their ravity and ' decorum with a good show of nalralness as ! they face the poor devils whom tlr have robbed and duped for a half century. Cannon is < a tine type of the sleek-faced apost of fraud { and robbery. To the cbngregatioibelow he ' seems the perfect impersonatio of piety ' 1 | and purity. The cut of his jib, le perfect i J I til-tie). r\t' liit- Irnir unrl flio mil/1 -jrwloritlo Innlr i 1 of his eye all indicate the man whc sleek ex-1( terior is but a mask to cover his nl charae- 1 teristics. The wretches to whom khypocrit-1 * ical sermons are directed drink irlns plati- j tudes like water. ( Finger Nails.?Our finger naigrow out 11 about three times a year ; theyihould be J trilfimed with scissors once a week,:>t so close \ as to leave no room for the dirt to'ither, for then they do not protect the end ofie fingers, as was designed by nature, besides,' trimmed = too close at the corners, there ilanger of their growing into the flesh, causii inconve- ! nience and sometimes great pain, he collections under the ends of the nails sh;ld not be removed with anything harder than brush or * a soft piece of wood; nor should t nails be J scraped with a pen-knife or other italic sub- ; stance, as it destroys the delicat of their : structure and will at length give tin an un- r j natural thickness. We are not favably im- ' | pressed as to the cleanliness of a jrson who f ! keeps his nails trimmed to the qui:, as it is , i often done to prevent dirt gatherg there ; j i whereas, if a margin were allowedt would I be an index to the. cleanliness of le hands, , i i will u ultll iiic i.uiivvhuiio ullvltl lie i nails are made. Leave a margin,ten, and the moment you observe that these Elections need remowal, you may know thathe hands need washing, when they and the najare both cleansed together. Most persons a familiar with those troublesome bits of sn which j loosen at the roots of the finger nis. It is : , caused by the skin adhering to the il, which i j growing outward, drags the skin aloi with it, ! : stretching it until one end gives fay. To j ! prevent this, the skin should be loosed from j j the nail once a week, not with a knior scis-1 I sors, but with something blunt; sh as the j j end of an ivory paper cutter; this ifest done I after soaking the fingers in warm wer, then ' J pushing the skin back gently and skly ; the ; j white specks on the nails are made bjcraping ! j the nail with a knife at a point'here it ; i emerges from the skin, liiting off le nails is an uncleanly practice, for thus theisightly | collections at the ends are kept eat! clean ! j Children may be broken of such a d;v habit by causing them to dip the ends of eir fini gers several times a day in wonnwodiitters, | without letting them know the object If this j is not sufficient, cause them to wearcap on | the end of each finger until the practi is dis- i j continued.?HuWs Journal of Health. The Duty of Dressing Well.-)o not | ' disdain dress and the little nicetiebf the toilet: you may be a very clever worn?per| haps even intellectual; but for all tt you i cannot afford to be careless in these itters. { No woman with any sense of selespect' should allow herself to sink into a do\y; but i whatever be her trials, vexations, aidisap pointments, she should dress as wens her | tuwitimi will ullnw Tin nut ilimfriiipfiiit \vp ; are advocating extravagance ; on theontrp.- i k ry, simplicity is onr motto, which, innited ;r j to good taste, will be found more elftive in 1 j the eyes of husband, father, brother clover, i i ; than tlie most costly attire which t milli- j1 ! ner's art can invent. A simple boin the 1 j hair may look quite as coquettish aifasci- j j nating as a diamond aigrette ; and aotton i ; dress, if fresh and prettily made, m<be as ( | becoming as silk; indeed, we have oft seen j f ' a cotton eclipse a silk. We mention thto il- j< , just rate the fact that riches are little cjpar-11 ! i ed to taste, and that every woman majress j i well if she chooses?that, in fact it is hduty < j to herself and those around her to ds as j i : well as her position will allow. Thoswho j1 ' j accuse us who write of the fashions, a tri- k j viality, forget that it is just as easy toress 11 : well as it is to dress badly, and that taess 11 11 out of fashion requires as much expenmre j 1 ! of thought and care as to dress in it. j i We are always more disposed to lau at t | nonsense than at genuine wit; becausthe i 1 nonsense is more agreeable to us, being ore a , comfortable to our natures ; fools lovelly, i ! and wise men wisdom. e ftttscfUaucous fhadrog. HAOOWEENT From the earliest :inies men have been try ing to look ahead. ?he ancient Egyptians hac oracles where their (ods were supposed to an swer the questions o men by dreams and othei ! ways; the ancient (reeks also had famous or r acles, which people wrae from far-otf lands t( ; consult; the Romais killed certain fowls oi I animals, and guessdat the future by the looks of their internal organs ; the Hebrews and tin i Babylonians had thdr own peculiar ways oi i finding out what ws to happen. The world ! has not yet outgrow) the longing to look ahead. The Hindoo to-dajMets a lamp afloat on his sacred river, and jtilges of the future by the length of time it brns ; the Chinaman consults his "wise mer," who pretend to understand signs; the igwrant African takes notice i of the cries of birdsindanimals; the English? j not long ago?triet to learn by help of what I they call "witches;" ana spiritualists even now believe the prelictioHS of a "medium." No serious attenk to look into the future has been made for a long time by intelligent people, and the old customs have become a frolicsome trying ofTttarms," especially on one night of the yeai It is curious enough that the night selectd is the eve of the festival of All Saints, whch was established in the seventh century by jpope of Home, in honor of all the saints whohad no particular day assigned to them. Tie Romans brought this festival to England ;there it became All Hallows, and the evenin; before it Hallow-even or Halloween, and in ;he seventeenth century England gave up tie night to feasting and frolicking. Nuts anl apples were plenty from one end of the islancto the other, and "Nutcrack night," was th name given to it. In England the rebels were for fun, such as diving for apples doting in a tub of water, and, of course, gettiig very wet; or trying to snatch in the teeth ih apple off one end of a stick, which had a lghted candle at the other end, and, being hun* by a string, could be spun around very fast so that the players often seized the candle iistead of the fruit; or a playful fortune-tellinj by naming nuts, roastI ing them before the ire, and watching their conduct when heatel?whether they burned steadily or bounced avay, or burst with a noise, each movement of tie charmed nut being of great importance. One nut test wastred by grinding and mixing together a walnut hazelnut and nutmeg, making into pills witi butter and sugar, and swallowing them on g>ingto bed. Wonderful cireams wouiu ionow wnicn was not surprising). In Scotland the nifht was given entirely to serious and sometime frightful attempts to peer into the future br means of charms. One way of trying fortunewns to throw a ball of blue yarn out of a wiidovv and wind it into a ball again from the other end. Xear the last something would hold it fast, when the winder must ask : "Who holes?" The answer would name one who was ti have importance in the questioner's future. Another Scotch custom was "pulling kalestalks." A young person went blindfolded into the garden, pulled up the first kale or cabbage stalk lie touched and carried it into the house. The whole fuuire was read from that stalk ; the size indicated the stature of the future partner in life ; the quantity of earth at the roots showed the amount of his or her fortune ; the taste of the pith told what the temper would he ; and when the stalk was placed over the door, the first name of the person en lermg was me iaieu name. The island of Lewes, on the coast of Scotland, had some curious customs. Young women made a "dumb cake" and baked it before the fire with certain ceremonies and in perfect silence,- expecting to see wonders; and the people also sacrificed to a sea-god called Shong, throwing a cup of ale into the sea, and calling an him to give them plenty of sea-weed to enrich their grounds. in another Scotch trial a girl would go into i barn, holding a winnowing sieve and stand done, with both doors open, to see her fate. The fashion of trying charms is now nearly Dutgrown among English-speaking people. It mrvives in America as a pleasant frolic for i social gathering. In our own day young jeople "sow hempseed," "cat apples before the *lass," "go down the cellar stairs backward," lold a candle and a mirror. Tjiey also, "pop ihestnuts," "launch walnut shells" holding ;apers, and try the "three saucer" test of the 'ut ure. In some of our cities the boys on Halloween jollect old tea-kettles, boots, large stones, etc., md dejiosit them in clean vestibules, ringing ;he door bell and running away. DELUSIONS OF THE INSANE. Let is now look at another and very nunerous class of patients?namely those laborntr under fixed or transitorv delusions. Some i >atients, although quite able to do easy houseYork?able, in fact, to perform the duties of sveryday life, and to occupy themselves or engage in games with apparent sanity and pro>riety?are, when questioned, found to labor uider the most extraordinary fancies and deas, which in any one not accustomed to the nsane appear preposterous and incredible. Phere is no end to the absurdity and variety >f these perverted imaginations. A man will :onverse with you quite intelligently on the ending article of to-day's newspaper, on the ast budget or railway stock, and then sudlenly inform you that his head is made of jrass, and that be has no inside?that it has K?eu all burnt out; and no amount, of reason-! ng will convince this man to the contrary. | - -1 1 il l 1 4..W.U I .nueeii, mere is nu mure iiujicicss uisn. num iu ittempt to convince an insane person of the alsity of his delusions, lie believes as firmly n the truth of them as we do that we live ; lis ideas are concomitants of strange and tltered feelings, which have a real existence; md until these fancies pass away, they are lot to be removed by demonstration or argunent. .Some patients, though in good cir:uinstances, will imagine that they are finan;ially ruined; others of the most blameless ives, that they have committed sins for which here is no pardon, and that they are eternally loomed. Delusions arc not always of a gloomy nature; >n the contrary, in one of the commonest and nost fatal forms of insanity, exalted delusions are the leading feature. There are parents exhibiting in couutitenance and manner md feeling of well-being, a conviction that ;hey were never better in health, and never stronger, although hardly able to place food n their mouths on account of increasing taralysis. Their extravagant notions know 10 bounds. One will tell us that he is a king, i marquis, or a dukp, nay even at times the \lmighty. At onetime he is possessed of niilions of money and property; at another, he s going to pull down all London to-day, and ebnild it to-morrow. lie invents wonderful midlines, which will make his fortune: he liscovers perpetual motion, or how to square ! lie circle; and imagines that he has been senior Wrangler at Cambridge half a-dozen j imcs running. The asylum in which he lives, i le imagines to be a regal abode; and the! ither patients, courtiers and nobles; and,' 'last scene of all," when strength is failing, md lie can scarcely stand or raise his hand to lis head, he tells us that he can write his lame on the ceiling with a five-hundred-poundveight hanging to his little finger.?Chambers' Tournal. Washington's Punctuality.?When General Washington assigned to meet Confess at noon, he never failed to be passingthe loorof the hall while the clock was striking welve. Whether his guests were present or lot, he always dined at four. Not unfrepiently, new members of Congress who were nvited to dine with him, delayed until dinner vas half over ; and he would" then remark : ?'/? ????A ivimnf Mill liiiro \ftr onnl- I ITCJIlieilieil, WC aic pUiiUtiKU iihl, -4,1J vvun lever asks whether the company lias arrived, jut whether the hour has." When he visited Boston, in 1789, he appointed eight o'clock, V. M., as the hour when he should set out for Salem ; and while the Old South was striking light he was mounting his horse. The corapaly of cavalry which volunteered to escort him vere parading in Tremont street after his delarture, and it was not until theGeneral reachel Charles River bridge, that they overtook him. On the arrival of the corps, the General, i in perfect good natnre, said : "Majors , I thought you had been too long in my family not to know when it was eight o'clock. Captain Pease the father of the stage establish ment in tfv? United States, had a beautiful 1 pair of horses, which he wished to dispose of - to the General, whom he knew to be an excelr lent judge of horses. The General appointed - five o'clock in the morning to examine them. > But the Captain did not arrive with the horses r until a quarter past five, when he was told by j the groom that the General was there at five, and than was fulfilling other engagements, f Pease, much mortified, was obliged to wait a I week for another opport unity, merely for de, laying the first quarter of an hour. ! COTTON ANECDOTES. In a little book published in 184B-, called "Census of the City of Savannah, together k unf h afntiofipc rolntnirr fcrarlo nnmmpmt mechanical arts," etc., of the city, it is stated , that cptton, even then, one of the largest items in the exports of Savannah, Was an article which was almost unknown in commerce until the close of his last century. Of the two kinds cultivated in the United States, the black seed, or loqg staple cotton was first produced in Georgia about the year 178yt and the green seed or short staple cotton, not until some years later, although it had been raised in North Carolina and Virginia, in a limited way prior to the revolution. Its first, cultivators in this State were Messrs. Josiah Tatnall, Nicholas Turnbull, James Spalding and Richard Leake. The first bagexported from Georgia was grown by Alexander Bisset, of St. Simmon's Island, and was shipped from Savannah by Thomas Miller, in 1788. Mr. Miller was still living in Camden county, in 1848, and was one of the first who ever engaged in the purchase of cotton in the Savannah market, where, for a long time, he was the only buyer. He used to purchase it by the pound, in small parcels, and with his own hands assorted and packed it for market. The.industry and interest he displayed in his business, added to the fact that he was the pioneer in cotton buying in the South, gave him the name of "Cotton Miller," by which life was long and generally known. In 1792 the growth of cotton was so inconsiderable, or deemed of so little value as an article of commerce, that Mr. Jay, in his treaty with England, negotiated that year, stipulated that no cotton should be shipped from Ahierica. The United States Senate, however, refused to ratify this article. In 1792 the entire crop of the country was only four hundred and fifty bags, and in 1784 an American vessel that carried eight bags to Liverpool, was seized on the ground that it was impossible for so much cotton to be produced in the United States. In 17P4 the invention of the saw gin by Eli Whitney, of Connecticut, gave a powerful impetus to the culture of cotton, and regarding this most useful invention a very interesting incident is related, which we believe has never 1 heretofore appeared in print. It seems that Mr. Whitney conceived the idea of the gin 1 while he was employed as tutor to Mrs. Gen- 1 eral Nathaniel Greene, at Mulberry Grove, I Chatham county, on the Savannah river, and \ set about carrying his idea into effect, in- i constructed a gin, and when he thought it was 1 perfected invited certain persons from this * section of the State to see it in operation. ' | Among those present was Mrs. Greene, who } I manifested much interest in the invention. 1 : While looking on at the working of the gin, ] | however, it suddenly became clogged from i some cause, and Mrs. Greene took a comb ' from her hair and placed the teeth of it just ' in front of the roller of the gin, so as to un- clog the machine, and the cotton began com- ' ing out beautifully. This little act suggested 1 one of the most important and useful improve- ' ments of his invention to Mr. Whitney. He 1 immediately adopted it, and then for the first 1 time really perfected his gin. This anecdote f was told to Mr. John M. Guerard, of this city, ? I... AC- I) rrrui.ll. I UJ iUl. A. ATA. II itlllgdlUf \IL I/IUMOH ivrv, son of General Greene, who vouched for its ' truth.?Savannah News. ( ?, , 1 PAINTING THE DOME. f The work of repainting the great white dome ( of the capitol, which has been in progress sever- ( al months under the immediate personal supervision of Signor Phillippo Costigini, the well- ( known Italian artist and frescoist, is offering .' daily attractions to hundreds of people, not J a few of whom are visitors from every part of * the country. The men actually employed up- 1 on the outside of the dome are twelve in num- ' her. They are Washington painters, men of ! more than ordinary daring in their profession. 1 who are not afraid to risk their lives for fancy ? prices, and that is what the Government pays * for all its work. 1 The dangers to which these men are daily 1 subject would no doubt freeze the blood in the 1 veins of their loving spouses and cause their hair to stand dizzily on end, but, fortunately t for the good dames, they are told nothing i fhnon Thni' nnlir l?nn r olmtit S ilUl'UL lUUaC JL lit Y KJIUJ 1JUI/WIU the wages. It may seem incredible, but it is a t fact nevertheless, that to repaint the outside 1 of the dome requires fifteen tons of pure white ; lead. Common white paint would wash off s the roof of the dome in the first rain that s came along, and trickle down in big streams, J leaving the dirt as palpable as before. The * work of repainting would not be rendered so c often necessary were it not for the fact that ? the dome is so constructed that the vertical i joints, or ribs, of the walls which are of iron, s as is the entire structure, do not come in ac- a tual contact with each other, thereby allow- c ing the rain to get in and rust. i The painters on the roof of the dome re- t semble nothing so much as tiny dies, and the roi>e ladders stretching down from the top in every direction like hair lines remind one of 3 delicate streaks of molasses, which these flies 1 are working for all they are worth. To reach 1 the bottom of the dome it is necessary to lie c prostrate and climb down these ladders, a 11 proceeding which is not of itself peculiarly i( difficult, but becomes so when he who de- ' scends has a dizzy head, an unsteady nerve, t and is incumbered with too many paint pots, 3 and several brushes. Fortunately no accidents 3 have as yet occurred, although a single mis- I step, or the giving away of a slender piece of t rope, would send the unlucky painter rolling 3 down the steeply curving roof, and off into? ' u'ijII pfprnitv ? The most wonderful tiling about the Cap- :l itol dome, however, is yet to be told. It is 1 said that there was a statue in ancient Egypt, s called Memnon, which whispered sweet words r of melody to the sun as he appeared above the a horizon, and sang him to sleep with wild weird * lullabies. The grand, haughty Goddess of 1 Liberty on the top of the dome has a heart of * bronze, but a good heart for all that, and one c filled with true old Virginia courtesy. ? She has not yet picked up enough courage ' to attempt to do the prima donna act, but r every morning the good dame courtesies .to a the sun. and as he sinks in the west she again v courtesies, but without turning around. Some ^ time since Architect Clark suspended a plum- a met line from the interior of the dome and it v was found by actual measurement that the ^ lead swung over a space of four and one quar- ?' ter inches, making a total dip out of the per- 1. pendicular of eight and one-half inches. This d is caused by the alternate contraction and ex- i pansion of the iron? Washington Post. | The Uses of Adversity.?"There is notli 1 ing in life," says a writer, "so fatal as to be 3 fortunate." Good fortune has little to rouse, 3 draw out the faculties or elevate the soul. On 0 most natures it acts as a sedative. The nobler s parts of the man sink into inactivity and de- a cay. Adversity is a benefactor in disguise. v Advancing with a stern aspect and relentless 3 demands he necessitates self-reliance and rouses e the soul to high endeavor and noble deeds, f? No one knows his own capabilities until he 1 has struggled. The uncounted wealth of the v mine is unknown till the rock is drilled and P blasted. The true wealth of many people is | ^ never developed; their good fortune keeps d them perpetually on the surface. Many a man 11 will have occasion forever to bless the day of 81 trial. It introduced him to himself. ? In the interest of industry as against out- a siders the Richmond State wants to have a tax h of 1,000 per cent, put on all "patent outside" c newspapers, and at the same time a free circu- tl lation of the domestic article through the si mails. v ! CURIOSITIES OF TATSE ANft SftELL. Hunger, which is usually associated with the "mouth watering" and other palatal indications, is really located in the stomach, and ; can only be appeased by the presence of solid matter there. Some tribes of Indians show | their recognition of this fact by swallowing I earth when debarred from food. In the Southern States hunters take with them piilS made I of calcined oyster shell, for use in case their provisions become exhauisted while crossing the prairies ; the trapi>er of the far West mixes hair (which is wholly incapable of digestion) i with his pemmican on a similar principle, superslitiously insisting that it must be the fur of the very animal from the flesh of which the compound has been made, to impart its peculiar virtue ; Kamschatdales stir up sawdust to give body to their train-oil when they are reduced to live on that exhilarating beverage : and the Cingalhese Veddahs mix pounded wood-fibre with honey when they can get nothing else. Thirst, again, really belongs to the i stomach, in spite of the dryness of the mouth uml t.hrnat, which nails' our attention to it. this being engineered by the lack of due fluid 1 proportion in the contents of the blood-vessels, j Both human beings and animals have been seen : to drink till they could drink no longer, without slacking their thirst, when the throat was ] cut and allowed the fluid to escape. Many animals never drink, but absorb sufficient mois- f lure for their tissues from the air or from their food ; there is a parrot in the Zoological Gardens in Regent's Park which has lived there i fifty-two years without a drop of water. < Snakes will go a year or more without food or < water, apparently suffering no inconvenience, < and a beetle has lived three years without ? either. ' The taste and smell of many things are iden- < tical, so to speak ; so that either sense would 1 immediately recognize them, if they had only < been exhibited to the other previously. This < is especially the case with violet, rose, orange, i lemon, and most vegetable essential oils. If we take one long "sniff" at the musk-plant, we cannot detect any odor in it at all on a second inspiration ; and there would seem to be , something peculiar about the scent of sweet- j brier, since it eludes.many people's olfactory j nerves altogether. The idiosyncrasies of indi- r viduals with regard to these two senses are a numberless and entirely inexplicable. Some v faint at the perfume of certain flowers, while * distaste amounting to utter abhorrence of certain ordinary foods has been known to be he- j. reditary in families. The reflex action of j, mental .association may account for this in v some instances, but certainly not in all. Ileat * favors thp nrntpness of both senses, and Cold I * blunts it, it being notorious that the delicate ? flavor and boquet of choice wines are destroyed t by over-icing them.?All the Year Hound. ? 3 Ahout the Sun*.?Speaking of the out- n low of heat from the sun, Prof. Young says : c "The quantity of heat emitted is enough to tl melt a shell of ice ten inches thick over the A whole surface of the sun every second of time ; i'? this is equivalent to the consumption of a a layer of the best anthracite coal nearly four ? inches thick every single second." In regard n ;o the distance of the sun from the earth, he h says: "Though the distance can easily be stated in figures, it is not possible to give iny idea of a space so enormous ; it is quite f* leyond the power of our conception. If one were to try to walk such a distance, suppos- it ng that he could walk four miles an hour, and n ieep it up for ten hours e.very day, it would oi :ake sixty-eight and a half years to make a w single million miles, and more than sixty-three tl itindred years to traverse the whole. If some di .-elestial railway could be imagined, the jour- si ley to the sun, even if our train ran sixty h niles an hour, day and night without a stop, s? -vould require over one hundred and seventy: h ive years. Sensations, even, would not travel infur in <? Vinmnn lifo.finiP To lmiTOW thftCU- Si ions illustration of Professor Mendenhall, if ,ve could imagine an infant with an arm long ? mough to enable him to touch the sun and )urn himself, he would die of old age be'ore the pain could reach him, since accor- oi ling to the experiments of Ilelmholtz and l> >thers, a nervous shock is communicated only w it a rate of about one hundred feet per second, ai )r sixteen hundred and thirty-seven miles a 01 lay, and would need more than one bun- fii lred and fifty years to make the journey. c< sound would do it in about fourteen years if fi t could be transmitted through celestial space; ai md a cannon ball iii about nine, if it were to d nove uniformly with the same speed as when t left the muzzle of the gun. If the earth tl ihould be suddenly stopped in her orbit, and ]c illowed fo fall unobstructed toward the sun, inder the accelerating influence of his attrac- if ion, she would catch the center iu about four ai nonths." d. As to the attraction between the sun and ci die earth : "It amounts to thirty-six hundred pi luadrillions of tons?in figures, 3G followed by la teventeen ciphers. "We may imagine gravita- it ion to cease, and be replaced by a material jond of sort, holding the earth to the sun 0i md keeping her iii her orbit. If, now, we \j iinnAOA f 111 a nnnnoofinn frt nf ? Wph nf ru Up^UOV WJ1U VVUI?VVW*WM VV? vw.?w.w? ?* ?- l>\ iteel wires, each as large as the heaviest tele- \v jraph wire used (No 4), then to replace the et urn's attraction these wires would have to & :over the whole sunward hemisphere of our fc jlobe about as thickly as the blades of grass jj( ipon a lawn. It. would require nine to each ni iquare inch." Tliere are many other facts y< md illustrations as striking as these, and tiie 0< ihapters on the corona and on the solar prom- C( nenees are fine examples of descriptive wri- ;vi ing." t L Provisioning a Steamship?Three thouand five hundreds pounds of butter, three housand hams, one thousand six hundred X1 jounds biscuit?not those supplied to the crew; I1 me thousand of "dessert stores" muscatels, j' dinonds, figs, etc., exclusive of fresh fruits, ire taken in at every port ; one thousand to 11 ive tiiousand pounds of jams and jellies, six housand pounds of tinned meats, one thou- 01 and pounds of dried beans, three thousand ni 1x hundred pounds of rice, five thousand )ounds of onions, forty tons of potatoes, six- f y thousand pounds of flour, and twenty thou- .' and eggs. Fresh vegetables, dead meat, and c ive bullocks, sheep, pigs, geese, turkeys, guin- j?1 a-birds, ducks, fowls, lish and casual game ^ ire generally supplied at each port of call or eplenished at the farther end of the journey, 11 o that it is difficult to obtain a complete est!- !V ate of tliera. Perhaps two dozen bullocks ^ incl sixty stieep wouut ue a ralraverageior me vhole voyage, and the rest may be inferred in * >roportion. The writer has known twenty- st ive fowls sacrificed in a single day to make ihickenbroth. We therefore shan't starve, iven if we are a day or two behind time, which P s considered a great enormity now. The hi nention of chickenbroth suggests sea-sickness P md sea-sickness conjures up the doctor, and ry vith the doctor is associated medicine. His M lispensary is as well furnished with drugs as cc .ny chemist's shop in a country town, and ci vhen we observe that, among other things, it D ontains twelve ounces of quinine, four gal- 01 ons of black draught, twenty pounds Seidlitz th lowders, a gallon of castor-oil, and half a lain- & I red weight of Epsom salts, it is evident that M f the sick people do not get well it is from no in ack.of physic. Four thousand sheets, two ar housaml blankets, eight thousand towels, two w' housand pounds of various soaps, two thou- ne and pounds of candles?except in those ves- Tl els which are fitted with the electric light ; ye ne thousand six hundred knives, two thou- Sc and two hundred plates, nine hundred cups dt nd saucers, three thousand glasses?fancy P? rime a nannsome income me amuuno xejueented by annual loss from breakage would height hundred table-clothes, two thousand in lass-cloths?all these are figures exhibited in py he provendering of one ship alone. Think a" rhat they would amount up to when multi- a lied by the number of ships in each company's in eet, and then try to realize the fact that this se epartment constitutes only one, and by no tv leans the greatest, of their incidental expen- r>; es.?Chambers' Journal. t t , .e the Traveling in Mexico.?In MexW1 in j?st re no hotels nor boarding house? *fV9 staSe thr( irge cities where foreigners rr-"'ces are rar1e' a oaches or other public corJl0Fse^ac^- .,e he travel is mostly do^ed with gold or su- lcm iddle is generally rented. The rowels of at 8 er, and richlv the spurs are as big as a silver dollar, but the points are very dull. The spur seetas intended more to frighten the horse than to hurt him. The Mexicans are expert riders, being so much in the saddle. In traveling quite a retinue of attendants is necessary. You have taken along your bedding on a pack mule, with servants to attend to the mules and the luggage, and a cook to prepare your meals. In many parts of the country it is t necessary to tike your provisions with you, and all the conveniences for camping out. In some cases it is difficult to get drinking water for yourself and your animals unless you buy it. If you cannot reach a settlement at night, you camp out; in town, you can usually rent a room, entirely unfurnished, for the night. The servants spread the bedding on the floor, purchase victuals in the market, and prepare the meal in Mexican style. Bedsteads, tables and chairs are luxuries known only to the wealthy among th6 native inhabitants. Butter the Mexicans do nat know how to make. The sugar is a very crude article, inferior to our darkest brown sugar, and is sold in "little cones, weighing about a pound. Cheese is made in cones of similar size, from goat's milk. Cow's milk Is used only fresh, ana 18 never maae inu> cneese or Duiier. Horses in Mexico are never used for draught purposes, but sire employed only for riding. Mnles and oxen do all the work of transportation. The flue wines made at ElPaso on the llio* Grande are transported in skins, as in Bible times. Bottles, kegs and barrels are almost unknown. In many portions of the country timber is to5 scarce to be used for tasks; and a frame house would be a very jxpensive affair. American influence will joon instil new life into a primitive people. Die railroads now building will be the means >f civilizing the country, developing its immense natural resources. It has a beautiful flimate and vast mineral treasures, which >nly await this foreign stimulus to be made i source of national wealth and prosperity. KISSES. A father talking to his careless daughter aid : "I want to speak to you of your mother. :t may be that you have noticed a careworn ook upon her face lately. Of course it has iot been brought there by ariy act of yours, till it is your duty to chase it away. I want ou to get up to-morrow and get breakfast, ,nd when your mother comes and begins to xpress her surprise, go right up to her and ;iss her on her mouth. You can't imagine iow it will brighten her dear face. Besides ou owe her a kiss or two. Away back when ou were a little girl she kissed you when no me else was tempted by your fever-tainted ireath and swolen face. You were not as atractive then as you are now. And through he years of childishness and sunshine and hadows she was always ready to cure by the nigic of a mother's kiss the little, dirty, hubby hands when ever they were injured in liose first skirmishes with this rough world, tnd then the midnight kiss with which she suted so many bad dreams as she leaned bove your restless pillow have all been on iterest these long years. Of course she is ot pretty and kissable as you are, but if you ad done your share of the work for the past m years the contrast would not be so mark1. Iler face has more wrinkles than yours, ir more, aiid yet if you were sick that face 'ould appear more beautiful than an angel, as hovered over you, watching every opportuity to minister to your comfort, and every ne of those wrinkles would seem to be bright avelets of sunshine chasing each other over le dear face. She will leave you one of these ays. These burdens if not lifted from her loulders will break her down. Those rough, ard hands that have done so many nnnescesiry things for you will be crossed upon her felessbreast. Those neglected lips that gave 3u first baby kisses will be closed, and those id, tired eyes will have opened in eternity, ad then you will appreciate your mother, but ; will be too late." Energy.?Energy of mind is necessary in rder to do good in the world, because it is to e expected that wise and benevolent designs ill be opposed with energy. The greatest ud best purposes have been the most vigorasly opposed. The want of energy disqualies men for every duty of life. All duties are mnected with difficulties from within and om without. Without energy, no man, in ny profession or business of life, can do his uty. Men may acquire energy of mind by placing lemselves under a necessity of acting. So rng as they feel themselves under nonecessi7 of forming and executing any noble and nportant designs, they feel no occasion for squiring energy of mind. But those who esire to serve God and to do all the good they in in the world, are .willing to devise and roinote great and noble designs, which will iy them under a necessity of exerting all their lental powers and capacities. Another way to acquire strength and energy F mind is to keep noble and worthy objects i view and pursuit. If men would only proise and pursue great and good designs, they ouia soon nnu resolution ana energy to ex:ute. Xo man knows how much good ho. in do in the world until he makes attempts, >r he cannot know the power and faculties e possesses till he tries them by repeated ental exertions. How many men have lived ;ars in obscurity without knowing their ivn circumstances or some important event mstrained them to exert their talents and bilities in doing great and noble deeds.?l>r. hnmonds. Our Bodies After Death.?Within a ery near approach to truth, the human famy inhabiting the earth has been estimated at 000,000,000; the annual loss by death is 3,000,000. Now, the weight of the animal ~? latter of this immense body cast into the rave is no less than 034,000 tons, and its deimposition produces 98,000.000 cubic feet of latter. The vegetable productions of the irtli clear away from the earth the gasses iiis generated, and decomposing and assimi,ting them for their own increase. This cire of changes has been going on ever since lan became an occupier of the earth. He :eds or the lower animals and on the seeds ! plants, which in due time become a part of imself. The lower animals feed upon the ?rbs and grasses, which in their turn become ie animal ;then, by its death again pass into le atmosphere, and are ready once more to lie isimilated by plants, the earth or bone subance alone remaining where it is deposited. The Baptist State Convention ?In the aptist State Convention, which recently met Darlington, B. W. Edwards was chosen resident, and Iter. Luther Broaddus Secreta . The corresponding secretary of the Home ission Board reported that the Board had illected 88,000, and that the funds Were sufiient to pay off the indebtedness of the board, r. James Furtnan, Chairman of committee i work among the colored people, reported that lere are insuperable difficulties in the way of >ing anything among them at present. The ission Church at New Orleans was reported straitened circumstances, lieavily in debt id threatened with execution. The Baptists, hite, have 025 ciiurclies in the State?eight ;w churches organized during the past year, here have been 3,602 baptisms during the ar. Present membership 58,437. Sunday ihool membership 33,689. Money receive'' J ring the year 8122,605. Value of ch' operty *>35,771. . morn. ,T : diiy a hapH vppiness.?V hen you rife easily done ; g form a resolution to j?n who needs it; n? i? a fellow-crenfowful; an encouragleft-oft garment driving?trifles in themkind wordjf ajr_^Will do at least for the g express^urs And if you are young, deve?.& it, it will tell when you are old; 'assured it will send you gently and happi[own the stream of time to eternity. By most simple arithmetical sum, look at the dt. If you send one person away happily jugh the day, that is 365 in the course of sir. And suppose you live forty years only r ;r you have commenced that course of mede, you have made 14,600 persons happyill events for a time.?Sidney Smith.