Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, March 04, 1886, Image 1
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lewis m. grist, Proprietor. > %\\ f itkjpknf Jfainiljj ftriuspajm-: Jfor % |!romolioit of % folifiral, Social, Hgriralfural anb Commercial |nftrtsts of ffjc jloufj). j TERMS--I2.50 A YEAR, IN ADVANCE.
VOL. 32. YOBKVILLE, S C., THURSDAY, MARCH 4, 1886. ISTO. 9.
Jtii Original ?torg.
Written for the Yorkville Enqnirer.
AN UNQUIET LIFE.
By Stanley StClair.
CHAPTER X.
-v "Papa, I'm sick."
These were the first words Dolly said
when she was restored to Burton; for restored
she was, the old woman being as good
as her word; and conducting Burton to her
4 hiding place before daybreak. The child
looked feverish and heavy, and laid her
head against her adopted father's shoulder,
when he took her in his arms, in a languid
way that confirmed her words.
"What have they done to you, my darling?"
he asked regarding her with anxious
eyes; for having fallen into a nest of
treachery he was ready to anticipate al
must any evu.
"Nothing," said Dolly. "Mrs. Jones was
V Aiery good, and gave me my supper; but the
room was so hot, and I smelt a bad smell.
Can't we go home to-day. I don't like
New York."
Burton had met with sore disappointment
; his journey had proved worse than
fruitless. He had been decoyed to New
York on false pretenses, and a large sum of
money had been extorted from him, without
his receiving in return the proofs he
had expected to find ; and so cunningly had
the plot been laid it that seemed impossible
to lay hands on its founder?yet all this
troubled him far less than the sight of the
child's illness. For he had learned to love
little Dolly truly and tenderly; and believing
moreover, as he now did, that she was
his cousin's child, he felt intense anxiety to
restore her in safety to her home.
C He hoped that her indisposition might be
only the result of fatigue and over-excite-1
ment, and believed that the gratification of
her wish tc return home would prove its best
cure: so he made at once what business ar-1
rangements were necessary, and took passage
by steamer tbat same afternoon.
The sea air revived her somewhat, but j
before the end of the voyage she grew worse
again, and when they reached Maysville
she was in a high fever, and did not recognize
Mrs. Fairfax, who was the first to meet
her at the door.
"Have you succeeded?" was the hurriedly I
whispered inquiry, as Burton was carrying
the child up-stairs.
"No, all is failure, so far?but I still
hope."
"Frederick, a strange discovery has been
made; but I cannot tell you more now. j
Mv nnnr little dsirling-! She is mine?I I
*'V rww" ? r-?
know it, I feel it! Frederick, can you
doubt?"
Here Magdalen appeared. "Is the child
sick ?" she asked, with forced calmness.
"Yes, very sick," was Burton's reply.;
"Get a bed ready for her at once." As they
reached the top of the stairs, Mrs. Fairfax J
motioned him towards herchamber. "Take
her in there," she said, distinctly. "She
shall be my charge."
"Mrs. Fairfax ! excuse me?this is un- j
necessary," said Magdalen, with glittering
eyes. "I can nurse Dolly?she can have !
her own bed as usual. Why should there
be any change?" |
"I have said I would nurse her?it is my
right," was Mrs. Fairfax's rejoinder. The 1
eyes of the two women met for an instant
in a steady gaze, then Magdalen lowered ;
hers, and with a slight disdainful gesture,
f turned aside.
~ ^Afcyotr-Trill,"^he said in a careless tone. ;
"If you need my assistance I shall be ready
to give it."
Poor little Dolly was stricken with ty-.
phoid fever; it had probably been lurking I
in her system for some time, and her i
exposure 'to night air, and a bad atmosphere,
during her sojourn in New York, !
had quickened its development. The i
doctors looked grave over the case, but:
could form as yet no opinion in regard to !
its probable issue. j
Weary days and weeks ensued. The,
pretty bright little fairy, whose presence !
had thrown such a charm over the quiet
house, was sadly missed from her accustomed
place by Burton, who had petted her so
niioh anil whnso hpsrt. uohprl now to SPP
iier tossing in the delirium of fever, or lying
in stupor with half-closed eyes, insensible
to everything around her. But who
can tell the renewed anguish of the mother, I
as she bent over the sick bed of the little
one she surely felt was indeed her own, just I
restored to her, and likely soon to be taken
away again, never on earth to return to her
arms!
One evening about dusk, Burton entered
his wife's room, where he found her sitting
^ alone by the window. Their intercourse 1
had been brief and constrained since his re- j
turn home; but now he felt the time had
come to break this reserve and seek for an
explanation.
* "Magdalen," he said calmly, as he drew
? "t- ? t ?- "i/Ia B T o four n noof i/\r?o I
it t'ilUir IU lid x nave a 10* \.]ugonuuo i
to ask you, and I must entreat you to give
me square and honest answers."
She looked at him for a moment, then
glanced away again.
"In the first place," he continued, "why
did you conceai from me the fact of your
having received an important letter, some
weeks ago bearing upon a subject which has
long occupied the minds of us all ?"
"You must speak a little more clearly, if!
you expect me to comprehend you. What
letter, and what subject do you refer to?"
"The subject is the supposed relation of
our adopted child to my cousin, Emily j
Fairfax. The letter is one cotaining infor- j
matiou which may supply a valuable link
in the chain of evidence which we have so i
far succeeded in finding." !
"Your words are rather enigmatical,"
coldly replied Magdalen, "considering that
you have never before alluded to this matter
in my presence."
"Come, Magdalen, it is unworthy of you
to feign ignorance of my meaning! If I
have not discussed the subject with you, it
is because you yourself showed a marked
unwillingness to approach it; besides, Mrs.
Fairfax was the first person to be consulted.
It is more her affair than mine, liut you
know as well as I do that Dolly is, in all
probability, her own lost child; and that
proving this, it only remains to us to give
up our claim to her, which is but secondary,
anci restore ner to ner muuier s guarumuship.
I have used every effort to clear up
the mystery which still obscures several of
the facts of the case; and I should think
that you would gladly lend your co-operation."
"I am surprised that you are anxious to
relinquish your claim to the child. I
thought you were too fond of her to give
her up so easily." Magdalen spoke with
forced composure, but her breath came
quickly, and a red spot burned on either
cheek.
"My fondness for her has nothing to do ;
with my duty in the matter," said Burton.
' "Her mother certainly has the first right to ;
her, and I would be the last to oppose that
right. My only trouble is the difficulty I
have had incompleting the proofs of iier
identity. It is to seek your help in this
that I have come to you now."
"Yes ! you come to me now, because you
cannot help yourself, and because all other
resources have failed. But you are mistaken
if you think I intend to give you
any help! In the first place, it is all non-;
sense to claim that Dolly is the child who
was lost so many years ago. I defy you to
substantiate such a claim. You know perfectly
well that she was sought for high and
low, and that search was finally abandoned
as vain. Is it likely that she* could have
been living and escaped discovery? And to
humor a whim of Mrs. Fairfax, whose mind
has long been unsound, you are willing
to destroy our own prospects?mine, if you
will?by pretending to restore her child. If
you are totally blind to your interests and
mine, /am not. I will protect then: to the
best of my ability, and shall certainly not
imperil them by countenancing your wild
scheme."
"Magdalen!" Burton was shocked by
j the passionate vehemence of her tone and
manner. For the first time, the baseness of
her motives was thoroughly revealed to
: him. He scarcely knew how to frame a reply
"Do you deny," he asked, after a momentary
pause, "that you received a letter
j from a person in New York, informing you
that she knew of the existence of this child,
: at the time that she was living with some
| people named Jones, who pretended that
| they were her parents, but who had really
taken her from a dying vagrant in an almsj
house, and whokepther for twoyears, until
! the man was arrested for burglary and sent
! to jail?"
"I do deny it," emphatically replied
! Magdalen. "I never received such a letter
as you describe."
"Upon your honor?"
"Upon my houor."
"Then I have been misinformed. At
1 any rate, you will acknowledge having had
an interview with Sophy Merton, during
I my absence from home."
"She was here once whileyou wereaway."
"And you had a conversation together."
! "Yes, we had."
; "In regard to Dolly."
"Partly in regard to her. What of it?"
"This much, that you found her to be also
acquainted with some of the very facts I
have mentioned; but that you, instead of
| confirming them, assured her she was en
tirely mistaken, and sent her away under
' the impression that there was no foundai
tion for the reports she had heard."
Magdalen was silent for a moment.
| "It appears to me," she said then, "that
there was eavesdropping going on of which
j I was not aware. Am 1 watched and spied
upon in my own house?"
j "There was no eavesdropping, Magdalen ;
but after Sophy Merton left you, she saw
Mrs. Fairfax, and had a talk with her."
Magdalen madean impatient movement.
"It is all nonsense from beginning to end,
-o?~.i?:-i- T I?
JL'rcueriUlt. JL WUIIUCI )UU tau uuou caonj
duped. Here is a mystery made about
nothing. As I said before, you have no
proofs of Dolly being Mrs. Fairfax's child,
but you let all these people impose upon
you, and persuade you into believing what
they wish."
"Will you show me the letter you received,
Magdalen?"
"I do not even know what letter you refer
to. I have received numerous letters
in the last fortnight."
"Very well, said Burton, rising. I had,
of course, no idea of meeting with such determined
opposition on your part. I am bitterly
grieved and disappointed at the course
you have chosen to pursue, but I shall try
and accomplish my object without your aid,
since that is denied me."
He arose and left the room.
That night was a crisis in Dolly's illness.
All the family were assembled in her room,
and the stillness of death reigned in the
house. Magdalen had stolen in unperceived
and taken her station in a far corner of
the room. It had been whispered outside
among the servants that the child was dying,
and hearing the whisper, she had found j
it impossible, after wandering restlessly
about for awhile to avoid going in.
The child lay quiet, breathing peacefully.
The blinds were partly open and the moonlight
shone into the room. Its pure, cold
radience stole into Magdalen's restless heart
and soothed its tumult. After all, what
was she fighting and striving for? She
leaned her head wearily upon her hand and
mused. "They were all against her," she
said to herself. They would surely win the
battle in the end. What was the use of
her keeping up the unequal contest? And
then if Dolly should die!
A low moan came from the little sufferer.
There was an uneasy movement among the
watchers around the bed, and Mrs. Fairfax
laid her cheek down on the pillow, close to
the child. Magdalen rose unperceived and
slipped, as noiselessly as she had entered,!
out of the room. She could not bear to |
stay.
An hour later, Burton joined her in the
library, where she had taken refuge. She
looked up at him quickly.
"She is better," he said, regarding her
gravely. "1 think the danger is past."
Magdalen burst into tears, and drawing
an envelope from her pocket, she laid it on
hpr hnshsinrl's knpp.
"Here is the letter," she said, half inaudibly.
"Magdalen!?and you denied getting it!"
"It is not what you described it to be.
What I said was only partly untrue. But I
don't want to make any confessions, nor ask
any forgiveness. I have just changed rny
mind, that is all?and I am glad that Dolly
is going to get well." She conquered her
involuntary weakness and turned proudly
away.
Burton took the letter to the light and
read iteagerly. It was what he had waited
and sought for in vain?the connecting link
in the imperfect chain?the proof so anxiously
desired of Dolly's identity, which it
established beyond a doubt. After reading
it over until he was quite convinced of the
completeness of its testimony, he put it carefully
away and went to his wife's side.
"Magdalen?I want to say a word to you.
Don't keep aloof from me now; let this
coldness be ended. I am willing to cancel
the past."
She looked at him curiously.
"Frederick. I cannot understand you.
Have you no regret for what you have lost?" !
"You mean Dolly?" he asked.
"No?I mean what would have been
yours if Dolly had continued your child instead
of Mrs. Fairfax's."
"You mean the money. And you would
have sacrificed truth, principle, friendship,
for that! Poor child, you have escaped
from the commission of a crime?you came
near yielding to a terrible temptation; I
shudder to think how near the edge ot the
abyss you have been treading. But it is
over now, and you are saved."
"Yes," she said dreamily, "I suppose it '
is better so."
At the same instant a film came over her
eyes. She pressed her hand to her heart,
reeled, and fell. Burton carried her to a
sofa, supposing she had fainted; but it was
a faint from which she did not recover, and I
within an hour she had breathed her last. '
It was heart disease, the physicians said.
* $ $ * & *
Some three years later a gentleman, lady j
and little girl embarked in a steamer fori
Liverpool. These were Frederick Burton, I
his wife (formerly his cousin Emily) and
Hilda Fairfax, her only child. Mr. Burton j
had received a foreign appointment, and
thev left home with the intention of mak
ing Europe their place of abode for some j
years to come.
Not long before they sailed, an odd-look-[
ing old woman had called at their house,
and requested an interview with "the mas-:
ter." This proved to be none other than ,
Mrs. Jones, through whose agency Dolly'
had been restored to Burton when in New I
York. She came to ask for pecuniary aid, I
"just to give her a lift" she said, "as times !
were so hard."
"And do you think you deserve to have
me give you a lift?" asked Burton. "You
may consider yourself very fortunate in not j
having been called to account for your share j
in all the trouble I went through. It might
have been bad for you if I had chosen to j
put you in the hands of the police."
The old woman smiled cunningly. "I
gave you back the baby,"she said.
"Yes, when it suited you to do so. But j
why didn't you give the testimony that I
was trying to obtain? You knew all the:
time who the child was."
"Ah, but didn't I have letters to stop me
from doing that? Sure and I can show you |
; more than one of'em, which I've kept to j
this day ; and whose name do you suppose I
is at the bottom ?"
"I don't know."
"Why, your own wife's as then was?
Magdalen Burton."
Frederick turned pale.
"Hush," he saiu gently. "We must
speak no evil of the dead."
He saw the letters, nevertheless and
knew that it was true. From that time
forth Magdalen's name was never mentioned,
for good or ill, in the household; she
slept the sleep which ends the unquiet as
well as the quiet life, and her faults lay
buried with her.
[the end.]
???MM
JAMES WESLEY RE ID.
James Wesley Jleid, of Wentworth, N.
C., was born in that town, June 11th, 1849.
He received an academic education and
graduated from Emory and Henry College,
Virginia, in 1869. He studied law and was
admitted to the bar, Juue, 1873. In August,
1874, he was elected County Treasurer of
Rockingham county, North Carolina, and
was continuously elected to that office until
he resigned the same in November, 1884.
At the special election of January loth, 1885,
he was elected to succeed Governor A. M.
Scales, in the Forty-eighth Congress, as a
Democrat. He received 4,707 votes as
against 356 votes for Worth and 65 votes
scattering. He represents the fifth North
Carolina district which comprises the counties
of Alamance, Caswell, Davidson, Guilford,
Person, Randolph, Rockingham and
Stokes.
A SLICK SWINDLER OF THE WAR.
Our regiment was one of the first to go to
the front after Sumter was fired on, and
we had scarcely gone into camp at Washington
when a tall distinguished-looking
stranger, who said he had served through
the Crimean war as Lieutenant-Colonel of
an English regiment, appeared at the officer's
quarters. He had a steel breast-plate
of his own invention, and one which had
saved the lives of hundreds of officers in
the Crimean and other campaigns. The
steel plates were to be placed in tiie vest,
one on each side, and when buttoned up no
one could distinguish it from an ordinary
vest. He furnished vest and all for 850,
and to use his own language:
"That is a very small sum for preserving
a man's life through the war. Statistics
show that nine men are hit in the chest
where one is hit elsewhere. I warrant this
vest to safely turn aside even a grapeshot,
while bullets will rebound like peas."
None of us wanted to die for our country
and we didn't mean to if bullet-proof vests
would prevent. There was but one single
officer in the regiment who didn't give him
an order, and I don't believe there were more
than five out of the brigade. We got our
vests just before the advance on iiull Kun,
and we took a hand in the fight feeling real
sorry for the Confederates who had nochance
to protect their precious fronts by breastplates.
We lost sixty men out of our regiment
and had an officer shot in the shoulder.
This to show you that we were in the
thick of it.
Well, we kept congratulating ourselves
over those vests until one day, two or three
weeks after McClellan had assumed command,
I had a business call at the Captain's
tent. It was a hot day and his coat and
vest hung on the center-pole. He had been
buying a new revolver, and in exhibiting it
to me it was accidentally discharged. We
heard a sound like a bean striking a tin
pan, and both knew the bullet proof vest
had been hit. Come to take it down we
found that the bullet had gone through
both sides.
"H'm?I see!" growled the Captain, as
he surveyed the holes. "Let's take a little
walk."
We passed out of camp toa thicket and he
hung his vest on a stump and began blazing
away. The six charges made a col lander of
it. Then I hung up mine and it was done
for in the same fashion. The matter got
noised around, and in two days it was
known that we had been sold out for a cent.
Not a vest in the brigade would stand a
pistol bullet, let alone an ounce ball from a
musket, and that gander-shanked Englishman
was a big boodle ahead.?Detroit Free
Press.
SMALL BEGINNINGS.
Flushed with the ardor born of health,
good impulses and inexperience, the young
enthusiast's school-boy days are irradiated
with dreams of a resplendent future, if of
a somewhat poetical and religious temperament
he will conceive it to be his mission
to reform society and be a benefactor to all
mankind. He is impatient with the slow,
routine methods of mankind in general and
with the injustice which they tolerate. If
cast in a grosser mold, he will probably resolve
to be a great soldier or statesman or
millionaire merchant, who will utilize fame
and power and wealth to assist and encourage
his less fortunate fellows. But when
the projectors of such ideal futures are
brought into rude contact with our plodding,
work-a-day world they are too frefrequetly
discouraged and disarmed by the
shock which disillusions them. Realizing
me inauiiiiy 10 iumn imu nupes uuru ui
their generous though callow impulse, they
permit themselves to swing to the opposite
exremity of the are. Some of them lose
heart, others wrap themselves up in a shell
of selfishness, stilling the warm sympathies
that previously animated them.
The most valuable lesson that can be impressed
on all young men and women at
the threshold of their career is that small
beginnings are not to be despised, that small
economies pave the road to wealth, that
genius largely consists of hard, earnest
work, and that Olympus is more often gained
by those who steadfastly climb than by
those who essay to lly. There is work
enough in the world for all hands to do,
wretchedness enough to be alleviated, and
happiness enough to be attained, for that
matter, if we only set about it in the right
way by taking the task or the duty that
is nearest to us. Many a man spends half
his years bewailing his lack of capital when
his wasted dimes and nickles might, if
saved, have established him in a successful1
business. Many a man and woman deplore
the misery they daily read of, yet refrain
from relieving any portion of it. As the
oak springs from the acorn all great reforms
develop from apparently trivial beginnings.
There is no occasion for being depressed at
one's inability to grapple with all the evil
on the planet; begin with that manifestation
of sin or misfortune which is nearest
your own door. Do not be cast down by
the consciousness of how little you can accomplish
where so much is to be done. A
reservoir may be emptied pint by pint?j
even drop by drop. Enthusiasm is a won-!
drous factor in human progress and should
be refreshed rather than chilled by an occasional
reverse.?X Y. Graphic.
Sk?r In answer to an advertisement in the
St. Louis papers for 2,000 cats, several hundred
boys appeared at the stage door of the
Grand opera house carrying as many different
kinds of felines The manager fastened
a tag with a wire on each Tommy's neck,
and turned the animal loose in the street to
circle for its home. The tag was an advertisement
for his show. Every boy that
brought a cat got a pass good all next week.'
IHistcllaucoms ^raiinj.
FAST TO A LOCOMOTIVE.
"I wish you would relate to nie your
most thrilling adventure, professor?I want
it to tell the boys."
Prof. Kingstadt is one of the most genial
and kindly of men; and I did not in the
least hesitate to ask him for a story. His
life had been filled with adventurous incidents
; for he is an aeronaut by profession
and an enthusiastic believer in the future
aerial navigation.
The world is much inclined to laugh at
enthusiasts, and call them visionary; but
the world owes a great deal to "visionary
people." Such men are the pioneers of all
I great inventions, and they commonly re{
eeive small remuneration for their lifelong
labors.
Here is the professor for example; he is
often without the means to buy a good dinner,
and is obliged to eat a poor one. He
might make money in many other voca
> A i 4-/-? ?.wl
canons ; dui no sui;k.? mm iu ucumuua mm
I risks his life in making ascents with the
unselfishness of a man who loves his chosen
art, and has fulhSaiih in it.
He hopes to construct an air-ship which
can be propelled in any required direction;
and he will spend his life at work on that
problem?and very likely fail to solve it;
yet?as he says?some one else may take
it up where he was obliged to leave it,
and carry it on to full achievement.
Twenty-seven years of not altogether successful
experimenting have not yet robbed
his kindling gray eye of one whit of its
interested brightness. Hope still glows
there. I wish he might succeed. What a
grand flash of triumph would light his face
and stir his heart! It would be a sight to
do any one good to witness it.
"Willingly," said the professor. "Anything
to amuse the boys. I like boys for
they are always honest critics, and say
what they think. Let me see, my piost
thrilling adventure? Well I should say
my most thrilling adventure was a very
brief one, yet exciting while it lasted, both
exciting and dangerous, too.
"I had ascended that day," he continued,
"from one of the suburbsof Chicago. It
was not a public occasion exactly, but an experimental
ascent, to test the theory which
a Chicago gentleman then held as to the setting
of the aerial currents from the western
land board across lake Michigan. His idea
of a uniform current at a certain height,
during spring and fall, was capable, if proven,
of a possible utilization for purposes of
travel between Chicago and Detroit, or Toledo,
or even to Cleveland. A reporter for
the Tribune went up with me ; a nice, quiet
young man of twenty or twenty-two, named
Burlington Stevens.
"My balloon was taken to the grounds
adjoining the private residence of the gentleman
in whose behalf I made the ascent
and filled with city gas by means of a hose
connected with one of the street mains.
We got oft' at two o'clock in the afternoon,
and the weather being quite calm, the balloon
rose steadily, almost perpendicularly,
for a distance of four to five thousand feet.
"About that height we encountered a pronounced
northwest current which at once
carried us off to the southeast?down over
the Indiana cornfields. Instead of heading
for Detroit or Cleveland, we were en route
for Indianapolis or Cincinnati, as I had fully
expected, in an hour we were over the
Kankakee river; and seeing no sufficient
object to be served by going, I pulled the
valve rope and we tended gradually downward
for fifteen or twenty minutes. By
tins time we nau sunn to wnnin a muusand
feet of the earlJ^- when a stiff grounder,'
or surface breeze caught us and took us
off to southwest.
"It was about three-thirty in the afternoon
; and there was a good deal too much
air stirring to handle the balloon comfortably,
but I let her settle to within two hundred
and fifty feet of the fences and bushes,
and had just tossed out one of our grapnels,
when Stevens, who had been busily writing
his press account of the ascent looked out
and suddenly exclaimed:
" 'Professor, there's the railway ahead.'
"It was a branch line of the Northern Indiana,
I think ; and at that point the track
ran pretty nearly east and west. We were
coming from northeast, to cross it diagonally.
When the reporter spoke we were a
mile or a mileand a half, perhaps from itflying
along quite fast.
"'There's a freight train, too!' Stevens
added, 'just coming around that curve from
behind the woods!'
"The train, a long, heavy one, was as
much as two miles off when we first saw it,
steaming ponderously along at twelve or
fifteen miles an hour; and we were flying
from the northeast to cross it at sharp angle.
"'Now, I tell you, professor, we shall go
pretty snug to 'em !" exclaimed my companion.
" 'Yes, but we shall go high enough over
'em,' said I.
" 'I guess so,' said he looking down at the
ground a moment. 'Yes, we shall clear
'em. And now for some fun! he exclaimed,
seizing a long horn which I always kept
in the car to blow signal blasts when
needed.
"On came the long train, puffing up a
black cloud of coal smoke; and we had now
flown up to within a hundred rods of them ;
but I saw that we should cross the line a
little a head of the locomotive. The engineer
and fireman were staring at us. So
were all the brakemen standing on the
cars' platform.
"Stevens blew two loud blasts?Toot!
Too-oo-oot!
"lToot! toot!" responded the locomotive.
"Again my fellow-voyager gave them a
fearful blast?as a mocking signal for them
to 'down brakes,' and give us the right of
way to cross the line.
" Toot?toot?toot! from the engine which
meant 'clear the line.'
"So intent were both of us watching the
train, that we never once saw nor thought
of the wires?the telegraph wires. And
when we went ov?r the track a little ahead
of the engine, our grapnel, streaming along
behind and beneath us, caught on the wires,
and stripping them clear of the posts and
insulators, drew them right exactly across
the oncoming locomotive! They caught on
between the whistle and the smokestack.
The wires were strong. So was our rope.
In an instant we were twitched after the
engine?the balloon lunging first almost
down to the ground, then up straight over
the tender!
"A Innd chnnf ?nrl ?l vrtllf'V of rnilvvnv
expletives rose from the engine, and ail
along the train. We hung on?for dear
life. We had to cling with all our might,
the car lurched and swung so furiously.
"'Cast olf that grapnel, won't you? I
shouted down to the engineer.
" 'Shin down the rope, and cast it off
yourself!' yelled the fireman.
"'Yes, you're a balloon man!' cried the
engineer. Let's see you shin down that
line.'
"Come now!' Stevens called to them,
'you may kill us. Slow up, and let us unhook,
won't you ?"
"'Can't do it. Behind time now!" was
all we could get out of the engineer; and
the brakemen were all laughing and chaffing
us.
"They were a rough lot of fellows, and
the novelty of the situation did not seem
to excite their wonder, but their ridicule.
"'Well, cut the line!' I exclaimed to
I Stevens. I had managed to get my knife
out, and passed it to him for he was nearest
the rope; and hanging on with all his
might, with his left hand, he contrived to
saw off the rope close down to the hawse
hole. We lunged off into the air; and the
train sped on, with our hook and the wires
hanging to it. There was the hard old
shell of a Dutch cheese lying amongst our
ballast. I let that shy at those grinning
brakemen as we fiew apart! it fell quite
near one of them.
"The engine not only had our line and
grapnel hitched to it, but also six or seven I
hundred feet of the wires, all wound up and
snarled on it.
"That was about the most exciting experience
I ever had!
"We tossed out one other grapnel, and
finally landed in a peach-orchard, a couple
of miles further on. I mailed a letter to
the telegraph company, offering to settle
for the wires, but they never sent me any
bill. Although the adventures seemed to
excite so little wonder among the men on
the train, their own coolness has always
been a source of wonder to me, though it
may be accounted for, I suppose, by the
fact of their scientific training."? Youth's
Companion.
THE LAST WOK IKS OF A DKINKARI).
The following extracts were taken from
one of the lectures of J. J. Talbot, who recently
died from the effects a drunken deKniinti
of TTML-horf Tnrlionn
"But now the struggle is over, I can survey
the field and measure the losses. I had
position high and holy. The demon tore
from around me the robes of my sacred
office and sent me out churchless and Godless,
a very hissing and by word among
men. Afterward I had a business large and
lucrative, and my voice was heard in large
courts, pleading for justice, mercy and right.
But the dust gathered on my books, and no
footfalls crossed the threshold of the drunkard's
office. I had money ample for all
necessities, hut it took wings, and went to
feed the coffers of the devil which possessed
me. I had a home, adorned with all that
wealth could buy. The devil crossed the
threshold, and the light faded from its
chambers; the fire went out on the holiest
altars, and leading me from the portals,
despair walked forth with me, and sorrow
and anguish lingered within. I had children?beautiful
to me at least as a dream
of the morning?and they had so entwined
themselves around their father's heart that
no matter where it might wander, ever it
came back to them on the wings of a father's
undying love. The destroyer took his
hand in his and led them away. I had a
wife whose charms of mind and person were
such that to see her was to remember her,
and to know her was to love her. Thirteen
years we walked the ragged path of life
together, rejoicing in its sunshine and sorrowing
in its shade. The infernal monster
would not even spare me this.
"I had a mother who for long years had
not left her chair, a victim of suffering and
disease, her choicest delight was in reflecting
that the lessons taught at her knee had
taken root in the heart of her youngest born,
and that he was useful to his fellows, and
an honor to her who bore him. But the
thunder bolt reached even there and did its
most cruel work. Other days may cure all
but this. Ah, me! never a reproach from
these lips; only a shadow of unspoken grief
gathering on her dear old lace; only a tender
hand laid more lovingly upon my head ;
only a closer clinging to the cross, only a
piteous appeal to heaven if her cup was not
at last full. And while her boy raged in
his wild delirium two thousand milesaway,
the pitying angels pushed the golden gates
ajar, and the mother of the drunkard entered
into rest. And thus I stand a clergyman
without a church, a barrister without
a brief or business, a hither without a child,
a husband without a wife, a son without a
parent, a man without hope?all swallowed
up in the maelstrom of drink."
Only an Engineek.?On Monday night,
the 25th of January, as the south-bound
passenger train of the Illinois Central Kailroad
wasdashingalong through the rain and
darkness, some miscreant ahead?"a very
demon in human form"?removed a rail
from the track of the bridge at Talahacthie
River, in Mississippi. The engineer made
the discovery too late to save the train, and
though he might have saved his own life by
jumping, he stood to his post of duty. In
another moment the engine and tender and
every car following, excepting the two sleepers,
jumped the bridge and went dashing
headlong into the river, a frightful mass of
wreck and ruin. Miraculous to tell, though
many train hands and passengers were badly
battered and bruised, only one life was
lost, that of the brave engineer, William
Kufhn, of Water Valley, Mississippi. lie
was pinioned fast between the engine and
tender, his entire body, excepting his head,
being submerged in mud and water. He
was removed with great difficulty after Ave
hours, and was found to be in a dying condition.
His first inquiry on being taken
out was: "Are the crew and passengers
safe?" When answered "Yes," he replied:
"Thank God! that's clever," and shortly
thereafter breathed his last.
The first tidings received lroin the wreck
were much magnified; but when the facts
were made known the people breathed easier,
and the general remark was: "It's not
so bad after all, only an engineer killed."
Though not so intended, could words be
colder and mere unfeeling? "Only an engineer
killed? Could a man be intrusted
with a holier, more responsible duty than
the custody, the care and safety of human
lives?
When William Ruffin died in the fiulfillment
of this sacred trust the only thing
about him that was not an angel was his
overalls?besooted though he was. Only an
engineer?
There are loving ones who shed tears for
him, and all brave and true men and women
will revere the memory of him who asked :
"Arc the crew nil safe,
Ami the passengers too?"
"Yes!" you say. "Thank Ciod,
That's clever."
Then, turning his eyes
To the track through the skies
Whistled, "Brakes off!"
And, "Forever."
Ghastly I'leasantky.?mere is one
very careless habit of a great many excellent
married people. How often we hear a
man joke his wife about getting married a
second time, or a wife perpetrate the same
sort of ghastly pleasantry at the expense of
her husband. They would not do it if they
were to stop and think but a moment. J)id
you ever hear a wife joke about the death
of her child, or her mother or sister or
father? No, no. But society is running
over with those who joke about the death
of their husbands. It is the most thoughtless
sort of humor ever invented. It is
trfliing with the most serious subject on
earth. We decry irreverent passages in a
play or a public address. Jt makes the
blood chill to see rude hands laid on that
which is sacred. Love is sacred, marriage
is sacred, death is awful. The one
ever painful thought to those who are hapily
wed is that death comes at last to take
one away and leave the other a lonely survivor.
Conceive then the hideous flippancy
of that wife's conversation who speculates
in jest as to her successor. What violence
does a husband do a precious thing
when he, in his imagination, jumps over
the grave of his wife and dances like a
clown in the arena of widowerhood, read?
for another matrimonial enterprise. The
world takes a proper view of this subject
when it demands that the widows of its heroes
shall remain constant until they, themselves
shall be taken away, and that there
shall be no invader on a consecrated field.
This natural sentiment in the human heart
found expression among the Hindoos in
the custom of burning the wife after the
death of her husband. This fixes the relationship
between the two irrevocably, and
that is the exact intention of the custom.
It would hardly do to burn the widows of
this country, for they are generally well
behaved and duly respectful to the memory
of their deceased husbands. If there ought
to be any burning up in this line it ought
to be of the widowers, especially of the older
ones who are so suddenly rejuvenated
when loosed from the matrimonial tether.
No human creature is the butt of so much
ridicule, the object of so much railery behind
the scenes in those very circles he
seeks to penetrate and bear off a victim,
as that giddy person known as the marrying
widower of riper age. It is only when
he is fortified with gold and silver and
precious stones. He is then accepted as a
spccti lat ion.?Chicar/o Tribune.
THE PRIORITY LIEN LAW.
The Charleston News and Courier of hist
Thursday publishes letters from its correspondents
in nearly every county of the
State giving the effect of the priority
lien law in the respective counties. This
correspondence covers nearly three pages
of that paper, and of course gives expression
to a wide diversity of opinion. The
answers, however, are summarized and the
following is the result of the epitome:
In Aiken county the condition of the farmers
is so excellent that the law is not expected
to have any serious effect. The
amount of the lien'business done in that
county has not been large for several years
and the fanners were better prepared for
the change provided by the priority act
than in many of the other counties of the
State.
In Anderson county the law is satisfactory
to the landlord and to the merchant,
but the laborers and the tenants do not
like it. There has been a marked decrease
in the number of agricultural liens iiled
in the clerk's office, but there has been a
large increase in the number of mortgages
given upon the crops.
In Barnwell county the priority law is
not giving any trouble. About the usual
number of liens have been given. It is
expected that those who have no stock, provisions,
land, or capacity to direct others,
or to guide themselves in the making of a
crop, will be most seriously affected by the
law and will have to reduce themselves to
the condition of ordinary hired laborers
in order to make a living. In other words
the number of small farmers who have
heretofore been able to operate on their own
account will hereafter be compelled to work
for the larger and more prosperous farmers.
Another view of the situation in
Barnwell county is, however, that the law
will be the ruin of the poor man, and the
result will be a reduction of wages and the
consequent creation of a very large idle
population in that section who will have to
live in some way, either by labor or by
theft.
In Beaufort county harmonious arrangements
are said to have been made between
the merchants and landowners so
as to provide the renters with the means
of procuring agricultural advances, and on
this account it is said that the priority law
will not injuriously affect the farmers of
that county. It is a notable fact that there
are three thousand holders of real estate
in Beaufort county, whose holdings average
from ten to twenty acres each, and it
is said that this class will have no trouble
whatever in procuring the necessary advances
to conduct their farming operations.
In Berkeley county the law is regarded
by many as the death-blow to the agricultural
prosperity of that county. The effect
of the Jaw upon the farmers of the sea islands
will be especially disastrous. The agricultural
operations on the sea islands have
been conducted since the war almost exclusively
upon a credit basis, and the security
having been removed, of course the credit
system has been at the same time destroyed.
Many renters have lost all confidence in the
business and it is said that it is difficult to
obtain supplies now even upon real estate
as security. Many persons are disposed to
abandon the sea islands, and if their means
were only sufficient to warrant emigration
to more promising fields it is almost certain
that many farmers of the sea islands would
seek new homes.
In Chester county there is a wide difference
of opinion as to the effect of the law.
The prevailing opinion seems to be that it
will have the effect of reducing the area of
land under cultivation, and, to this extent,
at least, the effect of the law will be injurious.
In Chesterfield county the law will have
but little effect, inasmuch as nearly all of
the farmers in that county own their own
lands and have them under their own control.
It is expected, however, that the
I wages of the laborers will be reduced by the
operation of the law.
In Clarendon county the farming interests
have not been perceptibly affected by the
terms of the new Act, and the supply of
labor is about equal to the demand.
In Colleton county the farmers and the
business public generally are said to be indifferent
to the operation of the law.
In Darlington county the landowners and
*1 A? ? af-c/xyj ?-? y-1 1 n Kaxavo nnrl
mercnums are siuisueutuju mc mumciij omi
renters will not be materially affected by
the law.
In Edgefield county the merchants have
not been embarrassed by the law, and the
situation is, upon the whole, considered favorable.
In Georgetown county the effects of the
law have not been hurtful to the merchant,
but it is contended that it will be injurious
to the tenants and that many of them will
have to leave the State or resort to the alternative
of becoming common hired laborers.
In Greenville county the immediate effect
of the law will be to give the land-owners
greater control over the management of
their farms. The law has made the merchants
more careful in advancing to the
tenants, and although there is some grumbling
on the part of the lien merchants and
those who engage in the business of making
advances, the law is believed to be right
and just to both farmers and laborers.
In Hampton county the law meets the
approval of the landowners, but as it is said
that "no prudent merchant will take the
renter's lien unless the landlord is surety,
no prudent landlord will be surety without,
good collaterals," it is plain that the effect
upon the laboring classes will not be beneficial.
In Horry county the farmers have never
given many liens, but it is feared that the
priority law will have the effect of keeping
down many ambitious and deserving citizens
who would be under more favorable
conditions, able to get a fair start in life.
In Kershaw county there has been apparently
no effect upon either the landlord,
the merchant or the tenant.
In Lancaster county it is feared by many
that the law will have the effect of causing
many laborers to emigrate from this
State. There has been a decided falling off
in the advances which have been made by
the merchants. The law has had the most
depressing effect upon the laborers and
renters of this section, and many of these
people would go anywhere if they had the J
means to pay their way out of the State.
In Laurens county the merchants are
com lm o-rontlir hpnpfifpil hv the IrW. hilt
the effect upon the renter is not so gratifying:
and the small farmers have undoubted-1
ly been injured by the passage ol such an |
Act, while the laborers and renters will be
seriously injured by the change of the law. I
It is hoped, however, that the exercise of!
greater care in making advances to the
small farmers and to the laborers, while it
will reduce the number of persons operating
farms upon their own account, will in the
end be of a great benefit to the agricultural
welfare of the county.
In Lexington county the farmers are generally
free from debt, and the priority law
probably will not have any marked effect
upon the agricultural welfareof the county.
It is not unlikely, however, that the landowners
will find some difficulty in supply- j
ing themselves with labor sufficient to conduct
their operations in a satisfactory and
profitable way.
In Marion county the law has not given j
satisfaction. It hurts both tenant and mer-!
chant alike, and is held in lavor by the land- j
owners simply for the reason that it gives:
them greater power over the labor in that j
section.
In Marlboro' county the law has made no
perceptible change in agricultural operations.
In Newberry county it is said that neither
the merchants nor the farmers, nor the landlords
or tenants have been injuriously affected
by the law.
In Oconee county the law is declared to
be a good thing for the landowners, and
that it will not affect injuriously the condition
and prospects of the tenant and laborer.
In Orangeburg county the law will practically
have no effect, although it is said
that a large number of the colored people,
many of whom were the best laborers in that
county, have gone West, although they had
entered into contracts for the new year. It
is not definitely stated whether or not this
emigration has been the direct result of the
passage of the priority law, but doubtless
the law has had something to do with this
outward movement of the colored people
from that county.
In Pickens county the landowners are
pleased and the merchants are making agricultural
advances as usual. A smaller
number of liens have been recorded this
year than up to the corresponding period
of last year. A number of the colored
people have emigrated from that section,
but their departure is not attributable directly
to the change which has been made
in the lien law.
In Richland county there has been no
material change in the acreage rented to
tenants. The merchants believe that their
security has been lessened by the priority
law, and have been issuing fewer liens and
the small farmers, who have heretofore de
pended on these advances for the prosecution
of their work, find themselves in a bad
way.
In Spartanburg county the Act seems to
have narrowed down into a fight between
the landowners and the tenants, the farmer
wishing to force the laborer to work for
wages, when the latter have not the means
or character to secure supplies. The tenants
regard this movement as oppressive
and unjust. The ultimate results of the
farming operations under this law cannot
be predicted at present. There is considerable
difference of opinioii in different sections
of Spartanburg as to the effect of the
law. The general impression seems to be
that while the law is good for the landlord
it is hard on the tenant.
In Sumter county it is expected that the
priority law will decrease the volume of
trade. Many of the lien merchants have
entirely withdrawn from the business. The
farmers, however, hope that good may result
from the law.
In Union county the law has been accepted
as the best that could have been adopted.
In Williamsburg county the farmers have
found greater difficulty in arranging for
advances this year than for several years
past. The priority given the landlord's
lien has not, however, appreciably affected
the value of the lien as a security for advances.
The real mischief wrought by the
Priority Act is said to be caused by the priority
given the laborer's lien. As many
liens have been filed in the clerk's office this
year as up to the corresponding period in
1885, although in most cases the advances
have been only about one-third as large as
the amount secured last year.
The Yorkville correspondent writes as
follows in reference to this county: Up to
this date not more than o. e-half of the
number of agricultural liens have been indexed
in the clerk's office, as to the corresponding
date of last year. The reasons attributed
are: The passage of the priority
lien law and the inability of the merchants
to make the required advances. Much of
the indebtedness for advances made last
j year not having been paid, landholders are
cautious either in making contracts or endorsing
to merchants, but in no case are
they disposed to take any advantage of the
laborers. Likewise the merchants are cautious,
and take no liens from the renters
without endorsements from the landholders.
The law has not disorganized labor to
any serious extent, nor demoralized the
laboring class. A light crop in this section
last season and low prices of cotton have
produced a stringency, having the effect to
materially check the credit system, irrej
spective of the law. The law, however,
has been productive of no good to either
class.
?
Man's Deepest Emotion.?The deepest
emotion that man knows is love. If,
like the air plants, its roots are upward,
and love works with moral sentiment, it is
divine, and that atmosphere through which
the image, the ideal, the true thought of
God is to make itself known.
It is the great end toward which creation
is tending. The discovery of that thought
has been of inconceivable comfort to me, for
I have seen the human race beginning at
the lowest state of animalism, grasping,
cruel; I have seen the animal creation organized
for cruelty?the shark, the leopard,
the lion, as if destructiveness was part and
parcel of the original creative design; out
of it I have seen little by little emerging
other qualities; love of cubs and whelps:
with slow steps I have seen the animal
creation reach to the level, of the human
family, and that family under one mystic
influence, which we cannot call nature, for
it seems to contradict nature at every step;
I have seen the steadyunfolding toward intelligence,
toward refinement, toward imagination,
whose eyes are away from organized
matter; of ascent and the law of unfolding
at last seems this: To set the whole
of creation upon a march irom the lowest
form of unorganized matter up through
every variation of organization, through
every form of passion, still seeking it knows
not what, until later ages descry that star
r>n nrmUnn ic cnoL-inor n ml nrnnnd
iiuii, cm iicauuii JO ov.vn??<^ ???".
which it is revolving; and love is that,
and is the final end of creation.?Henry
Ward Beeeher.
Proved a Perjurer.?In a large factory,
in which were employed several hundred
persons, one of the workmen, in wielding
a hammer, carelessly allowed it to slip
from his hand. It flew way across the room,
and struck a fellow-workman in the left
eye. This man claimed that his eye was
blinded by the blow, although a careful
examination failed to reveal any injury,
there being not a scratch visible, lie
brought a suit in the courts for compensation
for the loss of half of his eye-sight, and
refused all offers of compromise. Under the
law, the owner of the factory was responsible
for an injury resulting from an accident
of this kind, and although lie believed that
the man was shamming, and that the whole
case was an attempt at swindling, he had
about made up his mind that he would be
compelled to pay the claim.
The day of the trial arrived, and in open
court an eminent oculist, who had been retained
by the defense, examined the alleged
injured member, and gave it as his opinion
that it was as good as the right eye. Upon
the plaintiff's loud protest of his inability
to see with his left eye, the oculist proved
him a perjurer, and satisfied the court and
jury of the falsity of this claim.
And how do you suppose he did it? Why,
simply by knowing that the colors green
and red combinned make black. He procured
a black card on which a few words
were written with green ink. Then the
plaintiff was- ordered to put on a pair of
spectacles with two different glasses, the
one for the right eye being red, and the one
for left eye consisting of ordinary glass.
Then the card was handed him, and he was
ordered to read the writing on it. This he
did without hesitation and the cheat was at
once exposed.
The sound right eye, fitted with the red
glass, was unable to distinguish the green
writing on the black surface of the card,
while the left eye, which was claimed to be
sightless, was the one with which the reading
had to be done.?Harper's Young People.
?ar A traveler in New Mexico gives a
glowing description of the country through
which a new road passes, and tells of the
Seven Cities of the Chico valley what almost
reads like the romantic explorations of the
members of the Smithsonian Institute. He
says that there are to-day in that valley ruins
of large buildings five stories high,and some
of them in such an excellent state of preservation
that the. masonry and plastering are
looking as new and fresh as though done but
a few years instead of centuries ago. These
buildings are popularly supposed to be of
Aztec origin, but, strange to say, there is at
pjescnt no historical account of them or
of their builders.