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lewis m. grist, Proprietor, j gin Jndfptndijnt <Jaimli} Uturcpapfr: ^oij the fJromotien of the $olitit[al, j^oqial, gjritiilfur^tl and ^ommqtial Jnltrijsts of thij ^>outh. | TERMS?$2.00 A YEAR IS ADVANCE. VOL. 37. YORKYFLLE, S. C., WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1891. 1TO. 34. | ? ??1_ I nf tiiA rftv. were retumine. THE MELVIL EDITED BY AD Copyrighted by Americai CHAPTER VL CONTRIBUTED BY JOSEPH U. SMITH. DETECTIVE. The first man 1 *poh$ tcitA looked me in the eye for an inetavb. In the month of April, eighteen hundred and seventy, 1 was employed pn the New York city detective force. Early one morning not far from the middle of the month I received orders to torn the case upon which I was then employed over to an associate and report at headquarters. In the inspector's private office I met Mr. Charles Gates. "The inspector has been kind enough to place one of his men at my disposal,* be Bald, "and 1 see that he is resolved to place me under double the obligation of giving me the best man on his whole rorce. I pat down his exact words. Understand, if yon please, that 1 am not responsible for Detective Gates' opinion of m& 1 made my report at the office, received my formal ins tractions and went away with Mr. Gates. At his office door he asked me an abrupt question: "Can you prepare for a long journey and a month's absence from the city in two bonxsT I con Id prepare myself for both in lees time than that, and 1 told him so. Then make yonr arrangements at once," he fcaid, "and come here in two horns' time for yonr instructions." 1 had served on the city force with Mr. Gates, and 1 knew his ways. 1 wasted no time in asking questions. In one hour and forty minutes 1 was back in his office prepared for a year's absence or a journey to the end of the earth. "You are to leave the city in half an boor," he said when we were alone, "and proceed to the state of Maine on a difficult and delicate mission. A Mrs. Maggie Winters, at present a resident of New York city, acknowledges the state of Maine as her birthplace. She.receives letters bearing the Clifton postmark. 1 want you to go there. 1 expect you to return with a complete history of the life of Mrs. Maggie Winters from the time she cut her first tooth until the moment of her arrival in New York. "Mis. Maggie Winters in New York may be Mrs. Maggie Jones or Miss Anaatasia Smith at Cliftou. Go at the matter in yonr own way. Clifton is a small place, it wont take you long to ascertain the whereabouts of every person who has left there during the past ten years, so the name doesn't matter. If % . yon get in a pinch go to some out-of-theway telegraph station% and ask ?or*fafe? strnctions." He concluded by handing me a roll of money and a photograph of Mrs. Maggie Winters. Now you know how 1 came to take a band tn tbe ceieDratea memue muruer case. At that time I was entirely ignorant of tbe importance of my mission. Tbe man under whose orders I was acting desired accurate information regarding the previous life of one of the inmates of Mrs. Clark Melville's house. That was sufficient My place was to do my work and ask no questions, and that is exactly what I tried to da The first man 1 spoke with at Clifton looked me in the eye for an instant and reached for my hand. No wonder. We had slept together many a night in the Army of the Cumberland, with only a ragged blanket between us and the sky. I found him with a pension, a postoffice and?a pair of crutches. The brave fellow had deposited one of his legs as a guarantee of his devotion to his country at Lookout Mountain. As a soldier my friend was a man to be trusted. Asa postmaster he was a man to be studied. 1 spent three days in his company and found him true as BteeL When I told him what I wanted he laughed at me for not telling him before. "Well, I know how it is with you New York detectives," he said; "you all have a cipher trademark. Study it out and you discover these words. 'Never trust any oner " He said it in a laughing, offhand way. but be hit the nail square on the head. That night he put me in possession of important information. Only two persons in the village knew Mrs. Maggie Winters. Every man, woman and child in the place knew Mrs. Caroline Green. They not only knew her. they pitied her. The persons who knew Mrs. Maggie Winters were Mrs. Caroline Green's sister and my friend, the postmaster. Mrs. Caroline Green had not been absent from her native place six weeks when her sister opened a correspondence with Mrs. Maggie Winters in New York. The letters were addressed to the street and number where Mrs. Clark Melville lived. Mr. Gates was right when he said that the name did not matter in a place the size of Clifton. He did uot reckon, however, on my finding an old comrade in the Clifton postmaster?the only person in the village of whom the desired information could have been procured without great trouble and delay. When I had located Mrs. Maggie Winters in Mrs. Caroline Green 1 went to the postmaster's wife for advice. 1 found her to be an intelligent woman, in every way worthy of the noble man who had done her the honor to make her his wife. She readily promised me all the assistance in her power, and asked me to tell her where and how to begin. "First," I explained, "go among the gossips and torn their tongues in the direction of Mrs. Caroline Green. It will not be long before you will be in possession of all the important circumstances in Mrs. Caroline Green's life, from the time shecut her first tooth until she bought her ticket for New York, nnlfiuuta Mm Pam1in? flrpon'a sister. I want to know why Mrs. Caroline Green became Mrs. Maggie Winters in New York, and why she went to New York. If she is obstinate, tell her that ooncealment will only serve to strengthen the theory which has already placed her sister nnder the ban of suspicion. Then put your discoveries in narrative form and bring it to me." CHAPTER VTL CONTRIBUTED BY THE POSTMASTER'S WIFE. 1 first remember Mrs. Caroline Green as little Carrie Gould. We played in the same games in the village school ground and stood side by side?usually very near the foot?in the juvenile spelling class. Her school life closed before mine, and my next distinct recollection of her begins at the time she became the wife of Maurice Green. Like many another New England girl in those days, Carrie Gould wedded the man of her choice one day only to lose him the next. Maurice Green married her in Federal blue and marched away next morning to the front, leaving his wife of a day to mourn herself into a fit of sickness over the separation. At that time I secretly thought she made too great a display of her grief. In a year I was ^heartily ashamed of myself forjiav LE MURDER.' FRED B.TOZER. 1 Press Association, 1K91. She gave me the letter to read. ing been so uncharitable. The following autumn my own husband, to whom I had been married but a few wef5ks, enlisted and went away. In the desolate days that followed 1 >wn.TnA tViA ftlmnflt constant eomnanion. of Mrs. Green. Together we traced on a map the movements of the arm y divis- _ ions, of which onr respective husbands were, to us, by far the most important part, and together we waited, hand in hand and with hashed breath, for the gossiping postmaster to distribute the daily maiL From the very first Mrs. Green seemed to abandon all hope of her husband ever returning to her alive. Time and again I tried to reason her oat of what 1 believed to be a morbid idea born of feeble health, bat all 1 could say had 110 effect upon her. She shuddered over the letters that came to her from the south, and often hid them under her shawl without daring to look at the handwriting of the address. 1 knew too well what she feared. She feared a message from some kind comrade that her husband had fallen in action, or had died unattended and uncared for in some great army hospital. "I know how it will all end," she said to me one day, with tears in her eyes; "some day the message I have dreaded so long will come, and then they will find me lying dead just where I received it, with the fatal thing, in my hand." Now and then a soldier from the company in which her husband had enlisted came home on a furlough to recover from a severe illness or a wound. Every one of them brought favorable reports of Maurice Green. He was in excellent health; he was winning an honorable name as a brave and loyal man; his conversations with his comrades convinced all who cared to listen that he was true as steel to his girl wife in far off Maine, and that he looked forward hopefully and proudly to the life they would live "together when the war was over or when his term of enlistment had expired. "True to the flag and true to his wife!" she would say on such occasions in a way that wasn't at all like her everyday talk. "You needn't enlarge on that I knew that when he went away. If he deserted, 1 should never look in his face again; if he forgot the solemn vows he made the day he left me, I know I should follow him to the end of the earth, if it was necessary, to take his life! But he will do neither," she would add, "I know They will kill Mm in some of their wretched battles and 1 shall never see him again!" Perhaps the person for whom this manuscript is being prepared will object to his loss ofjjtimo in reading what I have written regarding Mrs. Caroline Green's moods and fears. I can't help it I was asked to be minute. How can 1 better obey orders than by describing exactly the kind of a woman she was in those days? If you want to know whether Mrs. Caroline Green would be apt to do a certain thing or not, jnst figure out in your own mind whether a morbid mind, and a jealous mind, and a revengefully jealous mind, like the one .! have attempted to describe, would be likely to lead a person on to do the deed that has been (lone. There you have it,. Mr. Joseph U. Smith, and 1 hope and pray from the very bottom of my heart that you will figure it out wrong if any harm is to come to Caroline Green by reason of your figuring it out right! Have I mentioned the fact that Mrs. Green at that time had a brother living in New York? Well, she had a great, stalwart, kindhearted brother there, and he was so wrapped up in his sister and she in him that they spent a small fortune every year in postage stamps. I can best describe this brother by saying that in disposition and bent of mind he was theexact counterpart of his sister. There! I have described two persons in the clumsy paragraphs you are likely to object to! One day Carrie came to mo with a letter from this brother in her hand and the brightest look on her face I had ever seen there. "See," she said, holding oat the missive, "Maurice is coming home!" She gave me the letter to read, and 1 will write down what it said about Maurice Green as near as I can remember it "I shall soon be robbed of my long, cheering letters from Clifton," the writer began, "for somebody you are very much interested in is coming- home, and I shall be forgotten. Can you gcess who it is? Well, I will not keep you in suspense. I saw Maurice Green on Third avenue yesterday, and the day before yesterday too, for that matter! I tried my best to get near enough to him to take him by the hand and send my regards to tho desolate little girl who writes me such lonesomely loving letters from Maine, but the crowd was so great \ that 1 couldn't even get near enough to attract his attention. Nevermind. You can give him my address and he will be sure to call when he comes back. He may be looking over your shoulder as you read this, and 1 beg of you to stop reading long enough to impress upon his mind the reasonableness of my request." After that we watched every train from the 60uth, but Maurice never came. It nearly killed Carrie. And no letters of a later date than the one from New York came from the army. "It was not Maurice my brother saw in New York," Carrie would say, wringing her hands; "he is lying dead somewhere in the south!" In a few weeks?how well 1 remember the snow on the ground and the keen winter air that (lay!?we found two letters in Carrie's little box at the postoffice. One was from New York, in her brother's handwriting. One was from a Federal hospital camp in Virginia, and the writing was not that of her husband. The first letter reported Maurice's presence in New York. The second recorded his accidental death in Virginia. The New York letter bore the latest date. That night?without a word or a hint even to me?Mrs. Caroline Green left for New York. I have never seen hersince. CHAPTER VIIL CONTRIBUTED BY THE CORONER'S CLERK- I 1 remen'flx*r the official inquiry in;the j matter of the death of Mrs. Clark Mel- | villa's coachman. I think I have good J reason to remember it. 1 wrote testi- i mony enough in the c;ise to bring a dead i man back to life, if such a thing were ! possible. I hate writing testimony. If the coroner isn't allowed a stenographer j by the state before long 1 shall resign. It isn't fair to expect so much writing of j a poor girl who luis only her head and j her two hands to rely on for support. Now, yofi needn't attempt to hurry j me. It will do you no good, Mr. Charles j Gates, to keep saying "Cut it short." If ] you will take yourself and your cigar | out of the offico I will make a synopsis I -ft of the testimony taken in this case in my own way. To begin with, I didn't see the body. I never do. The testimony is always taken here in this carpeted room. The witnesses stay out there in the public room until they are wanted. When I reached the office that morning?it was in April, I remember, and some one had given me a spray of wildwood flowers on rayway down town?1 found a woman walking up and down the public office crying and wringing her hands. There was an air of youth about her, yet her eyes were faded and her hair was gray. Perhaps you have seen old young women yourself. If you have you know how this woman looked. She had my sympathy the moment I saw her. I never saw such misery reflected on any other human face as 1 8aw on hers that morning. "I am Mrs. Mary Winters," she said as I stepped into the room. "I am here as a witness in the case to come before the coroner this morning." 1 gave her a seat in the private office, and she just sat there and cried until the coroner came in. I remember that I laid my spray of flowers down only for a mo Thero, Mr. Charles Gates, you have the testimony of Mrs. Clark Melville. Now you can pay me for my work and go away. I don't like the atmosphere which seems to cling about this mystery. Why couldn't Mrs. Melville have attended to her own nffairs? Then the public officers would havo taken hold of the matter, and long before now the whole affair would have been sound asleep in somo dusty old pigeonhole! CHAPTER IX. CONTRIBUTED BY AN EX-IIOSPITAL ATTENDANT. Late in the evening a number oj convalescent* were grouped about lite stove. ' My uame is Edward L. Pelton. 1 am in the employ of n Beekinan street firm as bookkeeper. A week ago Mr. Charles Gates catjie to my place of employment and asked me to put into writing whatever I could remember of certain events which took place in a Virginian hospital in the winter of 1863. "What 1 want," he explained, "is your best recollection of a private named Maurice Green. The hospital records show that he was for some weeks in a ward of which you hnd charge. When you have located the man, put whatever you can recollect of his life there down in black and white and you shAll be well paid for your trouble." At the first interview I frankly explained to Mr. Gates that it would be impossible for me to furnish him the desired information. At that time 1 had not the slightest recollection of ever having seen or heard of a private named Maurice Green. He refused to take no for an answer. "I will give you a week's time to think it over," he said, "before 1 apply to others who shared your life in the hospital 1 am told that Maurice Green was connected with a very important event at the hospital that winter. Recall, if you can. all the people connected with every one of tliai; winter's important events, and you vrill come to what I want" ment, and she took it m her arras, as sae might have taken a baby, and cried over that 1 knew from that Oh, you want her testimony, do yon? Well, there wasn't much of it She cried a great deal, wrung her hands a great deal, and got all tangled up in her answers. She acted to ine like a woman who was trying to talk about something of which she knew nothing. At last she broke down entirely. "I can't go on with the farce," she cried. "You can take me away to prison if you like. 1 have testified falsely about the coachman's name. He was my own brother! His name was Gmmett Gould. I am to blame for his awful death. Stop your inquiry and take me to prison!" And from that time to the time she left the stand nothing more could be got out of her. Only for the presence of the officer who had made the original inquiry at the Melville house she would doubtless have been letained by the coroner as a suspicious person. This officer explained how impossible it was that she could have had anything to do with the murder, and the coroner believed him. It seems that the officer had located her in another part of the house at the time the murder was committed, and couldn't abandon his theory. He knew a great deal about who didn't commit the murder, but when it came to finding out who did he very promptly gave it up. Somehow these police officers have an irresponsible way of giving everything up?except their places and their salaries! You needn't object to that last sentence, Mr. Charles Gates. You are too sharp a man not to know it to be true. Mrs. Clark Melville's testimony is the nextvon my record. You want that, suppose, in order to keep the connection. A very dignified witness was Mrs. Clark Melville. It disgusted me to see how they all cringed before her. Her testimony amounted to nothing so far as the real point of the inquiry was concerned. I can't see what the coroner wanted her for, unless he was interested with her in clearing Mrs. Mary Winters of the suspicion which had somehow become attached to her since the night of the murder. You would thank me to write down what she said, eh, and have less to say regarding my own impressions? 1 tell you she didn't say much of anything! IH supply you with an exact copy of it, combining the questions and the answers so as to make it iutelligiblo. Mako what you can of it:' "I was subpoenaed at my own request. I can tell you nothing about the unfortunate affair which, for the time being, has brought my family and myself into public notice. I am informed, however, that anything relating to any of the persons now under suspicion will be accepted by the coroner. If I am to rely upon the public prints and the hints of the public officials, a member of my household is one of the suspected parties. I refer to my housekeeper, Mrs. Maggie Winters, and 1 am here in her interest "Don't think by that that I intend to argue for her. It is my purpose only to repeat a Btrange story she told me a few days after the murder. She told it in confidence, and I only repeat it now with her consent "She came from a New England vil- ( lage at the request of her brother?the murdered man?in search of her husband. Perhaps the word husband expresses too much in this case. I should have said'iu search of a man who wedded '*/ can't (/o on with the furcc." her one day, and the next became lost in the great mass of Federal troops marching south. Three days after her arrival in New York the brother and sister entered my employ. "The records of that portion of the Federal army to which my housekeeper's husbund belonged show him to have been incidentally killed iu u hospital camp in Virginia in the winter of 18C3. The letters my housekeeper received from this city, both before and after the date of her husband's death, according to the army records, show her husbund to have been alive ami well here. These letters, of course, were written by her brother, and it was her brother's hand and brains that urged and guided her on in the hopeless search. "All Lilt: yeai? one; 11 veil in mj nuu.iv ,?? search went on. She came to me a young and pretty country girl. I passed her in the outer room a moment ago a worn and faded woman. "Until this suspicion came upon her? until she was accused of murdering in cold blood the only jierson she had left to lean upon?Hhe never confided her secret trouble to me. Until he lay dead in my house 1 never knew that my coachman was my housekeei>er\s brother. "Even now Mrs. Winters will confide to no one?not even to me?the result or progress of her search. The most she will say is that she located her husband a long time ago. She refuses to tell me whether she has met and accused him to his face of his perfidy. She refuses to tell me why ho deserted her. She only tells me enough to drive from my mind any suspicions 1 might have had regarding her complicity in the coachman's death. When I, in the kindest manner, I press her to confide further in me she only cries and wrings her hands just as you all saw her do here a few moments ago. "Up to this time 1 have been able to arrive at no definite conclusion regarding the matter. I am not even certain that tho housekeeper is not insane on the subject of her husband. 1 have known people to become so affected by trouble of less importance than hers. "I have now taken steps to place tho question of the death of her husband beyond a doubt. Trusty men are now, at my expense, tracing the regiment to which ho lielonged from the day of his enlistment until the time it was mustered out of the service. After that all New York shall be searched. If her husband lives she shall look upon his face again. If ho bo dead she shall at least find rest by tho narrow grave where ho sleeps." I For a week I had no peace of tniud : night or day. I was anxious to aid Mr. Gates, who seemed n very please lit gentleman, and 1 was anxious to earn the money he was ready to pay for the work he had asked me to do. A dozen times 1 abandoned the t;isk in despair. My treacherous memory brought to me no hint of an important event in which Private Maurice Green was a central figure. At hist a newspaper clipping found among my army papers put me on 'the right track. When Mr. Charles Gates came to me at the end of the allotted time 1 was ready for him. "I have found your important event," 1 said as he came to my desk, "and I have connected Private Maurice Green with it He was killed by an accidental explosion in the night time of one of the coldest days I ever suw in Virginia." "You have made a good beginning," he said, "and the rest ought to be easy. Write down everything you can remember of the man from the time he entered the hospital up to the time of his death, and 1 will call in three days for the manuscript And," he added, turning back after he was well on his way out of the office, "you may as well begin your narrative by stating, in unmistakable terms, all your reasons for believing that it was Private Maurice Green who was ac-ij?i-ii ?4. " Uiueuu&ujr mucit iuab uigui. ui ? u^ium** How do I know it was Maurice Green who was killed that night? 1 am positive of it But that is u woman's reason. Let me set down here, in detail, all I can now remember of the man. He was placed in my ward early in the winter. At the time he was suffering from a species of brain fever, but he recovered quite rapidly. A New York officer similarly affected came in at the same time, and I remember now that both gained rapidly, and that they became quite intimate as soon as they were able to sit up in their cots and talk. It is my impression that at the time I had some particular reason for keeping the two men together in my mind, but I cannot now recall what it was. It is quite probable, however, that I thought of each in connection with the other because their treatment was about the same, and because one occupied cot number ninety-eight and the other cot j number ninety-nine. I cannot now re- < call which number was Green's. Both men were very weak when they j arrived at the hospital, and both were j unconscious. No wonder. The poor fellows had traveled a long distance, lying in the open air because uncovered wag- j ons were the best the department could 1 then supply. Their clothing was not sufficient to protect them from the cold, and every particle of it had to be destroyed on account of the vermin which j the blankets used to cover them during 1 their journey had communicated to it j When they were able to leave their cots ! each was supplied with a private's uni- j form. Every incident of the night of Green's | death comes vividly to my mind as 1 write. For the first time in many years in that part of Virginia a heavy fall of snow had rendered tne roans unpassaoie. ; Our supplies had given out, and all efforts V) secure communications with the out- j side world had proved unavailing. Starvation stared us in the face. Even now I find it impossible to control my tamper when I think of the needless misery our patients suffered. Some one blundered in locating and victualing the camp. Let it go down in history that way. Late in the evening a number of con- 1 valescents were grouped about the stove at one end of the room. Fuel was scarce, | and the poor fellows had covered themselves with the blankets from their beds in order to aid a miserable fire in supply- | ing enough warmth to sustain life. Green was in one of his bad moods, 1 remember, and, as usual, had the best place at the fire. My present impression of Green is that he was a very selfish man. 1 will go one step farther. IIo was a jealous minded man and a willful man. His instincts were brutal. .! used to think that his monstrous bump of self esteem was all that kept him from overriding all the rights of others in order to gratify his own desires?in fact, from becoming an outlaw. His companions tolerated lnm, but I don't think he hail the honest friendship of a man in the hospital. Don't blame mo if I say hard things of tho dead, Mr. Charles Gates. My instructions are to give, in tho interest of an inquiry now being made, a descrii>tion of tho man's temper and l?ent of mind as I understood them. You have my personal ideas of tho man. Take them for what they uro worth. I said just now that Green was in one of his bad moods. 1 should have said jealous moods. One member of the group about the stove had been explaining to his companions the life ue had abandoned when ho entered tho army. The life that ho told was a lifo that any one might envy. 1 think?yes, 1 am positive?that the talker was the officer from New York, for he told of a luxurious home and an indulgent mother in that city. lie seemed to begin at tho time he bestrodo his first hobby horso in tho bay window of a sunny nursery and continue through overy detail .of his school und club lifo. Tho man had just passed through a long seige of bfain | fever. He was weak jn body. Pardon 1 mo if I say also that he was weak in | mind. We all know how the body affects the mind. He was lonely and homesick. He liad eyes and thoughts only for the happy scenes of home. His word pictures uifected me strangely. 1 pitied him. Private Green listened to every word with an eagerness that all noticed Then he settled back in a sudden silence which I believed to be a jealous Bilence. They were the last words he ever heard. At that moment a soldier who had been foraging in the nearly empty store-' house made his appearance. He carried in his hand a small package. As he advanced toward the hungry group at the stove he busied himself in unavailing i efforts to remove the frozen paper which I nnnnpAled the true character of his dis- I covery. The icy surface of the package j resisted all his efforts, and ho, too impatient to await the slow process of thawing by the fire, seized a blazing brand from the stove and applied it to the package. The froaen paper thawed slowly and then melted away, revealing a second wrapping of cloth. An instant later we were thrown from i our feet The rows of cotfi became mingled in awfnl disorder Thftvtove gave up its blazing brands and fell apart like walls of wax. A sulphurous smoke filled the room, and a Becond later 1 saw the cold blue sky looking in through our shattered roof. The soldier had applied a blazing brand to a package of gunpowder. Four persons were wounded by the explosion and two were instantly killed. When I recovered sufficiently to realize what had taken place, the officer from New York lay on his bed moaning with a horrible wound in his head. He recovered after weeks of illness. The wound and excitement threw him back into brain fever. One of the dead was the foraging soldier. The other was j Afcurice Green. [to he continued next week.] pisaltauwus Reading. A RAID BEHIND (IRANI FORRESTS' BOLD SWOOP IN WEST TENNESSEE, DECEMBER, 1862. With One Brigade lie Hovered Along Grant's Lines of Communications Fifteen Days, Destroyed the Roads and Foiled a Campaign. [Copyright, 1801, by American Press Association. Book rights reserved.] CKSBURG (6 ma'?e 11 rfify|\ W Jm ferent figure in If I history hud not t Grant's move (fo/n Wn/r ^ ment upon the TgSL C rear through Misr m* \min Bissippi beenbrok iqlL jaj/j,? en up by the Con*** federate raids upon his lines of I=f=^^^yy(\A^ communication and supply. The southern com* ? y\)y mander in the ' A' west, Gen. Braxton Bragg, if not a great fighter was clever at scheming, and when be found himself compelled, after Murfreesboro, to remain in front of Rosecrans and the Army of tho Cumberland in middle Tennessee, in order to protect Chattanooga, and saw the gathering of the clans of McPherson, Sherman and McClernand, to memice the strongholds on the lower Mississippi, lie resorted to those tactics for which the country and his military resources were well adapted, namely, cavalry raids behind hli< enemies' camps. Two of his brigadiers, with their commands, were as gcod as expressly made for the purpose of the hour. Gen. John Morgan and his men were Kentuckians, and Gen. Forrest and his followers were Tennesseeans. Morgan was sent to Kentucky to shuke up things in Itosecruns' bailiwick, and Foirest went to make things lively for Grant. Forrest had just been relieved from the no if u 1 ri' nn/1 fuuicrnnf] UULLI UiaUU CIA. AilOf^ a uu * uti j www o to a brigade consisting of four regiments and a battery. The men were for the most part new to the service, were armed with shotguns and flint lock muskets and were in other respects poorly equipped. When Forrest complained to headquarters of the condition of his equipments Bragg didn't | answer him precisely us Jeff Davis did Lee in 1883, when the latter wanted rations, "Go find them in the northern states," but it amounted to that, for ho promised to forward the supplies, and left Forrest to capture them from his enemies or go without. The raiding column, 1,800 strong, started from Columbia Dec. 11, 1882. In front of them lay the Tennessee river, stripped of all means of crossing by tho vigilant union forces that had controlled it for months. By means of an old flat boat picked up at Clifton the artillery and wagons were ferried over and the horses were swum across. The weuther was cold and a pelting rain was falling. The men had no shelter, and when they came together across the river on the ICth a halt was made to dry out clothing and ammunition. The guu caps had been spoiled by wetting j at the river, but fortunately a citizen | agent, whom Foriest had sent into the ! union lines to get a supply, reached camp ! that night with fO.OOO of the needful arti- j cles, and early on the morning of the 17th | the raiders moved toward Lexington. As a matter of course Forrest's move. | ment .'uud not been concealed from the ; Union eyes. Less than fifty miles west of i the Tennessee, where he crossed, was the town of Jackson, where the Mobile and ' Ohio railway from Columbus, Ky., united j with the Mississippi Central, which ran to Jackson, Miss., and along which Grunt was . moving with the land column threatening Vicksburg. Jackson, Tenn., was the headquarters of a military district commanded by Gen. J. C. Sullivan, and the outlying points east, north and south were garrisoned by small bodies of infantry with cavalry outposts. Lexington, just east of Jackson, was a cavalry past. The news of Forrest's crossing of the Tennessee reached the Union camps on the 15t.h, and immediately the telegraph was set to work nil along tho line between Columbus, Ky., and Grant's headquarters at Oxford, Miss., to order troops to the threatened points. Col. Robert G. Ingersoll, Sullivan's chief ? l S --I-'--4"' uA??IAA/1 Arv manf or caviury, ltnnicwiabcijr .iwuwu w u?.v? | Forrest with 200 of his own regiment, the ! Eleventh Illinois, about 300 of the Second j West Tennessee, and 300 of the Fifth Ohio. ! Forrest was encountered outside of Lexington, and the lirst dash of the raiders scattered the Second West Tennessee, and in a short time Iugersoll and over a hundred men were made prisoners. Two cannon and seventy horses "badly needed and immediately put into service" were among Forrest's prizes. This light occurred early on the 18th, and news of the result traveled rapidly in the Union camps Gen. Sullivan telegraphed Grant that the C^d/nion City. V Vr\ \ a fi V/ \>C\* V ^ B o\> rv i.lY 40 t rU 'W<? J i T ? p I v i'i kj> ; ? \ / - AS ? f \ v\u \ <1v V) $j \ c^pb | ' j^Jolivar, I ^ i KOUTK OK THK llAIDEUS. raiders were from "10,000 to 20,000 strong and still crossing the river." Grant forwarded the rumor to Admiral I'orter as a fact and asked to have gunboats sent tip tho Tennessee. lie also telegraphed to his j subordinate generals nt Corinth, Miss., and at Fort Henry, Tenn., to send out forces to copewith Forrest in co-operation with Sulj liviHi, who was ordered to attack at once and did not wait. Forrest meanwhile poshed on to within four miles of Jackson, and sent out detachments to destroy the Mobilo and Ohio railroad north and south of tho place, aud also tho Mississippi Con- | Cral southwest toward Bolivar." THe work I wafi thoroughly douc, and on the morning j of the 19th Gen. Sullivan discovered that I the roads were broken all about him and the enemy at the gates. He bad sent for I aid in all directions, and hoped to hold the j town against all comers. But Forrest was too wily to beat his brains out against a fortified place, with ! defendus alert and numbering thousands. He sjHnd (/ut a line of men. strong in spots east, north and south of the town, drove in the Union outposts by suitable demonstrations, and oven caused the drums ho had captnred to be beaten at intervals with infantry calls to suggest an elaborate force at hand. The scare was so complete that the danger to Juckson became the question of the hour all along the Union line; the infantry and cavalry poets were depleted to strengthen Jackson. In this way other places that the raiders intended to strike were left almost defenseless. Th'e next point north on the rnilroad was Trenton, where several hundred troops were regularly stationed. In response to Gen. Sullivan's appeals every available man was sent away to Jackson, and a few convalescents and detailed men were the sole defenders. When the commander, CoL Jacob Fry, learned that Forrest was approaching he found the wires cut, and he could not recall his men. Forrest, in person, dashed into the town, leading his escort and & couple of hupdpad raw recruits, and Fry soon surrendered, unconditionally. When ho gave up his sword to Forrest ho did it sadly, remarking that it had been in the family for forty years. Forrest handed it back, saying, "Take back your sword, colonel, us it is a family relic; b at I hope, sir, when next worn it will be in a better cause than the subjugation of your countrymen." The captures at Trenton were estimated at $5Q0,00<) valuation. The raiders all came together, and the property was parceled out as needed or loaded into wagons and added to the train. Horses, mules, wagons, ciissous. 20,000 rounds of artillery ammunition, 400,000 rounds of small arm ammunition and 100,000 rations, together with Urge quantities of equipments, clothing and soldiers' baggage, were among the spoils. The shotguns and flintlocks of Forrest's men were exchanged for improved weapons; ammunition nnd equipments were abundant; forage and rations mude glad the soldiers and their horses, and recruiting had gone on apace, so that Forrest in one week had fared well .it the expense of the enemy. The prisoners taken thus tar numbered about 1,300, and Forrest paroled the Tennesseeaus and Bent them home. The others, numbering several hundred, were sent on ahead under escort to serve a further purpose. Simultaneous with Trenton the neighboring town of Humbolt fell, with more prisoners. After burning all war material that he could not carry along northward, Forrest started for Union City, picking up Rutherford Station and Kenton Station on the way. The general alarm had called a small Union force to Union City and a staff captain to organize defense. On the ufternoon of the 22d a flag of truce appeared ou the southern outskirts, announcing a party of prisoners under Confederate escort on the way to Columbus. While the cuptuin was parleying und trying to get instructions from his superiors by wire, Forrest swooped down on the place and captured all the loose boys in blue he could get sight of, and . Hi fe "TAKE BACK TOUR SWORD, COLONEL." sat down quietly to take account of stock, as it were. As he stated in a dispatch to Bragg, he had made a cleau sweep of Fed* ends north of Jackson and west of the Tennessee river. He had killed and wounded 100 of the enemy; had captured 1,200, including 4 colonels, 4 majors, 10 captains and 23 lieutenants. His own loss was 8 killed, 12 wounded and 2 missing. lie was at the end of his northward journey. After destroying four miles of trestle work and the bridges on the Obion river Forrest Htarted to return to middle Tennessee. Meanwhile his almost unopposed progress northward had spread conrusion among his enemies from Washington all along the southern border to Grant's head* quarters in Mississippi To complicate matters in the Union lines still further Gen. Earl Van Dorn had dashed into Holly Springs, Miss., where Grant's immediate supplies were stored, and burned up everything. This occurred on the 20th. On the 23d Grant sent word to the commander of the expedition going down the Mississippi by water that he (Grant) would be obliged to abandon the overland route on account of the raids in his rear and had fallen back from Oxford. It was supposed at first that Van Dorn moved north from Holly Springs to join Forrest, and it was also supposed that Forrest had with him all the cavalry of Bragg's army, which he formerly commanded, instead of merely a brigade, with the addition of a battalion under Col. Napier that joined at Trenton on the 20th. It was believed at army headquarters and in Washington that Forrest would push north to Columbus, Ky., and perhaps recapture Island No. 10. Telegrams buzzed over the wires in all directions. The petty commanders in West Tennessee were bothered with contradictory orders, being told to go uoi*th to catch Forrest, east to head him off from recrossing the Tennessee, and south to confront Van Dorn. Out of all the activity there was evolved a movement of a force under Gen. Sullivun northward from Jackson to Trenton and then eastwaid to Huntington. This brought it south of Forrest, and between him and any practicable point of recrossing the Tennessee river. Forrest's scouts kept him well informed of all that menaced him, and on the 2t>th the raiders made a forced march from Union City in the direction of Huntington. Being warned of what awaited him there, and not at all anxious for prospective glory with the alternative of a whipping, Forrest prepared to slip through between Huntington and Trenton. The Obion river lay across his path with all the bridges gone, excepting one thut the enemy had deemed impassable and hud not destroyed This the raiders strengthened by spiles, and For jest, in order to give confidence to his disheartened men, drove the first team across. On the 30th the raiders encamped nine miles from Lexington. In the morning Forrest's advance was met at tho junction of the Huntington road by the brigade of Col. C. L. Dunham, the advance of Gen. Sullivan's force, moving from Huntington southward to intercept him. The battle of Parker's Cross ltoads followed, and Forrest got the worst of it. He lost his ammunition train, but saved everything else, and learning that another force was pursuing him from Trentou he pushed rapidly toward Clifton, and on the morning of Jan. 3 wii> back in middle Tennessee. GlCOIUiK L. Kilmku. A rrnfltabli' Heard. A guiird on tho (treat Northern railway had been blessed with a magnificent adornment to his face in the shape of a long and patriarchal looking beard. It proved a source of considerable income, for ho used it to great advantage. He ushered passengers?first class preferred ?into their carriages, and Ijowed low as ho handed them their wraps. This wealth of hair Wiis so impressive that "tips" of threepenny pieces and sixpences were nnheard of. Shillings, twoshilling pieces and even half crowns were alone bestowed upon tho guard with tho patriarchal beard, j He made as much as threo or four pounds a week. But alas! in an nnI guarded moment ho shaved. With tho disappearance of his beard his tips went also. They scarcely amounted to ten shillings a week. He is now busily engaged in a quick promotion of a now I growth.?London Tit-Bits. He Hit* Never lie it J u Hook. Devoted to and absorbed in business, Mr. C. 11. Pratt, tho late Emma Abbott's : manager, has never sought in ordinary recreations and avocations that refreshment, repose, inspiration and encouragement invariably found so delightful and so beneficial by most men. The curious character of the man may be judged by | the circumstance that he makes his boast that ho has never read a book J BUFORD'S DEFEAT. Written for the Vorkvllle Enquirer. Nearly every neighborhood in the upper counties of South Carolina is memorable on account of some tragical affair which occurred in it during the years 1780 and 1781. On the 26th of December, 1779, Sir Henry Clinton, with a corps of more than 8,000 British soldiers, well provided with everything necessary for the efficiency of such a force, cleared the harbor of New York and directed his course towards South Carolina. Four things? the mildness of the climate, the richness of the soil, the nearness to Geor J frnm OntlAml Hill, U11U llie Uiauiiiku ituu> w~v._. Washington?suggested South Carolina to the British commander as the fittest region, in nil North America, in which to crush out of existence the rebels against the British government. His conclusion, judging from the past history of the contest and present condition of the colonies, was correct. | The war of the rebellion had been raging, with all the fierceness the I contending parties were able to effect, for a period of more than four years, and not a single decisive battle had been fought. The forces of Sir Henry Clinton, designed to operate in the South, were convoyed by Vice-Admiral Arbuthnot. The voyage was not a prosperous one. A storm scattered the fleet; some of the ships were capture* one ordinance vessel foundered, most of the artillery, and all of the cavalry horses perished. It was not until near the middle of February that the forces were landed and ready for action. With promptness, energy and skill, the British commander began to execute the work which he had undertaken. The country, far and near, was scoured by armed parties for the purpose of securing horses to supply the place of those lost on the voyage. Notwithstanding the many difficulties which beset the British commander on all sides, he began, with a large force, the work of throwing up redoubts in front of the city of Charleston. The siege began on land on the night of the 1st of April, the British ships Roebuck, Richmond, Romulus, Blonde, Virginia,' T4-1-!?CI nnil T) An/Mlfn r?1 AQOfl iVHieigll, OUIIUH'lUl unu ivcuunu,i.iuoi.u in upon the city, and, with the land forces, cut it off entirely from communication with the country at every point, except that which faced the Cooper river. The American forces were commanded by Brigadier General Benjamin Lincoln. On the 10th of April, the commanders of the British land and naval forces, jointly summoned the American general to surrender. General Lincoln replied that "Sixty days have passed since it has been known that your intentions against this town were hostile, in which time has been afforded to abandon it; but duty and inclination point to the propriety of supporting it to the last extremity." On the rejection of the summons, the British batteries were opened and a continual firing kept up until the 12th of May, when the city was surrendered on the same terms as those offered on the 10th of April. As Charleston was the largest, and in ovorv rpanort. the most imDortaut town in the State, its capture was regarded by the British, and by many of the inhabitants of the State and a considerable number of the inhabitants of Charleston itself, as equivalent to the reduction of the whole State. No less than 210 of the inhabitants of the city petitioned the commanders of the British forces to be readmitted to the character of British subjects, and, in the same petition, declared their disapprobation of the doctrine of American independence. Time has dealt gently with this petition and its signers. Both have been preserved. The fall of Charleston was a terrible calamity to the struggling colonies, but it was regarded a grand success for the British. The loss to the Americans, in prisoners aloue, was 5,618, besides near 1,000 seamen. That the besieged might be able to resist the besiegers, all the cannon and firearms of every description in the colony, had been transported to the city. AH this fell into the hands of the British. To announce the fall of Charleston, the Earl of Lincoln was sent to Europe. On the reception of the news, all England was jubilant. So soon as Charleston surrendered, Sir Henry Clinton set about to establish a civil government in the city and State. Having reduced, as he supposed, Charleston to a state of subjeclion to the King of England, he returned to New York, taking with him a part of his army, while the remainder was placed under the command of Cornwallis. Before his departure, Sir Henry Clinton planned three expeditions. One to move up the Savannah river to Augusta; another to pass through the country to Ninety-Six; and the third, commanded by Cornwallis, to pass through the eastern part of the State in pursuit of Colonel Abraham Buford. It is with this last that we are at present concerned. During the siege of Charleston, troops from different sections of the State, and from other States, were sent to assist the besieged in repelling the assaults of the enemy. The entrance to the city was, soon after the work of throwing up redoubts was beguu, entirely cut off. Among the troops cut off were those led by Colonel Abraham Buford. The exact number of his command cannot, at this late day, he ascertained. An old and trustworthy authority says: "It consisted of about 300 Continentals, the rear of the Virginia line." This probably was only the nucleus to which many others connected themselves temporarily. How near Colonel Buford had approached I fMiorlnutrm ia nnt rertnin. hilt the Tirol) V1IUMVUWU 7 I ability is that lie had reached the neighborhood of Monk's Corner. On the 18th duy of May, Cornwallis began his pursuit of Colonel Buford. With some difficulty he crossed the Santee at Laneau's ferry. The difficulty arose from the fact that all the ferries 011 the river had been destroyed by the Americans?some, probably by Colonel Buford?for it seems that Cornwallis learned, on crossing the river, 011 the 22nd, that Colonel Buford had left that point ten days previous. Immediately on getting all his troops across the Santee, at Laneau's ferry, Cornwallis set out in hot pursuit of Buford, following in his track. On the 27th, at Nelson's ferry, 011 the Santee, Cornwallis detached Colonel Tarlcton with a command consisting of forty cavalry?one hundred and thirty of the legion ; one hundred mounted infantry, and a three pounder, to pursue the American colonel. The whole force of Tarlcton, exclusive of the three pounder, was two hundred and seventy, all of which were either cavalry or mounted infantry. The pursuit by this detachment began on the 27th of May. Camden was reached on the next day. Here Tarlcton learned that Colonel Buford had left Kugeley's mill, on the 2(>th, and was hastening to join a body of troops 011 their way from Salisbury to Charlotte. At two o'clock 011 the morning of the 21)th, Tarlcton's detachment was again in motion. At daylight, Kugeley's mill was reached, where it was learned that Colonel Buford and bis command were about twenty miles distant. It is manifest that Colonel Buford thought he was entirely out of danger, and, as the weather was very warm, moved forward very leisurely. He seems to have halted for some days at Camden and then went to Kugeley's mill. At ft o'clock in the afternoon of the 2i)th of May, Tarleton's detach ment overtook mm. ai xwugeiey ? mill, however, Tarleton sent Captain Kinlock to summon Colonel Buford to surrender. To this summons Colonel Buford returned the following reply: "I reject your proposals, and shall defend myself to the last extremity." The place where Tarleton overtook Colonel Buford, is about ten miles, by the road, nearly east from Lancaster, the county seat of Lancaster county. Although it is more than one hundred and eleven years since the battle?if battle it may be called?was fought, scarcely any change has taken place on the battle ground. The road runs where it did then, and, with the exception of a small amount of undergrowth, the trees which were the silent witnesses of the slaughter, stand there today. The land on which Colonel Buford was defeated, is now the property of Rev. P. M. Plyler, of Tradesville, a few miles distant, in a northeastern direction. Colonel Tarleton x gives a stncny accurate uuscuption of the battle ground in these words: "an open wood." It is, with the exception of a small amount of undergrowth, an open wood today. In Axil view both of Colonel Tarleton and Colonel Buford, the advanced guard of Tarleton captured four Americans who were in the rear of their line. Whether or not Colonel Buford had placed videttes in his rear for the purpose of learning the approach of the British is not certainly known, but it seems that he had not, and that after receiving the summons to surrender, continued his march. This is what Tarleton says he did. Immediately on taking four of the Americans prisoners, both Tarleton and Buford began to put their forces in position for action. Tarleton's description of the order of his own troops and also that of Colonel Buford, is perhaps correct, and is as follows. Of Colonel Buford he says: "He chose his post in an open wood, to the right of the road. He formed his infantry in one line, with a small reserve. He placed his colors in the centre, and he ordered his cannon, baggage and wagons to continue their march." Of the disposition of his own troops, Colonel Tn.infnn ooira ?'TTo rnnflHed his ricrht I U1 IV^tUU OUJO Jb*v _ -D wing, which was composed of sixty dragoons and nearly as many mounted infantry, to Major Cochran, desiring him W dismount the latter to gall the enemy's flank before he moved against their front with his cavalry. Captains Corbet and Kinlock were directed, with the Seventeenth dragoons and part of the legion, to charge the centre of the Americans, while Lieutenant-Colonel Tarleton, with thirty chosen horse and some infantry, assaulted their right flank and reserves." Such was the order of the battle observed by two of the commanders as stated by Colonel Tarleton. The British commander had rushed his detachment forward with great rapidity, having marched 105 miles In 54 hours. Many of the horses had broken down or become so tired that their progress was slow. These, with the three pounder which was sun Dehind when the plan of battle was arranged, were ordered to take position, when they arrived, on a small eminence which commands the road. This was designed as a rallying point in case of a repulse, which Tarleton seems to have apprehended. The two forces were within 300 yards of each other when the arrangement for battle was made by the British, yet the Americans did not fire a gun. As soon as the British commander got his forces put in position, he moved forward to the attack. When at the distance of 50 yards from the American front, the Continental troops prepared to fire, but were commanded by their officers to reserve their fire until the British were within ten paces. When this distance was reached, the Americans fired, but with scarcely any effect. The British closed in on the command of Buford, and in a few moments the affair ended. The Americans had more men than the British, lyid they were well provided with arms and ammunition, but they failed to use them to any advantage. The whole British loss in the battle was five killed and fourteen wounded. The loss of the Americans was terribly great. The killed were one hundred and thirteen; the wounded and unable to be moved, one hundred and fifty; and the prisoners, fifty three. In all three hundred and sixteen. Tarleton captured three stand of colors, two brass six pounders, two royals, two wagons with ammunition, one artillery forge cart, fifty-five barrels of powder, twenty-six wagons loaded with new clothing, arms, musket cartridges, new cartridges boxes, Hints and camp equipage. The reader is, no doubt, ready to say this was a strange battle, and so it was. Colonel Buford seems to have made many egregious blunders. If he had opened his artillery on Tarleton, when he was forming his men for action, the result would have been far different. Many of those in the command of Colonel Buford were citizens of the counties of York, Chester and Lancaster, who had gone down to assist in the defence of Charleston. For safety, they joined the command of Buford, and while returning home many were cut to pieces. We are at a loss to know which to censure most, Colonel Buford for his mismanagement, or Colonel Tarleton for his cruelty. It is admitted by the Americans that some of them laid down their arms, while others kept up an ineffectual fire. It was declared, while the slaughter was going on, tlint Tarlctou was killed. This incensed the British, and they hewed the Americans to pieces without mercy. On the morning of the 30th, those of the Americans who were so badly wounded that they "were not able to travel, were," Colonel Tarleton says, "paroled and placed at the neighboring plantations, and in a meeting house not far distant from the battlefield." The wounded from Chester county were in a few days removed to their homes. On the way home, however, a number of the wounded became so weak that they were deposited in Waxhaw l'resbyterian church. Here some died and were buried in the graveyard. The meeting house, not far distant from the battle field, in which Colonel Tarleton placed some of the wounded, was an Associate church within, perhaps, four hundred yards of the battle field. The probability is that the spring used until lately by Mr. S. E. Usher, was the meeting house spring. This meeting house was also called Waxhaw, and so was the whole country from a short distance north of Camden. The meeting house, not far distant from the battle field, was one of the places at which Rev. Thomas Clark, M. I)., preached as early as 17(50. Some of the families with whom the wounded were placed by Tarleton, were Usher, liarklcy, Hull, Montgomery, Nelson, Porter, Calloway, Carnes, and others forgotten. Thirty-five or forty years ago, a plain marble monument, seven ami a half feet high and eighteen inches square at the base, was erected to the memory of those Americans who fell in the battle, and a rude wall of flint stones placed around the grave in which eighty-four of them were buried. On the east side of this monumental shaft is the following inscription : "Nearly the entire command of Col. j Union! were either killed or wounded. I St gallant soldiers are buried in this grave, j They loll their homes for the relief of | Charleston, but hearing, at Camden, of the Here their Uvea were'ended in the service of their country." On the South side is inscribed : "Erected to the memoir and in the honor of the bravo and patriotic American soldiers who fell in the battle which occurred at this place on the 29th of May, 1780, between Colonel Abraham Buford, who commandedarcgimentof 350 Virginians, and Colonel Tarleton, of the British army, with 350 cavalry and a like number of infantry." : j The inscription on the North side is: ggjk "The cruel and barbarous massacre com- , r >i|PS mitted on this occasion by Tarleton and his command, alter the surrender of Colo- . 3 nel Buford and his regiment, originated the American war cry: 'Remember Tarleton's quarters.' A British historian con- '' rA?? fesses at this battle 'the virtue of human- jgb ity was totally forgot'" Some of the statements contained in these inscriptions vary from the state- / ments made by both American and British historians. Evidently the number of Tarleton's forces are greatly exaggerated, while those of Buford are greatly diminished. The massacre of Buford's forces aroused the Scotch-Irish settlers of Chester, York and Lancaster, and the result was that the British were defeated at Williamson's, King's Mountain, the Cowpenasmd Yorktown. B. Latham. * One Oysteb for Two.?We laugh ' ? at the innocent young housewife who . ordered "half a dozen halibut" for dinner. Had she lived in the South Pacific Islands she might have been equally laughed at for ordering half a dozen oysters?not to say a pint. The author of "Oysters, and All About Them," gives some examples that nearly match the giant clams and ablones of the California coast. Pliny mentions that, according to the historians of Alexander's expedition, oysters a foot and a half in diameter were found in the Indian Seas, and Sir James E. Tennent was unexpectedly enabled to corroborate the correctness of this statement, for at Kottier, near Trincomalee, enormous specimens of edible oysters were brought to the rest house. One measured more than 11 inches in length by half as many in width. But this extraordinary measurement is beaten by the oysters of Port Lincoln in South Australia, which are the largest edible ones in the world. They are are as large as a dinner plate, and of much the same shape. They are sometimes more than a foot across the shell, and the oyster fits his habitation so well that he does not leave much margin. It is a new sensation when a friend asks you to lunch at Adelaide to have one oyster fried in butter, or in eggs and bread crumbs, set before you; but it is a very pleasant experience, for the flavor and delicacy of the Port Lincoln mammoth are proverbial, even in that land of luxuries. The Banana a Developed Lily.? Goldtwait's Geographical ^ Magazine says that the banana belongs to the lily family, and is a developed tropical lily, from which, by ages of cultivation, the seeds have been eliminated - - - - ? v ..m 1 is next to godliness, n morui lesson. An exchange remarks that it is i not much wonder that the human race j finds it uphill work to he decent and 1 keep straight. The first man was a liar and a sneak, the first woman kept } had company and pried into things that did not concern her; the first ! child horn in the world killed his ! brother. Our first parents were a tough lot and it is hard to get it out of i the blood. fifeiy* A hotel in Hamburg has been built entirely of compressed wood, which by the pressure to which it is j subjected is rendered as hard as iron, I as well as absolutely proof against the 1 attacks of fire. and the truit ior wmca it was cultivated, greatly expanded. In relation to the bearing qualities of this fruit, Humboldt, who early saw the wonders of the plant, said that the ground that would grow 90 pounds of potatoes would also grow 33 pounds of wheat, but the same ground would grow 4,000 pounds of bananas, the proportion thus being, .to wheat 133 to 1. The banana possesses all of the essentials to the sustenance of life. The savage of the sea isles and the jungle owes what he has of physical strength to this food. Wheat alone, potatoes alone, will not do this. When taken as a steady diet it is cooked?baked dry in the green state, pulped, and boiled in water as soup, or cut in slices and fried. I do not know whose beauty I admire the most?the majestic cocoa palm, with its heavy crown of great fringed leaves, or the graceful banana, with its great leaves, which are six feet long and two feet wide. The leaves of the banana are tender, and the strong winds of the tropics? the hurricanes?soon tear the leaves in strips, thereby adding to their grace and beauty. The banana is a fruit that beast and bird, as well as man, are fond of, and the owner, when he lives in a sparsely settled country, must needs protect his plantation by a a fence or some thorn plant. How Some Accidents Occuk.?The frequency with which unloaded guns and pistols are discharged with fatal results is suggestive of the suspicion that some of the alleged deplorable accidents are the result of deep design. These peculiar accidents remind one of a conversation that occurred between two negroes. "What has yer dropped in dat paper ?" "Dat's a pistol; one of dis heah pistils what's easy on de trigger, what cocks hitself and shoots hitself off." "Whaffor does yer want a pistil ? Can't yer 'fend yerse'f wid a knife ?" The other negro, who was a very hard case, shut one eye, and with a 1 smile that was calculated to produce a shudder, replied: "When a pistil goes off and kills a man yer kin make folks believe it went off by akerdent, but ef you say a knife killed a man akerdentally some folks will shore hab doubts."?Texas Sittings. ^ Wooden Swearing.?A minister once said, "I hope, dear children, that you will never let your lips speak profane words. But now I want to tell you about a kind of swearing which I . heard a good woman speuk about not long ago. She called it wooden swearing. It's a kind of swearing that many people besides children are given to when they are angry. Instead of giving vent to their feelings in oaths they slam the doors, kick the chairs, stamp 011 the lloor, throw the furniture about, and make all the noise they possibly can. 'Isn't this just the same as swearing?' said she. 'It's just the same kind of feeling exactly, only they do not like to say those awful words ; but they force the furniture to make the noise, and so I call it wooden swearing.' I hope, dear children, that you will not do anything of this kind of swearing either. It is better to let alone wooden swearing and all other kinds of swearing."?Mother's Treasury. Nothing can exceed the attention j paid to tourist visitors in Norway. "When staying at Mysteun," writes I one of them, "I placed outside my bedj room door to be cleaned a pair of boots, the soles of which were a little broken. I In the morning I found them not only | polished but resoled." Moreover, a j lady of his acquaintance, who was not l so particular about the "get up" of her I underline!), had it removed and washed I for her. This last seems not only an | act of politeness, but, since cleanliness