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ISSUED TWICE A WEEK--WEENESEAY A.3NTE BATUKDAY. l. m. grist & sons, Publishers. 1 . Jf ^amilj) |)eirspn|>er: <J[or the promotion of the jjjoliticat, fSorial, figriculturnt, and Commercial interests of the $outft. jm?raos'c#o?,ythbi?\ist8.nce' ______ YOEKVILLE, S. C., WEDNESDAY, JUNE 9, 1897. INTO. 46. DARTHULY. By WILLIAM PERSY BROWN. [Copyright. 1897, by tho Author.] CHAPTER I. The blacksmith's shop at Hiawasscn gap was a literal cave, half way up the Bide of a huge cliff. Across the roaring fiver a still higher line of cliffs extend for a mile or so, risiug perpendicularly to a dizzy height, until their corrugated brows recede into tho gently swelling outlines that usually round out the more southerly summits of the Chilhomes. A narrow road twisted sinuously up the eides of the gorge to a kind of basin hollowed out of the overhanging rocks, where, beneath a beetling crag, yawned the smithy, its sides, roof a nd floor of nature's own carving, while its front was partiaiJy ooaraea witn siuds from the little sawmill at the month of Greasy creek, three miles above. A small cabin of split logs, clay danbed, and with a "stick chimney," also nestled near by amid a track patch of half an acre, that occupied all the available space within this veritable "crow nest" peering over the precipice, BOO feet above the little ferry and government stillhonse below. A faroff glimpse of the broad ridges and meadows of the Tennessee valley could be seen belcw the gap, while above the distant mountains, seemingly tumbled one above another, bounded the view toward the east. A spring bubbled from a cleft in the mountain side, which here burst upward into the vast precipice that lowered over the blacksmith's homa Under the hollies and oaks thereby was the smith's wife, "batting" clothes upon a block, with a portion of the week's wash sprinkling the bushes around her. Jim Cheek, her husband, a huge, slow motioned, blue eyed giant, swung himself slowly up the trail leading from the ferry. He paused to admire his wife's plump figure and brisk, supple movements. Wonder had also mingled with his admiration ever since?two years ago?he had taken her from the great hotel at White Cliff Springs, where, though only a waitress, her airs and graces had impressed themselves upon his primitive imaginings as those of a queen in disguise?a wonder that, with her fresh, dark beauty and vivacious manners, she could have seen anything in him to love and cling to. He knew but little of her past, nor "infimonr orlHoH mnoVl liOU CliClX utuuvvi luviuiwv; to his previous knowledge, except that she was from Nashville, that her par-, ents were both dead, and that she? alone in the world?had drifted from one employment to another down to Chattanooga, thence to the town of Athens, and from tkeroto her summer's berth at White Cliff. The blessed sense of relief that comes to a world tossed feminine waif, in the hope of realizing a home of her own, had rendered Jim's awkward movements, bovine wit and simple ways not only endurable, but attractive to her. Thus it came about that in transfixing him with wonder at his own success she had come to share his humble lot with the same grace and vivacity that had fascinated him at the great hotel, whither the mountain folk were wont to resort in ramshackle vehicles to dispose of their poultry, butter and eggs. How quickly she had adapted herself to the narrow, toilsome, isolated existence of the mountains! "She reely talks jest like we uns," thought Jim. "She makes like us in all her belongin's, and yet somehow she ain't nary a bit like us, atter all. I wonder if hit's only a mako believe, jest ter please me and that thar young un?" "That thar young un," the visible result of their union, was a blue eyed, brown haired baby, ecarco 18 months old, that now lay asleep upon its blankets under a holly bush, while its mother sang to the resounding accompaniment of her paddle in a manner confirmative 11 i n . UX tliUl S IVlitUtJULIB . , "Some folks say the niggers won't steal. But I ketohed seven in my cornflcll Run, nigger, run I Pattorol ketch you I Run, nigger, run I Hit* almos' day!" "Durn me, how she can sing," said he to himself as he leaned across the top rail of the fence watching her. Glancing up from her work, she saw him there, and in her impulsive way dropped her paddle and was at his side in a moment. "Now ye're at hit ag'in," said she, "ye great big mountain of laziness. Ye've jest got ter bo punished right here." The nature of the punishment belied the severity of her words and consisted in seizing his ears, pulling his big head down to a level with her own and planting a sounding smack upon Jim's elephantine lips. " Who wouldn't be n-loaferin in scch company?" remarked the proud husband, smacking his lips like a boy over his candy. "But I'm jest pes-; T I about ye, Darthuly. Ye never take no time ter rest onct ye git started ter work. 'Pears like ye wuz afeerd ter spell yerself." "Listen at this yerman," she replied playfully, yet with a serious droop of her largo black eyes. "Ain't ye allays a-hammeriu and a-blowiu in that thar shop, and shouldn't I do my part as well? Reely, Jim, I'm a master sight better off tor be busy, and?there's a man and horse right now ut the shop door a-waitin fer ye, aiid here yo air a-courtiu me as ushel." "Hit's the new gauger as corned last sight ter the stillhouse. Ho wants a new shoe on his critter's off fore foot. Don't ye hurt yourself aworkiu, honey, jest bekase ye can." With this chronic injunction on his lips Jim hastened to the shop. Darthuly looked after him a moment, then suffered her gaze to wander down to the brawling river below and upward along the opposite cliffs, until her eyes rested absently upon the swelling summits of the mountains. The sun shimmered upon the distant pines sharply outlined against the sky above her, while the wind, whistling down the gap from those aerial heights, toyed with her 5*'" She turned suddenly. tumbled carls as its mouotonons sough mingled with the roar <rf the waters below. The white steam from the stillhouse whirled upward into invisibility against the green background of spruce and fir clinging to the cliffs. The tinkle of a cowbell floated down from unseen heights i bove; a large hawk hung lazily in midair over the wildest crags. Surely beneath the wind and the river's roar there was a Lethean glamour in the air, harmonizing the envagery of nature with the peaceful influences of the hour. Was its charm working upon her mind as she leaned upon the fence, oblivious of her task, or had she really given heed to Jim's admonition "to be keerful" and rest? The sprightly decision of her face had given way to an expression of gentle and regretful sadness. Once or twice she sighed; then her thoughts seemed to find a disconnected utterance. "So good, so true, so watchful of my comfort Why cannot I love him as he does me?" The mountain dialect had disappeared from her lips. Its absence seemed to render her conscious of the incongruity, for in her next murmur it wac resumed. "He's just as honest and as open as daylight, while I?I have erblecged ter be jest the other way." Then, as her feelings again grew more intense, she once more became natural. "God knows I don't want to be false, yet wbat will not a poor woman do for a home and shelter?and love? He has given me all these, but?what have I given him in return?" There was a soft crushing of gravel behind her. She turned suddenly. A medium 6ized, slender young man, having crisp, brown hair, a tawny mustache and keen gray eyes, stood before her. As they saw each other his carelessly polite salutation was merged in a glare of surpriso and an after smile of exultant pleasure. With a quick exclamation she covered her face with one hand and extended the other as though to ward off his approach. "Well, Meg," he said in a low, calculative tone, "you're about the last person I expected to meet hero." As he eyed her the relentless composure of his smile seemed cruel in its contrast to the agitation she exhibited as she finally gasped: "You?you here?" "Well, yes, I'm here, and devilish surprised to run up with you, Meg. But what's your game now? Trying the virtuous dodge, eh? Making this susceptible elephant of a blacksmith your victim, I suppose." She raised her face and confronted him with blazing eyes at this innuendo. "No thanks to you, Dick Bufford. Think how you have served me?me! ?Uof T kntto on/lnrorl honnilOA f was ouco weak enough to trust you!" As this coufessiou slipped from her lips they trembled under its influence, despite the revulsive auger with which his presence inspired her. His eye never left her face, as, playing with his watch chain, he repliod: "How many had shared your love bofore I came along? There, there. Don't get excited. You couldn't help getting jealous, and when I left you in Atlanta I never thought we'd turn up together again ou this footstool. You wouldn't let me so much as wink without a quarrel, and I finally soured on it." "Why are you here?" She demanded this in a quick, peremptory tone, flashing a glance toward the smithy, then fixing her eyes on his handsomo, imperturbable faco. "I'm gauging for the government Am to be here for a week. May stay longer, now I've seen you. Blame me, Meg, but mountain life agrees with you. You're prettier than ever." lu an easy yet imperative way, which she seemed powerless to oppose, he took her dimpled chin between thumb and finger and looked at her with a kindling light in his eyes, then released her, saying: "I was a fool to run away from you, Meg, my girl. I'll have better sense this time." The cry of an infant came to their ears from the holly bush by the spring. The wretched mother, roused from the spell which his manner and words had thrown over herv in spite of the reproaches she cast upon him, darted back a step, with averted face, crying wildly: "Go away from here. Dick Bufford! I am a wife and a mother. My husband works in yonder shop. Yon have my reputation in your power, but I say boware how you handle it. I'm a desperate woman, Dick. This is my homo and shelter. You left me nono when you forsook me three years ago. Oh, Dick, for God's sake spare me for?for the sako of my husband and child, if not for your own sake or minel" The passionate auger with which she began melted into piteous appeal as she started toward the child. He seized her hand, whereat she stopped as though an electric shock had pervaded her system, while he said: "D? it, Meg! I glory in your spunk. Carry it out to suit yourself and don't fear me. I'll never peach. I was a fool ever to leave you, and I'm your friend now. Blamo me, but you're tho pluckiest woman in the state, uud Dick Bufford is your slave." Having fhns delivered himself, he let her go and strolled back toward the shop, smiling and soliloquizing: "Meg in the respectable line! She carries it well, considering it's her first attempt. D? me, bat she's a thoroughbred. She must have been hard pushed, though, to saddle herself with this thick pated son of Vulcan for a?a?husband, didn't she say? Fancy Meg with a husband! And now there's a squalling brat to complicate matters. Poor thing! She's been in the work so long she's got used to this state of affairs and thinks I'll interfere. Maybe I wilL Meg, my girl, I begin to seo that you're the woman for me, after all. But you won't fear mo when I do interfere. Oh. no, I know you too well." He entered the shop, chatted easily with honest, unsuspecting Jim nntil his horse was ready, then, mounting, rode down the mountain side, humming the threadbare air of ' 'Sweet Violets." . Darthuly Check grasped her crying baby, with a fierce nervousness of manner, and set soothing it mechanicnlly. Through her mind forbidden thoughts and impulses, long dormant, were rising tumultuously over the contented apathy of feeliug that since her marriage^ had superficially reigned within a heart by nature fervid, jealous, impulsive and now, alas, rebellious against the renunciative faith wherein the purity of womanhood so often finds refugo against passion and desire. Her only audible exclamation was: ' 'God help me I I cannot help myself." CHAPTER IL For the next few days the courso of events ran smoothly on the surface. Dick Bufford, with loquacious urbanity, soon made himself a general favorite. At the stillhouse a knot of admirers usually gathered round him at leisure hours, while many of his offhand sayings became as current conversational ooin to be flipped from tongue to tongue, accompanied by a slow horseplay of bucolic wit and laughter. Bije Teeters, the proprietor of the stillhouse, " 'lowed that Dick Buffoyd had more sense in the holler side of his noddle than all tho balance of Undo Sam's gangers rolled inter one. He's p'intedly got sense ei\uff ter let whisky alone. Jnst a drum now and then, nothin more, and bar'ls of hit a-scttin round. Oh, he's a master man!" The fact that a man could be a ganger and not a drunkard presented to Mr. Teeters' imagination the juxtaposition of qualities humanly recognizable only on the score of superlative abilities. Jim Cheek was so carried away by Dick's trausceudant cleverness that when the lutter in a careless way suggested boarding with him during the brief time his official duties rendered his stay imperative our honest blacksmith assented at once. "Don't yo bring him here," said Darthuly to her husband that night when ho announced that Bufford would bring his traps up "termorrer." Jim gazed at his wife in mild eyed astonishment and noticed that she looked pale and worried. "Thar now, Darthuly, yo do look pestered, but hit won't be for more nor a week. Money's money these yer hard times, and I'll help ye when I can git on ten the shop." "Don't ye bring him here," she said pleadingly, placing her hands on his shoulders and looking earnestly at him. Ho totally failed to comprehend the nature of her disapproval and said mildly: "Hit's alrpflflv agreed on. I can't very well back down now. Bat I don't see why ye should bo so pestered about hit, Darthuly." She withdrew her hands, and her great, dark eyes blazed petulantly as she replied: "Ef that thar feller comes here, Jim Cheek, and anything wrong comes of hit ?'member, I've warned ye." She withdrew ubruptly to the kitchen, leaving Jim to look after her regretfully, as he scratched his head and acknowledged to himself that "women were powerful cur'ous. A man can't jest never tell which side of the fence they're a-goin ter lean ag'in." Bufford soon mado himself quito as much at home there as he had elsewhere. Darthuly avoided him, seldom speaking to him except when necessary?a state of things which he ignored by treating her with systematic deference and politeness. This became grateful to her, in its very contrast to the boorish absence of courtesy prevalent among tho mountaineers. Even Jim, with the kindest of hearts, had few of the minor urbanities of manner that so smooth social intercourse under unfavorable circumstances. He was loving and true, yet he never handed her a chair or offered to get water or deferred gracefully to her varied whim as Bufford constantly did, regardless of her co'd indifference or studied ignoring of his civilities. "Why, Darthuly," said Jim ono day, when they two were alone, "I reely can't see what ye mean by snubbin tho ganger so, like yer allays a-doin." Her only reply was to raiso to his her wonderful eyes, their clear depths troubled by a sadness now habitual to them. As he looked, a slight blush appeared on her cheek and she withdrew her gaze, but said nothing. Indeed sho moved, as she herself felt, like ono in a dream, dreading to awake, yet palsied by tho helplessness that was upon her. Dick petted the spoiled baby, allowing it to pull his hair and slobber over him with a jovial placidity that caused Mrs. Cheek to eyo him furtively when she was not observed. Ho said no more to her of their mysterious past, and she felt grateful for his forbearance. Yet one morning, whilo Jim was clinking away at tho shop, as ho sat playing with the child, ho looked up suddenly and detected her watching him intently. "Ah, Meg, Meg," he said in anew and tender tone, "to think of you with a habv like this rrets awav with me"? "Not that name here!" cried she, cowering as though his words had been blows. "I cannot endure it. Let it be ; dead forever." In her earnestness she dropped her mountain dialect even whilo mindful of the danger attached to tho mention of her former name. Reaching up quickly, ho took her hand, saying: "Do you wish me to bo as one dead, too, Meg?Darthuly, I mean?" His -voice rang with the old time fervor, and his gaze Boemed to scorch her averted eyes like the heat of an unseen flame. Ah, Jim, why are you not hero, to pluck the imago of outraged wife and motherhood from the chasm over which it hovers? She struggled to release her hand, more faintly, however, as his grasp strengthened. Then, as he resistlessly drew her toward him, their eyes met, and with a shuddering sigh she fell on her knees, with her head upon his shoulder.' Ho realized his power and mercilessly used it. But at the first touch of bis hot lips upon her own she sprang from him, plucked her baby from his lap, rushed into the house, shut the door and locked it nnf: fnr Awhile srazina at the oddo site cliff, frowning in silent disapproval, unconscious of thoir meaning and indifferent to their eternal calm. Then he got up, strolled past the shop and on down to the stillhouse, humming softly to himself: "I'll await, my love; I'll await my love," etc. CHAPTER III. A week passed. In a day or two more Bufford was to leave. The great hotel at White Cliff had opened for tho season. Jim Cheek started for thero one sunny day with a load of eggs, butter and "gyarden truck." Darthuly complained of headache and Would not go. An anxious, troubled look haunted her face. Outwardly she seemed to avoid Dick more than ever and would follow Jim's .motions with her eyes in silence, being so htterly unlike hersell that the blacksmith again wondered helplessly over the miseries of feminine development. "She's allays been a-gabbin and a-takin on so much that I can't see where hit's all gono ter," ho hinted confidan The memory of that fair vision was all that remained to him of her. tially to Bufford, who ventured the vaguo opinion that "she would come round after awhile, like they all do." Jim loaded up and set out His steers were half way down the road to the ferry, when Darthuly came running after him, with the baby in her arms. She caught his hand and exclaimed. "Take us along, Jim. I can't bear ter see you a-leavin this mornin somehow." "Why, how's thish yer, Darthuly? Jest a bit ago ye didn't keer ter go. Bein as ye've got that pesky headache, * ? ' ? ?-''1 Tnnfnra ? rvo 1 a ruukou ya u ucnu oluj. ^ is a-goin ter stay ternight, and Mr. Bufford'll be tbar ter keep the buggers off, and I shall sortinly git back termorrer. Why, honey?why?durn me ef I can onderstand women ennyhowl" She was sobbing upon his arm, but would give no reason for this strange behavior, and Jim, after some hurried cogitation, concluded that she was "a gittin a little teched in the head"? a vague complaint, embracing pretty much every phase of emotional disturbance peculiar to females. "Thar now, Darthuly, ye git right bock ter the house and lay down awhile. Git Jano Teeters ter help ye cook, and let that tbar washin alone until I gets back." Thus eoothiug and petting her, yet puzzled in mind, though utterly unsuspicious of the real cause of her agitation, he finally got away, leaving her standing on a projecting rock, gazing with tear blinded eyes after him. "Bo back today?" queried Bufford from tho stillhouso door as he passed. "Reckon not. Tho steers can't hardly mako hit in a day." Ho crossed tho river on tho flat, and as his wagon disappeared round a bold bend of tho cliffs ho, following behind, looked back. His wife still stood upon the rock, her baby playing at her feet and her bright calico dress fluttering in tho breeze blowing down sweet and cool from tho mountains. Tho memory of that fair vision was all that remained to him of her, except tho child, for eight long years. Ho returned on tho following day to a ruined and deserted homo. Dick Bufford and Darthuly had disappeared. There was a motherless babo crying upon tho bed and a scrap of paper loft upon tho table telling him that ho had no wife; that she was gono with another; that she was sorry, but could not help it; that ho must regard her as ono dead; that bo w.-inld care for tho child, for its own sake if not for hers, whose heart was deservedly breaking; that her past life had been impure; that shohad deceived him, yet had believed she loved him, until tho tempter came clothed with the power and glamour of a former triumph over her youthful trust and love, to lure her back to sin and ruin. When he at hist arose, crushed, miserable, yet dumbly patient, ho threw the wretched apology into the fire and, gathering his babe iu his arms, soothed it through the night, whilo fighting off by grim endurance his own pain until morning came again. Silently he endured the flow of neighborly comment and consolation, and quietly he went about his doublo duties, with a stoicism apparently untouched by tenderness, oxccpt when alone with his child. Ha never inquired after or searched for the guilty couple, nor were their names over mentioned by him. The i past, as far as she was associated with it in bis memory, was dead. His great straggle with himself for months was to make his sorrow and his shame subserve the welfare of .his child until the pure indifferenco born of duty done should i reward his lacerated heart with a lasting peace. TOBF, CONTINUED. PtettUmtMU* Reading. THE GENESIS OF GOLD. Conflicting Theories as to the Deposits of the Precious Metal. ' From the San Francisco Chronicle. Through the combined agencies oi heat, pressure and electricity diamonds, rubies and other precious stones may be produced in minute forms by ' science, and it is not improbable that j processes may yet be devised for their creation equal in bulk and purity tc the best yields of the laboratories oi nature. A diamond is but a lustrous bit of carbon, but gold is gold and nothing else, whether considered as a ( salt or a solid. It combines with other metals and may be separated from them, but no combination or other sub, stances can produce it. Since the days of Tubal Cain, who probably worked in gold as well as iron, it has been the dream of the alchemist that the baser metals might be transmuted into gold, und in every century except the Nineteenth Rosicrucians and other reputed I leaders in the black arts have wasted > their lives in the hopeless undertaking [ Concerning the origin of gold and i the methods of its deposition various theories have been advanced and much [ has been written. No one of the exi planations, however, is without its , contradictions, and a definite solution of the mystery is as yet an unaccomplished achievement. Let it be said that some fundamental facts in relation to gold are generally accepted. It is admitted that the waters of the seas contained chloride of gold?enough in the aggregate, perhaps, to gild the sur face of the earth?and that in its primal condition it is probable that gold was and is a metallic salt in the form of a chloride, sulphide or silicate, or o) all them, as determined by conditions. Could it be ascertained through what agencies this salt was originally evolved gold might be produced by imitating .the processes of nature, as in tht manufacture of small diamonds from carbon, but this is a sealed book tc science, and research will probably never be rewarded with the secret. Until recently the generally accepted theory was that molten silica carrying gold in metallic or some othei form was forced up into fissures in the cooling crust of the earth when the ' world was new, and that the gold now found in gravel and other deposits wae at the same time or subsequently fused from the quartz that held it and scatA U.? "Inrt!a??o on/1 fKo anHnn . f tVic LCICU uy ^laucio auu tuv w. ' elements. There are some weak spots in this theory. As the gold would be volatized by the intense heat cf the molten silica. It i9 not shown by , what means it afterward uniformly permeated the quartz in a metallic form , and as the clearly defined walls ol quartz viens were more readily fusible than the quartz itself, an explanation is in order of the reason why the walls should not have fused and mingled , with the molten silica. We do not say that these apparent inconsistencies dis n f in lrnnurn a a fVtO lorriPAHC pi'UVC nuau AO auvnu HO vuv theory, but they certainly weaken it. This theory has been attacked by , learned geologists in both hemispheres among whom are Professors Biscbof | Le Conte, Skey, Lobley, Newbery and others, and more recently by J. C. F, Johnson, author of "The Genesiology of Gold." To it they oppose what may be called the infiltration theory, ; They admit that volcanic action had much to do, not only in the formation of mineral veins, but in characterizing i their metallic constituents; but thai action, they assume, was largely dyi drothermal. To this theory the original occurrence of gold as a metallic salt is a necessity. It is claimed thai when water began to form in large bodies on the cooling surface of the earth it penetrated into the heated , regions below, and millions of geysers were started to spouting their mineral impregnated waters in every direction Where the crust was thin explosions , and upheavals followed. Into rifts and chasms these waters returned, tc be again ejected, or to he the cause o: further explosions. Later, as the cooling process continued, fissures became more abundant, and as the dry land began to appear mineral lodes were formed and the waters, heavily charged i with silicates, carbonites of lime, sulphides, etc., in solution, commenced tc deposit their contents in solid form. Taken altogether, these were rathei strange geologic conditions from which 1 to commence the upbuilding of a habit 1 able world. But, admitting that they existed, and that the chemical agencies of the period were favorable to tb< -?muMilli/. a-ilts nnd t.hf piUHUV/UUll VI UJVVM<*>V WM.vwj ?... ;; task of accounting for gold in quarts veins that were previously barren is i regarded as easy by the advocates o the hydrothermal theory. Forinstanci chloride of gold, now found in set ' water, was more abundant in the azoi< . age than it has been siuce. Says Prof Johnson: "Sulphide of gold woulr have been produced by the action o sulphuretted hydrogen; hence oui auriferous pyrites lodes; while silicati of gold might have resulted from i combination of gold chlorides wit! I silic acid ; and thus the frequent pres r ence of gold in quartz is accounted for.' ^ Yes, it is accounted for, but in a ven misty and unsatisfactory manner. Prof. Le Conte throws a better ligbi ^ on the theory by assuming that miner alized waters flowed for long period: L up and down fissures, continually j impregnating the ores with their de posits. But if gold originally occurrei I as a mineral salt, when and how di< 1 it take a metallic form ? "Probably," | answers Mr. Johnson, "in just the same manner as we now precipitate it in the laboratory. With regard to 1 that found in quartz lodes finely dis1 seminated through the gangue, the change was brought about through the same agency which caused the silicic acid to solidify and take the form in which we now see it in the quartz veins. Prof. Newberry thinks it prob. ble that the salt of gold was iu the same solution that deposited the pyrites. This is a chemical possibility, but it adds another complication to the hydrothermal theory. But the great, smooth nuggets of gold gathered from gravel deposits and river channels, and never found in quartz veins?how can they be accounted for without falling back upon the smelting process ? Professor Johni son argues that they are the results of electro-chemical growth. He says i there are three gold salts in nature? silicate, sulphide and chloride; that ? all these are soluble in the presence of 7 certain re-agents, also found in nature, and through which they may be deI posited in metallic form; hence, if i gold was formed in quartz reefs from solutions in mineral waters, it follows i that much of our alluvial gold?all that was not ground out of exposed i veins by the elements?may have been i similarly derived. The argument is s that, as mineral salts may be made to deposit themselves in a metallic state on any suitable base, such as iron sul phide, for example, it is reasonable to 1 presume that alluvial nuggets, begini ning with a pyritous base, owe their . growth to successive depositions of I films of metallic gold derived from its ) salts. As a nugget may be thus i created in a laboratory, the inference is not irrational that nature may have i employed the same process in creating > the coarse golds of the gravel deposits. Yet the facts remains that all allu1 vial gold nuggets have not been so Snmfl nf them, found in Cal i ifornia, have shown undeniable traces i of having been deposited in a molten i condition, and barren quartz is every where found in the mineral belts of the Pacific coast, from which the gold I seems to have been abstracted by fui sion. It is true, as contended, that a f degree of heat sufficient to fuse quartz , would volatilize the gold associated > with it if exposed to the air; but why should not the cooling and hardening quartz, still holding the gold in fusion, > have expelled it by shrinkage, either i in globules, represented by the melon > seed gold, of the old channels, or occa' sionally in combined thousand of them, constituting the great nuggets of the placers? The laboratory furnishes proof that they may have been electro ' chemically formed, and in some in' stances the nnggets themselves plainly f testify that they were created wholly ' by fusion. Which was the process? i Nature did not employ them both. 1 Concerning these conflicting theories we venture no opinion. Violated law, > as understood by man, crosses the ) path of both of them, aod no alleged > solution of the mystery of gold-making f has a more solid foundation than that ' of surmise. If may yet be discovered that both theories are wrong. r WHY HE WAS DEFEATED. > Hannibal Hamlin, the "war" vice r>roo5Hpnt nnssessed a keen wit and a F* 1 r ? i merry, fun-loving nature. The folI lowing anecdote, found in the "Lives r of Twelve Illustrious Men," is one which Mr. Hamlin took great pleas) ure in narrating. It generally happens, as in this case, that when a man r amuses himself at the expense of an, other, the punishment follows closely , upon the offence. i When Hamlin was speaker of the . Maine house of representatives?away ' back in the "forties"?there was in ; that body a certain gentleman of fault. less attire, pleasing manners, good 1 address and some reputation. But i he had one foible: bis hair was very ; thin, and he was highly sensitive in rei gard to it. To hide his approaching baldness be had a habit of carefully stroking with s bandoline or other preparation each i particular hair in its place. One day, i while in the chair as speaker, Mr. s Hamlin, in the innocence of a good I and joke-loving nature, sent for this ) gentleman, and looking fixedly at his 1 smooth and polished pate, said with a . chuckle: i "Blank, old fellow, I just wanted to i tell you that you've got one of the > hairs of your head crossed over the F other." "You insult me, sir! you insult s me!" replied the member, with unI expected and altogether unneccessary > inriicrnafinn : and then refusing: to lis ' ? ? ??-? 7 -- w I ten either to reason or explanation, he left the speaker's desk and returned ? to his seat. When Mr. Hamlin became a candir date for United States senate this geni tlemeu was a member of the upper house of the Maine legislature. Al' though a member of the same party, 3 and only one more vote was needed to } secure Mr. Hamlin's election, he posis lively refused to vote for the man by ! whom he believed he had been insult3 ed. f He was defeated for a seat in the ; senate?by a hair. But when the next i vacancy occurred he was elected. Pawnbroker's Sign.?People who 1 are compelled to go to their "Uncle" f for temporary advances on personal r property have often speculated as to 3 the origin and significance of the three i balls which are the most conspicuous i exterior advertisements of the estab lishment appertaining to the aforesaid ' "Uncle." The pawnbroker's sign was, / originally, the arms of the famous family of the Medici in Italy, whose t ancestor was a physician and adopted - as his device three pills. The Medici 3 became bankers and money lenders, , and amassed enormous wealth from i- lending money at the high rates of i interest prevalent in their time. When i banks were established in other cities than Florence, the Medici sign of three suspended balls became the mark of a bank, and the practice spread into France, Spain and Germany. By and by, however, as this sign was adopted by a lower class of money lenders, who made advances on personal property, it fell into disrepute among the higher grade of financiers, and, being dropped by the bankers, was still continued by the lower class, and finally was restricted entirely to such money lenders as received pledges as security for loans.?Globe-Democrat. A HORSE ON THE CONGO. It is hard to conceive of a people to whom the sight of a steamboat is familiar, but who have never known of the existence of horses. Such a people were, until recently, the blacks living along the reaches of the Congo river, where steamers have for some time occasionally plied, but where no horse had ever been brought. Not long ago a Belgian inspector, visiting a place on the Congo called Mutchie, brought with him, on the deck of the steamer, a good horse. The boat had no sooner made fast at < the landing than all the blacks of the place were assembled, gazing with astonishment at the animal. One of them, who had traveled a little, declared that it was "a white man's elephant"?which was, perhaps, not a bad description, from the point of view of the Central African who had never seen a horse before; but the general opinion seemed to be that it was a kind of goat which the wuite man brought with him to eat, for the white man is notoriously fantastic about his food. All this time the horse had stood with his head toward the crowd of "natives, tranquilly munching some grass which had been given him. Now be turned part way around, and began to switch his tail. Then a shout arose from the crowd; they declared that the tail was false? that it was "stuck on" by the white man. To undeceive them, one of the whites seized the tail and pulled at it with both hands. This amused the Negroes to such a point that they rolled on the ground in the violence of their laughter. "Now," said the white man, "you come and do as I tiave done. He will let you pull his tail." But nothing would induce the Negroes to touch the horse. Some of them, indeed, had to be held by the others, to prevent them from running away, so great was the fear which the horse inspired. By and by a chief?a brave man and a wealthy one, after the native standard?made bold to advance and express to the inspector his extreme admiration for the horse, and to announce that he desired to purchase it. He knew that it must be a precious possession to the white man, and therefore he would offer a large price. He would give the white man four goats for it! He was much disappointed when the owner refused this munificent offer. The goat is the standard of value in this part of the Congo region. When the first steamboat came up the river, a chief, as soon as he had recovered from the astonishment which the sight inspired, went to the captain and asked him how many goats he would take for the steamer.?Youth's Companion. Cheap Wheels.?A cycling authority says that one of the greatest factors in the continued growth of the number of devotees to the sport is the low priced wheel. The makers of strictly high grade wheels, who value their products at anywhere from $80 to $125, with $100 as the almost universal price, are doing more business than ever, and do not appear to be affected by the competition of cheaper machines which can be bought at almost any price from the recognized standard all the way down to $17, which is aooui as low a point as has yet been reached. These cheaper machines, particularly those of medium grade, which are the most salable, bav& made it possible for thousands to ride who because of the cost or lack of interest would not have started had it been necessary to buy at the long established price. Monuments of Glass.?A company of glass workers have recently discovered that ordinary plate glass will make a more durable monument than the hardest marble or granite, for glass is practically indestructible. Wind, rain, heat or cold will eventually crumble the hardest rock, and one can seldom read the inscription on a gravestone 50 years old, but a glass monument will look as fresh after the elapse of centuries as on the day of its erection, and the inscription can be made ineffaceable. The thick plate glass used to glaze the port holes of steamers will resist the stormiest sea and is practically unbreakable. J6T Scatter the seeds of kindness. Few of us realize how unkind we often are when we do not mean to be so. It is quite sad to think of tbe amount of unk ndness often practiced in one family in the course of even a day. The child begins by fretting about his food at the breakfast table, which worries his mother and spoils the comfort of her breakfast; or he is disobedient, and speaks disrespectfully to bis father, and the father goes out to his long day in the city with a heavy heart instead of a light one. Numbering Bank Notes.? All United States bank notes are printed in sheets of four of oue denomination on each sheet and are numbered and lettered twice. All notes of which the number when divided by four shows a remainder of one have a letter A upon them; the remainder of two, the letter B ; of three, the letter C, and those which have no remainder, the letter D.?Ladies' Home Journal. y; : t v * <