Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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The Recorder. BY DRAYTON & McORAOKEN, AIKEN, S. C., TUESDAY. JANUARY 24. 1882. VOL. I. NO. 15. HENRY BUSCH, PROPRIETOR OF THE BUSCH HOUSE Cor. Rich la iid Are. A York St., INSURANCE AND DEALER IN General Merchandise, LAURENS STREET, AIKEN, S. C. ON A SOLID BASIS. GASTON HOTEL AIKEN, S. C. This bouse, formerly known as “The Pines,” js situated in a very desirable portion of the village of Aiken, is now open for the accommo dation of transient and regular boarders. LIVERY STABLE ATTACHED. Board for the winter months, from $9 to $25 lier week, according to location of room, etc.; ^?2 to $2.50 per day. Children and servants price. [IV T. GS-ASTOIV, PROPRIETOR. i&YILLE HOUSE. [A. smyser, trmerly of Aiken, 8. 0.), large house and cottage for the pon of Ik (ardors in the beautiful vil- lervillc, near the city of Augusta, luated, with splendid drives and Iks. Street cars within three k. Churches very convenient tt> po house is neatly and oomfort- fd with everything necessary for Ams and halls well ventilated and B delivered daily. Terms mod- to H. A. SMYSER, Band Hills, [YSER HOUSE ,81. & Richland Arc., [ renovated and <x rr:pW<4y . every departmer'. Tpo n , R clip. iVe c; asant surroundings and neat, sunny 'looim.. rTIIor it quite desiralde and a,:K *.;ve. It is now presided oVer by Mrs. H. M. WOOD WARD, tlio former proprietress, and Mrs. S. L. RICHMOND, late of the Augusta Hotel, who feel confident of their ability to furnish a pleas ant homo for any who may desire to spend the season in Aiken. air The table is strictly first-class. F. McEWEN, PRACTICAL WATCHMAKER —AND DEALER IN- Fire Insurance Z London Assurance Corporation (Fire). Char tered 1720. Assets, $5,000,000. Germania Fire Insurance Co. Chartered 1859. Assets, $2,000,000. Hanover Fire Insurance Co. Chartered in 1852. Assets, $2,000,000. La Confiance Fire Insurance Co. (Pans, France). Assets in United States, $729,000. CLAUDE E. SAWYER, Agent, AIKEN f S. C. New Goods! I am receiving my Fall stock of SWISS AND AMERICAN WATCHES, Will receive monthly during the season, on consignment, all of the new styles of Jewelry iu sMid gold and rolled plate, and will receive orders ^subject to ; refusal—fov. an P u rg^r 'Vlll 1 , Solid Silver or Meriden Silver Plateless Cele brated Ware. SOLE AGENT FOR KING’S COMBINATION SPECTACLES AND EYE-GLASSES. All goods warranted as represented, and all work warranted to give satisfaction. Main Street, AIKEN, S. C 'HE GEORGIA CHEMICAL WORKS. Manufacturers of All Kinds of Fertilizers. M. C. STOVALL, Secretary and Treasurer, Augusta, Ga. REAL ESTATE FOR SALE. Also Houses and Rooms to Rent. — APPLY TO- II. SMITH, Main Street, AIKEN, 8. C D. S. Hf.ndkuson. E. P. He.vdeksox- GROCERIES! ! H ENDERSON BROS., Attorneys at Law, Aiken, S. C. Comprising all that is called for by an epicure. Quality and quantity guaranteed. BY THE QUANTITY AND FOR CASH I will sell for the Lowest Possible Prices. I will sell for tho Lowest Possible Prices. I will sell for the Lowest Possible I “rices. Give me a call before you go to Augusta. W. TURNBULL. ESTABLISHED 1846. S. P. T. FIELDS, Corner of Laurens Street and Richland Avenue, VARIETY BAKER, ; CONFECTIONER & GROCER.! ALL KINDS OF BREAD, ALT, KINDS OF C\KES, ALL KINDS OF CANNED GOODS. Phew Nectar, tho Finest Flavored and Pure Leaf Tea ever offered to the public. LARGE VARIETY OF CANDIES. &T Wedding and Party Cakes supplied at short notice. Sugar, Coffee, Rice, Grits, Meal, Butter, Lard and very variety of Family Groceries, together with the finest brand of Flour in the market. Will practice in the State and United States courts for South Carolina. Prompt attention given to collections. A. EMANUEL. Attorney at Law, Aiken, 8. C. Will practice in all tho State and United States Courts. Special attention paid to collec tions and investments of rndhey. TAMES ALDRICH, Attorney at Law, Aiken, S. C. Practices in the State and United State*. Courts for South Carolina. ,r o.c. jo::din. r. w. norri s. -ORDAN A NORRIS, Attorneys at Law, Aiken, S. C., Practice in the State and United State Courts for South Carolina. W QUITMAN DAVIS, • Attorney at Law, Aiken, S. C. Will practice in the Courts of this Circuit. Special attention given to collections. —DEALER IN- STAPLE AND FANCY STAPLE AND FANCY STAPLE AND FANCY GROCERIES, GROCERIES, GROCERIES, GLASS, CHINA, CIGAES AND TOBACCO, Krwt, ... AH3H, 8. C, J. C. SHEPPARD, Edgefield C. H. O HEFPARD & DeVOBE, j. w. nevoRE, Aiken C. H. Attorneys at Law, Aiken, S. C. Will practice in the State and United Statea Courts for South Carolina. K S. AGNEW, • Trial Justice and Notary Public, Aiken, S. C. Deeds and other legal documents written with neatness and dispatch. DITJOHN"H. BURNETT DEISTTIST. , —omen at — GRANITEVILLE, Aiken County, S.C DR. B. H. TEAGUE, DEISTTIST. — OFFICE ON — Richland Avenue, AIKEN, S. C. CINCINNATI TYPE FOUNDRY, 201 Tine Street. C. WELLS. Trees, The type on which this paper is printed i« from the above foundry.—Rb. The undersigned wonld call attention to tin ir facilities for IiiHiii'ingr r > r*opei*t.y Against fire in companies of unsurpassed repu ation and at fair rates. In case of losses oc- oorring, their friends placing business in their hands can rely on their personal attention to their interests in settlement of claims. They ask a call from property owners before placing their insurance elsewhere Terms as low as any reliable, first-class companies. E. J. C. WOOD, SIBERIA OTT. A SOLID fiee A.<3-EIVC3Y AT WILLISTON, S. C. Representing The Insurance Co. of Nortli America, assets $7,000,000; The Star Insurance Co. of New York, assets $1,000,000; Tho La Confiance, of Paris, France, assets $6,500,000; The Fire Association of Philadelphia, asset* $5,000,000; The Virginia Home Insurance Co., of Richmond. Va., assats $400,000. Stores, stocks, dwellings, barns, stables, live stock, mills, factories, gins, cotton, and all other insnrable property insured at the lowesi current rates. We insure dwellings at % per cent, per an num. Dwellings insured for one year, or on the five year plan, as our patrons desire. liOsses equitably adjusted and promptly paid. Letters of inquiry promptly answered. MIXON &*CO., General Insurance Agents, WILLISTON, S. C. Hie Best I hat I Can. “ I cannot do much,” said a little star “To make the dark world bright ! My silvery beams cannot struggle far. Through the folding gloom of night But I’m only a part of God’s great plan, And I’ll cheerfully do the best I can !” ‘ What is tho use,” said a fleecy cloud, “Of those few drops that I hold ? They will hardly bend the lily proud, Though caught in her-cup of gold ! Yet I am part of God’s great plan, So my treasures I’ll give as well as I can ?” A child went merrily forth to play, But a thought, like a silver thread. Kept winding in and out all day, Through the happy golden head , Mother said : “Darling, do all you can, For you are a part of God’s great plan !” She knew no more than the gloamin/fstar, Nor the cloud with its chalice full, How, why, an i for what, all strange things were ; She was only a child at school! But she thought, “ It is part of God’s great plan. That even I should do all that I can !” So she helped a younger child along, When tho road was rough to the feet. And she sang from the heart a little song That we all thought passing sweet; And her father, a weary, toil-worn man, Said J, “ I, too, will do the best I can.” Our best I Ah ! children, the best of us Must hide our faces away. When the Lord of the vineyard comes to look At our task at the close of the day 1 But for strength from above, ’tis tho Master’s plan, We’U pray, and we’ll do the best that we can 1 struck me I had seen him before, and after some moments of further and pro found reflection I dictinctly recalled him to my mind as a merchant who had dealt with onr firm during my early connection with it, and who had failed through the dishonesty of friends whom he had assisted. I remembered him as having been spoken of as disgusted with trade, and as having sought a home in the wilderness with his family, and earning a living literally by the sweai of his brow. There were bat two bedrooms in the the feeling of repentance which was knocking for admission at my breast. I had half decided to turn away and drive these better thoughts from my mind, when I observed something mo e in a small crib that was placed at the side and toward the foot of the bed. Its occnpant, a grandchild, whose parents they had informed me were dead, awakened probably by its grandfather’s voice, rose up, looked aronnd, and set tled down npon its knees, and clasping its little hands as its grandfather’s were clasped, and looking upward, out house, both on the same floor, a passage through the window at the moon whose which commenced at the head of the ' bright light fell full npon its stairs dividing them. While the | darling face, began moving its lips as if thoughts which I have related wev? i trying to repeat the words, passing through my mind I heard voices ■ Nothing so like an angel ever met my in the other bedroom and quietly ' sight. The grandfather began the opened mv door, which my host Lord’s prayer. The little fellow seemed closed behind him. Standing out to have this by heart. He repeated it the passage I could distinguish a ma^a ; word for word, his tiny, silvery voice A CONFESSION. Most men would hesitate at telling such a story of themselves. But I am convinced that it will afford a sugges tion of mercy toward such as do fall, and some may be turned away from temptation by its recital. I had been an under clerk in a large establishment for many years. Natur ally economical, my savings had at tained to such a respectable sum that I ventured upon married life, qnite as much as a refuge from the monotony of my inexpensive style of living as in obedience to those yearnings of nature which a mau is either very foolish or very bad not to heed in due season. Like most men, however, whose adven tures of this kind are not followed by the comfort and ease which depend npon money for their possession, in the cou.je of time I came to repent the un dertaking; for I was in debt, and my family had increased, while my income had not kept pace wrfa my expenses the proper self-denial which wonl<l be consequent npon a retrenchment of onr expenses. I was daily amoyed by duns. I had borrowed money in every avail able quarter, and a walk in the public streets was literally denied to me by the fear of encountering some one to whom I was in debt for house expenses. Returning home late one night, jaded by a listless strol^ through the town, I found the junior member of the firm awaiting me. The house had received intelligence, after business hours, of a transaction entered into on their ac count, which secured the immediate transmission to an isolated inland town of several thousand dollars, together with certain papers and statements necessary to conclude the affair. It was too important a matter to be intrusted to the insecurity and uncertainty of the mail. Upon a consultaton of the mem bers of the Arm I had been selected to perform the necessary two days’ jour ney. I accepted the mission with alac rity, for the reason, among others, that it would be such a recreation as would divert my thoughts foi a time from the perplexities of my miserable condition. With the usual foresight of the firm everything necessary to my prompt de parture had been prearranged. The needful papers and accounts, and the indispensable money required to finish the transactions, were placed iu my hands in an envelope addressed to the gentleman who hail acted as agent of the concern in the matter. A letter of instructions were also inclu.< <1 I remember well the bright Septem ber morning on which 1 started on horseback and alone on my journey, of which I accomplished half the first day, arriving at a farmhouse, whose occu pants unhesitatingly granted my peti tion for a share for the night in its humble hospitality. The weather had grown colder as the evening came on, and by the time I had reached the house I experienced a sen sible chill. I had with me a flask of liquor, and was furnished, at my re quest at bedtime, with a small quhutity of hot water with which to compound a sort of punch, as an antidote to the cold I apprehended having taken. I had removed the package of money from my pocket and laid it on the table, with a view of putting it under my pil low before going to bed. As it lay on the table the address was uppermost; on the left-hand upper corner was a memorandum, “$5,000 inclosed.” I was standing with my back to the door. Succeeding a few moments of entire silence I heard a step behind me, and I almost thought a breath upon my face. Taming suddenly round I beheld my host with the hot water I had called for and woman’s voice. At first their lan - guage was unintelligible, but gradually my ear became accustomed to the dot; I endeavored to put it to, and I could distinguish that the burden of their talk wastbeii* domestic expenses, and the general current of their thoughts was the difficulty of getting through with certain undertakings they had in co ntemplaion or had commenced. It was evident that the man was more hopeful than the woman. My excited imagination at once framed the theory that the treasure in my possession was designed by them to solve this diffi- cnlty, and that the reluctant man was Boarding in sweet accord. I could not turn away nor any longer resist the better emotions which 1 had hitherto kept down. A rush of repentant feel ing passed through me with an effect that shook every fiber. I fell npon my knees, and with tears streaming from my eyes joined in the concluding words of the prayer. I need not say I changed my mind with regard to the money. I passed a quiet night and rose early, hastening away toward my journey’s ond, so as to give myself the least possible time or opportunity for changing my new- formed resolution. In handing the being urged on by the less scrupulous | package to the agent I said to him that, or braver woman. __ A sadden movement of one of them toward the door caused me 'to retreat into my room. I heard the bolt of their door moved, and supposing it was tq unfasten it, hurried back into my owe apartment and caught at the envelope, intending to hasten it out of sight. T • my eagerness to grasp it, it fell off th? tumbler with tho watered side upper most and opened! The wafers had been s6 far dissolved by the heat anT moisture as to split in two, leaving one- half, of each (there were three) on the, flap, and the other half of each on the bod; r of the envelope. Meanwhile, ther 3 was no sign or sound of an inroad- into my room, which I had seen it was. impt issible to fasten the door save by moving some of the fornitore againsY it. I became convinced that as ytl ever ything was safe, and yielding to J feel n | of curiosity I drew the money, froi the inclosure and counted it oyerj t* were ten one thonsand do le I was astounded, and for the lii __ ,the fear that so recently har- I looked at the memoraninm |k of the envelope. “ $5,000..” The letter fore me. I read it .over. L000 as tee sum ividenl agan hand! large] ally at th$ befor enco$ ever notesT the door, re! Aga 4 been f and co' »ily; but 11 mg rills I sffTead d y in ar n bank fore or since y sum, how- merous tho- hair - Ainst es o^Tifngly as there was money in it, it might as well be opened in my presence to see that it was all correct, etc. He, of course, discovered the error and handed me back the amount that was over, with which I returned home and delivered it up to its proper owners in due time. It was fortunate for me in every way that 1 pursued the course I had adopted. It appeared that the money had been obtained from the bank after bank hours, in the absence of the teller, from one of the officers. There were no loose notes on hand of the larger denominations, but there were sheets of thousands and five hundreds signed by the president and cashier. Either two sheets were picked np in mistake for one, or the wrong batch of sheets selected from—that is, thou sands were taken instead of five hun dreds. Tho notes were hurriedly clipped, strapped and indorsed “$5,000,” without recounting, and so enveloped and handed over to me. The bank had discovered the error, and no donbt was entertained but that the missing money was with me. Whether I should have had the face to withstand e imputation, even with the appar- tly undisturbed condition of the en velope in my favor, is more than I but I donbt it. caution still in use in' some b*. ■*.)>, were payable to the order of one of the clerks and had not been indorsed by him. I could not, therefore, have used them, or if so they could have been traced back to me. I found also that the numbers had been carefully ascer tained of all I had taken with me, and thns another chance of detection ex isted. What an escape I Upon returning and entering the counting-room I handed the surplus back to my senior, with a feeling some what of pride, but mixed np with other feelings not easily described. My precaution of having the money opened by the agent in my presence was highly commended, and the possi bility of his misappropriating the undue amount, as very little personal knowledge of him was possessed by the firm, was duly discussed. What was said on this point brought blushes to my own cheeks. In course of time my senior account ant was taken into the firm. I was put in his position, and with his salary I saved money, finally got into business on my own account, and am now, as you know, rich. I never forgot my former host and his grandchild; bat at the death of the former I took charge of the boy. He is new my partner and the husband of my daughter. on th£ little table, in a row, and cMnted them'with my finger. Then I made two l ows of five notes each and again counted them ; then five rows of two each and counted them. I finally, though slowly, became satisfied that I had in m 7 possession double the amount of m<* ne y I expected to deliver to my employers’ agent. Temptation cnteieji m y soul. Fivrf thousand dollars would relieve mo of pH my debts. Here it was within my gr# 9 P- I had but to seal up the en- velopeuy rowetting the wafers, inclosing but half the money, and deliver it sealed to the fwent, and my trust would be, to all appearances, faithfully discharged. Once thought occurred to me that possibly it was a trap set for me by my employers. But their confidence in me wa» unbounded, and the suspicion was forfued only to be dismissed. I do not attempt to glaze over tho dishon esty of ^hat I conte&plated, but I had been so f 1Ilceas mgly worried by domes tic trouble 3 arising from limited re sources, and so persecuted by cred itors, th^t I almost argued myself into the conviction that appropriating the money was simply authorized self- defense. I would pay all my debts, get clea 1 ’ with the world once more, insist upfon my wife’s adopting my views of living* 8a ve money, get into business for myself and finally pay back the sum. I concluded to leave the envelope j unfastened until the morning, so as to j give myself that much more time be- ■ fore fiuakv deciding upon an act which : all ray arfc um ents with myself had not ; made entri’ely reconcilable. Arrived at ; i s better than a featherbed in jail, and this conf*! 03 ! 011 * my attention again ( one j gn 't annoyed by the jailer bringing turned td m y l 1084 and his wife. I j ‘ could hea f Id 8 voice alone now. It had ! been sounding alone in an elevated j tone for eP me moments. I crept quiet- ! ly to the partition dividing their apart- j o ment froi n 4 ^ e passage. The bright am i i e t your heirs settle bills.” autumn rpoon, which was on their side of the lioPaCj shone through their win dow, and (through the spaces between the shrunken planks inf° A Tramp’s Philosophy. In the hip pocket of an old vagrant pulled in by the police the other night was a memorandum book full of his own writing with pencil, and some of his philosophy is good enough to be pre served. His first paragraph reads: “Drinking bad whisky because it is offered free is like getting in the way of bullets purchased by an enemy.” A second reads: “ Honesty is the best jiolicy, but some folks are satisfied with second best. It is hard to be honest on an empty stomach.” “A dry plank under a rain-proof shed in a square breakfast, A fourth says: “Pay as you go. If you haven’t any thing to pay with don’t go. If you are forced to go record every indebtedness of the partition and out inf° tJ 16 passage, and upon its floor in brjUli an4 tars of light. It was easy for iD 0 to see what was passing within the room. Man and wife were kneeling f* 4 their bedside in prayer. ! The r»nn ^ith uplifted head and closed in a tumbler in his hand. He was j eyes, uttering an earnest supplication, quite beside me, and his eyes rested, or i Lis wife b^ 8 ^ 6 him and one arm passed I fancied they rested, on the package upon the table. I must confess I was sensibly startled by this incident. My concern was not diminished by observ ing that he had removed his boots from his feet, and was then standing as he had come up, in his stockings. My first im pulse and act was to take the water out of bi« hand. Not being quite ready to use it I put the envelope of money on the top of it as the most convenient thing to keep it hot. I did not turn the su perscription downward,because I feaied it would betray the suspicion which I now positively entertained of evil in tentions on the part of my entertaint-.*, who had quitted the room as noiselessly as he had entered. I imagined a great many ways in which he could have become acquainted with the cause of my journey, and came rapidly to the conclusion that my employers’ funds were in danger. That they were actually so became evident before the night had passed. I recalled the man’s counte nance vividly to my recollection, and examined from memory his features, so as to make some estimate of the char acter with which I had to deaL Phy sically he was more than my equal. When I tint alighted at the house it affectionately through one of his, and her head resting against his breast. They were kneeling at the side of their bed opposite nie, and his face was plainly visible. It 3 calm and pious expression at the moment was a sufficient rebuke to my unjust suspicions. I began to listen in time to hear him say: “Par- dcu, Oh, i#ercifnl father, not only the sins of Thy humble servant and his household,\but turn the hearts of those who have d>oue evil unto him, who have wished him] injury, and who harbored unjust suspicions of him. Bless such, Oh, Lord, a>>d preserve them in order that they m»y turn from their ways and seek the path of righteousness.” His serious, earnest and manly vcice struck a choM in my ’heart, not only in sympathy wii-1* the honest and tender supplication jthat was passing his lips, bnt contritii him by my compared or bad deed tent before that I had d ago to make priation of m still, howi for the wrong I had done uspicions. I involuntarily The fifth explains: “We should have charity for all. When the winter winds blow cold and drear w« vags should pity the poor fel lows in India who are haring red hot weather.” A sixth is recorded: “ Politeness costs nothing, but it is not expected that you will wake a man up at midnight to ask permission to go through his hen-house. It is more courteous to let him enjoy his needed repose.” The seventh and last was noted down as follows: “ When you pick np an apple core do not find fault because it is not the apple itself, but be satisfied with the grade of descent. Do not be ashamed of your occupation. We cannot all be lords, nor can we all be vagrants. As E cannct be a lord I should not lament at being a vagrant Be truthful atd outspoken—that is, tell ’em you are a Chicago fire sufferer. Ktep seasonable hours or some other vags will get your plank first. Be hopeful, cheerful and good-natured. Growling won’t cure a sore heel.” . Splitting a Greenback. A sharp operator in Colorado Springs, Col., has succeeded in splitting a dollar greenback and passing both parts at tho banks. The trick was discovered whatever were bis good | the first case known of such icided but a few moments I myself by the misappro- ; department. Talk 'as we may abont philanthro- employers’ money, and pists, yet the fact stands/ after all, r _ by the relief it conld ob- j thitt the money-lender has the greatest tain for me w' oul< * no * quit© give way to ] interest in his fellow-men. How to Make a Man Mad. There never have been more than three men who have cared a snap what the papers said abont them. We recall to mind a New Hampshire man who said he hadn’t the least interest in any thing of the sort And when ho hra’d that a certain weekly bad spoken of him as a prominent citizen, he drove seven teen miles in a pouring rain and over a muddy road to get a copy of that paper, because he wanted to see the market reports in it. We have had that little transaction in mind for sometime, and it suggested to us a racket which we have worked witb great success. We select as a victim some man, ambitions of fame but who never has had the priv ilege of gazing upon his name in print more than two or tliree times iu his life. Wo to him aad say: “Did you see that 'item about you in the paper the other day. Great skid, wasn’t it ?” Im mediately his face lights up. He is all interest. There is an eager look in his eye. “No,” he says, “I didn’t see it! Didn’t know of it I When was it ? What paper was it in? What did it say?” And we reply : “ Oh 1 hold on! One qnestion at a time.” “ Well, what paper was it in ?” he ’asks. He is breathlessly eager for an answer. The reply, deliberately:- “What paper? Well, we don’t exactly remember. Think it was one of the city papers, but wouldn't be certain. It may have been a suburban paper. Possibly it was a Western exchange.” He looks gloomy, bnt hope springs eternal iu the human breast. You think it was a city paper?” he asks. “Yes.” “How long ago did it appear?”' “ Don’t know exactly. Saw it only two or three days ago, but it might have been an old paper.” “Well, what did it say?” he asks, in desperation. “Oh,it was a very pleasant little item ” “ Yes, but what did it say ?” “ Oh, we don’t remember what it said. Just remember seeing it.” “Why didn’t you save it for me?” “Why, thought of course you’d see it.” “Well, I’ll go and look over the files of the city papers and see if I can find it.” “Dear boy,” we say, “yon ll find it much easier to find a needle in a bundle of hay. Think of the inter minable task of examining the files of seven or eight daily papers for a month back.” The utter hopeless ness of his ever seeing that paragraph dawns upon him. His face assumes a look of abject misery, de spair and baffled curiosity. When we meet him three days later he is just get ting over the feeling of gloom and set tling down to solid hatred of us for not saving the item for him.—Boston Post. Recreations of Some Eminent Men. Swift relieved his tense and tragic joods by harnessing his servants with one occasion he insisted on friend Dr. Sheridan— and driving them up and down the stairs and through the rooms of his deanery. Peter the Great sought to unbend himself by being wheeled over the flower-beds and neat parterres of his host’s garden in a wheelbarrow, as poor Sir William Tem ple found to his cost. That accom plished diplomatist appears to have felt his chagrin at the failure of the triple alliance mere child’s play to his feelings at beholding the Russian mon arch riding roughshod over the priceless tulips of Moor park. Glover, the once famous anthor of “Leonidas and the Athenaid,” had the same dis agreeable weakness, though, not being safe in the “.divinity which doth hedge a king,” his plebeian back re ceived on more than one occasion infuri ated cndgelings at the hands of in sulted horticulturists. Cardinal Mazarin is said to have been fond of shut ting himself up in a room and jumping over the chairs, arranged in positions varying according to the degrees of diffi culty in clearing them. Of this weak ness on the part of his excellency an amusing anecdote is told. On one occasion, while engaged in these ath letics, he forgot to lock the door. A young courtier, inadvertently entering the room surprised the great man in his undignified pm suit. It was an em- barassing position, for Mazarin was, ho knew, as haughty as he was eccentric, but the young man was equal to the crisis. Assuming the intensest interest in the proceedings he exclaimed, with well-feigned earnestness: “I will bet your eminence two gold pieces I can beat that jump.” He had struck the right chord, and in two minutes he was measuring his leaping powers with the prime minister, whom ho. took care not to beat. He lost his two gold pieces, but he gained before long a miter. Samuel Clark relieved his theological pursuits in the same way, and on one occasion seeing a pedantic fellow ap proaching, said to the pupil who was sharing his amusement: “ Now we must stop for a fool is coming in.” Old Burton, the author of the “ Anatomie of Melancholy,” the only book which got Dr. Johnson out of his bed two hours before he intended to rise, found his chief recreation in going down to Folly bridge, at Oxford, and listening to the ribaldry of the barges, “which did cleare away his vapoures and make him laugh as he would die.”—Temple Bar. IVhy Some are Poor. Cream is allowed to mold and spoil. Silver spoons are used to scrape kettles. The scrubbing brash is left in the water Nice handled knives are thrown in het water. Brooms are never hung up. Dishcloths are thrown where mice can destroy them. Tubs and barrels are left in the sun to dry and fail apart. Clothes are leit on the line to whip to pieces in the wind. Pie crust is left to sour instead of making a few tarts for tea. Dried fruit is not taken care of in season and becomes wormy. Vege tables are thrown away that would make a good dinner. The cork is left out of the syrup jug and the flies take possession. Bits of meat are thrown out that wonld make excellent hash for breakfast. Coffee, tea and spices are left to stand open and lose their strength. Pork spoils for the want of salt and because the brine wants seal d ing. A professional “spotter,” a man employed by a railroad company to hunt up lost cars, savs that not only do the roads keep each other’s cars and use them for local business without paying, bnt in many cases they are actually stolen. To purloin a car it must be sent to the repair shop and changed so as to become unrecognizable. This requires the connivance of several persons, sometimes including the “spotter” of the road owning the car, and finally j sale is made to the company owning $'i<* shops, and proceeds are divided. title to public he^K'V/.ixhibitod 8,000 brow^la New York’s River Thieves. New York has a large number of pro fessional thieves, many of whom ap- t parently lead an honest life and are not (known as dishonest members of society except to a small circle of friends. Chief among the class referred to, nays a metropolitan paper, are river thieves or pirates, all of whom at some period of their lives learned the art of hand ling an oar either as an accomplishment or in the lino of duty. If one of these should be found basking in the sun light and mentally mapping ont his duties for the night, he could easily plead that he was an honest man out of employment. Groups of these fellows ‘can be seen lounging around the Erie basin in the daytime, playing cards or gazing at the vesselsa&t anchor. As a rule these men are rough-looking fel lows, although many appear honest enough. Some of them live in tene ment houses in New York or Brooklyn, and have good reputations not only among their neighbors bnt also in their own families. Many are young men, the sons of honest parents with whom they live. Each one knows how to dis pose of the articles which find their way into bis possession. There are a num ber of persons who make money by buy ing stolen goods from river pirates. The junkmen, at best, are regarded with suspicion. Some of them, beside purchasing junk from the masters of vessels, will steal whatever they can lay their hands on. If a boy or an ap prentice should be found alone on a vessel the junkman will offer him a trifling sum for some of the gear or stoics Watchmen on vessels at anchor in the stream are sometimes in collu sion with the junkmen, by whom they are well paid According to the genu ine boatmen, such as those at the Bat tery, the junk business, although it is licensed by the authorities, is dishonest, and the men who follow it should be classed as pirates. On dark nights the watchmen of the vessels at anchor in the bay are told to keep a sharp lookout. Every approach ing small boat is viewed with suspicion. If tho latter should be hailed and should fail to answer, but row hastily away, the watchman can feel himself free to fire at the retreating boat without being called to account for his conduct. There are usually two or three pistols iu the cabin of a vessel, and a crew, when warned, is able to repel a boatload of river pirates, or at least to attract the attention of the vessels in the neighborhood Consequently the pirates have to proceed with great caution. They usually select a dark night for making an attack on a vessel at anchor. If it is summer Ihey gen erally pass themselves as honest work men enjoying a quiet row, but if it| winter they g on the// Pictures of Ancient Extravagance. Crassus, when a candidate for the consnlship, gave a feast of 10,000 tables, to which all the citizens of Rome were indiscriminately invited. C®?ar, to celebrate thefnneral of a daughter, gave one of 22,000 tables, with accommoda tion for three guests at each. This en tertainment was repeatec/and exceeded for his triumph. He brought together more gladiators i id wild beasts than were ever produced on any former oc casion in an amphitheater, but his ex hibitions of this kind were so com pletely outshone that it were a waste of time to dwell npon them. In a document annexed to his testament, Angustna statei gratitude that be gladiators and broW[»St fiiore than 3,500 wild beasts to be killed in the circns. In the course o tho festivities institu ted by Titus to celebrafe the opening of the colosscum, 5,000 wild beasts were let loose and killed by the gladiators. Tho Emperor Probus collected for a single show 100 • lions, 100 lionesses, 100 Libyan and 100 Syrian leopards, 300 bears and 600 gladiators. Having caused the circus to bo planted with trees to resemble a forest, he let loose 1,000 ostriches, 1,000 stags, 1,000 does and 1,000 boars, to be hunted by the populace, who were to keep whatever they conld catch or kill. The fiercer animals were encountered by the gladi ators. It does not appear how long the show lasted. Tiberius, whose liie at Capri was a disgrace to human nature, was fonder of saving money than of spending it, and he left an immense sum in the treasury, which his successor, Caligula, managed to dissipate iu two years by extravagance of the most senseless kind. As if in rivalry of Cleopatra, he swal lowed precious stones dissolved iu vinegar, and caused his gaosts to be helped to go'd (which they carried away) instead of bread and meat. One of his favorite amusements was shower ing money among tho populace from the Basilica of Julias Cmsar. Ho built galleys of cedar, covered with jewelry, and large enough to contain vines end fruit trees, and had canals cut for them along the coast. The stable of his favorite horse, which he talked of naming Consul, was of marble, the trough of ivory, the harness of purple, and tho collar of pearls. The set of emeralds and pearls worn by one of his wives, Lollia Paulina, was valued at £400,000 sterling. The principal extravagance of Clau dius was in public games. One of the shows organized for him was a naval combat on a lake, in which the galleys were manned by 19,000 men. He was fond of good cheer, and was in the habit of inviting himself to the tables of the rich. He came on one occasion t _ schooner anchored iir.the bay is known to have money in his possession the pirates are apt to select that vessel. When trade is brisk and quantitiee the expression, incredibilium cupitor. What he not only “desired bnt achieved in the way of cruelty and vice would be declared incredible if Roman history had not already shown what 'revolting atrocities may be conceived by a diseased imagi nation and executed by irresponsible power. After the burning of the city he gratified his taste, in entire disre gard of the proprietors, in rebuilding it. He at once appropriated a number of the sites and a large portion of the public grounds for his new palace. The porticos, with their ranks of columns, were a mile long. The vestibule was large enough to contain the colossal statue of him, in silver and gold, 120 feet high, from which the colosseum got its nama The interior was gilded through out, and adorned with ivory and mother- of-pearl. The ceilings of the dining rooms were formed of movable tablets of ivory, which shed flowers and per fumes on the company ; the principal saloon had a dome which, turning day and night k imitated the movements ot the terrestrial bodies. When this palace was finished he exclaimed : “ At last I am lodged like a man.” His diadem was valued at half a million. His dresses, which ho never wore twice, were stiff with embroidery ana gold. He fished with purple lines and hooks of gold. He never traveled with less than a thousand carriages. Tho mules were shod with silver, the muleteers clothed with the finest wool, and the attendants wore bracelets and necklaces of gold. Five hundred she-asses followed his wife Poppsea in her progresses, to sup ply milk for her bath. Ho was fond of figuring in the circus us a charioteer and in the theater as a singer and actor. He prided himself on being an artist, and when his possible deposition was hinted to him he said that artists could never be in want. There was not a vice to which he was not given, nor a crime which he did not commit. Yet the world, exclaims Suctonioas, en dured this monster for fourteen years; and he was popular with the multitude, who were dazzled by his magnificence and mistook his senseless profusion for liberality. On the anniversary of his death, daring many years, they crowd ed to cover his tomb with flowers. The utmost excess in gluttony was reached by Vitellns, who gave feasts at which 2,000 fishes and 7,000 birds were served up. He prided himself on his culinary genius, and laid every quarter of the empire under contribution to supply materials for a dish, which con tained livers of mullet, brains of pheas ants and peacocks, tongues of flamin goes, roe of lampreys, etc. Tacitus states that he spent what wonld be tan- tamonnt to several millions sterling in less than eight months in eating or giv ing to eat.—London Quarterly Review. A Mexican Salutation. Mary Hallock Foote, in “A Provin cial Capital of Mexico,” in the Century, says: As the white mules pace sedately down the roughly paved streets the ladies keep a hand ready to make the customary signal of greeting from the carriage windows to their friends at the windows and balconies of the street. It is an indescribably fascinating gesture — so swift and subtle, almost like a fleeting expression across the face. It is mado by a quick flatter of the second finger, the hand being raised, palm in ward, to a level with the eyes. How ranch its charm is enhanced by the beauty of those dark Southern eyes it half conceals it wonld take a very stolid observer to decide. It seemed to me excessively intimate; in Morelia, I be lieve, it is kept for one’s friends only, bnt in the capital it is the nsnal greet ing at a distance between acquaint ances. 1 have seen nothing prettier in their social customs, except the way the ladies meet and lean their cheeks together, and pat each other softly on the back of the shonlder. liquids are pirates row bore holes of. rum, molasses or other left on the piers, the river in under the docks and bore thrnngh the planks in the flooring and into the hogsheads above. The liqnid pours through the holes and is caught by the men in the boat below- One night in the spring of 1880 a boat con taining four river pirates approached a fleet of coasting schooners anchored in Flushing bay. But the alarm was given in time and the crews were prepared to defend themselves. One of the pirates in endeavoring to escape fell overboard and was drowned. Several of the crews in the neighborhood were aroused and the three remaining pirates were oanght and were arraigned before the authori ties next morning. In a day or two the trio were “railroaded to Sing Sing.” This proved c wholesome lesson, and for some time afterward no attack was made on a vessel at anchor. There have been a number of cases of collu sion between dishonest dock vatohmen and river pirates. The former wait until the coast is clear and then give their confederates the signal to ap proach and begin operations, while they mount guard and stand in readiness to give them warning of the approach of any one. Bnt for the watchmen on the vessels the river pirates wonld come on board and cut all the ropes below the belaying pins and carry them off. A Japanese Hotel. In imagining a Japanese hotel, good reader, please dismiss architectural ideas derived from the Continental or Fifth Avenue. Onr hotels in Japan, outwardly, at least, are wooden struc tures, two stories high, often but one. Their roofs are usually thatched, though the city caravansaries are tiled. They arc entirely open on the front ground floor, and abont six feet from the sill or threshold rises a platform about a foot high, upon which may be seen the proprietor seated on his heels busy with his account books. If it is winter, ho is engaged in that absorbing occupation of all Japanese tradesmen at that time of year, warming his hands over a charcoal fire in a low brazier. Tile kitchen is usually just next to the front room, often separated from tho street by only a latticed partition. In evolving a Japanese kitchen ont of his or her imagination the reader most cast away the rising conception of Bridget’s realm. Blissful, indeed, is the thought as we enter the Japanese hotel that neither the typical servant girl nor the' American hotel clerk is to be found htre. The landlord comes to meet ns, falling on his bands and knees, bows his head to the floor. One or two of the pretty girls ont of the bevy usually seen in the Japanese hotels comes to assist us and take onr traps. Welcomes, invitations and plenty of fnn greet ns as we sit down to take off onr shoes, as all good Japanese do, and as those filthy foreigners don’t, why tramp on the clean mats with mnddo boots. We stand np unshod, and are led by the laughing girls along the smooth corridors, across an arched bridge, which spans an open space in which is a rookery, garden and pond stocked with gold-fish, turtles and marine plants. The room which onr fair guide chooses for us is at the ruir end of the house c /erlooking the grand seenery for which Kanorin is justly noted all over the empire. Ninety nine vaUeyn are said to be visible from the mountain top on which the hotel is situated, and expect that multiplication by ten would scarcely be an exaggeration. A world of bine waters and pines, and the de tailed loveliness of the rolling land form a picture with which I lack power to paint with words. The the type of repose, the ea —LtypincoU.