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Y DRAYTON & McCRACKEN, AIKEN, S. C., TUESDAY, AUGUST 1, 1882. ■ YOU. I. NO. 42. Evening at the Farm. Down from the hills where the fresh breeze is blowing, . Rich with the scent of the resinous pine; Up from low pastures where blue flag is grow ing, 'Where,’mong the green grasses, brooklets entwine. Filled with the grasse«, intent on home-going Wow-footed cows are all hasting in line. Filling the air wiih their milking-time lowing, While boldly their forms the last sun rays define. Afar in the west the red sun lies a-dying, Gorgeous bis couch as Aurora’s gay bed ; Homeward in haste the late swallows are fly ing, Daik float their forms ’gainst the sky’s fading red. Deep in the wood the night birds are crying, Wails for the day that is past and dead ; High in the east where the faint clouds are lying, Cynthia glides on her way overhead. I knew something Iwlignages— kt any rate eaohgli to make out even the Jmgiy of a German. They say it’s the-grandest language in the world; it may be, but it’s jaw breaking all the same. One day being down in the steerage I heard something that made me open my ears. Just then down came the girl. Oh, but she looked prettier than ever. She had on a fine silk »pron and a pair of shining tringh in her little ears. Her hair was all fluffed up and her face aglow, just like a wild ro«e on a soft spring morning. The whole family were up, after their spell of sick ness, knitting and jabbering and laugh ing, all but the girl’s sweetheart, Who, the minute he heard her footsteps, jumped up like a shot had bean fired a him and went to another part of the ship. I see that she looked after him in that sort of way girls look some times, wh&n they knoW they can do just what they please with a man’s ntart, and I took notice that she seemed Mastered. head, while the tears run and run—may I never see the like again I “Next voyage weshipped a green hand. I never suspected till, we’d been out three days that it Was the German girl’s brother. T‘ meant THE BELLE OF THE “ CHESTER BELL.” “ Yes, sir, in the old hnlk that lies rotting there I’ve sailed many a long year. Hhe nsed to make splendid runs between Bremen and here. A grand clipper the was, a regular ocean beanty in them days. Her name was the Chester Bell, and she rode the waves just like a nutshell, sir. Her captain’s name was Tnlliver, Tim Tnlliver; likely you’ve heard of him. I know sailors, and pretty good seamen, too, that change color at the very mention of that man’s name. He was a tiger, sir, a human hyeta, a bloodthirsty, bully ing wretch, without having even the saving danse of a bad temper. Why, he conld kill a man in cold blood the s«me as you'd relish a good breakfast, sir. •• Many’s the crew ol fine, honest fel lows I’ve seen shipped aboard o’ her, to be turned into skulking hounds the minute he’d look at ’em. He’d a pretty little girl for a wife, stmhge to say— them sort gen’ly gita snch—and some times she’d go to sea with him. If anv- body conld keep him in order it was her ; bat even she conldn’t pr-vent hfs cruelty to the men With first-rate *Oamen he was tyrannical, bnt, great Cesar! if a greenhorn shipped, let him look alive! He’d as lief take a belay- ing-pin to him and knock him in the head as eat bis dinner. I’ve seen him do it, too. It was a young fellow that answered him back, and be jnst laid his face open from crown to chin. Oh, but he was a cruel man, sir ! “He often took emigrants to tho United States—squads of ’em. They gen’rally got served middliqg well. Bay the captain his money and he’d give yon the worth of it—so much for his due. One p^age he had rather an} common lot^five hundred, I young and old—a pretty decent *11 Fact is, these Ge- man passengers, even if they are in the steerage, have their poeshtta pretty well lined. Com mend me to the Germsn emigrant for honesty and thrift. There was families of two and live, and sometimes t. n and twe’ve—a pood many handsome jonng girls among them, too. “ ike paiticaiur passage of which I’m going to speak, however, was in the year'50-a g'eat year for clippers that was. I was busy tarring some ropes when a family came aboard that made ns all look alive. First, there was the grandfather, in bis old country dress, with hair as long as my arm and as white as the foam of the sea nnder the enn. He and his dame were as sweet- mannered and fine-looking as you might meet in a hundred years. Then came the sons and daughters and grandchil dren. It didn’t seem as if they ought to go in the steerage along o’ commoner passengers; but they did, though they bore themselves like gentlefolk. “T en foilo-ed, sir, atween two young men—her br ther ami her lover, we afterward ound out—a young gi»l not more than s xteen or seventeen. Well, that was >he handsomest little cr&ft I ever lard these two eyes on, and I’ve seen some fine-loosing women in my day, having sailed from every port in the world. She was that pretty that we christened her on the spot the 'Bello of the Chester Bell.’ “ Behind them came Captain Tim, behaving his level best, and there weren’t many as conld beat him for a fine eye and a gallant bearing. He seemed to be looking out for their com fort—ah, but the little beauty she was I Queers and noble ladies might well envy the red and white of her face, and even the way she walked and the turn of her read. It was a sight to see. Her brother and her lover were both right manly, hindsome fellows, too, and dear enough they loved her, one could see. “Well, wo set sail, having beautiful weather for the first few days, and the pretty German girl, she would come out sometimes for an airing, generally fol lowed by one or the other oi t'i .n two chaps. I was always looking out o’ the corner of my eye, and I observed that the captain was allays on hand looking at her in the most admiring manner. I wanted to tell her lover that it would be better not to show his little beauty so mnch if he wanted to keep her out o’ harm’s way, for girls is mostly that vain if that handsome ! * ‘Came the second week out, and we had hard weather. I was taking my ob serrations right straight along, for I noticed Captain Tim was always mak ing much of the old gentleman and his wife. The fools! I could a-told ’em why he singled them out. It wasn’t the captain’s place to be in the steerage. I longed to tell him so, for I had a pretty kid of my own at home; but I might have paid for it with my life. “ There were but few passengers in the cabin, one of them a consumptive lady who had not brought her servant. How it was done I never knew, but the oaptain managed to get this handsome girl to wait upon the sick woman. Mighty fond of money they must a'been to let that girl go out o’ their sirh t and fnto the company of a man like Captain Tim. “After a while I took notice that the yonng fellow who appeared to bo the girl’s sweetheart grew pale and n jrvons. He was out on deck oftener, and his face seemed to indicate uneasy, jealous feelings. I didn’t blame him. I wanted to warn him—for I could tell how it was with him, poor fellow ! if he saw half that I did, I don t wonder not only that he was suspicious of the captain, but I thought it I was in his place I’d make the captain answer for it. He did get pretty well ronsed up one time ; but I won’t tell that part o’ the story till I git o ft. “ r^hen the girl spoke, I heard the captain’s name and then they nil looked anxious and pleased at the same time, asking and answering questions. All at once a strange feeling come over mb. I didn’t know exactly what was my duty, for I was as much afra d of Cap tain Tim’s Ugly temper as any man could be, but as I listened fttd listened I couldn’t bear it any longer, and going up to the people I said a few words in their own language. Well, I ohly gave them to understand that the captain had a wife, but, perhaps I had better have held mjr tengue, for they evidently did not believe me. “ Finding I could make no imprss- sion upon them, I went after the sweet heart and let him know what I sus pected. I never saw a man so fright fully angry. He grew white as a sheet, and the terror and the horror made him ghastly. He clinched his hands, and the veins stood swelled out on his fore head, while his ‘MeinQott!’ was enough to Curdle one’s blood. “ That afternoon Oaptain Tim came toward me, and I knew what to expect. So I braced my nerves up and deter mined that, please God, I wouldn’t be afraid of him. *• No need to repeat his language—it was enough to shake the nerves cf man of brass. He used all the oaths ever heard come out of a whole ship’s crew’s lips in ten voyages, and swore he d have my heart’s blood—that he’d send me to the bottom of the sea, and such like threats. I told him respect fully, as a petty officer should always speak to his captain, that I had doile by the girl as I would by my own sister. I don’t just remember exactly what said, but I think words was given, for he looked hard at me, as if be wasn’t certain whether he quite saw through my motives, and with one worse threat than the last, and a mouthful more of dirtv- oaths he went off. “ BuUL a change 1V1 the girl after that for I - was always on the watch. She smiled more seldom and her color went and came too easy. Then her step grew slower, and she wonld go stand at the side of the vessel and take long sad looks at the water, ai if she was in a brown study. Pretty soon after that her eyes began to look heavy, and once or twice I found her in an out-o’-the- way place crying and sobbing like a baby Well, I didn't attempt to c„m- Icrt her—she wouldn’t a borne it for as soon as ever she saw me she would fly off like a scared bird. My heart felt heavy for her, because I knew there must be a reason for it, besides the growing weakness of the poor woman, who was dying in the cabin day by day, and praying only to see land before she did go. “ One night, ah, sir, I shall never forget that night—the moon was at her full, and sat looking at the reflection in the water like a queen with a silver crown on, and a veil of white light float ed away off on the sea, so that it looked like a bride waiting for her husband. For the first time in many days I saw the pretty German girl and her sweet heart on deck together. I could not keep my eyes from her; she looked for all the world like a sweet angel just lent out of heaven for a little. It was my watch, and my duty to bid them be low; but I don’t know why it was, I couldn’t do it. They r went forward and sat at the * bows. There were barrels there and planks atop, so no one conld walk back and forth easily. I conldn’t hear anything they said, of course, bat I saw by their gestures that they were talking very fast. Some times he would go close up to her, and she would put out her hand and push him away, then cry as if her heart would break. This went on for some time when at the last she seemed to grow calmer. I saw her throw herself into his arms. 1 saw him kiss her again and again; then she seemed to wrench herself away, and quicker than I can tell, over she went. “ I don t know how I got there, or how the whole ship seemed to swarm so suddenly with life. I remember catch ing at a dark body that was going over —her po:>r distracted brother, and his falling back into my arms dead as a log, j after giving a great cry. That scream brought the captain and two mates. The captain asked, angrily, what was the row ? “‘That little German girl is over board !’ I said ; and if I had any sort of a weapon that was dead sure I’d have laid him at my feet. He knew how I felt, he knew, the scoundrel! the villain! His face changed, his very voice was different, as he ordered ‘ Bout ship.’ “One of the boats was down, and we snpposed, through some mismanage ment, it swamped^for we saw nothing of boat or lover or sirl; and so that was the end of that. It was a changed com pany afterward. The shock killed the poor sick woman, and she was buried the same day, for sailors can’t bide a corpse on board ship ; bat I declare to yon, sir, that though we put weights in that coffin, it stood up on end and fol lowed ns until midnight. I never saw such a sight before; I hope never to again. There it was right after us, and the sailors watched it with pale faces ,no one daring to say a word to the cap tain, who swore if any one bat looked at •him. “ We all made as if the girl had Yallen overboard for the sake of the poor (creatures who were left. They conjec tured everything, as folks will who go wild with grief. But I think her brother understood, though he was sick witu brtin fever all the rest of the voy age. Her mother, poor creature, came near dying herself, and I am sure her heart mast have been nearly broken. It was hard to see that fine-looking old 1 idfather tottering round wringing hands and shaking his gray old heh 1 knew he chief. I told him I knew him, but he begged so h*rd i Jrept bis secret. How often sine© I ve winhed I hadn’t, thongh it might have been no better for him. I was sure there was going to be more troub!e<. and it came soon. He didn't khow the ropes and I think the captain saspec^ed who it was Sad kept on hie guard, for he was mighty careful not to angar hlih. But one day his tem per gave way, and if it hadn’t a bin as it was I shouldn't much blamed him neither, for I like good seamanship as well as tne next Elan, and the German lad was as contrary as a mule. The first thing we knew the capta n struck the man, and the next they were struggling together on the deck. Well, sir, we saw blooi. The captain had got at his knife and run the poor fellow through the heart He never spoke after that, and none of Us could say anything, because the cap tain killed him in self-defense. I was that hOrroi 1 struck that I vowed I’d never step foot in that ship again ; and never again I did, although Oaptain Tim offered me double wages. Sir, it was a God-cursed ship after that. Mis fortune went with it every voyage, and seemed to strike everybody bnt the captain. That always seemed strange to n e. He lost men and the own -rs lost money, but he always came off scot free. “ Well, sir, I am coming queerest part of my story. I was once inspecting an insane asylum with a friend of mine from the old country. He wished to see a case of raving in sanity, being about to write a book in which he wanted to describe something of the sort. We had several cases, when the keeper said, pointing to a double cell: “ ‘There is the worst subject in this or any other establishment;. He is an old sea-captain, whose madness is so alarming at about midnight that, in spite of all onr precautions, we expect every morning to find him a corpse. We are obliged to keep him in this closet, the walls of which are lined that he may not dash his brains out. He has been here nearly a year, and imagines that he is pursued by a girl, and held under water by her till his breatli^leaves his body.’ “ Well, the door was unlocked, and there, despite the hideously-altered and haggard face, I saw my old captain— Tim Tnlliver 1” “ Then,’’ said I, speaking for the first time, “ at last God had smitten him.” “ Well, I suppose that’s not for us to say,” continued the narrator, “for I haven’t come quite to the end of my story.” “ Some three years after the little German beauty threw Yierself over in the way I have told you, I was off duty in a foreign harbor, and strolling into a street I found a little shop pre sided over by a woman who was the liv ing image of poor little Gretchen—I believe I haven’t spoken her name be fore. I went in, and she stared at me, and I stared at her. I felt myself grow pale, but she flashed rosy red, which put me more in mind of Gretchen than ever. So I said to her in German, to make sure, that she reminded me of a lass I had once known. “ ‘ Oh !' she cried. ‘ I was sure I conldn’t be mistaken—you were so kind to me one \ when I was on board that dreadful Chester Bell.’ “‘Then,’ I said, completely aston ished, and catching my breath, ' it is really Gretchen !' ‘ Yes, indeed, I am really Gretchen, and my husband is not yet at home ; he has gone to look after our bit of land ; bnt sit down, he will be back in a mo ment ; no, no, come in here, dinner will be ready before a great while.’ “I followed, like one in a dream, and found myself in a neat, pretty little parlor, looking out on a garden crowded with flowers, and beyond that the shingly beach, and farther the deep sea. In a corner at one side of the tiny fireplace stood a wicker-cradle wherein slept a lovely child. That’s my little Gretchen,’ said, with a happy and proud smile. I’ve got three nice children, eldest quite a lad.* ‘“Then, please tell me, for I nearly dying of curiosity,’ I said, ‘how comes it you are here and not at the bottom of the sea?’ “ ‘ Oh, that was an awful night!” she said, a shadow crossing her face. ‘ I threw myself over because Hans, who was cruelly jealous, wouldn’t believe my word, for, you see the captain was very wicked and I had found hiui out, and Hans would not listen, which drove me desperate, and I did not oare if I died. But the poor fellow had suffered; for, though I hated the captain, J. was too. easy to let him admire me. But Hans found me, though I was half dead, and then he kept the boat in the shadow of the ship till all the rush and fright wls over, for he said he wonld rather die with me in an open boat on the sea than put me in the power of that bad cap tain. And so we shonld, perhaps, have perished, but a ship came along in the morning and picked us up; and Hans would never go to America after that. He found good friends and settled down here.’ ‘ ‘ 1 But your people ?’ “ ‘ Oh, they all come out here—all bnt my poor brother—we never knew where he went; so you see we were quite as well off as if we had gone to America, and I never thought to meet you again sir, never ; are you still on that dread ful ship ? ’ “ I told her all but'the tragic fate of her brother, which I thought was better suppressed; but you see, sir, there was no real haunting, bnt the poor old cap tain was beset by his own dreadful imagination and the sting of his con science, for, no doubt in his heart, he had willed to do murder and worse. And so there yon have the story of the Belle of the Chester Bell.”—Afrs. Den ison. the E. B. D., Kansas: The yellow or orange-colored dust on the under side of blackberry leaves is a fungus growth known as rust. It is the same in every respect as the rnst on wheat and oats, and some kinds of blackberries, the common wild ones especially, are very subject to it This rust kills the plants or makes them grow very weak, rapidly spreads from one plant to an other, until all are infected. The remedy is to cut out and dig up every plant that is diseased, and grow none but those which are proof against it | Brooklyn Jihgl*. Mr. Spoopandyke's Search. “Oh, dear I ’ granted Mrs Spoopen- dyke, “l‘m sure I'm going to die!” and the good woman flopped over in the bed and contemplated her hatband with a pale face and a look of general debility. “You’ll be good to babyj won’t you, dear?” “Oh, ho!” leturned Mr. Spoopen- dyke, pounding her tenderly on the head with his big hand. “You’re all right. Bear up against it, and you’ll be well in an hour or two. I’ve often bad the cholera morbus, but you never see me give up like this. Where’s the ginger ?’’ “ I don’t know,” moaned Mrs. Spoop- endypke. “Look on the top shelf of the closet. If it isn’t there, try the bottom drawer of the wardrobe ; or it may be in the pantry. Ow-w I” and Mrs. Sp lopeudyke donbled up and straightened out with a jerk. “ You can’t remember any other Con gressional distnc s represented by that ginger, can you?” growled Mr. Spoop endyke, prowling aronnd the room in an aimless but energetic fasbi >n. “You don’t call to mind a couple more roost- in^-places in which that ginger is to be found, do you ? Where’bouts on the top shelf ? ” and Mr. S| oopendyke rat tled aronnd among the. old bottles and empty pill boxes. “Look here! I’ve found that court plaster I wanted day before yesterday! ” and more than gratified with hi-« find Mr Spoopendyke utterly forgot the original object of his search. “ You’ll send baby to a good school, to the 1 an< ^ 8ee l ^ at 8 ^ e mdrr * eR happily, dear?” 6 groaned Mrs. Spoopendyke, adapting a woman's style of hinting that the ginger would be acceptable. “And you’ll bury me by mother?” “ Certainly,” replied Mr. Spoopen dyke, immerstd in the contemplation of the court plaster. “ Where’s the sheet of flesh color that was here?” he de manded. “I don’t seem to detect the presence of that particular element of adhesiveness ! Where’s the flesh colored portion of this curative ?” and Mr. Spoopendyke ra over th little squires again in a vain search for the piece he missed. “Did you look in the wardrobe, love !’’ asked Mrs. Spoopendyke, faintly. “ It isn’t here T growled Mr. Spoop endyke, raking over the con ents of tho drawer and turning them over with h ; .s feet. “ What —? Upon my word 1 you’re a pretty woman ! I thought you said that old razor strop of mine was lost when we moved. Here it is as big as life and twice as dirty. Glad I found that strap,’’ mumbled Mr. Spoop endyke, rubbing it tenderly and blow ing off the dust. “ Got a piece of cloth ?” “Oh, do look in the pantry 1” plead ed Mrs. Spoopendyke. “ I’m sure it’s in the pantry 1” Mr. Spoopendyke charged on pantry like a column of horse an< bustled arouna and bumped his but didn’t seem to meet with much sac cess. “I don’t see any,” he muttered. “Don’t you know where you keep your cloth? I .-’pose I might stand round here till doomsday, while moths corrode and thieves do break into this razor strop and steal the whole business without finding a piece of cloth to wipe it on. Haven’t ye got an old skirt or something?” And Mr Spoopendyke drew the strap under his arm two r three times and regarded it affection ately. “Oh, please find the ginger!’’ squealed Mrs. Spoopendyke, as another spasm caught her. “Never mind your old strap ! Find the ginger!” “Ain’t I lookin' for it ?” retorted Mr. Spoopendyke. “ Here’s a cork, and tho bottle can’t be far off When I find that bottle I’ll have a cle w to the gin ger, and I’m going to follow it to the bitter end. You oueht to save these corks anyway, when I go fi-ihing What kind of a looking bottle was it ?” “It was long and narrow,” replied Mrs. Spoopendyke, almost in despair. “ I ought to Mad it from that descrip tion,” muttered Mr. Spoopendyke. “Most bottles are perfectly round Here’s the arnica bottle upside down, and I told you % keep it fille». I might knock my armimo the next Pres byterian general assembly, and Id have to wait all day before I could get a drop of arnica to soothe my anguish ! Whai’s this straw hat of mine doing in the bot tle box, anyhow? What particular mal ady did this hat have that suggested such a disposition of it ?’’ and Mr. Spoopendvke smoothed out the crown and squinted with one eye while he straightened the brim. “ That’s a g od hat yet,” and he put it on and regarded himself in the glass. “You wanted some ginger, didn’t you ? Where is it? Where’d you put it ?” Mrs. Spoopendvke arose from* the bed, pale but firm, and stalking across the room seized the bottle and flounced back into the bed with a bump that showed she was mad. There is nothing on earth that will so express a woman’s wrath as that one dive among the sheets. “Getting better, ain’t ye?” snorted Mr. Spoopendyke. “I told ye the cholera morbus didn’t last long. Where’s that razor strop? What’d ye do with t strap ? ’ Mrs. Spoopendyke eyed him, but ade no response. • “ Point out to me the present address f that strap !’’ howled Mr. Spoopen dyke. “Take this fin* •>r and lay it ten derly on the home aud country of that strap I” and Mr. Spoopendyke whirled around like a grindstone and filled the air wi'h bottles and boxes, and powders and pills. “Come out of the jangle and face me!” yelled Mr. Spoopendyke apostrophizing the stiap which he re membered having in his hand bnt a mo ment before. “Show me to the strap! Take that strap by the ear and lead it before Spoopendyke in proper person l” and the enraged gentleman thrust his foot through the crown of his hat and drew the wreca up to his hip. “What’s that sticking out of your breast pocket?” asked Mrs. Spoopen dyke, scraping off external applications of an assortment of drugs. “Umph!” granted Mr. Spoopendyke, drawing out the strap. “ Pound it, didn’t ye ? Another time you let things alone, will ye? Made me spoil my straw hat with your nonsense ! Another time yon want anything ytfn just stand back and let me search! X’ under stand ?” ^ “Yes, dear,” murmured Mrs. Spoop- and endyke. and as her husband left the room she took a consoling swig at the ginper bottle and reflected that he hadn’t enjoyed the attack of cholera morbus mnch more than she had,— HEALTH HINTS. Bread made with sea water is recom- mended for patients suff.-ring from dyspepsia and Scrofula. One Of the most important bodily needs is food for the nerves. Build up nei"|p energy and you have the greatest resiitinp power against disease. Wheat, milk and peas are good nerve sustain ing foods. Breakfast should be eaten in the morbiog bef u-e leaving the house fi>r exercise or labor ol any description; those who do it will be able to perfoim more work and with greater alacrity than those who work an hoar or two before breakfast. Brainworkers are peculiarlv liable to suffer from the distressing affl cti n of sleeplessness; here is a cure which in m st cases acts like a charm: Wet ha'f a towel, apply to the back of the brain. ancHasten the dry half of the tow -l over so as to prevent too rapid evapora tioji The effect is pr impt and charm in*, cooling ti e brain and inducing calmer and sweeter sleep than any nar cotic. Dr. Poote says in his tienlth Mo* thly: In one of our city hospitals a case of obstinate malarial fever was treated with all the medicines (one after another) usually employed in such cases, without sueces-; but a cure was effected by takBg the patient to nn upper floor. All honses in malarial dis ricts should have an “ upper floor” for refuge. Fob Sunbubn — Bruise and then squeeze ont the ,dica from the stalks and leaves of the common chick weed, and add to it three times as much rain water. Bathe the skin with this fora few minutes morning, noon and night and wash it off with pure water. Elder flowers can be similarly treated and ap plied, or they can be steeped in milk find the face and hands washed in it. Sour cream applied at night and washed off in the morning will allay smarting sunburn. > ^ A Miner’s Luck. Mr. Richard Kuowles, a prominent miner of the Gunnison country, in Colorado, said to a reporter: “ While 1 was yet at Leadville a man came up there from Denver named Dexter—Jim Dexter they called him and he was full of life and h ipe. and had some money. Dexter looked about him for & while, and finally bought a claim on Carbonate Hill, which had, at that time, not been prospected very well. H^ paid, I think, about 15,00‘• for it, and set to work putting in machinery and sinking the shaft, which wts already down some 100 feet or more. Hq worked away on the mine, people Sghing at him a good deal, but he FACTS AND COMMFNTS. Edward Barr, of Miss >uri, was at the head of the late graduating cla«s West Point, with an average ot 1 934.5 out of a possible d.OOO. The father of yonng Barr, who has thus graduated With such distinguished honor, said to his son, some three years since, that if he would graduate with distinction he would make him a present of 810.- 000 The incentive had its effect, and young Barr starts out io life with edu cated brains and a plethoric pocket. James L. Lorm*. a civil engineer, suggests that tornadoes be fought witl* cannon. He says : “It would oecheaper to pat an iron cannon in every town in Iowa than it will be to pay the losses of Saturday. If one of these clouds were seen forming near a tawn the caunon would tell the news to ika next tovn, and the concussion of tbs air from a succession of firing certainly ou^ht io effect the same result in Iowa that it does on the equator.” A Senate resolution calling for infer ma’ion about pensions has bror ^ht our some int-vesting facts. There were close upon 270,b09 pensioners ca the roll last September, when the annual statistics were male np. But about twelve thousand pensions had lapsed throngh not being called for during •hree successive years, and five tnou sand were th se of sailors whose resi dences were not known. The actual number paid was 252 351, the amount being 851,224,204. New Yortc State heads the list. To her 32 024 pension ers the hnnual sum of $3,426,532 was given, but arrears bronght the amount up to $6,510 411. Pennsvlvania’s 28.- 292 pensioners required $5 746 802, and Ohio’s 24 663 had $4 911520 More than two million dollars each Went to Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts and Michigan; more than one million each to Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri and New Jersey The Third Congress district of Maine surpassed all others in the amount it received. onions from the sunny gardens of Eerinoda. Lisbon and Oporto but the Lavaul was never before called upon. Cue culuvat*'*n of onions on tne eastern coast of the PaecHterr.iueau ex'euding from the western part of Greece around to th ) western border of Egypt is reported as a great industry It has been compnted that the last crop there was over 200,OOU tons. It is asserted that Levant onions keep bettsr afid longer than tho e grown in any other part of tho world This is ai. important feature, for many onions are needed in ships’ supplies for long vovagei on account of their excelleuc^- in preventing scurvy end other diseases incident to life ou shipboard In thL country it Is remarked that the con- sumpt on increase? yearly. Tnis is due nut oniy to the enormous increase of the foreign elements, who always Use vegetables freely, but aLo to tue en larged use in populous cities of the O lar.-e parts of meats, in the prepara tion of wuioh the onion figures promi neutly. she the am t r once lost heart. The mine had shown np a single thing in the way ineral, and the shaft had been sunk lihat time several hnndred feet, did not know what to do. He now spent nearly'all the money he ad, and nothing was coming in. One day in the early part of the year 1879 a party came to him and asked him what he would take for his mine. Dexter told him, and a bargain was made between tnem The price paid was, I think, $30,000, some $5,000 more than Dexter had spent on it altogether. He was mighty glad to get the $30,000, and thought him-ielf well out of a bad bargain. He rushed ont to Oirbonate hill and ordered the miners to drop their tools ami quit work. This was about 3 o’clock in the afternoon. He said: ‘Boys, I have sold this hole, and I don’t want you to work another minute in it for me. I will pay off right now and yon can quit.’ the miners had just finished a and were going to place a blast and uncover some rock, and they asked to be allowed to finish it before they quit work. ‘ No,’ said Dexter, ‘come out, I 'don’t want you to work ano more; there is nothing in the old hole.’ They re luctantly quitted and departed. Dexter got bis money and wa» happy. Well, the mine had been bought by a stock company, ami in a short time they began work on it. Now, young man, what I am going to tell yon is the solemn truth,” said the miner. “ Those fellows went np there to that mine and laid a fuse t-i the blast left by Dex er’s men and touched it off After the smoke cleared away they went in to sea how much rock had been loosened, when what do you ihink? There before their eyes they saw the richest body of silver ore which has ever been seen since the world began At that time hundreds of thousands of dollars met the gaze of the delighted owners of the richest kind of ore. Well, young fellow,” continued Mr. Knowles, “that mine was the cele brated Robt. E Lee, which has made everybody rich who has had anything to do with it since Jimmy Dexter sold it. Millions of dollars have been turned out of it, and it is the greatest silver mine in the world.” “Cranks” iu New York. A New York correspondent avers that “two of the prominent citizens of New York are now generally known to be in sane—not hopelessly, perhaps, but posi tively. One is a lawyer whose sei-vices are so much in demand that he has been paid a $50,000 fee within a year for pleas in court since his reason went astray. He holds a prominent public office. The other is a bank president and a most capable fiflancier. He has not walked a biock in the street for six years, for he imagines that he is a cherry and if he is exposed the birds will eat, him! In this delusion he is immov able* and accordingly he always rides to and from the bank in a close car riage, and never exposes himself out of doors. On all other matters he is per fectly sane, and his counsel is taken in the investment of millions on millions. To a visitor from the “ provinces,” it must seem as if a good many New Yorkers are insane. Nowhere have I ever senn so mMiy people who indulged in that curious habit known as talking to themselves.” About every tenth person you meet on the down-town sidewalas practices this self-com- mnnion. Every hoar of every day you will notice men go hurrying by, looking neither to the right nor left, talking iu ex cited tones and gesticulating violently. I have seen men in an omnibus carrying on a lively dialogue with themselves, and laughing vociferously at the “hits” made, as unconscious of the presence of others as if they were alon% in the moon. The same qneer phenomena are frequently seen im glimpses through carriage doors — men with faces all aglqw, swinging their arms and exclaim mg' in loud voices—driving a sharp bargain with a wholesaler, maybe, or wildly and hopefully bidding for the stoqka that are to go up tea per cent. » M The importance of agriculture as a factor in our national prosperity can best be appreciated by visiting New York city and observing the steamers and ships from all quarters of the globe loading with products of American soil, fn a single week, recently, upward ot $6,000,0U0 worth of agricultural prod ucts were shipped abroad frotn New York alone. Among the experts of that week were 2,126 barrels apples, 1,647 pounds beeswax, 84,202 barrels wheat flour, 1,391 barrels <3urn meal, 481,252 biish- els wheat, 2,652 bushels oats, 46 bushels barley, 2,023 bushels peas, 427 241 bushels corn, 13,537 bales cot ton, 462 bales hay, 492 bales hops, 10,- 967 gallons lard oil, 1,082 gallons lin seed oil, 3 993 barrels pork, 804 barrels beef, 1.060 tierces beef, 5.548,291 ^pounds cat -jmeAta. ^pounds, batter, 675,151 pounds cheese, 3,854 680 pounds lard, 88 bar rels rice, 577,620 pounds tallow, 439 hogsheads tobacco, 1,226 packages to bacco and 49,887 pounds manufactured tobacco. Although the sanguine De Lesseps makes frequent announcements that the Panama canal enterprise is in a most flourishing condition, unprejudiced ob servers who have been over the route take a very different view. Captain Belknap, of the United States navy, who crossed the Isthmus a few weeks ago, reports that $200,000 has been paid fora hotel to serve as offices, and $30,- 000 more in fitting it up; that another $200,000 has been expended in buying buildings and grounds for hospital use, and that honses have been bnilt for the officials, but that the only real work yet done toward tho construction of the water - way consists in the clear ing away of shrub t and trees from the (rack. CapUin Belknap found that intellig nt resiVntsof the Is’hmus region believed the project feasible, but they agree iu the opinion that it wonl 1 take a great deal more time than the enthusiastic engineer cal culates upon. The cap’ain’s conclu sion that people familiar with the Isth- ^ . mus, aud expecting returns for capital, fighting was heaviest invested, will not oe likely to put money 1 ” in such an enterprise will only strength en the disinclination of Americans to take stock in the scheme as now con ducted. Professor R°ese, of Philadelphia, has made an important discovery touching the effects of drowning npon the human lungs. In aa autopsy of the body of a woman, found drowned, it it is reported that he found no water in the lungs, nor any evidence of water having been there, fonpd. in the stomach. that the dead body bore n. - . - ^uw of abuse and violence, and there was nothing found iu the oasophaausto indicate that water had crossed the woman’s lips. As the body was taken from the river near the wharf it is presumed that the woman jumped overboard, which leads Dr Reese to infer that persons plunging into the water, especially from an emi nence, can come to death from suffoca tion or shock without taking water in wardly. It is well known by bringing together tne posterio r arches of the palate and pressing the root of the tongue against the pa'ate both the mouth and the nostrils are completely eat off fiom the air tubes, as is done in h dding the breath. It is quite con ceivable that the shock caused by sud den immersion in w.,ter undi-r a tem perature of sixty-five degrees might induce this movement, and also canse a muscular contraction oi longs and air tubes, precluding the passage of water into the lungs of a peison while drown ing. The Case investigated by Professor Reese is of great interest to the medico legal experts, and the correctness of his conclusions will be tested by other ex amination of the bodies of drowned persons. It is quite generally known that Scot land and Ireland with their potatoes and Germany and Italy with their beans have been most prolific in their contributions to this country’s drought- shortened supplies since last fall, buti' is not so generally known that Egypt, or properly speaking the Levant, has begun to furnish ns in abundance with that useful garden product, the onion. Of this valuable bulb, which is so in separable from the dressing of a dainty canvas-back dock o the mgre dent* of a popular Irish stew, there have recent ly been imported into this country from Egypt 10.000 barrels. After the do mestic crop has been consumed by win’sz use or expoited it has long been the custom to import large q nan tides of General SkobelefPs Careen The late General Michael Skobeleff was probably the most popular man iu Russia and the most picturesque soldier in E trope. In peace he excelled the swells of the kingdom in his fondness for the luxuries of dress and tbe dainti I ness of his tastes In war he was the embodiment of bravery and the personi fication ol reckless fury. • Olal in a white unifotiC that glittered with gold braid, and moauted on a white horse, he led his men to victories snatched out of the very gulfs of death, and Jit was said of those he commanded that they idolize! him, find seemed to prefer ^ death a" the heels Of bis horse to victory under any other commander. He was of soldierly Carriage and fine physique, black-eyed brown-haired and full-bearded. He came of a race ot soldiers. His grau.l-fa her, rather and himself were all generals and dievaliers of 8c. Giorge, and valor got eaoh one his title and honors. Michael was the youngest Russian oen eral. He was graduated from the Mili tary Academy in St. Petersburg in 1868, and, with ,ut serving in the Guards, ne at once pitched into battle in Turkestan at the head of a corps of Cossacks. He was then twenty-five years old. He re mained in Turkestan nntil 1871, and went thence to the Caucasus on the st>«fl of the Grand Duke M.chae’. Later he commanded a battalion of -he Seventy- fourth regiment of the line, and in 1873 he was transferred to Khiva, where the czar was fighting the khan. Wnen the formality of military disci pline hampered him in this campaign, he deliberately disobeyed orders ana at the same time gave evidence of his genius as a soldier. In the same cam paign, in order to finish and deliver his report to General Kaufman, he and MicGahan, the famous wa correspond- ent, remained in the pii’ace of Iftf? man' when it seemed madness to tarry there. For this and a reconnoissanoe iu dis guise to the Turcoman d sert he was given the cross of 8t. George of the fourth class. When Don Carlos was fighting for the tofone of 8pam Skobe hff joined his staff avoweiiy to study war out of Russia, but probably because he could not keep away from war. As a cavalry commmder he fought in Turaestan, and here, at night, with 159 men, h ! dashed into the main camp of the enemy, who, imagiiiing the Russian army upon them, fled without taking even their turbans. Not one of 8kob«- leff’s men was killed or wounded. Tem porarily left in command he stormed and took the city of Namanyah, which had revolted. For this, though he was but thirty-two yearn old, he was made a major-general. In ths second war*wi:h Khokland he compelled the khau tosur- rei^er, and when that country was an- neWhwas made its governor and given the third class cross of St. George His next brilliant feat was iu the Ru*so- Turki-h war. He had been on the staff of the Grand Duke Michael, been trans ferred to the staff of bis father, a lieutenant-general, and his father’s com mand being broken up, he found iiim- r,elf ont of employment where the He remained m the army as a volunteer, and sent his name ri ging through Russia by cross ing the Danube on hor?eoacK, sword in h .nd, at the head of a few men, and driving the Turks from their positions overlooking 8 stowa. Again, almost in the next dispatches, he was reported at the siege of Plevna, at the head of p. whirlwind of cavalrymen, actually pen etrating the fortifications. Hat the in fantry upon whom hergjiefl tailed, and Ssobeleff had to In the second battle ofP^^£ he captured two ro- a..., ...’defending them for twenty four hours against the incessant hail of leal from a vastly su perior force, he was forced back, still fighting like a bulldog. He lost 8.009 out of 12.000 men, had seven horses shot from under him, and when the last had gone led the way into the redoubt on foot, waving his i.iamoni-hiited word. His greatest military feat was, when, with 20,0 0 men, he stormed and took Lovtscha in Bulgaria, and won a strate gical point behind Osman Pasha's army. The war was not half over when he was made lien’enant-general and commander of the Sixteenth division. When Ridetzky and Prince Mersky had both been repulsed by Vessel Pasha at Sbenova, Skobehff made the Pasha surrender. At the czar’s ‘order he en tered Adiianople. With his already famous command he was long before Constantinople, and finally had charge o' all the Russian forces retiring from Turkey. Since the war the world outside Rus sia heard but little of him, though two- thirds of his countrymen worshiped him as the foremost champion of Pan- slavist theories. Love for him was said to be one of the few things in which the country and the czar were « holly in accord. Last February his soldierly blnntness gave him world-wide promi nonce. It was at a dinner of Servian students in Paris that he declared a struggle between the Slavs and Teutons inevitable. He said it would be long and bloody, bnt the Slavs would con quer. He had the world for hi* hearers, and Enn-pe waited anxiuusly for aa ex planation. Ssobeleff disavowed any desire to make trouble, or any authority to speak as he did, and the czar re prov d him with signal mildness, and sent him to Turkestan for a time. He was thirty-nine years old. Nworif*. The first weapon used by man was probably a club; and it is also likely that in tuns thi* w?s made of very hard wood, cod somewhat fharpened oq one >r m'»re ri le<*. so as to inflict a more deadly wound. Wooden weapons of this kind are now io use by some sav age races. Then it was found that more effective weapons of the sort conld be male of a harder substance, ind. sh >rt, unwieldy sworde were hewo ont of stone very much as our Indiana made their arrow-heads of flint. B it a sword of this kind, although a terrible weapon in tho hands of a strong man, was brittle and apt to bresk ; and so in time, when the use and value of metal* came to* be understood, swords w»-re made of these substances. The early Romans, and tome other nations, had stron*, heavy swords made of bronz*. But when iron and steel came into'use it was quickly perceived that they were the metals of which offensive weapons ■ihould be made. By a careful study of tbe form and use of the sword, from its flrat invent tion nntil the pre ent rime, we may get a good idea of the manner in which ia various ages military opera 1 ions were carried on. At first men fought at dose quarters, like the beasts they imitated. But as the arts of warfare began to be improved, and as civilization and en lightenment progressed, men seemed anxious to get farther and farther away trom one another when they fought, and so the sword gradually became longer and longer, Uutil, in the middle a ^es, a man’s «word was sometimes as long as himself. But there is a limit to this sort of thing, and when the use of projectiles which would kill at a great distance be came general, it was found thatasoldier was eeld im near enough to bis enemy to reach him with his sword; and at tbe present day it is seldom used ip actual warfare except by cavalrymen, and these frequently depend as much on the fire arms they carry as upon their sabers. It is said that cavalry charges, in which the swords of the riders are depended upon to rout tbe enemy, do not fre quently occur in the warfare of the pres ent day; and those naval battles of which all have read, where the opposing ships are run aide by side, and the sailors of one, cutlass in hand, spring upon tLe deck of the other and engage in a hand to hand fight, are now seldom heard of. Our iron clad ships fire at one another from a great distance, or one of them comes smashing into another with its terrible steel ram ; and a sword would be a very useless thing to a modern sailor. Our armies lie a mile or two apart and pop at each other with long- range rifles and heavy cannon, and the great body of the swords would only 1*3 —St. Nicholas. to opposing forces an incumbrance. To some men popularity is always suspicious Enjoying none themselves they are prone to suspect tbe validity of those attainments wiuofi command ft. Explorers Massacred. The-fate of (fee French expedition which was engaged in exploring the basin of the La Plata, Siuth America, under the leadership of Dr. Orevaux is one of the most melancholy sacrifices to science. According to the latest news, which the council of the Argentine Re public in L'appa receivjgl from Tavija, the whole cjuipuny o)^ nineteen men were butchered by Indians of the TobaS tribe. Tne expedition bad not long be fore left Rio de Janeiro, where they were received with the warmest sym pathy by the emperor of Brazil. A dis patch from them stated that they had come across the ruins of an old Inca town, a few kilometers from Br<iZiL Soon after they were arrested by an over-zealous Argentine official in the vil aue of Humahuaca; but after making an inquiry he released them and per mitted them to go forward along their intended route. It is possible that tho news of their arrest may have reached the native tribe and aroused a suspi cion as to their purposes. Tuey had just a-cended the Pilcomayo, only a tew day* later, when the Tobisfell upon them aud sUnghtered every member of the expedition. Corner iu th? Sardine Market. There is danger of a corner iu the fcardihe market. For two years the fish have failed to make their appearance off the coasts of Europe, thereby indicting a lo-s upon Brittany alone of not less than 15,000,' 00 frauej. Tne cause of their n >n appearance has been made the subjecV' of a* discussion in the Academy of Sciences at Paris, and has Occupied tne attention of some of the leading French savans One thinks that unusual winds have driven the diminutive fith which serve as food for tne sardine ont of their regular course, and that the sardine has been compelled thereby to mate the same deviation. Others are of the opinion that vast ice fields coming from the north have allected the cuirent of the Gulf stream, by which the sardine is supposed to be drawn to the coasts where it is cangut. If this cause, wuat- ever it be, is merely of a temporary character, we may see a good haul, and possibly a very large one iu the next seaso.. Otherwise this widely con sumed article of food may become seriously scarce. A Wealthy Newsboy. “ Without doubt the richest newsboy in the country is Mike My kens, of Den ver, Colorado. He is supposed to be worth $50,000, which he has invested in Denver real estate. He is not yeti to re.ire from business, but from morning until midnight may be seen upon the streets crying, * Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Cincin nati, St. Louis and Kima* City morn ing papers.’ In connection with his paper stand. be has a bootblack's chair, which he generally leaves in charge of an assistant. He sells his papers at a uniform price of ten cents each, and long experience has made him very expert in detecting at a glance from what part of the country any one rf the strangers who throng the streets of Denver hails. ' Run after that old mau with a white choker and sell him a Boston Herald, he will say to his as- nisiarit; or ' Work off a San Franci oo B'dlfAin on that slippery looking cuss under the awning.’ Mykens is no longer a boy, but he is likely to remain a newsboy for years to come.” Upon the railway* of the United K ugdom daring Iftel, forty two per sons were killed and 1,161 injured by accidents to trains, rolling stocks, per manent way, e*c, us compared with fl ty-one and 1,023 respectively in 1880, Of tho® killed twenty-three were pa.‘t ngers and nineteen servants of the companies, and of those injured W8 weiepMseogers and M01