The Aiken recorder. [volume] (Aiken, S.C.) 1881-1910, March 11, 1892, Image 9

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/O Iii the year liefore the New Orienna lynching 484 Italians.were arrested in the Crescent City. In the year fol lowing only 28 prisoners of that na tionality were taken. There was no decrease in the number of Italian resi dents. The public wealth in the United States is $1010 per inhabitant, as com pared with $1235 in the United King dom of Great Britan and Ireland, and $700 in Germany. “We are doing pretty well, it would seem; in fact,** remarks Once a Week, “looking up.” C'ticago is going hereafter to paint all her lamp-posts and iron bridges yellow instead of black. The com missioner says: “If the people gener ally would only consider how far first impressions go with strangers they might be willing to co-operate in this brightening-up process before the World's Fair opens. They might paint their houses—such houses as need painting—so as to look cheerful and make a good impression on the multitudes that will come here from aM parts of the globe.” It is too bad, confesses the New York World, that the Board of Lady Managers of the World's Fair cannot find among all the American women who make a profession of music some one of sufficient ability to write a dedicatory march. In 1889 Mme. Aiurnsta Holmes, a French lady of It i-li extraction, composed the “Ode Triumphant” in honor of the French Republic and produced for the first time at the Falaise de I’industrie in connection with the Paris Exposition. It cost $60,000 to cover the expenses of scenery, decorations, costumes and stage mounting, but the composition won the prize, Mme. Holmes being the author of the words as well as the music. It was pronounced a wonder ful combination of allegory, panto mime, vocal and orchestral music, and the gifted wrfter has been invited to contribute a similar original work for the American Exposition. One of the most extensive efforts in the line of servant girl reform is likely to be set on foot in connection with the World’s Fair, to be held in Chi cago in 1893. The movement em braces an organization of a national body with branches in every state and county throughout the country. Mrs. John Lucas, who is the head of the woman’s committee of the World’s Fair in Illinois, is one of the prime movers in the new organization, and SfieTt; m^TTftTVftillg ppitH of having it brought prominently be fore the women of the United States through their representatives from the ' various states when assembled in Chi cago during the progress of thp expo sition. The movement proposes the organization of training schools for servants in all the large cities wherever practicable. These diplomas will be •imilar to the diplomas issued by the training school for nurses, and will be a guarantee to employes that the hold ers are skillful domestics. A Woman’s Temple. | Gnconsciously a woman builds j A temple in this world below. And day by day a stone is laid Of little things that come and go. So it doth slowly rise above Tbe tide of years, until its dome Has reached tbe glory clouds of heaven, A world within itself, a home— She wisely builds upon the rock, Far more eternal than tbe years, Tbe pavement is of solid truth. Untouched, unworn by falling tears. The walls are innocence and grace. Fair virtue makes them high and strong, Within they shine with purity, Resound with muse and sacred song; The gates are pearls of truth and love, Whence issue forth bright gleams of light, Each stone a little sacrifice, And kept in place by truth and right. Tbe pillars are of gentle acts. That bear tbe weight of golden beams Of life, and bound by cords of love. And braced by faith's undying streams. Each nail a heart-beat set in place. Each blow her very centre shook; Tbe steps are trials, stepping stones Where patience climbs with upward look, The throne, her grand eternal soul, Her king, the one she loves best; The altar where sweet incense rise, Does hold her greatest and her best. So day bv day a stone is laid. Until the white-capped dome Is hid among the clouds. And she has reached her heavenly home. —[N. B. Fowles, in Inter Ocean. Just at this time, when an Effort is making to raise subscriptions for the preservation of the Hermitage, “Old Hickory’s” homestead, the discovery of some humble relics of the battle of Calebee, which General Jackson fought with tbe Indians during the Creek war, is of more than usual in terest. J. C. Shauffer, who is em ployed on the Western Alabama Rail road, has found-near Shorter’s Station what are supposed to be the graves of chiefs who fell on the battlefield. The graves had been exposed by a freshet. Among their contents, lying with the bones of the red men, were ear-rings, beads, pipes, ballets, and a pair of rusted scissors. The bullets undoubtedly had fallen away from the hones of the dead, and it is sup posed that the manufactured articles were obtained in barter with traders. The last survivor of the battle of Calebee, the Rev. John Dennis, died a few years since, at the age of ninety" four, in Dallas county, Ala. He was a native of Georgia, and a mem ber of the command of Floyd, one of Jackson’s lieutenants. Dennis was shot through the right arm during the engagement, and drew a pension from the Government up to the time of his death. A Happy Way Oat of It. “I don’t see how you have the lace to ask me to marry you.” “Why not ?” “Because you told Mary Gadder that I wasn’t the kind of a woman you would have thought of marrying a year or so ago.” “Well, it is true. I thought I would have to marry somebody a million times your inferior if I ever married at all, and I may have to now if you say no.” “Oh, that’s different.’'—[New York Press. Good Thing for Him. “Chappie tried some of his jokes on Miss Keene last night.” “And she snubbed him, I suppose?” “She gave him a piece of her mind.” “Gave him a piece of her mind, did • •he? I thought he looked brighter than usual this evening.”—[New York Press. HIS UNLUCKY PLANET. BV CLARA GREEN. “Oh, Yes, I know it’s all my own fault,” Charley Cleve said. “W r hose else should it be? But I m disinherit ed, ail the same. I’ve no more chance of coming into that fertile farm land than—than yonder Italian organ- grinder, who is.turning the crank so peseveringly under deaf Squire Ho mer’s hack kitchen window.” “Oh, Charley,” said Bess, clasping her hands despairingly together. “I didn’t expect much else,” went on Mr. Cleve, in a rollicking, light hearted sort of way. “I was born under an unlucky star, Saturn, or Mars, or some one of those planets that never bring a fellow any good. You c m’t expect a star to reverse its order on my account, can you?” “But, Charley—” “Just wait uutil you hear th« full account of my atrocities. I wasn’t so much to blame for treading on the cat —any one might have done that. I don’t think she laid that up against me. And when I broke down the old cherrywood chair that had belonged to her grandfather—that was a mere question of weight. And I mended it for her, too. But when the broiled ham for breakfast had such a queer taste to it—and I had to confess that I had been smokirfifup’'Tfie“chimney' where it hung—” “Oh, Charley!” “How was I to know that she made a storehouse of the back-room chim ney? Folks in Philadelphia don’t do that sort of thing. And she wouldn’t tolerate tobacco in any shape—she let me know that, at the very outset! The next thing I did was to upset her whole churning of cream. It hung half way down the well, don’t you see, and when I came home, famished with thirst, and jerked the bucket down—well, the first thing I heard was Cousin Sarepta screaming like mad. ‘Is it brnglars?’ said I, seizing my blackthorn stick, ‘or is it fire?’ And I had plunged into the house, and put my foot—literally, not metaphori. cally—into the old lady’s baking of custard pies, that she had set ou the cellar floor to cool, before she could make me understand. But the last straw that broke tbe camel’s hack was the old gray goose.” “ ‘The old gray goose,’ •Charley! Surely, nothing has happened to that!” ’ Mr. Cleve shook his head. “The very worst has happened,” said he, “I’ve shot it!” “On, Charley!” The young man laughed bitterly, and spouted the lines: “ ‘Whv look’st thou so? With my cross- bow I shot the albatross!’ Yes, I did. Out wild-duck hunting in the marshes. I thought it was rather a mammoth specimen, when I leveled the trigger; and when Don brought it to me my heart sank to the very soles of my boots. I had half an idea of burying the creature out among the salt grasses, and saying never a word. But that would have been a sneaking sort of a dodge. The Cleves can do plenty of shabby things, but they never lie outright. So I brought it home with the string of wild birds. ‘I’m very sorry. Cousin Sarepta,-’ said I, ‘but I’ve shot your old goose. I'll replace it with the finest pair to be had in Salt Inlet.’ ‘Replace it!’ says she; and then, to be sure, thcie was a scene. She set a good deal of store by that old gray goose, you know.” “Yes, I know,” said Bessie, re signedly. “It was nearly twenty years old. She raised it herself, in a basket by the kiteben-fire, and it ate corn daily out of her owu hand. She wouldn’t have taken twenty dollars for that old goose. No, nor fifty, I do believe.” “So,” added Chadey, with a par ticularly expressive shrug of the shoulders, “she has turned rae out of doors. She called me a loafer and a shiftless ne’er-do-weel; and I dare say she was right I douldn’t contradict her, so I didn’t try. She recom mended me to go about my business; so I did. And here I am. I’ve tele graphed iO Philadelphia for the taxi dermist. That was all I could do. Do you suppose, Bess, your father would take me to board for eight days? I’ve lust eight days left of my vacation, and there’ll be snch a lot of questions asked if I came home in advance of time. I wouldn’t advise you to have a word to say to me. I dare say 1 shall set fire to tbe house, or poison the family, or shoot some body by mistake. What can be ex pected of a fellow that was born under an unlucky planet?” Bess Warden laughed cheerily. “Father will risk it, I am sure,” said she. *<We haven’t a great deal of spare room, but mother will make you up a eot-bed in the room with the boys, and if you can put up with our plain way of living—” He stopped her mouth with a kiss- “You are an angel, Bess!” said he. The kindly Warden family did their best to console old Miss Sarepta Smith’s discarded relation, and to make the last portion of his vacation a trifle pleasanter than the first had been. But Doctor Warden shook his frost-white head. “I don’t like long engagements,” said he. “And Bess can’t marry a man on any twelve dollars a week.” “But, father, Charley will do better in time.” “If it pleases the unlucky planet,’> interpolated Charley. “Well, wait uutil the better times come.” “Oh, we don’t mind waiting I” cried Bess. “Speak for yourself, if you please,” murmured Charley. “We’ve a lifetime before us,” as severated Bess; “and, in the mean time, Charley, we’ll go out duck shooting tomorrow, and I’ll row you through the Silver Chanuels to the best ground on all the coast.” On the night before Mr. Cleve’s time was up, the lovers, talking to each other late iu the autumnal star- starlight ou the porch, saw a red glow in the sky above the privet hedge. “It’s a bonfire,” said Charley. “It’s Miss Sarepta Smith’s house !’> shrieked Bess. “Help! Help! Fire! Water! Oh, why don’t somebody come!” “Call your father and the boys!” said Charley, flinging off his coat. “I’ll jump the fence and take the short cut. She’s all alone iu the house, poor thing.” At Salt Inlet they had neither steam fire engines nor patent extinguishers. By the time the volunteer company had dragged the rickety old engine and hose-car^j^of their shed, and hoisTed'tfien^^^uie 6iff, the ancieUt* house where Sarepta Smith had been born was in ruins; and the old woman herself, carried in a big chair over to the Warden house, was lamenting that she, too, had not gone also. “Seems like I couldn’t live nowhere else,” said she. “And I’m an old woman—a very old woman.” Bess Warden gave up her owu room to Miss Sarepa. Every one did what he could to make her comfortable, but the only sign she evinced of pleasure was when Charlie Cleve brought in the old gray goose, stiffly mounted ou an imitation of moasy ground. Her dim eyes lighted up. “I am glad you saved that, Charles,” said she. “I found it among a heap of other things,” said Charley, “and I thought you’d like to have it. See, here are your spectacles, too, and the old Bible, with the leaves all right, and the cover only a little charred!” Miss Sarepta looked feebly from one relic to another. “I'm glad,” said she, “very glad. It was thoughtful of you, "Charles. I’m sorry I called you them names. I take ’em all back.” “Oh, never mind the names,” said Charley. “At all events, you can’t lay this fire to me!” “No,” said Sarepta, “it was the mice playin’ on the closet shelf where I kept the matches. I’d laid up to set a trap, hut I forgot. And I should ha’ been burned iu my bed, if it hadn’t been for you, Charles. I allays dreaded a death by fire!” Old Miss Sarepta lay very quietly for a day or two, with the gray goose folding its wings at her bed head, and the Bible and spectacles on a stand beside her pillow. “Charles shall have the gray goose,” said she, one evening. “It'll help fur nish his house. And it’ll show I don’t bear no malice ou account of his shootin’ it. And the specks and the BiLle Bess must keep. An old Bible brings every one luck!” She died before daybreak. If there was any will—and Miss Sarepta was always believed to be a well-to-do, businesslike woman—it was destroyed in the flames. The old place—three- and-forty acres—went to a cousin nearer of kin than Charley Cleve. “My unlucky planet again,” said Charley, with a grimace. “Well, never mind, Bess; it’s only waiting a little longer. We’ve got a Bible aud a pair of spectacles, after all.” •‘And a stuffed gray goose,” said Bess. “Oh, hang the goose!” said Char- ley. “It’s neither useful nor orna mental. Let’s shy it out into the orchard,” and he seized it by one leg. “Oh, stop, Charley!” cried thrifts* Bess. “Let's save the feathers for s pillow.” “They’re full of arsenic and such staff.” “All the better for keeping oat moths,retorted Bess. “I’ll pack them into a bag, and— Oh, Charlie*, what is this?” A piece of the old gray goose’s epi dermis had come off with the first handful of feathers. Underneath it was something liko dull-green paper, packed in layers. “Hello!” said Charley. “Why— they’re hills! They’re—money I Look here! Am I dreaming?” It was true. The old gray goose was stuffed full of new crisp green backs. Sarepta Smith’s eccentricities had not ceased with her death. fThere had been method in her words when she gave Charley Cleve this memorial of his own blunder, as a peace offer- iug. “Five hundred dollars!” said he. “I say, Bess, isn’t it almost enough to get maj'ried upon? We’ll do it very quietly, you know.” “Don’t talk nonsense, Charley.” “But look iu the old Bible, Bess. Who knows what may be hidden there?” Nothing was hidden there. Ap parently Miss Sarepta had confined her savings bank idea to the old gray goose. Charley Cleve considered deeply. “Five hundred dollars won’t go very far in the city,” said he; “aud in the Trust Company, where I’m clerking it, a fellow may grub away for 20 years without any chance of promo- tiou. I’ll cut city life, Bess, if you say so, and invest this money in the first payment on a little fruit farm out here at Salt Inlet.” Bess’s face lighted up. “Close to my old home!” she cried. “Oh, Charley-, I do ‘say so!’” And 10 years after their wedding- day, when the^reat railway vein had throbbed through their land, and the “little fruit farm” was cut up into village lots, the thriving young farmer looked at his wife with a smile. “It all comes of the old gray goose, Bess,” said he. “The unlucky planet was a lucky one after all,” laughed Bess.— [The Ledger. A Wall of Crushed Human Flesh. One of thtvmost appalling mine dis asters whic/n have occurred in the United States of late years happened just about o'year ago in H. C. Frick & Co.’s mahinnoth mine, near Mount Pleasant, Finn. An explosion of gas and fire damp killed 107 men in less than that Aiumber of seconds. The victims yjjlM literally blown to pieces. Lo.v.l'-ed fppj from the bodie^hat had borne them in life. A mass of wreckage, iu which were indiscriminately mingled the corpses of men anjl mtrles, was packed against the side of the fatal heading so com pletely that it was with the greatest difficulty that the human bodies were extricated and removed. This awful wall of crushed flesh had been com pressed by the force of the explosion until it was almost as solid as the coal itself. There was hardly a cottage iu the hamlet that did not shelter mourn ers. At least six women went vio lently insane over the loss of their loved ones. Two women, widowed by the accident, attacked Superinten dent Keighley near the entrance to the mine amF nearly killed him with 1 stones. In March, 1890, a naked lamp on the cap of a mule driver fired a “blower” of gas in a South Wilkesbarre (Penn.) colliery. The timbers of the mine caught fire from the gas. Eight men perished. They were slowly strangled to death by smoke or roasted by the flames. Every man left a widow aud a family. The disaster in the Lane silver mine at Angelo, near San Andreas, Cal., in 1889 gained sadness from the fact that it came just before Christmas. Sixteen men were crashed to death by falling rock. Three of them left wives and children. — [New York Press. Making Medicine Palatable The Paris hospitals have a prac!i(& which may with profit be commended to the physicians and nurses of this country. Some years ago a leading physician of Paris, noting the strenu ous objections entertained by many patients of the hospitals to taking medicine because of its noxious taste, conceived the idea that medicine should be administered in the food of the pa tients. He bega.t a series of experi- nicnts to ascertain whether the taste of drugs might not be so disguised with food iu to render them, if not palatable. It least less objectionable. The oils, such as cod-liver oil, castor oil and th± like, he concealed in soups, aud invented a peculiar bread known ns th^chalybeate bread, for the pur- po*e bf administering iron tonic, which many persons object strongly to ta’|ng on account of its taste. Every ounce of this bi'ead contains one grain cf the lactate of iron, and the quantity of iron tonic which a patient would take iu the course of one day’s meals would be quite sufficient for all medical purposes. The idea is not a bad c>ne for our doctors to follow, for a patient with a weak or squeamish stomach’’is often put to no little incon venience or suffering by the abomui- ablo tasM of some necessary medi cines. — (Globe- r ‘ a "»ocrat CHARGING A GUN. Company “G” Wins a Page in the Records of War. Sensations of a Soldier at the Cannon’s Mouth. Our brigade is being held in reserve aud is protected by the lay of the ground from the enemy’s fire. SheU and round shot have screamed and whizzed over our heads, and the “ping I” of bullets has been as con stant as if bees were swarming about us. Here and there a man has gone down or becu touched in a way to make him scream out, but the loss has been trifling. The real fighting is all on our right. Those men down there in the flame and smoke are neater death than we are, but they have the excitement of action to make them reckle s of the fact. Here we stand in linos waiting — faces growing a little paler all the time — men trying to jest aud joke to conceal their real feelings. “Scream! Shriek! Crash!” It’s a rifle shell bursting just beyond us, and it comes from a new direction. The enemy has quietly planted a gun on the bush-covered ridge in a way to enfilade the right of our brigade. “Boom! Shriek! Death!” That shot was better—better for the enemy, because fragments of the shell wounded three men. The brigadier-general and his staff are alive to the situation. Au order comes to our colonel. A minute later we got the order from our captain: “Attention, Company G! Right dress! Shoulder—arms! Left face! Forward—march I” "What have we been detached'from the regiment for? We move out by the flank along the line of an old fence for a few rods and come to a “halt!” and “right face!” We can now see the gun ou the ridge. It has fireJ again and again, aud every shell is striking men down. “Company G, we are going to charge that gun and take it!” shouts our little captaiu from the head of the line. There are 56 men of us all told—a little better than half a company. The captain does not call for volunteers; he does not announce that cowards can step three paces to the ‘ rear. He would not insult men who were with him at Williamsburg, Yorktown, Fair Oaks, Malveru Hill and elsewhere. How far is it to the gun? Not over half a mile—perhaps not that far. It js ilowi a rough' sfojie—across a sTvy-A? up a second slope, iu which rocks out crop and bushes grow here and there. “Scream! Scream! Scream! They are working the gun as if its fire was to decide the fate of the bat tle. Those we have left behind are watching us, and will be our critics. If mj succeed, those who return alive will* be heroes until some other forlorn hope eclipses our record. If we fail ! “Forward—guide right I” We are making au easy start. We step out at “common time,” every el bow touching the man on the right, and there is a tremendous cheer from the brigade as we go down the slope. I am looking straight ahead. I doubi if any man in that line even giimpsted to the right or left. I am wondering when that gun will be turned upon us; so, doubtless, is every other man. Our alignment is perfect until we reach tbe swale. Then it is broken as we meet the tall, dry grass and weeds and the scrubby hushes. “Halt! Right dress!” It’s our little captain re-forming the line as for a parade. Three thousand men are watching us— cheering and applauding. We shall lose him. He will be made a major for this. “Forward—guide center!” We are ascending a slope. Out line was never more steady on the parade ground. The man on my right chuckles to himself; the one on my left is struggling to repress the cheer rising in his throat. Exultation has replaced all other feeling. “O-o-o-o! Scream! Shriek! Swish!” The artillery men have caught sight of us at last and'that shell just cleared our heads and exploded on the other slope. “Double-quick — guide center — charge!” shouts our little captain, and now we cheer and cheer and charge. Another shell—but it missed us. Bullets from revolvers sing about us —a mighty cheer comes to onr ears from the brigade left behind—and now wc drive into the smoke around the gun. It had infantry support perhaps a company—and the gunners fought us hand to hand. There was hurrahing—cursing—yells of paiu and screams of agony—blows with the saber and thrusts with the bayonet, and when we awoke from the night mare the gun wasours and a regiment was moving up to hold the position we had won. I did not look back as we moved down past the support to rejoin our owu regiment in reserve. There was no need to. I knew the sight which would have greeted my eyes. I waited for the roll-call after we had returned. Nineteen dead and wounded out of fifty-six! Over a third of our cpmmantVTeft on that spot! But we were cheered—hundreds shook our hands—Company “G” had won for itself a page in the records of war. — [Detroit Free Press. What Blue Eyes Mean. “AVhat remarkably blue eyes you have I” The remark was addressed by a Washington Star writer to an ex officer iu the regular army, whose life has contained more than an ordinary snare of ventures aud vicissitudes. “That is what they call in England the ‘Wimbledon eye,”’ was his reply, “because it is meant to shoot with. Scientific riflemen will tell you that there is no such eye for marksmanship as the blue one of the color which has excited your attontiou. Black eyes and brown eyes aren’t in it with the blue anyway, when it comes to shoot ing or fighting. That is why the Northern people have always wiped the Southern races out when it came to war. Yoti will see the fact illustrated perhaps wheu we come to blows with Chili. “Did you ever look into the eyes'of a person who was really engaged? I did once, aud they were my own. Their expression was so horrible that I have never forgotten it. I am very slow to anger, but on the occasion I refer to I had cause, as I think you will admit. My adversary had not only insulted me in the grossest pos sible manner, but he Lad fired four shots at me. “I had a gun myself, hut I didn’t stop to draw iu The only thing I thought of was to get at the man. I jumped upon him like a wildcat. He was quite my equal in strength, but I was mad Ttlth fury and could have thrashed two of him at that moment. Besides, I was a practical boxer. However, my powers with my-fists were not called into requisition; we were at too close quarters for that. “As I sprang upon him he fell against a mirror which was behind him aud I caught a glimpse over his shoulder of my own eyes As we went down together. They actually had a diabolical expression, and, as I said, the recollection has haunted me ever since. They meant kill. , In an in stant I had wrenched the smoking revolver out of my enemy’s hand, and with the first blow of its but I smashed in the crown of his hat. Incident ally his head was crushed in also. If he had not carried so very large a pistol the result would not have been so disastrous for himself, but it was a heave cavalry weapon, with a brass ring iu the end, aud he nearly died in consequence. Big Game Doomed. Deer aud elk meat is becoming as common an article of diet with the residents of Livingston aud Park county as was Buffalo meat in years gone by. Large hands of elk and deer are just now coming out of their sum mer’s rendezvous in the National Park, and unless the law passed by the last Legislature is speedily officially inter preted so as to protect the game from indiscriminate slaughter the increase which has resulted during the last few years, under the protecting clause of the old game laws, will speedily dwindle to nothing. Last week James Howell and others left the city with eleven pack animals headed toward the Hell Roaring district for the pur pose of ki ling deer attd elk. Several other like parties are also out in the hills contiguous to the park, and the canyons of the Upper Yellowstone are echoing the report of the hunter’s trusty rifle. It is to be regretted that the amended section of the game law is so peculiarly worded as to permit of a doubt as to whether it is lawful to kill large game for speculative pur poses. In constructing the amend ed section the intent and purpose of the legislative body should be taken into consideration, and if this is done there can he no question hut that tho section prohibits the killing of large game for head, hide or meat except for the use of the individual who does the killiug. The Post would like to see the law tested before the extermina tion of the deer and elk in the state shall have become complete. — [Liv ingston (Montana) Post. Character in Mustaches. There is a great deal of character in the mustache. As the form of the upper lip and the regions about it has largely to do will) the feelings, pride, self-reliance, manliness, vanity and other qualities that give self-control, the mustache is connected with the expression of those qualities or the re verse. "When the mustache is ragged and, as it were, flying hither and thither, there is a lack of proper self- control. When it is straight and orderly the reverse is the case, other tilings, of course, taken into account. Jf there is a tendency to curl at the outer ends of the mustache there is a tendency to ambition, vanity and dis play. When the curl turns upward there is a geniality combined with a love of approbation; when the incli nation is downward there ‘is a more sedate turn of mind, not accompanied with gloom. It is worthy of remark that good-natured men will, in play ing with the mustache, invariably give it an upward inclination, whcrca* cross-grained or morose men will puil it • obliquely dowuward. — [National Barber. Guild’s Signal. Two low whistles, quaint and clear. That was the signal the engineer— That was the signal that Guild, ’tis said Gave so his wif^at Providence, As through tbe sleeping town, and thence Out in the night, On to the light, Down past the farms, lying white, heaped. As a husband’s greeting, scant, no donbt, Yet to the woman looking out, Watching and waiting, no serenade, Love-song or midnight rouadelay Said what that whistle seemed to say: “To my trust true. So love to you! Working or waiting, good night!” it said. Brisk young bagmen, tourists fine. Old commuters alone the line, Brakemen and porters glanced ahead. Smiled as tbe signal, sharp, intense. Pierced through the shadows of Providence— “Nothing amiss— Nothing!—it is Only Guifd calling his wife,” they said. • Summer and winter the old refrain Rang o'er the billows of ripening grain, Pierced through the budding boughs o’er head, Flew down the track when the red sheaves burned Like living coals from the engine spurned; Sang as it flew: “To our trust true. First of all, duty! Good night!” it said. And then, one night, it was beard no more From Stonington over Rhode Island shore; And the folk in Providence smiled and said, As they turned in their beds: “The engineer Has once forgotten his midnight cheer.” One only knew To his trust true. Guild lay under his engine, dead. —[Bret Harte. HUMOROUS. Better late than never—Going to bed. A man’s deeds live after him. So do his mortgages. Coasting is delightful sport for boys but it has its drawbacks. Jealousy will create heart burn and so will too many buckwheat cakes. When the ambitious young man goes forth to seek his level he begins right off to look for a ladder. “Real clevaw fellaw, Baggs is, real clevaw fellaw.” “But what is he clever at?” “Why, at being so dooced clevaw, don’t chew knaw.” Greenland has no cats. How thank ful the Greenlanders should be. Im agine cats in a country where the nights are six months long! Doctor—Did you have much of a chill? Fair Patient—It seemed so. Doctor—Did your teeth chatter. Fair Patient—No; they were in my dress ing-case. Schoolmaster—Scientists tell us the moou is inhabited. George (from fJbe hr'i.uvffyjf the class)—Then where do the people go when there’s otJTy* half a moou? Foreigner—I was in your Congress once wheu the scene was noisier thau that in a stable. American—That must have been when the “neighs’ were being counted 1 A professor in the medical depart ment of Columbia College asked O"^ of the more advanced studen “What is the name of the teeth thi human being gets last?” “False te* , of course.” Miss Molly McGinnis—Yes, to ganing is all very well, but you c ’t know whether you will come :k alive or dead. Gus do Smith—— you’ve always come hack alive, I suppose, Miss Mollie? Brown—Say, Jones, when you come in late at night don’t you always wake your wife? Jones (promptly) —Never. Brown (surprised)—Jee- hosaphat! How no you manage it? Jones (with a sigh)—I don’t have to. Electricity in Warfare. In an interview with a New York World reporter the other day, Mr. Edison said that electricity would soon play a bigger part in warfare than powder and dynamite. AVith only twenty-five men the inventor says he can make a fort impregnable. His idea is to place in each fort an alternating machine of 20,000 volts capacity. One wire would he grounded. A man would govern a stream of water ol about four hundred pounds pressure to the square inch, with which the 20,000 volts alternating current would be connected. By turning this stream of water on the enemy as they ad vanced it would mow them down. Every man touched by the water would ’complete the circuit, get the full force of the alternating current, and never know what had happened to him. Men trying to take the fort by assault, though they numbered tens of thousands, would be cut down without a chance to escape. They might walk around the fort, but they could never take it. By modifying the current, the defenders of the fort could merely stun their enemies, qnd then make a sally and pick up a few gross of stupefied and limp generals and colonels to hold for ransom, while the others could be left to recover or be killed by another current. Mr. Edison says that all this is to be no guess work. He got his idea some years ago, when wires loaded with heavy electric charges were put ap^| the cities. He believed then ttu men might receive deadly sh< the electricity running dov^ of water crossing the wirj an experiment on a catj .and tbe cat found ouj was a dead sure thi