The Kershaw gazette. (Camden, Kershaw Co., S.C.) 1873-1887, June 17, 1874, Image 1
FRANK P. BEARD, Editob utd Pbopbietob. .DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS OF KERSHAW COUNTY. TERMS :?$2.00 pkr annum, in advasci!
VOL. I. CAMDEN, S. C., WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17. 1874. NO. 37.
Urandma'a Second-Sight,
It Isn't so many jmti, my p?t,
Since grandma ?u young like you ;
Tia only?well. lei me think a bit
Why, bless me, I'm a?Yenty-two!
Well, yed, 'tvu quite a long time ago,
Perhaps some sixty odd years or so.
Bat the years they go like a flash, you see,
When a body is young and gay,
And before you know it, Old Time oomes up
And sprinkles our head* with gray ;
And the eyes that were onoe so strong and
bright
Grow wearily dun in the fading light.
Ah, well! there's one comfort for us, my dear,
And I've always found it so:
There are plenty of little ones in the world
To care for the old, you know.
There ars plenty of strong young hearts to
bear
And"^ift from the old full many a care.
There's a pair of merry dark eyes, I know,
That will lend their aid te me,
And & dear little girl who will gladly help,
When her grandmother cannot see ;
She says she is " grandma's second-sight"?
And I think my woe little pet is right.
THE DAM GIVES WAY.
[Fonr years ago Charles Reade in on? of his
uotoIs gave a graphio description of the burst
ing of the Ouseley reservoir. In hia descrip
tion be clearly foreshadowed the fearful
calamity that occurred in the upper Connecticut
?alley. We re-produce it a? pertinent to the
present time ]
A mounted policeman brought Ran
some a note from the major, telling him
word had come into the town that there
was something wrong with Ouselej
dam. Ho was to take the major's
horse, and ride up at onoe to the reser
voir, and, if there was anj danger, to
warn the vallej.
A smart cantor brought him in sight
of what seemed a long black hill, with
great glow-worms dotted here and
there.
That hill was the embankment, and
the glow-worms were the lanterns of
workmen examining the outer side of
the embankment and prjing into everj
part.
The enormous size and double slope
of the bank, its apparent similaritj in
form and thickness to natural barriers
with which nature hems in lakes of
large dimensions, acted on Ransome's
senses, and set him wondering at the
timiditj and credulitj of the people in
Hatfield and Daxnfiask. This senti
ment was uppermost in his mind when
he rode up to the south side of the
embankment.
Here was a lake nearlj full to the
brim on one side of the barrier and an
open desoent on tho other.
He had enoountered a little wind
03ming up, but not much ; here, how
ever, the place being entirelj exposed,
the wind was powerfal, and blew right
down the vallej, ruffling the artificial
lake.
Screws were Applied and the valves of
the doable set of sluice- pipes were
forced open, but with infinite difficultj,
owing to the tremendous pressure of
the water.
This operation showed all oonoemed
what a Riant thej were dealing with ;
while the slaioes ware befog lifted, the
noise and tremor of the pipes were be
yond experience and conception.
When, after vast effort, thej were at
last got open, the ground trembled
violently, and the water, as it rushed
out of the pipes, roared like discharges
of artillerj. 80 hard is it to resist the
mere effeot of the senses, that ne&rlv
everjbodj ran bade appalled, although
the effeot of all this roaring oould only
be to reli^ve the preeaora; and, in fact,
now that those sluioes were opened, the
dam was safe, provided it oonld last a
flav or two.
Lights were seen approaching, and
Mr. Tuoker, the resident- engineer,
drove up ; ho had Mr. Carter, one of
the eon tractors, in the gipr with him.
He oame on the embankment, and
signified a cold approval of the sluices
being opened.
Then Ran some pounded him about
blowing up the waste-weir.
Tuckor did not refly, but put some
questions to a workmen or two. Their
answers showed that thej considered
the enlargement of the crack s fatal
sign.
Upon this, Mr. Tuoker ordered them
all to stand clear of the suspected part.
" Now, then," said h?, *? I built this
enfbankmcnt, and 111 tell vou? whether
it's going to burst or not.
Ran so me put in his word, flpA begged
. them to blow up the waste veil.
Tucker thought that it wq? a stronger
measure than the oocasioo required:
there was no imaedfote danger: and
the aluioe-nipas Voold lower the Water
considerably in tw*nW-four hOOTS.1
1 Farmer Ives put In his word. " I
can't learn from anj of joa thai ah en
larging crack in a new embankment is a,
common thing. I shall go home, but,
mj boots won't go off this night"
jRnoonraged bj this, Mr. Tfointein,
Ike contractor, spoke out.
" Mr. Tncker, said he, ?? don't de
ceive jours?If; the si pi pee are toe
slow 1 if we don't relieve the dasa,
1 Iketsil be a blow-up in belf an
"tel. ** said Mr. Taeker.
oeotion bee been neglected in
Ibis dem ; provision hse been
even fee blowing ftp the waste** , _
kole bee been pdt in the masonry,
end there's dry powder and fuse kept
L el the valve-boose. _ HIj blow op the
waste-weir, tboogh I thmk
J am eor.vinr^d thut rrrank is above lbs
V level of the water in the ree*rrol*? I
Jt Tah ebewvsHei rireeh Ransoms,
and he asked if it ooold not be ascer
tained by measurement.
"Of oourse it can," said Tucker,
" and 111 meaaure it as I oome back."
He then started for the weir, and
Carter sooompanied him.
The j crossed the embankment and got I
to the weir.'
Ives went home, and the workmen |
withdrew to the side, not knowing ex
actly what might be the effect of the
explosion.
By and by IWnsome looked up, and
observed a thin sheet of water begin
ning to stream over the center of the
embankment and trickle down ; tho
quantity was nothing ; but it alarmed
him. Having no special knowledge on
these matters, he was driven to com
parisons ; and it flashed across him
that, when he was a boy, and used to
make little mud-dams 'in April, they
would resist the tiny stream until it
trickled over them, and from that mo
ment their fate was sealed. Nature, he
had observed, operates alike in small
things as great, and that sheet of water,"
though thin as a wafer, alarmed him.
He thought it was better to give a
falee warning than withhold a true one ;
he ran to his horse, jumped on him,
and spurred away.
His horse was fast and powerful, and
carried him in three minutes back to
Emden's farm. The farmer Lad gone
to bed. Ransome told him he feared
the dam was going ; then galloped on
to Hatfield Mill. Here he found the
miller and his family all gathered out
side, ready for a start; one workman
had run down from the reservoir.
" Ths embankment is not safe."
" So I hear. I'll take care of my flour
and my folk. The mill will iake oare
of herself." And he pointed with pride
to the solid structure and granite
pillars.
Ransome galloped on, shouting as he
went.
The about was taken tip ahead, an
he heard a voice crying in the night
"It's coming! It's ooming !" This
weird cry, which, perhaps, his own gal
loping and shouting had excited, seem
ed like an independent warning, and
thrilled him to the bone. He galloped
through Hatfield,, shouting, " Save
yourselves 1 Save yourselves!" and
the people poured out, and ran for higb
ground, shrieking Wildly. ' Looking
back, he saw the hill dotted with what
he took f6r sheep at first, but H was the
folks in their night-olothes.
He galloped on to Damflask, still
shouting as he went. ? j
At the edge of the hamlet, he found
a cottage with no light in it; he dis
mounted and .thundered at the door.
" Escape for your lives 1 for your
lives !
A man called Hillsbro' Harry opened
the window.
" The embankment is going. Fly for
jour lives 1"
" Nay," said the man, ooolly, "Ouse
ley dam will burat noane this week,"
and turned to go to bed again.
There was a sharp explosion heard
up in the hills.
Ransome pulled up and said aloud,
"It will be all right now, thank good
ness I they liavo blown up the weir."
The words were scarcely out of hit
mouth when he heard a loud, sullen^
roar, speedily followed by a tremendous
hiss, and a rumbling thunder, that
shook the very earth where he stood,
two miles distant.
At that appalling sound, thai hissing
thunder, the like of whioh he had never
heard before, and hopes never to hear
again, Kanaome spurred away at all his
speed, and wa ned the rent of the vil
lage with loud inarticulate cries ; he
oould not wait to speak, nor was it
neoessary.
At the top of the hill he turned a mo
ment, and looked up the valley ; soon
he saw a lofty white wall running down
on Hatfield Mill : it stmok the mill and
left nothing visible but the roof, sur
rounded by white foam.
Another moment, and he distinctly
saw the mill swim a yard or two. then
uisappeur, and leave no trace, and on
came the whit? wall, hissing and thuik
dering.
llansome uttered a cry of horror, and
galloped madly forward, to save what
lives ne might.
Whenever he passod a house he
shrieked his warning, but he never
drew rein.
As he galloped along, his mind work
ed. He observed the valley widen in
places, and he hoped the flying lake
would spread, and so lo?e some of that
tremenaous volume and force before
whioh he had taen Hatlleld stone mill
go down.
With this hope, he galloped on, and
reached Pome Bridge, five mi lea said a
half from the reservoir.
Here, to his dfemav, he bemrd the
hinnmg thunder sound aa near to him
aa it was< wfca^hs halted on the hill
above Dmfpfcy bat be oowld see
tUadift* *?*<>* hit ten staring wttd*
**Hs yaj?d*to this man, "Dam is
burst, iwarnihajrillafe?lor their lives I
the bridge,
he caught ?igf.t rf
I ssora; he had (one
bat he had i ?one no
while wmll strike
wan a light. in
the poor
H" galloped
behind him, and, even in that terrible
moment, he recognized?Shifty Dick.
" The flood! the flood ! F'y ! Get
on high ground, for your lives f"
* ? * *
At the first blow, the hoase that
stood nearest to the flying lake was
shattered, and went tc pieces soon af
ter ; all the houses quivered as the
water rushed round tnem two stories
high.
Fearful as the situation was, a sick
ening horror was added to it bj the
homd smell of the water ; it had a foul
and appalling odor, a oompound of
earthiness and putrescence ; it smelt
like a newly-opened grave ; it paralyzed
like a serpent s breath.
As Henry Little, the hero of Reed's
story, left the barn in which he had
taken refuge, he tried to find his way
to the road, which he knew led up the
bill to Woodbine Villa. But all land
marks were gone ; houses trees, hedges,
all swept away; roads oovered three
feet thick with rocks, and stones,
and bricks, and carcasses. The pleas
ant valley was one horrid quagmire, in
which he could take few steps, bur
dened as he was, without sticking, or
tumbling against soma sure sign of
destruction and death. Within the oom
Eass of fifty yards he found a steam
oiler and its appurtenaces, (they must
have weighed some tons, yet they had
been driven mere than a mile) and a
dead cow, and the body of a wagon
turnod upside down ; [the wheels of
this same wagon were afterwards found
fifteen miles from the body.]
He began to stagger and pant.
Boon after this, they came under a
short but sturdy oak that had survived;
and, entangled in its close and crooked
branches, was something white. They
came nearer ; it was a dead body ; some
poor man or woman hurried from sleep
to eternity.
They shuddered and orawled on, still
making for higher ground, but sore
perplexed.
Presently they hoard a sort of sigh.
Thev went towards it, and found a poor
horse stuck at an angle, his efforts to
escape being marred by a heavy stone
to whicl^he was haltered.
Round a great fire in the Town Hall
were huddled a number of half-naked
creatures, who had been driven out of
their dilapidated homes ; some of them
had M?a ehiWwn or relatives portSfi tn
the flood they had themselves so nar
rowly escaped, and were bemoaning
them with ohattering teeth.
Little spoke them a word of comfort,
promised them all clothes as soon as
tho shops should open, and hurried off
to the lower part of the town in searoh
of Ransome.
He soon found the line the flood had
taken. Between Poma Bridge and
Hillsborough it had wasted itself con
siderably in a broad valley, but still it
had gone olean through Hillsborough
twelvo feet high, demolishing and
drowning. Its terrible progranp was
marked by a layer of mud a fooTthick,
dotted with rocks, trees, wrecks of
house*, machinery, furniture, barrels,
mattresses, carcasses of animals, and
dead bodies, taogt of them stark naked,
the raging flood having torn their
clothes off their backs.
Four oorpses and two dead herses
were lying in a lake of mjid about the
very door of the railway station ; three
of them females" in absolute nudity.
The fourth was a male, with one stock
ing on. This proved to be Hillsbro'
Harry, warned in vain up at Damflask.
When he aotaally heard the flood oome
hissing, he had decided, on the whole,
to dress, and had got the length of that
one i>tooking( when the flying lake cut
short his vegetation.
Not far from this, Little found Ran
some, working like a horse, with the
tear in his eve.
He uttered a shout of delight and
surprise, and, taking Little by both
shoulders, gazed earnestly at him, and
said?" Can this be a living man I see?"
Strange sights they saw that night.
They found a dead body curled round
the top frame of n lamp-post, and, in
the suburbs, another jammed between
a beam and the wall of a house.
They found some houses with tho
front wall narried clean away, and, on
the second floor, suoh of the inmates as
had survived huddled together in their
night clothe*, unable to get down.
These, Ransome and his men speedily
relieved from their situation.
And now came in word that the whole
village of Poma Bridge had been de
stroyed. ?
Liittle, with Jtansome and his men,
harried on at these sad tiflings as fast
ae the mud and niina would allow, and
on the-way one off the poHeetnen trod
on something bo ft. It wm the bod y of
a woman, imbedded in the mad.
A little farther thej saw, at aome dia*
tanoe, two oottagea in a row, both fat
ted and emptied. An old man was
alone in one, seated on the ground-floor
in the deep mad.
They went to him, and asked what
they ooald do for him.
''Do? Why, let me die.** he said.
They tried to enoourage him ; bat he
answered them in words that showed
how deeply old Shyloek's speeoh is
founded in nstnre:
Let the water take me?it has taken
all I had."
When they anked after his neighbon,
he said he beliered they were drowned.
Unluckily for him, he hsd been oat
when the flood oame.
little el am bared into the other eot
tage. and fonnd a little boy and girl
^fiddly wlwp in a onpboard up
stairs. '
Little Z?Ued with delight, aud kissed
them, and cuddled them, as if they had
been his own, so sweet was it to see
and told him the room had been full of
water, and dada and mamma had gone
oat at the window, and they themselves
had floated in the bed so n gh he had
put his little sister on the top shelf,
and got on it himself, and then they
had both felt very sleepy.
" You are a dear good boy, and I take
yon into cnstody," said Ransome, in a
broken voioe.
Judge if this pair were petted, up at
4he Town Hall.
At Poma Bridge the devastation was
Jiorrible. The flood had bombarded a
row of fifty houses, and demolished
them so utterly that only one arch of
one cellar remained ; the very founda
tions were torn up, and huge holes of
incredible breadth and depth bored by
4he furious eddies.
Where were the inhabitants ?
Ransome stood and looked, and shook
like a man in an acne.
"Little," said he, "this is awful.
Nobody in Hillsborough dreams the
extent of this calamity. I dread the
dawn of day. There must be soorea of
dead bodies hidden in this thick mud,
or perhaps swept through Hillsborough
into the very sea.'*
A little further, and they came to the
"Reindeer," where he had heard tLe
boon companions singing?over their
graves ; for that night, long before the
?" oock didoraw, or the day daw," their
mouths were full of water and mud, and
not the " barley bree."
To know their fate needed but a
glance at the miserable, shattered, gut
ted fragment of the inn that stood.
There was a chimney, a fragment, of
triangular piece of roof, a quarter of
the inside of one seoond-floor room,* i
with all the boards gone and half the
ioists gone, and the others either hang
ing down perpendicular or sticking up
at au angle of forty-flve. Even on the
aide furthest from the flood the water
had hacked and ploughed away the wall
so deeply, that the miserable wreck had
a jagged waist, no bigger in proportion
than a wasp's.
Not far from this amazing ruin was a
little two-storied house, whose four
rooms looked exactly as four rooms are
represented in sections on the stage,
" e front wall having been blown clean
-ay, and the furniture and inmates
t out: the very fenders and flre
had been carried away; a bird
a dock/ anfl a grate were left
hanging to the threee walls.
As a part of this village stood on high
ground, the survivors were within reach
of relief; and Little gave a ooliceman
orders to buy olothes at the snop, and
have them obarged to him.
This done, he begged Ransome to
cross the water, and relieve the poor
wretohes who had escaped so narrowly
with him. Ransome oonsented at onoe ;
but then came a diffloultv?the bridge,
like every bridge that the flying lake
had struok, was swept away. However,
the stream was narrow, and, as they
were already muddy to the knee, they
found a place where the miscellaneous
ruin made stepping-stones, and by
passing first on to a piece of masonry,
and from that to a broken water-wheel,
and then on to a rook, ther got across.
They passed the ooinsr s house. It
stood on rather high ground, and had
got off cheap. The water had merely
oarried away the daors and windows,
and washed everything mevable out
of it.
And now the day began to dawn, and
that was fortunate, for otherwise they
oould hsrdly have found the house they
were going to.
On the way to it they oame on two
dead bodies, an old man of eighty and
a child searoe a week old. One fate had
united these extremes of human life, the
ripe sheaf and the spring bud. It
transpired afterwards that they had
been drowned in different parishes.
Death, that brought these together,
disunited hundreds. Poor Dolman's
body was found scaroe s mile from the
house, but his wife's eleven miles on
the other side of Hillsborough; and
this wide separation of those who died
in one place by one death, Was con
stant, and a notable feature of the
tragedy.
At Inst they got to the house, and
Little shuddered at the night of it ?
here not only wm the whole front wall
taken ont, bat a part of the baok wall ;
the jagged ohimnern of the next house
?till olnag to thl^ miserable shell,
whose upper floors were slanting sieves,
and on im lower wm a deep lay ex-ef
mad, with the earcass of e nnge
lying on it, washed in thsee all the way
from HatftaWrillage.
ran away from the
?for it seemed in
stant a single
bed rain oome
?then stopped,
be done hers,
to Htlls-I
the wfcfcer.
feafa ;
ret art
>Bere and there, a head
fane appearing abeee the
ornst be hidden
harried heme to |
? to disin
J net before th? snbnrb of Allerton
the ground is a dead flat, and here the
flying lake had covered a space a mile
broad, doing frightful damage to prop
erty but not much to life, because
wherever it expanded it shallowed in
proportion.
In part of this flat a gentleman had
a beautiful garden and pleasure-grounds
over night; they were now under wa
ter, ana their appear an oe was incredi
ble ; the flood expanded here a^d then
contracting, had grounded large objects
and left Bmall ones floating. In one
part of the garden it had landed a large
wheat-rick, which now stood as if it be
longed there, though it had been built
five miles off.
In another part was an inverted sum
mer-bouse and a huge water-wheel,
both of them great travelers that night.
In the large fish pond, now much full
er than usual, floated a wheelbarrow, a
hair mattress, an old wooden cradle,
and an enormous box or chest.
Little went splashing throngh the
water to examine the cradle ; he was
richly rewarded. He found a litile
child in it awake but perfectly happy,
and enjoying the fluttering birds above
and the buoyant bed below, whose
treacherous nature was unknown to
him.
Little and Ransome carried the child
away, and it was conveyed to the hospi
tal and a healthy nurse assigned it.
Ransome prevailed on Little to go
home, change his wet clothes and lie
down for an hour or two. He consent
ed, but first gave Ransome an order to
day out a thousand pounds, at his ex
pense, in relief of the suffers.
Then he went home, sent a message
to Raby Hall that he was all right, took
off his clothes, rolled exhausted into
bed, and slept till the afternoon.
Among the Chinese Beggars.
Like most classes of laborers in
Ohina, the beggars are very clannish,
and are associated together in guilds,
all of whioh have their head-men, who
exercise a species of contrq) over them.
These head-men are well-known, and
are registered at the offioe of the magis-i
trate. They were originally appointed
by the authorities to lossen the trouble
of keeping the beggars in order, and
they have now beoome a recognised in
?titntian. and their offioe is, we have
heard, hereditary in certain families.
Like numbers of other Chinamen, who,
outwardly at least, hold a respeotible
position in life, these worthies live on
perquisites, and the contributions of
the fraternities whioh they superintend.
In the "Social Life of the Chinese"
we find an amusing aooount of the
manner in which the affairs of the beg
gars are regulated. " A bead-man of
the beggars," we are told, " may make
an agreement with tho shopkeepers,
merchants, and bankers within his dis
trict, that beggars shall not visit their
shops, wharehouses, and banks, for
money, for a stipulated time, and the
beggars of the locality are obliged to
conform to the agreement. Religious
mendicants, refugees, exiles, &o., from
other provinces, who take to begging
for a living, do not ooxne under these
regulations. The head-man receives
from each of the principal business
firms, with whioh he oan come to an
agreement, a snnrof money as the prioe
of exemption from the importunities of
beggars ; and in proof of this arrange
ment he gives a strip of red paper, on
whioh is written or printed a sentence
to the effeot that ' the brethren muBt
not come here, to disturb or annoy.'
This paper is pasted up in a conspicu
ous part of tne shop or bank, and the
money is taken away and professedly
distributed among the beggars oon
oerned, though there* is little doubt
that .their chief appropriates the lion's
share to his ovji use. After a business
man has mad* this agreement with the
head-man of the beggars, should any
local beggar apply lot the usual pit
tance, it Ml only necessary to point to
the red slijVof paper and bid him be
gjne. If heHtill not depart at once, he
may be beaten with impunity by the
master of the establishment, which
)>eating the latter would not d*re to
give unless he had proof of an agree
ment at hand ; and it is said the head
man nrfght, if the* beggar repeatedly
violated the agrees ant, flour or beat the
oulprit to death, and uo notice would
be taken of the matter by the higher
authorities.'*?All the Year Round.
A Nervous Lot.
American men and women are ner
vons, and naturally have nervous
HnWlreu, of slender physique, and
easily excited into precocious intelli
fence, whioh it considered genius.
Bmtoad of letting the little creatures
suck its fists and grow fat it is jump
ed, and danced, and confused, and
made to repeat like .a parrot. The
English method of placing young chil
dren in the hands of experienoed nurses
and making them responsible is much
better. A large, airy nursery at the
top of the house ; a good, clean, whole
some Belg i ?n, Swiss, or Bwedish woman
to take onarge of it; breakfast of oat
meal porridge and .ftflk ; dinners of
roast or boiled beef or mutton, and
rioe pudding ; tea of bread and butter,
fmilk and fruit, with no confectionery
or "ptooee" between meals, and no
liate visits or rifles with mamma. In
i snob a quiet, uneventful atmosphere
'the baby grows and thrives best., the
fAiWd is subject to lefts excitement, and
wilh healthy and regular habits leys
the foundation of an sseellent constitu
tion, while the mother is not worm out
by its eoustant presence, or made ner
V'.na by being oonsUntl J haraimed with
giving direoMons to ignorant and inex
i*naed nurses. ril V* ***"?' i'
bfe. ' ?* ft*
Items of Interest.
Silenoe is the fittest reply to folly.
Sorrows are the shadows of past joys.
Better is a portion in a wife than with
a wife.
A near lantern is better than a dis
tant star.
Qnarrel with dead men and yon
get hurt.
"Wherever a fire has been, yon will
find ashes.
Mnch corn lies nnder "the straw tl
is not Been.
Yon will not find a deep fox in a si
low bnrrow.
At Whito Pine, Nevada, mahogany is!
nsed for fueL
Water forms nearly three-fourths
the entire weight of the body.
Heaviness, headache, nausea, result
from the respiration of impure air.
One farmer in Monmouth county, N.
J., who has six acres in blackberries,
sold last season fruit to the valne of
83,000.
A clover root was torn up by a Cam
bria (Michigan) farmer, while plowing,
which measured four feet and six inches
in length.
Tyndall informs us that solar light iu
passing through a dark room, reveals
its track by illuminating the dnst float
ing in the air.
Hard words aro like hail-stones in
summer, beating down and destroying
what they would nourish if they were
melted into drops.
The hot blast is now used in den
tistry. Nothing will dry a cavity of the
gum so quickly. It is blown in by
means of a syringe.
A Paris letter reoords it as a strange
fact, that undes the rule oi a republic,
the q}d and beloved song of the Mar
seillaise is once more forbidden.
The sage has said, "He alone is a
true friend who will Berve thee with his
means in time of distress, and with his
soul in time of need and danger."
" Infusorial Animalcules," may easily
*be detected with the aid of a microscope
in water containing soluble organic sub
stances, exposed to an ordinary temper
ature.
Exoespive exertion often leads to a
oongMtad atata nf the lnng/t, and defi
cient emroise is capable r>? producing
tubercles in the same organs through
nutritional altarations.
The Amoeba round among the inuf
soia, represents the lowest form of ani
mal life . It has no particular shape, al
tering its form, momentarily, and
moves by thisourious means of progres
sion.
^The Vermont State Agricultural So
ciety has voted that a herd of cattle
shall oonsist of one bull not less than
one year old, two oows, two two-year
old heifers, two yearliqgp heifers, and
two oalves of either sex.
Astronomer Proctor has small faith
that the millien dollar telescope which
the wealthy Oslifornian, Mr. Lick, pro
poses to have built, oan be made pow
erful enough to bring the moon within
thirty miles of us, as fondlj hoped by
the enthusiastic projects. j.
The Devil Fish.
The monster so common to fhe Ti
ters of our southern coast, and particu
larly in the Golf, known as the devil
fish, is a harmless creature, so far an is
known. It belongs, I suppose, to the
ray family, although it laoks some of
the peculiarities of that genus. It at
tains to great size, some having been
taken nearly twenty feei in length and
seventeen or eighteen feet broad. They
are famished with arms or flippers, one
on each side of the head. These arms
are flexible and of great strength. They
are employed for taking the foo^of the
creature, and probably for defensive
purposes. But the Ann use them for
picWpg np any object of a portable size
whicn they find in the water. A gen
tleman living on the Savannah river,
Georgia, was in the habit of sending
his negroes down the river to fish with
nets, as th<a tide served. Gn one occa
sion, two of hie boys reached the fish
ing ground before the tide had fallen
sufficiently for their purposes. CufTee
always goes to sleep when he lias noth
ing etae to do. Bo pushing a pole into
the mud, they tied the canoo thereto,
and lying down intended to sleep until
the tide served. But along came a
huge devil Ash, whioh grabbed up the
Sole, and tucking it under his flipper,
egan towing the oanoe and it* con
tents toward the deep water.
the negroes awoke they ..were tefcifled
well-nigh eut of their wite. They wore
{trooeeding.to sea at the rate of abont
our miles an hour, but the power pro
pelling the canoe wan wholly invisible.
The first impluse was to jnmp over
board, but it occurred to them in time,
fortunately, that they were nnable to
?wim. Finally the rope bv which mas
ter deril fish was towing tnem was cut,
and they reached the land in a pitiable
state of terror.
Aa individual of this speoies has been
known to lake up the kedge of a small
schooner and oarry it awa^y for a mile,
towing the teeaei that distance, when
he dropped tha anchor, apparently fa
tigued with the amusement.
4 large deril fish was streak with a
tJyou ta the lowar part of tha river
81 John by the boil's crew of a small
armed tMMlt.qmgld.ia the pro tec
ran for
ig the
? e,8hl
_ fr*e to clioek nis
rd. They wete compelled to out the
ll last, aa there was danger of his
fouling with the hawser of the reeael.