Stv
YOL. IV. NO. 22
The Mysteries.
Once on mj mother's breast, a ohild, I crept,
Holding my breath ;
Then, safe a* sad, lay shuddering and wept
At the dark mystery of death.
Weary and weak and worn with all unrest,
Spent with the strife?
Oh, mother, let me weep npon tny Dreasi
At the sad mystery of life I
? W. D. HovoeUs.
STARTING A GRATE YARD.
The First Inquest and Funeral In the Black
HHIe?A Traveler's Story of Borlal In the
Wilderness. ?
Death demanded a sacrifice. A graveyard
had to be started in Cnster City.
No one had volunteered to die and no
ruffian had offered a sacrifioe. Fate led
Charley Holt and John Pioket across the
plains from Sioux City, and hope and
ambition led them to " drive their
stake" upon the southern slope in the
suburbs of Custer. Poor boys! they
were not yet men, and their oombined
fortune and earthly effects would not
reach $5 in value. They selected a town
lot upon a grassy knoll, close to a small
grove of straight, tall pines, and being
unable to chop large logs or buy lumber
with which to construct a habitation,
dug a cave. These boys made their
deadfall eight feet square, covered it
with pine brush, propped this up with
eight small poles, threw on several tons
of earth, and went to bed to dream of
home, of mother, of father and of the
fortune they, in their boyish imaginations,
had already carved out of these
golden realms. When morning came a
sad sight was revealed to the young man
? * * _ _ * A. ?
who went to tne augouc to oorrow a
shovel. The angel of death had been
there in the night and had buried the
sleeping boys alive. A faint, piteous
voioe beneath this living grave broke
the icy stillness of the frosty morning,
crying out: "In God's name, pull me
out! I am dying." The boy who had
come to borrow a shovel fled in horror
from the fatal spot, calling loudly for
help, which came from all directions,
from fifty cabins in the gulch. A dozen
yeoman arms delved down and tore
away the cruel earth which had already
clasped and claimed one of these boys
as its own, and which had hngged and
pressed in its icy embrace, for eight
long hours, the struggling survivor.
The story told by the mangled and mutilated
youth is a brief one. He told it
to me while gasping in agony and pain,
stretched upon a couch of pine boughs
on the hill side.
"We finished our 'dug-out,'and I
went down town to beg for work or
flour. We had eaten up our last grub.
Charlie?tint's my pardner?stayed at
home to fix up things and finish digging
out the chimney. I went to the miners'
meeting at Swearenger's saloon, and
cime horns about ten o'clock, and went
to bed. When I woke up I was buried,
bat I had one hand free, with which I
scratched away the dirt and brush and
got air. Then all was dark again, and
after awhile I woke up. I could see the
stars and the moon, and I heard Charlie
calliDg for me to help him. I tried to
move, but the dirt came tumbling in on
my face, so I quit. Then Charlie said :
* tl onony, i am uymg - wnw wj my
mother.' I called out: 4 Charlie, I
can't get out; God help you ; we must
die I' then all got dark again. That's
all I know, sir, till just now. Is Charlie
dead?"
Yes, Charlie was dead ! His crushed
and mangled body was dragged out of
the debris a few minutes afterward, and
borne down the hillside to a deserted
soldier's cabin, and laid out upon a
plank placed upon two logs.
Then came the inquest?first held in
the Black Hills. It was a queer scene.
There stood the city marshal, a tall,
rough, honest man, with bronzed brown
face and tear stained eyes, a pair of
navies on his hips, but gentle as a lamb
in the face of death like this.
The coroner, a miner with grizzled
beard and hard, grimy hands, stood by
the body with a book in his hand. Two
doctors, just arrived that morning from
Platte oouuty, Mo., looking more like
tramps than professionals, stood by. A
reporter, a clothing dealer, a saloon
keeper, a lawyer and two miners constituted
the jury, which sat itself upon a
log which insisted u^on rolling over
every two minutes. The inquest was
brief, the reporter organized the jury,
swore them in, elicited the evidence,
mode the verdict, and founded the first
official archive for the city. The verdict
was 44 accidental death from suffocation
that was all, and material was
ready to start a graveyard in Caster.
Then came humane hands and kind
hearts and dressed the unfortunate
stranger. One of the miners found a
white shirt, the only one in the city, a
sheet was concerted into a shroud, and
Charloy Holt soon lay in a rough pine
box upon a bier of logs. This was not
all, a fire was built in the corner of that
black, deserted cabin, the roof opened
to allow the smoke to escape, and then
? Kol# ilnTJsn nnhlo mpr Rat and watnhtwl
until daylight. They were bound to
start a graveyard. With the rising of
the sun came ladies?yes, ladies; kind
hearted pioneers who had woven a
wreath of pine twigs, winter ivy, pine
cones and four little fragments of white
tarlatan and pieces of the black silk
strings of a bonnet. This wreath was
laid reverentially upon the nn pain ted
pine box; it was all these five noble
hearted women could do, and they did
it well. But still the graveyard was not
inaugurated. Here was a corpse neatly
phrouded, wreathed and coffined, and no
graveyard; but a site for a city graveyard
was found?a natural oemetery already
planted with groves of trees, and
laid out by nature into broad, irregular
avenues, all sodded and half green. Cascades,
ornamented with glittering icicles,
lent their aid to the frosted evergreen
foliage and snow white grotto of quartz
to beautify the newly selected site for
the city of the dead.
A half dozen brawny athletes, with
pick and shovel, tore open the virgin
soil, and made the grave. They were
generous sextons, these amateurs, and
punk a hole like unto a mining shaft. It
was at least twelve feet long?this grave
for the half-grown boy. But the trouble
was only half over. There is no preacher
in Custer, and a two hours' canvass
INDA
ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmummmmmam?????
of the city failed to find a professor of
religion among three hundred people.
Worse than that, a close search failed
A~ a~J * K/vrwV TVio raovnr hrvn
W 1U1U il pnjci wvn. xuu j ... ) ???
est man, appealed to one of the two
lawyers in the city to " say a few words
at the grave, to be* Ghristian-like," bnt
such pleading was not in his line; so
the three doctors were applied to, but
with like suocess. Then came a committee
of judge, mayor and marshal to
the reporter. Surely a " paper man "
knew something about funerals; and,
said the mayor, " we want to put the
poor lad away a kind o' Christian like;
not like a dog." Besides, a graveyard
had to be started.
Then came Miss Ida Simms, like an
angel of goodness, with a small, giltedged
Bible, the only one in the city,
and the funeral cortege moved on
through the main street of the city. It
was a picturesque scene on this bright,
sunny day. A wagon containing the unpainted
ooffin, upon which lay the ladies'
evergreen wreath. Then the mayor,
judge, councilmen and marshal, rough,
blue-shirted men in miners' boots and
slouch hats, A dozen or two miners,
merchants and hunte.s brought up the
rear, and the procession moved silently
on.
Then a shallow grave on the hillside,
sunk, as one of the amateur sextons said,
"clar down to the bedrock, gentlemen,
down whar the dirt shows good color."
Silently the body was taken from the
wagon and tenderly laid in the golden
earth upon the bedrock. Then every
head was bared and every bronzed oountenanoe
bowed while one or two selections
of Scripture were read. The
grave was soon filled and a white pine
headstone set in the earth, and thus
the city of Custer inaugurated its grave
yard.
The saddest point abont this affecting
incident is yet to bo mentioned. No "
letters, papers, or even the slightest
clew to his home or friends have been
found. All that is known is that he
walked all the way from Sioux City to
the Black Hills to die and start a graveyard.
The Senate Postage Bill,
The bill reported by Mr. Hamlin from
the United States Senate postal committee
to fix the rate of postage on
third-class mail matter and for other
purposes, provides in its first section :
That mailable matter of third-class
shall embrace pamphlets, occasional
publications, regular publications devoted
primarily to advertising purposes,
or for free circulation, or for circulation
at nominal subscription rates, prices
current, catalogues, annuals, handbills,
posters, unsealed circulars, prospeotuses,
books bound or unbound, book
manuscripts, proof-sheets, maps, prints,
engravings, blanks, flexible patterns,
samples, merchandise, sample cards,
phonographic paper, letter envelopes,
postal envelopes and wrappers, cards,
plain and ornamental paper, photographic
representations, seeds, cuttings,
bulbs, roots, scions, and all other matter
which may be declared mailable matter
by law, and all other articles not
above the weight prescribed by law,
which are not from their form or nature
liable to destroy, defaoe or otherwise
injure tb.e contents of the mail bags or
the nerson of anv one engaged in the
postal service. It also provides that
all liquids, poisons, glass, explosive materials
and obscene books or papers shall
be exclnded from the mails.
The seoond section limits the weight
of paokages to four pounds, requires
them to be postmarked, makes them
subject to examination, and prescribes
the following rates of postage : For all
distances not exceeding 1,000 miles,
one cent for each ounce or fractional
part thereof; for all distances over 1,000
miles, two cents per ounoe or fractional
part thereof.
The next section provides that postages
on third-class matter shall be prepaid
by stamps, but it not fully prepaid
and the sender is known he must be n tided
and the amount due collected
from him, and in other cases where it
has not been the evident intention to
underpay, the package shall be forwarded
and double the deficiency collected
ffom the party receiving it.
The fourth section allows the names
and addresses of senders and the word
"From" to be written or printed on
each package; also the number and
name of the articles inclosed, or the
State to which subscriptions have been
paid.
The fifth section provides that transient
newspap> rs and magazines shall
be carried in the mails at the rate of
one cent for every three ounces or fractional
part thereof, and one cent for
each two additional ounoes'or fractional
part of two ounces. Finally it is provided
that the act shall take effect on
trie first day of next July.
A Publisher's Wedding.
A New York correspondent writes :
The next swell wedding will be that of
James Gordon Bennett to Miss May.
Miss May belongs to tho Bbston family
of that name, and is a very pretty young
ladv?fresh, witty, and what English
people call " clever." Her wedding outfit
will be as grand and elaborate as any
unlimited outlay of money can make it.
Mr. Bennett has given his fiancee some
very beautiful gifts in jewels, a pearl set
costiDg $7,500 to import. She will wear
point lace over white satin looped np
with natural orange flowers and buds.
Mr. Bennett is having his house at Newport
prepared for its future mistress,
and is also building a large steam yacht.
His entertainments during the summer
are looked forward to with much interest
and pleasure by his friends and associates.
Mr. Bennett is probably the
richest joung man in New York. His
income from the Herald is over half a
million, and he has the rent of his house
at Fort Washington and a hotel which
j he lately bought in Paris in addition.
| He has a sailing and steam yacht, town
j and country houses, no less than twenty
; thoroughbred horses, packs upon packs
j of hounds, a dozen carriages, a four inhand
coach, ponies and a newspaper!
He is a member of the Yacht, Jockey
and Union olubs, also the Newport gun
club, vioe-president of the Coaching
club, president of the Polo and Rink
clubs, and honorary member of the chief
clubs in London, Paris, Berlin and
i Vienna,
T>OTV
RD A
BEAUFORT, ?
-
A MANUFACTURING NATION.
The Centennlnl Exposition as nn Element
in the Development of oar Itlannfactarlog
Interests.
There can be no reasonable donbt
that the United States is abont to assume
a new and important position as a
manufacturing nation. But a few short
years ago, we were known as an agricultural
country, having vast mineral resources
lying idle and unproductive.
Our imports of the various metals and
of manufactured goods were something
enormous; we have just emerged from
a war unsurpassed in its expenditure of
human life, money, and national substance,
a war in which the whole losses
of both sides loll upon one nation and
people; and yet since the close of that
conflict, wo have made our debut as a
manufacturing people and maintained a
rate of progress hitherto unparalleled in
the history of nations. To this fact
more than to any other will the Centennial
exposition point. Of the sixty
acres of ground covered by the exhibition
buildings, only about twelve acres
are devoted to agricultural and horticultural
pursuits, while there are fourteen
acres devoted to the products of ma
chinery alone. 'lime wiu proDSD y
show tnat the markets of the world will
be opened to American manufacturers,
and the Centennial exposition will do
much to bring the demand for our
mineral and manufactured products in
direct contact with the supply. The
more we examine into this view of our
sabject, the more impressive it becomes.
During the last decade, the prioes of
our raw material and labor have ruled
exceedingly high; and yet we have
driven foreign steel from our markets.
Our imports of cotton and of nearly all
other manufactured goods are largely
and continuously on the decrease. At
the present time, our cost of production
is diminishing by cheapness of labor.
We are steadily grasping the edge tool
trade. Our cast iron is forcing its way
as the best yet produced, and the inventive
power and intelligence of our mechanics
are universally recognized. We
are about to repeat the experience of the
older nations. During an era of high
prices, we developed our mineral resources
and learned to manufacture high
class goods, and to spin and weave our
own products; but the comparatively
high price of our labor and other similar
causes excluded us fiom entering the
competitive markets of the world. Fortunately
for us, there has set in, with
every prospect of a continuance, an era
of diminution of the values of both material
and labor, which will enable us to
tender our goods in markets other than
our own; and more fortunately still, the
fVntflnni&l exDosition stepe in and brings
the purchaser to inspect our goods.
This is the first instance, in the history
of the six great international exhibitions
of the last twenty-five years, in whioh
the question of the comparative cost of
productions has been largely considered
or mooted in an international sense.
Never before have the representatives of
national industries debated the questiofis
of comparative cost of production, of
affixing to exhibited articles their prices,
of the propriety of competing unless
such prices were affixed, and of the questionable
policy of putting on exhibition
products of manufacture, lest the nation
mainly interested in such should gather
information and ideas rendering them
still more formidable as competitors in
the world's markets. These are the
facts which evidence the existence of a
feeling that the Centennial will become
the moans through which new channels
of trade are to be opened up, and long
established markets are to be closed;
and through which, while new customers
are to be lound, old ones are to be
certainly lost.
Among the branches of American trade
to be the most largely benefited, we may
doubtless mention the iron, steel, machine,
edge tool, saw, agricultural implement,
wood-working machinery, general
and special tool, timber, and cotton
manufacturing industries. Nor will
the intelligent foreign visitor fail to perceive
that our remarkable progress in
mannfactores.is largely due to the comparative
liberality of our patent laws,
and the enoouragement given to inventors
through the progressive character
I of our people. That the number of
I visitors to the exhibiton will be large,
the traveling propensities of Americans
are probably a sufficient guarantee ; that
the attendance of the business community
will be proportionately larger than at
any previous international exhibition,
there is every reason to presume, for
the reason that competition is here unusually
close. Every tradesman considers
it his duty to be " posted " as to
his competitor's goods and facilities to
carry on his business ; the " drummer,"
as our genus of the commercial traveler
is facetiously termed, is a profuse
American institution ; while an American
housewife sooroely makes a purchase
without having priced the desired article
at two or more stores.
We are convinced that the honors in
the shape of awards will be eagerly
sought, and that their possession will
lArcfllv influence many branches of
trade; while the benefits"to be bestowed
upon ,0s by this peaceful industrial
monument are at present almost incalculable.?Scientific
American.
A Man's Life.
According to a French statistician, taking
the mean of many accounts, a man
of fifty years of ago has slept 6,000 days,
worked 6,500 days, walked 800 days,
amused himself 4,000 days, was eating
1,500, was sick 500 days, etc. Ho has
eaten 17,000 pounds of bread, 16,000
pounds of meat, 4,600 pounds of vegetables,
eggs and fish, and drank 7,000 gallons
of liquid, viz: water, coffee, tea,
beer, wino, etc., altogether. This
would mako a respectable lake of 300
square feet surface and three feet deep,
on which small steamboats could navigate.
And all this makes up the routine
of an average man's life.
A Cincinnati veterinary surgeon has
succeeded in a remarkable experiment.
He has " fitted a wind-broken horse with
a silver throat." An incision was made
in the windpipe, a silver tube inserted,
and *ow tho animal breathes easily aud
strait* to suffer no inconvenience.
r no
lND <
3. C., THURSDAY,
Circus Riders and Horses.
James Robinson, who is generally believed
to be the most dashing and finished
bareback rider now in the ring,
says an article on the circus ring, has
six finely trained horses, and Charlie
Fish, who ranks next to him in this
line, has four or five. The Melville
brothers, three of them, have six horses
for their acts. Frank is a very fine pad
and George a bareback rider. So the list
might be extended almost indefinitely.
But the performers themselves grumble
that their salaries have not increased in
proportion with this added expense to
them and lightening of the burdens of
the manager. They are only employed
less than half the year, on an average,
but during all the other portion must
maintain their norses and keep them in
training at their own cost.
Still they get very oomfortable pay.
James Robinson gets $200 per week for
himself alone, and last season he
got $450 for himself and two boys.
Charlie Fish gets about $150 ; the Melville
brothers, $350; Dockrell and wife,
$300. These are, of course, the largest
salaries for equestrians, who are the
best paid persons about a circus below
the grade of proprietor, but it may be
said that the general pay of pad nders
runs from $90 to $100 per week each,
and of barebaok riders from $100 to
$200, aooording to their individual excellence
and popularity and the necessities
of the management.
-
Tiae pad riders generally accepted as
the best in the country at the present
time are, in addition to those mentioned,
0. F. Reed, Wm. Dutton, Romeo Sebastian,
Bob Stiokney. Mille Viola (Rivers),
Mrs. Bnrdean, Mrs. Cook, Mme.
De Berg, and Mollie Brown. The latter
is a daughter of Mme. Tournaire, the
finest menage equestrienne who ever was
in this country, and who will travel this
season with Montgomery Queen's circus.
It would be ungallant to say, or even to
insinuate, how many years Mme.
Tournaire has been one of the queens of
ring, but if anybody has any doubts
about circus life promoting longevity
and maintaining a perennial youth, let
him hunt up that ladv in the ring, gaze
upon Frank Whittaker's brown locks,
and then ask some well-posted old-timer
how they both date to the nation's birthday.
Some horses can never be. broken or
trained so as to be reliable for service in
the ring, while others evince a natural
aptitude, or perhaps talent for it, and
learn very easily all that is required of
them. Generally it takes from eighteen
months to two. years to get a horse so
well trained for pad riding that he will
not shy, or bolt, or break his gait in the
ring, but will keep steadily on his
round, indifferent to what is going on
upon his back, or beside him, or even
under his feet, if the luckless rider happens
to tumble there, where he has no
business to be. In some instances, however,
horses hRve been known "to act
well before an audience the very first
time they have been put in the ring.
Generally a horse is educated for but
a single servioe. If for pad riding ha is
kept to that; if one of two or four
trained together for the comparatively
rare double and quadruple aots^he is
not allowed to muddle his equine brains
by Striving with a knowledge of hurdle
leaping or tricks and so on. Generally
old horses are beat, because they have
settled into a steady gait, and if they
have no ingrained vices, are most reliably
phlegmatic under extraordinary
but poasiblo circumstances.
The hallucination pervades many
minds that circus men nave secret and
ingenious ways of frescoing their remarkable
calico horses, using walnut
juice and other compounds to dye
patches of milk-white steeds until the
parti-colored effects are obtained. This
is an error, however. They buy up
horses which are "not colored, but
born that way." No special breed of
horses produces these freaks of color,
but the finer bloods, it is said, eeldom
show them. "We recruit from dunghill
stock," says an old circus man.
The Mothers of the Revolution.
The mothers of the Revolutionary war
placed their own heroic stamp upon the
actors in that mighty drama. A Connecticut
matron sent forth her sons to
battle, the youngest but fourteen years
of age. Presently he returned, as he
could find no musket. " Go back, my
son !" cried the American mother; " go
into battlo and take a gun from the
onemy." " Alick," said Mrs. Haynes,
of North Carolina, as she equipped her
son, a mere boy, for the battle of Rocky
Mount; "Alick, now fight like a man.
Don't be a coward 1"
Just after the bloody fight at HangiDg
rock, the venerable Mrs. Gaston was
told thit three of her sons were dead
upon the field. "I grieve for their
loss," she calmly replied, "but they
could not have died in a better cause."
Her grandsons were about her knees,
. and she would not shed a tear. The
battle of Ring's mountain caused Cornwallis
to retreat toward Camden. On
the march he stopped a night on Wilson's
plantation near Steel creek. The
earl and Tarleton entered the house;
and, finding Mrs. Wilson alone, asked
m V i -1? U i-mn KftnJ ftn/1 GATIQ TXTtXYC*
ior ner iumuy. uusuauu uuu owuu nv.v
with Samter. Cornwallis endeavored,
by brilliant promises, to win the good
woman's influence for the king. He told
her he had just captured her husband
and eldest son (which was too true), and
that if she would bring her family to
the royal service her loved ones should
be liberated, and every man promoted
to rank and power. "Sir," said this
"mother of a mighty race," "I have
seven sons now bearing arms; my seventh
son, who is only fifteen years of
age, I yesterday sent to join his brothers
in Sumter's army. Now, sir, sooner
than see one of my family turn back from
the glorious work, I would take these
boys"?and she pointed to three or four
little sons?" and enlist with them myself
under Sumter's banner, and show
my husband and sons how to fight, and,
if necessary, to die for their country !"
i " Hring him in," said another, as her
only son was brought dead from the
battlefield to her door. The shattered
i form was laid before her. " I see no
wound"?and she looked steadily into
, the noble, still face?" I see only a glorified
S6*l,"
COMJV
MAY 4, 1876.
THE CESTEXXIAL EXHIBITION.
What a Visitor at the Grounds Writes to
the Newspapers about the Affair.
The grounds are five miles out of
town, across the Schuylkill river, on a
hundred-acre tract stretching up from
Fairmont Park. A few years ago the
neighborhood adjacent to the gronnds
was a qniet country place. Now it resembles
a dozen mushroom gold-digging
cities all huddled together. In the city
proper everything seems to be tinged
with Centennial. Every department of
trade has prepared itself by doubling its
capacity, and if the expectations of
these people are not realized, you will
hear the crash all the way to New York.
Philadelphia has a funny way of doing
many things. The visitor to the great
exhibition must come armed exactly
with a fifty-cent note. Two quarters
won't do. The applicant for admission
must have a fifty-cent note, or he will
not get in. This note is to be dropped
into a locked box, the visitor edges his
way in through the arms of a turnstile,
a number is registered, and thus the
reoord of visitors is to be kept, and no
chanoes given for subordinates to do any
stealing at all.
Few people can fully realize the great
extent of the exhibition buildings. The
seven departments occupy a tract of
fifty acres. There are five gigantic and
beautiful edifloes. The main structure
is 1,880 feet in length, running east and
west, and 464 feet in width. It covers
over twenty acres. The weight of iron
in the roof, trusses, etc., is 5,000,000
pounds. From the north of the main
building is the art gallery; thence the
walk leads to machinery and agricultural
halls. Machinery hall is about 500 feet
west of the main building. It is 1,402
feet long, 360 feet wide, with additions,
and it covers nearly thirteen acres, not
counting upper floors. Sixteen lines of
shafting will be turned by a pair of Corliss
engines of 1,400-horse power. There
are twenty boilers. Steam power and
water will be furnished free. The agricultural
building covers ten acres; the
art gallery is 365 feet in length, 210 feet
in width, and fifty-nine feet in height
The dome is 150 feet from tho ground.
It is of glass and iron, unique in design,
and terminates in a colossal bell.
The horticultural building is the
most beautiful. It is in the Moresque
style of architecture of the twelfth century.
It is 383 feet long, and 193 feet
wide.
The above are the five buildings
proper, erected by the Centennial commission
at a cost of several millions.
Scattered all about these immenso
structures are the buildings of the United
States government, the several
States and foreign countries, including
Turkey and Japan. The latter building
is large and unique, made of wood put
up by Japs, and there is not a nail in
it.
America's greatest 'collection will be
in the government building, which is to
represent the United States in peace and
in war. The different departments in
Washington have charge of this. The
amount appropriated is $505,000.
The winding ways and foot walks
stretch out about seven miles. The
daily capacity of water supply will be
nv?r ten millions of crallons. Over five
thousand trees have been planted.
All the space in machinery hall is
taken up. There will be about 1,000
American exhibitors, 150 English, and
150 from other countries?250 more
than were at Vienna. America is clamoring
for twice the space that was first
assigned in the main building.
A striking feature to the foreigner
will be the names of business men displayed
on the signs of the Centennial
grounds. Nearly all the restaurateurs,
caterers, refreshment dealeis, and the
like have distinctive foreign names. The
exposition will not be American in this
respect.
Goods began arriving here from all
parts of the world early in the present
year, and tflfey are all expected to be in
by the nineteenth of April. After April
26, unoccupied space is forfeited. The
exhibition commences May 10, and keeps
open till November 10; all goods to b?
removed by Deoember 31. Admission,
fifty cents.
It required several hours to drive
around the buildings, take a look inhere
and there and gain the desired information.
When the exhibition is in full
blast a person can spend two weeks in
getting through.
From appearances the Centennial will
come off just as it was announced. It is
believed that everything will be in perfect
readiness when the time comes. If
this be so the commissioners will deserve
credit.
"The Meanest Woman.''
The Christian Observer describes as
follows what it calls the "meanest
woman in New York " : She lives in a
fashionable quarter of the town. In
the name of charity she gave out some
dressmaking to the inmates of one of
the institutions for reforming and saving
women supposed to be lost. When the
work was done, and well done, the fashionable
and charitable lady was not
ready to pay the bill, which amounted to
$12. The same work, if it had been
done at a fasinonaoie dressmaker b,wuiuu
have cost $25, perhaps $50. She had no
complaint to make about the work done,
but haggled about the price, and, as she
gave out the work in charity, she
thought, probably, that the charity
should bo extended to her and not to
the poor sewing woman.
One month passed away, and another,
and six more, while this wealthy and
charitable woman, with one excuse and
another, put off paying the poor girL
She could not get hor hard earned
money, and finally, in despair, had recourse
to the law, by the aid of the
working women's agency, and the prospect
of exposure, in the character of
a fraud, brought the lady to terms, and
she paid the full amount 1
When a pious woman of fashion, a
leader perhaps in the benevolent operations
of the church, first directress of
this society, and manageress of that,
and treasurer of another; who thinks
nothing of paying $500 for a dress of
one evening's wear, and, to be very
charitable, employs a poor fallen
woman struggling with poverty and
honesty, and then "neglects" to pay her
wages, she deserves to be labeled m
among the meanest of her sea,
1ERCI
$2.00 jer 1
Newspaper Patronage.
There seem to be a great many different
ways of defining and understanding
the phrase " newspaper patronage*" and,
as a party interested in a correct definition
of the same, we give the following
disqnistion on the subject by one who
knows whereof he spoaks. It may
serve, perhaps, as a mirror, in which
certain parties may be able to "see
themselves as others see them
Many long and dreary years in the
publishing business has forced the conviction
upon us that newspaper patronage
is a word of many definitions, and
that a great majority of mankind are
either ignorant of the correct definition,
or are dishonest in a strict, Biblical
sense of the word. Newspaper patron-!
age has as many colors as the rainbow,
and is as changeable as a chameleon.
One man comes in, subscribes for a
paper, pays for it in advance, and goes
home and reads it with a proud satisfaction
that it is his. He hands in his advertisement,
and the advantages thereof.
This is patronage.
Another man asks you to send him the
paper, and goes on without saying a
word about the pay. Time flies on; ) ou
arc in need of money, and ask him to
pay the sum he owes you. He flies into
a passion, perhaps pays, perhaps not,
and orders his paper stopped. This is
called patronage.
One man brings in a fifty oent advertisement
and wants a two dollar puff
thrown in, and when you deoline, he
goes off mad. Even this is called patronage.
One man don't take your paper. It
is too high prioed; but he borrows and
reads it regularly. And that oould be
called newspaper patronage.
One man likes your paper; he takes a
'? -* ?-I ki'a Mon/la trt
copy, pays xur it, buu govo ? ?
do the same; he is not always grumbling
to you or to others, but has a friendly
word. If an accident occurs in his section
he informs the editor. This is
newspaper patronage.
One hands you a marriage or other
notice, and asks for extra copies containing
it; and when you ask hup for
pay for the papers, he looks surprised:
"You surely don't take any pay for such
small matters?" This is called newspaper
patronage.
One (it is good to see such) comes in
and says " The year for which I paid
is about to expire; I want to pay for another."
He does so and retires. This
is newspaper patronage.
It will be seen from the above that
while certain kinds of patronage are the
very life of the newspaper, there are
other kinds more fatal to its health and
circulation than the ooils of a boa oonstrictor
are to the luokless prey he patronizes.
The Hell Gate Excavations.
As very much misconception has laid
hold o? the popular mind in relation to
the manner of exploding the charges in
the excavations under the water at Hell
Gate, in New York harbor, and the result
of such explosion to riparian
houses, General Newton gave the writer
a detailed account of both, in the hope
of -allaying fears which have been needlessly
and foolishly aroused. In the
first place people imagine that the explosive
material will be fired at one
time in bulk. This is not the case. No
single charge will be larger than can be
contained in a boring of three inches
diameter, tapering off gradually to two
inches and a half. No boring will contain
more than three pounds of the explosive.
The charges will not be fired
oimnlfoniinnoW- Vinf fllPTP Xpill bfl. be
OlUiUIl'OUWUOiJ | MM* ** ? ? .. ?
tween each explosion, an interval of the
fractional part of a second, small indeed,
bnt quite appreciable, enongh to
make every explosion laterally counteract
the earth-wave creating effect of
every other explosion.
General Newton said, with much earnestness
: " I am so confident of the absolute
certainty of what I advance that,
so far as the effect of the mere explosion
is concerned, I should not hesitate
to stand within a hundred feet of the
adits at the time of the discharge. The
only thing which would render such a
position unsafe is the probably large
volume of water which will rush through
the mouths of the galleries immediately
after the explosion. No one should
be insane enough to suppose that I
would discharge in bulk the nitro-glycerine
used; it will be divided into such
fractions that practically it will be unfelt
in the vicinity of the works." General
-Newton had bad news for those who
have made up their minds that the last
act in this long and arduous work is to
take plaoe on the fourth of July. The
explosion will take place either toward
the end of July or in August, but certainly
not on the fourth of July. The
necessary appropriation has already been
voted, and General Newton is sure that
should any further amount be required,
Congress, in view of the importance of
the work, would immediately furnish it
Breach of Trust
The New York Herald, in view of the
recent mysterious departure of a well
known lawyer and trustee for several estates,
calls for a rigid law for the punishment
of breach of trust The editor
savs: We must make breaoh of trust a
crime. We must accept no apology like
that we hear every hour almost in discussing
the cases of these recent defaulters.
There is ao office more easily
executed than that of a trustee. We
have securities of the best character in
which to invest trust funds. The law
should make it a crime for a trustee to
use any other. Let the securities be
government bonds, trust companies approved
by the State laws, and mortgages
on real estate so guarded as to allow for
depression of business and the fall that
is sometimes seen in that generally
prime security. We must go into this
whole business of trusts with two purposes?first
to so arrange our laws that
any breach of trust where it affects the
management of the estates of widows
and children, shall be a felony, to be
punished as we punish forgery; and,
second, to deal with the offender against
this law, in personal and social life, as a
criminal of the most despicable grade.
An Edinburgh jeweler will exhibit at
the Centennial a showcase which, with
its contents, will be worth upward of
9100,000*
AL.
Umii. Single Copy 5 Cents.
Items of Interest.
The little ironclad which the Ohinese
government has added to its navy is
named the " Terror to Western Nations."
A St. Lonis girl, who was married
lately, made her husband give her, previous
to the ceremony, a written promise
that ho would take her to Philadelphia
and reside there with her during the
Oentennial.
A Wisconsin editor illustrates the
prevailing extravagance of the people of
the present day by calling attention to
the costly baby carriages in use now,
while, when he was a baby, they hauled
him around by the hair of the head.
The steamer Oity of Peking, arrived
at San Francisco, brought 1,017 Ohinese
passengers. It is stated that the whole
steerage accommodation of all the
steamers sailing from China for the next
six months has been contracted for by
importers of ooolies.
A. L. Robinson, of Evansville, IncL,
held an offloe as oustoms' appraiser, the
expenses of which were $2,000 more
than its receipts. He wrote to the secretary
of the treasury that his offloe was a
sinecure and should be abolished, thus
giving up a $8,000 position.
The Beading (Fa.) Eaalc save that a
Philadelphia Ann is sending lithographed
letters to village girls inviting them
to leave home quietly and aocept a position
in the Centennial. The meaning
of this villainous invitation will be apparent
to people of the world.
The $10,000,000 in silver bullion which ?
Flood & O'Brien intend to exhibit at the
Centennial would make a solid block ten
feet long, ten feet thick, and eight
and one-tenth feet high, containing 810
cubic feet, and would weigh nearly ?,?fo
hundred and ninety four and one hs"
tons.
Between the years of 1865 and 18 /4,
183,659 men enlisted in the United States
regular army. Of these 97,066 were
born in the United States, 38,649 in *
Ireland, 23,127 in Germany, 9,037 in
England, 4,703 in Canada, 2,456 in Sootland,
1,593 in France, 1,562 in Sweden,
716 in Denmark, 581 in Austria, Ave in
Africa, three in Arabia, and seventy-Arc
at sea.
Two drunken hunters in Nevada saw a
Chinaman washing gold dust in a creek,
and made a target of him with their
riAes. One Ared and missed. 44 Ton
always ought to aim above the mark
wheh it's so far off," said the other.
" See how I do it." He was correct in
his theory, and succeeded in bis illustration.
Hie Chinaman was struck and
wrtnndwl.
f A oouple were recently married at
Wavneeboro, Pa., the bride being seventy-five
and the groom seventy-one. The
latter had never been married before,
and he was so overcome that he fainted
at the conclusion of the ceremony,
which incident led the newly married
wife to exclaim : " Poor fellow, I have
feared all along that he couldn't stand
it."
A New Orleans merchant was induced
by a woman, who told a pitiful storv of
poverty, to give her $14 with which to
bury her dead husband. Before giving
the money he|went tothefhouseand saw a
discolored oorpse that he thought ought
to have been buried days before. In
his hurry to get away from the place he
forgot his umbrella. When he returned
for it he found the corpse sitting up and
counting the $14. *
The sedate Journal dee Debate tells a
wonderful story from Andennes, Belgium,
where an express tipin struck a
wagon laden with powder and exploded
it. The shock was tremendous, lifting
the whole train up into the air, but it
fortunately fell back on the rails and
sped on toward its destination. Not a
single passenger was injured, but all the
windows were smashed and the curtains
singed; the cars were also seriously
I damaged.
Finney, the great revivalist, was passing
an iron foundry when the works
were in full blast, and heard a workman
swearing terribly. " Young man," said
the revivalist, addressing the swearer,
"how hot do you suppose hell is?"
The workman recognized his questioner,
and placing his arms akimbo, and looking
him square y in the face, said :
"Well, Mr. Finney, I suppose it's so
hot that if somebody brought yon a
spoonful of melted iron you'd swear
'twas ioe cream."
Too Small to be Whipped,
A f6W days since a lady teacher in me
of the primary schools of Boston was
waited on by a couple of members of the
school committee and requested to explain
why she had expelled a little boy
from the school under her charge, as
the child's parents had lodged a complaint
against her for doing so. She
stated that the boy was one of those restless,
mischievous little fellows upon
whom neither threatsj or persuasion had
any effect, and that m consequence of
his freaks and .-Sokes the rest of her pupils
were kept in a constant state of re
prehensible hilarity. He was too small
to whip, and altogether too annoyingly
impish to control by any other means,
* xi in fKftt t.h? ntndies
aim, mticiuiC) m v*uv* > > ?? ? ?
of the other children should not be interrupted,
she had expelled the boy
from the school. The members of the
committee then had an interview with
the unruly little elf's father, who reluctantly
admitted that there was a good
deal of truth in what the teacher had
said?"for," he oontinued, "when I
first sent him so school there was nothing
he admired so much as the big warts
some of the boys had on their bands.
He was constantly talking about those
warts and wishing that he had some,
and, before a great while, he bad inoculated
every knuckle on both of bis
hands, and now he has more warts than
any other two boys in the school and is
proud of it" "But," the father con-,
tinned, "that is not the worst of it.
After the warte had commenoed to grow
cu bis hands he came home from school
one day, and while the mother w>is out
he actually inoculated the baby's nose,
and what we are to do about it we really
don't know." Under these circumstani
oes the committee thought it beet not to
! interfere; with the teacher's action, and
so they let th i matter drop<
0