S'Fi
%
YOL. IY. NO. 44
^ The Fearful Little Maid.
She stands within the daisied field,
A little maiden all alone ;
And bending down she takes a flower,
And plucks its petals one by one.
" He loves me well; he does not love" ;
Trembling, weeping, now is she.
" Ah, does he love ? or loves he not ?
I cannot try! I dare not aee !"
Her heart is beating loud and fast,
Her blinding tears are like a pall :
She d es cot hear the eager step,
She does not see the shadow falL
The flower is taken from her hand,
8wiftly the petals he removes.
" He loves?loves not?he loves?loves
not.
See, darling! ?'tis the last?he loves!"
?Fanny Barrow.
A SPECIAL CONSTABLE.
Two women, sisters, kept the toll-bar
at a village in Yorkshire. It stood
apart from the village, and they often
felt uneasy at night, being lone women.
Ono day they received a considerable
sum of money, bequeathed them by a
relation, and that set the simplesouls all
in a flutter.
They had a friend in the village, the
blacksmith's wife; so they went and told
her their fears. She admitted that
theirs was a lonesome place, and she
would not live there, for one, without a
man. Her discourse sent them home
downright miserable.
The blacksmith's wife told her has%*
* ? ? _ t? l:?
baud all about it wnen ne came iu ior lub
dinner.
44 The fools !" said he; 44 how is anybody
to know they have got brass in the
house ?"
44 Well," said the wife, 44 they made
no secret about it to me; you need not
go for to tell it to all the town?poor
souls !"
44 Not I," said the man; 44 but they
will publish it, never fear; lcave^women
folks alone for making their own trouble
with their tongues."
There the subject dropped, as man and
wife have things to talk about besides
their neighbors.
The old women at the toll-bar, what
with their own fears and their Job's
comforter, tfegan to shiver with apprehension
as right came on. However, at
sunset the carrier passed through the
gate, and at the sight of his friendly
iace they brightened up. They told
. him their care, and begged him to sleep
in the house that night. 44 Why, how
caul?" said he. 441 am due at ;
but I will leave you my dog." The dog
was a powerful ins-tiff.
The women hofced at each other expressively.
44 He won't hurt us, wili
he ?" sighed one of them, laiutly. 44 Not
he," said the carrier, cheerfully. Then
he called the dog into the house, and
* told them to lock the door, and went
away wbistl ng.
The women were left contemplating
the dog with that tender interest apprehension
is sure to excite. At first he
seemed staggered at this off-hand proceeding
of his master; it confused him,
thou he snuffed at the door; then, as
the wheels retreated, he began to see
plainly that h< was an abandoned dog;
lie delivered a fearful howl and flew at
the door, scratching and barking furiously.
Tue old women fled the apartment,
and were next seen at an upper window
screaming to the carrier : 44Come back!
come bacfc*, John ! He is tearing the
house down!"
44 Drat the varmint!" said JoIid, and
came back. On the road he thought
what was best to be done. The good
natured fellow took bis greatcoat out of
... i j 1 J ii. .1 iUa.
DUG can ailU U&iU It UUWU vu vuo uw?i
The mastiff instantly laid himself on it.
"Now," said John, sternly, "let us have
110 more nonsense; you take charge of
that till I come back, and don't ye let
nobody steal that there, nor yet t' wives'
brass. There now," said he kindly to
the women, "I *hall be back this way
breakfast time, and he won't budge till
then."
" And he won't hurt us, John ?"
" Lord, no I Bless your heart, he i?
as sensible as any Christian; only, Lord
sake, woman! don't ye goto take the
coat from Lim, or you'll be wanting a
new gown yourself, and maybe a petticoat
and all."
Be retired, and the old women kept at
a respectful distance from their protector.
lie never molested them; and, indeed,
win n they spoke cajohngly to him
he even wagged his tail iu a dubious
way; but still, as they novod al>out, he
squinted at them out of his bloodshot
eye iu a way that checked all desire on
t heir part to try on tho carrier's coat.
Thus protected, they went to bed earlier
than usual; they did not undress; they
were too much afraid of everything, es
pecially their protector. The night wore
on, and presently their sharpened senses
let them know that the dog was getting
restless; he snuffed aud then he growled,
aud then he got up and pattered
about, muttering to himself. Straight
way with furniture they barricaded the
door through which their protecto]
must pass to devour them.
But, by and bye, listening acutely,
they heaid a scraping and a grating out
side the window of the room where the
dog was, and he continued growlinf
1 fT>i?r ? 4-i?y? olitm.'jil nnl
iOW. iuw wrt? niuugu, ou[/f>i?wu
at tlie back door, and left their monei
to save their lives; they got into the vil
lage. It wa3 pitch dark, and all th<
houses black but two; one was the pub
lie house, casting a triangular glean
across the road a long way off, and tin
other was the blacksmith's house. Her*
was a piece of fortune for the territiei
women. They bnr>t into their friend'
house. " Oh ! J me, the thieves liav<
come 1" and they told li?r in a few word
all that had happened.
" Nay, Jane, we heard the scrapin/
outside the wiudow. Ob, woma i, cal
your man, and Itt h;m go with us." .
" My man?he is not. bete."
" Where is he then V*
" I suppose he is where other work
iDgwomen's husband's are, at the publi
house," she said, rather bitterly, fcrsh
had her experience.
The old women wanted to go to th
public house lor Lira ; but the black
smith's wife was a courageous worum
and, besidep, she thought it was
WD A
.
likely a false alarm. " Nay, nay," said
she, " last time I went in for him there
I got a fine affront. " I'll come with
yon," said she. "I'll take the poker,
and we have got our tongues to raise
the town with, I suppose." So they
marched to the toll-bar. When they
got near it, they saw something that
staggered this heroine. There was actually
a man half in and half out of the
window. This brought the blacksmith's
?on/1 fho timid r>flir
W1IU tu u ciajviobut) ??uv? ??v- ^
implored her to go back to the village.
" Nay," paid see, " what for ? I see but
one?and?hark !" it is my belief that
the dog is holding of him." However,
she thought it safe-t to be on the same
side with the dog, lest the man might
turn on her. She made her way into
the kitchen, followed by the other two,
and there a sight met her eyes that
changed all her feelings, both toward
the robber and toward each other. The
great mastiff had pinned a man by the
throat, and was pulling at him, to draw
him through the wiudow, with fierce but
muffled snarls. The man's weight alone
prevented it.
The window was like a picture frame,
and in that frame there glared, with
lolling tongue and starting eyes, the
white face of the village blacksmith,
their courageous friend's villainous husband.
She uttered an appalling scream
aDd flew upon the dog and choked him
with her two hands. He held, and
growled, and tore until he was all but
throttled himself, then he let go and the
man fell. But what struck the ground
outside, like a lump of lead, was, in
truth, a lump of clay; the man was quite
dead, nnd fearfully torn about the throat.
So did a comedy end in an appalliDg
and most piteous tragedy; not that the
scoundrel himself deserved any pity,
but his poor, brave, honest wife, to
whom he had not dared confide the villainy
he had meditated.
The outlines of this true story were in
i several journals. I have put the disjointed
particulars together as well as I
could. I have tried hard to learn the
name of the village, and what became
of this poor widow, but have failed
ev, mil/1 thaoa linou mApf. tVlA
liltm ilV.'. UUVU1V4 %'.UW7V/ IAMVW u?vwv ??.w
eye of any one who can tell me, I hope
he will, and without delay.
Thoughts for Saturday Night.
The wife makes the home, and the
home makes the man.
Elope never spreads her golden wings
but on unfathomable seas.
The most laudable ambition is to be
wise, and the greatest wisdom is to be
good.
To think kindly of each other is good;
but to act kindly toward one another is
best of all.
Deference is the most complicate, the
most indirect, the most elegant and effective
of compliments.
Few things are impracticable in themselves,
and it is for want of application
rather than means that men fail of success
Many a life, that might have been
most efficient if rightly directed, has
been lost to the world, and doomed to
mortifying failure, becau-e men have
not been sufficiently developed to know
their own peculiar endowments, or to
make intelligent chance of a vocation.
Irresolution loosens all the joints of a
State: like an ague it shakes not this or
that limb, but all the body is at ouce in
a tit. The irresolute man is lifted from
one place to another, and hath no place
left to rest on. He flecks from one egg
! to another, so hatches nothing, but
addles all his action.
Not enjoyment, but rectitude, is the
i chief good, both in this life and tLe life
which it to come. Enjoyment flows
' from rectitude; but the fountain is higher
and purer than the stream. Enjoyment
is often an end uuworthy to be
, sought. Rectitude is al ways to be sought.
Rectitude is always to be desired above
; all things.
Friendship is a vase which when it is
! flawed by heat, or violence, or accident,
' may as well be broken at once?it never
i | can be trusted after. The more graceful
and ornamental it was, the more
cleurly do wo discern the hopelessness
i of restoring it to its former state. Coarse
1 stones if they are fractured may be ce>
meuted again, precious ones never.
k It is not you who, on your deathbed,
" | quit sin; it is sin that quits you; it is
' not you who detatch yourself from the
'! world, it is the world that detaches it''
self from you. It is uoj^you who break
' j youi bonds, it is your bonds which break
1 of themselves through the fragility com1
: mou to our nature. It is easy to see
' j that he who condemns the irregularity
1 j of his own life only at the moment when
1 he is obliged, in spite of himself, to resign
it, does not condemn them from
conviction, but necessity.
j Woman's Rights.
\ An exchange says : On the return
;! trip of the excursion train from Harper's
; Ferry a lady, whose avoirdupois issome1
! thing in the neighborhood of 300
I pounds, having ridden a loDg distance,
) ' "standing and in silence," approached
r a high-toned young mar, wno was enjoyiug
two seats all to himself :
, ' Sir," said the fat lady, " can you not
- retake room for me on that seat ?"
3 "Well, 'pon honor, madam, I am sorry
I but I am?ah reserving this for me wife
t ah, pou word I am," was the reply.
j I The old lady swelled up nearly t.'.iee
-; her natural size, and, having taken iu a
3 full supply of breath, she let out with :
- " 5lou nasty gold spectacled snob, you
1 ain't got no more of a wife than I have;
3; you are trying to save that seat so as you
3 i can put on airs and lay down and go tc
1 sleep when you feel like it. Git up oul
s of thar or I'll smother you to death wit!
3 my shawl."
s! " Well, madam."
" Don't madam me, I'm single ; gil
i up, I tell you," a.d with that she seizee
1 the young mau by the back of the necl
and raided him as high as the roof of th<
car would admit, and calmly droppei
into the vacated seat, much to the merri
> ment of the excursionists, who were jus
c in the proper mood for fun and frolic,
e As the young Dundreary gazed at tin
i old lady munching a pie he muttered t<
e himself: ^Well, 'pon my life J" bu
the fat woman gave him a glance, an<
), ; he rushed into another car and took ;
seat on a wood box.
FOR.1:
RD A
BEAUFORT, S. <
The Conjurer's Basket Trick.
We derive from Mr. Frost's 44 Lives
of the Conjurers" a description -written
by the Rev. Mr. Cannter of the basket
Lick common among the conjurers of
India: A stout, ferocious looking fellow
stepped forward, with a common wicker
basket of the country, which he begged
we should carefully examine. This we
accordingly did; it was of the slightest
texture, and admitted the light through
a thousand apertures. Under this fra
gile covering he placed a child about
eight years old. When she was proper
ly secured, the man, with a lowering aspect,
asked her some question, which
she instantly answered, and, as the thing
was done within a few feet from the
spot on which we were seated, the voice
appeared to come so distinctly from the
basket that I felt at once satisfied there
was no deception.
They held a conversation for some
moments, when the juggler, almost with
a scream of passioD, threatened to kill
her. There was a stem reality in the
whole scene which was perfectly dismaying;
it was acted to tho life, but
terrible to see and hoar. The child was
heard to beg for mercy, when tho juggler
seized a sword, placed his foot upon
the frail wicker covering under which
his supposed victim was so piteously
supplicating his forbearance, and, to my
absolute consternation and horror,
plunged it through, withdrawing it several
times, aud repeating the plunge
with all the blind ferocity of an excited
demon. By this time his countenance
exhibited an expression fearfully indica
tive of the most frantic of human passions.
The shrieks of the child were so
real and distressing that they almost
curdled for a few moments the whole
mass of my blood; my first impulse was
to rush upon the monster, and fell him
to the earth; but he was armed and I
defenseless. I looked at my companions?they
appeared to be pale and paralyzed
with terror; and yet these feelings
wero somewhat neutralized by
the consciousness that the man could
I not dare to commit a deliberate murder
in the broad eye of day, and beiore so
many witnesses; still the whole thiDg
was appalling.
The blood ran in streams from the
basket; the child was heard to struggle
under it; her groans fell horridly upon
the ear; her struggles smote painfully
upon the heart. The former were
gradually subdued into a feint moan,
aud the latter into a slight rustling
sound; we seemed to hear the last convulsive
gasp which was to see her innocent
soul free from the gored body,
whon to our inexpressible astonishment
and relief, after muttering a few cabalistic
words, the juggler took up the basket;
but no child was to be seen. The
spot was indeed dyed with blood; but
there were no mortal remains, and, after
a few momenta of uudissembled wonder,
wo perceived the little object of our
alarm coming toward us from among the
crowd. She advanced and saluted us, I
holding out her hand for our donations,
which we bestowed with hearty good
will; she received them with a most
graceful salaam, and tho party left us
well satisfied with our more than expected
gratuity. What rendered the
deception the more extraordinary was
that the man stood aloof from the crowd
during the whole performance?there
was not a pefson within several feet of
him.
High Hash Talk.
A dialogue occurred at a Detroit J
boarding house, according to the Free |
Press, between an effeminate, shabbily
dressed young man and the landlady,
j which for ponderous rhetoric excee is
j anythiog of a similar nature that has j
seen the light in some time. The land!
lady appeared at the front door, in an-1
i swer to the bell, and was accosted by i
the young man as follows:
" If you are manager of this domicile j
I wish to know if you - could be per- j
suaded to provide me with apartments \
and provender during my sojourn in !
' 1 * - ' ~ 1. -?* ? S\t itlTA A* itl.OA I
[ tI10 Cliyj WUICUL LUtx\ utj ui mu v/i luxw i
j days, duration and may possibly extend i
I through a greater period."
The mistress of the house, catching j
! the style and spirit of the inquirer, re- ]
i sponded :
" Unfortunately, a great demand ex-I
i ists at present, which so crowds the ca- |
I pacity of my apartments and the con- j
j tents of my larder that I cannot con- j
{ scientiously provide the accommodations J
j you desire."
Evidently the young man had ex-1
i peeled to completely crush the landlady
l with his command of the English language,
but his disappointment was
plainly shown in the look of blank
amazement which he bestowed upon
j her after hearing her reply. He was
j not completely aunihilared, however,
i for he continued : " Provided you
could, madam, pray what amount of
j money would you impose upon me for
accommodating me?"
" Eight dollars a week in advance,"
1 was too suggestive, and as the young
! man backed down the steps he simply
j said "good-day."
The Turkish Empire.
i The sultan of Turkey, who has just
been dethroned, may pass into history
' as Murad the Unlucky. He came to J
11 the government just three months ago,
in the middle of a violent and bewilderk
ing political commotion. He ascended
a throne made vacant by the bloody
:: death of his uncle, and, captured by the
t j leaders of the palace conspiracy, was
I i made sultan whether he would or no.
i Murad was throught to be a very tolera>
ble prince, and great expectations were
t ; entertained of bis reign. Nobody
t knows what has been going on in the
j shadow of the palace ; but from time to
J time it has been given out that the new
t sultau was going to pieces very fast.
I Lately it was announced that his mind
was a wreck, and that his deposition
J had become necessary. This step has
I now been fulfilled, and Abdul Hamed,
- brother of the falling Murad, and second
t son of the late Abdul Med j id, has been
proclaimed his successor. Hamed is
3 about thirty-four years old, and is ro3
! puted to be a fair sort of prince, as
t Turkish princ go, which is faint praise.
1 Like his brother, he succeeds to the
a ; go* ornment of a distracted, wornout,
j und impoverished empire.
r ro'
lND (
0., THURSDAY, 0(
THE HARVEST FESTIVALS.
lion' (he (ieriunii* About New York Cele*
brale the Event of n Bountiful Harvest.
Every year when the harvest is in the
German people about New York hold a
harvest gathering on Union Hill, New
Jersey. At these gatherings the festivals
of the Fatherland are indulged in. 1
At the festival this year the chief event
of the day was a rural wedding in
Plattdeutsch country style, the bridegroom
being Alfred Dehmcke, a newsdealer
of Hoboken, and Minnie Konig,
a blooming maid, born in Philadelphia,
but for some time residing on her
father's farm in Jersey. Three gaily
decorated wagons, containing the bridal
party, and a set of household furniture,
made the circuit of the grounds, preceded
by a band of music and a messenger
on horseback, dressed in a velvet
ooat with silver buttons, velvet knee
breeches, top boots, and a stiff hat ornamented
with ribbons and gold lace.
This messenger was the " wedding inviter,"
and as in the old country, sum
moned the guests. His horse was decorated
with ribbons, and the two made a
gay spectacle. In the bridal party were
the parents of the groom and bride, the
groomsmen, Oapt. Aery and Mr. Dnerirnnf
and twelve bridesmaids, with caDS
of gold cloth and velvet bodices in the
North German country fashion. The
bride was similarly attired. The bridegroom
was dressed as a German farmer,
in velvet coat and breeches and a threecornered
hat decorated with flowers and
libbons. The Rev. Dr. F. I. Schneider,
of the Lutheran church, a resident of
New York, was the officiating clergyman.
The nuptial tie was adjusted in front
of the North German farm house, a red,
high-roofed structure built in exact imitation
of the German article. A real
wedding ceremony was performed in the
same house at the festival last year, and
a bouncing boy lives to-day to serve as
a reminder of it. The bridal couple
stood on a platform before the house.
A table set with flowers, and bearing
two candlesticks, which .could not be
lighted on account of the wind, stood
beside them.
The clergyman preached a short sermon,
the bridal pair answered questions
about the same as those in vogue here,
aud they were pronounced man and
wife. The twelve bridesmaids kissed
the bride, and friends and relatives
proffered their congratulations. After
siuging by tho Lyra Singing Society of
Hobokeu and the Jersey Schuetzen
Liedertafel the "party entered the farm
house, and a banquet, dancing, singing,
and music followed. The president of
the Plattdeutsch Association gave the
bridal couple fifty dollars, Capt. Avery
gave a complete kitchen outfit, and a
clock was presented by some other
friend. Numerous minor gifts were received.
Tho interior of the farm house was
one of the most interesting spectacles on
the grounds. The main room was the
spacious kitchen, with its big brick
oven, over which the hnge ehimuey
hung like a porch to receive tee smoke.
Overhead was a partial ceiling of wood,
between which and the rafters was a
store of hay. At one side, separated
from the room only by a paling, were
stalls for tho horse and cow. Hams
and sausages hung from the beams, and
brightly scoured pe .vter dishes adorned
the walls. The kitchen opened into two
rooms, in one of which was a huge, oldfashioned
peat stove, that was imported
from Germany. The festival lasted
four days. There was a real christening
in the farm house.
On the harvest day last year fifty
thousand persons were on the grounds.
The attendance was fully as large this
year. Tho whole country around was
filled with gaily decorated wagons and
teams, emblematical of the bountiful
harvest.
Pearl Fishing in Scotland.
Pearl fishing, once common in the
rivers of England, is now no longer an
industry in that country, but the search
for pearls is still prosecuted in some cf
the Scotch rivers, apparently with more
vigor than success. The fishings iu the
shallow wateis of the Dee (Kirkcndbrightshire)
have of iato years become
exhausted, and all the ingenuity of the
pearl seokers had to be called into play
in the search in the lochs and deep
pools in the river's course. During
rlie last three years tongs have j;been
u-ed with fair success, aud the parts
thus reached have been thoroughly
fished. Beginning on the lee side, the
boat is allowed to drift, tho fisher lean!
iug over, with his head literally in tho
i wider, bnt protected by a tin box,
! through the plate glass bottom of which
| he scans the bottom of the loch, perj
haps thirty feet below, but to. his eye
j not more than a tenth of that distance.
| On a series of poles, jointed after the
fashion of a sweep's broom, is a landing
| net, with steel scoops, iuto which the
| fisher sweeps every shell that comes beI
neath bis gaze. In this way. and with
I much industry, a large number of pearls
I have been obtained, many of" them of
considerable value; but in another season
or two the whole will be exhausted,
and the pearl and pearl fishing of the
Cree and Dee will become a thing of
the past. It is to be regretted that the
j jewel robbers in England do not search
j the rivers for tho pearls which, during
I the occupation of Britain by the Roi
mans, were found in large quantities in
j the fresh water mussels.
Appeasing Hint.
Thompson, the artist, is of a somewhat
testy disposition. His charming
: wife knows this, and whenever her lord
, and master wears a frowning brow,
hastens ta appease him by some of the
j myriad little foolishnesses so becoming
i iu young brides. The other day she was
! ont of town, and Thompson embraced
! the opportunity to dismiss a fat and
i stupid serving man whom he abomiua|
ted. Half an hour a terward, as he is
' at work in his studio, he hears a scratchi
inc: at the door and then a timid bark
like that of a dog, but not that of a dog:
"Bow! Wow!"
He opens the door. It is the servant. |
"You infernal fool, what do you |
mean ?"
" Oh, I had noticed that my mistress i
often appeased you so 1"
XVAXi
3OM]V
TTftRER 5. 1876.
AN EXCITING EXPLOSION.
What WR.? Done by n Driver while Surrounded
by Burning Dynamite.
While transporting a wagon load of
dynamite from one storehouse to another
in St. Louis the other day, Frederick
Julian was dragged forty or fifty yards,
a wagon was smashed, and several buildings
leveled to the ground. The driver
was only slightly injured, and was able
the next day to give a very intelligent
account of the explosion.
"We have two powder magazines,"
he 6aid, "in which we store our giant
powder. One is in Lowell and the
other up on the bottom land near the
Seven Mile House. In the former we
had a lot of damaged powder, some of
which had been stored there for more
than a year and a half. I went up to
remove some of this damaged powder
from the Lowell magazine to the other,
to have it renovated. I put four inches
of sawdust in the wagon and then put
in ten fifty-pound cases of powder, on
the top of which I put twenty empty
boxes that I desired also to remove.
This heaped the wagon up full, so that
I had not even room to put my feet
down on the bottom of the wagon bed.
I drove out to Bellefontaine road. I
didn't smoke any on the way. Near the
gate of the cemetery I smelled smoke.
I haven't the remotest idea how the fire
could have been started, but I immediately
comprehended that my load was
burning. I reached dowD, dropped the
reins and pulled out the nearest box.
When I lifted it I saw that it was on fire
on the back side. I tossed it out of the
wagon and caught hold of the box near?cf
ma iphinh was hnrninff still more.
I threw that out, too, and in doing so
burned my hands pretty badly. Then
I saw that the fire had started pretty
well back, and was burning in the sawdust
and all along under the empty
boxes, so that I could not possibly got
at it to put it out. My horses began to
be frightened, too, and if you know anything
about djnamite you know that
when it takes fire it burns with an intense
heat. I was therefore afraid that
if the load burned there it might set fire
to some of the honses. Accordingly I let
the horses go toward the common.
4 4 By that time the flames were blazing
up among the boxes and I detected the
peculiar odor of the burning dynamite.
I jumped off the wagon and unhitched
the horses. At the same time a lot of
men came out and began tearing Mrs.
Clark's fence to prevent it from taking
fire. I led the horses about twenty or
thirty feet away from the wagon and
stood holding them by the head and
looking at the thing as it burned. The
men had the fence torn down and were
standing a little back, but between Mrs.
Clark's house and the wagon looking at
the blaze, so.you can know it must have
burned violently for some time. I was
standing, as I said, only just so as to be
out of range of the heat, with the horses
between mo and the wagon, when the
explosion came. It was an awful noise,
but it did not stun me so but that I hung
to the horses and was dragged forty or
fifty yards in a state of bewilderment.
Then I lost hold of the horses, but they
ran only a tew yards, and I went up and
caught them. They were not much hurt.
441 started with 500 pounds. I threw
out two boxes containing 100 pounds,
and from the length of time it was burn*
T * 1 1' -A ' 1 nin/Inv rrou
mg l judge mac mm me kui?uuci ??:>
consumed before the explosion came.
That, would leave 200 pounds. It was
heard four or five miles in every direction.
The force of the explosion didn't
seem to come my way at all. The stuff
is queer about the direction of its violence.
It strikes mostly down. There
were plenty of men between the wagon
and Mrs. Clark's house, yet the house
was shattered and the men only slightly
hurt."
Power Better than Law.
Commodore Yanderbilt was once advised
" to get th9 law " of a certain matter##
"Law!" he exclaimed; "why, I
have the power already." Long before
the famous Erie litigations fell into such
a hopeless tangle that he and Mr. Drew
were compelled to settle their quarrel
themselves, he had conceived a great
contempt for the courts of justice. His
first experience in the oourts was in the
course of the steamboat litigations
which grew out of the charters granted
to Fulton and Livingston by the New
York Legislature, and which Chief Justice
Marshall brought to an end in 1824
by deciding that the State could not
grant an exclusive right of navigation.
C.ipt. Vauderbilt, in 1818, took command
of tbe steamboat Bellona, of the
New York and New Brunswick line,
which was chartered by the New Jersey
Legislature. The Troy Press describes
his first appearance in couit: He was
arrested by the sheriff of New York on
an attachment for contempt, and taken
before the awful presence of the great
Chancellor Kent, at Albany, to answer
to the charge of violating an injunction
awarded in the case of John R. Living~L
v,of lo.nn Orr/lan onrl HPhnmnR
tll/UXi aaiuu uguuu
'Gibbons, prohibiting Gibbons, his
agents and servants, from navigating
with any boat or vessel propelled by
steam or fir9 the waters in the bay of
New York, or in the Hudson river between
Stateu Island and Bowies' hook.
The chancellor held that as Vanderbilt
was not iu the employment of Gibbous,
and as Gibbons had not been running
the Bellona since the injunction was
served, aud that as no collusion had
been shown between Gibbons and
Tompkins, Vanderbilt must be discharged
from the attachment with costs.
A Desperate Experiment.
An absconding clerk in the Sault Ste.
Marie canal office adopted a clever
though perilous plan to escape arrest.
He took passage ou a propeller and,
rightly judging that the law officers
would bo in readiness to receive him I
with open arms the moment the steamer I
made her first landing, he donned a life
preserver and qnietly jumped overboard
when about a mile from shore. He left
behind him a few words written on a paper
collar, politely apologizing to the
captain for having made free with the
life preserver, aud promising to remit
its value if it proved to bo worth anything.
No proposition could be fairer,
but as nothing has been heard of the
desperate navigator it is feared that he
will never remit.
1ERCI
$2.00 per i
Witchcraft in France.
At Montbrison, France, not long ago,
the magistrates were called upon to adjudge
a somewhat singular case. JeanMarie
Baron, aged thirty-seven, a well-todo
farmer of Poncins, had for,three or
four years entertained the hullucination
that some of his neighbors, jealous of
his prosperity, had combined to injure
him by witchcraft. His cows fell sick,
his wheat "[withered and he himself had
singular fits of oppression and despondency
at the sight of the objectionable
persons. He consulted several doctors,
even going to Lyons for treatment, but as
they all derided his story ne reaoivea to
put in practice the remedy suggested by
a village crone?namely : to draw blood
from each of his persecutors. Accordingly
he armed himself with a number
of stout pins with glass heads, hid himself
near the parish church door on a
procession day, when the whole community
would naturally gather there, and
falling suddenly upon his victims planted
a pin in each with remarkable vehemence.
Mr. and Mrs. Raynaud and
Miss Jeannette Badleu complained to the
police of the assault. Baron declared
with an air of happiness that he was
guilty ; that he bore no ill-will to the
complainants ; that he had to do what
he had done, and it had proved effectual,
as he and his cattle had recovered their
health. The judge endeavored to convince
him that he had never been possessed,
but the prisoner retorted unanswerably
that until he had aseaulted
his tormentors he had suffered, whereas
from the very moment that he had drawn
blood he and his beloved cattle had enjoyed
perfect kftalth, so that infallibly
he must in the first place have been bewitched.
He was sentenced to fifteen
days' imprisonment,receiving his punishment
gleefully, "since," he said, "that
is not so much to undergo as the price
of thereoovery of one's health and luck."
International Entomology.
The Toronto (Can.) Globe, in an
editorial article on the grasshopper
pests in the Western States, says: The
experience of the last four years has |
demonstrated that the grasshoppers are
irresistible vhile healthy. Therefore
their parasites must be aided in their
efforts to overtake them, and individual
effort can do littlo or nothing in this
direction. If it is anybody's business
to tight the locusts, it is the busiuess of
the United States and Dominion governments,
in both of whose territories
lie the lands from which the caloptenus
descends. Killing the insects after they
have arrived in Minnesota or Manitoba
is a poor business?ir. fact a hopeless
one. To prevail against them their
habits and hose of their enemies must
be studied at their homes; and, if needs
be, the two governments must go into
the business of raising parasites and
letting them loose upox the country.
This may seem to savor of the ridiculous;
but when it is considered that these
visitations are periodic, and, unless
something is done, inevitable, the ab
surdity of the suggestion will l>e less
nnnn.unt Soil fori Tfl9f? Will plflTIHft Hf
ilppaicuv* MV?J wu J\yw*w >f
fore the next flight from the Rockies.
At the end of that time Manitoba and
the Northwest will have received many
thousands of settlers, who will be jnst
tnrning the corner after their first struggles.
Hitherto it has been the Western
States that have suffered. Our own
country having been undeveloped, wo
have not had the full terror of a locust
plague brought home to us. If we bad
received of our kinsmen and countrymen
the s ories of homes desolated, farms
abandoned, hopes crushed aud imminent
starvation that have come from Minnesota,
Nebraska and Iowa, we should be
willing to take any means to prevent the
recurrence of the calamity, or to mitigate
its horrors.
A Useful Invention,
A San Francisco inventor is exhibiting
in that city a model of an anchor which
is thus described by a local journal: It
has two shanks, the one half the length
of the other, and the shorter connected
with the longer at the middle by a bolt,
on which it swings freely. When suspended
by the short shank the point of
the fluke of the anchor cannot fail to
strike the ground. The chain is intended
to be attached to this short shank. The
main shank, on which the stock of the
anchor is fixed, is curved upward at the
?lUn /iVioin nnffis in ordinarv
pUlUll IVUC1C IIUU vuiatu .u . y
anchors, and a mortise in the short
shank permits it to fall over it, which is
the position it will assume as soon as
the fluke strikes, and in which position
it will remain as long as the strain of
the vessel is on the chain. The objeet
of the invention is to enable the anchor
to be raised with ease. By the methods
now in use the ground in which the
fluke of the anchor is imbedded has to
be torn out, or the fluko itself will give
way. With the movable shank iD the
new contrivance the inventor asserts that
the anchor cau be raised to the surface
with the same ease that it is lowered, as
the fluke is required to come up precisely
the same way it went down, without
tearing out any of the ground in which
it is embedded. It is also arranged that
u reserve fluke can be adjusted to take
the place of the one in use in case of accident.
Hay Feier.
The writer of a recent woric on hay
fever adduces several instances to establish
the fact that the disease has no
tendency to shorten the duration of life.
Daniel Webster suffered from it to the
nt v?ia lifo ond lifl died at the
1UOL JCOi KTL AiM AAtVf -w
age of seventy ; Cnief Justice Shaw of
the Massachusetts supremo court, who
had been a subject for many years, died
at eighty ; another gentleman at eightyfour
; Mr. Samuel Batehelder is still
living at ninety-two, and another gentleman
is still living at the age of eighty
who has been a sufferer for thirty years.
The great English humorist, Sydney
Smith, whose piquant account of his
sufferings from the symptoms of his disease
will be remembered by the readers
of his correspondence, lived to the age
of seventy-four. Thus far no medicine
has had much effect in the treatment of
the disease. The only remedy which
has been found uniformly successful in
a variety of cases is change of climate,
and removal of residence to a mountainous
region.
AL.
iiioniL Single Cony 5 Cents.
The Soul's Hope.
Behold! we know not anything;
I can bat trust that good shall fal
At last?far off?at last, to all?
And ?very winter change to spring.
So runs my dream ; bat what am 1 ?
An infant crying in the night?
An infant crying for the light?
And with no language but a cry.
Items of Interest,
"Flooting and pleteing done" is an
Eighth ave. (New York) sign.
The champion whittler lives in Miohigan.
He has whittled for three months,
and now has a chain six feet long made
from a single pine stick.
A traveler stepped into the oottoge of
an English farm hand at supper time
and saw on the table a sweetbread, with
ham and peas and new potatoes.
A lawyer at the bar was held to be in
contempt for simply making a motion in
court. It was ascertained, however,
that he made a motion to throw an inkstand
at the head of the court.
Listz recently played one of his own
1 "" iw.nMA.n mncinian
COmpetUUUUB iUl UU awoiivou
named Boise, and Boise's criticism is:
" He played it m a way calculated to
make one's hair defy hair oil."
There is a growing conviction in the
minds of smokers that a vest pocket
should be made deep enough to entirely
hide a cigar from the scrutinizing gaze
of the man that never has any.
A Kentucky farmer says that his old
sow is in the habit of chewitig oh grapevines
that grow upon .convenient trees,
and, with the tree end in her month,
swinging over the fence into a cornfield.
A granite block weighing thirty tons
was recently taken fiom the quarries
near Hallowell, Me. Another block
weighing forty tons is soon to be brought
out. It will require forty oxen to move it.
An eminent New York physician attributes
much of the prevalence of
diphtheria to the common practice of
turning down the wicks of kerosene oil
lamps until they emit a strong smell of
oil.
One person of every 259 in Cincinnati
dies by suicide. Sixty-two per cent, of
AA?man A
SUip, U1 UUJllvuv
A lawyer was oat sailing at Yarmouth
a few days since, and as the boat went
bowling along he enthusiastically exclaimed
: "This is worth a dollar a
minute I" About fifteen dollars' worth
later this same gentleman was bending
over the tafifrai), faint and limp, casting
his bread upon the waters, and declaring
that he would never go out sailing
again.
John Anderson, the first man who ascended
the great South Dome in the
Yosemite valley, California, lives alone
in a small hcu^e near the saddle of the
dome. He is hard at work constructing
a siaircase of a thousand steps up the
dome. He hopes to have an elevator
i-nnninor in time, and is also working on
a mcdel of a titeam" car that shall carry
passengers tip the almost perpendicular r
walls.
Patient to his doctor?44 And it is
rea ly true that I shall recover ?" 44 Infallibly,"
answers the maT of medicine,
taking from his pocket a paper full of
figures. 44 Here, look at the statistics of
your case; you will find that one per
cout. of those attacked by your malady
are cured." 44 Well," says the sick
man, in an unsatisfied manner. 44 W< 11,
you are the hundredth person with this
| disease that I have had under my caie,
| and tho first ninety-nine aie all dead.
I ?
tllO seii-muruerera wo UClUiOJU* AMV
proportion of the sexes is five men to
one woman, and the most popular method
is hanging.
A man in Buffalo palled off his coat
and jumped in the canal to save a woman
from drowning, when a pickpocket stole
his pocketbook from the coat, and the
woman swore at him for pulling her hair
in his efforts to save her life.
The Oldtown Indians, who live near
Bangor, Me., have a law requiring everybody
to be at home by nine o'clock in
the evening. One of the Indians was
caught out at ten o'clock the other night
and sent to jail for thirty days.
The English press is greatly interested
in tho shipment of beef packed in ice
chests from New York to Liverpool. If
the experiment succeeds, American beef
can be placed in the Euglish market at
a price twenty-five per cent, below the
current rate.
When a common school teacher in the
West found upon his examination papers
the question : " How does a ship
at sea find it latitude and longitude ?"
he arose to the occasion and promptly
wrote : " It finds its longitude hot and
its latitude kold."
Up in Rutland, Vt., a man has just
had a piece of window glass more than
two inches long taken from his leg,
where it had been for eighteen years.
It may truly be said that during that
entire period he has never been absolutely
free from pane.
A little boy, six years old, and a little
girl, eight, were looking at th6 clouds
one beautiful summer evening, watch- > ing
their fantastic shapes, when the boy
exclaimed : " Oh, Minnie, I see a dog
in the sky!" "Well, Willie," replied
the sister, " it must be a tky terrier."
A Burlington schoolboy views the
advent of school days without a tremor,
because, he says, he is pained to au
oz. that his father lbs. him without qr.
nearly every day, worse than ever his
teacher did, nor is he the only unhappy
boy in town ; he says he knows a cwt.
the return of school days with eager
impatience.
Carrier pigeons have been put to an
ingenious use by a physician on the Isle
of Wight. After visiting his patients
in each village, the doctor writes out his
prescriptions, affixes one to the leg of a
pigeon, and sends the bird - ome. Thus
the prescriptions are made up at once,
and the medicines are dispatched speedily
to those liviDg at a distance.
A tailor and his son were in the olden
days doing a day's work at a farmhouse.
The prudent housewife, to secure a
good day's work, lighted candles when
daylight begun to fade. The tailor
looked to his son and said : "Jock, confound
them that invented workin' by
caunlelicht." " Ay," replied the young
? ? aitVipr father."