University of South Carolina Libraries
" w ' '1 - ??? THE TRIBUNE. VOL. I.?NO. 5. BEAUFORT, S. C., DECEMBER 23. 1874. * $2.00 PER ANNUM. The Brown Thrush. There is r merry brown Ibruah sitting np in the tree. " He's singing to me ! IIo's singing to mo !" And what iloos ho say, littlo girl, littlo boy? " O, the world's running over with joy ! Don't you hear ? Don't you soo ? Hush ! Look ! In my tree I'm as happy as happy 'can b? !" And the brown thrush koops singing, " A nest do you sec, And five eggs, hid by mo in tho jiuiiport roe ? Don't meddle ! don't touch ! httlo girl, littlo boy, Or tho world will lose some of its joy ! Now I'm glad! now I'm froo ! And I always Hliall bo, If you never bring sorrow to mo." Ko tho merry brown thrush sings away in tho tree, To you ami to mc, to you and to mo ; And ho sings all the day, little girl, little boy, " O, tho world's running over with joy ! But long it won't be, Don't you know? don't yon tseo? "Unless wc aro as good as can bo ?" THE MIDNIGHT EXPRESS. A Thrilling (Sketch. Dick Archer was the station agent, and a-s there was little to do, the place just suited him, as he was fond of fishing and hunting. Besides Dick, there wro a porter nud a boy. Tho porter was a quiet, lethargic man, tho son of one of his lordship's woodmen ; and I don't know how the station would liave got on at all, little as there was to do, if it hadn't been for the boy. That boy was n perfect treasure. I never saw any boy like him for energy and firmness. One day Dick camo and told me that there was to be a party np at tho Hall, a sort of upper servants' party. At fifteen minutes after midnight the up express passed through at full speed, and it was Dick's duty to bo at tho station to see the lino all clear. Half an hour before tho express came a goods train usually, but it rarely stopped. Our siding was not long enough for it to shunt into, and if there wasn't a truck to leave, it ran on to Greatford, a principal station on the line, where it shiuited for tho express to pass. After thoso two trains had gone by there was nothing more for the station master to do. I did not carc to go, but went to please Dick. Near the Hall was tho Hurford Arms inn. The landlord had a very pretty daughter, too, Ellen Lanford, and in his quiet way Dick was very fond of her. Between ourselves, I liked her too, and thought about her more than I should have cared to acknowledge. I was rather sprry for Dick, because I could see tho girl didn't-care for him. She was really a nice girl, I assure you, well brought up and educated, and tnere was a charm about her tliat seemed to entangle one whether one would or not. However, I wasn't going to interfere with Dick ; it would liavo been a pretty return for liis hospitality to have cut him out 011 his own ground, even if I'd had a chance of doing it. I fancied that Dick had made up his muui u> nnng inuigs 10 a crisis tins particular night. He'd got himself up very spruce in a dress suit and embroidered sliirt, and altogether looked very well. The Lanfords were going up to tlio Hall in one of their own flies, and were to tako Dick with them ; so we walked up to the Burford Arms together. There stood the fly waiting at the door, and Mr. Lanford, dressed in a blue coat and brass buttons, capacious whito silk waistcoat, silk stockings, and shorts. " Wliero's Ellen ?" said Dick. " Oh," said Mr. Lanford, " she's got a ba<l cold, and won't come ! Jump in, Mr. Archer." Dick's face fell, and he hesitated as if he'd a mind to say he wouldn't go either; but he couldn't exactly do it, and he crawled into tlio fly and went off with old Lanford, as woc-begono as if he wero going to execution. I stood in the porch of tlio Bnrford Arms, not thinking of going in, when all of a sudden the thought came into my head that Ellen hod done this on purpose. Dick had mado such a fuss about this party and her going to it that she had como to the same conclusion as myself, and had mado up her mind that he was going to put a certain question to her that very night. Now her not going meant that she didn't want the question jiiikml T ftftii'f /looninhA wl^ot o fix wont through mo as I thought of that. The coast was clear. Dick's chanco was gone. Was there a chance for me ? Was I doing a sneaking thing ? I wondered, as I opened the door quietly and walked in. As I went down the matted passago my heart went loudly pit-a-pat. I had come to a resolve on the instant, and every faculty I had was working hard to justify it. Here was a girl whom I hadn't known for more than a fortnight in a position in which of choice I should not havo looked for a wife, and yet I know tliat I must needs go on. I had sot my face tliat way, and thero was no turning it. The result of it was that beforo I left tho inn I had told Ellen that I loved her. and had received her assurance that sho loved mo in return, and I was most happv. I left tho inn and walked to the station. Dick was there, not having attended the party. " Dick," I said, plunging at onoe into tho middle of the subject?"Dick, would you bo surprised to hew: that I was engaged to bo married ?" ", It was the paraffine lamp over his head, no doubt, that threw such a yellow sinater glare into Dick's faoe as he slowly Vix j t / raised his eyes from tlio paper before liim. "To bo married," said he?"to be married, eh ? Who is the fortunate fair, I wonder ?" I was rather relieved to iuid that Dick was taking it thus lightly, and I went on : "I have proposed to Ellen Lanford to-night, and she lias accepted me. If I've interfered in any way with you, Dick, I'm sorry ; I didn't intend to, but"? " Interfered with me ?" interrupted Dick, with a sort of a sneer. " Wliat on earth should make vou think that? I may have flirted a littlo with her, but that's my way with girls. I assure you I had no intentions except a little diver- I sion." " That's lucky," said I, coldly, for I didn't like his tone. A.11 of a sudden we heard a low murmuring sound, caused by the humming of the wires of the telegraph overhead, and tho gcntlo vibration of the woodwork about us. "It's the express," cried Dick, his face turning quite livid, " and I haven't locked up tho points ! Come and help mo, Ned. The ' goods' dropped a truck at the siding, and I never locked the points." He hurried out upon tho platform and away to tho Bwitcli that turned the points off and on. I followed him closely, not expecting, however, that my Servians would be required, as tho affair was only one of an instant. Dick ran to tho switch, and I stood by the lino watching him and looking- out' lor uio express, xno line, as I have said, ran tkrougli a wood ; and just beyond the station tlio ground rose a little, so that there w as a cutting Cwenty or thirty feet deep. At the top of the bank was the distance signal, which now showed a white light to the up line. Beyond that the track ran straight away over a broad level country. It was a fine piece of engineering that; a road as straight as a dart, spanned here and there by bridges, converging gradually till it vanished to nothing on the horizon. Fiyo miles or more away you could discern tlio lamps of an advancing train on a clear night. I could see the lights now, merged into one yellow point that twinkled like a star in a mist ; and the hum of the approaching train was distinctly to be heard, and yet she was two miles away. Two miles away! That meant two minutes?that was her headlong speed ; for every throb of one's heart that mighty moving mass had leaped a flying stride some sixty feet. And behind this rushing coil of iron, fire, and hot scalding vapor, luxurious men and soft-limbed women sat and dozed away the moments ?reading, perhaps, or busy at some trifling task, or talking drowsily, the lamps shining softly down upon their hoads; and here in this quiet country nook, the moon looking placidly down and the stars twinkling tlirougli the rifts in the white fleecy clouds, lurked death in wait. " I can't close the points, Ned !" cried my friend, iu a hoarse excited whisper ; " come and help me." Had I thought for a moment I should have rushed to the'handle of the distance signal and turned it to " danger but I was confused by the imminence of the peril. " There's something between the points," he said, " that prevents their closing." j. nut tuung wiH iriwh. wnere ine two seta of rails converged?the main line and the siding. The siding was now open, so that tho advancing train would be turned front the line, hurled against the earthen bank and massive timber structure at tho end. Stay ; I had found tho source of11 the mischief?between the end of one of tho moving points and the iron flange tliat acted as a stop when it was fully closed was a round white stone. I kicked the stone away with my foot ; the points were spring ones, and closed sharply with a clang, pinning my foot be^veen the flange and tho iron rail. 44 Dick," I cried, 44 open the poiuts ; I'm caught!" I saw his face in the moonlight ; it was liko the face of a corpse, but his eyes gleamed with ferocity ami malign triumph. Deliberately ho fastened the cluun and padlock to tho switch and locked it up ; then ho made a few quick strides across the line and throw his arms round my struggling frame. 44 You'll be married, will you," ho liissed into my ears, 44 to your pet, your uiixuiig, your naien f In that moment I remembered her face, and that I was then speaking some such endearing words. Then, and now ! All my new-born happiness seemed to return upon mo in a flood of sudden, unspeakable bitterness. Yonder came the train, the earth quaking at its passage, rushing upon us with horrible, staring eyes ; whistling, shrieking, roaring, frothing out great gusts of white, hot steam, the glaro of its furnaces swooping like lightning flashes across tho dark, steep cutting. Pinned to tho ground by my foot, the strong grasp of a madman about my arms, I made ono desperate, ineffectual struggle, gave ono despairing cry?I remember nothing moro. Other hands must toll you tho rest. vt.t.rv nnvnwniw tiiw otadv After ray dear Nod had left mo on tho night he nrst said that ho lovod mo, I rested for some time on tho sofa, fooling tired and quite sad somehow, and yet very happy. Then I put out the candles, and was going to bed. I was passing through tlio bar when I caught sight of a slip of paper twisted up and addressed to me in large, blotched letters. It was from Richard Archer. I declare that I never gave Mr. Archer any encouragement?at least not more than any girl might nave done to a young man who was trying to make himself agreeable ; certainly never sinoe I saw Edward, and felt how vastly superior ho was in every way to this Mr. Archer. The note was short and rough. " Ellen," it began, not that he had any right to address me in that way?certainly I was not and never had been "Ellen" to him, but so it was?" Ellen, you have deceived me, you and Neil Walters ; but I give you warning it is for tho last time. You and he shall never marry ; I will see you both dead first." I was dreadfully frightened when I read this ; but I came to the conclusion it was mere rodomontade when I began to think it over calmly. I langlied at the idea of that whipper-snapper, little Archer, doing any damage to my Edward, and yet I was uneasy. Then father came homo in rather a bad temper. The party had been a failure, for everybody hail been upset by that young Archer, who behaved liko a madman at the hall, told everybody of liis troubles, and abused father to all the company, and at last went off to walk home Jo the station, seeming quite wild and disturbed. " It's all your fault, too," said father, " flirting and encouraging that young chap to come here." Father went to bed and bado mo put tho lights out and go to bed too. But still I couldn't'get rid of my uneasy feeling ; I couldn't make up my mind to go to bed while I was uncertain as to what might be happening at the station when ltichard and Edward met, as tney would bo sure to. I ran down the garden and opened the gate gently, and went along tho path. In a moment I stood upon tho bank overhanging the line, and thou I heard tho express whistling and moaning a long way off. I made up my mind to stay till the train went by; and I watched it coming on, its lights gradually growing more distinct, and the wreaths of steam it threw off looking like white fleecy clouds in the moonbeams. All of a sudden I heard a sort of smothered cry in the direction of the station, and, turning round, I saw two men were struggling upon the railway line, right in the way of tho express. They were Edward and Archer ; and then in a moment it struck me that Archer, mad with disappointment and jealousy, meant to murder his friend and kill himself at the same time* by means of the express train. The train was just upon me, in another half minute it would be over them. I could do nothing ; I could only scream aud look up to heaven. Aud then I saw a light above my head, the distance signal of the station shining "All right" to the advancing train. Instantly there came into my head one of those iuspired thoughts that seem to bo communicated by Providence in moments of sudden danger. The wire of the signal by which it was moved from the station ran along little posts along tho side of the line. If I could only reach that wire and turn the signal to danger, I might yet save my lover. I dashed down the bank and over the ditch at the bottom, and there my foot struck against the wire of the signid, and seizing it with both hands, I dragged it with my utmost strength ; but it would not move?no, I could not move it an inch either way. I knew the reason afterward. It wits rm? nf ?otunX signals, thnt always point to danger unless held at safety by the wire from tho station ; and this wire now being held tight by tho lever at the station, which was fastened in its place, nothing could move it. Tho ground was now beginning to tremble under me with the swift rush of tho train, and still the terrible wire mocked all my efforts. In a transport of frenzy almost I cast myself upon it. It broke?yes, it broke with my weight suddenly thrown upon it?and with a clang -and clatter the signal-lumps went roumi. An indignant roar of whistling from the engine told me the signal had been seen, but with hardly abated speed the train now went past me. * I shrieked loudly and waved my hands, and I saw the lire fly from tho metals, and heard the discordant scream of the wheels against the rails. Then I rose and riui toward tho station. Tho train had been stopped just in time : tho buffers almost. toue.lie<l mmr Nod, who was pinned there, unable to escape. Ho was dreadfully bruised, too, by the iron boot in which his foot lmd boon fixed, and wo feared at one time that tho shock of tlioso dreadful few minutes would havo beon too much for him. But wo took liim to our house, where ho had careful tending, I assure you, and beforo long ho was his old self once more, and doubly dear to his Ellon for tho perils ho liad undergone ; and I nevor can bo sufficiently thankful that he was spared to me, for ho is 0110 of tho dearest and best? CONCLUSION BY TIIE ORIGINAL AUTIIOR. Rather than listen to my wife's rhapsodies, I dare say you would like to hear ?U\/UU my J/1SVJ1 iiiriiu A.IUUIU, Wilt WW sudden frenzy had so nearly been fatal to me. I must do him the justice to say that I don't believe this outrage of his was premeditated. It seemed that on this night the goods train had dropped a truck at the siding, and tho porter, to save liimself tho troublo of running backward and forward to tho switch, had jammed a stono in to keep the points open. Tho porter had gono off home, forgetting that ho had left tho stono thero ; and knowing that tho points were self-closing, and tliat it was tho station master's business to lock them up, had thought no moro about the matter. Tho station-master, his head full of other things, had forgotten to go and lock up tho points till ho heard tlio distant roar of tho express ; and then, sudden opportunity presenting itself to his warped and jaundiced mind, he had clutched at the opportunity of involving his miserable solf and Ins successful rival in ono common doom. After that Dick went raving mad, and was confined in an asylum. He was discharged cured, and went away to America, where he was soon after killed by an engine 011 a level crossing. I always made out that it was an accident my being fastened in the points, ami that Dick was trying to save me ; but now that he is dead, there is no harm in telling the whole truth. ? _> Antarctic Icebergs. In the diary of the Challenger's voyage to the Antarctic regions, very accurate ; descriptions of icebergs arc given. At 1 the beginning of an iceberg's independent I existence, it does not possess those fan[ tastic forms wliiroare so often described. Near the Pole they were nearly all huge, ; flat-topped cubes of ice, from a quarter i to half a mile across, and 150 to 250 feet 1 above water. This corresponds to submersion amounting to nine times this height. This is the iceberg ns it appears j just after breaking awny from the glacier, I where it was formed, and beforo the sun begun to affect it. As it floats into warmer regions it slowly melts, and assume^ the almost unimaginable forms so oft< mi seen. Rut an iceberg is by 110 means short-lived. In the Southern i ocean south of 64 dep. latitude, the tem, perature of the -water, except for n few feet at the surface, where it is warmed by the sun, is 29 do#. Falir. This is 3 dog. bel?)w the freezing point. Even the surface water close to the ice is of this temperature, so that the iceberg moves in a bath of this low temperature. ! Only in summer is the water warm enough to melt a notch around it at the sea level. This notch is.never more than thirty feet deep, and tho waves striking in break down the overhanging cliff, and tho iceiceberg rises somewhat, the notch deepening. This action is most vigorous on the weather side, which accordingly becomes the lightest, causing tho iceberg to turn slowly round. It is to the cavities thus formed, surrounded by ice of various thickness, aud containing more or less water, that tho rich colors of icebergs are <lue. " Where the crevasses," | says the diary, '? or other weak parts in I the upper surface of the parent glacier | extend down to tho water-lino of the floating iceberg, the sea, having a less solid part to withstand it, soon excavates a ipost beautifully defined and picturesque cave, the sides of which, reflecting light, color the interior with an exquisite cobalt blue, the tint of which increases in warmth and riclmoss as the depth extends, When these occur on the side that is afterwurd raised, no description can do justieo to the picturesque appearance of this line of fairy grottoes." ? The glaciers from which icebergs are I broken off reach far out to sea. A glacier j of 2,000 feet thickness will have to push its way out to a depth of 1,800 and more l ieet beiore its front can bo broken by the tloative force of the water. Such a glacier, pushing its way over an ocean ; bed having the same slope as the Atlantic ! basin off* the coast of New Jersey, would j touch bottom for more than 240 miles I beyond the land, and for the whole of I this distance glacier markings would be | found. The observations on tempera; ture above spoken of show that the glaI eier does not break off by overweight due to undermining, but is broken by the buoyant pressure of the water. A Hundred Extinct Volcanoes. The San Francisco Chronicle gives the following in an account of a recent : meeting of the Academy of Science of that city: Dr. Harkness spoke of dis1 coveries made by himself in parts of Plumas and Lassen counties little known hitherto, A tract of country containing about 8,0(H) square miles, he described i not only as volcanic, but showing traces of recent volcanic action, and hav- , ing witliin its limits 100 extinct volcanoes. A large crater on the dividing line of tho two counties had dammed up ; the lake, giving it a new outlet, and 1 spreading its waters over mi area of three square miles. Tho volcanic cone is higher ' than Vesuvius. Ashes and scoria) are scattered all down its sides. In different parts of the lake are stumps of trees, ftomn of flu^m fnrfxr.firn in l?nio-l?4 and allowing above the surface. Some of them, standing on tho lava, are only j partially burned through, indicating 1 that the matter ejected from the volcano was not all in a melted state. In other places occur round cavities, which were sounded by Dr. Harkncaa and liis party, and stumps found at the bottom. Higher up, the trees, though untouched by the lava, were burned by tho heat. The growth of a portion of tho trees since the eruption shows about twenty-five annular rings. Tho lava from the volcano covers about 100 square miles. An old resident of lied lilufT, who was in the neighborhood in 185.'!, told tho doctor that he saw a bright sheet of flame : rising from the mountain, which con tinucd during Ins entire stay. Shaved Head, ail old Indian of the Mill Creek tribe, says that in his youth the region was alive with volcanoes in active operation. No Necessity for Change. Moore's Itural New Yorker advises every farmer who is doing well and making a fair ineomo from bis special kind of farming to l.o cautious in changing it for other branches concerning which he is not familiar, for the chances are that the new business will not yield any more profit, and perhaps not so much as the one with which he is acquainted. Wo believe tho profits from dairying are often overestimated ; and while its advantages are often tho topic of discussion and laudation, it is proper tliatsomo of the disadvantages be made to appear, and then the balance of account may bo struck and no one need be led astray. Four thousand persons waited in tho streets all night at Paris to see tho execution of Moreau, who poisoned his two i wives?and the execution was postponed. A Famous Kliodc Island Chowder. Some of our readers, says the Providence Journal, will recall the lafco James Brown, a gentleman of genial and accomplished manners, some of whoso social sayings have como down to the present generation, and shall not he gainsaid. The following is his rocipe for a chowder, very famous in his day, and not altogether forgotten in ours : ST. JAMES' OnOWDER FOR SEC. Take six slices of good pickled pork (pig preferred), ami fry them in the bottom of a good-sized dinner-pot, turning the slices till they are brown 011 both sides. Take out tho slices of pork, leaving the drippings in tho pot. Take seven pounds of tantaug, dressed (leaving the hoiuls on), or ten pounds of scup (tautaug to bo preferred), and cut cacli in tlireo pieces, unless small, when cut them in two. Place in tho pot, on the drippings, as many pieces of lish as will fairly cover tho bottom of the pot.' Throw into the pot, on tho fish, throe handfuls of onions, peeled and sliced in thin slices. Do not be afraid of the onions ! Put in over this salt and pepper to taste, as in other soups. Then lav on the six nlin>H nf nnrl- nn Hm r>f Sio pork tlio rest of the tisli ; cover this with , three luuidfuls more of onions peeled and sliced. (Nine or ten onions in both layers will suffice, though more will not injure it.) More pepper and salt, to taste. Then pour into the pot water enough . just to come fairly even with the wholo, or partly cover the samo. Put the cover , on the pot, place it on the tire. Let it boil gently and slowly for thirty minutes. It is to boil thirty minutes, not merely to be on the lire thirty minutes, and at all events let it boil until the onion ! is done soft. Pour in at this point about a quart (a common bottle) of best cider 1 or champagne, and a tumbler full of port wine, and at the same time odd about two i pounds of sea biscuits. ] Note.?If, when tlio onion is done, you ' find there is not liquor enough in the 1 pot, soak the sea-biscuit in water for a few moments before putting them in. I | would recommend the practice goner* 1 ally. i After the cider, wino and crackers are ] put in, there is no harm in stirring the wholo with a long spoon, though it is not necessary. Then let the whole boil again (not merely be over the tire) for j about live minutes, and the chowder is , ready for the table. Before dishing up let the cook taste it and sec whether it lacks pepper or salt, when, if it does, it is a good time to add either. Note.?Also, never boil a potato in chowder. If you waut potatoes, boil them in a separate pot, and servo in a 1 separate dish on table. Advice to a (Jirl who "Finished." Gertrude, yu tell me that yu hav been j two years in a boarding school, and lmv just finished yure edukashun, and want j t,(l klio Tvlint. vii hIuiII <ln liort. Listen, mi gushing Gertrude, aud I will tell yu. Get up in the morning in good season, go down into the kitchen, seize a potato l>y the throat with one liand aud a knife 1 with the other, skin the potato, and a 1 dozen more just like it, stir up the buck- 1 wheat batter, look in the oven and see J how the biscuit aro doing, bustle ' around generally, step on the cat's tail, ( and help your good old mother git breakfast. , i After breakfast put up the yung chil- < droll's luncheon for skool, help wash up 2 the dishes, sweep, put things in order, 1 and sumtimes during the day, nit at least f two inches and a half on sum ono ov t yuro brothers' little blue woolen stock- t ings for next winter. In other words, go to work and make f yureself useful, now that you liav bekum , ornamental, and if yu have onuy time f left, after the beds are all"made, and the i duks hav been fed, pitch into the pian- j nn, and make the old rattle box skream ( with musik. ] Go tliis for one year, ami, sum likoly i yung fellow in the naberliood will hear ov it, and will begin to hang around yu, and say sweeter things than yu ever heard before, and finally will giv yu a chance to keep house on yure own hook, t Yu follow mi advice, Gerty, and see if i ho don't.?Josh Hillings. i 1 United States Lighthouses. Tlio annual report of tlio Lighthouse , Board of the United States, after review- , ing the organization, character and his- , tory of that branch of tlio service, says : , The magnitude of tlio lighthouse sys- j torn of the United States, and consequeutly that of the duties of tlio Board ( and the responsibilities connected with tlieni, may be inferred from tlio follow ing facts : First?The coast from the St. Croix river, 011 the boundary of Maine, to tho Itio Grande, on the Gulf of Mexico, includes a distance of 5,000 mile3. Second?Tho Pacific coast lias a length . of al?out 1,500 miles. , l'liirtl?Tlio great nortliorii lakes about , 3,000 miles. Fourth?The inland rivers of 700 ' miles ; making a total of more than 10,- i (XX) miles. i The following table exhibits a synopsis of what has been accomplished in aid of navigation along those extended lines, by far the longest of thoso of any nation in the world : Lighthouses and lighted beacons 608 Lighthouses and lighted beacons finished and lighted during the year ending July 1, 1874 25 Lightshi|>s in position 21 Fog signals operated by steam or hot air engines 40 Day or unliglited beacons 846 liuoys in position 2,865 An appropriation of 880,000 is asked for tho proper preservation of the records and means of rendering them readily accessible. Items of Interest. In Indiana 660,000 children go to .school. A paying young man is better than a promising one. 8ome girls are angry when you toll them you love them. Others are angrier when you don't. " Sokretz," says Josh Billings, "is a bad investment?if you pass it, yu lozo the principal, and if you keep it yu loze interost." J. lie report tliat a successful poultry dealer act up-a carriage, arose from his statement that he had made his ooop pay, this season. Now is tho time when the poor little castaway exclaims, " Say, Johnny, don't wo pity them littlo fellows as hain't got any nice warm barrel to sleep in ?" A Milwaukee woman's bonnet oosts, upon an average, about $15, but she has the bill made out for $30 or $40, in order to show it to tho woman noxt door. A Maine college professor throws out tho suggestion that hazing might easily bo prevented if parents ftuly understood the virtues of the corrective shingle. A foreign journal refers to the story of a great speculator who floated a company for working a salt mine of inexhaustible extent, which turned out to bo the sea. An individual who was about to start a paper in tho interest of the glove makers and dealers was rather disgusted at tho suggestion that it should be called The Jfatul Organ. Five colored men have been elected to the next Congress, all new men. Two are from South Carolina, one from North Carolina, one from Alabama and one from Louisiana. An English girl laughs at the idea that a woman cannot live comfortably with her mother-in-law, and advertises for some good-looking young fellow to give her a chance to try the experiment. He who every morning plans the transactions of the day and follows out that plan, will accomplish twice as much- as one who makes no plan ; when the disposal of time is left to chance, all things will he huddled together. A girl in South Carolina, playing with an empty champagne bottle, fell down, broko the bottle and cut her throat with the gloss. As a gun is dangerous without lock, bo is a gkauipagno bottle, dangerous, whether it is loaded or not. No nurse girl should hold pins in her mouth?it is too dangerous.* It is much more convenient and safe to make a pin cushion of the baby. If the baby cries, drive tho pins home by patting the child, and if that won't do, give it paregoric. An iu?rA utu! f.l>rAA-t/inflia nf lan/1 Vuuir. Lng 1,639 vines, near San Jose, California, yielded this year 49,760 pounds of grapes?the Charboneau?from which bhe most famous Burgundy wines are made?and 6,000 gallons of wine will be made from them. A gentleman said to his gardener : " George, the time will oome when a man will be able to carry the manure of m acre of land in one of his waistooat pockets." To which the gardener replied : " I believe it, sir; but he will no able to carry all the crop in the itlier." Corpulent old lady?** I should like a ;icket for the train. Booking clerk (who liinks ho will make a joke)?" Yes ; will /ou go in the passenger train or cattle rain ?" Lady?" Well, if you aro a specimen of what I shall oxperienoe in he passenger train, give me a ticket for lie cuttle train by all means." If in your business you are grasping, sordid, tricky, some clork in your employ vill lie the samo ten years hence, made to l>y you. If you are fretful and endons as a woman or wife, more than one ?irl will catch the fever of your ooniuct, and somewhere ahead make hor ionic as unhappy as you are now making /ours. Mad Emperors. The rumor abont the impending inutility of the Czar of Russia is not ex ictly a now one. Frequent fits of melmoholy liave led people before now to predict fliat his lifo would terminate with softening of the brain. His well-known friendship for Homo, the spiritualist, md the suddenness with which he was uncustomed to summon the eelebratod tncdiiun to commune with him at Ems, used to make the wiseacres shake their beads and hint that the Czar was " queer." The Romanoffs have produced mad emperors before now, though up to the time of Alexander I. their derangement invariably took rather savage forms. Paul I., the grandfather of the present Ernperor, was assassinated through a conspiracy of nobles whom his violent caprices had goaded to frenzy. His son Alexander, surnamed the Blessed ?the samo who did so much to infuse Qrcntlenoss into the triumphs of the allies [iver Napoleon?died, it is said, from poison taken under the influence of a iingoring melancholy to which he was first subject after his return from the armed occupation of Paris. Luster Sheep, a New Breed. At a recent exhibition in Bremen a fleece was exhibited from South Australia of a yearling ram, which was remarkable for its fine silky luster and softness, and the unusual length (over five inches) of the smooth, fine wool, as well as for its beautiful, almost dazzling whiteness. All were satisfied that a fine, firm yarn, and vorv suDerior cloth oonld bo made from it. It was stated that it wm a result of in and in breeding of Negrefcti sheep with Leicester (Lincoln) rams ; the number of generations required was not stated, however. ? 'Jt ii