The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, December 11, 1890, Image 1
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VOL.'XLIX. CAMDEN, S. C., THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1890. NO. 24.
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HIS OLD YELLOW ALMANAC.
I left the farm when mother died, and
changed my place of dwellin'
To daughter Susie's stylish house, right in
the city street.
And there was them, before I came, that
sort of scared me, tellin'
How I would find the town folks ways so
difficult to meet.
They said I'd have no comfort in the rustlin',
fixed-up throng,
And I'd have to wear stiff collars every
week-day right along.
I find I take to city ways just like a duck to
water,
I like the racket and the noise, and never
tire of shows;
And there's no end of comfort in the mansion
of my daughter.
And everything is right at hand, and
money freely flows,
ADd hired help is all about, just listenin' for
mv mil.
m"J -??
But I miss the yellow almanac off my old
kitchen wall.
The house is full of calendars, from attic to
the cellar.
They're painted in all colors, and are fancy-like
to see;
But just in this particular I'm not a modern
feller,
And the yellow-covered almanac is good
enough for rae;
I'm used to it, I've seen it round from boy hood
to old age.
And I rather like the jokin' at the bottom of
each page.
I like the way the "S" stood out to show the
week's boginnin'
(In these new-fangle i calendars the days
seemed sort of mixed),
And the man upon the cover, though he
wa'n't exactly winnin',
"With lungs and liver all exposed, still
showed how we are fixed;
And the letters and credentials that were
writ to Mr. Ayer
1'vo often, on a rainy day, found readin1
very fair.
I tried to find one recently; there wa'n't one
? in the city.
They toted out great calendars in every
sort of style;
I looked at 'em in cold disdain, and answered
'em in pity,
Td rather have my almanac than all that
costly pile,"
And, though I take to city life, I'm lonesome,
after all,
For that old yellow almanac upon my
kitchen wall.
?Ella Wheeler Wilcox, in Ihe Century.
Eecta's Night Harangue.
BY JOHN J. A'BECKET.
There were a thousand thiDgs that
troubled Mr. Burnham's mind. Not all
at once, of course, because if troubles do
. 1__ At J__tA * _ I
never come singly, moy aon i lnvauc a
mortal like a plague of locusts?hundreds '
at a time. But there were always a few !
little worrimeuts -which settled on pour
Mr. Burnham like three or four bees in j
the calyx of one flower, sucking the j
sweetness out of it. But the flower
which yields up its sweetness to the in- |
vading bee has this advantage, that it (
can keep up a brave front and distill as
exquisite a perfume even if the winged
marauders filch every vestige of sweetness
from it.
And the worst of it was that, as a rule,
Mr. Burnham created, or, at least, entertained
most of his worriments. If he
went into a restaurant for his iunch, he
could not tell what it was lie wanted on
the menu, and instead of falling back on
roast-beef, which is a safe escape in this :
complication, he would balance shad rce
and Kennebec salmon and spring lamb,
until he was vexed at himself and almost
lost his appetite.
But the poor man had one somewhat
justifiable source of mental trouble. It
was a sweet little girl, six years old.
She a worry? Yes; she was. And this
was only because she was the dearest little
thing in the world. She was perfectly
healthy, so she was exuberantly active.
Mr. Burnham was afraid she would break
her leg or get run over. She was as
pretty as an orchid. Mr. Burnham used
to sigh at the prospect ot her marrying
some handsome, worthless fellow when
6he was seventeen. The absurdity of
borrowing trouble a dozen years away, if
. - it came at all, was no help to the good
man. lie was always dealing in futures
of that kind.
Ihe chief thing that troubled him was
Nina's education. Through a dreadful
dispensation of fate Nina's mother died ;
when the little fairy was only five; so the j
task of educating the child devolved i
upon Mr. Burnhnm entirely. And lie
had very strict, conscientious views about,
education. He felt that the formation
of Nina's character depended on him,
and he was so dreadfully afraid that he
mightn't uiouel it aright.
His business kept him away a good
deal; and though he had obtained the
best governess he could find for his little
1 girl, he felt that parental care was an
nii-jLupui umt lavjiui. iiu mway a
thinking what he could do to improve
Hiss Nina's mind and disposition.
The result of this constant straining
after the best educational methods led
him one day to conceive what he regarded
as a happy idea, and an original
one, too. Much of the happiness of the
thought for Mr. Burnham lay in this
fact, that he felt it was a bright spark
thrown off by his own mind, and which
hadn't occurred to anybody before,
t He was hurrying along Broadway one
| day when he saw a sign telling of talk|
:ing dolls. Dplls had always seemed, to
A Mr. Burnham to have their value in a
A child's education, because t'aey fostered
-the sense of responsibility in the little
ifii 0JDe*
But here was a doll that could do
more than that. "I have to be away so
much from Nina," he said to himself, as
he stopped and read the sign. ' 'Now what
an advantage it would be if she could
have something that would say nice
things to her when I am not by!"
His ideas were somewhat vague on the
HHgfflS^Lubject of talking dolls. He was really
MMftg^Lrguing as if he could go into the shop
glSnSi^Ld select some conversational Madame
de Sta<jl of a doll, who would discourse
etc'nics like a traveling missionary.
He went in. A young man with a
prominent nose and a retreating chin
advancing briskly and asked what he
wanted. Mr. Burnham said he would
like to see some of the talking dolls that
he might interview them.
The beautiful puppets were lying on
their backs in a show-case, laid out as if
this were an undertaker's establishment
! for dolls. The clerk extracted one exI
quisitely pretty doll with fluffy golden
I hair, round staring eyes, and a complex*
i ion that put a rose leaf to shame. It
was dressed in a beautiful lace frock
with pale blue ribbons strung through it.
The clerk seized it, wound up some
apparatus m its back and then held it
! perpendicularly. At the same time Mr.
Burnham heard a strident voice, 'ike a
| lusty dwarf's, say with almost painful
nrecision:
" Jack?and?Jill?went?up ?the?hillTo?draw?a?pail?of?water?
Jack ? fell - down?and ? broke ? his?
crown?
And?Jill?came?tumbling?after."
This was what this golden-haired doll
had to say. Somehow this brief history
of Jack and Jill seemed to lack a moral,
because the contemporaneity, bo to
speak, of their adversity, did not really
I have a lesson ia it.
He turned to some of the others. Each
doll had a square printed label setting
forth the extent of her loquacity. But
the tafking dolls really seemed to have a
strauge liking for Mother Goose
melodie3. One frivolous thing said:
"Now I lay me down to sleep," etc.,but
the accents of her speech did not seem
reverential enough to Mr. Buruhnm.
There was actually no more tenderness
in her toues than if she were reciting the
multiplication table.
Then 3Ir. Burnham's mind went
through another convolution, and the
result of it was that he determined to go
to the man that made the dolls, and have
some little sentiments of his own,
directed to Nina's improvement, injected
into the doll's powers of speech.
The result was that one day he came
home with a very beautiful doll. He
wound it up, and then gravely placed it
on his knee, while Nina looked hungrily
at it in an ecstasy of delight over its lace
gown and fluffy hair.
Suddenly her blue eyes dilated and-her
little mouth expanded as if it were a
blossom about to bloom. She heard in
her papa's voice these words: "Now I
wouldn't do that I Do you think it nice?
How do person? who act that way turn
out? Be good, and you'll be happy, and
papa will be proud of his little girl."
Niaa shrank away from the uncanny
thing. Its glitering eyes and tight little
pink lips were perfectly motionless, and
yet it was talkinginher papa'* voice. She
had glanced quickly up at his mouth
when she heard the first words, but it was
as set as the dolly's- and had almost a3
dwccv a omaic uu u.
She was just about to cry when Mr.
Burnham carefully explained to her that
it was only a little bit of machinery in
the doll's breast that talked that way.
Gradually, the child got to like it and
would wind up the machinery and hear
the doll say with dignified precision and
great unction: "Now I wouldn't do that I
Do you think it is nice?" and the rest of
it.
She set it off several times during the
day, and Sir. Burnham felt that he had
hit on a very ingenious scheme for watching
over his little girl when he was awiy.
Of course he had to take chances that,
as a rule, the doll would dissuade Nina,
from doing something that was not right;
but he felt that there was a corrective
sound in the words, aud that thero was
no daugcr of her being prevented from
doing what a little girl ought to by the
doll's speech. But if she were doing anything
be would not wish her to, the sound
of her papa's voice coining from the talking
doll would have peculiar force, in its
combination with the smail voice of her
conscience. He told Nina that the doll's
name was Recta. Mr. Burnham knew
Latin, and Recta means "Right" in that
language.
That night Nina had becomo such
friends with Recta that 9hc wished to
take her into her little bed with her, and
her papa, after cautioning her against
kissing it for fear the paint would come
off on her mouth, allowed her to do so.
So Recta was laid with her fluffy
head of hair on the same pillow where
Nina's rested, and they went to sleep
together.
It was about one o'clock, when the
house was all in slumber and quite dark,
that two bold, bad men came in at the
rear door. They had not been invited,
and they would not have been welcome
had they been seen, for they moved in
quite different circles of society from 3Ir.
Burnham and bi9 little girl.
Knowing they were not looked for, the
two young gentlemeu let themselves in
and made as little noise as possible so as
not to disturb anybody. They even had
some consideration for the policeman,
who might be taking a little nap in some
area way, and tried not to disturb him
either.
They were burglars, and they proposed
to collect Mr. Burnham'9 plate and
any little things that might look pretty
in their own apartments over on the Et.st
side.
They got several pieces of silver which
they put in a bag so as to carry them
conveniently, and then they stole up
stan-3, leaving uie nag a: tnc loot ot
them till they should come down.
Nina's room was next to her papa's,
and both led off from a very pretty sitting
room.
The men got into the sitting room aud
were groping their way about. One of
them had just taken a silver candelabrum
from the mantel-piece, and said in a hissing
whisper to the other:
"Bill, you bag 'tother one and let's
get. We've got enough, and this is too
risky.''
Just as Bill was reaching out a grimy
hand to take the other candelabrum they
heard on the still air these words of dignified
expostulation, with a slightly strident
quality in the tones which seemed to
rive a sarcastic finish to them:
"Now 1 wouldn't do that! Do you
think it is nice? ITow do persons who
net that way turn out? Be"?
They ouly heard this much. They
were so paralysed that they had to hear .
as much as tbia; but as soon as thsy recovered
they dropped the candelabra,
scuttled down the stairs like two black
cats, and were out on the street in a jiffy.
Consequently they did not hear Recta
say: "Be good and you will be happy,
and papa will be proud of his little girl.''
They ran right out into the policeman's
arms I He was coming up the street with
that easy, rolling gait which an officer
j has when he is simply walking on his
j beat. He rattled on the curbstone with
his club and clutched the first of the two
meu. The other ran like a deer down tho
street; but they got him, too, afterward.
Mr. Burnham heard the noiso the men
made, and also heard Nina scream 1
"Papa," in a frightened way. He rushed I
into the little girl's room and found her 11
cowering under the coverlid, with Recta j i
clasped tightly to her for protection. He i
called "Thomas!" a3 loudly as he could, j 1
and in a few moments Thomas came
down and lit the gas, and found the bag
of plate at the foot of the stairs. Then i
they knew that the house had been "bur- '
gled," and later the policeman told them '
ho had caught the burglar.
Nina had awakened in the night, and,
hearing a foottall in the next room,
wound up Recta to give her papa a little
surprise. The speech was a perfect success
as a surprise, and Mr. Burnham felt
prouder than ever of his idea.
"When the burglars learned how they
had been caught, "Bill" turned to the
other and said, disgustedly :
"It's a pretty hard go for a cove to be
dropped ou by a doll-baby 1"
But they were not u=ed to doll-babie9
that talked at night. That is their excuse
for being so flurried over Recta's night
harangue. Mr. Burnhum felt that the
talking doll had more than paid for itself.
?JStw lorn independent.
Wealth Inside a Statue.
* j
Pygmalion, the ancient artist, could
not be more overjoyed when his statue
became transformed into a lovely woman,
than the heirs of the late Mme. Artaud,
who recently died in Paris, France, when
thev discovered a considerable fortune
carefully hidden away in the interior of
i a common plaster of pari9 reproduction
of the famous Venus of Milo. The history
of the sudden find is curious and
entertaining. Mme. Artaud died without
making a will, and, as she had no
notary, her children and grandchildren
appealed to a financial adviser of the deceased
who used occasionally put her
money out in Stock Exchange speculations.
That the old lady had left a fair
share of lucre was certain, and as not a
stiver nor a bank note could be found
anywhere in her rooms, the Jieirs came
to the natural conclusion that the financial
agent must have been intrusted by Mme.
Artaud with her money before she made
her exit from this world. The agent declared
in the most positive manner that
he had received nothing in a long time
from Mme. Artaud, who, feeling her
end approaching, gave up Bourse speculations.
This did not satisfy the heire, who
plumply accused tue agent ot naving appropriated
what did not belong to him,
but as they had no proofs against him,
they were unable to begin legal proceedings.
They accordingly set to work to
divide the furniture aud general belongings
of he deceased betwen them. The
dining and salon chairs, tables and trappings
were in Empire style and worth
from $1500 to $2000, but as it would bo
impossible to obtain more than half their
value, the discontent among the heirs
increased. A lottery of the effect* having
been originated, an old statue represent
iug the Goddess of Love fell to one of '
the daughters of the deceased, who was (
about to break it with vexation when one
of her relatives proposed to examine it
to see if by any chance it were a rare ,
work of art. The base of the statue was
covered over underneath with oil cloth, ,
and when the covering was removed out
tumbled a choice collection of bank
notes, bonds, securities and obligations, ,
the whole amounting in value to about
$10,000. The plaster of paris Venus
will be piously preserved by the family
now as an emblem of luck and a happy
heirloom.?London Telegraph.
Wonderful Increase in Horse Speed.
"The wonderful increase in the speed
of both men and horses of recent years,"
said an old racing man the other day,
"holds out an nlluring prospect for the
future. Everybody remembers whou a
2:40 gait was. looked upon as very rapid
traveling for a trotter, but nowadays the
road hor6C who cannot do that time is
not worth treasuring in memory over
night. There arc over GOO horses in this
country which havo actually done better
than 2:30 this year. They arc in all sections
of the country, and every ho^sc has
a fond owuer-who is assiduously developing
his speed. These facts are far
more significant than the occasional performances
of phenomenal horses like
Sunol or Jay-Eyc-Sce. The two-rainute
limit no longer looks far away. A companion
of Qgure3 shows that out of-600
trotters mentioned above considerably
over 400 are less than seven years old.
The trotter, unlike the runner, improves
with age. Big 3pecd is often found in a
ten or twelve year old, whereas a runniug
horse nowadays is pretty well played
out after his third year unless he has a
cast-iron constitution and a disposition
that nothing can ruffle. There is a big
chance for the development of rocord
breakers out of the 400 young horses
who are at present stretching their muscular
legs over training tracks in various ,
parts of the country."?iYeio York Sun.
Napoleon's Lost Fockotbook.
During the three years before Waterloo
Emperor Napoleon offered large rewards
for the recovery of a pockctboolc
he had lost at the crossing ot tho Beresiua.
After the lapse of more than
three-quarters of a century it ha3 been
discovered in the possession of a ltussian
lady, who received it as a souvenir from
Con ut Fcbs J^doehovsky. ? T?-nts-Dmo'
I oral. - '
TAMED 'LIONS.
MORE readily broken than
ANY BEAST OF THE FOREST.
TaUffht to Appeal Feroclotts-?-Experl?
ences of Circus Men tVith "The
King of Beasts"?Romanced
About Circus Accidents.
The writer has taken the trouble to
hunt up the records of lions thaf have
been shown and perfo&ned in the United
Stales during the past^twenty*. years and
find* that there is not A-single instance on
record of a performqT or anybody else
having been bitten by?-ferocious lion.
In all that time only one man,who was
drunk at the time of A'e occurrence, has
been struck by the paw of a lion. This
man was paid for brutajdy maltreating one
of his charges by a blow that knocked
him senseless and was left lying in the
bottom of the cage lo^ twenty minutes,
while the four occupants of the cage
which ho was in quitftly curled themselves
up in the corner and watched him.
That occurred in Pennsylvania, and he
was a man named Adam "Wehzel, who
was with the O'Brien show.
A HIGHLY TRAINED FOREST MONARCH.
"As a matter of fact," said John B.
Dorip, the well-known museum manager,
jut formerly a circus proprietor of some
.hirty years' experience, "there is no
iniraal with which wt; circus men have
to deal that is so easy to handle, and so
afe for aperformcr a* a lion. In every:hing
they are just like great big goodaatured
dogs, easy to train and more
than ordinarily easy to perform. In fact,
ifter they are once trained to do their
:ricks, anybody with whom they are acquainted,
such as an attendant or a man
whom they have been accustomed to see
iround the show, can go into their cage
md put them through their act with perfect
safety. Why, in one season I had
no less thau eleven mctt perform my lions
ind in each case these, rngp were feeders,
:anvas-m^n, ho3tIcip-ffa<Kpbtfrgr employes
Df the circus who woul^oeapt To" he
ibout the animals all the time.
4'It is the appearance of 1 he lion and
that dreadful roar of his that strike terror
into the heart of the spectator and
cause him to think that he is in great
danger; but that roar of the lion, while
so dreadful in sound, is like a good many
other things in the show business, more
of a deception than otherwise. A lion
really only roars when he is in a particularly
good humor, and he can no more
help doing it than can a dog help barking.
"An incident occurred with my show
in Indianapolis which proves how gTeat
the terror a lion will cause and really
how docile he is. We were fixing up in
the spring of 1886 to go on the road, in
the Exposition building, and I believe
ff\A man of wnrlr in
lUUiU n cic liutc. uuuuiv^u uivu aw k v*u. ?<?
the building. One of my men, named
Pearl Sowder, was transfening the four
lions from the old cage to the newly
painted wagon, when, by the carelessness
of one of the attendants, the door flew
Dpen and two of the animals, Romeo and
George, jumped out and started across
the room towards a couple of barrels
that contained fat from the meat with
which the animals were fed. The minute
they struck the ground somebody spied
them and shouted 'The lions are loose!'
In a half a minute?yes, in less time
than that?every one of those 300 men
was out of that building, and they didn't
stop for doors either: they went through
windows, taking, glass and everything
else.
"Sowders heard the noise, and looking
round, jumped out of the cage, ran across
the room, grabbed Romeo by the scruff
of the neck and dragged him back and
literally booted him into the cage, and
then served George the same way. All
those two lions cared for was the fat in
the barrel. I paid $80 for the glass,
though, that the men broke when they
went through the windows, and so my
recollection of that incident is a vivid
one."
TIIE LIONS ABE LOOSE.
The two lions Mr. Dorris spoke of ai
jumping out of the cage were two of the
best trained animals ever shown ii
America and when Dorris sold out hi
circus the Orrin Brothers bought then
and took them down to Mexico, where
?... ~J11 ?%A?fArminrr Roman waa
lu\sy <tru dim pcumunu^. a?VUJW ..MW
afterwards trained by a man named Volta
to do the riding act and it is said that
the exhibition of the lions in a bull pan
in Vera Cruz by the Orrins netted them
?10,000 in one week. This part of
Romeo's act consisted of crouching on a
padded horse while the horse was galloping
around the ring, and then at the word
of command junipiDg over a banner and
alighting on the pad again. Romeo has
also been taught to walk a narrow plank
much in the fashion as a tightrope.
Prof. George C'onkling, who is JBarjuun
& Bailey's animal trainer1, smiled when
asked if lions were dangerous and said:
""Well, no; I should think not. And
tkeie are only two animals that we have
anything to do with that are dangerous;
one is an elephant and the other a.leo-|
pard." Lions are very easily broken and
very easily performed after being broken.
Why, I took four lions when the Barnum
show went into winter quarters and broke
them to do a halLdozon tricks in two
weeks, in addition to training den9 of
wolves, bears, hyneas, leopards, tigers
and pumas. The way I usually
train animals is to give them
an hour or two hours' oractice
morning and afternoon. In training
lions, we begin with the simplest of
tricks; for instance, take the act of a
lion jumping through a hoop. One attendant
holds the hoop on the ground
, and the lion is made to walk through;
if he does not walk through or does not
I understand, why take hold of the back
of his neck and haul him through. After
1 he knows that he has got to go through
that hoop anyway, it is lifted up a little
higher from the ground, until finally the
desired height is reached."
"How do you train a lion so that you
can put your head in his mouth?"
"That doesn't require any training;
just yank his mouth opeu and put your
head in."
"How about the sensation when the
lion stands up and puts his paws on your
shoulders?"
"Well, we lift him up until he is made
to understand that he must get up himself.
The usual performances of the lions
are in this manner: The cage is divided
into three compartments, with a door
between each, and the trainer goes in
there and he first makes a picture;
ho stands in the centre with a
whip in' each hand, while one lion
stands up with his paws on the cage in
one corner, and then crouches in one end,
and the other two squat and watch him
in a restless fashion; and then the trainer
puts them through all their tricks, separately
and together, such as jumping
over a pole and through a hoop bound
with oakum and saturated with naphtha,
all flaming, puts his head in their mouths
and winds up the act by firing rapidly a
six-barrelled revolver, ana jumps out ana
slams the door of the cage behind him.
And if he has an especially well-trained
lion, avhe slams the gate that lion will
jump against the bars and make them,
rattle."
'How are they trained to jump against
the bars?"
"In the same way they are trained to
jump over a pole. We wind up the act
in the same way every night, and the
closing of the gate is a signal for the lion
to jump."
JiAreihey amenable to kindness, Mr.
Conkling?"
"Yes; but they arc much more amenable
to the discipline of the gad. But
they are unlike other animals in this particular;
they do not have to be constantly
watched after once broken. A leopard
is treacherous, and no matter whether
you have worked him ten years or ten
days, if you take your eye off of him for
one instant he will strike you. Of
TEACHING A LION TO JUMP.
course, some animals are more easily
trained thaa others, and so when we get
a lion that is not easily broken we don't
waste time on him, but set him aside and
train those that are most intelligent."
"Are there many performing lions in
the United States?'
"Well, I couldn't say just how many,
but there arc a great number. Mr. Forepaugh
had so many at one time, over
thirty, that he gave them away for almost
nothing to save the cost of his meat
bill. The female will have a litter every
six months of three to five cubs, and as
the whelps are ordinarily healthy and
breeding of lions has been going on for
the past thirty years there must be a
great many throughout the United States.
A good specimen, full grown, and well
broken male is worth $2000."
One of the animal attendants at Central
Park had something to say about lions,
and he confirmed the statements of Mr.
Doris and Mr. Conkling as to their docile
qualities. He said: "Young man, have
you ever seen an attendant clean out a
n TT -?* ?flmrn onfl fiWPHnS
cage f ne justgcia iu w?v 4~
away, aud if the big 'cat' is in the way,
he sweeps him to one side with the dirt;
there is no more harm in lions to a man
that knows 'cm than there is in a big
dog. I'll tell you a curious thing about
lions and animals. Just watch animals
that are fat and hsalthv, and then
you look at the man that takes care of
tnem and feeds them, and you'll find
that he is a great, big, red-faced, healthy
man -himself. Animals don't like thin,
consumptive-looking chaps, and they get
thin and worry and lose their tempeis
with that kind of attendants. I was
I with Forepaugh for ten years aud he
| wouldn't have a thin mnn 'round the'
show?that is, near the animals, no, i
- never did hear of a man being bitten or
> scratched by a lion, except one man and
1 he didn't know his business. Why, lion
5 performances are so common that the
} circus people don't think the act any
, good any more, and a lion trainer can't-,
i get over $30 a month. That's the reason .
1 quit the circus business. I can remember
a time when there was good money
in it. I first went with Van Amburgh, who
was the greatest animal trainer that
ever lived."
Every season, while a circus is travel ;
jng around the country, wrecks occur,
i; Cages get smashed and animals get out.
When that is the case and a lion gets out
ij of the cage*which is his home he doesn't
know what to do, and crouches on the
ground much more frightened than the
r people around huiij and he stays there
I
until somebody takes and puts him in his
fcage or brings the cage up to him and
then he will jump in. A good illustrative
instance of that kind occurred in a
railroad accident in a tunnel just outside
"WITHOUT CEREMONY.
of Baltimore about two years ag<f. In
the Cole show the lion and tiger cages
were wrecked in the center of the tunnel,
and the lion got out and roamed through
the tunnel in the dark until finally he
walked out one end and jumped into an
empty cage. But Mr. Cole had to take
a lantern and go in the tunnel and secure
the black tiger himself, which he did
without much difficulty.
There is a school for the training of
animals or properly a building in which
| animals are trained on the edge of the
meadows at the back of Jersey uity
Heights, and over there is a lion whelp
being trained to do some remarkable
tricks. Already be can see-saw on a
board, stand up on his hind paws and
walk a few feet, drag a wagon
around while harnessed to it, and
his trainer is trying to make him wind
up his performance by trotting off to his
cace carrying the apparently senseless
body of his master in his mouth. If he
succeeds in thoroughly training him, and
it looks now as if he would, the lion will
undoubtedly be worth a mint to Mr.
Seaman, his master.?New York World.
GOO Miles on Snowshoes.
Mr. J. W. Phillips, a resident of ToI
ronto, is preparing for a winter's sojourn
in the woods of Newfoundland, where
he has what is called a "timber limit"
of 250 square miles. It was in connection
with this lumber enterprise that, some
seasons ago, Mr. Phillips undertook one
of the most perilous journeys on record.
One day in the dead of winter he started
to walk on snowshoes from his mill at
PHILLIPS ON HIS JOURNEY.
Point Limington to Bay d'Espoir, a distance
of 250 miles. At the latter point
he hoped to catch a steamer for St. John,
but in this he was disappointed. Thereupon
he decided to cover the intervening
350 miles on foot,
lie had a terrible experience. Dangers
I from avalauches of snow beset him conI
tinually. Then wolves struck his trail
! and followed him closely. He was
| obliged to kill deer and leave the bodies
j untouched that the wolves might eat
j them instead. Twenty-two days after
j leaving his mill Mr. Phillips reached St.
i John. He had covered 600 miles on
i snowshoes, carrying all the while a pack
weighing forty-five pounds.
Bill Nye's Attempt (it Dignity.
Wax people are noted for their dignity
and repose. They have no brains, out
they never forget to be dignified. I hate
dignified people, writes Bill Nye in the
New York World. I never tried to be
dignified but once, and that was two
I weeks ago. I wore a handsome new
frock coat and suit of dark blue and a
now shining Russia iron silk hat, to drive
my family over the Finger Bowl road on
Statcn Island and on to South Beach. I
was proud and haughty, dressed up,
serene and mentally vacant iu order to
look dignified. People who saw us driving
thus afterward paid me a high compliment
by telling my wife what a dignified.
and thoroughly clerical-looking
coachman she had.
Since that I have not tried to look
dignified.
The municipality of Genoa, Italy, has,
it is reported, consented to restore the
house in which Christopher Columbus lived.
It is rapidly falling into decayand
has long stood in need of repair.
Germany is the largest coal producing
country of continental Europe, the
amount of the production for 1887 being
81,803,611 tons.
MY I.OVE IN THE LONG AGO,
Soft i3 the light on the summer sea,
When the sun in the west is low.
And the billows sigh to the shells that lie
In the sunset's mellow glow:
But the beauty gleams in vain,
And the tints that wax and wano
And the song of the surge
At the ocean's verge
Seems naught but a dirge,
For oh! ,
My thoughts fly far, 'neath the eveniug star,
To my Love in the long ago.
The wind comes up from the sighing sea,
And the sea-bird's wing^f snow
Fa les from my sight in the clasp of night,
Like joy in the ?fms of woe;
And I dream t>y the billows blue
Of a heart that was leal and true;
And I vow by the tide, ,
Though Fat-* may divide
My faith shad abide,
And grow;
And my heart ever turn whilo the "Wijhb
stars burn
To my Love in the long ago.
?New Orleans Times-Democrat.
PITH AND_POINT.
"Wet to the skin?Raiu.
A double shuffle?Two suicides.
An "old timer"?The hourglass.
Rough on rats?When Kitty "collars"
them.
Won by a neck?Prince Albert Victor's
title of "Collars and Cuffs."
The anatomist is the man who can
give us the surest "inside informs- A
tion."
Know thyself and keep the information
to thyself. This is good advice.?Hartford
Reliqiout Herald.
When the wolf is at the door, it would
be a good idea to shoot him and get thebounty
for his scalp.?Puck.
She (after a lovers' quarrel)?"You
may return my letters." He (editor)?
ttrt.si TTr.il nnirinsp stftmna?"?Bazar. z.'
"'UJV"V- 1
The man who holds a valuable patent .
right is in possession to enjoy the pleas- , ' .
ures of royalty.?Binghamton Republican.
"Can you get the right pitch on this ,V_
cornct?f "Yes; gimme it {pitches it out of
the window). There you are I"?Judge. K *
"I dreamed of you last night, Hiss
RosaUng." "Oh, did you ? And <
what dres3 did I have on?"?Fliegende
Blaetter. s
A. "How much Miss Homely looks
like her mother." B. "Yes, the resemblance
is positively frightful.?Texas
Biftings.
"That fellow urns a good deal in a
week." "Is he abank president?'.' "No.
He works in a crematory."? American ~
Stationer.
She?"Look at that lady, Charles.
Isn't her bonnet heavenly?" He?"It is
rather high, xthat's a fact."?Boston
Tran%ript. *
Now that the courts have decided
that anyone may publish Noah Webster's
dictionary, talk will be cheap.?American
Stationer.
"Porous plasters are good for a weak
back." "That's all right but I want a
plaster that will be good for a week
hence.?Bazar.
\
The difference between a starving
man and a glutton is that one longs to
eat and the other eats too long.?Binghamton
Leader.
"I'm not in it," said the traveler, as
he stood on the station platform, and
watched the last train disappear in the
distance.?Puck.
Preacher (reading)?"I asked for bread
and ye gave me a stone." Jeweler
(suddenly waking)?"Eh? How many
carats?"?Jewelers' Weekly. . ,
A New York paper contains an article
entitled "Why Cats arc Thin." Jonghnes
says cats are thick enough around this
place.?Norristown Herald.
" W hat a baautiful baby! So pink and white!"
Said the caller. I darei not tell her
That I'd learned from many a sleepless night
He was also a little yeller.
?Chicago Mail.
If time is money, it would seem at
first sight that the loafer ought to be the
richest of men; but, after all, he hain't
any more than anybody else.?SomcrviUe
Journal.
"It's the hardest thing in the world,"
says Bins, "to eat corn from the cob
without getting it on your moustache."
' 'I never found it so," returned the Boston
girl.?Brooklyn Life.
"John," asked the Sunday-school
teacher of the new scholar, "what do
you know of the proverb regarding pco
? 1 -??
pie who live in glass uuua?;o?
orter pull down the blinds."?Pud.
"It's a scrappin' time I have of it,"
said the cook. 4'Here I've gouged the
eyes out of the potatoes, basted the
meat, split the head o' the cabbage,
whipped the cream and beat the eggs,
and now I've got to pitch in and do up
the preserves."?Pittsburg Dispatch.
A Noise Detective.
A simple method has been devised,
by means of which, in the midst of a
busy workshop full of machinery in motion,
any special noise, even though
slight, can be distinguished aud its origin
traced. The apparatus consists of an
ordinary india-rubber gas tube about a
yard in length may, however, be varied
to suit the nature of the investigation.
The tube is unprovided with ear-piece or
ia nnnliorl tn thfi nnr of
U L' II. V/JJC tuu iO ~ ~
the observer, while the other is moved
about in order so explore the seat of the
irregularity. Since the free orifice of the
tube is comparatively small and is applied
as closely as possible to the vibrating surface,
it practically receives only those
sonorous vibrations which are emitted
by this surface. Those who have to do
with machinery will find it especially
useful for observing noises due to irregularities
iu the working of small parts of
machiucs, which may be cither difficult,
or dangerous to approach in any other
I way.?Chicayo Neics.
A total of d72 new Granges have bceu
^organized this year.
A