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THI YOL. Y. NO. 45 The False Oracle. BY BRET HARTE. BY MARY AINGE DE VERE. She pickod a little daisy flower With fringe of snow, and heart of gold ; All pure without, and warm within? And stood to have her fortune told. 44 lie loves me," low she musing said, And plucked the border leaf by leaf; 44 A little?too much?not at all? With truest heart?beyond belief." 44 A little?too much?not at all"? So rang the changes o'er and o'er ; The tiny leaflets fluttered down, And strewed the meadow's grassy floor. " A little?too much?not at all? With truest heart"?oh, magic brief! Ah, foolish task, to measnre out Love's value on a daisy leaf ! For she pulled the latest left With 44 not all left," I heard her say, 44 Ah, much you know, you silly flower, He'll love me till his dying day." ?Scribner's. " Who Was My Quiet Friend ?" " Stronger!" The voice was not loud, but clear and penetrating. I looked vainly up and down the narrow darkening trail. No one in the fringe of alder ahead ; no one on the gullied slope behind. 14 Oh! stranger V* This time a little impatiently. The Californian vocative, ''Oh," always meant business. I looked up, and perceived for the first time, on the ledge, thirty feet above rac, another trail parallel with my own, and looking down upon me through the buckeye bushes a small man on a black horse. Fivo things to be here noted by the circumspect mountaineer. First, the locality ? lonely and inaccessible and away fromjhe regular faring of teamsters and miners. Secondly, the Rtrangcr's superior knowledge of the road from the fact that the other trail was unknown to the ordinary travelor. Thirdly, that he was well armed and equipped. Fourthly, that lie was better mounted. Fifthly, that any distrust or timidity arising from the contemplation of theso facte had better be kept to oneself. All this passed rapidly through my mind as I returned his salutation. 4 4 Got any tobacco ?" he asked. I had, aud signified the fact, holding up the pouch inquiringlv. 44 All right, I'll come down. Ride on, and I'll jine yc on the slide." 44The slide?" Hero was a new geographical discovery as odd as the second . :i t l i . :i tlitii. x u?u iiuucu uvn ifuc unu n dozen times, and seen no communication bctwoen the ledge and trail. Nevertheless I went on a hundred yards or so, when there was a sharp crackling in the uuderbrnsh, a shower of stones on the trail, and my friend plunged through the bushes to my side down a grade that I should scarcely have dared to lead my horse. There was no doubt he was an accomplished rider?another fact to be noted. As he ranged beside me I found I was not mistaken as to his size; he was quite under the medium height, and, but, for a pair of cold "gray eyes, was rather commonplace in feature. x< You've got a good horse there," I suggested. He was filling his pipe from my pouch, but looked no a little fmrnrised. ami said: " Of course." He then-puffed away with the nervous eagerness of a .mau long deprived of that sedative. Finally, between the puffs, he asked me whence I came. I replied from " Lagrange." He looked at me a few moments curiously, but on my adding that I had only halted there for a few hours, he said: "J i thought I knew every man between Lagrange and Indian Spring, but somehow J I sorter disremember your face and your | name." Not particularv oaring that he should : remember either, I replied, half laugh- ' ingly, that as I lived the other side of Indian Spring, it was quite natural. He took the rebuff?if such it was?so quiet- ! ly, that as an act of mere perfuuetory ! politeness, I asked him where he came 1 from. "Lagrange." . " And you are going to" 'Well! that depends pretty much on j how things pan out, and whether I can ' make the riffle." He let his hand rest quite unconsciously on the leathern ; holster of his dragoon revolver, yet with a strong suggestion to me of his ability "to make the riffle "if he wanted to, and added: " But just now I was reck- ' 'nin' on hiking a little/>a*ear with you." 1 There was nothing offensive in his 1 speech, save its familiarity and the reflec tiou, perhaps, that whether I objected : Or not, he was quite able to do as he said. I only replied that if our paaear i was prolonged beyond Heavytree Hill, I ! should have to borrow his beast To j my surprise, he replied quietly: " That's i so," adding that the horse was at my dis- : posal when he wasn't using it, and half i of it when he was. " Dick has carried ! double many a time before this," he i continued: " and kin do it again; when your mustang gives out, 111 give you a i lift, and room to spare." : I could not help smiling at the idea ] of appearing before the boys at Red Gulch en croupe with the stranger; but j neither could I help being oddly affected by the suggestion that his horse had 1 done double duty before. "On what ; occasion, and why?" was a question I . kept to myself. We were ascending the i long rocky flank of the Divide; the nar- i rowness of the trail obliged us to pro- < cecd slowly and m file, so mat mere was little chance for conversation, had he been disposed to satisfy my curiosity* Wc toiled on in silence, the buckeye giving way to chimisal, the westering sun, reflected again from the blank walls biside us, blinding our eyes with its ghire. The pines in the canyon below were olive gulfs of heat, over which a hawk here and there drifted lazily, or rising to our level, cast a weird' and gigantic shadow of slowly moving wings on the mountain side. The superiority of the stranger's horse led him often far in advance, and made mo hope that he might forget me entirely, or push on, grown weary of waiting. But regularly ho would halt bv a boulier, or reappear from <??*? cA??n??at, where he bad ? BE ? }. patiently halted. I was beginning to liate him mildly, when at one of those reappearances he drew Tip to my side, and asked me how I liked Dickens! Had he asked my opinion of Hnxley or Darwin, I could not have been more astonished. Thinking it were possible that he referred to some local celebrity of Lagrange, I 6aid, hesitatingly: " You mean ?" " Charles Dickens. Of oonrse you've read him ? Which*of his books do you like best?" I replied with considerable embarrassment that I liked them all?as I certainly /I.M M.J Villi, He grasped my hand for a moment with a fervor qnite unlike his usual phlegm, and said: "That's me, old man. Dickens ain't no slouch. You can count on him pretty much all the time." With this rough preface, he launched into a criticism of the novelist, which for intelligent sympathy and hearty appreciation I had rarely heard equaled. Not only did he dwell upon the exuberance of his humor, but upon the power of his pathos and the all pervading element of his poetry. I looked at the man in astonishment. I had considered myself a rather diligent student of the great master of fiction, but the stranger's felicity of quotation and illustration staggerod me. It is true that his thought was not always clothed in the best language, and often appeared in the slouching, slangy undress of the place and period, yet it never was rustic nor homespun, and sometimes struck me with its precision and fitness. Considerably softened toward him, I tried him with other literature. But vainly. Beyond a few of lyrical and emotional poets, he knew nothing. Under the influence and "enthusiasm of his own speech, he himself had softened considerablv; offered to chancre horses with ^ J -- ? _ ^ me, readjusted my saddle with prof ?8sioiial skill, transferred my pack to his own horse, insisted upon my sharing the contents of his whisky ilask, and noticing that I was unarmed, pressed upon me a silver mounted Derringer, wliich he assured me he could "warrant" These various offices of good will and the diversion of his talk beguiled me from noticing the fact that the trail was beginning to become obscure and unrecognizable. We were evidently pursuing a route unknown before to me. I poiuted out the fact to ray companion a little impatiently. He instantly resumed his old manner and dialect " Well, I reckon one trail's as good as another, and what hev ye got to say about it ?" I pointed out, with some dignity, that I preferred the old trail. " Mebbee you did. But you're jiss now takin' a pascar with me. This yer trail will bring you right into Indian Spring, and onnotieed, and no questions asked. Don't you mind now, I'll see you through." It was necessary here to make some stand against my strange companion. I said lirmly, yet as politely as I could, that I had proposed stopping over night with a friend. "Whar?" i I hesitated. The friend was an eccentric Eastern man, well known in the locality for his fastidionsness and his habits as a recluse. A misanthrope of j ample family and ample means he had chosen a secluded but picturesque valley < in the Sierras, where he could rail against the world without opposition. " Lone Valley," or " Boston Ranch," as I it wa? more familiarly called, was the one spot that the average miner both i respected and feared. Mr. Sylvester, its proprietor, had never affiliated with " the boys," nor had he ever lost their 1 respect by any active opposition to their ' ideas. If seclusion had been his object < he certainly was gratified. Neverthe- i less, in the darkening bhadows of the ' night, and on a lonely and unknown trail, I hesitated a little at repeating his i name to a stranger of whom I knew so little. But my mysterious companion i took the matter out of my hands. "I-ook yar," he said, suddenly, "tliar ; ain't but one place twixt yer and Indian 1 Spring whar ye can stop, and that's 1 Sylvester's." I assented, a little sullenly. I " Well," said the stranger, quietly, and with a slight suggestion of conferring 1 a favor on me, " Ef you're pointed for < Sylvester's?why ?I don't mind stopping thar with ye. It's a little off the road? 1 I'll lose some time?but taking it by and i r ?i. i. >? j LargU X uuu t xuutu uimu. I stated, as rapidly and as strongly as J [ could, that my acquaintance with Mr. Sylvester did not justify the iutroduc- ' tion of a stranger to his hospitality? I that he was unlike most of the people ; here?in short, that he was a queer ; man, etc. 9 ; To my surprise my companion answered quietly : 44 Oh, that's all right. . I've heerd of him. Ef you don't feel like checking me through, or if you'd . rather put 4 C. O. P.' on my back, why it's all the same to me. I'll play it , done. Only you just count me in. ( Say 4Sylvester' all the time. That's . me. What could I oppose to this man's ; quiet assurance ? I felt myself growing red with anger and nervous with embar- , rassment. What would the correct Sylvester say to me? What would the girls?I was a young man then, and had won an entree to their domestic circle by my reserve?known by a less complimentary adjective among the 44 boys " J ?what would they say to my new ac- ! duaiatance? Yet I certainly could not object to bis assuming all risk on his ! own personal recognizances, nor could I resist a certain feeling of shame at my embarrassment. We were beginning to descend. In the distance below us already twinkled the lights in the solitary ranclio of Lone Valley. I turned to my companion. "But you have forgotten that I don't even know your name. What am I to call you ?" "That's so," he said musingly. " Now, let's see. ' Kearney ' would bo a good name. It's short and easy like. Thai's a street in 'Frisco the same title. Kearuey it is." " But"? I began, impatiently. " Now you will leave all that to me," he interrupted,jjwith a superb self-confidence that I could not but tidmire. " Th* ain't no account' It's :au: AND PORT BEAUFORT, S. C. mail that's responsible. Ef I was to lay for a man that I reckoned was named Jones, and after I fetched him I found out on the inquest that his real name was Smith?that wouldn't make no matter, as long as I got the man." The illustration, forcible as it was, did not strike me as offering a prepossessing introduction, but we were already at the rancho. The barking of dogs brought Sylvester to the door of the pretty little cottage which his taste had adorned. I briefly introduced Mr. Kearney. " Kearney will do?Kearney's good enough for me," commented the soidisant Kearney half aloud, to my own horror and Sylvester's evident mystification, and then he blandly excused himself for a moment that he might personally supervise the care of his own beast. When he was out of ear shot, I drew the puzzled Sylvester aside. " I have picked up?I mean I have been picked up on the road by a gentle maamIaa /\n A A A in IT AA1*rtATT TTa lUttUiHU, WUUBO UMUO lO UUV UDOl UCJ, JL1U is well armed and quotes Dickens. With care, acquiescence in his views on all subjects, and general submission to his commands, ho may be placated. Doubtless the spectacle of your helpless family^ the contemplation of your daughter's beauty and innocence, may touch his fine sense of humor and pathos. Meanwhile, Heayen help you, and forgive me." I ran up stairs to the little den that my hospitable host had kept always reserved for me in my wanderings. I lingered some time over my ablutions, hearing the languid, gentlemanly drawl of Sylvester below mingled with the equally cool, easy slang of my mysterious acquaintance. When I came down to the sitting-room I was surprised, however, Jo find the self-styled Kearney quietly seated on the sofa, the gentle May Sylvester, the "Lilv of the Lone Valley, sitting with maidenly awe and unaffected interest on one side of him, while on the other that arrant flirt, her cousin Kate, was practising the pitiless archery of her eyes, with an excitement that seemed almost real. " Who is your deliriously cool friend?" she managed to whisper to me at supper as I sat utterly dazed and bewildered between the enrapt^May Sylvester, who seemed to hang upon his words, and this giddy girl of the period, who was emptying the battery of her charms in active rivalry upon him. " Of course we know his name isn't Kearney. But how romantic ! And isn't he perfectly lovely? And who is he ?" I replied with severe irony that I was not aware what foreign potentate was lion +por-olinnr inrnmiifn in the Sierras VUVU ViHl of California, but that when his royal highness was pleased to inform me, I Rhould be glad to introduce him properly. "Until then," I added, "I fear tne acquaintance must be Morganatic." " You're only jealous of him," she said pertly. "Look at May-she is completely fascinated. And her father too." And actually, the languid, world-sick, cynical Sylvester was regarding him with a boyish interest and enthusiasm almost incompatible with his nature. Yet I submit honestly to the clear-headed reason of my own sex, that I could see nothing more in the man than I have already delivered to the reader. In the middle of an exciting story of adventure, of which he, to the already prejudiced mind of his fair auditors, was evidently the hero, he stopped suddenly. "It'sonly some pack-train passing the bridge on the lower track," explained Sylvester, " Go on." "It may be my horse is a trifle uneasy in the stable," said the alleged Kearney; "he ain't used to boards and covering." Heaven only knows what wild awl delicious revalation lay in the statement of the fact, but the girls looked at each other with cheeks pink with excitement is Kearney arose, and with qnite absence of ceremony, quitted the table. "Ain't he just lovely 1" said Kate, gasping for breath, " and so witty." "Witty!" said gentle May, with just the slightest trace of defiance in her roice. "Witty, my dear? why don't yon see that his heart is just breaking with pathos? Witty, indeed; why, when tie was speaking of that poor Mexican woman that was hung, I saw tears gathering in his eyes. Witty, indeed 1" "Tears," laughed the cynical Sylvester, " tears, idle tears. Why, you silly children, the man is a man of the world ?a philosopher, quite, observant, unassuming. " " Unassuming !" Was Sylvester intoxicated, or had the mysterious stranger mixed the "insane verb" with the family pottage ? He returned before I oould answer this self-asked inquiry, and resumed coolly his broken narrative. Finding myself forgotten in the man I had so long hesitated to introduce to my friends, I retired to rest early, only to hear, through the thin partitions, two hours *later. enthusiastic praises of the new guest. from the voluble lips of the girls, as they chatted together in the next room before retiring. At midnight I was startled by the sound of horses* hoofs and the jingling of spurs below. A conversation between my host and some mysterious personage in the darkness was carried on in such a low tone that I could not learn its import. As the cavalcade rode away, I raised the window. " What's the matter?" "Nothing," said Sylvester, coolly," "onlv another one of those olavful homicidal freaks peculiar to the country. A. man was shot by Cherokee Jack over at Lagrange this morning, and that was the sheriff of Calaveras and his posse hunting him. J told him I'd seen nobody but you and your friend. By the way, I hope the cursed noise hasn't disturbed him. The poor feller looked as though he wanted rest." I thought so, too. Nevertheless, I went softly to his room. It was empty. My impression was that he had distanced the sheriff of Calaveras about two hours. Three and a half pounds of milk are equal to one pound of meat; and only estimate a cow to give 4,000 pounds of milk in a year, this wonld make the cow's product in milk equal in fowl value to 1,000 pounds of meat, and this 1,000 pounds of meat would require a steer, under ordinary feeding, four years to produce, so that the cow produces ns much return from her foed J? o**e year se a steer is four, FOR ROYAL C< , THURSDAY, SEP A Russian General. The Plevna correspondent of the London Times writes : Major General Scobelofif is a character?one of the most striking men I have ever met; he is a son of Lientenant-General Scobeloff, of the Russian army, and has been in every campaign the Russians have had since he was old enough to enter the field. In Khokand, where everything was considered in a critical state, young Scobeloff was left to cover the rear of the army with five battalions and twenty guns. His elders in rank and years had selected him to bear the disgrace of the expected catastrophe; but he did not fancy this situation of affairs, attacked the enemy (numbering forty battalions) in the night, threw them into a panic, and utterly routed them, remaining master of the province. For this he was made a major-general at thirty-one, and became the object of much envy and calumny at the hands of the officers whose heads he had passed over. At the recent battle of Plevna he had his brigade of Cossacks and a battalion of infantry, the latter numbering about seven hundred men. Three hundred and forty of this battalion fell in the desperate contest, one hundred and seventy of them being killed outright; unsupported the remnant were compelled to fall back, but they retreated in good order, bringing away all the wounded, and actually left the deadly line of battle singing one of their wild but very melodious mountain airs. A major-general, thirty-three years of age, tall and handsome, Scobeloff is the ideal of a benu sabrcur of the old Murat type. Brave almost to recklessness, yet possessing a certain shrewd aptitude for estimating chances and the strength of position. He will make his mark in this campaign should his carelessness of personal danger not bring him before some fatal bullet?he has already been wounded six times during his career. Having been appointed to the staff of the commander of the Plevna army, he was on the way to the camp of his cavalry brigade to turn over the command to his successor. Tlic Writer's Cramp. A paper read by M, JBouilland before a recent meeting of the French Academy if Sciences gives an account of his further researches relative to lesions of the brain. In his former communications he demonstrated that the loss of speech was due to a malady of the third circumvolution of the left anterior lobe of that organ. He now goes farther, and asserts the three fucnltias which essentially distinguish man from other animals ?speech, reading and writing?are each controlled by separate portions of the brain. In his researches he discovered that the paralysis of one of those functions corud exist without the others being effected, and he gives as an example a case in which he was called to a consultation on a young man, whose avocations compelled him to write continuallv. At first the patient had felt a slight weakness in writing, then a great difficulty, and finally, an absolute loss of the faculty. The result of the closest examination could not detect any defect Jr? fVirt mnc/?loc nf fViA arm nr hand the latter retaining all its sensitiveness and power for every other purpose than that of writing, and all his other functions being moral and in good condition. The conclusion arrived at was that the source of the infirmity must not be sought for in the external organs, bnt in the center itself of nervous action?the brain. The young man was advised to write with his left hand, which he rapidly succeeded in doing. The defect from which he suffered had long been known as writers' cramp, just as the loss of speech was for centuries termed paralysis of *the tongue. Both designations were equally erroneous, both being now attributed to maladies of certain portions of the brain. A Bold Exploit The following is from the diary of the late Mr. Adolphus, the barrister and historian: "May 8, 1840 : We had a dinner party, among them Mrs. Matthews and Curran, who told an amusjng story of an agent to a nobleman in Ireland. It was known to some ruffians in the neighbor1 ' Al- ? A 1% A trt/1 Artl 1 rvolo/1 O 10TCrCi QflTYl liuuu mai uc iiuu wucv/wu ? w^u ???. for rents due to his employer. In the middle of the night he heard thieves breaking into his house. He jumped out of bed, and arming himself with a carving knife stood behind the door, and closed it, so that only one could enter at a time, which one would be shown in the moonlight while he remained in the shade. Four of the thieves entered, and were dispatched one after another, those without not knowing what had happened. The fifth saw the gleam of the blade in the moonlight, seized the man, and a tremendous scuffle ensued. J The agent struck several blows with his weapon, but made no impression. He was got down and his antagonist over him, when feeling the knife, he found the point was bent. He had the presence of mind to press it strongly against the floor, so as to turn it back, stabbed his adversary dead, and, as he was alone in the house and could liave no assistance till the morning, retired to bed. He was knighted for the exploit. Some one said to him: 11 wonder you could go to bed while there were on the floor the corpses of five persons whom you had killed ?' His answer was: ' It did make me very uneasy; I could not get a wink of sleep for nearly an hour!'" A Little Off. A Detroiter called at a livery stable ? 0 a 0 to secure a rig to take ins wue out ior a ride, and he made it a point ask for a docile animal. While the horse inter ded for him was being hitched up she reared up and acted very nervous, and the proprietor explained: "You needn't be a bit afraid of her. She's simply a little off, to-day." The citizen got into the carriage, was whirled around the corner, and nothing more was seen of him for two hours. Then he came limping back and asked : "That horse was a little off, wasn't she?" "Yes." " Well, she kept growing offer and off<-r till I concluded to get out, and then the way she got off altogether was bad for the buggy. Go *hd net pieces, and we'll settle up," T T OMMERCIAL TEMBEK 20, 1877. FARM, GARDEN AND HOUSEHOLD. Farm Notes? Running spring water is far better for cows whose milk is intended for firstclass butter or cheese, than pond water or even than w%ll water, since the quality of the water influences the milk as much as the character of the food. Spruce butter tubs are the best; white hemlock makes a sweet tub ; acids from the oak color the butter and injure its appearance ; white ash gives the butter a strong flavor if kept long and increases the liability to mould; mania amalla anrl araaVa hotHv Snak all tabs four to six days in brine before using. Alonzo Crafts has found a good use for sour cider. He had a sow with a litter of nine pigs which the sow would not own. and towards which she was very violent, and but for their timelv removal the little pigs would all have been killed. He gave the sow two quarts of sour cider and in a few minutes she lav down evidently " the worse for liquor. While she was in this condition the pigs were twice put to her to suck, and when she recovered from her " drunk " she owned the pigs all right, and now seems exceedingly fond of her progeny. Have just examined a piece of evergreen sweet corn which was planted with seed selected by using only the upper ear where two grew on a stalk last year. The result is that nearly every stalk has two ears on ; even five stalks in one hill gave ten good ears, and I think that there were as many single stalks with three ears on as there were with only one, but the two ears to the stalk were almost universal. Now, as we are so often reminded that we can improve our corn by selecting seed, let us take the more pain 8 thus to improve this most noble American product:?Rural Home. The farm of John Hawley, Brant N. Y., who has practiced the soiling system of feeding for some time, contains fifty acres, all' of which, with the exception of a piece of timber and rough land, is under * * m 11* ? A ? TT a very nign siaie 01 cniuvanon. upon the place are about ten head of cattle, two horses and perhaps a few head of loose stock at times. There are about ten acres devoted to small fruits, such us strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, etc., leaving but forty acres to furnish feed for the horses and cattle during the year. The cows are many of them grade Ayrshires, and Mr. Hawley is turning his whole herd, to this breed as fast as possible, as he thinks it adapted to this system of feeding better than the majority of breeds. To adopt this system, preparations must be begun in the fall, it appears, as some plant must be ready to cut early in spring. A piece of winter rye,large enough to furnish a month's feed or so, is sown in the fall which is ready to cut tho latter part of April or beginning of May : then follows millet (two or three varieties), clover, sowed corn, etc. As fast as a crop is taken off another should be sdwn, thus keeping the land under crop all the while. Mr. Hawley claims that his soil increases in fertility every year'; in fact, it looks reasonable that a lot of j 'n ?i x n.- ?M : <. wecus Will UXllllUBt hic BUil jubh uo rnuv/u as some profitable plant. Then the manure pile is being constantly increased, and the more crops raised the more fertilizing material is there returned to it Great care should be taken to save all the liquids.?Chautauqua Farmer. Household Hints. To Prevent Decay in Meats.? Sprinkle on.plenty of pulverized borax; rub it well into the meat, and let it remain five or ten minutes on ice, or longer, if desired. Just before cooking wash it well in a strong solution of borax water, and do not rinse again. If it is to be boiled or parboiled, add a little borax to the water in which it is boiled; a quarter of a teaspoonful will answer. To Keep Lemons Fresh.?Place them in a jar with water enough to cover them. They will keep fresh in this way several days without changing the water. To Cure Bunions.?Bind a fine linen band tightly around the foot and over the bunion, sew it on if necessary, and wear it day and night; bathe the feet frennentlv in strong borax water, using 1 V ~ W ? a teaspoonful of pulverized borax to a ba8iu of water. To Bid a Dog of Fleas.?Wash him thoroughly with commou soft soap, such as they use on board ships; or place him on a newspaper and rub Persian insect powder well over him, and the fleas will drop out on the paper and die almost immediately. This method is also effective with rats. To Make Calico Transparent and Waterproof.?Take sir pints of pale linseed oil, two ounces of sugar of lead, and eight ounces of white resin ; the sugar of lead must be ground with a small quantity of it, and added to the remainder. The resin should bc%incorporated with the oil by means of gentle . heat. The composition may then be laid on calico, or any other such material, by means of a brush. Breaking Glass to Axy Required Figure.?Make a 6 nail notch by means of a file on the edge of a piece of glass, then make the end of a tobacco pipe, or a rod of iron of the same size, red-hot in the fire, apply the hot iron to the notch, and draw it slowly along the surface of the glass in any direction vou ? * 11 11 _ a? x? please; a cracn win ionow me cureeuon of the iron. * Good Use for Soap-Suds.?Save your washing suds for the garden; if they are poured over the roots of the plujn trees, .they will kill the curculio; if turned at the roots of the geraniums, roses, etc., they will enchanee their beauty tenfold. To Clean Colored Silk.?Wash in warm soap-suds, rinse in clear, warm water, dry quickly, and iron on the wrong side while yet rather damp. If there are grease spots on the silk, press with a tolerably warm iron under brown paper. The Queen of Madagascar has by public proclamation liberated the whole of the slaves in the island. By a treaty with England in 1865 she engaged that the practice of buying and selling slaves should be discontinued, but her subjects having evaded the treaty to a great extent by pretending that their slaves were purchased before the treaty came itltr* force, tbe decisive step taken by fehe queen h*? been rendered necessary. RIBl $2.00 per i OREGON BILL. 8ome Facts About a Noted 8eout and Hanter. William Spence, alias Oregon Bill, is in many respects a remarkable man. In stature he is abont five feet nine inches. His compressed lips and well set jaws indicate a determined will. His nose is well shaped; his eyes are gray, bnt full of animation, and more especially when interested in conversation, and his forehead is high and well shaped. With tfese features he has long flowing black hair. The whole personnel of the man is pleasing, and in marked contrast with his reckless daring. He converses intel ligently, and after the fashion of well educated men. As a hunter, trapper Indian fighter, marksman and wanderer he is justly noted. He has been for about eight weeks, and is still, confined to his bed, in this city, from a cut on one of his feet He is, however, con- < valescent His birth place is Port Natal, Sontk : Africa, and he has hardly yet reached, forty. His father having been killed in , battle, his widow, with her son William, the subject of this sketch, immigrated to England, where, through the influence of friends, he soon was placed at the Boyal Naval School at Greenwioh, i where his progress was satisfactory; but he could not be contented. His daring and adventurous nature sought the sea, and to a man-of-war he went. He was ( at sea for years, and during the time distinguished himself for his bravery in two engagements with pirates on the 1 coast of Africa. He participitated with credit to himself in the last war with 1 Russia, and was present at the fall of Balaklava. Boooming averse to being j further on the sea he came to America j and joined the Hudson Bay Fur Company. For this company he travelled j much among the Indians, gathering ] peltiy. The year 1860 found him in Portland, Oregon; from thence he went . to St. Paul, Minn.; here he remained 1 one winter and was employed during c that time by General Solly in a service that was at once delicate and responsible, 1 which he discharged to the entire satis- 1 faction of his commander. From St. 1 Paul he went to Kansas, and there alternately engaged in driving teams and t buffalo hunting. From 1860 to 1865 he i was an Indian fighter on the frontiers of i Kansas and Texas, and in an engagement with the red men on an occasion in j which the whites were victorious, after a l bloody hand to hand fight, he is said to j have killed seven warriors with his pistol ( and bowie knife. During this period he j spent some time in Missouri, and was at Independence during General Prices . raid. In 1872 he went East, attracting . much attention, his exploits having pre- * ceded him. His companions were W. F. Cody, known as Buffalo Bill, and J. B. Omahundra, alias Texas Jack. In 1873 he was the bearer of important dis patches to General Garcia, in Cuba, which he safely delivered. lie turning, 1 he came West, where he has since been 1 engaged in trapping, hunting and acting * as guide for foreign tourists. As an 1 evidence of the man's wonderful accuracy * in shooting, and it must be said also of f recklessness, I will give two remarkable instances : In Portland, Oregon, he had a friend, John O'Madigan, now of this city. While O'Madigan was walking along the street smoking his pipe, and at a distance of ten feet, and at about a t right angle, Bill suddenly drew his pistol I aud fired, the ball taking the pipe from a the month of his friend, but doing him I no harm. Again, last fall, Bill was in c Lake City with deer for sale, and seeing v his old friend O'Madigan passing up the t same street, on the opposite side, he e called to him to stop. When he had a drawn his revolver John did s"?, facing s him at the time. Bill fired, and the ball k passed through the top of the hat of his a friend. O'Madigan, in the best of ti humor, called out: "Bill, don't shoot g any more; it is too close." The history e of this remarkable man will at some a future time fill one of the most important e chanters in a book of romance.?Denver t Tribune. b ? b Differences in People. si There is a vast difference in people, # However moralists and metaphysicians may class them, there are opposite points among the most similar which P are broad contrasts?sweet and sour, B< winter and summer?or any other pro- e verbial antithesis. To some folks the n leaves of a forest are all alike, and a ? school full of boys presents only so many j1 fao-similies of each other. Such person- r! ages regard all mankind as so many bi- rj peds; of the difference between them they are scarcely conscious. * Some people soothe one like a strain 8 of music, while others agitate every e nerve with the irritating power of a dis- J cord. How much might be said about j* the difference of people in their charac- ^ ters and actions. There are those who turn pale at the sight of cheese, and oth- ? era who shudder at the mention of car- , rots ; this one prefers hard eggs to soft, and that one does not like buckwheat J cakes. These marks by whick some of our race are distinguished from the rest, are but few of those which crowd the - ? 1 - _i? mind, mere are peopie wuo nu; detest children; these who never have a & moment to spare and those who don't b know how .to get through the day. Your h touchy people who are always pricking r up their ears to catch the first faint ? sound of an insult, and your people p without humor who can never either a furnish a joke or understand one. Jhere ? are two causes of the great difference ii perceptible in people. Much may cer- t] tainly be ascribed to education, but v much also to constitutional dissimilarity, a Here is one on whom good music acts a like enchantment; he cannot sit still h while hearing it; his eyes fill with tears; s he forgets all his troubles, and when the a tune has ceased it is still in his mind, o bursting out at intervals in fragments fi and exclamations, and keeping him J awake in the night bv its busy mental k repetitions. Who shall say that his na- e ture is the same as that of another who ? finds in the Italian orchestra only a dis- g agreeable scraping, whose lips cannot I hum, whose imagination cannot contain r a tune ? And thus on through life and t in every day intercourse if we but ob- \ sereve a litte carefully, we will scarcely k even,find two people alike?even those a pursuing the same avocations and unite<k r by the closest ties, are oftentimes the \ most dissimilar in thrir naturae c % ? JNE . . ? HDi. Single Copy 5 Cents. Pumpkin Pi?u I've tried the best In East and West, I've lunched 'neath tropic son, I've tested all The frnite that fall, And like them every one. Bat North or South, No haman month, I will the world apprise, E'er tasted food One-half so good As our own pumpkin pies. Words of Wisdom. He that is everywhere is nowhere. Confidence generally inspires confidence. The greatest scholars are not the wisest men. Nothing is so uncertain as the minds of the multitude. No exoellent soul is exempt from a mixture of folly. To what use serves learning if the understanding be away. If individuals have no virtues their vices may be of use to us. Age makes us not childish, as men say; it finds us still true children. Two things the most opposite blind us equally?custom and nov|}ty. Fishes live in the sea as men do a-land; the great ones eat up the little ones. A kiss ought to be a mark of honest affection, not a weapon of hypocrisy. Prosperity does best discover vice, but adversity does best discover virtue. Reason cannot show itself more reasonably than to cease reasoning on things ibove reason. . It is not enough to have great qualities ; we should also have the management of them. Let no man trust the first step of guilt; t hangs upon a precipice, whose steep leecent in lost perdition ends. There are tnose tnai never reason on vhat they should do, but on what they lave done; as if reason had hit eyes belind and could only see backward. He that waits for repentance waits for hat which cannot be had as long as it is raited for. It is obsurd for a man to rait for that which he himself has to do. The passions are the only orators that lever succeed. They are, as it were, lature's art of eloquence, fraught with nfallible rules. Simplicity, with the aid >f the passions, persuades more than he utmost eloquence without it Oratory, like the drama, abhors lengthness; like the drama it must keep loing. It avoids, as frigid, prolonged aetaphysical soliloquy. Beauties them(elves, if they delay or distract the effect vhich should be produced on the. audisnoe, become blemishes. The gravest events dawn with no more loise than the m&rning star makes in ising. All great developments compete themselves in the world and nodestly wait in silence, praising themelvee never, announcing themselves not ,t&li. We most be sensitive and seaside if we would see the beginnings and sndings of great things. This is our part. A Curious Surgical Operation. . A boy named frank Hanafln. who had - - - ? * * 1 J >een injured in a sawmill nere, ana nau ?een, as we might say, almost skinned live, was supplied with a new skin >y taking pieces from the arms of eight ir nine other boys. In the accident a ery large wound was made in his back, he snrface being one mass of red, quivring flesh, though 1 wealthy in appearnce. The wound, of course, was veiy ensitivc, and the operation must bare een quite painful to him. Drs. Picot nd Maynard and an assistant performed be operation. Around tha bed were athered six or eight Irish boys, from ight to fifteen years of age, from whose rms had been taken, or was to be takn, the skin needed fc> replace that rhich wss lost As each was called on y the doctor, he came forward, and aring his arm, a small piece of skin was kilfnlly cnt out with the lancet and ? ently placed upon the raw flesh. About birty pieces in all were so put on. Seviral of the boys gave up more than one ieoe, and.Folger Picot, the doctor's on, contributed eight pieces. A youngr brother of Hanafin's gave nearly as lany. While the operation was going u the boys joked among themselves ou elping to make up Hanafin, and banared eaeh other on the number of times bey had submitted to be cut into for be benefit of their playmate. The boys rere generally very willing to give the kin required, but after a while they vidently began to think enough was 1 J 1V. mntdn^ Allf 8 good as a ieasi, tuiu uiej uum> vu. oors, watching farther operations tirongh the window. It is thought, owever, that cnongli will consent to ive skin, so that Hanafin's wonnd will e entirely covered over, thus hastening is recovery, and adding to his comfort hen the wound shall Jiave healed.?Auurn (N. Y.) Advertiser. Death of a Noted "Medium." The Sidftey (Australia) News says: Ir. W. H. fl. Davenport, one of the rothers whose performances as illusionits have created for them a world-wide eputation, died at the Oxford Hotel,. Ling street, on Sunday morning, from tulmonary consumption. The brothers rrived at Sidney three weeks ago from # % raw Zealand, where they had been givig a series of performances^ but while , iiere William Davenport broke a blood essel, and came to Sidney under the J?minimi attendants. He U?1W VI Uio eemed to be recovering liis health after is arrival here, and was in excellent pirits, but broke a second blood vessel gain last Thursday week, and another ne yesterday morning. This l%st proved ital. He was attended here. by Dr. larkey, who, however, with Dr. Halett, held out no hopes that he would ver recover, the disease having taken a inn hold on his system. He had been offering from phthisis for some years, le leaves a young widow, having been narried five months ago. His funeral ook place yesterday afternoon. Deceased ras a native of Buffalo, and waa well ;nowu here and throughout the country A ft "spiritual medium," whose bnntess it was, with his brother, to give rhat Spiritualists tenn "physical deramitrstioni,"