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a THE LEDGER: GAFFNEY, S. C., DECEMBER 3,0 1867. A PROBLEM SOLVED. children?” queried Rose gently. He had jtiKt given her tho interesting information that lie was a widower, al though so young—as at the outside. “One,” he admitted, and his dejected tone seemed to imply that that one was ft» unsatisfactory possession—not quite tight in its head, perhaps, or disfigured with a harelip. “Wo had only been married a year, you know. She died when it w'ns born. ” “Ah-h!” breathed Rose, with soft in tensity. She did not like to say more, and tho womanly pity welling out to him in his misfortune was sufficiently expressed. Having consumed the after dinner cigarette, indulged in at her ur gent bidding, ho was at liberty to re (pond to it. They exhaled their sighs together. It was, in fact, a particularly sympatheticniglit—mild, still, solitary, with a hi autiful moon. They sat out in it alone, tete-a-tete, on hammock chairs, free to sit thus till bedtime.-while their host and hostess, her uncle and aunt, dozed over newspaper and knitting in the drawing room behind them, the world forgetting, by the world forgot. “Son or daughter?” Miss Lasccllcs asked after a pause, not willing to break the thread of such an exquisite subject. “A boy,” said Mr. Bell, still with that uufatherly air of discontent. Some times I wish it was a girl. She could look after me by and by. I could have her trained to be my housekeeper and sew my buttons on—that sort of thing, you know. ” “You would have to wait a long time,” said Rose. “Judging by—by your looks, ” she turned admiring eyes upon his very comely person, “it must be a perfect infant at present.” “Quito an infant—that is—let me see —14 months and a little over. Yes, it will bo 15 months on Thursday since he was born, and lost his mother two days after. ” “Poor, poor littls thing!” ejaculated Rose. “Oh,” laughed tho young man in an odd, mirthful way, “you needn’t waste your pity on him, Miss Lascleles. He’s all right—rolls in fat—never ailed a thing in his life—might take the prize in a baby show. So they tell me. I haven’t seen him myself for a good while.” “You haven’t?” cried Rose, smiling ly indignant. “Well, you aro a nice sort of parent, I must say. Don’t you have him with you at homo, thou?” ' “I haven’t got a home. I gave it up wheu my pool* girl died. -What's the use of a home to me? I should never be there. My bnsiuess takes me all over the country, and you can’t leave a house and a young child to servants. Tho lit tle time that I did try to carry on by myself they played the douce with ev erything, child and all. One woman started feeding it with thick arrowroot. She’d have killed it to a certainty.” “Yes, indeed. Tho idea! But it’s in- J credible wltat some fools of women will do in tho way of mismanaging a baby. I used to see a great deal of that when I was a district visitor.” “A mother of half a dozen, too,” said Mr. Bell reflectively, lighting another cigarette. “Then a girl who’d never had any took to tho job like a duck to water—knew just what to do and how to do it. I will say that for her.” “The instinct is in us all,” remarked Miss Lascelles dreamily to the man in the moon, who seemed to survey the couple with his tongue in his cheek, “or if not it ought to be. I’m sure I could give many a mother points, as you call it. ” “I’ve no doubt you could. I beard somebody say the other day that moth ers are born, not made—very true too. You see it in the little girls nursing their dolls. I don’t think anything of u she child that doesn’t want a doll as soon as it can speak.” “I always loved them,” declared Rose. He loaned forward to look at a spi der’s web that tho silver light had just touched, makiug it shine out from its background of dark leaves and veranda post, and there was danger of rupture to tho delicate thread of the topic that was weaving so charming a couversa- tiofi, wherefore the young lady hasten ed to inquire what had become of his little son. “I suppose,” she said, “he is with his mother’s people?” Slowly resuming his attitude of re- | pose, Mr. Bell putfed awhile in silence; ; then answered: “No-o, not exactly, j With a friend of his mother's, not her family. Unfortunately her family is* in j England; so is mine. Neither of us had | a soul here belouging to us. That was just tho difficulty.” “It must have been a great difficul-^ ty,” murmured Rose in a feeling tone. “I believe you, ” assented Mr. Boll, with emphasis. “In fact, it put me into the most ridiculous hole, the most con founded fix—one that I can’t for the life of me see my w’ay out of, one that— However, I mustn’t talk about it to you. It’s not a thing that one ought to talk about to anybody.” And yet he yearned to talk about it now and to this particularly sympa thetic woman, who was not young and giddy, but, like himself, far out of her teens and experienced in tho troubles of life such os weighed him down. There was “something about her, ” ho thought, that irresistibly appealed to him, and he did not know what; but an author, who knows everything, knows what it was. It was the moonlight night. A few words from her, backed by the nameless influences of tho hour, un loosed his tongue. “You mustn't think me an nnnatnral parent,” he said. “It’s not that at all. I'm awfully fond of him. I’ve got his photograph in my pocket I’ll show it to you when we go in—the last one for the time being. I get a new one about suce a month—a regnlar llellin’s food series, in all sorts of get up, clothea and no clothes, but all as fat as butter and ^grinning from ear to ear with the joy of life. You never saw such a fetching lit- 1 tie cuss. I’d give anything to get hold of him—if I could.” “But snvely—his own father”— “No. It sounds absurd to yon, nat urally, but that’s because you dou’t un derstand the situation.” “I can t conceive of any situation”— “Of course not. It’s a preposterous situatiou, and I just drifted into it, I don’t know how—oh, 1 do know! It Was for tho child’s own sake. So that you really must not call me a heartless parent any more, Miss Lascelles. No body would do that who knew what I’d suffered for him.” Mr. Bell took the second cigarette from his mouth and sighed deeply. “Even in tho beginning it would have been difficult to get out of it, having once got in,” he continued, after a pause, “but it bas been going on so long, getting worse and worse every day and every hour, till now I'm tan gled up and helpless, like that moth iu that spider’s web”—pointing to a little insect tragedy going on beside them. Miss Lascelles leaned forward, rest ing her arms on her knees and spread ing her hands in the enchanting moon light, which made them look white as pearls and made her rather worn face look as if finely carved in ivory. It was a graceful, thoughtful, confidential pose, and her eyes, uplifted, gleamed just under his eyes, ineffably soft and kind. “I’m so sorry,” she murmured. “But if I don’t know what the trouble is— Oh, dou’t tell mo if you’d rather uot! I can’t help you, can I? I do wish I could.” “So doI. But I’m afraid nobody can help mo. And yet—perhaps a fresh eye r-a woman’s clearer insight”— He paused, irresolute, then succumbed to temptation. “Look here, Miss Lascelles, I’ll just tell you how it is if you’ll promise not to speak of it again. You aro no gossip, I know—you will uuder- staud—and it will be such a blessed re lief to tell somebody. And perhaps you coujd advise me, after all”— “Let me try,” she broke in encour agingly. For an instant her pearly hand touched his sleeve. “You may trust mo,” she said. “I’m sure of it. I’m sure of it,” he responded warmly. He flung away the remnant of the second cigarette, took a moment to collect hiiusdt and plunged headlong. “You see, wc had nobody belonging to us iu this country. I came out to make a living and a home for her—too crowded up in England—and as soon ae I’d got a bit of a steady income I sent for her to join me. Of course we had to be married from somewhere, and some kind old people that I knew took her off the ship and looked after her for a day or two, and we drove to church from their house. Their daughter acted at bridesmaid, aud she and my wife got to be great chums, tihe used to come aud stay with us a good deal—it was lone some for the poor girl in a strange laud, aud mo so much away—aud we used to put up with them when wo went to town. In fact, they were what you might call bosom friends. That wat just the difficulty. ” “You aro speaking,” queried Rose gently, “of the person who has the baby?” “Exactly. Ah, I seo you begin to un derstand. ” “I think so,” said Rose, with a smile broad enough to bo visible iu any kind of moonlight “But what was tho difti- culty?” “Well, you know, being so really fond of her and all that—wishing to do it for the sake of her dead friend, what could I say? Especially as those women were killing the unfortunate brat between them. She was not so very young and was evidently clever at man aging”— “Yes, ” interposed Rose, smiling still. “Aud peculiarly situated for under taking the job—much as you are sit uated here—living with two old folks who doted on her aud were only toe pleased to let her do whatever she liked, fond of a baby, and in want of some ob ject in life, and so on. Bnt chiefly it was for Mabel’s sake. To seo poor Ma bel’s child messed and mauled about by a set of buugliug, ignorant creatures, who had uo interest whatever iu it, was more than she could stand, she said. Tc tell the truth, I couldn’t stand it either, and she begged me to let her have it to look after, as there was no female friend or relative nearer to it than she was. What could I do? She lived iu a nice, healthy spot, and there was the old mother with-her experience, and I was obliged to go away, aud—aud—well, J just bad to say ‘yes’ aud be thankful tc do'lt We got the—tho doctor found a —wo engaged the sort of nurse that does everything, yon know, a fine, strapping young woman, in the pink of condition, aud away they went to Melbourne to gether. And at tho first blush tho worst of the trouble seemed over instead of just beginning. I gave up my house and stored tho furniture aud went off after my uecessary business, miserable enough, us you may suppose, but at least with an easy mind about the boy. As fur as he was concerned, as fur us poor, dear Mabel was concerned, I felt that I had acted for the best. For the mutter of that, looking at the business from their point of view, it appears even now that I did act for the best. Indeed, I dou’t for the fife of me under stand how any man couiu have acted otherwise under the circumstances.” The listener listening intently hero pnt a quiet question, ‘ ‘ Did you pay her?’ ’ which caused the narrator to wince like a galled horse. “All, there yon hit the weak spot, Miss Lascelles, right in the bullseyel’’ be declared, sighing furiously. “If I could have paid her. of course tbere’d have been no difficulty at all, but she wouldn’t be paid. ” “You ought to have insisted on it,” said Rose severely. “I did insist. I insisted all I knew, bat she said it was a labor of love for her friend aud a-emed so hart at the idea of money being brought into the question that I was ashamed to press her beyond a certain point She let me pay for the nurse’s board, and that’s all. The baby didn’t eat anything, yon see, and they were comfortably off, with lots of spare room iu their house, and I just looked ou it as a sort of tem porary visit uutil wo should be able to turn round a bit. But”—with another sigh—“he’s there yet.” Miss Lascelles nodded, with an air ci utter wisdom. “Of course you went often to see the child?” “ Whenever I was in town, and found him always the same, so beautifully cared for that, upon my soul, I never saw a baby in my life so sweet aud clean and wholesome looking, jolly as a little sand boy all the time, too.” “That means that he had a perfect con stitution, inherited from you evidently. And you were fortuuate in the nurse?” “Very fortunate! Bnt it appeared that beyond—beyond running the com missariat department, so to speak, she did next to nothing for him. Miss—the lady I spoke of—did everything, made herself a perfect slave to him.” “Bought his clothes?” “Oh,” groaned the wretched man, “I suppose sol What did I know about a baby’s clothes? Aud she wouldn’t answer my questions—said he was all right and didn’t want for anything, as I could see with my owu eyes. I tried makiug presents, used to send game aud things, found out her birthday and gave her a jewel, took every chance I could get to work off the obligation, but it was uo use. She gavo me a birthday present after I’d given her one. ” “Well, if moths will go into spiders’ webs,” remarked his companion, "they must take the consequences.” “Sometimes they get helped out,” he replied. “Some beneficent, godlike be ing puts out an omnipotent finger”— He looked at her and she looked at him. At this moment they seemed to have known one another intimately for years. The moon again. “Tell me everything,” she said, “and I’ll help you out.” So theu he told her that he had been giviug up the habit of frequently visit ing his son. Cowardly aud weak, he knew, but tho thing was too confound edly awkward, too cwbanaHsing alto gether. “Ifeut she writes. She writes a full report every weejr, tells me what he Weighs and when he’s got a fresh tooth and how fce crawls about the carpet aud into hor bed of a morning and imitates tho cat mewing, and drinks I don’t know how many pints of new milk a day, and all that sort of thing. I be lieve the rascal has the appetite of a young tiger, aud yet I can’t pay fot what he eats. Tho nurse was long ago dispensed with, so that I’ve not eveu her board to send a check for. that they might by chance make a trifle of profit out of. It seems too late now to simply take the child away, and there leave it. I haven’t the unspeakable sbahbiness, tho brazen impudence, the mean self ishness to do such a thing, and beside* he might come to auy sort of grief, poor little chap, in that case. There’s no doubt in the world that her taking ol him and doing for him have been the salvation of bis health and perhaps hi* life. Aud I know, by what she tells me, that be regularly dotes ou her—us so he ought—aud would howl his very Jicad off if wo took him from her. What could I do with him if I did take him) I’ve no home, aud nobody to look aftei it if I bad, and hired servants are the deuce with a Jov.o man at their mercy. It would be worse now than it was at first. And so”—with a heavy sigh— “you see the situation. I’m just swal lowed up, body aud boues, drowned fath oms deep, in a sea of debt and obliga tion that I can never by any possibility struggle out of, except”— He paused and blushed. “Except,” continued Rose, with the candid air of a kind aud sensible sister, “except by marrying her, you mean? Yes, I see the situation. I appreciate your point of view. I should understand it if it were not that she unquestionably laid the trap for you deliberately, just as that spider laid his for moths aud flies, and marriage by capture has gone out.” “Oh, don’t say that!” tho man pro tested in haste. “I wonld not for a mo ment accuse her of that. She was Ma bel’s friend. It was for her—it was of pore womanly compassion for the motherless child at any rate in the .be ginning, and even now I have no right whatever to suppose”— “Bnt you kuow it all the same. Every word you have said to mo tells me that you know it You may as well be frank.” * He squirmed a little in bis chair, but confessed as required. “Well—but it’s a caddish thing to say—I think she does expect it And hasn’t she the right to expect it? How ever, that’s neither here nor there. The point is that in common honor aud hon esty, in common manliness, I should re pay her if I can, and there’s no other way—at least I can’t see any other way. It is my fault, aud not hers, that I don’t take to the notion, for a better woman never walked, nor one that would make a better mother to the boy, but somehow you do like to have your free choice, don’t yon?” “And ought to have it,” quoth Rose with energy, “and most have it aud shall. Now listen, Mr. Bell”—address ing him iu such a lone of euuitdeuce umi encouragement that he felt sure she was going to out his bonds forthwith. “You have asked me to help yon, and I can help you. It will be perfectly easy, sit uated as 1 am hem He will not miss her after u ocuple of days, aud she has really uo earthly right either to him or to you, and it would give mo tho great est pleasure you can imagine. This is what you must do. ” She leaned for ward in her chair aud gazed earnestly into hia paling face. “You must just baud that baby over tome. ”—Exchange. In l>««p Water. Jones—Miss Verbose baa juat em barked on one of her oonversatioual voy ages. Hrnithfra—Yes, and her escort is over bored already.—Detroit Free Bress. IF THEY BUT COULD. How often we hear discontented ones talk Of grand opportunities lost And how, by tho waves of condcmnablo lack, They’ve ever been ruthlessly tossed. They’ll tell In n sort of disconsolate way Of laboring always in vnin And how they would handle the contract if thoy Could live their lives over ng&in. The man who h<iw failed in his business af fairs, The prisoner t in his cell, Tho wedded ones bait bug with family cares, All have tho sumo story to tell. Wherever wo go that disconsolate cry We hoar in a pitiful strain, “You’d see matters different with mo If I Could live my life over again!’’ ’ Wo should never weep over milk that is spilled, But hustle around for some more. Wo cannot recall opportunities killed Nor chances blown eff from our shore. This word of advice is the best wc can give: Don’t over the past sit and brood, But tackle the future, determine d to livo The balance of life as you should. —Denver Post. AMATEUR BOOKBINDING. How Paper Covered Books May Ke Treated at Home. If you wish to biud for yourself a pa per covered book, carefully strip back ward tho paper cover, trim tho frayed edges and lay the cover aside. With a sharp awl bore fresh holes through the book, as close to the back as may bo without danger of breaking. Hew the loaves together lengthwise through these holes with a fine cord or coarse darning cotton, knotting it securely. Take a strip of cotton or linen cloth and sew singly over the back, following the line aud stitches already taken, fas tening well. This strip must be made wide enough to allow an inch on each side to be past ed upon the boards which are to form the cover. Cut the two pasteboards with care, allowiug a bit to extend beyond the leaves in length and depth, referring to any well bound volume as a model of proportion, the depth of the cover pro tecting the leaves. Having good flour paste, scalded but not boiled, brush tho lap of tho musliu loose at each side of the back and place the side hoard upon this strip, fitting it exactly, WnkiuK S’jre that this adher- j and being careful to wipe av.ay the I paste oozing out. Then paste over all tbo back, bringing down over tho paste boards an inch or more a generous back ing of stout silesia of any color. This should be doubled in at the top aud bot tom to strengthen tho silesia in its fu ture wear. Next, having cat from stout wrapping paper two pieces sufficiently large to bring over top, bottom and front edges of the boards, brush tho paper over its entire surface with paste aud apply it dexterously to the boards, having its truest edge neatly applied to the silesia. Then folding over top, bottom and front, cut the coruers aslant, as tho sides are brought over upou tho iusido of what now may be called tho cover. Lastly apply upou this tough paper the original front cover of the volume. If it has been soiled iu the least, wash its face delicately with a cloth dipped in soapy water aud dry it carefully. If the back of the original is present able and has character worth preserv ing, paste that upon the back of the new cover. Last of all paste within the fresh fly leaf. Then for each cover o* half of the oover prepare a double sheet of pretty paper, iiossibly colored, one- half of which shall be pasted perfectly to line the insides of tbo cover, the other left loose as an ornamental leaf. Before the silesia is quite dry with tho bow oi the scissors run along heavily the ridge of the board where it meets the back of the book. Repeat this while the work is drying to insure a fixed depression, a gutter, which gives a finished style and admits easy play in opening and shut ting the new bound book. Makiug sure that no splash of paste is overlooked, now place clean paper around the volume and lay it where it will rest evenly under a heavy weight. Before it is quite dry iron it well with a moderrjely heated iron, which should bo moved discreetly over all tho pasted parts, neither scorching nor ruffling the papers. In rebinding several books, if they have varied only a little in size, they may be bronght to a uniform ap pearance by judicious suiting of the covers. Much of the contriving for bookbind ing may be done before the paste work begins If the measuring aud cutting of the boards aud the outer paper and inner and outer muslins be done at one time, the work is well begun and may be left for the day. When at the real work of binding, one must move rapid ly on, not doiug half upon one book and as much upou the other, theu going back to the first, bat the first book must be entirely finished and put under press before the pasting upon the other be gins. When once tha brush is dipped in the paste cup, it is better not to be inter rupted, as imperfect drying discolors or blisters the paper aud warps tho boards. Attention aud accuracy secure good re sults.—New York Tribune. Tho British Army’s Retired List. According to a table in The Broad Arrow, we have on the active list 8 field marshals, 20 generals, 30 lieutenant gemnuin, 116 uiujui gonurals and 20 lo cal major generals and brigadiers, or in all as many as 212. Un retired pay we have 05 generals, 05 lieutenant generals, 184 major generals, or in all 314. On the unemployed Indian list we have 178 generals, 03 lieutenant generals and 442 major generals and some of other, often nominal, sorts of generals. In all there are 8 field marshals, 204 generals, 188 lieutenant generals, 1,254 major gener als, 29 local major generals and briga- diera, thus giving a grand total of 1,788 general officers. With 1,520 generals who have uo work to do it is uo wonder that tho uoueffective vote is so heavy or that India, which carries nearly half of them on her shoulders, is crushtnl under tho burden of taxation iu tho raising of which she has no voice. —Loudon Cbron- icla. Dwarfing From Har*h Environment. In Limousin there is a barren range of low hills which lies along the divid ing lino between tho departments of Dordogne, Correze and Haute-Vienne, about half way between Perigueux aud Limoges. The water courses show the location of these uplands. They extend over an area about 75 miles long and half as wide, wherein average human misery is most profound. Dense igno rance prevails. There is more illiteracy than iu any other part of Franco. Tho contrast iu stature, even with tho low average of all tho surrounding region, is clearly marked by the dark tint. There are sporadic bits of equal diminu- tiveuess elsewhere to the south aud west, but none ie so extended or io ex treme. Two-thirds of tho men are below 5 feet 3 inches in height in some of tho communes, and the women aro 3 or more inches shorter eveu than this. One man iu ten is below 4 feet 11 inches iu stature. This is uot duo to race, for sev eral racial types aro equally stunted iu this way within the same area. It is primarily due to generations of subjec tion to a harsh climate, to a soil which is worthless for agriculture, to a steady diet of boiled chestnuts and stagnant water, and to unsanitary dwellings iu tho deep, narrow and damp valleys. Still further proof may bo found to show that those people are uot stunted by any hereditary influence, for it has been shown that children born here, but who migrate aud grow up elsewhere, are normal in height, while those born else where, but who aro subject to this eu- vironmeut during the growing period of youth, are proportionately dwarfed. — Popular Scieuce Monthly. Slept Through On© Act. It happened one night at the Alvin theater when tho boards were held by a play that kept every one else awake. He was a man large in girth, bnt not very tall, aud ho had a pretty smooth bald head, nothing remaining of his hair but a friugo that might be taken for an extension of his coat collar. The portly man with this head had seen a lot of friends before he went into the theater, and he was wcqrr. His coupon called ror a seat right next to a pillar in the lower part of tho house, and when the usher took him to it a smile of ecstasy swept over his great face. Pretty soon the ballet appeared, and the man was amused for a time. The jokes of the leading comedian, the songs of the prima donna and the whirl of the danseuse were lost to him, though, for be fell asleep. Against tho convenient pillar the man pillowed his large, fin ing head, and thus ho rested until the climax of the first act and throughout tbo music during tho wait. A man who had to go out climbed over him without his making tho least sign. It was a peaceful sleep, accompanied by only the gentlest of snoring, and unconscious ly tbo man furnished much amusement to the other people who came to see the show. While he had withstood tho thunders of the bass fiddle, the tremolo of the leading violin, which always ac companies some act of villainy on the stage, awoke him. He started, glared at the stage, could not understand and left the theater in the midst of all the ex citing scene. “Le* me out,” ho said to the usher in tho foyer. “I guess I’m in the wrong house somehow. ”—Pittsburg Post. Rebuked by the Court. When Judge James B. Gantt of the Missouri supremo court was a circuit judge down in Henry county, he bad a good many railroad cases to try, relates East Window iu tho Columbia Herald. Nearly every farmer aloug the liuo of j the Missouri, Kansas aud Texas railway ; sued tho company. In a number of these cases a young lawyer just arrived from Tennessee represented tho plaintiff. For the defendant corporation appeared Sam Priest, a shrewd, able, aggressive law yer. Priest took advantage of every point and fought the cases from the start. Tho young lawyer, who may bo called Brown, was forced several times to amend his petition and try a now tack. Finally Judge Gantt was compel led, under tho law, to throw some of Brown’s cases out of the court, because they were improperly brought. Brown was mad all over. Swelling with indig nation, he arose and said: “Your honor, will you please tell me how it is possible in this court to get justice against a railroad company?” Judge Gautt quietly ignored tho con tempt of court shown by tho lawyer and asked: “Do you wish an answer to that ques tion, Mr. Brown?” “Yes, sir,” defiantly replied the in dignant lawyer; “yes, sir, and I want to know bow a farmer can get his ease into this court so that it will be heard. ” Judge Gantt smiled aud said: “Well, first, Mr. Brown, I’d advise the farmer to hire a lawyer.” Brown wilted. A Use For It. A gentleman with long hair and a shiny coat laboriously climbed the stairs to the editorial sanctum. “I have here,” he remarked, “a few lines of verse which I offer at regular rates for publication in your valuable paper.” The xnanagiug editor took the man uscript, and after gazing on it for a few moments remarked: “We cannot use these lines as poetry, but if you will leave them we will try to dispose of them. I believe they can be used for golf hose. ” “Pray tell mo,” said the astonished poet, “why you deem my lints avail able for use as golf hose?” "They have uo feet.” Whereupon the poet took a bot foot down the editorial stairs. — Omaha World-Herald. The Difference, Mike—What is the difference be tween you and the load of dirt you are carting? Pat—I don’t know. What is it? Mike—You’re a son of toil and it’s a ton of soil.—Harlem Life. REAL WALL STREET. IT CONSISTS OF SECURITIES IN A LOT OF LEATHER BOXES. Theft© Are Carried to Market Every Moru las—How They Are Guarded by Night and by Day—What Would Happen if They Were All Lost or Stolen. According to tho map of the city of New York, Wall street is a ' borough- fare leading from Broadway to East river. In business parlance it is a dis trict extending a quarter of a mile ou either side of that thoroughfare, with spurs and branches on lower Broadway. But neither ot thesodelinitions is cor rect. The real Wall street is contained in a lot of leather boxes about three feet long by a foot and a half deep. From 9 :S0 to 10 o’clock every weekday morning the real Wall street comes out from subterranean vaults and spreads itself over the district. About 4 o’clock iu the afternoon it goes back again to its lair, to repose for tho night iu the dungeons of steel and solid masonry that defy both fire aud burglars, guard ed by watchmen who all night long pa trol the dimly lighted corridors of tho stronghold. • This real Wall street consists of se curities to the value of about $500,000,* 000. Tho buying and selling of these securities is the business of the brokers, aud a man engaged in such buying aud selling is “iu the street.” These $500,- 000,000 worth of securities are sent to market every merniug by their owners to bo sold for the highest price they will bring, just as a farmer sends a pig to market, aud the broker corresponds to the hired man who takes the pig to market aud is paid for doing so. Wall street is often spoken of as u place where people buy and sell what they do uot possess. That, however, is a delusion. Wall street is securities, and tho business of “tho str ot” tho buying and selling of them. There are, to bo sure, “bucket shops,” wbero things are carried on in some such fash ion, but these bucket shops aro uot of “tho street.” Each of the above mentioned leather boxes is carried by two clerks sent from the broker’s office to which it is bound, and behind walks a member of the firm or some trusted employee, such as tho cashier. There aro leather handles on either end of the box, by which the clerks carry it, aud the carriers walk with a brisk step. Tho representative of tho firm who walks behind keeps ou a line half way between tho carriers aud has one eye ou the box and one ou the people about him. Some of the small firms instead of having a box for their securities have a leather bag, which is carried by one man and watched by an other. All up and down tho sidewalks these moving bags and boxes can be seen dur ing the half hour which is devoted to their transportation. There is little cash iu these bags aud boxes—sometimes a few thousand dollars which the broker has received after banking hours the day before and put iu the safe deposit vault over night, but no great amount. It is securities, stocks aud bonds, rep resenting the ownership of $500,000,000 worth of actual property, that is in them. It is, of course, impossible to es timate the value exactly, but the above figure is a fair approximation. If it is a day of “bear market,” tho value represented is (on the principle that a thing is worth what it will fetch) somewhat less; if it is a day of ’ ‘ bull market,” more. It is an iutoresitng object lesson in the affairs of men to see tho stream of leather boxes spread itself over Wall street district in the morning and to watch it recede aud seek its caves at night. Some of those boxes which start ed out gay and buoyant in the morning seek the seclusion of their steel dun geons at night sadly dejected, aud some that wont forth timorously come buck with au opuleut swagger. While this transfer is being made about a dozou well dressed men, who seem to take only a languid interest in life, may be seen loungiug or strolling about at tbo place where Wall street divides Broad from Nassau, or in that immediate vioinage. They are Wall street doteotives, who, appearing to see nothing, see everything. Aud under their care this half a billion of property is carried throngh tho streets iu perfect safety. Yet even if one could inveut some kind of fish weir which would catch all these peripatetic boxes aud could theu get away with them it would do him no good. There would, of course, bo uo Wall street fur awhile—until stocks aud bonds to replace the stolen ones could be made out—but tbo stolen se curities would promptly be declared void, and as soon as the uew ones took their places “Wall street’’ would reap pear.—Detroit Free Press. Funner Falls of Need. Up at 4, writing memoirs about the year 1544 till noon; thou walked with Dutch cousin (Benjamin Milner of Amsterdam) to Woodhose Hill, where, iu Cousin Fenton’s best chamber, I gathered some of the corn that was rained down the chimney upou tho Lord’s day seven night, when it like wise rained plentifully of the like upon Heading ley Moor, as was confidently reported; but those I gathered with mj own hands from the white hearth, which was stained with drops of blue where it had fallen, for it is of a pule red or a kind of sky color, is pretty, aud tastes like common wheat, of which I have 100 oorus. What it may signify, and whether it doth proceed from nat ural causes (of which some may be pre scribed), or preternatural, such an igno rant creature a I am cannot aver.— “Diary of Thorosby,” 1081. Crnal Disappointment. Debtor—1 want to pay that little bill of yours. Creditor (delighted)—All right, my dear boy. Debtor—But I can't—Excbaugt. j