Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

r THE LEDGER: GAFFNEY, S. C., FEBRUARY 3. I8!)8. WE HAVE WAITED. Ton hade m< > k*>. a:id I \v«'nt nwar— 1 went, tkongh jh.v honi t was lin aking. By m .tr h Ki,:li did my Hi>m lie tray Tlio grief tf tliat brief leave taking. “Goodby,” you sr.id. “Where’er you go Tin* prayers of your friend* will follow. But you Kcid it in suoh a way, you know, That it sounded strained and hollow. I answer' d you in the wtuo light tone, Oh, the fo(;li>h word* then k; oltenl 1 regret them siill, but my heart alone I thought was tortured and broken. But now I know that you also felt The pangs of that biiter parting. When down at your feet 1 would have knelt And the tears to my eyes were starting. And I took yonr hand before them nil And smilnd, though my heart wasoehing. | “Good luck,’’ 1 said, “may your life befall. Goodby!’’ And my heart was breaking. And now I know it need not have been, You lovid me then as 1 loved you, And a false pride parted our fond heart * when Both wire loyal and both proved true. Think of tho years that wo have lost, The years that might have been lovr freighted. The years that were lived at such a eost To all our hopes—yet you have waited! You hare waited, and I have oxime. Forgive mo, dear, that I caused you sor row. 1, too, have suffered. Come, make my home. Lei tho past bo lest inn bright tomorrow. You have waited long, end I am here. Oh, let there be a glad tomorrow! I know I love you, far or near. Oh, let us end this lo-'g, long sorrow! —Kew York Ledger. UNLUCKY THUiTEEX. tko ccu* ::tl cpiuiou \v;. had c::ly stoltn from : *• BolJdeg” Canny had lent at it agaiu. It was hcrEes this time, ami when horces follow a irau off wither.t rhyme cr reasen there is often shooting from cro side cr the other. And tho owner of the horses that had gcuo off with “Bulldog” Carney lr.y in hospital in Fort McLeod with a plug of lead in his lung. Ho vas a “rustier” himself, end that Carney thief. But the plug of lead—that was r different matter. A man has got to Lo pretty tough before the shooting < f him counts for nothing. So Sergeant Hetherington and Con stable Williams were sent out with three days’ rations to look Carney up in one direction, while a couple of other constables took the trail in another. Much riding and the viewing of much open plain were tho results of the first day’s campaign. On tho c<com! day they rode . gain, but tho plain was not quite so t pen. Thero wcio several lakes and various other interruptions of the vista. “What’s the sense of this?” paid Hetherington to the ether constable. /"You might as well lock for a needle a haystack cr a prayer Look in L; r- ^ucks as look for Carney in this Cod forsaken hole. We’ll never get a eight of him.” So they camped where tin y were, bc- sido a imall lake, and smoked the pipe of peace and ate their rations and cursed the government that had cut their pay down to CO cents a day, bowboit the sergeant was getting more than that now sinco his promotion. But that was regulation form, tho routine, and so they smoked long and swore hard ami denounced the service anyway us being no goed to a man, for it made him lazy and unfitted him for anything else, and it was a wild goose chase, and Carney was a hundred miles away, and they wero a pair of fools, as great as the man who had sent them cut. And with tho gray regulation blank ets pallid over their beads and th. ir feet warm against the blaze of the smoldering cempliro th<y slept—slept tho prairie sleep, which is long and deep and strong and as enlike the other as a strong growing Lush is unlike a hothouse plant; slept among tho wild roses and great yellow marguerites and the little wondering sunflowers: slept on the dry, crisp grass, that was as a gfritlo spring mattress. And ns they slept a man came and lookesl at them and pulled at his blond mnstacho a little, reflectively, and then stepped Lack into tho night again, and all was still, only the munching and occasional stamp of a horto’s hoof over on one side, where the horses were pick eted, and tho little, sneezing blow of tho noses of the feeding animals as they cleared the dust out qf their nostrils. “Thero wore ducks flying over alj last night,” said the scrgtunt as hc\ pulled on his long boots. “They’reusst- 1 inshore in these lakes, and I’m going to have a look for some eggs. ” Soon a voice came up from tho reed* and cattails growing in t)ic edge of the lake to the constable us he busied him self ct the morning fire: “Comedownhere, Williams. They’re slathers of eggs here. ” The ducks there were as other ducks. They pulled down the lancelike Lladi n of grass and plaited them into nests just out in tho water a piece. That was Dumu Nature’s insurance scheme, but she hadn’t reckoned with the sergeant and his merry constable. The long boots and tho gray socks and tho brown trou sers wero off in a jiffy, and with shirts tucked up under their anus the two warriors were soon filling their helmets with dock eggs. “I’ve got me bat full,” said the ser geant, “and here’s a uesi with IS eggs in it. What’ll I do?” “Better leave it alone,” said the con stable. “Thirteen’l an unlucky num ber. “ “But I want the eggs,” pleaded the sergeant. “It’s unlucky to go i>n tinned beef when you can got fresh eggs. Be sides, me lock couldn't change for the worse any way, “ be added as he thought of what the exile lift in that lone laud meant, then,” said the constable, “if you don't mind the bad luck wrap them in yonr shirt, and I will bold yoar cha peau.” And he waded over to the other mid held the helmet. “I’m a qoaro looking bird now," cald tho sergeant as ho peeled tho gray flan nel shirt over bis head liko stripping an otter and proceeded to transfer the eggs from the watery nest to tho impromptu bag. “I miss my guess or you’ll run up ag’in hard luck this trip. I wouldn’t touch a nest with 18 eggs in it with a ten foot polo, ” said the constable as they made their way out througii the scrub growth on tho edge of the lakes. “Having a bath, gentlemen?” asked a cheery voice from the wilderness as they emerged into the open. It was the man who had looktd upon them the previous night as they lay sleeping. The sergeant was so astonished that tho corner of the shirt slipped from his hand and the 13 eggs rolled into a bat ter at his feet. And it was no wonder that he was as tonished, for he was looking upon two policemen. The threo V shaped stripes on the right arm of one of them, the speaker, showed that he was a sergeant. Some thing about the clothes struck him as being strangely familiar. He could al most swear to a spot or two on the front of the tight fitting brown jacket. “Sorry to trouble you, gentlemen,” said tho same cheery voice, as tho own er of it toyed with the butt of a big regulation revolver at his side, “but my partner here and myself took a notion we'd like to join the force, so we jus:t slipped into your clothes till we’d see how we’d look, and as the two suits will hardly go round the four of us sup pose you stack our duds. They’re just over there by the campfire.” As ho spoke he absentmindedly drew forth the big revolver and rubbed his thumb reflectively ov* r the hammer and waited for them to make their toilet. “You’re up to larks this morning,” said the sergeant, thinking that the bad luck of the 13 eggs was already get ting its work in cn him. He noticed that their carbines and revolvers and cartridge belts had all been taken pos session of by the strangers. He realized that himself and the constable were in the hands of the strangers, and ho made a pretty shrewd guess that tho man they were after had turned the tables and captured them. “By George, I guess there’s no help for it, "said the sergeant good humor- edly as he began to crawl into the other man’s clothes. “ Y. 7 hat’syou fellows’ game anyway?” he said as hi* pulled cu a pair of deer skin riding breeches. “Well, I take it you’re rather a rough lot,” said the man with the stripes on bis arm, “and we’re going to arrest you for herso stealing.” “Well, that’s pretty rich for my blood,” said tho sergeant as ho com pleted his toilet with a bread brimmed cowboy hat. “Now, I suppose you’re net much accnstomed to wearing jewelry, ” said the other, “but I’ll have to trouble you to put theec darbies cn.” And he tossed the sergeant a pair of handcuffs. The sergeant laughed, but made no move ment to put them on. “Put them cn him, Bill,” the stranger said, “and if he moves I’ll let daylight through him. Now tho other!” he added as Bill dapped the handtufi’s cn.tbe sergeant, and in a twinkling they were both handcuffed prisoners. Then they wero mounted cn tho bronchos be longing to the two men who hud them in charge, while the latter took tlnir two good police horses and rode beside them. “You’ll get into a fine row over this,” said the sergeant to his captor. The latter laughed good huincredly. “Not half to fine a row us I would have got into if it had been the other way about. If you'd got the drop on me first and I was wearing the bracelets now, then I would think there was trouble ahead.” “What'reyou going to do with us anyway?” said the sergeant. “Youcun't eat us. Are you going to hold us up and make* the government ransom us out?” “We're going to leave the constable here with a friend who keeps u fashion able hotel in a shack down at Dead Man’s Crossing on Deep Cut creek, and we’re goiu to take you to Maple Greek and turn you over to the superintendent there. You shouldn't have run off tho horses, you know, and then when the man objected you plugged him.” “You seem to know all about it,” said the sergeant. “I suppose you ara •Bulldog’ bimsel/.” “You seem a bit mixtd, my friend," replied the stranger coolly. “You’re ‘Bulldog’ Carney and I’m Sergeant Hetherington, in charge of this outfit.” And be pulled from his pocket the ser geant’s papers, neatly inclosed in a blue government envelope, and smiled de risively at Hetherington. “You won’t be able to .work that racket at the barracks at Maple Creek, for some of the fellows’ll be sure to know me there.” “Well, if they do you’ll have a lon ger ride, that’s all,” answered his cap- tor, “for I mean to get you put in this time sure, for you’ve escaped often enough before.” That afternoon they came to Dead Man’s Grossing, and Williams was left there in charge of a man they found in the shack. lie had evidently bean ex pecting Carney, but be opened his eyes with much wonder when be saw the prisoners, and when be understood the situation he went an und with u broad grin on his face that was particularly tantalizing. , . Maple Greek was 70 miles from Dead Man's Crossing. They stopped all night at Dead Man’s Crossing and made 00 miles of the 70 next day. In the morning the sergeant had an- •ther lesson in the deep diplomacy with which Carney negotiated mutters. “Ride on, Bill.’’ ho beard him say to his mate, “and inquire if Sergeant Hetherington lies oome in y«4 v ith his prisoner. You can tell them that you were out on a little reoonnoiter for Car ney’s mute, and that I expected to be there at the barracks about 10 o'clock. If there’s anybody there knows mo— dergeaut Hetherington — Just bit the 1 trail back a piece, and we’ll move ou to the next post. I want to give this man Carney up to strangers, you tee. I'm afraid h :,j friends mightn't treat him well. Anyway 1 think you'd bet ter ride back to meet me.” Bill galloped away ou his errand, and after putting in an hour or so to give him a good start Carney and his prisoner struck camp and followed up. Bill mot them about live miles cut of Maple Creek and report! d that there Wasn’t a soul in the troop stationed thero that knew Hetherington. “But they’re dead ou to Carney’s racket, though,” he said, “and v\hen I told them that we’d captured him they thought ’twas a pretty slick piece of business. They say he’s harder to trail tiiau a coyote.” “You see,” said Carney to tho ser geant, “the easier you take this thing and the less racket you make the better you'll get along. If you get rusty and insist that you’re sergeant, some of ihe fellows’ll round ou you, and the bad luck t^e 13 eggs brought you’ll be noth ing to the trouble that you’ll get into then.” As soon as they got into tho fort Hetherington saw at once that Carney must have been in tho force at ouo Mine. He asked for tho sergeant major as soon as they rode into tho barracks square and asked him to report to the superintendent that he had brought in tho despt rado Carney, who was wanted for horse stealing and shooting a man. “I was afraid to take him back to Fort McLeod,” ho said, “for fear he’d play some trick ami get away. He ul most made me believe he was somebody else until I found this letter on him ad dressed to John Carney.” It was in vain that tho sergeant swore that he was Sergeant Hetherington him self. Tho more he swore against the fate that bad tangled him up the more they laughed at him and told him to drop it. Carney’s reputation for slipping out of the toils stretched from Winnipeg to tho highest point of the Rockies, but he’d find that he couldn’t do them up at Maple Creek. They wero ou to his little game. “Are you quite sure you’re not Major Steel himself or Commissioner Hackle?” asked the superintendent, looking at Lirn with a knowing smile. At this sally of wit Carney and the rest of them laughed so heartily that tho superintendent Was so pleased with himself that ho told tho prisoner he might sit down. “ Your police duties must make you tired,” he said, with a wink at Carney. “All tho same, sir," said tho poor sergeant, tears almost starting to his eyes as ho saw how completely ho was in the other’s clutches, “you’ll bo sor ry for this when you find out what a mistake you’re making.” “Oh, no doubt, no doubt,” said the superintendent. “When they find out that you’re really a sergeant iu the force, I’ll be reduced to tko ranks fig. this and you li bo made inspector.” “At least, sir," said Hetherington, “you might keep this man who claims to bo a sergeant hero until this matter is cleared up.” “Capital, capital,” said tho superin tendent. “A capital idea. WeTl keep him hero so that yonr mate can get clean away; then I shall get promotion for that Lrilliaut idea. You’re bagged, but you’d rather that your mate got away, eh? Sergeant Hetherington hero tells me that he was pretty hot on your mate’s trail, and one of tho objects for bringing you iu here was that he might have his Lands ckar to follow itjup.” iso the sergeant was put behind tho bars, and Carney and Bill were made free of the canteen, and the superintend ent congratulated himself upon the prospect of being able to forward ou “Bulldog” Carney, who bad been want ed at headquarters for some time. Then toward evening, when tho fierce heat of the noonday sun had spent itself, Carney and Bill rode forth to hunt up the other man, “the mate,” and Maple Creek never t^aw again tho good police horses that went with them, nor the rifles, nor tho revolvers, and it took a year’s official correspondence to clear up the mystery us to who was to blame for committing iicrgeaiit Hetherington of Mm N. W. M. P., us “Bulldog” Carney, horse thief and handy man with a gun. Thero is a legend that it never was cleared up.—Temple Bar. PRINTERS’ ERRORS. THE JAINS. THE FIENDISH BEHAVIOR OF WCLl MEANING TYPES. Trick* With Liquid Air. A small party of prominent electri cians, among whom wero Professor Bli- bu Thomson, John W. Grbbouty and Wult.T C. Fish cf Lynn, with Edwin W. Bi«e, Jr., and a few outsiders, sat down to a quiet supper iu the private dining room cf Earl & Martin’s restau rant, ou Union street, when some of the wits in the party amused themM-lves by playing tricks on the table attendants, and also ou the astute cook, William J. Bond, by freezing some of the dishes oolid as soon as tho latter were put on the table. In fact, to such an extent did one member of the party carry bis merri ment that bo sent back a slice of bread, solidly congealed, to the cook, with an interrogation as to why such food was put upon the table. Billy was natural ly puzzled at tbo occurrence, and all the more so when he, too, examined Mie bread complained,of and found it crumbled to dust at his touch. He could not solve the enigma and was still fur ther puzzled when a glass of liquid was returned, also frozen aolid. One of the electricians gave tho secret away after the supper and explained that the sub- stances were frown by means of liquid air, of which one of the party hud a supply.—Lynn (Mass.) Exchange. • •- - — Bucklen’s Amca Salve. Tho Beat b.ilve In the world for Cuta, Bruiaea, Bores, Ulcer, Balt Rheum, Fever Ho **a, Tetter, Chapped Hands, Chilblains, Corns, and all Bkin Eruption, and postively cures Pilea or no pay required. It is guru- an teed to give perfect satisfaction or money refunded. Price 2*> cents per box. For sal* by Tbo DuPro L ug Co. A Few Exr.niplos From » LlmltJp** Fonree of Fan — Foot*, Pwliticmn* unit Editors Who Have fcuUVred Hncnuno of "Four’ CaseH and Kindred Misfortunes. The compositor, casually and unccii- sciously, is a fellow of infinite humor. The writers and speakers upon whoso telling arguments or flights of fancy the compositor exercises his wit may bo an noyed, but the general public has no al loy iu tbo enjoyment of these typo graphical antics. Miss Fanny Fudge, the youthful genius discovered by Tom Moore, who u&ed to contribute to the poets’ corner of Tko County Gazette, complained bitterly to her cousin of the havoc the printers made of her sense and her rhymes. “Though an angel 1 should write, still ’tis devils must ! print,” she explained. Hero is how those devils served her: | But n week or two sinco in my cJlo to tho suriug, Which 1 meant to have made a mest beautiful thing. 1 Where I talk'd of “the dewdrops front freshly blown roses," ! The nasty tilings made it “from freshly blown noses!" , And once when to please my cross aunt I hud tried I To commemorate some saint of her clique who’ll just died, ‘ Eaving said he had “tak’n up In heaven his position,” i They made it, he’d “tak’n up to heaven Lis physician." Tho responsibility for theso humeri | of the composing room rests some timer J with tho author’s vile handwriting, Lr.j it is mainly due to the conditions under which tho compositor works. A wooden frame (or ease, as it is known in the trade) is divided by ledges into several receptacles or boxes for the various let ters of the alphabet and points cf punc tuation. In one box there are all A’s, in another all H’s and iu another all Y’s, and so on, and from this case, picking up the letters one by one as required, the compositor turns tho manuscript into type. Practice enables him to dc this not only with extreme rapidity, but with remarkable accuracy, but be bas often to d< '*1 with v u r.t he cells a fcv.l case—that is, a case iu which several o: tho letters have got into tho wrong boxes—and as ho thus unconsciously picks up the wrong letter from the right box we find cc.ts turned to cats, poets to posts, arts to rats and jolly to folly. A theatrical critic in a notice cf a charming young actress whose treat ment of Portia bad afforded him much pleasure wrote, “Her love for Portia made acting easy.” That was right pnnn<«b bnf what the tvnes made him Biiy was “her love for Porter,” etc. A compositor who was better acquainted with the geography cf tho west than with Biblical lore set up tbo phrase “From Alpha to Omega” as “from Al ton to Omaha” and possibly found him self compelled to start for those place; next morning. In tho earlier half of the present century it was announced in a London newspaper that “Sir Robert Peel, with a party cf fiends, was shoot ing peasants iu Ireland,” whereas the minister and his friends wero only in dulging in the comparatively barmles; pastime of pheasant shooting. Shortly after the buttle of Inkerman one of the morning papers informed its reader.' that “after a desperate struggle the ene my was repulsed with great laughter." The omission cf a single letter has rare ly played more havoc with a subject which was no laughing matter. It must have l^a the very printer’: devil himself who represented a very worthy advocate of tho cause of female suffrugo r.3 exhorting her hearers _ tl “maintain their tights.” What the bridesmaids at n recent wedding .mm;; have thought when they read that they Lad all worn “handsome breeches, tkj gift of tho bridegroom," one can only guets. But whatever their thought. 1 may havo been at seeing their pretty breaches thus transformed their lan guage at any rate cannot, we may cc- sume, have matched that of tho politi cian who read t<ho following comment on one of his speeches, “Them asses be lieved him.” Possibly ho was not much consoled by being assured that the re porter had merely wished to signify that “tbo masses believed him.’’ On another occasion n reporter wrote, “At these words the entire audience rose end rent the air with their snouts.” Th: compositor had set up shouts correctly, but had not observed that the top of the h was broken off. An enthusiastic oditc: began his leading article on a local elec tion campaign with the phrase, “The battle is now opened.” Unfortunately the compositor tranrfermod battle into bottle, and his readers uaid that they had suspected it all along. Landor, revising tho proof of a poem ho hud written for The Keepsake, found the conclndiug stanza thus printed: “Yes,” you shall say whin occo th® drczxi (Bu hard to break) i* o’or, “My love was very dear to him, My farm and peac® wero c:cr«." This error seems to have augerod tki poet, whoso temper, indeed, it was ix; difficult to upset, for upon the margin of the proof (which is still extant) be wrote: “Of all tho ridieulous blun ders ever committed by a compositor farm instead of fame is the most ridicu lous. Pity it was not printed my farm and peas. ’’ Richard Procter, the astron omer, writing in Hs magazine, Knowl edge, stated that tbo most remarkable change which printers had ever arranged for him occurred iu tho proof cf a lit do bool: on “Spectroscopic Analysis,” written for the Society For Promoting Christian Knowledge. Tho words, “lines, bands and strito iu tbo violet part of tho spectra,’’ were printed, “links, bonds and stripes fur the vio lent kinds of specters.” A still more untuning blander, which Mr. Proctor declared that bo bad seen in the proof of a poem written by a friend, was tbo transformation of the lino, “Hu kisied bor under tbo silent stars,” into “Hu kicked her tinder tbo ceffar stairs."— Macmillan’s Magazine. Sira and Wnnirti of India Who Strive t® Conquer tho Lower Nature. Besides Hindoo or Yodic metaphys ics, there are systems in India not based on the Vedas and Upanishads, and therefore classed as heterodox by the Vcdists. These aro the Buddhist and Jain systems. Much has been written ami spoken on Buddhism, but very little on Jainism. Jain (or, more properly speaking, Jainu) means a follower of .Tina, which is a generic term applied to those per sons (men and women) that have con quered tho lower nature — passion, hatred and the like—and brought into prominence the highest. The Jain phi losophy, therefore, bases its doctrine on the absolute necessity (for tlie realization of truth) of conquering the lower na ture. To the undeveloped or insufficient ly developed observer, it is the conquer ing of the lower nature; to the fully developed, it is the realization of the perfect. Thero lived many such .Tinas in tho past, and many will doubtless yet he born. The philosophy of the Jains there fore is not essentially founded ou any particular writing or external revela tion, but on the uufoldment of spiritual consciousness, the birthright of every soul. Tho Jain philosophy teaches that the universe—the totality of realities—is infinite iu space cud eternal iu time, but the same universe, considered from the standpoint of tiie manifestations of tho different realities, is finite in space and uonctemal in time. Particular parts of the universe have their cyclic laws corresponding to the laws of evolution and involution. At certain periods ar- hats, or great masters (saviors of man kind), are born, who, through love, sac rifice of tho lower nature (not of tho real self) and wisdom, teach tho true doctrine. Referring to that part of the world known as Bharata-Khandia (In dia), the last arhut, Mahavira, was born 598 B. C., in a town called Kuu- dagrama, in the territory of Videha. He lived 72 years and reached moksha (the perfect condition) in 520 B. C. The Jain philosophy akc teaches that each soul (atman) is a separate individ uality, uncreated and eternal in exist ence; that each individual soul has lived from time without beginning in some embodied state, evolving from tho low er to the higher condition through tho law cf karma, cr cause and effect; that so long as tbo karums (forces generated in previous lives) have not been fully worked out it has, after physical death, to form another body, until through evolutionary processes it unfolds its ab solute purity. Its full perfection is then manifested. This perfection of tho indi viduality is tho Jain Nirvana, or muk- ti. The individuality is not merged into anything, neither is it annihilated. The process of this development, or salva tion, may be said simply to consist iu right realization, right knowledge and right life, the details of which are many. Personality is changing every mo ment. The individuality is for every moment the particular stage of unfold- nient of the ego itself and is conse quently the bearer of the sins and sor rows, pleasures and enjoyments, of mundane life. In absolute perfection this bearing nature is thrown off like a busk, and the ego dwells iu divine and eternal bliss. It is not destroyed, nor is it merged into another ego or in a su preme being, uud if tbo qnestion be asked whether in this state of mukti (delivcrhuce) thero is ono ego or a plu rality of egos I would answer in tho words of the Jain master: “That atman by which I experienced myself and my essence through self realization—that 1 am; neither musculino, feminine nor center, neither one, two nor many.” Tho Vedanta metaphysics teach that salvation comes through knowledge (of Brahman). It is not the potential that through effort and conquest becomes the actual, and wo are farther taught that that which is is real now. On tho other hand, Jainism teaches that from tbo ideal and transcendental standpoint yon are Brahman, but its eternality, the real mukti, comes from work and knowledge together, not from one alone. Through work and knowledge, Jainism says, the individual develops and un folds the potential. Therefore the state ment, "lam Brahman,” wonld be in terpreted by a Jain to mean I am Brah man only inherently or in embryo; I hove tho capacity or the actnal possibil ity of Brahman; what 1 urn implicitly most become explicit. There is a vast difference between the implicit and the explicit. Those who do not recognize this difference would never make an at tempt to become rational and free.— Vircbuud 11. Gandhi iu Mind. Stamp CollecGnf. Tbo collecting of postage stamps and the preservation of the same as curiosi ties liegan immediately after tho Lmih of tbo Mulready envelopes and tho 1840 penny black and twopenco Line adhesives. The first published notice of surlt collecting is said to have appeared iu Punch in 1841. Tho first government to follow the example r.f Groat Britain was t.;of Brazil, which issued tbo largq liguro Ftamps in 1843. Other countries slowly followed, until the growth of commerce, made possible by railnuds and or an steamers, and the consequent increased domestic and foreign correspondence, caused most of the other governments to introduce tho same system of prepay ment by stamps early in the fifties. As the number of different stamps increas ed more and moro persons became inter ested in obtaining copies of the differ ent varieties, but probably tho most effi cient agent in stimulating curiosity and eventually collecting was the appear ance cf tho triangular Cape cf Good Hope stamps iu 1853. The shape was so odd and the design so beautiful that, judging by present prices, it would seem as if almost every copy used was saved. No one who collected stamps as curiosities was satisfied until he had ono or more of these handsome postal labels. As time went on boys and girls be came interested in stamps, and a rival ry began as to who could make up a collection of tho greatest number of va rieties. Many of the boys could get a largo number of the stamps of ono or more foreign countries, and by trading theso with one another could iucreaso their collections materially. Tho usual basis for such trading was stanqi for stamp, and thus many rare stamps went into the hands cf children who had no idea as to their future value. Unfortu nately iu those early days of philately tho custom was to paste down the stamp cu pages of old hlaukbcoks, and very few stamps remained whole after cue or two removals.—Harper’s Bound Ta ble. -ar ■ — - - -■ . —— , Seaweed nud Amber. ’• Tho main aourco of tho amber supply is the seacoast of the Baltic ocean. It is fossil gum, originally the exudation of a species of couifi r now extinct. This grew in luxuriant profusion hundreds of thonsands’of years ago cu the marshy coasts of northern Europe, when the climate was much warmer than it is to day. The natural history of amber is thus explained. Tho immense forests cf amber pine underwent their natural downfall and decay. The resin of tbo wood accumulated in large quantities iu begs and ponds and in the soil of tbo forest. Where tho coast was slowly sink ing, the sea by and by covered tho laud, and the amber, which had been gradu ally hardening, was at last deposited at the ocean bottom. But iu higher regions tho pine ccutiuued to flourish, and so amber would still continue to bo washed down to the shore and deposited in the laper foraivd green sand, and the still later formed stratum of lignite or brown coal The gum became fossilized by its long burial underground. Moro than 200 specimens of extinct life, animal and vegetable, have been found imbedded iu amber specimens, including insects, rep tiles, plants, leaves, shells, frnit, etc., which had been caught in the liquid gum and entombed there for all time. Seme of these specimens are so curious ly beautiful as to bo almost priceless, and one English collector has u cabinet of them which is valued at £100,000. One piece embalms a lizard about eight inches long, a jeweled monster perfect in its form and coloring, which has no like in anything existing now. Indeed, in many instances science is able solely through this medium to study details of animal life which perished from tho earth many hundred thousands of years ago. There are flies preserved with wings poised as if for flight, where tho prismatic sheen glowing through tho yellow sepulcher is as brilliant us if they were floating alive in the snushiua —Harper’s Round Table. Kew York the Kail rood Center. “Reasoning Ont a Metropolis’’m tho title of an article iu St. Nicholas, writ ten by Ernest lugersoll. Mr. Ingersoll says: Railroads began to he bnilt about 1830, and the New Yorkers were soon poshing them ont iu all directions, sup plying the money for exteudiug them farther and farther north and west and connecting them into long systems con trolled by one head. Other men in other cities did the same, but by and by it was seen that no railroad between the central west and cast conld succeed iu competition with its rivals unless it reached New York. The great trunk roads, built or aided by tho Baltimore men to servo their city, and by the Philadelphia people to bring trade to thun, and by the capitalists of New England for their profit, never succeed ed, therefore, until they had been push ed on to New York, where the volume «f coiinueroe was coining to be as great ftj or greater than that of all the other American ports put together. Now New York has become the real headquarters of every important railway system iu the United Mate*; that is, it is here that the Muaueial operations—the money part of tbs management—are conduct- •d, though the superintendents of its trains and daily business may keep their oOces some where else. A New OlluipM) of Charles Lamb. Mrs. Cowden Clarke, the Shakes pearean scholar, in her sunny reminis cences of her long life, devotfs two or throe of her pleasantest pages to Charle* and Mary Lamb. She was, in her child hood, for .ionic tine the pnpil of the latter, who was called by her much lov ed brother—so ho humorously informed Mrs. Clarke—“Marie when we are alone together, Mary when wo are with fiends, and Moll before tho servant.*.” In later life Mrs. Clarke and her bus- band visited for a week in the borne of the famous brother and sister, a week of delightful society and quiet country pleasures. “Charles Lamb,’’ she writes, “waa os fond of long walks as wo wero end hud un admiration for Enfield and its environs equal to ours. Ho showed us one day tho very spot where a dog that had been pertinacious iu following him, and which he sought to get rid of by tiring him out. had at last given up tbo contest of perseverance and bad dropped down under a hedge, dead beat ’’ A man who timid tire oat a lively dog must assuredly have been a good walker, but Mrs. Clarke does not state whether or no Lamb stammered in re lating the anecdote. It is, perhaps, doubtful if be did. for be once confided to her that notwithstanding bis usual hesitancy of speech be never stammer ed when be was telling n yarn. Tho final glimpse which she gives of tbo charming essayist is just such as his ad mirers will enjoy. "His hospitality waa oboracteristie- ally manifested one day in his own pe culiarly whimsical way by his starting up from dinner, hastening to tho front garden gate and opening it for a donkey that be saw standing there and looking,, so Lamb said, as if it wanted to cornu in and munch some of the grass grow ing so plentifully behind the railing." , Who but tho gentle and genial Charles Lamb would have thought to be hospitable to a donkey?