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About The Red Cloud chief. (Red Cloud, Webster Co., Neb.) 1873-1923 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 17, 1888)
( I 3 i :1 H I Ji ft 1 n fi .4 RED CLOUD CHIEI A. C. HOSMER, Proprietor. red clocd. - - - :ei;raska. COUSINS. X met her in the gammer by the loud-resounding- sea. And I thought it quite psculiar she should waste her time on me. When I b?Rged an explanation she devoutly bowed her head: 1 will tell vox you're a fellow after my own heart." she said, I assumed the post of suitor, as I thought it not a sin to have her think me more than kind, a little less o kin. For the fellowship of cousins, if they be of dif ferent sex. Has forever been a trouble and I fear 'twill ever vex. I read toner from Byron in a teat pitched on the sand; With the freedom of relationship, I often pressed her hand; Or in a creaky, rattling gig we joggled thro' tho lanes ' While my sweetest of divinities shook out the leathern reins. Till at lat I looked upon her as a very tender friend: (Thus man's fellowship with cousins, if they're fascinating, end.) I recalled to my remembrance from some closet of my head. You're a fellow after my own heart," the pretty witch she said. So I marshaled all my feelings In a sentimental way. And I quoted the expression to my second cousin May. But a neater, cooler answer mortal man will never get: Ton ttill are after it, dear Jack; you haven't caught up yet." Judje. 'HE. What the Telephone Bove&Ied to Aunt Sophronia. John Kinjr lived three miles out of tho town of Stanton, in th country. lie was a bright young fellow, who owned a pro ductive farm, with all tho stock his acres could feed, and a pleasant old house; yet he found it hard to persuado pretty Martha Carter to marry him. Ste liked him; ho had coaxed that confession from her own rosy lips, but she was younu, pay, very fond of society and the only child of a widow; it was the old lilt, I canna leave my mammy yet;" and John King, who was ten times as much in love with her as she with him, was well-nigh distracted. As his Aunt Sophro nia, a maiden lady who kept house for him, eaid: "He ain't good for nothin'. I wlsh'the was married an' dono with't, and I was afe back to Elnathau's. He don't remem ber nothin1. I send in to Stanton by him for such things as is needtul to keep the house acoiu, and he don't never fetch one of them, without I set to and give him a writ out list and pin it onto his coat. Nor he don't care nothin' about the critters; Hiram has to do the hull on't; and to leave costly critters like tucm to hired help ain't what a man had ousht to do. Not but what Hi is real reliable, but John don't take no int'rest, not a mite!" It was all true. John was good for no sort of work as long as Mary Carter turned the cold shoulder to him; but after a year of persistent courting sho began to show a gentler countenance to hor devoted lover; he began to hops. About that time a telephone company set op its office at Stanton, and sent its spider threads all abroad over the surrounding country; and it struck John Stanton that here was another way to make his home attractive to Matty. By this invention he cculd establish communication every hour with tho village, even oftencr if it was needed; so that she need not be so separated from her mother as she had dreaded Mrs. Carter being wise enough to refuse a home with her son-in-law. So John had a telcphono put into tho 'keepin'-room' of the farm-house, and told Mattie the very next Sunday night that whenever she mado up her mind to ac cept him he would place one in hor moth er's parlor, so they could talk together whenever they liked. It was not so much this expensive atten tion that softened the little beauty's heart as the proof it gave of John's eagerness to do every thing and any thing for her com fort or pleasure, and, as sho was more ambi tious and selfish than affectionate, she be gan to feel that it was agreeable to bo a queen. However, this is not a lovo story. Matty is only introduced to account for the tele phone. Now, about two miles beyond John King there lived a family of Millers, con sisting of two elderly men, Aaron and Joseph Miller, and a woman a little older than cither of them, as their housekeeper. These men wcro farmers, but they had had thrown a dam across a wild brook that crossed their farm just where it dashed through a small, deep valley, and. obtain ing a good water power, had built a grist and saw mill, which brought them in mora money than all tho rest of the farm. Miss Sophronia Perkins, John King's aunt, whom we have already mentioned, hated these neighbors thoroughly; what reason or unreason there was for this feel ing on her part, nobody know; but there was enough in the outward aspect of the men to account for a rational measure of dislike in any woman; they were tall, stur dy fellows, dark of skin, rough, surly and dirty always; stingy with their money, un social in their manners, and the woman who worked for them had an unsavory reputation. Tho Miller farm, lying far back from the high-road behind a black hemlock grove, on a plateau half way up certain rugged hills, was the sort of a placo a novelist would select for a robbery or a murder, so adapted was tho take en scene to suggest such ideas, and so fit was the aspect of the two Millers to their placo of abode. But there are many just such men and jnst such desolate farm-houses in New England, and no crime worse than greed and selfishness enters their hearts or homes. The Miller brothers were proverbially near;" but no one except Sophronia Per kins ever imagined anv harm of them. They were "euros actin' crcturs," or "smart at sixpences;" nothing worse was laid to their charge. When Aaron Miller heard that John King had pat in a telephone, he saw di rectly the advantage the instrument would be to them in their daily increasing busi ness, and alter due consideration with Joe the wire was extended to their mill, and proved a daily convenience; for they had a flour and feed store in Stanton which Joseph attended to, going in early every morning and driving back at night. Now he could send out orders to Aaron as soon as they cane in, notify him of the arrival at the station of grain for their grinding, or transact directly say natter of bail- Iness heretofore necessarily delayed till he readied tne tarn at evitning. After the telephone was put in at John King's, Miss Sophronia found it a great solace to her loneliness, nightly enjoying the few moments of dailv gossip with her friends in the village who happened to be possessed of an instrument. In fact, it was to her like a new toy to a solitary child, and when tho line was extended to Millers' Mills, and she learned their call, she used her listener for the unworthy purpose of listening to her neighbors af fairs. I own that this was neither an honest nor an honorable proceeding on Sophro nia's part. I do not mean to apologize for it, but, as the papers say, there were "ex tenuatiug circumstances." She had never been taught honor. It was not a recog nized virtue in tho farm-house where she was brought up. People who wrest their daily living from the barrenness of our gaunt New England hill-sides do not study the loftier trait of manhood when they have done their day's work; and as for honorable instinct, every man will allow that is not inherent in a woman. Then she was very lonely; and now that John's gray horses were hitched every day iu front of Mrs. Carter's bouse she saw less than ever not only of John, but of the hired man, Hiram, who had double duty to do in the master's absence, and went from his supper to his bed quite too tired to talk. There was a certain social consolation on Mondays when black Dinah came to wash; but eveu Dinah had little to tell, since her old shanty was nestled down in a warm hollow on the south side of Huckle berry Hill, quito eft the high road. Yet she was some one to speak to; an item not to be disregarded in such solitude. It is not, after all. very strange that Miss Sophronia, limited to five minutes' conver sation with the few friends in Stanton who had telephones, should arouse barself by hearing the conversations of the two Mil lers, the growls of Aaron, the snarls of Jo seph, and now and then the shrill interro gations of Lyddy Ann Granger, the objec tionable housekeeper. Shocked reader! did you ever live in the deep country on an isolated farm! If not, you do not know what silence and solitude are. Imagine a clean, sparsely fnrnihrri house, where the tickinir of the old clock rasps your ear like a continuous knell, where not one ny is auoweu xo ouzz his assiduous life out on the sunny panes; where the very cocks and hens are abroad all day in the far fields, and the dog lies asleep just, inside the barn door; where the air is still as x. windless lake, and tho chirr of a suddenly roused cricket makes you jump: or the swift, ambiguous scurry of a mouse somewhere in wall or wainscot seems like the rush of a troop of horse to the strained and apprehensive sense; and the rustic of your own garments sounds like the trailing of ghostly robes to the tense car: the shadow of a waving bough startles the alcrtcye. and the rollof a pass ing wazon, the rush or fluttering swallows iu the chimney, sound like peals of thunder, and constringc the heart with that elemen tal dread. Yes; this telcphono was a real social gos pel to Sophronia, shivering and trembling in her nervous loneliness; if sho had been reared in such a place, use and want per haps, would have strengthened her against its terrors, but until John's mother died sho had always lived in her brother's fam ily, and in his great house where ten chil dren and a bustling wife madennisecnough through the round year to frighten the very ghosts out of the garret, or the mice outof the wall, and where tho neighbors were abundant and much given to visiting, Sophronia had never been conscious of nerves; nor did she know these terrors now as the result of nerves; she only con fided to Hiram as she dealt out to him the boiled dinner which he shoveled down in grim silence after the fashion of his kind: "I do set a sight bv that telephone thing: it's real company. 1 hev been gettin' real pcrnickity along back, it is so dreadful lonesome here; but notv I do sense that the' is people pretty nigh, seein' I can call to 'em; it's folksy to hear that little bell go, 'pins! every now and then as though somebody was there. Dinah, she is a'ni03t scared to death with it; she says it is like hearin' or a sporit talk; same as Job says in Scripter. when 'the hair of his head stood up,' and he 'heard a voice.' But then ho see tho spent, first, and that is more fearsome. Dinah won't hark to it noway. I can tell who 'tis every time. My! lean hear Aaron Miller snap, just as plain I and Lyddy Granger bawl!" -B-j'n a-talkin' to 'em, hev ye?" curtly asked Hiram. "No, I haven't! and I ain't agoin' to," responded Sophronia, sharply; "but they spend the hull o' their time a-gabbin to and fro. I shouldn't think there" d be no grist ground, never, to that mill. I can't take tho horn down to speak to nobody but what they've got hold o' the wire first, and I can't help a-hcarin' of 'em holler." Hiram shot a keen glance at her from under his busy, grizzled eyebrows: he had long ago taken her measure, and he knew verv well now how she had been amusing herself; but as he always said of himself that ho "was one who made a fortin' mind in' his own, business," ho offered no re marks. Shortly after this conversation John King went away from homo to attend a sale or cattle in New Jersey: ho expected to be gone a week, as he meant to drive home what animals ho bought himself, rather than send them by boat or railway, which he considered was too great a risk. The day ho lcrt a severe northeast storm et in, and Hiram set himself to do some work in the further barn, which he had kept to do in a "spell or weather," so that Miss Sophronia had not even tho relief or his occasional appearance in kitchen or shed to beguile her solitude, her knitting had stopped for want of yarn, and sho had "pieced up" the test bit of calico she could find. . As she sat in the dull light or the kitchen window, listening to the heavy rush or rain against the liouso and the wild moan of the wind shrieking in tho spout, sho heard the telephone ring; it was a joyful sound to her tired and lonely soul; she hurried to tho instrument, took down tho listener, and heard Joseph Mills say: "Say. Aaron! ha ho b'en doin' of it ag'in!" "You bet!" growled Aaron. "Well, I sha'n't coma out to-night: the brook'll bo up 'crast the road, I presume likely, and you won't grind none in this high water." "No; the' a'n't no use of your coia,.,, 'Say, has she gone I" Went this mornin'.' "Good ! you can fir him now F "I guess so, by Jinks!" Then the colloquy ceased. Sophronia bung up the listener; a thrill of horror run down her spine; what was about to hsppen at the Mills! She had read a great many story-pa-pers," such as crowd our country post oflces and are scattered far and wide la farms and villages; papers fall of sensa tion, of crime and adventure, of secret hor rors suddenly revealed, of Murders that "will out," regardless of the anitiesso dear to Mr. Vinoant Crummies, and her weak brain had been" fired with a vague, delightful, yet dreadful hope of experienc ing some sacs reality. Here wr her chance! It did occur to her once tfcat she ou-jht to interfere, to try and prevent a catastrophe; but it rained hard, the horses were gone, and what could she say to auy legal official, even if she should reach one! A brief spasm of sense rescued her; she only went about, as she expressed herself, "Goose-flesh all over," the rest of the day. having no living soul to confide in; for tho great Cheshire boar had managed to break out of his stye early that forenoon and Hiram had to pursue him as best he might, nor did he return till two o'clock in the morning, oven thenAvithout his pig: though he bad driven it a: last into a neighbor's barn by the seductive and odorus influence of certain early apples, irresistible to any pig of character. Sophronia passed a troubled night. Her past enjoyment of the "penny drcadruls" visited her now in the tanglo of dreams, and whenever she woko it was to & shud dering recollection of Aaron Miller's savage voice and the impending fate of the un known "he," But morning came it last, still dreary with howling winds and gusts of rain. Hiram had risen early, taken a cold bite aud gone after his pig; and So phronia, in the lashion of lonely women, made her scant breakfast, standing at tho pantry shelf, of tea, and bread and butter, watching through the green-paned little window borore her the draggled Towls pick ing their slow way through the wet mire of the barn-yard, uttering discomfited croaks about the weather, much like their fellows, the unfeatbered bipeds. Suddenly the telephone rang: cup and saucer, bread and butter, fell from ber bauds. She made haste to seize the horn. Within her ear the inevitable "Hullo 1" resounded. "That you, Aaron!" "Taia't nobody else." Little he knew that Sophronia heard it all. "Well, have vou did itJ" "Yes. He's done for." "Where did you find him?" '-Suoopin' around the mill, as pop'lar as though ho was inspector of b'ilcrs." "Haw, haw! What ye done with the re mains " They're deep", enough where nobody won't fiud 'em this hundred year " "Urn! that's good." Sophronia dropped tho horn; she stiffened with horror; here was a fearful murder right in the neighborhood ! But then she had always expected it. or something like it, or those Miller's. While she stood con sidering, Hiram drove into tho yard in a neighbor's wagon, the Cheshire boar lying iguoininiously bound therein, squealing with all his piggish might. Hiram backed up against the stye, which he had rein forced at early da.vu, and deftly slid Mas ter Piggy over the tail-board, cutting his bonds as he helped him along, for well lie knew the danger of setting such a captive free too soon. He had just fihished the risky proceeding when Sophronia appeared at the shed door with her apron over her head. "H-:-rani!" she screamed. "I want ye to wait a minute ! I've got to go in to Stan ton. I must, right ou. AVon't Barber's folks let ye keep the team a spell?" "I guess so." was th'j gruff response. He knew perfectly well that ho had bor rowed the team to go to Stanton himself and get a scythe-snath. Such is man! All the way Sophronia preserved an aw ful silence; she felt the magnitude of the situation and revolved her plans in her mind. What sho did when she reached Stanton, after receiving proper advice in the matter, need not be detailed. In fact, I don't know what she did! But the very nest morning Aaron and Joseph Miller were arrested on a charge of murder, aud were brought before the proper authorities for preliminary examination. There was Sophronia, too, who with much excitement and many needless words, de poned and testified to what she had heard outhe telephone; a grim smile distorted Aaron Miller's face, and Joseph muttered, "The old fool!'' under his breath; but it was only mattered, so Sophronia did not resent it. Judge S'.opcock was the model or a rural magnate; fat, red in the face, pompous, crowned with a sleek, brown wig, and a tall shiny hat. tilted slightly askew; he ad ministered justice much as Mrs. Squeers administered brimstone and treacle, se verely with a spoon. Throwing his head back, clasping his hands over his stomach, closing his eyes and pursing up his mouth he boijan his queries. "And you, hum, the ah, prisoners; what have you to offer as, hum, aw, rebuttal of Miss, ha, Perkins' statement!'' Here he opened his eye suddenly, and darted a judicial glare at the offenders. "Nothin' !"' growled Aaron. 'I done it." "O-o-oh!" And with a delicious girlish scream a pretty, rosy, curly-hcadcd girl rushed across the court-room, and flung her arms around Aaron Miller's neck; she had just come in at the door. "He never!" she sobbed, addressing as tounded Judge Stopcock with courageous scorn. "He never! he's tho best and kind est and dearest man iu the world." Miss Sophronia prepared to faint. "You shut up, Fan !" said Aaron, with a peremptory voice and a tender smile. "Go ahead, Jcdge! I killed 'him,' and I buried him ! now I want the hull caboodle of ye to come along and dig him up, so's to haug me right off slick; and notbea-makin' no more fuss about it. Joe, did you send arterthe team!" Yea-ah!" responded Joseph, with a wink, an undeniable wink! at the deputy sheriff, a bullet-headed Irishman, who had regarded the whole proceeding up to this time with subdued chuckles, as an exquis ite joke. Now Mike roared aloud with laughter. "Silence!" shrieked the outraged Judge, growing redder than a turkey-cock. "Well, come along." went on Aaron; "there's Slack's omnibus out of the door, and I tvar.t the hull posse commonatus to come out an dig him up, as I said afore; there's spade's enough out there." "Ye can han'culT mo and Joe, if you wantcr." This was a singular and improper pro ceeding, and the judge snorted and puffed a good deal about it ; but in a rustic com munity the majority is apt to have its way, and nobody there believed Sophronia's accusation for an instant. Curiosity and rude justice swept the proprieties and Judge Stopcock into tho corner. Mike volunteered to sit between the prisoners with an arm locked in each of theirs on either side, and Fanny Manning, an orphan niece of the Millers, whom they had liberally supported and educated for the last five years, sat next her uncles. Sophronia, too, went along; no prohi bition of law or gospel would have de terred her now; the finale of this tragic business was at band. So judge, and sheriff, and prisoners, and witness, and as many of the crowd as coulu find room in the "omnibus," bowled awsy that calm September day to Millers' Mills, the women for once silent, the men talk ative, so reversed for the time were their normal usages. "Mis' Granger to hum!" asked the deputy sheriff. "No, she ain't," replied Joseph; "she's gone for good 'n alL We hadn't aa idee what sort of a piece she was till last week, though she's lived there nigh about three year. She dons well by us, an' kep' her, tracks covered up good; bill murder will out. Case in p'iut here, yo see." Mike Flaherty choked down a laugh. So Aaron, he giv' her u walkin' ticket last week, and writ Tor Fan to come hom-i to her old uncles and run tho house, seem' sho was tit an' prepared ta lc ive scuool. That's why she's here; and Lyddy Aim, she quit day before yesterday." In hair an hour they drew up at tho Mills, and Aaron, directing them where to find spades, led the awed and curious crowd right into the center or a cornfield, among the stacked harvest, and, pointing to a pl"c where the sharp stubble and use less hills had been cleared away, said: "Dig there." How rapidly thoso spades were plied! how eagerly the little crowd watched for some startling discovery! how they all re coiled; and oh! how Mike Flaherty yelled with laughter when the busy spades re vealed the stiff body of a great yellow cat! '"Twas Lyddy Ann's Tommy." explained Joe. "She sot the world by him, and he sot all creation bv our little Braymy chicks; but she wouldn't let nobody teach him; so, as soon as she cleared out, Aaron give him his send; and that's the hull on't." "It is a lesson to the inquisitive female," said Judge Stopcock, again elcvatiug his nose and shutting his eyes. "A lesson eminently needed by the sex to avoid lis tening surreptitiously, and passing un instructed judgment on the conductor their fellow-men." He darted a piercing glance at Sophro nia; but she was gone. Her tragedy bad vanished in thin air; the chorus of laughter with which the by-standcrs greeted the bod of Thomas, the cat, sf.tng her to the soul. She sneaked off across the lots to John's house, and the next day departed to the bosom of her brother's family, murmur. ingtohcrseK: "What made him call a cat 'He?' " While Hiram, pining for pie and dough nuts in the void interim Before John's mar riage, more than once exclaimed to the re gardless oxen, whom he lashed by way of emphasis: "Blast them telephones!" AW Terrp Cooke, in AI 1" JinUjiendtnt. m m HOW TO COOK OATMEAL, How It U Srrrort In Thin Country and Ir. Aulft ScotUnil." In making oatmeal porridge, tho meal is stirred into boiling water with a porridge stick, while the water is fcepS all tin: time at :i brisk boil. C.hyq should be taken to prevent the meal from forming knots, as it will do if dropped into tho water in too largo quantities. The best way is to take a handful of the meal and let it drop into the receptacle by the rubbing of the thumb against the lingers. At first the water will show ebullition or boiling up soon after tiic m:il begins to go into it. and this will be kept tip until about the time when enough of the meal has been added. Fine meal is more likely to knot th:m tho course meal. It takes experience to tell when just the amount of meal needed has been used, the thickness of the porridge being the test. No measurement of water and meal will do. The oatmeal mav be stirred in cold water befor.; cooking; but this makes more labor mil the cooking is not so well done as in the other wav. But if the cold water mixing is resorted to, the meal should be ground to the finest Hour. If any other meal is mixed with oat meal, as is sometimes done, rice me.il is regarded as the best, though barley, bean, pea'aml wheat meals may be used. Only a small quantity of the rice meal should be used, imt straight oatmeal would be preferred by the true lover of this cereal. Acidity is developed when oatmeal is soaked in water for a few days, and this meal makes the "flummery" of the oat meal districts of England. Scotland and Ireland. Milk is used instead of water in mak ing milk porridge: less meal is required, but more water. Ale is also used in place of water. Porridge iseatju mixed with milk. Cane syrup and butter are also used. In making "w:iter brose," boiling water is poured on a handful of oatmoal in a bowl, until the mes is of the thickness of porridge, and then some new milk is poured in. This is to ba eaten immediately. Brose meal should be kiln dried and coarse. The art of making this dish lies in making the boiling water fully surround each par ticle of meal at the first pouring. Milk brose is made by using boiling milk; less meal is used than in water brose and about twice as much milk as water. In pouring the boiling liquid upon either water or milk brose. the meal is stirred to give it immediate cooking. When the liquid in which beef or mutton is boiled is used, beef or mutton brose is made, and even turnip aud cabbage water is used. Whito pudding is made of oatmeal ' with which minced suet and onion? have been mixed, s:ilt and pepper be- ing used to taste. This mav be done in a sauce-pan. but the mixture is more , comnionly stulled into small intestines, , cut into lengths of a foot or so, tied at , ooin enus ami uoucu in a poi. il win keep for a year. Finally the water in which it is boiled is used in making pudding brose, that nothing may be lost. These are the ways in which oat meal is cooked in "auld Scotland." Good Housekeeping. i Forest Destruction in Russia. According to the Moscow Vicdomosti the banks of the Syr-Daria. not more than twenty yean ago, were so thickly covered with woods that the operations of the Russian armies were thereb considerably impeded. So great, how ever, has been the destruction of tim ber in recent years that there are now extensive areas of from 5.000 to 8,000 square miles notably around Perovsk. the old Ak-Metchet fortress in the greatest want, not only of building material, but of ordinary brush tire wood. To remedy this state of affairs several experienced foresters have been recently invited by General Rosenbach to visitCentral Asia, and to take step? for the immediate formation of exten aire plantations of voung trees iU and other districts of TurkesUc. THE KNOCK ALPHABET. A Mean or Coinmuniratlna Kesortrtl t ljr llimlao I'rlnoinr. The talented Russian novelist X . who lias been twice exiled to Siberia and half a dozen times imprisoned, told me last summer that wheii he was arrested for the first time he had nevct eveu heard of the "knock alphabet:" and that when, during the second day of his imprisonment, he noticed a faint tapping on the other side of the wall, he regarded it merely as an indication that the adjoining cell was occupied, and gave it no particular attention. As tho knocking continued, however, anil as the faint taps seemed to be definitely segregated into groups by brief intervals of silence, he became convinced that his unknown neighbor was endeavoring to communicate with him. Upon what principal or plan the knocks were grouped he did not know, but he conjectured that the number of taps between two 'rests might corres pond with the serial number of a letter in the alphabet one knock standing for 'a.' two for b.' three for e." and so on up to twenty-six for . Upon put ting this conjecture to the test he was delighted to find that the knocks re solved themselves into the letters rD-o-y-o-u-u-n-d-e-r-s-t-a-n-d?' He replied with forty-nine knocks, so grouped and spaced as to make Y-e-s; but long lie fore lie had finished this short word he became mournfully conscious that. :tt the rate of forty-nine knocks for every three letters, he and his unknown cor respondent would not be able to ex change more than half a dozen ideas a week. The invisible prisoner on the other side of the wail did not seem, however, to be at all discouraged, aud began at once another long series of knocks, which extended to two hun dred and ninety-six. and which, when translated, made the words "Teach you better way listen!" Mr. X then heard one loud tap near the corner of the cell, followed by the sound of scratching, which proceeded from that point towards tho door at about the height of a man's head, as if the un known were drawing a long horizontal line with some hard substance on the other side of the wall. After a brief interval of silence there came two stac- ; cato taps and the noise made by the scratching of a second line parallel with the first one. but a little lower down. When seven of these iuvisible lines had been drawn under one another about a foot apart, with a group of knocks at the beginning of each one to denote its number, the unseen artist went back to ont. knock, and proceeded to draw six perpendicular lines crossing the firM. series at right angles, so as to niaUe a huge audible cheekcr-lioard. As soon as Mr. X heard this invisible dia gram, the purpose for which it was in tended flashed upon his mind, and be fore the unknown instructor hail fin ished knocking out the words. "Put alphabet in squares." the quick-witted pupil had scratched upon the floor of lus cell a reduced copy of tho audible tracing, and was numbering its lines and columns. His diagram when tin ished looked something like this: 1 S 3 4 S 1 a b c d c 2 t c h 1 j 3 k 1 m n e i 4 p I q r s t 5 u v I x y 1 . After giving Mr. X time to con struct the figure, the unknown prisoner began another series of knocks, ho grouped and spaced as to indicate the lines and columns in which the re quired letters were to be found. Five knocks followed by three knocks meant that the equivalent letter would be found at the intersection of the fifth line and third column: two knocks fol lowed by one knock indicated letter f.' at the intersection of line two and column one; aud live knocks followed by four knocks meant letter v at the intersection of line livo. column four. The first question asked by the un known was 53 23 35 11 4' 15 55 35 51: Who are you?" Tho prisoners then exchanged brief biographies, and Mr. X discovered that he had learned his a b c's and taken his fivst lesson in n'-icnn tiliiT;mh from :i common J.rimi.iaIae burglar, if I remember - ,.... was -.-,:.:-. exna to setiauacorge Kcnnan, in Cenlurji. A Red Top-Knot. Two ladies were purchasing mufflers at the counter of a leading clothing i store, a.ud one. turning to her iricml: . mm I "1 am buying this for Albert D . How do you like it?" Very handsome," returned the friend, admiringly, "but it is pink and Albert D hits red hair! You must get a blue one." "We are ont of blue mufflers." said the obliging clerk, as he placed the pink one in a more inviting light. "Red and pink can not go together," said the friend, decidedly. "Hc he might dvo his hair?" sug the clerk, facetiously. "That's so," said the customer, with a sigh of relief, "I'll take it. I'm not responsible for his hair any way," she added, as she paid the bilL Detroit Free Press. More than 10,000,000 eggs arrive in New York each week. The chief supply is from Canada and Michigan A single Canada tram ad thirty-on cars, with 200,000 eggs iu each. FARM ANDFIRESlUt. Make a little land rich, and there will be no need to scratch over a large farm. The question is not what could he done if we had certain other tilings, but what can we do to make the most of what we have. A sheep well fed and protected during the winter will yield in the spring two pounds more of wool than one that has been half starved. When butter is gathered in the churn in granular form, it is never overclaimed. Pounding it after it is in a lump or large mass is what over churns it. Warm water put in the cellar on coM nights to prevent freezing, should be in closed vessels, which war.n up the air, making it dryer without uvapor atinir moisture into ic Green Sponge Cake: Two teacups of sugar, one of cream, two of flour, four eggs, one teaspoonful of bakingr powder aud one teaspoonful extract lemon; bake quickly. Never set the lamp upon a ret table-cover; if you can not find time t-v make a green lamp-mat. put a piece ei green eard-hoard under the lamp, ami von will find the reflection upon your ' work much more agreeable to the even than that from the red cover. Creamed Apples: Pare your fruit and either scald or bake it until suf ficiently soft to pulp it through a colan der; sweeten to taste, fill your gla-s.-s three p:trts full with it. then plentifull'. sprinkle in some owdcrcd ciiiuumoi:. put a good layer of rich whipped creaih. on the top and sift white sugar over i'. A little meal stirred into a pail of water gives it a relishable flavor, and induces a cow to drink more, beside affording some additional nourishment. It the temperature of the wate- is first raised to seventy or eighty degrees, it is all the better, since the cft'.v will drink more warm water than she will ' cold. To prepare zante currants for cake. , put them iu a colander, set the colander in a large p.m of water, and unless there are stones in, the .ind and stems will all settle iu the pan. If vou waii the currants thoroughly iu this way. you will bj surprised at tins results, as it takes less time and water than in the old way. aud it is so much easier to rub them clean. The bones of a well-bred, well-fed hog are said to present only about oii" IwcntictSi part of his gross weight. An animal of this nature must neeesarily carry a great deal of fat. but the impor tance of making it well muscled to- keep it from complete degeneracy is self-evident to any thoughtful p.r-on; hence, inasmuch as the natural tenden cy of the hog is to fat. feeders should make it a point to counteract the evil ly using the most nutritious feed to the exclusion of fat-forming food. It would hardly pay the farmer to cngage iu the poultry Ihisiness beyond the keeping of two or three do.en fowls for family use. unless there should b-s some one about the place who would make it a special business to look after the poultry and like to do it- S.Toc( times the service of a good, .steady boy. , who is a natural fancier, may be secured at a small cost, and all of his time may Ik? profitably employed in caring for or 300 hens, or. if he be experienced, probably 500 or COX In embarking iu the business it is best uot to start out ou too large a scale. CAPACITY OF FARMS. A Xahjrrt Which Shoulil lx Carefully Simllei! by Acrirutturiftt. Every farmer should study the ca pacity of his farm, so as to be able ttf turn its resources to Hie best account.- . Some farms are naturally adapted to I grass production, and can be made to produce heavy crops of hay yeariy for a long time- Other farms soon run out when seeded to grass, but are good for cropping. On such farms a large area should be ploughed yearly, cropped and fertilized, and seeded down. For a few years good crops of grass can be? obtained, and then the land needs re seeding. The aim on such farms should bo to have from one-third t one-half of the tillage under the plow all the time, so that the grass land will all be newly seeded, and the farmer will be able to re-plow as soon as the- grass begins to run out. Then there are farms that are rocky and rough. The soil is stony and fer tile, but is not adapted to cultivation. Apple-trees, perhaps will thrive with remarkable vigor on such land, and the farmer should accept the indication, and plant it to apple-trees until he has all he can take care of. A mail iu East Wiuthrop, Me., had a farm of that; character. It was of littles value for tillage, but he found that the Ilxbnr" russet throve remarkably well, and pro- difSfcd excellent fruit. ILi "took the hint." and set his farm largely to Rox bury ru.-set trees uutil nearly thirty acres wcro covered. Now. in some years, he sell $2,000 worth of fruiu He has made a rocky and almost worth less farm one of the mo?t valuable in town, simply because he used it for the purpose to which it wxt best adapted. That is what thefarmcrshould try to do; study the capabilities of his farm, and then try so to manage it that he will draw out of it the best that it is capable of affording. It will not do to manage farms all in one way. ou ac- count of the great diversity in soils and"' physical conditions. Cor. S. Y. Ex aminer. m ' A woman recently sent toker son. a youthful desperado of fourteen- sum- mers, incarcerated in the jail at Santa Rosa. Cal., a Bible, a bunch of cigar ettes, a piece of sausage and a Police Gazette to relieve the tedium of prison life