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About The Red Cloud chief. (Red Cloud, Webster Co., Neb.) 1873-1923 | View Entire Issue (April 13, 1888)
! I 1 2 i i r1' S I M i RED CLOUD CHIEF A. C. KOSNIER, Proprietor. RED CLOUD. - - NEBRASKA. THE FARMER'S DAUGHTER. Who is this, with her pretty face. And silken curly hair. Half child, half woman, fall of joy, "Without a seeming care:" She Is. my friend, (oh, blessed lot!) A farmer's daughter, fair! Her small brown hands arc shapely ones. Trim are her little feet That trip a -down the meadow path. Or through the village street; And when she sines at morn or ere. Her song is very sweet. She seems so like a tender plant. Grown hardy in the sun. Her woman's graces coming in So softly, one by one. The while her eyes, still like a child's. Are brimming o'er with fur. What would the old gray farmhousttB Without this daughtei dear Her merry song, her loving heart, Her happy woods of cheer. This rosebud in her rural home. Expanding every year! Kich are you, little country lass. In more than yellow gold; Your father's acres spread abroad. But yours is wealth untold Beauty and nature's grace scares found In cities new or old. Tour blue eyes scan the mountain tops And take in valleys rare; Tou'll never lose your sweet grand thoughts In after years of care. Heaven bless you in your happy home, O, farmer's daughter fair! Jin. IT. Kidder, in X. T. Ledger. "No, thankyou, Mr. Kane, but powerful saeert' KANE VS. ABELL. The Happy Ending: of a Suit for Damages. Law Is very uncertain especially In a wooded country. Sometimes a suit is lost in one court and gained in another. The preat case of Kano versus Abell, Adam for plaintiff. Ere for defendant, is an illustra tion. Nor did it happen in the Garden of Eden, as might be supposed from the sound of the names, but in Mountain County, which the inhabitants suppose to be a much finer place than the other. Down in Mountain County, settled by Irish mainly from Ulster, with a sprinklinjr from Connaught, the original manners and customs of the settlers are not only main tained by their descendants, but the Gaelic spirit of clannishness exists in full force. The old families have kept up the old stock by intermarriages; and the only things changed were the names, which were cither corrupted, or dropped their prefixes. Thus the MacMahons became the May horns; the O'Kanes, the Kanes; the MacAdams, the Adams: the MacMillens. and the MacAbelis. the Millens anAthe Abells. Butthcir Highland-Keltic hamts, filtered through the Irish sieve, were preserved in their vigor. Be tween the two leading families, the Kanes and the Abells, there had been a bitter feud from the beginning. As the rest of the peo ple were connected in oneway or other, they took their sides, and, as they said, "stud bv the k'nexion." Pretty far they carried it, too. One fellow, who was puffingthc Kanes, tras asked what connection he was. "Wall, said he, "not so very cloast, but Clarke Abell, he gin me a bull-pup." If a Kane married with an Abell, or tite wri, the woman in the case was adopted in her hus band's family, but cut off from her own. But a single quarrel, and a simple incident changed the current of affairs, and brought aoout a truce which may Iks considered a a leace, leaving both parties in possession or the uti JMWidftis. As the eldest son in a straight line from the original Patrick, who had come to this country from Ireland, and had settled here under a land grant of a thousand acres, Peter Kane was the recognized head of the family. He was a good looking, childless widower, thirty-two years of age, very well to do, and looked up to by his tribe, with whom his word was potential. He -was a famous bear-hunter, and kept up a stock of worthless for any other purpose. Clarke Abell, who held a similar position among curs, valuable for battling with Bruin, but the Abells, was over sixty years old, tall, athletic and as straight as a gun-barrel. He did not look a day over fifty, with his iron Fray hair, and smooth face where the wrinkles had concentrated about the corner 01 me eyes. These two, though living with in three miles of each other their posses sions joining rarely spoke when they met, and then in monosyllables, eking out the conversation by gesture. t It happened that Kane had seen bear signs cne frosty morning in November, and laid on the dogs. Bruin heard the baying afar off, and taking time by the forelock, made his way over a gap and then down a dry branch hollow. "In avoiding Scylla, he fell upon Charybdis," and so on; for old Abell happened to be in his field, his rifle, a con stant companion, with him, when he saw the bear doing some tall walking in his uircuuuii. ucsnoitnc brute, and with the assistance of his sons, had skinned him When Kane's dogs, followed by Kane, came op. A demand was made for the bear, which was denied. There was no fighting the matter there three to one was too great odds, so Kane and his dogs went about their business. But the matter rankled. A well known pettifogger of the section, John Adam, heard of it and offered nis services The end of it was that Kane brought suit before a country justice of the. peace, and after various misadventures the case was heard. It was an action in detinue, and judgment was given for thirty-five dollars. Abell secured the services of Cecil Eve, a bright young lawyer lately admitted to the bar,'and the case was removed to the County Court held by four justices. Adam was not a regular practitioner, but the County Court was a sort of free-and-easy tribunal, with a roll of its own, and Adam was licensed by cujtom. He brought suit for damages, for that be the party afo'said had detained the b'ar." It was some months after the event when the County Court entered on its half-yearly session. In the meanwhile a little incident occurred, of the Romeo and Juliet pattern, which complicated matters. Abell's only unmarried daughter was u good-looking young woman of twenty-two, and, like her kinsfolk, "hated that Fete Kane like pizen." But one day she chanced to visit a neighbor at some distance, and on her return met with a wandering four-year-old buck. It was at the season of the year, when the ani mal, usually so timid, is both bold and ag gressive. He charged at Kitty, who dexter ously dodged behind a tulip-tree poplar they miscall it there and so evaded the thrust of his antlers. But he was persist ent and kept her so constantly shifting her position that she became exhausted. She was just about to drop, which would have Insured her death, when the crack of a rifle and the dropping of the buck, dead, saved her. The next moment she heard the voice Of Peter Kane: You aio'l hurt, air you. Miss Kitty 1" No wonder that the service rendered should make Kitty regard Peter with favor, and give him romantic interest in the pretty girl whom his timely presence had preserved from cruel death. Ignoring the buck, Peter walked on with Kitty, escorting her to with in sight of bcr father's house, and then re turning to a dwelling, which, in spite of his dogs and his hired people, seemed more lonely than ever. "They met by chance, the usual way," again and again, and the old story, ever old and ever new, was told and listened to. Peter neglected the suit he had brought in or.ecoutt, to prosecute a suit in another, and when the great case of Kane trw Abell came up before the County Court, Kane was absent bent on a final verdict in another suit, one of more importance, with a jury of one biased in his favor. The fame of this cause, the importance of the points involved, and the antagonism of the parties, brought a large concourse to the county town. The day of the trial no living being could be seen; every one was in the court-house. But horses there were every where, tethered to posts, pickets, porch-posts and the swinging limbs of trees horses of all kinds from the humble clay bank farm drudge to the mettled and blooded roadster, and with a variety of sad dles and bridles, not all saddled, however. which was wonderful to see. A deal of whisky had been furnished in the morning, but not even the charms of corn juico could keep the mountaineers outside of the court house, which was filled with a dense mass of auditors. The criminal business was first disposed of. The calendar had but two cases, one a "Trespass, Assault and Battery," and the other the stealing of some fowls by Silas Washington, a notorious colored offender. The T. A. B. was disposed of by a confes sion of judgment and a light fine, and after an hour s trial, the scion of the Washington family got three months' imprisonment it the county jail. Then came the civil calen dar, and the case of Kane vtrnu Abell was called. It was a battle between the clans, and tho movements were watched with keen inter est by the spectators, made up of those con nected in some way with the parties litigant. The opening speech for plaintiff by Adam, delivered in the vernacular, was admirable. It dwelt upon the utrocity of detaining the bear from its lawful possessor, the gross violation of hunting customs, and the fact that slaying the bear was almost as great an enormity as the slaying of Abel. The facts were then proven, by the admission of the offender There were no witnesses for the defense. Eve claimed the right under those circumstances to the closing speech, but the worshipful court the justices are worship ful, not honorable complied with Adam's demand to "rule agin him.'' and Eve took an exception which the court would not allow. The magistrates happened to be blood con nections of the Kanes. Eve sKke eloquently and ev'n grandilo quently. He had received a collegiate edu cation, and he airtsl his classics for the edi fication of the-court and jury, and aston ished the mountaineers with flowing Latin and sonorous Greek. He held that there could be no property in an animal which was in fern uatura, us there would be in one do mesticated; that the wild animal, having been killed while trespassingon thedomain, its carcass had become the property of the owner of the fee; that it had broken into tho close of Abell "socked his claws into his trowsers," as one of the jurors explained afterward and was properly held for dam ages: that being in a state of nature, prop erty in him only vested by the fact at the time of killing: and that Kane had no right in cither hide, hair, hoof or meat of tho bear. To supjiort this he quoted Blackstonc, with some side references to Grotius, Puff endorf, Vatel and others, and cited a case from Johnson's Reports, which, in his opin ion, covered the case. Then he wound up by an appeal to the jury to stand bv their altars and their fires, the green graves of their forefathers, the constitution and laws of the commonwealth, and find for the de fendant. It was admitted that the young counselor had made a great effort, and his overwhelm ing weight of authority, Latin, Greek and logic, seemed to impress the jury as it did the auditors. The Abell side was jubilant. anu xne Kane side correspondingly de pressed. But it made no impression upon Adam. That practiced and serene counselor rose in the consciousness of power, and he rose to the level of the occasion. His speech, written out in full from copious notes taken by a young member of the bar, we arc enabled to give as a specimen of forensic power. It was as follows : "Ef it please ycr wurshups, Gentleman of the Jury, I ain't gwine to waste the time by makin' a long noration. The counsel for the defendant has had his sheer of that, and considabul of mine, too. He is a young man, peert an' spry, an' of a most pleasin' disco'se. He has spread hissclf on things in ginnaL like a bauty hen tryin' to kivcr iourteon duck-atgs. But he hasn't 1 etched thesubjeck. He has given you a beapo' larnin', an' enough Greek an' Latin to set up a doctor's shop. He sot out to sock with Socrates, rip with Euripides, an' hurk with Hercules, an' I don't know when I've been more pleased meself. But it didn't edzactly tctch the sore spot. He quoted from Grotius an' them, but it was larnin' an' not law. Mr. Grotius an' the rest are furriners. writin' on f urrin law. What has furrin law to do with us J As for Blackstonc why, gentlemci, Blackstonc was a British jedgei a British jedge. Our anthistcrs fought agin British tyranny an' oppression fit an' died agin it. Is the say-so of a British jedge to overrule lawan' jestice here! I allow not. "Thcr ain't no disputation as to the far. Thedefendant takes the fax as they air. An' mcyairas piain as noonday. We had no proputty in the b'ar, eh? Why that'd make ahosslaugh. The young man isnootothc bar, but the onwrittcn b'ar law o' this coun try's noocr to him, an' that goes back so fur that no one knows to the contrary. That gives the right o' possession to the man that starts the game. The b'ar wan't in pos session of Kane in one sense, but he had started to reduce it to possession, and Abell comin' in an' shootin' it, put it into possess ion at wunst For he was eyether an agent of Kane, an' shot it for him, or he was a trespasser an' he couldn't take advantage oi nis own wrong, could he? That's law, to break down tho fax as swo'n to by re spectablo witnesses, some of 'em akin to yer, gentlewn of the jury! Tho case is cl'ar. We stan' for law an' jestice." The presiding justice asked if "both sides air into cote?" "The defendant is here," said Eve, "bat the plaintiff seems to be ashamed of his suit, and is absent." "Good reason tharfor." said tho foreman of the jury. "Iseed him on hossback when I was comin' to cote, with Kitty Abell on behind, a-headin' for Preacher Grimeses. Gwine to git married, I allow." . This startling announcement was suc ceeded by another, made by a small boy perched in one of the windows: "Thar come Peto Kane on his black hoss, with Kitty Abell a-holdin' onto him." In vain the sheriff called for order. Abell and his two sons went out, followed by spec tators, lawyers, judges and jurymen, and at last by the sheriff himself, who wantcd'to see the fight as much as the rest. Peter Kane had ridden up to tho porch of the village "store." dismounted, tethered his horse, and assisted Kitty to alight, be fore old Abell and his two strapping boys reached tho spot. Every one was excited except Peter, who was quite cool and un moved. There was to be a fight, beyond doubt, and every one prepared to take sides in the "scrimmage," according to his pro clivities. The two Abell boys "shucked" their hunting-shirts in readiness. "Stan' back thar, boys," said old Abell, seizing an ax-handle from a pile that stood on the porch, "or I'll lay ye out with this ax-helvc. This is rn.v beczness, notyourn. Pete Kane, ye ain't satisfied with gwine to law with me, but you'Te run away with my dahtcr, unbeknownst. Air you two mar ried 1" "Yes, father," said the blushing Kitty. "Thar nuwer was a Abell married to a Kane that she wasn't disowned of her kin," said the old man. "The Kanes an' the Abells has fit through three generations. It's been a scanyous beezness, in my jedgroent. You kin take yer jedgment agin mc for the b'ar, for I broke hunter's law in that, an' acted ruther mean " 'Yer welcome to the b'ar, Clarke Abell," said Kane. "I don't want the money no how. It's John Adam's foolery." "John Adam was right," returned AbelL "an' I'll pay. But, Kitty, gal, why didn't you let me know thepur'l you was in. an how Peter saved you; I only larned it to day. You mought have been dead but for him. Why didn't you ax for the gal like a man, Peter Kauo." The young folks stammered their regrets. "Jecms Abell." cried the old man to his eldcs: son, "don't stan' thar glowrin', but jest go into the store, and get a quart of tho best, an' then ride with black Betty ahc.ul to Kane's. The boys'll give you a hundred yards law. The fight at ween the Kanes an' the Abells is busted. Buss me, Kitty, gal, I run away with yer mother myself." Off went James Abell on horseback, with his black bottle of whisky, followed by hastily mounted horsemen, the foreirost to obtain the privilege of bus-sing "blaek Bet ty," the whisky-bottle, an old Irish custom still kept up iu the section. There was a bounteous "infarc" at tho bridegroom's house, and a good time. Tho only thing to mar it was the prospect of a fight between James Abell and an Overton Kane, but the old man Abell apicared with a hickory gad and persuaded the two to stop. The trial never was really concluded, but Peter Kane went over next morning, and wa3 closeted with the county clerk. The record bears the following: "Kane 1 r. V Detinue. Damages, JluO.OX Aboil. ) "Suit withdra.vn by plaintiff, who pays costs." Thomas Dunn L'njluJt, in X. Y. In-tlqtendait. AN ENGINE'S VICTIMS. HORTICULTURAL HINTS. The moment the defendant hnt the animal which we had started, H become our b'ar. Ther ain't no proputty in a live b'ar, but there is ia a dead b'ar. We ain't detainin' nobody's live b'ar, but our dead one, an- tnat's what we sue for. He mought have charged for his sarvlce, but he didn't. He s kilt our proputty agin as, and we've gotto be paid for it- That's law, an' that's jestice. "One more pi'nt, an' I'm done, an' then I ax a vardick from you. The larned counsel on the t'other side, knowin' of the weakness of his case, he has brought in the say-so of Some Noo York lawyer a Xoo- Tor-k late yer!U decide a case here. Not his opinion eyether, but his Repote! This is the most pusyillanomous attetnp' to warp jestico 1 ever knowed of! Johnson's Repote I I needn't tell yer gentlcmm of tho jury I needn't tell yer wurshups, who air larned in the law, that repote is onlv hcarsav. au thet hearsay is not evidence, What's John son vho is this Johnson, that his hearsay should be admitted in this wurshupf ul cot How to Ileautirr Tublic Grounds la Conn try and Village. The horticultural advance to be made at the present time, which would prob ably be most beneficial, especially in country villages, is to go outside of our individual premises and to take more interest in the streets, the school grounds, the churchyards, the ceme teries, the public squares or parks, the railway stations, grounds of public buildings, and others of this nature. Some may think it is enough for each to sweep before his own door-yard; but this can not be true, for there is mani festly a public duty in this respect to be discharged if we would give horti culture the scope that naturally belongs to it. Now, what is every body's duty is nobody's, and unless some public spirited persons will take the lead it is evident nothing will bo done. Is it necessary to bring forward here the mercenary motive of increased value of individual real property to enforce this thought? A e trust not. though it may go where it will have its influence. How are these improvements to be made? In the first place they are to be made in the minds of those who desire them; a number of persons should be interested, the more the better, but some one must first think about thoni, desire them and de termine to work for them, and must interest others in the subject. Let one thing be undertaken at a time, and that one which in most cases will elicit the greatest sympathy and aid will be the improvement of the school grounds. This should be nicelv furnished with grass, any disagreeable objects should be screened from sight by proper tree planting, the margins of the grounds should be supplied with trees and flowering shrubs, and the fences, when not hidden from sight by the latter, should be covered with flowering vines. The ornamentation of the school grounds in this manner will commend itself to the public, and will not be difficult or expensive, if properly at tempted. Tho village improvement society, as the club may be called, can next turn its attention to something else, and before many years have elapsed it will have wrought wonders. This is a society in which all may join. men, women ana youth, ana many E feasant social gatherings way be held y its members, at some of which the. small suras of money needed may be obtained by the pleasant devices the ladies so well understand. Viek's Magazine. A Georgia Knclnerr Tells What lie Han Killed on the Truck. 'I killed a buzzard this morninjr." remarked an old engineer of the Geor gia road to a reporter the other after noon. "Rather strange game to be hunting with a locomotive- How did it hap pen?" "A dog or something had been killed the day before, and the buzzard was so interested in the carcass that he didn't take any notice of me until I got right upon him and he was knocked off into the ditch. I hit him a pretty hard lick, and I guess it killed him." "Isn't it an unusual occurrence to run over birds and the like?" he asked. "O. no. not at all; we frequently kill partridges, doves and sparrows with out number. Sometimes a whole bevy of chickens are ground up at a time. Although all kinds of poultry are run over from time to time. I believe guineas are smartest in getting out of the waj. When a flock of them is en countered on a track, they usually strike out in a run directly ahead of vou. sticking to the track, until yon get right upon them, and then dart off to one aide. If one gets off the rest follow. I never knew it to fail. If you get one of them, you get the whole flock." "How is it with other animals? I guess you have run over nearly every kind in your time?" "Yes, I reckon I have," said tho en gineer, thoughtfully, a shadow pass ing over his kindly face as he finished the sentence. "I supposo I have run over nearly every thing, fr.m a man down to a toad." "One day I was running at a high speed, considerably behind time. Just as I turned a curve, a colored man. seated on a load of wood and driving a mule, was crossing the track ahead of me. Although he had ample time to get over. I involuntarily shut off the steam and throw on the brakes. It was too late, however. The poor fellow became frightened and struck his mule a blow with a switch, and the srubborn animal came to a dead stop right in his tracks. The mau was paralyzed with fear and unable to move. The next instant 1 struck the wagon and knocked it into a thousand pieces, carrying the unfortu nate man more than thirty yards be fore I could stop. The mule plodded on tho road as unconcernedly as though he were still attached to his load and nothing had happened. "But, speaking of animals," contin ent the engineer, "sheep seem to have le-s sense than any thing else. If a flock of them should happen to be grazing near the track when a train comes along, and they don't manage to get in the wav of it. it won't be their fault. I have killed as many as a dozen at a time. We don't kill many nowa days, though, because there are very few in the country. "Goats are just the opposite. I have never killed more than one or two. Thev are smart enough to get out of the way from the time they are two days old. Let one be in the way of an approaehingengine. and when he wants to get ofl' the track that is just what he docs, and without any foolishness, cither. If he should happen to be in a cut he starts up the bank, and gets there, too. "While running a freight one night I ran into a drove of about half a dozen horses. It Was quite dark, and I could see them only when I would get close upon them. With their characteristic stupidity under such circumstances the frightened animals made straight ahead of me at the top of their speed. I sup pose I ran them in this way for several miles, sometimes stopping entirely to let them get out of the wav. but when ever I reached a descending grade . would be upon them again. At last they were caught and two of them killed before the rest got ofl the track. "A good many hogs and cattle are also killed on the track. Of course, these all have to be paid for, and there is something remarkable in the fact that only Jers3-s, Berkshire: and the like are so unfortunate as to get in our way. Whenever a cow does get ofl' the track and out of danger we have no reason to ieei graiineii. because we know she is only a scrub, and of no value, any way.".-ltfHfr- Constitution. AN UNCONSIDERED EVIL, Dancers Growing at of the Return off Criminal From the Gaol. While wo are so nervously anxious to limit ph"sical sickness we deliber ately continue year after year to spread and to perpetuate another sort of dis ease which is eating at the very vitals of society. Vice and crime not only prey upon society, they poi.on it. And what we do is this: Over and over again we return again into the com munity all the crime that units its way into our jails. The fever hospitals, the smallpox hospitals do not send their patients out till they are cured, till there is no risk of spreading the conta gion of their several diseases. The in mates of our jails, or a vast number i.f them, are never cured. They are in curable. They are either born crimi nals of which, in the nature of things, there must be very many thousands in a population like that of England or they have become infected with crime ami hardened in it. as ma3' eaily hap pen, considering the condition in which a man finds himself after imprisonment for even one serious offense. It is a common belief that our prisons, our convict establishments, are little better than huge factories for receiving crimi nals at one end and turning them out at the other with their original deprav ity confirmed and intensified. Some of those who have the most intimate knowledge ol these things tell us that almost every one of the poor wretches whom we shut up in order to let loose again leaves the prison more dangerous to society than when he entered it. It is extremely likely. In one man's case the brand of crime is where it was not before; in another's it is deepened. The shame which so often passes into desperation seizes on the less guilty; the hardened criminal is vet more hardened now. Yet we, knowing what these men and women are, knowing that they are not only vicious in them selves, but centers of contagion and breeders and pcrpetuators of crime, constantly turn them back from jail into the community of which they aro the dregs and the poison. This isdouu methodically. We do it over and over again with the same men and women; and, after a generation or two of what in the precisely similar case of the hos pitals would be thought downright madness, we are startled by the extra ordinary number of "roughs" that we seem to possess. NOSOLOGY EXPLAINED. "That l'oet anrt I'hlloitoplirrA Have Foiimr to S.i-r on the .MiJict. Thomas Moore differs from me. for he writes, quite oblivious of Lavater: In vain we fondly strire to trace. The soul's reflection in the f.we; In rain we dwell on lines and crosses. Crooked txa-c and siiort pro!OMis. Boobies have looked a- wise ui:d bright As Plato and the stasyente: And many sace and learned skull Has peeped through windows, darlc and tnIV Noses have, however, been held in respect for many reasons by the learned. As an oracle the old writers held that it was a sure sign of faithful affection. Writes Kouister: "Did my nose bleed in your company?" And. poor wretch. How manv of us ever give a thought FAIR AND SQUARE. Which Made It is claimed that by always select ngseed potatoes from the mos t prolific hills in a field the increase of yield will be annually greater. It is an experi ment worthy of trial. Work done in season always brings better results than when it is postponed beyond the proper time, for it is then apt to become a fruitless task. A Real Estate Traiiauctlon Nohmty K.cli. "Those Western fclloufs can give ns twenty-live points and then beat us every game." said a Detroit real estate agent who returned from a Western trip yesterday. "What do you mean?" was asked. "I mean cheek," he replied. "I had speculation in my eye when I went West, but I got scared before I reached St. Paul. Why, sir, there were no less than thirteen real estate agents in my particular coach and every one made a dead set at me. One chap who wanted to sell ine business property in St Paul was the best talker I ever heard. I looked up the land after I got there and it was just eleven miles from the center of the city. Some of the pieces of suburban property mentioned to me at a bargain were forty miles away. They took it as an insult if you wanted to ride out and see the property." "And didn't you buy?" "Yes. At Kansas City a man stumped me to traae a piece ot lana l had in Saginaw Countv for a suburban farm be had there. It was unsight and un seen." "And flid you make or lose?" "O, I came out about even, I guess. His suburban farmfwas a hill in Arkan sas, while my Michigan farm was a cat tail swamp two feet under water the year round. We arc both trying to sell to second parties now, and perhaps the man who gets my hill will arrango to fill in for the man who get the swamp." Detroit Free Pru . to mis extraordinary system oi con stantly returning criminal offenders from the gaols, where th-;y are too often exasperated and hardened, into the general community, where nine tenths of them can do nothing but con tinue iu their old courses? Very few. we imagine. And the public indifference to what really is not a law of nature is the more remarkable because the problem of criminal discipline is of the very essence of that condition-of-thc-people question which, for all sorts of curiously compounded and contrasted reasons, has so closely and painfully engaged attention of late. The misery of the unemployed, the poor estate of the half-employed, the gnawing anxie ties of many who yet contrive to find fairlj regular work and wages these are topics that are found in the mouths of many who would bo very sorry to pose as philanthropists merely because they acknowledge the common instincts of humanity. But while they worry the husk they refuse to prolw the kernel. At the heart of the evil lies this peren nially prolific miss of hopeless vice and crime, and with it we shall have to deal if we mean to do anything worth the doing. If the thing is in any way practicable we ought to change the present system and take meas ures for moving out of the com munity the worst members of the crim inal classes. Even as a factor in the question of pauperism and destitution this matter peremptorily claims atten tion. It would be very cruel and very absurd to say that want is in ci'ery case the result of misconduct; but it is true that the inherited repugnance of large numbers of our fellow-men to honest industry alone makes distress unmanageble. Thousands of the "mi- employed earn no wages because tney do not want to work. They do odd jobs, they loaf, they tramp, they pilfer, they steal, and so on through the whole gamut of laziness and vice. Why i-3 this? We have already said. Human nature is far from perfect yet Many rogues are born; man-others arc easily turned into rogues by circumstance. It is likely enough that the iustiact of evil living is transmitted; it is certain that the contamination of vicious sur roundings has its natural effect Neces sity holds the born felon in a pitiless grip. Birth gives theinfant the fatal bent home-life develops it The unwiedly bulk of modern society is traversed by hard lines of moral as well :u$ of social cleavage. Crime runs into pockets like ore in the mine. The Ishmaclitcs dweil alone and propagate among themselves. There is nothing to attenuate the vicious strain. We have on the fringe of the decent population a class of creatures who at best are worthless and too often are pure pests. It is recruited, but it is not regenerated, from the outside; on the other hand, it feeds the ranks of tho thriftless, the reckless, the ne'er-do-wells. What must be tho result of such a state of things? With a rapidly in creasing population, with a greater mass of poverty, a greater number of viciously disposed people crowding in to "East-ends" in all our great cities, what can we expect from a continuance of the present system of dealing with the criminal classes? Reason answers that we are to expect nothing but eviL St. James' Gazette. iit as she said this, to show her tnia heart, her nose fell a bleeding. Bleed ing of the nose did not always indicate this, however, as the learned Grose pleaded, for he held: "If a nose bleed one drop only, it forebodics sickness; if three drops, the omen is still worse." While Milton, who wrote the "Astrolo-gis-t." said: "If a man's nose bleeds one drop at the left nostril it is a sign of gMd luck." Dckkcr. on the other hand, held that the principal use of the nose was to foretell the coming of strange guests: Wc shall ha gusts to-day- Jay nose ltchcth. . There are lots of expressions in popu lar parlance, too, to show how impor tant the nose is considered. For in stance, one speaks of a dupe as a per son who is "led by the nose." and Iago says of Othello: lie was led by the nose as asses are. "Paying through the nose." again, is. held to be a condition of too much trustfulness, and Grimm says that this saying had its origin in an old practice- of King Odin, who levied a tax of a penny on every nose or poll. "Tweak ing" the nose indicates not only a nose puller, but a nose owner who is weak enough to let people wring his probos cis; and not only did Papists in the old days slit the noses of the Protestants, and Roundheads slit the noses of cava liers, but iu the war of 1877-78 iheMon tegrins generally cut ofl the noses of all the Turkish prisoners that they ehanccd to take. Still, though suffering the occasional indignity of a tweak, a good noe only belongs to the clever man a man who is able to find out secrets. For, :is tne Latin poet says: Non cuicunque datum esthabcre natum. which freely rendered into English means: It is not Kiven to every body to have a nose (keen wit.) Still, as I have remarked, the. nose is not treated with the respect that it should be. and this is possibly because it is often the medium of ridicule. You will remember Barnaul's lines: The sarristan expressed no wonia To indicate a doubt. But he put his thumb unto his noso And spread his tinkers out. Naturally the hands placed tandem in front of the nose put the organ itself ia some peril, and hence it gets hit occa sionally in a light, as witness Hudibrcs, who notes that: Those who in quarrels interpose Must often wipe a bloody nose. London Echo. ESSAY ON NEWSPAPERS. by aa An itinerant preacher, who ram bled in his sermons, when requested to stick to his text replied, "that scatter ing shot would hit the most birds. " Soma Clever Characterizations Alltnny Printer' Devil. The souvenir dancing orders of the Albany Printing Pressmen's Union con tain the following contribution from ",-v printer's devil." which is too funny for publication iu so-called comic papers; at least, they seldom have such gez: uine humor. It is entitled a "Prize Es say on Newspapers:" Newspapers is called vehicles of in formation. Reporters is what is called "the staff" so many of them being "sticks." They work hard at refreshment bars. Proof-readers is men what spoils the punctuation of compositors. They spell a wonlsone way to-day and another way to-morrow. They think they be intelligent persons; compositors think different. Compositors is men as sets up the? type and sometimes the drinks. Com positors is very steady men when they is sober which they seldom is when they can help it Editors is men what knows every thing in the heaven above and the earth beneath. They is writers who doesn't write any thing whatsoever. They is the biggest men 3-011 ever see. Managers is men as takes in the tin and gives patent medicine 'ads" top? of columns next to reading matter, thirty-seven columns out of thirtv-two. Proprietors an't any body. They an't ever seen. Printers' devils is the mostimiwjrtant persons in a printin' office. They does the hardest work and gets the least pay. Pressmen is well, there wouldn't be no newspapers, no circus bills, without pressmen to print 'em. Feeders is men whsi feeds on the fat of the land. If 1 ever start a paper of my own I'll call it the Umbrella, Every body wilL take it I heard the foreman tell this funny story to one of tho "staff" the other day. It must havo been funny 'cause they both laughed. This istaestoryr "A gentlemen was promenading the street with a little boy at his side whea the little fellow cried out: 0. pa, there goes an editor? 'Hush, hush, said the father, "don't make sport of t he poor man God only knows what you may come to yet" Albany Argus. "Did she havo a raw hide when he assaulted you?" asked his honor of a, meek gentleman who accused his wif of assault wich intent to kill. "Xo. your honor." said the poor man. feel ing of himself tenderly; "I'm the one that Lad the raw hide; in fact, jvu Uoncr, I have it stiiL" Xi ' '