V-Sf-sKaaalg
gaggiiigSSg Ef
;
I-
"RED CLOUD CHIEr
A. C. HOSMER, Proprietor.
KED CLOUD. ... NEBRASKA
THE TEAR-KERCH I EH.
It is only a trifling thin? to anew
Juil a kerchief, white as the driven scow,
"Wt many a tender and loving thought
Is intc :t dainty stitchcry wrought;
For the 'cother wove it from fiax that grew
And smiled in the field with its blossom bins;
She spun the thread whereof it was made.
And watcte J it carefully where 'twas laid.
That dayS warji kisses and night's soft dew
Might bleach the web to it whitest hue;
And then it was lovincly laid away
For the daughter's hand on her bridal day.
Oh ' Tew are the tears by the maiden shed
On the day that her br.dal vows are said.
They may fall as she meets her father's Ids
Yet her heart is glad with her nuptial bliss.
She may fondly cling to her mother's srne.
Yet her lover claims her. his happy bnde.
She fear not to give up her fair young lif
To the sacred duties and came of wife;
And there is no gr.ef in the tsars that Ho
O'er the soft round cheek witk its blushing
glow.
And she smiles as she wipes them all away
With the kerchief white on her bridal day.
Daintily folded with tenderest car.
The young wife taketh the kerchief fair,
"With scented rose-Ieavea and lavender spray.
Scarce dried from her tears it is laid away.
There in its fragrant and perfumed nest..
For many long years may the kerchief rest.
They will bring in their train both joy and woe
As Time goes on in his ceaseless flow.
But Love suU maketh each burden light.
And the home where he dwells is ever bright.
And the wife still smiles as the smil'd the day
i-'he laid her kerchief with smiles away.
But Time will pass and the years go on.
And each day flndetb some duty done.
And the kerchief lies in its scented fold.
But snow has sprinkled the hair of gold;
For the fair young bnde is a matron now.
And wrinkles furrow the once smooth brow.
And her step is no longer free and light,
And the hair is a crown of silv'ry white.
But her children arise and c-ill her blest.
And her husband's heart in her doth rest;
And the kerchief lies as 'twas laid away
By the maiden's hands on the bridal day.
But there comes a day when, in peaceful rest.
Those hands lie crossed on a quiet breast,
"When the tender eyes are forever shut.
And the loving lips are forever mute.
Then, ere the face that they loved is hid
From mortal sight 'neath the cofnn-lid.
The kerchief stained with the young bride's
tears,
S carefully guarded for many years.
Is gentlv laid o'er the features pale;
At Death's cold bridal, a br.dal vail:
And the kerchief, laid for f o long away.
Hides the calm, still face on the burial day.
Mary X. Robinson, in Good Housekeeping.
A SINISTER SCHEME.
The Cruel Joke Undo Toby Flayed
Upon His Nephew.
An elderly gentleman, whose chief
idiosyncrasies are a rooted aversion to
death and a fervent hatred for his heir
and successor, is not exactly a novel
character either in real life or on the
stage. But there is a material differ
ence in his behavior in the two situa
tions, for whereas on the stage he is
almost invariably turned to repentance
by the beaux yeux of the young lady
I whom his heir has married, or by the
maddening prattle of her tiresome
chiM. and dies in the odor of sanctity
distributing indiscriminate blessings,
in real life he more often than not car
ries his spite with him to the grave,
and leaves his posterity good reason to
execrate his memory in the share of an
outrageously malicious will. Sir Toby
Bunskin, of Bunskin" Hall, Fallowland.
and No. 250 Grosvenor Square, was not
at all like the traditional old gentle
man of the stage. His hatred for his
heir. Captain Jack Bunskin, of the
Fiftieth Lancers, was not exaggerated,
and did not betray him into foolish
excesses, but it was extremely sincere
all the more so, perhaps, because it
was absolutely unreasonable and if
any mutual friend had ventured to
prophesy that Sir Toby would end
by welcoming Jack to the ancestral
hall and the avuncular bosom,
he would promptly have been set
down as a lunatic of the most pro
nounced type. It was in truth a very
hopeless case, and Jack Bunskin had
long ago reconciled himself to a pre
carious existence on his pay. his wits,
and the money he could raise by mort
gaging his reversion to certain family
states which Sir Toby had not the
power to will away from him. Now,
although Sir Toby hated Jack so
heartily, it must not be imagined that
he was sufficiently lost to the decencies
of society as to ignore his existence, to
insult him in public, or even to be
pointedly rude to him in private. Jack
was always asked down to Bunskin
Hall for the cover-shooting, he was ex
pected to assist at the annual rent
dinner of Sir Toby's tenants, and at
oertaia fixed seasons he was formally
invited to Grosvenor square. But there
Sir Tohy'a recognition of his relative
began and ended. He would not allow
Jack a sixpence, nor would he have
lent him 20 to save him from the
bankruptcy court, or even from suicide.
The Baronet was not Tery old he was
barely sixty and for bodily vigor
many a man of five-and-forty might
have envied him. He rode regularly
to hounds, was an experienced and
successful deer-stalker, and could cast
a salmon-fly with the best fishermen in
Scotland; and he was addicted to none
of the excesses which sometimes short
en the' lives of men who indulge io
hard exercise, for he neither ate too
much nor drank too freely. In fact.
he took excellent care of himself, and
was on very good terms with his
doctor. His friends said that he de
lighted in the idea of keeping Jack out
of his inheritance as long as he possi
bly could.
Now, all met have their small weak
nesses, andosoof the most pronounced
of Sir Toby's was a passion for litera
ture and for plays of a sensational and
blood curdling description. He rev
elled in penny-dreadfuls and in soul
moving melodrama; he delighted in
complicate! plot of missing heirs,
forged wills, mysterious murders and
buried treasure. There was reason to
suppose that many of his strong boxes,
which presumably contained title-deeds
and ancient leases, were in reality
stuffed with rejected manuscripts and
stillborn dramas, declined with thanks
by purblind publishers and managers.
Sir Toby was firmly impressed with-ihe
idea that had his station and his duties
been otherwise, he would have made
his fortune, as a detective, 'and nothing
pleased hira so much as endeavoring to'
discover the identity oTan undetected
muraerer or tne motive tor a myster
ious disappearance. Whenever such
an event occurred, which was pretty
often. Sir Toby used to indite long epis
tles to the Times, setting forth his
theories, which, after all, frequently
turned out to be quite as near the truth
as those of the professional detectives.
It was one day in early spring that a
great idea occurred to Sir Toby Bun
skin. He felt in a particular misan
thropic humor, for Jack had been stay
ing with him. and unc,le and -nephew
liad contrived to :, quarrel even more
seriously .than usual. Moreover, there
had been published certain damaging
facts in connection with one or two
charitable institutions io which Sir
Toby had intended to leave the greater
part of his fortune, and he began to
think that even Jack might not put his
money-to a much worse use than a
pack of over-&Id greedy officials. It
was in this hnmor that he had taken
up a newspaper and studied the strange
disappearance of Mr. Jabez Brown, an
eminent Mudford merchant and mill
ionaire, who had vanished from mortal
ken iu the most unexpected manner
and without the slightest apparent
reason. The amateur detective was
strong in Sir Toby, as usual, and he
fell to musing over the fate of Mr.
Brown, and to evolving all manner of
theories which might account for his
singular absence. He was rich, emi
nently respectable, and universally
looked up to in the commercial world.
An examination of his affairs had
proved beyond doubt that no financial
embarrassment existed. Then he was
a moral man, and there was no sus
picion that he had eloped with some
body else's wife or, indeed, that a
lady was in anyway connected with the
case. He was perfectly sane and in
good health, and no conceivable reason
could be imagined for his committing
suicide.
"He may have been murdered, of
course," thought Sir Toby; but this
solution seemed commonplace "there
may be a woman in the case. Begad,
I believe he is alive, at any rate. He
may have disappeared out of pure ca
price found his responsibilities too
troublesome, or gone off in pursuance
of one of those whims that every body
has. or nearly every body. Brown dis
appears delight of heir long search
after Brown body found in the Thames
much decomposed but easily identi
fied as that of Brown by servants in
pay of heir heir takes possession of
property has a splendid time for a
few weeks, when behold Brown redivi
vus Brown alive and well! promptly
kicks out the heir, and declines all re
sponsibility for his debts! What a
splendid situation! Wonder how my
dear nephew would like it? I'd give
5.000 to see him." And Sir Toby
burst into harsh, unpleasant laughter,
and positively roiled about in his chair
with ghoulish merriment. The idea
pleased him so much that he sat up a
good two hours later than usual, and
when at last he went to bed it was
with a firm determination to carry out
his extraordinary scheme, and to
execute a vengeance upon Jacob
Bunskin the ingenuity of which should
only be exceeded by its completeness.
Upon Sir Toby's preparation it is
unnecessary to dwelL He contrived to
possess himself without suspicion of
several thousand pounds in ready
money, for he had no intention of being
left penniless during an absence that
might be prolonged. He had to make
up his mind as to what country he
should select for the scene of his ad
ventures, and, after much deliberation.
he fixed upon America, with a view of
enjoying some wild sport in the Rocky
Mountains and elsewhere; he also had
to invent a sufficiently trustworthy dis
guise for himself, and to lay in a stock
of more or less outlandish garments in
order to accentuate the change in his
appearance.
Now, Sir Toby was a smart, dapper
man who dyed his hair black and
shaved clean his face, so he argued
that if he bought a red wig and beard
they would effectually disguise him
until his own beard and mustache had
had time to grow. When this hap
pened he would exhibit his undyed
hair to the public, and with a white
head, a grizzly beard and a mustache,
and a pair of spectacles instead of his
eye-glass, be felt sure that he could
defy recognition. The mere question
of getting away was simple, the main
difficulty, of course, being how to
furnish Jack with proofs of his death
strong enough to enable him to take
possession of his inheritance. But Sir
Toby knew that queer things could be
done in America, and once there ho
thought he could easily arrange by
bribery that the body of some unknown
traveler should be identified a that of
Sir Toby Bunskin. Bart. Mindful of
this necessity he armed himself with a
pocket-book containing papers calcu
lated to place the identity of the person
carrying them beyond reasonable
doubt. He also carefully destroyed
every will that he had ever made, for
he wished his nephew to inherit as
much as possible. "The greater the
rise," he chuckled, "the greater the
falL Up like a rocket. Jack, my boy,
and down like a stick!"
When all these preparations were
made. Sir Toby quietly left his home
in Fal owland one day and did not re
turn to it. His ostensible destination
was the house in Grosvenor Square,
but he passed the night at a hotel and
started the next morning for Liver
pool. In his red wig and queerly cut
clothes his own valet would not have
recognized him. At Liverpool be took
a steerage passage for New York, for
he was a man who rather liked "rough
ing it" than otherwise, and. once on the
voyage, be began to feel that half his
plan was accomplished. 'But the ques
tion as to how he was to prove his own
death bothered him considerably. The
ship had not, however, been a day at
sea before a most remarkable and for
tunate circumstance occurred. Sir Toby
was a light sleeper, and was not very
much at home in his uncomfortable
quarters; so the first night after leav
ing Queenstown he paced the deck for
several hours. In the course of his
nocturnal rambles he kept meeting a
man whom he could not help noticing
from the very fact that he seemed des
perately anxious to avoid his. Sir
Toby's observation. "Some thief or
forger bolting," thought Sir Toby, and
he kept his eye on the man from idle
curiosity, and gradually fell to dodging
about the deck and watching him
"closely. Presently the man, when he
thought himself unobserved, did a very
strange thing; he took off his coat and
laid it carefully on the deck. Then he
glanced hurriedly round, mounted the
bulwarks and leaped into the sea. One
of the ship's officers just caught sight
of him as he disappeared; an alarm
was quickly raised, and the engines
were reversed. No one had time to
notice or think of the coat; but Sir
Toby always prided himself on his
presence of mind. Instantly he seized
it. tore off his own coat, which con
tained the pocket-book and the papers,
laid it down on the deck and put on
the coat left behind by the suicide. It
was a master-stroke, a veritable in
spiration, and Sir Toby retired to his
berth knowing that the odds were at
least a hundred to one against a rescue.
At his leisure he examined the pockets
of the stranger's garment; the only
thing of importance it contained was a
letter, apparently addressed to the
dead man's wife. "As I thought," said
Sir Toby to himself, wfcen he read it at
leisure, "ordinary case of forgery, can
not live any longer the usual bosh! I
don't think that Mrs. Bowston will
ever eet this letter.' And he burned
it carefully, and a night or two later
took an oportunity of throwing the
coat itself overboard. "Now I am
really all right." he reflected.
There was a great hue and cry in
London when it was reported that Sir
Toby Bunskin had actually disappeared.
Half the detectives were employed to
look for him. advertisements were in
serted by the score, even placards were
posted on the boardings; no exertion,
in fact, and no expense were spared to
discover his whereabouts. But not the
slightest result followed until the news
arrived from America that Sir Toby
had jumped from an Atlantic steamer
and had, of course, been drowned, leav
ing behind him. no doubt for purposes
of identification, a coat, in the pocket
of which was a pocket-book containing
cards and private papers obviously be
longing to the unfortunate Baronet. It
was a nine-days' wonder, but as no one
cared a straw about Sir Toby when
alive, people soon got tired of specu
lating as to the cause which had
prompted the "rash act." And as soon
as certain necessary legal formalities
had been complied with. Jack Bunskin,
found himself Sir John Tobias Bunskin,
Baronet, of Bunskin Hall and Gros
venor Square, and the possessor of a
substantial rent-roll and a goodly sum
of ready money. Now, it was not very
likely that Jack should feel any pro
found grief for his uncle. The manner
of the old man's death certainly shocked
him considerably, but the pleasures
and duties of his new position speedily
banished the unpleasant subject from
his mind.
He had, too. plenty of things to look
after. His creditors, of course, came
down upon him in a hungry horde, and
the amount of post-obits which he had
to pay off was quite alarming. More
over, he had no intention of leading
the sober and quiet life that had suited
his uncle. He bought a yacht, started
a small racing-stud, and began to dab
ble in city companies all of which
things demand a considerable amount
of time and attention, not to mention
money. So a couple of years passed.
Jack, in common parlance, went the
pace to the best of his ability; got him
self elected M. P. for one of the divi
sions of Fallowland, and finally became
engaged to Miss Hilda Grains, only
daughter and heiress of the late Sir
John Grains, M. P., the well-known
brewer and millionaire. There was, of
course, a very grand wedding, and, in
due time, the happy paired returned to
London from a prolonged honeymoon
on the Continent. When Jack bad fin
ished examining a pile of letters and
other documents, he inquired of the
family butler whether he had any spe
cial news to communicate, for that in
dividual looked like a man burdened
with a guilty secret.
"It's my dooty to tell you, sir," said
Mr. Flaggon, mysteriously, "as an old
gent 'as been calling here every day
for the last week and says he must see
you."
"Is that all?" queried Jack.
"No, sir fact is, sir, that he says
he's your uncle."
My uncle! What miserable non
sense! Why. the fellow must be a
lunatic or an impostor!'
"Just so. sir; but we can't get rid of
him, and I didn't like to give the poor
old idiot in charge."
"Quite right. Flaggon; next time he
comes I'll see him."
Oddly enough, half an hour after
wards, the old gentleman, returned,
and Mr. Flaggon promptly ushered
him into Sir John's study.
"Well, my man," said the new baro
net, "and what can I do for you?"
"Jack," said the stranger, "do you
mean to say that you don't know me?
Fm your Uncle Toby I am, indeed,
and not a blessed soul recognizes me!"
"This is driveling nonsense!" be
said; "but if you are my uncle, how
the deuce do you account for the fact
that you were drowned in the At
lantic?" "I wasn't drowned; it was another
passenger," and Sir Toby confessed
the story of the change of coats, which
had induced every one to believe he
was dead.
"But what on earth have you been
doing for more than two years?"
"I went hunting bears and things in
the Rocky Mountains." said Uncle
Toby, in a sepulchral voice. "We lost
our way, wandered about for days, and
were eventually captured by the Objib
eboo Indians. Couldn't get away, or
even write."
"O, indeed! Is that why you have
tattooed your face so elegantly?" asked
Jack.
"i man i tattoo myseir they did it
for me," wailed Sir Toby. "My face
is nothing to the rest of me. I've got
a pine forest, a lake and a range of
mountains on my back; three rattle
snakes on each arm; my chest is cov
ered with tomahawks, arrows and
pipes; and there are opossums, ter
apins and all sorts of beastly animals
on my legs!"
"Dear me! By the way, what's be
come of your left ear?"
Well, you see. Red Blanket, the
chief, you know, took a great fancy to
me; but sometimes he used to get drunk
and throw things about. He cut nearly
the whole of my ear off with a toma
hawk one day."
"You must have had a rollicking
time!"
"Don't laugh, you vagabond!" cried
Sir Toby, waxing wrathful. "Look at
my head! That was done by Blue
Braces, another chief; he tried to scalp
me. and it was all that Red Blanket
could do to stop him. He got about
half of it off as it was. And now. Jack,
when you've done grinning, perhaps
you'll talk business. I meant to play a
joke cs you. but it seems to me that
I've got the worst of it. However,
we'll let bygones be bygones; I'll make
you a good allowance, though I hear
that you've married a wife with a big
fortune. But, of course, you know you
must clear out."
"Clear out of what?"
"Why, out of my property and my
money, of course," snapped Sir Toby.
"You're welcome to the baronetcy.
Uncle Toby," said Jack, thoughtfully;
"but I'm afraid that I can't oblige you
any further."
"What the deuce do you mean, sir?"
"Simply that there's nothing left to
clear out of! Tve spent it every bob."
Sir Toby turned livid under his tattoo-marks.
"You infernal young scoundrel!" he
shrieked; "are you mad?"
"Not a bit of it, uncle; don't get
excited. You see. nearly all the mom' .
you left went to pay post-obits; aur,
then I took to racing, and gambleoTased
bit. Had most shocking luck! Lti 31)
every sixpence; sold the house
Grosvenor Square; sold Bunskin H:
under the Settled Estate act, you kno -'s
sold every thing. If I hadn't marri? the
Hilda I should have been absolute tne
stone-broke. She bought back Be ,
skin Hall, by special leave of the tn
tee; but all her money is strictly ti t do
up, and I haven't a sixpence of r
own in the world." leers
"Is this really true?" said Sir Tob
faintly. jver
"Gospel truth, I assure you. Abet
Taper and Deeds, they know all abcle a
it. Never mind. Uncle, you've hi.jno.
your lun wiiu tne uouneDoo xnaiari
vou know, and I've had mine. Wo:
kost-
you have a brandy and soda or so:
thin?? You look auite ereen. T-L
vou what. If vou let me keen the
title, ril get Hilda to make you head
gardener at Bunskin 250 ayear. good
house and precious little to do. Think
it over. Uncle. London Truth.
An Imitative Canary.
A week or two since "Billy's" cage
stood upon its stand at the open win
dow, and a robin alighting upon a tree
near the bouse, belched forth one of
those mournful "yaps'' which are al
ways distressing to hear. It was the
first time that the canary had heard, to
our knowledge, the call of any bird
since he came last fall into the house.
At once he took up the mournful tone,
making sad work of it at first. His
mistress could not divine what the
little fellow was attempting to imitate;
as he improved we at once took the
idea and told her it was the call of the
robin, and now in spite of all that can
be done to arrest his imitations, he is
constantly interpolating that call into
his own beautiful song. A sad illus
tration that evil communications cor
rupt good manners. While the bird
was still experimenting upon that dis
mal call we turned his attention from
it by repeating the name of his mis
tress, in which exercise for the time
being he joined heartily. All attempts
to frighten him were vain, as he would,
after the scare was over, sit upon hia
perch and sing and whistle as if he
were enjoying the contest with his
master. We do not say that be was.
but canaries are no fools, as one will
become convinced if he handles them.
Brunswick Telegraph.
Pads made of white cheese-cloth,
with a layer of cotton batting between
the sides, and tufted with worsted, are
useful for slipping between the baby
and the holder's lap. also to put be
neath the child when it is laid on bed
or lounge. Medical Classics.
FRENCH SLEEPING-CARS.
Tbey Are Not Up tn tb Standard of Omt
ralluai or WapMrCotehM.
The charge for a bed in the sleeping
cars from Basle to Calais, is about 19
francs, and from Basle to Paris, for
some occult reason, 7 francs more. By
one of those extraordinary arrange
ments that can exist only in countries
where nobody trusts any body, and
every body is suspected by every body
else, even the unfortunate traveler who
has hired a bed at 9:15 is not allowed
to turn into it until 11:30, the reason
assigned being that at the French
frontier the "small baggage" must be
examined, and if people were allowed
to "turn in" before the examination
took place there is no saying what
amount of tobacco and laces and the
rest of it might not be secreted in or
under the bed by the tourist or by the
servants of the sleeping-car company.
When, however, the conventional cer
emonial of affirming that you have
"nothing to declare" has been gone
through and your dressing-bag has
been defaced by hieroglyphics in white
chalk, then the operation of bed-mak
ing in the wagon-lits commences. Any
one who has watched it will be disposed
to exclaim, with Macbeth: "Sleep no
more." In a small and sometimes
filthy den narrow cushions and hard
pillows of hoar antiquity are prefuno
torily covered with a shabby rug and
a sheet, and under a covering of a sim
ilar character the traveler who has
paid more than 1 for this extraor
dinary indulgence is invited to betake
himself to slumber. If he happens to
have a traveling companion they can
procure the luxury, such as it is, of
privacy, though one of them, on the
Dogberry principle, must needs sleep
on the upper shelf, which is an exper
ience several degrees more painful
than lying on the lower one. If the
number of passengers be not equal to
the number of beds they will be able,
by bribing the person in charge, to get
a four-bed compartment, and thus both
will avoid the torture of being sus
pended from the ceiling.
As a rule these vacant compartments
are to be had by tipping the dirty of
ficial in charge of them and thus, per
haps, for 25 shillings apiece two people
can secure the mitigation of misery we
have described. One of the main in
ducement: to many people to have re
course to a wagon-lit is the belief that
at any rate in the morning they will be
able to have "a good wash" and will
thus emerge from the train the simula
tion of a civilized being instead of an
unwashed, unkempt, unshaven savage.
Morning throws a fuller light on this
pleasing anticipation. As some of our
correspondents point out. the "lavato
ry" arrangements in the sleeping cars
between Basle and Calais and between
Basle and Paris are abominable beyond
description, and can not be turned to
the slightest account by any one of the
most ordinary fastidiousness. London
Standard.
ELECTRIC MOTORS.
Tkay Will Soon Tk tfa PUm r Steam
LeoowntlvN.
There are men patrons of yourM
who did as much for Uncle S
you did and uever asked for a pe
Now, ;dr. Postmaster, don't tellal
public v hat comes to your officeu"
, is
ol
,ffe
rUOm KANSAS.
Guda Springs, Kan. Aug. 3Jge
Editor CuiEr: As I .romii
write again and give some of n 0f
friends a little glance of whata-
country is like. To begin
is a ood farming ci untry
witbnd
for f
corn and small grain b-iv7interin.
is the best paying crop here. rs
sow their wheat in Septmbeve
oe
g"ter degree o
.-.- a.,.1 horrnit. n
hoijt
1 tVU
11 aeveiop
meuu-
As a matter of fact electricity when
it shall become thoroughly subjugated
to man's will, will render possible the
accomplishment of things that are
now but mere fanciful dreams. When
Jules Verne, that inimitable creator of
fantastic things, wrote his "Forty
Thousand Leagues Under the Sea,1'
and described a vessel that traveled
beneath the waves by the aid of elec
trical machinery and was illuminated
by electric lights, he little imagined j
that the time would so soon come when
his purely fanciful romance, concocted
merely to please the lovers of fiction,
would become a possibility. The in
vention of the storage battery and the
perfecting of the electric light seem to
indicate that the submerged ship of
"Verne" is now no more an impossi
bility. Modern invention has opened up the
possibility of electric motors to do the '
work of the "cannon ball" trains that
are now the wonder of the time. That
the competition of electricity in run
ning railway trains is looked for in
the near future is proven by the actual
existence of companies cratrolling
patents that are expected to put elec
tricity in service on railroads. Steam
seems now to have almost reached the
limit of its power in increasing the
speed of trains and engines have
grown in consequence of proportions
that in reason permit of but little
further increase; but electricity, set
ting at naught as it does all questions
of bulk and weight, promises to do in
an unknown degree what steam seems
incapable of doing. The powerful
agent that annihilates space and car
ries our thoughts to the end? of the
earth ir an instant mpy well be capable
of transporting freight and even pas
sengers long distances in an incredibly
short time. N. O. Picayun
MISCELLANEOUS.
i j
ilie stamp winaow 01 any posx-
office is a sort of Lick observatory
Rochester Post Express.
A Marietta (O.) horse died of
lockjaw the other day. the result of
having had a corn burned off two
weeks ago.
"What are your charges, doctor?"
"Three dollars a visit." "Well, we
don't want you to come on a visit, but
just stay ten or fifteen minutes." Puck.
A natural curiosity is to be seen
on a street in Columbus. Ga. A small
oak tree is growing from the limb of a
chinaberry tree, and the strange freak
attracts the attention of all passers-by.
The constant increase in the num
ber of steam yachts indicates that
pleasure-sailing is going where our
mercantile marine business has already
gone largely into steam.
A New York policeman preferred
charges against a woman who at
tempted to stab him with a hair-pin.
But for his stentorian efforts to escape.
she would probably have bruised him
( with her bangs. Atlantic Constitution.
A stone has been discovered in
Japan which has remarkable qualities
as a cement material, and can be
worked up for a much less price than
the imported article costs. The cement
will bear a weight of 400 to 500 pounds
per square inch.
The family of W. F. Strouse. of
Shamokin. Peon., have odd luck in
birthdays. His wife was born on
Christmas, his second daughter on St.
Valentine's day, his third on the Fourth
of July, and his only sob on Thanks
giving day
A negro was convicted of robbery
at Walker. Ga., the other day on very
circumstantial evidence. He stuek his
hand through a window, and a woman
lit a match and looked at it. She ex
amined a negro's hand in court and de
clared that it was the same that had
been thrust into her room.
A Summerville, Fla., paper says:
"We have a man in our country who is
thirty-five years old who was never
more than forty miles away from home,
never rode on a train or steamboat,
never wrote or received a letter, never
subscribed for a newspaper and never
voted.
-It had been noticed of late that
many of the suckers and catfish in the
creek near Marshall's paper mill in
Kennett Township, Chester County.
Pa., was found dead or stupid, and
upon examination it was found that
the fresh water leeches get into the
gills of the fish in large numbers and
sap their blood.
The province of Ontario. Canada,
is possessed of the most extensive de
posit of rock-salt which has yet been
found on the America continent. The
salt was first discovered at Goderich,
about twenty years ago, at a depth of
one thousand and ten feet, by a boring
which was made for petroleum. The
salt-measures extend over an area of
twelve hundred square miles.
A farmer of Northeast. Pa..
drove a stake by each of two hills of
corn in his garden recently, and then
stretched up the longest leaf to mark
its height. The next morning, at she
same hour that he had measured it the
day before, he repeated the operation
and found that one had grown over
four and the other five inches.
A "wild woman of the mountains,'
who lives on Blue Mountain, Mary
land, was arrested the other day, after
giving the daughter of Senator Butler,
of South Carolina, a severe fright. The
old woman is a well-known character
in those parts. She is described as be
ing but three feet tall, and her face the
acme of ugliness. She has led her
strange life in the mountains foryears.
and her name is a terror to all the chil
dren in that region.
I A weasel came down the hill and
went into a house in Easton a short
short time ago. No men being handy
seven women of the neighborhood
j armed themselves with pokers, canes.
I etc.. and entered the room. There was
a faint squeak in one corner, and seven
women jumped on chairs and screamed.
Their screams so terrified the weasel
that it ran out of doors and was killed
by a sick dog that was lying out in the
sun.
Dennysville, way down on the
eastern Maine coast, is one of those
"old towns with a history." The town
has no debt; the village has not had a
dwelling house, barn, store, church or
school-house destroyed by fire for more
than eighty years, and at the late town
meeting Peter E. Vose. Esq., was re
elected selectman and treasurer, after
a service of twenty-seven years in the
former and twenty-three years in the
latter position. During all these years
no person but Mr. Vose had ever writ
ten a word or made a figure in any
town book (excepting the town clerk's.
book) or drawn an order.
At Castle Garden there are many
theories of the great decline in Eu
ropean immigration to this country
1 during the first half of the current
year. It is said to be owing to the
reduction of the surplus population cf
several countries of Europe by the im
migration of past years, to the difficul
ties encountered by many immigrants
in finding employment here, to the new
inducements offered to settlers by sev
eral South American governments, to
the action of our consuls abroad in
preventing undesirable persons from
leaving for New York, and to the strict
enforcement here of the contract labor
law. The falling off in the arrivals at
Castle Garden during the first half of
the year as compared with those in the
corresponding period of last year was
nearly thirty-seven per cent., or from
239.325 to 173,678; and this falling off
was from all the European countries
from which immigrants come to tb
United Stat
!
I
