Crawfordsville Review, Crawfordsville, Montgomery County, 1 May 1897 — Page 2

•life

THE REVIEW.

BY

F". T. I—USE. A'

OF SUBSCRIPTION:

One Year, in the oounty ........11.00 One Year, out of the county 1.10

Inquire at Olftce lor Advertising Ratei.

The correspondent ot the St, Louis Globe-Democrat, a reliable man, makes the statement that 250,000 people in Cuba are perishing from hunger because Weyler has concentrated them in the towns without making any adequate provision for feeding them.

The seventh arnual report of the Board of State Charities has been issued by the State Printer in a pamphlet of 151 pages. A mass of valuable statistical information is thus made accessible to the general public, but it must be confessed that it makes rather "heavy reading." Still there are people who delight in that kind of mental athletics. To such we recommend this brochure. A copy can be obtained from Ernest P. Bicknell, Secretary, Indianapolis.

The fact that General Gomez lias made another appeal to the friends of Cuban independence for arms indicates that he expects to find use for^them. Instead of abandoning the struggle, it looks as if Gomez intended to "push things" during the rainy season, which has already begun in western Cuba, and will soon be at its height. Latterly the blockade runners have had very little trouble landing arms in Cuba, and the renewed call for them shows they are being used.

Two men have recently paid the enormous sum of a dollar a mile for the entire distance which they traveled 011 special trains to reach the bedsides dying relatives. The first of these was Robert Treat Paine, who traveled from Washington to Boston in hours and 33 minutes, a distance of 444 miles. The second was H. J., Mayham, who journeyed from New York to Denve. that part of the trip from Chicago to Denver being made by a special train (a distance of 1,025 miles), in 18 hours and 53 minutes.

The new Indiana Fish Commissioner, Rev. Z. T. Sweeney, "means business." He has already appointed special deputies in several counties and has given them instructions to look sharp for violators of the fish lgvvs and to prosecute all offenders "regardless." Such a vigorous policy if followed for a few years, will restore our streams and lakes to their primitive condition and give our people an important addition to the common food supply which will be then available to all true sportsmen. The wanton waste which has depleted forest and river and lake for fifty years should be stopped, and evidently will be if Mr. Sweeney can have efficient co-operation from subordinate officials and the people themselves.

The swindling attorneys who pretend to discover great estates in foreign countries that await an heir of the family name and lineage, continue to "work" American innocents who have not money enough to get swindled by buying a "gold" brick. The officials at the State Department are constantly besieged by these unfortunate dupes who have been made to believe that there is actually a large amount of money and possibly a castle or two waiting for them to prove their relationship to the deceased owner. So frequent have these appeals for Government aid in the search for fortune been cf late that the Secretary of State has ordered a circular to be prepared to be sent to such applicants which contain the general information that no such fortune is known to exist and warning the inquirer against paying fees to persons pretending to be attorneys for the licirs to fictitious estates.

The leading New York millionaires of our day have become exceedingly philanthropic. Not content with the good they can so easily do by endowing colleges and universities, they are con tinually inventing new schemes to dispose of their "conscience" funds, in the apparent hope that they may see some poverty-stricken family made more comfortable and happy. Certain it is that they do not engage in many of their speculations for, money-making purposes. The latest organized effort of this character is the Suburban Homes Company of New York. Rockefeller, Morgan, Iselin, Seligman, Mills and a number of others of the "select circle" are behind the scheme. The company has bought fifty acres of land in New Ubrecht, Brooklyn, and will at once erect one hundred modern two and a half story houses. The houses will be of the semi-detached variety, with two lots of ground of twenty feet each. The company will enter into an agreement with intending purchasers to erect houses of any size desired. Payments will be made monthly. Life insurance will be given with each purchase, thus preventing foreclosure.

THE SUGAR BEET INDUSTRY. Considerable interest has of late years been aroused in various parts of the country in the sugar beet industry. The Agricultural Department has been devoting its attention to the matter and in a recent report on the subject it reviews the cost of manufacturing beet sugar. Of the 113 factories in Germany the net average profit for each factory for the past year was $32,240. Firstclass beets usually sell for $5 a ton. The Western Beet Sugar Company of Wa-

terville, Cat., states that in the season of 1888-89 the cost of manufacturing its output was $80.80 per ton of sugar. It is believed by the Department that with modern machinery and the latest methods that beet sugar can be made in this country at from 3 to 4 cents a pound from beets purchased at $5 a ton. The cost of erecting and equipping a beet sugar factory in Europe, with a capacity of 300 tons of beets a day, is about $200,000. Such a factory, it is estimated, would cost $250,000 in the United States. The Department advocates the introduction of the co-operative methods of beet sugar manufacture, now so successful in Europe, into the United States. Seven beet sugar factories are now shown to be in operation in this country, and four others are building or contemplated. The rate of increase in sugar consumption for twenty-three years has been 278 per cent, in the United States, 142 in France, 159 in Germany, 107 in Austria, amd 90 in England.

THE ENGLISH BUTTER TRADE. The new Secretary of Agriculture, Mr. Wilson, thinks the dairy farmers of the United States should organize and adopt practical measures to secure control of the butter market of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Figures in Mr. Wilson's possession show that the 38,000,000 people who compose the population of the United Kingdom, are the greatest butter eaters in the world. In addition to the home production of butter they annually import an average of 269,843.549 pounds for which they pay an average of $62.302,777. In 1896 they run the totals up to 340,250,064 pounds for which they paid a total of $741671,980- They also import an average of 131,941,443 pounds of oleomargarine annually. The increased consumption of butter in Great Britain is remarkable and presents an unlooked for market for American produce. Most of the British butter supply at present comes from Denmark, and Danish cows are fed with American corn. Corn is shipped from Baltimore to Copenhagen for 8 cents a bushel and sold there for 36 cents a bushel. It is argued'that this is a clear loss to the American farmer of several cents a bushel because of the doubling of transportation charges. American butter is rated at the bottom of the London market, the latest quotation being 16.5c per pound, while Danish butter brings 23.8c per pound. The quality of American butter must be improved before any substantial changes can be effected in the English butter trade.

THE WORLD'S COMMERCE. The Bureau of Statistics of the State Department has just received from the printer the annual "Review of the World's Commerce," a volume introductory to the commercial relations o( .the United States with foreign count tries. This-little volume is full of figures giving in compact form a great deal of information that must be of value to persons interested in the export trade, as it is easy to ascertain from its pages the state of our trade relations with any country in the world. An interesting feature of the publication is an introduction by Frederic Emory, chief of the Bureau of Statistics of the State

Department, summarizing certain of the more important sections of the volume. Mr. Emory says the figures he gives establishes the significant fact that the foreign trade of the United States last year showed a steady increase in the export of manufactured goods, the percentage of such exports rising from 24.33 Per

ccnt-

i" !895 to 25.71 per cent,

last year. Meanwhile the percentage of agricultural exports declined slightly, from 67.58 to 67.38. Mr. Emory finds additional confirmation of the relatively rapid advance of the foreign trade cf the United States in some figures presented to the British Parliament by the British Board of Trade, showing that, while Great Britain still retains her lead over other countries in the exports of manufactures, the United States is advancing at a more rapid pdee than the mother country, and that that advance was larger in amount and much larger in proportion than the advance made by Germany.

A Question of Disc Ipllno.

A

German was boasting in tho presence of some Russians about the obedience and discipline of tho German army, citing numerous instances from the war between France and Germany. "Gentlemen," replied one of tho Russians, "what you say about tho discipline in the German army amounts to nothing at all whe-n compared with what occurs continually in the Russian army. But I will merely recite one instance of what occurred at the beginning of tho reign of the Czar Nicholas, when tho discipline in the Russian army was comparatively lax. At that time, before the telegraph was discovered, tho Russians used signal stations, which were a few miles apart. Tho soldier made the signal which was repeated by the soldier at the next station, and thus the news was convoyed thousands of miles. "One day a soldier at a station near St.. Petersburg did not see the signal in time, and, dreading tho punishment that awaited him for negligence, deliberately hanged himself on tho signal tower. The soldier at tho next station mistook this for a signal, so ho deliberately but promptly hanged himself, also. In consequence of tho discipline which prevails in tho Russian army, next day it was discovered that all the soldiers at the signal stations from St. Petersburg to Warsaw had hanged themselves ou their signal towers. Of course, a much stricter discipline prevails at present, and ••That will do," replied the German, 'J give it up."—Texas Sittings.

John Huxford's Hiatus.

BT A. CONAN DOYLB

CHAPTER I.

Strange it is and wonderful to mark how upon this planet of ours the smallest and most insignificant of events set a train of consequences in motion which act and react until their final results are portentious and incalculable. Set a force rolling, however small, and who can say where it shall end, or what it may lead to? Trifles develop into tragedies, and the bagatelle of one day ripens into the catastrophe of the next. An oyster throws out a secretion to surround a grain of sand, and so a pearl comes into being a pearl-diver .fishes it up, a merchant buys it and sells it to a jeweler who disposes of it to a customer. The customer is robbed of it by two scoundrels who quarrel over the booty. One slays the other and perishes himself upon the scaffold. Here is a direct chain of events with a sick mollusk for its first link, and a gallows for its last one. Had that grain of sand not chanced to wash in between the shells of the bivalve, two living, breathing beings, with all their potentialities for good and for evil, would not have been blotted out from among their fellows. Who shall judge what is really small and what is great?

Thus, when in the year 1812 Don Diego Salvador bethought him that if it paid the heretics in England to import the bark of his cork oaks, it would pay him also to found a factory by which the corks might be cut and sent out ready made, surely at first sight no very vital human interests would appear to be affected. Yet, there were poor folks who would suffer, and suffer acutelv— womet. who would weep and men who would become sallow and hungry-look-ing and dangerous in places of which the Don had never heard—and all on account of that one idea which had flashed across him as he strutted, cigarettiferous, beneath the grateful shadow of his limes. So crowded is this old globe of ours, and so interlaced our interests, that one cannot think a new thought without some poor devil being the better or worse for it.

Don Diego Salvador was a capitalist, and the abstract thought soon took the concrete form of a great square plastered building wherein a couple of hundred of his swarthy countrymcn worked, with deft, nimble fingers, at a rate of pay which 110 English artisan could have accepted. Within a few months the result of this new competition was an abrupt fall of prices in the trade, which was serious /or the largest firms and disastrous for the smaller ones. A few old-established houses held on as they were, others reduced their establishments and cut down their expenses, while one or two put up their shutters and confessed themselves beaten. In this last category was the ancient and respected firm of Fairbrain Brothers of Brisport.

It was a murky, foggy Saturday afternoon in November when the hands were paid for the last time, and the old building was to be finally abandoned. Mr. Fairbrain, an anxious-faced, sor-row-worn man, stood on a raised dais by the cashier while he handed the little pile of hardly-earned shillings and coppers to each successive workman as the long procession filed past his table. It was usual with the employes to clatter away the instant that they had been paid, like so many children let out

0s

school but today they waited, forming little groups over the great dreary room, and discussing in subdued voices the misfortune which had come upon their employers and the future which awaited themselves. When the last pile of coins had been handed across the table. and the last name checked by the cashier, the whole throng faced round to the man who had been their master, and waited for any words which he might have to say to them.

Mr. Charles Fairbrain had not expected this, and it embarrassed him. He had waited as a matter of routine duty until the wages were paid, but he was a,taciturn, slow-witted man, and he had not foreseen this sudden call upon his oratorical powers. He stroked his thin cheek nervously with his long, white fingers. "I am sorry that we have to part, my men," he said at last in a crackling voice. "It's a bad day for all of us, and for Brisport too. For three years we have been losing money over the works. We held on in the hope of a change coming, but matters are going from bad to worse. There's nothing for it but to give it up before the balance of our fortune is swallowed up. I hope you may all be able to get work of some sort before very long. Good-by, and God bless you!" "God bless you, sir! God bless you!" cried a chorus of rough voices. "Three cheers for Mr. Charles Fairbrain!" shouted a bright-eyed, smart young fellow, springing up upon a bench and waving his peaked cap in the air. The crowd responded to the call, but their huzzas wanted the true ring which only a joyous heart can give. Then they began to flock out into the sunlight, looking back as they went at the long deal tables and the cork-strewn floor—above all at the sad-faced, solitary man whose cheeks were flecked with color at the rough cordiality of their farewell. "Huxford," said the cashier, touching on the shoulder the young fellow who had led the cheering, "the governor wants to speak to you."

The workman turned back and stood swinging his cap awkwardly in front of his ex-employer, while the crowd pushed on until the doorway was clcar, and the heavy fog-wreaths rolled into the deserted factory. "Ah, John!" said Mr. Fairbrain, coming suddenly out of his reverie and taking up a letter from the table. "You have been in my service since you were a boy, and you have shown that you merited the trust which I have placed in you. From what I have heard, I think I'm right in saying that this sudden want of work will affect your plans more than it will many of my other hands." "I was to be married at Shrovetide," the man answered, tracing a pattern upon the table with his horny forefinger. "I'll have to find work first." "And work, my poor fellow, is by no means easy to find. You see you have been in this groove all your life, and

are unfit for anything else. It's true you've been my foreman, but even that won't help you, for the factories all over England are discharging hands, and there's not a vacancy to be had. It's a bad outlook for you and such as you." "What would you advise, sir?" asked John Huxford. "That's what I was coming to. I have a letter here from Sheridan & Moore, of Montreal, asking for a good hand to take charge of a workroom. If you think it will suit you, you can go out by the next boat. The wages are far in excess of anything 1 have been able to give you." "Why, sir, this is real kind of you," the young workman said earnestly. "She—my girl—Mary, will be as grateful to you as I am. I know what you say is right, and that if I had to look for work I should be likely to spend the little that I have laid by toward housekeeping, before I found it. But, sir, with your leave, I'd like to speak to her about it before I made up my mind. Could you leave it open for a few hours?" "The mail goes out tomorrow," Mr. Fairbrain answered. "If you decide to accept, you can write tonight. Here is their letter, which will give you their address."

John Huxford took the precious paper with a grateful heart. An hour ago his future had been all black, but now this rift of light had broken in the west, giving promise of better things. He would have liked to say something expressive of his feelings to his employer, but the English nature is not effusive, and he could not get beyond a few choking, awkward words which were as awkwardly received by his benefactor. With a scrape and a bow, he turned on his heel and plunged out into the foggy street.

So thick was the vapor that the houses over the way were only a vague loom, but the foreman hurried on with springy steps through side streets and winding lanes, past walls where the fishermen's nets were drying and over cob-ble-stoned alleys redolent of herring, until he reached a modest line of whitewashed cottages fronting the sea. At the door of one of these the young man tapped, and then, without waiting for a response, pressed down the latch and walked in.

An old silvery-haired woman and a young girl hardly out of her teens were sitting on either side of the fire, and the latter sprang to her feet as he entered. "You've got some good news, John," she cried, putting her hands upon his shoulders, and looking into his eyes. "I can tell it from your step. Mr. Fairbrain is going to carry on, after all." "No, dear, not so good as that," John Huxford answered, smoothing back her rich, brown hair "but I have an offer of a place in Canada, with good money, and if you think as I do, I shall go out to it, and you can follow with the granny whenever I have made all straight at the other side. What say*you, lass?" "Why. surely, John, what you think is right must be for the best," said the girl quietly, with trust and confidcnce in her pale, plain face and loving hazel eyes. "But poor granny, how is she to cross the seas?" "Oh, never mind about me," the old woman broke in cheerfully. "I'll be no drag on you. If you want'granny, granny's not too old to travel and if you don't want her, why, she can look after the cottage, and have a home ready for you whenever, you turn back to the old country." "Of course we shall need you, granny," John Huxford said, with a cheery laugh. "Fancy leaving granny behind! That would never do, Mary! But if yoii both come out, and if we are married all snug and proper at Montreal, we'll look through the whole city until we find a house something like this one, and we'll have creepers on the outside just the same, and when the doors are shut and we sit round the fire on the winter's nights, I'm hanged if we'll be able to tell that we're not at home. Besides, Mary, it's the same speech out there, and the same king, and the same flag it's not like a foreign country." "No, of cours^ not," Mary answered, with conviction. She was an orphan, with no living relation, save her old grandmother, and no thought in life but to make a helpful and worthy wife to the man she loved. If John went to Canada, Canada became home to her. "I'm to write tonight, then, and accept?" the young man asked. "I knew you woul^ both be of the same mind as myself, but, of course, I couldn't close with the offer until we had talked it over. I can get started in a week or two, and then in a couple of months I'll have all ready for you on the other side." "It will be a weary, weary time until we hear from you, dear John," said Mary, clasping his hand, "but it's God's will and we must be patient. Here's pen and ink. You can sit at the table and write the letter which is to.takc the three of us across the Atlantic."

The acceptance was duly dispatched, and John Huxford began immediately to prepare for his departure, for the Montreal firm had intimated that the vacancy was a certainty, and that the chosen man might come out without delay to talk over his duties. In a very few days his scanty outfit was completed, and he started off in a coasting-ves-sel for Liverpool, where he was to catch the passenger ship for Quebec. "Remember, John," Mary whispered, as he pressed her to his heart upon the Brisport quay, "the cottage is our own, and come what may we have always that. If things should cliancc to turn out badly over there, we have always a roof to cover us. There you will find me until you send word to us to come." "And that will be very soon, my lass," he answered cheerfully with a last embrace. "Good-by, granny, good-by." The ship w«s a mile or more from land before he lost sight of the figures of the straight, slim girl and her old companion who stood watching and waving to him from the end of the gray stone quay. It was with a sinking heart and a vague feeling of impending disaster that he saw them at last as minute specks in the distance, walking townward and disappearing amid the crowd who lined the beach.

From Liverpool the old woman and her granddaughter received a letter from John, announcing that he was just starting in the bark St. Lawrence, and six weeks afterwards a "second epistle informed them of his safe arrival at Quebec, and gave them his first impressions

of the country. Alter that a long, unbroken silence set in. Week after week and month after month passed by, and never a word came from across the seas. A year went over their heads, and yet another, and no news of the absentee. Sheridan & Moore were written to, and replied that though John Huxford's letter had reached them, he had never presented himself, and they had been forced to fill up the vacancy as best they could. Still, Mary and her grandmother hoped against hope, and looked out for the letter-carrier every morning with such eagerness that the kindhearted man would often make a detour rather than pass the two pale, anxious faces which peered at him from the cottage window. At last, three years after the young foreman's disappearance, old granny died, and Mary was left alone, a broken, sorrowful woman, living as best she might on a small annuity which had descended to her, and eating her heart out as she brooded over the mystery of the fate of her lover.

Among the shrewd west-country neighbors there had long, however, ceased to be any mystery in the matter. Huxford arrived safely in Canada—so much was proved by his letter. Had he met with his end in any sudden way during the journey between Quebec and Montreal, there must have been some official inquiry, and his luggage would have sufficed to establish his identity. Yet the Canadian police had been communicated with and had returned a positive answer that 110 inquest had been held, or any body found which could by any possibility be that of the young Englishman. The only alternative appeared to be that he had taken the first opportunity to break all the old ties, and had slipped away to the backwoods or to the States to commence .life anew under an altered name. Hence, many a deep growl of righteous anger rose from the brawny smacksmen when Mary, with her pale face and sorrowsunken head, passed along the quays on her way to her daily marketing and it is more than likely that if the missing man had turned up in Brisport, fie might have met with some rough words or rougher usage, unless he could give some very good reason for his strange conducct. This popular view of the case never, however, occurred to the simple, trusting heart of the lonely girl, and as the years rolled by, her suspense was never for an instant tinged with a doubt as to the good faith of the missing man.

In the meantime, neither the opinion held by the minority that John Huxford was dead, nor that of the majority, which pronounced him to be faithless, represented the true state of the case.

Landing at Quchcc, with his heart full of hope and courage, John selected a dingy room in a back street, where the terms were less exorbitant than elsewhere, and conveyed thither the two boxes which contained his worldly goods. After taking up his quarters there, he had half a mind to change again, for the landlady and the fellowlodgers were by no means to his taste, but the Montreal coach started within a day or two, and he consoled himself by the thought that the discomfort would only last for that short time. Having written home to Mary to announce his safe arrival, he employed himself in seeing the town, walking about all day, and only returning to his room at night.

It happened, however, that the house on which the unfortunate youth had pitched was one which was notorious for the character of its inmates. He had been directed to it by a pimp, who found regular employment in hanging about the docks and decoying newcomers to this den. From the few words which John let drop, the landlady gathered that he was a stranger without a single friend in the country to inquire after him should misfortune overtake him.

The house had an evil reputation for the hocusing of sailors, which was done not only for the purpose of plundering them, but also to supply outgoing ships with crews, the men being*carried on board insensible, and not coming tQ until the ship was well down the St. Lawrence. This trade caused the wretches who followed it to be experts in the use of stupefying drugs, and they determined to practice their arts upon their friendless lodger, so as to have an opportunity of ransacking his effects, and of seeing what it might fye worth their while'to purloin. During the day he invariably loe'red his door and carried off the key in his pocket, but if they could render him insensible for the night, they could examine his boxes at their leisure, and deny afterward that he had ever brought with him the articles which he missed. It happened, therefore, upon th» eve of Huxford's departure from Quebec, that he found, upon returninc

:s

dgings. that his land­

lady and her two ill-favored sons, who assisted her in her trade, were waiting up for him over a bowl of punch, which they cordially invited him to share. It was a bitterly cold night, and the fragrant steam overpowered any suspicions which the young Englishman may have entertained, so he drained off a bumper, and then, retiring to his bedroom, threw himself upon the bed without undressing, and fell straight into a dreamless slumber, in which he still lay when the three conspirators crept into his chamber, and opening his boxes, began to investigate his effects.

It may have been that the speedy action of the drug causcd its effects to be evanesccnt, or, perhaps, that the strong constitution of the victim threw it off with unusual rapidity. Whatever the cause, it is certain that John Huxford suddenly came to himself, and found the foul trio squatted round their booty, which they were dividing into the two categories of what was of value and should be taken, and what was valueless and might therefore be left. With a bound he sprang out of bed, and seizing the fellow nearest him by the collar, lie slung him through the open doorway. His brother rushed at him. but the young Devonshircman met him with such a facer that he dropped in a heap upon the ground. Unfortunately the violence of the blow caused him to overbalance himself, and tripping over his prostrate antagonist, he came down heavily upon his face. Before lie could rise, the old hag sprang upon his back and clung to him, shrieking to her son to bring the poker. John managed to shake himself clear of them both, but before he could-stand on his guard he

-A¥"

was felled from behind by

a

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blow from an iron bar, which strelh him senseless.

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him senseless. "You've hit too hard, Joe,"

saif

old woman, looking down at tho trate figure. "I heard the bone

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"If I hadn't fetched him down, he'd ha been too many for us," said tl young villiam sulkily.

lllt

"Still, you might ha' done it wit), killing him,.clumsy," said his

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She had. had a large experience of tji scenes, and knew the difference bctiw a stunning blow and a fatal one "He's still breathing," the other siid examining him "the back o' his like a bag o' dice, though. The ski.iv all splintered. He can't last. What! we to do?"

atare

"He'll never come to himself again" the other brother remarked. "sar', hhn right. Look at my face! Let'* see, mother who's in the house?"

"Only four drunk sailors."

5

"They wouldn't turn out for noise It's all quiet in the street. Let's carnr him down a bit, Joe, and leave him can die there, and no one think the worse of us."

"Take all the papers out of his pocket then," the mother suggested: "they might help the police to trace him. His watch, too, and his money—three pound odd—better than nothing. Now, carry him softly, and don't slip."

Kicking off their shoes, the two brothers carried the dying man downstairs and along the deserted street for a couplc of hundred yards. There they laid him on the snow, where he was found by the night patrol, who carried him on a shutter to the hospital. He was duly examined by the resident surgeon, who bound up the wounded head but gave it as his opinion that the man would not live twelve hours.

To be continued.)

SAMSON.

Some Feats Performed by the Strongest Man on Earth. There are many Delilahs, says the Pall Mall Budget, but only one Samson, ind ho is performing at tho Royal Aquarium at present, where his feats of strength arc certainly of an original and marvelous character. The spectator, as he watches, fools that it is better to be friendly with such a man. With a blow of his list he breaks an iron chain that will boar a pressure o( !5,000 pounds. With two hands grasping a short chain of -2,000 pounds ascertained pressure, he makes a momentary effort and pulls the chain to bits, and iu what seems the most wonderful feat—namely, fastening two tight iron chain bracelets or jirmlets round his biceps—the spectator may view the process from beginning to end. One hears the strong man take a Ion breath, sees the muscles of his arms ITrowing bigger and bigger, the cords of his neck swelling with tho sustained effort, his face crimsoning, and then, in the silence, those nearest the stage can hear a curious little sundering snap it is tho double chain armlet thai has broken, and that tho next moment falls rattling to the floor. When Samson's fist is clinched and he is ready to strike the measurement of iiis upper arm around biceps and triceps is nineteen and ahulf inches, which, wo ia casually remark, is considered a tolerable waist for a young lady.

Among some of his minor feats—if ouch displays can be called minor— Samson took a penny piece from one"' the audience and at one trial bent it with his fingers as one may bend a railway ticket, held it up to view for a second, and then deliberately broke it in halves and returned the pieces to the owner. Avery little practice wiil convince amateurs of the hopelessness of breaking pennies with linger ana thumb. The strong man next bent a four-foot iron gas-piprf around bis neck and cheerfully straightened it again by repeated blows

011

his left

arm, such ar being for the nonce a species of anvil. Fourteen men came upon the stage, by invitation to pull against him, but Samson, not decmin? them enough, or sizing up their athletic capabilities with a professional eye, expressed a wish for four moreThese men he divided into nine a side, the two sides nearly a width of a raans stretch apart, and each side being provided with and grasping a strong and lengthy iron rod. Before placing himself between them, Samson stimulated their ardor by promising £100 10 them if ho failed to move them, and apparently there was a grateful determination on the men's faces to win the pourboiro. Then there was a short sharp struggle tho men held their ground for a brief space, were pulled together, and tho next moment thrust apart, aud finally, swaying a* they went, were carried away by t"e intensity of one straining man in their midst.

Sams .1 is a man of 31, of Frepel origin, a native of Alsace-Lorraine-lie comes to us from Amoriea and tlu' is his first appearance in England. 1.0 years of age ho entered the circus Ranz as an athlete and pulled again: horses and elephants at 18 he commenced to wrestle and from that time till the present he has left means whereby he can maintaintrain, and develop his extraordnW') strength.

A Northern Pacific Coal Company has discovered anew vein in W asj1' ington State which is the most valuable one yet encountered. It measures eight feet in the clear, and t" coal is of the best quality. The mi" has a capacity of 55,000 touu

Mrs. William Stupp, of Betheldiscovered a large house

snai

ecoi

up in the second story of be the other day, and Charles 1 JOVCI, Earlville, lately found another same species in bis garret, were killed before they did damage.

The acme of incongruity was reac ed at a recent church fair West. One of tho features was grab bag, and among the tho bag was a sliDC-t" paper on were the words,''Good for one g' Will bo dug and .time during the suijwr "ear. John Smith- ijestoo-