Decatur Democrat, Volume 38, Number 17, Decatur, Adams County, 13 July 1894 — Page 7

©he democrat b djecjltum, uro. **•- W, BLACKBURN, . ■• • PCTMCT—■ Don’t depend on conciliating the elephant with a single peanut A Cincinnati preacher saysjhe is tired of the Republic and wants a king. Os what suit? Josh Billings says: “When a feller gfts a-goin* down bill, ltduz seem ez tho’ everything had been greased for the okashun.” 5 A south Dakota man has raised a horse that has eight perfect hoots. As he is a horsesboer himself the affliction is not as great as it might ba > It should be said for the Chicago hotelkeepers that they did not raise their rgtes when they heard that the World’s Fair in Antwerp had opened. A Detroit newspaper man wants the stars and stripes used as a design for a new 2-cent stamp. Evidently he wants Old Glory on everybody's tongue. mi -I— 1' 1- '-■UM Chicago boasts that she packed 12, Oro, 000 bogs last years, and, of course, a great many got away. A prosperous Chicago man makes a great deal of money by bis pen. There is something akin to a boom in gold mining. The fact should not. be lost sight of that where one mine succeeds hundreds fail, and that considering the failures, more money has been nut in than has been taken out of mining operations tn many cases. •w—niarrv tne r icnesune, t caD v. Ms time that he would be Prime Sinister, ’and that he would win the Derby. If we wait until we have more than we want before beginning to give, we shall d e without giving; but, if we give out our scanty portion to those whose need is greater than ours, we shall live asglvers,and shall en’oy living. The man who gives only from his surplus never Knows the real joy of giving. It is now cia med that great and elaborate weddings discourage marriage and it is said that certain young ladies have given a negative answer because they could see no prospect of as brilliant a wedding as some of their acquaintances have had. But they should remember that the quietest weddings sometimes are followed by the happiest married lives. Hospital physicians having caused a deep sleep to fall upon an Irish patient deprived him of seven patches of hide for the benefit of a peeled Frenchman in an adjacent Ward. The process of skinning a man alive had heretofore been regarded as figurative, and its status in law, to be established through a suit brought by the Irishman, will be watched with interest. It a mancannot control the disposition of his own cuticle human rights are narrowing to an imperceptible point As the season approaches when the musical mosquito tunes up and prepares his artesian bore with which to play a skin game on mankind, it is well to remember that by sprinkling crude petrolem on neighboring ponds and marshes you can prevent their evolution. Petroleum on the surface probably doesn’t prevent the hatching of the larvae in the water, but “shuts off their wind” when they sticK up their tails for breath. Keep It dark or the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals may prevent this prevention. New Jersey’s legislators have acted very sensibly in passing a law which will curb the bumptiousness of the “faith curists.” Other States should hasten to follow this excellent example. It necessary, a list of -the ogees in which mere faith has allowed (finocent people to die when medicine br surgery would have cured them might be prepared. Any Legislature would be ready to vote down the quackery five minutes after reading this list This is a civilized age, and tolerant of almost everything. But it should not tolerate the stupidity which kills, and New Jersey leads the way in pointing this moral Among the funny things we see when we look over our exchanges is the report of a Buckeye State woman whose bump of economy, phrenologlcally speaking, must be large, and her utilitarian virtue on a par with it She made use of her phthisical and. feverish husband during eight weeks before his death, when he was prostrate and feeble, to ificufefttfi

forty-six eggs Into lively young chicks by placing them In cotton batting by the side of his body. The chickens so raised might acquire tuberculosis and Impart its germs to the unsuspecting victims of a relish for “broilers” we urge each State to pass a law right away against this mode of incubating before it shall become a common custom. Every day the great city furnishes wonderful and pathetic pictures which illustrate the strange turns of Fortune’s wheel One Saturday a white-haired, trembling old man went to tho Tombs carrying a paper bag of bananas as a friendly offering toErastus Wlman, awaiting sentence In his cell Years ago, it was the white-haired, trembling old man who was the prisoner—in Ludlow Street Jail—under the odious law of imprisonment for debt, and Erastus Wlman was the visitor and comforter, and the prime mover in the reform which brought about the old man’s deliverance. Round and round turns the giddy wheel, and men still pursue the flying phantom perched upon its rim, without thinking of danger until it is upon them! There is a thrifty sort of woman who cannot bear to admit that a thing is worn out She will spend two hours of precious time and ten dollars’ worth of eyesight working on a garment in order that it may be worn one more week, or in trying to rejuvenate bed linen, handkerchiefs,, and similar articles that when they once begin to give way are good for nothing, and in which the first symptom of dissolution is a sign of their ripeness for the ragbag. Hosiery with holes as large as a silver half Jpllar are not worth mending, since the remaining fabric, after such hard service, must be on tin point of yieldThe hours idevote? to such work would be more wisely employed in resting.- Life is short, | and theWfc. of articles continually decaying is exceedingly long. The mine-owners around Birmingham, Ala., as well as in Tennessee, incensed at the violent conduct ■of the Hun, Slav, and Italian miners, are rapidly suppling their places with negro miners, who are more than eager and willing to go to work. The same substitution has taken place largely in West Virginia and to a certain extent in the mines of Pennsylvania. When these alien miners struck and began their incendiary work many operators set blacks to work in their places, and they did so well that now they are not only retaining them but adding to their numbe.s. This will compel these aliens to come North and seek for work with little prospect of finding it, as the mines will soon be running with their old ope atiyes. It is more than likely, therefore, that many of these fellows will have to go back to the countries whence they came if they can raise the passage money. They will find |that they have overdone the business and struck themselves out of a job. 'the sooner they get home the better. Their absence will not be in the nature of a public calamity. The season is at hand in which the farmer will put in twelve or fifteen hours a day at work, and see that every hand on the farm does the same. He will hardly stop during that time long enough to eat his food properly, and take no time to either read or think. Is this good policy? Is it either wise, prudent, dr profitable? The women in the house will be compelled to work hours longer tha n the men outside. Will that pay? Some of these are mothers, and have duties and responsibilities as such, which, if found in any kind of stock, would justify a relief from work. Surely the farmer will not overwork his wife more than he would his stock, or himself to a point where thinking is out of the question, and planning impossible. The average farmer, however, will aim at nothing short of getting the work done, no matter how or what the consequences, so long as it is done. It is a foolhardy policy. It will not pay either in money or health. Let us take time to think, to read, to plan, and to live. There are duties in these regards that we owe to ourseves, our wives, our progeny, and our success that are not met with in brute force. The Ideal and'the Real. “And all these poems of June," she said, “do they flow from your soul?” “No, madam, ” replied Bradby. “It is simply hard work. What you rega d as poetic inspiration is simply a matter of poetic perspiration.”— Washington Star. An appropriate motto for a Senate committee room: “Who enters here loaves wap Wad.”

A SONG OF HER. Would life have one joy to blew— Sweetl without thia golden tress! Could there be a rose to shine Redder than these lips of thine! Golden tresses, gleam for me! Llpe—a rose for my lips be! Beams a light in any skies Brighter—lovelier than thine eyes! Could there be a dove’s dim breast Softer than this hand caressed! Dearest eyes, still brightly shine! White hand, keep this kiss of mine! —[Atlanta Constitution. fl Promise Under Stress. The Comtesse de Moncley—who will soon change her name, as you shall see—is one of the most delicious widows imaginable, and also one of the cleverest I have ever met. From the very first day she knew precisely how to avoid any exaggeration that could be considered bad taste in the expression of her sorrow, without falling into the other extreme and making those who saw her ip her widow’s weeds think she must wear red satin under her crape. Early In April she had quietly left her Paris apartment, where no male visitor had set foot since her husband’s death, and it was only by accident that, a week later, I discovered the address she had so carefully concealed from everyone. It was “Sycamore Villa, Chantilly.” On the first of May there might have been seen to arrive at a little bit of a house, situated at a convenient distance from Sycamore Villa, several trunks, an English cart and pony, a saddle horse, a bull-terrier, two servants, and man bordering on thirty. That man was myself. I hasten to add that, in this circumstance, I acted solely at my own risk and peril, without authorization, any right whatever, and with no other motive than my love—my profound love—to prompt me to hope that my change of domicile would not be a dead loss. Ah, well—nothing venture, nothtouwh iHBH* ui! w iiuu ‘uw* spend ortunes to follow to the ends of the world adventuresses whose whole body was not worth the tip of Mme. de Moncley’s little finger. Clarisse’s pretty anger when I presented myself at her house, on the day of my arrival, was my first delightful recompense. In spite of her grand air, I saw that she was touched, and I doubt if ever lover experienced so much pleasure in being shown tho door by a pretty woman. She book her time about it, too, and only pushed me into the street after a regulation phillippic, to, which I listened very humbly, replying only so much as was necessary to lengthen the lecture, which concluded in these words: “And now do me the favor to return to Paris. The train leaves in an hour.” “An hour!” I objected, timidly. “That is hardly time to ship two horses and a carriage and throw up a Icftso * 1 “What is this!” she cried. “A lease! You have presumed to—go, sir! What audacity I A lease! And, if you please, where is your house ?” “A long distance from here,” I hastened to reply; ‘ ‘at the other end of the forest. lam sure it must have taken me fully three-quarters of an hour to come herq,” To be precise, it had taken ipe about five minutes. “To think,” she exclaimed, “what a poor woman, deprived of her protector, is exposed to! You would not have dared to do this if my husband were still alive. And to think that he considered you his best friend 1 Poor Charles!” “He has never had any cause to complain,” I murmured. “Let us talk together of him.” “Never!” “Then let us talk of ourselves, thatiWill be better still.” This suggestion shocked her so that it took me a long time to calm her. Finally, she did not wish to let me go without having sworn never to set foot in her house again. It is needless to say that it took half an hour to persuade me to make this promise —which I broke the next morning and as often as possible. I pass over the months that followed, merely declaring that in this vale of tears there is no more happy lot than that of such an unhappy lover as I was. Clarisse had the most adorable* way of annihilating me with a look from her blue eyes—eyes that were intended for quite another purpose than annihilating —whenever she saw that I was going to fall on my knees before her, and I must confess she saw it at least ten times during every visit I made her, still in despite of her express prohibition. The day she left off crape I profited by the occasion—naturally enough, it seems to me—to propose myself in set terms as a candidate to succeed poor Charles. That evening, it was a June evening, and the acacias made the most of the power which certain vegetables possess of intoxicating one with their perfume—that evening her hand reached for the bell. Claries* did not threaten this time, she acted. I saw that I was on the point of being put out by her servants — who consisted of an old woman who had been her nurse, and whom I could have bowled over with a breath, However, it was no time for airy persiflage. Without waiting for Nancy to seize me by the collar, I took my hat and fled.

When day broke I had , not closed my eyes; not that the situation seemed desperate, for I had learned to read Clarisse’s eyes. But, all night Jong I had repeated over and over again to myself: “Heaven grant that the little hotel in the Avenue Friedland is still for sale! We would be so comfortable there.” In spite of this I was no further advanced when September came, the last month of my lease. I was no longer shown the door when I suggested my candidacy, but Clarisse assumed a bored air and calmly talked of something else. Between ourselves, I would rather she rung the bell,’for I divined that she was thinking: “My dear friend, you do not displease me; quite the contrary. But you must confess that, in the solitude of Chantilly I have scarcely had , opportunity to enjoy my widowhood. Let me see if it is really worthy of its reputation. In a year ; or two we can talk of your affair.” In a year or two! Pretty and ’ charming as she was, Clarisse would have a score of adorers around her, and adorers around the woman one wants to marry are like flies in the milk; they may do no great harm, but they certainly do not improve the milk. i Early in September Mme. de Mon- i cley informed me one day that she 1 was going to Paris on the morrow to i have a look at her apartment. i “I sincerely hope,” she added, in a severe tone, “thatyoudo not think i of accompanying me.” ’ “How can you suggest such a 1 thing?” said I, with apparent sub- i mission. “You leave at ” < “At eight in tho evening, as Ido 1 not wish to be seen. I shall send < Nancy in the afternoon to prepare i my room. Ah, poor Paris!” 1 She no longer said “Poor Charles I” 1 I admit that this “Poor Parisi” 1 made me much more uneasy. 1 The next evening, at eigbto’clock, i the doors of the express train, which ] stops hardly a minute, were already i closed. Clarisse had not appeared. ] ■ 1 T"/ h 2 d V™ .station iust as the i But instead of getting in, sue ran * back, almost fainting, in my arms. Here is what she had seen, and I, too, had seen over her shoulder: The seats of the compartment were unoccupied, and three men, perched like monkeys on the back of the seats, held to their shoulders three guns, whereof the barrels shone in the lamplight like cannons.. One of them, as we opened the door, had shouted in a terrible voice: “Don’t come in, for ” I had closed the door so quickly that we had not heard the end of the sentence. Then Clarisse and I bundled ourselves into the next compartment without quite knowing what we were doing. The train was already under way. We were alone. Mme. de Moncley seemed half dead with fear, and I must confess I was violently shaken. “Did you see them?” she cried. “What can be happening in that compartment? They are going to fight—to kill each other I What terrible tragedy is to be enacted right beside us?” “I don’t understand it at all,” I replied. “Only one explanation seems possible to me. They are hunters who have suddenly gone crazy. Otherwise, why should they climb upon the seats? If they simply wanted to kill each other, they could do it without all that gymnastics.” , “No,” suggested Clarisse, “it is some dreadful American kind of duel. In such a case, it seems, they climb up on anything they can find. But why didn’t they stop them at Chantilly?” “The train itself scarcely stopped there.” “Did you hear how they called out ‘Don’t come in I’ ? The wretches, they don’t want to be disturbed while they are killing themselves. Goodness! Just listen 1” The fusillade had commenced right beside us. Several gun-shots had sounded, dominated by a shrill, piercing cry, which still rings in my ears. Then a deathly silence ensued; they were all dead, however bad shots they might have been. Though we were making about fifty miles an hour at the time, I made ready to get out upon the step and find out what was going on in our neighbor’s compartment. As I lowered the window two arms seized me and a voice broken with anguish—but which sounded very sweet, just the same —gasped behind me : “Philip, if you love me, do not go! They will kill you!” I saw the advantage of my situation, and I resolved to profit by it. I profited by it so well that, afer a dialogue too intimate to be repeated here, I was in a position to sing—if I had a voice, which I havn’t —“Thouou ha-ast said it.” For she had said it. Poor Charles was distanced now. She had said the i sweet words: “I love you.” , A prey to emotions bordering on the hysterical, Clarisse sobbed and clung ' to me with all her strength, though , I had not the faintest desire to in- ' trude on the massacre next door. As for me, I was very much occupied ; just then. That is why, early the next morn- > ing, I hurried to my lawyer to speak [ to him about the little hotel in the , Avenue Friedland, which was still • fojf sale, but thank fortune, is now r no longer in the market. Decorators r and furnishers are at work in it, and when January comes, you will see it d

occupied by a certain young cwuple that I know of. But let us not anticipate. When the train pulled into the city, my companion and I had quite forgotten our neighbors, or what was left of them; but now the authorities must be informed and the bodies removed. I had jdtnped out and was looking for a sergeant de ville, when I beheld the door of famous compartment open and the three hunters calmly descend from it, carrying, rolled up in a rug, an inert mass which looked as if it might bo the body of a young child. Without an instant’s hesitation, I seized one of the assassins by the collar. “Scoundrel I” I cried. “What have you got in that rug!” “Don’t make such a row,” he replied, “or we’ll have a hundred people at our backs. It is only my poor ■ dog.” “Dog!” I repeated, indignant at the man’s coolness. “Come, come, you cannot deceive me. I saw it all.” , My captive, whom I still held by the collar, opened a corner of the rug and showed me a setter’s muzzle with flecks of foam on it dappled with blood. I dropped my hold on the niitai’s collar in the greatest “Really, I scarcely know how to apologize,” I said. “But, frankly, it is not astonishing that I should have been deceived —three men , crouching on the seats of the carriage and shooting “Still, the explanation is very simple. My dog was bitten three weeks ago. I had the wound cauterized, and thought the animal was saved. We had been hunting all day near Creil, but, no sooner were , we on the train than hydrophobia , developed and the animal began to ; snap at us. To attempt to put the i beast out was to tempt death, and there was nothing for it but for us j to climb up on the seats and shoot ■ the dog. We were not able to do so j until after we left Chantilly, for the poor brute had taken refuge under the seat. Finally, by calling it, I persuaded it to put its head out, , and then we shot it. I tell you, 01 me ffSSivssTTny. ■ ■" ~ •-* — : “Well, then,” she said, making’ a little face when I had told her story, “that doesn’t count. I take back what I said.” But at the same time she softly squeezed my arm with her own, and I saw in her eyes that “that” did “count.” —[From the French, in the Argonaut. Amateur Nursing. Blessed indeed is that household that knows not sickness and requires no nursing; but this is a blessing that in the natural course of events cannot continue. There are many women, excellent housekeepers in other respects, who know nothing about nursing or caring for the sick. Trained nurses are not always desirable, even whfn they can be afforded, and so we call attention to the fact that in this day of practical training some knowledge of nursing should be a part of every girl’s education. In acquiring knowledge that will be of value in the sick room, it is not necessary that anatomy, physiology and materia medica should be studied, though it will be conceded that some knowledge of these subjects may be of great use. The care of the sick, particularly when they are weak or petulant is in itself a most valuable art, and one which some have naturally, but which all can acquire. What can the sick eat, how should it be prepared, and how served? are questions of the greatest importance, for cooking for the sick is an entirely different thing from preparing food for the robust. It is not necessary to take a course in a training-school for nurses to acquire knowledge that will be of great use in this work. There are many books published on the subject, and these with sympathetic devotion will furnish all the information necessary. Youthful Criminals in Germany. A German 1 paper states that In consequence of the considerable increase in the number of youthful criminals in Germany between twelve and eighteen years of age, the imperial ministry of the interior of Berlin is contemplating the reofgariization of the compulsory education system. The government has in view the imitation of English institutions. All the German laws have the great fault that the interference of the authorpermitted only when a child has committed some crime, but they give no handle against morally debased children who are still free from crime. The number of youthful criminals has risen from 42,240 to 46,468—that is, ten per cent.—in one year.—[London News. Big Guns for Business Only. People always expect a big ship to fire her biggest guns on saluting. Big guns take big charges, which means big money. Consequently vessels use their secondary batteries, six-pound-ers and small ordnance when firing for politeness, and reserve their big guns for business. Moreover the life of these big guns is limited, a few hundred discharges exhausting their vitality and making them dangerous to those who serve them.- -[Boston Transcript. f More people die in spring than in any of the other seasons. One half the population of Mexico are full-blooded Indians.

LAUNDRY LORE. In Scotland Girls Still “Trssd Out" Soiled Clothos. The economy of laundries fs amazingly ancient; but, with tjie exception of the questionable boon of the introduction of machinery, which in Innumerable instances makes Irreparable havoc with valuable linen, washing is in many parts of the world carried on in precisely the same manner as it was 2000 or 3000 years ago. Says the London Telegraph: The Romans knew nothing about washing clothes at home, and their ladies were far better off than Nauslcaa, who, with her maidens, were not too proud to proceed to the nearest stream and do the family washing .The Romans wore their togas and tunics until those garments became intolerably grimy, and then they sent them to the fullers, who formed as important a corporation as many of our big laundries do at present. The remains of a “fullonia,” or laundry have been excavated at* Pompeii, and the walls are decorated with paintings minutely illustrating the various operations of washing. Boys and men are seen standing in tubs placed in narrow niches like sentry-boxes, for the purpose of purifying by treading with their feet the clothes beneath. As the ancients were not acquainted with the use of regular soap, they employed an alkaline mixture with which the grease contained in the clothes was combined, and by these means became dissolved. When the garments had been washed they were manipulated with a “card” or stiff brush, for the purpose of being rubbed up and given a nap, and the clothes were then stretched on heavy circular structures resembling crinoline skirts, to be exposed to ths fumes of brimstone. The carding out process is still practised in remote parts of the Scottish Highlands, where the well-soaped linen is placed in tubs in the open air and trodden “alternis pedibus” by long-limbed lasses. In Itaiy and in the south oi France the women take the linen down to the banks of the shallow and pebbly streams and beat it with a thick rope, which he beats with all his might with a stone, the consequence being that the linen is generally reduced to a state of tatters. It is quite possible that a similar system was adopted in England in Shakspeare’s time. It was in a buckbasket that Sir John Falstaff was conveyed to the Thames, and Mrs. Ford’s laundress, we know, lived at Datchet Mead, and in all probability took her customers’ clothes down to the river to beat before she washed them. » As to another old English custom connected with the laundry, it is not much more than a generation ago that it ceased in our midst. “Washing day,” and its concurrent discomfort, are frequently alluded to in Pepys’s “Diary,” and there must be many elderly persons who are able to recollect not only the weekly but the monthly wash. The.smaller articles were washed in the family washhouse once a week or once a fortnight, but the “grosser pieces,” sheets, tablecloths,' etc., were reserved for the monthly sacrifice to th® goddess ol cleanliness. In the meantime, however, another sacrifice had been made to the genius of dirt, a vast accumulation of foul linen being stored up for weeks in some “glory hole” to infect the entire premises. This feature of the wisdom of our ancestors has disappeared forever, but that which the public want at present is a little more conscientiousness and carefulness on the part, not only of .tlie big laundries, but of the smaller ones. These people should remember that the cost to the customer ol having his linen washed is year by year immense. A very serviceable shirt can be purchased for half a guinea, but, if a gentleman wears a clean shirt every day he will spend in washing that one article, at the rate of sixpence per shirt per diem, a little more than £9 per annum. Hood’s Famous Hoax. There is a very pretty story to the effect that the word *‘queer” came into our language through a hoax. I forget who the alleged perpetrators were —Thomas Hood, perhaps, but the story goes that a wager was made to the effect that the maker of it could set all London to talking within twenty-four hours. He accordingly had painted on fences, houses, sidewalks and all vacant spaces the letters “Q-U-E-E-R.” “Why, what is that?” everybody asked. And the response was that it was “queer.” It is a good story, and, perhaps, it is not fair to explode it by saying that our word “queer” comes directly from ,the German. —[Boston Home Journal. Farmer Schuette, of Chester, 111,, who recently took unto himself a charming wife, thought he could not afford to lose a litter of fine pigs, whose mother died and left them helpless _ orphans, so the two young economists constructed a pig-feeder —a trough with ten holes in it, one for each little grunter, and bottles with nipples attached, to fit, nipple down, through the openings. It required but little coaxing to teach the piggies where and how to obtain their lacteal nourishment almost as naturally as before the demise of their maternal parent. It is quite an amusing sight to watch the porcine babies when feeding time comes fighting over the choice of position, and grunting with satisfaction when their sides puff out as they imbibe their dinner.