Decatur Democrat, Volume 39, Number 33, Decatur, Adams County, 1 November 1895 — Page 7

democrat DECATUR, IND. t K. MUCXBUBM, ... Ptniim, Many a man wno nas soia we oia farm wishes he had possessed the sense to let well enough alone. After looking over the newspaper portraits of the Duke of Marlborough’s fiancee, we conclude that It serves him right It Is asserted that Kansas farmers are feeding their hogs on grasshoppers, and, If so, the pork market Is liable to J takea Jump. I In balancing our books we find that Bngland has left a silver cup worth 1860 on this side of the water and has takep a 110,000,000 heiress. The coffin trust Reports “business bad, bat the trade outlook brighter.” A Richmond, Va., man has Invented a machine which turns out 800 cigarettes a minute. 1 " 1 The Duke of Veragua always will be famous in this country for one celebrated charge he led. It Is still on the books of the Hotel Waldorf In New York. The Lancet says that the human body can be embalmed so as to Insure Identification three thousand years after death. That may be so. But who Is to do the Identification? Perhaps Lord Sackville labors under the Impression thtft by attacking our politicians he can in some way square up for Britain’s loss of most of the international contests this year. Pennsylvania pomes to the front with M a monster snake which swallows china nest eggs.” This Is probably due to the fact that some special correspondent down there swallows something worse than that The American young man should wait for the law of compensation to get In Its work. After the American heiresses have all become duchesses and been Impoverished by their lords and masters their titled daughters will take to marrying rich young American men. JfhViJfon Age says the quantity of fuel necessary "to produce Iron or steel i proaiiceS, wtlfe ifllVSyffiffrak f quiry jto uaMmi of metal. Os course, every alteration In the ratio lengthens out the distance from the coal mine at which the manufacture con be carried on at a profit, a fact which goes a long way towards explaining the recently noted tendency to remove the furnaces and the mills from the vicinity of the coal mines to the shores of the great lakes. The execution In Chicago.of a young man of 27 years, who began his career at the age of 9 and has been under sentence no less than 100 times in his short life, Is a striking and painful exampleof the force of environment. He was the child of a drunkard and had nothing but evil Influences about him from the start. He Is said not to have bad abnormally vicious tendencies, but simply to have drifted from one offense to another until murder completed his round of crime abd gave the Btatd an opportunity to rid Itself of a life which she had not succeeded In saving. Such careers are warnings to every community. “Butch” Lyons was the pupil of the streets and the Jails. At the Denver meeting of the American Public Health Association Dr. Hartsell, of the Ohio Board of Health, stated that four cities deposit annually 266,000 tons of garbage and 4,000 bodies of deceased animals In the Mississippi River, which also is a source of water supply to the cities along Its course. Pittsburg and Allegheny City, numbering half a million people, dump their garbage Into the Ohio River above Cincinnati, and the latter city, with Its 860,000 inhabitants, adds its garbage before the river reaches Louisville, below which It Joins the Mississippi. Fifty other cities and towns above Cairo do the same. So Chicago Is not the only city that pollutes the water supply of Itself and other places with Its sew- ' age. But all this pollution passes off rapidly into the atmosphere In an innocuous condition by the operations of nature. ' The production of borax now Is very large in the State of California. Its value amounts to more than a million dollars a year, and the cost of the article has been Immensely cheapened since the first small quantity was gathered there in 1860. Previous to that borax was too costly for general use; Now It is extensively employed as a cleansing material and as the best kind of preservative for perishable foods. It removes <|lrt effectively, doing so without damage to either clothing or cuticle, is a valuable medicine, and forms the base of most preservative and antiseptic compounds. The National Provlsloner calls attention to the value of borax in the export meat trade. Meats shipped In salt become more Impregnated with the saline matter while In transit, ifrlth the result of a deterioration in value. But when dipped in a solution of borax they retain their original moisture without taking in any atmospheric burden, and without any Impairment of taste or flavor. Meats fully cured and then packed in borax may be hold over for a considerable HBf Jy, the consigns** VbA&ife&i&JL A* it? ‘

probability of a rise in prices, and this without any extra risk of shrinkage, loss of-color, or fear of their being impregnated with too much salt The manufncture of boric acid Is increasing rap Idly. Boric add is a white powder, destitute of smell, and having llttls taste. It has none of the corroslvs qualities that an acid generally Is sup posed to possess, but Is the best kind of an antiseptic, and a sure death to germs. Bdth the borax and the boric add are harmless when taken Into tbi stomach In reasonable quantity, and actually seem to accelerate the dlges tive process. A dispatch from Washington states that the winter plans for the North Atlantic Squadron *re very Important and significant in view of tho situation In Cuba and British encroachment!) upon Venezuela. As a matter of fact, the North Atlantic fleet always spendi Its winters in Southern waters, eitliei in the fine harbor at Hampton Uoadi or in that at Port Royal, both for tbt greater comfort of the men as well at for the safety of the vessels. At the same time squadron evolutions can be practiced in these waters. If the situation should require the detail of the vessels to Cuba It would save time, coal and money to have the fleet a thousand miles nearer. That Is all there it to the story. There Is nothing in the present situation to warrant the apprehension they will be needed. Should they be, however, they will be on hand The revenue cutter Commodore Perry brings to San Francisoo the news that about twenty out of the forty volcanoes in the chain of Aleutian Islands are now active, after It had been sup posed for many years that all but one of them were extinct. The exception was Bogaslov Island, which some years ago was found in a state of eruption, and another island was formed by the material vomited up from beneath the waters. Now the two islands have become one, a neck of volc&nla material having been forced up to confleet them. While the cutter was in the neighborhood the rising smoke and steam from the twenty volcanoes was visible from a distance of many miles, the view changing to as many pillars of fire after dark, the airy columns then “taking on the reflections of the Area that are deep In the earth beneath the craters.” The Aleutian Islands belong to the United States, and on them aro probably the only now active volcanoes situated within American territory. It is considered probable that many ages ago men may have crossed from Asia to America byway of ttft Baring Strait, * I eno'vgr tn‘tvnm-rr ■ a w>u«nf-tA bu nagaft f indeed, If the res* ofsftese eruptions , should be the making of & land connection between the so that the Journey from one to the other could be performed on foot over a pathway formerly marked out by points In the Aleutian chain. But that would not be a big alteration in comparison with some which geological Investigation shows to have been accomplished by the forces of nature in .the long burled past A new development in the manufacture of projectiles for cannon Is likely to give the manufacturers of armor a good deal of work to produce armor material that will withstand piercing by cannon shot. Heretofore shells have been made hollow and hardened on their surfaces. It has been thought necessary to have them so. But a firm al Spuyten Duyvll, New York, which made cast-iron cannot balls for the government during tbe Mexican war, hat produced solid shells which are hai> dened on the Inside and provided witit exteriors of comparatively soft steel. The solid shells have also soft steel points Instead of the hardened points of the shells which have heretofore been considered the best that could bt made. At a recent test before Oapt Sampson, chief of the Ordnance Bureau of tie Navy Department, two 12Inch shells which were fired at Harveyized steel plates went dear through the plates, but broke after they got through. The shot also passed through two feel of oak backing. This was the first time In the history of the Ordnance Bureau that an 18-inch Harveyized plate was pierced by a 12-inch shell. The theory of the action of these new shells is directly the reverse of that in regard to the action of shells with hardened exteriors. The old shells are supposed to pierce the plates by virtue of their hardness on tbe outside and the superiority of their steel caps. The theory of the action of the new shell is that the soft material takes the brunt of the Impact and permits the uninjured Inside point and surface to do the work while In perfect condition. The piercing of the Harveyized plate Indicates that there 1» something in this theory.

Pretty Gooil for Handwork. The River Clyde, of which the Scotch are justly proud, was at the beginning of the century but a small, shallow stream, but by magnificent engineering at a fabulous cost it to-day floats%ie grea,t ships of the world. An American sea captain at Glasgow was listening to a resident dilating upon the Clyde, when he interrupted him rather contemptuously: “Rivers? Why, you haven’t room enough In this country for rivers! The Mississippi, the Missouri, the Hudson, the Columbia, are whal we call rivers.” “I know that,” said the Scotchman, perfectly undisturbed, “but God Almighty made your rivers; we made the Clyde.” ’ ' . , ■ Authoi'—l’ve got a great scheme to make a fortune. lam going to write a book on the financial question. His Friend—Well? Authoiv-And then I’m going to write a reply refuting 1L—-

LOVE'S SEASONS. /nil flowered summer lies upon the land. I kiss y»ur lips, your hair—aud then your baud Slips into mine; 10, we two understand , That love is sweet. The roseleaf falls,the color fades and dies; The sunlight fades, the summer bird-llke flies; There comes a shade across your wistful eyes— Is love so sweets The flowers are dead, the land is blind with rain; The bud of beauty -bears the fruit of pain— Can any note revive the broken strain, Is love so sweet? The world is cold, and death is everywhere; I turn to you, and in my heart’s despair Find peace and rest. We know, through foul or fair, That love Is sweet. —Pall Mall Gazette.

B JDST PBHISBPIEHT. Two people were sitting on the veranda es an Indian bungalow; a tall man of about forty, handsome and bronzed, and a girl about fifteen years younger, fair and delicately pretty. From within came the distant sound of a piano and violin, and without, at the bottom of the compound, was the ceaseless sigh and whisper of the river. “The air feels almost like England today,” said the man. “When J shut my eyes I can fancy myself at home.” “Do you long so much for England ?” said the girl, looking up with a smile. “It’s all so new to me, and so full of interest, that I don’t want to go back at all.” “Ah, Miss Graham, if you had been an exile for ten years, as I have, you’d know what the lqnging is." “Ten years!” said the girl, sympathetically. “Yes, I shall want to go back long I before that.” “I was only home for a month then," 1 went on the man, as if he found it bard to , leave the subject “Twenty years of my life I have spent in strange countries and * among strange peoples, and now I’m get- ’ ting old and England is calling, calling to ! me igiuder and louder as the days go by. I’ve learned what it is to be homesick, Miss Graham.” “Then why not go home?” said the * girl, gently. “Surely” . “Why not ?” the man laughed a little ’ bitterly. ‘ ‘You see lam reaping the rewards of a misspent youth. I got into scrapes when I was at home—l wasn’t C worse than other people, but I was a bit C more reckless. I belong to a respectable ! family, you see, and it’s part of the contract that I don’t go hack unless” “Unless—what?” asked the girl, softly. J “Unless I marry, and take my wife „ back with me." . seen a woman 1 vvialied to wife, until”—'— "AHson,” said a voice at the window, “will you have a scarf? There is quite a breeze, and your dress is very thin.” The man muttered something under his breath, as the girl rose and turned to take the scarf. She stood at the window a few minutes, and odd words and phrases of j talk, punctuated with laughter, came bro- ! kenly to the man’s ears. “There goes my chance,” he said, under his breath, lie got up and leaned over the railing looking out upon the river. When the girl came back to her seat lie turned towards her. “Do you mind if I smoke, Miss Graham?" be said“Oh, no, I like it,” she answered, smiling. She leaned back in her chair, gathering the scarf round her, and looked up at him, still smiling, while he lit his cigar. 0 “Jessie has been telling me a most absurd story that George has just brought home," she said. “The colouel’s wife has got a new nurse girl from England, and she lia9 been causing great interest and excitement among the men. To-day, two of them, each considering himself the favored swain, fell to quarreling about her, and, at last, there was a regular stand up fight. In the end, when some one in authority interfered and separated tbe bruised and gory combatants, the girl announced her preference for another man who had been a peaceable spectator of the fight. George says no one was more surprised than the man himself, and there were at least six other men who considered they had claims. One can’t help laughing, though it isn’t a thing to be amused about, really. I think they ought to send the girl straight back to England." “Oh, come, Miss Graham, perhaps she did not mean to do any harm.” “No,” said the girl, bitterly. “The people who flirt never mean to do harm, I believe, but that does not make it any less cruel.” “Would you — would you be very down on a man that flirted ?” “Oh, it’s not really worse in a man than in a woman. It’s heartless and mean, and contemptible on either side." “But, Miss Graham," remonstrated the man, “it doesn’t follow always that flirting merits all the hard names you give it. Sometimes I fancy, it may be a very inuoceut form of amusement.” *“Ali, you don’t understand, you don’t know." said the girl, earnestly. “You are too simple and honorable yourself to guess what it may mean when it’s ‘innocent amusement’ on one side and not on the other. That game is so seldom played fairly on both sides. Perhaps I should have thought like you but for something that happened when I was very young. I can never forget—l can never think lightly of flirting again— Her voice stopped with a little quick catch of the breath; the man looked at her with a face full of sympathy and interest. Presently she went on again: I “I'll tell you, if you like; it doesn’t I matter now who knows. I bad a friend—piv dearest friend, though she was some ; years older than I. She died six years ago, and 1 Was with her much of tbe time that she was ill. They called it all sorts of things, aud no one know but I that she • died of a broken heart. I suppose it ! was one of those cases of innocent amusei maiit. i “Her people used to go every summer r to a IHlle watering ulace, where they had

a cottage and a boat. One year there wa< a young man there, handsome, clever and attractive, and with some halo of romance and heroism about biro that made him specially interesting. Mabel liked him from the first, and when he began to devote himself to her, as he did almost at once, there grew up an understanding between them that, in Mabel’s eyes, was equivalent to an engagement. You see my friend was quite Incapable of flirting, and it never occurred to her that an honorable man could mean anything but that. Os course, In her eyes, this man was the embodiment of honor, and courage, aud every other virtue. “Mabel had said nothing to her people. There was no formal engagement, you know, no ring, and Mabel was a shy and sensitive girl. Bbe dreaded the publicity and the fuss of congratulations. Bhe was not afraid of opposition, her lover was a good enough parti, aud she was glad that no one should know for a little while. One day she awoke to the fact that she ought, perhaps, to speak. Her lover had persuaded her to meet him by the river, after dusk, and they were to go for a row. Mabel had rather reluctantly consented to this plan, for her people were rather straight-laced, and she did not think they would like it. In fact, after first intending to tell her mother, as a matter of course, as the day wore on she found it more and mce difficult to speak of it. She worried herself quite ill, for she did not want to break her promise, and she could see no way of keeping it. As luck would have it, her people were going next door for a quiet rubber after dinner. Mabel looked so wretched that her mother suggested she should stay at home and go early to bed, and she gladly accepted tbe excuse. “As soon as they were gone she put on a light wrap and hastened to the trysting place, determining as she went that she would ask her lover to speak to her people next day. The path by the river was a private footway used by the residents anfl visitors by courtesy of the owner. The meeting-place was an old boat-house, about a mile and a half away. When Mabel reached it she was hot and exhausted, for she had hurried, partly because she was a little late and partly from nervousness. She heard the sound of oars out in the stream, and paused a momentto listen, thinking it was her lover’s boat, but it was going towards tbe harbor, and the sound soon died away. She sat down on a log and waited. Presently footsteps coming along the path made her jump up in a fright. A terror of discovery suddenly came over her. >.Bhe crept round the boat-house, gently pushed the door open, and stepped inside, so that she was quite hidden by the shadow. The footsteps stopped close by and Mabel was in fear that her hiding place would be discovered. Presently she heard more footsteps, and then voices; a party of three or four girls had ..,mc out for an evening walk. They did noLuass the boat-house, however, sad afltf l* little while they dare liurrv lcst "sh/YHfamr

uaic iv liuuj mob Dim vn«rH?u wway them. She got btffte without having been seen by any one, aud went straight to bed/ ‘ ‘ln the morning she was very ill, low fever the doctor said, and it was some days before she was able to see any one, At last, when she was getting better, she j learned the truth. Her lover had gone away—had left the country the very night ! that he had asked her to meet him, no one knew how or why. ‘Called away on business,’ his people gave out, and nobody else had any explanation to offer. But Mab*l knew, for in the early days of her convalescence, when she was allowed to Sit in an armchair on the veranda, or to have her bath-chair pulled up among the bracken and heather on the headland, first one and then another of her own personal girl friends came and sobbed out just such another story of heartbreak and deception. And not a word of explanation or repentance did he send to any one of them. Mabel kept her own counsel, and no one suspected that her illness was anything but physical. She never got really well again. They took her abroad, .but she never seemed to get any stronger. At last she begged them to take her home and let her die in peace,/and the doctors said they might as well let her have her way. So they took her back tc the little .house at Seafield” — “Seafield!” The half-burnt cigar dropped from the man’s nervous fingers as the word broke from him involuntarily. “Yes, do you know Seafield?" asked the girl in surprise. “Aud your friend—was it Mabel Calm- j sac?” His face had gone very pale under ; the tan. .“Mabel Cahusac, yes. Oh! Captain; Aldenham, did you know Mabel?” ‘‘l met her—once,” Fred Aldenham spoke with a great effort. “Miss Graham, did you hear—the name—of the man?” “No,” said the girl, sadly. “Mabel would not tell me that. And I don’t even know whether his people were visitors or residents in the place. I am sorry, because I have so wished I could meet the man anil see him get the punishment he deserves.* But, you see, I might meet him without ever knowing.” “For which he may thank heaven," said Aldenham fervently. ' “You knew Seafield aud you knew Mabel!” said the girl, softly and wonderingly. “How strange it ail seems! The place has often been in my mind since I came here. The river sounds just like (his, and the gardens slope down to its banks just like the compound here.” “Yes," said Aldenham iu a low tone. “It was of Seafield I was thinking when I said the place reminded me of home. 1 like to shut my eyes, sometimes, and forget the palms and the tree ferns, aud fancy that the wind is stirring in the oaks and beeches of the old garden.” “Idon’t wonder you long for home,” said the girl, gently. “Seafield is such a lovely spot! It must have been hard to come away.” “Yes,” said Aldenham, rising suddenly) “When a man gets to my age tilings begin to alter. When I was a youngster I ' wanted to see life. I wanted to get as i much fun out of the old show ns possible, > aud I was glad of the chance of getting iu > touch with a youuger, freer, more spou- * taneous growth of civilizations I tried l everything, Miss Graham. I've herded • cattle on the prairie, I’ve washed for gold In an African river. And finally, fate r I landed me here, in the midst of an English I society, more conventional, man dull,

is more corrupt than any I could find at d home, in order that 1 might learn, I supe pose, the value of the English life I had a forfeited. I have learnt it, and I long for o nothing better now than a cozy house in i- my native place, witli a few acres to farm, t and a boat on the river. I want to know - my brothers' aud sisters’ children, and, be. s fore it’s too late, I want to see my e j mother.” , There was silence for a few moments; - the girl was deeply rtioved, hut she could think of nothing that was not trite and 3 commonplace to say. The endless sweet 1 song of the river beneath them seemed to be mocking at the human passion it had stirred. J “Miss Graham,” said Aldenlmm, speaking with sudden resolve, “I’ve done many 1 things in my life that you would not like ; —that I don’t like myself; hut I believe no man can feel himself worthy of the 1 woman he asks to he his wife. Perhaps—- ! there may be some things you would put ; against that on the other side. I don’t wan’t to plead that; if there’s any hope for me it won’t be because I deserve it, but 1 because ” “Oil, please don’t say anything more— I’m so sorry, so very, very sorry!” The girl had risen and was standing before him with a face of utter bewilderment and 1 consternation. “Oh, Captain Aldenham, I never knew, I never guessed—oh, I hope you didn’t think ” “No, I had no right to think—anything,” said the man, gravely and sadly. “Miss Graham, if I wait—i 3 there no hope for me?” The girl shook her head. “It would be no use,” she said. * “Miss Graham—will you tell me—la there some one else?” Alison lifted her head, and steadied her voice by an effort. “Yes, Captain Aldenham;” she said, “there is—some one else.” She held out her hand to him in farewell, and he took it a moment between both his own. “Then good-by,” he said. “Good-by,” said Alison, gently; then she turned and went swiftly in through the window. Fred Aldenham stood a moment listening to the wash of the river. Then he drew a cigar from his case, and cut the end off slowly and deliberately. “Poor Mabel,” he said, as he lighted it, “after all, she has her revenge.” FIREPLACE MOTTOES. They Can Be Etched Into Wood With a Hot Pokor. Over the fireplace, in straggling letters, may be carved in the wood, or fired upon the tiling, appropriate devices and sentences. It is not an expensive fad, aud is something indicative of real individuality. As instances “Welcome ye to this cottage by the sea, ” or “Welcome ye to the cot by the old oak tree,” or what-

gladsome mrrnTT"gitW'W , 1 hearth;” “Shall I aot take mine ease beside my fireside?” These or other mottoes might be etched into wood, for a cottage, bypoker work, a decoration of which too little is generally known. Pyrography,as it is designated, is done after a little practice by any one having the least art training or dexterity and precision in drawing. While there are sets of tools by which finished work can be done, a small-pointed poker, heated either over a spirit lamp, or in a coal fire, can be made the instrument for fine effects. Not only lettering for mantels, but designs in lights and shadows, for panels, screens, picture frames, cabinets and brackets are made by the poker point. Good, well seasoned wood, free from knots and cracks, must be used to expect good results. It is said by experts that elm shows the blackest tracings, but that sycamore, holly and lime, followed by the oak, ash and elm, lend themselves readily to this work. « On any simple design or lettering the beginner can practice. There are but few rules. The 'bright woman will soon find the limitations and the beauties'of pyrography. The beginner should trace upon a panel a simple design, perfectly geometrical, and i with the heated poker or point foli low the pattern with light, quick j strokes. She should avoid resting i the poker for an instant, even, on j first touching the wood or upon leaving it, under the penalty of leaving an unsightly hard dot or point. Where the shadows are deep the point can be slowly touched again and again. With practice the amateur cant-Qhade the wood from any conceivable depth of shadow to tho high lights, which are the untouched wood. It is well to first lightly trace the outlines, when the iron can afterwards go over the deeper portions at pleasure. The dark background is made by fine parallel lines crossed diagonally by others. The same rules in regard to leaving tho design untouched should be observed, as in any other kind of drawing- __________L__ Smallest Colliery in tha World. The little village of XcLon. , England, has the distinction of possessing the smallest colliery in the world. It is situated near the Colliers’ Arms, and affords employment to two workmeu. These are father and son, and they combine in themselves tbe proprietors, managers, miners and hauliers of the undertaking. There is no siding, connecting the works with any railway, and all the output is sold lo the householders who live iu the village i and its surroundings. It should be stated that a stout little donkey does duty for a i horse, and performs his work -well. The coal has a ready sale ami commands a ! good price. j Signor Grispi, when in Rome, has I an escort of twenty-nine police offi--1 cials, for which Italy pays $12„000 a j year. Whenever lie leaves the city i the cost of guarding him is inereased , three or four fold.

. THE LIME KILN CLUB. - 3 j Brother Gardner Eulogises a Dar parted Member. i As soon as the secretary had fln- , ishedthe roll Brother Gardner called 1 for the report of the Committee on • Astronomy, which should have been r handed in two weeks ago. Asteroid Johnson, chairman of the committee, promptly stood up and read the re- , port. There had been considerable discussion in the club as to what In- | fluence the.sun had on the weather, and the committee had thoroughly investigated the matter. The sun, as the committee understood it, was manufactured and hung out for the purpose of encouraging photographers, laundresses, hay-makers and house painters, and the idea that it has any visible effect upon weather 98,000,000 miles away was not to be seriously thought of. The late re markable summer was rather to be laid to the supposed sliding of the North Pole a distance of over B,uoo mile south from its usual position. This being the meeting when the quarterly report on agriculture was due, Subsoil Davis, chairman,arose ind reported as follows: .•» 1. More cucumbers will be harvested this fall than ever before in Jhe history of America, and pickles are bound to be cheap next winter, no matter what the price of coal. 2. Wheat is only two-thirds of a crop, bat this will save a great deal of handling c.ud wear and tear and give freigL» cars and grist-mills a rest. 8. Ninety out of every 100 watermelons received in the northern markets this season have been green. The ten ripe ones have been reserved by the commission men. We submit whether it would not be a good idea for the public to learn to enjoy the taste of green melons? It would save time, money, waste and Card feelings, and prices would probibly be cheaper- . 4.—Considering the weather, scanlals, earthquakes, cyclones and elipements, the crops in general averige more than could have been ooked for and we see no cause for araentation. The secretary announced a communication from Montgomery, Ala., asking if the Lime Kiln Club would assist the next congress in conducting the affairs of the country. Broth>r Gardner read the letter over twice ind then arose and replied : “ Dat will depend altogether on de ackshun of congriss towards dis orjanizashun. If we am inwited to nix in an’ assist we shall do so wid preat cheerfulness; if we am not invited we shall go ahead an’ run our iheer of America an' let congriss fool i sari r. rJ uA rl fUa Kalon/m * ,

the balance. .. son, and«after some debatetwy ware accepted. The iuerease over .Bummer rates is about ten per cent. fctove pipe will be blacked and put up at the rate of $24 per mile with extra for elbows. W ood-sawing will remain at the same figures, whether the sawyer is asked to eat dinner with the family or not. Brother Gardner then arose and said it was his sorrowful duty to announce the death of Uncle Jim Whitestone, which took place only the previous day. and continued : "You knew him to be old an’ feeble an’ sort o’ waitin’ to go, an’ yet de news surprises you. A week ago he sot heah wid us, to-night be am lyin’in his coffin. Sich am de onsartainties of life. I has knowed Uncle Jim since we was chil’en togeder in de far away days. When he realized dat de summons was drawin’ he sent fur me, an’ I sot beside him, when de angel took his speerit an’ flew away. I 'Uncle Jim was a poo’ old black man, unlettered,unlarned, an’ lookin’ back only to y’arsof toil an’ privashun an’ sorrow. He saw poverty, wpSrUD-’ misfortune in almos’every month of his life, an’ yit how did he die? ‘‘Dar’ was sunthin grand in that death-bed scene, ” continued Brother Gardner in a whisper. ‘ ‘Eighty y’ars of toil an’ anxiety an’sufferin’was lrawin’to a clpse A life in which dar’ had bin"'taany clouds an’ leetle sunshine was about to 'end. "I see him as de sinkin’ summer sun crept inter der winder an' turned his white h'ar to de color ob silver. He woke from his soft sleep, an’ dar was sich ‘happiness in his eyes an’ sich glory in his face as I nejjjiber saw befo’. He listened like one who h’ars de far-off sounds of sweet music, an’ the glory deepened as he reached out his hands to me and whispered: “ ‘ I kin see my ole wife an’ de chill’en up dar! I-kin see glory an’ rest an’ peace 1 I kin look across de dark valley an’ S6e sich happiness as I nebber dream of! ’ ” . ‘‘An’ he passed away like a babe failin’ asleep, an' ’you who go up dar' to-jnorrer will fin’ dat same glorious smile lighting up de face of dedead. He has suffered an’ believed an’ had faith an’ had gone to his reward. He had been dispised fur his color, ridiculed fur his ignerence an’scorned fur his faith in de hereafter, an' yit no kin-g eber died wid sich a smile on his face an’ wid sich happiness in his heart. Peace to his ashes! While we mourn fur him we jhall still rejoice dat he has gone to his reward. Let us break de meetin ’ n two an’go home. It is said that no steam locomotive has ever equalled the record made by an electric locomotive in Baltimore. At its latest test it hauled three steam locomotives and forty-four loaded cars up a heavy grade at the rate of twelve miles au hour. In view. ! of such results experts are beginning to think that the electric locomotive is at last a practical reality with revolution In it