Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 March 1883 — Page 1

I Illa Wlalfl Wllfl lIV VIbIV I IHtelal . '• A DEMOCRATIC NEWSPAPER. PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY, BT•— James W. McEwen. KATES OF SVBSCBIFTION. One year H-50 Six months. 1-00 Three months 50 aar’A'lver Mnsf rates on annltratlon.

<)N THE HUBBY OF THIS TDC& BY AUSTIN HOBSON. With slower nen men used to write: Of old, were “polite, In Anna’s or in George's days They conld afford to turn a phrase Or trim a straggling theme aright. They knew not steam; electric light Not yet had dazed their calmer sight; They meted out both blame and praise With slower pen. Too swiftly now the hours take flight! What's read at morn is dead at night. Scant space have we for Art’s delays. Whose breathless thought so briefly star*. We may not work--ah, would we might I With a slower pen.

SHATTERED IDOLS.

Mr. Rodman honored Miss Ferris ■with another one of his supreme glances, which women failed to understand, which this woman recognized and unconsciously welcomed, although she drooped ever so little beneath its light and warmth. “Aren’t you going to say that you are glad to see me this morning?” he asked, after a pause. “I am surprised,” she replied. “A fine evasion. You are surprised, and perhaps disappointed. ” “Perhaps I am. Don’t you wish I would confess?” “Yes.” “I am glad you Came, for now 1 have something more entertaining than Trollope’s stupid novel. ” “Did the novel cause the tears I saw in your beautiful eyes ?” “There are no tears there.” “Tears are easily dried, especially a woman’s. You have been crying.” “Ha, ha! You mistake the mood. I was laughing. You know we sometimes laugh until the tears come.” “Yes, but not over Trollope novels. I know,” he answered, regarding her curiously; but he did not say he understood the chemistry of tears, and could distinguish one of the first water from a rain drop. Those few wasted tears teemed to obliterate for a time selfish scruples. Louis Rodman was an idealist, a Worshiper. He admired the virtues that fancy could picture and potent thought could mold into form. You are not interested sufficiently in the casual acquaintance of such a character to care whether his nose is Roman or Grecian, whether his complexion is dark or light, whether his teeth are a compliment to nature or the art of dentistry. He was a psychologist, and handled dexterously the sharp-edged ax of thought. He cut creeds to pieces, and when the trenchant ax would not perform the work, the rconoclast’s hammer was used until its echo came back from the hills, What cares the intelligent reader for the mold of such a man ? The mind, clothed with the beauty of thought, is more enchanting than the form of a god crowned with roses. Louis Rodman had a dual nature, he was an idealist, and an iconoclast. His nimble fancy created and his cold thought congealed the image until it crumbled like the icicle that drops from the cornice to the hard pavement, shattered in a thousand pieces. But up to the present time the image of an ideal Womap. fair, wonderfully fair and marvellously beautiful, with eyes as bright as the stars, but so very much nearer to him than those distant luminaries, was his idol. As the sun was over the hills, and great shadows of giant shapes cast themselves at their feet while the birds 'shot up a wild strophe to the approaching king of day as it gradually proceeded to the zenith, and the cool morning air, brought, as it seemed,Ja messenger from mountain haunts and bubbling springs, Rodman caught the aroma of the morning hour, and, getting very close to the side of Miss Ferris, he placed his hand on her shoulder and pointed in poetic admiration to the ascending mist and fog that left the mountain peaks uncovered by the matin mantle. While she listened he told her the legend of the King’s daughter who hid herself in the recesses of a mountain to avoid a hated marriage, but a wicked enchanter, meeting her there, changed her into a mountain torrent that leaped down the mountain side in a white fury of despair ; that raced and shrieked among the purple crags and wooded pe&ks, and tore itself into ragged shreds and wreathed itself in rainbows and tossed its sprays in the face of the adventurer, till the huntsman called it the mad torrent; how for miles away you might hear this sound modulated by distance to a dolorous minor tone—au accent full of sorrows, and when frosts came and petrified all its tumbling trouble and bound its wild strength, one could detect its murmuring under the dry feathers, sobbing to itself in a frozen whisper, moaning and complaining in a passion of sighs, and the mountain shepherds would say: “The Mad Torrent dreams over her woe and struggles in her dream. ” But on the first spring night, when the air -was full of earth-damps and the forgotten fragrance of violets, they would awake with a chilly horror of impending avalanche and listen to the mad torrent calling with a hundred tearful voices for its deliverance from the torment, For the legend ran that whA the true lover of the King’s daughter set out with staff and scrip to find his sweetheart he came at last to a foaming cataract that fell in the image of a lady veiled; and, weeping, he stopped to drink of it, and the cruel enchanter stepped behind and pushed him, and the cataract washed him down in spite of itself, rending the air with terrible cries, and throwing out a dozen powerless arms; but he was never seen again. The mad torrent had method in its madness.

“I suppose,” said Miss Ferris at this point, “that a lesson is to be learned from the legend. ” “Yes,” replied Rodman. “Love is an irresistible impulse, love is the enchanter. ” “Yes, but the lover stopped to quench his thirst. It was not the longing of the soul that led him t® the cataract. Thus it is ever -with lovers. It is self, not self-abnegation, that leads them to our side.” “Well, it was only to satisfy his thirst; he obtained immortality by the push and the end is just the same, no difference what the motive.” “But one likes to know the motive. I often look upon a surging crowd and know that there is an ebb and flow of thought. I would rather know the thoughts than the thinkers, wouldn’t you?” “I should like to, if it were possible to do it without asking impertinent questions. If I knew your thoughts, for instance, I would have a beautiful guide to win a woman’s love.” She turned to greet the postman, who brought her several letters, and without

VOLUME VII.

deigning a reply other than: “Mr. Rodman, I ha' e had a pleasant morning. I will be pleased to have you call when you return io the city. Igo to-day.” Then she retired to her room to read a letter from her father, and she, when she. read, “Remember, daughter, you are both beautiful and wealthy; when you fall in love see that it is a man who equals you in both.” Then she thought of the words of Keats: Love in a cottage with water and a crust Is, Love forgive us, water, ashes, dust. Sober thought, that fashions the outlines of things and reveals the powder patches of fancy, brought her to herself, and the cold, calculating woman, that moves in the social world and courts the happiness of the frequency of dress parades, appeared. No ideal life for her, no ethereal existence, no self-abnegation, no thought of exquisite bliss, no dreams of a secluded life, but the reality of conquest stamped a cold, disdaining look upon her. features, and the fragrance of the morning aroma was wasted. Within the secret existence of self, yet Ethel Ferris loved the ideal man, and Louis Rodman was the man. Rodman, a genius, whose path in life lay along the line of daily toil and hard crucial experience, turned from the morning conversation to labor with his hands and build fancy pictures in the air of ideal forms and virtues. He pondered : “Beautiful and intelligent, lovely and coy as Arethusa; charming in manner and graceful in movement. I love her, yet I fear to touch, for the idol must be worshiped, not possessed. The Greeks never revered the household gods like they did Jove. The flower that grows oh the rock beyond my reach seems the most perfect.” The summer passed and the winter approached, but the idol of Louis Rodman’s heart was perfect. He had planned a hundred creeds and erased every article; had seen as many more ideal faces, and under his close analysis the ideal became mere clay, of no more interest than the face of a heathen god, and at last he was forced to exclaim : “Human nature does not satisfy the critic of its kind more than it does the author of all. The idol away is idolized still; but, when present too long, the idol is shattered.” Again he meets the lovely and liquant Ethel Ferris in her luxurious lome in the city. The woman is his highest standard, the gold she possesses is to him naught but brass. She greeted him with the loveliest, the sweetest of smiles. It was the old, old story, the noblest of human passions; that of love asserting itself. “I thought you had forgotten me,* she said. “The devoted never forget the object,” was his reply. “I was angry that you did not come or write.” “I am glad that you were angry. ” “I am afraid the effort would not have been pleasing to you. ” “T should like to see the angry fire leap in your eyes and consume your smile. ” “I shall grasp that idea and run away with it if you do not talk seriously to me. ” “Then may I ask you, how many men have fallen before you?” “Mr. Rodman, I am not a Hercules nor a Theseus.” “No, you are an Armida to-day.” “Mr. Rodman, Armida was a sorceress.” “She was a bewitching woman, and compelled Rinolda to forsake all and to devote his life to her.” “The remark does not please me, anyhow.” “I do not try to please you.” “Why are you so ungallant?” “What is the use of adding sweetness to a rose?” “It seems to me you have mistaken the flower. A rose has a thorn.” “Yes, I know, it has pierced my heart; until now I thought it was Cupid’s darts.” He was gay and erratic, corruscating with wit and repartee, ever watchful and critical to see if his case had any favorable features. He watched her, but he might as well have watched the growth of an apple, for Ethel was on her guard, and play generally met with play. Enthralled by her smile, thrilled by the touch of her hand, he forgot the pleasures of a bachelor’s life, f >rgot the companionship of the club, forgot all, save that the ideal woman stood before him, and then, placing his hand on her shoulder, he gently pressed upon her forehead ■with the other, then stooped and kissed her for full a minute.

“You are my ideal, my love. I love you. ” “I know it,” she replied archly. “Is that the only answer you have to give me ?” “I am the mad torrent of your existence. Quench not your thirst, the wicked enchanter’s near. lam your idol now—after a while, a shattered one. ” “Never; you are the only ideal woman in existence.” “You talk earnestly, but I believe that this is play, not love.” “Then let me speak to your father.” “If you promise not to be estranged by his decision. ” “I promise you that I will always love you.” “Remember that you are an iconoclast. ” “Yes, but the arm that strikes a blow upon my favored idol will fall palsied.” Full of hope and life the two lovers entered Mr. Ferris’ library. He received them graciously. In a straightforward way Louis Rodman told his story. “I know you to be a worthy young man, but what have you to offer in exchange for my daughter’s hand?” “My own.” _ “I mean that my daughter has a large fortune; have you an equivalent ?” “No, sir; I-cannot buy your daughter with gold.” “Mr. Rodman, you are impertinent. I will not admit of such talk in my daughter’s presence. I cannot give my consent to my daughter’s union with a man without a competency.” Turning to Ethel he said: “What does my daughter say?” “I love Mr. Rodman, but whatever you say I will abide.” In his excitement Rodman, standing by the mantel-piece, raised his arm and accidentally struck a costly vase upon which was engraved a beautiful angel. It fell to the floor, shattered to a hundred pieces. Ethel assisted him to gather up the pieces, and as he leaned toward her he hoarsely whispered, “A shattered idol.” Without another word the proud, sensitive Mr. Rodman bowed himself out, but Ethel followed him to the door and entreated him to speak with a lingering,

The Democratic Sentinel.

Col. F. W. Parker, writing in the Minnesota Journal of Education, says: We give-to spelling so much of our important time! What is it? It is making the form of a word. That is spelling, per se. Oral spelling is the description of a word, naming its parts. A child can spell, i. e. learn the letters of a word, but might merely get it from sound. Spelling should be a description, as if I drew a house, which would be describing it. One of old Commenius’ principles is this: “Things that have to be done should be done by doing them.” The powers of the teacher seem to have been directed to doing a thing by doing something else. As soon as the child begins to read he spells. Oral spelling should be put off till the second year to make sure that he gets the form right. The first year should be given to copying words. Much teaching is merely attempted forcing out of the mind what has not yet got into it. Never spell any words for a child unless that child can follow with the idea, as the pencil traces the word. He thus learns the wrjtten and the spoken language together —learns to read and write at the same time. If all the spelling books were piled up and set on fire, they would give more fight to the world than they ever did to the school-room! The purpose of spelling is composition. In the first year provide the pupil with a correct copy of mental pictures. Give sentences, have the children copy them, and after they are erased have them reproduce them. Give the thought of what is spelled. The next year teach spelling by dictation. Train a child to know when he does not know a -word. He will then neyer spell wrong. All spelling can be taught in composition. Children can be made to love to talk with the pencil. A child knows a unit of thought by expressing it. Do an act and have them write it, or let them tell it orally. All of grammar can be taught in a beautiful way by action. Put no false syntax on the board; the wrong form is as likely to remain in the child’s mind as the right. Be right from the start. Pictures can be utilized in the writing of compositions. The little ones may write one, two or three sentences only about a picture, but by the second year the ch Id can write a story about it. In the third year it can write a page of composition entirely correct. Is that not a foundation for grammar? Another way of teaching composition is to tell the child stories, and have it reproduce them in its own words. In object teaching there is as much nonsense as in anything else. The fundamental mistake is that teachers attempt the impossible. They fail to understand that the child cannot see what they can see, and consequently talk above their heads.

Mr. Stanley tells, in his “Dark Continent,” how he dealt mercifully with a thief, who was one of his most valuable men, and at the same time prevented the demoralization of his followers. Uledi, the coxswain of his boat, and a most useful helper, was detected in a serious theft. He had stolen five pounds of beads, on which Mr. Stanley depended to buy provisions from the natives. Stanley was perplexed. He could not spare Uledi’s services, nor could he allow the offense to go unpunished, lest his clemency might injure tjie discipline of the corps. He thought the matter over and wisely determined to leave the matter to the company. The chief of the negroes spoke first, saying, if it had been one of the common men, he would have advised punishment by death, but as it was Uledi, always bold and faithful, who had saved thirteen lives, he should advise a whipping. Other leaders agreed with the chief. Mr. Stanley then asked the opinion of the boatmen. The first said the offense must be punished, even if the criminal were Uledi, but he hoped the whipping would be light. The next, the culprit’s brother, said, “Uledi is a thief. I have begged him not to steal. But he is Uledi, and has done so much for us. He must be whipped, but let me take half the whipping. ” The next said, “He is my cousin, and so useful; let me take the other half of the whipping.” Mr. Stanley, much moved by the offer of these two men to substitute themselves for the offender, answered: “Uledi is condemned. But, as Shumari and Saywa take his punishment, he is set free, and I pardon Shumari and Saywa.” Uledi, broken down by the generous offer and the pardon, said, “Master, it was not Uledi that stole; it was the devil who entered his heart. Uledi will be good in future.” From that time Mr. Stanley had no more honest or faithful servant than. Uledi. The love of brother and cousin, shown by giving themselves as his substitute, and the gentleness of his master, expelled covetousness from his heart and made him anxious to naerit. ft good' reputation

a loving glance. All she said was: “Remember your promise. ” Mighty indeed were the strokes of the iconoclast’s hammer in the hands of Rodman for the next two years. Never again did he picture an ideal woman. In all his dreams the picture of a woman never appeared else than as a hag. He forgot his promise to Ethel, who persuaded her father to relent because he liked the spirit of the young man, and she had at last won his consent. Then she sat down to wait for her proud lover’s coming. Patiently she waited a year. Then, when she had almost forgotten the idealist, they met one summer morning at the old retreat where first she listened to the gentle words of love. She held out her hand, and he grasped it. “I’m glad to meet you, Mr. Rodman; where have you been all these years ?” “Looking for the Mad Torrent.” “What would you do if you found it?” “Quench my thirst.” Then he raised her hand to his lips, but she gently drew it away. “I am one of your shattered idols.” “Then let me worship you.” “Better find one that enjoys neglect, at whose shrine no one kneels. There comes my husband, Mr. Rodman, will you stay and meet him?” “Your husband?” he sighed, partly with a sense of relief from intense emotion, partly, too, on account of the lesson which it taught him, that there are impulses and influences in life for which even a proud nature must have some reverence.

Spelling and Composition.

Punishment and Pardon.

RENSSELAER, JASPER COUNTY, INDIANA, FRIDAY, MARCH 23,1883.

We notice frequently outlandish recommendations, agriculturally and horticulturally, which must result in failure and discouragement. We have now before us one of these for stimulating the growth of trees, by boring holes in the ground and pouring in liquid manure about the roots! How the roots are generally to be got at in this way we cannot see. What better can be desired than applying the same liquid uniformly over the ground and let it soak in ? If the surface is very hard it.should be loosened; or, what we contend is still better, top-dress the surface as far as the branches extend with good manure, and the substance will soon find its way uniformly to the roots with the assistance of the rains. Our own judgment and practice has always been to treat the soil in which the trees, fruit and ornamental, grow, as far as can be done, the same as soil that is cultivated for vegetables or general farm crops, and we have always been'- satisfied with the result. As some evidence of the effect of such application we will mention this instance: Some years ago a hemlock spruce had a rusty appearance and at last fell much behind the others in depth of color. It was about 12 feet in height, and must have been set out in a spot where the soil 'Was not as affluent as that where others were planted. At any rate two wheelbarrow loads of good manure, spread out as far as the extremity of the branches, restored it perfectly the ensuing year, and it was one of our handsomest trees.—Germantown Telegraph. In early life (sixty years ago) we were taught that it was important in order to have a strong and hardy horse that.the colt must be allowed to shift for himself, live out doors through the winter and support himself by gleaning in the stock-fields. And this doctrine is believed, or at least practiced, at the present day, not in solitary cases, but the instances can be found all over the State. There is no doctrinemore Inl-

lacious, and no practice more detrimental to the future usefulness of the horse or more injurious to the interests of the owner of the colt. The first year of a colt is all important to his future usefulness, and no item in his care and treatment is as essential as plenty of good nourishing food. He needs as much, if not more, than a fully matured horse. Just as a boy’s appetite and the demands of his growing system require more food than the man of mature age, so the colt needs more at the period he is building up his flesh and bones than any other period. So give the colts plenty of good food, not in proportion to their size in comparison to the horse,.but feed in -proportion to the appetite and the use thev have in building up their system; Wallace, in his monthly, says colts need more food than an ordinary horse. Give the colt pure water, not too cold; good air, clean quarters, plenty of room, backed by an abundance of strong, nourishing food. Then he will add growth and strength, a solid constitution, and valuable powers. And, during this solid winter, l§t the men and the boys on the farm recollect the difference in the appetite of a boy and a man, and treat the noble little colt, whose appetite is keen as a boy’s who has been, all day fishing, and he will repay it in efficient work when he wears the collar.— lowa State Register.

Potato Balls.—Potato balls are very nice for breakfast. Boil them,

FARM NOTES.

The object of an advanced education should be to develop, if possible, a taste for good reading, so that instead of whiling away his long winter evening smoking his pipe behind his neighbor’s stove, or in some shop, or roosting on a meal bag or nail keg telling big stories, he will stay at home and read. Of late years, those so unfortunate as not to have liberal educations conclude that it is useless for them to attempt to compete for honors or distinction against those more fortunate. FrankIm, Washington, Jackson and Lincoln, though deficient in the education of the schools, did not quail before educated competitors, but marched boldly forward to honor and renown. The British Quarterly Journal of Agriculture says: “The horses of Normandy are a capital race for hard work and scanty fare. Have never elsewhere seen such horses at the collar. Under the diligence, post-carriage, or cumbrous cabriolet, or on the farm, they are enduring and energetic beyond description. With their hecks cut to the bone they flinch not. They keep their condition when other horses would die of neglect and hard treatment.” There are many qualities essential to constitute the model hog—and although he is not permitted by the laws of nature to laugh or even smile, he enjoys the next blessing of humanity—the disposition to grow fat. He is a happy fellow; when well bred and cared for, he lives like a gentleman of leisure, free from all the trials that disturb this busy world. He has no mortgage on his farm, no notes in bank maturing in the next ten days; yes, he is happy as a hog in clover; when he can’t stand up he lies down. — A. Failor.

We say to two-tb’rds of the farmers of lowa—-knowing what we say, and saying it with our teeth clinched and our nerves strung, that if you expect to successfully compete with your more enterprising neighbors, there must be a more thorough system rigidly enforced to increase the productiveness of your farms. Your situation imperatively demands that you improve your stock by the introduction of better blood. You must cease scattering the corn in the mud or the snow to stock sheltered in these bleak days on the north side of a wire fence. You must cease the practice • which makes you send your 10-months-old hogs to market weighing 150 pounds each when your neighbors’ hogs of the same age weigh 400 pounds. You must understand your business better so that you will know what your crops cost, and what the food is worth which your hogs and cattle have consumed. The reason why you are behind your more prosperous neighbors is that you have not yet waked up to your duties or your possibilities. You have not lived to know your business. For a quarter of a century we have been with you in lowa fanning—have watched your operations—seen wherein you failed—know whereof we write—and feel the full force of our words when we say you must wake up to a full realization of your situation, or drag out your life and that of your family in poverty and obscurity. And all we regret is that we cannot arouse you with our words as with a forty-horse-power galvanic battery.— Des Moines Register.

DOMESTIC RECIPES.

and while still warm mash them until there are no lumps left; then mix butter, pepper, salt, a little chopped parsley, and one or more raw eggs; beat these together thoroughly, then mo'd in balls, dip in beaten eggs and then in flour, and fry in butter. Boiled Mackerel. —Sometimes the mackerel intended for breakfast is not fresh enough in the morning to be eatable; it is then a good time to serve boiled mackerel. Wrap the fish in a cloth securely so that you can lift it from the kettle when it is tender without breaking it. If you change the water two or three times, it will freshen in a very few minutes; do not change from boiling water to cold, but pour from the teakettle each time. Fob soft custard, boil one pint of milk in a double boiler; beat the yelks of three eggs and add one-half a cup of sugar and a saltspoonful of salt Pour the boiling milk over the eggs and cook in the double boiler until it thickens like cream, stirring all the time. Strain, and when cool add one-half of a teaspoonful of vanilla. Beat stiff the whites of three eggs, scald them over a sieve, drain and pile them lightly on the custard and garnish with jelly. For a white fruit-cake use one cup Of butter and two cups of white sugar and beat them together thoroughly; then add one cup of milk, two and a half cups of flour, the whites of seven eggs and two teaspoonfuls of baking powder; beat all well before adding the fruit. Take one pound each of raisins, figs, dates and blanched almonds, and a quarter of a pound of citron; cut all very fine, sprinkle with flour and mix with the other ingredients. Bake slowly. I

apple omelet. —Tms is a delicate dish and is a nice accompaniment to boiled snare-rib or mast pork. Take eight or ten large tart apples, pare them, and stew them in a preserving kettle until they are very soft. Mash them so that there will be no lumps, add one cup of sugar, one table-spoonful of butter, and cinnamon or other spices to suit the taste; let the apples cool before putting in the beaten yelks of four eggs, stir well together, beat the whites to a stiff froth, add to the apples, then pour into a shallow pudding dish, place in a hot oven and brown. Chestnut sauce, which is very appetizing with roast turkey, is made of one pint of large-shelled chestnuts, one quart of stock, one teaspoonful of lemon juice, one table-spoonful of flour and two of butter. Cook the chestnuts for five minutes in boiling water, then drop them into cold water and remove their skin; put them on to steam with the stock and let them simmer for about an hour until they are ready to mash; then mash as fine as possible. Brown the butter and flour in a saucepan and stir in the stock and chestnuts and cook' about two minutes; season with salt, pepper and the lemon juice.

Chicken Salad.— Good Cheer contributes the following recipe: One large chicken boiled till tender; when cool take all the meat from the bones; use it all except the skin; cut it up into small pieces; to a quart of chicken add one pint of celery cut fine. Dressing: One table-spoonful of mustard, moistened ; piece of butter the size of an egg, one-half teaspoonrul of salt, a little pepper, one-half cup of vinegar. Put all on the stove to scald. Beat three eggs and stir into the vinegar, not too hot, but hot enough to make it thick. Pour this over the prepared chicken. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Senator Tabor and the Drummer.

They tell a good story now on Senator Tabor, of Colorado. It is related that, when Tabor was on the Kansas Pacific train going to Washington to take his seat, he met a Hebrew drummer who had known him some time by reputation. To pass the time they engaged in a game of seven-up. The play was even until the close of the second game, when the drummer received four kings and an eight-spot. A queen was turned up. “Great Heaven!” said the drummer. “Mr. Dabor, I visht it vas boker. If ve vas blayin’ boker I would bet you my whole bun-dell.” “How much is your bundle ?" asked the noble Senator from Colorado. “Two hundred and fifty tollar,” replied the drummer. “Well,” replied Tabor, “if you give me the queen which is turned, I will go you.” . “Tun,” said the drummer, and Tabor picked up the queen. “Dot ees a shnap,” whispered the drummer, showing his hand to a man in the next seat. “I should smile,” answered the man laconically. “Voodyou like to bet some more, Meester Dabor?” asked the commercial tourist, with an insinuating smile. “Yes,” said the neble Senator, “I have a fair hand; I will make it $500.” “I has only fiftey, ” replied the drummer, and he made the bet good for S3OO. “What has you got, Meester Dabor?” “Four aces,” answered Colorado’s favorite son, showing the fatal one-spots. The drummer was perfectly paralyzed, and unable to speak, while the noble Senator stowed the pot in his togs. Slowly drawing a cigar from his pocket, Colorado’s favorite was about to light up and withdraw, when the drummer recovered his sense of speech. Leaningforward he said, “Eet ish all right, Metester Dabor; you has won the money sgquare; but great Heaven! Mr. Dabor, vot had der g-veen to do mit four aces ?”

His Reasons.

The attorney for a Maryland railroad which killed a passenger was trying to effect a cheap settlement with the father of the victim, and finally said: “Now, sir, was not your son almost dead with consumption?” “Yes, sir.” “He would have died anyhow within a month?” “Yes, within a fortnight.” “Then why do you demand SI,OOO damages?” “Well, the case is right here. If he had died at home I should have got a S2O coffin, had a quiet funeral and put in three hours’ work cutting corn the same afternoon. Being he was killed qway from home and the news spread around, we had to keep dressed up for four days, buy a SSO coffin, hire a regular hearse, and feed and lodge over twenty relations who had no call to show their noses. It'a a damage of at least SSOO, and the other half won’t more’n jfay his debts and get a headstone up.” He got his money.

A man who can’t < xcite envy or jealousy needn’t expect to excite admiration and respect. The man who has no enemies cannot boast that he has any friends,

Keifer.

Ex-Speaker Keifer has left the city in the midst of a shower of condemnation from members of Congress and the press, on account of his bad treatment of the newspaper correspondents and for again tampering with the corps of official reporters of the House. His removal of the official stenographers, Messrs. Hayes and Devine, during the first session of this Congress, was simply to make room for the appointment of incompetent dependents of politicians. Neither of the men has been able to perform the duties of his new position with the accuracy required for official shorthand reporting, but the removal of one of them to provide a place for the Speaker’s nephew, who is still more incompetent as a stenographer, is regarded as a baser prostitution of a difficult and responsible official position that has been exempt from changes for personal or political purposes. Mr. Keifer’s nephew will draw a salary amounting to $3,749 without performing any duties, and next winter, when Keifer comes back to Congress and receives, by the courtesy of the Democratic Speaker, a committee Chairmanship, the nephew will be made clerk of the committee at a salary of SIBO a month. The late Speaker scrupulously provided for his family during the term of the last Congress by appointing another nephew to a clerkship at a salary -of $1,400, and his own son to a clerkship at a salary of SI,BOO. During the same time, the nephew who has been made one of the official stenographers drew a salary at the rate of $1,600, and the Speaker’s brother-in-law was made a United States-Judge through the influence of the late lamented Keifer. It is expected that the corps of official reporters will be restored next winter to its former condition of efficiency by the reappointment of Hayes and Devine. — Washington telegram.

Ex-Speaker Keifer returned to Washington in a ruffled state of mind on account of the almost unanimous condemnation of the last acts of his administration. He. spent a part of the day in the Speaker’s room at the Capitol, arranging his business affairs, preparatory to a long vacation. He no longer has control of the stenographers and other employes of the House, and they do not dread his tyranny and greed. Before the scepter dropped from his hand he bulldozed Dawson, one of the committee stenographers, into a promise that he Vould divide his with Tyson, the stenographer whom Keifer had removed to make way for his nephew, Mr. Gaines. Dawson ventured to remonstrate against the injustice by informing the Speaker that he had great need for the salary, and had incurred obligations that he had expected to meet with the full salary, but that he would consult with friends as to whether he should promise to surrender half of it to Tyson. Keifer gruffly informed him that friends had nothing to do with the matter. He must consent at once or tender his resignation. The poor fellow saw that he must lose all of his salary or so he chose the latter. The next step was the removal of Tyson and the transfer of his office and salary to the Speaker’s nephew, Mr. Gaines, who wifi, if the extorted agreement is carried out, draw as much money during the next nine months as both Dawson and Tyson. Dawson has been advised to repudiate the agreement, now that Keifer has no power over him, but it is more likely that Tyson will refuse to profit by the misfortune of his friend. In any event Gaines will fatten in the new pasture furnished by his provident uncle. The return of the ex-Speaker has brought out these among other details of his transactions with officials of the House, and they are talked about at the capital without regard to the presence of that gentleman.— Washington telegram.

Prohibition in Maine.

From Portland, Me., comes the information, published in the New York Sun, that an examination of the books of the Collector of Internal Revenue at Portland shows that the number of licenses to engage in the wholesale and retail liquor business granted by the United States authorities to the citizens of Maine during the year beginning May 1, 1883, is as follows:

£■ ' f Towns and Cities, p Towns and Cities. 3 a Augusta... 22 Houlton 18 Bath 31 Lewiston 62 Belfast 21 Oldtown. 18 Biddeford 68 Old Orchard 12 Bangor 154 Portland 212 Brunswick 11 Rockland 53 Eden 11 Richmond 11 Ellsworth 10 Saco 10 Gardner * 16 Skowhegan 10 Hallowell 10 Waterville 20

The examination further discloses the fact that “the towns and cities in which the number of licenses varies from one to nine swell the total number of licenses in the 172 towns and cities included in the examination to 1,162. Allowing two men in each instance, we have a grand total of 2,332 men engaged in the licensed liquor business in Maine. No absolutely correct estimate can be made of the number of persons engaged in the business, to a greater or less degree, without a license, but good judges, put their number as high as 200 in Portland alone, and at about 1,000 in the State at large.” In view of such facts and figures, what must be thought of Maine as a prohibition State ?

Curtain.

Thirty-five millions of tax taken off tobacco, cigars and banks, $11,000,000 off sugar, and not a cent off lumber, iron, clothing, or any of the necessities of the poor man’s life; taxes added on to glass and dishes and fence-wire rods and knit goods, this is the record of the infamous Forty-seventh Congress, the rottenest legislative body that ever disgraced the American continent. It is enough to make any dead man, who had in life any sense or patriotism, turn over in his grave and howl to see men voting for representatives who sell out to the lobby. There never was so big nor so corrupt a lobby in Washington as the one that swarmed there this winter and bought, bulldozed and bullied that infamous bill through the infamous Forty-seventh Congress. It was a lobby bill, and it is enough to make an American blush with shame to see, now and then, an lowa farmer siding in with the lobby. It is the last Republican Congress that will ever sit in Washington. The robbers’ bill was passed solely by the power of the party lash. Even Dunnell, of Minnesota, and An'enon, of Kansas, on whom we had depended to

NUMBER 8.

help xis tqk® this question out of party politics, “whispering they would ne’er consent, consented." When they see this, thousands of Republicans all over .the liberty-loving, justice-loving West, who voted for Republican Congressmen last fall, will thank God that their votes did not elect a Republican Congress. If they have come to the Democratic party in platoons for a year past, they will now come in regiments and armies. There is no place else to go. Congress, like corporations, probably have no souls. They ought to have them and there ought to be a receptacle for them in the innermost recesses of perdition—not that we care, but it would be such a satisfaction to decent Republicans to think the soul of the newly dead Forty-seventh Congress had gone there. It is the only Congress they have had for eight years, and it stole the people blind the first year, and the next year raised the tax on dishes and stockings and woolen goods and reduced it one-half on tobacco and refused to reduce it a cent’s worth on lumber. If a Democratic Congress does no better, then so much worse for the Democratic party—that is all. How long will the patient ass bear the burden ? How long will the free American people ask the greedy monopolists of Pennsylvania how much tax they shall pay and what they shall pay it on ? We shall see. — lowa State Leader.

political Notes.

Mb. Keieeb wishes the great American public to understand that he never swears. As Disraeli once said of Gladstone, Keifer hasn’t a solitary redeeming vice. Mb. Robeson has gone from us, probably for ever. Foreign nations may discover his absence in the fact that our future naval appropriation bills will be less formidable than formerly. Senator Van Wyck remarked with great earnestness, during a late debate in the United States Senate, that “Brewster,” as he signs himself, was “robbing the people in order to punish star-route robbers.” It looks that way. The President is taking very good care of the men who last fall couldn’t carry their own districts. A general White House order is understood to read: “Come unto me, all ye that were kicked out by the people, and I will give ye an office. ” The gallant Benjamin F. Butterworth retires from public service without achieving his dearest wish—the passage of the whisky bill. However, there is sufficient Whisky out of bond to prevent private life from being utterly intolerable to retiring statesmen. The Government has refused to pay salary to Tom Ochiltree, and the statesman from Texas is accordingly very careful not to get into any poker game with such men as Tom Bowen, Vest and Blackburn. He probably would prefer safe games with such innocents as Edmunds and Hoar.

It appears that Thoman, the Ohio member of the Civil Service Commission, is proverbially successful as an office-seeker. His friends call his new appointment “Thoman’s luck,” and a correspondent at Youngstown, where he lives, says: “It would surprise no one if Thoman wefte to become President of the United States, Governor of the Sandwich Islands, or King of France.” It is plain enough that Thoman is a genuine Ohio man. A number of Democratic papers have taken up the rebuke administered Randall by Mr. Hewitt, the other day, and, without an exception, they pronounce it timely and just. Randall’s commit-tee-packing business is generally admitted to have killed him off for the Speakership. He might as well throw away ambition and make up his mind that it is not on the cards that he shall succeed Keifer as a committee packer. A Washington correspondent says that Blaine and Chandler are holdingfrequent “midnight conferences,” and that a few nights ago “Mr. Chandler and Mr. Blaine emerged from the latter’s house at a late hour and walked around an adjacent square until nearly half-past 2 in the morning, engaged in earnest conversation. ” This might look like some dark and hideous political conspiracy, if it was not well known that Mr. Blaine is trying to prevent ' Chandler from making him a Presidential candidate. Fitz John Porter will be compelled to look to a Democratic Congress for the relief to which he is rightfully entitled. In spite of Mr. Logan, the bill for his restoration passed the Senate; but, owing to the pressure of tariff and other business, it was not reached in the House. Representative Bragg, however, did not let Congress close without getting in a valuable word for the wronged man, and his thorough and careful speech, which, indeed, is one of the best that has been presented, will serve as a useful guide and basis of action for the next Congress.

Keiteb has left a long record of meanness as a Speaker, and his last act in that capacity added a long black mark to it. He has a nephew who professes to be a capable short-hand writer. In order to give him a job, he requested one of the regular House reporters to resign. The latter had performed the winter’s duties faithfully, and Keifer himself could allege nothing against him, but, a nephew of Keifer's being in need of a job, there was no power on earth to save his head. The salary is $5,000 a year, and the ex-Sen- - ator’s relative will draw about $4,000 before being obliged to do a stroke of work. It was a great oversight in the tidal wave of last fall to permit the escape of Keifer.— Chicago Times. What a woful mess everybody seems to be in over the effect of the last monstrosity of Republicanism, the new Tariff bill. It is a veritable “What is It.” Read this Washington special: “It was stated by Republican orators in the final debate on the Tariff bill that by it there would be a reduction of at least $75,000,000 annually in internalrevenue taxation and in customs duties. The officers of the Treasury Department take a different view of this. They have examined the bill carefully. They say at the Internal Revenue Bn-J reau that there will not be a reduction of taxes greater than $35,000,000 annually, if it is that, and it is said at the Customs Division that the reduction •will not be more than $20,000,000 or $25,000,000 annually in customs taxes. The reduction in internal revenue this year which will be caused by the bill will be about $6,000,000. Of that $4,000,000 comes from the tobacco tax, sl,500,000 from the tax on special stamps and about $500,000 from the tax P® other stamps," ; ,; s «

THE DEHOCHMIC SEHIIIEI. OUB JOB POINTING OFFICE Has better facilities than any office in Northwestern Indiana for the execution of all branches of /OB PRINTING. AST PROMPTNESS A SPECIALTY. “W Anythin?, from a Dodger to a Price-List, or from a Pamphlet to a Poster, Mack or colored, plain or fsncv SW BatHfaMW nnaranteed.

INDIANA STATE NEWS.

Lauba Vincent, a loose woman, took her own lite, by means of laudanum, at EvansviUe. .1 Chables Mappin, * W-year-old boy of Blackford county, was killed by a falling tree Tua German Lutheran Church and parsonage at Logansport burned lately. Loss, >30,000. A school building at Marion caught fire, and 200 pupils escaped without a single casualty. Recently a large quantity of bogus gold coin—so, >5 and >lO pieces—has been put in circulation in Southern Indiana. • The Beach Medical College has just been incorporated at Indianapolis Both sexes are admitted to all departments A little colored boy at Indianapolis had both feet froxen some time ago, and has had them amputated. He will recover. The saw-mill and machinery of David Cammick, located near Muncie, were wiped out by the flames, inflicting a loss of >5,000; Insured for >2,000. John Simons, of Vincennes, while shooting fish, pulled his gun toward him by the mattie, with the usual result His death was instantaneous The Rose Polytechnic Institute, which was liberally endowed by the late Chauncey Rose, at Terre Haute, opened with highly interesting ceremonies The Hancock county bee-keepers have organized an association. A little son of Louis Kleespries, of Jeffersonville, was drowned recently in an excavation that had been made in beginning the construction of a cistern. Daniel Woods, a noted Character of Indianapolis, who claimed to be 106 years of age and to have fought under the Iron Duke at Waterloo, died the other day. Sunday afternoon the wife of Geo. Hutton, of Columbu-*, gave birth to a boy weighing eleven pounds, and Monday afternoon gave birth to a girl baby weighing nine pounds Almost the entire one side of Main street, In Michigantown, has been consumed by firs AU were wooden buildings Loss in goods and property, >7,500, with but little insurance. •

Rev. N. Carr, Financial Agent of the Franklin Baptist College, has undertaken to ratee an endowment of #300,000 for the college, and is said to be meeting with great •niccess. Near Carlisle, while hunting, Ed. Johnson accidentally shot and killed his cousin, George Weils. Both are young men, and stand well in the community. Johnson la almost crazy with grief. Greene; and Sullivan oounties are now one judicial circuit. Hon. George W. Buff, of Sullivan, is the new Judge. His term of office will expire in 1888, Capt John Dr Alexander will be the Prosecuting Attorney until 1884. The Henry county Commissioners have granted the petition of Knightstown for a substantial bridge across Blue river, southeast of that town. The county will pay about #6,000 and the corporation of Knightstown #3,000 of the cost ■> Mrs. Barkemier, of Widner township, Knox county, died last week, at the age of 109 years. She came to this country from Germany about 15 years ago, and a short time before her death was quite vigorous, and had good eyesight Mrs. Lucinda Forman, aged 90, and her maiden daughter, aged ' 51, who lived together near Royalton, were found murdered on their premises. No clew has yet been obtained to the perpetrators of the deed, whose motive is supposed to have been robbery. 1

The Evansville City Council has contracted with the Brush Elebtric Light Company to light the city by electric light for a term of five years. The company is to erect twelve towers of 150 feet m height, for which the city is to pay to thd company the sum of $16,000 per year. 1 Gov. Poirnsß has vetoed bills to amend the law providing that doors of public buildings 1 shall swing outwardly by exempting seminaries and sohool-houses; and the bill for the removal of mill-dams and other obstructions from water-courses to prevent the overflow of lands Gov. Pobteb has pardoned William Farley, who was sent to Jeffersonville penitentiary from Greencastle for four years, for burglary. Farley is the convict who escaped and came in person to Gov. Porter to ask a pardon, failing to obtain which he returned, unguarded' to the prison. Tub Board of State House Commissioners has instructed Architect Scherer to commence work on the new plans for the completion Of the building, the purpose being to prepare for the emergency and relet the contract without unnecessary delay, in case the present contractors should'throw up the Job. John DBABDyvk’ an old bachelor living three miles and a half north of Hartford City, was robbed of $lO6 in money. A party named Aaron fthoten was In his dwelling at the time. A man disguised entered the dwelling and struck the old gentleman on the head, apd then secured the trunk containing the money and fled.

A TERRTfii.B accident occurred at Crawfordsville, on the crossing of the Indiana, Bloomington and Western railroad and the Alatna pike. The hack which carries the between that place and Alatna was struck by the west-bound passenger-train, and the driver, John Green, and two passengers, Mrs. John Clark," of Waynetown, and Milton Rush, of ■ Alama, were instantly killed. 11 ,Its April, 1880, Miss Anna L Hoffman, of New Albany, was run over by a railroad train, and her right arm and left hand cut off. ’ Through skillful treatment her life and her leff'turm were saved. A reporter who visited her a few days ago found her in good health, cheerful, and making herself generally WemL aid of an artificial hand, made by her father, she can pump and carry water, bring i» coal, write a good hand, and play the* pinup almost as dexterously as an uritnaimed persoh. Tkb Diocesan Qpnyention called for the clept4on,pf,a successor to the late Bishop Talbot was held at St Paul's Cathedral, and, after several ballots, selected Dr. Isaac L. Nicholson, of Phlladelpbla, to the vacant Bishopric. Dr. Nicholson is one of the most prominent Episcopal ministers in the country, and has a national reputation as a pulpit orator and theologian. He is 42years of age, and a graduate of Dartmouth College. In hia early manhood ho spent several years in his father’s banking house at Baltimore and subsequently studied for the ministry in the Theological Institute at Alexandria, and, after finishing his course, became assistant rector at St. Paul’s. (Baltimore. He was afterward rector of Wet (.minster parish, Baltlinbre, and uhoqt three years ago was appointed to St. J.wX.s parish, Philagelpbm, where he has Unco remained.