Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 May 1893 — DECLINED TO BE DISCHARGED. [ARTICLE]

DECLINED TO BE DISCHARGED.

ri»e Colored Wood-Carrier of the Senate Hadn’t Time to Talk Nonwuse. One very humble office-holder of the Senate force will probably be left in his accustomed place. John Brown, the wood-carrier, is the most picturesque as well as one of the oldest attaches of the Senate. He wears a tall, shaggy cap, his clothes are the color of the wood he carries, and his face has the same mahogany hue. On his back and shoulders is a hod, like a large brick hod, always piled with such a load of wood that his old frame bends under it. The expression on his face has beeome stolid from hard work, and no one ever catches him smiling. He trudges in and out of committeerooms all day, and even on many a winter night till morning, to pile the wood that burns next day for the pleasure of Senators and their friends. There is an open fireplace in every committee-room, as without this the badly ventilated parts of the Capitol would be dangerous in their dampness. John Brown tends all the fires on the Senate side, and steals in and out of committee-rooms so quietly that he is hardly thought of; but Kate Field’s Washington says he is an artist at his trade and can make a fire burn when no one else is able to. Lately a woodpile fell on him, breaking his leg, and a few people who had an idea John Brown was getting old and useless found it took two young men to do his work, and then they growled all the time because they had too much to do. John has remained undisturbed for years in his place, no one having tried to oust him except once. Ser-geant-at-arms Bright once found the pressure upon him for places so great that in desperation he decided to discharge John. He sent for him and the old wood-carrier came shuffling in. “Yo’ want me, Mis tab Bright?” asked he. “Yes, John; I want to tell you I’m going to discharge you.” “What's dat, Mistah Bright? Discharge me? Oh, go ’long, Mistah Bright. I ain’t got time to talk wid you. Go ’long.” And John Brown put on his cap, shouldered his hod and shuffled out, still muttering that he had no time to talk of “sich trifling nonsense.” Mr. Bright was surprised, but that was the last attempt ever made to oust John, who is now considered indispen.^tble.

Good* But Not True. A story is widely quoted that Phillips Brooks, when about to graduate, went to the President of Harvard College for advice regarding the choice of a profession, and that the president said: “It is well, in such a case to lay aside impossible professions. Now, on account of the impediment in your speech, you could never preach.” This is so good a story that it is a pity to spoil it, but the Christian Union says that after the election of Mr. Brooks as bishop he was asked about its truth. “I did consult with the president," he answered, “and he encouraged me to choose the ministry; be did not tell me I could not preach because of my stammering, because I never did stammer, you know!” Then he spoke, with some amusement, of the permanence of such groundless reports, and said that he had that very week received a letter from an English boy who was a stammerer, and who begged to know, for his own sake, how Dr. Brooks had been cured. “1 shall have to tell him that I can’t help him at all!” he concluded, with a touch of i egret.

Fish Recognize Their Food* It is a well-known fact that seaanemones have a sense by which they recognize food. This has been studied lecently by Herr Nagel, at the Zoological Station, in Naples, and he has endeavored to localize it. Among other experiments a small piece of a sardine was brought carefully to the tentacles of one of the animals; the tentacle first touched, then others seized the food and surrounded it, and the morsel was swallowed. A similar ball of blotting paper, saturated with sea water, brought near in the same way, was not seized. If, however, the ball was soaked in the juice of fish it was seized with the same energy as the piece of fish, but often liberated again after a time without being swallowed. Blotting paper saturated with sugar acted like the other, but more weakly. If saturated with quinine, it was refused, the tentacles drawing back.

Treasure Trove. A curious story of treasure trove comes from Borne: “The Order of Benedictine Monks, while digging the foundation of their new monastery, on the Aventine Hill, which is to be dedicated to St. Stanislaus, fount! what they took to be an earthen pot full of common coins, w r hich the monks hawked about, selling them for a franc apiece. This fact would have passed unnoticed but the brethren quarreled over their booty and the police interfering captured over forty of the pieces out of the original 400 coins, which turned out to be gold medals of great value. Everybody connected with the find has been arrested except one workman, who managed to escape with sixty medals of the date of the second century, and struck by the senate and people of Borne in honor of the conquest of Armenia by Lucius Verus.”

Scaring Birds with Bell . ‘ Some of the farmers of the Eifel, the district that lies between the frontier of Belgium and the Bhine, adopt a novel plan for scaring the birds from the wheat. A number of poles are set in the corn fields, and a wire is conducted from one to another, just like the telegraph posts that are placed along our railways. From the top of each pole there hangs a bell, which is connected with the wire. Now, in the valley a brook runs along, with a current strong enough to turn a small water wheel to which the wire is fastened. As the wheel goes round it jerks the wire, and so tlie bells injthe different fields are set tinkling. The bells thus mysteriously rung frighten the birds from the grain, and even excite the wouder of men and women until they discover thersecreL This simple contrivance is found to serve its purpose very well