Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 August 1894 — Page 4

A SONG OF HOPS. Never mind about the weather, if it hails, or if it snows: Never mind about the weather, If the world has one sweet rose I Never mind about the weather, pray your prayer and sing your song: Soon the ships will sail together—sight the harbor lights ere long I Never mind about the weather, though the storm be sweeping far; . Back of all there beams the rainbow and the splendor of a star! Never mind about the weather; for the loneliest ship draws near— O’er the blackest of the billows, where the harbor lights shine clear. —[Atlanta Constitution.

canine’s Lover.

BY WILLIAM G. LEE.

At the head of a picturesque little valley high up among the foothills o f the Boston mountains, a turbulent little stream rushes abruptly and with boisterous conceit froTTi a cavern in the face of rocky, overhanging cliffs, bearing the befitting title of Roaringßiver. On tjie banks of this noisy boaster, out of reach of its threatening power, though still commanding an excellent view of its mysterious source, I sat late in the afternoon of a sultry July day. Satiated with the ceaseless whimsicalities of the stream and lulled by the silent surroundings and my comfortable seat I had relapsed into a meditative mood, from which I was suddenly aroused by the greeting, “How d’ye do!” in an easy, drawling tone. I turned toward the speaker, a man some thirty-two or thirty-three years old, tall and broad-shouldered, hollow chested, of loose build, with long, straight, yellow hair and ragged beard of reddish hue. He was clad in coarse homespun cotton shirt and snuffcolored jean trousers. His feet were shod with coarse cowhide boots, the bottoms of his trousers legs caught up and held by the ear-like straps of his heavy footgear. “Powerful warm,” he added, as he leaned a long, muzzle-loading rifle against my tree, and mopping the perspiration from his face with a red bandanna handkerchief worn loosely about his neck, he proceeded to let himself down the bank to the water’s edge, where, stretching full length upon a huge flat rock just above the surface of the stream, and laying aside his broad-brimmed hat, he projected his lips until they met and dipped the water simultaneously with the end of his nose, and indulged in potations long and deep. “I reckon you’re the new school teacher,” he said after he had regained the top of the bank. I replied in effect that I enjoyed that distinction.

“Wall now, I’m right glad to see you Mr. Wilkeson, ain’t it?” he inquired. “Wilkinson,” I responded;. “W-i-l-k-i-n-s-o-n, Wilkinson. Do you live near here? “Yas, down on the first clearing this side of Dr. Tyler’s plantation, jest at the foot of Hog’s Back. My name is Joslyn. Ike Joslyn everybody calls me.” “I am very glad to have met you, Mr. Joslyn,” I said. “I wish to make the acquaintance of all the people in the district as fast as I find opportunity. Have you any children? I have none of your name on my roll yet, though I am told that as soon as the season of cultivating the crops is past, there will be quite an addition to the number of pupils now in attendance.” “Wall, yes,” he returned, “I’ve got four. They ain’t none of um old enough to go to school, though, but Hetty, and she has to take care of the rest. Jest as soon as I can git any one to take care of the house and children, I’m going to send Hetty to school. Hetty takes to lamin’. She knows all her letters now,” he said with evident pride. “How many scholars have you got?” “About thirty.” “I s’pose Nate Watson’s children go?” looking at me inquiringly. “Yes,”{l answered, “I have eight from there.” “ The school’s a mighty good thing,” he continued presently. “ I wasn’t raised in this yere backwoods country, I came from Pike county, Illinoiz, and I believe in gettin’ an ejykashun. I never had much chance when I wuz a boy. I’d like to go to school now,” he added with increasing earnestness. Ike’s earnestness impressed me, nay inspired me, after the discouragements of my short experience as a public school teacher in the woods of Arkansas. Did not the Hon. Obadiah Wellman, State senator, preacher, planter and shoemaker, learn to read and write after he had married and become the father of a family? And Andrew Johnson, at one time chief executive of this great nation, was he not taught by his wife, writing and arithmetic?

I was late that night and supper was waiting for me. Betsy Ann’s jaws were working. The widow and her twenty-five-year’s-old daughter, Betsy Ann, seldom indulged in the extravagant habit of dipping snuff, but Chewed plug tobacco of their own production and manufacture as a substitute. Whatever the cause, all sign of Betsy Ann’s disturbed equilibrium disappeared when, seated at the supper table, I rehearsed my interview with Ike Joslyn. “Jest like him,” said the widow. “He’s a terrible vacillating sort o’ man. Those Pike county fellars are never no account. “He’s got a nice piece of bottom land, but he’s too lazy to fence it in and clear it up, and he keeps on crapping that upland, and it’s so poor that it won’t scarcely raise sassafras now. He ain’t got more’n three acres in his clearin’ anyhow.” “Pretty near four,” says Betsy Ann. “Did Ike say anything about protracted meetin’ ?” said the widow at breakfast table the following morning. I looked up inquiringly and she continued: “It’s about time they had it, most everybody’s got their craps laid by and if they wait too long,, first pinkin’ll come on.” “Deacon Brown said last Sunday he thought they'd have it about a Monday,” said Betey Ann.

The next day, Sunday, the inn I shone brightly and fervently. In the aftemoon’Jim and I made a hunting expedition. Late in the day, weary ; and warm and laden with wood ticks, we emerged into a clearing and were 1 greeted with the regulation hubbub ot dogs. Recognizing the home of. Nate Watson, we stopped to quench our thirst and rest our weary legs. Mr. Watson’s family of four children by his k first wife, Mrs. fjye ghildrgn by a former husband, and three children, fruit of the present alliance. On this occasion the children were all, except Caroline and the two younger, in the corn and cotton fields. Caroline was helping her mother about the kitchen, a small detached building about a rod from the main house. Mr. Watson, a tall, powerfully built man, clad in the regulation coarse homespun cotton shirt and jean trowsers, minus shoes and stockings, sat on the porch just putting the finishing touches to his rifle, which he had evidently been cleaning. Ike Joslyn lounged beside him. Upon my asking for water, Nate called: “Car’line, bring the gen’lepim some yptfer/’ A moment later I caught a glimpse of a female figure in calico gown and i sunbonnet disappear by a path from j the hqusq. into a thicket of growth pines and sassafras, and directly after emerge, coming toward us carrying a wooden bucket.' When she reached the porch and deposited the brimming pail of spring water with drinking gourd, although she never raised her eyes, which were deeply hidden in the great homely sunbonnet, but turned immediately and retraced her steps to the kitchen, I saw a pretty sun-browned hand, two small, perfectly-shaped bare feet, and just the merest glimpse of a dainty little chin beneath a sweet, tender mouth that I knew belonged to a girl in her teens. “Why should she hide her eyes in that ugly sunbonnet?” I thought, for she must have pretty eyes. I was conscious that Ike’s gaze followed her intently as long as she was in sight, though neither of them spoke. The Sabbath day, though hotter than ever, found the old log church with no of loneliness. A large congregation had assembled. The interior was filled to the very doorways, and listeners with uncovered heads stood outside at the windows. A few colored people stood in respectful attitude just outside of the doors, to catch the utterances of the speaker, sometimes loud and vehement rising to a frenzied pitch, and again descending in low solemn tones to a whisper, succeeded by a pause of awful and threatening silence. In closing the preacher announced that the protracted meetings would commence on the morrow, to continue for the remainder of the week, and the week following, if the interest already manifested did not abate.

One after another the days of revival passed. Every day I opened my school, then dismissed my pupils and as in duty bound attended the meetings. At last the great revival was over. Another Monday morning had come and the world seemed bright and beautiful as I walked briskly along the forest road toward the old log church to resume again my school duties without interruption. In all my thoughts of the work again about to commence, the face of Caroline was vividly prominent. And as I drew nearer the old log church all else seemed to retreat into the background and fade entirely from my thoughts. I should learn to know and understand her now as no other could, as I assisted and guided her innocent mind in the pursuit of knowledge. Perhaps as I corrected her copy or assisted her in the knotty problems of written arithmetic I might accidentally touch the pretty hand or the soft, wavy hair. “Look a yere! where’s that yellarhaired, white-livered,- sneakin’ Pike county horse thief gone with my gal?” A mighty grip seized my shoulder as in an iron vise, and wrenching me rudely from my blissful dreams, twisted me around until I faced the angry, murderous gaze of Nate Watson. He had overtaken me coming from the trees to the left of the trail, and had thus savagely seized me before I was aware of his presence. We were standing on the bank of Roaring river by the tree where I had first seen Ike Joslyn. “What do you mean, Mr. Watson?” I replied in a surprisingly calm voice, considering my state of mind. “Where’s Ike Joslyn gone with Car’line?” he demanded. “Ike Joslyn with Caroline!” I repeated with such evident astonishment and dismay that he relaxed his hold and his hand fell heavily to his side.

“Didn’t you know the dirty ‘kioty’ had ’loped with Car’line?” he asked almost plaintively. “Eloped with Caroline!” I could only repeat in my dazed surprise. And then as the true meaning of his words gradually dawned upon my confused intellect, a most painful dread seized me. Eloped ! I had only thought in a bewildered sort of way of his kidnapping her. “Yes, they went to Devil's Gap and were married last night, and nobody knows which way they went from there,” he said. “ Walter Simms jest came from the Gap and says Parson Jeffries told him they rode up to his place on Ike’s old grey mare about nine o’clock last flight and he married ’em. I 'lowed you helped him work up his deviltry he interested in school and you tooFsich blamed lot o’ stock in him, urging him to go. I’ll kill him on sight if old Bess don’t fail me,” he added, as he raised the famous rifle to his shoulder and sighted across its baryel at an imaginary Ike Joslyn. We walked toward the church, Nate giving vent to his angry denunciations of Ike, and I explaining how far my suspicions were even of such a plot, and expressing my sympathy as best I could, all rather mechanically, for I had experienced such a revulsion of feeling, on the sudden awakening from my bright and happy dreams, that I was in a state of mental collapse and unfit to play the part of sympathetic sage. “Great heavens!” I thought, “that sweetfaced, gentle child sassively following that lout to be made his wife!” 1 j | | ;

The day, as all days must, wore away at last. The happy anticipations born in the bright, beautiful morning were never realized. The exercises were painfully tedious. The pupils, during intermissions, were gathered in excited little knots, discussing the last sensation. I was glad to get through with itall and go back to my boarding place. It is cijjipuj hgw th j hgart qezels at times I against the strongest array of facts. ■ My faith in Caroline was stronger than the most damaging evidence that ipould be brought against her. By the time I had reached my boardingplace I was persuaded that Caroline was the helpless victim of the villain Ike. That she was his mesmeric influence, being either drugged or hypnotized, and had allowed herself to be wedded to him while not responsible for her actions. • “Merciful heavens!” I thought, “what must be her mental torture when she regains her right mind.” About dinner time Jim put in an appearance. “Hello!” he cried, when he caught sight of me, “Ike’s come back.” I nearly fell off the rail fence, where I had perched myself with a hatful of peaches, in the desperate effort to arouse myself from my miserable broodings. He could not have stuqqed me more completely with a sand bag. “Here’s a tragedy now surely,” I thought. “Won’t any one put Ike on his guard?” Jim again disappeared immediately after dinner. The afternoon found me in a worse state of mind than in the morning. “What could I do to avert this certain calamity?” was the burden of my thoughts. “Hello, Mr. Wilkinson, won’t you go to the shivaree (charivari)?” cried Jim; “we’re goin’ to shivaree Ike and Car’line.” So absorbed was I with my miserable forebodings that I did not see Jim until he thus aroused me. “Good gracious!” said I, “he isn’t going to stay to be murdered, is he?” “No,” said Jim, evidently astonished at my state of mind; “we’re goin’ to make a powerful lot of noise though. It might kill him if he hadn’t been married before.” “But, Nate?” I exclaimed, in a tone of anxious inquiry. “Oh, Nate’s got cooled off, so I reckon he’ll know enough to look out for his own neck.” By the time that Jim was ready to start, I had decided to go with him, fearing Nate, on learning what was going on, -might work himself into a passion. At the old log church we found a crow’d of men and boys horns, cow bells, guns and every conceivable instrument for producing discordant, terrifying and torturing noises. The motley company, some on foot and some on horseback, presented a weird and mysterious appearance in the gathering gloom, and reminded me

unpleasantly of the stories of the Ku-Klux, so familiar to one’s ears in the early days succeeding the war of the Rebellion. As we left the clearing about the church the darkness of the forest became intense, and the prvailing heavy silence, but for the steady tramp of men and horses, and the occasional snapping of a twig, seemed to fill my very soul with a most portentous foreboding. After a time the heavy darkness, enshrouded and pressing down upon us like a suffocating pall, seemed to lift a little, and the thick darkness was succeeded by a comparative light. The dim outlines of those who were ahead loomed up in the gray gloom now surrounding us with exaggerated proportions. We were approaching Ike’s clearing. Cautiously and silently we advanced toward the cabin whose dim outlines we now discerned. The old log house was dark and silent as the grave. I could not enter into sympathy with the rest of the crowd. A presentiment or intuition of impending evil seized me. Not a dog barked. No sign of life seemed to exist about the place. Suddenly, at a signal from the leader, the most unearthly, hideous noise filled the air and re-echoed far into the forest, seeming to my overwrought imagination to possess the very universe. Just as I began to wonder if I had really met the eternal doom of the unconverted through some imperfection of creed, a door suddenly opened, a flood of light poured forth and the noiSe ceased. “Come in, boys,” Ike’s goodnatured voice exclaimed, as he slouched into the doorway. They were prepared for us. The dogs were still whining from fright inside, where they had been secured for the occasion. As I entered, I beheld Nate in the foreground seated in a high-backed armchair, the seat of honor accorded the favored guest, holding a young Joslyn on each knee, the young stepmother standing modestly behind him, blushing and happy.—[Orange Judd Farmer.

Russet Oranges.

A little item in the New York Com fectioners’ Journal, in which golden russets and small dark russets are incidentally stated to be the best keeping oranges, has called to our mind a very general experience which we have never seen referred to in print. We buy for our own table consumption russet oranges in preference to bright orangey, and yet in our official work we are in constant receipt of requests from orange growers for methods of destroying the rust mite. The hardening of the skin of the orange from the w’ork of the rust mite undoubtedly keeps them juicy, improves them for shipment, and retards decay. The selection of bright oranges was a fad among growers and wholesale buyers which did not last. The time has come when russet oranges for shipment command higher prices and when remedial treatment for the rust mite is only necessary for a great excess of this Acarid. The change in public opinion in this matter shows that utility governs even sentiment.—[lnsect Life. She (nestling up to him) —I know we are poor, papa, but Charlie says that love will make a way. Her Esther (grimly)—Yes, yes. It has made away with about eight tons of coal and SSO worth of gas in the last twelve months.—[Truth.

HERE’S A QUESTION.

ONE DESERVING OF SERIOUS CONSIDERATION. Don’t Decide Hastily When You Go to the Polls ThU Fall—The Great Tariff Ke form victory of 1893 Was Not Spatmod le. How About Your Vote ? It is undeniable that some of those who voted the Democratic tickets in 1890 and 1892 intend to vote the Republican ticket this fall. Before so doing, such voters should ask themselves a few questions and try to answer them seriously. Why did I vote the Democratic ticket in 1890 and 1892? Because I was opposed to McKinleyism and to Republican extravagance and hypocrisy. I had, in fact, begun to doubt if there is any virtue at all in protection so Jar as labor is concerned and the whole question centers around labor. Have the Democrats done any better ' than the Republicans? They have certainly not fulfilled expectations in some respects; but, on the whole, I must admit that they have probably done better than the Republicans would have done had thej' been in power a year longer. What unusual difficulties surrounded the present administration when it entered into power? There were several: (1) The Treasury, which contained $100,000,003 surplus when it was turned I Over to Harrison in 1889, was empty, i It was only by peculiar bookkeeping that Secretary foster succeeded in keeping the reserve fund intact—on paper. (2) The Sherman silver pur- 1 i chase act was driving the gold out of circulation and out of the country and i threatening to depreciate our currency by forcing us to drop to a silver basis. (3) The Hawaiian quetion was in a muddle. The secret and well-laid plans of Secretary Blaine to cause a revolution in Hawaii and to have it annexed to the United States during Harrison’s administration had miscarried. leaving a complication of affairs which would have taxed the mind of any president. (4) And this is the only difficulty that would not have presented itself to a Republican administration. Because of the threatened reduction of protective duties, thousands of protected and Republican manufacturers were in a mood to shut down their mills or to reduce wages and charge it all to the wicked Democrats.

How has Cleveland met these complications? (1) He hss reduced expenditures about #50,000,000 a year, and has, with the aid of a small issue of Government bonds, kept the Treasury out of bankruptcy. No Republicand could, under the circumstances, have done more. (2) The Sherman silver act precipitated the periodical panic which was about due. As soon as he deemed it possible to repeal this act, he called a special session of Congress for this purpose. Sherman himself helped to repeal his own foolish and bad compromise act. Meanwhile the momentum of the panic, which had become too great to be stopped by the repeal of the silver act, was augmented Dy the calamity howls and acts of wickedly partisan Republicans and selfish protected manufacturers. (3) The Hawaiian entanglement has been settled in about the only safe way possible, after the minds of both countries had been poisoned by Blaine's jingoism. (4) Nine administration Democrats out of every ten have done about all that has been possible to stay the financial and Republican calamity panic by trying -to pass a reasonable tariff reform bill. They would have succeeded long ago but for the united opposition of all Republicans and a few in their own ranks. They have not, as was supposed, a working majority. What will the Republicans do if they regain power? They are likely to retain the McKinley bill with slight alterations, mostly in favor of the protected trusts which supply the “fat” for Republican campaigns. Republicans are praising the McKinley bill and charging the present panic to the Wilson bill; and yet they know the repealed Sherman bill and the McKinley bill, which is still in force, were far more responsible for the past year’s depression than the, as yet, unborn Wilson bill. They know that strikes, riot i. and wage reductions were coming thick and fast during the first two years of McKinleyism and before the election of 1892. In the summer of 1892 armed forces were quartered in four different States for the purpose of suppressing labor riots. The Homestead strike, with Pinkerton accompaniments, cannot be charged to any Wilson bill, or Wilson bill shadow. It is true that slow progress hai been made in reforming the tariff, but I must admit that the great majority of the Democractic representatives have made an effort for an honest revision. The Democrats have done their part. If I continue to support the party and insist upon electing real Democrats good results will follow. B. W. H. Cleveland's Reassuring Words. If anymen think that President Cleveland has weakened in his tariff principles during the last vear they should read his letter of July 2 to Chairman Wilson. In this letter he declares himself freely on the subject of free raw materials. He says: One topic will be submitted to the conference which embodies Democratic principle so directly that It cannot be compromised. We have In our platforms and In every way possible declared In favor of the free Importation of raw materiala We have again and again promised that this should be accorded to our reople and our manufacturers as jsoon as the Democratic party was Invested with the power to determine the tariff policy of the country. The party now has that power. We are as certain to-day as we have ever been of the great benefit that would accrue to the country from the inauguration of this policy. and nothing has occurred to release us from our obligation to secure this advantage to our people It must be admitted that no tariff measure can accord with Democratic principles and promises or bear a genuine Democratic badge that does not provide for free raw materiala In these circumstances it may well excite our wonder that Democrats are willing to depart from this, the most Democratic of all tariff principles, and that the inconsistent absurdity of such a proposed departure should be emphasized by the suggestion that the wool of the farmer be put on the free list, and the protection of tariff taxation be placed around the iron ore and coal of corporations and capitalists. How can we face the people after indulging in such outrageous discriminations and violations of principle? It is quite apparent that this question of free raw materials does not admit of adjustment on any middle ground, since their subjection to any rate of tariff taxation. great or srjiall, is alike violative of Democratic principle and Democratic good faith. Strikes and High Tariff. The Baltimore Sun shows that the cause of the great discontent and frequent strikes of American labor for the past thirty years can be traced to no other cause but our disastrous protective tariffs. The Sun adduces from the mercantile statistics of the country the vast number of business" failures, and it points out with unanswerable

FORBEARANCE CEASED TO BE A VIRTUE

The gentleman applying the paddle is the Mr. Cleveland that you read aboi** in 1892.—Chicago Record.

argument the inseparable connection between these failures and the distress, dissatisfaction and revolt of labor. It says: If the constant stimulation of higher tariff rates could, as their advocates claimed, have given business larger profits and labor larger pay, the last twenty years must have witnessed a steady decline In the number alike of business failures and labor strikes. Instead of that, both have gone on increasing together. From 1873 to 1882, Inclusive, ten years, 74,978 failures are recorded In this country. That was unprecedented. Butin the eight years from 1883 to 1892 the more appalling total of 82,090 failures was registered. . . . Their number rose to very nearly 11,000 In 1890, the year of McKinley’s climax tariff. The next year, protection having .touched the high-water mark of all our history, the list of insolvents touched high-water mark, too, and 12,273 failures were the melancholy product of the last and greatest effort to tax the country into prosperity. And this tale of disaster was overtopped again in 1893, after two full years of the highest tariff ever enacted, by a grand total of 15,569 failures, representing liabilities of $462,000,000. This showing confirms the view of the New York Herald that the cause of the recent great strikes was to be traced to “protection.” Surely partisanship may well pause and yield to patriotism in the light of these historical facts. Labor cannot be t-atisfied where business is paralyzed. Congress may now well take to heart the closing words of the Sun: Manufacturers tied up to a home market that Is not equal to the output, and agriculture forced to Bell its products In the cheapest and buy Its supplies In the dearest market must both be relieved. Larger markets, freer trade and a fairer chance for all is the demand of the hour. Not a Sectional Measure. The attempt of the McKinley organs in both parties to arouse sectional prejudice against the tariff bill because the Democratic conferrees are mainly from the South is not warranted by the measure itself. The bill as it stands provides for free wool and free lumber. Texas alone had 4,334,551 sheep in 1893. This is three times as many as New York had. It just about equals the number of sheep in the five great Western States of Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota and lowa. Missouri and Kentucky, two other Southern States, have nearly as many sheep as all the New England Statesand New York together. Are not Georgia, North Carolina and other Southern timber-producing States as much affected by free lumber as any Northern States'? As passed by the House the bill made coal and iron ore free. It is hoped that the conference will result in a restoration of this Democratic policy. Are not Alabama. Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland large producers of these articles? The sugar bounty, of which Louisiana is the chief beneficiary, was voted by a Republican Congress, and is repealed in the pending bill. Whatever may ba the defects of the compromise measure it is not a sectional bilk There is not one more tariff for trusts and bounties in the bloody shirt. —New York World.

Why Seek a New Issue ? Republicans claim that the attempt to reform the tariff by even so moderate a measure as the Wilson bill has sealed the fate of the Democratic party in the next Congressional and Presidential election. Now, we ask every man of common sense, if the Republicans have any confidence in what they say, would they not be anxious to avail themselves of what they sometimes call the reaction against tariff reform, and insist cn forcing the fight from now on upon the tariff issue? But what do we find? Reed and Lodge, and even McKinley, scouring the woods for a new issue, straddling the silver question in State platforms, and trying to deceive the free silver men by a decoy duck in the shape of a proposed commercial war on England and other foreign nations that will not accept free coinage of silver. After excluding foreign nations from our ports for thirty years by a high protective tariff, what terrors will this hare-brained scheme have? Tom Reed is too bright a man to believe that any foreign nation which is not now using silver wdlild be driven to its use by such a policy on our part. But these men are shrewd politicians. They know that the protective tariff is doomed in the United States, and that the people will no longer tolerate any party that stands in the way of reforming the tariff dowhward. They know that the discontent that is now’ agitating the Democratic party is due to the surrender of some of their representatives in Congiess to the protected monopolies. They see that the only hope of the Republican party lies in securing a new issue. With this motive they have hypocritically jumped astride the silver is ue and hope by ambiguous language to de-

ceive the friends of free silver coinage It is doubtful whether they can do this, but their main hope would be realized if they could only divert the Democrats from the tariff as the chief issue. They will be disappointed.— Oakland County Post Understand Themselves. There has been a tendency among those Democrats in the Senate who have not been in sympathy with the advanced tariff reform which received the indorsement of their party at the last national election, to imply that public judgment is hastily reached and may be as hastily abandoned. The implication is unwarranted. The great tariff reform victory of 1892 was not spasmodic. It was not the result of a jaunt, but of several hard and toilsome campaigns. The Democratic party had begun a tariff propaganda as far back as 1876, and had maintained it consistently and courageously. The tariff question had figured in the campaigns of 1880, 1884 and 1888. The general trend of public opinion was away from prohibitive duties, and this tendency was accentuated when the prohibitive McKinley bill became a law. The processes *by which that public judgment was reached were deliberate and logical. They .represent the conservatism of the people. It was difficult to convince the countrv that protection was a fraud. It will be equally difficult, if not impossible, to convince it that protection is a blessing. It must first see the effects of an honest effort to reform the tariff. In no event will it rest satisfied with the Senate compromise bill. The people understand themselves. —St. Louis Republic. Taxes and Votes. The silly suggestion is make that it the income tax shall be adopted in this country those who pay it will be by virtue of that fact entitled to “a larger voice in politics” than the men who pay no income tax. If this preposterous idea of special privileges for those who pay special taxes has any force, it would endow with tremendous power the men who pay the whisky tax. This tax is paid by a special class, numbering but a few hundred. Did anybody ever think of claiming for these men a “larger voice in politics” than they can get by one vote each, or by bribing legislators or corrupting officials? Upon a great many articles in the tariff the tax is paid directly by half a dozen importers. Does this constitute them a special class, entitled to special privileges or powers? The idea is puerile, not to say idiotic. Suffrage in this country is based upon manhood and citizenship, and not upon money or taxes.—New York World.

Who Invented the Piano?

The honor of inventine the piano is claimed by the English, 'French and Germans. Father Wood, an English monk at Rome, is said to have been the real inventor 1711, and to have manufactured one which he sold to Samuel Crispi, the author of “Virginia,” from whom it was purchased by Fulke Greville, though Count Carl! claims the credit for Bartholomeo Christofori, of Padua, during his stay Florence, some three years later (1714). The French attribute the invention to a Pa"isian named Marius, who, they allege, produced in 171 W a harpsichord in which hammers had been substituted for the old plectrums or quids. The Germans are the last in the field, with J. C. Schroder, of Dresden, who claimed. (1717) when 18 years of age to have constructed, after much consideration, the model of a new clavier, with hammers, upon which he could play loudly or softly.—New York Commercial Advertiser.

Old Appomattox Deserted.

The old town of Appomattox, Va., is entirely deserted, with the exception of five or six families, of whom only one—that of a Methodist clergyman —is white. A syndicate bought up all the property a few years ago as a speculation, and when the owners got their money and signed their deeds they moved away, leaving their houses empty. The Court House was burned about the same time, and a new one was erected at the railroad station, about three miles distant, where a considerable town had sprung up. The McLean house, in which the articles of surrender were written and signed, was purchased by the syndicate ana taken down, brick by brick, for removal to the World’s Fair, but for some reason the plan was not carried out, and the bricks and timbers are still stored in the vacant houses in the neighborhood. Many bad business smash-ups result from running too many trains on a single track. The man who acknowledges a favor generally pays his other debts.

DISPERSED BY SAUERKRAUT.

Peculiar Cause of the Children Quitting the Old Home. They were talking about the desertion of farms by the younger generations for the alluring charms of the cities; how young men and women left the home nest in the country as soon as they felt any confidence in themselves and flocked to the paved streets and brick walls of urban life in the hope that work would not be so hard and money would come easier. “Our family furnishes a case in point,” said a young German, who has latterly appeared in minor roles in twenty-fourth ward democratic politics. “We’re all in the city now except the old folks, who stick to the farm, and are doing pretty well. Our reasons for abandoning the farm, however, were not those usually given, and I doubt if a parallel case can be found.” Then he told his story: With two brothers and three sisters he lived on a farm 100 miles from Chicago, and they all aided a phlegmatic old father in operating the place. It was a fine piece of land, and the family was happy and prosperous. But dark disaster came in the shape of a cabbage crop. The Chicago market showed a strong demand for sauerkraut, and the farmer decided to go in for a profitable crop. With the three boys he planted several acres in cabbage, with excellent results. The crop was cut up and packed and there were 350 barrels of the finest sauerkraut made.. Communicating with a friend in the grocery business on the North Side, the farmer received an order for ten barrels. A few days later the grocer announced that the best he could offer was 85 cents a barrel, the top market price. The old man couldn’t stand such a drop as that, so he had the shipment returned, paying the freight charges both ways. Purchasing forty fine young pigs, he began fattening them on his highgrade sauerkraut. All went well for a few days, but the porkers soon tired of the diet and began to run from it. The pile grew high, and a few of the stronger pigs jumped the fence and ran away, while others sickened and grew weak from starvation. It was a puzzler for the old man, but he was determined to derive some benefit, and the boys lugged the stuff up to the orchard near the house, where it was spread about as a fertilizer. By this time the entire family grew turbulent at the mere mention of sauerkraut, and when the sun poured its hot rays on the pickled cabbage the girls rebelled. The farmer was odurate. and the three girls packed their effects and came to the city. The kraut became so powerful that even the old man could not stand it, and the boys were instructed to cart it down to a distant field and spread it. The boys had been on the verge of mutiny several times, and this settled it. They all “ lit out ” for Chicago, and have been here ever since. The girls are in service, and once in a great while they all meet with the lonely and disappointed old Teuton on the farm. When it was all over the Chicago sauerkraut market went booming again.

A Young Eagle.

The eagle, as many of you know, is the king among birds, just as the lion is the king among mammals. It is strange that these birds which display the greatest strength when full grown give no sign of these qualities in their youth. The royal eagle, just emerged from the egg, is the most helpless creature under the sun. Wrapped in a thick white coat of . down, he slips out of the shell, and for many days afterward the young bird lies huddled against the broast of the mother-bird, for it cannot even sit up straight. Weeks pass by before it can trot about the nest. The first sign of the flapping of the wings does not occur until the bird is ready to leave the nest. The young birds are amply fed by their parents with meat, which the latter digest in their craws before feeding it to the little ones. When they are about half grown the eagle nest looks like a slaughter house well stocked with provisions. The parent birds scour the neighborhood for miles, gathering all the prey they can. When the birds are full grown they are permitted to leave the nest. The parents go with them, teaching them first how to fly and then how to assail and steal their prey. By that time autumn has come, and now the family separates. The youngsters leave the parental nest, and sometimes roam about for eight or ten years before they set up an establishment of their own and in their turn raise young birds. In 1719 an eagle died in Vienna, Austria, who had lived in captivity for over 101 years.—[St. Louis Star-Sayings. ,

Old Age and Hard Work.

The Lancet says that old people make a great mistake .when they give up work. Many men who have made a competency in business and feel entitled to retire from active work, find themselves declining in health and becoming prematurely old for want of occupation. In most aged persons the vital functions continue in active exercise under normal conditions; but if the regularity and moderation of business life are departed from trouble will surely follow. On the other hand, the Lancet held that “if in any direction it is allowable for competitors in the race of life to dispense with self-con-trol, it would appear that they may, to a great extent, use this liberty with respect to physical and mental exertion.” In other words, we must not eat too much, or drink too much, but we can study hard and take plenty of exercise not only without harm, but with the best results, and if old people wish to live out all the days they should find plenty to do both for mind and body. Butcher—Have you any orders this morning, madam? Young Wife (who is keeping house}—Yes; that calf’s liver you brought me last week was very fine. I want another orie, but be sure and get it from the same calf, as my husband is very particular.