Indianapolis Journal, Indianapolis, Marion County, 26 May 1883 — Page 12

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CHURCH NOTES AND NEWS. Spain is to have a Protestant newspaper. It will be illustrated, and will publish religious news. There are 1,200 towns west of the Mississippi which are without churches or regular religious services of any kind. Disrapli wlipn taunted as to his being a Jew, replied: ‘‘One-half of the world worships a Jewess, the other half worships her son.” God compels us to learn many bitter lessons, that by knowing and suffering, we may also know the eternal consolations. —Burleigh. It is not a bad beginning for the new Archbishop of Canterbury that his first public appearance was as president of the Church of England Temperance society Lord Sbaftsbury, who is eighty-two years ofage, says the improvement in tiie religious condition of the English working classes during his memory is wonderful. The missionaries in the Sandwich Islands, having christianized nearly all the old inhabitants, are now turning their attention to the Chinese, who have settled there in large numbers. Twelve silver maples were planted at Ocean Grove in honor of twelve Methodist bishops on the recent tree-planting day. A tin tag attached to each indicates the bishop to whom it is dedicated. A widely-known D. D., complaining of his want of verbal memory, said that there was only one hymn that he always felt sure that he could quote correctly. That was, “I have a charge to keep.” The woman’s missionary societies now in successful operation number forty-eight; of these thirty-seven are-in the United States, four in Canada, four in England, two in Germany and one in Sweden. An imposing, spacious and costly structure has been commenced in Pittsburg for the use of the Young Men’s Christian Association which, it is estimated, will cost $50,000, all of which we believe has been provided for by generous friends. An important evangelistic movement is making rapid progress in the southern provinces of Russia, and even in St. Petersburg its influence is felt. It has for its foundation the simple preachiiig of the Gospel directly to the people by the evangelists. The Christian Union answers a conundrum as follows: “A Boston minister is reported to be searching for someone to tell him in ten words what is the ‘new movement’ in theology. That is very easily done. ‘Where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty.’ That is just ten words.” The latest statistics of the Methodist Episcopal Church show 18,152 churches—an increase of 256 over last year, 1.748,021 raemmembers—an increase of 34,917. Os preachers there are 11,976 local and 11,028 traveling ministers—an increase of 295 of the former and a decrease of 194 of the latter. A wonderful revival has come to the Adana station of the Central Turkey mission of the American Board. The accounts of the joyful experience read like the records of Apostolic times. Congregations of from eight hundred to twelve hundred people come to hear the word of God preached, and conversions are continually occurring. The Baltimore Methodist, in a sarcastic editorial on the circus which recently exhibited in that city, says: “Os course no Methodiste were there. No Methodist preacher peeped in with one eye and around with the other to see if any body knew him! No Methodist! carried his children at 1 o’clock to see the animals and stayed till 2 to see the performances of the ring! Oh, no! All, of course, saved their money to make liberal contributions to the missionary cause and to build new churches!” “Instead of dying out,” says the Central Presbyterian, “the Jewish bodv shows increasing vitality. They cannot be stamped out nor swallowed up. They pass from country to country to become practically masters Wherever they go. They get the land in Germany and Hungary and grow rich in Russia; they are the great bankers in London and Paris and the centers of European commerce. In ten (recent) years the Rothchilds furnished $500,000,000 in loans to England. Austria, Prussia, France, Russia and Brazil. They increase faster than Christians, aud of every 100,000 persons only 89 Jews die to 143 Christians.” Austria has not been looked upon as a very promising field for Protestant missions; but the Rev. Dr. Pomeroy writes from Prague a very encouraging account of the church there, which has had additions of new members at every communion season since its organization. The converts evince great fondness for Bible study, speak with readiness and fluency at the social meetings, “make their religion the most important part and the joyous part of their daily lives,” take good care of the sick, and last vear gave over 500 florins for Africa aud China! Taking into account the poverty of the people and the difference in wages, this is estimated to equal a contribution of from sl2 to sls per member from one ot our home churches. So good a report from Austria encourages the hope that Evangelical Protestantism may ipread rapidly through the empire. O the joy of the resurrection! All our sorrow is about the body. We commit it to the cold and silent tomb, but we know the body shall rise again. The doctrine of the resurrection of the dead is peculiar to Christianity. Philosophy had never spied it out, and never would nave invented it. It is a thing Rtrange and romantic. The immortality of the soul is apparent to every one wno chooses to think, but the resurrection of the body is a matter altogether of revelation. We know to what the body comes, to what base uses it doth come at last; but it shall rise again. It does not matter where it goes now. The sooner it melts altogether into mother earth the better. Let it die away. But there is a germ within, and a watcher over the dead, which guarantees the resurrection of that body with as much certainty as the resurrection of Christ himself. “Thy brother shall rise again,” said Christ. Thy wife shall rise again brother. Thy sister shall rise again, my friend. We shall meet again—all who are in Christ—meet never to part attain. Let us begin to love each other better; to care less for the world; to bo traveling onward. Let us hear the voice saying: “Boot, aud saddle; this is no resting-place for the army of the Lord.” Onward and upward. Henceforth be this our motto; and so let us go hence, with this blessing. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ who wept, and the love of God the Father, wdio saw his Son die; and the communion of the Holy Spirit, who is the Comforter of all they that mourn, be with you—be with all the suffering, struggling army of God, for Jesus Christ’s sake. Amen and Amen.—Spurgeon at the funeral of his brother’s wife. English Church and Temperance. Avery interesting meeting was held a few days ago at Lambeth paluce, the city residence ot the Archbishop of Canterbury. It was the annual meeting of the Church of England Temperance Society. There was a large gathering of bishops, aiid, as w 9 becoming in the circumstances, the chair was occupied on the occasion by the primate bishop. The twenty-first annual report was read by the secretary, Mr. Sargent. It showed that during the twenty-one years of its existence it had made very satisfactory progress. The report this year covered twentyseven dioceses, as against twenty-five of last year, and indicated an increase of memberships during the twelve months from 339,687 to 432,0/5. It was claimed that mainly through the agency of the society 20,019 seamen connected with the mercantile service had become total abstainers, and that in the royal navy they could now boast of some 12 000 The Cunard company at the instance

of the society had substituted coffee foi grog, and had ceased to provide intoxicants for crew or passengers. In the army, it was claimed, there were 20,000 abstaining soldiers. Great good, it appears, has been accomplished by the establishment of coffee taverns, street stalls and bar rooms, readingrooms, workingmen’s clubs, and such like. The society had raised during the year for its own special objects £22,827 —$114,135. The Last Days of Bishop Peck. George W. Peek, in Western Christian Advocate. Nothing that could be called complaint escapes his lips; while, on the other hand, the sunshine of Christian peace and hope illuminates his soul and sweetens his limited conversation. To some members of the family who manifested considerable emotion in his room over his increasing helplessness, he said, “You are becoming alarmed.” I said, “You are not alarmed, uncle?” “No,” said he, “I have with me the Prince of Peace; ‘l’m the child of a King.’ ” On Sunday last, in the midst of physical suffering and bodily wants, which we were trying our best to relieve, he said very deliberately, “My soul has no lack.” On overhearing us express some concern lest his pains and afflictions should become unsupportable, he looted up with surprise and asked, “Where are my afflictions?” Brave and beloved bishop! His trust in God is so complete that he finds no afflictions in the piercing shafts of the “grim monster,” death. He finds that “these light afflictions” are as nothing compared with the “eternal weight of glory.” DISESTABLISHMENT. Robert Laird Collyer on the Effect of John Brijfnt’s Speech. London Correspondence New York Tribune. The speech was powerful and pungent. Mr, Bright is simply a magnificent orator. He is quiet, reserved, without action, and with little gesture. He has a sweet, calm, sincere voice, and his language is simple, well-chosen and academic. He marshals his facts with military precision, and reaches climax after climax, and always closes his speeches with well-studied and nervous sentences. But with the great men of the English people the speech will not weigh a feather. The great mass of the English people are not doctrinaire. They look upon their church as a part of the history and life of the nation. They, moreover, believe that the union of state’, and church has worked well, and they have good reason for so believing. It is positively true, taken all in all, and all around, that the English is the most Christian nation, the most honestly religious nation on the earth! The Established Church is the stronghold of religion. Its endowments and resources are so vast; its machineries are so minute and multiform; its spirit is so tolerant and catholic, that by these intrinsic reasons it directs and dominates the religious life of the nation. The Church of Scotland and the Church of England in Wales will be disestablished, and ought to be speedily. The Scotch and the Welsh have no genius for the maintenance of an established order of religion. The Scotch are a hard-headed people, and the Welsh are a harder-headed people, and they are by blood and race dissenters; they are always suffering for a fight on any dogmatic or metaphysical question. The English are exactly unlike their Scotch and Welsh neighbors; they are conformists in all matters where no moral principle is concerned. The English hate “Philistines.” This inborn dislike of “Philistines” is very fairly portrayed in the writings of Mr. Matthew Arnold. The Church of England is just about the sort of a church the great mass of the people want; it is never very languid and positively never fanatic. It is a dignified, conscientious, far-reaching adequate Christian organization, and it was never stronger or surer of its place than it is today. FRANK JAMES. An Alleged Editor’s Plea in Behalf of a Red-Handed Murderer and Robber, Sedalia (.Mo.) Democrat. Within a few weeks a Daviess county jury will be called upon to hear the evidence adduced in the celebrated case of the State of Missouri against Frank James. For the honor, honesty and the retrieval of the State’s good name, we hope the jury will be an unprejudiced one, fully competent to sit in judgment upon a man whose career has passed from the realmsof a fabulous romance into that of history. Perhaps Frank James was a night rider in those perilous times when Southern blood in Missouri was hunted down, proscribed and bedeviled by tbe hellhounds of Kansas; perhaps Frank Janies was a daring leader amidst a band of guerillas whose names were a terror to the military thieves and cut-throats who plundered the border for the pleasures of ill-gotten gains; perhaps Frank Janies was foremost in every dashing charge that meant death to an armed enemy and scattered the bones of misled militia to bleach upon the broad prairies of the West. Possibly he was associated with Quantreli’s black fiag and all the attendant horrors of the border warfare, and perhaps he glories in the wild rides that carried vengeance and slaughter in their frightful train. But that was warfare. The tiine~has now arrived when amnesty should be granted; when the white-winged dove of peace should fly across the troubled waters and proclaim a landing-place for the bitter memories of the past. Everybody has been forgiven and forgotten except Frank Janies, who has come at last to seek rest and refuge within the coniines of a magnanimous Commonwealth, trusting all to the honor and honesty of a people for whom he has ten thousand times imperiled his life. It must be remembered that Frank James was not compelled to surrender. In his seclusion he remained as secure and invincible as ever he was upon the open prairie, when he defied an army of gallant soldiers. But he came at the instigation of friends, who promised him justice and fair play; promised him that no court of to-day would* seek to wreak vengeance on him for the conspicuous part he occupied in the annals of border warfare; promised him that no jury would now’ convict him on general principles, under the guise of an impartial and legal trial. Possibly lie had tired of tiie race for life; possibly he was weary of the night-riding and the constant perils of his existence; but he could have quietly remained in seclusion—as he has done for fifteen years without the formality and the added vexations of trusting to the minions of the law. With his brother murdered in cold blood, at the connivance of legal authority, and with the added peril to all who bore his name, he determined to believe the promises of his friends and yield his case to the judgment of an honest jury. The return of Frank James was a happy day for his wife and child; a glorious day for the State of Missouri. But it should be remembered that Frank James has returned under the honor of a flag of truce, and is entitled to an impartial hearing. Let the grave cover the resentments of the past, ana “let not Ctusar’s servile minions mock the lion thus laid low.” It is time to quit. It is time to hush the ranklings invoked by a memorable struggle. It is time to draw the veil of charity over the terrible past, and to deal honorably and fairly with Frank James—the last remaining link of a warfare that has no equal in the history of the world. A neat lambrequin for the mantel of a common sitting-room is made of a strip of crash about ten inches deep: fringe the edge to the depth of two or three inches, and then, after overcasting the edge where Jthe fringing ceases with thread of the same color, embroider in one color little figures which may consist of rushes and leaves alone if you please. If these figures are woven in the crash, it is a very simple matter to outline them; if not, they may be stamped on the crash itself or on paper, over which you may work it.

THE INDIANAPOLIS JOURNAL, SATURDAY, MAY 2G, 18S3.

THE MANDATES OF FASHION Ribbons will be used to excess in dress garniture. Silk-worm green is soberly announced as the latest tint in that shade. Velvet ribbons of bright colors will be used profusely on summer toileis. Sleeves of dresses and wraps are worn exceedingly high and full on the shoulder. Black velvet necklets are worn high about the throat and fastened by diamond studs. Pinked-out flounces of silk are used as a trimming for mantles, bonnets, gowns aud parasols. Fashionable ladies do not wear watches, since they are supposed to be oblivious of the flight of time. Pointed bonnet fronts, the large tournures, and high-shouldered sleeves are three features of spring toilets. Tinted linen lawns in gray and ecru grounds with figures in white are among the novelties for summer wear. Silk jersey gloves in strawberry red, pale yellow, nun’s gray, and black will be more in vogue this summer than kid gloves of any sort. Fans are to be worn suspended from the waist and en suite with the costume. They are made of figured satine, foulard or Chinese pongee, and are mounted on bamboo or colored wood. White mull morning dresses are made with a watteau plait from the shoulders, and are trimmed across the front with alternate frills of lace and embroidery. Salmon or darkblue changeable satin ribbons are tied in front in many bows. Millinery for mourning shows littlechange from season to season. Hats are worn only for neglige toilet —seaside and country, and perhaps for traveling, except for children and very young ladies. The proper shape is the close Quaker bonnet or capote. A person with a large nose will do well to wear much hair at the back of her head, so as to re-establish the balance. A long face is improved by something on top of the head—a snort one by a small and flat headgear. The dressing of the hair ought, if necessary, to be modified somewhat, so as to be in harmony with the attire. The newest red parasols are trimmed with ficelle lace, the lace being put on each gore in fan fashion. Many of the satin parasols have flower-brocaded linings, with lace arranged on the outside, to be carried with watteau costumes. Others are of chine silk or broche, edged with marabout. There will probably be more novelties presented before the season is over, but the flat Japanese-shaped sunshade has quite disappeared from good society. Graduates’ Dresses. Brooklyn Eagle. For young girl graduates white organdie, India mull, French nainsook, white grenadine and nun s vailing are used for the com-mencement-day dresses. A dress of white organdie is prettily trimmed with plaitings of the same and gathered ruffles of Valenciennes lace. The simple waist, too, is trimmed with the lace in a full jabot, which passes around the neck and down the front. A dress of India mull has several rows of fine plaiting on the lower skirt, full overskirt and a basque or pointed jacket. The waist and overskirt are trimmed with Oriental lace. Sprigged mulls are also made up for simple dresses of this kind. One style for these lias several gathered ruffles edged with lace for tbe lower skirt; the double overskirt, with a deep hem is also edged with lace. Others are made with lengthwise plaits in the lower skirt, with broad insertion between the plaits; with these skirts a short apron overdress is most stylish. The vest in the basque is made of rows of insertion. White satin ribbon, arranged in long loops and ends, is used at the side of the skirt or to ornament the hack. The white grenadines are made over satin surah or silk, and are trimmed with lace or fine silk embroidery. The sleeves of the grenadine are not lined, making them transparent. Dresses of white nun’s veiling are trimmed elaborately with lace or the embroidery which accompanies the pattern. The Grecian folds used on the front of these waists are very effective and becoming. Mourning Costumes. Philadelphia Press. Purple has fallen into disfavor since all the army of heliotropes, crushed strawberries and Judic shades have been added to the list of fashionable colors. Only lavender purples come under the head of legitimate mourning shades, and even these are best avoided. Dark purple pansies, lilacs, violets and heliotropes are w T orn for mourniug flowers, it is true; still, white blossoms are a better choice. A great deal of white is worn in mourning, pretty robes of snowy lawn or mull, trimmed with tucks and ruffles of the material, with footing or with the old-fash-ioned revereing, which is among recent revivals. Hemstitching, done by hand, is the expensive garniture used on very handsome white dresses intended for mourning. Such dresses are hemstitched in blocks, like tbe w’ell-known inull ties, and the expense of such trimming cor.U nes its use to the favored few. Pure white is worn in the deepest mourning, and for this sashes and belts of tbe dress material are preferred to black ribbons. Black stockings are, of course, the correct choice, and are worn with both black and white dresses, with low and with high shoes. The soft black surahs and lustreless American silksgrow constantly in favor for mourning, and no better traveling dress can be had than one of these. They wear well, are easily brushed free from dust, and the lack of gloss, which, with ladies wearing colors, is a common objection to theip, is in this case a very strong point in their favor. Sewing silk grenadine is a favorite fabric for summer mourning dresses, and these are always made up over lusterless black silk, surah or satin merveilleux. Tints, Fabrics and Patterns. New York Tribune. The finest mull and silk muslin bands delicious creamy tint are simply headings to wide applique of the delicate fabric on lace heavy w|th the richest silk embroidery. Pongees also have the same style of trimming in the applique on net. One of the new designs of this work is called the wind-mill, being made to imitate the shape of wind-sails when turning round. That the passion for Oriental fabrics is constantly increasing is no marvel when played in these charming dusky olives and pale creamy or rich amber grounds covered with delicately embroidered flowers, as tbe glowing pomegranate, water lilies, the pyramidal foliage of the lotus, or the simpler toilets for tea gowns and matinees at home. Black has by no means lost its prestige. In fact few toilets are so becoming or so successful as elegant black fabrics. Silk, satin aud satin mervelleux combined with the new su|>erb brocades from a street toilet charming in its simplicity and absence of color. The jetted net is used over colored silk or satin or black with the addition of several lace flounces of either silk, Spanish or French lace. Henrietta cloth and exquisitely fine black cashmeres present a striking appearance in some of Worth’s inspirations when combined with white silk with the graceful addition of quantities of lace. That polonaises are as popular as ever is an evidence of not only good but economical taste. A fine black cashmere polonaise should be considered among the indispensable articles of the wardrobe. It is a great mistake to cut brocadeß and other heavyfigured satins into flounces or plaitings or other trimmings. The simplest styles of the sixteenth century are artistic and elegant in their graceful beauty. The brocaded skirt is plain, opening in front over a brocaded breadth of another color or shade; the waist is cut half-high with a fall of lace, long and

rounded behind; the sleeves reach to the elbow with ruffles. Puffed and slashed sleeves are not only artistic but picturesque; or there can be a puff at the elbow and one at the shoulder. Nothing can be more becoming to the arm, especially if not well rounded, as six horizontal puffs from the shoulder to the wrist, graduated, finished at the wrist with a ruffle and at the top by a small epaulet. THE HOLY CITY. A Novel Fire Brigade—No Insurance Companies, But Plenty of Noisy Talk. Jerusalem Letter in Boston Advertiser. During the past eight months we have had but two alarms of fire. One occurred at midday and the other during the night, but neither of them would have deserved notice in a New England village. In one case some articles in a storeroom took fire and caused a slight damage, but had the fire continued until the entire contents of the room had been consumed, it could not have extended beyond the room itself. In the second case a small pile of rubbish behind a certain house took fire, and on this occasion the “fire department” of Jerusalem was called out. This consisted of a few soldiers, who started out with their guns as though they were going to a battle. In the front of them marched four or five men with broad axes. These men and soldiers constitute the “lire brigade,” and this is the only time after several years of observation, that I ever saw or heard of such an organization in this city. Supposing that such a brigade really exists, they have no buckets, pails, ladders, engines, or any of the other appliances which belong to this service in our country. What do they want of engines, pails and buckets in a place wiiere there is no water? What is there to burn where the houses are ail of stone? It would be almost impossible to create a conflagration, for there is nothing to burn. Consequently there are no insurance companies, for no one wants his property insured. One can go to bed at night feeling absolutely certain that whatever other evils may befall him, that of fire, so justly dreaded in our land, will not visit him. It will thus be seen tnat there are some compensations in living in a house of stone. Such a house may be in danger of falling down in winter when the walls become thoroughly soaked by the rains, but it can never be in danger of being burned. When these soldiers and men with axes had got fairly turned out and started they did not appear to be in the least hurry. They walked along as deliberately as though they were marching in a funeral procession. In fact, a fire occurs here so seldom that people do not know how to act when there is one. Thev are evidentiy puzzled to know whether to laucjh or cry, to sit still or run. Speaking of fire insurance companies, there are here also no life insurance companies. In the Turkish empire human life has not in the past been considered as particularly valuable, and although things have changed slightly for the better, yet a company of the kind would find little encouragement among the beggars, lepers and impoverished people of the Holy City. But are there no brawls, no drunken fights, no street or saloon quarrels where the police interfere, which a newspaper man could “work up” in telling shape? Quarrels here seldom reach the point of blows. There are quarrels of words of the most desperate character, and if a stranger were to witness one of these he would imagine that each of the parties was about to smite, stab or cut his opponent to death. They do nothing of the kind. Why there should be so much terrific talking and so little actual fighting it is not easy to explain. Possibly the climate and no doubt the character of the people have something to do with it. It is a fact, however, that one witnesses here very few fist fights. They scream, shout and gesticulate in the wildest manner, and instead of tearing their antagonists they tear themselves to pieces. In all the Jueet outbreaks there is a vast amount of threatening done. Disputes frequently arise between the peasants who come to the city to trade and the townspeople, and the country people are sometimes beaten by the aristocratic city folks. The peasants at such times are very non-combative, but they say to the city people who have handled them roughly, “Just come down to our village and we’ll pay you for this.” The coffee shops of the city are almost numberless, and some of them enjoy a bad reputation, being merely what are termed in America “liquor holes.” Very few coffee or drinking shops remain open in the evening, at least after 8 or 9 o’clock, while the most of them, like the shops in the city, are not kept open after sunset. Thus a great deal of carousing by night is avoided. In these places, however, one often hears singing, loud talking and cursing; indeed, all the audible signs which poor liquor produces upon depraved men. A large number of these drinking places are kept by Greeks, and Jerusalem is not the only eastern city that has reason to complain of the injurious influence of the ordinary representatives of that particular nation. In connection with the saloons to which we have referred much might be said of the drinking habits of the people. To the superficial observer there would appear to be but little drinking and little drunkenness in the Holy City. Fewer drunken men are seen upon the streets than would be seen in any city of similar size in Europe or America. A TERROR IN TALL TIMBER. A Webfoot Hunter Tells Wonderful Tales of His Exploits. A. J. Wylaml, in Oregon City Enterprise. A short time since, while hunting in the woods, I came across a she bear standing erect on a log. She looked savage, and had her ears laid back on her neck. I put a bullet in her skull, an inch above one eye, and she rolled off like a bundle of chips. As the gun cracked, up a young cedar climbed a couple of cubs I loaded the gun, and found the mother stone dead. I looked up at those two young whelps, and concluded that I wanted ’em for pets. So, putting down the gun, I started for them, and as the climbing was easy, I was soon able to reach them. 1 grabbed one by the back of the neck, when he let go all holds and went to work scratching with a vengeance. The blood flew, and you betl gave liim a welt that knocked him as limber as a mop-rag. I then stuffed him inside the bosom of my shirt, as he was senseless, and grabbed the other by the head, and he set up a yell that could be heard for a mile. I quickly knocked him senseless, too, and put him on my shoulder and commenced to descend. Just at this point the one inside my shirt crawled around onto my back and dug his hind claws into my back just above the belt, and put his arms around my body, when both commenced to fight me. You bet I got to the ground in a hurry, threw the one on my shoulder to the ground, put my foot on his neck, choked him senseless until I could tie him, the other one all the time trying to tear all the meat off my back. I grabbed him by the fore foot and pulled, but he held on with his hind feet. I then pulled him by tbe hind legs, but he held on by his front claws, and I couldn’t pull him off either way. I then opened my collar wide, and lay down alongside the one that was tied. Presently he came out and made for a large tree that was near, but I caught and securely tied him, too. His long, nice silky hair felt nice to my pelt, but his claws—Oh jiminy! They were about the size of a raccoon, but could outscratcb seven wildcats. One would imagine that they were so small that they could be handled without any danger, but thev can turn themselves around in their hides and be always facing you. It was about two miles from home, and after awhile I got tired of carrying them, and they followed me like two little dogs. My advice to all young hunters is that if you catch a young bear don’t put it in your bosom, as I shall carry the scars mine gave me as long as I live. Every House lo tbe human race, ought to have St. Jacobs Oil, tbe paiu-yure.

BIRDS OF INDIANA. Written for the Indianapolis Journal. The Scarlet Tanager, This “ball of fire with sable wings” is the most dazzling of American birds. “The scarlet tanager flies through the green foliage as though it would ignite the leaves,” says Thoreau. Once seen by child orman this fiery apparition is never forgotten. In South America and Mexico there are upwards of 300 different species, from slenderbilled and warbler-like varieties to those with stout, conical bills and closely related to the finches. Our single genus, Pyranga, has a stout sparrow-like bill. They are fruit and insect eaters, and hence migratory. They live in woods, lay four or five dark speckled eggs; they nest in trees and are fair songsters. The seasonal and sexual difference in color are extreme. The male of our species, Pyranga Rubra, is brilliant scarlet, with wings and tail black; the female is clear green above, yellowish green below. They are common spring and fall immigrants, a few remaining to breed. Dr. Coues makes them the text for a brief but vigorous onslaught upon the custom of adorning wearing apparel with natural history specimens. Ido not agree with him, and see no reason why the skins of birds, fireflies and butterflies are not as appropriate aud fitting ornaments as plants and flowers. He says: “These birds are famed for the beauty and variety of their coloration, being among the most-frequently exhibited in the show-cases of the bird-stuffers and milliners, as well as on the headwear of fashionable ladies, who have degenerated into walking advertisements of wretched taxidermy, in their rage for barbaric ornamentation of their persons. The style used to be to wear plumes selected for their beauty of coloration or their gracefulness oi shape, but the itch of savagery has broken out with aggravated symptoms, to be satisfied with nothing short of an ornithological museum. I once counted the feathers of no less than fifteen different kinds of birds on the dress of an Indian squaw; but then her alleged husband had one necklace of grizzly bear’s claws and another of human finger-tips; and circumstances alter cases, you know. It seemed to me less singular than the case of another woman whom I examined w’ith some care shortly afterward, on whose bosom rested a gilt-tipped tiger’s claw, from whose ears depended two claws of the same animal, in whose hair nestled the greater part of the external anatomy of the bird known as the shitepoke, and to whose loins a live poodledog was tied by a long blue string. Such a toilet, I think, would be far more effective with the rouge and lily-white in streaks, instead of layers, and a fish-bone through the nose. It is not that the tanagers are not highly ornamental, but that they are sometimes out of place.” The place to see the tanager to best advantage is in the early Maywoods. I well remember my first vision of this bird, and can sympathize with Dr. Coues in his early wonder, and take pleasure in presenting these extracts from his “Birds of the Colorado Valley,” a work only to be found on the shelves of naturalists. It was issued by the Interior Department, and is not for sale, although one of the most desirable contributions to American ornithology. “I hold this bird,” says I)r. Coues, “in particular. almost superstitious recollection, as being the very first of all the feathered tribe to stir within me those emotions that have never ceased to stimulate and gratify my love for birds. More years have passed than I care to remember since a litlle child was strolling through an orchard one bright morning in June, filled with mute wonder at beauties felt, but neither questioned nor understood. A shout from an older companion, ‘There goes a scarlet tanager!’ and the child was straining eager, wistful eyes after something that had flashed upon his senses for a moment as if from another world, it seemed so bright, so beautiful, so strange, ’What is a scarlet tanager?’ mused the child, whose consciousness had flown with the wonderful apparition on wings of ecstacy; but the bees hummed on, the scent of flowers floated by, the sunbeam passed across the green sward, and there was no reply, nothing but the echo of a mute appeal to nature, stirring the very depths with an inward thrill. That night the vision came again in dreamland, where the strangest things are truest and known the best; the child was startled bv a ball of tire and fanned to rest again by a sable wing. The wax was soft then, and the impress grew indellible. Nor would I blur it if I could, not though the flight of years has borne sad answers to reiterated questionings—not though the wings of hope are tipped with lead and brush the very earth in soaring instead of scented sunlight.” Wecertainly owe a great deal to the scarlet tanager, if it only led Dr. Coues, this prince of later ornithologists, to the study of American birds. Audubon and Wilson took fire in the same way. the latter from the redheaded woodpecker, which so Kindled his enthusiasm that from the day he saw it his life was turned to the study of birds. We have also in southern Indiana the sumner redbird, pyranga testiva. In this species the male is bright rose red throughout; the wings a little dusky. The female is dull brownish olive. It is the size of the lauager, about seven inches long. The red crossbill is one of onr rarer redbirds. The male is dull brick red; the female brownish olive. This and its ally, the whitewinged crossbill, are northern and mountain birds about six inches long and are rare winter visitants throughout the State. They sometimes breed in the pine woods. Both species were abundant about Cincinnati the winter of 1808-69. Fletcher Noe, the young naturalist and taxadermist of this city tells me he has taken a number of crossbills this winter. The Latin name of the genus curuirostra relates to the singular shaped and crossed mandibles with which they skillfully husk out the seeds of the pine cones from their tough scales. The European species is the subject of the poem translated by Longfellow from the German of Julius Mosen: On tbe cross tbe flying Savior Heaveaward lilts bis eyelids calm, Feels, but scarcely feels, a trembling In bis pierced and bleeding palm. And by all tbe world forsaken, Sees be how, with zaious cure, At the ruthless nail of iron A little bird Is striving there. Staiued with blood aud never tiring. With its beak It doth not cease; From tbe oross ’twould free tbe Bavlor, Its Creator’s Son release. And tbe Savior speaks In mildness, "Blest be tbou of all tbe good— Bear an tokens of this moment, Marks of blood and holy rood!” And that bird Is called tbe orossbill; Covered all with blood so clear, In the groves of pine It slngetb Bongs, like legends, strange to he*r.” Our species is often accidental in Europe; often taken in Great Britain. They have been seen crossing the Atlantic, 600 miles off Newfoundland, before a stiff westerly breeze, and ten or twelve were secured from the rigging of the vessel. Many of our common land birds, following the Atlantic coast or crossing its curves, during tbe autumnal migrations, at a great height from the land, are caught up in the great belt of westerly winds, about 20° wide, having its greatest intensity about latitude 45°, and are carried—that is, such as do not perish—across the Atlantic to Europe. Some sixty or more species of our birds have thus found their way to Europe. The Bermudas, 700 miles off the nearest land (Cape Hatteras), ure supplied mainly in the same manner. A number of European land birds

reach North America by autumnal movement, by way of Iceland and Greenland, being caught up, in part, by the reverse current of winds blow’ing from northern Europe to northern America. And so we find the birds subjected to the great winds of heaven, which, like mountain chains, forests, river courses, moisture, altitude and temperature, modify the unerring impulse which, acting alone, would probably lead the bird to fly due north in the spring and south in the fail, as the sun moves north or south across the line, with the awakening train of animal life and vegetable growth on which the life of the bird depends ever in his rear. Alembert W. Brayton. MISS HARRIS’S BASE-BALL NINE, Dusky Dolly Vardens of Chester Give an Exhibition. Philadelphia Times. A reporter to-day found a number of persons, white and black, lounging under the maples in the Lamokin woods, when suddenly a dusky damsel, with a red and white jockey cap stuck upon her head, a short tight-fitting pink and white sheeny calico dress enveloping her form, and a pair of cricket shoes on her feet, suddenly emerged upon the scene. She carried a baseball bat over her right shoulder, and she strode over the greensward with many strides. Ail the loungers roused themselves to stare at her. A poorly-dressed young colored woman planted herself with arms akimbo in front of the apparition in the flaming cap, and said: “Fob de Lord’s sake, am dat you, Ella Harris?” It was indeed Ella. As the scarlet ribbon supended on the bosom of her calico denoted, she was the captain of a woman’s colored base-ball nine called the “Dolly Varden, No. 1.” She paid no attention to the question, but said in a loud theatrical “aside:” “Well, I nevah! I declare them Philadelphians ain’t come yet, and we wont be able to have dat match nohow. I will go to the station and fetch ’em right hyar.” Then she shouldered her bat again and stalked down through the maple glade and disappeared in the direction of the Lamokiu station. At 5 o’clock the woods were suddenly startled by the yells of half a hundred ragged little darkies. “Here dey come, hoorah!” they cried, as they rushed to the edge of the wood. Presently there appeared a group of colored girls as gaudily dressed as their captain. One wore a calico scarlet dress trimmed with blue, another pink trimmed with white, another cardinal-red trimmed with yellow, another blue trimmed with white, and all wore red and white peaked caps. Some carried bats, some croquet hoops and mallets, and one or two ropes, which impaired the stateliness of theif triumphal progress. Tbej r marched down to a hollow in the glade, and there held an indignation meeting. It was unanimously agreed it was a shame that the Philadelphia colored famale base-ball nine known as the Dolly Vardens No. 2 had not come to the scratch. “It’s my belief for sartin,” said Captain Ella Harris, “dat dem dar Philadelphia female wimmen has missed the train on purpose and took water.” The ground was marked, however, with a rope, lest the Philadelphia champions should arrive, and Captain Ella Harris placed her men as follows:* “Cord Patten, youjstand dar, kase we wants you to be our umpire.” I’ll stand hyar ,kasc I’m goin’ to be short stop. Mollie Johnson, you’ll be fust base; Sallie Jonstone, you be second base; Lizzie Waters, you don’t move away from dar, for vouse third base; Rhoda Scholl, you’ll be de lef field; Agnes Hollingsworth, youse be right field, and Ella Thompson, youse be catcher—d’ye see?” When the ground was being measured oil a knot in the rope was discovered. Captain Ella Harris promptly took a razor out of her stocking and cut the knot. To give thePliiladelphia Dolly Vardens time to come up, a game of skippingrope was organized, and the nine unbent themselves and hopped over the rope with a vigor that delighted their male admirers. The onlookers were not so well pleased, however. They were plainly jealous of their reresplendent sisters, and kept up a running fire of comment. “Let’s line them girls and play wid ’em.” said one dark female to her companion, who replied in a most contemptuous tone: “No, suah, I ain’t high toned enough for de iike of dem.” “Oh.” cried another, pointing to Catcher Ella Thompson. “Jes you look at her trying to show her shape. Ain’t she jest lovely.” “Tell you what it is,” another lady said, “if I was a man and had my girl gwine foolin’ and monkeyin’ like dem I would hub nuffin to do wid her.” When the skipping was over the Dollie Vardens No. 1 amused themselves by pitching the ball at each other. One lady got hit in the upper lip, but it did not seem to swell any bigger than it was before. The Philadelphia Dollie Vardens did not put in an appearance until a late hour, and as they did not send an apology to their colored Chester sisters, much indignation was expressed against them in the woods of Lamokin. TWO FISH STORIES. A Knowing Savannah Bass—What a Cattish Did with a Moccasin Snake. Southern Newspaper Liar. The Doctor recalled a very fishy reminiscence of a day’s sport on the Havannah river, and told how a six-pound bass engaged his attention for two hours, and bow, having carelessly allowed the line to become slack, the bass, who had evidently been watching for an opportunity, gave the line two or three hi tones around a cypress stump and then coolly, at his leisure, gnawed the line until it broke above its point of contact with the stump, the fish unhitching himself and swimming off, wagging his tail as if he were accustomed to indulge in such strategy every day. This suggested some piscatorial lying on the part of the Colonel, who gave us an experience he had with a catfish a short time after his arrival in Texas in 1846. “I had been down to the crick,” said he, “and found it was in good condition—just been a freshet; enough to discolor the water. 1 went home and got my tackle and some worms, and before I had been at work twenty minutes I had got a fine string of young cat and perch. I knew that thar war some wlioppin big catfish in that hole, so 1 bated with a piece of chicken liver, and caught a mudeat weighing about ten pounds. Now, what I’m coin’ to tell you may think mirak’lous, but it is as true as the fourth chapter of Judea. I put that ten-pounder on the string with the rest, end went down the crick a bit. When I returned thar was a big moccasin coiled around the string of fish. The string had broke and the old catfish was floppin* and a strugglin’ like mad. He got loose, and what do you think he did? Well, gentlemen, you may think it mirak’lous, and l can’t hardly* expect you to believe it, but it is a gospel tact, and it occurred down to thal thar crick in tiie fall of ’46. That old cat, sir, just wiggled up to the moccasin as he lay coiled around the bunch offish. He took two coils of the snake in his mouth, and shuck her like a dog shakes a rat. Fur about half a minute it rained small catfish and gog-gle-eyed perch all around whar I stood. The snake's back was broke in two places, and he was chawed up considerable. Gentlemen, you hear me, it wus a boss slght'to see how mad that old mud-cat was. His fins and stickers stood straight out and there was a bow in his back like a figure 5. I was so pleased that I histed him baclc into the crick; and he is thar now. for all I know. Now, you may think it’a mirak’lous, but it’s the truth I’m tellin’ you, gentlemen. Won’t you walk out on the gallery?” We walked out. The Doctor was oppressively silent; he seemed to need frosh air. 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