Indiana State Sentinel, Volume 26, Number 34, Indianapolis, Marion County, 11 April 1877 — Page 6

THE INDIANA STATE SENTINEL, WEDNESDAY MOllNING, APIUL 11, 1877-

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B All III ERM,

Between thy life and mine "Ragged and strong, resistless barriers rise; liay after lay they show a sterner front Uplifted to he skies. Shutting me out from thee. Ofttimea ttere corner a blinding in 1st and rain, But through the darkest, thickest cloud I know The tun will (thine agnin ! ' Between thy life and mine Sullen and cold the turbid wters roll; lit-nea tli ihetr angry wave hope 'a -bark wan wrecked Ing e'er It reached it goat, Yet in the quiet deep Faith's anchor hold" fat with Its golden chain Binding two hearts, that else would drift away Upon a sea of pain ! Between thy life and mine Stretches afar a wide and dreary plain; Across the waste we gar.e with longing eyes, 11 art cries to heart in vain; The echoes answer back: In vain. In vain !" and no we turn away With one Ion, shivering sigh of agony. In lo lit lines to stray I Between tby lifo and mine The hand of fate ha woven aonie bright threads. With one glittering radiance thro' these thad-owt-d days A steadfast lustre shed. 1'aried tliounh we must be, These golden liners shall our heart entwine, The Bweetnes of nnsposen sympathy Blending thy life and mine. For the Bunday Hentlnel.l PANCAKE JACK AND THE DEAD TRAPPER. BY CHASKECR. We had "toted" our camp equipage through the woods and over the plains into a region of ponds and lakes lying on the divide between the headwater of Thunder Bay river and of Big creek, a tributary of the north branch of the Au Sable. Ours was the first party which Lad ever pitched a tent in this region solely for the purpose of hunting and fishing for the snort of it. I and Pancake Jack, a trapper who was acting as our guide, had taken a long and laborious tramp through the woods in search of a venison, but our search bad proved a fruitless one, and now the night having come on, we had gathered around the camp fire and were smoking our pipes and talking over the events of the day and laying plans for the morrow. The prospect was not cheerful. True, our tent was pitched on the margin of a picturesque lake, beneath the shadow of a forest of tall Norway pines, through whose branches the wind was heard moaning the live long night, and our fire of pine knots was casting a bright and cheerful light far beyond where we were. We had just partaken of our hunter cheer, and we were in a region where the gamiest of bass literally swarmed in the lakes. where numerous deer fed in the marshes, and an abundance of bear hid in the thickets. We had sought for just such a place, but now, when actually in it, we realized the truth of the sentiment, "Man never is, but always to be blest" for the cook had just startled the camp with the information that the bottom of our flour sack had been reached. What were we to do? There was no danger of actual starvation we all knew that; but must we leave tent, blankets and all, and walk out to the railroad, a distance of fifty miles? or would we, like the pre-historic man, of which Lubbock, Lyell and other learned men write about, live on the product of the chase alone? The chaplain, and the cook, and the youngster, deprecated either course. Fresh from school, and unacquainted with the hardships of life, they were ready to bewail the sad misfortune which had overtaken them and to wish themselves safe at their homes. Pancake was lying upon his side, looking contemplatively into the fire, his bronzed and weather tanned face all aglow with the white light of the resinous pine, while old Frank, his bushy tailed dog and companion, was lying with his nose resting upon nis fore paws, looking bet tween dozes reverently at Iiis master. "It is bad, ain't it, old dog?' Jack said, and the dog gave a flirt of his ugly ' tail, by way of an answer. "Yes. it is bad' continued the trapper, "but we have seen much harder times than this. Don't yon remember the time the wolves got after us. old fellow?" and the dog raised his head and rave two flops of his tail. Jack now passing bis hand over hi eyes as if endeavoring to shut out the recollection of a dismal scene, removed his pipe from his mouth, and sitting upright, looked thoughtfully tor some moments into the fire, and in a sort of reproving tone, said: "Boys, you know nothing about it. Even old Frank here don't know what hard times is. I've seen 'em though. I've been with 'em, and it .all happened before old Frank was a pup leastways before we were friends. It was ever so many years ago, and do you know it happened over there?" and the speaker pointed In the direction of the largest lake of the cluster. "Old Frank knows where it is, but he wasn't there then. No, no, old dog, and I hope you never will know the like." And as the dog raised -upon his haunches and dropped his ears, Pancake patted him affectionately on bis bead, while he lazily Hopped his Irreal ugly tail up and down on the dry pine eaves. Our curiosity was now fully aroused, and the cook and the youngster both clamored for the story, which their acquaintance with the trapper led them to believe that he could so well tell, and Jack responded as follows: "I can't tell a story, boys, like it's writ' in the books and the papers. Old Frank here knows that, for many a time when we've been snowed up and couldn't go to the traps, I've read to him stories from print, and while it kinder seemvito me tnat the clean fur of them stories wasn't equal to some of my own, yet for somehow I could never show the real fur that was onto mine, and I don't reckon I kin do it to-night; but if the judpe there will only write it out and put in the big words, I'll warrant it '11 show up by the best of 'em. "You see it was on to the close of the war. "We'd fit to free the niggers, and I was bound to be no man's d d nigger myself, and so I said I would go to the woods. There wa'nt no railroad runnin' up here into Michigan theo, and no mow backs a equattin' around. None ' you fellows with your fine tents and du med old shot guns and jinted poles and reels, and the like, had ever thought of co rain' up ttere then. The place was a wild was av howl in' wilderness like, and I had never been here myself, not had old Frank. I expect he was hardly a pup yet, but if be was he was a churnin' butter and doin' other niggers' work, poor fellow! How they did impose on him! No wonder he run off and come tome! "But let that pass. I came to Saginaw and' I soon found a young man as was lookin' for a pardner to come up here and trap, and him and me lined giblets and agreed to come at wnnst We went on a steamer up to the Fable on th shore, and there hired a chap to kU) OUT duuuae widour Ujuver to IL

five lakes. It will be 11 year the 15th of the comin' September when Bill Curl and I, with our things, reached the big lake over yonder. We come in onto the west side of it, for it has its outlet there, and ur plan was to build a boat and go down into the Sable, andthen to the outside on it,witb our ur in the spring. The next morning after our arrival the man who toted our thing out, and whose name 1 disremember, started back for the shore, and Dill and I went to work to build us a camp. I wasn't so handy then as I now be, but lttll was the ingeniousest man I nearly ever seen. He could do as much with an ax as halt your carpenters can with saws and planes and all the other jigamarces that they work with. Long besore night we had a comfortable camp made, and Bill said the next thing was to make a canoe, and as be was an old band at the business why I, of tourse, let him have his own way. Making the canoe took more time than the camp did. We worked the rest of that day and all the next, until the sun was about an hour high, when it was finished and we slid it into the water. 'Now, says Bill, 'let's try it. We'll get over to t'other side and maybe e a bear or kill a deer ' a'nd bo we took our guns and went over. The trip was more to try the canoe than for anything else, and when we got over to t'other side we turned right around and come back. I I was a sett in in the bow and Bill in the stern and our guns was atween us, and when we run ashore I picked up mine and got out and Bill started to follow. 1 was not lookin at him just then and didn't see it, but his gun went off kind o' sudden and I somehow became all confused like. I know I in med round I would do that in the very nature of things and 'pears to me that Bill was all pale and looked scared. 'Whatever can be the matter,' I asked him, and all he said was, lont leave me!' and then he kindo' sunk down all limber and was dead! He had shot himself right through the heart. It all 'pears like a dream. It seems like I heard him say, 'Don't leave me,' and it seems like I saw his pale face and saw him sink down, all limp as a cloth, but I was so Mustered that I don't know how I got him to the camp. I have no recollection about that, but I do remember that there he lay. all cold and stiff and dead, in the bed all night, and that I set up by the fire and waited and waited, Oh, so long for the day to come. I had seen dead men afore. I bad stood in battle and heard the shells a screamin' and the bullets a pingin, and seen men shot down, and heard 'em a moan in and a groanin', and all that, but. O, Lord! this was the first man I was ever out in the, wilderness with and seen him shoot himself. "Now, what was I to do? You think this be hard times; butain t we all alive? There was poor, dead Bill, with his glassy eyes a starin' at nie, his face all pale, his nose all drawn down flat 1 i ce, his mouth wide open and his teeth all white and dry, and the blood all black and clotted over his clothes. And there was me! No, boys, you don't know what hard times be, and, 1 don't guess you ever will. All the time and all the night, when I was a set tin' there before the fire, it seemed to me that I could see his oor, pale face in the bl in kin' coals, and all the time his last words, 'Don't leave me.' kept a soundin' in my ears. Once I was sure he spoke; so sure of it I thought he had actually come to, but I reckon it must have been his sperit as spoke. Suine people don't believe in perit.ii, but I do; for when I heard the words 'Don't leave me,' I knew tit was Bill's voice, and I jumped up and run to the bed, expectin' to see him alive, thinking that he had been in a stupor like, and I saitl, 'No old pard, I'll never leave you!' but when I lifted the blanket from his face, there were the same glassy eyes, the same drawn nose, open mouth and shiny teeth, and then I knew it was a sperit; for I didn't hear it no more. It was satisfied. It had heard me say, 'No! I'll never leave you!' and it knew that when Jack said a thing he meant it, "After awhile day come and I had made up my mind. It was a terrible night, I tell you, but after I had made the promise to the sperit I some how got clearer in my head, and I saw how I would take poor dead Bill in the boat and carry him down to the mouth of the Sable and send him home. As soon as I could see well, I wrapped the body up in a blanket and toted it into the canoe and put in some provisions, and then went back and fastened up the door with the latch that Bill bad put in, and started. That was an awful voyae. I was three days and nights a getting down to the shore, and all the sleep I could get was a day time. When night would come, I'd tie up ashore, and pile up a great heap o' wood and keep the tire a roarin' and blazin' the live-long night, and even with that I thought the wolves would get me and Dill both. They'd fairly run right up to the fire a snappin' and a growl in' in the horridest manner I ever heard, and one night they were so fierce that I cluni a tree; but I hadn't more 'n got out 'o reach when Bill's sperit said: 'Don't leave me,' as plain aa could be, and I slid right down and took my gun and shot the foremost varmint, when the rest slunk back like, and did not venture so close any more. "I had chuck along, but somehow I had no appetite and didn't eat any. I thought of nothin' but get tin' on, and If I got any sleep at all it was while I was tloatin' along in the day time. I think I did get some seep; bow8ever, I remember that I had got 'way below the Flood wood, and about the middle of one afternoon I thought I was a talk in' to Bill; I thought he wes a try in' to tell me about his mother a bein' eat up by wild beasts, and that I must save her, when there came the awfulest woman's scream I ever heard. It made the hair stand up so stiff that my head felt kind o' sore like afterwards. I think that must have been a dream, for the scream awakened me, and I knew it was a painter and that poor Bill hadn't talked to me at all. "At last I reached the shore and I give the body to the curner. He asked me a great many questions, him and the iury I mean, and he writ it all down, and after talk in' the matter over they said I might go, for d n them, do you know they had said maybe I had killed him? " You're a judge, and would you think I would kill him a hundred hiiles in the woods, me as didn't know nobody scarcely, and then lug him for three days and nights without eatin' or sleepin and run the risk of wolves and painters, till I could get him among people? Would that be reasonable? I think 'twouldn't, and neither did a little old man whose name I didn't know; and so they told me I could go. as if I didn't know that without them say in so; but they said Bill must be buried, and so they got a nice colli n and put hhn in, and baa a grave dug in the graveyard and had pray in' and sin gin' and buried him like a Christian. They had him then, and it wasn't for - me to set myself up 'gin law; and any how, I reckon Bill only meant for me not to leave him in the woods, but to get him 'mong Christians, for I've never heard his sperit since. It rests in peace I allow. I've did my duty, and although I was not with Bill long, yet I found him to be a sensible fellow, and he never asked a pard to do more nor his liare, and a fellow s sperit will be just like him. I don't like to hear you boys Ulk about this bein' a hard time. Yourll get old Krank scared the first thing you know, and be no account yourselves. Let's go to bed and get up airly, and if this ned old dog don't act the blame fool to-morrow, I'il get a deer sure."

OT FAR TO CO.

Aa upland fields were sunburnt brown. And heat-dried brooks were running miiaII, And hheep were aalhered, panting all, Itelow the hawthorn on the down; The wnile my mare, wltii dipping head. Pulled on my cart above the brlitge I saw come on, beside the ridge, A maiden, white In skin and thread, And walking, with an elbow load, The way I diove along my road. II. As there, with comely steps, up hill Khe roMe, by elm trees all in ranks. From shade to shade, bv flowery banks, Where flew the bird with whistling bill. 1 kindly said, "Now, won't you ride, Thin burning weather, up the knap? I have a seat that fits the trap. And now is swung from side to sUIp." "Oh, no." she cried,"! thank you, no; I've little further now to go." III. Then, up the timbered slope, I found The ppntleat hoiine a good day'a ride Would bring you by; with porch and side I!y rout and Jessamine well bound; And nar at hand, a spring and pool. With lawn well sunned and bowi-r cool; And while the wleket fell behind Her steps, I thought, "If I would find A wife 1 need not blush to show I've little farther now to go." HI KM K'A TIlOl'ltLlM. Incident and Detail or the Ills; Cincinnati I'm 1 1 tire. (Cincinnati Knqulrer.l As may be supposed, the financial embarrassment of "Si Keck was the theme of every tongue on 'change yesterday. The f;eneral feeling was one of sincere regret for lis misfortune, and of hoje that he would be able to pull through successfully and come out "right side up with care." "We can't afford to let such a man as Keck go down," said one merchant "He is worth a dozen ordinary men, and his nerve, pluck and enterprise have done much to give our ctiy national prominence." It was freely reported on the lloor that Sir. Cunningham and Briggs Swift have each tendered $l0,000 to Mr. Keck to help nim in his difficulty, and many others expressed themselves as willing to assist with - lesser sums. Of course, there were those who looked wise and shook their heads and said that they "feared that things were worse than was thought, and that the banks wosld put the screws to Keck and force him to the wall." "You know these things are always worse than they apiear at first sight," said another, "and you can't tell what will be the upshot of the matter." "The secret of the matter is this." chimed in a third, "Oliver Pcrin and old Scarborough are dead against Keck on account of his starting the Citizens' Gas company, and they'll squeeze hell out of him if they get half a chance." So the conversation ran, every one giving his expression, and all wondering what would be the result of the meeting of the creditors. Mr. Keck came into the chamber early in its proceeding, and was the recipient of so much outspoken and heartfelt sympathy that be became in a measure unnerved for a short time, his eyes sufTused with tears, and he was obliged to retire for a while to hide his emotion. About half past 2 o'clock in the afternoon a meeting of Keek's creditors was held in the E resident's room of the Merchant's National ankon Third street' Bon Kggleston, in behalf of the Merchants' National, presided. It was a secret meeting, and the representatives of the Enquirer and Commercial, who were present before the meeting ws called to order, were assured by Mr. Keck that if the proceedings were of a character that could be made public he would meet them in the evening and give them all the particulars. Pursuant to the agreement our representative met Mr. Keck at the SC Nicholas about 8 o'clock last night. "Si" looked Hushed and tired as he entered the hotel, and well he might, for he bad a terrible day's work. After refreshing himself by bathing his face, he seated himself in a chair in the smoking room, heaved a sigh and said: "Well, it's over; and, thank God, no one goes to bed to-night a dollar poorer for Si Keck." "What was the result of the meeting?" said our representative after a pause, in which "Si" seemed tobe collecting his thoughts. "Well," was the response, ' I made them a statement of ray assets and liabilities, though I had mighty little trouble in telling them bow much I was in debt, for they knew to a dollar how much I owed each of them, and of course it was easy to verify that portion of my story. After my condition had been fully explained by me and each and every item of my statement made clear, they conferref together, and the result of their cogitation was a proposition that 1 should take all o my property and hold it in my own name, and manage it in such a way as would, in my judgment, be for my best interests and for theirs. This proposition 1 refused, not that I did not feel grateful for the confidence that they expressed in me, but because it was too big a load for me to carry. I had given them a statement of every dollar of my possessions, real and ersonal, and it just about took every cent of it to pay them dollar for dollar. If I accepted their proposition I wouldn't have a dollar. To take and bold this property and to realize out of it takes time, labor and capital, which capital I have not got. The time and my labor must be devoted to my family as well as to their Interests. They then appointed a committee of three, consisting of Briggs Cunningham, of the Merchant's National bank; W. A. Goodwin, of the National Bank of Commerce, and J. N. Kinney, of E. Kinney fc Co., to act with me and to recommend such a plan as would be for the best interests of all, and the committee is to meet at my call." "What are the exact figures of your assets and liabilities?"' was the next question propounded. Mr. Keck drew from his bosom the statement which he bad presented, and said: "My liabilitie are $388.000 and my assets $389,000; that is, giving my property and securities at the valuation placed on them by my creditors. In fact, their first valuation was about sixty thousand dollars more than that, though I told them that they were valuing them too high at that rate, and they finally adopted my ideas upon the matter. So you see I can pay every dollar I owe and have a thousand left." Here Mr. Keck smiled sadly as he contemplated the idea of being reduced to the possession of a mere paltry thousand dollars. "There is one thing on which I pride myself," said Si, "and that is the fact that, though I am in the hole, I never used one cent of the funds of the various companies with which I am connected, though I kept their check books and was the only one who bad the right to draw their money. . Another thing, not a man loses a cent by me by indorsing. No man's name was ever on my paper." Endofth Michigan University Cneml Ann Arbor Dispatch to tke Chicago Times. Silas H. Douglass is no longer the director of the University chemical laboratory. The board of regents gave him the grand bounce this afternoon. The board reassembled in adjourned session this morning at 10 o'clock. The report of the legislative investigating committee was made to the legislature at Lansing on yesterday afternoon. This morniuK lw A. BcaI appeared Lelora the board

and presented each member with a copy of the report. The committee find Douglass guilty of everything, and Hose innocent, with some $400 in doubt, apparently in the hands of Kose, but they make no recommendation whatever. The board took a recess till 4 o'clock, at which time it reconvened and Regent Rynd otlered a resolution dispensing with the services of Professor Douglass. The resolution was supported by Ilegent Clilie, and afier discussion adopted by the following vote: Yeas Regents Rynd, Clilie, Cutcheon and Collier. Nays Regents K. C. Walker and H. 8. Walker. It is needless to say that Hose's friends in this r ity are jubilant oer the result. The regents say their action was net caused by the report of the committee, but they think it is about time that the two men were put upon the same footing. The medical term has been lengthened to nine months. The charges against Professors Mclean und Frolhinghani, made by Professor Rockwith, were laid upon the table. At half past six o'clock the board adjourned slur die. The town is wild over the Douglass affair. .

A LONELY LIFE AM) DEATH. End of the Existence of a Hermit of I'orty-one Year Standing. Dlngman's Ferry (Pa.) Letter to the New York Times. Austin Sheldon, who has lived for 41 years the life of a hermit in a cave In a lonely place in the mountains nine miles southeast of this place, was found frozen to death in a deep snow drift near the entrance of his cave on Friday evening last. A terrible storm of snow and wind bad prevailed in the mountains for two days, and Tuesday evening, contrary to his custom, Sheldon had visited the cabin of some boon pole cutters, about a mile from his abode, to buy something to eat, he having been without food for two or three days. The cutters invited the hermit to remain with them all night, and not attempt to brave the fury of the storm by returning to his cave. He had not spent a night from his cave since be inhabited it, and he refused to stay at the cabin. The snow piled in such drifts before the storm was over that no communication with the settlements oul&ide could be obtained until Friday. The cutters themselves were nearly frozen to death. The hermit, although nearly 72 years old, managed to reach within a few feet vt his cave, when he was overcome and buried 10 feet deep Ly the enow. His features were tearfully distorted, and his knees were drawn up to his chin. It does not seem credible that this man' who buried himself in the wilderness for over half his life, and who at last met so terrible a death, might have lived in ease and luxury, and died surrounded by friends in the best society. He was born near Stony Creek, Conn., in 180G, and when he was 2 years old married a lady named Tuthill, the daughter of a wealthy gentleman living near the city of Hartford. Shelaon's family was the leading one in the town of Bradford, where he has a brother and sister still living. His wife died ten years after their marriage, and Sheldon soon afterward disappeared. He had always been an enthusiast in religion, and had often expressed a wish to go to heathen countries as a missionary. His friends believed that he had gone to some such country, and never hearing from him thought he had died there. Forty-five years ago the country in the northeastern part of Pennsylvania was still in great part a primitive wilderness. Lumbermen had commenced invading the forests, however. In 18.'18 a party of prospecting lumbering men made a camp on the northern slope of the Moosic mountains, in Wayne county, Pennsylvania, and one day discovered a cave occupied by a man, miles from any human habitation. He said he had lived there a year, and bad been roaming the forests of Connecticut, Vermont and New York, looking for such a place as his cave for five years. He gave his name as Austin Sheldon, but told nothing of his past. The lumbermen growing more plenty, he left his cave and was heard of no more by them. In 1813 two hunters discovered a man living in the cave near which the hermit was found dead on Friday. This was Austin Sheldon. He told them he had not seen a human being for ten years. He continued to live there, but nothing was known about him until last summer, when a paragraph appeared in the New York Times, mentioning the fact that a man named Austin Sheldon was living as a hermit in a cave in the wilderness of Pike county, Pennsylvania, his past being a mystery. This item was seen by Sheldon's relative in Connecticut, and a brother and sister visited his cave. They offered him everything that wealth could bestow if he would leave the cave and go home with them, but he refused. From these relatives the facts as to Sheldon's early life were learned. Sheldon seldom left his cave andthen only to obtain fish, game, roots or berries for his food. At the time of his death be was bent and wrinkled, with long, matted, Kray locks, and a beard reaching almost to nis waist. The clothes he wore he had not taken oft his body for 22 years. They, were tattered and ragged, and held together bv hickory withes. The hermit never washed, and his face and hands were encrusted with dirt His cave was about eight feet square, dark, damp and loathsome. He slept in a rude chair, surrounded with bones, dirt and rubbish of all k'nds. He was very taciturn, speaking willingly only on the subject of religion. It was bis boast that he had read his Bible through nearly 10C times, and that he communed personally with God and the ancient prophets. When be walked he used a long staff, and his old, well worn Bible was fastened to his leathern girdle. Forest fires frequently swept over the mountains about the hermit's cave, and many times it was surround on all sides by fire. The hermit, saying that he was in the hands of Ood, never voluntarily sought safety when thus imperiled, and courageous natives often saved his life at the risk of their own. He was often saved from death by freezing in the same manner. His only explanation of his living in the wilderness alone was that be wanted nothing to take his thoughts from God. As he had considerable money, according to his relatives, at the time he left Connecticut many believe that he buried it about his cave. The Ylee President Elect. Han Francisco Alta. The Hon. Thomas A. Hendricks, late candidate for vice president on the democratic ticket, is stopping at the Palace for a few days. The distinguished gentleman is interested in some . important mining properties in this state, and is here to look after them, as well as to seek recuperation in our healthful atmosphere. His brief stay should be made pleasant, so that be may take from California only kind remembrances. A farmer of Coffee county. Georgia, planted two-thirds of an acre to sugar cane. After maturity, and reserving a sufllcient quantity for seed the next year, as well as enough to exchange for 40 bushels of corn, he had it made into syrup, and snipped to an Albany merchant with instructions to buy bacon and flour with the proceeds of the sale. After it had all been disposed of the merchant shipped to the farmer 500 pounds of bacco aad jlx barrels of flour.

ALL SCOUTS.

Könnet. MY JOHN R.TAIT. Have you forgotten the blest eve we Kate Awed by the tremulous murmur of the leaves Itustitng above tin, from low beeclien eavi l ou twluiiig vloleut, with culm eywt, hm Ft Korent-lv weave our woof nreilfxt liiiitf? Dear flowers, the symbo. of my future years! au my neart s impulse, n Hopes and rears. Heaved through my broken utterance. As tue weight Of fresh fallen rain drops bends some gentle flower, Thua drooped your fair check toward me, wiiu iia i .rs, When (like a dream the memory appears) I dared to kiss you. Ina purple alio wer NegleoUnl It'll the viuleta. How briuht Hoeuied the red sunset and the moon that night! The best soil for most llowers, and e?iecially for young plants, and one almost absolutely necessary for seed beds, is rich, mellow loam, containing bo much sand that it will not "bake" after hard showers. Vick. The whole press of California will unite in presenting a testimonial to General John MrComb, managing editor of the Alta California, of San Francisco, in recognition of the coolness and courage he manifested the other day in knocking down and taking to the jolice station William Hayes, the man who tried to force a retraction of an item at the muzzle of a revolver. It is said that there is not living a single descendant in the male line of Chaucer, iLalpieh I)rnlr i 'mm a'ittl nn.lin Monk, Marlborough, Peterborough, Nelson, Strallord, Ormond, Clarendon, Addison, Swift, Johnson, Walpole, ltolingbroke, Chatham, Pitt, Fox, Burke, fi rattan. Canning, llacon, Locke, Neu ton, Davy, Hume, Gibbon, Maoauley, Hogarth, Sir Joshua Reynolds, David Uarrick, John Kerable or Kdmund Kean. The customs of Easter, so popular in Europe, and so joyous amidst its festivities, is but little celebrated in America, which I attribute to the rigor and asperities thrown upon everything churchly of the priesthood, or had any connection with the holidays of the church as practiced in the Roman stales by the pilgrim fathers, who cut loose from everything in the serablence of ritualistic or other continental or holiday customs. Thus, it is only of late years that the beautiful custom of the Christmas tree has become more and more popular, as its beauty is appreciated by all who taste of its sweets, and makes the anniversary the most joyous of our holidays. The customs ol Plaster some ascribe as an institution of the apostles, but the most general opinion is that it was first observed by their immediate successors, about A. D. CS. The council of Aries, in JJ04, and the council of Niciea, in 325, decreed that the day for keeping this festival should be the 14th day of March, noon. By the alternation of the calendar by Gregory XIII, in 1582, the first Hunday after the full moon immediately following the 21st of March was fixed as the day of observing this festival. It is a movable feast, occurring any day between March 21 and April 25, and through it all other ecclesiastical movable feasts are regulated throughout the year. -In the Church of England its celebration is confined to Easter eve, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday in Kastor week. In the Roman church it is a time of enjoyment because of the restrictions of Lent being removed, the populace give themselves up to their tastes and liberties. In Scotland they used to go out in the fields and by-ways and the finder of an egg or nest of eggs was considered lucky and highly favored bv Providence. The practice is not confined alone to the Christians. The Jews used eggs in the feast of the Passover, and we are told that the Persians, when they kept the festival of the solar new year (in March), mutually presented each other with colored eggs. I am sometimes asked, "What does the giving of the Easter egg mean, and why give eggs on that day, and also how did the custpm become instituted on that day?" I would say, "The feast of eggs is emblematic of the resurrection and of a future life;. also, it is a tribute by man to give one day to the egg, to which we are indebted so much for the good thi.igs of this lif J, and was no doubt originally ornamented in simple ways and colored in lovely colors on Easter, as it was the end of Lent and meats being banished during Lental fasting, the sole stay and meat of life being the egg that hai carried them through the weeks of fasting was glorified and made festive." As the custom took root in the valleys and hills of country life before commerce nourished, and had not the masses been able to procure fish in the interior, also fish not being such universal food, no doubt the fish would have been given a share of the glory of Easter. In connection we see the Easter egg associated exclusively with the "White Rabbitt," the patron saint of the Easter egg. This comes from the German legends told to all the children in Germany that these lovely eggs are laid by the beautiful rabbits for them; in the same sense we use Santa Claus or Kriss Kringle for the Christmas tree. Hence the eggs and rabbits are part of one another and associated in the various designs. Another beautiful custom we can adopt from the German and much practiced with us, on Easter eve, the children having all gone to bed, is to make a nest in a pretty basket or otherwise somewhere in the house, in some corner in the parlor, or other room or closet and place the eggs in them, and on Easter morning it is the duty and pleasure of all to bunt for the Easter nests to see what the Easter rabbit has laid for them, he surely having visited the house that night, laying them some lovely Easter presents for all good little children. KITH OF KNOWLEDGE. A plant has lately been discovered at Nicaragua, named the pfatocca rfccfnVi, which gives a shock to the hand that attempts to break off a branch. . Fresh-water bivalve, fossil and marine shells have recently been found in the Colorado desert, at a point two hundred and fifty feet below the level of the sea. These discoveries induce the belief that the desert once formed an arm of the main. According to the Boston Journal of Chemistry, wood which has been immersed in a "pickle" of a solution of tungstate of soda is thereby rendered incombustible under orninary conditions. The tungstate has the effect of making soft woods hard as well as fireproof, and safe from dry rot Wood thns treated baa been afterward sat n rated with kerosene oil and set on fire, with the result that the oil burned off without igniting the wood. To test the efficacy of the solution, a small house was built of wood subjected to the tungstate, and an urgent fire kindled within. The wood was only slightly charred by the flames. It is said ,thatall the woodwork of a theater can be thus rendered incombustible at a small expense and in a few weeks' time. "The ungstate is mad? by the addition of tungstate of lime to hydrochloric acid and salt, affording, as a by product chloride of, lime in large quantities. The fact that the anesthetics at present in use are not in all respects satisfactory .is

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well recognized, and the attention of many scientific men has been directed to the discovery of some compound which will be free from the drawbacks attendant on the employment ot those now in use. The administration of chloroform not unfrequently produces syncope of the heart and death; irritation of the respiratory passages, eonsequent on the cold produced by evaporation, is liable to attend the use of eiher. A new anesthetic, however, has recently been tried by a French chemist, which, it is claimed, is perfectly harmless and free freru all bad effects. It is bydro-broniic ether, which can be administered without difficulty, and has the advantage of being almost completely eliminated by the respiratory passages. It holds an intermediate place between chloroform, bromoform and ether. Considering the frequent recurrence of chloioform accidents, any anesthetic which promises to yield a greater immunity from danger is worthy of a trial.

SEWN ÄOTLS. The legislature of Virginia has adjourned. Ten year old boys in Alabama carry revolvers. There is promise of a good crop of fruit in Mississippi. The Ohio house has passed the Southern railroad bill. Coal in good quantity is discovered in Clay county, Texas. Democrats made gains in several Ohio town elections. It is asserted that 300,000 persons went to Texas during 1870. There is a small but steady flow of emigrants into Georgia. California is shipping large quantities of honey to Great Britain. Richmond, Va., shipped 3,6!7 barrels of flour to Brazil during March. The first rifle match of the season at Creedmoor will taks place April 14. The Indians at St Augustine, Fla., will probably be pardoned soon and sent west. One pharmacy in New York made and sold six tons of homeopathic pills last year. The city of Pittsburg has defaulted 'on the April interest on its bonded indebtedness. Mrs. Dr. Sarah B. Pettintrill of ihn,iiphia, was found dead in a street car last ween. Grasshoppers are numerous in Pnlnra.l. and threaten general destruction to the crops. The final result of 1a tulanr. v. o . ises to be a 25 cent tariff for 10 word messages. The discovcrv of a vein of errellent rnnl near London, Sumner county, Kan., is reponea. A white man has been sent to the neniten. tiary from Monroe, Louisiana, for stealing iu cents. Charles Manlr. a Kansas hors thief wa hune bv a viirilance com mitte t Xptawalra Saturday. Owen Garritv. while rohhin a vliin at New Orleans, fell overboard and wn drowned. The fruit crop in Mississippi sound counties promises to be particularly abundant this season. John A. Merritt, of the Knox-Merritt marriage notoriety, has been released from the jail at Carmel, New York. Democratic legislation in Louisiana has reduced the annual expenses of the state and the city of New Orleans $700,000. Seven of the Mollie Maeuire crowd, in cluding the famous Jack Kehoe, were sen tence at rottsville, Pennsylvania, Monday. Sbelbyville, Tennessee, has in a short time8hipped $40,000 worth of mules and 11.7S3 skins of small animals, or $8,000 worth of furs. Railway freight rates west of Chicago will not be cut any more. ' A meeting of officials in New York on Saturday reached that conclusion. The colored people in Nashville. Tennes see, have petitioned that the colored schools be placed solely in charge of colored teachers. Joseph Rausch, of Philadelphia, was to have been married last Thursday. An hour after the time fixed for the nuptials he was found drowned. The manufactories of Georgia all prospered last year and declared dividends, while those of the north and east, many of them, lost money. A Philadelphia paper expresses the opin ion that there ought to be a standing adver tisement in all the city papers lor a new supply of live merchants. Harry Runge, an Illinois editor, commit., ted suicide with poison in Joliet Monday. Depression of spirits, caused by a prolonged debauch, was the cause. Senator Patterson threatens that the carpet-baggers will vote to admit the democratic senators from the south in return for Hayes's recognition of Hampton. The thirteen-feet bronze statue of "America," which is to surmount the soldiers monument on Boston Common, has been successfully cast at Philadelphia. The difference between the cost of pro duction of cotton fabrics, north and south, is from two to four cents on the pound of raw material in favor of the south. Otis G. Robinson, of Lawrence, Mass., a prominent citizen, church member and xnabon, is involved in a difliculty with a servant girl, who alleges that he seduced her. A little black and tan terrier in Baltimore became mad the other day and jumped from counter to shelves in a jeweler's shop, destroying things like a bull in a china shop. Orte hundred and thirty eight thousand, two hundred and twenty two people" left Great Britain list year, and 92,047 entered. So the actual decrease in population was 48,575. James Lea has been appointed receiver of the Sandusky and Cleveland railroad, and the citizens along the line are rejoicing because the former unpopular management has been driven out. Charles Natt, who Is totally deaf, lived alone in a house in St. Jonnabury, Maine. The other night the house caught fire and Nutt would have perished had not his doe awakened him by vigorous pulls and scratches. The new jury law of Florida provides that when the nature of any case, civil or criminal, requires that a knowledge of reading, writing and arithmetic, or either, is necessary to enable a juror to understand the evidence to be ofTered on the trial, it shall be a cause of challenge If he does not possess such qualifications.