Jasper Weekly Courier, Volume 14, Number 5, Jasper, Dubois County, 8 March 1872 — Page 2

She Jasper (Courier.

C. DOJtNE, Pv bush iil In the British Museum. T Jl'lH H. tViiNS. Where am I? Es this Nineveh. And the world but jnt begun? Or i it in the millennial dav. All ace blent in one'.' Mote favored we than piriu! They lived lung tu e The changes of our Wonder World. While in an inalaut we Can put from Oreece to Babylon. Or linger by the Nile, Or hiver through thi.' Arctic tone. Beyond the mn's good smile. What need of future journeying ? Here is the World in small From Latiuui to America. The dietauee t a ball I Yet of these miracle the beat Wu wrourht by crurl theft: And o we'll leave thee, greedy Isle. To seek the land bereft ! The Blessings of To-day. Strange we never prize the mu?ic Till the swee-voiced bird luve flown ; Strange that we should slight the violets Till the lovely flower are rone; Strange that Summer skies and sunshine Never seem one-half so fair As when Winter's snowy pinions Shake the white down in the air. Li;- from which the seal of silence None but (iod can roll away. Never blossomed in such beauty As adorns the mouth to-day. And sweet words that freight our memory With their beautiful perfume. Come to ut in sweeter accents 1'brcugh the portals of the tomb. Let us gather up the sunbeams Lying all around our path ; Let us keep the wheat and roses. Casting out the thorns and chaff; Let us find our sweetest comfort In the blessings of to-dar. With a patient hand removing; All the briars from our way. A CONFESSION. BT A VERT OLD MAN. Most men would hesitate at telling such a story ot themselves. But I am convircetl that it will afford a suggestion of mercy toward such as do fall, and some may be turned away from temptation by its recital. 1 had been an underclerk in a large establishment for many years. Naturally economical, my savings had attained to such a respectable sum that I ventured upon married life, quite as much as a refuge from the monotony of my inexpensive style of living, as in obedience to those yearnings of nature which a man is very foolish or very bad not to heed in due season. Like most men. however, adventures of this kind are not followed by the comfort and ease which depend upon money for th"ir possession. In the course of time I came to repent the undertaking, for I was in debt, my family had increased, while my income had not kept pace with m)' expenses, My wife lacked the courage to practice the self-denial which would be consequent upon a retrenchment of our expenses. I was daily annoyed by duns. I had borrowed money in every available quarter, and a walk in the public street was literally deni d me by the fear of encountering some one to whom I was indebted for my houe expense. Returning home late one night jaded by a listless stroll through the town, I found the junior member of the Sim waiting for me. The house had received intelligence, after business hours, of a transaction entered into on their account which required the immediate transmission to an isolated island town of several thousand dollars, together with certain papers and statements necessary to conclude the affair. It was too important a matter to be intrusted to the de!ay and uncertainty of the mail at the time. Upon a consultation of the firm, I had teen selected to perform the necessary two days' journey. I accepted the mission with alacrity, for the reason, among others, that it would be such a recreation as would divert my thoughts for a time from the perplexities of my miserable condition. With the usual fores'ght of the firm, everything necessary to my prompt departure had been prearranged. The needful papers and accounts, and the indispensable money requisite to finish the transaction were placed in my hands in an envelope addressed to the gentleman who had acted as agent of the concern in the matter. A lett r of instruction was likewise inclosed. I remember well the bright September morning on which 1 started on horseback and alone on my journey, of which I accomplished half the first day, arriving at a farm house, whose occupant unhesitatingly granted my petition for a share for the night in its humble hospitality. 1 he weather had grown colder as the evening came on, and by the time I had reached the house I experienced a sensible chill. I had with me a tlask of liquor, and was furnished, at my request, at bed-time, with a small quantity of hot water with which to compound a sort of punch, as an antidote to the cold I apprehended having taken. I had removed the package of money from my pocket and laid it on the table, with a view of putting it under my pillow before going to bed. As it lay on the table the address was uppermost : on the left-hand upper corner waa a memorandum, " $5,000 inclosed." I was standing with my back to the door. Succeeding a few moments of entire silence, I heard a step behind me, and I almost think a breath upon my face. Turning suddenly round, 1 beheld my host, with the hot water I had called for in a tumbler in his hand. He was quite beside me, and his eyes rested, or 1 fancied they rested on, the package upon the table. I must con

fess 1 was sensibly startled by the incident. My concern was not diminished by oLscrving that be bad removed his boot from his feet, and was standing as ha had come up in his stockings. My first impulse and act was to take the water out of his hand. Not being quite ready to use it. I put the envelope of money on top of it, as the most convenient thing to keep it hot. 1 did not turn the superscription downwards, be cause 1 feared it would botray the us picio:i. which I now positively entertained, of evil intentions on the part of my entertainer, who had quiurd the room as noiselessly as he had entered. 1 imagined a great many ways in which he could have become acquainted with the cau;e of my journey, and camo rap idly to the conclusion that my employers' funds were in danger. That they were actually so became evident before the Bight had passed. I recalled the man's countenance vividly to my recolleetion, and examiued from uioinoiy his features, so as to make iconic estimate of tho character with which I had to deal. Physically he was more than my equal. When I first alighted at the houso it struck me 1 had been him before, and after some moments of further and profound reflection, I distinctly recalled him to my mind as a merchant who had dealt with our firm during mv earlier connection with it, and who had fallen thuugh the dis honest of friends whom he had helped. I remembered him as have leen spoken of as being disgusted with trade, and having sought a home in the wilderness with his family, and earning a living literally by the sweat of his brow. There were but two bed rooms in the

house, both on the same door, a passage which commenced at the head of the stairs dividing them. While the thoughts which I have related were passing through my mind, I heard voices in the other bed-room, and quietly opened my door, which my host lad closed behind him. Standing out in the passage. I could distinguish a man's and woman's voice. At first their language was unintelligible, but gradually my ear bocame accustomed to the duty I endeavored to put it to, and I could distinguish that the burden of their talk was their domestic expenses, and the general current of their thoughts was the difficulty of getting through with certain undertakings which they had in contemplation, or had commenced. It was evident that the man was more hopeful than the woman. My excited imagination at once framed the theory that the treasure in my possession was designed by them to solve this difficulty, and that the reluctant man was being urged on by the less sciupulous or braver woman. A sudden movement of one of them toward the door caused me to retreat into the room. I heard the bolt of their door move, and supposing it was to unfasten it, I hurried back to my own apartment and caught at the envelope, intending to hasten it out of sight. In my eagerness to grasp it, it fell tumbling with the watered side uppermost and opened ! The wafers had been so far dissolved by the heat and moisture as to split in two, leaving one-half of each (there were three) on the flap, and the other half of each on the body of the envelope. Meanwhile there was no sign or sound of inroad into my room, of which I had seen it was impossible to fasten the door, save by moving some of the furniture against it. I became convinced that as yet everything was safe, and yielding to a feeling of curiosity, I drew the money from the envelope and counted it over. There were ten one-thousand dollar bills ! 1 was astounded, and for a time forgot the fear that so recently harassed me. I looked at the memorandum on the back of the envelope. It was "$5,000." The letter was open before me. I read it over. It named five thousand as the sum inclosed. There was evidently an error. I counted it over again, fen thousand dollars was the sum betöre me ! Again ana again I counted it. I had been used to hand ling large sums, and counted large sums of money daily : but I actually found more difficulty in arriving at the actual count of the ten bank bills be fore me, than I ever before or since en countered in any sum, however large or however numerous the notes. Final ly, putting a chair against the door, I spread the notes out singly on the little tible, in a row, and counted them with my finger 5 then made two row of five notes each, and again counted them. I finally, though slowly, became satisfied that I had in my possession double the money I was expected to deliver to my employers agent, lemptat ion entered my soul. Five thousand dollars would relieve me of all debts. Here it was within my grasp. I had but to seal up the envelope by re wetting the wafers, inclosing half the money, and deliver it sealed to the agent, and my trust would be, to all appearance, faithfully discharged. Once the thought occurred that possibly it was a trap set for me by my employers. But their confidence in me was unbounded, and the suspicion was dismissed. I do not attempt to glaze over the dishonesty of what 1 contemplated : but I had been so unceasingly worried and annoyed by domestic troubles aris ing from limited resources, and so persecuted by creditors, that I almost argued myself into the conviction that appropriating the money was simply authorized self defense. I would pay all my debts, get clear of the world once more, insist upon my wife's adopting my views of living, save money, get into business for myself, and finally pay back the sum. 1 concluded to leave the envelope unfastened until morning, so as to give myself that much more time before finally deciding upon an net which all my arguments with myself had not made entirely reconcilable. Arrived at

this conclusion, my attention again turned to my host mid his wife. I could hear his voice alone now. It bed been sounding along in a somewhat elevated tone tor some moments. I crept quietly to the partition dividing their apartments from the passage. The bright autumn moon, which was on their side of the house, shone through their window and through the spaces between the shrunken planks ot the partition, and out into the passage and upon its floors, in brilliant bars of light. It was easy tor me to see what was passing within the room. Man ard wife were kneeling at their bedside in prayer the man, with uplifted head and closed eyes, uttering an earnest supplication, his wife beside him, and one arm passed affectionately through one of his, and her head resting against his shoulder. They were kneeling at the side of the bed oppoiite to me, and his face was plainly visible. Its calm

and pious expression was a sufficient rebuke to my unjust suspicions. I began to listen in time to hear him say : ' Pardon, O merciful Father, not only the sins of Thy humble servant and his household, but turn the hearts of those who have done evil unto him, who have harbored unjust suspicion of Lim. Bless such, 0 Lord, and preserve them in order that they may turn from their whys and seek the path of righteousness." His serious, earnest, and manly voice struck a chord in my heart, not only in sympathy with the honest and tender supplication that was passing from his lips, but of contrition for the wrong 1 had done him in my suspicions. I involuntarily compared him, whatever was his good or bad deeds, at least an humble penitent before his God, with the wretch that I had decided but a few moments ago to make myself, by the misappropriation of my employers' money, and still haunted, however, by the relief it could obtain for me, would not quite give way to the feeling of repentance which was knocking for admission at my breast. I had half decided to turn away and drive these better thoughts from my mind, when I abserved something moving in a small crib that was placed at the side and toward the foot of the bed. Its occupant, a grandchild, whose parents, they had informed me, were dead, awakened probably by its grandfather's voice, rose up, Joolaed around, and settled down upon its knees, and clasping its little hands as its grandfather's were clasped, and looking upward out through the window at the moon, whoso bright light fell upon its darling face, began moving its lips as if trying to repeat the words. Nothing 60 like an angel ever met my sight. The grandfather began the Lord's Prayer. The little fellow seemed to have this by heart. He repeated it word for word, his tiny, silvery voice sounding in sxeet accord. I could not turn away, nor any longer resist the better emotions which I had hitherto kept down. A rush of repentant ftelings passed through me with an effort that shook every fibre. I fell upon my knees, and with tears streaming from my eyes, joined in the concluding words of the prayer. I need not say I changed my mind with regard to the money. I passed a quiet night and rose early, hastened away toward my journey's end, so as to give myself the least possible time or opportunity for changing my newformed resolution. In handing the package to the agent, I said to him, that as there was money in it, it might as well be opened in my presence, to see that all was correct, &c. He of course discovered the error, and handed me back the amount that was over, with which I returned home and delivered it up .0 the proper owner in due time. It was fortunate for me in every way that I pursued thecoutse I had adopted. It appeared that the money had been obtained from the bank after bank hours, in the absence of the teller, from one of the officers. There was no loose money on hand of tho larger denominations, but there were sheets of thousands and five hundreds signed by the President and Cashier. Either two sheets were picked up in mistake for one, or the wrong batch of sheets were selected from, that is, thousands were taken instead of five hundreds. The notes were hurriedly clipped, strapped, and indorsed "$5,000," without recounting, and so enveloped and handed over to me. The bank had discovered the error, and no doubt was entertained but that the missing money was with me. Whether I should have had the face to withstand the imputation, C7en with the apparently undisturbed con dition of the envelope in my favor, is more than I can say, but I doubt it. But the notes, in pursuance of a precaution, still in use fn some banks, were payable to the order of one of the clerks, and had not been indorsed by him. I could not, therefore, have used them, or if so, they could have been traced back to me. I found, also, that the numbers had been carefully ascertained of all I had taken with me, and thus another chance of detection existed. What an escape I Upon returning and entering the counting-room I handed the surplus back to my senior, witn a feeling somewhat of pride, but mixed up with other feelings not easily described. My precaution of having the money opened by the agent in my presence was highly commended, and the possibility of his misappropriating the undue amount as very little personal knowledge of him was possessed by the firm was duly discussed. What was said on this point brought blushes to my cheeks. In course of time my senior account ant was taken into the firm. I wis put in his position, and with his salary, I saved monov, finally got into business on my own account, and am now, as you know, rich. 1 never forgot my former

host and his grandchild ; but at the death of the former I took charge of the boy. He is now my partner and the husband of my daughter. Our Idle Ifeautlcs. An Knglish traveler writes: I can assure you that, having lived in ditlerent castles and manor-houses of (treat Britain, and been accustomed to the industrious habits of duchesses and countesses, I was utterly astonished at the idleness of American fine ladies! No English woman of rank (with the exception of a few parvenues) from the

Queen downward, would remain for one half-hour unemployed, or sit in a rocking-chair, unless seriously ill. They almost all (with hardly an exception) copy the letters of business of their husbands, fathers or brothers; attend minutely to the wants of the poor around them, and even take part in their amusements, and sympathize with their sorrows ; visit and superintend the schools; work in their own gardens; see to their household concerns; think about their visitors ; look over the weekly accounts not only of domestic expenses, but ofton those of the farm and the estate; manage penny clubs in conjunction with the working classes, to help them to keep themselves ; and with all these occupations, by early hour?, they keep up their acquaintance with the literature and politics of the day, and cultivate the accomplishments of music and drawing, and often acquire besides some knowledge of scientific pursuits. The late Marchioness of Lansdowne was so well acquainted with the cottagers in her neighborhood that she used to visit and look at the corpses of the dead, because she found that her doing so soothed and comforted the bereaved. I have known her to shut herself up with a mad woman in her poor dwelling, who used to lock the door, and could not be induced to admit any one else. Lady Lansdowne's only daughter used once one hundred guineas (given her by her father-in-law. Lord Suffolk, to buy a bracelet), to build pig-sties, with his permission, at her husband's little country residence. She educates her own children without assistance teaching the boys Latin, and the girls all the usual branches of education. The late Duchess of Bedford, I accidentally discovered when on a isit to Woburn, had, for thirty years of her marriage life, risen at six o'cl ck, summer and winter, lit her own fire, made some tea for the Duke and herself, and then, as he wrote his own letters of business, she copied them, and they came down to large party of guests at ten o'clock, to dispense breakfast, without baying one word of their matutinary avocations; so that you might have been a visitor in the house without finding out that the Duke and Duchess had transacted the necessary business of the day before, perhaps, you had risen ! I rather mention those that are gone to their reward than write of women still amongst us ; but you may believe me when I say that I am constantly amongst those who live such lives of energy and usefulness, but they so employ themselves without ostentation, or an idea that they are doing more than their simple duty. The Blood of the Earth. If, as some say, iron is the bone of the earth, then water is the blood the ceaseless ebb end flow, the endless evaporation and return, corresponding to the throb an 1 pulse of the human heart and its life blood. The very air, even when crisp and dry, has one fifth per cent, of moisture in it, and without water the whole earth, Himalayas and and Andes included, would be but a handful of dust, a gigantic heap of dry powder, on which not even the most rudimentary lichen would exist. The ancients built altars to Diana and worshiped the mother Moon. For Diana and tho Moon emblemized the water Erinciple, without which Nature would ave no plastic force, and the fair earth no form, no life, no loveliness. without water not only the oceans would dry up, but the rivers, streams and brooks which course through all the lands, would present the appe trance of dried up furrows ; the little brooks would cease to purl and murmur. Trees, Elants, vegetables of every k'.nd would e utterly destroyed; losing the water which they contain, they would lose both their sap and their life the noblest trees of our forest would be transformed into a confused heap of shapeless dust. The air, deprived of vapor and of tho clouds which float in it, would no longer present tho magnificent spectacles which result from the play of light; the sun would no longer, as he sets, tinge the massive banks of clouds with crimson and gold ; the entire surface of the globe would present a terrible picture of desolation, and with the disappearance of water all organic life would perish. " The Wonders of Water."1 Charles Scribner 6c Co., New Fork. The Latest in Photography. Tho pa.ies of glass in one of the Btoro windows of Lexington, Ky., are large and fine solid plate. The frost was very heavy upon them eno day last week. The frozen moisture on the inside offered an inducement to a clerk of an artistic turn, and, taking his scissors, he cut through the thin coating of ice on the glass, and traced out a railroad bridge with cars. The etching remained for a day or two, perhaps more, the sun shining full upon it every morning. The window was thoroughly cleaned by the store porter several times after the disappearance of the froat ; and yet, when the frost reappeared on the window, more than a week after the first sketch was made, there was the bridge as plain and as clearly outlined on the glai M as the first day. There is no mark whatever on the glass, and the etching was done with a smooth-pointed instrument.

The First Tear. On ray darling' roev check A tear, delaying, smmsJ to say And would have said. 11 tear could speak " How shall I ever get away ?" For 00 th.it bright and velvet ground, As yet untouched by tfmo or cure, Nn track, no furrow could be found. And so iai latus it lingered there. As ilewdmp in the shining light Of joyous summer's gulden ray Will fade nnddle on roseleaf bright. And rink in gladness quite away. So gently died my darliug'a tear Ily um i lei and dimple. chased away. With nu more thought nf grief or fear Thun duwdrop has of winter's day. MMffM Vnivemily Mic'tinr

Current Items. Tut: Pacific Hotel, in Chicago, is to bo finished about New Year's, ut a coat of si ,000,000. t FirTY-six bales of Illinois-raised cotton were shipped from Dongola a few days since. Treasurer Spinner's conscience fund now amounts to $130,000, and is constantly increasing. The ancient village of Cahokia. III., after waiting patiently for nearly 1M0 years, has at last got a ro-t Office. Leu Ki roi'NTV, Pa., has tho largest stationary engine, and longest and high est iron railroad bridge in the woild. PnoTOGRAPiis of Kvaline Park, the only survivor of the Clark county, Ind., butchery, are to be placed on sale fo her benefit. The English expedition to search in the interior of Africa for Dr. Livingstone, lias left London, the necessary funds having been subscribed to defray its expenses. An honest country parson, in the time of great drouth, who was desired to pray for rain, answered : " I'll willingly do it to oblige you, but it is to no purpose while the wind is in this quarter." Mrs. Leiiiv, of the town of Dale, Wis., retired one night recently, taking her infant with her, which was apparently perfectly well. When she awoke in the morning she found the child dead in her arms. " Reversible clothes" are being in troduced into the market. A refined gentleman of New York says that he never really knew what clean linen was until he obtained a shirt which he turns once a week. The Racine (Wis.) Journal nays : " For the first lime within the memory of the oldest inhabitant, Lake Michigan is frozen over as far as the eye can reach the ice being from four toeight inchea in thickness. A Cadiz. Wis., girl came near being offered on the niter of jute, a few nights since. Her switch took fire at a candle, and she was only saved in having the blazing appurtenance jerked from her head by a bystander. God loveth a cheerful giver. In the pocket of a pair of relief pantaloons recently given out by the Grand Rapids committee, was the following note: "There, take 'em, d you; last pair I've got; don't get burned out again." A carpet bao was picked up in the street, at St. Paul, on Thursday last, which contained a beautiful female infant about two weeks old. The child was rather richly dressed, and had an abundance of clothing and other necessaries. It was squealing lustily when found. Tue editor ol tho Kansas City Bulletin had all of his editorial copy stolen the other night. The thief is believed to have been a reader of his journal, and was actuated by conscientious motives. If the man is captured, his jury will probably return a verdict of justifiable kleptomania. A man in I'tica, N. Y., who killed an other in a drunken brawl, baa been sen fenced to Auburn Prison for four years, as guilty of manslaughter in the third degree; while a schoolmate of his has bee 1 sentenced by the same Court to the same prison for five years for stealing a pair of shoes. An Unworthy Descendant of a Brave Man. The average American looks with a vast contempt on the wretched European who boasts of his long line of distinguished ancestors. It is only when we can utilize ours, by turning their memory into cash, that we ever allow ourselves to refer to them. A good instance of this curious blending of sentiment and shrewdness may be found in a petition just presented to Congress by the remote descendants of Sergeant John Champe. After Arnold had made good his escape, and Andre was lying under sentence of death, Sergeant Champe was detailed to enter the Biitish army, and try to carry off the traitor, in order that he. and not his victim, might suffer for his crimes. The plot failed. Andre was hung. Champe redeserted, and was given an honorable discharge from the American army, leat he should be captured by the British, and hung as a spy. Nearly a hundred years later, a remote descendent, whose sole claim to distinction is that he deigned to be born of a mother who had flowing in he'- veins a little of the Champe blood, asks Congress to grant him some land as a reward of merit. We trust that the impertinent request will benromntlv denied, and the remote descendent taught that hie ancestor's bravery does not authorize his begging. Chicago Tribune. An Irish washerwoman named O'Reilly was picked up drunk in St. Louis, on luesday nicht, and an exam ination of her clothing showed that she had about $.'i,000 concealed on her per son. The best thing out a dangerous conflagration.