Jasper Weekly Courier, Volume 14, Number 39, Jasper, Dubois County, 1 November 1872 — Page 6
Poem. Th dar is don, and the darknM
Fall) irom to wing t mint.
As a fernher it wafted tw
Fr,
nwarJ
ui an eagi 10 m nignt.
I se the light of the village Gleam through the rain and tha milt, And a fooling of ajoes come o'er me. That my iouI cannot resist; A feling of iadne and looting. That U not akin to pain. And resembles eorrow only A the wUt resemble the rain. Come, read to me tome poem, some simple and heart-felt lay, Th.it shall soothe this restless feeling, And banish the thoughts of day. Met from grand old master?, Not from bards sublime. Who- distant footstep echo Through the corridors of time: Tor, like atraim of martial uiuMe. Their mighty thoughts suggest Lite's endless toil and endcuvor; And to-night i long for rest. Read from some humbler ioet. Whose songs gushed from his heart, As showers from the clouds of summer, Or tears from th eyelids start ; Who. through long days of labor, And nights devoid ot ea.-e. Still heard in his soul the music Of wonderful melodies. i-uoh songs hive power to quiet Ihe restless pulse of care. And come like the benediction That toilows after prayer. Then read from the treasured volume, The poem of thy choice : And lend to the rhyme of the poet Ihe beauty ot thy voice : And the night shall be filled with music. And the cares that infe.-t the day. Shall fold their tents like t he Arabs, And as silently steal away. U. W. LvngftUow.
MARTHA PHILLIPS. She was dead. An old woman, with silvery hair brushed smoothly away
from her wrinkled loreuea 1, and snowy cap tied under her chin: a sad, quiet face ; a patient mouth, with lines about it that told of sorrow borne with gentle firmness ; and two withered, tired hands crossed with a restless look. That was all. Who, looking at the sleeping form, would think of love and romance, of a heart only just healed of a wound received long, long years ago? Fifty years attf had lived under that roof, a farmer's wife. If you look on that little plate on her coffin-lid you will see "Aged 70 ' there, and she was
only twenty when John Phillips brought
ner honie a bride. A half century the had kept her care
ful watch over her dairy and larder, had made butter and cheese.and looked
alter the innumerable duties that fall to the share of a farmer's wife. And John had never gone with buttonless shirts of undarned socks; had not come home to an untidy house and scolding wife. His prim, tidy Martha had been his pride ; and though not a demonstrative husband, he had boasted sometimes of the model housewife who kept his home in order. But underneath her quiet exterior there was a story that John never dreamed of, and would have believed it impossible had he been told. She did not marry for love. When she was
nineteen, a rosy, nappy girl, a stränget came on a visit to their village, and that summer was the brightest and happiest he ever knew. Paul Gardner was the stranger's name; he was an artist, and fell in love with the simple village girl and won her heart and when he went away in the autumn they were betrothed. " 1 11 come again in the spring."' he said. " Trust me and wa t for me, Mattie, dear." She promised to love and wait for him till the end of time, if need be; and with a kiss on her quiveriDg lips, he went away. Mattie Gray dia not tell her father
and mother of her love, for they had no liking for London folks, and had treated Paul none too hositably when he had ventured inside their home. Spring-time came, and, true to his word, Paul returned ; he stayed only a day or two this time. 11 1 am going away in a few weeks to Italy, to study," he said. 4-I shall be gone two years, and then I shall come nd claim you for my bride.'" They renewed their vows, and parted
wun tears ana tender, loving words: he put a tiny ring upon her finger, ana cut a little curly tress from her brown hair; and telling her always to be true and wait for him, he went away. The months went by, and Mattie was trying to make the time seem short by studying to improve hen-elf so that she might be worthy of her lover when he should come back to make her his wife. "It must be about the time he is to tart,"' she said to herself one day. And by-and by, as ihe glanced over the newspapers, her eyes were attracted by his name, and with white lips and dilated eyes she read of his marriage to another. "Married! Taken another bride instead of coming back to marry me! Oh, Paul I Paul ! I loved and trusted you for this!" .She covered her face with her hands and wept bitterly. An hour afterward, as she hat there in the twilight, with the fatal MWlpapw lying in her Jap, she heard a step on the gravel walk, nd looking up, she saw John Phillips coming up the steps. He had been to see her often before, but had never yet spoken of love, and had of course received no encouragement to do so. He was a plain, hard-working farmer, with no romance about him, but matter-of-
fact to the core. His wife would but few caresses or tender words.
would be kind enough give her plenty
to fat auu wear. Now he seemed to have come for the express purpose of asking her to be his wife; for he took & chair and seated himself beside her, and, after the usual greeting, reserving scarcely a momtnt to take breath in, began, in his business-like way, to converse. There was
no confession of love, no pleading, no
bund clasping, no tender glances; be siinplv wanted her ; would she be his
wile? His manner was hearty enough
there was no doubt he really wanted
her would rather marry her than any
other woman he knew, but that wa
all.
Her lips moved to tell him she did not love him; but as she let fall her eves ftom the crimson-hearted rose
that bwun i from the vine over the window, she caught sight of those few lines
again. "Married!" she said to herself.
" What can I do? He doesn t ask me
to love him. If 1 marry him I can be
true wife to him, and nobody will know
that Paul has lilted me
The decision was made. Her cheeks wt e ashy pule as she looked up straight
i his eyes and answered, quietly,
es, I will be your wife.
Her parents were pleased that she was chosen by so well-to-do a young man : so it was settled, and they were married the same summer. People
thought she sobered uown wonderfully;
more than that, nothing was ami that
would lead any one to suppose that any change had taken place. Yes, she had sobered down. She dared not think of Paul. There was no hope ahead. Life was a time to be filled with something, so that she might net think of herself. John was always kind, but she got so wearied of his talk of stock and crops, and said to herself : " I niust work harder, plan and fuss and bustle about as other women do, so that I may forget and grow like John." Two years went swiftly by. A baby slept in the cradle, and Martha no body called her Mattie but Paul sat rocking with her foot as she knitted a
blue woolen stocking for the baby's father. There was a knock at the halfopen door. " I have got into the wrong road: will you b. kind enough to direct me the nearest way to the village ?"' said a voice, and a stranger stepped in. She rose to give him the required direction, but stopped short, while he came quickly forward. " Paul !"
"Mattie!" His face lighted up. and he reaches out his arms to draw her near him
With a surprised, painiul look, s'ie drew
back. " Mr. Gardner, this is a most unex pected meeting."
'Mr. Gardner ?" he repeated. "Mat-
tie, what do you mean?"
" Don't call me Mattie. if you please !" she replied with dignitv. "My name is
Phillips." tA Ttl Ml i am m
"x-juuipsi ne ecnoed. "Are you
marrieu : "These are strange words from you, Paul Gardner : did" you think I was waiting all this time for another wo
man s bus band 7 that I was keei.inc
my faith with one who played false so
soon 7
Played you false! I have not. I
am come as I pioniised you. The two year are but just passed, and I am here to claim you. Why do you greet
me thus? Are vou indeed married, Mattie Gray ?"' She was trembling like an apen leaf. For an answer she pointed to the cradle. He came and stood before her with
white face and folded anus. "Tell me why you did this! D dn't you love me weil enough to wait lor me?" She went and unlocked a drawer and took out a newspaper. Unfolding it and finding the place, she pointed to it with her finger, and he read her marriage notice. " What of this?" he asked, as he met her questioning, reproachful look. "Oh. Mattie! you thought it meant me. It
is my cousin. I am not married, nor in love with any one but you." "Are you telling the truth?" she asked, in an eager, husky voice. And then, as he replied " It is hue," she gave a low groan and sank into a chair. "Oh, Paul, forgive me! I didn't know you had a cousin by the same name. I ought not to have doubted you, but 'twas there in black and white and this man. my husband, came, and I married him. ' With bitter tears, she told him how all happened. With clenched hands, he walked to and fro, then stopped beside the cradle and bent over the sleeping child. Lower he bent, till his lips touched its wee forehead, while he murmured to himself, " Mattie's baby." Then he turned, and, kneeling before her, said in a low voice: "I for give
you, Mattie; be as happy as you can." He took both her hands in his and looked steadily, lovingly into her face. His lips twitched convulsively as he rose to his feet. " I have no right here you are another man's wife. Good-bye God bless you !" He turned as he went out of the door, and saw her standing there in the middle of the room, with arms outstretched. He went back, and putting his arms around her, pressed one kiss to her cheek, then left the house, never looking back.
And she went down on her knees be-
"What 1 Know About IMculcs." Illustrated by I). Scattergood.
riii-
-A-- V : SSI - t T
Firstly.
" Henrv ! see what a beauti
ful and shady place there is over there
by that tree for us to spread ous lunch
and spend the day I"
Secondly. They had hardly cot seated
on the green sward before a gentleman bovine, who evidently believed he had the care of these fields, hurried Henrv
orl", and spread their lunch for them in a
manner not contemplated.
Thirdly. "Oh, Charles, don't I wish we were eliding over the billows in that nice sail-boat with that happy party.'"
Fourthly. " Oh, George ! only put me on shore with those two happy people over there, and I will bless you forever. MORAL TO THE ABOVE. Things are not always what they seem.
Foreign Gossip. Carlvle, now nearly four-score years of age, has entirely abandoned writing, but appears occasionally in society and talks as vigorously as ever. Henrv Boernstein, formerly editor and proprietor of the St. Louis Atciger, is now managing editor of the Vienna (Austria) Neue Freie Press. There are 22,500 rag-pickers in Paris, who gather up every night, according to statistics, 50,000 baskets full of rags and thrown-away garments and boots. It is thought Bazaine will get the start of the file of soldiers who will doubtless be detailed to shoot him for his betrayal of Metz, by committing ßuicide.
Livingstone's Discoveries. When the first intelligence from Ir
Livingstone was received through the medium of his discoverer, there were
grave doubts in the minds of many
whether the whole affair might not be an imposition. It is fair to the enter
prising correspondent who accomplish
ed the relief of the explorer to say that
there is no longer room tor doubt. .No
one who had Been Livingstone's dispatch
es has any suspicion that they are other than what they are represented to be, and it remains only to examine the
statements in regard to the sources of
the Nile, to solve which problem was the
object of the long and laborious wander
ings of the Scotch geographer. For
even he is not infallible. He has not
traced the Nile through its whole ex
tent, so as to be sure that his theories are absolutely correct. Many of those who have studied the question refuse
altogether to accept his conclusions
But he has exposed the errors of some
who have preceded him, and has given,
in a clear and distinct form, the reasons
which bring him to his present judgment. We will endeavor to explain briefly the question which wiU soon be debated hotly by the partisans of the several discoveries. Cap's. Speke and Grant, following up a large river which they presumed to be the Nile, came to a large lake, which they partially explored. P ssing to
another point they came to a bodv of
water, which they supposed to be a part of the same lake. In this manner they explored a considerable portion of the country, between 1 degree north and .'! degtees south of the ecpi dor, and fancied that they had discovered a great inland sea, covering twenty thousand
square miles. This lake they named
the ictoria yanza, and proclaimed it the source of the Nile. Upon all med
em maps this lake is laid down. dipt.
Sir Samuel Baker, a few years later, adopted the error of Capt. Speke, if etrorit is, and discovered the Albert
Nvanza, which was then, and is now, of
unknown extent, but is undoubtedly a
very large lake. The Albert lake he
claimed to be a second source of the
Nile. '' he mistakes attributed to these
explorers by Dr. Livingstone are twofold in their character. In the first place, he has established that the Victoria Nyanza is not one great inland sea,
but a collection of several large lakes :
and, secondly, he contends that neither
the ictoria or the Albert Lake is the true source of the Nile, but that they
are merely the sources of tributaries.
Ve may illustrate both the alleged er
rors by imagining what might have hap
pened when the continent ol America
was a " howling wilderness." If an explorer, starting from New York, h d
traveled in a northwesterly direction un
til he reached Lake Ontario, had sailed
across it, thence struck into theintenoi
still proceeding northwest, until h
reached the coast of the Georgian Bay
and thence again to the northern coas
ot Lake Superior: if, following Supe
nor round to its west and southern coast
thence proceeding southwesterly to the
southern end ol hake Michigan, and af
er another land journey reaching the
southern shore of Lake Erie, he had
finally arrived at the pom of starting
he might have concluded that he hat
traveled around one fresh water sea of
enormous extent, instead of severa
great inland lakes. This seems to have
been precisely what Speke and Grant did. And it is not a little curious that
Speke himself at different times calcu
lated the altitude of Victoria Nvanza
(hanged. Th music of M'ling'a iu the grove. Will1 he flowers ure out in the dell i And the pioneer bee emits, UJ, O'er the gleam of the cowslip's bell, tar diwn by the murmuring brook, there The pur shining daffodil blow : but the golden dreauia are itwuy. lud That wer mine in the spring long ago I There is balin in th morning breeie, Will - 1 pare Is eong in th morning skioa ; And the rosy tuubcums kiss, lnd, The dew from th violets' eyes. Far down in the depths of the jln-wood In the twilight the blsck birds sing ; ' But never the joy otn they bring, lad, That they gave in the golden spring! There are frisking lambs in the meads. Will There are bees on the bending flowersAnd the wild-dore coos to his unite. Ud, 'Mid the hush of th evening hours. Tho lily dreams over the fount Will. And the sunbeam sleep on the sa ; But the lorrge and the (lowers of yore, lad Shall never come back to me I There's a grave far down in the vale. Will Uy the .-id of the churchyard wall ; There often I sit all alone, lad, Till the dews in the twilight fall : And I gate on the violets sweet. Will, That watch her with tender eyes; And I mingle my tears with the dews, lud. As they füll from the far-off skies I Here are the flowers she gave me. Will "Just withered violets." you say ; But I'll ever keep fresh in tny heart, lad. That face who has passed away 1 And when in thegnrClen we meet, Will, Where tho violets always blow. She'll Mi.ile as I give her the flowers, lad. That 1 got from her long ago.
aide her sleeping baby and prayed for strength to bear her great trial. They never saw one another again. Seventy years old 1 Iler stalwart sons and bright-eyed daughters remember her as a loving, devoted mother, her gray-headed husband as a most faithful wife. "Never was a woman more patient and kind, and as good a housewife as ever was." he said, as he brushed the back of his old brown hand across his
eyea as he looked down on the peaceful
i ace. And not one of them ever knew of the weary heart and broken hope that had died in her breast, nor ever dreamed of the sad load she had borne through life.
Gottingin bears the palm in Bibles. A correspondent of the Boston Globe saw one there written on palm leaves. It contained 5,376 leaves, and he was
told that a duplicate was preserved in
tue university ot Copenhagen. Among other military works deter
mined upon by the French Minister of
War is the fortification pf Soissons upon n large scale. During the last war Soissons was not prepared to orl'er uny eerious resistance, and so capitulated without waiting to stand a siege. An old man, an inhabitant of Cernav in Alsace, arrived at the German office, to declare his choice of nationality. " You are very old," said the Prussian, u it is hardly worth your while to make a choice." " I know I cannot live long," was the reply, "but as I wish to go to heaven, I desire to die a Frenchman." The old man on returning home sank exhausted, and died holding his certificate of remaining French in his hand. The residence in Paris of Prince Napoleon and his wife, the Princess Clothilde, was of very short duration. They had scarcely arrived when they were waited upon by a Government agent and requested not only to leave Paris but also France. At first they both firmly declined to do this, the Princess, if possible, more emphatically than her husband ; but later they thought better of it, and on the 11th insl. quitted the inhospitable land. I
very differently, three several observa
tions at various points giving him alti
tudes of 3,740 feet, S,80j feet, and 3,553 feet, without giving a suspicion that he had been measuring the height of three
several lakes. 1 heother mistak- which
is attributed to former explorers is as if
uapt. speke, searching tor the sources of the Mississippi, had followed the Ohio
to its sources, and as if Sir Samuel Ba-
Ker nad sailed up the .Missouri to its head-waters, both leaving the real great stream still unexplored. The extreme southern limit of the Victoria Nyanza is
in tnree degrees ol southern latitude,
but Dr. Livingstone claims to have gone
to 10 and 12 degrees south. Hisreasons
for believing that he examined the true
file basin are chiefly the general lay of
tne land and the size of the river which he traced so far. It could belong, he
contends, to no other river than the
Nile. But we must wait until he rectifies our maps before we can learn with anything like accurracy the geography of Africa, and meanwhile we expect a very lively opposition to Dr. Livingstone's theories by the friends of former explorers whose hasty conclusions are so vigorously attacked. Appletons Journal.
Chicken Philosophy. The Danbury News thus manifests its familiarity with the chicken-coop and pigpen: "The quintessence of the omnivorous is supposed to be imaged in the hog, but the hog is a Peabody among animals alongside of a hen. Hens are by nature monopolists. When the subject of victuals is mentioned they are evidently listening. Throw a
handful of corn into a ten-acre lot, and every hen in the inclosure will get a dab at it. The last hen on the spot may not get more than two kernels, but nothing in the hen's appearance will indicate that. It will step around with as much precision and gratitude as any in the flock, and wear the most pensive smile you ever saw. A hen will not eat everything it sees, but will try to, and there isn't one on the face of the earth but that can tell you the taste of everything it has seen within the radius of n half mile of its house. It is only when a man has kicked at a hen and missed it that he begins to understand how thoroughly hollow and deceitful this world is, and it is a marvelous fact in this connection that he will miss the
hen if he does kick at it, nnd misses it if he don't.
Varieties. A BEAiTiri L woman, says Fontenile, is the purgatory of the purse and the paradise of the eye. A smart child in Pittsburgh stoie his teacher's watch from her desk while she whs absent from the school room. He smarted for four or live days afterward, and considered invitations to "take a chair" to be wanton outrages on his feelings. "Castile and Arragon,'" said Sjiicer, repeating the words of the guide who had pointed out to hiiu the armor of the great Prince of that name in the ar.-enal at Naples ; "yes, I see the cast steel, but not ary gun." Mother Goose is not an imaginary person. She was the mother-in-law of a printer in Boston Mass., and her real name was Elizabeth Goose. The first
edition of her well-known rhymes was sold for two coppers on Devonshire street.
" I 8av, Pompey." said one freedman
to another, "dis chile has tried lots ob
gift fairs and tings fur a prize, but neb-
ber could draw any ting at all. " Well.
lim, I'd vise you to try a hand cart; de chances are a tousund to one dat you could draw dat."'
According: to 1 1 .-tiler, women bear
hunger longer than men : accoiding to
riutarch, they can resist the effects of
wine better: according to I nirer. thev
grow older and never get bald ; accoiding to PUny, they are seldom attacked by lions (on the contrary, they will run after lions), and according to Gunter, th"y can talk a week. The "Small-talk" man of the Louisville Courier-Journal nnd "Globuls"cf the St. Louis G'obe have for a month past been M tunning a muck" about the uze of the ft-et of their respective cities. They would meet and shake their bloody hands before the chasim in their faces, but " Small-talk" is waiting for the Ltll freshet to bring down lumber sufficient to build snow -sheds over his corns, and as the railroads leading out of Si, Louis are all narrow-gauge, and "Globules"' can't get a pass for his feet, the chances ure they will not meet this
year.
Capt. Burton ami the Sarage. Luring one of Cupt. Burton's voyaces
in the Kssex he was becalmed off an isl
and of the Society crom, in the South
Pacific, and one day a valuable case of
surgical instruments was stolen from
his cabin. A number of the savage-, with the chief of the i-land at their head, had been on board, and he knew that the thief was of their number. On
the following day he pulled on shore, with the best part of his crew, and found the chief, in company with several of his principal warriors, sitting before his
hut. Burton made known his errand through his interpreter, whereupon the
sable monarch expressed unbounded surprise. Not only was he sure that
none ot his ptople had stolen the arti
cles, but he could assure his "milkskinned brother" that his people would
not steal under any circumstances.
Ihe Captain assumed a confident at
titude, and begged to inform his swart msjes y that Tie Burton knew where the missing property was. He had the
ower to discoversuch things, it migui
save the chief a vast deal of trouble if he would at once produce the lost property.
Lpon this the chieftain declared that
he could have nothing mot e to say upon
the subject; and to add seeming weigut
to his assertion he drew forth his pipe.
and, having tilled it with tobacco, he
commenced to strike fire upon a piece of punk-wood with a flint and steel. Capt. Barton told the interpreter to bid
urn stop.
"Tell him," said he, "that i win
bring down fire from heaven into his pipe."
The Chief received the announcement with a look of incredulity, but nevertheless dropped hisflinvand steel, and suffered the Captain to proceed. Burton drew from his pocket a small sun-glass, or magnifying lens, and concealing it in his hand, he bade the Chief to smoke away, and at the same time he turned the bowl of the pipe toward the sun, and brought the focal point of the rays upon the tobacco. . i'he fire took, and the smoke came forth. The dusky chieftain puffed out a frsgrant cloud," then looked at the bowl of his pipe, and then knelt in awe before the pale-faced Captain. He would not tempt the wonderful power of the great medicine-man further. Burton obtained his case of instruments from the Chief's own hands.
