Pike County Democrat, Volume 10, Number 42, Petersburg, Pike County, 27 February 1880 — Page 1

* PIKE COUNTY DEMOCRAT. PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY. TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION: For one year...............n go For six months...... 75 For three mouths............ 50 INVARIABLY IN ADVANCE. ADVERTISING RATES 1 Ono sqnnro (9 lines), one insert ion.71 00 Knelt additional insertion. 50 A liberal reduction made on advertisements running three, six, and twelve months. legal and transient advertisements must bo paid iur in advance. ’ A VsX Vw^XVx m-JL < OFFICIAL PAPER OF THE COUNTY. Offlee in MeBay’i Kew Building, Main Street, Net. Sixth and Seventh. PETERSBURG, INDIANA, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1880. NUMBER 42. JOB WORK Neatly Executed at Raaac sable Rater NOTICE! ^ Persons receiving a copy of the paper with this iiotlee crossed in lead pencil are nbtitlt d timt the time of their subscription lias ex KNIGHT k McSWANB, Editor* and Proprietor*. VOLUME X.

TITTLE-TATTLE. FROM THE SERVIAN FOLK-LORE. Fair Nathalie at evening-tide Walked out with her own true love— The thiek green grass beneath their feet, And the thiek green trees above. ThenZusku said, “My own sweetheart, Give me one kiss before we part.” ■ Tho listening grasses heard and saw, And eonld not the secret keep— The dear sweet secret! Everyblade Whispered the tale to the slieep— The silly sheep, who were so glad They straightway told tho shepherd-lad. The shepherd told a traveler (For he loved fair Nathalie); The traveler told a sailor-boy, One night on the lonely sea; The sailor to his roving ship Too quickly let tho secret slip. For tho ship to the salt sea-waves, That ever run to and fro, Said, “ When the inland rivers come To mix with the ocean’s flow, t Ask after Nathalie, pretty one. Aud if the handsome Zuska won.” So at the last that river heard That flowed by Nathalie’s cot, And the maid’s mother one fine day Went there with her water-pot, - Ami heard the talc, and told tne maid, And many an angry word was said. Nathalie blamed the river much, And the river blamed tho sea. The sea said, with angry roar, “ The ship is to blame, not me.” The ship, tossed wildly to and fro, Creaked out, “ Tho sailor told me so.” The sailor said, “ The traveler Is the one that should be blamed.” The traveler said, “ The shepberd-hoy Should never the tale have named; I surely thought, so far away, No harm can come from what I say.” The shepherd blamed the tattling sheep, The sheen cried, “ Oh! and alas! So much of grief and quarreling comes Because of that tell-tale grass. What bn earth did it see amiss In little Nathalie’s parting kiss?”

TEE SILENT LIFE. We lead two lives, the outward seeming fair And full of smiles that on the surface lie; The other spent in many a silent prayer, With thoughts and feelings hidden'from the eye. The weary, weary hours pf mental pain, Unspoken yearnings for the dear one gone, The wishes half defined, yet crushed again, Altike up the silent life We lead alone. And happy visions, we may never show, Gild all this silent life with sweet romance; That they will fade with sunset’s clouds we know, v * Yet life seems brighter for each stolen gl&nco This silent life, we little reck its power To strengthen ns for either good or ill, Whether we train our thoughts like birds to soar, Or let them wander wheresoe'er they will. This silent life, not those wo lovo may share, Though day by day we strive to draw them close, Our secret chamber—none may enter there Suve that One Eye that never seeks repose. And if beneath that Eye we do not quail, Though all the world may turn from us aside, We own a secret power that shall prevail When ©very motive of our life is tried. * A NIGHT 1ST AN AVALANCHE. It was curious enough how I came to see an avalanche. We don’t have many of them in our country, I believe; at a—neveefall near to^ high-wafa-wftft-eawntrr yiuagOTseetiiffigl^ for the accommodation of sight-seers, as they do at the Wengern Alp, and in a hundYbd other places of Switzerland and the Tyrol. Contrary to all arrangements and expectations of the dear old uncle who had reared me, I had not got further along in life than to a third-class clerkship in the’ State Department at Washington, and this only because I could write a tine hand, and make fancy capitals, said my disappointed uncle. I believe uncle was thoroughly ^ashamed of my getting into-the department at all. He wbuid a hundred times over had preferred that I had been a common farmer. But when the hard times came, and when the bard times got harder, ami the old farm, going under a mortgage, was only rescued by my savings as a third-class .clerk, uncle sank his' xhame in his gratitude, and my fftney writing was ridiculed no longer. A little good penmanship had kept my unde out of the poor-house. It did something for me, too, later. Still, it was weary enough for me at last; reading and copying endless dispatches of the Chief Clerk to our Consuls in Europe, and all that without any apparent hope of ever becoming Chief Clerk myself. One day I was copying ■ a dispatch of the Secretary to the Cone sul at Z-. It was to the effect that from that day on ho would, in accordance with his request, be allowed $1,000 a year for clerk hire. “ He will want a clerk, then, of course,” I said to myself, “ and if I could secure the situation, I might be happy still.” I whistled meditatively. I would see Europe at least, and that would be a change; anyway, I would be no longer liable to become a fixture as a third-class clerk in the department. I didn’t want promotion so much as I wanted a change. I got the latter, as the sequel will show. That evening the dispatch of the department, copied in my best hand, left for Europe, accompanied by a private note of my own to the Consul. As a specimen of my writing, I referred to the inclosed dispatch, and informed the . Consul that I could speak the German language, having learned it evenings, ■ during my stay in Washington. Perhaps the last remark, and not my fine writing, settled the business. Clerks

wno fan speax loretgn languages are in demand with our Consuls. In six weeks from that day I had peeped into the great cities of London, Paris, and Brussels, and was now standing at the clerk’s desk of the American Consulate at Z-. The business was not burdensome. With the office open but five hours a day, we were happy. I had beautiful times —so did the Consul. What wonderfully various duties Consuls have to perform in these five hours, though! What a combination of pah/and mater familias the Consul is! 1 Though never severe, his work is as multifarious as are the characters of a thousand tourists. His office is the grand depot of all strange things. The consulate at Z-was no exception to the rule. It was the teceptaele of everything from a dainty love letter with a lock of hair, to wills of invalids and Saratoga trunks. Every body called there, many “loafed” there, and one poor melancholy tramp claimed the im- , mortal privilege of hanging himself in the Consul’s wood house—just to be under the flag, as it were. Tourists and tramps, however, are not it lone in furnishing the Consul with the spiced vapety of life. Uncle Sam contributes his mite occasionally. Among the Washington letters last winter was one from our worthy Commissioner of Pensions, asking the Consul to investigate, and furnish evidence that certain wglows and minor daughters of United states pensioners living in his district bad not married, ana thus forfeited their claim to further aid from the Government. It was easy enough to secure this evidence in most cases Those living near the city were inv te l to call at the consulate, and it was sometimes a matter of sly pleasure P m a

to the Consul and myself to listen to thi embarrassed confessions of pretty widows that Cupid had never cast his net a second time for them. But there was one pensioner from whom repeated official notes, written in good German, and wi rh my finest flourish of capitals, brought no message, pry or con. Pensioner Ko. 1,004 seemed to feel that Uncle Sam had no right, to ask sc indelicate a question. All the certificates, except 1,004, were indorsed and ready to be returned. “This pensioner,” said the Consul to his chief clerk one morning, “ is probably either dead or married, and I am determined to^find out which. It is not so won ierfully far from here to the village of Bleiberg, and if you have an inclination, you may take the next train and go there. Come back by Saturday, and, of course, make the expenses as trifling as you ean.” I had long wished for a stroll of some sort into the magnificent, valleys of the Carintliian Alps, and here seemed my opportunity. I oar’t say that the cars whizzed me very suddenly away to the pretty town of Bleiberg, for in fact the trains whiz

uieuuiiuiy mi uie lyrui. 1 was twenty five miles still from B’leiberg when I transferred my hand valise ana myself _ to a second-class railway car into a firsi-class mountain diligence. It wi» a wonderfully beautiful valley I was tn ascend to Bleiberg. There are no fine:.* mountain prospects any where. It seems to me sometimes that all the ornamental work of the creation has been expended in Switzerland and the Tyrol. Usually, when in the mountains, I pay tie diligence conductor a franc pourboxre, and ride outside with the driver, or up in the imperial, perched like a leather bonnet on the top of the vehicle. I determined fully to do so this time. J ' How capricious is the mind olf man, I reflected, on entering the little station, and seeing a young lady in a velvet jacket amt gray kids buy inside conpe No. 1 fiir Bleiberg. In a minute and a half I had changed my mind, and was the owner of coupe ticket No. 3; and yet the weather had not changsd, the sun shone as warmly as ever, and the mountains, right and left, were as magnificent as five minutes before, when I had told the conductor I would share his outside perch with. him. The velvet jacket, though fitting closely to a neat form, I didn’t mind so much; but grey kids on a pair of pretty hands inside a diligence coupe, slowly ascending a romantic mountain valley On a charming spring day, wore simply irresistible. I helped my traveling companion to her seat, fixed my own precious baggage into the big box behind, and then proceeded, naturally enough, to occupy inside seat No. 2. There was but one passenger beside myself. I was never in this world accused of being a flirt or a gallant; but I submit to my bachelor reader.* if there is. anythin# ostraqrdj-tr^ms-ncci the two occupants of that mountain diligence were tolerably acquainted. Wo spoke, of course,.in Gorman. "We noted tiie grepn fields at the edge of snowbanks, the singular costumes: of the men passing us, and who hailed us with a “God greet you!” as they tipped their broad-brimmed hats. We thought, too, he w ehiilyi they must be, even on a day like this, with their open red jackets, breeches only to the knee, and stockings„only to t he ankle. Still more interesting to us Were the women, trudging along in their short black petticoats and dove-gray stockings, though the muddy roads sometimes interfered with any exact discrimination in the shades. What struck us both as very singular, liowev*8r, was the great similarity of our Germs,n accent. Miss Shelton—Miss Margot Shelton, to be more explicit— for I aad seen her name on the ticket as I passed it to the conductor—was perfectly certain I was not a Swiss,

rnucn less an Austrian, anil 1 was equally confident my fair companion was not a native to the Alps. Her German bore too stiong an accent for that. I afterward learned she had thought my own a little curious. Once, just for the sport of the thing, I shouted something to the driver in English. How astonished I was to hear Miss Shelton add to it a phrase as English as my own! We held breath to explain, and in almost mo time at all discovered that we were both Americans. Stranger discoveries followed—they always do. Miss Shelton’s father had been a" volunteer Captain in our army, and I myself had been within a rifle shot of him when lie fell at; Vicksburg. Her mother, a .native of Bleiberg, took this only daughter and returned to her old home, stopping at the solicitations of friends, first for months, and now it had been years. In a moment I recalled what had been puzzling me for an hour. I had seen the name Shelton before somewhere Who was pensioner 1004 but Elsie Shelton—why had I not thought of that?—-wife of Captain Shelton, killed at Vicksburg in June 1853.. How extemelv singular! we both "exclaimed. Mrs. Elsie Shelton. 1 was soon informed, was not remarried. ,Th 3 object of my journ ey was accomF fished. I might return home at once. did not, however. Besides, Miss Shelton insisted that I. should go oil and visit pretty Bleiberg, her mother, and kerse 'f. I was easily persuaded. Why had the Consul’s letters not been answered? I asked, as we made a turn in the road. “0,”said Miss Shelton, “ mother and,I were both coming next week to Z—-, to visit a relative there, and so she proposed answering in person. Besides, she is not so poor that she cares dreadfully whether Uncle Sam stops the ten dollar or so a month or not. She always gives half of lit to the Postmaster's children and the rest to me for pin-raoney. Why, do you know,I bought these very gloves with some of that money at Innsbruck only two days ago;” and here the pretty hands and the pTav kid gloves nestled, coqnettishiy on her Jap. By noon the church steeple of Bleiberg was in sight and in an Lour the driver blew a shrill note or so on his fcofn, the villagers hastened to the windows of the houses as our four panting] smies passed on a jSjallop, and the little old postmaster lifted his blue cap and gave ns a salute all round. Mrs. Shelton was living with a friend, then absent, in a substantial two-story stone home not far from the post. “This is Mr. -,” said Miss Shelton, langhing, as she presented me to her mother, ‘‘a real American; and, just think, he has come to ask, mamma, if you are married.” The good-looking, embarrassed little widow soon unravelled the nonsense witii which Miss Margot was seeking to overwhelm us, and I was welcomed with bn affected cordiality. When the dinner was ovejr I strolled ont through one of the lowliest situated villages of the Alps/ The view down the valley we had just ascended

was enchanting. Behind the pretty town, and edged by a green meadow sloping upward, was a forest of tall, dark firs; and above this an alp, angling up the side of a steep mountain, known to all tourists as the “ Rigi ” of the Kernthal. / It was on the 25th of February, but the sun seemed as warm as in midsumner. The grass, so wonderfully green, was high enough for pasture, and violets ana daisies peeped out everywhere. It was “ dangerously warm, in fact,” muttered the little postmaster in the blue cap, as I handed him a letter to post to the Consul at 2——, saying every thing was well, but I couldn’t possibly be baek on Saturday—“ dangerously warm, because there had not been so much snow on the mountains in fifty years as now, and already people began to hear of avalanches falling out of season.” Bleiburg, however, is safe enough, I thought to myself, as I glanced up the sides of the old peak, where, sure enough, there were oceans of snow and ice glistening in the sunshine. But it was a mile away, and between pretty Bleiberg and it swept, like a dark veil, the forest of tall fir-trees. Besides, how could a village that had slept a hundred years be waked up now to an adventure just to' gratify a young American? “I don’t like ft—it’s too warm—and there’s no telling,” continued my would-be pessimist of a Postmaster. “I haven’t lived in these regions well nigh to fifty years for nothing. Snowing all winter, and hot sun and daises in February, aren’t natural. It means avalanches to somebody somewhere.” I had almost forgotten that, as I left the house of my fair entertainers, I was informed that it was carnival-day in the village, and that at three o’clock* I must be on hand to see the procession. It was already after three, and I hurried back to be offered a good place to see from, at the upper chamber window of Miss Margot, where, joined by her mother, we awaited the hoys in striped trousers and masks, and the men with music and flags. It was a novel sight, as the long procession filed up the road and approached the house where we were waiting. A parade in a mountain valley always is novel. The contrast of the bright colors of the costumes and flags w ith the green foliage and the greener grass at the roadsides; the comparative silence, disturbed only by the echoing of the notes of music from the lofty heights; the seeming diminutiveness of every thing— of the men, of the thread-like roads, of even the houses and trees, as seen under the shadow of the towering mountains—all added impressiveness to the thing.

Ihere were possibly a bundled persons in the procession, with a score of boys following at the sides, and all the villagers looking on. I don’t know why it was, but somehow they seemed less joyous than I had seen the peasants at other village carnivals. Was it thounsome flitting presentiment oFevtt? Surra" of these old men had had experience— sad enough, doubtless—of the unexpected dangers to life in those high valleys. I recall now a sort of utfeasiness I noticed on the faees of those nearest us, and, as I thought, an occasional glancing over our house at the great mountain behind. In some mysterious way this uncanny feeling was communicating itself to us also. Avalanches, however, give no signs of approaching, no warning. They are unexpected, as sudden as earthquakes, and sometimes lightning is not much more rapid in its work. When a million tons of ice and snow slip from the side of a mountain they are not long in reaching the bottom.’ The gay procession moved on. The music ana. the laughter grew merrier. Even the little postmaster in the blue cap was engaged in a loud guffaw at a clown marching on stilts. I had filled my pockets with bonbons at the post, and we were throwing them to the boys nearest us in the procession. Suddenly the music ceased; there was an awful whizzing in the air; a ciy of “Avalanche!” “Avalanche!” and in ap instant roaring and cracking, as of falling forests. In ten short seconds an awful flood of snow, mangled trees, ice and stones passed the house, like the swell of a mighty sea. Every thing shook. The procession disappeared as if ingulfed by an earthquake. Houses, right and left, tumbled over and wore buried in one single instant. The air, cooled for a moment, and, again hot, was rent with the screams of the mangled. An awful catastrophe ,had befallen us; the wrath of the mountain was upon the village! For a moment we stood paralyzed—speechless. We had been saved. My first impulse was to rush to the street, and to drag my companions with me; but,there was no street. Even the garden had disappeared in a foam of snow and ice. We thought of the back window at the embankment, but as we tore it open a single glance toward the mountain told us the horror was but begun. “ The forest!” we all shouted in a breath. It was gone, all gone, as if mown by a mighty reaper, and masses of other sqow seemed ready to slide. The white brow of the mountain still gleamed in the sunshine and seemed to laugh at the desolation. Another whizzing, a roar, and with our own eyes we saw the side of the mountain start. Instantly and together we sprang down the steps into the lower room. There was a roll of thunder, a mighty crash, and. then, all was darkness. We were buried alive beneath an avalanche. What my first thoughts were I am unable to recall. I only remember our fearful cries for help; now we shouted separately, and then united on one word, crying together again and again, our only answer the silence of the grave. Every soul in the village, probably, had been killed, or, lixe ourselves, had been buried beneath the snow and ice of the mountain. It was only after we had exhausted ourselves with vain cries for help that we meditated on helping ourselves. We had not been injured. We remembered that we were in the little sitting-room down-stairs, the windows only of which seenfed broken in, and filled with snow, ice and stones. The stairwav was also filled with snow and the debris of crushed walls. Above us all was desolation. How deep the avalanche lay across us we feared even to conjecture. As is my custom when in the Alps, I had a flask in my pocket of the best brandy. I persuaded my companions to drink, and drank myself until the last drop disappeared. Possibly it gave us courage. The furniture in the room seemed all in its proper place. We could move about, but it was becoming terribly cold, and we felt the sleepy chill, that dreadful precursor of death by freezing, overcoming us. Once we were certain we heard voices above us, and again we shouted to try to tell them we were still alive. We listened; the voices were gone. We were abandoned to our fate.

For hours we had alternately shoutee and listened, until we sank down ill despair. It must have been midnight when, in our gro pings about the little chamber, our hands came on a was candle. In a few moments we had light—light to die by. It would have been a strange sight for an artist—that buried room, with the dim light, the windows filled with snow, and the three inmates there waiting death. Once I attempted to encourage my companions, though myself hopeless, by telling of people wfio had been dug out of avalanches safe and well; but my words brought only groans. Hours went by. I don’t know whether we were sleeping or freezing, when I started at hearing a voice cry, “Alight! alight!” I sprang to my feet, and again the voiee cried, “A light!” In ten minutes three halffrozen, half-insane human heings were tenderly lifted from the grave into the gray light of the morning. A hundred noble souls had labored the long night through, seeking the buried. . Every man and woman, from every village in the whole valley, had hurried to the scene, and was straining every nerve to rescue those to whom life might still be clinging. We were among the last taken from the snow and rocks, which had lain upon us thirty feet in depth. Did those brave rescuers wonder that we knelt to them, and kissed the hems of their ragged garments? Beautiful Bleiberg is no more. Half of those whom we saw dancing along in the procession of the carnival* in the bright sunshine, sleep among the violets on the hill-side. The snow, and the ice, and the black bowlders from the mountain, and the dark fir-trees, still lie, in this early summer of 1879, in one mass in the valley. We all left as soon as we could travel. I went home to Z——. My chief has resigned, and I am now acting Consul in his place. _ Should the Senate confirm all the new appointments, I expect to remain as Consul. Miss Shelton thinks also of remaining, and when Americans wander to Z—-— they will find the latch-string of our home at the Consulate on the outside of the door. One word and I am done. Mrs. Shelton has lost a part of her pension—so much of it as was allowed for a minor daughter. 1 have so reported it to the Commissioner at W ashington.—Harper's Magazine for February.

How This Solid Earth Keeps Changing. The student of lxistox-y reads of the great sea-fight which King, Edward III. fought with the French off Sluys; how in those days the merchant vessels eaxue up to tho walls of that flourishing seaport by every tide; and how, a century later, a Portuguese fleet conveyed Isabella from Lisbon, and an English fleet brought Mai-garet of York from the Thames to marry successive Dxfkes of Burgundy at the port of Sluys. In our time, if a modern traveler drives twelve milosmxt of a small agricultural town, surrounded by corn-fields and meadows and clumps of trees, whenee the sea is not iir sight from the top of the town hall steeple. This is Sluys. Once more. Wo turn to the great Bale du Mont Saint Michel, between Normandy and Brittany. In Roman authors we read of the vast forest called “ Setiacum Nemns,” in the center of which an isolated rock arose, surmounted by a temple of Jupiter, once a college of Druidesses. Now the same xoek, with its gloxious pile dedicated to St. Michel, is surrounded by the sea -at high tides. The story of this transformation is even more striking than that of Sluys, and its adequate narration justly earned for M. Manet the gold medal of the Frenelx Geographical Society in 1828. Once again. Let us turn for a moment to the Mediterranean shores of Spain, and the mountains of Murcia. Those l-ocky heights, whose peaks stand out against the deep blue sky, scarcely support a blade of vegetation. The algarobas and olives at their bases ax-e artificially supplied with soil. It is scarcely credible that these ax-e the same mountains, which, according to the forest-book of King Alfonso el Sabio, w-ere once clothed to their summits with pines and other forest trees, while soft clouds and mist hung over a rounded, shaggy outline of wood where now the naked locks make a hal'd line against the burnished sky. But Arab and Spanish chroniclers alike record the tacts, and geographical science explains the caixse. There is scarcely a district in the whole range of the civilized wox-ld where some equally interesting geographical story1has not been recorded, and where the same valuable lessons may not be taught. This is comparative geography .—Exchange. A Mine Owner’s Mistake.

A man now a prominent merchant of Virginia City won at poker an undeveloped gravel claim near Nevada City, worth in the neighborhood of two hundred dollars. His friends had the laugh on him for several days regarding his “investment,” and asked him what proportion of the taxes he would pay in ca«e they aocepted the property as a gift. He finally got mad at their incessant guying, and told them they would see ne was not such a fool as they took him for before he got through with that mine. He then wrote to some capitalist acquaintances that he had a claim worth a fabulous sum, which he would sell for $2,000, being hard pressed financially. The bank was next visited, $600 worth of gold-dust and nuggets bought, and the claim thoroughlv “salted.” When the intending purchasers arrived they prospected the ground a little, and the panning-out was attended by big cleanups. They paid the $2,000 the same day, and got possession of the ground. Work was at once begun, and they took out $8,000 inside of three weeks. The “ salter ” was so taken aback that he did not smile for a month, and the parties to whom he confided his shrewdness at the timo of iW perpetration never meet him to this day but they ask him if he has another gravel mine to sell.— Nevada {Col.') Transcript. —A former President of a New England College after getting a seat in a horse-car noticed one of tne freshmen oi his college curled up in front of him, and exhibiting obvious signs of vinous exhilaration. A close inspection revealed the fact that the state of inebriety was not hastily put on (like a hat), but had been worn cloeely (like an undershirt) for several days. For a few moments the President surveyed the undergraduate with an expression of mingled commiseration and disgust, and finally he exclaimed, “ Been on a drunk!” The half-conscious student rallied his straving senses, and with a gleam of good fellowship in his eye, somewhat nnreejaculated, “So—hie—have

CURRENT EVENTS. The House Committee of Ways and Means have decided to report in favor of a refunding bond at 8 1-2 per cent, interest, to run from 20 to 40 years. They are to be used in funding fives and sixes, the aggregate amount of which now outstanding is about $500,000,000. The committee decided also to recommend that authority be given the Secretary of the Treasury to issue $200,000,000 four per cent, treasury notes, redeemable at pleasure, to assist in the reduction of the annual interest burden. The Select Committee of the House upon the Alcoholic Liquor Traffic have instructed Representative Brewer to rePbEtl a bill to the House providing for the appointment of a Commission of 10 members to investigate the subject, to serve without pay, and to be selected irrespective of their views-upon the liquor traffic bill; also appropriating $10,000 for expenses of Commission. A meetingof the National Democratic Committee has been called for Monday, February 28, at Washington, for the purpose of fixing, the time and place of holding the next Democratic National Convention. The House Inter-State Commerce Committee, by a vote of 9 to 6, adopted Representative Henderson’s bill, with amendments, as a substitute for that of Mr. Reagan. The bill provides for a Board of Commissioners, with powers similar to I those proposed by the “ Charles Francis Adams plan,” their jurisdiction extending over the transportation of all property from one State or Territory into or through other States or Territories, whether such property be carried by one railroad or several railroads. All discriminations and rebates in freight are forbidden by the bill.

1 he Senate Sub-committee on Territories have reported to the full Committee a measure providing for the organization of a territorial form of government in the Indian Territory. A “John Sherman Club ” has been organized in New York City, for the purpose of furthering Mr. Sherman’s Presidential prospects. The Chicago Inter-Ocean, by authority of the Hon. E. B. Washburnc, announcos that he is not a candidate for the Presidency, but is “ for Gen. Grant The House Committee on Elections, incite case of Curtin vs. Yocum, Twentieth District of Pennsylvania, will report in favor of sending the matter back to the people of the district for a new election. A Tucson (Nev.) dispatch says that Captain Rucker, of the Ninth Cavalry, commanding one of the columns pursuitag the hostile Indians, had been routed by the latter and forced to retreat, with the loss of several men and horses and all his ratiohs. The Superintendent of the Census, in a circular to Supervisors, says the appointment of enumerators must bo nonpartisan. He is aware of no reasons existing in law for regarding, women as ineligible for appointment as enumerators. Each Supervisor must be judge for himself whether such appointments in any number would be practically advantageous in his district. It is clear that in many regions such appointments would be highly objectionable, but the Superintendent is not prepared to say that localities may not be found where a canvass of the population by women could be conducted without any disadvantage being encountered by reason of sex of the enumerator. The California Legislature has passed a bill providing for the enforcement of that clause of the new Constitution which forbids the employment of Chinese labor by corporations organized and doing business under the laws of the State, and the Governor has affixed his signature to the same." There is considerable opposition to this law on the part of some of the large corporations, however, who propose to test its constitutionality by bringing it before the Supreme Court of the United States as soon as a test case can be made. The Directors of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe and the St. Louis and San Francisco Railways have agreed upon a plan, it is reported, for the building of the thirty-fifth parallel route to the Pacific coast. The new line will be known as the Atlantic and Pacific.

Military officers upon the frontier anticipate active hostilities with the Utes as soon as warm weather sets in. Large quantities of military stores and munitions are being shipped to Fort Garland, and the garrison there is being reinforced. It is said that the Baroness BurdettCoutts intends to devote $2,500,000 to the permanent relief of the Irish. The project is to expend the money for the purchase of land in the district of Connemara, County Galway, to be leased to farmers at low rentals and on long time. ;v ■ J'; The ** National Blaine Club” has been organized in Washington, and it is said that similar clubs are to be organized throughout the country, to actively promote the interests of Mi. Blaine as a Presidential candidate before the Chicago Convention. Chief Jack has succeeded in securing three of the prisoners demanded by the Government, and on the 14th delivered them up to Gen. Adams at Los Pinos Agency. They are Douglas, Thomas, and Tim Johnson. Jack says it win take at least three weeks more to capture the remaining nine demanded. The prisoners are to be taken immediately to Washington.

Another ineffectual attempt to assassinate the Czar was made on the 17th The Winter Palace was undermined, and at about the usual hour for the Imperial family to be at dinner an explosion occurred, making a hole in the dining-hall ten feet long and six wide. Owing to accidental delay the Imperial family had not yet arrived. Five soldiers were killed and thirty-five wounded by the explosion. A State Convention of colored people, held at Dallas, Tex., on the 16th, to consider the exodus question, was largely attended. Resolutions were adopted, declaring that there is no necessity for the exodus of colored people from Texas, whatever may be the condition of affairs east of the Mississippi, and emigrants from other States are invited to come to Northwest Texas, with the assurance that all men there are treated according to their merits. An association was formed, to be incorporated under the laws of the State, and known as the Texas Farmers’ Association, to assist members in the purchase and improvement of homesteads. A Papal encyclical, just published, argues in favor of the removal of the rite of marriage from all civil jurisdiction whatever, and declares that Christ elevated it to a sacrament which only His Church can administer. The attempt made under various guises by the modern spirit of irreligion to rob the Church of her right either to bind or loose the marriage tie must be resisted by the whole Catholic world. T. J. McTige, a Pittsburg inventor, claims to have discovered a process for “ transmitting the physical wave-force of light electrically similar to the transmission of sound by the telephone.” Among the somewhat remarkable feats the inventor expects to accomplish by his discovery is the photographing at any distance of persons or other objects, and the transmission, or exact reproduction at any distance, of any printed or written document, as, for instance, one* entire side of a newspaper. The “tclephote” is the name given to the invention. Owing to the remarkable increase in the price of printing-paper, the proprietors of the newspapers in New Orleans have adopted a resolution requesting the Representatives of Louisiana in Congress to use their influence to have the duty on printing-paper, chemicals, and materials used in the manufacture tnereoi removed or materially reduced.

HEWS IH BRIEF. S. S. Brummett, editor of the Entei'pr\se> was shot and fatally wounded by G. W. Carlton, editor of the Telegraph, at Hollis-, ter, Cal., on the 12th. Governor Cornell of New York has signed the bill permitting women to vote for school officers. Nashville, Tenn., was visited by a terrific hurricane about midnight on the 12th. The spjjres of the First Colored Baptist, St. John’s Colored, and St. Paul’s Colored churches were blown down; the inside brick wall of the new Custom-house was demolished, and a number of buildings unroofed. It is said that an entire family of nine, women and children, whose house stood upon the bank of Mayfield Creek, near Mayfield, Ky., were drowned during 'a freshet on the night of the 12th. The house was washed away. The Empire Storage Warehouse, 198*204 South Market Street, Chicago, burned on the night of the 14th, wjth all its valuable contents, consisting of liquors^ dry-goods, fruits, etc., valued at 1472,000,most of whieh was covered by insurance. Rev. Andrew Andreen, for ten years past pastorof Swedish Lutheran Churches at Berlin and Swedana, Henry County, HI., hang himself at Rock Island on the 14th, while temporarily insane. At Syracuse, N. Y., on the bight of the 13th, Amelia Mantz shot and killed her cousin and lover, Julius C. Mantz, a well known musician, and then committed suicide. The parties had maintained an illicit relationship for some years, and the shooting was in consequence of the man’s refusal to marry the woman whom he had ruined. At Bainbridge, Lancaster County, Pa., Levi Lane, aged 24, murdered his wife and one child, consigned another infant child to death from starvation, and then committed suicide by taking poison. Alittleboy, aged 3 years, was for some unaccountable reason spared the fate of the other members of the family. When discovered by the neighbors the little fellow was nearly dead from starvation and cold, his feet and legs being so badly frozen as to necessitate amputation. Lane was a lazy and worthless vagabond, who lived by doing odd Jobs and spent the most of his earning^ for liquor. Mrs. Lane wag an intelligent woman, of good, family connections, and it is said eloped from home to be married. At Brule City, Dakota Ter., recently, Jim Somers,known from Yankton to Bismarck as a lawless and dangerous man, had an alter

cation witn ms uncle, M. Somers, winch resulted in both being shot dead. By the explosion ot a boiler in Barton & Babcock’s distillery at Peoria, 111., on the 18th, John Sill, fireman, and an unknown man who had just come in to inquire for work, were instantly killed; Benj. Babcock, one of the proprietors, and John Bichard* son, an employee, were fatally injured, and three others were badly hurt. The explosion was caused by pumping cold water into the boiler, which had been allowed to get nearly dry. The boiler in John F. Thompson’s steam mill at Kandolph, N. II., burst on the 17th, destroying the mill and killing El den Page, Roger Johnson, Mr. Prescott and a French workman, and badly injuring S. F. Hewey. Notwithstanding the President’s proclamation, it is said that an organized invasion of the Indian Territory from Southern Kansas will be made at an early day. The Kansas Republican State Convention will be held at Topeka on the 31st of March. The officers and members of the Territorial Legislature of New Mexico made a pleasure excursion over the newly completed Atchison. Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad U Kansas. They wer* publicly Entertained ai Atchison, Topeka and Leavenworth. And bow Joseph Cook is accused ol plagiarism. He said that “ the aggregation of bioplastic germs evidence an nresistihle tendency to correlate tht molecules in inverse ratio to the capillary process of differentiation.” And a lightning-rod agent says that’s jusi what he gave the farmers as a reason why they should have their buildings todded.—Boston Post. i -V, i ■* i

CONCESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. Feb. 13.—Senate—Not hi session...... Rev** Mr. Wells (!>-, Mo.), from the Commit tee cm Appropriations, reported back the bill making an additional appropriation of J1SS,000 for the support ot certain Indian tribes for ™ fiscal year, and it passed. Mr.Frye cK., Me.),from the Committee on fnter-Oeean-5e Cans), reported a resolution calling on the Secretary of tnc Navy for all information and c orrespondence touching the Internatkmal Canal now in possession of his department and not heretofore published. Adopted. Committee reports. of a private nature were then called TbebUl fm the relief of Fit* John Porter be tog the regular order, Mr. Bright (I)-, Tenn.) raised a question of consideration against the bill, and the house refused—veas 41, nays, not counted—to consider the bilf. The House tlicu wem into committee on private calendar. J’KB. 14.—• Senate — Not in session..... Heat* —A brief session was held for debate only. A. FltB. f?> Senate—After the expiration of the morning hour; consideration was resumed ®S»‘- MWtaoy land-warrant bill, ami Messrs. Allison and Edmunds spoke at length thereon...... Houw-Amoug the bills inirortneed were the following; BvMr.T&wushend (K., llU-To repeal the duty on medi ernes , by Mr. Henderson (R„ 1U.)—Reducing the duty on iron and steel; by Mr. Richardson At*-, S. C.)—To return to the producers of cotton the tax collected by the Oovernment which has been declared by the United elutes Supreme Court to have been Ulegady collected; by Mr. 1-arsons (D., Ua.) —Admitting free of duty machinery f<.r the manufacture of cotton fabrics; by Mr. Keifcr in ... ■ ** UV J11 . AdU (K*eiU ;w.^l‘autl^Peusion:iJto certain sailor ana soldiers of the late war who wer r - war wno wei confined in so-called Confederate prison: ky l®d.)—Amending statute prohibiting the employment of convicts i the manufacture of such articles as mav b brought into competition with skiile labor; by Mr. Frost (D., Mo.)Tp repeal certain sections of the ac ^ Angust, Tl, relative to the ns® c Marshals and bupen isors at the poUs, an t.ic am of 18TC on the same subject. A hi erabie debate, ordered engrossed and rear! third time. hEB. IT. Senate—A memorial was pre seated from the Chamber of Coiumerco of $ Paul, asking an appropriation for.the relief c tne Irish sufferers, and that a Governineii vessel oe sent with con trttmt ions to I relam This gave nso to some discussion as- to it reference, the sense of the Senate appearin, to be favorable to the memorial. It was re terred to the Committee on AppropriationMr. Logan submitted the following resolu tion, whichi«i referred to the Committee oi Naval Affairs: Jtesaived, That the Secretary of the Navy b authorized to equip and furnish a vessel fo the purpose of conveying to Ireland sue! contributions offered and other supplies a are furnished in the United States for the re lief of the Suffering in Ireland. Mr. Walker, from the Committee on Publi Lands, reported favorably the House bill fo the relief of settlers on the Osage trust am diminished reserved lands in Kansas. Place* on the calendar. Mr. Saulsbury presenter the majority report of the Committee 01 1 nvileges and Klections in the Ingalls cast The report finds that bribery and corruptioi weie employed to secure Ingalls’s election but that there is no evidence that Iugalls au tnonzed such Improper acts, or tba tiiej’, in fact, . secured his election Mr. Cameron (Wis.) presented a minority re port, signed by Hoar, Logan and himself, con curring in that part of the majority repoi w hich exonerates Ingalls, but expressing th opinion that when the report states corruii tion was employed, it should, in justice stat what was proved—that such menus was cm ployed in opposition to his clectioi The reports were ordered printed.. House—-Tho bin regulating the removal c causes from State to Federal Courts was take (?•» Ky.) spoke in favor t th® hill. The morning hour having expiret ihe bill went over without action. The lloua then went into Committee of the Whole o

*v < wiuu vi 11ruics. Knb. 18—Sfnntt—A Jfint rcsolutinis iv«« passed authorizing the Secretary of the Navy f™°re?~yanava] vesse1’ or charter a ship, tortile purpose of tmwronu,, to ,h(> istuiig an«t poor of Ireland sueli contributions as may Me made for their relief. The live per cent, military land-warrant bill was aaam taker, up and discussed, after which the Senate weut into executive session. iprose-Mr. Cox (D., X. V.), Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, submitted a unanimous report of the committee in regard to the charges made against Mr. Ackleu (!>., La.). Mr. Ackleu demanded the reading of the report, and it was accordingly read. After reciting some preliminary facts in the case, the committee flnds, in conclusion, that Mr. Aekien, not being a member of the Committee on. Foreign Affairs, presented, on the 13th of January, a paper purporting to be a report of that committee, submitted by Mr. King(D., La.), relating to the claims of certain citizens against the Govern - numt of Nicaragua, which paper was printed at his request; that said paper was not are-’ port of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and had • never been adopted or favorably considered by it; and that It was done in the absence of Mr. King, whose absence was known to Mr. Aekien. After the report was read, Mr. Aekien sent to the Clerk’s desk and had read letters direetod by him to the Chairman of the Committee on foreign Affairs, and Chairman of the subcommittee, asking that the scope of the investigation might be enlarged. After some debate as to the proper course to pursue in the matter, it was resolved to refer the evidence to the Judiciary Committee, with authority to make further inquiry, it it should appear essential to a fust judgment, and instructing said committee to report what action, if necessary, is required on the part of the House. Mr. F. Wood (D„ N. Y.). Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, reported baek the bill to facilitate refunding of the National deft, also a resolution committing that bill to Committee of the .Whole, and making it a special order for the first Tuesday in Match, and from day to day thereafter until disposed AT 1 A tH11 Avtilii kilon of all * - * * k v . . . of, to the exclusion of all existing orders, but not to interfere with K4na not to interfere with appropriation bills. Adopted. Mr.‘Gibson (D., La.) introduced a bill to secure a more uniform collection of duties on imported sugars. The House then resumed consideration of the bill to regulate the removal of causes from State to Federal Courts, pat without action the House adjourned, Feb. 39,—Senate—M.r. Davis, of West Virginia, submitted a resolution-directing any heads of executive-departments who have not yet done so, to comply with the statute requiring such officers . to annually report to Congress the number of employees iu their department and whether any of them can be dispensed with, or whether any changes can profitably be made. Adopted. Consideration was then resumed of the five per cent, bill, and speeches were made by. Messrs. McDonald, Morrill, McMillan, Saunders and Morgan. Hintse—Mr. Bland, (D., Mo.), from the Committee on Coinage, \\ eights and Measures, reported a bill to establish a mint at St. Louis. Printed and recommitted. The morning hour having, expired, the House went into Committee on Revision of the Rules.

Mourning, Visitors to this country are greatly surprised at the long period during which people wear mourning and remain in seclusion. The custom must l>e purely American, for it does not obtain elsewhere. In England a widow or widower may, with perfect propriety, direst themselves of mourning attire at the end of twelve months, although, in most cases, they retain it, in somer degree, a while longer. Mourning is worn for parents for one year, but changed to lighter mourning after sis months, and the same as regards the mourning of parents for children. Except in the ease of widows and widowers, it is not deemed at all obligatory to abstain from society for more than six months, although in the eases of parents who have lost children it would he unusual to go to large entertainments before the expiration of a year. Where a parent has died well stricken in years, and quite in ordinary course of nature, it would excite no remark were the children to go to quiet dinner-parties after three months. . A two rears’ mourning and seclusion would, in such case, be deemed affectation. Mourning is here carried to such lengths that some people really pass a lavge part of their lives in weeping and seclusion, the death of a father, mother, and sister or brother making an aggregate of five years. It is a question whether we are not carrying tile thing too far. Life was surely not made to be spent in permanent seclusion on account of bereavement, more especially for those Who, in the ordinary course of nature, must predecease us. Thousands of persons would gladly out short their mourning but for the tyranny of fashion, which arbitrarily rules in this as in so 1 much besides.—N, T. : • v

The J^npinp Rocks. A few days ago a representative of this papor, says the Reading (Pa. * Times and Visjtaieft, paid a visit to the geological wonder '"known as the Ringing Rocks in Montgomery County. Ringing Hill, as the people there call the 1 eminence on which the celebrated rocks are found, is on the farm of Abraham Mencli, in Pottsgrove Township, three miles northeast of Pottstown. The ringing rocks cover a space of about threeoiuirters of an acre. In this tract bow! • ders are piled upon bowlders of all shapes and forms, and so promiscuously arranged that considerable agility is required to walk over them without falling. As one steps from rock to rock a ringing sound, produced by the nails in the boot-heels, is plainly heard. On rapping the stones with a hammer, quite remarkable acoustic properties are revealed. Some of them give forth arich, full tone which would probably vie with the best hell metal if the stones were fashioned into bells. One of them in particular,; from its depth of tone, isknown' as the State-house bell. This was atone time among the largest of the rocks. It has been broken off, however, but still lias preserved its strong, full tone. 'The general sound pro- ) dueed % striking the smaller stones resembles that of a blacksmith’s anvil, some having a little clearer ring than others, and no two sounding just alike. In passing from one to another of the larger rocks one is reminded of the tapping of car-wheels by the train-inspectors. Thousands of people visit this natural phenomenon every summer. The rocks themselves bear evidence of this, the edges being battered off by hammer-strokes, and the sides of many having names carved upon them, some parties who were unwilling to take the time or trouble to c nisei their names upon the .rocks having resorted to paint, and considerable danbiug has been done in various colord. The advertising fiend has not failed to 4>nt in his appearance; and we are made aware of the merits of patent medicines, of the place to buy carpet and the like . upon every hand. We nave not heard any satisfactory explanation of the cause of the ringing or bell-like sonndsof these rocks. Some say it is owing-to there being a cavern underthem. This, however can have nothing to do with it, as j, when the rocks are removed they still have the same sound. One large and sonorous bowlder was taken to the Centennial and •. attracted a great deal of attention there. Another was .sent to England a year or two ago. There is probably a metallic substance in this group of bowlders to which t bo ringing sound may Vfe attributed. W have not heard, , however, of any geological analysis i>eing made. Half a mile east of the Ringing Rocks, ami In the same range of hills, there Is C another group of bowlders which ate * much visited. Here a lofty pile of rocks surmounts a cavity of considerable depth, the whole being known as lAro “Stone House.” Near by the stofcie. house is a huge bowlder, some fifteen or iM.-cuiy feet 'high, which, troin its peon- . liar contour, is called the “ Hay Stack.” Besides their acoustic qualities there is another singular circumstance about the Ringing Rocks which visitors rarely fail to notice. Many of them Tiave verystrange marks, or indentations. At some points , these resemble the tracks of a horse’s hoof. _ Others are like the track of a wagon. Some of the larger indentations are said to resemble an elephant’s foot, and, fae-similes of the human . foot are claimed to be found among the smaller ones.

Small Dividends on Crime. The income of a thieving life is so small and precarious compared with.the pains taken to secure it, that (>nb wonders thieves do not abandon the*occupation in discouragement. Onei of them recently arrested in New York, described in minute detail to a reporter the whole process of his stealing $4,000 worth of diamonds from a Fifth Avenuo boarding house, and the balance which it left him. He was stopping at a disreputable down-town hotel when he saw the rooms advertised, 5'nd made up his mind to go and see what stroke of business he cotild accomplish there. With a piece of thin wire he arched his nose and widened his nostril^; he bulged out his cheeks; deep ened the sockets of his eyes with burnt cork; reddened his complexion with vermilion; painted wrinkles on his fore head, and added a full, tight-fitting beard and a wig with a bald crown. When his toilet was complete he looked like a Wall Street broker, or an American statesman. Putting on a handsome, well made suit of clothes, and buying a"pair of kid gloves and a walking cane, he hired a cab for “ the round trip,” at three dollars, and drove to the house. Being left alone in the jjarlor he sat down and strummed the “ Anvil Chorus ” on .the piano, apologizing to I the landlady on entering for doing it. He told her he was a wealthy English

until, just- uvw, wuu wuuiu m|iure iwir \ rooms’, and finally agreed with her tor a suit at thirty-five dollars a week. The lunch bell rang and she asked him to stay to lunch, which he accepted, saying that he would first wash in his new room. After a visit from a pretty housemaid, who was sent to show him the way to the dining-room, but whom he dismissed, saying he was not ready, and when every thing was quiet again, he proceeded to business. ■ j 'j» . Locking the outside door of his room he-rolledthe bed away from another door leading into the adjoining room. The door was fastened with a hoofconly, Which was easily broken. Opening the door he found himself in another bed* room, but saw nothing but a sealskin sacque which he could carry away. ’ Then going to the bureau drawers and opening them he found two morocco eases, from which he took the diamonds, putting the jewels into his pocket, went back into his bed room* from which he emerged and made his waydown stairs, informing the butler thn^che had decided not to stay to lunch. Beaching his hotel, he at once threw off his disguise and went out to negotiate his plunder. He offered them to a man in Chatham street for $500, but was obliged to take $450, about one-tenth their value. But for the necessity of getting rid. hi. them he could have done much better than this. Hjdf of the money he gave to a “young lady friend,” who soon afterwards deserted him and ran away lo Chicago; the other half was lost at a gambling house. A few hours after the theft, therefore, he had absolutely nothing left to show for all his, ingenuity, labor and plains, but. goes to State Prison for a term of years instead. He was, formerly a London physician, and a man of pleasing address and marked intelligence. But nope a! these served to command very large dividends on the capital he invested u» crime.—JMnrit Free Prm.