Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 January 1882 — Page 6

THE JEW FATHER. JAMES'WHITCOMB BILEV. I like me yet dot leedje chile. Vich climb my lap up in to-day, Und took my cheap clgalr avay, •Unt laugh ana kiss me purty whviie, Possesclally I like dose mout , Vieh taste his moder Hke-unt so, / Off my cigair it gone glean out Vust let it go! Vat I calre den for anyding? Der paper schlip out son my hand. And all my odvairtizement stand, Mitout new changements boddering; I only dink—l have me dis Von leedle boy to pet unt love, Unt play me mit, unt hug unt kiss— Unt dot’s enough! Der plans unt purposes I vear Out i u der vorld all fades avay; Unt mit der beezntz of der day 1 cot me den no time to spare; Der caires of trade vas caires no more— Dem cash accounds dey dodge me by, Unt mit my chile I roll der floor, Unt laugh unt gry. Ah, frient! dem childens is der ones . Dot got some happy times you bet ! Dot’s vy, ven I been growed up yet I vish I vould been lee.lle vonce! tint ven dot leedle roozter tries \ baby tricks I used to do, \ My mout it vaters, unt my eyes Deyvatertoo! Unt all der summertime unt spring Of childhood It comes back to me, So dot it vas a dream I see Ven 1 yust look at anydingl Unt ven dot leedle boy run by, 1 dink “dot’s me” foil hour to hour, Schtill chasing yet dose butterfly Fon flower to flower! Oxpose I vas lots money valrt, Mit blenty sohtone front; schtore to rect Unt mor’gages at twelf-per cent, I’nt diamonds in my ruffled sh«irt, — - I make a ’signmentot all dot, Untiurn it over mitaschmile, Obber you please— but don’d lorgot, . 1 keep dot chije!

“ONLY A NEWSBOY.”

'•Here’s your News!” Dver the bead of the little one whose sweet, sad, tremulous tones uttered that sentence, scarce ten years had passed; yet, brief a 3 they were, fearful were the traces left of their presence. Upon the low, expansive, swelling forehead, darkened by burning sunrays, heavy wind and rain, and shaded 4>y tresses of the deepest imaginable hue, which fell in reckless gracefuiufcss over the frail shoulders, were evidence of want, anxiety, and suffering sufficient for three-score years. The purely, delicately-carved lips worn lines—deep lines —cut by the unmistakable hand of sorrow, and the eyes, like southern purple seas, when wrapped in the woudrous graudeur of the moonlight, held in a look of hopeless longing that would have been pitiable even in age. Many months had this fragile boy trodden the crowded thoroughfare, the poor little unclad feet blistered, bleeding from the scorching sun of summer or biting cold of winter; trodden it from the early morning, with weary, throbbing head and aching limbs, till not one purchaser could be found. Bravely, without a murmur had he borne the jeers, taunts, blows of the low and vulgar and the scorn, reproaches, aud bitter uukindutss of the lofty. Often his only sustenance had been a “cup of cold water” aud a morsel of bread; yet it was not delivered in the name of the Nazarene. Uncomplainingly the heroic spirit battled with the clouds of despair wnich threatened to eniold him—battled,

while, oh, how feebly, burned in Bis life’s horizon hope’s star. Sometimes adown his cheek, grown thin and wan from disappointment, trial, anguish, would course tears, so wild and bitter, he wondered that their crystal hue was not crimsoned by his heart’s blood; but, witn a mighty will, worthy of manhood, they were suddenly dashed aside. She should not behold them —she, bis beautiful, augel-like, invalid mother, whose idol, next to her Qod, he was. Through her veins ran the fatal Cjison ot the destroyer, and with fieadh joy he watched the ruin he knew lyould be inevitable. The large, soft eyes, naturally radiant, at times glanced with splendor almost unearthly; the lovely roses blossomed upon 'the oval patrician face, till the child believed health returning to his beloved one; but deceiving and valueless were they! as the oeautitul fruit of the still, still sea, and that form which had glided through halls of wealth and lame, cynosure of all eyes, had lost its exquisite roundness, until it resembled nearly as much an inhabitant of the "city of the dead” as the living. "Sorrow’s crown of sorrow is remembering happier things!” Dwelling upon the halcyon past, when joy, deep as mortals know, was jhers; when father, mother, husband, •children clustered about her fondly, her soui, in its almost uueudurable grief, had often exclaimed: “My God! my God! why hast Thou forsaken me?”

That husband, on a far and gory field of Tennessee, after the desperately Idnght, vict irious battle, in all honor exchanged the beloved gray for the white uniform of the home of him who said: “We will cross over the river and rest in the shade of the tree.” Both parents and a lovely daughter soon after left for the land of the hereafter, and only one stay was left her. A stay in its fullest meaning was that noble, self-forgetting boy. By war and horrible injustice this delicate woman had seen.her elegant home and large possessions torn from her, all powerless to resist. Sometimes the monster granted her a respite from severe suffering, and at such times the ' dun light of her miserable tenement oom was extinguished only as morn- ' dng’s brightness crept through the ‘ 4reaTy window. The slender, wiry fingers, which were wont to execute with brilliancy the ravishing music of Mozart and ' Beethoven, and nestle among the fab- • ' ribs of Persia, now washed and ironed filthy linefi for common laborers! ' How could she have prevented it? Cotdd she have sewed for a livelihood? Had she done so, the remainder of her existence would have lengthened into months. * Where were the warm, influential hearts, ready, anxious to assist her in turning that rare genius for music to advantage? Alas! many who at her ** boartfhjfi “fared sumptuously every day,” ® received from her rich, lavish preserra! passed her with* a distant how orno recognition. During the terrible revolution, numbers haa passed into the silent land, who, had they lived, would have been unchangeable; some true ones were vet on earth, but so scattered that she know not where to hud them. •

” Pride Would not listen to her asking charity, aud she suffered on in sickness. z -Her health growing more feeble daily; starvation seemed almost at her threshold. Her child had often besought her to permit him to go, as a newsboy, but the thought of his going was so cruelly piercing. Oh, the humiliation! Her beautiful, gifted, sensitive darling compelled to traverse the streets to earn a sustenance. Reason triumphed over feeling; the “wolf’was almost entering. Into the world’s battle, with true, unflinching heart, rushed the youthful soldier, his banner emblazoned with “For Mother’s Sake.” “For Mother’s Sake” did he answer civilly, coarse aud brutish questions, allow the fangs of hunger to pierce him, rather than use for himself his earuings, and tried to persusde himself he was not weary when overtaxed nature, in clarion voice was proclaiming her injured right. This, to bfm, had been a more than usually miserable day. His mother had become far worse recently, and he had scarcely closed his eyes in sleep for several nights. The exacting physician declared that were he not paid something for his services they should be discontinued. The thought that his mother would be, without medical aii was maddening to the boy. Oh! how wildly he longed that the proceeds of to-day’s papers might be sufficient to satisfy the physician and prevent his neglecting his mother. / The Adjust, sun had reached its meridian, the great globe was pouring down almost streams of fire, and only two papers had been disposed of. How white and exhausted he looked. Even the lips were forsaken by every’ vestige of color,-

“What’reyoo putting on all those airs for, you deceitful puppy? Trying to make believe you’re sick, I s’pose — needy, too. I’ll bet you’re as well as I am. an’ have got plenty .of money. What you done with all you made from papers? —been sellin’ ’em along time. You’re trvin’ to beg, ain’t you? Don’t beg me 'I shan’t help to s’port yoff in your laziness. I’ve got no patience with low-down newsboys. Hold your head up, or I’ll shake you!” The elegant did uot shake him—probably he feared soiling his dainty gloves—but he took the tip of his rubyset walking-cane and rapped heavily the head, with its glory of ebony hair; the head where, in years agone, had rested in pride, love ,and blessing, the hands of many of eai th’s greatest and noblest. What cared he, the banker’s son, for caning a newsboy? He might have repeated the act, and ,the eyes,of the police would, accidentally, have been in another direction. A feeling of suffocation came over the weird shapes aud shadows danced before his eyes, and he knew no more. The gentleman walked away, twirling, in apparent satisfaction, his artificially dark and curled moustache.

“Git up’m here! What ye doin’— playin’ possum? Think somebody’ll come ’lon’ an’ fall in lpve\ witbt that pitcer-lookin’ beauty o’ yourn, an’ raise yu to do nothin'? How dar yu take up the crossin’, and yu nothin’ but a ragged newsboy? Git up, I say, or shore’s my name’s Dave Brown I’ll take you to the lock-up!” The man was executing his threat— Was half carrying, half dragging along the tortured little being—when eousciousuess returned. With wild und passionate eloquence he Sued for-re-lease—told of his feeble, lonely mother, suffering for even the comforts of life, and his own unfeigned illness. With a horrible oath the man released him from his iron grasp, saying: “If he ever cotch him ’tendin’ ter be sick agin (he knowed he was jis’ ’tendin’), he’d wish he’d a-never seed Davy Brown.” Did the boy weep? His heart was too near breaking. Mechanically his swollen feet paced the hard, hot street, keeping time to the despair march his soul was playing. A handsomely-dressed lady, accompanied by a youth, were nearing him. Nonchalantly the latter, lifting the boy’s tattered cap, aud staring boldly, mockingly into the fearfully white face, said: “Umph! you’d make a capital comic valentine; I've a mind to’sketch you.” The lady, flushed with shame and anger, exclaimed: “How could you act so contemptibly, so cowardly. Harry? I shall punish you severely for this!” Turniug to the boy, she kindly apologized for her son’s behavior, and delicately insisted on his taking some change she jbeld in her hand.

“But, mother,” returned Young America, “itdoes not matter much; he’s only a newsboy !” Tears, the first inmahydays, coursed down the pallid face. Save his mother’s, these were the only kinds words addressed the child in oh, so long! “Hope springs eternal in the human breast;” he forgot his mental aud physical suffering in the hope of alleviating his mother’s. . Taking the first car (he would have •vyi’ked, but too much time would have been consumed), he was going to his mother. - j , “Such nuisances should not be permitted to disgrace our city cars ! Raise your dress, Julia, or he might toil it—hateful, ragged little newsboy r’ The red lips of two superbly-dressed belles curled disdainfully, and they drew themselves as far away as possible from the cause of their remarks, lest he should contaminate them. r “Do you not see you arfe bothering these ladles, you chap? Gkt out there with the driver, and litre’s & nickel for you.” . p"*' The boy’s eyes, like artificial suns, literally consumed the insignificant wretch, who, astounded at seeing Such scorn and pride in a newsboy, sat like one s.tupifled, holding the' rejected nickel. " . v i The persecuted little one -went out with the driver; the place was crowded and an evil-looking, soiled stripling insisted he was taking to much. In vain he protested he was using as little space as possible. The ruffian called him a “lyin’ dog.” ” f There was a dull, heavy sound, as if an object had fallen; a sudden stopping of the car, and out oh the quiet ai£ went a wail in which wan concentrated* whole spirit's agony—a wail in which was but one word “Mother!” Upon the stony street, his heavenlike beauty annihilated by the horses’ feet, bis wild, floating locks wearing “redder stains than the poppies knew,” lay “the bright young being.” “Bigut bad, this,” said one pasaen-

ger. “Yes, rather, was the rejoinder; “but, to tell the truth, there are so many trifling, impudent shavers of his class, I’d like to see a number put out of the way.” “Look here!” exclaimed a person to a friend who ffat near him. “I saw that large boy push the bthew over.” “Did you?” was the repljy “Well, don’t mention it; he was only a newsboy, and our valuable titpre might be broken into. Of course the others think he fell over.” Two men took the mangled corpse to its mother. She spoke not. only sank low upon the bare floor and remained motionless. The men touched her, wondering at her stillness. Mother and sop were together in the land where they do not hunger**aud thirst; they had “come out of the great tribulation; had washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb;” so white that the habiliments of those who once feared contact with him, compared with them, would be as night unto morning; it was the home of Him “with whom there 'is no respect of persons;” the home where, dinned in his ear, would be no more “Only a newsboy.”

Civil Service Examination.

New York\^orid. “Will you name a fossil of the Silu[rian age?” f “Tripod.” “Mr. M., will you name some of the plants common in the carboniferous age?” _ “The Lepidodendrids, the Sigillarie aud the ca-ca-Camelites.” “Mr. 8., what can you say of the size of the bract?”---“It is„so small that it can not be absent ” “What is the congealed form of water?” “A sponge.” “What is a protozoa?” “One large cell.” “Give an example?” “Bob Ingersoll.” “What is a monsoon?” “A tribe of Indians in Central Africa.” ‘•What is a broken line?” “It is a crooked straight line.” 1 1 “ What is an equilateral triangle?” 1 “A triangle with four sides.” “What Fnglish word is derived from verbreit?”^ “Very broad.” “What kind of a subjunction is that?” “That is what a former professor would call subjunctive of softened statement.” “Aud what is that?” “I give it un.” “Whit did Wickliffe write?” “I believe he wrote a Bible.” “Who was the great hunter of Bible times?’! “Nabob.” “Who were the three men in the fiery furnace?” “Shadrach, Mesech and Beelzebub.”

A Pretty Western Romance.

Davenport Democrat. A brother and sister have met after a separation of twenty years, and the meeting has been brought about in Davenport by ibe little son of the sister in the most peculiar way. One week ago yesterday the raft steamer Clyde went into Davenport on her way north, and Captain Douglass tied up his boat for a while in order to permit some (h the crew to go ashore and make purchases. Among others who went ashore was Aaron Carter, a raftsman. The weather was very cold, with a keen, northwest wind. While going along the street Carter met a poorly clad little boy, who was running along, v crying' bitterly. Carter asked him was the matter, and the little lad sobbed out: “I’mcold.” “Comewiih qae,” said Carter, and, takings the boy to a clothing store, he bought him a shit of warm clothes and a pair of mittens. He then asked the boy his name. “Aaron Dunlap,” was the reply. Carter was thunderstruck. “Aaron Dunlap!” he cried. “Where are your father and mother!” “Father is dead.” the lfoy replied. “Well, take me to your mother, then, as quickly as you can,” said Carter. The boy took him to his humble home, and when Carter entered the house the boy’s mother rushed into his arms, with a shriek that made all the other occupants of the tenement house rush into the hall to see what was the matter. Carter had found a sister whom he had not seen since the year 1862, when he went to war with a Maine regiment.

A Missing Actor.

Philadelphia Times. Robert Me Wade, the well-knowh actor, who has been identified with the play of “Rip Van Winkle” for many years, has mysteriou-ly disappeared, and his wife and children, who live at 4105 Hutton street, this city, are in great distress. In the latter part of August Mr. Me Wade was playing in Southern Utah, from whence he sent $75 to his wife. Since then, however, his wife has not heard of him. His last letter was filled with words of encouragement to his wife and advice to his children, to whom he was greatly attached. Mrs. Me Wade says, he was a regular correspondent, and is confident that sortie harm has befallen him or he would not have kept her in suspense four mouths. Mr, Me Wade has three children; the eldest boy was preparing himself for West Point, but owing to the stringent circumstances of the family since the father’s disappearance the lad has been taken from school. Mrs. Me Wade owes her landlord, Richard Middleton, SBB for rent, and yesterday the family furniture was seized for the debt. The missing actor was very popular with his fellow Thespians, and when his Wife’s troubles became known at the Chestnut-Bti.eet Theater yesterday, the acto?s and other attaches promptly raised a purse of $32 to relieve her immediate wants.

A Philadelphia theatrical wig maker says that Clara Louise Kellogg wears a profusion of blonde hair a yard long as Marguerite, at a cost of $700; but, as a rule, wigs worn on the stage are cheap imitations. The curly brown wig worn by Jefferson, as Rip Van less than an ounce, and it Is considered a marvel of good workmenship, while the gray one dost, with the beard, $l5O. Rose Wood lately paid S9O for a blonde wig. Ada Gilman $125, Marian Booth SIOO and Fanny Davenport $225. i - Nearly one-seventh oflreland is bog. Muuh is al" great boot

A STORY OF THE WAR.

What Caused the Confederate Sweet Potatoes to Disappear. Chicago lnt£r-Oceaa. Mr. Joseph Wingfield,an ex-guards-man of Libby Prison, tells the following story of his experience while standing guard over prisoners one night in Lioby Prison in 1863: “The building was so crowded with prisoners that a large number of them were quartered in the second story of a building across the street. In the first story of this building the prison officers had stowed a large supply of splendid North Carolina sweet potatoes. “About the third day after the pri - oners had been placed in the building it was noticed that the potatoes were disappearing at the rate of about a bushel a day. At first it was thought that the rats had taken them, but a second thought showed that the idea was absurd. Sentinels were posted around the building, with orders to shoot any man caught stealing those but they didn’t see anybody to shoot, and, although they were posted there day aud night, and no one was allowed to enter the room in which the potatoes were kept, they still continued to disappear. “These potatoes at that time were considered luxuries, and the Confederate officers were nearly wild with rage at their repeated losses. The doors and windows of the room were sealed, aud private marks weie put on the wax. The next morniDg the officers went into the room. The wax was all right, but another huahel of the potatoes had Vanished. It was the maddest crowd you ever saw. They locked me in, and a lighted caudle was put at each end of the room so that I eopld see. “I was ordered to shoot ou sight anybody I saw stealing those yams. It was'terrible lonesome in that room. Just as fyst as I would light one candle and go to the other end of the room to light the other, the rats would cut the first one down. They were regular Confederate rats, and a candle was a godsend to them. About midnight I heard a creaking, grating noise. I cocked my gun and listened. The noise ceased, I could see" nothing but the rats, and I began to think the place was Presently the noise occured again. 1 looked at the pile of potatoes, and presently I saw something shoot from the ceiling and fall on them. I saw it was a brick, and could distinguish a rope tied to it. I dept a little nearer to get a good look at the thing, but before I could examine it, it was drawn slowly up, and there was about a peck of potatoes sticking to it. It went up through the hole which had been cut iu the floor above, aud presently came down again with a thump right ameng the potatoes. It was the most artful arrangement you ever sa w. The brick had about fifty holes drilled in it, and through each hole a sharpened teupenny nail had been run, so that when the brick fell among the potatoes these nails stuck into every one they fell on. I could not help laughing at the smart dodge those Yankees had taken. I gently put my hand forward and caugnt lima of the rope. Pretty.scon they began to draw on it, when it did not move, I heard one fellow say: “Steady, boys; the brick has hung into something. Puff her steady without jerking.” “They did pull steadily, and fairly lifted me lrom the floor. ‘No jerk; easy, boys, easy,’ the director said, and they tugged away. I got pretty red in the face holding to the rope. I was afraid to let gb,because I thought some of those spiked nails might strike me iu passing. I thought of my pocketknife and hauled it out just as tney tyere putting all their weight on the other eud of the rope. I cut it in two and the end shot back through the hole in the ceiling, and I could hear a rolling and tumbling on the floor above, showing that the sudden giving away of the rope had a disastrous effect. I heard another voice say; “There, now, I told you so. You’ve broken the rope. We’ve lost our brick, aud to-morrow we’ll be found out. Can’t you see it? We might hook it up. .Next I saw a long Deck protruding through the hole, and a fellow peering bown. Then I called out: “If you trouble any more of those potates I’ll shoot.’ That fellow’s head shot back through that hole just like a terrapin, and it was still as death up there. I hated to tell on them, because it was such a sharp scheme of foraging oh the enemy, but I had to When the officers went up tne next morning to examine the room it took a long time to find “the hole. Those Yankees had cut a hole about a foot square through the floor, and it was done so neatly that it took good eyes to discover it.”

Does Blood Count.

Collated from Gath’s Special. Mrs. Mackay, the Parisian lady whose husband is an honest miner in Nevada, was an infatuating widow. Stepnen Decatur, probably the most hightoned man the American Navy ever knew, nad a singular marriage. His wife was illegitimate, though he did not know it till after he had married her. Don Cameron, whose wife is considered to be one ofhhe brightest ladies in Washington, if not the leader of the administration society, was the poor daughter of Judge Sherman, of Cleveland. Colonel Forney, who died the other day, married, while a young printer, a lady in the town where he sprang up; George Riggs, who recently died in Washington, leaving a fortune of about $5,000,000, had a daughter married in the family of- Arundel, the same lord who married a daughter to Cecil, Lord 1 Baltimore.

Mr. Corgoran, the neighbor and partner of Mr. Riggs, was the son of a shoemaker at Georgetown, born in Ireland, but who became Mayor of Georgetown. Corcoran had the social passion strong, and he pressed to marry the daughter of Commodore Morris, of the navy. ,* fv.i' t ->1 Thomas A. Scott, having mar/ftet early in life and become* widower with children, married; considerably later a daughter of a respectable editor in Pittsburg, who was very well bred, but liad, I think, earned her living fdr a while as an amateur artist. Jay Gould has a plain, sensible family, to which he gives all the attention compatible with his vast schemes and speculations, xio soemeu tu\ iutvo i

adapted the policy of bringing hi children upeimply and naturally, instead of flaunting their names in the newspapers as bridesmaids, beet men, party queens, etc. Stephen Girard, the rich Philadelphian, who was a curious compound of the miser and the philanthropist, the infidel and the Quaker, married unhappily, and according to general tradition was very unkind to his wife. Yet he left the best-handled estate ever given in this country, or perhaps in anv other, to a charitable need. Commodore Garrison’s marriage in New York attracted great attention. He was quite an old man, but a splendid looking one, and meeting at Saratoga a young lady of St. Louis w® Was considerably younger than either of the Commodore’s children, he proposed to her and was accepted. Yet, notwithstanding the disproportion of age, the Commodore is in probably as robust health as his wife to-day. Old Commodore Vanderbilt married his cousin when he was a rough cat-boat sailor in the creeks and coves about New York. His wife was devotedly attached to him and bore him many children, but his treatment of her was very variable. Generally be took her with him, and paid attention to her, but he was not a man -of much refinement of feeling, nor particularly chaste. / You may have forgotten that Smithson, who left half a million dollars to found the Institute at Washington bearing his name, was an illegitimated son, so snubbed thereabout in England that he made the United States his almoner. Thereupon the Virginia snobs of that day undertook to have the legacy rejected by Congress. The money, however, was taken and lent to the State of Arkansas, which kept every ecu of it, aud has never paid it lac*. v Senator Gwm, who is still living, is said to have discovered his wife in Kentucky, at the wash-tub, as he rode up to the house to get his dinner, on his way to Tennessee and Mississippi. She had a splendid pair of arms, and other bodily charms se exasperating to Gwin that, after he had ridden a whole day on the way toward home, he drove back again,' introduced himself, and proposed to marry her then and there.

Their Christmas Stocking.

Burlington Hawkey. Whoever put this baby in my stocking is a liar. —Benjamin Hiil. Blast me tarry toplights; but here’s a steamboat!—Secretary Hunt. Since I came back to the farm I do not wear any.—R. B. Hayes. The man who sent me that bull fiddle is another.—Theodore Thomas. It looks as though I would be hung up instead of my stocking.—Guiteau. Somebody has cut off the foot of my stocking and thrown away the leg.— S. J. Tilden. I can lick the slabsided lunatic who spilled that bottle of “Anti-fat” on my candy.—David Davis. It looks like an iron pumpkin, but I’m almost afraid to have it cooked. — The Happy Czar of Russia. Merry Christmas', eh? Ah yes, I see, three bricks and a pair of spectacles cut bias. —Good Benjamin Butler. Whoever put that bottle of hair dye and scalp rehewer in my stocking is no — Young Hannibal H&mlin. Who goes there? By Mars his gauntlet! Here’s the whole United States army and three Indians in my stocking.—Secretary Lincoln. - Infinite gaul! Measulese click! Here’s my scarlet stocking plumb full of brimstone. Well this is—ha, dreadful. —Rev. Robert G. Ingersoll. That is not my stocking with the rubber rattle in it. That belongs to Clara Louise. Mine is hanging on the other side of the chimney.—Auuie Louise Cary. I dohiot know what this bottle with a rubber top is for, but this is Annie Cary’s stocking. The stripes on mine run up and down. —Clara Louise Kellogg. Now, bear in mind, it was not kind, because I did not ask it; some sapey pup has choked up my sock with a rosewood casket.—G. W. Childs, A. M.

Snake Juice.

Recent inve>ligations have established the fact t hat the venom of snakes is not an exceptional and anomalous product, but merely an intensified condition of ordinary saliva, and it is still more remarkable to find that a modification of saliva, even in human beings may constitute a virulent poison. There are many well authenticated instances of death resulting from the bites of animals not ordinarily considered vene-mous-f-eats, for instance; and instances have been known in which a bite from a human being has been followed by death Jrom poisoning, just as would have been the case with some venemous reptile. Violent agitation, i# has been observed, seems to impart this fatal quality to the saliva of men or animals, and M. Pasteur has recently ‘‘cultivated” the poison erf the human saliva to such a point as to develop the toxic symptoms of the serpent poisons in small birds. Even in its normal condition saliva is said to be akin to poison, one of its functions being to destroy the molecular life of the substance eaten. It is thought that all violent agitation and exertion involve an abnormal waste of tissue and an excessive production of the principle which renders saliva poisonous.

A Sensible Example.

Utica Observer, A young lady was observed passing down the aisles of the Utica opera house, wearing a very stylish and attractive hut large mushroomhat. As .she glided toward the front the gentlemen and ladies in the row behind her commenced moving about uueasily, as if they feared a total eclipse of the stage the remainder of the evening. They were net annoyed long for after sitting comfortably ni her chair, tbe lady coolly removed her large hat and hung it on the back of the seatjn front of her. Then she extracted a worsted “fascinator” from the pocket her sacque, and arranged it in a very fascinating manner upon her head, making her look “too sweet for any thing,” as an old bachelor expressed it. All of her neighbors exchanged approv-

TABLE TALK.

estates in Russia is eetimatedlrt^OOO,A Boston clothing firm gives away with each garment sold a book of ou£ Rnedra wings, and offers prize* for the artistic coloring of the pltturbs. Frank Corroll proudly wears a me£al, in Philadelphia, because he picked up 100 rats and threw them in a banal in 28 seconds. Frank is a bull terrier. *■ A Catekill Coroner’s jury decided that a woman “came to her death in the providence of God by the accidental inhalation of chloro'form and heart disease.” The Rev. Mr. Green, is to be tried by a church tribunal in St. Joseph, Mo., on a charge of lotting a young woman sit ir. his lap while teaching her a Sunday school lesson. By a vote of she Baptist deacons, at Mendocia, Ind., a figure of Venus, which had been embr< idered on a screen by the pastor’s daughter, was declared unfit to bo sold at the church fair. The bootblacks, of London are divided into societies. One of them is the Saffron Hill, numbering sixty-six members, has earned in the list twelve months between £3,000 and £4,000 The youngest of the revivalists are Ben and Lotta Joyce, who exhort and sing with geat skill, and are meeting with wonderful success iu southern Missouri. They are twins, aged 14, A Virginia father has eleven, ctiildreninamed in the consecutive Latin numerals from “Primus” to “Updecimus;” at the birth of his tenth boy the latter was named “Decimus Ultimtia,” or tenth and last but, somehow, another son followed, and was dubbed “Undeeimus.” One cake was especially made for the noisy serenSders who were expected to disturb a wedding at Barnhill, Ohio, but the drug which was to have been put into it exclusively was by accident distributed through all the dough. All the guests were made ill, and the mar* riage was postponed. A Memphis thief dared not fight a watch dog, and allowed the brute to keep him a prisoner for hours on the roof of a shed. When the , barking brought the owner of the premises, a gun, the fellow picked up courage to face both dog and weapon, in a furious attempt to escape. He lost his life. The St. Louis Post-Despatch reports that railway trains hurry thrpugh Newark, N, J., without stopping. Though nobody there has yet robbed a train, there is uo telling what the bank cashiers and city officials will turn their hands to in order to make money when the banks are all. broken and tue city funds gone. The Rev. O. P. Gifford of Boston j is an enthusiastic rider on the bicycle. He says that “the centaur of future art and poetry will be a man on a wheel.” He “spins” on his “steely steed past foot and horse ” to use his own words, until “the red blood rushes to the finger tips, the nerves tingle, the head grows rested and the heart grows light.” The schoolmistress at Rush Greek, Ohio, is short aud slender. Considering her lightness, nine of the biggest boys concluded that it would be a trifling feat to pick her up bodily and carry her out of the house; but they did not take her activity into account* and when they undertook to carry but the plot she fractured One skull with a heavy ruler, scratched several faces terribly, aud discolored three eyes. The trial of Mo.-monism made byMack Johnson and his two Kansas City, Mo., was a failure. He married one woman there and ono in Wyaudotte. His bigamy was soon exposed, but the two wives agreed to a compromise, by which he was to live;a week with each in alternation. This arrangement lasted until he overstayed bis time with the Kansas City'wife, for which offence the Wyaddotte wife shot him. * iti: John E. O vsley went from Kentucky to Chicago to collect a bill for whisky. The debtor had no money, but offered some iui : near the city, which' Owsley df c'.iueu to take, though he was by a trick compelled to do so. That was when Chicago was young and small. The seemingly wortuless property soon acquired a value, which grew to something considerable, and made the foundation for the great fortune which Owsley has now left at his death, i>.

Timber Forests.

For general information, and to show the importance of guarding against the destruction of timber in the United States, the following items have been clipped from a Philadelphia paper: Captain T. H. Williams, of Mpnongahela City, Pa., is about to plant 16,000 walnuts. He will sow them m rows, after two years will thin them put, leaving the thrifty trees; in five years will . cur young walnut for table legs; in eight years will cut again alternate trees for newel posts; in ten years will begin to harvest nuts by the thousand bushel, and in fifteen years will have walnut Of over 760,000 square miles of timber lands in this country the south oWns 460,000, or nearly two-thirds. They will be sources of wealth in a few years to an extent little dreamed of at present. A New York firm ka9 contracted recently for 6,000,000 feet of ash, walnut, hickory and poplar in the three counties of JMadisonf Buncombe and Haywpod North Carolina. Many of the trees in western North Carolina are of gahftt size. .

How One Man Prospered.

Pilot Point (Texas) Point. ’ J. F. Rogers, a farmer hear this city, engaged four years ago for a -pdriod of six wepks in the novel pursuit of hunting opossum and other small varmints thek plentiful in this vicinity. This pursuit was engaged in both as a measure of sport and profit, and, notwithstanding he was constantly laughed at by his iriends, he boldy declared his intention to make the proceeds of that six weeks’, opossum hunt net him $lO,000 in less than ten years. Now for the result. The meat and pelts of that hunt were carefully sold, and when brought together aggregated $95. This amount was invested in twelve calves, -/which at the end of two years were sold and reinvested in 100 calves, which now, at the end of four years from the first investment, are held at S4O each, making axmt valuaof sloooi - —, —