Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 March 1883 — Page 2

THE POO* BETWEEN. 1 kr.nw that it was my own hand that shut it And looked it—bid I threw away the key. And »o the door can new more be opened That utande eo grimly betbirt yon and me. * 7Thnngh sometimes I hare fancied that I heard yon Pleading and knocking on the other aide, 1 would not answer, tor my heart was sullen, And made eo end by my wounded pride. » And there afce boon when I hare knelt beside it, Anigh to death for just one word from yen; And yon, in torn, were proud and would not answer Pot anything that I oonld say or do. And eometimee when I lie ’twist sleep and waking I think the door swings bask to let yon in. Bat when I spring to giro yon eager welcome, I only meet the ghost of What Has Been! And often in my sleep my herrt is asking, “Where is the key? Alas! Where is the key?" And I arise and vainly try to open The closed door tut is 'twixt yon and me!

THE YORKE BEACH.

‘ It’s somebody with a name six syllables long,’ said the landlord, looking into the lining of his coarse straw hat, as if he expected to find the troublesome epithet there “It ain’t a professor, nor yet a philosopher, nor a pedestrian”—with a gasp at each of the hard words— I “but it’s something that begins with a IJ. And he’s hunting for shells—all sorts of queer ■outlandish shells, as isn’t to be come across every day.” “Do tellF’ said the wife. "Perhaps he’s going to grind them into fertilizing powder or macadamize a road with them.” “Then he’s an editor,” said Mrs. Utubbs. “’Tain’t quite that, neither,” said Mr. 'Stubbs, slowly. ‘ But it's something very wise and learned. So I told him he’d better go to Torke’s. The young woman there has a mortal nioe collection of out-of-the-way shells. And I’ve heard of their selling shells to them as fanoied them, for all they’re such high-toned gentlefolks.” That had been Mr. Silas Stubbs’ advice, and Mr. Oleve, the paleontoligist, had ta ken it, and was even then walking along the shingly beaoffwhere the waves curled in foamy fringes almost up to his feet,and the trails of blackish seaweed showed the water-mark. Judge Yorke—he had been judge, nobody knew how many years ago, of some petty oourt in a southern city, before the Yorke estate had melted in the fiery furnace of litigation, and he had fled northward in search of some business which never oame—sat out on the veranda, with the air of a prince. He was white-haired -and rubiound-visaged, and his slippers were down at the heels, and his red dash-

mere dressing gown was patched with quite a different pattern, and his wristbands were frayed, and the lack of buttons on his shirt-front was made good with a pin. Bat when he saw the stranger lift the xatoh of the riokety gate he advanoed to meet him with a patronizing urbanity which was little short of overwhelming. He 'istened to Mr. Clove's self-introduction with a royal smile; he welcomed him as it the old house were a palace; he made haste to introduce him to “Mrs. Yorke.” Mrs. Yorke was a tall, golden-haired young woman, with her lovely tresses tucked untidily into a net, her dress decidedly the worse for wear, and her exquisite face burned by the impress of the sun and wind. But the flash of her brilliant blue eyes was like the sunshine itself. “Will the gentleman stay to dinner?” Yorke asked the judge; “because we Slave only some porgies But if he oares for suoh simple fare he is welcome. Mr. Gleve accepted the simply given invitation. The judge was like an old piece of mucked poroelajn—cracked and damaged it might be, but still genuine. Mrs. Yorke was a beauty, but quite young •enough, the guest decided, to be her husband’s grand-daughter; and, besides, he wanted to know what on earth pogies •and samphire could be. There was no carpet on the diningroom floor and the windows needed cleaning. but the china was fine and they had j some blackberries, early apples, and a lew fine apricots in a;oenter piece of silwsr, with “Y” engraved on the handles, and Mr. Clave discovered tfikVthe porgies were a ooarse-grained fish with a good •deal of bone to than, also that samphire was a gelationous vegetable, not unlike grass, which was gathered on the sea beach ana boiled with butter and vine. An old Degrees, whom Clove mentally decided must be at least 100 years of age, waited and*kept offthe flies with a brush of peaoock’s feathers. “Shells? Yes, there are some fine shells,” the judge believed, “along the coast. Mra. tork knew—Mrs. Yorke could tell him. Paleontology was a stady which must always oommend—-itself—” And the judge fell blandly and oourteCuslv asleep, with a smile on his face.

Mrs. Yorke laughed. Did you sky you wanted to buy some AaUS? I will try wad have some collected for you by this time to-morrow.” “Could I collect them for myself?” Mr. Cleve asked, with the eagerness of a specialist. Mrs. Yorke’s beautiful brow darkened. “No,” she answered, . curtly. "The coast is ours gs far as Kooky Point, and our people don’t like to be interfered with, If you will come here this time to-morrow, I will have flo‘ worth of shells for you.” And to his amazement Mr. Cleve was compelled, perforoe to aooede, though in his innermost heart he doubted whether Mrs. Yorke was a judge of what would be $lO worth of shells. And then the judge waked up and pretended never to have been asleen, and Mrs. Yorke sang some delicious little Louisiana ballads to the guitar, and the oldnegress hobbled in with a melon ent in slices and sprinkled over with sugar; and before Mr Cleve knew it the clock was striking eleven. He walked home in the moonlight with the tumultuous rush of the rising tide in his ears, while Mrs. York's French ballads echoed musically through his brain, and her luminous blue eyes and burnished coils of golden hair haunted his recollections.

"It is the strangest, sweetest free I ever saw!” he muttered. “I believe I am more than half in love with her. If only that dilapidated old piece of Southern chivalry, the judge, would die I should like to make that woman my wife.” And then he smiled out there in the moonlight, at the fantastic improbability of the idea. By the next morning’s sunrise he was up and out on the glyrious beach of sparkling sand, with the sea wind fanning his face and a whole battery of electricity tingling through his pulses. Nothing seemed too much or too difficult to achseve. Heclimed dizzy peaks, he walked miles, he stood ou solitary promontories, where gulls flew shrieking around his ears—until at last he found himself on a level stretch of sand, not far from the old Yorke mansion. "Eureka!” he exclaimed to himself, as he stooped to pick an exquisite shell, rose-tinted and molded in rare curves, whioh lay blushing at his feet. At the same moment a boat containing a tall figure wrapped in an old black serge oloak, came rooking around the point, and a voice oried, sharply: "Halt there! Hands off! Yob are trespassing on the Yorke beach! Put down that shell or I’ll shoot” And the barrel of a pistol glistened in the sunshine. "I beg your pardon!” stammered Mr. Cleve, promptly dropping the shell. "I wasn’t aware that " The Loreley of the tides uttered a cry. ‘•lt’s Mr. Cleve,” she Baid. “And it’s Mrs. Yorke,” retorted our hero.

The golden-tressed beauty put down the revolver in the stem of the boat, sprang litely over its gunwale, and came up the boaoh with her cheeks all mangled with blushes. ‘Yes,” said she, it is L "I believe you are a gentleman, and I may as well be frank with you. We are genteelly poor at the house. All the inoome we have is derived from the sale of these rare shells, whioh I pick up myself, for we have no servant, exoept old Oardac, and she is too old and stiff to oome here. My father-in-law has not been quite himself since my husband was killed in a railroad accident three years ago ” "Your husband!” repeated Cleve. "Killed! Then you are not Jndge Yorke’s wife?” “I?” cried the bine-eyed enchantress; “I the wife of that old man?” - And then, with the crimson flush of her unpalatable confession still on her cheeks, Mrs. Yorke broke into a peal of girlish langhter. Cleve took the basket from her arm. "Let me help yqu,” said ha "I am a judge of these beauties. lam gathering shells to illustrate a new volume on the subjeot of paleonthblogy, and 1 want all the rare specimens to be found along these ooasta” And the landlord of the "Fisherman’s Betreat” could not' imagine what made his guest so late to breakfast on that particular morning, l and so distrait When at last he did coma As for the beautiful Mrs. Yorke, she went home with a new light in her eyes, surveyed herself in the glass; and after she had fastened up the braids of her hair in a new fashion, set herself to work to repair the damages in her afternoon dress. "Beosuse I love tlus lonely spot,” said she; "there is no reason that I should be a semi-savage. But there has been so little worth existing for of lata” And she sang soft, glad roundelays to herself, like a rooin, as she sewed. The judge looked sleepily at his daughter-in-law across tbe lunca-table.

"Did that very Delia smiling. “Here are $lO that hepdfifalc We are going tom#rotj[tf| it is pleasant He is a great paleontoiogistfpeia.” "Is he indeed?” said file judge, bis dim old eyes brightening at the sight of the gold coins. "Then, beach may turn out a mine of wealth yet—eh, Cisay?” Mrs, Yorke smiled and patted the wrinkled, white old hand. “I think, papa,” she said—“l am not certain, but I think there are good times in store for me yet.” The judge said he was glad to hear it and then fell-mildly to sleep in his chair. When Mr. Oleve proposed to Cecelia Yorke, she made no scruple to confess that she liked him. "But there’s papa.” she said, gently but firmly. "I can never leave him. I promised my dead husband always to be a true daughter to papa.” “And I honor you for it my love.” said the paleontologist "He shall be an honored guest in our city home all winter, and in the summers we will come out here and drink in the salt breath of the Atlantia” But the veiy next night the judge fell asleep in his chair and never woke again, and Cissy’s work was over. She was married quietly to Mr. Cleve and went to the city "Do you know, Cissy, what they say about you?” said the paleontologist one evening after a grand scientific leception. “What?” said Cissy, lifting the lark-spur-blue eyes ttf his face. "That you are the beauty of the season,” said Mr. Cleve. “I!” oried Cissy in amazement “I always thought myself well-looking enough, but I never thought myself beautiful.” “I did,” said Mr. Cleve. “Even on that first day at the seaside, when your hair was rough and your dress untidy.” And Cissy smiled and colored and did not know whether to laugh or he vexed.

A Sharp Trick.

Says the Little Book Gazette: Several days ago a man came to Arkansaw, and failing to secure work, he went around town begging for something to eat. Everywhere he was refused, and finally he went into a vacant store-room and sent a boy after a newspaper reporter. When the reporter oame che man said: “I have been commanded by the Lord to fast 100 days, and I think that I can accomplish the feat,* for the Lord says that I must.” The reporter published a long account of the man’s intentions, and quite a sensation was created. The Chief of Police went down the man he most eat, that the Lord might command him to starve, but that the city would have to bury him. The man swore that he would not eat, and the Chief went to a restaurant and ordered a heavy meal to be sent to the fanatia The meal camaand the man, merely eating enough to sustain life, put the remainder in a carpet-bag. The Chief of Police came again, and asked the man if he had eaten, and he replied that he had not, but that he had given the meal to a tramp. The Chief sent another meal whioh found the‘‘gripsack” repository. Then the church ladies came, loaded him with sandwiches and oakes, and when the carpet-bag would hold no more, the man thanked the peopla shouldered his larder, and started off remarking a 3 he went: “Enough to last me way down in Texas.’

The Indiaca Peach Crop.

Madison Star. Mr Hiram Dean, son of Mr. Argus Dean, the well-knowrf peach man, at Otto., Ind. states the fruit is in splendid condition, and there is now every prospect for a magnificent crop. His father’s orchards are very full of buds and are entirely free from injury. His own trees show slight losses, but nothing serious, and his piospeots are good for more than an average supply of the luscious peach. Neighboring orchards are all in good condition. The Star’s reports from Kentucky are similar in tone, and our peaqh growers are to be felicitated upon these splendid anticipations.

The Sleep of Innocence.

Titos Onlius was found murdered .n his bed, and the only persons of whom suspicions of the erime rested were two of his own sons, who slept in the same room The brothers vers arraigned for the crime, brut it appearing from the evidence, that when the mangled body was first discovered by some'persons stepping into the chamber, both the sons were seen fast asleep on the bed adjoining, the Judge ordered their acquittal It was justly considered that nature oould not permit a man to Bleep over the bleeding remains of a newly-murdered father The governor of Mosoow has reeeived a letter warning him,that the Kremlin, where the Czar is to be crowned, will be blown up during the ooronation ceremonies if the Osar refuses to grant a constitution. *

HIS PA AND DYNAMITE.

“I guess your pa’s losses in the silver Jaiibhavrmad* him cMayJmven’t they?” said the grocery man to the bud boy, as he oame in the store with his eye winkers singed off, and powder marks on his face, and began to play on the harmonica, as hh sat down on the end of a stick of stove wood and balanced himself. “O, I guess not. He has hedged. He got in with a deacon of another church, and sold some of his stock to him, and pa says if I will keep my condemn mouth shut he will unload the wholeof it, if the churches hold out. He goes to a new church every night there is prayer meeting or anything, and makes ma go with him to give him tone; and after meeting she talks with the sisters about how to piece a silk bed quilt; while pa gets in his work selling silver stock. I don't know bat he will order some more stock, from the factory, if he sells all he has got,”and the boy went on playing "There’s a Land that is Fairer than Day.” "But what was he skipping up street for the other night with his hat off grabbing at his coat tails as though they were on. fire? I thought I never saw a pussy man run any faster. And what was the celebration down on your street about that time? I thpught the world was coming to an end,” and the grocery man kept away from the boy,for fear he would explode. "O, that was only a Fenian soare. Nothin serious. Yeu see pa is a sort of half Englishman. He claims to be an American citizen when he wants office,but when they talk about the draft he claims to be a subject of Great Britain, and he says they can’t touch him. Pa is a darn smart man. and don’t you forget it There don’t any of them get ahead of pa, much. Well, pa has said a good deal about the wicked Fenians,and that they ought to be pulled and all.that, and when I read the story in the papers about the explosion in the British Parliament, pa was hot He said the damirish were ruining the whole world. He didn’t dare say it at the table or our hired girl would have knocked him silly with a spoonful of mashed potatoes, ’cause she’s a nirish girl, and she can lick any Englishman in this town. Pa said there ought to have been somebody there to have taken that bomb up and throwed it in the sewer before it exploded. He said if he ever should see a bomb he would grab it right up and throw it away where it wouldn’t hurt anybody. Pa has me read the papers to him nights, ’cause his eyes have gd| splinters in ’em, and after I had read'Ali there was in the paper I made up a lot' more and pretended to read it, about how it was rumored that the Fenians here in Milwaukee were going to place dynamite bombs at every house where an Englishman lived, and at a given signal blow them all up. Pa looked pale around the gills, but he said he -wasn’t scared. Pa and ma were going to call on a she deaeon that night, that has lots of money in the bank, to see if she didn’t want to invest in a dead sure paying silver mine, and me ani my chum concluded to give them a send off. We got my big black injy rubber foot-ball, and painted "Dinymight” in big white letters on it, and tied a piece of tarred rope on it for a fuse, and got a big fire cracker, one of these old fourth of July horse Bearers, and a basket full of broken glass. We put the foot-ball in front of the step and lit the tarred rope, and got under the step with the fire crackers and basket, where they go down into the basement. Pa and ma oame out the front door, and down the steps, and pa saw the foot-ball, and the burning fuse, and he said ‘Great God, Hanner, we are blowed np,’ and he started to run, and ma she stopped to look at it. Just as pa started to run I touched off the fire cracker, and my chum arranged it to pour out the broken glass on brick pavement just as the fire cracker went off Well, everything went just as we expected, exoept ma. She had examined the foot-ball, and concluded it was not dangeroud, and was just giving it a kick as the fire craoker went off and the glass fell, and the fire cracker was so near her that it soared her, and •when pa looked around ma was flying across the Bidewalk, and pa heard the noise and he thought the house was blown to atoms, O, you’d a died to see him go around the oorner. Yon could play cro? v kay ou his coat-tail, and hisjtaoe was As pale as mp’s when she goes to a party. But ma didn’t soare much. As quick as she stopped agajnst the hitching post she knew ill was ub boys, and she oame down there, and maybe she didn’t maul me. I oried and tried to gain her sympathy by telling her the fire cracker Went off before it was due, and burned my eyebrows off but she didn't let up until I promised to go and find pa. I tell you, my ma ought to be engaged by the British government to hunt out the dynamite fiends. She would oorral them in two minutes. If pa had as much sand as ma has got, it would be warm weather for me. Well, me and my ohum went and headed pa off or I ffuees he would be running yet. We

and it seemed to relieve him very When he got home and found the house there he was tickled, and when ma called him an old bald headed coward, and said it was only a joke of the boys with a foot hall, he laughed right out, and said he knew it all the time; and be ran to see if ma would be soared. And then he wanted to hug me, but it wasn’t my night to hug and I went doffh to the theatre. Pa don’t amount to much when there is trouble. The time ma had th«wp cramps, you remember, when you got your cucumbers first lust season, pa oame near fainting Sway, and ma said ever sinoe they had bean married when anything ailed her, pa has had pains jnst the same as she has; only he grunted more; and thought he was going to d±e. Gosh, if I was a man I- wouldn’t be sick every time one of the neighbors had a back ache, would you?” All this time the boy was marking on a piece of paper, and soon after he went ou£ the grocery man noticed a crowd outside, and on going out he found a gign hanging up which read, "Wormy Figs for Parties.”

Farms and Products.

Indianapolis J carnal. An inspection of the fat volume sent out from the Census Bureau will reveal some interesting facts. Comparing the number of farms in 1870 with the number in 1880, the following results are found: 1880 1870 Total number of farms 4,006,907 2,659,987 Under 100 acres 5,296,374 2,075,888 One hundred to 500 acres 1,695,983 565,054 Five hundred to l,oooacree 75,972 15,873 Athonsand acres and over., 28,578 3,720 The signification of these figures is apparent. It will be observed that while the number of farms has increased 1,348,922 in the ten years, but 133,036 of that increase was on farms of less than 100 acres, while of farms of less than fifty acres there were less in 1880 than in 1870. In the number of farms of from 100 to 500 acres there was an increase of 200 per cent Of farms of from 500 to 1,000 acres the increase was nearly 500 per oent., whtieof farms of 1,000 acres and over the increase was nearly 900 per oent. The showing is not a favorable one, the apparent tendency being toward a system of landlordism and tenantry. But, of course, this evil can not in this country reach the dimensions it has attained in

‘England from the fact that the law of entail does not obtain here. It is a difficult matter to keep large estates and large fortunes in one family, and it was to preserve the aristocracy of England within certain families that the law was so framed that vast estates could not be divided. When an “aristocratic’' family in America deteriorates, the is inevitable, a division of the estate is inevitable; and it is almost sure tq be divided among a number, so that it will be next to impossible to keep vast ranches together from generation to generation, and the fear of land monopoly need not eause serious alarm. It is curious to note that in this connection that the State which has the largest number of farms of 1,000 acres and over is Georgia, 902. Then following in order, Alabama, 698; Virginia, 641; South Carolina,4B2; Mississippi, 481; Louisiana, 371; North Carolina, 311; California, 262; Illinois, 194: In New York the number of farms of so great extent is only twen-ty-one.

The total lands in farms in the United States was 556,061,835 acres in 1880, againt 407,735,041 acres in 1870. Of thin land 284,771,642 acres were improved in 1880, and 188,921,099 acres in 1870. The value of the farms was $9,262,803,861 in 1870. The value of farming implements and machinery was $406,520,055 in 1880, and $326,878,429, in 1870. From this it will readily be seen that a very large proportion in the number of new “farms” must have been made on the frontier,sinoe the value has increased less than 10 per cent, during the ten years. But |while this is true, it is equally apparent that many Small farms have been absorbed by large ones, the increase in acres being but about 30 per cent while the increase' in the number of large farms, as shown above, was from 75 to 80 per cent, and an actual decrease in the number of farms of fifty acres arid under. In the chief productions there was. an enormous increase noted during the . ten years cited, as shown by the following table: 1880 mst 8ar1ey........ 4*. 87,4*6 29,701,806 Buckwheat 11,817,52 0, 21,721 Indian com 1,754,91,674 700,0*4^40 Oats 4»i7,8'.H,999 282,107,167 Bye 19,881,59. 0,918,796 Wheat, 489,4-13,187 287,745,0 V Cotton 6,755,*60 h,011,996 Wool 166,081,751 100,102,887 Potatoes, Irish 109,458, 89 1*8,887,474 Potatoes, aweet 88,378,098 21,709,824 Hay, tons 86,205,712 27,810^48 Tobacco, lbs.". .... 472,001,167 262,786,841 Batter, lbe 777,250.287 521,09 ,888 Cheeee, lbs *7.272.489 W4W.153