Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 October 1885 — Page 2

at ronn-uioHT. BY KtXA WHHKLK* WTLCOX. At twill ht, vis-a-vi« with fate, bh'> urt, unhappy and alon«i; Her niilestoneß numbered forty-eight, No other pathway crossed her own. No tender voice robbed of gloom, No smiling faces cheered her sight— There only glided through the room The phantom of a dead delight. •Howdhn and drear the pathway seems," She said, "to me at forty-eight; Long since I va ened from my dreams I seek for naught, for nothing wait •I am like one who blindly gropes Toward fading sunset in the west; Behind me lie youth’s shattered hopes. What can I ask for now but rest? . •Some joys I sought with heart on fire Would find me now,, but all too late— I watched ambition's funeral pyre Burn down ere I was forty-tight. •With naught to hope, expect, or win, . This lonely lot remains to me: To count the wrecks Of what ‘has been,' « And know that nothing more can be." Too sad to weep, too tired to pray, Alone she sat at forty-eight, While sunset colors paled to gray— How desolate, how desolate I LOVE AND CARDS. The youth arjd maiden sat alone Upon the pebbled strand Beside the sea, and in his own He held her lily hand. He gazed into her sapphire eyes—"l love you, sweet," he said; The maiden answered him with sighs „ And blushing, hung her head. He pressed the hand so soft and white, He kissed the dimpled chin. And said, “If I played cards to-night I know i hat I would win. You ask me why, you shall be told :* He pressed the fingers white; “I know I'd win because I hold A lovely band to-night." —Boston Courier.

A BLUE SATIN SLIPPER.

There was a church fair and festival on hand at Waynesville and all the young ladies were in a state of feminine flutter. Pretty brown-eyed Jenny Carson had one of the fancy tables. She also had a new dress for the occasion. The soft, shining folds of dark-blue silk •were draped over the bed, and Jenny was kneeling upon the floor, arranging the loops of satin ribbon to her taste, when Miss Bell Dorsey, who was Jenny's most intimate friend, burst into the room. “Oh. what a pretty dress, Jenny! Ton’ll look ravishing in it. You only need a pair of blue satin boots to match it and you’ll be the best-dressed girl at the festival.” “But satin boots are very expensive,” said Jenny, hesitatingly. “Oh," well, yes, somewhat But there’s nothing sets off ajlady’s appearance like nice shoes and gloves. I heard Dr. Chester say he never considered a lady well dressed if she wore ill-fltting boots or gloves.” And Miss Bell complacently crossed her own pretty French kids, while Jenny nervously put away the pretty silk. What Dr. Chester said was beginning to be a matter of some monent to Jenny Carson. She was conscious of a longing for the blue boots; but alas! they were too expensive for her. Miss Bell .presently took her leave, and Jenny, with half her pleasure spoiled, went on with her preparations. “Weil, daughter,” said her father at the dinner table, “do you need any fallals for your frolic to-morrow ?” “Yes, I do need some new shoes and some gloves,” said Jenny. “You do, eh? Well, what must I give you to buy them with ?” “Whatever you can spare, papa.” “Well, here’s a $lO bill. I guess that will be enough. Get a good, sensible pair of shoes, now; something to keep you warm this cold weather, and no flimsy things.” ‘ Yes, sir. Thank you, papa. PH do the best I can,” said Jenny; but she blushed, for it her heart she felt very guilty. However, she did mean to buy a pair of warm kid boots for every-day wear. She hoped to get the blue ones for about $4, which would leave enough for the other and for the gloves. But when she stood in Turner’s store and asked the price of the dainty shiny things offered her the clerk promptly responded: “Seven dollars, Miss Carson.” “Oh, dear! I was in hopes they were cheap,” frankly confessed Jenny, laying down the boots. “Indeed, they are cheap,” said the clerk. “I assure you. Miss Carson, we have sold these right along at SB. This is the last pair, so we offgr them for less. They’re very fine.” “les,” admitted Jenny. “Nothing sets off a dainty foot like a pair of these dainty boots,” pursued the wily clerk, with an eye for his trade. “Very few young ladies could wear so small a shoe—just your size, you see, Miss Carson.” Poor Jenny sighed, thought of the thick, warm boots she ought to have, cast a longing look at the blue beauties, recalled what Dr. Chester said, and, silly little puss, for once let her vanity run away with her reason. “I’ll take them,” she said. ‘After the boots were {laid for there was barely enough to buy her gloves and a ribbon or two. The next day, the great one, was clear and cold, with a sharp wind. Overshoes would ruin the dainty satin boots; but, luckily for Jenny, the ground was dry. But it was frozen hard, and when she reached the gaily-decorated room of the new church, her feet were like ice. ■ " .;■{ ■ Jenny presided at one of the fancy tables. She made a lovely picture in the beautiful blue-silk, her throat and next shaded with the softest lace, and the dainty blue boots fluttering in and out below the plaiting of her skirt. Bell Dorsey was already at her post, and as Jenny came up she opened her •yes wide and exclaimed: “Oh, my, you blue angel! Did you drop from the clouds?" Jenny laughed, and happening just then to catch a glance from Dr. Chester, who stood near, blushed with pleasure, while the gentle heart in her< bosom throbbed tumultuously. . ...J Jenny Had a very busy day of it. There was much buying and selling, and Jenny 1 ! tabla was very popular. But as the new church was very large and not vet finished, it was not very warm. The girls at the table were chilly all day, and by the time evening A •

came Jenny’s feet were so numb and cold that she could hardly stand. A hot supper, however, had been prepared at the hotel just across the street. Dr. Chester waited on Jenny at the table. Glad enough she was to get something and be near a fire. But Dr. Chester, though kind and polite, was not what he had beem He seemed strangely cold and distant, and Jenny felt as if her bright day was spoiled. But girls know how to hide these things, and Jenny was the gayest of the gay. She had to return to her store again immediately after supper, and oh, how sharply the cold struck her as she stepped into the night. Dr. Chester left her at the door of,'a small room designed for a vestry, but now used by the ladies as a dressing room. Jenny ran in to put off her wraps, but, while doing this, heard her name spoken in the narrow passage without. “It’s all settled. I suppose, Doctor; between and Miss Carson?” was what she heard. Poor Jenny! Fortunately, there was no one in the dressing room but herself. She flew to the farthest end .and hid her burning face on a pile of cloaks. But, after a brief struggle, she rallied It would never do to cry. It would neyer do to go to her table with red eyes. It was a very erect, firmmouthed little lady who walked to her table presently, and the heels of the pretty blue boots came down upon the floor with a sharp, resolute little click; for Miss Jenny had made up her mind to do something very odd. “I am a little fool!” she said to herself; “but I don’t quite deserve to lose a good man’s good opinion, and I won’t, either, if I can help it!” “No, Fred. I’ve seen the folly of that to-day." The tones which answered were the well known ones of Dr. Chester. “You astonish me,” replied Fred. “Idon’t mind giving you the reason, Fred,” said the doctor. “Just look at that young lady’s feet and you will have it. In spite of this cold day she wears nothing but a flimsy pair of blue silk shoes. I have, more than fancied Miss Carson; I don’t deny it But you will see at once that a girl who can so utterly sacrifice her reason to her vanity is not the wife for a poor, struggling doctor with his fortune yet to make. But enough of this. Let’s go in; it’s chilly here.” It was late before she was ready to go home. Just as she was about to start, Dr. Chester, who was her escort, handed her a pair of overshoes, saying, quietly, as if it were a matter of course: “Miss Jenny, please put these on; it is too cold a night for such thin shoes as I see you wear." Poor Jenny! Her face was scarlet with mortification. She made out to utter a confused “Thank you,” and put on the offered overshoes without another word. Then she took the doctor’s arm and they went out together. Jenny’s heart was beating so fast that it almost choked her, but she was as determined as ever. Before ten steps had been taken she said: “Dr. Chester, do you think it right to condemn a person for a single fault?” "Certainly not,” said the doctor promptly. “Then why do you condemn me?’ “I don’t understand you,” said he. “I heard every word you said to Fred Somers to-night,” said Tennie, quietly. “Miss Jenny!” he stopped, startled. “I did. I don’t blame you, doctor; I gave you reason to think me only a vain, silly girl. But hear my defense, how sorry and ashamed I am, won’t you?" And then Jenny made her penitent little confession, ending with: “T don’t know what you think of me now, but indeed ” “I think you the dearest, bravest little girl in the world, and ’tis I who am the fool,” cried the doctor, ardently. And then— > But, then, I don’t know that outsiders like you and I, reader, have any business to listen. When Jenny got home she took off the blue boots which had ,so nearly cost her a lover, and flung them under a wardrobe, saying: - • ‘ “Lie there, you blue wretches! But you’ve taught me a good lesson. I’vd done with you. I’ll buy my wedding boots before long, and they’ll not be blue ones, either.

The Koszta Affair.

Martin Koszta had been one of the leaders in the Hungarian revolution against Austria in 1849. After the rebellion had been suspended he fled to Turkey for refuge. The Austrian government demanded him from the Turks, but the Ports refused tojgive him up, though, after some correspondence on the subject, it was agreed to exile him permanently to some foreign land. He chose to be sent to the United States, and came to New York and took out partial papers of naturalization during his stay. In 1854 Kaszta returned to Turkey, contrary to his promises to the Porte. At Smyrna he received a passport from the American Consul and went ashore. The Austrian Consul at Smyrna, hearing of thp exile’s presence there, and having no power to arrest him on shore, hired some bandits to throw him into the bay, where a boat picked him up and conveyed him on board and Austrian frigate. Captain Duncan Ingraham, United States navy, was at anchor in the bay with the American sloop St. Louis, and he forthwith ordered his guns loaded and pointed at the Austrian vessel, threatening to fire into her if Koszta was not immediately surrendered into the charge of the French Consul. The Austrian Captain yielded the point and gave up the prisoner. The affair gave rise to a long discussion between Baron Hulseman, the Austrian Minister at Washington, and William L. Marcy, the American Secretary of State. Secretary Marcy got the best of the argument and Koszta was . restored to the United States.— lnter-Ocean. “Doctors declare,” pays the Chicago Journal, “that electric light will eventually destroy the eye-sight. When Edison heard the remark he retired into his innermost laboratory, and when he had shut and locked and put a chain against -the door, whispered to himself, with a sardonic smile: ‘First catch your electric light. "

An Amiable Highwayman.

On one occasion, when the way-bill of the English, Dover, mail bore the name of Miss ——, two inside places had been booked three advance. At the' hour of leaving the coach-office, two cases, two carpet bags, two trunks, covered and sewn in the whitest linen, two dressing cases, besides the smaller articles—baskets, reticules,wrappers, etc.—had been duly stowed in the inside.. Presently, the growl of a King Charles spaniel, thrusting his head out of a muff, proclaimed the advent of another occupant of the two vacant seats. A gentlemanly-look-ing man, with fine open features, and what was at once written down by the old lady as a charitable expression, much wrapped up with shawls, etc., round his neck, stepped into the mail. He caressed,! admired, and noticed Bess. He helped to adjust shawls, and placed the windows entirely at the disposal of the ladies, though he looked as though he might be suffocated at any moment. The conversation was animated, the stranger entering freely into all the views and opinions of his fellow-travelers—politics, agriculture, history—endorsing every opinion which they might express. Both inwardly pronounced him a most charming companion, and blessed the stars which had introduced them to such society. “You reside in the neighborhood of Charlton, madam?" “Yes; we have a lovely villa on the edge of Blackheath!” “Blackheath! That is a favorite neighborhood of mine. In fact, lam going to Woolwich to join my regiment this evening, and I intended to get out at Blackheath to enjoy an evening stroll over the heath.” “Are you not afraid of being molested at night over Bla,ckheath? Isn’t it very lonesome?” “Sometimes it is lonesome; but I often meet very useful, agreeable people in rambling over the heath.” Arrived at Blackheath, the two ladies descended, and feeling that they had established a sufficient acquaintance with their polite fellow-traveler, they invited him to partake of a cup of tea at their residence, before proceeding on his journey, which invitation he gratefully accepted. As the evening wore on, a rubber of whist was proposed, the gentleman taking “dummy.”- After a short lapse of time, looking at his watch as by a sudden impulse, he observed that it was growing late, and he was afraid of keeping them up. “I shall now take my leave, deeply impressed by your kind hospitality; but, before I make my bow, I must trouble you for your watches, chains, money, and any small articles of jewelry which you have in the house.” The ladies looked aghast, hardly able to realize the situation. Their guest, however, remained inflexible, and having, with his own dexterous hands, cleared the tables of all articles sufficiently portable, was proceeding to ascend the stains, when one of the ladies uttered a piercing scream. On this, he sternly assured them that silence was their only safety, while giving any alarm would be attended by instant death. “Then, having possessed bimself of all the money and valuables he could command, he left the house, telling thij ladies, with a smile, that they had conferred a most delightful and profitable evening on Mr. Richard, or as he has been more generally called, Dick Turpin.—Sir Walter Scott.

Men, Women, and Money.

In “Men, Women, and Money,” Mrs. Allison confines herself to one point touched on by her sister. The mothers and housekeepers usually have only the sums of money their husbands choose to give them, and it is considered a gift rather than a rightful allowance. Many a woman is made rich by her husband’s death, who has no money of her own during his lifetime. Mrs. Allison would have every married woman receive what is indisputably her own, that she can spend it as she likes without her husband’s permission. The author’s proposition is this 1 : “Beside the sentimental and affectionate partnership in marriage there should be a money partnership, which should plainly state her individual financial condition, and both busband and wife should regard with favor the accumulation of her individual and separate property, side by side with his, though perhaps, and necessarily, much smaller. True, there would be more accounts kept, but there would be more solid happiness.” The foregoing statement of the proposed plan is far too vague. How much shall a man allow his wife a month to be invested for her private benefit ? Should he not invest a similar amount for himself? Should he pay his wife’s bills in addition to her stipend ? After deducting his wife’s private monthly investment and his own private monthly investment, and paying his wife’s bills, should he pay all the family bills T Should not a girl, under this system, before accepting an offer of marriage, state exactly the percentage of income she is to have, and whether she 'will take her husband’s note if he should be sick or out of employment? Should a wife receive stated pay and also dowry as a widow ? Should a rich wife pay her husband a salary ? A hundred other questions might be asked. In the meantime a sensible married couple will spend their income together for the common good of the family, according to circumstances, neither of them wasting a cent, nor hoarding from each other. Young men's incomes are not usually burdensome, and if the plan of these ladies is to be regarded seriously, they should state exactly what percentage a wife should have for her individual bank account The question of marriage—Of love and financial percentage »-could then be duly weighed, and the young man could assume the obligation, or keep out of it, as becomes one dealing with business matters; or, rather with a proposition to pay a cash annuity, in addition* to the ordinary expenses of raising a family, which, perhaps, is not Business, but decidedly something else. A horn player in an prchestra was once urged again and again to play londer. At last, exhausted, he laid down his instrument, and remarked to the leader: “It.is all very veil to say ‘louder,’ but vere is de vind ?” The payment of conjugal an-

unities could be more easily arranged than performed. Commercial Gazette.

Government Life Insurance.

The success that has attended the government carriage of letters and papers, as well as the cheapness of its telegraphic service, has led some social and political reformers to think that the same agency might be utilized for other beneficial purposes, such as postal banks, life, and fire insurance. In Great Britian there are in successful operation government postal bankA in which the poor are guaranteed the absolute safety of their surplus earnings, and a low rate, bnt sure rate, of interest. The Colonial government of New Zealand has been testing life insuranee, but so far with rather poor results. Says an English paper, The Spectator: “During the year 1883 the premium receipts were 175,372 pounds sterling. In order to obtain this receipt, not less than 31,000 pounds sterling had to be paid for fees and administrative expenses. The fees alone were more than 10,000 ponuds sterling; two medical men, 5,066 pounds sterling. Worse yet is the proportion in the industrial branch, in which we find a premium receipt of 6,217 pounds sterling set off by a disbursement of fees and administrative expenses of 4,094 pounds sterling. The insurance fund of this branch was 823 pounds sterling at the end of the year. Such a success cannot be called very encouraging. It would seem, from this statement, that politicians and officials had formed rings to misapply the funds, but this evil may be corrected in time. Bismarck has introduced government life insurance for the working classes, and there is no reason in the fitness of things why a central authority that can manage postoffices, telegraphs, and even national railway systems, with efficiency and economy, should hot be equally successful in dealing with savings banks, and life and fire insurance. — Demorest’s Monthly.

A Faithful Officer.

Captain Bassett, the venerable Ser-geant-atrArms of the Senate, has been in continuous service for more than fifty years. The Captain started in as a page. At that time there was but one in the Senate, and Daniel Webster wanted young Isaac Bassett appointed as an additional page. The other Senators thought it a great extravagance —two pages for forty-eight senators I It was enough to bankrupt the Republic! Captain Bassett declares that there was a hot debate over the suggestion of Webster. However, Webster fought hard and, with his great eloquence, succeeded. So young Bassett was appointed. Although his hair is white as snow, he loves fun and is still as merry as a boy. Just think of it! He was a Senate officer when the Senate met in the old Chamber, now occupied by the Supreme Court; when the evening sessions of both houses had to be illuminated by dips.” He has heard Webster, Hayne, Clay, Calhoun, Benton, and Douglas. The Captain’s recollection of the days when Senators dressed in swal-low-tailed coats causes him to shudder when “innovations” are suggested. But these “innovations” are constantly going on. It has for many years been the custom to write the name of each senator on a strip of ivory-white wood, and fasten it on his desk by way of identification, as “Mr. Summer,” “Mr. Cole,” “Mr. Fenton.” Last year these wooden labels were removed, and silver plates substituted, bearing simply the surname without the “Mr.,” as “Bayard,” “Edmunds,” “Ransom.” I understand the Captain has not yet recovered from this horrible act of vandalism. —Edmund Alton, in St Nicholas.

A Wonderful Horse.

There is a perceptible coolness between young Seabury, one of the most fashionable young men in Austin, and Gillhooly. Seabury owns a horse which he thinks is the finest in the world. Young Seabury was bragging about his horse to a crowd of acquaintances, and he said, among other improbable . things, that the horse went so fast on the previous day that he overtook a swallow, the horse’s ear striking the bird. “Are you sure the swallow was not coming from the opposite direction?” asked Gillhooly, with the air of a man who wanted to know. “Of course not,” was the indignant response. “I reckon then that the swallow wanted to build her nest in your horse’s ear. The horse went so slow that the swallow could not see that he was moving. Wonderful boss.”— Texas Siftings. _

Ivy on the Wall.

The common belief that ivy trained against the walls of a dwelling house produces damp walls and general unhealthiness is fallacious. The very opposite is the case. If one will carefully examine an ivy-clad wall after a shower of rain he will notice that while the overlapping leaves have conducted the water from point to point until it has reached the ground, the wall beneath is perfectly dry and dusty. More than this, the thirsty shoots which force their way into every crevice of the structure which will afford a firm held act like suckers, in drawing on any articles of moisture for their own nourishment. The ivy, in fact, acts like a great coat, keeping the house from wet and warm. One more virtue it has in giving to the ugliest structure an evergreen beauty.— Land and Water.

Nihilistic Horrors Discounted.

Young Lady—“ What horrid people those Russians must be!” Father—“ More Nihilists arrested and hanged or shipped to Siberia?” “Oh, ever so much worse than that—a thousand times more awful.” “What; have they assassinated the Czar?” “That would be nothing to what they have done. No wonder they blow up things with dynamite. This paper says an order has bern issued that there shall be no more flirting in St. Petersburg.”— Harper’s Bazar. The average number of sentences of penal servitude. for the five years ending 1864 was 2,800 yearly; for the four years ending 1883 it had fallen to just one-half.,

Hancock, Lee, and Grant.

During a visit at the house of my friend, Doctor Swift, of Northville, Michigan, the genial doctor, who is an intelligent physician of large practice and a prominent citizen of that State, gave me the following brace of opinions concerning Gen. Grant, from two representative men. Two or three years since Doctor Swift happened to be a passenger in the same car with Gen. Hancock and the mayor of Atlanta, on c one of the southern railroads. Gen. Hancock and the mayor, who was a German, were sitting together, and, in a conversation relating to public men, the latter remarked: “General Hancock, isn’t it strange that the great Republican party should make a President of such a man as Grant?” Hancock waited a moment and then deliberately answered: “Gen. Grant was a very superior officer. He won his position by merit, and hard and successful fighting, and was worthy of it. If you think strange of the Republicans for making a President of him, what do you think of the Democrats who nominated me?” Several weeks later the doctor was in South Carolina, and had occasion to relate the foregoing incident to a prominent State official, who was a member of Gen. Lee’s staff. The official responded:, • “Doctor, that reminds me of Gen. Lee’s opinion of your great Union General, uttered in my presence in reply to a disparaging remark on the part of a person vho referred to Grant as a ‘military accident, who had no distinguishing merit, but had achieved success through a combination of fortunate circumstances.’ Gen. Lee looked into the critic’s eye steadily and said: ‘Sir, your opinion is a very poor compliment to me. We all thought Richmond, protected as it was by our splendid fortifications and defended by our army of veterans, could not be taken. Yet Grant turned his face to our capital, and never turned it away until we had surrendered. Now, I have carefully searched the military records of both ancient and modern history, and have never found Grant’s superior as a General. Idoult if his superior can bo found in all history.’”— James G. Clarke, in &i. Paul Pioneer Press.

An Educated Chimpanzee.

I was once the owner of a highly educated chimpanzee. He knew all the friends of the house, all our acquaintances, and distinguished them readily from strangers. Every one treating him kindly he looked upon as a personal friend. He never felt more comfortable than when he was admitted to the family circle and allowed to move freely around, and opeh and shut doors, while his joy was boundless when he was assigned a place at the common table, and the guests admired his natural wit and practical jokes. He expressed his satisfaction and thanks to them by drumming furiously on the table. In his numerous moments of leisure his favorite occupation consisted in investigating carefully every object in his reach; he lowered the door of the stove for the purpose of watching the fire, opened drawers, rummaged boxes’and trunks, and played with their contents, provided the latter did not look suspicious to him. Row easily suspicion was aroused in his mind might be illustrated by the fact that, as long as he lived, he shrank with terror from every common rubber ball. Obedience to my orders and attachment to my person, and to everybody caring for him, were among his cardinal virtues, and he bored me with his persistent wishes to accompany me. He knew perfectly his time for retiring, and was happy when some one of us carried him to the bedroom like a baby. As soon as the light was put out he would jump into the bed and cover himself, because he was afraid of the darkness. His favorite meal was supper with tea, which he was very fond of, provided it was largely sweetened and mixed with rum. He sipped it from the cup, and ate the dipped bread-slices with a spoon, having been taught not to the use the fingers in eating. He poured his wine from the bottle and drank it from the glass. A man could hardly behave himself more gentlemanlike at the table than did that monkey.— Dr. Brehm, in Popular Science Monthly.

Colonial Head-Dresses.

The dressing of women’s hair kept pace with that of men. The “commode” or “tower” head-dress rose to a great height in the days of Queen Anne, and then declined to rise into a new deformity in the years just proceding the American Revolution. In 1771 a bright young girl in Boston wrote to her mother in the country a description of the construction upon her own head of one of the coiffures, composed of a roll of red cow’s tail mixed with horse hair and a little human hair of a yellow color, all carded and twisted together and built up until by actual measurement the superstructure was an inch longer than the face below it. Of a hair-dresser at work on an another lady’s head, she says: “I saw him twist and tpg and pick ana cut off whole locks of gray hair at a slice for the space of a hour and a half, when I left him, he seeming not to be near done.” One may judge of the vital necessity there was for all this art from the fact that a certain lady in Annapolis about the close of the colonial period was accustomed to pay S6OO a year for the dressing of her hair. On great occasions the hairdresser’s time was so fully occupied that some ladies were obliged to have their mountainous coiffures built up two days beforehand, and to sleep sitting in their chairs, or, according to a Philadelphia tradition, with their heads inclosed in a box.

None of His Business.

“How old are you ?” asked an Austin Justice of the Peace, of Jim Webster, who was under arrest for stealing chickens. “I dunno." v “When were you born?” “What am de use of my tellin’you about riiy bufday. You ain’t gwinter make ine no bufday present nohow."— Texas Siftings. Oliver Wendell Holmes lives in a house painted a bright yellow with ! green blbula. - - . y

About Pegs.

It was the privilege of the writer to visit the picturesque little town of Arlington, Vermont, which at the time boasted a population of 2,500, three churches, five stores, two hotels, an extensive car works, sash and blind and chair factory; also a “peg factory," which, by the courtesy of the foreman, Mr. L. E. White, (who had been employed there twenty-nine years), he was shown through, and received valuable information. The timber used is black and yellow birch, which is cut into pieces four feet in length, varying in diameter from eight to fourteen inches. These logs are placed in a building in winter and the frost extracted by steam. They are then run on a tram railway to the circular-saw department, and cut into silces or blanks of the thicknessdesired for the length Of the pegs. These are sorted and the knots cut out, and are then passed on to a long bench which contains six machines composed of fluted rollers. Theblanks are then run between these rollers,which creases both sides. They are then run through again to cross-crease, or mark out the exact sizes of the pegs. Then they go to the splitting machines, which are set with double knives, and cut the blanks into pegs. As they pass the last machine they are sorted, and all knots and discolored ones removed as they are brushed off into large baskets. These machines are under the care young women, who appeared much more happy and useful than do many of thdse who, thumping at their piano, would consider such employment menial The next process is bleaching, which is accomplished by the fumes of brimstone, which is unhealthy (those why labor here shorten their lives). They are then placed in large cylinders, which hold eleven barrels, and have 600 steam pipes running through them, and revolve one and a half times to the minute, drying two charges per day to each cylinder. They are then passed into large, wooden casks or cylinders, which, revolving rapidly, polish them by the friction, the refuse falling through wire sieves or screen openings, after which they are again passed into a sifter, which separates all the single pegs, and drops them into tubs or boxes, leaving those which have not been separated in the machine. They are put up in barrels ready for market The factory running on full time turns out 150 bushels, or fifty barrels, per day. The sizes go from eight up to sixteen to an inch. The lengths go by eighths, two and one-half to twelve. Twentysix hands are employed, half of them being women. The products of this mill are mostly shipped to Germany and France, and enter largely into the manufacture of toys and fancy goods, as well as into the shoe manufactory. Thus the “genii of mechanism” converts, as by magis, the trees from the Vermont mountains into articles of use, which, floating off through the channels of commerce to far-away countries, anon return, to sparkle the eyes of happy children, in toys in which these pegs have become important factors.— New York Mail.

Indian Graves to Order.

So determined, indeed, are some of these fabricators of frauds, that the following incident is worthy of being published, to show the ingenuity they exercise in their peculiar calling. To discover an Indian grave is, of course, a red-letter day for the archaeologist. Now, Indian graves are manufactured to order, it would appear. At least the following recently occurred in New Jersey: A Philadelphia Flint Jack secured" a half-decayed skeleton from a potter’s field in the vicinity, and placed it in a shallow excavation on the wasting bank of a creek in New Jersey, where Indian relics were frequently found. With it he placed a steatite to-bacco-pipe of his own make, a steatite carving of an eagle’s head, and beads; [with these were thrown numbers of genuine arrow-heads and fragments of pottery. The earth was blackened with powdered charcoal. This “plant” was made in November, and in the following March, during the prevalence of high waters and local freshets, he announced to an enthusiastic collector that he knew the exact location of an Indian grave, and offered to take him thither for SSO, the money to be paid if the search proved successful, which of course it did. The cranium of that pauper passed through several craniologists’ hands, and was gravely remarked upon as of unusual interest, as it was a marked dolichocephalic skull, whereas the Delaware Indians were brachycephalic!—Dr. Chas. in'Popular Science Monthly.

A Sum in Arithmetic.

“How are you coming on, Uncle Mose?” “Poorly, poorly, thank God." “What’s the matter?” “I has seben gals to support, boss. Hit costs a power of money to fill up seben moufs free times a day.” “Yes, but I heard one ofyour daughters was going to get married, so that will only leave six to support.” “Dat’s whar you am a foolin’ yerself, boss. Dat ar gal am gwinter marry one ob dese Austin culled politicianers, so instead of habin’ only six to support, when she marries, I’ll hab eight moufs to feed, for mighty few ob dese politicianers, white or black, is wuss de powder hit would take to shoot ’em. No, boss; hit will be eight instead ob six ter feed when dat gal marries, not countin de nateral increase.— Texas Siftings. ,

Science Births.

Astronomy, the oldest of the sciences, is said to have originated at Babylon in observations made about 2234 B. C.; it was much advanced in Chalda?a Under Nabonassar; and it was known to the Chinese about 1100 B. C., if not many centuries before. Geology, the science of the earth, is claimed to. have been cultivated in China long before the Christian era, and it occupied the attention of Aristotle, Theophrastus, Tliny, Avicenna and the Arabian writent.,, The Egyptians and Chinese claims. an early acquaintance with chemistry, whose first facts were revealed by the experiments es the alchemists, but it did not become a science until the seventeenth century. Botany and zoology were founded by Aristotle, about 350 B. O.