Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 January 1896 — Page 2

| THE MAN FOR SANOY. I «wMu gie a copper plack Par oay man that turns his back u Ob duty dekr; X srasddna tak his word or note, 4 I'WOnldna trust him for a groat. Which he might steer. : . IWhm things Are just as things should be 'And fortune pics a man the plea. Where’er he be St haa hard to understand ' Bow he mar walk through house and land WF eheerfni face and open hand " ,r^ J Continually. I ®et when, P spite o’ work and care, A aaon must loss and failure bear, He merits praise; Wha will not to misfortune bow, ■ Who cocks his bonnet on his ■brow _ ▲ad fights and,fights, ho kcnsna how, Through tang, hard days. I wonldna gie an auld bawbee Tor ony man thart I could see Wha did 11a hold 43 ' Ttio sweetness o’ his mither’s name,, The kindness o’ his brother's claim. The honor o’ a woman’s fame, Far mair than gold. Nar is It hard for him to do. Wha kens his friends are Seal and trne. Lore sweet and strong. Whose hearth knows not from year to year The shadow of a donbt or fear, 1 Or feels the falling of a tear For only wrong. ■ .. .1 ; 4.4.- —it, ; But gie him praise whose lore is pain, Irt* not the dear one from Lis care, But loves him mair,-and matr, and mair, And bides his time wi’ hope and prayer, , And still believes. ~ i , Ay, gie him praise who doesna fear The up-hill fight from,year to year And who grips fast His sin dear ones through good or ill, Wha, if they wander, loves them stiff; Some day of joy he’ll get his- fill-;.-He’ll win at last. —Pittsburg Post.

DAFT BET.

“Mlnehstedde, faniotnr for ye flo wre gardens; infamous for ye fayrc." That fa how an old chronicler sums tip the character of the village. The flower gardens remain unto this day; so does the fair. But the fame of the one and the Infamy of the other have long been, merged In a decent-obscurity. Minch atead has, Indeed, shared the fate of a hundred other villages. It has succumbed to an age of railways. Formerly, Londoners used to visit Miueh•tead for change of air. They then took as long reaching it by coach or by post dhaise as they now take over a railway journey to St. Leonards or Eastbourne, Bath chairs and donkey chaises were quite abundant on Miueh3:ead common then. Children ami urses thronged it It was a popular saying in the place that "“seven airs met there’’—meaning thereby seven distinct characters of atmosphere. How that number was arrived at is scarcely obvious. But, at any rate, the common was,, and Is.jpartieularly bracing, and a day spent upon it cannot fail to invigthe spender. Now, however, Ichabod! No one is to be met there save the übiquitous golfer, the loafer, who lives upon his lost balls, and the dingiest sheep and most odoriferous goats that are to be found within the twelve-mile nidi us. The fair, as we have said, still-re-mains. It Is held at Bartlemvtide on the old village green. There is an okl and there Is a new green at Mfnch•tead. The latter deserves the name, for It has a fine expanse of turf; with the former It Is otherwise. Every Made of grass liaslongdisappearod from ft It Is a bare, worn space of gravel «.nd sand, trodden to the consistency of a road by playing children and loafing men and women. It is here that the denizens, whose houses lie around the green, are full of cursing and bitterness for three whole days in every August. The strident music of the merry-go-sounds, the nauseous odors of their oilfed engines, the oaths of drunken men. the shrieks of drunken women, the general rowdyism and disorders which are rampant after dark may serve as some excuse even for cursing and bitterness. .Many Minchsteadites have tried to get the nuisance put down, but without avail. The fair is held by royal charter. An act of Parliament alone can abolish it And Parliament has its Stands too full already to be passing acts *- for the abatement of mere local nuisances. The fair, therefore, continues. In the daytime It is quite respectable; it Is even aristocratic, as aristocracy In Minelistead goes. Ladles—no mere lydles—have been seen in the swinging boats before dusk; gentlemen—wnd those not simply gents—stroll up there to while away an hour of the afternoon In cpcoaaut skies and rifle shooting. Thera Is a famous shooting range, kept fay one Amos Dunkley. which has graced Miuclistead fair regularly since the early QO’s. You do not simply shoot down a tube at glass bottles, but you faave a sort of miniature jungle wherein to practice your markmanshlp—a Jungle full of moving rabbits and Hying birds for ,the experts, of stationary r targets and bottles for the Inexperienced. To those Minchsteadites who used to patronize this gallery a few years ago •ue figure must have been very familiar. It was that of a middle-aged woman, belonging evidently to the poorer dosses, who used to stand Just at the entrance of Dunkley’s gallery all * through the three days of the fair. She went by the name of “Daft Bet.” Pass era-by would nod to her in a pitying •art of way, and give her coppers or ■mall silver coins. She d # id not, however. pay much heed to any of them, or •rep seem to care whether they gave faer money or not. Her eyes were all «be whilo fixed upon the entrance of dhe mooting gallery, with a set, eager impression, as though she were anxioush watching for some one to come out.

So rt)e was. So she bad been no 'fr for [ thirty years. When eleven struck, and. i)unl|ley came to Hie door to close his gallery for the night, she would ask him, eagerly: ' * “How about Tom? Will he be coming home to-night?’' And Dunkley would say, with a kindly gravity that «lld credit to his feiings: “No, lass, no! ' Torn must stay tonight to take care of the show,” “But you'll not keep, him to-morrow night, Mr. Duukley, sip—you’ll not keep to-morrow Y’ , «T “Nay, lass! I’ll not keep him to-mor-row." ; For thirty years, had this same,-dia-logue taken place on each of the three nights of Minchstead Bartlemy fair. Daft Bet’s story was a sufficiently sad one. In the year 1855, a bride of six weeks’ standing, she had lost her husband In the following tragic way: Dunkley, one,of whose assistants had been unexpectedly laid up, haWengaged Tom Pilcher, a resident of Minchstead, to help him with hfs shootiug gallery during the three days of the fair. Toward evening, on the last of the three days, something went wrong with one of the running rabbits, and Tom crept Into the jungle to put the thing in older. The shooting was stopped while he did so, but the gallery was very full Just then; there was great confusion and crowding among the would be marksmen, and somehow one of the attendants did not observe that Torn Pilcher was in the jungle, for he was stooping very low and was bidden by the artificial grass and rushes. The nttendant lia tided a loaded gun lon gentleman who stretched out his hand for it. The latter, also never seeing Tom, took aim at one of the rabbits in the grass, and—before be could be stopped—fired. There came a sharp cry from the jungle, followed by an ominous groan. Dunkley sprang over the barrier and rushed forward, lie found poor Tom PUclier huddled upon the ground, just breathing his last. An ugly wound in the forehead showed where the ball bad penetrated. Everybody present was horror-strick-en by this tragical accident. The gentleman who had tired the shot, especially, was In a perfect agony of distress. But the affair was rendered sadder still by what followed. Tom’s young wife, who had come there to walk home with him, was actually waiting for him at tbd entrance at the time when the accident occurred. Some exeited and thoughtless withess of the catastrophe went out and told her—never attempting to break It gently, or in any way to prepare the poor girl for the shock. She ran wildly in. She forced her way through the crowd to her dead husband. She threw herself upon his body, with a terrible wail. When she at length raised her eyes from the dead they were fixed and strange. The light of reason was gone from them. It never returned.

This is how it was that ever afterward, during the Minelistead Bartlemy fair, you would find her at the door of Dnnkley’s gallery Waiting for Tom; never quitting her post, never growing weary, always receiving with patient acquiescence Dunkley’s intimation that Tom could not be spared from the show that night, and buoying herself up with the promise that ho would sm-ely be allowed to come with her tomorrow. The gentleman who had fired the fatal shot made what amends were possible to this afflicted creature, lie called upon the vicar of the parish and arranged to pay the widow, through him, a sufficient weekly allowance to keep her in comfort for her life, oresupposing such a course should be held necessary—to defray the cost of her maintenance in a good private asylum. The former course was adopted, for the doctors pronounced her quite harmless, and declared that there was no reason for shutting her up. And so poor Daft Bet lived on in Minchstcad for thirty years, pitied and kludly used by all; not unhappy, never complaining, but supported from first to last by her merciful delusion, and always confident that she should see her Tom—io-ruor-row. fclt was exactly thirty years after the fatal accident—ln the August of ISSS - that a party of young fellows who had come over with a cricket team to play a mateh.against the famous Minelistead Club strolled down to the fair in the evening on the lookout for a little amusement. Some betook themselves to one show, some to another. Three or four went into Dunkley's world-re-nowned shooting gallery. One of them, a good-looking, merry young fellow of about 20, seemed to attract Daft Bet's attention as he went by. for she sudden-

ly fixed her great, hollow eyes upon him and followed him into the gallery with an eager glance. By and by she went up to the doorkeeper. “Just let me 111. I want to speak to Tom,” she said, eoaxingl.v. “Xay, Bet,” said the man,.with more kindness than might have been expected from his rough appearance. “You cannot come in nowv'lass. Tom's busy. He has no time to be speaking to you." ‘Do let mV In, therc ; s a dear.'k she persisted, earnestly. j. doorkeeper shook his head. “I mussen, lass,” he said decidedly. “Oh, there is Mr. > Dunkley!” she cried. “Let me ask Mr. Dunkley. Mr. Dunkley, sir!” Amos was standing near the entrance. He turned* round at the sound bf his name, and Bet preferred her request to llilU. 0 “Mr. Dunkley, sir; let me come In for a minute to speak to Tom,” she pleaded. “Tom’s busy, lass," said Amo?, Using the same excuse as the doorkeeper hod done. “He can* be spared from bis work at present.?' “Biit let me just come la and wait inside till he Is ready to speak to me.” cHod Bet, claspiug her hands. “Oh, do let me, Mr. Dunkley, sir!” . Amos Dunkley was a soft-hearted man. He had always been very kind

to Bet, and It went against him to jml fuse her this small and easily granted favor, by which, moreoyer, the poor, mad creature seemed to set such store. “Well, lass, if you do come inside,” he said, “you must just stand still and wait patiently. We cannot have business Interfered with, you know," “Oh, Mr. Dunkley. sir, i’ll be as good gold. I’ll stand inside and never move or speak till Tom is ready. Maybe I shall see Tom when I’m IntHde?” she added with half wistful inquiry to her tone.,, “No, no, lass; you’ll not; see him. He’s busy at the back,” said Amos Dnnkley. . —L. —_■ “But I’ll see him when lie’s done, Mr. ~Dunkley. Mr?” ! “Oh, yes. Bet You ? H see him -when he’s done.” She came Inside the gallery and stood quietly in a corner. Her eyes roamed about the tent until they fell upon the young man Already mentioned, and on, him they remained fixed. She followed all his movements eagerly. Never jfor a second did she allow her gaze t 6 wander frojm him. Now she seemed to be growing agitated. She could not stand still. She was twisting both her hands in a comer of her apron, then untwisting them, aud so on, rapidly. Iler feet shuffled and fidgeted on the ground. No one, how T ever, observed her. The place was full. Amos and his assistants were all busy. At last Daft Bet could remain In her place no longer. She glided swiftly forward and mingled with the throng. Soon she was close to the barrier where the marksmen stood and was almost rubbing shoulders with the young man, oh whom her eyes had been neverceasiugly fixed. They were glittering now with a peculiar light. She lifted her hand and plucked the young man by the sleeve. “Ililloa, mojherl What Is it?" he said, turning round and regarding her good-naturedly. “Where is Tom?” she asked, almost In a whisper. “My good woman, really I cannot tell you,” was the laughing rejoinder. “Ydu know where he is—you do know where he is,” she persisted, with a certain fierceness in her tone. “I assure you you are quite mistaken,” said the young man, still laughing, for ho supposed that it was some kind of joke. “I know nothing aboyt hlm. u“You shall tell ino!” she cried, passionately. “You shall tell me where he is!”' = -O' -

At this point one of the assistants, who was standing at the barrier loading rifles for use. turned round and saw Daft Bet clutching the young man’s arm. “Now then, lass,” he said, sharply, “none of that. You've no business here annoying our customers. Come, clear out of it!” The woman’s eyes blazed. With incredible swiftness, and before ho could prevent her, she reached forward and caijght up one of the weapons which he had just loaded. She pointed it straight* at the young man's forehead. She pulled the trigger. It was all the work of a second, Crack! flash! smoke! a heavy thud; and then a moment's awful silence. In that moment, while dismay still held every onlooker paralyzed, Bet threw down the discharged gun and snatched up another—loaded, ready for use. She held the muzzle against her own forehead and, crying, “HeVibeir know—he does; he- shall take me ter my Tom!” so fired, and fell. * • * * •/ * • “Good God!” said Amos Dunkley a few minutes later, to one of the dead man’s companions.. “Good God! Then that explains it.” “How? What do you mean?” exclaimed the other, who was nearly beside himself with mingled grief and horror. “I mean, young man.” answered Amos very solemnly, “that the hand of fate is clearly present in this dreadful thing. Thirty years ago her husband was accidentally shot in my gallery on this very green. The one as shot him was your poor friend’s father.”—London Truth.

PECULIAR RETAINING FEE.

John Chinaman Had It Arrange 1 ?! Before He Perpetrated the Crime. Col. A. T. Vogelsang, the attorney, is regarded as one of the best raconteurs of the legal profession. In the Palace grillroom yesterday he let out a string of anecdotes. Ue said that a few weeks ago Dennis Spencer, the Napa luminary, was called upon by a Chinaman ouo evening, when the following dialogue ensued: “ ‘One Chinaman kill another Chinaman with a hatchet; how much you charge make him clear?’ “ ‘l’ll take the case,’ said Mr. Spencer, •for $1,000.’ " ‘Altec right,’ said the Chinaman, ‘I be back after while.’ “In about a week lie returned to Mr; Spencer's office and laid down SI,OOO in gold coin on his table. Mr. Spencer swept the money into the drawer. '* ‘Well, the Chinaman, he dead.' “ ‘Who killed him?’ “ T did.’ - r —- “ ‘When did you kill him?’ “ ‘Lakt night.’ > There was some curiosity on the part of tlio audience for further light on the disposition of the ?faooo, but Mr. Vogelsang immediately spun off on to another story.—San Francisco Call.

Buffaloes Help Each Other.

M hen an African buffalo is wouuded by a hunter It is surrounded by several others, who immediate# group themselves round him and help him along In their midst by shoving against Ids side until they have reached a place of safety. " • -

Father of Cats.

One of the chief men in a Mohammedan caravan is the cat-shelk, or “Father of Cats,” who rides a camel carrying dozens of baskets filled with cats.

MUTINY IN THE ARMY

SALVATIONISTS REBEL AGAINST THEIR ENGLISH GENERAL. Tbe Boldier« in America Do Not Want -to Have Wellington Booth Go Away —Whatjtho Popular Leader and Hl* Wife Have Bone. • .• - ...... — : —! : Lesson of ’76 Again. The,peremptory order from Gen. Booth, commander-Jn-ehief of the Salvation Army! relieving Ballington Booth of Abe command-in America has called forth a protest from the 30,000 soldiers who fairly worship the commander and his Wife. Tt»e army was stunned by the B»W8. It asked for gn explanation, a reason why its leader should be taken away. He answered sadly that he knew noth.irig more than what the brief order contained. Not a word of information accompanied it. There was no new* of

GEN. WM. BOOTH.

ivhere he was to go or who would be ljis successor. “I am a soldier. I must obey,” said the commander. “I ask you, all to make my burden as light as possible.” The array refuses to listen to his entreaties or to accept the order. Meetings are being arranged in every part of the country. Protests and petitions of all kinds will be forwarded to the international headquarters in Loudon. The seeds of mutiny have been set, and if a conciliatory answer is not received froth Gkn. Booth the members of the army in Amor Tea may form an independent wiug, with Balfington Booth as sole leader. Nine years ago Ballington Booth, son of Gen. William Booth, the founder and

MR. AND MRS. BALLINGTON EOOTH.

sbsolute commander of the Salvation ,rmy, was sent to this country to take charge of the scattered forces, who were making little progress here. He was an Englishman horn and bred. He brought with him his wife, the daughter of a Church of England clergyman. They entered at once upon tlio work and have accomplished wonderful things. Mrs. Booth is as much of a commander as her husband, and in every undertaking she has had an equal share. . , They found here about COO officers and 0,000 soldiers, poorly organised and standing very low in public estimation. To-day there are 2,100 officers and 3,500 local officers, the latter being men and women who work at their various callings in the daytime and devote their evenings and Sundays to army work. There are GSO corps and 30,000 soldiers. 0/ institutions the army has 1C ■ slum posts, G rescue homes, 22 training garrisons for cadets, 4 food pots, numerous houses of relief in various cities, and'C outrider circuits in the mining camps of the West. In addition to this there is the War Cry, with a weekly circulation of 90,000. In the larger cities the anhy has gradually been acquiring property, the headquarters building in New York City being the largest and finest. One result of which the Booths are proudest is the fisc of the army in ptib-

lig estimation. At first churches and people generally gave no approval or support. Having got their hosts thoroughly organized and accomplished telling results. Commander and Mrs. Booth commenced, work among the higher social classes. An auxiliary corps was started and it now numbers among its mouthers leading ministers. Governors, Senators and many men of wealth. . The army had distinctly risen in the social scale wheii Gen. William Booth' came to this country last year. The progress of the. American army In popular esteem seemed especially -to displease aim, and he preached continually about the necessity of keeping down every tendency to rise above the gutter. The independence of the American army and its evident tendency to cut loose from English ride and methods caused runny sharp mlks to officers. He saw that a continuation meant ultimate separation. He said -lie army was too much Americanized. After leaving this country Aden. Booth started on a tour of the world to investigate the wings of the army in various regions. Ho sent from India tho order relieving Ballington Booth of {ho command in America. At the same time he relieved the commanders in several other countries. He is determined that the armies shall feel that they are all under his command and that every country shall be subservient to English rule. International headquarters it) London have continually Interfered in the affafr* of the American army, countermanding orders and giving*

directions that seemed unwise to the lead, era here. No appointment to high ritnk ' can be made without approval of London. AH these things have been borne in silence, never getting outside of the ranks of the officers, but the order removing the commander and his wife was more than they could endure. The soldiers talk of the revolution of 177(1, and. say it is time for the Americans so again Arise against, the English. If the orders are trot rescind-' ed the army will take ineasures to declare Itself independent of London domination.

FILTH IN BAKESHOPS.

Startling Discoveries bjr New York ' Bakery inspectors. •.* Brace tETncw law requiring inspecting of the, bakeshops of New York went into effect, about half a year ago, many startling discoveries have been made by the inspectors of that city. But it was not until the other night that the State authorities were given an insight into the filthiness of some of the bakeshops of the metropolis. Deputy State Factory Inspector Frnney and Bakeshop Inspector Hanlon staffed out together to take a peep at some of the city’s bakeries. Whatever doubts Mr. Franey might have had as to the necessity of the bakeshop law they were removed. The shop, thO condition of which produced the strongest impression on Mr. Franey’s mind, .is located in Bayard street, and is kept by an Italian. It is a cellar shop. -Its floor area is small, its ceiling is low, and, on the night of the expedition, the place was excecdirgly dirty. ; .

Not only is the bnking of bread, cakes, pies aud other flour itroducts carried on in the cclla r in -question, but the boss bakcf'iS entire family, together’ with the workmen in the shop, make it tkeir constant abode. It was the middle of the evening when they entered the shop. In the front part of the'cellar, in a little store partitioned off from the shop, the boss baker’s wife was selling bread and other baked things. "In the shop, near the door connecting it and the store, two workmen were asleep on a cot. In a long, coffin-like bread box, such as Italian and French bakers use in preference to the square ones Used by bakers, of other nationalities, another workman was asleep. These were “day hands.” At the molding board the two night hands, stripped to the waist, were busy mixing dough. On a cot near the board two children of from 7 to 10 years were slumbering peacefully, while in the dough trough was a child less than a year old. Mr. Hanlon has encountered stranger things, however, than Babies'in dough troughs. In one' shop an open barrel stood ,in tbe middle es the floor. From the top of the barrel there was rising at the moment of his entrance a thin, whitish cloud, evidently of dust, steam, smoke or flour. Investigation showed it to be

es flour, and that it was -caused by the fluttering and Scratching of a hen in the flour that was soon to be made into bread. The 'operation of the Jaw will be rendered even more effective by the passage of certain amendments which are now beforc the Legislature; 1

CONDITION OF NATIONAL BANKS

General Improvement Marked in the Financial Brstness. The abstract from the reports made to the Controller of the Currency by the 3,706 national banks in the United States shewing their condition Dec. 13, 1895, shows loans and discounts- amounting to $2,020,901,792, against $2,059,408,402 Sept. 28, 1895, the date of the last report. The gold coin held by the national banks Dec. 13 amounted to $113,843,400, against $110,378,300 Sept. 28. The gold treasury certificates op hand amounted to $20,936,.030,. to be corupsKsod with $21,525,930 Sept. 1 28. The gold clearing house certificates aggregated $33,405,000, compared with $31,021,000 at the last report. The silver treasury certificates amounted to $25,575,323, to be compared with $22,914,180 in September. The total specie on band Dec. 13 was $200,712,410, compared with $190,237,311 Sept. 28. The legal tender notes on hand Dec. 13 amounted to $99,209,423, against $93,940,083 Sept. 28. The United States" certificates of deposit for legal tender notes on hand aggregated $31,440,000; against $49,920,000 at the time of the September report. ' , The reports snow that between Sept. 28, 1893, and Dec. 13 the national banks increased their individual deposits' from $1,701,653,521 to $1,720,550,241.

CUSHMAN K. DAVIS.

- .if .. , Made Prominent by His Monroe Doctrine Resolution. The,resolution fathered by Senator C. K. Davis, of Minnesota, to extend the workings of the Monroe doctrine beyond

O K. DAVIS.

is said to be a candidate for the Itepubllcan nomination for the Presidency. Masked robl>ers held up four passengers in the FOjla City, Neb., depot, relieved them of their valuables and then escaped.

the mainland of this continent so as to include- all the islands adjacent thereto, makes the originator \ a marked man these days. The bill goes mnch farther than the President intended in his recent message on, Venezuela and will be vetoed should it reach the Whit# 7 House. The author

TALENTS OF THE

Famous in Finance, Philosophy, Med* {.clue, aridMualc. ~ Soneone has been at the pfilnd recent* Iy to make an analysis of tie characteristics of (more than thirty thousand prominent men of modern times with K special reference to the Jewish race. ‘The results are curious anj interesting. They bear testimony also to the Remarkable versatility and adaptability of the Jewish people and their tenacity of purpose, even under the most ad* verwj conditions. “ Although Moses, the greatestj^.lawgivers! gnd Joshua, one of the I '-most brilliant and successful generals, were of the Jewish race, in naodem tlmes the Jews are less distinguished than men of other creeds generally as statesmen and soldiers. They have no distinction whatever as agriculturists, engravers, sailors and explorers. Their greatest service to the world has beeuaecomplishedln capacity of actors, doctors, financiers, metaphysicians, musicians, poets and philosophers. In all these lines of human thought and endeavor they have contributed many illustrious, immortal names. Astronomical science has no brighter name upon its roll than Herschel, the Jew, and mathematics, boasts no greater service than that which it received at the haods-of Jacobi Cremona. In biology also the once despised Hebrew has made his mark. Bernstein. Re-' inak, Rosenthal and Valentine have done large service as physiologists; Cohnlieim, Hirsch, Liebreieh, Loinbroso and Troube as pathologists will, perhaps, be recognized, while F. Cohn . is, perhaps, the third greatest botanist In Germany to-day. But it is in the realm of music that the genius of the Jew has had its largest development and accomplished tlio most brilliant and original results. One has only tp think of the wonderful achievements of such masters of the art. divine as Mendelssohn, Meyerbeer and Rubinstein, to say nothing of Mo- : scheles and Haley, to realize how poor the world would be had not these men of the Jewish race lived and wrought as they did. Surely the mantle of David, the poet king of Israel and the great master of the sacred song, has fallen on not One, but many, oif hto: descendants in these later days.—Jacksonville Metropolis. ;

“Dreams! Dreams!”

Soon after Disraeli had quitted tlio active arena of the House of Commons for the “gilded mausoleum” of tlio House of Lords he was visited at his house by his friend, Lord Gower. The two men sat by the fire in the grate, and the ex-Premler talked of his own political career. At last he ceased talking, and gazing abstractedly Into the burning coals, muttered: “Dreams! dreams!” The mournful, half-audible exclamation is suggestive. Apparently !! Indicated that he who had foh long, laborious years devoted himself to his country found in that fact no solid satisfaction. Is that the usual fate of retired statesmen ?

The incident is quoted by Mr. Tuelc- 1 erinan as a thought-provoking addition to his account of an Interview with William 11. Seward, puWished in.!‘Personal Recollections of Notable People.’’ While Mr. Seward, in 1872, was suffering from paralysis at his liome In Auburn, New York, Mr. Tuckerman went out of his way to pay his respects to the veteran statesman. He fotfful, him unable to use bis arms and legi, but with his mental faculties unimpaired. Foy the two days the guest enjoyed the statesman’s hospitality ho was entertained with reminiscences and anecdotes. . -When he was departing Mr. Sewar.l took him aside and said: ‘-Now tell me what I can do for you. If I possess any influence with the present administration, 1 am at your service.” Sir. Tuckerman replied that the only service he could do for him was to get better health at Ills earliest convenience, and to Tet the world hear from him occasionally. j • ..t. ■ ,‘j “Do you mean to say,” asked Mr. Seward, “that you came out of your way to visit a broken-down old man 11 ko me without a single Interested juaUve, beyond that of seeing me?” He noticed that his guest was annoyed by the implication, and added, with emotion: “I do not have .many such visitors fiowadhys.” Those last words lingered In the guest’s ears. “Was his,” he asked himself, “no exception to tlio fate that too often overtakes the retired statesman?”

Sealing No Longer Pays.

Although the Sealers’ Association of Vancouver-Bussed a unanimous resolution a few weeks, ago not to send out any sealing schooners until next August, nearly all the vessels are trow fitting out td start on! a cruise as is customary at this time. Only one schooner made expenses last year, hut hll are going to try it again this year. It was stated some : weeks ago that most of the San Francisco 'sealing . schooners had actually gone Into other business, some being at that time .outward bound with general cargoes for southern ports, while others were fitting out to go otter hunting. ■ 1 •*-*' J

The Longest Lived Animals.

It Is generally agreed among naturalists that the tortoise is the longest lived or all animals. There are many Instances of them attaining she extraordinary age of 280 years, while one Is actually mentioned as reaching the unparalleled age of 405 years. Notwithstanding these examples, which, of course, are exceptionally rare, tho ordinary tortoise oniy Uvea, on an average, from 100 to 150 years.

Coopers' Wages.

Coopers in England receive S7.GO per week; in Gennany, $3.97; and In New South Wales, $12.90. '