Rensselaer Standard, Volume 1, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 June 1879 — Page 1

Hxe -StaxLd-ard-BtLIABIt HBPVBLICJLX, /—Published Every* Saturday,— —BY—MEBVIN O. CIBBEL TEJ2 1XB: One copy, one Year H “ alx months - —• 2” three monttu .. ..——— » Omen:—ln] LeopoXl'e Htone Building, np stain, rear room.

1 1 TO THE FIRST FLY OF I 1879. V . Dance on my nose with your tickling feet. Bine bottle fly! Sing in my ears with your bunx to greet Me, m I HeYon will seek me oat in my dark retreat, With an eager seal that no screen can beat, And I try to slap yon clear in the sweet, . . MweePby and by. , I hav’nt seen you since ’seventy-eight, Little house fly; . . And I see you now with the bitterest hate You can defy. V Oh, how I hate you nobody knows, Author of half my summer woes, Uh, bow I prayed that you might be froze, Villainous fly! All through the winter you did not freeze, Not much, Mary Anh M ; ■ Now all the summer you'll do as you please, That la your plan. - When, in warm afternoons we would sleep, Near us your wakefulest vigils you’ll keep; Precious is sleeping, but waking Is cheap; Sleep, man, if you can. Oh, bow I wish that my two broad hands, Spread left and right, * Mtreb-hcd from the poles to Equators luinds, i tilanta of might. some summer day in my wrath I would rise, Sweepingall space with my hands of size; And smash all the uncounted millions of flies Clear out of sight. . • * •Vain are my wishes: oh, little house fly, You’re hurd to smash; Strong men may swear ami women may cry. •nothing their gnash. But Into the house your friends you’ll lug, You’ll bathe your feet in the syrup jug, .And your eares you’ll dniwu in the baby’s "dig, Cheeky and brash. ’ • I Still, precious lessons, dear little nou& fly, You to me, ’ » Hated or loved, you tell me that I Happy may be. C Why should I care, whpn i tickle a nose, Whether its owner’s <®n<Sict shows t Thai he likes it or liatas it; Just so it goes Pleasant to me? V. i This line should read “Gnashing their ieefh,” but a little |>oetlc license was necessary to bring in the rhyme. —{Burlington Hawkeye.

TURNED FROM THE DOOR.

“No tramps here,” sakl I; and shut the door in his face, I did. The wind blew so I could hardly do it, and the sleet was beating on the panes, and the I are trees were groaning and moaning as if they suffered in the storm. "Na tramps here; I’m a lone woman, and I, am afraid of’em.” . „ \ ' Then the man I hadn’t seen yet, for the dark, went away from the door. < 'hamp, champ, champ, qme the man lack again, and knocked on the door—i knocked not half so loud as he did before— and I opened it, hot-and angry. This time I saw his sac pale ghost nf a sac yellow-brown hair, propped close, and great, staring blue eyes, and he nut his hand against the door and held it open. "How near is the next house, ma’am?” said be. ; “Three miles or more,” said I. • “No,” said I; “no drinks to be got there; it is Miss Mitten’s, and she’s as set agin tramps as I am.’ ( “I don’t wan’t drink,” said the man, “•though Ido want food. You needn’t be afraid to let me in, ma’m. I’ve been Iwounded, and am not able to Walk far, and my clothes are thin, and Mt’s bitter cokL I’ve been trying toget to my parents at Green bank, where I can rest till I’m better; and all my money was stolen from me three days ago. You needn’t be afraid; let me lie just before the tire, and only give me a crust, to keep me from starving, and the Lord will bless you for it.”

And then he looked at me with his mild blue eyes in a way that would have made me do it if it hadn’t been I’d seen so much of these impostors. The war was just over, and every lieggar that came along said he was a soldier traveling, ami had been wounded and robbed. One that 1 had l»een foolish enough to help,’ limped away out of sight as he thought, and tli<<p—for I was at the garret window—shouldered his crutches and tranq>ed with the strongest. “No doubt your pocket is fidl of money,” said L “ami you only want a chance to rob and murder me. Go away with you!” Drusilla, that’s my piece, was baking cakes in the kitchen. Ju»t then she came to the door and motioned with her mouth: “Dolet him stay,auntie;” and if I hadn’t had gtswi sense 1 might, but I knew better than a chick of 16. “Go away with you!” says I, louder than before. “I won’t have tills any longer.” And he gave a kind of a groan, and took his hand from the latch, and went champ, champ, through the frozen snow again; and I thought him gone, when there was once more, hardly with a knock at all—a faint touch, like a child’s now.

And when F opened the door again, he came quite in, and stood leaning on his cane, pale as a ghost, his eyes bigger than ever. - “Weil, of all impudence!'* said I. He looked at me, and he sail: J “Madam. F have a mother at Green lank. I won’t to live to see her. 1 shall not if I try to go any further to night s ** | “They all want tosee their mothers,” and just then it came to my mind that I hoped that my son Charlie, who had been a real soldier, an officer he had come to be, mind you, wanted to see his, and would soon. - “I have been wounded, as you see,” said he. “Don’t go a showing me your hurts,” said I; “they buy ’em, so they me. to go a begging with now. I read the papers, I tell" ye, ami I’m principled, and so is our clergyman, agin giving anything unless it’s through some well-organized society. Tramps are my abomination. And as to keeping you all night, you can’t expect that of decent folks—go!” Drusilla came to the door and said: “Let him stay, auntie,” with her lijie again, but I took no notice.» Bo he went, and this time he did not come back, and I sat down by the fire, ana smelt the baking cakes And the apples stewing, and the tea drawing on the kitchen stove, and I ought to have been very comfortable, but I wasn’t. Something seemed tugging at my heart all the time. I gave the fire a poke, and lit another candle to cheer myself up, and I went to my work-basket to get a sock I hail been knitting Charlie, as I went to get it, I saw something lying on the floor. I picked it up. It was an old tobacco pouch, ever so much like the one I gave Charlie with the fringe around it, and written on it in ink, “From C. F. to R H.;*’ and inside was a bit of tobacco, and an old pipe/and a letter, a rumpled old letter; and when I spread it out I saw on the top, my dear son.” I knew the beggar must have droped it, and my heart gave one thump,

THE RENSSELAER STANDARD.

VOL L

its though it had been turned into a hammer. . Perhaps the story was true and he had a mother. I shivered all over, and the fire and candles and the nice comfortable smells might have been at all. I was cold and wretched. And over and over again had I to say to myself what I heard our pastor say often: “Never give Anything to chance beggars, my dear friends; always bestow you alms on worthy persons, through well organized societies,” before I could get a bit of comfort. And what an old fool I was to cry, I thought when, I found my cheeks wet.

But I did not cry long, for, as I sat there, dash and and crash and Jingle came a sleigh over the road, and it stopped at our gate, and I heard by Charlie’s voice crying, “Halloa, mother!” And out I went to the door, and had him in my arms—my great, tall, handsome brown son. And there he was in his uniform, with his pretty shoulderstra]is, and as hearty as if he had never been through any hardships. He had to leave me to put the horse up, and then I hail by the fire my own son. And Drusilla, who had been upstairs and had been crying—why, I wp'nder? —came down in a flutter —for they were like brother and sister—and he kissed her and she kissed him, and then away she went to set xhe table, and the nice hot things smoked on a cloth as white as snow; and how Charlie enjoyed them! feeling come over me, and I knew I turned pale; for Drusilla said, “What is the matter, Aunt Fairfax?”

‘ I said nothing; but it was this; Kind like the ghost of a step, going champ, champ, over the frozen snow: kind o’ like the ghoat of a voice saying: “Let me lie on the floor before your Are, and give me any kind of a crust;” kind o’ like some that had a mother down on the wintry road, and freezing and starving to death these. This is what it was. Jiut I put it away, and only thought of Charlie. We drew up together by the fire when the tea was done, and he told us things about the war I never heard before—how the soldiers suffered, and what weary marches and short rations they sometimes had. And then he told me his life had been in danger; how he had been set upon by the foe and been badly wounded; and how, at the risk of his own life, a fellow soldier had saved him, and carried him away, fighting his path back to camp. “I would never see you but for him,.’ says Charlie. “And if there’sja man on earth I love, it’s Rob Hadaway—the dearest, best fellow! We've shared each other’s rations and drank from the same canteen many and many a time; and if I had a brother I couldn’t think more of him.” “Why didn’t you bring him home to see your mother, Charles?” said I. “Why, I’d love him too, and anything I could do for him, for the man who saved my boy’s life, couldn’t be enough. Send for him, Charlie.” But Charley shook his head and covered bls face with his hands. “Mother, said he, “I don’t know whether Rob Hadaway is alive or dead to-day. While I was still in the ranks he was taken prisoner. And military prisons are poor places to live in, mother. I’d give my right hand to be able to do him any good;. but I can find no trace of him. And he has a mother, too, and she is so fond of him! She lives at Greenbank —poor old lady. My dear, g«xxl, noble Rob, the preserver of my life. And I saw Charley was nearly i»>KNot to let us see the tears he got up and went to the’ mantle-piece. I did not look around until I heard a cry: “Great heaven ! what is it?” And I turned, and Charlie had the tobacco-pouch the man had dropped, in his hand. “Where did this come, from?” “I feel as though I hail seen a ghost. I gave this to Bob Hadaway the day he saved me. We soldiers had not much to give, you know, and he vowed never to part with it while he lived. How did it come here, mother?”

And I fell back in my chair, white and cold; said 1“ “A wandering tramp left it here. Never your Rob, my dear, never your Rob. He must have been an imposter, I. wouldn’t have turned away a person really in want. Oh, no, no: it’s another pouch, child, or he stole it. A tall fellow with blue eyes and yellow brown hair; wounded, he said, and going to his mother at Greenbank. Not your Rob.” And Charley stood staring at me with clenched hands; and said he: “It was my dear old Rob, wounded and starving! my Rob who saved my life, and von have driven him out ' i such a night as this, my mother. ..(y mother, to use Rob so!” “Condemn me, Charley,” said I, “cmdeinn me if you like; I am afraid (led will. Three times he came back; i.tree/times he asked for only a crust ml place to lie, and I drove him .. »• ajf—l, I—and he’s lying in the road now; Oh! if I had only known!’’ And Charley caught up his hat. • I’ll find him if he’s alive,” said he. “Oh, Rob, my dear friend.” Atid then—rl never saw the girl in such taking. Down went Drusilla on her, knees, as if she was spying her prayers, and says: “Thank God, I dared to do it!” And says she to me: “Oh, aunt, I have been trembling with fright, not knowing what you’d sayjto me. I took him in the kitchen way. I couldn’t see him go faint and hungry, and wounded, and I put him in the spare chamber over the parlor, and-1 have been so frightened all the while.”

“The Lord bless you, Drusilla,” sal 1 Charley. “Amen,” said L And she, getting bolder, went on: “And I took him some hot short cakes and apple sass and tea,” says she, “and I took him a candle, and a hot brick for his feet, and I told him to go to bed in the best chamber, Aunt' Fairfax, with the white counterpane and all, and I locked him in ana put the key in my pocket, and I told him that he should nave one night’s rest, and that no one should turn him out unless they walked over my dead body.” Drusilla said it like an actress in a tragedy, and went off into hysterics the moment the words were out of her mouth. She’d been expecting to lie half murdered, you know, and the girl was 16, always before minded me as if I was her mother. , Never was there any old sinner so happy as I was that night, so thankful

RUNSRELATCR, INDIANA. SATURDAY, JUNE 28, 1879.

to the good Lord; and it would have done your heart good if you had gone to see the two meet in the morning— Charley and his friend Bob. And Charley, who got so well and a mother who was not so poor either, helped-Rob into business. And he got well over his wounds at last and grew as handsome as a picture, and to-day week he is going to marry Drusilla. “I’d give anything I have,” said I, “and I won’t refuse you even Drusilla,” when he asked me, told me that he loved her ever since she was so kind to him on the night I’ve told you of. And Charley is to stand up with him and I am to give Drusilla away, and Rob’s sister from Greenbank is to be bridesmaid, and I have a guess that some day Charley will bring her home to me in Drusilla’s place. I don’L-drive beggars from the doer now as I used, and no doubt I’m imposed upon; but this is what Isay: “Better be imposed upon always than to be cruel to one who really needs help.” And I’ve read my Bible betterof late, and I know who says: “Even as you have done it unto the least of these ye have done ft unto me.”

A New View of the First Settlers.

The picturesque lines ‘ of Mrs. Hemans about the dashing waves breaking high on a rock-bound and stem coast were not applicable to the placid waters of the classic Jeems and the sunny shores of the Carolinas. Our Illustrious ancestors, in crossing the Atlantic, were, no doubt, animated by the noble nuqioße of having a good time. Theirmedical advisers told them they wanted a change of air, and that they mium’t work too much with their brains. Life was heavy in Europe. There wasn’t such a Paris then as there is now. This continent contained the fatness of the ages In its soil. Virginia was a vast park filled with red deer The rivers were flush with fish, the air was full of canvas-1 ricked ducks and houey-bees, the bays were paved with oysters, the soft-shelled crabs tickled the sea-weed, and the point clams bored the sands, while the diamondback terrapin ambled away over the salt meadows. The fragrant sassafras tree gave its buds and roots to make tea delicious as the beverage of the celestials —and in the deep woods were autumnal rains of nuts on the tinted leaves—walnuts, hickory nuts, beech nuts, aud butternuts —and the papaws and persimmons, richer than Spanish figs, grew mellow and yellow in the white frosts, and fattened the succulent opossum—a providential preparation to soften the asperities of life for the approaching African. Talk of the hardships of the pioneers! They had a variety of sea-food and forest game that would have confounded the old Romans. They lived on the cream of the universe, and licked it up to the utmost of their highly-cultivated capacity. _

The Eruption of Mount AEtna.

There have been seventy-eight eruptions of the volcano .Etna since the days of Pythagoras. The first recorded eruption occurred in the seventh century B. C., and eleven notable eruptions occurred between that date and the beginning of the Christian era. The most disastrous of the later eruptions were those of 1169, 1669, 1693, and 1852. In 1169 the city of Catania was destroyed by an earthquake incident to the eruption, and 15,000 lives were lost. In 1669 the lava destroyed twenty towns and villages, and flowed in a stream from two to three miles wide until it poured into the sea. Reaching the walls of- Catania, one stream of lava poured over- the wall, sixty feet high, into the city a fiery cascade of destruction. When the main current reached the sea the stream of lava was 600 yards broad and forty feet deep. The country for sixty miles around was covered with sand and ashes thrown from the craters. In 1693 fifty cities and towns were destroyed, and nearly 100,000 people lost their lives. The last eruption occurred in 1865, when seven new craters were formed on the northeast side of the mountain. The present eruption has beeu signalized by the opening of three new craters on the northern slope, and streams of lava are flowing down the western slope. The volcano, situated on the eastern seaboard of Sicily, has a circumference of ninety-one miles at the base, and covers an area of 480 square miles. There are on the mountain two cities and sixty-three towns and villages, and the population of the fertile districts is about 300,000. The cultivated region is about two miles wide on the north, east, and west, and nine or ten miles wide on the south. The main or great crater in the center is 10,867 feet above the level of the sea. but there have been hundreds of other openings within a radius of ten miles. In 1669 the lava flowed down the southern slope, or through the most populous valleys. The movement was rapid at first, but as the lava gradually cooled the progress was very slow. In twenty days the current moved thirteen miles. During the last twentythree days of its course it moved only two miles. Many of the lava currents cool without doing any damage, or before they reach the cultivated districts. In the eruption now in progress, the craters are near Randazzo, or near the foot of the mountain on the northern slope. The lava current is reportea as less than one hundred yards wide, and has moved a distance of about four miles. Messina, which, it is stated, has suffered from showers of cinders, is forty-five miles northeast of Mount /Etna. As many of the eruptions ' have extended over a period of several months, the outburst mentioned in the dispatches may be the beginning of a disastrous period, or, like the eruption of 1865, it may result in comparatively little damage. Later dispatches will probably indicate more satisfactorily the course of the lava stre*m. The principal towns of the northwestern slope are Bronte, Maletto, and Randazzo.

The Complaint in a Curious Divorce Suit Dismissed.

A divorce, suit with some peculiar features was tried yesterday before Judge Donohue in the Supreme Court, Special Term. The plaintiff was Richard I. Aspinwall, a fashionably dressed man about thirty-three years old. The defendant, Helen C. Aspinwall, as she was called in the complaint, was a plump, pleasant-featured woihan, several years younger than the plaintiff. There was no dispute about the main facts of the case. In the spring of 1874 the plaintiff was boarding at the residence of the mother of Helen C. Smith, the defendant. One day the

party at the dinner-table grew merry' over the champagne, and Mr. Aspinwall proposed that Miss Smith and her sister should accompany him on a frolic. As they were passing a church on Ninth avenue and Eighty-third street, Mr. Aspinwall, seeing the clergyman, Mr. Oertel, at the door, stepped in and told him he wanted to be married. “But where is the bride?” asked the minister. “She’s outside,” was the answer; “I’ll go and get her.” He returned with the defendant and they were married. After this hasty ceremony the two continued to live in the same house, Mr. Aspinwall accompanying Mrs. Smith in several changes of Boarding places. Mr. Aspinwall had, however, cautioned the young ladies that the fact of the marriage should not be divulged, and the young bride continued to be known as Miss Helen Smith.

At Flushing, in the summer of 1875. Joseph L Frame became acquainted with the Smith family, grew attached to Miss Helen, proposed marriage to her and was accepted. They were married in the following spring. Mr. Aspinwall based the charges of adultery made in the divorce suit just begun against his alleged wife on the fact of this second marriage. The defendant’s answer was that the first marriage was illegal and void, having been procured by fraud on the part of the plaintiff, the defendant being ignorant that she was entering into a marriage contract.

The minister who performed the ceremony aud Mr. Aspinwall testified to the circumstances. The latter said that he might have been flushed with wine, but was not drunk. Mr. Frame, who was called as witness for the plaintiff, testified to his marriage to the defendant, and that he had since lived with her as her husband. On crossexamination he gave a conversatio that occurred between himself and Mr. Aspinwall in Flushing, soon after his proposal io the defendant. Mr. Aspinwall followed him to the door and said: “Nellie tells me you want to marry her. Is that so?” “Yes,” was the answer. “I suppose,” said the plaintiff, “you have heard of that little thing that happened between us?” Mr. Frame said that he had heard of it. “Well,” said Mr. Aspinwall, “there’s nothing in it—Nellie is as pure as a flower.” When the plaintiff’s case was rested, a motion was made to dismiss the complaint on the grounds that the previous marriage was not valid, and that if there had been adultery in the second marriage the plaintiff was barred from pleading it because it was with his connivance. The motion to dismiss was granted.—[New York Tribune.

A Sweet Scene.

The June day was just dying—dying of the very ecstacy of living. Gentle twilight was ministering tenderly at her death-bed. Away to the west the heavens were lit up for her coming. Over Fourth • street a sweet peace had settled. The hum of the city sounded faint and far. The houses sat back cool and queenly among the trees. A few prettily dressed children dotted the vividly green grass. The matrons sat calmly in the doorways. Near by lounged their lords with book or paper. Between the snowy curtains of a window wa*rlhe bright face of a maiden looking out upon the scene, herself the fairest part of it all. Out on the lawn a man with hose in hand was lazily sprinkling the street. The girl glided through the window, and smiling and blushing she took the hose half doubtingly from him. Ah, what a picture she made, clad in something likp woven moo nlight or soda-water foam, to which her shapely shoulders ana arms len t a rosy glow; with eyes sparklingand lips half parted in childish pleasure, one little foot advanced before the other and peeping from under her caressing skirts, and two dear, dainty hands clasping firmly the happy hose. Aye, indeed, what a picture! No need to go to leafy country and pastoral hill for poetic inspiration. Even then we felt the stirring of higher things within us. Some beautiful poem, probably the Great Effort of our Life, was about to be born, and perhaps it would have“bee» born if the young lady hadn’t—accidentally we hope — turned the nozzle in our direction and squirted all the starch out of the bosom of our last clean shirt.—[Courier-Jour-nal. I

The idea of looking upon the monster vice in its own hideous mien was not original with Dr. Talmage. Archbishop Hawley in England went with Mrs. Fry in her visits to Newgate; Dr. Chalmers saw Glasgow by night very much as Dr. Talmage saw York; the late famous Dr. Guthrie, of Edinburgh, the greatest preacher of the Free Kirk, studied life in the great cities in the same way, and even Dr. Cuyler visited a Chinese theatre in San Francisco, and some say in a disguise of a Spartan virgin looked in amazement upon the can-can and the Spanish waltz in a New York theatre. Perhaps Talmage is being tried by his brethren because he has been behind the scenes and seen more wonders than they have. Talmage lives in a four-story, corner, brownstone house, with a cupola oii the top. He has his study in the fourth story, where fie is a recluse from the whole world. He amuses himself by exercising his wind power on a cornet. (Arbuckle being his teacher, and he has learned a few tunes. He tries to keep his home full of mirth, and his wild laughter rings through his dwelling. He keeps a short, fat negro, as sleek and Diack as a Nubian slave, whose natural minstrelsy affords much fun to the eccentric pastor. —[St. Louis Republican Letter.

Poppy Culture.

The way the opium flower is cultivatted on the high tablej lands of Asia Minor, is thus described in the Denier Tribune by an old resident of that country: In the spring, as soon as the snow leaves the ground at the commencement pf April, the ground is scratched ovef a second time, but across the previous scratching in the fall, and then the clods are crushed by spiked heavy wooden rollers, in order to pulverize the ground. Then the seed is cast in like wheat, and a kind of a rake,~ madeof thorn bushes, weighted with stones, is passed over the field in order to cover the seed. Nothing more is required. In the middle of Junethe flowers begin to appear, and toward the end of June the poppy heads have grown their full size, and the seed grains formed. The poppy heads ate filled with a milk-like, bitter juice

I This forms the opium. Before the seeds commence to ripen, and the juice dries up, the opium is gathered. This is done by making in the afternoon, after the great heat has passed away, a alight incision on the lower part of the poppy heads. In the night juice oozes out of the incision, and becomes sticky and of brownish color, by absorbing oxygen. Every day in the morning, shortly after sunrise, and after the drying up of the dew, the opium is scratched off the poppy heads. This is mostly children’s and women’s work. After the poppy heads give out no more juice, they are left tn ripen, and after being quite dry are broken off the stems, thrashed, and the seed separated. Great care must be taken in breaking off the heads of the stems, as by careless handling all the seed grains, or at least a great part of them, are spilt. This seed is not fit for sowing, but furnishes very fine oil, and is pounded up into a paste in a mortar, and mixed with honey or white molasses —an excellent addition to many kinds of cakes and pastry.

No Hiding in Paris.

Paris Letter, San Francisco Chronicle. The population, floating or permanent of every arrondisEQmentoi ward in Paris is counted officially every month. Be your abode at hotel, boarding-house, or Erivate within forty-eight ours you are required to sign a register, giving your name, age. occupation, and former residence. This, within the Seriod mentioned, is copied by an ofcial ever traveling from house to house with a big blue book under his arm. The register gives, also, the leading characteristics of your personal appearance. Penalty attaches itself to lost or landlord who fails to get and Uve to the official such registration of lis guests. There are no unmarked skulking holes in Paris. Every house, .every room is known, and under police surveillance. Every stranger is known and described at police headquarters within a few days of his arrival. Once within the walls of Paris, and historically, so to speak, your identity is always there. In case of injury to any person the sufferer is not dependent on the nearest drug store for a temporary hospital, as with us. In every arrondissement may be seen the prominent sign, “Assistance for the Wounded or the Asphyxiated or Poisened.” Above always hangs the official try-color. I say “official,” because a certain slender prolongation of the flagstaff denotes that the establishment is under Government supervision, and no private party may adopt this fashion. The French flag is not flunghigglety-piggle-ty to the breeze like the stars and stripes, so that none can determine whether it indicates a United States Government station or a beer saloon.

A Sad, Sweet Romance.

Courier-Journal. A sad, sweet romance comes from Darmstadt. They were a young and pretty couple whose glory and misfortune it was to love each other. Cruel Fate frowned gloomily upon them. The total eclipse of despair darkened the newly-dawned day of their love. Life apart was undesirable; life together was impossible. And so they went out into the thick woods, dusky and dark, where the only sound that broke the oppressive silence was the occasional note of the tree-frog, or the weird wail of the rain crow. In the heart of this ghostly forest they found a lonely tarn. On its banks they tightly tied themselves together. Then, taking a last pathetic look into each other’s eyes, and clinging, lip to lip, and heart to heart, for the last, last time, they plunged the slimy pool. Bui, somehow, to die in the arms of love didn’t feel as nice to the young man as he thought it would. The water was uncomfortably chilly, and besides it was getting into the ears and eyes and mouth. He didn’t like it. He freed himself from his companion, floundered out and left her to drown, although she sought him pitifully to save her. The young gentleman is now serving out a sentence of three years and nine months’ imprisonment for the part he played in the affair. 1

How He Won All Her Money.

Once there was a young man who married a young woman, and she was rich aud he was poor, and it made him sad to think of it. One day she told him damaging stones about some of her neighbors that she had heard at a tea-fight, and he listened and through, and very soon he saw a way out of nis poverty, for his wife believed the tales she had heard at the tea-fight. After she had finished the stories, he said: “I will go you five to twenty there is not one word of truth in that you have just told me,” —for he did not know how sure his game was, so he wanted odds. And she pitying his folly, said. “It’s a whach.” and they investigated the stories and found them false, so he won. And they continued in tliis sinful practice of betting on the tn/th or falsity of town gossip, in thbfc&me in which they started out. and four orders years had not turned the cortiet ere he had all her wealth, and she soyne valuable experience.

The Longest Stream in the World not Navigable.

The Dakota river, vulgarly known as “Jim” river, is a stream worthy of more more than passing notice. Geographical writers have heretofore paid little attention to this great watercourse with its commonplace nickname, mostly, we presume, because they have never had their attention directed to the fact that it is the longest river in the world not capable of being navigated in any of its parts. Having directed attention to this striking feature of its physical make-up, an explanation of how it acquired its homely pseudonym may prove of interest. The early French traders and missionaries who came this way gave it its original appellation; and among them it was known as the River aux Jacques. This was afterward anglicized to plain James river, and speedily vulgarized into the more repugnant title of Jim river. Congress, in 1861, took the subject in hand, having, perhaps, a vague idea of the part which this extensive stream is to take In the future of the new west, and decreed that “it shall be hereafter called the Dakota river.” But Congressional enactments are not always strictly obeyed, and in this case there seems to be no disposition to accord to the Dakota its legal cognomen. It is known as the Jim, is spoken of as tile Jim, and printed the Jim oftener than any

other way. But there is not much of anything in a name. The river is there and it will doubtless flow on forever, whether it be known as the Dakota, the James or plain Jim. We have stated thatritisthe longest stream in the world which cannot be navigated in any portion by steam vessels. This we believe to be the fact. It rises near latitude 48, and traverses 525 miles of country, It is an exceeding crooked stream, constantly doubling upon itself, and crossing and winding along its prairie bed. Though we have no official measurement of its crooks and curves, its actual length cannot be less than 1,000 miles. Throughout a large portion of its length it maintains a nearly uniform depth and breadth, and moves with a sluggish current. These are a few of the characteristics of the Dakota river, which waters a valleyjof incomparable native richness. Settlers are now flocking to its banks, and hi a year or two every quarter section of the valley will be occupied and worked.

Baldwin’s Bonanza.

E. J. Baldwin, everywhere known as Lucky Baldwin, worked on his father’s farm when young, in Indiana. After twenty-five years’ trial at various pursuits he drifted into the bonanza district, Navada, and in a few years, by well-judged ventures in mining stocks, realized some millions. He became known by building “the Baldwin,” now so favorably known as a popular house on Market street, San Francisco, 275 by 210 feet. Included in the structure is Baldwin’s theatre. The whole, including furniture, cost $3,000,000. Traveling through Los Angelos county he fancied and bought a Spanish grant of 60,000 acres of bountifully watered land, and laid out in princely style.! Of this 13,000 acres are moist bottom land, needing no irrigation. Outside of this he has artificially irrigated most of the {iroperty by means of six miles of eight non pipe, and beautiful lakes are formed here and there, with rustic bridges and other adornments. Some fifty rustic cottages are the homes of his army of working people. All sorts of farm buildings are tastefully arranged, and flowing artesian springs abound, of purest water. The orchard has 1,200 acres, with 48,000 orange and lemon trees, 2,000 almonds, 500 Italian chestnuts, eighty acres of English walnuts. 500 acres of choice grapes,innumerable apples, pears, plums,peaches and figs. He has 60,000 eucalyptus trees of twenty-seven varieties and 3,000 of the graceful pepper trees, our most ornate evergreen and drooping variety, bearing profusion of pepperlooking spice berries. A broad avenue is laid out, three miles long by 120 feet wide, lined on each side with eucalyptus trees. In the center is a row of pepper trees, making a grateful shade in that sunny climate, and the air is cooled by innumerable fountains. Soon a mansion in keeping with the surroundings will be erected on a rising knoll overlooking this fairyland, and some hundred tenantry, with gardens and cultivating fields, will enrich the landscape and make this charmed spot a paradise, where the proprietor can pass his declining years in peaceful contemplation of the romance of his creation.—[San Francisco letter to Baltimore Sun.

Marriage Among the Australians.

In Australia, as elsewhere, a tie of more or less permanence and acknowledged validity binds men to their partners. Marriage, again, is surrounded, as among civilized people, Ly laws of “forbidden degrees,” which are very curious, very little understood, and which in many ways resemble, while in others they seem to differ from, the laws of other undeveloped peoples. Wives are chiefly taken by exchange. The dominant male of a group—father, eldest brother or uncle —has the customary right of swapping away the young women of the group in exchange for other young women whom it is lawful for him to marry. It Is clear that old men with families have the best chance of getting mote wives, while young men with no sisters are likely to remain bachelors. If this system worked itself out, e&h tribe would consist of a few overgrown harems and a set of wild bachelors. As it happens, young men and women revolt against the bld, and voluntary elopements or marriages by capture are common. The course of true love runs anything but smooth. The lover is exposed to the, “ordeal of spears,!’ which are hurled at him by the relatives of the lady. The runaway bride is beaten, perhaps her feet are speared, to prevent her from running away again. If a young pair are courageous and true to each other, however, the sympathy of the group usually comes round to them, and, they enter on peaceful married lif<s/ It has been said that the old men sometimes give wives to tho young, who thus “take stock,” as the ancient Irish said, and become, in a way, the vassals of the old fellows. Society in Australia is not sufficiently advanced for it; but, according to some authorities a very Australian things prevails in Rural Russia.—[Saturday

Sensational Literature.

A New York judge, recently interviewed, traces a great deal of the current crime to the influence of flashy and sensational story papers, of which it.is said that over twenty-five are published in New York Citv with a circulation of over 375,000. ’This does not include the dime novels, cheap*song books, et id omne genus, which are turned out by the ton and are equally unhealthful for the morals of the young. These papers give wrong ideas of life in their enticing stories. The hero is usually a man who would not stand much of a chance in a criminal court. He always goes armed, sWears like a pirate, makes unbounded use of his fists, and whips out his pistol or dirk at the least provocation. Human life is regarded as about the cheapest thing in the market, and his disregard for authority, either of parents or the law, is treated as a thing very heroic and grand. The judge says if there is any Justification for a censorship of the press it would certainly find warrant In the existence of such publications. Parents and teachers need to watch carefully and continuously for this pernicinws literature.—[Bpringfield Union.

Landor: “The damps of Autumn sink into the leaves and prepare them for the necessity of their foil; and thus insensibly are we, as years close round us, detached from our tenacity of life by the gentle pressure’of recorded sorrow.”

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NO . 2.

My grandfather’s breath was too strong for * the house, So he slept ninety years In the shed; It was stronger by far than the old man him ’ self— At least that’s what grandmother said It was got on the mom when he swallowed his first horn: You could smell It as you passed by his side; But it stopped short, never te smell again, When the old man died. * ’ Ninety years he kept swimming on \ Tick, tick, tick, tick; His breath fairly killing from ’ , This tick, tick, tick, tick. But It’s stoppled now, let us thank heaven, And the old man’s dead. • —{“Em” In Inter Ocean. Iff. . ’ .11 “I■’ ’ i

A double house, with two families, is rent in twain. ? f All jokes on the Rev. Joe Cook we haug on the joke hook until wanted. A saw for the times: “No man should live beyond the means of his creditors.” A young lady in Utica is so refined that she invariably alludes to the Spitz as a “cuspidore dog.” Rain is real, rain Is earnest; We would not stop it, 11 we could; Dust thou art, to dust returnest, Was surely written of thomud. The injurious effect of “forty-rod whisky,” we.presume it is attributable to the fact that forty rods make one rude. ' A young lady was heard to remark a day or two ago, “Why, I haven’t had a woolen hoe on my limb this winter.” That’s culchah. Two men went down the street this afternoon. One slipped and fell, and the -other entered an eating-house. One got shaked bad and the other got baked shad. The woman who put her tongue to a hot flat iron to see if it was hot. now sits calmly and sees her husband pull off his dirty boots on the parlor carpet without a word of dissent. How much more bitter than wormwood and gall it is, when you attempt to k—that is to press your girl’s head close to your own, to be jabbed in the ear by the pin that holds her hat on. A Southerner says, “Now look yar!” A New Englander says, “Now yew, say!” A New Yorker chips it, “Now say!” A.Hoosier puts 11, ‘‘Nowlookee here!” An Englisher get it, “I say, aw!”

A damsel applied for a place behind a counter. “What clerical experience have you?” asked the man of dry goods. “Very little,” she said with a blush, “for I only joined the church last week.” A bright boy was walking along the street with his mother, ana, observing a man with a peculiar hitch in his gait approaching, he drolly exclaimed, “Look, mamma! See how that poor man stutters with his feet.” Butcher—“ Come. John, be lively, now; break the bones in Mr. Williamson’s chops, and put Mr. Smith’s ribs in the basket for him.” John (briskly) —“All right, sir; just as soon as I’ve sawed off Mrs. Murphy’s leg.” “What a roguh fellow thatfSniggins is!” petulantly exclaimed the Hopedale girl after a struggle with the aforesaid Sniggins. “He nearly smothered me!” “And did you kiss him for his smother?” asked the other miss, naively. “When I was a boy,” said a very prosy, long-winded orator to his friend, “I used to talk in my sleep.” “And now,” said bls friend, “you sleep in your talk.” But sonehow that didn’t seem to be just exactly the point the orator was going to make. If the young man who went to call on a girl on Fourth street last Sunday night, but who suddenly left the front door and shot out of the yard, with a dog attached to the dome of his trousers, will return the dog, a reward of $5 will be paid by the girl’s father, and no questions asked. An Irish waiter at a Christmas gathering complimented a turkey in the following manner: “Faith, it’s not six hours since that turkey was walking around his real estate with hands in hits pockets, never dhrammg what a purty invitashun he’d liave to jine yees gintieman at dinner. A popular concert singer, advertised to participate in an entertainment in a Missouri village, excused her absence on the ground of having a severe cold in the head, and the next day received the following from an admirer: “This is gousegreze; melt it rub on the bridge of yore noze until kured. I luv you to distraxshun.” When a man enters a church during the singing of a hymn, and sit down to hear the sermon, only to see the contribution box passed around and find that the services are just over, his feelings are only equalled by the man who faffs asleep in his pew, and in a di'eamy state calls to the minister to “set ’em up again.” An hour passed on, the Turk awoke, And to a blear-eyed minion spoke— Between the whiffs of opium smoke: “What, ho! thou Oriental bloke, Repeat the latest circus joke.” Shrewd answer made the caitiff, for He knew the fate that was in store If he retailed an ancient joke: So deftly pulling down his vest, He bent, with -salaam low, and said: “Great Pacha, all the fools are dead ' \ Except the knave, who bows nis head.”

Opium-Smoking in Japan.

The Japan Weekly Mail says: Matsumoto Bunkichl, the well-known momban at the race-course at Negishi. has been condemned to ten years’ penal servitude for lending room to Cninamen to smoke opium therein. The case was proved by several of the Kanagawa Ken policemen: and, further, the accused is said to have confessed his guilt at the Bluff police station. The sentence will appear to foreigners to be out of all proportion to the magnitude of the offense; but it was provided for by a law, the object and stern intention ot which is that opium shall not be allowed to be smoked by any subject of the empire, or any one amendable to its jurisdiction. The culprit in this case being a Japanese, has been treated with exemplary severity, with the view, probably, of deterring lany of his compatriots from following his example, and as a warning to those who indulge in similar practices to des at before they are discovered.

An Old-Timer.

CONDIMENTS.