Rensselaer Standard, Volume 1, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 November 1879 — Page 1

RELIABLY REPUBLIC Air. U BLISHED Ev I 1 "S SaTDRDA.T— —«T— . ■ MERVIN O. CIBSEL. TESH6: <mt copy, one Year-*. - “ »U months ® « •* three moathe. ® OrrfcK' In Lepold’* tMoae Building, op ktaint rear room.

COURAGE, FAIbT HEART. “Deer Cod, I em so wear* °f « ell, I f*in would re<t in# tor e little speee, U there no greet rock wbeie the shadows cast me down end hide my lace! “I work and strive, sore burdened and kainty and the nay is long. And the weak staff whereby m> steps are strong. -I shrink In terror from the en*ess task, , Iloote with horror on the barren land. And uk.w'ooly hopeless hearts can ask. The meaning of the days to understand. “Weary!" And who Is not That b ars life’s burdens faithfully? Trudge A Wronger wben yoor son ha* set Yon will have reached the spot Where you may rest. •- Afraid!” Afraid of what? What doe* earth hoM that can compare With Ood’s omnipotence! Trust Vo til* care, Make faith in him your staff— It will not bend. Poor soul! And don’t you know Without the work and strife and weary days You would not long for rest? These are Cod'S ways That win you from the life below • , Up to His rest. You “shrink!” O coward heart! You’ve but a day’s work in a day to do, The meaning of the days ,you’ll sometime know, Your task lies with each part, To do It well. , “Hopeless?" And heaven remains? I see. You are not .willing to be led. You would know why and where you go.and dread '• The trackless, barren plalps That lis bejjjond. 1 l 1 #*' hf Your weariness shows Just The measure oftheltelp you need. The way That’s hidden, the point at which yonr steps must stay, God’s care begin. Ro trust Aud lie krill lead.

JENISON’S BET.

By Rme Terry tUx>ke, When the widowCoe marriedJanson Carter she brought him no money at all; only a smail.stony farm in Noppit, that had been her father’s, and two wild bovs of 10 and 12 years growth. Jacß and Dan were hard subjects for a stepfather to rule and Jason Carter found his hands full. Naturally he was a quiet, gentle, persistent man; In his youth lie ran away to sea, and for fifteen yearti he bad been a common sailor, which had pretty w’ell . knocked the quiet out of and the preeisteJace in to him. In this time he hadfearned to swear, as a matter of /rourse, though he had .been strictly brought up, and went to church and Hun day school always. , •His father would have used the rod, hilt he also was spared the trouble, for both father and mother had died before Jason came back, and when he found they had goue' he never went back to Tolland, but, after he got tired of seagoing, took to peddling notions about the country, and at last married the widow Coe, aud settled down in Noppit. He had stopped swearing long ago, for under dear old Father Taylor’s teachings he had been converted between his last two voyages, and thouhg profanity had become a habit with him, •he had couquered it at last after years of patient endeavor, and now so gentle and pleasant and pious that Phelte Coe thought her last days would be her best days. He had come to . know the widow Coe from being an 9111 shipmate with her brother, John \Vires, who had also left sea faring, because he had iujured a knee, and became to lame to climb rigging; so he set up a small shot’ in Boston. where he sold tobacco, twine and other odds and ends, but he had been married aud had one son, called Jeuison. The boy was about the age of widow Coe’s youngest sou, for her brother had married soon after she did, and when . Jason Carter began the peddling business John Wires had told hint to stop when he went through to Bcrautou and see his sister. The children were small aud their father living when Jason first saw them, and they learned to look for “Uncle Jase ! ’ every spring and fall with delight, for he alwaj’3 brought them marbles, tops, candy, strings, and made them bows and kites, sure passports to a boy’s heart. So, when their poor, drunken father died, and the widow found herself without a penny, she moved over to Noppit, to live with her father; and, when he died, too, leaving her all he had —the farm from which he scratched a scanty living —and she found herself alone and helpless, she listened favorably to Jason Carter’s proposal, for he was as tired of his wandering life as she was of her loneliness, aud married him.

The boys were glad, for they loved him as they never loved their own father, and Jason was as good te them as if they were his owu, though a cer tain thrill of emotion shook him when his baby daughter came that had never troubled that worn old heart in any . emergence of Jack and Dau. But then Celia was* a girl; of course that made it different. Jason, when compared with his predecessor, was as mild and pleasant round the house as a spring day after a stormy winter. He became a useful and prominent member in the Noppit church, and never was heard to utter a C'ine or impatient word. Jack and loved him as healthy boys love .anything but mischief aud meats, and Phebe was entirely happy. True, they were poor; Jason had a few hundred dollars laid by, but the Noppit farm was too sterile to produce crop enough to support the family, so -ho laid out -his little capital, or part of it,- in a good breed of sheep, which fonnd abundant living among m ullelns, hardback, and JnickeTberry bushes, and proved in due time a profitable investment. For in those days dogs, the curse of New England, were by no means commqn in the country; there was no reason for keeping them, and farmers had money and mutton instead of hydrophobia and horrors. The wool sold well always and kdpt the family in socks, for Jason’s wife could spin and knit .with wonderful rapidity; the lambs he had not room to raise were sent to Hartford and sold t» the butchers, and now and then a fat old wether went to the meat-man’s cart in the shape of juicy qfuarters. But the glory of the flockWaSa bigfaced ram, who terrified maurauding boys and intruding vagabonds, and asked no better fun than to send some-

THE RENSSELAER STANDARD.

VOL I.

body heels over head whenever he had chance Jack and Ban had brought him up from lanabhood, but he was no longer a lamb, and of Ha painstaking education only one trait ataki by him, a distinct and angry recollection of the rod that had not been spared in his early and somewhat stupid youth. To the day of Billy’s death, a little atipk shaken before anything, would sehd him “head on” ait that luckless object, and the boys often amused themselves by climbing the pine rail fence aud dancing a small switch full in Billy’s sight against a big post, the result was sudden and severe to Billy, and he might have seriously injured himself if daddy (as the boys called Jason)had not found them at this sport one day and strictly forbidden it. Cruelty to animals was one of the few thingy that roused his choler and made him imperative. One summer Mrs. Carter received a letter from her brother askiDg her to take his boys a few months; his wife was so feeble that she was going home to her father’s with the baby and a young child, and’ Jenison could not gn with her for want of room. Mr. Wires did not want him in tne city with him, at a boarding-house, but was willing to pay his board in Noppit; so he came. .

Jeuison Wires was a sharp, citybred boy, with very little faith in anybody's goodness. His father was a pushing, money-making, proftine man, and his mother a meek cipher; he himself, at tiie age of fourteen, could smoke and swear and talk sailor slang | glibly, for he had run anywhere. Mrs, Carter was troubled and disgusted to find such a boy on her hands. Jason considered that God in His wisdom had sent the boy there for his good, and resolved to pray for him as for his own boys, and set nim as good ; an example as he tried to set Jack and Dan, ana to “deal With him,” as he expressed it, “with a view to his eternal safvation.” The boys thought Jenison was wonderful. He knew so much, he had seen so much, he had *o many things; he had such a pocket knife and such a swagger! But when his first oath came out Jack and Dan were startled. “Look-a-here,” said Jack, “don’t you let daddy bear no such talk as that! He’ll tune you if he does, aud no mistake!” “Whe-e-ew!” responded Jenison; “I ain’t a boy; I guess I’ll swear if I want to, for all of him: he ain’t so pious himself, 1 bet, but what he rips out sometimes.” f i r “He don’t! he dpn’t never?” the bovs exclaimed in unison. ‘’’H’m! .1 guess .you don’t know him!” the old fellow keeps shady before folks, but he used to swear like a Botany bay pirate; I’ve heard pa say so!”

| The boys were shocked into momentary silence, but recovered themselves soon. “And if he ever did he dou’t now,” added reasonable Jack. “He’s awful good; he’s a professor; he prays in meetin’ ’ and ne don’t ever scold nor swear, nor nothin’. Scarce ever he licks a fellow; he did give Dan and me one whalin’, but he oughter have, that's a fact. Dan he told a thunderin’ lie and I backed him up. I tell ye! we was sore for one spell, after he found it out.” , f “W’ell, I know he used to swear on board ship. I’ve heard pa tell stories about him. They called him ‘Still Jase,’ to be sure, but when he got riled the fur flew. I’ll bet my jack knife I can make him swear inside of next week.” “I’ll bet my head you can’t!” retorted Dan. “I don’t know as I wan’t your head for anything, but I’ll bet my knife against that cake of maple sugar you have got in the closet that I’ll set Uncle Jase a swearing before next week’s over.” The boys were so sure that nothing could make daddy sWear, and so pleased with their first bet of any importance, that they accepted the terms at once, and Jenison began to cudgel his brains for means of tripping up Jason Carter’s tongue. One dav he slyly let down Ihe bars into a field of clover, getting up before light to do it: the two cows, turned out of the barnyard to nip at the roadside until Dan and Jack oouid drive them te pasture, the bait, entered the clover and rioted in its fragrant spheres half killing themselves with greedy feeding. Jack found them half an hour after his chores were done in the condition that results to cows from eating green clover, and Uncle Jason w orfced over the poor creatures all day, without a word of impatience, though he said more than once: “I wish I knew who let them bars down, I’d kinder like to say a word in season to him.”

The pins were taken out of the oxyoke and never found, eggshells strewed the mow, while the family never could have any eggs for their owu use, the nests being always empty. The great gray cat’s tail was singed to bareness, and her ears snipped, but Uncle Jason never swore or lost his temper. His scythe 9nath disappeared, but he borrowed another; h's grindstone was soaped, the hay cutter broken, hoes ami rakes disappeared when wanted, and reappeared when useless: his razor was lost and hopelessly dulled wUen he found it, aud a thousand petty annoyances heaped on him in vain. He only said to his wife: “It does beat all, Phebe, what’s got inter things this week; seems as if I never was so pestered. It ain’t in human natur’ for things to happen so. Somebody’s doin’ on’t, I sartiuly feel to believe, but I declare for it I can’t see into it a mite.” Jack and Dan began to triumph; only one day more of the week was available, and Jenison was put on his mettle, and plans laid accordingly. They had prayers always before breakfast, aud the weather was warm and the outer door open wide this morning, and setting out just as his uncle laid down the Bible, under pretext of scaring an old hen away, the boy oDened a little side gate Into the 1 lot where he had previously driven the old ram, and laying a train of salt to a big lump on the doorstep, retreated speedily to the kitchen and knelt down next to Mr. Carter, where h€ had left his chair. Billy had seen the tin pail in Jenison’s hand, and knew it meant salt; he followed the train surely to the door, and having begun to nibble the lump, heard an earnest and accustomed voice near by, and loosed up into the kitchen door. •

RENSSELAER, INDIANA, SATURDAY., NOVEMBER 15. 1879.

Jason was praying earnestly, and the rest had their eyes closed and beads bent—ail hut Jenison. who was watching Billy from under his arm. As he saw the ram looked in he picked op a short switch from under his chair, and held' it threateningly over his uncle’s back. Billy gave one great leap across the door, charged (Jncle Jason in the rear, and sent him sprawling. “D—n that rain!” he roared in a voice of thunder. . Jack and Dan sprang up at once, drove Billy out and shut the door, but before they could speak their father was on his knees again, pouring out such earnest, humble confession of the sin he had been betrayed into, such tearful petition for pardon, such heartfelt contrition for a lapse that seemed to him dreadful, after long years of prayer and struggle, that hard and bad as Jenison Wires was he could not bear it: it was the turning point in the boy’s life: he got up from his knees and confessed the whole tiling to his uncle and asked his forgiveness; aud the other boys cried heartily. Jason Carter never forgot that day: it was remembered with humility and thankfulness both; for years after Jenison told him with deep feelingtnat he had learned then and there to respect religion, and that is the first step toward desiring and obtaining it. Jenison never claimed his bet, but when he went home gave Dan bis knife for a remembrance; and years after Deacon Jason Carter was dead and gone his step-son’s recalled with affection, reverence and amusement mingled, the only oath they ever heard him speak, and how it was brought about by Jenison’s bet.

Forbes on the Lash.

In the new number of the Nineteenth Century Mr. Arcnib&ld Forbes denounces the factious conduct of the “obstructionists, humanitarians, claptrapists and what not,” whose persistent aud unpatriotic opposition to the flogging clauses of the Army Discipline bill has produced an act that can nave no other effect than to diminish the efficiency of the British army. Borne of the arguments of opponents of corporeal punishment he meets with opposite instances. For instance, with reference to the contention that the consciousness of a liability to be flogged does not act as a deterrent, Mr. Forbes relucantly adduces bis owu experience: “Twenty years ago I enlisted in a cavalry regiment. Young, full of spirits and vigor, not destitute of money, and having no experience of descipliue, it must be said that not in every respect was I a model soldier. For offences of light-tenderness _l was somewhat scandalously often in trouble. At length, for an escapade on the line of march from Liverpool to Sheffield, I was tried by a regimental court-martial, a.,d underwent twenty-eight days’ imprisonment, on the most strickly farinaceous food, in the Sheffield ‘garrison provost.’ Emerging from confinement, with a head shorn so bare that it resembled an affable turnip, my light-hearted ness was not long in reasserting itself. Brought as a prisoner before my commanding officer, I stood at attention in the orderly room before him, when he asked me the question, ‘Do you know, sir, that you are now a second-class man ?’ I had not studied those niceties of military grades, and failing to see the drift of the question, I simply reElied, ‘No, sir.’ The manner in which e pursued the subject was not wholly agreeable. ‘Well,’ said he, ‘you are, aud as such liable to be flogged, and by God, the uext time you come before me I’ll flog you!” I did not want any more of that topic. He never saw me again as a prisoner, and when I left the regiment ic was with a good character. I simply adduce this personal example to demonstrate how effectual a deterrent from military crime it is to be brought in this unpleasant manner face to face, as it were with the lash.”

Morning in Venice.

Little little business began to take possession of the streets. Bakers’ shops and butchers’ shops and fish stalls were opened; the din of countless blacksmiths and coppersmiths filled the air at every turn, as though the making of locks and kettles and chimney pots were the usurping industry of the world; loud-voiced women called all the people to come and partake of baked pumpkin, fresh and hot; and the melody of mingled street cries grew to a chorus of supplication. Lately risen maidens lowered baskets from their balconies and fished up catmeat, or bread, or onions, or other household supplies, lowered the coppers for payment, gathered their scanty raiment about them and withdrew. The vender—we knew at the opera—pocketed his money, tossed his load to his head and yelled his noisy way down the alley. In the Piazza beyond the Rialto, where the early activity most centers, I took up a commanding position at an outrof-door table, aud ordered my “white coffee” and bread and butter. What a wonderful place it was for breakfasting—just for once! What pretty but carelessly clad women in black lace head-dresses came from each street and went toward the church; what a clatter the wooden pattens made and what a gabble the newsboys; what loads of fresh fruit and vegetables the women carried past; ho,w the urchins gambled for soldi; how unlike everything was to what we see at home; and how unreal one grows to feel himself in watching it all! The cheap dealers of the Rialto were taking down their shutters and'displaying their low-priced wares. Boys were sitting om the broad steps munening bread and revelling in the yellow luxury of bread wedges of hot and savory pumpkin. The purveyors of the adjacent quarters were climbing the steps with whole head-loads of grapes, or fish, or vegetables. Over the hand-rail, filling the whole width of the Grand Canal, la\ a fleet of barges unloading, with produce from beyond the lagoons, or stowing awa\ assorted cargoes of white and purple grapes, peaches, figs, lettuce, chiccory, rad-, ishes, shining white onions, carrots, beets, potatoes—the whole fresh-col-ored assortment of green-grocery. On shore the market people filled the streets and arcades with fish, and flesh, and fowl, and fruit, and flowers, and the whole air with a tumult of noisy traffic. I descended among the throng, where customers were importuned on every hand, and where sharp bargains were driving m sprats and snails and in fractions of the smallest fowls. Entering a little square shut in by

high houses, and, like most Venetian squares, dominated by the unfinished facade of a time-stained church, I noticed a singular activity among the people. They were scurrying in from every alley, and hastening from every house door, with odd-shaped copper buckets on hook-ended wooden bows, and with little coils of rope. Old men and women, oovs and gins, all gathered closely about a covered well curb in the middle of the square; and still they hurried on, until they stood a dozen deep around it. ' Presently the church tower slowly sturck eight, and a little old man forced his way through the crowd, passed his ponderous iron key through the lid, and unlocked the well. The kettles went jangling into it, and came slopping out again at an amazing rate, and the people trudged off home, each with a pair of them swung from the aheulder. The wells are deep cisterns, which are filled during the night, and it is out of amiable consideration for those who love their morning nap that they are given as good a chance as their neighbors of getting an unsoiled supply. It to the first instance that has come to my notice of a commendable municipal restrain upon the reprehensible practice of early rising. Few, very few, of those who came for water had had time for their toilets. Their day evidently begins with this excursion to the public reservoir. Later in my walk I saw a cistern being replenished. A barge fillel with fresh water lay in a canal near by, and a steampump forced the supply through a hose to the square, where a gutter carried it to the well. The water to of excellent quality. It to brought through conduits from Euganean Hills, near Padua, but Its distribution through the city is carried on in the original manner indicated. For a city where the salt sea to the scavenger, where ablutions are not de rigueur, and where water to not a beverage, the costfof laying distributing mains has wisely been spared.

Is It Extravagance?

An Eastern contemporary says: “Not long ago we traveled in the West for a day in company with an agent of an extensive manufacturer of parlor organs. He was returning suddenly and unexpectedly, having already taken more orders lor initruments than his firm could make for a year to come. His customers were Western farmers. Every family required an organ, and the principal reason was because the next neighbor had one. All were sold on a year’s credit. The young ladies who learn to use these instruments doubtless no longer milk the cows or manage the dairy; spin the wool from their father’s flock; knit the family hose, or rarely make their own dresses. One luxurious habit, especially if it causes work to be thought inconvenient or degrading, leads further and becomes disastrous in the end. The young men, too, require a fast horse and a costly wagon and a more expensive attire; and then the help of a hired man in the field is as needful as that of the help in the kitchen. And under the pressure of all these self-inflicted taxes, farming does not pay, and it is to be feared that it never will until these taxes are repealed.” The evident intention of the writer of the above extract, in to protest against undue extravagance, against an expenditure for luxuries beyond the ability to pay, and this we agree with him. But we do not like the implied thought that farmers, in order to make their business pay, must be deprived of all the luxuries of life, must confine tuemselves to the mere necessities of existence.* The world is progressing, and even Western farmers are getting out of the pioneer stage, where the imperious demand for the necessities of life banishes every thought except of constant. toil and the closest economy. They can afford many things their fathers could not, and are learning that life is not drudgery only, nor toil our whole destiny, that our homes shelter not only bone and muscle, but mind and heart also, and that these demand food ana raiment as well as the body. We believe in pianos and organs in the farmer’s home wherever they can be afforded, and where there are sous and daughter growing up, we would strain a point in the ability question to obtain one of these instruments. The farmer has as good a right to tnese things as the man of any other calling, of equal ability to purchase.—Ohio Farmer.

STARVATION.

A Horrible Tale from the Far North —People Dying by the Hundred from Ruin and Starva. tion. The schooner Pauline Collins has arrived at San Francisco from the Arctic Ocean. Her captain, Tucker Sands, reports a frighful story from St. Lawrence Island, in Behring Sea. Almost the entire population of the southeastern end of the island have perished from starvation. A party landed from the Collins, and were horrified to find 250 corpses in one field. The living had carried the dead away from the huts until at length, overcome themselves, they in turn died in the huts and so remained. Everywhere the scene was frightful. One little girl the captain speaks of seeing stiff in death, with her head resting on her hand, while her body leaned over the remains of a whale. Capt. Sands attributes their starva tion to rum. Nearly every trader goei to the Arctic loaded with it, ana sc long as the liquor lasts the natives will not go fishing. Then it is too late and starvation follows. On the northwest end of the island about 200 natives are still alive. He says that the revenue steam cutters are of no use to stop this traffic. The traders see the smoke and get out of the way.

The Domestic Revolver.

Flgar*. A gentleman goes to an armorer’s and asks for a revolver. “Here’s a real nioe family weapon.” ays the clerk. ‘‘Family weapon?” “ Yes, femily weapon: just the thing for domestic tragedies; six-shooter, you see, sir-two bullets for your wife, two for the destroyer of your happiness two for yourself. All the go, sir! Sell hundreds of em for bridal presents, Sir.” ; A woman's head is turned Iqr the outside of a bonnet—a man’s by what is inside of it.

AN AMUSING OLD RECORD.

The State of New Jersey in the Days of Queen Anne. New York Star. A very amusing old record has fallen into our hands, being one of the republications lately made by the State of New Jersey or their, early colonial and provincial journals. Our readers maybe entertained by the following narrative, which we compile from that portion of the journals of the House of Representatives which covers the period immediately succeeding the union of East and West New Jersey into one government. It was in the reign of Queen Anne, Anno 1703, that the proprietors of East and West New Jersey surrendered to the Crown their patents of government, and the two provinces were united into one, under the name of Nova Ceearia, or New Jersey. The Queen appointed Viscount Corn burg Governor of the new province. He was a grandson of the great Lord Chancellor Clarendon, and consequently he was first cousin of the Queen —as precious a scamp as Her Majesty had anywhere in her service. Whether it was from apprehension of his rapacious tendencies, or only from a prudent regard to the poverty of the province, the Queen gave him strict orders, upon pain of er highest displeasure ana of being re-, called from his Government, not to receive any present from the Assembly, or from individuals, on any account, or in &Dy manner; but she directed that the Assembly settle a oonstant and fixed allowance on the Governor and Lieutenant Governor suitable to their respective characters, in regard of her having taken the province under her immediate protection. Cornburg was directed to communicate these orders to the Assembly at its first meeting, and to have them registered with both the Council and the Assembly. He was at the same time Governor of New York, and had his residence in this city for the greater part of the time. He led the poor Jerseyites a most extraordinary rig for five or six years; but they learned in process of time how to give him Bolands for his Olivers, and how to make as much hot water for him as he made lor them. The politics of the little Government are very tunny. They are all dust and ashes now—those turbulent Jerseymea—the last of them naving been gathered to their fathers while their descendants of the Revolutionary period were coming upon the stage. . It is as good and droll as a play to read how nis Excellency’s write went out into the east and west divisions and summoned the four-and-twenty men, twelve from each division, who constituted the little Assembly; how all the forms of the Imperial Parliament were gone through; how the Speaker was ehosen, presented and approved; how the Speaker prayed his Excellency to grant to the House its rights and privileges; how his Excellency was attended by the House and made to them a “favorable speech;” how the Speaker obtained a copy of it, and had it read, and how it was answered.

In the Connemara Hills.

Harpers Magazine for October. The rain in which I had begun my journey to Roundstojie disappeared as the day advanced, when the sun came forth, and, driving the mist before it, revealed the scenery through which we were passing. The purple heather blossoms, the green furze, and brown boggy banks dripping with moisture, seemed covered with innumerable diamonds; the air became musical with the songs of the birds; and Nature, joyous and hopeful, seemed recovering from some malady. As I looked back upon the mountains they assumed an entirely different aspect; they appeared heavy and sombre while we journeyed at their base, but now their lines were as varied and full of buoyant grace as those of the most noble Alpine scenery. The dreary moors were changed to beautiful lakes whose wa. ters were dotted with islands, and the sky, so long hidden by its humid veil, was of the deepest blue, and mel tea with exquisite gradation of tint into the piled-up ranges of the distant mountains. The soft perfumed air. the glorious scenery, clear and splendid in the sun’s rays, made me forget all fatigue, and my spirits ascended as rapidly as the birds, which seemed ecstatic in their new found bliss. Lake Ballinahinch, on the borders of which our road lay for two miles, is one of the largest as well as the most picturesque of the watery chain that unites the Conne&ara Hills. The whole of this district formerly belonged to the Martins, whose castle is situated between the lake and the river, surrounded by a forest. As we loitered along I pondered upon the fact of this unfortunate family, whose sway was so recently almost royal. Most of us are familiar with the story through Lever’s novel of the Martins of Cro’ Martin. As I gazed upon the tumbling walls and the rudely boarded windows ofwhatisnow a ruin, my thoughts wandered to the times when these forests were filled by the warlike followers of the family, who so often sounded the note or preparation for those sallies in whlsh they encountered the most formidable enemy, Edward O’Flaherty, surnamed Laider the Strong. These battles, in which the combatants were mounted and heavily armed, were frequent and severe, and when they returned from their victory or defeat, as the case might be, they celebrated the one or the other with the same prodigal festivities. These .fightings and feastings were not the beet means of improving an estate or the conditions of its occupants, and soon deprived the Martins of the greater part of what was the most extensive property owned by any untitled gentlemen in E rope.

Nooktown Gossip.

Good Cara pan y, Number Two. We are having serious times of late in Nooktown. The church is in a tumult. Some are in favor of the minister, and some are not. Church meetings are the order of the day: we have them after every meal. Tilings are greatly mixed. The strife runs high, and the bitterness increases. First there was trouble about the pray-er-meetings. Some thought there was to much singing and not prayer enough. Others thought there were too many prayers and not singing and “exhortation” enough. Some of the members would get displeased with the others, and then sit tar back in the room ana

do nothing, while die rest had to do the whole. Thai somebody found that brother Holdfost’s fence extended beyond hto bounds, on to the church property. The church requested Mr. Holdfast to move it back. He refused, and the church moved it for him. Mr. Holdfast got angry at this, mid refused to pay what he had subscribed for the support of preaching. The church tried to make him pay. The church sued Mr. Holdfast for hto subscription; and then Mr. Holdfost sued die church for pulling down hto fenoe. Finally it seemed best to drop Mr. Holdfast from the church. The ministar, Mr. Ernest, favored the plan. Then the whole church began to take sided; some for Mr. Ernest, and some for Mr. Holdfast. Mr. Ernest said he had doubted for a long time es Mr, Holdftst’s sincerity. Mr. Holdfast has discovered that Mr. Ernest,is not fit for hto position as minister, and thinks he ought to be removed; and with hto friends is trying to remove him. The best friend Mr. Holdfast has on his side is Mr. Strong, our representative In the Legislature. Mr. Strong says he has mistrusted Mr. Ernest’s unfitness for some time; “but didn’t like to speak of it.” Says he knows Mr. Ernest Drought up this fence affhir on purpose to get Mr. Holdfast into trouble, and get him out of the church. Says he can prove it by witness. Says he don’t know but it was his duty to bring this up before, “but didn’t like to speak of it.” He says, too, that he himself has been shamefully treated by Mr. Ernest. Says Mr, Ernest tried to hinder his election last spring by advising people not to vote for him, because he was n’t right on the temperance question. He says he don’t think the minister has treated him quite fairly ever since he came to town. He had thought sometimes that he would bring up the matter before the church; “but didn’t like to speak of it ”

Largest Sapphire in the World.

Paris Letter. I have recently been favored with the sight of one of the famous jewels in the world—a stone that has its history and its pedigree, and is celebrated in the annals of the trade and in the annals of the noted gems of Europe; I have held in my hand and admired beneath the rays of the sun-light the finest sapphire that is known to exist. This beautiful and well-nigh priceless stone combines in a singularly perfect degree the leading qualifications of size, shape, color and water. In form it is flat oval, being about two inches long by an inch and a half wide. It is cut slightly en cabochon on top, and into a multitude of small facets beneath. Its hue is perfect, being a warm, lustrous Marie Louis blue, not so dark as to show blick beneath the gaslight, but having all the velvet softness and purity of tint that is required in a really fine gem of this description. Its weight is 300 carats, and it belongs to a noble and wealthy Russian family, in whose possession it has been for the past two centuries, and it has been placed by its owner in the hands of one of the great diamond merchants of Paris for safekeeping. One of the Rothschild family has offered for it no less a sum than $300,000, but the offer has been refused. I asked the courteous gentleman in whose care it has been left as to the actual value of the stone. He told me that, being as it was, perfectly unique, no precise value could be set upon it, but that he was inclined to estimate it at $400,000. He also showed me a string of enormous graduated pearls of extreme purity and fineness (the center one was as large as a small cherry), and he told me that the necklace belonging to the noble Russian was composed of six similar strings of equal beauty and exceptional size. The great sapphire was mounted to be worn as a brooch, being surmounted with large diamonds of some twenty carats each. Its guardian informed me that the pendant belonging to this brooch was composed of a large pear-shaped sapphire weighing sixty carats, and set in diamonds. The whole collection of jewels belonging to this one family Is worth over $2,000,000! “There is no such sapphire as that largest one,” continued my informant, “even among the crown jewels of Russia. I furnished myself two very fine ones to the Empress, each weighing sixty carats, but. rthey do not compare with this magnificent gem.” The gentleman who spoke was well qualified to give an opinion, as he is one of the few great dhunond merchants of the world, and is, moreover, a noted expert. He it is who was recently sent for by the Russian government to go to St. Petersburg to make a full estimate of the value of the crown jewels, and he furnishes whatever ornaments in precious stones are purchased by the members of the Imperial family.

Royalty Before the Mast,

New York Times. The cable reports that a rumor is current in London of a mutiny on board the man-of-war Bacchante. This is the corvette in which the two eldest sons of. the Prince and Princess of Wales set sail a few days back on their voyage around the world. The young Prince Albert Victor Christian Edward is now fifteen years old; his brother, the Prince George Federick Ernest Albert, is a year younger, and both have served their primary course as cadets in the training ship Britannia at Dartmouth. What Aldershot is to the English soldier, such is Portsmouth to the British sailor; and so it was that the young sailor Princes waved their farewells to their royal parents and to old England from the_jetty of Portsmouth dock yard. The Bacchante, under command of Capt. Lord Charles Scott, sailed for Madeira, on a cruise to last eighteen months or more. The Princes were expected to do their full share of duty, and to sing, “A wet sheet and a flowing sea, a wind that follows fast, and fills the white and rustling sail, and bends the gallant mast,” as many thousands of brave tan had merrily song before them. The Bacchante so far resembles the old familiar type of battle ship in that she carries her armament upon the broadside principle. Of her sixteen guns, lourteen are mounted in the broadside battery, the other two being pivot weapons, and all are fired by electricity. On the upper deck there are two shot proof towers, whenoe the firing of the guns may be conducted, and where the officer in charge can better judge of his opportunity to fire than. Of the rumored mutiny do details have yet been received.

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NO. 22.

A wrestling mat sh differs somewhat from a political cot ivention. The man who has the floor i i at a disadvantage. At Logan. Utah, the other night a Limberger cheese fi ctory was struck by lightning, and all the people moved out of town. Little Jonney lays: “Talk about your patent base burning stove;; my ma’s old slipper is a hot enough base burner for me.” The latest London song is called • “My Love She is A Kitten.” It would make a splendid serenade for a small back-yard party. [ “What will the harvest be?” asks an exchange. Well, just wait till the harvest bee crawl’s up your trouser’s lor. and you’ll find out.” Cod-Liver oil won’t kCI a person stone dead, the same as if a budding fell dn him, and perhaps that’s why so many persons detest it. , t jj- . f. A man has been on the Baltimore police twenty-two years, and never caught anything but a cold. And really, that caught him. The man who wrote that “duty” was the most sublime word in the English language is believed to have been the Collector of a lucrative port. The divorced husband of Mrs. ScottHiddons wasn’t exactly a great big brute, according to reports, but all he lacked was another pair of legs. “If there is no moonlight will you meetme by the gas light, dearest Juliana?” “No, Augustus, I won’t,” she replied “I’m no gas meter.” “That’s the first hop of the season , remarked a dancing master as hto young hopeful sat down on a tack. Then the music -started and the bawl began. j j “Ah, Louise, my heart is very despondent. Ever since I have gazed into the depths of! those lovely eyes I “Hush, John! Put an airbrake on that train of thought. Pa has introduced me to hto new partner, and I’m his for two million dollars. That settles it.” Two women at Union. Tenn., had a duel in regular man style. They both fired at the word, and one hit a boy who was climbing over the fence with a watermelon, and the other hit a calf in the field. Both having drawn blood, they acknowledged that they had received satisfaction. I must tell you jof a conversation I overheard on the beach at Treport between two children who were playing in the sand together. The small boy said to the littlte gim: “Do you wish to be my little wife?” “The little girl, after reflection: fYes, ” Tphe small boy: “Then take off my boots!” Miss Miller, of Ferris, Tex., chloroformed her father’s dog and eloped with the young man whom her father had forbidden the premises. The probabilities are that about a year hence she will conclude that her life would have been less miserable if she had chloroformed the young man and eloped with her fathers dog.

Sam the collier naaoieu, and the parson wanted to say something consoling to the afflicted ones, and something at the same time peculiarlv appropriate to a miner’s calling. So he said, “Our dear departed friend, whose life has been spent in the bowels of the earth, ’mid cold and wet, has, let us hope, gone to another and a warmer underwood.” A little boy was told by his grandmother to turn down a leaf in the family Bible every time he told a lie. At the end of a week the old lady asked him how many lies he had told during the seven days. He silently handed her the holy book. She turned over page after page, and at length said ‘ angrily: “Why, you little brat, you’ve lied all the way from Genesis to Revelations, and half way through the Psalms.” Two grammarians were wrangling the other dey, one contending that it was only proper to say, “My wages is high,” while the other noisily insisted that the correct thing was, “My wages are high.” Finally they stopped laborer, and submitted the question to him. “Which do you say, ‘Your wages is high,’ or ‘Your wages are high?’” “Oh, off wid yer nonsense,” he said, resuming his pick, “yer naythur ov ye right; me wages is low, bad luck to it.” The Elmira Gazette gives this code of hat flirtation signals: Wearing the hat squarely over the head, I love you madly; tipping it over the right ear, my little brother has the measles; wearing it on the back of the head, ta, ta, awfully awful; taking it off and brushing it the wrong way, my heart is busted; holding it out in the right hand, lend me a quarter; throwing it at a policeman, I love your sister; using it as a fan, come and play with my aunt; carrying a brick in it, your cruelty is killing me; kicking it across the street, lam engaged; putting it on the ground and sitting on it, forever. ~*

“I know I’m losing ground, sir. tearfully murmured the pale faced Freshman, “but it is not my faulty sir. If I were to study on Sunday, as the others do, I could keep up with my class, sir—indeed, I could; But I prom*; ised mother ne-ne-never to work on the Sabbath, and I can’t, sir, ne-ne-never,” and as his emotions overpowered him he pulled out his handkerchief with such vigor that he brought out with it a small flask, three faro chips and a euchre deck, and somehow or other the professor took no more stock in that Freshman’s eloquence than if he haH been a graven image. V 1

▲n anxious wife sat at her husband’s bedside; his life depended upon uninterrupted sleep. It was midnight: a door was left open for air: she heard, in the stillness of the night, a window open below the stairs, ana soon after, approaching footstep*. A moment more a man with his face disguised entered the room. She instantly saw her husband’s danger, and anticipating the design of the unwelcome intruder, pointed to her husband, and pressing her fingers upon her lips to implore silence, held out to the robber her purse and her keys. To her great surprise, he took neither. Whether he was terrified or charmed by her courage and affection cannot be known. He lelt the house in perfect silence, harming nothing.

CONDIMENTS.

A Brave Women.