Rensselaer Union, Volume 1, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 November 1868 — A Practical Joke. [ARTICLE]

A Practical Joke.

Horace Vernet, the distinguished French i painter, happened once to be traveling from Versailles to Paris in the same tail vay carriage with two English spinster xuuies, very prudish and prim, and of a certain, age. V-met’s appearance was striking, and the ladies, after scanning him attentively whenever they thought he was looking the other way, began to communicate to each other their observations upon him in a rather ■ loud’whisper, thinking, apparently, that as they spoke in their own language they were at liberty to make- what comments they pleased. The veteran painter waipnteneely amused, but waß too much a man of tho world to manifest the slightest consciousness of what was going on. It was not long before the train had to pass through a tunnel. Vernet, seizing the opportunity, leaned forward, so as to be within hearing °f his neighbors, and applied a smacking sfilutOTo the baok of his hand. On Emerging from tho temporary obscurity, his face had assumed a mischievous expression, which, as he intended, was soon interpreted by each lady to the prejudice of the other, each charging the other with having received from, the moustached stronger the mysterious kiss in the dark. Arrived at the terminus, as all were alighting, Vernet offered his hand to help his tellow travelers out of the camage, and then, with a graceful bow, took leave of them, saying, as he retired, totheir dismay, in perfectly correct English,•<*'Adieu, ladies; i suppose I shall never have the satisfaction of knowing to which of you I am indebted for the unexpected but valued fiivor I received in the tunnel. ” _____ 1

—The earth >n the region of the head waters of the Kern nver, in tho Sierra Nevada mountains, is reported to have been shaking for two weeks, and fears of an earthquake or a. volcanic eruption are espreaeed. _