Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 December 1874 — Page 8

EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS.

The following is a synopsis of a lecture on “ Educational Problem#” recently delivered by the Hon. Carl Schurz before the Young lien's Christian.. Association of Chi cago: In no country was education so much discussed as in the United States. They looked upon education, for example, as a purifier of public morals. A better general education was always pointed to as the remedy for every moral uL When the question, however, arose as to what was the best form of popular education, how few were prepared with any practical idea on the subject. Education should not only be so directed as to store up specific things in the pupils’ minds but also so as to enable them to work and live and bear themselves in the World. Their ancestors had been, perhaps, well enough educated for their day, but what suited them did not suit us, and consequently the education of modern times should be equal to the necessities of the generation. The man of to-day had to know very much more than nis great-grandfather knew, and yet the time for learning appeared to be as brief as in old times. How, then, was the time at the disposal of the new generation to be bc«i employed? Of course specific things had to be learned, but they should be able 1 • • say how they were to go ahead with tin learning after they had left the school < . the university. The young mind shou i receive fire and impulse from early trai.i----“li, his own experience of his education in Germany lie had to say that he accjuiTed much knowledge which had since been lost, but he did not, therefore, consider that his time was thrown away. He had learned the discipline of mind which was carried into the busy walks of every-day life. He did not wish to be understood as holding that specific points were of no use. They were. That was not to be denied; but there was no doubt that the pupil always learned much more outside of the school-house than within it. Then there came up the question of training children too young. The question was always asked: “How arc you going to teach a mere baby?" It nad been related of John Stuart Mill that his father had made him learn Greek at a very early age, and people held that if young Mill had not been gifted with an extraordinarily strong mind he would have been rendered an idiot by his early education. It was just as rational to hold that the brain of an American baby who could speak German would be destroyed. The child was apt to learn from the very earliest dawn of its reason, and could be gradually brought along without strain or excitement to learn more and more. “in some the perceptive faculty was much more developed than in others. This could be seen by the excellence in detail of some. One person could look Upon a tree and not be able to describe it, because he was unacquainted with vegetable laws, while another, who had been trained, could tell about it. A lady could meet another lady in the street, and, afterward, would be able not alone to tell what she wore, but, also, by a singular process of the mind, might be able to correctly estimate the cost of the material [Laughter.] It is a pity that so muen natural intelligence could not be devoted to better uses. Fathers and mothers should cultivate the perceptiveness of their children. They should answer their childish questions in regard to all proper objects that present themselves. This method of education was mutually beneficial. Fathers; mothers, brothers and sisters, in thus training the infant, also trained their own minds. Having taken the infant out of the first stage, the school age was next approached. How was the school education to be rationally carried on? The lecturer said that there were some customs in the schools which were inimical to intelligence. Astronomy, mental philosophy, and other text-books of ponderous names •were placed in the hands of pupils, and, strange to say, the pupil who recited his lesson most literally correct, never using any language of his own, was considered the best scholar. No system could be better devised to foster and cultivate human stupidity. [Laughter ] The bov or girl forgot all about what cost so much trouble. For example, there might be a —question as to what a cloud was. One boy, on the day of examination, might be able to tell all about it from the words of the text-book. Another boy might not remember a word of the text, but could tell the vaporous nature of a cloud. Ask these, two a few days later the same questions, and it would be found that the specific urchin had a good chance of becoming a first-class dunce [laughter], while the unspecific boy, although somewhat awkward at first, might develop into a very brilliant man. This reminded him of an anecdote in one of the works of Goethe, where he introduces a boy so full of learning that he had really forgotten who his own father was [laughter], and his sire, in wrath, sent him to a mon- / astery, where it was not needful to learn anything that was useful. The lecturer then proceeded to deal with other branches of specific education., Following one peculiar line of education was to be deplored. Knowledge should be as general as possible. Fortunately for the masses of the nineteenth century popular books were so common that all could be supplied at little cost, and the grand opportunity should not be neglected by the rising generation. Such knowledge might be"useful when the boy might develop, by a process of political evolution, into an Alderman, or, perhaps, a member of Congress. [Applause and laughter ] The lecturer advocated the founding of popular libraries whenever and wherever possible. Nothing could be grander in the way of education, and he did not believe that there would be any opposition to such a spread of knowledge. One of the great obstacles in the way of educational progress was the miserable pay,.which teachers received, not only in America but in every other country that he knew of. Heroic self-sacri-fice was not the food in which to nourish a progressive education. Teachers could not be first-class until their profession was so remunerated as to make them satisfied to remain in it during their active life. ' l Mr. Schurz then proceeded to deal with the question of female education. All branches of knowledge should be open to them, and they should be encouraged to in their battle of life, not alone in teaching, but in medicine. law, or whatever other profession the lady might choose to follow. {Applause] i. \ \ ® In one thing, however, he could not agree with the .more advanced female thinkers of the age, and, at the risk oL being considered old fogy, he would say that he believed it was not good for

woman to be alone. [Laughter and cheers. 1 Her natural destiny was to get married. Any other destiny was simply unnatural. In this he believed not alone every young lady, but every young man, in the audience would agree with him. [Laughter.] But it might ha asked, Would he have woman simply educated for the purpose of being a household drudge? Not at all.. He would have woman, as he had said, well educated, to fit her all the. more for her duties as a wife and a mother. Some of the fastidious might find fault with him for saying “ our girlsbut he much preferred the fresh, unsophisticated, noble, blooming, natural girl to the painted, powdered and bccurled modern young lady, j [Long-continued applause.] One of the greatest curses ol modern society was the pernicious habit of having married couples board at a hotel or a boardinghouse. It was the custom which weakened marital and home ties, because it removed muduaY care, aQ d left the mother not a queen, but simply a dweller in her own household. Every wife ought to be the queen of her own house. Why then was the custom so much indulged in? Because girls were apt trained in youth to household duties, and they shrank from them. This was a great error in the early educa•ion of the female sex. Some girls were led to believe that they were uost attractive when they made hcmselves frames for the exhibition of -ilk and satin garments. In answer to -he question: “ Why do you not marry ? -are you not able to feed a wife?” the ! young man of to-day would reply : “ Yes, i 1 am able to feed a wife, but not to clothe 1 her. ’’ That might be very vulgar, but i it was very true, and bachelor cluba | flourished upon the modern extravagance of women. Until girls learned that it was an error to think more of the value they carried on the outside of their persons rather than in their minds and hearts, bachelors would increase, and marriages would daily grow less. The lecturer related the anecdote of the grand Roman matron, Cornelia, who, disdaining gems, was asked where she kept her jewels. She took her querists to her nursery, and, pointing to her bright and happy children, “There are my jewels," she said. Woman had ever been the center of luxury. In this age she was more so, perhaps, than in any other. She might be very attractive to the beau, but was a terror to the husband. Girls ought to be discouraged in extravagance, and encouraged in frugality, particularly in the line of dress. This was the great evil. When the marriage institution declined, population, and consequently the nation, declined. This was a law of nature. Girls should be taught to be useful, for the more useful a woman was the more ornamental was she too. When Roman statesmen wished to compliment some splendid matron they said: “She is at home spinning.” Young ladies should be taught that honest w T ork w r as not degrading, but the reverse. The lecturer next dwelt on the evils of American cooking—hot soda-biscuits and half-done pie. There were ten dyspeptics., in America for every one in England, France, or Germany. This could be ascertained from any medical practitioner. Why was this? Because our girls were, in the higher circles of society at least, taught to look upon housekeeping as a kind of degradation. They were taught to do nothing that was practical—unless to go shopping, which was the most unpractical things they could do. [Applause and laughter.] A common boast was, “I have” no occasion to work.” The pride of a true woman ought to be to work, even when not com pelled to do so. Some newspaper correspondent had recently expressed his surprise at finding, on visiting Germany, the Prificess Bismarck carrying a hunch of keys at her waist and attending to the duties of her household. The German people respected that eminent lady more Hhan if she wore the same weight of diamonds. [Great applause.] Diamond# would only prove that her husband had money. The bunch of keys proved that his wife had both hgart and head. [Applause.] One of the greatest evils of woman in America was emptiness of thought—nothing to do—which interferes with the happiness of most fashionable women. Napoleon had once asked a lady what should be done to make France a greater nation than she was. The. reply was: “Give the -nationn good mothers ’’ That is exactly what America needed, and the end and aim of all good people should be to educate the young generation of females so that they might be good mothers. They should be taught how noble it was to follow the path of duty rather than of pleasure—to abandon tbe foppery and frippery of fashion, and to learn to rear and educate families. [Applause.] It would be useless to try and reform the nation in a political sense unless there was a higher basis of female education which might be conveyed to the home circle. It was not by making a woman a general or a member of Congress that she was to be elevated. It was by educating her up to a standard that would reform the nation, operating through the social influences, in which woman has always been and ever must remain more powerful than man. [Loud applause.] * j The next point touched by the lecturer was the constant complaint made against the working classes that they were given to intoxication. -Why was it ? Because man would seek relaxation, and because the reformers or crusaders did not substitute something that would wean them from the old method. But man must have relaxation, and if the promoters of temperance would advocate the establishment of popular places of amusement they would do more to reform the morals than all their statutes, or hymns or prayers could do. The lecturer then went into a dissertation on education in general, and rehearsed. by way of recapitulation, the main points of his discourse, especially advocating the making of home light, sunny and cheerful. He also advocated the cultivation of the beautiful in the minds of the young. A German philosopher had once said: “ Happy is the man who has a hobby.” The expression was rather coarse, but it was correct in fact. Evefy man who had a pursuit, a relaxation. wal happy—happier than the dull rich man. who knew not what to do with his time. Collections of butterflies and bugs were often made a means of amusement. even by cultivated men. He did not go so far* as to say" that a criminal could be reformed by making him catch 1 bugs and butterflies [laughter]; but had that criminal been taught yrhen young to have a taste for some such innocent recreation he might have avoided the con- | vict's cell. He said to the business-men that they, top, should have some means of relax'ahorticulture, agriculture, floriculture, or some other branch of industry—-• for leisure hours. He had no time to go

into the great subject of morale ducation, I which he was compelled to reserve for another occasion.

Ninety Yeas Old.

With a good appetite three times a day, delicious sieep, and not an ache or a pain in the whole body, the mind all the while fully alive to wnat is going on in the world, and all the time in good spirits. This is said of the late ex-Gov. Throup, of New York. He retired at nine and rose at six, taking a nap in the forenoon and.sometimes in the afternoon also ; breakfast at eight, dinner at -one and tea at sundown. In suitable weather he spent a greater part of the forenoon in his garden, directing his men and assisting them, and for a short time in the afternoon was employed in the same way, ( He used no spirituous liquors, but took claret wine every day at dinner. There are three things in tbe above narration which, if persistently carried out in early life, would do more than all others toward giving all an enjoyable old age. Regularity in eating. Abundant sleep. A large daily exposure to 'out-door air. Regularity in eating, either two o three times a day, with nothing whatever between meals, not an atom of anything, would almost banish dyspepsia in a single generation; as frequent eating is the cause of it in almost all cases, especially if irregular and fast. Abundant sleep and rest from childhood make nervous diseases a rarity; to an insufficiency of regular sleep and insufficiency of rest may well be attributed nine-tenths of all sudden deaths, and a premature wearing out before the age of sixty years. All hard-workers, whether of body or brain, ought to be in bed nine hours out of the twenty-four, not that so much sleep is required, but rest, after the sleep is over; every observant reader knows how the system yearns for rest in bed after a good sleep, and it is a positive gain of energy to indulge in it. Every hour that a man is out of doors is a positive gain of life, if not in a condition of chilliness, because no in-door air is pure; but pure air is the natural and essential food of the lungs, and the purifier of the blood, the want of which purification is the cause or attendant of every disease, while every malady is alleviated or cure‘d by an abundant exposure to out-door air. If city wives and daughters would average two or three hours every day in active walking in the open air, it would largely add to exemption from debility, sickness and disease, and would materially add to domestic enjoyment and the average duration of life—HalTs Journal of Health.

Hair Dressing.

The most natural-looking coiffures are now most stylish. Hair dressers delight in showing the whole of the parting on top of the head, provided the hair is thickly set. A large tress on each side is waved in soft large waves; there is no side parting; the whole mass of hair except the waved tresses is drawn together low down behind, tied there, and allowed to droop in a short thick loop, not braided, and not as long as the Catogan loop. The waved tresses are then brought low behind, and fastened by a short strap made of the ends of the tress. This makes the charming Psyche coiffure, and displays a handsome head finely. It is worn both for full dress and for the street; it is better, however, to braid or rope the loop behind for street wear, as the soft tress loop would soon be disheveled if "worn in the open air; Such coiffures are most becoming to ladies who have the low, broad, Greek forehead, and when nature has not supplied this the hair dresser attempts to do so by adding false waved tresses attached to a white, invisible seam, and covering the upper part of high foreheads. The effect is good usually, and the price of the false front is $lO. Ladies who have not much hair of their own retain high coiffures, as there is much independence in hair-dressing just now. Finger-puffs are massed over the top and back of the head, and soft loops are added behind, so that while the coiffure towers high above the head it is also low behind. Young ladies whose liair grows thickly above the ear, behind it and on the nape of the neck-display its luxuriance by comfiiug it straight upward to a mass of soft puffs or “else crown braids, over which droop tvo small, short, feathery curls. The ornamental coiffure is now tet directly on top, on the left side, or quite in front, but not low behind. This ornament is a cluster of roses or other flowers, or else light, downy marabout feathers, with a heron’s feather aigrette in the center. The chatelaine braid and the low-plaited Catogan loop are worn in the street. A crown braid is worn with the chatelaine; a bow of ribbon or of twilled bias silk ties the Catogan. A fillet of black velvet studded with jet beads is a simple and pl’etty ornament when worn around massive braids. With the present shape of bonnets it is necessary to drag the hair low on the forehead, hence many paste it there in bandolined scallops. These have a stiff', set look, and are becoming to very few faces. It is also necessary that the back hair be soft to fit the new bonnet shapes, and this has had the good effect of doing away with the jute and topsies once used for filling and bringing real hair into use.— Harper's Bazar. - .

The Betrothed Lover’s Purgatory.

The Liberal Review says: “As a matter of fact, many ‘ engaged' persons may be said to, live in a mild sort of purgatory, which even many kisses and caresses cannot render anything more than barely endurable. Take'the case of an ordinary engaged young man and what can be more melancholy? There are, as a rule, some half-score of people whom he is bound to propitiate. At the same time he may hate them—and justly—with as great cordiality as he loves the maiden whom he wishes to marry. He must, perforce, be civil to the papa and mamma of his intended wife. Yet he may be perfectly well aware that the papa is a ‘ skinflint,' about whom the strongest thing in the way of commendation that can be said is that he is strictly honorable in business, as if a man deserved any credit for not making himself a thorough-paced cheat. It may be remarked, by the way, that juch is the low tone of morality prevalent nowadays, if a man is not an absolute knave, though he may be stingy and cheese paring lo the last degree, it seems to be thought by many people that he should hare all hi's faults condoned and be held up to the admiration of a large circle of friends. The bridegroom that is to be may know, further, that the scrubby papa will have something to say when the question of settlements is brought on the carpet,and that he will not dower Ms daughter with a larger portion than he can help, if, in-

1 deed, he does not skillfully get oat of dowering her with anything- at aIL The luckless lover may, also, be perfectly well aware that the mamma is one of those dear—in more senses than one —creatures who are never happy nnless they are managing other people’s affairs. He may be fully conscious that the amiable dame regards him with something very much like suspicion, and that she is convinced that he and her daughter will never be able to get along without her assistance and advice. He may, indeed, see in the distance a day ip which he will have to fight a pitched battle with the generous-hearted' female, during the course of which he will be compelled to intimate in very plain terms that when he wants advice he will ask for if, and that he is determined to be his own master. Meanwhile, he is bound to smile at the majority of her aggravating efforts. Then there are his lady-love’s brothers. To them also he has to assume a friendly, if not absolutely cordial, demeanor. If some unlicked cub plays upon him a diabolical practical joke he can do nothing but absurdly grin at the wretch. When a brother of another type seems disposed to treat him in a supercilious fashion, and to show that he only tolerates him for the sake of his sister, the unfortunate engaged young man is bound to simulate a blindness that is simply preposterous in a being professing to have any sense at all. Again, if a third brother of yet another sort, whose principal characteristics are a love for bad company and a talent for getting into scrapes, selects him as his confidant and friend—the attendant consequences of this are not easily forgotten—what can the poor victim do but laugh and pray for a speedy deliverance from all his troubles? Then there are his betrothed’s sisters, who are inclined to dislike him because he has not shown a preference for them instead of her to whom he is engaged. They are ever on the alert to pick out the weak places in his armor and gladly give him sharp pricks whence is least prepared to bear them. Still he has to pretend that he loves these ladies as if they were verily his sisters. He is made to feel that everybody looks upon him as an interloper, and think that the sooner he takes the bride away to a den of his own the better it will be for all parties. Of course papa and mamma are, after a fashion of their own, civil to him in return for his effusive, polite attention to them. But when he is talking business or politics with papa, domestic economy with mamma, amusements witfi the brothers, and everything in general with the sisters he cannot avoid seeing that he is, in nine cases out of ten, successful only as a bore. He know r s and they know that after he has been safely married and done for he will drop into that insignificant position which he is most fitted to adorn and which is most conducive to his comfort. Under these circumstances he may be excused if heiongs for the time when he may not be called upon to appear amiable when he feels the reverse, when he may not have to spend hours in conversing with people with whom he lias no sympathies in common, and when, in short, he may not have to act the part of a thorough-going humbug.”

The Honrs at Which Death Occurs.

In a paper contributed by Dr. Lawson to the West-Riding Asylum Medical Reports, England, for 1874, several interesting observations are recorded regarding the number of deaths which occur during the different hours of the day. Following up the researches of Schneider and others, who had shown that the freatest number of deaths take place uring the ante-meridian hours, Dr. Lawson has been able to determine more closely the time of day when the greatest and least number of deaths oc cur. Supplementing the statistics of other institutions by those of the WestRiding Asylum, he finds that deaths from chronic diseases are more numerous between the hours of eight and ten in the morning than any other time of the day, while there are few-est between the hours of eight and ten in the evening. In the case of acute diseases, such as continued fevers, pneumonia, etc., a different result has been obtained. Following up what has been pointed out by other authorities, Dr. Lawson shows that the largest number of deaths from this class of diseases takes place either in the early- morning, when the powers of life are at their lowest, or in the afternoon, when acute disease is most active. The occurrence of these definite daily variations in the hourly death rate is shown, in the case of chronic diseases, to be dependent on recurring, variations in the energies of organic life; and in the case of acute diseases the cause is ascribed either to the existence of a well-marked daily extreme of bodily depression, ora daily maximum intensity of acute disease.

Salt as a Manure.

Common salt has been r ed as a manure from a very early period with very good results. It was cried up so high at one time as an almost universal specific that, when the expectations thus raised were not fulfilled, it fell into disrepute. There can be no doubt that it is a manure of great value when applied in proper quantity at the right time. When used as a top-dressing for wheat at the rate of four to five bushels per acre it increases the crop considerably at a trifling expense. It is also a good top-dressing for grass land. From practical experiments made in England it was found that six bushels of salt, costing three dollars, increased the crop of hay one ton per acre over that portion ot the field to which there was not any dressing applied; while one hundredweight of nitrate of soda, costing $5 50, caused an increase ot only twelve hun-dred-weight per acre. In a comparative trial cf, salt, nitrate of soda, and nitrate of soda with - -rapedust as a top dressing for wheat it was found that nitrate of soda alone gave 152 pounds pf wheat, exclusive of straw, for 31 shillings, British, or 12s. 2d per bushel; nitrate with rape-dust gave 400 pounds of wheat for 435. 6d., or 6s. 9d. per bushel, and common salt gave 472 pounds of wheat for 3s. 6d., or 6d. per bushel. These experiments also demonstrate that salt has a tendency to improve the quality and increase the quantity of grain, and to increase the quantity of grain in a greater ratio than that of. the straw. The principal reason why salt proves to be useless is its previous existence in sufficient quantity in the soil. With;lime. salt is of great service in making up compost heaps. A sprinkling of salt over farm-yard manures either in the manure pile, or when it has been drawn to the field, has been found very beneficial to the crop.—Western MufaJ. —A yawl-boat—Oi»e filled with crying babies*

The Freaks of an Eccentric. King.

When I arrived in Munich the Bavarians were looking everywhere for their King. He had gone—disappeared from their gaze. The court was distracted, the courtiers frantic. They searched for him at the palace, on the top of his favorite mountains, and nowhere could they find their master. Suddenly a telegram arrived from Paris telling us he had gone there incognito (rather he had attempted it). When a royal personage goes off suddenly without crying “ gare” there must be something in it; but what this particular something was no one knew. Several days were passed in suspense when the news came that the King had gone to Paris to study the chateau of Versailles and the bed of Louig XIV. Some say the King is only original; others that he is not quite sane; at any rate he is young, handsome, and peculiar. He hates and flies from the world; his people are nothing to him; he comes and goes no one knows where. He avows a passionate admiration for Wagner and his music, and is in love with the old-fashioned majesty of the King Louis XTV. To imitate him he is going to create another Versailles. He has chosen an island in the middle of the largest of the lakes, called Chiemsee. I believe there used to be a convent of Benedictines on it, but the principal attraction is the beautiful view extending over the Bavarian Alps, from Sonahe to Salzburg, in Austria. Here he intends to reproduce the palace and park of Versailles. The cost and labor of carrying all the materials for building across the lake are matters of little importance to the young monarch. He was in the full tide of anpther erratic construction at Falsenburg, costing already .our millions of francs, but that he hao now abandoned after eight or nine years of hard work. But what cannot a King do? Poets glow in their praises of his “beautiful artistic nature ”; painters put upon canvas his glorious deeds; even Wagner makes music at his command; and the populace, awed by such vast ideas, love him, and the mystery with which he surrounds himself adds to his popularity. He is not like a sovereign. I forget who it was who was so unpopular that, on some journey, his courtiers, fearful lest he should remark the dead silence that attended his progress, had the idea to attach some mechanical apparatus to his carriage, that with every turn of the wheel cried “ Vive l' Empereur.” The potentate, half asleep, would awake occasionally to the conciousness of his people’s devotion, and congratulate himself on the gratitude they felt for all his benefits. In our day we are all actors; some kings play at being comedians, some princes are being jockeys, and like them break their necks on race courses; but Louis 11., of Bavaria, plays seriously the part of King. Though he has thirty chateaux built by his ancestors, all more or less beautiful and in good repair, he will not live in them, but prefers one of his own making. With great labor, stone and iron are carried by men and beast to the summit of some pet mountain, and there, in the midst of the forest, only surrounded by his courtiers, does he hold his court. Extravagant stories are told of him—-that he walks about in the costume of Louis XIV., doubtless with silken doublet and hose, powdered wig, and the proverbial cane, preceded by torches borne by gayly-dressed pages, and followed by his Chamberlain. Again, that in winter he will go in a golden sleigh, rushing through villages ing in the snow, with a frightful noise of galloping horses and a sudden gleam of hundreds of torches. By the time the villagers are aroused and realize that it is the King he has disappeared. Then they say that when he wants a little music he orders the theater to be lighted up, and at midnight, long after the last glass of beer has been drank in quiet Munich, he arrives noiselessly in his box, and the play begins. The actors do their painful work of performing a whole opera to an empty house, and to the dead silence. Suddenly the King leaves as quietly as he came, and all is over.

The King comes reluctantly to Munich, but being obliged to appear at times he has consoled himself by arranging a winter garden. There Orange trees bloom, tropical fruits thrive, fragrant fountains play incessantly, birds of all kinds, from the hummingbird to the cockatoo, and music, in soft and dreamy measures, fill the air—even the moon, by a wonderful mechanism, rises, slimes, pales and sets every night. On the occasion of his brother’s marriage, not long since, the King cast about in his mind for a suitable entertainment for the royal pair. He could think of nothing better to offer them than what had never ' been seen by other eyes than his own —a ! fete in the moonlit garden. They wer* duly invited; the moon was set to sliin- ! iug* the fountains to playing, t the birds sang, music played, the pages served fruit and wine on crystal plateaux, and the King w r alked with his new sister in tli ejnrdin d'hiver quite alone. I wonder if. the young couple were much impressed with this attention! This royal brother, not looking with that indulgence on the softer sex usual with gentlemen in the ordinary walks of life, evidently thought , it a great compliment and treat. When, during the visit to Paris, he walked in the streets, I believe his courtiers had to beg him to alter his usual gait, which it seems does verv well for the forests he chooses to dwell in, but not for the .boulevards of Paris. The effect on the Parisian public of a young gentleman dragging one foot after the other, in the style of Tragedy kings in the play, was anything but imposing, and only less ludicrous than his traveling coach, all flass and gilding. —Munich Cor. Boston ournal.

Sol Shipley’s Foot-Race.

A good manj- years ago, when publishing newspapers In Michigan was a brigandish sort: of business, a man known as " Old Sol Shipley” was employed on a journal in Eaton County? He had just coqjf from the East and was In mortal terror of wolves; bears, and the other wild animals abounding in the swamps and forests. The proprietor of the paper had a big dog which took a great liking to Shipley. One evening the old man started to go out to a farmer’s, about a mile from town, where there was to be a grand “ hoe-down,” and the dog sneaked after him, skulking along so softly that Old Sol didn’t see hiqj until clear of the village. Then happening to turn around he found the dog at his heels and he made a clean jump of ten feet, believing that a wolf was with him. The dog gave a yelp and made after him, and Shipley flew down the road like a rabbit going for a hollow log. The dog kept close to him, thinking it wds all in fun, and the printer’s yells were plainly- heard half a mile away. Nearing the house he thought the was gaining on him and he

turned aside and began circling around a log barn and yelling with all his might The folks came running down the road, but they saw what was up and they stood back and yelled for Shipley to put in his best licks, until they could get a gun. Aj*d then they stood there and counted until he had made the circuit of the house thirty-five times. At the last he found his legs failing, and he would yell out as he came around: • “ Oh, mercy githegun giterquick—give ye flftydollar!” The race came near using him uji. When h 8 stopped he had but one boot on and was bareheaded, and no one could ever find the missing articles. —Detroit Free Press.

A Strange Dream Fulfilled.

Rev. L. W. Lewis, in his reminiscences of the war, published in the Texas Christian Advocate, relates the annexed remarkable instance as literally true. The battle referred to was that of Prairie Grove, in Northwest Arkansas, fought Dec. 7,1862: “A curious fulfillment of a dream occurred at the battle under my own eye. A man by the name of Joe Williams had told a dream to many of his fellow-soldiers, some of whom had related it to me months previous to the occurrence which I now relate. 1 He dreamed that we crossed a river, marched over a mountain and camped near a church located in a wood, near which a terrible battle ensued, and in a charge just as we crossed the ravine he was shot in the breast. On the ever-memo-rable 7th of December; 1862, as we moved at a double-quick to take our place in the line of battle, then already hotly engaged, we passed Prairie Grove church, a small frame building belonging to the Cumberland Presbyterians. I was riding in the flank of the command and opposite to Williams, as -we came in view of the house. ‘ That is the church, Colonel, I saw in my dream,’ said he. I made no reply, and never thought of the matter again until in the evening. We had broken the enemy’s line, and were in full pursuit when we came upon a dry ravine in the wood, and Williams said: ‘ Just on the other side Of the hollow I was shot in my dream, and I will stick my hat under my shirt.’ Suiting the action to the word as he ran along he doubled it up and crammed it in his bosom. Scarcely had he adjusted it before a minie-ball knocked him out of line. Jumping up quickly he pulled out his hat, waved it over his head and shouted: ‘l’m all right!’ The ball raised a black spot about the size of a man’s hand just over his heart and dropped into his shoe.”

A Sad Affair.

The other night a man who lives out on Columbia street was kept down town by business until a very late hour, and his wife, knowing how cold he would be when he got home, put an iron on the stove and when she heard him open the gate she jumped up and, hurriedly wrapping the iron in a piece of flannel, chucked it in bed for him to warm his great ugly feet by. The man was cold and taciturn and cross. He crawled into bed with a growl, and shuddered with cold as he stretched himself out. Then he gave a yell that nearly lifted the roof off the house, and jammed his head through the head-board and screamed fire and waltzed out on the floor and around the room in the dark, straddling rocking-chairs and breaking his shins on bureau-corners and knocking down brackets with his shoulders and unsetting one orfwo things, and filling* the darkness with wierd, fantastic profanity. When his wife lighted the lamp, they discovered a beautiful photograph of a sad-iron on the bottom of that man’s foot, and it was found that the flannel had somehow got ofl the foot-warmer. The man says that hereafter if he must sleep with a hardware store he wants it put in cold. — Burlington Hawk-Eye.

How the Sergeant Was Fooled.

One Saturday afternoon a short time since a little, sad-eyed boy, with dirt on his chin and a tear on his nose, called at one of the police stations in New York city and asked if he could be sent to the Reform School, he being a homeless waif. As he had committed no offense he was told that he had better go to the work-house, but he replied that his brother was at the Reform School and he’d rather go there. He didn’t want to go out and steal anything, or smash some one’s plate glass window, and his anxiety to go touched the heart of a gentleman who had called on business; He consulted with the Sergeant and then said to the lad: “ I guess we can fix it. I’m going to leave my wallet- oiF the desk, and the Sergeant and I will go up-stairs. If you take the wallet it will be stealing, and you will be sent to the-Reform School.” The wallet was left, the men upstairs for a moment, and when they came down the boy was nowhere in sight; neither was the wallet, containing six dollars, and the lad and the money are still missing.

A Conductor’s Dog.

A conductor on one of the trains of the Chicago, Dubuque & Minnesota Railroad had, until a couple of days since, a Scotch terrier dog, which was his inseparable companion, and accompanied his master with unfailing regularity on all trips, the conductor going to the north end of the line one day and back the next. The dog had his place in the baggage car, and kept it all the time the train was in motion, but when the train stopped at a station he would step out to take a look at things, and when the bell yang he would resume his place in the car. He understood all the signs as well as any of the men, and when the whistle sounded “cattle on the track” the dog w r ould rush to the steps of the car and join his notes of warning with those of the whistle. Just this side of Guttenburg. a year ago, while barking at the cattle from the steps of the caf, he fell overboard, and it was supposed that he had been killed. The next morning, however, when his master’s train returned to Guttenburg, “ Scipio” was there and jumped on tfioard as if nothing had happened. He seemed to understand the time of the arrival and departure of his train, for many times when he has been absent at the house his master has found him waiting at the depot. A couple of days siuc<\ however, he met his death. The whistle had sounded a cattle alarm, and he rushed to the platform as usual. Just then the brakes were suddenly applied, giving the car a jerk that threw poor. “ Scipio” from his feet and he rolled down between the cars and was killed. —Dubuque t (Iowa) Times. ' —Don’t talk about roguery; all men are honest, if well watched. ' <