Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 November 1875 — Page 6

VARIETY AND HUMOR.

—California V hoodlums” complain that aha law against killing Chinamen is comlagto be too strictly interpreted. « —A woman was arrested at St. Albans ▼L, lately, by the customs authorities with 400 yards of black silk upon her person. —The President Las threatened the peace ot Europe bv his Thanksgiving proclamation. All.Turkeydom is in a flutter. —A Pennsylvanian named Wjngert cut his toe otT because of an aching cbm. and 'then hung himself because of the aching of the amputated toe. —Table salt is served in China dissolved in water, it being used in a fluid state. Why don't they scoop it right out of the Pacific ? — Boston Advertiser. —Santa Anna has gone into the poultry business, and will now raise hens instead of rebellions, though he confesses that he'd like one more little rebellion. —Leaves have their time to fall, Now, in November; Falls have their time to leave, Next month, December. —Detroit Tribune.. —A New Jersey: worn an has invented •“an everlasting clbthes-line;” but, alas! the head of the family has to arise in the night and take it in to avoid a shower, the same as with the old ones. —A Chicago girl worth $3,000,000 is out doing housework in order to know how to govern her own mansion when she gets one. This item is right from a Chicago ?aper and can be relied on.— Detroit Free ’ret*. —A sign in Louisville reads: PLAIN SOAI : Mi ANd VVA ; SHINUXIRE : ; MNO l. . . •%, . .i? —Somebody wants to bet that American ■Oirl will have a monument before G. Washington gets one. But you must reoicmlier that Washington never ran a mile in 2:16. In fact, the British couldn't make him run at all. — Norristown Herald. —Russia’s part in our exhibition next year may be comparatively small, but it will be interesting all the same. It will consist of products which cannot be duplicated by any other country, for they are to lie confined to those which are peculiar to her soil and climate. —A Lehigh quarryman dreamed that his w ife was a bowlder, and hurled her from the bed. He scarcely changed his mind, it is presumed, when he awoke, for ' the Item-states that she battered him worse than the fragments of a blasting explosion could Lave done ordinarily. —The increase in the number of insane comiAitted irom San Francisco the present year is 25 per cent- over the corresponding period last year. During the year 1874 the number committed was 195, while for the nine months of 1875, ending Sept. 30, the number reached 210. —For the first time since the inauguration of the letter-carrier system the free-de-livery division of the Postoffice Department has paid its expenses. For the last fiscal year there is a balance in favor of the Government of nearly SIOO,OOO, between the cost of that bureau of the service and the receipts from local postage in cities where the delivery is free. —The Jacksonville (Fla.) Press says that some $40,000 of judgments have been obtained against the city. A mandamus has been granted, requiring the Council to discharge this debt by next .1 anuary, or to stand committed for contempt. To do so they have been compelled to levy a tar of 2 per cent, upon the assessed valuation, which will yield about $50,000.

—Sheep-raising in California must be •attended with some excitement. Mr. John Maxwell, living near Blairatown, lowa, recently received from his son in California the skins of seven panthers, two black bears, fourteen lynx, one brown bear, two cubs and two gray foxes. Mr. Maxwell's son is in the sheep business, -and these pelts were the trophies gained while guarding his flocks; —ln Galveston, Tex., when a butcher fails to give satisfaction to his customers in the quality of his meat and the prices charged therefor, they take a novel way of expressing themselves. Instead ot getting their meat elsewhere and allowing the butcher’s falling off in trade to punish him, they make an effigy of the offenler, hang it before his shop, and hoot at it all night. Wketheranv improvement follows this action is not stated. r —The other day a Vicksburg wife went into the country on a visit without saying anything to, or leaving word for, her husband, , He was uneasy on returning home, and made inquiries among the neighbors. “ Gone! missing!” exclaimed one woman; “ why, I should think you’d be uneasy about her.” “ I am,” he replied, wearing a sorrowful look, “ for some one has got to split the wood to get breakfast with.” —Vicksburg Herald. —The little sense of moral obligation that a baby has is a marvel |to me. That he has any duties in life never occurs to k him. In the present only he lives, with _an idea evidently that nothing is expected of him but to grow. Where his dinner comes from matters not to him so long as he gets it. Though it may be that the milk wherein he rioteth belongeth of right to another baby, the ethical question which at once ariseth troubleth him not. —John Haul.

—The reader is not required to believe any more of the following story than he chooses: John King in 1862 lived in Tennessee. Soldiers of both parties raided on his farm. So he removed all his produce to-a cave in the Cumberland Mountains. A storm threw down a rock which closed the mouth of the cave. Therein he lived for thirteen years, in the dark, eating from his produce and drinking from a spring. The other day a railroad company, blasting tor a runnel, blasted him out. •, —Mr. .Wylie, the successful checkerplayer, has met his equal at Burlington, Vt., in a gentleman named McGregor. Out of twelve games played by them since the 15th of October each has won a single game, while ten games have, been drawn. This result seems to corroborate what has often been asserted by critical observers of the game, that its ■combinations are so comparatively few that they may often be completely'mastered by skillful players, who consequently on meeting find themselves very evenly matched.—A Y. htening Pott. —■“ Lovest thou me?” asked a MinnespoJis swain of his last year’s girl. “ Not much I don’t,” was her emphatic reply. •“ Then death is toy best friend, and here’s ta hi* health!” spoae up the sighing lover as be drank off a bottle filled with a mixture which he supposed to be laudanum. But when the emetic, which a shrewd druggist had given instead of laudanum, began to work his girl just held his hat to save the carpet and then dragged him

out on the door-steps by the hair of. his head. He has no longer any Mth in the vaunted tenderness of womens sympathetic nature.

Winter Sports.

Now that tlie rigor of winter is beginning to be felt, and lawns, arbors, and lakes and w alks must be deserted, and the young folks collected around the family stove, their thoughts will turn to toys, games and so forth, to while away the long evenings and dull days. I was talking with my young friend, Johnny Prill, the newsboy, the other day. He agreed with me that inventors had not done their duty by the young, and that there was no excitement dr fun in boxes of blocks, dancing-jacks, picture-books, or toy-billiards. “ We wants novelty,” said Johnny, as he slowly picked a cigar-stub to pieces; “ young folks gits as tired of old things as old folks do. I goes in for something new every day. To-day I hollers about the murder; to-morrow aliout the floods; next day .about the railroad slaughter; and it’s sunthin’ new everv day. Do you supposes, Mister Quad, if 1 was to holler one holler all the time that I could make a livin’ in this town after tne fust week?” My yohng friend has not the skill to manufacture a new novelty, but he has a lively imagination, and fishing up a piece of red chalk from his coat-tail pocket he sat down on the flags, spit on tne chalk, and remarked* “ Now, Mister Quad, supposes thirds a feller in a chair, and that is another feller, and that’s a girl, and that’s a baby, and that’s the hired girl, and here’s the old folks. There they set, lookin’ at each other, big tire, gas burnin’ up, and all as dumb as posts ’cause they haven’t got any new games. The wind is a-howlin’ outdoors, snow blowin’, and that family might be happy if they went in for new things.” He spit on the chalk again, moved around a little and continued : “ Well, supposes this ’ere boy goes out and gets a whip; these ’ere boys get the broomstick; the old gent here drops down on his hands and knees for a boss, and the feller with the whip makes him jump over the broomstick, just as the spotted hosses do in the circus. The girl lass, the baby kicks up his'heels, and all is joy and peace in that fam’ly, where all was gioom afore.” I encouraged the idea, and after wiping out the chalk-marks with his coat-tail he went on: “Or supposes 'this ’ere boy gits the clothes-line, harnesses the old gent to the wood-box, all thc children pile in and. (lie hoss walks away. Wouldn’t that ’ere leetle innercent baby just put {at on to his ribs, though! Supposes the hoss draws ’em all round to here all O K and then balks and kicks. Crowd comes around, the driver puts on the whip, harness gets broke and finally he runs away and falls into a sewer. There’d be a hull hour of fun for them innercent children, and they’d go to bed feelin’ like playful lambs ana foxes and rabbits.” “But would the old man do it?” I asked, as Johnny’s coat-tail again swept the chalk-marks out of existence. He’d be bound to. They are his chilHferiV and he’s gbrtff perwldh fbr’enn —I guess the law would fix him mighty quick if he let them innercent children *set up there on them stuffed chairs with nuthin’ to uo but look at the stove and the rug,” Having a clean spot again he put the chalk to the flags, and continued: “ Suppose the old man gets a telegraph to go to Chicago and he hain’thome. Them children can’t set there on them stuffed chairs just’cause the old man is out of town. Well, what does the mother do but gets down like this and purtendsto be a dog, and growls and barks and shows her teeth. They gits the baby on the sofa, and this ’ere boy takes a piller, that one a rug, and this one the broom, and they goes in to give that dog such fits as will learn him to never take another hunk out’n a boy’s hind leg. I can almost hear that innercent leetle baby hollerin’ for joy!” “ It might work,” I said, in a doubtful voice. “ She’d have to work, Mister Quad. I don’t know much’bout law, but I know the children has got to be cared for if it takes the house down. It’s agin the law for the women to paint and powder and git-on fash’nable clothes and things till tlie children has been brung up.” As I made no reply he erased the marks and said: “ Or supposes the hired girl has freckles on her nose and loves children. Here’s the stairs, here, and here’s the hired girl goin’ up. The children all git together here by the hall door, and the hired girl rolls down stairs head over heels, and that innercent leetle baby lass till they have to pat him on the back! Wouldn’t that be bully, Mister Quad, and couldn’t that fam’ly afford to raise the wages of that hired girl?” “The hired gill might refuse,” I suggested. “ She dasn’t—you bet shedasnt! Hired firls is hired to help bring up the chilren, cook ’taters, mop off tlie steps, and let their beaus in at the side gate. She’d be a purty hired girl if she wouldn’t roll -downstairs to make fun for all them nice children, and she’d be discharged quicker’n spit!". The boy’s idea may be a little crude, but he speaks for the whole rising generation, and I demand that fathers and mothers and hired girls give his ideas their attention.— M. Quad, in N. T. Graphic.

A Novel Race.

Plainsmen will be surprised to hear that there is something in the world that can run faster than a jack-raboit. As a passenger-train on the Union Pacific, heading east, was rattling along over the Laramie Plains the other night, the engineer, A 1 Johnson, looking from the cab down along ■. the gleaming rails, espied a huge jack-rabbit bounding over the ties about thirty feet ahead of the cow-catcher. The engineer put on more steam, and the ponderous locomotive shot ahead like an arrow, but the rabbit pricked up his ears and struck out at the rate of twenty Jeet a jump. Johnson’s pride was touched. His locomotive is one of the biggest anti swi%> est on the line, and he was afraid it he let that jack-hare outran him the boy! would find it out, and he would forever disgraced. So he turned on more steam and the engine made a bound under the elo.ud of smoke which belched from the smokestack, and the telegraph-poles danced past wildly, but jack let out another section of his legs and kept right along down the level grade just out of reach of the cowcatcher. For five miles and a quarter the locomotive and rabbit kept up this speed, when the latter began to weaken. Johnson, reining in his iron-horse, went out on the pilot, and, leaning forward, reached out and picked up the rabbit as the en-gine-jolted along slQwly. —Benner (Col.) Fetes.

Tricks for the Home Circle.

THE CANDLE THICK. One of the simplest tricks in this department of fireside entertainments is the candle trick. Take a common tallow candle, in a brass candlestick, light it and let it stand until it has got a good head on. Then let one of the children, a boy about fourteen years old is best, take the candle, shake the grease from around the wick, and, opening his mouth very wide, stick the candle in it, immediately closing his lips. Tlie candle will not go out, but will shine through the boy’s distended checks with a ruddy glow. Now let the parent suddenly chuck the boy smartly under the chin. The candle will lie observed to go out immediately, or at least it will come out just as soon as the boy can get his teeth out of the tallow. This win teach tlie boy who swallows the candle never to attempt uncertain tricks when his lather is mean enough to plav practical jokes on his own chilaren. The other children will appreciate the lesson. —— THE E(JG TRICK. Procure a large egg, Brahma eggs are the best, and on the large end draw a cross with a lead pencil, and on the opposite end draw another smaller cross in ink. Place the egg, after showing the children the marks and permitting them to examine it carefully, so they will know it the next time they see it, upon tlie head of the oldest boy present, or if there is a grandfather handy with a bald head, balance the egg on his head. Then let one of the company take a large book and see if he can strike tlie egg hard enough to break it. To the surprise of everybody the egg will be suppressed at the first blow. Then you can show the person on whose head it was balanced the two crosses marked on the shell to prove that it was the same egg lie saw in its entirety, but he will probably be too cross to have much interest in tlie matter. This is not a very difficult trick, and can be quite easily learned, but care should be exercised in the selection of the egg. An egg that had been manufactured before the war would be apt to create an unpleasantness if it should be used in this trick. The dog trick. This trick is not always easy to perform, on account of the necessity of introducing a strange dog into the family circle. You must entice a strange dog, the more unsociable tlie better, into the room. Then let one of tlie company take hold of its ears, and hold the dog still, while another ties its tail in a bow-knot. If the dog has been properly trained and does his part of the trick promptly there will be lour or five legs in that room chuck full of dog’s teeth before the first wrinkle is laid in that knot. - This will teach the children to let a dog’s tail retain the shape which nature has given it. Any dog of average sagacity can be taught to perform this trick in two or three days’ practice. A terrier is generally considered better lor this experiment than a bull dog, because it doesn’t hold on so long, and knows when it has had enough. THE CHAIR TRICK. You can derive a never-ending fund of amusement by properly improving a common chair. With an ordinary hand-saw cut off about an inch and a half of the right front leg of the chair and about the same length from the left hind leg. Then keep the chair in a conspicuous place. No matter wElch oT'tlie short legS"imnay be resting upon when anybody sits down in.it, it will immediately keel over on_ the other one, and the party using it will wail and shriek in the liyeliest terror. No house should be without one of these chairs. They will be found very useful in the case of visitors.who drop in about dinner time. —Burlington Hawk-Eye.

A Very Remarkable Case.

A remarkable case occurred last week in one of our public schools, presenting a phase of character on the part of two young scholars which puzzles the astute and observing teachers. The sacque of a little eirl was one day, it was supposed, taken from the cloak-room. The Principal went into the lower department and inquired if any of tlie scholars had seen it. Several hands went up; on inquiry, however, it was found that none of the scholars could trace it beyond the cloak-room; but one little fellow six years of age, who had raised his hand at first, said he knew whereitrwas and then, commencing to cry, said he had never seen it and knew nothing about it. Going into the apartment above the Principal made the same inquiry. No one had seen the sacque, but a brother of the little six-year-old seemed to feel uneasy at the question, and evinced some emotion. He was eight years old. The teacher, seeing what The coneeived to be evidence of knowledge in regard to the sacque on the part of the two little brothers, called out the elder one and asked him where the sacque was. At first he denied any knowledge in regard to it, but, the Principal questioning him mildly and kindly, the little fellow finally said that he took the sacque, but he declined to tell where it was. Tlie Principal visited the boys parents, who are worthy and respected people, and in the presence of the boys stated what had occurred. The parents at once directed the boys to tell frankly and fully all they knew about the sacque. The oldest said* that on leaving school he took thesaeque, put it under his overcoat and started for his home; that on the- way another boy snatched it from him and ran off with it. His little brother said he saw the boy snatch away the sacque. Neither could identify this boy. When it was suggested that tlie eld-

er boy’s overcoat was so small that lie could not get a sacque under*.it, he said: “1 guess a girl rolled it up' into a very small trad and put it under there.” On inquiry it became evident that no such snatching incident had occurred. The case had now become interesting, and a policeman was sent to interview the eight-year-old boy, who had all the time been quite calm and self-possessed, though contradictory in ins Stories. The policeman interviewed the boy at the schoolhouse. The boy told him that he took the sacque, Slid had hidden it in a vacant lot between two -stumps, where he covered it with dry leaves. The policeman requested the boy to go with him to the place ot concealment, and he readily consented. He. led tim. policeman, not toward a vacant lot, hut into & street of I dwelling-houses. The policeman asked the boy if this, was the right direction to the stumps, and hq said it was. But ffie surroundings did hot appear right, and the policeman again inquired: “ You are not deceiving me, are you? You are not leading me to your* home?”—the policeman hot knowing where he lived. The boy coolly replied: “ Oh, no! this is the right way; I’ll show you the stumpsand in a moment more the little tel low dodged into his own house, leaiing the policeman out in the cold. Finally the boy’s mother permitted the policeman to take him over to a fire-engine house to see if he could get from him the true story of this affair. The boy Went along without fear or emotion. He finally took the policeman into a lot, showed him

‘.wo stumps near together and said: “There is tlie place where I hid thesaeque.” But there was no evidence that any sacque had been hidden there; it did not appear at all like a place cf concealment, and, the boy’s story being contradictory, the policeman took him to the engine-house and shut him into a room, asking him how he liked tliat. The boy mildly replied: “I rather like this.” Leaving him there for a time it was found on opening the door that he had lain himself down and gone to sleep! The policeman then took him to the station-house, put him in a dark cell and, partly closing tlie door, told him that he must tell truly where the sacque was or he would shut him in. The, boy then utterly refused to tqll him anything more. The policeman then asked him: “ How do you like,this place?” The boy replied: “I like it well enough,” and did not appear to be at all disturbed at the prospect of a gloomy confinement. The policeman shut the door and then inquired: “How do you like it now ?” The boy replied: .“I likg- this pretty well; it is a pretty good place.” The policeman was astounded to find utter indifference and composure on the part of a boy of eight years when confined in a dark cell that had so often subdued hardened men. He said to the boy: “If you hear any rats in the cell you must call to me loudly, and I will come and drive them oft'.” “If 1 hear any rats,” quietly replied the boy, “lwill let you know;” and there the little fellow remained through the afternoon without a whimper or complaint. At the approach of evening he was taken out, and appeared no more alarmed or disturbed than if he had been in the parlor of his home. He was sent to his parents; and policeman, teacher and parents were puzzled over this strange case. But now comes the most singular part of this remarkable story. The next day the sacque was found, and the circumstances attending it were such as to render it impossible for the little boy accused or his brother to have anything to do with it, or even to have seen it. And this settled fact throws a still greater mystery around the stories of the two little brothers, and especially the action ot the oldest one. He was not treated harshly by the Principal, who mildly and kindly attempted to impress upon him the duly of telling the truth in regard to the sacque. The only harsh treatment he received was while he was shut up, and this seemed to make no impression upon him. He is a remarkable boy, evidently, and an ordinarily good and faithful boy. But what singular phase of character is it that induced him to say so readily that he took the sacque when he had never seen it; and to give some particulais as to what he did with it, all of which were purely imaginary ? And the conduct and evidence of his little six-year-old brother, too, who said lie saw a boy snatch a sacque away, is also inexplicable. A Vermont man, who was some years since accused of murdering one of his neighbors, confessed the crime, and gave all the particular of it. He was sentenced to be hanged; but his life was saved by the sudden reappearance of the individual supposed to have been murdered—there having been no murder or violence at all. This case is a matter of judicial record and a puzzle to judges and lawyers. That "confession” was by a manoi mature years, of ecftication and of good character. Now comes a “confession,” also of an offense never committed, by a boy of tender years; and it is corroborated by a little brother, who never saw anything of tlie kind which he says he saw. The story, in which is involved a peculiar phase of human character, or the working of tlie mind under sefious accusations, is something for teachers, as well as lawyers and judges, to reflect upon and define, if they can. —Hartford {Conn.) Times, Nov. 1.

Light Sovereigns.

The Bank of England clips every light sovereign that comes into tlie bank. The weighing of every sovereign is accomplished quickly; they weigh 3,000 in an hour with one machine. Mr. Palmer, the Deputy-Governor, informed the House of Commons Select Committee of last session on banks of issue that last year the Bank of England weighed coin to the amount of £23,100,000, and rejected £840,000, or about 3. 6 per cent., as being light gold. For this last amount the bank paid tlie value,, making a deduction for the deficiency of weight, which is generally about 3u. or 4d. per light sovereign. It was stated to tlie committee that boxes of correctlyweighed gold, sent by the Bank of England to Scotland, trequently came back without having been opened, and Mr. Palmer stated that there is then some reduction for light weignt. He explained this by adding that the mere shaking of the sovereigns on the journey will make a slight difference. Mr. Hodgson, M. P., a bank director, stated that in a box of 5,000 sovereigns the number which would be found to have turned tlie point would generally be about eight if they have not been disturbed; and he added: “ You are aware that the sovereign which is in your pocket at eight o’clock in the morning is not the eame sovereign at twelve o’clock at night.” After this rather alarming announcement it is satisfactory to find Mr. Hodgson stating also that the charge for light weight on the eight deficient sovereigns would be about 2d. per coin, making only 16d. on the box of £5,000: so that, says he, “it really amounts to nothing.” —London Times.

How a Grizzly Treed Them.

The Calistoga (Cal.) Free Press spins a yarn of which the following is a condensed version, fbout two young Englishmen, Messrs. Tupman and Perkins, who recently went hunting on Mt St, Helena: They had camped for the night and were awakened early by the growling of some wild beast. They were sofnewhat astonished when they found themselves in close proximity to a large grizzly, a regular old pioneer, but, nothing daunted, these unsophisticated Englishmen slashed into the “Bloody Hamerican beast,” which attack bruin returned with all the ardor of his big California soul, and chased them up a couple of trees. Having left their arms on the ground to take care of themselves bi\iin was perfectly safe and kept them up there for his own amusement, occasionally striking ons of the trees viciously, causing the Johnny Bulls to tremble for their lives. Perkins says: “1 think we are safe, Tupman; if thej are like lions they can’t climb.” *‘No,” observed Tupman, “ but they can jump like the deuce.” “ Oh, heavens! we are gone then,” cried Perkins, as the bear began -to gnaw madly at his tree. “ Oh, don’t aggravate Sun, Tuppy! Don’t make him mid. Oh! blast the bloody country!” Tupman gave him to*underetand that he was not bothering the brute. The bear thus kept them in hot water all day, and when night came on departed; but his prisoners preferred to hold their trees until the next morning, when they came down and returned to Calistoga, declaring they were going straight norne.

AGRICULTURAL AND DOMESTIC.

—Milch cows should be housed cold nights. If suffered to be on the cold ground they are chilled and will give less milK. It is economy to take the best care of cows and make them comfortable at all times. —Sheep and young stock should be protected from cold rams and long storms during the late autumn. Sheep, when thoroughly drenched by cold rains, suffer greatly from cold winds and often are seriously injured. —A correspond! * of the Prairie Farmer says eoal-oi .mps will be much safer to use if the H-/wl is loosely filled with raw cotton or before putting in any oil. Incase c < plosion or falling on the floor the bum.ig fluid cannot fly all over everything. —Plows, harrows, wagons and other farming implements should be stored un der shelter. More tools are destroyed by exposure to the weather than are worn out. A valuable farm cart, by exposure to the weather during one winter, will be damaged more than by three years’ use. —lt seems really wonderful to look back and note the rapid stride toward perfection which that lovely class o t flowers, double geraniums, has made. Avery few • years have elapsed since flower-lovers were elated by tlie advent of number one, poor as it was, and now we have them in almost all the tints that this flower is capable of producing.— N. Y. Tribune. —Varnish-brushes should never be allowed to touch water, as it not only injures the elasticity of the hair, but a resinous substance is formed in the hilt of the brush, wMfcL can never be thoroughly removed, and which will work out little by little when the brush is used, destroying the glassy surface which otherwise might be obtained.— Western Manufacturer. —Rock Cream.—Wash a teacupful of the best rice, and boil slowly until quite soft in new milk; add white sugar to taste, and then pile it on a dish. Lay on in different places lumps of Jelly or thick preserved fruit. Beat the whites of five eggs to a stiff froth, with a little sugar and flavoring. When well beaten add a tablespponful of rich cream, and drop it over the rice, imitating the form of a rock of snow. —The Joumal of Chemistry warns the drinkers of water of wells near dwellings to beware of the typhoid poison sure to be found sooner or later in those reservoirs if any of the house drainage can percolate them. The gelatinous matter often found upon the stones of a well is a poison to the human system, probably by its spores a fermentation of the blood, with abnormal heat or fever. Wholesome, untainted water is always, free from all color and odor. To test it thoroughly, place half a pint in a clear bottle, with a few grains of lump sugar, and expose it, stoppered, to sunlight in a window. If, even after an exposure of eight or ten days, the water becom'es turbid, be sure that the water has been contaminated by sewage of some kind. If it remains perfectly clear it is pure and safe.

Fatten Live Stock Gradually.

It is always better in every respect to keep domestic animals growing and fattening gradually than to allow them to run in the fields for several months, having only a short supply of grass, clover and a bite of meal, ana then commence feeding them all they will eat and more than their stomachs can digest. Some farmers differ as to the propriety of feeding meal at all to pastured cattle, some insisting that it only destroys their appetite for the grass, and that if fed on the latter alone they will improve in condition more rapidly and steadily than in any other way. This is certainly not true with all animals, as for example with the case just mentioned; but there are others which have a natural propensity to flesh that seem to improve best on rich pasturage alone, doubtless partly in consequence of the long-continued and regular supply of good food which they thus receive as contrasted with sudden and irregular grain feedings. A great many farmers entertain the opinion that animals may be fattened in a few weeks and fitted for market -byi_heavy feeding, or, as it is termed, “ pushing.” Many farmers do not think of beginning to fatten their hogs or cattle for early winter market until autumn has actually commenced. Their food is then suddenly changed, and they are dosed with large quantities of grain or meal. This sudden change often deranges the system, and it is frequently some time before they recover from it. The attempt to fatten a poor animal in six weeks reminds one of the puff advertisements to teach “ French in six lessons.” From observation and inquiry we find that the most successful managers adopt a very different course—feed moderately, with great regularity, and for a long-continued period. Regularity they find of the utmost importance, and they particularly avoid the course recommended by a correspondent a year or two since to give “a feeding of meal now and then.” The most successful pork-raiser that we have met with commence the fattening of swine intended for winter market early in the preceding spring. We might almost say he commences the preceding autumn, for he keeps hi 3 young swine in a rapidly growing condition all through winter. lie always begins moderately,' and increases the amount gradually and with great uniformity, taking care never to place before the animal more than it will freely eat. With this treatment, and attending strictly to cleanliness, and the comfort of the animal at the same time, his spring pigs at ten months usually exceed 300 pounds, and sometimes have gone as kigh as 450 pounds, and wintered pigs run as high as 500 to 600. The corn, which is ground and scalded before feeding, nets him one dollar per bushel when pork sells at five cents per pound. Some of the most successful producers of fat live stock believe that feeding large quantities of grain or meal at one time is attended with more waste than profit. This opinion, says the Country Gentleman, has been corroborated by the careful experiments of a number of farm era, and, among others, an accurate and enterprising neighbor, who weighs all his animals weekly, informs us that a fine’ steer when fed regularly each day with four quarts of barley meal gained eighteen pounds per week. Being urged to.” push” this aiiimal, he increased. his feed to eight quarts daily, with a diminution in his growth. The feed was then increased to twelve quarts, when he scarcely gained at all. Another, and an extensive cattle faitener, informed us that he and a neighbor commenced fattening each a fine steer at the same time, the neighbor’s being the Heavier at the start Our informant fed four quarts of meal daily; his neighbor fed twelve quarts. When they were slaughtered the latter was the inferior animal of the two in weight. We have in mind an old cow, naturally

raw-boned, which was fed by the owner with the view of convertiqg her iojp. beef, commencing about the middle of autumn, or as soon as the com was ripe, with the hope of turning her off to the butcher about the first of winter. She was stuffed with all she could eat, and by the end of the year had scarcely gained in weight. The owner concluded that she aid not take on flesh naturally, and there was no use in trying to fatten her, and she passed into other hands, where she received different treatment. Before winter was over a regular system of feeding with barley meal was commenced, first with, only a pint each night and morning, which was afterward gradually increased to a quart. In a few weeks the improved appearance of the animal was quite visible; she was placed in good pasture, and by the middle of summer her feed had been gradually increased to two quarts each night and morning. By tlie first of autumn she had become fat, sleek and beautiful, and was sold for a generous price to the butcher. The point that we desire to urge on the rural readers of the Herald at the present time is a caution against the common error of attempting to fatten suddenly by overdosing with grain and meal as a sort ol compensation lor the previous starvation and raw-boned system of treatment. Instead of beginning to fatten jnst.at the last stages of an animal’s life the work should be commenced as soon as it is born, at least so far as preserving a good growing, healthy condition right onward, without any interruption, through winter and summer. Farmers who practice on this plan make tlie largest profits and can dispose of their herds at any time- for high prices. Their less successful neighbors term them “always lucky,” hut do not seem to be aware of the truth of the old saying that “ Diligence is the mother of good luck.” At this season of the year a great many farmers put an old cow, heifer or steer in a field alone to be fattened. The better way is to allow such an animal to run with the cows during the day and at night put him in a shed or stable well ventilated' and give him or her a comfortable bed of straw’ and a feeding of meal. — N. Y. Herald.

Swindling Farmers.

There is a class of people who make swindling of farmers a specialty. They are like a clam out of water when not thus engaged; and the only way we know for the farmer to rid himself of them is to do with them as he would with a clam—eat ’em up. You cannot effectually drive them off. They will pounce down on you somewhere—if not on the farm < the first time you go to town; and it is necessary, therefore, to be always on your guard. We do not mean that you are to be incredulous when anything of merit conies before you, and credulous when King Humbug himself appears to view. Then there are so many ways by which these swindlers work. If they cannot get your money they will have you sign an apparently harmless note. If they cannot do that they will adopt some course by which, if the farmer gives way at all, he is sure to find himself in the cellar in the end. To illustrate we will give a case just sent us by a Patron of Penn Grange, No. 542, Butler County, Pa. It happened only a few miles from Butler borough:

A man about thirty-five years of age, medium height and of light complexion, made his appearance in the neighborhood, ostensibly to buy a farm. He represented himself as having lately been engaged in the lumber trade at or near Altoona, Pa. He agreed to pay SIOO down to elose the bargain, and was very particular in binding McP. to keep the farm in good order and the fences in good repair until fall, at which time he was to receive possession. The parties repaired to Butler to conclude their business. The stranger presented a check for SSOO at one of the Butler banks, but being a stranger the bank officials refused to cash it unless indorsed by some responsible party. Unfortunately Mr. McP. was “ mild’’ enough to indorse the check. The sharper paid McP. SIOO and has not been heard from since. A telegram to Altoona revealed the fact that the check was worthless, but it was too late; the sharper had got away with S4OO. As these swindlers will continue to follow their nefarious business so long as they are successful the best plan by which to escape their snares is for.every farmer to be a constant reader of some good, live paper. Occasional reports of these swindling operations keep the reader on the alert. Where he fails to read he becomes slack in these things, and along comes one of the “ fancy men,” who robs him in one half-hour ot more clear cash than it would take to pay for a dozefi newspapers a whole generation.—Marrows’ Friend.

—The number of pupils attending daily the San Francisco public schools was, during the past year, 21,014. The average attendance at the private and church schools was 6,094, and 5,278 children went to no school whatever. The cost of maintaining the public schools was $707,445.36; the total value of the school property of the city is $2,367,000. The average annual salary of each teacher is $1,021.13; the average cost of tuition for each pupil was $29.82. The total expenditures of the department since its organization in 1852 have been $7,610,043. An Aroostook (Me.) paper says that the prospect for lumbering this winter is not very encouraging. The lumber biarket is so dull, and so much of last year’s stock on hand at the present time, that it is very doubtful if many operators Venture into the woods. It is authoritatively stated that. no less than 78.2 per cent, of the warnings issued by John Bull’s “ Old Probabilities” during 1874 were justified by subsequent weather. ~

Symptoms of Catarrh.

Dull, heavy headache, obstruction of the nasal passages, discharges falling from the head into the throat, eome.ti.mes profuse, watery and acrid, at others ’ thick, tenacious, mucous, purulent, bloody and putrid; the dyes are weak, watery and lrtjiamcd; there is ringing in the ears, deafness, hacking or coughing to clear the throat, expectoration of offensive matter, together with scabs from Ulcers; the voice is changed and has a nasal twang, the breath is offensive,, smell ail’d taste arc impaired; there is a sensation of dizziness, mental depression, bucking cough and general debility. Only a few of the above-named symptoms are, however, likely to be present in any one case. There is no" disease more common than Catarrh, and less understood by physicians. DB. SACK’S CATARRH REMEDY is beyond all comparison the best preparation for Catarrh ever discovered. Under the influence of its mild, soothing and healing properties the disease soon yields. The Golden Medical Discovery should be taken to cotroct the blood, which is always at fault, and to act specifically upon the diseased glands and lining membrane Of the nose. The Catarrh Remedy should be applied warm with Dr. Pierce ’* Xatal DoticTie —the 'only instrument by which fluids can lie perfectly injected into all the.passugcs and chambers of the nose from which discharges proceed. These medicines are sold by Druggists.