Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 December 1875 — Page 8

A Danburian's Saturday Night.

It i*«MuMtar nigfct-thedearclooe ®f a torolng, struggling, restless week. Tkunarrnw tai* Babbsth-when all labor and care are held in abeyance. Sat- “ Thus far shaft thou come, and no his home. He looks ahead and sees the light streaming in cheerful radiance from the windows, and wonders if that boy has got in the kindlings. He steps Upon the stoop and opens the 'door. His faithful wife meets him at the entrance and greets him with: “ Why on earth don’t you clean your feet, and not lug the house - full of mud? Don’t you know I've been scrubbing all day?” And thus he steps into the room of his family, grateful for the mercies he has received, and thankful that he has a home to come to -when the worry and care and toil of the week are done. Yes, he is home now, and has set his din-ner-pail on one chair and laid his hat and coat on another, and with his eyes full of soap from the wash is shotting impetuously for the towel. Saturday night in the household! What a beautiful sight! The bright light, the cheerful figured carpet, the radiant stove, the neatly-laid table, with the steaming teapot, the pictures on the walls, the spotleas curtains, the purring cat, and the bright-eved children rubbing the plates with the\r fingers and looking hungrily at the canned cherries. Even the wearied wife is visibly affected, and as she steps to a closet with his hat and coat she unconsciously observes to her husband: “Will you never learn to hang your things up, or do you think I’ve got nothin' else to do but chase after you all the while you are in the house?” He makes no reply, but as he drops into his seat at the table with a sigh of relist he says: “ What’s the matter with that infernal lamp? Is the oil all out, or ain’t the chimney been cleaned ? It don’t give no more light than a fire-bug.” “Turn it up, then,’’she retorts. “It; was right enough when I put it on tlie table, but I suppose the children have been fooling with it. They never can keep their hands out of mischief for an instant"

"I’ll fool them,” he growls, “if they dent keep their fingers on’n things." After this sally a silence reigns, broken only by a subdued rustle of plates ana cutlery. Then conies a whisper from one of the youths, which is promptly met in a loud key by the mother: “Not another mouthful, I tell you. You have had one dish already and that’s enough. I ain’t going to be up all night wrestling around with you, young woman; and the quicker you straighten that face the better it’ll be for you.’’ The offender looks with abashed inquiry into the faces of her brothers and sisters and gradually steals a glance into the face of her father; but finding no sympathy there falls to making surreptitious grimaces at the mother, to the relief of heroelf and the intense edification of the other children.

The tea is finally over, that delightful Saturday night’s meal, and as the appeased father stretches back in his chair and looks dreamily at the flame dancing in the stove he says to his first-born: “ Is them kindlings cut, young man ?” Of course they nave not been, and the youth replies: “ I’m going right out to do it now,” and steps about lively for his hat. “You’d better; and if I come home again and find them kindlings not cut I won’t leave a whole bone in your body. Do you hear me!" “Yes, pa." “Well, then, start your boots." They are started, and the relieved father comes back with his eyes to the glad flame, and watches it abstractedly, while his thoughts are busy with the bright anticipations of the coming day ot rest. "Ain’tyou going down street, or are you going to sit there all night!” asks his wife. He turns around ana looks at her. It's a sort of mechanical movement without any apparent expresston. “There's got to be something got for dinner tomorrow, and I want you to go to Adam’s an’ see if my hat is done, an* Thomas must have a pair of shoes, an’ there ain’t a Ut of blacking in thq house,” resumes the mother. "You can tell Burroughs that that last butter he sent up ain’t fit for a hog to eat, an* if he ain't got anything better than that we don’t want it. You’d better get a small piece of pork while you are down, an’ if you see Parks ask him when he’s coming here to fix that wall. He has got the plaster off. an’ there it stands, an' there’s no use of try iiig-to put the room to rights until the wall is fixed. I don’t see what the old fool is thinking of to leave a room like that.” Hereupon the head of the house gets upon his feet, takes a brief, longing glance at the pleasant stove, and wants to know wherein thunder his coat and hat are and if nothing can be left where it is put. Then she tells him that if he looks where he ought to he’d find the things fast enough. He does find them and then goes into the kitchen, and a moment later appears with a very red face, and passionately asks if a basket can be kept in tha house for five minutes at a tune, and moodily follows his wife to where the basket is, and looks still more moody when he is brought face to face with it and sarcastically asked if he could see a barn if it was in front of his nose. Thus primed with the invigorating utterances of the home circle he tofiresup, his basket and goes down street, leaving his faithfill wife to stand as a wall of granite between the children and the canned cherries', and to finish up the work. As he reaches the gate the .door opens and she shouts after him: “ liemember to get some matches; there ain’t one in the house; and don’t be all night, for I’m tired an’ want to get to bed at a decent hour, if possible." “Go to bed, then, an’ shut up your mouth!” and with this parting injunction he strides gloomily out into the darkness. It is not exactly known what he is thinking of as he moves along, but it is doubtless of the near approach of the Sabbath. Ashe comes into the light of the store-wit is evident that bright influences and tender memories and glad anticipations are .weaving themselves in his heart, for he meets Parks with a smile, and after a pleasant chat about the winter’s prospects they part laughing. Only twice in the trip does his face fall, and that’s when he goes in after her hat and when he gets the shoes. A half-hour later he is in the grocery sitting on a barrel, while his goods are being put up, and carrying on an animated discussion with the grocer and several acquaintances. At nine o'clock be starts for home. He has several receipted bills in his pocket—each of which being in excess, of course, of what his wife estimated before he left home; and as he struggles along with an aching arm, and stumbles against various obstructions, he remembers it is Saturday night, the end of the week of toil, and tries to recall bits of

verses and sentences of beautiful sentiment appropriate to th® hour. He don't believe in grumbling at everybody, and so he reserves his tipable with the grocery bill, his indignation at the milliner, and the various annoyances he has been subjected to until he gets home, and then he hurls his thunder at all these people and objects through the head of his wife. And she, the dear companion of his life, having got the children from back of the stove and to bed, by the hair, and discovered that he has forgotten the matches, and got more bone than meat in the steak, is fully prepared to tell him just what she thinks of him. And while they talk, the flame in the stove dances happily, the lamp sheds a rich, soft glow .over the room, and the colors in the carpet and in the pictures, and the reflective surfaces of the mantel ornaments, blend into a scene of quiet beauty, It ia the night before the Sabbath—the calm, restful Sabbath—and as the two workers prepare to seek their well-earned repose, she says that if she has got to be harassed like this she’ll be in her grave before the winter is over, and he is confident that if the bi Ils keep mounting up as they are doing the whole family will be in the poor-house the first thing they know.— Danbury News.

A New York Cavern.

Says the Watertown (N. Y.) Times of a recent date: On Saturday evening, between nine and ten o'clock, six young men went into the Moulton street cave, on the north side of the river. This is the same cave that was investigated by the large party on Thursday afternoon. The young men report substantially as follows: They came out ofUhe cave about 3:30 o’clock the next morning, having been underground about six hours. They took withihem nine balls of hemp twine, and payed it all out before they started to return. They bore continually to the left, seeking every opening on that side. They reached a limit after unwinding about three balls of twine, and this point was very near the falls, as they could hear the roar of the water in a slightly-inclined direction above them. Before reaching this limit they came to a room ten or fifteen feet high, containing a remarkable curiosity. The trunk of a pine tree, two and a half feet in diameter, somewhat decayed on the outside, passed through the room, and the sections not visible were tightly imbedded in the rock above and below. They made another discovery which they coufd not account for, near this tree. Mr. Heath, the smallest one of the party, managed with difficulty to crawl through a hole, and there he found a small, close cavern, and through the rock above came a perpendicular iron pipe about four and a half feet long, and at the end of this Was a brass stopcock. Mr. Heath turned the cock and the water streamed through. Some one in this city may be able to explain this arrangement, and if so we hope to hear from him. The party returned from the fills, winding up the twine, and on the way noticed a round hole which had before escaped their observation, making a fork in the passage. Through this they went on hands and feet, and soon came to high rooms and passages. They report one remarkable room, nearly half as large as the public square, high and handsome, with almost no obstructions except natural columns of rock at intervals, extending from roof to roof. This they considered the grand discovery of the night. Beyond this they came to a long, high, dry passage, through w-hich they walked rapidly for a long distance, and then their twine gave out, and they had to stop with that passage only partially explored. Their discoveries increase the presumption that the cave is of very great extent, with a multitude of ramifications and places of interest. At least one dxtwo entire days should be spent by a equipped party in its further exploration. „. The “ ice cave,” in which the rooms and passages are said to be higher than those of the Moulton street cave, is to be investigated very soon. There are indications that this cave is connected with an underground lake.

Practical Hints.

The editor of the very truly says that there are often floating about on the great sea of agricultural literature many little hints which, if gathered together, would make an extremely usefill volume, and he proceeds to dish up the following among others: One person had a long pale fence, which it was necessary to remove. The posts had to be dug out; but to save them a couple of oxen were attached to a leyer, which drew them out easily. The lever in this case was simply a chain, and the prop a short, thick Jog of wood inclined at an angle toward the post to be lifted and away from the oxen. The chain or rope when attached to the bottom of the post pulls it out easily when the oxen draw the short block upright. There is a useful hint in this, although as a general thing a man with a good lumber log-lever will easily draw out any ordinary post. Another person has had trouble with the drawing out of staples from barn doors and Screws from hinges. He drove pegs into the holes and put the irons in again; but they would soon come out, wooden pegs and all. Then he used leather, which was better than wooden pegs, but in time the latter got used to the pressure and let the staples out. Then he filled the holes tightly with cork, and put in the screws and - irons, and they have’remained in perfect condition to this day. In connection with this matter of staples is another hint from one who wanted a ring set into a piece of stone. He ran lead into the hole about the ring, but in time it got Ipose and worked out. Then he was told to melt brimstone and run it in the place of lead, which he did, and it has been sound and solid ever since. Thqre is nothing new in this; stone-cut-ters generally use sulphur for cementing pieces together; but still the hint will be Valuable to those for whom the contributor intended it. And then here is one more before us, which completes a very good chapter of little hints from one day's reading. It is in relation to garden dibbles. The contributor has to use one often, and he had the upper part of the handle of an old spade, as so many do, for that purpose. He had it pointed with iron, which was an improvement; but it still required some force to press it into the ground, apd it was by no means easy work. At length the had the point of the dibble- made flat, like a wedge, and then pointed it with iron, as before, and found after that that dibbling was comparatively easy work to what it had been before. He has “no blisters on his hands now,” for which he may well be thankful. T -T *** —Cassimir Sauer, an insane man, arrested in Hoboken, N. «J-> a few days a go, had in his pocket a paper purporting to be his will, bequeathing his body to the Emperor of Germany, his soul to the President of the United States, his dog to the Governor of New Jersey and his clothes to his wife.

In an Opium-Den.

A walk through the Chinese quarter of San Francisco presents one of the most entertaining and instructive phases of California life. It is China reproduced, with its architecture, costumes, dialect and smells. The long lines of trotting “ coolies,” with their baskets slung on poles; the dapper merchant in silk and broadcloth; the gaudily-arrayed women, vermilion-daubed and gliding along with a slipshod, mincing gait; the ugly “gingerbread” houses; the quaint signs and swinging paper lanterns; the stores packed with foreign wares and curiosities; the Joss-houses,” inhabited by jolly old idols soothed with pots of steaming incenseare all suggestive of the Orient and render it difficult for one to realize that he has just stepped off of Montgomery street and rather favor the idea that, by some magical power or other, he has been transported in an instant to the heart of pagan Asia. The other night, as I was strolling leisurely through Chinadom with a friend, we noticed a crowd passing in and out of a brightly-lighted shop on Dupont street. It required but a glance to see that they were confirmed opium-smokers. The haggard features and ghastly complexion, the stooping shoulders, the glazed, expressionless eye, the halting, unsteady gait, betokened the victims of the deadly drug. Just inside the door, seated at a small table, was a sleek, well-fed Chinaman, busily weighing out a glutinous substance resembling tar, a very differentlooking article from the well-known opium of commerce. In order to render the latter fit for use it is boiled at least three .hours, then digected in water, then strained and finally boiled again until, all fibrous matter having been removed, nothing remains but the pure drug in a high-ly-concentrated and semi-fluid state. It is then ready for smoking and is retailed in little boxes of buffalo horn holding about a thimbleful, which are refilled as occasion requires. Being curious to know how John conducts himself while indulging in his favorite ana secret luxury, we picked out an individual w-ho had secured his evening supply, and# followed him. After much wandering through dark r.nd tortuous alleys, where more than oncewe nearly lost sight of our unconscious guide, he knocked at the door of a large, dilapidated, two-story building, whose darkened windows gave no sign of life within. After a slight delay the door w-as opened cautiously and our pilot admitted. Before it could be closed I crowded into the opening and was confronted by a villainouslooking Celestial, naked’ to the waist, holdings cup of • cocoanut-oil in which floated a lighted taper, when the following dialogue ensued: “Hello, John!” ,■ ‘ 1 Hello! Who you ?” “ Me likee smokee opium, John, all same Chimhnan.”

“ No got, me no sabbe you, you go way!” “You sabfte this, John,” and a fifty-’ cent piece found its way into the heathen’s willing palm. "T" “ Belly good, you come in." The door slammed behind us and a ponderous wooden beam falling into its place effectually barred the entrance of all intruders. Traversing a narrow hall we entered a room about twenty feet square,. dimly lighted by a small lamp hanging from the ceiling, and which looked like a nebulous star amid the thick and choking vapors that filled the apartment. Around the walls were tw’o rows of bunks, with their stupefied, half-nude occupants, while stretched upon a low platform, on a level with the lower row, were a lot of greasy pagans in all stages of narcotism. My companion, not minding his footsteps in the darkness, stumbled over an obstruction and pitched forward upon his face. He had fallen over a prostrate Chinaman, who was so far oblivious of the material world that not even a groan escaped him. A further investigation revealed others upon the floor, and even the spaces under the tables were packed with insensible humanity. Nor were we the only Caucasian visitors there that night. In a corner, side by side with a'negress, lay a white woman of middle age, and with her silken garments trailing in the dirt and her head half buried in the folds of the other’s dress there sat a young girl who could net have been more than seventeen years old. The nauseating pipe had fallen from her hand, her disheveled jet-black ringlets released from their fastening fell carelessly down her back, while the handsome face, already seamed with the hard lines of dissipation, and covered with cpsmeticswhich but imperfectly concealed thedeath-like pallor of the skin, proclaimed the unfortunate. The air was hot and stifling, and Jhere being no means of ventilation—the idea never entered “John's” head—the combined breath of the thirty or more tenants of the filthy den rendered it nearly intolerable. The proprietor of the establishment, the only one beside ourselves who was able to move around —our quondam guide had long since succumbed —hastened to prepare a place for his distinguished company. One Chinaman was rolled over into a bunk which already contained two snorihg debauchees, and anotiier was accommodated with quarters on the floor, being tumbled off, neck and heels, like a log of wood. Then, not without some misgiving, however, we reclined upon the hard table, resting our heads upon the Chinese pillows—which convey no particfilar suggestions of luxury, for they are nothing but wooden blocks covered with coarse cloth, shining with the contact of a thousand well-oiled queues—and made arrangements for entering the realms of “ Araby the blest;” The opium-pipe has a long stem of reed or bamboo and a globular, metallic bowl, with a funnelshaped orifice, in which the drug already 1 lighted is placed. The opium is taken up on the end of a wire, held’ for a moment in the flame of a lamp and then inserted in the pipe. The bowl placed over the fire and the opium stirred till the mass is ablaze, the smoker in the meantime inhaling and swallowing the smoke. The fumes must be retained as long as possible in order to produce the desired intoxication effectually, as but little of the drug is consumed at a time, the pipe holdlump about the size of a pea. A few whiffs .generally suffice for a beginner, but old veterans can stand half a dozen pipes at a sitting and frequently repeat the dose two or three times a day. The taste was sweetish and quite pleasant and the action of the smoke rather exhilarating than otherwise, but as your correspondent did not take enough to feel its power very perceptibly ife is unable to speak concerning its full effects. Certainly it must possess a terrible fascination for its unhappy victims, for the filthy surroundings of the holes where the vice is carried on give one every impression but those of pleasure and happiness. “ John,” however, is in many respects but a degree above the brutes, and the fact that he can extract the highest enjoymept from such debased sources is anything blit

creditable to the eMliaatioa which he boasts as so much superior to hat of the “ Melican man.” Handing our polite host a small fee for hie luxurious accommodations and the pipeful of opium we had spoiled we stepped down and cut, glad enough to breathe fresh air once more, and hastened home to disinfect ourselves. Opium-smokers always lie down, and never use the pipe in any other position. The custom is a very general one; even women practice it, and young boys are to be seen in the shops waiting along with their eiders to have their boxes filled. In some the habit is acquired, and the drug becomes a necessity in a week; in others a month or a still longer time is required, depending, of course, upon the frequency of the dose and the life and constitution of the individual. Unlike many other vices, when once fixed it is an incubus never to be shaken off, and the victim becomes its abject and miserable slave.,. He must smoke at regular intervals/ and soon a larger quantity is needed to sustain his failing powers, while an intolerable longing seizes him if deprived of his daily debauch. His eyes grow inflamed, and discharges of mucus issue from his nose and mouth. He is in a state of continual languor, without any ambition save that of procuring the poison which is destroying him. Rich Chinamen have private apartments in their houses where they can enjoy a social smoke with their friends, the public dens, such as the one above described, being patronized only by the canaille, who have no homes of their own. - « , 7 Every Chinese emigrant is carefully searched by the authorities before being permitted to land, and the inducements for smuggling are so great on account of the high duty that scarcely a vessel arrives without a store'Of contraband opium. It is found sewed up in clothes and in the soles of shoes, hidden in toys, in furniture and in bamboo canes. On the return trip of the City of Tokio a Chinaman told the officials he knew that opium was concealed in some cans of cocoanut oil standing on the lower deck—he could smell it. Upon examination sure enough each can was found to have a false bottom, a large quantity of the drug was discovered, and the informer received his share of the spoil. The cunning- pagan had scented the familiar odor through two thicknesses of heavy tin. — San Francisco Cor. N. Y. Herald.

Fishermen’s Luck.

At Avoca, Steuben County, there dwell two mighty hunters and anglers, named Frank Barney and Ike Haskins. Together or single they are mighty with gun or rod. Either can kill his squirrel at long range, or whip a trout stream to perfection. Each is good at the “longbow” as well, and, aside from true and doughty deeds, can spin a marvelous yarn of wood craft. Fond of a joke, they give and take, and It is a treat to hear Barney’s Ha! ha! when the “ nub” of a good story has been reached. But there is one story, in which both were involved, that they but half relish hearing. In fact, it is a sore subject with them. Shortly before the trout season closed—neither would take a fish or shoot a bird out of season for the world —they concluded to have a good day’s sport, and accordingly started early to fish Spring Brook. They intended doing it thoroughly, and by nightfall they had as fine a lot of speckled beauties as could be wished. When the sun went down they were miles from home, and concluded, therefore, to take a cut across lots and save time. They traveled homeward congratulating themselves on their good luck. But the darkness came on apace, and they soon found that it would have been wise had they followed the stream to the road which led to the village. It had grown quite dark as they entered a deserted orchard. As they crossed the fence something big and black arose in a fence corner. The same idea seized both their minds. It was the bear which had been reported to be preying about the vicinity. Both took to their legs and they ran for their lives, the animal closely pur suing. Finding that it gained on them Frank sang out to Ike to take a tree. They had dropped poles and fish-baskets as they ran, and were hatless. Coming under a tree whose branches could be reached, they both leaped and caught a branch up out of reach as the panting animal dashed at their heels. Here was a pickle for the unlucky fishermen. Of course it was a bear —what else would have pursued them so closely ? But would the brute, climb, the tree?' They had heard of bears doing that. They were in an awful plight. In the darkness they could dimly discern the huge brute walking about the tree, evidently considering whether to climb or not. Our heroes were in consternation, but it was far the best plan to stay where they were, unless dislodged by bruin. Their teeth chattered with cold and fear. Finally the animal lay down beneath them. Sleep they could not, and all that dreary night these unfortunates clung to their perches, half frozen and ntore- than half frightened out of their wits. It is possible they would have perished had Frank’s flask not been well supplied wuth the ardent. Once they thought to slide to the ground and steal away; but the moment they stirred the black monster was alert, and they gave up the plan. Finally the gray dawn began to appear, and they could see their foe half hidden behind a clump of bushes a few paces distant. The light grew brighter and they began to get their bearings. Half a mile away they could see the smoke ascending from the chimney of a farm-house. If they could reach that they would be safe. The animal seemed asleep and they determined to have a foot-race with the brute. Together they dropped to the ground, began to steal away, w hen a rustle in the bushes cauSSd’fSem to t>ke to their heels without looking behind. They heard the pursuing animal, vjgien suddenly Frank,felt sometldng, amrthen turned a complete somersault. As he struck the thing went over with a rush in pursuit of Tke. Gathering himself up in a terrible hurry, he saw the “ bear" just as it struck Ike in the rear and sent him sprawling. Frank’s fright suddenly became uproarHis laugh could have been heard a mile, as he recognized in an old black ram the bear that had treed them ill night. The u laugh must have frightened, the ram, for, having accomplished the feat of scaring two able-bodied hunters half to death, and then butting them heels over head, he took a straight course for the house they had seen. These two fellows laughed, then swore, and laughed and swore again. Then they went back and gathered up their traps, and started for that farm-house hungry enough to have eaten the ram. They shook hands on it never to tell of their misadventure. But neither could keep the secret. It was too good, and, having been imparted to a select tew r , the story soon got abroad. But say “ mutton” to either, and he will get out of sight as rapidly as though a “ bear” was after him sure.—(N". F.) Express.

Early History of the Herzegovina Rebels.

In the reports on the insurrection in the Herzegovina it has sometimes been mentioned that after the invaders from Montenegro, Dalmatia and Groatia the Uskoks furnished the strongest contingent to the insurgent forces. The word “Uskok” signifies fugitive or outlaw, and during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was a term of th* greatest reproach among all sea-farers, especially the Venetians. The Uskoks came originally from Bosnia and the Herzegovina; they "fled before the invading Turks, and at first took refuge in the fortress of Clissa, in Dalmatia, at that time considered impregnable. From here they made raids into the Turkish territory, till, in 1537, the Turks conquered Clissa and destroyed it. The LsKoks then passed over into Austria, part of them going to the district of Sichelburg, on the frontiers of Carniola and Croatia, and jiart to Zeugg, on the Croatian coast, where they were protected, on the land side by vast forests and steep mountains, and on the coast by the stormy Gulf of Quarnerolia. The plundering raids of the .Uskoks often extended into the interior of the Balkan peninsula; for instance, in 1613 Trebinje was destroyed. And as their wealth and power increased the dregs of all other countries joined them; thus among the Uskoks beheaded at Venice, Aug. 14, 1615, were nine Englishmen. In Zengg and its suburbs the women lived, and such luxury reigned here that they constantly drove the men to undertake fresh piracies to supply their extravagant demands. The utter brutalization of men and women increased with every generation. Their unfortunate enemies were not safe even after death; their bodies were mutilated, leather made from their skins, and the Uskoks drank their blood and ate their hearts. Often, too, these savages would dip their bread, before eating it, in the life-blood of a wounded foe,"for a superstition reigns among the Illyrians that all who partake of such bread at the same time will be friends forever. What is related of the women is still more horrible ; for when Rabatta, the Austrian commander in the Fort of Zengg, was murdered by the inhabitants of the town, his headless corpse was placed upright in the church, and the women, worse than {logs, licked the blood from his wounds. After the Friulian war, however, Austria was compelled by the treaty of Madrid to take measures against the pirates; their ships were destroyed and they themselves made to emigrate to the district of Sichelburg, between Laibach and Karlstadt.— Cor. London Standard.

The Protection of Children.

At last the man has appeared who has humanitarianism enough to take active pleasures for the rescue of little children from the perils to which they are barbarously subjected m the tight-rope and trapeze performances at the variety theaters all over the country. That man is Bergh, of whom the cheap stock joke has been that his humanity extended only to brutes. Last Saturday, at the Tivoli Theater, New York, just as the “ infant prodigy, Leo,” —a child six years of age—was .about to be sent upon the stage to go through his “thrilling” performance on thte ''tightrope, Mr. Bergh appeared on the scene' with a couple of policemen, and the reputed father —who pockets the profits of the child’s engagements—was locked up, while the latter was removed . from the ..theater, and, doubtless, will be placed in charge of a guardian by the court. The best feature of the w’hole affair, perhaps, was that the audience attracted there to witness the thrilling performance—the thrilling part of which consisted in the chances of the child’s falling and meeting a horrible death—instead of hissing, applauded Mr. Bergh. The like barbarous exhibitions are given in nearly every city in the United States, and it is to be trusted, now that Mr. Bergh has taken the initiative, those will be found everywhere who in like manner will interfere to put a stop to them. There should be in every State a statute severely punishing both the parents and the managers who thus speculate on the wanton imperiling of the lives of children. But even without such statutes the courts everywhere, in exercise of their general power as guardians of minors, will, on application, interfere and remove these children from the custody of such unnatural protectors, and place them in control of guardians answerable to the court for their care of the little ones.— Chicago Tribune.

Civilization in India.

“ The natives of India,” remarks the Pall .Wall Gazette, “show a remarkable proficiency in acquiring the habits of civilization, and in the art of adulteration appear to be making such rapid progress that they will soon put even the British trader to the blush. Am ingenious practice is, it is stated, now common among the ctoth-sellers of Jubbulpore. Bales of English piece goods are carried to the Oomtee rivulet and washed, with the object of thickening the texture of the cloth, and thus getting a much higher price than that current for tnem as they arrive from Manchester. The pieces are one by one opened out at the river’s brink and washed in the running water. This takes off the English sizing; they are next rerolled and well ifenten with wooden clubs, dipped and beaten again and again, and so on for hours; the threads then begin to swell and thicken the cloth, so that the weaving appears close and tough. They are then reopened and partly dried, dipped into a tub of well-boiled rice-water (such as is used by dhobles for starching) and carefully hung out to dry. When dried each piece is carefully refolded, pressed and placed in the shop for sale. The change the cloths undergo by this process is represented as ‘ astonishing.’ A coarse, long cloth, worth say four annas a yard, is transformed to a close-textured fabric rivaling one of Horrocks’ best. The cloths so improved are chiefly sent out to villages and outstations, where they are readily sold as Manchester goods of the stoutest and best quality." ”■ « ♦ * “ I suppose I can buy everything in New York,” said a Chicago woman to an acquaintance she met on Broadway. “ Oh, no! you can’t buy some things, even in For instance, I arrived at the dignity of a grandmother yesterday, and at once went out to get ‘an old lady’s lk>nnet,’ but no such article was for sale.” The other day, when a Detroit gracer spelled sugar “ s-h-u-g e-r," a friend pointed out word and remarked: “ That word isn’t spelled quite right.” “Ha! I see,” laughed the grocer; “one would think I had no education.” And he crossed it out and wrote s-h-u-g o-r." — Free Press “I have ceased,” remarked ablaze cynic, “to care enough about my species to take any pleasure in saying disagreeable things.”

A Washington Character.

A Washington correspondent of th® Cincinnati Gasetts writes: “A few dan ago there atepped briakly into the library of one of tlie Government buildings a hard-featured woman, whose age might range anywhere between sixty and seventy. Her face looked like a P in ®. knot, so weather-beaten and tough and bronzed was it, but it wore sueh an appearance of frank, hearty good humor, lighted by shrewd intelligence, that I could not fail to observe and be interested inker. Her black dress was short and old-fashioned in its cut, its only trimming being a feeble attempt at a narrow, scant ruffle round the bottom. Over this was a white muslin overdress, spotlessly white, but very full and totally unlooped. Evidently the ha'dy-looking feminine had no sympathy with tlie ‘ pull-backs’ of the period. On her head was a queer bonnet, whose shape and trimmings no sacrilegious hand had touched, ‘upon altering thoughts intent,’ for jpany years. The little woman, standing erectly up, asked in a brisk tone for Hugh Miller! I gazed at her in perplexed surprise. Was she asking for herself, or was she sent by some one for the book mentioned ?' After she made her exit I turned to the librarian and remarked that the woman just departed struck me as beinjj something of a character. * Indeed she is,’ was the reply, ‘ a remarkable character with a very romantic history.’ Anything tinged with romance always held mj' interest enchained, so I prepared myself for a treat while listening to the recital of this woman’s life and career. She was a Scotch woman by birth, and while a bonnie Highland lassie married a brave and intelligent young soldier in the English army. His fate she has followed for nearly half a century, going to Egypt, to Constantinople, to France, to Africa, and finally to America, where her husband, obtaining an honorable discharge from the English army, enlisted under Gen. Scott, and helped to fight our Mexican battles. During this campaign she was almost the only woman in the army, saving Mrs.’’Gen. Hunter, theu the wife of a subordinate officer. In our civil war her husband lost his eyesight through the effects of some concussion, and his devoted companion spent all of her leisure time and spare money in purchasing books to read to her afflicted husband. She was company laundress, and with the means thus obtained, coupled with her husband’s pension, and demonstrating the extent ot Scotch thriftjness, she provided for her husband’s mental and physical wants with unflagging zeal and devotion. After awhile some celebrated oculist partly restored the soldier’s eyesight. The Government gave the woman a menial position and the man something to db as messenger, and they still continue to devour the best books iu the library, always asking for standard or philosophical works, and in their neat and humble home they together read and discuss tlie thoughts of the great writers.”

The Wonderful Power of an Insect.

. We have quite a number of different species of Ichneumon flies which deposit their eggs upon the larvae of wood-boring insects. These borers in trees one would suppose were quite secure against the attacks of their parasitic enemies which cannot follow them into their retreats or dig them out, but nature lias provided a way to reach them, although incased within apparently pretty solid wood walls. For instance, the sugar-maplc tree is infested with quite a large wood-borer, which is the larva of the most beautiful and showy of our long-horn beetles, the Glycobius {Clytue} specioiMi of Say. This borer frequently passes upward in the solid wood of the tree two to threo inches from the outside; still it is not perfectly secure from its enemies when thus shut in, for the female of the great Ichneumon fly, the Pimpla lunator, has an ovipositor three to four inches long, furnished with a little saw ontheend, by the aid of which she can make a hole straight through bark and wood to the said borer and place an egg upon it. I have caught this insect in the act, as many others have done, but the “wonder" part of the operation —at least to a good many observers —is how she knows the exact location of the said borer in the tree. I confess that this puzzled me at first, and I notice that a correspondent of the Western Atural in writing ot this insect a week or two since says: “It is indeed a wonderful power that enables this insect to discern its victims, concealed, as they are, within the trunks of trees.” But this Ichneumon does not “ discern its victim,” but it merely hears it gnawing the wood, and knows its location by the sound atone. It is not to be supposed that the human ear is quite as acute as those of an insect like the Pimpla, created expressly for seeking its victim by sound; still most wood-boring larvae, while feeding, make sufficient noise to be distinctly heard if the ear is placed directly against the tree or stick of timber in which they are at work. . I have .tested this a hundred times where the larvae of the Prionida, Paper das, Elaphidions and similar insects were at work upon the trees. If anyone desires to hear the music of woodborers more clearly than is given off from a growing tree, they have only to bring a stick of powder-posted hickory er oak from the wood-pile and set it on end m a warm room for a few days; place an end upon the bare floor, and if there are borers in the stick the grinding of' the mill will soon be heard clear and distinct, even at several feet distant. The Pimpla lunator is not one of those creatures who, “having ears, hear not,” but it uses the organs given it by the Creator, which is more than can be said of some individuals belonging to a higher order of beings.— Hural Eeto Yorker. As Mr. Thomas W. Lanb, of the United States Postal-car Service was gunning'on Tuesday last in West Roxbury, he was surprised to see his dog, a full-blood-ed English setter, bring and deposit at his feet a large pocket-book, which,, upon examination, proved to contain in currency, some papers of value and some car-tickets. The name of Mr. Langley, of Cambridgeport, was within the book, and yesterday Mr. Lane proceeded to Cambridge in quest of the gentleman. There he found him, and learned that he had been gunning in that locality on Monday and had met with the above loss, and after a fruitless search had given it up, departing for home firmly impressed that he would be obliged to charge the same to his profit and loss account at the end of the next year. Mr. Lane delivered the property to its owner, who received it with surprise and delight. Jffr. Langley desired Mr. Lane to accept st suitable bonus for the lucky find, which Mr. Lane refused. Thereupon Mr. Langley insisted upon making the dog a present bl S3O, to be invested in a silver collar.— Boston Herald. i Tnz stove was cold and the kettle wouldn’t boil, So'she tilted the can, and ppured on a little oil: ~ Gone to meet the man who blew out the gaa.