Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 January 1876 — Page 8

A Union By Lightning.

he would be compelled to admit diet two of the skillful operators in the employ of the Western Union Telegraph Company have conceived and carried into execution something decidedly new in the method of fqftning a matrimonial alliance. We ofmarriagm riages by proxy, balloon weddings, and exposition marriages, but it has been reserved until this afternoon for us to enjoy the sensation of a bona fide matrimonial alliance by lightning, through the medium of the wires of the Western Union TelegHph Company. We do not propose now, even if time would permit, to explain how Mr. Q. Scott Jeffreys, an operator of the Western Union, and located at Waynesburg, Pa., became acquanted with and learned to love Miss Lida Caller, also an Operator, and stationed at Brownsville, nor to tell how currents of tiielr thoughts coursed on the wings of the lightning as they ttko were seated in their respective offices. It is enough to BAy that they met ami they loved; that their love grew stronger and stronger, and that finally they agreed to take each otherfor better or tor worse” as long as they both might live. This very essential part of the preliminaries having been satisfactorily arranged, the next question to be settled was, how shall the ceremony be performed ? Both being manipulators of the lightning, they conceived the novel idea of having the ceremony performed by telegraph, and at once enlisted the kind offices of Col. C. O. Rowe, the Superintendent of this division. He entered heartily into the arrangement,|and through his instrumentality the necessary preparations were perfected. It was arranged that the high contracting parties should take a position in the operating-room at Brownsville, where there would also be present some three or four witnesses, including the operator. In the office at WavnesburgMr. G. A. Btory, operator, and family, the mother and sister of the groom, with four or five other friends were to be stationed,.together with Mr. Scott, the officiating clergyman, also of Waynesburg. It was also arranged that the ceremony should be commenced .promptly at two o’clock, Pittsburgh time, ana in order that there should be no interruption Col. Rowe issued the following order to all the offices in his division: “All business must be suspended on this circuit five minutes before two o’clock p. m. to-day, and kept closed until after tne marriage ceremony by. telegraph, which takes pmee at two •’clock.’* % Accepting a kind invitation extended by Col. Rowe and Mr. Gibson, manager of the Pittsburgh office, a representative of the Chronicle repaired to the Western Union office to listen to the ceremony as it was being ticked over the wire. It was evident that something unusual was in progress, altlioughit is not often that telegraph operators allow their facial expression to give any index to the news they are receiving. But this was something out of the ordinary' or even extraordinary kind, and each operator seemed to bend toward the particular instrument through which the momentous questions and answers were to be tranSf* milted. As the minutes passed the interest increased and then suddenly, but at the very moment appointed, the tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, etc., announced that the interesting ceremony had been commenced. Theii the* operators gathered about, and, while wondering how the bride was dressed, how the groom looked, what the witnesses at Brownsville were thinking, and how those relatives at Waynesburg were looking, they heard the tick, tick, tick of the instrument, which to the reporters was unintelligible, but which to them told the following story: (Brownsville to Waynesburg.) Tell Rev. Sir. Scott we are ready now. ( Wayrtesbury to Brownsviite. ) MB. SCOTT'S RBPLV. To G. Scott Jeffrey* and Lida Culler, Browns - Title, l‘a.: Marriage ie an ordinance of God, for the welfare and Sappiness of the human family, in titated at the creation and union of the first pair, -by which he ordained the onion of one man •with one woman in bonds of pure and holy wed- . lock for life. The part it* to be united at this > tone pi ease to join hands. J. W. Scott, Minister of the Go.-pel. (Brownsville to Waynesburg r.) It ie done. (Waynesburg to BroumsriUe.) Do you, George Scott Jeffreys and Lida Culler, who hold each other by the hand, take eat h other as lawful and wedded companions for life; and do you eolemuly promise, before God and the witnesses present, that you will live together, and be to each other faithfn}, loving and true, as husband and wife, till God shall separate you by death? J. w. Scott, Minister of the Gospel. (Brou iitville to Waynteburtf:f is We do. Gbobok Scotv Jkffkkvs. We do.. Lida Culler. (Way net bury to Brownsville.) In the name and by the authority of God I pronounce you husband and wife. Whom God bath joined together let no man put asunder. And may God the Father, Son and Bely Ghost bless the union and yonneives individually and personally, now and forever. Amen. f. W. Scott. Minister of the Gospel. (Brownsville to H aynetburq.) Thank yoa. Jimusrs. This Concluded the ceremony proper, and the Chronicle reporter turned about involuntary, evidently for the purpose of congratulating the happy bride and the newly-made benedict, and possibly with a hope of having an opportunity of imprinting a kiss on the cheek of the bride. As he turned his head, however, his gaze met the eyes, nol of the fair bride, but of the ooatless operators who were still bending over the instrument listening to the congratulations which sped over the wires to the newly-married couple.— Pittsburgh Chronicle.

Libel and blander.

f From a Lecture br C. C. Bonne;.] 1. The truth is stronger than a* lie, and will always conquer 1 in a fair fight. He who relies upon the truth need not worry about the result of the conflict. He has only to 1»$ true to the truth and to him- , self, and to go straight forward in his work, turning neither to the right hand nor to the left, to follow any “ barking dog,” and time will surely bring his vindication. “ All things come in time to them that know how to wait.” 2. Calumny is an almost certain penalty of marked success. It is the voice of the “revenge that dwells in little minds.” It is the outlet of baffled wrong. It is the return of ingratitude for iavors received, and which there is not the manliness to acknowledge. It is the base and cowardly refuge of hatred, malice, envy and ill-will. Hence those who aspire to any eminence should as much expect to meet with calumny as a sailor On the great sea should be prepared for storms. They try the strength of lhe ship, but if well built and well managed they rarely break it. The assault should only quicken the faculties, rouse ike courage, and strengthen the hand. It is a proof that -the “ evil things that bate to look on happiness’’ find an obstacle in their way,, and their enmity is highest praise. 9. No good man will willingly speak evil of another. If circumstances will

compel him to accuse, he will show that he does so reluctantly, and for the hake of Justice, and that he scorns the thought of ••If-gratitication in such an act. If, therefore, any accusation appears to be grounded in a mean, wanton or malignant spirit; if the occasion to make It appear to be sought; if the accuser speak not to the face of the accused, but behind his back, then it may be set down aa certain that at least the4ruth Is distorted, and that, in all probability, it is corruptly falsified. For where a revengeful and malignant spirit is, there the truth cannot dwell. The angel will not abide with the demon. The common perception of this fact is the reason why slanders are so little credited and do so little harm. 4. The best safeguards against libel and Blander are a clean character and a circumspect behavior. That tbon mavst injaiwno man, dove-like be; And serpent-like, that none may injure thee. In the presence of an enemy be on your guard, and while devoutly trusting in God, “ keep your powder dry!” The light and power of a just life will shine inrough the cloud of a slander and dispel it. A habitually-careful conduct will naturally secure the present and provide for the dangers of the future. “The truth is always consistent with everything true; while error is inconsistent, alike with the truth and with itself.” Hence, he who acts correctly from day to day need never fear what the future may bring forth. 5. Sometimes circumstances seem to be against the innocent, but the innocent need never despair. The truth is somewhere in the circumstances, however deeply hidden, and will surely come to the light, if carefully and patiently pursued." Never take a talse step lor the purpose of avoiding an apparently unfavdrable circumstance. Trust the truth, and it will bring you safely out of the ness. - 6. Never condemn anyone without hearing his defense. Never believe an improbable story on the testimony of an interested or prejudiced witness. Always regard a good reputatipn as stronger than the testimony of any witness or witnesses. Never believe that a person whom you have known as honest; just, and trustworthy has been the contrary to another without “proofs and confirmation as strong as Holy Writ.” Righteousness and iniquity can no more* awell in the same heart than the lamb and the wolf can live together ia the same fcfftl. He who is willfully unfaithful to one is not faithful to others. At heart he must be essentially “ all one thing or all the other.” 7. There may be cases of libel so malignant as to warrant and demand a criminal prosecution, but very rarely indeed does a case arise which can warrant a civil suit for the recovery of a compensa-; tion in money. Where the damage done by a libel or slander is in its nature pecuniary, a pecuniary satisfaction may well be sought, but the refined mind naturally revolts from seeking such a cure for wounded honor or violated peace. For such wrongs justice demands a swifter and heavier retribution.

8. A statement may at the same time be verbally true and substantially false. Words may be uttered, or an act done, in such a manner and under such circumstances as to be wholly free from any objection. The same act may be described, or words repeated in such a manner, with such change of tone, emphasis, and in-, flection; with such omissions of qualifying circumstances as to wholly change the character and effect of the act or words, and inspire them with a malignant spirit. Hence, in all cases, the animus-ot the speaker should be most carefully considered. If hatred, malice, envy, ill-will, or the love of cruelty appear ia his tone, manner, or purpose, the hearer may be sure that those qualities color his statement, whatever literal ground there may be to support it. 9. There are many cases of libel and slander arising from mistake. The eyes and ears are often deceived. Astonishing cases of mistaking one person for another are within the" knowledge ot almost every one. A general resemblance suggests the individuality of a particular person. That individuality occupies the mental vision, and, for the time, the dissimilarities are not perceived. In such casys statements may be made which will be true in all respects except as to tlie person involved, and as to him, utterly false. This may be illustrated by abundant examples. Hence, on the ground of probabilities, it is more likely that a single witness not fully corroborated by all the circumstances is mistaken than tliat a person has acted or spoken contrary to his general character and reputation. \ All these rules fitly culminato irr the legal maxim that “ everyone is to be presumed innocent until proved guilty.” In favor of innocence, justice, peace and the general weliare, all reasonable things are to be presumed; while against their opposites every allowable intendment shall be made. 10. In the end .almost everyone is estimated according to his own merit. The good sense of the community is rarely at fault. Controversies, legal or otherwise, about alleged libels, slanders, misrepresentations and the like rarely result in anything satisfactory. If the correction of an erroneous statement seem to be imperatively required, the force of the correction will be in proportion to its simplicity. and clearness, and its freedom fnkn bad temper, counter-charges and epithets.

—The over-ingenious man has a passion for machinery, and it has a fascination for some boys, who tnink that what is done by a machine is so much labor saved. Just now a boy, not a thousand miles from here, was called on by his mother for & new handle to her stove-lid lifter. He readily obeyed, and, as he had a turninglathe attached to the horse power at the bars, he indent to make a nice one. So he proceeded to find and chip out a piece ot hard-maple, and hitched the pony to the horse-power, and turned a handle worth seeing. In the meantime another boy had sawed off the end of an old rake stele, which made a good handle for the lifter, and the whole thing was done in less than fifteen minutes. —Detroit Tribune. —The Boston Post says; “ Looking forward to the new year and back to the year that is gone, it cannot be said otherwise than that we have very much to be thankful for. We have passed through probably one of the most trying years, financially, that this country has ever seen. We believe that though the process has been painful it has been salutary, and will serve as a means to restrain the extravagance of speculation and bring us down to the more sober, real and healthy modes of life that existed before She war.” _ —“ My son,” said a stern parent to a seven-year-old hopeful, “ 1 must discipline you; your teacher says that yon are the worst boy in school.” “Well, papa,only veaterday she said I was just like my father," was the reply.

Sacrifices of Cabinet Officers' Wives.

Writing from Washington s corn* •pondent of the DetroijpEres Proto says y “ Allusion was made but now to those whom official position compels to make e labor of whet should be s pleasure, and in illustration I must give you some idea of what an arduous business falls to the lot of the wife of e member of the Cabinet Everyone, without limitation, is privileged to call on these ladies on their reception days, and, as custom has made the returning of all these calls obligator, when 300 additions are made to their visiting lists every Wednesday, thg labor involved in making a proper acknowledgment is easily imagined. From 1,500 to 2,500 names on their visiting list is the ordinary number. Several years ago a lovely lady, since dead, w ho then occupied one of these harassing positions, gave me some idea of her daily as her successors of the present winter are no less taxed, I will repeat her words: * I order my carriage,’ she said, ‘ for twelve o'clock every day, no matter what the weather maybe, and begin calling. Noon is a little early* to begin, but 1 have no choice, and I continue on my rounds until dark. On returning home I have no time to rest, but, changing my visiting costume for an evening toilet, I go to a “ state dinner party,” and immediately on the conclusion of the feast begin my round of gas-light receptions and balls.’ So many invitations are showered upon these ladies that they are compelled to keep a book in which to register their engagements, not daring to trust the fulfillment of them to an overtaxed memory. If anyone is amazed that ladies are willing to undergo Buch fatigue, they must remember that unpopularity is the lot of those who are not rigorous in the discharge of the duties long-established usage has attached to the places they hold in society by virtue of the official rank of their husbands. And it is not a matter concerning which the wife of a ‘Mr. Secretary’ can afford to be independent, for the unpopularity she provokes will include ner husband—yes, and the political-party he represents as well. More than one of these victims to society are martyrs to a principle, and offer themselves up on the sacrificial altar rather, than make the “Administration” unpopular. 'I he most heroic of those the Grant Administration has known is the wife of the Secretary of State, who fulfills her every social duty with a cheerful courtesy which is a perpetual surprise even to those who best know her. State dinners on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of last week, a crowded reception in the afternoon of the last-named day, and a lunch of about a dozen ladies on Thursday were a few of her home engagements, and j-et the ceaseless round of visiting went on. Nor does Mrs. Fish employ a housekeeper, but superintends all the details of her well-appointed household. Nearly all our ‘leading ladies,’ as careless reporters are apt to style them, are actively engaged in some of tile many charities a city the size of Washington is bound to support. With such a diversity of arduous duties how they find time for even a portion of the rest exhausted nature demauds is a conundrum. I for one give up promptly. That they do find some moments for recuperation is proved by the fact that they do not die or willingly resign.” ’

Origin of the Washingtonian Organizations.

non. Frank W. Miller, a son of one o the earliest and most consistent members of the- Washingtonian Total Abstinence Society, has contributed to the Portsmouth (N. H.j Chronicle a brief history of that organization. He says: “ On the 2d day of April, 18-10, six men sat drinking in a tavern on Liberty street, Baltimore. Notices had been published in the papers of that city that a distinguished clergyman (Matthew Hale Smith) would lecture on temperance that evening iu one of the churches. This subject was mentioned by one of the six, and after some talk it wasagreed that two of their number should attend the meeting and report. This was done and, alter the report had been listened to and the subject discussed, one of them exclaimed: ‘ Let us form a temperauce society and make Bill Mitchell President.’ With this understanding, and after taking another drink, they separated. On the nextevening they met at the same place—the matter was again talked over, and they resolved to form, and did form, a society, naming it after tire father of our country, as it was quite common at that time to name most organizations after Washington. The names of these six individuals were .William Mitchell, David Ho-s, Charles Anderson, George Steer, Bill McCurdy and. Tom Campbell. They then voted to meet the next night in a carpenter’s shop and each agreed to bring a new member. These meetings were held almost nightly and for remarks each related his own experience at the Court ot Death. As might be expected, these meetings soon began to attract public attention. "John Hawkins early became a member, but was not one of tire original six. “' These reformed men were soon invited to visit other cities and towns, and who of our eitizens has not listened to the thrilling and simple experience of John Hawkins as he portrayed the misery of the drunkard and told the touching story of his little daughter Hannah persuading him to quit the drunkard ’s drink ? The new movement spread from city to city, and from town to town, until there was scarcely a place in the United States that did not have its Washington Total Abstinence Society. Men who had, been drunkards for years burst the bands that had so tong bound them and became temperance reformers. The name being quite long, it soon became shortened by daily use, and these organizations became known throughout the country as ‘-Washingtonians.’ The Washingtonian Society was originated in this city in 1841, and has been instrumental in reclaiming more than 300 intemperate men, many of whom kept the[ P^S e tiH their dying day. Others stm live, a blessing to their families and an honor to society. They demonstrated the great fact that the drunkard could be saved. While nearly all the societies of this class in the country have ceased to exist, the Portsmouth Washingtonians have always maintained their organization." A madman confined in the County Jail at Bozeman, Col.,'broke out and started, coatless, hatless and barefooted, across the country. Coming to a ranch owned by two brothers named Hall, he found one of them laid up with a broken leg and the other brother absent. He commanded the cripple to get out of bed and walk, saying that he was gifted with the healing power; but upon his refusal to do so the maniac seized a razor and threatened to sever his jngalar if ha didn’t bestir himself. With the tonsorial instrument menacing his windpipe the owner of the broken leg was compelled to drill to time, and was under marching orders in the yard when the pursuing officers arrived and took the maniacal tactician in charge. Will the spirit of ’7tl be as crooked an that of *75?

Domestic Slaves la Egypt.

Field labor is usually done by hired laborers; but all the service of native families as well as of moat of the 'Levantines (or Europeans who are settled and naturalized in the East) is carried on entirely by •laves, who, with few exceptions, are’ all of negro races from the interior of Africa. In this last respect Eastern slavery differs from the slavery of Scriptural times, as we have no reason |o think slaves’ were negroes chiefly or even frequently in those days, at least among the Israelites. Hagar was an Egyytian, and we hear of some who were captives taken in war from the various tribes around them. Many were born in the household and looked on more as members of the family than despised or ill-used. Of such was the trusted Eliezer, who was *to have been heir to Abraham had God not given him a son. It seems strange indeed that such a system, even modified, as it undoubtedly Was, by patriarchal habits of life, should have been so distinctly permitted as it was in the law of Moses; but we may remember that so was divorce permitted, ‘‘for the hardness of their hearts,” as our blessed Lord Himself said, no doubt because in botti cases still worse evils would have arisen from the prohibition in the barbarous state of things then prevailing in the world. Without being approved these tilings were tolerated under certain restrictions; and these were, as regarded slaves of the Hebrew race, so stringent that in fact a Hebrew, unless by his own wish, could not be a slave for more than six years, which amounted to nothing more than what we call being “bound” for a term. The hired servants, of whom we so often read in Scripture, seem to have been chiefly out-door laborers. As is the case now in the East, the negroes are found among field-workegs sometimes, butit is rather* exceptional j The open slave marts which existed a lbw years ago are no longer to be found in Cairo or Alexandria; but as many slaves find their way to these cities as formerly, and whoever wants to purchase can always do so by applying in ther.proper quarter. Every native house has at least one (if above the very poor),*and rich families have from ten to twenty, while the great harems count by hundreds. Those 1 allude to at present are almost entirely negroes; tho white slaves brought from Georgia and Circassia are only to he found in the families of Pashas, and domestic service is not the purpose for which they have been cruelly stolen from their mountain homes, or sold with yet baser cruelty by unnatural parents—they are to be a secondary sort of wives for the great, and to lead a lite of luxurious idleness, waited upon by swarms of black slaves who perform all the menial work of the establishment. As far as I can learn, the blacks are never sold by their parents, but taken by force from their villages by the “jellals,” or their agents, under whom they suffer untold misery till purchased by householders iu Cairo, or shipped off to Persia or Turkey. In general they are not ill-treated here, especially since a law has been made humanely allowing’ them to apply to the Police Court in case of cruel usage. The men or boys are then taken into the army, and the girls Sent to the Government schools or to factories. Of course there are many who, being new to the country and language and utterly ignorant, cannot understand this, and some are children who are nearly powerless; still, on the whole, it has kept down the tyranny of owners, and will do so more as they get to understand it better. The Oriental habit of shutting up women in the house so much makes it more difficult for a slave girl to escape than for a boy or man; still they do manage it, and 1 have several times had slaves come to my house to ask me to get an attestation from th« British Consulate to free them from a cruel mistress. Still, even with this loophole of escape, it is a wretched system, for the poor victim who has been torn from home and friends as a child has lost, past recall, all that made life most dear, and is thrown hack, as it were, on the worst part of human nature, the mereauimal pact (which seems partic ulurly strong in negro races). The pilfering and love of eating, etc., are inveterate among the greater part of them. (I have known somo fine exceptions, but they are rare.) Their domestic affections have no natural vent, they have no home and family of their own, and instead of the outdoor life for which they are physically best fitted they are cooped up in houses in narrow, damp streets and numbers die in the prime of life because this mode of existence is so unhealthy for them. The negro boys, if promising, are often sent to schools and made a great deal of by theii masters, but the girls and women learn only how to cook and do housework, and as much mischief as they can pick up through gossiping with neighboring slaves from the fiat roofs where they go to dry linen or to amuse themselvfes while the mistress sleeps.— Sunday at Home.

A Novel Punishment.

The English papers are occupied just now with one of the most amazing exhibitions,of snobbery ever seen in the British army. A young officer, having got drunk and behaved disgracefully iu public, has been (sentenced by the l)*fke of Cambridge to wear his ly for one year. That soldierclothes are considered as equivalent to a convict’s garb, and the shame of wearing them when not on duty is regarded as equivalent to that which the striped jacket or the galley-brand brings upon anothet class of offenders. Nothing, says the New York Tribune , in commenting on this affair, could more plainly mark the difference between the English and continental points of view in respect to military service. A German is as vain of his uniform as he is of his nationality. He would as soon think of blaspheming Bismarck as of speaking disrespectfully of his pickelhaube. The Austrian trails his saber proudly through the graveled walks of the «40lksgarten, and the Magyar would scorn to deprive the world of the privilege of admiring his shapely legs in their skin-tight integuments. Among the Latin soldiers there is the same matter-of-course acceptance of the theory that an officer of the army should not object to wearing its distinctive apparel. But in England the fashion has been set, by those who are more swell than soldierly, that an officer shall never be seen in harness except on parade, and it has attained the force of a social law. Still, it is none the less surprising that the Commander-in-Chief should commit the blunder of joining in this movement against the uniform, by making it an absolute badge of disgrace. After .his recent sentence no officer not under condemnation will dare appear off duty .in his army-clothes, lest he should be mistaken for the j young booby who is compelled to wear them. Ajcbbicak officers in the Egyptian army, collectively and individually, are very popular, and have all manner of courtesies shown them. And they reciprocate fay drawing their salaries with charming manly regularity.

Precious Pets.

Man haa beau distinguished from brutes aa a cooking animal. Rut he has another characteristic almost equally distinctive. He keeps pets. It is true that sometimes this characteristic is Shared by individuals of other races. A horse has been known to become attached to the stable cat and to pine in the absence of pussy. So, too, dogs have allowed a corner of their kennel to some stray animal domesticated about the house, and odd friendships have been cemented between creatures as different as a goat and a jackdaw, or a rabbit and a foxhound. Such brotherhood between tame beasts, all living in a state more or less artificial, is only as natural aa the talking of a parrot, the piping of a bull finch, or the trained labor of a canary taught to wozkfor its living by drawing its wfliter with a bucket and a chain. We never heard of a cat that loved a dear cricket to cheer with friendly chirpings her leisure on the hearth. No puppy has been known to lavish tender caresses on the radiant head of an iridescent bluebottle. The hen whose limited intellect reels before the watery instincts of a brood of ducklings is the victim of parental affection laboring under a base deception. But men pet many creatures besides their offspring, supposititious or other. It is true that a modem naturalist finds in an ants’ nest certain well-cared-for beetles, and endeavors in vain to account for such a mysterious tact. Are the beetles scavengers or are they pets? Or are the ants endued, like men, with superstition, and do they venerate, like the ancient Egyptians, a coleopterous insect? Starlings show a preference for certain sheep. Every crocodile may be supposed to be the favorite of a particular lapwing. But these instances answer rather to the sportsman’s predilection for a well-stocked moor or the fiy-flsher’s love for a shady pool. No kitten leads about a mouse with blue ribbon round the little victim’s neck, as a child caresses the lamb which it may one day devour. The child shows its petting instinct at the earliest age and loves a woolly rhinoceros as soon as it loves sugar and apples. Long before the baby can speak, as soon as it can open and close its tiny hands, it longs for something soft and warm, and above all something moving, which it may grasp and pinch at will. No worsted poodle, however cunningly contrived in the toy country, can compete for a moment with a real puppy. The pleasure of breaking all the legs from off all the quadrupeds in Noah’s Ark pale in insignificance beside the rapture of pulling pussy’s tail and halfblinding a living terrier. The cat and dog endure from the infant the tortures of Damien without complaint, and purr or wag their tail at each fresh infliction as a new manifestation of regard. Vivisection is a trifle compared with some of the unwitting cruelties of the nursery; but the victims seem to understand that their pains are not intended, and it would be well if a like self-sacrificing enthusiasm could be fostered in the scientific laboratory. That people do keep pets and do misuse them is a plain and unquestionable fact. Why they keep them is* another and much more difficult question. Some, it is true, have a dislike to the destruction of animal life. Cardinal Bellarmine would not disturb the fleas which got their livelihood in his famous beard. Others, again, have been driven to love a swallow from the mere loneliness of prison life, and the only reason for doubting the truth of the legend which connects the name of Bruce with a spider is that similar tales have been told of other famous men. The story of a Lady Berkeley who insisted on keeping her merlins to molt in her bed-chamber, and her husband’s consequent displeasure, occurs among the annals of tlie fifteenth century. Little dogs figure on brasses; and the names of “Terri,” “Jakke,” and “Bo” have come down to us as memorials of pels beloved 500 years ago. Cowper, beside his hares, petted all kinds of animals, and remonstrated in verse with his spaniel for killing a fledgling. Oldys apostrophized a lly, and Burns a mouse. We think it was Carnot, in'the Reign of Terror, that lavished caresses on his dog, while lie sent hundreds of human victims to the slaughter. In fact, there are few people come to mature years who at some time of their life have not loved a dear gazelle or other domestic animal, and been gladdened by its affectionate eye. A taste which is so peculiarly human may be humanizing if properly directed. The child, indeed, will rob a nest to satisfy its longing for a pet. But it is easy to demonstrate the cruelty of interfering with natural laws, and the speedy death of the halffledged nestling demonstrates clearly enough the futility of the childish aspirations. The sympathies of Bill Sykes, callous as he was, were awakened toward his dog, and even Charon may be supposed occasionally to bestow a friendly pat on 4 one of the heads of Cerberus. Although it has often been remarked that love of the horse accompanies, if it does not cause, the degradation of many a man, yet it would be hard to ascribe the iniquities of a blackleg to any true love of the animal on which he lays his money. Doubtless the horse of Caligula preferred his oats ungilt, and it is the uncertainty of racing rather than any fault of the racer that attracts rogues to Newmarket and Epsom. A horse would run quite as well, the race would be even more often to the swift, if betting could be abolished. And our prize costermongers and cabmen find kindness to ttieir animals, like honesty, the best policy. The donkey that is starved and beaten seldom favors his driver with more than a spasmodic gallop, while the sleek ass we now occasionally notice in our streets draws more than his own weight of heavy men at a cheerful and willing frot. The principle on which fteiShre kept is, however, sometimes difficult to find. We were all horrified, lately, to read at' an old lady who starved a household of cats, and every Indian traveler tells shocking tales of the cruelty of the Hindoo to the humpbacked cow which he worships as adivinity. Cruelty to pets is only one aspect of the matter. There are people, especially in towns, whose kindness to their pets is exercised at the expense of their neighbors. So long as they are an amusement to their owners without being a nhisance to the public no one can complain. There are, it is true, crusty people who wbuld like the world better if it contained neither kittens nor babies. But it cannot do real harm to anybody that an old lady should turn rabbits loose in her garden in order to reduce the excessive^corpulence of her darling pugs by a little wholesome coursing. It is good for her pets and does not hurt the neighbors.' —Saturday Revie to. Thx current number ‘ of Nature tells of a deluded hen who hatched and reared a peacock. As that mother hen gazed upon the budding tail of her infant offspring it must haveoccurred to her, in moments of depression and anxiety, that possibly aha had the jim-jams. — Ulob*- Democrat. Thaws are forty-three breweries in Kan-

Epigrams by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

[From Imt’in'i Mew Volume of Xaaayi.j A mam’s action is only a picture-book of his creed. He does alter what he believes. Ths metallic force of primitive words makes the superiority of the remains of the rude ages. , Postrt must be affirmative. It is the piety of intellect. “ Thus saith the Lord” should begin the song. Akt word, every word in language, every circumstance, becomes poetic in the hands of a higher thought. To the poet the world is virgin soil; all is practicable; the men are ready for virtue; It is always time to do right As the bird alights on the bough, then plunges into the air again, so the thoughts of God pause but for a moment In any form. Ins prayers of nations are rhythmic—have iterations and alliterations, like the marriage service and burial service in our liturgies. The poet discovers that what men value as substances have a higher value as symbols; that nature is the immense shadow oilman. I require that the poem should impress me, so that affer I have shut the book it shall recall me to itself, or that passages should. Poetry is the perpetual endeavor to express the spirit of the tiling; to pass the brute body and search the life and reason which causes it to exist. Is not poetry the little chamber in the brain where is generated the explosive force which, by gentle shocks, sets in action the intellectual world? . A symbol always stimulates the intollect; therefore is poetry ever the best reading. The very design of imagination is to domesticate us in another, (in a celestial nature. Rhyme, being a kind of music, sharps this advantage with music, that it has a privilege of” speaking truth, which all Philistia is unable to challenge. Music is the poor man’s Parnassus.

There is no choice of words for him who clearly sees the truth. That provides him with the best words. If your subject do not appear to you the flower of the world at this moment, you have not rightly chosen.it. ' The impressions on the imagination make the great days of life; the book, the landscape, or the personality which did not stay on the surface of the eye or ear, but penetrated to the inward sense, agitates us and is not forgotten. Outside of the nursery the beginning of literature is the prayers of the people, and they are always hymns, poetic—the mind allowing itself range, and therewith is«ver a corresponding freedom in the style which becomes lyrical. The act of imagination is ever attended by pure delight. It infuses a certain volatility and intoxication into all nature. It has a flute which sets the atoms of our frame in a dance. Our indeterminate size is a delicious secret which it reveals to us. We must learn the homely laws of fire and water; we must feed, wash, plant, build. These are the ends of necessity, and first in the order of nature. Poverty, frost, famine, disease, debt, are the beadles and guardsmen that hold us to common sense.

Nature is the true idealist. When •he serves us best; when, on rare days, she speaks to the imagination, we feel that the huge heaven and earth are but a web drawn around us; that the light, skies and mountains are but the painted vicissitudes of the soul. Man runs about restless and in pain when his condition or the objects about him do not fuily match his thought. He wishes to be rich, to be old, to be young, that things may obey him. In the ocean, in fire, in the sky, in the forest he finds facts adequate and as large as he. The test, or measure, of poetic genius is tlie power to read the poetry of affairs —to fuse the circumstance of to-day; not to use Scott’s antique superstitions, or Shakespeare’s, but to convert those of the nineteenth century, and of the existing nations, into universal symbols. Shadows please us as still finer rhymes. Architecture gfves the like pleasure by the of equal parts in a colonnade, in a row of windows pr in wings; gardens by the symmetric contrasts of the beds and walks. In society you have this figure in a bridal company, where a choir of white-robed qiaidens gives the charm of living statues; in a funeral Procession, where all wear black; in a regiment of soldiers in uniform. Imagination is central; fancy is superficial. Fancy relates to surface, in which a great part of life lies. The lover is rightly said to fancy the hair, eyes, complexion of the maid. Fancy is a willful, Imagination a spontaneous, act; fancy, a play as with dolls and puppets which we choose to call men and women; imagination, a perception and affirming of a real relation between a thought and some material fact. Fancy amuses; imagination expands and exalts us. In dreams we are true poets; we create the persons of the drama; we give them appropriate figures, laces, costume; they are perfect in their organs, attitude, manners; moreover, they speak after their own characters, not ours; they speak to us, and we listen with surprise to what they say. Indeed, 1 doubt if the best poet has yet written any five-act play that can compare in thoroughness ot invention with this unwritten play in fifty acts, composed by the dullest snorer on the floor of the watchhouse.

Eating Among the Kanakas.

The manner of eating among the Kanakas is almost shocking to our ideas of usage and propriety. Around the citiea and villages, and where they can got it, they will eat meat and bread, but their staple food is poi and' raw fish. The poi is made of the taro root, which grows like a turnip with a calla-lily top, and in a muddy patch, and is pounded up fine and put into a large calabash to ferment. It lias a rootish taste, and is somewhat sour. The datives mix it with water, and then awbole family will squat around the calabashin the center of the room. Before eating they sometimes rinse ■ the fingers with water. The way I saw a woman do this one morning was by taking a mouthful of water out of a small calabash, then squirting it out of her mouth over her fingers; then she sat dswn, and, plunging her fingers into the poi, stirred it around and thrust into her mouth what clung to the fingers. And thus they each and all eat poi with the first two fingers, men, women and children sitting around and eating from the same calabash. In like manner they eat the raw fish with their fingers from the eame dish. They livo in this manna: all over the islands. Few of their huts are divided into apartments, and they generally sleep promtscuously. —00a Francueo CkronitU. A Boston man has just invented • stocking-darner.