Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 September 1876 — Page 3

The "Rensselaer Union. RENSSELAER, It - INDIANA.

THEN AND NOW. iHete ia the same old mansion, With Its quaint, moss-covered towars, Ami the bummer sunlight sleeping On the gleam of garden flowers; And the wild dove, far In the Hr-wood, Oooing in monotone; And the stately, silent court-yard, With Its antique dial stone. trim swallows have come as of yore, lad, Prom over the sunny sea, And the cud of the lily echoes To the hum of the wandering bee. 'The lark. In Its silvery treble. Pings tip in the deep-blue sky; Bui the bouse is not as it was, lad, Ia those dear old days gone by. ’Tw&s here that her garments rustled Like music amidst the flowers: And her low, sweet, rippling laughter Made richer the rose-wreathed Dowers. But now it is neon-tide brightness, The place seems cold and dead. And It l es like a form of beauty When the light of the soul has fled. All hushed in each lonely chamber That echoed the songs of old; The chairs are now all vacant, * And the hearths are dark and cold. Yet the joys I had here of yore, lad, No heart but my own can know; And the pllmpse of heaven she gave me In this dear home long ago. Bat they went one eve, when she left me, 'Mid the balm of the summer air; There's a grave far over the hills, lad— The home of my heart is th re. —.Alexander Lament, in Tinsley's Magazine.

WHY LETTICE SYMPATHIZED WITH MR. BREMER.

Lettice liad been sick all through the spring and early summer, but when the weather became hot and dry the cough and pain in her side left her, faint streaks of color began to flash up into her thin cheeks, ana she grew able to take a ride with her father every morning, and during each ride she found many commonplace incidents to weave into thrilling stories for her little brother Fred. One morning, as they were driving slowly along a beautiful lane, Lettice was much amused by counting a number of cattle crossing a- brook on a narrow plank. “There! Twenty-one!” she cried,clapping her hands. “ What a clumsy old fellow that last one was. I surely thought he’d tumble into the water. I hope they will all do it over again when we come back. I must tell Fred all about it.” “ That reminds me of poor little Fredrika Bremer,” replied her father, delighted to see his “languid lady” display so much interest. “ One day she and her sisters were watching some bullocks that had been let out to drink at a pond. When they came to a certain place where the gates had been taken down they all appeared seized with a dancing lit, and began to jump and prance, kicking their hind legs in the air. The children were amazed at such conduct in the quiet creatures, and when their father came home that evening Charlotte went into the library and told him of the wonderful behavior of the bullocks. He was amused and interested, and wondered very much what could have influenced them. Presently in came another child and told the same story. The father listened but said nothing. Then a third came in, repeating what the others had said. The father

fmid no attention. And, last of all, poor ittlo repressed, irrepressible Fredrika made her appearance, saying, ‘ Do you know, papa, that the bullocks —’ But she was interrupted with, ‘This is the fourth time I have heard that story. Now there must be an end of it.’ ” “ How cross and unkind he was!” exclaimed Lettice. “He might have listened to just one more. I have no patience with him!” “ But it was something of a bore for him, you see,” said Mr. Houghton. “ Why,” suddenly turning his attention to the horse, “ Ned has almost lost that fore shoe* We must drive slowly. I will watch the shoe while you keep a sharp lookout for a blacksmith’s shop. 1 think there is one near.” Lettice sat erect, her bright eyes searching for she scarcely knew what, until her father said: “There it is,” as they turned a corner close upon a small unpainted building surrounded by broken wagons. Through a smoky doorway they saw a man bending over a forge, drawing a long red iron from the fire; but he threw the iron on the anvil and came to the door at the sound of Mr. Houghton’s voice. “ Loose shoe, eh?” he inquired, running his fingers through his curly gray hair. “Do it for you in five minutes ; will that suit you, eh ? Better take the horse out, eh? Your little gal looks beat out; better go in the house and stay with my women folks, eh? Powerful hot place this shop is to set in, eh ?” “ It will only be for a few minutes,” assured her father, helping her down. “ Perhaps you will find something to amuse you.” Lettice slowly crossed the dusty road, and knocked at the door of the little red house opposite the shop. “ May I please stay here until our horse is shoo?” she asked, as a tiny old lady appeared. “Yes, come in,” answered the old lady, in a strikingly gentle tone. “ How thin you are! Have you been sick ? Just set in this rocking chair and put your feet on this little bench, and I’ll get you a glass of our spring water. No such water as ours to be found for miles around.”

Lettice leaned wearily back among the faded green cushions of the chair, while the ola lady stretched up to the highest shelf of a closet for a glass, and left the room, moving so noiselessly that the child was almost startled. , The room was so small and bare that Lettice had made a study of everything it contained before the old lady returned with the glass of water and followed by a little brown dog. “ What a cunning little dog it is,” she said, after she had drank the water, and the dog came whining and jumping around her chair. “Yes,” assented the old lady, seating herself, and commencing to darn a pair of coarse socks. “And what do you think he did last toight? It was the queerest thing, for we never let him go up-stairs; but Jimmy had something like a tetcb of cholery, and he was took all of a suddent in the evening, though what he had been eating to hurt him no one knows. For his breakfast he only eat cakes—we was out of buckwheat, so we made them of rye and Indian; we raise them over night — two quarts—-” “But what did the little brown dog do ?’ ‘ inquired Lettice. “Well, you see Jimmy ’most had the cholery, and we was at our wits’ end. We put him ip hot water, and we put mustard en him, and gave him ginger and par-

egoric, and the doctor live* a long way off, and there was no one to send, for John had the asthmy, and father ” “80 you sent the dog for the doctor V’ ’ asked Lettice. “No; oh, no, we should ndt think of such a thing,” returned the gentle old voice'. “ Well, you sec, after we put him in the hot water we wanted to wrap him up warm, and so Ainandy went up to the garret chamber for a quilt—we have a nice parcel of quilts, for I’ve plecened fifty-three in my day—let me see, the first one I plecened was when——” “Did the dog bring down the quilt?” again interrupted Lettice. L “Oh, po,” replied the old lady, softly, shaking her head, “but he followed Amandy up-stairs, and she never thought of him when she came out of the room, and we was all so frightened we never missed him, and thought nothing of it till Jimmy was better this morning and Amandy went to put the quilt away, and as sure as you live there was Fido a-wag-fing his tail when Amandy opened the oor, and he must have been there all night.” A disappointed “Oh!” was all the reply that Lettice could make.

“ Slo you like Flido,” repeated a thick voice as a very old man opened a bedroom door so close to her chair that Lettice gave a little start. “ 810 you like Flido,” he continued, shambling up to an arm-chair and seating himself with difficulty. “ Flido is a wise dog an’ a tunning dog an’ a funny dog. An’ Flido went up-stairs last night, an’ he followed ’Mandy up-stairs, an’ ’Mandy went upstairs for a quilt, and Jimmy was sick an’ had to have a quilt, an’ Flido followed ’Mandy up-stairs, an’ ’Mandy shet Flido in, and Flido stayed there all night till ’Mandy opened the door in’e morning and then ’Mandy saw Flido waggin’ his tail. Yes, Flido is a tunning dog an’ a wise dog an’ a funny dog.” “Oh!” shivered Lettice, glancing out of the window to see if the horse were nearly ready. “ Here I am, home at last, almost sweltered!” shouted a large, round voice, and the door was violently opened to admit a stout young W'oman who immediately seated herself on two chairs and began fanning herself with her apron. “It’s Amandy ,” whispered the gentle old lady, just as if she were unlocking a cabinet of rare jewels. “ So you are waiting for your horse?” questioned Amanda. “And how fond Fido is of you! I ski. Ibe jealous soon. You never in your life saw an jibing as cunning as he is. Jimmy was taken sick last night and what were we to do, so far from the doctor and never having any one sick like that before, we didn’t Know, and you never in your life saw such a distressed household. But I had heard tell of putting folks in hot water, so I ran upstairs for a quilt (but I shouldn’t have believed the dog followed me if I had not seen him there this morning), and so I ran down quick, and when I went to put the quilt away this morning you never in your life, ever, saw a dog so happy as he was, standing there wagging his tail when I opened the door.” As she ended her story Amanda nodded toward Lettice, who could only reply with a faint, half-indignant “ Oh!” “ So you are home, ’Man’,” screamed & shrill voice from the kitchen, and a moment after a slight, red-cheeked girl appeared in the doorway. “Who’ve you got here?” she asked, her bold brown eyes traveling over Lettice’s attire inch by inch. “So she is waiting for the horse, all dressed up so gay; but she likes Fido.” The girl seated herself on the floor and began to play with the dog. “ Where do you suppose he stayed last night? the duck, the diamond—” she began, to Lettice’s consternation. “ That little wretch Jimmy had to go and eat cucumbers till he got us all in a precious fright, and while ’Man’ ran up-stairs fora quilt he just picked after her and we never knew a breath about it till ’Man’ went up this morning to put away the quilt, and there he stood wagging his tail. Now wasn’t that a cunning trick?” “ I don’t know,” replied Lettice angrily, ready to shriek with nervousness. Just then a small boy appeared in the kitchen doorway eating a large cucumber. “ Come here, good dog, poor fellow !” he called. “ Say, Sis, he’s the funniest dog you ever saw. Last night I was sick ” But Lettice sprang from the chair in terror and rushed from the house with her fingers in her ears. The horse was reharncssed and her father waiting to assist her to her seat in the carriage. “ The time did not seem long to you ?” he asked, as they turned the corner which hid house and shop from their view. ‘ 1 But how pale you are! Are you faint ? Was their house too close? Here, take the bottle of hartshorn.” ‘ ‘ I—sympathize —with^Mr—Bremer,” came faintly from the clfid’s white lips. “What do j-ou mean# Asked her father, anxiously. “ I feel better,” sighed Lettice, the color rushing violently into her face as she sniffed the hartshorn. And before the ride was over she had s', far recovered as to tell the whole story to her father, which made him laugh so heartily that the tears ran down his checks. — Ella A. Drinkwater, in Christian Union.

Genius and Morality.

The man who believes in debt, and cites plenty of men of genius who run in debt, is either silly eqough to suppose himself a fenius or to mistake folly for genius. len who write wisely against running in debt may also, like many other preachers, fail utterly to practice their own preaching. Thus, Lord Bacon wrote on the wisdom of business, and ran desperately in debt. Men of genius are not always ninnies in their expenditures, though we can recall thousands who are, from Bacon to Webster. Men of genius may also be able, like Pitt and Webster, to have the most correct idea of public finances, and yet fail utterly in Managing their own affairs. Pitt received never less than equal to $30,000 a year, sometimes equal to $50,000, and died equal to $200,000 in debt. Bherid&n was another spendthrift, and spent all of hfe first wife’s fortune hi six weeks, and the fortune of his second wife in a few months. Fox was a great gamester, and at one sitting of twenty hours lost equal to $55,000. It is just this kind of genius which should have no imitators, ana which has proved the misery of thousands of families and the dishonor of all the men who indulge in such personal extravagance and plunder of other people’s property.—Boston Transcript.

—ln Atlanta, Ga., a few days ago a young man named Thomas Jourdan was working before a saw making 40,000 revolutions a minute. He slipped on some shavings and fell forward upon the saw, which cut through his body m an instant. He lived only long enough to send some messages to friends andyay farewell to the workmen who gathered around him.

INCIDENTS AND ACCIDENTS.

—The opening of a coffin of a young man at Deny, N. H., who died thirtythree years ago, discloses the singular faqt that li is hair has grown out two feet or more, and is heavy, bright and fresh. —A few weeks ago, on the farm of Mr. Eli Reno, of Chippewa Township, Beaver -County, Pa., a hawk alighted with the intention of helping himself to some of Mr. Reno’B poultry. He was at once tackled by a game rooster of the ginger-red species, and a furious fight between the roostter and hawk ensued, at the expiration of which the hawk fell' over dead, and the rooster was loft master of the field.

—A man named Julian was driving a wagon-load of giant powder along a St. Louis road, when he discovered fire in the bottom of the vehicle. One box had just caught, when he coolly turned and threw it out. Finding he could not extinguish the flames, he drove the wagon into a ditch, and, unhitching the horses, drove them a short distance away before the explosion came. People were thrown down and houses wrecked, but the plucky driver got away with his uninjured horses. —Mrs. Sarah F. Holt, an aged lady of Nashua, Mass., expired suddenly upon her husband’s coffin recently. She had gone into the parlor, where the remains of her husband had been prepared for burial. Looking inta the face of the dead, she said, quietly: “ How can I live without you, Henry?” Then, putting her hand to her head, she tottcrea and was about to fall, but being caught by a friend, she was assisted to a chair and immediately expired. —~

—Amos B. Miller was taken to the station-house at Tiffin, Ohio, the other evening, a raving maniac. He came to that city about two weeks previous from Chillicothe, with a j-omng wife, for the purpose of attending Heidelberg College to prepare himself for the ministry. They rented a house and bought quite extensively in furniture, getting credited for mostof it. He expected $1,500 from his home the week before, but was disappointed. Creditors began pushing him, and this, together with the disappointment of not receiving his money, drove him crazy. His friends were telegraphed for, when the first sjmptoms were discovered, but failed to respond. —A late Vallejo (Cal.) Chronicle says: “An eleven-inch pivot gun, the heaviest piece of ordnance in the armament of the Tuscarora, was dropped overboard this forenoon while being hoisted out of- that vessel. Just as it had been raised by the crane, and was swinging between the ship and the dock, the chain parted, and the gun, with a great splash, fell into the water. The crane used was built to lift weights as heavy as twenty tons, and the gun weighed about 16,000 pounds, or eight tons, from which it is evident the chain in use on the crane was very unfit for that service. An attempt was made to raise the sunken cannon by getting a rope around it, but not being half strong enough, it snapped like twine.”

—A curious attempt to commit suicide by starving is attracting much attention in Springfield, Mass. Hope Doggett, a young woman who has been employed as a clerk in an office at a very small salary, was dischared a week ago last Saturday, and since that time has eaten nothing except two apples on the following Sunday. She refuses with scorn all offers of charity, declaring that she would take money from the man she used to work for, and from no other person, but refuses to ask him for aid, while he declares he will give her nothing unless she asks for it. Her bodily strength is giving way, although physicians say she can live some time yet. Should she persist in her madness she will doubtless be removed tp Northampton insane asylum.— Telegram, Any. 29.

—A remarkable death occurred in Montgomery County lately. Mr. W. D. Lord, Frank Lord, George Elland and Thomas Ballard went to Weaver’s Mill, seining. Messrs. Ballard and Elland were dragging the seine, and liad caught two small fish. Mr. W. D. Lord, who was some twentv feet from them, swam through water about waist-deep to them, took the two fish and placed them between his teeth, and undertook to swim back to shore. One of the fish being larger than the other, the smaller was not secure, and, with an effort to get away, went down Mr. Lord’s throat, lodging securely in his swallow. Becoming aware of his condition, Mr. Lord appealed to his comrades for help. “Help me, boys!” were his last words. They sprang immediately to his assistance, and got him to shore. He made several strong efforts to get his hand down his mouth to pull out 3ie fish, but in five minutes or less time life was extinct. A post-mortem examination was made, and the flsli—a perch about four and a half inches in length—was recovered.— Cor. Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser,

“ A Place for the Old Folks.”

If you would make the aged happy, lead diem to feel that there is still a place for them where they can be useful. When you see their powers failing, do not notice it. It is enough for them to feel it without a reminder. Do not humiliate them by doing things after them. Accept their offered services, and do not let them see you taking off the dust their poor eyesight has left undisturbed, or wiping up the liquid their trembling hands nave spilled; rather let the dust remain, and the liquid stain the carpet, than rob them of their self-respect by seeing you cover their deficiencies. You may give them the best room in your house, you may garnish it with pictures and flowers, you may yield them the best seat in your church-pew, the easiest chair in your parlor, the highest seatof honor at your table; but if you lead , or leave, them to feel that they have passed their usefulness, you plant a thorn in their bosom that will rankle there while life lasts. If they are capable of doing nothing but preparing your kindlings, or darning your stockings, indulge them In those things, but never let them feel that it is because they can do nothing else; rather than they do this well. Do not ignore their taste and judgment. It may be that in their early days, and in the circle where they moved, they were as much sought and honored as ypu are now; and until you arrive at that place, you can ill imagine your feelings should you be considered entirely void of these qualities, be regarded as essential to no one, and vour opinions be unsought, or discarded if given. They may have bejen active and successful in the training of children and youth in the way they should go; and will they not feel it keenly, if no attempt is made to draw from this rich experience ? Indulge them as far as possible in their old habits. The various forms of society in which they were educated may be as dear to them as years are now to you; and can they see them slighted or disowned without a pang? If they relish their meals better by turning their tea into the saucer, having their butter on the same plate with their food, or eating with both T - ■ • ■ • - -- - —yi—-

knife and fork, do not in word or deed imply to them that the customs of their days arc obnoxious in gopd society; and that they are stepping down from respectability us they descend tile hill side of life. Always bear in mind that the customs of which you are now so tenacious may be equally repugnant to the next generation. in this connection 1 would say, do not notice the pronunciation of the aged. They speak as they were taught, and yours may be just as uncourtly to the generations following. I was once taught a lesson on this subject, which I shall not forget while memory holds its sway. I was dining, when a father brought his son to take charge of a literary institution. He was intelligent, but had not received the early advantages which lie had labored hard to procure for his son; and his language was quite a contrast to that of the cultivated youth. But the attention and deference he gave to his father's quaint, though wise, remarks, placed him on a higher pinnacle, in my mind, than he was ever placed by his world wide reputation asa scholar and writer. — Congregatianalist.

Caroline Herschel.

The simple story of her life is as noble in its way as the more exalted history of his. From her earliest childhood she adored her brother William, and on the mere suggestion that she might be sent to England to remain two years with him, if only she could be spared from her duties at home, she set about knitting for her mother and brother “as many cotton stockings as would last two years at least,” and making “prospective clothes for them.” At last she went to Bath and became a successful singer in the oratorios conducted by her brother, copying music for him, “ lending a hand” in the workshop, in the observatory, anywhere where she could be of use, but always with the profoundest humility of spirit. “ I was a mere tool which he had the trouble of sharpening.” But the tool had the true temper. She acquired a knowledge of astronomical calculation, she assisted in the manufacture of specula, and was Herschel’s constant companion in the severe labors of observation which he undertook. When he was away from home she computed for him all day and minded the heavens for him at night, discovering independently no less than eight comets, five of which were first seen by her, and many nebulae. Best of all, though least conspicuous, she introduced the greatest order in the record of his nightly work, copying and re-copying, computing and recomputing, verifying ana checking everything, so that the value of that labor is immensely enhanced. Her devotion in everything was complete; after a severe accident to herself while assisting her brother at the telescope, she speaks of the “ comfort” she had in knowing that “ my brother w'as no loser, for the remainder of the night was cloudy.” Again, in her diary: “ May 3d. I intended to pay a long promised visit to Mrs. 0 , but found my brother too busy with putting the fortv-foot mirror in the tube. . . . Therefore I postponed my journey till I was sure I should not be wanted at home.” “ Jan. 1, 1815. Mem. The winter was uncommonly severe. My brother suffered from indisposition, and I, for my part, felt I should never be anything else but an invalid for life; but this I very carefully kept to myself, as I wished to' be useful to mv brother as long as possibly I could.” In 1819, a little note of Sir William’s is indorsed in her tremulous handwriting: “I keep this as a relic! Every line, now , traced by the hand of my dear brother—becomes a treasure to me.” She kept a commonplace book, in which she w rote out in full the answers which her brother gave her at breakfast, or in his few leisure moments, to her questions as to the mathematical formula she was to use in her computations, and the like. After her discoveries of comets, the publication of two of her works by the Royal Society, and the praise and recognition of her labors by astronomers sill over Europe, she still writes: “ I had the comfort to see that my brother was satisfied with my endeavors in assisting him.” —“ Recent Literature," in September Atlantic.

Vanderbilt's Grandsons.

The public, which has been led to expect the speedy demise of the Commodore, is now surprised that he holds on with such tenacity. This arises from his natural strength of constitution. He is chiefly suffering from a local ailment which is not fatal, and therefore he may recover a tolerable state of health, that is for an old man. The Commodore has the satisfaction of beholding two of his grandsons in the management of the Central. These are William K. and Cornelius junior, both sons of William H. Vanderbilt. The first of this pair of brothers is a director, and is also private secretaiy for his father. While Cornelius junior is a treasurer of the road. The latter has always been a favorite of the Commodore, after whom he is named. There is another Cornelius (the Commodore’s son), who is so dissipated that he is not reckoned a true “Cornelius junior.” The Commodore met his favorite grandson on New Year’s day, and said: “Cornelius, you have been a good boy, and here is a trifle for you.” As he said this he handed him a check for $50,000. It is a great satisfaction to William H. Vanderbilt that his sons thus far are very-steady men. Their mother is the daughter of Dominie Kissam, who once preached at Cedar Hill, near Albany, where William used to go on visits of a tender nature. I need hardly say that the Dominie has been well provided for, and when last I heard of him he was living in Brooklyn. William continues to hold his farm on Staten Island, where his children were bom, and where he once raised crops for the New York market—but times have changed since then, and the farmer Dominie’s daughter now occupies a Fifth avenue palace.— N. Y. Letter-

The Probabilities of Sickness.

Dr. Reginald Southey has recently been delivering a course of valuable lectures on “Individual Hygjepe” in London, and in one he introduced a table of “ Expectation of Sickness,’ which he had prepared, and which is as follows: At twenty years of age, Calculate on four siqk days yearly. At twenty to thirty, five or six days. At forty-five, seven days. At fifty, nine or ten days. At fifty-five, twelve or thirteen days. 3 At sixty, sixteen days. At sixty-five, thirty-one days. At seventy, seventy-four days. Of course this refers to people of average good health, and not to those who may be afflicted with any ineradicable or chronic ailment: ~ The Adjutant-General of the Xrmy states that during the last five fiscal years ending June HO, 1875, there were over 30,000 deserters from the army.

Crying Down One’s Victuals.

Wk suppose you have all visited at some place where the lady of the house was In the habit, at eveiy meal, of crying down her victuals f ; She never wants company unless she knows they are coming, because as everyIxxly knows she wants a day or two in which to prepare for them. She does not suppose anybody thinks this is the reason she wants to know; she thinks that they think it is because she shall be away from home. And the mistaken soul after fretting, and sweating, and stewing, over the cook-ing-stove a day or two, and ransacking her brains and her larder to provide somethingnew under the sun in the eatable line, is ready when her guests come and seat themselves at her groaning tea-table —groaning beneath the weight of good things—she is ready to cry down her victuals, and wish In a melancholy tone of voice, and with a lugubrious expression of countenance, that she had something fit to eat!

She had such bad luck with her cooker)'. The mixing milk was too sour, and the yeast wasn’t good, and the grocery man must have cheated her when her the eggs for newly-laid. She’ll warrant anything they have been laid a month, for she never knew her recipe for sponge cake to fail, if the eggs were only good. Of course her guests hasten to assure her that there never could be any sponge cake any better than hers; and she smiles sadly, and tells them they ought to eat the sponge cake she can make, when the eggs are fresh. She is sorry the cream pie is burned—but her stove is getting so thin at the back of the oven that no dependence can be put in it. She must have a new stove. If there is anything that aggravates her beyond measure, it is to have pie burned. And a cream pie above all others! It is so much work and expense to make cream pies. Nobody has noticed that the pie was burned, and every Dody hastens to tell her so, and to add that they thought it was perfectly splendid. Then the poor woman begins on the doughnuts. She used to be a good hand at making doughnuts, she says; but somehow or other she seems to have lost her luck lately. Or else it is in the j'east. She can’t tell which. Something is at fault. It is so provoking to have bad luck with doughnuts. It is such a hot uncomfortable job to fry doughnuts in warm weather. She would as fief take a licking any time. And it scents the house up so, too. Smells like a fat-boiling establishment for a week. And then all the guests feel mean and uncomfortable, somehow; as if they were to blame about something, and as if the sin of making their hostess’ house smell like a fat-boiling establishment rested on their individual shoulders. Now, this woman who cries down her victuals knows that everything on her table is just as good as it can be made, and she has formed this habit of decrying it because she likes to have her cookery praised. Praise is sweet to us all, and almost every woman—perhaps every woman—likes to hear her victuals well spoken of. But the “ proof of the pudding lies in the eating,” and when guests “ feed” well, then the lady of the house may be sure that her cooking is perfect. And we don’t want to be to tea very offc en at the house where the mistress tells us on sitting down at the table—“that sjic does wish she had something fit to eat,” and adds when we rise therefrom Well, you didn’t make much of a supper, did you? Well, I don’t blame you! I ’sposc you didn’tlike my victuals.”— KateThom, inN. Y. Weekly.

Ain’t a Feelin’ Well.

A serious phase of disease is that which attacks a boy on a day when he particularly objects to going to school. He tells His mother, with the confiding frankness peculiar to youth, that he doesn’t feel well this morning. He doesn't know what it is, but he is lame in the joints and his head aches and his stomacn doesn’t

feel a bit good. He moves about slowly, openly refuses food, looks dejected, neglifent, unhappy. Quite frequently he can e heard to sigh. But in all his pain he never forgets the clock. As time advances to the hour which marks school time his symptons increase. He doesnX say a word about school to his inothe* He feels too dreadful, perhaps, to talk of such things. He is certainly in a bad way. His sighs increase as the dreaded time approaches, and the physical symptoms of decay grow more ana more manifest. But the greatest suffering he endures mentally. Fifteen mlnutes'’to nine is the time he should start. It lacks but ten minutes of that time, and nothing has been said to him about getting ready. He wants to believe he is all right, because that is the prompting of hope which is strong in the youthful breast, but yet he refuses to believe he is, because he fears the reaction of disappointment. Every time he hears his mother’s voice he is startled*, and every time he detects her looking toward him he feels his heart sinking within him. It is a hard thing, indeed, to appear outwardly languid and listless and drooping when inwardly one is a roaring furnace of agony. But he does it, and does it admirably. It now lacks five minutes of the quarter. Still shesays nothing. His nervousness is almost maddening. Four minutes, three minutes, two minutes! One minute. Still she makes no sign. Will his reason forsake him ?

It is the quarter. Now he should start according to custom. One would think he had every encouragement now, but he knows that even at five minutes later he can make school by hurrying. The agony of the suspense becomes exquisite. He trembles all over and he cannot help it. His hair is moist with perspiration. It seems as if he would give up everything and sink into the grave if he could but know the result. How slowly the clack moves. Itstares at him with exasperating stoniness. The ten minutes are reached. He breathes easier. Not a word has been said to him about school. His mother sees that he is too ill to go, and she sympathizes with him. Heaven bless ner. Did ever a boy have such a good, noble mother as this ? Visions of sunny fields and shady woods and running streams unfold before him, stirring tlie very depths of his soul, and filling his eyes with tears of gladness. “John!” Like a great shock the beautiful pictures fall away and he is shot from the pinnacle of hope into the abyss of despair. There is no mistaking the voice. “ Mercy sakes! here you are not ready for school. Come, start your boots.” “I don’t feel well enough l© go to school, ” he whines, hardly realizing the dreadful change that has come upon him with such blighting force and swiftness. “ I guess you ain’t dying, quite,” is the heartless reply. “ And if you ain’t in

school you win be galloping over the neighborhood. Hurry, I tell you.” “ But it is almost nine o’clock and I’U be late,’’ he protests in desperation. “Late?” she repsats, looking at the clock. “You’ve got plenty of time. That clock is nearly a quarter of a’ near fast” Merciful Heavens 1 He gets down before the terrific blow in s flash. A quarter of an hour fasti Bleeding it every pore of his, heart, stunned by a shock which was as terrible as unexpected, he crawls inside of his jacket and under hia hat, and starts on hia way in a dazed manner that is pitiful to behold.— Danbury Newt.

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS. —Texas has nine railroads in process of construction. —California has the largest lunatic asylum in the world. —Scattered and disconcerted ants—die Stewart claimants. —Would you have your day of Judgment come before its time—run for office. —After all, the real emblem of liberty night key, and it ought to go on —A September apple, mellow and sweet, ie ahead of any “eye-opener” as a morning appetizer. —Besides pistols and bowie-knives, the small pox is undermining human life in the Black Hills. —“ Inlandish and outlandish suits always ready,” is the announcement of a Vienna tailor who fancies he knows English. —A Servian girl ten years old gave her doll to the cause of liberty, and the Servian cause is therefore a doll ar such a matter ahead. —Why is not the frog made an emblem of patience? In the limestone region of Tennessee he sits down and lets the stone grow over and encase him alive. —“What do you propose to take for your cold ?” said a laay to a sneezing gentleman. “Oh, I’ll sell it very cheap; I won’t higgle about the price at all.” —Dealers in military equipments are not generally warlike men, and yet, in making out their bills for regimental outfits, they never hesitate to charge bayonets. —The man who does not acquire some article of useful information between daybreak and bed-time must mournfully say, with the Roman Emperor, “ I have lost a day.” —The Dutch cure a lazy pauper by putting him into a deep cistern, letting in the water, and providing him with, a pump that, with hard work, will just keep him from drowning. —Some of the leading life insurance companies of Hartford, Conn., are said to be writing only from five to ten new policies daily, the dull times having a terribly bad effect on the business. ? —A young man was airing a good deal of superficial knowledge at a social gathering, the other evening, when Mrs. Malaprop interrupted the current of his loquacity, and Bneeringly observed: “The inflammation of same folks is wonderful 1”

—We are told that “ For a man, love ic a story; for woman, it is a history.” This is pretty, but facts are stubborn things, and it doesn’t do to omit all mention of his twelve-hours-a-day dig for family bread and butter and her trouble over the baby’s colic.— St. unde Republican. *—“A good thing in times of danger is presence of mind,” remarked a philosophical party, as he tried to prop up a pile of lumber down on a Chicago dock the other day. “ Yes,” he continued, as he saw it was bound to tumble, “ but a better thing is absence of body:” And be got out from under. —A scientific writer says eyery infant can say “no” several months before it can say “ yes.” An old bachelor who has been rejected seventeen times says this habit of saying “ no” before she can say “ yes,” clingp to the female infant nntil after she becomes twenty-seven years old. —Norristown Herald. -L —The jury acquits the prisoner, a ser-vant-girl accused of having poisbned her employers, and the Judge tells her that she is free to go, and then adds; “ I want a cook, my good woman; but, nevertheless, I may say that it will hardly be worth your while to apply for the place, even with this verdict by way of reference.” —A woman in Covington, Ky., sneezed so violently the other night that she dislocated her jaw, and when her husband came sneaking in about one a. m., she couldn’t say a word, but stared at him in mute helplessness, and he grinned and went to bed, pretending not to understand gestures. The next aav all the married men in Covington were buying snuff, and the amazed tobacconists couldn’t imagine what had created such an unusual demand for the best Scotch snuff. —A lady tried to drive a four-in-hand at Newport, recently. She grasped the lines and said she was going to drive them around. And she did. She drove them around a cluster of bushes; she drove them around an aquarium designed for „ fishes; she drove them around each other, and ended tor standing three horses on top of one, standing the vehicle in the air with the pole in the ground, and herself oh her head. This all in one minute and fourteen seconds by a stop-watch—one that stopped the moment it saw her mix the reins. —Some genius, who evidently believes that workmen should be watched, says: “ANew Orleans wrecker lately undertook to complete a contract in a given time, bat, as the final day approached, found that his divers were making little progress with the work, and that his contract was in danger of being forfeited. Procuring a diving armor, he descended on a tour of investigation, and. having reached the bottom, found his seven workmen intently watching seven crabs. Cloee examination discovered that the name of some celebrated horse was inscribed upon the back of each of the crustaoea, and that they had been matched for a series of races, one of which was in process at the time. The cause of the delay was explained.” —This morning, as a man in the employ of the Government Contractor, was dumping a load of ashes on the common, he discovered a large pile of notes lying In aheap, and, on overhauling than, found that they were bank notes of various denominations, cat up in small pieces about an inch in size. It seems extraordinary how the notes came in this state, as it u evident they were cut by machinery, some being a perfect sphere, about the size of twenty-five cent pieces, and others different shapes. There wore at least half a peck of the pieces, and the question is, where did they come from? The notes were apparently of the denomination of $1 and yfi, bat there were pieces that looked as though they might belong to a United Btates $5. The entire pile must have represented thousands of dollars. — Halifax (N. 8.) Recorder.