Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 December 1876 — Page 3

The Rensselaer Union. . 1 ’ ' J' VAmim-mLwa®, RENSSELAER, . - « INDIANA.

THE COMPLAINT OF THE STOCKINGS. DkakSt. Nicholas: Last Christmas wc had a ■Christmas-tree—we always huug np our stockings before. On one of the baby’s a toe i- Inga was gone, and we couldn’t And it anywhere. But yesterday It turned up In the funniest place. You never couM guess where, so I tatrst tell you. It was tucked into one of the pigeonholes of grandfather's desk, lie found it there on Christmas morning; and as be can't see very well, he thought it was a pen-wiper some of us had put there to surprise him. Ana this letter, directed to you, was in the foot of toe stocking. No one can tell how it eter could have got into grandfather’s -desk; but you* know a great many wonderful things do happen on Christinas Evel Yours truly, May Mxm»ipiuh. .1 have a piteous tale to tell—and where, I should like to know, .Bnt to the good Gt. Nicholas, should a baby stocking go? I thought if I told our family wrongs, in good’oldfashloned rhvme. You'd fix the matter up, sombhow, before next Christmas time. Perhaps you’re wondering how it is I look so very bright. All coveru4nn with pretty stripes of red and bine and white ? . 'Well, when tbe stockings came last fall, in brown and navy blue, Mamina declared, for baby they Would never, never do I The sober things might answer to be worn by Will or May, •' But the dimpled darling Lewie's should glow like a summer’s day. Bo grandma go> her needles ouL and began me, so I’ve heard; * And with every stitch she knit, wove in a smile or lovinv word. And bow I gather round the cunning feet, you ought to see! Why the toes ate like pink sea-shells, and dimpled is each knee I I’ve hugged the dainty tiutfsa with a clasp so warm and tight. That old Jack Pfost has never had a chance to take a bite. But I must burry on to show how, on last Christmasnight, ■ Z k , j The stockings of this family received a dreadful alight. I’ll tell you what my father said—he’ll tell it best, I know, Though I am getting old myself—(there’s a big hole in my toe). heard him sadly groan that night—his name is Gray Lambs wool; My mother, Mrs. Fleecelined, sighed as though • her heart were full. “Ah, me I” he cried, “that Christmas Eve should now be passing o’er, Andi and,mine belying here upon the bedroom floor? ” I thought we’d all be hanging up along the chimney there; How wonderful the things we held last Christmas, I declare! Such gay embroidered slippers, done in beads and Berlin wool. With meerschaum, studs and smoking-ebp. till every part was full. My eldest son there, Seal Brown, ought to have his foot this minute Pressed oat of all its comely shape by treasures crowded in it—.. With ban and top and soldiers, with trampet, And everything, derides, a boy would need for Christmas fun. “ And next to him Miss Navy Blue would hang, and proudly hold A little chain and locket, and a ring of shining A tiny, thikllng music box, and, standing over all. With such flne clothes, and real hair, the very loveliest doll I And stumpy, dumpy Redstripe would lovingly embrace A stumpy, dumpy baby, with a smiling rubber face, A glowing coral necklace, a rattle too, methinks, And sugar plums among them, Just to fill up all the chinks. But ahi ’tie hard for stockings to fall on times like tbe-«r When ail the world is going mad about its Christ-mas-trees. We’ve been a faithful family; I’ve served my masrerweU; I’ve net a darned hale anywhere, ad any eye may tell.” i , -JF ' So now you see the reason I have spun a yarn so long - I want to get St. Nicholas to right this fearful wrong; I want his prancing reindeer to tear through all the land. And bring him to each chimney, to fill, with libemT band, The stockings blue, red, brown and gray—the stockings great and small— The ribbed, the striped, the plain, the plaid—the stockings short and tali; And if you now are weary of the grievances I sing, •Just cry, ’- Oh, Aa«<Z those stockings!”—that will be the very thing. —Budne* Dayre. in Ht. NlcAolrw Magazine.

GYMNASTS AND ACROBATS.

A few months ago an accident happened in view of a Dublin audience, to a (supposed) female performer on the trapeze; she missed her hold, and was dashed against the ground with considerable force. Nor was the matter much mended when, a day or two after, a letter appeared in the'pkpers, written by her, or "in her name, stating that it was only by the failure of a spring-board that the accident occurred, that she was only bruised and that she hoped Soon to reappear before her patrons the public! Apart from considerations as to the propriety of such an exhibition as this the •question is: Who is to blame here ? There are multitudes of persons in humble life not brought up to any regular trade, or influenced by unsettled habits, who seek to earn a living as public exhibitors. Tumbling, posturing, vaulting, somersaulting, rope walking, rope swinging, pole balancing, trapeze flying, don . taqaing, all have more or less of danger attending them. And herein lies the evil. The -public, 'or a considerable. section of the public, eviq.ee a relish for witnessing feats which have in them an element of peril. The consequence of this may be easily traced. If people.prefer the sensational to the graceful and elegant, they attend in greater numberi; the speculator or proprietor of the exhibition takes more money at the doors; he offers a higher salary to the performer, and the latter is thus tempted to try more aud more danger-ous-and daring feats. It would be better if these matters could by regulated by the good sense of the public than by legislative or governmental interference; but so long as the taste of sight-seers has a leaning toward hair-breadth escapes, so long will there be a succession of exhibitors aud performers ready to make money out of it. The danger attending trapeze ( feats can easily be understood. - Two ropes are suspended vertically and two horizontal bars ore 4 fastened to them,' one above Another. The performer usually, springs up, catCh<£ • hold of the lower bar, and achieves various acrobatic twistings and turnings,, now on his head, now hanging by one foot, now twisting like an eel between- the upper and lower bars, now dropping head foremost from the upper bar to the. lower. Any slip of hand or foot, and down he falls. - Some years ago in Loqden a mqn combined this acrobatism with aerostation. He ascended in a balloon, add when at a height measured by jiundreds of feet, went through a series of performances On a trapeze suspended unde? the car. Whether the height were ttundreds or thousands mßttered little to him; a fall would dash him to,pieces in either case. The proprietor or she gardens a larger number of shillings or sixpences on this occasion than if an ordinaty balloon ascent only

bad been announced; and tlnw a trapeze performer wawtempted to hazard his life by the receipt of an additional tee. An increase of peril occurs wheh two trapezes are suspended many feet or even yards apart- the acrobat swings or takes a dying leap from one to the other, loosing hold of the one and afterward seizing the bar of the other. The slightest miscalculation of distance may be fatal. Leotard—the hero of this kind of achieve-ment-performed the feat on five at six trapezes in succession, turning a somersault between each two. He was amazingly successful in a commercial sense, receiving a high salary. Mark.the consequences; imitative Leotards have been numerous, and many a broken limb or life-injury has resulted. (We may here in parenthesis, that a clever “Automaton Leotard” was exhibited at the Polytechnic Institution a few years ago; a life-size figure that performed in a neat and complete way many of the tumblings of a trapeze performer—those in which the hands do not quit hold of the bar; and latterly we have witnessed the pleasing performance of Heller’s automaton trapezist, which hangs by its feet as well as by the hands,) Walking head downward is another of these foolhardy displays. The ceiling prepared for thia exhibition is provided with grooves, slides, or springs, barely perceptible to the audience, but sufficient to give a hold for an instant to a pecu-liarly-shaped boot; the oerformer is suspended from on foot while he thrusts out the other to catch hold of the groove or spring, and thus laboriously wends his way onward, step after step. If he fails to insert one foot before freeing the other, we know the inevitable result. In one exhibition, several brass rings were suspended in a circle, and the performer made his way from one to another, holding on by hands or by feet as the case might he. A netting, spread out some distance under him, or soft mattresses E laced on the ground, lessened the probaility of broken bones; but the very provision of such precaution sufficiently shows that peril is Known to be involved? (It may here be remarked that there was a netting some distance below the trapezist to whom the accident lately happened; but it failed in its intended service, ana she (or he) fell heavily twenty or thirty feet to tho ground.) 4 Tight-rope walking is one of those achievements in which the slightest mishap of footstep, the slightest failure of nerve, brings the gymnast to grief. The famous Blondin eclipses all other exhibitors in this line. The baskets on his feet, the blindfolded eyes, the wheelbarrow trundled before him, the chair, the tabic set out with refreshments, all balanced on a stretched horizontal rope—these are marvels, indeed. It shows what a morbid state of feeling, however, is engendered by this exhibition, when Blondin pretends to miss his foothold once now and then, and regains it after quivering movements of the body and limbs, in order to send a thrill of terror through the spectators! One of his achievements is to carry Mme. Blondin while he walks his 1,000 feet or so of rope; but this has been found too much for English taste to bear, and it is not included in his regular programme. The veteran may possibly be so completely void of bodily fear and nervous trepidation as to be nearly as safe on the rope as on the ground, and may die a quiet, natural death when his course is run. But his example has not been without evil effect. There have been and still are “ English Blondins,” “ Female Blondins,” and “Juvenile Blondins,” who imitate some of the perilous exploits as a means of earning a livelihood; many and many a limb has been shattered or neck broken in consequence. In the days of our fathers, or perhaps grandfathers, one Mme. Baqui obtained great notoriety for her achievements on the tight-rope; If we remember rightly, her career was cut short by a frightful accident; but whether so or not, it is certain that a “ Female Blondin” only a few weeks ago came down with a crash while attempting to cross the auditorium of a theater on a rope—with what result we need not say. The slack-rope has its heroes and heroines as well as the tlght-jope —and its victims also. Why the performer does not fall off, while sitting on the rope in full swing, with arms folded, and no hold or grasp by the hand, is a mystery and marvel to many of the ' rudience, and the greater the marvel the greater the attractiveness—according to the logic of showmen and exhibitors. The fact is that the performer is familiar with a law of dynamics without knowing or caring about its scientific meaning; a law .which tells him that he must incline his body backward during the onward swing of the rope, and forward during its reverse swing. A wonderful exhibitor appeared amongst us many years ago, though not so many as to be beyond the recollection of some of us; an Italian or Spaniard who chose to assume the professional title of “II Diavolo Antonio.” His slack-rope swinging was daring beyond precedent, and he had few followers who could equal him. The, pendulum movement of his body during’ the full swing of the rope was in a curve of very wide sweep. While sitting on the rope in sweeping oscillation he would tie his right ankle to it with a piece of cord half a yard or so in length; then, when at the utmost extremity of his onward course, he would fling himself from the rope and hang head downwards, attached to the. rope by one ankle only ; assuming very nearly the traditional attitude of “ Fame blowing the trumpet,” he played on a horn or bugle, accompanying the orchestra in the “ Overture to Loaoiska,” with his head farther from the rope than any part of his body and limbs, and consequently swaging in w greater arc than even the rope itself. What applause! What a thrill of excitement!, What a fascinating horror at the supposition of the cord breaking or the ankle-fastening becoming loose! But look a little behind > the scenes. Many a coroner’s inquest has recorded the dismal end of some or other of these rope-swingers; poor mangled creatures who have died in giving “pleasure” to others. We must “ take the gilt off the ginger-bread” before we can right- ■ ly estimate these things. Circus-riding, when kept within’ moderate limits, is often very elegant. I It illustrates two scientific principles that are ever operative in such exhibitions. One is, that the horse and his rider must both incline the body toward the center of the ring; else the centrifugal force of the circular motion would sOon bring them to trouble, pitching one or both at a tangent over among the spectators; and the higher the speed the greater must be the angle es this inclination. The other is, that the rider, standing on ahorse, may leap up and down in various ways, and may jump over bars and shawls, or through hoops or casks, and yet alight upon the horse again, although Ip a gallop. This is because the rider partakes of the onward motion of the horse, and is really moving on when he seems to be only lumping up. But oh, the falls, bruises and disasters that have to be encountered before the smiling, be-

rouged. tinseled performers are fitted to make their bow or courtesy to the public! An “Elik,” or an “ Elise." or an “Angelique" has to pass through a wearisome, long-continued, prosaic discipline before she can appear as a fascinating eguutrienne, jumping through hoops of fire, or dancing in a pat de deux with a male performer, on two horses. How manv broken limbs occur, during the apprenticeship the public never know; the “profession” does not talk of those things; but Mr. Frost, who has written some singularly curious books about showmen, circusriders and other public performers, has much to tell concerning the ordeal which such person? have to undergo—the fractures, the bruises, the heartaches, the poverty. the disappointments, too often end, ing in untimely death. It is noticeable, he remarks, that they are mostly quiet people in private life—rather serious than “jolly,” and very little prone to drinking. The necessity for maintaining keen eyesight and steady nerves in an occupation naturally perilous day after day, makes a man cautious against “ putting an enemy in his mouth to steal away his brains.” Perhaps it is an effect of reaction that those who eam a living by makiug others laugh are often melancholy rather than gay when removed from the glare of stage-lights. Buch was Liston, and such was Grimaldi. When the. performance is intended )o excite wonder at feats of peril, therfc is an additional reason why the performer should be anxious, careful, often foreboding. Lion-tamers, men who dally with the animals in a menagerie in make-believe play, are special examples of a sensational heroism. When a man lies down in a den among lions or tigers, opening the mouth of one, leaning upon another, taking the huge paw of a third, aud ending by putting his head into the openea mouth of a fourth, he does one of two things—he either what a poor spiritless thing becomes when under the discipline of fear, or he exposes himself to danger of a most horrid kind. What those men go through before they have trained themselves and tamed the animals up to the required point can be known only to themselves; but it is known that moments of agony fall to their lot when spectators are wondering and applauding; some movement on the part of a caged animal, some look of the glaring eye, tells the experienced exhibitor that it is a mere toss-up (to use a homely phrase) whether a fatal catastrophe is imminent. In the days of Van Amburgh, the most famous of all “ lion-kings,” it used to be said that one visitor attended the exhibition night after night, fearing lest he should be absent when the final scene of the “ king ” being torn to pieces should occur. The story may have been an exaggeration; but there can be no doubt that the feeling excited by such an exhibition is a morbid one. Of the Spanish bull-fights we will not speak; the exhibitions in our own England are quite sufficient' to illustrate the point in hand. “Strong men” and “strong women” are among the attractions at country fairs, and when a second Hercules or Sampson is really keeping within the limits of his exceptional muscular development no great harm is done. If a man can twist an iron bar into a knot or hang a half a ton weight round his neck without hurting himself, and if he can earn a living more easily this way than by ordinary work, we will not criticise him tooclosely. But it is a depraved taste that encourages women to such displays. To bear two weights of fifty or sixty pounds each suspended from the hair is unfeminine enough; it is much worse to see a woman lying down, shoulders on one chair, feet and ankles on another, an anvil placed on her body, and two men wielding heavy hammers on the anvil! William Hutton’s strong woman, Phoebe Bown, who could lift a hundredweight with each hand, carry fourteen stone, or walk forty miles a day, was not an exhibitor; she honestly earned her living at the mannish employments of driving a team, guiding a plow, thatching ricks, and breakingin horses—disliking the womanish avocations of sewing, knitting, spinning and cooking. Legitimate exercises carried to excess lie beyond the range of feats which we have here in view. The training of boys and youths in a gymnasium ground is an excellent thing, strengthening the muscles and expanding the chest, but to stand on your head on the top of a pole is neither useful nor ornamental. Putting an oar on a pleasant stream is beautiful and invigorating exercise, but it may be doubted whether emulation does not carry the Oxonians and Cantabs too far in the violent struggle of the annual boat-race on the Thames; constitutions have been permanently injured by this. Swimming is so capital a thing, so useful for everybody to learn, that we welcome any encouragement given to it by striking displays in our rivers and channels; yet here again there is a loophole for strivings much oetter avoided. Capt. Webb has done what no one ever did before, and’ wisely resolves to rest content without strainingfor further glorification; but he has had Imitators who narrowly escaped drowning while attempting that which they could not accomplish; and he has unintentionally been the means of tempting a new class of * exhibitors—girls or young women, who make a public display of swimming ten or twelve miles down the Thames, nearly hemmed in by steamboats laden with sight-seeing visitors, mostly of the opposite sex. Even well-to-do folks Who climb mountains are a little too prone to tbe sensational in connection with emulation. To go half way ,up the Matterhorn is as useful as to reach the summit; but then the glory—and the danger!— Chamber!' Journal.

—Mr. Robert Colston, of Jersey City Heights, gave an example, on last election day, of his high appreciation of the right of suffrage, which is certainly worthy of more than passing notice in these days when men allow the most trivial obstacles to keep them from the polls. He was working in this city a few days prior to the election, and met with an accident which rendered the amputation of his left arm necessary. The operation of amputation bad scarcely been perperformed before Colston began to display the most intense anxiety lest he should not be allowed to go over to Jersey City and vote for President. He repeatedly gave expression to his anxiety, and, at length, the attending physician promised that if he would be quiet until election day he should be taken to his voting place and allowed to cast his ballot. From the moment that this promise was made, Colston was the quietest man in Bt. Luke’s Hospital. On election morning he was placed in a carriage and carefully driven to his home in Jersey City. He cast his vote, and then returned to the hospital, where he is still confined—fortunately none the worse for his trip across the river. —N. Y. Timet. Thb regular demand for timber for the bonanza mines is. 2J309.00Q feet a month. t

INCIDENTS AND ACCIDENTS.

—At Eugene City, Oregon, Daniel J. Lemons, becoming'excited over a game of cards, seized his adversary and gave him a good choking. A witness went for an officer, and when he relumed fonnd Lemons had died in a fit of apoplexy. —A moribund resident of Troy, N. Y., mindful of possible post-mortem extortions, Called for proposals from different undertakers for conducting his funeral, and had the contract made in black and white with the successful competitor. —ln removing the box of an old pump near the Poetoffice, the other day, the workmen found over fifty letters which had been slipped into the pump by persons mistaking it for a letter-box. The letters were taken to the Dead-Letter Office to havfe the mold scraped off them.— WaMinyton (D. O'.) Telegram to InterOcean. —A newly-married couple named Benson, of Buffalo, were en route for New York via the Erie Railway, one day recently. Near Narrowsburg the husband took from his pocket a roll of brown paper, which the bride snatched and threw out of the window, remarking: “ You said you’d quit chewing tobacco when I married you." As gently as he could, under the circumstances, the husband remarked that the brown paper contained not tobacco, but SIOO in greenbacks! —A singular suicide occurred in the old town of Guilford, Conn., the other day. Patrick Sheehan, a farmer, some fifty years old, who by industry had accumulated quite a little property during several years’ residence in that place, went to his bam and hung himself while his wife was getting breakfast ready. When she went to call him she found him hanging to a beam, dead. The only reason that can be assigned was Sheehan’s low spirits because his crop of onions had not quite met his expectations.

—A little son of Mrs. James Hodge, residing in Auburn, Me., recently found a pretty little copper cylinder, which he concluded to use as a head to his leadpencil. He showed it to his mother, and solicited her aid to th# job of making it ready. Mrs. Hodge took up the little copper cylinder, and, with a pair of scissors, began to punch a hole into it with a view of digging out some substance which appeared to be within. She had not been long engaged in this work when it exploded with a tremendous concussion, and blew off Mrs. Hodge’s forefinger and part of the thumb on her left hand. The lad was hit in the face and slightly wounded. It was a dynamite cartridge. —Orville Bosserman, a boy twelve years of age, son of Bamuel Bosserman, of Valle de las Viejas, Cal., was accustomed to exercise on a swing, and, standing on a box, would turn the rope under his armEits and throw himself forward with all is strength, so as to make the swing rise to the greatest possible height. The other day he met his death in a sad manner. It was evident that the rope had slipped from under his arms ana caught him by the neck. He had been engaged in conversation with his mother not more than ten minutes before the accident was discovered. She afterward called to him from the kitchen, and hearing no response, she went out and found him suspended by the neck, and dead. —Dr. Leonard Bacon, of New Haven, Conn., at a meeting in the Center Church of that city, a few evenings ago, related the history of the silver basin which is used in the baptismal service of the church. The basin was presented to the church in the year 1735 by Jeremiah Atwater, who was at that time a New Haven merchant, buying his supplies in Boston, and receiving them from that place by vessel. Amonfe the goods received were several nail casks, one of which, under a layer of nails at each end, was found to be filled with silver dollars. Mr. Atwater, who was a conscientious man, immediately wrote to the Boston merchant that there must be some mistake in the invoice of nails, as some of the casks contained other articles beside nails. It was promptly answered that the supposed nails were bought for nails, sold for nails, and nails they must be. Mr. Atwater then melted the silver and had made from it the silver basin which he presented to the Center Church.

The Escape of the James Brothers from Minnesota.

From a gentleman direct from Minnesota, and who lives right jn the neighborhood of where the Youngers were captured, we yesterday obtained some interesting incidents connected with the escape of the James brothers,'never before published. , He states that if the robbers had had a good knowledge of the country, there is no d«ubt but what they all would have made their escape as easy as they ever did after one of their transactions in Missouri. After tbe gang got into a thicket they pushed ahead until they found themselves upon a peninsula entirely surrounded by lakes and marshes, from which there was no escape except by a narrow neck connecting with the mainland. This neck was guarded by the pursuers, and, consequently, they were hemmed in the trap into which they had unwittingly walked. While In the thicket, composed of sumac and prickly ash, where it was impossible see a man ten feet, the James boys left the Youngers and proceeded to strike out on their own hook. They followed up a small creek or branch for a considerable distance, and finally tracing it to its head, came out upon the prairie in the direction of Garden City. Here they were in a quandary. To prpceed was dangerous; to turn back was doubly so, for they knew they had escaped the thicket just in time to prevent being surrounded.

There was but one course to pursue, and that was forward. And forward they went. Straight to Garden City, and straight through the town while It was wild with excitement. With a defiant, easy nonchalance they boldly passed by the armpd groups who were preparing to take the field, who little dreamed that the dreaded objects of their search—the famous Missouri bandit chiefs —were right at their elbows and listening to their conversation and plans. With indomitable nerve and iron will Frank James concealed the lameness occasioned by the ball in his leg, and strode along with all the elasticity of the step of a youth. Fortune, 'it is said, favors the braye, and this very boldness was their safeguard. *lhe people who thronged the streets and sidewalks did not dream that any of the band dared to approach a country road, much less passthrough the heart of their town. Consequently no attention was paid to the two stalwart men, who wound their way amid them and safely gained the outskirts of the village. Here they drew a long breath of relief, and congratulated each other on their good fortune. Although the whole coun-

try was alive, and armed parties guarded every road, thqy yere out on the broad prairie where they could see for miles,- and not in a treacherous thicket where they could be surrounded and shot down like dogs. The next step was to procure horses, and once well mounted, armed as they were, they could bid defiance to the hosts who were on their trail w ith the keen scent of sleuth-hounds. • »> Here again fortune favored them. After stopping at a farm-house and procuring dinner they proceeded on their way westward. Nearly all the farmers in that portion of the State who were not in pursuit of the robbers had their stables securely locked, and it was some time before they came to anything that looked like horseflesh. At last, just as they were about to despair, they suddenly came upon a pair of magnificent iron-grays. They were beauties and the best horses in that part of the State, having taken tbe premium at the fair the year before. They belonged to a gentleman who was off busy electioneering, little dreaming that while he was congratulating his expected constituents upon the capture of the robbers, two of their leaders were at that very moment appropriating his idolized horseflesh! As may well be imagined, the bandit brothers soon secured their prize. They coolly entered the stable, took two empty sacks and filled them with hay, strapped these on their horses in lieu of saddles, and in the next instant were at home—in the saddle!

They took to the high road and pursued their course unmolested. They frequently met parties, who, recognizing the horses, thought of course they were sent out by the owner on the same mission as themselves. When not in sight of these fiarties they struck into a long, swinging ope, which carried them over the ground at an astonishing rate of speed, and soon put them ahead of their pursuers, who by this time had discovered that the two men who had sauntered so carelessly through the throngs of Garden City were no less personages than Frank and Jesse James. Two hours after the,Jameses had left the house where they had taken dinner, a party rode up in great haste after them; and learning that two men answering their description had been there and were on foot, they sped away on their track confident of overtaken them. When they came to the place where the horses were taken, the pursuers know the speed, bottom ana endurance of the animals, which, united with the charactt r of their riders, made their bright prospects of contemplated capture very slim. The gallant grays bore their riders to safety, and the reader knows the rest. — Sedalia (Mo.) Bazoo.

Coming to the City.

Bdth by experience and by observation we know the eager, restless desire of a certain class of young men on the farm to get away from farm life and come to the city. They dislike the drudgery, the steady, hard work of the farm, and think it would be much better and nicer if they could stand behind a counter in some dry goods store, or work in an office, or even drive a city team. They would then be “among folks.” they think, and would be able to see for themselves “what was going on.” The glare and glitter, the noise and bustle, the activity aud commotion, the apparent splendor and gayety of a city life, they think, would just suit them, and would be so different from the solitude and lonesomeness of the farm and the farm home. Now we have a few plain words that we desire to address directly to this class. Not that words of similar import have not been spoken before, but it will do no harm to remind you of them again. And first, “ all is not gold that glitters.” There is drudgery to lie done in the city, as well as in the country, and if anything, even more. There is also as much hard, steady work. It is a little different in kind, to be sure, but then it tires you out just as soon, and you feel just as weary at night. Besides, a man can work to much better advantage in the stillness and quietude and amidst the unexcitable surroundings of country life than he. can with the noise and confusion of passing multitudes around him. There would be far less of nerve-exhaustion and vital consumption at the old home than there would be here. But again, if all this were not true, the city, at present, is the last place in the world that any man should think of coming to. Cities are generally overcrowded, but at the present time they are unusually full. Chicago is as well circumstanced as any large place in this respect, and in Chicago to-day, by a safe estimate, there are from one to five thousand men out of employment. Some of these are men with families who reside here, but a large proportion of the number are young men who have come in from.all quarters, looking for a situation, because they wish to change their mode of life, and feel dissatisfied with their present condition. No one by looking merely at the outside can begin to tell me amount of magnificent misery and gilded poverty which exists within the city walls. The number of large business houses' that are making anything more than a bare living now is venr small. To any young man, or old man, who is even comfortably situated on a farm, we say, by all means, remain contented. “ Better endure the evils you already have than fly to others you know not of.” The temptations and seductiveness of city life, its opportunities for self-destruction by gambling, drinking, licentiousness, and a thousand other evils, the peculiar isolation and lonesomeness of living and moving among people whose name t,:ven, you do not know, is not half as peasant as it might appear at first thought. The man who ought to be the happiest of all men is he who has a nice farm, free from debt, and under a Btate °I cultivation, with a cheerful, loving wife, and a goodly number of healthy, bright, dutiful children to make music in his home, B °d to assist in keeping his homestead.— Prairie Farmer.

A Stage Fire Nowadays.

In a piece by Victor Sejour, entitled “La Madame des Roees,” there was shown a spacious hall in a palace, with a terrace and staircase at the back, which were consumed in the flames. The effects of the servants and others flying through the flames to make their escape, of the falling rafters, the sparks,.the lurid red which filled the whole’scene, was so complete that the spectators rose from their si-ats in alarm. Nothing was more aim-, pie than the agency employed. The ordinary lime-lights turned on to the full, suffused the stage with a flood of light, and seen through crimson glasses imparted a fierce glow of the same tint. Any vapor of the whitest kind moving in such a medium would at once give the notion of volumes of lurid smoke. Accordingly, a few braziers filled with a powder known as “lycopodium” are placed at the wings, each fitted with a sort of forge bellows, each blast producing a sheet of flame and

T• 1 I ! smoke. The lights in front being lowered, rows of little jets, duly screened, are made to follow the tines of tbe beMM, rafters, etc.; and thus make tlmee eJffN stand out against the fiearie blaze. The view, therefore, from behind has thus an almost prosy and orderly aspect, but the effect is complete. There is afl the literal form and surface, as it were, of fire, without the material of fire.—New Quarterly Magazine.

A Bad Fire.

“Jones, have you beard of tbe fire that burned up that man’s honse and lot f” “ No, Smith, where was it?” “ Here in the city.” “ What a misfortune. Was it a house f” “Yes, a nice house and lot—a good home for any family.” “What a pity! How did the fire take?” * ‘ The maa played with fire, and thoughtlessly set it himself.” “ How silly! Did yott say the 10l was burned, too!” “ Yes, lot and all. All gene, slick and clean.” ‘ ‘ That’s singular. It meet have been a terribly hot fire—and then I don’t well see how it could burn the lot." “ No, it was not a large fire, nor a very hot fire. Indeed it was so small that it attracted but little attention.” “But how could such a little fire burn up a house and lot? You haven’t told me.” “It burned a long time—more than twenty years—and though D seemed to consume very slowly, yet it wore away about $l5O worth every year, until it was ail gone.” “I can’t quite understand you yet. Tell me all about it.” “ Well, it was kindled in the end efa cigar. Ihe cigar cost him, he himself told me, twelve and a half dollars a month, or (150 a year; and that, io twenty-one years, would amount to $3,150, besides all the interest. Now the whole sum wouldn't be far front SIO,OOO. That would buy a fine house and lot, even in Chicago. It would pay for a large farm in the country.”’ “Whew! I guess now you mean me, for I have smoked more than twenty years; but I didn’t know it cost as much as that And I haven’t any house of my own. Have always rented—thought I was too poor to own a house. And all because I have been burning it up! What a fool I have been!” The boys had better never set a fire which costs so much, and which, though it might be so easily put out, isyct so likely, if once kindlea, to keep burning all their lives.— Pratt»burgh(N. Y.)Neu>t. —A correspondent writes to the Boston Journal-. “Last week ex. Gov. Roland Fletcher, of Proctorsville, Vt., eng raged his dinner on a day fixed, at Tripp’s Hotel, with special seats for four others. He then sent his carriage to the Down Farm, inviting the four inmates of the Poor-house to the luxury of a ride and to dine with him. But the old people there declined the offer, saying they 1 did not want to be gazed at. Bo the venerable exGovernor was disappointed in his kind effort to relieve the monotony of a pauper’s life. We have not learned whether he literally fulfilled the Scriptural suggestion—to go into the street to compel guests to come into the feast prepared for them.” A young woman in: New York has recovered $1,500 damages from the owner of a dog which bit her. . t •

Comfort for Uneasy Stomachs.

That incomparable. antW.vapepttc cordial, carminative and appetizer, Hostetter’* Stomach Bitters, yleMe domfort to the uneasy stomach with a degree qf prompltude most gratifying to the victim of indigestion. The eradication of dyspepsia, by thq Btttera is, of course, accompanied by the disappearance of every one of ite muiUfarious and puzzling symptoms, apiong which may be mentioned aa the most prominent, heartburn, flatulence, abdominal oppression after eating, and sinking at other times, palpitations of the heart, water brash, vertigo, sick headache and nausea. Hostetter's Bitters tone and regulate the veriona organs which assist in the processes of assimilation, secretion and evacuation, fortify tbe system against malarious fevers and develop in the enfeebled system fresh stores st vitality. In efficacy, as in popularity, they surpass any tonic ■or regntattng medicine of the age.

CATARRH Sneezing Catarrh, Chronic Catarrh, Ulcerative Catarrh, permanently cured by SANFORD’S RADICAL CURE. Baictokd's EdinaAtCtnrerxmCaTAßrat* state, jertaln, and permanent carefor Catarrh otarery form. Sefom ati& of tissue, aud finally obtains complete control ovsr th® food medicine, and worttiy all confidence. Each l, 6??woap'e C M e DTeAi. Cm te sold Iwfill Mlitl—Ta and retail drnnists throoghont tbeynited States. Price sl. Depot, WEEKS A POTTKK,BosUc; C 3 EVERYBODY CHEERFULLY RECOMHSEHDB COLLINS’ VOLTAIC MASTERS. rpHEY eentadathe grand enrattv* element, Xukx A tbicitt. combined with the finest compoend of medicinal gums ever waited together. It therefor* teems impossible for them to tall in aflfording prompfi relict for all pains and aches. “ THE BEBT PLABTER.” Pieaao find money Inetoesd. H4S „ T T . T ywTO MiUf oar, Tnz., My 14,1871, “ AM EXCELLENT PLASTER.” „fsa.reK4 i 3Wf»^rf l asffiJ Sft •? jWS Jniy. «*• SMD ST AIX DRVGOX3TR , ■J {