Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 August 1877 — Page 3

The Rensselaer Union. RENBBELAER, - • INDIANA.

THE UNFINISHED LETTBB. Nbi* Dmxdwood. “ Dmxb JiMirr: “ We reached her* thli morning, Tom Baker, Nid Leonard, and I; So yon eee that In apite of your warning. The end of our Journey I* nigh. “ The redakina-’tia acarce worth a mention, Don’t worry a out me, I pray— Have fhowu us no little attention Confound them-alung on our way. “ Poor Nod got a ball In the ahoulder— Another one Juat grazed my aide— But pa haw I ere we’re half a day-older We'll be at the end of our ride. ‘•We’ve camped here for breakfast Torn’* .putting floniv .luuang-wood off In the nine*. And astride a dead cedar I’m aittlug To hastily pen you these lines. “ A courier from Deadwood—we met him Just now with a mail for the State*, (Ah, Jenny I I’ll never forget him}— For thia moat obligingly wai a. “ He say*, too, the minora are earning Ten do ’are a day,every man. Halloa I here come* Tom-he's returning - And running as fast as he can. “ It'a nothing, [ guess; he is only At one of his practical ’’ Bangl And harpt rough that rolltude i nely. The crack of Sioux ride shots rang. And a* the dire volley came blended With echo from canyon and pass. The letter to Jeunv was ended— Its writer lay dead on the grass. —lndianapolU Journal.

THE MUSIC OF THE WATERS.

And so all I had to do was to go into the country and enjoy myself for six weeks—that is what it came to. Why, if anyone had struck me with a feather at the moment the doctor uttered his verdict I should certainly have been knocked down; fortunately, no such atrocity was attempted, so I maintained as erect a posture as my enfeebled health would allow until the eminent licentiate of the College of Physicians, whom I was consulting, begged me to resume my seat. “ You are utterly smoke-dried,” he said. “ London or tobacco ?" I inquired. “Both,” he answered. “No physic; fresh air is all you want—mountain air, if possible; perfect rest and quiet; abstemious habits, early hours and no tobacco.” “But," I feebly protested, “I don’t care about the country; how am I to fill up my time ?” “ Nonsense; you know nothing of it, from your own showing; and as to occupation, anything will do, so that you keep clear of your ledgers. Fish, sketch, idle, read poetry and light novels; go and steep yourself in greenery, refresh your senses with rural sights and sounds; go and look at trees and fields, listen to the birds and the music of running waters; follow this out, and you will be a different man in six weeks.” “ And then?" I blankly inquired. “ Then ? 0, then,” he answered, “ get married and settle down.” If certainly was fortunate I was not standing up at that moment, for it would not have needed a touch of the aforesaid feather to have laid me low. As it was I sank back in my chair aghast. “ Get married!” I thought; I who was utterly insensible to female attractions, and who had been always taught to have an eye to the main chance, and regard matrimony as a clog, unless associated with a great heiress. I get married on a salary of £3OO a year ? Whew! I left Savile Row with scarce another wofd, convinced that for real downright, unpractical men there were none to compare with doctors. Thus I took the plunge, and within five days found myself at a snug little inn in North Wales, hard by a celebrated spot known as the “Devil’s Bridge,” a few miles inland from Aberystwith. I confess at once to having been a little astonished and pleased at the beauty of the scenery. The unexpected novelty, I felt, would keep me going for some time. The change soon refreshed me. I was astonished at feeling neither dull nor lonely—for the tourist season had hardly set in, and 1 had the little inn well-nigh to myself. Bo I wandered about and gazed wonderingly at all I saw, especially at the deep, craggy, wooded gorge or mountain river-bed across which his Satanic Majesty’s engineering skill was supposed to have been displayed. As I stood looking down upon it from the bridge near the inn, it certainly seemed

to me a wondrously romantic spot. Sleep rock-bound banks, crowned with trees, hemmed in the rushing, foaming river, its channel becoming irregularly narrower and more precipitous as it reached the head of the valley in the depths of which it lay. Here there was a waterfall, as I then thought, of stupendous magnitude, and yet a little higher up, a second still larger. As 1 made my way down to the river by a well-worn path through a wood, the sound of the descending waters, as, wafted on the soft summer breeze, it rose and fell in liquid cadence, fascinated me from the very first. At a distance it was but a murmur; but as I drew nearer I seemed to fancy that melodies innumerable were growing out of it—w.ild, unequal melodies, that touched chords in my nature of the existence of which I had hitherto been ignorant. I had cared no more for music than for any other of the refining, softening influences of life, and now there seemed to be awakening in me an entirely new man. I did not kuow myself, and the fascination led me on irresistibly. Now I would stop and tilt my head from side to side, listening to the varieties of sound I thus gained. Then, after advancing a little to increase the strength of tone, I would retreat so that the delicate decline of power should be made to add another charm. In this fashion I literally spent some hours before I actually reached the verge of the torrent, and ex- ' perienced in its full force the tremendous roar of the rushing waters. Why, here was occupation for weeks, I thought, in merely listening to these beautiful noises; and had not the doctor told me that this was one of the ways in which I should employ myself ? Had he not said • “ Listen to the music of running water?" Well, I never expected to find a holiday diversion in such a pursuit; but here it was, and for a whole fortnight I gave myself up to this delicious idleness. Then, as if farther to develop the unsuspected music, poetry, or whatever you may choose to call it, of my nature, I found among the few coffee-room books a copy of Southey’s poems. Instinctively I read again and again, “ How does the water come down at Lodore!" I took the volume down to the wood, to the water’s edge, to the very foot of my waterfall, which seemed to me to be doing all that the poet described as possible under the> circumstances. The weather hitherto had been superb, midsummer sunshine, and not a drop of rain. The sunshine glinting through the trees; —lmpure sky above; the song of the birds, not yet all hushed, in the woods; the fresh breezy odors—these all became such novelties and charms as I had never conceived possible. But seated on my isolated rock, it was still, after ail, out of the “ music of the waters" that I got my chief mental enjoyment. • At last there wa a sudden change of -wind. Heavy clouds swept over the landscape, burying in mist or occasional showers all forms save those close st hand.' “ Regular Welsh weather, sir!” said a fresh-colored elderly gentlemanlike man

in a tourist’s suit, whom I found the next morning in the coffee-room. “My party will be house-bound for a couple of days at least, if I know anything of thia country ; shocking place for weather. Been here long, sir?” I told him how long, and that I had not had a drop of rain the whole time. “ Disadvantage in that too," he went on; “mountainous scenery wants mist and rain to drift round the peaks, fill up the torrents and bring out the waterfalls. This one here will present a fine sight after another four-ana-twenty hours of such weather; it was a mere dribble last night when we arrived.” I was consoled by this gentleman’s words; for, having to spend the best part of the day indoors, there was a new sensation then yet in store for me; and I was a little disappointed to find, when early the following afternoon a lull in the weather enabled me to go down to my favorite rocky haunt, that there was very little perceptible difference in the volume of water coming over the fall. Bo here I sat, 1 suppose, for more than an hour in my accustomed state of placid indolent enjoyment. With eyes halfshut I was saying over to myself the first few lines of Southey’s “ Lodore,” and trying to make “ the music of the waters” fit them as an accompaniment, when there suddenly sounded in my ears a roar so loud, and increasing so rapidly in volume, that I started, and, looking up, perceived that now, indeed, the fall had become grandly augmented. It was swollen at least to twice the size it had been ten minutes before; it looked magnificent. I stood up quite excited, but not even then for one moment dreaming of danger. Town-bred idiot that I was, ?[uile unacquainted with the terrific urce of the elements when once unloosed, I never imagined for a second that I could be placed in peril by a fact so beautiful as thh now before me. In the exaggeration which ignorance gave to my estimate of wonders, I thought I was gazing at a harmless Niagara; I had never seen anything half so beautiful; whilst the almost deafening, thunderous roar which accompanied it was such a new phase of my favorite music that I stood spellbound with a sort of wild delight. Not for many minutes, however; a heavy rain-cloud that had suddenly overswept the sky warned me to retreat. I turned with this purpose toward the stepping, stones by which I always regained the precipitous bank of the river. To my horror they had all disappeared, and in their place a boiling, bubbling ferment of brown water and frothy foam was sweeping along at a tremendous pace. Then, in an instant, I knew the river was rising rapidly. Anyone but a fool would have foreseen this as the natural consequence of the increase in the waterfall. Right and left and all around the river had now become a boiling caldron of broken water; I was cut oft from all hope of retreat, and should be washed away like a fly, I knew. Helpless and scared, I stood irresolute yet a moment longer. I recollect in this dire emergency suddenly observing a still further increase in the volume of the fall, and almost simultaneously with it feeling my legs slip from under me as the brown water gurgled in my ears and glistened in my eyes. Then there was a choking, helpless, tumbling pressure forward, several sharp blows upon my legs and arms, an effort to strike out, met by coming in contact with more rocks, and then a whirl and twirl and a spinning round as if I had been a cork. The swimmer’s Instinct, however, was of some use after all, for, in the first place, it enabled me to retain a little presence of mind, and, in the second, to bring my head up to the surface after the first plunge. I saw I was already a long way from the upper fall, and an additional S was given to my sensations by the lection that I was being hurried on toward the lower, over which if I were carried I must inevitably be drowned. Fortunately, just now I was carried by a current close in under one of these sheerdown sides, and for the fiftieth time sent spinning round in the eddy like a cork. I made a hopeless grab at the smooth and slippery surface, much as the drowning man catches at the proverbial straw, for 1 was by this lime getting exhausted and suffocated by toe constant rolling over whicn the torrent gave me. I did just manage to get a finger-hold in a crack, and to steady myself somewhat; but the water was very deep just here, and I could not lift much more than my chin above it, whilst a foothold of any sort was out of the question. Yet to remain where I was much longer was impossible. Could I but have raised myself some two feet I should have been able to reach an overhanging bough of one of the thickly-growing young ash-sap-lings, the roots of which projected from the earthy top of the rock a yard or two above.

O, how I longed for a giant’s arm, that I might touch that bough! Twice I made a futile effort to spring out of the waler at it, but only exhausted myself, and had the greatest difficulty in retaining my support. Was I sinking and losing consciousness ? and is this to be the end, I thought, with that music still in my ears? And, 10l what vision is that which I behold? Surely an angel’s face looking down from amidst the leafy roof above me! Yes; my life must be passing away in a dream of beautiful sights and sounds. For a moment or two more such was the vague conclusion floating through my dazed mind, nor was it at once dispelled by a perfectly audible and silvery voice, saying: “ Try to reach it now; I think you can; quick, try." This can be no illusion; this is no phantom born of a drowning man’s fancy; this is a sweet reality; and in that bending branch, now steadily descending to within my grip, 1 see my life restored to me and my hopes renewed. I have the delicate end of the bough in in my hand; yes, automatically I have seized it, and already it helps to lift me higher out of the water. “Be very cautious," says the voice once more. “ Take great care, or It will snap. There, wait so, whilst I pull this strong one down, and that will bold your weight better; now, so;” and in another minute I have grasped this stronger one; I manage to raise myself by it a little, and to put the tips of my toes into the fissure of the rock by which I had so long held with the tip of my fingers. Then a soft, firm hand is held out to me and, taking it, I finally, by one supreme effort, pull myself well up among the underwood ana twisted roots at the top of the cliff. Too exhausted to think or speak, I threw myself down upon the steep hill-side, among the long grass and ferns, between the trees. Then I Ihink I did really lose consciousness for a while, for I do not remember seeing the pretty, graceful girl who had saved my lire, until I found her kneeling at my side, endeavoring to raise my head, as she wiped the streaming water from my forehead and hair. “Wait here," she said, ‘‘and I willrun to the inn for help; I won’t be long. There, lean against that tree-trunk.” “Pray, slop,’’ I stammered, feebly; “1 shall soon be all right. lam really very, much obliged to you.” •‘ Oh, never mind answered, brightly; “if you can walk, so much the better. Get up, and come along at once; you must get your wet clothes on.” I rose and shook myself, tecllng Very bewildered, sick and scared. “ Here—up this way,” she cried, "I think we can get through the wood this way; follow me.” I had scarcely started after her, as with a firm light step she sprang up the slope among the trees, when I heard from the top a cry of:

“Hilly-ol Lucy, hilly-o! where are “ Here I am," she cried, “ all right. Come down, papa, and give this gentleman a hand. I have just helped him out of the water—he wae nearly drowned!" “ What? Eh, my dear? What are you talking about ? Gentleman out of the water—nearly drowned t" said a cheery voice; and looking up, I saw two or three figures coming against the sky over the crest of the hill. Then there was a little hurried talk as they met my preserver, and presently my middle-aged friend, who had spoken to me about the weather at the inn the day before had a vise-like hold upon my arm, and was lending me very material assistance in my ascent. “What a fortunate thing! Only to think,” he said, “of Lucy happening to see you! We were wandering about, and she had gone on ahead by herself to look at the fall: then all of a sudden we missed her and wondered what had become of her; and then, lo and behold! all the time she was qualifying for the Royal Humane Society’s medal. You are not accustomed to mountain rivers, sir, I am • afraid; they are very treacherous, and are often suddenly swollen in this way when rain begins in the hills after a long drought; it’s what they call a “spate” in the Highlands. But stay, you are exhausted ; take a nip of whisky out of my flask here.” We had stopped that I might do this, when a second young Indy, evidently a sister of my guardian angel, came running down toward us, exclaiming: “O, papa, do come up quick; Lucy has fainted. She was just beginning to tell us all about it, when in a moment she went quite off.” Whereupon revived by the stimulant, I hastened up the remainder of the slope in company with my new friends, to find the brave girl quite insensible, her head resting on the lap <of a lady, evidently her mother. ——■— Then the cheery gentleman put the whisky flask to tis daughter’s lips, and all solicitude, very properly, was turned from me to her; but she soon revived, and then, but not till then, I allowed myself to be hurried off to the inn to get dry clothes. Thete, and a little hot stimulant, soon put me to rights, with no further damage from my ducking than a few superficial bruises and scratches. But what was this tremendous internal wound that I suddenly became conscious of ?—that had not inflicted by projecting rocks or slippery crags or foaming water! No; of a certainty that was the result of a sympathetic glance from a pair of bright brown eyes, which had gone straight to my heart from the moment they had looked down upon me in my peril. 4 Was I on the eve, then, of another great discovery ? Was it not enough that I bad found lately that there were other sights and sounds worth listening to than are supplied by London streets, other elevating emotions than those referable to arithmetic and book-keeping by double entry, but that I must have thrust upon me also the fact that there was really something v-orth living for besides one’s self and making money? It seemed so! As I had been taken by surprise by the pleasure to be extracted from a quiet country life, so equally was I now suddenly awakened to the possibility of what the Doctor had called “settling down.” There absolutely appeared a chance of my taking to the idea, and of so carrying out his prescription to the letter. What a wonderful and beneficent effect it was working! “ Why, there she is in Ure garden at this moment, and how beautiful she looks! Now that 1 have made myself presentable," I thought, “ I will go down immediately and thank her like a coherent being and a gentleman.” She was sitting in a little arbor at the end of the inn garden. As*l approached, a blush, the more evident from the paleness which her undue exertion and subsequent faintness had left, overspread her sweet sac angel face, which I had at first thought a dream, and which to me now, w‘th my newly-awakened poetical sensibilities, scarcely seemed a reality. I cannot describe it. Why should!? Other people would not see .it with my eyes; there were hundreds and hundreds of faces in the world doubtless far more beautiful. “ I hope you are feeling better," 1 said. “ I am afraid that what you have done for me has overtaxed your strength; I shall never forgive myself if it has made you seriously ill.” “Oh, no,” she answered, “ I was only a little out of breath with ibe running and the scramble through the brushwood and trees; but I was sure that if I was to be of any use there was no time to be lost. Please don’t say any more about it.” “ Oh, but indeed I must; you must tell me how you saw me and how you were able to reach me.” “ Oh, I had merely gone down to look at the waterfall—l knew it would be very much swollen—and the moment I came upon it, to my horror and surprise, I saw you standing upon that rock in the middle of the river. I felt sure that you would be drowned; but before I could even call out you were washed off it and I saw you earned away. Well, I don’t know what it was that made me do it, but I ran along through the wood by the side of the river as fast as I could. I don’t suppose I thought of being able to save you, but it all seemed so dreadful; and then I lost sight of you. But I still ran on to near the top of the second fall, and got close down to try if I could see you; the trees were so thick up above that I was obliged to get close to the edge. I was looking all about for you, when I suddenly saw you just underneath where I was standing, and trying to reach that bough.' Well, then 1 pushed it down to you, that’s all.”

“Ah, indeed!” I cried. “ Can I ever repay you for that ‘all?’ You simply saved my life; I should never have got out but for you.” “ Hope you are not much the worse for your ducking, sir?" here broke in her father’s voice. “ I and my wife hope that you will give us the pleasure of your company at dinner thia evening; you must be a little dull and lonely here.. by yourself.” Of course I would, and of course 1 did, and of course, too, I spent the very pleasantest evening I had ever known in my life. I told die family who I was and all about myself; and tliey told me a good deal about themselves —father, mother and two daughters—and how they had come out for their annual run, as they called it, and how they often made very pleasant acquaintances on their little touts. “But it’s not often;” said my host, “ that we make one in this fashion; it is not to be wished. We don’t expect to become heroines of a domestic drama every day. Ha, ha! but, by Jove, it was very lucky Lucy saw you.” And so on, and so on. ; After this evening followed a succession of the most delightful hours I had ever known; morning, evening and noon were spent in the company of my new acquaintances, and at the end of a very short time those acquaintances had become fast friends. I was as completely over head and ears in love as I had been over head and ears in the turbulent water, and I told her so. .. / - n ßave me once more,” Isaid; ~g ive me that hand once again, and let it be mine fofever; otherwise it-would have been kinder to have left me to drown out right” She dropped her head, but held out her hand, that hand which at this moment has just touched my arm, as a silvery voice Billy, stop; I have been peeping over your shoulder. You need aot write any more; people can guess the rest. I would rather you did not enter into details."

“ Very well, dear," I answered; “as it is nearly twenty years ago since it all happened, perhaps you are right. Yes. settled down for twenty years: who would think it! And in a week or two we must be off, for the nineteenth time together, on another holiday diversion. What shall it be, and where shall we find it?" “O, I am still all for the country, you know,” she cries. “I am never tired of rural sights and sounds.” “Nor I,” is my reply; “we’ll go where — “ • Gtenlle wind* and water* near Make mualc to the lonely ear,’ as Byron says. Fancy my quoting Byron! What a transformation in a man! Only we shall not be lonely, shall we?" “Indeed, no,” she says; “we will only take care not to sit in the dry beds of mountain streams when we want to listen to ‘the music of the waters.’ "—London Society.

PERSONAL AND LITERARY.

—lt is said that Longfellow can’t be lured into an after-dinner speech. He is said to have replied to an invitation: “ I wouldn’t touch a toast list with a pair of tongs." —Mr. Alexander H. Stephens has written an article on the “ Letters of Junius” for the International Review. He disputes every claim to their authorship that has ever arisen. —The ludicrousness of using “United States” as plural is exemplified in the extreme in the London Newt, which says, speaking of Robert Dale Owen, “ the United States were his home.” —William Lloyd Garrison is remarkable for his youthful appearance in his old age. A writer in a Liverpool paper says: “No one would take him to be in his seventy. third year. He is one of the youngest septuagenarians I ever saw.” —The statement is made that 19,000 copies of the first number of the Nineteenth Century were sold, and that this is unprecedented in the case of an English magazine; but the Cornhill, when it started under Thackaray, reached 80,000. —“ Whistling Jack” is an aged negro, who frequents the ferry-boats and the piers along the North River, New York, whistling the most popular airs and imitating birds and insects. He is said to have accumulated something snug by his musical talents. —The Pittsburgh Pott says that there is no truth in the current reports of the sacking of Gen. Pearson’s house by the rioters, of insults to members of his family. of the exhibition of a coffin destined for her husband to Mrs. Pearson, and of that lady’s hair turning white in a night. —Mr. Judah P. Benjamin was not bom in Ban Domingo, but in one of the British West Indies, which circumstance enabled him to obtain admission to the bar of England. His fee in the Almaden quicksilver case was only $20,000, instead of $500,000, as stated. He made a large fortune, however, by his practice in the'South before the war. His investments of his professional revenues were improvident and unfortunate. Buear-planting swept off about $200,000, Tehuantepec a large amount, and a guano speculation in South America the remainder of his hard earnings. Finally, the downfall of the Confederacy drove him a fugitive from our country. In an open boat, rowed by a negro, he passed from Florida to Nassau, where he landed with a single dollar in his pocket. The war had destroyed every vestige of his properly. He has since at tainea a high position at the English bar. Many of the editorials in the London Timet on American subjects are understood to be from his pen.— Chicago Tribune.

A Wronged Man.

John Fitch Hastings, of Adamsavenue, had the toothache. An old snag in his jaw went on a strike, and the way it jumped and ached and carried on Made John Fitch Hastings raving mad And the wav he tore around Brought all the boys from blocks away J To near him swear and pound. After a long night of suffering the man sat down on his back steps in the sun, his bead bound up, a poultice on his cheek and the camphor bittie in his hand. The boys were in the alley waiting for him, and one of them called out: “ Ah! how glad we are to behold the beauties of the rising sun, but don’t forgetto touch yourtongue to the camphor!” A second boy raised his head above the fence and said: “ The dew is on the grass, and all nature is fresh foranotherday’s labor. How wonderful is Nature, and why don’t you fill that tooth with hot soap?” Several other boys had remarks to make, and by-and-by the man with the toothache resolved to kill fourteen and wound seven or eight more. He was pursuing them through the streets when taken in charge, and his Incarceration didn’t help his toothache any. His Honor took a long look at him and laid : “ I’ve been there. If I ever murder anybody it will be while I’m suffering with the toothache. Go home and be as patient as you can. Sit down in a cool comer ana think of cracking walnuts in your teeth. Just imagine the dentist prying around the roots of that tooth with a bradawl. Reflect on how nice it will feel as he fastens to it and begins to twist and jerk and pull. That’s all—you may go.” —Detroit Free Preu.

INSURANCE.

[From Chicago Tribune, Aug. 11,1877.] A Very Thorough and Satisfactory Examination of the American FlreInauratnee Company. The press of late has teemed with news of the slaughter of Insurance companies by the different departments having in ebarge that particular class of our moneyeo institutions, both fire and life. One company after another that has heretofore been considered sound end reliable, when put into the crucible, and their assets melted down Into solid, pure metal, subjected to the severe tests of business depression, hard times and shrinkage of values, has been forced to retire from business. The different Insurance departments saint almost to vie with each other as to which can bring down the most game. For some days past the Hon. W. 8. Relfe, Superintendent. and A. F. Harvey, Actuary, of the Missouri Insurance Department, with Maj. R. M. Woods, Chief Clerk of the Illinois Insurance Department, have been examining the American Insurance Company, of this city. We have before us a copy of the report of their examination, which extended from July 28 to July 81. The valuations of the real-estate mortgages were made by the Hon. George M. Bogue and 8. E. Miner, Esq., and give the present actual value in each of all property valued. The abstracts and other evidences of title were carefully examined by the Hon. E. B. Sherman, attorney, and no loans were admitted unless titles were substantially good. Everything was put on a present oath baeie, and no item admitted as an asset except at its actual cash value. Tbe examiners show the Company to have a net cash surplus, beyond capital, of 8209,972 75, besides installment-notes and other assets not counted or admitted as cash to the amount of U,600,014 07. We are pleased at the result of this examination, the more so that It has been so searching and thorough. Tbe American Insurance Company la an institution of which the citisenr of Chicago may well feci proud, and its policy-holders,of whom there are some 150.000, may congratulate themselves on being Insured in a wund, rtUable company. The position attaired by the Company can be attributed to two causes: Careful and economical management and its judicious selection of risks— convate dwellings and bares and* their contents, churches and school-houses, writing no risks lb large cl'lea or upon mercantile or business property of any kind. The. officers and Directors of the American may well feel gratified at the result of the oxamlnatlou.

HOME, FARM AND GARDEN.

—ln going about the house more quickly and step lightly. Never walk with a heavy dragging step. This advice is worth following. • , —Late suppers are an invention of the enemy. Don’t eat solid food within four or live hours of retiring for the night. This is a rule which no person will ever regret having adopted.— American Cultivator. —There are large quantities of horserad tab used by vinegar factories It is raised to a considerable extent in the Eastern States. When properly managed the crop per acre is worth 1400 to <6OO, and sometimes more.— lowa.State Register. —A. philosophizing gardener says that the oaibles which ripen underground, such as potatoes, carrots and parsnips are heat-producing, while those that ripen above ground, such as asparagus, lettuce,' pease, beaus, tomatoes, corn and all fruits, are cooling. —A writer in the Producer says: Well, if it isn’t “ the fashion ” to have a garden, ’tis time it was. A home without a garden is like a house minus a baby. I always did pity men without gardens and women without babies. They always look lonesome and discontented. —When grain is threshed, it is safe from the majority of its many enemies. It is also ready to sell at a moment’s notice, when the price suits or money is wanted. Perhaps no further reasons than these need be given why it is well to thresh as early as posible.— Cincinnati Timet. —The funerals of those who die cf infectious diseases should be strictly private. Disinfect the clothes, bidding ana room by sprinkling them with a solution of commercial carbolic acid, two parts to one hundred parts Of water, or other disinfectants may be used in a similar way. Let the door be closed for several days. Sulphur may be burned in the room sufficiently to fill it with sulphur four times a day. Continue this for four or more days. Then strip off the paper, scrape the walls and ceiling, and whitewash them. Scrub the woodwork with strong suds and a solu tlon of carbolic acid.— Rural New Yorker. —Trees that have long stems exposed to hot suns or drying winds, become what gardeners call “hide-bound.” That is, the old bark becomes indurated —cannot expand, and the tree suffers much in consequence. Such an evil is usually indicated by gray lichens which feed on the decaying Dark. In these cases a washing of weak lye or of limewater is very useful; indeed, where the bark is healthy, it is beneficial to us to wash the trees, as manv eggs of insects are thereby destroyed. We would, however, again refer to linseed oil as a wash, as far more effective for insects, and would, perhaps, do as well for moss and lichen. After all, these seldom come when trees are well cultivated. It is neglect makes poor growth, ana poor growth, lichens.— Gardener'« Monthly.

A Stimulus.

A stimulus is a good thing sometimes. Every year farmers find something to stimulate sowing more lanftte wheat than is fortheir best good, we think. Tfcww, the stimulus is a big and powerful one—war in the wheat-growing districts of Russia and a few thousands of men fighting. While there is eveiy probability that wheat will bring a good price for a year to come, and that we can find a ready market abroad for all that we can raise, yet it is very questionable whether it will be good policy for farmers to change their regular routine or course of cropping to sow a larger breadth to wheat. Half our population are farmers, and they need a season or two of good crops and good prices—two things which seldom come together. Good crops are obtained only by the best modes of culture. Under the ordinary mode of raising wheat the crop is oftener light than large and remunerating. Every year the disappointments are nearly universal among farmers when the wheat crop is threshed. They admit that they make but little money out of wheat, but this certainly is oftener owing to the way the crop is grown than tosany unavoidable weather influence. Now, if under the great stimulus of a big and long war, farmers sow an extra large breadth to wheat and put it in a careless and un-farmer-like manner, the crop will surely fall far below the common average—low as that is. We are quite sure that unless extra care is taken with the land in making it rich and in cultivating it well we shall lose more than we shall make by the operation. A farmer cannot alter his rotation for a single year without disturbing his plans for years to come. What then would you have farmers do? it may be asked. Sow no more land but prepare die usual quantity in a better manner. This is our advioe. Then you will realize as much, or more, and be in no danger of loss from a general change in your course of rotation. System and an adherence to it are of quite as much importance for a farmer as tor the merchant, though it is not so considered. No farmer can alter his reg-ularly-established system of farm operations—if he has one—without great loss. If he has no system, but is governed by every passing event, then it makes but little difference what he sows, or how much of this, or how little of that. Let the needle point steadily to the pole and then you may be guided safely. When disturbed by chance or local influences it is no longer a safe trust. — Detroit Tribune.

Dirtiness of War.

A Danube correspondent says that one of his hopes that all war will soon end is that as people become more civilized the dirtiness of it will become unendurable: What characterizes an army in the field above everything else Is dirt. One is clothed in it, one eats it, drinks it, smells it. Officers who once were doubtless brilliant as butterflies in uniform, spot’ess as the lily of the field, become draggled, stained and rusty. Theircoate have holes, their boots are patched. As for the soldiers, they are simply filthy. You will meet them more ragged than the poorest Irish laborer, and those who were white of vesture have fallen to the lowest depth of darkness. As for some further details of the sort which I must not dwell on, a hint should suffice—everybody cuts his hair as short as scissors will do it before entering on a campaign. A moment arrives, after no long time, when soldier servants give up washing in despair, and accept all the dirt that comes to them. Then they cease to observe whether their master's things are clean or no. despise the humble duty of washing cups and plates and forks, ignore the use of soap, and all; that civilization has laboriously impressed upon the menial instinct. They return to the customs of primeval man, and we follow of necessity. Thus forks and spoons are ignored at an early stage, plates and dishes somewhat later. At this very moment a grimy wretch, upon whosefhand one might plant mustard seed with reasonable hope, is employed beside me in cutting up sugar. He has brought forth a snowy lump and a butcher’s knife, and upon the bare earth he is hacking off chips. These he collects and ranges in a greasy tin box, popping each alternate lump into the black cavern of his mouth. Aliflisdone with thaibul fingers, upon the native soil, between whiffs of tobacco; and no one protests; the greater number do not even observe such things now. We are all so conscious of dirt, so resigned and hopelees about if, that a little more or less is not worth disputing. I shall not linger upon this theme. Let your readers turn up the passage oi “ London Labor and London Poor," in which the dens of St. Giles are described.

and the way of life In that quarter. The manners and customs pictured there are not so filthy as those we necessarily adopt This army is but little worse than others. War itself is loul. There are more wounded die of dirt than of lead or iron< Tb» foreign arrivals of steamers at Boston this year, so far, are eighty-eight, against sixty-seven last year, and the imports are nearly <25,000,000, against <lB, 750,000 last year, an increase of one-third.

Bavs, Pbbmanbnt and Complbtbl—■Wflhoft’s Tonic cures Chills and Fever, Dumb Chills sad Bilious Fevers—those Titans that kill their thousands where this remedy la unknown. It cures enlargement of the Bploen. It cures Hypertrophy of the Liver. It hurts no one. It cures all typos of Malarial Fevers and is perfectly protective in all its eWJcts. Try Wllhoft’s Tonic, the great infallible Chill Cure. 0. K. Finlay A Co, Proprietors, New Orleans. Fob salb by all Dbuosmts. Hatch’s Universal Cough Syrup has been put to a six years’ teat in Our trade, with ths following result: It gives the boat of satisfaction to all our customers, and they testify to that satisfaction by buying far more of it than of any other cough remedy, although we keep In stock a large number of that class of medicines, in fact all that have been heretofore considered most salable. Slaughtbk A Wills, Waverly, N. Y. Sold by H. A. Hurlbut A Co., Chicago, 111. The Celebrated Vienna Holls. Among the numerous articles Dooley’s Ybast Powdbb is used for, are thb celebrated Vienna rolls, which are so delicious, palate ble and healthy, if you have not the recipe send three-cent stamp to Doolby A Hkoth bb, New York, and you will get it, together with many other valuable cooking recipes, by return mall. mothers, mothers, mothers*. Don't fail to procure Mm. Winslow’s Southing Bybcy for all diseases of teething in obil dren. It relieves the child from pain, cures wind oolio, regulates the bowels, and, by giving relief and health to the child, gives rest to the mother. Ginger Tba is made from Santobd’s Jamaica Ginger at a moment's notice, and is, when so made, ten limes as effective and agreeable. Thousands of aged people rely upon it as a necessary stimulant to support them during the heats of summer. Kingsford's Oswbgo Pubb and BilvbbGlobs Starch requires less than common starch. Its pufity aud strength are far greater. Hence its economy is manifest Hoymann’s Hop Hub for Fever and Ague. They cure at onoe and are a preventive.

VEGETINE Is acknowledged by all classes of people to be the Best and Most Reliable Blood Purifier in the World. CURED ME. RocHBSTBB, Nov. 22, 1575. H. ll.Stevbxs. Esq.: „ . . D>ar Sir—l have suffered for the last three or four rears with Liver Complaint and Kidney troubles. Previous to taking the VEGETINE 1 was under the doctor's care for a long time, but he did not help me. Mv friends all fbought I would not recover. I began u-l.og the VEGETINE and realized good effect from it right uwav. IVraflvukaA but three bottles before I was much better. I continued taking a few buries more, and can now truly say I am enjoying the best of health. I have given it to my little daughter w’lth great Bucce«. Since It haa done me bo much good I have recommended it to several, and they have all been greatly benrflted by ita use. Respectfully, J. C. BMITH, 24 s. Frauds Street Place of bnalnesi, 72 West Avenue. Mr. Smith fa a well-known dealer in stoves and tinware, for many years in business in Roeheatef. Dlfcsfcs of the Kidneys, Bladder, etc., are always unpleasant, and at times they become the most dis* I regslug and dangerous diseases that can affect the banian system. Most diseases of the Kidneys arise from impurities in the blood, causing humors which settle on these parts. VEGETINE excels any known remedy in the whole world for cleansing and purifying the blood, t hereby causing a healthy action to all the organs ut the body. VEGETINE Will Cure Rheumatism. Spbixuvals, Ml, Oct. 12,187 L Mit. H. R. Stbvbxs: Utur Nir—Fifteen ve»r» ago last fall I waa taken sick with rheumatism. waa unable to move until the next April. From that time until three year, ago tins fall I fullered everything with rheumatism. Sometimes there would be week, at a time that I could not step one step; these attacks were quite often 1 suffered everything that a man could. Over three years ago last spring 1 commenced taking VEGETINE aud followed it up until 1 had taken seven bottles; have had no rheumatism since that time. I alaavs advise evetyonc who Is troubled with rheumafsm to try VEGETINE, and not suffer for years as I bate done. Tiffs statement Is gratuitous as far as Mr. Stevens is concerned. Yours, etc., _ _ ALBERT CKOOiER, Firm of A. Crouker A Co., Druggists aud Apothecaries. Eheusaiim ii a Dir eass cf the 8100 l The blood, in this disease, is found to contain an ex. ceseof Jfbr/n. VEGETINE acts by converting the blood from its diseased condition to a healthy circulation. VEGETINE regulates the bowel-, which is very lwi*ortaut in this complaint. One bottle of VEGETINE will give relief, but to effects permanent cure it must be taken regularly, and may take several bottles. especially In cases orlong standing. VEGETINE is sold by all druggists. Try It, and your verdict will be the same as that of thousands before yon. who say. "I never found so much relief as from the use of VEGETINE," which Is composed exclusively of AarU, Amhs and Hertn. VEfiETINL VEGETINE has restored thousands to health who had been long and painful sufferers. VEGETINE is composed of Room, Barks and Herta it is very pleasant to take; every child likes IL VEGETINE PREPARED BT H. R. STEVENS. Boston,Mass.

Vegetine is Sold by All Druggists, ONLY FIVE DOLLARS For an Acre! Of th* BEST LAND IK AMERICA. near the ««BAT Union Pacific Kailboaix A FARM FOR S2OO. In Easy Payment*. with Low Rate, ol UrtirM*. BECVBJE IT HOW I Full Inform.lion »enl free. Address U F. DAVIS. Land Agent, U. P. *.. Onawa. Nan. THE “POULTRY WORLD" The leading Atoerl-On trial, only Meta, tan Magaxlne of ita Jm 3 mon. (12 Chroelasa. An elegantly A* mo. In present vot Illustrated Monthly. 1871.) "Set*, extra, for :1.26 a year. Always the year, with these resh.Bractltal.crlg- g<Hta|gcboice picture,, to Beland instructive. 'WS»*’*nnualaub*cr!bera. ET* Theta Chrwmee are the beat ever issued. IL H. STODDARD, Hartford, Ct aoom:»9~*P> * Q O aswAwT»r IKWWCgyj HAIR - GROWER. Mlto cure Dandruff or any Disease of WBiIMnMI the Scalp, and. In nine cases out of ten, make the Bair GrowiPrta* H per bottle. Made by Donald Kennedy, Roxbury, Mass., AMB SOLDBY DHOOOIHTfe Book-keepers, • ■*»«■*•*■* / Operators, SeboolTeaoMrs. ntMaf Cheat MerenuWe OoDsps. Keokuk, tows.

STOVE POUSHI

FOR SALE, ttriS terms. Good trade. BplrndM osportnnity. Address A. N. Kzllooo, ll A‘NJaeKoa BL.CMeawo,IB. Yow K al fftmei”OE EDUCATION To lit themselves for the practical duties of Ml should patronize the only institution In the West that la conducted on the ACT] AL BUHBBN PLAS. For full information address Toledo businbm coixegie, Toledo. Ohio. A 3-Cent Pocket-Book. Any agent or canvasser, or any person who has eyes canvassed or acted as salesman, or any Idle person out of employment, or any person seeking s chance to earn an honorable living, can have sent to them a substantial. serviceable pocket-book by simply tending a three-ce.it i oatage stamp to the undersigned. Dm pocket book contains two sides, subdivided Into repositories for bills, mem'., silver, postage-stamp*and cards. Send a 8-ceut stamp and the pocket-book will be mailed Immediately by return mail. AddrcmGzo. F. Mast iiamt A Co., 112 Monroe street, Chicago. 111.. FOR !SALE By E. E. PRATT, 79 JackMn-tt., Chletfl*. SEWING MAGUIRES Wilcox A Gibbs Hleaant-Cnee Cabinet, Manufacturers’ price, >200; will sell for >125 cash. One American Sewing Machine—New* Price >7O; for ISO. MUSICALIRSTRRMERTS. One CHILDS BROS. Organ—NEW. - Price SittJ; for >125. One First-Class New Plane. Price, IBM; for >450. SCHOLARSHIPS. Two In North wenlern Business College. Madison, Win. Value. >45 each; for $22.50. One hi Jones* Commercial College, St. Ixiiilmo Value $65; lor $35. One hi the St. Paul Business College. Value for $25. ■ pi The Largesr ysrwisl School ««sd Jhsad- «. Mees jMotWwfe the V. S. THE NORTHERN-INOIANA

[norm al SCHOGLI

VALPARAISO, HiolANs. School the entire year. Students can enter at any time, select their own studies, sad advance ae rapidly a* they deaire. Full courae of study. New clsasee organised each month. Commercial course most thorough to be found. No extra charge. Kje/fonotf leas than at any athrr aehoal ls* 1A« tassd. Tuition. »8J» per term of ll,w* eka. including all departments Good board and well-furnished rooms. 6ioo to 12.50 per week. Entire aatlafkctlee given or money refunded. Catalogue, giving foil pertlenlara, sent free on application Address open? vember 18th; Spring Term, January wtb, IMS; Sammer Term, April 16th; Renew Tenn, J uiy id.

f

Tbe Healtbleet es ae are Hable to ebstrs* Hone in the bowel*. Don't neglect them. Ii h neS necessary to outrage the palate with nae-aous Onwt n wen causa. The most effective laxative known M Tarbamt's ErrBBVB<M-BNTSbltzm Artsint.iM it is also the most agreeable. Its operation la teethIng, cooling, painless. Sold by all di iigslMa 'f-"*’ x>zi. 'w-.a.xv.xranEVffir & HEALTH CORSET With Skirt-tamrerter and beir-Adjnetfiig pads. Securea Exalts and CoaraxT of body, with Gbacb and BbaVTT of Form. Three Garments In one Approved by all physlslans. Asanrre wAirnraa. Samples by mall. In Coutil. $2; Satteen. 11.75. To Agenta at 25 eta. les*. Order size two inches smaller than waist measure over the drew. Wabxbb Bxoa., 951 Broadway, N.Y. Psrties bearing the above name ’wffl be Interfettd—to learn that a work la now In preparation giving thd genealogy of the family in thia country from the middle of the seventeenth eenturv to the present time. All Interested will confer a favor by coniunnleating with the publisher, RUFUS B. gKLLOGG. GBBSX B*v. WiscoMsiK. who will send, to any. circulars with the outline of information desired. Person* ot other names, with Kellogg ancestry, are partieuhrly requested to write. ' JACKSON’S BEST SWEET NAVY CHEWINGTOBACCO MS awarded the highest prize at the CENTENNIAL Exposition. tor it* line chewing qualities, the excslleacw and 'lasting character of its sweetening and flavoring. If you want the BF.ST TOBACCO ever tnade, ask your g ocer for tills, and see that each plug bears our blue Strap trade mark wlth-wonls Juck-on'e Best en It. Sold liy all Jobbers. Send for sample to <J. A. JACKSON & Cu.. Manufacturers, PeiertbdnL VnPOMORA mSERY.T*"*f.rrVX Beat Strawberries 9 Inches around. Ten acrea Ihiapberriesyleldcd Send Cor Catalogue Sin*e. Art I M.IRM AStOXV UM.11.1. VKt tTU. Tallinn Wkat wmA Most t« I'lAHt. IHurlniM. S*'bL postpaid, for 25 ceul*. nr- fvggJbn.. rrri'ff ftwrlrrtarr. Wvt ,Pabwv. Ilminuiiww.N ■*.

DBTTIE STUART INHTITCTK, Springfield D Ilia. A Home School for young ladle*. Atoll Collegiate Course. The bet advantage, given for Modern Languages, Music, Drawing. IvUnUng and Elocution. The Fall Term commences Sept 5. For catalogue, spplv to Mm m. McKee Hovnee. PrlnL d)e)U JFawe. J. B. Gatwbp 4 Co., ChltaffO. UL UEAVY Solid Silver TMtnaMta S« cla..or Heavy Gold filled.warrantedAlyear*. Art* send stamp for catalogue, VAN A CO.. Chicago. lU, YOUNG MENHggEgE COMMON SEISE for Catarrh and Bronchitis. Send ft eta for Bungle or 21.00 per boa. FARNHAM A CO-Bt-loslAße. $ I i | M t..UP»tJoau« ftrev. J. H BorroeusSons. B sum, MtaS. advantage* at low figure*. Term open* September <■ Rh FAA*I Made by 17 Agent* inJan. 77 with $3 A GOOD WELL tor our auger book. U. 8. Avon* Co- Bt.lim2s.MO, ■W Addres, Queen Chg Lamp Worta, CTnetaaeM,U $55 ? $77 »e >• eAAjw stow at home Sample* worth*3 >B It > <ll Tree, WTNBON b CO-Krtland. Me. S2O far 2. WA WCJKjk In your own town. Term, and IS outfit free. H. Hallstt A Co- Portland, Ma guns si2 ay j BIG PAY 20_». R 25 7 A. H. k. 8. B. H HK> IVMIWI.V® W® pleese «•« !»••» OAW IM MMUMT ’’lx up* wvsuwi