Saturday Evening Mail, Volume 8, Number 47, Terre Haute, Vigo County, 18 May 1878 — Page 1

Vol. 8.—No. 47.

THE MAIL

A PAPER FOR THE PEOPLE.

SECOND EDITION

Town-Talk.

BRAT) IN HIS TRACKS.

"He went like a bird!'' He who said this put the whip in tbe socket, jumped from the buggy and banded T. T. the reins. It was years ago, when T. T. owned as line a specimen of horseflesh as ever made proud the spirit of mortal uian. This follow—T. T. cannot to this day think of him without wrath—bad driven that borse a dozen miles, over a heavy road, as fast as he would go. Tbe horse always noeded to be held in. He was as nervous as a woman. One touch |of tbe whip made him wild. And here this rascally, heartless idiot had not only let him go as fast as he would, but had been driving blm with the whip.

Of course he went like a bird, and would have continued to do so until he dropped dead in bis tracks. As the mat) praised him, thore stood the borse, every hair of his body drenohed, his flanks foaming, his eyes glaring, and every muscle trembling, a picture of excitement and exhaustion. T.T. could have kicked the man with a relish. He had not sense enough to know tbe diffetonoe between a clumsy, lazy, obstinate mule and this flne-haired, high-strung, free-traveling horse. It took weeks of careful hiHuketiug, rubbing, and such nursing as horseflesh responds to, to put ttbe favorite in good trim again, and he might liavo killed the horse. Other idiots liko him have done so, and tbe loss to tbe world was greater than would have boen the case if the horse bad kicked out the brains of such a driver, if he had uuy to be kicked out.

Bat, aftor all, this was only ahorse, and with all his affection and admiration for horses, T. T. thinks that it is worse to drive high-spirited, nervous and quick-witted boys or girls to death than to drive one of these fine horses to death. Yet this is not uncommon. It Is more common than Is often thought. Take this paragraph, cut from a paper T. T. finds 011 The Mall's exchange table. Tbe name of Ernest Waters is mentioned here. It may be, and probably is the case, hatt not a reader of The

Mail knew Ernest

Waters. But never mind names, either of town or viotim. The name could easily be substituted with any one of a thousand names, and be true in every particular. Hero is the Item: "The untimely death of Ernest Waters has brought a peculiar sadness to a multitude of hearts. Rarely has a youth attracted *0 wldo a notice and such enviable repute. His remarkable talents were observed while ho was yet in the primary school, and all thronghis course he was the pride of his teachers and the admiration of his neheol mates. He was completing his studies, and maintained almost the highest rank in his class when his overworked brain gave way, and the promise of a bright and noble career was suddenly ex-

IngtllHh d. His virtues were many and his falling* few. His moral nature was pure and his mental organisation was One rt ml delicate. Ho touched nothing which he did not adorn. Long and sadly will all who knew him remember hi* fair and Ron tie presence, aud think of what might have been had he not brea cut off In the boglunhigof liis days."

It is the name old story. Driven till he dropped dead in his tracks. Who drove hfm Parents who were proud of bis wonderful powers teachers who were delighted with the bright pupil friends and companions who admired and praised. Hie boy that needed to be held back was pushed forward by every moans at command, and a "mysterious Providence" ia the result. And this ia just the way that each youth of both sexes, the land over, are Mlltd in our schools. There is agtrl where T. T. boards, who is bright, active, sensitive and industrious. Her attainments are talked of,her parents are proud of her, her teachers are ever holding her up as an example and urging her forward. For weeks before the close of every term at school she grows pale, loses her appetite, becomes sleepless, and haa all the symptoms of overwork which calls grown np people to the seashore or to the northern lakes ia summer. There will come a vacation by and by, when she will not rally and, when jher health fails entirely, or she diss, all

will say she was the best scholar in school. Now this pushing the bright ones among oar boys and girls is a shame—a crime. It is the bright little child that la sent earliest to school Put into the school the stupid. phlegmatic, slow ones at six or seven. It will not hurt them. Bnt tbe bright ones should be kept at home, out of doors at play, till eight years of age, at least, and the brightest till ten. And let the parents and teachers rfpend their strength and attention opon those that need it most. The whip is for tbe lazy horses, tbe shirks in tbe team, and not for the free. The incentives to hard work are for tbe dull pupils, and not for 'the blight ones. Have at ler^t as mnch sense and care in the treatment of children as of horses. Do not take the whip to a borse that goes like a bird without it. Do not push the bright, sensitive, nervous child.

AN BXPIiANATION.

So tbe editor of Tbe Mail is hinting sgain that Spiritualism is not true, What if there were found stains upon tbe face of Mott, tbe medium, at Memphis? Hasn't it been explained time and again that the relation between the medium and tbe materialized spirit will leave its traces upon the medium. When aniline was impolitely squirted in the frtce of the spirit, of course traces of it were found on tbe face' of Mott. Such men as Hook, and Pence, and Sam Conner are not to be proved to be dupes or knaves on such evidence as that for didn't they tbe other night, for fear those pesky preachers would play a similar game on their medium, show, of their own accord, by practical tests that stains could readily be transferred from the spirit to their medium, and vice versa. And besides what do those ministers know about Spiritualism They want "conditions" that would spoil the best manifestations in the world. Why will not editors, and ministers, and the pub lie generally, remember that Mrs. Stew art has materialized a spirit time and again so perfeetly that it ate oysters! And T. T. firmly believes that the relation between the medium and the materialized form was such that some of those oysters—perhaps all—went into the stomaoh of tbe medium.

And then, there's that Ball, of tbe Gazette, pretends to be shocked, in bis paper of Tuesday evening, when he tells of \i

A NAKED SPIRIT

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Appearing in the cabinet doors. Why, those ministers never flinched. And there was no flg leaf to obstruct the view. And one of the preachers unblu8blngly tells T. 7. that there was a side olevation of one limb that the sex might bo more plainly seen, and proof given that the medium, being a female, could not get up such an exhibition. T. T. begs pardon of the decent readers of The Mail for speaking very plainly, but the nature of the show cannot otherwise be described. T. T. admits, that considering there were two ladies in tbe audience on the evening referred to, it was a little rough for a big, burly spirit to show himself with no clothihg but a great bunch of whiskers covering his breast, but then, as Balls says, "the lights were turned down dim and indistinct," and as "the committee," say they cant oontrol the coming or going of spirits, or in any way Influence their manner of dressing or undressing, they should not be censured. However, T. T. is sorry that Ball printed that article, because other papers are copying it and making remarks not at all complimentary to Terre Haute people, and there are hints that this "great moral show" ought to be arrested and treated as an Indecent exhibition. There are people who cannot understand these things, and you can't convince them. Such skepticism is wiilfhl and is evidence of hardness of heart.

Topics of the Times.

CURIOUS CONCORD PEOPLE. In a recent conversation with a few of his friends, the venerable Bronson Alcott, father of Louisa Alcott, famous for her "Little Women," gave some interesting gossip about a number of his Concord friends, living and dead. Mr. Alcott is now nearly eighty years of age and is described as a tall, well-propor-tioned, sunny old gentleman, with long silvery hair and a merry twinkle in his eye. He has always been a great talker —a characteristic that doesn't usually diminish with age. Of Emerson's habit of putting everything into his commonplace book as it occurs to him, be says: ••Once I went into his study and found him lying on the floor with the sheets of his commonplace book spread out in every direction, while he was trying to gather np from them what he wanted for the essay la hand. When he haa called what he wants and shuffled his materials into some form, he goes out to read bis lecture, and tries it on people to see how It Ate, and when he Is satisfied by actual experience that there Is something in it, he senda it to press."

Of Hawthorne he aaya: "He was my nearest neighbor. Our estates were aide by side, but Hawthorne nerer entered

his friend's gate bnt twice in four years. His visits then were to my daughters. The first time he soon excused himself because the stove was too hot, the next time, because the clock ticked too loud."

We all know something about Thoreau's Walden Pond life, of which Alcott speaks thus: "It was Emerson's land that Tboreau adventured upon. He borrowed an axe, dug his cellar and potato hole himself, bargained with a wild Irishman for a shanty in the neighborhood, which furnished boards and nails at the expense of a dollar and a half, paid for the shanty with some work at surveying for a Concord farmer, put np bis own shanty with the assistance of Emerson, Alcott and others who attended the raising, provided himself with a Homer and New Testament or Bible as' a library, and began his eighteen months' experiment of getting acquainted with himself and with what was in Concord." Of his daughter Louisa he says: "She began authorship by writing letters. Then she ventured rtories then followed the reading of tbem to her parents and sisters then the acting of them as dramas then a model theatre In tbe attic. She had her grandmother's brocade silk dress, which had been off. duty well nigh a century, as a costume, and tbe grandfather's military suit, also faithfully preserved, did duty for the hero Of tbe occasion. Tbe old people were studiously kept down stain, and what went on could only be judged by the peals of laughter which came from the Concord boys and girls who were fortunate enough to be invited to the performance in the attic."

We can easily believe what the reporter says, that it was intensely interesting to hear tbe old gentleman discourse about his famous neighbors and that the evening slipped quickly and pleasantly away.

T* HIGH SCHOOLS vs. JAILS. President Moss, of tbe State University, takes up tbe cudgel against the idea which has certainly been gaining ground of late, namely that high schools and colleges ought not to be maintained by the State. To the argument that such schools are attended only by the few and that it is therefore, wreng to tax tbe many for their sup* port, he answers, 1. That we build jails by general taxation, yet only the few occupy tbem. If it is urged that the few are thus punished for the protection of the many, the argument will fit the school question just as well because there is more protection In the schools than in the jails. Prevention Is cheaper than punishment. 2. It is not true that education is beneficial only to those who receive it. On the contrary, an educated man is of mere service to the State than to himself. 3. The best minds are often found among the poor. The State cannot afford to neglect these or leave them to the chances of charity. The State can well afford to furnish schools and teachers for them, after all tbe struggles they are often called upon to endure for the sake of an education. The doctor's points seem to be well taken and It will bother the opponents of high schools to get over them.

HARD WORK AND POOR PAY. Perhaps no line of business has suffered more from the hard times than the publishing Interest. A New York ?orrespondent says that both editorial writers and printers In that city are reduced to a distressing pinch and that there is such a pressure to obtain situations that there are forty applicants for every vacancy. Even in ordinary times, he says, salaried editors are seldom able to lay any money by and therefore the purchase of a housp recently by Whitelaw Reid occasions considerable comment. It is known, however, that Reid receives a large salary as managing editor of tbe Tribune. Many years ago, Nordhoff, while managing editor of the Evening Post, became able to buy a cottage out of the city, but these are rare exceptions, Some newspapers, it is true, produce incomes to their proprietors, but it not infrequently happens in this, as in other kinds of business, thst the papers which make the most money pay their employes the smallest possible wages. -Yet it Is certain that a salaried man has far less rare and anxiety than a proprietor and, if be is steady, industrious and reliable, can earn enough to keep his family in easy and comfortable circumstances.

Dr. Dlo Lewis, being convinced that outdoor life in the mountains Is an exceedingly healthful thing, has organised In California a earnping party of fifty or aixty ladies and gentlemen, they all live in teats, and have for dinMr beef, bread arid butter, stewed apples, coffee, sugar, and milk. They Intend to live outdoors four and a half montha, traveling from one place to another in wagons and on horseback. They will visit the principal summer resorts of the Coast Range early in the nnsson. bably travel to the Slera in July. They are supplied with ordinary epriag wagons, with a span of horses te each vehicle. Thore are ten or twelve saddle horses in the corral.

TERRE HAUTE, IND., SATURDAY EVENING, MAY 18,1878. Price Five

Shows and Show Folks.

Mitchell's Specialty Troupa is announced to appear at the Opera House Monday evening. It is of the variety order, bat by no means of a low character. Mr. Mitchell is trying the experiment of bringing together the very best srtlsts in this psrticular line of business In one combination, In order to give sn entertainment that will command the patronage of all who attend dramatic or minstrel entertainments. The combination is new, only a short time on the road. It has been playing all this week st Chicago, and has made a hit beyond the manager's expectations. The bill announces "over sixty famous artists." Prominent among thsm are Harris and Carroll, Kelly and Ryan, Sanford and Wilson, Manoheater and Jennings, Dick Parker, Otto Burbank, and a ballet troupe, including Palladino and Santella.

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"Sleepy Hollow," founded upon Washington Irvicg's legend of the same name, and "Dumb Love" are two new operas now in course of preparation in New York.

Levy, the celebrated cornet player, was recently announced for a benefit in San Francisco, but because his name was not bigger than all the rest of the performers he refused to appear. He is jealous enough to be an amateur of high standing. 1

The changes in the management of tbe New York theaters during the past season were greater than any since 1860. From present indications, melodrama, comedy, and popular prices, promise to be the strong carda for the ensuing fall and winter season.

And now they are going back to Sbakspeare for the origin of negro minstrelsy. An interested truth-seeker finds it "Much Ado About Nothing," in which one of the characters says "Sing it to her Boues."

When Barney Williams died it was thought that he left a large estate, but it is found that it will not respond to the numerous bequests, which, if carried out, would amount to $100,000. But Mrs. Williams has voluntarily made an arangement with the legateea by which abe turns over to them real estate and cash amounting to about 541,000, and is thereby released from .all further claims upon the estate.

In January last Mayor Stokely, of Philadelphia, refused to grant a license to oneof tbe numerous variety managers of that city, on the ground that his place attracted disorderly crowds. Tbe matter then went into tbe courts, and on last Saturday Judge.Mitchell, of the Court of Common Pleas,'granted a mandamus commanding tbe Mayor to4grant the manager a license, whereupon tbe variety managers of that city are highly elated.

There promises to be an overflow of variety talent, from the United States to England this summer. One dramatic agency alone, in New Tork, advertises as having under contract- to appear this summer, 28 performers, all of whom are from the better class of variety actors.

Music may have "charms to soothe the savage breast," but you cannot prove it by the individual orcombined charms of the female part of an ordinary opera chorus.—New York Mall.

Some bright critio haa suggested, for the benefit of dramatists, that "plays should in future be so constructed that they would end about fifteen or twenty minutes before they are finished, for tbe benefit of tbe large class of our theatre goers who cannot wait for the curtain to fall on tbe last act." Good enough.

The proprietor of the Standard Theatre, London, has again come off victor in a suit brougbt against him for damages for refusing admission io one of tbe stalls to a lady wearing a bonnet. Tbe court held that the manager bad aright to make his own rules governing such matters.

According to report, Mr. John Dillon is organizing another company to play Eaton's "All the Rsge." John is repentant and has taken unto himself a red ribbon.

Theodore Thomas has come to it at last. He haa contracted with Shook and Palmer to play "popular" music in New York six nights a week, and devote only one evening (Thorsdsys) to classical compositions. The season will open upon his return from the Cincinnati festival. The arrangement of the programmes la left entirely to Mr. Thomas, and the curious will wait to see whether or not his Idea of popular mode includes the "Sweet By and By." —Cincinnati Commercial. "Joe Emmett in Frits," aaya tbe Dramatic News, "at the Standard, sings what ia known as the Bolony, or more properly, the Bologna song. The Bologna, itia well known, is a spades of sausage mueh Effected by lovers of horseflesh. Daring the song Mr Emmet danosa from one end of the stage to the other swinging a string of property

One night last week Emmet

inadvertently bit the jbrchestra leader on the bead with hia aauaagea. This

gentleman evidently considered It a personal insult. At all events, he stopped ike music, laid down hia baton, got off hia stand and left the orchestra, followed by all his men who left their instruments behind tbem. For a moment Emmet was kind of broke up, but not for long for he simply said, after curiously watching the last man disappear into his hole, "Yell, dot's all ritle." Then, to the anrpriise of the audience, he climbed from the stage down into the orchestra, collected all the various Instruments, and with them in his arms got back on the atage, the audience wondering all tbe time If he was sober. But they were soon reassured when Emmet picked up the leader's violin and played "St. Patrick'a Day." Then the clarionet and played on It the "Sweet By and By then the cornet, with Levy's "Maud Walts then, auccesaively, "Home, Sweet Home," with variations, on the trombone the "Last Rose of Summer," on the flute, and a polka of bis own on the drum, with drumstiok accompanimen. It ia needless to ssy each feat *was received with deafening applause, as probably none present bad an idea that Emmet was so verastile a musician. It wouldn't be a bad gag to do It every night, though on this occasion tbe little sensation was quite unpremeditated."

People and Things.

A southern quack told a freedman he had bunion of the left liver. Waiting to be whipped is the most uninteresting period in boyhood.—J. Billings.

You'll never get a Sunday school chromo to bribe a boy like a circus ticket. Try the experiment.

Your ancestors, the monkeys, couldn't have been ao ignorant after all. Tbey were all educated In the high branches.

Abed room set vslued at f80 is offered to the couple who will get married on the Greenville, Michigan, fair grounas next fall.

Danbury News: There is a man In a Virginia jail who has seven wives. He was arrested for marrying two girls in one village. He must be a music teacher.

An exchange ssys: "A beautiful example of 'foree of habit' is to see a disciple of Murphy fill his glass with water and dreamily blow tbe froth off the innocent water before drinking."

On being asked why he went into bankruptcy, he replied: "Well my liabilities were large, my inabilities numerous, and my probabilities unpromising and so I thought I'd do ss my neighbors do."

A scrawny looking individual came into tbe office tbe other morning to advertise bis wife, who had left him, that people shonld not trust her on his account. He asked the bookkeeper the price, and when told, said, in some surprise "Is that so? Why, that's what I paid to advertise my first wife. I thought prices might have come down."—Danbury News.

For pure, unadulterated cheek, the Vermont man who wrote the following to President Hayes mast take tbe palm: "Desiring to see Washington to the best advantage, I write to ask yon if I can make my headquarters with yon at the Executive Mansion, as I have a prejudice against atopplng at hotels and the private boarding bouses are not quite up to my stsndsrd of living."

Young msn, if she smiles on yon more sweetly then usual—if she flutters out to meet you at the gate with anew cordiality—if ahe remarks that "eleven o'clock Isn't a bit late"—if she invites you to call again, with confidential earnestness—if she saya "good night" with a gentle pressure of her dear little hand—if she does all these things, young man, be not deceived. Tbe strawberry and ice cream season is here.

In Cuthbert, Georgis, an old negro "got religion," whereupon he shivered his fiddle on the door step, crying: "No msn kin hsb religion and be a fiddler!" This is of a piece with Widow Van Cott parting with her wedding ring because the Lord wanted it. Precisely why it was wanted the charming Van Cott did not tell, although ahe declares her peace of mind was great after the sacrifice.

The Toledo Weekly Blade mast be a reform paper. It savagely denounces "biscuit" ss the "national gastric clog, the huge spore germ of self propogatfng and self perpetustlng dyspepsia fkt soaked and jaundiced with soda and saleratus more indigestible than the tortillas of the Mexican greasers." Then it goes on and gives six reel pea for making them.—Hawkeye.

The phonograph will undoubtedly prove a valuable invention, bnt It most be confessed that it haa its tragic side. The fact la, itia going to prcve a universal eavesdropper and tell some tilings which had better be kept secret. Suppose, for instance, that it records tbe tender vowa which lovers whisper, the baby talk of the first fears of married life, and that these records are compared with the onromantic proae of after time, when the dinner is -late,.or the steak ia

Cents

overdone, or the husband returns in the small hdurs from the lodge. Suppose, again, that two visitors in the parlor are commenting on the lady of the house before she makes her appearance, and then change their tones to the most dellcate flattery as she enters, and that in the midst of the call the stentorian voice repeats the criticism. The trouble with that instrument is that its ears are too long, and that it can't hold its tongue. It knows how to speak but not how to 4 be dumb We must either reform or ip abolish the new invention

It is easy enough. Suppose you have mailed a letter in your coat pocket and carried it there for three weeks! Sit down and write: "You will observe by the date of the within, my dear mother-in-law, that Eliza forgot to hand it to me nntil to-day. It has been banged around in the bureau drawer, and is rather soiled in consequence. I must talk to Eliza. She is getting more careless and forgetful every day."—Buffalo Express.

Recently Mr. P. S. Gilmore addressed a communication to the British War Office in behalf of B. C. Bent, cornet player, and Miles Cavanagb, bassoon & player, formerly members of English military bands, and who desired to revisit Great Britain with Gilmore's Twenty-seoond Regiment organization. The application is said to have been returned with the indorsement: "The Commander in Chief declines to treat with deserters," and as they did not care to inour any risk, New York will not lose two good instrumentalists. v?

Feminitems.

White stockings are virtually effete in society.—Ex. Young women are advised to set good exsmples, because young men are always following them. .1

Young ladies take to this archery bus- ,' iness right off they will have so many beaus to thMr string, you know.

Young women, in selecting a husband remember that one with a half loaf is better than one with a whole loafer.

A Kentucky paper has a department called "Woman's Talk." The absurd thing about it is that it never occupiea over a column of space.

Mrs. Peter Koeler, of Connersvllle, Ind., has given birth to a quintette of boys. Peter lthinks of hiring himself out as a frightful example.

Miss Viola Rand, of Maple Gro^e, Mich., put a cartridge on the stove to see wbat it would do. It operated quicker than a dentist to say nothing of a hole tbrough tbe cheek.

When a lady walks tbe streets she leaves her indignation countenance at home she knows that the street is a s:' picture gallery, where pretty faces, framed in pretty bonnets, are to be seen.

The other evenly in London, on leaving the opera, a short sighted gentlemen said to a lady with a fashionable long train over her arm: "Do allow me to carry yonr mantle for you," upon which be seized and elevated the train,: blushed, and apologized.

The Society of Friends hss purceased thirty acres of land at Bryan Manor, on the Pennsylvania Railroad, as a site for a large college "for the better education of females." It will be of tbe same class and grade of Haverferd College, and the ground and the building and its endowment fund will be worth together p: about 11,000,000.

Mrs. John W. Iliff was a saleswoman in the Singer Sewing Machine rooms, in Chicago. She wont west a few years ago to better her condition. He husband died lately, leaving her undisputed owner ef $300,000 and 30,000 head of cattle. She lives In Denver, Colorado. Go west, young wonjan, and grow up with the.country.

Some scandalous fellow hss started tbe story that all ladies' shoes in fsshionable shoe stores are marked one number under sice, as si most every purchaser is sure to call for at least one size below her actual fit. The inventor of the alander ought to be trampled to death by a committee of Amazons sbpd, in No. 18a, pegged.

The ladies find their short kilt dresses the prevailing fashion for street attire in London, as fn all my perambulations yesterday not a single long trail was visible on the streets. Trails, however, have never been worn on the street, even in Paris, by respectable ladies, they being uaed altogether for tbe parlor or carriage.—Letter from Mr, C» C. Fulton.

Tbe novelty about the recent elopement of Andrew Bablink and Miss st Hyde Park, Mass., was that the girl went in her night/ dress. Her fating bad hidden most of her clothing on her going to bed, bat she climbed down a ladder to her lover, who took bet to his home and dressed her from bis sister's wardrobe. Then they rode to a clergyman's house and were married.