Newspaper Page Text
THE NATIONAL TRIBUNE: WASHINGTON, D. C, FEBRUARY 25, 1882.
2
SEVEN TIMES SIX.
To bear, to nurse, to rear,
To watch and then'to lose ; ,
To see my bright ones disappear
Drawn up like morning dews.
To bear, to nurse, to rear,
To watch and then to lose ;
This have I done when Godldrew near
Among his ownlto choose.
To hear, to heed, to wed,
And with thy lord depart
In tears that he, as soon as shed,
"Will let no longer smart.
To hear, to heed, to wed,
This while thou didst 1 smiled,
For now it was not God who said.:
" Mother, give me they child."
O fod, O fool, and blind,
To God I gave with tears ;
But when a man like grace would Jind,
My soul put by her Fears
O fond, O fool, and blind,
God guards in happierjspheres ;
That' man will guard where he did bind
Is hope forjmknown years.
To hear, to heed, to wed,
Fair lot that maidens choose,
Thy mother's tenderest words are aid
Thy face n more she views;
Thy mother's lot, my dear,
She doth in naught accuse,
Her lot to bear, to nurse, to rear,
To love and then to'lose.
Jc(in Ingclow.
One Christmas Night.
A STORY IN TWO CHAPTERS.
CHAPTER I.
Tregannion. in Cornwall, is not to be found
upon any map; but Tregannion, some eighty
years ago. was a place of no small importance to
a certain section of the community. "When the
profession of smuggler was one of some dignity,
and was surrounded by a halo of romance, Tre
gannion was as flourishing a little collection of
cottages as there was on the south coast. The
whole place consisted of but some score of cottages
clustered round a toy church, and wedged in
between two rugged masses of cliff. A single
street, a solitary public-house, and one little quay,
sufficed for the wants of the population, which,
all told, might perhaps, in the prosperous days
of yore, amount to half a hundred souls.
News and information travelled but slowly to
the remoter corners of our island at the begin
ning of the present century, so that Tregannion
was suffered to flourish in its own way for some
time before the Commissioners of Excise felt it
absolutely necessary to send an active officer
there for the protection of their interests. Tre
gannion resented this interference, and the luck
less officer one Lieutenant Porter of His Majes
ty's Navy was murdered. So, when Lieutenant
Charlwood, his successor, arrived, with the fullest
powers to stamp out smuggling and to bring the
murderers to justice, he found his post no sine
cure. Tregannion. as it knew but little of the
outside world, cared but little about it. So long as
Tregannion luggers made good runs, and so long
as Tregannion purses could jingle ill-gotten
jrieces, revolutions, earthquakes, pestilences, or
famines might occur in every other shire in the
land without awakening a particle of alarm or
sympathy in the bosoms of the inhabitants of
Tregannion. So Lieutenant Charlwood, with a
score of picked men, occupied a range of white
huts on one of the cliffs overlooking the innocent
little village and harbor.
Had it not been for the arduous and exciting
nature of the service upon which he was em
ployed, Charlwood would have found existence
at Tregannion monotonous enough. There were
but four persons with whom he could associate.
These were the parson, the Reverend Mr. Carey :
the local medical man. Dr. Windle ; and an old
Dutchman, one Cornelius Van der Meulen, who
lived with his daughter in a great solitary white
house situated upon the same cliff as the prevent
ive station.
Mr. Carey and Dr. Windle were all very well.
They had been gentlemen once no doubt, but
long association with the rough spirits of Tre
gannion, and long absence from the civilized
world, had rendered them little superior in man
ner and speech to the semi -nautical louts,
amongst whom the one occasionally preached
and the other dispensed medicines.
But with the old Dutchman the lieutenant
struck up a fast friendship, and with Dolly Van
der Meulen he almost became intimate. No one
knew whence old Van der Meulen had come.
He had lived at the Cliff House for the past
quarter of a century, but rarely went even into
the village. He seemed to have means, for the
house at least that part of it which was occu
pied was well, and even luxuriously furnished,
and he had no visible occupation. Cbarlwood's
intimacy with Dolly arose in the first instance
from compassion compassion for a pretty, lively
girl condemned to spend a lonely existence in a
dismal old house with an eccentric old man.
From compassion to love is but a short step, and
Charlwood had not been six jveeks at the station
before he found himself head over ears in love
with Dolly Van der Meulen. She was just the
sort of girl, he said, he had always dreamed of
for a wife. Thoroughly simple and homely in
her tastes, she had the ease and grace of manner
which, as a rule, sit naturally only upon women
of the world. But what intensified his passion
was to see that his love was returned. Dolly
had never associated with men, and the appear
ance of a handsome young officer upon the lim
ited stage of her life was to her a sort of vision.
Perhaps she, in her turn, compassionated him
upon being cast away in such a desolate, uncouth
corner of the world. At any rate they met often,
and walked together often.
But there was a rival.
Amongst the loungers at The Brig in Tregan
nion, was a long slouching fellow named Dan
Pearce. To look at he was a lubber, to talk to
he seemed half-witted, but Charlwood soon found
out that, behind the low retreating forehead and
the heavy square chin of Dan Pearce, there was
as crafty and keen an intelligence as any in the
place. Dan Pearce was constantly at the Cliff
House, and when at the Cliff House was invaria
bly in close proximity to Dolly, ogling her with
his great fish-like eyes, stammering out uncouth
compliments in the broadest of dialects, and
hanging about her like a great clumsy lap-dog.
Dolly snubbed him when her father was away,
but in his presence treated her swain, if not with
cordiality, at least with toleration. Charlwood
puzzled his brains to find out how so incongruous
a being could have obtained a footing in the Cliff
House, but could arrive at no satisfactory con
clusions. To cheer the solitude of his long even
ings, the lieutenant often asked the parson, or
the doctor, or old Van der Meulin to. dine with
him, and upon these occasians would ask them
about Dan Pearee, but was never able to get any
direct information about him.
Meanwhile he had been so active and assiduous
that the contraband trade of Tregannion dwin
dled to nothing but, of course, though this was
gratifying to his self-esteem, it brought him and
his men into very bad odor. On more than one
occasion individual preventive men were very
coughly handled on the quay of Tregannion, and
he himself was the recipient of many an ill-spelt,
ill-written epistle, threatening him with death.
But he treated the feeling with contempt only
one thing annoyed him, and that was that he had
not received a single reply to his very satisfactory
dispatches to Plymouth, the local head-centre of
the coastguard.
" Hang it ! " he would say, " many a man in
the service has been promoted and even deco
rated for doing less than I have. I'm condemned
to pass the best years of my life in this hole, as a
sort of human rat-catcher, when I might be tack
ling the French, and I don't even get a compli
ment, much less a step or an increase of pay."
As a rule he sent his dispatches to Fowy the
nearest post town, some twelve miles away, under
the care of a boy who was employed in the gar
den of the Cliff House. It suddenly occurred to
the lieutenant that this boy might not be entire
ly trustworthy, so one evening he posted himself
behind a clump of trees bordering the road by
which the boy must pass, some five or six miles
on the way. He waited for three or four hours,
but the boy did not appear at all. Luckily the
dispatches were dummies. Here was the solu
tion of the question of replies to his budgets ;
now he had to discover the delinquent. So one
night, instead of trusting the bag to the boy. he
took it himself. He started at the same hour
that the boy usually did, and even, through
Dolly, borrowed the old Dutchman's pony. The
night was very dark, and the ruse was successful.
Not more than half a mile on the road, a figure
with a lantern sprang out, crying, V Why the
devil are you going so fast to-night, boy ? Pull
up ! "
The lieutenant made himself as small as possi
ble behind the pony's head, allowed the speaker
to approach him, and suddenly seized him by
the collar. It was Dan Pearce. "When Pearce
saw how he had been deceived, with a terrible
oath he shook himself clear and vanished in the
darkness.
" There'll be trouble with that youth, I can
see,"' said the lieutenant to himself as he rode
back. For the future he sent his dispatches by
one of his men, and consequently received from
time to time very flattering notices of his ser
vices from the powers at Plymouth. Still he was
uneasy in his mind. Apparently nothing could
be more absolute than the check given to the
'smuggling trade at Tregannion ; scarcely a boat
put to sea, the quay was always deserted, and
The Brig always full. He had been at the sta
tion now nearly three months, and only two runs
had been attempted. But there were indications,
familiar only to the practised eye, that behind
the scenes something was going on. One hazy
morning a large schooner was observed off Quelley
Point: then the fog hid her from view, and when
it finally dissipated there was no schooner to be
seen. A coast-guard outpost met Dan Pearce one
dark night riding furiously along the Fowey
Road : upon another occasion he was observed
on the beach at Quelley Bay talking earnestly
to the doctor ; for several Sundays in succession
the parson held no service in the little church ;
several strangers had arrived in Tregannion, and
meetings with closed doors were held at The
Brig : there was a great deal of earnest conversa
tion going on between knots of men knots which
dispersed at the approach of a preventive man
altogether, Charlwood deemed it necessary to be
on his guard and to trust nobody.
One evening old Van der Meulen came to see
him. The old fellow affected a great liking for
the young lieutenant and would spend hours
yarning with him, smoking a pipe with a bowl
like the hull of one of his native galliots, and
drinking the strongest of schnapps.
"Veil, mine lewtenant," he said as they drew
their chairs round the fire " veil ant vot noosh
have you of our friends the runners ? I think
you have frightened dem. In course I hears a
great deal about dem."
" Yes," thought Charlwood, glancing keenly at
the old man, " I expect you do."
Utterly unconcerned at the look which the
lieutenant meant to be piercing, Van der Meulen
went on: "But I must say dat I have never
known dem so quiet as since you have been
here "
" You pay me a great compliment," said Charl
wood, "but I tell you frankly, I don't think it's
over yet. Now, for instance, I am sure you will
pardon me if I say I cannot understand how you
can admit such a man as Dan Pearce to such in
timacy as you do. Of course it is no business of
mine, but if you knew as much about him as I
do "
" Know as much about Dan as you do!" inter
rupted the old man somewhat pettishly. " Why,
mine very goot friend, Dan Pearce has been friend
of mine many years. I give to you dat he is of
uncertain temper, but he is very goot man is Dan,
very goot man. Besides, you know he is de fiance
of my daughter Dolly."
The lieutenant fairly jumped from his chair.
"Engaged to Dolly!" he said. "No, Van der
Muelen, you're joking with me. Is it really
true ? "
" Yaes," said the Dutchman without moving a
muscle of his face, ' dat is drue. Dan Pearce is
engaged to my Dolly ; and vat den '? "
" Nothing, nothing," replied Charlwood, mean
ing of course not only something, but a great
deal.
Then the conversation changed, and the pair
sat until it was time to visit the posts. So Charl
wood left the Dutchman at the path leading to
the Cliff House, and pursued his way with the
uneasy feeling that there was a mystery some
where. Charlwood received the answer "All's well at
each post, and returned to his hut. He had not
been in more than five minutes, before he heard
a tap at the door. Jumping up, pistol in hand,
he opened it. John Logsdail, his chief petty
officer, stood there.
" Well, Logsdail," said the lieutenant, "what
is it?"
"Well, sir," said the tar with a salute, "I think
it is right to tell you that old mounseer over
there at the Cliff House has just drove off on the
road to Fowey in a cart with two other chaps."
''That's a queer thing," said Charlwood, "why
he only left me half an hour back. Could you
make out who were his companions?"
"Not 'xactly, sir," said Logsdail, "but one
looked like that 'ere Dan Pearce, and t'other
weren't unlike the doctor."
"All right," said the lieutenant, feeling that
all was wrong, " keep a good lookout on the
house."
The man saluted and went. Next morning the
lieutenant was out early, and bent his steps
towards the Cliff House. At a distance he could
see Dolly in the garden, and he felt his heart
beat hard as he approached her. Never had she
seemed so bewitching, as she stood there with
her beautiful brown hair clustering under a
garden hat, and her dress tucked up so as to dis
play the tightest of red-girt ankles in the most
coquettish of shoes. She greeted him with an
unusually cordial smile, and told him that she
was alone at home.
" Then I may come in," said Charlwood.
"Well," she said, "fathers very particular, but
he's away at Fowey on business he has a lot of
business, you know; I don't know what it is,
but it often keeps him away at night, and brings
him in contact with a lot of funny people. So
come in."
The lieutenant vaulted over the low garden
wall, and stood by her side. They talked for a
long time about a variety of matters before
Charlwood could bring himself to broach the
subject uppermost in his mind. At length he
took one of her hands in each of his, and said :
" Dolly, I've heard very bad news of you. Yon
know that I love you, truly, honestly, and
honorably, and you have told me that you love
me."
"And so I do," said Dolly, looking into his face
with her bright eyes. "Who has told you any
thing bad of me?"
" Your father told me last night," answered the
lieutenant, "that you were engaged to Dan
Pearee."
"That I am engaged to Dan Pearce!" repeated
Dolly. " Why, my dearest one, do you think I
would see you and talk to you and tell you my
heart as I have done so often, and all the time
be doing the same to another man ? And he, of
all men ! Surely you don't believe it."
" No, I don't," said Charlwood ; " but your father
told me so distinctly, and I have seen Pearce so
often here, that I made up my mind to see you
and learn th ' 1X- . own lips."
" Well, th " don't believe a word
about it. I -.xi "u - of my own heart, and
no one has s -it away, just as they
would give lass of drink."
"No, my dear Dolly," answered the lieutenant,
"but people have a right to steal your heart if
they can."
"No, people have no such right," said Dolly
with a coquettish toss of the head ; " if I like to
give it away, why " Here she paused and
became deeply interested in a knot of ribbon.
"Well?" said Charlwood.
"Why well and good," answered Dolly; "I
can do so perhaps I have done so."
This was meant cruelly, but the young officer
did not take it in that sense.
" To me," he said, "haven't you Dolly ? " Say
so. You've given it to me."
And as she murmured " Yes," he threw his arms
round her, and without doubt would have kissed
her, if a harsh voice had not broken in :
"Ullo! Ullo! Mine Gott and tunders! Dis
is a pretty sight very near kissing I tink dat
time, only I came in and spoil the fun. I say,
lewtenant, you know what I told you."
And the old man drew Dolly's arm into his,
and went into the house, leaving Charlwood
standing in the garden, astonished and rather
shame-faced.
Weeks passed, and yet nothing happened.
Dan Pearce still hovered about the Cliff House,
and once or twice endeavored to make acquaint
ance with the preventive men. The strictest
watch was kept day and night upon all roads
and paths in the neighborhood, yet nothing
stirred. News reached Charlwood daily that, on
account of the war, the contraband trade was
more active than ever, yet nothing could be more
peaceful and homely than the aspect of Tregan
nion. Van der Meulen came in as usual, talked,
smoked, and drank ; the parson and the doctor
visited occasionally, but Dolly had never come
near the hut since the affair in the garden. Yet
the lieutenant was uneasy, not about the smug
gling, for he trusted his men too well, and had
made his dispositions too skillfully to be anxious
on that account, but about the murder of poor
Porter. The Government reward had been
doubled; correspondence upon the subject was
constantly passing between Plymouth or Fowey
and Tregannion ; the murderer was said to be
in Cornwall, even in Tregannion, and the lieu
tenant was requested to spare no efforts in trying
to discover the perpetrator or the perpetrators of
the crime. This was no easy job, for the folks in
Tregannion stood aloof from the preventive men,
and were bound by a sort of Freemasonry to
have no dealings with them.
One evening the lieutenant was smoking a
pipe by his solitary fireside, and wTas about to
turn out for a round of inspection, when he heard
a very gentle tap at the door. He opened it, and
to his astonishment saw Dan Pearce.
" What on earth do you want?" asked Charl
wood. "Important business for you and me. sir,"
answered Pearce.
" Important business ?" said Charlwood. " Why,
what sort of important business can you have
with me ? Now look here, I'm up to most dodges,
although I dare say you think I am not. I'm
armed. Just throw up your hands."
Charlwood covered him with his pistol as he
spoke, and Pearce submissively threw up his
arms. Charlwood felt him all over, and made
certain that he had no knife or pistol about him.
"Now then," he said, "your business. Quick,
for I have mine to attend to also."
" Nobody can hear us ? " asked Pearce.
"Not a soul," answered the lieutenant.
"Up to now," said Pearce, " you've looked upon
me as your enemy. I'm now going to be your
friend. You love Dolly Van der Meulen."
"Well, what is that to you if I do?" asked
the lieutenant impatiently.
"'Well, this is what it is to you. She is
promised to me by her father, in return for a
signal service I have done him. You cannot
prevent our marriage."
" Oh yes, I can," said Charlwood.
"No, you can't," pursued Pearce. "At a word
from Van der Meulen, Mr. Carey will marry us
on any day at any moment."
"A nice crew you are," remarked the lieutenant,
" all in the same boat."
"Yes," replied Pearce, "we're 'all tarred pretty
well with the same brush. Anyhow, I'll give
her up to you ; and not only that, I will deliver
up the murderer of Lieutenant Porter, if you
will undertake to pay to me the Government re
ward of five hundred pounds."
Charlwood was astonished. "What guarantee
have I that the man you deliver up is the real
murderer?" he asked.
" You will see," answered Pearce. " I am the
only man in Tregannion who saw the murder
committed. Look here, do you know this ? "
And he took a letter from his pocket which
he handed to Charlwood. It was one which he
himself had writen to his old shipmate shortly
before the tragedy.
" Furthermore, I have a document at home,"
continued Pearce, "binding me to eternal secrecy
at a price, in the writing of the murderer."
The lieutenant strode up and down the room.
At length he sat down, and began to write. " The
bearer of the present, Daniel Pearce "
As he finished the second name, a bullet
crashed through the window, and Dan Pearce
fell pierced to the heart. Before the lieutenant
had time to recover from the sudden shock,
another flew past his head and buried itself in
the wall. He ran to the door, and burst it open.
Two or three preventive men, alarmed by the
sound of firing, came hurrying up. All else
was dark and silent as the grave.
To be continued.l
THEY THOUGHT THEY HAD 'EM.
The facts are these : Snakes, lizards, &c, being
very popular designs for jewelry, young Sy
monds, desiring to present Miss Daisy with a
beautiful present, gave her a bracelet enameled
to look like a snake coiled about her wrist. It
was a very lifelike contrivance, and to add to its
realism was so constructed that the heat of the
arm would cause it to squirm and quiver con
siderably. Young Symonds neglected to explain
this to Miss Daisy, and the first time she put
it on she had hysterics and ran up a doctor's bill.
But after she came to understand the contrivance
she was mightily pleased with it. Being invited to
a swell party she wore the bracelet, and it did look
beautiful on her round, white arm, and she took
no pains to conceal it. She was introduced to
Mr. De Lancey Smith, a New York swell, and
took his arm for a promenade. The heat of the
room was calculated to make one's blood warm
and the bracelet was wriggling considerably.
Mr. Smith looked down on Daisy to say some
thing sweet. But he didn't. He seemed to for
get it, and in a nervous way asked to be excused.
And he went outside and tried to count the
stars and walk a crack and see if he was him
self. He concluded he was. But he avoided the
champagne the rest of the evening. As he
didn't return, Daisy accepted the escort of St.
Clair Jones and presently he followed the exam
ple of De Lancey Smith. Daisy didn't under
stand it and was angry. The dancing began.
She walked into the ball room and took a seat.
She did look lovely as she sat there fanning
herself. Four gentlemen made a rush towards
her to claim her for a waltz. But as they drew
near they paused, and then all bolted out of the
room. Djisy was horrified. She went to the
dressing room and looked at herself in the mir
ror. She was perfection. More mystified, she
returned to the ball room. Meanwhile the four
o-entlemen, having assured each other that they
saw nothing " off " in each other, had picked up
courage to return. But they all steered
clear of the wines, to the great amazement of
the host. Finally, young Symonds asked her to
dance. They joined a quadrille. It came to "la
dies chain." Daisy extended her ,hand to old
Judge Ryegate, who was her vis-a-vis. The
snake was squirming beautifully. His eyes
rested on the bracelet. With a howl that made
the hall ring, he grasped his head and gazed
wildly at the bracelet.
" Got 'em again ! " he cried.
" What does this mean ? " asked Daisy.
" Ah ! "' cried the Judge, "see it squirm ! I've
got 'em bad ! Take me away ! "
Symonds caught the idea. He explained. There
was a great sigh of relief from the gentlemen.
Then came a laugh at the Judge, and though
he was frightfully embarrassed and mad as a
hatter he stood it. But he was gloomy all the
rest of the evening and so were several other
gentlemen, who privately said that a woman
ought to know better than to wear such an in
fernal thing as that. Boston Post.
It has no doubt been a mystery to many read
ers how the iron balls inside of sleigh-bells got
there, and it is said to have taken considerable
thought on the part of the discoverer before the
idea struck him. In making sleigh-bells the
iron ball is put inside a sand core just the shape
of the inside of the bell. Then a mold is made
just the shape of the outside of the bell. This
sand core, with the jinglet inside, is placed in
the mold of the outside, and the melted metal
is poured in, which fills up the space between
the core and the mold. The hot metal burns
the core, so that it can all be shaken out, leaving
the bail within the shell. Ball valves, swivel
joints and many other articles are cast in the
same manner. Scientific American.
A TEMPERANCE MEETING SAVED HIM,
The Lewiston Journal is responsible for the
following : At one of the local temperance meet
ings Sunday, a speaker, in dwelling upon the
degradation caused by the appetite for liquor, said
he knew a man who drank to such an extent
that his whole person seemed impregnated with
alcohol ; his lungs, even, became so charged with
it that in blowing out a candle one day his
breath took fire as it it were naptha. At the
conclusion of these remarks a blear-eyed and
ragged man staggered forward from the rear of
the hall. The audience room was packed. People
standing in the aisle made a passage-way for the
groping inebriate. All present thought another
reformation was to come, and that the trembling
old toper was on his way forward to sign the iron
clad pledge. The people on the stage stood ready
to welcome him gladly. The besotted and rum
poisoned appearance of the old fellow made a
sad and quieting impression on the crowd, and
the utmost silence prevailed. He pushed his way
along to the place where the last speaker sat.
AVith a tremulous voice and a swaying body he
said: "My fren (hie) I want to shake hands
with you. You've saved me (hie.) Applause
from the audience. I'll sw'ar to ye, (hie)
stranger, that I'll never blow out another candle's
long as I live." The benches could not help ex
ploding in roars of laughter at this quaint and
unexpected climax, although the scene furnished
another terrible warning of the dangers of in
temperance. WHAT ARE CALLED WHOPPERS.
The Western frontier of our country is highly
prolific in tall stories. Take the matter of hard
blows. A man sitting in his house, eating a pie,
heard a storm coming and ran to the door. The
gale first blew the house down, and then seized the
man, carried him through the air a hundred
yards or so, and landed him in a peach-tree.
Soon after a friendly board from his own house
came floating by. This he seized and placed
over his head to protect him from the raging
blast, and finished his pie. Out in Nevada it
has been told that during a gale, while bowlders
as big as pumpkins were flying through the airr
and water-pipes were being ripped out of the
ground, an old Chinaman, with spectacles on his
nose, was observed in the eastern part of the
town seated on a knoll calmly flying his kite
an iron shutter, with a log-chain for a tail. There
was a man from Boston who would not confess
astonishment at anything he saw in Nevada.
As he was passing a hotel in Virginia City the
cap blew off the chimney. It was a circular
piece of sheet-iron, painted black, slightly con
vex, and the four supporters were like legs. The
wind carried it down street, and it went strad
dling along like a living thing. The Boston
man asked what is was. ''A bedbug from the
hotel."' was the reply. '" By George. I never saw
anything like that," he began, and then added,.
outside of Boston." Brooklyn Eagle.
STRICTLY TEMPERATE3 EXCEPT
On the sleeper of an L., F. and W. train recently,
a traveler noticed an old, white-bearded gentle
man trying to get into a linen duster. The young
and spry traveler rushed to his assistance, and in
helping him noticed a good-sized whisky flash
protruding from one of the inside pockets of his
coat. Being of a waggish nature he appropriated
the bottle, got the coat on the stranger, and then
pulling out the flask, said :
"Will you take a drink?"
The old man did not recognize the bottle, and
drawing himself up, remarked rather severely :
"No, sir, I never drink ? "
"It won't hurt you," insisted the wag. "It's
the best."
"Young man," said the old gentleman, intended
for all in the car to hear, "if you persist in drink
ing whisky you will be a ruined man at forty
It is the curse of the land. When I was a boy
my mother died, and the last thing she did was
to call me to her bedside and say: 'John swear
to me that you will never touch a drop of liq
uor'" Here the old man clapped his hand on his side
pocket, found it empty, and recognizing the bot
tle in the hands of the other, he continued :
"Except, my dear boy, an occasional snifter
while traveling."
And reaching for the flask he pressed it to his
lips, amid a howl of laughter which shook the
whole ear. Fairplai (Col.) Flume.
HE MET HIS MATCH,
The only man who ever beat a nitro-glycerine
explosion after it was once started is John Mc
Cleary, of Pennsylvania. He saw what was
coming and ran. His coat-tail was cut off and
his back was somewhat scratched. He jumped,
with some assistance from behind, about a hun
dred feet, and continued running until he dropped
from fatigue. He kept ahead of the flying frag
ment just as Baron Munchausen kept ahead of the
rain, and there may be a lie about it somewhere
also. This is something akin to the story which
old Col. Reed, of Acton, Mass., relates, and main
tains that he was an eye-witness of the circum
stance. One of the powder-houses on the bank
of the stream below Concord blew up (as they are
in the habit of doing on an average two or three
times a year), and sent a man flying through the
air,throwing him completely over a round top hill.
He was accompanied in his terrible flight by an
instrument probably something shorter than
the ordinary hoe used in the manipulation of
saltpetre which, just before he landed, cut him
slick in twain through the waist. The legs
walked off for a distance of several yards, and
the trunk pointing its index finger toward the
retreating saddle, exclaimed: "See there!" A
bystander, who didn't seem to take much stock,
so to speak, in the Colonels story, related what
occurred in his saw mill. Two dogs were fight-in"-.
When the encounter became fiercest they sot
directly inlront of the saw, which was slowly but
surely moving up to the killing point. They seem
ed to be in the death-struggle, when one of them
was cut completely in two. Now, it is a well
known proposition that every dog has four legs,
but no dog has his fore legs behind; and, how
ever that may be,the two hind legs ran away while
the two fore legs remained and whipped the dog.
Col. Reed simply said, "If I told such a" He as
that I'd have no hopes of Heaven ! "Shoe and
Leather Reporter.
