The new Northwest. [volume], September 07, 1877, Image 1

About The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887

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MARTHA MARBLEH EAD
The Maid and Matron or Cbebalem.
Br Mrs. A. J. DUNIWAY,
AUTHOR OP "JUDITH REID," "ELLEN DOWD,',
"AMIE AND HEJ.-RT LEE," "THE HAPPY
HOME," "ONE WOMAN'S SPHERE,"
"ilADQE MORRISON,"
ETC, ETC., ETC
Entered, according to Act or Congress, in the
year 1877, by Mrs. A. J. DunI way, in the ofllce of
the Librarian of Congress at Washington City 1
CHAPTER XI.
Oregon was young in those days, but
it boasted many men who had "seen the
world," men who had traveled from the
island of Ceylon to the peninsula of
Karntschatka. and from the land of
Kanakas to the city of Washington
Oregon bad newspapers, too. Not the
present line of dally and weekly bearers
of telegraphic dispatches from all parts
of the earth, many hours ahead of time,
but an unpretending bebdoraaddal or
two, which gave the people news by
pony express from across the continent
every other week. There were start
ling accounts of new auriferous discov
eries; letterB once in a while from the
seat of government; occasional estray
notices; at intervals a marriage or a
death; frequently an Indian disturb'
ance, and regularly all sorts of personal
attacks upon aspirants and incumbents'
of office. Then, as now, it made but lit
tle difference whether the office-seeker
or holder were a man of integrity or not
No matter how honest and honorable
his private life bad been, his newspaper
trials began when he became a candi
date, and increased when he became an
office-holder.
Major Marblehead had been so qui
etly chosen for his new position that he
had escaped much of the personal abuse
that better men almost invariably en
counter in getting office, and he was not
prepared to find himself paraded before
the world in the facetious billingsgate of
worse than average Bohemians, when
be started out to serve his country.
Nobody, in bis own estimation, was
ever nearer right than. Major Marble
bead. He did not remember that be
had ever been ridiculed but once, and
be flattered himself, whenever he
thought of it, that he had amply pun
ished King Greensborough for that of
fense; so he had accepted his new hon
ors with the proud consciousness that
he was to be henceforth known and
honored among men as one of the rulers
of the laud.
The Major and Mrs. Marblehead and
son were spending their last night in
Portland ata primitive hotel that drove
a thriving business in eatables, such as
they were, at a price that would to-day
rejoice the proprietors of the Palace
Hotel. It was their first meal iu a pub
lic place, and none of them knew aught
of the customs of such places of enter
tainment. "Leave all to me, Major; I'll manage
it," said Mrs. Marblehead, as a finale to
a long chapter on "manners" to which
she had just been treating bim.
Then, aside, to her son, "You keep
your eyes open and look about you
sharply. The Major's such a consum
mate blunderer that he'll have us all in
the Weekly Flyer if we're not careful."
Thomas Jones promised to look sharp,
in obedience to the maternal command,
but neither son nor mother was pre'
pared lor the pompous aud sonorous
"grace" the Major uttered at the far
ther end of the long. dining board,
whither he had led them, in spite of her
intimation that they should Feat them
selves at a little side table nearer the
door of the dining-room.
jnow, jl win not undertake to say
mat mere is no virtue in piouounciug
"grace" at table. It certainly stimu
lates good breeding in a family, and the
Christian is not without precedent in
his observance of it in his own house
hold. Yet we have visited homes where
only a "silent blessing" .was invoked
where there was far more of decorum
observed than we have seen in many
another where the stereotyped repeti
tions of the same little routine of com
mand to the Almighty Father to "bless
us, and save us, and sanctify these vict
ajs to the use of our perishing bodies
Amen," was accompanied, during its
progress, by the covert amusement of
the children, and follo.wed instantane
ously at its close by the irrelevant con
vereation which had only been inter
rupted to sandwich the religious cere
mony between the theme and the food.
thereby jnakiug but a mockery of what
was intended as a sacrament.
We have more than once "Been a min
ister make a covert laughing-stock of
himself, and through himself of bis re
llglon, by just such an ucnonscious ex
bibltion of pious vanity at a holel table
as that which ended iu the perturbation
of Major Marblehead.
His voice, wheu in a religious mood
was always deep, long-drawn, and
"holy." Nobody had ever listened
either to bis singing or exhortations
without taking particular notice of tb
piety of bis tone. People who attended
the church where be officiated as dea
con were accustomed to it, and many
grew to like It, but its effect upon a din
lng-room full of Intent and energeti
epicures, bent on eating' tbeir money'
worth, was explosive. Many laughed
outright, and many others, to whom
tiie well-remembered ceremony brought
S3 00 i
1 75 :
1 oo Free Speech, Free, Press, Free People. Y
. .. . i
VOLUME VI.
mental visions of far-away homes, were I
pained at the occurrence.
"Dear me !" sighed Mrs. Marblehead,
to herself, "why couldn't he know bet
ter than to thus make us the objects of
ridicule?"
Her appetite waB spoiled. She knew
the general effect of the Major's manner
upon the spectators, though be rested
in happy ignorance. She played ner
vously with her fork and spoon, and
while her husband and son did ample
justice to the food before them, she fed
upon the deepest humiliation.
"Who is he?" asked one, and Mrs.
Marblehead not being blessed, as the
Major was, with partial deafness, heard
both question aud reply.
"He's a new official dignitary; one of
those wiseacres wbo is to revolutionize
politics, engraft God in the Constitu
tion, and pray himself into personal
prominence and political Immortality."
This was said by a mild-mannered
gentleman who bad no intention of be
ing overheard, and, but for Mrs. Marble
bead's acute sensibilities, she would
have been oblivious to it. As it was,
she was on the alert, and the tympanum
of her adjacent ear was like a tightened
drum-head.
"I wouldn't trust him farther than
you could throw a two-year-old bullock
by its tail,"" was the decided rejoinder.
"You must be a good reader of char
acter," remarked the other.
"Why ?"
"Oh, it's easy enough to see why.
You echo the public sentiment exactly.
Everybody will know the Major aud his
business before he leaves the dining
room. Have you observed bis wife?
Deuced smart woman, that."
"I'll wager a nugget from my Jack
sonville placers that she hasn't lived
with him as a wife more than a year or
two."
"And how have you reached that con
clusion ?"
"Easily enough. Did you ever see a
man with over-pious propensities, nar
row face, thin lips, high back bead,
sharp no9e, grey eyes, and hair combed
like the roof of a country meeting
house, who had lived to the age of sixty
without losing at .least one wife?"
'I never thought of the question in
that light before."
Well, I have; and you may depend
pon it that the old skinflint has buried
the mother cf a large family of children,
who crucified her life in obedience to
his behests. I'll warrant this to be a
second, possibly a third wife."
Do you think he'll get the better of
ber?"
"Not n bit of it. She knows his weak
side. He's as vain as a peacock, as
stubborn as a donkey, as pious as a
monk, and as deceitful as the devil.
But she'll match him."
"But she's doesn't look like a woman
who would aspire to be the counterpart
of such a persou as you delineate."
Mrs. Marblehead blushed. It was her
turn to catch it now.
"No; the woman's not narrow, nor
over pious. But she's ambitious aud
unscrupulous, aud dressy ami agreeable,
She'll make her way in Washington
and his, too."
An increased clatter of dishes among
the waiters iu the dining-room pre
vented further overhearing. But Mrs,
Marblehead was not sorry. She bad al
ready heard enough.
"Excuse me, Major; I am not hun
gry," she said, half-rising.
"You'd just as well get the worth o'
your money. 1 lie pay's all tne same,
whether you eat much or little," replied
the careful calculator of current ex
penses, in a loud, deliberate tone.
Mrs. Marblehead curled her lip in dis
gust and left the room.
Iu truth she was not bad looking.'
She had a magnificent figure, ample
aud well-proportioned, aud it was easy
enough to see how she might make her
social mark at the Capital, where bri II-
lantand Intellectual women were known
to be scarce.
When the Major had finished his
ample meal, he returned to his chamber,
to find the partner of his joys and sor
rows iu a feverof mortified indignation.
"Old Marblehead, you're a fool I" she
exclaimed, stamping her foot.
"It is better to dwell in the corner of
a housetop than with a brawling wom
an in a wide house!" said the Major,
solemnly.
Mrs. Marblehead was nonplussed for
once. .Like very many other non-relig
ious persons, she held to a sort of inher
ited reverence for the Bible which made
It difficult for her to answer any argu
meut or accusation having, or seeming
to have, its foundation in the Scriptures,
The Major had never before attempted
such a rebuke in the presence of Mrs
Marblehead number two. Aud he was
astonished at his own audacity as soon
as be had spoken. But his wife's con
fusion Inspired him with new courage,
A tyrant is always a coward, and a cow
ard is always a bully, so long as the ob
ject of bis attempted power is in retreat,
But Mrs. Marblehead bad no idea of
liual retreat. She paced the floor a few
minutes in silence, and then turned
upon her liege with a merry laugh.
"I overheard some conversation con
cerning you at table, which you and
Tom were too busily engaged in eating
to listen to, and you're going to catch
fits in to-morrow's Flyer," she said,
shaking her finger, aud looking archly at
bim, like the arrant coquet that she was.
POTtTIVINHD, OREGON, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 7 X877.
"Catch whatt" he asked, his voice
trembling, and heart beating audibly.
"Catch fits," she repeated, uncon
sciously adopting fGe provincial slang
of the period.
The Major trembled anew; not with
rage, as would nave oeen nis wont ii
somebody had planned an assault upon
him in the little church, where be was
certain of his ground, and knew the
power to be all in his own hands; but
he trembled with apprehension, for he
felt that he was not master of the pres
ent situation. Nor was he. There was
a power behind "the throne much greater
than the throne itself. Aud this many
another man as weak and tyrannical as
Major.Marblehead has discovered to his
sorrow.
"What did you hear, Martha?" he
asked, pleadingly.
Again the lady laughed. She was
gaining ground. But she preferred to-
deiay ber final triumph for a. season,
just as a skillful angler sometimes In
clines to keep the fatal bait for a little
while In sight, beyoud the reash of his
piscatorial victim.
"This is the first time you ever called
me Martha, Major; don't repeat it," she
answered, sobering.
"Why, darling?"
"Worse and worse! You're getting
spooney, Major. Hut look nere. lou
and I know precious well that there
sn't a shadow of real sentiment be
tween us. You married me to get a
housekeeper, and I married you to get
an ollice. holder. If I am succeeding
better than you.it is all owing to my
feminine far-sightedness. ' Don't be a
fool. Don't darling nor Martha me.
That sort of pussy-cat nonsense might
have been agreeable pap for number
oue; but number two is none of your
die-aways."
"I'll resign that confounded office at
once, aud return to the farm !" he said,
defiantly.
"No you won't, Major."
Mrs. Marblehead was as unruffled as
a summer sea.
"You'll see if I don't," he answered,
cowering visibly.
"TJien good-bye to housekeeper and
office both, Major," she answered, mak
ing a feint to pack her trunks, prepara
tory to taking her own departure from
the premises.
Again the head of the family was baf
fled. He strode across the room like
oue demented. Then he set his teeth
squarely together (I mean the few re'
maining molars; bis others had long
since been worn and broken to me
roots), and hissed, in a low tone:
"Mrs. Marblehead, do you know how
I managed my first wife?"
"I do not care to inquire, Major Mar
blehead," she replied, carelessly. "I'm
your second wife!"
"I know you are! Coufound the
luck !
"Don't swear, Major. Remember the
religious stand you took a little while
ago at the public table. Our modern
hotel walls have ears sometimes. You
might injure your reputation and stand
ing in the church."
The Major advanced toward his wife
witli threatening gestures, glaring eyes,
and clenched fists.
"I walloped the first Mrs. Marblehead
the very first aud only time she ever
dared to disobey me. And there's just as
much nerve and muscle in these hands
to-day as there was thirty-five years
ago !"
Mrs. Marblehead arose from the trunk
she was packing aud stood erect.
Do you know who you are talking
to, old man ?" she asked, calmly, while
a suspicious light flashed from hereyes,-
and her lips quivered slightly.
The "old man" bowed.
"Now, Major, see here ! Suppose you
try whipping me once! Do you know
what I would do?"
No reply.
"Well, I'll tell you, sir. You try it!
But don't you ever dare to go to sleep
again if you do, or I'll cut your throat
from ear to ear!"
O, Lord! What wickedness!" ex
claimed the lord of the matrimonial re
lation.
Mrs. Marblehead did not continue her
packing. She saw that the Benedict
was conquered.
"What fools women are!" she uoliln-
quized, turning toward the window and
gazing out upon the liver. "A man
that will tyrannize over his wile will
always prove himself a coward when
she defies him. The Major' 1 1 do splen
didly If he's rightly managed."
While the wife was thus ruminating,
the husband was eyeing her askance.
"tone's a wonuertui woman, and no
miBtake!" was his mental ejaculation.
And both were satisfied.
"I believe I'll try a walk, Mrs. Mar
blehead," said be, after a painful silence,
"Just what you ought to do, Major,
A man of your prominence and piety
should mingle much among the people
for example's sake. Then, it is a duty
you owe your constituents, to show
them that your exalted position has not
in the least inflated you with worldly
or personal vanity."
The Major sSKr his "duty" clearly,
and sought the crowded street.
Mrs. Marblehead quickly opened her
writing desk, and scribbled briskly for
several minutes, after which she called
the porter.
"Send mea trusty errand-boy, please."
"All right, mum."
The boy came, aa bidden.
"I want you to take this letter to the
Flyer office and deliver it to the editor
in person. Say to him that you know
its contents to be genuine, and here's a
quarter of a dollar."
"I never tells lies that cheap, mum.
Not for nobody."
"Well, tell him the name of the real
author accompanies the letter, and I'll
give you a dollar. And, mind you,
don't say a word about me to anybody,
or I'll see that you lose your place. Do
you understand me ?"
"I do, mum."
The next day's FJyer.came out brist
ling all over tlieeditotlal page with par
agraphic lines of such acuttiug nature
that the Major well-nigh lost hope of
heaven in his rage. His well-known
peculiarities formed theme for a dozen
witticisms of a personal nature, and his
threatened attack upon his wife, who
was spoken of as a remarkably brilliant
and beautiful woman, who kept her
lord iu petticoats, was graphically de
lineated. To a man accustomed to newspaper
life, who lias seen his name In print so
long and so often that its recurrence
makes no perceptible ripple upou his
thoughts, such irrespousible squibs
would have amounted to nothing ex
cept to provoke laughter and witticisms
among his friends, heartily seconded by
himself.
A really clever person likes a joke,
eveu at his own expense. But Major
Marblehead thought he was ruined.
Was he not the great "I Am" of his
neighborhood? And hadn't he always
punished every scapegrace who had
dared to ridicule him?
Mrs. Marblehead noticed his per
turbation with inward chuckles and
outward unconcern.
"Maybe he'll feel like threatening to
wallop me again !" she thought.
"I'll find out the author of these at
tacks upon me, if I die for it!" cried the
Major.
"And get a second newspaper drub
bing for your pains," quietly replied his
wife.
"Mrs. Marblehead, have you no re
spect for your husband?" he asked, se
verely. "Precious little," she answered, with
a quiet laugh.
Again he was baffled.
"Confound"
"There! I wouldn't swear, Major. I
more than half suspect that somebody
overheard you yesterday, and that was
why you found yourself cut up to-day
in the Flyer.1'
"What shall I do, then ?"
"Why, mind your own business.
You're public property now, for you're
a servant of the government. The dear
people expect to compensate themselves
for your salary by newspaper squibs
Never mind 'em. And see here, Major,
that pompous piety of yours was a first
class thing to utilize and hold the peo
ple of your parish level, for they either
believed in it or stood in awe of it. But
the world does neither. You are before
the public on your own merits now, and
must expect to stand or fall, as the peo
pie shall elect. Bless your simple soul,
vou haven't a particle of tact. Just
leave the management of affairs to me,
Do as I tell you, and you'll keep out of
scrapes." "
"Well, woman, it's almost breakfast
time now, aud I'm ready for my first
lesson."
Don't say grace at public table, for
one thing."
"Whatt Would you have me set an
ungodly example before a wicked aud
gainsaying world ?"
"Nonsense, Major; you know that's
cant. Very well. Pursue your own
course; it's immaterial to me," aud
Mrs. Marblehead began a lively tattoo
upon the window-sill with her fan.
The Major looked "sheepish" at din
tier, but he did not make himself con
spicunus by repeating au audible prayer.
Whether or not be uttered one iu his
heart deponent does not know.
The steamer sailed at the appointed
hour, and. Major Marblehead accom
panied his wife to their state-room, as
thoroughly subdued as the most un
scrupulous consort could have desired
Thomas Jones was a trifle moody. To
do him justice, he was not indifferent to
his wife, aud he dearly loved his cliil
dreu. But he was in the toils of bis
mother now, and she had no regard for
any other emotion than ambition.
To be continued.
Byron's First Love. "She wa9 his
life Hie ocean to the river of his
llfbughts." That Mary Chaworth re
tuined the passion of his young love
there is no doubt; but, like the Mnu
tagues and Capulets, the houses of Clia
worth and Byron were at feud. Mary
had not the strength and truth of Juliet
and so they were parted a separation
by far more piteous to her aud more
fatal to him than death amid the full
summer brightness of happy love. This,
not Shakspeare's, was the true sou
tragedy. Might she not have redeemed
even his wayward and erring nature by
the divinity of cure love aud steady
faith? She lived, it is said, to weep
wild tears over words winch nave linked
her name in sorrowful immortality to
tier lover's, and died in brokenhearted
ness at last. While be. crown reckless
a"nd defiant, the very core of hla heart
turned to ashes, and distrusting and de
spising his brother man, swept on in
glorious, sad, and stormv career, till th
shadows deepened and the long night
set in.
Fred. Grant's father-in-law, H. H
Honore, of Chicago, is a bankrupt. His
debts amount to $2,627,233.
OUE WASHINGTON LETTER.
To the Editor of the New Northwest :
Mr. Hayes' trip to New England
promises to be a pleasant one, but he
will not have so many of his Cabinet
with bim as originally contemplated.
Our Indian troubles were not of such
serious nature as to demand the pres
ence here of the Secretary of War. Mr.
Sherman is preparing in Ohio for a
swing around the political circle there,
aud cannot of course leave for the pres
ent. Mr. Schurz is busied with his In-
ian investigations, hence Mr. Key, our
big rebel, McCrary and Evarts will do
the principal honors with the President.
It is a good idea to take Judge Key
arouud and exhibit him as the tamed
ion, for we are assured when the people
look upon his quiet, smiling, good-natured
face, surmouuted with Its close-
cropped, bristling bair, strongly tinged
with gray, they will feel-he can be as
much trusted as any other honest man,
aud that, although he felt impelled at
ne time to take up arms against the
Union, his heart is now in the right
place. Recently oue of his constituents
from East Tennessee, one of the rip
roaring, half-horse, half-alligator stripe,
whose chief article of subsistence was
ulce of the corn, came up here seeking
au office at his hands. The East Ten-
nessean gave the Judge a graud dinner,
kindly permitting your correspoudeut
to share it, nnd then insisted that a cer
tain "in" should be ousted, because he,
the "out," wanted the place just "to
spite the fellow." Judge Key, I am
sorry to say, was proof agaiust this
trong argument, the soothing influ
ences of a nice dinner aud a proffered
bottle of pure corn juice, and most un
kindly sent the poor fellow back home
with a civil service reform lecture for
all his pains and expense. By-the-way,
this civil service reform affords a com
plete dodge for the Cabinet officers to
rid themselves of undesirable office
seekers, and on this ground we of course
accept it. But in all other respects, a
ive rebel, with all his kith and kin,
would seem preferable as office-holders,
and with a Jacksonlan sweep, change
every four years to that system which
would give an incumbent a life-long
lease. We served four years after the
war in the South, and learned to like
an honorable fighting rebel, and be
ieve him universally as worthy of trust
as we know Judge Key is. But we
can't go civil service reform yet.
THE DIVORCE MARKET
Is now very brisk, and our court dock
ets indicate that hard times do not bar
the discontented, who are seeking other
partners, from feeing lawyers and from
getting relief from the disability which
nterferes with the proposed uew mar
riage. In ail.iustances we believe an ap
plication fora divorce has another mar
riage in the back ground, at least such
is our experience here and that of Chi
cago. Kecently the wife of "Gotham,"
one J. Q. Thompson, a Western corre
spondent of the New York JTerald, ap
plied fur divorce at Indianapolis, but
her prayer3 were denied on the ground
that she was a citizen of the District of
Columbia, she being a clerk in one of
the departments. She immediately ap
plied here aud obtained a decree at once,
She celebrated her release from her for
mer ties by remarrying, and that with
out waiting uutil the end of the term of
the court which granted the divorce
Husband No. f then filed a bill praying
that the decree be set aside, alleging all
kinds of immorality agaiust her, and
particularly charging iufidelity upon
her with numerous persons, among
whom he names one Nathaniel P.
Banks, who, however, has since per
emptorily denied the allegation. The
Judge set aside the decree under the
power given him by law to reverse a
decision at any time prior to the ad
jourument, hence we have here a lady
with two husbands, and of course au
abundance of connubial felicity after
her twelve hours of siugle blessedness
which followed the divorce. If the sec
ond husband proves as worthless as the
first, we opine that Mrs. Thompson will
realize fully what it means jumping
from the frying-pan into the fire, un
less she seeks relief again through the
courts. While Washington cannot
equal Chicago in facilities for speedy
divorce yet, we can offer the discon
tented a "right good chance" for free
dom. To our surprise, one of our spici
est correspondents, R. W. C. Mitchell
Private Secretary, of Mr. Schurz, and
who writes for the Danbury News under
the name of Bob Creighton, has also
applied for a divorce on the alleged
ground of infidelity. He cites marriage
ata Catholic Church in Albany, New
York, the birth of three children and
subsequent immortality. His bill Is a
fearful arraignment of a wife and
mother, and leaves us at a loss to deter
mine whether he in retaining her in the
position of wife has been destitute of
that sense of right and wrong which en
ables every husband to protect the honor
of himself and family by resort to law
or a bullet, or whether he has permitted
open defiant outrage in hopes that time
would bring separation in some form
without exposing his wrongs to the
world. Public sentiment permits n bus
baud to take the law into his own hands
in dealing with the violator of his house
hold happiness, and Mr. Mitchell seems
not to have desired au appeal to the
higher law of our country, preferring
rather peaceable measures which would
ISTTJIBEIi G.
leave him and her free to follow their
inclinations In the future. Such, per
haps, is the better course. But with
the Sickles and Key .precedent before
us, our people would prefer a first-class
shooting sensation any day to a hum
drum hackneyed resort to the courts for
divorce. Felix.
Washington, D. C, August 17,1877.
Youdouism.
A TALE OF MYSTERIOUS RITES, SICILIAN ASSAS-
V SINATION AND DARK DEEDS.
Every few months there croDS out to
the surface some tale of the wonderful
nfiuence possessed by these "hoodoo"
or Voudou doctors over their poor de
luded victims, but, as a rule, the result
of tbeir tricks does not amount to the
sum named below.
Beyond the mere Voudou business.
there is a horrible tale of murder, assas
sination, aud the effect of fear on an in
dividual sufficient to make him sinn
tl ree mortgage notes of $1,000 each
when he did not owe the money.
Eniile Condet has filed a petition in
the Fifth District Court repreentiug
that in the month of June. 1876. one
Joseph Oteri, a resident of this city,
with whom he was on friendly terms,
came to him much distressed and crv-
ng, and represented that he had given
to Ills wife for safe keeniinr the sum of
5o,uuu, and mat the money bad been
stolen, and he begged the petitioner to
go auu see uis wile aud induce her to
tell what had become of the money
Condet went as requested, aud after
considerable persuasion induced the
wife to admit that a nesrro man. ore
tending to be a clairvoyant fortune
teller, uamed Dr. Robertson, had been
au associate of Oteri, and in the habit
of practicing his divine and mysterious
powers on uteri and Ms wife, had in
duced her to give him money that he
might put it iu live packages and pin it
together in a manner unknown to oth
ers and peculiar to himself, and then
place it under the matting beneath the
bed, aud tuenall thlugs would be lovely
to Mr. Oteri aud her. She said she had
given this doctor the money, aud left
tne petitioner and went to her bed-room
adjoining to get it. She remained there
some time, much longer than was neces
sary, and the petitioneropeued the com
munlcallng dooraml found her rttaiidintr
sun, with anout in one hand in
stead of the $5,000. Coudet returned to
Oteri and informed him what had hap
pened, and advised him to employ de
tectives and recover the money. De
tectives Maloneand Cain were engaged.
and Ualn went to jfulladelphfa, whereto
the doctor (!) had escaped, and arrested
IlifTI ntlfl lll-mifYllt dim (n To ii' Hrlnnita
... ......... ,. 1. 1
where the fortune-teller confessed hisH
guilt by surrendering to Oteri a piece of
real estate, turniture and jewelry, and
some money he had on deposit in the
Louisiana Savings Bauk.
After Oteri had got all that he could
from Robertson, he turned against Con
det and charged him with having (lis
honored his wile and robbed him of So.
000, and threatened to kill the petitioner
it he did uot make up the difference be'
tween the amount recovered aud the
stolen $5,000.
It is further charged that Oteri is
Sicilian, and claimed to be the leader of
a band of Sicilians living iu New Or
leans who redressed their real or imng
inary wrongs by murders and assassina
tions, and Oteri threatened that if the
money was not paid, Condet would be
killed and his tamlly destroyed.
(Johdet, with the fear of his life upon
him, became sick, and was troubled
with weakness, aud was obliged to re
main at home many days to avoid as
sassination. He sent for Oteri, aud
told bim that he (Condet) did not want
to be killed or to kill Uteri, and tried to
convlure Oteri of his innocence oKtbe
charge, but the Sicilian would not be
convinced, aud reiterated the threat
that he would be killed iu a few days.
Petitioner goes on to allege that, on
pressed, and spirit-broken, aud weighed
down in miud, doubtiug which would
be better, to be killed or to kill Oteri
and then be subject to a criminal prose'
cution, he consented to make good the
loss to Oteri, but, not having the ready
money, he offered to give mortgage
notes.
This was accepted, and Condet went
before a notary aud acknowledged falsely
that he owed the notes.
He prays for the sequestration o
these notes made under an act before
James Fahey, July 12, 1870, and that
the notes be canceled. JYew Orleans
Democrat, July Ylth
The spectroscope, the instrumen
mentioned in my paper on Venus
shows that the deep atmosphereof Jupi
ter contains enormous quantities or the
vapor ot water. It seems.to me not un
probable tiiat all the water of the
planet, its future seas and oceans, now
hang suspended in the form of cloud
and vapor in the planet's atmosphere,
Jupiter, in fact, may fairly be regarded
as a young though gigantic planet no
young in years, but young in develop
ment a baby planet, the fullness o
whose growth will not be attained fo
hundreds of millions of years, when ou
earth perhaps will have' been for ages a
decrepit or even a dead world. jto. Jt.
A. Proctor, in at. jsicnoias.
While Theodore Tilton makes his
$20,000 a year in the lecture field, and
Beecher gets $20,000 from his church,
$5,000 from the Christian Union, and
$30,000 from lectures, Mrs. Tilton weeps
over her struggles with, boarders iu a
small bouse iu Brooklyn. She is the
real sufferer, and always will be. She
Inst her husband, the man for whom
she lost him lias abandoned her, and
the society who professed to believe iu
"Mr. Beecber's inuocence treats her as
though she were guilty. It's a queer
world.
At Fltchburg, Mass., there are three
grammar schools, two of which have
gentleman principals, aud the other a
lady. The salary of each was $1,200,
but recently the gentlemen had their
salary reduced to $1,000, while the lady's
remained as formerly. This was owing
to her excellence as a teacher; but It is
somewhat exceptional for a lady to re
ceive a higher salary than a man when
engaged iu the same duty, aud we gladly
make note of the fact.
A man who had a Frenchman to teach
him the cornet always referred to the
instructor as the French tooter.
When they make a hog's head into
cheese and bis tail into souse, they make
extremes meat.
A Journal for the People.
Uevoted to the Interests of Humanity.
Independent In. Politics and Religion,
illve to nil Live Issues, and Thoroughly
Radical In OpposlngandExposlngthe Wrongs
of the Masses.
Correspondents wrltlngover assumed slena
tures must make known their names to the
Edltor.or no attention will bo given to the't
communications.
Garden of Eden.
Prince De Ligne, countryman and
contemporary of Maria Theresa, wrote
an essay, "On the Location of the
Earthly Paradise," and, after some re
flections ou the hygienic influence of
different climates, calls atteution to the
fact that "Paradise traditions, in locat
ing the Garden of Eden, differ only in
regard to longitude, but not to latitude.
Ihe latitude keeps uearthesnow-houud-
ary, a line just south of the regions
where snow may fall, but will notatav
on the ground. It.passes through Thibet,
Cashmere, Northern Persia and Asia
Minor, ami reaches the meridian of Eu
rope near the center of the Mediterra
nean." The nations that "celebrated
life as a festival" have lived along this
Hue, and we may doubt if in the most
favored regions of the New World hu
man industry, with all the aids of mod
ern science, will ever reunite the oppor
tunities of happiness which nature once
lavished on lauds that now entail only
misery on their cultivators. All over
Spain and Portugal, Southern Italy,
Greece, Turkey, Asia Minor, Persia aud
Western Afghauislan, and throughout
Northern Africa, and from Morocco to
the valley of the Nile, the ariditv of the
soil makes the struggle for existence so
hard that to the vast majority of the in
habitant's life, from a blessiuir. has been
converted into a curse.
Southern Snain. from Gibraltar to the
headwaters of the Tagus, maintains
now only about one-tenth of its former
population, Greece about one-twentieth.
As late as A. D. 670. a good while after
the rise or the Mohammedan power, the
country now known as Tripoli, and dis
tinct irom the Sahara only through the
elevation of its mountains, was the seat
of eighty-five Christian Bishops, aud
iiuu a population or o.uuu.UUU, ot which
number three-quarters of oue per cent,
are now left! The climate, which, ac
cording to authentic description, must
once have resembled that of our South
ern Alleghauies, is now so nearly intol
erable that eveu the iuhumauity of an
African despot forbears to exact onen-
air labor from 9 A. sr. to 5 p. m. Steam
boats that pass uear theTripolitan coast
in summer, on their way from Geuoa
to Cairo, have to keep up a continual
shower of artificial rain to save their
deck-hands from being overcome by the
iuriiace-air that breathes Irom the bar
ren bills of theopposite coast. The riv
ers of some of these countries have
shrunk to the size of their former tribu
taries, and from Gibraltar toSamarcand
the anuual rainfall has decreased till
failure of crops has become a chronic
complaint.
Aud all this change Is due to the in
sane destruction of forests. The great
Caucasian sylvania that once adorned
the birth-laud of the white race from
the Western Pyrenees to the foot-hills
of the Himalayas has disappeared; of
tne iorest-area or Italy and Spain, in
tlie days of the elder Pliny, about two
acres iu a hundred are left; in Greece,
hardly oue. iiut even the nakedness of
the most fertile tracts of Southern Eu
rope is exceeded by the utter desolation
of the Ottoman provinces. Popular
Science Monthly for August.
Figures of Speech.
The conscious em ploy men t of imaeerv
is by no means peculiar to literary peo
ple. It Is common with everv class.
and with almost everybody in .every
clas. Familiar iu the mouths of those
eccentric characters in the humbler
walks of life who amuse us so much by
their odd but apt comparisons, racv of
daily experience, aud by tbeir quaiut
application or oiu saws and anecdotes,
it is no stranger to the moat matter-of-fact
people. The latter, indeed, have
not the exuberant invention nnd humor
of a Weller, a Swiveller, or a Tapley,
out tney line to season their talk with
the savor of fancy, which, however,
they generally are obliged to borrow,
lacking mother wit of their own. A
smile or happy phrase hits the popular
taste aud becomes common property.
We hope that a friend will 'pull through'
a serious illness; if he grow decidedly
worse, we say that he is "at death's
door." A man may be "beyoud his
depth," though never in the water,
"flighty," though never off" the ground,
or not have "a leg to stand on," al
though his limbs are sound; it is his
resources, material or intellectual, that
are "crippled." Wiseacres have been
called "amazing shallow," and "the
deep" is another name for the sea.
Spendthrifts are said to be "open
handed," and a miser "close-listed," or
"tight as the bark of a tree." The last
saying must call to miud a multitude of
comparisons which are iu constant Use,
such as "true as steel," "straight as an
arrow," "stiff as a poker," "brown as a
bun," "still as a mouse," "dumb as au
oyster," "merry as a cricket," aud oth
ers still more homely, smacking of hu
mor aud belonging to slang, or on its
confines, like "snug as a bug in a rug,"
"shining as a nicger's face," and "happy
as a clam at high water," that is, when
the flood tide protects him from the
spade. Proverbs, too, come to relieve
the dullness of plain talk. "Make hay
while the sun shines," "one swallow
does not make a summer," "a burnt
child dreads the fire," aud a huudred
others are every day figuratively ap
plied. Old anecdotes, historical or pseudo-historical,
fables and jests do a sim
ilar duty. To mention two or three out
of a host, there are the stories about
Mrs. Partington's attempt to sweep out
the ocean, Canute's' bidding it retire,
the fly on the wheel, aud the coon's of
fer to corne down if Captain Scott would
not fire. The Oalaxy for August.
No Commission. An exchange says:
"A.mau who sits in a comfortable seat
in a horse-car and talks earnestly to a
companion on the welfare of bis soul,
while tired shop-girls and ladies stand
up, needs some kind of a conversion
himself." Now we are going to say
something for the churches. Any man
who will go to church twice every Sun
day, and is so interested in singing
"Title Clear" as to let the platter go
clear down the aisle with only two bits
in it, deserves to go to heaven on a raft
aud be picked bald-headed with grass
hoppers. We have loug thought the
most religious people get it the cheapest,
and concluded so the other Sunday.
Fxchanye.
Apples are big enough now to keep a
ten-year-old boy and both bis parents
and the nearest druggist up all night.
Ilawkeye.
A New York firm hung out a sign
reading: "In God we trust everybody
else cash."