Frostburg mining journal. [volume], March 23, 1872, Image 1

About Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913

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Jtafiitiwi lllnlng fjanttiaf
c. 11. WALK bit X J. IL ODER,
VOLUME I.
A Kiss lit the I)oi<r.
Wn wern ManiUtig in the doorway.
My little wi'e jincl I .
The goldrn sun M">n her
Fell down s> silently:
A s', ail whit-* Ini' -i upon my arm.
\Vh:it could l ask tor more
Tkan th> kindly kuuicc *t' lovmj? eyes.
As she kbsed me at the door *
I l<n..iv .ho loves wi'ti .1! lirr heart
The one w o ho.ide :
And the ye i < I, ,vo li.-eti ns
Si-0,. tir t t oatlnl h r 1 r 10.
Wove- lent - . ..f liiil-filim
Since we met •> v An* h* :
But the IfM'l-i'-t t im* i-f till h
When she kis.-ed me at the door.
Who r ire- t- r wealth of land <-r gold.
For f.mc.r ■ s.tehlrs- fwor?
It do- m.t .ive the hal-tdno-
Of just one little li-ur
With one who l -v* me a- h'-r life
She sttw-1,,. loves me more-- .
An-1 I thought sh* -'id thi- morning.
When she kissed me at the door.
At times it seems as a ! l the world.
Wit!, all it' wealth • f u'- ’d.
rs very -mall and po. r M.de. I
•’"till-.red with what I hold .
When the . lomls hang grim and dark.
I only think the more
Of one wlm wai • - th-coming step.
To Ui-s me at the deor.
Tf she lives till nge shall scatter
In IV. ut. n her load.
T k now sh 11 love me just the -ante
As the morning we were wed ;
But if the ar-gel’s <'i!l her.
And she goes to heaven before.
I shall know lo r when I meet her.
For she’ll kis- me at the door.
A I.OAN FROM TilK DEAD.
A good many * * mis nun, the regiment
to which I then belonged whs quartered
at AM* • -hot. After a long absence
front England, spent on a parching
rock in the middle of the Red Sea,
bleak and dreary Aldershot seemed a
very paradise. It was delightfully near
London, too ; leave was easily o be ob
tained; and a great part of ny spare
time, and more than all i>y spare
money, war* spent bv mein the metrop
olis—spent, 1 am ashamed to confer, in
riotous living and much di.-order. Still,
bad it only been that, 1 should, possi
bly, like many of my brother officers,
at the cost of much subsequent pain,
and wearine.-s. and pinching, have
passed through my cycle ot dissipation
and settled down at hist: but in addi
tion to my youthful aberrat ons, 1 had
a fatal predilection for games of skill
and finance.
I w, h the best whist player in the
ami could hold my own with
the crack pi -vers of the clubs; and had
I stuck to whist, which, in rny belief,
never ruined any man who had a lu ad
upon his shoulders, 1 could have made
a decent income out of my skill ; but
my moderate winnings at whist were
swallowed up. a’idmueh more lost beside,
at unlimited 100, blind hookey, hazard,
and other kindred games. To crown
all, I took to hacking horses, and lost
at that, I ne#*d hardly ; ay. Alon/ run
of evil luck beset me ; i had lost all my
available funds, had mortgaged my
commission to the utmost penny 1
could raise upon it. ami found myself,
at the end of the Epsom week, feveicd
and parched in body, in soul wretched
and despairing. I had come to the end
of my t< tlier: I was regularly done up
life had nothing in store for me. On
the following week I should be posted
*h a defaulter on the turf; I should
leave the army in disgrace, and such
tidings would kill my old widowed
mother.
It was Sunday night; 1 had been to
London, trying to raise money, hut use
lessly : the dews closed their fists to me.
I only wanted a hundred j ounds to pay
my Derby losses: tins achieved, I could
sell out and retire without open dis
grace ; but 1 couldn't raise it. One man
offered me fifty pounds for my bill of
two hundred and fifty pounds at three
months; but I wasn't quite so mad as
to take that: 1 might as well smash for
a hundred :is fifty.
My hist sovereign was changed in
paying my hotel bill on that Sunday
night. 1 had a return ticket to Alder
shott in my pocket, and a few shillings
beside ; nothing ebe in the* world in the
way of available assets. 1 think if I
had be*u possessed of a five-pound note
I should have gone down to Liverpool,
and taken a sU entire passage to
America. It was the linn cd extent
of my means which made me resolve
to go back to my quarters at Alder
sliott, and appear on parade the next
day.
Ihe ciock in the coffee-room where 1
was sitting showed half-past 11 as the
hour of the night; the waiter only was
in the room, a.; uiging his spoons and
napkins in tlm buffet, yawning surrep
titiously**veiy now and tin n, quite in
different to the problems which were
agitating me, —-Waterloo 1 nidge or A1
derslmti ? 1 nm.-t make up my mind
quickly ; another five minutes and it
would be too late for the one; the other
was open.
“\\ aitcr, a Ilan-om !” 1 shouted all
of a sudden, in a tone which made the
man jump.
At that time there was ji train which
left not b aterloo, hut soni- station a
little cl stan i e down the tin••; it might
have been Vauxhall, or possibly Nine
Elms, I scarcely remember which—left
the station at midnight. It was popu
larly known a nong us as the old-meat
train. It ng >rs w- r< dead bodic s
for the Woking cemetery. The rail
way comp any, ever sold itous to aceom
module toe public and turn an honest
penny, bad, for the convenience cf the
camp, affixed to this train one first class
carriage. After leaving the dead bodies
at Woking, the carriage was run on to
Farnborougb, whence you could walk
to the camp, ii you had not been pru
dent enough to order a fly to meet you.
The hotel servant who ushered me to
the cab got a ii noisome gratuity for his
pains, h was my leave taking of the
world o! pi asure, and 1 was too insol
vent to he careful about little matters.
The cab sped me quickly to the sta
tion ; but tlie clock at the hop 1 had
been slow ; as we passed through the
railway arch :i premonitory shriek from
the engine overhead warnid me that
the train was on iho point of st ilting.
I stopped the cab at the bridge, and
ran quickly up a narrow flight of steps
which !*■'! directly on to the end of the
platform. —known only to the initiated;
the tra n v. as moving on, but I had just
time, despite* warning shouts of guard
an 1 pm t**is, to open the door of the
las *irri i e: n i jump in. The other
coal}' a linents of the carriage I noticed
were lighted, but this one was dark;
that didn't affect me. I didn't want
to read. I took out a box of wax
matches and proceeded to light a cigar.
As the glow of the match lit up the
interior of the carriage I saw in the cor
ner a long, dark object, quite black,
and yet with some little metallic gleam
about it. It was a coffin, reared up at
tie* farther side of the carriage, a board
being placed behind it, against which it
leaned. As I looked steadfastly at the
coflin it appeared suddenly to glow with
a fair radiance. Every nail and every
pi ite upon it began to gleam with a
strange, mysterious light. Bah ! it was
the moon. We had just left the clouds
of London behind us, and the great
round moon, rising out of river mists,
cad her glorious beams right athwart
us, but i turned away from her in dis
gust. What was the beauty of the night
to me, —a ruined spendthrift,—the
scorn and laughing-stock of the world!
The black coffin on the other side was
a more congenial companion to me. I
lit another match, and read the in
scription on the plato : “ William
Ileathcote, died 25th May, IS—, aged
25 years.”
The hair on rny head rose in a mass ;
my heart ceased to beat. My own name,
my own age, and the very date of the
day that was now just born !
It chimed in, too, did this inscription,
so mysteriously *ith that impulse I
had felt the whole day—a turning to
self destruction,-as a means of escape
from all the degradations of life. I
would accept the omen. 1 carried with
me—a .practice I had acquired in the
east a small American revolver, which
lilted into my waistcoat pocket. It
would kill at twenty paces, and would
give me my mittimus easily enough. I
drew it out and placed it against my
forehead; then it struck me that the
ball, after passing through my head,
might pass also through the partition
dividing the compartment, and
strike some one in the next carriage. I
turned, therefore, my hack to the win
dow, and again placed the muzzle of
the pistol to rny forehead. Again l
withdrew it. There was no hurry. The
train did not stop till it reached Wok
ing. I could not possibly he disturbed.
1 wanted signal; the whistle of the
engine, as the driver sighted the red
lamps of Woking should be the signal
of mv departure from the world.
‘* Yes,” I said aloud, turning upon
myself, as it were, in a sort of frenzy ;
‘• yes! the moment the whistle sounds,
William Ileathcote, you shall die.”
1 have said that the rising moon was
shining brightly into tlie carriage, full
upon the coflin, and upon tlie mysteri
ous inscription. 1 don’t think l really
believed that this colfin had any tangi
ble existence. It might he but tlie
production of my own fevered brain,
but to none the less on my own ac
count. was it a veritable warning of my
doom. Looking up, however, to see if
it had indeed disappeared, I saw no
longer the collin-lid, but a white shroud
ed figure, a pallid, corpse-like face, the
eyes of which, in the moonbeams,
shone upon me with a sepulchral
gloom.
For the moment I thought that I had
indeed passed into the land of shad
ows ; that I was a disembodied spirit,
locking at my own mortal remains; and
the thought that I had ceased to he an
individuality, and had become the mere
shadow of a thought, struck such a chill
terror and horror to my soul, that every
other impulse of it was lost in an eager
effort to resume my individual exist
ence.
1 came to myself with a deep gasp,
digging my finger nails into my paints.
Ah. the ,joy of that moment, after the
torture of the struggle hack to life!
Life, ragged, miserable it might be, but
still dear life, how precious it seemed;
how unfathomably deep, below the ut
most wretchedness of being, was the
dread abyss of non-existence! Shad
ows ! 1 defy them ! -
“Come forth, old mole I” I shouted
to my double in the coffin. Jle came
forth. As I live, he stepped out of the
collin, seated himself opposite to me,
and laid a finger on my arm—laid a
finger on my arm, and leaned forward
to speak into my ear.
“ Mercy, mercy ;” shrieked the figure,
in a voice that pierced the roar of the
train, then thundering over a bridge.
“Sec! T cried the figure, slipping a pa
lter into my hands : “ keep it, keep it;
onlv don’t betray me.”
Whew-w went the whistle ol the en
gine, shrieking, as it seemed, close into
my ear. 1 turned my head for a mo
ment : the moon had just passed into a
cloud; the figure had vanished; the
coffin still stood in the corner, dark
and grim. The train slackened, stop
ped.
“Jem.” said a voice—that of the
guard—“ there’s a body in the middle
first-class coacfi; there's some parties
coining to meet it with an ’earse.”
“ All right, Jack,” said another
voice; “they’ve come to fetch him.
Bear a hand here, will you? Oh,
Lord !” shouted the man, as he saw me
sitting in the corner. “Oh, 1 beg your
pardon, sir. 1 hope you arn’t been
annoyed, sir? Jack, what did you
mean by putting the gent into this com
paitment?"
“ 1 didn’t," growled Jack ; “ he must
a got in by hisself.”
“All right,” I said, getting out and
stretching myself on the platform. I’ll
get into the next carriage. No bodies
there, are there?”
"D’ye call me nobody?” said Pat
Reilly, looking out of llie window.
"Jump in, Billy, me bhoy ! I’ve cleared
out the rest of the company ; ye’ll in
ti oduco a little fresh capital into the
concern.”
What a contrast to the scene- I had
quitted was the cheerful lighted car
rj ige, with its occupants, ad brother
ullicers of mine, smoking, chaffing, and
playing 100 on a rug stretched over
their knees! Surely the whole of the
previous scene had been a dream, or
could it have been an incipient attack
"f D. T. ? not brought on by diink,
indeed, lor I was not given to that,
but by irregular habits and stress of
mind.
It wasn’t till 1 had re.ached my own
hut at Aldershott that 1 thought of the
paper which the ghost had given me,
and which, in my delirium, I had
An Independent Paper—Devoted to Literature, Alining, Commercial, Agricultural, General and I,oral News.
FROSTBURG, ALLEGANY COUNTY, MARYLAND, SATURDAY, MARCH 23,1872
imagined 1 had thrust into iny waist
coat pocket. Here was ate.-t at nil
events; if there was a real paper, bear
ing signs of its ghostly origin, then I
was still sane, and the apparition I
had witnessed was not a delusion of the
1 rain.
In the corner of my waistcoat pocket
was a crumpled piece of flimsy paper;
I unfolded it, and found it a Bauk of
England note for a hundred pounds.
From that hour I was unaltered man.
I paid my gamblingdebt*; confessed all
rnv embarrassments to my friends, who
lifted me out of the mire; never
touched a card or a die; studied for the
stafi'college; passed a good examina
tion ; went to Sandhurst, came out with
high honors, and, having a little influ
ence at headquarters, got an appoint
ment as commissioner, to watch the
operations of the American war of se
cession. on Gen. ’s staff.
It was at the close of a bloody but de
cisive battle, or series of battles, which
resulted in the retreat of the army of
the south, that I visited the field-hospi
t ils at the rear of the federal army, in
search of a friend who had been
wounded daring the day. The doctors
and attendants were all too busy to pay
attention to my wants, and I walked
down the long rows of hastily impro
vised couches, trying to recognize ray
friend.
Scraps of paper, on which the names
of the patients had been speedily
scrawled, were pinned to the coverings,
and I started as 1 read on one “William
Ileathcote”—my own name. The man
appeared to ho sinking from exhaus
tion, but he brightened up when he
heard the tones of a friendly voice.
1 knelt down beaide hirfiy and asked
if I could do anything for him.
lie notted his head. “ You’re Eng
lish?” he whispered.
“ Yes, I am.”
“So am I. If von should he in the
neighborhood of Bedford, and should
be able to hear of an old man of the
name of Ileathcote, a retired draper,
wili you tell him his son died in a cred
itable way? 1 was a disgrace to him,
sir. when I whs alive ; but when 1 am
dead perhaps he will think kindly of
me again. I'll tell you my story, sir. i
was a rogue —I was, sir. I was an un
dertaker, hut I was a collector of taxes,
too; and I entered into a conspiracy to
defraud the government, it came out;
hut l had warning in time. 1 shammed
dead, and got away in one of my own
coffins with all the swag. They wasn’t
very keen : fter me ; but just at the last
moment I thought they’d have me. A
detective followed me right to Woking;
but I squared him with a hundred
pound note, and got clear away to
America by the Southampton packet.
It inner prospered me, that money;
and I got lower and lower, till I ’listed
as a soldier, and here lam ! I'in gel
ling tired, sir. Don't forget Bedford—
Ileathcote, retired drap- r.”
I passed on in wonder and astonish- j
ment ; and, if I must confess, a little j
disappointed and disenchanted. 1 was I
no special care, then, of an overruling |
Providence, as I had fondly deemed I
myself. My wonderful warning and |
deliverance was a mere affair of chance j
and accident. As I passed the man's |
couch again he lay on it still', and stark,
and dead.
On my return to England, I made in
quiry of the officials of the revenue de
partment, and found that there really I
had been a fraud of the kind in ques
ticn ; that the collector implicated in
it had died suddenly—by suicide, it was
thought. As to the defalcations, the
defaulter's sureties had paid a part—
one of them, his father, having been
sold up in consequence,—and the rest
had been paid over again by the parish
oners he had defrauded.
So l found out the old man at Bed
ford. lie was living with a daughter in
abject poverty, and 1 repaid to him
the hundred pounds with compound
interest. To him 1 seemed a celestial
visitant.
The cold meat t rain is now a thing of
the past. 1 believe. A luggage Haiti
carries belated officers back 10 camp ;
but, to this day, I confess that 1 always
prefer to pass Woking in bre d day
light, and that 1 carefully look inside
the carriage before I enter it, for 1 de
sire no more loans from the dead.
A New Comet.
A decidedly new sensation is promised
us on the 12th of next August. The
famous M. Plantamour, pr (lessor of as
tronomy at Geneva, has discovered a
new comet which, it is declared, exceeds
in size any similar meteor hitherto
known of. By the elaborate calcula
tions of this learned observer, the new
comet is darting directly toward our
globe with prodigious velocity, and will
come into collision with it on the 12th
of August, as aforesaid. The approach
of this terrible object will bo heralded
by an extraordinary degree of heat;
and the catastrophe cannot possibly be
avoided unless by a deflection, not now
to be prognosticated, be produced by
the comet impinging on the attractive
scope of some other heavenly body.
We believe that this alarming prophecy
corresponds with one ot Dr. Cummings
more leeent announcements; and, if
so, science and religion—or one eccen
trie representative of it—will for once
ami unequivocally he in accord. The
inhabitants of tho earth will have at
least this consolation, that after the
Plantamour comet comes within the
range of telescopic obseivalion, and
becomes visible to the naked eye, there
will yet be a long time for them to set
their houses in order and prepare for
the “ eternal smash ” that must ensue.—
N. Y. Times.
Artificial Milk in Paris.
When natural milk became scarce in
Paris, Bubrunfaut proposed an artificial
milk, made by dissolving one and one
half ounces of sugar in a quart of water,
adding an ounce of dry albumen (fiom
white of egg) and fifteen to thirty grains
of soda crystals, and then emulsionizing
therein from one and one-half to two
ounces of olive oil. As the war pro
gressed, gelatin was substituted for the
albumen, and then slaughter-house fats
—purified by melting at 150°, and then
projecting into them small quantities of
water —for the olive oil. < Inu firm made
in this latter way 132,000 gallons of
milk daily for Paris consumption.
Varieties.
The first Prince of Wails—Jeremiah.
Elector* currents are preserved the
same as other currents. They are laid
| in jars.
Apothecaries are proverbially tern
pernte; they all have three scruples to
j a dram.
Ai.Tiioroti fishes have no voices, vet
people have been known to make a
fish-bawl.
When may a m m he said to breakfast
before he gets up ? When he takes a
roll in bed.
When a man has “no mind of his
own" his wife generally gives him a
piece of hers.
The man who popped the question
by starlight got his sweetheart's consent
in a twinkling.
Wiiv is the letter G like a gentleman
who has just left an evening party?
Because it makes one gone.
It sounds a little paradoxical that to
enjoy life best on the Brighton road is
to he “ numbered with the sleighin.”
Theodore Parker once said, “It
takes years to marry completely two
hearts, even the most loving and well
assorted.”
A matronly cat in care of her kittens
is an instance of severe matronly dis
cipline. She is licking her offspring
pretty much all the time.
A little girl asked her sister what j
was chaos, that her papa read about?;
The elder replied, “It was a great pile
of nothing, and no place to put it in.”
Whatever faults may he laid at the
doors of Tweed and his accomplices, it
cannot he said that they neglected to
thoroughly drain the city over which
they ruled.
The Penalties of Hasheesh.
From tin' Lakoside Monthly.
And now I felt myself one. of that I
hell-hound train of the lost, borne swift- !
]y downward, in spite of my struggles, '
in their fiendish company. One after
another 1 saw their shining garments
fall away from them, and their angelic
beauty fade and wither and utterly
change, till those who were once angels
of light became fiends of darkness—
naked, disturbed forms of demoniac ug
liness. Fear and horror unspeakable
lock possession of my soul as l felt our
downward progress, leaving worlds and
systems and cycles of systems behind us
in our more than lightning flight. The
shadow of a great despair, inconceivable
to the waking mind, enveloped me with
a cloud, shutting out all hope.
For ages, it seemed tome, we fell, and
jit last I beheld the door of the pit open
ing beneath us, and the smoke and steam
of perdition anise, blinding and stilling
me with its nauseous vapor. Down
through the portals we swept, into the
reg'on of everlasting fire, and I lay pant
ing and groaning upon bars of white
hot iron, burning and searing into my
flesh, while with every breath I drew
! the curling flames into rny lungs and
! poured them forth unquenchable, un-
I consuming, yet scorching and blistering
my very soul. “Alas!” I thought, in
agony, “ the others do but sutler the tor
| tures of the soul, while 1 endure the
torments of both soul and body—the
remorse of the spirit and the pains ot
• the flesh!”
Around me rose peal on peal of
laughter, mingled with curses, howling*
and blasphemy. Yet for me there wu*
no speech. I felt that could 1 call upon
the name of a single earthly friend—of
one of those companions whoso voices
I could still hear, and whose forms I
could see fur away in the apartment I
had left—l could hurst the spell that
bound me tin re before my time. Bui j
the scorched tongue refused to move at j
my will, or the cracked lips to perform !
their otlice. “ Oh, for a single word !" 1 |
thought and clutched madly at the fly
ing cinders and leaping 11 lines, as if
in their fiery embrace 1 could grasp at
the word that refused to come at my
bidding.
For ages it seemed that I lay there
writhing in torment; and at last, down
through the cool, blue heavens that had
mocked my gaze through tin- bars of
my prison, came floating in the form of
a snow-white dove, the word 1 sought.
Nearer and nearer it drew, and yet after
years rolled over my expectant soul as
1 \v.itcln d it fluttering downward, till at
lust it alighted with a cooling influence
upon my lips. And yet all this stretch
of time was due to the expansive power
of hasheesh, since the real duration i
the flight of the dove was but the breath
consumed by one of my comrades—so
far away and yet close at my side—in
pronouncing my own name. For,
strangely enough, it was the sound of
my own name that I heard ; yet it loosed
the door of my lips, and I shouted the
name of the friend whose lips pro
nounced it and who had stood by my
side at the window and screamed for
water. A dash of the cool liquid upon
my face—and 1 stood again by my win
dow in my own room, and snatching the
pitcher from my friend’s hand, drank
long and deep, while my comrades
stood around me with startled, anxious
faces
“ fell me, Tom,” I asked, as 1 sank
back weak and nervous in my seat,
i “how long is it since you saw the me
teor?”
“Scarcely five minutes.'*he replied,
In that brief five minutes I had
lived an age of beauty and a cycle of
torment.
The vision came no more that night,
and after an hour spent in detailing my
experience to my comrades, as I closed
the door behind the last of their retreat
ing forms —“Farewell!” 1 exclaimed,
“bewitching, accursed, angelic, hellish
drug! For the first and tlu last time
thou hast passed my lips! henceforth 1
will rest content with the pleasure
which nature gives, and seek no more to
tread the forbidden .-oil of hasheesh
phantasy.*’
Tiie San Francisco l*ost lias an article
announcing the discovery of a deposit
of rich gold-i earing quartz, in Tele
graph hill, within the city limits of San
Franc i* co.
Tue tonnage built in the United
States for foreign trade in 1871 was less
than any year since 1814.
Farm ami Garden.
Artificial Increase of Bee Colonies. —
| There is •* prejudice in the minds of
< some bee keepers against the artficial
multiplication of colonies, whatever the
plan ; hut those same persons aie gen
erally opposed to all the improved
methods of bee culture, and we write
for those who believe in progress.
It is presumed at tin* outset that you
use movable comb hives, ;is indeed you
, ougi t to. if your hives have contained
I honey • nougli lor the winter needs o’ ;
the bees, and not too much, healthy j
stocks will usually he sufficiently popu
lous to divide when fiuit trees are in j
blossom. But every bee-keeper should t
be acquainted with the honey resources |
of his locality, and the relative time \
when each plant and tree will he in
bloom, that he may not make increase
of colonies just preceding a scarcity in 1
the honey harvest.
Three requisites to success are: 1, a
hive full of bees and brood ; 2, a good j
honey harvest; 3, warm weather, da v
and night. These conditions being
present, examine your most populous
colonies for queen cells containing em
bryo queens. You %vill need as many
sealed queen cells as tin* number of
new colonies you purpose to make;
end if not found already under way,
feed a few of the best colonies two,
tanlespoonfuls of honey every evening
until they prepare to swarm. This feed
i ing should bo commenced two weeks
I before you design to divide.
! Having tlie needed number of young
i queen-* in sealed cells, operate first on
the hives containing them in the fol
lowing manner: Blow a little smoke of
cotton cloth among the bees; take from
the hive two frames containing unsealed
brood and honey, and place them, with j
all the adhering bees and queen, on >
one side or end of an empty hive, com- \
nicncitig and alternating with empty I
I frames, using three or more according j
|to the size of tin* new colony. Adjust j
j the division hoard (if you have one, as !
; you ought to), and set the new hive on !
| the stand of the old one. Slide together
the remaining frames in the old hive, !
filling up with empty ones :it the side, j
and set this hive a 10 l or more distant j
from its old stand.
Divide other populous colonies in the
same manner, to the numl-er of avail
able queen cells. Fiotn twelve to four
teen /ours after the division is made,
give a sealed queen cell to each queen
less colony. The cells must be handled
with great care, and examined after a j
day or two to see 'hat no accident has
befallen them.— Cor. Country Gentleman, i
llabbits in the Garden. —A correspond
ent of the Rural New Yorker savs : Wild i
rabbits are a great pest in the Eastern
at well ms the Western States. They !
conn* into one's garden or orchard by j
night and eat the buds and small twigs
from small fruit trees and ornamental !
shrubs. They visit my garden more or !
less every winter, although the sports- |
men have waged war against them in
this locality for the past hundred years;
still they are so numerous that nearly a
hundred were trapped by the boys in
my immediate neighborhood last win
ter. One of the simplest methods of
keeping them away irom garden trees
and shrubs with which l am acquainted,
is to ra'sc a quantity of sweet corn and
leave it in small shocks where the
rabbits can feed upon it during winter.
They seem to prefer this kind of food
to almost, any other, and when they
congregate about the corn in winter, the
sportsman is a Abided a good opportunity
of trying his skill, i have known young
pear orchards to be protected from rab
bits by this simple and inexpensive
method.
Destroying Mohl in Cellars. — According
to Dr. YViedehold fungus growths in
cellars maybe combated either by burn
ing sulphur or by pouring two parts of
concentrated sulphur acid over one part
of common salt. In the first instance,
sulphurous acid gas is produced ; and
in the second hydrochloric acid, by
means of which the fungi are destroyed.
It is sufficiently evident, however, that
during this process all openings must
be closed, so as to prevent any escape
of the gas, and the greatest care exer
cised not to enter the cellar after the
operation until it has been thoroughly
ventilated.
hjlucnce of Food on the Quality of Pork. —
As the result of experiments in Eng
land upon the influence of food upon
the quality of pork, it is stated that
pigs nourished with milk give the best
flavored meat and the greatest weight;
next to which come those fed with
grain, maize, barley, ojils and peas.
Fotatoes furnish a loose, light, tasteless
flesh, which wastes away very much in
cooking; while that of animals fed
upon clover is yellow and of a poor fla
vor. Oil-cukes and oil-seeds produce a
loose, fatly flesh, of an unpleasant taste;
beans, ji hard, indigestible, and unsa
vory nat; and acorns are but little
better.
Jioot Crops for I lops. —Hut a very small
percentage ot‘ farmers grow root crops
tor food tor stock. Occasionally a patch
ot’cariots or mangolds are found, but as
a general tiling tliey constitute no part
oi tle standard farm products. Still all
experience points to them as among
the most economical crops to be fed out
upon the farm, and the same time con
stitute a healthful and nutritive article
of diet. In a recent letter to the liural
World , W. .1. Neely, oi’ LaSalle county,
111., says that lie last year grew five acres
of in mgolds, which yielded about thirty
one tons to the acre, lie says that his
hogs are very fond of them, and in the
fall will, when other lood is scarce, eat
them, tops and all. He thinks one acre
of them will produce as much food as
five acres oi corn. Mr. .1, S. Tibbits
writes the Michigan Farmer that he raised
sugar beets for his hogs last season, and
has never had them do better. lie is
ready to believe them a very valuable
food for fattening hogs, and superior to
any other root crops for stock ot ail
kinds.
Bran for Poultry. —lt must be remem
bered that bulk as well as nutriment is
important in poultry feed. A disten
sion of the digestive organs stimulates
their activity; and, besides, the hulls of
grain in the bowels serve as vehicles to
ci.nvey effete and waste matter out of
the animal’s system. Bran contains
some of the most nutritious parts of the
, grain, too. and the very elements of
j which eggs arc largely compo : ed. A
mixture of half wheat bran or shorts
i and half corn meal is better than the.
latter clear, excepting when the object
! is fattening. In making poultry dough
iin winter, never use water; but if
j skimmed milk cannot be afforded,
moisten the meal sufficiently by mixing
; with boded turnip*, beets, mangolds or
j carrots mashed. The.-© are too watery
! alone, hut are ju>t what is needed
with the meal, and help to give the
; diet the desired bulkiness.
Hints for the Housewife.
How to Boil ami Serve Beets. —Acids of
j some sort are usually required to give a
i dinner a proper relish, and food dressed
| with vinegar is much preferable t > that
j pickled in vinegar. Small-sized beets
i are more delicious than those of larger
growth. Wash well, but in nowise out
the beet or break the skin or roots.
Boil until tender, placing first in cold
water. When done, skim them into a
pan of cold water, and slip the skin off.
Cut them into thin slices, and while
hot, serve with butter, pepper, salt and
vinegar, if that bo the taste of your
family. If served cold, slice lengthwise
and lay in cold vinegar.
Home-Made Cream Candy. —To any
quantity of white, or clean, light sugar,
add an equal quantity of cold water;!
dissolve in a little cold water wheat i
starch, in the proportion of two spoon- j
fuls to one teacup of sug-r, and set it
aside ready for use; set the sugar and i
water on the fire to boil; do not stir i
much alter the sugar dissolves; let it
boil until a little ol it dropped in cold
water will harden readily ; then add the
starch, stirring very rapidly, and boil a
j minute or two; again try; when done,
pour into a buttered dish, or pan, and
j set aside till cool enough to work with
the hands; add to it while* working
such flavoring extract as may he pre
ferred ; work till very light: draw out
into flat lengths, and cut into sticks.
This will he found jus good as any made
at ji confectioner’s.
Washing Butter. — A Connecticut cor
respondent of one of our agricultural
exchanges says: I do not believe in
washing butter. I never did; I think I
never shall. Good butter does not need
it. All the waters of Jordan cannot
make bad butter good; if it does re
move. any bitter or bad taste, why not
the sweet from the good? My experi
ence for thirty years has been that it is
injurious lo color, and in no case bene
fici: i. I keep butter thoroughly worked
without water. You would hear a like
testimony from very many in old Con
neeiieut, if they speak from personal
ex p o r ien cm
Growth of Fines.
During a recent visit to Lincoln coun
ty, we saw in the northeastern part of
Alma, and in that portion of White field
adjoining it, quite extensive trac ts of
splendid pine woods, the trees standing
very thick, and running up straight and
tall. There were several lots, belonging
to different parties, of from fifteen to
twenty-five acres in extent, and from
some of these consideraole quantities of
timber are now being cut. Years ago
tlx* land upon which this pine, growth
is now standing was covered with ;i
growth of white and red oak, which was
cut off' for staves. These wore manu
factured, sold in Wiscasset, shipped to
the West Indies, and brought hack
filled with molasses. Nearly all the
large oaks along the coast were used for
this purpose, and the ground is now
produo ng a growth of pines. Mr. Da
vid C. Bottle, of Alma, informs us that
fifty years ago his father, while gather
ing oak timbers for staves, drove Ins
oxen and sled over the tops of small
pines that are now forty, fifty and sixty
feet high, and that will scale from four
hundred to one thousand feet of lum
ber. Some of these trees are now two
feet in diameter at the ground, the
average being eighteen inches. The
profits of these trees have been as good
as money at ten per cent, interest, and
yet our farmers fail to grow forest or
timber trees, thinking they and their
children will not get paid for the trouble.
Behold these facts, and let some ol your
waste land grow up l<> trees for your
children's benefit and profit, if not for
your own.— Maine Farmer.
Smoking not Offensive*
A correspondent of a Georgia paper
tells this story: One night, passing
from Wilmington to Florence, Alab.mia.
our car was filled with gentlemen, and
there was only one lady present. After
we had proceeded some, way, it was pro
posed to have a smoke, but one of the
passengers pointed to a oird on rvhieh
there was “No Smoking Allowed.” So
when the conductor came through the
car he was asked if In* would allow us
to smoke. He pointed to the lady and
replied, “if she has no objection you
may do so.” I went to the lady and,
bowing, asked if it would be offensive
to her. She, lady-like, answered, “Not
at all, my dear sir, I am so lonesome if
I had :t cigar I would smoke myself."
She was at once, supplied, and we were
a set of happy fellows.
The Oldest Inhabitant.
The Los Angelos, Cab, News has the
following: There is jit present living at
the San Gabriel Mission, and old native
California lady, whose eyes have seen
the passing away of several generations.
Sin* claims to be 132 years old. She was
a mother at the time the Mission Church
was built—lo 2 years ago. Her hair is
as white as driven snow, hut her eye
sight is as keen as that of a child, and
her step as firm as that of a woman a
century younger. She is an expert as a
worker ot' embroidery, and executes the
j finest work without the aid of glasses.
Every day, weather permitting, she may
i be seen in the fields or orchards near
j by her residence, busy at work with her
needle.
The arrival of the steamer Potomac at
Cincinnati on Monday, was made the
occasion for firing a salute at the land
ing. A keg of powder was burned.
The special ground of rejoicing was that
the steamer was the first arrival of a
boat tint had passed through the new
canal locks at Louisville. Ties will
bring the larger class of boats to Cin
cinnati.
Editors and Proprietors.
NUMBER 2(.
Current Items.
A schoolboy at Woodstock, Vt., in
his 16th year, stands 6 feet 5 inches in
, his stockings.
The colored people of Boston have
voted thanks to Senator Sumner for his
I dibits in behalf of equal rights.
An Olympia (Washinton Territory)
• la ly is having < robe made from the
skitis of birds, which will cost SI,OOO.
A resident of Alton, 111., reports
hiving seen in China six American
i clocks hung in one room * orna
ments.
Si.oan, a susceptible young man of
. Bosoobel, Wi*., Ire hron/ut suit against.
a young lady for breach of promise of
, marriage.
Ma. William Gilmore D valued at
i $2,000 by tie* Mayor of Bradley Springs,
Ala., for seducing one of his nieces and
, murdering another.
Four attempts at incendiarism were
made in Kansas City on last. Wednes
day night, and the inhabitants fear that
their later Chicago will share the fate of
the original.
A New Albany bride waked up in the
night, forgetting she was married, and
aroused the neighborhood with a rapid
succession of shrieks. She mistook John
for a burglar.
The Maine House of Representatives
has passed an amendment to the pro
hibitory liquor law, which includes ci
dor ami wine among intoxicating
drinks, by a vote of 02 to 45.
Long Island has a freak of nature in
the shape of a child with an alligator’s
head. The mother of tin* monstrosity,
a Florida lady, is dead, and the infant
is not likely to survive her long.
Is the Elgin watch factories three
hundred of the five hundred employes
are girls who earn from ten to twenty
doll ars a week, and do the more deli
cate part of the work more skilfully
than men.
A n accident occurred on Monday at
a distillery near Cadiz, 0., which will
probably result fatally to two mon.
The still burst, scalding thorn m a ter
rible manner. The names of the in
jured men are L. Burroughs and Alex.
Lowe.
Only six inches of snow has fallen in
Dal ota Territory this winter. The
prairies are now hare, and all the trans
portation west of Cheyenne is done on
wheels. The grass is green, and some
ponies are found in splendid condition,
which have subsi-ted on buffalo grass
all winter.
The trial of the Monroo counterfeit
ers is progressing at Mad son. Wis.,and
one of the gan r has turned State’s ovi
denco and made out a pretty hard case
against some of the accused. Latta, the
man on trial, however, claimed not to
know the man or ever to have had any
thing to do with him.
A Railway Story*
The “Fat Contributor” writes to the
Cincinnati Times:
Let me relate an incident of travel
thir occurred when I was a frisky
young man with a fondness for young
iadios’ society. Understand me, I have
no distate for young ladies’ society now,
but they don’t seem to hanker t-o much
for mine as they did, say twenty years
ii go. This is natural enough. I don’t,
blame them —only they don’t know
what they are missing.
A friend and myself got on board an
express train one afternoon to make a
sho t trip. The car we entered was full.
Only one vacant seat in fact, and that
was alongside of a very charming young
lady. Friend and I each made a dash
for that very desirable vacant seat. It.
isn't :t fair thing to do, as a general
thing, to trip a friend, but it was allow
abb* under the eircum.-tances, and I
gate him just the slightest trip in the
world, just enough to enable rne to get
the start of him and obtain the coveted
sent. My friend took a seat on the
wood-box, and looked disconsolate
enough. I think 1 added to his dis
comfiture by certain triumphant winks,
[ nods, and motions in which I indulged.
| The young lady was attractive, and
some casual remarks dropped on one
! sid>* or the other—young folks will drop
! remark occasionally, and are more
1 ready to pick it up again than old ones
, —Horded an opportunity to glide easily
and pleasantly into conversation.
She was witty and sprightly, and I
grew unusually brilliant: that is, to the
be*t of my recollection at this some
what remote day. My friend observing
ihis, looked madder than ever. At
: length we reached a station where the
j train stopped a moment. My friend
! .b lie ited the wood-box and rushed out
on the platform. Suddenly he returned,
and coming quickly to me. seized me
by the collar and said in a tone heard
:iil through the car:
“Quick now: get right oil'here. You
can get a job here just well as not.
They tell me there is only one shoe
uniker in the place, and lots of work.
So take your kit and get otl before the
train starts. No use of locking any
further for work. Tramping all around
the country for a job of shoemaking
won’t pay. Take work where you find
it. That's my motto.”
lie almost forced me out of the seat
with his vehemence, and if i hadn’t
made a vigorous resistance he would
! have had mo out on the platform. 'Hie
I young lady gave me one look of supreme
disgust—a tramping jour, shoemaker!—
1 then directed her gaze out of the win
1 dow, and kept it there for the remain
der of the journey. My friend remount
ed the wood-box, and indulged in such
a series ol Fiendish grins and malignant
chuckles as would have justified me in
hurling him from the car, only I was
too stupefied by the proceeding to pro
ceed against him. When I left the car
the young lady looked to see if I hadn’t
forgotten my “kit,” and I am satisfied
she thought 1 had got off to “ kick for
a job,” as they say in shoemaker par
lance.
Charles Fen no Hoffman, the poet
and novelist of the part generation, is
still living, an inmate ol an insane
; asylum in Pennsylvania, where he lias
been lor twenty years.