Frostburg mining journal. [volume], June 15, 1872, Image 1

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

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c. H. WALKER & 4. B. ODER,
VOLUME I.
Foot leal Brevities.
RUST.
When winds are raging o’er the upper ocean.
And billows wild contend with angry roar,
’Tis said, far down beneath the wild commotion.
That peaceful stillness reigneth ever more.
And all the babble of life’s angry voices
Dies in hushed stillness at its peaceful door.
— Mr*. //. 11. Stowe.
HALLOW ALL THINGS.
I f in our daily course, our mind
He set to hallow all we find.
New treasures still of countless price,
God will provide for sacrifice.
The trivial round, the common task
Will furnish all we ought to ask.
Room to deny ourselve?--a road
To bring us daily nearer God.
--Keblc,
LOVK.
If is not in the mountains
Nor the palaces of pride.
That Lovo will fold his wings up.
Anti rejoicingly abide:
Rut in meek and humble natures
His home is ever found.
As the lark that sings in heaven
Ruilds his nest upon the ground.
filancharit.
SORROW.
When sorrow all our hearts would ask,
We need not shun our dally task,
And hide ourselves for calm :
The herbs we seek to heal our woe
Familiar to our pathway grow.
Our common air is balm.
—Keblc.
HARIT.
We arc not worst at once.
The course of evil begins so slowly.
And from such slight sourco an infant’s hand
Could stem its course with clay:
Rut let the stream grow deeper.
And philosophy, ay, and religion, too.
May strive in vain to stem the headlong torrent.
SMILKS.
A smile is but a little thing
To the happy giver.
Yet full oft it leaves a calm
On life’s boisterous river.
tlentlc words are never lost.
Howe'er small their so' inings,
Sunny rays of love are they
O’er (nr pathway gleaming.
[Original. |
FARMERS’ WIVES.
Itv EMII.V H. MOORE.
It has been remarked by a writer of
note, that the largest of any one class of
insane women in the United States is
made up of farmer’s wives. He is per
fectly wonderstruek in consequence of
the discovery made against this class of
humanity, which has so often been pic
tured in the rosy-cheeked, up-with-the
lark, strawberry-and-cream style, and
goes on to give them a lecture made up
of wise rebuke and brilliant advice—
men are always brilliant when they dis
cuss the affairs of kitchen and nursery—
which must go farther toward driving
them Bedlam-ward than all their cares
beside.
It is not in the least remarkable that
there should be more insane farmers’
wives than insane merchants’ wives,
sewing girls, woman-teachers or “ blue
stockings”! The wonder is that nine
tenths of our farmers’ wives are not
raving mad.
Most country girls are brought up
with ideas of neatness end order, and
all of them have a liking for the beau
tiful, and often times the skill to wield
the pen or “sweep the dulcimer.”
When they marry their farmer-lovers,
these ennobling tastes and fine abilities
go for nothing, or are reduced in the
crucible of their husband’s opinions to
“ fol-de-rol.” Then, since the spiritual
woman cannot express itself, in—not
fine art. which is the field of genius,
but in fine work, such as a little music,
a little sketching, or the cultivation
and study of beautiful varieties of
flowers, it will express itself though in
nothing finer than immaculately
scrubbed Hours, orderly pantries and
wonderfully and fearfully made betf
quilts for the best chamber.
But supposing, as is the case in half
a million instances, at least, that farm
ers’ wives have not ven this relief—
this littlo window through which they
can catch glimpses and breathe breaths
of the soul’s high life. Supposing that
the whole day, .and the whole week, and
the whole year is given up to cooking—
not that dainty, artistic cooking for two
or three appreciative and beloved ones—
which is a household delight, but
heavy, wholesale cooking, for five or six
or ten ravenous maws, dish-washing,
butter-making and house-righting, with
snatches ol unput-ofl-able sewing, and
the washing ami ironing forever loom
ing up as special landmarks in the
dreary routine. Suppose it to bea busy,
closely-managed, money-making farm
with three children—at the lowest cal
culation—to be kept in school-going
order, and the milkot half adozen cows
to lie converted into prime butter or
cheese, bate in the evening, or night,
rather—two hours after the husbmd
and the “ hired man ” are asleep, after
the supper has been cleared away, the
dairy visited, the breakfast planned, a
lacerated jacket or an apron repaired,
and the countless little incidental chores
of “picking up” performed, then, with
usually an insatiate baby to imbibe what
lifeshe has left, the farmers’ wife—whose
life inane and romantic rhymsters have
sung of in sparkling numbers—goes to
bed thoroughly exhausted, to begin, in
a few hours, the same treadmill round
of this previous day.
One noted writer who has nothing to
do but loiter about lunatic asylums
tranquilly arranging his statistics, sug
gests to the farmer’s wife that she
shouldn’t hurry herself in this way.
She not only hurts herself but be
queaths her weakened powers to the
rising generation. She should “take
time ” for doing everything. She
should “ simplify ” her work. Above
all, she should never “fret.” All these
aids, of work she has tried long before
these luggestions entered the head of
her reviewer, and still no gleaming
oasis of rest ever opens upon her dusty
way. “ Refresh your minds with good
literature and seek out-door reel cation,”
goes on this serene old imbecile. But
there s the breakfast to be prepared,
the cream to churn, the children to
“ make lip ” for school, the dinner’s
pudding lying undeveloped in the hen’s
nest and (lour barrel, the baby to at
tend, and a good deal of quiet ironing
or essential sewing looming up through
the afternoon. In tlie face of all this.
how, I ask, is she to refresh her mind
with literature, or go capering about in
the open air for “recreation?” The
hours are few when the farmer's wife
—of the class under consideration
has “nothing to do;” and then the
physical woman is too utterly weary for
any mental gymnastics or outdoor me
anderings. Smother beneath this
slave’s life any vigorous, finely strung
intellect, and if in ten years she is
taken to a lunatic asylum, let nobody
wonder—unless lie wonders that she
escaped going mad five years before!
Talk of the “pressure” on our public
men! I had rather be President over
thirty-seven United States, each bent
on seceding after its own individual
fashion, than live the life of this farm
ers’ wife.
Another thing—perhaps the only
thing—for the greater includes the
less—the farmers’ wife is not loved.
Farmers become as stoical and satur
nine and undemonstrative as their own
oxen. One may live among them six
years—which is long enough to form a
pretty fair estimate—and never see in
the husband any act of endearment,
self-sacrifice or decent politeness toward
the faded, drudging woman, who not
many years before stepped beaming
and hopeful into his life-path and wove
her youth and loveliness into a crown
for him. The gentleman that by birth
right lives I'ke a rare germ in the soul
of “the male of the human species,”
gets crowded out of these men by the
parslev-weed of a coarse, unthinking
selfishness. It is a shame, which he is
quite incapable of blushing for, that he
exhibts more care for his horses than
for his toiling mate indoors; that he
has for them sometimes a kindly pat,
or a cheery word of encouragement;
but never a kiss, a caress, a tender
smile or helpful deed for the heart that
silently starves for want of them.
My light-hearted and lighter headed
poet, who singest of “sweet-breathed
cows” and all the mythical joys of a
“simple life” in the country, do not be
a farmer! I beseech you to change
your mind ! Your fate—so far as you
are concerned—does not trouble me so
very much, but I am thinking of your
wife. Let her beware of such a farmer,
for his steps take hold on Bed
lam.
Distinguishing Edible Mushrooms.
A writer in the English Mechanic gives
what he considers to be an invaluable
rule for distinguishing the true mush
room from the poisonous species. He
remarks, in the first place, that the true
mushroom is invariably found in rich,
open pastures, and never on or about
stumps or in the woods ; and, although
a wholesome species sometimes occurs in
the latter localities, the writer considers
it better to avoid their products. A
very good point, in the second place, is
the peculiar intense purple brown color
of the spore-dust, from which the ripe
mushroom derives the same color (al
most black) in the gills. To see these
spores, it is only necessary to remove
the stem from the mushroom, and lay
the upper portion, with the gills down
ward, on a sheet of writing papei,when
the spores will be deposited, in a dark,
impalpable powder, in a short time.
•Several dangerous species, sometimes
mistaken for the true, have the spore
umber-brown, or pale umber-brown.
In the true mushroom, again, there
is a distinct and perfect collar, quite en
circling the stem, a little above the
middle, and lie edge of the cap over
laps the gills. In some poisonous spe
cies this collar is reduced to a mere
fringe, and the overlapping margin is
absent or reduced to a few white scales.
Lastly, the gills never reach to nor
touch the stem, there being a space all
around the top of the stem, where the
gills are free from the stalk.
There are numerous varieties of true
mushrooms, all of them equally good
for the table. Sometimes the top is
white and soft like kid leather ; at other
times it is dark-brown and scaly. Some
times, on being cut or broken, the
mushroom changes color to yellow, or
even blood red; at other times, no
change whatever takes place. To sum
up, it is to be observed that the mush
room always grows in pastures ; always
has dark, purple-brown spores ; always
has a perfect encircling collar; and al
ways has gills which do not touch the
stem, and has a top with an overlapping
edge.
In addition to the method just indi
cated for testing the genuineness of
mushrooms, we are informed that, how
ever much any particular fungus may
resemble the eatable mushroom, none
are genuine or safe the skin of which
cannot be easily removed. When taken
by the thumb and finger at the over
lapping edge, this skin will jiet-l upward
to the center, all around, leaving only a
small portion of the center of the crown
to bo pared off by the knife.
Punishing (Quackery.
The English are less tolerant of dan
gerous quackery than we are, and in
this, as in many other things, their
courts of law prove themselves to be
places where, as Mr. Joshua Fullalove
says, “you can get justice, dear but
prime." An English court has just sen
tenced a man named Andrews to a
severe punishment for setting up as a
physician on the strength of a bogus di
ploma obtained from that “University”
in I hiladelphia which deals so largely
in those wares. It does not appear that
the man did any particularly bad
tilings in bis practice, except to pass oil'
his ignorant quackery on an unsuspect
mg people as medical skill, and yet there
was no difficulty before an English court
in securing his conviction and awarding
him a well-merited punishment, while
we on this Bide of the water think we
have accomplished wonders in sending
Rosenzweig to prison for a very brief
term, under all the pressure of the pop
ular excitement incident to the expo
sure of his murdered victim to the
public eye for many days. Truly, we
need to learn a lesson or two from thine
English courts where a crime is always
a crime, and where popular clamor is
not necessary to the proper punishment
of a criminal.
The spotted fever is now known as
the Holly Varden meningitis.
An Independent Paper—Devoted to Literature, Minin.”;. Commercial, Agricultural, General and Local News
FROSTBURG, ALLEGANY COUNTY, MARYLAND, SATURDAY, JUNE 15, 1872
The Herman anil French Armies.
It was recently intimated that the
German government, or the department
of War, had resolved to intrude into
the army the rifle invented by Herr
Mauser, of Überndorf, in Wurtemberg.
The experiments made with this weapon
hail surpassed all expectation. Mean
while, however, the military authorities
continue to transform the old needle
gun until the soldiers are provided un
iversally with a weapon which is said
to be far superior to the Chaseepot.
Changes are announced in the uniform
of the army, and the imperial eagle is
to be worn as an ornament throughout
the service. One other small fact is
worthy of note as significant. The gov
ernment has determined to establish sta
tions in the frontier fortresses for car
rier-pigeons. The strong places of Col
ogne, Met/., and .Strasburg are to Ik* first
supplied— a circumstance which points
to a belief in the probability of a new
war on the western frontier of Ger
many.
The Spenersche Zcitung alleges that all
the efforts ol France to raise an army
of equal strength to that of Germany
must be fruitless. In case of a new war
the reserves of the German infantry and
artillery will be sufficiently numerous
to yield temporary reinforcements of
their branches of service by the crea
tior of fourth, or even fifth battalions
and reserve batteries or artillery com
panies. The creation of fourth batt
laions for the 148 infantry regiments of
the German army would be almost prac
ticable now, but will be matter of cer
tainty by 1874. By 1878 at latest fifth
battalions might be called into existence,
if required. By the addition of fourth
battalions alone Germany will be able
to commence war with five and a half
corps d’armee (of twenty-seven battal
ions, or eleven infantry divisions each)
more than in the last war. The possi
bility of such an increase cannot be
doubtful, says the Gazette, as a similar in
crease was effected in 186fi with the
most perfect success.
The Sandwich Islands.
Who are to be the future inhabitants
of the Sandwich Islands is becoming a
question of considerable interest. There
is no longer any doubt as to the ulti
mate fate of the native race, as its de
crease is going on at a startling rate.
It is the same story there as elsewhere;
the progress of civilization is marked
by a corresponding decadence of the
aborigines. The health of the adults is
generally poor, and the mortality is
very gre t, while births are very rare,
and it is said tlint there are whole vil
lages where not a child can be seen.
In short, in less than twenty-five years,
it is probable that Sandwich Islanders
will be as scarce as American Indians
are east of the Mississippi river. But
these islands are fruitful, possess some
commercial importance, and must in
evitably be the home of a large popula
tion. Of what race this population will
consist is, of course, problematical; but
there is some reason to suppose that it
will be the Chinese. The present non
native population of these islands con
sists of 2,500 Anglo-Saxons and 1,500
Chinamen. The latter are devoting
themselves to agriculture, and find tin
pursuit abundantly profitable. No
doubt their success will attract other
Celestials there, especially as the situa
tion of the islands is favorable to that
purpose, and it is not improbable that
another century may witness this group
metamorphosed into another Flowery
Kingdom.
A Good Law.
The late legislature of Now York fail
ed to provide a reformed system of
municipal government for the metrop
olis, and also failed to do almost every
thing else that was expected of it; but
it passed one measure that promises good
results. This is the law for the regula
tion of street-parades. It prohibits pro
cessions, except those of the fire depart
ment and National Guard, unless leave
for the same shall have been obtained
from the police authorities, who are
then to furnish an escort and designate
the route. This route must not embrace
streets on which there are car tracks,
and when a procession crosses a track,
it must halt as often as necessary to per
mit the passage of cam. Sunday par
aues are prohibited, excepting funeral
and religious processions. Those of the
former class must be for the actual
burial of the dead. Adequate provis
ions are added to prevent noisy demon
strations on the Sabbath, or the disturb
ance of public worship by the passing
of bands of music.
Why tlie Jews in Roumuuia were Per
secuted.
The cause of the recent outrageous
persecution of the Jews in Koumania
was a He told by one who was born a
Jew and proselytized to Christianity.
Fr m the joint protest which the con
suls-general of Great Britian, France,
Germany, Italy, Austro-Ilungary, the
United States, and Greece addressed
to the Bucharest government it appears
that the infamous man was a deserter,
from the Russian army, who, having
been arrested for burglary and theft,
committed against the Greek Church ol
Ismal, sought to divert punishment from
himself by declaring that he had been
instigated to the act by his employer, a
Jewish tailor, and by the Rabbi and the
President of the Israelites of Ismail.
The populace readily believed him, and
massacre and pillage were the outcoless
me of their belief.
Fires In the Country.
No sooner has the snow disappeared,
and the first hot sun dried the loaves,
brush, and dead grass, than we hearand
read of tires more or less destructive
all over the country. Such wanton de
struction of property causes more dam
age than is readily realized, not only to
fences, wood, and buildings, but to
standing timber. For the greater part
these fires are commenced from reckless
mischief alone, or for the purpose of
getting a sweeter herbage for the pasture
ot cattle in the woods. With the expe
rience of last season, it might be sup
posed that some care would be exercised
to prevent the starting of fires another
season, but it seems that those catastro
phes are forgotton.
A cat in Petersburg, Va., gave birth
to a litter of rabbits.
Farm ami Garib-ii.
1 Potash for Potatoes —ln a recent ad
dress, Ur. Nichols, of the Journal of
Chemistry , alluded to the “deterioration
in our potato crop during I he past twi nty
years,’ and made the following explana
tion regarding the causes of this falling
off : I have a field ol potatoes upon tnv
farm which I expect will yield 300
bushels to the acre, which may be re
garded as an old-fashioned crop. 1
know that ties crop will re ove from
the soil, in tubers and tops, at least 400
pounds of potash. I am also certain it
will remove 150 pounds of phosphoric
acid. Now these amounts are very
large, and serve to show that the potato
plant is a great consumer of the two
substances; -aid also, it shows that in
order to restore our potato fields to their
former productive condition, we must
supply phosphatic compounds and sul -
stances holding potash in large quanti
ties. For six or eight generations in
New England, our fathers have been
exhausting the soil by removing these
agents in their potato and other crops,
and we have reached a time when tie
vegetables are starving in our fields for
want of their proper food. Our farmers
have found that new land gives the best
crops, and this is due to the fact that
such fields afford the most potash. But so
long as we crop our pastures so unrea
sonably, we cannot resort to new land,
as land is not new that has had its pot
ash ami phosphatic elements removed
by grazing animals. Remember that a
potato field which gives but 400 bushels
to the acre requires at least I (it) pounds
of potash, but by allowing the tops to
decay upon the field, 60 pounds ol this
is restored to the soil again, as that
amount is contained in them. A me
dium crop of potatoes requires twice as
much phosphoric acid as a medium
crop of wheat, so that in two years
with wheat, the land is deprived of no
more of the agent than it looses in one
year with potatoes.
Sowing Grass Alone. —A writer in the
Rural New Yorker says : Now, I do not
believe in any ol this old-time nonsense
of sowing grass seed or clover with oats,
rye or wheat, just because somebody
has said it was the best way. If a man
wants a field seeded with timothy, sow
that and nothing else; and the same
with any other kind ol grass, or even
clover, lor any of them will grow far
better alone than when crowded, shaded
or the soil about the roots robbed of its
moisture by some coarse, rank-growing
giain. Of course on rich moist soils, a
man may seed down with grain and
thereby save one season ; but it is poor
policy to follow this system on old,
nearly worn outsoils, even if our falheis
and grandfathers “always done so.”
Then, again, it is folly to mix clover
and timothy together in the same field,
for they are never both in proper condi
tion for cutting at the same time, and a
little musty, over-ripe clover, mixed
with the hay, adds nothing to its value.
By keeping both separate, each can la
cut when in the best condition for hay,
and this rule will hold good with all
kinds of forage plants.
Applying Manure. —A correspondent of
the Rural Home, writes: If the farmer
has manure made, or kept through the
summer, it will become fermented ; it
cannot be avoided in the warm season.
Such manure is best applied on the
surface, and worked in with the har
row; anil if applied to winter wheat,
there is perhaps no better mode, as it
has the mechanical effect of keeping
the surface loose to resist the frosts of
winter, as well as the stimulating effect
of producing an early growth ol the
crop. But in the use of green manures
in spring for summer crops, experience
has convinced me that to plow under
and allow fermentation to take place in
the soil, where all the volatile gases may
be absorbed and taken up by the grow
ing crop, is most economical and best.
We are often deceived in the effects of
manure by the amount used. In apply
ing common barn-yard manure in an
unfermented state, wo get but about
one third the amount of manure in the
same bulk that we have when used in a
decayed condition.
Vitality of Corn. —A correspondent of
the Western Farmer writes: In the fall
of 1870 I gathered some corn for seed,
selecting that which was first ripe as
soon as well glazed. I traced it up by
the husk, and hung it up on the west
tide of my barn, on the outside, where
some of it remained during the winter
of 1870-71, and through the following
spring, summer, autumn and winter.
Three or four days ago 1 took a few ker
nels from each of the ears of different
sorts, put them in a cup and covered
them with fresh earth. To-day 1 have
examined the kernels, and find every
one of the White Hunt sprouted, (it
the other, which was eight rowed and of
a dark flesh color, only one kernel had
germinated. Is not the vitality of the
first or White Dent somewhat remark
aide, after being exposed to every storm
of rain and snow from October, 1870, to
April 26, 1872?
Cows for the Dairy.— We believe a great
mistake will be made if dairymen should
be led away by the prevailing fashion
to favor the introduction of Jersey
blood into their herds. It would result
in reducing the size and feeding quali
ties, and enfeebling the constitution,
without any corresponding gain in the
way of additional milking value. True,
we might have richer milk for butter
making, but not for cheese. The milk
of the Ayrshire cow, though somewhat
lacking in richness for butter making,
is full of caseine, and therefore valuable
to the cheese-maker. The finest and
best dairy cows we ever saw were ob
tained by a cross of Ayrshire on first
class native cows, followed by a cross of
short-horn, the result being cows having
half short-horn to a quarter each of
Ayrshire and native. They were splen
did milkers, always full of Hesh on
moderate feeding in winter.— Rural
Home.
Tobacco in Kentucky. —The Farmer's
Home Journal says: The tobacco crop
of Kenton county in 1871, nearlv
doubled that of the previous year.
Farmers in that section of the State find
tobacco to be the most reliable, remuner
ative crop, and the quantity produced is
increasing year by year. The tobacco
crop for the current year in the counties
of Kenton, Boone, (irant and Pentllr
. I ton, will be much larger than that of
■' any former year.
1 To Prevent Orotvs Pulling Corn. —Take,
to each peck of corn wet with warm
water, one tablespoonful of gas tar; stir
until it is well blackened; then roll in
plaster to dry. I have tried it for years,
1 and never knew it to be disturbed by
anything. It is also a good way to pre
pare corn to sow near a barn where
funds are apt to scratch it out. They
will not eat more than one kernel.—
W. A. I).
FOR Til E BOYS AM> UIRLS.
“A l.lllle Hint Told .He.”
BY l)K. THOMAS DUNN RN'GLISU.
*'A lijllo l>inl toM me”—and w! at did it say?
1 hat Elsie. my darling, was aching for play—
-Ihe streets were so narrow, so close was the
town ;
So prim must she walk-lest she tatter hor gown ;
In lessons no longer a pleasure was found.
She hail bent over those till her shoulders were
round;
And she went to her school with a wearisome
tread.
A crook in her temper, a pain in her head
And that’s what the little bird told me.
"A little bird told me”—and what did it say?
1 hat hlsie would go to the country to-day,
\ here the bluets and violets spring from the
sod.
And the little anenomes tremble and nod :
\ hero the dog-wood blossoms with calyxes
whito
Enliven the landscape with splashes of light:
W here the little birds, flitting from low hush to
tree.
Are singing to welcome my Elsie and me—
Ami that's what the little bird told me.
‘‘A little bird told me "—and what did it say ?
fhat Elsie and I in the country would stay,
fco I°ng as the martins they built at the eaves,
So long as the trees they were covered with
leaves.
So long as the lanes they were shaded and cool.
So long as the dragon flies skimmed o'er the
pool:
And we wouldn’t come back to the dull dusty
town
Till the flowers wero all dead and the leaves
were all brown -
And that’s what tho little bird told me.
liiHOCpnt A 111 11MC men In.
Here are some helps to innocent
amusements:
now no you likk it, where no you like
it, AND WHERE WII.I, YOU PUT IT?
One of the players goes out of the
room and the rest fix upon two words
which sound alike, hut have different
meanings, as belle, bell; pear, pair;
jour, hare; I, eye, etc. When she conies
in she asks each one in turn, “ How do
you like it ?” a net they give answers
corresponding to whichever meaning
t hey please; and then she asks, Where
do you like it ?” and they answer in the
.-aim* way ; and, lastly, ■* Where will
you put it?’ and from the answers she
tries to guess the word.
FORFEITS.
There are so many games requiring
forfeits that children are sometimes
puzzled to think of them quick enough.
We give a few which may help them
sometimes :
Keep one hand on your forehead, and
ft the same time strike the other on
your breast without changing the motion
of either for .*i moment.
Let the judge give out a line with
which you must make another line to
rhyme.
Laugh, sing, erv, whistle.
Count fifty without saying seven.
This can be done by saying “six, next
number to six,” etc.
Answer five questions without saying
“ yes ” or “ no.”
Admire yourself in a mirror.
Personate some distinguished individ
ual and answer six questions in his char
acter.
liaise and fall the* eight notes, using
the sy liable “ ha ” instead of “do, re,
mi,” etc.
Mention three remarkable persons
named Elizabeth.
Mention three remarkable persons
named Daniel.
Ho around the room and say to each
person what you think will please him
most.
Spell any word proposed by the other
players without smiling.
(live the part of an old bachelor to a
little boy. Let him sit in the middle of
a loom and pretend to mend a stocking
or coat. Occasionally he must sigh and
.-ay, “ < )h, the miseries of an old bach
elor 1”
Place a lighted candle on a table;
then blindfold the person, let him walk
throe paces from it, turn round three
times, walk forward and blow it out,
which he will find very difficult to do.
The judge may put up the person at
auction ; describing him ; when he is
satisfied with the price the forfeit is re
deemed.
Sing a song or repeat some high-flown
poetry.
Leave the room anti return in some
new character that shall he assigned.
To redeem a double forfeit, let the two
players upon opposite sides of the room
he blindfolded and meet and shake
hands.
Make a speech in pantomime.
Ask a person what animal he likes
best, and then require him to imi
late it.
Count twenty backward.
Give an imitation of performing on
any musical instrument.
Say live flattering things to the one
who sits next you.
Stand with your heels and hack close
lo the wall, and stoop without moving
your feet and pick up the forfeit from
the floor.
How Would You Like It t
Who would he a prince in Africa—at
least a prince of the Wahuma tribe, of
which Captain Speke tells us? It may
be a very tine thing to be the king, hut
to be one of the young princes must be
anything hut charming.
You know these savave chiefs usually
have several wives and a good many
children, and it is often a matter of
much discussion, and even a cause of
bloodshed, to determine which son shall
inherit the power on the death of his
lather; hut after this point is once set
tled, the one who succeeds fo the throne
is generally willing to leave his brothers
to live in peace. In this Wahumatribe,
however, the heir is chosen by the
wakungu, or council. If he is already
of age, all his brothers, save two, who
are reserved in case of accident to the
reigning prince, are immediately killed.
This fate, dreadful as it is, does not
seem so terrible to us, however, as the
state of suspense in which the poor
things have to exist when the chosen
heir is under age. In that case the
young princes arc allowed to live, but
are aware all the time that as soon as
their brother comes of age they must
all he beheaded. And yet—astonishing
as it may seem—the princely rank
seems to be as greatly envied as if it
were not certain that only three of, per
haps, fifty brothers born to the position,
could hope to live past their youth.
Truly pride is a wizard tlr t blinds and
misleads the savage African as com
pletely as the most civilized one of us.
The IMll'erenrc.
“ Willie, why were you gone so long
for water?” asked the teacher of a little
boy.
** We spilled it, and had to go back
and till the bucket again,” was the
prompt reply; but the bright, noble
face was a shade loss bright, less noble
than usual, and the eyes dropped be
neath the teacher’s gaze.
The teacher crossed the room and
stood by another, who had been Willie’s
companion.
“ Freddy, were you not gone for
the water longer than was necessary?”
For an instant Freddy’s eyes were
fixed on the floor, and his face wore a
troubled look. Hut it was only for an
instant—he looked frankly up to his
teacher’s face.
“ Yes, ma’am,” he bravely answered :
“we met little Harry Braden and
stopped to play with him, and then
we spilled the water and had to go
hack.”
kittle triends, what was the difference
in the answers of the two boys? Neither
of them told anything that was not
strictly true. Which one of them do
you think the teacher trusted more
fully after that? And which was the
happier of the two ?
General Items.
A genuine cork tree flourishes in
Georgia.
Mobile is building an extensive grain
elevator.
Cotton seed is very Scarce and in
great demand in all the Gulf States.
Strawberries are plentiful in Colum
bus, Ga„ at twenty-five cents a quart.
Iron is now higher than ever before
in this country since 1872.
A man named John Gill, and a hoy
and : horse were drowned at Mendota,
111., while fording Bear creek.
During last week, the widows of
.John Young and David S. Porter, for
merly Governor of New York and Penn
sylvania, died at their residences in
Genesee, N. Y., and Harrisburg. Pa.
Poor Herbert Spencer is done for at
last. The crushing blow that consigns
him to oblivion is the striking of his
hooks from the list of the Young Men’s
Christian association, of New York.
There is a wine cask in the cellars of
the Kelley’s Island (Ohio) Wine Com
pany that contains over 7,000 gallons of
wine. It was carried to the island from
Sandusky in sections.
Fisii are so thick in Clear Lake, Son
oma, California, that a veracious citizen
says : a It is only necessary to wade in
and choose your fish, the difficulty being
which fish to chose.”
English capitalists are preparing to
accept the donation of twenty acres of
land from Denver, Col., for the purpose
of putting up an ore smelting works of
a daily capacity of a hundred tons.
Tiie most stupendous canal in the
world is one in China, which passes over
2,000 miles and to 42 cities ; it was com
menced as far back as the lOlh cen
tury.
A conductor on the Toledo* Wabash
Railroad backed his train a mile last
Thursday to compel an unnatural mo
ther to receive an infant she had left at
a station.
The young lady inhabitants of the
island of llinia, in the Mediterranean
are not allowed to marry until they
bring up from the depth of the sea, a
certain number of sponges.
It is said that drainage has been car
ried to such an extent in the rural dis
tricts of England, that whole counties
shed the falling rain like the roof of a
well slated house.
Nemkiia county, Nebraska, has voted
$130,000 in aid of the trunk railroad, to
make connections with St. Louis.
A distinguished party of New York
ladies is about to sail for two or three
years’ absence in Europe for travel and
study of foreign language, art, litera
ture, history, etc,
A machine to drive hens out of a
garden, for which agriculturalists have
been waiting since the world began,
has now* been invented l>y an Illinois
genius.
It is announced that the King of Ba
varia, who was present at the represen
tation of t lie Passion Play at Oher-
Ammergan, has determined to erect on
the Pelberg, above Kefel, which com
mands the entire district, a colossal
group in marble, representing Christ at
the moment when he said : 44 Behold
thy Mother ! Behold thy Son !” Pro
fessor Halbig is the sculptor who has
been commissioned to execute the
group. The tigures are to b • ten feet
high.
An Englishman, who had wandered
about the African diamond mines for
several months subsisting upon charity,
had a streak of luck last March, finding
during the month on a little lot he had
often before abandoned, $275,000 in
gold.
The trusses of the old part of the
roof of the Basilica of St. Paul, at Rome,
were framed in 810, and were sound and
good in 1814, a space of ne irly 1.000
years. These trusses are of fir. The
timber work of the external domes of
the church of St. Mark, \ enice, is more
than 840 years old, and still in a goo i
state,
Liberia, which has failed to liiul its
staple product in sugar and cotton, has
discovered that a superior quality of
coffee can be produced, insomuch that
a member of the United States legation
writes, 44 The Liberia coast will soon be
shaded by an almost uninterrupted I
coffee grove stretching f rom Cape Mount
to Cape Palmas.
Editors and Proprietors.
NUMBER 3S.
A Man Who Was a Little Crazy About
Tobacco.
A very beautiful character has, it
seems lately, passed away in Holland.
Mr. Klaes. known by the name of the
King of Smokers, died the other day
near Rotterdam. Mr. Klaes had, ac
cording to the Helgian papers, amassed
a large fortune in the linen trade, and
one portion of a mansion he had erect
ed near Rotterdam was devoted to the
arrangement of a collection of pipes,
according to their nationality and chron
ological order. By his will, which he
executed shortly before his death, he
directed that all the smokers of the
country should be invited to his funeral,
and that each should he presented with
10 lbs. of tobacco and two Hutch pipes
of the newest fashion, on which should
lie engraved the name, arms, and date
of the decease of the testator. His
relatives, friends, and funeral guests
were strictly enjoined to keep their pipes
alight during ttie funeral ceremony, and
afterwards to empty theashes from their
pipes on the cottin. The poor of the
neighborhood who attend to his last
wishes were to receive annually on the
the anniversary of his death l(i pounds
of tobacco and a small cask of good
beer. He further directed that his oak
cotlin should be lined with the cedar of his
old Havana cigar boxes, and that a box
of French caporal and a packet of old
Hutch tobacco should he placed at the
foot of his cotlin. His favorite pipe was
to be placed by his side, with a box of
matches, a flint and steel, and some
tinder—for, as he truly said, there is no
knowing what might happen. It has
been calculated that the deceased gen
tleman, during his eighty years of life,
smoked more t han four tons of tobacco
and had drank about fiOO.OOO quarts of
beer. It is sail to reflect that one evi
dently possessed of such noble qualities
should have been thus prematurely cut
oil' at (lie early age of eighty, doubtless
owing to his unfortunate indulgence in
a pernicious habit. llis fate should be
a warning to ali smokers.
Infernal Machines.
The manufacture and shipment of in
fernal machines was oncoa considerable
industry in this country, hut it seems to
have fallen into decay of late, as no in
stance of any one being blown to pieces
by any one of these pleasant products
of human ingenuity has been recorded
for some time. The business seems to
retain its popularity, however, on the
other side of the ocean, and only a few
weeks ago a citizen of Glasgow was sen
tenced IS to months’ imprisonment f ra
futilo attempt of this kind upon the
life of an acquaintance whom he sus
pected of improper intimacy with his
wile. The box was charged with gun
powder, and the sender had kindly in
tended that when it was opened the
“villainous saltpetre" should explode
and disqualify the recipient for any
lurther peccadilloes. But the gun
powder did not explode, or, for some
other reason, the expectation of the
injured husband was disappointed. But
suppose the result to have been as in
tended. and also suppose a change of veil’
ue to this country ; then the case would
have been an interesting one for the
emotional insanity lawyers. Would
they have been able to prove that the
man was a raving maniac? Is it an evi
dence of derangement to construct such
an ingenious mechanism ? And about
what time did the attack of paroxysmal
insanity seize him? These are knotty
points, but there is little doubt that an
American jury would have found some
excuse tor acquitting the infernal ma
chinists.
Raise Some Roots.
On" faith in the value of roots as win
ter food tor stock is confirmed by the
experience of each year. They aro very
healthful and exceedingly nutritious.
Stock that receive each day while in
winter quarters a liberal mess ef roots,
say a peck or even half a bushel to each
cow or ox with a good supply of hay,
and decent care and attention, will
surely be healthy. A good bin of roots
is better than a policy of insurance on
the stock. There are many varieties of
roots, of more or less value, and varing
in hardiness and productiveness. Still
the choice of the kind is of less import
ance than to raise some kind. Beets or
turnips Humid be drilled three feet, so
as to admit the use of horse and culti
vator. The soil should bo heavily
manured and thoroughly cultivated.
The necessary labor of raising a crop of
turnips is much less than many sup
pose. Holbrook’s drill will sow an ac e
in an hour. If the first weeding and
the thinning is attended to in season, it
is not a very tedious process. It is a
saving of labor to hoe along by the side
of the drills as soon as the plants are
out of the ground. Three or four hun
dred pounds of superphosphate of lime
scattered in the drills will pay. Some
pecial manfire in the drills, nr a fine
compost broadcast, is needed to give the
plants a Hart.
Beets should be sown as early as the
land rail be prepared. Turnip seed may
be pul in from the Ist to the 20th May.
Too Early Rising.
The late Judge Story always enjoyed
a good .joke, even at the expense of his
best friend. He was fond of carrying
his studies late into the night, while
his friends John (juincy Adams and
Josiah (Quincy, were famous for early
rising.
One hot summer’s day, the latter two
gentlemen made a call upon the Judge,
as he was engaged in delivering a lec
ture to the law students of Harvard
University. He gave thorn a cordial
welcome, introduced them to his class,
gave them a seat on either side of him,
and proceeded with liis lecture, slightly
dated at having two such distinguished
auditors.
After a little time he noticed a smile
on the faces of some of his students.
The whole class scon shaded in it, and
it grew almost to an audible laugh.
Very much disturbed, he turned to his
visitors to see if they noticed it, when
lie found that, overcome by the ride
and the li at, they were fast asleep and
nodding.
The temptation was to great to be re
sisted. “ Young gentlemen,” said the
Judge, in his blandest tones, “you see
before you the sad result of too early
rising.” The hearty laugh that followed
awoke the sleepers.