The Brookhaven leader. [volume], October 11, 1883, Image 1

About The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891

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^■voucestonocnu.nneioreaohm^. BROOK HAVEN, MISSISSIPPI, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 11,1883. NUMBER 34. ,“w*d
ROMANCE.
Phc didn’t like me when we mot—
lint turned »wav and pouted;
•Twaa very cool, I own, to get
At drat a snub no final, vet
I clung to hope, and doubted.
Ptmngc as It ream*, a few short weeks
Confirmed my sanguine guesses;
I came to understand her freaks.
And ev<,n dared to kiss her cheeks
And Stroke her golden tresses.
8 j lime went on, and as we grew
To know each other better,
phe bravely learned to kiss me, too;
And when she strangely tried to woo.
Somehow 1 used to let her.
The privilege still yet Is mine
With kiss her lips to smother;
Ptill round my neck she likes to twine
Her soft, white arms. I’ll drop a lino,
I guess, and ask her mother.
This rhyme produces envy—strife.
Within your reason, may be;
Pn let me take a leaf from life;
Her mother Is my darling wife.
And she my blessed baby.
—V. D. 8., tn Life.
HOW THE OLD LADY BEAT JOHN.
Wc hail been driving out some miles
in the afternoon, and, coming home in
the twilight, passed a substantial look
ing, though very old, farm-house, with
comfortable barns and out-buildings,
indicating a well-to-do householder.
The rich itottom lands which stretched
away a half mile from the river to the
hill slopes covered with abundant
birch and maple were luxuriant with
grain and corn.
That evening, when wo were sitting
in the library, after dinner, smoking
and chatting, I asked the Judge: “To
whom does that farm we passed on the
level belong?”
The Judge is not and never was on
the bench. Yet long as I had known
him, and that was a long time, he had
been called “Judge” by all the country
people, because it was an established
fact of ancient date that he decided most
of the disputes and diflerences, commer
cial and social, which arose in that part
«>f the country. It is frequently the
case, as nere, mat one man in a scat
tered community is the recognized ad
viser to whom people can go. My old
friend had inherited this position from
his father, who had been to a former
generation what the son now was to his
neighbors. They came to him on all
occasions when they needed coun
sel. and he did the work of a half
dozen lawyers. No one had
died or could die comfortably
an«l leave property, unless his
will bad been drawn by “Judge
He had the perfect confidence of all.
Living from youth up among them,
known to be a man of extended educa
tion, whose life was passed in study,
but who was also a practical farmer "of
great skill and success, having large
property, and always giving his advice
anil service as a matter of friendship
and neighborly kindness, and not for
fee or reward, his position was one of
commanding influence. His influence
was commanding too for the reason that
be almost never exerted it. He took no
prominent part in politics, but in the old
times, before the war, there were at
least two hundred voters in the town,
and many more in the country, who
could give no other reason for their
votes than this, that they voted as the
Judge voted.
I have said that lie drew the wills for
people who luul property. This was no
small generosity, for it involved much
time and often great inconvenience,
liut the Judge was an essential part of
tiie social structure in that town, and
quietly performed what he regarded
as the duty and pleasure of his posi
tion.
When I asked him who was the owner
of that farm he laughed outright, and
after a moment’s pause said: “I will
tell you a story:”
“One stormy winter night, after mid
night, 1 was sitting here reading, the
rest of the family having gone to sleep
long before, when old l)r. Strong thun
dered at the door-knocker, and made
noise enough to wake the Seven Sleep
ers. It is a way he has; and neither my
wife nor the girls, who were roused out
of slumber, nor 1 myself, had any
question who was at the door. I let him
in myself, and a tempest of wind and
snow with him. The blast that drove
mm into my arms also put out the hall
lights, whirled into the library and
flared the reading-lamp so that it broke
the chimney and blazed up to a colored
tissue-paper affair which Susie had put
over the shade, set it on fire, and for a
moment threatened general conflagra
tion of papers and books on the table.
•Shut the door yourself,’ I shouted, and
rushed back here to put out the fire.
That done, I went back and found the
old doctor out of breath, in the dark,
trying to shut the dooj against the wind.
It took the strength of both of us to do
it. Then I told him to lind his way to
the library, for lie knew it, and I went
off in search of another lamp.
"When I came back he was just re
covering his wind, and after a gasp or
two tolu me his errand. ‘Old Mrs.
Norton is dying. She can’t live till
morning. Sne’s alive now only on
stimulants. She wants to make a will,
and I have come for you.’
“ ‘ A nice night,’ I said, ‘ for a two
mile drive, to make a will for a woman
" ho hasn’t a cent in the world to leave.
Why didn’t you tell her so and have
done with it.
“ * Now look here,’ said the doctor,
• this is a case of an old woman and old
neighbor and friend, and she wants you
to do something for her, and you’ll do
it, if it's only to comfort her last hours,
(let your things and come with me. We
shall not find her alive if you don't
hurry, and you’ll be sorry if that hap
pens.’
“The upshot of it was that I went.
'Vo had a fearful drive out to the farm
house on the flat, which you are asking
about. Mrs. Norton was the widow of
John Norton, who had died forty odd
years before this. John Norton, when
he married her, was a widower with
one son John. He was a man of con
siderable property, and when he died
left a widow, that son John by his first
wife, and two sons bv his second wife.
The elder son John nad never been on
vety- warm terms with his step-mother,
and for some years had had no inter
course with the family.
“I found the old lady lying in the big
room, on a great bedstead on one side
of the room, opposite to the broad
chimney in whicn was a roaring fire,
the only light in the room. After the
doctor had spoken to her and admin
istered something, a stimulant 1 sup
pose, he came over to mo and «aid
in a whisper: ‘Hurry up; she's very
weak.’
‘‘I had brought paper and pen and
ink with me. I found a stand and a
candle, placed them at the head of the
bed, and after saying a few words to
her told her I was ready to prepare the
will, if she would now go on and tell
me what she wanted to do. 1 wrote
the introductory phrase rapidly, and
leaning over toward her said: “ ‘Now,
go on, Mrs. Norton.1 Her voice was
quite faint, and she seemed to speak
with an effort. She said: ‘First of all,
I want to give the farm to mv sons
Henry and James; just put that down.1
‘But, said I, ‘you can’t do that, Mrs.
Norton; the farm isn’t yours to give
away.1
“ ‘The farm isn't mine,1 she said,
in a voice decidedly stronger than be
fore.
“ ‘No, the farm isn't yours. You
have only a life interest in it.'
“‘This farm that I've run for goin’
on forty-three years next spring isn’t
mine to do what I please with it!
Why not. Judge? I'd like tq know what
you mean?'
“AVhy, Mr. Norton, your husband,
gave you a life estate in all his prop
erty, and on your death the farm goes
to liis son John, and your children get
the village houses.”
“And when I die John Norton is to
have this house and farm whether I
will or no?”
“Just so. It will be his.”
“Then I ain’t going to die,” said the
old woman, in a clear and decidedly
ringing and healthy voice. And so
saying she threw her feet over the front
of the bed, sat up, gathered a blanket
and coverlid about her, straightened up
her gaunt form, walked across the room
and sat down in a great chair before
the fire. The doctor and I came home.
That was fifteen years ago. The old
lady’s alive to-day. And she accom
plished her intent. She beat John
after all. He died four years ago, in
Boston, and I don't know what will be
left. But whoever comes into the farm
house when she goes out it will not be
John. And since John’s death the
farm has been better kept, and every
thing about it is in vastly better con
dition for strangers than it would have
been for John.” — From “ Lonesome
Lake Fapcrs," in Journal of Commerce.
Italian Doctors.
Physicians have, like judges of the
criminal courts, no social position and
no knowledge of medicine, according to
our ideas. They are, as a rule, far be
hind the ago. They still cling blindly
to bleeding—unless they have changed
during the last few years—and weaken
their patients by the old system of
dieting. I have seen cases conducted
with such Ignorance of the commonest
laws of nature as would make any of
our physicians faint with horror. Ileat,
starvation and dirt are their general
remedies for almost everything. Id
cases of scarlet fever—which are not
common, however—they order the
doors and windows to he carefully shut,
that no breath of air may get to the pa
tient—absolutely drawing the bed-cur
tains around them: forbid washing of
any description, even to the hands and
face, and no change of bed or body lin
en during the entire illness.
There is one malady prevalent in
Italy which I sincerely believe, to bo
produced, nine times out of ten, by
their doctors, and that is miliary fever.
Unless a patient’s symptoms in the be
ginning of an illness indicate the disease
very clearly, the doctor, on the princi
ple of “ when indoubt play trumps,”
r renounces it “ miliare;” but there
e'ng no eruption, which is an evidence
of that disease, they regard it as sup
pressed, and so, very dangerous. They
then proceed to produce a rash by cov
ering the poor sufferer with as many
blanKcts as he can bear, excluding every
breath of air from the room (canning him,
so to speak), and then forbidding any
nourishment saviDg the weakest of weak
broths. Now, as this special fever is
usually brought on by overheating, and
consequently should be treated by a
cooling system, they succeed in pro
ducing the disease in its full glory, rash
and all, and they then set about curing
it, which, of course, becomes a doubtful
undertaking, so weak is the patient from
heat and fasting.
A friend of mine, spending a few
weeks in Florence, was taken ill with
w'hat proved afterward to be an internal
cancer. She sent for Doctor Z-,
one of the most noted of the Florentine
doctors. It was August and very hot,
and his orders were not only to shut out
the air and cover herself with blankets,
but to remain entirely immovable—not
to stir hand or foot. IShe carried his
wishes out faithfully for twenty-four
hours—not even raising her hand to
brush a fly away—and then, becoming
nearly crazy with nervousness and
weakness, she sent for an English phy
sician. If you had seen his look of hor
ror when he came into the room!
“Open the window,” he almost
shouted; “take off those coverings; get
right up, and lie on the sofa. In a
week you will be able to go on to
Paris.”
And in a week she did go on to
Paris.
The Italians love medicine, and have
the greatest faith in it. They take it
not only for even' little ailment, but
after a Ht of anger or grief.—Century.
-»■ -
—Two years ago two Cincinnati po
licemen found on their beat a little
black dog with one of its legs broken
and unable to walk. They took the an
imal to the station and splintered up the
broken limb, and in a few days he was
all right again Ever since then the
dog has clung to the officers, running
with them on their rounds all night long
and taking lunch with them. During
the day he puts up at a shoemaker’s
shop on the beat, but when darkness
comes on he starts out ami soon finds
his friends, and never leaves them until
morning—Cincinnati Times.
—The difference between the business
of a circus advance agent and a drug
gist seems to be this: the first spends
much of his time in the posting of his
bills; tho latter in boasting his pills.—
Pittsburgh Telegraph,
Tips In Englnnd and America.
The conclusions of the “ Uncommer
cial Traveler” are substantially to the
street that the civility of hotel servants
varies almost constantly in inverse pro
portion with the fixed charge for attend
ance, because the more the guest has to
pay the hotel-keeper the less the servant
expects for himself; nnd that the nlwdi
tion of gratuities would soon put an
end to the small remaining stock of civ
ility and attention which may l>e drawn
on by those who think it worth paying
for. Let us pass from theory to fact.
In no London club worth the name is
any servant permitted to receive so
murk as one farthing in the way of
a gratuity. A club-servant who accept
ed a “tip” would be instantly dis
missed; while the member who, by of
fering the bribe, had violated the regu
lations of the chili, would be liable to
tlie severest censure from the committee.
Vet in every club not only civility and
attention, but obsequious deference to
the minutest wishes of the members are
the invariable rule, the servant know
ing full well that the slightest trans
gression of his duty in this respect
would lead to his immediate discharge,
while no other dub secretary would en
gage a servant who had been dismissed
for incivility. It is plain that a hotel
keeper has no disciplinary power over
his guests to the extent of forbidding
them his house because they have feed
the servants, but it is not equally clear
why a landlord should not let his ser
vants know that if a complaint for rude
ness ami incivility were made good
against them they would he sent about
their business on the spot.
What is, in line, the material differ
ence between a hotel-waiter anil an as
sistant in a shop? Wc tell both what
commodity we want, and they bring it
to us. Is the labor in laying the break
fast table and bringing us our tea and
toast more arduous than in handing
down a heavy roll of silk or cloth,
measuring, cutting and making it up
into a neat parcel? llut docs the shop
assistant ever expect a gratuity? Do
we ever dream of giving hint one? He
is, as a rule, a pattern of civility and
attention; and for the constant display
of such qualities the customer is in
debted. first, to the assistant's own i
knowledge of what is right and proper, !
and next., to his equally strong convic
tion that were he to be rude, and were
the customer to complain of his rude
ness, his employer would very speedily
turn him out. of doors. At the same
time it is undeniable that the custom of '
giving optional fees to hotel servants is
an immemorial one; that it is intimately '
bound up with the oldest of our social i
customs; that it is, in short, “largesse” j
—a modern survival of the very ancient
practice of Hinging a piece of money to t
tlx* chamberlain as the guest rode away j
from the hostel door. If, on the other
hand, we turn to the United States, we
find a country in which prevails a hotel
system the most elaborate and the most
extensive in the whole world. A guest
may obtain nearly all the requirements
in life in an American hotel. There
he can eat and drink and sleep, wire
telegraph messages to the uttermost
ends of the earth, read at Chicago by
means of the “ perpetual tape-worm '
machine the quotations of the Ex
changes of London and Paris, have his
haircut, be “barbed” and “fixed” pur
chase tickets for the play, read the pa
pers by the electric light, have his visit
ing-card engraved, his boots polished,
and his corns cut, borrow umbrellas
and dress suits by the day or night, and
buy cigars, chewing tobacco, railway
tickets, comic publications, white kid
gloves and molasses candv. “Essen
tials” and “non-essentials'’ alike arc
provided at fixed prices, and no fees
are nominally expected. When the
traveler pays his weekly bill for board
he does not tint! it supplemented by a
charge per day for attendance; and if j
the traveler be really what the Ameri-1
cans term a “right mean cuss,” he may j
travel from Cape Cod to the Golden
Gates, and from the Gulf of Mexico to j
Washington Territory without, so far j
as his hotel bills are concerned, disburs- i
ing a single cent beyond the stipulated
charge.
II will UtJ nnKBli IIUW BUUU it oynicm i
works. In reply it may be explained
that the unfeed hotel servants are toler
ably civil, and that is all. The negro
waiters are usually obliging fellows—
to be obliging is the characteristic of
their race—but when the waiter is a
white man, he is usually an Irishman,
and he takes care, when unfeed, to
make the traveling Englishman aware
of that portentious fact. The foreign
guest at first exults in finding hotels
wherein there is no fixed charge per
diem for attendance, and where, when
he is taking his departure, the servants
are not ranged—a terrible show!—with
hungry eyes fixed on his wallet of dol
lar notes". Hut in process of time the
traveling Briton is oppressed with a
growing sense of being neglected and
uncomfortable, and by the uneasy per
suasion that there are those among
his fellow-guests who are faring better
than he does. By and by some Ameri
can acquaintance lets him into the se
cret of faring better. If he wishes to
be attentively and promptly waited up
on at breakfast, let him slip “ a quar
ter” into the waiter’s hand; if he be
anxious to have a good dinner, in lieu
of a succession of tepid and flavorless
messes, let him send down a frequent
dollar to the cook, with his name and
his compliments. There is no fixed
charge for attendance in American ho
tels; but the tourist who wishes to trav
el in comfort must “tip,” and “tip”
largely.—London Daily Telegraph.
--
A (treat Deer Story.
“Speaking of strange attachments,”
said a well-known Arkansas railroad
conductor, “ reminds me of the strang
est freak of affection of which I thiuk
any record haa been kept. On one of
the railroads centering at Little Rock
there is, a short distance from the city,
a stretch of wood pasture about a mile
and a half long. The land is as level
as the floor and is surrounded by a high
fence,with deep cattle-gaps where the
road runs through. One day while we
were rushing through the woods a deer
jump'd up and ran close to the train
until we reached the fence, when_ he
turned and was soon lost to view. Next
day,when the train came along again,
the deer met us at the fence and ran
along in groat glee until we readied th«
other side of the woods,when he turned
aside. My engineer liceame very much
attached to him, and always blew the
whistle ju*t before entering the woods.
The old engine, too, seemed to have an
affection for the animal, and would seem
to chuckle when the deer was at its
side.
“ One day we were delayed by an ac
cident to a freight-train, and did not
reach the woods until after nightfall.
The engine.cr blew his whistle. A light
Hashed in the woods, and, 1 hope never
to tell the truth ajjain if that deer wasn’t
there carrying a lantern on his horns.
I won’t pretend to explain how he gut
the lantern. I am giving you the facts,
and you can draw your own deductions.
When we passed he tossed the lantern
aside. One of the boys told me —and
mind you I don’t vouch for its truth
-that the lantern fell from a freight
train, and that the deer took it up and
kept it on a stump until our train came
along.”
“How do you suppose the deer light
ed the lantern?” asked one of the
company.
“It may have been already lit, hut if
it wasn't it's no lookout of mine, for I
am only giving the facts as they oc
curred, leaving all speculation to you.
Some time after this we were rushing
along, nearing the deer’s woods, when
we saw the animal standing on the track
waving a red Hag. We stopped and
discovered that an immense tree had
blown across the track. Well, sir,when
we chopped the log out that deer put
his horns against it and helped us roll
it away.”
“Where do you suppose he got the
red flag?” asked an incredulous list
ener.
“I won’t attempt to explain anything.
I am giving you the faot\ and, of
course, you can do your own figuring
for conclusions; hut on3 of the boys
said that lie took up an old white rag
that he found on the ground ami rubbed
it in a bed of red clay.”
“What became of this wonderful ani
mal?”
“That’s what I’m going to tell you.
One day, about six months ago, we ar
rived at the woods as usual. The deet
met us and leaped alongside, of us. The
engine, feeling pretty gay that morn
ing anyhow, seemed to prance along the
track .Inst ns we <rot about half wav
through the woods an immigrant looked
out the window, and yelling. “Look at
that ar deer,’ snatched up a double-bar
relled gun and tired a load of buckshot
into the poor tiling. We stopped and
went over to where the deer lay on the
green sward in the last agonies of
death. He held out his tongue and
shook hands with all the trainmen, hut
when he saw the immigrant, whom we
dragged to the spot, he frowned dark
ly, folded up his tongue and put it hack
into his mouth. The immigrant was a
nervous fellow and was much excited.
He bent over the deer as though to get
forgiveness, when the animal, brave and
revengeful in death, raised up an I
brought him a craek across the head
with his stick-like foreleg anil laid him.
low. The deer and immigrant are
buried near each other, and our engine,
which has never recovered from the de
pressing effect of the tragedy, always
moans when it goes through the deer's
woods.—Little Rock Gazette.
•-^ --
Some Peculiarities of Tigers.
The quickness of hearing is in these
animals.admirably supplemented by the
complete silence of their own move
ments. A man when walking after
game has to stand still in order to listen
■For other si unds, as his own passage
through the bushes and his footfall on
the ground make it impossible for him
to perceive whether fur or feather is
astir in his neighborhood. But the
tiger- though walking over dead leaves
and twigs that rustle loudly if a lizard
glides across them, and which crackle
under the light step of the jungle fowl
or the fox—is absolutely noiseless. It
conies into sight like an apparit ou, and
vanishes with the same ghostly still
ness. Sometimes, therefore, in an ex
cess of audacity, either from hunger or
despair of other means of escape, the
grenl tanmuia Will uuuuic uw iv uj;vu
their pursuers, and trust to silence in
passing to carry its conspicuous hide
unharmed through the very midst of its
enemies. Thus, on one occasion, a man
eater, which had killed an officer's serv
ant, was tracked up. anti, the body be
ing found, it was determined to punish
the murderer. A “machan,” therefore,
was prepared in a convenient tree, but
while all were at work, the tiger eame
back, and in spite of what was going on,
carried oft’ the corpse!
The tiger in this wonderful quietness
of its approach shows itself a true cat,
but in other respects, besides its objec
tions to climbing, it differs from its fam
ily in its tastes. Thus I have seen a
tiger take to water of its own accord,
and paddle about in it with as much ap
5>arent pleasure as a Newfoundland dog.
ndeed, the beast has been frequently
shot when swimming, and it is supposed
to be a curious fact that the body sinks
at once and never comes to the surface,
hut as there are generally crocodiles in
the neighborhood, I do not think there
is room for much surprise at the non
appearance of the carcass. Nor in the
hatred of the wild dog for the tiger is
there anything adverse to the usual
theory of the relations between the ca
nine and feline species. But it would
hardly be believed that the tiger, in the
combats that ensue with these jungle
packs, sometimes gets killed. Several
sportsmen, however, have found corpses
of dead tigers with the corpses of wild
dogs killed in the battle scattered
around it. Nor do olher animals hesi
tate to meet the Raja of the Jungles in
fair fight—notably the wild boar. A
ease is in my recollection where a party,
being out in the jungles after miscel
laneous game, came upon a huge boar
lying dead, and tracking up the blood
which led from the scene of the strug
gle, found a fine full-grown tiger with
a score of wounds, ripped up and life
less. It must have been a grand sight
to have watched that woodland duello.
Bears also will sometimes dispute the
path with the tiger, but thev nave no
chance, and the tiger generally ends by
eating up as much of the bear as it
wants.—London Telegraph.
—Francis Murphy, the temperanea
apostle, ha« returned from Europe.
PERSONAL AND LITERARY.
— John Cockerell, of the St. Louis
Posl-lHspateh, ha* finally settled down
as managing editor of tho New York
H'orliL
—It i* said that Charles Keaile, the
English novelist, is engaged in writing
a series of lives of the patriarchs of
Scripture.
—General Grant’s life has been pub
lished more times -than that of any
other President except Washington —
Chicago Hcrahl.
—Mr. It. P. Shillals-r (Mrs. Parting
ton) is said to be much improved in
health since the beginning of the sum
mer. He has returned homo to Chel
sea.—Boston Post.
—Mr. George W. Childs, of the Phila
delphia Ledger, has recently added to
his already large and remarkable col
lection of clocks one that used to be
owned by the first Napoleon, anil for
which he paid .$1,500.
—Ex-President Polk’s widow was re
cently made the recipient of a large,
Hat bouquet, skillfully arranged with the
figure eighty in the center, on the eight
ieth anniversary of her birth. It was
from her neighbors in Nashville, Tenn.
—Mr. L. N. Fowler, one of the origi
nal phrenologists who could tell from
the bunions on a boy's head whether he
was to be hanged or to be a missionary,
has arrived in this country and will
lecture during the winter.—N. Y.
Herald.
—Mrs. E. Lynn Linton, the English
story-writer, is a pleasant-faced Jady of
sixty years, with gray hairs and specta
cles. She spends her winters in Rome,
and is a general favorite in society be
cause of her brilliant conversational
powers.
—The widow of the late Phillip Speed,
of Louisville, died recently at Coburg,
Ontario, having survived her husband
only a few months. She was the daugh
ter of George Keats, a brother of the
poet, whose name is familiar to all read
ers of Lord Houghton's “Life.” Nlrs.
Speed herself wrote poetry, which she
refused to have published during her
life-time, but which is to be given to the
world as a memorial of her by her
family.
1 lie ( hinese Minister recently cele
brated the event of his little daughter
reaching the age of four weeks, accord
ing t > a Chinese custom, by a dinner
served in American style. Covers were
laid for twelve, and all the Chinese Le
gation in Washington were present and
toasted the youthful heroine. Miss Mi
Jit is the lirst Chinese child born in
Washington. She receives the name
Mi, which means America, as a compli
ment to this Government.— Washington
Rost.
HUMOROUS.
—A nipping air—The one the mos
quito sings before ho bites.—Rhiladcl
phia Herald.
—When a hen retires for the night,
it is quite proper to speak of her as a
rooster. —Rochester Rost-Express.
- Colorado has no “Sleepy Hollows, ”
but has plenty of material for such a
plaee. its mountains are full of Can
yawns.
—Philadelphia ladies are learning
base-ball; one of them has caught her
husband out several times already.—
Boston Bulletin.
—“Well,” said Amv, after patiently
trying for an hour to drown a worm in
Horse Creek, without being rewarded
by even a nibble; “ well, fishing isn't
what it’s cracked up to be.” “More
slang!” exclaimed the high-school girl;
“you should say: ‘Fishing is not pul
verized according to the original inten
tion.’ ”—Oil City Derrick.
— “How is it you can tell such whop
pers?” asked a caller, addressing the
editor of the fish-story department.
“Well, you see,” replied the editor,
“our wife’s name is Anna.” “What
has that to do with it?” “A great
deal. When we are writing fish-stories
we usually have Anna nigh us to help
us.” The caller was carried to the hos
pital.— Chicago Times.
— . ..1_I_1 l_•_1
—1 1 * U Ui OIA IIIIU UVl II 111 I 11VII
in 1o pla.v cards and listen to music,
and peaches had been passed with oilier
refreshments. The party was just
ready to break up when the terror of the
family entered the parlor and called
out: “There, pa, what did ruatell you?”
The “ governor” probably knew what
was coming, but before he could get the
youngster out of the war he shot oft'the
other barrel with: “Ma said if we
bought clingstone peaches we’d save at
least halt, and wo have.”—Detroit Fret
I'ress.
—Little Mary, who is very much in
terested in studying “the laws of
health” since sehool began, had been
asking Mr. Rattler all sorts of questions
about diseases and their remedies.
“Now, papa,” she continued, “if you
neglect a bad cold you lay a foundation
for the consumption, don’t you?”
“Yes,” answered her father. “And
consumptives are thin and pale, ar'n’t
thev?” “Yes.” “What other signs
are there in. well, in quick consump
tion, papa?” “Five minutes for refresh
ments, posted in railroad stations,” re
sponded U. The examination closed.
—Bouton Courier.
^ • »■
The Struggle for Existence.
The intensity of the struggle for ex
istence in England is well set forth by a
magazine writer, who asserts that 300,000
families in London alone are in tho
habit of pawning small articles, and
that more than 6,000,000 unredeemed
pledges are sold every year. As many
as 270,000 are taken in pledge yearly
throughout the country, and, although
a certain proportion of these are stolen
goods, it is estimated that only one in
14,000 can be counted as such. In no
country in the world is the same relat
ive poverty possible, not even in St. Pe
tersburg,where the extremes of poverty
and riches are as marked as they are in
London, for there there is no interme
diate class to answer to the English
middle class, from which and the better
class of lower orders the pawnbrokers’
protits are most derived. In Paris the
Mont de Piete is comparatively little
frequented, except by those who have
been driven to poverty by excesses,
whereas in London really respectable
people relieve temporary pressure in
this way.—N. Y. Mail.
Temperance.
Alcohol and llitreslion.
It has long licon claimed —by a cer
tain class that alcoholic preparations
aid digestion, by stimulating the diges
tive organs, thus promoting strength
and health. This lias been denied on
general principles, those relating to I lie
well-known law of the reaction, the
necessary debility following undue ex
citement, atd the antiseptic character
of alcohol, etc. The fact that the di
gestive fluids and solvents are so largely
composed of wafer—so unlike alcohol
in all its properties—infcrentaally proves
that the latter ran not tint impair di
gestive power. The saliva contains of
water, 98 per cent.; gastric juice. 97;
fiancrcatic juice, !M); bile, 87; while the
flood contains 79, and even the bones
10 per cent. Now, it is presumable
that these fluids are just what they
ought to be to digest our food in the
best possible manner, with no active
stimulants, no exciting power, simply
effecting the changes in the necessary
time, in a manner to do the least
possible harm to the system. The base—
water—is one of the simplest and most
harmless of substances, the marked op
posite of alcohol. We may reasonably
infer, therefore, that auy deviation from
this natural simplicity would derange
the process. If, for example, we should
change the per cent, of water in the
saliva, from 99 to 7.5, supplying the de
ficiency by alcohol, its character must
become so changed as to render diges
tion imperfect, if not impssible.
A series of experiments have been
made by I)r. Buchner (German) in the 1
matter of artificial digestion, from which j
we may judge of the effects of alcohol j
in tlie true digestion. He found that
when it is added so as to form twenty
per cent, of the digestive fluid it slows
artificial digestion. In larger propor
tions it completely arrests it. Beer un
diluted completely stops artificial di
gestion, and diluted shows the process.
Bed and sweet wines gave a similar
action, while white wines, even when
undiluted, only slow digestion. Both
beer and wines binder digestion in the
stomach, even in small quantities.
When the processes of absorption and
secretion are already disturbed, wine
and beer may completely arrest diges
tion. The above testimony—deduced
from extensive experiments—but cor
roborates the statements of Dr. Beau
mom, who nan me m-i po~»nue means
of judging of file action of the diges- j
tive solvents and the effects of alcohol
on the coats of the stomach. On ex- |
amining St. Martin’s stomach after he j
had been indulging in the free use of j
ardent spirits for a few days, Dr. B.
found “ its mucous surface covered
with inflammatory and ulcerous
patches, the secretions vitiated, the
gastric juice diminished in quantity,
viscid and unhealthy, although he com
plained of nothing, not even of an im
paired appetite.’" Tivo days later, he
says, “the inner membrane of the
stomach was unusually morbid, the in
flammatory appearance more extensive,
the spots more livid than usual, from
five surface exuded small drops of blood,
the patches were larger, the mucous
membrane thicker, and the gastric se
cretions more vitiated.” If such effects
follow the use of ardent spirits for only
a few days, and that by a man of unu
sual natural health and vigor, we need
not be surprised, as stated by Dr.
Combe, that general intemperance will j
explain at once the miserable digestion
and impaired appetite of the habitual
drunkard; and it would be well for those
in danger of becoming the victims of
the habit, were they early impressed
with some of these striking and impor
tant truths. If these arc the uniform
effects, the legitimate results of the use
of alcohol, I am unable to see how it
is possible for the sick, those who have
impaired digestion, to use any of the
alcoholic beverages, with advantage, as
“aids to digestion.”—Golden Rule.
A Sermon on Temperance.
i rrsiuuut oi mu * uimuiu
Total Abstinence Association, lectured
last evening before a fair-sized audience
at St. Patrick’s Church, corner Dcs
plaincs and Adams streets, on the sub
ject of Temperance. The reverend
lecturer, after acknowledging the grati
fication it afforded him to meet a
Catholic audience on such occasions,
spoke somewhat more briefly than was
expected, although very forcibly, on the
subject in hand. Rev. Hagan is a most
convincing talker, and was listened to
throughout with the greatest attention.
He thought few Catholics of Chicago
were fully acquainted with the extent
of the liquor traffic in the city, and the
great harm it was working among all
classes. He had had considerable op
portunity to observe the effects of the
destroying element, and he had found
that wherever it entered it degraded
and debased all who came into contact
with it. Poverty and vice formed its
retinue, and all forms of misery were
its allies. It was worse than all the
plagues that had swept the earth, for it
transmitted its baleful germs beyond
the grave. Homes were devastated by
it. mothers’ hearts were brokeu, the joy
of the wedding morning was turned to
misery and distress, and waifs clothed
in rags were scattered by it all over the
world. There were many forms of
liquor devoured by drinkers, but the
material producing and feeding the
evil which came from them all was al
cohol. It was generally conceded that
the sin consisted not in the use but in
the abuse of alcohol, but tlie line be
tween these was very shadowy, and
where the one ceased and the other be
f an was merely a matter of speculation.
Jrunkcnness might result from the first
drink a man took if it bad the effect of
creating an appetite. No matter in
what form it was used, alcohol always
poured oil on the flame of passion, and
was liable to make the usually quiet
man an infuriated wild beast. Hands
that were open and charitable were
made by it to gra-p weapons of de
struction, and mouths which emitted no
impure word were made to vomit forth
the vilest of oaths. Alcohol had been
justly described as the poison of j>ois
ons.
The speaker then touched upon the
extent of the liquor traffic, and gave
figures showing that during the last
month more money had been expended
| for strong drink than was invested in
church property of *11 kinds. There
was one saloon In Chicago for every
one hundred and thirtr inhabitants, and
one for CTenr twenty-fire probable con
sumer*. and the traffic seemed to bo on
the increase.
He spoke eloquently of the degrading
influence of strong drink, and gave sev
eral instances that had come under his
notice of the results of drunkenness. In
conclusion he appealed to his country
men who were prone to indulge in
strong drink at weddings, christenings,
funerals, etc., to forsake the error of
their way and do all in their power to
further the Temperance work.—Chicago
Tribune. _ t
Wliat Is Pat into Whisky.
Do you know what whisky is made of?
There has been a stir as to the Govern
ment demand for returns of all the in
gredients of beer, and it seems that the
public is not, after all, to have full in
formation on the subject. Hut I can
tell you what I saw put into whisky. I
visited a pawn-shop in Division street,
east of the Bowery, in a neighborhood
of squalor and vice. It was in an old
fashioned house, once occupied by some
well-to-do Knickerbocker family-. A
high counter stood where a piano may
once have ornamented the parlor, and
behind it was a big safe for holding
small valuable articles left as pledges.
Shelves filled three sides of the room
from floor to ceiling, and were packed
full of articleswrajqied in cotton cloths.
Each bundle had a ticket describing
the contents and giving the name of the
owner and the amount of the loan. My
companion in the visit was a Health
Hoard Inspector, and we were, there
fore,'enabled to see more than would
otherwise have been opened to us.
Going to the rear of the shop we found
an apartment completolv filled, except
for a passageway, with things that
could not easily be wrapped up, such
as banjos, accordions, exercising ap
paratus and all sorts of household uten
sils. The whole house was devoted
to 'pawnbrokerage. One .room up
stairs held solid masses of over
coats, which their owners may soon
be presumed to require; another
was fully stocked with undercoats and
trousers, and considerable space was
occupied by women’s apparel. In the
attic was an extraordinary collection of
odd»s and ends, from hats to prayer
books, on which money in sums as small
as ten cents had been loaned. I saw no
ticket in tne nouse caning ior mom
than live dollars, anil the average was
probably under one, even counting in
tho watches and jewelry. The proprie
tor told us that he had about seventy
live thousand articles in the building.
As he charges thirty per cent, interest
on the loans, his yearly protit can not
be less than twenty thousand dollars,
and probably amounts to more through
the forfeiture and sale of far the grea'er
portion of the goods. But the reader
asks, what has this to do with the man
ufacture of whisky? The pawnbroker
was a blunt old chap and not disposed
to conceal the wretchedness which af
forded him a prosperous business.
“What is all tli s money that you ad
vance to poor people spent for?” I in
iiuired.
“Whisky,” he answered, without hes
itation: “ nine-tenths of it for whisky.”
So a very large share of New York
whisky may be said to be made of old
clothes, watches, musical instruments
and other portable objects. These
things, distilled with an abundance of
misery and crime, produce the popular
beverage as consumed in the metropolis.
—New York Vur. Albany Journal.
Temperance Items.
Tk a man becomes intemperate at
twenty years of age he will only live
fifteen and a half years, instead of forty
four years. If a man becomes intem
perate at thirty years of age he will only
live thirteen and a half years, instead of
thirty-six.—Dr. R. W. Richardson.
Temperance puts coal on the fire,
meal in the barrel, flour in the tub,
money in the purse, credit in the coun
try, contentment in the house, clothes
on the children, vigor in the body, in
telligence in the brain, and spirits
in the whole constitution. —Benjamin
Franklin.
The LiyroK traffic can bo sup
pressed, as has been abundantly proved
by the results of efforts in that di
rection in many hundreds of localities
where it has been entirely swept away
by law or has been greatly diminished
in volume. These localities are to be
found in Canada, in almost everyone of
our States, and in hundreds of localities
in the United Kingdom.—Exchange.
Among those exposed to cholera in
the East, it was repeatedly observed
that those who had beeu accustppied to
the use of liquor, even in a moderate
degree, were the first to be attacked,
and the surest to die. Of the many in
this country who have committed
suicide during the summer, a surpris
ingly large number have heen found to
be men and women of drinking habits.
Every home and every inmate of
every home is in danger from the
dram-shop. It is at war with every
man, woman and child of the com
munity. Its purpose is to blister, blast
and blight every good thing in man
kind—to till the" land with blasphemy,
plague, leprosy, vice and misery, and,
infinitely more cruel than the knife and
bludgeon murderer, it both kills the
body and sends the soul to perdition.- -
San Francisco Rescue.
The Chief-Justice of the Supreme
Court of Georgia, in his article in a late
Forth American Review, entitled
"Shooting at Sight,” says: "The day
of the grog-shop and of that which it
produces—the inflamed passion and the
deadly weapon—is rapidly passing
away. The Local-Option Retail law
generally pervades the State of Georgia;
county after county prohibits the traffic,
reduces expenses and diminishes crime.
The prosecuting officers of ttte State are
paid according to the number of crimi
nals tried, and they inform the writer
that in those eounties where this traffic
is prohibited the office of Solicitor-Gen
eral is worthless. Soon, let us hope,
the generous Southern sun will shine
upon an entire population sober, pros
perous, peaceful and happy. May that
population be swollen into a vast mult'
t utie by a tide of emigration which shall
enrich every valley and cover every hill
top with good, sober, industrious men,’*