The great West. [volume], November 01, 1889, Image 7

About The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??

Image provided by: Minnesota Historical Society; Saint Paul, MN

                
General Lord Wolseley,
Governor Lee, of Virginia, has
Invited Gen. Lord Wolseley to be
present at the unveiling of a statue
of Gen. Leo at Richmond, Va., which
affords occasion for o brief reference
to the career of this celebrated British
soldier. Gen. Lord Wolseley was
born in Dublin, in the year 1833.
He is a member of an old and honor
able English family belonging to
Staffordshire. His father was a
Major of the British Army, and
young Wolseley determined to follow
the profession of arms. He entered the
army as Ensign when nineteen years
of age, and in 1852 was engaged in
the Burmese war, wherein he dis
fplayed great courage and gained
| notice in the dispatches. In 1854
/ he was sent to the Crimea, where
he acted in the trenches before
Sabastopol as Assistant Engineer.
His gallant services received recog
nition repeatedly before he was
severely wounded on Augnst 30,
1854. For a long time his eyesight
Iwas endangered by the misfortune,
'but he recovered and resumed his
position in the army. In 1857 he
was shipwrecked while proceeding to
,China. He look part subsequently
in the supression of the Indian muti
ny, and was engaged in Hindostan
during 1858 and 1859. In 1860 he
served in the Chinese war, and was
present when the forts protecting
Peking were captured. Our threat
ened difficulty with the British
Government owing to the “Trent”
affair led to Wolseley’s being
sent to the American continent.
He made a visit to General Lee’s ar
my while on this side, and in 1862
aided in the pacification of the Red
River Settlement. Wolseley led the
I British arms to victory in the Ashan
tee Wab, and was rewarded upon his
return with the tkanks of both Houses
of Parliament, £25,000 and the offer
of a baronetcy. While he declined
the last he wisely took the money.
In 1875 he represented his govern
ment in Natal, South Africa, and in
1879, was appointed High Commis
sioner and Commander-in-Chief in
Cyprus, then newly annexed by the
United Kingdom. The disastrous
Zulu war was nearly over before he
arrived on the scene of action, but
he contributed towards the set
tlement of the questions relating
to it. His popularity was greatly
advanced from 1874 to 1876
by his policy as Inspector-General
of the Auxiliary Forces. His next
conspicuous undertaking was to sup
press the insurrection against the
authority of the Khedive of Egypt,
by Arabi Bey. The battle of Tel-el-
Kebir, September 12, 1882, was the
collapse of Arabi’s, cause, and he is
now an exile in Ceylon. Substantial
rewards and distinguished honors
awaited Wolseley upon his return
home. He received £50,000, as a
Parliamentary grant, and was
created Baron Wolseley of Cairo and
of Wolseley in the county of Straf
ford. His latest Military campaignes
were there in Soudan, with which he
was entrusted in 1884.
The School Ma’am in Maine.
Tht school committee of Saco have
undertaken to steer their teachers by
means of printed instructions, soma
of which are of general interest.
Teachers are directed to be in their
school at least fifteen minutes before
the time of opening each session. A
part of their duty is “to see that the
rooms and outbuildings are kept
clean.” They must not forget to
fasten the doors and windows. Most
important of all, they must see to
the ventilation of the buildings and
must refuse to premit any pupil to
attend school from a house where
there has been scarlet fever, varioloid,
measles or diphtheria. The board
instructs teachers to absolutely
Erohibit the use of tobacco in the
uildings.—Lewisvile Journal.
A Brave Girl and a Monse,
Roaring Branch has a young laay
of nerve. The other evening, while
-enjoying a visit with some friends, a
correspondent asserts a mouse came
from under the sofa where she was
sitting and found shelter in her skirt,
where he soon made his presence
known by becoming to ambitious.
Did she scream or faint? No; she did
nothing of the kind. Just firmly
tightened her hand over a portion of
her clothing and quietly left the
room. When she removed her hand
a dead mouse fell to the ground.—
Wellsboro Gazette.
SCHOOL-BOY DAYS.
Reminiscences of Experiences with Femi
nine Teachers of Varying Ages.
A Cleveland Editor’s Account of Dramatic
Incidents in the School Doom—The Young
Teacher ia a Sweet Creature but is Lacking
in Tact
There are teachers and teachers,
says the editor of the Cleveland, 0.,
Union. There is the elderly teacher
of matronly proportions and the lovely
but inexperienced girl who has just
doffed her beautiful graduating dress
and taken upon her young shoulders
the training of a room full of young
sters whose highest ambition is to
throw spit balls and make faces behind
the teacher’s back. The girl school
teacher is a sweet creature, but it is
the elderly, matronly appearing teach
er, with a good fund of experience,
who is much more capable of controll
ing a large body of children. The
latter is not so liable to fly off the
handle when she catches a girl writing
notes or a boy peppering the surround
ing landscape with spit balis. She is
also more capable of making the pun
ishment fit the crime in case a
seance with a fractious pupil becomes
an overpowering necessity. When
one of the inexperienced girl teachers
in a moment of etreme irritability in
dulges in the art of corporeal punish
ment, there is always more or less fun
for the school and disarrangement of
wearing apparel for her. Unfortu
nately, it is also one of those utterly
incomprehensible freaks of nature that
the smaller and paler and sicklier the
teacher the bigger and more vicious
the boy that she tackles. There is
something degrading in the spectacle
of a fragile, well educated, unmarried
female school teacher dancing madly
up and down the room in the embrace
of an overgrown boy with a dirty nose
and a sore heel. Memory brings to
my mind’s eye the scenes of the bent
pin, slapped ear days of my youth. I
was a boy with a stubbed toe and many
freckles. I was also a nuisance to the
world at large and a sort of gymnasium
to the teachers. I had but one virtue
—I, a patient little cuss. I
kindly allowed the girl teacher to
bend my fingers back as though the
knuckles worked on hinges and chase
the flies off of my soiled palm with a
big ruler. Then I retired to my seat
and wrote notes to the girls across the
aisle, which if published in book form
would cause the average “letters of
courtship and marriage book” to be
come a nauseating drug in the literary
market. The sweet girl teacher grab
bed me by the coat collar and shook
me until my head looked like seven
teen heads to the rest of the scholars
and I could see the air 1 full of stars
and stripes and the signs bf the zodiac.
“There now, young man, perhaps you
will behave after this!” she gasped,
breathless t with her exertion, but I
only smole a sickly smile as I retired
to my desk, and when she turned
her head I fixed a perpendicular
slate pencil in the chair of the
“teacher’s pet,” so as to impale
him when he sat down after reciting.
When his wild shriek arose on the
Btilly air and he ran madly up and
down the aisle with the slate pencil
sticking to his polonaise, I was willing
to call things square, but the teacher
wasn’t. She came over and laid her
girlish, lily white hand on my ear, in
a manner that caused me to hear the
roar of Niagara Falls distinctly.
There also seemed to be more or less
heavy cannonading taking place on
the rim of my auricular organ. When
I recovered consciousness I decided to
offer a remonstrance to any further
demonstrations of this nature on her
part. I “passed” at the end of the
term, notwithstanding her efforts to
teach me nine different studies in al
most as many minutes, and was hand
ed over to a muscular young lady, who
proposed, in my hearing, to take the
nonsense out of me via the rapid trans
it route. She pulled the girls’ ears so
they hung down on their shoulders,
and slapped the boys out of their seats
with a single graceful swipe of
the hand. One day she caught me
studying my geography lesson out of a
yellow-covered book entitled “Rattle
snake Mike, or the mystery of the
Blood Sausage.” She ran a foot-race
with me around the room, then laid
both hands upon my shoulders and at
tempted to wave me about in the air,
but the back of the chair to which I
clung came out and we both fell back
upon our shoulder blades while an
angular pair of youthful legs together
with a brilliant display of striped
stockings rose high in the air. We
were disentangled with some difficulty
and while the teacher was looking for
her back hair, I went home with fly
ing colors and orders not to return.
I finally ended the boycott by resort
ing to arbitration, and was transferred
to another room and the tender
mercies of a round faced little woman
teacher whose head had become well
shaped in her long experience in the
school room. As usual, I soon kicked up
high jinks, and was ordered to stay
after school. I sized up her big ruler
and well developed arms and decided
there was going to be trouble. I could
hear the boys whistling and shouting
outside and wished I had been un
mercifully flogged before the whole
school and allowed to go. One by one
the scholars went out and we
were alone. “Down here to my desk,”
a firm but unpleasant voice said, and I
swaggered up defiantly. The expected
punishment came, but in a different
form from that expected. A pair of
soft arms entwined themselves about
me, a pair of soft, motherly eyes look
ed down into my rebellious young
heart, while a voice in tender accents
pleaded with me to be a good boy for
the sake of those who loved me. Then
she kissed my trembling lips, and my
eyes and nose suddenly dissolved at the
same moment, and between my s obs I
said, “Ye-ye-e-yea, I wou-wou-would
be goo-good, boo-hoo!” I was con
quered, and the next day at recess I
licked the mischief out of a boy who
had dared to make faces at our dear
teacher behind her back.
The Origin of Lagor Boor.
Fable says that one Gambrinus, a
fiddler, being jilted by his intended,
went into the woods with a view of
hanging himself. Just as he was
about to drop, a weird old man in a
green coat appeared and bargained
with the disconsolate fiddler to enjoy
thirty years of great prosperity, but
then to give his soul up to the devil.
The fiddler consented, and his Satanic
ally helped him to invent lager beer.
The emperor was so pleased with this
drink that he made Gambrinus the
duke of Brabant and the count of
Flanders. At the end of thirty years
the devil sent Jocko, one of his envoys
to receive the soul, as bargained.
Jocko found Gambrinus busy drinking
lager beer, drank freely himself, and
finally became so drunk that he could
not fulfill his mission. So Gambrinus
was left to drink to his heart’s content,
and be kept on until he finally turned
into a beer barrel.—Ex.
The Trade of Tea Tasting.
Tea tasting is a curious business and
a man must possess not only a natural
aptitude for it, but must also
be able to judge as to general prefer
ences, for they must know what teas
the public are going to prefer. The
way it is done is this. The tea taster
sits before a round table which swings
easily on its center and is groved to
hold some twenty or thirty little cups
securely. Into each of these cups he
puts a pinch of tea from the different
sample packages and an attendant
brings in a kettle of water that is
boiling hard and fills the cups. The
taster tries the one before him with a
spoon as soon as he can do so without
scalding his mouth, for the real flavor
of tea is only to be had from tea fresh
ly made, as the steam has carried off
much of the aroma by the time it is
allowed to cool. He tastes that one
carefully, pulls his table around far
enough to bring the next cup in front
of him, and so no until he has sampled
that entire brewing. He writes his
opinion on the packages and according
to that opinion the price is marked on
that grade of tea. For the price is
not governed entirely by the price
paid in China, Japan and India. Very
often the taster thinks highly of a ship
ment that has been bought at the tea
fields at a low price and it is according
ly marked up nearly double, while an
extensive cargo may be found to be a
disappointment and be put on a lower
grade and at a lower price.
He Didn’t Size Up the Jury.
1 heard a jury story this morning.
A German had got into a row with a
quarreling Irishman, who had long
been a terror in his neighborhood, and
the Irishman had been left stone dead
on [the field. A young and inexperi
enced lawyer undertook the defense of
the German and just before the case
was to be tried he found, to his dis
may, that the jury was composed of
eleven combative looking countrymen
of the murdered man, the twelfth be
ing a German. This, of course, would
never do. A “defense fund” was im
mediately raised and the German was
approached with all due caution and
the promise that if he managed to get
the accused off with a verdict of man
slaughter it would be worth SI,OOO to
him; all he had to do was to stick to
that one word “manslaughter.” Well,
the verdict came in manslaughter” in
great shape and the joyful attorney
for the defense couldn't get the SI,OOO
into the German’s hands too quick.
Shaking hands with Him after the
money was placed he slapped him on
the back and said:
“You did nobly; you must have had
an awful time making those Irishmen
agree to simple manslaughter.”
“Yell, I should say so,” replied
Schmidt, “dey was all for acquittal!”—
Chicago Mail.
James Gordon Bennett
James Gordon Bennett is 49 years of
age, and has been the sole proprietor
of the Herald during nineteen of them.
He is a citizen of the world and has
an income of something like $750,000.
He spends the greater part of the year
in Europe, where he is almost better
known than in America. He speaks
French like a native, and is a champion
polo player. He is also much given to
hunting, and his yachts have on more
than one occasion been the scenes of
most exuberant festivities. He is un
married, albeit once engaged.
A Frugal Mind.
“So, then, my poor woman, your
husband had to have his leg taken
off?”
“Yes, bad luck to it! Fancy, only a
week ago I bought him a new pair of
shoes. Now, what am Ito do with the
odd one?”
A DOOMED SHIP.
Out on the brood blue ocean, not far
from the equator, thousands of miles
from any land, lying motionless on a
calm sea, was a dismasted ship. Noth
ing remained of her taunt masts and
spars but the mizzenmast, the bow
sprit, and jib and flying jib-booms.
From the mizzen topsail and cross
jack yards hung a few ragged strips of
canvas, and out at the far ends of the
flying jib-booms depended part of the
stay and some fragments of a sail,
torn and rent, just as it had been left
after the fierce gale which had render
ed this gallant ship so helpless a
wreCK. Not a breath of wind was
stirring in the heavens, not a cloud
was in the deep-blue sky; not a ripple
or a flaw disturbed the far-stretching
ocean. It was high noon, and the
sun was almost vertical. All was si
lent. The sun was pouring down its
fierce tropical rays on the blistered
deck and on the vast, calm sea. There
she lay, a spectral ship upon a silent
ocean. There was not a sign of life
on board; not a sound could be heard,
except now and again when a swirl of
water made the rudder-chains rattle
and crack, as the wheel moved a few
spokes backward and forward; or
when an albatross flapped up from the
sea, hovered over the ship, and then
flew away in the distance.
The day passes slowly, as many days
had passed. As the stars appeared,
suddenly there came from the cuddy
window a stream of light, and a man,
gaunt and emaciated, peered out on to
the deserted deck. A few minutes
afterward another gleam of light shot
from a small aperture in the door of
the forecastle deck house, and two
eyes—cruel, reddish-brown eyes—also
peered cautiously out These two men
hafl been for days waiting and watch
ing for each other’s death. They
were the captain and mate of the ves
sel, who, when the crew had taken to
the boats, had refused to desert her.
For days and weeks —how many they
had no idea, for they had lost all count
of time—they had been alone on the
pathless deep. To the torture of hunger
was now added the agony of raging
thirst—a thirst which neither wine
nor brandy would quench, but rather
intensify.
Anything more more horrible than
their situation can not be imagined,
and the dreadful conviction was being
forced upon them that they must die.
This was the state of affairs three
days previous to the opening of this
story. The captain was sitting with
his eyes apparently closed, and the
mate was watching him with eager,
hungry eyes. Up to this point the
mate had been the most hopeful of the
two; but now he had abandoned himself
to despair.
No succor could reach them, he
knew, while the calm lasted, but this
was not the thought that was haunting
his mind. “One of them must die —the
death of the one would be the preser
vation of the other.” This was the
mental refrain which, as it were,
formed the chorus to every other
thought. “The death of one would be
the preservation of the other.”
He sat there eyeing the captain with
a diabolical leer. He was no longer a
man; he was a demon. Suddenly he
started up. By a revulsion of feeling
which is not uncommon in such cases,
he had passed from helpless de
spondency into furious delirium. With
a hoarse cry he sprang at Capt.
Dunnett, brandishing a long knife in
his hand. A fierce struggle ensued; it
was short and sharp, and the mate,
after being disarmed, was pushed for
ward, and fell violently upon the deck.
Capt. Dunnett was the younger and
stronger of the two, and, had he been
so Inclined, could have dispatched the
mate with ease; but he contented him
self with disarming him, threw the
knife into the sea, retreated to the
cabin and shut and locked the door.
The mate after this grew more furi
ous, and after vainly attempting to en
ter the cabin withdrew to the fore
castle and took up his abode there;
and now for three days he had been
waiting and watching for the captain's
death.
To be buried alive has been thought
to be beyond question the most pain
ful of all deaths; but it is doubtful if
the long-drawn agonies which were
being endured by these two men were
not more painful of the two.
“HOW LONG —HOW LONG CAN THIS
THING LAST!”
“How long—how long can this last?”
moaned Capt. Dunnett, as he sat and
gazed out into the night. A painful
sort of apathy was stealing over him.
He had no hope, he made no effort, he
had no longer any wish to live. If
death were coming, his only prayer
was that it might come quickly.
Slowly, minute by minute, the life
was ebbing out of him; and as surely,
with a tortoise-like gradation, the
night crept on. The moon had risen,
and now, in full-orbed splendor, was
riding high in the heavens, casting a
long wake of silvery light on the
placid sea, which danced and flickered
right away to the distant horiron.
Tlie two lights still gleamed on the
deserted deck and the two watchers
still watched on.
Meanwhile nature had not been idle.
Away in the distant horizon great
masses of fleecy clouds began to pile
themselves up one above another,
gradually extending themselves across
the northern heavens. The cloud
packing went on for more than half an
hour, accompanied by hot puffs of
wind which now and again ruffled the
waters. The sky every minute grew
blacker and the clouds more dense;
vivid flashes of lightning shot across
the sky, and there were mutterings of
thunder in the distance.
The silent watcher in the cuddy saw
nothing, and heard nothing of ail thia
His head had sunk heavily on his
bosom, and he slept. Suddenly there
was a noise beneath the deck like the
scratching of a rat; then, slowly and
noiselessly, the trap-latch under the
table was lifted, and through the aper
ture a head, with curly red hair and
fierce eyes, appeared. They were
those of Jarvise, the mate. After
pausing to see that all was clear, ho
placed his hands on the deck, and
then, with a supreme effort, he silently
lifted himself into a sitting posture,
and again he paused to listen. He
could hear the regular breathing of
his companion as he sat sleeping
peacefully, and a grim smile of
satisfaction passed across his wild and
haggard face. Silently and stealthily
he crawled clear of the table, and then
stood erect on his feet. His eyes glar
ed wildly, and his breath came quick
and short as he drew a knife from his
bosom and poised himself to strike.
All unconscious of his peril, Capt.
Dunnett slept on. He had no idea of
danger from such a quarter; no idea
that the mate had for two days past
been laboring with maniacal patience
and tenacity to clear an opening
through the cargo, and had at length
succeeded in making his way to the
cabin hatch.
Jarvise stood over his intended vic
tim, his eyes glittering with diabolic
light; the blow was in the act of de
scending, when his arm was arrested.
The cabin was suddenly illuminated
with a blue, electric light, and a peal
of thunder, loud as the crack of doom,
broke over the ship. The maniac
stood with his arm raised, as though it
had suddenly paralyzed.
The crash of the thunder awoke
Capt. Dunnett from his slumbers, and
he sprang to his feet. He took in the
situation at a glance; and, flinging
himself on his would-be murderer,
sought to disarm him. The struggle
was for dear life, and the mate fought
savagely. But at last the captain’s
superior skill and strength prevailed,
and Jarvise was once more at his
mercy.
“Strike, man—strike!” shrieked the
mate. “It is your life or mine!”
“You are mad, Jarvise!” exclaimed
the captain.
“Yes, I am; but strike, man—strike!
Put an end to the torture; I can stand
no more of it.”
“No!” cried the captain, throwing
him from him.
Then he turned and left the cabin,
locking the door behind him.
Out on the deck a startling sight
met his view. A large brig, not more
than a mile and a half distant, was
bearing down to their succor, under a
press of canvas.
For a second or two he stood rooted
to the spot. Then, in a wild transport
of joy, he threw up his arms and
cried:
“Saved! Saved! Thank heaven!
Thank heaven!”
All thoughts of Jarvise's diabolical
attempts on his life vanished, and in
an instant he had unlocked the cuddy
door, and, seizing the mate by the
arm, dragged him, half-stunned and
dazed by his fall, out on to the main
deck, and, as another dash of light
ning disclosed the brig again to their
view, cried:
“There! there! See what a merci
ful heaven has sent us!"
A second or two afterward a vivid
flash of lightning moved over the
mizenmast; it ran down the mast,
which tottered, and, with a crash, fell
over the side. With the first crash of
thunder that followed, Jarvise rushed
toward the side, and was in the act of
springing into the sea when Capt Dun
nett seized him by the collar and
flung him violently back on the deck,
where he lay stunned and bleeding.
The lightning flashed almost inces
santly. The wind came in hot puffs.
The brig still held on her course. By
this time she was within half a mile of
them. But suddenly the hot puffs
ceased, and she lay motionless on the
water.
All this while Capt Dunnett and the
mate, who had soon recovered his con
sciousness, stood watching her in an
agony of suspense.
The gloom was rapidly deepening.
But what is that curling up from the
open hatch in the cabin? It is smoke!
At first it came in small wreaths; but
now it is pouring out in a great volume.
The ship is on fire!
The lightning, which had shivered
the mizenmast had descended into the
hold and set fire to the cargo, and the
conflagration was spreading rapidly.
The two men, when they made the
discovery, stood appalled with horror.
They knew they were standing, as it
were, on a volcano, for, in the maga
zine below, was stored a quantity of
gunpowder, which might explode at
any moment and blow the ship to
atoms.
The smoke belched forth in large
THE SMOKE BELCHED FOETH IN LARG&-
volumes, and now and again a bright*
flickering flame shot up from the hatch
way.
In another few minutes the flames
were pouring into the cuddy, and the
whole structure was on fire. The
flame extended, and in less than ten
minutes the whole of the after part of
the ship was on fire, the lurid glare
lighting up the superincumbent clouds
and leaden sea, and producing a scene
of surpassing grandeur.
And now another danger was threat
ening them. Away in the distance
there was a dull, sobbing moan, which,
each minute became more distinct—
the tornado was fast approaching, but
at that moment they were startled by
a sharp cry of “Ship ahoy! Ship ahoy!’*
and looking in the direction from
whence the 'sound came they saw a
boat, manned with four oars, pulling
rapidly towards them. In another
minute the welcome sound of “Id
bowl” was heard, and the boat was
alongside.
No time was to be lost; the storm
was brewing in the north, and if it
burst upon them before they reached
the ship their doom was certain.
Again, the powder in the hold might
explode at any minute, so they hurried
ly lowered themselves into the boat,
and pushed off.
While the second mate was rescuing
the two men from the burning ship.,
the captain and the mate of the brig
were making all preparations for the
coming gale; and, before the boat had
got alongside, the sails had been furledi
and everything made snug.
Capt Dunnett and his mate had
been kept up by the excitement of the
situation, but the moment they were
on board the brig they fainted dead off.
and were taken below in a state of un
consciousness. This had scarcely been
accomplished, and the quarter-boat
hoisted up and made fast when the
tornado burst upon them with terrific
fierceness. For a few minutes they
could neither see Jnor hear anything
but the roaring of the tormented
waters and the howling and thunder
ing of the wind. At first the brig reel
ed and bent before it; then she rose up.
and, like a furious steed, dashed on
frantically in the wake of the burning
wreck.
All that night the gale continued,,
and shortly after daylight it moderated,
and by noon it had blown itself ouV
the clouds rose, and the weather clear
ed up.
Capt Dunnett and the mate were
attended with' all the kindness and at
tention which was necessary for men
in their exhausted condition. Jarvise
was delirious; and many weary days
and restless nights passed before he
showed any signs of recovery. Bub
he pulled through at last The captain
was also for a time entirely prostrate;:
but he, too, gradually regained his
strength, and in a fortnight was on»
deck again.
Poor Jarvise was greatly embar
rassed when he first met his old com
mander. He was naturally of a hu
mane disposition; and now the frantic
passion which was begotten of despair
had passed away, he was heartily
ashamed of his conduct
“I was not myself, Capt Dunnett, ’*•
he said apologetically. “I was mad.
with hunger and despair. The devil
seemed to have got into my heart;
and when I reflected on the thoughts
that passed through my mind, and the=
things I planned during that time, my
mind is filled with horror, and I blush,
with shame when I think of them."
“I am sure you do, Mr. Jarvise,"
replied the captain, soothingly; “Let us
forget all about it."
“Forget it, Capt Dunnett?" cried
the mate, plantively; “I shall never
forget it! The misery and torment of
that dreadful time will haunt me to
my dying day."
“A dreadful time, truly," replied the
captain, solemnly; “and I can only
pray heaven that no other two mea
may ever be called on to pass through,
such a dreadful ordeal as we did."
“Amen!" cried the mate.
Doesn’t Do Business That Way.
The money which it costs Uncle
Sara to keep up the tomfoolery of
firing a sunrise and sunset gun at
every military post would permit the
army to have a new ration, but he
doesn't do business that way. If he
didn't shoot the sun he'd lose hie
dignity as a great military power.—
Free Press.
VOLUMES.