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About The Albany register. (Albany, Or.) 1868-18?? | View Entire Issue (Feb. 19, 1875)
tpttt COLL.. VAN CLKVB. ALBANY, OREGON. A TRITE GENTLEMAN In our day it is common to speak of iflemenpYBition means, geptjemen of the press, com mercTal and! " sporting gentlemen, etc 15'raTiiirKB6ffii'i"Ben8e that James I., who, when his nurse entreat ed him to make her son a gentleman, replied that he could make him a lord, hat that it was ont of his power to make hi a gentleman. The word does not now bear the interpretation it formerly did. ' While at one ' time it expressed the idea which the term gentilhomme does in France where it retains its original significance to' designate the members of a caste, distinct and apart it has, in successive periods, been ap plied to degrees Jnore widely extended. As now understood, the term is indica tive of conduct rather than lineage of character rather than position of the qualities that contribute to its for mation as much as their manifestation in life. A gentleman is something unique, apart from any consideration oi rank, education or pursuits. . There are many men of plain manners and limit ed means as thorough, .gentlemen as any noble in the land. A certain Judge, in . his charge to the, jury .,, in an action wherein it was alleged that the. defend ant had said to the plaintiff, " Do not speak to me ; I am a gentleman. Yon are a tradesman," took . occasion to ob serve : ".Gentleman is a term which is not confined to any . station.' The man of rank who deports himself with dig nity and candor, the tradesman who dis charges, his duties; with integrity,' and the humblest artisan who . fulfills the obligations incumbent upon him with virtue and honor, are alike entitled to the name gentleman, in preference to the man,' however high his station, who indulges in ribald and offensive re marks. The true gentleman may be unassuming even '' bashful by no means brilliant in conversation not noted for good dressing ox lavish ex penditure; but he cannot, stoop to a mean thing. He' never struts in bor rowed plumage. He never stabs in the dark. He is not one thing .to a man's face and another' behind his back. Papers hot meant for his eyes are sacred. .Bolts, and bars,, locks and keys, bonds ana securities, and notices to trespassers, are not , for him. He is a consistent observer of the second great commandment,; .whatever he judges to be honorable, he practices toward all. WASHINGTON'S STRENGTH. . I (Gen. Wilson relates an account of a conversation witn Mr. Curtis, from which he obtained, some interesting personal reminiscences of Washington. During a visit at Arlington House, Va, in 1854, the writer asked Mr. Cas tas if Washington could, lik Marshal Sake, break a-, horseshoe, And received for; reply, that, he; had no doubt he could had he tried, for his hands were tho largest and -most' powerful he had ver seen. Mr. Custis then gave sev eral instances of the General's strength, of which I recall the following : When Washington was a young man, he was present on one occasion, aa looker on of wrestling games,' then the fashion in ' Virginia' Tired of the sport, he had retired to the shade of a tree; where he sat ,; perusing ; ' a pamphlet, ' till chal lenged to a bout by the hero of the day and the strongest wrestler in the State. "Washington declined, till, taunted with the remark that he feared to" try conclufions with the gladiator, he calmly came forward, and, without removing his coat, grappled with his antagonist. There was a fierce strug gle for a brief space of time, when the champion was 5 hurled to the ground witn sucn tremendous loxce as to jar the very marrow in. his . bones. An other instance of his prodigious power was his throwing the stone across the Rappahannock at ; Fredericksburg a f aat that it is quite safe to say has never been perforated, since. ' Later in life a number of young gentlemen, were contending - at Mount Vernon in the exercise of throwing v iae bar. - Wash ington, after looking on for some time, walked forward; saying, Allow me to try,' and, gasping1 the bar, sent the iron flying through the air twenty feet beyond its former limits. ' Still later in his career, ' Washington whose ' age was like5 a 'lusty winter;" frosty, but kindly,' 6bserved three of his workmen at Mount Verhon'vainly endeavoring to raise a large stone. ' when. : tired of witnessing their unsuccessful attempts, he put them aside, ' and, taking ,it in his iron-like ,( grasp,', lifted it-to, its place, remounted his-horse, and rode on." '' " ' ' f . - ' A SHARP TRANSACTION. The following transaction,, which oc curred in Brooklyn,, Jsew ..York, is a pretty good illustration of how to do a large business on small capital. A man named Herring owned a , block of ground near Prospect Park, which he recently put in the market." ''. One; Nel- son offered him $45,000 for the t block which was deemed a fair price, and' the offer was accepted. 'Nelson' said that in making out the deed he - wanted the consideration placed' at $100,000, -as he might want to Bell the property, and he did not care to have the actual price p pear. . Herring said he had 'no-V objec tion if he could do so lawfully, and hav ing referred the matter to" his lawyer, who examined the law " and ' found he could, jdo' so idthf prriety, accepted Nelson's terms.: -.The deed was made out and placed in a third person's hands until nsynisn't should Jblj msdei V :; ; ' ' The deed being made, the next ques tion was how to pay for the property ; but Nelson was equal to the occasion. He went to the Knickerbocker Life In surance Company and told them he wanted to borrow $70,000 on a piece of property he had just bought for $100, 000. An examination of the deed showed the facts to be, apparently, as stated, and the company's appraiser was directed to examine the property and'report its value. Several parties to whom he was referred by Nelson ap praised the property at from $100,000 to $125,000, and report was made accord ingly. The company's lawyers drew up the necessary papers, a mortgage was executed. Nelson received the $70, 000, paid Herring $45,000, and pock eted the remaining $25,000. There is no need f his coming West to grow np witn the country. - He had better stay in New York. A SBAKESPEAREAN HEADER. A village ten miles from Covington, Ky., has literary aspirations which take the form of a debating society. This organization received a letter from Clarence Stanley offering to give read ings from Shakespeare, the payment to be simply his expenses from Covington and his board while there. This seem ed a generous proposition, and it was at once accepted. Mr. Stanley came. He was intellectual of face, but ragged of clothing. Would they loan him a suit of clothes ? ' A public-spirited vil lager said he would, and his best broad cloth was soon upon Mr. Stanley. , An admission fee of twenty-five cents was charged, and long before 8 o'clock on the night appointed for the reading the hall was fulL When Mr. Stanley ar rived, he asked one of the committee to lend him a watch to use in timing his entertainment, and got it. Then he slipped down to the ticket-office and told the seller to give him the receipts. The young man supposed it was al right, and counted out the money thai had been taken. Mr. Stanley put it in one of his borrowed pockets, glanced casually at the borrowed watch, and sauntered off. He may be sauntering yet for all that the lyceum knows' about it. AN INDUSTRIOUS SPIDER. A spider constructed its web in an angle of a garden, the sides of which were attached by long threads to shrubs at the height of nearly three feet from the gravel path beneath. Being much exposed to the wind, the equinoctial gales of this autumn destroyed the web several times. The ingenious spider now adapted a new contrivance. It secured a conical fragment of gravel, with its larger end upward, by two cords, one attached to each of its op posite sides, to the apex of its wedged' shape web, and left it suspended as movable weight to be opposed to the effect of such gusts of air as had de stroyed the webs previously occupying the same situation. The spider must have descended to the gravel path for this special object, and, having attach ed threads to a stone suited to its pur pose, must have afterward raised this by fixing itself upon the web, and pull ing the weight up to a height of more than two feet from the ground, where it hung suspended by elastic cords. PERILS OP THE ATLANTIC. There is no great thoroughfare of commerce or of human intercommuni cation on the globe so beset with dan ger and difficulties as the voyages from New York to Liverpool. The Gulf Stream brings a current of warm water fifty miles wide and a thousand feet deep and flowing at the ordinary cur rent of a river from the tropical seas. and pours it out in a vast expanding mass over and beyond the banks of Newfoundland, where it turns to the eastward, and finally loses itself in the Northern seas ; while to the westward oi it a counter current coming down from Baffin's bay a current ef nearly equal magnitude and force pours into it a stream of icebergs, ice-floes, and ice-cold water. , The effects of this con fluence are, beneath the water, the ac cumulation of vast deposits of Band and rocky debris, brought down by the ice, and in the atmosphere above an almost perpetual succession of fogs and mists and- driving rains, " accompanied by gales and squalls. i t " - 1 ' 1 1 i Oiivk oil is produced in large quan tities in Tunis. The olive crops dur ing the past two years have been so abundant that there is still a great deal of oil in the country, notwithstanding the immense quantities, amounting in all to 3,472 tons, of the value of 125, 893, that have been shipped during the past year to Great Britain, France and Italy. It is said that unless a great reaction takes place in the oil trade of Europe, venders in Tunis will be puzzled to know what to do with the supplies they will have on hand. The deposits or tanks in the town ore said to be capa ble of containing 6,000 tons of oil, but they were not clear of the old supplies before the new was ready to be brought in. So far as the working of the native oil-mills is concerned, it is stated that no improvement has taken place. An Italian company contemplates the in troduction of a steam mill. For this purpose the "British Vice-Consular house and . its premises have been bought, and are to be converted into a mill. , Some years ago one, was tried at Mehidia, but did not answer. A second was erected pear Susa, with the view of buying up the refuse or oil-cake after passing the native mills, and submitting it to further pressure; but this in the hands of the natives blew up. A oiOAimc ' engine on the Pennsyl . ... .. s -a- J- 1 l : v&nia rauroaa nas maue mp successfully, ' on ' which occasion it trundled' along comfortably with one hundred and forty lcded cars, weigh ing 2,252,000 pounds, making a train one-third of a mile long. The engine itself weighs 44 tons. ' - REMINISCENCES ' OF PRENTICE. Says a late writer in Harper's Maga zine talking about Geo. D. Pneptiee : The editor of the Journal evinced his eminent fitness for his profession. He wrote hot only nervous leaders, but telling squibs and pungent paragraphs, which, being something newin journal ism, attracted great attention and were widely copied. He is reputed to have been the originator in the American press of the short and pointed .para-, graphs, now grown so popular, by which aa antagonist may be more readily ever thrown than by the most elaborate edi torial. Here are some specimens, culled at random : "The Eastern Argus Bays that the administration goes on swimmingly. It has tumbled overboard, and must go swimmingly or not at all" i "An editor in Indiana threatens to handle us without gloves. We would certainly never think of handling him without at least three pairs, and thick ones at that." " What would you do, madam, if you were a gentleman ?" " Sir, what would you do if you were one ?" . "We know some men who, when they are perplexed in argument, get out jus as poor debtors sometimes get out of jail they swear out." "We have before us a copy of the famous postoffice circular, soliciting contributions for the Postmaster-Gen eral's picture. On the whole, we are not surprised at his resorting to this expedient. Having expended the last farthing in his possession, what is he to do if he cannot run his face ?" "The editor of the Advertiser says he was the first to apply to Gen. Hani son the title of the ' Hero of Tippeca noe,' and that he applied it ironically. The title of the ' Lion-hearted' was first given to King Bichard by his own harle quin, yet it was worn most proudly, Though given by a fool, it was borne by a hero." "An exchange has this: 'The editor of the Journal said he has caught us, but he finds he hascaught it.' Yes, we mistook your gender. We stand cor rected." i "It has been thought strange that a dinner to which a man has not been in vited is generally the one that sits the hardest upon his stomach." Each issue of the Journal contained from a dozen to forty such paragraphs. Many of them were very bright, while others were labored, often common place. All of them, after a year or two, gained great currency as well as popu larity, and contributed so much toward the circulation of the paper that it would have fallen off materially with out them. 1 NOT ENO UGH INTROD UCED. Our lady readers may find a nice little moral in an incident that hap pened recently at mash vine, ; wmcn is thus described by a local paper : One of Nashville's brightest and most sensible young ladies was busily en gaged a few mornings since in making a cake. She donned a calico dress and pinned a flaming red shawl about her shoulders, fastened her heavy brown hair into a coil on the top of her head, and had just plunged her hands into the dough when the door-bell rang. She happened to be the only one in the house at the time, and so was compelled to answer the call herself, which she did after hastily washing her hands, and was horrified at discovering her visitor to be a spruce young gentleman friend and three strange gentlemen. An embarrassing introduction took place, the 'visitors were seated in the parlor, and then -the young lady ex cused herself, to reappear in a few mo ments in a costume better suited to the parlor. During her absence she made such a complete transformation in her appearance that she was mortified at finding her stranger visitors did not recognize her, thus rendering a second introduction necessary, which ceremony the Nashville young man performed by saying : " She is the same young lady we met at the door, gentlemen the very same young lady." HABITS OP THE ALLIGATOR. A Southern naturalist has made some observations on the habits of alligators. Among them he records the following : That alligators swallow their young. x nave naa ocuiar demonstration in a single case. ' I was engaged in making a survey oh the banks of the Homo- chitto lake, near the Mississippi river. The day was warm and sunny, and as I halted near the margin of a pond, near ly dried np, to pick np some shells, I started a litter of young alligators that scampered off, yelping like puppies ; and retreating some twenty yards to the bank of the Homochitto. I saw them reach their refuge in the mouth oi a five foot alligator. She1 evidently held open her mouth to receive them, as in single file they passed! in beyond my observation. The dam then turned slowly round and slid down beneath the water passing into a large opening in the bank, beneath the roof of an ash tree. Doubtless this refuge,, is tempo rary, and the young are released at their own or their mother's , pleasure; the descent being but partial, and in ho way reaching or interfering with the process of digestion." THE PETRIFIED FOREST. . V The Healdsburg (California) Flag says r xne lamous petrinea xoress oi Napa county is eighteen mues from Healdsburg, by way of Windsor, ,' and lies just across the county line, . The trees are all prostrate and lie scattered quite thickly , over an extent of fifty acres, The proprietor of the forest has lately been engaged in. digging away the . soil, and lava from the partially buried trees. Lewis Face, of Coving ton, Qhio, and L. R. Childs, of Healds burg, visited the place this week, and report that the trees that have been unearthed far surpass in size any that have heretorore been discovered. One fragment, that appears to have- been red wood, measured eleven feet in diameter, and is 67 feet long. The tree must originally have been two hundred feet in length. Numerous other specimens ranged from eight to eleven feet in diameter.' ' " THE OLD-FASHIONED MOTHErT ' JThank God some of us have had an old-fashioned mother. Not a woman of the period, enameled and painted, with her great chignon, her curls, and bustle, whose T white, jeweled hands never felt the ; clasp of baby fingers ; but a dear, old-fashioned, sweet-voiced mother, with eyes in whose clear depths the love . light shone, and brown hair just threaded with silver lying smooth upon her faded cheek. Those dear hands, worn with toil, gently guided our tottering steps in childhood, and smoothed our pillow in sickness, ever reaching out to us in yearning tender ness. Blessed is the memory of an old fashioned mother. It floats to us now, dike the beautiful perfume from some wooded blossoms. The music of other voices may be lost, but the entrancing memory of hers will echo in our soul forever. Other faces may fade away and be forgotten, but hers will shine on. When in the fitful pauses of busy life our feet wander back to the old homestead,' and, crossing the well worn threshold, stand once more in the room so hallowed by her presence, how the feeling of childish innocence and dependence comes over us, and we kneel down in the molten sunshine, streaming through the open window- just where long years ago we knelt by our mother's knee, lisping, " Our Father." How many times when the tempter lured us on has the memory of those sacred hours, that mother's words, her faith and prayers, saved ns from plunging into the deep abyss of sin. Years have filled great drifts between her and ns, but they have not hidden from our sight the glory of her pure, unselfish love. - THE CATTLE INTEREST OF THE UNITED STATES. Increase the aptitude to fatten and in average weight has been continuous and marked during the last half centu ry. Since 1817 there have been im ported into North America nearly, if not quite, one thousand well-bred ani mals for stock improvement, mainly the beef-yielding short-horn ; but also many of the best specimens of the;. Ayrshire for quantity of milk ; the Jersey and its congeners of the Channel Islands, for richness of cream and quality of but ter ; the black and white Dutch, Dev- ons, Herefords, and other breeds, not excepting the fat cow of Brittany. So great has been the success of this at tempted improvement, that the cattle of the' central portions of the West have become high-grade short-horns of in creased size and superiority of flesh, with a far smaller proportion of offal, Instead of degenerating, the thorough breds have been improved by the skill and care of our wide-awake breeders, until one family of short-horns, the Botes stock, has been for years export ed to England at prices commencing at S2.UUU to S3,ouo each, advancing in a year or two to $7,000, as appreciation abroad was intensified, and culminated last season at the magnificent figure of $40,000 for an elderly cow, amid the excitement of competition between the most skillful breeders of two conti nents. The average weight of importations two and a half centuries ago probably did not exceed 300 pounds ; in 1710 the average in the London market had been reported at 370 pounds ; at the begin ning of the present century the London average had advanced to about 500 pounds, and now the official average is 600 pounds for British and 500 for im ported beeves. The stock of this country, not including that of Spanish blood, is now nearly np to the British standard of weight. Phrenological Journal, THE MOUNTAIN MEADOW HORROR. A Salt Lake dispatch says : "A statement published here, purporting to be a description of the Mountain Meadow massacre, by Rachel,' wife No. 4 of John D. Lee, states that at the time of the massacre, Lee was living at Fort Harmony, as an Indian farmer under Brigham Young, who was then Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs in this Territory ; , that these emigrants poisoned a spring at Corn Creek; and an Indian and some ' stock died therefrom ; that the Indians then rallied, followed the train, and, not withstanding all the efforts of the Mormons,! the party was surrounded by Indiana that, - after several days' fighting, Lee induced the emigrants to surrender their arms to him in two wagons,1 with which he started for Cedar City, telling them to follow for protection, scon after which he heard firing and sounds of the massacre. The statement comes through Lee's attor ney." -' ;- . ' - ' ' : : Fsou the accounts given in the book of Chronicles relative to the gold and sil ver gathered by David for the building of the' temple, a writer in a Boston paper concludes that the precious met als existed in the days of David and Solomon in fabulous quanties ; as, after reducing the talents and drachms of the ancients to dollars and cents, it appears that the contributions exceeded $5,000,-' 000,000. . - - .j: . At Point Pleasant, W. Va., on the 6th inst., Capfc. H. McDaniels was, fired upon and instantly killed by a man named Wetzel, from a window of bis residence. Wetzel surrendered himself to the Sheriff and is now in jail. He claims in justification of, the deed that McDaniels was criminally intimate with his wife. A DECEIVED .BRIDEGROOM AND A S DISAPPOINTED BRIDE. The Wilcaingtoif (Del.) Republican telle a story of a sudden and total in terruption of the. course of true love. It says; "Thursday week two lovers took passage on tie afternoon train from this ciftd"Philadelphia for the avowed purpose of being united in wed lock. On their arrival in Philadelphia a'mepsen.ger was dispatched to Camden to secure the services of a certain preacherwhomthey desired to officiate. At 8:30 6'clock the loving pair appeared before the reverend gentleman and an nounced, themselves ready to take a new departure" into the state of matrimony. - The minister was required either by" the law of his State or the regulations of his church to keep a cor rect and complete record of the names of all parties married, also their real age, their nativity, the full names and age and nativity of their parents. The ceremonies commenced in due time; the intended bridegroom answered all questions promptly. To the question, how old are you ? he replied 25 years. The intended bride answered all ques tions until she was asked her age. This question she point blank refused to answer, whereupon she was politely informed by the officiating preacher that he could not proceed further unless she would give a correct answer to the question. She paused for a few min utes and then responded, I am 31 years of age 1' This unexpected announce ment seemed to surprise , the intended bridegroom, and apparently with great feeling he stated that her mother posi tively declared that she was 26, and, as he was 25, he considered this an at tempt to deceive him, and after further discussing and considering the situa tion, he finally decided not to marry any woman who was so much older than himself, and who had tried to de ceive him." . ANOTHER MORMON HEGIRA RU , MORED. The recent rumor that the Mormons were going to leave behind them their well-built city of Salt Lake and the well cultivated farms in Utah, and emigrate to some point beyond the jurisdiction of the United States, is again current. Now we hear that they are going to Mexico, about he last place to which these people would betake themselves. They have perfect freedom for their re ligion, and Mormonism is as free to grow as any other sect. It was only when it took a form which was opposed to morality that it has met with opposi tion from the government and people.' In Mexico there is but little toleration for creeds, let alone practices which are directly and palpably antagonistic to every phage of Christianity. That Mor monism is destined, sooner or later, to succumb where it is now located, is probable, and the migratory character of the Mormons would also seem to lend'color to a projected exodus, but they are divided among themselves on the subject of polygamy. Besides, it is not as easy to move from Salt Lake as from Nauvoo. ALL ABOUT EGGS. A writer in the " Medical Journal, discoursing on dyspepsia, says : We have seen dyspeptics who suffered un told torments with almost every kind of food. No liquid could be taken with out suffering. Bread became a burning acid. Meat and milk were solid and liquid fires. We have seen these same sufferers ' trying to avoid food and drink, and even going to the enema spring for sustenance. ' And we have seen the torments pass away and their hunger, relieved by . living upon the white of eggs, which have been boiled in bubbling water for thirty minutes. At the end of a week we have given the half yelk of the egg with the white, and upon this diet alone, without fluid of any kind, we have seen them begin to gain flesh and strength, and refreshing .sleep. After weeks of this treatment, they have been able, with cure, to begin upon other food : and all this, the writer adds, without taking medicine, He says that hard-boiled eggs are not half as bad as half-boded ones, and ten times ad easy 'to digest as raw egge, even in egg-nog. ; THE LION IN HIS OLD AGE. When a young lion reaches the age of two years he is able to bring down a horse or an Of ; and so he continues to grow and increase in strength till he reaches his eighth year, when his talns, teeth and mane are perfect, and he grows no more. ; For twenty years after he ar rives at maturity his talons and fangs show no signs of decay, but after that he grows " ohubbiah. He is no longer a match for the tremendous buffalo ; he prowls around the cattle kraals, and snatches a lamb or kid, just as he did when he set out with his parents, nearly thirty years -before. A woman or a child at night shares the same fate. His strength and sight .now decline mere and more, till the. mighty lion grows lean and mangy, and crawls about from place to place, eating any offal he can pick np, and despising not even so small an animal as the field mouse ; and he starves and dies, or is fallen on and slaughtered by a few cowardly hyenas or is discovered, unable to move, be neath a tree, and knocked on the head by some wandering Kaffir. Debts or Massaohusktib Crrnts. t The messages of the Mayors give the debts of the nineteen cities of Massachusetts, as follows : Boston, $44,719,123.09 ; in crease, $1,252,818.91 ; Cambridge, $4, 400,164.22 ; increase, . $1,094,451.01 ; Worcester,- $2,984,760;. increase, $43,- 523; Lawrence, $1478,103.77; increase, $753,107.05; Newton, $387,000 ; de crease, $20,000 ; ' Fitchburg,ii$728,- 872.84 ; increase, $78,000 ; Chelsea, $1,469,800; not stated ; Salem, $1,396, 722.07 ; decrease, $82,444.86.; Somer- ville, $1,419,854; increase, $373,500 ; Taunton, $275,600 ; decrease, $111, 763.25; Lynn, $1,849,605.41; not stated; Holyoke, $792,221.50 ; increase, $2, 809.43; Newburyport, r $490,600 ; de crease, $6,278.60; ; Haverhill, $389, 416.95; decrease, : $36,541.37 ; Fall Biver. $2,444,047.23; not stated; Springfield, $1,794,875 ; rot stated ; Lowell, $2,189,000 not stated; New Bedford, $1,097,600 ; not stated ; Gloucester, $202,043.43; ; decrease, $20,221.48. Boston Advertiser. BOW THEY TREAT GRASSHOPPERS IN CHINA. : The local authorities, whether civil or military, are held responsible for the stamping out of these ' insects as soon as their appearance has been re ported. They are required to summon a large body of men, and at once sur round and destroy the locusts, the ex penses of the maintenance of the men and compensation for crops trodden down during the chase being furnished by the provincial treasury. Should the local authorities succeed in stamping out the locusts within a limited time, their services are favorably reported to the Emperor ; but should they fail, and the locusts spread and do damage, they are liable to be deprived of their posts, arrested and handed over to the proper board for punishment. A certain sum per bushel is paid to peasants for bring ing in tin win cred locusts, and half that sum when the locusts are able to fly, while compensation is given for crops trodden down in the chase. ; The lo custs are swept with besoms into the trenches dug at the sides of the corn fields, in which a vigorous fire is kept up. The best time to capture locusts is when they are feeding, at dawn of day, when, their bodies being heavy and their wings wet with dew, they are unable to jump or fly. If the Western States, or any part of them are to be visited in future as they have been of late years, some system of defense will have to be adopted. Under existing circumstances, the use of men in large bodies is impracticable, and the inge nuity ef inventors or scientists is our only hope. The prospect, it must be confessed, is not very cheering, for the vast uninhabited regions afford . breed ing grounds which effectually defy all attempts at extermination. i BIVALVES. ; It is related in a foreign scientific journal that a fresh-water clam was, during a voyage from Australia to En gland, kept in a perfectly dry state for 231 days. On being thrown into water at the expiration of that time, it gave evidence of being healthy and lively. Arrived at Southampton, 498 days after leaving its native waters, the mollusk was restored to the liquid element, when it immediately opened its valves and resumed its usual habits. Becent experiments have shown that other bi valveB have an unsuspected power of retaining life. M. Hamon, of Nantes, once had occasion to leave a basket of oysters untouched for seventeen eon secutive days in the hottest term of summer. When examined afterward, they were found to be uninjured, though they had not been treated to a drop of water in all that time. On being placed in a bed at Cancole, the same oysters throve luxuriantly. THE STORY OF THE APPLE TREE. The following story is told by a Penn sylvania paper: "Near Mount Pleas ant lives a rich farmer, and, as is the case everywhere, he has a poor neigh bor. The times being hard this winter, the latter, whose family is large, had a tight time of it. His neighbor, al though rich, is a kind-hearted man. He helped the poor neighbor and gave him permission to cut down and take home for fire-wood an old, hollow-butted annle tree, which had stood the storm of many a long year. The man did cut down the tree, and discovered in the hollow thereof something to make his heart glad. With him hard times, tough struggling, and battling with the cold were over, for in that hollow, rot ten trunk he found at least a hat full of gold, enough in value to make him a comparatively rich man." THE POTTER FAMILY. The recent appointment of one of the Potters as Supervising Architect of the Treasury, says the New York Iribune, calls attention afresh to the remarkable amount of brains generated in the fam ly of the late Bishop of Pennsylvania. One of his sons, Mr. Howard Potter, represents one of the great financial in fluences of the metropolis, ..Another, Mr. Clarkson N. Potter, is an influen tial member of Congress. A third brother is President of Union College. A fourth brother is the rector of .Grace church, New York, who has just declined his election to the Bishopric of Iowa. A fifth brother, Gen. Potter, of Rhode Island, was a gallant officer, and made an admirable record during the war. The sixth, the new Supervising Archi tect, has already risen to prominence in his profession. And even yet the sup ply is not exhausted. ; j Thk Russians have gone inad over Patti again. At Moscow, recently, the receipts on the opening night were $7,500, and when it is stated that in the course of the evening she was called before the curtain no less than sixty times, and that upward of two thousand bouquets were showered upon her, some idea may be formed of the triumph she achieved. At the conclusion of the opera Madame Patti was presented with five splendid stars of rubies and dia monds, together with a magnificent or nament consisting entirely of large brilliants. -.-X- Ansa Eliza says that thirteen of Brigham's daughters sat in the front seats and made faces at her the; first time she lectured. RV8SIA PREPARING FOR CONQUEST The man who writes, in 1900, the his tory of the last half of the nineteenth century, says the Chicago Tribune, will express his amazement at the indiffer ence with which European politicians: regarded Russia for the twenty years that followed the . Crimean. jmhs The allies conquered , Sebaatopel. because Russia could not utilize her forces. The lesson was not lost upon Oortsqhakoff and his imperial masters. Sinoe that. time, step after step has been taken to wards the formation of a power that: could smile at opposition. By freeing the serfs, the foundation was laid for calling into being a race of yeomanry such as England once, had and such as Germany now has." By rigid military laws the nation is Jareing converted into an army. Finally,' by a gigantic system of railroad and internal improvements, the widely separated parts of the em pire are being brought near each otheiv until vast armies can be transported to any threatened point with all the rapidity Which the best equipped rail roads in the world can give. This sys tem is to be still further extended. The Emperor has been in consultation with. M. .Ferdinand de Lesseps, the great en gineer who planned x the Suez canal. Great things are hoped for as the re -suit of the interview. ' De Lesseps un dertakes none but-great things. At. present, the Russian railway pystenu may be roughly defined as one of north eastern and southeastern lines which t cut one another at right angles, andl thus divide the country into a mam- moth checkerboard. Six different roads-, radiate from Moscow. A letter in the New York Herald, to which we are in debted for some of our information,, declares that this wholejietwork is nearly completed. In 1860URussia hadi 1,000 miles of railroad. "New she has 10,000 miles. She can put an army on either the Prussian or Austrian frontier by half a dozen different rontes. Shei is thus insured against successful inva sion. All the lines of communication v cannot be cut. She is almost equally-' well guarded on her western border,, Her armies against Khiva were fol lowed by tracklayers and telegraph, builders. It will be remembered that -her inroads in Turkistan .excited the- liveliest fears in Great Britain fears so lively that she sent a special ambas sador to London to assure England! that she meant to dp nothing. Then, she did a great deal. New she threat ens British India. It is no probable--that she means to strike a warlike blow at English supremacy there. Her at tack will be more insidious''and more fatal. She means to control the trade of Hindostan by opening a great over land rail route through her territory. Already Russian merchants are occupy ing the comparatively narrow strip of ground between the English and Rus sian frontiers. It will not.be long, they hope, before they reap the richt profits of the East Indian trade. The barbarian monarchs of Western Asia, reign now only by the sufferance of the empire.. One object ci the Persian Shah's visit to Europe is supposed to have been to get pledges' of support, against Russian encroachment. If this, is so, he failed. He is at her mercy. Persia once conquered, Turkey would: be threatened on her Asiatic as well as her European frontier. Then' .the rea son of Russia's recent violation of the treaty of Paris might appear. With, the Black sea controlled by her fleet and the Turkish fror tier in Europe -occupied by her armies, she might at last realize her great ambition, and-, drive the Crescent across tlWBospho rus. If her greed for territorial gain is -not satisfied then, she has the whole Chinese empire to feed upon. Advanc ing from the Siberian frontier; she can swallow it np, bit by bit, repeating the process she has made so familiar in. Western Asia. These are the possibili ties of the future. They are not, we think, to be deplored. " Russia Is not a. highly civilized state, but her advance means civilization for Asia. Pbkvious to the outbreak ofthe war a project was under consideration for the political unity of; the .peninsula, which now contains fragment of three States Delaware, Maryland -and Vir ginia. This project was abandoned for weightier considerations, butlil is now - revived by the Delaware State Journal, . the most influential newspaper in the State. Chesapeake Bay form a nat ural boundary for the threes States. Maryland would cede the eastern shore - -and 125,387 population; Virginia an in considerable fragment and 17,415,. which, with the present population of Delaware, would amount to 245,817,. more than is possessed by Florida, Ne braska, Nevada, Oregon, or Rhode- Island. The projsct is harder upon Maryland than Virginia, but the dis advantages of such an unnatural di vision as the present are obvious enough. -The peninsula is one, and the interests of its inhabitants are identical, no mat ter to which of the three States they belong. The matter was discussed by- the journalists of the peninsula at a re cent reunion, and preliminary steps i were taken by forming a peninsular - editorial union. Thb Rev. Dr. Manning, of Boston M said in a sermon : " The more we read-, the newspapers the less accurate - and-, comprehensive is our knowledge of the actual condition of the world," which-, is evidence that the Re v.TDoc tor's read ing is confined to the Boston papers. A. L. STBOK0,of Easthampton, Mass.,. a former Sheriff of . Hampshire county, has absconded, leaving scores of cred itors and a deficit of $30,000. It is- said that the first wicked thing this man did was to deliver a stolen speech' in the Massachusetts Legislature.