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About The Albany register. (Albany, Or.) 1868-18?? | View Entire Issue (June 25, 1875)
BOUND TO THE KUXS. y- We're walking-- , ner, dry up ; vrhy shouldn't he b told T wrd them there mduntauai after that there gold. No use in talking -. . , .... Itltaa got to be. And I'd uncommonly like to see "win Stmli trooper stop my pud Mid me. Yankee dragoons,' says' yon, "will do their antyT - JWtth gold for booty, - sinying what Congressmen have done for sain, aTm common soldier likely to abstain T -Hies for them, sir, to deceit. . ! , ' t as for fear that well get hurt By smythlng that they vrifi do to stop ns, "V run no risk nnlom them Bedakina drop " us. Akwmya acknowledged tht theaoal was) theirs t , now, you've colleged tt ; which of them early pioneers acknowledged ltt "' scetignt it tike honest men, time and again ? T"ad for it? WhenT Who did T NotPeun ! Xm, there you're right. He waa about the beet then. Sard-ner, your flask. Here's heaven help the rest then.' 8ublime display! ? ". . Should this Republic let thai treasure layt . Stay ? All that money just to be sublime T Kary lime ! EX glory came, sounded from Europe's trump of 1 all creation had to atop its ear; r that there whistle we should pay too dear. Treaties be Mowed ! - , 13d liketo see the parchment that will hold there. We'd not have mads no. treaty if we'd knowed About the cold there ! . Ad now we've found it. leaetwars will, next VIM land reverts that's law fit standa to mnm. Hon buy my iarm, suppose. Why, every pettifogger knows Xf you find coal where I found only heather ' Of course I get back land and coal together. ' JMothvwT Yes t. Ton mind your bis! Well, what if tain't? Them Bedahlns aint no scholars, Se doat talk treaties when we're talking dollars. rt Judgments sent uson thn rannh-v? Wa "Mypard and mo by then will be JSabobs in Paris I should say Far-re. :. So, tm you say, God's .scourges may Saoorge yon, but we shall wisely keep away . From War or Famine Or 1'lague ; besides, that's gammon. Hain't we give back well-nigh upon the whole, freedom and rights and such, of what was stole Ftom them there darks to quite a smart amount? aad you think Heaven can't balanoe an acoonnt T you're irreligious. Besides, them Bedakina always was perfid'Jus. Just dont you fear. Ca one that likes to read my title dear. ' . I've about ciphered this here thing out. What them there Sioux have got to do Xa Just to take a trip across the border, And get extinguished, after law and order. If that dont right 'em, laws are not made to suit their whim. ' Didn't Washington fight 'em and Where's a better man than him! "Pais theme is one a patriot soul expands on. r-Jfcr, th is great nation owes it to civilisation TPo tak e whatever it can lay its hands on. "Savere again isn't it plain T What if them hills belonged, well ssy, to Spain ? TsTftst n rrw if there's a conflict we shall win it. a say the ways of Providence is in it. Osmt see it T I can. I'm a square man. Xa said where were we going 7 You've been told. Vow go for principle we go for gold. ao fer it strong and also for our country, right or wrong. Which means the same : so you had better mind it. "Xfce only reason why Undo Sam wont have that gold next season Will be taint there or else V. 8. cant find it. Now, if you're rested, Vmrd, well go on and get this matter tested. Jl'ew York Graphic. THE GREAT GOLD SECRET. CHAPTER I. I'm a gold digger that's about what I m. You -wouldn't take me for an En glishman, 'would you now t . No, nor yet any one else that knows me ; but I am, though. How old, about, should -you take me Sorf "Fifty -five, eh?" Well, they all .guess somewhere near that ; but I'm just 'thirty-seven last month. . I dare say you lon't believe it ; and perhaps wouldn't lelieve it, either, if I told you that all this wrinkling and turning grey was done in one week. Well, it was, and when I think over it nil now, and think that here I am, alive after it all, I can hardly be lieve it myself. Would yon like to hear about it ? Well, sit down and make your self comfortable, and 111 tell you. . It's nine years, ago last Valentine's lay (I remember, all the .dates well enough, I warrant you) that I was at TFrisco with a Yankee, name of Seth .Hickman. We'd met down in Denver, ; -arid stood by each, other in a row that hanDpnpd there, anil of eonnw that draw - UJ UMtS7-7 UU , IMIU lU7 CUU VI Ik Vf EV9, we agreed to go prospecting together - .anrl ' filiarA o-n1 qTiqva all Ir a . Seth was a sharp fellow and knew all "the likeliest spots, and I could do a day's "Work with any man in those days, though I ain't much to brag on now; and the 3nd of it was -we made a pretty pood haul When we got to Trisoo 1 thought of nothing but banking some of the stuff for a rainy day and having a spree with the rest, and then starting off again ; but Seth didn't seem to see it all. I noticed that he looked serious-like, as if he had something on his mind, for the" first two slays after we got into the town ; and on file second evening; as we were sitting jover our grog, he spoke out : - -"Jim, old boss, I'm a-gwine to tell yew Eometking that nary soul in creation knows about bnt myself ; for if yew hadn't been some smart with your Der ringer when them three skunks went for me down in Denver they might ha wrote Gone up over'this child; and no man arver did Seth' Hickman a good torn, nor m, bad turn neither, bnt what he got co eoanut for you tit for tit, yew bet jure life on that I . ' : '' "When I was in Africa last year I went up country a bit with my line, and Soar X iiappenea on an oia inniivn critter, nld as Georce Washington's nurse. lfvin in a hut all by himself among the spurs o' the Andes, and I camped, in his hut for the night. " ; '" " WaL the aguardiente (whisky) in my flask war a leetle tew strong for nun, and lie got reglar slewed ; and when his tongue got loosened by the licker he kim out wi sitch a yarn as whippud every thinc in Prescott all to fits. He said s.liafc wlin tt Penrriiui thiefa stamDeded . from Cuzco a'ter Pizacro took it, a lot on "em got up among the mountains, carry ing their gold with 'em, till they kim out il i . v , rwx ' . - . a 1.1 m me piateau oi uojsb xiaca ; anu uiar, ndin the Scaniarda close on their trail, they chucked all the gold into the lake and skedaddled nobody knows where. . And he said that if anybody took the trail from his hut, north and by east, till they hit the. southern end of the lake, vnd then looked out for a big three-cor- . nered rock like a pyramid upside down, they'd jest got to scoop in the mud of the lake whar that rook's shadow fell on it at sunrise, and they'd find nnff gold to buy up all Wall street Now, we've got money enough to put that job wuxuugo, ana u yew tee Ufce tryin" it, 1m in." . " ' ? . .. . . ' ' - , I said'done". at oae, ad we got our money together, and slipped down the soast to Africa , as fast as the Pacific eteomer conld carry us. . Tie minute we . JZOt there, Seth Went nft inim th riflla tn try and get hold of his old. Indian for a jgmue, wniie i nunted about "for work men for this was a job that Reeded more Lands than our- own. At last I got hold of two Spaniards two sturdy fellows they were, and honest enough as Span iards go and then a Portigee and two etores and working tackle, and by the time Seth came back with his guide, all was ready and away we went, j , , , ,( Seth was mtich tod knowinir a birf " let on what fcia real game was as long as we were within hail Of the town, for if yon say " gold" there Only in a whisper hose blesaed Gambuskios (gold-findersl wiil hear it a hundred 1 miles oft So all : -that we told our cacg was that we were jroing prospecting among - the lower ranges, as lots of fellows did every day ; but when we were past the old Indian's hut and well up among the hills, so that our chaps couldn't easily turn back if they wanted, he up and told them the whole story. ; They were rather taken aback, as well they might be, for Lake Titicaca's a good many day's journey to the nor'east, among some very awkward mountains and a" good thirteen thousand feet above the sea, if it's an inch. How ever, a Spaniard (or any other man, for that matter,) will go J pretty nearly any where if he onoe gets on the scent of gold ; to our fellows they spoke, up stoutly enough, and said they were ready to go up to the lake, and down to the bottom of it into th bargain, after such a haul as that ; and off we set again. I've seen a good ' many wonders in my time, knocking about the world as I've done ; bnt anything like that climb up the Andes I never saw yet. Bocks that seemed to go tip into the very ' sky, straight as a plumb-line ; beds at moss three or four deep, and soft as a velvet cushion ; trees two hundred feet high, all one blaze of flowers from top to bot tom ; leaves big enough to wrap you hp nae a oianset ; tree-ferns big as a table cloth, all glittering like the finest silver lace ; humming-birds and monkeys and parrots, and butterflies as broad as the palm of your hand ; waterfalls sheer down over great black precipices a thou sand feet hiorh : and far awav behind the everlasting mountains, piled one Above another till they seemed to go right up to heaven.. Among "all these enormous things we eight men, big and strong as we were, seemed of no more account than a lot of ants crawling on a blade of grass; and I think I never felt so small in my life as I did then. However, I hadn't much leisure to think- about it at the time, for you can't expect a fellow to have much of an eye for scenery wnen lie s naciong ms way through a great cobweb of branches too thick for the light to get through, with his boots full of ants and his mouth full of gnats, and the damp vapor-bath, heat of the woods melting hin away bit by bit, fifty prickles going into n-im at once, a thorn-bush scalping hijn from above, and a creeper tripping him up down Deiow. And so we hammered aloricr. till at last we worked up to the plateau and saw the great lake spreading away before-us as far as ever we could see. We weren't long of making out the three-cornered crag, nor the shadow neither, for it was just sunrise wnen we got there, as if o purpose for us ; and once we'd made it out we hardly waited to take breath be fore we were at it tooth and nail. Tho first day was a regular blank one till just toward sundown, and then the Portigee screeched out suddenlv that he'd got something heavy. I helped him to haul up the pan, and there, sure enough, was a bar of gold over a foot long, and pretty nigh as thick as my two fingers here. At that we all shouted at once, and went at it harder than ever ; and I really think our cnaps would have worked all night, but Seth stopped 'cm. He told 'em that the gold wouldn't run away, and that if they jrat on too much steam at first they'd just knock them selves np before they were half throueh. and that they'd better just light a fire and get dried, and have some supper, and fix up some kind 'of shelter against the dew, and then start fair next morning. And so they did. The next day and the nest and the next after that -we kept bringing it up in handfula gold circlets and chains and necklaces and ingots without end. But on the fifth day I found the provisions getting so low that, I was rather scared, for np here there was no game of any sort, mere being no vegetation at that height for the game to live on. , So we held a council of war. Our chaps had got the gold-fever so into their blood by this time that I verily believe they'd have kept digging on till .they died of hunger; but Seth and I, who were a little cooler, talked them over at last. We, told 'em that we'd got enough already, to make us all as rich as Jews ; that we must all starve if we didn't replenish our stock somehow ; that ten to one the "find" was played out (and, indeed, none of us had taken a grain all that morninorV: and that. in any case, the lake was always there, ana tney coma come baca ana try again whenever they liked. So, bit by hit, we worked 'em round, and all started to go back together. . . , We'd hard work of it the first part of the way, for bur loads were pretty heavy, and stumbling in and out of, the great rocks waa no joke, let alone that the five days' work had taken it out of us more than we expected. . One of the Spaniards got a bad fall, and not one of us but had his bruise to show. But at last we got over the barren bit and found ourselves fairly down among the wood again ; and then I began to be jolly, thinking this was the end of it. But it wasn't it was only the beginning. --itiu. 1 CHAPTER II. . -. One afternoon, when: we'd got well down among the lower ranges, we were just looking about for a place to camp (for the Spaniards who had got hurt was beginning to give up), when one of the niggers said suddenly . . ; i Senor, man watch us !." . i I looked np, and there, sure enomgh, was : a , man (a savage-looking : fellow enough, but evidently no Indian) watch ing us from the top of a ridge, a 'ittle to the left. He kept looking after us for a little while, and then disappeared, as if it . 1 1 i i ,i -1 1 wie earui nau -swauowea mm. . . . , "Don't like that,'' says Seth, "that critter's seen that we carry a heavy swag. and he's gone to tell some of his chums,-1 you bet I ' When one has found a pumpkin-pie,-He goes and tells the t 'others 1 u ' - " I feel like campm' in a strong place to-night, I dot-- : ;- f,-. ' And so we did with a deep canon (gorge) behind us- going sheer ' down nearly a hundred feet and a thick clump of trees in our front that made" cover, while beyond it the ground was smooth and level for a good eighty yards, so that no living thing could oome near us without being' seen and? fired at. ; ' Just as we'd lit our fire, and were be ginning to cook, e saw, first one man and then another, till we'd'6onnted fif teen in all, ; oome zigzagging in arid out of the bushes, down the face of the oppo site ridge. They halted just at the jedge of the thicket, and took a look 'at the smoke of our fire rising above the trees ; and then two of them laid down their rises, and were coming across.the clear ing to us, looking' as friendly, as they could, when old Seth shoves his head through the leaves, and says in Span ish.: . .f ' . . , : " Gentlemen, we're talking oyer ; a little business of our own, and wish to be private, bo youll oblige ns by keep ing your own aide, and we'll keep ours ; for we have a way of shooting things that come too near us, and we should be sorry to lift you by mistake j" :,JZ . .. . Back the two beauties wenL' "lpoking as silly as a ha'porth of treacle in a two gallon jug, and Setli rubbed his hands and gave a chuckle. .,:r-,-s-K-.',SX ' " They'd got a bottle in each hand, them' two,'' says he ; ; they war gwine ' to make us -slewed, and then -dean out our swag ; but they don't fool this child, no how. Naow, ye see, they'll wait till dark, and then go for us with a rush that's what's the matter with them but Iguesa we'll be not at home' when they He whispered to me to cut down three or four of the longest creepers and twist them into a rope ; and I, guessing what he was up to, did it with a will. In a few min utes we. had a rope that would have stood anything ; and then I hitched one end round a tree, and let drop the other down the ravine the rest making a great shouting and singing meanwhile, by way of a blind. Then the. old Indian (who was as nimble as a r cat) slid down to the bottom, and we lowered our packs to him, one by one. . . ... . "That's all right," says Seth ;" and now we'll just take it easy till dark, and then take passage by this new overland line of ourn." - . . tj But one don't take it very easy when there's a gang of bloodthirsty rascals, twice your strength and armed to the teeth every man .Jack. of 'em, sitting waiting barely eighty, yards off to cut your throat; and. I think I never found any time yet go so slowly as those two last hours before sundown. ' -V Naow," says Seth at last, when the darkness had fairly dosed in, " I guess we'll begin to leave." . i Bnt just then, as if tjhis had been a signal, there came a flash and a bang from the other side of the clearing, and half a dozen bullets came peppering in among the trees. . I felt something warm spurt over my hands, and the nigger who stood beside me fell all of a heap. Like light ning I up piece and let fly, and I heard somebody, give a yell that sounded as if that letter had gone to the right address, and then, for a few minutes, it was just flash, flash 1 bang, bang 1 like a firework rSeth and I kept 'em in play while the rest slid down one by one. And mighty ugly work it was, too, I can tell you, blazing away in the dark with nothing to aim at, and hear the bullets come rattling about you without ever seeing who sent them. Bnt the rope was soon clear, and then Seth stuck up the dead nigger against a tree, with .his gun across the fork of it, that they might see the glint of the barrel, and think we were still on the watch. Then. he slid down, and I after him. , The first thing we did was to take the gold out of the poor old nigger's pack, and part it among us. . The rest of the things we threw away, as we had thrown away our tools long before (for our only chance now was to march as light as pos sible), and then we set forward along the gully. For some time we could hear the rascals banging away overhead, but that died away by degrees, and there was a silence as if the world had just been cre ated and no life come into it yet. ' ' . All that night we stumbled along the bottom of the ravine like men groping in a tunnel, sitting down every now and then to rest ; but when day came we saw the rocks on each side getting lower aud lower, and the great black pit spread ing out broader and shallower, till at last, a little after sunrise, we came out into the forest again. . But just then the other nigger sat down and put his hand to his side.-. , . " No can go farther, senor !" , I ran up to him, and blest if he hadn't got a big bullet-wound in his side from last night's scrimmage, and the brave fel low had actually dragged . on all night without saying a word about it, lest he should keep us back! , I sat down and took his head on my knee, and he died as quietly as a child ; and .we covered him with leaves and left him lying there in the bright morning sunshine, and went forward on our weary tramp again. - - ; ; It was harder than ever for us now, for we had eight loads among six men, and already I could see one of the Spaniards beginning to stagger, and the old Indian trembling like a leaf. -. Then a horrible kind of fear crept over me that we should keep dropping that way, man after man, till there was only' one left ; and then bnt at that thought I threw up my arms and gave a sort of yell like a man start ing up from a bad dream. . But Seth punched me in the ribs with his elbow, and whispered. "Sh! don't frighten the rest." And I set my teeth and choked it down. It may have been an. hour or two after this I was beginning to lose all count of time now that Seth, who had got a little ahead of the rest, suddenly sang out : "Hurrah!" We all looked up. , ! " Here's somethin civilized at last, by hoe-cake I" eays he. i" Guess we've struck the right track without knowin it. "Look here." j. Just in front of us was a gully about forty feet deep, through -which ran a small stream, and across it lay a bridge not one of . the rope bridges yon Bee in Lower Peru, bnt good solid wood two long beams from bank to bank, with cross-pieces ashed to them, just like the sleepers on a railway. ) , Then we all shouted at once and stepped out to cross it; but, all in a moment, the poor old Indian, who was one of the hindmost, lurched over the edge and went slap down into the water, and the gold he caaried just sunk him like a stone. Whether he'd got hart in the fight, 'too, or whether he was just tixecl and dizzy like the rest of us, I can t say but down he went, and we never saw him more. So now we were cut down to five, and had lost our guide into the bargain. . " Thats a bad job," says Seth: "but never mind, boys we must jest steer by Lthe light of natur' now. , Whar thar's a L bridge like that ; thar oughter be . a trail Sure enough . there was a trail, and we tried to follow it, but we soon lost .it again, and tramped on all day at hap hazard, trying to steer by the sun. -Toward evening we halted to eat. and then pushed on again hot foot; for that was the last of our provisions. Just as the moon rose we came upon a gully with a bridge across it, and there we all stopped dead and looked at each other a look I shall never forget. . It was tbs same bridge that we had crossed twelve nonrs beforel -m v,;;.-iv;-- That minute's one of the things I never like to think of. There we were, lost in a tropical forest, our guide gone, every man of us as weak as a child, and not a morsel of food left! ' "Well, boys," says old Seth (who was our mainstay throughout), "we're in a kind of fix, thar ain't no denyin it, Naow, I calclate this bridge ain't bin long built by the look of it, and so, in stead o' goin losin' ourselves outer everybody's way, I guess we'll jest stick here tQl borne party picks us up it won't be long,1 1 reckin. ' That's my idee; how does tb some yew 1" t ,....-. 'We all agreed at once; and, indeed, we were too far 'gone flow for any more marching. " So- we- sat down there for three days, bearing it as well as we could, and frying to shoot game between whiles. But our eyes were too dim and our hands too shaky for that; and the birds and monkeys scurried past, chattering and screaming as if in mockery. : And at last we couldn't keep it off any longer, and it came. -; U:' '- ' tMw; ; The Spaniards died first, and no won der, poor fellows 1 for though some of them, are as brave men as ever stepped, they haven t the pith and fiber of an Englishman. The Portuguese held out lonsrer. for he had the heart of a lion: but at last he went too, and old Seth and I were left alone. " Seth." savs I. " let s bury these poor fellows while we can; for if they're, left lying here, and our hunger gets worse, we might be driven to you know I" So we wrapped the poor fellows in (heir blankets, with a heavy stone in each, and rolled them over the edge of the ravine down into the water. We buried the gold, too, and marked the spot, in case anything should turn up to save us at the list; and then we lay down again, as if we had nothing left to "do but to die. And . after that everything seems blurred and hazy, like an ugly dream. The trees and the rocks and . the sky seemed to go round and round in a whirl, and old Seth stood up as tall as a steeple, and great black things came out of the bushes and made faces at me; and then I was sitting under the old tree in the churchyard at home, and heard my old mother's voice (who's been dead this five and twenty years) as plain- as print; till all at once there were men's faces and "'men's voices all around us, and I felt somebody lifting my head and pouring something into my mouth, and then I fainted right off. - - We had been picked -up by a party coming back from the mines, and. they .carried us down with them to Arica; and when we gQt round again we went back and dug up the gold, and gave a lumping lot of it to the wives and children of the poor fellows that had died for us. .But when I got back after that last week's work my hair was quite gray as gray as you see it now. And that's all the story. Hjgienic Hints A hot lemonade is one of the best remedies in the world for a cold. It acts promptly and effectually, and has noun- pleasant after effects." One lemon prop erly squeezed, cut in shoes; put in sugar ana cover with a naif pint of boiling water. . Drink just before, going to bed ; do not expose yourself oh the following clay, -this remedy will ward off an at tack of the chills and fever if used promptly. ' Pcbe soft water is the best of all. blood purifiers. It dissolves most every im purity that may tad its way to the blood and passes it off through the skin, lungs and kidneys, thus washing out the blood without any irritation in the system, and without those chemical changes and' de posits which are likely to arise from the action of drugs. Why then use doubt ful, dangerous, -and often injurious drugs for purifying the blood, when pure, sim ple, safe, and pleasant 'and far more ef fectual water may be had without money and without price? Spirits of turpentine is a sovereign remedy for croup. Saturate a piece of flannel with it and place it on the throat and chest, and send for your family phy sician. If the case e very urgent, ana the distance to the doctor's residence be very great, drop three drops of the tur pentine on a lump 'of sugar and give in ternally. Or a good emetic of tincture of blood-root, or lobelia, or both com bined, should be given. Every family should keep a bottle of spirits of turpen tine in the house. " Onb who has tried it " communicates the following item about curing sore throat : Let each one of your half a million readers buy at anv drug-store one ounce of camphorated oil and five cents worth of chloride of potash. Whenever any soreness appears in the throat, put the potash in a tumbler of water, and with it gurgle the throat thor oughly ; then rub the neck thoroughly with the camphorated oil at night before going to bed, and also pin around the throat a small strip of woolen flannel. This is a simple, cheap and sure remedy. The following is a simple method for ventilating ordinary ' sleeping and dwell ing rooms: A piece of wood, three inches high and. exactly as long as the breadth of the window, is prepared. Let the sash now be raised, the shp of wood placed on the siu, and .the sash drawn closely upon it. If the slip has been well fitted, there will be no draft in consequence of this displacement of the sash at its lower part ; but the top of the lower sash will overlap the bottom of the upper one, and between the two bars perpendicular currents of air, not felt as draft, will enter and leave the room con stantly. , ..; . : ... ..' ;; Extremes generally follow each other in weather, as they do in matters Of opin ion or fashion ; hence we may expect an unusually "heated term during the summer months. To mitigate spring maladies and obviate all possible summer complaints, the hvtrienio rnle is as sim-nla as the Golden Rule in relation to human Conduct. In both cases do riglt. But what is right hygienically may be diih cult for the wayfarer to understand amid the terminable din and discord of prevalent teachings.' There are, howev er, a few common sense axioms, that are always hi order,- and a few prudential considerations always available in emer gencies: Be temperate in all things ; be regular in habits of eating bathe fre quently ; keep the bowels free by proper diet, but never take drug' purgations ; avoid all excesses in sensuous gratifica tions and all stimulants ; especially be moderate in the use of, or ; entirely es chew, all hydro-carbonaceous dishes or articles as starch, grease, sugar. They thicken the blood, cause bilious humors. clog the liver, obstruct the skin, congest the head and lungs, and predispose to numerous aiimenis. One Way for a Drunkard to Eeform. ' 1 "Let every young man whose appetite for drink is consciously growing, but whose conscience is not yet seared by confirmed habit, adopt the plan Of mak ing an accurate note of ' how he feels in the morning after drinking too much the night before. ' Let him analyze as nearly in detail as he can his thoughts and re flections when he first wakes np, and put down in black and white a plain, truth ful description of- them. I do not' refer to the sense of physical pain or discom fort which always follows a debauch, but to ' his ' moral conditions in the early morning, and in the absence of the fac titious excitement of conviviality. Let this be done conscientiously, and let the young man read over his own words carefully, and endeavor to thoroughly realize what he has described oh paper, every fcfme he thinks of taking a drink, and I believe that most young men con trolled by principle, actuated by a de sire to do right, and struggling against the inherent weakness Of human nature, would in a short time come to the con clusion that the " game is not worth the candle," and in many cases eventually givef up "'the desire to indulge 'in so treacherous and delusive a relief from ennui so dangerous and a false means of excitement. -Providence Journal. "Thh vilest sinner may return," wrote a pious girl to her lover, with whom she had parted in anger. REMARKABLE STOEY. A -Wounded Banter Uvea on Raw Matt for Svea Weeks, Tresses Iis Wound with . Snow and Gets Well. - - The Valhsjo (CaL) Chronicle contains the following singular story: ' About fifty miles from Virginia City,: as the crow flies, is a little mountain vale known as Gravelly Valley. In the sum mer season it is a beautiful- spot, green and luxuriant, but it is snowed in during most of the winter. In February last two hunters, named ' M. H. Bobinson and David Knox, were in the neighbor hood looking for game. At night they camped in a small cabin which had been used in former years by sheep herders. Dnring the tiay they explored the sur rounding mountains, looking for bear and deer. They succeeded in killing a large cinnamon bear, which they dragged to the hut. The steaks cut from its quarters served as an agreeable change from their usual diet of cured bacon and jerked venison. - Oh the morning of February 15, when twelve miles from camp, Robinson, in getting on his horse, accidentally discharged his gun, and the ball,' an ounce in weight, passed through his right heel, shattering it to fragments. His companion enveloped the wound in snow and tied it up in a piece of saddle blanket, and they started immediately for the cabin. Upon their arrival Knox saw at onoe that it was necessary to go for a physician. Bobinson - was ' weak from loss of blood, was utterly unable to ride to the nearest settlement, a distance of forty miles, and the nature of his in jury was such that he must surely die unless medical assistance was procured. It was probable that it would be judged necessary to amputate the limb to save his life. They were sworn friends; and Knox, after placing the wounded man in a bunk, covering him with a blanket and leaving him two days' provisions, bade him be of good cheer until his return. He rode all that night through a blinding storm, which set in soon after his depar ture, and arrived in Lake Valley soon after daylight. The road passed over a high range of mountains which separates the two valleys. , There was no cessation in the storm, but having procured the assistance of a physician who was well known to Bobinson, they Btarted to re turn. As they descended the steep side of the mountain the determined men soon found 'that it was impossible to pro ceed further. The -snow "was already four or five feet deep, and was accumu lating in great drifts. Half a dozen times their horses fell into deep ravines, from which they were extricated with difficulty, and they were at last com pelled to turn mournfully back for their own preservation. The regrets they felt at Robinson's fate were of no avail; but all through the winter his untimely end was discussed by his friends around their firesides. About ten days ago, when the snow was pretty well off the ground a party of men thought it their duty to go into the deserted valley and bury his body. They had also some curiosity to see whether he had left any account in writing of his approaching decease, and ascertain whether he supposed he had been abandoned without cause. He was a boon companion, liked by everybody, and had a host of friends. They crossed the mountain and came in sight -of the spot where the disaster had occurred, nearly two months before, with mourn ful feelings. They arrived, at the' door of the cabin and were, alighting from their horses when a voice within was hoard joyfully to exclaim: "Well, hava you fellows got here at last?" and Bob inson came limping out upon a pair of crutches. The amazement of the party may be imagined. ' Noticing their 'sur prise he said: "You all thought I was dead, did you f I am not, but am as well as ever I was in my life, except this leg." And so it' proved. He was aware' that the storm which set in upon. Knox's de parture would prevent his return, and at once set to work to make the best of the situation. He kept hia wound dressed with snow, and when his ready provisions were exhausted, dragged himself to the carcass of the bear at the door of the cabin and cut off a slice with his butcher knife. , Raw bear meat and water from a mountain stream, which ran near by, was all the sustenance he had for over seven weeks. This meagre diet no doubt kept his foot from mortifying. The fever subsided, the inflammation went down, and it soon began to heal. With a wire which he tore off an old broom, he probed the wound and drew out several pieces of the bone. He then made a pair of crutches and was able to get about witla out difficulty. He was a man of intelli gence, but the only thing in the nature of literary matter he had was the half of an old New York Tribune, which, as he lay upon his couch during his isolation, he perused until he said he behaved he could repeat every word it contained advertisements and all. He 'considers the snowstorm, a lucky thing, as his leg would probably have been amputated had the physician arrived. , Upon his re turn to Lake Valley he was welcomed as one come back from . the. dead, and the affair is the great theme of conversation throughout the. -whole neighborhood. Drinking Water. w',' Dr. Hall is opposed to the immoderate drinking of water. He says: ,-, The longer one puts off drinking water in the morning, especially in the sum mer, the less he will require dnring the day; if much is drank during the fore noon, the thirst often increases, and a very unpleasant fullness is observed, in addition to a metallic taste in the month, r : The less a man drinks, the , better . for him, beyond a moderate amounts The more water a man drinks, , the more strength he has to expend in getting rid of it, for aH the fluid taken into the sys tem 'must - be carried out; and as there is but little nourishment in water, tea, coffee, beer, and the like, more strength is expended in carrying them out of the system, than they impart to it. The more a. man drinks, the. more he must perspire, either by lungs or through the skin; the more he perspires, the more carbon is taken from the system; but this carbon is necessary for nutrition, hence the less a man is nourished, the leea strength he has. .;v . t Drinking water largely diminishes the strength in two ways, and .yet many are under the impression that the more water swallowed.' the more thorouchlv is the system "washed out." Thus, the less! we iuidk at meais, me oetier xor iu - the amount were limited to a single cup of hot tea, or hot milk and water, at each meaL an immeasurable good would re sult to all. Many persons have fallen into , the practice of drinking several glasses of , cold water, or several cups of hot tea or coffee, at. meals, out of mere habit; all such will be greatly benefited by breaking it up at once ; it may be very well, to drink a little at each meal, and, perhaps, it will be found that in all cases it is much better to take a single cup of hot tea at each meal than a glass of cold water, however pure. , . ' Thb "Old Probabilities" of Russia is a Dr. Kopper. He is tolerably reliable, but he doesn't " Kopper the ace," so to speak, as accurately as our own chief of the signal service. -f ' , Taking the Edge Off. . :, ' Saturday; noon a .sort "of a. slouchy-looking-, hungry-eyed, cadaverous fellow stepped; into' a i. restaurant on Fourth street, and said he wanted a cup of coffee and a piece of bread and butter. ' The waiter told him that the place sold noth ing short of a complete dinner, and the price was fifty cents. Said the stranger: Well, you see I ain't real hungry, and I only want a little coffee and a bit of bread." 'i..,-';t. Waiter" It makes no difference; we sell a whole dinner for -fifty cents, and nothing else."" . - - .-' ''' Stranger " You give a hull dinner for fifty cents?" v' , Waiter" Yes, a whole dinner; roast meat, potatoes, succotash, bread, butter, pie, pudding, coffee and tea." Stranger " Well, I s'pose you give a man all he wants to eat?" a- Waiter ?'Oh, yes;-we fill you up for fifty cents,' and give you a solid, good plain meaL" ' ' !'-'' 'Stranger " Well, I've half a mind to eat with ye. The fact is, the ole woman give me a half a loaf of bread and a piece of cold corn beef for a bite, and I eat that up at Carpenter's jes' now with a glass of beer.1 I thought I'd like a good cup of -coffee and a little bread and but ter to kind o' wash the thing down; 'but ye say ye can't gi'me that?" -' Waiter " No, sir ; well give you, as I've said, a solid, square meal for fifty cents. You can eat as little or as much as you please." '' ; ' V;' The stranger's eyes opened and looked thoughtful for a. moment, and then, striking his fist on the - table, he ex claimed : " By gum ! I b'leeve 111 take it. I aintright, real hungry, but bring on your roas' beef and taters, suckithash, tea, coffee, bread,' pie and puddin! Bring 'em on. : By gum ! I'm in for a square meal, and my nity cents' worth. The waiter hurried to respond, and the way that stranger's knife and fork played between his mouth and the plates was a caution. It beat a half-a-dozen pair of castinets, and sounded more like a bone solo than anthing else we ever heard. ' The waiter stood aghast, and when he turned tip with the third plate of roast beef, the proprietor, pale as marble from a Vermont quarry, called him aside behind the bar. "For heaven's sake, who, is that fel low ?" said he ; " he eats vituals as fast as a threshing machine swallows straw." The stranger's plates were beginning to show bottom again, and his eyes were running up and down the room for the waiter. He did not stop in his eating, but simply turned his back and let fly against the wall with his heels. ' ' Gi' me s' more roast beef and taters, ' ' he shouted. The landlord raised his hands in hor ror. . " Great heaven, James ! hell clean us out," said he, as the waiter sprang for the kitchen. ! . " "Ain't ye got more'n wun. kind of pie ?" inquired the stranger. ; " Oh, yes, said the waiter. " Well, then, bring it on, and giv's sum 6' that pud'n, too. ; Jeinimy I 'f I was only hungry, how I'd clean ye out. Bring me two cups of coffee and a cup of tea, too. I ain't only jis beginnin' to eat." . '. ,;' ' . The landlord listened with dismay, and, stopping the ' waiter, as he entered the kitched for the fifteenth time, walked solemnly np to the stranger, and said : " See here I, We ain't got enough in this house to feed you. . Just go on now; I will call it all square. You needn't pay a cent for. what you've had." : . The stranger became indignant, and declined, saying that his appetite was just coming, and winding up with a very emphatic : "Hanged if I will!" ' ; ! A bright thought struck the landlord, as he walked off in . mental agony. Hastening to the bar, he jerked open the till, pulled out a half dollar, and, rushing up to the stranger, 'placed it in his hand. ' " Here, here," said he, " take this and go right up to the Holly Tree Inn, and clean 'em out. Go on. They'll feed you till you bust for fifty cents. " Well," said the stranger, as he grad ually arose and stretched himself, at the same time putting the scrip in his vest pocket, "I don't mind ef I do take it I ain't very hungry anyhow. I only wanted a cup of coffee and a piece of bread and butter, when I come in, but I'm' jis as well satisfied. I guess I'll buy the old mare some oats ; wait until I get hum to finish np," and he left. Troy Times. X Chinaman Gored to Death and Then Impaled. ; At the Devil's Elbow, about six miles below. Black Hawk, on the line of the Colorado Central railway, where the bed of the road is hewn out of the solid rock, owing to" the extreme narrowness of the valley of Clear creek at the point, an ac cident occurred on Wednesday evening last, which takes rank as one of the most horrible and terrible on record. A Chinaman, Lin Wan, working in the gulch mines along the creek, was pursued by a wild and furious bull, which had wandered away from ; his herd- upVthe , creek. . For safety the Celestial took to the track, but was closely followed by the infuriated animal, to the Devil's El bow, where the bed of the creek is about twenty feet below the track, and the top of the telegraph poles on a line with the rails. One hurried moment had. the Chinaman to realize that , his enemy .was upon him, when with all the force of brute power -one horn went piercing through the back,, passed through the abdomen and came out in front. It was the work of an instant to raise, like a feather, the mass of bleeding, screaming human flesh, and with a toss, to hurl it across the track, and into the gulch. The unfortunate Chinaman, thus gored unto death and tossed into air, in his descent struck upon the end of a telegraph pole, which . entered the very same gaping wound made by the horn of the brute in his back, and the pain-tortured blood besmeared victim was impaled mid-air. Without speech, and pale with horror at the sight, his companions stood power less, until the heart-rending cries of the unfortunate awoke them to duty. . He was then taken from his appalling posi tion as speedily as possible, bnt died in a few minutes. The bulL after accom plishing this deed, i passed np the canon, and had not been captured at last accounts.' " '; ' .,-:':-r:A:. "A. ''' Ws can build : wooden vessel ' in the United States as cheaply as they can be built by anybody.' A spruce ship costs $52 gold per ' ton in any of the British provinces, while vessels of oak or pitch pine, either far better than spruce, cost only $60 per ton in Maine. " At Bremen or Havre, it would cost $100 per ton to build a vessel.' The statistics show that the amount of pine and hemlock stand ing in the timber States is estimated at 225,000,000,000 feet, 1 not mentioning California, which is accredited with 100, 000,000,000 feet. The stun invested in the United States timber lands ' is stated at $114,000,000, while the annual pro duction is valued at $210,000,000, and the ' labor involved gives employment to 200,000 men. THERE OUCK WAS A T8FEK. T?mmi anm was a acmer IH not tell his 1 Who had for his comfort a sootding old dams ; And nf ten ajsd often ke wished himself dead. For If drunk ha earns horns, aha would beat him Bed. -He spent all Ins evenings sway from his home, And when he returned, he would sneakingly earn. And by to walk straigbtly, and say not word Jest to keep his dear wife from abusing her load For, if ha dared say his tongue was his own, Twonld set her tongue going, in no gentle tone, And she'd huff him, and cuff Jiim,and call bmt hard names,- , An A ha'd siirh to bs rid at all seolding old damsfl. It happened, one night, on frolie he Went, He staid tfll hia rery last penny was spent, , -i. . I l nA MA ..f.l. Was the thing on his heart -that most heavily weighed. - - ' Bnt home he most go ; so he oaught up his hat, And off he went singing, by this, and by that, " 111 plnek np my courage, I guess she's in bed, If she aint, 'tis no matter, I'm snre : Who's afraid T" Hs came to his door ; he lingered until He peeped l and he listened, and all seemed quia still; i In he went, and his wife sure enough was In bed ! "Ohl" says he, "it'a just as I , thought : Who's afrault" . r a.,-. -i..; sf " r .. ! He crept about softly, and spoke not a word. His wife seemed to sleep, for she never e'en stirred! Thought he "for thim night, then, my fortune as Tnafif T - For my dear seolding wife is asleep 1 Who's afraid?' nui soon ue leM'Uuroiy ; ibq saj7 uv iw( And groping around, to the table he goes. The pitcher found empty, and so wss the bowl, - The pail and the tumblers she'd emptied the whole! At length in a corner, a vessel he found ! Says he, "here's something . to. drink, 111 bo bound!" . . ' - And eagerly seizing, he lifted it up And drank it all off, in one long hearty slip I It tasted so queerly ;' and, what it could be, He wondered ; it neither was water, nor tea ! Just then a thought struck him and filled him with fear, " Oh ! it must be the poison for rats, I declare V And loudly he called on his dear sleeping wife, And begged her to risei 1' for," said he, "on my life I fear it was poison, the bowl did contain . Oh I dear I yet it teas poisony I now feel the pain !" "And what made you dry, sir?" the wife sharply cried; ' ' ' " Twould serve you Just right If from poison you died; ... And you've done a fins job, and you'd now better march, For Jut tee, you btnta, ym lune drank all mjf . utarch!" . -r : ; , : ; Wit and Hamor.,1" A Mabked down Feathers. . . i - Tbdb best of faster- Fast asleep. Thb best Aeatf quarters Brains. A xobd of the aisles The usher. What is the form of an escaped par rot ? -A polly-gone. . In Tonga Tabou only the sterner sex is allowed to wear false hair. - . In culling the flowers of poetry, no one should miss Cullan Bryant. . f A exosE observer says the words which ladies are fondest of are the first and last words. . ,... - The chief reason why a Dayton woman wouldn't buy a Bible .was because the agent hadn't one containing any comi pictures. ,;. c:.-. ' A cbttsty. bachelor's objection' to hv dies ' with beautiful teeth is, that nine out of ten of then would laugh at a funeral. When the evil one is going to and fro, and np and down over the earth, can we doubt that he is imp-roving ? Boston Advertiser. - When a man has carroty hair, reddish cheeks, turn-up nose and a sage look, may he not properly be said to have a vegetable head? ( This conundrum is respectfully : sub mitted to the best speller : Io S-i-o-u-x spells su, and e-y-e spells i, and s-i-g-h-e-d. spells side, why ' doesn't s-i-o-u-x-e-y-e-s-i-g-h-e-d spell suicide t ,.t ' A FRiGHTFOT. example 1 First degree, lemonade with a stick in it ; second de gree, brandy smash and port wine ; third degree, bourbon, brandy,: old ale, gin, mm and apple-jack ; fourth degree, all kinds every time ; never say no. There is one section of railroad in the State of Indiana that has become famous, for accidents. Recent investi gation reveals the curious ' fact that there is not a mother-in-law in the State unprovided with a free ticket over that road. .' - ' eOXDKKSS. Whk writing an article for the press, ' ' - Whether prose or verse, Just try ' To ntter your thoughts in the fewest words,: And let them be crisp sad dry ; And when it Is finished, snd you suppose It is done exactly brown, Just look at it over again, and then Boil it down. A few days since a very pretty youn jj married woman, during a dinner-table discussion on churchmanship, opened the eyes of the company and demolished her husband by expressing, .as her opin ion, that, Mhe only difference , between the Ritualists aad Romanists was in the fact that the latter burned insects." . Mb. L. H. CabijTsxjb, a New Orleans actor, was recently es gaged by an ama teur, dramatio association at Kirksviile, Mo., to help them bring out "Bichard HT. " Mr. Carlysle has now a deep scalp wound seven inches long inflicted by the maiden sword of Richmond, an untamed amateur named Dick Pickler, who ." got excited", and "identified himself with . the character.". , , . , A strahoeb entered . one of our churches last . Sunday evening, and and walked the entire . length of the aisle without any person offering him a ae&U so he started oat.- As he neared the door, a man rose and asked if he wanted a seat. " No," : replied the stranger, - "I , came merely to -look around. I'm going home now," and he went. Franklin (Conn.) Citizen. , A Sootchwoman, whose name was Margaret, did -nothing bnt swear and abuse instead of answering the minister. Ay, Margaret," says he, " dinna ye ken were a' the sinfu' gang?" "Deil tak them that kens as weel as 'them that sneers,' cries she. 1 Ay, Margaret, tney gang where there'll be wailing and gnashing of teeth." By my trom, . then," says Margaret, " let them gnash that ha'e them, far de'il a stump have I had for these twenty years. - i. Vegetables Cooked with Salt. . Vegetables which are oooked in clear water are quite different in taste and smelL and particularly in their degree of tenderness, from what they are when cooked in water and salt. This may be wjMovMuij tniwaDu ui ui cwuu oi onions. which, when cooked in pure distilled water, are comparatively tasteless and odorless, but which, when oooked in salted water, possess a omits different, somewhat sugary flavor,- and decided onion smell. 5 The reason, of the differ ence is that salt diminishes the solvent qualities of water so that more of the soluble substances of vegetables are re tained - through cooking them in salt water. Vegetables are also rendered more tender by the salt, and their proper taste is often improved. Water contain ing 1-423 of its weight in salt is much better adapted for .boiling vegetables than clear water..-1 ... .... VPBovroiKa Fob Am;. A newsboy, seated - on the Poetoffice . .steps yes terday, counted his pennies over and re marked : ,.. . ,' Seventeen cents in all, ; That's five for the circus, ; three . for pea nnts,J" four for .a sinking fund, four I owe to Jack, and there's ana left to. support a widowed mother on until Saturday night." Detroit free JTVes ,