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Corvallis Weekly Gazette.
GAZETTE rVUaUSt HOtTSE, Tube.
C0KVA3UO8,
OREGON.
The Current Number of the North
American Review contains the opin
ons of eight sculptors and critics as
to what the Grant monument should
be and all of them would involve the
expenditure of vast sums, one of them
calling for the outlay of a million of
dollars. It will probably be some
time ere any of them are carried to
completion by voluntary gifts.
The States which stand at the head
of the list as corn-producing States
areIllinois,325,792,481bushels;Iowa,
275,024,247 bushels; Missouri, 202,
485,723 bushels; Indiana, 115,482,
300 bushels; Ohio, 111,877,124, and
Kansas, 105,729,325 bushels. Ken
tucky comes next, with over 72,000,
000 bushels, and Nebraska follows,
with over65,000,000 bushels.
In England, as in the United States,
railroad freights are higher for short
hauls than for long hauls; and smaller
towns complain that they are dis
criminated against. The town of Hull
is just now complaining that her mer
chants and manufacturers are charged
as high rates as those of Newcastle,
which is much farther from London.
They demand that their rates shall
be lowered, or those for Newcastle
raised, in proportion to distance.
Thus this question is not settled in
the old countries of Europe, after half
a century of government regulation.
Senator Colquitt has furnished the
first instance in the history of Georgia,
says the New York Sun,in which father
and son represented the State in the
senate of the United States. Such oc
currences are very rare. There are
only three on record. They are these
of Senators Bayard, Don Cameron
and Colquitt. The Bayards have rep
resented Delaware in the senate with
out interruption for three generations.
Don Cameron took his father's seat.
1 here were 30 years between Walter
T. Colquitt and his son in the senate.
New Jersey, mainly on account of its
small area, is frequently subjected to
sneering remarks, but her late census
shows remarkable progress in popu
lation. In 1860 her population was
672,035; now it is reckoned at 1,277,
000, or nearly double the number
counted twenty-five years ago. The
same tendency which is observable in
other Eastern States is noted in New
Jersey, namely that the growth in
population is almost entirely confined
to the cities, while the country dis
tricts remain stationary.
Gen. Sherman speaks somewhat
contemptuously of the great number
of projects that have been put on foot
for the building of Grant monuments
throughout the country. "Every
cross-roads village wants one," he
Bays, and the result, he fears, will be
"too many poor ones instead of a few
fine ones." Certainly a few fine ones
are much to be desired, and they will
be built, too; but at the same time, if
the cross-roads villages choose to erect
smaller ones, according to their means,
it may be doubted if their efforts
Bhould be slightingly or discouraging
ly treated.
It has been the custom of Eastern
newspapers to speak of the West as
the home of cyclones and tornadoes,
but recent experiences at home have
made them change their tune. Some
of the worst blows ever recorded were
in the Eastern states. A Washington
paper is moved to say: "Destructive
storms are evidently more common in
the east now than formerly. What
the reason is, and possible remedies,
should engage the close attention of
science. It is likely that the American
architect of the future will pay more
attention to cellars and basements
than has heretofore been given to that
branch of domestic architecture."
The West has got a bad reputation,
mainly on account of frequent exag.
gerations by reporters of the damage
done. It is not enough to state facts,
as they do at the east, but accounts
must contain a "fine writing" and the
product of vivid imaginations, and
these things are transferred bodily
into eastern papers to the detriment
of western sections where such a thing
as a cyclone was never known.
At a recent wedding in tne Savoy
chapel, London, the bridesmaids were
very young children. One of these
midgets, apparently 2 or 3 years of
age, became rather tired of the service
and began to ask questions of one of
the bridal party as they stood in the
chancel. Finding, however, that her
prattle was unheeded, she very com
posedly seated herself on the chancel
steps, facing the wedding guests, and,
emptying her basket of flowers, rear
ranged them to suit her infantile taste.
She came in for a greater share of ad
miration than the bride
THE FAft.
How It Has Been Used In Ancient and Mod
ern Times anionic the People of Various
Nations.
At the bazaar of the Female School
of Art, Queen square, says The London
Telegraph, are exhibited some exquis
itely painted fans, the work of students
of tne school, ouch a fan, it is stated,
her majesty the queen, the most ulus
trious of collectors and amateurs, in
tends to give the Princess Beatrice on
the occasion of her marriage. Judg
ing bv the reDutation of those who are
intrusted with carrying out the royal
commands, the work when completed
should deserve to rank with the best
specimens of the art in its palmiest
days of the seventeenth century.
Those who take an interest in a fas
cinating subject, which from time to
time has emploved the genius of many
of the most skillful painters, versifiers
and handicraftsmen of Europe ever
since the renaissance, will not tail to
remember that the delightful loan ex
hibition of fans at South Kensington
in the year 1870 was actually initiated
and largely supported by the queen
During the past fifteen years there
have been other exhibitions ot the kind
but the catalogue of the first Kensing
ton loan collection still keeps its place,
and is most highly prized by amateurs.
It-is no uncommon complaint that
gentlewomen obliged by necessity to
earn a living find few paths open to
their enterprise. Yet, if the oft neg
lected and oft revived fashion of using
painted fans were to come in again,
owing to an impetus given from the
highest quarter, another and a wide
field would be afforded to female labor.
In a Parisian directory of about a
century and a quarter ago the master
fanmakers number 150, and each mas
ter must have employed a large quan
tity of educated artists and ingenious
artisans to supply the immense de
mand of the time for such beautiful
trifles. As a matter of course, the
lady students of the Slade school, in
Queen square, and at South Kensing
ton, and the innumerable schools of
design scatttered up and down the
country, could not acquire the delicate
touch of the true fan-painter without
some natural aptitude, and a consid
erable amount of patience and close
application. If, however, wealthy
ladies would but follow the leade of
the first lady in the land, and the
market were there, the rest would
follow. England abounds in magnifi
cent specimens of the best period of
the Parisian fancultus. For this rea
son, when the noble and gentle emi
grants, driven from France by the.
horrors and rigors of the revolution,
sought a shelter on our shores the
ladies brought their jewels and their
fans along with them; and afterward
the poverty, not the will, of the pos
sessors induced them to part with their
loved treasures for a garment and a
meal. In this way history plays
strange freaks. According to Brillat
Savarin, the elegant emigrcss from
the salons of Marie Antoinette her
self a passionate fan amateur were
fain to teach dancing and cooking to
keep the wolf from the door; and we
are supposed to owe something of our
saltatory grace, besides the way to
mix a salad and fold an omelette, to
"the red-fool-fury of the Seine," which
cut off the beads of king and queen
only to bow the knee to consul and
emperor. Not that fans, and very
beautiful ones, were unknown in Eng
land before Watteau and Lancret,
Pater, Lemoine, Fragonard, Bouchier,
Gravelot, Gillot, or More au the young
er made the French school illustrious.
Shakspear, Ben Johnson, Hall, Mas
singer, Gay. and Addison are in evi
dence to the contrary.
Among the gifts presented to Queen
Elizabeth on her accession was a fan
contained in the haft of a "meat
knife," the offering, by the way, of
the court cutler. Shakspeare con
stantly introduced the fan which gives
occasion for some most laughable
comic business in one of the lighter
scenes of "Romeo and Juliet." What
middle-aged play goer does not re
member Mrs. Stirling as the Nurse to
the Peter of Mr. Buckstone, in the
cast, when Adelaide Neilson was the
brightest and most fascinating of Ju
liets? Who was Mrs. Bridget, the
lady who lost the handle of her fan in
"The Merry Wives of Windsor?" The
bard suggests that the article fetched
half a crown, and that Ancient Pistol
had 15 pence of the plunder. Could
Mrs. Bridget, mentioned only by
name, and only once, have been any
relative of the French gentleman
whom Hamlet beat at the foils prior
to the return of Laertes in rebellion to
the court of Denmark also referred
to by name, yet never seen? Silver
handled fans were the rage when
Shakspeare was a young man. Ben
Jonson speaks of the "least feather"
of a lady s "beauteous fan;" and Mas
singer, in "The Bondman," has:
"Ravish a feather from a mistress1
fan and wear it as a favor." With
very few exeeptions, the early En-
flish fans were more or less like the
y-flappers of the east, where all the
decorative arts had their cradle. Ac
cording to Blondel and Octave Uzanne,
among the best authorities on the sub
ject, the -origin of the fan is lost in the
mists of the past. It often crops up
in ancient Buddhist literature as an
old-fashioned article of daily use. and
was known in China when our ances
tors for their only garment wore a
coat of paint. Both in China and Ja
pan the fan has always been employ
ed as an instrument of command. A
famons general used to direct three
army corps at one and the same time
with the motions of his fan a piece
of information suggestive of the light
cane which, instead of a sword, our
"Chinese" Gordon, the hero and the
victim of Khartoum, was accustomed
to carry into action. Among the Ce
lestials the fan is utilized as a stand
ard and a rallying point in battle, and
serves the military mandarin in place
of that most famous oriflamme, the
helmet of Navarre. Only a month or
so ago, at the burned down Japanese
exhibition at Humphreys' hall, the
stage manager directed the move
ments of the wrestlers and the jug
glers with the motion of his fan. In
quite another school, and totally
different objects, the Spanish ladies
understand better than the women of
any other nation the silent language
of this pretty toy. There every wo
man, from princess to peasant, pos
sesses a fan and knows how to use it
as a part of her artillery of conquest.
A traveler of the last century on his
return from Spain declared that he
had seen a Spanish lady in
satin shoes and no stockings, but
he had never seen one without her fan.
Doubtless the ladies of Castille and
Arragon taught their fair sisters of
France the fatal use in the service of
Cupid of this all but deadly weapon
"the tumbles, the somersaults, the
fullness, the febrile action of the fans,
handled, opened, shut, abandoned,
caught up again with most lively ex
pression of enthusiast), of languor, of
fainting, of delirium." Such were
the arts to be practiced in "Mr. Spec
tator's" fanciful "London Academy
for Teaching the Use of the Fan" in
the reign of "Great Anna," when
gentlemen as well as ladies used fans
to keep their painted faces from the
sun in summer, and in winter from
the fire.
Haply Eve may have used a fan in
Earadise, and Deborah have fanned
orself while composing the grandest
of odes to victory. Moses must have
known he was educated at an Egyp
tian university that the subjects of
the Pharaohs looked on the fan as the
emblem of happiness and heavenly re
pose. The Athenians and the Etrur
ians were fanned habitually, and Prof.
Schlietnann may yet discover along
with the hairpins of Helen of Troy
the handle of her fan. Cassar's wife,
who ought to have been, but unfortu
nately was not, above suspicion,
doubtless employed a slave to apply
the same kind of flabellum to keep off
the flies as was afterward used in the
Romish church to fan the incense up
on the altar. The Etruscan vases and
the walls of Pompeii suggest and at
test such lighter facts slight em
broideries on the robe of the historic
muse. Authors in comparatively mod
ern times teem with notices of the
fan, in prose or verse, from Brantome
to Gay. Not many persons, at this
end of the third quarter of the nine
teenth century, trouble to read Mr.
John Gav's "poem in three books"
entitled "The Fan," vith its Greek
motto from Homer. Mr. Gay, author
of the famous "Beggars' Opera," and
only less notorious "Trivia," invokes
"that graceful toy whose waving play
with gentle gales relieves the sultry
day," and calls on his "wand ring
muse" to stay and "say how this in
strument of love began, and in im
mortal strains display the Ian. J! or
five hundred and fifty-three weary
lines Mr. Gay, in rather less than
more "immortal strains," apostro
phises his beloved fan, the idea of
which he ascribes to Venus herself and
the first manufacture to her son Eros.
The poet, however, was both practic
ally and historically correct when he
wrote, "Gav France shall make the
fan her artists care. And with the
costly trinket arm the fair." That,
indeed, is exactly what dull England,
as well as "gay France," proposes to
do, if only the ladies of the haut ton
will occupy the happy example ol the
the queen, and encourage native tal
ent in the production of what has been
called "the screen of modesty," and
likewise, be it said, "the symbol of
lightness and inconstancy."
Autocrat Hamilton.
The island of Arran is the propertv
of the duke of Hamilton, whose para
mont object as "lord of the soil" is to
convert as much of the island as possi
ble into a game preserve lor the en
joyment of himself and his friends
during the month which he passes at
Brodick castle every autumn, so that
instead of its resources being devel
oped and the population being en-
courageu in men a ucauuus,, every
thing "is done to keep strangers away,
and the aboriginal inhabitants are
mere serfs. Arran (which is twenty
miles by ten) forms a great contrast
to the neighboring island of Bute, be
ing hfty years behind in everything,
and it seems monstrous that in these
days so large a domain should be sub
jected to the selfish caprices of one
man. The duke's latest proceeding,
as an absolute monarch of the island,
has been to refuse permission to the
United Presbyterians to erect a church,
and it is actually stated in the letter
of the agents that the duke "will not
sanction the use of a building for such
a purpose for a longer period than the
three summer months. une would
really think that they were back in
those palmy days ol torryism, which
Scotland groaned under the iron yoke
and the unexampled jobbery of Henry
Dundas. The duke of Hamilton's po
litical leaders will scarcely thank him
for this exhibition of intolerance,
which is certainly, unreasonable
and hardly a satisfactory return
for the thistle which Lord Bea
consfield bestowed upon him. Lon
don Truth.
Electricity m the Menagerie.
Nearlv everv dav some new use is
found for electricity, and one of the
most recent applications of this power
is in the interests of the professional
tamers of wild animals, says an ex
change. The inventor is a tamer
himself, and his instrument is an ap
paratus shaped like a stick and highly
charged with electricity. When the
animals become unruly he gives them
a shock from this battery, and the
effects are said to be instantaneous.
On experiment, three of his lions
immediately showed signs of the great
est terror. They were seized with
trembling and growled fitfully. The
tiger was more quickly subdued, be
came stupefied and crouched in a cor
ner of the cage. Bruin was more re
fractory to the electricity, which
seemed scarcely to affect him. He
would growl anil show his teeth, bat
was subdued after repeated dis
charges. The most astonishing effects, how
ever, were perceptible in the boa con
strictor. On receiving the discharge
the specimen from Cayenne, nearly
twenty feet in length, became at once
paralyzed and remained motionless
for six hours afterward. When he re
covered he showed signs of helpless
ness for three whole days. Finally the
elephant on being electrified by a touch
of the stick upon the tip of his trunk,
set up a series of wild cries, and be
came so frantic that the tamer feared
he would break his heavy won chains.
Break-O'-Day Tonic
About as fast as God makes laws
men seek to revise them.
Labor for others' comfort and they
will seek you. Otherwise you can
drink life's gall unobserved.
Those who envy others, generally
have a secret respect for them or their
begrudged prosperity.
A conceited man is not necessarily
a fool, but it only requires time and
patience to make one of him.
The world's clumsy balance may tip
in favor of influence" but the balance
ot Uod weighs all men to a hair.
Envy will probably cease at the
first blast of the archangel's trumpet,
but what human heart will part with it
till then?
There are quacks in religion as well
as in other professions. A cod-fish
mouth is not always an indication of
piety.
Cunning is but a step from false
hood, and is the ape of wisdom. To
gether, cunning and falsehood are ras
cality. All persons are made up of both
good and evil, and it don t take one
more'n a week to draw conclusions
upon this basis.
That "this world owes every man
a living" may be true, but if it is there
are some of them who appear to be in
no hurry to collect the debt.
Don't expect to get through this life
without some insults from others. If
you do, you will have to travel by
night, and obscure streets at that.
Many people do not recognize the
head from the tail end of an opportu
nity, and fewer know how to profit by
one when they happen to foreclose.
It doesn't take much of a man to
misuse nature and then whine because
nature retaliates. It isn't much of a
man either who has any sympathy for
him.
I never had a notion that all there
was in this world was made expressly
for me. On the contrary, 1 have had
to hump myself to get a share and
then keep it.
There are too many would-be Briga
dier Generals. Those content to be
counted among the rank and file, will
ing to earn promotion, are in demand
just now.
Where you find one young nian who
can, if he has to, saw wood to raise a
family, you will find two others who
can display only white hands and talk
nonsense.
If at the start a man doesn't make
up his mind to get along with all the
annoyances in this life, and part in
the next to, if necessary, I have an
idea that he won't enjoy himself very
much.
I believe that the Creator finishes
off our work when we are compelled
to lay it down, and that all our tri
umphs and failures are so constructed
as to fit their purpose in His original
plan.
Often not until friends are lost is
the power of a nod, look, or word of
recognition realized, or the amount
of good feeling that has been poured
into the whole being by such small
means.
Frequently a man's success, when
translated, signifies that he has work
ed for ten dollars per week rath
er than remain idle because he
couldn't get twenty dollars for his six
days' labor.
I have a great deal of charity for
those people who by the most bitter
circumstances during trials and per
plexities have become hardened into
the selfish, unscrupulous beings that
they appear to be. ,
One reason why so many young
men of promise fail is because
they set the mark up too high,
when by at fiist placing it with
in reach and aiming lower, they
could fire with greater accuracy
and eventually raise it a notch.
I have seen young men whose lives
hare been composed only of soft
words and sweet smiles flee in terror
from difficulties that other young
men, who had occasionally been rub
bed against the thorns and troubles
of life, take hold of, give a cholera
morbus twist, and eventually crowd
to the wail.
There are too many people who are
everlastingly ruining their constitu
tions by the active interest they take
in the affairs of others. They never
know much about their own business,
but can estimate to a nicety how much
a neighbor paid per pound for the
white lead used in painting his picket
fence. Jud. Lafagan, in Chicago
Ledger.
Bill Arp on Storms.
A storm in the country is worth
something to see. We can look out
and afar off and see it coming, and we
can see the lightning flash and zigzag
and corruscate, and have no fear it is
fraud, but not fearful not alarming,
he trees are all around us and have
never been struck. They are our
lightning rods, our insulators. Light
ning will strike one lonely tree, but it
rarely strikes in a grove or forest. It
has struck twice in our cotton field
and killed the cotton, but these trees
all around us scatter it and keep it
from concentrating. Nabor Freeman
says that lightning has a likeing for a
wagon with one steer, for he passed
one on the road day before yesterday
while there was a storm on hand and
the lightning struck the little one
steer wagon and tore it all to pieces,
and the steer just went on with noth
ing but one shaft hitched to him.
There was no driver, for the steer had
just been turned loose to go home by
himself. Cobe says he never did un
derstand this thunder and lightning
business, nohow, "for" says he,
"some folks say it's the lightnin' that
strikes, and some say it's the thunder,
but he has noticed one thing, and that
is when any thing is struck they both
come right smack together and it looks
like it takes 'em both to do the work.
Atlanta Constitution.
When a tramp sees a woman with a pistol
or a gun In ber bands he goes right on with
out winking, but let her appear on the scene
with a dipper of bot water and be makes
tracks like a kanearoo. Burlington Fret
Prat.
A painting la called a rare work sometimes
because it isn't well done. Boston Trantcripl-
Where Scandal is not Relished.
Holland Letter.
The revolting details of crimes, the
highly flavored testimony of the di
vorce court, the scandals of society
and of court life have no attraction for
the average reader of a Dutch news
paper. A shocking crime is committed,
a prominent citizen commits suicide,
an oiiicial mysteriously disappears, a
well known " society couple are di
vorced, a rich girl elopes with her
father's coachman, the king ill treats
h:s wife, quarrels with h;s son, or
leaver the funeral ceremonies of his
first wife to go on a debauch with his
favorite mistress. Rich morsels of
scandal these for American, French,
and even some English newspapers.
Is Amsterdam shocked, mystified, as
tonished or disguste3? Not a bit of it;
nor even interested. The crime will
merely be mentioned in an obscure
corner of the paper, the suicide's name
perhaps will be omitted, two months
may elapse before a word is said about
the disappearance, and then merely to
announce the discovery of the remains
in the canal. The elopement may not
find its way into print at all, while the
court scandals (and there are many of
them) are merely spoken of as painful
facts of which the less said the better.
And yet the laws relating to libels are
not stringent. Libel suits are exceed
ingly rare in Holland, simply because
there seems to be no inducement for
newspapers to print domestic or pub
lic scandals. There is one, and only
one paper in the country, given to
what is known in the United States as
sensational journalism, and that has
never been a commercial success. That
paper often prints scandalous thingF,
sometimes about high officials, but no
one pays any attention to it. The
Dutch seem utterly indifferent to pri
vate scandals. A public man may
openly keep half a dozen mistresses
and be otherwise involved in social
scandals, but it would in no way be
discussed in a campaign for any pub
lic office of honor or trust.
Character in Hair.
Cble&co Sews.
"It is a fact," said the barber, "that
a better idea of charactr is expressed
by the beard oftentimes than by the
countenance. The art of reading char
acter by the beard is taught as a
se'ence in I'aris under the name of
'philography.' and I understand a book
is shortly to bs published in which the
principles of this science will be given
in detail. Did you ever notice that
people of very violent temper have al
ways a close growing hair? It's a fact
that every man having close-growing
hair is the owner of a decided temper.
It's easy enough for me to note at a
fiance how a man's hair grows. Then
know how to handle him. Men of
strong temper are generally vigorous,
but at the same time they are not al
ways fixed in their opinions. Now,
the man with coarse hair is rooted to
his prejudices, Coarse hair denotes
obstinacy. It's not a good business
policy to oppose a man whose hair is
coarse. The eccentric man has always
fine hair, and you never yet saw a man
of erratic tendencies, who at the same
time had a sound mind, that was not
refined in his tastes. Fine hair indi
cates refinement. You may have no
ticed that men engaged in inteilectual
or especially in aesthetic pursuits,
where delicacy of taste is required,
have invariably fine, luxuriant hair
and beard. These same men as a class,
particularly painters, are always re
markable for their personal peculiari
ties. Take Oscar Wilde, for example.
His hair is as fine and soft as a child's
and you remember how much fun was
made of him because he persisted in
wearing knee-breeches. Oscar Wilde
couldn't help that, however. He had
to act different from other men be
cause his mind had an erratic bent. I
went to see him when he lectured here
just to satisfy myself whether he was
a humbug. The moment I caught
sight of h:s hair, which, you remem
ber, he wore down his back, I was sat
islied the man was in earnest, though
very eccentric. The brilliant, spright
ly fellow, who, by the way, is almost
always superficial, has generally a
curly beard. If not, h s hair is curly.
It's easy to bring a sm le to the face of
a man whose haTr is curly. He laughs
where colder natures see nothing to
laugh at. But that's because his mind
is buoyant and not deep enough to
penetrate the bottom of things.
"There is a good deal of difference
between coarse hair and hair that is
harsh, though it requires an expert to
distinguish it. For example, a man's
mustache may be of a texture as fine
as silk, and yet cannot be trained to
grow into a successful -curve. That's
because the hair is hiirsh. Now, peo
ple whose ha:r is harsh have amiable
but cold natures. They are always
ready to listeD, but its difficult to
arouse the'r feelings. In men of this
disposition the hair on their heads is
generally, in fact almost always, of a
darker shade than their beards. When
the beard is full, covering Ihe entire
face, the color var es from a dark
shade near the roots to red, which col
ors the end of the hair. They forget
easily, and often leave a cane or an
overcoat behind them in a barber shop.
They are great procrastinators,and are
bad at keeping appointments. Think
over your acquaintances and see if the
man who is habitually slow has not a
mustache or beard of a lighter shade
than his hair. It's always the case.
They are the men who come in late at
the theater and get to the depot just in
time to miss the train. But study phil
ography as a science. It takes years of
study and observation to acquire it.
From long practice and a natural lik
ing for the art, I have attained consid
erable skill in discerning character."
Jenkins, who had been fishing all
day, and had caught two small fishes,
was, on h;s return, thus accosted by
Todd: ' Well, what luck have you
had?" "Oh, pretty fair," said Jen
kins, "I caught a hundred or two."
"I am coming, oh. my darling!"
sings a Western poetess. This is kind
on her part. If her darling allows
himself to be caught after this warn
ing he deserves h s fate.
"How can I find ont all about the
young lady to whom I am engaged?"
asks a prospective Benedict. Has she
a younger brother? If so, consult him.
The Battle of Austerlitz.
In the memoirs of Marshal Bogeand,
just publisho'd, appears a letter from
him, when still a private, to his sister,
describing the brief Austerlitz campaign,
in which he says : "Three days before
the battle we had orders to leave the
town, and encamped a league from the
enemy. The Emperor came there him
self and slept in his carriage in the mid
dle of our camp. For the three days
that passed before the battle he was al
ways walking through all the camps
and talking to the soldiers or their
leaders. We gathered round him. I
heard much of his talk ; it was very
simple and always turned upon military
duty. At last on the eve of the battle,
the anniversary of his coronation, he is
sued a proclamation, exhorting us to
behave with our usual intrepidity
and promised to keep his
distance as - long as victory
followed us. But," said he, "if by mis
chance you hesitate a moment, you
will see me fly into your ranks to restore
order. " Then he promised to give ua
peace after this battle, assuring us that
we should go into cantonments. We
replied by shouts of joy, the harbingers
of glad success. Torches were lighted
and the bands played while the whole
army sang songs with eagerness. It
seemed that every man was celebrating
his return home, and felt the joy one
experiences at seeing father, mother
and brother. Yet how many of these
happy men were not to see their country
again. At daybreak the drums and
trumpets announced the fight; a start
was made with shouts of 'Vive
1'Empereur.' The charge is sound
ing. These words are re
peated again louder, and carry terror
into the enemy's ranks. We charged
like lightning, and the carnage was hor
rible. The balls whistled. The ail
groaned with the noise of cannon and
our threatening voices, closely followed
by death. Very soon the enemy's
phalanx was shaken and threw into
disorder ; at last we overthrew them en
tirely. One point withstands us, the
batteries in a moment are taken, the
gunners cut to pieces at the guns, and
any that escape our steel either seek
safety in flight or a slower death in the
lakes. Nothing has ever been seen, my
love, like this memorable battle. In
the opinion of the oldest soldiers it is the
most bloody that ever has taken place.
I will not describe to you the horrors
of the field of battle ; the wort nded and
dying imploring their comrade's pity.
I prefer to spare your feelings, and con
fine myself to telling you that I was very
much affected, and wished that emper
ors and kings who make war without
reasonable grounds could be condemned
for their whole lives to listen to the
cries of the unfortunate wounded who
remained three days upon the field ol
battle without having any relief or as
sistance. The Russian loss is innumer
able ; what is certain is that there arete
be seen at least sixty Russian corpses on
the field of battle for one French ; and
it is only in one spot that I have seen
as many French as Russians. "
Besult of a Practical Joke.
A paragraph in the Cleveland paper
aot long since told the sad story of a
hoax practised by three women upon a
friend. It seemed harmless to them.
It proved almost fatal to the friend,
and illustrates a fact that should not
be forgotten that frights may kill, oz
may craze the brain permanently,
Such jokes are criminal, and deserve
serious penalty. The victim of this
hoax Mrs. Burns had gone away for
a short time, leaving her husband and
little ones at home.
The husband went to work and the
three women thought it would be ex
tremely funny to scare Mrs. Burns.
The chairs and tables were upset, and
everything was put "topsy-turvey. " A
figure was made and clothed in a suit
of Burns's clothes, and was laid on the
floor, its head tied with a white band
age, resting against the sewing-machine.
Then the women secreted themselves.
Mrs. Burns, who is of a nervous tem
perament, jame home and was struck
speechless with horror at the scene.
The poor woman, seeing the inanimate)
form, immediately supposed that her
husband had committed suicide. Tot
tering to the house of a neighbor, she
gasped out that her husband was dead,
and fainted away.
A physician was called, but she
went from one spasm into another.
When she finally revived enough to
talk, it was found that her reason had
left her. For days she hovered be
tweed life and death. Although now
considered out of danger, the shock has
left its impression upon her mind, and
3he may never fully recover.
A Great Railroad Event in South
America.
"The great event of the past
fortnight," says the Buenos Ayres
Standard, "has been the completion of
the Andine Railway to Meadoza, capi
tal of the province of that name and
lying at the foot of the Andes. The
importance of this great event cannot
be exaggerated; the Une, we may say,
crosses the continent, stretching from
the Parana to the Cordillera. A zone
of immense natural wealth is thus
thrown open by this quick means of
communication, and the traffic on the
line promises to be very large. Men
doza is one of the richest provinces of
the republic; it covers an area of about
5,000 square leagues of land at the foot
of the Andes, with a population esti
mated at 150,000 souls. The rivers
Mendoza, Tunuyan, Desaguadero,
Diamanta and Atuel irrigate over 1,000
square leagues of land; and the soil is
so bountiful that the yield is often a
hundred fold. A very active trade is.
carried on. in the export of fat
cattle to Chili, but the great industry
of the present and future is viniculture.
The Mendoza wines are well known ;
the production is doubling every two
years. The great drawback of the past
onerous and difficult means of com
munication is now removed, and we
may look forward to a great develop
ment of all the industries of the pro
vince. The mineral wealth of the
province is also oeyo&d calculation."