The Corvallis gazette., November 06, 1885, Page 3, Image 3

AS USUAI--
Now lovers fond, in leafy lanes,
Together walk.
And Corydon exerts his pains,
While Phillin coy to listen deigns
And suffers him
To talk.
Though poor, the youth protests he loves
Her as his life
They'll live, lie swears, like turtle doves.
He beta her, squeezing tight her gloves,
To be his own
Dear wife.
But Philhs has a richer beau,
In lover's ways deft,
Next, day he conies his fate to know,
She's Roing to scoop him in, and so
Poor Corry dear
Gets left.
New York Mercury.
A DOMESTIC EXPERIMENT.
"I don't think," said Mr. White
"that hay crop ever promised so fine
ly." "Indeed!" said his wife, absently.
"And if there isn't any fall in the
price of fruit," he said, "our peach
orchard is going to net us a cool hun
dred dollars."
As lie spoke he flung the homespun
towel, with which he had been wiping
his hands over the back of the chair.
"Oh, George, do hang up the towel,'
said Mrs. White, "the nail is just as
nearthe chair-back, and Ihave enough
steps to take in the course of the day,
without waiting on you."
"You are always grumbling about
something," said the young farmer,
as he jerked the towel to its nail.
"There! Does that suit you?"
"Here is a letter from Cousin Dora,
George,,' said Mrs. White, wisely avoid
ing the mooted question. "She wants
to come here and board for a few
weeks."
"Well let hercome," saidWhite. "It
won't cost us a great deal, and a little
extra money always counts up at the
year's end."
"But George, I was thinking "
"About what?"
"Why, I am so hurried with the
work, and there is so much to do "
"That is the perpetual burden of
your song," said Mr. White, irritably,
"Women do beat all for complaining."
"Won't you hear me out? said Mrs.
White, "So I thought it agoodplanto
give Dora her board if she would help
me with the house-work a little. It
would accomodate her, and it will ac
commodate me."
"But it won't accomodate me!" said
Mr. Whit,e, cavalierly. "Really, Letty,
you are getting absolutely lazy."
Mrs. White crimsoned.
"No one ever said that of me be
fore."said she.
"But just look at it," said the far
mer. "Tell me of any other woman
in the neighborhood who keeps a girl!
why, they make a boast of doing their
own work."
"They all have sisters, or mothers,
or grown up daughters; Ihave none."
"Pshaw!" saidWhite. "Ridiculous!
Of course you have to work. We all
do, don't we? But your work don't
amount to a row of pins. I don't
know of any woman who has it easier
than yon do."
"Thatisall you know about it!"
said Letty, in a choked voice.
"Write to Dora that we'll board her
for five dollars a week," said White,
athoritatively. "Wemustearn all the
money we can while there is a chance.
Make the hay while the sun shines,
eh? And I guess you'll do as well as
other women do, Letty. Now run up
stairs to the garret, dear, and get me
mv blue jean overalls, that's a good
girl!"
Letty obeyed, but the tears were in
her eyes, and a big roundiall was ris
ing up in her throat, and she could
hardly see the jean overalls, as they
hung up high on end of the beams.
As she reached up a loose board in
the garret floor tripped her; her foot
slipped through on the laths and plas
ter below, and, with a groan, she sank
to the floor.
The time passed on, and George
White grew tired of waiting.
He shouted up the stairway:
"Look alive there, Letty! Do you
mean to be all day?"
But no answer came. He ran up
stairs, to find Letty lying on the floor,
with one leg broken, just above the
ankle.
"Now you'll have to get some one to
do the work," said Letty, not without
a spice of malice, as she lay on the
calico-covered settee, with her poor
ankle duly set and bandaged.
"Not if I know it," said George
White. "Hire a lazy woman who'll
want a dollar and a half a week, and
her board into the bargain, to do the
work of this house? I guess not!"
"But what are you going to do?"
asked Letty.
"To do it myself, to-be-sure. Half
an hour every morning, and half an
hour every evening ought to be enough
to square up accounts."
"Well," said Mrs. White, "I shall
just like to see you do it."
"Then you'll have your wish," said
her husband.
He rose early the next morning and
lighted the kitchen fire.
"Phaw," said he, as he piled on the
sticks of wood, "what does a woman
amount to anyhow? What's the next
lesson, Letty?"
"I always skim the cream and
strain the milk," said Letty, who,
bolstered up on the lounge, and was
combing her hair with more delibera
tion than she had practiced for a
year.
"Well, here goes then," said George.
And a period of silence ensued.
Presently he shouted:
"-I haven't got milk-pans enough!"
"Of course you haven't," said Let
ty. "You must scald your yester
day's. You know you said you
couldn't set up a tin-shop when I asked
for a dozen more last month."
"They smell like a fat -boiling facto
ry," said George disdainfully. "What
ails 'em!"
"You should have scalded them last
night," sighed Letty, wishing that she
had wings like a dove that she might
soar into the milk-room, and restore
order out of the chaos.
"Here's a go!" said George. "There
isn't hot water."
"Oh, George, you've forgotten to
put the kettle on!"
"So I did," said her husband. "And
the sticks, hang 'em, are all burnt
out!"
"You know I wanted you to get a
ton of coal," said Letty, "but you
said as long as wood cost nothing but
the chopping and hauling, wood it
would be."
"Have I got to wait for that con
founded water to heat?" groaned
George.
"I don't know anything else for you
to do," remarked Letty, drily."
"Humph!" observed that lord and
master.
"What's for the breakfast?"
"Ham and eggs, 1 suppose."
"Well, I'm up to that part of the
program, at least," said he, cheerfully.
"Oh, the dickens! What is the use of
keeping your knives so sharp? I've
nearly cut my thumb off! Where do
you keep the or.t meal? I can be at
tending to your old milk pans while
the breakfast is cooking, I suppose.
There is nothing like economy in
work!"
But it was a mortal hour before the
milk was strained and the pigs fed,
and by that time the house was blue
with a sort of a smudgy smoke.
"Hullo!" shouted George, coming in.
"What's all this is the house on
fire?"
"No," said Letty calmly, "only the
breakfast has burned up."
Oeorge uttered a long sigh.
"Who'd havethought the fire was so
hot?" said he. "What am I to do
now?"
"Cook another, I suppose," said
Letty.
"And what next?" demanded George,
fiercely.
"Why set the table, and then clear
it away and wash the dishes."
"With this cut finger?" complained
the husband.
"I was obliged to do it all the weeks
I had a felon on my little finger," re
marked Letty. "The young geese and
turkeys ought to have been let out
and fed long before this; and the three
calves in the barnyard to be attended
to. And then there are the kitchen
and sitting-room to be swept and
dusted and the beds to make, and the
string beans to be picked, and the
bread to bake and the huckleberry
pies to make, and your white vest to
be ironed, and the potatoes to be
pealed, and the preserves to be scald
ed over, and the cheese to be turned,
and the table to be cleared and the
dishes to be washe d "
"Hold on!
said that once."
"Very likely, but it has to be done
three times a day and the chickens
to be looked after, and the linen pillow-cases
to be put to bleaching, and
the windows to be washed and your
trousers to be patched, and the stock
ings to be darned, and the fire to be
made up again, and tea to be prepared
you know you always want some
thing hot for supper. And there's the
night's milk to be brought in and
strained, and the pans scalded and,
and the geese and turkeys to be fed
and put into their coops; and, oh,
dear! I forgot the churning! That will
take an hour at least. But, dear George,
I am getting hungry! and I don't see
the least signs of breakfast George!
Where are you going? I want my
breakfast."
For George had disappeared in the
midst of her exordium.
In twenty minutes or so, hereturned
and by his side trudged Mary Ann
Pult, the nearest neighbor's twenty
year old daughter.
"I take it all back," said Mr. White.
"I lower my colors, Letty. Your work
is harder than mine. I'll be everlast
ingly blest if it ain't. Why, I couldn't
take care of the milk and cream for the
wages a girl would ask. I never real
ized before how much a woman had to
do."
"Are you quite sure that you realize
it now?" asked Letty, mischievously.
"Well, I've got a pretty fair idea on
the subject," nodded George.
"But you should be here on washing
day," said Letty, "or on ironing day, or
on the day when we chop sausage-meat
or make soft soap, or "
"Stop, stop!" shouted George. "If
you sayanother word I'll go for Mahala
Binks, too. Haven't I said that I'll
take it all back? What more would you
have?"
"Wal, squire," said Mary Ann, who
by this time had removed her hat and
shawl, "what'll I do first?"
"Do!" echoed Mr. White. "Do every
thing and let megetoff to the hay-field
as fast as I can."
"Jes' as your orders is," said Mary
Ann.
"And I say, Letty!" he added.
"Yes! George."
"Write to your Cousin Dora. Tell her
we'll be glad to board her, if she will
assist you about the house."
"But you've hired Mary Ann!"
"There's work for 'em both," said
Mr. White.
And he sat down and took refuge in
last week's paper, while Mary Ann
wrestled with the charred remains of
the breakfast and cut fresh slices of
home-cured ham.
In this world there are bloodless
battles and victories won without a
clash of steel; and in this category
may be classed Mrs. White's victory
over her husband, in respect to the
question of "hired help." Helen For
est Graves.
so; you know she is very old and feeble
and doesn't enjoy life much." "Well,
mamma," said the little innocent,
"don't you think it would be well to
chloroform grandma, too? She is very
ol eland feeble, and this hot weather she
is awful cross. I don't think she en
joys life, and I know I don't when she
scolds me."
FAMOUS FUNERALS.
Little Susie has a pet cat which is
much older than its mistress; so much
older in fact that it is in an advanced
state oi decrepitude. Susie heard her
mother say that she thought she would
havethecat chloroformed. It ishoped
the child did not understand the full
import of the word; for the" next day
she went to her mother with the cat in
her arms and asked her if she wanted
to chloroform it. "Yes, Susie," wasthe
reply, "I think it will be better to do
Magnificent Pageant in Honor of De
parted Heroes.
To the philosopher, of course, the
disposition of the lifeless human body
seems a matter of small moment; but
to the great body of the people thefun
eral rites and last resting-place of one
of its great heroes are matters of keen
est interest.
Two long years were consumed in
the formidable preparations of the
funeral of Alexander the Great. Dying
at Babylon, he directed thathisbody,
which was immediately embalmed
with elaborate care by Egyptian and
Chaldean adepts, should be deposited
in the Temple of Jupiter on an
Egyptian oasis. Undeterred by the
enormous distance, the procession set
forth, an army of workmen hav
ing been sent forward to repair
the roads and bridges. The fun
eral car was drawn by sixty
four mules, chosen for their strength
and size, splendidly caparisoned. The
car was itself of surprising magnifi
cence, the spokes and naves of the
wheels and ends of the axles beingcov
ered with gold, the platform uphold
ing a royal pavilion incrusted with
gems, supporting a throne and coffin,
the latter of solid gold and filled with
costly spices. But the body never
reached its destination. Ptolemy ar
rested its progress and buried it at
Alexandria, which city may be said to
have itself proved the enduring monu
ment of the conqueror.
Very different was the funeral of
Julius Caesar. The circumstances of
his death were so tragic, and such
enormous crowds gathered to the cere
mony, that they could not be formed
into a procession, and the different
classes of people were accordingly
asked to come together under their
appropriate insignia in the field of
Mars. The body of the great Roman
was exposed lying upon a gilded bed,
covered with scarlet and cloth of gold,
and placed under a magnificent canopy
in the form of a temple.
After the funeral ceremonies were
over a question arose where they
should burn tiie body. Some suggest
ed a temple on Capitoline hill, others
suggested the Senate house, where he
had fallen. The Senate, less willing to
pay him extraordinary honors, pro
posed a more retired spot. The dis
cussion was fast becoming a dispute
when two soldiers, withdrawn swords
and blazing torches in their hands,
forced their way through the crowd
and set fire to the bed. In a moment
there wasthe wildest excitement. The
multitude fell to work directly, build
ing the funeral pyre upon the spot.
First they brought fagots and then
benches from the neighboring porticos,
and next any combustible material
they could find, and at length, as the
excitement grew, the soldiers threw in
their arms, and the musicians their
instruments, while others stripped
down the trappings of the funeral pro
cession. So fierce was the fire that it
spread to the neighboring houses, and
was with the greatest difficulty ex
tinguished. As a fitting monument
the people erected to the "Mighty
Julius" a lofty column surmounted by
a star.
Coming down to modern times, the
accounts of the obsequies of the "Iron
Duke," perhaps the greatest ever
known in England, and the second fu
neral of Napoleon must still be borne
freshly in mind by many of the vet
erans of to-day. The Duke of Welling
ton, after lying in state five days at
Chelsea Hospital, was borne to his last
resting place in St. Paul's on a car
drawn by twelve horses, accompanied
by a vast military and civic concourse,
the latter including Prince Albert , both
Houses of Parliament, judges, nobles,
public bodies, the mourning coaches of
of the Queen and royal family and an
innumerable throng of the people.
Napoleon's funeral, as a parade, re
mains unparalleled in our times. The
cherished remains of their hero, hav
ing been received by the French from
the English nineteen years after his
death, it was not so much a funeral
as a vast triumphal procession that
followed, during which all France
resounded with booming cannon, toll
ing bells and strains of martial music,
while the excited people lined the banks
of the Seine and filled the air with
frenzied shout and cries and sobs of
joy and gratulation. The resources of
funeral art were exhausted upon the
pageant, and the imagination is un
able to distinguish the details of a
procession in which the catafalco, the
central object of interest, was borne
on a moving mound of gold and velvet
drawn by sixteen black horses and
guarded and escorted, it is said, by an
army of 1 50,000 soldiers.
Compare with these splendors the
quiet and simple funeral rites of our
own Washington, so befitting republi
can simplicity and the character of
him who was, nevertheless, "first in
the hearts of his countrymen." A
gathering of the dignitaries of the
neighboring town of Alexandria, with
the militia and Free Masons, his
friends and neighbors, his own war
horse, duly comparisoned, led in the
midst, one vessel in the river hard by
firing minute-guns and the whole pro
cession confined to his own private
grounds, where the tomb was made
and still is. Boston Advertiser.
Two years ago a young Californian
married one of the prettiest girls in
New York. They removed to Sacra
mento, Cal., where the youngman had
relatives and employment, and appar
ently livid happily together. A few
days ago, says the Union, when the
husband was leaving for his daily work
his wife went to the head of the stairs
and gave him a lingering kiss. When
he arrived at the foot of the stairs she
called to him to wait a moment . She
ran down stairs, and throwing her
arms, lovingly around his neck exclaim
ed: "How much I love you." When
he came home that evening his wife
had skipped for San Francisco with
another fellow, taking everything, all
their household goods, even his best
suit of clothes.
The Princess of Wales SnubsMrs.
Langtry.
A London dispatch to the Boston
Herald says: The society journals de
nounces the Lonsdale-Chetwynd fight
in the most unequivocal terms, and
Lord Lonsdale, who is a brother of the
dissipated character who was the first
husband of Mrs. Langtry's friend,
Lady de Grey (Gladys Lady Lonsdale) ,
is generally condemned.
As for Mrs. Langtry, she was sub
jected three days later to the greatest
slight that could be inflicted upon a
woman in her position, a deliberate cut
from the Princess of Wales, who is not
the plastic doll in the Prince's hands
that some people imagine. This epi
sode occurred at the Coombe House,
where Lady Archibald Campbell and
her past oral players were giving their
last performance of "The Faithfulle
Shepherdesse." The Prince of Wales
entered into conversation with Mrs.
Langtry, who dropped the usual quaint
courtesy with which royalty is receiv
ed; the Princess of Wales had turned
her back and was talking to some
one else.
A hundred eyes watched the group.
It has often been said, and not unjust
ly, that the Prince of Wales is remark
able for his tact, but even the most
distinguished social warriors some
times lose their heads where a pretty
woman's interests are concerned, and
at this moment if any Mrs. Langtry
needed the consolation of royal favor.
The Prince plucked the Princess by
the sleeve, after saying to Mrs. Lang
try in quite a loud voice, "Oh, the
Princess would like to tell you " The
Princess turned around, surveyed Mrs.
Langtry quite as though she did not
see her, gave so light a bow that the
inclination of the head was almost im
perceptible, and then deliberately
turned her back and resumed her con
versation with her friend. It was the
hottest day of the season, but the
thermometer seemed to drop a hun
dred degrees; the Prince looked ex
quisitely foolish. Mrs. Langtry'scon
fusion was painful to behold, and the
social axe had fallen! But this new
scandal may help the Lily's theatrical
interests, which have of late begun to
languish.
A movement is on foot to erect a
monument over the tomb of ex-President
William Henry Harrison at North
Bend, 0. It is on a natural mound ir.
the midst of a pasture lot, and it over
looks the Ohio river. A dilapidated
board fence, enclosing a space fifty feet
square, separates the burial place from
the pasture field. Within the enclos
ure are two or three old cedar trees.
The tomb itself is a structure of brick,
all under ground exceptthegables,and
it is covered with a roof of shingles,
that are now dilapidated and rotten.
Even the brick walls that show above
the ground are covered with a green
mould. A sloping cellar door covers
the steps which descend to the vault,
and even these doors of iron, exposed
to the summer rains and winter snows,
are eaten through with rust.
An Alarmed Fisherman.
One morning, after eight days of
steaming up the Kiva, Stanley, the
African explorer, discovered that the
river was the outlet of a large lake
which, subsequently, he named Lake
Leopold II., after the king of Belgium
Acting upon the rule, never to aban- j
don a good thing until you have seen i
it through, lest you never havethe op
portunity again, he resolved to cir
cumnavigate it. Seeing half-a-dozen
fishermen's canoes out on the lake, he
bore down upon them, hoping to gain
information and fresh food. All save
one canoe, as soon as the fishermen
heard and saw the noisy steamer, fled.
The occupant of the remaining canoe
was hauling in his seine; when he, too,
heard the noise of the paddle-wheels.
He fell sidewise into his canoe, as if
paralyzed. Then leaping to his feet,
and bending to his paddles, he sent
the tiny canoe swiftly over the water.
Says Stanley, describing the capture:
He observes the monster rapidly
gaining on him. He hears the whirl of
the wheels, and the throbbing of the
engine, and puffing of the steam.
Another glance, and he springs over
board, and we sweep past the empty
canoe.
As we came up he dived, and our
two sailors flashed into the depths
after him. They brought him up, each
holding an arm, and swam with him
to the boat.
"Now, Ankoli, speak softly to the
poorman.
In soothing whispers the native guide
asked what his name was.
"What did you pick me out for?"
the fisherman asked. "There are many
better than I in our village."
"What does he mean, Ankoli?"
"He means," answered the guide,
"that there are finer slaves than he is
in the village,"
"Ah! There have been slave-catchers
here, then?"
Having evidently obtained all the
information the poor fellowcouldgive,
we filled his two hands with bright
beads, and laid a dozen handkerchiefs
by his side. Then bringing the canoe
alongside, we asked him to step in, and
placed his cloth in the stern of it,with
a small pai-cel of cowries.
After he had stepped in, he did not
seem to realize that he was a free and
rich man until there was such a dis
tance between us that he thought it
impossible for us to catch him again.
When he seemed a speck in the lake,
we saw the figure rise to its height, and
then we knew that he was conscious
that he was free.
Sing-Slngr Prison Punishment.
Letter to San Francisco Argonaut.
The party was put in the hands of a
head keeper and sent the rounds.
The keeper was an Irishman, with a
clean-shaven and crafty-looking face.
He had an observant eye, and he did
not smile while he was showing the
party around, until he came to a room
which was fitted up with dark cells.
A real professional dark cell is about
the blackest thing on the face of the
earth when you are in it and the door
is closed. The party played a pleas
ant and agreeable little trick on the
oldest member. He said he had heard
a great deal about the exaggerated
notions men had of time spent in a
dark room, and he asked the keeper if
he would not lock him in there for five
minutes by the watch, and let him
have the experience; so' he was locked
up in a little whitewashed cell, in which
ha could scarcely turn around. Not a
particle of light was admitted, and a
man might yell himself hoarse forever
without being heard outside: Having
locked him in securely, his kind friends
went cheerfully off and investigated
the iron-foundry, shoe-shops, saw
mills, and docks. Nearly an hour
elapsed, and then they returned and
released him.
"It seemed a pretty long five min
utes, didn't it, colonel?" asked the
youngest man, flippantly.
"N-no," said the colonel, who had a
strained, round-shouldered, hollow
eyed, nervous, melancholy, and unnat
ural air; "no, I shouldn't think I was
there more than five minutes. You
see it's a great thing to have a strong
hold on your imagination and not let
it run away with you, Still," wearily,
"I must say that that three-legged
stool was rather uncomfortable."
At this moment the attention of
everybody was attracted by the keep
er, who was actually smiling. It was
the first time his features had related
during the day, and the crowd gath
ered around him.
"I'm going to show you a little in
vention of my own," he said, pleas
antly, "which has been adopted all
over the country. I suppose you
know that the criminals often get ugly.
The place that harbors more than
fifteen hundred of New York's worst
scum must necessarily have a number
of hard characters to deal with. Men
here get rebellious, ill-tempered, and
unmanageable pretty often. In former
years they used the lash, the paddle,
the douche, and often calmed men by
putting them into the black-rooms.
The fiercest spirits are quelled by im
prisonment in a dungeon. The wild
est case we ever had turned to a lamb
after twenty-five days' imprisonment,
without a gleam of light, in a black
cell. All that is settled now, however,
by my little invention. We don't have
to use the black-cells, or anything
else, and the men are so thoroughly
scared by what I call my 'weighing
machine' that they no longer fight and
rebel." He then showed it to us. If
a convict becomes desperate at ill
treatment, over-work, or a realization
of the awful duration of a twenty-years'
sentenced is dragged into thekeeper's
room and a pair of iron handcuffs are
screwed tightly around his wrists. Then
the chain which connects the two hand
cuffs is hooked to a pully, and the
man's hands are drawn up until he is
almost lifted from the floor. Here he
hangs against the wall until his spirit
is subdued. The wall was smeared
with the stains of blood from the
wrists of the poor wretches who had
hung there.
"It's a daisy," said the keeper, ra
diantly; "the toughest man in the
whole jail has never been- able to stand
it more than three-quarters of a min
ute. It cures rheumatism, blindness,
and all the other ills that criminals
are heir to."
"It must be torture."
"Well, rather, It stops the circula
tion of the blood, you know."
And he still smiled as he stood with
his hands on the pully, while the crowd
wandered away. It's a great thing to
have clear idea of the humorous.
Elopement Sensation.
A Lowell, Mass., telegram to the
New York Herald says: Lowell has
the biggest sensation of the season on
its own hands just at present. A cer
tain young married lady, one of the
belles of the city, and wife of one of
the wealthiest and most prominent
citizens, has eloped with a traveling
agent. The circumstances are the
talk of the town, but the names are
only whispered. The lady was prom
inent in society ard in charitable and
religious work, and was an officer of a
club formed exclusively of the ladies of
the city. The husband is a member of
one of the Massachusetts yacht clubs,
and with his wife, has attended ;his
season most of the cruisers in eastern
waters. They have traveled together
through Europe and extensively in
this country. Recently, "it is said,"
that they have disagreed in a number
of matters, and, although residing in
the same house on the most fashion
able street in the city, have spoken to
each other only when in general socie
ty and when such conversation be
came necessary to prevent gossip.
A few days ago the wife made a visit
to Lexington, and there met her lover,
and since then has not been seen or
heard of by her husband. It is said
that he will make no great effort to
learn her whereabouts or induce her
to return.
THE GREAT AUGUST RAIN.
Ihe Immense Quanity of Water Which
Fell Over a Wifie Area.
From the Hartford (Ct.) Times.
It is not easy for anybody to real,
ize, or even to correctly imagine, the
vast amount of water which is pour
ed out of the sky in a great August
rain, like this one which during the
first three or four days of the present
month has deluged so many and so
widely-separated parts of ouf countrv.
It is not easy to understand in the
"realizing" sense, however fully we
may comprehend the fact intellect
ually, how so nnieh solid water can he
supended in the form of invisible va
por in the air. Trner it is no longer
invisible, when it has been condensed
in the form of heavy rain clouds, but
it was all there, invisibly somewhere
in the wide realm of air before it be
came thus coudensed. Take the
ending part of that great storm
for an example what must have
been the actual amount of water
that was poured down, from Chicago
to Maine; from Maryland and the
Ohio to- the White Mountains? It
rained seemingly as never before,, in
all those regions. Throughout the
greater part of the Middle States it
made destructive river floods. In the
region about Chicago it amounted to a
precipitation of about five and one
half inches-.. In Maryland it was not
much less, and New York State re
ceived its share of the general drench
ing. Here in Southern New Euglaiidthe
downpour was such as was never ex
ceeded if indeed it was ever equaled. In
this immediate region the rainfall in one
continuous rain, from Monday after
noon to 3 o'clock Tuesday morning,
amounted almost to 0 inches. The
great October rain, of the 1st and 2d
of October, 1869, which such ruinous
work throughout Connecticut (chiefly
by the immense precipitation on the
second day), did not exhibit such a
steady and tremendous downpour as
that of Tuesday, August 4, 1885, be
tween the hours of 1 and 3 o'clock
in the morning. The volume of this
August rain is shown in the flooded
streams, which everywhere continue
to be flooded long after the usual time
for rain floods to disappear; The
Connecticut rives itself has kept rising
for a day and a half after the storm,
the rain having added about six feet
to its height. It was a heavy rain in
the White mountains, the gauge at the
Signal Service station on the summit
showing four and one-half inches.
This great rain came inland from
the Gulf of Mexico. Following the Mis
sissippi valley northward,, the storm
was- central at Detroit. It extended
eastward all the way from the Missi"
sippi river to the Atlantic seaboard
pouring as huge a flood upon New
England as upon most of the great in
termediate breadth of country.
It is impossible to estimate any such
quantity of water. Even of the amount
that was poured out upon our own
little State, it is impossible to get any
adequate idea. If we were to imagine
the area of Connecticut to be a perfect
ly flat, level surface,, and the average
amount of rain for that one storm to
be-not five, but not quite three inches
what, then, would be the aggregate
quantity of water that was emptied
from the clouds upon our area of not
quite 5,000 square miles? Who can
get any adequate conception f it?
Emptied in the same time into the
world's greatest river, it would affect
the volume of the Amazon. And this
for only one little spot in the area of
the- actual downpour. Connecticut,
compared with, the area, covers less re
lative space than a dinner-plate on a
big dinner-table. It was almost as if
the great lakes had burst their bounds
and simultaneously emptied them
selves upon tlie country on this side.
General Frank Sigel, "mit" whom
the Germans used to fight, has been
appointed to a $3,500 position in the
County Clerk's office in New York.
A physician in Boston took the
trouble to examine 3,726 prescrip
tions at a drug store to see what rem
edies were the most popular. Quinine
took the lead by making part of 292
prescriptions. Morphine came next,
m 172; bromide of potassium in 171;
iodide of potassium in 155, and muri
ate of iron in 134. The total number
of articles in the pharmacopoeia i 994,
and 504 of them were asked forin one
form or another.
Gen. Putnam's Neglected Grave.
From the Norwich (Conn.) Bulletin.
Probably theonething which is most
prominently associated with the name
of Israel Putnam in the popular mind
is his celebrated feat of daring up in
the beautiful town of Pomfret, where,
a century ago, he killed in her den a
she wolf whch had been depredating
upon the surrounding country. But
this Revolutionary hero's fame does
not depend uponthis single and abnor
mally magnified incident of his career,
and there-is considerable ground for
the indignant complaints which are
publicly made about the neglect of his
grave in the old cemetery in the neigh
boring town of Brooklyn. The spot
of his burial is marked by a marble
slab lying flat on a heap of stones and
badly chipped by relic hunters. It
seems strange that in these days of
monuments a suitable one has not
been erected to commemorate the vir
tues of him who distinguished himself
in the French war; who was captured i
and nearly roasted alive by Indians
in 1758, who was conspicuous for hki
bravery in the cause of liberty at the
Battle of Bunker Hill, who became a
Major-General in 1775, who was ap
pointed commander of the Army of
the Highlands in New York in 1777,
who superintended the erection of tlie
fortifications at West Point, and who,
while the command in Connecticut,
displayed his bravery and intrepidity
in various perils of his time.
French flouring mills number at
least 25,000, with 30,000 pairs qtf
stones, 200,000 persons employed and;
200,000 horsepower. The yearly pro
duction aggregates 07,500,000 barrels
worth $456,000,000. The cost Ojf?
produeing-this amount of Spur is about
$48,000,000. Twenty years aga
French milling took fir&fc ranK in- Eu
rope. Now it is seriously embarrassed,
as may be evidenced 'sy the imports
I ana exports rrom j.a f& to .lcoZj.w.hu m
show 325,808 barrels increase u the
I forme-rand 544.417 barrels decrease
the latter. French millers havedis
I darned the new Hungarian milling ma
i chinery, secure in the possession of the
j millstones of La Ferte-Sous-Jouarre.
j As a result Hungarian flour- is shipped
to Paris despite the tax and expensive
I transportation. In the last ten years
I the Buda-Pesth roller mills haveaver
I aged 14 per cent dividend. One mill
1 averaged 27 per cent, and on one cq
casiou paid. 40 per qeat.