The Columbian., June 15, 1883, Image 1

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THE COLUMBIAN.
PUBLISHED EVERY FBI DAY
AT
ST. HELENS, COLUMBIA CO., OR.,
BY
E. G. ADAMS, Editor and Proprietor.
tt rrmiir a tkt
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I V W I 1 I I I I I I I I I XI
- I . - "
15, 1S83. j NO. 45.
1HB TRAViCLKR AT Sl'SSET.
Tbe shadows grow aud deepen round me:
' I fetl the dew-Ull iu the air;
The murzzln of the dar&enlr.g thicket
1 bear the nigbt-th:uh call to prayer.
The evening wlud is tad with farewells.
And loving banda unclasp from mine;
Alone I go to meet the darkcess
Acroas an awlul bouudsry-ltoe.
As from the lighted hearth t-htud toe
I pa with stow.rclucuint fet.
What wlt me iu the land of tt.-acgeuesk?
Whit face shall smi:e, what voire shll greet'
What spice nhall awe. wbst biightness blind
mat
What thunder roll f nulc fctuc a
What vat proc?slo&s cweep before toe
Oi shapes unknown ttoeath the ul''
I shrink from nuaccuMoined glory,
I dread the myrla.l-voiced strain.
Give ne the uufwrgotten tw.
Ana utu; lost cats tpeak SKln.
He will not chide cy mortal yean ing
Wbo is our Brother and our Friend.
In whose lull life divine mid human
Tbe heavenly and the earthly bleed.
Mine be the j-y of soul-eomnmt.ion.
Tbeeute oi pirittiil ktrtt etn renewed,
The reverence for tbe pure aud holy.
The dear delight of doing good.
No fltticg ear is mine to listen
An endless anthem's rise and fall;
N j curious eye is mine to measure
TLe peail gale and the jasper wall.
For love must needs be more than knowledge;
What m-.t'er if I never know
Why Ali'tbarau'4 star is ruddy
Or colder tsirlus white as mow !
Forslve'my human wordf. O Father !
I go Thy larger truth to pr;ve.
Thy mercy tball transcend my longing:
1 seek but love, and Thou art Love !
I go to find my lost aud mourned for,
6afe in 1 by sheltering goodness still.
And all that faith and hope foreshadow
Mde perfect ia Thy h-Jy will!
J. G Whittier in the Independent.
THE SOUTHERN "GAT011.M
Six thousand baby alligators are sold
irj Florida every year, and the amonnt of
ivorv. number of skins, and quantity of
oil obtained from the older members
of
the Saurian family are sufficient to en
title them to a high place among the pro
ducts of the state.
The hnnters sell voting "gators" at
twenty-five dollars per hundred, and the
dealer from seventy-hve cents to oneuei
lareach. Live alligators two years old
represent to the captor fifty cents each;
and to the dealer from two to five dol
lars, as the reason of travel is at its
heicht or far advanced. A ten-foot alli
gator is worth ten dollars, and one lour
teen feet long twenty-five dollars to the
hunter, while the dealer charges twice
or three times that price. The eggs are
worth to the hunter fifty cents per dozen,
and to the dealer twenty-five cents
each.
The dead alligator is quite as valuable
as the live ODe, for a specimen nine feet
long and reasonably f t will net both
branches of the trade a9 follows:
THE HnTEE.
THE DEALE3.
Oil S $! Ml 8 7 50
ftkin 1 DOHkiD . 4 00
Head 10 0 "j Head 25 00
816 t 8.JC 50
The value of the head is ascertained
by the number and size of the teeth
Dealers mount especially tine specimens
of the skull.but the greater number have
no other value than that of tbe ivory
they contain.
The wages of the hunter depend, of
course, upon his good fortune in finding
the game. One of the most expert of
. these gives as instances of successful
hunts the items of three day's work
which yielded thirtv-nine dollars and
seventy-five cents; of six days with a
yield to twenty dollars and ten cents.and
of eight days' hunting which netted
forty dollars and twenty five cents.
"Without speaking of those enemies of
tke "gator" who hunt him for sport,
there are about two hundred men in the
state of Florida who make a business
and try to make a living by capturing or
killing him. Very many have eaten alligator-steaks
from simple curiosity to
learn its flavor; but many more eat it be
cause it is the cheapest and, oftentimes,
the only meat they can afford. The
flavor when it is fried or boiled ia that
of beefsteak plentifully supplied with
fish gravy, wh Je the forelegs roasted
taste like a mixture of chicken and fish,
and have a delicate fibre.
Very methodical in his habits is the
alligator, and very suspicious of any
thing new around his home. When he
starts out in search of food it is invari
bly an hour after the tide has begun to
ebb, and he returns about four hours
after low water. If he has a land jour
ney to perform,he goes and comes by the
same route, never deviating from it un
til he sees evidence that strangers have
trespassed upon his domain. He lives
on the banks of some stream, for he has
decided objections to stagnant water,
and to make his home he digs a hole at
least twelve inches below the lowest
level of the water. This hole is perfectly
straight, although on an incline, and
from twenty to thirty feet in length,
terminating in a chamber sufficiently
large to admit of his turning in it. There
he or she dwells alone, save when the
female is caring for a very young brood,
in which case the room is converted into
a nursery. Full-grown alligators not
only do not occupy the same hole, but
they will not live near each other.
The alligator usually lays her eggs
about the first of July, and during the
month of June she is busily engaged in
preparing a cradle for her young.
Selecting a place on the bank of some
stream or creek, she begins work by
beating hard and level with her tail an
earth platform about stx feet square.
She scrapes together with her fore-feet,
oftentimes from a distance of fifty yards
from the proposed nest, dried grass,
sticks and mad until fifteen or twenty
cubic feet of the material is in a place
convenient for her purpose. On the day
following the completion of these prepa
rations she lays f rum tbirty to fifty eggs
on the prepared ground, and piles over
them dried grass aud mud deftly worked
in with Bticks until a mound six feet in
diamater and three feet high has been
raised. The surface ' of this is quickly
hardened by the sun, and, in-order that
it'may be as nearly air-tight as possible,
the female visits it each day, covering
with mud every crevice that may have
appeared, as well as remodeling such
portions as do not satisfy her sense of
beautv.
. The ordinary time of incubation
is
About three months, and then the newly-
batched brood may be beard yelping and 1
snarling for their motheir to continue
her work by releasing them from their
prison-nest. On the second or third day
after the first noise has been heard, the
female bites a hole in the side of the
mound, out of which the young ones,
barely more than eleven inches long,
come tumbling in most vigorous man
ner, crawling directly" toward the water.
Until the young are three years old the
mother exercises a parental j care over
them, always remaining within sound of
their voices, not so much j to protect
them from their natural enemy, man, as
from their unnatural enemy their father,
who has an especial fondness for his
on n children in the way of food.
Wheu the hunter finds a best, die car
ries the eggs home to hatch them, where
he can easily catch the entire brood if
the eggs are fresh, or if the young in
them are not more than five inches long;
at any other stage they will not hatch if
removed, and are of no value except for
the shell. The captured eggs are then
packed in straw as nearly as ; possible in
the natural way, and the young may thus
be hatched out very successfully. One
farmer reared sixteen hundred and an
other a thousand last season.: The young
will eat immediately on coming out of
the shell, but they thrive best n given
no food for at least fifteen days.
The cry of a full grown 'gator is not
unlike the bellowing of a bull, except
that it is of more volume, since the voice
of a male can be heard, on a calm day, a
distance of five miles; and they may bo
said to be "sun-worshipers," since they
seldom "resolve themsevles into song,"
save at the rising of the sun;' in fact the
only exception to this morning melody
is when a storm is approaching. The
average loriua ' cracker : needs no
other barometor than the alligator in the
neighboring creek or swamp,
One ceases to be astonished at the vol-
uni3 of sound which comes (from these
monsters when be sees a full grown one
put forth all his strength to produce the
effect. He stretches his body to its full
length, inhaling sufficient air to puff him
up nearly twice his natural size: then,
holding his breath, as it were for an in
stant, he raises both head and tail until
he forms the segment of a circle. When
all is thus complete, the roar eomes with
sufficient force to startle one, even
though he be prepared for it.'
Since, in order to guard bis head, the
alligator is obliged to turn his body
somewhat, and since, when his jaws are
once closed he is unable to open them
if only a moderate amount of strength on
the part of man is used, the ' hunter se
lects this point for attack when it is pos
sible for him to steel upon his game un
awares.
If the intending captor gets a firm
hold upon the jaws of his game in this
way, the monster beoomes : reasonably
easy prey; one rope soon secures nis
jaws, another is tied around his neck
and fastened to a tree, while a third se-
ures his tail in the same way, thus
stretching the captive in a straight line;
his fore-paws are tied over his back, a
stout pole is lashed from the end of his
snout to the tip of his tail, and the alli
gator is helpless.
It is seldom, however, that the hunter
gets his game at a disadvantage, and to
seeure him alive he must set about the
work much as boys do when they snare
rabbits. A tall, stout sapling near the
water's edge is the first requisite, and
directly in front of that, in the water, a
narrow lane or pen is made with stakes,
the two outer ones being noticed, as is
the spindle of a box-trap. At the end of
this pen, and nearer the shore, a stake is
driven into tue muu, ana on me top oi it
is fastened 'a pieca of tainted beef. A
stout rope, at one end of which is a large
noose, is fastened to the top of the sap
ling, and to the upper part of the noose
is attached a cross bar, or trigger, which,
when the tree is bent, catches in the
notches on the outer stakes just below
the surface of the water, the noose hang
ing around the entire opening. To get
at the meat the alligator attempts to
swim under the bar, but his back dis
places the trigger, and he is a captive,
with the rope fastened just back of his
forelegs.
It is necessary to bind the captive
while he is in the water, and then to
carry him to the shore in a boat; for,
amphibious as he is, he can be drowned
if dragged even a short distance through
the water. When once properly secured
and on land, the alligator can do nothing
in the hope of effecting a release, save to
roll over, and this he does bv a mighty
effort with his shoulders,! frequently
working himself over a quarter of a mile
in distance in a fcingle night.'
Those who are most familiar with the
habits of the nlligator, as seen in the
southern states, believe his partiality for
decayed food does not arise from any
particular flavor it may possess, but sim
ply because in a putrid state any large
amount of flesh is more easily lorn apart
and masticated than when i fresh. Al
though the possessor of so much ivory
in the shape oi teeth, and able to use his
jaws with so much power, it is an ex
tremely difficult matter for an alligator
to dismember a pig, even after the flesh
is decayed. j
While the meat is yet firm and the
muscles intact, it is an impossibility for
him to do other than swallow it nearly
whole, as he sometimes does when inter
rupted shortly after he has killed his
prey. That alligators do like fresh food
when it is possible for them to eat it is
shown by the fact that fresh fish and
small turtles are their favorite diet. In
the stomach of a twelve-foot alligator
there have been found six catfish, none
of them mutilated, weighing altogether
thirty-four pounds. j
If one believes impiictitly the positive
assertion of the alligator j hunters, he
must perforce say no man knows the
span of life allotted these saurians. The
native Horidian, as well as the hunter,
will insist that the largest of the 'gators
are more than a hundred yeirsold, point
iug to the fact of his slow growth in
proof of the assertion. A newly-hatched
alligator is eleven inches long; at the age
of six years he is very slim and but three
feet in length; at ton years of age he has
gained considerably in breadth and but
twelve inches in length, while during
the next two years he has grown hardly
more than one inch longer, i An alligator
fifteen feet in length, caught near the
month of the St. John's river, was so
covered with barnaoles and other marine
growth as to make it almost certain that
he must have been in existence seventy
five years. Our Continent.
General Grant's Mother.
Mrs. Orant was born November 23d,
1708, on the farm of her father, John
Simpson, in Montgomery county, Penn.
She was of Scotch origin. Her father
moved West when she was young, and
settled at Point Pleasant, O., where she
was married in June, 1821, to Jesse It
Orant. General Grant was their first
child, ami was born June 27, 1822. Mrs.
Grant had other children, of whom Mrs.
Corbin .' the widow of Able B. Corbin,
Mrs. Cramer. wifeof-she minister to
Switzerland, and the general, are the
survivors. Orville Grant died two years
ago. Mrs. Grant was a woman of much
firmness and strength of character. She
was a member of the Methodist church
from her girlhood. She lived for some
time at Galena, and was for many years
in Covington. The fame achieved by
her oldest son seemed to have little
effect on her. She was very little inter
ested in matters of display, and was
never boastful. To her he was simply
her boy Hiram, as she called him, what
ever he might be to the world outside.
She was at the White House at his first
inauguration. After the death of her
husband, who died at Covington in 1S74,
and who left her a comfortable mainten
ance, and she took up her residence with
her son-in-law, Abel It. Corbin, in
Elizabeth, X. J., and remained with him
until his death in 1879. She then moved
with her widowed daughter to her last
residence in Pavonia avenue. At that
point the avenue is a broad, country-like
road, lined with trees. Mrs. Grant's
house is in the rear of the Hudson
county court house. It is on the north
side of the way, three doors from the
corner. The house is a two-story frame
building, dormer windows, and is about
twenty-five feet wide. It has ajpiazza one
story high in the front, and is painted
drab. It is furnished very nicely, but
with old-fashioned furniture. Mrs. Cra
mer and her family have been with her.
Mrs. Grant was of medium height and
build, stooped slightly, but walked
without a oane. She was very active for
a woman of her years. Her face was
round and had a benevolent expression,
which was heightened by her snow-white
hair and a pair of spectacles which she
wore constantly. She dressed in dark
clothes, took frequent walks, and was a
familiar object to the neighbors. She
was the first one up in the house, and
was busy all day at something. She
always read the newspapers and kept her
self informed of the news. Her manners
were gentle. She .ttended the Method
ist church regularly until her death.
She was bnriod beside her husband.
Buttons.
"Button, button, who has the button?"
asked a glove that had been dropped on
the toilet table.
"I've got it," answered Jimmy's jacket.
I've several buttons, in fact."
"No," put in the closet-door, "I have
it myself ; the carpenter gave it to me."
"I had a dozen or so, said a boot,
looking rather down at the heel.
"And I have a hundred or more,
yawned the easy-chair, "but they don't
button anything; they don t belong to
the working class."
"Here s a bachelor a button, re
marked a vase of flowers on the bureau.
"There's a button-wood tree in the gar
den," said the button-hooker. "I sup
pose you all grew there."
"I know better than that, pouted the
closet door. "Mine grew in the veins of
the earth, where all the precious metals
are found, it s a pour relation of
theirs.'"
"And we," added a pair of ivory sleeve-
buttons, "we grew in the land of the
white elephant. We were carved from
the tusks of the leader, who threaded the
jungles and swam the rivers at the head
of his troops.
"My buttons, said tbe glove, "were
nearly related to the gem which Cleo
patra dissolved for Antony. They were
mother-of pearl, grown in tbe shell of
the pearl-oyster, for which divers risk
their lives."
"That's something of a fish story,"
thought Jimmy's jacket. "My buttons
are only glass; but glass is sometimes
made of sand, and who knows but their
atoms may have been swept down to the
sea shore from 'farthest India?' "
"And I," whispered the bachelor's
button, "I sprang from a tiny seed, with
all my splendor of blue and purple
wines, like the Afrite from the jar which
the fisherman found on the teach. It is
a miracle how I was packed away there?"
St. Nicholas for April.
The Wicked Editor.
A Little Bock newspaper man while
out in the country stopped at a rude
farm house for dinner. Thinking that
his profession would receive marked
attention, he remarked to the farmer: '
"Needn't put yourself to extra trouble
for me; I'm an editor."
"A what?"' asked the farmer, regarding
the viator with newly awakened interest.
"A newspaper man."
"Wall, I reckon you can get suthin' to
eat anyhow. Some folks mout not gin
you anything on that account, but I was
never particular. But hold on. Edi
tor, did I understand you you to say?"
"Yes, sir, I am an editor, and how
ever unfavorably it may strike you,
I must say that I am proud of my call
mg "I'll bet $100 that you are one of the
fellows that helped to take hell outen
the Bible. Beckon you'd better travel.
Never mind the corn bread and butter
milk, Jule." Arkansaw Traveler.
The Harvard college elective pamphlet
for the coming year gives students the
choice of 138 courses, making 335 exer
cises a week, against 121 courses, with
335 exercises, for the current year. All
classmen but Freshmen must now elect
at least four courses of study to pursue
next year, making for each man twelve
recitations or lectures per week.
The virulent "buffalo gnat" followed
the Mississippi flood this year as it did
last year, and stock being stung to
death in many places. Inone neighbor
hood in Mississippi 47 mules were killed
in two days.
The Cow Tree;
Sir Joseph Hooker, of London, pub
lished a description of a tree' which has
been discovered, called- the "cow tree,'
v i
wnicn gives mux wnen an incision is
made in the bark; several have been
brought to England, and they are being
watched with great curiosity. 1 JNoth
mg could have been .discovered that
would more effectually fill the bill, and
All .1 . m .a
nix tue want long, ieic than the oow
tree, and we shall 'herald its introduc
tion into this country with great joy
(The parties who au interested in the
propagation ot the cow tree can send na
two-r -three-by exorfefls, We do. not
want full sized cow es,' buf just sap
phng9, or calves. "With a few such trees
in the front yard, the citizen can make
up faces at the driver of milk wagons
and bid him defiance. Instead of go
' it ,i - , .
mg ioriu in tue morning rrmed with a
milk ticket and a tin basin, a man can
take his little hatchet and a pail and cut
a hole in a cow tree, sit down and
udder its umbrageous shade and let
nature take its course. The farmer
will have no more kicking cows to con
tend with, but can let his cow tree milk
itself, while he sits down at the root of
his milk producer and smokes his pipe
or plays seven-up with the hired man.
"There will be no more hoisting there,"
no tail to swing in his face, and no
more will the cow tree get nervous at
having its bag agitated by the rough
hand of the farmer and kick the milk
stool through the granger. There will
be no more fodder to throw down, no
more bran mashes to mix, and no calves
to wean, as it is probable the cow tree
will be farrow for ever, aud not go
bellowing around trying to hook the
butcher who trios to take the calf away.
The cow tree will take work off the tired
farmer, he can go down town to attend
the lodge without hurrying up the milk
ing, as the girls can mind the diary.
It will be a mighty poor girl who cannot
milk a cow tree. The improvements
over the cow will be numerous. Uv
building an ice house near the cow tree,
one can have ice cream, and by the aid
of a handy jug, milk punch can be made
to the Queen's fasts. Instead of driving
the cows up from the pasture at night,
and slopping them, and sitting cramped
up milking with one hand and fighting
mosquitoes with the ' other, the farmer's
daughter can have a double seat under
the cow tree, and take a pail and a lover
and go out to milk, and wile the tree is
giving down its blessings, the young
people can put in the time sparking. No
family should be without the cow tree
and we trust the day is not far distant
when the old fashioned cow will only be
for beef, the calf is now more trouble
trouble than it is worth, will not be tol
erated at all, aud the cow tree will grow
in profusion always ready to fill the pat
ent pail full of rich milk, and not hook
thedaylight3 out of the milker. In the
days that are coming there will be no
cows to tie up of nights, no dauger of a
raid on the garden by the horned four
footed tramp that unhinges gates, and
no cow-bells to keep the whole neighbor
hood awake nights. We take it for
granted that the cow tree will not wear
a cow bell, and that it will not bellow
mournfully and jaw the earth when the
people are trying to sleep. We hail the
cow tree as a brother, or sister, as the
case maybe, and bid it welcome. Good
bye, old brindle. You have been a faith
ful servant, and given milk when you
had to, but you have gone off and got
lost when most we needed milk, and
when you came back you were not worth
a continental. You never knew enough
to come home without having a bare
footed boy sent after you, and you would
eat leeks when you knew we were going
to have company and your milk was
bad. Step aside, brindle, and give the
cow tree a chance. Peck s Sun.
Lady Wilde on American Woman.
Lady Wilde, one of the most gifted
contributors to the English periodicals,
has the following interesting and novel
study of American women in the current
number of the London "Queen," "In
America youth reigns supreme and un
fettered, and there is little reverence
paid to parental authority. Young girls
receive and go out alone or without any
reference to the unwritten law of tradi
tion, which is of such overwhelming
force in Europe that to break it would
incur the ban of society. Women in
America, whether married or single,rule
society, and do not suffer society to rule
them. They carry all before them with
imperial sway and are the beautiful den
pots of the land. Fathers, brothers and
husbands are at work all day in the fierce
strife and excitement of the ceaseless
speculation which is the national form of
gambling. They never interfere with
the interior arrangement of the house ;all
the arrangements and expenditure and
machinery of social life are left to the
judgment, taste and discretion of the
wife. The province of the husband is to
shower down the gold which the better
half spends right royally. Thus woman
has become the great ruling power in
America and the representative women
of the world, not' crushed down as in
in Europe by the old traditions of men
tal and legal inferiority.but asserting her
sovereign right to eq reality, and to exact
and receive homage of men. Queens of
beauty, lavish and extravagant in all
things, gorgeous in toilette, insatiable of
pleasure, wurroundtd by tbe costly luxu
ries of often illimitable wealth, the wo
men cf fashion bask in the changeless
radiance of show and glitter, for money
is easily won, and if also easily lost, they
care little; they enjoy it while they can;
eat, dres8,3azzle and delight, but love is
not by any means a leading interest to the
life of an American woman, and seldom
is scandal heard of in their social circle;
for the yery freedom of social inter
course trains women to habits of self-reliance,
and encourages so much self
esteem that they are quite insensible to
flattery. They know all their perfections
thoroughly, and tbey accept all praise as
a proper acknowledgement of their
merits.
"The Old "World nations have been
for six thousand years painfully toiling
from Ararat to the Atlantic to advance
the standard of humanity, and still the
triumphs of intellect over ignorance,
misery and desolation are incomplete.
But in a hundred years the Amerioans
have spread over half the world, furrow
ed it with irpn roads.spanned the mighty
rivers, driven paths through the moan
tains, covered the desolate plains
with nourishing cities, and sent the full
tide of civilization from ocean j to ocean
with a force and power that leaves the
Old World kingdoms far behind in the
race of progress. j
"The 50,000,000 of America are made
up of a wonderful medley of heteroge
neous elements, but they have all the one
watchword 'Advance!' They are re
cruited from the young blood of all na
tions, for only youth and energy emi
grate, and they have the spirit; the cour
age and the daring of their lorigion. ; 1
"it is remarkable now soon all races
become revolutionized ; no
foreign lan
guage takes root among them. .In a gen
eration foreigners forget I their native
tongue, and English the wonderful
English language that seems made for
the universe remains triumphant and
alone. :
,
EDUCATIONAL NOTES.
The Earl of Zetland has 'given $25,000
to the iutlinburgh association for the uni
versity Education of "Women. '
Thete are four universities in Switzer
land at Balse, Berne, Geneva ! and Zu
rich at which there are
513 medical
students, of whom fifty-on
are women.
All religious instruction
or even allu-
siou to religion in the schools of France
is so strictly forbidden by the hew laws
on the subject, that the name Deity is
carefully expunged from the new text
books.
The Atlanta Post Appeal is opposed to
the public school system, because by its
operation the whites in the South will be
taxed to educate the blacks. It believes
that each race should pay for its own ed
ucation. I
It is estimated that 4000, pupils in the
St.
, xjuuih puunu scnoois win do turown
t by the supreme court decision that
on
the school board cannot legally admit
persons outside the school! age of six to
twenty-one years. i
The Journal de Pharmacia says that a
mucilage composed as follows will unite
wood, porcelain or glass: 8 ounoes of
gum arabic in strong solution of alumnia
dissolved in two-thirds of
an ' ounce of
water.
l roiessor j. w. MaiietL of the uni
versity of Virginia, ha3 decided to accept
the presidency of the University of
Texas, to which he was elected some
time ago. The endowment of tbe new
university is 2,000,000 acres of land and
an additional cash income of $35,000 a
year. ;
The lip-reading method by which deaf
mutes are taugut is piogressmg very
rapidly. At an exhibition given recently
iu New York a number of boys and
iris answered lessons in geography,
natural philosophy, history and arith
metic by articulation, the -movements of
the professor's lips being watched for as
certaining the questions. Some of the
pupils talked with members of the audi
ence in the same way.
The Baltimore American I says that the
authorities of the Johns Hopkins uni
versity have, after an experience of seven
years, formulated a table of seven dis
tinct and definite coursesj from among
which matriculates will hereafter choose
one. litcn course is designed with ref
erence to the student's subsequent
career, and the courses have been ar
ranged after a careful comparative study
by the faculty of the (combinations
usually chosen, and which peem to afford
the best training for the .respective pro-
essions. i
Ornitological Intelligence.
But perhaps the most remarkable bird
performance was shown near Pall Mall,
London, in loit. A number of little
birds, writes Strutt, to the amount of 12
or 14, being taken from different cages,
were placed on the table in the presence
of the spectators; small cones of paper
bearing some resemblance to grenadiers'
caps were put on their h iads, diminu
tive imitations of muskets made of wood
secured under their left wings. Thus
equipped, they marched to and fro sev
eral times, when a single bird was then
brought forward, supposed to be a de
serter, and set between sixjof the mus
keteers, three in a row, who conducted
him from the top to the bottom of the
table, on the middle of which a small
brass cannon charged with! a little gun
powder had been previously placed, and
the bird was placed in the front part of
the cannot; his guards then divided,
three on one side and thrcfe on the other,
and he was left standing by himself.
Another bird was produced, and a light
ed match being put into Ibis claws, he
hopped boldly on the other end to the
tail of the cannon, and applying the
match to the priming,
piece without the least
fear or agitation. The
lischarged the
ippearance of
loment the ex
jrter; fell down
plosion took place the deai
and lav. aonarentlv motionless, like a
dead bird: but at the command of his
tutor he rose again, and, the cages being
brought, the feathered soldiers were
stripped of their ornaments and returned
into them in perfect order. ! This per
formance is now attempted, but never
carried out to such perfection, the bird
merely hopping upon a perch its weight
alone firing the cannon. ! -Accompanying
the shows of trained
animal were persons quite remarkable
for their power of imitating their cries.
An old advertisement of the time of
Queen Anne, details the powers of a man
named Clench. It states that he "imi
tated the horsesXthe huntsmen and a
pack of hounds, a) sham doctor, an old
woman, a drunken man, the ! bells, the
flute, the double curtell and the organ f
with three voices, by his own natural
voice, to the greatest perfection." He
then professes himself "to be the only
man that could ever attain to so great
an art." N. Y. Post. I . !
Wasted Politeness.
A man came into tbe office the
day with a black eve, a strip of
nlnster across his cheek, one arm
other
court
in a
sling, and, as he leaned on a 'crutch and
wiped the perspiration away from around
a lump on his forehead with a red cotton
handkerohief, he asked if the editor was
in. Being answered in the affirmative,
he said:
"Well, I want to stop my paper," and
lie sat down on the edge of a chair as
though it might hurt him." Scratoh my
name off. You are responsible for my
lUUUIUUU,
"Can it be possible?"
"Yes," said he. "I'i
we inquired.
m a farmer, and
keep cows, l recently read an article in
you paper about a dairyman's conven
tion, where one of the mottoes over the
door was, 'Treat your cow as you would
a lady;' and the article said it was con
tended by our best dairymen that a cow
treated in a polite, gentlemanly manner.
as though she was a companion, would
give twice as much milk. The plan
seemed feasible to me. I had been a
hard man with niy stock.. aai ihaught
mayoe that was one reason my cows - al
ways dried up when bntter was forty
cents a pound, and gave plenty of milk
when batter was only fifteen cents a
pound. I decided to adopt your plan.
and treat a cow as you would a" lady. I
had a cow that never had been very much
mashed on me, and I decided to com
mence on her. and the next morning
after I had read your awful paper I put
on my Sunday suit, and a white plug hat
I bought the year Greeley ran for presi
dent, and went to the barn to milk. I
noticed the old cow seemed to be bash
ful and frightened, but taking off my
hat and bowing politely.I said. 'Madam.
excuse the seeming impropriety of the
request, but will you do me the favor to
hoist?' At the same time I tapped her
gently on the flank with my plug hat;
putting the tin pail under her. I sat
down on the milking stool.
"Did she hoist? said we, rather anx
ious to know how the advice of President
Smith, of Sheboygan, the great dairy
man, worked.
Did she hoist!" Well, look at me.
and see if you think she hoisted. The
cow raised and kicked me with all four
feet, switched me with her tail, and
hooked me with both horns at once; and
when I got up out of the bedding in the
stall and dug my hat out of the manger,
and the milkiug stool from under me,
and began to maul that oow, I forgot all
alout the treatment of horned cattle.
Why, she fairly galloped over me. and
I never want to read your paper again."
We tried to explain to him that the ad
vice did not apply to the brindle cows at
all, but he hobbled out the maddest man
that ever asked a cow to hoist. Ex
change. ALL SORTS.
The mean man is sure to gloss his
faults.
Nothing but a good life can fit men for
a better one.
Those whose courses are different can
not lay plans for another.
True friendship, between man and man
is infinite and immortal. Plato.
Occasions do not make a man frail,
but they do show what he is. A.
Kempis.
A cheerful face is nearly as good for
an invalid as healthy .weather. Frank
lin. He that wrestles with us strenthens
our nerves and sharpens our skill.
Burke.
It is said to be a sure indication of
rurality to see people put sugar and salt
on lettuce.
The best education in the world is til at
got by struggling to get a living. W4P"
dell Phillips.
There are two roads that conduct to
perfect virtue to be true and to do no
evil to any creature. Buddah.
Order is sanity of the mind, the
health of the body, the peace of the city
and the security of the State. Southey.
We sometimes meet with an original
gentleman, w ho, if manners had not ex
isted, would have invented them. Em
erson. Confidence is that feeling by which
the mind embarks iu great and honora
ble courses with a sure hope and trust
in itself. Bulwer-Lytton.
In life it is difficult to say who do you
the most mischief enemies with the
worst intentions or friends with the best,
Cicero.
Consolation is the dropping of a gen
tle dew of Heaven on desert hearths be
neath ; it is one of the choicest gifts of
Divine mercy. Spurgeon.
What win I. if I gain the thin I seek?
A dream, a breath, a path of glided joy;
Who bur a minutes worth to wall a ween,
Or sells eternity to get a toy ?
Shakespeare.
We reap what we sow oh! wonder ful truth !
A truth bard to learn in the days of our youth;
Bat at last it shines out, as ' the hand on the
wall'
For the world hai its debit and credit for all.
Id. Clay " rout.
The Elmira Gazette tells of a woman
who applied for a place as a driver. "Can
you manage mules?" asked an employer.
'I should smile, she said. 1 ve had
two husbands."
A Boston artist painted a string of ten
trout so naturally that the man who
bought it told everybody that he had
purchased a picture of 575 trout all on
one string.
He Had No Home".
The idea that John Howard Payne was
a victim of nature s retributive justice
will probably be a new one to a majority
of readers. Yet it appears to be sin
cerely entertained by the Rev. E. II.
Shepherd, of Septon Mallet, England,
the clergyman at whose suggestion and
through whose efforts, while he was act
ing as British chaplain at Tunis, the
stained glass window in memory of
Payne was placed in the English church
there.
In a sermon preached by him recently
. j ar it
in his parish cnurcn at onepton juaiiet,
he referred as follows to the dead poet:
"Poor man, it was from the aching void
of his heart that he sang, 'There's no
place like home.' Though he lived in a
'palace he' was homeless. Though he
'roamed amid pleasures' he was an un
happy man. Those who knew him well
have told me that in spite of his fino
poetic instincts it was a pain to converse
with him, he was so misanthropic. And
why? In his youth he disregarded the.
voice of God and nature. 'It is not good
for man to be alone;' and in his old age
he found that, left alone, the garden of
Eden is but a barren wilderness to dwell
in. Having failed to make a home for
another, by just retributive nature he
was deprived of home himself." '
Too Much study.
Between half-past eight and nine
every morning our streets are dotted
with children on their way to school. In
some parts of tbe city almost an these
children belong to the public schools,
but in many districts the majority are
on their way to the many private schools
for which Boston is famous. They crime
in groups, in flocks, in long streams.
some by horse cars, others by railroads
from neighboring towns, others from
their city homes; here childron just old
enough to be trusted in the trains alone;
them young men and 'maidens of' f.in
a, or tixtedu. j0ars-n.iaoYing 16 . their
morning s work, and all - with books.
Books often two or three apiece some
times a strap full; not a child without at
leastone volume.
From these books the children have
been learning their "home lessons."
These lessons are recited in school, but
have to be prepared at home, where also
my extra work has to be done for wbioh
for one reason or another there is no
time in school. If one would know what
this work amounts to, let him inquire of
some of these be-booked children what
they had for their last night's lessons,
and how long they had to work. The
answer will probably be, "Oh, only a
little- French exercise that took an
hour; with the writing out of some notes
about half an hour more." Or, "Last
night I had algebra, but I didn't get
through, though I worked over an hour,
because I had some Latin grammar to
make up, n.nd that took me nearly an
hour." This, perhaps, 'from girls of
fourteen or fifteen. "And does it ever
tire you to study so long out of school?"
"Yes, sometimes; but we have to get the
lessons, yeu know."
It is to be hoped that tho stories that
one sometimes hears of overworked boys
and girls are exaggerated, and that there
are not many teachers, "successful" or
not, who put excessive pressure on their
pupils. Yet it must be admitted that -cramming,
both in our private and pub
lic schools is far too common. So much
is required of the scholors, there is so
much emulation among tho scholars,
there is so much rivalry among the
schools, that it is difficult even for the
most discreet teachers to resist the de
mand for a system of high pressure. And
not all teachers are discreet. Too many
of them think little of the physical, or
indeed of the mental welfare of their,
pupils. They xegard them as little re
ceptacles, into which a great deal has to
be forced in a certain limited time; and
they devote themselves to tbeir task with
immense energy, skill and perseverance;
too often ignoring the danger to which ,
these frail vessels are exposed by the '
procees of cramming. .-- -
To make children boys or girls be
tween the ages of twelve and sixteen
study more than an hour out of school,
is, unless in exceptional cases, to impose
upon these growing bodies and brains
more than they ought to. Children are
tough, and they are ambitious, and so
are able to do more work than they
ought to do. Some may work hard all
the morning and all evening, and keep
this up for years before any evil effects
appear. Others need constant watching
in school hours, and should never have
work to do out of school. Tbe evil of
the forcing system lies not only in giving .
children, on the average, too much to do
at home, but in requiring the same
amount of work of all the children in a.
class regardless of their health, their
temperament, and their quickness and
capacity for work
The forcing system i not only dan
gerous, but it is short sighted; it' tends
to defeat the very object for which it is
employed. Of what avail is there to
carry children along at high pressure for
half a dozen years if at the end of that
time they have to give up study. A
thorough education may be valuable,
but not at the expense of a weakened
brain, a disordered stomach, impaired
eyesight, general loss of yigor and ex
haustion of vital power. It is better
that children bhould devote their years
of growth to securing strength and
toughness of body, even at the expense
of some mental dibcipline, than that they
should try to master all wisdom
and" all knowledge, and run the
risk of not being able to use these dearly
bought acquirements.
It is the work out of school, rather
than the work in school, that is objeo
tionable. Most children under twelve
should have no tasks at home. A little
easy memorizing, that may take twenty
or thirty minutes; a bit of interesting
investigation or an experiment; some
thing that shall seem like play rather
than work this is as much as ought to
be put on any child of this age as extra
work. From twelve to fifteen, light
home tasks may well be given to, all but
the least vigorous, but the tasks should
be such that only tbe slowest students
will have to study on more than an hour
and this limit of time should be set
for all. At sixteen children of settled
vigor may begin doing harder work out
of school work that may require an
hour and a half and even more. But
children of this ago should be watched
with special care; that they are ambi
tious; that they feel that their school
days are nearly over, and that they are
becoming so mature that they see more
and more clearly the meaning and value
of their studies, and so are prone to
spend too much time over the studies
themselves and the reading the studies
suggest.
It is to be remembered, too, that study
under pressure, except for a limited time,
is almost useless in some cases is worse
than useless. Study prolonged after a
child begins to grow tired of it, is time
wasted. Some children tire more qnickly
than others; but to most children the
work given them at home, even if inter
esting, is a task, an intrusion upon leis
ure time; and study prolonged under
such conditions does not amount to
much. Again, if study in school is
carefully conducted, the four and a half
hours in school ought to give a child
about all he can digest a day; and if he
has any work at home it ought to be not -enly
light and entertaining, but different
ia character from what he is busy with '
during the morning. More attention to
this matter on the part of teachers would
take away mtfch of the reproach that
attaohes to the practice of giving homo
lessons. Boston Advertiser. . ' -