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About The Douglas independent. (Roseburg, Or.) 187?-1885 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 22, 1883)
XilU liJDEPEIIDEIIT -.. 18 ISSUED' ' " "' SATURDAY MORNING, - , " BY TIIE Douglas County Publishing Company. THE niDEPHTSmiT HAS THIS FINEST JOB OFFICE IN DOUGLAS COUNTY. CARDS, BILL HEADS, LEGAL BLAHIS, - And other Printing, including Large aai Heary Posters ail Slowy Hani-Sills, Neatly md expeditiously executed AT PORTLAND PRICES. One Year -Six Months -Three Months $2 50 1 50 1 00 These are the terms of those paying to advance. The Independent offers fine inducements to advertisers. ; Terms reasonable. VOL. VIII. EOSEBURG, OREGON, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1883. NO. 37. uJsg' j'fjlc,' 'Jgj1 ilolfe T?.T TOT?- nsasn TFm n Town hi i . r i u i 1 1 i it .mil it i it! . rn rn .J. JASKULEEC, PRAOIICAL tf atctaato, Jeweler ani Optician, ALL WORK WARRANTED. Dealer In M atches, Clocks, Jewelry, Spectacles and Eyeglasses. AND A FULL USE OT Cigars, Tobacco & Fancy Goods. Th only reliable Optomer In town for the proper adjust ment of 8ectacleg ; always on hand. Depot of the Genuine Brazilian Pebble Spec tacle and Eyeglasses. Office First Door South' of Postoffice, ROSEBl'RW, OREGO.V. LA1TGENBEHGS Boot and Shoe Store On Jackson Street, Opposite the Post Office, Keeps on hand the largest and Inst assortment of Eastern and Nan Francisco Boots and Shoes, Waiters, Mllppers, r And everything In the Boot and Shoo Hue, and SELLS CHEAP FOR CASH. Boots and Shoes Made to Order, and rerfect Fit (Guaranteed. I use the Best of Leather and Warrant all my work. Repairing Neatly Done, on Short Notice. I keep always on hand TOYS AND NOTIONS. Musical Instruments and Violin Strings a specialty. . LOITltt LAXUJEXBEItU. DR. W. DAVIS, DENTIST, R OSr.ll u B , O Bf E a O X, Office On Jackson Street, Up Stairs, Over S. Marks & Co.'s New Store. MAHONEY'S SALOON, Nearest the Eail road Depot, Oakland. JAH. MAIIOXKV, - - - Vroprletor. The Finest Wines, Liquors and Cigars in - Douglas County, and THE BEST BILLIARD TABLE IN THE STATE, ' KE1T IN FKOl'EK REPAIR. Parties traveling on the railroad will find this place very handy to visit during the stopping of the train at the Oakland Depot. (Jive me a call. J AS. MAIIONEY. JOHN PHASER, Home Made Furniture, WILRUIt, OKE0. UPHOLSTERY, SPRING MATTRESSES. ETC, Constantly on "hand. FURNITURE. have the Best STOCK OF FURNITURE Mouth of Portland. And all of any own manufacture. Xo Two Irlees to Customers. Residents of Douglas County are requested to give me a call before purchasing elsewhere. . ALL WORK WARRANTED. DEPOT HOTEL, Oakland, Oregon. ' RICHARD THOMAS, Proprietor. This Hotel has been established for a num ber of years, and has liecorae very pop ular with the traveling public. ITEST-CLASS SLEEPING ACCOMMODATIONS AND THE Table supplied with the Best the Market affords. Hotel at the Depot of t he Railroad. H. C. STANTON, ' DEALER IN Staple Dry Goods, Keeps constantly on hand a general assortment of Extra Fine Groceries, WOOD, WILLOW AND GLASSWARE, ALSO CROCKERY AND CORDAGE, A full tstocV of SCHOOL BOOKS, Such as required by the Public County Schools. All kinds of Stationery, Toys and Fancy Articles, TO fil'IT BOTH YOl'XU AND OLD. "Buys and Sells Legal Tenders, furnishes Checks on Portland, and procures Drafts on San Francisco. SEEDS! SEEDS 1 SEEDS! ALL KINDS OF THE BEST QUALITY. ' . ai-Ij orders Promptly attended to and goods shipped with care. . Address, 1IAC1IEXV JL BEXO, Portland, Oregon. i. urigian Pavements. Pavements in Paris are made in this way : A bed of lime concrete is made for base, and on this are placed, narrow side up, blocks of pine wood previously steeped in tar, and of the size of ordi nary bricks. Between every row an in terstice is left, one-quarter of an inch wide, filled up by gravel and sand; well rammed in, the whole being coated over with another concrete where tar is the binding medium. What Came of It. L Helen K Storrett in Chicago Weekly ilaga- .- tine. . ' Mr. Smith missed the train by just just one-nan minute ana ne was in a furious temper over the matter. He lived in the suburbs and went into the city every day to his place of business a ot once in tnreo montns did such a 'thing happen as his being late for the train, but on this occasion he felt like declaring that half the time he had to rush himself clear out of breath to reach it or else miss it. He was in that exas perated state of mind where he wanted to blame somebodv. abuse somebodv: jl ' " v a state of mind which, in a condition of development a little 'nearer the savage, would impel to acts of cruelty towards any thing or any person on whom anger t could be wreaked. Of course the - person on whom he could most quickly and with the least impunity cast blame was his wife. It was all her fault. Why couldn't she manage household affairs so that he could get his breakfast earlier? He worked like a slave at his business ten hours a day, he gave her full control of the house and furnished money to run it; she had a servant and it was pure and utter shiftlessness in her that breakfast could not be ready in proper time. Thus soliloquized Mr. Smith, as with anger-flashing eyes he saw the tram disappear m the distance. It was a full hour and a half till the next tram; it was nearly half a mile back to Mr. Smith's houaa . He nerv ously paced back and forth for a few moments before the depot, debating in his mmd whether he should wait there for the next train or go back borne. As he mused his anger grew. He would go back home; he would give hia wife such a "blowing-up" as she would re member for months. She should feel that it was no light matter to have breakfast fivo minutes late. He turned his face homeward and stamped heavily along with the air of a man determined to do a desperate deed; his .face was flushed with anger and his eye gleamed fiercely. But as ho hastened along somehow or other his absorbed attention was di verted by the song of a bird in the trees that lined his path. He looked up in voluntarily. How brightly the sun was shining ! The trees were putting forth their tenderest green; so was the grass. He noticed the fragrance of the apple and plum blossoms; he distinguished the peculiar strain of a bird he used to hear in boyhood. He had listened to that bird when he had walked in the meadows with the pretty, shy young maiden whom his heart was bent on winning for his wife. She was his wife now. She was the mother of three rosy, active children ; they were his and hers. She was not so pretty as she once was. Sho was thin and careworn. The plump rosiness and merry smile were for the most part gone. But what a good, true wife she had been to him I And on this bright, sunshiny, beautiful morn ing he had been meditating the sharp words he could say to her, and all for a trivial little loss of an hour from busi ness. Mr.i Smith's pace slackened ; his countenance relaxed, his heart melted. On such a morning he could not, would not mar the harmony and beauty of the sunshine and birds and the green things growing. No; if he could not speak kindly words he would hold his peace. As Mr. Smith neared his house ha felt a certain shrinking . from meeting his wife directly. He almost felt that he might betray on his countenance some of the harsh thoughts he had been thinking. So he went around the side of the house and entered a kitchen door. Bridget was standing with a perplexed and distressed air over the open stove in which smouldered a dark, dying fire. "What is the matter, Bridget?" "Faith, sur, and it's the stove that breaks me heart entirely. The grate is broken and the stove-pipe smokes, and whin I sthrive to make a quick fire, here's the way it serves me." ".Well, Bridget, I believe that's all my fault. Your mistress has asked me many times to bring a new grate from the city and also to have a man come and clean out the stove-pipe and chim ney. I will put this down in my note book and bring the new grate this even ing, and Pat McFlinn shall come this very day and fix the pipe." "Oh, thank you, sur," said Bridget, with a brightening countenance, "and could you have the cisthern fixed to ? The pump has been broken a-long toime and it takes so much of me toime and keeps back the work so to be dhraw ing water wida rope." Again Mr. Smith's conscience smote him. How often had Ins wife asked him to Lave the cistern fixed. "Yes Bridget, I will have the cistern fixed also this very day." "Well, sur, thin I think Til stay. I was just tellin' the misthress that I wouldn't work any longer with such in conveniences, but if the stove and cis thern are fixed a poor girl can get along." Mr. Smith made another memoran dum in his note book and passed on through the dining-room towards his wife's room. He noticed that her plate indicated an untasted breakfast. Softly he .opened the door of their room. His wife started up hastily with an expres sion of alarmed inquiry. Her eyes were wet with tears. The baby, still in his night-clothes, was fretting in the cradle, while a little 2-year-old, partly dressed, tugged at her skirts. "And so you missed the train breakfast was late, well, I can't help it Bridget is going to leave, too," and the poor little woman covered her face with her hands and burst into sobs and tears. She folly expected angry com plaints from her husband, and in some vague way she felt that she was to blame. She could not compass every thing, and the babies were so trouble some. Oh, did every young mother have as Lard a time as she did? "Why, darling, what's the matter?" said Mr. Smith, putting his arm around his wife. "Come, I think it is mostly my own fault. I have come through the kitchen and 1 find Bridget has so much trouble with the store being broken and the chimney bad that I won der she can get breakfast at all." "I ought to get up in time to see that you have your breakfast early. sobbed the poor , little woman. "But Bridget is so cross this morning and I I am so tired." ' - "And no wonder, darling, that you are tired, with the, care of these big babies, wearing on yoti all the time. You have no business to have anf care of the breakfast at all, and you shall not have after this. You need yout good morning nap and you shall have it. Bridget is all right. I'm going to get that broken stove fixed and the cis tern, and then if Bridget can't get the breakfast in time without you we 11 find some other way to do. Come now, cheer np and 111 help you to dress these rogues. I have plenty of time before the next train. How wonderful is the effect upon the physical nature of a spiritual impulse! How quickly can an uplifted and strengthened spirit energize and strengthen the body! Everything seemed instantly changed for the poor, dejected little Mrs. Smith. She laid her cheek against her husband's, then rested her head on his shoulder. How precious and dear was his love and strength. Her eyes brightened and her cheeks glowed. Her weariness and depression which had been utter misery gave way to a delightful feeling of re pose and loving happiness. In the midst of the most prosaic surroundings her heart was full of the finest and mo3t inspiring emotion. "Dear, dear love, how good you are !" she said. "How you have changed the aspect or everything for me this morn ing. Had you reproached me as many husbands would have done, I would have sunk in deepest anguish. Your sympathy makes me strong strong and uappy. . . Releasing his wife with a tender kiss. Mr. Smith took the baby from the cradle and merrily drew its little stock ings and shoes on its little plump, Kick ing, restless feet. Then he brushed out the other little fellow's curls and but toned his shoes. Willie, the oldest, had slipped out of the house, and Mr. Smith went to look for him, and found that he had taken advantage of an insecure Iocs on the gate to, run off up the street. Bringing him back, Mr. Smith "got the hatchet and in a few minutes had fixed the gate so that Master Willie couldn't open it. His wife smilingly opened the front door and seeing what he had done ex claimed, "Ob, I am so relieved to find that Willie cannot gei out of the yard, It has been such a source of annoyance that I could not keep him in." And now it was time to start for the next train if he stopped to order the stove man and the pump man to do the promised work. So, gaily kissing his wife and children once more, Mr. Smith started for the depot. And as he walked along with a light and joyful heart he mused : "How cheap a thing i3 happiness, after all, and yet how easy to turn it into misery ! If I had given way to my temper this morning I could have grat ified a momentary impulse of unreason able anger and left behind me saddened and discouraged hearts. If I had not learned of and remedied the discomfort and inconvenience caused by my own negligence, weeks and months'of domes tic chaos might have followed. Thank heaven for the influence of the song of bird and scent of flower, and thank heaven, too, for all the gentle influences and sweet affections that can make the most uneventful life a blessing. Dear, good wife ! and dear little children ! Thank God I have left them happy this morrung if I did miss the train." A Chinese Soldier's Rations. On the banks were severai'battalions of infantry, encamped in good tents, all laid out in first-class order, properly pitched and nicely intrenched. The whole arrangement was on the Euro pean system. I went ashore among the tents and saw the evening meel being served out. The rations consisted of rice, pork, fat, vegetables, and fish. Each man got a huge bowl of the mixture. All the men sat down around the boWl, each with a little basin in his hand and his chop-stick s ready for action. There was no cere mony. Every soldier filled his cup and then began to fill his mouth. In a few minutes nothing was to be seen but chins and chop-sticks moving si multaneously. A dead silence had fallen on the camp, and till the attack on the rations was over ngl a Chinaman spoke. Then there was a movement toward the camp-fires for hot water to be poured over the tea leaves, of which each man seemed to have a supply, and after this camp merriment and talk, for the serious business of the day is over. I found the soldiers had had one meal like that in the early part of the day, and that the two rations were all they got, but they were quite contented and happy, and looked in very good condi tion. I. learned that one secret of their happiness was the abundance of pork fat served out. At Hangchowit appears that the authorities were more than usually free with this felicitous accom paniment of a Chinese soldier's dinner. Only the II ire 1 UlrL A little 3-ycar-old . was out in the garden, when she stepped on a beetle and killed it. The gardener, in a sympathetic tone, said to her: "Per haps that was a mother beetle gather ing food for her children at home, and they may suffer with hunger ;".when Ida replied with apparent honesty, "I guess, Uncle Frank, it was not the mother I killed, but was only the hired girL Bound to Stick. I remember how the jockeys used to ride in the olden days. They had no saddles, tnd each man who mounted a horse was required to wear home-made linen pants. A vial of honey was poured on the back of the horsa, and the honey coming in contact with the raw linen,, formed an adhesion suffi ciently strong to keep the rider in hia position and enable him to ride with safety. A MARYLAND ESTATE. flow the Negroes Were Provided for Their Allowance of Food and Clothing. . Fred Douglass, in his autobiography. thus describes the management of a juaryiana estate, in the times of slavery me men and the women slavps on Col. Lloyd's farm received as their monthly allowance of food eight pounds oi picKiea porK or, thr equivalent in fish. The pork was often tainted and the fish was of the poorest quality herrings which would bring very little u onerea ior sale at any northern market. With their rxrk or fish thev had one bushel of Indian meal , unbolted, oi which about 15 per cent, was fit only to feed pigs. With this one pound of salt was given, and this was tne entire montuly allowance of a full grown slave, working constantly in the open field from morning till night every day in the raoath except Surrd'ay, ana living on a traction more tuan a quarter of a pound of meat per day and less than a peek of corn meal per week. j.ne yearly allowance of clothing con sisted of two tow-linen shirts, such as the coarest crasli towels are made of : two pairs of trousers, one for summer ana one lor winter; one winter jacket, one pair of yarn stockings, and only one pair of shoes. The slave's entire apparel could not have cost more than 3o a year. "The iittle boys and girls were nearly all in a state of perfect nudity. A coarse blanket, such as cover horses, was their only bed. The little children stuck themselves in holes and oorners about the quarters, often in the corner oi the huge chimneys, with their feet in the ashes to keep them warm. More slaves were whipped for oversleeping buau iui vLixy umer iuuit. i.x enner age nor sex found, any favor. The overseer stood at the auarter-door armed with the stick and cowskin, ready to whip any who was a few minutes behind time. Young mothers who worked in th fiold were compelled to tako their children with them , and to leave them in the corner of the fence to prevent loss of time in nursing them. But in the creat house of Col. Lloyd the table groaned unaer tne heavy ana uiood- bought luxuries, gathered with painstaking care at home and abroad. Fields, for ests, rivers and seas were made tribu tary there. Fifteen servants waited on the groaning table, some armed witty fans to cool the heated brows of the alabaster ladies there. Splendid coaches were in the stable, beside gigs, phsotons, barouches, sulkies and sleighs, silver-mounted harness and thirtyfiv fine horses," A Banker's Jam!'y Travel Ins Coaeh. A coach in whieii a uanlcer of Penn sylvania is traveling with his family is described as folldws : The outside has seats for three in front and two back ; two large lamps are on each side of the front seat, and one largo headlight is on the dashboard. Here also are a clock, an ax, a knife, a pistol and other things. On the left side of the coach, near the box, is a private locker con taining viands. On top is a large willow trunk, immediately back of which the tent, camp chairs and blankets are stored. Undsr the back step is a place for another large willow trunk, hanging behind whioh is a step ladder to be used by ladies when taking seats on the outside of the coach. In side the boot all kinds of cooking uten sils are packed. On the side of the coach are willow cases for canes, um brellas, fishing rod3 and gans. Inside are two roomy seats facing each other, accommodating six persons. In the cushions of the doors are map pockets, and on the cushioned walk hang a ther mometer, a barometer, a compass, a clock, night lamp and match box, and near the top are racks filled with note paper and envelopes. The vehicle weighs only 1,370 pounds, and the reins are handled by the owner, who generally makes from twenty-five to forty miles daily. The party go into camp at ; 12 o'clock. The horses are then picketed and the camp fire is kindled. i A 8Kb?urine Balloon, At the foinicoming International ex hibition of Naples will be exhibited in action a submarine observatory, or bal loon, which will sink people to the bot tom of the Mediterranean shore waters, where they can enjoy the natural aquaria there to be seen. It, is a bal loon of steel, with three compartments one for the actuating mechanism and heating bladder, one for the captain, and one for the passengers, to the num ber of eight. There are glasi windows for looking out at the fishes, shells and weeds, and the height of the balloon in the water is regulated at will by means of a collapsible bladder. A telephone connects the balloon, which is captive and can not float away, with the shore or a boat above. Cunning Conjurors. ' The performances by tho Davenport brothers and other spirits are clumsy compared with the acts of tho far north west Indians. The conjurors are legion that will permit themselves to be lxund, not merely hand and foot, but the whole body swathed with thongs, withes, ropes and . rawhides, and after ward tied up in a net, and then release themselves almost instantly on being placed in a little "medicine lodge" of skins, constructed for the purpose, the bond3 being thrown out through an opening in the top, without a knot being apparently disturbed. : ... - . , . ' . ; The Comlns Trotter. When tho world sees a trotter cover a mile in one minute and forty seconds. a feat accomplished by more than one thoroughbred, it will see a wholly new type, so different from the present ani mal that the theory of evolution will never stretch far enough to cover the prodigy. " ' ' . A Fortune Waits. A fortune awaits the man who will in vent a penholder that yon can't stick into the mucilage-bottle, and a mucilage brush that won't go into the inkstand. There is a man in Nev? York who manufactures diamonds for aclres es to lose. They are sold at so much a quart . BEWARE, PROUD WORLD. Beware, proud world 1 now thou despisest The humblest of thy creatures, Jest In melancholy's sunless mine , j He chanee nnnn a Rtenl divinn - Whose edge shall cleave your torturing' cnain, And break your sceptred gods' relentles? An Old Physician's Views. ! I believe, however, that it is not the liquor alone which produces the diseases generally attributed to it. It is rather in the fact that those who are supposed to fail in thvsical health bv its tira nr who use it to excess, do so because they create by their course of life or labor a morbid demand for the stimulant. T have already shown how a board of trade man may rush ou to get a drink zo prevent a reaction from excitement. It is so with man V other voeatinna. Take a compositor on a morning paper. xv win wuia. an mgnc, ana nave nis slumbers broken in the day. He rises uureirt snea. - ne must work again, and, utterly prostrated, suffering from nervous losses, he drinks to restore him self. He continues this course for years, and becomes a wreck. Whether from the drink or the work for which he may have been constitutionally unfitted I coma not say, unless l could determine what would have been the result had he followed either course and left the other alone. I am inclined to think, however, that the effects of liquor on a person following a nervous and exhaustive vo cation, especially if it be used to brace up to greater ehorts and harder work, is far more ininrinns than vhn naaA . . J . VHWA U,M ty such men as those who first peopled me west, and who drank it frequently and sometimes to excess. Their rvh- tems were strong enough to throw off its enects. lheir occupations did not cause nervou? prostration, hence thev did not develop a seeming necessity in me system ior it. it is not the peculi aritv of modern liouor or the denravit.v of the present generation ; it is the ex- naustion induced by the terrible outlay of vitalitv in excitinor business that make3 drinking what it now is with a large class. My advice to all workers is to go slow. Do not brace up that you may overwork. Rest: that is na ture's own magnificent and unri valed remedv. that will cure when nothing else will. Take to the woods. the fields, the open air. Throw physics to the dogs, and. do not sell your health for money, for you oannot buy it. A Plea for fclttle Men. RllTClv tllA aTlfVrrvnTririt-i-Joa nrill A vrvutbbi WU3 TT I.J.J. V4V harm if they encourage the craze of tallness. It seems one ambition of mothers that their boys should be tall. Napoleon and Wellington and Nelson were short. The Romans dominated Italv because individual nhvniVal in feriority made them perfect their or ganization. To say that the English is Al 1 11 . me taiiest race is simply to say that they are hewers of wood and drawers of water f or the rest. The tallnes3 of Saxon invaders nroves littlo. Alfchnnnrh reach was of more importance in the aays oi swora ana ax than now, the tall Saxon did not in point of fact oust the shorter Celt or Neolith except in places where command of thA un rrva him power to concentrate rapidly. It is to organization, sanitary education. etc., ana not to taiiness, or even to weight, that one race must look to beat another now. as in the d&vs when Tlnmo beat the mountaineers. But if we are to aamire physical condition, surely we should be tanffht to lnnlr to the chest in men, and to size, where size is wanted in women, and not to taiiness in either case. One of tho Herfons Wants. In the carriacre-makers convention in New Haven. Conn., after the committAA pn apprenticeship had reported in favor ui restoring me oia system oi inden turing apprentices until they reach their majority. Mr. J ohn W. Britton. of New York, said : "One of the serious wants of this country and of pur trade i3 good boys. Our boys are deteriorating, as are our men. The greatest difficulty we experience in New York is that of getting boys who have brains and are willing to learn a trade thoroughly. The example of men who have made millions in a few years is held up be fore our boys in school, and the boys become inflamed with the notion that they must make their millions and be able to found cross-roads colleges be fore thev die. So they eschew trade and become poor professionals,". The Authorship of Old Grimes." The New York Tribune has bean trying to fix the authorship of the pa thetic ballad. "Old Grimes." The weight of the testimony is in favor of Albert G. Green, a Graduate of Brown university and author of "The Baron's Liast Jianquet. There is a pretty well authenticated claim, however, that the author was a student of the Yale col lege during the presidency of Dr. JJwight. In those days the janitor of the institution was an ecoentrio charac ter, who wore "an old brown coat " and was called by the students Professor of Dust and Ashes. He died, and the claim is that one of the college rhym sters wrote the lines in question, which were sung by a lot of heartless students who assembled for that purpose on the rooi oi tho college building. A Useless Habit. The act of nuttincr a" lead neneil tn the tongue to wet it just before writing, which is habitual with many people, is one ot tno oddities lor which it is hard to give any reason unless it began in the days when nencils were rjoorer than now, and was continued by example to tue next generation. A lead pencil Should never be wet. It hardens th lead snd ruins the pencil. This fact is known to newspaper men and stenog- rapners. A Warning. 0 A Boston editor became "a waiting encyclopedia of historical and bio graphical knowledge" and then died. People should not try to be encyclope dias unless they expect -to be soon laid on tne sneii. LEXINGTON. The Old-Time Athens of the South- The Commercial Centre of the .West. j A K. McClure in Philadelphia Times. - I find myself for the first time in Lexington, the home of Clay. Grand as it is in the associations' which gather about his lustrous name and career, it is not the Lexington that called the "Mm Boy of the Slashes"! to seek home and fame in the Kentucky wilderness. When he turned his youthful face toward the setting sun in 1797, and cast his lot in the OUtuost of mvibVntion 4n7 9 - a r ' Mwifvti uj Lexington of that day was regarded as me imure miana commercial centre of the south and west. It was baptized at the camp-fire of pioneers,' by the patri otic impulse that welcomed the news of the Lexington battle in Massachusetts, and Virginia culture and refinement came to the land of Boone and made the new Lexington the Athens of the west. Clay and Polk both came from the Old Dominion to rise with the most promising and cultured people of the new commonwealth, and both honored it in later years, in the senate of the United States. And their dreams of social and commercial pre-eminence for their new western home, long seemed to be certain of fulfillment. Before Clay had reached national distinction as- Commoner, Lexington had become the great commercial cen tre of the west, with ' Cincinnati, Louis ville, and all the near west and south seeking it as a wholesale trading depot. Its law and medical colleges rivaled even the great cities of the east, and its temples of learning were the pride of the nation. Transylvania university was the Yale of the south, with its char ter from parent Virginia ante-dating the independence of the colonies. The population of Lexington was once thrice that of Louisville or Cincinnati, and it was the centre of southern intel lect, refinement and elegance. It has furnished the most illustrious fine of statesmen of any city or county in the union. Nine residents of Fayette county have borne the high commission of proud Kentucky to the United States senate, and among them were such memorable names as Clay, Marshall, Breckenridge. and last, thomrh not. least, the present Senator Beck, who cast nis nrst vote for Clay in 1844; and twice that number have mad th nnmo of Lexington familiar in the house of representatives. But commerce is shifting as the sands of the sea, and the Lexington that Henry Clay dreamed of and saw in commercial and social nre-eminPTmA three score vears atro. ia now. as com pared With that dav. another Hwent An. burn, grandest in the fragrant memories oi restive greatness. The steamboat's hoarse song was heard on tho Ohio commerce fled to worship at new altars, and the city lota which sold at ffttmlmia prices in the suburbs of Lexington, have iuiig ueen gatnerea back into heart some and bountiful blue grass farms. I spent a most interestinc and in structive morning here with one of the iew surviving contemporaries of Clay when Lexington wasthaboaskHl Athona oi tne west, nenjamin Gratz has braved tne storms of ninety-one winters. He tells of Philadelphia when a city less than the present Louisville and of Lexington as the boasted inland city of the continent. He once pointed to Transylvania university in its grand est distinction as part of his own work, and he shared every joy and sorrow of Henry Clay. His eves are siirhtlAsa and his fine form bowed by tle weight oi years, put nis lace brightens with almost the fervor of vouth when ho tells the story of the devotion of Lex- ingion to tne gallant "llarry of tho West." The citv of Penn that ho loft. to become part of the future metropo lis of the west now has nearly a million people within its limits, and the western metropolis, founded so honfnllv in tVia heart of the beautiful and bountiful Dlue grass region, is to-day a pretty vil lage, rich in lee-end and trad it inn richer in the nation's records of endur ing fame, but with all the glory of early dreams departed. Fault of Our School System. We school tne children too mil!. . that is to say, we keep them at school' an me year round; we continually force their perceptive and memorizing fanl- ties, and give no time for the play of meir renective faculties. In other words, thev don't reflect nnnn what t.hav have learned or attempt to apply it in meir own minds, .we cram them with too many studies. How else is the fact to be accounted for that a child in the country, having but lour months' schooling in the year, will come to Boston more matured in hia education than one wlio has had nine months' schooling in thoivear? In onr city schools there is too much teaching and too little learning. By that I mean to say that the great press of studies placed upon the young mind by oral teachings for a few minutes at a time, and a different study most every hour in the day, tend to break up the continuity of the nnnil'athono'r.t and the oral addresses and lectures re ceive but little attention from the tired minds of the pupils. Another Fashionable Crace. Just now it is said to bo ft nrnTA among the fashionable ladies tf New i or society to own valuable cows. aying for them sums varying from 6,000 to $16,000. They affect a trloas of milk night and morning, which is quite as expensive as , the masculine cocktail at that rate of investment. The High School Translation. wYou ought to "be in our room now." said Amy ; "we have a teacher that rules the roost." "Well," replied the high school girl, 'Td be ashamed of myself. You should say, 'Governs the horizontal perch on which the fowl reposes,' not "rules the roost.'" Voltaire : I never was but twine in my life conmletelv on the verse of ruin first, when I lost a lawsuit; and, sec ondly, when I gamed one. Baron Nathaniel Rothschild tafc dinner on golden plates. Gen. Grant's Office. "Where is Gen. Grant's office?" is a question often asked bv KiorhtoAro Nearly every person familiar with Wall sireei, is competent to reply: "in the United Bank building." This, tall structure, a.t the corner of Broadway ana vvau street, is generally known by the title of "Fort Shfrman" Tn a 10x12 room on the seventh floor the ex-president attends almost daily to his duties as president of the Mexican Southern railroad. A new circular top mahogany desk stands near a broad window which overlooks : Broadway. From his chair Gen. Grant has a mag nificent view across Trinity churchyard, out into the bav. and over the river intpNew Jersey. A dark-hued Ax- mr Kirpet covers the floor of the COi. a rich mahocanv wainuvf,inir reaesiialf way up to the ceiling, and tl -.v- : . - mo iuvcx vcuLug epaue i covered by a thick trolden Tater Rtamnml in imitation of Aztec metal. The door frames and ceilincr are of hiffhlv- polished Georeria nine. Alone onA aid J A. " O w of the room are solid mahogany book cases, and in one corner is an old-fashioned brick fire-nlaee. Tho f aw nirv tures that ornament the walls all relate to Mexico. There is a fine large map Of tho Citv of Mexico, and also a bird'a- eye view of the place. A large glass .i . ... . . oox on me wmaow-siii contained some choice snecimens of Mpvifan silver. For those who come to see him, the general has ordered three solid looking cane-seated arm chairs of polished ash. The conductor of one of the smoothly running elevators i i this building has been asked SO oftn wliprsftmi. ftrant'a office was that in announcing the floors as ne goes up or aown ne now call out it i . tne seventh noor thus: . "Seventh Gen. Grant's office." "How many persons that innnire for Gen. Graut's office really want to tro there?" asked the reporter. 4$'.out one in ten," was the reply. Siddong as a tneen or Tragedy. My aunt used to relate the followf no anecdotes of Mrs. Siddons : One day, while seated in a well-known draper's in iona street, ousily engaged with her purchases, my aunt, as they say in the old ballads, "suddenlv recam awar" of a voice - of extraordinary tone and pathos. The speaker was a lady seated close behind, and with her back tm-nod to my aunt. With the genuine intona tion and slow utterance of the deepest tragedy the customer demanded of the bewildered shopman : "Will this gown war-sh?" and on being answered in the affirmative, and that the color was fast, rejoined with still greater dramatic solemnity : "The color, then, fadeth not? Ahl'tis well!" "Oh, oh," thought my aunt, "the queen of tragedy alive !" In a moment they were shaking hands and exchanging greetings, and in another discussing the respective merits of cottons and prints, of which Mrs. Siddons showed herself a keen judge, when she could lay aside which was rare indeedher dramatic affectation. On, another occasion my aunt was seated opposite to Mrs. Siddons at a dinner party. Some salad was brought to her, which she declined; but the host loudly extolled its very special merits, and urged her just to try it." So after a little hesitation the great tragedian turned round to the footman who stood behind her with the salad, and extend ing both her hands with genuine theat rical air (a la Queen Katharine before Henry Vm), and throwing her head back in the true tragic style, exclaimed in her deepest tones and most popular manner : "I must obey ; then bring me the b-o-w-1 !" The company were, of course, deeply impressed. v. A Diver in Sunken Slayer. "Two mates of mine were hired some years ago to go down to a ship on the coast of BraziL They found her a full-rigged vessel, but so closely bat tened down they couldn't do anything with her; so they went up and got tools, and, going down, finally pried up the hatch-cover. It came off with a rush, and in a moment they seemed inclosed in a cloud of flame, and the next they saw they were in a crowd of persons that seemed to be walking about, moving slowly up as if they were swimming for the surface. One of the divers fainted dead away, and the other came near it. You see she was a slaver, and the poor fellows had ' been locked in and went down with her." "But how about the fira," asked the reporter. - ' "Oh, that was what they call phos phorescence," replied the diver. "As soon as bodies decompose in the water they become luminous, and : when the hatch came off' it seemed as if a blaze of light came rushing up, and, of course, the bodies, hundreds of them, came surging out in a rush, so that in a second they were in the "midst of a crowd of dead men that appeared to bo moving upward. Yes, it was a terrible sight, and one of the men never would go down again; his nerves were all broken up." France's Fiffhters. It has always been thus in the history of the country. Paris makes revolu tions, but it is France which has to bear the consequences. Paris cries, "To Ber lin !" and then skulks behind it, fortifi cation, leaving France to fight out the quarrel. To defend herself from the mob of the capital, France accepts any king, emperor, or dictator, and finds herself a few years afterward engaged ' in a war dictated by Paris journalists and wits. - . . "Klght-Ilanded" Animals. Right-handedness extends very far' along the animal series. Parrots hold their food by preference in the right foot, and, though we cannot speak pos itively, wasps, beetles and spiders seem to use the right anterior foot most com monly. - The nnmlior of rAA a-wma the government arsenal at Washington will aarsrreErate 100 .001 of oil hinri They are being sold at prices ranging : There are people so cross-grained that thev wonlrln't. IiV it tv.s suited them exactly.