The Daily Astorian., November 11, 1877, Image 2

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Astoria, Clatsop Co., Oregon.
1. C. IKEJLAXI,
POBLIHBK.
Birds of the Forest.
O follow! follow! follow!
Across the pine-roofed hollow,
Song-tinted breakers
On the wood's wild acres;
Knowing the. mellow rush
Of song is as the flush
Of the first day that was,
The dreaming, only day,
Lost in the sobbing away
Of sin and pain, alas!
Sweet bird I the blessed place
In what glad world was set
"With glory face to face,
Do you remember yet?
His 6ongs their circles trace
Without annoy or fret;
They seem to interlace
The faintly known and met.
0! how the world of song
May bloom, and throb, and grow,
Or on the pathways long
Melodious overflow!
Through all earth's noise and wrong,
Through all her pain and woe,
How sweet, and purely strong,
The fires of being glow!
The Mysterious Diamonds.
BYJELIJAII KELLOGG.
A notable woman for decision of char
acter and strictness of discipline was
"Ma'am" Price, as she "was called, who
taught school in Portland, Me. Polly
Price, her daughter, was an active, bright
girl, whose nimble tongue was always
ready with every and any body.
The school-room was in Mrs. Price's
own house, which stood in Turkey Lane,
so-called from this circumstance : A man
who lived in the street invited the Rev.
Samuel Dean to dine with him and par
take of a turkey. When the parson came,
he found on the, table not a choice, two
legged biped, but a Cape Cod turkey
that is, a boiled salt cod-fish. Tho digni
fied selectmen of the town christened it
Newbury street, but the less stately peo
ple called it Turkey Lane and by that name
it was known for more than foity years.
When the British bombarded Portland,
Ma'am Price, seeing that Turkey Lane
was directly in range of their fire,removed
her household goods to a place of safely.
Polly was determined to save her pig.
A sea-captain at first assisted her. But
as shot and shell came thick and fast, he
advised the determined girl to leave the
animal, as it was not worth risking life
for. Polly, however, was obstinate, and.
fastening a string to the creature's leg,
tried to drive it to Bramhall's Hill,a
' long mile from Turkey Lane.
The pig was as obstinate as Polly was
determined, and the contention between
them delayed their progress. Red-hot
shot whizzed by her, shells fell around
her, and one bursting flung a huge piece
of the eaith so near as to strike the stick
from her hand. But save that pig she
would, and save it she did.
Mrs. Price came to Portland from one
of the West India islands. She was a
woman of culture and decision, and very
strict in her school discipline. If any
boy or girl refused to hold up his or
her head, a fork was put under the chin.
You may judge that she allowed no tri
fling with her commands.
Some years after the bombardment,the
old lady was obliged to suspend her
school, as the town was threatened with
an epidemic of small-pox. A number of
her scholars among whom were my
mother and uncles were inoculated with
small-pox virus and placed in a pest
house. Ma'am Price (in whose experi
ence and judgment the parents trusted,
was employed to take care of them.
It was customary, before the discovery
by Jenner, to inoculate a person, with
small-pox matter,as a preventative against
his taking the disease. The patient was
first put under a strict regimen of diet,
and when the system was properly re
duced, he was inoculated. Being care
fully nursed, the disease was not much
more severe than a mild varioloid. A
patient seldom died,and scarcely one was
disfigured by pits.
The young patients over whom Ma'am
Price watched had long been kept on wa
ter gruel, and were convalescent. Two
of them, Stephen and Hugh McLellan,
moved by & keen appetite, procured,
through friends outside, two lobsters.
All the patients had seated themselves,
around the table and were about eating',
when, unexpectedly, Mrs. Price made
her appearance. She peremptorily for
bade their taking a mouthful of the lob
ster, saying it would kill them. Btft.they
determined to eat, live or die.
Seeing their obstinacy, and as the boys
were large, being unable to prevent their
eating by physical force, she took out
her snuff-box and strewed the yellow
Scotch snuff it contained- over the shell
iish, stirring it with a spoon. The boys
-were angry, but Ma'am was calm, and
they cherished no ill-will towards her.
The good lady's house was a resort for
captains of vessels who had been acquaint
ed with her and her husband when they
lived in the West Indies. They brought
her many presents of fruits, shells, coal,
eye-stones and vanilla-beans. People
troubled with some foreign substance in
their eyes would visit her to have an eye
stone put in to take it out. Old ladies
frequently went to her house for sweet
scented beans to put in their snuff-boxes.
We children often teased our parents
for permission to carry some presents to
Ma'am Price, and were always rewarded
for our charity. She would put the eye
stones in a saucer of vinegar, and we
were delighted to see them crawl around,
as if they were alive. Old pictures, nee
dlework and beautiful shells were shown
to us, and stories were told about the
West Indies and the pirates. Tamarinds,
or guava jelly, or fome other West India
fruir, also contributed to our happiness.
I am going to tell you about a most
singular event in the life of this excellent
woman.
Going one afternoon, during recess,into
her little garden, she picked a "mess of
beans" in her apron. Returning, she sat
down in her school-room and shelled
them. In one of the pods she found
three diamonds. What a talk those dia
monds made for the town I People came
from miles around to hear the story and
to look at the diamonds which grew in a
bean-pod.
I have quoted the story as it was told
to me. Mrs. Price and Polly always de
clared most emphatically that the dia
monds grew in that bean-pod, and I cer
tainly believe the old lady found them
in the pod, as she did. Mrs. Commodore
Preble saw her shell out the diamonds,
and so did" Mrs. Matthew Cobb,
who lived in the large house on the
eastern corner of High and Free streets.
Mrs. James Deering also confirmed
Ma'am's story.
That is not all. The very day before
the old lady died, Miss Sarah Jewett
asked her,
"Ma'am Price, did you truly shell
those diamonds out of a beau-pod?
Hadn't the pod been opened? Was it
whole like the other pods?"
"Bless you, Miss Jewett, how could I
tell. You know folks don't look at every
bean or pea they shell, except there's one
that won't open easily. I was shelling
and looking at the children to see that
they were all in their seats, when I felt
something hard under my thumb. I
looked into my lap and there were two
little shining things among the beans,
and another rolled out of the pod under
my thumb when I tookitup."
Miss Jewett had one of the stones set
in a ring,that is now in possession of Wil
liam Gould, of Windham; John Camp
bell, a relative of Polly's, had another;
but where the third one is I do not know.
When thechildren carried Ma'am a pres
ent, she would frequently take the dia
monds out of the cotton in which they
werekept, and let them handle the pre
cious stones, telling at the same time
how she shelled them out of the bean
pod, and how surprised she was.
I suppose if I don't spoil this mystery
I shall have a score or more of letters
from my young readers inquiring how
these diamonds come in that pod. Thjs
is not known certainly. What did the
neighbors think?
Well, my father said that a vessel ar
rived at Portland from Brazil, on board
of which were several varieties of pre
cious stones. The master of the vessel
was an admirer of Miss Polly, and it was
supposed that he stole the diamonds from
the precious stones on board the ship,and
put them in the bean pod. As he had
stolen them, he did not dare to give them
to Polly, or even tell about them. As
Mrs. Price had only a dozen bean vines,
he knew jPolly or her mother would
find them shortly after the vessel had
sailed, for he put them in just as he was
going to sea.
The vessel was never heard from, and
therefore, the captain never came back to
claim Polly, or to tell her where the dia
monds, which were not of any great
value, came from.
The mystery made a great stir at the
time. YoutWs Companion.
A 2Jew Instrument for Science.
There is now in operation in the Labora
tory of Central University, Richmond,
Ky., an interesting apparatus that re
cords in a beautiful manner the motion
of the earth in its hourly progress through
space. It is the invention of Professor
T. W. Tobin. The principle upon which
the instrument is formed is, that a deli
cately constructed pendulum will con
tinue to oscillate in the same direction
as started, and preserving that plane,
mark the movement of the earth beneath
it. The principle was demonstrated by
Foucuulr, a French philosopher, in 1831;
was verified in Boston at the Bunker Hill
Monument, and lastly again at Yale Col
lege. The apparatus hitherto employed
has been cumbersome, and the results
obtained somewhat vague. The experi
ments, nevertheless, bear historical inter
est, and are related in modern text-books
on physics. It has devolved upon Ken
tucky to furnish the scientific worldwith
a finished and mathematical demonstra
tion of this beautiful phenomenon, to
gether with the apparatus for producing
the result so as to be proved in a school
room or laboratory. The instrument is
about six feet high, consisting of an iron
tripod and delicate pendulum. There.is
an index attached .to the upper portion of
the pendulum, and when the pendulum
is started this is perfectly still. In six
minutes the earth's motion becomes ap
parent, and the needle shows about one
degree of deviation. In one hour the
movement is so marked that the distance
traversed by the earth may bo estimated
from its data. The pendulum is of such
delicate construction that it will remain
in motion for twelve hours, and yet may
be retarded or even stopped by blowing
upon it. Louisville Courier-Journal.
It is said that the famous Eddystone
lighthouse is about to fall. It was com
pleted in 17G9 and has consequently done
nearly one hundred and twenty years'
service. The destruction with which it is
now said to be threatened is nnf frnm
any weakness or decay in the structure
itself, but in the reef of rocks on which
it is built, which is represented as bein
ready to crumble away.
The Land of the Midnight Sun.
The Rochester Union makes the follow
ing extract from a private letter dated at
Tromsoe, Norway, July 3 : We steamed
into this pretty Arctic town night before
last, and shall make our horre here a
week longer, while a portion of the party
finish their northern trip around 2STorth
Cape to Vadsoe. We crossed the mount
ains by means of horses and carriages,
using one hundred and twenty for our
ride of two hundred miles. The law re
quires every station from six to ten
miles apart to furnish travelers fresh
horses within half an hour of their arriv
al. We are now two days into the Arc
tic Circle, and where we now live the sun
shines brightly at midnight from May 20
to July 22. Even two days before reach
ing this point the sun was so strong at
midnight that the ladies wanted shades.
This coast is perfectly beautiful, or, I
should have said, grand, as well as won
derful. For nearly 2,000 miles the islands
are so thick so close together that it is
like sailing up a river which expands into
lakes. The whole distance is overshad
owed with snow-capped mountains from
3,000 to 5,000 feet in height, rising ab
ruptly from the water, while in the dis
tance are to be seen those which are much
higher. We were exposed only once or
twice to the open sea, and then only two
or three hours at a time. The air here is
very exhilarating. Yesterday the chil
dren picked wild flowers as we were
walking, and within a" few feet snow
balls. It is a wonder that in so short a
season everything can be grown in this
latitude, and yet grass springs up rapidly,
often growing an inch in twenty-four
hours. They have but two seasons really
ten months of winter and two of sum
mer. Although the season is so long yet
the fiords never freeze, and I thfnk we
often have as cold weather in New York.
The occupation of the place is fishing,
mostly herring and codfish. All are well-to-do;
no rich and no poor. The people
are intelligent, the masses receiving a fair
education. But what a queer place and
what queer customs 1 From the belfry
of the church, between the hours of 8 at
night and C a. it., a man shouts the time
of night through a large tin horn at in
tervals of every half hour. The clergy
men wear large wide ruffs. We have just
been to see the Lapps, some three or four
milesfrom the town. They were notified
the day before, and for a small sum spent
the whole day among the mountains gath
ering tkeir reindeer, which they drove
down for us to see some 400 of them in
number. It was such a novel sight to
see them coming down the steep mount
ains. They will not live low down, as
they eat only reindeer moss, which grows
where it is very cold. Cows will not eat
where they have been, as the scent of the
little hair they shed is very offensive to
them. We go from here to the fiords
around Molde and Bergen, and purpose
spending a few weeks there; from thence
we go to Hamburg, through Germany to
Geneva, reaching Nice about the first of
November.
A Ghastly Picket Line.
Judge Rowe, writing to the Philadel
phia Weekly Times, relates the following
incident of the night after the battle of
Fredericksburg : "When, on the return
to Marye's Heights, the command first
filed in from the road, there appeared to
be a thin line of soldiers sleeping on the
ground to be occupied. They seemed to
make a sort of row or rank. It was as
if a line of skirmishers had halted and.
lain down; they were perfectly motion
less; their sleep was profound. Not one
of them awoke and got up. They were
not relieved either when the others came.
They seemed to have no commander at
least none awake. Had the fatigues of
the day completely overpowered all of
them, officers and privates alike? They
were nearest the enemy, within call of
him. They were the advance line of the
Union army. Was it thus that they kept
their watch, on which the safety of the
whole army depended, pent up between
the ridge and the river? The enemy
might come within ten steps of them
without being seen. The fog was a veil.
No one knew what lay or moved or crept
a little distance off. The regiments were
allowed to lie down. In doing so, the
men made a denser rank with those there
before them. Still those others did not
waken. If you looked closely at the
face of any one of them, in the mist and
dimness, it was pallid, the eyes closed,
the mouth open, the hair was disheveled,
besides, the attitude was often painful.
There were blood marks also. These
men were all dead. Nevertheless, the
new comers lay down among them and
rested. The pall of night concealed the
foe now. The sombre uncertainty of fate
enveloped the morrow. One was saved
from the peril of the charge, but he found
himself again on Marye's. Hill, near the
enemy, facetp face with the dead, sharing
their couch, almost in their embrace, in
the mist and the December night. Why
not accept them as bed-fellows? So they
lay down with the dead, all in a line,
and were lulled asleep by the monotony
of the cries of the wounded scattered
everywhere."
Ox the Fly. -"Landlord?"
"Yes sir."
"What's that?"
"Butter, sir."
"Does it belong to the league?"
"Sir?"
"Has it any ambition to excel as a base
ballist?"
"I don't grasp your meaning, sir."
"Well, it should, for it's the best fly
catcher I ever saw."
"Oh, I see 1 John, take this away, and
bring the gentleman some of the muffin
butter."
Silence prevailed. Louisville Courier-Journal.
A Lion Story.
Some time ago, in Tunis, a Sicilian of
Rinaldo's circus excited general admira
tion by his manly beauty and feats of
strength. He was in the habit 6f over
coming a lion during the performance,
which, however, was trained to succumb.
The bey of Tunis, hearing of this, sent
him an offer of a thousand ducats if he
would kill a lion which he possessed.
The proposal was accepted, and on the
day appointed the bey and a large com
pany gathered round the pit where the
lion was kept. The beast had been there
three days without food, and was found
furious. The iron door of the pit opened,
.but instead of the athlete, a trembling
dog was thrown forward, which timidly
took refuge in a corner. The lion, who
was at a distance, turned in surprise at
the humble intruder. His tail ceased to
lash his side, his roar ceased, and he sat
with paws extended, contemplating his
victim. Propelling himself forward upon
his belly, he finally made a spring. The
dog, however, who had watched him with
a vigilant eye, sprang in the opposite di
rection. The lion seemed astonished at
missing bis prey, but after rolling over a
few times, made another jump, which was
also avoided. Pity for the dog induced
the bey to order a cord to be lowered for
him; and while the lion was gyrating
preparatory to a renewed spring the dog
intelligently seized the cord with his
teeth and was drawn up. A3 he ascend
ed, the lion sprang again, but was too
late. At this moment the Sicilian ap
peared, calm and fearless. He was in a
rich circus costume, and carried a heavy
mace. He took his position in the same
corner previously occupied by the dog.
At first the lion did not perceive him,but,
on turning, his eye expressed a vague in
quietude. He slowly withdrew a few
steps, watching his enemy with a furtive
and sidelong glance. The Sicilian, on
the contrary, looked straight in his eye
and watched every movement. The lion
evidently had misgivings, but, impelled
by hunger, sprang upon the man with a
terrible roar. The Sicilian slipped aside
with agility, and before the paws of the
lion touched the ground, a violent blow
from the mace on the head laid him in
sensible. The mace was raised for the
death blow when the bey interposed. He
offered the man another thousand for the
life of the beast. It was accepted, and
the lion was allowed to recover.
There Will be Rest in the Eventide.
All day long the farmer may stand
between his plough-handle, turning the
yielding soil; may endure the burden
and heat of the day; may be burned by
the scorching rays of the sun, or be
-drenched by sudden showers, but by-and-
by the sun turls his banner of light, the
birds cease their singing and fly home to
their nests; the eventide has come, and
tired man and weary beast find rest. All
day long the smith may ply his hammer
while huge drops of perspiration roll
down his smoke-begrimed brow. He be
longs to the class that must toil for their
daily bread, and work with him has be
come second nature. He likes the mu
sic of his bellows and clink of his ham
mer, and as the huge sparks fly off from
the red-hot iron he can almost imagine
he is Jove forging thunderbolts and
revelling in the forked lightnings as they
wreath and twine around him. But as
the sun goes down in the west, he lays
by his leather apron, and washes the soot
and smoke from his face, and goes home
to enjoy the society of his family. For
him there has come rest at the eventide.
All day the patient mother may toil
for her little ones, sympathizing with
them in their childish sorrows, calming
their fears and soothing their pains, until
she is worn out soul and body; but as
night approaches sleep touches their eye
lids with its magic wand and for weary
mother and tired child there has come
the rest at eventide. And for us all there
will come rest at eventide, it matters not
what our occupation may be, nor where
our footsteps roam. Life with its
pitiful joys and bitter experiences, its
feverish dreams and empty ambitions, its
hopes and fears, its loves and hates, will
be ended after awhile. As we grow older
our trust diminishes, as one by one our
friends fail us and our expectations are
cut off, the apples of Hesperides turn to
dead sea fruit within our grasp, and the
idols, we all, at times, so wildly worship,
lie shattered at our feet. Oh, the follies
and vanities of life; the lessons we have
to learn and unlearn ; no wonder we grow
weary, many of us, long before the end of
the journey is reached. But all we can
do is to possess our souls in patience, and
press forward for the mark of the prize.
The quantity of pins now. produced
daily in England is said to be 50,000,000,
of which Birmingham produces 37,000,
000, leaving some 13,000,000 to ipndon,
Warrington, Stroud and Dublin, where
the article is also made. The weight of
wire consumed annually in the pinman
ufacture of England is set down at about
1,275 tons, one-eighth of this being iron
wire, used in the production of mourning
and hair pins. The consumption of brass
wire amounts to 2,500,000 pounds, valued
at nearly $600,000, and of iron wire some
345,000 pounds, worth about $36,000 to
these values being added, of course, those
for wages, paper, ornamental envelopes,
boxes, wear and tear of machinery, man
ufacturers' profits, etc. Mourning, hair,
entomological, and japanned pins that
is, those stuck in rows realize a larger
profit than those sold by weight. Takino
it altogether, the pin manufacture of the
United Kingdom is not overestimated, it
is -thought, at the aggregate amount of
$1,000,000. In the United States, the
weight of pins produced in a year is set
down at 1,120,000 pounds.
A generation i fifteen years.
Wretched Homes.
There are various methods of making
home wretched, which are usually found
out without the aid of a receipt. But if any
one wishes to know the secret, we ven
ture to give a few hints, which may be
useful not by way of helping our read
ers to reduce them to practice, but rather
with a view to their avoidance.
A common proverb makes a sm'oky
chimney and a scolding wife the worst
of domestic plagues. But there are worse
than these. A smoky chimney show&
there is a fireside, at all events, and if the
chimney smokes it is the builder's and
not the housewife's fault; ana as for a.
scolding wife, why she may possibly
teach her husband philosophy, as Xan
tippedid Socrates.
A dirty wife is far worse. A wife may
scold, aud yet be clean and thrifty. But
a scolding slattern is a terrible nuisance:
at home, and very soon will succeed in
making a home thoroughly intolerable
for even the most pacific and contented
dispositions. If with dirt there be waste,,
the acme of discomfort will be reached.
Money spent recklessly, and without any
useful product of comfort what is the
end of this but poverty and vice? And
drink, the great cause of waste in poor
men's houses expenditure on that which,
not only wastes a man's substance, but.
ruins his moral and physical capacities,
and we have reached a point of discom
fort beyond which we cannot go. Drink
is the demon of tens of thousands of."
homes, which but for it might be happy..
But there are many minor sources of
discomfort, which worry and fret impa
tient minds,and render homes thoroughly
uncomfortable. Ill-trained children, un
accustomed, because untaught by early
discipline, to curb their little tempers,are
a source of discomfort in many homes.
The neglect, perhaps the ignorauce of
mothers themselves ill-disciplined in
youth, is mainly to be blamed for this.
Ill-cooked meals here is another
source of discomfort perhaps a smalh
one; but not so small either. Bad cook
ing is waste; waste of money and loss or
comfort. Whom the church has joined
in matrimony, ill-cooked joints of meat,
and ill-boiled potatoes have often put
asunder. There is, indeed a sound econ
omy which may be exercised by women
in the culinary department, very much
to the saving of the husband's purses as
well as tempers. Among the "common,
things" which educators would teach the
working people, certainly this ought not
to be overlooked. It is the commonest
and yet most neglected of the branches
of female education. Perhaps it is evenu
thought below the dignity of being called,
"a branch" of education at all. But cook
ing, which really is the art, when properly
cultivated, of making a little go a great
way, is infinitely more valuable and im
portant to the comfort of homes than
tambour work, crochet, netting, or back
stitch not to speak of music and draw
ing. The art of cooking eclipses them
all in point of value.
An unwholesome house is always un
comfortable. The atmosphere is de
pressing to the spirits, and it debilitates
the frame. Its influence may not be felt
or perceptible excepting by our sense
that of smell and yet it is most power
ful. Even the temper becomes peevish
and irritable; and the depression leads to
a craving for stimulants, which, in its
turn, leads to an aggravation of the eviL
Children become querulous, sickly and.
complaining; how can they be cheerful,,
breathing poisoned air, as they often dot
The children cry, poor things, finding
vent in tears and sobs; they are beateni
when they should be sent out in thcopen
air, or, later in the evening, put to bed.
And thus the home is made very uncom
fortable. These unfortunate children how our
heart pities them I . Brought into the
world helpless, they are left amidst thcr
gloomy association of depravity, dirt,
and disease; and they hang about the sor
did dwelling an infant brood, imparting
no joy to the home only so many gap
ing mouths to be fed increasing its
squalor and discomfort. Often children
are cuffed and scolded for no fault oC
their own; the ill-temper engendered by
dirt and drink is vi&ited severely upon
them. Tolerable tempers are made bad,
and bad tempers are rendered cruel; and
thus they grow up to mature years with
the stamp of savage life upon them,with
out any idea of the comforts of home;
familiar with the spectacle of daily re
curring vice.
In better circles home may be made
intolerable in other ways. Peevish and
querulous tempers spoil the repose of
many households. "Better is a dinner or
herbs, where peace is, than a stalled ox
with contention." There are people who
are always making a fuss, and will not
let you be quiet; these have the knack of
making even dining and drawing-rooms
intolerable. They are as unwholesome
as even a roomful of bad air could be
Moping and whining, discovering alb
manner of frets and aches and imaginary
woes grumbling at the maids finding
cause of alarm in everything such peo
ple rarely fail in making homes intoler
able, and driving forth those who had.
hoped for, and who were entitled to find,
peace and repose therein.
An eminent Scottish divine happened,
to meet two of his parishioners at th&
house of a lawyer, whom he considered
too sharp a practitioner. The lawyer
jocularly put the questien: "Doctor,
these are members of your flock. May I
ask, do you look upon them as white or
black sheep?" "I don't know," answered
the divine,dryly, "whether they are black,
or white sheep ; but I know if they are
here long they are pretty sure to be
fleeced."
i
One person dies at each ptilsat'on of
the heart.
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