' SPINNING' :j
like a blind spinner In the sun,
I tread my days; - .
I know that all the threads will rah
Appointed ways:
I know each day will bring its task,
And, being blind, no more I ask.
I do not know tie use or name
Of that I spin;
I only know that some one came, i
And laid within
My hand the thread, and said: ' Since you
Are blind but one thing you can do."
Sometimes the threads so rough and fast i
And tangled fly,
I know wild storms are sweeping past,
And fear that I 1
Shall fall; but dare not tryo find
A safe place, since I am blind.
I know not why, but I am sure
That tint and place,
In some great fabric to endure
Past time and race ',
My threads will have; so from the first, j
Though blind, I never felt accurst ;
)
I think, perhaps, this trust has sprung ' ;
From one short word
Said over me when I was young ,'
. So young, I heard ,'
It, knowing not that God's name signed
My brow, and sealed me His, though blind.' '
But whether this be seal or sign
Within, without, i
It matters not. . The bond divine
I never doubt.
I know He set me here, and still, f
And glad, and blind, I wait His will ,
But listen, listen day by day, j
To hear them tread
. Who bear the finished web away, j
And cut the thread, I
And bring God's message in the sun,
Thou poor blind spinner, work is done."
A.n Arizona Incident.
it was nearly 9 o'clock in the fore
noon. Work was going on as usual in
the quartz mill, and the heavy "crunch"
of the stamps, crushing up ore, drowned
out every other sound.
Ransom Flint and I were at this hour
the only two workmen in the mill. Carter,
the engineer, was in the engine house,
nd the foreman, Mr. Crocker, was taking
a nap, I think ; for he had had trouble
with the "amalgam" (quick-silver pro
2css) the afternoon before, and had been
on duty the most of the night. We
were running night and day then. But
the night hands had left work at 6
o'clock in the morning, and were sound
asleep in their shanties, fifty or sixty rods
down the bank.
The "lead," or ledge from which we
took our ore, was now almost as far up
the canon the other way. A railway
track took the cars with the quartz down
to the mill. There were four miner
at work in the cad," Zeff Whittle,
James Bates, Raphael Covelo and Carl
Hanson thirteen of us in all at the mine ;
but so separated that we were in no
plight for defence, though each was pro
vided with a carbine.
The mine was the one formerly known
in the stock market as "The Candidate,''
but afterwards as the "Los Nogales."
' While we were in this condition 'we
were surprised by the sudden appear
ance of a band of hostile Apaches, that
began an attack.
There were but nine of the Apaches, at
east I only saw nine. But they 'had
been reconnoitring us no doubt all the
morning, and knew that there were but
few men at work, and so concluded it
was safe to attack us. They were part
of a band of Tonto renegades that had
been down into Sonora, on a murdering
and scalping raid.
i The first that Ranse and I knew of
the attack was the sound of three or
four rifle shots in the direction of the
'lead." We had barely heard the re
ports above the noise.
"Indians!" Ranse exclaimed; and we
both turned from the "shute," where we
were feeding ore, to look out at the open
end of the mill, where the track came in.
I suppose that some of the Indians had
crept in and were behind the large pile
of ore. For the moment we turned, I
recollect hearing an explosion behind
me and had the sense of a tremendous
shock I
I also recall the feeling that I was sent
headlong over a heap of picks and old
drills. That was the last I knew for
some minuses, I think. Later I found
that a ball had struck me on the back of
the head, and without quite fracturing
my skull, had plowed a furrow along my
scalp. . The Indians probably thought
that I was safely disposed of, or they
would have followed up the shot by
killing me.
Ranse was shot at By another redskin
at the same time, but only slighly wound
ed. He leaped out of the mill on the
side next the engine-house, and ran a
few yards down the bank, when another
of the Apaches shot him dead.
The engineer, Carter, was the only
man who made anything like an effective
resistance. Hearing the firing he seized
his carbine, and coming out, shot one of
the Indians. , Then seeing four of them
aiming their rifles at him, he ran through
the engine-house and down the bank
three balls whistling past, his headl
The men asleep in the shanties showed
the white feather; Bid well. Mtrsten,
Rothrock, every one of them did the best
he could for his own safety. They were
in separate shanties. When the firing
awoke them,thinking the mill was taken,
each slipped out of his shanty and ran
down the bank into the arroyo. Bid well
and Rothrock did not come in for two
days. .
Whittle was easing a car of ore down
the track when the first shots were fired
at the mill. lie let go the car and ran
back. That car came near killing me. I
lay senseless,, with my head within six
inches of the track, when it came into
the mill with a crash judging by the
wreck it made. The wheels must have
brushed past my head.
The gang had all left the mill when I
came to my senses, and were trying to
break into the powder-house where the
powder and dynamite were stored.
This was a small structure about ten
feet square, built of mesquite logs and
roofed with zinc. It was placed in the
side of the bank, about half way from
the mill up to the "lead," so as to be at
a good distance both from the jar of the
stamps and the shock of the blasts.
Here there were stored, at the time,
some five hundred pounds of dynamite,
together with a quantity of cartridges,
and several cases of "rend-rock" a
kind of blasting-powder.
There was a strong door in the front
side of the powder-house which the fore
man always kept locked, but there was
no window in the structure, nor any
other means of ingress. On account of
the zinc drawing the sun heat, a layer of
turf had been piled on the roof.
The redskins saw this strong little
house and probably mistook it for the
place where the bullion was stored. The '
door resisted all their pushing and kick
ing. Then they tried to break it with
rocks, and finally came back to the burn
ing mill, after sledges and crowbars.
It was about this time that I began to
come to my senses. A horrible burning
in my eyes and humming in my ears,
were the first feelings of which I was
conscious. Then I got up on my hand3
and knees and partly remembered what
had happened.
The roaring in my ears and the flash
ing in my eyes blinded me so much that
I could hardly distinguish one object
from another; but I perceived that the
mill was afire, for I felt the heat, and be
gan to crawl along the track to get away
from it. It was in vaia that I tried to
stand; I was too dizzy.
Then I heard two shots fired, and my
eyes clearing a little, for the moment, I
saw five of the savages at the door of the
powder-house trying to stave it in. The
firing was up toward the ledge. As soon
as I had made out how affairs stood, J
crawled off the track and got out of
sight down the bank ; and a minute later
there came a fearful explosion.
It shook the whole bank to pieces
above me, and sent the dirt and stones
in every direction. Great rocks went
whirring across the canon, and in a mo
ment or two stones began to drop all
about me.
I knew the explosion was in the pow
der-house and hoped it had killed the
murderous redskins. But I lay still.
Stones which had been blown high into
the air kept dropping all about me, and
many large rocks slid down on the oppo
site side of the canon. It had jarred the
whole locality.
The first living man I saw after the ex
plosion was Mr. Crocker, the foreman.
He heard it for a wonder and jumping
up, ran out of the shanty. Seeing the
mill on fire, he ran up the bank, thinking
the engine boiler had exploded. Here he
came upon me, lying half-buried in the
dirt. .
"For heaven's sake, what has hap
pened, Henry?" he called out.
"Indians!" I said.
Upon that he ran back for his rifle, and
coming out again, asked me where they
were and where the pther hands were.
"Blown up, I reckon." said I. i 'Go
and look for yourself; I can't."
He peeped up over the bank. "What
a sight !" I heard him exclaim.
Then he went up the bank. Soon I
heard Bates and Crocker talking. By
this time, the stunned, dizzy feeling in
my head began to pass off. I crawled
up where I could see what was going on.
Whittle and Bates had come down from
the ledge, and all stood looking at the
wreck about the powder -house. Not
only was the Jog house blown entirely to
pieces, but the ground it stood on was
blown away, clean and smooth, to the
depth of three or four feet. The loose
earth for thirty or forty feet was well-
mixed with the remains of the bloodthirsty
Apaches. We afterward found the head
of one of them off. a hundred yards oi
more away. Another who had been
iying behind a rock up the track watch
ing the miners, jumped up and ran off,
holding his hands to his head ; and
Whittle thought that one more of the
wretches had escaped. Five of them
were either in or about the powder
house when the explosion occurred.
They were all instantly killed.
They had, Whittle thinks, broken in
the door and were, it is likely, trying to
break open one of the tin cases contain
ing the 'dynamite, which exploded on
being struck. A sledge which they were
losing was afterward found near hajf a mile
away, on the side of the opposite moun
tain. They were most summarily hoisted in
the midst of their raid. It was a'fortu
nate hoist for us, too. For though badly
demoralized by the attack, we all escaped
with our lives, excepting poor Flint.
The mill was burned to th ground. It
was nearly two months before we were
running again. The one or two Apaches
who escaped told a marvellous story of
the "white man's big powder," among
the other Tontos. We heard, during the'
following year, several accounts of it.
That was the first time they paid their
respects to us; and they have not come
near us since. Youth? Companion.
Went .Out Without a Word.
A West Side lady has been much an
noyed the past six months by the driver
of a laundry wagon, who insisted on
ringing the front door bell and receiving
the dirty clothes from the servant girl at "
that door. The lady had asked the girl
to tell the laundryman to go to the back
door for the clothes, but the man would
not do it, and every Monday morning
the clang of the bell announced .the ar
rival of the dirty clothes man, and shirts
were hurried into a paper and deliv
ered to the great man. The lady could
not see why the laundryman should be
more of a society, gentleman than the
butcher's young man, or the grocer's.
driver, so she thought she would investi
gate. Last Monday when the door-bell
rang the lady went to the door in her
morning wrapper, and told the laundry
man to walk in. He came into the hall,
when she invited him into the parlor with
a quiet dignity, and he could not fail to
obey. He seated himself in the parlor,
blushing and looking toward the hall for
the servant with the shirts, and acting as
though he had got his foot into it clear
up. The lady did not seem to notice his
embarrassment, but acted as though he
was a caller that it was her duty to treat
pleasantly. "It is a beautiful morning,"
said the lady, seating herself on a small
sofa near the laundryman. ne said it
was, and then he looked for the girl to
come with the shirts, and great drops of
perspiration appeared on his brow. "Do
you know," said the lady, appearing em
barrassed, "I am at a loss to remember
your name. Your face is familiar, but
we meet so many people in society that
it is no wonder we can not place them
all. Let me see, did I not meet you at
Mrs. So-and-so's reception? Why, yes,
I remember now. Strange that I should
have forgotten you. What a lovely time
we had. But, may I ask to what happy
circumstance I am indebted to this early
visit?" The man stammered, colored up,
and just then the girl came in with the
shirts, and he grabbed the package and
went out without a word. The lady
laughed and said to the girl: "He will
come to the back door after this."
Peck's Sun.
A Sect of Child Killers.
The Kotoe Yremya warns Russian
mothers of a new religious sect which
has given several proofs of its existence.
In Rostov, on the Don, an officer en
gaged a middle-aged nurse - for his three-year-old
son. She was very attentive
and seemed fond of the child, but after
two months she suddenly left the situa
tion and the town. The child began to
ail the very next day, lost its memory,
and suffered from continual drowsiness.
A week later it died without having been
really ill. The corpse was placed in the
coffin, when a young Jewess burst into
the house, threw herself upon the dead
child, and crying bitterly, said : "The
same woman poisoned my child. She
was my nurse before, and now she has
murdered your poor boy I" The woman
spoke the truth. It has been found that
in Rostov there is a society of child mur
derers, who poison children by means of
narcotics. They are instigated to do so
by a fanatical woman, who says, "It is
every woman's duty to spare the evils of
life to as many children as possible, and
to make them share in the bliss of heaven
before the earth has contaminated their
souls."
New York has 10,000 cigar makers,
and the aggregate amount of wages
gained by them last year was $600,000,
THE RELUCT
The Strange Story of a Beat
Woman's Terrible Deed
Ben Perley Poore, the veteran journal
1st and Washington correspondent, tells
this strange story in the Boston . Budget:
"Among the stories of real life which
I have heard told at the capital, one of
the strangest was of a widow in Virginia,
who was left with . several children,
among them a verv beautiful daughter
about fifteen years of age. The widow,
finding herself embarrassed, opened a
boarding-house at the county site, and
among her boarders was a Mr. W., a
wealthy merchant, over forty years of
age, but a very fine-looking man. The
gentleman was the prop and stay of the
family; gave employment to the sons,
educated the daughter at a "fashionable
academy,-" and, very naturally, on her
return fell desperately in love with her,
when he should have preferred the
mother. He pressed his suit with perse
verance, but-the beautiful Mildred re
sisted his appeals and the importunities
of all her friends. Finally, however, after
two years of assiduity and delicate gal
lantry on the part cf Mr. W., and the com
bined tears, entreaties, threats and per
secutions of her family, the fair girl
reluctantly stood before the altar and
became his wife. . The next evening a
arge party was given them, but in the
midst of it Mr. W., being attacked with
vertigo and sick headache, was com
pelled to withdraw. His young ' wife
hung over him in the silent watches of
the 'night, apparently in deep distress,
and insisted on givinghim a potion; she
poured out a wineglassful of laudanum
and he swallowed it unconscious of its
nature. It acted as an emetic, but left
Kim stupid and wandering. His senses
teeled. One moment he lay motionless
as if on the brink of the spirit world, and
the next be would leap up convulsively,
a strong man in his agony. Mrs. W.
denied ail admission into his chamber.
At length he fell into a dead sleep. She
then stopped for a moment over the
smouldering embers, approached the bed,
gazed at her sleeping husband, and
holding a heated ladle in hef hand at
tempted to pour a stream of melted leaf
in his ear. She trembled, and the hiss
ing liquid, intended to scald the brain
and thus kill without a trace, fell upon
his cheek. He shrieked in excruciating
torture, and the revelers in the adjoining
saloon rushed into the chamber.
There writhed the still stupid hus
band, the lead rivited deep into his
cheek, and there stood the fiend-wife,
her bridal fillets yet upon her brow, the
instrument of death in her hand and an
empty vial, labeled laudanum, lying on
the floor. The fearful realities of the
cause flashed upon every one, and, in
the confusion of the moment, she was
hurried away and taken to another State.
On seaiching the apartments an old mag
azine was found containing the confes
sion of a woman who had murdered five
husbands by pouring lead into their ears.
The laudanum and the lead, it was as
certained, she procured from the store
of Mr. W. a few days before the mar
riage, and the ladle was part of his wed
ding gift. The grand jury next morn
ing found a bill against the fugitive, and
the legislature, being in session, forthwith
decreed an absolute divorce. What renders
ed this case more extraordinary was tha
Miss T. was proverbial for the blandness
of her manners and uniform sweetness
of disposition. The sequel of this ro
mance is yet more singular. Years rolled
away, and W. continued a wretched and
solitary man ; but the apcll of the en
chantress was still upon his soul. He
closed his store, sold his estates, collected
his ample means and traced her to her
distant retreat, to make a new offer of his
hand. She had just married a gentleman
of high standing, acquainted with all the
details of her career, shuddering at the
tragedy, but incapable of resisting her
charms. Poor Wl Then, indeed, did
the iron enter his soul. "The deadly
arrow quivered in his side." His early
love, his fluctuating courtship, his mar
riage and the catastrophe, the flight, the
divorce, his years of misery, the new birth
of his passion and now his disappoint
ment, final and forever, came crushing
over him like an iceberg in the tide of
bitter memories, and he prayed for
death.
A Great Man. ,
Blinks "Hello, Minks! How did
you enjoy your visit to Washington ?""
Minks "First rate. Had a good time
and saw all the sights."
. "Notice anything peculiar ?"
"Well, no: nothing very remarkable
except that there is only one Senator who
wears a swallow-tailed coat during the
sessions." f
"Some great man, 1 suppose v.-
i 'Well, yes ; he looks so from behind."
Philadelphia Call
I
3 for
P
Jbitt&n, .
natural
htUixdtiba
yairprotecting
r which ; pur
Asiastlc believer.
he has had bis a V I set in gear about
Folkstone harbor, WAvir journeyed' some
gentlemen interested n the objekja
The experiments would have had great
er practical results if the sea had been
rougher. But the visitors saw enough to
convince them of the marvelous effects of
oil in quieting the perturbation of the
ocean. The "white horses" that came
tumbling in from the channel had to
smooth their manes and take on demure
ness as soon as they reached the rayon of
the oil. And not the least surprising fea
tures of the oil's influence is the singularly
small quantity of it needed to produce the
most marked effect. It was told to the
visitors that a single drop of oil will
spread over a water surface of one square
yard. In an Atlantic storm, in the win
ter of 1882, the captain of the Airlie,
making very heavy weather as he lay
hove-to, determined to try the "oil
cure." He hung out two canvas bags,
bach containing about two gallons of oil.
In half an hour his deck was dry, and for
forty-eight hours not even a spray broke .
over the bulwarks. When the gale
abated he hauled in his bags, the oil in
which had never been renewed, and there
remained still in each bag over a quart of
oil.
When the visitors reached the end of
Folkestone pier they found a couple of
force pumps rigged there, and were told
that a pipe from these stretched along the
bottom in a westerly direction to a point
on the shore, inclosing a considerable ex
tent of broken and troubled water. Pres
ently the pumps were set to work, and
soon after the oil was seen rising 'to the
surface, and spreading over it, having es
caped from the pipe through the valves.
The "fields" of oil were at first distinct,
but as they spread gradually over the
troubled surface, they coalesced, and
then that surface, though heaving in a
languid, heavy manner, was unbroken by
foam crest. The "pack" or "field" of oil
slowly drifted away with the tide past the
pier head, and so eastward in the direc
tion of Dover, spreading wider and wider
as it difrted, the oil still maintaining its
dominance over the chafing billows. In
the calm water it ' made, the Folkestone
lifeboat rode lightly, gently rising and
falling, whereas in the rougher water be
yond the influence of the oil, the gallant
craft had been dancing about like a cork.
On the unoiled water her progress had
been slow, notwithstanding that the
lusty crew lay down to their work with a
right good will ; but within the region
which the oil had lubricated, she traveled
at speed with much less strenuous strokes
of the oars. London News.
Mines and Minerals of Mexico.
The next most important deposits " are
the important bed of iron,' chiefly in the
form of the magnetite and hematite ores.
The well-known Cerro del Mercado, in
the State of Durango, has been estimated
to contain sixty million cubic yards of
iron ore, which have a weight of five
billion quintals, and give, according to
an analysis by M. II. Borje, of Philadel
phia, sixty-six per cent, of pure metal.'
Lead ores are abundant; copper is mined
at various places; oxide of tin is found
in veins and alluvial beds at Durango.
Mercury occurs as cinnabar in several
States; and zinc ores, with platinum,
antimony, cobalt and nickel, in not large
quantities, are found in Chihuahua. The
principal coal-beds are in the States of
Oaxaca, Vera Cruz, Mexico, Pueblo,
Neuvo Leon, Tamaulipas and Sondra.'
The anthracite bed recently discovered.
at Barranca, on the Yaqui river in So
nora, is probably the largest and richest
deposit of coal in the republic. Lignite,
or brown coal, occurs in many "places,'
but is not used to any great extent. The
demand for coal is, so far, much greater
than the supply accessible to the rail
roads. Mining is still conducted by
working on the old Mexican plan, and
this system has been found, under exist
ing circumstances, to be more economical
and profitable than a system in which
modern and improved methods are ap
plied. Some of the oldest mines in Mexico,
many of which were worked before the
Spanish conquest,' are at Pachuca, in the
State of Hidalgo. There are about 150
of them, seventy-five of which are in the
Real del Monte, affording an ore com
posed mainly of blackish silver sulphides,
The ore is worked here, as at Guanajuato
by the patio process. Popular Sciena
Monthly.
Australian carpenters work only eight
hours per day, and have a half holiday
every Saturday.