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A WASHINGTON CHARACTER.
A Once ZVoted Ciambler and Ills "Pal
ace of Fortune."
Ben Perley P'oore, for many years a
Washington journalist, in one of his
sketches of past days at the national
-capital, says:
A fejttirc of "Washington, ante-bellum,
at Christ ma. s, was the magnificent supper
provided for his patrons and the public
by Pendleton, the prince of gamblers, at
his superbly furnished rooms on Penn
sylvania avenue, known to its frequent
ers as "The Hall of the Bleeding Heart,"
while he preferred the appellation of
"The Palace of Fortune."
Pendleton was at the head of his pro
fession. He died too young for his fame,
for he was gathering a reputation that
would have borne him golden fruit. His
-establishment in "Washington, called the
Mother bank, did not engross his active
genius. He had branch establishments
in Baltimore and New York. . As a pro
fessional man his rules were rigid and 1
his conduct was upright. He was noted
for a .strong adherence to hi3 principles,
which were never to lend when his an
tagonist was "broke," and never to play
for anything but cash. He was some
what noted- for his ostentation, for, in
deed, disDlay. was a part of his capi
tal, and accordingly "sported"
in equipage which quite cast
the most aspiring into the shade, and by
thevelegance and magnificence of its en
semble provoked multitudes of persons
Df refined tastes to inquire for the.busi
xess apartments of its owner. Few vis
aed those hospitable halls without hav
ing occasion to remember it. The pro
fessional life of the subject of this notice
?xtended through a period of a quarter
jf a century. The fortunes and salaries
af many gentlemen of distinction passed
'irough his hands, but his surest gains
were from the hands of men who had no
fortunes and no distinction.
Pendleton's "rooms" were hung with
spirited and meritorious pictures, and the
trt of carving was carried to great per
fection in the side-boards, secretaries,
4nd tables which served the various pur
poses of the establishment. The dining
nd supper tables were loaded with
plates of the pure metal. The cooking
would not have shamed the genius of
3oyer, and it is universally admitted that
;he wines were such as could only have
Deen selected by a connoisseur. This in
jomparable adviser had $10,000 invested
n his cellar and his closet. It is unnec
issary to describe the rooms further than
lo say that they were lofty and well pro
portioned, and that their walls were cov
ered with pictorial transfers from the
world of mythology and allegory, exe
iuted in the highest style of the uphol
sterers' art.
The people who nightly assembled to
ee and take part in the entertainments
f the house consisted of candidates for
he Presidency, Senators and Represen
atives, members of the cabinet, editors
ind journalists, and the master work
nen of the third house, the lobby.
Pendleton's, in its palmiest days, might
e called the vestibule of the lobby. Its
nost distinguiihed professors might be
found there. They lent money to
heir clients when the "animal
scratched too roughly," that is to
lay, when the play ran against
. :hem and 'they became "broke," as
Jiev sometimes did. E. n. P. himself
jras an operator in the lobby. His pro
fessional position gave him great facili
des. He assi.ted in the passage of many
lseful bills ol a private nature, involving
:onsiderable sums of money. A broker
n parliamentary notes is an inevitable
-Ktainer of broken voters.
In the outer parlors, as midnight ap
proached, might have been seen leading
nembers of Congress quietly discussing
the day's proceedings, the prospects of
he parties, and the characters of public
nen. A few officers of the army added
lo the" number and variety of the groups
which occupied this apartment. Here
ill were drinking, smoking, and talking,
.generally in a light and jocose vein,
servants were gliding about with cigars,
toddies, cocktails, and "whisky straights"
on little silver trays.
But the third room was the haunt of
the tiger ! The company around the
faro-table would be playing mostly with
counters of red, circular ivory, called
Ssh or chip, each, of which represented
5. A few who were nearly "broke"
were using white ones of one-fifth this
ralue. The players were silent as the
ajrave, because some of them were "in
ijreat luck," and large piles of red chips
were standing upon different cards to
ibide the event of the deal, which in
dicated that they had been won from the
oank ; but alas ! the close of the deal was
unfavorable, and before the little silver
&ox, from which the cards are drawn,
fielded the last of the pack, the most of
the red piles had been drawn to the bank
side. But some of them have doubled,
nd the owner drew them down as his
capital for the chances of the next deal.
If he had great good fortune and some
.prudence, he, the possessor of the red
jpile before named, would leave the house
with a few hundreds or thousands of
dollars; but the chances were that be
. tween midnight and dawn the gamesters
would ail retire minus the money.
The Burial of a Giant.
At Shiffnal, in the west of England.
there was buried recently a man of grand
tature named J. L. Stubbs. His coffin
measured thirty-seven inches across tin
shoulders, seven feet in length, and two
feet in depth. It required the united
strength of ten men to lift it when the
orose was- placed in it. Planks wer
placed against the bedroom window, and
the cpffin, lowered down to a truck, wai
thus wheeled to the churchyard. Th
ground was cut away at the head of th
crave to form an incline, permitting th
coffin to slide into its resting place. Tin
weight of Mr. Stubbs was about 37 J
pounds.
HUMOROUS SKETCHES.
Caught on the Fly.
A crowd of sitters were" occupy in
their usual positions in an Austin grocery
store, swapping stories, and watching for
a chance to "catch" somebody, when one
of them carelessly remarked :
"It is a very high-toned affair."
"What is?" quickly interrogated a
young man from the suburbs. v
"A thuider storm," was the reply.
The man who was caught merely said :
"Oh," and congratulated himself on the
fact that lightning seldom strikes twice
in the same place. Sitings.
A Complete Deception. '
"Yes," said the noted detective, '"I
have seen a great many, queer things in
my experience." "Discovered a good
many gigantic. frauds, I suppose?" ven
tured an admirer. "Well, I should say
so," wa3 the reply, "but,' between you
and I, the most complete deception I
ever saw was a woman, young and
pretty, and I would have sworn she was
an angel. "But she wasn't?'- "I should
say not, She has a temper like a whirl
wind, and when she gets mad the very
earth seems to shake." "Good gracious l
And how did you manage to get down
to her true character?" ""Well, I ahem
the fact is, I married her." Philadel
phia Call.
What It Signified. . '
A railroad attache at East Buffalo was
walking around he yards one day, when
he espied a brakeman examining the
tracks. He thought it would be a good
idea to test this brakeman as to what he
knew with reference to the running of
trains, etc., and the first question he asked
him was :
"Suppose I should be walking down
this track, and a train was coming up
behind me, and the engineer would blow
his whistle three times, what would that
signify?"
"Oh," replied the brakeman, calmly,
"that signifies there is a cow on the
track."
There were no more questions asked.
Buffalo Times.
Pottted.
An old Chemung country farmer who
came to the city to spend a few days
with his son returned home posted to the
last notch.
"Find, out anything about wheat?"
tsked a neighbor.
"Certainly I did."
"What makes the low price thi3
fear?"
"No European demand, of course."
"Don't they want any of our wheat
iver in Europe?" continued the neigh
bor. "Not a single peck."
"Why not?"
"Why not? Because they had a heap
&f told pancakes left over from last year,
lud have got to eat them up before hot
weather comes !" Wall Street News.
What Was on His Face
"Is there anything on my face, Jim?"
tsked one boy, anxiously, of another,
Is they issued from their mother's pan
try, where they had been sampling the
Jam.
"Yes." said the other, with a grin.
"Oh, where is it?" excitedly, as foot
Iteps were heard approaching the kitchen ;
"is it big?"
"Ycu bet; it's immense."
"Oh, my I getting out his handker
chief, and rubbing his face furiously.
Is it off?"
'Nope."
"Well, where is it, then? Quick! I
hear ma coming."
"Right in the middle of your face."
He made frantic digs at his face, then
whispered :
"Is it off?" in an agonized tone, as ma
entered the room.
"Nope," was the laconic reply.
"Well, what is it?" He was fairly
ihivering with terror, and dared not
turn around.
"Your nose," coolly answered Jim, as
he opened the back door and skipped.
Waterloo Observer.
It Wan Awful
"It was awful, awful, awful!" ex
claimed the train boy, just as a group of
ladies were passing down the platform.
"What was that which was so awful?
Has anybody been killed? Has there
been a terrible catastrophe? What did
thev do with the wounded? When did
the collision take place?" Such were a
few of the questions that assailed the
vouth. "T'wan't no collision, ladies;
but k was awful all the same." "What
was itt Don't keep us in suspense!"
"Well, you see, ladies, a gentleman wa3
standing right here on the piattorm, and
just as the train started he gave a jump
" "And was crusnea peneaiu me
wheels and his mangled corpse was
strewn for miles along the track." "Not
exactly, marm, but the train took bis
head right off." Instantly the air re
sounded with cries of horror from the
feminine group. When the boy could
make himself heard, he remarked:
don't see anything horrible about it, la
dies. The train took the man's DOdy on,
too. But he came awfully near being
left." As the ladies turned to move on
the words, "disgusting little creature"
were borne upon the air, mingled with a
lOW cnucKie irom me inuu-uuj
ity. Boston Transcript.
Showed Ileapect
' "T notice." said a erentleman from
Rostov addressing an Arkansas man,
"that the people in this country show
great respect for culture, although they
make no nretensions to learning. That
coor fellow standing over there, in
conversation with me just now, addressed
me as sir. We have long since discarded
this mark of resrject in tne East, but I
must confess that I admire the custom,
Now watch that fellow. . How long
have you lived in this country?"
"About twenty-five years, sar," replied
the respectful fellow. '
"Do you like it down here?"
"Yes, very well, sar."
"Don't you see 1" said the Boston gen
tleman, turning again to the Arkansas
man.
Just then the respectful fellow's dog
jumped over a fence and started after a
sheep.
"Come here, sar," yelled the respect
ful fellow. "Got no more sense than to
run after a sheep, sar.' I've a great mind
to shoot your head off, sar."
"Yes, I see," said the Arkansas man.
"People' in this country always show re
spect for learning and respectability."
Arkansaw Traveler.
Invention of Scales.
In the ancient Egyptian belief the
hearts of all the dead were weighed be
fore Osiris in the hall of Perfect Justice,
and a papyrus representing the ritual for
the dead, preserved in the British muse
um, pictures the ceremony of the weigh
ing "for good or , evil," and incident
ally affords an excellent view of the
scales of early Egypt. In these scales
the balance beam is neither suspended by
the center, as in the modern form, nor.
after the manner of the steelyard, but is
arranged with a shifting fulcrum, the
adjustment of which shows the difference
between the weights of two objects. The
weights used were of metal in the form
of rings, and it may be said in general
that this was the prevailing type of all
early weights. Thsse scales, it will be
observed, are by ho means of the simplest
iorm, or that which would naturally
first suggest itself to mankind, and
this fact argues the employment
and gradual improvement of weighing
apparatus long anterior to the date of
this papyrus (1330 B. C.) We have no
knowledge of their earliest invention or
forms. The discovery of their uses has
been attributed to many geniuses, and
doubtless with something of truth in the
individual cases. Pliny credits them to
Phidon of Argos, Gellius says that Pala
medes invented them, and a host of
writers following in their wake, each
crowns his own particular inventor with
the honor. Among others
" Juno'pours out the urn, and Vulcan claims
The scales as the just product of his flames.''
But certain it is that they have been
known and tried from time immemorial.
Their known existence, however, dates
back very far, and puts to the blush the
fictitious origins attributed to them.
AVhen in I860 B.C. Abraham weighed out
400 shekels of silver as the consideration
for the first real estate transfer of which
history makes mention, he used them,
and they are frequently referred to in the
Bible, in Zechariah, Leviticus, etc. The
earliest scales were temporary, simply a
beam balance in a stirrup, the weights be-
ng arbitrary and varied, though as above
statedjUsually in the form of metal rings.
ancient Egypt they were strictly
under the superintendence of the priest
hood, and so continued until that people
came under the Koman,sway. They were
1 i- iL. Li:
Kept in me puouc manveis, as was aiso
the practice in Greece and modern Egypt.
The larger scales were constructed on the
same principle of the beam and stirrup,
with the addition of a flat board or plat
form suspended from each end of the
beam by four ropes or chains.
In all scales accuracv and the quality
of turning under the slighest possible in
equality in balancing weights are the
highest desiderata, and so great has been
the perfection obtained by means of knife
edges and agate planes in some of the
finer scales that the declaration to Shy-
lock that
"If the scale turn
But in the estimation of a hair.
Thou diest,"
would be robbed of its terror. The
English mint is said to possess a scale
which turns at a 1-9,000,000 of the
weighing capacity.
In all ages the scales have been the
emblems of justice, and it is to be hoped
i 1 - A, 11 l.li. 1 1 A ' ll A T .
mat iue laner nas Kept pace wim me im
provements of its emblems.rlndustrial
World.
The Orchestral Baton.
The baton was first used at the King's
theatre by Chelard. He came to London
at Monck Mason's invitation, with a Ger
man company, in 1832, and always con
ducted with a baton. Before that the
leader alone, with his violin bow, con
ducted the orchestra. . Oir Michael Costa
saw at once the advantage of the baton
and adopted it from that time. But the
practice was much criticised, both in the
case of Weber and Mendelssohn, who
used it in conducting for the Philhar
monic society. Professor Ella tells me
that Mendelssohn in company with Meyer
beer and Costa, was dining with him
the day after the Philharmonic re
hearsal and wm to much an
noyed at the impertinent remarks made
by the leaders of the orchestra, who
criticised his use of the baton, that he
was seriously thinking of giving it up.
wiiBu x.iia, eiciaimeu, wicn jus usual
strong sense: "Mv dear Mendelssohn.
do no such thing; don't pay any atten
tion to them, it you give . up the baton
to please them, it will be put down to
cowardice on your part." Both Costa
and Meyerbeer urged the leaders to set a
'good example by accepting the baton.
ihis decided Mendelssohn, and he re
tained the use of the baton, which was
also used by Moscheles, and has been re
tained ever since. Home Journal.
When pneumonia attacks the steady,
square drinker, one who carries regularly
his pint to a quart of whisky daily, says
Dr. L. ' H. Washington, the treatment
comes exclusively under the domain of
the undertaker, as the first case of recov
ery has yet to be reported.
"A chip of the old block" The miss
mg arm of the Venus de Milo.
DUELING MINISTERS.
Oerjfymen Who Hare Killed Their
Wen Dead Shots In the Pulpit
To those who have never heard of such
a thing, the statement that ministers of
the gospel have killed their fellow-beings
in duels will cause surprise, writes Major
Ben. C. Truman in the Alia California.
But such is the case, and, as late as 1799.
the Rev. Henry Bate, an Episcopal
rninister, had fought and killed three
men in duels. He died in 1824, holding
a high position in Ely cathedral, . En
land. A description of this man's life
shows him to have been a brilliant but
profligate fellow, althougha parson. He
was a dead shot, but was "winged" at
last by Captain Stoney Robinson, who
was also dangerously wounded by the un
clerical parson a lady having been the
cause of the trouble. In 1815 the Rev.
Mr. Bate (or Dudley, as he had taken the
name of Dudley in 1784) was made a
baronet. Two of his wrangles and duels
were over actresses, and another on
account of articles he had written. In
1782 an Episcopal minister named
Bennett Allen challenged and killed a
Marylander named Lloyd Dulany. The
duel took place in Hyde park, London,
a short time before midnight, and was
fought with pistols at eight paces. Du
lany fell to the ground and raised him
telf almost like a flash, and then tot
tered backward and fell into the arms of
his second, Henry Delancy, of Hagers
town, Md., mortally wounded. The
difficulty was caused by the publication
of anonymous articles in a Londen news
paper reflecting upon Dulany and other
American loyalists, and a subsequent
publication of a card in the same paper
tailing the writer of the articles a liar, a
icoundrel and a coward. Allen at
tempted to quit the country the day fol
lowing the duel, but was arrested and
onvicted of manslaughter and sentenced
lo six months' imprisonment in Newgate,
tn 1764 the Rev. Thomas Hill was chal
lenged by Cornet Gardner, of the "Cara
bineer," for ungentlemanly conduct, and
was killed at the first shot.
Perhaps one of the most interesting
anecdotes of these Christian fighters, who
seem at times to have almost forgotten
the "Sermon on the Mount," is the one
.bout Doctor Blackburn, who was in the
early part of his life an active buccaneer
in tne West Indies for even buccaneers
could not do without a parson. And
during one of their cruises, as the story
goes, the first-lieutenant, having a dis
pute with Ulackburn, told him that u it
were not for his gown he should treat
him in a different manner. "Ohl" ex
claimed the parson, "that need be no
hindrance;" and stripping off the gar
ment, he added: "JNow, 1 am your
man I", At this it was agreed that they
Should fight on a small island near where
the ship lay, and that the one who fell
should be rolled into the sea by the sur
vivor, that it might seem as if, while
walking on the cliff, he had lost his foot
ing" and tumbled in. The lieutenant
f elL. to all appearance, as if shot dead
Blackburn at once rolled the prostrate
man down the cliff; but just at the last
shelf of the declivity, the lieutenant re
covered sufficientlv to crv out: "tor
God's sake, hold your hand!" "Aha!"
said Blackburn, "you called just in
time, for in another moment you would
have been in the sea." The same parson
and buccaneer was afterward made arch
bishop of York, and when Sir Charles
Wager heard of the promotion he said :
What, my old friend Doctor Ulackburn
created archbishop of York? I ought to
have been preferred to it before him, for
I was the elder buccaneer of the two."
Notwithstanding the many edicts is
sued by the Catholic church, Cardinal de
Retz once challenged a priest of high
birth at the altar. It is said of this 'holy
man" that he was one of the most notd
duelists of the seventeenth century, and
was the hero , of thirteen hostile meetings.
Cardinal Norris once accepted a challenge
to fight a noted Jesuit named Macedo, in
the forests of Boulogne, but the meeting
was interfered with by the pope, and Ma
cedo, it is said, nearly died from grief in
consequence. Joachim Murat, afterward
king of Naples, and one of the deadest
shots that ever lived, fought his first duel
while occupying a high church position
as the Abbe Murat the cause of the
trouble being a pretty maiden of Tou
louse. ' The writer has no knowledge of such
dueling scenes among American clergy
men, although he has " met "mem
bers of the cloth" who carried pis
tols and were known as excellent
shots. He calls to mind a youn
Kentuckian,of most profligate habits, who
preached in St. Athanasius' church, in
Los Angeles, ia 1808, who could whip
out a six-shooter and knock the
snots out of the six of diamonds at
twenty yards, or ring the bell at a shoot
ing gallery with a rifle twelve times in
succession. xie was a uruuuuii juuu
minister, but a slave to intoxicants, an
died from the effects of intemperance
shortlv after having retired from the
rectorship of a church at Elkhart, Ind.,
in 1879. The last words of this gifted
minister uttered at the very threshold
of death are so full of startling pathos
and so painfully illustrative of the course
of so many who have looked too ire
quently upon the delicious nectar in its
blush that we present vt here, trusting
that it may not be without its lesson to
those who arc too heedless of the possible
consequences of too much "drink:"
" But now the struggle is over. I can
survey the field and measure the losses
The demon tore from around me the
robes of my sacred office and sent me
out churchless and godless, a very hissing
and byword among men. Afterward I
had business, large and lucrative, and
my voice was heard in many courts
pleading for mercy, justice and right. But
the dust soon gathered on my books and
no footfall crossed the threshold of the
drunkard's office. I had money ample
for all necessities but it took wings anct
went to feed the coffers of the devil;
which possessed me. I had a home
adorned with all that wealth and tha
most exquisite taste could do. The devil
crossed its threshold and the night faded
from its chambers; the fires went out
from the holiest of altars, and, leading
me from its portals, despair walked forth
with me and sorrow and anguish lingered
within. I had children beautiful to
me, at least, as a dream of the morning,
and they had so entwined themselves
around their father's heart that, no mat
ter where he might wander, ever it came
back to them on the wings of a father's
undying love. The destroyer took their
hands in his and led them awav. I had
a wife whose charms of mind and person
were such that to see her was to remem
ber, and to know her was to love her.
For several years we walked the rugged
path of life together, rejoicing in the
sunshine and sorrowing in the shade.
The infernal monster . would not
6pare me even this. I had a mother,
who for long years had not left her
chair, a victim of disease, and her
choicest delight was in reflecting that
the lesson taught at her knee had taken
root in the heart of her youngest born,
and that he was uieful to his fellows and
an honor to her who bore him. But the
thunderbolt even reached there, and
there it did its most cruel work. Other
days cured all but this. Ah me ! never a
word of reproach from her; only a ten
der caress ; only a shadow of great un
spoken grief gathered over the dear old
face; only a trembling hand laid more
lovingly upon my head; only a closer
clinging to the cross; only a piteous ap
peal to heaven if her cup was at last
lull. And while her bov raced in his
wild delirium two thousand miles away,
the pitying angels pushed the golden
gates ajar, and the mother of the drunk
ard entered into rest. And thus I stand,
a clergyman without a church, a barris
ter without brief or business, a husband
without a wife, a son without a parent,
a man with scarcely a friend, a soul
without hope all swallowed up in the
maelstrom of drink!"
The Whims of Sailors.
A man who had been much among sail
ors was talking with a Tribune reporter
recently regarding the characteristics of
the toilers of the sea. "Few writers,"
said he, "have understood the character
of sailors thoroughly, I think in some of
the best sea-stories that have been writ
ten the sailor is looked at from the quarter-deck.
One peculiar thing about sail
ors is their generosity. As long as a sail
or is well his shipmates will share every
thing with him ; will go through fire and
water for him and risk their lives freely
in his behalf if need be. But let a sailor
fall sick and their devotion is apt to grow
cold. If a sailor falls overboard there is
no end to the heroic efforts which they
will make to save him. But if he is
drowned they divide his personal effects
with cheerful alacrity if they are allowed
to do so. 1 have known many cases in
sailors' boarding-houses, where a sailor
has been sick and in need of assistance.
and it, was found almost impossible to
raise any considerable amount by sub
scription among his comrades. If he had '
been well they would have given him
their last penny. Still I think sailon
often think lovingly and regretfully of
their dead shipmates. They are a strange
mixture of good and bad ; and their char
acters are so complex that few, not sailors
themselves, have ever been able to under
stand them."
Color Deafness.
I sometimes think there is a disease of
the ear corresponding to what in the eye
is termed color blindness. Color deaf
ness might be defined as the inability to
distinguish the nice shades of difference
between related sounds. It is possible
that persons afflicted with this infirmity
are unable to recognize all the Values of
the vowels and consonants of spoken
language; the sounds of certain letters
may not reach the ear, or their ear may
report unwarranted sounds. A school
teacher (from New England, I believe)
was instructing a class in the science of
punctuation. On her calling attention
to the use of the comma, some of the
children laughed. "What axe you laugh
ing at?" asked the teacher. "You said
comma," answered a forward boy. "And
what do you say?" "Comma" (with
sharp precision). "Well, I say comma,
too," was the teacher's reply. In much
the same way, a Southern lady of my ac
quaintance suffers from color deafness,
mistaking broad a for r. On being
charged with defrauding the r in "good
morning," she good-humored ly attempted
to acquit herself: "Listen. I say good
mawning, too," but she dwelt only a lit
tle longer than usual on the a sound.
Atlantic. .
A Practical Use For Finger Rings.
The recent disaster to the City of Co
umbus brings to the minds of many the
necessity of some sure means of individ
ual identity. All are liable to fatal acci
ents, and those who make long journeys
are exposed to diseases that change the
looks of an individual so that near friends
would not recognize them. Many such
unfortunates in a condition unable to ac
count for themselves find their way to
hospitals. The writer has seen several
bodies after the Mill river flood, French
Catholic church, at Holyoke, and the Sci
ota steamer on the Ohio, near Wheeling,
in each case rings were an easy means of
identification. The writer has worn for
many years a ring with his name and ad
dress in full engraved upon the inner sur
face. A ring of this kind will also prove
a handy article -as a means of business,
identification to every person who travels
any distance from home. At least, such
is the writer's experience. Springfield
RepuMican.