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Crv 4t - .w * 4tf> M (%l :0$' % £%., ' .:.\y " "•!? •« •/..-' I' ' ' 6- '* intolerant skepticism and intoleriHtt belief are only the two extremes of the same thing, There is a fanaticism in unbelief not less absolute than the fa­ naticism which established the inquisi­ tion or lighted the fires of Smithfield. Iia Harpe, the celebrated naturalist, is said to have fought a duel with a friend •who bad asserted the existence of his own conscience. Such a skeptical fa­ natic was I at the date of the events I am about to relate. I was President of a society for the prevention of super­ stition. I believed in nothing beyond the ken of my five senses. I was a fu­ rious enemy of dreams, omens, pre­ sentiments, ghosts and spirits. I was not likely, therefore, to have been mis­ led by superstitious credulity or per­ verse imagination in regard to the cir- oumtanoes. I wits living in bachelor lodgings in a quiet street in the upper part of the city. I went little into ociety, and had few friends. I spent most of my even­ ings consequently, in the seel >sion of my room, with no company but my books. One autumn evening I reached home at a lat lv;ur, but, feeling no desire to sleep, I lighted my lamp and sat down by the table for the purpose of finish­ ing a volume I had been reading. It was a dissertation on a favo ito subject of mine--namely: the physical causes of dreams and apparitions, the author tracing all spectral apparitions to iilus* ions brought about by disordered nerv- ons functions. I was deeply interested, and read on steadily until alter mid­ night. ' Suddenly and without any warning my light flickered and went out. For a moment the room was in intense dark­ ness. I had drawn the curtain before the windows, and the fi'e in the grate had died down long before. Just as I was on t e point of impatiently rising to relight my lamp, I was nailed to my chair by a strange phenomenon. Against the opposite wall of my room a faint glow of light began to appear. In shape it was like the circular patch which is thrown by a camera upon a screen. It continued to increase in brilliancy until the whole room was in a glare of light equal to noonday. It was as if a circular window had been cut in the wall, admitting the full power of the sun. For an instant surprise held me dumb and motionless; then I arose ,and, go­ ing to the wall, plaoed my hand upon the patch of light. I observed that my band cast no shadow, and that, there­ fore, tiie light could not come from be­ ll nd me. Puzzled, but by no means alarmed, I went back to my chair, calmly resolved to watch the mfttter to its cone usion. For a moment the light remained -clear and steady; then a slight mist -seemed to overspread it. Out of this mist, by slow de rees, a picture was •ev#lved. There wa< a wide, deep river, •crossed by a railroad bridge, in the foreground. I eonld see here and there a v seel drifting idly with the tide, for it apt>eared to be a still, warm d»y. In the distance the hills looked blue and Jhazy. There were white clouds in the sky. and at a distance the smoke from a 4own on the river bank rose lazily in the air. I could note and memorize every detail --the color of the wooden trestle of the railroad bridge; the shape and number of the signal-boards: the peculiar arrange­ ment of the telegraph wires. In fact, T eonld have sworn that I sat before an open window, looking upon a material landscape of real sky, earth, and water. I noted, too, particularly, a weak spot near the center of the bridge. The bed of the road seemed to have warped, and several sleepers were decayed and loos ned. I even said, unsonsciously: "There will be a terrible accident at tha1 point some dav." While I was gaping at the apparition "With sensations impossible to describe, I observed the smoke of an approach­ ing train. It rushed swiftly around a •curve and upon the bridge with una­ bated speed. I was conscious of a feel­ ing o. intense interest in it. I felt very much as a person witnessing a drama with high-wrought emotions, b-eath- lessly watching the act .on which is •drawing toward the tragio denouement. On came the train. I counted the «ars; there were sixteen--four of a yel­ lowish color and the remainder of a deep red. I saw upon their sides the words "Northern New York and Canada railroad." I saw • that the engine's number was 12, and that the engineer, leaning out of the window toward me, Imd a large, red face and a heavy black "beard. As the train came upon the bridge "there seemed to be a sudden jar and ^stoppage. The engine leaped into the air like a frightened horse and rolled off "the bridge, followed by six of the oars. There was an intense movement of alarm and horror, a shower of fire and a cloud of steam which for a moment 4rid everything from sight J- "A moment afterward my attention •was irresistibly drawn to two figures struggling in the water. One was a girl very young and beautiful, attired ana gray traveling suit. She had lost her bonnet, and her long, fair hair was floating upon the water. The other figure was that of a man, 'Vho e appearance gave me a shock of *<itr*nge surprise. I seemed to recog- llze him, though his face was turned =away. At first he seemed to be m .king preparations to strike out vigorously toward the shore. Then he seemed to itch sight of the young girl, for he turned, and, swimming toward her, imported her on one arm, wliil» with the other he kept both of them afloat . ' At this moment I camght sight of his faoe. 1 started up and uttered a shout ' airif absohite terror. It was my own face, white and stern with and rMofatloit, that I saw befof* m*. As if anr voioe bed broken the spell, the light, landscape ̂wrecked train and struggling fwuuners disappeared like a flaakof Bfiditning'. I tflwid my eyes , and looked sroand. The light was ' bnming brightly aii bstttire. The book i I had "bam «mding%*d slipped from my fcsad to th« Hoot. I peroeivsd th^n that J h»d bet* iwely dreaming a I vivid d^asBPi .. , To ŝ y that I ^ras not startled wwuld be untrue. I was rerr much moved, but il was neither wfth siipAr-titious fett fcto the slightest faith. Hŝ I thought, was taimd eRMMfy to rut my favorite theories into praotioe. had dreamed a dream of sttch distinct­ ness aad d<.>tail that it might readily be supposed tb be a forewarning. That it i would prove to be nothing of the sort 'I was perfectly eonviaced. I would write down the circumstances, and, when the event had proven them wholly false, use the whole as a knockdown ar­ gument against all faith in any fore- warnings whatsoever. On further investigation 1 confessed that I w«s somewhat perplexed. I found that there was such a railroad as Northern New York and Canad^ and that the cars were of the color seen in my dream. I found, furthermore, on conversation with a person who had traveled over the route, that the road crossed the Black river on a trestle- bridge, and that, viewed up the liver, the landscape would appear about as I had seen it. • I was by no means convinced, how­ ever. I might have heard of the rail­ road in question and forgotten the fact. The color of the can was such as is common to railroads. The landscape may have borne only a general re­ semblance to the Black river; mo e- over, my description of the one seen in my dream could at most have given onlv a few salient points, such as hills, water, a distant town, and a trestle- bridge. common to a hundred other re­ gions in the country. Moreover, I could imagine no reason why I should travel over the route. My parents live in Northern New York, but in visiting them my course would be at least 100 miles east of the Black JfUV -A UU V MIVMIIt tlM«> toward her, and, passing mv i her struck out towaxd the she rirer. The winter passed by with no re­ newal of mv strange dream and the oc­ currence of no circumstances bearing upon it, and the who e matter passed out of my memory. One morning I received a telegram from home to the effect that my father had been taken dangerously ill and thiit his physician despaired of his life. Skeptic as I was, I was no infidel in the matter of family affection. I made my preparations in haste and took the night train for my father's home. On arriving at Utica I learned that a freshet had washed out the track of the regular line, and that I should be com­ pelled to take a branch road a score of miles further west. My dream now occurred to me. I was traveling near the region I had dreamed of. Once accident had forced me nearer to it than I had any reason to anticipate. But I was not foolish enongh to suppose that any set of cir­ cumstances would bring about the ful­ fillment of my vision. ^ During the night the train halted at a large town on the line and the pas­ sengers were informed that another transfer would be necessary. The xadiis which had destroyed the *r»ck of the regular line had also thrown down a bridge on the branch. As I alighted in the dark and made my way to the train in waiting I admit that I was very much startled to read upon the side of the cars the words I had seen in my dream, "Northern New York and Canada railroad." I counted the cars; they were sixteen in number-- four yellow and twelve red. My philosophy was considerably shaken. It seemed as if an irresistible hand was forcing me to the fulfillment of my dream. But I was still stubborn in my unbelief. I resolved to investigate 4he matter still fur her, and satisfy myself that 1 had simply met with a series of coin­ cidences. Freshets might occur on rail­ roads without the special intervention of destiny. Cars might be of a certain color and number without proving dreams to be true. ' At the earliest peep of dawn I went through every enr on the train, earnest­ ly scanning the passengers' faces. I was highly elated to discover that no such person was on board. Here was one point in my favor. But very shortly this (me point was opposed by two others of a very start­ ling kind. ' During a halt in the forenoon I alighted and went forward to the en­ gine. There upon the brass plate on its side was the No. 12. As the en­ gineer leaned from1 the window I was stunned to recognize the man in the dream, the red face and black beard. I went back to my seat in a maze of wonder and dread. My incredulity was oozing out at my fingers' ends. Just as the traifl was about to start, a carriage drove furiously up to the station and a late passenger was assist­ ed aboard one of the forward cars as the wheels began to move. It was a woman, whose face I could not see, for she wore a veil, but her dress was of a light gray color, and her figure that of a young girl. By this time I was thoroughly un­ nerved. I dared not go forward and endeavor to catch a glimpse of the girl's face. I feared to see the face of my dream. I threw myself back into the corner of my seat and fell into a moody reverie. But, meantime, I gathered from the conversation of two passengers in the seat before me that we were to cross the Black river before noon, on a trestle bridge. Presently the landscape on either side began to |ook strangely familiar. •I caught glimpses of hills in the dis­ tance that seemed not new to m >. A moment later, as the train passed through a cutting and came in sight of the river, I started up in terror. I be­ held the landscape of my dream. The wide, deep current, the hazy hills, the trestle bridge, the pale blue sky with its motionless clouds, the drooping sails of the vessels, and the distant town with the dun vapors rising into the air --I had seen them all before. I was now prepared for the full real­ ization of my dream. The last thread of unbelief had broken. I. sprang out upon the platform as the train ran upon the trestles, and waited breathlessly for the crash I knew was coming. The train ran on smoothly until it reached the center of the bridge, hen there was a hideous jar, an explosion, a chaos of shouts, shrieks and crashes, and I found myself in the water swim­ ming for life. In an instant I remembered the con­ clusion of my dream. I turned abeut, and there, withia a dosen feet of me floeled the figure in gray, with her long hair spread oat upon the water and her beautiful eyes turned toward me in terrified appeal. My dream had mot told me whether I was toeseapeor die in the attempt to reseae the girL But I never thought of that. I swam arm about ore. It was a long and desperate struggle. The river was wide Mid the current swift. I could inake little progress with my inert burden. I struggled on, growing weaker and weaker with every stroke. Presently I saw a boat pulling toward us. I uttered a shonV Mid was answered. In another moment my companion was drawn into the vessel* and, utterly overcome by my terrible efforts. I sanh beok into the water in­ sensible. " Wr en I awoke to consciousness, I was lying in bedhead some one was bending over me. It was a woman, and she was weeping; I could feel her tears falling upon mv forehead as she brushed back my damp hair. Presently the mist cleared away from my sight, and I recognized the young girl whom I had rescued--the girl I had seen in my dream. She uttered a cry of joy when she saw that my eyes were open. She seized my hand and pressed it con­ vulsively. "Tbank heaven!" she said» "ycu will live." * "Yes," said I, With a feeble smile, "since it is of importance to you." "I should never be happy again," she sobbed, "it you were to die, after what you have done for me." Being still very ill, yet anxious to reach my father, I resolved to get on at once. Finding me determined to pro­ ceed, my young friend insisted ujKtn accompanying me the short distance I had to go. It is needless to relate the details of the remainder of my journey; how, when I arrived, I found my father in a fair way of recovery; or how, in the natural course of events, I fell in love with my beaut ful nurse. When I returned to the city with my ioung wife, my friends disi-overed that had left my skepticism in the depths of the Black river. I dissolved my connection with the " Anti-Supers', ition Society," not without considerate J'eering, which I could afford to receive. ! am now convinced that there are things in this world that our raw logio will not account tor. My clearest proof is the dear wife whose life I was led to Bave for myself by tlia irresistible hand of fate. The Origin of CeflNw It is well known that the coffee-plant is not indigenous in Arabia, but was im­ ported from Abyssinia at a date which cannot be accurately fixed. The taste for coffee itself had a hard struggle at first to find a general welcome among the more select circles. Apart from the oldest legend concerning Shadeli's drink, the Medina Sheikh Abd-el-Kader is the oldest historical authority on the use of the "blood-red Kaweh," as the Tunisian Ibn' Waki named the bever­ age. In the year 1587, not 300 years ago, he tells us that in Yemen people made use of a drink which so enlight­ ened the night-watchers that the faith- fnl of the place were able to sing the praises of God more fervently and cheerfully than could be done anywhere else. According to him, the Mufti Dhabani was the first to introduce the insignificant little bean on Arabian soil, having brought it with him from Africa. Certain it is that the districts of Shoa, Euarara, and Kaffa (whence the name), in the south of the Abyssinian high­ lands, form the original home of the coffee-plant. Dhabani was of a sickly nature, and since he belonged to the order of the Soft (Ultra-Pantheists), who believe that everything on earth and all being emanated from the God­ head, he regarded a means of excite­ ment of this kind as a Providential gift. The Medinese and faithful Meccans laid their turbaned heads together in the public places, when first they heard the news; a pious Sheikh in Aden was the first to drink the "black juice" as a sort of public spectacle. In Mecca itself, violent strife arose soon after its intro­ duction as to the propriety of using it. There were great meetings of learned and pious men, who at last, probably after extreme pressure from the Mame­ luke Governor, Khair-Beg, declared that coffee "disturbed the brain and in­ toxicated like wine." But their oppo­ nents were of another opinion, and ad­ duced the authority of the celebrated Bagdad physician Avicenna in their de­ fense, which, however, did not prevent the transgressor of the edict forbidding the use of coffee from being publicly whipped. At the same time the zealots of the Hedjaz proclaimed that all coffee-drinkers would appear before the All-Merciful on the resurrection day with black faces. While the great anathema was being pronounced at Mecca, the very Mamelukes themselvos, were already reveling in the newly- discovered luxury. A confirmation of the Mecca decree was, therefore, not to be expected froln the Sultan, and he, Kanfn Alguri, quashed the ordinance of his Governor and sent the latter into exile. Then many holy Sheikhs--for example, the celebrated Mohammed Harife, founder of one of the four or­ thodox schools of Islam---took the side of the coffee-drinkers. Thus was the precious bean fully rehabilitated Western Arabia at least. The Queen of England. Next, walking by herself, came a little, short, stout woman dressed in deep black, with a round, broad, high- colored face, sad in expression yet with a look of command, and bowing with grave politeness to right and left. That is the Queen of England. People re­ marked with regret that she had thought it needful out of respect to the memory of the Archbishop of Canter­ bury to clothe herself in mourning deeper than usual. But this is a point on which, as on most others, the Queen is a willful woman. For no -ceremony, for no rejoicing, private or public, will her Majesty lay aside her weeds. She wears black at the weddings of her sons and daughters--or black and white; and no patch or line of color is suffered to-day to light up the somber gloom of her raiment. With all the disadvantage of unsuitable dress and short stature, she moves up the long aisle with an ease and dignity of demeanor which may well be called queenly. Every­ body bows low, and bows egain to the Princesses and Princes who follow close after.--New York Tribtme. BeBtfaaeeemeee<g|w4*itkor ef «w Wwrnrly. It is well remembered that the death list of 1883 was one of the richest a&d most remarkable .ever known, and Sil Walter's name was entitled to stand at the head of • the dark oolumn, though perhaps some will assart that Goetne was the greatest genius then called away--but the great German never spoke to the millions as Scott spoke to them. He was. too, a far older man than Scott. Goethe was almost 83 years old when he left the earth, wherers Scott departed when he had only reached to a little more than a month beyond the age of 61 years. He l>eeame 61 on the 15th day of August, 1832; and on the thirty-seventh day thereafter he died. "About half-past one p. m., on the 21st of September, [1832 j Sir Walter breathed his last, in the presence of all his children. It was a beautiful day--so warm that every window was wide-open, and all so per­ fectly still, that the Bound of aU others most delicious to the ear, the ripple of the Tweed over its pebbles, was dis­ tinctly audible as we knelt around the bed, and his eldest son kissed and closed his eyes." Thus wrote Mr. Lock- hart, who was Sir Walter's son-in-law, and an eye-witness of what he wrote, and who himself died in 1854. All of Scott's children soon passed away. His unmarried daughter, Anne Soott, died in 1833; and his daughter Sophia, Mrs. Lockhart, in 1837. His eldest son, the second Sir Walter Scott, died in 1847, at sea, when on his way te England from India. His other son, Charles Scott, was attached to tlio British special mis­ sion in Persia, and died at Teheran, in 1841. The second Sir Walter sleeps at Dryburgh, his father's burial-place. With him expired the baronetcy, con­ ferred by George IV., as no child ever was born unto him. No descendant of the Author of Waverly, of the name, has existed for almost 36 years. When Scott died, he was the first novelist in the world and the position he then held has not been forfeited in fifty years. It has more than once been said, by warm admirers of his, that he should have died ten years earlier--and the asser­ tion is not without some show of reason; for though he published but one novel in 1822, his fame was at the height at that time, in consequence of his variety and number of novels published l>e- tween the last days of 1819 and the close of May, 1822, namely, "Ivanhoe," "The Monastery," "The Abbot," "Kenil- worth," "The Pirate." and "The For­ tunes of Nigel." With the exceptions of "The Monastery,"--and that is a very good work--the novels named are of the very highest rank; and how well they were supported by their predeces­ sors, beginning with "Waverley" and closing with the third series of "Tales of My Landlord," ("The Bride of Lam- mermoor," and "The Legend of Mont­ rose,") it is not necessary to enlarge upon. "Peveril of the Peak" appeared in 1823, and so did "Quentin Durward," and so did "St. Romman's Well;" but only the second-named is commonly al­ lowed to rank with the best novels, though in our opinion both the others are tales of great excellence. Nor can we see any falling off in most of his latest works--in "Redgauntlet, or Tales of Crusaders," or in "Woodstock," or in "The Fair Maid of Perth," or in "Anne of Geierstein." Scott was by no means a very old man at the time of his death, and probably no one would have thought of associating the decline in his T^ritiiigs vvith tjit c! z. decline in his fortunes, had it not been the common notion that the one thing goes with the other. Dust In the Air. There is scarcely a solid, however compact it may appear, which does not contain pores, and these pores are filled with air. It is to be found in abund­ ance in the soil; indeed were it not so, numberless worms and insects which inhabit the latter would cease to exist. The most compact mortar and walls are penetrated by it, and water in its natural state contains a large quantity of air in solution. The atmosphere was formerly believed to extend no higher than five miles al>ove the earth's sur­ face, but meteorologioal observations have since shown that it extends to a height of m^je than 200 miles. Owing ! to the force of gravity the air is much denser near the earth, and gets thinner, layer by layer, as you ascend. If, then, the atmosphere were possessed of color, it would be very dark just round the globe, and the tint would gradually fade into space. There is no absolutely normal composition of the air we breathe, or, if there be, it is not at present known. It contains, however, in all cases, unless under purely artifi­ cial conditions, two essential elements, which - are nearly invariable under normal circumstances, namely oxygen and nitrogen, and two accessory ele­ ments which vary extremely in amount, but are practically never absent, name­ ly carbonic acid and water. Without either of the first two air could not ex­ ist, and without the last two air is scarcely found in nature. Their com­ bination, moreover, is not a chemical union, but a simple mechanical mixt­ ure. But beside these constituents the air contains an immense amount of life, and small particles derived from the whole creation. In the air may be found animalcules, spores, seeds, cells of all kinds, eggs of insects, fungi and elements of contagion, beside formless dust, and sandy and other particles of local origin. For example, no one can travel in a railway carriage without be­ ing surrounded, by dust, a large portion of which may be attracted by a magnet, consisting, as it does, in a great meas­ ure, of minute particles of iron derived from the rails. The purest air has some dust in it. There probably never fell a beam of light from the sun since the world was made which would not have shown countless numbers of wajid particles.--Good Words. off the track. The ham of the country razor-back is more juicy than the hind leg of an iron fire-dog; out not so fat as a pine knot.^Agricultural EpitomiHt, cPEious AMD scrarnncj COPPER wires transmitting eleetrioity of high electro-motive force become brittle after awhile. A DIVER^ at (300 yards' distance from the persons oommunicating with him, can converse with ease with persons above water by means of the telephone. A it ABB operation in surgical science, known as rephrectomy, is the removal of a kidney. But nine such have ever been performed in thfc country, and but seventy-five in the entire world. A VIKITOB to the St. Bernard morgue writes that in the wondrous air of the Alps, 8,000 feet above the sea-level, "pu­ trefaction is unknown, and the bodies of those lost in the snow are perfectly pre­ served from change. NICKEL is proposed to be a substitute for bronze in coinage in France. It is also suggested that the new coins shall be octagonal instead of round, BO that the people may not mistake them for silver in the hurry of business. MILE has the power to absorb obnox­ ious gases and - effluvia from the air around it, and it should not be forgot­ ten that the purest butter ever made may become tainted and poisoned in one short hour by objectionable surround­ ings. A HEDiGAXi exchange noting the feet that workmen in sulphur mines are rarely subject to malarial diseases, makes this comment: "It will be a great comfort for some to know that though the bottomless pit is feverish there can be no real malaria there." THIS London Lancet say«I it is dan­ gerous to wear red stockings. It finds that a tin salt is used as a mordant to fix the dye. Becoming more easily sol­ uble at each washing, it forms with acid excretions from the feet, an irritating fluid which often produces dangerous trouble. DIAMONDS, Mr. A. B. Griffith consid­ ers, had been formed by the action of highly-heated water or water-gas, aided by great pressure, on the carbonaceous matter of fossils in the sedimentary rocks, followed by cooling and conse­ quent deposition of carbon in the crys­ talline condition* A CALIFORNIA physician claims to have discovered the "love parasite or bacillus." He inoculated a bachelor fifty years old, who soon exhibited symptoms by having his whiskers dyed, ordering a new set of false teeth, a bot­ tle of hair restorer, a guitar ,and a copy of Byron's poems. THE manufacture of bricks from gran­ ulated blast-furnace skvgs will soon be begun in Germany. The slags are run into water, and the grit thus obtained is mixed up with lime, concrete, or plaster of paris, and formed into bricks, which are dried for a month. They possess greater solidity than common brick, and seem to resist a much greater pressure. THB life of a working bee lasts only six to seven weeks. Stimulating arti­ ficial breeding in winter has a tendency to destroy the working force during the honey season. Success can be attained only by having a strong working hive at a time when honey can be seoreted plentifully. If they are "spring-poor" they will only build up by fall. Any disturbance of the liive is apt to rouse tUeui to as injurious consumption of honey. Feeding is advisable until about six weeks'before honey can he procured outside by the bee. THE increasing cost of wood in this country has led to a great number of experiments in preserving from decay all kinds of wooden structures exposed to the weather. Among the more re- cent plans suggested is one for impreg­ nating wood with asphalt, combined with some kind of antiseptic material. The finished wood, ready to be put to­ gether, is first submitted to heat to drive out the moisture, and is then placed in a hot bath composed chiefly of asphalt and carl>olic acid. On cooling, the sol­ vent of the asphalt evaporates, leaving a skin or coating of the asphalt on the surface of the wood that resists water and keeps the antiseptic material se­ curely looked within the pores of the wood. The exterior of the wood pre­ sents a smooth, black surface that does not need to be painted. "I THRASHED the little boys and mashed the big ones," was the young schoolma'am's explanation of her suc­ cess in subduing an unruly school. NBW YORK may not be as good a plaoe in which to study astronomy as Hert­ ford, but it now has its daily JStm, Moon and Star. The Texas Hog. He is of Swiss cottage style of archi tecture. His physical outline is angu lar to a degree unknown outside of a text-book on the science of geometry. The country razor-back prowls around in the woods and lives on acorns, pecan nuts and roots; when he can spare time he climbs under his owner's fence and assists in harvesting the corn crop. In this respect he is neighborly to a fault, and, when his duty to his owner's crop will allow, he will readily turn in and assist the neighbors, even working at night rather than see his crop spoil for want of attention. Crossing the razor- back with the blue-blooded stock makes but little improvement. The only effe^ * tive way to improve him is to cross him with a railway train. He then becomes an imported Berkshire or Poland-China hog, and, if he does not knock the train off the track, the railroad company pays for him at the rate of $1 a pound, for which they are allowed the mourn­ ful privilege of shoveling the remains 0!e Bull Most Drink er fight Going down the Mississippi Ole Bull met on the steamboat a party of half- savage men, colonists from the far West. While reading his newspaper he was aocusted by one of the men, who had been a spokesmen by his companions, with the request that the fiddler would tako a drink with them, offering him a wliiskv flask at the same time. "I thank you," said Ole Bull politely, "but I never drink whisky." With a curse the fellow asked if he was a teetotaler. "No, but whisky is like poison to me." "If you can't drink, come and fight then'" The man's comrades had gath­ ered round him meantime, and they all cried, "If you won't drink, you must fight. You look strong; show us what yon are good for." "A Norseman can fight as well as anybody when his blood is up, but I can't fight when my blood is cold, and why should I?" "You look lik$a strong fellow, and you shall fight." Seeing no way to escape, Ole Bull quietly said, "Since you insist on test­ ing my strength, and there is no reason for fighting, I will tell you what I will do. Let any one of you take hold of me in any way he likes, and I wager that in half a minute he shall lie on his back at my feet.** A big fellow was chosen, who stepped forward and grasped the violinist around the waist, but was instantly thrown over his head by a sndden wrench and lay senseless on the deck. Ole Bull now felt himself in a very uncomfortable position, for he saw one of the man's comrades draw his bowie knife but was relieved when it was used only to open a flask. A good dose of its contents poured down his throat soon revived the fainting man, and his first question. "How the devil was I throwed down here?" was answered by a shout of laughter from his companions, in which he himself joined. He sprang to his feef, and af­ ter vainly trying to pursuade Ole Bull to show him how he had thrown him, he said: "Take this knife home with you; you fight well; you are as quick as lightning 1" The artist heard of the same fellow later as having gone to an editor to call him to account for an ad­ verse criticism on his playing, ready to fight for "the strongest ..fiddler he had ever seen anyhow 1" ran against a haggard-looking, shabby- gentee woman, who was weeping on at corner. "What is the matter, marm?" said the miner. She told hi™ a sad story--poverty, sickness, a larg$ family of children, nothing to do, hoiking to wear. "Is that the best frock you've got?" said the rough fellow gently. She said it was. He felt in his pocket. It contained just one $20 piece, which he had intended to devote to wine and wickedness that evening. "Stop here a moment, marm," and he dodged around the corner and into a dry-goods store. In a few minutes he returned, and, pressing a small .bundle into the poor woman's hand, disappeared with the air of a man who has done a kind action gracefully. The starving female eagerly undid the package. It con­ tained a pair of embroidered silk stock­ ings.--San Franeutco Chronicle, Jesh Btniagg. * ^ Josh Billings was born in Lanesboro, Berkshire county, Mass., sixty-three years ago. Both his grandfather and father were members of Congress. His name is Henry W. Shaw. His father was an intimate friend of Henry Clay, and his political manager in New England. Josh went to school until he was fourteen, when he started out on his awn hook for the West. He spent the next twenty-five years mostly out West. He turned his hand to every­ thing, but fortune turned its hack on him. At the age of 40 he moved East in order to educate his two daughters. He found good schools at Poughkeep- sie, on the Hudson, and settled there. As h© had no regular profession, he took up the trades of auctioneer and dealer in real estate. He had dabbled in* both of these callings in the West. There was a little nine-by-seven daily paper published in Poughkeepsie. The editor called on Mr. Shaw one day and said that the man who could talk ought to be able to write well, and he wanted him to contribute something to his pa­ per. Mr. Shaw told him that he had never written a line for publication in his life. But the idea pleased him and he thought over it, and then wrote a series of between twenty and thirty of the short pieces that have made his name a household word in America since then. For six months he con­ tinued his contributions every week. Nobody noticed them outside of Pough­ keepsie. One day Mr. Shaw read one of the essays of Artemus Ward on a subject that he had treated in one of his short esnays. He read it over and over and over again; and the more he read it the less he understood why Ar­ temus Ward's articles should be popu­ lar, and his pieces had fallen still-born from the press. "Is it the bad spell­ ing?" he asked himself. He made up his mind that it was the bad spelling and nothing else that had lent wings to Artemus Ward's humor and made him famous, and that it was his own loyalty to Webster's Unabridged that had weighted his humor down and kept his name in obscurity. So he took his es­ say on the mule. "The mule's a favor­ ite animal with me," Josh once said to me. "He has treated me pretty rough, and I've treated him pretty rough; we understand each other"--and without changing a word, he "slewed round the spelling," as he expressed it, and sent it to the New York Era, a weekly pa­ per of not large circulation at the time. Before mailing it he signed it "Josh Billings." "Josh" was in honor of an old comrade (one Josh Carew) of his Western life; "Billingscame by inspira­ tion as it were." Hi* Psughkespsic pieces were anonymous. The mis­ spelled "Essay on the Mule" was printed, and instantly "went the rounds of the press," and the name of Josh Billings became famous before he had written a single essay excepting those he had printed in the Poughkeepsie paper. He simply translated them into his peculiar phonetic system of spell­ ing. As soon as he saw that everything he wrote was widely printed, he thought he ought to make money by his pen, and so he sent one of his very best short essays to a Boston paper. The editor wrote that he could not af­ ford to pay more than $1.50 for it. Josh regarded this sum as rather small pay. "But," he added, "I thought I should like a nest-egg, and I told the editor to send it on. Then I opened an account with Josh Billings, and I made my first entry with this item: 'Essay in Boston, $1.50.'" As HOOII as he be­ came famous he was engaged by the New York Weekly--a rival of Bonner's Ledger--at $100 a week for half a col­ umn of his essays and sayings. He has published his books with rare shrewd­ ness. FRV AHB Mffi. JINKS says he knew a money-lender who kept the trunk containing the se­ curities near the head of his bed, Mid lay awake to hear them accumulate in­ terest. THE best definition of "stepaaother* Wis us that she js a mother who spoils her own children and steps on those which she has unwillingly inherited bj marriage. "SPEAKING of shad, would you say the price has gone up or has risen?" inquir­ ed a scliool-boy of the fishmonger. "Well," replied the ̂ , "speaking of shad, I should say it roes." u •• THE grasshopper has, according to ita size, 120 times the stioking power of an average man. It must be emjjting go courting and find the oShma' at home! * "HE cometh not," she said, and she was quite right; he didnt arrive. TTi« intentions were all right, but they failed to successfully combat the buttSogthat was screened in the meoa-kigaed shrub­ bery.--Puck. "How VAB is it to Clyde ?" asked a weary tramp of a small boy. <fNine miles," replied the lad. "Nine miles yet!" exclaimed the tired walker. "Well," said the boy, "seeing vou are pretty tired I will call it seven. WHEN Colfax married pretty Nellie Wade, years ago, a mac went about among his acquaintances, asking: "Since Colfax had Nellie Wade, why does he not have her uncle weighed also?" And when they would all give it up he would answer, "Because he's Ben Wade." A GENTLEMAN addresses another gen­ tleman, whom he don't know, at a party: "This affair is awfully stupid; let's go out and take a drink." "I would like to do it," was the reply, "but I can't leave very well." "Why" not?" "Why, you see, I am the one who is giving the party." • \ "JOHN, what odor is that?" "Cloves, my love." "But the other?"* "All­ spice, beloved." "But isn't there an­ other?" "Yes, apples, belovedst." "Just one more." '"Raisins, most be- loyedst." "Well, John, if you'd only drink just a little brandy no#, I thinfc you would make a good minoe pie." "WHEN did George Weshington die?" asked an Austin teacher of a large boy. "Is he dead ?" was the astonished reply. "Why, it was not more than six months ago that they were celebrating his birthday, and now he is dead. It's a bad year on children. I reckon his folks let him eat something that did'nt agree with him. A DOWN-TOWN man, noted for his good nature, says: "What's the use of wrangling? Nobody can tell how easy, it is to get along without wrangling till they try. Now, I like to sleep on the front side of the bed, so does my wife; but we didn't wrangle 'bout it--we just moved the bed in the center of the room. It's much easier than wrangling 1>out it.* JUST down by the stream Where the bracken grows rank she plaeed her easel, and sat by it, sketching from na­ ture : "Please ma'am, is that me you're drawing milking the cow in the pas­ ture ?" "Why, yes, my little mail; but I didn't know you were looking I" " Cos if that's me," continued the boy, un­ mindful of the artist's confusion, "you put me on the wrong side of the cow, and V\\ gat OVCr.** THE subject of temperance was under discussion at a party a few nights ago, when an ardent advocate of prohibition asked Gus De Smith if he had ever seen "Ten Nights in a Bar Boom." Gus De Smith replied that he had. ."How did you like it?" First rate! I was one of them." "What do you mean?" "I saw ten Knights of Honor in a bar­ room down at Galveston. I was one of the Knights myself."--Texas Siftings. "SAY, why don't you give us a little room to get by?" said a smallish, com­ pactly-built man to a burly loafer who was blocking up the platform of the Michigan Central depot. "I dont have to," was the uncivil reply of the hood­ lum. "The little man suddenly straight­ ened out his arm, his bony fist collided with a point under the hoodlum's ear, and the latter lay on one of the Tailroad tracks feeling of the back ef his neck. "You see, now, how easy it is to be mis­ taken," said the little man.--Cheek. A Generous Kevada Miner* After all, these Virginia City miners have big, generous hearts. 0ne even­ ing one of them, who was finishing up a week's spree in "Frisco, stepped but of the Paoific Hotel after dinner and The Intelligence of Turtles. In an interesting letter to Science GottHtp on the habits of American testu- dinata, Dr. C. C. Abbott gives some notes of personal observation: "I am inclined to believe that all turtles have, more or less, the faculty of emitting distinct sounds. It iB not to be won­ dered at that our turtles should have voices, for they are by no means slug­ gish, indolent creatures as is supposed by those who have only observed them indifferently or from afar off. I li%ve frequently seen them get up a "square fight" over some delicate morsel* as a dead fish or drowned squirrel; and, again, while peering over the side of my boat into the clear depths below, I have watched the spotted turtles, two and three together, go through a variety of erratic movements, strongly suggest­ ive of play. Even the solitary land tor­ toises will, when they meet, gently touch their noses together, and go through other movements suggesting the expressing of ideas to each other. Indeed, I have never seen any animal as high as, or higher in the scale of de­ velopment than fishes, that did not pos­ sess means of communication of ideas to its fellows. I know not in what other way to explain very many of the acts of these animals. The Bank Directors ef Cape ANfc < • Years agb, when there were not so many banks here on Cape Ann as now, a young man who had just gone into business wished to get his note dis­ counted, and in order to make a sure thing of it he interviewed the directors personally, and each told him it would be all right. Going to the bank on the morning after the directors had met, the cashier informed him Very blandly that nothing had been done for him. At the next meeting of the directors, just as they were beginning business, the door opened and in walked the young man. Removing his hat he advanced to the table tind remarked: "Messrs. Directors, individually, you are clever sort of men, but collectively you are a set of darned liars, and I can prove it." With this he went out.--Ctipe Ann (Ma*8.) Advertiser. SINON Dickens' death, twelve yewe ago, 4,239,000 volumes of. his works have been sold in England alone. How a Noted Daellst DM. The Comte de Larilliere, one of well-born among the brettenrs, met one day in the street a business man named Castera, walking with his young and pretty wife. He advanced to him and said, with a polite bow: "I beg your pardon, but I have made a bet with my friend here, whom I beg to in­ troduce to you, that I would kiss your wife while she was walking with you"-- here the other man turned livid-- "af­ ter having giyen you a slap in the face." Castera fought him next day with pis- tels. The count's first shot hit Castera on the right ear, the second on the left. Before the third he said, "Cette fois je feral mouche," and with the third he shot Castera through the eye. Castera was avenged in a manner dramatio enough. One night, as Larilliere sat in his favorite seat in a cafe, while a mask­ ed ball was going on hard by, a stran­ ger in a domino and .mask came up to him, overturning his glass of punch, and ordered a glass of orgeat instead. Lar­ illiere, for the first time in his life, turn­ ed pale, and cried: "You scoundrel, you don't know who 1 am." "O yes," the stranger replied, "I know who you are quite well," and with the words forced him down into the chair from which he had risen. The orgeat was brought, and the stranger, holding a pistol to Larilliere's head, said: "Un­ less you drink this off I shall blow out your brains on the spot; and if you do drink it off I will do you the honor of fighting% you to-morrow." "With the saber," cried Larilliere, who had lately been practicing with that arm. "How you like," said the stranger. Then as Larilliere drank off the orgeat, he add­ ed : "I have humbled you enough to­ night. I put off killing you till to-mor­ row." The morrow came, the adver­ saries met, and Larilliere found that he had met his match. The stranger left him not a moment's breathing space, but never followed up his attacks, until at last Larilliere cried insolently: "When are you going to kill me?" "Now," said the stranger, for the first time using his saber like a duelling sword, and lunging through Larilliere's heart. Masses were said in the churches of Bordeaux for the man who kept his name secret and who had rid the town of its scourge.--London Saturday lie- view. No PERSON who is not a great scute- tor or painter can be an architect. It he is not a sculptor or painter, he can only he a builder.--Buskin.