Highland Park Public Library Local Newspapers Site

McHenry Plaindealer (McHenry, IL), 10 Dec 1884, p. 6

The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

YVMtUnCC. CMtf ami toMM* t HEN'RY, ILLINOIS. «mc LITTtK BOY THAT DOEXK 1MB And„ Avtth* /chamber oo*t tho ir la near; fsenck and the clock's dull fell . Am tke only Bounds I how. Alia vm BV aoal to lta solitude rowitm foeltiurs ot gladness glide, _ _ dor MT heart and eyes are fall when I think Of that little boy that died. 1 weat oM 1rf#ht to my father's hoT^i-i " Went home to the dear ones all: v Aadlaoftlrope ned the garden gat# And softly tf» door of the hall. My mother came ont to meet her son; She kisaed me and then she wished; And her head fell on m v neck and she wept For the little boy that died. I shall miSB him when theflowera c4tM In the girden where he played; I shall nuaa him more by the fires Mo "When the flowers have all decayed; I shall aee his toy* and his empty chair. And the horse he ust d to ride. And they all shall speak with a silent speech. Of the little boy that died. We shsll go home to our Father's house- To our Father's house In the skies, 'Where the hope of onr soul shall know no blight- Onr love no broken ties. We shall roam on the banks of the Btnt of Life, And drink of its crystal tide; And one of the joys of Heaven shall ba The little boy that died! pl-r R WALTER'S SPECULATION. I !?' ! CWalter, I wouldn't do it It's a bus- I '* fness that we ain't fit for. We are do- *; log vary well now; at any rate we are • 'walking witli our eyes open and man- |#f§; "Wing our own affairs. Think how we lmte worked and contrived, and almost :-vf; etinted ourselves to get that $1,000 in til 'pthe bank. And what have we done it $7 '• far?" Don't you still desire to own the ' Cranson meadow, and don't you mean to build the new barn? Oh, Walter! If you will listen to me I will tell Mr. Plausible Sparkler to take care of his «rwn business and let you take care of yours. Let us own that beautiful Sneadow as we have so long talked of, and let us have barn room enough for the cattle we can keep when the mead­ ow is ours. O, think, my dear husband, we'il have one of the best and one of the handsomest farms in the whole re­ gion." "Yes, I know, Jennie; but you don't exactly understand. You don't take into account what is sure to come back to us. Think of the thousands we'll have where now we've got little or jaothing. Why, bless you! look at it. Mr. Sparkler has made me a grand of­ fer He lets me have the stock for ; $2.50 and the par value is $20. Why, I'd be a fool not to take it. He wouldn't <do that to many--now, you bet!" "Walter, t^reyou entirely carried away by that man's wonderful talk? Now, you will just listen to me for a few mo­ ments. In the first place, you know very well that Plausible ^parkier "wouldn't give you a dollar to save you. fie is not one of that kind. Now, About the price of the stock. Look me in the eye, Walter; would the man sell you a horse for a quarter or one-half what it is really worth? Ah, you jknow he wouldn't. No, the very fact that he offers the shares at that price is proof that they are good for noth­ ing. And now, there is just one more thing. II the land of which Sparkler tells was so rich in minerals, in coal and oil, and in such magnificent lum­ ber, do you suppose that he and his mates would lie aronnd among poor jolks like us, picking tip dollar by dol­ lar? No, you know they would easily Jls4 the capital necessarv to develop it" " "Ah, but, my dear wife, the very ob­ it of this comparî is to keep out wealthy capitalists. These men :."lhave been poor themselves, and they "hmi bound to give a poor man a chance. ^And, you Bee, they must have money-- •tiapital wjth which to develop the property and put it in working order. *hete are steam engines to be put up 4Uid furnaces and forges to be built, 4nd a branch road must be built.» Don't ,yon see? One or two thousand will--" "Two thousand! Why, it was only •one thousand the other <lay.M r "Yes, I know: but l'v,s concluded $2,000 will double; and more, too; they will make me a present of fifty «harea outright if I putin $2,000. That would be 850 shares, and in less than a year that stock will be worth *$10! In two years it will be at par! And we'll live to see it worth an even hundred. ' j tell you, Jennie, it's a big thing!" "But where are you to raise a thous­ and dollars, Walter?" " "Why, we've got a thousand in the 4>ank, and I could raise a thousand on the house aud farm." Jeanie Witherell turned pale and ^trembled. She was frightened, for she :-#aw that her husband was entirely in­ fatuated. Walter was 30 years *>f age, a strong, steady, industrious, pimple-minded man; and Blie, the wile, "•was two years younger. They had , ifceen married eight years, and three ^beautiful children blessed their home. . Walter had received the farm with his wife. It had been her father's. But itheir had been a $1,000 mortgage on it, And that mortgage he had lifted with anoney of his own when they were mar- varied, taking the title deeds in his own iname. Thus far in life he had been •opntent to work honestly and indus­ triously, seeing his store increasing Wlowly but surely. He was an excel- ' lent mechanic--a house carpenter, and when there was building to be done he could assume direction of the work, re­ ceiving for his labor sufficient to hire three strong men on his farm for the lUsrae time. He had the best breed of tsheep in the country, the best cows for milk and butter, and some of the very -finest blood in the way of horse flesh. In short he was one of the most thrifty >«nd most prosperous, in every way, of ' the mechanic farmers in the Stateand Sojectors of the "Grand Orient Pe->lenm Mining and Manufacturing •Company" had spotted him as one of titoir first victims, and so plausibly had ? , talked, so grandiloquently had set forth the golden possibility of tfceir vast proprety, and so plainly had tkey given him to see the wealth that must flow upon him that his head was v tamed. On the very day after the conversa- ji tton to which we have lis ened, Mr. H Plausible Sparkler, called at Walter jpfttberell's house, finding himself and wife both in. He was a man of mid- age--about forty--with light, flaxen ; neatly o led and curie. 1, and an Immense fl axen mustache, a pair of a light blu sh gray,which in cer- Ajkjn light®, scintillated like the eyes of (ikMUlrrel; a prominent Iiomrn nose, Uka dm cutwater of a boat with a slop- jujjr forehead, and a pair of ears that Jfrsjpkoned asinine will combined with cgration. He was dressed in the ;ht of fashion, wore an immense (or paste) in his shirt front, 'UpMft ft heavy weight of bright, yellow itortal (it loofc^d life* attached to liis watch. is • J,Aha! hal ia!». laughed . Sparkler, fefter he had laid out his brilliant plan for the hundredth time, and had, in bold fancy, filled Walter's cotton to the brim with gold. "Ha! ua! ha!" Old Spoopendyke came to me yesterday and wanted to give me his block of eight story marble front steps in New York for two hundred shares of our stock. Ah! the old rascal has a long head on his shoulders. He can see aye, see--what our enterprise must come to. But I did not listen. You can imagine that it was a great tempt­ ation, but I put it behind me. We had resolved that we would not give our property to make wealthy men wdalth- ier; but to make poor men wealthy poor men wbo were at the same time deserving. Think, my dear Witherell --von will own more than old Spoop­ endyke proposed to take for that valu­ able estate in the great metropolis." And so the oily-tongued man talked until Walter had the same as promised that he would be prepared to take the stock on the morrow. That very afternoon, after Sparkler had gone, Walter filled out a mortgage deed with his on hand and then called a Justice to acknowledge the signature of himself and wife. Jennie signed it, but it almost broke her heart to do so. And during the evening he took the deed to the man of whom he was to hfcve the money, and received $1,000-- ten new crisp $100 greenbacks, fresh from the United States Treasury. When Walter reached home on his return from the money lender's he found a boy at the door with a tele­ gram. It was from his sister, inform­ ing him of the sickness of his mother. "The doctor says dangerous. Come immediately," was at the close of the message. The nearest railway station was six miles distant, and there was no train until morning which would help him on his way. However, the business to be done with Mr. Sparkler he could leave with his wife just as well. The preliminaries had been all arranged and all that remained to be done was to pay over the money--$2,000--and take the certificate of stock. "There will be a paper to sign--a sort of bond--just for form's sake, which you can sign just as well. The wife's name is good." "Hadn't you better give me the pow­ er of attorney?" suggested Jennie. "Mr. Sparkler may refuse to take my name without some such thing. Just you sit down and write out a simple state­ ment that you give me entire authority to sign for you a certain paper stating what it is, and that you will hold your­ self bound thereby." Walter liked the idea, and proceeded forthwith to make out the paper as his wife had suggested. He gave her this, together with $2,000 in money, and she was to do the business with Sparkler. The $1,000 from the savings bank he had drawn that very day, so that the money was all ready. On the following morning Walter ate an early breakfast, then harnessed the horse which his wife was used to driv­ ing, and having kissed his little ones, he entered the carriage, and Jennie drove him over to the station, and stopped there and saw him off. On her way home she stopped at the dwelling of her dear friend, Kate Monl- ton, whose husband was going to take $1,000 worth of stock of the Grand Orient Petroleum Mining and Manu­ facturing Company. "Kate," said Jennie, "Charlie will surely take this stock?" "Yes; I have tried to persuade hioft, but he will not listen." "Dear Kate, I want you to do me a favor. Listen." And she whispered the request into her ear, so that not even the walls should hear it. "Will you do it?" And Kate Moulton promised that she would do it, upon which Jennie With- erell went home quite content It was afternoon when Mr. Sparkler called, bright and bustling, ready for his business with Walter Witherell. He was somewhat disappointed when he found that the man was gone, but when the wife had assured him that she was fully empowered to act for her husband, he was content. She led him into the library and gave him a Feat, after which she proceeded to business. And Plausible Sparkler, Esq., found her not quite so ready to his hand as he might have found the master of the household. However, she managed to get through the business after a fash­ ion, and she breathed more freely when she had seen the last of the phil­ anthropic speculator. On the morning of the next day a telegram came from Walter, to his wife, informing her that his mother was fail­ ing and she had better join him "with the children, and on the day after that, leaving the house in the care of their one house servant and the farm hands' she set forth in answer to her husband's call. She arrived in season to see Walter's mother alive, and to sit by her side when she fell asleep. They tarried until after the funeral, and then re­ turned home and took up the usual cares of lite. It was on the second morning after their arrival home that Jennie gave to her husband* a large, legal-looking en­ velope, within which he found a beau­ tifully illuminated certificate of the Grand Orient Petroleum Mining and Manufacturing Company, certifying that Walter Witherell, in the sum of $2,000, the receipt whereoff was there­ by acknowledged, was entitled to 850 snares of the capital stock of said com­ pany, etc. Walter carefully refolded tho hand­ some llaming document, put it back into its envelope and put it away in a private drawer of his secretaire, and from that time ceased to talk about it. That is, he talked no more with his wife, but ever and anon, when he chanced to meet Charles Moulton and George Simmons both of whom had bought some of the same stock, he passed a few words with them on the Subject. Time passed on--six months were gone, and not a word had Walter heard from Sparkler. He began to be un­ easy, and, more than once, had said to himst If he wished he had not taken the stock. He bad heard of tho failure of many companies which had proved to have been only frauds and cheats. Nine months had passed when one day Charles Moulton stopped Walter on the street and asked him if he had received a notice of assessment--10 per cent.--from the Treasurer of the Grand Orient. No, Walter said he had not. "Well," said Moulton, "they sent to me, and notified me that if the assess­ ment was not paid within thirty days, my stock would be forfeited, or, if they chose, they could come on and collect it, as the bonds which I signed just for form's sake gave them power to do so. So I have just sent on the $100. I tell you, Walter, it came bard. Ol I wish I'd listened to my wife, and let th*3 thing alone." * Walter went home fe&ing unhappy, • ' " v ; : bat he dared not sp«ak with his wife on the subject "Or If I had only listened to Jennie !* That was the bur- den of his waiL It was during the first week in No­ vember that Walter had given the mortgage on h'is home and drawn his $1,000 from the savings bank. It wa* in July following, that Moulton and Simmons had been assessed 10 pet cent on the stock they had taken. At that time, as Walter afterward learned, Simmons had been inclined to let his stock and $1,000 already paid in go. rather than be bled any more; but the officers of the company had very clev­ erly shown him that they had power, under the bond he had given, to "come and make distraint on any property oJ his they could find. And Walter was in for $2,000! If the worst should come it would swallow up the rest of his farm--every bit of it! He suffered more and more; and he suffered more keenly because he would not speak to his wife, and ask her sym­ pathy. A year had passed and another No­ vember had come. One morning at the postoffice, Charles Moulton, pale and aghast, and quivering with mental torture, pointed out to Walter Wither­ ell an item in the city paper which a friend had sent him. Walter look the paper and read as follows: "A SAD COLLAPSE.--We fear that many ol the horn st, harvl working farmers arid me chanicsof tha f-urroundlng1 country are suf­ ferers by the collapse of the Grand Orient Petroleum Mining and Manufacturing- Com­ pany, so called. The affair has been a stu­ pendous swindle from the first, yet so adroit­ ly did the corporators do their business thai their victims can gain no redress. Tho com­ pany owned all the land they pretended tc own but. in truth, a more utterly worthless- tract of land than was their territory, was not to be found on the continent. But the loss oi money paid for stock is notall. A few moneyed men have bought up tho whole concern, and are now making distraint upon the original subscrib: rs to thr> stock for the collection oi the full face value of the premium notes which they unwittingly gave at the time ol subscribing. We venture to say that scacely a man of them dreamed that ho was giving a bona fide note when he signed that simple, in­ nocent lr.oking bond. It is hard, but it might have been worse. Some may find tho experi­ ment worth all it will cost, while all may do well to remember the homely old saying: 'Cjbbler, stick to your last.'" Walter gave back the paper with a groan and quickly sought the fresh air. When he got home his wife was fright­ ened. She thought him deadly sick. She hastened to his side and wound an arm around his neck. "Dear Walter, what is it? What is the matter?" "O, Jennie, Jennie. If I had only listened to you." And then in broken tones and tears he told her of the sad collapse of the Grand Orient. He concealed nothing, but told her the plain unvarnished truth. Not only was the $2,000 gone that he had already paid, but they were coming for $2,000 more, and he could not escape paying it. Jennie sat djartnakand looked into her husband's face. \What meant that lurking smile which caught at the cor­ ner of her blue eyes and about the full, ruby lips ? Was it possible that she could find it in her heart to make sport of his cruel, bitter agony? "Walter," she said at length, "will you go and get your certificate of stock, and let us look over it?" He rose, looking like a decrepit old man, and procured the envelope arid- brought it back. Jennie took it, and drew out the certificate and opened it. "Where is the company's seal?" she asked. "What?" cried Walter, "is there no seal?" "No; and look at the signatures. Do they look as such signatures ought to look ?" A brief silence, and then the wife, with happy tears mingled with her smiles, threw her arms around her husband's neck, exclaiming as she did so: "Oh, Walter, I know you will forgive me now. I did a bold thing; at the time you might have called it outrage­ ous ; but I could not pay away that hard-earned money for what I knew to be a mess of pottage. Dear husband, you have never owned a share of this stock. I went to Kate Moulton--I knew that Sparkler was to call there before he came here--and I got her to beg of Mr. Sparkler one of the bank certificates of stock on the plea that she wanted to keep the pretty picture as a curiosity. He gave it to her, and she brought it to me at once. When Sparkler called upon me I ;jsent him about his business olf-hand. I told him what I thought of him and his compa­ ny ; and I will only say that he was very glad to get away. Then I carried back my $1,000 to the savings bank and Mr. Holden took it back just as though we had never touched it. And Mr. Bald­ win cheerfully gave me up the mort­ gage for the return of the $1,000 he had given you. The certificate I filled up mveelf. believing you would never notice its strange look. "Now, Walter, darling, I am ready to be scolded. Let me have it as savage­ ly as you please; only when you have finished, I have a favor to aslc." "Ask it now, Jennie," he said in a low,broken whisper. "It is this: I want you to promise me that you will never " Hold on!" He caught her to his bosom and kissed her again and again. ""Oh, my own blessed wife! never, never again will I step aside from the true, upright, straightforward and le­ gitimate path of honest business and labor. I have had enough of speoula- t on. Some men may enjoy it; some may prosper in it; but I was not cut out for it. No. Jennie, your grand lesson shall not be lost on an unworthy husband. When we are done with this home we will leave it with our chil­ dren ; and they will find it in good con­ dition and unincumbered; and I shall not be ashamed to have them know just how much of the home they owe to their mother. Hush! I wish them to know it. Especially do I wish onr son to know it, that he may take warning by the experience of his father; for though I have not lost my two thousand dol­ lars, yet believing I was in the trap, I have suffered more than I can tell. Yes, I want our boy to know it." "And now, my darling, let us thank God for the blessing of this' happy hour. And I will thank Him for one of the best and noblest wives that man o?#r had." It wa« given out that a large track of country, about six " miles from here, was to be hunted. About 7 o'clock the natives began to move, the men with nets first These are coarse-meshed, strong nets, about four feet deep, of various lengths. Far away to the lee­ ward of the grass to be burnt these nets are stood up with short stakes, each man's net joined to his neighbor's. The grass is pulled up in front of the nets to prevent them catching fire. The owners of the nets stand by with spears in silence and awaiting their prey. It is the fashion for all the young man to wear their head-dresses and finery to the hunt. They shave the hair, too, off their* temples, every hair from their eyebrows, and any oth­ er about their faces. All carry several spears roughly made from hard white wood. The points are sharpened, and every one has a boar's tusk or piece of glass bottle to scrape them as often as they require it. Little boys of 3 and 4 years o.d, with their ornaments on, faces painted, and spears on their shoulders, march along with the crowd. A number of young girls go, - too, to carry water for tho men. It being a grand hunt, we foreigners joined the company on h^rfceback, Mrs. Lawes be­ ing one of the party. The natives al­ ways walk in sifigle file, and tho hunt­ ing processionjw^a very long one. The meet was afffiftreek halfway to the Laroge river. ThM was the rendez­ vous, where all reared and waited for a strong, steady wind. The nets had gone on and wore in position. The master of -ceremonies was a Koitapu chief named Sivari. When I first knew Sivari, some years ago, he was a fine-looking man, agile, and ac­ tive ; now he is a pitiable object--his toes and fingers eaten away by leprosy and his arm * and legs in a dreadful state. He can hobble about on a stick, but he can not walk far. Two of his wives carried him by turn in a netted hammock on their backs, suspended by a band across the forehead. These are some of the honors which fall to the shares of the wives of New Guinea. The right to carry their husbands to the hunting-field is one pf the woman's rights undisputed here. The old sin­ ner, miserable object though he is, has had six wives, some of them young and good-look ;ng, recently annexed to his harem. Soon the wind began to whis­ tle through the trees, and there was a general stampede. The grass was set fire to in many places and was soon cracking, hissing, and blazing away be­ fore the wind. The air was full of sparks, and a dense cloud of smoke rose above. The natives shouted, the pogs yelped, and poor, dazed wallabies rushed here and there, some escaping spears and dogs, but most of them fall­ ing. It requires a good deal of prac­ tice to spear a Wallaby going full speed. Sometimes one would rush past with two or three spears hanging from him and a bevy of dogs after him. There was a good deal of slaughter and some scores of wallaby carried in. One man was badly gored by a wild boar. It is only very plucky men who will face these. ̂ They carry a circle of stout cane, in which is lashed a strong cord, so as to form several large meshes. This is held so that the pig rushes in and gets muzzled by it; then a man throws himself on the pig and grips him tight until he is dispatched. When they have tusks the hunter often gets very ugly wounds. The man we saw had a nasty hole plowed in his thigh by a short tusk. The pig, however, was overpowered and killed.--New Guinea Cor. Sydney Herald. ^ f / *V"V;V- No Such a Thing as a New Whenever a young man finds that he has given expression to a pun, he should take a piece of asafoetida about as big as a hickory nut and chew it. He will not feel like making another pun as long as the taste of the drug remains in his mouth. He should carry some of the drug in his vest pocket when he goes out in company, and keep a piece in his mouth constantly. It may be offensive to the company, but it will not be half so offensive as his old back-number, teeth-worn puns, and he will become a favorite. If this course will not cure him he had better go and drown himself. There is no such a thing as a new pun, as every word that is susceptible of a pun has been punned upon for thousands of years, so when you hear a person make a pun you can be sure that it is a thousand years old. If a man or woman, when making a pun on a word, realized that the Egyptian mummy in the museum, when alive, had made the same pun, and laughed at it boisterously, he would be ashamed of his own attempt. The English lan­ guage is good enough if you take it straight, and it is foolish to torture it. The man who imagines he is smart, as you can see by watching him as he laughs at his own smartness. As good a way as any to squelch a punster is to listen to his pun, look thoughtfully and say, "B. C." or "Cred­ it it to Adam." Young men who get in the habit of making puns on all occa­ sions lose their positions, girls go back on them and they go throug life alcne, except In rare instances. A girl hates to face the prospect of a lifetime of poor puns, and they will think twice before marrying a punster, as he is lia­ ble to practice his puns on his wife. A druggist in western Wisconsin had a great habit of making puns a few years ago, and no customer was safe to go to the store to buy anything. They all got a pun with their medicine, and sometimes the pun was worse than the drug to take. One night a man named Otto Padman was stabbed in the breast, and was taken to the drug store to be sewed up. While the doctor was at work on the man the druggist came up and after looking at the wound he said: "You Otto had a liver Pad-man." The wounded and dying man heard it, and it was too much. He could stand the stab of cold steel, bat to be stabbed with a pun was too much, and he hauled back one foot and kicked the druggist in the nose. The druggist has never made a pun since, and we don't know but a kick in the nose is about as good a cure as any.--JhKk's Sun. l An Unfeeling Father* A bevy of girls were looking at a bri­ dal trosseau. "How exquisite!" "How lovely!" How supremely sweet!" etc., ad nau­ seam, were the exclamations made. "You ought to be extremely happy, Clara," said one of the girls to the bride elect. "I suppose I ought," said Clara, dis­ contentedly, "but papa won't bring a newspaper reporter to look at them." Chorus --"What a shame!"--New York Sun. THE golden rod is now popular for house decoration. Tho golden ruW would be better* (jlring the Reason. "* "No," said a Boston girl, blushing painfully, "the young girls of this city do not wear eye-glasses because they are nearsighted." "What is the reason, then," asked the New York young man, "because it gives them an intellectual appearance?" "Oh, no," blushing still more pain­ fully. "But there must be some reason," he insisted, "for their very general use. Pray what is it ?" "It is be--because we a--are too modest to look at anything with the naked eje."~New York Mail and Ex prta#. ty CUSTOM may lead a errors; but it justifies none. many In the first plaoe, it need not be ex* jpected to give ehildren a proper train­ ing without paying particular attention to the subject, and taking considerable pains. It won't do to let children run their own course, and only take notice of their faults when they do something particularly bad. However, this Is about the extent of the training which many children receive. They are al­ lowed to run on, undirected and un- garded, in whatever direction their ten­ dencies or ciroumstances lead them; then when they become thoroughly saturated with badness, and conse­ quently troublesome, the parents begin the hopeless task of beating it out of them. When the children have to be whipped a great deal, it is generally pretty good evidence that the parents are to blame as well as the children, and are really as deserving of punish­ ment. It is especially true with regard to raising children, that "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." It should be borne in mind that chil­ dren are altogether incapable or judg­ ing what is good for them, and what is not. It is little less than a miracle for a child to grow up and haVe a good dis­ position, without any directing or re­ straining influence. Their young minds are ccnstantly acquiring false impres­ sions and mistaken ideas. Their views of many things are just the opposite of what they would be if they were older. They strive to become accomplished in little vices of which a few more years would make them ashamed. Most any one can look back to his youth and re­ call many of these mistaken notions; and some of them there is no need to recall, as their consequences are still too plainly felt every day. Who does not look back with regret on some of these errors of youth, and wish over and over again he had known better, or that his parents at least had known enough to teach him better? It is not mnch wonder that some children do not remember their parents with any too much love and affection, while con­ stantly suffering from their neglect in training, and smarting from the effects of the vices they were allowed to ac­ quire and were never warned against. It is the duty of parents to root out these bad pendencies and false impres­ sions, just as fast as they spring up. And the way to do this is to continual­ ly watch and study children, and as soon as a bad quality is observed, to try every means of banishing it. But bad tendencies will not be removed by merely punishing a child whenever it commits a wrong act. It should be made to understand the kind of dispo­ sition the act indicates, and every time this*dispo8ition is displayed by an act the child should be reminded that it is its old failing and the same thing' for which it was corrected before. It will thus Bee some connection between the different corrections or punish­ ments. It will also lerrn what its fault is, and become impressed with its wrongfulness, and therefore likely to guard against it. But it is a matter of common observation how little effect any number of corrections have in over­ coming bad dispositions in children, without letting them know what the acts indicate and what the corrections are for. Done Quickly. The tiger is such an object of dread, that even a dead one will not be touchcd by the vultures, so long as the skin re­ mains on it. But the moment the huge cat is skinned, these scavengers, feeling assured that it is dead, begin to eat the carcass. They work with great rapidi­ ty, as may be seen from the following description of one of their banquets, written by a sportsman in India; the tiger was unloaded from the elephant's back in tjie center of a little clearing in the forest, and the usual business of skinning was proceeded with. As I stood watching, I noticed even more than the usual number of great vultures assembling on the surround­ ing trees, anxiously waiting for the banquet, which experience told them would soon be theirs. Directly the carcass, stripped of its skin, and therefore no longer an object of terror, was left, they all descended upon it in a cloud, and nothing could be seen but a large heaving mass of feathery round which two jackals kept trotting humbly, and wagging their little short tails.. ^ They were not, however, suffered to pick up even the smallest fcrap. The vultures took no notice whatever of them, but I suppose if they had ven­ tured to interfere, they would have been set upou and killed. I looked at my watch as the first bird alighted on the body of the tiger, and found that in exactly twenty min­ utes these feathered scavengers had so completely done their work that there was nothing but a skeleton left.-- Youth's Companion. Ingenious:. One of the schools in the royal uni­ versity at Tokio is held in a building so constructed that three sides or wings of the structure inclose a large court. This space is carefully levelled, and in this sand is the map of Japan, laid out with the utmost mathematical ac­ curacy as regards distances and direc­ tions. The sands represents, of course, the seas which surround the empire of is­ lands ; and the loam which represents the land is diversified with hillocks and elevations to represent mountains and table-lands, and corresponding depres­ sions for valleys. The location of cities is distinctly marked, bays and gulfs are seen, and all the little interior is­ lands are shown in the proper propor­ tion of their size and distance from the main island. But most striking of all is the fact that little channels are marked in the earth to represent rivers, and when it rains, water actually flows in these lit­ tle streams from the highlands to the ocean of sand, precisely as it does in the larger streams they imitate. The student oan thus see at a glance all the superficial physical features of his country, can locate water-sheds and courses, trace the extent of mountain ranges, and visit distant cities, witli less stretching of the imagination than is required of the scholar in American public schoolsk Propery Punished. "My daughter," said an old gentle­ man, as the fashionable girl entered the room, "sersible young men will hardly admire you in a dress like that." "Why not, papa?" "Because sensible young men know that as a rule the smaller thb vaist is the larger the waste is apt, to be." The girl gave a ringing little laugh at the old man's cleverness, and then worked him for $50. 'Tis a Dutch proverb that "paint costs nothing," such are its preserving qualities in damp climatel Well, un- sh ne costs less yet it is a liner p gmeut. And so of cheerfulness, or a good tern per, the more it it spent, the more,of it I remains. T0O MUCH FOft TUB COWBOY. A Colorado PU*llUt Takes the Wind Oat of a Boaater from Wyoming. Ths cowboys do not have any such fun as they used to have, but those who made their headquarters in this neigh­ borhood have been enjoying themselves a good deal of late. Some time ago the boys had nothing to do for six months in the year. Now they are busy nearly all the time. First comes the general round-up, then the calf round-up, {hen haying, then the beef round-up, then the gathering in of bulls and weak cows, and finally a win­ ter of feeding hay. Many of the old-time cowboys in this section resented the idea of making hay, and some of them quitted the bus­ iness in disgust when asked to go into the field for that purpose. One of the dissatisfied members of the fraternity was Alex Thebold, a man who consid­ ered himself one of the toughest on the range. He made a good deal of fun of the haymakers, and whipped a few of them in fist fights when they under­ took to reply to his taunts. After awhile he got a reputation as a pugil­ ist, and one man after another whom he encountered was polished off in fine style. t "I will teach you tenderfeet and hay­ makers a new art," he said. "In onr day we shot and shot to kill, but it will never do for you to try that on: Don't you fool with the weapons. Learn to defend yourselves with the fists. That is all you will ever need. Put away your guns and IH show you how the thing is done." After he had whipped every cowboy in the camp and found himself too big for the company he was in, some one suggested that he ought to go out into the States and travel on his muscle. Everybody agreed that that was the proper thing to do. He had gained all the glory he could among the cowboys, and all that he now lacked was recog­ nition outside. He fell in with the idea very quickly, and some of the boys, seeing a chance to get him into trouble proposed that a subscription be taken up to take him to Denver, and prepare him for a match with a local bruiser. He assented to the scheme, and a few days ago accompanied by four or five of the boys, he left for that city. Once there Thebold announced him­ self as the cowboy knocker, and claimed he could whip anything that went on two feet. The city sports looked him over, pronounced him good, and persuaded Johnny Clow, the cham­ pion of Colorado, to make a match with him. The cowboys put up the money for Thebold, and a night was se­ lected for the mill, the place chosen being a base ball park on the outskirts of town. The men and their backers proceeded thither at midnight. The moon Avas shining, and it was light enough to see pretty well. While the seconds were arranging the preliminaries the cowboys began to hope Alex would not kill the other fal­ low at the first blow. "Oh, I won't murder him," Thebold said,confidently, "but I'll show him what kind of battering rams they raise 6n Crazy Woman's Creek. I'll just spoil him, and then call for another one. I don't want to use up all my fun in a minute." When time was called the Colorado champion man jumped into the ring quietly and Thebold bounded in with an air of defiance. They shook hands, and then the oowboy began to dance up and down. Pretty soon he made a terrific lunge at Clow and struck him a stinging blow on the nose, drawing blood, but leaving his own head ub- garded. Clow was staggered for an in­ stant by the suddenness and force of the blow, but Recovering himself, he hit the oowboy a crusher on the left ear and followed it up as quick as light­ ning with another bone breaker on tlie knock. Thebold sat down, got up, walked around a little, holding his head in both hands, and trying to assume a perpen­ dicular position, and then said: "Boys, I believe that cuss has broken my neck. He's just one too many for me on this round-up. Take me home." All hands tried their best to persuai him to try it again, but he resolutel; refused. "I'm not very well, and didn't suppose you had any such knockers as that fellow is. I'm goin£ back to Fetter man." i The boys brought him home, anil since then half a dozen of them have whipped him and others are coming ib to try their hands.--Fort Fettermah Cor. New York Sun. Hour Liszt Fed Hi* Audience* The composer was making a tour France, during which he came to a pro­ vincial town where he was to give i performance; but when all was readt to begin, the audience was found tf consist of seven individuals onlyi Liszt, nothing daunted, mounted th4 platform with a bland smile upon hit face, and, bowing suavely to the almost empty benches, said: "Ladies and gen­ tlemen, this is a most uncomfortable hall; therefore, if it will be agreeabla to yon, I will havo the piano taken t® the hotel where I am staying, and there, where we shall be much more at our ease, I will play through the pro*- gramme." ! The proposal was cheerfully accepted by the seven guests, who adjourned to* the hotel, where Liszt not only went through the entire programme, but aft­ erward pressed his audience to par­ take of a slight but recherche supper he had ordered for them. Next even­ ing, on the occasion of a second con­ cert, the hall was full to suft'ocation, aud many had to be turned away at the doors.--Era. _____ Why the Southern Confederacy Failed. We needed for President either a mil­ itary man of high order, or a politician of the first class (such as Howell Cobb) without military pretentions. Tha South did not fall crushed by the mere weight of the North; but it was nib­ bled away at all sides and ends because its executive head never gathered and wielded its great strength, under the ready advantages that greatly reduced or neutralized its adversary's naked physical superiority. It is but another of "the many proofs that timid direction may readily go with phys'cal courage, and that the passive defensive policy may make a long agony, but can never win a war.--Gen. Beauregard, in the Century. • " THE Arabs of Sahara are very par­ ticular as to the color of their horses. White is the color for princes, but does not stand heat. The black brings good fortune, but fears rocky ground. The chestnut is the most active. If one tells you he has seen a hors'e fly in the air, ask of wiiat color it WAS; if he re­ plies "chestnut" believe bim. In a combat against a ches'nut you must have a chestnut The bay is the hard­ iest and most, sober. If one tells you a h- rse has leaped to th • bottom of a precepice without hurting himself, ask of what color it was, and if ha replies abay." believe h w*. PITS AND POINT, NOTA bene--a Boston famijM, A GOOD thing in oil--sardine*. A COLLECTOR'S business is no sooner •aid than dun.. MAP a cup that fancy fills never meets the lips. Many a bowl with sins pollute, the tempted sips, and sips.-- Carl Pretzel's Weekly. THE true lady is the one who pre­ tends to admire her neighbor's bonnet when in reality she considers it a fright. THE reason that some men love their dogs better than their wives is proba­ bly becauee their dogs have not yet lost all respect for them. "IT may be," said Heffelspin, "that a man and his wife are one; but I notice that when I come to pay the weekly board-bill my landlord don't seem to think so."--Carl Pretzel's Weekly. "OH, I do SO dote on the sea," she gurgled. "If you only had a yacht, Augustus dear!" "I have no yacht, Wiihelmina," he sighed, "but I can give you a little smack." And then it sounded as if a cork had flown out of a bottle. VERY big boy--"Please, Mias Blank, I don't think father would like to have me 'kept in' after school." Pretty young teacher--"Why not, if he knows it is for breaking the 'rules?" Big boy --"This is leap year, ypa know." She let him off. THEY came very near securing- a Down-East schoolma'am to teach a lit­ tle school in Kansas, but when the committee told her that it was "on tho bare prairie," she screamed and said she could not think of going to such an immodest place. THE doors in Japanese dwellings are made so small that a person can barely squeeze in. This is a sensible arrange­ ment. All the fat men are compelled to sleep in the garden where their wheezing and snoring won't keep the lean ones awake.--Paris Beacon. HE TOOK THE CAKE. ' A good fflrl--yea, a pretty one-- She Bent an editor a cak<\ , And in his bosom irratliude Began a little place 10 take. But O! the cake had not been lo&tr ' Beneath his vest before it fell Afoul the pie stone down afore, "Great BobI" he cri d, "I am Hot welM'* The cake and pie they fought and The doctor came in boominz haste, And drugs at once went up in price, O, ne'er was death so boldly faced! The medicine attacked the pie; The medl tine attacked the cake; Then pie and cake allied did finht-- ^ His many friends u ere at th3 wake! --Louisville t'ourier-JonruaL ; DOMESTIC FELICITY.--"I don't • 'ae* why they call that institution at Day­ ton a Soldiers' Home. There is noth­ ing homelike in the way those poor soldiers are treated," remarked Mrs. Yerger, who was reading a paper the other morning, just after breakfast. "I don't know about that. I read that when a soldier came to the home drunk at night he was subjected to all man­ ner of indignities. The Superintend­ ent raised the biggest kind of a racket." "That's just the kind of a home I've got here in Austin. I think I should feel at home if 1 were in Dayton. Ouch! let go of my hair, Caroline. Can't a fellow joke? Let go of my hair." THE codliver oil business is flourish­ ing at Marseilles, and competition runs high. An advertisement of one of the manufacturers reads as follows: "The cod being one of the small fishes of the sea is constantly tracked and pursued by it enemies, the whales and sharks, etc., therefore it lives in a constant state of fear; and it is a well-established fact that fear engenders in all living creatures jaundice and diseases of the liver. Consequently, all codfish taken in the open sea have diseased livers. But all my fish are caught in a safe har­ bor, where marine monsters cannot en­ ter. They live there in peace and com­ fort. Their livers are perfectly healthy, and that is the reason why my codliver oil is the best." "THE elephant's drunk!" shrieked a truthful-looking boy, rushing into the crowded circus department. The mul­ titude left their seats and rushed into the menagerie to see the fun. They returned to find the boy sitting in the best seat in the house. "Measureless liar," they exclaimed, reproachfully, "you deceived us. The noble animal is a temperance elephant. He is not drunk." "Didn't say he was," replied the honest boy, his eyes fastened upon the gentleman down in the sawdust trying to tie his legs in a bow-knot around his neck. "I said the elephant's trunk." And then they knew he had valised them out of their seats. This is reliable. That is you can tell it again.--Burlington Hawkeye. Eloquent. There are those who are blind to tha eloquence of a gesture or to the pathos of a look. They see the armless sleeve, but unless the poor soldier appeals to them with words, they do not feel the charity that beareth another's burden. Such resemble the gentleman who re­ quired, before he would be pitiful, that the expressive pantomime of the Irish beggar should be inforeed by pathetio speech: A gentleman passed a man who was a painful spectacle of pallor, squalor, and wretchedness. The man said nothing, and the gentleman, turning back, acoosted him thus: "If you ara in want, why don't you beg?" "Sure it's begging I am, yer Honor." "You didn't say a word." "Of course not, yer Honor, but see how the skin is spakin' through the holes of me trousers, and the bones cryin' out through me skin! Look at me sunken cheeks, and the famine that's starin' in me eyes. Man alive 1; isn't it begging I am with a hundred tongues?" BAKBEBS have their likes and dislikes, the same as the rest of us. The par­ ticular barber referred to was pressing himself freely in regard to things in general. "I'm a pretty good judge of human nature," he said to his suffering customer, "and can size up a man about as qHick as anybody. There is one class of men that I never have anything to do with." "What clasa of men is that?" asked the victim in the chair. "Baldheaded men who wear full- beards. I despise 'em." THE latest style of stand-up dude shirt collar resembles a cuff hollowed out in front for Adam's apple and the chin. It comes chock up under the ears, and Mr. Dude, if he saves his ears from laceration, is expected to get up on a chair to spit. To BE thrown upon one's own re- surces is to be cast in the very lap of fortune, for our faculties then undergo a development of which they were be­ fore unsusceptible.--Benjamin Frank- UTU A GREAT name is like an eternal epitaph engraved by the admiration of men on the road of time.--E. Sou- ventre. ABIZOKA has extensive white pine for* ests. ... .. . ' .- .

Powered by / Alimenté par VITA Toolkit
Privacy Policy