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i*- 17 85 n a i Is 49 D » l o a >Yant A n jtM n e In The Line of Job Work? T h e Eecord leads in Good W ork at Fair Prices. 0 1 0 0 9 ontitn YOL. XYIII. OWEGO, N, Y., THUKSDAY, APEIL 26, 1888. With Malice. Toward I^one, And The News For All. ICE BOUND. ; B y W . CLAItK B.USSELL, I Author o f *‘The Wreeh o f the Orosvenor'^ L “Jack's Courtship.” ’‘My Watch Be low,^’ ^‘The L a d y Maud ” Etc. ^ „ ' CHAPTER XV. . THE PIRATE’S STORT. * I lighted my pipe and sat smoking, think ing he would presently awake; but his slum ber was as deep as the stillness I had thawed him out of had been, and he lay so motion less that, but for his snoring and harsh breath ing, I should have believed him lapsed into his former lifelessness. At 8 o’clock the fire was very low. Na ture was working out her own way with this Frenchman, and I determined to let him sleep where he was, and take my chance of the night. The gale made a great roaring. The ship’s stem lay open to the gorge, and but for her steadiness I might have supposed myself at sea. I snugged mo down amid the coats and cloaks in my cot, and, obstinately holding my eyes closed, ultimately fell asleep. It was a little after 7 when I awoke. I lighted the lantern, but upon entering the to reel ana strike nimseif all over, swinging his-arms and using his legs—after whfch he sat down and pulled his clothes over his naked feet, and, fixing his eyes on me afresh, said: ‘‘What do you say this year is, sir?” “Eighteen hundred anG one,” I repliedl “Bahl” said he, and shook his head very knowingly. “No m a tter; you have been shipwrecked, tool Sir, shipwreck shuffles' dates as a player does cards; and the best of us will go wrong in famine, loneliness, cold and peril. Be of good cheer, my friend; «dl will return to you. Sit, sir, that I may hear your adventures, and I will relate mine.” I saw how it was; he supposed me do* ranged—a mortifying construction to place upou the language of a man who bdd restored him to life; yet a few moments reflection taught me to see the reasonableness of it, for unless he thought me crazy he must conclude I spoke the truth, and i t was inconceivable he should believe that he had lain in a frozen condition for eight and forty years. I have no doubt the disorder my mind was in helped to persuade him that I had not the' full possession of my senses. Ho ran his eye over my figure and then round the cook room, and said, “I am impatient to learn your story, sir.” “Why, sir,” said I, “my story is summed up in what I have already told you.” But that he might not be a t a loss—^forto be sure, he had only very newly collected his intel lect—I related my adventures at laige. Ho drew nearer to the furnace while I talked. bringing his covering of clothes along with S“ o l ^ * ^ S ; i r ? t h M ^ ^ him and held nnfc hie ea-eet hand. f l c i . e*. only heeled more to larboard, but was far ther “down by the stem” to the extent of ' several feet. Indeed, the angle of inclina tion was now considerable enough to bring my shoulder (in the passage) close against the starboard side when I stood erect. The noise of the gale was still in the air, and the boom ing and boiling of the sea was uncommonly loud. I walked straight to the cook room, and, putting the lantern to the Frenchman, perceived that he was still in a heavy sleep, and that ho had lain through the night pre cisely in the attitude in which I had left him. His face was so muffled that little more than 1 his long hawk’s bill nose was discernible. It ’ him, and held out his great hands to toast a t the lire, all the time observing me with scarce a wink of the eye. Arrived a t the end of my tale, I told h6w Only last night I bad dragged bis companion on deck, and how he was to follow but for his posture. “Ha!” cried hq, “you might have caused my flesh to mortify by laying me close to the fire. It would have been better to rub ma with snow.” He poked up one foot after the other to count his toes, fearing some had come away ■with his stockings, and then said: “ Well, and how long should I have slept had you not come? Another week! By St. Paul, I might Have you my stockings, sir?”- long the furnace ■was burning cheerfully. I went to work to make some broth and fry some ham, and melt a little block of ruby colored wine; and while thus occupied, turn ing my head a moment to look a t the French man, I found him half started up, staring in tently a t me. This sudden confrontment threw me into such confusion that I could not speak. He moved his head from side to side, talcing a vie-w of the scene, with an expression of the most inimitable astonishment painted upon his countenance.' He then brought the flat of his hand with a dramatic blow to his fore head, the scar on which showed black os ink to the fire glow, and sat erect. “Where have I beenf’ he exclaimed in French. \Sir said I, speaking with the utmost dilliculty, “I do not understand your lan guage. I am English. You speak my tongue. Will you address me in it?” ‘•English!” he exclaimed in English, drop ping his head on one side, and peering a t rao with an incredible a ir of amazement. “How came you here? You are not of our com pany? Let me see”— Here he struggled with recollection, continuing to stare at me from under his shaggy eyebrows os if I was some frightful ■vision. “I am a shipwrecked British mariner,” said I, “and have been cast away upon this ice, where I found your schooner.” “Ha!” ho interrupted, ■with prodigious vehemence, “certainly; we are frozen up—I remember. That sleep should serve my memory so.” Ho made as if to rise, but sat again. “The cold is numbing; it would weaken a lion. Give me a hot drink, sir.” I filled a pannikin with the melted wine, which ho swallowed thirstily. “More!” cried he. “I seem to want life.” Again I filled the pannikin. “Goodr* said he» f»?tching a. sigh, as ho re- turned the vessel; “you oro very obliging, sir. If you have food there we ■will eat to gether.” I give the substance of his speech, but not his delivery of it; nor is it necessary that I should interpolate my rendering with the French words he iised. The broth being boiled, I gave him a good bowl of it along with a plate of bacon and tongue, some biscuit and a pannikin of hot brandy and water, all which things I put upon bis knees as he sat upon the mattress; and to it he fell, making a rare meal. Yet all the while he ate he acted like a man be witched, as well he might, staring a t me and looking: round and round him, and then drop ping his Icnifo to strike his brow, ns if by that kind of blow he ■would quicken the ac tivity of memory there. “There is something ■wrong,” said ho, pres ently. “ What is it, sir? This is the cook room. How does it happen that I am lying heref' I told him exactly how it was, adding that if it had not been for his postoe, which obliged me to tha'w in order to carry him, ho would now bo on deck ■with the others, await ing the best funeral I could give him. “Who are the others?” asked he. *‘I know not,” said I. “There were four in ^ all, counting yourself; one sits frozen to d eath; on the rocks. I met him first, and took his watch from his pocket that I might tell the time.” Ho took the watch in his hands, and asked mo to bring the lantern close. ! “Ha!” cried he “this was Mendoza’s—the' captain’s. I remember; he took it for the sake of this letter upon it. Ho lies dead on the rocks ? IVe missed him, but did not know where he had gone.” Then, raising his hand and impulsively starting upon the mattress, he cried, while he lapped his forehead, “It has come back: I have it I Giuseppe TVen- tanove and I were in the cabin; he had fallen blind ■with the glare of the ice—if that was it. We confronted each other. On a suclden he screamed out. I had put my face into my arms and felt myself dying. His cry aroused ma I looked up and saw him leaning back from the table with his eyes fixed and horror In his countenance. I was too feeble to s p ^ k —^too languid to riso. I watched him a while, and then the drowsiness stole over mo again, and my head sank and I remember no more.” _ Mm as he rose. “I can stand,” says he. “That is good.” ’ But in attempting to take a step he reeled, and would have fallen hafl 1 not grasped his arm. “Patience, my friend, patience!” he mut tered, as if to himself. “I must lie a little longer, and ■with that he kneeled and then lay along the mattress. He breathed hea'vily and pointed to the pannikin. I asked Mm whether ho would have wine or brandy. He answered “Wine,” so j melted a draught, wMch dose, I thougljt, on top of what ho had already taken, would send him to sleep; but instead It quickened his spirits, and ■with no lack of life in his voice, he said: “What is the condition of the vessel?” I told him that she ■was still high and dry, adding that during the night some sort of change had happened, which 1 should pres ently go on deck to remark. “Think you,” says he, “that there is any chanco of her over being liberated?\ I answered, “Yes, but not yet; that is, if the ice in breaking doesn’t destroy her. The summer season has yet to come, and wo are progressing north; but now that you are with me, it wUl bo a question for us to settle whether we are to wait for the ice to release the schooner or endeavor to effect our escape by other means.” A cm'ious gleam of cunning satisfaction shono in his eyes as he looked a t me; ho then kept silence for some moments, lost in thought. “Pray,” said I, breaking in upon him, “what ship is this?” He started, deliberated an instant^ and an swered, “The Boca del. Dragon.” “A Spaniai'd?” H q nodded. “She was a pirate?\ said L ••now ao you know tU a tr he cried, with a sndden fierceness. “Sir,” said I, “I am a British sailor, who has used the sea for some years, and knotvs the difference between a handspike and a poop lantern. But what matters? She is a pirate no longer.” He let his eyes fcfll from my face, and gazed round him with the air of one who cannot yet persuade Ms understanding of the reali ties of the scene ho moves in. “Tut!” cried he, presently, addressing him self, “ what matters the truth, as you say? Yes,” said ho, “the Boqa del Dragon is a pirate. You have of course rummaged her, and guessed her character by what you found?” “I mot -with enough to excite my suspi cion,” said I. “The ship’s company of a craft of tMs kind do not usually go clothed in lace and rich cloaks, and carry watches of tMs kind,” tapping my breast, “ in their fobs and handfuls of gold in their pockets.” “Unless ’— said he. “Unless,” I ans-wnred, “ their flag is as black ns our prospects.” “You think them black?” cried he, the look of resentment that was darkening his face dying out of it. “The vessel is sound, is she not?” I replied that she appeared so, but it would be impossible to be sure imtil she floated. “The stores?” “They are plentiful.” . “They should bel” he cried; “we have the liquor and stores of a galleon and two caracks in our hold, apart from what we originally laid in for the cruise. Everything will have been kept sweet by the cold.” “May I ask yom: name?” said I. “JiflesTassard, a t your service,” said he^ “third in command of tha Boca del Dragon, but good as Mate Trentanove, and good as Capt. Mendoza, and good os the cabin boy Fernando Prado—for we pirates are re publicans, sir; we kno^w no social distinctions save those we order for the convenience of ■working ship. Now let me toll yon the story of om: disaster. We had come out of the Spanish Main into the South seas, partly to escape some British and French cruisers which were after us and others'of our land, and partly because luck was against us, add we could not find our account in those waters. We sailed in December two years ago” ---- - “Making the year?'* I interrupted. He started, and then grinned again. He shuddered, and extended the pannikin,^. “Ah, to be sure!” cried he, “this is 1801; for more liquor. I filled it with two-thirds of brandy and the rest water, and he supppd it do'wn as if it had been a thimbleful of ■wine. “By the holy cross,” cried he, “but this is vefy wonderful, though! How long have you been here, sir?” “Three days.” “Three days! and I have been in a stupor all that time—never moving, never breath ing?” “You -will have b'een in a stupor longer than that, I expect,” said I. “What is this month?” he cried. “July,” I replied. “July—July!” he muttered. “Impossible! Let me see”—he began to coimt on his fingers —“wo fell in with the ice and got locked in November. We had si.x months of it; I recol lect no more. Six months of it, sir; and suppose the stupor came upon me then, the month at wMch my memory stops would be April. Yet you call this July—that is to say, four months of obli^vion! Impossible!” “What was the year in ■which you fell in with the ice?” said I. “The year?” he exclaimed, in a voice deep with the wonder this question raised in him; “the year? Why, man, what year but 1753!” “Good Godl” cried I, jumping to my feet with terror a t a statement I had anticipated, though it shocked me as a new and frightful revelation. “Do you know what year thisis?” He looked a t me without answering. “It is 1801,” I cried; and ns I said this I re coiled a step, fully expecting him to leap up and exhibit a hundred demonstrations of horror and coustei'uation; for tMs, I am per suaded, would have been my posture had any man roused me from a slumber and told mo I had been in that condition for eight and forty years. He continued to ■view mo with a vei^y strange and cuuniug expression in his eyes, the ^ I n e s s of which was inexpressibly sur prising and bewildering, and even mortify ing; then presently, grasping his beard, looked a t it; then put bis hands to his face and looked a t them; then pulled out his feet and looked at them; then very slowly, but ■without visible effort, stood up, swaying a. little -with an air of weakness, and proceeded but to keep my tale in countenance,” he went on in a satirical, apologetic way, “let me call the year in which we sailed for the South sea 1751. What matters forty or fifty years to the sMpwrecked? Is notone day of an open boat, ■with no society h u t the de^vils of memory, and no hope but the silence a t the bottom of the sea, an eternity? Fill mo that pannikin, my friend. I t h a ^ you. To proceed: we cruised some months in the South sea, and took a number of sMps. One was a privateer that had plundered a British Indiaman in the Southern ocean, and had entered the South sea by New Holland. This fellow was full of fine clothes, and had some silver in her. We took what we wanted, and let her go with her people under batches, her yards square, her helm amid ships, and her cabin on fire. Our maxim is: ‘No witnesses]’ That is the pirate’s philos- J( 'iw m Ban uarios ana umioe we set sau ror the Antilles. Like your brig, we were blo^jvn south. The weather was ferocious. Gale after gale thundered down upon us, forcing us to fly before it.. We lost aU reckoning of our position; for days, for weeks, sea and sky were envelop(!d in clouds of snow, in the heart of which, drove our frozon schooner.. We were none of us of a nationality fit to en counter these regions; we carried most of ■ns the curly hair of the sun, the chocolate cheek of the burning zone, and tho ico chained the crew,, crouching like Lascars, below. We swept past many vast icebergs, which would leap on a sudden out of tho white whirl of thickness, often so close aboard that tho re coil of the surge striking against the mass would flood O ut decks. A t all moments of the day and night we were prepared to feel the shock of tho vessel crushing her bows against one of thoser stupendous lulls. The cabin resounded ■witj: Salves and Aves, ■with invocations to the saints, promises, curses, and litanies. The cold does not make men of the-Spaniards, who are but indifferent sea men in temperate climes, and we were chiefly Spaniards, with consciences as red as yom* English flag.” Ho grinned, emptied the pannikin, and sti^etched his bonds to the fire to worm them. “One morning, the weather having cleared somewhat, wo found omselves surrounded by ice, A great chain floated ahead of us, ex tending far into the south. The gale blew dead on to this coast; wo durst not haul the schooner to tho ■wind, and our only chance lay in discovering some bay whore vro might find shelter. Such a bay it was my good luck to spy, lying directly in a lino with the ship’shead. It was formed of a great steep of ico jutting a long way slantingly into the sea, the v/idth between tho point and the main being about a third of a mile. I seized the helm, and shouted to tho men to hoist the head of the mainsail that she might round to when I put the helm down. But the fel lows were in a panic terror, and stood gaping at what they regarded as their doom, calling upon the Virgin and all the saints for help and mercy. Into this bay did wo rush on top of a huge sea, Trentanove and the cap tain and I swinging, with set teeth, a t tha tfllor, that was hard a-leo. She camo round, but with such way upon her that she took a long shelving beach of ice, and ran up it to the distance of half her own length, and there she lay, ■with her rudder within touch of the wash of tho water. The men, regarding the. schooner as lost, and concluding that if she . went to pieces her boats would ba destroyed, and with them their only chance to escape from the ice, fell frantic, and lost their wits altogether. They roared, ‘To tho boats! to tho boats!’ Tho captain endeavored to bring them back to their senses; ho and I and the mate,'and Joam Barros, the boatswain—a Portuguese—went among them pistols in hand, entreating, cursing, thi'eatening. ‘Thixik of the plunder in this hold! Will you abandon it ■without an effort to save it! ■What think you aro your diancea for life in open boats in this sea? The schooner lies protected here; the weather will moderate presently, and we may then bo \able to slide her off.’ But i^eason as we would, the | cow ardly dogs refused to listen. They had broached a spirit cask aft, and passi^ the liquor along the decks while they hoisted tho pinnace o j t of tho hold and got tho other boats over, Tho drink maddened, yet loft them wild vrith fear too. They would not wait to come a t the treasure in the riin— the fools believed tho sMp would tumble to pieces as she stood—but entered tho forecastle and the officers’ cabins, and routed about for what ever money and trinkets they might stuff Intotheir pockets without loss of time; and then provisioning tho boats, they calM to us to join them, but wo said, “No”—on which they ran tha boats down to the water, tum bled into them, and pulled away round the point of ice. Wo lost sight of them then, and I have little doubt that they aU per ished shortly afterv/ard.” Ho ceased. I was anxious to hear more. “You bad been six months on the ice when the stupor fell upon you?” “Ay, about six months. Tho ico gathered about us and built us in. I recollect It was three days after we stranded that, going on deck, I saw tho bay (ns I term it) fflled with ice. Wo drew up several plans to escape, but none satisfied us. Besides, sir, wo had a treasure on board which we had risked our neclcs to get, and we were prepared to go on imperiling our lives to save it. ’Twas natu ral. We bad a great store of coal forwai'd and amidships, for we hod faced tho Horn in coming, and knew what wo had to expect la returning. We ■were also richly stocked with provisions and drink of all sorts. There were but four of us, and we dealt with what wb had as if we designed it shoifidlast us fifty years. But tho cold was frightful; it was not in flesh and blood to stand it. One day— we had been locked up about five months— Mendoza said ho would get upon the rocks and take a view of the sea. Ho did not re turn. The others were too weak to seek him, and they were half blind besides; I went, but the ice was full of caves and hollows, and the like, and I could not find him, nor could I look fob him long, the cold being tho hand of death itself up there. Tho time went by; Trentanove went stono blind, and I had to put food and drink into his hands that he might live. A week before the stupor camo upon mo I went on deck and saw Joam Bar ros leaning a t the rail. I called to him, but he made no reply. I approached and looked at him, and foimd him frozen. Then hap pened what I have told you. Wo were in the cabin, the mate seated a t tho table, wait ing for me to lead and support him to tho cook room, for he was so weak he could scarce carry his weight. A sudden faintness seized me, and I sank do^wn upon the bench opposite him, letting my head fall upon my arms. His cry startled me—^I looked u p - saw him, as I have said; but tho cabin then turned black, my head sank again, and I re member no more.” He paused, and then cried in French, “That is all! They aro dead—Jules Tassard lives! Tho devil is loyal to Ms otvn!” and with that he lay back and burst into laugh ter. “And this,” said I, “was in 1753.” “Yes,” he answered, “and tMs is 1801— eight and forty years afterward, hey?” and ne laughed out again. “I’ve talked so much,\ said he, “ that, d’ye k-*ow, I think an other nap will do me good. What coals have you found In the sMp?\ I told film. “(3ood!” he cried; “we can keep ourselves warm for some time to come, onyhow.” And, so saying, he pulled a m g up to Ms nose and shut his eyes. CHAPTER XVt. <-2i. Our maxim is : No witnesses I ophy. Who gives us quartor'anless i t be to hm g US? But to continue; wO* did hand somely, but were a long time about i<^ and after careening and flUioe up with ■water I REAR OF A OREAT TREASURE. I'lighted a pipe, and sat pondering his story a little while. There was no doubt he had given me the exact tm th so far as his relation of it went As it was certain then that tho Boca del Dragon (as she was called) had been fixed in the ice for hard upon fifty years, the conclusion I formed was that she had been blo'wn by some hundreds of leagues farther south 'than the point to which the Lauglung Mary had been driven; that tMs ice in which she was entangled was not then drifting northward, hut was in tho grasp of some polar current that trended it south easterly; that in duo course it ■was carried to the antarctic main of ice, where i t lay com pacted; after wMch, through stress of ■weather or by the agency of a particular temperature, a great mass of it broke away and started on that northward course wMch bergs of aU magnitude take when they are ruptured-from the frozen continent. Now that I had a companion should I bo able to escape from this h o rrid situation? He had spoken of chests of silver. Where was the treasure—^in the run? There might be booty enough in the hold to make a great man, a fine gentleman, of me, ashore. It would be a noble ending to an amazing ad venture to come off with as much money as would render mo independont for life, and enable me to turn my back forever upon the hardest calling to wMch the destiny of man can wed him. Of such ■were the fancies which hurried through my mind. I wished to see how the schooner lay, and what change had befallen the ice in the night, and ■went on deck. I t was blowing a whole gale of trind from the northwest. Tho sea ■was swelling very furiously, and I could divine its tempestuous character by clouds of Spray Which spread like volumes of steam -onder the sullen d u sty heavens liigfa over the mastheads. The schooner lay with a ns9 or aDouc xo aego., ana ncr cows mgn cocked. I looked over the stem and saw that the ice had sunk there, and that there were twenty great rents and ya^wning seams where I had before noticed but one. A vast block of ice had fallen on the starboard side, and lay so close on the quarter that I could have sprang on to it. No other marked changes were observable. I was about to go below again, when my eye was taken by tho two figimes lying upon the deck. No dead bodies ever looked more dead; but after tho'wondrous restoration of tho Frenchman I could not view their forms without fancying that they were but as he had been, and that if they were carried to tho furnace, and treated with brandy and rub bing and the like, they might be brought to. Full of thoughts concerning them I stepped into the cabin, and going to the cook room found Tassard still heavily sleeping. The cqal in the comer teas low, and os it wanted an hour of dinner time I took the lantern and a bucket and went into the fore peak, and after several journeys stocked up a good pro vision of coal in the comer. I made noise enough, but Tassard slept on. When this was ended I boiled some water to cleanse myself, and then set about getting tho dinner ready. Tho going into the fore peak had put my mind upon the treasure, which, as 1 bod gathered from the Frenchman’s naiTaiive, was somewbererhidden in the schooner—^in tho run as I doubted not; I mean in tho hold, xmder the lazarette—^for you wiil recollect that, being weary and half perished with tho cold, I had turned my back on that dark part after having looked into tho powder room. All the time I was fetching the coal and dress- the dimier xa y imagination 'was on fire witli fancies of tho freasuro In fchls sLlp. Frenchman had told me that they had been well enough pleased trith their hauls in the South sea to resolve them upon heading round the Horn for their haunt, -wherever it might be, in the Spanish Main; a n d l had too good an imderstanding of tho character of pirates to believe ILat they -would have quitted a rich hunting field before they had handsomely lined their pockets. What, then, was the treasure in tho run, if indeed it were there? I was mechanically stirring the saucepan full of broth I had prepar^, lost in these golden thoughts, when the Frenchman sud denly sat up on bis mattress. “Ha!” cried he, sniffing vigorously, “I smell something good—something I am ready for. There is no physic like s le e p a n d with that he stretched out his arms with a great yawn, then rose very agilely, kicking tho clothes and m a t t r ^ on one side, and bring ing a bench close to the furnace. “What time is it, sir?” “Something after 18 by tho captain’s watch,” said I, pulling it out and looking a t it. “But ’lis guesswork time.” “The captain’s watchl” cried he, with a short loud laugh. “You are modest, Mr.” ----- “Paul Rodney,\ said I, seeing he stopped Jor my name. “Yes, modest, Mr. Paul Rodnoy. That watch is yours, sir; and you moan it shall be yours.” “Well, Mr. Tassard,” said I, coloring in spite of myself, though he could not ■witness the change In such a light as that, “I felt this, th a t i f I left tho watch in tho captain’s pocket it was bound to go to the bottom ul timately, and”*— “Bahl\ he interrupted, with a ■violent flourish of the hand. “Let us save tho schooner If possible; there ■will be more than one watch for your pocket, more than one doubloon for your purse. Meanwhile, to din ner! My stupor h u converted me into an empty hogshead, and it -will take me a fort night of hard eating to feel that I have broken my fast.’’ With a blow of the chopper he struck off a lump of the frozen wine, and then foil to eating perhaps as a man might be expected to eat who had not had a meM for eigbt-and- forty years. “There are two of your companions on deck,\ said L He started. “Frozen,” I continued; “they’ll bo the bodies of Trentanove and Joam Barros?” He n ^ded. “There is no reason why they should be deader than you were. It is true that Barros has been on deck while y^u have been be low; but after you i>ass a certain degree of cold fiercer rigors cannot signify.” “ What do you propose?” said he, looking at me oddly. “Why, that wo should carry them to the fli'e and rub them, and bring them to if we can.” “Why?” I was staggered by his Indifference, for I had believed he would have shown himself very eager to restore his old companions and shipmates to life. I was searching for an answer to Ma strange inquiry, \Why?” when he proceeded: “First of all, my friend Trentanove was stono blind, and Ban'os neai'ly blind. Unless you could return them their sight -with their life they would cm-se you for disturbing them. Better tho black ness Of death than the blackness of life.” “There is the body of the captain,” soidL He grinned. “Let them sleep,” said he. “Do yon know that they are cutthroats, who would reward yOur kindness with the poniard that you might not toll tales against them, or claim a share of tho treasure in this vessel? Of all desperate villains I never met tho like of Barros. He loved blood even bettor than money. He’d quench his thirst before an engagement with gunpowder mixed in brandy. I once saw him choke a man—tut! he is very well—leave him to his repose.” In the glow of the fire he look^ uncom monly sardonic and wild, with his long beard, bald head, flowing hair, shaggy bro-ws, and little cunning eyes, which seemed in their smallness to shore in his grin, and yet did not; and though to be sure be was some one to telk to and to make plans xvith for our escape, yet I felt that if he were to fall into a stupor again it would not bo my hands that should chafe him into being. “You knew those men in life,” said L “If tho others are of the same pattern os the Portuguese, by all means let them lie frozen,” “But, my friend,” said he, calling mo moa ami, which I translate, “ that’s not i t either. Do yon know tho valfie of the booty in this schooner?”- I answered, “No;” how ttoi I to know it? I had met with notMng but wearing api>arel and some pieces of money and a few watches in the forecastle. He k n it Ms brows vritb a fierce, suspicions gleam in his eyes. “But you have searched the Tessel?” be cried. “1 have searched, as yon call it—that is, 1 have crawled through the hold as far as the powder room.” _____________ “And farther aft?” \ “No, not farther aft.\ ' His countenance cleared. ' “You scared me!” said he, fetching a deep breath. “I was afraid that some one had been beforehand -with us. But it is not con ceivable. No! we shall look for it presently, and we shall find it.” » “Find what, Mr. Tassardf’ said L He held up the fingers of bis right hand: “One, two, three, four, five—five chests of plate and money; one, two, three—three cases of -virgin silver in ingote; one chest of gold ingots; one case of jeweliy. In all”— ho paused 'to enter into a calculation, mo-ving his lips briskly as he whispered to himself— ‘between n ine^ and one hundred thousand pounds of your English money.” I stifled the amazement his words excited, and said, coldly, “You must have met with some rich ships.” *‘TVe did 'well,” he answered* mem- ory is good”—he counted afresh onhisfingers —“ten cases in alL Fortune is a strange wench, Mr. Rodney. Who would think of finding her lodged on an iceberg? Now bring those others np there to life, and you make us five. W hat would follow, think you? what but this?’ He raised his beard and stroked his throat, with the sharp of Ms hand. Then, swallow ing a great draught of brandy, he rose and stopped to listen. “It is blowing hard,” said he; \the harder the better. 1 want to see this island knocked into bergs. Every sea is as good as a pick ax! Hark! there are those crackling noises 1 used to hear before I f d l into a stupor. Where do you deep?” I told h i ^ “My berth is the tMrd,\ said he. *’I wish to smoke, and -will fetch my pipe.” Hetookthnlontam and went aft, acting as if he baa left'that berth an hour ago, «na I understood in tho face of this ready recur rence of Ms memory how impossible it -would bo ever to make Mm believe he had been practically lifeless since tho year 1753. When he returned he had on a hairy cap, with large coverefor the ears, and a big flap behind that fell to below his collar, and was almost as lon^ 03 his hair. Ho produced a pipe of tho Dutch pattern, with a bowl carved into a death’s head, and great enough to hold a cake of to bacco. The simll might have been a child’s for size, and though it was dyed with tobacco Jnice, and tho top blackened -with tho live’ cools which had been held to it, it 'was SO finely carved that it looked very ghastly and ten'ibly I'eal in his hand as he sat pufllng BRILLIANT BITTERNESS. DR. TALMAGE’8 8UNDAY MORNING SERMON AT THE TABERNACLE. [TO BE CONTUnJED.] BITS OF GOOD- READING; A man with a wooden leg recently claimed the right to travel in a railroad car at half fare. ’ The papal jubilee turns out to have been very expensive. It cost the Vatican about $ 1 , 000 , 000 . A German paper says that a company has been formed to manufacture -watches to be run by eleeti'icity instead of a spring. The Siberian Pacific railroad has been be> gun in earnest. With bridges over the Brit ish channel and Behring strait there might then be a continuous lino of rail from New York to London. Two large firms of Japaneso imrsorymen are introducing into California the 'Cnshin dwarf or orange tree, and find many ^Ijk tomers for the tree because it can be grcHIP in a very small space. It is announced that one result of the ex piration of the copyright of many of Car lyle’s works -wll be the publication of a col lection of magazine articles wMch ho ne\ er would allow to he printed. A South American congress is to meet in Montevldo July IStodraw up a treaty for the settlement of all disputes between South American countries. TMs congress will be the first of its kind ever held in South America. A Montana miner -who couldn’t pay a debt of $48 offered to let Ms creditor shoot twice at him with a pistol a t a distance of 2(X) feet. The offer was accepted, and two bullets -were planted In the debtor’s body, though he was not seriously wounded. English newspapers sx>ca1c of a scheme for on insurance company which shall •write poli cies only on buildings or their contents where tho electric light is exclusively used. Rates below tho current terms for fire insur ance will bo the inducement offei'cd to change from gas to electricity. A Chinese official at Lhasa has been de prived of a button ns a punishment. A but ton does not seem a,very precious appendage to lose, but, as a Mongolian symbol of honor and status, it is nearly as dear in estimation as a well anointed pigtail plaited tvith silk until It touches the ground. To lose a pig tail, however, is to lose caste altogether. The total miles of wire controlled by the American Boll Telephone company is 145,733, of which 8,000 arc under ground. The total number of employes is 0,133, and tho total number of subscribers 158,732. Tho state ment of tho treasurer shows that tho earn- Ings from all som-ces last year were $3,453,- 027.70, and the expenses $1,242,430.89, leaving the net earnings $2,210,950.81. The dividends paid during tho year, 10 percent, on tho cap ital stock, amounted to $1,568,336. A H u n d red Hcludcd Girls* There rejently arrived in Los Angeles about 100 young English girls, who were brought to tho Facifis coast through tho in- strumentellty of Miss Elizabeth Parker, an English ■'.foman -widely kno-wn for her phil anthropic work in behalf of her sex. During her visit to California a year ago she saw the need of good domestic help, other than the Chinese, and she accordingly wrote home of the splendid chances awaiting intelligent girls. Unfortimately for themselves, tho girls who came were not of tho domestic class required, b u t were principally govern esses, ladies’ maids and nurses, a kind of help seldom needed in the west. The result has been disastrous to the girls, and many have returned home. Others, who had not the means to return, are said to bo in destitute circumstances in Los Angeles. The head of the San Francisco Girls’ union says 5,000 places could be found in California alone for B 3 many good house servants, but none a t all for gentlewomen, which fact makes the case of the deluded English girls peculiai-ly hard. —Philadelphia Times, London In a Bllzz.ard. \What would happen if London weresud- ; deidy caught in such a blizzard as thatwMch overwhelmed Now York? In that city, pre- pared as it is for heavy falls of snows, 500 corpses have accumulated unburied, owing to the impossibility of reaching the ceme teries. But in London the dead might be left ■without a thought. The feeling of theliv- ing would absorb every energy. The whole city, if tho snow did not melt, might become one gigantic mausoleum of the millions of its inhabitants. When we redd of the digging out of corpses standing frozen in the street where the snow overwhelmed them we are reminded of tho destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum, where tho people were en tombed beneath ashes. Snow is ns deadly and more merciful. How seldom we reflect that a snow storm may be as deadly as a volcano and a single blizzard more fatal than an eruption of Vesuvius. Two days’ heavy snow with frost following would disorganize ci-rillzation and decimate tho population.— Pan Moll Gazette, , A “Conjured” Colored Man. An old negro of Atlanta apph'ed to the po lice the other day for protection a ^ in s t an old woman who was trying to conjure him. He said he found nailed over his door a red flannel bag, tied with white strings, and that he know it was a “conjure bag,” and that his life was in danger. Tho officer opened the little red bag, and it contained a J)}t of horseshoe, a few grains of gunpowder Sind some snake root. “I knowed it, I knowed it,” the old colored man exelayned os ho looked a t tho bag, Ms ej'es stretching until they almost popped out of their sockets, moving backward from the bag as ho said: “Dat ole woman has conjm-ed me, and I’ll die, shoor.\ Ho then fell over on the floor in a dead faint, and did not recover until the officers had called the patrol wagon and started to send Mm home. He excited Mm- self into a fe-rer. and a pb 3 rsician had to be called.—Chicago Herald. | Growth In Electric Rall’wayg. Tho last year has seen a -wonderful grow th in electric railways. There are now in the United States over eighty miles of road on which, tho motive i>ower is electricity. Eighteen have plants in operation in lengths varying from one to eleven miles. Contracts have been made for roads and they are now being constructed in seventeen other towns, and there are fifty-nine projected roads.—St. laonis Republican. Counterfeiting Old French Plate. Silver sharps in France have been flooding Paris with counterfeits of old French plate, and it has just been discovered thatthebogus goods are ordinary modem plate-when made in Germany, and after being imported as soclX| have the old Paris mark put on them and are fixed up to look like the real old goods. Five men in tMs business have been fined from $2(X) to $600 each.— New York Sun. » A Valuable TJoXm V at * ci th^House (aronsed by a knock)— Come, now, ^ a t do you want hero at this time of night? Stranger—Excuse me, sir, ^ but could yon let me have a candle and a couple of matches? My dog and my little girl have fallen into yonr cistern; and he’s a valuable dog, and— tbarel hear him bark 1—Harvard Lampoon. Condemnation From the Tope. Lonnox, April 23.—^Tbe Chronicle’s Bmna oenre^pondent asserts that the pojpo is about iMuo a document condemning the plan of campaign and boycotting and forbidding Cntholio) to practice eltixer. Xbe Floquent Freacher Is an Optimist, and Hooks Forward to the Time 'Whexi Christ Will Set His Throne Hetween the Allcghaples and Sierra Nevadas. B rooklyk , April 22.—The Rev. T. De Witt Tahnage, D.D., preached this morning a t the Tabernacle on the subject: “The S tar Worm wood, or Brilliant Bitterness.” The musical exercises were assisted by the organ and cornet. Thousands of voices in the main auditoriiun and in the adjoining parlor and lecture room and corridor joined in singing: ITe’U crowd Thy gates with thankful songs, High as the heavens our voices raise; While earth with her ten thousand tongues Shall fUl Thy courts with sounding praise. Professor Browne rendered sonata No 1 in D minor, by GuiUmant. After Dr. T a l^ g e had expounded the sarcasm of Elijah a t the offering of the Baalites, he spoke as follows- Revelations vui, 10-11: “There fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon a third p a rt of the rivers and upon the fountains of waters; and the npme of the star is called Worm-wood.” Patrick and Lowth, Thomas Scott, Mat thew Henry, Albert Barnes and all the other commentators agree in saying that the Star Woi-mwood of my text was Attila, king of the Huns. He was so called because he was brilliant as a star, and, like WOnnwOOfl, Lo embittered everything ho touched. We have Studied Star of Bethlehem, and tho morn- ing Star^pf the Revelation, and the Star of Peace, but my subject this hour calls us to gaze at the Star Wormwood, and my theme might be called Brilliant Bitterness. A more extraordinary character history does not furnish than this man referred to in my text, Attila, the king of the Huns. One day a wounded heifer came limping along through the fields, and a herdsman followed its bloody track on the grass to see where the heifer was wounded, and went on back, further and further, until he came to a sword fast in the earth, tho point downward as though it had dropjted from the heavens, and against tho edges of this sword the heifer had been cut. The herdsman pulled up that sword and presented it to Attila. Attila said that sword must have dropped from the heavens from the grasp of the god Mars, and its being given to him meant that Attila should conquer and govern the whole earth. Other mighty men have been delighted at being called liberators or tho merciful or the good, but Attila called himself and de- mandetl that others call him the scourge of God. At the head of 700,000 troops, mounted on Cappadocian horses, he swept everything from tho Adriatic to tho Black sea. He put Ms iron heel on Macedonia and Greece and Thrtice. Ho made Milan and Pavla and Padua and Verona beg for mercy, which he bestowed not. The Byzantine castles, to meet his ruinous lo-vy, put up at auction massive silver tables and vases of solid gold. A city captured by him, tho inhabitants were brought out and put into three classes. The first class, those who could bear arms, who must immediately enlist under Attila or be butchered; tlio second class, tho beautiful ■women, who were made captives to the Huus; the third class, the aged men and women, who were robbed of everything and let go back to tho city to pay heavy tax. It was a common saying that thogra.ss never grew again where tho hoof of AttUa’s horse had trod. His armies roddetfed the watei-s of tho Seine and the Moselle and the Rhino with carnage, and fought on tho Cat alonians plains the fiercest battle since the world stood, 800,000 dead left on the field. On and on until all those who could not op pose him with ai-ms lay prostrate on their faces in prayer; and, a cloud of dust seen in the distance, a bishop cried: “It is the aid of God;” and all the ijooplo took up the cry: “It is the aid of God.” As tho cloud of dust was blown aside the banners of re-enforcing armies marched in to help against Attila, the scourge of God. Tho most unimportant occun'onces ho used as a supernatural re source, and after three months of failure to capture tho city of Aquileia and Ms army had given up the siege, the flight of a stork and her young from the tower of tho city Tvas taken by him os a sign that ho was to capture the city, and his army inspired with the same occurrence resumed the siege and took the walls at a point from wMch the stork had emerged. So brilliant was the conqueror in attire that his enemies could not look at him, but shaded their eyes or turned their heads. Slain on the evening of his marriage by his bride Ildico, who was hired for the as sassination, his followers bewailed him not with tears but with blood, cutting themselves with kpives and lances. He was put into three coffins, the first of iron, tho second of silver, and tho third of gold. He was buried at night, and into his grave were poured the most valuable coin and precious stones, amounting -to the wealth of a kingdom. The grave diggers and all those who assisted a t the burial were massacred so that it would never bo kno-wn where so much wealth was entombed. Tho Roman empire conquered tho world, but Attila conquered the Roman empire. Ho was right in calling himself a scourge, but instead of being the scourge of God ho was tho scourge of hell. Because of his brilliancy and bitterness the commenta tors were right in belie-ving him to be the star Wormwood of the text. As the regions he devastated were parts most opulent with fountains and streams and rivers, you see how gi-aphic my text is: “There fell a great Star from heaven, burning as it were a Mmp, and it fell upon the third p art of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; and the name of the star is called Wormwood.” Have you ever thought bow many embit tered lives there are about us, misanthropic, morbid, acrid, saturnine?* The European plant from which wormwood is extracted, ortemjtia absinthium, is a perennial plant and all the year round it is rea^y to exude its oil. And in many human lives there is a perennial distillation of acrid experiences. Yea, there are some whose whole work is to shed a baleful infiuenco on others. There are Attilas of the home, or Attilas of the social circle, or Attilas of tho church, or Attilas of tho State, and one-third of the waters of all the world, if not two-thirds the -waters, are poisoned by the falling of the starWorm- wooA It is not complimentary to human nature that most men, as soon as they get BTi-eat DOwer. become overbearing. The more power men nave tne oetier, ir tneir power De used for good. The leas power men have the better, if they use it for evil Birds circle round and round and round before they swoop upon that wMch they are aiming for. And if ray discourse so far has been swinging round and round, this moment it drops straight on your heart and asks the question: Is your life to others a benedic tion or an embittei'ment, a blessing or a curse, a balsam or a wormwood? Some of you, I know, are morning stars, and you are moldng the dawning life of yonr children bright ■with gracious influences, and you are beaming upon all the opening enter prises of philanthropic and Christian en deavor, and you are heralds of that day of •^ospelization wMch ■will yet flood the moun tains andj valleys of oar «n cursed earth. Hail, morning star! Keep on shining with encouragement and Christian hope. Some of you are evening stars, and you are cheering the last days of old prople, and though a . cloud sometinaae comes over you through the querulonsness or unreasonable^ ness of your old father and mother, it is only for a moment, and tho star soon (wmes out clear again and tm seen from oil the balconies of the neighborhood. The 0I4 people will forgivo your occasional shortcomings, for they themselves several times lost their patience -with you when you were young and slapped you when you did nbt deserve it, Haiil, eveiung starl Hang on the darkening sky your diamond corondL But are any of you tha star Wormwood! Do you scold and growl from the thrones patonal or maternal! Are yonr chiidren everlastingly pedied at? Are yon always crying, “Hnshl” to the merry voices and swift feet and their laughter, wMchoccar sionally trickles through a t -«a-ong times and is suppressed by them until they can hold it no longer and all tha barriers bnrst’into un limited gnffaw rad cacMnnaiion, asinM gh weather the witter has trtekled t h r o n g a sUebt oneninlc in themfll dam, b u t after wrad makes wider radjw iuer Dreaen nniu it c a r ries all before it with irresistible freshet. Do not be too much offended a t the noise your children now make. It will be still enough when one of them is dead. Then you would give yonr right hand to hear one shout from their silent voices or one step from the still foot. You, -will not any of you have to -wait very long before your house is Stiller than you want it. Alas I that there are so many homes not known to the Society for the Prevention of Crudty to Children, where children, are put on tho limits and whacked rad cuffed r a d ear-pulled and sense- Irasly called to order and answered sharp and suppressed until it is a wonder that tmder such processes they do not all turn out Mo- docs and Nana Sahibs. What is your influence -npoQ the neighbor hood, the town or the city of your residence? I -will suppose that you are a star of -wit. What kind of rays db you shoot forth? Do you use that splendid faenliy.to irradiate the world or to rankle it? I blete all the apos tolic college of humorists. The man that makes me laugh is my benefactor. I do not thank anybody to make me cry. I can do that ■without any- assistance. We all cry' enough and have enough, to cry about. God bless all skillful punsters, all reparteeists, all propounders of ingenious conundrums, all those who mirthfully surprise us-with un usual juxtaposition of words. Thomas Hood and Charles Lamb and Sidney Smith had a divine mission, and so have their successors in these times. They stir into the acid bever age of life the saccharine. They make the cup of eai’thly existence, which is sometimes stale, effervesce and bubble. They placate anlMositiss. They foster longevity. They slay follies and absurdities wbich all the sermons of all tho pulpits cannot reach. They have for examples Elijah, who made fun of the Baalites when they called down Are rad it did not come, suggesting that their heathen god had gone hunting, or was off on a joiumey, or was \asleep and nothing but vociferation could wake Mm, saying: “Cry aloud for he is a god;'either ho is talking or pursuing or peradventure ho sleepeth and must be awaked.” They have an example in Christ, who with healthful sarcasm showed up the lying, hypocritical Pharisees, by sug gesting that such perfect people like them selves needed no improvements, Saying: “The whole need not a physician, but they that sick But what use are you making of your wit? Is it besmirched -with profanity rad unclean ness? Do you employ it in amusement at physical defects for which the victims are not responsible? Are yourpowers of mimicry used to put religion in contempt? Is it a bunch of nettlesome invective? Is it a bolt of unjust scorn? Is it fun at others’ mis fortune? Is it glee a t their disappointment and defeat! Is it bitterness put drop by drop into a cup? Is it like the squeezing of arte misin absintMum into a draught already dis tastefully pungent? Then you are tho star Wormwood. Yours is the fun of a rattle snake trying how well it can sting. It is the fun of a hawk trying how quick it can strike out the eye of a dove. But I will change this, and I will suppose you are a star of worldly prosperity. Then you have large opportunity. You can en courage that artist by buying Me picture. You can improve the fields, the stables, the highway, by introducing higher style of fowl and horse and cow and sheep. You can bless the world with pomological achieve ment in the orchards. You can advance arboriculture and hrrest this deathful icono- closm of the American forests. You era put a piece of sculpture into the niche of that public academy. You can endow a college. You can stocking a thousand bare feet from the winter frost. You can build a church. You can put a missionary of Christ on that foreign shore. You can help ransom a world. A rich man-with his heart right. Can you tell me how much good a James Lennox or a George Peabody or a Peter Cooper or a Will iam E. Dodge did while Uving, or is doing now that he is dead? There is not a city, town or neighborhood that has not glorious specimens of consecrated wealth. But suppose you grind the face of the poor, Supx>ose when a man’s wages are due you make him wait for them because he cannot help himself. Suppose that because his family is sick and he has had extra expenses he should politely ask you to raise his wages for this year, and you roughly tell him if he wants a better place to go and get it. Sup pose by your manner you act as though ha were nothing and you were everything. Suppose yon are selfish and overbearing and arrogant. Your first name ought to be At tila, and your last name Attila, because you are the star Wormwood and you have em bittered one-third, if not threo4;hirds, of the waters that roll past your employes and oneratives and dependents and associates, and tho long Jine of carnages wnicn tne un dertaker orders for your funeral in order to make tho occasion respectable, will be filled with twice as many dry, tearless eyes as there are persons occupying them. The clumsy pall bearers may make the gates of your lepulcher qnake by striking your silver bandied coffin against them, but the world will feel no jar as you go out of it. Thera is an erroneous idea abroad that there are only -a few geniuses. There are millions of them; that is, men and women who have especial adaptation and quickness for some one thing. It may bo great, it may be small The circle may be like the circum ference of tha earth or no larger than a thimble. There are thousands of geniuses here this morning, and in some one thing you are a star. What kind of a star are you? You will be in this world but a few minutes. As compared with eternity the stay of the longest life on earth is not more than a minute. What are we doing with that minute? Are ore embittering the d o m ^ tic, or social, or political fountains, or are we like Moses, who, when the Israelites in tho wilderness complained that the waters of Lake Marah were bitter and they could not drink them, their leader cut off tho branch of a certain tree and threw that branch into the water, and it became sweet and slaked the thirst of the suffering host? Are wo with a branch of tho tree of life sweetening all the. brackish fountains that we can touch? Deaf Lord, send us all out on thy mission. All around ns embittered lives, embittered by persecution, embittered by hypercriticism, embittered by poverty, embittered by pain, embittered by in justice, embittered by sin. Why not go forth and sweeten them by smile, by inspiring words, by bene factions, by hearty counsel, by prayer, by gospeliz^ beha-vlor. Let us remember that if we are wormwood to others we are wormwood to onrselves, and our life will be bitter and our eternity bitter. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the'only sweetening power that is sufficient. It sweetens the disx>osi- tion. It sweetens the manners. It sweetens life. It sweetens mysterions Providences. It sweetens afilictions. It sweetens death. It sweetens evei'jdMng. I have heard i>eople asked in socialcompany: “If you could have three wishes gratified what would your three wishes be!” If I could have three wishes met this morning I tell you what they would be. First—^More of the grace of God. Sec ond-More of the grace of God. T h ird- More of the grace of God. In the door yard of my brother John, missionary in Amoy, Chino, there is a tree called the emperor tree, the two characteristics of which are that it always grows Mgher than its sur roundings, rad itsleaves take the form of a cro-wn. If this emiwror tree be plantoi by a rose bush it grows a little Mgher than the bush, and tread s out above it a crown. If it be p la n t s by tho side of another tree it grows a little Mgher thim that tree and spreads above i j a crown. Would God that this religion-oof Christ, a. more wonderful emperor free, might overshadow all jour lives; are yon Jowly in ambition or cirenm- stanee, putting over you its crown; are you Mgh in talent rad positicn, patting over you its croirn. Oh, for more of the saccharine in onr lives and less of the wormwood? W h a tistm e of indi-viduals is true of na- tion& God sets them np to revolve as stars, but they may fall wormwood. Tyre-the atmosphere of the desert fra grant with spices coming in caravans to her fai»; all seas cleft into foam by the keels of her laden merchantmen; her m a r k ^ rich with horses and camels from Togarmab, her bazaars filled with npholstery tirom Dedan, with emeralds and coral and agate from Syria;-with-wines from Helbon, with embroidraed work from Ashtir and Chil- mad. 'Wh^reno'w the gleam of-her towers, ■Vrher© the roar of her tfliariote, where the masts of her ships? Lot the fislKimen who F WHY SOT BEAD Y O U R O W N T A P E R ■When j o a can get the Tioga County Record for $1.00 a year ? See the Special Offer on one the inside pages. dry tneir neis wnere once she stood, jet tuo sea that rushes upou the barrenness where once she challenged the admiration of all na tions, let the barbarians who set their rude tents where onco her palaces glittered, an- - swer the question. She was a star, but by her own an turned to wormwood and has fallen. Hundred-gated Thebes-for all time to.be the study of antiquarian and MerogJypMst; her stupendous mins spread over tw n ty- seven miles, her sculptures presenting in figures of warrior rad chariot the -yictories with which the now forgotten Hngg bf Egypt ■ shook the nations; her obelisks and columns- Carnacand Luxor, the stupendous temples ,of her pride, Who can imagine the greatness of Thebes in those days, when the Mppodromo rang iyith her sports and foreign royalty bo-wed o t her shrines and her avenues roared with tho wheels of processions in the wake of returning conquerersf What dashed do-wn tho vision of chariots and temples and thrones? What hands pulled jjpon the columns of her glory? What mthlessness defaced the soultured wall rad broke obelisks and left her indesci^bable temples great skeletons of granite? What spirit of de struction spread the lair of -wild beasts in her royal sepulchers, and taught the misei-able cottagers of today to build huts in the courts of her temples, and sent desolation and i-uin skulking behind the obelisks and' dodging among tho sarcophagi and leaning against the columns and stooping under the arches rad weeping in the waters which go mourn fully by, as though they were carrying the tears of ail ages? Let the mummies break their long silence and come up to sMveriu the desolation, and point to fallen gates and shattered statues and defaced soMpture, re sponding: “Thebes built not one temple to GoA Thebes hated righteousness and loved sin. Thebes, was a star, but she toned to wormwood and has fallen.” Babylon—with her 250 towers and her brazen gates and her embattled waUs, the splendor of the earth gathered within her palaces, her hanging gardens built by iN6bucha<ln6zzar to please Ills bi'ide AmyittaSj who hod been brought up in a mountainous country and could notendmothe flat country round Babylon, those hanging gardens built, terrace above terrace, till at the height of ■400 feet there were woods waving and fountains playing, tho verdure, the foliage, the glory looking os if a mountain were on thawing. On the tip top a king walking with Ms queen, among statues snowy white, looking up at birds brought from distant lands, and drinking o-at of tankards of solid gold, or looking off over rivers and lakes up on nations subdued and tributary, crying, “Is not this great Babylon wMch I have built?” What battering ram smote the walls’ What plowshare uptm-ned tho gardens? 'What ar my- shattered tho brazen gates? What long, fierce blast of storm put out this lieht which illuminated the ivorld? What crash 01 ttjtaora arove aown the music that poured from palace window and gar den grove, and called the banqueters to their revel and tho dahSers to their feet? I walk upon the scene of desolation to find an an swer and pick up pieces of bitumen and brick and broken pottery, the remains of Babylon, and as in the silence of tho night I hear the surging of that billow of desola tion which rolls over the scene, I hear tho wild waves saying, “Babylon was proud. Babylon was impure. Babylon was a star, but by Bin she turned to wormwood and has fallen.” From tho persecutions of the Pilgrim Fathers and tho Huguenots in other lands God set upon these shores a nation. The council fires of the aborigines -went out in the greater light of a free government. The sound of the war whoop was exchanged for the thousand wheels of enterprise and pro gress. Tho mild wintei-s, the fruitful sum mers, tho healthful skies charmed from other lands a race' of hardy men who loved God and wanted to be free. Before tho wood man’s ax, forests fell and rose again into ships’ masts and churches’ pillars. Cities on the banks of lakes begin to rival cities by the sea. Tho land quakes with the rush of the rail car and the waters -are dim'ued white with tho steamer’s wheel. Fabulous bushels of-svestern wheat meet on tho way fabulous tons of eastern coal Furs from the north pass on the rivers fruits from the south. And trad ing in the same market is Maine lumberman and South Carolina rice merchant and Ohio farmer and Alaska fur dealer. And churches and schools and asylums scatter light and love and mercy and salvation upon 60,000,000 of people. I pray that our nation may not copy tho crimes of the nations that have perished, and our cup of blessing tui-n to wormwood aud like them we go doivn. I am by nature and by grace an optimist, rad I expect that this country will continue to advance until the world shall put on millennial era, and that when Christ comes again he ■will set his throne somewhere between tho AUeghanies and tho Sierra Nevatlas. But be not deceiveA Our onlyfafety is in righteousuess toward (3od and justice toward man. If -we forget tho goodness of the Lord to this land, and break His Sabbaths, and improve not by the dire disasters that have again and again come to us os a people, and wo learn a saving lesson neither from civil war nor raging epidemic, nor drought nor mildew nor scourge of locust and grasshopper, if the political corruption which has poisoned the fountains of public virtue and besUmed the high places of author ity, making free government a t times a hiss ing and a byword in all the earth; if the drunkenness and licentiousness that stagger and blaspheme in the streets of our great cities, as though they were reaching after the fame of a Corinth and a Sodom, aro not re pented of we will yet see the smoke of our nation’s ruin; the pillars of our national and state capitals will fall more disastrously tlian when Sampson pulled down Dagon; and future historians will record upon the page bedewed with generous tears tho story that the free nation of the west arose in splendor which made the world stare. It had magnificent possibilities. It forgot God It hated justice. It h-jgged its crime. It halted on its high march. It reeled under the blow of calamity. Ifc feU. And as it was going do'wn all the despotisms of earth from the top of bloody thrones began to shout: “ Aha, so would wo have it,” while Btniggling and oppressed peoples looked out from dungeon bars with tears and groans and cries of untold agony, the scorn of those rad the woe of these uniting in the exclama tion: “Look yonder I there fell a great star from heaven, burning ns it were a lamp, rad it fell upon the third part of the rivers and upon the fountains of waters; and the name of the star is called Wormwood!” FetroJenm as a Wood Frescrvativc. A s a preservative of wood, hardly any thing better than petroleum is known, as many persons have realized, and more are finding out every day, and its cheapness makes it available for purposes for which no substitute of the same cost can he found. I t can be applied to advantage on unpainted posts, gates, shingles, etc., greatly increasing their durability, but should not be used with colors as paint, for it does not d ry and harden well, but wood, where it has been applied, can afterward be painted more easily than if it had n o t been used. The Capacity of a Barn for Hay. The exact weight of a body of hay can not be ascertained by measurement, vary ing as it will according to the kind of hay and the length of time i t has been packed away. The rule is to measure tlie spaces to bo filled with hay and multiply the length by the width and that by the depth, all in feet, then diTide by 500, wbich is tbe Ymmber of cubic feefc commonly tabien to represent a ton of average hay. Some times, owing to quality and condition, 400 cubic feet w ill weigh a ton, when in other cases COO m ay be required. NO. 8 FARM AND GARDEN. FACTS WORTH KNOWING ABOUT MATTERS OF GENERAL INTEREST. An Unpatented Device of Easy Construc tion for Holding a Cow’s Tail in Fly Time, TJiat Fromises to XJft a JSnrden from Summer Milking. There are numerous patent, de-vices for holding a cow’s tail whilo milldng. There are also many ingenious ones, and equ-aUy effective, for which no patent has been, taken. In Ohio Farmer is deseribed and illustrated the simple plan shown in tho cuts.- The device represented in Fig. 1 is sim ply a stout cord -with a lopp at one end and a small wire hook a t the other. The cord is just long enough to go twice around tho tail, then around tho thigh and then hook. If this is too simple, g o t two pieces of steel wii’6 8 or 10 inches long, of the size of a knittin g needle; bend and loop them to - gether as sho-wn iu Fig. 3. One end is sprang around tho tail and the other around the tMgh above the hock. Neither of these is patented; so use them unhesitatingly when flies he- MO 1. F I G . 2. gin to worry the cow and make milking a nuisance. Hamburg Fowls. Conspicuous among all lajdng breeds of fowls stand the Hambm-g, for they are exceedingly prolific layers. Their eggs, however, run small as regards size, and the fowls do not hear contoement as well as some other breeds. These fowls aro remarkable for their beauty, and this fact, along-ivith tho drawback of small sized eggs, has had its influence iu placing tho Hamburg as a fancier’s fowl rather than a common purpose bird. 0IbVJ3R PENCILED HA3IBUBG IIEN. As show birds there aro several varie ties recognized, among wMch are the gold pencilod, silver penciled, gold spangled, silver ja n g led and black. The silver penciled variety represented in tho cut is an old one—one of the best knoivn, in fact, to fanciers. The black Hamburgs are considered tho best for commercial p'urposes. SILOS AND ENSILAGE. Pure W ater for Fq-wls. It Is of great Importance in keeping fowls in a healthy condition that they should have access to no water that is nob pure. LeaMngs from the manure heap, water from the kitchen sink or slop holes In the yard are all unwholesome, as is stagnant water of any kind. Drinking vessels should be easily accessible at aU times and supplied with water th a t Is pure and fresh. Tin, galvanized iron or earthen drinking vessels may be used, and should be thoroughly cleansed and rinsed o u t whenev^. refilled. Somo Facts X&csrardissgr o. Subject Tliat Is Becoming: Popular W itli Many Farmers. So many different forms of silos are in use varying in cost aud capacity, says Tho New York World, that lengthy descrip tions of them caimot be given, nor is it necessary when the general principle is understood. For a silo of moderate capa city, which is to remain permanently for use from year to year, i t will bo best when it can be located inside of a b am or somo other building, and indeed, in most other cases, to have it all below ground by mak ing an excavation of tho size wanted. If the grormd is firm cement on tho smootb dirt, but if liable to cave iu then a brick or stono waU tviil be required, which must bo cemented. One of the advantages of such a silo ovet those wholly above ground consists In the ease w ith which, i t can be filled from the first floor instead of elevating the ensilage in some way to the top of one above groimd. In taking out from an imdergi-ound sUo only so much of tho top should be i^moved a t a time as is necessary for getting at it conveniently, and tho ensilage can ho raised in a large tub or square box s-wung by blocks and tackle, with the aid of a small -windlass. A silo can be made of any form so th a t air and water are excluded, b u t i t -will be found best to make the width about one- third of the length, and tho depth may be from twelve feet upward as desired. Largo and expensive silos are usually divided into compartments, -vrith vnriojis appliances for cutting, filling and empty ing, according to the ideas of the o'wnei®. It is <BStimated that ’ for a cow that has pasturage for h alf the year 275 cubic feet of ensilage wUl generally ho-snfficient. In locating a silo and determining whether i t shall be above or below ground, the con veniences afforded for cutting, filling, emptying and feeding should be primarily cojisidered. In addition to the advantages named, an underground silo once properly made is a permanent affair, while one made of/lum b er above ground and ex posed to the action of tho atmosphere is liable to shrinkage and openings, and a large mass of fermenting material in close contact ■with, tho boards -wUl soon cause decay. The com plant is so ^universally pre- feired for ensilage in this eo-untry th a t i t iis unnecessary to discuss the merits of the different grasses. Well grown stalks and partly eared are metre desirable than, those so thickly sovm as to ho spindling and watery. The seed may bo drilled in rows, three feet apart, with stalk's eight inches apaidi in. the rows, with, cultivation enough to keep do'wn the weeds, and the crop should h e harvested when the ears begin to glaze, and should he hauled iu and.cut into inch lengths or less, and shoveled in and thorcTighly trampled down as fast as cut. It is desirable th a t the corners of the eementi’d silo should be rounding rathei? than square, and th a t the ends and sides Slope gently to'vvard the centa', maMng the diameters a t tiie ix)ttOm about a foot less than at the topj when the eetiling doxva of the'top -will prevent any crevice being made a t tho sides by tho shrinkage o f -the mass below. The ensilage may h e covered in. -wario-os -ways. One is -with, boards cov ered with earth and stones; another w ith straw two feet deep and the straw covered with muck 01 ' sand. An impression seems to he gaining groimd that tho -v'ery hea-ry weights once thought necessary may be dispensed with, provided the covering is sufficient to exclude the air, as the tern dency of the finely cut mass is to become compact from its o-wn. weight. Cutters costing, from $50 or less upward, to he diiven by light horse power, can be had from dealers in agricultural implements, j T '“^■1
