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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Times, 1888-3-1, Page 20 NUTTIE'S FATHER, IMARLOTTB YONCat.' CHAPTER XI X. voneza. ' With one black shadow at her ieete-reacersoe. The rebuffs that Boczety had bestowed on his wife :Lad cleughter at Nice had rendered Mr. Egremont the more determined on pro- ducing them in London and establishing their position. Be secured a furnished house u Weetburnia before leaving Nice, and, travelling leisurely home without visiting Bridgefield, he took poesesaion the second week in May. There had no; been meoh correspondence with the Rectory, and on the first forenoon, as Mrs. Egrernont and Nuttie were trying to enliven the drawing -room with the flowers aent up to meet them, they . were surprised by the entrance of Blanohe, full of kisses and welcomes. "Oh 1 didn't you know? Pne with the Kirkaldys just round the corner. Aunt Margaret has undertaken to do the part of a noble aunt by me." "Then you are hero for the season ? And May ?" "May wouldn't come, except just for a week. to see the picbures, and lay in a stock *et talk. She's growl more parochial than ever, and we believe is is all Hugh Condamine. Oh 1 I forgot you were gone before we came home last autumn. He is mamma's nephew, you know, and was or- dained last year to the curacy of the next pariah to his father's place. If the Ed- wardses only would take themselves off, we would have him at home, and then we should have flowers on the altar, and all sorts of jolly things. Papa would stand ever so much more from hirn than from the old Edwardses." "But he is engaged to May, then?" "Well, no not extualy. I believe he does not think it right till he has done pre- paring for priest'a orders. He's ever so strict, you know, and he hasn't got much either • but he means it. Lucy, his sister, you know, told me all about it, and that altogether the elders had settled it was bet- ter for both that he should attend to his preparation, and May should not -bind her- self, though they really understand one an- other, and, so she won't come to London." "Oh, that's very good of her 1" cried Nut - tie; "but why won't they let them settle their minds and be engaged ?" "People are always tiresome," said Blanche; "and I do believe the living is at the bottom of it, at least Lucy thought so. I mean everybody wants to wait -all the oldones, I mean -not Hugh or May, of course -to know whether Mark will stick to the umbrellas, or turn back and be a clergy- • than, became, than, of course, he would have the living; and if he doesn't, they want to be certain whether Uncle Alwyn, or you, Nuttie, would promise it to Hugh if he married May 1" "Me 1" exclaimed Nuttie. "My dear, I don't like to hear you talk of such things," said Mrs. Egremont gently. " Oh yes, know -It's all verydreadful. I was only telling you what is in the old people's heads, and what would. settle it, and make it all right with them." "And how is Mark? Is Miss Ruthven in London ?" asked Mrs. Egremont, glad to turn sway the conversation from the con- tingencies of which Blanche spoke with the hardness of youth, as yet not realizing sor- row. "1 daresay you know nearly as much of Mark as we do, now the Kirkaldys are np here. All. his letters go to Lescombe. Oh, no, Annaple is not in London. The Delmars can't afford it, you know, though I believe my lady would have made a stretch if Annaple hadn't been bespoke. -but now she reserves herself for Muriel." Alio.: looked with some discomfort at the soft fairhaired creature who was uttering all this worldly jargon in a tone that would have been flippant if it had not been so childish. She asked if Lord Ronnisglen had written. "Oh yes, long ago. Lady Delmar had tried to make him nasty about it, but he wouldn't be, so that's all right; and Mark seems to get on very well, though it must be horridly dull for him now the Kirkaldys are way, and he can't spend all his Sundays at Monks Horton." man "He will get more into the spirit of the piece," said 'cattle, whereat Blanche shrug. ged her shoulders a little, and exclaimed: "You've got out of it at any rate, Nut tie 1" " I hope not 1 ' "Well, then, the look of it 1 I never saw anyone so improved 1 Isn't she, Aunt Alice? She's grown, I declare! Yes "-measuring herself against her cousin -"I was a leetie bit taller when you came, and now you've got above me 1 and what a duck of a way of doing yoar hair 1 You must show me 1 I must tell May there's no fear of your being taken for one another now; Aunt Margaret will be quite surprised." It was true that Ursula had develeped a good deal during the last year, and, under the experienced hands of Martin, had lost her schoolgirl air, and turned into a young lady capable of becomingthe Paris outfit which her father had enjoined. Without -eositive beauty, she was a pleasing, intelli- gent, animated girl, with the reputation of being an heiress, with a romance in a hack - greeted, and there was nothing to prevent her from being a success. The family con- nections, with Lady Kirkaldy to set the example, had determined on giving full support to Mrs. Egremont, and, as of course every one liked to look at so lovely a face, the way of both was smoothed in a manner that delighted her husband when they en- countered any of those who had looked coldly on her at Nice. He would have -had her presented, but her own reluctance and the united counsels of Lady Kirkaldy and the Cattoness prevailed on him to drop the idea; and then there was a fight with Ursula, who declared that she would not go to court if her mother did not; but she was at last overruled by that mother's tears at her defiance ; and let her- self be presented, together with Blanche, by Lady Kirkaldy. Thereupon Ursula wiped away her tears, To Ursula it was altogether a strange and stood up wrathful before him. I am time, full of the same kind of reckless not going," she said. swing and sense of intoxicatien that had "Oh, indeed 1" he returned in a tone posseesed her at Bridgefield. Not that hat made her still more angry. "Hein" 1 there was an excessive amount of actual a French ejaculation which he had the habit gaiety. Rot rooms and late hours were of uttering in a Most exaeperatine manner. soon found not to agree with Mrs, Eger- " No," she Wel, "It is scarcely a place mont. She looked faded and languid after to which we even ought to be Deiced to go evening; and, as her husbard really cared and certainty not when—" more to have her ready to wait upon him Do you hear that, Mrs. Egreinont ?" he ind ammo hire -than for anything else, he asked. did not insist on her eoing out more than "Oh, Nuttie, Nuttie, dear 1" she implor- might be needful to establish her position, ed; "don't." or When it suited him to iihow her MT, The "No, mother," said Nuttie, with &elle other purposes Were quite as well served by in eyes; "if you care so little for your letting Ursula, go but With Lady Kirkaldy, best friend as to let yourself be dragged Who was warmly interested in mother and out among all sorts of gay, wicked people (laughter, glad of a companion for Blanche, when your dear friend is lying dead, and still mere glad of a companion for her- sure I shan't go with you," self. rot she Was net alow to discover that ) Iler father laughed a little. "A pretty exhibition, which were merely fashtonablo figure you are, to make a favour of accomp- gapeseed to her new, Were to Nettie reel anyiug us 1" delights, viewed intelligently, end eliciting oominents and ceneetlons that Lady Kirkaldy end even her husband enjoyed ia their froth interest, but Whites were uneuderahle weariness to Blanche, unless she had eome one to chatter with. Lectures and loosens, which the aunt hoped to render palatable by their beteg shared by the two cousins, only served to show che differ- ence between a trained and eager and an untrained and idle, nature, With the foreign society to be :net at Lord Kirk- aldy's, Blanche was less at a loss than her brother, and could get an by the hap of netts and becks ant wreathed smiles ; but Nettie, fresh from her winter abroad, could really talk, and was often in request as useful person to help in eutertainiag. She thus saw some of the ohoiceet society in London, and, in addition, had as much of the yonthful gaiety as Lady Kirkaldy thought wholesome ter the two girls. Also there were those ecclesiastical delights and privileges which had been heard of at Mick- lethwayte, and were within reach, greatly enjoyed by Mrs. Egremont whenever she could share them, though her daughter chafed at her treating all except the chief service on Sunday as more indulgence than duty. Nuttie was strong, with that spring of energy which unbroken health and a quiet life lays up, and, in her own phrase, she went in for everything, from early services to late balls'thinlaing all right because it was eeldom that her day did not begin with matins or Celebration, and because she was taken to more than two balls a week, and conversed at times with superior people, or looked at those with world -famed names. Possibly the whirl was greater than if it had been more gaiety, for then the brain would not have participated in it Churth func- tions, with the scurry to go at all, or to ob- tain a seat, fine mune'grand sermons, re. ligious meetings, entertainments for the poor, lectures, lessons, exhibitions, rides, drives, kettle -drums, garden -parties, con- certs, theatres, operas, balls, chattering, laughing, discussing, reading up current sub- jects, enjoying attention, excitement as to how and what to do,- one thing drove out another in perpetual succession, and the one thing she never did or could do was to sit !dill and think 1 Rest was simply dream- less sleep, generally under the power of a strong will to wake at the appointed hour for church. The short intervals of being alone with her mother were spent in pour- ing out histories of her doings, which were received with a sympathy that doubled their pleasure, excepting when Nuttie thought proper to grumble and scold at her mother's not coming to some Church festival at an hour when she thought Mr. Egremont might want her. Of him Nuttie saw very little. He did not want her, and cared little what she did, as long as shenvas nuclei the wing of Lady Kirkaldy, whose patronage'was a triumph- ant refutation of all doubts. He werthis own way, and had his own club, hie own asso elates and, with his wife always at his beck 8,nd call, troubled himself very little about any- thing else. Alice spent a good deal of time alone, chiefly in waiting his pleasure; but she had her own quiet occupations, her books, her needlework, her housekeeping, and letter - writing, and was peacefully happy as long as she did not displease Wattle. There were no collisions between father and daughter and the household arrangements satisfied that fastidious taste. She was proud of Ursula's successes, but very thaelefnl not to be dragged out to share them, though she was much leas shy, and more able on occa- sion to take her place. One pain she had, Good old Mrs. Nugent, was rapidly decaying, and she shared with all her loving heart in the grief this was to Mary and to Miss Headworth, and long- ed to help them in their nursing. She would not grieve Nettie by dwelling con. steady on the bad accounts, and the girl hardly attended to them in the tumult of occupations; and eo at last, when the final tidings came in the second week in July, they were an absolute shook to Nuttie, and affected her as the first grief sometimes does. Mrs. Nugent was really the first person of her own intimate knowledge who had died, and in the excited state in which she was, the idea of the contrast between her own occupations and Mary's was so dreadful to her that she wept most bitterly, with the sobs of childhood, such as she really. did not know how to restrain. • It was an unfortunate aay, for ib was one of the few on which Mr. Egremont wanted to take out his ladies. There was to be a great garden -party at Richmond, given by one en his former set, who had lately whitewashed himself by marrying a very fast and •fashionable lady. Nuttie had heard strong opinions on the subject at Lord Kirkeldy's ; but her father was quite elated at being in a position to countenance his old friends. Alice, in the midst of her sorrow, recollected ibis with consterna- tion. "My dear, my dear, hush! You must stop yourself 1 Remember we have to go out." "Go -out," cried Nuttie, her sobs arrest- ed by very horror. "You wouldn't go -le "1 am afraid your father would be very much vexed-" "Let him 1 It is a horrid wicked place to go to at all; and now -when dear, dear old Mrs. Nugent is lying there -and—" The crying grew violent again, and in the midst in walked Mr. Egremont with an astonished "What is all this ?" "We have lost one of our dear kind old Mende at Mioklethwayte," Mid Alice, going towards him ; " dear old .Mrs. Nugent," anu she lifted up her tear -stained face, which he caressed a little and brad, " Poor old body ;" but then, at a sob, "Can't you atop Ursula, from making such a row and disfiguring herself ? 'You must pick up yore' looks, Edda, for I mean you to make a sensation at Jern Ingham's." " Oh, Alwyn, if you could let us stay at home ! Mrs. Nugent was so good to us, and it doea seem unkind-" The tears were in her eyes again. "Nonsense 1" he said impatiently. "1 promised Jerningham, and it is absurd to have you shutting yourself up for every old woman at Deloklethwayte." "Ob, go away, go away, Nettie," en- treated her mother. "You don'no what you are saying. "1 do not know," sale Nettie, exesperated perhaps by the contrast in the mirror op- posite betwoeu her own awelled, disfigured fece, and the soft tender one of her mother with the lipid oyes, " I know bow much you care for the dear friend e whotook care of ue when wo were forsaken 1" And with this shaft ate marohed oat ef the room, while her father laughed, and sold, "Have they been training her for the tragic stage? Never miud, Edda, the little vixen will come to her senses upstaire, aud be begging to go," " 1 don't think she will," said Alice sadly ; " ahe is not that sort of stuff, and she was very fond of Mrs. Nugent. Oh, Al wyn 1 if you could let us off." "Not after that explosion, certainly." he said, " Beaides, I promised Jerninglmen, and such an exeuse would, never hold water. She is not even a relation." No, but she was very good to me," "Tho more reason why you should not stay at home and be hipped. Never mind that silly girl she will be all righe by and by." On the contrary, rho did not come down to luncheon, and when, about an hour litter, Alice, after .writing a few teuder loving words to the mourners, went up to her daughter's room, it was to find a limp and deplorable figure lying across the bed, and to be greeted with a fresh outburst of sobs and inartioulate exclamations. "Oh, Nuttie, dear, this will not do 1 It is not right. • Dear good Mrs. Nugent her- self would tell you that it is not •the way any one eo good and ao suffering should, be grieved for. Think—" "Oh, I know all that 1" creed Nuttie,, impatiently ; " but she -she was the dearest -and nobody cares for her but me. Not even yon—" Again Alice tried to debate the point, and urge on her the duties of moderation, self- control, and obadienoe, but the poor gond- mother was at a great disadvantage.. In the first place, she respeoted and al- most envied her daughter's resistance, and really did not know whether it was timidity or principle that made it her instinct to act otherwise; in the next, Ursula could always talk her down; and, in the third, she was, and greatly she reproached herself for that same, in great dread of setting herself off into tears that might become hysterical if she once gave way to them. And what would be her husband's feelings if she too collapsed and became nnpresentable. So, having once convinced herself that even if Nutty had been a consenting party, no amount of cold water and eau -de -cologne would bring those bloodshot eyes, swollen lids, and mottled cheeks to be fit to be aeen, she fled as fast as possible from the gasp of barbed reproaches which put her own com- posure in peril, and dressed with the heav- iest of hearts, coupled with the utmost soh ioitude to look her best. If she had not thought it absolutely wrong, she would even have followed Martin's suggestion, and put on a soupcon of rouge; hue by the time she was summoned to the carriage the feverishness of her effort at self-control had done the work, and her husband bad paid her the compliment of observing that she looked pretty enocteh for two. Nuttie heard them drive off, with a burst of fresh misery of indignation against her mother -now as a sieve and a victim - now as forgetting her old home. It was chiefly in mutterings ; she had pretty well used up her tears, for, unconsciously per- haps, she had worked them up as a defen- sive weapon against being carried to the party; end now that the danger wee over, le r head throbbed, her eyes burnt, and her throat ached too much for her to wish to ory any more. She had not felt physically like this, since the day, seven years ago, when she and Mildred Sharpe had been found suspiciously toying with the key of arith- metic, and had been debarred and guilby ; now she felt, or ought to feel, like a heroine maintaining the right. She got up and set herself to righta as well as she could. Martin, who had been allowed to know that she had lost an old friend, petted and pitied her, and brought her a substantial meal with her tea, after which she set out to evensong at the ahuroh at the end of the square, well veiled under a shady hat, and • with a convietion that something ought to happen. Nothing did, however, happen ; she net no one whom she knew, the palms were not particularly appropriate, and her attention wandered away to the scene at home. She did not come back, as she was sure she ought to have done, sooth- ed, exhilarated, and refreethed, but rather in a rasped state of mind, and a conscience making a vehement struggle to believe itself in the right -a matter in which she thor- oughly succeeded. She wrote a long letter to Mary Nugent, and shed some softer tears over it, then she built a few castles on her future escape from the power of her father; and then she pick- ed up Beata, and became absorbed in it, re- gretting only the weaknese of her eyes, and the darkening ofthe summer evening. She was emu reacting wnen the others came home. Her mother kissed her, but looked so languid and tired -out that Nuttie was shocked, and Martin declared that ehe ought not to go down to dinner. A Se:we-tete dinner between father and daughter was too dreadful to Alice's ice agmallon he be permitted, so she dressed and went down, looking like a ghost, Mr. Egremont scowled at Nuttie,Nuttie scowl- ed at him, each considering it the fault of the other, and when at last it was over, Alice gave up the struggle, and went off to bed, leaving a contrire message that her headoolie would be eater to-moerow, " All your accursed tolly and obstinaenr." observed Mr. Egremont, when Nuttie, with a tone of monition gave hint the measage. "1 should oall it•the consequence of being dragged out with a gore heart," returned Nutte-a little speech she had prepared ever ;dace she had seen how knocked up her mother was. "Then I should recommend keeping your ideas to yourself," he answered, looking at her in his annihilating manner. She was put down. She thought after- wards of a hundred things that she could have said to him, but ehe was crushed for the preeent, and when he went out she could only betake herself to .Reata and forret all about it as much as she could. When she went uptake, at the end of the third volume, Martin was on the watoh, and would not let her go into the room. " I have been at hand, ma'am, without her guessing it, and I am happy so say her tears have had a free cowrie wben ehe was in bod. Yes, ma'am, suppressed grief is always dangerous." Mrs. Egromont was still prostrate with fatigue and headache the next day, and Nut. i tie had all the quiet luxuriating n reminis- ewes she desired. Her father was vexed and angry, and kept out of the way, but it must be confessed that Nuttie's spirits had so much risen by the afternoon that it was a sore concession to consistency when she found herself not expeoted at Blanche's ast little al ternoon dance atLitdy Kirkaldy's 1 (-ro BE CONTINUBD.) At Sea. In December of 1884 a small echooner was driven in a furious storm upon the bar which runs along the New Brunswick shore, and makes that coast one of the most dan- gerous on the Atlantic coast. The ship rapidly went to pieoes. In the night and freezing cold three men, the only survivors of her crew, olung to the rigging. They wore rocked to and fro by the heavy surf, which threatened every moment to engulf them. For hours the crew of the Life -Saving Service on shore tried in vain to help them. At last they succeeded in throwing a line over the mast. It was secured by the ship. wrecked men, and a strong cable was ex- tended from the shore to the ship. Each man in turn forsook the mast, and, clinging to this cable, tried to reach the land. The grapplings which swung him to it were secure, and only by his own volun- tary effort could he loose his hold. Two of the crew, holding firm passed safely to the shore, but the third man, frenzied with fear, refused to trust himself to the rope. The sea was so pitiless about him, the line appeared so slight, the land so far away 1 He could see only a gray mist into whioh his friends vanished. How eould he tell whether they arrived safely or not ? So he clung to the mast until it broke -and was lost. There was something in the terrible Beene which reminded the lookers-on of life itself. For are we not all voyagers alike el er deop sea? •We have sunney weather some- times and pleasant days full of good cheer with our oomeades. But to all of us the storms come, when the clouds gather and all is dark and uncertain. There is a land beyond, we know, where home and friends wait for as, and sunshine and happiness aro sure. But in the night end cold we cannot see it. Between us and that eternal home there is but one link. Faith in the Saviour is the cable whioh pauses through the storm and darkness into that invisible country. If we cling to that we shall reach home in safety. But it seems so slight and unrtesi a thing to as! The storm is so cruel and real, heaven so far away 1 The friends who have gone thither through the night do not return to tell us of their welcome. Yet, however dark the night, however fierce the storm, the line is there, seoure as God's Word. It is for each of us to decide, as did the shipwrecked sailors, whether we will trait to it or not. Mrs. Brown was endeavoring to console her young married daughter, who was weep- ing over her husband's shortcomings. "What could I do, my dear? I married you to Ernest because he awore he had the secret of making you happy." "True, nainemma 1 It Wee a se-se-seoret and he's lakept it well 1" Lightning struck a man in Florida the other day while he was lying in bed. His last words were : " Please don't Mt me again, Marier 1 I'll mind." "Charley, didn't you leave Miss Smith rather suddenly the other evening?" "Well, yes. To tell you the truth, she was begin- ning to get tender, mid I got so frightened." • /0•XIM.SIMMagectr....1.04 • but ,43?rv,;.:9:te,fro.tks:71:c.:48,1,01,1.41!1:441. 'vthk:11 rj bat inc •••••••••.,... , I YI:$;:ked:11.-.C11 90. giqlop6i.L. k weenteleee0Vereeeti' eee C. A. ttv-inAik94,. $10T he 1 : "' • • 4 11(116 : 7 • ' liSiS • t "•'. ytik, LOVE isArGellS et.'eseeeeeadeeleeree. , -e-ease::. ten- ele.e.e-e t& ree-e-c-:AI,, :ra- feet(' 'le recto end)teareireetl , eareet HEALTH. Ilejlfriett We commend to the earnest attention of our readers the following extract from a letter sent to us by a lady eubacriber FOr the last two years my five -years.olcl boy has suffered with a disease of the knee - joint, resulting in the lose of the knoe-oap, or patella. 110 was lately operated upon at theChildren's Hospital, Huntington Avenue.. "11 I had taken him there two years ago, he might have been well to -day. Now the knee may be several years in healing fully, and will be a nearly stiff joint for lite, while all this might have eeen spared him if I had known whet a slight swelling of the knee might lead to, and kept him in bed a month. "Your paper goes all over the land, and I feel it my duty to ask you to warn the mothers not to neglect whet may seem a slight trouble with the knee -joint, or, worse still, with the hip. It may lead to amputa- tion or even death." The joints, especially those of the knees, are liable to melee affections, some of which are due to constitutional defeat, and some to other diseases but most frequently the cause is injury from accident. This cause operates especially in ohildheod and youth, partly because this period is more full of exposuree, and pertly because the ten- dency to sot up inflammatory action is then at its maximitm. The surfaces of all joints are covered with a membrane, the office of which is to aeorete a lubricating fleet Under this is cartilage, to lessen jolt and to render the play of the joints over each other soft and safe. The head of the bones beneath the cartilage is spongy, and thus more liable to harm. Disease, or over use, or accidental injury may have resulted in inflammation of the synovial membrane. Indeed, it is believed that nearly one-half of all affections of the kneeejoint are of this character. If the trouble is neglected, the inflammation may exteed to the cartilage and destroy it, leav- ing the bare ends of the bones to grate on each other; or it may extend even to the head of the bone and give rise to a destruc- tive abscess. The inflamed membrane thickens, in- creases its secreticn in quantity, and canoes the adjacent parts of the knee to bulge out with fluid. This may have been what first attracted the attention of our correspondent. There be of course, pain --generally severe pain. How to Teed a Sick Person. In serious illnese the sufferer must rely chiefly if not entirely upon liquid food to sustain strength. It is important that the nurse should know how to give it as skilfully as possible to avoid unnecessary fatigue to the patient. The utmost skill and care in the preparation of the food will be thrown away if the invalid cannot be induced to take enough of it to nourish him properly, and the nurse fails in her first duty who does not devise means by which this shall be accomplished. When the head cannot be raised from the pillow a bent glass tube can be used to draw the flaid into the month. If the end is raised a little as it is removed not a drop need be spilled. Where there is delirium a piece of rubber tubing may be substituted for this glass, as the sufferer might break the tube and swallow a frag- ment of it. Feeding cups of different shapes are sold with and withont spouts. In using them be careful to regulate the flow of li- quid, that it does not come too fast. When it is necessary to feed with a spoon, see that there is not a drop in the bottom of it, put it well in the mouth and empty the contente slowly. Always place a napkin under the chin to catch chance drops and dry the lips gently with it after the food is given. When the invalid is stronger and desires to drink from a cup, the narseehould pass her left hand under the pillow and raise the head on it, holding it at a comfortable angle,while with her right ,he grasps the cup, adjusting, it so the liquid will flow easily but not too fast. In feeding a helpless patient with solid food it should be cut into mouthfuls of a convenient size and fed slowly, ample time being allowed for it to be masticated and swallowed with ease before offering the next. Nothing is more likely to take away the ap- petite of a weaz person than to be hurried in eating. It should be remembered to being salt with the food if it is liked, to offer a drink at intervals, and to anticipate every want 013 far as is possible. Little Things That Kill. At various times the newspaper have warned the public against swallowing the seeds of grapes, oranges, eta, because of the danger of such substances getting into a small intestinal bag, or oul-de-soc, called by the doctors the appendix vermiformia. This is a little receptacle formed at the janation. of the large and small iztteetines ; but its use or object no physician knows. It has been thought to be a ruclimentary or incompleto formation -or poasibly some • meaningleas survival of a lost anterior type. .At any rate, its existeriae, while presenting no ap- parent "reason for being," as the French say, is, on the other hand, a positive and constant source of danger, because of the liability of its becoming' the receptacle of some undigested seed or other indigestible substance. In that case it produces' a state of inflammation whioh in nearly all cases , proves fatal. Fortunately but few seeds, among the great number so heedlessly swallowed, seem to get into this little death -trap -although - any one eeenis likely to lodge there. Per- haps more cases of inflammation of the bowels than the doctors suspect may be in reality due to this obscure and disregarded cense. One sad case, whioh to day procluoes a feeling of deep regree among thousands, and which plunges a family into overwhelm- ing grief, occurred recently in the lamented death of J. Robert Dwyer, the much - esteemed adjutane of the Governor's Foot Guard -a man whose place that ancient corps cannot well make good. His case so baffled the physicians than an autopsy was had, and that revealed a piece of peanut :hell in the appendix vertniformie. It is a fact which comet be disputed, that boys who are persistent cigarette smokers do not reach perfeot maturity. Their growth, both physically and intellect- ually, is retarded. Their nervous system is but imperfectly developed ; digestion, sight and other important functions are setiouely impaired. irritability of the heart is one common consequence of the use of tobacco in any form in early life. Let all boys who use tobacco understand thim ; they can never hope to become men. They will grow old, and prematurely old, but ) :rue, manly development and vigor they iam never attain ; anti for their rheum of success: as students and scholars, even the , , mild etao of tobeeco impairs thein, and tee ' 1 persistent use wholly destroys them. Never, 1 before the age of teventy-one is readied, , should tobacco be indulged in, and its use Imight mote Wisely he delayecl until the body hat; become fully and eotnpIetely do- - volved, reroute should meet to it, and, if neceseary, lawe should be enacted, that thief rule bo strictly enforced. There is an awful responsibility here which all should feel, and do their utinest to stay the degenera- tion of our youth, •which is threatened by this, one of the greatest curses known to ns -the tobacco habit in boys. A VALUABLE MAUSTON& fts Owner lies llade 11 Fortune by Venting is Out. One of the most celebreted reach:tones in this part of the world is that belonging to Turner Evans, of Paris, Linn County, Iowa. This valuable little stone was formerly own- ed by a gentleman in Virginia, where it is said to have effected wonderful cures during the past 13.) years. It has been in the hands of the present owner for overthirty years. During thia time it hoes beeffealete,d eeveral tirnes and has alwaye gin satire' ;satisfaction, never failing to effect a oure, The word " cure " is perhaps not the word to use in this connection, for if I am rightly informed it is always made a point to use the stone as a preventive of hydrophobia, be- fore the &dual Sppearance of the rallies. During the past thirty years this stone has been tried on not less thieu 750 person:: and as Mr. Evans charges $10 for a trial and$50 if it sticks fast to the wound, which it is said to do if there is hydrophobic poison in the systennthis income from this source must be considerable. In 1880 a gentleman with whotn the writer was very well acquainted, was bitten by a dog thought to be suffering from hydrophobia. I refer to D. C. McGil- len, who foimerly worked in a harness ehop in this city. Inquiries were made immediate- ly as to where the possessor of the mead - stone could be found. As soon as this Linn County man was looated McGillen started on his race witn death, having no doubt that awful disease (hydrophobia) was at that moment sowingits seeds of death in his system. He arrived at Cedar Rapids the same night, was hurried into a carriage and taken to the " madatone man" as neon as possible. After his retnra he gave the writer most of the facts which have been embodied in this article. He said thee; as soon as he arrived Mr. Evans scratched his arm with a pin (he had been bitten in the hand) and applied the stone. Before this, ari a aort of prologue, Me. Evans had inform- ed his. patient that if the hydrophobic germ Was his system the • stone would 1 at fast to the spot whioh he had searified ; but if he had not been inoculated with the fatal poison, it would not stick. In this case my informant said "it stack like a leech," and that when removed it was full of a greenish fiaid that lcoked "like sown on a pond in August." This, the operator said was the poison virus which had been taken from the system When the stone had been soaked for a few minutes in a bath composed of about one part. milk and three of water it was again tapeelied. This operation was repeated for &Wit seven hours, after which the stone would -not ad- here, and the operator pronounced the patient out of danger. eloGillen described the stone as a.whitaish, spongy looking little thing, not larger than a filbert, cone-shaped and full of fine pores. A Mr. Burke, of Mechanicsville this State, hadthe\ stone applied something like seven hundred temes before all the poieon was drawn kom the system, the time consumed for these opera - dens being something _like twenty-three hours. J. M. Estes, of Osceola, itissaid, is the fortunate possessor of one of these wonderful stones. • Another is in the possession of Sohn Nelson, of Savannah, Mo. •In May, 1883, Frederiok Remy, of Red oak, was bitten by a mad dog, as were also six others of the same city, all of whom went to try. the virtues of Missouri atone. I believe Remy was the only one that died of hydrophobia. He was bitten May 18, and showed no symptoms of eke dread disease for thirty-four days, or until June 21. He died after three days of terri- ble suffering. Tain unable to tell you where the madstone is found or elow produced, that is, to any degree of ceritainty, but be- lieve it is found n the bladder of deer and other animals. of that kind, perhaps in the gall -bag instead of the bladder. At any rate, I think it is found aceme place under the skin of teat class of animals when found at all. Itis rarely found, however. Thomas Padden, one of the best -informed men in the South, says that itis frequently found in the South, but that most of the so-called me,cistones are of a very low grade, and are need on the bites of snakes and stings of poisonous inseots. He also leaves the read- er in blissful ignorance of where the stone is found. ACOIDENTO AND SUICIDES- ItlangEed In a Knitting Machtne-Tereibie !Dynamite Explosion-Sukide et an Eloping Couple. Anntenoe Ohio, Feb. 25. -Charles Win - goad and Annie Fox, nude and niece, in goal here for eloping from Monroe, Mich., mmratotrtendinir. Dwide by shooting at 10 o'clock °th°is Intern, Minn, Feb. 25. -This morning an explosion of dynamite occurred in the rock cut in Fourth street. Eighteen men were injured, and eight are now in the hos- pital. One died upon reaching the hospital. The explosion woe caused by wpm cartridges, which fused hot Saturday, but did not ex - pled° uutil the men resumed work about them , • HUDSON, N.Y., Feb. 25, -Ira Wilcox, em- ployed by the Union knitting mills, while attending the "whiner" was caught in a, loop of the goods, drawn into the machine by the arm and whirled around the ;shaft until his body and legs were terribly man- gled. There is no prospect of his recovery. A Northumberland Poisionlg Case. Comm*, Feb. 25. -The coron4ret jury in the inquest on the body of Caroline Heron, at Blackstook, in the Township of Cart- wright, brought in a verdict that the de- ceued had come to her death from poisoning by stryohinne. They also found that the - strychinne had been administered to the de- ceased by Elizabeth Heron, who felonious- ly murdered the said Caroline Heron, and that Wm. Heron, Elizabeth Her- on's husband, was an aocessor3r after the fact. Caroline Heron, the victim of the mania', was a young gitl who watt to visit her aunt during the Christmastide. While sallenanl t ho f ept 1:1 ve tiro. stnuus,e asuhde wd imesa siund dgerne layt agony. A dog that naked her vomit expired Immediately, ene this feet, together with other sutpicions oircumistances, pointed to a foul deed, The Tiorons were placed milder anent and were brought to gaol here. The motive for committing the critne laid to their charge is not quite dear. • Wife-" John, do you know that di' ' the anniversary et my wdding dttles' fluseand-" Whyno it isn't. We Were: mended in March." Wufe-41X am repeat. lug of my (free htuifeend, orin."