HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Times, 1888-10-11, Page 30--i-toriiimemampascompasek_
"ROUGHING IT IN THE
Not ',understanding much about farming,
in a climate like Canada, Moor lie was edam.
ed by a neighboring settler tie farm his farms
upon shares. This, advioe seemed rearion.
be; and had it been given disinterestedly,
and had the per8uo8 recommended ia imam
and las wi(e) boen worthy or honest people,
We might have done very well. But the far-
mer had found out their encroaching eyries,
was iteXIOUS to get rid of them himeelf, and
flaw no better way of doing ee than by a1n-
ing
Clem upon us.
From our engagement with these peopee
commenced that long series of losses and
troubles to whioh their conduct formed the
prelude. They were to live in the iittle
shanty pet we had just left, and work the
ferment Moodie was to find them the head,
the useof his implements and cattle, and all
the Geed for the crops ; and to share with
them the returns. Besides this, they unfor-
tunately were allowed to keep their own
cows, pigs, and poultry. The produce of
the orelatird, with which they had nothing
to do, was reserved for our own.use.
For the first few weeks, they were civil
and obliging enough; and had the man been
left to himself, I believe we should have
done pretty veil; but the mother was a
coarse -minded, bold woman, who instigated
him to every mischief. They took advan-
tage of us in every way they could, and
were constantly committing petty depreda-
tions.
From our own experience of this mode of
farming, I would strenuously advise all new
settlers never to tuebrace any sue& offer,
without they are well acquainted a ith the
parties, and can thoroughly rely upon their
honesty; or else, like Mrs. 0—, they may
impudently tell you that they can cheat you
as they please, and defy you to help your-
self. All the money we expended upon the
farm was entirely for these people's benefit,
for by the joint contrivances very little of
the crops fell to our share; and when any
division was made, it was always when
Moodie was absent from home; and there
was no person present to see fair play. They
sold what apples and potatoes they pleased,
and fed their hogs ad libitum. But even
their roguery was more tolerable than the
irksome restraint which their near vicinity,
and constantly having to come into contact
with them, imposed. We had no longer
any privacy, our servants were erossques-
toned, and our family affairs canvassed by
these gossiping people, who spread about a
thousand falsehoods regarding us. I was so
much disgusted with this shareehip, that I
would gladly have given them all the pro-
ceeds of the fal m to get rid of them, but the
bargain was for twelve months, and bed as
it was, we could not break our engagement.
One little trick of thie woman's will serve
to illustrate her general conduco A neigh-
bouring farmer's wife had presented mo
with some pretty hens, who followed to the
°Balk old Betty Fe's handsome mime cock.
I was always fond of fowls, and the innocent
Katie delighted in her chicks, and would call
them round her to the sill of the door to feed
from her hand. Mrs. 0.— bad the same
number as I had, and I often admired them
when marshalled forth by her splendid black
rooster. Oe morning I saw her eldest eon
chop off the head of the fine ,bird; and I
aiiked his mother why she had allowed him
to kill the beautiful creature. She laughed,
A
and merely replied that she wanted it for the
pot. The next day my sultan walked over
to the widowed hens, and took all his sera-
glio with him. From that hour I never ga-
thered a single egg; the hens deposited all
te their eggs in Mrs. 0--'s hen house.
She used to boast of this as an exeellent joke
among her neighbors.
On the 9th of June, my dear little Agnes
was born. A few days after this joyfnl
event, I heard a great bustle in the room
iddjoining to mine, and old Dolly Rowe, my
Cornish nurse, informed that it wait occee
sicced by the people who came to attend the
iimeral of Flambe R--. She only survived
the removal of the family a week; and at
her own request had been brought all the
way from the --lake plabes to be interred
in the burying ground on the hill which
. overlooked the stream.
As I lay upon my pillow I could destinet-
ly see the spot, and mark the long funeral
,procession, as it wound along the banks of
tele brook. It was a solemn and imposing
mpectaele, that humble funeral. When the
waggons reached the rude enclosure, the
,coffin was carefully lifted to the grouni, the
.door in the lid opened, and old and young
approached, one after another, to take a last
look at the dead, before consigning her to
dim oblivion of the grave.
PoomPhcebe 1 Gentle child of coarse, un-
feeling parents, few shed more sincerely a
tear for thy early fate than the stranger
whore they hated and deegoised. Often have
I stood beside that humble mound, when
the song of the lark was above me, and the
bee muenauring at my feet, and thought
that it was well for thee that God opened
the eyes of thy soul, and called thee out of
the darkness ,ef Ignorance and sin to glory
in His marvellous leght. Sixteen years have
passed away sines I heard anything of the
family or what had become of them, when I
was told by a neighbor of theirs, whom I
astcidentally met last whiter, that the ald wo-
man, who now nearly numbers a htendred
years, is still living, and inhabits a corner
of her son's barn, as she Mill quarrels too
much with his wife to reside with Joe; that
the girls are all married and gone; and that
Joe himself, although he does not know a
letter, has commenced travelling Mt a preacher.
After this, who can doubt the existence of
miracles fn the nineteenth century?
„CHAPTER X.
BRIAN, TUE SILL-HtfliTER.
,O'er memory is glace I saw his sbadow flit,
Though he was gathered to the silent dust
Lang years ago. A otravge and wayward
,man,
Thatshurin'd companionship, and lived apart;
The leafy covert of the dark brown woods,
he gleamy lake, hid in their gloomy
• elep the,
Whose still, deep waters never know the
Attoke
Of cleaving oar, or echoed to the mound
01 social life, contained for him the sun
Of human happitese. With dog madegun
Day after day he tracked the oirrible deer
Throtigh all the taegled mazes of the forest.
It wail eerier day. I was alone in the old
shanty preparing breakfast, and ncw and
thee stirring the cradle with My foot, when
a tall, thin, midellmaged man Walked into
the hotitem folloWed by two large, strong
dogs.
Placing the rifle he had carried on his
shoulder, ia a corner of the room, he advanc.
ed to the heath, and withoutspeaking, or
eetereingly looking at zne, 14ehted his pipe
and coannenced smoking, The dogs after
groeiling and snapping at the cat, who had
noti given the strangers a very ociurteoue to.
ceptiony at dOWil ou the hearth -stone on
either side of their tatiiturn vaulter, eyeieg
laimsfrom time to time, as If long habit had
Made there understand all hie motions,
Tliere wee te great Oentrast hetWeen the dep.
. herettemeeMenteeirweetit' matetitenteld
The one was a brindled bull -dog of the larg-
est idea, a most formidable and powerhil
brute ; the other oisteg-houncl, tawny, deep-
theetecl, and steiong,limbed. I regarded the
mah hod Ine hairy companions with silent
oureeinty.
He was betweeze forty and ,fifty years of
age ; his head, nearly bald, was etucldecl at
the Fades with etroug, coarse, black ourling
hair. Hifi features were high, his complex-
ion brightly dark, and his eyes, in Wm,
shape, and oilman greatly resembled the
(memo( a hawk. The face itself was sorrow-
ful and taciturn; and his thin, compressed
lips looked as if they were not much mecum
toned to smile, or often to unclose to hold
socialoommunion with any one. He stood
at the Side of the huge hearth, silently
smoking, his eyes bent on the fire, and now
and thou he patted. the heads of his dogs,
reproving their exuberant expressions of
attachment, with—" Down, Music ; down
Chance I"
"A cold, clear morning'," said I, ia order
to attract his ettention and, draw him into
conversation.
A nod, without raising his head, or with-
drawing his eyes from the lire, was his only
answer t and, turning from my unsociable
guest, I took up the baby, who just then
awoke, sat down on a low stool by the
table, and began feeding her. During this
operation, 1 once or twice oaught the Berea -
germ hawk eye fixed upon me and the child,
but word epoke he none; and presently,
after whistling to hia dogs, he resumed his
gun, and strode out.
When Moodie and Monaghan came in to
breakfast, I told them what a mitrange visit-
or I had had; and Moodie laughed at my
vain attempt to induce him to talk.
"He is a strange being," I said; "1 must
,find out who and what he is."
In the afternoon an old soldier, called
Layton, who had served during the Ameri-
can war, and got a grant of land abeut a
mile in the rear of our location, came in to
trade for a cow. Now, this Layton was a
perfect ruffian; a man whom no one liked,
and whom all feared. He was a deep
drinker, a great swearer, in short, a perfect
reprobate.; who never cultivated his land,
but went jobbleg about from farm to farm,
trading horses arid eettle, and cheating in a
pettifoggineway. ,Uncle Joe had employed
him to sell Moodie a young heifer, and he
had brought her over for him to look at.
When he came in to be paid, I described the
stranger of the morning; and as 1 knew
that he was Mealier with every one in the
neighbourhood, I asked if he knew him.
' No one should know him better than
myself," he said.; " 'tis old Brian B—,
the stilehunter, and a near neighbour of
your'n. A sour, morose, queer chap he is,
and as mad as a March hare 1 Ho's from
Lancashire, in Euglaud, and came to this
country same twenty years ago, with his
wife, who was a pretty young lass in those
days and slim enough them, though she's so
awfully fleshy new. He had lots of money,
too, tend he bought four hundred acres of
land, hist at the corner of the concession
line, where it nteets the main road. And
excellent land it is ; and a better farmer,
while he stook to his bueineso, never went
into the bush, for it was all bush here then.
He was a dashing, handsome fellow, too,
and did not hoard. the money either,; he
loved his pipe and hie pot too well; and at
last he bit off farenieg, and gave himself to
them altrgether. Many a, jollyboteze he and 1
have had, I out tell you. Bei in was an aw-
ful passionate man, and, when the liquor
was in, and the wit was out, as sa.vage and
as quarrelsome as a bear. At such tines
there was no one but Ned Layton dared go
near him. We once had a pitch battle in
which I was corqueror ; and ever arter he
yielded a Bert of sulky obedience to all I said
to him. After being on the spree for a week
or two, he would take fits of retnorse'and
return home to his wife; would fall down
at her knees and ask her forgiveness, and
ory like a child. At other times he would
hide himself up ia the woods, and steal home
at night, and get what he wanted out of the
pante", without apeaking a word to any
one. ''He went on with these preethe for
some years, till he tock a fit of the blue
devils.
"'Come away, Ned, to the — lake,
with me,' mid be; I am weary of my life,
and I want a change.
" Shall we take the fishing•tackle ?' sane
I. The black bass are in prime season,
and ]3'—will lend us the old canoe. He's
got some capital rum up from Kingston.
We'll fish all day, and have a spnee at
Light '
" It's not to fifth I'm going,: says he.
" To shoot, then? I've bought Rock -
wood's new rifle."
It's neither to fitsh nor to shoot, Ned :
a new game I'm going to try; so come
along.' "
"Well, to the -- lake we went. The
day was very hot, and our path lay through
the woods, and over those scorching plains,
for eieht long miles. I thought I should
have dropped by the way; but during our
long walk my eompanion never opened his
lips. He strode on before me, at a half -run,
never once turning his heed.
'"The man must be the devil 1' says I,
and accustomed to a warmer place, or he
mutt f'eel this, Hello Brian 1 Stop there 1
Do you mean to kill me?'
'Take it easy,' says he ; you'll see
another day otter this —I've business on
hand and cannot wait,'
" Well, on we went, at the same awful
rate, and it was mid-day when we got to
the little tavern on the lake shore kept by
oue F ---, who had a boat for tlae conve-
niertce of strangers who caine to visit the
place. Here we got our dinner, and a glass
of rum to wash it down, But Brien was
moody, and to all my jokes he only returned
a sort of grunt; and while I was talking
with F--, he stepe out and a few minutes
arter we saw him crossing the lake in the
canoe.
What's the matter with Brian?' says
F-- ; all does not seem right wibh hien,
Ned. You had better take the boat, and
look arter
"'Pooh 1' tows 1; be's often so, and
grows so glum nowadays that I will out
his acquaintance altogether if he dorm not
improve,'
'He thinks awful hard,' says E--;
may be huh got a fit of the delirium -trem-
ulous. There is no telling what he may be
up to at thin minute,'
Jely mind iniegave me too, so I e'en
takes the acre, and puebee out, right upon
Brian's track; and by the Lord Ilarry I if I
did not fied him, upon my landing on the
opposite shore, lying wallowing in his own
blood with his throat cat. is that you,
Brian?' says 1, giving „hint a. kick with my
foot, to see if he was alive or dead. 'What
upon earth tempted you to play me and Po---
ench a dirty, mean trick, as to go and stick
yourself like a pig, Miming math a diecre.
dit upon tho house /— and you so far from
home and thoee who shOuId mime you.'
"t was so Mad at him that (Seeing yher
presenoe, eitdeme) I swore ;minty, and, called
him names that Would be ondaomt to repeat
here; but he only answered with Weans and
a
loreid gurgling 112 his throb- It's a
ehokiegerett are,' said ; t but you ehan't
have your owe way, and diet() %idly either,
if I eampunith you by keeping you alive,'
'Be I just turned him upou his etotnach, with
hie head down the steep bank; but he still
kept choking and growing black in the
hole"'
Leyton then detailed tome pertionlars of
hie surgical preotioe whiela is not neeessary
to repeat, Ile continued, •
"1• bound up his throat with my handker-
chief, and took him neok and heels, and
threw him into the bottom of the beat.
Presently he game to himself a little, and
eat up in the boat; and—would you believe
it e—made several attempts to throw himself
into the water, This will not do,' says 1;
'you've done mischief enough already by
outting your weaeamd 1 If you dare try
that again, I will kill you with the oar.' I
held it up to threaten hien; he was scared,
and lay down ae quiet as a Iamb. I put my
foot upon his breast. "Lie still. now 1 er
you'll mash it. He looked piteously at me;
he could not speak, but his eyes seemed to
say, 'Have pity upon me, Ned; don't kill
"The doctor came and sewed up his
threat ; and his wife ---poor crittur 1—come
to nurse him. Bad as he was, elle was mor-
tal fond of him. He lay there, sick and un-
able to love his bed, for three months, and
did nothing but pray to God to forgive him,
for he thought the devil would surely have
him for cutting his own throat; and when
he got about ageire which is now twelve
years ago, he left of drinking entirely, and
wanders about the woods with his dogs,
hunting. He seldom opeaks to auy one,
and his wife's brother cerries on the farm for
the family. He is so shy. of strangers that
'Ms a wonder he came in here. The old
wives are afraid of him ; but you need not
heed him—his troubles are to himself, he
harms no (me."
Layton departed, and left me brooding
over the sad. tale which he had told in such
an absurd and jesting manner. It was evi-
denterom the account he had given of Brian's
attempt at suicide, that the hapless hunter
was not wholly answerable for his conduct
— that he was a harmless maniac.
The next morning, at the very ss,mo hour,
Brian agmin made his appearance; but in-
stead of tae rifle across his shoulder, a large
stone jar occupied the place, suspended by a
stout leather thong. Withcut saying a
word, but with a truly benevclent smile,
that flitted slowly over his stern features,
and lighted them up, like a sunbeam break-
ing from beneath a stormy cloud, he ad-
vanced to the table, and unslinging the jar,
set it down beforo me, and in a low and
gruff, but by no means an unfriendly, voice,
"Milk, for the child," and vanished.
"How good it was of him 1 How kind 1"
I exclaimed, BB I poured the precious gifb of
four quarts of pure new milk out into a
deep pan. I had not asked him—had never
mid that the poor weanling wanted milk.
It was the courtesy of a gentleman—of
benevolence ard refinement.
For weeks did my strange, silent friend
steal in, take up the empty jar, and supply
its place with another replenished with milk.
The baby knew his step, and would bola out
her hands to him and cry "Milk 1" and
Brian would stoop down and kiss her, and
his two great dogs lick her face.
"Have you any children, Mr. B--- ?"
"'Yes five; but none like this."
"My little girl is greatly indebted to you
dor your kindness."
"She's welcome, or she would not get it.
You are strangers; but I like you all. You
look kind, and I would like to know more
about you."
(TO BE CON'TINITED.)
English Officers.
The regular British Army itself has never
its full complement of officers, and the mili-
tia and volunteers are notoriously deficient
in this respect both as regards quantity and
quality. Other nations suffer in the same
way, but not of their own delfberate choice.
When an army numbering several millions
of men has to be dealt with, such as that of
,Germany or Russiaor France, it becomes ex-
tremely difficult and expensive to keep up
a proper number of f6 ers in readiness for
war, especially where the middle classes
from which the supplymust be arawn are
comparatively weak in numbers and already
caught to a great extant in the meshes of the
military net. During the Crimean war we
had to make a rule that Lieutenants should
not be promoted to Captaincies till they had
been twe years in the service, and in 1870-
71. the expenditure of German officers was
so great that at the end of the war even lance -
sergeants, (vice-feldwebela in many cases,
took the command of companies. In Decent-
ber, 1870, a Bavarian infantry division was
so reduced by severe losses that it only
poesessed at the front a single Captain
of the line. There are people so enam-
ored of the German system that they
wouid follow ist in its weaknesses sinoe
they cannot in its strength, and Min -
biters have been only too ready to snatch et
any support in cutting down either offieers
or men. In this case it is to be remarked
that the Germans only yield to a diro neces-
sity of which they always complain, but
they at least take mate to keep up in poem
the full number allowed them and to manu-
facture as many as they can for reserves by
the one-year volunteer system. Officers
thus produced have served a year in the
ranks with, in addition to the ordinary
soldier's training, constant teatiml exer.
ohm, during whichethey have to learn the
duties of officers. We, with more then
Chinese absurdity, invite efficers of the re-
serve to pass an examination in tactics,
solely out of books; lent have refused per-
mission for them even to etuey the books
under garrison iustructorte No • they must
go to crammers," who, sensiehy enough,
spend their time iin examining the examiners
and discovering the odds for or against cer-
tain questione being pat. I do not blame
those extremely able gentlemen whose
industry and common SellS3 ere brought in
to supply a much -felt want, but I certainly
question whether these exerninatious are of
any practical value, and 1 fiad that officers
of the militia and volunteere ere moved by a
certain healthy merriment when they dis-
cuss the subject. Trained or untrained,
there are never enough officers even in the
regular army to meet the waste ot peace,
much less of war. --[The Fortnightly Rs -
view.
Everything Checked.
First Beggage man. "I say, \like, all
AV these trunks belongs to the wan woman.
Wat diem s'pose is in there ?"
. Second Beggage-man. "Shure, Jerry,
aid its hor waxerdrobe. She's a celebrated
actress."
Vast Baggsgeman. "And What's in the
small band -bag that goes vsid'em ?"
Second Baggage man, "BI plebe, Jerry,
fern thiekire teats wot tonne her j tents."
initialed—I have been here at these springe,
doctor, six weeks, end 1 don't BOO that the
Water has had the elighteeteffeet, Dr, Ceti-
did—You meet; have patience. There woo
a man hero last eetwon who didn't die testil
he had been here two months,
STANLEY% RARD.EBT BATTLE,
The Oraphie Story a Native Tens 01
• Itineigala ettitegton siie Nxplorer.
The bloodiest and. most furious battle
Stanley had with the Congo natives during
his Orst descent of that river was with the
Be-Ngala. Everybody has read his graphic
aceourit of that combat, in which sixty-four
canoes loaded with the fierceet of Congo
fighters were preoipitated upon the little
band of travellers, and had not spears been
pitted against firearms Stanleyea party
would never have reached the sea, A
while ago Muele, one of the orfieere of the
chief of the BioNgels, gave to Capt. Co-
quilhat the native version of that memorable
day. The white men on the Congo bring
home few stories that surpass in interest
those the natives tell of the time when
the unknown whitee first came among them,
and of the commotion these strangers, with
their wonderful trade goods and their still
rpnroordeueeatonishing weapon% everywhere
"We had never seen a white man," said
Miele, whose tribe, thickly populating the
river bank for many minim numbers over
100,000 people. " We had not the slight.
ett idea that such beings existed. One day,
some dozen moons ago [it was on Feb. 14
18771, at the inotaent when the sun et god.
right Above our heeds, n flotilla of canoes of
a form we had never seen befere, preceded
by a canoe of extraordinary size, suddenly
came into view. In the swiftest part of the
°tweet they were tquietly paming in front
of our villages. We were astonished to see
that the men, even to their heads, were
covered with white cloths, and we thought
it very singular, for the richest chiefs we
knew wore only a little rag made of banena
fibre; and a fact that was absolutely new to
us, and. that upset all our notions of human.
ity, was the sighb of two white beings, yes,
as white as our pottery clay, who appeared
to command the expedition. They seemed
to have about the same foem as other men,
but their hair, their eyes, and their color
were very strange to us.
"We asked one another, were not these
men envoys from lbertze, the mysterioue
spirit, and why did they so suddenly appeer
upon our river? Their purpose could only
be bad, for suddenly they tended on an is-
land opposite us, instead of coming to our
shore, as all people did whose intentions
were not hostile. At first, before we were
able to see them distinctly, we thought they
were an expedition from our enemies of
Mobeka. Our alarm drums sounded, and
we crowded to our melees, all ready for a
fight. But the clothing of the warriors, the
strange form of their weapons, and the un-
heard of aspect of the white men soon unde-
ceived us. Still, we launched our aunties
and rapidly 'approached those of the un-
known strangere.
," The older of the two white men had
straight gray hair, and his eyes were the color
of the water. He mood up in his canoe and
held toward us a red cloth and some braes
wire. We still approached him, diecussiug
excitedly the maiming of his strange attitude.
The other n hite manFrank Pocock, who
was drowned a few weeks later in the cat-
aracts of the lower Congo] aimed. his weapon
at us, and the older man talked to him
rapidly in a language we did not understemd.
Those of our triends who were nearest the
strangers'thought the actions of the white men
boded us no good and so they judged it best
at once to attack these noreterioue whites,
who had come from 120 one knew where.
Then the battle began, and it was the
Trost terrible we ever fought. Our spears
fell fast among the enemy and we killed
some of them, and their bodies lay half over
the sides of their canoes. But, oh, what
fetich gave their weapons such wonder pow-
er 1 Their bullets, made of a heavy grey
metal we had never seen before, reached us
at eucirmaus distances. Women and old men
whoowere following the combat from the
shore were hit. The walla of our huts were
perforated. Some goats who were wander-
ing far off in the fields dropped dead of their
wounds. As for us who were on the water,
our stout shields were pierced ae though
they had been bananas. Many of us were
killed and wounded and others were drown-
ed, for the bullete knocked holes in some of
our wooden canoes which filled and sank.
Still we kept fighting desperately, and we
followed the white beings some distance be-
low our villages. Their band finally escap•
ecl usand raised loud cries of triumph as we
ended the pursuit. Wa could not under-
stand what they said."
Muele added that Mats Bulke, the chief
cf the Ba Ngala, exerted every effort to
dissuade his ardent people from approaching
the whitea, who, he declared, could not be
human beings. It was this same chief who,
three years ago that month, wept as he bade
farewell to Cepa Coquilhat, the founder of
the Be -Neale station who was about to go
back to Europe. "Return soon," he said,
"for I am olcli and I wish to see you again
before I die." A few days ever a year
later Coquilhat was again among the Bt -
Neale, who with their powerful and aged
chief, are now among the most faithful and
useful friends of the whites.
NOVI SEELY WILL FLY,
mime uns eeoter is leenteitea lie Will Pit
Forth Ills Air Ship.
"Yes, ie. is true that Rady has invented
an aerial motor," said an officer of the Kee-
ly Motor Company lately when asked about
a despatch from Peris referring to such an
inventiode " He has had it finished and
boxed up for a year, awaiting the time when
Ito shall. take out palents for his other motor.
The patents for the other machine will be
taken out at the same time. It will be de-
pendent upon the motor, and nothing can be
done until that Is completed."
Keely has received a large number of
lettere from stockholders of the comp tug in
=ewer to Ms recent circular, awl with a
tangle exception all the writers have ex-
pressed themselves as being opporied to the
action of tho New York directors in bring-
ing suit against him, and in favor of his
proposition for a reorginization of the com-
pany, Very many of the stockholders
have sent words of enoeuregement, and the
inventor is oonfideat that he will be support-
ed by a controlling interest in the Meek at
the epeoia.1 meeting called for Seturdem
next. One enthuaiastic stockholder" a
200 man man of considerable rep etation as a
scientist, in expressing approttal of Keely's
0011040, Wrote;
You are melting s, history. As Kelpler
sail: God has waited 6,000 years for an
observer. I can welt for those who will tin-
derstand and appreeiate my discoveries.' Se
you can say: Let nothing turn you aide
from secreting and recording in practical,
intelligible form, the fade and principle -
with which y on are dealing. Never for a Me
inent doubt thatyour pereonalititereetswill be
abundantly cared for if once your new tercet
are hathessed and put to Work. The dis-
coverios are ee tratimendent tfi importance
that the mom who evokes such powers from
abysses rif itettire end fiets them at work for
the world will in A moment betoitte the
most famous of men, and will nedeinimily
cottutimid ell he needs,"
WOrry.
Is there net a lingering belief in the ininds
of conscientious people, thab it is an %mai
sional duty to worry? If brought eo the bar
of gonfeemon most of Us would probably have
to own that, under eertain eircumetances
we feel anxiety to be incumbent on us, itisa
sign that we are not hard.hearted, but sym.
pethetio, if the woes of others mum us to
lie awake Mnights; moreover, it showe
great eensibilky, if we are gloomy over
possible misfortune to ourselves.
A little girl whose aunt had died, and
who was horsedi too young to estimate the
calamity, said, itt afteryeere, that she wee
greatly mortified at seeing others cry while
she had na desire to shed a tear,
"Finally," she confessed, "I was eo
ashamed at being so hardhearted, that I
got an onion, and rubbei ib on my eyes.
Then I cried with the retie, and was quite
happy."
"Wiry don't you go to deep ?" asked a
school -girl of an exeita,lele room -mate, at
midnight.
" Oh,1 can't," was the answer, "1 am so
worried for fest my mother is ill."
"But she is fifty miles away, and it won't
do her any good for you to lie awake,"
"1 can't help ib; I should be ashamed to
try to bleep while she may be awake Buffer-
ing," was the natural reply.
Like the people who inetirectively imitete
50 invalid who is coughing, under the inn
pression that they are "helping him along,"
like the old lady who mercitully makes her -
half as light as she eau, in an overloaded
carrage, we foolishly imagine that we can, in
some mysterious way, help the suffering by
refusing to be hippy ouraelves. Never was
there a greeter mistake.
When we can actually do something, no
sacrifice is too great to be made for the good
of others; duty may justly demand of us
both peace of mead and health of body.
Oa the other hand, there are periods of
inactivity through which we must live,
seeing the struggles of those deer to us and
finding no chance to strike a blow in !their
defence. Then it is that duty commands,
"Be cheerful, resolute and calm. Your
turn will come, and eatil it does, you have
only to keep yourself in good condition for
action."
A Hindu Widow.
No sooner does a Hindu woman, be she
15 or 50, lose her husband than the persecu-
tion of custom begine. • • Her locks are
ruthlessly shamed clean off at the instiga-
tion of the butcher -priest. In these matters
the feelings of the unfortunate victim are of
no account and her piteous protests are
unually rudely ignored. From this moment
she is the incarnation of ell that is unlucky
or inauspicious. Her presence: is shunned;
she is a leper of society, doomed to pass her
life in seclusion and not allowed to mix
freely with her people. If the unfortunate
creature unwittingly intrudes her odious
presence on any occasion of joy or festivity
the company nurses her presence and regards
it as an evil omen, eure t be followed by
some greet calamity. Be it known the com-
pany which curses her very existence is
mostly compoeed of her near and deer relat-
ives. If an orthodox Hindu starts on an
enterpriee, but, as ill luck would have it,
descries a poor widow on the road, he curses
her to the fourth generation, laments his un-
fortunate lob, end prays his 330,000,000 of
gods to avert the certain misfortune which
ehe evil omen (i. e. the widow) portends.
The widow ie an object of contempt aud
scorn to her very reletives, though occasion-
ally thee feelings are tempered by pity.
Amid a hatever luxuries a Hindu woman
might have been nurtured, no sooner is she
stamped with ehe stigma of widowhood than
she must pay tete penrIty of her existence.
She must put on coarse garments and eat
unsavory food, aud thar, too, in many
families, once a day. The menial work of
the family becomes her lot as a matter of
mimeo. She must observe all the fasts of
which the Hindu calendar is very prolific,
and for her spiritual conduct is ostensibly
preeeribed a round of rigid austerities, the
wearzmonotony and unflinching severity of
which is potent enough to extinguish
whatever spirit of mind and body she
may have at one time poseessed. Any
laxity in the obtervanco of the prascrib•
ea courae of penance is suffieient to mantle-
liae the relatives of the widow, and is regard-
ed as strange perversity, if not downright
turpitude. * * I intreat my ec.untry-
men to judge of the miseries of widows by
transferring the tame penalties to men.
Suppoao it had been enacted that- when a
man lost his wife he should continue celibate,
live on coarse fare, be tabooed from society,
should eontinuo to wear maiming weeds
for the remaihder of this life, and practise,
whether he would or no, never-ending atm.
teribiesoin short, if widowers were alibied. -
ed to the same hard lot as the widows, I ask
would my countrymen not have long since
revolted against ouch inhuman treatment?—
[ A Hindu Lady.
New Atlantic Stemers.
Improvements in the Atlantic steamers
running between New York and Liverpool,
in regard to speed, capamity, and conveni-
ence, are following one another so rapidly
that ths Canadian servioe to Liveipeol will
soon be behind the eget unless some efforts
are made to keep up with the times. The
companies who control the services to New
York do not propose to stop s,t whet has
been accomplished by the buildinis, of moth
ocean greyhounds as the Etruria, Umbria,
and City of New York. A new veesel is to
be built at Glasgow for the Guion lino which
will be designed to cross the ocean in five
days. She will be the biggest steamer afloat,
measuring 11,500 tons. tier length will be
560 feet, breadth of beam 63 feet, and depth
of hold 52 feet. She will be furnished with
two very rakey masts, and her rigging will
be that of a foreaud-aft schooner. There
will be four funnels. Trensveree watertight
bulkheeds will render her unsinlenblo, it is
claimed, and ewo distinct eets of engines
will drive her powerful twin screws. It
will be possible to turn the omelet almost in
her own length by reversing ono screw and
going ahead with the other. Electricity
will brilliantly illuminate the steamer.
Apheriem ol Married Life,
The following aphorisine of marriedeffe, a
result of oeveral years'experience, are prayer-
fully commended to the consideratiin of all
young couples who coatomplate committing -
matrimony:
t
When tho girl baby appears in 5 house-
hold there is generally a family cry,sie.
The man with the Aretbaby is all seance --
smiles for hitneelf and his friends too,
A cradle ia a house nom or mom not be a
leomcoo. It is just as likely to be a girl's
nest.
Thi re is rtri earthly use in trying to make
an optimist of a man when his baby has the
measles.
/t 18 a mistaken idea that a bachelor
alWays refers to a baby as "It.' • Proquent-
ly he speaks of the little household abgel
at that "oonfottuded kid,"
ttigld And of a girl for a reeteurent--one
ihAt ittasty,"
XISOEfaltAXEQ17$6
A citizen of Danbury, Conn., who, was
troubled with sere eyes, saved Some snow
from the groat blizzerd ol leribspring, melted
it and treated hie eyes with the water, His
eyes were cured, and now a friend of his,
who It threatened with blindness, is using
the water for his eye trouble.
James Campbell, a colored man of Mor-
gan country., Ga. while working in tee field,
heard the buzz of a rattlesneke. He seized
a club, hunted up the serpent, struck ft,
and as he thought, killed it, He stopped
to pick it up, and the make stria& at his
hand, burying its fangs in, the flesh.
Campbell ran to the nearest holm and told
what had happened, The neighbor, bat-
ing no whiskey, ran three querten ofae mile
for Borne, but when he returned the negro
was speechless. He lived aeveral li.OUrf3 in
groat agony.
Miner McCeffery of the Yellow Jacket
mine, Virginia City, Nev., lighted the f use
of a blast and stetted to go to a side place.
As he turned the charge exploded, and
McCaffery's back, from his loins to the top
of his heed, was riddled with particlee of
send and gravel, ranging in size from mus-
tard seed to goose shot. Not a equare inch
of whole skin was left on his book. A doc-
tor spent three hears picking out the largset
fragments of rock. McCaffery's injuries,
though extremely painful, were not danger-
ous, but he must wait until he grows a new
Mein before he can work.
A traveller in Brazil writes to a horticul-
tural paper telling of the crop of mistltoes
that he f ound growing on telegraph wires
near Rio Janeiro. When he fiist saw ib he
thought that floods had left weeds hanging
to the wires but a near inspection and the
height of the wires, convinoed hien that the
apparent weeds were thousands of little
mistletoes firmly Reed to the wire. Many
speciee of this plant grow be—Brasil, and
some, called " bird weeds*. bear berries
which are eaten by birds. The seeds are de.
posited on the telegrapla wires; and takeroch.
They are short lived, of couree, but the con-
stant deposits of seed clothe the wires with
this curious fringe.
Agriculture in Australia.
The growth of the Australian colonies
has been exceedingly rapid. They have sud-
denly risen to importance ae egricultural
communities. They possess an immense
area of fertile land and their range of pro-
ducts is large. So important have they
become as competitors in the markets of
the Old World that the United States
Government has caused enquiries to be
made tato their condition and capebilitiee
as farming countries. The report sent in
contains much interesting information. Ib
shows that the population of all the Auto
trail= colonies, inoluding New Zealand,
was in 1,861,737 509. It had, in 1886, in
increased to :3,426,592. Their population
had inceaeed nearly five hundred per cent.
in twenty-five years. Two of the colonies,
New South Wales and Victoria, contain
more than a million oe.ch: Thirty-one per,
cent, of their inhabitants are engaged in.
agriculture. The quantity of land taken
up amounts to 111,849,369 acres, while
there are 1,856 302,541 sores still in the
hands of the different governments. The re-
port saye" the mil is generally veryfertile and
tee products ranee from the cereals of the
temperate zone to the fruits of the tropics."
The wheat coop is largo. The area sown'is
estimated at 3 697,954 acres, and the yield
45,541,592 bushele; of this about 90,0,00,000
was exported. The export of wheat, owing
to the increased home oomereption ana
very likely the low price abroad, has dim-
inished Wheat is not the staple export
of Australia. It le a great eheepwaising
country, and wool is the chief souree of its
wealth. In 1884 the Australian colonies
pesessed 75,626,04 head of sheep, and in
1855 they exported 04,088,140 pounds of
wool, Owing to the damage to the pastures
by the rabbits the quantity had decreased
next year to `1e8,541,828 pounds. The
value of the wool. exported is Se5,094,230.
The yield from each sheep averages 4,62
pounds and it sells for a little less than
twenty cents a pound all around. The
Australians own large quantities of live
stook besides sheep. Those figures show
that agriculture flouriehes in Australia, and
that our fellow subjects at the antipodes
knowhow to avail themselves of the iesour.
me of tho country in whith they have
eettlei.
Effect of Cold on Trees.
Tne Earl of Southesk wrote in the journal
which he kept while travelling through the
territories or the Hudson's Bay Company:
"When camped near Snake Rivor, on the
30th of Jeamary, we heard the trees creek-
ing repeatedly from the intenseness of the
frost; a common circumstance, ib femme,
but new to me. The reports were loud and
sharp, the w od, I was informed, actually
splitting into visible rents and fieenres."
The work of the Meat, which was eci new
and strenge to the traveller, is unknown to
the people of England and Seobland. The
cold is never intense enough in those coun-
tries to produce such disastrous Effects.
It takes a tw.nperature of twenty degrees
below zero, or lower than than to work the
mischief cold is capable of doing in the for -
mit. That degree of eel& is common in the
winters of New England and in all the
States of the Northern border. The de-
structive effects of the cold are familiar to
the reek:cuts of this long belt of country.
Tae mischief is done by the expansion of
wooer in freezing. The sap and the moist-
ure which are in the trunk and branches of
O tree are under premaure, and do not be-
come solid ohm the temperature is but little
below the freezing point,. Bub when the
co'd becomes intenee, the ice expends with
irresistible force, and this wood must give
way to it. The rending is along the line of
resistance. In hard -wood trees this is usual-
ly from the heart to the surface, what is
called the rift.
Oek-trees suffer more, perhaps, than any
others. This is bostause of their free rift.
Cases of injury to this tree are more noticed*
for it is oftener than others sawed or riven
into lumber. The beech is also liable to id.
jury from the cameo The trunk onoe split
never heels perfectly.
It is not tierearsonable to suppose that one
raison why the oak and the beech cannot
live so far terth ail the willow and the birth
is because they suffer more front these rend-
ings of the frost.
The timber of women who are et:waged
tiport tome epeeifie employment in Great
Britain and the United States is remarkable
and is manually hicreasing. In the United
Kingdom it le estimated that there are five
millions of women amid girls who eme regu-
larly enr,agod. in vitriol:us tradea and profes-
sions. Itt the city of New l'ork the inter-
mit of the women-Werlters are already en-
gaging special att'
ention and a number of
prominete citizins are promoting the organ -
Millen of an association partaking of the
features ef both the labour union and em-
ployment, buten, 6