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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe East Huron Gazette, 1892-06-23, Page 6aaeeaaae 5 M IOR RANDALL'S WANE PART iL Mr. Drew way the -manager. of Merstoke Bank, residing over its - C4 iz the High Street of, that sniff cathedral town. On the morning of theday on which:fthis story opened, he eves hurrying over his breakfast in order to get away -from the repinings of a discontented wife, who was upbraiding him for being a man with " no ambition." We ought to take a higher position," said Mrs. Drew. Let us be contented as we are, my dear , I am happy in my own station of life," an- swered he. " You don't push." "Certainly not to be thrust back again." "But you must confess that we are passed over. Lady Compton did not invite us to her garden fete; yet the Fr Hers were there, and he's only a doctor, and as poor as a church mouse." "He cured her bad leg, my dear." "If you please, it was the servants he at- tended. One day, hearing she head rheuma- tics in her knee, he recommended camphor- ated oil, that's all he did." "At any rate she walks now quite as well as you do, and declares that he cured her. You have little to complain of, Martha. I am sure that very nice people invite us. We dined- last week at the Sub -dean's in the pre - chits:" "Bother the Snte'ean! He was only a tutor at Cambrid, • . and married a governess —and there was nobody of any consequence asked to meet us—only old lawyer Framp- ton, his deaf wife, and the new organist at the cathedral; while a few days afterwards they gave another dinner party with the Dean and Lady Charlotte and two K.C.B.s!" In small parties, my dear, people should only be.breught together of nearly the same social position," replied the bank manager, very, sensibly. ",T consider myself as much a lady aa the Dean's wife -as good as any in the coanty, and better than most in the town," replied Mts. Drew, reddening with anger. " No it'ns'as I've always said, you don't make enough of yourself -; you've no ambition !" Mr. Drew looked at his watch, bolted his toast, drank his remaining coffee, and hur- ried away. He stopped at the door, how- ever, to fire a parting shot. " It's not what we consider ourselves, Martha ; it is what we are in other people's opinion." Then he fled. Mrs. Drew shed a few angry tears, and set herself to consider how she could alter the existing state of things. It is a remarkablecircumstence frequently occurring, that when people are happy and prosperous without a serious care in the world, they invent a grievance ; and this silly woman was discontented because she could not enter the society to which neither her birth nor her education entitled her. " A benevolent purpose would be a good way of getting in with them—a fancy bazaar for a charity, if the Mayor would lend the town hall,"`she soliloquized. " When they know me, and what a superior lady -like person I really am, they would cultivate my acquaintance." This and .similar thoughts occupied Mrs. Drew's vacant mind that morning for some time, when there was a ring at the house -bell, and a visitor was announced. Her face grew black, and the frown on her brow reappeared as she heard the name. It was a visitor wbo seldom called more than once in six months, and was not usher- ed into her drawing-room—a choice apart- ment overcrowded with showy furniture— but into a parlour opening from the hall. This, visitor was an' old man, tall,thin, who had'been handsome in earlier life, with well -cut features, a fair pale face, and light gray eyes. He was dressed in a drab - coloured suit of home -spun, and wore leath- er leggings, as is the fashion of country peo- ple. He was Isaac.Twyferd, the miller at Roby, a small village at some -ten miles dis- tance. His face brightened into a smile when Mrs. Drew sailed into the room ; he advanced to meet her, putting out his hand, in which she condescendingly placed the tips of her fingers. "Well, Martha," said be, "as usual - you do not seem to be pleased at seeing me. Your worthy husband is always friendly; one would suppose that he was my relation, instead of you." "What is it you expect, uncle? People cannot always go on in the same groove. .I have been married sixteen years and quite stepped out of my early sphere. I'm sure I'm always civil to you," replied Mrs. Drew with a sigh. "You are pretty well - so, perhaps, but there seems no real warmth inyou, for I am. a lone man, and you are a blood-relation— my nearest kin; I have felt a void since— since' (here his voice faltered and grew husky) "since Elizabeth left her old father." " Don't mention her name in my ewes - ewe !" cried Mrs. ]drew, holding up her hands in abhorrence. " She's not fit to be mentioned in a decent lady's house !" ° Stay, Martha ; not so fast. Elizabeth was lawfully married to the rascal—please to remember that. She is as honest as your- self "—he said this fiercely—" she made a mistake in her choice—taking lacquer for gold ; and in leaving her home.—Never mind ; we'll drop the subject. I've not come. to talk about the poor girl ; my visit is fora different purpose," "You have a purpose, then?" said she inquisitively. The old man drew his chair nearer to her, saying confidentially : "I've just come from Mr. Frampton's; I've been making a new will" A new will !" repeated his niece, open- in`g`her eyes. r• What is that for?" You shall hear. It is twelve years since my girl left me ; she and her husband went to Australia, that is certain. Some time after I heard they had gone to Canada. Now all traces appear to be Iost. If Elizabeth returns in the course of the next ten years, she will inherit my property ; if not, as my next of kin -I have no relations, save very distant ones—it will according to law, re- vert to you." - Mrs: Drew's face brightened up. "As your. brother's,diaughter, _I suppose so," id she; "though ten years seem a long whiiesto wait." 1 have".not felt well lately; and for sometdayethere.has blen`an unaccountable weigh en my. spirits, as if something were. goirig$ftppen ; so 'I thought _I would make.a newwig;_leaving myforgiveness to my&mistaken child; to whom, perhaps, :1 was ton severe_='whet I disinherited her; in et;Thase taken care the rascal shall never. elaine penny of it 3" C•"If'sal news. Youmenet haVe-eome re- fieStiiitstit7ra ImkthstiOind,a glala of good port, tit hesrfenyou up.!'- cried -Mrs. Drew v thz ndden cordislit , ringing the bell for luncieon ,_ The eekt enetereclidentiteiefusa her .offer :. h 'kat felt t rloneline-ss 4 -of • •late , and ti ght] his niece was iso .,afl otronate, ret he�fi i d a species of comfort. w feei-ng• b: s relative.- After el k►e.After hi r -iilnt heion. and talkm of b, - had been for some years. He had other business to transact in the town, he said, and must get back home, for it looked as if it were going to lee a wet night. Did you drive in, uncle?" asked she. " No," he answered : " I rode over on Gray Dobbin. " I have put him up at the Crown." And so they parted, the old man just touching -her brow with his lips. "Delightful !" cried Mrs. Drew to herself, when she was alone, rubbing her hands with satisfaction. " Everybody says he's rich. Really, he looks as if he were booked —very shaky. Seventy is not such a great age ; but fretting for that minx Elizabeth has undermined him. Will she ever return, I wonder? That's the question. I think she must be dead, or she would have both- ered him for money before this. That hus- band of hers reckoned to make money of his father-in-law. Roughing it in the colonies would soon wear her out. Fool that she was, to run away from a good home with a man who had nothing ! Well, perhaps it may make it better for other people." It is seen by the tenor of her thoughts that Mrs. Drew was an unfeeling, worldly woman. Mr. Twyford had scarcely left the house an hour, when another ring at the door- bell announced a visitor. "A person wishes to see you for a few minutes, mum," said the maid -servant. "A man or woman ?" asked her mistress. "She's a faded -like sort of lady," answer- ed Sarah. "With a begging -letter, I'll be bound --or somebody worrying for a subscription," ex- claimed the projector of the bazaar for charitable purposes. "I'll not see her. Tell her I am engaged." - Presently Sarah returned. "She says, mum, as how she'd be very much obliged if you'd see her just for a minute." "When I say no, I mean it, replied Mrs. Drew shortly ; then listening, she heard the visitor depart. Ten minutes afterwards, her husband's voice sounded from the foot of the stairs in the hall ; he had been sought in the bank by the " faded lady," and brought her into his house through the private door of communi- cation. ' Martha, Martha, come down !" he call- ed out ; when she descended, wondering. " You little know who is in there," whis- pering, and motioning over his shoulder to- wards the parlour door. "Be civil to her." " Whoever is it ?" said Mrs. Drew, open- ing the door and entering the room. The faded lady rose from the chair on which she had been seated, with an air of fatigue. Faded indeed—but still beautiful ; though the face was white and wan, it re- tained its perfect oval ; the classical brow and charm of large lustrous eyes—too bright —for it was the brilliancy of consumption. Her figure was fragile and drooping ; her attire all too thin and inappropriate to the season, damp with rain, and in the fashion of bygone years. - " Elizabeth !" she cried, halting, struck with dismay. " Yes," replied the poor wreck, in a sigh- ing voice. " I have come back once more ; and have called to ask if you will break the news of my return to my father. I fear going to him suddenly ; at his age the sur- prise might be too much for him. I must beg his forgiveness—before I die." " I'll not mix- Myself up in anything of the Lad !" returned Mrs. Drew angrily. " It's all very fine saying you've come back to ask his forgiveness, now you are poor, as I conclude you are"—glancing at the worn shabby dress. " You should have thought of it when you were prosperous." " I have never prospered." - " Martha !" said the bank manager re- proachfully. " Is my father well ?" "I shall give you no information. I washed my hands of you years ago, when you ran away with an adventurer ; ' and she turned her back, as if to leave the room ; but Mr. Drew gave her a warning glance as she passed him, which caused her to re- main. The kind-hearted man could assert himself when thoroughly roused, and then his wife got the worst of it. He now seated himself beside Elizabeth. " Your father is pretty well for a man of his years. He was with me in the bank an hour ago, and is most likely still in the town. Would you like me to try and find him, my dear ?" he asked kindly. "Oh Mr. Drew, thank you, thank you !" she cried, clasping her hands. " He always puts up at the Crown. I shall ascertain his whereabouts there. You sit still here until I come back ;" and the good man departed. Left alone with her cousin, Mrs. Drew dict not take a chair, but stood, staring at her with a hard expression. " Well, you see what flying in your father's face has brought you to," said she. "Thank good- ness, I was always dutiful to mine.—Have you any children?" "Ihave had three," faltered. Elizabeth. " They died in infancy. One lived until four years old—my darling—she was so sensible. I learned to believe in Heaven through the child ; she was an angel sent to me." The unfortunate Elizabeth cover- ed her face with her thin hands ani wept silently. " Is your husband kind to you ?" asked Mrs. Drew. "Constant disappointments have much tried him now. At first he was kind ; but he thought my father ought to have for- given me and him : -then he became cross because I refused to write asking- for assist- ance." ' - " Where have you been all these years." "First we went to Brisbane. He could not obtain employment as a clerk or a teacher, and he was not trained for manuel labour ; so we went to Canada, afterwards to the States ; lastly to California. Nothing succeeded with him. My health failed from the time I lost my little ones. Then he thought he might do better in England, after all ; and I longed to see my father once more before I died—so we have come." " Well may you regret your conduct." " Yet some excuse might be made for me, a giddy, motherless girl, and my father too old to understand young people. His strict principles' I miscalled severity. Well, it is all gone and passed now. i trust -to see his dear face once more—to hear him say he forgives the ; then I will lay down my head and die. - " I really believe she is in a deep deline," thought the pitiless woman to herself ; then aloud • " Where are you staying? "We only arrived at Liverpool yesterday, and came -en - here at once. My husband is waiting for tree in the town ; I hope he ` will not meet my father,"said shenervoualy. "I'm glad Inever vias a beauty, said Mrs.. Drew piousy, ''-or perhaps even I might have been led astray by flattery—not but that 1 wesnice-lo g, and scrupulous In my. conduct. I ..:h many offers,. and erafght has . enter than marrykig Drew, .only ... „ ;.3 .4 '"No, no ! " cried Elizabeth energetically; "_thgt woukV be impossible; .he.is good kind man."' At-thls-MoneentMraDrewvreturned,with , isonedaa- sand .olcl-friends,: which did radiant face. "I soon found your father, withnen gootleherb i ilea-UP;'and parted my deer," he said, "who waits to receive het en more frier' i' terms than they, yon :with open arms at the Crown. He declined coming here. You must be guarded in what you say, remember. Your husband's- . name had best not be mentioned. Him, he will never forgive. — Come ; I have a fly waiting ; I will take you to him," Elizabeth raised the bank manager's nand to her lips and kissed it. "She can't live, with that hollow voice," soliloquized Mrs Prew when they left the room. "I shall not have 'long to wait for the property." Elizabeth Ashworth, after an affecting and perfect reconciliation, with her father, sought her husband at the small railway inn at the outskirts of the townwhere he awaited her return. He was furious when she related the results of the interview she had unexpectedly obtained, which were, that he would receive her back home and reinstate her as his heiress; on condition that she parted from her . husband, whose treachery in beguiling a girl of eighteen from her father's roof he could never for- give. Ashworth, after upbraiding his wife in not having overcome the old man's preju- dice, rushed from the house. Poor Elizabeth was found lying on the floor in a fainting fit. Overcome by excite- ment and fatigue, she was carried to a bed- room, a doctor seat for, who pronounced her condition to be precarious through failure of the heart's action. Although re- ceiving every care and attention, she never rallied, and by morning's dawn she had passed away, being mercifully spared the knowledge of her father's tragic end. (TO BE CONTINUED.) VERY FAST TRAVELLING. The News of the Banging of Deeming in Australia Outran the Sun. An interesting instance of the magic of the telegraph, an illustration of the way it can annihilate space, outrun the sun and perform mystifying jugglery with old Time's hour glass and with the calender, and an object lesson in every -day science,are afford- ed in connection with the execution of the sentence of Murderer Deeming in Australia on Monday. Deeming was hanged at 10:01 A. M. and the news and details of the ex- ecution were read by the readers of the morning papers at the early breakfast table, and even before daybreak that day. If the execution bad been on any other day the news would doubtless have been printed in special editions of the evening papers the day previous to that of the execution for the news of Deeming's death was received in To ronto before 9 o'clock on Sunday evening - apparently thirteen hours before he was hanged. The. news was received in America first at Montreal. The telegraph beat -the sun .by almost a whole day. The message had to travel the course traversed by the sun, too, and did not make the gain by cutting across lots or doibling' back and stealing a lap. With a cable under the Pacific the message might have doubled on the sun's track and gained a day in a minute or _so. Telegrams from Aus- tralia must take the western or sunward course, and make the full circular tour. The message left Melbourne, on the far side of Australia, very soon after 10 o'clock Monday mor: ing, travelled about 15,000 miles, was retransmitted thirteen times through as many different stations and dif- ferent lengths of cable reaching this conti- nent at 8.30 p. m. Sunday. The difference in time between Toronto and Melbourne is fourteen hours and forty minutes, so that when Deeming was on the gallows it was 7:20 Sunday evening in Toronto and the message travelled the 15,000 miles in the remarkably quick time of less than an hour and a half. - This was the route, the message passing from one cable and one set of instructions to another at each station : From Melbourne across the Australian Continent by land line to Port Darwin, thence to Banjoewangie, in Java ;, to Singapore,- - to Madras, across India to Bombay, _under the Indian Ocean to Aden, in Arabia, under the Red - Sea to Suez, along the Suez Canal to Alexandria, under the Mediterranean to Malta, Malta to Marseilles, across France and- under the Channel to London, thence to Ireland, under the Atlantic to Cape Canso, Nova Scotia, and then down the coast to New York and other American cities. The time occupied by a cable message in reaching any distant point is taken up by the number of transmissions, the actual electrical trans- mission -through any one cable being instan- taneous. Taking that into consideration, the news travelled remarkably fast. . It might seem from the forgoing that by travelling around and around the earth one might have the same day and date for an indefinite period, provided he kept pace with the sun. But the day must -end some where, and end very abruptly, and the point where the old day dies and the new one is born is out in the Pacific Ocean, about midway between San Francisco and Yoko- hama, and oko-hama,.and running due north and south. That line of demarcation in the calendar runs through Behring Sea, cuts across and among the Fiji Islands, and just scrapes the end of New Zealand, but, for convenience sake, and not to have it Sunday midday on one side of the street and Monday noon on the other in some islands of the Pacific, the line_ has been crooked so that it does not cut any Island. As the earth turns before the sun, midday at Sunday would advance around the world until it struck that line, when it must perf.rce change or every day would be Sunday. The change is really made at midnight. It may require a little thought to straighten nut the subject, but it will come straight eventually. Little Oabinet of Wonders. The floating island in Sadawga Lake, near the town of Whittingham, Vt., is justly regarded as one of the greatest curi- osities in the Eastern States. It contains about 100 acres of fertile land, and is some times found in one quarter of the lake and then: again in another. Scientists have estimated that every year a layer equal to fourteen feet . of the entire surface of all oceans and other. waters is takenup into the atmosphere in the shape of vapour, to . fall its rain ands again; flow back into the seas. :° The speed of the fastest railway is but little mor-e'than one-half the velocity of the golden eagle's flight. That bird ..often makes 140 miles an. hour. The largest greenback extant is a $10,000 bill, and only one such.nete Ilia ix paint- ed by the Government. Of the Obit bills, the next largest, there are seven. The Government authorities at Washing- ton are experimenting with a vegetable rar- ity called the "jumping bean." 1f placed on a smooth table it keeps constantly on the move, jumping about, turning over and performing all kinds of acrobatic ti'i.iks. - He (sighing)—"I. wish you could find something about me to like. She (kindly) —"Well, there is one thing about you I like very much." "I am glad to hear you say so. What is it t" " You make short calls. BELFAST AS SHE IS. exist between Protestant and Roman Catholic, hence the determined opposition sa Ulster men clai large proportion of the intelligence of Ire - city in the British Isles that partakes more Extraordinary Growth of the Capital of of the Prole t nt North to Home Rule. Protestant Ireland m that the wealth and a i t BELFAST, May .—Perhaps there is no and is r the North,and f Home Rule is c majority. s of the overwhelming badly at the hand established fear that thev will fare very i of the elements which go to make American oities famous for the rapidity of their growth than Belfast, County Antrim, Ireland. In the United States such a city would be looked on as promising, but on the east side of the Atlantic such a phenomenon is look- ed on as little less than marvellous. The natives are proud•o£ their success and from statistics and other information which will be presented later on they have just reason, according to Eastern ideas, to be somewhat vain of the results. Belfast indeed, the province included, may be largely regarded as Scotch in birth (or by near descent), as well as in business instincts, religion, socia] qualifications, sports and pastimes, and even to some ex- tent in dialect. In respect to the last named, you will find the forms of speech in many parts of the counties of Antrim and Down identical with those of Ayrshire, Lanark- shire and adjoining shires in Scotland, while the steady and methodical system of doing business—slow but sure—the rigid- ly narrow, puritanical ideas in religious ob- servances, the conservatively distant cliques in their social customs, and the mania for golf, football, bowling and curling when they get a chance (for " it hardly ever freezes " here in Ireland), all pronounce the inherent spirit of the " canny Scot. THE MAURITIUS HURRICANE• Further Details Received of the Awful Calamity that Cost 2,000 gives. Further details as to the storm which swept over Mauritius last month have just been received. The signals from the mountain observa- tory on the day of the great storm were to the effect that no high winds were to be expected. The wind was from the north- west, and in Mauritius hurricanes seldom come frum that direction. At about noon the light wind suddenly increased and the sky darkened as if by magic. The people in Port Louis heard a furious hissing and the snapping of trees. A moment later the storm was upon the city, whirling ob- jects from the streets,. crushing or lifting tragile buildings, and ripping off roofs of the more substantial structures. People who were outdoors were thrown to the ground or pinned against buildings by the strength or the wind. Windows and doors were pushed in and long rows of trees snap- ped of and laid flat in the streets. The social prol•lem in Belfast is not easily The storm raged unabated for an hour solved. As in most large manufacturing and a half, and then ceased as suddenly as cities, everywhere the merchants are self- it bad come. The sun shone, and people made men for the most part ; but while they began to leave their houses and look over themselves may be proud of their success in the scene of ruin. They found the sea far life and at all times remember the friends up in the city ; waves were beating against of their youth, to expect the offspring to do tae. walls of buildings formerly well back so is quite •another thing. The result is that the new generation does not like to be from the shore, and structures that had once stood a few feet from the docks were suspected of belonging to anything but the either gone or were mere wrecks. The upper " suckle," and would resent any Post office, the Custom House, and the allusion to their grandfathers or grand- mothers. Moreover a social line of demar- cation is rigidly drawn between wholesale and retail in matters of society. For in- stance the wholesale whiskey manufacturer may meet socially some of the better -class consumers of liquors but certainly not the man who retails it. The same rule applies to the linen manufacturer and the retail storekeeper, and so right along the line ; in other words the social distinctions are numerous and so defined that to use a met- aphor we find crystal refp>in; to associate with china. China on the other hand re- fuses to recognize delft and poor earthen- ware is left out in the cold altogether. In a sentence the entire city consists of cliques which move ill a way`not unlike the motion of -the' heavenly bodies; each having its little sun round which it revolves with per- petual motion. - In the matter of amusements the people of Belfast are hard to move. Fancy in a city of -close on 280,000 inhabitants, there is to be found one theatre and a couple of music halls, the former struggling for an existence, and the latter not too well patron- ized. The cause of this is to be found in the large church -going and prayer -meeting constituency of the Presbyterian, Method- ist., Baptist and other Protestant churches. Do not let it be understood for a moment that Irish Presbyterianism for instance is like anything of the type of the old Scot- tish Covenanter, only more so. You won't find the Irish Presbyterian with an organ in his ohurch, not he ! He may use it in the prayer meeting when he is praising his Maker with some of Moody and Sankey's most soul -stirring hymns, or he may wink at its use in the Sabbath -schools, the nursery of the Church, where the children are sup- posed to get their training as future mem- bers of that body, but he cannot find lan- guage strong enough within the necessarily limited vocabulary at his command against its use in what he calls with emphasis "the services of the sanctuary." Long and bit- ter have been the discussions in the Church courts over this question of instrumental music, and its solution seems now as far` off as it was fifteen years ago. As a mat- ter of curiosity a list of the places of wor- ship in the city and suburbs here given will .speak, for itself : Church of Ireland (Episcopal), 27 ; Presbyterian, 36 ; Method- ist, 29 , Roman Catholic, 8 ; various, 26 ; making a total of 126 places of worship in and about the city. Notwithstanding manyy drawbacks, a want of culture, a conspicuous absence of love of art for its own sake being among the rest, Belfast has all those elements which go to make a city great and prosperous, and no doubt in a generation or two the inhabitants will wake up to find that there is something else in life than money -making. .However for the present this is the Alpha and Omega of their aims. The Belfast merchant is far- seeing and self-reliant, though slow to accept modern ideas until they have been thorough- ly tested elsewhere, and forced upon him beyond refusal. Take electric lighting for instance. With the exception of its being Oriental Hotel were in the midst of the flood. On the roofs were dozens of persons who had been driven from the lower floors by the sweep of the water through the buildings. While preparing for the rescue the people of Port Louis, without a mo- ment's warning, found themselves envelop- ed bj another storm, which burst upon them from the southwest with stunning force. The wind came at the rate of 121 miles an hour and showed a pressure of seventy-three pounds to the square foot. The second storm broke at 3 o'clock and lasted until 5. It cut its way through the upper part of the city, leaving the other quarters untouched. The streets which felt the full force of the wind were flattened as if struck by a giant hammer. St. George's rampart was levelled. Houses and shops were piled together and, then blown to the ground. There was no time for the inhabitants to escape from the buildings or even to start for the cellars. A single deadly blast levelled La. Bourdournais street, and the groups of pedestrians were crushed in heaps under the debris. After two hours the hurricane stopped abruptly, and people from the lower quar- ter hurried to the scene of death and ruin to begin the work of rescue. The number of wounded was not estimated. Hardly a soul in the whole upper part of the city es- caped uninquired. The total number of dead was was about 2,000. In the country the storm wrecked many Indian sugar houses and several villages. The loss of life outside of Port Louis is thought to have been about 500. - Sensational Murder -of a Ballet Girl. A murder of a most sensational character was discovered at Warsaw on Friday night. A ballet girl named Josephine Gerlach was found at her lodgings in Uspolna Street with terrible wounds on her head and body, the injuries having evidently been inflicted by some heavy blunt instrument. The poor girl's cries attracted attention, and a woman who was seen escaping from the house was pursued and arrested. She proved to be a lady of position named Boguslawa Brezickas and in her pocket was found a Heavy ham- nier with blood and hair clinging to it. She also had a dagger, and in her pocket was a sum of four thousand roubles. Brezicka, who is 45 years old, is married and the mother of four children. It is alleged that she was on friendly terms with the ballet girl, ar,d the police version is that robbery was the motive for the crime, but on the other hand there are certain circumstances Feinting to jealously as being the factor which brought about the outrage. Gerlach died from her injuries soon after being found. Hoole. Cherish the home with infinite tender- ness. You cannot love it too much, nor give it too much time and thought. Re- member,- life has nothing better to offer you ; it is the climax and crown of God's gifts. in two or three large places of business, it is Make every day of life in it rich and sweet. not to be seen. - Nevertheless the city It will not Iast long. See to it that you fathers make a boast, and not without plant no seeds of biter memory ; that there reason, that, so far as gas lighting is con- be no neglect and no harshness to haunt you cerned, there is no better lighted city in the in after years. Your little ones will die and United Kingdom. The price of gas to the go hence with your words and spirit plant - consumer is 70 cents per thousand feet. The ed in their eternal nature. Sons and plant is owned by the city, • and the coal daughters will eo from you into the great used conies from England and costs $4 50 world, to live as you have taught them, to per ton at the works. Time was when Belfast could boast of lit- tle beyond its interest in the linen trade ; but now Linenopolis, as it is called, can howbitter will be the mem point with pardonable pride,to its shipbuild- ing yards, and smile with contentment when the names of those record -breakers of the Atlantic are mentioned, namely, the Teu- tonic and Majestic. Nor are its energies confined here alone. Its whiskey produc- tion, its aerated water manufacturers aid its tobacco factories are all matters of world- -wide fame. A few statistics here may serve to show the immense strides this city has made within fifty years. For instance, the population which in 1841 was 75,308 now extends to 273,000. In buildings alone the increase within five years shows in 1886 1,314 new buildings valued at $64,000 ; in 1891, 1,817 new buildings valued _at.$135,- 000. The gross amount of "customs duties paid at Belfast for the year 1843 was $1,664,- 000. For the year 1891 it reached - he enor- moussum of $11.,137,000. The val,"r e_af the expert, to the ,United ,States *late tte -year 1891 was $ff,215,000 `this being ab e40 per cents; of the bu nt bf thle mills.. dere.- In mars of politics the question of Home Rale :is one which is' agitating the North of Ireland at ,present in view of the generuletian=which•iagenerally admitted to be not far off. In anticipation of its re- sults and in view of Mr. Gladstone's policy expressed or understood, there is a deep- seated conviction here that the long stand- ing feuds between Protestants and,Roman Catholics, dating as far back as 1688, when the question of Protestant or Roman Catho- lic ascendancy was fought and settled on the banks of the Boyne, will render the solution of the question extremely hazardous, not to use a stronger term. _ The blood which has been shed in the city- of Belfast alone since the great riots of 1864 be strong or weak according to the spirit you have engrafted upon them How will you yearn for them, whether living or dead ! How sweet or i er - ory of the days when they prattled about you in the home from which they have gone forever ! So live with them and train them now that when they are gone you and they can look back on the past with thankful- ness and not regret. Closed Her Mouth. In a breach of promise case the counsel for the plaintiff asked the defendant: " Did you ever kiss the plaintiff?" "Yes, many a time." "How often?" "I admit having kissed her every even- ing when I called to see her." " Every evening ?" !" Yes ; but I was compelled to do it." "Compelled—how's that?" - " Why it was the only way to prevent her singing." A Lucky Boy. Small Boy—" Dickie Dartt is the luckiest boy I know. He is always havin' somethin' nice happen. He went to the theater las' night.' Little Sister—" You often go, too." Small Boy—" Yes, but there was a fire in this theater, an' a awful panic, an' lots of people got crushed, an' he was there an' saw the whole business." Little Sister—" Where is he now." Little Boy..-" In a hospertaL" There are in Russia 312 match manufac- tories, with an aggregate production of 139 704 000 matches. Of these works 77 gives an indication of the feelings which' per cent. manufacture phosphorous matches COAL BEING OONSU ID It is Being Used Extravagantly-' o All Gone, Then Q I have heard that when 'g Hudson, in the zenith of his fame, `was asked as to what his railways were to do when all the coal was burned out, he replied that by that time we should have learned how to burn water. Those who are asked the same question now will often reply that they will use electricity, and doubtless think that they h...ve thus disposed of the question. The fallacy of such answers is obvious. A so-called "` water gas " may, no doubt, be used for developing heat, but it is not the water which supplies the energy. Trains may be run by electricity, but all that the electricity does is to convey the energy from the point where itis generated to the train which is in motion. Electricity is itself no more a source of power than is the rope with which a horse drags a boat along the canal. There is much more philosophy in the old saying : " Money makes the mare go," than in the optimistic doctrine we often hear spoken of with re- gard to the capacity of man for dealing with nature. The fact is that a very large part of the boasted advance of a civilization is merely - the acquisition of an increased capability of squandering, for what are we doing every day but devising fresh appliances to exhaust with ever greater rapidity the hoard of coal. There are just a certain number of tons of coal lying in the earth, and when these are gone there can be no more forth- coming. There is ro manufacture of coal in progress at the present time. The use- ful mineral was the product of a very sin- gular period in the earth's history, the like of which has not again occurred in any noteworthy degree in the geological ages which have since run their course. Our steam engines are methods of spend- ing this hoard; and what we often hear lauded as some triumph in human progress is merely the development of some fresh departure in a frightful extravagance. We would justly regard a man as guilty of ex- pending his substance wastefully if he could not perform a journey without a coach and six and half a dozen outriders, and yet we insist that the great steamers which take us across the Atlantic shall be run at a speed which requires engines, let us say, of 12,000 horse power. If the number of passengers on such a vessel be set clown as 500, we have for each passenger the united force of twenty-four horses, day and night, throughout the voyage. I expect our descendants will think that our coal cellars have been emptied in a very wasteful manner, particularly when they re- flect that if we had been content with a speed somewhat less than at present de. mended, the necessary consumption of coat would have been reduced in a far greater proportion than the mere alteration of peed would imply. e Sit f$ HE TOOK STRYCRNINE. Fred horning, Aged 1n, Departs This Life, at Woodstock, Gut. A Woodstock despatch says : —A case of determined suicide happened here shortly after 6 o'clock last evening. Fred Horning 19 years of age, son of Robert Horning, took his own life at his home on Dundas street, last night. The young fellow was on the street between 5 and 6 o'clock. Ile return- ed home, and in a few minutes became vio- lently ill. A doctor was sent for, but on his arrival could do nothing for him, and he died inside of three-quarters of an hour. The medical attendant found him in painful convulsions, produced, in his opinion, by poison. This opinion was verified when, upon leaving the house, he found immediate- ly outside the window a paper Labelled strychnine. The coroner deemed an inquest unnecessary, pronouncing it a case of sui- cide from poison. The victim of this rash act has been living a life of idleness for some time past, and those who know his record best took the sad news quite calmly. He has on different occasions figured in the police court and was up yesterday morning upon a charge of refusing to pay livery hire. He has, it is said, threatened to take his life on several occasions. His father is a black- smith at R. Whitelaw's foundry. Dickens' Children. I venture to think that such a child as David Copperfield is rare. The majority are made of more commonplace material. They would know better how to get on with Mr. and Miss Murdstone. Very few boys—nowadays at any rate—would, even at eight or nine years of age, be quite so easily imposed on by a waiter as to allow him to eat their dinner without uttering a word of protest. I am very doubtful, too, whether many boys would have been quite so loverlike to Little Emily and have found such intense delight in Mr. Pegotty's wonderful house by the sea at Yarmouth. Still, one feels that David is real and from first to last consistent with himself, which, by the way, is more than can be said for all Dickens' characters—Ham Peg- otty, to wit, who, when we are first intro- duced to him, is little more than a half witted, blundering lout, but becomes before the end of the story a really mangificent fellow. Erery one will call to mind many other child characters in the writings of Dick- ens. No other male writer has given us to many. In my judgment, none of his chil- dren can compare with those of certain female writers. Total Depravity. Teacher : " Do you know thedifference between right and wrong ?" B``137 oy"l aw." " If you were to take your brother's cake from him what would you do?" " Eat it up." Spring in the Olty. City mamma—" Did you havea nice time in the park ?" City Boy—" Yes'm." " What did you do ?" "Oh, lots of things—run on th' walks, an made faces at th' pleeceman, an' dodged the horses, an' fired stones at the ' keep-oft- th'-grass ' signs, an' everything." Significant. Wife (who is without a girl)—" Why, the atmosphere of this kitchen is i,lue. What causes it ?" Husband (who - has been trying to get, breakfast)—"I have just burnt my fingers." Then He Oan Keep Her. He : " Have you heard the news ? Yes- terday morning Mary Dawson jumped into her father's carriage and eloped with the coachman." She: " What's her father done about It?" He : " He has advertised ' Send back the horses and all will be teigiven."' 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