$h Chatham Record.
H. A. LONDON, Jr.,
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VOL. I.
PITTSBORO', CHATHAM CO., N. C, JANUARY 16, 1 879.
XO. 18.
For larger advertisements liberal contracts w ill be
made.
LARGEST
STORE
LARGEST STOCK
Cheapest Goods & Best Variety
l 'AN BE FOVXD AT
LONDON'S
CHEAP STORE.
Hew Goods Reeeiyei eyerT Week.
You can always find what yon wish at Lon
don's. ITe keeps everything.
Dry Goods, Clothing, Carpeting, Hardware,
Tin "Ware, Drugs, Crockery, Confectionery
Shoes, Boots, Caps, Hats, Carriage
Materials, Sewing Machlnes,Oils,
Putty, Glass, Paints, Nails,
Iron, Plows and Plow
Castings,
Sole, Upptj and Harness Leathers,
Saddles,
Trunks, Satchels,
Shawls, Blankets, Um
brellas, Corsets, Belts, La
dies Neck-Ties and Ruffs, Ham
burg Edgings, Laces, Furniture, Ac.
Best Shirts in tbe Country for $1.
Best 5-cent Cigar, Chewing and
Smoking Tobacco, Snuff,
Salt and Molasses.
My stock is always complete in every line,
and goods always sold at the lowest prices.
Special inducements to Cash Buyers.
My motto, "A nimble Sixpence is better
than a slow Shilling."
"All kinds of produce taken.
W. L. LONDON,
Pittsboro', N. Carolina.
H. A. LONDON, Jr.,
Attorney at Law,
riTTSBORO', X. .
j5feirSpecial Attention Paid to
Collecting.
J. J. JACKSON,
AT TOR N EY-AT-LAW,
riTTSBOiifr, x. c.
;T"All business entrusted to hirawillre-
prompt attention.
ft. H. COWAN,
DEALER IN
Staple & Fancy Dry Goods, Cloth
ing, Hats Boots, Shoes, No
tions, Hardware,
CROCKERY and. GROCERIES.
PITTSBORO', N. C.
NORTH CAROLINA
STATE LIFE
INSURANCE CO.,
OF
RALEIGH, ft. GAB.
F. n. CAMERON, rreticlent.
W. E. ANDERSON. Fi? Pres.
V. H. HICKS, SeSy.
Thd only Home Life Insurance Co. in
the State.
All its fund loaned out AT HOME, and
among our own people. We do not send
North Carolina money abroad to build up other
States. It is one of the most successful com
panies of Its age in the United 8tates. Its as
sets are amply sufficient. All losses paid
promptly. Eight thousand dollars paid in the
last two years to families in Chatham. It will
t ost a man aged thirty years only five cents a
day to Insure for one thousand dollars.
Apply for further information to
H.A. LONDON, Jr., Gen. Agt.
PITTSBOKO', N. C.
Dr. A. D. MOORE,
PITTSBORO', N. C,
Offers his professional services to the citizens of
Chatham. With id experience of thirty years he
hopes to five entire satisfaction.
JOHN MANNING,
Attorney at Law,
PITTSBORO', N. C,
Practices In the Courts ot Chatham, Harnett,
Moore and Orange, and la the Supreme and Federal
Courts.
O. S. POE,
Dealer in
Dry Qoods, Groceries It General Merchandise,
All kinds of Plows and Castings, Buggy
Materials, Fnrnit.re, fto.
PITTSBORO', X. CAR.
THE TIME IS SHORT.
BY 1IEZRKI All 1UTTERWORTII.
1 sometimes feel the thread of life Is slender.
And soon with me the labor will be wrought;
Then grows my heart to other hearts more tender.
The time.
The time Is short.
A shepherd's tent of reeds and flowers decaying.
That night winds soon will crumble into naught;
So seeius my life, for some rude blast delaying.
The time,
Tbe time Is short.
Up, up, my soul, the long speut time redeenlug.
Sow thou the seeds of better deeds and thought ;
T.Ike other lamps, while yet thy light Is beaming.
The time,
The time is short.
Think of the'good thou might's have done, when
brightly
The suns to thee life's choicest seasons brought ;
Hours lost to Hod In pleasures passing lightly.
The time,
The time is short.
Think of the drooping eyes thou mlght'st have lifted
To see the good that Heaven to thee hath taught ;
The uuhelped wrecks that past life's bark hath
drifted.
The time.
The time is short.
Think of the feet that fall by misdirection.
Of noblest souls to loss and ruin brought.
Because their lives are barren of affect ion.
The time.
The time is short.
The time is short. Then be thy heart a brother's
To every heart that needs thy help In aught;
eon thou may'st need the sympathy of others.
The time,
The time is short.
If thou hast friends, give them thy best endeavor.
Thy warmest Impulse and thy purest thought;
Keeping in mind, in word, in action ever.
The time.
The time is short.
Each thought resentful from thy mind be drtveu, "
And cherish love by. sweet forgiveness bought;
Thou soon wilt need the pitying love of Heaven.
The time.
The time is short.
Where summer winds, aroma laden, hover.
Companions rest, their work forever wrought.
Soon other graves the moss and fern will cover.
The time,
The time is short.
Up, up, my soul, ere yet the shadow falleth;
Some good return In later seasons wrought ;
Forget thyself when duty's angel calleth.
The time,
The time is short.
By all the lapses thou hast been forgiven.
By all the lessons prayer to thee hath taught.
To others teach the sympathies of Heaven.
The time.
The time Is short.
To others teach the overcoming power
That thee at last to God's sweet peace hath brought
Glad memories make to bless life's final hour.
The time.
The time is short.
THE DOCTOR AND THE DOCTOR'S
SON.
Now for school-teaching I was no better
fitted than for the ministry I mean as far
as patience was concerned yet it came
into my head very suddenly one morning,
as I sat in the broad old kitchen of my
father's house, with my little brothers and
isters around me (and, indeed, there was
a goodly array of them), that it -was
about time for me to be doing something
in the world; something outside of the
monotonous round of household duties
which I performed day after day; some
thing, perhaps, to relieve my father,
in a small way, of the burden that rested
upon his shoulders. By this I do not mean
that he was in debt, or that his goodly
farm failed to give his large family a com
fortable, happy support. Not at all. But
let that question go without further dis
cussion, and suffice it by saying that for
very good reasons of my own I resolved,
as old people say, "to make a start in the
world."
And so I started. How that was brought
about it would be tedious enough to re
late; but this much I will say, that be
cause of the idea born te me so suddenly
on that spring morning, I was chosen of
the numerous applicants teacher of some
forty scholars at a distance of Borne twenty
miles from Cranston. I need not add that
this was a source of great gratification to
me, and that because of it I entered into a
vast number of vague, happy speculations
as to how the summer would glide away
how the days, the long summer days,
would seem as short as the shortest of
winter ones how I would teach the little
children to love me, and by that means
find a readier way of interesting them in
their books. Dear me! it would till a good
sized volume to write out all that I
imagined and dreamed of the summer
which I was to spend in the little village
of Lester.
But "a change came o'er the spirit of
my dreams, not betore I left home, be
cause in such a case I might never have
found courage to have left it, but
just before I arrived at the scene of ac
tion. "You are to teach in Lester village thi3
summer, if I understand you rightly?"
said the most gentlemanlyof gentlemen be
fore I left the cars at Lester.
The question was not an impertinent
one after our brief morning acquaintance,
and so I answered it in all good faith, a
little pompously, perhaps, for 1 was greatly
impressed with the importance of my call
ing. "Yes, sir. and I anticipate a very plea
sant summer of it," I said.
"You do?"
He spoke in a quizzical tone, while the
wisest and most inexplicable of smiles
crossed his face.
"Yes, sir, and why not?" I asked, for
getting that my question was abrupt and
my manner somewhat disturbed.
"Nothing, only to realize your plea
sant anticipations, you must meet a dif
ferent fate from your predecessors for
years back."
"And why, sir?" I questioned, my face
getting redder and redder every mo
ment. "Because, of all children under the sun,
those of Lester village are the most un
manageable. In the course of a summer
they usually succeed in dethroning two or
three teachers."
He was a very handsome gentleman, as
I said before, and as he said this in a
pleasant, laughing way, displaying a set
of perfect teeth, he grew handsomer than
ever. But I did not think much of that,
only of the thread of quiet exultation that
I thought I detected running through his
remark, I grew piqued in a moment,
and answered him with a show of spirit
which must have been quite amusing.
"They will not dethrone mer
"Ah!"
He was, indeed, much amused, for he
looked in my face for a full moment, as if
to gather from it food for his merriment.
At that I grew queenly, or at least what I
thought to be so, and drew myself up as
though there were a question of honor to
settle. Just then the cars came to a full
stop and the conductor gave his call
'Lester!" so that I did not have a chance
to answer not his words, for they were
simple enough in themselves but his
manner.
"I wish you much success," he said, as
I left the care.
"Thank you; your wish shall prove a
prophecy."
That was the first that I heard of my
Lester school, and I need not add that my
spirits were somewhat dampened. But
that I should conquer the unruly set of
masters and misses I did not doubt for a
moment.
"They'd do well enough if it warn't
for the doctor's boy," my good-natured
boarding mistress said when I questioned
her concerning my pupils. "He is the
ringleader of 'em, and always has
been."
That was enough for me to know. I
would make friends with the doctor's son
in the beginning. But that was easier
said than done, 1 may as well conless at
once. There was mischief enough in him
to have stocked a little million of com
monly roguish boys. Gain an advantage
over him in one way, and he was doubly
sure to gain one over me in another. If
I attempted to reason with him, his an
swers would set the whole school in a
hubbub, and if I threatened to punish him
a look of sheer defiance settled upon his
bright face. He troubled me so deeply
that I could not rest night or day, in
school or out. That I grew pale and thin
is not to be wondered at.
When my trial was at its height, I
chanced to meet my acquaintance and
pro phet of the cars. Who he was, or what
he was, I did not trouble myself to think.
I did not even care. I had hoped to
meet him again, but I preferred to have
it at the time of my victory, not at my
vanquishment.
"And how are you pleased with your
school?" he asked, walking by my side in
an easy, careless way, as though he was
an acquaintance of years.
"I am delighted," I answered. "I can
not express to you how much so."
He laughed heartily. Looking into his
face at that moment, I thought I could
trace a very strong resemblance between
him and the doctor's son, Frank Eldridge.
A most unpleasont truth dawned upon my
mind. A little angered, I determined to
make the most of it.
"The scholars are very well, " I said,
half maliciously. "I suspect that the trou
ble lies with their parents. The ring
leader of all the mischief seems to have
grown up in a most unhealthy atmos
phere. I should say that his father was
not a very devout friend of Sabbath
schools, and that would be a mild
saying, indeed, and a charitable one on
my part."
My words took immediate effect. A lit
tle Hash of color appearing suddenly on
the gentleman's face, spoke plainer than
words could have done. Seeing my ad
vantage, I continued, in a tantalizing
way:
"People tell me that this Eldridge boy
has not known a mother's care since his
earliest infancy. That is self-evident. I
have been more lenient, remember
ing this. But if it is a mother's care he
needs, I would advise his father, most
heartily, to make an attempt to secure
to him the care of some good, true
woman.'
"You would?"
He looked me fully in the fare as he
asked the question. I was not equal to
the ordeal. I grew suddenly cm
fused, and trying to answer him, stum
bled uion three or four answers at the
same time.
"Your advice is most excellent. Miss
Lakin. I hope the unfortunate gentleman
will be able to act upon it."
"So do I, most sincerely," I answered,
blushing beneath his strange, questioning
glance. "For the boy's sake, he would
do well to make the matter one of import
ance until he succeeds, " I added, more
because I would not allow myself to be
silenced by his gaze, than because I cared
to speak."
"Perhaps you would be willing to aid
the gentleman in question, since you were
the first to suggest the idea. Would
you?"
"I am no philanthropist," I answered
curtly, believing that he was making an
attempt to quiz me. "I think too much
of my life"
I hesitated. I saw that I was going too
far. The gentleman smiled. We were
close by the school -house door, and the
conversation could not go further. With
a "good-morning" he turned away, while
I entered the school-room.
"Who was that gentleman?" I asked of
a child standing by the door.
"Dr. Eld ridge, Frank Eldridge's father, '
was the reply.
I knew that well enough before, but
hearing it verified by the child's lips sent
my blood throbbing and beating loudly at
my heart.
The day that followed that morning
was not a pleasant one to me. Not that
my scholars were unusually rude or bois
terous on the contrary, they were
quieter than I had ever before known
them; but 6omchov my conscience trou
bled me. Thinking of the motherless boy
before me, I saw that in dealing with him
I had put away from my heart that blessed
charity which suffereth long and is kind.
I had called anger justice, and by it dealt
with him. I had forgotten how warm,
human words sink through the congealed
surface of the heart, touching and stirring
its purest depths.
I had blamed the father. And there I
was wrong again. Of the world, I, a
woman, had the best right to look straight
through his indulgence, to the fatherly
tenderness that could not give birth to a
reprimand or rebuke; to the love that
could not, because of the mother resting
in the grave, mete out the justice that the
child merited.
How the tender hands of pity brought
these overlooked truths before my
eyes, until blinded by tears I could not
see!
The next morning I met Dr. Eldridge
again, and again he kept me company to
the very door of the school-room. His tan
talizing humor had not left him, and with
a sly look in his clear grey eyes, he as
sured me that the father of my unruly pu
pil had, indeed, taken my sage advice to
heart. Was I glad to hear it?
"Oh, yes," I answered in a sober, quiet
way.
"Let one fact console you, Miss Lakin,"
lie said, earnestly, "you have succeeded
admirably with your school, and quite to
the satisfaction of the villagers. There is
a talk of having the summer term con
tinued into the fall, since there is a stout
fund of school money on hand."
"Dear heavens," f-said, "I shall go
crazy."
"No, I hope not, unless you will con
sent beforehand to engage me as a medical
adviser."
I did not answer him. I was in a poor
mood to bear his teasings. Indeed, I
could hardly keep back the tears at the
thought of the many weeks of torture
that they were planning out for me. For
six weeks (half of the summer term) I
had been trying to keep down the rebellion
and I had hoped to worry through the
rest of my allotted time without a serious
outbreak. But now I could not hope for
it. "War was inevitable, it must come."
Before the thought, my good resolutions
of the day before vanished like empty air.
If to be mistress of the school room I must
use stick, whip and rule, then I would
wield them. I would conquer or be con
quered. I did not resolve upon this fully
until I was informed that the school would
be lengthened out six weeks into the au
tumn, allowing a vacation of one week in
the meantime.
So the days dragged along, not one
passing without Dr. Eldridge making his
appearance somewhere in my way. Some
times I was pleased to see him, perhaps
always; but he had a strange, mischievous
way with him that worked against my
temper constantly. I think he liked my
little fits of passion, however, or he
would not have provoked them continu
ally. And the school! Dear me, what a
school it was! The trial of it wore me
thin as a shadow. But affairs came to a
climax one day. This was the way it
was brought about. While hearing a re
citation one hot, sultry afternoon, 1 drew
my chair into the middle of the floor
where there was a faint show of a breeze.
I was directly in front of one of the aisles,
and so seated that I could not see what
was going on behind me. After dismiss
ing the class, I made an attempt to rise,
when to my utter dismay and horror, I
found myself, or my dress, made fast to
the chair. I tried to be very cool and col
lected as I released myself, but my hands
trembled violently, and I knew that my
face was white with anger.
"Can any one tell me who pinned my
dress to the chair?" I asked
There was dead silence. I repeated the
question. Still no answer. 1 could in
terpret that easily enough. Not a
scholar in school dared tell a tale of Frank
Eldridge.
"You may walk this way, Frank," I
said.
As though marching to a military drum,
he came to the middle of the floor.
"I shall bear your impudence no
longer," I began. "Either you or 1 must
be at the head of this school. If my arm
and ruler are as trusty as I think, I shall
be mistress here."
"You don't dare ferrule me; my father"
he began.
"Let your father come here, and I will
ferrule him too," I said, interrupting
him.
Til tell him of that," he cried out.
"Do so, by all means," 1 answered.
And so 1 thrashed Frank Eldridge,
soundly and smartly, till he begged lor
mercy like a three year old baby, and
promised as humbly a9 1 could wish to
do better. There was a great uproar in
consequence of it, both in school and out.
But what made the matter ludicrous in
the extreme, was the fact of my threaten
ing to whip Dr. Eldridge (handsome,
idolized Dr. Eldridge,theawe of the whole
village and the pride of the whole town)
was noised about. At last it reached the
Doctor's ears, and as I had feared, he came
just at the close of school, the next after
noon, to remind me of my threat.
"I have come for my whipping," he
said, in a low tone, as I answered his loud
rap at the door.
I do not know why, but the tears sprang
to my eyes at this. It seemed unkind in
him, almost cruel. I was afraid he would
notice how I was moved, and so 1 turned
my head away, as 1 answered;
"1 am very busy now; can you come in
and wait?"
"Until after school, do you mean?"
"Just as you please 1 have no tiaie to
spare now I suppose you have come to
undo my work ot yesterday."
"Not I, believe me "
"Walk in, if you please," 1 said, in
terrupting him. He was speaking so
pleasantly and kindly that the tears were
coming to my eyes again.
"Now my whipping, Miss Lakin," he
said, after the last class was dismissed,
and we were alone together in the old
school-house.
"Dr. Eldridge, how unkind of you," I
said.
"But I insist upon it," he answered,
passing me my rule.
How exceedingly foolish I felt. How
wretchedly he teased me. But there was
no escaping from him, so I said, laughing
and crying together, "give me your
hand."
"The right, I believe, is the one always
claimed by ladies. But are you serious,
shall 1 really give it to you?"
"Yes," I answered, coloring.
Taking the tips of his fingers in my left
hand, I gave lain a quick blow.
"A kiss for a blow," he said, raising
my hand to his lips. "Strike away, dear,
1 shall never grow weary."
So I struck him agai.ii, once, twice,
thrice.
"See which hand will get blistered first,
yours or mine," he said, in high glee.
"How happy you make me, and how good
I am getting."
"And how bad I am growing, every
day," I cried, bursting into tears, and
dropping my head upon the desk.
"Heaven forbid, Lizzie," he said, ten
derly, the mockery going quite away from
his voice. "I know thai I have worried
and troubled you, but my heart has been,
and is, all right, my child. Do you re
member what you said to me a long time
ago, about marrying again? And do you
know that in spite of reason and prudence
(for you are young and pure-hearted yet),
I have hoped and prayed that sometime
you might be the light and love of my bad
darkened heart, my darkened home? I
love you; that is all I can say in pleading
my case."
And that was enough. That blessed
knowledge for a moment expiated all
my sufferings in the turbulent school
room; ay, all that I had known in life,
even.
"Then you meant it, in a small way,
when you asked me to give you my hand?"
he said, archly, as I held out my hands to
him.
And I said "yes" in one breath, and
"no" in the next. Which was right?
The Government has four breeding
stables.
MUSIC IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS.
We have from time to time pointed
out that one of the chief defects in the
existing system of elementary educa
tion is the unintelligent selection of
what are called extra subjects. It is
recognized in theory, if not in prac
tice that everything ought to give
way to the proper teaching of the three
It's. A boy or girl may as well never
have gone to school as leave it unable
to read and write and cast accounts.
But when this limit is passed, and the
time that the child spends in school has
to be hlled up somehow, the subiects of
instiuction are usually chosen on less
rational grounds. The distinction be
tween primary and secondary educa
tion, between a school life which ends
for the most part at twelve and a
school life which is continued till seven
teen or eighteen, is very generally lost
sight of. Children of ten or eleven,
wno are only going to remain under
instruction a year or two longer, are
introduced to subjects of which a
smattering is useless, while nothing
more than a smattering can possibly
be imparted in the time at the teacher's
command. The considerations which
should determine the choice of extra
subjects should be the amount of
knowledge which it is possible for a
child to attain before his school-life
comes to an end, and the opportunities
which he will have of keeping up his
knowledge after he has left school.
Language and history are both unsatis
factory when judged by these tests.
Very little can be done in either of
them without considerable application,
and among the class which attends
elementary schools there is not suffi
cient time for application while the
child is at school, and neither time nor
oppDrtunity later on. What usually
happens is that a few dates and a list
of English kings, or a few principles of
grammar which apart from a literature
to give them meaning are like weapons
fastened to a wall, are poured into a
child's brains with more reference to
their reproduction on the day of exami
nation than to any permanent impres
sion they are likely to leave behind
them. The inspector is satisfied, partly
because he knows that even to have
learned so much means that both
teacher and child have done their best,
ana partly Decause tie cannot help feel
ing that, in so far that as eventual good
is likely to come of it, nothing that he
can say will make any difference. In
tins way the extra grant is earned, the
teacher and the managers are content.
and the only sufferers are the children,
wno nave been taught useless things
instead of useful, and the State, which
has paid money to have them taught.
W e will not now repeat the reasons
there are for adapting the subjects
taught in elementary schools to the
habits of the population into which the
majority of the scholars will be absorbed
when they go out to work. The pur
pose of such an adaptation is to give
children something on which they can
keep a hold as their school-time re
treats further and further awar from
them something which is associated
with the after-employment, which ex
plains and is explained by things which
they have to do in order to earn their
living. But an equally useful purpose
will be answered if they are given
something which is associated with
their amusements, which helps them
to spend the time when they are not at
work profitably, or at all events not
unprofitably, which, if they had not
been taught a school they would not
have learned, and which, having
learned, the' are not likely to forget.
In a paper read at the meeting of the
Social Science Association last month,
and since published in a pamphlet, Mr.
Ilullah urges the claims of music to
the first place in the scanty list of sub
jects which answer the description.
The majority of Englishmen, he justly
says, especially of the poorer classes,
"are worse off than any other people
in the world for innocent amusements. "
Such innocent amusements as are open
to them either cost more money than
they can afford to pay except at rare
intervals or can be enjoyed away from
home. Now vocal music "is the
cheapest of all conceivable recreations."
When once a certain proficiency has
been gained, it demands nothing but
practice and the small outlay occa
sionally needed for the purchase of
music. If this cheap amusement could
be naturalized in England, more com
fort and more refinement would be
given to family life among the working
classes than by any other available
means. A home in which part-singing
was constantly practiced would cer
trinly be free from dirt and drunken
ness. If musical skill were made
common, if not universal, we should
have set up a power which would empty
the gin-shop by providing pleasanter
ways of passing the time than the gin
shop provides. So far, probably, no
one will differ from Mr. Ilullah; but
there are numbers who will ask how
this musical skill is to be attained by
the poor. The answer is that its at
tainment is made possible by the fact
that to the very young child music is
very much easier than reading or writ
ing. The difficulty of becoming a
musician comes later, and when it has
come it grows greater every year we
live. By a musician Mr. Ilullah means
one who knows without having heard
it the sound of what he sees written in
musical character or hears described,
and who is able to write down or de
scribe a sound which he has heard.
In order to show that the power of
doing this is attainable by very young
children, Mr. Ilullah gives a single,
but conclusive, example: In January,
1877 a class of children sixty-five in
number, between the ages of five and
six, was placed under scientific musical
instruction. The time given to it was
twenty minutes every fortnight, with
an occasional five minutes during re
creation time. Mr. Ilullah examined
these babies in the following October,
and this is his account of the result:
"I found that the majority of them
could name correctly and readily any
sounds within the limits of the same
diatonic scale, and give utterance to
such sounds when called upon to do so.
They could beat time with their hands
and distribute notes of various lengths
into measures of two, three, or four
heats. ... I touched on my hand
the notes of a tune they had certainly
never before heard, and they sang it.
with one or two exceptions, accurately!
Finally, they sang various simple
passages, still at sight, which I wrote
on the black-board." If this degree of
proficiency was attained by children of
six, who were under instruction for
only twenty minutes in every fortnight
and that seemingly for nothing like
the whole time between January and
October what might not be done all
over the country if music were taught
on the same method first in every in
fant school, and then in every elemen
tary and secondary school'? Yet in
scarcely any infant or elementary
school is music taught. "Songs," says
Mr. Hullah, "are taught in them, no
doubt, aud a great deal of time the
teaching of them takes up." But
songs, "as a means of promoting or
preparing tor the reception of a knowl
edge of music, are absolutely useless,
and, indeed, worse than useless; for to
no people is it so hard to teach music
as to those who have long practised
singing by ear.' This omission to
teach music is not due to any want of
competent instructors. Mr. Hullah's
experience as an inspector in training
schools has convinced him that there
are at least 10,000 persons already en
gaged in teaching in elementary and
infant schools who could also teach
music, and that about 1,000 recruits
are annually added to the list. All
that is needed. to have music taught in
every school is a "little encouragement
and a little pressure." It is for the
Education Department to bring tluYen
couragement and pressure to bear upon
school managers; it is for the public to
bringthem to bear upon the Educa
tion Department. Pall Mall Gazette.
THE THINGS WE HAVE NOT.
Among all the various kinds of
charm, whether inherent in the objects
of our desires or woven around them
by fine threads of association and cir
cumstance, is there one more subtly
enthralling than that which belongs to
the things which we do not possess?
We can scarcely tell how much of the
ethereal beauty of youthful dreams de
pends upon their inaccessible distance,
for many other things conspire to steep
them in a magical atmosphere. But
when we have long ago emerged from
that enchanted ground and have reached
the level table land of middle lif e, there
still are visions haunting us, some more,
some less, hut not wholly absent from
the busiest and sternest lives; there is
still a halo surrounding some objects
which we could not, even if we would,
entirely dispel. And of all the favorite
spots about which the glamor hovers
there is none to which it clings so
persistently as to the things we have
not.
In a sense this is true, of course, of
what we have had and have lost. But
that is a comparatively intelligible feel
ing, made up largely of regret, mixed
with love and self-ieproach, and bound
up with many personal and perhaps
even arbitrary associations. I t is not
the same as the strange bloom of ideal
beauty which we have not, and never
had, nor can hope to have a share.
Such things wear a kind of remote im
personal grace which can be scattered
by no rude touch of change or chance,
and withered by no closeness of grasp.
Our thoughts of them are culled from
all the most perfect instances, and com
bined into a type which perhaps tran
scends experience.
There is an incident in "Transfor
mation" which shows how fully alive
Hawthorne was to this idealizing
faculty as exercised especially by those
not in possession. In looking over
Hilda's picture, eome of her friends
pause at one of the child's shoes painted,
as the author tells us, with a care and
tenderness of which none but a woman
who deeply loved children would have
been capable, and which no actual mo
ther would have been likely to .bestow
upon such a subject. Actual mothers,
no doubt, have enough to do with their
children's shoes without painting them,
Possession brings an object into many
disenchanting relations. Chilo'ren
themselves, however idolized by their
mothers, can scarcely have for them
that abstract visionary charm which
they possess for the childless.
No doubt the joys of possession are
far more intense and more richly colored
than those of contemplation; but they
have not the same half-sacred remote
ness, the same unchanging lustre. They
are purchased bv so manv cares, often
so much toil, and exposed to so many
risks, that enjoyment is often obscured
by fatigue and anxiety. However, we
need not disparage the delights of pos
session in order to enhance those of
mere contemplation. These are pure
enough and keen enough to need no ad
ventitious aids. But their compara
tive excellence can scarcely be ap
preciated until after a certain rather
severe discipline. London Saturday
liei'iew.
THE WEDDINGS.
At the end of the first year comes
the cotton wedding; at two years come
the paper; at three, the leather; at the
close of five comes the wooden; at the
seventh anniversary the friends assem
ble at the woolen; at ten comes the tin;
at twelve years the silk and fine linen;
at fifteen the crystal wedding. At
twenty the friends gather with the
china; and at twenty-five the married
couple that have been true to their
vows for a quarter of a century are re
warded with silver gifts. From this
period forward the tokens of esteem be
come rapidly more valuable. When the
thirtieth anniversary is reached they
are presented with pearls; at the
fortieth come the rubies; at the fiftieth
occurs the glorious golden wedding.
Beyond that time the aged couple are
allowed to enjoy their many gifts in
peace. If, however, by any poasibilitv
they should reach their seventy-fifth
anniversary, they are presented with
the rarest gifts to be obtained at the
celebration of their diamond wedding.
A tramp at Comstock, Michigan
camped over nisht in the villae-e school
house and burned all the books to keep
nimseit warm.
kricties.
Lord Leitrim was murdered in
March, but no one has been put on trial
for the crime.
Blood will tell. A starving family
in Boston, having been fed and given
$10, took a carriage drive.
The Menonnites exclude from their
church membership all persons who
have had their lives insured.
Hunerarr produces more horses
than any other country of its size
2,158,UUU for a population of 15.000.000.
The Texas Legislature has passed
an act requiring all railwav trains to
stop not less than five minutes at any
station.
The exact number of counties in
Texas is still a matter of dispute. One
authority says 120. One of them is as
large as the State of Massachusets.
Becrinninff with a nrnrlnrf.inn nf
four Pounds of tea in 18M Trwlin. nnw
exports 40,000,000 pounds, and all the
lsiunus oi uie inaian arcmpeiago are
cultivating the plant.
The Pone has sent ten Jesuits to
Central Africa to evanuelize the coun
tries traversed by Stanley and Living
stone. The mission will cost 40,000,
and the missionaries will take with
them 500 porters, servants, etc.. who
will be unarmed.
A sap-trough of boiled oats is the
vegetable store of the gentle hermit of
Ayr, Ont., and he sleeps on a plank
leaning against a bank of earth and
covered over with a roof of rough
boards.
A swarm of bees invaded a Chinese
church in full session, and though pul
pit and pews joined hands against the
intruders, they stayed and the congre
gation went, not standing on the order
of their going.
An expensive wife kept the late
Lord Chelmsford so poor that he died
worth less than any other Chancellor
in the past century, except Lyndhurst,
leaving very little real estate and a per
sonally of less than '50,000.
The opium refuge at Shanghai, or
ganized by foreign medical and mis
sionary influence, has met with so much
welcome trom the natives that it is al
ready self-supporting, and many pa
tients are there trying to break lrom the
slavery of opium.
The price of bread in England is
said to be precisely what it was in 1770.
Beet, at its present retail price of nine
pence, is a great advance on the three
and three-ouarter pence per pound of
that day; and butter has risen from six
pence to twenty pence.
Dr. Jobert is about to return to
France after having explored the Am
azon with reference to its natural his
tory, and more especially its ichthy
ology. He claims to have fully cleared
up all doubts respecting the curare with
which the Indians poison their arrows.
The Government clerks at Ottawa
have petitioned for an advance of two
months salary, to be repaid in instal
ments by the end of the fiscal year, be
cause they will have to go to heavy ex
penses in attending the levees, etc.
The Government has not answered the
petition.
At the death of John Wesley, in
1701, there were in connection with
Methodism 312 minister, 115 circuits,
lb mission stations and 70,000 mem
bers. Now, including the Methodism
of Great Britain, that- of the United
States of America, colonial Methodism
and branch churche ist is, estimated
that there are not less than 3U.UUO.
itinerant preachers, 00,000 local preach
ers and 19,000,000 adherents.
It is stated that work will be com
menced on a second iron pier, at Long
Branch, to be built immediately in
front of the Pavilion Hotel as soon as
the pier company receives its charter
from the New Jersey Legislature. The
pier will be of screw piles, and con
structed after the plan of the Brighton
pier, of plated iron. The estimated
cost of the pier, with breakwater, is
$100,000.
William Owens, a brakeman on the
Louisville Short Line Railroad, fell be
tween two freight cars recently as his
train was passing over the Ohio river.
He caught at some object as he struck
the bridge to keep from falling into the,
river, but it proved to be the rail, and
the cars passed over his hand. At the
same moment, however, he seized a
telegraph wire which ran along the
rail, and hung on by that until assist
ance reached him.
It is told of President Thomas A.
Scott that lie is carrying with him in his
European trip Mr. Augustus Dowdell,
a workman on the Pennsylvania Rail
road, who last year, when all others
deserted their posts, remained true to
the company and afforded valuable in
formation by telegraph. The trip
abroad is the reward of merit. It is
pleasant to see the display of generosity
which the case affords, and it is re
freshing, also, to know that such a man
is receiving such a recognition. The
anarchists who originated and helped
on with the strikes, are enduring the
scorn they deserve, while this man,
simply for being true, is made the re
cipient of unusual favors.
Among the young ladies who sat at
the receipt of customs in a Western
church fair, and retailed kisses at the
nominal value of ten cents each, was a
vinegar-visaged old maid, who had
crowded herself in on the gauzy pre
sence that she felt it her duty to do her
share toward helping along the good
cause. When it came time for closing
the young ladies turned over to the
church treasury from five to ten dollars
apiece, while the ancient female handed
in a solitary dime, the value of one kiss
that she received from a blind man
whose taste was so vitiated by tobacco
chewing that he was unable to detect
the imposition. Danburq Nexvs.
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