Newspapers / The Alamance Gleaner (Graham, … / Feb. 23, 1875, edition 1 / Page 1
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THE ALAMANCE (JLEANER VOL. I. - * •/. ' - % . TV.:—, / CENTENNIAL EXPOSITION OF 1876. THE AGRICULTURAL BUILDING. - • " . * / .-v '■' *; • CENTENNIAL EXPOSITION OF 1876. The Agricultural Building. One of the most impressive sections of the Centennial Exposition, in view of the interests of the great West, and of the class so powerfully represented in the present day by the Grange or ganization, will certainly be the I'Pal ace of the Patrons of Husbandry," as it might appropriately be designated, but which in the nomenclature of the Centennial Commissioners is simply THE AGRICULTURAL BUILDING. This fine structure, having in its imme diate vicinity a stock yard, with divi sions for horses, cattle, sheep and swine, and poultry houses, will be located north of the Conservatory and on the east side of Belmont Avenue. The ground plan of this department, cover ing an area of about ten acres, is a par allelogram of 540 by 820 feet; con structed chiefly of wood and glass, it will consist #f a long nave crossed by three transepts, both nave and tran septs being constituted of truss arches of a Gothic style. This is intended for the reception of every kind of agricul tural and dairy implements and uten sils, except of course such as are pro perly included in the machinery depart ment. Such an exhibition aided, as it will be, by the fraternal feeling which now exists among the farming profes sion, cannot fail to inspire a lively in terest in the present, and be productive of benefit in the future. There will also be arranged in this sec tion specimens of grain, and products generally, which, considering the wide area and capabilities of the soil, should insure a national display of vast impor tance, and place the Agricultural inter ests of this country in a position to compare favorably with other develop ments of the national progress during the past century. The Farming frater nity should certainly take a lively, ear nest, and liberal interest in making this department in particular, and the Centennial Exposition in general, an undoubted and proud success. An eminently effective method of identifying the Agricultural interests with the culmination of the Celebra tion would he a mass convention of • 4?°?? delegates" from every State in the Union, meeting in Philadelphia on the Fourth of July 1876, and pro ceeding in a bofly to this section of the Exposition. Such a demonstration, and fraternal meeting, would be in ac cord with the spirit of the order, and the assemblage of Patrons of Hus bandry, representing every variety of soil culturist from Maine to Texas, wonld be in itself an imposing and in teresting national spectacle. A series of experiments have lately been made by the Russian government with reference to the use of electricity for the head light of looomotives, a nattarv of forty-eight elements making everything distinct on the railway track to a distance of more than thirteen hundred fact. GRAHAM, ALAMANCE COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1875. DEACON OSGOOD'S HELP. BY MARY M. OOLBY. The new minister was spending the afternoon at Deacon Osgood's. He oame to Lynton, a small town in Penn sylvania, in February, and now it was June, and this was the first afternoon he had spent with the Deacon and his family. Delia Oagood looked very pretty in a drab mohair with a tiny boquet of vio lets at her throat, and Mrs. Osgood looked very motherly and pleasant in her black alpaca and ruffled white apron and Johnnie Osgood (age five) tried to look as a deacon's son should, and the minister ought to have passed a n«ry pleasant afternoon there, but lie did not. - • The first Snnday he preached in Lyn ton, and every Sunday since, he had seen some one in the Deacon's pew whom he did not see in the Deacon's parlor. She was a young woman with sad eyes and a face whereon he had never seen a smile. He had tried all the afternoon to find out who she was, without seeming curions, (he was young and unmarried, you know) and had failed. This was why he had not en joyed his visit as well as he ought to have done. At five o'olock Mrs. Osgood left the room, and soon after called Delia out to help her get tea, and the minister was alone with Johnnie. "So you are Johnnie Osgood, are you said the minister to him. "Won't you oome here and see me?" "I can see you from here," answered Johnnie. "I hope you are a good little boy ?" said the minister smiling. "Ton ought to be, for you have a good father and mother. Don't von think so ?" . "Oh I don't know. I want to run away, bnt they won't let me. My Pap talk* as if he never was a little boy. What do yon think ? This afternoon 'fore yon oome, he told me if 1 said 'bully' while you was here he'd fiog me. Was yon ever a little boy ?" "Oh, yes," answered the minister. "Ain't my sister k Delia pretty thongh ?" was his next question. "Very," said the minister. "But she's the dumbest thing ? The other night I wanted her to do my sums in division for me, and she oouldn't do one of 'em, do you b'lieve. I made Melissa do 'em." "Who is Melissa?" "Why, she's our help. You've seen her. She sits in onr seat in church, next to Pap. There's the bell, I'm •going to get," and Johnnie disap peared through the open door, and was not seen again until after the blessing was asked at the well filled table. Altar tea the Deacon turned to the minister and said : "Mr. Bidgely, it is our custom to have family worship immediately after tea. I shall be glad to have you con duct it to-night. The minister assented, and the Dea con raised bis voioe and called : - "Melissa?" Just then Johnnie was seen going slyly to the window! 1 "Johnnie !" said his mother, reprov ingly. . - -"John," said his ftfther, sternly, "whftre are j on going sir ?" "I'm agoing to get," answered John nie, as he slid quickly ont of the window and rolled over on the fresh, sreen Sass. Then Melissa entered, and the eaoon introduced her to the minister. "Mr. Ridgely," he said, "this fa our —ahem ! —this is Miss Melissa Perry, Mellissa, this is Mr. Ridgely." j The minister held the little' hard blown hand in his a moment and looked at the sweet, pale face, meek, like the master's, and as clearly pale as a white and into the sad bine eyes. Then he motioned her to « chair next to him, and opened the Bible. He read a few verses of one of the ''sweet old chapters," and then they hang a hymn. Melissa did not sing. Cihe Bat very still and listened, bat shfe only heard two lines : "Breathe, oh, breathe thy living spirit Into every troubled brennt." Then the minister prayed, and when they rose from their knees, the room was dusky with shadows, but he was certain that there were tears on Melis sa's cheeks, and somehow bis heart aohed for her. "Surely they treat her kindly ?" he thought as they went from the dining room to the parlor ; "they are a Chris tian family." He was puzzled, and when a few moments later he heard the rattling of ohina and glass in the next room, he involuntarily glanced at De lia's hands; they were too white, too soft, to be pretty, he thought. Melissa clr ared the table in the dark and wept quietly all the While. Poor child 1 she was so disappointed. She had been in a little tremor of all the morning, for she thought Mrs. Osgood would oertainly invite her into the parlor a few moments to get ao- Juainted with the minister, and after inner she went to her room and put' on a delicate lilac muslin dress, with a tiny lace frill, in the neck and sleeves ; j but at three o'clock Mrs. Osgood came into the kitchen and told her to go and put on a dark oalico, for. she mast mix biscuits for supper, and the would spoil the muslin. Of course there was no parlor for her after that, and she was rather surprised ifhen they called her in to prayers. While she was washing the dishes Johnnie came stealing into the kitchen on tiptoe. "Are they throagh praying, Melissa ? What you crying 'bout ? Did you break a dish f "No, Johnnie," she answered. "Did von burn your finger, then ?" he asked anxiously, with his fat little face upturned to hers. "If yon did I'll wash tbe dishes, every one of 'em, and you can wipe 'em, Melissa." She declined his offer of help, but he staid with her until the minister went away and by steady coaxing found out the reason why she wept. Mr. Bidgely walked slowly home from the Deacon's. He boarded with an aged widow, and he knew by the dim light burning in the parlor when he reached there, that she had retired. He was too restless to study or to sleep so he walked up and down the little garden in the starlight, with hia hands clasped behind him in the style peculiar to ministers in thought. There were a great many roses blooming in the widow's garden. The soft night air was laden with their perfume, and they made him think of Melissa. Of course there was no resemblance between the flowers and Deacon Osgood's "help," for she was white and drooping like a lilly, and they were in full, rich bloom ; I but she was pure like them, and sweet, like their breath, 4nd they made him think of her. With the thought of her came a memory of what his old Annt said to him the night before he came to Lynton. "Judson," she said) in her broad English, "you're going away with the graoe of Ood in your heart; you've got the old Ridgely muscle, and the marrow of the spirit is in your bones, and your feet are well shod, but you lack one thing, you need a helpmate. Aye, my boy, you're not oomplete.. You'll find it out some day, ana when you do, fol low the leadings of your heart. You've got an honest Ridgely heart, my boy, and it'll not lead you amiss." Why did the roses make him think of Melissa ? Why did the thought of her bring his Aunt s words to his mind ? He certainly eonld not have loved her when he hid only spoken to her onoe, did you say ? No, I suppose not. I believe it isn't called love in the begin ning. Johnnie and the minister became very intimate after that night. Johnnie liked him because he had once been a little boy, and he often went to the widow's to visit him. He told him about Melissa's crying the night he was at their house to tea, and he also told him that she had a lot of books in her bedroom that used to belong to her father—he guessed there was as many as five hundred, altogether. One day the minister plucked two or three posies, a rose and a few geranium leaves from the widow's flower-bed and sent the wee bouquetto Melissa by John nie. Johnnie told him the next daj that she kissed it after ahe thought he was ont of the room, bat he peeped throagh a crack in the door, and saw her do it. He went to the Deacon's often after that, bat he never could get a chance to talk to her alone. One night when none of the family were at prayer-meeting but herself and the Deacon, he undertook to go home with her alone, bat before they had gone two squares the Deacon came puffing up to them,' and talked "new pulpit until they reached the gate. By the last of September the minister, like everything else, had oeased to be new. Martha Jamson had tried to get him, but failed; Amaranths Pea body had tried, and failed; Fannie Gauss had tried, and failed, and be waa looked upon aa belonging to "the ohuroh." But he waa not the church'i He was not his own. Next to tbe MMl»r k* loved and served, he belonged to Me lissa Perry. But he did sot know M then. One bright Ootober day the know! edge came to him with its burden of sweet hopes and trembling fears. Would Melissa take what belongs to her, he wondered. How oould he ever find out ? The Lord through the month of Johnnie Osgood told him how. One morning he went to the widow's and stayed with the minister until the clock struck twelve, when he caught up his hat and started for home. "Stay and eat dinner with me, John nie," said the minister. "I can't," said Johnnie ; "I have to get, I have .to wipe the dinner dishes for Melissa, she's goin' to the batter woman's this afternoon. 'Why don't you go and see her?" "I will," said the minister. Johnnie meant the butter-woman, but the minister meant Melissa. t> He went to the butter-woman's (she was a member of his church), and had been there an. hour when Melissa came. She wore a dark oalioo dress and earried a bright tin pail on her arm. On her way out to the house (it was more than a mile from the town,) she saw a little bunch of scarlet berries lying in the road. There was no bush near them ; they were alone in their warm, bright beauty, and she picked them np and fastened them in her dress at the neck, wondering where thev came from—just as the minister had often wondered where she oame from. The minister saw the berries, and he forgot whether her dress was a oalioo one or not After she purchased the butter she took the tin pail on her arm again and went out at the kitehen door. The min ister saw her go end he went ont at the front door ana soon overtook her and insisted on carrying her pail. They talked in a general wsv until thev reaohed a bit of a woods tnrough which they had to go, and then he persuaded her to sit down bv him on an old log and rest. Something—perhaps it was the bright day or the independent au tumn air—made her forget that she was Deaoon Osgood's "help and she talked unrestrainedly and with an intelligence that surprised him. At last with deli cate tact he led her to talk about herself and she told him how her parents were both buried in one day leaving her pen niless and friendless, and how she had been bound to Deaoon Osgood until she was eighteen years old. "They are und to you are they not ?" he asked. "Yes, they are kind, bat—" and she stopped abruptly. "Bat what? Tell me all about it," he said encouragingly. "They do not care for me," ahe an swered with great tears in her violet eyes. "They do not love me—and nothing can live without care and love, " •he added. L The minister's heart wafc swelling under his coat but he kept very oalm. 'iHowold are yon V he aaked quietly. "I am nineteen." "Why not leave them ? Ton are not obliged to stay." : | "I hare no home, no plaoe to go to," ( ehe answered sadly. "Come to me," said the minister. She looked at him wonderingly a mo ment, then she understood and went to him. • i • ' , When she lilted her head froiil its nest in his gray coat, her eyes were glowing, and the sweet, pale faoe was beautified, transfigured. "Where did yon get that bnach of berries ?" he asked, touching it caress : ingly, as a little gleam of sunlight i looked through an opening in the tree* and feasted ft moment on its warmth and brightness.* * "I found it Jying alone in the ro»d and I took it up—as you hare taken me," she answwred softly. -.7- The bright tints that were gathering I in the west warned her that supper time was approaching, and the minister took the pail of butter from its resting plaoe at the end of the log, and they were i soon at the Deaoon's gate. The Deaoon was in the barn-yard feeding the fowls and the minister went ont there. Me-' lissa went to -the' kitchen. Johnniie sat on the steps* with a pieoe of apple pie in his hand and she bent down and softly kissed his brown oheeks. "Have jott been a conrtin' Melissa?" he asked, looking at her wonderingly. "I bet you have,'- 'cause your eyes look jnst like Data's when Tom Higgsoomes to see her." , . _ , | Melissa laughed and went in the house. ' ' * | "How are you, Mr. Ridgely," said the Deaoon as the minister entered the barn-yard. "It has been a fine day, sir, a very fine day. How is the new pulpit getting on?" "I have not been in the church to day," answered the minister almost impatiently, "I came to ask you Dea-. oon—that is to speak with you about Miss Perry." '' -* ' "About Melissa,.*) asked the Deaoon with surprisei : y ■ . "About Melisaa," answered the min ister. "Mr. Ridgely," add the Deaoon with a lengthening faoe, "I'have tried to do my duty by that girl, / I pray for her morning and night at .family worship, and i naye several times prayed with i her alone for more than three quarters of an hour at a time. I never let a Sunday pass without speaking to her about the oonoerns of her sou and yet •he remains indifferent. She is growing hardened, and lately 1 have notieed—" "Ton have noticed nothing of the kind," interrupted the minister. Then he mid abruptly : "Deaoon, I have asked Miss Petty to be fry wife, and as she has been a member of your family fer several yean I feel that it is my detar to scqnsint you—*—" "Tour wife r exclaimed the aston ished Deaoon. "Why Mr. Ridgely, she is my help my bound girl." "She la the daughter of the late Maxwell Pariy," said ; the miniater, , quietly, ' . ~ "But, sir, what will the ohnroh say ?" "I really do not know," answered the minister in a tone that meant "I really do not care." -.1 "She is from a good > family," con tinued the Deacon, "but she is not a church membei, and I fear the oongre gatiou -"'.u* " 1 ' "I have thought of accepting a oall to the Bloomington churph," Mid the miniater slyly. , 1 "Oh, no, rib 1" ' dried' the alarmed Deacon, "you moat net think of leaving us, Mr. Ridgely, , The church has never • been in so prosperous a condition, spir tually and temporarily. . Don't speak of your leaving, Mr. Ridgely. Aa to your .marrying Melissa, F am perfectly willing^,—l only thought—but there is the supper bell. Gome up to the house. Words fail to deacribe the amazement of the Lyntoniana when they knew for a surety that their miniater mtended to marry Deaoon Oagood'a help. ▲ few— among whom were Martha Samara aad Amarantha Paabody—hinted that he had better resign, but they were ordered to keep their hinteto themselves by the more sensible ones, who when they re covered from the shock, went to work to And a parsonage. They decided upon a cottage opposite the church, for which they paid the sum of two thou sand dollars. The wedding took plaoe phristmas morning in the church. The miniater took hia bride to hisaunfs for a week's visit, and when they returned to Lynton % the oonfregation had forgotten that Mrs. Judaon Ridgely 'was onoe a bound girl and received her with open arms. They have never regretted their minis ter's choice. A : ' ' : " r Study toMQsiet. A calm, peaceful frame of mind is whst comparatively few persons h am. Even trifling annoyances excite and dis turb them. are those, ho saves, a happy few, who possess their souk in tranquil patienoe and equa nimity. They behave and quiet UMB selvea "as a child is weaned from its mother." They are eo far weened from creature comforts, by merging their wills in Qod'awilL they take wnat ever comes, resigned and placid. Though provoked they keep their temper, though tried they oomplain not, f We should make it a part of our religion so to do. , "I dare no more fret," said John Wesley, "than to eurae and swear."! And relative to persona of a contrary spirit, with whom he has frequently forced to oome in oontaoi, he observe* " "To have persons «t my ears mur muring and fretting at everything is like tearing the fleah from my beast By the grace of Ood I am discontented at nothing. I see Ood on ths throne and ruling all thinga." ': '. .JV ..v.-.-i. : •. • NO. 3.
The Alamance Gleaner (Graham, N.C.)
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Feb. 23, 1875, edition 1
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