CHARLOTTE MESSENGER.
VOL. I. NO. 2.
Happiness.
“What didst thou say to Happiness ?
I saw her at the gate."
“This I said to Happiness,
Thou comest all too late;
Nay I I cannot let thee in.
Where these graves are growing green.
**le’t meet-thou thyself shall say—
Thai where my dead repose
Thou ehouldat hold tby revels gay.
Thou ehouldst wear tho rose ?
Nay! I will not let thee in,
Where these graves are growing green.
“Turned she round a little space,
Smiled and softly raid, .
'I would even ask a place,
There above thy head,
To plant flowers, myrtle and rose,
Making fair their last repose.'
**Bo she entrance gained at last;
How could I gainsay
Such request ? My tears fell fast,
But she won her way;
And the rare, flowers
Wreathed to glorious summer bowers.
•‘She has won my grief from me,
Wherefore, then, complain ?
Made my place of graves to be
Bright with hope again,
And obeying each behest,
Joyfully I serve my guest.”
THE GOVERNOR'S WIFE.
“Sikes .lire, Caleb Morton! Brought
home two people to eat os out of house
and home, and you in debt already up
to the crown of your head, as a body
might say I Weil, if ever 1 heard the
like! When yon have got the roof off
from over onr own heads, perhai s yon’ll
be happyl We shall live to come to
want through yonr doings! Now, yon
jnst mark my word.!"
The speaker waa a little, thick-set
woman, with a haid, wrinkled face,
thin, tightly shat lips, and two fierce
little light Line eyes that glared with
all the sharpness of an angir kawk’s
glance, first upon the stout, comfort
able-looking, white-headed farmer, who
was shifting uneasily from one foot to
the other in front of his own door, and
then at the pale, Beared countenances
of a delicate woman and child who Bat
in the wagon from which he had jnst
dismounted.
Such a pleasant looking home it had
been to those weary wayfarers before
its mistress appeared!
A square, old-fashioned farmhouse,
gray with the storms of sixty yean or
more; bnt with a broad, flat door stone,
and an open door overhang with lilac
blosaomr—a door that led straight into
ths neatest of kitchens, where long rows
of glistening tins, in a corner cupboard,
shone like silver as the evening fire
blued upward from the open hearth.
Bat Mrs Horton spoiled it all. Her
soar, withered, miserly visage and her
sharp, hard voice made the poor woman
who had come to seek her charity shud
der and grow sick at heart.
“Don't mind ns, sir. We will go
back and sit beside the road where yon
took us up,” she said, faintly, to the
former. “I am not a beggar, and my
child mnst never be one. Let ns go,
air. We would both rather starve than
stay where we are not welcome.”
She reached forward to tonch the
farmer on the shoulder, bnt even that
effort was too much for her wasted
strength.
She sank forward, and wonld have
fallen anker the hones’ feet if the
turner, warned by a cry from the little
girl, had not turned and caught her in
his arms.
“Well, I’m surer began Mrs. Morton,
spitefully, to the child, whose great
bine eyes were fixed npon her with n
look of feu and dislike. “Yonr ma
makes quite free for s stranger.”
“For shame, Sarah,” said her hus
band, severely. “At least we have
enough and to spare for the present,
and the future most take care of itself.
w “lks are not going to perish to death
-«nt here at my door when I can pre
vent iL”
"There’s the poorhonse for such as
her,” uid Mrs. Horton, viciously.
A look from her husband silenced her
nt last. He bore the fainting woman
indoors, end Uid her down in the spare
room. “On my beet bed,” Mr*. Morton
used to say, indignantly, for many n
month thereafter. With his own hands
the kind old man carried in a plentiful
supper sod breakfast to the wanderers.
And when, after that next morning’s
meal, (be poor woman bade him adieu,
and, with grateful tears, prayed that
Ood might bleu him, he patted her on
the sbonlder encouragingly, and slip
ped n five-dollar bill into her hand.
, "Take that, my dear, for yon and ths
little one to Hve, till yon get stronger,”
he said. “Now don’t cry over it, my
deu, bnt keep a good heart, and keaven
will send yon friends as yon journey
along. Good by, little one. Will you
give an old man a kiss?"
“Tee, I will," uid thn child, spring
CHARLOTTE, MECKLENBURG CO., N. C„ JULY 1, 1882.
ing into bis outstretched urns, and
pressing Ler lips upon his withered
cheek; “and when 1 am a great large
woman, I’ll pay yon back for being so
kind to my poor mother. Why, she
would hate died if you hadn’t taken her
in last night. And then I should have
died, tool”
Tears were in the farmer’s eyes as he
stood looking after his late gnests; bnt
his heart was warm with the conscious
ness of a good aotion performed, and a
benefit conferred.
“You might as well hang a sign out,
and my that we keep a tavern for every
straggler that comes along,” remarked
Mrs. Morton, from the door, “I do
wish, Caleb, you’d stop doing so. You
won’t end till we are both in the poor
honse, and then you’ll be easy!”
“If I am to go to the poor-house for
helping a starving woman and child, go
1 must, Ssrab,” said her husband,
quietly.
“And go you will, mark my word,”
replied Mrs. Morton, in a fury, shutting
the house-door with a bang, that made
ever ymilkpan and cup and ameer ring
and rattle again.
• «•••*
Ten years passed on. And it began
to looks prif Mrs. Morton had only been
too true as prophet when she foretold
ruin for her husband and the alms
house for them both.
In ap evil day, Caleb Morton signed
a note for a poor and struggling neigh
bor, who died jnst as the time of pay
ment drew near.
Nothing was left, exoept a scanty pro
vision for the widow and orphans. Caleb
would have starved before claiming that
from them, even if he could do so
legally.
Their homestead, already mortgaged,
mnst go to pay the debt, and he was
ten years olderj broken down by bard
work, and beaten down jnst now by his
wife’s tongue, which never ceased re
peating, “Didn’t I tell you so?" till his
poor heart was fit to break.
“I did wrong. I see it now. I’m
sorry for it. But do not blame me so,
Sarah,” he said, sadly. “God knows I
meant to do right, and to do my best
for yon. And I'll go to the city and
see this rich man that holds the note.
He is a lawyer, and they've jnst made
him Governor of this State. He don’t
seed the money, and maybe he will
agree to some arrangement, so I can
pay it off by degrees and not sell onr
home.”
“That’s the first sensible word you’ve
Raid about the business," cried Mrs
Morton.
And she bestirred herself so effectu
ally to get him off at once, that by ten
o'clock the next morning he was ring
ing at the door of the beautiful city
mansion in which the new-made Gov
ernor had jnst taken up his residence.
He was admitted by a servant, who
was rushing ont on an errand in hot
hnste.
The household staff was not yet or
ganized. There was no one in the hall
to receive him. He wandered on,
wondering at the tall, marble pillars
and the floor of tessellated marbel till
be eameto the Gothic library where
the Governor was sitting, in company
with his beantiful six-month's bride.
The old man glanoed at the rich car
pet, the velvet and rosewood chairs, the
tall vases, the gilded pictures upon the
walls, through the half opened door.
Then hia eyes fell npon a portrait that
hung in the place of honor above the
fireplace, and he stood still.
A sweet, pale tpiritucllc face, with
waving, silvery hair brushed back from
the forehead, and a look of peaceful
benediction beaming from the large
blue eyes.
“I onght to know her well,” mused
the old man. “And I know now—it is
the poor lady who oame to onr house,
one evening, with the pretty little ohild.
It looks as it all their troubles must be
over, if they live in a honse like this.”
In the library, at the same moment,
a pair of beautiful blue eyes were lifted
to that portrait, uid tears dimmed their
light—tears that the lipa of a lover
husband soon kissed away.
“If the picture makes you ead, Lucy,
it must be moved to one of the upper
rooms,” said the Governor. ‘H never
wish too aee a elond npon your face
again.”
“No eloud will ever oome there
through yon, George,” replied his yonhg
wife. “I am not nnhappy when I look
nt her, and I like to nave the picture
there, because it is in this room that we
shall be es tenest together. I waa only
thinking how sad it was that she oould
not have lived to share with ns this
beautiful home.”
“Yonr mother did not ears to live
longer, Lucy,” said the Governor, after
a pause. “Bhe told me so herself, after
■he had found yonr Uncle Eustaoe, and
panoadad him to do justice to yon be
fore he-’died. She remained until she
saw yon my wife, and. knew, how tender
ly 1 wonld care for yon. Then I think
she waa really glad to go. Her heart
was in your lather’* grave,”
“Yes; and then she suffered so, in
that dreadful time after his death, when
we bad no money and no home,” re
plied his wife, with tears in her voice,
though none fell from her eyes. “Yon
can never imagine how she was humili
ated and beaten down into the very
dust Ono night—oh, how well I re
member it—she would oertainly have
died, if it had not been for a kind old
farmer who took us to his house, al
though his cross wife objected, and ac
tually called my mother a pauper in her
anger. Borne dßy, when you are not
very busy, George, I wish you would
go with me to see that kind old man,
and thank him in my mother’s name.”
. “Very well, my dear. Now will yon
go with me to give your orders about
the furnishing of the upper rooms?”
They went ont into the hall. There
stood tne farmer, turning his hat about
in his hands, and looking like a man
dazed.
“Why hear is my friend—my mother's
friend!” exclaimed the Governor's wife,
dropping her husband’s arm, and run
ning up to the old man with both hands
outstretched to greet him. “Don’t yon
remember me, sir? lam the little girl
you sheltered in your pleasant home.
If you had not been so good to us, I
might hav9 lost my mother then.”
I remember, miss—ma’am,” stammer
ed the farmer, turning crimson all over
his honest face.
“And did you come to see me? Or
my husband?” asked Luoy, with a proud,
fond glance at the Governor.
“It was him, ma’am—the gentleman
that holds the note and the mortgage
on our hoine. It has been foreclosed,
and I must lose it now to pay this debt.
I wouldn’t have dared to come here,
ma’am, on suoh an errand, only it is
life and death to me and to my wife.
We are getting old now, and I haven’t
saved anything, and I don’t know where
we conld find another home. ’ If more
time eonld be given me, 1 conld pay off
the note and the mortgage by degrees.
But I cannot do it new. If lam pressed
for it, the home must go.”
“How came you to sign a note for an
other man, when your own property was
encumbered?” asked the Governor, as
his wife drew the papers from the hands
of the farmer, and placed them in his
own.
“I suppose I oughtn’t to have done it
—that’s a fact, Bir. Bnt, yon see, Neigh
bor Bussell and I were boys at school
together, and he was a poor struggling
man, with a lot of little children. There
was only Sarah ar.d me at the old home
stead, and I thought we could risk it
better than he conld. If he had,’lived,
he wonld have paid me baek, honest,
every oent. Bat what could be done if
the Lord saw fit to take him? It is all
unfortunate, but I acted for what I
thought was best at the time.”
“George, for my mother’s sake, you
will not let him lose the home that he
has risked to help another,” said the
Governor’s wife imploringly.
He smiled, and then they both tnrned
and looked at the portrait, that seemed
to follow them all with its sweet sad
eyes.
“This business is in the hands of my
country agent, and I knew nothing of
it until now,” he observed. “Make
your old friend stay and take an early
dinner with us, Lucy, and I will settle
this affair."
* * • ft * 4
At eight o’elook that evening Caleb
Morton reached his farm, an altered
and a happy man.
Never had the old place seemed bo
dear to him aa now, and he gazed aronnd
the fertile fields, and at the old eqnare
gray honse, as we only gaze at the
things that we love, when they have
been nearly lost to up, and then, by a
mercifnl interposition of Providence re
stored.
Hia wife met him at the door, eager
faced and Bbarp of tongue as ever.
“It is the enp of cold water that the
Bible speaks of—it is the blessing that
follows after the giving,” said the old
man solemnly, as he finished the story
of his day. “The note was destroyed
by the Governor’s wife, the mortgage
is canceled, and this is onr home onoe
more, free from the leant incumbrance
of debt. Nut if I had refused shelter
to that poor lady and her obild ten years
ago, where should we be this night?”
“Where, indeed?" thought Mrs. Mor
ton, silenced fpr onoe in her self-ap
proving life.
Now, if you happen to go there, Mm.
Morton will show you with great pride
the best room and the best bed—“on
which Governor Gerald’s wife's mother
slept the night that she staid with us—
she and the pretty little girl, who la
now Governor Gerald’s wife.”
Arrangements have been made to hold
the next rennion of the Army of Weet
Virginia at Parkersburg on the 19th,
20th and 21st of September. The gov
ernment will be applied to for the use
of a supply of army tents, and the rail
road* are expected to fix excursion rate*
POPULAR SCIENCE.
Itsbbits are not poisoned by bella
ponna or stramonium.
A piece of iron is appreciably heated
iD being magnetised.
It requires 2,000 blooms to yield one
drachm of ottar of roses.
The silk-spinning spiders, epeiridse,
inhabit the hottest countries.
Threads of glass are made that can
be tied iu knots and woven into cloth,
The right lung of a human body is
generally two onnees heavier than the
left one.
In India eucalyptus wood is used for
the Bleepers of railroads, because it de
fies the insects and climate,
A device for extinguishing kerosene
lamps has recently been patented, whioh
consists of a shut-off for the air supply,
and works automatically if the lamp is
overturned, thus preventing ths risk of
explosion.
The Longest Span of Wire in the
world is used for a telegraph in India,
over the river Kistnah, between Bezo
rah and Sectanagrum. It is more than
6,000 feet long, and is strstohed be
tween two hills, each of which is 1,200
feet high,
A Discovery of fossil human remains
has been made in Brazil by Dr. Lund,
near Ague Santa, Province of Minas
Geraes, where an osseous breccia has
been found containing human debris
closely associated with the remains o!
extinct Bpecies.
A Swiss Watchmaker ha* made a
wutoh whioh he claims will run several
years withont winding. A box contain
ing two of his watches intrusted to the
authorities of Vonvry on January 19th,
1879, has just been opened, and the
watches were found going.
English microscopists have given va
rious facts showing that human subjects
have been in many cases infected with
filaria, a much-dreaded worm parasite,
by mosqnitoes. These parasites breed
in conntless numbers iu the human
body, usually invading the circulation
in the evening, increasing till midnight,
and then retiring to other parts of the
system.
A Skull of heroic size and singular
formation has been discovered among
the relics of the mould-builders in the
Bed River Valley. In a mound, sixty
feet in diameter and twelve feet high,
were found the bones of abont a dozen
men and women, mixed with the bones
of various animals. The sknll in ques
tion was the only perfeot one, and near
it were fonnd some abnormally large
body bones. The man who bore.it was
evidently a giant. A thorough investi
gation of the mound and its contents
will be made by the Minnesota Histori
cal Society.
Beene at a Bull-Fight.
A terrible accident occurred on a
Sunday, at a bull-fight at Arles, in the
South of France. The bulls were prin
cipally Spanish, and very savage. A
spectator named Louis Bony, aged
sixty, having accidently tumbled
within the barricades, was immediately
pursued by one of the bulls. The poor
old man conld not rnn very fast, and in
a few seconds the bnll had tossed him
high into the air, and, letting him
(all to the gronnd with a dull thud, the
furious animal gored him with his horns.
An indescribable scene of exoitement
ensued. The bull was secured, and the
man carried in a shocking state to the
hospital. Immediately after this the
Commissary and tho Enb-Prefect or
dered the spectacle to be stopped; bnt
this measure provoked each an out
burst of protestation from the specta
tors that after an hour of free fighting
and tumult within the arena, during
which the cashier’s office was unsuccess
fully stormed, the Commissary and
Bub-Prefect were actually compelled to
order the continuation of the perform
ance.
France’s Egg Production.
France is now noted for its produc
tion of eggs. The >,rop is told ohiefly
in England. The number of egg* sent
from France to England daring the
first quarter of this year was 190,922,-
610, valued at $3,004,264 Since 1856
the price has risen from 14 to 22 oent*
a dozen. Fifteen or sixteen eggs are
sent annually from France to England
for every head of population. Besides
this, France raised twenty eggs for
every inhabitant of her own. or in all
the ronnd number of 1,500,000,000
eggs, rained, with the poultry product,
at £110,000,000. The Frenchman need*
no patent incubator. With refuse from
the horse stable and a barrel, he will
hatoh ohicks by the barrel. To fatten
fowls for the market, he doe* not wait
for them to appease their own appe
tites. On a revolving contrivanoe are
placed the fowls. As the machine
revolve* slowly a tube enters the bird’*
Meek, and by foree-pump ths crop i*
Hied. The bird has no choice. It
I must eat and grow fat.
f. C. SMITH. Mister.
ITEMS OF INTEREST.
Cape Colony exported last year $22,-
500,000 worth of diamonds.
The number of books and magazine*
pnblished in Germany dnring the year
1881 waa 16,191.
Floral jewelry in tinted silver, wittt
diamond dewdrops sparkling on leaves
end flowers, grows in favor constantly.
Two sons of Garibaldi’s daughter
Theresita, wife of General Canzio, are
named Abraham Lincoln and John
Brown.
Some lives are like a foot-print on the
hard rook, enduring forever; and some
are like a foot-print in the sand, to be
erased by the coming tide.
It is said that over 150,000,000 acres
of the public land have been donated to
railroad companies, which is about one
sixteenth part of the total area.
Fortress Monroe is the largest single
fortification in the world. The fortifi
cations at Gibraltar cover more ground,
bnt they constitute seven distinct forts,
while Fortress Monroe is one and com
plete.
There are two ways of being happy.
We may either diminish onr wants or
augment onr means. The result is the
same; and it is for each man to decide
for himself and to do that which may
happen to be the easier.
Every duty brings one peculiar de
light, every denial its appropriate com
pensation, every thought its recom
pense, every love its elysinm, every
oross its crown; pay goes with perfor
mances, as effeot with cause. Meanness
over-reaches itself; vice vitiates whoever
indulges in it.
Heryy Morley, who knows the history
of English literature • well, says that n
certain average of popular culture and a
eertain proportion of literary reputa
tions hare never failed to be represented
by some mind of extraordinary power,
and as that average and proportion have
now been reached or exceeded he ex
pects a great genius to arise very soon.
Don’t all speak at. once.
Near Pringmar, lowa, a laborer and
his family who had exhausted all their
provisions and had no money to get
more, knelt in prayer while the man of
the house, asked divine assistance.
After his prayer, and on opening his
eyes, he glanced ont of the window,
saw a wolf to whioh he gave chase, and,
following her to her den, killed her and
six children. The bonnty was two dol
lars a head, and the Pringmar laborer
tells the story as an instanoe of the
power of prayer.
HUMOROUS.
Summer board—The eirous-seat.
One of the trunk-toesers—Jamba
Head-line for the report of a club
banquet—A staffed olnb. '
The front door mat is always ready to
sorape a new acquaintance.
The boy who wanted a situation at the
poulterer’s was a brave lad. He was
ready for the hen oounter.
“Does poultry pay?” said a stranger
of a city dealer. “Os oonrse,” was the
reply, “even the -little chickens shell
out.”
Prize fights are becoming very
frequent. This may be called a revival
of the old style of pound parties.
“Angelina”—No, we do not think it
wonld bo practicable to feed the live
stock on an ocean steamer in the trongh
of the sea.
Victor Hugo says his intellect “grows
strong>: t with age, and does not rest,"
and the same thing might be said of ar.
oid ch '»».
“Pa,” aoked little Johnny, “ what does
mv Sunday school teacher mean by say
ing that I mnst have inherited my had
temper?" “Bhe meant, Johnny, that
yon are yonr mother’s own hoy.” v
Things one would wish to have ex
pressed differently ; Musical maiden—
“l hope lam not boring yon, playing
so mnoh ?” Enamored youth— ‘ *Oll, no I
Pray go on I I—l’d so muoh sooner
hear yon play than talk I”
The peculiar costume of the dweller
in Arizona is thn* described by a “ten
der-foot :” “In ordinary weather he
wears a belt with pistols in it When
it grows ehilly he puts on another belt
with pistols in it, and when it becomes
really cold he then throws a Winchester
rifle over his shoulders.”
A Monarch’s Freaks.
King Lonis of Bavaria, whose wild
eccentricities have been goaaiped abont
for years, is said to have a holy horror
of big books. If a quarto oatcheh his
fancy he at onoe orders it printed
in octavo form, and woe to the
printer if he dares to strike off
more than one copy. The latest
freak of the king has set the Bavarian
court in a rage. He took a liking for n
eertain hotel employe, sent for him late
at wight, decorated him with a diamond
breastpin and ring, and gave him a
position in the palace which is usually
only won after growing gray in the
royal service.