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THE NATIONAL REPUBLICAN. PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY FREDERICK T. WALSER, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. TERMS: TWO DOLLARS PER ANNUM, INVARIABLY IN ADVANCE. ONE DOLLAR FOR SIX MONTHS. THREE MONTHS FOR FIFTY CENTS. ^- Deductions Made for Clubs. QEVOTEQ TO POLITIC ^^ GEJLE^L /TEWS. VOL. I. WINSTON, N. C., WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 1872. NO. 14. THE NATIONAL REPUBLICAN ADVERTISING RATES: One square, one time 81.00 One square, two times 1-25 One square three times 1-50 A square is the width of a column and one inch deep. SrST Liberal inducements offered for contract Advertisements. Our Own. If I had known in the morning How wearily all the day The words unkind would trouble my mind That I said when you went away, I had been more careful, darling, Nor given you needless pain ; But we vex our own with look and tone We might never take back again. For though in the quiet evening You may give me the kiss of peace, Yet it well might be that never for me The pain of the heart should cease ! How many .go forth at morning Who never come home at night! And hearts have broken for harsh words spoken, That sorrow can ne’er set right. We have careful thought for the stranger, And smiles for the sometime guest; But oft for our own the bitter tone, Though we love our own the best. Ab 1 lips with the cuiwe impatient, Ahl brow with the shade of scorn, ’Twere a cruel fate, frere the night too late To undo the work of morn ! CASH AND CREDIT. George Brown, at the age of twenty- three, took him a wife,—or, rather, he and Hattie took one another—for better, or for worse. But then they knew it was going to be for better always, and never for worse. How could it be otherwise, when they loved so truly, and when they understood each other so well? They had married young, and they had but little of this world’s goods to commence with ; but they had health and strength, afid they were going to work together, and build them up a home of their own in time. 11 We will be very saving,” said Hattie, “ and in the end we may reach the goal.” The goal was the home which they were to own. “ We shall not scrimp, nor deny ourselves of necessary comforts; but we will do without luxuries. By thus econo mizing in the morning, we may find a store to spare in the evening. Money is like time: An hour gained in the early day isa great thing, while an hour lost may not be regained.” George saw and understood, and he was as eager as was his wife. He was deter mined to put all his energies into the work, and in the future he saw fore shadowed promises most bright. He had taken of his uncle a small bouse which he was to pay for when he could. He had no doubt that he should be able to pay two hundred dollars a year on it, at which rate, as his kind relative had offered the bar gain, the property would be his in six years. “ George.” asked Hattie, one evening, at the tea-table. “ What did you pay for this tea ?” £; I declare, Hattie, I don’t know. I don’t believe I asked.” “ What!—Did not ask ?” “No. I have every confidence in Mr. Skidd. He is a perfectly honorable man.” “ But did you not pay for it?” “No. I have opened an account there.” Hattie shook her head disapprovingly. George saw the motion, and went on,—- “You know I am paid monthly, and I thought it would be just as well to keep a monthly account at the store. And Mr. Skidd himself perferred that plan.” “I can see very readily why Mr. Skidd should prefer it,” said the wife, with a sig nificant smile. “In the first place, he knows that you are an industrious, steady, and honorable man, and that whatever you owe you will surely pay. He knows that.” George was flattered, but he felt that his wife had spoken no more than the truth. “ And,” pursued Hattie, “ he knows one thing more: He knows that you will buy more on credit than you would for cash.” George made a deprecatory motion, but his wife continued.— “Mr. Skidd knows. He is old in the business. Over his good customers, who open monthly accounts upon his ledger, he has decided advantages: He can per suade them to buy what they would not buy if they had to pay the cash down; and, where they are to have credit—where the trader is to have the extra labor and expense of entering and posting each sep- erate article, and, in the end, of making a full bill of items—the buyer cannot with go»d conscience demand reduction from asked prices.” George smiled, and said he thought his wife was mistaken. He was sure he was doing well. It would be inconvenient to pay for each little article as he ordered it. And, furthermore, it would be handier to settle his store bills when his employers settled with him. Hattie did not press the matter. She had brought the subject upon the tapis, and she was willing to await the develop ment of events. “ By the way, Mr. Brown, do you not want a box of thesp figs? They are fresh, —I’ll warrant them,-and by the box I will put them cheap.” So spoke Mr. Skidd, the store-keeper. George knew that his wife was very fond of figs; and he loved them himself. And he finally consented that a box should be sent to him. On another day Mr. Skidd said,— “Ah, Brown, my dear fellow, have you tried this golden syrup?” George had not tried the syrup. The best quality of molasses had hitherto an swered him. But he was persuaded to try it. On another day — “ Look here, Brown,—shall I send you up a dozen of these Messina oranges? A new cargo just in. You won’t get ’em so cheap again. Only thirty cent^” Only thirty cents! And George knew how fond Hattie was of oranges. Of course he would have them. And so the days passed on, and the month came to an end. George Brown was paid by his employers, and he set at (Nace about paying others. On his way home he stopped in and got Mr. Skidd’s bill. “ You can take it and look it over.” said the trader, with a patronising smile. “You will find it all right.” George had intended to pay the bill then and there ; but when he saw the long column of figures, and glanced his eye at the sum total, his heart leaped up into his mouth. He was astounded. He had thought to himself, as he had come along, that Skidd’s bill would be about twelve to fifteen dollars. After paying everything else he would have twenty dollars left, which would satisfy this last demand, and leave something over. He had just com menced housekeeping, and did not expect to save much at first. But—mercy!—how his anticipations were knocked in pieces as he looked at this bill. He told Skidd he guessed he would look it over; and on his way home ward he examinedit; but he could find nothing wrong—nothing waong in the items,—but the sum total was a poser :— twenty-six dollars and forty-two cents! For a long time after he had reached home he tried to convince Hattie that nothing was the matter with him; but at length he plucked up courage, and drew forth Skidd’s bill. He had expected that his wife would be paralized. But, on the contrary, she only smiled, and said it was all right. “ All right?” echoed George. “All right, so far as Mr. Skidd is con cerned,” said Hattie. “You remember what f told you once before, and now let’s sit down and eat supper, and then we will look the matter over.” And after supper they went at the work. Hattie took the bill, and a piece of blank paper, and followed the items down with her pencil. “ First,” she said, “is a box of figs, at fifteen cents a pound. It was very cheap, no doubt; but the eight pounds came to a dollar and twenty cents. Had you been required to pay cash, you would not have bought them. You would, at least, have asked me if I liked them, and I should have, told you, No. Next we have a gallon of golden syrup, which we did not need, and for which you would not have paid cash without consulting me.” And so she went on, and in the end she had cut down the bill, by throwing out articles which they had not absolutely needed, to less than fifteen dollars. A dollar here had not seemed much to George; and a dollar and a half there; and then seventy-five cents; and then only fifty cents;—but there had been twenty visits to the store during the month, and the aggregate of these trivial sums was con siderable. George saw the whole thing, and he knew that his wife had been right from the first. “Don’t say a word,” he said. “I see the mistake. But I’ll have to workaround into the right track by degrees.” “ Mow so, George?” “ AVhy,—I haven’t money enough left of my month’s wages to quite pay this bill; so I shall be utterly unable to enter upon the cash principle at present.” “ There need be no difficulty in that di rection,” said Hattie. “I have not spent quite all my little capital. I had already fixed it for a bit of a nest egg; and I don’t know as it could be put to a better use than the laying of a foundation for cash payments. At any rate, George, let us try it for a while.” George kissed his wife, and said she was a blessing ; and he promised that he would follow her advice in the future. He took the money which she had to give, and held it as a loan, which he was to return at the earliest possible moment;—and he felt an ambition, too, to see how speedily he could do it. And on Monday morning the new rule of life Vent into operation. George paid Mr. Skidd’s bill, and told him that here after he should pay cash for everything he bought. The store-keeper pooh-pooh’d, and said there was no need of it. Bless you, my boy, I Had as liet trust you as not.” “I do not doubt it, Mr. Skidd; but 1 prefer not to be trusted. I would rather consume my own groceries than to con sume yours. * A bill is an evil at best, and I don’t choose to have evils growing on my hands if I can help it.” . Mr. Skidd saw very plainly that his cus tomer’s vision was clear, and he said no more. On the evening of that very Monday Mr. Skidd exhibited to George some extra nice preserves, and the young man’s first im pulse was to order a pot of them ; but the taking out of his wallet, and the breaking of a five-dollar bill, was a palpable remind er; and he- concluded that he could get along without them. Said he, to himself,— “ These seemingly trivial sums, if I save them, will, at the end. of the month, add up as greatly in my favor as they have heretofore added up against me.” And he found it so. And he found one thing more in his favor from cash payments which he had not particularly counted up on. As he had the money in hand to pay for the articles which he had planned to purchase, he could buy it where he could get it best and cheapest. Traders are not willing to lose cash customers; and they do only the fair and honest thing when they sell to such a customer cheaper than they sell to others. Not only is the inter est of the money on account an important item in the agregate of many accounts, but the keeping of that account in day-book and ledger is an expense. George very soon learned all this; and he found that even Mr. Skidd sold to him during this month of cash payments cheaper than he had sold during the previous month. And as the months rolled on, George Brown opened no moie accounts with traders. He found that in paying cash he was constantly reminded of the value of each separate sum as he counted it out, and was hence not likely to purchase what he did not need. And then he had a goal ahead which he had determined to reach as speedily as possible; and by his system of cash payments he could estimate at the close of every day the gain he was making toward the desired end. In two months he paid what he had borrowed of his wife, and she put it into the common fund; and in five years his home was his own, and he owed no man anything but love and good will.—Ledger. The Grateful Client.—A New York lawyer, who procured, the acquittal of a man who was under arrest for assault and battery, was waited upon the next day by his client and most gratefully thanked for his services. “What can I do for yon ?” asked the client. “Noth ing,” replied the lawyer. “Don’t you want an office ? I control any number of votes.” “ I have no political aspirations, ” replied the lawyer. “But ain’t there seme man you want to have licked,” re- joined the client. The poor lawyer has not yet recovered from this powerful exhibition of gratitude.—Exchange. Blarney.—“ Ah, Jemmy, Jemmy,” said the Bishop of Derry to a drunken blacksmith, “I’m sorry to see you be ginning your evil course again; and, Jemmy, I am very anxious to know what you intend to do with that fine lad, your son?” “I intend sir,” Laid Jemmy, “to do for him what you cannot do for your son,” “Eh, eh !, How’s that— how’s that ? ” To which Jemmy, with a burst of genuine feeling, said, “I in tend to make him a better man than his father !” The ex-president of the Liberian re public, who had been imprisoned for illegal acts, and having escaped was try ing to reach the Thames, about to sail for England, was drowned in the harbor of Mondovia. A Kansas Town. The dwellers of Abilene, Kansas, have been for a long time, in fact ever since it was a railroad station, overrun with gam blers, blacklegs and wholesale murderers. It has been the great cattle mart of Kan sas, and in consequence has gathered to itself hordes of “greasers,” a name that is synonymous with everything that is wild, barbarous and wicked ; and these have at tracted swarms of vile women. Gambling houses and bagnios lined the streets, till it was a place fit only for the worst class of desperadoes of the Plains, and these flocked in there in such numbers that decent men shunned the place, and “ as bad as Abilene ” became a proverb. While the full tide of the Texan cattle trade flowed into Abilene it was given up to the worst features of a reckless and abandoned life; there was no security to either life or property—like a town in time of siege, every man wore his pistols by bis side, and the least provocation called for an exchange of shots, which was almost always attended by death on one side and some times on both. The element of law-abiding citizens was so small that any effort to sup press this lawlessness was attended only by wretched failure and ridicule. Only as short a time ago as last Summer, one might walk through the streets of the city, and through the wide open doors see the gaming tables covered with piles of greenbacks, sometimes with little pyramids of gold and silver, and inevitably with a revolver at each player’s right hand. Twenty-eight of these establishments were in full bloom last Summer in this city of about seven hundred inhabitants, and these twenty- eight gaming houses supported nearly an equal number of brothels. Liquor might be said to have run a stream from the bung-boles of the barrels down the parched and thirsty throats of the people. With such a state of society imagine a Marshal attempting an arrest. Yet, when the influx of people seeking homes began last Spring, there was an attempt to bring offenders to justice. The Marshal was se lected for his great size, strength and cour age, and the people agreed to stand by him in every crisis. He was a powerful man, and so well accustomed to the wild life upon the Plains, that he promised to re duce the city to a state of order. Nume rous arrests were made, and the caliboose came largely into requisition. It is stated that when a row occurred the Marshal would walk into the midst of the crowd— if the way was blocked he would clear it by the right and left-hand blows of his strong arms—and reaching the heart of the crowd, would seize the combatant, one in each hand, and march them off to the cali- booso and lock them up. So fearless was he, and gifted with such strength, he be came a terror to evil-doers, for they dread ed the weight of the Marshal’s clenched fist more than the butt of a revolver in the hands of an ordinary man. He was fast reducing the number of shooting matches and street Brauds, only ho essayed not to put a stop to the gambling as yet, when a party of desperadoes resolved to kill him. To do this openly would certainly have cost them their lives, for he was acsompa- nied by a number of men who- knew well how to pull the trigger, nor wanted a sec ond bidding to do so when their chief was in danger, and besides this he had inaugu rated such an orderly change in the muni cipal affairs as had given an advantage to the law and peace-loving citizens; but they, six or more of them, enticed him toa bouse in the outskirts to arrest a so-called drunken man. Suspecting nothing, be went alone, strode into the house, when be was dropped to the ground by six balls through the breast from the hidden mur derers, who then, butcher-like, chopped off his head with an ax and fled. This was a severe blow to the welfare of the city. The murderers escaped hanging because they were in the majority, and for a time the old regime was revived. A Snow-Bound Bridegroom.—A cor respondent speaking of the late block on the Pacific Railroad, says: A man in Denver married, but had to leave imme diately and unexpectedly for Salt Lake City on urgent business. He left his bride with tears in his eyes and a promise of immediate return on his lips. He got there just in time not to be able to get away. He made his way slowly along with the blockaded trains, working with the hands, for every shovel-full of snow got out was that much obstruction re moved between him. and his beloved. When within two hundred miles from. Cheyenne, the foremost train ran into a bigger snowbank than ever, at which faithful unto death, he struck out a foot and walked the two hundred miles in five days. He came in with frozen feet and ears, but his heart was all right, and he went on to Denver rejoicing. At one point he was chased by wolves and lost his plug hat in running. The hat saved his life, for the wolves had never seen one before and stopped to examine it for a long time. It took them so long to de termine what it was, that our heroic lover got out of reach. He borrowed a red handkerchief at a laborer’s hut and passed on. Too Much for Satan.—This is Rev. Edward Hale’s story: A man had sold himself to the devil, who was to possess him at a certain time, unless he could propose a question to his satanic majesty which he could not answer, he being allowed to put three questions to him. The time came for the devil to claim his own, and he consequently appeared. The first question the man asked was concerning theology, to which it caused the devil no trouble to reply. The second he also answered without hesita tion. The man’s fate depended on the third. What should it be? He hesitated and turned pale. The cold perspiration stood on his forehead, while he shivered with anxiety, nervousness and terror, and the devil triumphantly sneered. At this juncture the man’s wife appeared in the room with a bonnet on her head. Alarmed at the husband’s condition, she demanded to know the cause. When informed, she laughed and said: “I can propound a question which the devil himself cannot answer. Ask him which is the front of this bonnet?” The devil gave it up and retired in disgust, and the man was free. Japanese Auctions. —Japanese auc tions are conducted on a novel plan, but one which gives rise to none of the noise and confusion which attend such sales in America. Each bidder writes his name and bid upon a slip of paper, which he places in a box. When the bidding is over, the box is opened by the auctioneer, and the goods declared the property of the highest bidder. How we (aught Him. Some years ago I happened to be trav eling up the DarlingRiver, in New South Wales, en route to a station where I had an engagement as drover. I arrived one af ternoon at a station, the owner of which was a friend of mine. By the stable-yard a group of four men were standing, eyeing some cattle which hadapparently-bcen just run in by the stockmin. Foremost among tie group stood my friend Jones, and on discovering me he came forward and sh>ok hands heartily. He then introduced ne to a fresh-looking youth called Newchune, who had not long left England, am who had on a pair of gloves, and—for th bush, mirabile dictu —a coat and collar. 1 “- Come down to i 1 v 1 “e, ^ ( 1 fellow,” said Jone's, “and I w c Dick to put your horses on som?, eed.” I preferred, how my cattle personal the most precious property 1 possessed. “ By the way,” salt Jones, “ have you heard that that bru ; , Black Sam, shot take charge of Voy horses were poor McKilIop throng the lungs the oth er day? He died alm st directly.” Soon after this I left the station with my horses, having been directed to the best place for feed and water. I had to cross the creek at the ford, and as they were cool I let them drink tie clear, cold fluid. A short distance farthe’ on I saw my land mark, an old hut. lire I hobbled my horses, and left them nibbling the rich grass. A thin columnff smoke was curl ing from the bark chinaey of the hut, and thinking that the fire belonged to one of the shepherds, I turner for the purpose of getting a light. I was just going to gve the door a push when it was flung opa, and a swarthy, black-bearded man stead in the doorway, with a revolver levelecat my defenceless head. “ Up with your hand,” said this worthy, “and don’t move miles you want a hole drilled in yer carcass Walk in and sit down,” was the nextorder; and having sat down with my hauls high in the air, on an old box in the hit, which did duty as either chair or table the man said cool ly, “ I’m Black Sam, aid I wantone of yer horses—maybe both. Mine’s knocked up. Now then, yer’ve got o answer some ques tions. Where do yerome from? Where are yer a-goin’ to? lave yer seen any of those peelers on the pad? and who’s at the station?” I answered the questions with great ur banity and politeness. “ Keep ycur hands tp,” said the ruffian, as one of my tired a-ms came down an inch. I obeyed him with ! lightning-like rap idity, and assmed him hat I was unarmed, and after a stern look at me he allowed me to lower my arms. After some conversation, he continued— “ Now, then, sir, we’Rgo and see the ‘yar- ramen.’ I like tbu “puts’ of that blue roan of yourb; 'he’s c. y.'!^ ' UD, or I mistake. Will you go first, sir? 1 always like to follow in the footprints of a gentleman.” He accompanied this witticism with a grim chuckle and a click of the revolver ham mer. “Put the bridle on the blue roan, ant? let the other one go.” I did so, rejoic ing that he was not going to take both my horses. He then vaulted, revolver in h^nd, on to Bluey’s bare back, an indignity which the old horse resented with a snort and a heave of his hind-quarters; but finding that he was bearing a consummate rider, he went quietly enough. I had to walk along the bridle-track in front, and when we got to the station he jumped off, coolly took my saddle, and was on the horse’s back again in a trice. He then made me walk up to the stock-yard, where they were making preparations for killing a bul lock for the station. Jones had a rifle in his hand, but it was not loaded. Poor Newchome, being totally unused to this sort of treatment, had tried to run, but was sternly ordered back, and soon seated with the rest of us on the fence. There we were—five men to one; but that one armed. The bush-ranger now dismounted, pick ed up Jones’ rifle, and demanded the pow der-flask and bullets belonging to it. On these articles being produced, he coolly loaded. He then, seeing that Newchome was the most frightened, sent him to the house for food, telling him to come back without firearms, or he would pick him off with the rifle. After a short absence, Newchome came back w : th some bread and meat, and half a bottle of brandy. Black Sam ate voraciously. We were all by this time boiling over with rage at the cool audacity of the scoundrel, and yet we dared not move or lower our hands, as he had promised a shot at the first who did so. It was now with- n an hour of sunset, and at this moment a uick start from Jones made me look up, and there, down the road, I saw a cloud of dust; horses galloping, and coming nearer every moment. Black Sam saw i too. “A plant!” roared be, leaping oi Bluey’s back, aud dashing away over the creek, dropping the rifle in his haste. Down we all jumped, and Jones, seizing the rifle snapped it at the bush-ranger. Just at this moment Bluey, strange to say, put his foot in a hole, and fell, hurling the bush-ranger far from him. We saw him get up, seize his revolver, which lay a few yards away, and run for the moun tain. Just then a police sergeant and black trooper galloped up, their horses covered with foam and dust. “There he goes !” we shouted. We tore down to the hut, seized any weapons we could get, and those who got any sort of firearm loaded as they went. The sergeant and the trooper, of course, were at the, base of the range before us, being on horseback; but they had todis- mount, as it was impossible to ride up the steep craggy sides. Up we all went; the black trooper tracking the bush-ranger with ease, as his struggles in climbing left visible traces to us all. He was out of sight, however, in thick scrub, and among the big boulders of rock that were so nu merous. Puff! whiz! and the sergeant put his hand up to his head. “ Close thing that,” remarked he, and wo all got under cover, and were a little more cautious. The bush-ranger had fired, but luckily missed. At this moment a heavy thunder-storm, Jong threatening, broke in all its fury. Flash succeeded flash, and the thunder roared; down came the rain, first with big pattering drops, then with a steady rush ; everything was drenched in no time. In ten minutes it was quite dark, and when the storm ceased it was night in reality. Every moment I expected to see Black Sam close to me, and when daybreak came next morning I was not sorry. We track ed him amongst the hills wit^ certainty, for the footmarks were easily seen after the rain. We saw him at last, and he fired again without effect. At last! saw Jacky, the black troopo n .who was going cautious ly in front along the ridge on the top of the mountain, stop, and point to the rock below him. The sergeant was there in a moment, and thrusting the muzzle of his rovolver through a crevice in the rock be neath him, shouted—“ Bl ack Sam ! I have you covered; if you move, I’ll shoot you like a dog.” We all rushed up, and there in a sort of cave made by an overhanging rock, lay Black Sam, frith his clothes all in rags, from the desperate way in which he had dashed through the scrub. We had him pinioned, and submissive, after one savage exclamation. Next day he was on the road to the nearest police-court to await his trial. The Coming Comet. It will be prudent to get one’s affairs in order during the next few months— for on the 12th of August a comet is to come in collision with the earth, and great will be the damage and the panic. At least a Swiss paper utters this pro phecy, and one of the English papers tells us what may happen : Let us for a brief period “ dally with false surmiSe,” and return to the simple faith of a child. Let us imagine that the astronomer has really prophesied our approaching fate, and that the.prophecy is correct. Within a few weeks we shall Mark Twain as a Reporter. I reported on a morning newspaper three years, and it was pretty hard work. But I enjoyed its attractions. Report ing is the best school in the world to get a knowledge of human beings, human nature, and human ways. A nice, gen tlemanly reporter—I makeno references —is well treated by everybody. Just think of the wide range of his acquaint anceship, his experience of life and so ciety. No other occupation brings a man into such familiar social relations with all the grades and classes of people. The last thing, at night—midnight—he goes browsing around after items among the police and jail-birds, in the lock-up, questioning the prisoners, and making pleasant and lasting friendships among some of the worst people in the world. And the very next evening he gets him self up regardless of expense, puts on all the good clothes bis friends have got, goes and takes dinner with the Governor or the Commander-in-Chief of the Dis trict, the United States Senator, and some more of the upper crust of society. He is on good terms with all of them, and is present at every gathering, and has easy access to every variety of peo ple. Why I breakfasted almost every morning with the Governor, dined with the principal clergyman, and slept in the station-house. A reporter has to lie a little, of course, or they would discharge him. That is the only drawback to the profession. That is why I left it. I am different from Washington ; I have a higher aud grander standard of principle. ‘Wash ington could not lie. I can lie, but I wont. Reporting is fascinating, but then it is so distressing to have to lie so. Lying is bad—lying is very bad. Every individual knows that by experience. I think that for a man to tell a lie when he can’t make anything by it, is wrong. be able without the help of a telescope to see the little cloud, no bigger than a man’s hand, 111(1, fraught with omens more dreadful than have ever before af frighted the human race. It will grow, slowly at first, but, afterwards with a rate of increase almost perceptible to our naked vision, till at last the whole sky will be lit up with the fiery portent. Night by night we shall watch its terri ble growth, and before long it will be brilliant enough to outshine the sun it self. The temperature will rise to be at first tropical and then hotter than anything that is endured in the hottest loom of a Turkish bath. But the time during which we shall be conscious of excessive heat will be brief indeed. The two large bodies, plunging towards each other at a pace compared with which the speed of a cannon ball is absolute rest, will crash into each other with a hideous collision. If we happen to be placed between two such antagonists, we shall not have time even for an ejaculation. The petty race of insects that crawls among the little excressences on the earth’s skin will be instantaneously dis missed from existence. On the other side of the world we shall perhaps have just one flash of sen sation. We shall see the mountains, without any metaphor, skipping like rams, and be ourselves sent spinning off into space just as the dust—to indulge in an humble simile—is knocked off the under side of the carpet by the. blows upontits upper surface. For an instant we shall have a glimpse of the broken fragments of the earth starting off, each on its new career, to whirl through the universe, each bearing with it—so we shall remember on the faith of a Presi dent of the British Association—some minute germs to be planted, if they have good luck, on some distant planet, and there to begin over again that endless process of evolution which will have come to so summary a conclusion here. Or, if we please, we contemplate another alternative, and suppose we just miss the nucleus of the cornet, but are wrapped in his fiery tail, which will turn oceans into steam, dissipate the eternal ice at the poles, and singe the world into the likeness of an American prairie af ter a fire. Nothing will be left but a ^ast suriace of gray ashes, gradually to be converted into mud as the waters again condense and again descend upon the depopulated planet. Alas ! we can not claim the eloquence which -would be necessary to do justice to such tremen dous catastrophes. Milton, writing un der the superintendence of Dr. Cum ming, might possibly be equal to such a task as the description of the complete and instantaneous ruin of a world ; but The JELLY Fish.—So large a portion of its bulk consists of water that one of no less than thirty-four pounds weight, being left to dry in the sun for some days, was found to have lost ninety-nino per cent, of its original weight. Writing of the not very attractive appearance of the huge jelly fish, Agassiz observes that “to form an idea of his true appearance, one must meet him as he swims along at mid day, rather lazily withal, his huge semi- transparent iisk, with its flexible-lobed margin glittering in the sun, and his tentacles floating a distance of many yards behind him. Encountering one of these huge jellyfishes, when out in a row- boat, we attempted to make a rough measurement of his dimensions upon the spot. He was lying quietly near the sur face, and did not seem in the least dis turbed by the proceeding, but allowed the oar, eight feet in length, to be laid across the disk, which proved to be seven feet in diameter. Backing the boat slowly along the line of the tentacles, which were floating at their utmost extension behind him, we measured these in the same manner, and found them to be rath er more than fourteen times the length of the oar, thus covering a space of some hundred and twelve feet.” This huge mass is produced by a hydroid measuring not more than half an inch in length when fully grown.—Scientific American. A Queer Mistake.—A letter from Dorchester, Mass., to a Boston paper tells the following : “ There are in this town two twin brothers, whose resem blance to each other is so strong that strangers can hardly tell them apart. They keep a grocery and provision store, and were one day bringing in bags of meal from a wagon, which was out of sight from the inside of the store. Nath an had his coat on, but Eli was in his shirt-sleeves. A stranger in the shop watched them coming in and going out one after the other, but only one was visible at a time, and at last he exclaimed to Eli: ‘Well, you’re the smartest man I ever saw ; but why do you keep put ting on and taking off your coat?’ These brothers and several other men were in the habit of getting up very early and going to swim in the ‘ Reser voir Pond,’ and once Eli going, as was his wont, to Nathan’s house, to call him, by tapping on the pane, saw his own face reflected from the glass, and taking it for his brother, called out, ‘ Come on : they’re waiting for you.” Buried Alive.—An Irishman took the contract to dig a public well. When he had dug about twenty-five feet down, he came one morning and found it caved in—filled nearly to the top. Pat looked cautiously around and saw that no person was near, then took off his hat and coat, hung them on a windlass, crawled into some bushes and awaited events. In a short time the citizens discovered that the well had caved in, and seeing Pat’s hat and coat on the windlass they sup posed that he was at the bottom of the excavation. Only a few hours of brisk digging cleared the loose earth from the well. Just as the citizens had reached the bottom, and were wondering where the body was, Pat came walking out of the bushes and good-naturedly thanked them for relieving him of a sorry job. Some of the tired diggers were disgusted, but the joke was too' good to allow any thing more than a laugh, which soon followed. Then and Now.—An old-fashioned woman remarks, with pathetic retro spectiveness: “Ican remember when eight yards of print, and ten or twelve hours’ work, without a sewing-machine, would make a dress, which required only a pretty collar, and a black silk apron aad a brooch to arrange it into a very neat toilet. But that was when ladies did housework in the forenoon, dined in the middle of the day, occupied them selves in sewing in the afternoon, and had tea at six o’clock.” Facts and Fancies. We make laws, but follow customs. Truth sometimes tastes like medicine, but that is an evidence that we are ill. The slowest thing yet discovered is generally thought to be a French “fleet.'’ In Australia, kangaroo leather is thought appropriate for wear in leap- year. Some one lias discovered that the sum mit of a hemlock tree almost always leans toward the east. The locomotives in the United States burn up some sixty million dollars’ worth of wood annually. California exempts editors from jury duty, thinking they have trials enough in their business. A genuine lion is sauntering around San Jose, Cal., and the citizens are keep ing remarkably good hours. The following is concise enough : A Tennessee negro had a quarrel with a locomotive. Age unknown. A jealous young lady in Oswego at tempted to poison a bride by introduc ing arsenic into the wedding cake. Among the rich men of Boston are one worth eighteen million dollars, one eight millions, and one five millions. Speaking of the danger of catching small-pox by handling greenbacks, a country editor congratulates himself that he’s safe enough. A paragraph in one of the papers in forms us that a horse rushed into a mil liner’s shop, whence he departed “ leav ing his traces behind him.” A Springfield paper says :—“We know shoes have soles and tongues, and now a chap’ in Rhode Island advertises “ Shoes made Hear.’ We don’t believe if. A gentleman was sitting by a parlor mirror, when a lady remarked : —“ You are not in your right mind this evening ; I perceive that you are beside yourself.” A drover who sells his cattle by live weight, always gives them as much water as they will drink before driving them on the scales. That is his way of water ing stock. A show-card in a liquor saloon in New York invites a trial of “a hair of the dog that bit you last night.” The dog is represented in the form of a whisky bot tle with legs. Every column of a newspaper contains from ten to twenty thousand distinct pieces of type. The displacement of a single one makes an error. Is it strange that errors occur ? Yates City, in Illinois, is engaged, in prosecuting a man for a tax of $2, which he declares he has paid. He beat the city in the suit the first time, and the case was appealed. An Indiana paper reports the case of a cat which suffers from marked paroxysms of fever and ague. A good dose of ca nine would probably cure her. Whine and bark, you know. nature is not prodigal; she only one such mind at a time. gives A Trotting Season. The directors of the Buffalo Driving Park Association have decided to offer purses amounting to $60,000 to be trot ted for at their August meeting, being a clear increase of 610,000 over the amount offered last year. One of the principal features of the meeting will be purses of 61,000 and 61,500 for four and five year old colts, the nominations for which will close on Wednesday, May, 1, which must be accompanied by 5 per cent, of the purse, which will be forfeit ed unless 5 per cent, more is paid on or before Saturday, July 27. The pro- gramnie of premiums is divided as fol- Io vs : For three-minute horses For two-fifty horses For two-forty horses For two-thirty-four horses..., For two-thirty horses For two-twenty-seven horses For two-twenty-five horses.. For two-twenty-one horses... Free for all For four-year-olds For five-year-olds Total $1,800 2,000 4,000 5,000 10,000 10,000 10,000 5,000 10,000 1,000 1,500 , $60,000 Chased by a Saw Log.—A Canadian who was engaged on the brow of a hill, near Pittsfield, Mass., in cutting timber and rolling it to the bottom, endeavored to manipulate a log for a safe descent, but discovered that it was getting the better of him. He was on the under side, and it would not do to “Jet it slide,” so he screamed for help. But no help came. His strength was surely and rapidly failing, and there was nothing to do but to run for it; and run he did—a fearful race. The natural philosophers say that a log gains in rapidity as it de scends. Ib is otherwise with human legs on 'a run, even when, as in this case, the descent is steep and icy. There was no turning out, and the log gained with terrible rapidity on the frightened Canuck, and was now just on his heels, when luckily he spied a hollow in his path into which he popped with a bound, but had barely time to huddle himself into his hole, when crash ! crash! the log thundered over him, and left him safe, but about the most badly scared man that ever halload. Roses are worth 65 each in New Or leans, at church fairs. The Rose costs 61, the pin 62, and $2 is charged for sticking the $2 pin through the $1 rose into the victim’s coat. A lecturer recently made a point in illustrating the power of heat, by saying that the iron track of the Central Rail road is 1,000 feet shorter to-day than on the 4th of July last. A society for the prevention of cruelty to children, in the shape of exposure from the bare arms, shoulders and legs, which the vanity of mothers delights in, is soon to be established in Boston. A Bay City man paid heavy express charges on a box labelled. “An Aus tralian mocking bird—handle with care,” and found it to contain, as he profanely remarked, “ only an old turkey gobbler.” The Boston Transcript is of opinion that “no grand jury in New York can be expected hereafter to indict a murderer, unless he is willing to give bonds, in a sufficient sum, not to prosecute them for so doing.” Swindlers tried to seduce a Western man on a railroad train into betting that he could open a patent padlock which they carried about. He took the bet and opened the lock with a sledge ham mer. A man arriving home at a late hour a little worse for too much supper, and hatless and coatless, was asked by his indignant spouse: “Where’s your hat and coat ?” “Sent ’em, my dear (hic), to the Chicago sufferers.” Conversation in a Wisconsin store— Polite Clerk—“Can I show you anything else to day ?” Lugubrious Customer— “ No, I reckon not. I lost two horses and my wife last fall, and I feel pretty poor, Good span of horses, too.” “Apple-stall keeper (to the boys)— Now, then, what are you gaping at? What do you want’?” “Street boy— Nothin’.” “Apple-stall keeper—Then take it, and be off.” “ Street boy—-Very well; wrap it up for us in a piece o’ paper.” Alphonse Karr was onee present at a banquet given in commemoration of the birth of Hahnemann. Toasts having been given to the health of every medi cal celebrity, ancient and modern, the President remarked, “ M. Karr, you have not proposed the health of any one.” The poet rose and modestly replied,” I propose the health of the sick.” A small fish, imbedded in ice, was found lately. The little fellow was sol idly encased in ice as clear as crystal, and when placed in water and the ice gradually melted from about it, its rigi dity left, the tail quivered, and after turning it over a few times it swam away as if nothing had happened. How long his minnowship had been thus housed is not known, but probably not less than two months. A Knowing Insect. —A correspondent of a New York paper relates a touching instance of insect instinct as follows: “I found a cockroach straggling in a pail of water. I took half a peanut shell fora boat. I put him into it and gave him two wooden toothpicks for oars, and left him. The next morning I visited him, and he had put a piece of white cotton-thread on one of the toothpicks and set the toothpick up on its end as a signal of distress. He had a hair on the other toothpick, and there that cockroach sat afisbing. The sight melt ed me to tears. I never had to. chew leather to get a soul ; I was born with one. I took that cockroach out, gave him a spoonful of gruel, and left. That animal never forgot that act of kindness, and now my house is chock full of cock ' roaches.” Fooling Lo.—Lo ! the poor Indian is sometimes made the victim of wicked jokes upon the Western border. A shift less specimen of the gentle savage in Winona, Minn., asked a wag to write him a certificate of character, with which he might set up in the business of beg ging. Instead of the desired “good Injun, no steal, no drink.” &c., the wag wrote : “ This Indian has the small-pox ; look out for him.” He didn’t succeed in the begging enterprise worth a cent, and was amazed at the sudden aversion every body conceived for the unfortunate red- man. The Rocky Mountain Goat. —A late attempt to domesticate the Rocky Moun tain goats ended in disaster. Seven of them were caught; two killed themselves in trying to escape, twe^others killed themselves in their pen (possibly a mu tual suicide), two escaped, and the last one jumped the fence and strangled him self with his halter.
The Union Republican (Winston, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
April 10, 1872, edition 1
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