The Emporia Tribune from Emporia, Kansas • 1

bio -ll a VOLUME 1. EMPOEIA, KANSAS i VEDKESPAT, DECEMBEK 29, 1869. NUMBER 13: 'i '1- Prairie Sod as Fuel. EARLY KANSAS. Thoughts for Winter Evenings.

Young: Man Invest in Land. The surest way to wealth in this or Giant Ostrich of Madagascar. Among the most striking curiosities of various natural history museums for some years past have been either origi so," said he-, -sadly Ml have been trying hard to do so." "What la it," Earl 3 Anything gone wrong with Laura For I did not know but the tittle jade had been play the patient to her bosom and his hands in hers through the whole operation. The accident, it was found, had been occasioned by a stick of timber pinned to the track, and the railroad company offered a reward of a thousannd dollars for the discovery of the rascally perpetrator. No matter how we found it out, but it was ascertained beyond a doubt that Prince Carleton was the guilty party.

He confessed it when we had him snug and safe and said that because he wanted Earl Rogers out of the way, and because he hated the whole concern, (meaning the railroad corporation), he had formed this plan of diabolical revenge. His father was a millionair and bought up our silence handsomely. Prince went to California, and I do not know what became of him. Old Demain proved himself a trump after all, and gave in gracefully. He is ,1 TWO PICTURES.

BT HULT UMTIWOTOH XILLZB. Hear tod Versa the lre-Bght bib. Ia Um rich taan'a home to-nlrht, Oa the victim hanriBC arniait the walls, Aad thacbudrea's Faces bright. Taay parted tha crimson folds -A fntm Lh window hiirh. -And theft eyes looked out at the whirling-snow ah lb auu ana stormy say, The dainty garments are rich and rare, Xheir faces fair to see, JLnd the golden gleam of their shining hair Is aa bright a a crown might be JLad many-a stranger stops to smile At the picture warm and bright 'The beautiful children looking out Oa the dark and storm night.

It UtQKlSQ "With tattered garments and faces thin, 'Abroad in the bitter cold. Taepoor asaa's children are looking in Through the crimson curtain's fold. The bleak winds toss their rags in scorn, TlMlr am ai-hior and "Whil they gaze at the beauty and light within jkna tna cnuaren's taoes iair. I think, a I baste along the street. Of the beautiful borne above.

Where the rich and the poor alike Will meet, The Lord will open the shining doer, And gather the dear ones in The rich, with their soft and dainty robes, And the poor with their garments thin. THE WARNING AT BRIDGE. THE BT HERO STRONG. In the year '61 I was Superintend ent of the Howrich and Rocky River Railroad. It was a line which did a good run business, connecting as it did a great city with a flourishing back country, and we ran a pretty good dumber of trains over the rails in twenty-four hours.

The daily trains were every hour, but after nine in the evening there was only one train until the steamboat accommodation at half past three in the morning. i The" intervening train was the Bel-: port mail. It was made up at Bclport and ran as far as Clinton, express all the way. Bel port was the large city of which I have spoken, and it was there that my office was located, for the business of the road was all settled and arranged at that end of the line. Of course I give fictitious names, and the reader need not expect to find Bel-port on any railway map.

The 12:30 train, or the midnight mail as it was more frequently designated, was run by Earl Rogers, a young man of seven or eight and tw enty, who had been employed on the road for several years. He was the best engine driver on l' the corporation, and for that reason he bad been selected for the train, it being deemed expedient to place men of the ibest judgment on the train, because there was better lookout required by night. Earl, taken all in all, was one of the finest fellows I ever saw. Frank, handsome, generous to a fault, and very well educated. lie had fallen into the vocation of an engineer, more from his love of excitement and danger than any thing else perhaps and if there was ever any particularly perilous business to be One has to toil bard in proportion as he is ignorant.

To be doomed to the dredge ry of a slave, who is driven under the lash, is not to lead either a very happy or a very honorable life. That what we have said is true is ap parent to every one on looking around him. Who is he that works the hardest end gets the least for what he does Is it not the most ignorant, or the most reckless Who are they who can live by comfortable labor without overworking, and when old enough to take their ease are able to do so Are they not the more intelligent, who have known from early life that it was necessary to economize in order to get a "start in the world," and who have been able to work to the best advantage in all they Lave attempted? Does not an intelligent man know how to make a good farm out of a poor one one made poor, perhaps, by someone who was too ignorant to hold his own, and who was doomed to drudgery and penury and discomfort all his life. These things being so, it follows that the best of all capital with which to begin independent life is intelligence. The more of thought and knowledge one has the more certain his success and his enjoyment.

Next to bodily health, all depends upon the mind. We, therefore note some foolish ways in which people, and especially young people, spend their leisure time 1. Going to the town, or village or cross roads to sit out the evening in vulgar talk, and smoking cigars and drinking beer at first, and then some thing stronger. 2. Getting cards, checker boards, and wasting the long winter evenings in games for amusement at first, and then for something else.

3. Getting up parties, balls, in order to have a good time generally. In this way it is the easiest thing in the world for a young man to waste all the leisure of his early life, and even if he gets through without becoming the slave of a bad habit he has tailed to form the good habit of self improvement. He has "missed his opportuni ty," and nothing better than hard work with very small reward, is his destiny. On the contrary, the largest part of his leisure hours should be devoted to his intellectual and moral culture.

i Neither the young man nor the roung woman, the boy or the girl, has any time to waste at the village. Nothing, except business or literary society should draw one to town. The fortune, the respectabillity and the happiness of every one depend upon the right improvement of early life. The Josh Billings Papers. FEMALE BEMAKS.

Dear Gurls, are yu in search ov a husband? This iz a plumper, and yu are not required to say "Yes" out loud, but are expekted to throw yure eyes down onto the earth, az tho yu waz looking for a pin, and reply tew the interrogatory with a kind of draud-in-sigh, as tho yu waz eating an oister, juice and all, off from the half shell. Not tew press so tender a theme until it becumes a thorn in the flesh, we will presume (tew avoid argument) that yu are on the lookout forsumthing in the male line tew boost yew in the up-hill ov life, and tew keep his eyes on the brithing when yu begin tew go down the other side ov the mountain. Let me give sum small chunks ov advice how tew spot yure fewter hus band The man who iz jellous of every lit tle attenshun which yu git from sum other fellow, yu will find, after yu are married tu him, luvs himself more than he duz yu, and what ya mistook for solissitude, yuwill diskover, has changed into indifference. Jellousy isn't a heart-disease it iz a liver-komplaint. A mustash iz not indispensable it iz only little more hair, and iz a good deal like moss and other excressences often does best on sile that won't raise anything else.

Don't, forgit that thoze things which yn admire in a phel-low before marriage, yn will probably hav to admire in a husband after, and a mustash will git to be very weak diet after a long time. If husbands could be took on trial, as Irish cooks are, two-thirds of them would probably be returned but there don't seem to be any law for this. Tbarefore, girls, yu will see that after yu git a man, yu hav got tew keep him, even if yu lose on him. Consequently, if yu have got any cold Tittles in the house, try him on them once in a while, during scouring season, and if he wallers them well, and sez he will take sum more, he iz a man who, when blue Monday comes, will wash well. Don't marry a pheller who iz alwnz a telling how hiz mother duz things- It iz az hard tew suit theze men az it iz tew wean a voang one.

It is one ov the tuffest' things for a female tew be an old maid successfully. A grate menny haz tried it, and made a bad jobov of. Everybody seems tew look upon old maids jist az they do npon dried barbs in the garret, bandy for sickness and tbarefore, girls, it aint a mistake that yon should be willing tew swop yourself oph, with some true phellow, for a husband. The swop iz a good one but don't swop for any man who is respektabel jist because hiz father iz. Yn had better be an old maid for 4 thousand years, and then join the Shakers, than tew buy.

repen tance at tbis price. No woman ever made this trade, who didnt git a pbool, a mean cuss, or a clown for a huain. Only fancy the change of times when John Breckinridge presents his card at the White House and it is not even sent in. Verily it is a generation that knows not Joseph. ritav the Des Moines Beg-ister.

A day or two since, we copied from the Iowa Homestead the following ex-traft accompanying it with no com-mest. In looking over it again, we see in its assumptions such promise of good, that we desire to republish it, that more general attention may be directed to it. It is from a southern Iowa correspondent of the Hvmesteod, uni reads as follows "I agree with Prof, ninrichs of tlie Stdte University, that the great fuel-makers of the earth are sun-light and air. Fuel is all around us, particularly beneath our feet. Prairie sod, cut a few inches thick, with a breaking-plow, in mid-summer, and put away in a dry shed, makes the very best of fuel.

Do you suppose that the people of Omaha and Council Bluffs, who pay three and four prices for cotton wood fuel, and dirty, soft coal, know this? -When prairie sod cannot be procured, that from any pasture equally goad, provided it is dried and kept so. I put a lot of it away last fall, and have been using it extensively this A sod a foot square, retains its shape for 24 hours, and gives out a surprising amount of heat, if not broken up. Turf, as it is called, is the only fuel ued by the Irish peasant, where peat is not found. This reminds me that "every 'sloo, which does not wash out with a current, in the State of Iowa, and iu every other State, is filled with this carbonaceous deposit, waiting only for man to dig it out in a dry time, and keep warm and comfortable by its cheery heat. It is the very best of fuel, far superior to any coal that we have, and exists in unlimited abundance everywhere.

While on a trip across the State, during the excessively dry season, I saw a great many- of these deposits, which had been set on fire by camping immigrants, which burned for months, and mde holes six or eight feet deep in the ground. A beneficent Providence has been much more kind and attentive to the unworthy dwellers here below, than is generally supposed. There is certainly no lack of fuel anywhere, if we look for it properiy." We are informed by the editor of the Iowa Homestead that the writer from whose correspondence the extract is made, is a gentleman of great intelligence, and prominently identified with the agricultural and general interests of the State. If his statement in regard to prairie sod as a fuel, be true, as he says he knows it to le, it is time the people of Iowa should be informed of it. It is something which every man in Iowa can try and prove for himself.

We confess that we are not yet a convert. In our days on the farm we bave turned many acres of the upland with the plow and much of the lowland with the spade, but never yet have seen any Iowa turf which did not have in it too much ground and grit to make a good fire. It may be, however, that we did not plow and spade in the right place, and it is possible that we do not know fuel of this kind when we see It. We are willing to be convinced that we are wrong, and should be pleased to bear from the writer of the above extract at greater length and also from Prof. Henrichs, if he holds the same opinion.

If every acre of Iowa land is a woodpile in disguise, a beneficent Providence as the gentleman from whom we quote says, "has been much more kind and attentive to the people" of prairie Iowa than we have imagined. If we can burn the ground we live npon, and make it cook our victuals, as well as raise them, and keep us warm in the bargain, then we arc in love with a prairie country more than ever. If we can do that, our coal mines will be played out entirely, and the forests becomn tilings merely ornamental for everybody would have their mines of fuel at their own doors. We would still want considerable timber for fencing but as the day is eoniing when farmers will fence their stock and leave their fields free that to to say, change the custom, and, in stead of fencing up that which cannot run away, fence up that which can we will, before long, be able to get a- long with very little. In that event a treeless country would become a para dise, indeed or, at least, much nearer so than it now is.

While we are inclined to unbelief in sod as a fuel, we are assured that the gentleman who has presented it as such is a person whose statements can be relied npon, and if he has tried sod as a fraI, and finda it eotnboatible, ani tliat it makes "the very best of fuel," we can not do otherwise than accept his statements as true. As we have before said, we would be pleased to hear from him further npon the subject, and extend him the use of our colnmns for 'that purpose. If prairie sod will barn as well as dry hickory, we win not, after this winter, pay $7 a cord for dry hickoryor if it will burn as well as green hickory, we will not again waste $6 on that green timber. If It will burn even as well as green cottonwcod, or green water elm, or any other good green wood, it will be a good thing- xs there are thousands of fires that are kept the whole winter through with wood of that character. We would probably be correct, and rather under than over in the estimate, in saying that four out of five of the.

farmers of Iowa burn green wood and we suppose that nearly as large a proportion of townspeople' do be seen, then," that Jf1 fJ would not have to be as good as "the very bc nf to become adopted into general use Bring on your sod I "My dear," asked a husband, on observing new striped hose on his. only heir, why have yon made barber poles of our Earnest's legs?" -Secanse be a little shaver," was the reply, i any other country, in the majority of cases, is based upon investments in real estate. Such investments, if judiciously made in localities possessing natnral advantages, whether town lots or good fanning lands, are nearly always remunerative, luvery man of family should provide himself with apiece of land, however small, from a fraction of a lot to acres of ground. Every young man should do the same. If he does not need it for his immediate use, let him consider it as so much property waited down for future use.

It will surely make him a good return, if he pays the taxes and keeps it free from adverse liens' A correspondent for the Country Gentlemen, writing from Illinois, says The sharpest and ablest men, with $1,000 at starting, may buy and sell and trade and deal, add profit to profit, loan njoney at 20 per cent, and shave notes at 30, and fret and worry and stew, through a long and laborious life, incur all the hatred that attaches to the universally despised Shylock, and at the end he will not have accumulated half as much as be would had he made at starting the same investment in real estate, sat down, things coolly and waited on fortune. This is the average experience. Another sensible writer also advised his readers to buy land if their means would enable them to do so. He said "We would counsel no man to run in debt beyond his means to meet it, and no poor man to invest his little all where it will not contribute to bis sus tenance, or be available in case of need yet we cannot help urging every land less man to become the owner of some spot of earth as soon as may be. Land is still amazingly cheap in most parts of our country, and is not destined to remain so.

Emigration is very heavy all sensible people are sick of war and our population increases at a rate which will double it every twenty years. The common notion that we have still an enormous" area of area of arrable soil still unappropriated, is a mistake. West of Kansas and Nebraska, that is, over 300 miles west of the Missouri, there is little good land. The central table lands of our continent lie so high as tq lie C11 and frosty, and in summer are parched by persistent, pitiless drouth. Even were not the lack of timber a serious obstacle to settlement, not one acre in fifty could be rendered productive without irrigation and arte sian wells and these, as is well known, are very costly.

The four millions of blacks have scarcely an acre, nor is it probable that fifteen millions of our countrymen are owners of land, or the wives and children of those who are Yet these own more than half of the soil of the United States. Twenty years hence, we trust the land holders, with their families, will be forty-five millions. Who does not realize that land must be dearer then than it is now And the large production of the pre cious metals which those years are morally certain to witness not less than two billions of dollars in this country alone must tend to enhance the value of land." The immense millions that have ac cumulated in the hands of the rich men of the country have, in' nine cases out of ten, resulted in judicious investments in real estate and a majority of cases, in the immediate vicinity of growing towns and cities. It is difficult, indeed, to estimate the enormous increase of wealth in this way. The Astors of New York, the late Lu cius JhKtenden or tnat city, aooui whose will so much has been said of late in the papers Billy Gray of Bos ton Girard of Philadelphta the late Judge Burnett, and hundreds of others of Cincinnati, to say nothing of all the large estates of Columbus not accumulated during the war, are found noted examples illustrative of the truth of what we say, all ot which are within the knowledge of most of our readers.

French Immigration to Kansas. The Marquis de Boissiere, one of the heaviest capitalists of France, said to be worth four million francs, is the person who has entered upon the vast enterprise of silk culture in Franklin county in this State. For this purpose an entire -colony from the silk-raising districts of France arrived here last Fall, and commenced such operations as could be made during the season. In these preparations, though it was im possible to accomplish much in so short a tune, the fact that the enterprise would prove a grand success was most decidedly revealed, and it also became evident that more force was needed. the Marquis, full of the success of his redoubled his energies, and will mature his plans with the least possible delay.

Fifty ad ditional families have been started recently and are now on their way to join the colony. The work is under the ira mediate supervision of Mr. Relovant, a gentleman possessing vast business abilities, and one of the best 6ilk manu facturers in the district from which he came. Lawrence Tribune. Mark Twain lecturing to a Boston audience, on the Sandwich Islands, when he came to discuss cannibalism, remarked "At this point I usually lustrate canibalism before the audi ence but I am a stranger here, and feel diffidant about asking favors.

However, If there is anyone present willing to contribute a baby for the purpose of the lecture, I should be glad to know it now. I am aware though, that' children have become scarce and high of late, having been thinned out by neglect and ill-treatment since the woman movement began, A Thrilling Incident of Front ier Aiie. From the Leaven worth Bulletin. A pleasant evening was the one recently passed with Mr. Abel Farrell of Morris county, one of the old pioneers; one who has passed through the fires of Indian outbreaks, raids, and kindred sports of the Lo family, as well as through much of the fierce, internicine struggle which so recently stirred the foundations of our natioual existence.

Fourteen years a resident of Morris county and, from the outset, at a point remote from the comforts of civilization and the safety engendered by close proximity to military posts. Locating en the present site of Council Grove, at a time when the now diminished tribe of Kaws boasted 700 warriors, he has not only been a witness but a participant in many of the encounters between portions of that tribe and the white settlers. At one time (date not remembered, nor important) when the Kaws, Chey-ennes and Pawnees had consolidated for the openly avowed purpose of "clearing a road (murder and devastation) from Burlingame, Osage county, west," a large party of mounted Kaws, being anxious to -disclose their prowess and take the initiative, rode into the settlement in broad day, shot down in cold blood two unoffending, and at the time, unarmed, citizens, and hied away to their camp. A council of war was held by the settlers every available man and boy was mustered, and the grand total barely reached the number of twenty-five. Runners were dispatched set tlers at remote points were warmed of the storm about to burst calls were made upon them for reinforcements.

in order that a 'brave front" might be put upon the matter which, by the wy goes a long way with Johnny Red A few recruits were received from Lyon county, and scattering ones from various localities, until, at last, this brave little band went valiantly forth, to victory or to death, with an army of seventy-five. Approaching the camp of the warriors, they were found to have selected as a battle-gound the level ground ly ing at the base of a massive bluff near the Neosho river. At the bare of the bluff, whose jagged and unsightly sides rose towering in the air, they had delved, for their portection apertures in the earth, such as we were wont to term rifle-pits during the rebellion, and which so effectually shielded the person of the sharpshooter except while in the act of firing. Ensconsed in their miniature earthworks, they calmnly and with" a sure thing "on victory" awaited the aproach of the "army" from the grove. -Using their engineering skill, natural and ac quired in their many wars, they were wholly invisible, and the attacking part' came near falling into the ambush.

From some cause a halt was made. Some adventurous spirit, eager for the fray, started upon a little expedition of his own, and, by the mearest accident, discovered the trap so readly to be sprung upon the unsuspecting band. Retracing his step, he made known his discovery to his companies. A council was held, and it was determined to demand the surrender of the two Indians who did the shooting in the street. A white flag was sent to the front with the demand coupled with threats that if the guilty ones were not forthwith produced, the entire annihila- tion of the.band would be both speedy and sure.

After some partying the murderers were led forth, received by the settlers, taken to the nearest tree, and expiated their crime, and reached the "happy hunting grounds" through an overdose of raw-hide lariat. This summary execution was witnessed by all the warriors, and had a most saluta ry effect npon their future actions. In the meantime the Indian runners had reported the premature outbreak of the Kaws, and several hundred warriors from the allied tribes were npon the war-path. The mind ma possibly conceive, but the pen is feeble to ex press the anxiety, the horrors, which surrounded the wives and little barricaded with the settlers homes. Three long perilous days, spent in prayer, almost without the shadow of hope.

Hus bands fathers, brothers every male capable of bearing and using arms, absent upon an almost dernier resort "bearding the lion, in his den. When the assembled and hostile Kaws witnessed the speedy retribution which had o'ertaken those of their band who had so wontenly imbued their hands in "white man's" blood and their deep seated look of firm determination which overspread the honest and sun- browned countenances of those whose lives were so freely offered in the de fence of their homes and the dear ones contained, they at once dispatched mes sengers to inform their allies that it was "too late white man in arms heap hite.man." Some hundreds however gathered at the appointed rendezvous but wise councils prevailed, and after a few acts of vandalism, without, how ever, loss of life, they departed. A heartfelt thanksgiving was offered to God by the entire settlement. The women and children came forth from their imprisonment and thus closed the "Kaw "War," which those who participated in it, and whose lives have been spent npon the border, and whose perils and most minent dangers might form a volumn, regard as one Of the most perilous positions in wnicn a frontier life has place them. M.

n. W. Dec, 17th, 1868. nals or easts of a gigantic egg, brought irom joaaagascar, ana oeionging to an extinct species of bird formerly living in that country. These eggs are estimated to be of two gallons capacity, or about that of one hundred and forty-four hen's eggs, and about six times the bulk of an ostrich's egg.

They measure about thirteen inches in length by nine inches in diameter. It has been impossible until quite recently to obtain any characteristic bones of this bird, by which to ascertain its true zoological relationship, some authors considering it a gigantic pigeon, others a vulture, referring it to the famous roc of Marco Polo, but the majority of naturalists believing it to belong to the family of which the ostrich is a member. Quite lately this latter view has been established by the discovery of certain portions of the skeleton and a communication relative to it has just been made to the Academy of Sciences in Under the supposition that the bird was ah ostrich, comparisons as to size were made, based npon the relative di mensions of the eggs, and the height of about nfteen feet was ascribed to the Madagascar t-pecies. The examination of the remains in question, however, has satisfied Prof. A.

Milne Edwards that the supposed altitude is greatly exaggerated, and that the bird in all probability scarcely exceeded in height that of the modern ostrich, or about six and a half feet. With this moderate height, however, the bird was enormous in its other dimensions, as shown by the truly colossal size of the tibia, which is about thirty inches in length, the circumference of the upper extremity measuring eighteen inches and that of the lower fourteen, while at the smallest intermediate part the bone has a circumference of only about six inches. The femur is equally remarkable for its excessive massiveness, its length being only one and a half times the breadth of the articular face of the lower extremity. On its hinder surface, and above the condyles, is an enormous fossa, into which open large orifices, in tended to admit air into the bone. Ihe feet of this bird must have been gigantic, and its entire appearance elephantine.

In its order, its probable position is near the Divot nig and the Apteryz, but differing from both in a very remarkable degree. A full aeeount of these bones is promised by Prof. Milne Edwards, and its appearance will be hailed with no little interest by naturalists. Harpers 2Iag- Sparrows. The familiar works on natnral histo- ry are full of pleasing incidents relating to the sparrow.

Although of dingy plumage, and with but -a monotonous note, it is so lold, confiding, familiar, and withal so affectionate, that it might almost be called the "poor man's It hovers about the children while eating their out door meals, to pick up the crumbs. It even goes to their work with gangs of men, and attends them home again, becoming sometimes so familiar, when indulg ently treated, as to eat out of the hand, to perch upon the shoulder or the head, and peer into the dinner pail. An instance is narrated of a hen sparrow that made itself a home with one of those coffee wagons, or movable cafes, that are trundled about London. It flew to meet her master in the morning, left him only at dusk for her roost, and all day long picked up a living off from his customers. This career was only interrupted by seasons of hatching.

But as soon as her little young ones could fly she came back, bringing them with her. This she did for four years, when. Patrick Corbett found found himself the patron geniue of sparrows, with a good summer prospect of more. H. W.Beecher.

Effects of Kail roads on the Weather. The opinion seems to be gaining strength that the Pacific Railroad is working a great change in the climate of the plains. Instead of continuous droughts all along the railroad, rain now falls in refreshing abundance. This fact has been remarked upon in other localities of the West. In cen tral Ohio for example, it is said, the climate has boen completely revolu tionized, since iron rails have formed a net work all over that region.

Instead of the destructive droughts for merly suffered there, for some four or five years there has been rain in abun danceeven more than enough to satisfy the wants of the farmers. This change is thought to be the result of an equilibrium produced in the electric cureents, which has brought about a more uniform dispensation of the rain. It is a fact within the observation of all who remeralier anti-railroad times, that we have now few or no such thunder storms as we. formerly had in New England. The iron rails, which touch and cross each other in every direction, serve as conductors and equalizers of the eleclric currents, and so prevent the terrible explosions which used to terri fy us in former years.

The tellegraph-ic wires which accompany the iron rails everywhere, also act an important part in diffusing electricity equally through the atmosphere, thus preventing the occurrance of severe thunderstorms. Boston Traveler. Good Enough for the Price, The Western Monthly tells the following amusing anecdote There was one occasion Mr. Forrest received from one of the super numeraries of a theater an answer which seemed to satisfy, him. -It was the man's duty to say simply, "The enemy is upon us," which he uttered at a rehearsal in a poor, whining way.

"Can't you say it better than that?" shouted Forrest. "Repeat it as I do!" and he gave the words with all the force and richness of his magnificent voice. "If I could say it like replied the man, "I wouldn't be working for three dollars a week." "Is that all yon get "Tt es." "Well, then, say it as you please." ing off with him after the manner of women. I "No. You will laugh at me, Mr.

Woodbury, but I must tell somebody, or I shall go oat of my wits," said he, half laughing, "and before Heaven I tell you it is all truth. Thursday afternoon I took a hand car and went over to the Rocky River Bridge. I do not mind confessing that I went on purpose to get a glimpse of her home perhaps of herself. I stood at one end of the bridge looking across at the house enraptured at the sight of a scarlet shawl which I knew was hers, flitting in and through the frost-bitten shrubbery of the garden. And while I was looking at her, I heard footsteps, and glancing up I saw myself coming from the opposite of the bridge I was dressed in this suit of water-proof my face was pale as death and my wide open eyes were blank and expressionless Sir, you think I am crazed, But I am telling only the truth While I stood staring at the vision it disappeared and weak and trembling, I came back to town.

By the next day yesterday I had reasoned myself out of belief in anything of the kind It was an hallucination, I said, and to prove it so I would go out there again, and see it it would appear for the second time. I went again yesterday, and sir, the same thing was repeated It will come once more and then I shall go to my death "Nonsense!" said I. "Come Earl, be honest and confess that you had been taking too much whiskey I never drink anything, as you know, Mr. Woodbury." returned he, and this thing was fearfully real. And of one result I am satisfied.

If I run the mail train out to-night I shall be killed, and Heaven knows what will be the fate of the train I suppose it could not be taken off to-night "Taken off! what in the deuce do you mean snappeu "tins road runs trains as advertised! Cowardly engineers to the contrary notwithstanding." He looked at me sadly, reproach fully, and I could have kicked myself for the way I had spoken to him. It was not on my account, sir," said he but it is only a few days be fore Thanksgiving, and the train will be a full one. If there is an accident it may be a bad one." "Accident!" said I contemptnously fiddlesticks Come in to-morrow and let me laugh at yon." He told me good night, gravely, and went out. Presently the clock struck twelve, and I heard the three sharp successive whistles that told me the train was nearly ready. A strange feeling of apprehension seized me.

What if anything should happen? Yielding to an impulse which would not be controlled, I threw on my overcoat, turned out the gas, locked the office and hurried over to the depot, just in season to catch the rail of the rear car and swing myself on board. Earl Rogers stood at his post pale and silent, yet alert and watchful. By the head-light in the locomotive he could see half a mile ahead, and his keen eye scanned every inch of the way as the train swept on. Past Ro-maine Station past the Mill Cut, past Hill's embankment, and they plunged into ihe woods which skirted Rocky river. Suddenly as theys swept around a curve Jtarl cneeK wnitenea ana ne drew his breath Quick and hard 1 7 What he saw just before the train warned him that only death and destruction lay.

just ahead. He could probably save nimscit oe, leaping on due mat wouid doom all on board. Not a second did he hesitate. The sharp whistle to down brakes sounded he reversed steam and did everything in his power to stop the train. When he saw that his efforts were vain, that the obstacle which lay across the track only a few rods in advance could not be avoided, he sprang over the woodbox and nn hooked from the carriages.

The engine released from the drag, shot ahead, and the next instant plunged forward into the gulf! There was a crash a suc- cessson of shrill whistles from the es caping steam, arid all was still Not one of the cars went down the first one baited on the very brink of the abyss, as if the more fearfully to im press upon the minds of the passengers the terrible danger they had Before the train came to a stop I had jumped out and was" flying forward looking for Earl Rogers. They pointed into the river in answer to my inquiries, and seizing a lantern from the hand of one of the brakesmen, I climbed down the hank and found him. He lay under the wreck of the loco motivepale and bloody, with no breath coming from his icy lips, I am still an old man, but I did not feel the weight Of that poor fellow as I carried him up the bank, and on to the house of Demain which happened to be the nearest residence. Of course old Demain could not refuse him admittance under the circumstances, and in five minutes Laura was with me trying to restore the lifeless man to consciousnesss. She was all courage and hope; but for her we should have given him Up for dead, and I to this day firmly believe that her presence and her care brought him back from death.

She never flinched while the surgeon amputated his leg at the knee it was the only way to save him, Green I said, and Laura held' the poor head of void now, and Earl and Laura live at the old place, as happy a couple as I ever saw. As for Earl's warning, you may believe what you like about it. I have no explanation to offer. A Story of the New Secretary of war. Gen.

William W. Belknap, the new Secretary of War, tells the following excellent story on himself, which occurred on his trip to Washington, recently, to take charge of bis office To fully understand- and appreciate the point to the story, it must be remembered that the General had been most diabolically caricatured in Har per's Weekly, and that the number containing it was just then out, and. in circulation on tne train in which he was traveling East. An old solid looking matter-of-facj, individual was sitting in the next seat to Belknap, and during the trip found out that the latter was from Iowa. Directly the newsboy came around, whereupon old gent bought Harper, and after looking it over his eye settled down on what purported to be Belknap's picture, which very evidently and very justly excited his disgust.

Old gent says "Do you know this Belknap, Secretary of War?" Belknap "Yes, sir. I know him well." Old Gent "Well, what kind of a man is he, anyhow Belknap "Oh, he is a pretty good man, 1 guess. Old Gent "Well, what kind of a Secretary of War will he make Belknap "I think he will do the best he can." Old Gent "Well, all I have to say is that he is a hard looking man for Secretary of War, judging from his picture." Belknap managed to contain hrjiself, but the old gent sgon found out that he had been talking to the veritable Sec retary himself, and was most profuse in his apologies, declaring that the pic ture was an abominable libel on a very handsome and noble looking gentleman. About this time the old gent received an important interceded dis-. patch from the Governor of Nortli Carolina to the Governor of South Car-ola, which brought the intefview to a close.

Fanny Fern as Grandmother. A gentleman writes me to know "if it is true, that in a former number of the New York Ledger, I boldly and nnwinkingly and unblushingly stated, over my own signature, and contrary to the usual custom of my sex, that I was filty-eight years old." Well, sir, I did. Why not? I feel prouder of that fact, and of my being the grsndmother of the handsomest and smartest grandchild in this, or any country, than of any other two facts I have know ledge of. I can't see why men, or women either for thissqueam- ishness about one's age, I find, is not all a thing of a sex should care one penny about it. I say again, I vm "58," and I'm glad of it.

I have had my day, and I am quite willing that every other woman should have hers. Fisxy Fern. Butter Making. I noticed an in quiry in your. Journal recently, wheth er butter should be waisted or not.

Farmer's AVife" says, keep water out of it, but I say wash butter for me. I have not had much experience in mak ing butter, but I am not afraid to have my butter tested by the side or anybody else's. I always wash nay butter thoroughly, and work it twice after salting; then pack in stone jars, air tight, and it will keep any length of time as sweet as when first made. Cat, of Western Sural. Economy of Seed in Experiments have recently tended to prove that roots and grains, by being planted much farther apart than is usual, will actually yield larger crops than are now obtained.

This has been shown to be the case with potatoes, and more recently with wheat. It is found that the wheat plant increases above the ground in proportion as its roots have room to develop ithout interference with those of its neighbors. In one experiment, wheat thus treated. furnished ears containing over one hundred and twenty grains. It was found in the course of the same experiment, that on every fully developed cereal plant there is one ear superior to the rest and that each ear has one grain which, when planted, will be more pro ductive than any other.

By selecting therefore, the best grain of the best ear, and continuing the experiment through several generations, a point will be reached beyond which further improve ment is impossible, and a fixed and per manent type remains as the final result. 1 For some time he had been desper-ately in love with Laura Demain, the daughter of a rich old fellow just on the other side of Rocky River, a half dozen miles yeyond Bclport. This love was fully returned, for Laura was a noble hearted girl, and did not care for wealth 1 or ombition when weighed in the balance with love; but old Demain and she were two, and there was no prob-ability that he would ever give his consent. i ne had set his heart on her marrying Prince Carleton, a young blood of rthe vicinity, reputed wealthy and of an old family. Domain's opposition naturally made the lovers more determined, and they only waited an increase of Earl's salary to be married in spite of papa Demain.

Earl was a faithful fellow and I was doing my best with the company to get an advance for him with every probability of success. Somehow I took a strong interest in Earl's love affairs. I am an old codger, and lve matters are rather out of my line, my forte being the calculating of accounts, the regulation of freight rates, and the management of business so as to secure the fattest dividends to the stockholders Perhaps my interest in Earl's love for Laura might be because I most cordially "detested Prince Carleton. He was always "blowing" our road, finding fault with the rate of speed, with the grade, with the carriages, with the ventilation, with everything, iivshort, for nothing suited him i Then upon one occasion he and I had a few. words, neither pleasant nor very choice and he had callod me a -old scoundrel," and I had returned the with interest.

After that we were worse friends than ever. One dark, rainy night in November, just after the nine o'clock train had been got off, and I was -sitting in the office trying to. balance an account that would not balance, the door opened and "Earl Rogers walked in. He had on his water-proof" suit, the hood on over his and the collar buttoned closely, "but I saw that his face was very pale arid his eyes gleamed with anunnatur admirer i kX i "What la the world has happened, Rogers aaid "you look as grum as you were going to yoar.own-ranerai.' "Mr. Woodbury," said be earnestly, "do yon believe in presentiments 'So." said I.

"I certainly do not! TheY are old woman's whims 1" Perhaps so. I wish fiaujd think.