The Butler Weekly Times Newspaper, January 28, 1891, Page 2

j | SPRING SENTIMENT WASTER. My love walks ieee the sunlit woods, And near and far A tinkling melody outfioats Inrippling chords and tender notes, From guitar. And as she ers slowly on, atar; ht of place or time aceful chime My poor ‘ane A My hatid is wearied. Al! around The ®oods are lonely, aod the ground Is damp. I fear. I wonder why he doesn't con: Perhaps he's near; I'm sure I think he’s very slow T ve played twice every thing I know, ‘To get bim bere. ENSEMBLE. “ And may I carry your guitar?" Me speaks in fear She slow r pretty ey: And fr in great surprise: ? where? —Munsey's Weekly. A GENTLEMAN ROBBER.| Remarkable Career of “Sheet Iron Jack” of Shasta. A Dare-Devil Outlaw and His Wonderfal Exploits-How He Once Captured His Pursners—Melping Unfort- unate German. If you want a story, full to cach mf- nute detail of exactness, like the exact- ness of a photograph, come with me to the cabins of the pioneers. Listen to the legend of ‘Sheet Iron Jack, of Shasta,” one of the old Drigands of early Galifornia. *Sheet Iron Jack became a noted char- acter about the time the surface mines of Shasta and Trinity began to “play out.” He was handsome, young and talented, and a very Ainsworth’s Dick Turpin, or John Ridd’s Cousin Tom, on horseback. No clergyman was ever molosted on his beat, so from this and other circumstances the story came that he was the youngest son of a prominent Baptist minister in New York. His popular name, the only one by which he was known, arose from some of his re- markable escapes. Men said that he could shake bullets from his coat asa duck sheds water. Certainly the best shots among the constables and sheriffs of the region found it impossible to wing this flying rider, as he passed like a whirlwind through the mountains of the Northern Coast Range and Sierra. There was never a moro audacious brigand. The elder Dumas would have made him the hero of a three-volume novel. It was not that he was the most expert of horse-thieves, but he practiced his profession with such admirable po- liteness and humor that nine-tenths of his victims never cared to complain, which left his unique genius free to escape, deride and cover with obloquy and confusion the remaining tenth and all whom they called to their help. It goes without saying that he was brave, with that splendid physical courage that in times of tumult raises fishermen to ducal chairs, and makes hostlers Marshals of France. His high vitality overflowed, so the old pioneers say, in acts and sayings that would havo chorded well with great surroundings and fateful crises of bis- tory. He belonged to the type of men whom Napoleon and Skobeleff loved, understood and sent on desperate er- rands. Only a horse thief, and yet what wasted raw material of heroism went to the making of his character. No one knew where Sheet Iron Jack lived. Somewhere in a wilderness un- crossed by wagon roads he made his camps, never twice in the same ravine. He seemed to have knowledge of all the moves of his enemies, and, if the sheriff went to San Francisco, was as likely as not to ride leisurely through the county seat, take a drink in the leading saloon, dino at Miner's Hotel and give the news- paper editor an item. written out for publication in his own Italian hand and signed “Sheet Iron Jack, of Trinity Center.” One of his most famous exploits oe- curred in the foothills of Southern Shasta. He had taken a dozen blooded horses from a wealthy Tehama farmer, but was closely pursued, and just as he reached the Cottonwvod crossing he found it necessary to change his tacties. He turned the stolen horses into another rancher’s stable, and drove a dozen of the rancher’s own horses into the highway to confuse his pursuers. When these latter reachéd the little village across the bridge a rough teamster was the only guest at the log cabin hote!—Sheet Iron Jack in whimsical disguise, for he was a perfect Proteus when occasion required. Before morning he locked the sheriff's party in their rooms, took the best horses, turned the others loose in the woods, went back to the rancher's stable and secured the pick of tho first lot With these he swam the Sacramento, and taking advantage of hiding-places known only to himself, reached Oregon in safety a week later. The saucy and amusing letter of thanks which he left | Shee | uninvit Jack sometimes appeared | It was in the edge of the! ts on the eastern side of the settlers were -cabin school-house. A i young ma that her partner gned the and led her The terr down and sa repeat | the operation with Half the girls in the | out. | room. Then with a smile anda bow the merry brigand said: “Such charming. j ladies It never efore, but | really the inen of this dis tric bray bey ¢ kissed his last pi j Out of the door and diss darkness, leaving a dozen young fellows behind hin Like most typical high ymen, Sheet Iron Jack was a spendthrift, and be- lieved in the Robin Hood political econ- ry sheepish | omy. He helped many a poor fellow, footsore, homeless and weary, toa new start. He on saved a stage from an accident by repairing a broken bridge at the bottom of a grade, just before the belated stage torc down the rain-swept mountain. Veople told stories of him that would have donc lit to the best of men. Llc often flung a five, or a ten, or a twenty-dollar gold piece at a ‘dead broke” man, with the terso command: “Don't you drink whisky, and don't you believe all the bad stories hear about Sheet Iron Jack.” The following incident is perhaps aa characteristic as any that are told of this genial outlaw: One day in August a German was rid- ing along the mountain paths of South- ern Trinity. His horse, a fine and valu- able animai, suddenly went lame, and in an Four was only able to hobble for- ward. The ignorant youth was in de- spair. He had paid $150 for the horse, and now he expected to be compelled to abandon the animal. At this juncture a mild-voiced, benevolent old man, the shrewdest horse-trader in tho Coast Range, over- took the pour German, wou his confi- dence, examined the horse and pro- nounced the trouble a clear case of “founder.” “Twill take hima year to get an’ he'll never be ag’in.” After awhile the shrowd trader offered the German $20 for the horse, saying that he should turn him out ina pasture for a year or more. The unhappy young man consented, took the money and Started’ down the hill to walk to the stage station. The sharper waited un- til he was out of sight, then took a pair of pinchera from his saddlcbags, and in five minutes had taken off the four new shoes of the lame horse. In half an hour the animal was able to walk with comfort. “I tho’t so,” the new owner said. “The minute I seen them new shoes I knowed the trouble. That hoss is worth $200. Wish I could find such a foo! every day.” ‘The poor German toiled on for nearly an hour with his heavy saddle-bags, ivhen a man rode out of the bushes and asked: ‘Where in the devil is your horse?” The hesitating youth related what had happened, blushing with the rising conviction that he had made a mistake. The stranger Sat sidew on his great brown horse, with one knee thrown over the saddle, and broke into merry fits of laughter as he listened. Ife asked a few questions about the ancient and friendly stranger. At last he said: “Well, this is my territory, so I'll help you out. You go under that oak in the gulch and you'll find my camp The dried venison is hanging toa limb. Don't you build re, but turn in whenever you choose.” With such a horse as Sheet Iron Jack rode it was easy to overtake the swindler, and he then proceeded with great dignity to reprove him at the point of a revolver. “A bargain’s a bargain,” said the man, “but you've got such a takin’ way that yocan hev the hoss when ye give me back my $20." “That goes for my fees as lawyer,” Sheet Iron Jack respended; “but now, that I think of it, my time is worth more than that. Shell out!” and he took over $200 from the discomfited speculator in herseflesh, tossed him bac a twenty- dollar piece, and rode back to where the young Grerman lay asleep under the oak. you weil, much of w horse limb on,” he said, ‘‘and ride to Weaverville. Hold your tongue about this performance for a few days, and don't try any more horse trades. That is a fine animal; if I had come along first I might have taken it myself. Good-bye.” A few years later Sheet lron Jack grew tired of his old “stamping ground” and went ona long rido into Idaho and Montana, then just coming into prom- inence as a mining region. Jack is now behind on the occasion, pinned with his pocket-knife to the sheriff's door, went the rounds of all the newspapers. Sheet Iron Jack on one memorable occasion ventured into a town on the Sacramento at a time when half a dozen warrants were hanging over his héad. He was recognized under his disguise and pursued by a crowd of armed citi- zens. He could -not reach his own horse, but ran into a stable, cut out an animal, rode out of the back door on an alloy and made for the river. Every one saw the horse and rider swim across in a hail of bulletsand climb the shrubby bank, but when the pursuers, who ran aroand bya bridge, reached the place the horse was found riderless. Sheet Iron Jack had quietly slipped ‘on | and crept under the wild grape- vines | into the river, again floated down Stream close under the bluff, swam back and waited his ti An hour later he recovered his made a successful b ‘ern foothills. That was atime of frontier ‘the thinly-scttled coun California. People would often drive twenty or thirty miles toa dance, and kK for serving asentence ina California pris- on. He is an old man.—N. Y. Press. Strange Discovery of a Ring. A servant boy was sent into the town with a valuable ring. He took it out of its box to admire it, and, in passing over a plank bridge, let it fall on a muddy bank. Not being ablo to find it, he ran away to sea, finally settled ina colony, made a large fortune, came back after many years, and bought the estate on which ho had been servant. One day, while walking over his land with aj friend, he came to the plank bridge, and there told h “I could swear,” said he, pu ick into the mud, “to the very which the ES | dropped.” When he wit ) the ring was on the aaa of j in Northern Shasta, that | nee having | j j | | you w PRECOCIOUS BOYS. | The Powerlul Effect the Words Had Upon ‘rehia. Several! Examples of Premature Mental Development. The Linguistic Achievements of Young Coanop Thirlwall and John Stuart Mill —Mozart’s Early Successes—An American Prodigy. | It has been observed that most pre- cocious boys have from their infancy been associated chiefly with persons of mature age, says the New York Ledger. When such boys get into the company of other boys they usually lose their remarkable talents andina few years they are not more aivanoed than othor boys who did not promise so well in early youth. This would almost cause one to belicve that a home education is the best, and th great deal of genius is wasted by allowing boys to go to school; buta few cxampies will show that most young prodigies failed to ful- fill the bright hopes entertained for them. Connop Thirlwail, afterward Bishop of St. Davids, could read Latin when three years old, and at the age of four read Greck with an case that astonished all who heard him. At seven he com- posed an essay “On the Uncertainty of Human Life," which was afterward printed in his “Primitie#” or ‘First Fruits,” published when the boy was only eleven years old. The history of literature perhaps does aot contain the name of another whose first book was published when the writer was not yet in his teens. This book contains about forty sermons, together with sev- eral essays and poems. John Stuart Mill is another remarka- ble example of precocity. He began Greek at the age of three, and by the time be was eight years old he had read far morc Greek than most college gradu- ates, besides all the works of Hume, Gibbon, Robertson, Rollin and many other books of w similar character. When twelve years old, he read “*Aris- totie’s Logic” in the original, a work of great difficulty even for an accomplished scholar. Another example of precocity in a dif- ferent line was the composer Mozart. In his fourth year he played the piano well. In his fifth year he composed several pieces. When be was six years oid, his father took him on concert tours, when he mished all who heard him by his skill«n the piano and the violin. At the age of seven, he asvonished all Paris by hi compositions as well as by his ances on various instruments. is time he published some sonatas for piano and violin, and in the follow- ing year he composed his first symphon- ies. At the age of twelve he composed an opera. He became a very great mu- sician, but, after all, ho is not generally rated higher by the musical world than Richard Wagner, who did not devote himscif to music until he was sixteen, and composed nothing worth speaking of until he was twenty. Ourown country has also produced at least one example of precocity that was of no value to its possessor in after life. This was Zerah Colburn, born in Cabot, Vt., in 1804. His powers lay chiefly in the line of mathomatics. Before he was six years old, he displayed an astonish- ing readiness in solving arithmetical problems, especially in multiplication. At the age of cight, he was taken to London and his skill tested in the pres- ence of eminent mathematicians. On being asked what number multiplied into itself gave 106,929, before the fig- res could be written down he replied when asked the cube root of 26 Dy he answered with equal readi- Ile was asked how many there are in 48 years and before on could be written down he 28,800, which is correct if no al- is made for leap year. Unfortunately, at lcast for the science of mathematics, Colburn’s remarkable talent left lim as soon as he began to train his mind ina systematic way. In later years he taught school in various places; was for a time an itinerant Methodist preacher, and in 1835 was made professor, not of mathematics, but of languages, in tho university at Nor- wieh, Vt. He died in 1840, leaving be- hind him no works worthy of mention. HOW TO READ BOOKS. A Few Little Hints That Will Not Fe Amiss with Many. There areas many different ways of reading a book as there are different people in the world, a writer in the La- dies’ Home Journal thinks. But there are a few little hints which will not be amiss with many. The best way to read a book is with the intention of getting something from it. Bead it with a thought as to the lan- guage in which it is written. Read it with all your senses keenly aroused; otherwise you will find no en- joyment in it. Read it so you can joy with the joyful. weep with those who are sorrowful, and laugh with the merry. Read it with a thought of why it was written and whether the author had a motive to exploit besido the mere story. Read it from choice, not because some- body recommended it, but because, after looking into it, it seems the book you want to read. Read itin your natural way. If you are a rapid reader, do not attempt to bore yourself to death by trying to read Read it and note the peculiar charac- teristics of the people described in it, their surroundings, their mode of life, and then think how much these things | have to do with making climaxes, or | bringing about certain situations. Read it with an intent to enjoy, to find interest, and. if possible, improve- ment; but do not start out to read a book to impreve yoursel The very fact that rests upon : book stale, this r il make onsibdil r you | the proof, which was given b “THANK YOU: = Street U: Several winters ago, says the Congre- | gationalist, a woman was coming out of {some public building when the heavy door swung b: k and made egress some- what diff A little street urchin | sprang to . and as he held open the dover she said: “Thank you,” and passed on ¥ hear that?” said the ion standing near by. “No; what “Why, that lady in sealskin said ‘Thank ve’ to the likes o’ mc.” Amused at the conversation, which she could not help overhearing, the lady turned round and said to the boy: “Tt always pays to be polite, my hoy; remember that.’ and last Decem- | doing her Christmag shop- eceived an exceptional 2» Boston, which k toa fetend who ceat comfort to be civilly in awhile—though I don't I blame the store clerks for the holiday trade.” t you gave me ness a few years t tesson in pol y looked at him in amazement, while be related the little forgotten in- cident, and told her that the simple “thank you” awakened his first ambi- tion to be something in the world. He went the next morning and applied for a Situation as office Loy in the estab- lishment where he was now a honored clerk. Only two words dropped into the treas- ury of a street conversation, but they yielded returns of a certain kind more satisfactory than investments, stocks and bonds. SOME FRIENDLY TIPS. Experience of a Minister in Search of Sug- gestions for an Eulogy. In the town of B. . Me., there lived a man concerning whose meanness, trickery, profanity and general poor qualities « whole volume might be written, while it was generally consid- ered that acarcfully conducted micro- scopic examination of his moral naturo would fail to discover any thing related tothe virtues. This man finally died, says the Lewiston (Me.) Journal, and a new and rathere young minister in a neighboring town was asked to conduct the funeral service. To gather some points in regard to the character of the departed to engraft upon his discourse, the young minister visited the neigh- borhood the day beforo the funeral, and called upon the proprietor of the soli- tary grocery store in the place, who, hes- itatingly and in evident ombarrassment, declared himself as utterly unable to give the desired information “But I'll tell you what,” said he; “tyou go over to that thera house over beyond the corner, and Mr. L—— will tell you all about it.” The minister hunted up Mr. L— and made known his business. More hesi- tation and embarrassment. “Well,” said this neighbor, seeing that something must be said, and blindly falling upon the matter of relation- ship, “this ‘ere man had an Aunt Hanner. She was an awful good wom- an Say,” a new idea suddenly occur- ring to him, ‘tyou jes’ confine your re- marks to Aunt Hanner!” It is un- fortunate for our elerical friends that there arc not more Aunt IIanners in the world who are ‘tawful good,” unless, in- deed, wo might do away with tho sense- less fashion of eulogizing the dead at their burials when we have said all manner of mean things about them while living. THE VALUE OF WIVES. A Virginia Court Rules That They Have Worth According to Their Traits. A recent opinion rendered by the Virginia Court of Appcals shows that the law recognizes a graded valuation of wives. The complainant had sued for damages for the loss of his wife, who had been accidentally killed through the negligence of the defend- ant. On the trial, evidence tending to show that the deceased had been a superior wife was offered, and, presum- ably influenced by this, the jury gave the complainant a verdict for $6,000. The defendant objected to proof as to the character of the wife, and carried the issue to the highest court of the State. That tribunal holds that such evidence was perfectly proper 2s a means of estimating the damage suf- fered by the husband. “If the charac- ter and conduct of the wife,” says the court, “be such that her death will cause but little sorrow, suffering and mental anguish to tho husband, then the fair and just proportion of the damages to be awarded by tho jury will be measured accordingly.” “But if, on the contrary,” the court adds, “the wife be loving, tender and dutiful to her husband; thrifty, industrious, econom- ical and prudent—as the evidence in this case proved Mrs. McConnell to be— then ‘her price is far above rubies,’ and the loss of such a wife, of such a help- meet, of such influence, of such a blessed and potent ministry and com- panionship. is a proper clement of dam- | ages to be considered by the jury in fixing the solatium to be awarded to the husband for tearing her from his heart and home.” Came a Day Ahead of Time. A good story comes from a Birming- | ham photographer. A lady sat for pict- ures. The next day she re pturned for envelope on which turn after five d. grapher, Birmingha kept the proof | for infants and Children. “Castoria is so well adapted to children that I recom: it as superior to any prescription “HLA. Ancnea, M.D., 111 So. Oxford St., Brooklyn, N. ¥ Castoria curs Colic, Constipation, Sour Stomach, Diarrhava. Eructation, Kills Worms, gives sleep, and promotes di- Festion, Without injurious medication, Tus Cextacr Company, 77 Murray Street, N. Y A. O Welton ‘Fancy Groceres, nd Provisions of all Kinds.2 QUEENSWARE AND GLASSWARE CICAFRS ARC TOBACCO, \lways pay the highest market cD Staple be 9} 40) oO Q. 9 price for Country Produces East Side Square. Butler, Mo- are wgy LLS 3 “CTS 0} OO'ES MO ssauivy pusy puovag UOTBAA O[QNod “part S1aMO asr0y WV d ogg “sorg puepieqoyy 10s 1 Lup tvemoid “Arzun09 sig} ut apua TGaVS AO MOD» MUOd TH pu sap} [[v Jo sappug 628 97 OTS Woy ssoureyq ‘opy ‘Aqunop saqug jo vent ssar 6 8 OTO() ‘seotd £33nq o[3n8 ‘sn 088 pul ysodvora oy} m0ay ‘ON “ONG “SOUM ANVIUVAN OG'LS ssouaey -froao daoy Aoqy, FRANZ BARNHARDT: sinh eete cea RAMP Hey Sole Agent for the Rockford and Aurora Watches, in Guld Silver and Filled Cases, Very Cheap. JEWELERY STORE, Is headquarters tor fue Jewelry Watches, Clocks, Solid Silver and Plated Ware, & Spectacles ot ali kinds and tor all ages; also fine Opera Glasses. are cordially invited to visit his establishment and examine his splendid display of beautitu! goods and the low prices. ALL KINDS OF ENGRAVING NEATLY EXECUTED- | You # PACS CNT MOK Max 3g UREA 99 "3UND FAILISOd 3HL” PHU YVLV DALY W029) Sings