Chicago Daily Tribune Newspaper, September 12, 1875, Page 3

SEPTEMBER 12, 1875.—SIXTEEN PAGES r ——3 EUROPEAN GOSSIP. 4 Thrilling Railway-Incident in Germany. rancon, Its Horses and Its Bate--- B ommer-Night in the French Capital, thlonl Congress in tho Paris Toe Catacombs---Queen Vic at Home. Pty 4 RATLWAY-IXCIDEXT IN GERMATY. Boston Advertiser. Ttwass third-class carriage. . Bhe was & pleas- 4ced yOUNE WOMAD, going, I think, for the time sfter ber marriage, to visither parenta in ber old home, to show them their two fine obildren. At least, this was the littlp his- 1 buult up for her in my own brain from & word of tWO that I heard netween ber and her youog ‘hasband st the station, a8 he pat her into e with sn affectionste farewell. I \wsyewawh with grost ioterest tho farewells snd greetiogs of m¥ fellow-travelers, and have a fubiom of thioking oat for myself the whole Y aryof thexr previons lives from the little binta u,,u.;gtm\.hiswny. It is to me as 1f T were jtted to open the second volume of an in- teresting romance, and allowed to resd only one soene in this, and asked to guess as nearly ible from this one acene the previons ml tha story and the characters of the init. Mfi‘ gest child was an infant of about 3 o4 months old—very quiet and good; the other ¥as & Protty, restlesa little gir! of 8, who could got be adili 2 gingle moment, and kept the care- {cl mother bosy by her questions and wants and tltin prattle. Sbo was not atall bashfal, and goon tatked to us also in such a nataral, co- aettish, condescending way that we were quite & love with the charming little lassie, and bogged ber mother not to check ker innocent advapces to TA. When we had been traveling together for two o thrve hours, and began to feel quite lLike old mintances, while the traia was going at full speed, the mother balf ross from her segtto place the little girl, who had left her place, again mibe opposite seat. How it happened I have paver understood ; it was one of those accidents which seem impossible, and, in fact, only hap- ance in & hundred thousand times; but fust s shio stood half ersct, boldiog her eleeping tybeupon ono arm and her little frolicsome miden somewhst swkwardiy on the other, the titgle gixl made ono of her sudden, quick move- ments, and in an instant she was gone from our % s moment! The poor mother stood fixed mnd tigid in exactly the samo attitnde, her arm sull bent as though around her child, gaz- ing with wide-open, fixed eyes st the place whenoe ehe vanished. Sbe seemed literally sud- sl turoed to stone ; with the rest of us the case was almost the same. How long this lasted Ido oot know ; doubtless it seemed to us much locger than it really was. Then the youog mother ssemed to coms to herself, and made 3 sudden movement as if she would spring through the window after ber vanished darling, now far away. Tcaught ber quickly fast and held her while the kind voung lady who st opposite to e took the paby from her arms, and we all be- gnto talk together, no one listening to the other, about what was to dons for her. Some- how we managed in our excitement to do all that was possible; the guard came, the train was riopped, and the mother, without epeakiog to one of us, or e7en lookiug at us, left the train, supcrting heraelf on one arm of the sympathiz- ing guard, while ho held the stiil slesping baby {ast in the other. Of course the train must go with increased epeed to make up for the moment of delsy, 80 there %8 no chance for us to ses mare of the poar bereaved mother, ‘ Telegraph to us at the pext station,” said ove of the railroad func- tiouaries to the “Yes, ves, bo sure to do it immediately,” cried a dozen voices ; forn soms mystarious way the news of the accident hed run through the train as if by electricity, aad 8 long row of srmpathizing faces watched from the carrisge the disappearing forms of the mother and the d. # 1t will take her half an hour to reach the #pot, and 1t 18 just thirty-five minutes now to the next station,” suid the stout gentleman in the corner, taking out his watch and bolding it open in his band. his eyes fixed upon it. He had struck me as one of the most selfish and dis- sgreeable old gentlemen ;possible; scarcely so- swaring a polite question from a neighbor; and then in tbe shortest and grufest manner possi- ble; he bad seemcd compieteiy sbsorbed by his newspaper and his enuff-box, not baving noticed the little fairy in any way except to glanco at hernow and then with a savaze expression 83 ber clesr, childish lsugh had disturbed his read- iog. Now bis wholc soul epemed to be fixed on ths watch before him, and he * chided the tardy fight of time” again and cgain in words more forcivle than ornamental, There was & yourg would-be dandy in one cor- ner; light, straw-colored gloves, a 6:ender cane, sainfant mustache. and an eye-giass stuck in cne eye, seemed to be, in his opinion, tokens of aat pupencrity over the other travelers ; and ‘be spoke very little, except occasionally to mako some supereilious remark or ask some question sbout third-class traveling, apparantly to pro- duce an us the umprescion that he wasa young nobleman or Prine, perbaps, in disguse, seeing for himsslf how ordinary mortals fared. What 2 nbnnfl:hnd come over him now; the eye-glads bung dangiing hither and thither ; with the kid gloves, of which he had been so dainty, he had gniaped the dusty facing of the door, sud was siniring his gaze, first backward, until the poor mother was no longer to be seen, and then for- wird tothe next station, where news was to et us. How at last we are thera; the train halts, and oze of the guards runs quickly into the little of- fics over which * Telegraph " is painted. Every- W{h:hn can possibly get bis or ber head out of the window op that side thrusts it out. is 3 moment of intense suspenso; here comes the guard sgain with a dispatch in his bwnd; he stands abont midway between the e2ds of the train, and begios to read it ont in bis clear, loud, ofiicial tomes: ‘Child per- fectly gound ; alighted on & pile of straw ina field, not 2 feet from a stone wall ! Then what & scens ! Every man ef the train windows hes his hat off in & moment, and is wving it and cheering as if he would split his ; every womsn is buried in her pocket- banderchiof, crving and laughiog together. The stout old egotist and the vain youog dsody thrown their arms around esch other, aod 18 embracing with that heartiness that belonga to tho sons of the Vaterland, although the; Devermet befors this morniog. The Btiff ol :lldm the curner has shaken my hands in both ‘;: somany times that I feclthey are quite All the inbabitants of the little village come Hye wronnd the train: * What is it # Where be? Ig it the Kaiser bhimsolf, or is it the Kron- Prinz?” they ask in bewildered excitement at 1be sight of ours. But li the Kaisers and Kronprinzes in Europe Pt togather conld no: have aroused the flood of eeling that surged {hrongh that train. It was with & sentiment far older than loyalty "@“l':l;l: tne Eings to whom loyalty is d::; which was stirring every heark; it Was 8 ¥ith & mother's lave! g THOD MONTFAUCON. Paris Correspondence New York Times. Monttaucon, near this city, is a place seldom Yisited by the tourists, and yet it is one of the ost interesting, in 1 certain way, of soy in e. Hers is the greatest horse-slanghtering Setablishment in Europe. At Montfencon they Priadead horso through sach & process as makeg every part of it valuable. A few days %000 X pajd the poted place s visit, and, with the of = courteous foreman, learned con- p: of the inner workings of the establish- ek, The company running the concern have 3gentain every village, town, and clty, whose it is to buy up all tho old horses turned ©ut 18 0o longer 6t to work. These ste shipped ardrivento Montfanoon, and then ths process :'fflmenm When the animal has been killed 18 cat up, and the choice portions of the flesh %8 eaten by the work-peopls of the estsbliah- gt and by thoss who haunt the ncighbor- = mzay of whom are said to be Communists 3 very desperate character. The rest of the Fareass 13 50ld for tha feeding of dogs, cats, Digs, p_:wltry. a portion being also devoted to pur- of mavure. The flesh thus disposed of w‘mnanthund 3 from 4740 %0 010, Tha ekin brings from tbe tanper about $2.50. The hoofs are disposed of to & manufacturer of sal ammoniac or similar preparations, or.of Prussian blue, or to s comb or toy maker. The old shoes and nails ara worth 6 cents. The hair of tho mane and tail sells for 3 conts. The ten- aons are disposed of, either fresh or dned, to glue-makers. The bones are bought by the turners, cutlers, fan-makers, and the makers of ivory black and sal ammonisc. Of bones the average weight is 90 pounds, and the amount realized about 60 cents. The intestines are worth 5 cents. The blood is most serviceable, The chief purchasers are the eugar-refiners, who use it in manafacturiog sugar. The blood is also bought np by the fatteners of poultry, pigeons, and turkeys ; then sgain it is sold for manure, When required for manure it is dried, 20 _pounds of dried biood, which is the averags, being worth 45 cents. Tho fat is 1n demand for making soap, and, when very fine, for ‘*bear's greasa™; also for the grease appiied to harness and to shoe-leather. This 1at, when consumed in lsmps, gives out more heat then oil, and is therefore preferred by the makers of giass toys, and by enamel- ers and &o\mhen. One horse bas been known to yield 60 pounds of fat, but this was an ex- treme case. Tue fat of & borse in fair condition is 12 Eaumh, but 8o many lean and sorry jades are taken in that 8 pounds may ba taken a8 the average, and at & value of 10 conts per ound. Nor doos the list end hers. BSometimes there is considerable putrid flesh about a aead acimal, snd how to utilize this matter bothered the Freneh scientists for some time. Finally the problem was solved, and now the putrid fesh is made to teem with life, and to produce food for other living creatures. A pile of pieces of flesh, soversl inches i height, lsyer ‘upon layer, is arranged, after which it .is covered over lightly with bay or straw. In s few hours thou- sands upon thousands of flies doposit their epgs in this attractive matter, and thus maggots aro ‘bred. Thesearo fed to pheasants, and ina smaller degree to domestic fowls. Tney are also used to faiten sardines. These maggots give, or are supposed to give, & gama fiavor to poultry, and a very high flaver to pheasants. Bioce { heard the foreman’s story I have made numerous in- quiries to learn if it was & true one. Thus far I have met with few who believe it, and yot I do not see why Monsieur the foreman sbould bave licd about ** a little thing like that.” The mag- gots thus produced, so I was further informed, are worth 36 cents. * What is the average amonnt realized on a dead horss 2" was my next question. ** From 60 to 80 francs ™ was his im- mediate answer. Then, after a pause, he informed me of anoth- er way they had of making the French horse aveilable. - Dariug the earlv autamn months the rats appear about the pramises in tremendons numbers. They would soon overrun the estab- lishment but for & plan long since adopted, snd which not only rids the company of the pests, but Yeturos an income as well. When Montfau- con swarms with rats, the carcass of & horseis plsecd in a room into which the rodents gain accees through openings in the floor, contrived for the purpose. At night the rats, lured by their keenness of scent, enter the room through these artificial rat-holes by thousands. While they are in the midst of their feast these open-: ings are closed, and they are prisoners. Then the slauzhter commences. As high as 18,000 bave been killed in_five weeks in_ one room. The dead rats are skinned, and the skins are sold to Paris furricrs for from 1 to 4 francs esch. They are then mado up into **four-bat- ton kids” and shipped to the United States. “Thare is among a good many Parigiansan ides,” 8aid be, * that we sell the tongues, kidneys, and hoarts of horses to the butchers. This is not troe.” Hethen wentonto shaw the absurdity of such a storv, besides argning st some langth that the substitution of the equine for the bo- vine heart is not attempied, even if it were pose sible, which be denied. I inclined tothe opiaion, lowever, that the Parisiang are right aud the fareman wrong in his conclusions. Indeed, I 2m assared on good authority that the horse's tongue is used asa substitute forthe dried deer’s, a somewhat eavory dish, eaten at breakfast time by the blne-bloods of the Bt. Germain guarter. And as for the “ beefsteaks " furnished at mv restauranti—wgll, although I used to order one onc:;ionllly, Inever did thiok it was @ beef- steak. A SUMMER-NIGHT IN PARIS: Paris Correspondence London Times. Paris seems deserted in the day time, and wakes up with a veritable faria Francese when the disappearance of the sun allows s kind of conventional freshness to spring up under the shade of night. At that hour all who have till then been in conceslment rush 1nto the stresta. Everybody tries to seize upon & carnige, o climb an omnibas, to procure some mesns Of locomotion in order to take the direction of the Champs Elysees, the Avenuede I'Imperatrice, or the Cascade of the Bois de Boulogue, with which the waterfall in the Exhibition but feeby com- petsa. From 9 o'clock till midnight, therefore, it is really dangerous to oross the Boulevard between the Rue Laffitts and the corner of the Rue Royale; there is & veritable chsos of velucles of all Linds, which colleot. got blocked, and come into eollision. It is impos- sible to traverso this course without hearing the sound, well known here, of » massive omnibus crushing in its course some light vehicle im- prudently piaced within its reach. At this time, too, large four-horsed mails are seen to descend from the top of the Champs Eiysees, loaded with foreigners in the most varied cosiumea and tho most sensational head-gear,—men and wom- en whose vails, blue, white, green, or gray, wave like a parti-colored flag in the air when they set out in the moruing in the contrary di- rection. They aro tourists whom & private agency packs on special vehicles to show them Mont Valerien, Diogenes' Lantern, theVilleneuve T'Etang or St. Clond camps, the battlefields of Ep- insy ot Buzenvel,—all the §pots, in short, which Lave become famous since the war of 1870, and who come back ot night to heighten tbe con- fusion of the Champa Llyeees, the refugeat these hours of imaginary freshness of sll that Paris contaios of tourists and of Parisians who hava escaped the mania for lesving town. On both sides of the road the iron chairs are occupied by women, whose talk gives the tourists who walk upand down a poor ides of the bon ton and modest langusge which distizguish these iiregu- lars of Parisian society. On the right and left behind the fairy belt of illuminsted globes, which represent fantastio porticoes, minarets, or temples, can be perceived the outdoor scenes of the cafes chaptants. Here a woman, Of stalwart ptoportions, 1n rather fierce costume, on a voloci~ pede. which beads under her weigbt, describes 100 figures in the lLimited space of a migiature theatre; thers o fanfare do chaase, with ita sonorous _accents, arouses the noighboring echoes and serves a8 an sdvertisement to the rival cafe chantant. Some befloured acrobai performs contortions which are visible from a distance, through the trees, camps, promonsd- ers, and shadows; while in another cafo a giant- oss attired in o transparent droes, which koeps 2t & rempectful distance from ber fest, sings couplets in_favor of the inundation of the South, and in the height of her enthusizsm dis- plays an arm which cleaves the air, the handier- chief in her hand looking liks a microscopic white flag at the summit of & Maypole. On the eastern side of the Ohamps Elysees another cafe concert, less promunent than those on tho wosh, tries to catch pub- lic attention by brilliant illuminations, poisy fireworks, or jets _of electric Jight, the sudden glare of which disturbs groups ‘whom the shadows had conc from the curi- osity of passers by, Further onis the Concert Bessclicvre, whare iron chairs ranged in 8 circle Tound the centrai pavilion occupied by the band receive the fow belated denizens of the Faubourg Saint Honors, who have been unsble 2s yat to repair to the fresher and dofter shorea of the ocesn. Lastly, on the transverse Avenue de Sfontaigne opens the radiant porsalof Mabille, With its everlasting prospect palnted on the ex- trome wall, its circular stage, where the great art of the Can-Can bas for generations been celebrated, with its tinsel flowers, its ordinary orchesirs, sud its immovable pablic, which for thirty years bas been revolving on jtself. There are always the same men and the same women, only £ome have got stouter and balder, others more wrinkled. Far one to re- visit the place after s long interval is like wit~ pessing those conedies where the same actor takes the parts of & caild in the first act and that of au old man in the second. There is nothing more melancloly =nd sickeniog; and looking from a distance on the furious danseurs snd un- gainly danseuses one involuotarily thinks of tha gloomy imacipiugs of Holbein and the danses facabres which he begueathed to futare gen- eracions. Presently all these Ismps go out, the Doiso of voices is hushed, vehicies move off and disappear, snd in the night, once mare solitary, is heard the duli noise of the mn‘ketfiu’denen‘ carts, which come by the roule d¢ Grande Armee trom Courberoie, Suresnes, Pateaux, and Argentenil to bring its daily nourishment to that Puaris which tries to got sleep while contending ‘with the reviving heat of the sun, which resp- pears behind the hills of Montmartre. SUBTERHANE{N PARIS. The Paris correspondent of the London Globe thus describes a visit of tho membera of the (Geographical Congress to the Catacombe of the French Oapital: Asl o'alock sounded the sig- | .# Comuuac,” Boptembor, 1876, nal to get resdy was given, match-boxes were looked to, the candles were firmly gripped, and goms Iadies, very sensibly, put on water-proof cloaks, drawing the hoods over their bonnets so 28 to guard agaiost the moisture whiob, after the 1ate heavy rains we have been having, filters through the roof of tho catacombs. Candles were lighted, and one by one the 200 visitors ss- sembled diappeared down the winding staircase, with its pinety-two deep steps, which leads to the vaults below. Round and round. turniog giddily, until at the end of five minutes & wel- come voice announced that the head of the pro- cession had arrived on the level ground &8 feet below the street above, The 200 flickering can- dles gave & weird aspect 28 they iliuml- pated, lke so many wills-"o-the-wisp, the dark chalkstone roof of the vaults through which the party took its way. The water was trickling down the walis, or dripping from the fungus-covered roof, to the eminent discom- fiture of those who wore mew hats or light trousers, while here and thare the gleam of the candles showed some patch of water, the en- deavors to avoid which were (udicrous. Some one would see a pool, make a jump to avoid it and land in another perbapa deeper, sending up a shower of water which made the candles 8pit and splutter, and caused those who had ‘been sprinkled inclined to use strong language. But 8 none escaped some of these mishaps, aathe sprinkler often got sprinkled in return, ood humor soon prevaiied, and every one at last got careless, plodding along without heeding the miniatare ponds under foot, On the wall, in- scriptions bearing the names of the streats under which the party were passing showed the progress g made, while to the right snd left were galleries, into which 10 one was allowed to penetrate, as in gome cases the roof had fallen in, and in othera fears were entertsined that the heavy rains might have rendered the galleries unsafe. After walking for about twenty mihutes, the party halted; the ladies were invited to goto the front, the men to briog up the rear. A few minutes more and a door was reached, over which a notice had been placed ssying that no smoking was allowed, and that no one was permit- ted to touch the bones, mithough one would fanoy that the latter par of the prohibition was superfluous except in the case of enthusiastic phrenologista. The procession reached the fu- neral ball, or vast ossuary, where the banes of ‘the dead have been arranged in horrible order, with some idea of ornament, Skulls yellow with time, some looking like polished mohogany, others like parchmest or ivory, grinned in 8 ghastly manner at the passer-by; thigh and arm-bones scemed ready for the dnvitation a la to joln iu Holbein's * Dance of Death”; and many wondered if st the hour of midnight some sirange scenes might not be seen in such a charnel-house. Who could have picked out the skull of some Yorick from among the thousands of jawless craniums which were piled np and arranged in 3 Varicty of devices, or bave distiogaished be- tween the bones which, according to the inscrip- tions over them, had come from the Cemetery of Ionocents, from the cloistors of Seint Hon- ore, ete., places which have been forgotten, end which the present generation does not remem- ber. On the walls all kinds of philosophical inscriptions have been traced, by tne hauds of the workmen, no doubt, 8a some of the axioms, intended to be sublime, verge on the ridiculous, and would excite & smile were it not for the sol- emnity of the spot. Anotber eouvenir of the Commune was to be found in a row of skulis and arm and thig‘l,: bones, which an iascrip- tion tells us once belonged to those who were entombed in the Charch of Saint Laurent, but whose sopulchrea wera violated by the Fedaral insurrectionists in 1871 On quitting this charnel houss the party retraced its steps, returning to tha spiral stair-case by which the descent had been made after a visit of an hour, during which & distance Bhghtly in excess of 8 miles had been gone over. Up the steps out of the dark and Toist vault smeliing like the grave, the daylight was hailed with dehight, and althongh every one felt glad the visit had been made, every one was pleased it was over. Stories had been told of how the Communista had been lost, how their rotting bones are even now to be discovered When cempetent men explore the subterranean passages near Montrouge, so that each stair woa mouoted with s lighter heart, aud overy one felt relieved when the trap-door leading to the cata- combs had been closed. QUEEN VICTORIA AT HOME. Grace Greenwood in New York Timai. The good, motherly Queen dances in the ball of Balmoral with her retainers and household servants, makes her own tea when out on pie- nics, spins 1n the cottages of her teoants, snd has herself photographed in the gracious acta; Dbestows ‘warm flaunel petticoata” on poor old women with her own hends, and telis us all about it in her own book, The Prince of Wales goes everywhere, dines with everybody, and drives a drag—for sll the world a8 though he were no greater man than the President of the United States. The mnew court dress for geotlemen is a simple half- mlitary costume. Gaudy liveries are glolng out in high placos, o that lackeys look less like lobsters and lizards than formerly, snd I doubt not that, long ere it is ready to fall to pieces from sheer oid age, ike the Deacon’s ** one-horse shay,” the Royal state coach will bo remanded, Tritons and slL, to_that Valballa of old staf coaches, the first hall in the Kensington Al soum, and the monarchs of England wili casse to lumber slong on weeels like to those of Pha- raoh’s chariot, but may drive through the streets of Loudon, even on the grandest state occa- sions, with celerity, comfort, and quiet eleganae, like other sensible weli-to-do folk. GEORGE SAND. Mrs. Hooper, in her letter from Paris to Apple- fons' Journal, ssys: * Apropos of George Sand and ber contributions to that periodical (the Revue des Deux Mondes), we are told that some years ago ebe quarreled with the editor, and only consented to write for it again at a rate of com- pensation theretofore unheard of in the annals of the Revue—it paying worse, probably, thsn any other periodical of the sams repute and prosperity. The terms she exacted wers 1,000 francs (§200) per printed sheet of the Revue— which, as a sheet consists of sixteen pages, was only §12.50 per pnated page—by 1o means an exorbitant price when the celebrity of George Sand ag & writer is taken into con- gideration. Her only English-writing rival, George Eliot. conld probably command four times as much. - But tha price was ao uoheard- of one for tha Retue to give, and 1t wasnot with- out many groans and sighs that the publishers consented to her terms. It is a well-known rale with the editors of the Revue*des Deuz ondes never to pay for the firss article of any author that appears in their pages, no matter how great or how well founded the renown of that anthor may be.” ¢ —— THE ABSENT ONE. *Tig » long, loug time since you left me, 'And perbapa you've forgotten me ow, Though you promised you'd ever remember, And kissed me, thus sealing the yow. Theye besn trzing to make mo petiere ou are false and unworthy & thought ; But you know Llere are nona s ‘hard to lsarn As thoss who will not be tanght. Ana T've silenced thelr murmurs and protasts, Have told them their talling was vain For I love and truat my darling, And know he will come But the weeks drag slowly by, And never a word do I hear, To silence my snxious longings, Or make the Waiting ear, 1 could almost £orgivo your falseness, . 1f you'd only write and say Twas your eyes, sad not your Adart, That led you {rom me sstray. That the spell of soma besutifal Zaca Had come for o time *ween us two, But deep in your heart of hearts You loved me still, * tender and troe. OB ! think how you kissed my mounth, ‘While 7ou held me close to your breast, And said, 3s I pillowed my héad an your hexrt, *T'was its truest haven of rest. 0 darking! forgive me for doubting; 1 know you aro true to me, sweeil X said I would love and trust you, And will: 80 good-bys till we mest MADRIGAL. Divinely-wrought ear, ‘With sympathy hear 3y love-fraught xighs 1 With nectar viea: An' most precious hand, List to love's demand, Bliss gold ne'er buys: 1 Joyously seo Live-light all for me In doting eyes: 0 soul, thon art dear,— ‘Trust me, never fear, Tras love ne'er dies] La Momzry, | THE MANX CAT, Told by a Couniry Doctor in New Engiand. It in an old New England superstition—old as the days of the great Salom sensation—but still provalent in out-districts. The Egyptians have B fancy near akin to it; but then there is a grave difference between an Egyptian and & New Englander, althongh both, no doubt, be- long to the humsd race. At least, the ethnolo- giats 8sy 80. + Boware on *em, Job,” Wag my mother's last injunction to me years gince, when the dew of 1ife was on the grase, and the great, golden but- tercups always nodded good-morning a8 I went by ; and it was 80 injunction she always served on young married eouples just beginning the world. I had just canght and caged my bird, in gweet Molly Davis, who made greeu grass, and daisies, snd violets, and June weather, wherever ghe went ; and I was about to eettle down as 8 country doctor. Iaman old man now, and fall of whims ; but I never think of Molly in her blossom, as she was when I married her, with- ont humming over and over to myself, and I have done it some days & hundred times : Aud her fact ‘Had music sweat, "And her voice was low, And she sent, As sbe went, ‘Bunshine to and fro. «Beware on ’em, Job,”" eaid my mother that dreamy September day whon Molly and I parted from her vo start in life all by ourselves,—*‘ and you, Molly, be sure you never leave the cat in the room with the baby. I¥'s dangerous,”—my mother always probounced dangerous with a ghort a,—+and I've heard of queer accidents hapoenin’. People have done it, and have como back to find the baby dead and the cat pursin’ awayin the cradle, justas it it hado’t had sny and in it.” ; b ooed mildly. “Haven® yon out- lived that notion of the sncients, mother?" I had long since outlived theancients; it's strange how modern people ars when thoy are young. t41¢'s the oat's way of expressing the music in its soul.” There wsd music in everything to me just then, with Molly blushing her rosiest, and life shading off into golden hazes on the hori- zon. “T've heard of people dyin' of over- isdom,” rejoined my ‘mother, sarcastically; ** bat "—and here she tapped her forehead with one withered finger—** it isn' a disorder you'ra sabject to, Job. Itneverdid run in your father's family, and you take afier the Needbama.” Some further comments sha added as to the vanity of book-learning in general, and that of Job Needham. M. D., in_particalar, cunclndmg With an intimation to Molly that, if she eser ha occasion to marry azain, which she dido’t think she would, as the Neeahams were long-livers, she could afford her some valuable hints as to the selection, " And the firt is, Molly, never marry a man with book-larnin’. Book-larmn® makes fools of poople; aod if bis own mother has to say it be- tause nobody else ever will, Job was s sensible boy before he took to it. It wasn't my notion atall, His father would have it 80, and I shan't ever take any more comfort in Job, with his Greek, and his Latin, and his ologies, and polly- wogs, sud bis words of ffty syliables, Polly syliables he calla 'em. 1t cost bia poor father & mint o money—did Job's education—but I shouldn't care about that if it hadn't made him all over again, 80 tnat he isa't Job Needbham any more.” She spoke with unwonted sadness in her grand gray eyos—a sadness that almost went into liqui- dation 1n tears; aud physician s I was, with & fresh diploms, 1 forgot my medical dignity, and tried to kiss her—and did. 3 ~Pghaw! what a fool you sre, Job, just like your father for all the world!” said the elder Rrs, Needham, with & soupcon of contempt, wip- ing ber face with the corner of her aproo. %Bat bewars of cats, Molly,” she went om, supplementing the protest with the old injunc- tion ; **they're strange”’ (a shart again) ‘‘crea- tarea; and, if anything ehould happen, you'd never forgive yourself.” 1 remember the day so well, and the Septem- ber haze on the woodlands. and the maples turning to cones of fire, snd the old Needham house dozing io the sunshine, snd my mother staoding in the door snd thinking; tenderly, as [ reminded her of father, of a grass-covered grave away beyond the woods. ‘Thence I went forth to find the value of the = in my equation, the turns, and windings, and transpositions of whickh were then uucomprehended. It must have beed an unsolvable quadratic, I think. with many surds and negatives, for its z still eludes my analyeis, snd the solation seems far- ther off than ever, after all those years; while 1 bave waxed wrinkled and gray in Jong bunting for the unknown quantity. Molly is yray, too, and the suggestion of daieies and violsts no longer iingers aoout her, slthough the June weather 18 there still, and sha i3 the eame warm, placid soul, with haze enough for perspective, that she was then and always has been, expect- ing 00 unknown qusutity in this world, and con- teut to wait for the z until it comes. They are foew—theso souls of sweetness and light—and how it rests a man to meet them! 1 am Dr. Job Needham, at your service—fees ressonable. 1 have been announced to the orld as Dr. Job Needham by the same littio sign-board ever since 1 began business, and sign-board aud doctor have wagged on together for a score and eighteen years, until there is a sort of sympathetic understanding between myself and the little parallelogram, with ++Job Needbam, M. D." painted in_dingy gold leiters on a black ground, and bordered with & Gingy gold border, that represents me. lamit trapsmuted into bumanity, or1t is I translated and written out on & bit of deal; and I have oftenfan- cied that the appearance of every new weather- cruck foreshadows the coming of & Dew wriukie in my face. 1 pever walk into my officeof & morning without nodding to it familiatly; nor gven lock the oftice-door of s night With- out mattering, balf to it and hslf tomyself, “ Good-night, old friend; I sball find you here in the morning, I sappose;” and [ half imagne it understands me, for it often creaks 8 I talk to it, when there is no appreciable wind. It is & mexe whim of mine, no doubt, but still I fancy sometimes tbat 1f the rickety parailelo- gram should fall down of s night, or be torn away by the wind, somehow or other the twinge of 1t wonld wake me up; and that, should it sud- denly disappear, I should never be myself again, and should move about in the world with a sense of having lost something. It will drop away sometime, I suppose, snd I sball drop away with it and signboard and ghymcian will be gathered into the great wastc-bssket of the past, that contains many & signboard and physiciau ; bat, in the mesntime, its deorepitude tallies with my decrepitnde, and overy spot where the paint is rubbed off, and every corner gone from oue of the gilt letters, is in some dim Bort of Way & landmark of the old doctor's senescence. It is well enongh with the old sigo-board and the doctor in pleasant weathor. But when the raim beats against it, and the rickety old paral- lolugram swings 1o and fro on_ its rusty hooks, apd the wind 18 high, tminges of rheumatism in myold bones answer to every creaking, and come with every awing of the mute witness of my toiling for the_undiscovered z. Andit will be so the end,-I supposs, for I have strange moods when the old sign-board is in _trouble. But if the wind should happen to tear it loose of a night, and whirl it away, what then? They might not find the old doctor dead in his bed the noxt morning, but he would nover be himself again—at least, not with a new sign-board. Bat then, the danger is not very immioent, for of late years I always stop to test the hingesof & night before I start for home. linger over thess details because Ihave an oad dislite to tell the story. Alollie and I are gray together, and tnree little graves call to Molly and me out of the night. Ilie and listen to them often for hoars together when the rain- drops Yap againat the paue like fingers, and they alwaya say, - Papa ! papa!™ Then I tumn over inthe bed and answer, half-drowsily, for they perfectly real to me, **Lie still, little ones, w'll come presently.” And day after dayl feel more and more like going. Manx was & waif-cat, and, as I had always been of a benerolent turn, I tack bim in. He came mewing at the door about 10 o’clock one Octaber night, & little over a year after Mollyand I moved into the little one-story bouse a few rods from the office, for Molly would be nesr enough, 80 that ehe conld bring me my dinner when [ was in 3 hurry, 2a I always expected to be. He was 3 large Manx cat, bony aund angular, starved snd frouzy, with & bob for a tail, but very distinguished in his way, and was without friends or relatives, for, through ail the tesgues of travel incident to a country practice, traced over and over for years, I have never met with a cat of tbat particalar species. But I was of particularly bencvolent disposi- tion just then. The dear little Agoes had re- cently made her debut as a member of the fami- ly, and I felt kindiier than usual toward sll created things with the newness of the blessing. 80, thoogh his coming at that hour of the night was suspicioug, and he had no references, bis mewing moved me ns it would not have dona six months before, with a iind of sense of the blezsaduess of home even to & cat, and I admit- ted him with the apologetic remark to RMolly hesq: were & good many rats in the house, and that they kept me awake for hours, sometimes, with their goinge-on just over bead in the garret; sn unnecessary iib to cover & benevolent tranasction, for Molly, sweet soul, was a8 softened as I was with the coming of lit~ tle Agnes, and would not have turned a dog out into the might, ou that October evening, with Aggie sleeping placidiy on her lap. and tbe fire- ligut flickering cosily in oar faces. It was a habit with Molly and me, after Aggie was born, to sit and talk low in the dark for an hour or 80 aftor I got home from the office, on the ground that the lght hurt the baby's eyes. Days of sweet dreams! And now moonlight with me is only another nams for rneumatism. 1was declaring dividends of happiness every day io those days, and Manx came ia for his per- centsge; and the outlandish apparition could purr ina maoner indicative of the rapt, poetis revery of s cat properly appreciating its bless- ings. I have often observed him lie dreamily for hours, purring comfortably till the air was fall of rhythmical vibrations, whule his large, yellow, uncanny eves stared me full in the face, and & kind of sleepiness came over me; then start suddenly, with & kiod of nervous shock and shudder, and take a turn, or a few rapid turus, up and down the room, his eyes £amingin their sockets 28 I never saw eyes flame before, —not even my mother's grand gray eyes when she was angry,—and light radisticg abont him like 8 Juminous aura. In these attacks he developed eingular electrical properties, and ssemed Lo live 10 an atmosphere of his own that oppreased Molly's sensitive perves to terror, mingled with a tendency to torpor and slecpi- ness; aud I bave observed him in the dark stealing about like an elongated ball of fire, pos- sibly 2 feet through at its Jongost dismeter and 114 at ita shortest, with a lighted cat in the cen- tre. One evening, as I especislly remember, when Molly and I were gitting cosily by the fire- light, Manx started up in one of his tantrums, made a couple of rapid turns about the room, then whirled, leaped the open grate and vapished up the fine, whence he presently emerged, & little singed and sooty, but as placid a8 he had been ten minutes previous. Molly waa frightened, and insisted that he should be summarily dismissed from his post ; but I had already begun to regard bim as a curious subject forinvestigation, and be lived on. unknowing that the acissors of Atropos were daily dawdling with his destiny. Unknowing. didisay? Of that I am not 80 certain ; for from that evening he appeared to take a sudden dislike to Molly, and commencad following me like & dog to and from - my office, - whers he would atay all day seated on the dusty sofs, spparently in an atti- tande of observation, purring a little now and then, but generally too deeply interested in the composition of my preseriptions to tronble himself with musical performances. 8o went on the world for montha with Manxand me, be do- ing double duty as cat and dog, baving his sin- gular sitacks occasionally, and rushing round the room in a circle, and eating pickles and drinking brandy-and-water with the sppreciative 8ip of & professional expert. I was often tempted to kill him, and oftener tempted to experiment With his pecalier elec- trical properties; bat recollecting the ten- dency to sleepiness induced iy coming within his stmosphere _during the inca- bation of the atiack, I dreaded to at- tempt an experiment alone in my office. and dreaded it the more and more I tifought of it. And I tried the effect of suting aod looking fixedly into his great yellow eyes, the mncanny orbs never wincing for an instant, although the pupils appeared to dilate more and more ag the test went on, until they were great magnetic balls that causea me to shudder, and then grow 80 drowsy that I ehounld bave dropped to sleap had I not forced mysélf with a strong effort of will to get up and walk sbout. The spell broken, Manx started with & eudden epasm. rushed twice round the room, like a mad creature, and curled himself down on the sofa, where he lay in & kind of coma for the rest of the.afternoon ; and it must have been sbout 8 o'clock when the experiment began. After that I tried to poison Manx, bat he soemed to know and avoid deadly drugs by in- stinct, howsver masked as tidbits ; and finally I carried my revolver to tho office with the inten- tion of shooting him in the course of the after- noon. But Manx kept away from the oftice for several days, until-my terror went off, and I car- ried the revolver back to the house; and the va? next morning he came purring in as usual, and seated himself tantalizingly on the sofa. I offered bim some braudy and water, aud he sip- ped it like a gentleman at his club ; then a pipe of Hooradez, and he sat and puffed away with 1t like an otd smoker. + Carse the cat!"” I hissed under my breath. «He's either an Egyptian or & dev—"but something in the creature’s eye stopped me on the very tip of the syliable, a sudden flame an- veloped bim, and he "dashed thrica around the room and shot through the window, taking & pane of glass with him. After this be got bet- ter, and was not troubled with spasma for some months, until Mollie aud I, thinking he had re- covered from his malady, began 1o be foud of him, and Aggie tried to call him Maox. aud on! got 80 far a8 to call him Ma-a-a, with the a s Hatter than my mother's @ in dagerous. “Agnes was a Lttle pearl of a baby, with all tho suoshine of her mother, that made June weather wherever she went ; and two years—what with my toiling after thez of my life-equstion, and my hasking in_tho sunshine of Juno weather at the homesatead—paseed so rapidly that I scarcely counted the footsteps of daye: two sweet, dreamy years, for our deepest heart-life is alwaya Greamy snd unceal, with a kind of mystery init : two feather-footed years, with many a hard tvphoid to battle with, and many a troublesome sot of merves to dose with assafetula: and little Sunbeam—that's what I called her—hsd learned to say papa, snd the trandle-bed was brought in requi- sition, having long waited in the attic for u cus- tomer. It wasa great dayst the homestead when the trundle-bed went down, and Aggie toddled into ita dozen times in the course of the afterncon, with the idea that -she was going tosetup honsekeeping for herself, and have Manz for a huzzy—which. by-the-wag, means husband, in the fairy-land where Molly and Ag- gie and I lived 1o those days. And Manx was 28 fascinated with the trundle-bed as she was, for had he not occupied is for two years up in the attic, and are the habits of & lifetime to be broken up in & day ? Tost litile Sunbeam! On the fourth morniog Molly Itfted her from the trundle-bed with a grief that was beavier than s dozen little Ag- neges, and the sexton dug an* everlasting tran- dle-bed for the little darling in the old grave- yord under the hill! Y was mever myself after that. Ihave been addicted to the whimsical ever since, and the z has wasted and wasted in value until it is nearly zero, For yeas my sleep was ooly drowse, and a voice calling ** Papa! papa!” would wake me up night sfter night. Sometimes I would lie and listen until I drowsed again ; sometimes I would get up and dress ‘myself and walk out, the voice still calling to me out of the night, until T stood in the moonlighi by little Sunbeam's grave, when the voice would stop calling, and it would be as if I waked up out of & dream, and was mygelf again. ; TLittle Sunbeam was dead, The family con- @sted of Molly and myself sod 3Mavx, and the trandle-bed went up garret again, 1o walk for an- other customer, and Manx was its only occapant. The world settled in its old way by-and-by : only T always went about With a strange tense of hav- ing lost something, and seemed to m; to be bunting to and fro for something I could not find; snd Molly contracted a habit of going to the door and looking out every few minutes, then shutting the door softly and going back to ber work. Days were woven into months, were folded up into cuta of yesrs and stowed away in the great warehonse of the past—a vast recetving-tomb, never filled, but always in re- eeipt of & cadaver, to be labeled and numi and tucked away in sbme one of the innumera- ble pigeon-holes with which the warchouse abounds. There sre l:otflm there, finnd deng loves, and ambitiona that once were fierce, sn sou!:’ that might bave been besutiful, which steal out of the warahouse of & night and ap- pesr to their former poesessors In dreame. are dry old doctors, and many doctors’ prescrip- tious to be Bhaken in the faces of those who wrote them at o day of TecE0DIDg when doctors will be answerable for their prescriptions. The 31d doctor, who is just resdy foe_the warshouse, has & dozen or s hundred of tham Engwn-holed io that same institation, whoae clerk, "they 637, never forgets nnythmgi all registered and tick- ted for the day of reckoning. - % 1 beg pardop for dawdliog over details, butI dislike to contioue the story, with its episodes of nothing but ees. Munthag were folded into years, aodat last little Willie came, and my sense of having lost something died out in playing with the baby, and the voioe in my dreams stopped calling “Papal” a8 regularly ps it had before. 1 meant that boy from the firat fors doctor, by way of continming tne familv hunt after the z, which I never secmed to find; ‘and, a8 for Molly. the sunshine came into her face agaio. Ihough tnere was always a saduess in her efes; and she stopped going to the door and looking ont,—indeed, was her old self once more. Iwss still & hittle whimeical, snd wqehflgulmnld not belp hearing little Sunbeam’s voice calling, i paps! papa! papal” over and over out of the night- ndrops, pacticalarly, had s peculiar offect on me, and I wonld have strange fancies— When the wind and rain kept tapping the peng, it stfal fingers Xept tapping the pane, Kept tapping ag-in and again and sgain, 5 a8 some dreamer of poet. who has really list- &8 od to raindrops and canght their gusty rhythm, dxprosses their g sgaiost the window. and months Thoo I would think of a grass-grown grave out in tha rain, and hear a baby vgca mligi:lg “Pa- pa!” ont-there in the rain; and then I wounld fancy I heard baby fect pattering on the door- stone, and get up and open the door, to fiad that there was nothing thers. Ah me! the links that bind to the dead are often strooger than the links tbat bind to the living. But little Willie tslked precocionsly—promis- ing in s doctor—and walked _precociously— equally promisiog in & doctor. He was a boy before he got throngh bewng a baby ; sud again the old truudle-bed came down from the garret, and Manx was lsft to doze on the floor, the junior Needham, M. D., becoming it proprietor, With no proviso about taking Janx a8 a huzzy. Mollie and I sat up all mght the first night, but the little doctor slept soundly. The sscond night passed, and Dr. Needham, Jr., opened hia great gray eyes in the mornin, ua?m had hia grandmother's eyes exactiy) and 1ly demand- ©d hia breakfast. Once more the little medical mannikin was put to bed at half-past 7 in the trundie-bed:;; but the next morning the great gray eyes did not open, and their owner bad no occasion for breakfast, “After thas there wero two little tombstones in the old graveyard uader the hill, and two voices tocall tome * Papal papa!” two everlasting trundle-beda _for me to visit in the moonlight. The old trundle-bed was carried up garret again, whence I never expected it would come down. 1 tried to forget myself i my profession, and came to & sort of loving understanding with the old m’gn—buu_d announcing me &8 Job ieadh-m. M. D., which yesr in and year out had wazed more and mors confidential. But the two voices from the two little graves would not let me forget. There was Do stillngss in which they did not call *‘Papa! apal” first one and then the other, and no bustle in which I did nat always hear them ; and Moliy forgot, or seemed to forget, her own grief in her anxiety about what the neighbors called my hypo. There is something in transmigration, after a1, for the third baby was little Sunbeam over again, and represented her 80 vividly that I balf forgot the Sunbeam that had been in the Buo- beam that was; and one of the voices atopped calling from the grave as little Vioiet learned to lisp her * papa.” Bo the day came for the trundle-bed to come down from the garret again; but Molly insisted upon having a new one, sssociatiog with a mother’s superstition & fatality with the quaint old frame that bad cradled generations of Need- hams. Agnes and William had died in tbat trundle-bed, sho aad, and, if the baby must sleep in a trundle-bed, she would have a new one, Jtcama home, and was set up and was dedicated to little Violat (Molly wonld never allow me to call her Sunbeam). For three nights, alternating, Molly and I sat up, andlittle Violet apened her eyes on the fourth morning. The fatality-night was now paesed, and Molly and I went aboat that day with a strange thank- fuiness in our hearts, and slumbered on the fourth night with a peaceful slumber. But peace came never sgain. Little Violet was dead, and the fatality had not been in the trundle-bed. Externally, things settled into thoir old round, only there were three little raves in the graveyard : Agmes, aged 2 years ; William, sged 2 years; Violet, aged 2—an awful monotony of that fatal numeral ; sud there were three little voices to call **Papal papal paps!” first one, and then the other, then the recent third. They did not think I heard them, perhapa ; but I did, and used to keep anawering even in the sick-room : ¢ Lie still, little one ; papa'll bo there presently.” And when I had answerad, the voices wonld stop calling for a fow minates, 38 it thoy heard me, sud were try- jog to wait patiently ; bat presently I would hear them commencs calling again. The x was nothing to me now, and the unknown quantity 1ok wortn toiling after. There i8 & transmigration of essences, I am sure, or 6lso God made little Job to be Agnes and Willism, by way of compensation; for God works wonderful compensation io this world, if men had but the heart to understand them. I named him Job sfter myself, and somehow that pame, ugly as it was, seemed to comfort bo:k Molly and me—though still I wonld hear the threa baby-voices caliing from the three little trundle-beds the sexton had madain tho gravevard. Maox—he was old Manx now—was gtil living, & slespy old fellow, except in his moods, and still competent for a tablespoonful of brandy and water or a pipe of Honradez, to say nothing of a craving for pickles, But no- body saspacted him now of being the devil, if be ever had been, although he was still a pillar of fire now and then in the dark. o due season the trundle-bed game down from the dusty garret, where Mollic had peen in the habit of going every day to over it, and Job Needham, 8r., with many qualms and tremors, was installed propnetor. Four nights. alternat- ing, Molly aod I kept vigil, and Dr. Needham, Jr. opened his eves in the morning 28 if thera hsed been no fatality in our family 1a third and fourth nights and in trundle-beds. . The last night happened to fall to my lot, and about midnight I drifted away intoa half-doze, and was just listening to the three little voices from the gravayard, snd was ui;ing to make out which was which, when I was startled ont of my drowse witha sudden shock, suc- ceeded by & strange_premonition of impending calamity. The csndle was burning dimly on the stand. and 88 I bent to listen to iittle Job's breathing I cangbt the gleam of two lurid eye- Lalls peering 1nto the room from the cat-hole cut in the lower corner of thedoor. The room was not properly a bed-room. I'started, aod the eyeballa disappeared. Then 1t was, in that terribly excited state of the nerves, that the idea tool possession of me. Properly 1 had inherited 1¢ 88 & dormant mania from my mother, who was half mad on the sab- jeet. A superstition, friend. is somothiog mare iben & mere imagining handed down from gen- eration to zeneration ; it is an heraditary taint of imnsanity—sn inherited bent of the nervous system that stores up forces and wi have its way sometimes, however reason and culture may protest. Tne sirange superstitions of parbaric races are bad physical conditious carrelated as psychical results, or rather as fanda- mental bent of pervous orgauization, just as trathmissible and nearly a8 ineradicable as the contour of a nose. It is folly, friend, to talk of erndicating eunperstition by mere intellectual culture; reform in_ physical conditions must preceds, secoud, and conserve the inteileotual elemont, or the latter is nearly nogatory. 1 make these remarks in explanation of my own case. I had the intellectnal culture without the physical, and, when the day came, the dominant manis asserted itself with an energy that my reason could no more control than it could con- trol an attack of neuralgis. 1 carried my revolver with me to the office the next morning, with the intention of abooting old Manx at the first opportunity. He did not come mewing at the ofiice ali that day, and I carried it beck again at uight. I called mysalf a fool about once in ten minates, from 7 o'clock in the morning until bedtime, and I called my- golf & fool parucnlarly when I put my re- volver in my pocket and carried it home again, with the intention of shooting old Manx if he ‘but once during the night peered into our sleep- ing-room from that cat-hole. It was all follv to tell myself, as I did over and over again, that a cat’s month was 8o formed apatomically that to suck the breath of s baby was physically impossible; mor was I at all satistied after I had exsmined old Manx’s mouth and as- certained thst there was no malformation in us case. I pictared bim, his face transformed into & hideous mask, and glued by clammy ten- tacles to that of little Sunbeam, of Willie, of dead Violet. I smmggled balf s gramn of morphine into Molly's tea 88 she sipped her habitual cap be- {ore putting little Job to bed, and, notwithstand- ing ber maternal solicitude, she dropped into & deep sleep. Then I shat myeelf into the closet, whase glass door commanded the cat-hole aad the trund'e-bed. revolver in hand, leaving the door = little ajar, so that I coud slip out 10 my stocking feet silently. The tall, old-fashioned clock in the corner of tho roam, thas looked like & coffin set on end, struck 9 just as the pre- parations wero completed. The clock, in its upright coffin in-the corner, strack 10, wheezing and rattling betwoen the strokes, ua if thero had been su old mauin it; and 28 I glanced at the dial, it was somehow in the candle-light like an old man’s face, with figuros and hunds doing duty for wrinkled fea- tures. 1 grow weary with standing on oue foot, snd ehifted to the other, whils the ‘methodical old brain in the top of the cofin measuredly ticked off tae geconds. The old clock in its upright coffin struck 11. The minute-hand begza ita journey again, over- taking ita Iazy asmistant at the wwelve; aod the two, shutting _together like a pairof shears, sheaved off & day, and I fancied I heard it drop nto the waste-basket, while theold mac wheezed and set up & kind of leathery Iaugh. In other words, the tall old clock, that looked like a cofin set on end, sirack 12; and still T waited, half angry with myselt, and cslling my- self a fool at intervals for having entertained the whim at all, particularly 83 it promised to keep me_standing_ thers all night, revolver io band. What wonld Molly ssy. sweet soul, if she ehould bappen to wake up and miss me ? 1 had listened to the tick-tack, tick-tack, of the old clock for fifteen minutes, perhaps, when I began to daze a lttle, wonder- Ing, after all, aa I dozed, whether it was not tho old man in tha upright coffin in the corper’ Who had al@ppeg out of his recep- tacle during the night and smothered the paties 1n tho trundle-bed. From this doze I started - suddenly, with the same premouition that bad brokem in upon my drowss on the previous night, and saw the two marsb-light syes of old Manz peering from the cat-bole iuto iha room. Expectation on tiptoe, I stood still, hold- ing my bresth until the muffled thump of my heart drowned the ticking of the alock. Manx cranled slowly into the roots % did not hesr him, I only eaw him as a moving flame, with a lighted cat tn the centra. He was ten minntes iu creepmg from the cat-bole to the trundle-bed, posaibly 6 feet, so imperceptible ‘was his progress. 1was 8o situsted that my eyes commanded the trundle-bed as he crawled into it with a movement g0 like that of a swaying, luminous mist, that L only knew he was thers by seeing him. A drowsy parr stirred the atmosphere of the room, and, by the flicker of the unsnuffed candle, I had just an instant to notice him lying exactly across the tiny throat of little Job, his face bent forward, and laterally so as to rest purringly upon the very face of Dr. Needbam, Jr. Then a baby moan interrupted my obxervs- tion, and, I think, wakensd me troma kind of “’ij" that was gradually steeping my seuses. ith s suddon movement, I had him by the npeck, snd dragged him from the trundle-bed. With a queer hiss, bat no scream, and eyes like two Living balls, the creaturo turned and buried his claws in my arm, tearing the fleah as if 1t had been paper. Maddened with the lacerstion and the savage struggles of the desperats ani- mal, I walked deliberately to the door, opeacd it with the hand holding the revolver; passed into the adjoining room, put the muzzle of the pistol sgainst his heart a8 near as I could under the circumstances. and phlled the trigger once, twice, thrice. It was dark, save that a little moonlight Bh‘ug,g‘!:d through erevices in the cortains, and that X was a ball of flame envelopiog my arm and hand, that died ous as he ceased to struggle. Lighting a lantern, 1 carried the body to the office, where I dressed my arm snd renewed my linen. Molly slept throogh it sll, and, when [ Treturned, little Job, swakened by the melee and the repeated reports, had cried himself to slecp again. I am an old man uow, and very nervons and whimsical. Job is stadying for the profession and will continue my hunt after the . The old sign-board and I are waxing aged together, with astrange sympathy, daily strengthening, that binds the ano to the other, and I often fancy, a3 fstand in the, office-door of » sunshiny day, and listen to the three little graves calling +Papa!™ that the weather-worn parallelogram takes the cue and puts on an expression of sadness in Bympatby with 1ta mas- ter. There are Agmes, Willie, sod Violet over again, younger than Job, and tho grass is stilt rank on a litéle apot by the oftice door where Manx lies buried. As near as I can trace his his- tory in my mind, enlightened by later and mora minnte observations 18 to the physiology of cats, he was subject to attacks of epilepsy, and must have wandered far out of his native neigh- borhood, as no doubt Kaspar Hauser did during » larvated spasm of the disorder. His depraved tastes, his singular electrical propertiss, and the fiame-like qura that enveloped him at times, were all sequel@ and exponents of his malady. From the date of his 1ast and severest spasm in my office, B0 far from really recovering, his fitg were transformed by one of those inexplica- ble turns incident to nervous affections into lar- vated and nocturnal attacks, and Manx became a scmpambalist. In these attacks habit directed him to thetrundle-bed ; but, whether the habes were sactually smothered, or died of a procesa akin to that of mesmeriam, 1n cousequence of the liar electrical and pervous properties developed in the tbroes of the disorder, is a question I shall bave to bequeath to Dr. Need- bam, Jr., who no doubt will solve the myatery of the universo one of these daysa—at least ho thinks so. 4 I did not like %o begio, I dislike to conclude my story—it seems so Like ending a lifa. But it must be 8o, for I hear the voices calling from the old graveyard undar the bill, * Papa! papa! apa!"—and one islittle Agnes, and oneis Willie, and one Violet. It is the same always. The old doctor is never too busy by day, never too sound asleap at night, not to-hear the three little voices calling from tho three little trundle-beds under the grass. I hear them at thie moment, and, peggiog vour pardon, reader. for the interrup- tion, I must etop just long enaugh to apswer, Lo still, hittloones, papa'll be thera presantly.” —F. @. Fairfleldin Appletons’ Magazine. HUMOR. No good place for Toms and Tabbies—Cal alone-ia. ‘Why don't Bweden have to send abroad for cat~ tle? Because she keops her Stack-holm. People who carry chewing-gum aud postage- stampe looss in their pockets do notcomplain of lack of business. Hearing of s recent exportation of a large in- voice of young frogs from this couniry to England for breeding purposes, & suspicious correspondent woaders 1f it tadpolitical sig- nificance. When aman goes to a qoilting-party about tea-time. and gits down on a bali of wickiug with a long darning-needlo in it, he will think of mors things connected with darning in a minate he can mention in two hours. The worst caso of selfishness that a Rentacky newspaper has ever been permitted to present to the publio, emanated from s yoath who com- plained because his mother put s bigger mnatard-plaster on his younger brother than she did on him, after they had parcaken too frecly of melons and hard apples. 4 A gentlaman in waot of s honse for the sum- mer montbs, in a httle town on the west coast of Ireland, found a commodious residence close to the besch. On consulting ths house-agent's board haread : * House to belst ; ap~ly opno- gite.” “Opposite!” cried he ; * why, ths house faces thesea!” On making inguiry, be found that the house belonged to a New-Yorker, who 'Was apen to receive offers. The other day, ass Detroit undertaker was walking along, accompauied by his son, he took off his hat and made a low bow to an oldish man whom they saw across the strees. *- Father, why do you take off your hat to such an old cod- fi:r ?" inquired the sou. * My son, that man haa o children, some of whom will die before tho summer is out, and he pavs cash down for every- thing," answered the father. Horace Walpole said this was the worst, that is the hest, bull he ever read; ‘I hate that woman,” #aid a gentleman, looking at & jerson who bad been bis nurse,—*I hate her, for when I was a child sbe changed me at nurse.” This wag, indeed, a perplexing assertion; but wo havo similar instance recorded in tke satubi- ography of an Irishman, who gravely informs us tbat he **ran away early in life from his father on discovering he was only his unele.” Forewarned, Forearmed—(Our reporter befors dinper): *Beg pardon. my Lord, bat couid your Lordship kindly oblige me by giviug me 3 hint 28 to what your Lordship i8 going to say 1n reply t the Duke when his_ Grace proposes your Lordship's bealth?” His Lordship; * How can T tell vou what I'm geing to say uutil I've heard What the Duke says:” Our reporter: **Oh, I can oblige vour Lordship with what his Grace i oing to gay; I've got it all in my pocket.”— unch. A Tentb-Warder, rather under the influcnre of liquor, approached an acquantance tho oiher day and remarked : ** See bere, Kill, they ra7 you called me & sheep-thief.” yea, I did.” 1\Well, you've got to spologize, or I'll lick you!” Tl b happy fo apologize. I called you sheep-thief,—but 1 misspoke myself,—I meant to aay that yon had been in jail for stesling a norse! “ That's manly,” said the Touth- Warder. “Tess take s drink. I know you didn't think 1'd pick op aoythipg smaller’n a horse."—Detroit Fres Press. A manyesterday enterod s Vicksburg saloon, and, with aoguish in bis tone aud look, he in- quired of the proprietor: ** My dear man, will you give me 30 cenis to help bury my poor desd moather ? ” No, gir, was the prompt responso. «Will you give me 15 cents?” * No, sr.” « You won't give me s cent toward buryiog tho mather wha Jearned me the Lord'a Prayer. eb 2" ““Not s red.” - * Well.” continued the stravger, after a psuse, * set out the whisky and I'll call it square, and lesve the old woman on top of the ground.” But the ealoonist didn' ‘* wet."— Vicksburg Herall Afew dags since a very absent minded maz got_into & horse-car at Portland. He had a basket with him, and. to make sure that he would not forget it when he gat out, he placed it secarely between his feet. During the ride no engaged very earmestly in conversation with another geatleman, and, when the car arrived at the place where he wished to alight, he bastily arose, and naturally stumbled over the basket. He picked himself up and exclaimed: * What fool left that basket there for peopls to stamble over? " and he goc out of tha car, leaving tho basket where bad kicked it. ‘When the hsods knocied off from work for dinperat one of the buildings being erected oa Alabama stroet vesterdsy, the hod-carriers got into a joking mood. A street-car passed by at the time, when oce negroremarked : ‘* Yon poor nigeers dido’t know that Iused to bo s stock- holder in de street-car company!” - You'se a fool. nij ; else yon must tink weis! " eaid another. *‘It'safact; I was!™ protested the boaster. * How much of a stockholder was yot, now ? " asked a third darkey. ** Why I held do mules up hyar st Peschirae street, when doy chaoged de teams to de cars ! "—Atlania (Ga.) Constitufign. 3