,.^.. ■>r^%^ (MAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) * m. M 1.0 I.I 1^ 12^ 12.5 12.0 1^ 1.8 1.25 1.4 1.6 •• 6" ► % ^/a *> /^ # %!■ Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 „e!ure, id D 32X 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 i I 1 !> t M [■: .L^.!T.f,.^iix..ii ■! ^^mm ROBERTSON'S CHEAP SERIES. / POPULAR READING AT POPULAR PRICES. riT r 1 umn WITH A FULL ACCOUNT OP ' MRS. COSLEI&H'S ACTION THEHEIN I TOO ETHER WITH Many other Interesting Phases in ihe Social and Domestic History of that Remarkable Village. BY J"^^S. DVn. B^A^ILE^Z", •• THE DANSBURY NEWS " MAN. CO M r L ET E, TORONTO: J. EOSS ROBERTSON, 55 KING-ST. WEST, COR. BAY. 1880. i THE DAXBURY BOOM. CHAPTER L ■ THE COMING DPRISINO, There was an active desire for reform in Danbury at tiiis tin)e. The entire commu- nity ran rife with it. It is a little remark- able, come to look back to the period, that there was sutTiciont partisan material in all Danbury to keep either of the two great po- litical parties in an organized condition. But that there was a great deal more than enough for the purpose, was evident from the violent tliroes the community passed through in the effort t'lcy made to shake off party yok-;. The party in p wer liad a ring estaljlished. The party out of power had a ring to esta- blisli. Tiiese facts were formidable enough to aliirui a less l)alanced borough than that of Danbury, and to array the best of all citizt'uship in opposition thereto. P'irst, there was a low murmur of dissatis- faction, and then followed open expressions of indijfuation. These were carefully noted by the Hon. Mr. Ouhll, who was a strong party man, and consequently a discerner of the times. The Hc!'.. Mr. (luhll was a mem- ber of tlie organization wliicii we shall speak of as the "Outs," to distinguish them from the party then in power, who were the " Ins." Ho had served the party in the legislature as well as in minor positions of trust. He was a large man, with an impres- sive chest and a face of Hal)by frankness. He wore several rings, and a wliite vest wiien the season permitted. The rings he wore through all weathers. Witli tlie altertnesa of vi.sion born of the years he had watched tlie political vane, he detected " the popular movement " the moment of its inception. He saw that the feeling, while it aimed more particularly against the Ins., threaten- ed the entire political machine as well. He mingled with the mass s as became a man of large heart and comprehensive vievs of the government's necessities. Politics had been hia life, hia hope, and hia solace, and aa such he knew the public pulseand the public needs as only a lifelong politician can know them. The Hon. Mr. Guhll, making himself as- sured that the uprising was genuine and deep-aeated, and not a superficial spasm, cave his full attention to it, and naturally enough gave his unqualified support to its objects. There waa not a more enhusiastic reformer in all Danbury than waa the Hon. Mr. Guhll. If there was, it must have been Mr. Cobleigh. But there was tliis difference between the two. Mr, Cobleigh lacked the ex- perience that hadmade theHon.Guidlalmost perfect in the selection and application of the proper remedies for the disease of the community politic. Mr. Cobleigh vorked in a large factory where a great n any men were employed. He was a good worKinan, an inoffensive com- panion, a sympatizing friend, and an oppon- ent of fraud. Ho was well liked in the factory. He was among the first to hear the mutterings of discontent, and although not a maii of political interests, still concern- ed himself in the welfare of his liorough. He heard the men all about him talking of the dreadful corruption in otfice, and of the equally dreadful corruption ready to be sprung upon the village should the other party get in, and Mr. Cobleigh felt that hia devoted borough was in imminent danger of l)eiug swept from the face of the earth. He brooded over this matter considerably, and expressed himself in the factory freely. The result was that his fellow-workmen got to looking up to him as one who saw the dan- ger, and was prepared to l)attle against it. In other words, Mr. Cobleigh became a sort of lea,'li was pleased with tlie attention thus Ik-- stoweil upon him. Tlu; Hon. Mr, (!uldl was a man of wealth and position, and his friendship, even his soeiety, were not to he ipioitd. His years of experience, to say nothing,' of his natural grasp of situations, eminently titted him to deal with the pro- blem tliat now confronted Daidmry. Tiiis was in April. 'I'he next tdeetion for borough ofiitcrs was to take place tiic fol- lowing month. CHAPTKR II. STARTTNO THE UPBISTKO. Tn TJif XorA, of April 20, appearcil the following advertisement : — RALLY FOR RKFORM. In view of the unblushing elfrontery of the party in power, of the unmitigated fraud Eraetised in the administration of the orongh atlairs, whereby the lu.nest tax- payer is robl)ed of his hard-earned subsis- tence, it is deemed necessary that there should be a spontaneous outburst of the peo])le in behalf of an immediate and radical reform. To this end a public meeting of all those interestcti in a pure ami upright government is called at the Opera House, on next Satur- day afternoon, at two o'clock, to devise means and nu;asure8 to stay tlie tide of otli- cial corruption now threatening to ingulf our fail' village. By order of Committer of Citizen.*. This called for the "spontaneous outburst of tlie people "of I>anl)ury was drawn up by the Hon. Mr. (iuhll. He had had ex[ierieuce in such matters, and could do it mucli lietter than could any other reformer, and so it na- tuially fell to his lot. It was sulmiitted to the iusp'+ctioii of Mr. Oobleigh before i)eing put into print, the honourable author sug- gesting perliaps it could be improved in nu- merous aspects, — a suggestion that was re- ceived by Mr. Cobleigli with an inward thrill of hfirror. and caused him to colour a.9 high up as his hair would permit to l>e seen. With all haste he protested that the docu- ment was as perfect as if inspired, and so coincided his fellow-workmen engaged in reform, while they rejoiced that the cause so dear to them had so influential and able a help as the Hon. .\lr. (iiddl, '1 he honourable gentleman certainly show- ed no lack of enthusiahin. He took ever}'- tliing upon his own slioulders, and shirked no responsibility in the organization of tho opposition to the p.uty in power. And no less busy, fortunately, were others of !ou^ exi)erienee in })olitieal matti'is, and it was equally foitunate that they were of the .samo l)arty an the Hon. Mr. (iuhll, iM'cause )f tho advantagi' harmony Inings. Of these, thret) weie especially iirominent, these being Mr. Oagg, Mr. I 'Coy, and .\lr. Stoohl, threo gentlemen who were; blessed with an abun- dance of leisure, if not of means. .Mr. Oagg was a red-faced jiarty, with bristling side- whiskt'rs, and bristling hair on the top of hi.'j lieail, and a nose that was as suggestive of bristling as a nose can be. .Mr. I'Coy was the opiv>site of Mr. ('agg. Th< re was noth- ing or a bristling cast to any of his features. He was a man of repose, with an unetuouij air that was (juite taking. To see Mr. l>"<'oy draw his left hajid along his chin-whisker was worth going some distJince. he did it with an air of such intense sat'sfaction. At the table or the bar this act showed conspi- cuously, and made everybody in sight envy .Mr. I) Coy the enjoynnuit of his food and drink, while it encouraged them to eat and (liink more, in the hope to r'^ach the same degree one(l to liit on one for tlie ticket wh(j was »o popular with the honest sons of toil. The reault wa.i that Mr. Col)leigh conaent- ee, it ro.se up with a volume and force that took in his entire na- ture, and made his quiet past aeem like a dreary and forbidden waste;. The more he pondered over it, the more €lated he grew ; and from the moment he gave his consent to the use of his name he ecame a changed num. He felt that lie could not continue at his work until this matter was settled for good. He m as tiled on the front stoop, the most valuable ai tides l)eiiig more easily seen ; the walk around tiie side was barred in one place by the ice-chest, and in another by a tal)le ; a couple of carpets lay on the grass, and a bedstead and a l)arrel had to be moved Ixjfore he uould get acnjss the back stoop, and into the kitchen. Mr. Cobleigh nio'ed tiiese obstacles with- out noting what tliey were, so absorbed was he in the object of iiis mission home. Mr. Cobleigh iiad his dinner-pail in his hand, wiv'i the uneaten dinner inside of it, for the hour was too ut on 1 is hat. drawing it well down upon his ears uid eyes, and strode moodily from the pi'cmises, giving his wife, in passing, a look that was calculated to chill her very heart's iilood, although we have no evidence that it did. CHAPTKR IV. MR. COBLEIIill I'UEl'AKES TO DO SO.MKTIUNU. In the three days that intervened ljout it on reaching home. The bitter experience of a few hours before was still fresn in his me- mory, and he shrank from riskinj' 'a repeti- tion. On reaching the premises, lie worked his way (juictly into the house by the front door, and stole unobserved up stairs, where he expected (and succeeded) to find a room not under the devastating touch of mop and brush. Tlic room wnn in a stage of disorder, the table and chairs being occupied with suiidiy oinaiuc.it-i and knick-knacks from other apartments, l)ut he cleared a chair for hiiiixlf. and sat down to think, jiretty cons- ent that he would be uninterrupted in the process of crystallizing his thoughts into an appropriate address. In less than a half-hour he got the start pretty clearly laid out. With this done he M'eiit after paper and pencil. This material was kept in a drawer in a burea'i that stood in their b droom down stairs. Mr Cold^iigh slipped (piietly to that room, and succeeiled in reaching it without .".tti'acting the atten- tion of his wife, who was undoubtedly laying in ambush for him, ready to spring out witli some ignoble duty for him to perform, .Mr. Cobleigh no sooner got inside the apartment than he reali/.ed tliat the getting there was not the most difiiiult part ol the mission. The bureau was intrenched back of barrels and boxes and baskets, and all was a pile of bedding, He set to work witlk the utmost caution to remove the bedding, to ooen a path to tiie bureau, and was .suc- < ctiiling admirably when his wife suddenly appeared. "Where on earth have you been?" she sharply demanded. " Here's that stove to bring in, and a hundred other things to do and you oil, the Lord only knows where." In addition to the sting ot this ungracious speech was the siiock of being discovered so inopportunely. Mr. Cobleigh was almost furious. " What di puldic on his shouldeis, and a thousand things to tl\ink of, —if it ain't torture." " What business, "retorted the exasperated woman, " had you got to g<> mixing your.^clf up with this bar-room g;ingat such a time as this, I'd like to know? You knew I was cleaning hon.se, and that everything is in a heap, and that I've got more than my hands full; but it's just like yon to go to i-Cetting up an election and such flxilishiiess, right in the middle of all this mess !" This assertion of Mrs. Cobleigh's wa.s, de.spiu! its apparent fairness, unjust to Mr. Coldeigh. The time forlmlding the boroui:h election had not been determined by Jiim, and, in fact, he had had nothing in any way to do witli it. Tile time was fixed l)y par- ties who could have been actuated by no de- sign to interfere with Mrs. C-obieigli's do- mestic arrangements, as their action took fdace some considerable time prior to her (irth. Still, it was a very good point to make, and the excellent woman sni!l'ed in triumph as slie delivered it. Mr. Cobleigli uttered no wcn'd in response to this. He simply stared at her in blank astonishment whili; she was speaking, and •wiien slie finished he stirt"d (jut into the yard, as if that v.m.s a signal for him to go. Jle walked up to the cai'pet as if he was moving in his slei-p, witliont knowledge of wheiv he was going or what he wa.'? after. Till! instant lie reached it a givat i.-hange came over iiim. His appearance of unconscious- ness gave way to one of marvellous activity. With a half-suppressed scream he sprang upon the heap of woof and warp, and jum- ped up and down on it. and then kicked it viciously M'ith both foot, and then jumped up and down again on it, to the unlNjunaod ama/iinent of nib wife, who Htood in the door watciiing hint. Then he (juietly gath- ered up the article in his arms and silently marcheil to the hou.s«' with it, looking very mii'h like an elvphant backing into a uii'ous* ring. '• What on earth is the matter with you, kicking that carpet about like that?" aha demanded. " None of your business," he snapped back, colouring in tho face, and pushing by her into tlie house. " Well, I must say !" commented Mrs. Cobleigh. Tlirowing down the carpet as if it was a dog, he had suddenly discovered to bo in- haliited, he dashed out after the ice-chest, and immediately lugged that in, and then seized the bedstead and fairly wlii«/,ed it in- side. Then he smashed his hat upon his head, ami Hed down town to collect his scat- tered and sadly demoralized thoughts. CHAl'TKR V. MK. roBI,EI(»H DOES IT. Late in the evening, when he returned, hii» faitliful wife was in tlie kitchen stirring up enijityings for to-morrow's bread, and taltiug advantage of her o«!cupation, lie got his ma- tcpial, and sijuared himself at tiie dining- room table in the proiiaration of a suitable response to the honour hia fellow-citizens contemplated bestowing upon him. Comjiosition was no light matter with Mr. Cobleigh. He had had no call to venture into it beyond ai occasional letter to some member of the family. But this was some- tliing far di lerent from anything in that line, as he presently discovere- a ii THK PANHIRY IM)<)M. looki'il flililnratcly at tin- wife of IiIh Imimoiii. ' "Well!" lie tiiiiilly l.lmtfil ; *'>iiiJUi 1 I'vur Haw. What W'liiilil I ti^ll tlu- inaHHi'H w licii tliiy calli-tl on iut> to It-ail tlifiii ? ' Tliis wiw cali'ulatcMl tn l)e a poHiT, ami to throw Mth. Colilii^li into a Htfite of confu- sion. Tlic cak'ulatiuii was icasonjiltltMMKiu.;!!, lint it niiHcanietl. Without an in.>t:tnt'ii hi'sitatioii, hhi! rijilied, - " Tull tluui tluyM hctter l>e ahout otlur 1)Usiiu!s.s than getting drunk and kicking up a nowwow over nuthing. " I'liere was Moniething apparently deroga- tory to Mr. Cohleigh'."! pergonal value in tlic closing word of this unexpected reply, al- though it ix likely «he did not so intend it. Unfortunately, Mrs. C'ohleigh had indiilietl the strange notion that I'olitics and helwu- chery were twin brothers who iilMays went hand in hand, and wiuiunalWe to disassuemte the twain. Mr. Cohleigh was sud lenly taken with another seahon of difliculty to recover his breath, during which he stiired at his ex- eollent wi^e until hi.>i eye.s fairly bulged. ^Vhen he got his breath he gasped, — " Well, may I be horns wogglo*! !" — Hornswoggled was a term Mr. Cohleigh used only in cases of extreme necessity, and his use of it now showed how jMJWerfuUy he waj wrought upon, --"well, may I \m horns- woggled if ever I saw such a woman as you are. You're enough to drive the devil him- self out of his wits." " Then I'll go to bed, and get out of \ns way," wiis the ungracious rejoinder. Ami the laily was as good as her word, leaving her lord and master stiiring at the door through which she departed, iu virtuous indignation. When she was gone, Mt, Coblei jh devoted a couple of minutes in striding !>out the room and kicking over a chair, an.l setting it on its feet again. Then he smote his head with both of his hands several times in suc- cessicju, and having thus refreshed himself he went back to his work. He was not going to say much, as much, was not necessary ; but he was surprised, now that he got down to it, to find how great Wiis a little, when face to face with the paper it was to go on. He screwed around on the chair, ami clutched every hair in his head personally, an, " to preserve the synmictry of its shape until he could know positively about tUe ladies. It was an aomiralde precaution. | " The honour y<»u seek to confer uj)on me comes so unexp»'cted, tliat I feel totally un- prepared t(j e.\i)res8 to you the feelings of my breast." [This woulil not be strictly true, taken at the time of delivery, but the seiitinu-nt was so beautiful in itself, and so appropriate to the occasi(jn, tliat the use of it a|)i)eHied like an inspiration, and Mr. Cohleigh gladly fastened to it. ) " It is an hour I never dreamed of, and which 1 do not feel 1 am woithy to receive ; and standing Iwfore you as I now do, I feel almost dund'oumled by what you have done. It comes so sudden and unexpected that I do not know what to tell you about it, only that I thank you very much. The move- ment you have inaugurated on this occasion has my hearty sympathy, as you all well know. I have felt, as you have all done, the corroding influence of the party iu power." ["Corroding influence" was a term Mr. Cvjblcigh one • saw in the printed report of a speech delivered in Congress, and it made such an impression upon him at the time that it stiiyed with him, and it now struck him as being highly desirable iu this connection. It was certainly an imposing figure, and cal- culated to make itself. J "And I stiuid ready with you this after- noon to hurl myself, in my feeble way, upon the ramparts of the enemy." [Mr. Cohleigh was nearly an hour carving out this bit of pir"e metal, but he felt anijjly repaitl for his labour. The strength of his purpose to hurl himself, blemled prettily with the modest estimate of the force of the hurl, as indicated in the words, " my feeble way," ami made a very striking picture.] "I look around upon the masses before me, and rea5.sible to do, while following her from the )iantry to the kitchen, and from the kitchen to the dining-room, and keeping from under her feet when she was suddenly retracing her .way. When he finished she said, — " If you have got through will that stuft' we will have bi'cakfast, before everything on the table gets colder than a stone. " " (Stud"! " In vain the standard-bearer of the party of reform drove down into the very recesses of his voi'abulary for language suit- able to express himself. It was no use. lie reeled from the undertaking in the exhaust- ion of despair, and sank into his place at tlie table with as much enipliasis as ifhe had been loaded with old iron. Biief though her re- in irk was, volumes could not have flatten- e'l him out more etfectually. This M'as simjdy the heginiiing of a series of shocks that a.-'sailed the citadel of refoiin througii that day. \\ itii his breakfast end- ed, Mr. Cobleigh retreated to his sanctuary to begin the operatian of transferring liis speech to the retina of his mind. Here he was ap] a eiitly tafe, although somewhat trammelled in his movements Ity the surjihis furniture tenipori>.r.ly storctl there. He push- ed aside the high lanip,aii(l alb(ims,anil vases, to make room on the little talih' f:."' his man- uscript, and then fell to work. The more Mr. ("oiileigh rejieated the jkis- sages to fasten them in his mind, the more fully his nature l)ecame impreguateil with the lofty sentiments theicin cont lined, and tiie more his body grew in sympathy with tlie glow. Ami so from standing still at the table he got to moving about, and to gesticu- lating with his right arm, liy which he wculd sweep the air as if to indicate the lireailtii of his views liy calling attention to the breadth of the hori/on, or would level it straight aheaii, as if pointing with scorn at the un- piMiieipled party in jiower. /'i« he progressed^ he became so absorljenit. Mr. Cobleigh was bnt Hesh and blood, after all, and his whole nature shrank from this degrailing otiice. '" What on earth do you mean by coming to me with such devilish stuH ?" he excitedly demanded. " \\'eU, things have come to a mighthy ((Ueer pass if you have got above doing any- tliing al)out your own house," she retorted. "Great heavens! liaven"t you got any sense at all ?" he cried, " or don't you know anything whatever' I should think you'd be ashamed of yourself. You exjiect I can prepare myself for the responsibilities of a public station, and empty out slops, and do all kinds of bugger-lugging at the same time. Here the people of this community have se- lected me from a thousand to carry their standard in a desperate fight against cor- ruption and fraud, and you have got such a one-horse idf ", of the importance of my posi- tion that you expect 1 can empty a tub of suds just the same as if I hidn't been picked out to lead the masses to victory. A devil- ish nice-looking spectacle I'd make, wouldn't I, carrying out a big reform and a tub of dirty water at the same time? And a nice help to y(»ur liusband you are, ain't you, ex- pecting him to shine in public life and do your drudgery too ? I should think you'd be ashame«l of yourself." Mr. Cobleigh struck the table with his fist as he delivered this, and immediately in- quired of Heaven why his life was prolonged under such discouraging circumstances ; whereupon Mis. Cobleigh said ahe would empty the t^ib herself ; it might cripple her for life in doing it, but she had always had to slave an f^ i ject, rather than the course leading to it, should be priTnary, but at the same time system is of importance, and I suj^gest, as being entirely consistent with the object that has brought us together, that a chairman of the meeting be chosen to preside over its deliberations. Gentlemen, will you signify your pleasure in the choice ?" As Mr. CJagg concluded, his glance un- consciously full upon Mr. Cobleigh. And as he did so tliiit gentleman cried out, — "I nominate the H(m. Mr. er part of tlie hall. At this juncture it was evident that the Hon. Mr. Guhll, whowa« looking very much embarrassed at the unexi)ei!ted demonstra- tion in liis behalf, was about to rise and pro- test against tlie lionour. But Mr. Gagg was too quick for sucli a move, and before the honural)le gentleman could get to his legs, the motion was jiut and carried, and carried w itii a shout tliat sliook the building. No one could help being gratified by such an outburst of public favour, and even the well-tried face of the Hon. Mr. Guhll flushed with a natural colour as he steppeil up to tlie platform and laid his hat on its crown on tlie table. There was a hu.sh in the audience. " Frienils," said the gentleman in a tone of blended alf'ection and dignity, and look- ing into his hat, "I would fail of the noblest nttrilnite of the human heart, tliat of gra- titude, if I were not di^eplv alffctiul by this mark of esteem that you ha\ e shown me. I did not come in here with tiie ex{)ectation of taking anv part, unless it was tlie very hum- blest, in tliese proceedings. I was attractetl liere, I must say, by my sympathy with tlie olijeot tli.it lias drawn you together tliis af- ternoon (ajiplause), and y(ju can judge of .ny astonisliinent at hearing my name offered as the cliairmaii of your convention. Hail my emo-ions been umler better control, I would have risen at once and declined the lionour I am so uiuvortliy to bear (applause), but be- fore I could recover myself your generous action had made me your chaiiman ; and as I make it a jioint to slirink from no duty my fellow-citizens have called me to perform, I shall try to overcome the sense of my own unfitness, and do the best in my humble power to serve your interests on this import- ant oc'asi II. (Applause.) There is no need to assure ou of my hearty sympathy with the nobl purpose that has brought you to- gether. (Tremendous applause.) The mas- ses rising in their might to vindicate their rights and to x'ebuke a villainous ring (; p- phuise) is one of the grandest speetjicies vouchsafed to man (applause), and I rejoice to be considered worthy to take a part ia tills forward Movement. (Applause.) Gen- tlemen, again permit me to assure you of my deep gratitude for this niani testation of your generous confideuce and este^^. (Vocifer* ous applause. ) " I suppose the first business we must at- tend to is the ciioice of a secretary to record the transactions of the meeting Will you please signify your preference r' Mr. Gagg's name was moved and seconded, and as jironijitly carried, and that gentleinaa b'nshingly accepted the honour. " If I nnderstiuid the spirit of the call," said the cliairman. " which I had the plea- sure of perusing in the paper, and which in- formed me of your honourable gatliering, this meeting is called to protest against the re- j)rehensil>le way our borough affairs are ad- minist'jrcd, and to noniinate a ticket favour- able to tlie interests of the community at large, to Ix; submitted to the suffrages of the people of Danbury at the coming election. Tliis being the case, the next business in or- der, I judge, is the nomination of the ticket. How will you proceed to this business, gen- tlemen?" At this Mr. D'Coy sprang to his feet, and proposed, tas being the most convenient and expeditious v ay, that a committee of five be appointed to select the names for the ticket Mr. D'Coy s proposition favouralily struck tlie assemblage of indignant tax -payers, and while lie was stroking his whisker it was adopted. The selection of the committee was next in order. Mr. Stoohl ruse, and gravely suggested, witii a projiitiatory air to all jiresent, that to save time and useless dis- cussion tiie chairman appoint tiie committee. Hereupon the Hon. Mr. (iulill took occasion to thank the gentleman for the honour pro- posed, but, he said, the ajipointing of so im- ))(u cant a committee was a grave responsibil- ity, reijuiring wi.sdom, judgment, and ex^w- rieiice in its discharge, and he — Mr. .Stoolil interruiited to say that he un- derstood, as did the meeting, that these (jua- lities were necessary, and that was just the teason he proposed their honoured chairman for the ofhce, knowing, when he did so, that he was but echoing the sentiments of the in- dustrious and intelligent geiitlfmen about him. A murmur of applause followed this announcement, and before it died aw ay Mr. Gagg sprang to his fee*^ and cried, — **It is moved and seconded that our noble chairman select the committee to present a ticket foi' borough officers. Those in favour of the motion will please signify it by saying aye. " It was a perfect hurricane of ayes. "It is scarcely ueccessai-y to call the THE DANBURY BOOM. 13 noes," saiil Mr. Gagj», with a trininphaiit siiiile, in vliicli his fellow-citi/.ons joined. The Hon. ^^^. Onhll modestly thanked the gentlemen for tiieir conHdence ; and look- ing into the crown of his hat, as if he was really reading the names from a list therein, a uiounced the members of the committee. The gentlemen selected retired for delibera- tion. During their absence the Hon. Mr. Guhll called on Mr. D'Coy for a speech, ami that gentleman responded in a vigorous on- slaught upon corruption in office and politi- cians generally, and wonnd up with a glow- ing tribute to the nobility of the masses in tlieir struggles against venality. As he closed, and •while the building was quivering with the shock of applause, the conunittee returned and made their report. The ticket selected was as follows : — For Wardm, Joseph Fangs. For Uunjrsft, William Bangs, John I'sangs, William Cobleigh, Tollman Dangs, Iiwin Sp;ings. For Cli^rk, Isaiah Richardson. For Treamnr, Robert Manga. For Bocml of Rn, and \Viilougld>y, of the refurni ticket, wt ro left oir, and .Messrs. Jangs, Xangs, aiid Kangs taken in their place. Mr. Col)leigh was not seriously grieved by the exception made of himself by the " Outs.'' The more he rellccted upon it, the bctttr he was pleased. His election was sure any way, because of the intense desire for reform among the m.asses, auil so he could all'ord to do without tlie sui)port of the " Outs,"' while being thrown overboard by a partisan caucus was an act of martyrdom wiiich hail its attrai;tiona and it.s advantiiges. The Hon. Mr. Guhll, and Messrs. D'Coy, Gagg, and Stoohl were inclined to be grieved at tiie action of the " Outs " in throwing out Messrs. Cobleigh, Willoughby, and Rich- ardson. If the " Outs " were going to take any of the ticket, they argued, why not take the whole of it? This is what they couM not undcrstanvl, but Mr. Col)leigh's firm faith in tlie nia.sses to right all wrong tended much to reconcile them, and they went into the work with the ohl fervour. As for Mr. Cobleigh and the other reformers, they re- doubled their ev»>ftion3, and were full of ze;il that consumed. It soon coming to his ears that a st renaile was to be given hin* on election night, the ambition to make a da/zling oratorical flight was again aroused, aul)Ht ticket, Mliich was a clever imitation of the reform ticket, and had the names of .fangs, \angs, and Rangs inserted in the place of those of Cobleigh, Ricliardson, and \ViIloughl)y. Toward tlie close of tlie time allotted for voting, Mr. Col)leigh got so ner- vous he could not stay near tlie polls, and retreated to the restaurant, leaving Maste.' Cobleigh to ascertain and being him the result. There he remained, drink'n^' innunieiable cups of cotTee as a motive for staying, until tlie news came. It was an electric shock to him. The reform ticket, as adopted by the "Outb, " was victorious. Jangs, Nangs, and Rang barely getting an election, but getting it just the same. Mr. Cobleiglt could not credit the intelligence, but the truth, with its crushing load of humiliation, was finally realized. "Outs" saved tliein- selves by adopting the r form ^ieket, a ul Ja?igs, Nangs, and Rangs were scjueezed iii on the split ticket''. The m.isses that uprose polled one hundied and twenty-five "s([.iare" votes, and seventy-five " splits," which hail been imposed upon their guilele.'^s nature l)y political wolves in the pelts of reformect sheep. Mr. Cobleigh had received one hundred and twenty-five votes, out of a jioU of eleven hundred ! It made the standard! eaier in the reform movement very, very sick. Hrr struck out for home at once. He had no object in view only to get out of sight of everybody, especially of the masses. He was almost exhausted wl:en he got; there, and wliolly cTa:'.ed. H's wife saw him as he came, and with the quick instinct of her sex saw at once the deplorable change in his appearance. " What's the matter with you now ?" she demanded, with the promptness of aroused sympathy. He gasped out the calamitous result of the election. "What did I tell you all along ?" she said. " 1 knew they was fooling you all the time with their gas about reform, and the uprising oi the masses—" " Cuss the masses 1" moaned their stand- ard-bearer. "Well, I'm glad it's ovei',"she added, 8y:npathetically, " and I hope you lia\e now got through making a fool of yourself, and will act as you oughtcr. Squat do\\ n and get your supper into you as quick as you can, for I want you to put up the jiar- lour curtains, so I can get the rooms to rights before bedt.^iie. You've l)een off all day doing nothing, and now I guess it won't hurt you to help me a little. " And thus the defcateil staiid.nrd- bearer in the great reform movement s.ank to rest in the syniiathetic boscw ci his family. THE PO^VER OF MUSIC. We were in Morris's music store for a fe\v moments, the other afternoon. Young Mi-. Daucliy, who is (juite a musician, wanted us to hear an adaptation from tlie " Cliimes of Normandy, " which he thought was a very neat thing. We love music ; we become al)- sorb<^(l in it, and saturated \^li it. It lilts us above the world, and the things of time, and leaves us floating noiselessly through the atmosphere of fond hopes and sweet memor- I 'M 18 THE DAXBURV BOOM. •.I '■ ill ' 1 I i: ies. We were glail when young Mr. Dauchy jtroposed to J»lay tliis piece. .\Ir. Hlowali was in the store at the time. He was telling us of a hunting expedition the tlay before, in which he liat harmony ami glifled — ■' Dili ycMi ever in^ar Thomas's orchestra ?" incpiired .\Ir. Blowah. A nod of the head, half exhausted at that, was all the response we could make. " llow'il you like him ?" With a powerful wrench wo tore ourselves from the delicious air long enough to say, ' Very much." " He's the boy to handle music,ain't he ? I heard him in New York when he liist began his concerts. I always go to hear the big guns. If there's one thing I like it's good music. I could hear good music forever, I lietieve. It takes right hold of me, an' I'ui all eaten up with it. He paused to relight his cigar. A bit of the " Chimes" like a sound of silver bells was being given. The execution was very flue. We rushed to embrace it. Mr. Blowah said, — " The ne.xt time you go to the city let ni6 know. I should like to take you around to a friend of mine in Fourteenth Street. He has got a two-thousand-tlollar piano, and they say it's the best toned instrument in New Yoik. And he can more'n handle it. He's played ever since he was eight years old, and takes to music as natural a.s a duck to water. You'd enjoy hearintj him play, I can tell you, and I'd like to go there wiih you. vN'hat's the matter ' Ain't you feel- ing well ? " Before we could make any reply to this unexpected interrogation the " Chimes " ceased. " You move around so restless, and look so white in the face," said Mr. Blowah, eye- ing us anxiously, "that I thought you might be sick. Y^ou ought to get out more where you can hear music, you're so fond of it. It will do you good. " We gratefully thanked him for his kind interest, and crawled back to the office. A DIAGNOSIS OF MOVING. There appears to be three stages to a mov- ing. In this respect it is something like a disease. First there are the symptoms, then follows the attack, and after that comes the convalescence. The symptoms are the evidence of the cal- amity which in moving are known as " pack- ing. " There is no parti(uilar time set to "pack up." It depends on the amount of neivous force possessed by the woman of the In use. The more nervous she is, the earlier the pack- ing commences, and the more thorough it is. About two weeks before j ou move you no- tice a shrinking iu the ^'oblets. The dozen THE DANBURY BOOM, 19 n complete ones have shrunk down to a ainyle cracked menilwr of the order, and you feed your >{ht for our getting married, and ho I hav<' concluded to niAke a clmnge. A woman what keeps a boarding-house wants me to m irry her, and wc will Ik) nuu-ried to-night. She's got a gootl business, nearly twenty Itoardcrs, and she exjHJcts nio»o. Hoping you will always be happy, 1 sign myself, Yours forever, John. Cyrille'a venoralde fathei' immediately brought suit against John for three months' board, in the hoi)e tij save aomething from the wreck. lu that hope we join. GEITING HER HAT. The house-cleaning Ining over with, the female mind luis tiikoii a full grasp of the millinery i)rol)lem. It is a very dilUcuIt nuvt- ter to settle, tliis getting a covering for the feui.de head. Days are devoted to it. Hours of anxious tliought arc given up to it. 'I'hcrc are so many things to consider in coune -tiou with it,— tilings tiiat me:i d a compromise with tasliion be made, so that the sensibility of the public (which^ is other women) shall uot U; shocled? The shape of her face is another impoitant item. la the prevailing form of hat adiipted to it? If not, what style that will ilu comes the near- est to the leading style ? Tiiese are very weighty mattr^rs, an(l must be carefully weighed before ivctiou is taken. Still aiU(tlier important subject is the mak- ing over of last Reasons hut. What tiim- mings can be used that have been iiseil l*c- fore ? Not alone tiuste, but ei'onomy svs well, is concerned here. In no place docs the eco- nomy of woiiieii show out as in the working over of an old hat into a new one. Of course it re(|uires time, and close thought, and shrewd judgment, and keen management, but succcs.s is sure to follow, and the pride she takes in exhibiting the triumph of her geuiu.s, and comparing it with the new hat of a neighbour who never has an) tact in mak- ing over and saving, is a genuine pleasure, and pays for all the trouble, to say nothing of the money saved. We have known a hat thus made, costingabout four dollars, to look fully as go(>d an a fnur-e like it. She can't co|>y after /iff. She must be first, or notiiing at all. Wo have come to l)elieve that tiie woman next door, or any otlu-r woman in the neigh- l>ourliood, never get ahead in any particular, because their hats are so faulty. Why are they so unfortunate in their taste? Why will the broad-faced woman wear a narrow brim? And why does the thin-faced woman atl'ect the very broan. The sug- gester took the bat and showed just how it was done, and brought around the bat with such vehemence as to almost carry hur from her fc'ut, and to nearly brain thu catcher. 'J'iiat party shivered, and moved back some- fiftuun feet. 'I'he batter took her place, and laid the tip of thu bat on the ground, and the pitciiur shut her eyes again as tightly as before, and let drive. The fielder had taken the pre- caution to get back of a tree, or otherwise she must have been tlistigured for life. The ball was recovered. The pitcher looked heated and vexed. Shu didn't throw it this timu. Shu just gavu it a pitching motion, but not letting go of it in time it went eeu a real game, it is likely that some one would have been killed outright. .-* ^-ssrff^ THE DANBURY BOOM. 23 MR. COBLKKJFI rjKTS HKADV FOR A JOUKNKV. Mr. C(>l>leigh waH preparing to go nwny on tht' early train, Monduy niorning. Hfing of a nervous tempera men t liiinself. and «wleil for time, Hliirt-lmttons liMtr;,'eil close to the clotli, anil Imtton-iioles appeared to bo turned upside down. .Iu>*t aH lie j^raHpod Ilia earpet-l)ag and was al>out to htart, a strange eat made a dash in tlnoiiyh the door which Mrs. ("ohleigli opened to see if the weather looiicd sulliciently ihre.itening U) make an unilirelLi ueceasary. The en- trance of the cat was a gieat shock to both Mr. and Mrs Coliieigh, as hoth despised catH. M . Cohleigh screamed, " Scat !" l)ut the animal miHunderstctod what she said, and instead of cliinl)ing over lier and running (outdoors, it started into the sitting- rt>om. Mr. Cohleigh jjut after it at once. The cat dodced under tiie lounge, and Mr. CoMeigli iiad to siiove the lounge around lie- fore lie I'ould dislodge it. Out from tiitrc it r)ut for the front i)edroom, the door of whicli leing conveniently open. Mr. Coldeigh ha8teneCIsrnVENESS. It is reinarkable,the amount of inquisitive- ness a Xcw-Englandcr tdevelops in the course of his life. There is nothing awk- ward or constrained about it. It cornea easily, naturally, and gracefully. In no part of New England is this trait so carefully cultivated as in our own dear Connecticut. Its fruits are shown in the record of the Patent Office. There are other fruits, how- ever, not quite so happy, which never get inside of the Patent Office, and it is just as well they don't. Here is an instance in kind : A Danbury grocerj' firm have taken the agency for a hammock. One of the articles they have hung at the front in the shade of their porch. They hung it there as a sample and as an advertisement, but numerous people have got into it to see how it worked. It hung so low they could easily sit in it, and undoubtedly the motion was agreeaVjle and comforting. But the grocers didn't fancy this performance, especially as the hammock sitters were not lianiiuock buyers. Saturday afternoon they removed the loop to one end from the hook, and fiistened it by a bit of twine instead. Short- ly after a man came in for two quarts of molasses. It was put up in his pail, and a paper tied over the top as he had forgotten to bring a cover. When he passt 1 out ho saw the hammock. His curiosity waa aroused at once. The grocers were busy in- i 24 THE DANBURY BOOM. 'M il I! aide, so he thought he would investigate on his own hook. With that keen intuition peculiar to a New England man, he Si\w at a glance that it was soujething to get into. He knew it wos nothing to wear, and was equally sure it could not be arranged for cooking. He sat down in it. Tlien he swung backward anys, — " Composition, granny ! That stuff may be all well enough for a little cold, but for such a one as you've got, you need something entirely different. What you want is a good square dose of Santa Cruz runi and molasses. If that don't fix you, nothiivg will." Mr. Womsley takes a good 8(iuare dose, and fortunately goes to l>ed on it. Other- wise there might have been trouble. He awakes the next morning so hoarse he can scarcely speak. The next day the remedies increase, B's remedies have done renuirkable that he i>ersonally knows of. Mr. C's from an old Indian who gave it to one of hij ancestors, and it had been handed down di- rect, without being tan\j)erod with. Mr. D's cured his aunt of consumption after a number of doctors had given her up. Mr. pj's is something entirely new. He has bertu dosed to death himself by all kinds ef stull, and had lost all faith, and wa.su't going to try this, but was prt vailed upon to do it, and now he wouldn't be without it for the world, etc. 'J'hus Mr. Womsley is bombarded on the third day of his cold. Is it any wonder that he becomes sensitive on the sulijeot ? That his illness assumes a new phase of horror ? That he shrinks from every medicine man and woman in the comnuniity? And that he uses all means in his power to smother the cough from the hearing of everyone ? These are not wonders, but it would be a very great wonefore it comes. We awaki' on tliat day full of excitiilile expectations. \Vi> wouldn't miss the procession for the price of an universe. We see beauty in the sawdust of tlie ring, '^e tind glory in the dash of the performance. We are intoxicated with the lights, and the tinsel, and the sounds that come from every side. Isn't tliis so with you ? Don't deny it. He honest, and confess you you were just as delirious as tlie rest of us. Von may have been calm enongli tlie night bef')re. We don't s;vy you wire not. Vou laughed at the fools who talk of a circus. You lost patience with their zeal. You* de- plored the loss of time and money. But the next morning I Didn'* you know it wiis a circus Jiiorning before you heard a sound ? Didn't your blood move more rapidly ? Didn't you feel a sense of restless- ness creeping over you ? Of course you did. There was circus in the air. The very at- moKi)here was full of its electricity, and you felt it, and passed under its spell, and could not light it l;un m.ay be the funiisliing of a house, if it is provided with flowers it is an attraetive spot. Flowers refine liim wlio cu tivutes them. They cost but little, yet how niu-h tliey improve and beautify a place. And when they come in the springtime, after the frosts and siiows^ ho Ai wi gi' is ah tro IS th THE DANBURY BOOM. how they revive and delighi; the beholder. And to have them in the house through the winter, their bright colours and growing green in such coutraot to the bleak outdoors, is a well-spring of joy. And yet there is something very sadden- ing alxKit flowers. They deck the bride and smile amid the festivities of life, but they also cover the dead. Then they have to be gc»t in the fall. Women are more attached to flowers than are men. To them the blos- soms speak in a language we cannot com- prehend. Between flower^ and woman there is a mysterious sympathy. There is some- thing very beautiful in this. To a woman a flower is symbolic of purity, teiulerueas, de- licacy. To a man a flower is suggestive of papers, sheets, overcoats, and even bits of carpet. Men would love flowers more, would better appreciate their deligiitful les- sons, if they did not liave to get out at night and cover tiiem up. It is a nielanclioly per- formance, covering up flowers to keep them from tiie frost. One has to take ofl" his slip- pers and put on his boots to do it. He has to give up interesting reading to attend to it. Then it is very dark outdoors, and he steps into unlooked-for holes, and walks plump against unexpected objects. It is an opera- tion that sorely tries liis temper, because of the delays ; tlie diflerences of opinion in regard to the plants which should be cover- ed and tiie size of the article to be used in covering ; the losing of pins, and the uncer- tainty of the extent of the work. No man knows, when he connnences the tiisk, the amount that is to be done, and it is this in- decision and delay and changing about while tlie keen air cuts into his unprotected frame, tiiat is worjt of all. Sometiuies he will get into tlie house f(nir or Hvc times under the i)U[iression that the work is done, only to be called out ..gain to attend to a new planet, and to he reproaclied for his liaste to shirk duty. Tlie seeds of long, and many times fatal, illness are sown on these occasions ; for a man generally miscalculates the time re([r.ired to cover a lot ot plants, an(i in the vexitiou that is upon him, inirnes out doors in his shirt sleeves, and perhaps bare- headed. This is caused lioth l)y desperation ami to make the work brief l>y creating the iuipression that he expects to l)e so. If he went out conifortivbly bundletl up, his wite woidd take that as an earnest invitation to keep him bobbing around in the dark and frosty air half the night, and would do it, without doui)t. A man cannot be too circum- spect on sucn an occasion. There are many irritating variances of opinion in the matter of covering up flowers. There are plants of such a hardy nature as to need no covering during the first frosts of the season, but it pains us to say that a wo- man is not aware of it. Then a man and his wife diff"er as to the strength of the frost. He knows that if there is to be a frost at all, and its coming is very doubtful, it will be so light as to do no harm whatever. But she, on the contrary, declares i hat it will be so heavy as to kill every plant and seriously menace the fruit-trees. Her obstinacy causes much unhappiness. Pretty soon the time comes for carrying in the plants. Tlie operation is called carry- ing them in, but lugging is a much more per- tinent term. Night is the popular time for doing it, because in the dark, and with his hands full of foliage, the man who does the lugging knows no more where he is going than if he were blindfobled in a strange cemetery, and is far more likely to crack his shins than to save them. After a man has chilled his vitals in cover- ing up plants, and strained his spine in lug- ging tliem into the house, it is very cheering to hear his wife declare that slie is sick at heart of all the mu.ss, and it is the last time she will ever bother with the plaguy things. And he will hear it. It is just as certain as death. THE POPULAR WAY OF BEGINNING THE YEAR. There is no day waited for with so much impatience as the 1st of January. The saint of New Year's day is a Russian. His name is SchwearofF. It is a day when most men throw apiiie their bad habits, sponge off" the record of the past, and i)egin anew with clean page. As a people we ai'e not so particular how we end, if the beginning is onl) right. It is universally conceded tliat there is nO' use in trying to turn a new leaf at any other time than on the first ilay of the year. Otluu* days have been tried, and after a fair and impartial trial have been found wanting. There is an indescribable something in them that prevents them from taking hold, and so, one Vjy one, they iia\e been dro))ped in favour of the tirst day of January. Tiiis is the daj that takes holtl abo\e all other daj'S. It is chiefly esteemed for its grip. So -jverybody waits for the first day of .January to put his best foot forwartl. And for one day in the year the world is ahnost perfect. The man mIio smokes waits for that day to abjure smoking forever. He might take the vow on some other day, but he is in earn- est aud must wait till then, or he wouhl not be able to " hold out."' He realizes the pow- er the habit has hail over him, and how seri- 28 THE DANBURY BOOM. #1 1 1 «fP ously it is hurting him, and is determined to shake it off. He waits impatiently for the first day of the new year, and smokes to calm his impatience. The man who chews waits for that day. Chewing is a vile habit, and should be aban- doned. Nobody understands this more clear- ly than he. The 1st of January will fix it. He will break off then as clean as a whistle. It is such a nasty, dirty habit that it should be broken ofl for good ; so he keeps on in the filtl; until the New-Year day, that he may have all tlie ailvantage of that occasion. Tlie man who drinks waits for it. Liquor is hurting him. He feels it every day. It is not only injuring him physically, but men- tally also ; and it hurts liis business, and makes his folks unhappy. Besides, drinking is setting a very bad example} for those about him. He must give it up. It is wrong to indulge the habit. He is very anxious for the 1st of .Tanuary to come, so he can stop the wrong. The night of the 31st of December is a great event in the lives of these men. They wait impatiently until twelve o'clock. It wouhln't do to stop smoking, chewing, or drinking a minute before that hour. At twelve o'clock the last cigar is put out, the last chew tlirown away, the last drink is swallowed. Wliat an inspiring spectacle is this ! How solemn I How sublime I How majestic is the strength of man, whenhiswill is arfxn^ed I What a granileur there is in tliis sacriHee of self upon ti\e altar of duty ! It is said that tlie good once understood will always be followed ; and it is so. Tliese men once having tasted the joys of release from a vicious habit will never again lose the opportunity for swearing otf. They will swear off on the first day of every year, jus long as they live. The first day of January is conspicuous in another May. It is the day when diaries are commenced. You rarely hear of any one commencing a diary at any other time of the year. Such a one would not be orthodox, and it would not, probably, be kept two weeks. Most people begin to keep a daily record of events oii the first day of the year, and so diuiies are to be found in nearly all households. They are excellent things to have. They are good in after years to paste poetry and recipes in. The trouble with diaries is that they aro too large, altogether too large. Manufactur- ers try to crowd too much in them. They persist in putting in all of the months. The model diary that is yet in the far future will never go beyond the month of January. And many of them will be kept faithfully. A COUNTRY VILLAGE ON THE FOURTH OF JULY. There are two conspicuous features which go to distinguish the glorious anniversary of our national indej^endence from any other holiday, and these are the presence of noise and the absence of cats. The ueise com- mences when the boys wake up. The cats commence when taey wake up. We don't know where the cats go. We only know they go. Sometimes we have thought they may dissolve in the air, and ascend into space until the racket is over. But this is merely a speculation. Dogs are unlike cats. Dogs are more like women ; trusting, con- titling, and hoping for the best. So dogs stay around to see what's going on. Quite fre- quently they find out. The Fourth of July was not made for the boys, but they have got hold of it. It is a boy's day as completely and thoroughly as if they had iHien measured for it. No man thinks of the day in its true significance. If he ponders on and speaks of the heroism, the devotion, the glory of the men of '76, he is a drinking man, and will be as drunk as a fiildler within an hour, if not already there. No man cares aught for the day, unless he keeps a sahwii or makes ice-cream or sells fire-works. If he dtxjsn't go on a picnic, he stays home and hoes liis garden. It is tlie buy who meets and escorts in the d.ay. who waits upon it while it stays, and sees it oil' at the last. As lon^ as there are Ixiys there will be a glorious aiini\ersary of our national independence. When they play on*" it will play out. There is nothing a man foigets so easily and complet^ely as that lie was once a boy. The man who is awaked out of a sound sleep at dawn of the Fourth, and swears at the noise, who is startled by an unexpected cracker, or deafened by au unexpected cannon, and calls the whole thing a piece of condemned fooUshness that ought to Ije swept from the face of the earth, was once a boy himself, and the noisiest, the earliest, the latest, and the most infernal of all the boys in his gang. But you wouldn't think so, to hear him fume and fretand scold now. It would l>e amusing if it were not so pain- ful to hear parents advise the boys to go to bed early, on the night of the third, so to get rested by a good sleep. Sleep! What an insane idea! Sleep on the night of the third ! Are jvirents mad ? Does a man want to trade off a leg of Hesh for one of wood ? Does a ccKikroach a-tk for a paper of carpet-tacks ? Does an oyster yearn for a porous plaster? Then why should a boy want sleep ou the night before the F. r' in h( it or as th e THE DANBURY BOOM. 28 Fourth? What he wants is powder to ex- plode, windows to rattle, and an aged Imly in the neighbourhood to faint dead away. If he should want anything else lie will mention it. If you would have him perfectly happy on this day of all days ask him not to sleep, ask hun not to wash himself. There are two seasons of the day when, hy their livid contrast to each other, they form epochs. One of these is at 10 a. m., the other is at 8 p. m. Daiibury at 10 a. m. presented a remark- ably lively appearance. Many of tlie stores were closed, but this was not noticeable in the life and animation everywliere about. The main street was full of people. Teams were running to and fro. Boys were busy comparing notes, laying in further supplies, and tiring otf those already on hand. Folks after cream and lemons, women in white, men with baskets on picnics bent, were hur- rying here and there, and the scene thuy made was a lively one indeed. At 3 p. m. a radical change had swept over tlie village. Both nature and human- ity were exhausted, and Danbury lay pulse- less in the glare of tlie sun. The main- stroet was comparatively deserted ; the pri- vate streets were entirely so. Ht-re and there an irrepressible boy let off a cracker or a little cannon, but the-ie sounds, by their rarity and brevity, only made tlie silence the more oppressive. A wandering man, appear- ing as if he had just been shoved out of a graveyard, was to be seen moving aimlessly about. Tlie stone flags and gutters were full of debris of the burnt crackere, fruit leav- ings, peanut shells, and cigar stumps. The sun poured stiaight down in a blinding glare of heat upon blistering stones, gray dust of roads, and yellow gravel of walks. The- town was like a man who had been kicking up old Ned to his heart's content, and had now laid down, and didn't want any- body to touch him. MR. COBLE lUHS DESCENT. Mrs. Cobleigh had been scrubbing the oil- clotli under the kitchen stove. Mr. Cobleigh stood by the stove putting on a clean shirt. At tliis juncture, at the most painful juncture ))(i.ssil)le, — as Mr. Cobleigli had his head en- tirely obscured in the garment, — a neigh- bouring woman came upon the back stoop and knocked at the door. It was quite a start to Mr. Cobleigh. He pulled away at the robe to relievo his eyes, and at the same time made a plunge for escape. It was a violent plunge. He put all the strength of hi.s~ physical resources into this leap. He didn't strike against the stove or plunge over a chair. He simply landed with the flying foot upon the piece of soap with which Mrs. Cobleigh had been cleaning the cloth. For a single instant Mr. Cobleigh 'a body paused, an instant of terrific suspense, and then the so.ip started off, and Mr. Cobleigh came down upon the floor with a shock that knocked down the neighbouring woman from the stoop and caused Mrs. Cobleigh to sink unconsci- ous where she stood, — a shock that made every plate upon the pantry shelf dance and jingle, ami set the knives and forks within their resting-place to leaping over each other, — a shock that caused the lieavy kitchen table to rear up on one leg as if in the deliri- um of a drunk, and made two vases sharing a mantel on the upper floor to nod t'.iveaten- ingly at each other across the space tliat di- vided them. It was a terrific fall. Every timber in the building felt it, and shivered as it came. Even the foundation-stinies moved, and the tremour passed from them to adjoining shrubs, and set thei.' tops to shaking as if a wind were passing over tiiem, wliile the sash within the windows shook and rattled to such a degree as to threaten tlieir completo dislodgment. It seemed as if every flying bird and whispering wind and nodding leaf knew tliat Mr. Cobleigh had fallen, and was appalled thv;reby. In the mean time the neighbouring woman recovered herself and sallied home straight- way. Mr. Cobleigh clawed his way out of the folds of the shirt and limped otf to bed ; and Mrs. Cobleigh, coming back to consci- ousness, immediately proceeded to hunt up the soap. AN EXTRAORDINARY AFFAIR. It certainly was a most extraordinary af- fair, and the parties interested will remem- ber it as long as they live. The young lady was shopping in the evening. On her way home she was overtaken by a young man, an ac(iuaintance, who asked the pleasure of es- corting her home. The offer was accepted, and the two proceeded, he carrying her bundles, and making liimself generally agree- able, as is the ciwjtom in .such cases. Arriv- ing at her home, she took him direct into the sitting-room, as the parlour stove was not yet up. The father and mother were sitting there, enjoying, evidently, the genial warmth of the fire. On the entrance the young man noticed that the mother blushed deeply, and at the same time her husband laughed outright. It was a most boisterous laugh, without evident premeditation, and appeared to owe its origin to no assignable 'V 30 THE DANBURY BOOM. f m .'■1 ii in 'I 5 ;.| cause. The laughter gave no explanation after the explosion, but continued to look very much amused, while the colour iu hia wife s face deepened. To the young man this was a mosi embarrassing reception. Nat- urally enough he felt that it was something in his appearance that excited the mirth of the one and caused the blushes of the other. Involuntarily he took a hasty survey of hia appearance as far as the circumstances would allow, but could perceive nothing therein aid)ury, a citiz'.n, whose wife s'arted for New ^'o»•k that morning by the Injat, took the first tiaiii for Norwalk. He Mas very much excited, am! full of the direst ap))rehension. 'I'he picture of the nuitilat<.(l and lifeless body of his wife wii.s burned upon his heart and brain. They had never, at the best, been a very loving couple, but they were eminently res])ectable. In fact, so respectable, that neither had setn lit to give up to tlie otiier excejit in cjises where it was al)solutely necessary. Tie had pursued his way, and she had gone hers, each tindiiig ]ileasure in characteristic channels. But now, with the presence of her death upon him, the old tenderness with which he had won her, came back to him, and during the long and dreary riilc to the seaside his thoughts were busy with the past. He could recall with painful distinctness every help he had refused her, every cross word he had given her, every coldness he had shown lier. All the little acts governed !)y petty selfish- ness, of which he liad been guilty, and which had passed ivom is iiiemory in the doing, now rose up before ) im, as deeds of mon- strosity in whoi« presence his heart shrank tremblingly aw:. , . His mind was torn by these agonising reflections. Tie cursed the day he had ever l)een to her aught 1 ut a keenly sympathizing husband. Her own faults were lost sight of in the horror of lier tragic fate, and he could only see his own oilending. And so the mo- ments dragged along, each one taking him nearer to the dread possibility and each one increasing the anguish of his heart. At last the train reached Norwalk. He hurried out on his wretclied search, asking here and there for intelligence of her, his white lips aiA trembling frame testifying most eloquf-ntly to his anxiety. At last his search was rewarded, and he found her, : not dead and mutilated, but alive and unharmed. It was a happy meeting — not demonstra- tive, because both were solely out of practice in that, but he was relieved of a terrible weight on finding her as he did. " So you are all right ? " he said. " Yes," she answered, " I ain't hurt a bit, but I was terribly frightened. " " You must have been— horribly so. It was a terribly narrow escape. Where's your satchel ?" "I don't know. » think , must have blown overboard." " Didn't you have it with yon ?" •' No, I left it on a bench, and had gone to THE DAYBURY BOOM. 3.T the front of the boat to look out on tlie watL'?' when the e\]'.h»Mion came," " Tliat was iheadfully carehiaa. I don't Bee wliat you couUl have been thinking of to have gone off aud left your satchel like that. " " Why, I never h.ad a thought tlie boat was going to V)1()W up, inuer, wlio is new in town, learning the jewellery business. No. 1 was forgotten as easily, apparently, as if he h.ad been an old debt. It was the iriglit of the lifth taat t'.iis cli.-.ige in feeling dawned upon him. He had pur- chased a astraiiu'd tone, and reaching out to the handle of tiie parlour door. " You won't take tlieni ?" He was very wlxite, and his voice trembled with suppres- sed passion. " No." "Thou I'll g& home and cat every gol- darned one of 'em before I touch my bed, if they kill me deader than (ioliar. " And with this ferocious threat he bounced out of the house. Whether he did as he promised is not known, but as he was around on the street the next day, it is more than likely that wiser thougiits prevailed. That afternoon he staited for her house, to see if the dreadful thing was true that tiiat jeweller, whom he designated by tlie preri.x of " poledegs, " hal really supplanted him. Aa he nearei' the house he saw, with anger, that the jew( Iler was there, playing croquet •with Julia. Tlie sight maddened him. For a nioiniMit he looked at them with .clinched hands, then he hurried away with a gleam in his eye that denoted a storm. In a quarter of an hour he was again apjiroach- ing the place. He had both hands in the pockets of his sack, as if he was holding on to something valuable. The dapper young jeweller was still engaged in the game with the fair young Julia, and their laughing remarks grated distastefully upon his ear. He marched straight into the yard. Julia looked up and saw him, ami a frown covered her face. He saw it, and understood its import at once. His own face grew black with wrath. He turned to her. " Julia, have you given me up for this cuss ?" he savagely inquired. "What do you mean by such language as that ?" she angrily demanded. While the party thus indelicately indicated stared at the new-comer as if he very much doubted his own existence. "Just what I say," resorted the discard- ed one. " Well, the nuieker you leave this yard the better you'll please me, "was the spiteful rejoinder fiom tiie fair one. "Then it's true, it's true, " ho howled in a voice of anguish. " She has left me for old pole legs. Oh !" This with a nuddcn rt!versal of tone, as the name brougiit up a reali/ation of the hated presence. " \'ou are the one that's done it, are you ?" Turn- ing in a rage upon his rival. " You are the scoundrel that left mo to buy her things for a whole month, to get her sweetened up for yon, and then you come in an' take her yourself. Where were you on the Fourth ?" he screamed with biting sarcasm. "Why didn't you show yourself when there was money to spend, an' things to show her that cost cash down. Where were you when the ice-cream an' cake was around ? Oh, you old gimlet eye !" he added, suddenly remov- ing one hand from the rtfcesses of a pocket and hurling a raw egg full in the face of his rival, which, breaking in the contact, com- pletely tra* sformed the entire expressicm of the jeweller. "Where were you? Isay, " he yelled, dancing around and drawing forth another egg. At the advent of this awful article. Miss Julia scampered into tiie hou-se, and the ali'righted and almost blinded rival struck out wildly for escape ; but the foe was after hiin, and not ten feet had l)een cleared when the second egg caught him be- tween the shoulders, and sprinkled its glow- ing colour over his back, 'riie unfortunate man ran with all his nii^iit seeking for escape, but batlled in the search. He flew over the vegetables, and darted around the trees, but the avenger kept close to him, plastering him v/ith omelets, and plying hiin with questions like this : — " Where were you on the Fourth ?" Kgg- "Where were you when there was money to be spent ?" Kgg- " Kept away, did you till the Fourth waa over, the costliest day in the year ?" Egg- " Knew cream was up that day, did you ?" Egg. And the eggs flew with all the vengeancfi an unrequited a'.lection coukl imjjart ro them. And the unhappy Julia, standing in a trance of horror at the window, saw her favoured one pelted in the back, in the side, on the head, and against the leg ; saw him tear through the shrubbery like a winged omelet ; saw he golden liquid stream from his hair, his ci.in, his coat-tails, and his tin- uv th; till tlu sev ceil voi THE DANBURY BOOM. ger-tips ; saw him fllied 8craiiil)ledued light of sympathy utill remainu. TWO SCKNKS. An OuiiInakv SrKNK. — A chill strikes him as soon as lie enttMH the yard. There are two len;;ths of stove-pipe and a nill of oil-iloth on the side stooj). Jle takes hold of the door to open it, w hen lie tinds it resists his act, and peering through the sash, he sees there is a pile of carpet against it. Hy steady push iig he moves the mass Bulliciently to iierniit of his squeeaii g his body through, 'lie noise brings his w ite to the s<;ene. She appears in a sends up a elond of steam, ami watches his wif(f as siie slice* his bread an your t"«lc!vl have ill it mine. iig the wife clean - I hotiHu to-i>>U to tea now, ami I've come after you to allow you a light in the gluuni, au it were. " " Hut are you sane enough to heIU;vo that a houue can he cleanetl in a day, and at night the aupper not 1h) served in the sink ?" "Certaiidy." " Ami that there will not even be a bare, wet floor ?" " Cerfaiuli/." •' Nor even a teacup half full of tacka on the piano ?" "Ckrtaini.y." Hardly knowing what wo were doin^, we got oil our coat and hat, and mechanically accompanied Mr. Reynolds home. On reaching there lie opened the door without hesitation. The hat-rack was in its place. We hung our coats and hats upon it, and passed in*o the dining-room. The table Wiis ready, and Mrs. Reynolds, in a l>lue dress, with a white bibbed apron, was there, smiling most sweetly. " Come and see my house," she said. We passed into the sitting-room, then into the parlour, and took a look into the bed- room. K very thing was in shape. Carpets down, pictures and curtains up, and every article of ornament in pcwition. Except for the bright walls glistening paint and clean windows, one would have thought no dis- arranging hand had ever lieen there. We were taken into the kitclien, and shown the china closet. Everything was clean and bright, and in its proper place. The roomson the upjier floor were, she assured us, com- pletely rejuvenated, and in shape. At the tal)le she explaineil it all, while she served the tea. She said, — " I engaged four women and one man. I knew that witli this lielp properly managed ^ could get tIiroui,'li the work in one day, and I thongiit it would be nuicli better to hire extra help, and do it all in one day, tliaii with less help to liave it .spread over three or four days. At 7: .SO this morning we were ready to commeiu'e. Tlie carpets on this floor were all taken up, and tlie man took tlieni out in the yard to l)(.at. The fuiuiture and ornaments were piled in this room. At 8: .SO tliat was done. At 11 o'clock tlie win- dows, walls, and floors were washed. The wonitn then .wont upstairs and diil the same with the bedrooms, getting done at 2 o'clock, with an Ik ur for dinner. From that time till three o'clock the dishes were tiiken down and tile shelves and the dishes cleaned. At 3: 30 the kitchen floor anil windows were taken care of. At 5 o'clock the carpets on this floor were nut down, the pictures and curtains up, and the furniture arranged hy the women. The man, at the same time, was to work up stairs. They then went up there to help him, and at a «iuarter to six 1 paid the Hve peoi)le two dollars, each, and discharged them. An 'i " fti li- . ; * fl f I I, :i the chill of its shadow upon it. It was an iniperceptihki cloiul to many, but to otliers it was as plain as tlie day itself, — ay, plainer, Vfccause it ohscined tne day. Tliere had been showers of rain through the night. The falling drops purified the close air, and moistened the parched earth. When the sun arose its rays were reflected in millions of tiny water-drops, clustering in diamonds upon every twig of tree and blade of grass. What a grand day it was ! How intense the pleasure which tilled every heart to ovcrtlowing 1 All through the day the sun shone, the bints saiig, tlie buds chrobbed and blossoms laughecrthemselves into glorious life. But the shadow came and grew, and scattered its l)itterness over all. Windows came out, carpet'^ up, and stoves down. Soap and water saturated all indoors while the di.st from scores of carpets wooded over all outdoors. Man went out among the buds and blos- soms and liirds. Of course tlie weather changed in the night. It always does. There was no sun the next morning. There was no glad song of birds, no laughing blossoms, no lamljent air. A chill rested upon everything out- doors. Indoors tliere were no carpets, no stoves, no order, but plenty of dampness and chill. There are times when cleanliness is next to ungodliness, — so next, in fact, as to l)e distinguished with the greatest ditHculty, if one care to distinguish it at all. There was a great deal of ungodliness in Daub -y on Thursday, May, 1, 1879. It of the village. ever^ quarter tlie marrow, walking ov6r permeated Men, cliilled to bare floors which gave back dismal echoes, finding notliing where it belonged, forcing down half-prepared victuals, saturated with the odour of soap, were in a humour that was dangerous to ihemselv.es and most un- conifortalile to those al)Out them. There were colds taken on that day that will weaken and annoy for months. There were seeds of disease sown that will never be rooted out. Tempers were soured, heart- burnings born, and evils begun whose in- fluence will reach to the grave. There is nothing funny about this. There is nothing excusaule in it. House-cleaning can never, of course, be made a delight, un- less it is to a woman ; but there is no need of making it a curse. There is no more sense in cleaning a house in the spring tlian there is iu cleaning a shad in a golden chariot. A WEAK STRANGER. He was a rather peacefully inclined appear- ing party, standingin frontof Danlmry'a l)est hotel, with his hands cro.ssed in front of iiim, and looking benignantly upon the sleighing parties. The otiier party in tjiis drama was a much differently appearing man. He Avore rul)ber boots, whose tremendous legs went up his own nearly to the tliigh. His hair was cropped very short to liis head, and he wore a slouched hat very much to one side, which gave liim.aganu'y appearance. He was drawing a cutter along on the walk, and he was going at a pretty good rate, and hal- looing defiantly and offensively for every- body to "clear the track." It was a spirit of mischief of the worst kind that prompted him to buck up against the peaceful n: in and rudely disturb his pleasant contemplation. "You should not be so rude, my friend," expostulated the stianger, mildly. It was a gentle remonstrance, so jjentle that it stirred up every liit of the ferficious courage in the carcase of the gamey individ- ual. "Oh, I'm rude, ami?" he sarcastically uttered in a piping voice, assumed for the occasion. " I'm rude to the delicate child. Ha, lia, ha ! ho, ho, ho ! Where's your ma, old Beeswax ?" The peaceful man turned his back uix)n him. " What er you doing that for, you old rip ? Don't you know any y)etter than to turn your back on a gentleman ? Who be ye, anyhow ?" The speaker dropped the thills of the cut- ter, and stepped around to the front of tlio rpiiet party. It was evident he meant mis- chief. He winked to the loungers who were eagerly and expectantly looking on, and if ever a w-ink said, " Now just keep your eyes open if you want to see me dross him," that wink thus gave utterance. The peacjeful man gave no reply to the rude query. " What's the m".tfcer with you ? Is your tongue locked, or don't you know enough to talk when you are spoken to ?" " Y'ou had better go along and attend to your own business," said tiie other. " I had, had I ? AVell, I want you to un- derstaiid,you old rip, that this is iny business at present, and I'm going to attend to it at once." And thus saying, he reached out to take hold of the other's collar. WlnJ, his object was in thus doing is not knowu, and perliaps never will be, for at the same instant the right arm of the quiet man fiwung sudd(>nly and swiftly from his body, and the gamey THE DANBURY BOOM. 30 the take hjeot rhaps t tlio only ;aiiiey indiviflnal left the walk, and flew in a heap into the road, where he arrived in a sitting- posture, and with an expression of appalling uncertainty covering his face. The peaceful mi'-a steppeil to hia help, and said, in a tone of commiseration,— " I am truly sorry I should have been so hasty. I ought not to be so weak. " "Weak!" gasped tlie gamey man with great indignation, rulibing hims<,'lf as if in doubt as to what portion of his anatomy needed attention first, — '• weak ! It ain't enough, is it, to fetch a man such an on- christian lick, without lyin' about it? " A SNOW PICTURE. Falling snow greeted Danbury as it awoke and came out after the milk Friday morning. It was quiet, unobtrusive snow, and it sank softly into the swarthy arms of the villag ' mud. The air was full of the white flakes, as if an army of foxes were cliasing a host of geese across the heavens. All day long the geuth fall continued. It was steady snow that saniv down just where it fell, and moved not, an afleetionate snow that wrapped its em! irace about every twig and branch, and clung thei*e. In the gray of the declining afternoon the massive elms of Main Street formed an arch of silver, and agii.in.st the background of the sky made a tracery so delicate in its lines, and ex({uisite in its lovelmess, as to hold every mind with wonder. And then when the street lamps were lighted the silver became precious stones, and a jewelled dome spanned the street. Through the greater part of the night the silent work went on, and when the dawn came every branch and twig, every post and rail, every line and wire, was clothed with spotless purity. Then the sun came and transformed the silver into gold, and the gold fell away, and dropped silently into the necks of the won- dering people, and the people ceased to won- der and began to swear. And the battle of the sun and the snow went on, and the life-blood of the snow ran tlirougli the streets, and men who had no rubbers swore also. And the streets threw off their white robes, and returned to their wallow again. A CALENDARED APRIL. This is April, 1880. Three calendars in sight unite their autliority in proclaiming the fact. We are grateful to calendars for the information, and on the strength of it we go out into the country and listen to the birds, and watch the growing life and smell the grateful odours of wood and earth. Wliat a delicious listlesaness pervades h«- •nanity ! Nature alone • struggling, and yet its labour is a gentle unfoliling and deve- loping rather than a strugtrle. How balmy tlie air ! How graceful tlie cloud specks I How refreshing the showers ! How bliss- fully peaceful are all things ! We need not to be told that the earth is awaking fr(jm its lonu slumber, and lazily coming out into life, that the birds and blossoms and zephyrs are here. We do not need to be tolil this, for we can see it on the calendars, the bright, handsome cnlendars,. with tlieir showy lines and gallant figures. l'e((]ile are appearing on the streets as the birds are tilling the fields. They do not walk ; they lounge. Tlicy do not look ; ti;ey gl ince. They are as listless as the sun- light that falls indolently upon and about them. They might I j so many motes float- ing ill it. The store-doors stand invitingly open un- der the av/iiings, revealing tool shadows and (jniet recesses. The goods loll on the shelves, the Ijarrels lean against the walls. The passer-by must needs step in, — not sa miicli to t!'a:le, as to get into the atmospliere where the storekeeper and his clerks look so cool and comfortable. School-chil Iren trundle their hoops alojig the Wiilk, and ripple tlie ambient air witb their blessed laughter. Those who love tlie memory of AVasliiiigton can entertain no better hope of him than that he was in all his life as happy as the school-children in thif-i dear, delightful April sunshine. Here comes tlie oldest inhabitant. April has come with healing on its Mings to him. There is a quiet, peaceful light in the eyea half closed, because of the brightness in the al' about him. He walks slowly, as if he ■ /ere absorlung the precious warmth, and his cane falls in gentle pats upon the pave- ment. A breeze springs softly up from out the west, laden with tlie delicate perfume of opening Inid and rpring grass, and delightful with tlie moisture of shaded glens. It toys {!;eiitly wich the children's iiair, and coquets, as it passes, with the fringe of tlie awnings, and turns round the pendant tiers of chip hats, as if it were about to select one for its own giddy head ; but in a flash it is off agai 1, and up in the trees, as can be seea by the tremour among the budding twigs. Wiieiever it goes it is followed by the blessing of him who has bared \va brow to its cooling touch, and felt the gvateful thrill along every nerve. All tlie beauty and glory of these Apiil. f ■I 40 THE DAXBURY BOOM. (if m ^H %i ■I f| days, shilling upon us through their tears, would not he known to us were it not for the calendars. From the walls of every office in the laiid they mutely point to April's presence and tiie beautiful treasures in blossom at her feet. Otherwise we would think it was the middle of March. THE DANBURY (ESOPHAGUS DEATH-STRUGGLE. IN A One of the most exciting contests on re- cord occurred in the Danliury and Norwalk Railway shops last Thursday. It was a fight against time, and was productive of intense interest. The day before, the wager was made that one of theemplo^'ees could not eat ten soda-(!racker8 in ten minutes. He im- mediately closed in with the proposition. The amount involved in this trial of the o;so- pha^us was one dollar's worth of cigars. The time selected was Thursday noon, The contestant loaded his dinner-pail the next morning with ten soda-crackers, to the great astonishment of his wife, who had prepared the usual dinner, and was sur^ ten crackers would atford him no nourishment. He made no explanation, however, of his purpose. He wanted to astonish and delight her with the result when he got home. Just before the noon hour he exan)ined the crackers, and finding they were rather moist, he put them near the tire to dry them tho- roughly so as to reduce their size. At the time called he was ready. A watch was brought forth and the moment marked. There was a breatiiless silence among the observers' who crowded about him. He sat down on a chair, with the pail held between his legs, and one of the crackers in his hand. " Ready !" was called. The first cracker passed between his teeth, was hastily chewed and swallowed, and the second followed on its heels. His jaws mov- ed rapidly. Closing with the secund l)egan the third cracker. The interest increased. The third cracker seemed to contain more than its predecessor, and the jaws moved with less regularity, although with none the less zeal. But it went down, at just two minutes and thirty seconds. He was now a half-minute alieail, and passed in the fourth cracker with a face full of hope. It dropped to its place at precisely four minutes, and tiic lead of the fifth was close behind it. The intere.st w.is now intense. Tlie fifth cracker seciued to fill his entire mouth. His jaws moved up and down labouriously. His eyes commenced to increase in size, and the veins on the sides of his face stood out pro- minently. At five minutes the cracker was not yet down. Several times it started and fell bac <. Even with the additional force of the coming sixtli it moved with great difficulty. At six and a quarter minutes its rearcolumn, })lended with the advance of No. 6, disap- peared. No. 6 cracker seemed to be four times as large as any that went l>efore. It filled hia mouth to such a degree as to extend his cheeks until they seemed ready to burst, while every motion of his jaws gave his face an appearance oi Jloundcriny that was dread- ful to contemplate. He .stood upon his feet. He got up on his toes, and settled down upon his haunches. He reached after the back enil of that cracker as a dying man reaches out for life. Seven minutes ! His jaws moved with the greatest difficul- ty. No longer did they go up and down, but from side to side, and a sort of moaning sound came therefrom. His eyes seemed to be leaving their rackets. Seven and f^ lu.lf minutes ! In desperation he clutched the seventh cracker and jammed it into the mass already there. The effect was frightful. His mouth was already spread apart nearly unto hia ears. The last charge appeared to be endeav- ouring to lift the top of his head. Eight minutes ! The crowd were breathless with interest. The contestant was making herculean efforts to free his mouth. His throat worked con- vulsively. His distended eyes glared at vacancy, while his opened mouth and now almost powerless jaws revealed u mass of broken pastry, rolling and tumbling therein like the heaving of miglity waters. Nine minutes ! There was no partict',' 'ange in the struggle, only that the i^-. • i,s almost mo- tionless. in another minute time was called. By a violent effort the contestant freed his mouth in the air and sank exhausted upon hischair, while his face began slowly to relax, and the various features to fall back into tiieir place. Ami thus closed one of the most excitini' and instructive contests on record in the history of our beautiful village. A SUCCESSFUC DEVICE. The following novel way of getting rid of a book canvasser is valuable to know. Be- sides this, there is a pleasant feeling in see- ing aphot<)gra))her annoyed, even if it is of a revengeful cast. The subject is a Danbury photographer. The canvasser is a woman. The work ia THE DANBURY BOOM. 41 valuable, us a matter of course. She said she came to sell him a copy. He tohl her he didn't want to buy. She said the boulv was ju.st adapted to him in his business, and ho would gain its value a hundred times over. He told her that he had no time to re, id it Slie suggested that he buy it for his wife. It was just the work for a woman. A woman would be benefited by it to a degree beyond computation. He answered that his wife had more books now than she could read. She asked him if he had a son. He said yes. She told him that if this book was chiefly noted for one thing above ant)ther, it was in shaping and inspiring the mind of a young man. Several customers had now arrived, and the artist was plainly showing marks of ex- haustion. " Madam," he said, ' '* what is the price ol your book ?" " One dollar and a half." '• You sell these books to make a living ?" "Yes, sir." " Well, madam, I don't want the book. I have no use for it, and I can spare no more time talking about the matter. All your ob- ject in selling the book, I suppose, is to get the percentage allowed you by the publisher*'" "Yes, sir." "Well, here," he said, handing her a bill, "is a dollar. Take your profit on the sale out of that, and let that end the matter. " " Thauk you," she said, rolling up the mo- ney and storing it in her pocket-book, " that is just the profit. " And she d-iparted with a very grateful expression on her face. AN EVEN EXCHANGE NO ROBBERY. Mrs. Goode and Mrs. Meller are next-door neighbours on a Danbury street, and tliere is a frequent interchange of calls between them ; but no evil results therefrom, because both are excellent women. Mrs. Goode called on Mrs. Meller the oth- er morning to speak to her about some empt- ings which acted as if tiiey were not going to rise properly. Mrs. Meller hastened back with Mrs, (jioodeto look at them. After the matter had been discussed with the gravity demanded l)y the importance of the subject, Mrs. (jiv)ode said, — " I)id you hear that story about the Ran- soms ?" " Yes ; it was awful, wasn't it? Who told you ?" "Mrs. Liebig." " She told me, too. I think that woman miglit l)e better engaged than in telling stories about people." Mrs. Meller spoke with some warmth. "I should say as much," returned Mrs. (roode. "If there is anything I despise it i» tiittling. I don't see anytliing Christiac ai)out it. I abominate it myself. If tliert Wiis more charity in this worlil it would be l>etter for all of us. " "I know it," added Mrs. Meller, "but people won't be charitable. They will talk and talk and talk. I don't suppose tl)at Mrs. Liebig is witliout a story about some- body a single day. She has got a fearful tongue, and she don't care who she wags it against. I think she had better look to home." "^If she'd have to give up her care of her neighbours, she'd have her hands full of her own. But that's tlie way with that class. There's Mrs. Hook, you know. Her tongue is always pitching into somebody, and it was only night before last that my man saw her John carried home dead drunk." " Why, Mrs. Goode ! you don't say so." "Indeed I do." "Carried home drunk!" repeated the shocked Mrs. Meller. " Yes, carried home drunk. And Goode says it's not an uncommon affair, either." "Well, I declare, if I ever tliought that. I always believed John was a model boy. I suppose he gets it from his father. " •'His father? Why! did her husband drink ?" " Drink ! Didn't you know that? But I forgot, he died before you came here. " "Well, I declajJip !" ejaculated Mrs. (ioode. " That's news to me." "Oh, y<>8, he was a drinker. He kept full of rum two thirds of the time. In fact, " here Mrs. Meller lowered her voice, "there's good reason to believe that he died in a drunken fit." " Heavens I" gasped the shocked listener, while her eyes sparkled. " Yes, Joe Hook died in a drunken fit if ever there was one. But don't speak of it, please. " " Oh, I sha'n't say anything about it. You know well enough that I ain't one of the tattling kind," promptly answered Mrs. Goode. " But who would have thought it. Well, well, well ! If I ain't completely stumped. I don't see how she can bear to sail around in the style she does with that awful memory on her. " •' Oh, she thinks people don't know it. And now, you say, lier boy is going the same way. Do you know, Mrs. Goode," Slid Mrs. Miller, impi'essively, " -t I be- Hcvl" tlu'se slanderers have a judgment flent upon them ?" i § 42 THE DANBURY BOOM. m i ;i " Believe it?" exclaimed Mrs. Gootle, vigor- ously, "I hiow it." CHARACTERISTICS OF FALLING. People fall difVereiitly as well as tliey walk ditferL'iitly, eat dKrerently.or think diHbreiit- ly. The particular characteristics of a nature will show out in an emergency as well as in tiic routine of life. Nearly everybody falls at tliis seas(«i of the year ;yet there are those who never fall at all, while there are others who fall frequently. Tiiis is, perhaps, to fn-eserve tiie equipose. Then tliere is tlie leavy faller, the light faller, the mad faller, the smiling faller, tlie mortified faller, the frightened faller. Some people will pass over what other men will slip and fall upon, just as in food one man's meat becomes an- other's poison. There was a bit of very smooth ice under a thin sprinkling of snow on the walk at the corner of Main and Munson Streets, Satur- day morning. Mr. Merrill's grocery is on this corner, and the place has facilities, when the sun shines brightly, for the standing of a number of the populace who admire sleigh- ing, bright faces, or anything not suggestive of steady, oppressive toil. This bit of ice, like a trem1)ling blossom hidden in the cleft of a rock, or a bright shell embedded in the Bands of a desolate coast, had its lesson to teach to humanity. And a deeply impres- sive lesson it was, too. There were a number of people who walk- ed over this bit of ice ^Othout knowing of its existence, just as there are numbers who trod upon fragrant woodland blossoms, or by exquisite scenes, or over finer feelings, without knowing at all of their existence. They were hurrying, careless people, with minds bent on the things of this world. Once in a while there would come along an appreciative party, one whose soul was alive to little things. The first of thesj was an elderly lady, of stocky form. Slie sat right down in a heap, and her lips formed Mito the shape of the letter O. She simply ejaculated, "0 myl this is dreadful." Tiie next was a man gifted in the way of legs. He was walking swiftly. The right foot touched this bite of ice. The right foot then shot off to that side, the left foot left its mooring and Hew around in the same di- rection. This completely reversed the posi- tion of the man, he coming down on iiis hands and knees, and looking up the other way of tlie street. He turned very scarlet in the face, but said nothing. He w'lo followed him was also a slim man. It was the beloved pastor of the Third right hand He simply Church. Th.e shock threw him forward at first, but he recovered himself in time to go down on his back at once. A pail full of molasses which he held in his added to the general interest, said, — '■ Mercy on us !" which evidently included the molasses. Tlie fourth person was a stocky -built party, muffled up to his nose, aTid trotting along lightly under the inspiration of agree- able thought. Both of his chubby feet gave away almost simultaneously, and in tlie ef- fort to save himself his feet smote the ice seven times in rapid succession, and then he went down on his side, very red in the face and very low and vulgar in his conversation. Fifteen minutes later a boy came along on a dead run. His left foot struck the decep- tive surface, and he "curled up in a heap against a post, without saying anything. He got up and hit a boy in the neck who had laughed at him, and then passed peacefully on. The next man to fall sat down squarely on the walk with both legs spread out, and a lower set of teeth laying on the hard snow between them. He hastily shoved the teeth in his pocket, jumped up and hurried away, looking very much embarrassed. Following him was a man who was evi- dently a teamster, judging from his rough exterior. He had his pants in his boots, and wore a devil-may-care look upon his face. The shock turned him completely over, and dropped him oh his face, leaving him merely time to say, "0. L. '' Mr. Merrill, seeing the series of casualties, told his clerk to pour ashes on the treacher- ous spot. While that party was getting them, a red -faced man, full of life and vigour, stepped on the place, threw both of his legs wildly into the air, .and came down cm the- back of his head with a dreadful thud, mad- ly clutching a barrel of brooms "in the des- c 'lit. On getting him to his feet it was dis- covered that he had split his coat the length of his back, seriously damaged one of his undergarments, and had said, "Great gaud !"^ A MISPLACED JUIXJMENT. Some one living on the second floor of the double tenement on Nelson Street placed a pan of baked beans in a window to cool. A few minutes later the horse attached to a coal^'art backed in front of the place, and leased to go. The driver laid on the lash, but the animal would not move on. It wiiu ed and jumped about in the agony from the blows, ])ut it would not advance. A portly gentleman jiatsi ig on the walk, saw the THE DANBURY BOOM. 41 trouble, and atopped. He was in sympathy with the animal, and indignant with the man. He expostulated with hira, told him to use mild means, to try suasion, that he ought to be ashamed of himself for treating a dumb beast in that manner ; that if he did not relent, and cease his brutal conduct, a fearful judgment would overtake him. At this juncture a little girl came to the window to see what was the matter and she must have hit against the pan of beans, for almost immediately it slid from the window, and while the benevolent gentleman was tell- ing the coal man of the judgment to come, the pan descended bottom upwards on his own rlevoted head, deluging him with its contents, taking his brwith, and knocking him down on his hands and knees. The shock was so great and so unexpected that the unfortunate man was completely be- wildered, and crawled away as fast as he could, knowing not where he was going, but instincti\'*ly seeking to get out of danger. He was a dreadful looking spectacle when he got up. He was beans the entire length of his person. They streamed down his back and legs, and tlie oily siibsttinoe dripped from the brim of his hat, while riding secure- ly on the crown was a pound piece of pork, clotted with beans. The driver silently watched hi i until he got on his feet, antl then shouted at him, — " If you hadn't stuck your nose in other people's business I'd come there an' help scrape you off, but now, cuss you, you can scrape yourself." A woman who saw the accident invited the unhappy victim into lier yard, where she helped him get off his coat, removed his hat antl emptied it, and gave him a shingle to scrape off his pants with, and performed other kind offices suggested by her sweet, womanly nature. It is ]>leasant to see such things, to find those whose hearts are full of tender sym- patliy, and wliose hands turn to helpful acts. Tlie little girl didn't come down after tlie pan until the portly gentleman had got out of the neiglibourliood. DOMESTIC STRATEGY. Domestic exigencies and the means for moetin;f them scarcely ever form a perfect fit. ())K'ning clams witli a poker, driving nails with a flat-iron, and Hfting tacks with a raz"r, are but a few of the extraordinary Serforinances a lionsehold is forced into. Iruises and ill-temper are the natural out- come. Perliaps the time may come when a bridal dowry will include a chest of tools, with a carefully prepared manual for the use thereof. At any rate, it is well to believe that the ever-active spirit of pro- gress which is abroad will, in time, evolve a way out of the trouble. If all the suffering which has spmii^ from these do» mestic infelicities were put in print, the array would appal the world. The latest instance occurred in New Haven. A citizen desired to remove a door-knob. He had no screw-driver, of course. He didn't go and buy one. Neither did he attempt to borrow one. You all understand this. He got his butcher knife. If he had had a scythe he would have taken that, as a scythe is even more awkward than a butcher knife. How- . ever, the butcher knife did very well for removing the screws and prying off the plate. It had a blade thirteen inches in length, un- douV>tedly. He set to work. The longer he worked, and the more apparent it became that the l)utclier knife was miles outside its sphere, tlie more muscle and zeal he brought to bear upon it. Of course the knife slipped. It couldn't help it. It was bound to do it. And wiien it slipped it carried away some- thing. That was to be expected, of course. But the something on this occasion must have been entirely unexpected to the citizen, as it certainly is to the public. It was the entire end of the citizen's nose. The blade had shot across it like a meteor, taking it off as clean as it could possibly be done, and giving him a sort of unfinished appearance, as he dashed into the bosom of his family, that must have been exceedingly painful to the startled beholder. THE CHARM OF GIRLHOOD. Perhaps the complaint embodied in the appended communication to the editor may be entertained by many of our readers. Cer- tainly the scene he speaks of is common enough in this fair land : — Mm, Bait.ev,— Tliere is a matter, tlie solution of which is a great social anxiety. 1 have tried my very best, time and time a^ain, to solve it, biit have failed. It may he that you ran f,nve nie an exi)lnnation. I allude to the en^-tom ainoiif? yount? ladies in company otgettinK toge- ther on a sofa, or in a corner, and whispering and laurfhin}?. I have noticed that at every remark made by one or another, all would latigh ri^rht out or snicker behind their hands, or m ers show the least inclina- tion to engage in it. A MECHANICAL PROCESS. It is very rarely a plumber is approached by any other tradesman. He has always held a monopoly in a certain science, and perhaps always will ; but his throne was considerably shaken in Danbury one day last week. A gentleman living on Main Street desired to have a basin set in a room on an upper floor. He engaged a plumber to do the work, and also a carpenter to cut the neces- sary openings throutrh the floors for the pipe M'hich was to run into the cellar. The work was to be done in the afternoon, and the plumber was told that the carpenter would be on hanout four o'clock the next morning there was a slight fall of snow. In the base- ment of the building an Italian gentleman has a fruit store. Shortly after six o'clock this morning he had his outside wares in a line of (lisplity. Peanuts beiny a spe- cialty with him, two or three Inishels of that article made a tempting pile on a large stand. AVhile he was making this arrange- ment a carpenter with a tool-box on his slioulder came around the corner, and step- ping on the concealed ice,^immediate]y threw liis tool-box into the street, got up himself, looked around to see what hai)pene(], and then picked up his tools. This so amused the Italian that lie felt obliged to rush into the shelter of the basement to con- ceal his deliglit. Had he been a native of this country, it might have sugyesttd itself to him to sweep tlie thin guis'^ of snow from the ice and to sprinkle salt or ashes n]i()n it. but being a foreigner, and not very well ac- quainted with our language, he did not think THE DANBURY BOOM. 45 of this, but instead he posted himself in a position to give him a good view of the cor- ner, and patiently waited for developments. He saw them. If hia objeot was to get an idea of the fulness and flexiblity of the English language, he could not have possi- bly adopted a better couree. vScareely had the carpenter gathered up his things and limped off, when a man smoking came hurrying along. When he reached the ice he snddeidy turned part way arouml, bit a brier-wood pipe completely in twain, and slid on his breast off fi"om the walk into tht; gutter. He got up cautiously, recovered his pipe, and melted away. The Italian shook all over. Following closely after this mishap was a Ubourer with a dinner- ktttle. When he touched the ice it was difficult for the merchant to deter- uiine whether it was his feet or another part of his person, — i^ was done quick. The newcom- er appeared to suddenly come apart and shut up at the middle, and in the same flash the tin pail described a circle of lightning ra- pidity, and was then slapped against the pavement with terrific f(jrce. At the same instant the Italian saw a piece of pie, several half-slices of buttered bread, two hard-boiled eggs, a piece of cold beef, and a fork and spoon fly oft in difterent directions, while a a pint tin of coffee made its appearance, and emptied its contents in the prostrate man's lap. While this individu;il was getting up to his feet, and securing his pail and cutleiy, the Italian managed to blend considerable instruction with the amusement. Then tliere came a man with a boai-d on his shoulder. . He laid down on the board, with one of his hands under the board. Tiien he got up,and put the injured hand between his knees, where he pressed it tightly, while he used the most dreadful language the Italian ever heard, and he didn't hear it all either, being so convulsed with laughter as to necessarily divide his attention. And thus the performance went on until after eight o'clock. Scarcely ten minutes elapsed between the acts. .Sometimes a boy would l)e the hero, then again a couple of merchants, or perliaps sonie1)ody connected witli a bank. Whoever it might be, he went down, and went down hard, and the Italian watched and inproved his mind, and began to think that this country had its advantages as well as its disadvantages. It was eleven minutes past eight wlien the dual catixstropho occuired. Tliis was consumn'iated in the person of a long, slim num with a picture under his arm, and a very large woman carry- ing a basket. The long, slim man was some- what in advance. The Italian, being impress- ed with the conviction that something of an extraordinary nature was about to transpire, stared witii fairly bulging eyes at the coming figure. No sooner did the tall, slim man touch the treacherous spot, than the ventur- ing foot kicked out most savagely at the at- mosphere, and his body shot around like tire- works. The picture flew from his possession at the same moment, and being thus freed he made a spasmodic clutch with all his limbs at once for a place of refuge, and in a flash his legs whi[)ped aV)out a corner leg of tiie inoffensive peanut stand, and the great shin- ing yellow pyramid followed him to the pave- ment. The horrified Italian, stunned for an instant by the enormity of the catas- trophe, sought to plunge out to the rescue of his goods, but was too late. The flesliy woman, having rushed to the aid of the tjill, slim man,who was her husband, was caught herself by the subtle foe and in her descent which w;is by far the most vigorous of the ser- ies, she took in two thirds of the peanuts, and the crash of the demolished frnit, as she pinned it to the walk, might have been heard four squares away. The unhappy vendor reached the place in time to be taken in himself, and the addition of one hundred and thirty pounds of macaro- ni-fed Italian added to the disi -al propor- tions of the scene. How they got disen- tangled and on their feet no one seems able to explain, but the result was reached amid an appalling uproar of Italian, English, and feminine noises. What a great matter a little fire kindleth. Ten cents' worth of ^ alt would have saved all the misery and distress. As it is, Dan- 1)ury has some twenty persons with damaged jacks or legs, the owner of tlie building has four suits on hand for damages, tlie tall, slim man and his wife are confined to their beds, and on Satui'day last the Italian was morosely squatted alongside of the funnel of a steamer bound for Italy. CHURCH FRONT SKIRMISHERS. Not a very elevated opinion of the mem- bers of the phalanx which concentrates in front of a country church on the close of the service on a Sunday evening is entertained by the public. And sometimes hard things are said against the band. But the public knows not the time, care, expense, self-de- nial, and discouragement wliich the novice at the business must go through with before he can become a finished expert. It takes time to do this, and it t.akes a strong will, to say nothing of a naturally good constitu- tion. In fact many a young man has lost his life in hia devotion to this cause, and ii:? 46 THE DAN BURY BOOM. many another has been discouraged on the way, and fallen out tu be seen no more. A reformed member of this body has lately given his experience, ' and it throws much valuable light on the subject. He says that he made his beginning when he was seven- teen. Being a new member, he took his Slace at the foot of the line. When the la- ies came out he fastened his eyes upon them all in a general way, and on a few wfiom he particularly favoux'ed in a special way. He was fairly on fire with a desire to go home with some one of tliem, but he could not get his courage up to the pnjper point. Those at the head of the line slid up to the desired partner, sent in a smile as a sort of skirmish- er, and sailed off with the prize at once, A half-dozen times he would be just about to make a dash, would then hesitate, and in the pause the fair one would get too far by, or would be snapped up by some more ex- pert l)rotlier. After they were all gone he found himself alone in front of the church, gloomily watching the sexton closing the doors. For half that night he walked the deserted street a prey to the mo»>t distreos- ing emotions. During the week he spent every spare hour in the seclusion of his room, where he practised assiduously on the step forward, and the skirmishing smile. Dur- ing that t'nie he "saw home" some seven hundred imaginary young ladies, of all styles and cii-cumstances, in an eminently satis- factory manner. Sunday night found him again at his post, with a new courage in his heart. It was raining slightly, and he had on a pair of very thin boots, but an umbrella kept his hat dry. He was quite confideiit, he l\ad now conquered his diffidence, an(> would have no trouble, but when the congre- gation came out, and br'cjht eyes flashed into his, he felt his strengtii oozing rapidly away. He let the first opportunity pass, because he was a trifle too nervous to make an at- tempt. The next he was about to close in witli, when the thouglit came to him that she might refuse. The pitiable condition he would thus be left in made him so sick, that before he could recover therefrom she had been closed in by her sisters, and was gone. The third chance then occurred, and he was about to lift up his leg in advance and start out liis smile, when the same sickening pos- sibility again threw its deadly embrace about his heart, and he fell back aghast, and just then her brother came along and walked her off. With the fourth he had no different ex- perience, except that she was scooped up by a party who suddenly and unexpectedly ap- peared on tUe opposite side, just as he got his foot pushed lorward and his smile well started. He looked so white and helpless at the end that the sexton sympathizincly ask- ed him if he was subject to fits. The de- pression of this night, together with the dampness which struck through his boots, prostrated him on a bed of sickness from which he was at last raised only by the most careful nursing. The Sunday night after his recovery he again took his place. The same luck attended his eflbrts. His brain gi-ew dizzy, and his heart sick, from the repeated failures. Just as he was about to give up in despair, a very young lady, being somewhat detached from the main body, was thrown exactly in his way, and, taking advantage of her isolated ondition, he hysterically poun- ced on and secured lier. But the effort so exhausted him that he found he was not equal to anytiiing else, jvnd she being a very young maiden, the two jr^-oceeded onward in the most dignified silence. Not a word was spoken by either until they reached her gate, when she bashfully observed, — "Goodnight." And he faintly replied, — " Goo — good night," and stood staring af- ter her until she disappeared in the house. Then he mechanically wended his own way homeward, softly rubbing the back of his head every little while. He says it was fully three months before he became sufficiently accomplished to see even an ordinary girl home with any degree of what you might call conxfort. MR. COVILLE AS A SPIGOT. Mrg. Coville' has been ailing ever since last summer. She was not down sick so as to de- mand the attention of the doctor, but was debilitated. A general weakness seemed to envelope her like a cloud, holding hermuscles in abeyance, making herfeel to a degree help- less, but giving her no pain. She did her houseliold work without help, but there was no love for the work, and she carried no spir- it into it. A week ago a German friend of Mr. Coville told him that if his wife drank a glass of lager beer before each meal, she would soon derive a decided benefit. Mr. Coville lost no time in getting a keg of the article, and in forty-eight hours after had it in his cellar. The German told liim how to tap it ; viz., drive the spigot against the cork in the bung, and thus force the cork inside while the spigot filled the bung-lnjle. After dinner Mr. Coville attended to tJiis matter. He put the spigot against the cork, hit two smart raps with a hammer, and the cork was driven in, but, unfortunately, he let go of the spigot before it wa.s well settled, and there being a very heavy pressure to the beer, it was thrown from the barrel and car- i i THE DANBURY BOOM. 47 ried to the other end of the cellax, while the li(juor shot vehemently forth. The first thought of Mr. Coville was to save the beer, and with that object he thrust his thumb into the opening, after getting hia sleeve to the armpit, and his bosum, face, and hair deluged with the fluid. This was a success, and for a moment Mr. Uoville plumed him- self upon it. Then came the realization that while the beer was safe it was only at his personal inconvenience in the character of a spigot, a light he had never before consider- ed himaelf ni, and which did not now bring him the most elevating of emotions. On the contrary, Mr. Coville was inclined to resent his situation as something forced upon him against his will, and as being entirely foreign to his hopes and plans in this life. He was down in the cellar alone, — at one end of the cellar, while the spigot was at the otiier, in sight, but as far removed from him as if it floated in the middle of the Caspian Sea. He could hear some movement up stairs, and a sort of rumbling sound like the movement of a body over the floor, and he shouted aloud for aid. Now it is a singular fact that while one can hear a voice ordinarily delivered in an- other room, the loudest scream from him will not reach the owner of the voice. If Mr. Coville was not before aware of this fact, he was made to realize it now. Shout after shout ascended from tlie cellar, while the Eain in his thumb crept up liis arm, and the eer oozop('d potato, if untrammelled in its movements, will weaken the most powerful intellect, unsuppi>rti:d Ijy experience. So, really, there is notiiing in tiies(! things to make sport of, butvery nnich indeed to deplore and grieve over. WILL HAVE IT ALWAYS ON HAND. The action of the Danbury autiiorities in building a pen wiierein tran\ps can lireak stone for their food and lodging, comes none too soon. The awful evil of irrepressible pedestrianism overshadows this fair land with the darkest cloud tiiat has come upon us since 18(>1. Tiie papers teem with ciiron- icles of brutal acts by tramps, and Danbury itself, more conservative than any part of America, added, in the past week, its mite to the general horror. The tramp in (pies- ti(m was a bandaged piece of moral and phy- sical rottenness, held together by the band- ages. Blear-eyed, red-faced, low-browed, he presented a spectacle far from inspiring. He entered the (Irug store and demanded ten cents' worth .)f alcohol. The clerk saw the danger of letting him have it, and told him it was not kept there, but could be obtained at a grocery aci-oss the street, pointing to that place of business. The tramp stalked over there, and asked for the stuff. The grocer mid his assistant, and a pompous man of great breadth of beam (as most pom})ous men have), were present. The grocer said he did nut keep alcohol. The tramp knew l)etter. The young man across the way had said that alcohol could be got there, and he was going to get it. He glared around upon the three auditors in a most uncompromising manner. The grocer again rejieated that he did not keep alconol, never kept it, had no occasion to, and, with a deprecatory flourish of his hands, suggested that perhajis some one would come along and maintain that he kept mahogany grape-vines on sale. The clerk, a young person with a colourless face, was eating a piece of cheese. He suggested that the customer might possildy be drunk. Bu^ it was the pompous person who was the most seriously affected. He had been talk- ing about the country, and how it ought to be managed, and what he would do if he were the President. And so h ; had been interrupted. He looked through his spec- tacles upon the bold-faced tramp in a way calculated to drive him into the uttermost corners of the earth, but, owing to some un- known defect, failed to perform that service. For a moment he was dumb with amazement at the temerity of the new-comer, but finally i THE DANRURY ROOM. 49 recovering his aonses, lio iiiclicated the great (Uptli of his feelings by a long-drawn, sonor- ous lireath. " Look at me, you wretch !" he thundered. The tramp looKed at him. Tliere was not a quiver in the hloatcd face, not a waver in tlie liK'ai'ccl i-ycs. " How dare you come here ii\to the com- pany of respectable people with your taiiitc.l— " " Whoop !" That was all, but it was a cry that started the ceiling, 'made the boxes on the shelvis fairly jump, and caused the clerk to bolt in an cmiiK'ntly dangerous manner a full ounce of cheese. It came from the tramp, suddeidy, with- out warning. .And tlien he K/indd himself. The gi' cor went down in a flash. The clerk spun around like a toji, with a feeling back of his ear as if a freight train had passed through his ;sknll. And the man for alcohol was gone, and in an empty barrel stuck ti\e pompous citizen, with a slit in his nose, his cliin whiskers full of blood, his spectacles nowhere in sight, and a look of the utmost consternation petrifying every feature of his appalled countenance. The bairel had to be taken apart. But the tramp was not found. And the grocer has ordered a tank of alco- hol. A ST^yiLE VOFM. A decided cliange has taken place in Slim Jim. Slim Jim is the help at Marshall's livery stal)les. He is a young nuin twenty- six years old. He has been in tie stables for four years, and is admirably qualified to perform the multifarious duties belonging to the situation. PVoni association and sym- Eathy he has mast, red all tfie details of the usiness, and is really invaluable to Mr. Marshall. He knows every horse in Dan- bury, knows its weaknesses, can tell a de- tect as soon as he sees the possessor of it, and has a very good idea of horse medicines. Slim Jirn wears loud colours, his hair cut short, no beanl, no suspenders, the finest of fine boots with high heels, and the pantaloon legs rolled tastefully at the bottoms. Slim Jim is rather proud of his boots, and rests in comfort as to the rest of his form. He is a fair hand at cards, proficient in profanity, rather graceful in lounging, and when not on duty is adorning some neighbouring bar. Wherever Jim is, he talks horse. Horse is his hobby. He is the most masculine of men. He quite fre(iiiently drives out ladies, but it is evident to the most casual observer that the horses, not the load, engross his whole attention. He apparently has none of the finer qualities of nnnd and heart. Ho never notices flowers, nor birds, nor cloud forma- tions ; neither does ho speak of running brooks, or mossy dells, or seience, or pootry. Kven his cards and drinking and lounging and figure are all subordinate to this one sulijeet, the horse. He has no sympathies beyond this. He has had no life stparato from it. Although young in years, he is old in feelings, old iu exincssion of those feel- ings. \\'hatever he does to display himself is done to gain the admiration of his own sex. He drinks, and drives, and talks, and dresses, and itostures for the sake of exciting their envy. The last woman migiit Ix in the crater of Vesuvius, painting birds on dust- pan handles, 80 far as he is concerned. Hut a change has come over .Slim .lini. Ho is not so much in bar rooms as in front of them now. There is a dreamy, far-away look in his eyes. He puts on his cfiat when leaving the stables, ami unless talking strict- ly horse, is subject tospells of absent-minded- ness. He is less coarse, less blustering, and more subdued in his profanity. He drinks less, and difl'erently ; not throwing it down with the careless inditTerenco of a veteran, but rather sipping it thoughtfully, like aa one'who may be prc-occupied by far weightier matters. He is gentler, too, in his work, and closely attentive to the ladies who come in his care, and moreobservaut of lawns, and stores, and the style as alVeeted liy the bet- ter classes. A new worhl has opened up to Slim Jim, — a world that, imtil recently, has been veiled in a great darkness before his eyes. The cause of this marvellous change in Slim Jim works in one of our hat factories. She is seventeen years old, apparently, and a spry-looking, bright-eyed givl. We saw her go by the otHce the other day, and we saw Jim with her, and then we understood at a glance tlie secret of the ,^i'eat change which has fallen upon our horse friend. There was something very interesting in this sj)ectacle, and something beautilul m the conduct of Slim Jim, it was so tender and respectful. There were about four feet of space between them, but if it had been miles instead, there was a light in his eye wiiich showed that his heart spanned the distance. She walked with her head sligiitly bent, but not so much so as to hide the pleaseife. He workecl away at it some ti\e minutes, and was Lifttin^ it about wlu're h(( wanted it, when the awful all'air tipped over and came down so sudden- ly that Mr. ('ol»hMj,di was unai)le to get out of the way in time, and heing knocked ovei' a chair, he fell in such a way as to have one of Ilia legs pinned in l)et\seen the clotiies- Eresa and the chair. As he was on his reast, he found himself powerless to get away, and so ht^ scri'ained toliis wife to come to his ai,'i)ne, hut that the hammer, in the hanj^in^; Hhelf on wiiioli hail repcmeil twenty-two ^laHH jars of preservcH, an lolding the same amount of heat ; the roads nre hard and griiy ; the wind conies in over- rowering gusts, taking up the dust and send- ing it in flying volumes through every street. It has all the peculiarities which have dis- tinguished this wind above the wind of any other month since time began. Chief among these is the quality of not appearing when expected, and of not being expected when it does appear. This wind is holding high car- nival to-day. It is rattling the windows, and trying the doors, and investigating ash- heaps, and carrying pails from the back stoops. It is playing all sorts of strange music around the corners and through the trees. It is thundering over the meadows, and dancing giddily through the streets. It is such a free-and-easy wind, such an impu* dent trifler with the property of others. We hardly dare say how many hats have crossed the perspective from our window and gone rolling down the street in the last half- hour, but it seems as if there had been an almost unbroken procession of them. There is a dreadful fascination in observ- ing them, — in seeing a hat appear, and im- mediately behind it the owner. So closely does he follow upon it that there is bare chance from seeing the hat to speculate as to what sort of a person the wearer must be, when he appears on the scene himself. The first hat belonged to a boy. It was a little hat with a very round crown and a stiff brim, and it sailed along on the brim. The o>.vner thereof was close upon it, putting in his very best, and making both of his legs appear like twenty letjs in the rapidity of their movements. He finally captured it by the ingenious device of jumping on it with both feet. Then he picked it up, brushed it orf with his elbow, slapped it on to his head, and immediately put after another boy on whose face he just then detected a dishonest smile. Tlien came a large soft hat, whirling swift- ly, and following it was a cloud of dust, and in the cloud, like some improved allegory, was the owner of the hat. He was a farmer in appeai'ance, and wore a coat so long in its skirts as to greatly impede the free and grace- ful action of his limbs. His lips were tight together, and his hands clinched, as if he were completely immersed in intense thought, as he undoubtedly was. The hat struck against a post and settled thrre, and he made a spiteful dive for it, and tlieu it lifted up and moved on, and he starteil otf after it, and both passed out of sight. Per- haps the wind may go down with the sun. It is just ;i8 well he got away as he did, for iftimeiliately after two hats came rolling along over and over, and two men, pufliug and blowing, and very mad, as every motion indicated, came dashing after them. Just then a boy's hat appeared, and being either 5t THE DANBURY BOOM. I* „ h >3 ^ ^ lighter, or more favoural)le to the wind, than the others, speedily overtook them, and the boy himself made such remarkable headway that he was soon up to the men, very much to their disgust, aa his wild appeaiauce and yells added none whatever to the dignity of their position. For an instant the three were abreast, and then the boy went ahead, and at the same time his hat rolled over and stopped. One more bound anil he was to it, and tlirowing himself down to secure it, threw himself exactly in the way of the two flying men. There was no time to stop ; there was no time to think. In a flash the two went over him, a fierce gust of dust en- vehjped them, and througli the maze, on which the clear sunlit fell and transformed the atoms into gold, tliere appeared an in- credible number of arms and legs cutting the air and smiling at each other in hopeless con- fusion. Tlien the scramble being over the two men got up on their feet and glared at each otiier with inflamed passitm distorting tlieir faces, in absence of any opportunity to vent their wrath on tlie boy, wlio, by tliat mysterious process peculiar to boys, had se- cured his hat and prudently retired to a safe distance. Wluit the two men would have done unto each utlier had there been tlie chance, is not known, but the loss of their hats happening to strike them simultaneous- ly, they at once put off after them, running Bide by side with delightful harmony. As we close this little sketch we glance again out of the window. A silk hat is rcll- ing by. Like a porpoise it rolls from sitle to side, and tumbles ahead. In active pursuit is a tall man with elongated face. He is dressed in the extreme of fashion. He is a city man, and his clothes are city made. He ditl not come here to show them, but now that he is here he is glad to display them, and is satisfied to bask in the sunsliine of the peasantry's admiration. At this present moment he is not basking, although the sun- shine is in abundance, as the peasantry are on the corners, on the hotel porch, in the post-office door, before the saloon, looking upon him with all the eyes they possess, antl admiring and enjoying him as he can never hope to be admired and enjoyed again in his life. And his flushed face shows that he knows he is doing something that interests and comforts them. He has a very red face, and very staring eyes, and a very murderous expression generally. The cruel wind has wrenched his hair from its pomade fasten- ings and thrown it over his eyes and Scross his ears, and wrong way up the back of hia head. It has sent the tails of his coat to the front in a very undignified manner. It has blown his trousers legs to the front also, fill- ing thorn out like bellying sails, and leaving at the back an unexpected thinness of shank to the astonished view of the beholder. He ran with all his strength, and while he ran the peasantry cheered and sho; ted and laughed. Every few strides he would pause and invite the peasantry to step out in the road and have their several heads knocked off. Tlien he would go on again. And -o he has passed from sight aiid from the town, with life before him and the grand Atlantic but twenty-two miles ahead. A MISEKABLE SuN. She was a Nelson Street woman with more than the usual amount of cares cast to her lot. Her luisband was very sick, with no hope whatever of his recovery. She sat in the kitchen, alone by herself, the other even- ing, trying to rest herself, when the silence was broken by a scuffling and shouting and howling in the street. She paused a mom- ent in an effort to distinguish the nature of the trouble by the sounds it was sending forth. As she listened, one cry rose above an- other. At its coming her cheeks flushed, and hastily throwing a shawl over her head, she went out to the front just in time to re- ceive her o>vn son, and to see the son of the excellent woman next door being led into the house, weeping and moaning, by his mother. She took in this situation in a glance, and then the colour entirely left her face. " Come here !" The fury of a century was compressed in that command. The youth was on the point of dodging around the house wlien these two words smote his purpose and clove it in twain. She took him by the col- lar, and fairly skimmed him through the hall and to the kitchen. There was a nameless fear in her heart. Her face was very white, and the fingers which grasped the collar of his jacket with a spasmodic twitching. " What's the matter out there?" she de- manded, in a low, concentrated voice. "Nothin'." "What was you doing, I say ?" " W^ell, " suutlled the pinned-down youth, "Bill he took an' kicked over my waggon, an' I just let him have one across the snot t. " " You struck him, you good for-no- thing imp ?" she hissed. " Well, he'd no riglit to kick my—" He stopped just there. There was a look in his motiier's face t' at choked off his utterance. The eyes that looked down in his were ablaze w th passion. It seemed as if theirfire would burn into his very soul. She drove him down to the floor, and held him there as if he had been pinned by iron bands, "What do you mean," she hissed, "by f THE DANBURY BOOM. 55 'ing ank he and luse the ked •0 Mil, ntic making this row? (Shake.) Don't you know what you are doing ? Can I never keep you out of deviltry ? (Shake) I'll learn you better, or I'll smash every bone in your body, you miserable brat ! (Shake.) How dare you strike that woman's boy, when your father's here at death's door, and slie has the best chairs in the neighbourhood ? Oh !" slie added, with a passionate sob, " that heaven slionld curse me with such an unfeeling brute for a son 1" And throwing him from her, she dropped in a chair, and hurried her face in her apron to hide the tears of bitter shanie. WHAT SHE DIED OF. A curious animal is the boy. Two of them were going through Pine Street the other morning, when, as they M'ere about passing each othei-, one of them said, — " You don't know who's dead at the baker's?" " Yes, I do, too." They had now passed each other, and were walking backwards so as to confront one an- otliei'. "\Yhoisit?" *' It's the baker's M'ife. " " Ho, ho !" laughed the other, derisively, " that sluiws all you know about it. It ain't the baker's wife at all ; it is his wife's sister. " The advocate of the wife flushed deeply at this. "Smart, ain't you?" he shouted, for the distance between them had grown consider- able. "I bet you dou'i know what sheen off him since they were fitted to him. This was early in the morning, but they ap- peared no different late last night, nor will they look different late to-night. It must have required time to have given the shoes and the stockings, and the pants and the jacket, tliat appearance of eternal rest and rust which envelope them. I)id he take them off last night, and put them on fresh this morning ? Impossible ! He could not have removed and returned them again with- out their showing in some particular that they had been disturbed. But they do not show it. The rust, the dirt, the caking, the wrinkles, and the mossy repose are the same to-day aa they were yesterday, and as they will be to-morrow. And yet they do not look as if he had been abed in them. Wo know he never undresses. Must we believe that he never sleeps ? A PAIR OF MORTIFYING BREECHES. It was Monday morning, the first day of school. He was on his way there wi*^h a companion. He wore blue bi-eechee. A mo.st .startling blue they were, — not this navy blue so common to clothes, but a light dazz- ling blue, seen only in tiiose toys made up for the enjoyment of young folks. Theao 66 THE DAXBURY BOOM. ] I \ i I-; 1; • breeches fitted close to hia fat litiiha. They were very beautiful, and added largely to the scenery ot White Street as he bounded along that pictures^^ue avenue. We never saw such breeches as these in all our long and active life. The colour was so bright, the fit so snug, that to see them was to soothe and nourish the mind. He and his compan- ion were "chasing," — that is, they were run- ning without any particular object in view. It was the exuberance of youth that sent their legs flying. He wore a coat with tails, and every time his legs flew up the tails flew up, and the blue fairly filled the air. The beauty of the scene was almost suffocat- ing. It must have been a great joy to the other boy to be with him. Pretty soon they came upon a party of other boys somewhat younger than they, and one of these — a very depraved nature he must have had — derisively yelled out, — "Blue breeches! Oh, the breeches! Ki, yi ! See blue breeches !" It was an awful blow. The owner of the cerulean garment lost the colour in his face, and it was only by a mighty effort tliat he summoned the strength to appeal' indifferent. It was no use. "Ho, ho, ho! Look at the blue breeches !" again shouted the offender. Like a flasli, the wearer oT the ailornment rushed upon him to crush him into the earth. It was a fatal move. • " Blue breeches, blue breeches !" screamed another miscreant. He turned upon the second offender. It was a feeling of mutual defence that prompted another to take up the cry, and then a fourth, and so on. He went at one only to be called to an- other, and the air fairly quivered with the cry whioli now became a roar. He was about wild with the din,^ " Blue breeches ! blue breeches ! blue breeclies !'' I It was no use to fight them. They wee • like wasps. Tlie b()nil)ar(lnient was so ! terrible that he was glad to beat an ignomi- j iii(jus retreat, and tlie once proud garment ' disappeared in humiliating Hight. " j Poor boy ! He may be obliged to wear tliose breeches for numths, to suffer day by i day a torture worse than death. How can ' parents be so cruel ? How can tl^ev t.he .spring has come, the tender J, when buds are opening, and tiie songs of the birds till the air with sweet melody, i)ut on tiie dye-kettle and colour a pair of l)reeches like that ? It is simply infernal. THE BOY AT CHURCH. Mr. and Mrs. Pryden took their little boy to church Sunday. It was his first day in pants, and his first time in church. For the first half of the service he was fully absorbed in things about him, and the novelty of the situation. After that his mind turned in upon himself, and he began to pay exclusive attention to his own wants, and Mr. and Mrs. Pryden, from an exulting feeling of pride, gradually slipped down an inclined ylane of anxiety which •emptied into an abyss of despair. The nu^ >er of positions the youth got into, and the wants he mani- fested, would seem incredible were they not actually witnessed by a full score of respect- able people. As soon as he took in a real- izing sense of his own identity. Master Pry- den began to comprehend and respond to the demands of his nature. He got upon his knees on the seat, and stared at the choir. He twisted back again to the front, and was only saved from falling to the floor l>y the alertness of his pa. The floor be' ua suggested to him, he got down on it. T n he got up on the seat again. Fr> . .ia place he desired to change to a position be- tween his pa and ma. He was acconmio- dated. After resting quietly there for twenty seconds, he changed to the other side of his pa. Thence he moved to his pa's lap. From there he went to the otiier side of his ma. Tiiis was evidently a mis- take, for he immediately expressed a wish to get back to the other side of his pa, and on their attempting to lift him there he kicked antl cried, and was only silenced by being allowed to walk tlie distance, which he did at once. The motion so pleased him that he went straightway back again, and tried it over. Also for the second and third. Tlien he got up again between his ma and pa. After that, to the other side of his pa. Then he espied a gilt-backed book in the rack of the next pew, and reaching over to get it, came wntliin an ace of depositing hia entire carcase on the other side, but waa clutched in time by both of his parents, and hauleil safely back, very red in the face and very indignant. Dissappointed in this ven- ture, he turned his attention to tlie rack in hit; own pew. and p(.»hs.ssed himself of the books therein, which, being taken away from him, made it necessary that he should get them again. These he dropped on the floor one at a time, and smiled the guileless smile of infancy as they were picked uj) by his embarrassed parents. Pretty well exhaust- ed, he now prepared for sleep and rested on his mother's breast and closeil his eyes. Hia parents siglied. Then he slipped down on thp: danbury boom. 67 the floor, sliding in such a way as to leave quite an expanse of M'hite goods between his pants and jacket, and to roll the collar ot the jacket up on the back of iiis head. The clothing was adjustetl, his nia whisijcrcd in his ear for the fortieth time, and his pa Bcowled so hard aa to nearly dislodge his own scalp. He saw tiie scowl, a.nd sullenly sank down on the floor, from which he had to be lifted by main force. Then he took out the hymn-books again, and was going to drop them aa before, when his pa interfer- ed and resc. -jd them. He resented the liberty by throwing back his head, whicii, coming in sharp contact with the back of the seat, wrenclied from his lips a shrill cry. The unhappy mother endeavoured to stifle in her shawl so much of the wail she could not whisper away, while his pa's face was full of great drops of perspiration, of which pa himself was unconscious. The avail not abating, pa's knife, containing four blades, was brought into aery ice, and the cry husheil. For a full moment he was absorbed in con- templation of this object. And then he let it drop. There was no carpet in the pew. Two-thirds of the congregation raised from their ^sats, and Mr. Pryden himself came almosb a perpevidicular. Then the hymn was gi . **n out and sung, and the benediction pronounced, and Mr. and Mrs. Pryden, with their heir between them, parted for home, Mr. Pryden being so warm that he took off his overcoat, and gave a boy ten cents to carry it home for Inm. No. 1.— A NEW ENGLAND THANKS- GIVING. To-morrow is Thanksgiving day, and as I sit by my window looking out into the yard of The Man Next Door, I wonder to myself how he will celebrate the day ; and my mind running out to him from the contemp- lation of a series of papers I have been want- ing fur some time to prepare for yoti, on a variety of topics connected with life in our village, it is suggested to me that a good name lor the papers will be the name by which he is more familiarly known in aur hou e o d, viz., "The Man Next I)Lior." One reason, perhaps, for this de- signation of him is the fact that he is the only man who lives next door to us, a street beiiig on the other side of us. Again, his name is so awkward that it does not come Siisy to speak. So he has come to be known orincipally in my family as The Man Next Door. And a very good man he ie too, al- ;hough a queer man in some respects. The Man Next Door has a store, in which le sells music, books, stationery, jewellery, watches, clocks, etc. He is a sort of genius whose brain, like his place of business, is ailaptcd to various ramilications. He is a large man, witii a beard on his face, but none on the top of his head. He is more nerve than fat, large as he is, and as " touchy" as puwiler itself, and as quickly over it. He is a reformer, a man of powerful but clouded intell4^|^ and a conceiver or vast enterprises, and keeps a retail store of various brandies. I don't know that he ever thought out any preat thing to a clear conclusion, but he has thought over many of them, and I have come to believe that the little petty details of his business and domestic life have chafed his mighty spirit until it is as sore as a boil ; and this is what makes him so "touchy." Yesterday afternoon his boy brought up with the horse two or three boxes, and dumped them in the yard by the barn. I have just been looking from my window at these boxes. I know they are to be used in building something to-morrow, for The Man Next Door is one of that great majority of New-Englanders who devote religious days to " puttering about the place, " as my wife calls it. Last year he built a house for his boy's dog. It was a clear, cold day, as is proper for a Thanksgiving day to be. I sat indoors and watched him at his work, from my win- dow. It was about nine a. m. when he began. At that hour my wife directed my attention to the fact that something was going on next door, and I went to the window. The man, with a hammer in his hand, was there, and so, also, were the boy and the dog. The boy is about fourteen years old, small for his age, with a face sc %/hite as to lead the cas- ual observer to inter that he is an invalid. But he sn't. Not by a long sight. He got the doe the day before. The animal was a shaggy-haired dog, that incessantly wagged its tail, and crouched low to the ground when spoken to, and turned over on its back when patted. It was a very propitiatory dog. The Man Next Door was in the best of spirits. He patted the dog. and laughed, and his whole expression was one of great satisfaction. He had a hammer, and a saw, and a saucer of nails. It was the regular family collection of naibs, — four straight snes and forty crooked ones. He hail plenty of material for the building of the dog-house. There were two dry-goods boxes, just such boxes as his boy brought up yesterday. He knocked them apart, and was careful in doing it to save the nails. After he had eot the pieces thus separated, he began to lay out the plan for the house It was going to be quite an elaborate affair. 58 THE DANBURY BOOM. i:-i i II r f - judging from the care with which he shut one eye, and the number of times he stepjied back and looked at the idea. Once, wlien he stepped back, he stci>ped on the dog, and the dog yelped and verged so suddenly and BO unexpectedly that I'lie Man Next Door lost his balance, and abruptly sat down on the saucer of nails. He got up^wthout smiling, and mechanically looked ai^mid for the ilog, with the hammer still in his hand. The dog had continued to verge, however, and was now out of sight, the boy being in eympathetic pursuit. Pretty soon The Man Next Door ceased to rub himself, and return- ed to the work of construction. He worked vigorously. He drove four stakes into the earth, and built up four walls to them. He called for his wife, and she came out osten- sibly to hold the boards as he nailed them, but really to tell him how to do it. He knew how to do it himself, however, and lost no time in convincing her of the fact. Still she didn't let go of her idea. She held two boards for him, and was holding the third, when a carriage drove by, in which was a woman that had on a new kind of dolman. The wife of The Man Next Door was so startled by this appearance, which must have been entirely unexpected to her, that she dropped the end of the board she was hold- ing to run out to the other side of the house, where a much better view could be obtained. It was an unfortunate time to select for the purpose. He had a nail partly set, and was about to give it a climaxing blow — in fact the hammer was already descending — when she diopped her end. I wasn't exactly where I could see the whole performance. I saw the hammer go down, however, and then I saw it some thirty feet in the air travelling in a circle, and The Man Next Door was bending over and straightening up again, and holding on to one hand as if it was all he had on earth. I coidd see by tlie movement of her eyes that she was talking to him, and I looked at his 1 ps to see if they were moving in re- sponse, but they were not. They Mere tiglitly clinched; and after he had kicked down what he had built up, and jumped up and down on the saucer of nails until he had driven them into the earth, he went into the house. Later in the day my wife saw his wife, and asked lu-r what was the matter. She said her husband hit his thumb -with the ham- hier, and that he ought not to drive nails anyway, because he didn't understand how to do it. No. 2.— HOW FAR TWENTY CENTS WILL GO. The wife of The Man Next Door has a fertile brain, which is kept actively employ- ed in a variety of directions. Among her household goods are a dozen plants in pots, and a variety of these in a box mounted on a pedestal. The box she got at the store ; the pedestal she and the boy together made. After it was done, she wanted it painted. She might have sent it to the painter for that purpose, but he would charge niore than it was worth. To save the extra cost ^ho determined to do the work herself. She could get a pound of paint, all mixed in a pot, with a brush, for twenty cents, — the pot and brush to be returned after the work was done. It was a simple thing to paint, and she could put it on as easily and nicely as a trained hand could do it. The Man Next Door didn't think mucn about it. It was not in his line, but he got the paint. The paint was green, and when the box and pedestal took that colour, and the vines got to growing, the effect was going to be real nice. He brought up the pot of paint on coming to dinner, and she did the paint- ing in the afternoon. It was a great sur- prise to the wife of The Man Next Door to see how little of the paint was required to colour the box and pedestal, and how much was left after the work was done. What should she do with it ? Not return it, of course, for she would not be allowed any- thing for it. Now that she had it she might as well use it. There was undoubtedly sonie- tliing it could be used on. She looked around for the object in ques- tion, and was not long in finding it. There are more or less dingy, battered articles about a house which a coat of paint would improve. Her house was no exception. Her eye lighted on a box holding her scouring- sand. In a few moments it was i. delightful green. ' Tiien she looked around for other fields to conquer, and pixsently found them, anil con- tinued to find them as long as the jnesence of paint maile it neces.'^ary to search for them. She was nearly the whole afternoon using up that pot of paint, but it was time well employed. And it was amazing, as she admitted to herself, how far frwenty cents M'ortii of paint would go, judiciously ajipHed. ,Sl\e knew her husband would V)e surpriswl when he came home at night at all she had done. And h5 was. When he observed the green clook-case, and looked at the green paper-rack, ami found he had a green writing-desk, and cou- i i THE DANBURY BOOM. 69 TS a 'y- ler ts, OH ■e; e. fk t, templated the green footstool, and saw the green coal-scuttle, and got against the green clothes-horse, he was too full to say a word. Then he picked up his green bootjack, and when he did that he gave a wild, scared look about tlie room, sank down in a chair, and found his voice. He said, " Holy lish-hooks !" No. 3. —THE GOOD EFFKCTS OP LITTLE COMMON-SENSE. The otlier day, you will remember, it rained in a drizzling sort of way from morn- ing until night, and froze as it fell. Tiic next morning everything, especially back stoops, was covered with ice. One of our neighbours went out early into the back yard with a pan of ashes in his arms. The instant he stepped from the door upon the stoop that foot flew out from under him in a flash, and he went down the steps with the same foot sticking straight ahead and the other sticking straight out behind, with the pan still in his arms. It was a great wonder he wasn't killed ; as it was, he was so fearfully wrenched through the hips tluvt he had to be lifted up arul carried int( the house, being almost blinded, too, 1> the ashes. I understand that nearly c ^ iiun- dred persons went otF their stoops in a similar unpremeditated way that morning. My wife said to me, on hearing of our neighbour's mishap, — " It will learn him to use his head after this. There was no need at all of his falling off that stoop, and if he hadn't been so stupid it would not happened." " It was a stupid performance," I said, dreamily. " Of course it was," she went on. " He knew it rained all ilay yesterday, and lie knew it froze, and he knew that everything was a glare of ice hist night, and so it must be tliis morning. And he ought to have liad on nibl)crs wiioii he went out there, or been careful where ho steppetl. And if he had that lie wouldn't have nride such a spectacle of himself, and hurt himself so, and br laid ; up. purhaps, for sevei-al days. I haven't 1 myself got any sympathy for him, or for any | one that ain't got any more sense than to do that. " ; Upon that my wife went back to the kitchen to her work, and I fell to musing upon what she had said. I confess there was some wisdom in it. The spectacle of ; a huntlred people in a New England town — i that New England so well known for its i hard, sterling sense ^sliding ofl' back stoops pans of ashes in their arms, and screaming and swearing in their rage, is not a pleasant one to contemplate, especially when, aa my wife says, the performance could be avoided ! by the exercise of a little common-sense. i And yet how many casualties could be saved I by this same exercise ! It is not only by I stepping from back stoops, but in a hundred I matters a little wisdom would — Great I heavens, what is it I • » • • • It is nearly half an hour since tliis writinff ' was interrupted at the exclamation and even now 1 cannot understand, 1 can scarce* ly comprehend, what has happened. Tliere was a short, sharp scream from a woman. It came from the rear of the house. I went into thi3 kitchen, thence to the back ! door, and — well ! You would not believe it, but there at the feet of the stoop, strug* gling to get on her feet, and with an over- ; turned pan of potato parings about her, was j my wife. • I stood transfixed by the sight, with all the power of motion gone from me, and while I stared at her she reached her feet, and marched deliberately up the steps, and by me into the house, with the lines of her face drawn tight and hard. I mechanically followed. "How on earth came you down there ?" I managed to ask. " How do you suppose I came there?" she retorted. " I'm sure you didn't run there, because you were just talking about that, and you said—" " For heaven's sake stop your noise," she angrily cried. " You are enough to drive a saint mad with your talk. I fell, and you know I fell, and if you had any gumption about you, or cared for me one bit, you would have shovelled the ice from that stoop an hour ago." And then she darted out of the room, shutting the door as if it required all her strc*igth to do it, and I came l)ack to this writing, and am trying my best to reconcile the several elements of the situation. No. 4.— GOING HOME TO REST. My wife said yesterday she guessed The Man Next Door was sick. She saw hnn come back from down street about nine o'clock. He was walking slowly, and ap- peared to be tired and worn out. Knowing him to be of a very nervous temperament, and that he had some severe financial diffi- culties to contend with in the jiast month, I supposed he had given up for the time being. Shortly Itefore the dinner hour he came in, an « #• THE DANBURY BOOM. 61 sst em don't believe ahe can. That pot I got down waa tlie beginning of the evil. She wanted to know, ua long as 1 was up, if I wouldn t lift a big geraniiun in the kitchen, as it wa!^ too much for her. No sooner had I done that than there were two more pots for me to lift, and when I iiad carried them out, there was anotl-.er to take down from the bracket ; and in less than five minutes she had me carrying unwashed pota into the kitchen, and wet pots and dripping plants back into tha room. Then she asked me to lift them into tkuir places, and wanted to know if 1 wouldn't tack the ivy in tlie arch, and go down cellar after a board for a bench. And there was the table and chair full of wet pots, and the floor littered with deaouTs. The deacon is a iMagnifieent speci- men of what a great many people believe a deacon should be. lie is straight and stiff and thin. Come to think it over, I don't believe I ever saw a real fat, chunky deacon, although Ibelieve they are picking uj) in this particular throughout the country, and that there is a growing belief that more meat on their bones would not seriously interfere M'ith their filling the office. Deacon Stough- ton is thin, and built just right for visiting people in an official capacity, as his body, you can see at a glance, would be perfectly at home in a straight-backed, weak -legged chair. The deacon has no colour in his face. Colour is too suggestive of good living and good digestion, neither of which would be- come a deacon. The deacon's clothes are as void of levity as his face and fate, and must be a great comfort to liim. They are black, so far as the outer garments are concerned, and as austere as a hearse. His linen is as white as his coat is black. It is of his linen that I now wish to speak particularly. Last Sunday morning the deacon changed his shirt, as is his custom. On buttoning it at the back (for he has made a concessicjn in favour of the open-backed article) he dis- covered that the button was off. There was no otiier shirt available at. the time, and the deacon was in a fix. When his wife learned the trouble, she briskly said that she would sew on a button at once. This announcement nearly threw the deacon into a fit. As it was, he was petri- fied with horror. It was Sunday, the day set apart for re^t and meditation, wherein should be performed no worldly labour, and here was a woman, the wife of a deacon, un- blushingly pi'oposing to get out her work- basket and other carnal matters, and sew on that button. It seemed incredible. He wanted to believe it was but the offshix^t of a disordered fancy, which would dissolve into space when he awoke. But it was au THE pANBURY BOOM. 63 hat actual fact, distasteful as it was to admit it, ami tlu' (leaoDU was ftjrced to believe that his wife had really pruposod the sacrilege. Aside from tiie oti'ence of the aut, it was inoitifyiug to the doaeou's pride that l»is wife, wlio had enjoyed so many years of hia edifying example, had profited so little by it. It was painfully evident that there was a Very laige screw loose somewhere iu the moral fabric he had been rearing. When he got his breath, and had in a measure regained hia ordinary composure, he declined tiie shirt-button, and rebuked her who liad suggested it. There Mas plenty of time in tiie six days of the week to sew on buttons witiiout desecrating the seventh with that service. H hoped he knew his duty, and as long as he retained his reason he would never be guilty of sucii a sin. A highly respectable pin wa.s made to hold the shirt together and the collar iu its place, and the deacon went to church, very much pleased with his own righteousness, however he may have felt in regard to Ins wife's. At any rate, his firmness in the riglit must have a salutary etfect upon her, acting some- what in the nature of a moral astringent upon her loose idea of rectitude. But a pin is not always a good substitute for a button, however useful it may be in otlier ways, or however good may have been its intentions in this. The deacon's pin was moral, but restless. This last (juality began to manifest itself seriously before the sermon had tairly started. The point got into his flesh and smarted. Not severely, to be sure, but in a small manner tliat was exceedingly annoying, and sutticient in itself to draw hia attention from the discourse, desj)ite his desperate endeavours to keep his mind upon it. A pin is a very triflin;^' affair, to be ajire, but it succeeded in completely filling the deacon's thoughts before the sermon was done, and the various things he thought of in regard to that pin would have astonished and pained him beyond measure had he seen them mirrored in another's mind. Arter the service several sought to engage him in pleasant and edifying converse on church work, but the pin had the upper hund, and hia lack of sympathy was so mani- fest, that the brethren abandoned their ef- forts, and retired with grave forebodings. In the Sunday-school, where he services as superintendent, nothing went smoothly that noon. He thought his officials were never so stupid, the teachers never so negligent, the scholars never so noisy and ungodly general- ly, as they were then, and he had to apeak iu severe rebuke to a number of them. But it was not the deacon who was doing this. It was that pin, that highly respect* al>le pin. When he waa asked by the collec- tor what amount he was going to give this year for foreign missions, tlie pm spoke up at once, and said it guessed enough had been done for the heathen already, and that it was about time they lof)ked aiterthemselvea. The collector, who did not see the pin, thought it was the deacon who spoke, and went away half stunned. It was the pin that answered a call to visit a sick neighbour with ti)e remark tiiat he had something else to do. It was the pin that forbade books being given out to the sciiool tliat day, because tliecTiildren were un- ruly, andshou'd be punished. It was the pin tluit caused him to meet pleasant salutations with such stiffness as to disperse the sun- shine from the facs he met. It was the pin that nuido him stalk home in advance of his wife, and leave her tc get there alone. And it was the pin that ahowtd him how cold was his dining-room, how late was his din- ner, how unfeeling and irreverent were his children, how much that was dissatisying and uncomfortable and annoying all about him. Despite its pretensions, that pin waa al- most as wicked as a button would have been in its place, and the deacon was glad indeed when Monday came, and the button could return without sin. No. 7.— MR. FERGUSON'S GRAVE- YARD. An old gentleman na'iied Hutchings, who lives in Hudson, N. Y., was it my house the other evening. He wa* full of reminiscences of the pa.st of our villa 'e, and told many in- teresting stories. One of them I have thought best to preserve in this . olumn, as a pii;tuie of a phase of human weakness tliat is not, I am thankful to saj, common. The time of the incident was the building of our railroad, some twenty years ago. A mafi named Ferguson lived then in Perkins- town, on the route. He waa a fanner, and owned a piece of land in a ravine through which the road was to run. This piece waa so situated that the company could not avoid crossing it with their line, unless mak- ing a turn at a very great expense. There was scarcely a half-acre in the piece, and it was a mound of rocks It might have been worth to the company about forty dollars. If any one else had offered twenty-five dol- lars for it, the Perkinstownera would have thought that he was going to put up an asy- lum for the insane, and stock it himself. The commissioner who was instructed to deal with Mr. Ferguson made him the liberal 64 THE DANBURY BOOM. \ i'. t'l !• i J offer of fifty dollars for the I.iikI. Mr. Fer- guson (loolinc'fl it. Mc had his own ideua ot the matter, Railroads were not coniitioii. Thoy did not oven come oiu e a year, and it was very roason.'dde to Ijeli've that aimtlicr would not take in Fcrkinstown (hiring Mr. FerguHoa's lifetime, ft was his idea to make the most of this on-, Mr. FY'rgusoii saul hn would seethe com- missioner the next day, He wanted to slee|i on the matter over night. I'ut he didn't sleep much that night. Mrs. Ferguson was de.id. She had heen dead a couple of years or thercaliouts. Slie had heen a sickly woman for tlie last years of her life, and not exactly a helpmeet to Mr. Ferguson, who had been ol)ligeh;isaiit matter to disturb the dead. \ Ou are a huHli.iud yourself, perhaps. N'ou can understand this, sir." The coinnii>>*ioner said he was not prepared to deal with the (piestion in this new liglit, and would have to consult the company; with tliat lie n'tired. Mefore negotiations were renewed theatTair came to tlie knowledge of the neiglil»ours, mid tliey st.irteil up such an uproar aliout .Mr. Ferguson "s ears, thiit that bereaved man took up his wife, and put her liack under the peach-trees without charging the railroad cf)nipaiiy a cent. And yet when they came to settle ff»r the land, that ungrateful company would not allow hiin but thirty dollars for it, and he had to take it. Truly, corporations liave no souls. N,'). 8.— THI'] VALUE OF STYLE. Tt is 'I little singular that however many styles of hilts a man I iiy, any one of them will do on a pinch. It is dilf'erent with the otiicr sex A hat must he in the style, and the style must lie clearly diitined, or the hat itself cannot be worn. 'J'his matter has coifie to me in a vague form for several years, but ones ^bat matter ? You wore it last Sun- dai." leoi 4 THR DANBURY BOOM. " I know T (lifl, " Hhfl answeml. " W.ll, tlicn,". I a.lilfd, still in the dnrk, and f^pttin^ further into the mire, *' what is to hinder your wearing it to-ilay ?" " Kec-ause it ain't in the Btylo," ihe an- ■were*!. "But. great heavens!" I answered, "if one week ago it was all right, what ia to hin- der it from heing all right to-day?" Then Hhe burst into tears, and I dropped the mutter. Tiie conversation hctwecn her and Miss Houniker, Saturday night, wa« in regard to attending a sociable on tlio WcMlnesday ev- ening ol this week. My wife did not know oertaiidy whether she could go. Miss Houn- iker was sure slie could not go. The rea- son, mainly, that led Miss Houniker t.) this conclusion was that while her silk was a brown— the silk she de igned to wear— her hat was gray. My wife could not go, also. Her hat was an autumn hat, full as warm to the heaoor has one child, a boy. This makes a family of three. She has a girl to help her do the work, and, as I glean- ed from her remarks, even then had dilficul- ty in getting through on time, and was all fagged out when night came. Her husband caught upon her subject after a while, and drifted into it. Presently he said, speaking more particularly to me, — "Blamed if I understand this business. Here a couple get married, a'ld go to keep- ing house. After th«!y've got a child the woman must have a girl. She can't go uloii^ after tnat without help. She must have a firl, even if she goes without something elao. don't understand it all, unless the .sex have mightily ch.tnged in the past tliirty years, and have grown consideralily wtiaker. 'IMiir- ty years ago yon didn't hear of su(^h tliingH. There were eight of us in our family, and mother did all the worK for the entire lot, ami didn't seem to be put out much }»y it either. And then 1 n'meml)er the familieH in our neighbourhood, when I was a hoy, ii number of them that had several childnui ajneco, and the women did the work. Tiiey may have had the washing done, something like that, but the work i+sclf they tended to th'-mselves. But nowadays, as soon as a child has come, then the work must be done by a girl. Women ain't what they were Uiirty years ago, by a long shot." "What if there were eight of your family, they weren't all little children, were they?" put in his wife. "No, but three or four of them were small." I was wondering what his wife would say to this, and was confident it would be some sort of feminine logic which didn't apply to the case. "A man knows a great deal about a wo- man's work," she said. I langlicd inwardly. "A woman," she continued, "didn't Jiave half so mucli to attend to thirty years age that she has now. " " Didn't, hey ? Wiiat's the reason, I'd like to know. Ain't a family of eiglit as much work as a family of three ?" he asked. "Yes, and more, but not as things were done then. I rem 'luber your hou.->e well. There was a kitchen and a parlour. Tiiere was no dining-room to keep in order, nor any sittiug-rooin. The parlour was shut up all the week, and rarely ojiened oidv when it was dusted. There was a recess off iioiu the kitchen where your mother slept, and the l)ed just tilled that, so there was no room there to sweep, with a dresser and toilet stand to keep in order. Up stairs there were two bedrooms and a store-room, liotli of them were plain and uncarpeted. Really there were but three rooms in the house to keep in order. " " Well, I don't see as that makes so inucli difference, " said The Man Next Door, in a slightly faltering voice. " If you did the work you'd see it quick enough. A family in the same circum- stances, nowadays, has a kitchen (carpeted at that), dining-room, and parlour, and per- haps a sitting-room, too All these rooms 66 THE DAKBURY BOOM. 11. e r i m ?>< I ': 1 n II are well furtiished vith a variety of knick- knacks that would not liave heen in use thirty years ago, and to keep them in order reciuires considerable care. Then there is scarcely a week but that tlie pai'lour is oc- cupied, and every tune it is used it has to he s\vei)t, and evcrytliing in it dusted. Tlien there are one or more beer of rooms thirty years ago. Then tliere i; the vi.- observe. " Yo"i missed one of the l)est sermons you ever heard. It was a powerful one, I can tell you. It was the gospel clean tlirough. I don't think I ever kiiowed Mr. Higlideeker to do so well as he did Sun- day." " I am glad to pleased with the about ?'' I asked. " It was about charity, and I tell you he just give it to 'em. His text he took from l\aul, where Paul says that if a man d(jes this or that, or whatever he does, or how good it may be, yet if there ain't charity in his heart, all the good he does don't amount to a row of ])ins. I've been thinking of it all the week, and I tell you them are the ser- mons that count that keep you a-thinking of 'em. Them things you hear so much al)out in the pulpits nowadays— all about science and such folderol — go in one ear and out of the other, and you'll better heard nothing at all in the ffrst place. That's just what I think aliout it." I fully agreed with my friend on this head, and then asked her what sort of point Mr. Higlideeker has made of the text. i "He went on to say," she continued, ' " that there was too much talk, and too THE MULTI- little done in the way of charity. And I could see who he was slapping there. He said that thinking good, and then doing no- thing to bring it about, did'nt amount to anything, and of course it don't. He said that we'd better not think good at all if we was agoing to let it stop right there. Never thought of it i'.i that light, but I can see that he is right ; for, as he said, if we think we will do soiiiething for somebody, and don't go and act on it, we just weaken our- selves, and ain't done a mite of uood to anv- bo.ly." The old lady paused and sighed, and presently continued, as the tears filled her eyes,-— " He talked so beautifully of our love for each other, how patient we should be, how much of suff'ering there was in the hearts of people, how much of good there was in those about us if we'd only take the trouble to ffiid it out, but we go on our own way, wrapjied up in .self, and never take notice of the aches, and trials, and burdens all annind us. I couldn't keep from crying all the while he WPP^ "ins THE DANBURY BOOM. 67 ■was talking, I felt so bad, and all the week I've been thinking it over. I tell you we ain't got charity enough for other folks, we ain't patient enough, we don't have sympa- thy we had oughter ; we just go right along thinking the very worst of them, when all the time they may be enduring things that would make us no better than they are." The old ladj' wiped her eyes, and turned them to the window. "Just see that brazen-faced hussy I" she suddenly and unexpectedly exclaimed. And looking hastily through the window, I was in time to see the offending neighbour go by- " If there's a body I despise on this earth," energetically observed Mr. Highdecker's ad- mirer, " it is that bold-faced thing. " I then withdrew. No. 11.— ENUMERATING CHICKENS. Mr. and Mrs. Potfts live on oar street. They are a young married couple ; that is, they have been married but seven or eiglit years. Mr Potts is a workman in our only fac- tory. He is a very good mechanic, and as such has his aspirations to better himseli, Mrs. Potts is an ordinary woman, somewhat fond of making what show is possible with the means she has at her command. A short time ago he invested with a fel- low-workman in a lottery. The prize he had set his he^rt on was of the value of flO,- 000. By drawing this he would come into one half of it, which would be $2,000. With so much money as that there was no end to the things he could accomplish. He told his wife about it, and they had a long talk over tlie future as this amount was to shape it. In the mean time they both built their o-^n plans for the disposal of tlie amount — the chief of these was a house of their own. They picked tut a desirable lot in tlie village on one of the best streets, and drew plans of the style of house they would put up. Twice they walked over to the lot, and carefully examined it in tlie moonlight. The night before they were to receive the results of tlie drawing they harmonized on a plan for the house, and got it satisfac- torily furnished throughout, with the excep- tion of the sitting-room and parlour. Slio said nothing but a Brussels carpet would do for the floors of these apartments. He believed three-ply ingrain would look fully as well, besides being much cheaper. He couldn't put all the money in the house. He wanted some to spare for several mecha- nical experiments he had in view. " But ingrain carpets are so common," she interposed. " The best kinds ain't," he answered. " I saw some the other day that looked just like Brussels. You couldn't tell 'em from the real Brussels." "But they ain't Brussels, and folks would find it out mighty quick." " What if they did? Are we obliged to put down carpets to suit other people, wheth- er we can atford it or not ?" he inquired. "Afford it! What are you going to do with all the money, then, I'd like to know ? And how much more is Brussels carpeting going to cost than first-class ingrain .? Twen- ty-five dollars would cover the whole differ- ence, and I'd like to know how twenty -five dollars could be spent to better advantage. It would make the rooms look fifty dollars better." " But what's the reason a nice ingrain car- pet would not do just as well ?" he persisted. " Because ingrain ain't as stylish as Brus- sels. Everybody knows that, and if we are going to have things in style, we have got to have Brussels carpet on those floors. In- gi-ain would only make fools of the other things. " " I tell you a first-class ingrain carpet is just as well, and, at any rate, there ain't enough difference to amount to twenty-rive dollars. Mother had ingrain on her parlour, and if it is good enough for her it is good enough for me. " " I don't care if she did," returned Mrs. Potts; "her house wasn't like this, and if she was a mind to put up with an ingrain carpet, that isn t to say that I shouhl." " She might have had a Brussels if she'd wanted it," he answered back, " but she had some sense about the matter. " " Wliich means, I suppose, that I've got none," she indiscreetly observed. " You can take it as you please," was his gruff permission. "I hope you are polite enough," she said, flushing slightly. He made no answer. It wa^ that sort of stubborn silence some people fall into on inappropriate occasions. " There shall be a Brussels carpet in those rooms if I can have anything to say in the matter, " she asserted. " There won't if I know myself," he ob- stinately responded. "I wouldn't be a brute," said she, "I wouldn't be a fool," he retorted. Then she burst into tears, and went off to bed, and he sat there alone brooding over her ill-temper and nursing his own. What misery may have grown out of this unpleasant affair will never be known, as the 68 THE DANBURY BOOM. ,1 . ', M i;» nil ■^ fi 'f prize was drawn by somebody out West, and too far West for a Brussels carpet to go. No. 12.— MARTHA'S IDEAL. W^hen I was a boy Martha was twenty years of age. She was an ahnost constant companion of my sisters, and a very familiar object to me. Martha was peculiar. I didn't know anything about this, but I usedtohear my sisters speak of it. I knew she was a quiet girl, and imagined she was somewhat of a dreamei*. I believed, without knowing much about it, or reasoning over it, that she was particular. Perhaps her peculiarities arose from her nature to be particular. But that is neither hei'e nor there. Martha was a dreamer. Slie had an Ideal, not of life, which we all should have, but of a husband ; the man who was some time to come to her out of the future, and lay his all at her feet. Time has developed that the husband in question was pretty deep into the future iit that jieriod. This picture of the Ideal was carried so long in Martha's heart, that it became a constant thought with her, and eventually it was confided to the admir- ing gaze of my sisters. Of course she found plenty of sympathy with them. I suppose Martha must have taken a great deal of com- fort in dreaming of the Ideal, and wonder- ing wlien he would come, and under what circumstances he would appear. Martha had selected a model for herldeal. The Ideal was to have black hair and eyes. The Ideal was to have a dark complexion. The Ideal was to be faultless in dress and manners. I remember one thing particular about the Ideal. He was not to smoke. I never heard Martha say so exactly, but I once heard her say that no gentleman woulil smoke in the presence of a lady, even on the street, and this implied as much. The Ideal was a genth'Uian, of course. The use of to- bacco, Martha said, was nasty and vulgar. Tiie Ideal was certainly not vulgar. Martha went on clicrisliing her Ideal, and eighteen years after my acciuaintance with her l)egan, she married. A greater part of that time the two families were separated, en.nd I rarely saw Martha. Since her marri- age I have seen her less than formerly. It was a year after that event that I first saw her husband. He is a mason, sober, indus- trious, and frugal , a very good man, indeed. Tliey have been marrietl three years or more. This afternoon I was looking aindessly froni my window, when I saw Martha's hus- band coming across tlie street. 1 was look- ing at liim carelessly when the far-away past suddenly flashed before me. This was not Martha's husband alone, coming toward me : it was the Ideal ia well. Here was a fulfilled dream, a hope come to fruition. I looked at him closely. The Ideal, clothed with real flesh and biood, is a man about forty-live years old. In height he is live feet seven or eight. He weighs about two hundred and ten pounds. He has got a round face, and wears short side whiskers. His hair is sandy, thick, and curls outwanl where it curls at all. He wears a soft hat, ami there are marks of mor- tar on it. On his legs are a pair of browa overalls, the ends of which are stuck in his boots. I noticed, as he passes the window, that the Ideal runs over his boots at the heal. A thick, heavy coat, witli the origi- nal colon*' burned out of the shoulder by the sun, is vVi the Ideal's back. About tlie Ide- als neck, loosely wound, and with the knot located in an unpleasantly suggestive manner under his left ear, is a red and green and yellow comforter. The Ideal carries a white- wash brush in one hand, and the other hand is housed in his coat pocket. lu the Ideal's mouth is a short-stemmed clay pipe. I cannot heip but wish that I iiad not seea this ; or, having seen it, that I might hclieve it was got for the formation of soap bubbles, but a delicate column of smoke curls upward from it, and carries the desired illusion sky- ward. No. 13. — SPECULATIONS CUSTOM. ON A Much is said of leap year, the gist of which appears to reflect on the treutler sex. The rare privilege is accorded to them to do just as the men do, and I trust they are suttici- cntly grateful for the same, although I can )U)t say that I ev»;r knew of a woman avail- ing herself of the same. Still, it nmst be a comfort to them to know that for a whole year they are not obliged to wait for the man, but can pitch in for themselves. It is harder to \yait than to do. Action brings relief to the pressun^ on brain and head, but waiting has no relief. This is, 1 suspect, tlio reason a woman is more patient than a man. I am led, in tlie considerati'^n of this asjji'ut of the case, to realize how liard is the lot of the female of our specie. At church, for instance, she is not sure of an escort home uidess provided for before- hand. And if a.n oiler comes, it is more tiian likely it will be from one she cares nothing about. A man has his choice in these mat- ters. A woman is subject to the choice of atiother, or compelled to go without. I am afraid maJi don't fully comprehend his bless- ings. On the other hand, there is a good deal of ii THE DANBURY BOOM. 69 I 4. of wear and tear the woman escapes, and before she concludes to take advantage of leap year she should consider the ground fully. To take the man's place and do the courtinsf, she is oblij^ed to do many things. She must be indifferent to the weather. The true lover goes at all times. She has got to take her stand in a line of not very particular young men before the church door every Sunday e\ening, and risk are!usalfor an escort from the one she ad- mires, and submit to the raillery of the gang if the refusal comes. There is no a"oiding this. If she goes a piece away from the church and the glare of light to wait for her object, she is either certain, in the dark, to miss him, or to find that he has been gobbled up by some less sensitive rival. She has got to have legs like those of an antelope, to enable her to climb over people in the pursuit of her prey. She has either got to have an umbrella of her own, or know wliei-e she can borrow one without the loss of any time. She has got to have the money to buy, and the judgment to select, candy, fruit, and mits. She has got to have a constitution to stand a lunch of pickles and cake after midnight, three or more times a week. Slie has got to do most of the kissing and about all the talking, — that is, the talk that bears most directly on the subject. She has got to hold him from three to five hours at a stretch, even if he should weigh half a ton. She has got to give him two-thirds of the umbrella. She lias got to carry his basket to the pic- nic, and figlit the wasps away fronj him. She has got to wade into the lake after pond lilies. She has got to take the outside of the walk, and bully everybody, from the usher in the opei'a-house to the waiter in the ice- crc.un saloon. These brief outlines convey but a sample of what she has got to do to •' be a man " in love. If she is really going to attempt it, she can have all the particuhvrs by addressing me. Please enclose a stamp. THE MIGiiSES' THANKSGIVING. Mr, Miggs is a painter. It is not the business Mr. Miggs' father dtsignod him to follow, but under that peculiar combination of influences which serves to so form the cir- cumstanoes of the unfortunate in this world's goods as to drift them that way, Mr. Miggs became a painter. There is a fatality about this that no man can any more explain than the victim himself can resist. When a man commences to run down at the heel, as the saying is, it is safe to predict that he will be* come a painter. We do not mean, by this, that the paint-pot is a deepest for the hous- ing alone of the shifting ventures in the business world. We are of the belief that, as a trade, it requires careful study, intelli- gence, anil application, and that to be a good painter is just as mucti a task and an honour as to be a good carpenter. But people un- fortunate in their plans eventually become paintt;rs. Mr. Miggs was apprentice to a hatter, but gave up when midway in the trade, and resolved to become a carriage* trimmer, as being a much more genteel aa well as easier mode of earning a living. The attractions of the business were, at a later period, entirely eclipsed by the glittering generalities of fish peddling, and Mr. Migga speedily lost himself in the voluptuous sur- roundings of a fish market. It was easy enough, after this, to approach painting, and before Mr. Miggs himself hardly realized it he was a painter, with a pair of overalls of his own, and a glaze cap, which latter is generally admitted to be of incalculable ad- vantage in painting. Four weeks of patient study, and Mr. Miggs was smearing barns, fences, and unpretentious houses on his own account. More than that, he had aspira- tions, including painting the lily and gilding refined gold, and was given to devoting whole hours to studying public buildings, or to silence so impenetrable as to be oppres- sively significant. Mr. Miggs 's friends soon got the impression that he was on the verge of an in^mense business, anl would not have been surprised to have heard any day that he had an order for touching up the universe iu three colours. Pretty soon Mr. Miggs went back to the fish market, in order to occupy his time while leading citizens, contemplat- ing improvements in their residences, were making up their minds. And so be- tween the fish -horn ai.d the paint-brush, Mr. Miggs and his overalls and glaze cap went through the years, and an atmofj^/'.iere of decided odours impartially contriljuted by fish and paint. And now Thanksgiving day, 1877, has ap- proached, and Mr Miggs, with his heart full of patriotism, l)coau3e he oan look at the day in no other light than that of patriotic glow, sets to work to appropriately celebrate the occasion. From painting to fish vending, Mr. Miggs has succeeded in accumulating, in the past te as were not devoted to indignantly swooping down on the boys, and rescuing the celery from their piratical incursions, or passionately calling upon heaven (his only reference in that direction) to just make a note of the extraordinary holiowness of their anatomy, he would proud- ly oliserve, referring to the turkey, "That's a buster, an' no mistake," "I guess some folks can have turkey as well as some other folks,"' " I'll bet there ain't one man in fifty who could pick out a turkey like that," and other observations of a like comforting and instructive nature. After dinner Mr. Miggs put on his tippet, and wcnf off to see the member of the legis- lature from Danbury, who, it was under- stood, desired to confer with him in regard to frescoing the Capitol, and Mrs. Miggs sat down with a book entitled " True Love, " leaving the table standing. The three boys adjourned into the back shed, where the old- est two, failing to dispossess the youngest of the wish-bone by the transfer of a piei'e of green glass, immediately fell upon him with a view to accomplishing their purpose by violence, in whicli process a shelf containing a variety of articles was brought down with its contents, and in turn brought out the half-cra/ed mother, who pulled her progeny from niuler the wreck by such portions of their persons as appeared to view, and hav- ing culled them impartially on both sides of the head, set thein on chairs as far apart as the size of the room would admit. And there they remained in misery's highest estate, nursing their wounded persons and feelings, and scowling gloomily upon their mother whi'iiever her turned l)ack permitted. When night closed in, the full significance of the glad festival was summed up by Mrs. Miggs in one sentence, — "Tiiank heaven, this day is over with 1" YOUNG MR. BOBBS. There is a marvellous variety in human nature. We are not all alike, and it is just as well, perhaps, that we are not. Some people are endowed witTi a propensity for what they call fun, that sometimes overba- lances and controls every other attribute. Fun, as a general thing, is the suffering of one man enjoyed by another. No fun of this kind can be produced without cost, and the greater the cost the greater the fun. The more thoroughly a man enjoys fun, the more active, it will be found, is that portion of his mind devoted to evolving it. Such a man will bring to his object a keenness of percep- tion, a profundity of cogitation, and n fer- tility of resource, that, if devoted to .-ome legitimate result, would hasten the millen- nium amazingly. Young Mr. Bobbs, clerk for Merrills, the grocer, is one of this kind. The economy of nature finds its best expon- ent in young Bobbs. His face is of that ex- pression which invites confidence, being co- lourless, while his ready manr.er, and anxie- ty to be agreeable, make him a charming person to deal with, and one who would quickly and most favourably impress a stran- ger. Young Bobbs is popular with elderly people and ladies, because of his cheerful readiness to oblige them, but to those of his own sex and age he is an object of consider- able distrust. The immovable expression of his quiet and subdued face would make his fortune on the stage ; off the stage, we are mm 72 TiiE DANBURY BOOM. W f I inclined to believe, it will prove his death. It was in the middle of the afteruoon, in the middle of the week. A dull day in the giocery. Mr. Merrilla was out in the coun- try buying produce. Young Bobba was alone in the store, and, having nothing better to do, was eating crackers and sugar, in the proportion of four ounces of sugar to one ounce of cracker, as is customary with gro- cery clerks. While thus engaged, a man came in. He was an ordinary-looking ])ar- ty, but he was a stranger, and young Bobbs put down a well-loaded cracker to attend to him. The stranger did not want to trade. He was the owner of a valuable new paint for roofs. He called to see if he could get a con- tract to apply it to this building. Young Bobbs' sympathy was aroused. He inquired into the merits of the paint, and soon learned it stood unparalleled in excellence. Young "Bobbs was delighted. He had no doubt that the stranger would be eminently suc- cessful in prosecuting his business in Dan- bury, The various roofs were fairly yelling out for paint. He was sorry that the owner of this building was not at home, but lie was certain that he would have it painted the moment he got back. Young Bobbs was looking out of the win- dow as he saitl this, and his eyes caught the large and fair proportions of the Wooster House. The glancfe that rested upon it Lriglitened. "Come to tink," he suddenly said, "there's the hotel. I have no doubt father would have the roof painted. I know there has been ccmsiderable trouble from its leaking. " " Oh, that's your father's, is it ?" said the manM'iththe paint.aud liis eyesalso brighten- ed. " Well, I've no doubt my stuff will Hxit. If it don't, you know, I don't ask any pay." "Certainly." " Where is your father ?" "He's gone a-way to-day, but will be back ■to-morrow,' explained young Bobbs, while his face ueamed with ineti'able purity. •* What would it cost to paint the roof ?" The man said hecouhln't tell until he knew itij dimensions. He sup^)osed he could go over and nieasure it now. Young Bobbs said he could see no objection to that, so the man went. Pretty soon lie came back, and told ^foiiiig Bobl)s that, owing to the nuinerous angles, lie couM'i't get the numl)er of S(iuare t'eot to any degree of nicety. Was there a surveyor in town ? There was, and young B'»bbs' kindly gave liim the aildress. Tiien the owner of the extraordinary paint hunted up the surveyor, and they both proceeded to the roof and got the exact measure. The •tranger paid the surveyor, three dollars for the job, and reporteu oack to young liobbs the full and exact figures, which that young gentleman took down in a little booK with due solemnity, thereby making a most fav- ourable impression upon the paint party. At this juncture it occurred to young Bobba to indicate a substantial residence in sight of the store door as the place of abode of his parents. There was a trouble with its roof, and it was only the day before that young Bobbs had heard his father say that tlie roof must have a coat of paint if it was to be saved at all. The stranger said if there was no ob- jection he would go right over and measure it. Young Bobbs thought it was an admir- able idea. So he went. He was in excellent sjiirits. He was having the best of luck, and was not sure but that he had struck a com- plete bonanza, He found the doors of the hou.se locked, so, after an unsuccessful search over the premises, he went across the way to a livery stable and borrowed a ladder. By a great effort he got it to the house and up the roof, and ascended thereto. It was a gable r, ., and not an easy one to go around on \> ,1 tape line. Once he came within an aco of going off and dashing upon the hard ground below, but he saved himself by a sharp wrench of the body, which nearly dis- located his spine. The wife of the old gentleman who owned tlie property was taking a nap on the lounge inside, when the noise made by the ladder awakened her. She looked about the rooms for the cause of the disturbance, but not find- ing it, went outside, when she saw the ladder and the pair of strange legs disappearing on the roof. Puzzled by this soectacle, she went farther into the yard to get a glimpse of the roof, and then ol)8erved the owner of the marvel- lous paint l)usily engaged with his tape line. At the same time her huahand came upon the scene. ■ ' What's that man doing up there ? " he ask- ed. That was what she wanted explained. "Hello, there ! " he shouted. The painter looked down, and seeing what he believed to ))e the owner of the place. hi» smiled, and said, — " Hello ! I couldn t find any one at home, so I took the liberty of borrowing a ladder to get up here. I had a talk about it with your sou. " The painter here smiled pleasantly. " My son 1" exclaimed the ohl gentleman, staring from the paint man to his wife, and then back to the paint man again. " Yes, your boy in the grocery over there, said the painter, still smiling, and indicating Merrill's place with his finger. ri i it THE DAXBURY BOOM. 73 '* I ain't got any hoy in tlie grocery over there," protested the old gentleman, very miicii perplexed. The paint man cut down his smile one half, as he observed, "Then you ain't the pro- prietor of this house ?" "Yes, lam." " How's this ?" demanded the man on tlie toof, while the liglit, airy look went out of his face, and left it of a deathly and most disagreeable colour. "The young man ovtr at the grocery said his father liveil here, and that the roof wanted painting, and I am the agent of a new paint for roofs, and so I came over here, at his suggestion, to take the mea- sure of the roof, so as to give the figures. " As the paint man said this, he looked at the ladder, and mechanically took in its mrght and size. The owner of the house looked at his wife. "It's young Bobbs, over at the grocery ; bat it can't be him, " she said. Her husband turned to the paint man. " That young man over there is not my son." " Don't his father own the hotel ?" gasped the owner of the extraordinary paint. " Cx^rtainly not. He ain't got any father ; he's been dead ten years. " What the introducer of a new and valuable roof paint thought, as he strained his tendons in lugging that ladder back home, was awful; v'hat he said was simply appalling. It is more than likely that had he not been a stranger, with the timidity inseparable from that relationship, young Bobbs would have been ground into an indistinguishable pulp. RAHiWAY STATION SIGHTS. The position which a plug hat occupies in a railway station late at night is no sinecure. Not by any means. A January midnight in the winter of 1877 found a plug hat thus situated, in the station at Milwaukee, The owner of this hat was a little man in rusty black clothes, just as rusty as the hat itself. He was short in legs, short in body, and short neck ; but he had long hair, and a long chin. His hair was a pepper and salt, straight, thiv k, and undressed. It was a short plug hat, vith a rather rakish brim of some width. It V as almost one o'clock. Some twenty people were waiting for the train, in that pe- culiarly aimless way in which people wait *or a train late in the night. There were men cramped upon the seats, and trying in their sleep to do what they never could succeed in doing if awake, to keep comfortable in them. There was a man who had a huoky voice which found no expression, but I knew by his clothes, and the hairy appearance of his neck. that his voice was husky ; he had a big bundle on the seat beside him, and a humble valise between his k-gs. He looked straiglit aiiead, and neitlier turned his eyes to tiie ni,'ht nor to the left. There was a youth with long, uncombed hair, and a timid, ex- pressionless face, and a valise. Ho didn't sit down, but moved around staring at tlu. time- cables and advertisements. In a corner with a Lantern between them were three tobacco chewers in coarse clothes, who were attaches of the railway, and who were strainiiig their ears to catch every word, as is common with men when they liave got nothing of tiieir OMn to inteiest then" Every few minutes some one would come in, and by so doing attract the liveliest attention of every one awake, and would then go out again. At regular periods a man would come in, — a man smell- ing of oil, — set down a lanterv., diao^ off a pair of gloves, deliberately look about the room, put on his gloves again, take up his lantern, and disappear. At about the same interval a tall, slim young man in a straight, long, biark overcoat buttoned up to his neck, with a light growth of side whiskers on hia face, a straight, emotional mouth, and cal- culating eyes, — a man about twenty-eight years old, but with a face that will look no dittereiit when he is sixty-four, — would ap- pear, his antics making one nervous by their mutfletl precision. Then a short, thick-set man in a short-tailed coat came in, went through a side door, and presently a glass slide, over which were the words " Ticket Office,' tlew up, and the well-kept face of tiie short, thick -set man appeared at the opening, and looked over the assem- bled passengers very much as a well-to-do farmer would look over a flock of his sheep. All this time the plup- hat was at work. The owner of the plug, not contemplating taking a sleeper on the coming train, had time by the forelock, and was doing his level best to keep hold. Being a little man, he got out as far as possible on the edge of the seat, and being a man of dignified proclivi- ties, he instinctively crossed liis legs. Thus lying back, he sought sleep. The part which the plug hat took in the performance was most creditable. It was perched across his forehead, with a view, I think, to shut out the glare of the gaslight from his eyes. A more uneasy plug hat never went travell- ing with a well-disposed man. No sooner would he get it located just right, and pro- ceed to close his eyes, when it would inst mt- ly tilt over to one side, callingforth the most surprising activity on his part to save it from going to the floor. He never lost his faith, or his courage, or his hope. After every failure he would patiently replace it, close ^^. 74 THE DA^BURY BOOM. s his eyes, and immediately dart after itagjvin. And tlius he rested anil refreshed himself. Some people are not fit to travel by them- Belves. I tliink the time will come when railway stations will be placarded to the ef- fect tiiat "No nervous person shall be al- lowed to pass over ttiis road except when properly checked as luggage, unless accom- panied by some competent person as keeper. " riiis feeling oi" not knowing which is your train, and, when discovered, not knowing when it is to start, is the refinement of dis- tress, 1 will admit, — especially to helpless outsiders. But people pernnt them to glow upon them. They ask (juestions before the questions are ready, and thus they come in BUcii a shape as nut to be understood by the party intjuired of, And they have so many queries to propound that they cannot pos- sibly keep track of the answers, even if the answers should be correct. Consequently there is confusion, and distress, and distem- ; per, and dyspepsia, and other consequences i still more disastrous. Evei-y train hauled ■ into the station at Cleveland near meal hour j stops there twenty minutes for refreshment. :' Every man who travels craves refreshment. i . Eating is an excellent way to pass the time, 1 and the cars are very much like the Sabbath II ! in this respect. I do not think the human stomach is able to distinguish a train of cars from Sunday. On the particular evening of which I write, a train f'om the East drew into the Cleve- land station. On the front platform of the first passenger car stood a man with a mon- strous valise grasped in his right hand, while the left hanil clutched the rail. There was a look of anxiety blended with expectation in his face. Just before the train stopped he jumi>ed down, and hurried across to the refreshmunt-i'oom and disappeared in the door. The next instant I saw through the window that he was ranged in front of tlie counter, plying his eyes across tlie spread, and fumbling in his pockets. Other passen- gers leisurely t'ot down fi'oin the cars, went into the dining-room, and sat down to a oom- fort.ilile supper. Some three minutes passed when the locomotive bell smute the air with its dreadful sound. The nervous passenger with the monstrous valise appeared at the door with a promptness that unpleasantly suggested he was attached to the bell, and was controlled by its action. One glance showed him that the train was moving. With a look of horror overspreadim; that part of his countenance not occupied by a generous bite of ham sandwich, he flew across the intervening s}>ace at a speed that v as simply marvellous, the valise making time on his legs at every leap. Reaching the car , platform he clutched the r.-til with the hand containing the unfinished sandwich, and clambered upon his knees on the platform, and daited into the car, leaving that part of the rail whicii he had grasped neatly incrust- ed with a mixture of bread, ham, butter, and mustard. He settled down into the seat with a shiver of horror, somewhat modified by a sigh of relief, and hugged the valise in- to his lap. Then the tiain stopped, the lo- comotive moved away, the passengers finish- ed their sup))er, came outside and lighted their cigars, anil sauntered up and down the platform, while the man of the sandwich sat in the car and looked out of the window upon those people, and the radroad otiicials, and the general scenery, with feelings too deep and intense to permit of any adequate ex- pression. THE BOOK FIEND AT HOME. It was in the kitchen on the second floor of a Danbury house. The occupants of the room itself indicated that it was not an abode of wealth. The husband and father was a mechanic two months out of work, with no immediate prospects of a resumption at his trade. He was a light-faced man with rounded should- ers, thin, straight brown hair, and light blue eyes, with a careworn expression, not entire- ly hidden by the look of expectation which now filled them. The woman, his wife, had black hair, a pale, thin face, and preterna- turally large black eyes, — handsome eyes^ but very tired looking. They were sitting in this room because of its fire, as the night was damp, raw, and chilly. On the table between them were a pile of circulars of an advertising nature, which the two childi\n were admiring because of their large type and illusti'ations. The man ran his hands through his verj' thin hair on his head for the twemletli time, and said, — "Yes, sir, every book I sell fetches me a dollar. If I only sell five a day, that will be five dollars. Of course, there can be no doul.)t of selling five." Of course not. His mind contemplated a day's round among liis townspeople. He .saw that he could in ti)at time visit at least forty families, and one of every eight taking a book — a book so generally and cordially re- cominemled — was not an exaggerative fieak of the imagination. On the contrary — look- ing again over the formidalde array of re- connnends — this was a strikingly mild com- putation. Tliere was a twinge of regret that he had not taken the project in hand long ago. "But even three books," said his wife» THE DANBURY BOOM. 75 hopefully, " would pay well. Or two books. Two dollars a day ia a good sum. " The tired eyes looked around the scantily furnished room, over the threadbare clothes on her family, down at her own rusty gar- ments, and then grew rested again as tliey contemplated the two dollars. It was a very fifood sum indeed. Still, he did not so consider it. His eyes again sought the list of recommends, and his mind roved along the route he should take, iniilnding f(jrty visits, and he began to think tliat in fixing on rive sales a day he had done an injurious thing. What if there were ten? It was a ptutty good leap. But was it unreasonable ? If there were Hftreii it would be better. It would be a good joke if he was. in his highest Higiit, getting way below the mark. And it might possibly be 80. A .smile unconsciously crept into his face as these thoughts rilled his mind. "I ain't felt so encouraged in montlia, " he said to his wife. "We have bemoaned our ill-luck, but how rio we know but that my being thrown out of work was the best tiling that could happen me ?" "I hope so," said his wife. Poor woman ! She had need of encouragement. And it was a good thing to see the tired eyes bright- en. It was a long time since they had. He looked into her expectant face, and his own grc'.v brighter under the inspiration. Pres- ently he aroused himself with the remark, — " Well, I must get abroad early to-morrow morning, as I'll have a long day's work." Whereupon his wife prepared the children for bed, and pretty soon the father and mother retired, but hardly to sleep. At nine o'clock the next morning he was reaily to start. There was not as much en- thusiasm as on the evening before, but that could not be expected. Daylight is eminent- ly more ])ractical than lamplight. His pa- tient wife hail made his old suit look really pfesental)le, and had prepared him a Idneh of l)read and butter to eat at noon, for he expected to be too busy to come home to din- ner. The lunch lie carefully stowed away in his pocket, and his canvassing books he put under liis arm. He was hopeful, having just stimulated himself by another careful glance at the recommends. Still, the ex- pression of weariness was there, and tiie faith- ful woman who stood l)efore him looking in- to his face saw it more plainly than was good for her. His features showed thinner with the sunlight streaming upon them. She saw in all their lines tiie etiects of a long sickness that had takea all the earnings, and of a l)rof)ding and worry that had come from days of unsucc<'ssful search for work. From wedded life, and she saw in their record a steady, uncomplaining fight, and a constant, this her mind went back over the year of their tender love for her. Then she looked quick- ly into the careworn face again and oy an impluse which she could not control, threw her arms about his neck and sobbed aloud. " Lizzie !" he cried, dropping the booka to fold his arms about her. She made no reply, but only clung the tighter to him. With that delicacy of feeling, occasionally found among the poor even, he stroked her hair in silence, waiting patieutly for the paroxysm to pass away. He had no need to ask her why she crie«l. Every sob that con- vulsed her weak frame was olnquunt of a past full of bitter struggling, liut at hurt him to hear her, not that he minded the me* mory, as far as it affected himself, but only as it told of her suffering. "Oh, John, "she murmured in a broken voice, " we are so poor, we are so poor. God help us !" Then she lifted her head, wiped away the tears from her face, and smiled as she did it, to show him tiiat she was herself again. Thus reassured, he took his books again, and sallied forth. And the pitying husband was left behind, and a book-canvasser ap- peared instead. Striking off to another part of the town, his malignant presence soon darkened a doorway. The servant appeared in answer to the summons. She looked into his lean face, which, to a prejudiced person, had a somewhat sharkish aspect, and then at the parcel under his arm, and shook her head in a very depressing manner. " We don't want nothing," she said, and carefully closed the door. Owing to the lack of presence of mind on his part, he neglectetl to put his foot in the way and prevent the door from being closed, until he had had his own say, and thus the first opportunity was lost. He sighed, and went to the next door. Here he rang the bell twice, but there was no response. The occupants had seen him approach. Somewhat weakened in faith, he went to the third house. The family received him, thumbed over the specimen book, admired the pictures, and said they were not pre- pared to subscribe now, but could tell better in the spring. He had received considerable strength and hope from this reception, but he left it behind when he withdrew. He thought of his waiting wife and childreii.and instinctively wiped something from his eye, which, were he not a book-canvasser, might have done very well for a te^'. At the fourth house a wuftiun came to the door, gave him a hard look, and immediately 76 THE DANBURY BOOM. ^mi ; I i li f shut herself in. Not a word had been ex- chanRcd. He slowly retired. The next bnikhng was a luniber-ottice. A man with spectacL's was bont over some papt>ra at a desk. He looked up, and hearing the can- vasser, detected at a glance his niinsion, and stared coldly at him. Uur friend began, iu a faltering voice, — " I have calltd to solicit your — " " Tli.it'll do," said the liunber-man, in a stern voice, resuming his inspection of the papers on the desk. Tiie canvasser gave him a look as if he would like to knock him endways, and then witlidrew. Outside the building he paused a mLrtncnt, as if undecided what to do. He was strongly tempted to go home, and give up in despair, but the tliought of his poverty cnecked this impulse. He looked np ami down the almost ileserted street, on which the sun lay in a glare of heat. Not a ray of hope did lie detect in the buildin!:;s or in the ail He passed three houses without tlie courage to call on any of them. Those who saw him pass must have wondered if he was not ill, or deranged. At the fourtii house he stopped. A little girl answered his call. She saw the books under liis at- and taking the cue from his appearance, s ,, — "We don't want aiything. " And she, too, closeil the door in his face. Smarting under the humiliation of his defeat, he passed several houses without calling and brouglit up at a factory. He went through tlie building to the office, his feet feeling as if full of lead, and his heart scarcely ligliter It was only a picture of tlic pale-faced, sob- bing woman at home tliat gave iiim tlie strength to step at all. There were several men busy in the long I'oom through which he passed. They saw his mission, and tinned up their noses in derision. They worked lor their living, and could afford to despise the lank shirk who went about selling books and living on the fat of the land. Their looks were not undetected by this miserable man with the picture of the crying woman in his heart, and he went into the office with an air of humiliation not calculated to command the respect of the three young clerks at work there. He entered, and removed liis hat. The three clerks started at him, but said nothing about his being seated. " I have called, gentleman," he com- menced, in a voice he strove to make firm, but which trembled in spite of himself, " to see if you would like to subscribe to a new book." An expression of dislike showed so plainly on their faces, that he stopped short. The three young men enjoyed this very much. They came very near to being the victims themnelres, but by showing an uncompromis- ing front they had saved themMlves, and overcome a nuisanio and a bore. Uiffhly satisfied with their Ruccesa, they placidly returned to their work, leaving him atandinff bare-headed, with an uninterrupted view of their l)ack8. For a moment he remained there, confused and sick at heart, not wait- ing to remain, and still not having the c(m» rage to go. But the young men paid no more attention to him, and his position be- coming unbearable, he replaced his hat and slunk out of the building. With a heavy iieart and a tortured mind he went his way, stopping here and there with more or lessluck, but no sales. The noon passed without ins lunch. He had not the heart to eat it. Had it been three yards of lead pipe, he could not have felt less like boiling it down. Thera was a lump in his throat by which a cambric needle would have found- dilliculty in forcing its way. He began to notice that the peo- ple whom he p.issed were eyeing him with dis- like, and giving him tlie greatei' share of the walk. It was hard to be poor, it was hard to be so unsuccessful, but it was ten times harder to be an object of derision, scorn, dis- trust, and contempt He started for home witli an aching heart. It was going back to a full con teni Illation of his miserable coiidi- tinn, but there were love and sympathy there, with all the distress, and the miser- able man stood sorely in need of them. When he went in his wife heard him, and came into the room where he was. The look of hopeful expectation died out of her pale face in a flash. One glance at him told the whole story more eloquently than words could have done. He laid down his books, shivering as he did so. When he went to turn toward her, the loving arms were about his neck, . nd the tired head, with the sob- bing voicf, was pressed upon his shoulder. " Oh, Lizzie, it was all so dreadful !" he whispered. She drew her ariii'^ tighter about his neck. " Don't talk of it, John. You did the best you could, 1 'know, and if you have failed you cannot help it. We have got each other, and the childien, John." " Yes, Lizzn . but I am not the man I was when when I 1 ft you this morning. Then I was respected, if I was poor." " John !" she cried in an affrighted voice, looking him iu the face. " What have you done ?" " Nothing, my dear wife, but to try to tret bread. But I have been made to feel that I was a scalawag, a leer, an outcast, a scnund- rel, and a thii^f. I hj>\e been sluit nut «>f houses, bullied from shops, and shun- it THE DANBURY BOOM. 77 neA in the street." He quivered in «vcry ii«i ve U8 ho I'oke. "All for my sake and the children's, dear John," who spoke up, with her eyea full ut tears. " (Jod bless you !" And in that benediction, so lovingly pro- nounced, the burden fell from his shoulderH. The next day he gave up the ajjjt lay, and the following week a man with a soiled ahirt-front and a breast-pin took up the work, and in tliree days had sold sixty volumes and gaihed two pounds in flesh. MR. SILVERNAIL'8 TRAGIC FATE. A rather remarkable affair ocurred in the webtcrn part of thih State last weik. Mr. Silveniail was the hero. Mr. Silver, il hired a horse to take a pleasure-ride. lie drove out into the country. lie wanted the coin paiiionship of tlie hills. He thirsted to hold converse v/ith the whi.tpenng trees. He liungercd for the cooling bn'f'ze laden with the reviving frugrance of herb and blossom. It was an e;, jape fi-in caie for ^Ir. Silvcrnail. He bathed his soul in the delicious ether. His ei. lire I 'ing became .saturated with the nectar (listiiltul from every swaying leaf of tree and blade of uras8. The horse was a spirited animal, the carriage glistened with a new lustre, the harness was silver-iilHte He feasted his eyes on glistening sliei is ipf water, cosey, homelike farm-houses, and fields of whispeving corn. The road sldrtcd a ledge. Mr. Silveniail looked up to its suniiuit, and felt a desire stir his bosom to climb up there for a view. It wasraic y, indeed, that Mr. Silveniail atfbrd- ed the luxury of a livery team for a drive into the country, i the rough woi <\ on his iiaiids, causcul 'i. Silvernail's blood to warm unpleasantly. The warmth of the blood inflamed the brain, imparting to Mr. Silvernails mind a feeling of impatience. The more impatient Mr. Silvernail grew, tife more it l)ecanie apparent to him that it was not an accidental catch, but a deliberate de- sign on the part of the lail to resist him. When tiiJH plausiblo conviction took com- pletu pos.scssion ol his mind, Mr. Silvernail grasped his end of the rail with a strung clutch, and gave it a vigorous jerk. As a matter of course, it came then. It came II at once, and with an unthiisiasni so inuuh beyond Mr. Silv eniail'H most aanguino expectatiMiia, tlwit ho was entirely unpiej^ar- cd for it, and went over on his back, ami across the loose Ptoaes and gravel, with the rail clasped in both arms, before he could re* c(»ver liimself. The horse started nervously. "Whoa!" yelled Mr. Silverii.iil, scram- bling to his feet, his face both red with pas- sion and white with fear. The cry completed the fear of the horse, and it dashed away at once, a 8e\enty-five dollar har!'"S9 upon its back and a two iiun- dn 1 and titt}' dollar carriiige in its train, 'llie horrified Mr. Silvernail put after it. He strain- d every nerve. He ran as he ne- ver ran before, as he ever thought it possible he could run He could s, e only the top of the I iiiriage, but across that, in chai-acters of blocxl it seemed, was marked the price of the est.al)lishinent. How he ran ! His face was almost purple. On its surface ftnined little lumps ; around them, and even over tneiii, great drops of jHi'spiration coursed and leaped, l.>own upon the road, upon all the earth, upon his bared head, lay the sunlight in billows of molten gold. In his heart was the chill of a deaiily fear. Through his brain ploughed the flame of a frenzied purpose. How he reached out I H')W he strained and strove ! How nuelly he fought the cruel air that lay between him and the flying prize ! The water in tlie glen trickled and gurgled like a merry chihl. The trembling silver mafdes whispered softly to each (jtlier. The birds sang. The hum of ins'ot and dri K! of ix'f oiin;;1ed witli the rustling of the briers ;mi<1 blossoming weeds. i^iiiL he tore mii. He threw the gravel of the road on high, and heard not the soft, sweet music all about him. He puffed ami clutched tiie air with muiderous grasp, — tlie air that had him liy tl:ti tl.roat, and was fighting him back u itli all its strength. He saw not the gohlen-road smiling bright- ly in the sun. He noticed not the star-eyed blossom whicli from New England soil lifts its face heavenward. He heard not the sing- ing of the birds or the whispi'r of the leaves. He heard nothiiiL' but the clatter of the heart- less hoofs. He t iw nothing but the reeling toj) of the fl.ying carriage. A'mI he saw that not long. T passed over a hill and out of sight He struggled madly w^ 78 THE DANBURY BOOM. U. i H i up the alone. He reached the Bummit. Be- yond liiin flew tlio maddened animal with the flhaf teen quick at his meals, absorbed in st(ji'e matters, and filled with gloom of anti- cipated trouble. As he read and pondered over this article, its truth v/.vs forcj^ic lov a lively social argument. He was conscious that he had done no wrong ; fltili he felt that he might consistently give up the 8mile,a8 it appeared to be of no parti- cular use at the present juncture. So his face straightened as he stepped hastily back on the stoop to cleanse his boots. *' Sakes alive 1 why don't you shut that door?" screamed Mrs. Barbary. " What's the use of yelling like that ?" he demanded, as he steppuil inside and closed the door. What's the use of being so stupid, then ?" she retorted. Mr. Barbary inftde no reply. The smile had gone entirely from his face. Her eyes snapped. Mr. Barbary looked at her, and silently rulibed his head. He was evidently reaching out for sonictliing suitable for a lively, social argument, without being strong- ly buoyed up with a hope of securing it. The boy and girl were sitting back of the stove looking stolidly at nothing in particu- lar. Their young lives were drifting slowly but surely into an arid waste. Mr. Barbary sighed. If he could only think of some- thing I He fell to thinking of the railroad, ami this led his mind on to New York. There, like many another coiner, it lost it- self in the whirl of sounds and the multipli- city of objects, finally to emerge with great suddenness. Mr. Barbary had struck a sub- ject, — something for a lively, social argu- ment. Floating over the city, diving through here and out of there, Mr. Barbary'a mind ran against East River Bridge. His face brightened up at once. " Matilda 1" he exclaimed, addressing his wife. "Well." It was a very simple word, bat it came froui his wife's lips so short and hard, that Mr. Barbary felt as if it were a trip-hammer under which ho had mysterious' it him- self. His courage sank, but a at the blank faces of his children nerveiit had always slaved Iierlife out. and lie was always opposed when she wanted to take the least enjoyment as if she was notliing hut a common drudge, as she had been all her days, and expected to be as long as she lived, buttiianked heaven there was rest in the grave. Then Mr. Co- ville collapsed, and said he would go. And all during the day before tlie pic-nic Mrs. Coville baked and I'oasted, fumed and pers- pired, and when niglit came slie had cake, pudding, pie, biscuit, and meat in tempting array for the excursion of the morrow. .She went to bed early that night, so as to get up early, and at the first sireak of daylight slie bouufcd out of bed, and notilii'd her sleeping husband tiiat it was l)ruad daylight, and if he did not turn out at once they would miss tlie train. As it was then not live o'clock, ami the excursion did not start till ten, the necessity for intemperate haste did not be- come immediately clear to the half-awakened man, and in a moment he was sound asleep. There were four distinct awakenings liefore he could be got out of bed, and by that time Mrs. Coville was in a condition, usintf her own beautiful figure of speech, " to flood the house with tears." When Mr. Coville got dressed, he found that he had just two and a half honrs to eat his breakfast, go down town to arrange business for the day, and get several articles for the pic-nic, which should have been procured the niglit before, but which had been pleasantly left to this time. After breakfast he went to the store, Mr. Coville is so constructed physically, as to easily perspire. This he wished to avoid on this day. He knew by experience that Bweaty underclothing is a deplorable sensa- tion, and that a starched sbirtfront wilted under t le juices of the body is about as de- sirable an obji;ct undcT one's coat as a fresh eel wonld be. Calmness was to be his watcli- word to-day. Danlmiy will never forget the sultriness of that Thursday. The heat was oppressive. It came down in layers, each succeeding layer Iniing thicker and heavier tiiau its predecessor. Mr. Coville hastened to his store, found more to do than he anti- cipated (as invariably happens), and by the time he was ready f(n' tlu' errands he was in an advanced state of melting. I Ic was sur- prised at the number of things to get, and at tlie progress of time, which always moves faster when one is not h'okiui' at it. By the time he got home he felt the starch in his shirt begin to give, and this createil a feeling ..f uneasiness which was somewhat deepened by the asi)ect of the two huge bas- kets which stood in waiting for them. There was no time for general remarks ; so merely observing, — " Thunder and lightning, Hauner ! we a'n't going to Nicsic !'' he picked up the bas- kets and hastened to the depot, reaching there just in time to get aboard of the train. The cars were crowded. Mr. Coville could get nu seat, and in this particular he had plenty of ccmijiany. He put a basket under each of two seats, and then taking a strong grip on the ice- water tank (wiiich, singular- ly enough, contained water of no kind), brai;ed himself for tiu; ride. In this position he was ])inned in back of the door by the voluminous skirts of a tleshy lady, and every time the door was opened, which was about twice a minute, he was jammed farther into the corner. Mrs. CoviUe was, unfoi'tunately, located at tiie farther end cf the car. We say unfortunately, because having much to communicate to Mr. Coville in regard to the location of the baskets, tlie conditif^n of his shirt, the location of William, who had not been seen since tlie start, the pfissibiliti(.'S of ever getting to the grounds wiUiout an acci- dent, the dreadful heat in the air, and much more of equal importance, it nece,- si tated con- siderable impotent pantomime and extraor- dinary exertion on her part to convey it to him over such distance. And it may be doubted if Mr. Coville com- prehended enough of this information to have paid for its outlay. What with holdintr on to the icewater tank, and dodging the door, and restraining himself from tumliling Hat upon the fleshy lady, and staring vindictive- ly at the back of the heads of the openers of the door, Mr. Coville had his mind and muscle fully occupied. To add to the intense interest of the occasion, the perspiration roll- ed in continuous drops from his face and down his neck, and he having no unemployed i THE DANBURT BOOM. 8\ hand by which with a handkerchief to stay the current, the same shpped quietly inside his collar and went crawling down the sen- sitive surface of his body. In the mean time William having provided himself with a bladder attached to a tube, which, when blown up, collapsed with a most dismal sound, was in the baggage-car with the peaches and another boy, where the bladder and the inviting openings to the crates made the hours golden with sunshine to his appreciative soul. This was a much diflferent disposition of his person than hia mother imagined, who, having become con- fident that he had got under the cars in the start, was now firmly convinced that he had been run over by the wheels, and that por- tions of his mangled body might now be ob- served a^ong the track by any one taking the trouble to look for them. This was a dread- ful frame of mind to go to & pic-nic in, yet, after all, it was much better than to have no feeling at all, and so Mrs. Coville hugged the appalling delusion with as much tenacity as if it had been Mr. C!olville himself, before marriage. Aniving at the grounds, Mr. Coville found that his anxiety to get there was replaced by a most unaccountable regret that he had got there. The movement of the passengers, to say nothing of the movement of Mrs. Coville's sunshade, which she was vigorously shak- ing at him over the heads of the people, awakened him to the propriety of immedi- ately securing his baskets. He made a dive for the same, but owing to the rush, at the same time, of the passengers, he was consi- derably retarded, and it was with the great- est diificulty that he succeeded in getting liold of his charge. With a basket in each hand, he found himself hemmed in by the masses, who pressed his refreshments against his legs, and came very near to upsetting him entirely several times. Panting, but- ting, struggling, and squeezing, he finally found himself on the platform outside, but so bruised and wet, and heated and exasper- ated, that he hardly knew whether he was escorting two baskets or two buzz-saws. Un- der the guidance of Mrs, Coville, who had been greatly relieved, although very much astonished,' by a view of William in a single unbroken piece, Mr. Coville pierced the grounds, aiiS got to a table, where he was permitted to deposit his load. The worry, bother, and annoyance being over, the full enjoyment of the day began. It was a happy sight. The children romped and laughed and halloed ; the older people moved quickly here and there, distributing the food upon the tables, and making arrange- ments for cooking tea and cotfee ; lovers paired off, and strolled away in happy obli- vion. It was a scene of unalloyed enjoy- ment ; and as Mr. Coville looked about him and sighed for a diy shirt, he thought of his childhood. Presently he was sent after a pail of water. Even he admitted that water was a prime necessity in the performance, but was not as clear in regard to where it was to come from, being an entire stranger to the place. But after a long search, complicated by the ad- vice of parties equally ignorant with himself, he hit upon the happy idea of secluding him- self for a suitable length of time, and then returning after some one else had done the errand. With this view Mr. Coville looked about, and soon found a little dell in a clump, of evergreens, where he was pretty sure to be free from observation. Here he secluded himself and the pail, and removing his hat, coat, and vest, calmly and peacefully waited for the necessary time to elapse. In the general excitement his absence was not noted, and his plan worked admirably. Other parties, sent out on a similar errand, returned with a supply, and this tended to obliterate from even Mrs. Coville's mind the cause of her husband's absence. Otherwise she might have come to suspect that he had found a well, and was sitting on its bottom with a view to holding it for the exclusive use of his church. So while the preparations were going ac- tively forward for dinner, he was lying on his back, looking up into the dense mass of green, listening to the soft sound of the swaying branches, and smiling kindly but firmly to himself. Mrs, Coville was very busy in setting the tables. Occasionally she caught a glimpse of her hopeful son, vho swooped down upon her so frequently with either some new kind of eatable in his fist, orin quest of something of the kind, that his mother began to appre- hend that he not only had a tapeworm of his own, but had borrowed a much larger and more active one of some other boy for the occasion. Mr. Coville was looking up to the over- hanging branches of his retreat. There was no smile on his face. The eyes, directed up- ward, had a strangC; startled appearance. He jumped to his feet, r>ibbed his eyes, then his head, and stared about him in a very hard manner. He snatched up his hat, coat, and vest, and the pail, and ttarted out into the open air. Here he pau3ed car, and was dragged up into it a pulpy, gasping, shrinking mass of flesh. What Mrs. Coville thought, and v/hat the passengers thought as they stared at him, was evident enough from the expressions of their faces and their speech ; but what Mr. Coville himself thought, as he shrank into a comer of the car, was ditBcult to determine, although there must have been a great deal of it. He said nothing, but there was a look of sickening apprehension to his face, giving it a greenish hue, which colour remained un- changed during the journey, excej j when William unexpectedly observed to his mo- ther, in that penetrating whisper adopted by a boy v/ho ha.s something of a conhdential and h» . lily disagi-eeable nature to impai-t, " Doii t pa look hungry ?" Then the tint visibly deepened. With a discretion that did her infinite credit, Mrs. Coville made no response. RAILWAY FEATURES IN THE WEST. Did you ever notice how rarely it is that a railway emph)j'ee, always excepting the brakesman, hjses his life in an accideut ? I believe it is not on record that a train-boy was ever injured. When, at the station at Buffalo, a gentlem.an pointed out a boy ff'\t\ an assuring face as the train-boy on the laXil Ashtabula train, I was not surprised that he showed no evidence of the accident, al- though he went down in the smoking-car, and was sitting by the stove at the time. Wlien the dehiis struck the ice smashed out a light of glass, and spiritedly ejected him- self from the burning car. And here he was now, taking ofi'ensive liberties with the pas- sengers. A train-boy on an Illinois road found a rather tough customer in an old gentleman of composed mien, who received all shots as if he was bullet-proof. The boy bombarded him with papers, and pamphlets, and candies, and bound books, and nuts, and fruits of one kind and another. But it was no good. Had the elderly party been lined inside with brass he couldn't have shown greater indifference. The boy fretted under this treatment, as was plain to be seen. He ha'l passed the cigars some thirty t^mcs, and withi ut success, when he said, in a tone of desperation, — " Try soine of these cigars, and if they don't kill you within a month m give you tlio money back." The man was somewhat amused by that, but he had the boy. He said, — " If I'm dead how can you give me the money ?" " I'll give it to your family, then." " But I ain't got no family." •* Well, I'll give it to the family next door," persisted the boy. " But there ain't no family living next door," daid t)ie man, with the smile length- ening on his face. " Oh, there'll be one move in when they hear you are dead," was the quick reply. The elderly passenger shut up liko a bor- rowed knife. I think a train-boy on a Minnesota road, in whose company I recently wiled away seven hours, is the most enterprising boy I have yet met in this country. He had a w )iiderful variety of things to sell, and being active on his legs, and tiiere being but two cars to the train, he got around with start- ling frequency. He had an insinuating way, and a somewhat impaired breath, to say nothing of several front teeth which had evi- dently gone out of business years ago, and THE DANBURY BOOM. 83 ' were now enrichincf the soil for another growth. At one of the Mississippi towns there got in a passenger who appi'ared to be disposed to mind his own business, and iiad tluit in his presenee whieh might induce thoughtful companions to attend to theirs. He took a seat opposite mine, and cast his eyes down upon iiis knees. We were in tlie smoking- car. The train-boy was at his box at the end of tlie car. The lid to the V)ox was up, and he was head-first in the box, tlie two back buttons to his coat, the cloth being worn from the metallic liases, loonnng up above the lid like a pair of all-devouring eyes. He saw the scrangor, of course, when he came in and took his seat, and every two or three seconds he would lift his head from the box, peer over the lid at him with a hungering glance, and smacking his lips anticipatively, would dip ilovvn again to arrange liis ammunition. I Matched the prepai'ation with lively interest, not unmin- gled with sympathy for the stranger, who was sitting as when he took the seat. Tlie train-boy got his artillery arranged and de- ployed oil' with the light guns, '["his consist- ed of a basket of tigs. He approached, con- fitlent of nis prey. Just then tlie stranger looktul up and saw him coming. Opening his coat, he reached under its folds and dicw forth a ratlier heavy revoher. Laying it on the seat beside him in full view of tlie enemy, he looked him steadily in tlic face and said, — " I don't want to buy a thing, not a single article, my friend." His •'friend " gave a ijuick, sudden gulp, as if swallowing something particularly di Hi- cult, and slid by. The stranger dropped his eyes again upon his knees, and liad no occasion to raise them until leaving the train. The travtiling lunk-head in the Kast lias an older and much more full}' di'veloiied brother in the \Vest. He is generally to lie found on slow trains ; such, for instance, as consist of freight with a passenger-car at- tached. You would think he had travelled for the greater part of his life, to hear him talk. He is full of facetious observations on the speed, which lie discharges in the Firesencc of tl»e conductor, and which are leartily laughed at by tiie lunk-heatl family. He shduld l)e taken l)y the heels and used to drive piles in a quagmire, and would be, Imd he Anything of a head. You can pi-etty generally tell when you have skipped outside the conventionalists of life, by the appearance of the railway offi- cials. The uniform is dropped, and tlie con- ductor appears like an angel divested of wings. Yesterday I had for a conductor a man whose Jresa would, under other circum- stances, indicate that he was a well-to-do drinker and a grocery politician. To-day I have been under the charge of a fine-looking man in a business suit, blue shirt loose black neckerchief, and a slouch hat. He was a sociable man with the brakes- men, and when not going through the car was in animated conversation with thcr.i upandcst victory is the triumph over self. There can be no true education where self-denial is not accomplished. Self deadens — " -lust here Miss Woodby 's mother came to the room, to tcdl her to put away her clothes that had just been ironed. "I can't bother about that now," said Miss VVoodl)y. "But they are in my way." "Gracious! how can I write or do any- thing if I've got to be jumping up every mi- nute?" demanded the young autnoress, in a t(/ne of very pro})er I'csentment. Mrs. Woodby withdrew her tired body, and went back to her work with a sigh. " I don't see what makes ma act .so con- trary," murmured Miss W^oodby to herself. " She couhl have put away tho.se things her- self, if she cared to be any way accommodat- ing. " Then she bent her mind again to the task of composition. Before she could get in order to commit matter to the page, tea was announced. After tea her motlier asked her to clear the table and 'ash the dishes, but she had to think, and could not do this. She inquired, with C(jiisiderable reason, if she was ex,-ected to do everything on earth, and get an essay ready too? She went out and sat under a tree until the table was cleared, and then she brought out her manuscript, and continued : ens the better instincts, and lO I ields thereto a torture to vi'-nvt to those about him. 'm: hnn v'i tUid True n >i -li ' m to are ff)r others, to give up aei". ' • >w ».)ur own will in the willoitiiose ( > THE DANBURY BOOM. 8f depending upon you. He who is without self will 1)6 patient in trouble, calm in trial, trusting in adversity, temperate in prosper- ity. His heart is ever open to the cry ot the burdened, his hand ever ready to miuistc r to the afllicted. No oiruight of himself, no care for his own advancomeut, is ever allow- ed to stand in the way of others. ' In honour preferring one another, ' is the motto of his life, the guide to < very act." At this junctr.re the baljy sister of Mii-a Woodby climbed upon a chair at the table to see what she was doing. Tli child was afflicted by the heat ; she had no amusement, no company, and she climbed up to set; what was going on. The white paper and mov- ing pen interested her ; Uiore than that, thty absorbed her verj* soul. "Oh!" she exclaimed in a paroxysm of excitement. " What are you doing up here?" explosive- ly cried Miss Woodby. "(iet down from that table this instant, and tiike yourself out of sight." The great round eyes filled with tears, and the lip of the girl bal>y trembled. Miss Woodby could have cried with vexa- tion. "What, for pity's sake, can ma be think- ing of to let you come heri' to bather the life out of me? Go away this minute, or I'll slap you. " The child scrambled down and toddled away to find her mother, crying aloud with the pain of disappointment. The mother, being out on the front stoop to catch al)reath of tresh air, hoard the cry, and luirried to meet an