Eaton Weekly Democrat, 1873-12-25

bit home like the driving of sharp icicles into the flesh. It was an awful night, spite of the calm of the heavens ; a night long to be remembered ; how to be remembered by me ! It came 8 o'clock, and we had finished supper. My father was absent, but was momentarily expected. I came out from the house, and found my step stepmother - mother stepmother the dearest and best of women, whom I loved quite as well as I could have done my own mother standing at the yard-gate. Through the dusk, I could see that a ragged, uncleanly-looking old fellow was at the gate, and I could hear their conversation. He was asking the privilege of staying all night, and she was evidently hesitating. 1 knew why she was .doing so. Within twenty-fours our home would be full of visitors, attracted by the wedding and the Christmas festivities ; and how could she allow that uncleanly tramp to con contaminate - taminate contaminate one of her snowy white and immaculate beds perhaps infect, a whole chamber. I heard that doubt in her voice, and I echoed it God forgive me ! I was so much younger then, and so much less aware of the scares which crimes and follies make on our natures as well as our lives 1 Sometimes I think our love and our happiness make us for the mo moment - ment moment harder and more selfish, just as at other moments they soften and refine us. I was so happy, just then, I think, that the world was nothing to me. Above all, I wanted no strangers, and certainly no dirty strangers, mingling with the family and my great joy. The man was pleading, even after the refusal, to be allowed to stay ; and I heard him, in a voice that sounded foreign and outlandish, though he was speaking good English enough, saying something about " Holdane." " Pshaw ! mother, you have debated long enough with that old straggler 1" I said. " He knows about Holdane, and no doubt can easily find his way there. Send him on, and come in out of the cold, with your bare head and no shawL " There, my good man,- you hear what my spn says, says my mother, thus strengthened (or weakened) by my words. " We cannot do anything for you to-night ; all full. Right up the road there, only a couple of miles, that is the way to Holdane." The poor fellow made one more at attempt - tempt attempt to create pity, and I caught his suggestion; " Madam, let me sleep in the barn !" Instantly another unfortunate recol recollection - lection recollection took possession of me. Twice, within the preceding winter, some neighbors' barn had been 'burned, through fire alleged to have been ac accidentally - cidentally accidentally communicated by old tramps and beggars, who had taken up their lodgings in barns, and there (as sup supposed) - posed) supposed) lighted their dangerous pipes ; though, of course no one really knew but that either of the fires had occurred otherwise. However, at this suggestion, I took the matter into my own hands, thinking, at the moment, that my father would not allow such a thing. " No, old man," I said, " you cannot sleep in the barn. Ton have heard what my mother said ; we have no room for you. Go on, before it gets later and colder." The old fellow turned and went his way ; but I remember catching a glimpse of his almost white hair, by the light from the house window, and hearing him say, as he wrapped his poor clothes about him : Cold ! cold 1" I have never known, since, except that God is very .slow to punish, or that He had other and heavier penalties for me, why I was never struck dead at the moment for that gross act of crulty. I only know that I allowed him to go away, and that I dimly saw his tattered rags disappear against the white snow up the hill-road leading to Holdane, which place I must do myself the jus justice - tice justice to say, that I had at the moment no doubt of his reaching, the hour be being - ing being so earlyj r My step-mother entered tne nouse, as the man moved away, and I followed her in a moment. He had scarcely been gone ten minutes when she said, look looking - ing looking at me in her -own, kind, troubled way : lucnard, x wonaer wnetner we aia quite right in not letting the poor old man stay ? Who knows what may hap happen - pen happen to him ?" "Pshaw I" I answered, " think of your beds and remember you do not keep an inn ! He will get along all well enough; and the roads are always full of such fellows with pitiful stories." Ah, well, I suppose so ; but it is very cold, iwenara, to De out very cold I wish your father was home." She said nothing more on the subject, and I was glad that she did not, for the double reason that she did not wake my Bleeping conscience, as she might have done, and that I was thus enabled to fall away into one of my cherished wak waking - ing waking dreams, in which I was bathing my myself - self myself in the light and warmth of the great fire, all the joyful events to the next evening Milly in bridal white, with her face all blushes of love for me ; an hun dred friends around us. all happy be- cause we were so ; and myself arrived at that summit of happiness on which the crown of a king, with no Milly to bind it on the brow, would have been an insult. I had dreamed such dreams a thousand times before at night in my lonely room by day, in my office, if left alone and in silence for a few mo mo-monts - monts mo-monts under the stars, when each seemed sending down some benison on my love ; but never before so fondly or vividly as that night when the near ap proach of my noces gave color to some intensity of expectation. My father fulfilled my mother's'wish in a very brief period perhaps half an hour by returning;, the snow crunch ing hard under the wheels, and his breath frozen to great icicles in his beard. Ho came in to the fire, while one of the men led away his horse. My mother wasevidentry ill at ease, for she spoke to him on the one subject upper most in mind, almost the moment that he was seated. She told him what had been said, and done, quite as little as mvself expecting what was to follow. " I am ashamed that I have one of vou for a wife and the other for a son 1' i he exclaimed, indignantly, when he

The President of the Western Union Telegraph Company, in a letter to a New York paper, says : " The Herald is probably correct in assuming that further reduction of rates will not be made by the companies now ?oing the telegraph business, for some time to come." The Western Union Company have adopted some uniformity iu their charges within a few years past, and made a few other reductions in their' rates, to the great benefit of the public and the- company ; but the public are under no obligations to the company for making these reductions ; for President Orton, in his annual report, informs his stockholders that they were forced upon them from the competition of oppo opposition - sition opposition companies. They have 'recently purchased the principal opposition lines, and have reduced their rates so low that the remaining companies are unable to make any money. .Now that this great monopoly is free from all fear of competition, they announce that they will make no further concessions in rates. That the company are able to make further reductions is shown by the facts given in the 'annual reports. From these it appears that the rates have been reduced nearly one-third in six years, yet the cost of doing the busi business - ness business is" so much less, in consequence of its great increase, that the net profits are greater at the lower than at the higher rates. Mr. Orton has so often reiterated the proposition that the ex expenses - penses expenses increase in nearly as rapid a ratio as the business, and therefore re reduction - duction reduction in rates cannot be made, that he has persuaded himself of its truth, and is unable to appreciate the force of the facts which we have given. Mr. Orton truly says that the tele telegraph - graph telegraph is only in its infancy. The growth of its business is much more rapid than that of the express or postoffice, and at the same ratio of increase the number of telegrams that will be Annually sent ten years hence is larger than the num number - ber number of letters sent when the postage was reduced to five cents. The immediate increase in the correspondence that fol followed - lowed followed upon the use of the five and three cent postage stamp was enormous, rap rapidly - idly rapidly increasing from 50,000,000 to 500, 500,-000,000. - 000,000. 500,-000,000. . There will be the same increase in the telegraphic correspondence if the same relative reductions in rates are made, for the same causes would operate to produce like ellects. The people cannot hope for such reductions from the Western Union Telegraph Company, because there is now no reason to in duce it to make them, and because the loss of net revenues from the great re reductions - ductions reductions in rates necessary to popular ize the telegraph would be greater than the saving of expenses on each telegram from the great increase in the business. Such reductions can be made under the postal telegraph system, for that will save nearly one-quarter of the present expenses, and would therefore author ize a reduction in rates of nearly, forty per cent., and vet leave a sufficient profit on the greatly increased business. The Postmaster-Ueneral will ask Congress to purchase all existing lines of telegraph, and build the new ones required for the business. The ex expense - pense expense of purchasing these lines has been estimated by committees of Don Don-gress - gress Don-gress at from $40,000,000 to 870,000.- 000. It is not likely Congress will feel disposed, in the present condition of our finances, to authorize such an ex penditure, especially as the object sought can be accomplished without any expense to the Government. The Postomce department will fur nish the offices and the Postal Telegraph Company will transmit the messages at rates hxed by Congress. If the people desire to have a cheap telegraph, and to have the news fur nished. to the press at low rates, they must support the postal telegraph sys tem, and urge Congress to pass the bill authorizing the Postmaster-Ueneral to contract as he now contracts for the carriage of the mails. If, on the other hand, they desire to perpetuate an over grown monopoly, which is every day growing more powerful, then let them continue the present system, by which a single private corporation controls the telegraphic correspondence of a nation, and has the power to give or withhold news to the press, and to mold public opinion in its own interest, ouch a power is too great for any private com pany to hold, and should be in the hands of the people, to be used only for their benefit.

knew the whole. " Allow an old man, in poor clothes, to go away from the door on such a night as this ! Why, I have heard to-day of two men and a woman found frozen to - death in differ different - ent different places ! I am ashamed of you both ! Here, give me my hat again, and I will freeze the remainder of me in-looking for him, before such a disgrace shall fall on the house of Robert Mowry 1" "O Robert, I did not think " my step-mother began, but I cut her short by taking the blame that belonged to me, and springing from my seat. My father's words, heaven-directed, had opened my eyes to the enormity of the wrong ; and in one moment I had begun to fear the worst. "No, father," I said, "I see now how cruel we have been. No, I, for I did the act. Sit where you are. I will follow the poor old man all the way to Holdane, and help him if anything has happened." " Well, go !" answered my father, re resuming - suming resuming his seat. " You are right now, if you were wrong before. Lzook for him. Stop, take one of the men with you ; and whatever you do, when you find him, bring him back here here, where he belongs J" I had scarcely ever before heard my father speak so determinedly ; and cer certainly - tainly certainly within fifteen minutes my ardent temperament had leaped to as much suffering on the poor old man's behalf as I had only ten minutes before en enjoyed - joyed enjoyed of prospective happiness. " Oh, Father in Heaven !" I almost moaned, " to think of my expecting to be so happy, in having all that I love in the world, and then turning a poor old man away from the door to freeze and die on the public road !" I could scarcely wait until one of the men had equipped himself to accompany me, and provided - himself with a lantern, for what horrible purpose of close inspec inspection - tion inspection neither of us cared to think. It was at nine when we left the house, and three in the morning when we re returned - turned returned to it. Such intense cold I had never before experienced, and have scarcely ever since felt its equal. Iron bands seemed drawn around our brows ; the breath froze on our lips ; our hands and feet grew lumps of ice, as up and down, first one road and then another, we tramped and struggled, slipped and slid our terrible way. All . the way to. Holdane and back ; the other road, near nearly - ly nearly the whole distance ; side-road after side-road, wherever travel was possible or a human track showed itself to the liglH of the lantern. Not a clap-pit that we did not explore, not a dark ob object - ject object that we did not visit with fear and dawning horror. 1 have said that hands and feet were ice ; but my brain was burning hre. 1 can only remember a chaos of self -accusation and abject, horror of myself, rather diminished than increased by coming upon the object of our search, at what afterward proved to have been past two in the morning. We found him under a lee of the woods, in a bit of side-road, half-way up the hill toward Holdane, seated at the foot of a tree, his thin rags drawn close around his chest and throat, where the hands had stif fened that held them dead ! stone dead ! and cold, almost as cold as the night and our pity ! Heaven would have been very merci ful if that had been the worst only a man murdered I But we brought him home in the gloomy winter morning, after returning for the wagon for that purpose home, where entrance only a few hours before, which I had denied him, would have saved his life. I was half mad, and my stepmother little bet ter, but some of them retained their senses, and a Justice was called to act Coroner. When they stripped him, I was called into the room, to have my eyes blasted quite as fatally as ever the head of Medusa produced the effect. On the withered old arm there was a mass of tattooing, such as seafaring men are fond of subjecting themselves to ; and from the midst of the stars and anchors gleamed out one terrible line a single name

230 doctors last year. A gentus is popularly supposed to be one who caa do anything except make living. History makes out that the height of the great Napoleon was only five feet two and seven-tenths inches. DoG-FiGHnNO has been prohibited throughout Japan, and any hnman transgressors in ' this respect are to be fined and the dogs will be killed. The vote in New York on the proposi tion to amend the Constitution by ap pointing, instead of electing, Judges, stood : 115,337 for, and 3ia,y7a against. The annual report of pensions shows that 16,405 new pensioners were added to the rolls last year, and 10,233 dropped. The total pensioners of all classes are 238,411. Steeit bars are to be experimented with at a church in" England as a substi tute for bells. It is claimed that the bars have a clearer and purer tone, and are not as liable to crack as bells. California has about 8,000,000 head of sheep. The wool crop in two shear shearings, - ings, shearings, at an average of ten pounds per head, would amount to 80,000,000 pounds, or 15,000,000 more than the total product of -the United States in 1871. Statistics show that the larger part of crime committed by men is com mitted by young persons between 20 and 30 years old, and of the crime com committed - mitted committed by females the greater share is committed by persons between 30 and 40 years of age. The principal lines of transportation from the West to the East include 10,- 000 miles by railway, 7,000 miles by river, l,b00 miles by lake, and l,t00 by miles by canal, and the total amount of through freight carried over them in one year (1871-72) was 9,933,214 tons. Exclusive of its branches, the Erie canal, from Buffalo to Albany, is 352 miles long, and upon it 7,140 boats run 9,358,100 miles in one season. The number of men and boys employed on the boats is 28,000, and the- number of hor-.es and mules used in tow is about 16,000. One of the charges for which an artil lery officer was recently cashiered, speci fied that on a certain occasion he entered store in Sitka, Alaska, and seating himself on the floor beside an Indian squaw, took her pipe and smoked it. Such conduct was considered unbecom unbecoming - ing unbecoming an officer and a gentleman. In Vienna, recently, Prof. Hyatt de livered a lecture on mercury, when he exhibited the leg bone of a man whose death had undoubtedly" been hastened by that substance. On striking the bone heavily upon the table, out fell thousands of little glittering globules of mercury, which rolled about upon the black surface before him, collecting here and there into drops. Prop. Looms deduces from the weather reports of the last two years that the average rate of progress of a storm in January is 680 miles a day, and its average direction hve degrees north of east ; for February, 740 miles, and a direction thirteen degrees north of east ; March, 940 miles, eleven de de-geees - geees de-geees north of east ; and for April, 615 mixes, sixteen degrees north of east. . The question whether a man can talk or not after his tongue has been cut out, has recently been decided in the affirma tive. The ,ancct describes a case to the point, occurring to the Royal Free Hospital in iiondon. In order to re move an ulcer, the patient s tongue was wholly cut out, leaving the floor of the mouth entire, within a weeK. ne was heard to say distinctly, "I should like some more beef tea. I paw three ships come sailing in On Christmas Pay, on Christmas Bay ; I Baw three shipB come sailing in On Christinas Pay in the morning. Oh, they sailed into Bethlehem On Christmas Pay, on Christmas Day ; Oh, they sailed into Bethlehem On Christmas Pay in the morning. And all the bells on earth shall ring On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day ; And all the bells on earth shall ring On Christmas Day in the morning. And all the angels in heaven shall slug On Christmas Day, on Christmas Day ; And all the angels in heaven shall sing On Christmas Day in the morning.

have known me let me see something like a dozen years ; and you most have known Toftsboro' and its neighborhood for about the same length of time. It has changed very much, however, in the few years preceding. Twelve'or fifteen years ago the whole region was wild, rough, bleak, and in inhospitable.. - hospitable.. inhospitable.. The house which I now occupy had been inhabited by my father and grand grandfather. - father. grandfather. Where it stands was then a wood, just before the hills commenced to rise toward Holdane ; and there was not then & single other house within two miles on the Holdane side, and something like a mile and a half on the other, toward Burn. I courted and won a wife at Holdane.. I had my wedding day, or rather wed ding night, fixed, after two years of engagement. I suppose that I must have been madly in love with Milly Gol Golden. - den. Golden. She was very young even younger than myself ; I thought her very handsome, and quite worthy of even all the affection I that could bestow upon her ; I certainly thought I could gre more of that security for wedded happiness than most men of my age. . Sully Golden was the eldest daughter of a partially-invalid widow lady, living at Holdane, pinching along a little, I was often afraid (though I did not dare insult them by hinting at assistance, or even making a direct inquiry), on a small life annuity left her byher de deceased - ceased deceased husband, a clergyman ; and something of habitual sadness being oonnected with the family history and traditions, through the loss at sea, many years before, of no less than three of the brothers f Milly's mother, all sea seafaring - faring seafaring men, and more or leas scape scapegraces, - graces, scapegraces, perhaps remembered but the more fondly on the latter account. It is necessary again to be particular in saying that Mrs. Golden was not an old resident, but had accompanied her hus husband, - band, husband, some years after marriage, from the coast line, her family history being far less known, and her circle of visiting acquaintance much more limited, than they might have been in the event of her original residence in the neighbor neighborhood. - hood. neighborhood. . How it was that my wedding night was set for Christmas, I forget, if I ever really knew. At all events, the marriage was fixed for Christmas night, in the room in her . mother's house where we had so often sat band-in-hand to talk over the love of the present and tho hopes of the future. And never did expectant bridegroom look forward to any one period with such certainty of happiness, as J. to that Christmas evening. Nature, meanwhile, was as gay as my hopes, and as pure as those of my bride; for the snow lav deep over all the region, shrouding everything that might have been ugly or offensive. Then a long period of clear cold weather seemed to have set in, lasting lor many days, with only the change of its gradually growing keener and keener, until at the verge of Christmas the atmosphere must have touched zero ana crone far below it. What was cold weather nay, freezing weather, however, to a heart as young, as warm, and impetuous as mine ? Was not Milly to be mine on Christmas night, and comfort my life thereafter ? I well remember the warm, blushing kiss she gave me as I left her on Tues Tuesday - day Tuesday morning, after making the excuse of carrying her up a pair of shoes and Borne ribbons, while the fact was, I sup suppose, - pose, suppose, that I felt the impossibility of waiting two whole days without sight of her, the propreities necessarily keeping me absent on the last night of unmarried life. How fearfully cold that last night shut down 1 I remember its chill as if it had been but yesterday. The snow crunched under the foot with that peculiar me metallic - tallic metallic sound indicative of every flake being frozen anew ; the stars winked with a chill glitter that seemed steely and pitiless ; and the northwest" wind

The Drectorsof the New York Cheap Cheap-Transportation - Transportation Cheap-Transportation Society met yesterday afternoon. The Committee on Railway Transportation presented a report. The committee recommend the construction by the Government of a national iron highway between East and West, to be operated under a general law by indi individuals, - viduals, individuals, they paying toll therefor suffi sufficient - cient sufficient to maintain the road-bed. Com plaining of the present defective rail road system, the committee say : rrominent among the defects and abuses in our present system are : 1. The present method of undertaking the construction of railways without a paid- up capital. 2. The inflation commonly known as " watering stock, by which its nominal value is largely increased, thereby making it necessary to unduly tax travel and- commerce to secure it a value. 3. By rings in their manage management, - ment, management, through which both the public and the non-managing stockholders are fleeced to enrich a few prominent offi cials and managing stockholders. 4. The present system which necessitates the operation of passenger and freight traffic over the same road-bed in which the passenger traffic has the right of way, thus making it necessary for freight trains to lay up two-thirds of the time when they should be rolling on to their destination. 5. The but partial representation of the stockholders in the Uoard of Directors. The committee, after careful examina tion, recommend the following remedies for the defects and abuses of the present system of transportation : Jnrst legislation, by which our present system of railways can be regu regulated - lated regulated and improved ; and, (second, Competition, which will complete and carry out the reform which legislation must inaugurate. Under the head of legislation, we must have the following laws : 1. A law creating a Hoard of Hallway Commissioners, who shall be clothed with power to establish and regulate rates for transporting freight over all railroads doing .business in this State, and to prescribe a uniform system of keeping railway accounts. 2. A law prescribing an equitable system of proportional or minority repre sentation of the stockholders in the boards of direction. 3. A law restraining railway com panies from paying interest or divi dividends - dends dividends beyond a fair and just return on the actual cost of their property to their stock and bondholders, and compelling them to expend all sums in excess of such amount, and what is required to keep their roads in proper repair and pay their necessary operating expenses in their moving, hand ling and terminal faculties, for public security and con venience, and to reduce their transpor tation charges, when such facilities are in a perfect and complete condition. o. A. law prohibiting all railway com panies from delegating their business to separate corporations, now known as fast freight lines, the entire receipts of which do not go into the treasury of the road over which they run. b. A law to prohibit the leasing, con solidation, or combination of parallel lines of road, by which competition is destroyed and the people's highways converted into monopolies. 7. A law prohibiting railway com panies from acquiring or holding more real estate than is necessary for the operation of their roads, and prohibit prohibiting - ing prohibiting l ail way companies from engaging in mining or any business other than t hat of transportation. is. A law making it a penal offense for any public official to accept or use the free pass of any railway company, and prohibiting railway companies from granting such passes to any but regular employes of such railways.

I think that I need scarcely enlarge upon what followed, it was only too plain that one of the long-lost brothers of Mrs. Golden, an uncle of my Milly, making his way, old, broken and penni less, from some scene of 'ong suffering, to where he had dimly heard that his sister resided had been turned from the door bv me to die so miserably ! Of course vou want to hear tne rest there is not much, and should not be, to end such a recollection. But the rest was important to myself ; for thank God that X was punished ! l eay it reverent ly thank God that He punished me, otherwise even than in the stings of conscience ! I had expected to be the husband of Milly Golden on Christmas night : before that night came, her mother, fallen insensible on the body of her brother, who thus came to her only in death, had sunk under the blow, and all thoughts of marriage were as far away as then seemed happiness. It was a 6ad Christmas ; and, before the spring flowers bloomed, Mrs. Golden lay be side her brother. I suppose I need not say that neither Milly Golden' nor myself thought of marrying over the body of her dead uncle, when I was so nearly his murder er, and with her mother lying a hope less invalid from the same cause. And when the second blow came, .and she was an orphan, was it much more likely that we could forget, now that a second body seemed to lie between our loves ? JNo tne thing was impossible; it was madness even to think of it. She tried so hard, dear girl ! I know that she did to think that 1 had not been to blame, or at least that I had not acted more thoughtlessly than any other young man would have, done under the same cir cumstances. But what was that, even if she succeeded ? We do not love much when we are driven to make excuses for the object that we believe we love : to be loved one must commend himself to the heart of the other, as infinitely bet ter than all surrounding. She tried to exonerate me I know and feel so much but I know and feel quite as well that, in spite of herself, she shuddered at me at times when the -dreadful recollec recollection - tion recollection came fresh to her. Was not that enough ? I do not say that we might not have

One Christmas evening, long ago Just how long, I forget The funds of Santa Claus ran low, Ho m ran into debt. Could he his usual gifts bestow - Ana U those bills be met 7 He pulled bis beard and scratched his head, Ana Bet tun cap awry. There are things in the world," he said, " That money cannot buy Things needful as one'sf daily bread; This year those guts 1 11 try." And so to one he gave a friend. And to another health. And showed the third the baneful end Of blessings won by stealth Toward what sore loss their footsteps tend Who too much haste for wealth. - For one he won a husband's life Back from the drunkard's doom ; And for another hopeless wife Opened the peaceful tomb : Through many a village rank with strife Bade nowers ox concord bloom. s One sore-tried soul he made so brave That right the victory won : With tears upon a new-made grave Saw Manor lire begun : Back to a widowed mother gave An erring, sorrowing son. - He brought to many a household band A welcome little guest ; To more than, one the heart and hand Of her he loved the best : To work-worn frames, through all the land, xne oiessea Doon oz rest. An opening rose-bud, sweet as June, Soothes one poor sufferer's woe ; A strain from some forgotten tune lievives tne twiiigut glow When lips, whose music died so soon. .Entranced tne long ago. " A good day's work 1" cried Santa Clans, . Yet won he little fame : Men took his gifts like Nature's laws, .Not needing wnence tney came ; And some averred they had no cause Their logic was so lame. To you who own small store of gold I have a word to say : Great blessing in your hands you hold To a-ladden Christmas Dav. Since love cannot be bought and sold Or kindness thrown away.- For, should no other soul be blest. Your own will purer grow, And each last Christmas be your Best, If such guts you bestow ; For Christ will be your Christmas guest, Beginning Heaven oeiow.