The Beaufort Tribune and Port Royal Commercial, 1877-10-18

teuecruai ana morai mme, uuu wucto i the contest was for martial fame, and t force of arms procured for each com- i petitor his share of glorv or of wealth, t Aspasia, the wife of IPericles, was a i I woman of the greatest beauty and the i first genius. She taught him his refined \ maxims of policy, his lofty imperial elo- 1 quence?nay, even composed the j speeches on which so great a share of t his reputation was founded. The best f men in Athens frequented her house and a brought their wives to receive lessons of 1 economy and right deportment. Socra- i tea himself was her pupil. a Guyot, the statesman and historian, a owed much of his success to his wife's t co-operation. r The wife of Louis Gal van i (daughter ] of Professor Galezzi, under whom he ? had studied anatomy), being a woman of quick observation, noticed that the e leg of a frog, placed near an electrical f machine, became convulsed when touch- 1 ed by a knife, and a series of experi- c mentis out of this led to the discovery of t a new system of physiology, ever since a called "Galvanism." \ The wife of Lavoisier, the French 1 chemist, not only could perform his | scientific experiments, but even engrav- e ed the plates which illustrated his "Ele- a ments." "* t Hubfer, the blind man, who wrote the t best book on bees, derived his knowl- 1 edge of their habits and instincts from 1< the observations of his wife. b Mary Cunitz, one of the greatest t geniuses in the sixteenth century, was b born in Silesia. She learned languages a with amazing facility, and understood t German, French, Polish, Italian, Latin, t Greek and Hebrew. She attained *a d knowledge of the sciences with equal g ease ; she was skilled in history, physic, c poetry, painting, music, and playing r upon instruments; and yet they were o Oily an amusement. She more particu- p larly applied herself to mathematics, t! and especially to astronomy, which 6he n made her principal study, and was rank- t: ed in the" number of the most able ( astronomers of her time. Her astro- a nomical tables acquired her a prodig- t] ious reputation. fi The wife of Alphonse de Lamartine, n the French poet, was mistress of many b languages, and excelled both in music tl ond r?nir?fiiiir and was also a brilliant a

From the mother's lips, I heard the coo Of my baby girl, aa with drowsy tongne She echoed the song with "Goo-a-goo.*' Together they sang, the mother and babe, My wife and chiJd, by the cottage door, Ah! that is the conoert, brother Tom, My cars are aching to hoar onoe more. So now good-bye. And I wish you well. And many a year of wealth and gain. # Tow were born to be rich and gay; / am content to be poor and plain. And I go back to my country home With a lore that absence has strengthened tooBack to the concert all my ownMother's singing and baby's coo. MISS CUTHBERT'S BIRTHDAY. A 44 Miss Cuthbert, arc you an old maid?*' The governess looked up in surprise from the columns of figures she had been correcting, and met the puzzled blue eyes of little May Fleming. 44 Whv do voti ask me that question, May?"" " t The child flashed and hung her head. ? 44 Nothing; only last night when you and Mr. Kenneth came in the gate, we ] were all on the piazza, and mamma said < Mr. Kenneth seemed very?something ( . French; and Alice said that was too absurd, for you were only a governess, and f an old maid besides ; and Bertha 1 said?" * 44 Never mind what Bertha said. Your i mamma and sisters would not like you 1 to repeat what you happen to hear them i remark. Your slate is correct," she i . added, 44 and you can go now." * 44 Have I said any thing bad, Miss ? Cuthbert?" and the blue eyes grew ] abashed and wistful as they noted the 1 unwonted flush on the governess's t cheek. i 44 No, dear, certainly not;" and she ] smiled down in May's doubtful face as she gave her the kiss of dismissal. ( But the smile faded as so>n as the J small observer vanished, and tossing her ] scattered books together, the governess f hastened out of the sunny, dnsty schoolroom, and up to her own apartment. ] It was a wonderful September day, J magnificent in cleanfess and oolor. Yel- i lowing fields and crimsoning woodlands were steeped in magic sunshine. Down ] below her, in the garden, the flowers ? glowed like jewels, and far away in

ors at the signal station, returned to his ?st from Colorado Springs, taking with lim a quarter of beef. It being late in he afternoon, his colleague, Mr. Hobbs, mmediately left with the pack animal or the Springs. Soon after dark, while dr. O'Keef was engaged in the office orwarding night dispatches to W ashingon, he was startled by a loud scream rom Mrs. O'Keef, who had retired for he night in an adjoining bedroom, and rho came rushing into the office screening, " The rats I the rats!" Mr. O'Keef, rith great presence of mind, immediatey girdled his wife ith a scroll of zinc ilating, such as had been used in roofing he station, which prevented the animals rom climbing upon her person; and, J though his own person was almost iterally covered with them, he succeeded n incasing his legs each in ajoims of (tove-pipe; when he commenced a fierce nd desperate struggle for the preservaion of his life, with a heavy war-club ireserved at the station, among other hdian relics captured at the battle of land Greek. Notwithstanding hundreds eere destroyed on every side, still they eemed to pour with increasing numbers rom the bedroom, the door of which ia^l been left open. The entire quarter >f beef was eaten in less than five minites, whioh seemed to only sharpen their ppetites for an attack upon Mr. O'Keef, rhose hands, face and neck were terribly acerated. In the midst of the warfare Irs. O'Keef managed to reach a coil of flectric wire hanging near the battery ; ?nd, being a mountain girl familiar with he throwing of the lariat, she hurled it h rough the air, causing it to encirole ler husband, and spring out from its oosened fastenings, making innumera>le spiral ways, along which she poured hooloMnVflniii from fchfi heavilv-charared

lattery. In an instant theroom was all blaze with electric light, and whenever he rats came in contact with the wire hey were hnrled to an almost instant teath. The appearance of daylight, made uch by the coruscation of the heavilyharged wire, caused them to take efuge among the crevices and caverns f the mountain, by way of the bedroom rindow. through which they had forced heir way. But the saddest part of this ight attack upon the Peak is the desroyipg of their infant child, which Mrs. )'Keef thought she had made secure by heavy covering of bed clothing ; but he rate had found their way to the inmt (only two months old), and had left othing of it but the peeled and mumled skull. Drs. Thorn aud Anderson bought at first that the left arm of Sereant O'Keef would have to be amputa3d, but succeeded in saving it A Rattlesnake's Attack. When a rattlesnake is disturbed it ounds an alarm, and then, if compelled, ; will fight When the victim is within ?ach the jaws of the snake are separated nd the head thrown back so as to bring be fangs into a favorable position to enetrate the object. The head is then arted rapidly forward, the unsheathed ooth penetrates the body of the victim, nd the poison is injected into the fiesh. 'he same muscular acts which open the round inject the venom through the net, and into the part penetrated by be tooth. The divergence of the fangointe when the snake bites often causes considerable distance between the two rounds. The power with which the enom is ejected from the tooth depends omewhat upon the amount contained in be gland and its ducts. If the snake rils to strike the object aimed at, the oison is sometimes projected several 3et; and a case is on record where it as thrown into the eyes of a man who eno \r A vnim if

The following table gives the annual production of wheat in the United States or twelve years, together with the annual exports and the home consumption, iced and wastage: Crop (bu.) Export*. Consumption. 186 2 177,957,172 56,915,621 122,041,551 186 3 173,677,928 39,689.773 133,988,155 864 160,695,823 14,657,641 146,038,182 .865 148,522,827 15,359,137 133,172,688 866 151,199,906 10,171,692 141,028,214 .867 212,441,400 23,556,319 188,884,481 .868 224,036,600 21,136,029 202,900,571 869 260,146,900 50,026,612 209,220,288 .870 235,884,700 49,794.432 186,090,268 .871 230,722,400 35,434,161 195,288,239 .872 249.097,000 48,929,069 200,167,931 .873 281,372,000 87,393,643 193,978,357 .874 308,000,000 70,466,890 237.533,110 .875 290,000,000 71,028,346 218,971,654 .876 250,000.000 55,008,758 194,990,242 This season it is known that the relerve lias been cut down to the minimum py shipments of 30,500,000 bushels irom he West since Jan. 1, against shipments' astyearof 29,000,000 bushels from a crop U),000,000 larger. At five bushels per capita, the home requirement would be ibout 235,000,000 bushels, beside the juantity needed to replenish the reserve ?which figures of yearly consumption ndicate may be roughly estimated at 50,000,000 bushels. Hence, if the comng crop is as much as 325,000,000 bush;ls, and the price is not unusually high, Kpnsumption and replenishment of reserve will take about 255,000,000 busli;ls, leaving 70,000,000 bushels for export. If the price rules high, both consumption and the quantity taken for reserve will be diminished, and the surplus for export may then be as much as

Kenneth's sketcli-book?the same he refused to exhibit!" The owner of the book, who had been running over a light air at the piano, sprang to his feet. "Pray, Miss Bertha," was the vexed remonstrance which he tried hard to make polite, "don't take advantage of pour discovery. Don't make public the fruits of my late industry, I beg." "What's the use of begging, Mr. Kenneth? After being shameless enough to steal the book from the pocket of your blouse coat, you might know I would rlso disregard your prayers." 'But the sketches are so poor," the ronng man persisted, much discomposed, " that I really must insist?" "No, you mustn't insist nor apologize and Bertha's voice was supported by a chorus from the curious group. "You're a genius, you know. Now, are we all here ? First comes a study of foliage, and next the old bridge over the ?reek. Very pretty. Foliage again? rocks?moon shadows ; how peculiar those are! how light!?oh, how lovely I" md she paused, enraptured by an exquisite little color sketch of oonvolvuli. "Oh, beautiful!" and " Mr. Kenneth, bow could you deny us the pleasure o'f seeing that ?" were the outcries that followed. "Ob, now we come to the character studies! Here's a Goliath to begin with, and an Airy Fairy Lilian on the opposite page. What a contrast! And oh, here's the funniest charcoal study of hnn/le I"

that evening the sober governess, who bad thought her romance dead, had beDome oonscious of a new element in her eventless life. Had it been only the language of Carl Kenneth's dark eyes, that had so often sought her retired corner, or had it been the novelty of receiving numberless little attentions to which she was all unused, that had first gladlened the dull days ? How was it that the barriers of reserve and pride had been leveled so completely by this stranger'8 gentle courtesy ? How had she managed to forget that she was Dnly a governess, and he the heir of millions ??she a woman past the heydey Df life, he in the very prime and glory Df youth? Ah, what a foolish dream ! And now, awakened by that careless shaft of ridicule, she must pay the cost of her folly in these bitter tears, falling on cheeks that burned at the remembrance of her presumptuous fancies. Young Mr. Kenneth had been kind and chivalrous to ber, as it was his nature to be to every woman. Perhaps he had been kinder to ber, out of pity. And she?well, thank beaven, no one would ever know of it, this idyl of a dead summer, this idyl that die would bury in the sunset of her thirtieth birthday! Is it easy for a woman to see the glory fade from her life?to look forward oravely over a waste of gray, cheerless rears that brighten only as the dawn of beaven breaks upon their close ? You yho think it easy would have wondered it Amy Cntlibert'8 haggard face as she it

large ant egg in its montn. i ioiiowea the empty monthed ones and found they were robbing a nest of red ants. The aest was about one foot across, and was covered with red and black ants engaged in a most desperate battle?the reds trying to defend their home from their thievish enemies. At times the ants would form in their little hills, sliding and rolling over the ground. I observed that the black ants that were engaged in stealing took no port in the fight, but would sieze the eggB and make for their }wn hill, leaving the fighting to be done by the rest of the band. The black ants in making these depredations had to cross me carriage drive, two plank walks, and climb up a terrace two feet in height? the distance between the two hills being L52 feet through the grass of an ordinary iawn. Out of curiosity I killed one of ;he black ants, and took it to a jeweler rnd had it put on the balauce with the egg it was carrying, when the egg was he heaviest; which shows the remarkable strength and endurance of these nteresting insects. I once noticed a small red ant trying to carry a worm, several times as heavy as itself, up a small mound on the top of which was its lest. After trying several times without success, it ran up the hill and disappeared in its hole, and presently returned vith quite a number of companions, who easily carried their captive into the nest n spite of his struggles." Wheat Production.