The Tribune, 1874-12-16

i8 tlie owner of them all in fee-simple. The honest Mulberry went into oil, and was ruined ; went into sbooks, and was ruined again ; went into real estate, and came out poorer than before; went into railroad bonds, and emerged a bankrupt, though no one oould see what there was left bo go to smash. And every time he oomes up smiling, with the light of a new " corner" or " strike " sparkling in his eye. He is a genuine Mioawber flowered on American soil, but a greater than Mioawber, for ho is invincible. He is too American for despair ; he steps up promptly to each new round with fate?and gets thrown every time. The dishonest Mulberry is a less pleasing fellow. He makes a preoariohs and disreputable living by thq. expenditure of ingenuity and industry whioh honestly exerted would make him a millionaire?if his name was ' anything but Sollers. His schemes are no less stupendous than those of the more scrupulous Mulberry, but they are all aimed at the appropriation of somebody else's money or thoughts or labor. He is a civilized robber, and. is 1 invariably captured. He plots a railroad swindle, and the reporters pry it out with their pencils ; he worms himself into the confidence of defrauded bondholders, and is speedily discharged ; he publishes a poem, aud next day sees the original and his plagiarism printed in parallel columns; he secretly infringes upon a patent, Mid is at once served with papers in a suit for damages ; he commits a forgery, and is detected by the first oashier he 1 approaches. The onrse of ill-lnck | withers every speech and action of hi6 > life, and yet ho goes on to the end of i [ his days the same undaunted, rascally Mulberry Sellers. At Washington, Mulberry Sellers is I ubiquitous and influential. TTa linn

. j Chandler would, after every dinner [ party of which he was a member, c&lm[ ly assert that he could lick any man of L his weight in the United States. One day law winter Chandler dined with Oonkling, and the latter inveigled the great war Senator into the private gymi naaiurn. The gloves were donned, and i the two champions began to make , graceful Senatorial passes toward one . another. The bont, however, was of I very short deration. Chandler sudi deufy jreoeived a blow between the eyes . whioh -caused his hngo form to go over backward; his trusty legs failed him, and then he skt down so hard that tears came out of his eyes. It took four men t to get the war Senator upon his legB, . bat h? threw up the sponge at onoe, without any further effort to punish I* Conklihg. The only remark he was heard to make was, 44 strange," and i 4 4 I'll fix him yet." j. i Conjtling and Chandler were much l together in a social way, and it was not1 L long alter the above occurrence when > Chandler received another invitation to > comer up to his house and spread his k legs ijuider Conkling's social board, i Chandler sent back word that he re; grottod very much Jiis iuability to be present, but he had a guest at his house, a valued constituent from Michigan, -and he could not leave him. Conkling sent back word, 44 Bring your friend along." With this form of invitation Chandler consented to come up. He brought his friend with him, and introduoed him as Mr. Howard, of Detroit, Miehigau. Howard was a sadeyed man of diffident manners, wlio oontented himself with paying a very olose attention to the themes of the bill of fare rather than to join in the general conversation of the dinner table. flATilrUnr* tttoa in crroof /??? ?*#>< tl.?

must conclude from inferences tliat tlie icy period is making again its appearance, and that that impenetrable belt of ice whioh seems to bar tho way to the North Pole, and which our distinguished member, Dr. Huyes, has partly explored, was onoe an open sea. In the interior of the country inhabited by Laps, one meets everywhere positive proofs of the rising of the laud. Shells are found several hundred feet above the level of the lakes ; mountains have been polished as smooth as glasR by the action of the ice; boulders of all sizes have been scattered over the land by the glaciers. Advancing glaciers are demolishing to this day and breaking the grauito hills which oppose their march, while their retiring ones leave behind them boulders, sand, gravel, etc. There are sea Laps, forest and river Laps, and nomadic Laps. To -night 1 am only to speak of the nomadic Laps. The wholo population of Lapland amounts to about thirty thousand, the nomadic Laplanders numbering about twenty-five thousand, and possesssing about five hundred thousand reindeer. Their herds vary from fifty to five thousand. There have been Laplanders possessing even ten tbousand reindeer. A man possessing from five hundred to a thousand reindeer is considered rich. Those who possess only fifty to one hundred are poor; Tho reindeer is everything tb the LaplaAderjc With its Bkin he makes clothing, shoes, gloves ; with its sinews his thread. Ho feeds on its flesh, and the animal is his beast of burden. The value of a reindeer varies according to the country. Driving reindeer broken to the harness aro not very plentiful, and cost from ten dollars to fifteen dollars each ; a com -

iu uu momuii ui muu vueio was a crasu, a chorus of wild shrieks, then an instant of silence succeeded by the groane of despair from a mutilated host of victims. Two trains had collided. The difference of a minute in two watches, the lapse of a single instant of watchfulness on the part of an engineer, and three score of mangled corpses, and three times three score of wounded men and women lay crushed in the debria of the shattered trains. It was midnight 'when the relief train which had been sent out to the spot started for the oifcv, and among the dead laid out in the baggage car lay the form of Dora crashed out of all semblance of beauty. Charity draws the mantle of forgetfulnesB over the sins of the dead, yet it iB neither uncharitable nor unkind to say that it was better for 'Dora that' she passed away thus, than that she should have lived to travel to its bitter and inevitable end the road in whioh she had set her wayward feet. The eifeot of the disaster upon old Biles was terrible. He blamed himself and vented curses on the day he ~wae born ; he raved ontil exhausted nature gave way in him. and then settled 4QV& into that, semi-idiotic condition of mind so painfnl to see in one whom we have known in brighter times. His sole occupation now was the adornment and beautifying of the grave of Dora, in the shady oenter of Greex^ount cemetery ; and on any afternoon 'she poor old mac could be found seated by its side. His friends, seeing that unless sopie change nnnln Ka offonfo/1 i?? V?*a

Ijljiao mi iucu wuuou perceptive iacuities are slow, Biles, when bo did comprehend anything, realized it to its fullest extent; and now for the first time his eyes were opened to the hideous fact that in advancing and beautifying his idol he had destroyed its original purity, and that between him and his daughter there had been plaoed an impassable gulf. The base thought that Dora was ashamed of him rankled in his breast until he was well nigh mad over it. Determined to stop the evil current that was bearing her love away from him* the foolish man did everything of al^others calculated, to increase its force. removing her from school and conveying her, against her will, and in spite of her remonstrances, back to the fann house, whose rough comfort was to her eyes repulsive in contrast with houses of frieuds she had made in city, he succeeded in damming up for a time the stream of willfulness and waywardnese which had been rapidly developed in her character by h?|.opposition to Jier will. But it only added foroe ana impetus to its wild outburst when she broke the bounds and swept" away in one angry flood all there was of-love, of happiness and of honor in that humble home. One night there was a long and bitter quarrel between father and child. Hard, cruel words were said, and harsh threats made. The next morning Dora had left the farm, leaving word only with the faithful old nurse, who had been nurse, friend and second mother to her, that heuoeforth she would travel her nun notli in Ufa /.u

Bat the poet lintenod nod smiled. for be mfi rihI womaa and ehfld?all three, 'If ad said, '* It ia Go<|)u own harmony, K This wind wo beer in the cbimney." ? ?Bret Rartc. ? _ .11 - . J Li THE SrORI OP OLO BILES. " Take'that chicken out of your hat," was the expr6BBion uttered iu a shrill, boyish treble, that fell uprtn my ear ; and a ragged, dazed-looking old mau, in a very seedy suit, and a dilapidated stovepipe hat, surrounded by a crowd of viciouB-lookiug, rowdy boys of all ages,was the spectacle that met my eyes, as 1 turned the oornerone day recently, I was about to pass on- without giving the affair any attention, when something familiar abont the old man's 3 Z WfiUli dtfuiA^fi'J'hbord of memofy. * * I stopped and.drove off the crowd who were persecuting him, while he looked still more imbecile and woebegone at tho unexpected succor than jtfi I' WtVUtf*jy r " Evidently feeling th?xi?Aa|fS soo^aiWord of thanks and <ekpnaiwiai, l^fcltered out, "I ain't got no more chioken in my hat than you has, air, and* them young uus knows it; but they has just got so into the habit of persecuting poor Old Biles, that they can't sort of help it, it seems like, j&n jou, sir, for your Rindneef ; ana, replacing the battered hat, which he had removed both as an act of courtesy and to verify his wordn, he shuffled off down the hill. I grasped my cigar tighter between my teeth, and swung my pane in that ever -

... - ? V ? - .? ?V I'HOIA *M ?? M W? ?lLllO UiU man was like one stunned when he fully realized the situation, but he accepted it and bowed his head in sorrow. Dora returned to Baltimore, and for a few weeks visited around among her former schoolmates without exciting any remark or suspioion, until her strange talks . and singular actions awoke inquiry, and the train was developed. She then began to realize the fief thai while she was the welcome gUSot so long" as she* came in the capacity of a visitor from her father's house, yet, as tl\a voluntary refugee from its shelter, once hospitable doors were closed againht her. It was in this emergency that Dora'B true character developed itself, revealing the fact that under the form of an angel there had laid dormant a heart of stone. Acting upon the advice of friends to whom he had confided his troubles, the old man had plaoed in the hands of the commission merchants who attended to his business a sum of money sufficient for her support, and she was notified of the fact. Without the least hesitation or embarassment she accepted it, and would present herself regularly once a week at their counting-houBe to receive her allowance. At these times, instead of existing any feeling either of respect or gratitude for the broken hearted old man, upon whose money she was subsisting, she would chatter gayly with the clerks and exercise the fascination of her wondrous beauty upon the susW 11. - -u 1 1- -1 ?

monono from four dollars to six dollars. The most intelligent Laps arc the Swedish and Norwegian, compulsory education having reached that distant region. Thoy all know how to read. Every one is or must be confirmed, this oeremony being part of the Lutheran creed; hence all must be able to read the Bible and know their catechism. Churches are scattered here and there in tho desolate regions and the church-going Laps come into them on Sunday from every side. . M. Da Chaillu described a gonuino, old, arctic sleigh-ride, and his amusing trials and mishaps in learning how to manage the ticklish, colflu-like conveyance. His first lesson took six hours, and during that period he managed to overturn tho machine an hundred times, more or less, but without stopping his steed or attempting so futile a task, he held grimly ou to the single rein, and thamped and bumped along over the snow until a lucky kick sent him back into the box. There was a rule of driving, that tho throwing of the rein to rest on the left flank was a signal for a slow gait, while touching the right flank meant full speed. For himself he had'Dever been able to discover the difference, the swift-footed messenger going at his best ruto from the moment of uarnessing. The scratching of the reindeer for tho white moss, through a five foot crust of snow, was shown with praotical illustrations, while the interest ?>f tho ladies cul -