Eau Claire Argus (Newspaper) - February 19, 1880, Eau Claire, Wisconsin VOL I NO 42 EAU CLAIRE CLAIKE CO WIS THURSDAY FEBRUARY 19 1880 II ONE DOLLAR PER YEAR Grandmother knitting has lost its charm Unheeded it in hur ample lap While the sunsets crimson soft and warm Touches the frills of her snowy cap She is on two beside tho bar little care Fur the dink or the rising Or a of in the autumn air H a slip of i MnI And one a man in the pridi of youth pun as the purest pearl flu lover strung in his steadfast truth my ov n a rose in June FIc lay low oer the head Il would sound io her like a dear old tune CHihl the soft words For it hut a Since the beside the bars stood a while the sunsets Melted away mid the evening stars And one her lover so rouir und brave Spake words as tender in tones as low to her now from beyond the The words of her so atro own urn sweet as n rose of June are dim find tier hair is white lint her heart keeps time to the old AH she her daughters child if A world between hern perhaps you say Vert One has read the story through One us her beautiful fair to view Hut you dream how fond a prayer Juei up to iod through His silver stars From the woman there tw who linger beside the bars Til VISION Or Murder Will Out John Mac Donald a wellknown iten erant peddler hud on a dreary winter evening attended a rustic wedding and at the farm town oi Assynt where among the fair damsels us lie hud contrived considerably to lighten his No one observed him leave and for a month afterwards not hini was heard oi his movements His excited no surprise among Die country people as it was supposed that he had gone o visit his relations who lived in They however ignorant of his movements and seeing him only at distant intervals were oi course not troubled at his customary absence and the peddler might have been away much longer before any suspicion could have been excited Pnt exactly four weeks utter the festivities it Assynt a passing a deep and pre the mountain road which lies between the farm town and the CM a of Assynt observed by the impor ted dawnlight a bundle floating upon the lop of the water then unusually low and clear A rude ral f as constructed and with his aid the neighbors dragged the corrupted body of a human being to shore Though much decomposed all who were present immediately rd the body of the missing peddler The clothes were the same which he had worn when last Keen but the pockets had been carefully turned out and rilled and no thing of any value had been found on the Notwithstanding these suspicious ap the simple people among whom a murder had been committed concluded that the unfortunate man hail alien accidentally into the tarn So con firmed were they in this opinion that they at once buried the body and John Mac Donald and the tragedy connected with him were in a fair way of being forgot ten The parish minister however had accidentally learned of the discovery and he forthwith forwarded information to the proper authorities The of the county and the public prosecutor immediately came down to the district and commenced a searching turn Under the guidance of John Cameron the was recommend ed to them by the minister as a skilful and trusty person on whom every reli ance might be accompanied by the medical men of the island the sheriff visited the spot where MacDon alls body had been buried It was dis interred in his presence and on examina tion several deep wounds were ered on the back oi his head any one of which the doctor said would have been sufficient to cause death Coupled with the fact that the clothes had been plundered no reasonable doubt could remain that u murder hud been committed It was well known in the island that MacDonald who had had considerable carried his fortune on his back banks and stock being un known institutions to primitive people But for many days ail the in genuity of the law was obtain any trace of the murderer No one had been seen with MacDonald after he left Assynt no article of any kind could be identified ls ns property The search appeared fruitless Several murders however had been recently committed in the northern counties they had remained unpunished it was therefore a matter of much public importance that in this case an example should be made The sheriff established cti permanence at a roadside hotel in the vicinity and an his determination to examine every resident in the island During these investigations the sheriff was accompanied by Cameron who through his acquaintance with the Gailic tongue and his knowledge of the inhabitants proved a great as an interpreter One morning however the sheriff went down to the postoffice alone Cameron being for the first time absent During a desultory conversation the postmaster incidently stated that soon after the date of the murder he had given change for a 0 Bank of England note to a person who he did not think should have so much money in Iris pos session Who was this John Cameron the schoolmaster Cameron was sent for was asked how he came to have the mon ey in question and peremptorily denied any knowledge of the transaction His statement though made without appar ent embarrassment excited suspicion and he was arrested charged with the murder For some time however no facts ap to confirm the suspicion Camer ons house which stood on a hillside by itself was minutely searched but none of the peddlers property was found His sister who lived with him was evidently perfectly innocent She was a young and pretty girl and for her station in life in and cultivated When told of the charge she indignantly refused to believe that her brother was guilty and in deep distress followed him to prison One or two casual of which she spoke proved of unhappy portance on the trial Even then how ever though well aware of the falal ef fect of her answers she spoke fearlessly and Spartanlike hon esty meeting out her brothers doom A fearful dilemma where even falsehood cannot be rigorously judged but where stern and rigid truth cannot be too highly esteemed A noble High land heroine with her bloodless lips and white tearless honor to the gen tle womanhood that is yet too noble in its maidenly honesty to toll a lie Cameron though unable to account satisfactorily furthe money was on the point of being liberated when a singu lar incident occurred A workman Me Leod by name had on three successive occasions dreamed that he Cam eron follow MacDonald to the waterside strike him a number ot heavy blows with a hammer rifle his pack cast the body into the tarn and conceal the articles he had taken in a cairn near his own house The story was soon bruited about and the dreamer was brought before the sheriff So strong and vivid lie said was his recollection of the incidents of the dream that he could undertake to point out to the criminal officer the exact stones under which the property was concealed They went together and ulti mately discovered the articles in ques tion concealed under several large stones which MacLeod declared exactly resem bled those impressed on his memory Here was an important fact to begin with property of the murdered man found in the immediate proximity to Camerons house Next day another link was obtained A week or two pre vious to his apprehension Cameron walked one rainy morning to the other side of the island got wet and at a coun try inn obtained from the landlady a pair of stockings leaving his own behind to be dried These were now produced and after some hesitation a cotters wife de clared that from a peculiarity in the work she could depose that they were of her own making and added that the day before his disappearance the peddler had bought two pairs from her for his own use That now produced was one of them the other was discovered in Cam erons house A variety of similar cir gradually came out and after considerable delay occasioned by the difficulty of the case Cameron wa brought to trial The trial took at Inverness It lasted from ten oclock on the first morn ing of till the same hour next consecutive hours during which time judge jury and spec tators sat uninterruptedly The prime interest to the superstitious Highlander lay in the mysterious fact of the vision and the seer was an object of interest when he appeared in the witness box He suffered a severe cross examination from the prisoners counsel without the substantial value of his evidence being No one who heard his examination could doubt that been main topic of interest on the many had no doubt become strongly impressed on imagination some slight link of fact a word lor gesture probably existed and out of these inchoate materials the story might gradually shape itself into a form not unlike the actual because a natural and logical arrangement of the whole facts known or surmised at the time And going on with the story to its close the dream would accompany the murder er after the commission of tlie crime de pict liis horror and contrition his desire to put away from him every evi dence of the accursed deed which lay keavy on his soul The place where he property was out that he would naturally of his own house indeed but not so far from it but that articles might easily be recover ed after the first dread had been subdued have disenchanted the un seen and who consider a mans muscle the part of him will probably ex plain the mystery in some such way light of common day has become too strong for the supernatural Fashionable Barbarity The author in the in the Carribbean woods unexpectedly beheld a vision of loveli ness seldom to the dwellers of the icy Close at hand within two feet off me sat a tiny hummingbird on a downy best Fearlessly it glanced at me with its bright black eyes and curiously it followed my every motion with its shapely little head A buzzing of wings attracted my attention and I beheld the mate of the one on the nest who darted atme unmistakable fury his glit erect and anger shooting from liis eyes Verily had his diminu ive body been to his heart I should have destroyed Satisfied hat he could not drive me away by dait at my eyes he rested a moment on a twig near the nest where he was at once by his mate who seemed to eu by caresses to soothe his temper he was stating what was ally true no one could believe and tlis of course was the object of the examina tion that he was the criminal or in any way implicated It was a pro and difficult case ot tial evidence The gas was not used in those days which had lighted them in their vigil through the long au tumn night were extinguished and the sun n heaven when the jury re turned to the court finding the prisoner guilty as libelled The verdict had been recorded and the sentence tof death pro when Cameron who had pre served throughout the the most pro found composure rose and with the ut most solemnity and calmness called God to witness that he was a murdered man The whose exertions the success of the prosecution was mainly to be making his way to his hotel through the excited crowd when a message came to him from Cam eron requesting to sec him When he reached the cell Cameron still mani the same complete composure at once said I am now going to tell you what I have never breathed to mortal man the verdict was quite did the deed He then made a full and de tailed confesson relating the whole story with perfect demeanor he preserved till his execution The murder he said was committed on the night of the Assynt wedding He had seen Mac Donald leave had followed him served had made up to him and walked along with him to the tarn then with a heavy hammer which he was carrying home he had stiuck him several blows from behind and after rifling the corpse had thrown it into the water For some weeks it had remained at the at least he could see nothing of it and he had gone once or twice every week to look for it The evidence of McLeod surprised and startled him The prop erty had been hidden ths same a dark wet misty on his return home and it was impossible so he thought that McLeod with whom he was merely ac could have come by his infor mation by any natural way The fact is curious and may furnish a problem for those who are curious in psychological mysteries The murder had of course deavor md assure him that my intention toward them was not evil Touched to the heart tins exhibition of trust and love would lot have harmed these little innocents for a Exposed for a moment were two eggs white as snow and small as Now look about you in church and ask that charming young lady with he in her hat would have lone had she been there She would have taught i the little brooding it to death would have aken advantage of the chivalry heroism the little husband to catch him as he down upon her and have wrench ed his soldiery neck Then she would lave the nest blown the specks f gold out of the pearly eggs skinned he birds and put the whole on ler No she could not be such a sav ige as i you may say But she has worse She has paid a savage Ca rib or Brazilian not only for doing so but also for skinning the birds alive for that do in order to preserve and the brilliancy ot the Dont be hard upon her She seen it in this light before We will warrant that she will buy no more hlu mm for her rior Danger in Proverbs Tho proverb Never put off till to morrow what may be done today has into indescribable trouble It was about the first thing my school me and when I took my vacation on Friday instead of putting it off till Saturday I was arranged in an position over that school masters knee and paddled in a that I thought should have been put off till next day Tho I see of this life the more I am satisfied of the danger of proverbs in general and particularly of this one Why last week when Elias first wife died and he buried her that afternoon and married the Widow before sundown I declare the very people who had been teaching their children to never put off till to morrow what might be done today said it was an outrage on society and talked of building a superstructure of feathers on him Consistency as I may have remarked is a jewel but people seem to be drifting into the modest unpretending ways o jFree Methodism that scorns or jewelry I suppose a man might possibly eat six meals today and go hungry tomor row butt these same people wont do it and I dont blame them I presume a railroad conductor might carry aJ tramp over the road today just as wellas to put him off till tomorrow but he wont do it Probably I could write a great deal about proverbs today but I know you will fee II relieved if I put it off till to morrow or even Wilde in the The Difference How do you account lor this asks the inquisitive Transcript In the lodge the marshal is directed to retire to the ante room toj introduce and Tom Brown m language something like the following Brother Marshal you will retire anteroom and respectfully inf jrm His High Mightiness the Most Puissant William Smithers and His In Potency the Very venerable Thomas JBrown that this reverent body awaits 1 lie distinguished honor of their irradiating presence Then the marshal goes says Already come Tom h In the army on the contrary this order was reversed like this yells out i to his Go down there to the forks ot the go as if the devil was after ask Colonel what he bo lang getting into line Away went the aide on the gallop which mod erates first into a sober trot and then a walk as he nears Colonel Col onel General sends his com and desires that you move your regiment up into line as speedily as pos sible ST VALENTINES BAY This is the day of gentle Valentine all in the morning a day to he long held in honor if only for the of the pretty Ophelia and Mr Weller the younger People who are annoyed to day by receiving penny lampoons in the style of a Tribune editorial about the ci may reflect with satisfaction that Valentine Saint and Bishop was beaten with clubs and beheaded in the third century He was not thus treated how ever by reason ot any connection with I the postoffice and it is a vexed question to this day how it came to pass that prac and sentiments not always either saintly or episcopal came to be put under special protection of his name The most plausible explanation given of this is the fact that the Roman Lupercalia Jin honor of Pan and Juno were cele in February when among other the names of young women were put into a box to be drawn by a corresponding number of young men This custom having outlived the religion in it had its origin the pastors of Christian Rome it is supposed allowed their people to associate with it the memory of St Valentine to whom a day about the same time had been as in the Calendar Under the new dispensation maidens chose their mates ds well as bachelors and in the north of Europe particularly certain obligations and early grew out of the cus tjom which gave It a real social value and grace These have long since faded out of it and the memory of per sons still living Valentines gifts which in the days of Shakespeare were posies and poems and in those of Pepys giems and gold have degenerated into doggerel and rubbish Chaucer and allude to the feast and Charles of Orleans the princely poet was captured by Henry V at Agincourt is of record as one of the earliest writers of valentines Drayton introduces the legend that the birds pair today in his pretty Muse bid the morn awake Sad winter now declines Each bird doth chose a This days St Valentines For bishops sake Qct up and let us see What beauty it shall be That fortune us and in his on the of the Princess Elizabeth to Frederick the Rhenish Count Palatine iii 1614 1 Valentine whose day tliis is i All the air is thy diocese And all the chirping other birds are thy I Never was St Valentine held m such honor as under the Merry Monarch in Married people as well as bachelors and maidens were liable to be as valentines and as the chooser entitled to a present the choice often enough fell upon householders of sub Mr Pepys records this day 212 years ago that little Will Mercer came up to liis wises bedside to be her valen tine and brought her name written upon blue paper in gold letters done by himself very pretty and we were both pleased with it But I am also this year my wifes valentine and it will cost me he adds philosophically enough taut I must have lad out if we had not been valch Mr Pepys himself drew Mrs little girl a fact which rejoiced his thrifty soul it easing me of some thing more than I must have given to It was a costly distinction to a resigning beautys valentine The same chronicler records that the beautiful Stuart afterwards Duchess of Richmond received from the Duke ot York on the occasion an jewel and from the Lord of that time on another a ring gifts of this value being a sore ot ransom from f he obligations of valen Today in some parts of Spain much jealousy and homicide arc avoided by the practice of drawing valentines the pair being good for a year during which time it la obligatory upon the swain to act as his belles escort on all social occasions after the manner more or less of Canadian dom In February 1668 Mr Pepys be ing again his wifes valentine presented her with a turquoise which he calls a set with diamonds Mis sion tells how in England and Scotland the lottery of love was drawn the valen tines giving balls and treats to their mis tresses and wearing their billets several days upon their bosoms or sleeves a little he says which often ends Gays verses recall the lar belief that the first unmarried per son of the other sex whom one met on Sti Valentines morning in walking abroad was destined to become the eii wife or husband and in the Connoisseur a pert young miss tells how she pinned four to the corner of her pillow and one in the middle so as the heroine of The Eye of St her future lord whom she would infallibly espouse ere the year was ouf Adapting to another day a Halloween custom she also devour ed hardboiled egg and shell the yolk having been removed and f he cavity filled with salt Atter such a dose she might have dreamed herself an Andromeda cap tured from her Perseus by the Cape Cod seaserpent So late as a few years ago sentimental valentines still competed even in this country with the penny lam poon for popular and from 25 cents up to on occasion to sighing swain might obtain a testi monial in lace and embossed paper with hearts cupida hymeneal altars flowers and all complete Perhaps the growing popularity of Easter with its eggs out of which with the help of the jeweler and the confectioner so many pretty things may be hatched has had something to do with the final decline and fall of St Valentines Day Finding in the Bible An English town missionary some time ago related a remarkable incident There was a lodginghouse in his dis which had long desired to en ter but he was deterred from so doing by his friend who feared that his life would be thereby endangered He be came at length so uneasy that he de termined to risk all consequences and try to gain admission So one day he gave a somewhat timid knock at the door in response to which a coarse voice roared out Whos there and at the same moment a woman opened the door and ordered the man of God away Let him come in and see who he is and what he wants growled out the same voice The missionary walked in and bowing politely to the ing man whom he had just heard speak said I have been visiting most of the houses in this neighborhood to read with and talk to the people about good things I have passed your door as long as I feel I ought for I wish also to talk with you and your lodgers Are you what is called a town miss I am sir was the reply Well then said the man sit down and hear what I am going to isay If you answer me right you may call at this house and read and pray with us and our lodgers as of ten as you Like but if you do not answer me right we will tear your clothe off your back and tumble you neck and heels into the street Now what do you say to that for I am a man of my The missionary was perplexed but at length quietly said I will take you Well then said the man here goes Is the word girl in any part of the Bible If so where can it be found and how of ten This is my question Well sir the word girl is in the Bible but only once and may be found in the words of the Prophet Joel iii 3 The words are And sold a t it girl for wine that they might drink Well replied tha man I am dead beat I durst to have bet you could not have told And I could not have told yesterday said the visitor For several days J have been praying that the Lord would open me away into this house and this morning when reading the scriptures in my family I was sur prised to find the word girl and got the concordance to see if it occurred again and found it did not And now sir I believe that God did know and does know what will come to pass and surely His hand is in this for my protection and your good The whole of the inmates were greatly surprised and the incident has been overruled to the conversion of the man his wife and two of the lodgers American i 11 Mil Only a Cape and a Sword Bonaparte riever forgot anything least of all the days of his poverty and the slights he then received Grace Green wood sends to the N Y Tribune the fol lowing of the corporal and emperor which characteristic When Bonaparte first paid court to Madame de Beauharnais neither was rich enough to keep a carriage and the young hero who was deeply in love of ten gave the charming widow his arm when she went to visit her man of busi iness a notary named Madame who had great confidence in this legal adviser who was a friend as well went to see him immediately after her engagement to Bonaparte who as usual accompanied her but from mo tives of delicacy did not enter the nota rys cabinet but remained in an adjoin where several clerks were writ ing room ing The door being imperfectly closed he here heard nearly all that was said dur ing the interview and especially the ar by to deter Madame from the mar riage she acknowledged herself abou t to contract Mark my words Madame said the notary earnestly you are about to com mit a great folly of which you will bit terly repent Why this man you are about to espouse has nothing in the world but a cape and a sword Said Josephine never spoke to me of this and I had not the faintest suspicion that he overheard contemptuous words Can you Bourrienne figure to me my ment when eight years after on the of liis coronation as soon as he was n vested with his imperial robes he said Let them go and seek have come instantly I have something to say to him The notary vas promptly brought and much before the who with his peculiar sardonic smile said Eh bien haye I nothing in the world but a cape and a sword I Anagrams The following are a few of the anagrams Napoleon Bonai parte No Appear not at Elba graphs great helps starers Louis Napoleon Bon aparte Arouse Albion I An open elegant neat leg matrimony into my Old England Jadd parishioners I hire penitentiary I repent revolu tion to love rain Presbyterians in prayer catalogues got as a and sweetheart there we sat DIFFERENT MANNERS The Style in Massachusetts and that in Missouri Two sports were discoursing upon New Years sports and New Years cus toms at home in the older States says the Virginia Nov Enterprise Then they tell to discussing the hospitality ot the people ofj various State of the Union Said otite of the men Now in Mis souri you can travel through the country from ot the State to the other and not be charged a cent for a nights lodgings but go down to Massachusetts and at every farm house theyll you tour shillings Said the other Yes that is so You ride up to a farm house in Massachusetts and the proprietor comes to lie door you ask if you can stop over night with him He says Certainly sir He then calls one of the boys or perhaps the hired man to come and take your horse You dismount and are shown to a cheer ful parlor You find newspapers and Presently supper is an and you find roast spareribs applesauce jams jellies sweetcake and all that kind of thing with a firstclass cup ot tea and all the milk you want When you go to bed you are shown to a room that looks like a bridal chamber In the morning you find a of water I and all else needed in making your toilet ready at hand You have a fine break fast hot biscuits and all the trimmings your horse is presently brought to the door nicely groomed and looking as lively as you ask your entertainer what is to pay and he says shillings sir lie says that and I dont deny it You pay the four shillings mount and are square with the world and feeling like a fightingcock Now I have traveled till through Missouri and Ill tell you how it is there You ride up to a house and seven stump tailed yellow dogs jump off the butt of a haystack and come yelping about you You dont see anybody about the houso so you ride out toward the log stables There you find a woman trying to milk a cow that is tied up by the horns You ask if you can stay all night She says I reckon jest tie your hoss up to the corn crib For supper you have bacon corn dodger and black coffee You sleep in a room where the boys and gals are strew ed around you on tlie floor or in trundle beds You go out to the well in the morning and by the aid of the sweep draw water with to wash yourself in the tin pan stands near at hand on the bench you find a ijot of jellylike soft soap ering in a broken crock The supper res peats itself at breakfast After break fast you goj for your horse you find him coated over on one side with manure and and discontented Fi nally you back to the house hitch your horse to one of the posts of tlie porch and go in to take leave zf your host You ask him what is to pay and drawing himself up proudly he says Nothing sir t dont keep a hotel but if youve a to give the children some thing its ajl right Now you are youre a son of a gun if you give those children less than two bits and Im ason of M gun if there is ever less than thirteen of them Yes Ive traveled in by a Spider Spiders more abundantly and conspicuously than usual upon the indoor walls of our houses foretell the near ap approach of rain but the following dote intimates that some of their habits are the equally certain indication of frost being at hand Quartermaster val seeking to beguile he tedium of his prison at Utrecht had studied at attentively habits of the spider and eight years jof imprisonment had given him be well versed in its way In December of 1794 the French army on whose success his restoration to lib ertv depended was in Holland and vic tory seemed certain if the frost then of unprecedented severity continued The Dutc i envoy had failed to ate a peace and Holland was despairing when the frost suddenly broke The Dutch were DOW exulting and the French generals prepared to retreat butthe spider warded that the thaw would be of short duration and he knew that his weather monitor never deceived He to communicate with the army of his countrymen and its generals who duly es his character and re lied upon his assurance that a few days the waiter would again be passable by troops delayed their retreat Within twelve days the frost French army val was crated and a spider had brought ruin on tlie Dutch nation and A lady residing at island in Louisiana wishing to sej a hen went into a field adjoining Her resi dence where some of had been u and produced seventeen and placed them under the hen When in the course human the chickens were hatched lo and behold there came forth four is supposed alligators from an ad joining marsh had eggs in the field and she the difference laced tlie iten And what alligators f the pre beetle in a low mother as happy as Colorado tato patch Mr Whiting a citizen of Bos ton has gone to Africa to pur chase one hundred ostriches for his farm in the San Joaquin in California
