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SATURDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 25, 1886.1 QTU V T? A T? _M°. QQQ * isbnky LIVINGSTON, NON lt;Sc CO.,lO JL ±T— Oe/0* | Proprietors, Editors and Publishers.The Signal’s “Platform.”THE VAMPIRE LIFE.The following paragraphs outline a por« tlon of the principles and opinions that control in tho management of the Signal. They may be labeled “ Democratic” or “ Republican,” according to Individual preference. They are honestly ours, however, and embrace nearly all there is of our religious or political “ creed.”WE HOLD, THAT—We auk Governed too Much; less law and more Justice, fewer o(llces and more honesty in public life are needed.An. Legislation, except to protect the citizen in the enjoyment of the fullest liberty consistent with the rights of should beavoided; class enactments WiW wZgAist, arbitrary and oppressive, their pas^jSSjibould be barred by constitutional provision.The Majority should rule, without power to oppress the Minority; the latter, being amenable to law, are entitled to representation.The Elective Franchise should be withheld from those whose ignorance, stupidity or vice render It a weapon of offence against good government; the public safety demands that a just quaUtication be enforced, regardless of race or class distinctions.Ftp'a lit v Before the Law should be accorded to all; political and social equality to those only who prove themselves worthy of it.A Constitutional amendment, allowing a direct vote for President and Vice-President— with every vote cast to count one—is impcrative-!v demanded.Home I.ndustrv should be protected,but not to the extent of enriching the manufacturer at the expense of the consumer; the citizen should be free to buy In the cheapest and sell iu tho dearest market consistent with safety.Trial jiy Jury, us at prosent operated, has outlived its usefulness, and ought to be abolished; one intelligent, lamest man is a safer judge of right and wrong than any number of meii who neither “ know nor care.Every Si'KciKfl of Property, whether on land, afloat or under water, should he protected at the nubile expense ami bear its share of the public burden; exenijitious. whether in favor of corporations or individuals, are unjust, and should nut be made under any pretext whatever.Virtue and Intelligence should rule. Vice ami Jgnoranco should be restrained and elevated.All Matters of Opinion, whether in Religion or Politics, belong to the Individual, and the fullest liberty should be accorded all lu their enjoyment and expression.•• Dead Issues” have no rightful placo In tho affairs of the living piesent—neither in a moral, religious nor political sense.••Governments Derive tiif.ir Just Powers from the consent of the governed”; yet tho better elements of the governed have little to do with the powers of government. To be truly free, men must not only practice honesty, but see to it that dishonest men are kept from office.Political Corruption promises the overthrow of our Institution*, and ought to be effectual I v rebuked. Those only deservo to rule whoare capable of ruling honestly.The Ballot Box. the great safeguard of political freedom, in the hands of dishonest canvassers, Is becoming a delusion and a snare. Deliberate fraud in the returns shouldbepunished by disfranchisement and debarment from ever holding olllre.Patriotism has small place In the scramble for otflee. Flections should bo held less frequently. Important offices filled for longer term*, and minor local officers removed only for cuuse.Tariff for Revenue, only so far a* needed for public expense, is legitimate. To exact revenue for hoarding or squandering Is a crime against the commerce and industry of the country. No** surplus funds” are needed, and unnecessary taxation should not be tolerated.Monopolies are e.-senlially necessary to successful enterprise. Kvcry man out of prison is or should la* a monopolist of something, If nothing more than the hare labor of his hands.Unjust Burdens upon American shipping should be removed; there Is something wrong when our ocean mails are forwarded under a foreign Hag. ,.. at..... T • %mui La Ainrimr rr\ tho TVOATAlOI.A hand was laid upon my shoulder as I otood upon the platform of the little country depot, waiting for the traiu. I turned and fouud myself face to face with Mark Graham. Something in his countenance startled me.“Why, Mark, old fellow, how are you?”I said, shaking hands with him. “I didn’t expect to see you here. What’s happened to you since I saw you last? You look as if you had seen a ghost.”“Do I,” he said, with a ghastly kind of a smile, and I fancied that his voice had changed as much as his looks. Ho was usually one of tho jolliost fellows to be found anywhere.“Yes, you do,” I auswed. “What’s tho trouble? Tho train isn’t due for half an hour yet. Let's go somewhere and sit down, and you can tell me all about it; that is, if there’s anything to tell.”We went across,the track to where some stunted pines grew, and found a seat under them quite free from intrusion.“So you think I look as if I had seen a ghost, ch?” said Mark. “Well, I haven’t, but I feel about tho same as if I had. You know I was at Melrose when that terrible affair happened, I suppose.”“What terrible affair?” I asked. “I have just come from the North woods, and haven’t had a letter or seen a paper for amonth.”“Then you didn’t know that Alice Leitli was dead?”I turned a shocked and startled face upon my friend.“That doesn’t seem possible, Mark. I left her two months ago the picture of perfect health. When did she die?”“About two weeks ago. She died very suddenly. For the last two weeks—ever since the night after her death, in fact— we have been hunting for her body.”“My God, Mark, what do you mean?” I cried, startled by his words ami look. “Was—was she drowned?”“No, siie died at home, but”—anil hero my friend’s voice was low, as if ho hardly liked to speak tho strange truth aloud— “her body was stolen the night after her death, and wo have been searching for it ever since, and have found not a single trace of it.”I think my face must have told Mark how horrified I was, fur he gave a uorvous little laugh and said:“It’s your turn to look as if you had seen a ghost. But I suppose you’d like to hear the particulars of this most mysterious affair. and 1 will give them brielly. Miss I^eith was taken suddenly ill, ami died on the second day. Several of us were visiting at Melrose, and her illness was so brief that none of us had gono away when it ended in death. Being there at the time it happened, we of course were expectd to stay until after the funeral. On tho night after she died there were four of us ‘watching with the dead,’as they say iu tho country. Her body was in the library, and wo occunied a small narlor onenin : I*——i of strong fascination tn it wouid a raw my eyes back to it. Was that shadow in the far-seeing eyes one of regret, remorse, or repentance? It was one^ or all, and he made mo think of some fallen angel who pines for his lost estates, and is fading out of life because tho consciousness of the sin by which he fell cannot bo shaken off, and he is haunted night and day by the specter of dead hopes and dreams. It was a face that had once been fair to look upon. It had been a strangely powerful face in days gone by. A mind that had been intense in action had looked out through those dreary eyes which now seemed to see nothing butshadows unseen to others. I saw at a glance that before mo was tho wreck of astrong intellect.He sat there for perhaps an hour, never once looking at or speaking to mo. Indeed he did not seem to be conscious of my presence.By and by he rose and walked unsteadily • toward tho door. Mr. Leith sprang up to assist him, but ho waved him back.“Do not come with me,” he said, and though Mr. Leith insisted on being allowed to help him up tho stairs, ho resolutely refused all assistance.“Poor Max,” tho old man said, coming back and sitting down by me. “His life is in the shadow that has fallen so darkly about myself and family. Ho was to have married Alice. He was away from homo when she died. He came back on the day after her body was stolon. He has never been the same porson since that ho was before. Ho was always different from other people. He was educated at Heidelberg, and I think German metaphysics took too strong a hold of him for his own good. He came back to us a dreamer. Alice loved him, and studied with him, and took a deep interest in his strange fancies, but I nover cared to trouble myself about them. Ho has a laboratory in the tower you see at tho corner of the house, and no 0110 ever sets foot in it save himself. Under it is his study, and thero ho remains from morning till night, busy over his wild theories. 1 go thero but seldom. The atmosphere seems too heavily charged with uncanny elements to bo agreeable to mo. What wonderful experiments ho has tried in that workshopof his none of us know. If Alice had lived she might have won him from his unhealthy books and work, and mode him more like tho Max ho used to be. But lie is nearly done with it nil now. Poor Max!”I was very much interested in this strange person. So much so that I hung about the house all next day, fearing that lie might come down when I was away and I should fail to soe him.About sunset he came down the stairs, slowly, weakly, often stopping to rest. I went to him, and asked if I might not be allowed to help him.“If you pleaso,” he said. “I would like to walk about tho garden a little, if you will let me have your arm.”His weight upon me was like that of a child. Our walk about the path was so slow that it tired mo.••1 think this is for tho lost time,” he said 1v and bv. Dausincr beneath the windowsThen I called up air tho' engery of my will, and bent it upon the awful task I had undertaken. ‘Alice,’ I cried, with the voice of mv soul, ‘come back.’ I willed that life should start to action again in the form before me. My whole power was concentrated in that one idea. If earth had gono to wreck about mo then I should not havo known it.“ ‘Come back, spirit called life,’ I kept saying over and over. Time went by, and I heeded it not. I fancied that I folt a warmth stealing into tho hands I held, and that I saw a faint color coming into tho face I watebkd with such terrible intensity. A wild thrill of exultation leaped like fire through my veins. I would work a miracle no other man had ever wrought!“At last, at last! There came a flutter of tho eyelids, and then they lifted, and the eyes of Alice looked'into mino. 1 felt tho breath coming and going over her lips, and then I fell forward in tho gray light ofdawn, and lay beside her on the floor, weak as a child. The tension was removed from my brain, and the reaction was almost like death. For hours I did not stir. But tho wild triumph of a work accomplished beat back and forward in my brain like a tide. I had brought back life to the woman I loved. I had conquered death!“Tho sun was high in the heavens when I rallied strength enough to rouse myself from the lethargy that had fallen upon me. I raised myself to a sitting posture, and touched the hands I had held in mino so long. They were warm and moist, but there was no response to my clasp in them. The eyes were wide open, but they seemed staring into vacancy. There was color in tho cheeks, but tho face seemod to lack light, and the subtle play of mind on matter was not to be seen in the features of of the woman before me.“ ‘Alice,’ I cried, ‘Alice, speak to me.’ But thero was not so much as a movement of lid or lip. A statue would have been more unresponsive than was the form bo-foro me.“A wild fear began to creep over me, but I shook it off. The ordeal had been so terrible that I had no right to expect much at first. By and by she would rouse from the trance of soul and sense.“I went down to tho rooms below and my friends supposed I had just come home. I was always unlike other men. They had become used to my strange ways. They know what Alice and I had boon to each other, and tho fact of her death, and tho mysterious loss of her body explained to them any strange conduct on my part.“I got away from them as soon as possible and went back to tho room in which 1 had hidden my secret.“Alice lay thero still in the attitude of death. I knelt down beside her and called her name. No answer.“1 flung back the curtains with a swift, unutterable terror at heart. I came back and looked at the face lifted dumbly to mine. There was no look of intelligence in it. Tho eyes stared up at mo with not a thought in thom.“Then I knew what I had done. I hadcallod back the breath of life, but the soulA liAnnf hnt. which \rna thn A lien T lnnwlFulfillment.He stood boneath her window And beneath the Uex-shade (The Ilex was a maple),And be sang a serenade.We will hope she gauged hta fervor by Th* amount of noise he made.M Oh, why art thou near me ?”He sang it sixteen times,To “fear me,” and to “ cheer me,And to fourteen other rhymes.And interspersed with language crib i.e.; From Oriental climes.She leaned rrom out her lattice ;Her lattice was not barred (Iler plate-glass window, that Is),And perhaps she leaned too hard,For the lattice was wide open, and It opened on the yard.A sudden flash of lightning, or so it seemed to him—Than he felt his muscles tightening, a ml his sight grew strangely dim,Aii.i they sank together earthward, and.A il nature seemed to swim.V ,s fic happy, was he grateful * or this complaisance of Fat**'• --fit* muttered something hateful a ' lie crawled off toward the gate. ls D« !lilment of our wishes worse '1 uo soon than If too late ?— Margaret Varvlergrifl in CenturyAGRICULTURAL NOTEC*Among the Vegetables, Fruit, Live Stock and Poultry.It costs fifty-nine cents to grow a bushel of wheat in Michigan, twenty-nino for oats and twenty-one cents for corn.Tho Japanese persimmon is reported tc flourish well about Richmond, Va., and has been successfully grown in Baltimore, Md.If you receive trce3 or plants shipped from a distance, it is well to place tho roots in water from twelve to twenty-four hours boforo planting out.Do not overfoeil tho young pigs. Let them make nil tho growth possible, but do not attempt to make them fat. Tat in summer should bo avoided. A good moderate condition is best.A solution of boracic acid is excellent for fowls affected with soro head or eyes. Il should bo applied warm, using a soft sponge, and marking tho head, eyes and nostrils well with it.Much is said at present about usiug tho roller ou land which is being fitted forvjwheat. Tho roller is good to pulveriz* and firm tho soil. But harrow after roll- j ing. That is our experience.Tho injury that tho crow does to corn by pulling it up is not genorallly groat and can bo easily guarded against. A inoro serious indictment is fouud iu tho fact that tho crow is tho greatest onemy in tho insect-destroying birds, wlioso nests it robs andwhoso YOlinw it kills. Tim Rnuirrnl in nkr
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Babylon South Side Signal
Babylon, New York, US
Sat, Sep 25, 1886
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NY, USA 24 Apr 2021
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