252 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
A VERY SLIGHT DIFFERENCE. 
How one of our gay young brokers was re¬ 
cently furnished with a new wrinkle, is told by 
his friends on the street, as thus : 
A fellow came riding a fair-enough-looking 
horse, to the front of the office at which Joseph 
does the needful trimming for his fellow-citizens, 
and hollooed: 
“Say, understand you want to buy a boss 
here, at this shop!” 
Banker leaned against the side of the door, 
half opened his eyes, shut ’em again, gazed 
sleepily at the bipedal and then at the quadru¬ 
pedal animal; and at last— 
“ How much ?” 
“A hundred and fifty dollars,” was the reply. 
“ Can’t give it, my friend. You’re a good 
fellow, I don’t doubt, but I can’t give that price. 
Some judge of horse-flesh myself!” 
“Well, say wffiat you will give!” exclaimed 
the horse-merchant; “I want to sell.” 
“Tell what!” drawled Joe, very sleepily; 
“Tell what—I’ll give you twenty-five dollars for 
that horse.” 
“He’s wuth more,” said the jockey, tossing 
his leg over the saddle and coming slowly to the 
ground; “ but I never was the man to let a hun¬ 
dred and twenty five dollars split me in a hoss 
trade. He’syourn!” 
The banker took the horse, and has him yet, 
having utterly failed in a dozen efforts to give 
him away. His last trial was to bestow him 
on Prof. Snow, Veterinarian, to be used as a 
living illustration of all the diseases to which 
the horse is subject in this climate. But the 
Professor steadily objects, on the ground that 
several of the beast’s ailments may possibly be 
contagious.— Montgomery {Ala.) Mail. 
How TO GET A SEAT IN A RAILWAY CAR.- 
We copy the following from a correspondent of 
the Springfield Daily Republican. The scene 
of the adventure is laid in Toledo : 
Passing as hastily on as possible, we noticed 
as we came to the second car from the front 
that it had but few occupants, and those chiefly 
ladies, while a dense crowd was cramming itself 
into the front car or retiring to those in the 
rear. The mystery was explained, as we heard 
a brakeman exclaim, “ this car is reserved for 
ladies and gentlemen accompanied by ladies.” 
A seat in that car we were bound to have, but 
how , being ladyless. Laying aside for a moment 
our overwhelming modesty, we cast our eyes 
around, and seeing an elderly gentleman ap¬ 
proaching wdth three (more than he had a right 
to) ladies in his care, we stepped in front, and 
touching our hat to the said brakeman with ex¬ 
treme courtesy, inquired in a tone of the most 
profound deference wdiich we could assume, if 
he “ would not be able to procure seats for the 
ladies and elderly gentlemen.” The unwonted 
politeness shown the petty official, and the con¬ 
fidence reposed in his brass-badged potency, 
touched his heart at once, and deserting his post, 
he ushered us into the car and gave seats “ to 
the ladies and elderly gentleman,” and the 
young gentleman. The whole thing passed so 
quickly, that my newly-adopted friends had no 
time to throw off their astonishment and repu¬ 
diate me before the brakeman had returned to 
his duty. Deeming the facts of the case our 
best apology, we briefly stated them, and a 
hearty laugh at the brakeman greeted the suc¬ 
cess of our joke. The ladies declared it to be a 
sufficient introduction, and we were at once 
placed on the footing of old acquaintance with 
the whole party. We found them by far the 
pleasantest of the many acquaintances formed 
during our trip, and when the next morning 
we bade them good-bye at Cleveland, and the 
gentleman gave us a cordial invitation to his 
home in New-York, it was with real regret that 
we parted. 
-- 
He alone is wise who practically remembers 
that the wages of sin in this life is only death— 
death most deep, bitter and overwhelming. 
Snake Killing Extraordinary. —Mr. J. M. 
Mann, of this village, recently witnessed a curi¬ 
ous spectacle. It w T as about noon on the day 
after the slight snow we had a short time since, 
and just before the heavy snow. As he sat by 
his window he observed a robin very intently 
engaged in picking at something which was 
hardly discernible above the snow, but which 
on close vision proved to be the head of a young 
snake! Robin picked and chirped, and chirped 
and picked, till at length he seized it “ by the 
nape of the neck,” and, in an instant dragged 
his victim from its snowy covering, and bore it 
off in triumph! Soon after a bevy of robins 
appeared full of w r arlike intentions, and ere 
long they found and slew another snake; and 
during the afternoon they killed three more— 
making five snakes which those robins dragged 
from the snow and killed. The snakes were all 
young ones, being G or 8 inches long. This is 
the first time we ever heard of robins assailing 
snakes. Were they driven to it by hunger on 
account of the snow? Or is it an instinct of 
theirs to kill the creeping reptiles when not so 
large as to overpower them?— Greenfield Re¬ 
public. 
-m- 
Disgraceful Breaking up of the Springfield 
Court. —The Houston Star has the following: 
A citizen of Springfield entered the court 
room, during the session of the court, with his 
pantaloons off, and almost in a state of nudity. 
The Judge immediately ordered him to be im¬ 
prisoned for the space of two hours for contempt 
of court. The Sheriff, in attempting to execute 
the order of the Judge, was met by the friends 
of this individual armed, who stated that they 
would pay a fine, but that if the Sheriff at¬ 
tempted to arrest him they would shoot him 
down. The Sheriff then returned to the Judge, 
and reported that he could not execute his or¬ 
der without endangering his life. The Judge 
then called on the jury to assist in arresting 
him. But they returning, and making the same 
report, the Judge adjourned the court sine die. 
We learn verbally that the name of the above 
individual is Reynolds, a notorious desperado. 
The Sheriff summoned every body he could find 
in the whole community, but as Reynolds was 
supported by friends, and could not be taken 
without a desperate conflict and bloodshed, they 
all declined to assist in his arrest. The Judge 
was certainly right in refusing to hold the court 
under such circumstances.— Galveston (Texas) 
News, June G th. 
- 1 • •- 
Corpulence a Crime. —Mr. Bruce has written, 
in his Classic and Historic Portraits, that the 
ancient Spartan paid as much attention to the 
rearing of men as cattle dealers in modern Eng¬ 
land do to the breeding of cattle. They took 
charge of the firmness and looseness of men’s 
flesh; and regulated the degree of fatness to 
which it was lawful, in a free State, for any cit¬ 
izen to extend his body. Those who dared to 
grow too fat or too soft for military exercise and 
the service of Sparta, were soundly whipped; in 
one particular instance, that of Nauclis, the son 
of Polytus, the offender was brought before the 
Enhori, at a meeting of the whole people of 
Sparta, at which his unlawful fatness was pub¬ 
licly exposed; and he w r as threatened with per¬ 
petual banishment if he did not bring his body 
within the regular Spartan compass, and give 
up his culpable mode of living, wffiich was de¬ 
clared to be more worthy of an Ionian, than a 
son of Lacedaemon. 
A Monster Horse. —A horse is now being 
exhibited in England which is twenty-one hands 
high, and weighs twenty-five hundred weight. 
He must be a monster—a full team, as the say¬ 
ing is, all alone by himself. In this connection, 
let me say that the price of horses has nearly 
doubled in many parts of France during the 
last twelve months ; in Brittany, in particular, 
where a hardy race of small horses are raised, 
the advance in prices have been enormous.— N. 
0. Picayune. 
A Needle Swallowed and Extracted.— 
Some time in December last, a young lady of 
this city, who had indulged in the too common 
practice of holding pins and needles in her 
mouth, swallowed what at the time she supposed 
to be a pin. She soon after suffered severe pains 
in the region of the stomach, but did not then 
attribute the cause to the supposed pin. Yes¬ 
terday while standing she was suddenly seized 
with an acute pain in one of her limbs, just 
above the knee, and soon after fainted. A phy¬ 
sician was immediately called, and he at once 
discovered and extracted from the limb a me¬ 
dium sized needle, which had worked nearly to 
the skin, the eye being foremost. The needle 
was much corroded, and the point had become 
nearly as much blunted as the head. The 
young lady is getting along without difficulty. 
This will doubtless be a lesson to her, as it 
should be to others, to find some safer reposi¬ 
tory for pins and needles than the mouth.— 
Rochester Union. 
- -« * % - 
Decidedly Cool. —An Arkansas volunteer in 
the Mexican war, riding on horseback, came 
across an Illinoian who was shot in the leg. 
The Illinoian told him he was wounded, and 
suggested to be taken up and conveyed out of 
danger. “Arkansas” placed him on behind his 
saddle, and fastened him to himself with a 
leathern strap. While they were hastening 
from danger a grape shot took “ Illinois’ ” head 
off, but “Arkansas” thought he had only fainted 
from fatigue and pain. When a safe place was 
arrived at, the horseman released his charge, 
and seeing his head was gone, exclaimed, 
“Well these Illinoians are the greatest liars. 
Here’s a rascal with his head cut off, when he 
told me he was only shot in the leg. You can’t 
believe a word these fellows say!” 
-• © © - 
We never much admired the church warden’s 
wife who went to church for the first time in 
her life because her husband was church warden, 
and being somewhat late, the congregation were 
getting up from their knees at the time she en¬ 
tered ; and she said with a sweet condescending- 
smile, “pray keep your seats ladies and gentle¬ 
men ; I think no more of myself than I did be¬ 
fore.” 
-«•»- 
Force of Habit. —It is curious to observe 
how one’s habits of thought constantly break 
out and exhibit themselves in whatever he does 
or says. In one of our colleges it was custom¬ 
ary for the professors to take turns in making 
the chapel prayers. Once upon an occasion 
this duty fell upon the learned professor of 
chemistry, and the students were astonished to 
hear him introduce an illustration thus : “ Thou 
knowest, 0 Lord, that for tipping lightning 
silver is better than palatinum, so is the mind, 
touched by Thy grace made the most ready to 
receive the principles of science!” 
On another occasion a mathematical professor 
asked “ Divine goodness to enable us to know 
its length, its breadth, its depth, and its superfi¬ 
cial contents!” 
-• c •- 
The Last Hour. —The Cambridge (England) 
Chronicle says the Rev. Dr. Bacon closed his 
Dudleian Lecture with the following words: 
Give me, in the calm, cold hour of death, not 
absolution, bestowed by priestly hands, nor a 
beaticum pronounced by priestly lips, but that 
strong and earnest faith in the Gospel which in¬ 
spired apostles and martyrs, which gave strength 
to the Church of the Pilgrims, and which still 
glows in the bosom of the Christian teacher in 
temperate or torrid climes, in foreign lands and 
ocean’s isles. 
When the Hindoo priest is about to baptize 
an infant he utters the following beautiful sen¬ 
timent: “Little babe, thou enterest the world 
weeping, while all around thee smile; contrive 
so to live that you may depart in smiles, while 
all around you weep.” 
