i89i 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
395 
I The Ladies Home Journal 
I Mailed to any address from now 
FEW of the leading 
features embrace 
Mrs. Beecher’s 
Reminiscences of 
HENRY WARD BEECHER 
Sketching their entire home-life. Society 
Women as Housekeepers. “Howto 
Make and Save Money,” by Henry Clews, 
the eminent New York Banker. Musical 
Helps, by Clara Louise Kellogg, Annie 
Louise Cary, Christine Nilsson, Sims Reeves, 
and others. “How to Keep City Boarders,” 
by Kate Upson Clark —and hundreds of other good 
yl things for the autumn and winter numbers. 
.-. CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY, ^ - Philadelphia, Pa._ 
A 
TWICE TOLD TALES— Continued. 
he hadn’t a ticket for him. The father 
carelessly replied, “ Oh ! you’ll pass all 
right; you are still under age.” The ticket 
inspector on coming along smiled at the 
bright-eyed boy and said : “ Your ticket 
needs no punching yet, do9s it? ha 1 ha 1 ” 
The door closed and Uncle Tommy burst 
out—he apparently could restrain himself 
no longer—“But you did not tell him I was 
an uncle, though.” He would have liked 
to have told the conductor that he was an 
uncle, but he thought perhaps if he had 
divulged that secret he would have had to 
pay for his ride; and he was a careful boy I 
Another time at Sunday school a lady 
visitor was invited to ask the class a few 
questions; and, coming to Tommy, asked 
him: “Well, Tommy,—that is your name?— 
will you tell me who made you ?” The 
blank look of amazement that spread over 
Tommy’s almost disgusted face as he re¬ 
plied. “I’ve a gey rough guess !” was in¬ 
imitable. 
It was Tommy, too, who in the geogra¬ 
phy class when asked the question by the 
school inspector: “ If you were to bore a 
hole from where you are, clear through the 
earth, where would the rod come out, at 
the other side?” replied: “At the small 
end of the hole, of course.” A. 
Old-Time Politics. 
The New England Magazine quotes from 
an old paper printed in 1802 to show how ad¬ 
ministrations were attacked in those days : 
QUESTION. m 
Where is the Government of the United 
States at this time ? 
ANSWER. 
The President, at Monticello, ruminating 
on the “ causes of the decline of empires.” 
The Vice-President, in South Carolina, 
on a visit to the “ Rice Planter.” 
The Secretary of State, at his seat in Vir¬ 
ginia, studying a sermon from Luke X :30. 
The Secretary of the Navy, at Baltimore, 
or journeying northward ; perhaps, to apol¬ 
ogize for his treatment of Capt. Little and 
the crew of the Boston. 
The Secretary of the Treasury, at New 
York, learning the English language. 
The Postmaster General, tumbling about 
in mail carriages, “ free of postage.” 
The Secretary of War, reviewing his 
“ ragamuflii3 ”—500 “more or less.” 
All gone, all off—not even a solitary Sec¬ 
retary left, to take care of the national ar¬ 
chives, or guard the Mammoth Cheese. 
The above allusion to the Postmaster- 
General referred to the following anecdote, 
which was going the rounds of the news¬ 
papers at the time: 
When the new Postmaster-General was 
on his way to the city of Washington, he 
called at the stage-house in New York, to 
take a seat in the southern stage. He 
found nobody except a boy in the bar-room; 
and therefore ordered him to enter the 
name of Gideon Granger, Esq., as a passen¬ 
ger. The boy replied, that he would enter 
the name on receiving the customary 
earnest-money. “Earnest-money!” ex¬ 
claimed Mr. Granger, “why, fellow, I be¬ 
lieve you don’t know who I am. I am the 
Postmaster General of the United States. 
I go free, you blockhead.” The boy, who 
was of a waggish turn, replied, “ Well, sir, 
if you must go free, you had better go to 
the post-office, and get inclosed in the 
mail; for if they put the devil himself in 
there, we are obliged to take him along.” 
New Use for Foxes. 
The rabbits were introduced to Sable 
Island about 90 years ago. They thrived 
greatly for a time, but, oddly enough, 
were twice exterminated. The first instru¬ 
ment of destruction was the large, gray 
Norway rat, which was cast away upon 
the island, and multiplied indefinitely; 
and the second, the large gray arctic owl, 
which, chancing to find out this rabbit 
warren in mid-ocean, visited it in such 
flocks that poor Bunny was temporarily 
wiped out. 
For the third time the island was stocked, 
and now a remarkable thing has happeened. 
No rats are suffered to exist there, the owls 
have not returned, and thus freed from his 
hungry persecutors, Brer Rib bit has waxed 
fruitful and multiplied, until his numbers 
are beyond the enumeration of the most 
expert census taker. Although, when 
viewed from the sea, Sable Island appears 
to be an utterly barren mass of grayish- 
brown sand, incapable of sustaining any 
animal life, this is not really the case. 
Within the line of dunes built up by the 
restless waves only to be beaten down 
again at their pleasure, there is a wealth 
of verdure that is a great surprise to the 
visitor. The interior of the island is a val- 
1 -y, with a like eight miles in length in the 
center, and little ponds, dotted here and 
there with dense, rank grass, where the 
wild duck and water fowl breed in un¬ 
counted thousands. Throughout the val¬ 
ley there is luxuriant grass interspersed 
with the wild pea, and in their season one 
may gather wild roses, lilies, asters, straw¬ 
berries, blueberries, and cranberries in 
abundance. 
Here, then, was an ideal home for Brer 
Rabbit, and no wonder his tribe increased, 
until he became a positive nuisance that 
demanded prompt abatement. In fact, 
little Sable Island was threatened with the 
same fate as that which now overhangs a 
portion of the vast island continent of 
Australia. In time there would be no 
green thing left for the su-tenance of the 
ponies and cattle belonging to the staff. 
In this emergency the fox is brought for¬ 
ward as a solution of the difficulty. The 
Superintendent of the Humane Establish¬ 
ment has determined to press Reynard into 
his service, and a number of the red-furred, 
bushy-tailed family are to be imported, 
and let loose to wage a war of extermina 
tion upon poor Bunny. Verily there will 
be high times on the island when this takes 
place, as it will very shortly, and the result 
will be looked for with lively interest. 
Whether the foxes will fulfill the trust 
reposed in them, and give the rabbits as 
short shrift as possible, or whether, realiz¬ 
ing that when their job is finished they 
will be made away with in their turn, they 
will enter into an arrangement with the 
“ cotton tails ” to eat off only the natural 
increase of their population, and thus pro 
long the task indefinitely, who will venture 
to prophesy ?—Harper’s Young People 
Condiments; Use and Abuse! 
As a matter of fact, the earliest remedies 
recorded ns employed by medical men were 
vegetable, the use of minerals being large¬ 
ly the result of chemical experiments; and 
the most active poisons are of vegetable 
origin. With the exception of arsenic, the 
poisons most frequently used by criminals 
are vegetable, and so have been for ages; 
and, singularly enough, some of the most 
esteemed spices and condiments are poi¬ 
sonous if taken in sufficient quantities. 
This fact has been noted in connection 
with nutmeg, and Tanner and Christison 
say that even common salt has been known 
to cause death when taken as a vermifuge. 
When used in moderation, all condiments 
have a stimulating effect upon the entire 
alimentary system; they tend to equalize 
digestion by promoting the flow of the gas¬ 
tric juices, and they aid to the enjoyment 
of food by gratifying the palate. 
The evil attributed to condiments is 
more or less a fanciful one; in any case it 
arises from the abuse of them. Children 
need but little stimulating matter mingled 
with their food, a moderate quantity of 
salt and very little if any pepper being all 
that is required for savor. But adults can 
use the many kinds to advantage, as is 
proven by the above consideration of their 
properties As a matter of fact, a great 
deal of mischief is done by people of a sin¬ 
gle idea, who disregard all evidence save 
what they consider the proof of their own 
senses, and try to fit large and varied con¬ 
ditions within their narrow lines. If they 
fancy that pepper Injures their little 
stomachs, straightway all the rest of the 
world is to forswear its use. If salt has 
io-t its savor for them, they set about 
transforming our most delectable plats 
into messes as insipid as their small 
theories. May Heaven endow all such re¬ 
formers with the desire to charge upon 
their own windmills, and leave our sails to 
be wafted by the winds of common sense.— 
Harper’s Bazar. 
