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horse-stealing, but manslaughter. The foreman, with his hand upon a huge law-book, and with an amusingly dignified air, informed the Court that "it was not a case of manslaughter, but womanslaughter, for which the law made no provision; but being satisfied the man deserved to be hung, they had brought in a verdict of horse-stealing, which, in that county, would be sure to swing him!"

R-, a prominent San Francisco merchant, holding at one time a large interest in a very promising mine in Esmeralda, was honoured by being elected President of the Company-he knowing, as he confidently communicated to a friend, "about as much of silver-mining as a hen does of astronomy." At the first meeting of the Board one of the enthusiastic Directors stated that there was an enormous quantity of rich ore in sight, and moved that an assessment of $30,000 be immediately levied to build a mill. Rsuggested that before adopting the motion it might be well to have a number of tons of the ore worked in some mill in the district; which suggestion, after considerable opposition from the more sanguine, prevailed, and the President was directed to have thirty tons of the best ore crushed and reduced in a custom mill. In due time the work was completed, and the eyes of the stock-holders in San Francisco were gladdened by the sight of a beautiful little bar of silver, carefully assayed, and stamped of the value of $1280. No account being sent with the bullion, R- immediately wrote for a detailed statement of the cost, and the following week received full vouchers, accompanied by a bill of $1456 50 for necessary expenses in getting out and reducing the ore yielding the bar of silver aforesaid! The draft was paid, and the following despatch from the President passed over the line of the State Telegraph Company the

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IN this wide-awake age nearly all the prominent rocks, board fences, and other available places in proximity to the principal American towns are filled with advertisements of quack medicines, gift enterprises, and general notices, all and singular. Baltimore is a focus for a full share of these inscriptions, and among them may be seen, on a board fence well adapted to the purpose, the imperative command, "Take Ayer's Pills!" Some zealous colporteur had appropriated a rail immediately underneath for the admonition, "Prepare to meet your

God!" A wag, taking advantage of the situation, connected the two inscriptions with a conspicuous "and," and thus left it.

A WORTHY priest was one day walking with a Unitarian clergyman in Boston, and happened to pass near the church of the latter, on which was a clock, but just at that juncture the clock did not indicate the correct hour. The Unitarian imagining what might be passing in the other's mind, said:

"Oh! you musn't rely upon my time, for it isn't right."

"My dear sir," replied his friend, "it isn't your time that I was thinking of; it's your eternity!"

THERE are men in this world so utterly depraved as not to be fond of little children. It is reported of Alvan Stewart, a man of mark in his day, that some thirty years ago he was voyaging on one of the Erie Canal packet-boats when there happened to be on board an unusual number of ladies with babies, and the little cherubs continually did cry. This annoyed Alvan to such an extent that, at dinner, he arose in his place, and with a glass of water in hand, said, Ladies, I have great pleasure in proposing to you a toast, which seems to me to be very pertinent to the present occasion. I give you-The Memory of the much-abused King Herod!"

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"I thought 'Old Grimes' was dead long ago.'

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"That was my grandpa!"

And the youngster waddled off, thinking what "a good old soul" the lady was.

OUR anecdote of the Frenchman who charged the Indians half a dollar for a needle, alleging as an excuse that the needlemaker was dead, reminds a correspondent in Oregon of a merchant of the Jewish persuasion doing business, in 1862, at La Grange, who charged the honest miners one dollar in coin, each, for needles, and on being remonstrated with and told that a paper of needles cost only 12 cents in Portland, replied: "Mein Gott! I knows tat. "Tain't te cost of te goots, but te cash money for te freight!" As freight was only $2 per ton, what was it per needle?

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NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

No. CCCXCIX.-AUGUST, 1883.-VOL. LXVII.

TWO

THE HEART OF THE ALLEGHANIES.

In those shops the locomotive is seen at every stage of its existence, from the germs up to the completed marvel when put together in the erecting department. An English travelling crane lifts the whole locomotive, in chains, and carries it along to the doorway. It is said to be the only crane of the sort used in this country, and moves on ledges in the brick walls of the building—a principle which the English builders thought impracticable until its feasibility was shown. There are few finer sights than that offered by the interior of these industrial caves-the silent moulding-rooms where delicate, thoughtful manipulation of sand that is to shape the fluid metal goes on; the huge steamhammers pounding like an earthquake on stilts; the wheel foundry, in which 200 car wheels are cast every day, to be swung still glowing into the dry-wells of a circu

WO hundred miles west from Philadelphia (it is 236 by rail) lies Altoona, in the lap of the Alleghany Mountains. Sooty child of the forge and railroad, it is cradled in one of the most beautiful among our mountain regions; for the county of Blair embraces, with Cambria and Clearfield, the finest section of the Pennsylvanian range, the true Appalachian summit. Thirty years ago the ground where the town stands was a farm; the huge station hotel occupies the site of what was then a duck pond, and would probably strike any of the wild fowl that might now return as a surprising development from their unambitious eggs. Mr. Wright, a director of the Pennsylvania Railroad, thinking that the extension of its line would pass through this spot, sent an agent up to secure for him the land owned by a Mr. Robeson, and wrote the agent a letter instructing him to offer $6000, but on a pinchlar to go as high as $10,000. Agent went up, called on the farmer, and prepared to get around to his subject in an accidental manner. But meanwhile, without knowing it, he had dropped the letter, and Mrs. Robeson, picking it up, had with exemplary energy read it. Taking her husband aside, she told him to ask the higher price. He made the sale on those terms, thus get-er some thirty acres more, and produce anting the first of that golden harvest which has since been reaped from his acres; and now Altoona is a city of 20,000 inhabitants, with several fine churches, commodious schools, two daily papers, a theatre, a heavy municipal debt, and other adjuncts of civilization. It still grows at the rate of 500 houses a year. The location there of the chief work-shops of the railroad forms the mainspring of local activity. These shops employ 5000 men-a number which, before these words get into print, will have risen to 6500.

annealer, like so many Thanksgiving pies designed for some festivity of ostriches. In a small building at the back two or three quiet men are constantly testing, by the nicest means of science, the materials to be employed in the works. The locomotive shops turn out 100 locomotives and 73,000 wheels a year, and embrace twenty-six acres. The car shops cov

nually about 100 passenger cars and over 9000 for freight: that is twenty-five freight cars in a single day. To the car shops is attached a yard containing 11,000,000 feet of lumber; and enough dressed lumber besides is always kept on hand to supply 500 cars, in readiness for hurried orders. Many graduates from the technological schools of Boston, Albany, and other places come to work in these establishments, which are democratic in their influence, and give encouragement to the best ability. From them some of the best

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1883, by Harper and Brothers, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

VOL. LXVII.-No. 399.-21

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To the west of the city is massed the main Alleghany range; to the south and east, Short and Brush mountains hem it in; and the valley running northeastward holds the infant current of the Juniata, blue in song, but in fact muddy. Hollidaysburg, the county seat, close by, was formerly the eastern terminus of the Portage Railroad, which received travellers by the canal route, since abandoned, and conveyed them over the mountain by inclines and stationary engines. The little town has become even more stationary than those engines. now; but it retains a rolling-mill or two-enough to blacken the soil of the streets -and the county court-house is one of the few artistic public buildings to be met with in our rural towns. In the neighborhood are some peculiar formations, the Chimney Rocks. People are fond of getting up on top of these irregular stacks, where, in their black clothes, they might pass for the smoke of the supposed chimneys.

A drive of six miles from Altoona, over the Devil's Elbow, and through a winding, thundersplintered glen, goes up to Wapsononic, more familiarly styled by the natives. "Wapsy." This is a projection of the mountain-wall, revealing from its lofty plateau a superb view. To the southward the uniform peaks of the Alleghanies jut out in regular succession. But perhaps the most striking relic of natural wildness will be found in the gorges higher up the valley, invaded within a few years by the Bell's Gap Railroad. This is a narrow-gauge line which has wandered up into the rude highlands to search for lumber and the unexplored reserves of the famous Clearfield coal seams. But in its jaunty disregard of acclivities it becomes a rare exemplification of engineering skill. Within a distance of eight or nine miles it mounts to a point 2500 feet above the sea by a grade running as high as 207 feet per mile. At the same

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