The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1854-09-14
From the Albany Express, Auguat 81.
AN ODD INCIDENT.

We witnessed queer incident in g railway
coach only day or two ago. The seat oppo-
site the one we occupied contained a neatly
dressed and quite handsome young woman,
and her bOy--a fat, smiling intelligent, and
hexen-haired youngster, of some four years.
experience of the ups and downs of the world
Confound it all! he was q good-looking boy
and We loved to listen to his lively prattle
about the "big ingine; ;" about PAS watch"
and his own little wee pussy cat;" and bis
honest confession, that he did like "wed
wasbewiz" struck us as being particularly
"teching" And the smiling aud happy
mother knew that her darling, whose hair
curled all over his head, and whose sparkling
eyes were as blue as the skies Of Italy, was
handsome and smart We could see it in ev-
cry look she bent upon him. We won her
thanks and smiles, and delighted the boy, with
a gift of lozenge or two.
We were all very happy, and so logged on,
at forty miles to the hour, until the train halt
ed at station. Then some left Us, and others
came in, and on we went again. We were
just about preparing to increase our popular
ity with the child and its mother by the pre-
sentation of cake, when suddenly lady be-
hind US, who had entered the coach at the
station we had just left, started forward, ex-
claiming, "Why, my goodness, here is Sam
my!o and caught the astonished caild in her
arms. The mother stood up, gased at the
woman turned pale, turned orimsoA, and then
sat down, speochless. The other showered
kisses upon Sammy" in profusion. and ended
by calling him cher darling J" The mother
could bear it no longer.
spray, ma'sm," said she, care you &C.
quainted with that child?"
"Acguainted with it? Well, should think
ought to know my own sisters cbild!n
"Your sisters child 2"
Certainly, ma'am-little Sammy" she said.
His name amt Sammy, ma'am, its George,
and he is not your sisters child - he is my
child, ma am !" and this, spoken With empha-
BIB and flashing eye, brought the question to
q focus. Georgey screamed at this stage of the
affair, and confirmed the statement Just made
by ruehing to the arms Of the woman who
claimed HIM, and hiding his face in her bosom.
The other woman stood the very picture of be-
wiiderment for a moment, and bewilderment
quickly changed to doubt, as the circumstances
of the case crowded into her mind. Her CON-
panion remarked that it couldn't be Sammy, for
what would he be doing six or seven miles from
home, in the company of strangers "And
he amt dressed like Sammy, don't you see he
amt Susan?n
This was all plain il a moment, and Susan
made thousand apologies to the mother of
Georgey for her blunder, but maintained the
fact that Sammy and Georgey were Gas like
as two peas" She could not keep her hands
awsy from him, though he was as sly as q fox,
and declared that she would like TO see the two
youngsters together Just once"
The ladies separated at the next station, and
we reflected how easy a thing it is to be mista-
ken, even where the heart is concerned.
A MICROSCOPIC WoRLD-The Sty of Ber-
lin, in Prussia, is situated in the midst of
broad, fiat plain, and is built upon both sides
of the sluggish river Spree. Benesth the city
there is a deep bog of black poet, through
which borings for water have frequently been
carried. Professor Gutenberg, gentleman
whose explorations into the mystic ties of mi
croecopic life have attained for him high DO
sition among the scientific men If the age,
says that this peat at the depth d fifty feet,
swarms with infusorial life that countless
myriads of microscopic animals live there, and
wriggle and die. The perpetual motion of
these little animals causes the whole mass of
pesty matter to be in a state Of consta ant though
generally imperceptible movement In Berlin.
the houses, however, are won't to crack and
yawn sometimes, in an exceedingly curious
manner even though built on apparently
stable foundations; and Professor Gutenberg
believes this to be owing to the changes and
motions of this invisible world-to the COM
bined efforts of infinite millions of tiny forms,
which, conspiring in the same direction, pro-
duce sensible, and ofentimes disastrous. move
ments of the surface, resulting in the injury
or ruin Of the buildings above.
~ The word drot oh FL In hocop, 81 % g. .b;ov,