Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1872-12-30
A PHILOSOPHICAL DARKEY.

plunged in state of profound medita
tion. His dress and appearance indica-
ted familiarity with camp life, and it be-
ing soon after the seige and capture of
Fort Donelson, | was inclined to disturb
his reveries, and on interrogation found
that he had been with the Union forces
at that place, when I questioned him
further. His philosophy was so much
in the Falstaffin vein that will give his
views in his own words, as near as mem-
ory will serve me:
We're you in the fight? I asked.
had little taste of it, sa.
Stood your ground, did you?
No sab, [ runs.
Run at the first fire. did you?
Yes, sa, an would hab run soona had
| know'd it was coming.
Why, that wasn't very creditable to
your courage.
Dat isn't in my line, sa.-cookin's my
profession.
Well. have you no regard for your
reputation.
Regulations muffin to me by de side OBJ
life.
Do you consider your life worth more
than other peoples?
It's worth more to me, sa.
Then you must value it very highly.
Yes, sa, does, more den all dis world
more den million dollers, sa; for what
would dat be wuth wild de bref out of
him ? Self presentation am de fust law
wild me, sa
But why should you act on different
rule from other men?
Cause, sa, different men set different
value on der selves? My life is not in
the market.
But if you lost it you would have the
satisfaction of knowing that you did it
for your country.
What satisfaction would dat be to me,
when de power OBJ feeling am gone?
Then patriotism and honor are moth.
ing to you?
Muffin, whateber, sal regard dem as
among the varieties, sa-
If our soldiers were like you, traitors
might have broken up the government
without resistance
Yes, sa; dar would hab been no help
for it, wouldn't put my life in the
scales ginst any guberment dat eber ex-
listed, for no guberment could replace de
loss to me. Spect, dough, dat de CUB
erment safe, if da all like me-
Do you think any of your company
would have missed you if you had been
| killed?
May be not, sa. A dead white man
amt much to desc sogers, let alone a
dead nigga; but I'd a missed myself
and dat was de pint wild me.
1t is safe to say that the dark corpse
of that African will never darken the
field of carnage.
AN INGENIOUS CARPENTER.-As the
steamer Idaho was on her trip from the
Sandwich Islands to San Francisco, her
cylinder head was blown out and the
boat was completely disabled at sea-
The situation was hazardous one, when
carpenter on board, who had been sent
by the American Consul at Honolulu in
arrest, came to the rescue. On examin-
ing the injured cylinder, the thought en-
tered the carpenters mind that stout
cylinder-head of tough, hard wood might
stand a sufficient pressure of steam to run
the engine at moderate speed. He stat
ed this to the captain, who, after some
hesitation and as a last resort, reluctant
ly gave him permission to try the exper-
iment. The carpenter procured his tool
chest from the hold, and after twenty
five hours hard work finished and insert
ed the wooden cylinder-head. 1t was
made of three thicknesses of hard teak
board, rendered steam proof by being
covered with paint and canvas, and was
calked tight and held in its place by
bolts, as in other cylinder-heads, and by
a piece Of timber braced against its ends.
When the carpenter announced that the
engine was ready for use, and desired
the engineer to turn on steam, there was
general scamper from the cylinder,
where numbers of the passengers, sleep
less and feverish, had anxiously watched
the finishing of the work. Slowly the
steam was turned on, the piston rod rose
and fell the propeller churned the wa
ter quickly, the Idaho moved ON at her
accustomed speed, and the wooden head
was a success. The cylinder-head, after
being used for time, swelled and col
lapsed like the lungs in respiration, but
the invention stood the test to the end,
and earned for the carpenter quite rep
utation He is now very hero among
sea-going men.
, Bridgeport tells curious story of an
unclaimed trunk. Fourteen years ago
regularly checked trunk arrived by
one of the trains, and no one calling for
it, it was placed in the baggage-room,
where it lay for eleven years. At the
expiration of that time a gentleman ap-
peared with the duplicate check and ar