The Potter journal and news item. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1872-1874, 1873-10-01
Wrecks Far Out at Sea.

sea, in the dim fashion of symbolism
that poets sometimes affect, had on
ly been a reader of the Bureau Yer
ltas and its statistics of shipwreck,
he would no doubt have perceived
that the symbolism Of his phrase did
not end with himself, and that
wrecks far out at sea are by no means
uncommon in prosy commercial cir
cles. Ships have gone down meta
phorically ever since poets were, but
there is something vastly different
and trife more appalling in the lit
eral going down of vessel. 1t in
wolves more than dreams and aspira-
tions-fantastic fancies set with i'm
aginarv sails. Men sink, and lives
which have been are lost in a moment,
leaving but a bubble on the surface
of the sea that breaks unmarked of
man.
Statistics of maritime disaster
mere undemOnstrative numerals
are nevertheless suffused with pathos.
Every shipwreck is the wreck of so
many lives-the breaking of so many
poor human bubbles that reminds
even those who never venture to sea
in ships what bubbles they are and
how liable to break. Such figures
carry with them, in their prosaic
way, whole sermons on humility, sor-
rows enough to wiring poems from
hearts of stone, tragic scenes enough
to battle the sure and ready pen of
a Dickens; and as they stand one
above the other silently in their col
umns, they seem almost, to fanci-
full mind, to be talking the matter
over among themselves, rehearsing
what they really mean to the wives
of sailors.
1t may be taken for granted that
the figures are not complete, that
many lost ship, with all on board,
never gets even the epitaph of an
Arabic numeral; but, such as they
are, the report for July, 1878, as ex-
hibited in the last number of the Bu-
Teau presents large total. Nine
ty-nine sailing vessels and thirteen
steamers were lost during those thir-
ty-one midsummer days, about twen-
ty-one of which, when the Bureau
went to press, there was a mystery.
N. Y. Evening Post.
Tobacco: A Boys Debate.
"What do boys chew tobacco for?"
81 don't know, do you?"
''Does it make their teeth white?"
''No, it makes them black"
"Does it preserve the teeth?"
''No, it destroys them"
DOSo IL on SCOSu CIIC Wv GdbII
mo, it makes it FOUL
'Does it aid digestion?"
"No, it hinders it."
''Does it make boy look manly 2"
"No, it makes him look like an un-
weaned calf"
"Would you like to see your sister
chew?"
"No."
"Would you like to see your mo-
ther chew?"
NO"
"Would you like to see your father
chew"
Il should not like to say; father
might not like to hear what | have
to say on the subject, so let us drop
it."
"And will drop the quid," said
the father, who overheard the con-
versatiOn.
"a GAY young Lutheran, " is what
an Oil City lady called young blade
whom she suspected of rapidity The
young Lothario denied the soft i'm
parchment and said his father was a
Methodist, but he didn't belong regu-
lar to any meeting house, himself"
WHEN death has come it is never our
tenderness that we repent of, but our
severity.
He WHO reigns within himself and
rules his passions, desires and fears is
indeed king.
AN OLD man is employed in the house
of Harper u Brothers who began work
ing for them upwards of fifty years ago,
when the firm was first known by its
present name.
Books in China are not dear and all
the standard histories and scbool-books
are very cheap. The whole of the Con-
fucius classics sell at from 80 cents to
$3.50, according to the quality of the
paper, while the Chinese primer, contain
ing 1856 characters, sells from II to 2
cents per copy. The Chinese never Law
dutipS on hooks