Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1874-09-09

THERE are two stories of famous light
houses which are worth remembering.
Smeaton, who built the Eidystone
Light house, is said to have conceived
the idea OF moving his lighthouse to
the rocks from seeing how an oak,
which withstood the tempest while all
around it were torn up, had its roots
firmly grasping a ledge of rock. While
it was being erected, the workmcn were
seized by party of French marauders
and thrown into prison. But Louis
XIV, on hearing of it, ordered their
prompt release, saying:
81 wage war against England, but
not against mankind"
This was in 1853 but centuries be-
fore that the Roman writer's tell ms of
the famous tower of Boulogne, built by
the Emperor Caligula, and carefully
guarded down to the days OF Charlie
magne, lest the lightning should strike
it. But they never thought to inquire
what the great creeping sea, that washed
against the foundations, was doing, or
the little springs down deep in the
ground, that were mining a way to the
sea and one day the fortress, the light
house, and even the cliff itself, went
down and were swallowed up. That
was not the end of it. The city Of
Boulogne had paid to the owner of the
soil yearly rental for the use of his
barren land, which paid better in light
houses than in any other crop. So now
he sued them for damages, since his
whole farm was gone. The suit went
up to the Royal Parliament, which in
1856, decreed that the city should pay
the rental of two thousand herrings a
year, or put the land back where it was
before. And as they could not easily
rebuild the cliff, they paid the herrings
down to the days of the French Revo-
luton.
"YoU Told ABOUT THE Eel. The
Cheyalier de la Tour Landy, in a book
of counsel to his daughter, written some
time in the latter half of the 14th cen
tury, thus makes use of magpie III q
tale which has moral to it. 'I will
tell you a story" he says, Sin regard TO
women who eat dainty morsels IN the
absence Of their lords. There was a
lady who had a magpie in a cage, which
talked of everything which it saw done.
Now it happened that the lord of the
household preserved a large eel in a
pond, and kept IT very carefully in order
to give it to some of his lords, or of his
friends in case they should visit him.
So it happened that the lady said TO
her female attendant that it would be
good to eat the big eel and accordingly
they ate it, and agreed that they would
tell their lord that the otter had eaten
it. And when the lord returned, the
magpie began to say to him, My lord,
my lady has eaten the eel Then the
lord went to his pond, and missed the
eel and he went into the house, aud
asked his wife what had become of it.
She thought to excuse herself easily (;
but he said that he knew all about it,
and that the magpie had told him.
The result was that there was quarrel
ing and trouble in the house but when
the lord had gone away, the lady and
her female attendant went TO the mag
pie, and plucked all its feathers from
its head saying, You told about the
eel And so the magpie was quite
bald. But from that time forSard
when it saw any people who were bald,
or had lsrge foreheads, the magpie said
to them, 'Ah you told about the eel.