Stephens City star. (Stephens City, Va.) 1881-1883, 1881-08-06
New MARKET is infested with bur.

kuCIedSEu.
A CABLE dispatch received at Rich
mond announces the serious illness of
DR.. E. H. Smith, United States con-
sui at Naples, from an attack If ty-
phoid fever.
Boston is indignant over the dis
covery in one Of her jails of boy
eight years old, who had been held
three weeks in default of bail that his
mother could not obtain.
GEN. GRANT expects to return to
Galena in October, and after passing
few days there he will go to Mexico.
Many Of the presents received by him
during his tour around the world are
store in his Galena house, which is
guarded by one of his old soldiers.
And yet there are people who want
the poor devil pensioned.
Col. JOHN w. SKILEs, of Philadel-
phia, has purchased from DR.. Hughes
and others the big Hill iron lands,
said to be one of the finest ore depos-
its in Virginia. These lands are in
upper Botetourt county, on the line of
the Richmond and Allegheny Valley
railroad, and not far from the ALLIE
ghany line. The price paid was $780,
600. A furnace near the property
will be erected shortly, to be built by
Pennsylvania capital.
A CURIOSITY in the way of apples,
says the Staunton Timdicator, was
shown US the other day. They are called
the Early Harvest, and grow in
punches, like grapes. On one twig,
six inches long, eleven apples of fair
size were suspended, and on another
sixteen. There are six of these trees
on Mr.. D. F. Clemmer's place, and
they are fairly loaded down with an
abundant crop of fruit, so that the
trees appear to be almost solid pyra-
mids of apples.
GUITEAU TREMBLING IN HIS Doors.
a correspondent of the Alexandria
Gazette says: Guiteau has been in
formed of the unfavorable change in
the Presidents condition, and has
been visably affected by it; for where
as he has been quitepert before know
ing that his punishment at most would
be only eight years imprisonment, now
that there is danger of the shot prov
ing fatal there is equal danger of his
being hanged, he has now become sui
len and morose.
Mrs. JULIA ANN EsrEp, of Forest
vile, Va, now in her ninety-frst year,
Is probably the head of the largest
family on the continent. She is the
mother Of twelve children-nine sons
and three daughters; the great-grand-
mother Of one hundred and forty-six
children, and the great-great-grand-
mother of ten children-two hundred
and forty-four souls in all. One son
has only one child, and another only
two children, so that the other ten
children of Mrs. Estep have eighty
three sons and daughters-an average
of more than eight to each.
The Mechanicstown (Md.) Clarion,
gives the following description of a
race between locomotive and a snake
one day last week: "Just as the Shen-
andoah Valley fast train entered the
mile cut near town, the engineer was
horror stricken to see what he suppos-
ed to be the end of rail Just ahead
OF his rushing locomotive sliding rap
idly away from him. His first thought
was broken rail caught by the pilot,
and he expected an instantaneous
shock. Wonderment usurped the
place of fear when second glance re-
vealed a fve-foot blacksnake of the
species known as runner" gliding
rapidly away from him on the top of
the rail. In the excitement of the
moment his hand sought the throttle,
he threw it wide open, and the train
bounded forward under the impulse,
but the snake maintained its lead al
though the train was running at fully
fifty miles per hour, and when the end
of the cut was reached and an oppor-
tunity was afforded to escape, it left
the rail, ran out into an open space,
coiled itself I'D. threw its head into