The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1884-02-08
An 0bdurate Fellow.

Three or four dock-wallopers, led By
man who had 81 bill in his hand,
entered the Office of prominent tug
owner the other day, and the spokes-
man announced:
Say, captain, the boys out there
have been blowing around about the
speed of tugs, and I've finally made
'em put up
"Howp"
"Why, I've got bet of a dollar that
you have a tug which can break the
biggest hawser made, on square
pull"
"Wellp"
"Well, want to win it. If do I'll
divide with YOU"
The captain not only refused to send
to Buffalo for the tug mentioned, but
would not pledge himself to buy a new
hawser for the trial. In fact he dis
missed the matter so frigidly that the
stakes had to be returned and the wa
ger declared off. That's just the way
with some men after they get few
dollars ahead.-DetroH Free Press.
''Some friends of mine,' says the
correspondent of Glasgow news
paper, ''who visited Carlyle's house a
few days ago inform me that it is stand
ing empty, very dismal looking, rather
dilapidated, ticketed to be let or to be
sold. viii Scotchmen allow this to
continue-will they allow to go to
wreck and ruin this house, in which
for seven and forty years he livedP"
1t is the usual practice to serve pota-
toes in porcelain dish with close
fitting cover. In ten minutes the best
potatoes, however carefully cooked, are
thus utterly destroyed. A culinary
authority recommends that they should
be placed in a wooden dish, or served
in a porcelain dish, with towels above
and below to absorb the moisture.
A writer in the Providence Journal,
referring to the efficacy of the balsamic
odor of pine for weak lungs, makes this
Suggestion: Very probably the day
will come when pine and spruce pill
lows will be as frequent a household
appurtenance in our bleak climate as the
quinine bottle has long been in the
Southern and Western states.
An English bride, Miss Jessel, has
had wonderful wedding cake. On
top, done in sugar, was representa-
ton of the meeting of Rebekah and
Abraham's servant at the well, the
grouping modelled after Vernet's cele-
brated picture. The cake was four feet
high and weighed 227 pounds. The
cover or top lifted off so that the cake
could be cut.
A correspondent of the Lancet de-
scribes the following as the method
employed in China for determining
paternity: A basin or cup of clean
water is obtained, the supposed fathers
finger is cut, and then put into the
water till some blood trickles; then the
child's finger is cut and placed in the
water, and if the two bloods immedi-
ately unite, the proof is complete. The
magistrate is sometimes bribed and the
water tempered with.
Jim Baker, one of the oldest Rocky
Mountain trappers, has retired from
his wild life, after having spent forty
seven years in the wilderness. "Jim,
the Scout" as he is Familiarity called in
Denver, is now over seventy, but his
form is still as straight as an arrow,
his eye as bright as a child's, and his
step as elastic. He is now living in
Denver, and talks of the time when he
camped in the wilderness which is now
the capital city of Colorado.
Hunting moonshiners is not consid-
cred picnic by revenue officers. The
gay mountaineer is first-rate fellow,
at good distance. 1t appears that
his wiskey is not thing to banker
after, being common corn, clear as
water, and burning as fire. The man.
n,r of selling 1t is in true primitive
style, the purchaser putting his jug or
bottle in the hollow or stump of tree
with the price of the liquor. On call
ing back the jug is full and the money
gone. Then they have what is dubbed
the 'horn racket" Alongside the road
a big horn is hung to tree. If you
want to buy the corn juice you blow a
blast. Soon girl comes out of the
bushes and tells you to put your hand
in her pocket. You obey, drop some
money in the pocket, and take out your
bottle and 60. Flirting under the cir
cumstances is at ones peril, as a six
foot moonshiner Is In point of blank
range with his finger on the triooor ~