SUPPLEMENT TO THE AUCKLAND EVENING STAR.

THE FOOL OF FIVE FORKS.

BRET HARTE'S LATEST STORY.

AND ONE OF THE BEST HE HAS WRITTEN.

[FROM THE " NEW YORK TIMES."]

[Concluded from last Saturday night's Supplement.]

It was a pleasant June afternoon that Miss Nelly Arnot, principal of the primary department of one of the public schools of San Francisco, haviDg evaded her compan ions, resolved to put into operation a plan which had lately spiung up in h»r courage ous and mischief-loving fancy. With what wonderful and mysterious instinct of her sex from whom no secrets of the affections are hid, and to whom all hearts are laid open she had heard the story of Hawkins's folly, and the existence of the "Idiot Asylum., Alone, on Hawkins's hill, she had determined to penetrate its seclusion. Skirting the underbrush at the foot of the hill she managed to keep the heaviest timber between herself and the Blazing Star tunnel -at its base, as well as the cabin of Hawkins (half way\ up the ascent) ; until, by a circuitous route, at last she reached unobserved the summit. Before her rose, silent, darkened, and motionless, the object of her search. Here her courage failed her, with all the characteristic inconsequence of her sex. A sudden fear of all the dangers she had safely passed—bears, tarantulas, drunken men, and lizards—came upon her. For a moment, a s she afterwards expressed it—she thought she should die. With this belief probably she gathered three large stones, which she could hardly lift, for the purpose of throwing a great distance, put two hair-pins in her month, and carefully re-adjusted with both hands two stray braids of her lovely blue black mane, which had fallen in gathering the stones. Then she felt in the pockets of her linen-duster for her card-case, handker" chief, and smelling-bottle ; and finding them intact suddenly assumed an air of easy, lady like unconcern, went up the steps of the verandah, and demurely pulled the front door bell, which she knew would not be answered. After a decent pause she walked around the encompassing verandah, examin ing the closed shutters of the French win dows, until she found one that yielded to her touch. Here she paused again to adjust her coquettish hat by the mirror-like surface of the long sash-window that reflected the fall length of her pretty figure. And then she opened the window and entered the room. Although long closed the house had a smell of newness and of fresh paint that was quite unlike the moldiness of the conventional haunted house. The bright carpets, the cheerful walls, the glistening oil-cloths were quite inconsistent with the idea of a ghost. l 'With childish curiosity she began to explore the silent house, at first timidly—opening the doors with a violent push, and then Btepping back from the threshold to make good a possible retreat; and then more boldy as she became convinced of her secur ity and absolute loneliness. In one of the chambers, the largest, there were fresh flowers in a vase—evidently gathered that morning; and, what seemed more remarkable, the pitchers and ewers were freshly filled with water. This obliged Miss Nelly to no tice anotherfaingular fact, namely, that the house was free from dust, the one most ob trusive and penetrating visitor of Five Forks" The floors and carpects had been recently swept, the chairs and furniture carefully wiped and dusted. If the house was haunted it was possessed of a spirit who had none of the usual indifference to decay and mould. And yet the beds had evidently never been slept in, the very springs of the chair in which she sat creaked stiffly at the novelty the closet doors opened with the reluctance of fresh paint and varnish ; and, in spite of the warmth, cleanliness, and cheerfulness of furniture decoration, there was none of the ease of tenancy and occupation. As Miss Nelly afterwards confessed, she longed "to tumble things around," and when she reached tie parlour or drawing-room again she could hardly resist the desire. Particularly was she tempted by a closed piano, that stood mutely against the wall. She thought she would open it just to see who was the maker. That done, it would be no harm to try its tone. She did so, with one little foot on the •soft pedal. But Miss Nelly was too good a Player, and too enthusiastic a musician to "top at half measures. She tried it again, this time so sincerely that the whole house seemed to spring into voice. Then she stopped and and listened. There was no response—the empty rooms seemed to have lapsed into their old stillness." She stepped °at on the verandah—a woodpecker recom menced his tapping on an adjacent tree, the 'attle of a cart in the rocky gulch below the hill came faintly up. No one was to be seen far or near. Miss Nelly, re-assured, returned. She ag am ran her fingers over the keys, et°pped, caught at a melody running in her •Mod, half played it, and then threw away •U caution. Before five minutes had elapsed she had entirely forgotten herself, and with er thrown aside, her straw hat flung on the piano, her white hands bared, •4-» black loop of her braided her hanging hair hanging upon her shoulder, was ifairly

embarked upon a flowing sea of musical re collection.

She had played perhaps a half a hour, when, having just finished an elaborate sym. phony, and resting her hands on the keysj she heard very distinctly and unmistakeably the sound of applause from without. In an instant the fires of shame and indignation leaped into her cheeks, and B he rose from the instrument and ran to the window, only in time to catch sight of a dozen figures in blue and red-flannel shirfca vanishing hur riedly through the trees below. Miss Nelly's mind was instantly made up. I think I have already intimated that under the stimulus of excitement she was not want, ing in courage, and, as she quietly resumed her gloves, hat, and duster, she was nofc exactly the young peason that it would be entirely safe for the timid, embarrassed, or inexperienced of my sex to meet alone. She shut down the piano, and having carefull v i re-cloaed all the windows and doora, and ! restored the house to its former desolate con- ; dition, she stepped from the verandah, and ' proceeded directly to the cabin of the unin tellectual Hawkins, that reared its adobe ' chimney above the umbrage of a quarter of a mile below. J The door opened instantly to her impulsive knock, and the Fool of Five Forks stood be- j fore her. Miss Nelly had never before seen ; the man designated by this infelicitous title, ' and, as he stepped backward in half courbesy " and half astonishment, she was for the mo- ! ment disconcerted. He was tall, fine formed, ' and dark-bearded. Above cheeks, a little hollowed by care and ill-health, shone a pair of hazel eyes, very large, very gentle, but inexpressibly sad and mournful. This was ' certaiuly not the kind of man Miss Nelly ex. j pected to see, yet after her first embarras. ment had passed the very circumstance, oddly enough, added to her indignation, and stung her wounded pride still more deeply. Nevertheless, the arch hypocrite instantly changed her tactics with the swift intuition of her sex. "I have come," she said, with a dazzling smile, infinitely more dangerous than her former severity, " I have come to ask your pardon for a great liberty I have just taken. I believe the new house above us on the hill is youw. I was so much pleased with its exterior that I left my friends for a moment below here," she continued artfully, with a slight wave of the hand, as if indicating a band of fearless Amazons without, and wait, ing to avenge any possible insult offered to one of their number, " and ventured to en. ter it. Finding it unoccupied, as I had been told, I am afraid I had the audacity to sifc down and amuse myself for a few moments at the piano, while waiting for my friends." Hawkins raised his beautiful eyes to hers. He saw a very pretty girl, with frank, grey eyes, glistening with excitement, with two red, slightly freckled, cheeks glowing a little under his eyes, with a short scarlet upper lip, turned back like a rose-leaf, over a little line of white teeth, as ahe breathed some what hurriedly in her nervous excitement. He saw all this calmly, quiety, and, save for the unnatural uneasiness of a shy, reticent man, I fear without a quickening of his pulse. "I knowed it," he said, simply. "I heerd ye as I kern up." Miss Nelly was furious at his grammar, his dialect, his coolness, and still more at the suspicion that he was an active member of the invisible clique. "Ah," said she, still smiling, "then I think I heard you—" "I reckon not," he interrupted gravely. " I didn't stay long. I found the boys hang_ ing round the house, and I allowed at first I go in and kinder warn you, but they pro" raised to keep still, and you looked so com. fortable and wrapped np in your musi;:, that I hadn't the heart to disturb you, and kern away. I hope," he continued earnestly, they didn't let on ez they heercd you. They ain't a bad lot, them Blazing Star boys' though they are a little hard at times. Bu* they'd no more hurt ye than would a—a—a cat 1" continued Mr Hawkins, blushing with a faint apprehension of the inelegance of his simile. " No, no !" said Miss Nelly, feeling sud. denly very angry with herself, the Fool, and the entire male population of Five Forks. "I hare behaved foolishly I suppose, and if they had it would have served me right. But t only wanted to apologise to you. you'll find everything as you left it. Good day." She turned to go. Mr Hawkins began to feel embarrassed. "I'd have asked you t° sit down," he said finally, "if it hed been a place fit for a lady.. I oughter done so enny way. I don't know what kept me from it. But I ain't well, Miss. Times I get a sort o' dumbager—it's the ditches I think, Miss, and I don't seem to hey my wits about me.'1 Instantly Miss Arnot was all sympathy; her quick woman's heart was touched. " Can I—can anything be done ?" more timidly than she had before spoken. " No, not unless ye remember suthin' about these pills." He exhibited a box con taining about half a dozen. "I forget the direction. I don't iseem to remember much any way theße times. They're Jones' Veget able Compound. If ye ever took "em yeSl remember whither the reg'lar dose is eight. They ain't but six here. But perhaps ye never tnk any," he added deprecatingly. I 1 "No," said Miss Nelly curtly. She had usually a keen sense of the ridiculous, but somehow Mr Hawkins's eccentricity only pained her.

" Will you let me see you to the foot of the hill ?" he again said, after another embar rassing pause. Miss Arnot felt instantly that such pu act would condone her trespass in the eyes of the world. She might meet some of her ?n_ visible admirers, or even her companions, and, with all her erratic impulses, she wrs nevertheless a woman, and did not entirely despise the verdict of conventionality. She smiled sweetly, and assented, and in another moment the two were lost in the shadows of the wood. Like many other apparently trivial act in an uneventful life it was decisive. As she expected she met two or three of her late applauders, who she fancied looked sheepish and embarrassed. She met plso her companions looking for her in some alarm, who really appeared astonished at her es , corfc, and she fancied a trifle envious of her evident success. I fear that Miss Avnot, in j response to their anx'ous inquiries, did not : state eatirely the truth, but without acfca; \ assertion led them to belive that she had at a . very early stage of the proceeding completsly subjugated this weak-minded giaat, and hai brought him triumphantly to her feet. From I telling this story two or three times she got finally to believing that she had some foun r dation for if;; then to a vague sort of des'^e • that ifc would eventually prove to be true, 1 and then to an equally vague yearning tj ' hasten that consummation. That it would redound to any satisfaction of the Fool she | did not stop to doubt. That it would cure him of his folly she was qui<e confident. Indeed there are few of us, men or womeo, who do not believe that even a hopeless love for ourselves is more conducive to the salva. tion of the lover than a requited affection for another. The criticism of Five Forks was, ?s the reader may imagine, swift and conclusive. When it was found that Miss Arnot was not the Hag masquerading as a young and pretty girl, to the ultimate deception of Five Forks in general and the Fool in particular, it j was at once decided that nothing but the speedy union of the Fool and "the pretty school-marm " was consistent, with ordinary ommoa sense. The singular good fortune of Hawkins was quite in accordance with tho theory of his luck as propounded by the camp. That after the Hag failed to make her appearance he should "strike a lead " in his own house, without the trouble of "per" epecting'" seemed to these casuits as a won derful but inevitable law. To add to thes fateful probabilities Miss Arnofc fell and sprained her ankle in the ascent of Mount Lincoln, and was confined for some weeks to the hotel after her companions had departed. During this period Hawkins was civilly but grotesquely attentive. When, after a reason able time had elapsed, there still appeared to be no immediate prospect of the occupancy of the new house, public opinion experienced a singular change in regard to its theories of Mr Hawkins's conduct. The Hag was looked upon as a saint-like and long-suffering mar tyr to the weakness and inconsistency of the Fool. That after erecting the new house at her request he had suddenly "gone back" on her ; that his celibacy was the result of a long habit of weak proposal and subsequent shameless rejection, and that he was now trying his hand on the helpless school-marm, was perfectly plain to Five Forks. That he should be frustrated in his attempts at any cost was equally plain. Miss Nelly suddenly found herself invested with a rude chivalry that would have been amusing had it not been at times embarrassing; that would have been impertinent but for the aimer t superstitious respect with which it was prof fered. Every day somebody from Five Forks rode out to inquire after the health of the fair patient. " Hez Hawkins bin over yer today," queried Tom Flynn, with artful ease and indifference, as he leaned over Miss Nelly's easy chair on the verandah. Miss Nelly, with a faint pink flush in her cheeks, 1 , was constrained to answer, "No." "Well, ,he sorter sprained his foot against a rock yesterday," continuedjFlynn, with shameless untruthfulness. "You mustn't think any thing o' that, Miss Arnot. He'll be over yer to-morror, and meantime he told me to hand yer this bookay with his re-gards, and this yer specimen !" And Mr Flynn laid down the flowers he had picked en route for Buch an emergency, and presented respectfully a piece of quartz and gold, which he had taken that morning from his own sluice-box. "You i muftn't mind Hawkins's ways, Miss Nelly," said another sympathising miner. "There ain't a better man in the camp than that theer Cy Hawkins—but he don't understand the ways o' the world with wimmin. He hasn't mixed up with society as much as the rest of us," he added with an elaborate Ches. terfieldian ease of manner, "but he means well." Meanwhile, a few sympathetic tun nel-men were impressing upon Mr Hawkins the necessity of the greatest attention to the invalid. "It won't do, Hawkins," they ex plained, "to let that there gal go back to San Francisco, and say that when she was sick and alone the only man under whose roof she had rested, and at whose table she had sat," —this was considered a natural bn*. pardonable exaggeration of rhectoric—" ever threw off on her, and it shan't be done. It iin't the square thing of Five Forks." And tjhen the Fool would rush away to the valley and be received by Miss Nelly with a certain reserve of manner that finally disappeared in a flush of color, some increased vivacity, and a pardonable coquetry. And so the days

passed. Miss Nelly became better in health and more troubled in mind, and Mr Hawkins became more and more embarrassed, and Five Forks smiled and rubbed its hands and waited for the approaching denouement. And then it came. But not perhaps in the manner that Five Forks had imagined.

Ife was a lovely afternoon in July that a party of eastern tourists rode into Five Forks. They bad just "done" the valley of Big Things, aud, there being one or two eastern capitalists among the party, it was deemed advisable that a proper knowledge of the prac ! tical mining resources of California should be added to their experience of the merely pic- ' turesque in Nature. Thus far everything bad been satisfactory ; the fmmnt of wat?r which passed over the Fall was large, ow;ng to a backward season, some snow sti'l re , maiued in the canons near the highest peaks ; they had ridden round one of the biggesh trees, and through the protrate trunk of, st other. To say that they were devght' 3i^ to express feebly the eathusiusin of the 1: iies and gentleman, drunk v> ith the champagny hospitality of their entertainers, the ut'er novelty of scene, and the dry. exbil'rating air of the valley. One or two had a^eady expressed themselves ready to live and de there, another had written a glowing account to the eastern press, deprecating all other scenery in Europe and America, and under these circumstances it was reasonably ex, pected that Five Forks would do its duty, and equally impress the stranger after its own fjsbion. Letters to this effect were from San Frm cisco by prominent capitalists there, and un the able superintendence of one of the' r agents, the visitors were taken in hand, "shown what was to be seen," cprefully re strained from observing what ought not to be visible, and so kept in a blissful pnd en thusiastic condition. And so the grave yard of Five Forks, in which about two of the occupants had natural deaths, the dreary ragged cabins on the hill-sides, with their sad-eyed, cynical, broken-spirited occupauts, toiling on day by day for a miserable pittance and fare that a self-respecting eastern me chanic would have scornfully rejected, were not in the eastern visitors' recollection. But the hoisting works and machinery of the " Blazing Star Tunnel Company" waa the " Blazing Star lunnel Company," whose '' gentlemanly superintendent " had received private information from San Francisco to do the * proper thing ' for the party. Wherefore the valuable heaps of ore in the company's works were shewn, the oblong bars of gold —roady for shipment—were playfully offered to the ladies, who could lift and carry them away unaided, and even the tunnel itself, gloomy, fatefHl, and peculiar, jvas shown as a part of the experience j and, in the noble language of one correspondent, " the wealth of Five Forks and the peculiar inducements that it offered to eastern capitalists " were es. tablished beyond a doubt. And then occur red a little incident which, as an unbiased spectator, I am free to say offered no induce ments to anybody whatever, but which, for its bearing upon the central figure of this veracious chronicle, I cannot pass over. It had become apparent to one or two more practical and sober-minded in the party that certains portions of the Blazing Star tunne^ (owing perhaps to the exigencies of a flatter ing annual dividend) were economically and imperfectly " shored " and supported, and were consequently unsafe, insecure, and to be avoided. Nevertheless, at a time when champagne corks were popping in dark cor ners, andftnthusiastic voices and happy laugh ter ran through the half-levels and galleries there came a sudden and mysterious silence. A few lights dashed swiftly by in the direc tion of a distant part of the gallery, and then there was a sudden sharp issuing of orders, and a dull, ominous rumble. Some of the risitora turned pale—one woman fainted. Something had happened. What ? " No thing," the speaker is fluent but uneasy. " One of the gentlemen, in trying to dislodge a specimen from the wall had knocked away a support. There had been a 'cave'—the gentleman was caught and buried below his shoulders. It was all right, they'd get him out in a moment, only it required great care to keep from extending the 'cave.' Didn't know his name, it was that little man, the husband of that lively lady with the black eyes. Eh! Hullo there. Stop her, for God's sake! not that way; she'll fall from that ghaft—she'll be killed." But the lively lady waa already gone. With staring black eyes, imploringly trying to pierce the gloom, with hands and feet that sought to batter and to break down the thickness, with incoherent cries and suppli cations, following the moving of ignis fatuus lights ahead, she ran, and ran swiftly ! Ran over treacherous foundations, ran by yawn ing gulphs, ran past branching galleries and arches, ran wildly, ran despairingly, ran blindly, and at last ran into the arms of the Fool of Five" Forks. In an instant she caught at his hand. "Oh, save him!" she cried;* " y#u belong here—you know this dreadful place; bring me to him. Tell me where to go and what to do, I implore you ! Quick, he is dying. Come I" He raised his eyes to hers, and then, with a sudden cry, dropped the rope and crowbar he was carrying, and reeled against the wall. "Annie !" he gasped, " is it you ?" She caught at both his hands, bronght her face to his staring eyes, murmured, " Good God, Cyrus 1" and sank upon her knees be fore him. ;

He tried to disengage the hand that she wrung with passionate entreaty. '' No, no, Cyrus, you will forgive me—you will forget the past. God has sent you here, to-day. You will come with me # You will—you must—save him !" " Save who ?" cried Cyrus hoarsely, "My husband." The blow wa3 so direct—so strong md oveiwhelming—that even through her own stronger and more selfish absorption she saw it on the face of the man and pitied lrm. "Ithought - you—knew—it."shefaltered. He did not speak, but looked at her with fi^ed, dumb eyes. And then the sound of voices and hurrying of feet started her again ;nto passionate life. She once more caught his hand. " O, Cyrus ! hear me ! If you have loved me through all these years, you will not fail me now. You must save him ! You can ! You are brave and strong —you a1 ways were, Cyrus ! You will save him, Cyrus, for my sake—for the sake of your love for me ! You will—l know it! God bless you !" She rose as if to follow ir'm, but at a gesture of command she stood still. He pickr i up the rope and crowbar slowly, and in a dazed, blinded way that, in her agony of impatience and alarm, seemed protracted to cruel infinity. Then he turned, and raising her hand to his Vps kissed it slowly, looked at her again—and was gone. He did not return. For at the end of the next half hour, whea they laid before her the half-conscious, breathi at; body of her husband, safe and unharmed but for exhaus tion and some slight bruises, she learned that the worst fears of the workmen had been realized. In releasing him a second cave had taken place. They had barely time to snatch away the helpless body of her husband before the strong frame of his rescuer, Cyrus Hawkins, was struck and smitten down in his place. For two hours he lay there, crushed and broken-limbed, with a heavy beam lying across his breast, in sight of all, conscious and patient. For two hours they had laboured around him, wildly, despairingly hopefully, with the wills of gods and the strength of giants, and at the end of that time they came to an upright timber, which rested its base upon the beam. There was a cry for axes, and one was already swinging in the air, when the dying man sailed to them, feebly :— " Don't cut that upright!" "Why?" "It will bring down the whole gallery with it." " FTow?" " It's one of the foundations of my housa." The ax fell from the workman's hand, and with a blanched face he turned to his fellows. It was too true. They were in the upper most gallery, and the " cave" had taken place directly below the new house. After a pause the Fool spoke again more feebly. " The lady, quick !' They brought her—a wretched, fainting creature, with pallid face, and streaming eyes, and fell back as she bent her face over him. " It was built for you, Annie darling," he said in a hurried whisper, " and has been wainting for you and me all these long days. It ia deeded to you, Annie, and you must live there with him ! He will not mind that, I shall always be near you, for it stands above—my grave." And he was right. In a few minutes later, when he had passed away, they did not move him, but sat by his body all night with a torch a his feet and head; and the next day the walked up the gallery as a vault, but they put no mark o r Bign thereon, trusting rather to the monument that, bright and cheerful rose above him in the sunlight of the hill. For they said—" This is not an evidence of gloom, and death, and sorrow, as are other monuments, but is a sign of Life and Light and Hope, wherefore shall all me know that he who lies under it is—a Fool."

MY LITTLE MARY.-A SONG.

The trees look greener than they were, The hills less dark and dreary; And lighter seemß this weight of care, Of which I've long been weary. The sunshine warms the teeming earth The seasons sweetly vary; ' But what are Nature's blessings worth Without my little Mary ? One kind consoling word of her's, The lowering cloud displaces, - j :■'■>' And on my listening muse confers The smiles of all the graces. - "•' However dull the day may be Though all things seem contrary, Hope beams with roseate hues on me When near my little Mary. ' And _tfcen to see her aU complete, . "A With seemly hat and feather • • To hear her voice, melodious, sweet. As linnets 'mong the heather • ; You would not marvel at my song About my fancy's fairy, Nor deem Pegasus very wrong In trotting off with Mary. ■■'■'■ ■ ' Oh, she is like the buds of spring, That holds the embryo roses ; And sweet as vernal airs that bring .0 '-■ >■ ■ The lovers' fragrant posies. In household toils she bears a part ; ' With movement light and airy ' And works and sings with merry heart God bless my little Mary. , John Blackman.

THAT NOSE.

Away ! away 1 ye common herd Of tnmours and distortion*, Deformities, enormities, Carbuncles, and abortions. I've seen a nose 1 a nose 1 a nose 1 Of such a panderositjr, The dropsiest tumour in a wart Beside thia cariosity. ■ Majestic beak ; amaain? prow! : Bold shaft I imposing preng I Blood bowsprit! startling index-point! Projection, strange and long ! . _ Capacious tunnel I mammoth' caVe 1 Big staUcite or gristle ! Bone mounUln! fiery arch of flesh I Enormous railway whistle 1

SCOLDING.

Scolding is mostly a habit, and ia often the result of nervousness and an irritable con dition of mind and body. A person is tired and annoyed at some trivial cause, and forthwith commences finding fault with everything and everybody within reach. •Scolding is a habit very easily formed. It is astonishing how soon one who indulges in it at all become addicted to it, and confirmed

in it. It is an unreasoning and, unreasonable habit. Persons who once get in the way of scolding always find something to scold about. If there were nothing else they would fall a scoldiDg at the mere absence of anything to scold at. It is an extremely disagreeable habit. The constant rumbling of distant thunder, caterwaulmgs, or a hand organ under one's window, would be less unpleasant. The habit is contagious. Once introduced into a family, it is pretty certain to affect all the members, for who can bear without retort to bs constantly found fault with. Thus a very unnecessary bedlam is created. Woman contrect the habit more readily than men. This may be because they Jive more in the house, iv a confined and heated atmosphere, very trying to the nervous system, and the health in general, Women are sometimes called divine, but scolding women may very fairly ba accredited with another and very opposite attribute. Jf women would consider it as a* duty to spend daily some time in the open air, in walking or carriage exercise, and for at'"me divest themselves of household cares, there would be fewer unhappy homes, because fewer scolding women.

CURIOUS MARRIAGE IN HONGKONG.

In last Saturday's issue we gave a sketch of things as they are in Hongkong, which, as many of our readers are doubtles3 aware, is a British colony situated on an island, eight miles long and four broad, at the entrance to the Canton River, and possessing a popu lation of over 100,000 Jpersons, mostly Chinese. One curious incident recorded in the issue of the Hongkong Times, of Novem ber 20, to hand, we omitted to make allusion to a curious marriage which took place there, and, therefore, reproduce it to-day, as illusr trating one of the customs of the East : — "Ho-a-Ng, a destitute, had been living for four years and four months in Canton, as a bad character. Her mistress sold her to an old woman, to be sent to Singapore. The old woman brought her to Hongkong, and when here the girl positively refused to go to Singapore, so the woman said she would have to go back to Canton in the evening. The old woman went away and left the girl upon the steamer, where she stayed until ' special constable Kwok-a-Cheong, came, along, and finding she had no visible means of subsistence, took her to the station, as a destitute. When before the Magistrates she expressed a wish to stay in the colony, until1 such times as she could get a husband, for if she went back to Canton she would again have to follow her former bad life, which she did not wish to do. The girl was dis charged, af cer which she said she would wait - in Court to see if some enterprising young man would come forward and offer his affections. In a few minutes, two aspirants came forward, one, an office coolie to the Captain Superintendent of Police, and the other a chair coolie to the same official. The ft" ret was forty-one years of age, and the second twenty-three. The girl looked first from one to the other, and then choose the elder of the two, not liking the other because of his uniform. The girl soon thought better, and chose the younger man, the chair coolie, because of his youth and beauty, as she said. A mini age certificate was drawn up by the Sheriff of the Court, and read by the Interpreter, before the Magis trate, and the couple left the Court re joicing.

THE MODERN STAGE.

The question of propriety and impropriety is one on which the English have always been considered rather strong. The French are fond of alleging that what would be thought harmless enough in other countries, is looked upon in England as "shocking," or, as they prefer to spell the word, .*' shok ing." That may once have been the case. But, to judge by recent exhibitions at several of our theatres, such claims to modesty, or even mock modesty, as we may formerly have possessed cannot be said to belong to sus any longer. "Vanity Fair," in noticing the performance of "Vert-Vert" at the Globe Theatre, declared plainly and in rather forcible language, that no such claim could be put forward by Mr Fairlie, the manager :of that establishment. Mr Fairlie, feeling aggrieved, has commenced an action against the publisher of "Vanity Fair," and the case is down for trial early next week. If the young women who appeared in the ballet of "Vert-Vert" could be brought into court and exhibited in "their habits as they dressed," a verdict would certainly be given for " Vanity Fair." The scene will not be unlike that historical one reproduced by a brilliamt French painter, in which Phryne appears personally in dumb show, tp her venerable and impressionable judges. British jurymen, however, have wives to whom they are responsible ; and the ballet girls of the Globe Theatre are not Athenian beauties.— London Cor. N. Y. Times.

A WALLED ENGLISH TOWN.

A OLIMPSE AT CHESTER AND ITS OLD WALLS. Chester presents features to be found in no other English city in England. I do not say that these features make the place any more agreeable as a permanent residence, but they are certainly a pleasant novelty to sight-seers. It is the only town in Great Britain that has maintained its old1 walls entire. Of the London wall nothing remains but a few stones. York and Carlisle have only a few dilapidated remains of their ancient ramparts, but the walls of Chester are in a perfect (state'of preservation, :and a better idea of the quaint old place cannot be foimed from a walk around them than by rambling through its narrow, intricate streets for a week. The old part of the city is quite enclosed by the walls, which are two miles in circumference, and broad enough for two people to walk upon them abreast; They form the favourite promenade of the Chester people, and afford fine views of the city and the river Dee—the Deva of old, famed in song and story—and the distant mountains of Wales. Every turn brings some new object of interest to view ; here it is aa old ecclesiastical edifice, founded in bygone ages, when the wealth of the city was in the hands of abbots and monks; there it is a curious crypt, recently discovered on digging the foundation for a house. Now we are close to the church-porch, where we are told the high cross—a beautiful specimen of antique carving—Btood, until it was defaced and thrown down by Oliver Cromwell's " Roundheads," who were "■ too stern to care for beauty ;" and, further on, we pass some sad reminders of dark days and dark deeds in the shape of crumbling towers with horrible dungeons underneath. An inscrip tion upon one of the towers informs us that King Charles stood on it in September, 1645, and witnessed the defeat of his army on Rowton Moor. The moor (which is four miles off) was at that time a barren :Dlain; now it is covered with pretty cottages, embowered in luxuriant foliage, and there is nothing to remind one of the fierce [combat which the unhappy king saw from this fatal spot. Flights of steps lead from the streets to the walk upon the top of the walls. All the ancient gateways still remain, and standing upon the wide arches which conduc* us over them, it is interesting to look down upon the busy streets below, and the long row of strange-looking houses, with their antiquated fronts projecting over the side walks.—Corr. Inter-Ocean. ■ ' * '

SLEEPING WITH HIS EQUAL.

FROM THE " FAYETJEVILLE GAZETTE. "

A certain hotel, not a thousand miles from Fayetteville, recently had for its guest a sanctimonious looking gentleman from Mas sachusetts. The Civil Rights Bill was his favorite hobby, and Le took occasion when ever a suitable opportunity occurred to whis per into the ears of all negroes that came within his reach that he considered them his equal in every way. The porter of the hotel is a burly negro named Joe, who is as greasy and odorous an African as ever imparted a high flavor to the summer breeze. But Joe ia a sensible darkey, and he has a pretty cor rect idea of a negro's place, which kept him from being gulled by this would-be.,,white brother/Besides, Joe is much attached to the landlord of the hotel, and, as he is talka tive withal, he unbosomed himself to his employer one evening,- and related all that the Yankee had said on: the subject of Sum ner's legacy and negro equality. The land lord was thoughtful a moment, and then exclaimed, "Joe, I give you two dollars to morrow morning if you will sleep with that fellow to-night." i! "iIX " Dats a bargain Massa Jim." ■ That night the meek and unsuspecting white friend of the race of Ham was just ■ crawling into bed when Joe slipped into the room humming, "John Brown's body am a smoulderin' in de dv," and commenced shed ding his clothes without further ceremony. The amazed Puritan started up in his bed, his eyes standing out from his; face like a couple of door-knobs, and ■ tremblingly; in quired—"My colored friend, what are yon going to do." Joe pulled his shirt ever his head; gave a tremendous yawn, and made a leap for the bed, screaming as he went, Iho gwine to spend the night wid my ekal." The horrified man tore himself from Joe's perspiring, but fond embrace, leapt from ithe bed, broke for the door and fell into the hands of the landlord, who, attended by a few friends, was enjoying the whole scene, ;The "friend" left; on the early morning train.

i Here ia some farther news about the im- • - iperial family of Bussia, or, at least, the ; members of it who are present in Paris. I :% i learn that the crimson velvet and fur-lined cloak of the Empress, which I mentioned in a preceding paragraph, is valued at $20,000; it is lined throughout with Russian sable, each skin of which, itf worth $60. The Czar possesses a still more costly^ mantle, lined with the fur of the blue fox, which is worth no less than $36,060. He to Adelina Patti, on the occasion of ncr last benefit ia St. Petewbargh- * set 1 of furs of the value^of $10,000. 0 The.ezarewitch-and the Grand Duke Alexis visited i the Bouffe«' Parisieus the other evening, and warmly applauded Mesdames Judie and Griaot in jMadame rArchiduc Our old friend Alexis has succeeded to his grandfather's reputation jof beinsj the handsomest man in^JEiuropX and y he'is undoubtedly■"the nandsomeat prince.— Paris Corr. Phila. Press. {M*