The Ancient Miner's Story.

BY WILL CARLTON.

Oh, yes, I'm fixed a3 solid, sir, as most of folks you see ; At least the coyote, Poverty, has CBased to sniff fit me ; That mine is worth a million down — that is, it is to-day ; What it might cost to-morrow, though, I couldn't exactly say. A boy in old Connecticut — this dream I used to hold ; What if the cellar of our house should spring aleak with gold. And I from there at any time a shining lump could bring? — I've got a cellar in this rock that's just that sort o' thing. The sum niy father slaved himself for twenty years to pay, I've taken out of that thej/e holein less than half a day ; If I could lead him up yon path, I'd make him smile, at least ; But his old labor-hardened hands are mouldering in the East. I'd pack my mother up thisjhill, and open to her view Enough to give a benefit to all jthe poor she knew ; I'd pan a hsap o' happiness out of her dear old face ; But mother's struck a lead of gold in quite a different place. My girl ? Well, maybe this is soft ; but since the question's put, (I wouldn't tell it to anyone except a " tenderfoot"), We used to climb those Eastern hills (she was a charming witch), And prospect on what we would do when I had " struck it rich." But her old father hadn't the heart to lee us marry poor, So I shook off Yankee dust and took ft Western tour. My trip it lasted several years. The old man grieved no doubt, I swore I never would come back till I could buy him out. You don't know what 'it,'is to hunt and dig from day to day, To strike a vein that almost shows, then dodges clean away, You do ? Well, yes ; but have you starved, and begged, and almo3t died, With treasures that you couldn't find heaped up on every side ? And then her letter^w&ndered, like ; then tapered to "an end ; I wondered on it for a while, then wrote a school-boy friend ; And just as I had struok this^mine^and my old heart beat high, There came a letter up the gulch — it]wag my friend's reply. " She's been a-wandering in her mind ; the other afternoon She went within the asylum walls, as crazy as a loon." ******♦• A rush across the barren plains, a snailish railroad ride, And I was in the asylum, too a-kneeling at her side. I thought she knew me, just at first ; but soon she shrank away, And never looked at mo again, whatever I might say. She wanders round, or crouches in a western window niche, And says " My love will oome to me when he has ' struck it rich.' " No word or look for me. Oh, but the Eastern hills were cold ! And something seemed to always say, " Go back and love your gold ! " And I came back ; and in this hut'jny'purpose is to stay — A miser with his treasure bright already stowed away. T'm President, cashier, and] board of quite a •"** wealthy bank, With none jexoept myself^to please — and no one else to thank ; But nothing makes my heart beat fast — and I am growing old, With not a thing to love] or leave except this pile \)f gold. But I have learned a thing or]two ; I know, as sure as fate, When we lo^ck up our lives for wealth, the gold key comes too late ; And that I'm poorer now than through those happy days in which I owned a heart, and did not know that I had struck it rich.

Fall of a Meteorite. It is reported that the French Academy of Sciences has just received an interesting account of a meteorite which fell not long ago near Odessa. A bright serpentine trail of fire was seen one morning to pass over that town ; and the editor of one of the papers, surmising that a meteroic mass might have

fallen from the sky, offered a reward to any one who would bring it to him. A peasant, who had been terribly frightened by the stone falling close % to him as he worked in the fields, and burying itself in the ground, answered this appeal. He had dug the stone out of the soil, and preserved it, keeping the matter quits secret from his neighbors, as he feared ridicule. This stone was found to be a ehapeless mass weighing nearly eighteen pounds. The fall of another meteorite, whiah in its descent wounded a man, waß also reported ; but it had been broken into fragments and distributed among the peasants, who preserved them as talismans.

A Stenographic Patent Bill. Tiie Bill introduced by Mr. Young in the House of Eepresentatives is as follows :— Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress Assembled, That section fortyeight hundred and eighty-six of the Eevised Statutes of the United States be declared to include, and it is hereby amonded so as to include, in the meaning of the words " useful arts," the art of phonography, stenography, or shorthand, and that any invention, discovery, or improvement new and useful therein shall entitle the discoverer, inventor, or improver thereof to a patent on the, terms and conditions set forth in said section. — Scientific American.

Walking, Running, and Jumping in England. Four miles an hour is the ordinary standard pace for a good, brisk country walk ; what shall we say, then, to eight mileg in an hour, fair heel and toe? Yet this has been done by W. Perkins, J. Raby, Griffin, and other professors of the art. Perkins, indeed, has walked one mile in 6 minutes and 23 seconds — a rate of progression nearly approaching 9 j miles an hour. On the same occasion he walked two miles in 13 minutes 20 seconds, and three in 20 minutes 47 seconds, both unequalled records. The greatest distance ever walked without taking a rest is 120 miles 1,560 yards, by Peter Crossland, of Sheffield. The greatest distance ever run in one hour is 11 miles 970 yards, by Deerfoot, at Old Brompton, in 1863 — Deerfoot's real name being L. Bennett, Cattaraugus County, New York State. The fastest time in which one mile has ever been run on level ground is 4 minutes 16 1-5 seconds, by W. Cummings, of Paisley, in 1881, at Preston ; but in 1863 W. Lang ran a mile over a course which was partly down hill in 4 minutes 2 seconds. The sioijtest runner hitherto seen is a man named Hutchens, formerly newsboy at Putney Station. In a Sheffield handicap he has covered 131^ yards in 12J seconds, a performance which shows him many yards better than " even time " at 100 yards, and even time is the unattained ambition of the great army of amateurs. (A hundred yards in " even time " means 100 yards in 10 seconds, or a rate averaging 10 yards per second.) And he has performed the prodigious feat of covering 300 yards in 30 seconds, dead, the most wonderful piece of running on record. [These records have, however, been beaten this year by W. George, of Worcester, the English champion amateur.] In 1873 R. Buttery, of Sheffield, ran a quarter of a mile in 48J seconds, which remains unbeaten to this day. George Hazael has run 50 miles in three seconds leas than six hours and a quarter, and he has also performed the prodigious task of covering 600 miles in a 6 days' "go-as-you-please," a pedestrian journey in which the competitors may run or walk as they prefer. [This recosd has since been beaten by both Rowell and Fitzgerald.] As to jumping, amateurs who patronise the sport jump without any artificial aid. The records among the latter are both held by the same athlete, P. Davin, of Carrick-on-Suir, Ireland, who has cleared 6 feet 2f inches high, and 23 feet 2 inches wide, both at local athletic gatherings. Mr, J. Brooks, who in 1876 won the Inter- Varsity high jump with 6 feet 2£ inches, is said to have cleared an inoh more in practice. John Howard, a Bradford professional, more than once cleared a full sized billiard table lengthways — a feet requiring courage as well as ability ; and on one occasion, on Chester racecourse, he jumped the enormous distance of 29 feet 7 inches 1 He took off from a wedge-shaped block of wood, raised four "inches from the ground, and carried a five-pound dumb bell in each hand. In pole jumping — prettiest of all athletic pastimes — the great height of 11 feet 4£ inches has been cleared by the present amateur champion, T. Ray, of Uiverstone. [This record has been topped by Bradshaw, of Wolverton, who cleared one inch more.] — Scientific American.