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he was led to indulge himself on this wise. had for his companions an elderly lady, a halfgrown boy, and several gentlemen, one of whom was fond of retailing stories of the marvelous order, especially those that had fallen under his own immediate observation. Among others, he related a fact that has been widely published, that a man, in his vicinity, was engaged in blasting rocks; that the charge accidentally exploded, driving the chisel up under and through his chin and head, coming out at the top of his skull, and yet the man got well.

The party expressed their surprise, as some of them had never heard of it before, when Mr. Clark observed that he had heard a case much worse than that.

city pastor, whose name we do not feel at liberty to give. The Reverend Doctor has always insisted upon knowing the parties, or some one of the witnesses, before he would consent to tie a couple into one by the laws of God and man. But as he was sitting in his study in his beautiful rectory, adjoining the church-yard, in the middle of the afternoon, three carriages drew up at the door, and it suddenly occurred that word had been sent to him that a party would call at that hour to be married. He directed the company to proceed to the church, which had been opened already, while he would come in through the yard and vestry, and meet the parties at the altar. As he was proceeding he remembered his rule, and misgivings of the propriety of the step he was about to take arose in his

"Ah, what was that, indeed ?" asked the man mind. But it seemed too late to pause; and, with who had retailed the first story.

"Why, a very respectable citizen of our town, on the Fourth of July, was firing a salute, when the cannon unfortunately burst, blew both his arms out at the shoulder joints, mashed his legs to a jelly, and completely tore off the one-half of his head!"

increasing doubts, he robed himself, entered the church, and stood before the group. They were highly respectable in their appearance, but he knew no one of the parties or witnesses. With all the solemnity of voice and manner he could command, he made the usual proclamation:

"If any person present knoweth reason why

"And didn't he die, Sir?" exclaimed the aston- these parties may not be lawfully joined in marished listener.

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THE most remarkable case of gallantry on record is related of an Albany constable, and we only regret that the Argus has not given his name in full.

That paper states that Officer C went up to Fulton County to arrest a man whom he found at home with his wife and daughter. He was shown into the parlor where the three were sitting, and while proceeding to make known his business to the man of the house, the daughter, a young woman of eighteen, becoming greatly excited, exclaimed:

"I wish I had a pistol to blow his heart out with!"

The officer immediately drew from his breastpocket his revolver, and handing it to the young Amazon, said, in the blandest manner imaginable: "Miss, be so kind as to let me accommodate you."

Whether she apprehended he had another of the same sort left or not, she declined taking the tool, and the officer walked out with the head of that interesting family.

THE Burdell marriage and murder mystery will not be without its good, mixed, indeed, with a mighty deal of evil, if it leads to an improvement in the laws and customs of our country in the matter of matrimony. Day after day, now that the public mind is awake to the subject, a new case turns up to show the importance of greater caution on the part of those who are authorized to perform the ceremony, though we would hold every marriage valid where the parties acknowledge themselves man and wife in the presence of competent witnesses.

A curious case is related in private circles-it has not yet found its way into print-that occurred last summer in the experience of a distinguished

riage, they will now make it known, or forever hold their peace."

A dead silence reigned in the empty church, and the Doctor, with trembling, proceeded to the next step in the ceremony. Addressing the man in the words of the book, he said, with measured tones, and an eye fixed piercingly upon the eye of the man, as if he would read his inmost soul:

"I solemnly charge you, Sir, as you shall answer it in the great day of judgment, if you know any reason why you may not lawfully marry this woman that you now make it known."

"I guess we had better give it up," very quietly remarked the bridegroom.

"I think so," said the clergyman.
"Good-morning, Sir."
"Good-morning."

And the Doctor retired the way he came, and the company, moving down the broad aisle, resumed their carriages and drove off.

An hour or two after, the gentleman who had so suddenly abandoned his matrimonial purposes waited upon the pastor, and said that an apology was certainly due to him, and an explanation of the singular circumstance. "The fact is," said he, "her husband has been in Europe these five years, and I don't believe he will ever turn up!"

That was the whole story. Without any evidence that her husband was dead, and without waiting the legal time-six years-when willful desertion would entitle her to separation, the woman was ready to run the risk of a second marriage, and would have been remarried in two minutes if the heart of the bridegroom had not failed him in the nick of time.

BY one of those odd associations of ideas not easily recognized or explained, the story just told reminds us of an instance of Dutch justice in Lansingburg, in this State. Hans Von Blundur is a magistrate of Rensselaer County, in which the village of Lansingburg is located, a few miles above Troy, on the borders of the Hudson River. Two of the burghers-Dutchmen, doubtless, but more like Irishmen in this matter-went over the river to the village of Cohoes, where the factories and waterfalls keep up an everlasting roar and clatter,

and there these two worthies drank so little water | with so much whisky in it that they fell into a fight, and bruised each other's mugs as men in their cups are apt to do. They got home, where they got sober, both swearing vengeance, but afraid to enter a complaint, as one was quite as likely to suffer the consequences as the other. But Hans Von Blundur heard of it. They lived near to the residence of this Justice of the Peace, and he sent a constable to bring them both into his presence. They employed Mr. Harvey, a distinguished lawyer of Troy, to defend them, for they were now both on one side; and the gentleman of the law very plainly told the man of justice that he had no jurisdiction in the case, as the fight occurred in another county. Whereat the Justice was very indignant, and using those forms of expression considered profane in every other language but that in which the greatest cities have a profane and ominous termination, he demanded,

"Haven't I a right to settle my neighbors' quarrels when they go over the river, get drunk, and break von anoder's heads? What for am I a Justass of Peace, Sir? I fine them five dollars apiece, and to go to jail till they pay their fines, Sir; and you go to Troy, Sir, and don't come here again to tell me what for I am to do with my neighbors when they get to fight, and I a Justass of Peace."

To jail they went, and the discomfited lawyer went back to Troy, brought a suit against the Dutch Justice for false imprisonment, and when the jury brought in a verdict against him of $250 damages, it just began to get through his hair that his jurisdiction was confined to Rensselaer County, and then he swore a big oath that hereafter he would mind his own business, and let all the people in the adjoining counties settle their own fights in their own way.

He kept his promise. For it happened that a few months afterward a couple from Albany, with a sleigh-load of friends, came up in the middle of the night, and wishing to get married before they returned, sent over from the tavern where they stopped and called the Justice out of his bed, and dragged him over to the public-house, where he was wanted in great haste. He never hurried for any body, and now he was sleepy, cold, and cross; and very greatly against his will, but impelled by a sense of duty to his country and high office, he went to the tavern to see what was the row, presuming that some breach of the peace had been committed. When he found that his services were required to marry a couple, he demanded at once from what place they came, and learning they were from Albany, he refused to proceed with the matter at all. "No, no," said he; "it has been decided that I have no jurisdiction over the people in Albany County, and you can just go back where you came from and get married, and I will just go back to mine bed."

And so he did, and so they did. If our ministers and magistrates were as particular about their jurisdiction as the Dutch justice since he was fined, the Burdells and Bokers would have to go further for union-makers.

WHEN Will Shakspeare and Ben Jonson fought in loving rivalry the battle of the classic and romantic schools, the world, looking on delightedly, said, "It is the Age of the Drama."

When Swift hurled unclean satires at those who refused him fat benefices, and Voltaire taught that

Holy Writ was a meet study for Judæus Apella, they said, "It is the Age of Humor."

When stalwart, gray-whiskered men sauntered along "untrodden ways" by the Cumberland Lakes, and wrote such balderdash as this: "She lived unknown, and few could know When Lucy ceased to be;

But she is in her grave, and oh,

The difference to me!"

the astonished world muttered, "It is the Age of Poetry."

out, after they are dead and gone, that it took but A few wits make the age; and it sometimes leaks little wit to make it.

ANCIENT SPANISH LYRIC. SINCE, for kissing thee, Minguillo, My mother scolds me all the day, Let me have it quickly, darling, Give me back my kiss, I pray. If we have done aught amiss,

Let's undo it while we may; Quickly, give me back my kiss,

That she may have naught to say. Do-she makes so great a bother,

Chides so sharply, looks so graveDo, my love, to please my mother, Give me back the kiss I gave. Out upon you, false Minguillo!

One you give, but two you take; Give me back the one, my darling,

Give it for my mother's sake.

THE wits in all ages have tried their hands upon the poor wives, as if they were at the bottom of all the trouble in this world as well as in the next. Coleridge says:

Sly Beelzebub took all occasions

To try Job's constancy and patience;
He took his honors, took his health,
He took his children, took his wealth;
His camels, horses, asses, cows-

Still the sly devil did not take his spouse.

But Heaven, that brings out good from evil, And likes to disappoint the devil, Had predetermined to restore Two-fold of all Job had before; His children, camels, asses, cowsShort-sighted devil, not to take his spouse. Another wag of a poet has made this version of the same job:

The devil engaged with Job's patience to battle,

Tooth and nail strove to worry him out of his life; He robb'd him of children, slaves, houses, and cattle, But, mark me, he ne'er thought of taking his wife. But Heaven at length Job's forbearance rewards; At length double wealth, double honor arrives; He doubles his children, slaves, houses, and herds, But we don't hear a word of a couple of wives. On the other hand, as the preacher would say, the house of a man happily married is a paradise. He never leaves it without regret, never returns to it but with gladness. The friend of his soul, the wife of his bosom, welcomes his approach with a smile and a word that send joy to his heart; and the longer he lingers in the atmosphere of her love, the more he desires to dwell there forever.

And vice versa. At the Holland House the conversation turned on first love. Tom Moore compared it to a potato, because "it shoots from the eyes." That was Irish, and good-natured. rather," exclaimed the cynical Byron, "because it becomes less by paring."

"Or

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Tries his Key.-Won't unlock.-Surprised.

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Strange man at Window.-Very jealous.

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Policeman. Can't fool him.-Knows somebody is in his Cham- Rushes frantically down the Street in search of ber.-Makes a Row.-Gets knocked down.

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Tells his story.-Policeman re-assured.-Thinks Mr. Pipes knows better.-Policeman accompanies he went to wrong House.

him Home.

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Fashions for June.

Furnished by Mr. G. BRODIE, 51 Canal Street, New York, and drawn by VOIGT from actual articles of Costume.

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FIGURES 1, 2, AND 3.-BRIDAL TOILET, YOUNG LADY'S OUT-DOOR COSTUME, AND GIRL'S DRESS.

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