A WELCOME TO CAPTAIN WILKES. WELCOME to Wilkes! who did n't wait To study up Vattel and Wheaton, But bagged his game, and left the act For dull diplomacy to treat on. Honor for one who dared assume A precious pair of rank insurgents. Rather than let them slip, 't were well Made sure of nine- in flat possession. Who talks for exploit such as this Of government's assured displeasure? A country's gratitude instead Outspeaks in large, unstinted measure. Cashiered! that banking term suggests A higher grade that may o'ertake him; Another such Jacksonian deed, And, faith, a President 't will make him. So welcome, Commodore, your freight Of haughty, wily, wicked traitors Consigned to Dimmick's plain hotel, Where Uncle Sam in quiet caters; A warm Thanksgiving greeting waits THE FAMOUS BONE-SETTER. WRITING from Conegliano, Italy, Charles Warren Stoddard says: "I have met one of the most celebrated women of Italy, Regina del Cin, whose marvellous successes in the setting of dislocations of long standing have made her famous even beyond the sea. You can read of her in the standard works on surgery. This uncultured woman, born with an instinctive knowledge of anatomy, lives in a handsome villa about twelve miles distant. She is sought by people from all parts of the world, and, though she sometimes attempts to straighten limbs that have been distorted from birth and to correct the blunders of unskilful professionals, her specialty is the setting of hip dislocations, and I believe in this line she is without a living rival. I had been recommended to visit Regina, as she is familiarly called in this neighborhood, to see if she might not be able to regulate an arm that has troubled me somewhat since an accident I met with a year ago near Rome. The marvellous stories I had heard of her skill, the flattering tributes paid to her character by people of all professions, nationalities, and creeds, encouraged me to believe that my salvation rested in her hands, and I sought her this morning with my heart in my throat and my arm in a state of suspense. I went on alone to the villa of Regina, with its broad, cream-colored walls shining brightly on the hillside. A maid held the door open as I approached the villa, and I was at once ushered into a small drawing-room tastefully furnished. A portrait of Pope Pius IX. hangs conspicuously on one wall; a life-size photograph of Regina is on the opposite side of the room; a smaller photograph of the famous lady stood on the étagère in an elaborate frame, while a third was set in the cover of a large volume which ornamented the centre-table. This book, presented by the city of Trieste to Regina when she removed to her present villa, contains four thousand autographs of the best-known citizens of that place. There was also a large album, containing the photographs of many who have been successfully treated for deformities of various kinds by that lady whom I had come to see. While I was looking at this album she entered, a very plain woman of forty or more; short, stout, untidily dressed. The lower hooks of her waist were bursted, and there was nothing attractive in her personal appearTwo of her front teeth were gone, ance. der that she has never attempted to write anything else. When it was time for me to leave her I hated to go; her atmosphere is wholesome and strengthening; her home beautiful and full of peace." The narrative in the "Daily Advertiser " concerning Regina del Cin recalls the case of Rev. Dr. Temple, of Troy, N. Y., who is undoubtedly the New York gentleman therein referred to. His hip was dislocated by an accident in which he was thrown from a carriage. He endured excruciating agony for years, during which the best surgeons of this country and of Europe found themselves unable to restore the displaced bone to its socket. The London surgeons sent him to Paris, and the Paris surgeons de her hair was rolled into a small wad at the top of her head, long gold eardrops dangled upon her shoulders, and about her neck she wore a massive gold chain. We proceeded at once to business. She stripped my arm to the shoulder, touched it lightly here and there with a touch that was exceedingly agreeable. Her examination of my case was so slight, the questions she asked so few, yet her comprehension of my condition so complete, that I strongly suspected the lady of being a clairvoyant. She lays no claim to any such gift; was born with the genius for bone-setting, which she is continually exercising, uses the simplest possible remedies, and in all cases performs her operations without giving any pain whatever. I had proof enough of her marvellous skill.clared that he could not be cured; or, if at In the hall I saw a heap of crutches, braces, all, only by a quack, — plainly meaning he and straps, iron stilts, and other horrible aids such as cripples are forced to seek. These were left at the villa by sufferers who had found complete relief under her roof, and many of them bore touching inscriptions in token of gratitude and affection and as voluntary testimonials to her skill. The place looked like the shrine of some saint with its multitude of votive offerings. There was one steel shoe with a sole at least a foot in thickness. Knowing me to be an American, she called my attention to the inscription on it. I found that a gentleman of New York city had left it, certifying that he had been "cured of a dislocation of the hip of seventeen years' standing, instantly and without pain." It is her custom to ask no fee for her services. You pay according to your means. Those who desire it, and for whom it is necessary, lodge in the house and receive her constant attention. She says at once whether she will or not attempt a cure. The good woman, after much persuasion, consented to give me her autograph. My conscience smote me for urging her, when I saw the great beads of sweat starting out on her forehead as she bowed over my pocket album and wrestled with her pen. Her signature is as unhandsome as possible, and under the circumstances I don't won could not be cured. Dr. Temple chanced to hear of this woman, and, despairing of aid from the regular faculty, went to see her. His account of his experience is most interesting. The woman made but little examination, and seemed to have an intuitive knowledge of what must be done. She directed him to apply a poultice over the affected part for a few days, for the purpose of softening the bone. She then, in the tenderest and easiest manner possible, put the bone back in its place; the cure was effected and the pain instantly ceased. Dr. Temple preached in this city and vicinity several times last year. He is a man of high culture, and of most estimable and lovely character. He had just returned from Europe and was entirely well. There was no soreness or lameness left, and but a little inequality in his step owing to the long constraint put upon the muscles of his limbs. He states that a son of the woman, who was a priest, had the same power the mother has; but unfortunately he died a few years ago. For many years the woman was much troubled by vexatious opposition from the regular faculty. She now, however, has a license from the Italian government direct, having been successful in treating a member of the royal family. THE TRAVELLER'S HYMN FOR ALL SAINTS' DAY. BY ARTHUR P. STANLEY, DEAN OF WESTMINSTER. WHERE is the Christian's Fatherland? Where pilgrim hosts have rushed to lave Where is the Christian's Fatherland? Earth's shadows with the Light Divine ? Or is the Christian's Fatherland Where, with crowned head and croziered hand, The Ghost of Empire proudly flits, Where is the Christian's Fatherland? Or is there yet a closer band,- Where prayer and praise for years have rung No, Christian! no!-not even here, Nor e'en where shone sweet Bethlehem's star: Thy Fatherland is wider far. Thy native home is wheresoe'er COLOGNE, Sept. 20, 1872. OF the Prince of Wales and Dr. Lyon Playfair it is told that they were once standing near a caldron containing lead, which was boiling at white heat. "Has your Royal Highness any faith in science?" said the doctor. "Certainly," replied the prince. "Will you then place your hand in the boiling metal and ladle out a portion of it?" "Do you tell me to do this?" asked the prince. "I do," replied the doctor. The prince then ladled out some of the boiling lead with his hand, without sustaining any injury. It is a well-known scientific fact that the human hand may be placed uninjured in lead boiling at white heat, being protected from any harm by the moisture of the skin. Should the lead be at a perceptibly lower temperature, the effect need not be described. After this let no one underrate the courage of the Prince of Wales. DON'T KISS THE BABY. [From the Scientific American.] THE promiscuous kissing of children is a pestilent practice. We use the word advisedly, and it is mild for the occasion. Murderous would be the proper word, did the kissers know the mischief they do. Yes, madam, murderous; and we are speaking to you. Do you remember calling on your dear friend Mrs. Brown, the other day, with a strip of flannel round your neck? And when little Flora came dancing into the room, did you not pounce upon her demonstratively, call her a precious little pet, and kiss her? Then you serenely proceeded to describe the dreadful sore throat that kept you from the prayer-meeting the night before. You had no designs on the dear child's life, we know; nevertheless you killed her! Killed her as surely as if you had fed her with strychnine or arsenic. Your caresses were fatal. Two or three days after, the little pet began to complain of sore throat too. The symptoms began to grow rapidly alarming; and when the doctor came the simple word "diphtheria" sufficed to explain them all. To-day a little mound in Greenwood is the sole monument of your visit. Of course, the mother does not suspect, and would not dare to suspect, you of any instrumentality in her bereavement. She charges it to a mysterious Providence. The doctor says nothing to disturb the delusion; that would be impolite, if not cruel; but to an outsider he is free to say the child's death was due directly to your infernal stupidity. These are precisely his words; more forcible than elegant, it is true; but who shall say, under the circumstances, that they are not justifiable? Remember, "Evil is wrought by want of thought It would be hard to tell how much of the prevalent sickness and mortality from diphtheria is due to such want of thought. As a rule, adults have the disease in so mild a form that they mistake it for a simple cold; and as a cold is not contagious they think nothing of exposing others to their breath or to the greater dangers of labial contact. Taking into consideration the well-established fact that diphtheria is usually, if not always, communicated by the direct transplanting of the malignant vegetation which causes the disease, the fact that there can be no more certain means of bringing the contagion to its favorite soil than the act of kissing children, and the further fact that the custom of kissing children on all occasions is all but universal, it is not surprising that, when the disease is once imported into a community, it is very likely to become epidemic. It would be absurd to charge the spread of diphtheria entirely to the practice of childkissing. There are other modes of propagation, though it is hard to conceive of any more directly suited to the spread of the infection or more general in its operation. It stands to diphtheria in about the same relation that promiscuous hand-shaking formerly did to the itch. It were better to avoid the practice. The children will not suffer if they go unkissed; and their friends ought for their sake to forego the luxury for a season. A single kiss has been known to infect a family; and the most careful may be in condition to communicate the disease without knowing it. Beware, then, of playing Judas, and let the babies alone. MR. ALCOTT, who is a hard rider of the vegetarian hobby, once said to Dr. Walker, of Harvard College: "I think that when a man lives on beef he becomes something like an ox; if he eats mutton he begins to look sheepish, and if he eats pork, may he not grow swinish?" "That may be," said Dr. Walker; "but when a man lives on nothing but vegetables, I think he is apt to be pretty small potatoes." I saved, I destroyed, Kept a crown for a prince, But ne'er sat on a throne; Was what I seemed not, A price on my head, Though gently she dressed me, She never caressed me, 'T was royalty cursed me In secret, I'm sure. I live not, I die not, But tell you I must, That ages have passed Since I first turned to dust. This parody: whence this This splendor? Say, was I a thing, or a silly Fathom the mystery deep Was I man? An angel imperial? A demon infernal? |