Thrilling Incident Of The War

I was eouversing not long sincu wilh i returned volunieer. " I was in the hospital as nuise, for a long time," miíü he, '' and asisted ii taking off iïmbs, and dressing all sorts ofwounds; bnt the hardest fhïnjjr I ever did was to tajke mV thunib off ;i man'n leg." "Ah !" said I, " how was that ?"- Thcn he töld ivo: " It was a young mnn who had a seveve wemnd in the thigh. The ball i) t coinplelely ihrough and amputai was necessarv. The Ümb was ent elosc to the body, the arteries taken lip, and he seenied to bs doing well. Subsequen ly one of the small arteries sloughed off. Am incisión was made afid k was again taken up. '' It ia well it was not th rnain artery." said ttfe Surgeon as he performed the operatinn; " he might have bied to death before vvecould haveti.kenit np." JSut Charlcy got on iinely and was a iavorite A'ítti ns all. I was passing through the wards one-night at abont midnight vvhen sud denly as I was passing Cliarley's hed ho ipoke to uit-. " H - iry leg is bleeding again." I throw back the clotties and the blood spit ted in the air. The maiii artery had sloughed off! Fortunately I knew just what to do. and in au instant I had pressed my tliiiin! on tiie [dace and stopped the bleed ing . It was so cluse to the body that there was barely room for my thnmb but I succeeded in keeping it there and rousing one ot the oonvaseents, sent him for the Surgeon, who came in on the run. " I arn 80 thankf'nl, H - " said he as he saw rne, " that you were up and knew what to do, for iie must have bied to death before I could have got here.1' lint on exaininatinn of the case he leoked exeeeiiingly serious and sent out for other Surgeons. AJÍ carne who wero ithin reach, and i lonsuitntion was held over the poor fellow. One conclu.-ion was reached by all, There was no place to work save the place vi here my thurnb was pressed ; they conld not work uflder my thunib, ntid if I moved it he wouhl bleed to death before the aitery could be taken up. There was no way to save his life.' Puor Charley ! He was very calm vvhen they told him, and requested that his brother, who was in the same hospital, might be culled. He ca me and sat down by tha beduide, and for thrae hours I stood an;i b the pressure of my thunib kept'up the life in Charley while the brothers had their last conveisation on earth. It was a strange place for me to be in, to feel that I held the life of a feliow mort il in my hands as t were, and stranger yet to "feel that an act of mine must now cause that lile to depart. Loving the poor fellow as I did, it was a hard thought, but there was no flternalive. The last words were spoken. 0'nnrIe}' had ai'i'anged all his business attairs and sent tender tneí-.sajjes . to ab-enl unes who little dreamed how noar their loved one stood to the grave. The teais lille-J my eyes more 1 han onte as I listened tothose parting wrrds. All were sad and he turned to me " Now H - , 1 guess you had better take off' your lliumb." " Oh, Charley, how carr I?"Isai:l. "But it iriiist be, you know," h'; replied clieeifuliy - í' I thank you very r.i;ch ïor your kindness, and now go;d bye." He tu ned iway his head. I raised my thumb. Once mora the ciimson, life-current gushed forth. In tliree minutes poor Charley was dead. " fyST On and after the first of July, 1863, all letters depositad in the Post Office for mailing on which the postago is short, instead of bcing sent forward as now, will bc kept and treated as if there were no stamps on the.Hi. After that timo the postagp'on drop letters . 'WU Ibe two centá instead of one. E A manfft'oturing corporation in Boston' rcocntly paid a dividend of 50 per cent. An elderiy ritockholder, as ho took his check for S108Ck, did not appear o.vcr -atisfied and the clerk ventured to remark tiiat the dividend was rather a largo one. The veteran lookcd at the young man over his spoetacles and said, with a grimt: i ''It will do, if they only keep it up."