A Natural Wonder

Feom my hotel window I can look out almost any clear day and see a dim column of smbke in the far southwest. I have asked the cause of it and have been told that it is the vapor from a boiling spring, which has never been found. owing to the impenetrable nature of the swamp in which it is situated. My informants say it frequenlly deceived blockade-runners during the war. The runners would suppose it a signal from shore and run in to certain capture. I suargested one day that perhaps there might be some illicit whisky distillation going on in that swamp. The possibility, and even probability. was admitted. "Then none of you, I presume," I asked, " saw that column of smoke before or during the war?" None had seen it until the tax on whisky was levied, for, they said, they had never had their attention called to it until of late years. I accosted a gray-haired negro on the subject of the amoky column: "Well, sah" savshe, "if vcu was down in de neio-hborhood of whar datsmoke is, and you should leave a jng alongside de road wid a quarter tied to de haudlo, you'd bo mighty ap' to iind dat jug tilled wid whisky next day." "Where would the quarter be, Uncle?" " Dat would be gone, sah. "Andcouldl spend a quarter that way every day?" "Asmany as you like. If you tie half a dollar dey'll give you half a dollar' s worth of whisky, and dey'll gib you good measure, sure." "Do they do niuch business in that ine?" i asked. "I don't know nuffin about dat, san. ; only knows dat youget as much whiscy in" de jug as the money tied to do ïandle wül pay for." I do'.i't want the readers of this to discredit the existence in Florida of great springs, natural bridges or sunken lands making room for lakes', for these are natural phenomena, and can be seen and verified. - Oor. TallaJutsse (Fla. Sun é -The curiosity of the clerks in the Post-Oilice Department in Washington was piquea by a letter from Koswell Beardsley, postmaster at North Lansino-, N. Y., who said that he has held that office for over iifty-one years, and thcy began to look over the records to find out the oldest postmaster. Mr. Beavdsley proved to be the man, for ho was commissioned on June 28, 1828. Edward Stabler, now postmaster at Bandy Springs, Md., was appointed by Andrew Jaclsoh in 1830. - "99 w ■ The daughter, aged twcnty, of a Unen draper at Omagh, Ireland, has gained $4',000from a wealthy barrister, aged thirty, who is Crown Trosecutor on the Northwest Circuit, for breach of promise. He used to stay at her f ather's house when on circuit, and had Eromised to settle $5,000 a year on her. ,awyers might be expected to koep clear oi such entanglemente. _