OCR Text |
Show who was a solemn church goer. 'I will give him a lecture on the sin of stealing," he said, 'and keep him, us he is a useful man. I tim very sure he will never steal from us agaiu.' "I accompanied my father to the kitchen, where the man was raking ashes over the coals of a hot fire ami preparing pre-paring to go to bed. Ho sat submissively j still as my father appeared, carrying a i large Bible, and ho listened to tho lecture lect-ure that was delivered with an unmoved ' countenance. I slept and awakened several sev-eral times before it was finished. My father's solemn, monotonous voice affected af-fected mo like a soporific aud I did not ; try to fathom the language he used. ' "The culprit was a Oerman, and I have since learned that he did not under- j stand one word my father said to him, nor even tho nature of the accusation ' against him. I thought then, as I listened lis-tened to my father's baas tones in that grim monologue, that the punishment was adequate to tho sin. I had been lectured myself, and would have confessed con-fessed to almost anything to have escaped es-caped the consequences. "The lecture was supplemented by a prayer, in which tny fater implored divine forgiveness for the offender The Gorman took it all in good part and re- : mained in his situation, but was no ; doubt carefully watched. Some years after the colored girl acknowledged that ; she had put the spoon in bis jacket in order to get rid of him and gratify her love of mischief. A he never alluded to it in ny way we could not Ml what hethoughtof theservioesof that night, or how much of the long moral lectnre had I been comprehended. Bnt I am certain he never understood the criminal nature cf the occasion. "Detroit Free Prews. j ' ' " I A Real Creole Cook. Aside from a few private houses, there is only one placo in New York yjhere a roul creole gumbo file, or a real creole : doube, can be had, aud that is a little ' restaurant upon ttra third floor of a large brick houe on University place. The restaurateur is ftn old creole himself, him-self, who is satisfied with an averaere of twenty cuntomers a day. j lie both cooks and serves the food himself, having but one assistant, who washes the pots and kettle and dishes and keeps things clean generally. But old Moiet Maritani is a famous cook, and conkl command a large salary should he listen to some of his friends. He speaks no Bsg)ii, aud in fact no French or ftpiBh, but simply the real old New Orleans creole diaWt, which is a mixture of both French and Spanish. The gumbo file he serves is a marvel. It is a great favorite with Dr. Chaimcey M. Depow and Mr. H. Walter Webb, the third -nee prerident of rhe New York Central railroad. It is a sort of soup, j made of chicken meati crabs, shrimps or crawfish, bacon, eggs, okra, sassafras, and flavored with fino old sherry wine. Just before it is served a quantity of grated boiled potatoes and lour and plenty of seasoning is added. It is a whole meal in itself. New York Journal. A LECTURE CN A SPOON. The Hired Man Got It. but He Failed to Comprehend a Word of It. "I remember," said the recontenr of the party, "a dispensation of what might be called Spartan justice. It happened when I was a boy and mado a lasting impression, aa incidents of the kind do on a youthful mind. ,"Our folks at home had some old silver sil-ver spoona that had been in constant service for generations, and were small and thin, and earned in their shallow bowls the marks of every tooth in the family. Each, spoon had a history and an association, as spoons did have in those duys, and they were looked after with the greatest care. My mother placed them under her pillow every night, and the whole family would be regularly awakened by a midnight clatter clat-ter of rattling spoons, as they had a rest-loss rest-loss habit of falling out of lied, so their value was enhanced by the many sleepless sleep-less nights they cost. "Well, one of those precious spoons was missing, and there was a great to do over it. The servants iwere ull questioned, ques-tioned, but no one had seen the missing spoon. That nicrht a colored girl, who had been taken in some months before ty my mother, and who was a bright and rather precocious character, told of seeing see-ing a new hired man on the premises hiding something in his jacket, t he even essayed to find the jacket, and, sure enough, between the lining and the outside out-side was found the lost spoon. "My mother was so happy in recovering recover-ing her property that she wanted the puin to go 'cot free Hot so my father. |