hat are sail-needles?"

"Five cents apiece."

The brother produced an egg and proposed a swap. It was smilingly
accepted and the egg added to the pile of stock.

The brother lingered and finally drawled, "Deacon, it's customary, isn't
it, to _treat_ a buyer?"

"It is; what will you take?" laughingly replied the deacon.

"Sherry is nice."

The deacon poured out the sherry and handed it to his customer, who
hesitated and timidly remarked that sherry was improved by a raw egg.
The amused deacon turned around and took from the egg-pile the identical
one he had received. As the brother broke it into his glass he noticed
it had an extra yolk. After enjoying his drink, he handed back the empty
glass and said: "Deacon, that egg had a double yolk; don't you think you
ought to give me another sail-needle?"

When Thomas Starr King was electrifying the state in support of the
Sanitary Commission (the Red Cross of the Civil War), Arcata caught the
fever and in November, 1862, held a great meeting at the Presbyterian
church. Our leading ministers and lawyers appealed with power and
surprising subscriptions followed. Mr. Coddington, our wealthiest
citizen, started the list with three hundred dollars and ten dollars a
month during the war. Others followed, giving according to their
ability. One man gave for himself, as well as for his wife and all his
children. On taking his seat and speaking to his wife, he jumped up and
added one dollar for the new baby that he had forgotten. When money gave
out other belongings were sacrificed. One man gave twenty-five bushels
of wheat, another ten cords of wood, another his saddle, another a gun.
A notary gave twenty dollars in fees. A cattleman brought down the house
when he said, "I have no money, but I will give a cow, and a calf a
month as long as the war lasts." The following day it was my joy as
secretary to auction off the merchandise. When all was forwarded to San
Francisco we were told we had won first honors, averaging over
twenty-five dollars for each voter in the town.

One interesting circumstance was the consignment to me of the first
shipments of two novelties that afterward became very common. The
discovery of coal-oil and the utilization of kerosene for lighting date
back to about 1859. The first coal-oil lamps that came to Humboldt were
sent to me for display and introduction. Likewise, about 1860, a Grover
& Baker sewing-machine was sent up for me to exhibit. By way of s