folks ain't often; but if ever there was one on airth, you're thet one, Liz Byrnes. He wants to see you 'fore he pegs out, the scoundrel." "Is Dick Beech there?" she asked, excitedly. "Yes. He came back a day or two ago. I never seed sich a change, and he desarves it." "You shall not say anything about him," Liz retorted, angrily. "They said he was doin' well," Tom said, "but it seems now he wasn't. It was well in drink, I 'spect. He got shot in a row at Black's saloon to-night, and he keeps callin' fur you." She hastily threw an old shawl around her shoulders, and followed Tom. The rain and wind beat in their faces, but they kept steadily on, Tom holding a lantern before them, which illuminated the wet and slippery trail. At last they reached the saloon. It had seemed hours to Liz, who threw off her dripping wrappings, and went into the room where he lay dying slowly. Men were laughing, betting, drinking in the next room, for a human life was of little consequence to them. "Liz," he said, feebly, raising up as she entered, "I knew you would come to me. Don't look at me so. It was that look that maddened me. It has haunted me so," he moaned, falling back on his pillow. "Only say you will forgive me. I have told them all. I would scarcely have known you, you are so changed. May I kiss you once, Liz, for I love you?" he said, looking at her wistfully. She clasped his hands in hers, while a light, bright as a halo round the head of a saint, shone in her face. "Yes, Dick, I forgive freely, freely, if you will only live! I don't care for those years, for my life was not meant to be like other women's." The wind swept around the house like the wail of a lost spirit, and Dick held her hand in his, and smiled peacefully, for he was too feeble to talk any more. As morning neared, the storm died slowly away, the embers faded into ashes in the fire-place, and Dick's life ebbed quietly away. His soul was summoned before a Higher Tribunal. Liz sat there, motionless, by his side, through the long day, praying in her heart for death to be merciful unto her. The Judge shook hands with her; the people crowded around, bringing offerings. They tried to make amends for their wrong to her, but she only said, wearily: "It is too late now. It is all the same to me. When you could have been merciful you turned away. Now it is all over. Justice can never make amends for my suffering." And then she said, softly, to herself: MARY W. GLASCOCK. A SCRAP OF FRONTIER HISTORY. orders and accidents, from the many perils incident to a border State, from the raids of filibusters, the bitter quarrels and feuds of her own principal citizens, the antagonism of races, the insubordination of her industrious, but capricious, Indian population; and last, but by no means least, from the terrible, bloodthirsty, warlike, insatiable Apaches. Terrible, indeed, has been the desolation wrought by these inhuman fiends, the implacable foes of all peaceful industry, and the arts of civilization; and almost equally cruel and inhuman, it is sad to say, have been the reprisals which at occasional intervals have been meted out to them by an outraged and exasperated community. Be It is probable that there is not on this continent a country possessing greater natural resources than the State of Sonora, Mexico. It has been celebrated for its wonderful mineral wealth from time immemorial, and the highest authorities are united in crediting it with agricultural and pastoral capabilities surpassing, perhaps, even those of California. Its native inhabitants are universally admitted to be brave, hospitable, and light hearted; overflowing with natural talent, fond of music, dancing, and the gentle and refining pleasures of social intercourse. But what a sad fate has fallen upon a country and people originally destined, apparently, to inherit a more than ordinary share of wordly prosperity; for it must not be forgot-fore reading the terrible story which follows, it ten that, in addition to the curse of revolution, which has blighted to such a terrible extent the whole of Mexico, and which even now threatens its utter disintegration and ruin, Sonora has suffered from an infinity of local dis is necessary to picture to oneself the depopulated villages, the ruined haciendas, the deserted mines, the desolation and misery created by this dreaded tribe, and to remember that the war of civilized races against the Indians is a war of industry and intelligence against a nomadic people who have proved themselves, with a few rare exceptions, incapable of being elevated above a condition of barbarism; who require and demand not acres, or hundreds of acres, but countless thousands, to sustain each tribe; that the most enlightened and humane policy has hitherto wholly failed to convert them to the arts of peace; that the civilization of the entire continent is as desirable as it is inevitable; and that the passions of the savage nature which run riot in the contest awake, inevitably, the almost equally savage passions of the pioneers and frontiersmen, whose destiny it is to conquer or be conquered by them. The town of Oposura is one of the oldest and most interesting in the State of Sonora. It is situated about forty-five miles to the west of Babiacora. In 1827, Babiacora was a town containing some three thousand inhabitants, three-fourths of the population consisting of Indians of the Opata tribe. It is situated on a table-land, about one mile from the river Sonora, which runs through the vale of Sonora, at that time one of the most fertile and beautiful districts of the State. Oposura, the ancient capital of the Opata Indians, contained, in 1827, upward of four thousand inhabitants, and was considered the prettiest and gayest town in that portion of the country. The river Oposura falls into the Yaqui River above Onabas. At that time the lands for a considerable distance below the town were divided among the inhabitants; the water from the river was carried through each lot by canals, so that vegetables, fruits, etc., were produced throughout the entire year. Each family grew corn, wheat, frijoles, sugar, and tropical fruits. Most of them had horses, mules, and an abundance of cattle feeding in the adjacent plains and mountains. Sixteen leagues to the north of Oposura is situated the mining district of Nacosari, to the east of which is Arispe, which, at the period of Colonel Bourne's visit, was a town of three thousand inhabitants. Adjacent to Nacosari there was at that time a beautiful vale, abounding with fig trees, pomegranates, peaches, and other fruits, together with a vast variety of ornamental plants and shrubs. Throughout this region, also, ran numerous canals, conveying water to every portion of the valley. This delightful spot was once the residence of a community of Jesuits. Ward, in his "History of Mexico," speaks of the ruins of a church and dwellings then existing at the upper end of the valley, and also the ruins of reduction works, even then so dilapidated that it was impossible to judge of their former extent, as "they had been abandoned upward of sixty years, and were entirely destroyed by the Apaches." And throughout the entire region of Oposura, Babiacora, and Arispe, as also far and wide in every direction, are still to be found the remains of once prosperous and productive mines, haciendas, and industries destroyed by the same ruthless hands. Many of these places, once so prosperous, are now mere deserts; and the entire country has been so repeatedly stripped and desolated that it is difficult to credit that it was once a garden spot of almost unequaled beauty. In the year 1835, John Johnson, a native of Kentucky, resident in Missouri, then a very young man, resolved to move into Mexico. He finally settled in Oposura, and married there, shortly after his arrival, Delfina Gutierrez, a Mexican lady, born in San Miguel, north-eastern Sonora, but educated in Oposura. At this time the Apaches were ravaging constantly the north-eastern part of the State, the western portion being protected by Papagos, a tribe of friendly Indians, much feared by the Apaches. The head chief of the Apaches at that time was Juan José. He had been "raised" by the Elias family in Arispe, while it was still the capital of Sonora, and had received a fair education. It was one of his favorite practices to capture the mail-bags, more particularly, it is supposed, with a view to placing himself in possession of the information which they contained, of which he was not slow to avail himself. The next most influential chiefs were Marcelo and "Apache Guero." Guero signifies red, and is commonly applied to those persons in Mexico possessing fair complexions. Strange to say, such are by no means rare, for there is a guero in nearly every village or settlement throughout Mexico. Juan José was a very sagacious, cunning warrior, as, indeed, many of the Apache warriors proved to be, to the sorrow of their enemies; but none among them had ever been so dreaded, so unscrupulous, so ruthless and terrible, as Juan José and his following. It was at this time that the Apaches began to obtain their first fire-arms from the American hunters and trappers in exchange for horses and mules driven across the border from Sonora. Great was the indignation, and many were the protests of the settlers, but still the iniquitous trade continued until it became apparent that the Indians, who made war a profession, and who had vowed the extermination of their enemies, would soon be better armed than the rancheros and miners, or the residents of the towns and villages, who trusted principally to the military for protection against their savage foes. It is easy to imagine the uneasi advised Johnson to return and abandon his ex the Sierra, well armed and in great force. They had between fifteen hundred and two thousand warriors, he told Johnson, available within a day's notice, and they would infallibly destroy him and his little command. Finding Johnson resolute, the Colonel said that he would have accompanied him with a hundred men—there being about a hundred and fifty at the fortbut that he considered the expedition entirely too rash. ness with which Johnson viewed this trade in fire-arms. It was his custom to make the jour-pedition, as the Indians were known to be in ney to New Mexico and back once a year, engaged in the legitimate pursuit of a trader, taking out stock, and returning with assorted merchandise, such as found a ready sale in Oposura and the vicinity. A well armed party of the savages might, at any moment, ambush and cut him off during one of these expeditions, although this danger was little considered in comparison with the dread of Apache raids during his absence; for it was nothing uncommon for the savages, emboldened by the possession of fire-arms, to attack even the larger towns during the absence of the troops. Indeed, it was a favorite plan of theirs to entice them into the fastnesses of the mountains, and then to sweep down upon the undefended settlements, during which raids no mercy was ever shown to age, sex, or condition. Johnson conceived and matured a plan for breaking up this dangerous trade, and at the same time striking a deadly blow against the Apaches. With characteristic reserve, decision, and originality, he determined to make use of the very hunters and trappers, known to have been engaged in the trade, against them, and he did not have to wait very long before finding an opportunity to carry his plans into execution. The Apaches had ravaged Noria, about thirty miles north of Oposura, killing and scalping men, women, and children, and applying the torch to everything destructible by fire. Johnson, whose place was headquarters for many of the frontiersmen, had at the time on his premises, or in the immediate vicinity, seventeen American hunters and trappers; and availing himself of the indignation created by this raid, so near home, he immediately made preparations for his long contemplated expedition, concealing his plans, however, and all but the immediate particulars necessary to its success. After examining with care the arms and ammunition of the Americans, he prepared a small pack-train, loaded with supplies, a selection of suitable merchan- | dise, and a small howitzer, which he carefully concealed amid one of the packs, and taking with him five of his bravest and most reliable arrieros, he placed himself at the head of the party, and started on his perilous expedition. He struck the trail of the retreating Indians about a week after their devastating raid upon La Noria, and followed them fearlessly toward the very heart of the Sierra Blanca of Arizona, the headquarters of that portion of the Apaches. At the Presidio Frontera, he called on Colonel Narbona, a well known Mexican officer in command, a renowned Indian fighter, who urgently The distance from the Presidio Frontera to the Sierra Blanca is some forty leagues. The Johnson party approached the foot of the Sierra the third day after leaving the fort. It was in the afternoon, drawing toward evening. They had traveled purposely without concealment. They could see the Indians telegraphing by fires from point to point, and knew they were concentrating to meet them. Juan José himself, at the head of a large force of warriors, shortly surrounded the little party, and haughtily demanded their business in the Apache country, to which Johnson artfully replied that he had been constrained to leave Sonora with his Americans on account of the approaching difficulties between the United States and Mexico. The quarrel with Texas was at that time at its hight, and war was actually impending. The raids of Juan José upon the mail-bags had prepared him to receive and believe this information, and he readily fell into the trap so carefully prepared for him. Johnson announced it as the intention of his party to proceed to the copper mines of New Mexico, distant about a week's journey from the Sierra Blanca, and, asking for guides, proposed to give a portion of his pack, consisting of pinole, panocha, trinkets, and such provisions as the Apaches most coveted, in return for a guide to the copper mines, and the friendly services of the tribe. To this tempting proposition, Juan José consented, and the following day was appointed for the distribution of the supplies, and a suitable place was selected where Juan José proposed to assemble his followers, together with all the principal chiefs in the vicinity. The dreaded Apache Guero was appointed to superintend the division of the effects. The same evening Juan José partook of some supper with the friendly trappers, and forgetting, in an exceptionally social mood, the Indian's habitual caution, he expatiated upon the cunning and valor of his principal chiefs, and pointed out with great pride to Johnson and his companions the Apache Guero, the Apache Negro, Marcelo, and others, relating at the same time their principal deeds of strategy and prowess. Strangely enough, but very opportunely as it happened, Johnson found among the Apaches, as prisoner, a young Mexican girl, made captive during one of the Apache raids. She was about twelve years of age, bright and intelligent, and remembered well the catastrophe which had left her the sole surviving member of her family. Johnson took compassion on her, and at once purchased her from Juan José. Scarcely had she joined the camp of the brave frontiersmen when she repaid her deliverers by informing them of the plans laid by the Apaches for the destruction of the Johnson party, which she overheard. The Americans were to be permitted to make the distribution of their effects the following morning, as agreed upon, after which the promised guide would be furnished to lead them-not to the copper mines, but to ambush and destruction on the following day. A party of three or four hundred Apaches, then hunting in a suitable locality, had already been advised by swift runners dispatched for that purpose. The place selected for the distribution of the goods and trinkets was a pretty little valley in the foothills adjacent to the Sierra. Here there was an opening, surrounded by a grove of oak timber and clusters of underbrush. Some large flat stones formed natural tables upon which the trinkets, etc., were artfully displayed by the hunters. In one of the clumps of underbrush, concealed by the pack-saddles, blankets, etc., lay the howitzer, loaded with double charges of grape and canister, and carefully trained so as to sweep with deadly effect the little opening within which it was foreseen the Indians would be crowded during the distribution of the pack. Totally unconscious and unsuspecting, or perhaps thinking of the ambush prepared for the little party of hunters on the morrow, and of the second and final distribution of their goods which would then take place, came the Apaches, prominent among them, Juan José himself, Apache Guero, Apache Negro, Marcelo, Tutige, and other noted warriors. The Kentuckians, disposed apparently accidently, had in reality each selected his position with the utmost care, every trusty rifle loaded with the greatest precision, the powder-horn, extra bullets, and ready greased patches at hand; for the odds against them were fearful, and the slightest miscarriage would inevitably cost every man his life. No accident, however, intervened to prevent the complete success of the scheme. The Indians soon became completely absorbed in the distribution of the effects. The artilleryman in his ambush silently uncovered the howitzer, and watched the movements of the Apaches until an accidental grouping offered him the opportunity of firing among them with the most deadly effect. How many fell at the first discharge is not known, but this, terrible as it must have been at such short range, was only the signal for the still deadlier fire of the Kentucky rifles. Each hunter had selected his Indian, every one a chief or noted warrior, in accordance with a plan previously agreed upon. Thus fell at the first fire Juan José himself, Apache Guero, Marcelo, Apache Negro, and every brave of note of the band. The surprise was too complete for them to think even of rallying. Not one of authority sufficient to command them during such an extremity remained. Their arms had been left aside, with a few exceptions, the small number of Americans having completely deceived them, so that they had forgotten temporarily their habitual distrust and jealous precautions. Thus it happened that, despite their numbers, the panic was so great that flight alone was thought of. Immediately after the first fire, but before they could get out of range, another deadly volley followed them. Fifty-four were thus slain in a few minutes, and many more must have been wounded by the grape and canister from the concealed howitzer. It was several years before the Apaches rallied from this terrible blow. Had it been followed up with vigor by the Mexican Government, the Indians might have been reduced to the last extremity, and the country spared many of the terrible outrages which subsequently ensued. But no steps were taken on the part of the Government. The Mexican officers and soldiers were jealous that a mere handful of men should have put the utmost efforts of their command to shame. But Johnson's principal object, the prevention of the sale of fire-arms to the Indians by the hunters and trappers, was most effectually accomplished, for the time, at least, as the Apaches were very careful thereafter not to allow any of them to approach sufficiently near for the transaction of business of any kind; and for several years the north-eastern portion of Sonora enjoyed comparative immunity from the dreaded foe. Autora, the young captive girl, returned with the Johnson party to Oposura, where she married into the Ramirez family. She died at Opata in 1879. The people of Sonora were grateful enough to Johnson and his party, whatever may have been the sentiments of the military or the Government. They celebrated the expedition in a sort of ballad, probably of Indian origin, which, though destitute of poetic merit, may, perhaps, prove of interest to the curious or the antiquary. It may still occasionally be heard, chanted in a peculiar monotone, on that distant frontier: Versos Compuestos en la Campaña que Hizó Don Juan En esa sierra mentada De las Animas, pasó, Y otros en su compania. Fué infiel en su nacimiento, Su muerte fué su un momento, Don Juan Johnson apareció Don Juan Johnson le responde, Juan José ha trato convida Don Juan Johnson le responde, Es muy poco la que traigo, Don Juan Johnson le responde, Me daras una cautiva A Juan José gusto el trato, Y luego se dejó caer Pues, como no sea mas de eso Don Juan Johnson por cabal Juan Diego, ese tatolero, The Johnsons are still living and flourishing in Sonora, and the descendants have proved themselves not unworthy of their sire. Don Manuel Johnson was killed March, 1872, at Culiacan, in fighting against General Marquez, who has been heard of recently in Lower California and Sonora. Johnson was Pesqueira's Chief of Cavalry, and displayed the most reckless and desperate bravery throughout the campaign. Don Ricardo Johnson, with whom many Californians are well acquainted, is the present head of the family. HENRY S. BROOKS. EDUCATION IN JAPAN. It is somewhat discouraging to find that our of the bay," from ye, bay, and do, door. Still, children in the schools are acquiring misinfor- this name has not been used either officially or mation regarding a country so interesting and popularly in Japan since 1868. It is called Toso important as Japan. All our geographies kio (to, east; kio, capital). Tokei is the spelling and maps must be changed. They have all and pronunciation of those who affect Chinese fallen into the error, as have all our writers, learning. The name of the second city is without exception, of calling the main island Ozaka (accent on the first syllable). The name Niphon or Nippon. There is no island having of the old capital is Kioto, not Miako, miako such name. Dai Nippon, or Dai Nihon (Great being a common noun. Hokodadi should be Japan), is the name of the empire-the entire written Hokodaté, and Yesso, or Jesso, should Japanese Archipelago. The official name of be written lezo. The sound or force of all the the largest island, which we have been taught vowels and consonants in the Japanese names, to call Niphon, or Nippon, is Hondo. The isl- as now written, is the Italian or European, the ands Liu Kiu, belonging to Japan, are marked same as in the modern or Continental method Loo Choo on our maps. Yeddo, the capital of pronouncing Latin. These corrections are city, should be written Yedo. It means "door | given by Mr. William G. Griffis, late of the Im |