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About Willamette farmer. (Salem, Or.) 1869-1887 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 21, 1876)
Q WILLAMETTE FARMER. TtyE HME Circle. The Lost Babies. Come, my wile, put down the Bible, Lay your glasses on the book, Doth of ui are bent anil sged Backward, mother, let tia look. Tbia U still the Home old homestead, Where I brought you long ago, When the hair wu bright with sunshine That la now like winter' snow. Let us talk about the babies As wo sit here all alone; finch a merry troop of youngstors, Bow wo lost them one by one. Jack, the first of all the party. Came to us one winter s night. Jark, you said, should be a parson, Long before he bw the light. Do you see that great cathedral, Filled, the transept and the nave, Hear the orrfan grandly pealing, ', Watch the sllkm hangings wave; Bee the priest In robes of ofllce, With the altar at bis back Would you think that gifted preacher Could be our own little Jack ? Then a girl with curly tresses Used to climb upon my knee, Xlke a little fairy princess Ruling at the age of three. With the years there came a wedding IIow your fond b. art swelled with pride, When the lord or all the county Chose your baby for his bride. Watch tin stately carriage coming, - And th" form reclining there Would you think that brilliant lady Could bo your own little Clare? Thn the last, a blue-eyed youngster I can bear him prattling now Much a strong and sturdy fellow, With his broad and honest brow, How he used to love bis mother I Ah I see your trembling Up I lie Is far off on the water, Captain of a royal ship. 8ie the bronze upon Ills forehead, llear the olce of stern command; 1 hat the boy who clung so fondly. To his mother's gentle hand 1 Ah I my wife, we've lost the babies, Ours so long and ours alone; What are wo to these great people, Stately men and women grown? Seldom do wo even see them; Yes, a bitter teardrop starts. As we sit here In the flreliriht, Lonely hearths and lonely hearts. All their live are full without u; They'll stop long enough one day Just to lay us In the churchyard, Then they'll each go on their way. Early Rising. Mothers, teach your children to tlae early and engage iu some household duties before break fast. It will give them a healthy appetite for the meal, and beget in them a habit of early rising, which will abide with them in after years. I always made it a rale, even when my children were quite small, to waken them up for breakfast, al least by nix or seven o'clock. Of course tho usual amount of rest and all other things wero considered. Many mothers allow their children to form the habit of sleep ing till eight or nine o'olock, and then they have no appetite and the meal will be hurried over and they will bo Bt-nt off to school with aching heads and dull brains, not getting fairly awake till tho middlo of tho day. Such schol ars are always behind in their studies. This mode of treatment with children, be sides injuring their bodily health, retards their mental progioss and brlugg thorn up with in dolent habits. Another great consideration connected with the health and early habits of children, is to have them cat n light and early supper, and retire at least two hours before grown folks. Children growing should have plenty of sleep, and by going to bed early will naturally feol like getting up early. In fact, the old proverb of "Early to bed and early to rise, will make a man both healthy and wis.)," is as applicable to children as oldor ones, and should bo strictly obsorvod, if wo expect to raise our chlMron in a healthy and intelligent manner. Western Journal. Welcome Christmas Gifts. The usual prac tice In choosing Christmas gifts is to start out with a full portemounaio and oome home with it empty, having scoured a dozu book and print and curiosity shops meantime, to "find enough pretty things to go round." The gift sent to one friend might have been offered with equal propriety to a hundrod others. Now everybody (worth remomberiug on Christmas day) has a iancy, or whim, or association, which a trifle will recall and gratify. Now that we have so little money, lot us set our brain to work to remombor those whims or hobbles, and to find tho suggestivo trifles, and, our word for it, we will startle our friends with a mora real pleasure than if we had sent thorn the costliest unmeaning gift. There muBt be a nice discrimination, too, in assorting these trifles, There are certain folk whom we know to be sorely in ueed of artioleB for ths wardrobe, and to whom we must therefore give utterly useless follies, because they know that we know it; aud thero are other and better folk in like condition, who will receive a collar or a pair of gloves with as hearty and siocere feeling as though the offuriug wore a straiu of Christmas music. There is one consin whoso gift must Bniell of the shops and the dollars paid for it, and another who, if we sent her our worn copy of George Herbert, or the little broken vase which has stood for years on the study Ubie, would receive thorn with wet eyes, and find them fragrant with old memories, Scrllmtr. Mo Time iron Long Stobies. Fow people nowadays have the leisure or inclination to read long winded editorials, long winded po ems, or long wiuded literary production of any description. Everybody is exceedingly busy, and If a subject is investigated at all, it must be condensed into the briefest possible limits. Tho day when histories were written in ten or twenty volumes; when one novel was only a sequel to some other that had preoeded it. and so on through an entire catalogue; when editorial paragraphs were elougated to till one or two columns; and when tho ability of minis ters or public speakers was measured by the number of hours they could discourse upon auy given toplo, has happily passed away. The scientiao inventions of the present day have quickened life to a wonderful degree. People live longer and accomplish more now in a year than their ancestors did iu three or four. Writers of every class, especially writers for the press, should therefore study the art of tel egraphic brevity. Make everything as short as possible, consistently with the merits of the subject. Iteduudaocy has gone out of fashion, and "brevity is the soul of wit." "Diss Foob!" As it anybody could die rich, and in the act of dying did not lose the grasp upon the title deed and bond, and go away a pauper, out of time. And yet men nave been buried by charity's hand who did die rich, died worth a thousand thoughts ol beauty, a thou sand pleasant memories, a thousand hope re stored. "Toll on this rope," wrote Mr. Wlnegard. uer, of Willlunsport, ' you will find me in the canal." Now, that kind of a corpse de serves enoourageuent. No fuss, no noise, no dragging the water nor firing of cannon. Just pall the rope, and be comes, fresh and drip ping, A child Are yean old oould dad him. A Japanese LiEoend. A certain white fox of high degree, and without a black hair upon him, sought and obtained the hand of a young female fox, who wag renowned for herpersonal beauty and her noble connections. The wed ding was to be a grand affair; but, unhappily, the families of the betrothed pair could not agree upon the kind of weather to be ordered for the occasion. The parents of the bride thought it good luck that a shower should fall on a bridal procession. The bridegroom and his friends objected to having their good clothes spoiled thus, and to the damper which a rain would put upon their merriment. There was danger that the match should be broken off, when a very astute old fox suggested a com promise. They might have sunshine and rain together. This happy thought was received with acclamations, and the order was given ac cordingly; the bride's palanquin or norlmon was borne to the house of her future husband with blissful satisfaction on all sides. In Japan, a sun-shower is called "the foxes' wedding." In New England, the natives mysteriously re mark: "The devil is whipping his wife with a cod-fish tail." Pbepabino fob THE Tn bono. Philadelphia is preparing on a large scale for feeding and lodging Bight-seers next year. It is expected she will be able to lodge 125,000 people in her hotels and private houses. In the way of preparations for feeding the 20,000 fresh daily arrivals which she estimates will take pltce during the Centennial season, one restaurant promised 50,000 meals a day, and others carry up the total to 200,000. A company has in vested $200,000 in poultry packed frozen in a White mountain storehouse, and to be sent on in detachments, by refrigerators, next summer. Another firm has 150,000 hams stored ready for drawing upon. The farmers and market gardeners in tho vicinity and on the railroad lines running from the citv. are preparing to furnish of their products in a large way; and if tne BOitson is propitious, and bugs and middle men do not come in between tbeir labor and their profitB, they will reap a good reward. Destbdction of Bibds at the Sabine of Fashion. It is said that owing to the present style of decoration for ladies' hats, that some varieties of Bmall birds are likely to be entirely exterminated. In Eugland the household robin is becoming scarce from this cause; while the king-fisher, the finches and yellow hammers are scarcely procurable. The sea-gull has furnished an almost countless number of wings, with which to complete the saucy look ing hat of the stylish belle, who never thinkB that she is wearing the price of a life. An ex change recommends that if ladies mu4 wear feathers in tbeir hats, they should stick to the ostrich fiat her, as these being in perfection only when the season of moulting comes, aro dropped with no injury to the bird; and now that domestication of the ostrich is made a practicable project, the supply can bs made equal to demand. Peiisevebance. Did you ever know anybody stick to any kind of bu-iuess, no matter how unpromising, ten years at most, who did not Cropper? No one! no matter how bad it might e in the beginning- if he stuck to it earnestly and faithfully, and tried nothing else; no matter how hard he may have found it sometimes to keep his head above water; still, if he per severed, he always came out right in the long run. A certain amouut of opposition Is a great help to a man. Kites rise against, not with the wind. Even a head wind is better than nothing. No man ever worked his voyage in a dad calm. The best wind for everything, in tho long run, is a side wind. If it blows aft, how is lie to get baok? Sympathize With Youn Ciuldben. If you do not show that you sympathize with your children, they will look elsewhere for that great necessity of their natures. A clergyman sat in his studv writing his sermon, when his little boy toddled into his room, and, holding up his pinched finger, said: "Look papal howl hurt it." The father looked around hastily, and said, a little impatiently: "Sonny, I can't help it!" and went on writing. His little boy's eyes opened wider, he ceasod to weep, but he mut tered iu a low indignant tone, as he went out: "Yos, you oould; you might have said 'Oh!'" There was, perhaps, a better sermon for the minister in those words than the one he was preparing for his flock, if he only knew it. Wild Animals in Fbance. It is estimated that there are 2,000 wolves in France, which destroy 30,000 sheep a year, beside obliging the farmers to keop 20,000,000 sheep in folds, in stead of lettiug them run in the fields and woods, as in Englaud and America. Wild boars are approaching nearer and nearer to Paris, traces of a herd of about twenty hav ing been observed, a few days back, at Orepy (Oise) a distance of less than forty miles from the capital, a battue was organized, and in two hours fifteen of those animals werekillod. The smallest weighed 120 pounds, and the largest 300. That's So. We have felt bad ever since pa rusing the annexed lines relating to a cert tin popular culinary operation, and Bhall continue to grow worse until dinner-time has arrived to alleviate our pangs: There's beauty In the frying-pan, When the fat Is Jumping high; There's beauty In a dozen egs Dropped softly In to fry; There's beauty In a slice of ham, Westphalia, young and sweet! And when together they are fried, They're beautiful to eat. A Qibl Wobth Uavino, There is a young lady in this county who is deserving of ' a statue. She is one born of excellent parentage, reared carefully and well, of excellent mind, and the most unblemished reputation in short, a lady nineteen years of ago, and a first class farmer! She has this year planted and made a crop of cotton, and has already picked, brought to the city, and sold one bale at a good price, while three colored laborers upon the place have not ginned a bale. Her name is Miss Mattie Woodson, an she is the grand daughter of Mrs. Neely, of Oak Ilidge. TicA-i-bury Vicksburgtr. Vert Scientific. A popular science monthly informs the world that, '"if a mau fall asleep in the sitting posture with his mouth open, his jaw drops; the tongue not being iu contact with the hard palate, the suctorial space is ob literated; the soft palate no longer adheres to the root of the tongue; and, if respiration be carried on through the mouth, the musoalar ourtain begins to vibrate." The meaning of this is, that " if a man doesn't keep his mouth shut when he is asleep, he will snore," aud anything but a scieutina paper would have said so. Two netts of " bumble bsea" have recently been sent from England to Canterbury, New Zealand, to assist in the piopagation of the common cloverplant. It must be unpleasant for a stuttering man in Berlin to hail a street-car, because there they call a street-car pfirdtstrassentisenbahnuxigtn, for short. The true estimation of living Is not to be takes from age, but action; tome die old at forty, others infanta at fourscore. Ah Sin as a Domestic. Is the Chinaman to be the domestio servant of the future? Will another census show him stealthily supplant ing the European in our households, and Bet ting up his gods on the kitchen mantles of this Christian land ? I stoutly believe not. The Chinese, whether miners or menials, are hardly more numerous in the United Slates than they were five years ago. "Forty centuries" have been too much for Mr. Eoopmanschaap and his emigrant runners. Even when the China man comes to the States, he leaves his wife and children behind bim ; he comes here with no thought of resting until he can rest at home , his supreme wish is ever to return to his native land, and if he be bo unhappy as to die in exile, bis bones at least must be borne back to sacred soil. Surely a great element among us is not to be built up by immigration of this kind. Masses of foreign population thus unnaturally introduced into the body politic, must sooner or later disappear like the icebergs that drift upon the currents of our temperate seas, chil ling the waters all around them, yet themselves slowly wasting away under the influence of sun and wind, having in themselves no source of supply, no spring of energy, no power of self protection ; helpless and inert amid hostile and active forces ; their only part, endurance ; their only pos-iblo end, extinction. Gen. F. A. Walker in Scribner. We Believe in Fobtune Tellino. "Do you believe in fortune telling?" asks a young correspondent. Yes, certainly we do, and practice it too. Would you like a few trials of our skill? Well, then give attention. When a boy with black hair and eyes always tells the truth, he will be believed and respected as long as he lives, and as people would prefer to keep him alive, he will stand a good chance to arrive at old age. A girl with brown hair and blue eyes who obeys her parents, is good tempered and industrious, will have many admirers, particularly among sensible men, and ehe well therefore be in the way of getting a good hus band. If a girl with roBy cheeks, and curly hair, will avoid late hours, tight dresses, to many nice thing-) to eat, will take plenty of ex ercise in the open.air, and keep good natured, she will probably be a good looking and happy lad", and If ehe obtains a good education, she will be a flt wife for a Governor or President. In all these cases, the hair and eyes are of no great importance, but the other requisites must be strictly observed to have the good fortune come out right. Ex. A Wobld of Suicides. Professor Faraday has given it as his opinion that all who die be fore they are a hundred years old maybe justly charged with self-murder; that Providence, having originally intended man to live a cen tury, would allow him to do so if he did not kill himself by eating unwholesome food, al lowing himself to be annoyed by trifles, giving license to passion and exposing himself to ac cident The French savun, Flourin, advanced the theory that the duration of life is measured by the time of growth. When the bones' epiphysis are united, the bo'dy grows no more, and it is at twenty years that this union is effected in man. The natural termination of life is five removes from the several points. Min, being twenty years in growing, lives, or should, five times twenty years; the camel is eight years in growing, and lives five times eight years; ths horse is five years in growing, and lives twenty-five years, and so on with other animals. Qoabbelino. If there ia anything in the world that will make a man feel badly, except pinching bis fingers in the crack of a door, it unquestionably is a quarrel. No man ever fails to think less of himself after it than before. It degrades him in the eyes of others, and, what is worse,blnnts his sensibilities on the one band and increases the power of passionate irritability on the other. The truth is, the more peaceably we get on the better for our neighbors. In nine caBea out of ten the better course is, if a man cheats you, cease to deal with him; if he is abusive, quit his company, and if he slan ders you, take care to live bo that no one will believe him. No matter who he is or ho he misuses you, the wisest way is to let him alone, for there is nothing better than this cool, calm and quiet way of dealing with the wrong we meet. Never Sdbbendeb. Accept failure as it I comes; make the most of it; master it, never let it master you; impress it into your service; turn it over and over again until that side f comes uppermost which reflects the heavens above. Then shines for you the truth and the beauty which you are to pursue, and which no calamity could destroy. This success becomes not a dream of the future but a present reality. Failure ceases to be a failure when thus valued. There are no circumstances so desperate but the spirit of man is superior to them it he chooses to summon to himself its aid. He is himself creator; let him accept his chaos, and build anow. The point is to never surrender, neither to one's lower self nor to an unbe lieving world. Though you die in the gutter, piok yourself up in the next world, and move on. I Grace Befobe Meat. Beccher being asked, 1 "Is grace before meat an ordinance and its regular observance a duty? says No. Chris tianity does not stop or stoop to regulate rites and ceremonies. It deals with the general principles of godliness, leaving men to adopt such particular methods of culture and such modes of expressing religions feeling as may seem best. Grace before meat is a most ap propriate and beautiful custom, but he who says grace should eat with genuine thankful ness and moderation, not as a gluttonous man o; a wine bibber. Childben. Children are children as kittens are kittens. A sober, sensible old cat, that sits i purring bafore the fire, does not trouble herself because her kitten is hurrying and dashing I here and there, in a fever of excitement to catch it own tail She sits still and purrs on. People should do the same with children. . One of the difficulties of home education is the I impossibility of making parents keep still; it is with them, out of their affection, all watch and , worry. C. H. Dttkt. A man deposits in the b ink a thousand dol I lars, and draws on .it, and keeps depositing, ana Keeps drawing, auo. we deposit wusi we are in heaven, and then draw or. that. We first invest our whole life, and then take back from it for use here; and then lay biok what we take, and thus repeatedly using it on earth, and re mitting it again to heaven, we maintain a kind of heavenly temper while performing our earthly labor.- Eeecher Febfxct Content was never one of earth's institutions', that belongs to the sphere ethereal, where perfection only is allowed, and where we who cheat and torment each other here, hope to meet in united bond of love, which the sins of the former life cannot sever. " Yon lie like a gas-meter," is a favorite re remark in Albany at present "Wild Oats" are said to be the only crop that growl by gaslight. The talk ii now of a Pacifio coast Centennial celebration on a grand soale. A committee baa been appointed to initiate th movement. YoU((Q Folks' ConJpf,. The Dog That Liked Cats. Tasso is a beautiful dog. He is very lively and good-natured, and never barks and bites. He was brought from New York when he was a very little puppy, and could hardly run about, because his legs were so short and he was so fat. Tasso is very fond of cats. He will run up to Prince, our great Maltese pussy, and jump round him, and poke his nose into Prince's fur. Then Prince will growl, and look very angry, as if he were saying, " You are a very impertinent fellow." Once we had a little black and white cat, and we called her Winkle. Winkle and Tasso were almost always to gether, and seemed to enjoy their play very much; but at night Wtnkie slept in her basket in the kitchen, and Tasso slept on his little master's bed. One morning when Tasso went down stairs, he missed Winkie; so he went to her basket and looked in; and there lay Winkie, sound asleep, with three cunning little kittens coddled up in her soft, warm fur. Tasso looked at the kittens for a little while; and then he put his paw into the basket, and gave Winkie a little poke on the head to make her wake up. Then Winkie opened her eyes; and when she saw Tasso, she began to " purr" so loud that you could hear her all over the kitchen. Tasso seemed very much pleased with the kittens', and when Winkle sot out of her bas ket to get her breakfast, Tasso jumped in, and began to cuddle the kittens ns Winkie did. After that whenever Winkie left the kittens, i Tasso would take care of them until she came back. When the kittens were large enough to run about, Tasso would take them in bis mouth, and carry them into a corner and lie down with them, all the time holdiog them with his paw iu wane tueui jiu suu. If you could have seen the good care which Tasso took of the kittens, it would have pleased you very much. Xursery. The Worthless Ladder. Two boys were once at work in a carpenter shop, one the son of the carpenter, the other a boy in his employ. I heard Robert, the son, say to John: " We must begin to-day those ladders father said he wished male. I will take one and you the other, so that next spring each will use his own ladder in our work on the house." " Very well," replied John, " I will mike mine at once; the old thing shall be done in a hurry, I tell you " "No," said Bobert, " we must not hurry too much. We must take great pains with the wood, and be careful with every part of the ladder, for you know our lives may depend on the strength of the ladder." " O well," replied John, " speak for your own ladder, I'll attend to mine." Day after day passed. I often went to the shop to see how the ladders were being built. I noticed that Bobert was careful in choosing the wood for his ladder; he put some parts of it aside for weeks that it might be well sea soned. When finished it was not very beauti ful, but it could be trusted in every part. John, on the other hand, declared that he would not be all winter making a ladder. When his ladder was done it looked really beautiful. He had painted it red. Spring came and the boys got to work at their task. One day I heard a crash and a cry. Poor John's ladder had broken in the middle, so that he lay on the ground terribly injured. Yon see the wood of which his ladder was made had not been properly selected or dried. This' taught me a lesson that I have never forgotten, the old lesson, that " What is worth doing, is worth doing well." A Child's Sympathy. A poor widow, the mother of two little eirls. 1 used to call on them at the close of each day, I for the report of the good they had done. One night the eldest hesitated in reply to her mother's question, "What kindness have you shown?" and timidly answered: I "I don't know, mother," I The mother, touched with the tone of the answer, resolved to to unravel the mystery; and the sensitive thing went on to say: "On going to school this morning, I found little Annie G., who had been absent some days, crying very bard. I asked her, mother, why she cried so, and that made her cry more, so that I could not help leaning my head on her neck and crying too. Then her sobs crew less and less tilt she told me of her dear little baby brother, whom she had nursed so long and loved so much; how he had sickened, , grown pale and thin, whining with pain until he died, and they put him away from her for- j ever. Mother, Bbe told me this, and then hid her face in her book, and cried as if her heart would break. Mother, I could not help put- , ting my face on the other page of the book and crying too, just as hard as she did. After we had cried together a long time, she wiped her eyes, ana men sne nuggea ano Kissed me, tell ting me I had done her good. Mother, I don't know how I done her good, for I only cried ! with her: indeed, I did nothing but cry with her. That is all I can tell, mother, for I can't I tell how I did her good." 1 Bio Head. Many suggestions have been of ' ferred as to the cure of this malady. It has been attributed ts eating corn. Prof. Varnell, I who has given the best description of the die I ease to be found in the English language, en I ters into n lucid examination of its causes, and ) leaves one with the impression that it is due to , food or water deficient in the salts of lime. We are only prepared to state that the disease has long been known, and French and German literature is particularly rich in material relat ing to it. It has been witnessed in England, Normandy, Switzerland, Hungary, Saxony, Prussia and the south of France. In these countries it may be said that the disease is en zootic, though it is 'more frequent in some years than in others, and is generally consid ered as allied to scrofula. It is usually fatal, and appears to be incidental to youth. It has been called scrofula of the joints (arthritis), bis head, from the bones of the head being more frequently involved, though all parts ef tne skeleton are disposed to tale on tne armor mal condition. We are prepared to state that the disease is not contagions. With respect to the original causes, we would say, in the words of ao acknowledged authority on such sub jects, "It is better to confess these are un known, than by labored and pretended expla nations to endeavor to conceal our ignorance." There is no special remedy for bis head. The only good that can be effected is indirect, by means oi careini aieieuo ana nygiemc manage ment, Ex. The work of fitting out cruisers and gener ally strengthening the navy is reported actively but quietly progressing at the Brooklyn navy yards. A teleobafb cable is uronosed from Van couver island across the Gulf of Georgia to the mainland, by way ot Borrard inlet id Nan- aim . Curiosities of Our Forests. The following item is "going the rounds" of Eastern papers, credited to the Nevada Trans cript: "A Ccbiocs Tbee. The mo?t singular freak of nature can be seen in a tree np near Eureka. It 's half pine and half fir. It is a eood-sized ti-e, perhaps seventy-Ate feet high. The body from the ground to a distance of thirty feet is pine. Then for a distance of twenty feet it is fir. The remaining twenty-five feet, like the lower portion, is pine. The fir portion of the tree is in a very flourishing con dition. The foliage on that part is so dense that the trunk or limbs can hardly be seen through it. On the pine portion the leaves are rather scarce. The tree is near the road and has been noticed by all who ever passed that way. It is a rare curiosity and well worth see ing." We failed to see the above in its original quarters, the Transcript, bat it reminds ns so forcibly of a tree that we have seen a few miles distant from Nevada City, the home of the Transcript, that it will, perhaps, be thought not out of place to describe it here. It stood within a romantic little canon near the Green horn mine, about four miles from Nevada City. The trees in that neighborhood were not remarkably large, seven or eight feet in diam eter being thought pretty good sized trees, and one owner of a timber ranch who cut forty cords o! wood out of an eight-foot sugar .pine thought it quite an achievement, , The curious tree to which we allude was pointed out to us by a miner. It was a thrifty spruce, and an adept in arranging natural cu riosities could not have chosen a situation for this where it could have appeared to better ad vantage. It was in a shallow canon and the water from an abandoned tunnel ran contin uously within a few yards of its base, keeping this tree and its surroundings fresh and green. For company in thiB romantio place it had a few members of its own family, a pine or two, some fine live oaks and some remarkably thrifty manzanita bushes. In siz4 it was what choppers would call "about three feet through." Its trunk was tall and straight, with a slight taper. For about thirty feet it was as clean as a telegraph pole, but at this hight there was a belt of myrtle. This belt was formed of dwarfish trunks of myrtle four to six inches in length thickly set in the body of sprueejand filled with minia ture branches which were heavily laden with the rich foliage of myrtle. This foliage had the appearance of having been trimmed or cropped, and was very compact. Viewed from the base of the tree the belt appeared about three feet iu width, and had nndoubtedly been of uniform size and shape; but it had the ap pearance of having been marred by the trunk of another tree falling against that of the spruce and scraping downwards, carrying with it a portion of its myrtle belt, though if such an accident had occurred it must have happened many years ago; for though the belt had not wholly recovered its uniform look, there were no indications of mangling about it, and no traces whatever were visible of the fallen tree. How was this myrtle bell produced on that spruce trunk? It is not unusual to find in the decaying tops of certain kinds of trees a fresh growth of other varieties, and it requires no stretch of the imagination to suppose that the seed, borne by the wind or by birds, found congenial spots in the decaying tops, and thus furnished us with examples of the amalgama tion of races being carried into the vegetable kingdom. But if there had ever been any de cay in the spruce, a'l traces of it had disappeared. For a distance of twelve feet about the belt the trunk was as clean as from the roots up ward. Isn't it likely that these, instead of being "natural curiosities," are the work of aboriginal or missionary horticulturists? However this may have been produced it is a great curiosity, and though it might not pro duce startling effects were it on exhibition at such a museum as Woodward's gardens, it would become classic in its attractions, Rural Press. Economy. There is probably not another word in lan guage that wears such a disagreeable look to the average young man, as the one that serves as our heading. The traditions of young men are against it. Nearly every young fellow of spirit, for a time, has a hearty dislike of all that savors of saving. It is manly to be generous and careless of money. As economy is to him the synonym of meanness, so he equally mis takes the meaning of generosity, and allies it with wastefulness. This misconception has, we think, a great deal to do with the improvi dent habits of young men. It is a good thing to hate meanness, but it is a bad thing to think that .economy comes nnder that head. The mistake has been the ruin of multitudes, for by the time a man sees ms Diunder ne frequently has contracted habits that make reform very hard indeed and in many cases impossible. The prodigal can seldom oecome a staady cit izen without bard wrenches. If a young man could only Bee what his experience well teach him by and by, that moderate prudence in mon ey matters will save him a great deal of care and ill-luck in after life, there would le an alarming decrease in the quantity ol liquor and cigars sold. It is leally want of thought more than anything else that keeps a man poor. The ambition vague generally of the ordinary young man, is sometime to have a home of his own, with a wife and children. Most of them manage to get the two last, while bnt a mournfully small proportion accomplish the first. Yet it might easily be otherwise. Just a little self control, steadily exercised for a few years, would put money onongb in the -hands of most young men to get the land and house, and after that step he is usually safe for a good degree of comfort and peace of mind in the world, so far as material things go. The sooner a young man rids himself of the absurd idea that prudence is meanness, and self indulgence generosity, the sooner will he be in a fair way of escaping band to mouth existence in after years . The "St. Louis land swindle" assumes large proportions. The estimates are that deeds to over 12,000,000 acres of land have been forged and disposed of, at a total valuation of from $25,000,000 to $30,000,000. Mississippi and Arkansas seem to be the principal States that have suffered. Mb. Bosh, who lately crossed the Cascade mountains from Yakima to Seattle, states. that a coal mine has been discovered at or near the summit, close to the lake, which is of easy ac cess to Eittitass, and the coil is of a superior quality, and is distant about two hundred yards from the railroad survey. A caboo of ship spars are being delivered at Olympia for shipment direct to Newburyport, Massachusetts. Wosje upon the Denver and Bio Grande rail road is progressing rapidly. Tut want the Pretidentof the United States to hold offioe for six years instead of four. i