The west shore., January 01, 1880, Page 23, Image 23

January, 1880.
THE WEST SHORE.
MARVELS OF MAN.
While the gtatrio juice hu n mild, bland,
sweetish taste, it possesses the power of dis
solving the hardest food that oan be swallowed;
it has no influence whatever on the soft and
delicate fibers of the living stomach, nor upuu
the living hand, but, at tho moment of death it
begins to eat them away with the power of the
strongest acids.
There is dust on sea, on land; in the valley,
and on the mountain-top; there is dust always
and everywhere; the atmosphere is full of it; it
penetrates the noisome dungeon, and visits tho
deepest, darkest caves of the earth; no palace
door can shut it out, no drawer so "secret" as
to escape its presence; every breath of wind
dashes it upon the open eye, and yet that eye is
not blinded, because there is a fountain of tho
blandest fluid in nature incessantly emptying
itself under tho eyelid, which spreads it
over the surface of the ball at every winking
and washes every atom of dust away. But
this liquid, so mild, and so well adapted to the
eye itself, has some acridity, which, under cer
tain circumstances, beoomes so decided as to be
scalding to the skin, and would rot away the
eyelids were it not that along tho edges of them
there are little oil manufactories, which spread
over their surface a coating as impervious to
the liqnida necessary for keeping tho eye-ball
waBhed clean, aB the best varnish is impervious
to water.
'1 hu breath which leaves tho lungs has been
so perfectly divested of its life-giving proper
ties, that to re-breathe it, unmixed with other
air, the moment it escapes from the mouth,
would cause immediate death by suffocation,
while if it hovered about us, a more or leu de
structive influenoe over health and life would
be occasioned; but it is made of a nature so
much lighter than the oommon air.that the in
stant it escapes the lips and nostrils, it ascends
to the higher regions above the breathing-point,
there to be reotitied, renovated and sent back
again, replete with purity and life. How rapid
ly it ascends, is beautifully exhibited any frosty
morning.
But foul and deadly as the expired air is,
Nature, wisely economical in all her works and
ways, turns it to good account in its outward
passage through the organs of voice, and makes
of it the whisper of love, tho soft words of
afteotion, the tender tones of human sympathy,
the sweetest strains of ravishing musio, the
persuasive eloquence of the finished orator.
If well-made man be extended on the
ground, his arms at right angles with the body,
a circle, making the navel its oenter, will just
take in the head, the finger-ends and feet.
The distance from "top to too" is precisely
the same as that between the tips of the fingers
when the arms are extended.
The length of tho body is just six times that
of the foot; while the distance from the edge of
the hair on the forehead to the end of the ohin,
ia one tenth the length of tho whole stature.
Of the sixty-two primary elements known in
nature, only eighteen are found in the human
body, and of these, seven are metallic Iron is
found in the blood; phosphorus in the brain;
limestone in the bile; lime in the Iwues, dust
and ashes in all. Jounalot Health.
Domestic Mitkobolooy. A gentleman lately
kept the following meteorological journal of his
wife's temper-"Monday, rather oloudy; in the
afternoon, rainy. Tuesday, vaporish; bright
ened np a little towards evening. Wednesday,
changeable, gloomy, inclined to rain. Thurs
day, high wind, and some peals of thunder.
Friday, fair in the morning, variable till after
noon, cloudy all night. Saturday, gently
breeze, hazy, a thick fog, and a few flashes of
lightning. Sunday, tempestous and rainy; to
wards evening somewhat calmer.
"Hm yon ground all your tools, as I told
you this morning t" said a carpenter to hi, ap
prentice. "AllTrnt the saw, sir; I couldn't get
quite all the gaps out of that.
BANGED HAIR.
To our sight there is nothing sadder than a
aane woman with her hair bangod. A lunatio
might be excused for suoh an erratic style of
hair-dressing, but how a woman in tho full pos
session of her faculties, and with the knowledge
liiut iiu iiiu a ulmrautur lo keep up, van wear
her hair banged, is to us a profound mystery.
From whenoe camo the style! What origi
nated it? Who sot it afloat? Nobody on earth
can aay truthfully that it is beautiful. We
never heard of its curing the liver oomplaint or
the rheumatism. It does not render nno any
moro liable to draw a prize in a lnttory. It
does not insure the wearer against being
drowned, or struck by lightning, or bored by
waahing-machine agents. It does not make a
tall woman look shorter, or a short one taller,
or a fat one leaner; and if it is becoming to any
human, thon that faco has oscapod our notice!
It will metamorphose tho prettiest girl of our
acquaintance into a monstrosity, and as for its
effoct on a plain woman may the saints de
liver us from saeing itt It sots our teeth on
edge I 'It imparts to the averago female faoe the
most discouraged, donc-forgcncrally expression
wo have ever socn.
Hut there! what is tho utn of conjooturing?
Fashion is omnipotent; so is folly, and we do
not doubt that somewhere in the world, to-day,
somebody is saying, "Bangs are so becoming."
Exehanye,
HOW LONO WE ARE TO LIVE.
It is not overyone who asks himself this ques
tion, because, strangoly onough, it is tho boliof
of many persons that their lives will lo excep
tionally lengthy, Howevor, life assurance com
panies are aware of the credulous weakness if
thoso whose lives they assure, and havo there
foro compiled numorous tables of expectancy of
life for their own guidauco, which are carefully
referred to before a policy is granted. The fol
lowing is one of these weflauthontioatod tables,
in use among London assurance companies,
showing tho exiectanoy of life at various ayes. 1 n
the first column wo have the present ages of
porsous of average health; anil ill the second col
umn wo are enabled to peep, as it wore, behind
the scenes of an asaurauuo ollico, and gather
from its table the number of years it will give
us to livo. This table has been tho result of
oareful calculation, and soldom proves mislead
ing. Of course, sudden and premature deaths,
as well as lives uuusually extended, occasion
ally oocur; but this is a table of average expect
ancy of life of an ordinary man or woman:
HOME.
Ag. More yra. to live. Age, Mora yr lu II vi
1 KM 1
10 61 W I
SO 41 TO
10 UN
40 40
Our readers will easily gather from tho above
tabulated statement tho number of years to
which their lives, according to the law of ave
rages, may reasonably bo exacted to extend.
The Hands. In order to preserve the hands
soft and white, they should always be washed
in warm water, with line soap, and carefully
dried with a moderately ooarsc towel, baing
well rubbed every time to insure a brisk oircu
i . : i. ...i ...i, ).,,.,, t... ... . II... ,.,. i
Illl'MI, MIMII - II I ' "H rw M".w - . . I i . I. I
in promoting a transparent and soft snrfaoe. If
engaged iu any acvideotal pursuit whioh may
hurt the color uf the hands, or if they have baeu
eiDosed to the sun, a little lemon juioe will re
store their whiteness for tho time; anil lemon
soap is proper to wash them with. Almond
pasta is of essential service in preserving the
delicacy of the hands. The following is a ser
viceable pomade for rubbing the hands on re
tiring to rest: Take two ounce of sweet
almonds; beat with three drachms of white
wax, and three drachms of spermaceti; put up
carefully in rose water. Oloves should alwaya
be worn on exposure to the atmosphere, and
are graceful at all times for a lady in the house,
except at meals.
A home oaunot be made with mortar, nor by
a master builder. Oh, hotter tho humble oot,
hidden by trees, in the happy vale of Content,
than the palace of my lord in aristocratic Bel-
Whenever we pass a only little oot, with a
vine growing over the door and flowers In
the window, through which we catch a glimpse
of tho happy husliand and loving wife, with
joyous children clambering over them, it sug
gests Shakeapoarei
"Verily, I swear, 'tis lietter to l lowly horn,
Ami range with humble livers hi content,
TtlSII tn lie H'ikeil In glistening grief,
And wear gulden sorrow,"
Somehow the idea of home ia associated with
tho quiet country, with an humble house far re
moved from the dusty thoroughfares where fools
struggle in the mail race for riches, power aud
place.
"It slsnds In a sunny mrsdnw,
The house so mossy sml tirowu,
With tts iMitnhrous old stnnu olilinusys,
Aud the gray root slftplng down.
"The traos (old their preen srms around It,
Tlie Irees s century nld,
Aud the winds go whistling through them,
And tho sunbeams drop their gold
Somehow our idea of home ia assooiated with
a ploaaant placo where wu played in child
hood! where tho lovotl ones livod and died,
and wround which cluster tho happy memories
of delightful yoars,
Homo is assooiatud with fields of newly mown
hay, with bursting buds aud beauteous blos
soms, with chasing butterllies and aearohing for
strawberries.
No, the skill of all tho workmen in the world,
nor a'l the deooratlons of art, will uot make a
home.
DutiNKKNNiuw in Kn'H.ah i. - Dr. lluoknill, In
his reount work on " Habitual Drunkunuogs. "
says: " Uf late years the upper clasa of En
glish has boaomo sober, and Its growing opinion
stamps drunkenness more and mora as a dis
grace! aud that some small proportion of it
members are left liehiud Id the shameful in
dulgence of the old vice is certainly not a mat
ter of national oouoern. Hut they will ruin
themselves I No doubt, and by should they
not ? Their itossesstnns will lie better placed lu
sober bauds, and their uudesetvwl aooial po
sition will lie yielded to the advance of mora
worthy candidates, but tliy ..'II kill them
solve ! And this alao is mors likely than la
mentable, esiaially if (hoy Wave no offspring
to inherit the curse of their qualities, it would
lie a natioual, nay, a world-wide blessing, If
alcohol wnre really the autive tHiiaou which It is
so often represented to be, that men who in
dulge in it might die oil quiokly. The French
have aomewhat improved upon pure spirit in
this direction by the iuveiithm of absinth,
winch oaus epilepsy, aud Americans, with
their vilu compounds of raw whisky taken into
empty stomachs, ar far ahad of oursalva. An
American drunkard who sticks to his work baa
a much batter prowot of finishing it within a
reasonably slo.it tuna than the Englishman. "
A Parish (Iamx, Ueninsehy is the title of
a game that will probably become popular, as
pocially In famitl where children are attend
ins school and have acquired some knowledge
of Uiiutiage. It is played with M cards, on each
one of which is printed a letter of the alpha
bet. Each playar receives a number of the
cards and a certain number are laid on the
table. The players take turns in building words
with the cards, using the cards un the table, and
those Ukeu by the previous players with the ad
dition of one from bis own hand. The player
has the right to take in a a triak all the cards
he can properly ulilun lu thus building a word.
The game is a fins mental exercise both a to
selling and developing iugenuity, and il OM
hardly bo played without keeping tha diction
ary in constant oircuUUoa.