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About The Albany register. (Albany, Or.) 1868-18?? | View Entire Issue (Sept. 11, 1874)
I jUrttg ffUijistct. nVUHBD tVKUV HATIU1AY 11V COLL. VAX ' X I; V B3 . ALBANY, - - . OREGON. THE YOUNG FOLKS. Polly Pansy. Pretty Tolly Pansy Hasn't any hair Just a ruff of gold down Fit for elucka to -wear ; Merry, twinkling, blue eyes, Noselet underneath. And a pair of plump lips Innocent of teeth ! Either sido each soft cheek A jolly little ear. Tainted like a conch-shell ; Isn't e a dear ! Twic; five little fingers. Ten tiny toes ; Polly's always counting, So of course she knows ! If you take a tea-cup, Polly wants to drink : If von write a letter, What delicious ink ! Helps you read your paper, News of half the town ; Holds it just as you do. But, ah '. it's upside down ! Polly, when she's sleepy, Means to rub her eyes. Thumps her nose so blindly, Teu to one, she cries I Niildlf noddle uumpkin, Pretty lids shut fast, King the bell?, and fire the guns, Polly's off at last : Pop her in the cradle. Draw the curtains 'round, Fists are good for sucking, Don't we know the sound ? Oh ! my Polly Pansy, Can it, can it be. That we ugly old folk Once resembled thee! How Willie Fell Into the Cistern. An old straw hat lying on the ground, and right ont of a hole in the straw hat grew a little tuft of curly yellow hair ! How did it get there ? Two little shoes kicking in the air, and right out from a hole in one of the little shoes grew a wee dusty toe. How did it get there ? Ask Willie's mother. There were blue eyes under the straw hat, too blue eyes that were almost black from looking way down in a dark hole ! And for all their looking, they could just see the piece of white bone with bits of red meat hanging to it, that "Willie had dropped into the cistern. Poor old kitty was looking down, too, and mewing for her dinner, for Willie's mother had said : "Now, Willie, take it right between your thumb and finger, just so, and go and call the pld cat. Be quick, for poor kitty is hungry." And Willie meant to do it all right, but kitty did mew so hard he thought it would be a good plan to teach her Johnny Clark's dog's trick. " Now bark," said he, holding it away off; "bark and oo s"all have it, kitty." But kitty couldn't bark, and so she jumped, and Willie jumped, too, and forgot to jump the bone, so down it went with a thump that showed at least there was a bottom to the cistern. It wasn't much of a cistern, to be sure only a great "hogshead" sunk down in the ground, and not a particle of wa ter in it. Still it had that awful name, and wasn't Henry Scheid's little brother drowned in a cistern ? Poor kitty, how she did mew ! What a mean, mean boy to lose the old cat's dinner ! Willie thought he would never dare to go into the house to eat his ewn, for wouldn't she come in and mew it out to everybody ? Willie got a long stick and poked, but it only made the white bone go whirl ing around. He wondered what made it so dark down there. What an awful giant hog it must have been to have such a head ! Perhaps they kept such pigs at circuses. He meant to ask the show- man. Jast then kitty mewed louder. Willie gave a great push with his stick and tumbled right down into it ! Into the darkness ! into the cistern ! The bugs all ran, but great worms came crawling over his hands to see if they knew him, and big black spiders got on his head and shoulders to haul in the lines he had broken through Up above kitty's two eyes shone like fire, and Willie thought he was drowning, and began to call, " Mamma, mamma." And mamma way off in the kitchen fry ing doughnuts that sang very loud, heard the call and ran to the back door. "Mamma! mamma !" She looked into the barn, she looked into the shed. No Willie, but " Mamma ! mamma !" She ran up stairs, she opened all the closet doors. No Willie, but "Mamma! mamma!" She looked in the sugar bin and flour barrel, she went down cellar. No Wil lie, but now it came plainer "Mamma ! mamma ! I'm drowning !" " Willie, where are you ?" " In the cistern." Poor mamma. She caught a new rope and ran out to the real, new cistern; all was fast screwed down, but she ham mered away until she got it open, and looked in. No torn straw hat floating on the water ! No little fingers reach four legs kicking him on the head. "O myl there's a horse tumbling down here !" " No, only Willie's high-chair ! Climb up, little boy, and mamma will reach !" In mamma's arms, with all the tears kissed away ! How bright the sun shone ! How green the grass looked ! " Here's oo bone, kitty. Needn't never bark no more." ing up to it ! But still the ' ' Mamma ! mamma !" " Willie, tell me where you are." "In ee pig's head, mamma, drownin' all dead !" And when mamma poked her sun bonnet down there she could just see little Willie all doubled up. "Johnny Clark can have my top," wailed he, " and give kitty a1! my din ners. How long will it take to get drowned, mamma ? Will oo wait ?" No, mamma went away. It sounded as if she was crying out loud ; and a great bug crawled up Willie's nose to see if he was good to eat ; then came There was a great smoke in the kitchen, for the doughnuts had sung themselves black in the face ; but Willie sat upon the table and ate a great one from oft" the pan All dusty and dirty, working the little brown toe that peeped out from his shoe, thinking how scared pap would be when he read in the paiers " How Willie fell in'o a cistern!" Little Corporal. A Talk About Electricity. " Do look here, Miss Horton ! Isn't it curious ?" And a group of eager children gathered around the desk where their teacher was sitting. The kind teacher laid down hr book and said : "wen, Ji,ady, what is it that is so curious ?" "Why, I was rubbing this piece of glass to make it bright, and when I put it near some pieces of paper they came right up to it, just as a piece of iron to a magnet." "It must be a magnet," said Phoebe. " I thought, though, that they were al ways of iron, and would attract nothing else. Isn't it the strangest thing you ever saw ?" " No," said the teacher, "it is not a magnet, nor is it any stranger than that the magnet should attract iron." " Then what makes it draw the paper to it ?" " There are many other things be sides magnetism which tend to draw bodies to each other. In this case it is due to electricity." " But all glass doesn't attract paper ; nor will this now," said Eddy, vainly attempting to repeat the experiment. ' No ; it is only when rubbed with woolen silk or some such substance that it will do so. Electricity is of two kinds, called positive and negative, which exist in all bodies, generally in a neutral state, that ip, as much of one kind as another. When a piece of glass is rubbed ith a woolen cloth, the fric tion separates the two electricities ; the negative going to the cloth, while the positive remains in the glass. Now, because all bodies have a tendency to become neutral, each kind attracts the opposite and repels the same kind; and it is the same with any body which is charged with electricity. Such bod ies will also attract those which are neutral. " "If," said Joseph, " all bodies con tain electricity, why do they not draw the paper when rubbed? Iron or wood will not." " Because these bodies are conduct ors that is, they will allow the elec tricity to pass through them freely, and as fast as the electricity is separated one kind flows off through the hand or whatever it rests on, while the other kind flows into it, keeping it neutral all the time. But glass is a non-conductor and will not allow the electricity to escape readily. It is a partial con ductor, however, and if charged will return slowly to a neutral state. This was the case with the piece Eddy had, when it would not pick up the bits of paper." "But I thought 'lectricity was fire," said little Jennie. " Father says light ning is 'lectricity, and it was lightning that burnt Mr. Mead's barn." " When tlie tension of electricity is so great as to cause it to pass through a non-conducting substance it has the appearance of sparks ; or, if the tension is very great, or the resistance small, it gases like a flame. When at rest or passing through a conducting body, it is invisible. 11 we were to rub a piece of guttapercha or sealing-wax it would become charged with negative elec tricity. Then if we should hold it near a piece of glass, positively charged, the tension would be' so great that the electricity would escape from one to the other throuch the air, which is a on-conductor, in the form of sparks." I should think you might light a fire in that way," said Eddy. So you could," replied the teacher. " Sufficient heat may be produced by a electrical current not only to light fires, but to melt metal and even turn it into vapor, so that it will pass off into the air like steam. The most brilliant arti ficial lights which can be produced are made in the same way. In the case of Mr. Mead's barn, a cloud charged per haps with negative electricity passed over it. This would draw the positive current to the surface of the ground, and when the tension became great enough the electricity would escape from the cloud with a loud report, an! striking the barn would of course set it on fire. Sometimes it passes from the earth to the cloud." " But can a spark be drawn from any thing that is electrified ?" asked Joseph. "Yes; and from anything through which an electric current can be passed. Wouldn't you think it strange to see anyone touch off a gun with a piece of ice?" " How funny ! " exclaimed Eddy ; while Phcebe said: "Could one do that ? I should think ice wouM put out tire." " i have seen it done," said Miss Hor ton. " The person who does it stands on a piece of glass, and the gun is sus pended by silk cords. These substances are non-conductors, and do not allow the electricity to pass through them. Then the cone of the gun is connected by a wire to the negative pole of a gal vantic battery, an apparatus by which electricity is produced. The person who shoots the gun takes hold with one hand of a wire attached to the positive pole, and with the other hand brings a piece of ice near the cone. A spark will then pass between the ice and the cone, which will ignite the powder and shoot the gun. But as it is time for school now, we cannot talk any longer this time." Our Fireside Friend. Harry's I hirkens. Sammy Brent " lived way down South," and was just as full of misohief as a boy of thirteen could be. One evening he came home after a ramble through the woods and by the river, and asked his brother Harry, who was eight years younger than himself : " Harry, wouldn't you like to have some funny chickens ?" " I'm just sure I would," answered Harry. "Well, you take these three eggs and put them in a box of sand and set it in the sun, and after a while you'll have three of the funniest chickens you ever saw." Harry followed his brother's direc tions, and morning, noon and night he migbt be seen watching for his brood to poke their bills up out of the sand. At last, one hot day, just before noon, the "iand began to move, and the queerest kind of a chicken came out. It had a long, horny bill, a long, flat body, with out feathers or wings, four feet, and a tail nearly as long as its body. As soon as Harry's excited eyes could see clearly he exclaimed : " Oh ! oh ! it's a alli gator ! it's a alligator come out of an "gg. If Harry had been a little older he would have known that the alligators bury their eggs in the sand and wait for the sun to hatch them, and as soon as the young alligators appear, the mother conducts them to the water. Hearth and Home. ITS MIGBTY I Ml1 ItO VIST. The Irish peasantry have tales of a parabolic character stories which, by means of some striking action or cir cumstance, set forth a hearty moral. On hearing such, their usual phrase is, "Oh, it is mighty improvin'." And that, too, is what Molly Malone, a worthy washerwoman, used to say and say almost invariably after hearing a sermon on Sunday. One day, however, her clergyman, who was not quite con tent with this generality, spoke to her respecting his discourse, and Molly sud denly became what they call in Ireland a little bothered. Nevertheless, she got out of her difficulty with one of those parabolic answers which are such fa vorites with her class, and which, while it completely evaded the question, sat isfactorily replied to it. Kev. Well, Molly, you liked the ser mon, you say ? Mol. Oh, yes, your riverence it was mighty improvin'. Rev. And what part of it did you like best ? Mol. Well, sure, sir, I liked every part. Kev. But I suppose there were some portions of it that you were more struck with than you were with others. Mol. In troth, please your river ence, I don't "remember any part ex actly, but altogether 'twas mighty im provin'. Rev.- -Now. Molly, how could it be improving if you don't remember any part of it ? Mol. Well, your riverence sees that linen I've been washing and drying on the hedge there ? Rev. Oh, certainly. Mol. Wasn't it the soap and wather made the linen clane, sir ? Rev. Of course they did. Mol. And isn't the linen all the bet ter for it ? Rev. Oh, no doubt of that, Molly. Mol. But not a dhrop of the soap and water stays in it. Well, sir, it's the same thing wid me. Not a word o the sarmint stays in me I suppose all dhries out o' me but I'm the bet ter and the cleaner for it, when it' over, for all that. Say no more about Europe. She taking care of Joaquin Miller, Josie Mansfield, Genet, and two American base-ball clubs, and if that isn't kind ness what is ? FA JIM Aim HOME. The Hale ' Clover. BV jTUEOD 'OYiIS. Tl:t morning sun had canted O'er the cornices and slauted, And men and horses panted As they slowly plodded by ; And still the day grew hotter, Till it seemed to reel and totter, And never a flju of water j Was iu the smoky sky. And as I wondered whethr Woul l New York be rolled together In one final burst of weather, Like a scroll, and whirled away, I was very near run over By a Jerseyman or drover On a bale of moldy clover That was perched upon a dray. I had turned to talk it over With the Jerseyman or drover. When a single whiff of clover Brought a transformation brifrtit. Straight 1 heard the cattle lowing And the meadow breezes blowing ; I saw the grain-fields turning, The spotted lilies burning, The lusty robin braving The cataract and laving, And all the landscape waving In a shifting sea of light. Dow droned the gardens sunny With the brown bees stealing honey ; And never a thought of money Disturbed my vision blest. But with marigold and tulip Came, in fancy sweet, the cool lip Of a Saratoga julep, And envy filled my breast ; For I thought with pain and dolor, As I sweltered in my collar, Of the limp and ragged dollar Within my rumpled vest. And so I banned the breezes That were born, like lands and leases, For Dives' sons and Croesus, Till the sun was fairly down ; For though his darts he level Across the cornice bevel, He loves to stop and revel Above the fainting town, Where the summer solstice poises, And the street sends forth its noises In a hundred grating voices Like a wail of agony ; Till it's oh, to be a-sailing Like a finny trout or grayling, Or a lazy cloudlet trailing Its fleece along the sky. Hearth and Home. Jottings. Ribbons should be washed in cold suds and not rinsed. To clean marble rub first with soda and soft soap, then wash as usual with water. The fumes of a brimstone match will remove berry stains from a book, paper or engraving. A little black pepper in some cot ton dipped in sweet oil is ne of the quickest remedies known for earache. To remove iron rust from linen apply lemon juice and salt and expose to the sun. Make two applications if neces sary. As a simple remedy for surface wounds, such as cuts and abrasions of the skin, charcoal is highly recom mended. Take a coal from the stove, pulverize it, apply it to the wound and bind up with a cloth. The charcoal absorbs the fluids secreted by the wound, resists or corrects putrefaction, and also prevents the bandage from ir ritating the flesh. Coffee Starch. This is an excel lent starch for black calicoes and col ored linens, much better than that made with water, for it increases rather than lessens the depth of the color. Take a cup of strong coffee, boiling hot, and turn it upon two tablespoonfuls of starch mixed with just enough water to make it into a thin, smooth paste. Let boil for fifteen or twenty minutes, and stir it around two or three times with a paraffine or spermaceti candle. When nearly cold, starch dark-colored calicoes, black muslins, and brown linens with it. Black Ants. A chalk mark, at least half an inch in depth, around the upper edge of sugar buckets, barrels, etc., will sot admit one ant into their in terior. The same mark drawn on the edges of shelves will also prevent the ap proach of an ant, as they are not able to crawl over the chalk. But if they are numerous among jam and jelly pots, take a large sponge, wet it in cold water, squeeze it nearly dry, and then sprinkle fine white sugar over it. Place it on the infested shelf, and next morn ing dip it quickly and carefully into a bowl of boiling water. I tried the ex periment in my jelly closet recently, and killed at least a hundred in a morn ing. Have set the trap again, and shall continue to do so while one ant runs. Red pepper dusted over their haunts will also destroy them, but the sponge is the surest method. Value of Fodder Corn. At a meet ing of the Massachusetts Cheese Fac tory Association, Addison H. Holland, a Barre farmer, read an essay on fodder corn. With seventeen cows he experi mented to see what its value was in producing milk ; during the month of July he turned his cows into a good pasture, after having fed them with fodder corn, and they showed a large falling off in milk. He then, through August, soiled them in the stable, feed ing fodder corn, and there was a gain in the production of milk. In Septem ber they were again turned into the mowing (full feed) and they fell off. Mr. Holland cures his corn by spread ing it upon the stone walls, and regards it as a valuable feed for milch cows, it is when well cured. He thinks fodder corn the best crop there is to bridge over a dry time with ; fed sixty or sev- euty pounds per cow when they were kept in a short pasture. Rural Xeiv Yorker. Hoiv to Use a Bog Meadow. Mr. John B. Sands, of Vailsgate, N. Y., read a paper on the best method of reclaiming a bog meadow, before the New York Farmers' Club : " A gentleman wants to know kow to reclaim or improve a bog meadow. There are different kinds of soil on which bogs grow, but they grow no where, except there is an excess of water. They are a nuisance ; they start grass early on their hummocks, but it is soon so coarse and tough that no cow or horse will eat it. The first thing is, drain it well, cut a main ditch ; then if there are springs en its border on the outside, dig your drains so as to cut them all off. If you have your outlet, that is, the main drain, so low as to carry all the surplus water off, your bogs will die in a short time, making it an easy matter to cut them off by using a stout bog hoe made for the purpose. Do not pile them up on the ground, but draw them off, make a pile of old rub bish, wood and stumps that will make or start a good fire in the heap ; once well on fire they will burn till they are all consumed, making you a fine lot of ashes. Make your ditches somewhat in the shape of the letter V, slanting on each side toward the bottom. Be sure and not leave the bog dirt to remain On the side of your ditches, but draw off to some upland ; it will pay you well for so doing. The first year plow as well as you can, harrow well some dry hay, sow it with turnip seed in July, using guano, about 400 pounds to the acre. I have raised them to weigh 15 pounds each. If the ground on the meadow is pure bog dirt, with marl un derneath, you can next year venture to sow onion seed. They are the best crop to raise on sucn grouna, at least I find they pay the best. Cabbage is the next best, cucumbers are the next, but they are apt to grow crooked if the ground is not kept dry enough. Beets, carrots and parsnips I have tried, but they will not grow to any length, owing to the continued moisture below. I am now setting out a large piece with the colos sal asparagus, as I find it takes kindly to the soil. Have tried potatoes, but if the season is too wet the potatoes will set on the wines above ground, and the crop will be a failure. Fodder corn I raise in large quantities, and with but little labor. "It requires deep drainage ; the water must be got off, or else your labor will be lost. It also requires good judg ment, common sense, labor and indus try to keep it so. Your ditches must be kept well, and at least once a year cleaned out. The top of the water in vour ditches should always be two feet from the top of the ground ; and if the soil is deep you can raise crops for many years with but little manure or other fertilizers." A DUMB DIALOGUE. It wrenches one badly to step on the wrong stair, but few can help laughing at the awful stride he makes. It is equally fuany to see a man meet the wrong " customer," and go to talking and gesticulating at him as if he was somebody else. Jones went to the deaf and dumb asy lum the other day to inspect the insti tution. Upon entering he encountered a man, evidently an inmate, and he at once endeavored to explain to the man by making signs upon his fingers that he wanted to look through the place. The man also made signs, which Jones could not comprehend. Then Jones made other and more elaborate mo tions, which set the man at work with crreat violence, and for the next ten minutes they stood in the hall gesticu lating and twisting their fingers, with out being able to comprehend what the othar naeant. Finally Jones became angry, and in an outburst of wrath ex claimed : " Oh ! sret out. you idiot ! I'm tired of bothering with you 1" Whereupon the man said, " That's just what I was going to say to you." "Oh! you can speak, can you? Then why didn't you do so, and not keep me standing motioning to you ? thought you were deaf and dumb." " I came here to inspect the asylum, said Jones, " and I took you for patient. " " That's what I came here for, and I thought you were an attendant," said the man. Here Jones and the man shook hands and hunted up a genuine attendant and went away happy. After this Jones will always use his tongue, no matter where he is. Youth's Companion. In one of the Indiana Congressional nominating conventions, last week, the final ballot was: Whole number of votes, 162 ; necessary to a majority, 82 ; A. B., 81i ; C. D., 80. It was de cided, alter ueDate, mat i i was a " majority," and the nomination was declared. So, again, m one of the Iowa district conventions, this week, the final ballot was : Whole number of votes, 124 ; necessary to a majority, 63 ; i;;. J)'., 62 80-266 ; Q. H., 56 186-266; scattering, 4. It was decid ed again in this case that the fraction (80 256) carried with it the nomination. POTTEUl OF THE MOVND-BUlLD' ERS. Prof. F. T. Cox read a paper "upon tke above subject before the American Association for the Advancement of Science lately in session at Hartford. He said that the so-called pottery of the mound-builders resembles in many re spects that made by the Aztecs or Tol tecs of South America and Mexico, and furnishes another link in the chain of evidence which serves to trace these remarkable people to a common origin. The pottery from the mounds of In diana is represented by a great variety of vessels, fashioned after quaint de signs and adapted to multitudinous uses. Jugs with long necks, and necks terminated by figures made to repre sent the head3 of men, quadrupeds and birds ; pots with ears and shaped like ordinary cast iron dinner-pot of to-day; drinking cups ; basins of great size, used for making salt by solar evaporation ; smoking pipes, etc., etc. A great many whole vessels and frag ments of this ware have been examined by me from all parts of the Western States, and I have been unable to find any evidence of its having been hard ened by fire, nor do I believe that it was sun-baked. It is composed of a mixture of river mud and, most gener ally, pulverized fresh water shell, united in such proportions as to make a cement that hardens in the air, or when exposed to moisture, like the concrete of the ancient Romans, and may, con sequently, be classed as artificial stone. In chemical composition it agrees very closely with the concrete made of or dinary cement stones. These facts lead to the conclusion that the art of manufacturing concrete or artificial stone did not originate sole ly with the ancient Romans, but that it was alike understood by the earliest aborigines of America. Though it is my opinion that the so-called pottery of the Mound-Builders was fashioned by hand without the use of a lathe, yet I am convinced that the ancient pottery of Peru and other South American States was largely made of pieces formed by pressing the cement into molds, and these pieces were subsequently united together to form the entire vessel. The lines of union are usually covered by a band or some grotesque image. The numerous tubercles and other raised ornaments which cover the surfaces of jugs, vases, etc., could only have been formed in this way. I do not, however, find any pottery of the Mound-Builders that would lead to the belief that his skill went so far as to enable him to mold it in parts or to fashion it in any other way than by the hands. WHAT A YOUNG MAN MAY DO. Mr. Thomas, in an address at Adrian, Mich., said many good things, and among them this : " Every person may have a comfortable competence as he advances in years. Suppose that a young man at 21 begins merely as a day laborer. If he can lay up only $100 yearly, and add interest to interest at 7 per cent., he will at forty years, or at the age of 61, have accumulated n less than $20,000. Many will, however, lay aside $200 a year, in which case they would have, at 61 years, $40,000. There are some leaks which a prudent man will stop and thus add to the accumula tions. Suppose, for example, he is willing to forego the use of tobacco, which may happen to cost him but $20 yearly, this saving alone will amount to $4,000 in his lifetime of forty years. These facts show that everv industrious person may at least secure for himself a pleasant and comfortable home." THE RAILROADS AND THEIR EARN INGS. Statistics of the railroads of the United States show that during the past two years the amount invested in railways exceeded $1,000,000,000. The cost at the close of the past year of the 67,237 miles of line was $3,784,543,084, against $3,159,424,057 for 1872, and $2,664,627,645 for 1871. At the close of 1873, the total mileage was 70;651, of which 37,481 was constructed during the past ten years. The earnings of the different roads for 1872 were $465,241,055; for- 1871, $403,329,208 ; the increase for the two years being $123,090,729, or at the rate of $61,500,000 per annum. The rates of earnings upon the whole investment the past year have been 13.1 percent. The net earnings for the past year were $183,810,562, or 4.96 per cent., upon the investment. Theearninirs per head of our population, estimated for the past year at 41,211,000, equaled $12.80, against $11.63 for 1872, and $9.80 for 1871. House Windows. The more light admitted to apartments the better for those who occupy them. Eight is as necessary to sound health as it is to vegetable life. Exclude it from plants, and the consequences are disastrous. They cannot be perf ect without its vivi fying influence. It is a fearful mistake to curtain and blind windows so closely for fear of injuring the furniture by ex posure to the sun's rays ; such rooms positively gather elements in darkness which engender diseases. Let in the light often, and fresh air, too, or suffer the penalty of aches and pains and long doctor's bills whioh might have been avoided.