I"
9.
PirBLIBHlCD EVFBT FKIPAT BY
COLL. VAK CLBVE.
ALBANY,
OREGON.
BONAMY PRICE ON EDUCATION.
The theory of education -which Prof.
Bonamy Price propounded in his re
cent lecture deserves criticism, favora
ble and unfavorable. We can heartiiy
indorse the distinction he drew between
education and skill. It can best be
given in his own terse words : M The
sailor who knows how to trim a topsail
is a man of skill ; the clerk -who knows
how to speak German in a counting
house is a man of skill ; the groom who
knows all about the points of a horse is
a man of skill ; the man who acquires a
special knowledge may be called skill
ed, but not educated ; education must
be thorough. " Reviewing hi points as
he made them, we come next to the
assertion that the skill which nearest
approaches education is mathematical.
This is too sweeping. For, as the speak
er afterward confessed, the main ad
vantage of mathematical training is to
make a man logical. Now it may make
him too formal in his logic, like the
lawyer whom Prof. Prjce knew, who
was always vainly trying to formulate
legal propositions as axioms. And if
this is the main outcome of mathemat
ics, from an educational standpoint,
we should advise the seeker for logical
training to study the text-book of Mill
and the speeches of Burke rather than
the problems of Euclid. The next
point of the lecture was the study of
science. Prof. Price well rebuked the
arrogance of modern scientists. He
made good-humored fun of Huxley's
wild statement that a man who knew
the history of a certain piece of chalk
was better educated than he who had
studied Greek and Roman civilization.
Admitting the value of scientific study,
he rightly denied that it is the be-all
and end-all of education. Had he known
the story, he might have quoted the
witty Boston lady who said that she
preferred literature per sc to science
purblind. He estimated in the same
just way the benefits of linguistic stu ly
so far as the modern languages are con
cerned. When he treated of Greek and
Latin, however, the traditions of Ox
ford proved too strong for impartial
judgment. He ignored individual
idiosyncrasies when he said : " I hold,
deliberately and earnestly, that as an
educational tool there is none compara
ble, in the slightest degree, to the
Greek and Latin languages. " Different
tools are needed in order to shape dif
ferent substances, iron, wood, marble
into the most beautiful forms of which
they are capable. Mind differs from
mind far more than matter from
matter. The process that will fully de
velop one may be comparatively power
less in regard to another. The dead
languages are valuable, as the lecturer
said, because they embalm the thoughts
of the greatest minds the world has
produced. They are valuable, too,
because their mastery demands study,
and study is drill. But the same drill
may be got by bard study on other
themes, and the great thoughts have all
been clothed in English words, and are
within the reach of the man to whom
the original is a sealed book. Some
thing is lost, of course, by straining
Aristotle the author through Thompson
the translator. Goethe suffers even in
the hands of Carlyle. But it is certain
ly a reasonable question whether that
part of the original which is lost in a
translation is not more than counter
balanced by the knowledge that may be
got by studying other themes during
the time usually devoted to acquiring
Greek and Latin. If a man has read
an English rendering of Plato, and has
mastered a science besides, is he not
better educated than if he knows noth
ing of the science and has read Plato in
the original Greek ? The universities
of England have made a fetish of the
dead languages, and the colleges of
America have followed the fashion they
set. He is a bold man who confronts
the idol and protests against its power.
Yet there may be reason in the protest.
When Bonamy Price spoke of the high
standing of Oxford graduates as a
proof of the benefits of classical train
ing, he forget the important fact that
the raw material on which Oxford
works is about the best in the world.
To make his argument apply, he must
show what Sir Robert Peel and Glad
stone would have been with a different
education.
The truth of the matter seems to be
that the study of language, like that of
science or philosophy, is the best thing
for Borne minds and the Worst for others.
We see no reason for giving it a higher
place per se than any other first-class
study occupies. Let each mind judge
for itself. When youth forbids this, it
should be the grateful task of the
teachers to discover the individual bent
and plan courses of study accordingly
The ideal education is summed up in
the saying Something about every
thing and everything about something."
What the latter something is, individual
circumstanced must determine. Once
fixed, it should be steadily pursued,
and all Jther subjects should be studied
as diversions. This theory differs some
what from that of Bonamy Price. It
recognizes more fully than he does the
ali-important principles of individu
ality. The Way to Take Caee of China.
All china that has any gilding upon
it must on no account be rubbed with
a cloth of any kind, but merely rinsed,
first in hot and a'terwards in cold water,
and then left to drain till dry. If the
gilding is very dull and requires polish
ing, it may now and then be rubbed
with a soft wash-leather and a little
dry whiting, but this operation must
not be repeated more than onee a year,
otherwise the gold will most certainly
be rubbed off and the china spoilt.
When the plates, etc., are put away in
the china closet pieces of paper must be
placed between them to prevent
scratches on the glaze or painting, as
the bottom of all ware has little parti
cles of sand adhering to it, picked up
from the oven wherein it was glazed.
The china closet should be in a dry
situation, as a damp closet will soon
tarnish the gilding of the best crockery.
K. Y. Herald.
BAD SHOOTING IN SPAIN.
So long as newspaper correspondents
have the officers only to deal with, be
they Republican or Carlist, they are
sure to be well received, but if any of
the rank and file see a man in their
neighborhood whose identity with either
side is not clearly visible, they fire upon
bim. If they only fire at him, he is
comparatively safe, for worse shots I
have never met. While at Hendaye I
met a young English doctor who is at
tached to the ambulance corps, and who
has occasionally been fired at himself,
in spite of a white badge he wears
round his arm. In the course of con
versation he mentioned that a few days
since he was taking a sketch of the
church at Irun from the top of a neigh
boring hill. While he was sketching
he heard several shots fired from behind
a rock near to him. Although he did
not hear the bullets pass, he was un
certain whether or not they were fired at
him, and was about to beat a hasty re
treat, when, suddenly, a Republican
soldier showed himself and fired down
into the valley below. Seeing that he
was not the object at which the man was
firing, the doctor spoke to him and
asked whom he was shooting at. Point
ing over the rocks to a road 200 yards
below, he called attention to a peasant
who was walking along it. The man
was unarmed, and appeared quite at his
ease, although several shots had been
fired at him. " I believe he is a
Carlist," said the soldier ; " I have tried
four times to hit him, and have failed.
Will you take a shot?" There is a
superstition among the Spaniards that
if a man is missed fjur times his life is
being protected by the saints, and con
sequently he is safe for that day at
least. My informant declined the offer,
his business being to heal wounds
rather than cause them. Just at that
moment the peasant discovered that he
was the object cf the Republican's at
tention, and he therefore lost no time
in climbing over a wall, so as to place
some protection between himself and
the marksman. Letter from Spain.
GRA Y EYES.
The gray color is peculiar to the eye
of women. And here we meet with a
variety enough to puzzle Solomon him
self. We will pass over in silence the
sharp, the shrewish, the spiteful, the
cold, and the wild grey eye ; every one
has seen them too often, perhaps.
But then, again, there are some beauti
ful enough to drive one wild, and it is
only them which we mean. There is
the dark, sleepy, almond-shaped gray
eye, with long black lashes it goes
with the rarest face on earth that
Sultana-like beauty of jet-black hair,
and a complexion that is neither dark
nor fair almost a cream color, if the
truth must be told and soft and rich
as the leaf of the calla Ethopian itself.
Directly opposite to this is the calm,
clean, gray eye the eye that reasons,
when this only feels. It looks you
quietly in the face ; it views you kindly,
but, alas, disappointedly ; passion
rarely lights it, and love takes the
steady blaze of friendship, when he
tries to hide within. The owner of that
eye is upright, conscientious, and pitying
his fellow-men, even while at a loss to
understand their vagaries. It is the
eye for a kind, considerate physician,
for a conscientious lawyer (if such a
man there be), for a worthy village
pastor, for a friend as faithful as any
poor human being can be.
Last of the gray eyes comes the most
mischievous ; a soft eye with a large
pupil, that contracts and dilates with a
word, a thought, or a flash of feeling ;
an eye that laughs, that sighs almost,
that has its sunlight, its moonbeams,
and its storms ; a wonderful eye, that
wins you whether you will or not, and
holds you even after it has cast you off.
No matter whether the face be fair or
not, no matter if the features are irregu
lar and complexion varying, the eye
holds you captive, and then laughs at
your chains.
DEATH FROM EXCITEMENT.
The following incident is recorded in
connection with the announcement of
the death of Miss Emma McLean,
daughter of Capt. George McLean, of
Rochester, N. Y. : " Miss McLean had
been suffering with typhoid fever for
about five weeks previous to her death,
but had commenced to recover slowly
a day or two before her final illness.
So much better had she become, in
deed, that she was left alone in her
room a short time on last Wednesday
evening, as she had fallen into a peace
ful slumber. The sun was just setting
at the time, and a bright streak of sun
light was thrown across the sleeper's
bed-chamber. Miss McLean happened
to awaken suddenly, saw the room
flooded with the sun's rays, and, sup
posing that the house was on fire, sud
denly sprang out of bed and called at
the top of her voice that the house was
on fire. Her fears were soon allayed,
however, when the family appeared, and
she was placed in her bed again. But
the sudden fright had proven too much
for her weakened body to bear, and she
commenced to sink rapidly, and died
on the following afternoon."
Get atop of your troubles and they
are half cured.
DANGER OF STIMULANTS.
That man is nothing less than a de
liberate suicide who brinks tea, coffee,
or ardent spirits of any kind, to induce
him to perform a work in hand when
he feels too weak to go through with it
without such aid. This is the reason
that the majority of great orators and
public favorites die drunkards. The
pulpit, the bench, the bar, the forum,
have contributed their legions of victims
to drunken habits. The beautiful wo
man, the sweet singer, the conversa
tionalist, the periodical writer, has filled
but too often a drunkard's grave. The
best possible thing for a man to do
when he feels too tired to perform a
task, or too weak to carry it through,
is to go to bed and sleep a week if he
can ; this is the only true recuperation
of brain-power ; the only actual renewal
of brain forces, because during sleep
the brain is, in a sense, at rest, in a
condition to receive and appropriate
particles of nutriment from the blood
which take the place of those which
have been consumed in previous labor.
Mere stimulants supply nothing ; they
only goad the brain, force it to a greater
consumption of its substance, until that
substance has been so fully exhausted
that there is not power enough left to
receive a supply ; just as men are some
times so near death by thirst and starv
ation that there is not strength enough
left to swallow anything, and all is
over. The capacity of the brain for re
ceiving recuperative particles sometimes
comes on with the rapidity of lightning,
and the man becomes mad in an in
stant ; in an instant falls into convul
sions, in an instant loses all sense, and
he is an idiot. We repeat, there is re
newed force for the brain only in early
and abundant sleep.
TREASUR Y TRANSFORM A TIONS.
The Washington correspondent of the
Cincinnati Gazette writes : " Some
very amusing things have been
unearthed by the keen, unswerving as
siduity of the new Secretary of the
Treasury. Quite a number of supposed
young maidens have been developed
into matrons, with husbands either in
the department or in outside business.
One young girl mar ied a devotee of
Crispin, and retained her maiden name
and position with the proviso that the
husband was to furnish the head of the
bureau and his family with the best
boots and shoes, made to order. An
other chief clerk obtained his annual
supply of groceries on the same princi
pla of robbing Peter to pay Paul. A
messenger receives a compensation of
$1,000 per annum, and after the official
clock points its welcome finger at 3
p. m., the chairs are presto .' changed
into barbers' chairs, and the work of
shaving goes bravely on. This enter
prising messenger runs a regular bar
ber's shop outside besides. A man who
recently bade farewell to earthly snares
occupied some inconspicuous position
for thirty consecutive years. In the in
terim he had invested his accumulations
in a large house, which in time became
valuable from its situation. He then
opened the house to accommodate
boarders, and it became the resort of a
very nice class of people. The house
was handsomely and thoroughly fur
nished, and the value of the entire
property must now be somewhere in the
vicinity of 860,000 to $65,000 !"
REDEMPTION OF MUTILATED CUR
RENCY.
A Washington correspoadent states
that the reports of the Controller of the
; Currency and Treasurer Spinner are not
; yet complete, but are in a pretty for
I ward state of preparation. The Con-
troller will not recommend any impor
j tant changes in the present currency
i law, but will ask for new legislation on
one or two minor technical points. The
treasury officials are highly pleased with
that part of the act which regulates the
redemption of mutilated currency, and
predict that next year it will work even
better than it has this. In the short
time that it has been in operation, less
than five months, more than $30,000,000
of national bank currency have been
received for exchange for legal tenders ;
$20,000,000 have been counted, assort
ed, and set to the Controller. Of the
remaining $10,000,000, three-fifths are
ready to send to the Controller and Re
demption Agent, and $4,000,000 will
soon be ready for the transfer. It
should be borne in mind, too, that there
has been a stoppage in redemptions for
one whole month, because when the
redemption was begun the agency was
in no proper shape for the work. Ex
perience shows that $10,000,000 per
month can be disposed of by the pres
ent force of experts, or an aggregate of
$120,000,000 per annum, making it pos
sible to renew the entire national bank
circulation once in three years. Ordi
nary bank notes will not last much
longer than that length of time. The
treasury officials differ as to whether
the five per cent, provision is sufficient
for easy redemption.
OPENING A CORRESPONDENCE.
The Binghamton (N. Y.) Times
says : " Miss S. M. Pollard, of this
city, who formerly conducted the ex
tensive millinery establishment on the
corner of Court and Water streets, re
ceived a few days since from the execu
tors of the will of her uncle, her father's
brother, recently deceased in San Fran
cisco, CaL, a letter informing her that
she was mentioned in the will as the
sole heir of her uncle's estate. The
letter further informed her that the es
tate was valued at upward of $200,000 ;
$100,000 being invested in lands and
real estate, and about $105,000, con
sisting of cash, on deposit in various
banks in San Francisco. Mr. Pollard,
we are informed, went to California
many years ago, and for a long time his
whereabouts were unknown, until his
niece, by writing to the Postmaster at
San Francisco, ascertained her uncle's
address and corresponded with him.
Through this correspondence, which
revived old memories and restored
family relationship, it is supposed the
deceased was actuated in making this
bequest."
GOOD COUNSEL.
Mrs. Jane Grey Swisshelm writes at
follows to the Chicago Tribune :
Sib : Permit me to say, through your
columns, to all the women in this city
who are out of employment, that I am
not publishing a paper or carrying on
any business which requires assistance ;
and that, when I was, I never employed
man, woman, boy, beast or machine be
cause he, she or i.t wanted work, but
always because the work wanted them ;
that, if I needed 500 women, I would
not engage one who came to me with a
top-heavy load of feathers, flowers,
bugles, bea-is, bows and bands on her
head, presented a painted face behind a
masque veil, or wore a dress either trail
ing in the mud or beflounced, befolded
and befuddled until she looked like a
French hen with her feathers all turned
up, while she complained of hard times
and want of employment.
I do not know any one who wants
copying done, or wishes to employ a
woman to do office work. I have no in
fluence with any publisher by which I
could induce him to publish anybody's
letters, or "poems," or stories. I know
no one who has any genteel employment
which he or she is willing to pay large
wages ; and my time is of importance
to me. I am 57 years old ; have spent
the fortune my parents left me in help
ing the slave to freedom, and women
into a position where they might help
themselves. I gave my health, and
nearly my life, in hospital service ; am
literally worn out, poor, and entirely
dependent on my own labor for a
living, except when I break down alto
gether and am obliged to accept the
assistance my friends are always ready
to give me. I live in very plain lodg
ings, and wear a very plain dress and
bonnet from ten to fifteen years, be
cause I cannot afford new ; for I could
not if I would, and would not if I could,
do that kind of literary work for which
there is a ready market end a high price.
One-third my work goes into editorial
waste-baskets because I spoil it with
my idiosyncrasies; but I never grumble,
and try to owe no man a dollar. If I
were out of work and threatened with
want, I would go into a family to ren
der such service as I could cooking,
dishwashing, general housework, or any
specialty and take such wages as I
could earn, whether it was $1 a week or
50 cents ; and no employer should find
me out of my place, wherever that was.
I should never be found in the parlor
when the kitchen was my sphere, and
should take pride in being a good
servant. Such being the standpoint
from which I view life, I cannot, of
course, feel sympathy with the fine
ladies who come, every day, robbing
me of my time and strength in listening
to their recitals of sentimental sorrows.
So, to all women out of work, I say,
take off your furbelows and set about
the first honest labor which presents
itself.
THE SUGAR CROP SHORTENED BY
FROST.
A New Orleans exchange says : A
private letter from Lafourche to one of
of our largest houses, dated the 3d
inst. , announces a freeze in the La
fourche and Terrebonne districts on
the night of Monday, the 2d. Grinding
has been arrested, and planters are
putting down their cane in wind rows.
Around Raceland, and perhaps in the
whole tract from Napoleonville down to
Houma, the eyes have been killed half
way down the stock. This will, in
case of warm and damp weather, re
duce the yield from 15 to 25 per cent.,
according to circumstances, and injure
the quality of the sugar in even a
greater degree.
There is further news to the effect
that the same freeze has been felt in St.
Mary, though we scarcely think with
equal severity, the larger part of St.
Mary being protected on the north by
Grand Lake, and, -therefore, much less
liable to injury from cold.
If the cold snap has been general,
however, as indeed seems possible, the
crop of the State will be cut short
15,000 or 20,000 hogsheads. We shall
doubtless have more specific and ex
tended advices shortly.
MISS CUSHMAN NOT A PRETTY GIRL.
Time has not dealt gently with Miss
Cushman. She . looks at least 70,
and to me she is an older woman in
appearance than Mme. Dejazet, who
has just paid her farewell to the French
stage. I saw her in 1867. She was
then 72 years old, yet looked
younger than Miss Cushman to-day,
though their lives will admit of no com
parison. Dejazet was not a woman of
unquestionable purity, and led a very
gay, fast life, fond of wine and late
hours. The floral tributes were few to
Miss Cushman, yet very choice. She
wore a gris de perle silk dress with
fine point lace when she delivered her
speech and " farewell," and in her car
riage, which was borne by four black
steeds, with a colored driver in livery,
she wore an elegant white English opera
cloak, and appeared in the same the
rest of the evening at the hotel. Aeu;
York Correspondence Boston Globe.
Hash. At last science grapples with
this mysterious compound. The at
tention of the average boarding
house keeper is directed to the words
of Prof. Redfern, who condemns "the
process of cutting up meat into small
blocks, and stewing it," the effect of
which is that the albumen in the outer
surface of each block becomes firmly
set, and the whole affords about as in
digestible a mass as can well be im
agined. Scientific American.
BANK OF ENGLAND.
If any one should imagine, says a
writer on English banks, that the Bank
of England is the greatest monetary es
tablishment in the British Islands, a
little inquiry would satisfy him that he
had jumped to a false conclusion. No
doubt it is a great irstitution rich,
chartered by the state, and with a great
potentiality arising from various cir
cumstances, including the ability to
check undue speculation on one hand,
or untoward depression on the other, by
its being able to fix the rate of discount
which, at various times, has been as
high as nine and as low as two-and-a-halt
per cent. The Bank of England
began business as an incorporated body
in July, 1094, at which time William
III., being much in want of money to
carry on the war with France, granted
a charter of incorporation to certain
merchants in London, who subscribed
.500,000 toward a sum of 1,200,000,
which was to be lent to his Majesty at 8
per cent. Within two years after the
bank began business its notes were at a
discount of 20 per cent. In 1708 what
is called "the bank monopoly" was
established by an act of Parliament,
which j prohibited any company con
sisting of more than six members carry
ing on the banking business in England
and Wales. The charter of the Bank of
England has been fifteen times re
newed, the last time in 1844. For a
long time '-'the bank" managed the
whole monetary business of the British
government.
In 1826, at the instance of Sir Robert
Peel, an act of Parliament was passed
which virtually broke up the monopoly
of " the bank " by sanctioning the es
tablishment of joint-stock banks. At
the same time, on Peel's suggestion,
" the bank " opened branches in nine
of the principal commercial towns in
England. In 1834 the London and
Westminster Bank was established, but
without power to issue its own notes,
and proved so successful that several
other institutions of a similar descrip
tion were established in London. The
Bank of England strongly objected,
claimed its "rights" of monopoly, but
the new banks put these " rights " into
litigation, and the most important of
them were declared to be untenable.
In Whitaker's Almanac for 1874 there
is a list of sixty-seven joint-stock banks
now doing business in London (many
of these are colonial or foreign), and the
paid-up capital is about 45,000,000,
the nominal capital being double that
amount. The paid up capital of the
Bank of England is 14,550,000 ; the
rest, or surplus in hand, averaging
about $3,000,000 ; the total dividends
for 1873 were at the rate of 10 per cent.
The price of bank stock is about 250
for each 100 share paid up.
The London and Westminster Bank,
the first established and most prosper
ous of its class, does a much larger
business than the Bank of England. Its
shares, each of 20, are sold at 66,
which is higher than the Bank of En
gland stock. Its reserve is 1,000,000,
and its dividend last year was 20 per
cent. Last July it reduced this divi
dend by 4 per cent. , wisely declining to
maintain a high rate of dividend, with
profits somewhat diminishing. Its
business, however, has increased dur
ing the present jear, and it is now at
the head of the banking business of the
whole country. On the 30th of June,
1874, its money from deposits wis
31,243,000, while the private deposits
of the Bank of England were only
18,500,000 while the London and
County Bank held 18,928,000 on de
posit, the Union Bank 13,918,000, and
the smaller banks somewhat less than
12,000,000. On examination it ap
pears that the London and Westminster
Bank had increased its cash from de
posits by 2,000,000 in the first six
months of the present year, and by
nearly 3,000,000 over the deposits on
June 30, 1873. Of course its shares
have considerably increased in value in
the same time. A twenty-pound share,
whose market value last Christmas was
61 10s., is now at 66. Many of the
other joint-stock banks also exhibit
this sign of prosperity, which also indi
cates public confidence in them. If
these banks were to suffer by a panic
the pressure upon the reserve of the
Bank of England would become enor
mous and destructive. " The Old Lady
of Threadneedle street " (as the Bank of
England is familiarly designated from
its locality) is not more solvent nor
prosperous than the London and West
minster Bank.
CARLYLE AS A REAVER.
Probably no author of his time has
read more than Carlyle. He actual
ly devours, and has devoured, books
ever since he was 10 years old. He
will go through an ordinary volume in
two hours, and, although he may not
con each page, he will find in it all that
is worthy. His memory is prodigious,
not only for generals but for details.
He could repeat poetry by the elL He
never does, however ; for he is always
averring that he hates poetry ; that the
greatest bards have crippled their
thought and limited their range by
rhythm and rhyme. He thinks Homer,
Dante, and Shakespeare would have
been greater had they expressed them
selves in prose. Nevertheless, he is a
poet a poet, not without, bat indiffer
ent to, form. He has the reputation of
being better acquainted with all sub
jects, historic, philosophic, literary and
scientific, than any living Briton. For
years and years he is reputed to have
read on an average five volumes a day,
and to have skimmed eight or ten more.
Reading has ever been a passion with
him, and he has said that his idea of
heaven would be to be turned into an
inexhaustible library of new and good
books, Where he could browse for all
eternity. He estimates, I have heard,
that he has gleaned the contents of fully
one hundred thousand volumes, which,
when we consider his voracity, rapidity,
trained eyes and mind, is not at all un
likely. There is hardly a curious and
remarkable book in the British Museum
that he is not more less familiar with.
A gentleman's ordinary library he could
eat up all that is worth eating, that is
in a single fortnight.
A MAN WITH A HISTORY.
Three times last week a man was
brought into he station who was found
on the street in an unconscious state.
Saturday he was taken to the work
house. He had been pedaling baskets
about town, and is subject to fits, fall
ing to the ground suddenly and remain
ing unconscious for some minutes. Be
fore being taken to the workhouse he
told his story to Deputy Williams.
He was born in East Randolph, Ver
mont, about thirty-five years ago, and
his name is Horace Barney. From his
childhood he was subject to fits, and for
that reason unable to obtain steady em
ployment. So he was sent to the poor
farm. Apparently they tired of him
there, for, he says the town authorities
took him to a seaport and shipped him
on a whaler for a voyage to the Pacific.
Not long after the vessel sr.il eel his in
firmity was discovered, and the captain
cast about for some way to get rid of
him. The old stock trick of leaving
him on an island was hit upon. As the
ship was cruising around an island in
the Pacific a boat was ordered ashore
for water, and Barney was detailed as
one of the crew. His shipmates per
suaded him to push on toward a grove
of trees, and then jumped into the boat
and pushed off for the vessel without
him. In despair he stretched himself
upon the sand, and presently fell into
a fit.
The natives of the island found him
in this fit, and apparently were favora
bly impressed by his situation, for they
took him to one of their villages, fed
him and made much account of him.
They seemed to regard his fits as fits of
inspiration, and reverenced him as a
great medicine man. He was adopted
into the tribe, and his body tattooed in
the latest and most approved fashion.
(The tattooing is plainly visible on his
body now. ) He took one of the native
women as wife, and she had a child by
him. He lived with the savages two
years, and got very tired of his life,
longing to get back to his native land.
One day a vessel hove in sight, and a
boat was sent ashore. He seized the
opportunity and escaped, coming to
New York. Since then he has made his
living by makin g and peddling wicker
baskets. What a fall, from the medi
cine man and prophet of a nation to a
peddler of baskets. Portland (Me.)
Press.
PARASITES IN BIRD-CAGES.
Many a person has watched with
anxiety and care a pet canary, gold
finch, or other tiny favorite evidently
in a state of perturbation, plucking at
himself continually, his feathers stand
ing all wrong, always fidgeting about,
and in every way looking very seedy.
In vain is his food changed, and in vain
is another saucer of clean water always
kept in his cage, and all that kindness
can suggest for the little prisoner done ;
but still all is of no use, he's no better
and why ? because the cause of his
wretchedness has not been found out,
and until it is, other attempts are but
vain. If the owner of a pet in such
difficulties will take down the cage and
cast hip or her eyes up to the roof there
of, there will most likely be seen a mass
of stuff looking as much like red rust as
anything ; and from thence comes the
cause of the poor bird's uneasiness.
The red rust is nothing more nor less
than myriads of parasites infesting the
bird, and for which water is no remedy.
There is, however, a remedy, and one
easily procurable in a moment fire.
By procuring a lighted candle and
holding it under every particle of the
top of the cage, till all chance of any
thing being left alive is gone, the
remedy is complete. The pet will soon
brighten up again after his " house
warming," and will in his cheerful and
delightful way thank his master or mis
tress overhand overagain forthis, though
slight to him, important assistance.
Land and Water.
SOME SILLY PEOPLE.
The Chicago Liter-Ocean, speaking
of the silly people who are eternally
trying to appear intellectual, says: " In
music they affect a classical severity of
taste. Vocal music they find trivial :
: instrumental music, if merely beauti
! ful, is worthless. Depth of thought iB
what they are after. In painting they
jabber about symphonies in green, har
monies in white, and notturnos in all
sorts of colors. They beg of you to ad
mire the tremulous tones of an atmos
phere, or the swell of a foreground, or
the diapason of scarlet in sunset. They
themselves might not inaptly be de
scribed as inharmonious swells in green,
and it is difficult to say which are the
greater nuisances these really soulless
windbags, whose appreciation is all
j affectation, or the honest but unculti
vated countryman, who listens to a
sonata of Beethoven and exclaims, O,
dry up that scrapin", and give us a Vir
ginia reel.' "
To Preserve Pears. Take pears
not quite ripe and peel off the skins.
Prepare a sirup with three-quarters of
a pound of sugar to each pound of
fruit. Melt it and boil for half an hour,
removing all the scum that rises. Put
in the pears and let them boil for ten
minutes, or just long enough to soften
a little ; then take out and cover tight
ly with paper wet in whisky or alcohol,
and cover with another paper placed
over the mouth of the jar. German
town Telegraph.
N
A HUNDRED EXTINCT VOLCANOES.
The Academy of Science met, as
usual, on Monday evening, Gen. Hew
ston in the chair. The attendance was
good. The donations were numerous
and some of them interesting. Dr.
HarknesB spoke of discoveries made by
himself in parts of Plumas and Lassen
counties little known hitherto. A tract
of country containing about 8, 000 square
miles he described not only as volcanic,
but showing traces of recent volcanic
action and having within its limits 100
extinct volcanoes. A large crater on
the dividing line of the two counties
had dammed up a lake, giving it a new
outlet and spreading its waters over an
area of three square miles. The vol
canic cone is higher than Vesuvius.
Ashes and scoria are scattered all down
its sides. In different parts of the lake
are stumps of trees, some of them forty
five feet in height, and showing above
the surface. Some of them standing in
the lava are only partially burned
through, indicating that the matter
ejected from the volcano was not all in
a melted state. In other places occur
round cavities, which were sounded by
Dr. Harkness and his party, and stumps
found at the bottom. Higher up, the
trees, though untouched by the lava,
were burned by the heat. The growth
of a portion of the trees since the erup
tion shows about twenty-fivo annular
rings. The lava from the volcano cov
ers about a hundred square miles. An
old resident of Red Bluff, who was in
the neighborhood in 1853, told the doc
tor that he saw a bright sheet of flame
rising from the mountain, wliich con
tinued during his entire stay. Shaved
Head, an old Indian of the Mill Creek
tribe, says that in his youth the region
was alive with volcanoes in active oper
ation. San Francisco Chronicle.
A COMMON DANGER.
People who wet their winter's coal, in
order to lay the dust on putting it into
their cellars, do not generally know
that they are laying up for themselves a
store of sore throats and other evils
consequent npon the practice. But so
it is said to be. Even the fire-damp
which escapes from coal mines arises
from the slow decomposition of coal at
temperatures but little above that of
the atmosphere, but under augmented
pressure. By wetting a moss of freshly-broken
coal, and putting it in a warm
cellar, the mass is heated to such a de
gree that carburetted and sulphuretted
hydrogen are given off for long periods
of time, and pervade the whole house.
The liability of wet coal to mischievous
results, under such circumstances, may
be appreciated from the circumstance
that there are several instances on rec
ord of spontaneous combustion of wet
coal when stowed into the bunkers or
holds of vessels. And from this cause,
doubtless, many missing coal vessels
have perished.
HINTS FOR YOUNG WRITERS.
No author of to-day becomes popular
unless he adapts his writings to the
crisp, lively style now in favor with the
public. Remember that this is the age
of telegraphs and stenography, and be
brief. Be pointed. Don't write all
around a subject without hitting it.
State facts, but don't stop to moralize.
It's a drowsy subject. Lot the reader
do his own dreaming. Eschew prefaces.
Plunge at once into your subject, like a
swimmer into cold water. If you have
written a sentence that you think par
ticularly fine, consider it carefully ere
you decide not to draw your pen through
it. A pet child is often the worst in the
family. Condense. Make sure that
you really have an idea, and then record
it in the shortest possible terni3. When
your article is completed, strike out
nine-tenths of the adjectives. And, last,
never blame your publisher if he judi
ciously prunes your literary efforts.
He knows what he's about.
English Breakfast Rolij?. Roll a
quarter of a pound of butter into a
pound of flour ; then add a tablespoon
ful of good yeast, and break in one egg.
Mix it with a little warm milk poured
into the middle of the flour ; stir all
well together, and set it by the fire to
rise ; then make it into a light dough,
and again set by the fire. Make up the
rolls, lay them on a tin, and set them
in front of the fire before you put them
into the oven, and brush them over
with egg. Cultivator.
" What are you doing now ?" asked
a New England man upon entering Mr.
's studio in Rome unannounced.
" Just at present," replied the sculptor,
who was washing his hands, "I
am performing requisite ablution."
" Requisite ablution !" exclaimed the
New Englander. "I never knew of
such a statue ; let's have a look at it !"
A gentleman writes to the New York
Times that he has been hunting for a
wife lor fifteen years, but has never
found a well educated girl, occupying a
good position in society, who was will
ing to accept himself and his $1,800 a
year. He claims to be well-bred, good
looking and accomplished.
There is a man living in Carrol
county, N. H., poor-house who spent
all his property in a law suit in which
the sum involved was only $3. He had
two opportunities of settling the 6uit for
$5 ; and he knew all the time that he
was wrong.
A Ttovsa lady of the period writes to
an exchange to inquire if washing her
face with pipe clay will improve her
complexion. We should think it might,
with the addition of a masculine cheek
and well-ignited match.
Some American ladies were recently
turned out of the Church of les Inva
lides in Paris for whispering during the
service. They probably forgot what St.
Paul said, that women mnst keep silent
in the churches.