Willamette farmer., March 26, 1875, Page 2, Image 2

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WILLAMETTE FARMER.
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1e l-ofE Circle.
By and By.
What will it matter by and by
Whether my path bclon waa bright.
Whether It wound tb rough dark or light,
Under a gray or a golden akjr,
When I look back on It, by and by?
What will It matter by and by
Whether, nnhelped, I tolled alone.
Dashing my foot against a atone,
Ml.slng the charge of the angel nigh,
Bidding me think of the by and by?
What will It matter by and by
Whether with langblng Joy I went
Down through the years with a glad content.
Never believing, nay, not I,
Tear would be tweeter by and by?
What will It matter by and by
Whether with cheek to cheek I've lain
Close by the pallid angel, Pain,
Soothing myself through lob and sigh;
"All will lxj elsewise by and by?"
What will ft matter? Naught, If I
Only am sure the way I've trod,
Oloomy or gladdened, leada to God,
Questioning not of the how, the why,
If I but reuch Him, by and by.
What will I care for tho unshared sigh.
If, in my fear of slip or fall.
Closely I've clung to Christ through all,
Mindless bow rough the path might He,
Since he will smooth it by and by?
Ah I It will matter by and by
Nothing but this; That Joy or Pain
Lilted mo skyward, helped to gain,
Whether through rack, or smile, or sigh,
Heaven home all in all, by and byl
Margaret Prettan, in the Independent,
Woman's Legal Rights and Wrongs.
It does
luck, as
the pur
The First Thousand Dollars.
The first thousand dollars that a young turn
after going out into the world for himself earns
and saves will generally settle the question of
business life with him. There may be excep
tions to this statement; jet, for a rule, wo think
it will hold truo.
The first condition is that tho vounc man
naturally earns the thousand dollars in ques
tion, lie does not inheiit this Bum,
not come to him by a streak of good
the result of a fortunate venture in
chase and sale of a hundred shares of stock. It
is tho fruit of personal industry. Ho gives hi,
tfmo and labor for it. While ho ia thus earn
ing una saving it, he must earn two or three,
or perhaps, four times us much to pny his cur
rent expenses. He is consequently held sternly
to the task of Industry for a considerable po
liod. The direct consequence to him is steady,
continuous and solid discipline in the habits of
industry in patient, persistent, forecasting and
self-denjing effort, breaking up all tho tenden
cies to indolencu and 'rivolity, uud making hiru
an earnest and watchful economist of time. Ho
notoniyiarin now to work, hut ho also ac
quiror the lovo of work; and, moreover, he
learns tho value of tho sum which he has thus
saved out of his earnings. Ho has toiled for
it; he hag obsened ils slow increase from time
to tlruo, and in his estimate it reproaonts so
many years of practical labor. His ideas of life
aro shapod by his own oxp. rionce. Theso nat
ural efloets of ourning tho flrot thousand dol
lars we hold to be very large bonefits. They
are lust the qualities of mind and body which
aro likely to soonro business success in after
years. They constitute the best prictical edu
cation which man can havo ns n worker in this
working world. They are gaiuod in season for
h a purposes, at mo opening poriod, just
when they ure wnntod, when loolish notioug
are most likely to misload an inexperiencod
brain, and when, too, there is a full opportu
nity lor oxpansion and development in latter
years. Men havo but ouo life to live; and
henco they start from opening manhood bn
once. And the manner in which they Btnrt.
tho purpose whioh they havo in view, and the
habits they form will ordinarily determine the
entire soquol of their career on oarth. To suo
Cm i lai' mll8t httvo tho 'lement,i of success
""u'u luciuaeives. uue great reason -why
there aro bo many useless, inefficient and pov
erty Btriokeu wen on oarth or, rnther, boys
seeming to bo mon-cousisU In tho simple fact
that they did not start right. A prominent
roason why tho children of the rich so fre
quently amount to nothing may bo found in
luxury, ease and indolenoe which mark the
commencement of their lives. It is tho law of
u "" wo nuouiu uo woricers on oarth; and
no one so well consults tlm iiu .l.,...,!,... .
of this being as when he ooufirms his practice
to this law. The workors In some suitable
sphere are the ouly really stroug men iu this
-rfvmiyc.
world.-
icr. i cue uiu when ho had no socloty
boast of, aud hardly money enough to pay
a, diuuer at a cheap restaurant. I laid my I
ou tho desk, whii b I suppose I had no busin
Courtesy at Market Rates.
Courtesy has market value. In one of
our largeBt hotels n youug man has a very large
salary as a loom clerk. Htf has the facility of
stowing away people in all sorts ot' uumtuition
able places in his hotel and mako the guoils
feol happy about it. His politeness aud good
humor never run emptjiug,. Stout, of the
bhoa and Leather bank, is oelebratod for his fi.
uancial success aud for his iiiBxiiii.ii,iu 1
nature. He is never so buy but ho bus a kind
word or tho humblest. When they are rush
lug thiugs iu the bank, Mr. Stout always finds
time to bay, "Tako a seat, Sir; I'll bo at leis
ure in a moment."
A man oumo iuto the bank the other day and
opened an account. "I come here," ho said
not simply because I kuew my money would
bo safe with you, but because you are always
civil. I have been a depositor in bauk for
many years. I went in to-day to see the cash
lor. I kuew him when ho hmi no ni,
t nf tttwl Itat-illt ..... t . J.
for
hat
to do. He waved bis hard with au imperious
air, and said, 'Take that hat otV 1 removed
juy um, wueu uesa.ii, -Now I'll hear what yon
have to say.' 'I've nothing to say to you I
went to the bookkeeper, ordered uiy aooount
made up. took the bank's check for $42,000
and this I wish to depo.it The president and
the oasbier represent two style, of business
common in New York. Sauclneas does not bear
.1,i!8h,ami!roW """ons. the financial
Eastsbn Deoohation. The gorgeous East
showers ita barbarlo pearls and gold into iu
magnificent textures. But ia theFe really any.
thlug barbaric in the akill and taste which they
display? Does the Oriental prince and moo.
arch.even if he ooufine his magnificence to
native manufacture, present hiuuelf to the
eyes of hia slaves In a leu .ni.,.ii.i i
elegant attire than the nobles and the soy.
ewlKU of this our Western world, wore highly
civilised aa we, nevertheless, deem it? Few
P,8,r'0u,vi Muk, oJMwer In the affirm,
alive. The silks, the ahawls, the embroidery
and jewelry, the moulding aud carviug. which
those opuntriea can produce, and whi& decor
ate their palace and their dweller in palace
are even now such a we cannot excel. Otltn.
tal majinifioeooo ia still a nroh(.i mn.i .
deecriblog a degree of splendor and artistical
nebneaa which ia not found among ours elvsa
jwv. tY. HluvxU,
We have some ideas upon this topio which
to us appear of sufficient publio value to jus
tify their expression. There is nothing in the
fullest sense of the term, more respectable
than a good woman; no work of the creation
more perfect, nothing that feo wholly fills and
satisfies the human heart, certainly of the male
persuasion. But here is an anomaly. The
Anglo-Saxon race, more than all others noted
for its appreciation of the beauties of domestio
life dependent upon the status of the wife and
mother, place her by its laws, in a position of
degradation that has no parallel but in Blavery.
Tho chief characteristics of the English law,
which under the cognomen of the "common
law" is tho basis of our on n, in thU connection,
are but the roues of that early barbarism in
our history which made woman the slave and
degraded handmaid in tho home where she
thould be moro than the equal and friend of
man, where, in "woman's kingdom," she
ought to be the queen.
The truism is generally admitted, now, that
the condition of woman in any age affords the
best type of its civilization; but, for all that,
her legal status remains to all effects, substan
tially as prescribed by tho common law.
Fiom the oge of eighteen until she marries
sho is a rational human being, endowed with
such powers of judgment as are ascribed to
man, and her greater intellectual precocity is
admitted by conceding that the is mentally
mature at eighteen, while the bov remains an
infant until twenty-one years old. Gut when
she marries, a inout peculiar miracle occurs to
tax our credulity. By something more than a
"legal fiction" the law makes it appear that,
upon her committing matrimony, the act, if
not most sensible she can do, certainly tho one
most natural ana lor tue wen Deing ot society,
she becomes bereft of leason and alt capacity
for business; but, so soon as the death of her
husband or divorce trom him relieves her from
this condition of a married woman, she re
nunies her original condition of a sensible, hu
man creature.
Whether the common law comes from the
old fairy tales in which beautiful women were
Dy encnantmont turueti to cats and lawns or
stones and other inanimate objects, and, the
enchantment being broken, resumed their orig
inal forms and characters, or tho fairv tales
come from the common law, the result remains
tho same, and as wo cannot, in maturity, yield
the faith our childhood knew iu the story of the
"Fisherman aud the Genii," so no are unable
to believe that thero is any sense in proposi
tions which involve such principles as are de
clared to be the law even in the Athens of
America. In Kitingale vs. Withingtou, 15,
Mass,, 273, tho learned Judge in speaking of
an act by un infant, says: "Such endorsement
is not like ono maele by a married woman.
for a note made payable to her becomes the
property of her husbaud; and further, her acts
are absolutely void, whereas, those of an
infant are voidable only." The difference be
tween "void" and "voidable" is that one, in
no event can have any value and is void, but
the other, as the child may have somo sense,
is only "voidable," and when he becomes of
ago ho may affirm his contract. So a
man so beastly drunk that the law protects
him from bis contracts may only avoid them by
showing that he was incapacitated; but the
law, without regarding ago or capacity puts the
married woman, its a sensible person, mor
ally and mentally responsible, below the child
and druukon man.
This must be wrong, and is an intuit alike
to our understanding and sense of right; but it
would soem to bo impossible that a condition
of things so monstrous coulel exist but for
some hidden cause.
There is a cau-e and we do not believe it to be
that woman is debarred the right of suffrage.
Voting is but an insufficient affair in mdst
men's lives, and their capacity for business
di ponds but little upon that, Men do not hate
womou that they should bo degrade them as to
keep them iu bondage to the menial tasks of
lift', or shut them oil from participating in the
great interests which concern alike mau and his
partner.
But women themselves are measurably to
blame in this; they keep themselves eugagud
upon matters of so little moment that they
caunot entertain the thoughts which engage the
minds of men; that's all 1
What man could give ono-fourtb of his timo
to clothes aud yet exoel in any o.tlliug ? How
many women can truly say thatof the houis cf
wakelulness, apart from meal times, that pro
portion ot their days is not devoted to dress or
clothing in seme way. Economy is cluimed as
un excuse, but, for our part, we oannot seo it.
Can shoes bo uinde at home so cheaply as in
factories ? Why do shoes differ from dresses 1
They elo not, but iu the custom of the ono be
ing made abroad, the other at our homes, aud
could womou not a few, but all, buy all
o'otbiug ready made, economy would bo best
practiced oven counting actual cost aud leaving
out oi view tue waste oi lime, ana worse man
that, atloutiou and mental ability to the ex
clusion of thoughts of value. Another most
iiupjrt.iiu difference in the sexes is apparent.
Boys trom tho time when they begin to think
of life, look forward, and are taught to do so,
engaging in some industrial pursuit as a mat
ter of oourse. EaCh-lt he have any ideas at
all upon the subject aud it is to be hoped he
has not menuB to marry; but that thought
does not affect his usefulness or impair his am
bition to bo a success in his calling.
How about the girl ? Does she strive to be
a business success, to attaiu to eminence, to do
Rreat things ? Not very much 1 And yet why
not is hard to tell. She admires the boy who
uuos, auuuopeaio oe uis companion, wnat sto
prevent her being hia equal V Nothing so far
as we oau see. Brute strength Is not in ones-'
tion, because the beat pursuits are those which
call for mental effort, fine judgement, good
8(Ue, aud, iu the high arts and mechanics,
deUoacy of touch aud handling. Iu all of these
the girl excels, and, were she freed from the
uotiou that she must not work, but that her
province is to be worked for. her life would not
only be more truly respectable aud happy, but
uvr auxieuea very mucn uiinimsned, although
practical nair urvsser, atay-iacer and
A Right-Hand Servant.
Asa and Ira were brothers, whose farms lay
side by tide. Wheu the young corn, the oats
and the barley were springing up, the weeds
took advantage of the rich soil and came up
witn tneni.
"Do you see," said Asa, "what a hold the
weeds are taking ? There is danger of their
choKing out the crops entirely.
"Well, well, we must be resigned," said Ira.
"Weeds as well as grain were a part of the
Creator's plan."
"I can only be resigned to what I cannot
help," said Asa. So he went to work, and
plowed and hoed until the fields were clear of
weeds.
"The army worm is in the neighborhood,"
said Aea to Ira one day, "and is fast moving
toward ns."
"Ah I" exclaimed Ira, "it will surely destroy
what the weeds have not choked out. I will
immediately retire to pray that its course may
be stopped."
But Asa replied, "I pray every morning for
strength to do the work of the day." And he
hastened to dig a trench around his land which
the army worm could not pass, while Ira re
turned from his prayers only in season to save
a portion of bis crops from its ravages.
'Do you see, Ira ?" said Asa, another morn
ing, "tho river is rising, and our farms will be
overflowed."
"Alas, it is a judgment upon ui for our sins;
and what can we do ?" Baid Ira, in despair.
"There are no judgments so severe as those
which our own sloth brings upon us," said Asa;
and he went quickly and hired workmen, and
they raised an embankment that withstood the
nooa, wniio Ira witnessed, with blank looks,
the destruction of all his wealth.
"Theie is one consolation," said he; "my
children are at least are ltft me."
But while Asa's song grew up strong and vir
tuous men, among Ira's there was a drunkard.
a gambler and a suicide,
"The ways of the Lord are sot equal," said
Ira to his brother. "Why are you always pros
pering, while I am afflicted and disgraced ?"
"I only know this," replied Asa, "that
heaven always helped me tomeetmy children's
faults bb I meet the weeds, tbecatterpillars and
the flood; and I never send a petition upward
without making toil, my right hand servant,
the messenger of my prayer. Work and
pray."
aa a practical bair
sttumuirr ou the piano, her characteristic and
capacities would cease to bo a matter of inter
eat and comment on the part of her own aex.
A. W. T.
A okntlkmix once said to his gardener:
"George, the time will come when a man will
be able to carry the manure of an aen nf Uml
iu one cf hia waistcoat pockets," To which
the gardener replied: "1 believe it, air; but he
will be able to carry the crop in the other
pocket."
Junius Hxi Bkowm calls the dead "The
aileut majority," That ia a tery fine thought,
and now let Junius stop parting hia name in
the middle.
A aniLDU. rftnrnins thanka nJuil. v.
mug ourtelvia. served that be waa "More fitted for the aoaffold
waa pnouo sptuing."
Children.
"Grace Greenwood" beautifully soys in re
gard to developing the mind of childhood
"The high privilege, the honor of writing for
uiiuureu, is out nine uuaersiooa. is it not a
beautiful thing to call out the first bloom, to
inhale the morning fragiance of the immortal
soul flower? Is it not a great thing to trace
the first word on the soft, white tablets of the
mind, where they will harden and remaia for
ever? O, those earliest teachings! how the soul
treasures them, and holds them dear and sa
cred through all the changes, labors, and dis
tracting pleasures of lite! The mind cannot
grow proud and strong enough to expel them,
nor can the heart harden and contract till it
crushes them. I have hoird somewhere the
story oi a faithful servant of a banished lord,
who cut into a young tree on the old estate, and
met unaer tue Dane somo small but precious
jeweis ueiooging to nis.master. Xears weut by,
and the youug exile returned an old man. The
steward was gone, but his lord knew well the
secret of his deposit. Where the young tree
stood now towered a thrifty oak, with bark har
dened and toughened by time; well had it
kept its trust and its treasures, though the
tough wood had closed over them, and no eye
could guess their hiding plaoe. The tree was
felled, and in its very heart its nnu wrn
found not a point broken, not a ray wasted,
they flashed up to the light of the old bright
ness, and made glad the heart of the old mas
ter. Even bo safe an investment in knnwlnlno
in the mind of a child; truth there lodged is a
life-long deposit. Though that mind may
tower and expand, and put on rough defenses
against the world, it still has its little unsus
pected jewels; and that heart but holds them
closer aud closer with its strengthening fibers,
till the hour when the Master comes to look for
them."
A Girl Lesson of Order.
I remember when I was a little ten year's
old girl, putting things to right for my grand
mother in her bed room. A few moments af
terwards I was sitting with my hands folded,
in a thoughtful way, when the oood old ladv
oiu. jjou i yuu teei wen to-aay, uearr'
"Not very; I feel down-hearted," I said look
ing up into her oheery face.
"Well, I can tell you what's the matter."
soul the shrowd little diplomat, " I wasn't
going to tell you, but I'd better do it than have
you Bick. I observed in my bed room that you
folded a oouple of quilts and some sheets and
my plaid shawl, and piled them on the trunk at
the foot of my bed. and nnnn nf tl.nm worn
folded evenly, aud that's what ails you. My
U.M u.u tun wueu i was a nine gin it i aid
such work in a careless, slovenly way, I would
feel badly until they were folded right, and I
always found her words to be true. It may be
that this is hereditary in our family, I don't
know. It seems like it."
I sprang to my feet and went to work and
folded every quilt and sheet just as evenly as
the eilge could lie, and piled them up until
they fitted together as snugly as a pile of books.
Sure, I felt well enough afier that; my thoughts
were as calm and snug as the bed clothes
were.
Oh. I Was SO rtlnrl rrrnnf1mntl,a A 11.4 mA.
I thought if she hadn't I might have gone on
feeling "down-hearted," may be for weeks and
uiouius.
Well, the habit of folding quilts, sheets,
blankets, table linen, shawls, wraps and such
things even aud nicely! became fixed o firmly,
and followed me up to womanhood so persist
ently that to-day, if I fold my shawl carelessly,
I feel annoyed until I go aud remedy the delin
quenoy. I can now see the motive my shy
little grandmother had in holding up before rsy
youthful imagination the enormity of this
fault, audi do most cordially thank her for
One Idea of Poverty.
Work and Study.
The four years that a young man is in college,
must be preceded by at least three years of
laborious preparation. These seven years of
mental work have, in a certain sense, taugnt
him to fortzet how to toil with his hands. lie
is not fit physically ""to dig," and to engage in
those occupations which are half manual, half
mtutal, into which be is thrust to establish, as
in a Bort of trial, his ability to aid in the stress
and struggles of life.
A man who has Bpent seven years at a trade,
knows precisely what to do in his calling, and
howtodoit; but our graduate knows his books,
which, alasl tho hurried world don't want; he
is familiar with Greece and Borne, but cannot
keep accounts; he can tell you of Olympus, but
cannot tell you the cost of fractional bushels at
fi actional prices. He is a boy yet; he must yet
begin to learn the "art of 'living" a trade of
soma kind he musthave. Meanwhile he waits;
he looks on; he stands in the market-place
because no one has hired him, and so doing he
has all the appearance of an idler.
Again, many seek for an education, expecting
thus to escape drudgery. They bo into college
that they may not work, and they avoid it
while there, if excuses will avail; and when they
hold their diplomas in their hands, they are
still resolute not to labor if possible. They
are applicants for some place that has for its
chief recommendation a salary. This class is
largely made up of spoiled boys, thought by
aunts and grandmothers to be too delioate, too
Bmart, or too handsome to drudge in the house,
shop or on the farm; and it haB many recruits
from city households, because there is no work
to be done, no wood to split, water to be
drawn or garden to be tilled. For with a large
number of people, doing work is like chewing
tobacco a habit to be acquired, and when ac
quired, followed as a habit. JT. T. School
Journal.
Science Among the Ancients.
Sand and its Effects in Mortar.
It waa Bulwer who said that in nine cases
put of Un, Poterty is only an idea. Some with
ten thousand dollars a year suffer more want
of means than others with three hundred. The
reason it, the richer man has artificial wanu.
Hia income it ten thousand, and he inters
enough from being dunned for unpaid debts to
kill a sensitive nun; he who earns a dollar a
day, and who does not ran in debt, is the hap.
pier of the two. Very few people who have
nettr been rich will believe tbft, but it U true.
There are thousand and thousand with
princely income who never know a moment
peace, because they live beyond their Beans.
There is really tore hannlnaaa in tk u
among the working people than among those
who ar called rich-ajjray providing that
Poor folk do not. in a amallar m .nnlT. .w.
prodinallty of their richer brethren. Poverty
I r smmI of saosey 1b hand.
We extract the following from a report made
by some eminent French engineers, who made
a eerie b of scientific- and practical examinations
of eand, and the effects of different qualities of
the same on various kinds of mortars:
The primordial element of sand is quartz.
Bocks composed of felspar aud mica cemented
together by natural affinity, produce many va
rieties; some are derived from gneiss, protogine,
or lalcose granite, sienites, etc, or are entirely
calcareous; lastly, others are mixed with vol
canic sand, but these do not possess any of the
qualities of puzzolana.
Sand is designated as coarse, middling, fine,
and very One.
It is considered.coarse when the grains have
a diameter of l-12th to l-18th of an inch; and
it is called fine when the grains do not exceed
l-25th of an inch. That which exceeds the
former diameter is called gravel.
Besides river and sea-sand, we have those
which are found away from water sources,
knowu as fossil sands, of the plain, or quarry
sand; but these must be distinguished from the
true fossil sands, which are called arents in
France.
Fossil sand (that found in hill deposits) is
far more irregular in the grain than either river
or sea sand; it is far more gritty when the
grains are strongly compressed between the
fingers; quartz and granite dominate in their
composition.
In the composition of mortar, sand forms the
inert matter; it exercises no chemical action on
the lime, the puzzolania constituents, and the
mortars with which it is mixed; its action is
purely mechanical, and consists in the aggrega
tion of the grains by the aid of the lime and ce
ments, which perform the part of mordants, or
active agents of cohesion ; it follows that the sand
of which the grains are angular aud the angles
the sharpest, are preferable to those with
rounded grains, or of which the asperities are
less numerous.
The various kinds of sands should be hard
to touch, gritty to the fingers, exempt from
earthy matter, which causes disaggregation of
the mortar by humidity; aud for the same
reason, though to a less degree, marly or clayey
sand should be rejected.
in the case of sea sand, the first thing to be
done, is to get rid of the salt. The presence
or salt, nowever, may De very useful in certain
cases.
It is of great importance to take careful note
of tho various results obtained by the use of
different kinds of sand found where works are
being cariied ou: some kinds contribute power
fully to the cohesion of mortars, in combina
tion with certain kinds of lime, while others
are the cause of disintegration. Experiments
oi tnis Kind cannot do too numerous or too
carefully conducted.
M. Vicat instituted a series of experiments in
order to determine the effect of the coarseness
or fineness of eminently sillcious sands, or the
resistance of mortars, and arrived at the con
clusion that for use with eminently hydraulio
lime, sana ranas as iouows:,i, nne grain, U,
sand with mixed grain and sharp angles; 3,
coarse sand; while in the case of moderately
hydraulio lime, the order is reversed, the coarsa
standing first, the mixed second, and the fine
grain last.
Boaults since obtained with other kinds of
sand, have fully borne out M. Yicat's con
clusions. The mixture of lime and sand is the more
complete, and the aggregation the more inti
mate, in proportion to the roughness of the
grains; river sand, which has been extracted
und left on the banks for many months, and
uuriug its nuriace corroaea oy natural agents,
are beyond all question the best; but those of
tne quarries, which are best when their com
position is very sillcious, offer much the same
advantage in practice.
Mortar made from quick-lime and coarse
sand is the most durable; fine sand acts best
with hydraulio limes. In the case of hydraulic
mortars, the definite setting with middling
sized sand being fixed at 100, the proportion
will descend as low aa fifty with gravel, and
even lower when it is very coarse.
Quartose and silicioua sands are insensible to
the most powerful' comDressinn. Thin nnalitv
has caused them to be sought for paying-work;
and they are preferred before all others for
fonndations. and in all cases where oreat tires.
sure has to be considered. Jfanuacfurer and
One of the most important discoveries ever
unearthed is probably the library of Asshur
banipal, who reigned over the kingdom of As
syria about 1,000 years before the Christian
era.
This discovery furnishes the most undubitable
proof that Bcience had made considerable pro
gress, even at that early day nearly 3,000
years ago. This curious library consists of
flat, square tablets of baked clay, having on each
side a page of closely written cuneiform letters
which had been impressed on the clay while it
was yet moist. The great majority of these
tablets are now in the British Museum, and
have been found to contain the remains of an
immense grammatical encyclopedia. There
are fragments of many mathematical and as
tronomiijal treatises, with catalogues of obser
vations, tables, calculations of eclipses of the
moon, and observations of solar eclirmes. thn
earliest of which occurred nearly a thousand
years before the beginning of the Christian era.
There are also fragments of law books and le
gal records, books of chronology, manuals of
uisioiy, accounts oi Assyrian and other divini
ties, collections of hymns in the style of the
Psalms of David, a geographical encyclopedia,
works on natural history containing lists of
plants and animals, of timber trees employed
in building and furnishing, of stones lit for
architecture and sculpture, etc. Perhaps the
most interesting of all these lUts is a classified
catalogue of every species of animals known to
the Assyrians, showing a scientific nomencla
ture similar in principle to that of Linnreus.
Opposite the common name of each animal is
placed a scientific and ideographio name, com
posed of two parts, a family name and a char
acteristic epithet denoting the species.
A still more remarkable indication of the
scientific advancement of the ancient Assyrians
appears in their system of weights and meas
ures, in which, as in the French system, all the
units of Burfaca, capacity, and weight were de
rived from one typical linear unit. The basis
of the system was the cubit (equal to 20-67
inches). This was divided into sixty parts,
corresponding with the minutes of the degree.
The cubit, multiplied by 300, the number of
degreas in the circle, produced the stade, the
unit for large distances. The fundamental
unit for areas was the square foot, the square
of measure bearing to the cubit the relation of
3 to 6, or 12-4 inches of our measure. The cube?
cf the foot was the metreta, the standard of all
measures of capacity; and the weight of a cubic
foot of water gave the talent; the fundamental
unit of weight; the sexagesimal division of the
talent gave, first the mina (510-83 grains),
and second, the drachma, (8-51 grains).
The sexagesimal Bystem was employed
throughout their mathematics, the unit being
mvojiuuij uiuitipueu or euviaea Dy sixty, .
the result again by sixty, and bo on to infinity.
"This, it is veryevident,"observeBLenormant,
"was the result of a wise combination of a very
practical character, intended to combine the
advantages of the two s stems of dividing
unity that have been in dispute at all times
and among all nations the decimal and the
duodecimal-" We still follow this Chaldreo
Assyrian system in the divisions of the circle
and in our divisions of time.
BuUder.
Fiuroe as Cbhtaia Dr. Carmichael, iq a
paper on the "Growth of Crystallization in
Traps and Slags," stated that in 1620 Worcester
found in diamonds and chryso-beryls a fluid,
urn in some case iwo nuios, saving an expan
sive capacity thirty-two times that of water.
Examined microscopically these liquids were
found to exist in the minute cavities of varinna
rocks. Dr. Carmichael stated that he himself
nau made many examinations of slags from the
Harts mountains. These crystals were no
doubt formed witk great rapidity, and this fact
in part accounted for the finding of aqueons
solutions in the oenter or cavities of crystals.
In the sennina trn molm lianU rnavrhnnin .M
indosure ar fomnd, sob.sub.cs with minute
tree of watery vapor. Oa cavities have
htoad margins, Us vaporoM cavities tain
margins.
The Common Hammer.
Few people, in witnessing the use of a ham
mer, or in using one themselves, ever think of
it as an engine giving out tons of force, concen
trating and applying power by functions
which, if performed by other mechanism
would involve trains of gearing, levers, or
screws; and that such mechanism, if employed
instead of hammers, must lack that important
function of applvincforca in mv HiTc)nn it,-.
the will may direct.
A simple hand hammer is, in the abstract,
one of the most intricate of mechanical agents
that is, its action is more difficult to analyze
than that of many complex machines involving
trams of mechanism; but our familiarity with
hammers makes us overlook this fact, and the
hammer has eveu been denied a place among
those mechanical contrivances to which there
has been applied the mistaken name of me
chanical powers.
Let the reader compare a hammer with a
wheel and axle, inclined plane, screw or lever,
as an agent for concentrating and applying
power, noting the principles of its action first,
and then considering its universal use, and he
will conclude that if there is a mechanical de
vice that comprehends riiatinnt nnxninl.. u..
device is the common hammer; it seems, in
deed, to be one of those things provided to
meet a human necessity, and without which
mechanical industry could not be carried on
In the manipulation of nearlv evnr Vi.,,1 nt
material, the hammer is continually necessary
in order to exert a force beyond what the hand's
may do, unaided by mechanism to multiply
their force. A carpenter in driving a spike re
quires a force of from one to two tons, a b'ack
smith requires a force of from five pounds to '
five tons to meet the requirements of his work
a stone mason applies a force, of from one hun
dred to one thousand pounds in driting the
edge of his tools; chipping, calking, in fact
nearly all mechanical opera.ions consist more
or less in blows, and blows are hnt th or,r.ti.
cation of an accumulated force expended
throughout a limited distance.
Considered as a mechanical scent, tha nflm .
mer concentrates the power of the arms and -applies
it in a manner that meets the require
ments of the work. If great force is needed, a
long swing and slow blows accomplish tons; if
but little force is required, a short swing and
rapid blows will serve, the degree of force
being not only continually at control, but the
direction at which it is applied also. Other
mechanism, if used instead ot hammers tn nr.
fonn the same duty, would from its nature re
quire to be a complicated machine, and act but .
in one direction or in one plane. Scientific
Prtst.
Evafoiution or Wateb wtoic Phots. So
great is the evaporation of water from plants
that it was found by Mr. Lawes that a plant of
barley of one hundred and seventy-two days'
growth, in which it had acquired four hundred
and nineteen grains of dry organic matter, had
converted into vapor not less than seventeen
pounds of water.
Optical Pbohbtt. or Cbistaxb of Soxriun
or CorriB. If we receive the solar light re
flected by a large crystal of sulphate of copper
upon a sheet of platinium or tin plate, placed
at a small distance from the crystal, the ahu.t
uauiuca tun ouiur oi meuuiie copper upon the
part which receives the reflected light.
Cuvunio Vaeqciz, brother of the bandit, has
held the position of Justice of the Peace in Los
Angeles county. He is said to be agoodcitj-sen.
A Novil Lrrs Pbzsibvib. A Chinaman,
after the wreck of the "Japan," was rescued
from a coffin which he had improvised as a life
preserver.
Cbxiutiok. The Municipal Council of Pari.
en the opening of the new cemetery at Mery-sur-1'oiM
petitioned th legislative power for
permission to practice cremation.
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