gristrtlaittkats. GERMAN IN OUR PUBLIC SOIIOOII2. The Association of the German Press of Pennsylvania, consisting of the German Edi tors, Publishers, many German Ministers, Teachers, Professors, and other friends of education in the State, desire to have the following petition with the reasons and facts therein contained presented to the proper authorities. To the Honorable Directors and Controllers of the Public Schools of Pennsylvania. Whilst thanking the worthy Directors and Controllers of the Public Schools of the State, for the introduction of the German lan guage into many of the High Schools of our cities and towns, we woald respectfully ask you to consider favorably the propriety of introducing the German also into the lower departments of our Free Schools generally, as far as possible, and for the following rea sons: 1. Because comparatively few pupils from the lower departments ever enter the High School, and thus, the privilege of studying German in our Public Schools is denied to most of the children in the State. 2. Because in a State. like Pennsylvania, where about 'one-halt- of the Chureh' mom hers attend divine service in the German language, and where nearly one hundred newspapers, and a large number of excel lent books are published in the same lan guage, all the children, rich and poor, and those too who cannot attend a High School or College, should have an opportunity to learn to read, and understand not only the English but also the German language cor rectly. 3. Because the German is the mother tongue of about one-balf of the parents of the' State, and it serves, as experience shows, to promote obedience to parents and good training generally, &children study the no ble language di their fathers thoroughly, and learn to respect it properly. 4. Because Church, School and Home, Ministers, Teachers, and Parents should con stantly work together in the aducation of youth, but this can only be done with good results, if the church and family language is also correctly taught and understood, as well a 9 duly honored in 'the school. 5. Because, if our Public Schools teach pupils to read and write the German lan guage as well as the English, and endeavor to ionise a spirit of pleasure and love for reading in both languages, they impart to German-speaking parents through their children much useful knowledge and help to promote education among young-and old German families. 6. Because the Germania an original lan guage—and very many of the most impor tant and generally used English words among the people are of German or Anglo gaxon origin, eo that the study of the Ger man language leads scholars to a more thor-: ough understanding of the English. 7. Because the study of different lan guages—especially translating from one lan guage into another—is one of the best men tal exercises and an invaluable means of culture, which should be generally introfinc ed into our Public Schools. 8. Because a theoretical and practical knowledge of the German language, which is spoken and honored by so many millions in all parts of the, world, is of great, value to all Americans and especially to Bennsyl• vaniahs, in business life, in social inter course, and particularly in travelling in this and other lands. 9. Because the German language' in , its purity is not only ona of the most beauti ful languages of the world but also because its literature is acknowledged as unsurpass ed in richness and value, and opens and of fers to the student the greitetest treasures in all branches of knowledge. 10. Because the introduction. of the Ger man language during the last few yearsinto the public schools of nearly all the princi pal cities of the West, and also Of 'many places in the Bast, as for example New York, Harrisburg, &c., haii been followed by the most beneficial results. 11. Because a great many children in our State already understand and speak the Pennsylvania German dialect, and they could be easily taught to read, understand, write and speak the pure German, the lam , guage of Luther and Schiller and Gmthe, and of all GerMany's great scholars—theo logians, philosopbers, poets, Ito, , 12. Because P,ennsylVania, the Xeyatche of our beloved Union, is often called the " Old German State," and it is certainly greatly indebted to its industrious, skillful and economicalGerman-speakp i 1 tants for much of ts wealth and prosperity ; and a proper regard to the-languagoli-ofth4s large portion of our influential population in our Public Schools seems to us to belhat and right. , In addition to these numerous plain 11,1;1.4 practical reasons,, we take the libertyva stating another fact in, conclusion When the School Board of Cleveland, Ohio, lately introduced the German lan guage into the Public Schools of that • city, some expressed a fear that thie study orGer man might retard the progress of English studies in the Bc:6°ol6,m:id tn.order to meet this objection, inquiry was-made in , neineitf nati, where , the German hii been taught in the Public Schools for many years, and af ter a full examination it, livits - . 9suertained, that, as a general rtile, thOselinfinlars who , were attending the schools where both lan guages are :aught, were making more-rapid ; progress in the acquisitiolf„ OA thofil4A `:,knowledge of the English, thou those learn= ding English only. The 'same,o4eribribe has . Is° been made during lateyeara in St-Louis sad other Western Cities .' ' . 1 ' 1 ' 1" T , ...: ,rl Linguistic studies - develoir-the-yolsier csf, k e mind and strengthen the Menials:e& ( %, ies just as well as mathematical, stligoitAllitt .:.;the greater mamba of languages the stud- THE AMERICAN PRESBYTERIAN, THURSD, ent learns, the more he is able to learn. The knowledge of one language assists him in the understanding of others on account of their fundamental relation and connection with each other, and thus intellectual train ing is greatly promoted. We submit these reasons and facts to your serious consideration and remain Very Respectfully Yours, &c The Officers of the Association of the German Press of Pennsylvania: S. K. BEOBST, Allentown, President. DR. NORWITZ, Philadelphia, 1 p E. B. HARLACHER , Allentown, .1 "" r es' ' t s W. ROSENTHAL, Reading, J. W. SCHRADER, Pottsville, Secretaries. GEORGE RIPPER, Harrisburg, Treasurer. DR. KELLNER, Philadelphia; PROF. WILKEN, Gettysburg, Executive ' A. E. DAMBLY, Skippackville, • Committee.. E. D LEISENRING, Allentown, B. F. TREPLER, grit tiara ti "# 1 ALOOHOL; ITS NATURE ANDS Alcohol is a product of putre oil"7"it, is to liquids what carrion is to meiit"-ftr be gins with the death-of the grain; it ends in the death of the drinker. All processes of distillation aro forms of decay and death. This alcohol, - thus obtained by abnormal processes, is the intoxicating element in all intoxicating drinks. The chief difference between beer and whisky is in the percen tage of alcohol. We are told that it is the abuse,rrot the use, of alcoholic drinkg against which we should guard the community. Granted. The question still remains, What is the use of alcohol ? It certainly is not food. Th,e•experiments of Messrs. Lallemand, Perrin, and Duroy d( monstrate that beyond peradventure. It passes out of the stomach in the same eon dition in which it 6nterei - iiioassiritilated, foreign substance. That body can make °ht. of it neither, bone nor sirrew,nor muscle,nor blood, nor flesh. It' haStes to rid itself of the intruder. Part is carried to the lungs , The fumes of the toper's breath witness to its exhalation. Part is carriedAp neys, wherelt is the prolific caupe r oTtiightt disease. Part ie carried to the brain, which soaks it up as a sponge. Part is carried to the skin, which, irritated by its presence, 'breaks out in boils and blotches. Every part of the body becomes impregnated with. it. The toper is - rightly called "an old soaker." The fist Offeet, of alcohol i is.iSus to spur the system up to strenuons efforts to cast out its foe. It stimulates'. It does not, cannot strengthen. It is never truly a tonic. But, if it promotes some activities, it delays others. The excretory organs are so busy getting rid of this intruder, that they are prevented from pursuing their le gitimate buisineas. The old, effete, worn-out, tissues, therefore, remain. Men drink to gain flesh: Thisllesh of the topprls carrion. Alcohol never makes new flesh nor new muscle. It singply hinders waste, and so forbids repair., This is its second effect. But, as all men know, its chief effect is on the brain. Every poison has its special stl finity. That•of alcohol is for the nervous system. But it is the base and not the top of the brain it stimulates. xt paralyzes the will. It dethrones the reason. It vitiates the affections. It gives predominance to the brute. A drunkard is like a great city under the law of the mob. Such are the effect's of alcohol in its. best estate. But alcohol in its best estate ,is.' a. rarity. Strychnine, stramonium, belladon na, tobacco, cocculus, and opium :.re all em ployed to cheapen and to strengthen it. Adulteration is universal. Dr. Hiram Cox, chemical inspector of Ohio in 1855, after an analysis of the products of six hundred dif ferent stores. reported over ninety per cent. adulterated. Sulphuric acid, red pepper, pelitory, can stic,,potash, brucine, and strych nine were among the articles'used for adul teration. Let no man think that his liquor is pnre4because, he, gotjt directly from the custom-house. The merchants of Oporto 'ship yearly five times as much wine as is 'produced in the Douro Valley. One drug house in London last year sold to one liquor firm in that city more strychnine than the whole medical profession of the city would require in thesame7tin,3e. Orr Louis and Chicago alone' Vfiaily'lis much Califor nia wino as tbe 'whole' Pacific coast pro-' duces. •Of these liquors—distilled, brewed, and vinous—we are consuming in the United States five hundred and forty million gal lons per years; or laeaTly twenty gallona to every 4 nnur, goitaii; and child.. 1, 944 • htfve a drinking saloon to every three hundred in habitants. And we employ in the •making and sale of these drugs three hundred and thirty-five thousand workmen. •This, 'in brief; is the liqinbr traffic in the 'United States. -Its results in disease, crime, taxa tion, and, mental and moral disorder cannot be summdd up in statistics nor given in half a-column epitome. All this, and much ,more, Dr. Story tells, with abundant citaltionskascientific authori ties'in support of his , positions: We know no other book which contains so much on this subject in so brief a compass. 'And the book would constitute an admirable tract • for general circulation,, were /t, not disfig ured by a wretched attempt to write down' to the apprehension of the common peo ple. Dr. Story seems to have fallen into the grevious error of supposing that to be plain it is necessary to.be vulgar. And his pages abound with slang phrases; 'which, however much they may have secured the applansO•df the unittiitfking delivery or the' rectifies, will' despoil the book of its power over that large class of 4 t*LalaVlL ITS NATURE ANR ! li g r e- Vyqlrt St' dry, -of Gli'ica 9•" rk : Natießal Tememnce ,Socipty l ank Public ation Houk. I!`t intelligent moderate-drinkers who other wise could hardly fail to feel the force of his terrible array of facts and figures. A HUMAN TIMEPIECE. A wonderful story is told of a man named J. D. Chevalley, a native of Switzerland, who bad, in 1845, at the age of sixty-six, arrived at an astonishing degree of perfec tion in reckoning time by an internal move ment. He was, in fact, a human timepiece, or living clock. ' In his youth be was accue tomed to pay great attention to the ringing of bells and vibrations of pendulums, and by degrees he acquired the power of count ing a succession of intervals exactly equal to those which the vibrations of the sound produced. Being on board a steamboat on Lake Geneva, on July 14th, 1832; he err gaged to indicate to the crowd around the lapse of a quarter of an hour, or as many minutes and seconds as any orie chose to name, and this during a most ;diversified conversation with those standing by; :and, further, to indicate by his voice the moreent When the hand passed over the quarter, minutes, or any other subdivisioit previous ly stipulated, during the whole course of the experiment. This he did without mis take, notwithstanding the exhitions of those about him to 'distract bitil attgrfibn, and clapped his hands'at the conclusion of the fixed time. His own account ,of,his, gift was as follows : I " I have acquired, .by imitation, labor, and patience; a "m ni oveent whi.l, h "neithertheught, nor labor, nor anythin can stop. It is similar to that of a pendulum, which, at each moment of going and retutning;gives me the space of three seconds, so that twenty of =them make a minute!; and these I add to others continually" Th... ,''' COMPRESSED AIR, TOR PROPELLING STREET CARS. Mr. Waylies, of New Orleans, has recent ly invented a car which has proved a com plete success. In the car-station there is an,ordinary steam-engine, of ahont, sixty-six horse pewer for compressing air into reser voirs. The reservoirs are made of a paper I t compdsition, arid tw'o of them' at - placed 6n top of the ears. On each car ther is .a small engine operated by air supplied from the reservoir in the same manner 4,13 team, giv ing the exact amount cf power that was required to coMpress the air. Th 'engine is not difficult to run, and the ca s can be stopped much more readily th n where horses are used. Each car veil have 300 pounds of compressed_ air to s art with, which will be sufficient to run it iiine or ten miles. The exhatnited air, as it es apes from the '`engine; may be used for v ntilation. The New Orleans Picayune say : " When this, system is adopted in our city, it, will cause at least 5,000 mules to be sent into the country, thereby being or muclii j benefit to the farmers." In New York there are some 40,000 animals employed on tha various railway lines. The release of this immense number of l k orveswould ,do much-toward redncipg their value., The cost ot ,tuning cars by ibis metgod world be .trinchqe!ss than at present, and the speed more uni form. It is claimed that cars can be stopped quicker with the compressed air than by horses. 'SIZE OF THE STARS. How large are the stars, and' are they alike, or do they differ in size ? It used to, be :conjectured , tliat Ihay sire of goat eviltal similar magnitude, presumably about as great as our sun, and that the differences of apparent size are due to differences of dis tance ; whenastronomers came ; tot cover' that some of the sinaller t Stars'aiegife‘ nearest to our system, this idea fell to the grbitnii. A Gernian computer has vow,' however, calculated the actual dimensions of one particular star, and finds that its muff. pth,er., more,. than ,three time?, that. of t:llei The tai questini" leiug than the fountfpnrkagnleildalomparative ly small one. then, must be the size of the Sirius, apd, Alclebs,ran, class ? 4 _ ,The reation of tits itiltfetion-fei'this deteAMna tion was that it is one of the components of what is called a binary system—two stars revolving. about 'each other:lik9