Wbt 3fttottiteT. p F McNEIL. Editor and Proprietor. £be IPtdford jfaqaim IS PUBLISHED Every Friday Morning on Juliana Street, OPPOSITE THE SEN6EL HOUSE, BEDFORD, BEDFORD COUNTY, PA. TERMS: 92.00 a year if paid strictly in advance, 82.25 if not paid within three months, $2.50 if not paid within the year Rates of Advertising. One square, one insertion SI.OO One square, three insertions 1.50 Each additional insertion less than three months, 50 3 months. 6 months. 1 year. One square $ 4.50 $ 6.00 SIO.OO Two squares 6.00 9.00 16.00 Three squares..... 8.00 12.00 20.00 Half c01umn.................*> 18.00 25.00 45.00 One column 30.00 45.00 80.00 Administrators' and Executors' notices, $3.00. Audi tors' notices, if under 10 lines, $2.00; if over 10 lines. $2.50. Sberiffs's sales, $1.75 per tract. Table work, double the above rates; figure work 25 per cent, additional. Estrays, Cautions and Notices to Trespassers. $2-00 for three in sertions, if not above ten lines. Marriage notices, 50 eta. each, payable in advance. Obituaries over five lines in length, and Resolutions of Beneficial Associations, at half advertising rates, payable in advance. Announcements of deaths, gratis. Notices in editorial column, 15 cents oer line, jf&t~ No deduction to advertisers of Patent Medecinea, or Advertising Agents. PROFESSIONAL AND BUSINESS CARDS. HPT H. A LSI P. ATTORNEY AT LAW, BEDPOKD, PA.. Will faithfully and promptly attend to all business en trusted to his c&re in Bedford and adjoining counties. Military claims. Pensions, back pay, Bounty, Ac. spee dily collected. Office with Mann A Spang, on Juliana street, 2 doors louth of the Mengel House. April 1, 1864.—tf. J. R, DL'RBORROW, ATTORNEY AT LAW, BEDFORD, PA. Otiice one door south of the "Mengel House," W- 1 attend promptly to all business intrusteato his care Collections made on the shortest notice. Having, also, been regularly licensed to prosecute Claims against the Government, particular attention will be given to the collection of Military claims of all kinds; Pensions. Back Pay, Bounty, Bounty Loans, Ac. Bedford, apr. 8,1864 —tf. ALEX. KING, ATTORNEY AT LAW. And agent for procuring arrears of Pay and Bounty money. Office on Juliana Street, Bedford, Pa. April 1, 1864—tf. KIMMELL A LIN'GEXFELTER. ATTORNEYS AT LAW, BEDFORD, PA. Have formed a partnership in the practice of the Law office on Juliana Street, two doors South of the Mengel House. April 1, 1864—tf. JOHN MAJOR, ■II'STICE OF THE PEACE, HOPEWELL, BEDFORD COUNTY. Collections and all business pertaining to his office will be attended to promptly. Will also attend to the sale or renting of real estate. Instruments of writing carefully piepared. Also settling up partnerships and other ac counts. April 1, 1864—tf. JNO. MOWER. ATTORNEY AT LAW. BEDFORD, PA., April 1,1864.—tf. JOSEPH W. TATE, ATTORNEY AT LAW, BEDFORD PA. \\7TLL promptly uttend to collections and all business V V entrusted to his care in Bedford and adjoining coun ties. Money advanced on Judgmen Notes and other Claims. Ha* for sale Town Lots, in Tatesville, and St. Joseph,* on Bedford Railroad. Farms and unim proved land in quantities to suit purchasers. Office oppositethe Banking House of Reed A Schell. apr. 15, 1864—10 m. JOHN LUTZ, ATTORNEY AT LAW, AND Regularly licensed agent for the collection of Govern ment claims, bounties, back pay, pensions, Ac., will give prompt attention to all business entrusted to his care. Office with J. R. Durborrow, Esq., on Juliana Street, Bedford Pa. August 19th, 1864.—tf. M. A. POINTS, ATTORNEY AT LAW, BEDFORD, PA. Respectfully tenders his professional services to the public. Office with J. W. Lingenfelter, Esq., on Juliana •'.reet, two doors South of the "Mengle House." Bedford, Dec. 9, 1864-tf. DENTISTRY. I, N. BOWSER, Resident Dentist of Wood bury, II rILL spend the second Monday, Tuesday, and Wed t V nesday, o. each month at Hopewell, the remaining three days at Bloody Ran, attending to the duties of his profession. At all other times be can be found in his of tice at Woodbury, excepting the last Monday and Tues day of the same month, which he will spend in Martins ''org, Blair county, Penna. Persons desiring operations -houla call early, as time is limited. All operations war ranted. Aug. 5,1564,-tf. N. HICKOK. J. G. MINNICH, JR. DENTISTS, BEDFORD, PA. Office in the Bank Building, Juliana Street. All operations pertaining to Surgical or Mechanical Dentistry carefully and faithfully performed and war ranted. TERMS CASH. jan6'6s-ly. # DR. B. F. HARRY, Respectfully Anders his professional services to the citizens of Bedford and vicinity. Office and residence on Pitt Street, in the building formerly occupied by Dr. J. 11. Hofius. April 1, 1864—tt. J. L. MARBOURG, M. D. Having permanently located respectfully tenders his ok-sstonal services to the citizens of Bedford and vi nity. Office on Juliana Street, oppositethe Bank, one door north of Hall A Palmer's office. April 1, 1864—tf. DANIEL BORDER. PITT STREET, TWO DOORS WEST OF THE BEDFORD HOTEL, Bedford, Pa. Watehmaker * Dealer in Jewelry .Npeetaclea, Ae HE KEEPS ON .HAND A STOCK OF FINE GOLD AND SILVER WATCHES, SPECTACLES OF Brilliant Double Refined Glasses, also Scotch Pebble Glasses. Gold Watch Chains, Breast Pins, Finger Rings, best quality of Gold Pens. He will supply to order any thing in his line not on 'land. pr. 8, 1864— it. U. S. HOTEL, HARRISBURG, PENN'A., CORNER SIXTH AND MARKET STREETS, OPPOSITE HEADING R. R. DEPOT. I). H. HUTCHINSON, Proprietor. ian6'B3-3w, UNION HOTEL. V ALENTINK STKCKMAN, PROPRIETOR, West Pitt Street, Bedford, Pa., (Formerly the Globe Hotel.) | HE public are assured that he has made ampe ar- I rangeinentx to accommodate all that may favor him vuh heir patronage. 4 plj <N LPery stable attached. Up'rfiL A LOCAL AND GENERAL NEWSPAPER, DEVOTED TO POLITICS, EDUCATION, LITERATURE AND MORALS. BRITISH PERIODICALS, viz. The London Quarterly Review (Conservative). The Edinburgh Review (Whig). The Westminster Review (Radical). The North British Review (Free-Church). AND Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (Tory). The American Publishers continue to reprint the above named periodicals, but as the cost of printing has doubled and the price of paper nearly trebled, they are compelled to advance their terms as follows: Terms for 1865. Tor any one of the Reviews $4.00 per annum. For any two of the Reviews 7.00 " For any three of the Reviews 10.00 " For all four of the Reviews 12.00 " For Blackwood's Magazine 4.00 " For Blackwood and any one Review... 7.00 M For Blackwood and two of the Reviews 10.00 " For Blackwood and three of the Reviews 13.00 " For Blackwood and the four Reviews.... 15.00 " These works will be printed on a greatly improved quality of paper, and while nearly all American Periodi cals are either advanced in price or reduced in sixe—and very generally both—we shall continue to give faithful copies of all the matter contained in the original editions. Hence, our present prices will be found as cheap, for the amount of matter furnished, as those of any of the com peting periodicals in the country. Compared with the cost of the original editions, which at the present premium on gold would be about SIOO a year, our prices (sls) are exceedingly low. Add to this the fact that we make our annual payments to the British Publishers for early sheets and copyright in Gold—sl costing us at this time nearly $2.50 in currency—and we trust that in the scale we have adopted we shall be entire ly justified by our subscribers and the reading public. The interest of these Periodicals to American readers is rather increased than diminished by the articles they con tain on our great Civil War, and though sometimes ting ed with prejudice they may still, considering their great ability and the different stand-points from which they are written, be read and studied with advantage by the peo ple of this country of every creed and party. LEONARD SCOTT A CO., Publishers, No. 38 Walker Street, New York. Jan. 27, 1865. THE NEW-YORK TIMES. The price of the Tines (Daily) is Fova CENTS. To Mail Subscribers per annum $lO OO Including Sunday morning edition, sl2. TUB SEMI-WEEKLY TIMES. One copy 1 year 93 00 Two copies 1 year 5 OO THE WEEKLV TIMES. One copy 1 year 92 OO Three copies 1 year 5 OO , Fresh names may at any time be added to clubs, both of the WEEKLY and STMI- WEEKLY, at Club Rates. Payment invariably in advance. We have no authorized traveling Agent*. Address H. J. RAYMOND <fc CO., Publishers. Dec.23,'64-2m. DESCRIPTIVE CIRCULAR OF THE HOPEWELL OIL COMPANY. Capital.—s299,ooo. Shares.—2o6,ooo. Par Value,sl.oo. Hon. JOHN ROWE, President. J. SIMPSON AFRICA, Secretary and Treasurer. DIRECTORS: W. S. FLETCHER, McConnellsburg, Pa. JOHN ROWE. Greencastle, Pa. F. BENEDICT, Bedford, Pa. J. H. SETUOCR, Hagerstown. Md. J. C. EVERHART, Martinsburg, Pa. JOHN J. SCHELL, Somerset, Pa. C. P. RAMSDKLL, Oil City, Pa. The property of this Company consists of 200 acres of land, in fee simple, situated on the west side of the Al'e gheny river, a short distance above 'he mouth of Scrub Grass Creek, in Scrub Grass Township, Venango county, Pa. It has a frontage along the river of one mile, wilh good boring surface for the whole distance. Two good oil wolls arc now in operation on the oast side of the river, immediately opposite the property of the Co. The following in regard to an adjoining tract, is taken from an editorial in the Philadelphia Price Current, oi December 17: "The geological relation of this property to Oil Creek, is such that the oil-bearing strata, which supply the wells on the Middle Section of Oil Creek (from the Washington McClintook Farm on the north to the Buchanan on the South) most pass under this property; the range of the strata certainly bringing the two localities into this mutu al relation. Other data, obtained from an investigation of the conformation of the ground, and the underlying rocks, lead to the same conclusion, viz: that the main belt of oil. which extends down from the north-northeast and supplies the wells on the Washington, McClintock, Egbert, Stone, Tar, and Buchanan Farms, sweeps down still farther on the same south southwest direction, cor responding with and controlled by the inclination of the strata, and underlies this property. It is well ascertain ed by the testimony of aged and respectable residents that the Indians, years ago, gathered oil from the surface of the ravines on this property and used it for rheumatic af fections. In later times the teamsters of Bullion Iron Furnace, gathered and used the oil for the purpose of applying it to galls and bruises on their horses. Oils for years was seen to exude at a number of places; among others, at the root of an old stump on the bank of the Allegheny river, and in the ravine alluded to. A few years ago, the then owners of the tract, with one or two of rheir neighbors, bored a well, a few feet above the old stump. The first vein of oil was struck at the depth of 286 feet, and the second at 460 feet; an experien ced man from Oil Creek was employed to tube the well, which produced a stream of oil three quarters of an Inch in diameter. The owners of the well, not satisfied with its production, pulled out the chamber, and drilled some feet deeper, when they struck salt water in large quantities and of great strength. Believing that the man ufacture of salt would, at the time, yield them a bettei profit, they arranged their seed bags in the well, so as to enable them to exclude the oil and pump the salt water. Still oil was pumped along with the water, in such quan tities as to gather upon the top of the water-tanks, from whence it was collected, barreled and sold." There is every reason, therefore, to believe that the pro perty of the Company is rich in its supplies of oil. The inclination of the Strata proves, conclusively, that those supplies of oil on Oil Creek have a higher level than the oil-bearing rocks on this property; and that, consequently, the supply will be more permanent than that of Oil Creek itself. The large extent of boring territory, equal to that of half a dozen companies on Oi) Creek, a boat-landing on the Farm, with the advantage of a navigable stream for the transportation of oil, and the certainty of the exis tence of large quantities of coal upon the tract, makes the property of incalculable value. The Company are about, preparing to sink several wells, avid confidently expect the early development of oil in paying quantities. The plan of organization adopted by the Company com mends itself to public approval, from the fact that it places no fictitious value upon its stock, hut confines the sale of shares strictly to their par value. A limited number of Shares can be had by applying to the following named gentlemen : F. Benedict, Bedford, Pa. . Jacob Reed, " " B. F. Meyers, " " J. Henry Schell, Schellsburg, Bedford County, Pa. James Lowther, Altoona, Blair County, Pa. S. S. llarr, Holliduysburg, Pa. ('. W. Asheom, Hopewell, Pa. 1. H. Kauslcr, Hagerstown, Md. S. H. Prathcr 4 Co., Greencastle, Pa. J. liostetter t Co., " " I. J. Phillips, Waynesboro, " John S. Miller, Huntingdon, • Samuel Henry, "' •• W. D. McKinstry, Mercersburg, " And at tne Office af the Company, No. 435 Walnut Bt., hiladelphia. dec.23,'64. Blanks. Blank, judgement notes, deeds, bonds and mort gages fcc. SX., for sats at ths INQUIRES Office. BEDFORD, Pa., FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1865. Ifottrg. THE MANTLE OF ST. JOHN DE MATHA. A LEGEND er "THE RED, WHITE, AND BLUE," A. D. 1154—1864. BY JOHN G. WHITTIER. A strong and mighty Angel, Calm, terrible, and bright, The cross is blended red and blue Upon his mantle white. Two captives by him kneeling, Each on his broken chain, Sang praise to God who raiseth The dead to life again ! Dropping his cross wrought mantle, "Wear this," the Angle said; "Take thou, 0 Freedom's priest, its sign,— The white, the blue, and red." Then rose up John de Matha In the strength the Lord Christ gave, And begged through all the land of France The ransom of the slave. The gates of tower and castle Before him open flew, The drawbridge at his coming feii, The door bolt backward drew. For all men owned his errand, And paid his righteous tax; And the hearts of lord and peasant Were in his hands as wax. At last, out-bound from Tunis, His bark her anchored weighed, Freighted with seven score Christian souls Whose ransom he had paid. Bat, torn by Payniin hatred, Her sail in tatters hung And on the wild waves, rudderless, A shattered hulk she swung. "God save us!" cried the captain, "For nought can man avail; 0, woe betide the ship that lacks Her rudder and her sail! "Behind us are the Moormen ; At sea wc sink or strand ; There's death upon the water, There's death upon the land!" Then spoke up John de Matha; "God's errands never fail! Take thou the mantle which I wear, And make of it a sail." They raised the cross-wrought mantle, The blue, the white,the red; And straight before the wind off-shore The ship of freedom sped. "God help us !" cried the seamen, "For vain is mortal skill; The good ship on a stormy sea Is drifting at its will." Then up spake John de Matha; "My mariners, never fear ! The Lord whose breath has filled our sails May well our vessel Bteer!" So OH through storm and darkness They drove for weary hours; And lo! the third gray morning shone On Ostia's friendly towers. And on the walls the watchers The ship of mercy knew, —■ They knew far off its holy cross, The red, the white, and blue. And the bells on all the staples Rang out in giad accord, To welcome home to Christian soil The ransomed of the Lord. So runs the ancient legend By hard and painter told; And lo! the cycle rounds again, The new is at the old ! With rudder foully broken, And sails l v traitors torn, Our country, on a midnight sea. Is waiting for the moru. Before her, nameless terror; Behind, the pirate foe; The clouds are black above her, The sea is white below. The hope of all who suffer, The dread of all who wrong : She drifts in darkness and in storm, How long, 0 Lord! how long? But courage, 0 my mariners ! Ye shall not suffer wreck, While up to God the freedman's prayers Are rising from your deck. Is not your sail the banner Which G6d bath blest anew, The mantle that De Matha wore. The red, the white, the blue? Its hues are all of heaven, — The red the sunset's dye, The whiteness of the moon lit cloud, The blue of morning's sky. Wait cheerily, then, 0 mariners, For daylight and for land; The breath of God is in yoar sail, Your rudder is His hand. Sail on, sail on, deep-freighted With blessings and with hopes; The saints of old with shadowy hands Are pulling at your ropes. Behind ye holy martyrs Uplift the palm and crown ; Before ye unborn ages send Their benedictions down. Take heart from John de Matha;— God's errands never fail! Sweep on through etorm and darkness, The thunder and the hail! Sail on ! The morning cometh, The port ye yet shall win ; And all the bells of God shall ring The good ship bravely in ! Atlantic Monthly for February. POEMS UNWRITTEN. BY ALFRED TENNYSON. There are poems unwritten and songs unsung, Sweeter than any that ever were heard— Poems that wait for an angel tongue, Songs that but long for a paradise bird. Poems that riple through loveliest lives— Poems unnoted and hidden away Down in the soul where the beautiful thrives, Sweetly as flowers in the airs of May. Poems that only the argels above us, Looking down deep in our hearts, may behold, Felt, though unseen, by the beings who love us, Written on lives as in letters of geld. Siag to my soul the sweet song that thou livest J Read me the poem that never was penned— The wonderful idol of life t)at thou givoat Yrofc froth thy epL-tfc Oh, bcQßtffnl frhui the cheat west. A trip of four thousand miles through the heart of the West awakens a kindling thought of the greatness of the Republic. The West is the Empre: a wet unacknowledged at the East, j because the East knows not the West. But an impartial traveler soon perceives that the East is not the country. New York and New England are but the thumb and forefinger; the West is the I rest of the hand. j A Western visit in summer is best for seeing the country; in winter, best for seeing the people. And are they not the hartiest, friendliest, most hispitableot the human race? What a "Scotch may be, we know not; but if better than a >* estern welcome, it Is better than a plain man deserves. Jostle a Westerner in the street, and at once you are acquaintances: meet him the next day, you are old friends. A shake of the hand in the West has more grip in than between New York ami Bangor. Child of the East, the West is the chief crown of the parent. The uni versal New England element westward is not on ly the best part of the West but the best part of New England: for only the courageous, the ener getic, and the conquering have had the will to quit Eastern homes for Western prairies. Thus the early Pilgrims to New England have their truest sons in the later Pilgrims from New Eng land. A Yankee; therefore, does not come to his fullest stature in Yankeeland; the growu Yan kee is the Westerner. At the East he is a gerani um in a pot, thrifty and prim : at the West, a ge ranium in a garden, where he grows rank, exuber ant, and generous. New countries greaten men's souls. Does the West seek a heraldic sign? Let it choose a shock of corn. O bounteous land of small houses and big barns! So fertile is the Great Valley that, as Jerrold said of Australia, ' Only tickle the earth with a hoe, and she laughs with a harvest!" Though beaten down from their full higbt by snows, corn-stalks are yet stan ding in January so high that one riding among them on a tall horse, and rising in the stirrups, j cannot touch the tops! The prairies—common- place. sad, and sublime—are the garden of the world ! May they ever make farmers rich, and cat tle fat ! Trade, the marker of cities, has amphibious op portunities in the West. The Mississippi and its tributaries yield forty-eight thousand miles of wa ters angered by steamboat wheels—a channel of navigation to twice gird the globe! Already the great lakes are partners with the Atlantic in a di rect trade with Europe. The railroads are wear ing out their tracks with hard work, and paying State debts with their profits. Chicago counts 250 trains coming and going daily at her depots, and says to a New Yorker, "Sir, you have not half so many! And a New Yorker mast sav to this wondrous water-lily of Lake 3lichigan, "A!i hail Chicago,—bazaar of the West, and miracle of cities !' The daily press of New York scatters its leaves very thinly through the West. Mr. Greely's Weekly Tribune goes everywhere, but the metro politan dailies set westward only until, like a tide streak. they meet the counter current of the Cin cinnati press, chiefly the Commercial and the Ga zette; which, in turn, cover the country as the wa ters do the sea. till they meet with the wide spread Chicago Tribune; which in like manner, divides the South west with the St. Louis Repub lican and the Missouri Democrat. All these jour nals are able and influential—growing rich faster than their brethren in New York. The great in fluence which the New York press undoubtedly exerts upon the whole country is, in the West, an innTiooce not directly uptm tlic jftrcrpfc, but the journals. But even this influence is diminish ing, not increasing. New York perhaps will al ways remain the metropolis of the Union; but it can never become like Paris to France. Western churches, Sunday-schools, and day schools thrive like saplings. " An Eastern man. hearing habitually of Western churches as "fee ble," seldom hears of any as being strong. And yet many, like young lions, shake their locks for I very strength In St. Louis, on a single Sunday, we saw two church debts killed, each at a stroke —a Methodist church paving $15,000. and a Presbyterian $30,000. Perhaps no other city in the Union canceled $45,000 of a church debt on that day. The largest Sunday-school in America judged by attendance, not the roll-list) is west of r.he Mississippi—found by Brig.-Gen. Fisk, who equally well commands an army, administers a de partment, or conducts a children's meeting. In Chicago, a mission-school, originating iu a rail road-ear, is now larger than any in New York.— And the largest depository of Sunday-school iiooks is neither in Philadelphia nor New York, but Chicago. Of two millions of population in Illinois, half a million are in day schools —a larger proportion of school-going children than in Con necticut or Massachusetts. But not to color our picture too highly, we eagerly say that a thou sand. Western churches, and a score of Western colleges, are piteously pleading to be helped into strength, and the sooner their plea is heeded, the better for the whole country. Of all our strug gling theological seminaries, the one most impor tant to be speedily equipped is the Congregational Seminary at Chicago. Nusery of churches, shall itself go unnursed r Looking now like a Jog-cab in. who volunteers to build it in marble? With sorrow we confess that the Legislature of Illinois is a body of finer looking men than the Legislature of New York—better heads for a pho tograph. And if Washington should he captur ed by rebels, the Missouri Constitutional Conven tion would he no bad exchange for Congress—for then we would get the Prohibitory Amendment without further delay. Throughout the West, patriotism burns lifie a flame—as if it caught ex tra fire from the sunset. We may he pardoned for mentioning that a good woman now living in Abraham Lincoln's home at Springfield planted a handful of morning-glory seeds at the foot of a pillar by the rear stoop, and was surprised to find the mass of growing vines flowering into three dis tinct stripes of color —red, white and blue; a pa triotic freak of nature, made as if to give a beau tiful proof of tne indigenous loyalty of the West —the very soil of the President's garden testify ing what flag ought to wave oyer the land! Rest ing our feet at the grave of Elijah Lovejoy, mar tyr of liberty, and looking forth from that historic dust mouldering in one of the hundred hill-tops of Alton, we gazed on a majestic landscape where in the Mississippi and Missouri join their far-com ing floods. These mighty rivers flow in the self same channels now as when that grave was new made, but thoughts of a mighty people flow iu how changed a course since then! Twenty-seven years ago, Illinois and Missouri clasped guilty hands for that assassination; but new it is no prophet secret that Illinois, before Washington's next birth-day, will blot her Black 1/aws from the statute-book, and Missouri has already filled the world with the shout of her freedom! And what of the West beyond the West? The Mississippi is the center, not the edge, of the country. The map of the Union has an empty half. Shall not a multitude of cities crowd it full? Seeds of century-plants are in its soil. Nations follow the sun, or, ceasing to follow die. The Great Republic is on its march across the conti nent. Freedom, lover of mountains, sits in the Sierra Nevadas, uttering the cry of the ages, "Westward Ho!" Whereunto God adds his own command, "Cast up, cast up the highway?"— Th eodore Tilton. in Independent. Two bon-mots have already been made upon the Universal Safety Match, which can be ignited only on the box. One suggests as a legend, "Strike but here /,' The other thinks the invention "beats the Old Scratch." The first decision of Chief Justice Chase, in the Supreme Court of the United States, was that West Virginia is legally a State. The decision was given on the question of placing the name of that fkatti on the tjat wbotj {tolling tqo docket. BANEFUL INFLUENCE OF IIOLLIDAYS. It is very common for those of our countrymei who have resided or traveled in Europe, to becom enamored of the frequent holidays of the old eoun tries, and to advocate the multiplication of sucl lays among us. The late President Felton, in hi delightful little volume of 'Familiar Letters fron Europe," does not join in this preference of for eign customs to our own. ''lt is a great misfortune to the Greeks," h< -ays,'"and to the Athenians in particular, tha they have so many saints in their calendar and so many festivals in their honour, to interrup' "he usual business of life. Ehey lose a quarter oi a third of the time in putting on their best clothe adding about the streets, gossipping in. the cof fee-houses. getting tipsy on execrable wine, an<: -inging noisy songs in the streets, in honour of th< Messed saints and martyrs who swarm in their ec clesiastical history. The sensible men here an gradually diminishing the number of their idi< lays, and the sober part of the tradesmen an<; men of business find their advantage in attending to their affairs, while the rest are dissipating tinn slid drachmas, to the impoverishment of then purses and the damage of their health, in baceha nalian orgies. I cannot share in the regrets o: 'hose persons who lament the absence of festival and amusements in our country. What I hav< een of their effects in Europe, east and west, ha given me a strong distaste for them, and the wors-r possible opinion of their influence upon the moral, mental, and physical well-being of tne people. "In the next place, the waste of money, in small sums to be sure, but swelling in the aggregate to immense amounts, helps to keep the people poor and make them poorer. Ami finally, the frivolity, dissipation and low habits, every where cncoura ged hv these festivals, crown the climax of grave •bjections to their observance, which I think mas strike every reflecting person who travels with his eyes open through these countries. You will nev er again hear me lamenting the want of amuse inents in America, or finding fault with the serious countenances of our American people. The week ly rest of Sunday, Christmas, Thanksgiving, the anniversary of our Independence, and one or two other holidays, for the interchange of friendly sa lutations and the re-union of scattered families, are infinitely better than all the festivals in the i alertdars of the Catholic and Oriental countries." This testimony has all the more weight as com ing from one who cannot he suspected of any Pu ritanical strictness, and who was himself, moreo ver, formerly of a different opinion. SOME OF THE PROFITS OF GRAPE-GROWING.— Having had correspondence with many grape growers, says the Cleveland Plaivdealer , respect ing the profits thereof we propose to publish from rime to time, some of the most important items : T. 11., Rootstown, Ohio, writes that in 1862 he sets out 120 vines, half of Catawba and half of Isabella. In 1863 he gathered over 300 pounds, and in 1864 over 500 pounds of grapes. He does not advice the Catawba for that section, because of its late period of ripening. 11. S., Blooming ton Illinois, writes he has eighteen acres of vine yard. that returns are all he could desire. Thinks the Delaware, Concord and Hartfort Prolific are among the best kinds for that section. Says he grows strawberries among his vines, and last sum mer sold of strawberries grown on four acres of vineyard land, 526 bushels of fruit for over S3OOO. Has over 200 varieties of grapes under cultivation in order to test their comparative value. R. 8., Cincinnati, writes that the average yield of wine per acre, on seven acres, during a period of eigh teen years, has been 308 gallons. Many grapes were also gathered from the same vines for table purposes, hut no record kept of them. 8.. Ham ilton county, has one and a halfacres planted with Morton's Virginia grape, and last year his receipt were $2,300, J. E. M., has one and a half acres of Delaware grapes, from which he last year sold $1,200 worth of wine. Many of our correspond ents give also receipts from sales of cuttings, etc.. made from the vineyard. In one instance the a mount was over S4OOO from a little over one acre. SINGULAR CUSTOM.— An auction for unmarried ladies used to take place annually at Babylon. In ever}- district, says the historian, they assembled >n a certain day of the year all virgins of a mar riageable age. The most beautiful was first put up, and the man who bid'the highest or the lar gest sum gained possession of her. The second in personal appearance followed, and the bidders .Tatified themselves with handsome wives accord ing to the depth of their nurses. But, alas ! it seems there were in Babylon some ladies for whom no money was likely to be offered, yet these were also disposed off, so provident were the Babyloni ons. When all the beautiful women weresolii, the crier ordered the most deformed to stand up, and after he had openly demanded who would marry her with a small sum, she was at length adjudica ted to the man who would be satisfied with the least ; and in this manner the money arising from the sale of the handsome served as a portion to those that were of disagreeable looks, or that had any other imperfection. This custom prevailed about four hundred years before Christ. GROWING OLD.— It seems but a summer since we looked forward with eager hope to the coming year. And now we are looking sadly back. Not that the dream has passed, but that it ha" been of no more worth than those around us. As the growing hopes and ambition of early years pass; as friend alter friend departs, and the stronger ties which hold us here are broken, our life seems but a bubble, glancing for a moment in light, then bro ken, and not a ripple left on the stream. Forty years once seemed a long and weary pilgrimage to tread. It now seems but a step. And yet along the way are shrines were a thousand hopes have wasted in ashes ; foctprint-s sacred under their drifting dust; green mounds whose grass is fresh with the watering of tears : shadows even, which we would forget. We will garner the sunshine of those years, and with chastened step and hopes push on toward the evening, whose signal light will soon be seen swinging where the walers are still and the storms never beat.— T. PP. Broicn. PRINTERS' MISTAKES— During the Mexican war one of the newspapers hurriedly announced an item of news from Mexico, that General Pillow and thirty-seven of his men had been lost in a bot tle (battle). Some other paper informed the pub lic. not long ago, that a man in a brown surtout was yesterday brought before the court on a charge of having stolen a small ox (box) from a lady's work-bag. The stolen property was found in his waistcoat pocket. An English paper once stated that the Russian Generel Backinoffkosky was found dead with a long word (sword) in his month. It was, perhaps, the same paper that, in giving a description of a battle between the Poles and Rus sians, said that the conflict was dreadful, and the enemy were repulsed with great laughter (slaugh ter). Again : A gentleman was recently brought up to answer the chaige of having eaten (beaten) a stage-driver for demanding more than his fare. POPULATION AND AGE OF THF. WORLD.—Ac cording to the calculations of Professor Caralis de Foudence the present population ol the world is 1,300,000,000. Allowing for increase in popula tion at an annual rate of 1,292, it is shown that the present population wouid be reached in 5,863 years. This is putting the increase at a low rate, in France, it is 1,227 annually. Calculated on the latter basis, the present numbers would be reach ed in 4,207 years from Noah, allowing that ho loft the ark with three sons and three daughters.— Thus another proof is added to the chronological accuracy of the Seriptural record, and the founda tion laid for a successful urgument against one of the many iufidel theories respecting the antiquity of "the bunas race. THE DRKD SCOTT DECISION.— The fearful events through which we are now passing, are breaking up the great deep, and perhaps upheaving the founda tions of the constitution itself, so far as slavery is i concerned. What will be the future opinions of the country as to ihe legal or constitutional basis on ' which slavery has hitherto rested, we need not at tempt to predict. They may be very different frotn those now generally received. Or it may appear, as many are now coming to believe, that it never had any legal or constitutional basis at all. Nor are we ! disposed to interpose any objections to such a con clusion. In any event, this much may be said in defense of Taney's orinion in the case of Dred j Scott : that slavery had somehow or other a consti tutional and legal existence in this country ; and that however he may have differed from others, or even from the great majority, as to the particular le gal foundation on which slavery stood, it has as yet been found impossible for any one to suggest any other ground that is intrinsically more reasonable or plausable than that given by Taney. Those, there fore, who persist in condemning that opinion, will probably some time find themselves driven to the necessity of adopting, as the only alternative, the idea that slavery has no legal existence at all. It certainly cannot with reason be suspected of Taney, either that he did not know, or was unwilling to put forth, the strongest grounds, in support of his con clusion, that the nature of the case admitted. If that ground be a weak one, so much the better for liberty; but Taney could hardly be expected either to make, or to announce, so revolutionary a discovery as the one we have suggested as the only reasonable alter native to his own opinion. The grounds on which Taney held that persons of African descent could have no right under the constitution, were these: that at the time the constitution, was adopted, that race was treated as property, and that it teas the general sentiment of that time "that a black man had no rights which a white man was bound to res pect." He does not himself, as so many have erro neously supposed, justify that sentiment; on the contrary he deplores it. But he says that it was, nevertheless, a fact; and he thence concludes that the constitution must be interpreted in conformity with that fact. He candidly confesses that the same language as that used in the constitution, would not, if used at this day, authorize any reference against the citizenship of the African race. This confession does honor to his frankness and courage ; and the confession itself, may one day be worth more than many battles for the rights of an oppressed people. Let it be treasured for what it is, and what it may yet do rather than condemned for what it is not. — National Quarterly. WANT OP DECISION.—A great deal of talent is lost to the world for the want, of a little courage. Every day sends to their graves a number of ob scure men, who have only remained in obscurity because their timidity has prevented them from making a first effort, and who, it they only had been induced to begin, would, in all probability, have gone great lengths in the career of fame.— The f. ct is, that in doing anything in the world worth doing, we must not stand shivering on the bank thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in and scramble through as well as we can. It will not do to be perpetually calculating risks and ad justing nice chances ; it did very well before the flood, when a man could consult his friends upon an intended publication for a hundred and fifty rears, and live to see its success for six or seven centuries afterwards ; but at present a man waits and doubts, and consults his brothers, and his un les. and his particular friends, till one day he finds that he is sixty-five years of age, that he "has lost so much time in consulting first cousins and part ic ular friends that he has no more time to follow their advice. There is so little time for over squeamishness at present that the opportunity hps away. The very period of life at which man •hooses to ventire, if ever, is so confined, that it is no bad rule to preach up the necessity, in such in stances, of a little violence done to the feelings, and efforts made in defiance of strict and sober calculation.— Sidney Smith. ASINGULAR TRADISION.—A mong the Semi nole Indians there is a singular tradition regarding the white man's oririn and superiority. Tnev say that when the Great Spirit made the earth, he also made three men, all of whom were fair com plexioned ; and that after making them, he led them to the margin of a small lake, and bade them leap in and wash. One obeyed, and came out of the water purer and fairer than before ; the sec ond hesitated a moment, during which time, the water, agitated by the first had become muddied, and when he bathed he came up copper-colored : the third did not leap in until the water became black with mud, and he came out with his own color. Then the Great Spirit laid before them three packages, and out of pity for his misfortune in color, he gave the black man the first choice.— He took hold of each of the packages, and having felt the weight, chose the heaviest; the copper colored man then chose the next heaviest, leaving the white man the lightest When the packages were opened, the first wasfound to contain spades, hoes and all the implements of labor ; the second unwrapped hunting, fishing and warlike apparatus; the third gave the white man pens and paper, the engines of the mind —the means of mutual, men tal improvement, the social link of humanity, the foundation of the white man's superiority. . THE COFFEE TRADE.—The two principal mar kets where Europe procures her supply of Coffee are the Islands of Java and the Brazils. The an nual consumption on the globe is estimated, in round numbers, at 1,329,000,000 lbs., of which Quantity Europe alone takes 996,750,000. Accor i 'g to the Avenir "Commercial," it appears that Switzerland is comparatively the largest consumer, the quantity being 1,359,000 lbs, or twelve pounds for each inhabitant. Holland with her population of two millions and a half, drinks as much coffee as the whole of the people of France. Belgium consumes about 2 lbs. per head, the Zollverin 4 lbs., and other countries 1 lb. The consumption in Britain in 1862 amounted to 66,450,000. In several parts of Europe the use of coffee has in creased in an exhaorainary manner during the last few years. On the other hand, the great wine growing countries, such as Spain. Portugal, Italy and Greece, generally consnme little. Brazil is the country best suited to the cultivation of coffee but the prior of manual labor there is enormous high. The Hudson River is. locally, at least,"quite as often styled the North River. The latter name it derives from the fact that Sir Henry Hudson and his company of explorers were also the first to discover the Delaware River, which in contradis tinction, and willed the South River. This year there will be four eclipses— two of the sun and two of the moon. The eclipses of the sun occur on the 25th of April and the 15th of October; those of the moon on the 11th of April and 21st of October. A lady skater in Philadelphia lately fell upon the ice. with hands extended to break the fall, just as a swift skater was gliding past. He could not check his speed, and one of bis shrp skates out off three tit tor fingers. Vol 38: No. 8
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers