ME OJLLAFt PER ANNUM INVARIABLY IN ADVANCE,
TOWANDA:
Jliursiian {Homing, Dctcmbtr 10,1837.
Stlcdcb |3octni.
[From The Atlantic Monthly.)
THE WIND AND THE STREAM.
A brook came stealing from the ground ;
You scarcely saw its silvery gleatn
Among the herbs that hung around
The borders of that winding stream, —
A pretty stream, a placid stream,
A softly gliding, bashful stream.
A breeze came wandering from the sky,
Light as the whispers of a dream ;
He put the o'erhanging grasses by,
And gaily stooped to kiss the stream,—
The pretty stream, the flattered.stream,
The shy, yet uureluetant stream.
The water, as the wind passed o'er,
Shot upward many a glancing beam,
Dimpled and quivered more and more.
And tripped along a livelier stream, —
The Battered stream, the simpering stream,
The fond, delighted, silly stream.
Away the airy wanderer flew
To where the fields with blossoms teem,
To sparkling springs and rivers blue,
And left alone that little stream, —
The flattered stream, the cheated stream,
The sad, forsaken, lonely stream.
That careless wind no more tame back ;
lie wanders yet the fields, I deem ;
But on its melancholy track
Complaining went that little stream.—
The cheated stream, the hopeless stream,
The ever murmuring, moaning stream
gfli s 1111 aitto ns.
Chinese Foot-Cramping.
While the badge of the man is in the head,
that of gentility in the woman is in the foot.
One of the earliest inquiries of a foreigner,
when he visits that monster curiosity-shop—
" the flowery land"—is anent this point ; and
anv uew-eomcr from the West, be he ever so
modest, is sure to watch the pedicles of the
fust Chinese beauty or ugly he meets. But,
should he bring up in the Southern waters of
China, the impression (common throughout
Christendom,) that the stinted foot is uni
versal among Chinese woman is at once bro
ken. The Canton boatmen, who are most ex
pert at the oar, are the earliest to hail your
approach to the shores, ai d they show by their
naked foot that they find it more convenient
to -uffer this member to grow to its natural
rize. And generally speaking, the female
domestics of the Canton province preferred
this freedom of nature. With truth too, it
mav be averred, that, among the lower clas
s's, the popularity of this objectionable fash
ion is often but local. Thus, in-Chusan and
Ningpo, where I resided for eighteen months,
in 1*42 and 1543, 1 can scarcely recall a sin
gle instance of a natural-sized foot among the
women, even the maid servants. But a sub
sequent residence in the North, particularly
mv travel through the interior of the Canton,
K:ange, and Chihkiang provinces,daily brt/t
instances of females to whom the undistorted
foot seemed indispensable for the sake ol live
lihood.
Hut. as it is an error to say that the cramp
el foot is universal in China, it is no less a
mistake to state, what I have seen in print,
" that only parents of the wealthier sort can
afford to their daughters tiie luxury of small
feet."' The streets and houses, in every town
accessible to foreigners, abundantly testily how
tiiis fashion is mimicked by ail classes. Even
among the poor, who are likely to appreciate
tiie value of preserving it in its natural size,
there is another mode of calculating the profit
and loss of the bandaged foot. When their
daughters are given in marriage, " the golden
i liics" (as their delicate feet are politely call
ed,' come in as a matter of no trilling pecunia
ry consideration. It is not at all improbable
thnt many who have submitted to the torture
til! marriage, have felt it absolutely necessary
to unloose the bandages and set themselves
free, to assist their husbands in the garden or
in the fields, &c. Yet, it is unquestionable,
t at among the lowest orders too, as well as
t'ie richer, the custom is popular and fashiona
ble. In gangs of female beggars which have
passed me in the streets of some of their ci
ties, 1 have seen those whose bodies were co
v,rd with rags and vermin, but whose feet
! "ud as tightly and squeezed to as minute di
mensions as you might witness in any wealthy
family. Not unusually, what to your eye seems
a foot duly bound and bandaged, is all sliarn,
and got up for the sake of aping respectabili
ty A nurse in the family in her evolutions
by day, will sport quasi cramped feet ; but,
*hen suddenly called up at midnight, will ex
pose feet of ordinary and nnmutilated dimen
sion. The pretence is admirably kept up, in
some instances, by wearing short stilts, with
•mall wooden feet in elegantly embroidered
■ toes. The writer has seen the part of a Chi
nf">e actress played, one of whose chief attrac
tions was a remarkably small and elegant f< ot.
gait, the manner were entirely feminine.
However, it turned out to be nothing but imi-
Utiou to the very feet —all performed by a
youth !
twine Europeans, I sec, who conceive that
I mre is no species of monstrosity but what
ttu? t be laid at the door of the Tartar conque
boldly assert that the cramped foot was
I" r °di!ced by them 200 years since, when
"•"> mounted the throne of China. There is
the slightest foundation, however, for such
assertion. The written accounts of the na
ij";tracing this custom, go touch further
i ''k than 200 years. Oue author ascribes
,' or 'g>n to an infamous woman, Tuukey, who
t,p ' c - 1.100. She was empress at the
Having been born with club-feet, she,
■'"marvellous influence over her husband,
v r' 1 . 0110 Her form of foot as the
' beauty, arid to enforce, by imperial
edict, the compression of the feet of female in
fants down to this imperial standard. Others
are of opinion that the detestible custom arose
1,700 years after her, or A. D. 600. Accord
ing to them, the then reigning monarch Yang
te, ordered a pet concubine to bandage her
foot. On the sole of her shoe he had stamp
ed the Lotus flower ; and each step this royal
mistress took, she left on the grounds a print
of the Lotus or water-lily. On this account,
to the present day, the bandaged feet of Chi
nese ladies are complimented as " golden fil
lies." But another account maintains that
the fashion owes its existence to a whim of
Le-ynli, a licentious and tyrannical prince of
the Tang dynasty, who held his court at Nan
king about A. D. 916. It seems that one day
as lie was amusing himself, the thought struck
him he might improve the* appearance of the
feet of a choice favorite in his harem by bond
ing the instep, and raising it into an arch, in
his imagery something resembling the new
moon. How a resemblance was effected it is
difficult to imagine. Nevertheless, the cour
tiers were so taken with admiration of this
contortion, that the novel form was immediate
ly introduced into their families.
During the anarchy that prevailed at the
opening of the present dynasty, a notorious
robber-chief, who had a particular detestation
of the club-feet of Chinese women, chopped off
the feet of a large number of females and rais
ed a vast pile of them. But tiie manes of
those injured women are described not as cry
ing for vengeance upon the bandit chief, but
upon the head of that unpopular and unlucky
Prince Le-yuh, whom they regard as the real
occasion of their sufferings. Heaven is repre
sented as responding to the appeal of these
unfortunates by sentencing the tyrant to make
1.000,000 pair of shoes for the women ot Chi
na with his own fingers.
Generally, the result of such binding is.that
fonr of the toes are bent under the sole, the
big toe only being left free, and the instep is
forced up into a bulge. Accordingly the walk
of " the little-footed celestials" is a short and
quick step, with a swinging of fhe arms—pre
cisely as in walking on one's heels. The Chi
nese compare this to the waving of a willow
before a gentle breeze ! Frequently, to sup
port themselves in walking, these " waving
willows" use an umbrella, make a walking
stick of an attendant, or lean upon the shoul
der of a respectful grandson. It cannot be
doubted that cases of gangrene have occurred
from such severe compression of the foot ; and
ioss of both feet, or of life, and other evils,
might be detailed as arising out of this perni
cious rule of fashion. But, trom all I have
seen, I incline to the opinion that the injur
ious effects of life and health from this tortu
ous position, are not so certain as has been
imagined.— Life in China.
A SIBERIAN' WINTER. —A traveller in Sibe
ria during the winter, is so enveloped in furs
that he can scarcely move ; and under the
thick fur hood, which is fastened to the bear
skin collar and covers the whole face, one can
only draw in as it were by stealth a little of
the external air, which is so keen that it caus
es a very peculiar and painful feeling in th •
throat and lungs. The distance from oue
halting place to another takes about ten hours,
during which time the traveller must continue
on horseback,as the cumbrous dress makes it
insupportable to wade through the snow.—
The poor horses suffer at least as much as
their riders, for besides the general effect of
the cold they are tormented by the ice, form
ing in their nostrils and stopping their breath
ing. When the icy ground is not covered by
snow their hoofs often burst from the effects
of the cold. The caravan is also surrounded
by a thick cloud of vapor ; it is not only living
bodies which produce this effect, but even the
snow smokes. The evaporations arc instantly
changed into millions of needles of ice. which
fill the air and cause a constant slight noise,
resembling the sound of torn satin or silk.—
Even the reindeer seeks the forest to protect
himself from the intensity of the cold. In
the Tundras, where there is no shelter to be
found, the whole herd crowd together as close
as possible to gain a little warmth from each
other, and may be seen standing in this way
quite motionless. Only the dark bird of win
ter, the ra\-en, still cleaves the icy air with
slow and heavy wing, leaving behind hiin a
lone line of thin vapor ; marking the trace of
its solitary flight. The thickest trunks of trees
are rent asunder with loud sound, which in
these deserts, full on the ear like the signal
gun at sea; large masses of rocks are torn trom
their ancient sites ; the ground in the Tundras
and in the Rocky valleys crack, forming wide
yawning fissures, from which the waters, which
were beneath the surface, rise giving off a
clond of vauor, and become immediately cha rig
ed into ice.* The effect of this degree of cold
extends beyond the eaith. The beauty of the
deep solar star, so often and so justly praised,
disappears in the dense atmosphere which the
intensity of the cold produces. —The stars still
irlisten in the firmament, but their brilliancy
is dimmed.— [Travels in the North.
LORENZO DOW. —On one occasion he took
the liberty, while preaching to denounce a
rich man in the community, recently deceased.
The result was an arrest, a trial for slander,
and an imprisonment in the county jail. Af
ter Lorenzo got out of limbo, he announced
that, in spite of his (in his opinion) unjust
punishment, lie should preach, at a given time,
a sermon about " another rich man." lhc pop
ulace were greatly excited, and a crowded
house greeted his appearance. With great
solemnity lie opened the Bible, and read
" And there was another rich man who died
and went to " Then stopped short, and
seemed to be suddenly impressed. He con
tinued—" Brethren, I shall not mention the
place which this man went to, for fear he has
relatives in tltis congregation, who will sue me
for defamation of character." The effect cn
the assembled multitude was irresistible, and
he made the impression permanent by taking
another text, and never alluding to the subject
again.
PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY AT TOWANDA, BRADFORD COUNTY, PA., BY E. O'MEARA GOODRICH.
" RESAR.DI.ESS OF DENUNCIATION FROM ANY QUARTER."
THE RETURN OF THE NIAGARA.
The arrival of the Niagara will revive the
interest in the telegraphic scheme lately nearly
extinct. A new expedition will sail with the
spring, and, in view of this, an analysis of the
cause of the recent failure, and the cbauees
of future success, is not inappropriate.
The first cause of the failure was the change
of plan, by which a beginning was made at the
eastern terminus instead of in the middle of
the ocean. By starting in mid-Atlantic the
difficulties of the enterprise are gradually over
come as the vessels near the shore. The
cable is laid from deep water into shoal, as
cending, instead of descending, the mountain
sides that divide the deep from the shoal wa
ter —a material advantage.
The immediate cause of the loss of the
cable was the injudicious application of the
brakes while the Niagara was 111 motion, the
responsibility of which rest on the engineering
department. Those on board agree that the
brakes were suddenly applied, without stopping
the ship, bringing the immense strain, caused
by her motion while in a heavy sea, to bear
upon the cable, which parted instantaneously.
That it was not parted by its own weight is
evident, for supposing the the depth to have
been double what it really was, and the cable
suspended not in water but iu open air, the
strain would not have tested its sustaining
power by one third. A distinguished person
op board, intimately connected with the tele
graph Company, affirms that the process of
laying the cable was going on as successfully
at the time of the rupture as previously.
It has been insinuated that the loss is partly
attributable to the currents, but their deflect
ing power must have been very trifling ; for
over that very spot the hemp sounding line of
the Arctic, weighing fifty pounds to one hun
dred fathoms, sunk to the bottom, even with
out tiie assistance cf any weight—a phenome
non that could only have happened in still wa
ter. This was confirmed by the Cyclops'
soundings, immediately after the parting of the
cable, when her line sunk undettected by any
current to a depth of two thousand fathoms.
If the loss of the cable was not occasioned
by either the straiu, by its weight, or by a cur
rent, but simply by the miscalculation of those
on board, to decide on whom the onus of re
sponsibility falls becomes a delicate task, which
we will not attempt. It is enough to atlinn
that it cannot be traced any of our officers,
the entire care of the cable lying wholly be
yond their province, and resting with the com
pany's engineers in charge of Mr. Bright.—
There is a discrepancy in that gentleman's offi
cial account and the affirmations of those 011
board, on the very material point whether he
was or was not at the brake at the time.
Aside from tiiis, the responsibility of the
lo.is of the cable rests in no small degree with
those who advised the adoption of the present
apparatus for checking the paying-out of the
cable. Before tiie sailing of the expedition,
the London Times devoted a whole column to
show that it was too cumbrous and heavy for
the management of a slender wire not thicker
than a man's finger. Other experiments have
proved this. Oa the steamer Arctic, a sound
ing cable, as heavy when suspended in the wa
ter as tiie Atlantic cable, is managed with a
single drum six feet long vith all tlie ease of
a spool of thread. The truth of this is now
felt by the company, who have resolved to
abandon it and substitute ft lighter arrange
ment for the coming season at the cost of
£7,500.
Although the loss of the cable can in no
way be attributed to either the the Niagara
or her officers, still it is a source of regret that
it occured on board of our vessel. She is,
doubtless the most suitable vessel afloat for
that special purpose. The disposition of the
cable was faultless neither causing her to pitch
nor liable itself to /.ink as it uncoiled itself
from the immense mounds. It wdl be remem
bered that this tendency to twist in paying out
was considered by many a difficulty that
110 ingenuity could overcome Tiie experience
of>ilie Niagara shows that, if properly stowed,
this sort of danger does not exist.
Of the plans of the coming year we have
been able to learn something. Under what
soever management the attempt is made, the
plan of starting in the middle the ocean will be
observed. The r ason of the change of plan
was the knowledge that if any ruptiye had
occurred after the parting of the ships, it could
not have been known from which vessel to at
tempt to repair the damage ; but the practical
difficulties of reeling in the cable are so great
that this imaginary advantage has been given
over.
The amount of available cable will next
vear be increased to 3,001) miles, or double
the distance from Trinity Bay to \ alentia, to
allow for the slack line needed as an offset
against the inequalities of the bottom, the de
flections of tiie currents, and the general waste
inseparable from the laying of these subma
rine cables. \Y hutever remains wijl be useful
for the secondary submarine lines from the
head of Placentia Bay to Novia Scotia —adis
tanee of some 000 miles.
It is to be presumed from the fact of the
expensive machinery connected with the laying
of the cable being still on board, that the Ni
agara will be again used for telegraphic pur
poses during the coming year. The action of
tiie Secretary, however, is immaterial to the
success of the scheme, as the English govern
ment has offered the loan of another vessel
in her place, should ours, from motives of
economy, decline. It is to be hoped that na
tional generosity will prevent the entire surren
der of the whole enterprise into British hands.
In laying the cable from the middle of the 1
ocean, the Agamemnon should take the east
ern and the Niagra the western part of the
line, the difference in the speed and power of
the two vessels being about an offset against
the force of the winds and easterly currents.—
If the work is to commence from either side,
the western would be preferable, owing to the
direction of the currents and the winds.
One of the most serious causes of danger in
volving the loss of the cable, is the event of a
gale.
Naval authorities nt home have suggested
that in such an event the only chance of sav
ing the cable would be by attaching to it
Manilla hawsers, then passing this over the
bow, the further end of the hawser being suf
ficiently submerged to create an amount of
friction in the water that would moor the ship,
assisted by her steam power. The immense
power of a single rope to bear such an enor
mous strain, by reason of the friction of the
water, has been shown iu the deep sea sound
ing experiments of the Arctic, where the .steam
er was, as it were, moored in a heavy sea by a
wire line 10,000 feet long, and weighing 1,-
700 lbs.
The New Foundland fisherman know this,
and ride out heavy gales ou the banks, depend
not on their tiny anchors, but on the holding
power of several hundred fathoms of line.
In event of the breaking of the machinery
either of the telegraph ships iu a gale, the
only hope is to dritt away, veering out the ca
ble just fast enough to prevent its breaking.—
This contingency, however is not to be expect
ed if the proper season of the yearjs selected.
Experience shows that the latter part of
June is the time when the ships should meet
in the middle of the Atlantic, when the days
are in their geatest length, and the nights are
illumined by the full moon. This year the at
tempt was made too late, and the absence
of this uninterrupted light was, probably,
among other reasons, the cause of the loss of
the cable.
Any person at all conversant with the
changes of the North Atlantic can prophesy
the character of the weather at this season, for
several days in advance, with considerable cer
tainty, so ar as to time the exact moment
when the laying of the cable should commence
commence. The time from the separation of
the ships to the landing of the cable at either
terminus should not exceed six days, involving
a speed of between five and six knots. The
chances of bad weather, during these six days,
are not one in five hundred. Tiie Dolphin, en
gaged in making deep-sea soundings on the
Plateau during the entire summer, did not ex
perience a day that would have impeded the
laying of the cable until the middle of Au
gust.
Another important point is, that a sufficient
number of vessels should be in attendance as
tenders, both with the steamers laying the
cable, and at cither terminus of the route.
After the cable is once laid, the most serious
causes of danger will be in the in shore portions
of the route, where ice, or the anchors of ves
sels, or other disturbing causes from the sur
face, could injure it. During the past sum
mer, a thorough survey of the American side
has been made by Capt. Berryman, developing
the fact that that spot had been chosen where
all along our whole coast these dangers exist
in the least degree. The cable passes in the
deep water to the north of the Grand Banks.
The entrance to Trinity Bay is easy, the depth
immense, nearly 200 fathoms, and the bottom
of a character ensuring the protection of a ca
ble. The exact point of landing is in Bull's
Arm, a bay admirably suited—sheltered and
deep.
The details of similar surveys made on the
Irish coasts we have not learned, but are as
sured that the lauding offers no difficulties ;
the bottom is of hard sand, gradually shelving
—the coast bold and easily made.
The cable is considered by the company as
being all they could wish. Still we are of opin
ion that another form could have been adopt
ed with advantage. A specimen was made at
the Coast Survey Office, in which the conduct
ing wires, forty-nine in number, gave the
strengtli and consistency to the cable. In the
present one the telegraphic wire may be part
ed without a rupture of the whole cable. The
insulating medium was of India-rubber and
sulphur.
DEATH IN LIFE. — is from an
article by Oliver Holmes,in the last number of
the North American Review :
"If the reader of this paper live another
year, his self-conscious principle will have mi
grated from one tenement to another, the raw
materials of which even are not yet put to
gether. A portion of that body of his which
is to be will ripen in the corn of his next har
vest. Another portion of his future person he
will purchase for him, headed up in the form
of certain barrels of potatoes. A third frac
tion is yet to be gathered in the Southern riee
field. The limbs with which he is then to
walk, will be clad with flesh borrowed from
the tenants of many stalls and pastures now
unconscious of their doom. The very organs
of speech, with which lie is to talk so wisely,
plead so eloquently, or speak so effectively,
must first serve his humble brethren to bleat,
to bellow, and for all the various utterances
of barn-yard life."
RiST A letter was lately found, in which
one friend spoke so freely of another that it
led to an irreconcilable quarrel. " I am sur
prised," observed \V., " that such bitter hos
tility should arise out of so trivial a cause."
" I ain not at ail," replied J., " it is quite na
tural ; for a friend becomes a funcl'if you drop
a letter."
Si.iGrrrcAi.LY So.—A man was once relating
a story of being on a locomotive that struck a
cow standing on the track, and threw her seve
ral rods into the field, where she lit squarely
upon her feet, with her head towards the train,
and strange to tell, she wasn't hurt a mite.—
" But didn't she look scared ?" inquired a lis
toner. " Well, 1 don't know whether she was
scared or not, but she looked a good deal dis
couraged."
CONUNDRUM. —Why are the profits of a
drinking saloon like the purchases tuade now-a
days at some of our fashionable dry goods
establishments l
Because they are bargains.
Btgr Louis XVI. asked Count Mnhony if
he understood Italian. " Yes, please your
Majesty," answered the Count " if it i? spoken
in Irish,"
| PECULIARITIES OF GUTTA PERCHA.—IN its
! crude state or in combination with other ma
terials, gutta percha may be heated and le
heated to tiie consistency of thin paste, with
out injury to its future manufacture, while In
dia rubber, if but once treated in the same
manner will be destroyed and unfit for further
use. Gutta percha is not dissolved by fatty
substances ; indeed one application of it is for
oil vessels, —while India rubber is soon dis
solved by coming in contact with fatty sub
stances, as is well known. Gutta percha is a
non-conductor of cold, heat, and electricity,
and its natural state is non-elastic, and with
little or no flexibility ; India rubber, on the
contrary, is a conductor of heat, cold, and
electricity, and by nature highly elastic and
flexible. The specific gravity of gutta percha
is much less than that of India rubber—in
proportion as 100 of gutta percha is to 150 of
India lubber, and is of much finer quality, and
a far better conductor of sound. Fabrics
wrought of India rubber require a separate
varnish to give tliera a polish, but the gutta
percha possesses a nature of inherent polish,
equal in lustre to varnish. When it is quite
pure the color of gutta percha is of a grayish
white. It has a greasy feel with a peculiar
leathery smell. It is not affected by boiling
alcohol, but dissolves readily in boiling spirits
of turpentine, also in naptlia and coal tar.—
The gutta is highly inflammable : a strip cut
off takes light and burns with a bright flame,
emitting sparks and dropping a black residum
iu the manner of scaling wax, which in its com
bustion it very much resembles. But the spe
cial peculiarity of this substance is the effect
of boiling water upon it. When immersethfor
a few minutes in water above 150 degrees.
Fahrenheit, it becomes soft and plastic, so as
to be capable of being moulded to any requir
ed shape or form which it retains upon cool
ing. if a strip of it be cut off and plunged
into boiling water, it contracts in size both in
length and breadth. Tiiis is a very anomalous
and remarkable phenomenon.
FREEMASONRY IN RUSSIA. —The Berlin cor
respondent of the London Tims savs :
" The last striking innovation that has been
made on Russian prejudices and religious feel
ings by the reforming spirit of the present Em
peror, is the toleration accorded by him to
Freemasonry in Russia. The society of Free
masons has hitherto been strictly prohibited
from constituting itself on the soil of Holv
Russia ; the emp'oyees of the state were al
ways required to bind themselves never to be
long to it ; and the Greek Church has an
anathema upon it. For more than half a year
however, " lodges " have been forming in the
interior of the empire, und entering into cor
respondence with other lodges iu foreign conn-
and there are indications of different
kinds Hint this phenomenon in the Rus.-ian
State is far from unwelcome to the powers
that be. Two results are, as it would seem,
expected from the benevolent working of this
society, viz—a better spirit on the part of the
various government functionaries, and a grea
ter willingness to co-operate in the gigantic
task the government has entered upon of com
muting serfdom into a free relation of land
owner and tenant. I believe 1 shall not be
far wrong in imputing this change of tactics
toward the " Soeiety of the Free and Accept
ed Masons " on the part of the Emperor Alex
ander, to the influence of his uncle, the Prince
of Prussia, Avho has for manv years belonged
to it, in spite of the disinclination of the King,
his brother, towards it.
DISTANCE OF THE SUN FROM THE EARTH.—
The German journals have given some tables
which prove that the distance between the
earth and the sun is increasing annually, and
argues from it that the increasing humidity of
our summers and loss of fertility of the earth,
are to be attributed to this circumstance.—
No credit lias heretofore been given to the tra
dition of Ancient Egyptians and Chinese, ae
cording to which these people have formerly
said the sun's disc was about four times as
large as we now see it ; for they estimate the
apparent diameter of the sun as double that
which it is seen in our day. If, however, we
pay attention to the continual diminution of
the apparent diameter of the sun according to
the best observations for several centuries, we
must suppose that the ancients were not mista
ken in the estimates they have transmitted to
us. In the course of six thousand years from
the present time, they assume that the distance
will be so great that only one-eight part of the
warmth that we now enjoy from the sun will
be communicated to the earth ; and it will
then be covered with eternal ice, in the manner
as we now see the plains of the north ; where
the elephant formerly lived arid have neither
spring nor autumn.
MARRIED LIFE has its trials and sorrows.—
Temper may prove incompatible, and call for
forncaranee. Fortune may be chary of its
favors, and enforce self denial. Children may
be ungrateful, and sting tiie poor heart that
has pillowed them. Sickness may come and
haunt a household for years. But ask the
poor man, struggling along with hisdebts, and
the weary woman, toiling early and late, ac
complishing the ruin of all her beauty and
buoyancy, if they would be placed apart could
competence be given them, and all their trials
brought to an end. The answer would be—
" There is something sweeter in this compan
ionship of suffering than anything the world
can offer from its storehouse of jovs outside of
it, and something which would make even se
verer trials than ours only iron bands to draw
us more firmly together."
IfeaF* Two Quakers in Vermont had a dis
pute ; they wished to fight, but it was against
their principles ; they grasped one another ;
one threw, and sat on the back of the other,
and squeezing his head in the mud, said : "On
thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou
eat all the days of thy life." The other, how
ever began to deal blows against his opponent's
head, saying : " It is written, the reed of the
[ vntnari c hnll brim? the rpent's head "
VOL. XVIII —XO. 27.
THE SPHYNX. —Near the Pyramids, mora
wonderotis and more awful than nil else in the
land of Egypt, there sits the lonely Sphyux.
Comely the creature is. but its comeliness is
not of this world ; the once worshipped beast
is a deform fv, and a monster to this genera
tion, and yet you can see that those lips, so
thick and heavy, were fashioned according to
some ancient mould of beauty—some mould
of beauty now forgotten—forgotten, because
that Greece drew forth Cylher.i from the
dashing foam of the Aegean, and in her image
created new forms of beauty, and made it a
law anion;? men that the shot t and proudly
wreathed lip should stand for the sign ami
the main condition of loveliness, through all
generations to come. Vet still there lives ou
the race of those who were beautiful in the
fashion of the older world ; and Christian giris
of Coptic blood, will look on yon with the sad,
serious gaze, and kiss your charitable liaud
with the big, pouting lips of the very Sphyx.
Laugh ami mock if yon will at the worship
of stone idols, but mark ye this, ye breakers
of images, that in one regard, the stone ido'
bears awful semblance of Deity—uttcbango
fulness in the midst of change—the saint
seeming will and intent forever and ever inex
orable ! Upon ancient dynasties of Ethiopian
and Egyptian Kings—iq ou Greek and Roman,
upon Arab and Ottoman < ©nquercrs —upon
Napoleon dreaming of an Eastern Empire—
upon battle and pestilence —upon the cease
less misery of the Egyptian race—upon keen
eyed travelers—llcrotoJns yesterday, and
Warbnrton to-day—upon all, and more, this
unworldly sphynx has watche I, and watched
like a Providence with the same earnest eyes,
and the same sad, trampiil mien. And we, wo
shall die, and Islam will wither away ; and the
Englishman, leaning far over to hold his loved
India, will plant a firm foot on the banks of
the Nile, and sit in the seats of the faithful ;
and still that sleepless rock will lie watching
and watching the work of the new, busy race,
with those same -ad, earnest eyes, and the
same tranquil mien everlasting. You dure not
mock at the Sphynx.— Eol/itn.
ASPODOTK OF THE EIXCTMCAL TELEGRAPH.
I think the most curious fact, taken alto
gether, that I ever heard of the electric tele
graph, was told me Ity a cashier of the Bank of
England. " Once upon a time, then on a cer
tain Saturday night, the folks at the bank
could not make the balance come right by just
£IOO. This is a serious matter in that little
establishment ; I do not mean the cash, but
tbe mis'ake in arithmetic : for it occasions a
world of scrutiny. An error in balancing has
been known, I am told, to keep a delegation of
clerks from each office at woik sometimes
through the whole night. A hue and cry was
of course made after this X 100, as if the old
lady of Thrcadneedle street, would be in the
G 'zetle for want of it. Luckily on the Sun
day morning a clerk felt a suspicion of tho
(ruth dart through his mind quicker than any
flash of the telegraph itself. He told the chief
cashier 0:1 Monday morning that perhaps the
mistake might have occurred in packing some
boxes of spe< ie for the West Indies, which had
been sent to Southampton for shipment. Tho
suggestion was immediately acted upon. Ilero
was a race—lightning against steam ! and
-team with forty-eight hours' start given.—*
Instantly the wires asked, " whether such a
vessel had left the harbor ?" " Just weigh
ing anchor" was tho answer. " Stop her,"
frantically shouted the electric telegraph. It
was done. " Have upon dec k certain box
es marked so and so ; weigh them carefully."
They were weighed ; and one—the delinquent
—was found heavier Ivy just one packet of a
hundred sovereigns than it ought to be. "L r, t
her go," said the mysterious telegraph. The
West India folks were debited with just
XIOO more, and the error was corrected with
out ever looking into the boxes or delaying
the voyage by an hour. Mow that is what
may be called "doing business."— Letters cf
R. E. If. Grey sen.
: TRIE CHRISTIANITY. —Whoever truly wor
; ships, pouring out the prayer, not of inter
| est or four, nor chiefly of personal gratitude,
!>ut of aspiration, reverence and trust, feels ir
| resistildy assured that he is yielding to no weak
! ness, I nit is falling into the atitude congenial
ito higher natures. Can it he denied that the
deep sense of God is a haunting accompani
ment to the deepest and grandest man ? that
however it may co exist with weakness and
I exempt itstlf without forfeiture to certain
siormv force, it was ever inseparable from the
large and balanced soul, the spring at once of
tenderness and strength. What ever is wise, or
strong, or loving enough in this world to out
last the changes of human admiration, will bo
found to luive the tincture of inb use faith.—
The natures which have affected the fate of
mankind, have done so by giving them a Christ!
And in each nation tie highest man, whether
in thought or action, Socrates, Scipio, Dante,
Luther, Pascal, Cromwell and Newton, havu
not attained their great dimensions, without
bearing a divine secret in their sorL ; they
have been men of trust and prayer ; ari l, fa
miliar with Infinite Presence, having attained
the Mature which throws so great a shadow
over history. Take away from these miuda
their religion, reduce the philosophers among
them to their dialect and mathematics, the gen
erals to ihcir strategy, the poet to his fill in
epic fiction ; suppose them to think, to act, to
sing, for secular profit and entertainment, ami
not for truth and justice, dear eternally to Go<l
and do you not cut out the very pith of their
genius and < hararter ? 13c assured all visible
greatnes of minds grows in looking at an invis
ible which is greater.
Qi F.nv. —Tell me yc winged winds thaf.
round my pathway roar, do vc not know some
quiet spot where hoops are worn no morn ?
Some lone and silent dell, some Island or somo"
cave, where women ran walk three abreast)
along the village pave ? The loud winds his
sed around my fare, run! snickering answered,
" nary plage"