.U DOLLAR PER ANNUM INVARIABLY IN ADVANCE.
XOAVANDA:
Thursday Morning, November 25, 1858.
Original
' HARRY HERMON" TO "ELLA MAY."
VR EDITOR The advertisement of " ELLA MAY"
.escaped my notice until now. Hoping, however, that
Tun n<>t too late, 1 would begin by "paying my distress
a,' to her through your columns. H. H.
Thou whose fair form imagination brings
In angelic beauty, (lacking only the wings )
With "dark eyes" flashing love's entrancing light
round my pillow in the gloom of night
Thou fair congenial spirit who, like me
Tossed on the waves of life's tempestuous sea,
Would gain some part of the matrimonial rest—
0, how 1 long to clasp thee to my breast!
Lonely I've spent my thirty years of life
\ . harming, handsome man, without a wife,
tut have I sought to change my wretched state,
But. nb ! how useless to contend with fate !
Whene'er 1 found a girl to suit my mind
How strange to tell —she did'nt seem inclined !
My form is tall and stately—my blue eyes,
Mild and benignant as the azure skies,
Thev never flash with fury or with ire
(Thev're rather too much buttermilk for fire.)
And "Jupiter's ambrosial locks" could ne'er
In golden glory with my own compare.
1 am a poet—that's my occupation,
And. should my fame be sounded throughout creation,
Remember, if your're Mrs. Hcrmon, you
Will share the laurels of your husband too.
My goodness is exceeding—l would give
Beautiful rules how other folks should livo ;
With eloquence such lofty morals teach,
Sometimes 1 almost think I'm called to preach.
Now, angel Ella, if I only find
You dutiful, controllable, and kind :
Both spirited and gentle—wise and witty
Scorning those dainty airs that spoil the pretty ;
Child-like in innocence—yet shrewd and keen,
Always amusing—quiet and serene,
With each opposing quality of mind
Consistently, harmoniously combined.
Fear not, you may with certainty aud pride
Aspire to be the red-haired poet's bride.
TROY. NOV. 12, I*sß. HARRY HERMON.
3radford County Teachers' Association.
TOWANDA, November 12.
Association met in the public school house
and was called to order by the President, W.
T DAVIS.
l'rot. I>. CRAFT, chairman of the business
committee, reported the order of business to
lie observed at this meeting. The Association
iheu adjourned till half-past one o'clock.
AFTERNOON SESSION.
Association met pursuant to adjournment at
half-past one o'clock, and after an announce
ment of the order of business by the President,
was opened with singing by the choir.
The minutes were then read and approved.
Prof. 1). CRAFT next offered the following
resolutions :
Resolved. That after the word " Provided," of section
41-r f the School Law, which is: " That the County Sn
perintendent may annul any certificate given by liiiu or
. predecessors in office, when he shall think proper, by
Hiving at least ten days previous notice thereof in writing
M the teacher holding it, and to the directors and con
trollers of the district, in which he or she may be em
; !■ ved." should 1* repealed.
Resolved. That males and females should be educated
a the same school, and to the same extent.
The first resolution was taken up and dis
cussed at considerable length on both sides ;
the affirmative was sustained by Messrs. D.
CRAFT, W. T. DAVIS and O. S. DEAN ; the
resolution was opposed by P. D. MORROW, Dr.
Buss, G. D. MONTANYE, aud J. G. B. BAB
COCK.
Some of Jhe principal considerations advan
ced by the affirmative were, that it was grant
ing too much power to ope man, and that this
power might, from prejudice, or from personal
considerations, be abused in annulling sotne
teachers'certificate from unworthy motives and
sending them from their places of employment
disgraced before the world: some instances of
such abuse were cited.
On the other hand it was strongly urged,
that it was necessary that such a power should
be 7ested somewhere and that it could not be
left in better hands than in those of the Coun
ty Superintendent. It was also argued that
the fear of being removed from office would act
as a salutary check upon the Superintendent
were he disused to act unjustly.
The debate then continued till four o'clock
when it was arrested by the order of business.
The President then called on Mr. CHUBBUCK,
Th CRAFT ar.d Dr. BLISS to give their several
methods of teaching English Grammar, which
they did. They all agreed as vo the necessity
of rendering tlie study practical by applying it
to the correction of errors in common conver
sation ; they also spoke favorably ot the oral
method in imparting instruction in this branch.
Association then adjourned to meet at half
past six P. M.
EVENING SESSION.
The Association was called to order at half
past six o'clock by the President, aud was
opened with singing by the choir.
The resolution relative to compelling parents
and guardians to send those under their charge
to school, was then taken up and the debate
was opened by D. CRAFT ; C. R. COBURN, Rev.
•' FOSTER and Rev. D. COOK followed in the
discussion.
The order of busiuess then arrested the de
bate aud after the choir had performed an ap
propriate piece, the President introduced Miss
FIJZABK.TU TIDD to the audieuce, who read an
excellent essay.
-Mrs. L. L. LAMOREUX followed with an able
aod eutertainiug dissertation.
Subject— Unrest and Rest.
The choir here enlivened the exercises with
m usic, and the Presidentjtheu introduced the
Lecturer, Mr. E. GUYER, who eutertaiued the
audience with an instructive address.
Subject— The Tendency of the Times.
The speaker discussed at large the import
ant question of " whether the moral aud relig
-I Qus element in our couutry will prove itself
to overcome immorality, aud to raaiu
'a*a acd increase the purity of our institutions."
THE BRADFORD REPORTER.
He raaiutained an affirmative position, showing
the superiority of the Americau Commonwealth
to all the oriental republics. He based his
conclusions upon arguments drawn from the
improved religious condition of our country and
from the improved social condition of woman.
The Association then adjourned to meet on
Saturday morning at half-past eight o'clock.
SATURDAY MORNING SESSION.
Association convened at half-past eight
o'clock and was opened with prayer by the
Secretary and with singing by the choir.
The resolution of C. R. COBURN. which was
laid over from last evening was then taken up
and debated with considerable spirit by NA
THAN TIDD, D. CRAFT, O. S. DEAN and P. D.
MORROW.
The discussion was here briefly interrupted
in order to appoint a committee to report a
list of candidates for the several offices of the
Association. Committee—D. CRAFT, I). COOK,
P I). MORROW, Miss MARY LEWIS and AUGUS
TA LYON. A motion was, at the same time,
made and carried that the electiou of officers
take place immediately after the report of the
committee.
The committee then retired and C. R. Co-
BURN resumed the debate and coutinued till 10.
40. A. M., when the committee of nominations
reported the followiug uames for officers of the
Association for the ensuing year:
President —o. J. CHrnBUCK, of Orwell.
li/ I '.Pres't. —J.G. 11.U ABcocK,of Windham
"2nd VicePres't. —NATHAN TIDD, of Granville
3 rd Vice Pres't. —C. H. PHELPS, of Athens.
Sec. A Treat. — O S. I)EAN, of Towanda.
Cor. Sec — C. R. COBURN, of Towanda.
A committee was appointed to solicit new
members which reported ten names.
A motion was then made by E. GUYER, that
the officers be elected by the casting vote of
the President. The motion was carried and
those who were nominated by the committee
were elected to the offices to which they were
severally nominated.
The Association then listened to an excel
lent address from the retiring President, W.
T. DAVIS.
S u bject.— History.
On motion of O. F. YOUNG a vote of thanks
was tendered to Mrs. H. L. LAMOKEUX and
Miss E. TIDD for their able essays, and also to
Mr. E. GUYER for his eutertaiuiug and instruct
ive lecture.
On motion of C. R. COBURN, the thanks of
the Association were tendered to Mr. W. T.
DAVIS for his valuable address and for the
praiseworthy raanuer in which he has served
the interests of the Association as I'resideut
during the past year.
Moved and carried that when this Associa
tion adjourn it adjourn to meet at Windham.
A declamation by Mr. THOMAS WILMOT, of
Towanda, was next listened to by the Associa
tion. The speaker displayed good taste in the
selection of his speech and delivered it in a
manner highly creditable to himself.
A vote of thanks was tendered him by the
Association for his eloquent speech.
In the absence of the Treasurer, Rev. J.
MCWILLIAMS, W. T. DAVIS read his report of
the financial condition of the Association,
which report was accepted.
On motion of P. D. MORROW, the Secretary
was instructed to reco:d the minutes of last
year, aud to bring iu his bill for the same.
The committee for obtaining new members
reported $1 initiation fees. Yearly dues were
also received to the amount of s2,fis.
A vote of thanks was also tendered to the
choir of the Presbyterian Church, which was
under the direction of W. C. BOGART, Esq.,
enlivened the exercises of the session with suit
able music.
The roll was then called, and after a prayer
by the llev. J. FOSTER, the Association ad
journed to meet at Windham, on the second
Friday and Saturday of February.
O. S. DEAN, Rec. Sec.
AN INCIDENT OF THE EPIDEMIC. —The New
Orleans Delta relates the following, as one of
the incidents of the yellow fever epidemic in
that city : A boy was discovered iti the morn
ing lying in the grass of Claiborne street,
evidently bright and intelligent, but sick. A
man who had the feelings of kindness strongly
developed went to him, shook him by the
shoulder, and asked him what he was doing
there " Waiting for Gou to come for me,"
said he. " Wiiat do you mean ?" said the gen
tleman, touched by the pathetic tone of the
answer and the condition of the boy, in whose
eye and flushed face he saw the evidences of
the fever. " God sent for mother and father
and little brother," said he, " and took them
away to his home, up in the sky : and mother
told me, when she was sick, that God would
take care of me. I have no home, nobody to
give me anything ; and so I came out here, and
have beeu looking so loug up in the sky for
God to come aud take care of me, as mother
said he would, lie will come, won't he ?
Mother never told me a lie." " Yes, my lad,"
said the man," overcome with emotion, " be has
seut me to take care of you."
" I SAY mister," said one Yankee to another,
" how come your eyes so crooked !"
" My eyes ? Why sitting between two girls
and trying to look at both of them at the same
time."
A MOTHER was bagging aud kissing a four
year old, when she exclaimed, " Charley what
makes you so sweet ?" Charley thought a
moment, aud having been taught that he was
made of the dust of the grouud, replied, with
a rosy smile, " 1 think, mother, God must have
put a little sugar with the dust, don't you ?"
" OLD AGE is coming on me rapidly," as the
urchin said when stealing apples from an old
man's garden, and saw theowuer, coming cow
bide in baud.
SOME one inquires, in the name of Mrs. Par
tington : " Why can't the Captain of a vessel
keep a memorandum of the weight of his an
chor, instead of weighing it every time lie leaves
port ?"
PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY AT TOWANDA, BRADFORD COUNTY, PA., BY E. O'MEARA GOODRICH.
"REGARDLESS OF DENUNCIATION FROM ANY QUARTER."
REFLECTION.
[An Essay read before the Teachers' Institute at Can
ton. by Miss CALFHUKNA ROCKWELL, published by vote
of the Institute.]
Reflection is the basis of all purely intellec
tual efforts; genius without it is 'ike a balloon
without ballast, at the mercy of the clouds,
making mad and erratic flights, but seldom
heavenward. To reflection more than cultiva
tion is the mind indebted for its solid theories
and substantial facts. The loose chaff that is
driven before the wind, is as fully valuable as
the thought that owes not its subsistence to
this faculty; it is equally useful when carried
into all departments of life ; it makes the deep
thinker, the close reasoner, the calm energetic
speaker ; it concentrates ideas, impels to the
loftiest heroism, gives to patriotism the power
that commands and eventuates success. It is
a wall of safety around our schools aud happv
is the teacher who can call it to his or her aid
in the arduous task of goveruiug pupils. The
lawyer, physician, and diviue are all successful
as neglect, abuse, or properly cherish this God
given attribute. Let us call reflection a tem
ple, place it in a grove full of pleasing and in
tricate labyriuths; we enter its dreamy halls
and are charmed by sweet music. We move
amid its winding passages, on each side of which
the hand of classic art has cunningly cheated
time, aud reality. There is suuset beauty
gleaming over all, an inexpressibly sweet quiet
ude breathed upon our souls ; we no longer
seem of earth, earthy, our spirits expand aud
clothe these bodies, (wherein dwell infirmities)
with light and grace. The soft shadows that
float down the quaint old crevices start, grow
tremulous, and surge into life.
The lips breathe thoughts that have burned
into many a worshipping heart, the eyes are
luminous with the fire of poetry, the brains,
domes of intellect; we talk face to face with
the dead past, and yet with the everlasting
present; oh, in what a far off distance seeins
the great world then, its mighty stir aud babel
sounds fall melaucholy upon our ears, refined
and etherealized in the alembic of meditation,
they chime like fairy bells, aud melt into liquid
music, to which, we set our thoughts aud bid
them give the joy to others they have impart
ed to us.
Then there comes a time when wearied with
this world's gare, sick of its strife, saddened
with its heartlessness, we feel almost ready to
despair! and when mental oppression seems
crushing our better natures, we feel the touch
of a soft hand on our temples, aud looking up
wards we behold reflection, her angelic eyes
full of pity and hope, her finger pointing heav
enward, as she bids us muse upon the glories
reserved in the beautiful land where poor earth
tired pilgrims rest forever, how we clasp her to
the newly trustiug heart, while heaven seems
lovelier, and its bright inhabitants rearing a
path of glory that shall bear our ransomed
spirits into the very bosom of iufiuite holiness.
GERMAN BEDS —How THEY ARE MADE.—
They are universally not more than 5 1-2 feet
long and 3 1-2 feet wide. .1 double bed I have
never seen in Germany. The substratum is ofteu
of feathers, but more frequently, about the
hotels, it is some sort of a mattrass placed
upon elastic springs. It is an affair of some
difficulty for one of ordiuary height to stretch
himself out a full length upon one of these beds.
It can only be done diagonally, and is a feat
which requires considerable tact. The cover
ing of the beds is often not much larger than
the bed itself, and always finds itself off atone
side or the other before morning.
But the greatest peculiarity of a German
bed consists of two or three immense feather
pillows, designed to elevate the head and
shoulders to au augle of about 30 degrees, aud
and another appendage about 3 1-2 feet square
and stuffed lightly with feathers, designed to
cover the feet and lower part ot the person.—
Perhaps in winter this may be a comfortable
arrangement, but I can testify in summer that
it is intolerable. The first thing I generally
do, after taking possession of my sleeping
apartment, is to tumble all these feather mon
sters upon the floor. My large Highland
shawl spread over the whole bed, thus cleared
of its incumbrances, and tucked up all around,
transforms it into something like comfort. 1
must however add in all honesty that beds and
linen in German hotels are generally cleaner,
and much better aired thau in the United
States.
NOBLE SENTIMENTS. —Condemn no man for
not thinking as you think. Let every one en
joy the full and free liberty of thinking for
himself. Let every man use his own judgment,
since every man must give an account o ( him
self to God. Abhor every approach, in any
kind of degree, to the spirit of persecution. If
you cannot reason or persuade a man into the
truth, never attempt to force him into it. If
love will not compel him, leave him to God,
the Judge of all.— John Wesley.
A WAGGISH husband recently cured his wife
of divers ills in this wise : He kissed the
servant girl one morning, and got caught at
it. Mrs. J. was set up in an instant. She forgot
all her complaiuts, and the man of the house
declares that he has not had to pay a ceut for
" help " since.
SOMEBODY says a woman in politics is 'ike a
monkey in a china shop—sha can do no good,
and may do a good deal of harm. Rather
than see woman turn statesmen, we would see
them turn somersets. She is about as well cal
culated for one as the other, if not a great deal
more so.
EVERY dollar that circulates among ns was
coined from the sweat of honest life. Remem
ber that, sir—snob, when yon turn up your
nose at a working man.
NOTHING casts a denser cloud over the mind
than discontent, rendering it more occupied
about the evil that disquiets it than the means
of removing it.
LOVERS, whose only desire is to take long
and romantic walks beneath the moon, are
not loog in discovering, after marriage, that
they cannot subsist on moonshine.
[From The London Times.]
The Comet—What it has Seen~And what
is to be said about Comets in General.
We are just parting with a visitor who, it is
now placed beyond doubt, attracted great at
tention, and probably excited great alarm, at
his last visit, more than two thousand years
ago. As that is thecertained minimum, aud, on
a very elaborate calculation, 2,495 years the
maximum of the journey which the Comet
has done since his last appearauce here, we
know that it occurred during that period of
history which is most interesting and best
known to most of us. Englishmen know an
cient history better than modern, and the affairs
of Rome, Greece and the Eastern Empires bet-1
ter than those of any existing State. So we i
might feel almost at home with this Comet, and
welcome it as au old frier.d. It might, at its
last appearance terrified the Athenians iuto ac
cepting the bloody code of DRACO. It might
have announced the destruction of Nineveh, or 1
of Babylon, or the capture of Jerusalem by
Nebucbadnazzer. It might have been seen by
the expedition which sailed around Africa, iu
the reign of Pharoah Xecho. It might have
given interest to the foundation of the Pythian j
games. Within the probable range of its last
visitation, are comprehended the w hole of those
great events and personages that constitute
what we call the history of Greece, from her
early struggles with Asiatic despots to her sub-;
jugation by Rome. In the annals of the late
Power we have the whole period from Ancus
Martius and the destruction of Carthage to
choose from. Beyond a doubt, however,at some !
time or other in that period so familiar und dear
to most of us, precisely the same sigu was
seen in the skies. Among its spectators might
have been not only kings and conquerors fa
mous in history, but the so-called sages of,
Greece aud even the prophets of the Holy
Writ. Thales might have attempted to cal
culate its returu, and Jeremiah might have tri
ed to read its warning.
But how different the significance ot the won- i
drous sight at the two periods ? Till modern
times the boldest conjecture never placed com
ets so far as the tnoou ; and the prevailing be
lief was that they were rather meteoric than
celestial bodies. Thus they were described as
hangiug over a doomed city, and marking the
very site of a Diviue visitation. They were
naturally compared to a flashing scimeter, or
the burning brand. The very expression is,
that a comet blazed in the sky. We are uot
aware that it occurred to astronomers till two
or three centuries ago that comets returned,
the variety of their appearance produced by the
different places of the earth in its orbit being
quite enough to to baffle any attempt to ideu
tify them. No sooner was it found that com
ets are in fact planetary bodies, revolving
round the sun by the same law as ourselves,
than speculators ran into the other extremes,
and fondly hoped that they might be links be
tween this system and some one, or might even
wander through the universe, visiting first one
star, then another, to all time. Modern sci
ence, however, establishes that the range of
onr present visitor, though immensely wide
compared with our planetary proiortions, is
straightened indeed compared with stellar dis
tances. lie had his tether in the attraction of
the sun, as we have. He can travel, indeed,
three hundred and fifty times further from the
sun than we can, aud about twelve times fur
ther from Neptune, the most distant and last
discovered planet of our system ; but even
this does not carry him oue-thousandtb
part of the distance of the nearest fixed star.
Let any one take a half sheet of note paper,
and, marking a circle with a sixpence in one
corner of it, describe thereiu one solar system,
drawing the orbits of the earth and the inferi
or planets as small as he can by the aid of a
magnifying glass. If the circumference of the
sixpence stands for the orbit of Neptune, then
an oval filling the page will fairly represent the
orbit of our comet ; and if the paper be laid
ou the pavement under the west door of St.
Paul's, the length of that edifice will adequate
ly represent the distance of the nearest fixed
star. That the comet should take more than
2,000 years to travel round the page of note pa
per we have supposed, is explained by its great
diminution of speed as it recedes from the sun.
As its perihelion, or as we have seen it move
lately, it has traveled 127,000 miles an hour,
or more than twice as fast as the earth, whose
motion is about a thousand miles a minute. At
its aphelion, however, or its greatest distance
from the sun, the comet is a very slow body,
sailing along, as if doubted to return, at the
rate of 480 miles an hour. This only eight
times the speed of a railway express. At this
pace, even if the comet could wholly shake off
the attraction of the sun—which it certainly
could not —and were it to travel onward in a
straight line, the lapse of a million years would
find it still traveling half way between our sun
and the nearest fixed star. Comets, then, can
hardly be imagined visitors from our system to
any other, or from any other to our own.—
There is every reason to believe they belong to
us, and are only planets of a lighter material,
less settled construction, more eccentric orbits
and somewhat m.>rc devious path thau our own
solid globe.
Comets are the very crux of astronomers.—
Every scientific ball has its own difficulties ;
policy its crisis ; history its mysteries ; medi
cines its incurable diseases ; surgery its deadly
operations; life itself great trials. But a
comet seems to combine iu one all the difficult
problems of observation and calculutiou. Though
it cannot move by the same laws as our own
planets, yet the ellipse is so immeuse and the
course homeward towards the sun so straight,
that it is necessary to make the false assump
tion of a parabolic motion. The true ellipse,
however, ascertained, the difficulty does not
cease ; for the comet is so disturbed by the at
traction of the planets near which it success
fully passes that the orbit of one day is contra
dicted by the orbit of the next—curve, veloci
ty, period, distance, all changing from hour to
hour. Eveu when we know, as we do with re
gard to Halley's Comet, its history for two
thousand years, and can tell the period aud
other elements of its orbit for all that time,
still at every fresh return the comet suffers
planetary disturbances which affect it forever.
But the material, the construction, and the in
ternal history of comets are still inscrutable.—
The utmost observation and research have fail
ed to discover any weight in them. The com
et now receding from our view passed on Mon
day within nine million miles fiom Venus, and
if it had any density at all comparable to our
own would have effected the orbit of that
planet in an appreciable degree. Were that
found to be the case, it would be the first fact
of the kind in the history of these singular bodies.
But, even if there no weight in a comet; it
might still be of a very opaque matter. It is,
however, by no means certain that the very
nucleus can intercept, the light of a small tele
scopic star. Yet in this light, transparent sub
stance, is the source of the immense tail, which
in some comets has been a hundred millions,and
in the present instance not less than forty mil
lions of miles long. It is the seat of the most
extraordinary chauges and the most violent
eruptions, throwing out columns of luminous
matter many millions of miles long, in a few
hours, not only in the usual direction away
from the sun, but directly towards the sun, and
otherwise as some chance may direct. This
comet has exhibited the average of such trans
formations, as yet entirely escaping all the re
sources of glass and of figures. But if there
is more difficulty and mystery in these bodies,
there is also more promise. There is more
chance of new discoveries here thau in the solid
old planets. They change. They approach.
They return. They seem to have an office to
discharge in our system whereof we all partake.
Some of them are old friendsof the new ways;
some are strangers. Both are welcome We
no longer expect them to drown or burn the
world. That is as Heaven decrees, and depends
on no chance comet-stroke. It is hardly possi
ble to look at them without saying that they
replenish, and perhaps vivify, the subtle medi
um through which they diffuse their bright
prospects, and which offers a certain resistance
to their motion. As to danger of collision, of
blighting showers, or pernicious breath, it is as
nothing compared to the thousand aud one
chauces on which mortal life depends. It al
ways hangs on a thread, and that thread is uot
weakened to the amount of one fibre by all the
million of Comets which a French philosopher
calculates to move in our system.
ENGLAND DEMORALIZED BY HER WEALTH.—
The London Times, in a recent article, antici
pates a difficulty in finding employment for the
bullion which is flowing iuto the country—not
because of the want of proper avenues for its
use, but because men have lost confidence iu
one another. "As far," says the Times, "as
the management of public enterprise is concern
ed, the couutry is without a character, and no
man will trust to his neighbor." And it then
proceeds to show that British capitalists have
been so unfortunate in their foreign specula
tions, that they are losing faith in them also :
On this subject another English journal says :
" If Britannia represent the wealth of the
world, she also typifies its absence amongst the
great mass of the people, and we must candid
ly confess to a partiality in favor of lessweath
and its more equal diffusion. Extremes are
rarely pleasant and the presence of enormous
masses of capita] in a few hands, seeking a pro
fitable investment in all quarters to which the
compass points, with great masses of human
beings in all our large cities ill clothed, ill fed,
ill housed, gaunt, consumptive, wretched crea
tures, willing to work, but unable to procure it
without leaving their native land for fardistant
possessions, is a spectacle upon which neither
God nor man can look with pleasure. We
drive from our shores the most productive of
all capitals—human bones and muscle, to seek
existence elsewhere, and enrich other lands by
its developement and industry. There isa ter
rible significance in Goldsmith's couplet—
-111 fares the land, to hastening ills a prey,
Where wealth accumulates aud men decay.
It is to be regretted, too, that while Britan
nia's capital is thus unanimously on the increase,
scouring remote countries of profitable invest
ment, the moral character of onr speculators
is rapidly going to the dogs. Our railways at
home, gigantic undertakings, no doubt, repre
senting nearly half the amount of the national
debt, have enriched lawyers, engineers, contrac
tors, and directors, but they have beggared an
enormous number of respectable people, inclu
ding widows, orphans, ar.d feeble and aged men
and women, whose all has been swallowed up
iu the vortex.
WARM BARN. —A cold and open, weather
boarded barn can easily be made warm oy
boarding them up on the inside and filling up
space between the outside and inside weather
boarding with straw or coarse refuse hav. And
this can be done at a very trifling expense by
such as cannot afford to build new barns or
thoroughly repair their old oues. For a few
dollars worth of boards and nails, and a little
work, which you can do yourself, is all that
is necessary to preveut the ingress of the sharp
winds, and cold, frosty air. And he who
neglects or begrudges this, is unmerciful to his
poor shivering beasts, who would soou tell
him of his want of mercy if they could.
" WHEN a stranger treats me with want of
respect," said a philosophic poor man, " 1 com
fort myself with the reflection that it is not
myself he slights, but my old and shabby coat
and hat, which, to say the truth, have no
particular claim to admiration. So, if my hat
and coat choose to fret about it, let them, but
it is nothing to me."
THE best description of weakness we have
ever heard it contained in the wag's query to
his wife, when she rave him some thiuchicken
broth, if she would not try to coax that chicken
to wade through the soup or.ee more.
THERE is a man in town whose memory is so
short that it only reaches to his knees. Per
I consequence be had uot paid for his lust pair
' of boots.
VOL. XIX. NO. 25.
Something About Oysters.
Look at an oyster 1 In that soft and gela
tinous body lies a whole world of vitality and
quiet enjoyment. Somebody has styled fossili
ferous rocks " monuments of the felicity of
past ages." An undisturbed oyster-bed is a con
centration ofhappinessin the present. Dormant
though the several creatures there congregate*!
seem, each individual is leading the beautified
existence of an Epicurean gosd. The world
without, its cares and joys, its storms and calms,
its passions, evil and good—all are indifferent
to the unheeding oyster. Unobservant even of
what passes in its immediate vicinity, its whole
soul is concentrated in itself, yet not sluggishly
and apathetcally, for its body is throbbing with
life and enjoyment. The mighty ocean is sub
servient to its pleasures. The rolling waves
waft fresh and choice food within its reach,
and the flow of the current feeds it without
requiring an effort. Each atom of water that
comes in contact with it delicate gills evolves
its imprisoned air, to freshen and invigorate
the creature's pellucid blood.
Invisible to humun eye, unless aided by the
wonderful inventions of human science,countless
millions of vitrating cilia are moving incessantly
with synchronic beat on every fibre of each
fringing leaflet Well might old Leewenhoek
exclaim, when he looked through his microscope
at the heart of a shell-fish. " The motion I saw
in the small component parts of it was so in
credibly great, that I could not be satisfied with
that spectacle ; and it is not iu the mind of
man to conceive all the motions which I beheld
within the compass of a grain of sand." And
yet the Dutch naturalist, unaided by the finer
instruments of our time, beheld but a dim and
misty indication of the exquisite ciliary appa
ratus by which these motions are effected.—
llow strar.ge to reflect that all this elaborato
and inimitable contrivance has been devised for
the well being of a despised shell-fish ! Nor is
it merely in the working members of the crea
ture that we find its wonders comprised.—
There are portions of its frame which seem to
serve no essential purpose in its economy, which
might be omitted without disturbing the course
of its daily duties, and yet so constant in their
presence and position, that we cannot doubt
their having had their places in the original
plan according to which the organization of the
mollusk was first put together. These are
symbols of organs to be developed in creatures
higher in the scale of being—antitypes, it may
be, of limbs, and anticipations of undeveloped
senses. These are the first draughts of parts
to be made cut in their details elsewhere, serv
ing, however, an eud by their presence, for
they are badges of relationship and affinity
between one creature and another. In them
the oyster cater and the oyster may find some
common bond of sympathy and distant cousin
hood. Had the disputations and needle-witted
schoolmen known of these mysteries of vitality
how vainly subtle would have been their specu
lations concerning the solution ofsuch enigmas.
But the life of a shell fish is not of unvary
ing rest. Observe the phases of an individual
oyster from moment of its earliest embryo-life,
independent of maternal ties, to the consumma
tion of its destiny, when the knife of fate shall
sever its muscular cords and doom it to entomb
ment iu 11 living sepulchre. How starts it
forth into the world of waters ? Not, as nn
! enlightened people believe, in the shapeof a
minute, bivalved protected, grave, fixed, and
steady oysterling. No ; it enters upon its
career all life and motion flitting about in tha
sea as gayly and lightly as a butterfly or a
swallow skims through the air. Its first ap
pearance is as a microscopic oyster cherub, with
wing like lobes blanking a mouth and shoulders,
unincumbered with inferior crural prolongation,
it passes ihrough a joyous aud vivaciousjuven
i'itv, skipping up and down as if in mockery of
its heavy and immovable parents. Its voyages
from oyster-bed to oyster-bed, and, if in luck
so as to escape the watchful voracity of the
thousand enemies that lie in wait or prowl
about to prey upon youth and experience, at
length having sowed its wild oats, settles down
into a steady solid domestic oyster. It becomes
the parent of fresh broods of oyster cherubs.
As such it would live and die, leaving its shell,
thickened through old age, to serve as its monu
ment throughout all time—a contribution
towards the construction of a fresh geological
epoch and anew layer of the earth's crust—
were it not for the gluttony of man, who rend
ing this sober citizen of the sea from hisnativo
bed, caries him unresisting to bnsv cities and
the hum of crowds. If a handsome,well shap
ed, and well flavored oy.iter.he is introduced to
the palaces of the rich and noble like a wit, or
a philosopher, orapoet, togive additional relish
to their sumptuous feasts ; if a sturdy, thick
backed, strong tasted individual, fate consigns
him so the capac ous tut) of thestreet- fishmonger,
from whence, dosed with coarse black pepper
and pungent vinegar, embalmed partly after
the fashion of an Egyptian King, he is trans
ferred to the hungry stomach of a costermon
ger, or becomes the luxurious repast of a suc
cessful pickpocket.— Westminster JUricic.
llruMiKr. Ruins' TOXGCES.— The tongue of a
humming bird is very curious. It has two
tubes alongside of each other, like the tubes
of a double-barrelled gun. At the tip of the
tongue the two tubes are a little separated,
and their euds are shaped like spoons. The
honey is spooned up, we may say, and it is
drawn into the mouth through the long tubes
of the tongue. But the bird uses its tongue
another way. It catches insects with it, for
it lives on these as well as honey. It catches
them in this way ; the two spoons grasp the
insect like a pair of tongs, and the tongue
bending, puts it into the bird's mouth. The
tongue, then, of the humming bird, is not mere
ly one instrument, but contaius several instru
ments together—two pumps, two spoons, and
a pair of tongs.
same ladies who would faint to see
a man's shirt on a clothes line, will, in a waltz,
lovingly repose their heads upon the same
1 garment when a man is in it, allowing him to
take liberties for which a country girl would
box hia ears till his checks tingled.