3IE DJLLAR PER. ANNUM INVARIABLY IN ADVANCE.
T O AV ANDA:
Thursday doming. December 6, 1860.
jSdettcb A'oeirn.
WairriKß thus inscribes bis new volume of poems,
•• H"iue BallaJs," to bis *:ster, aud we remember no more
t. idling st.mzas in the language of dedication. The ref
t ence to his mother, not long dead, is very beautiful :
1 call the old time back ; I bring these lays
To thee in memory of the summer days,
Wheu, by our native streams and forest ways,
We dream them over : while the rivulets made
Song' of their own. and the great pine-trees laid
On warm moon-lights the masses of their shade.
And she was with us, living o'er again
Her life in ours, despite of years and pain—
The Autumn's brightness after latter rain.
Beautiful in Iter holy peace, as one
Who stands at evening, when the work is done,
Glorified in the setting of the sun !
Her memory makes our common landscape seem
Fairer than aov of which palmers dream
Lights the brown hills and sings in every stream.
j.-., r she whose speech wu. always truth's pure gold
Heard, not unpleased, its simple legends told,
And loved With us the beautiful and old.
§sisttliantoßS.
A Singular Story.
From uu article headed "A Day with the
iVtil,'' we extract the following narration. It
s t'lj'tions, to say the leas', ol it :
" it i- constantly urged, iimniigother o'.jec*
Lns to the cii iiil.il.ty of supernatural appari
L that the names of the witnesses have
I ; i irlv anil suspiciously disappeared—that
L ,id then, upon investigation, substantia
ft uis : A very worthy gentleman, who told
I worthy gentleman, who told a very in
■ .'-at Inly, alio tohl somebody else, who
I pi ■ in.i;vulisal who finally communicated
l.r incident to the world. 'I acre are. In wever
i-■ i~t iiit.mated, instances in wli.cii such ti 111 -
:,-ctv is altogether wanting. Anion/ these
• jiie'.so well authenticat. il by wvli known wit
of undoubted verueitv.that,having never
fire been pu ilislied, I venture to relate it
I ■' Mv informant was Prof Tim'uc.of Hallo
t vi-rsUy, the most eminent living theologian
| (i.-riuanv, an ; the ptiumpal cceleMaivh ot
I • iVu-s.an church, lie prelaced the account
I. ivMlMtig me that r was received iVom the
I. .f D • Wette huiiself,immediately after the
k rrenee —that D • Wette was an inliinate
l-T-c il fr.einl, a plain pratieul man, ot le
ft ,i clear and vigorous intellect, with no
A try and imagination in hi- nature
it lie would rely upon his coolness of
. itul aceuiiicy of oii-'-rvntion, under
■. -• ie eombinat an of circumstances, as
y us upon those of any man in the
■ . l)e Wette, the famous German l.ibli-
I T.t.c, returning home one evening between
ft and ten o'clock, was surprised, upon ar-
I a bright light burning ia IDs study, in
■ lie was ratln-r more than surprised ; for
■ . stiii. - ly remembered to have extinguished
ie i idles when he went out, an hour or tv.o
■ ->i -1 v, locked the door, imi put t lie key in
B- i Art, which up on feeling fur it, was still
K pausing a moment to wander by what
■-.as ami for what purjtose any one could
p..- entered the room.he perceived the shadow
■ |rsoii apparently occupied about some
■ /in a remote corner. Supposing it to be a
ft/hr employed in robbing his trunk, he was
ft i the pint of alarming the police, when
B tniii advi. ced to the window,into full view
B r tin- purpose of looking out into tile
.It u.is I)e Wette himself—the scholar |
- v f.issor—iiis height,size, figure, stoop
id, l.is f.ice, his features, eyes .mouth,
.very one—skullcap, study gown,
Hi • 11, everything, there was no mist a- j
■ :;u deception whatever. There stood >
lletie in his own library.ni.d he out in
why he must be somebody else ! >
ft* f instinctively /rasped his body,with •
' and tried himseif with the psycolo-
H- -, c!s of self consciousness and ideuty,
B 1 '■ c. if lie could believe his senses audi
• *ere not white, that lie longer existed ;
r; ner self, and stood, perplexed, bewil
■. H'l 1 confounded,gazing at his other like :
' • n/ out of the window. Upon the
I'°" s reiiriie/ from the window, which oe-
Jin a few moments, I)e Wette resolved
• 1 dispute the possession of his study with •
B ' lfr doctor before morning, and ringing ;
■ . ' door of a house opposite, where an ac-
B resided, lie asked permission to re •
" ' Hiuuher occupied by liira commanded n
tlic interior of the library, and
■ *iii low he con hi see hi-other self en .
' -tiely uud iiieditatiou, now walking
H ' • b)wii the room, immersed in thou/lit
B "? down ut the desk to write, now :
B " f u r volume anion/ the book I
B • -uid iiuitatin/ in all espect.s tlie pecu
• 'he great doctor engaged at work
■ u,t ''''"/itations. At leti/lh, wheu
e * '"bal dock had tiuislied striking
■ Urst foiir and then eleven strokes, as
ti .A ' ire l" do an hour before |
B ' '■db* nuni'ier two manifested si/ns
■ to rest —t°ok out Ids watch, the
B.. r " ( -' e °" e °ther doctor in the
B inl!' ,' r felt Bttre wus ttt tllat aiornent
Hr. 7. . V I " t ' oat P°vket, and wound it up,
KioU 01 ,; ' s vlotbiujr, cunie to the
is n 1 ' l '' e eurtai,,s . u, ui in a few ruo-
B-'.t w " L disappeared. De Wette iiurn>-
1111111!' *' " " uie until convinced
■'l , .;r^ 0 L ad dis P osed Intnst-lf to sleep
■ t.is self, to bed, wondering very
|i^ a:1 ll,i s could mean. ° *j
ftu ', 1 '; ! " e , "; xl "torn ng lie crossed the
Ul> hUirs 10 library.— ;
*- ' J3ten '- d I'? applied the key, !
i opened it and entered. No one was there ;
everything appeared in precisely the same con
dition in which lie had left it the evening be- '
. fore—his pen lying upon the paper as he had
dropped it 011 going out, the candles on the
table and the mantle piece evidently not liavicg
been lighted,the window curtains drawn aside j
as he had left them ; in line there was not a
single t'a.-e of any person's having been in the |
room. ' Had he been insane the night before? (
!He must have been. He was growing old ; 1
something was the matter with his eyes or '
brain ; anyhow iie had been deceived, and it ,
was very foolish of him to have remained away |
ail n : giit. Endeavoring to satisfy his mind |
with some such reflections, as these,he remera- j
be red lie had not yet examined his bedroom, j
Almost ashamed to make the search, now coo- i
vinced it was all an hallucination of the senses ;
he crossed the narrow passage-way and opened
the door. He was thunderstruck. The ceil
ing, a lofty, massive brick arch,had falkn dur
ing the night, filling the room with rubbish
and crashing his bed into atoms. De Wette,
the Apparition,had saved the life of the great
German scholar.
" Tholuek, who was walking with me in the
fields near Halle, wiien relating the anecdote,
. added, upon conclusion : ' 1 do not pretend to
' account tor the phenomenon, no knowledge, l
I scientific or metaphysical, in my possession, is
j adequate to explain it ; hut I have no more
doubt it actually, positively,literally did occur,
than I have of the existence of the sun."—At
hinlic MurJh!ij.
THE MVSTF.RY OF DETECTION —The detec
tion of a forgery by the paying teller of the
Dank of the II -public, on Saturday, was -t re
ditu kubie instance of the unconscious dexter
ity which lon/ habit /ives. The check ap
peared to be drawn by the well known house,
and was upon the peculiar form of blank used
by that house. A teller's eye learns to con
, nectthe usual writing of every dealer with
the blank commonly used by him—its siiape,
color, and even tex ure—so that the thin/ j
becomes a unity in his mind, or rather to his i
perception. The smallest variation, therefore,
makes a discord, and induces scrutiny. In
;his case, the clerk could not tell ichit it was j
that led hlin to examine the signature, which, i
nltiiou/li it proved a forgery, was so closely :
imitated, that a careful comparison with the j
genuine hardly justified suspicion. But lie re- j
uieiulicied that, as he took the check HI hand, I
the paper seemed a little stiffer than that com !
moi.iy used by the firm! So -light are the I
clues, sometimes, that lead to the discovery of [
cri ne.
Iln/iies are rarely philosophers, or they ;
woui i not be rogues. The equilibrium ui
tiling-, so nicelv adjusted to universal fa r ;
dealing, is disturbed by the slightest deviation j
from right. A* on strings stretched in even ;
direct I •. a flirt!* passes to the social limits of i
tin* central < £f.-tiding blow. The culprit tcels, ;
altlioii/h he may be unconscious of the feel j
in/, that ail unseen powers and intelligence |
are in league against him. By dint of self j
control ho may bear an unmoved face ; but
his -oul i- alert and suspicious, and a whisper, '
11 look, or a rustle frightens him. No cunning
can clVet'tu illy evade this law ; the more art
ful go a little farther, that is all. It is a cu
rious fact, that in its operation the ex per test
thief-taker in tin: world is habit—not in great
things necessarily, but just as much in little
things ; not a wise, observing, or thoughtful
man's habit, but even mere commonly a simple l
man's habit, often a child's. Something is His- i
placed without ordinary or adequate cause, |
and the person whose unconscious habit is thus 1
violated, looks twice, and the second look
proves to much lor the seeresy of the crime
that broke the sight but charmed thread.—
The World.
THE PRINTING I'RF.-S AND OI.D AGE That
old age is not what it was in the days when .
! Cicero wrote his " Treatise " upon it—that it :
has lamentably lost dignity and social position
within a hundred years—is one of the world's ,
i acknowledged changes. The rescue ot old age
I from its increasing neglect and insignificance !
1 lias excited much attention ; but it is not unin
teresting nor unprofitab'e to see what is the '
root of tlie evil. James Marlineau, in one of
his admirable sermons, lays it all to the print
i ing press. lie says :
Of how many honors has the printing-press j
! alone deprived the hoary head ! It has driven
j out the era, so genial to the old,of spoken wis
dom,and thrcutnens a reign of silence, by put- .
ting all knowledge and experience into type.— |
The patriarch of a community can never be:
restored to the kind of importance which he j
pos.-essed in the elder societies of the world.— j
i He was his neighbor's chrouicler.bearing with- j
in him the only extant image of many depart
ed scenes and memorable deeds, and aide to
iink the dim traditions of the past, with the j
| living incidents of the present. He wns their :
most qualified counsellor, his memory serving |
as the archives of the State, and supplying
! manv a passage of history illustrative of exist- j
ing emergencies, and solving some civic per- |
plexitv. lie was their poet— representative
of an age already passed from the actual into
the ideal ; associate or contemporary of men ;
whose names have become venerable, and in
tiic oft-repeated tale of other dnys/rom which
lime has expelled whatever was prosaic,weav
ing the retrospect of life into an epic. He j
was their priest, loving to nurture wonder,and 1
spread the sense of mystery, by recounting the j
authentic prodigies of his,or his fulbers's years
'.vlit-ii omen and prophecy were no dunions
things,but sober verities which Providence hud
not vet In-grudged the still pious earth. From j
a'l these prerogatives he is now deposed, sup
planted in his authority by the journal and the
library, wb we speechless and impersonal lore
coldly, but effectually supplies the wants once
served bv the living VOICJ of elders kiudiiog
with the inspiration of the past.
A pleasant and cheerful mind some
times grows upon an old and worn-out body
' like mistletoe upou a dead tree
PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY AT TOWANDA, BRADFORD COUNTY, PA., BY R. W. STURROCK.
The Snow.
Surely, cf all things that arc, snow is the
most beautiful, and the mostfteble ! Born of
air-drops less than the fallen dew, disorgan
ized by a puff of warmth, driven everywhere
| by tlie least motion of the winds, each parti
j ele light and soft, and falling to the earth
with such noiseless geutleness that the wings
of ten million times ten million make no sound
! in tlie air, and the foot-fail of thrice as many
i makes no noise upon tlie ground, what can lie
more helpless, powerless, harmless !
But not the thunder itself speaks God's
i power more than tu's very snow. It bears his
: omnipotence, soft and beautiful as it seems !
While it is yet in the air, it is lord of the 1
j ocean and the prairies Ships are blinded by i
lit. All harbors are silent under this plushy |
' embargo. The traveler hides. The prairies 1
are given up to its behest ; &nd woe to him
that dares to venture against the omnipotence ;
of soft falling snow upon those trackless
wastes 1 In one night it hides tlie engineer- i
'tig of a hundred years. It covers down roads, !
hides bridges, fills up valleys. It forbids the !
flocks to return to the fields. The plow can i
not find its furrows. Towns and villages i
yield up the earth, and obey this white diffu
| nive despot !
Then, when it has given the earth a new
surface, and changed all vehicles, it submits
itself again to the uses of man, and becomes
liis servant, in its age, whom it ruled and de
lied in the hour of its birth But, when (lake
is joined to flake, and the frosts within the
soil join their forces to the frosts descended!
frotn tlie clouds, who shall unlock their clasped
hands ? Who shall disannul their agreement?
or who shall dispossess them of * heir place ?
Gathered in the mountains, banked and piled
tiil they touch the very clouds again in which
once tiiey were born and rocked, how terrible
is their cold, and more terrible their stroke,
when, slipping, some avalanche comes down
tiie mountain side, the roar and tlie snow
stroke loud as tiiunder, and as terrible as
' li/iitniiig ! God gives to the silent snow a
| voice, and clothes its innocence and tveukucss
! with a power like his own !
But, behold again ! That august might
ili.it buried the fields, that shut up husbandry
and drove back from the field its herds, that
wound the very wilderness With a burial sheet,
and sat watchful over its work, from the tops
of mountains, defying men, and storms, even,
which, wheu once enthroned, could not move j
nor change its mighty power—that very might,
when God phases, shall go, as quick and as
-lieiit us it came ! When God remembers the
earth from the south, and l.is breath returns i
again, warm and life-smug, in an instant tlie
MIOW goes back to its former state. Its flakes
die to drops of dew, and the field drinks up
liie depths and banks that hid its lace ; and
the ice and snow that sat silent on the hills, ;
now sing down the brooks and rills, prophets ,
of the coining flowers.— llenry Ward Backer. '
THE COMIC SIM: OF LlFE.— Life, which is
certainly the greatest " institution " that we
know of,has it* comic side as well as its dreary
one, and we sometimes find the comic and the j
dreary going most strangely hand in had.—
l'eop!e are oiten made to laugh when they
fain would weep. The buffoon frequently ;
comes to us most inopportunely—the uuwel- ,
cotne gu st on dismal occasions.
The Biitidi House of Lords are the most '
uugu't body of men in the world. They never '
smile. Tliev apparently regard laughter as a
capital ofi'ence, and entertain a feeling of pro- j
found contempt for humorists and comedians !
One afternoon, when the Ilouse of Lords were j
uncommonly dignified and shepy, an inebria- |
ted American, who had found his way into the j
gallery, uttered a startling aboriginal " who-o-1
op," and aski d if "some bonVble (hie) lord j
wouldn't favor the House with a (hie) comic 1
song !"
In a certain town in New Hampshire, a few |
! years since, an individual borrowed a large)
silver watch to wear at his wife's funeral, lie !
had not been accustomed to carrying a watch !
and made a rather absurd display of the time
piece in question. During the funeral sermon
i>.e annoyed the other mourners exceedingly by
taking out the watch with a great flourish
every few moments, and replacing it with an |
equally extensive flourish. At the grave he :
took out the watch again, and in a solemn
voice said : " It was just twenty minutes past
three when we got her in."— Cleveland Ilain
dealer.
A WIDDEK'S GRIEF. —" Artemns Ward "
remarks, that " There is something indescrib
ably beautiful in the true wife's devotion to
her husband. There is something very awful
in her grief when death takes hi in away.—
' Leaves have their time to fall,' but death
comes irregularly and relentlessly. We recent
ly heard a most touching instance of the re
si/nation of an affectionate woman, at the
funeral of her husband. Though she had ador
ed him, she did not repine at this dark hour.
Looking at the remains of her loved and lost
iiu-butid for the last time, she put on her bon
net and tliu* spoke to the gentlemen whose sad
dutv it was to officiate us pall bearers : " You
pall-bearers, just go into the buttery and get
some rum, and we'll start this man right
along 1"
A GOOD ANECDOTE is told of Mrs Patterson,
of Baltimore, the lady connected with the
Bonaparte family by marriage. Being in
Italy, at an evening party it fell to her lot to
lie handed into the supper table by a young
English nobleman who had a good share of the
puppy in his composition. Thinking to quiz
the old lady, lie said : " You are acquainted
with tlie Americans, I believe." " Very well."
" A monstrously vulgar people, aren't they ?"
" Yes ; but what could you expect when yon
consider that they are dei-cended from the
English? Had their progenitors, now been
Italians or Spaniards, we might look for some
good breeding among them." The nobleman
did not venture to address Mrs. PaUefsou
again tbat evening
" REGARDLESS OF DENUNCIATION FROM ANY QUARTER."
The Printer.
The Belfast J\lrreury gives the following in
' j relation to printers ;
" From high to low, they are the same care
less, light-hearted, clever, well informed reck
less fellows, knowing how to act better than
they do—nothing at times —yet every thing if
occasion requires, or the fit takes them.—
j Wherever you go you are sure to meet one.—
j N'o sooner are they comfortable in one town
than they make tracks tor another, even
; though they have to travel on "hair space
means.'' And to what will they not turn
their heads ? Wc have seen, says an Ameri
can editor, one and the same individual of the
etnft, a minister in California, a lawyer in
| Missouri, a sheriff in Ohio, a boatman on the :
; Western canal, a sailor muster of a privateer, .
an auctioneer in New York, and a pressman j
in a printing office. Nor are these character- j
| istios of the printers in any one country —they
are svery where the same. We have rac-t
them as lecturers, actors, traveling preachers,
ventriloquists ; in fact, as every thing. We
! have met, on a tramp in this country, members
of this roving profession, from all quarters of
the globe—Frenchmen, Spaniards, Portu
guese, Germans and Swedes—and all appa- |
rcntly as much at home as in their own coun
try. Ardent lovers of libcrt , king-craft and
| priestcraft find little favor in their eyes.—
They are always with the people. When the
the chartist excitement was raging in England
tlie most eloquent leaders of the movement
were printers. When the barricades were
raised in Paris in 1848, the compositors cast
their type into bullets and fired them at the
Royalist troop ß . When the Americans were
at war with Mexico, General Taylor's regi
ment was composed almost exclusively ot vol- ,
. unleer printers, and they were the bravest of
his troops."
4
WEIL SAID. —The critic of the Atlantic
Monthly remarks, in connection with a review
I of the latest volume of poetry from Whittier,
that "there is true fire in the heart of the
man, and his eye is the eye of poet. A mure
juicy soil might have made him a Burns or a
! Berranger for us. New England is dry and i
hard, though she have a warm nook in her,
here ami there, where the magnolia grows af-
I ter a fashion. Nature is not the same here, |
and perhaps nei-r will he, as in lands where
! man has mingled his being with hers forcount
iess centuries, where every crag is wild with
legend, and tiie whole aliuusphere of thought
is hazv with the Indian summer of tradition.
Nature without an ideal background is noth
ing. We may claim whatever merits we like,
we mr.) Ic as free and enlightened as we
1 choose, wc ore certainly not interesting or pic
j turesque. The Puritans left us a fine estate
in conscience, energy, and respect for learning ; I
but they disinherited us of the past.
PRETTY EXPERIMENT.— Professor Rogers has
solved the problem of " seeing through a mill
stone." In a paper read before the Scientific
Association at Newport, he says :
i " Take a sheet of foolscap or letter paper,
roll it up so that the opening at one end shall '
he large enough to take in the full size of the
eve, and at the other end let the opening be 1
i not half as large. Take it in tlie right hand, j
| holding it between the thumb and tlie lorefin- !
! ger ; place the large end to tlie right eye and
! look through it with both eyes open to the
! light. 1 ~ou trill see a hole through your hand !
If you take it in your left hand it will be tlie 1
! same. You will in both cases'be astonished to
! see that you have a hole i:i your hand. The
| allusion is most complete."
j A SINGULAR STORY is told of an apple tree
planted over the grave of Roger Williams.—
This tree had pushed downward one of its I
main roots in a sloping direction, nud nearly
1 straight course toward the precise spot that i
| had been occufiid by the skull of Roger i
j Williams. There making a turu conforming '
I with its circumference, the root followed the;
direction of the back-bone to the hips, and
thence divided into two branches, each fol
lowing a leg home to the heel, where they
j both turned upward to tlie extremities of the
; toes of the skeleton. One of the roots formed
i a slight crook at the part occupied by the
knee joint thus producing an increased resem
blance to the outlines of the skeleton of Roger
Williams, as if indeed, molded thereto by the
powers of vegetable life. This singularly form
ed root has been carefully preserved, -as con
stituting a very impressive exemplification of
the mode in which the contents of the grave
have been entirely absorbed.
NEATI.Y "DONE." —" I will bet you a bottle
of wiue that you shall descend from that chair
before I ask you twice." " Done," said the
gentleman,who seemed determined not to obey
the summons so obediently. " Then stop up I
till I ask you the second time." The gentie- j
man having no desire to retain his position un- j
til that period,came down from the chair,aud his
opponeut won the wager.
it
11. W. BEECHER : Our government is now
like a ship that having run long upon one tack
aad very nearly run upon the lee shore, being
on the point of changing her course, and no
longer catching the wind in that direction, the
sails flap and the ship rocks, but just as soon
as the jib catches a little of the wing on the
other side, and the how begins to move about,
we shall have weathered the last rock, and
then, with sail set from top to deck, we 6hall
bear away with full freighted prosperity for
ages yet to come.
PATING A BET —In St. Louis, a yonng man
bet a pair of boots with a young lady on the
election. He lost, ami thereupon had a mam
moth pair of boots manufactured and conveyed
to the young lady's residence on a dray. In
side of the boots, however, he took good care
to deposit pair of Cinderella slippers.
Douglas on Public Afi'airs,
Senator Douglas, now that the exciting
Presidential campaign is over, lias found time
to express his opinions upon its results. It is
perfectly natural that lie should feel some lit
tie annoyance at the triumphant success of
Mr Lincoln; and a little manifestation of that
feeling in a speech the other day,though neith
er dignified nor commendable, was perhaps par
douable. More recently he has put pen to
paper, on the same subject. Having been re-
I quested by several prominent citizens of New
Orleans to deliver a speech in that city " on
the present condition of tlie affairs cf our coun
try," Mr. Douglas preferred to commit his
thoughts to paper. In this manifesto he says,
! what probably no man will donbt, that no man
! in America regrets the election of Mr. Lincoln
more than he does. lie adds :
But while I say this, I am bound, as a good
citizen and law-abiding man, to declare my
conscientious conviction that the mere election
• of any man to the Presidency by the American
people iu accordance with the constitution and
laws, does not of itself furnish any just cause
or reasonable ground tor dissolving the Federal
! Union. It is not pretended, so far as 1 am in
. formed, that any provision of the Constitution
has been violated in the recent election. No
act has been done which impairs or destroys
ihe constitutional rights of any State or citi
zen. Nothing has yet occurred to release any
citizen from his oath of fidelity to the Consti
tution of the United States, which is the su
preme law of every State and every citizen.
1 do not anticipate, nor do I deem it possi
ble in the present condition of the country,
that, under tlie administration of Mr. Lincoln,
any act can be prepetrated that would destroy
or impair the constitutional rights of the citi
zen, or invade the reserved rights of the State
upon the subject of slavery.
To those, if any such there may be, who
look upon disunion and a Southern confederacy
ias a thing desirable in itself, and are only
waiting for the opportunity to accomplish that
which had been previously resolved tipoti —the
election of Mr. Lincoln may furnish a pretext
j for precipitating the Southern States into re
! volution. But to those who regard the Union
under most precious legacy ever bequeathed to
a free people by a patriotic ancestry, and are
determined to maintain it as long as their rights
and liberties, equality and honor are protected
by it, the election of Mr. Lincoln, in my hum
ble opinion, presents no just cause, no reasona
ble excuse for disunion.
WAIVES OF EXEMPTION —The Supreme Court
is getting its eyes open to tlie folly of allowing
individuals to repeal acts of Assembly, and in
a recent decision Judge Woodward remarks on
the exemption law :
" Perhaps it would have been as well if the
, Court bad set out by denying altogether the
capacity of the debtor to waive the sfatutorv
exemption in favor of any creditor. It might
! have been urged in support of the family of
the debtor rather than to the debtor himself,
and that his caprice or will, tempted as tiiey
might be by the creditor.should not defeat the
LogiJative benefaction to him or of those de
! pendent upon him."
A MEMORARLE Guv.—Among the relics of
the glorious war of 1812 which were gathered
at Cleveland on the 10th ult., in honor of the
inauguration of the Perry Statue, was the
memorable Croghan gun. Its service is thus
related by a correspondent of the Cleveland
I Leader :
| In the brilliaucy of Perry's victory, let us
remember the unexampled defence at Fort
Stephenson, now Fremont, just forty days be
fore that naval exploit. A large quantity of
I stores wns collected here. Gen. Harrison,with
a council of war, had declared that the post
j should be abandoned—being indefensible
against heavy cannon—and gave orders to
j Maj. Croghan to that effect. Croghan dis
! obeyed, or perhaps, before it could be carried
j out, tlie British and Indians, in a large bodv
from Maiden, attacked the fort. It had but
one cannon—a G pounder,
i Sir George Provost, in a dispatch to the
Home Government from Montreal,of the 25th
August 1813, states that Gen. Procter moved
forward from Maiden, July 25th, with 350 re
gulars and between 300 and 400 Indians, and
bix pieces of artillery.
Fort Stephenson wa' garrisoned with 150
en under Croghan, who had just turned
his twenty first year. Proctor demanded
a surrender, ami the unvarying story
of the danger of provoking a general massacre
by the savages unless the fort was yielded ; to
all of which Croghan replied that the Indians
would have none left to massacre if the
English conquered, for every man would have
died at the post.
Croghau's musketry did not prevent the
1 enemy from advancing to within thirty feet,
j when under the darkness of the night the one
1 cannon was unmasked, and cut down twenty
j seven at a single discharge The enemy re
coiled and retreated, losing ninety men—the
Americans one. Thus the supplies aud men
were saved to move forward, after Perry's
victory, aiding in the pursuit of of the fleeiug
Procter and Tecuinseh.
WHY ARE THE PRAIRIES TREELESS 'The
Westerners, when they speculate on geology,
answer the questiou by affirming that the
prairie fires have burnt them off—that they
have been frightened oat of existence by the
fires of the Indian. At other times tiiey varv
the theory by affirming that the absence of
trees is due to the deficiency of rain ; but
neither does this stand examination, for the
maps of the distribution of rain show that the
fall of rain on the prairies about equals that
in other regions. Mr. Whitney, in his paper
on the Oiigin of the, Prairies, read before the
Scientific Congress, shows that the real cause
of the absence of arborescent vegetation lies in
certain mechanical conditions of the BOJ, aud
io its extfeuja fineness.— Vtesfem p/jvr.
VOL. XXI. NO. 27
©mcational gtjarfmtnf.
THE following mistakes occiired in the Edu
cational department of the Reporter of last
week, thev were not seen until the papers were
all printed. The last word seventeenth Hue
from the top should be bold, last word in the
forty fifth should be few instead of four, sixth
line from the last iu the article on examina
tions the word these should be there.
MR. EDITOR : Allow me to say that in my
opinion the word Tubal, spoken of in last
week's issue, is put by appositiou with Vulcan
aud Inventor. L. S. CHVBBCCK.
Read Aloud.
Pweadinpr aloud is one of those exercisea
I which combines mental and muscular effort,
and hence has a double advantage. It is au
accomplishment which may be cultivated alone,
perhaps better alone, than- under a teacher,
for then a naturalness of intonation will be
acquired from instinct rather than from art ;
the most that is required being that the per
son practicing should make an effort to com
mand the mind of the author, the sense of
the subject. To read aloud well, a person
should not only understand the subject, but
should hear liis own voice, and feel within him
that every syllable was distinctly enunciated,
while there is an instinct presiding which mod
ulates the voice to the number and distance
l of the hearers. Every speaker to be
! able to tell whether he is instinctly heard by
' ! the farthest auditor iu the room ; if he is uct,
■ j it is from a want of proper judgment aud ob
j serration.
i Reading aloud helps develop the lungs just
ias singing does, if properly performed. The
effect is to iuduce the drawing of a long
; breath once in a while, oftener and deeper
' than of reading without enunciating. These
deep inhalations never fail to develop the ca
' . pacity of the lungs in direct proportion to
• , their practice.
Common consumption begins uniformly with
■ imperfect, insufficient breathing ;it is the char
acteristic cf the disease that the breath be
-1 cornea shorter and shorter through weary
; mouths, down to the close of life, and whatev
er counteracts that short breathing, whatever
' promotes deeper inspirations, is curative to that
' extent, inevitably and under all circumstances.
Let any peixon make the experiment by read
" i ir:g this page aloud, and iu less than three min
( u Us the instinct of a long breath will show
its f. Tills reading aloud develops a weak
voice, and makes it aouoroas. It has great ef
. ficit': v, also, in making the tones clear and
| distinct, freeing them from that annoying
, hoarseness w hich the unaccustomed reader ex
| hibits before he has gone over half a page,
when he has to stop and Item, and clear away,
: to the confusion of himself as much as that of
' j the subject.
This loud reading, when properly done, has
. a great agency in inducing vocal power, on the
same principle that all muscles are strength
ened by exercise, those of voice making organs
being no exception to the general rule. Hence
in many cases, absolute silence diminishes the
vocal power, just as the protracted non-use of
the arm of the Hindoo devotee at length paral
yzes it forever. The general plan, iu appro
priate cases, is to read aloud in a conversation
al tone, thrice a day, for a minute or two, or
three at a time, iacreasing a minute every oth
er day, until half an hour is thus spent at a
time, thrice a day, which is to be continued
until the desired object is accomplished. Man
aged thus there is safety and efficiency as a
uniform result.
As a means, then, of health, of averting
consumption, of being universal and entertaiu
, ing in any company, as a means of showing the
■ quality of the mind, let reading aloud be cou
j sidered an accomplishment far more indispeu
j sable than that of smattering French, lisping
Latin, or dancing cotillions, gallopades, polkas
aud quadrilles.— Hall's Journal of Health.
To DIRECTORS AND TEACHERS. —We call at
tention of directors and teachers, to the fol
lowing questions aud answers as found in tho
official department of the School Journal for
I July. Our postage kill is about fifty dollars
| annually, and three-fourths of it at least, is
1 paid upon letters containing matter that is of
direct benefit to those to whom the letters aro
sent, and no one else is benefitted in the least.
Not uufrequently letters are received from
strangers, asking information relative to school
i matters, which we are expected to give for
j their benefit and pay the postage. We are
J willing to spend time and bestow labor upon
the subject to answer the inquiries, for that is
our business, but to be required to pay for it
! besides we think is what we are not required
to do :
QCEST:ON : Are County Superintendents al
lowed for postage, in addition to their salaries :
ANSWER : They are not. All letters to them
| by Directors n:id others, should therefore bo
prepaid by stamp. Secretaries and other Di
j rectors communicating with County Superin
i tendents, should prepay their letters aud charge
the postage to the District.
QUESTION' : Is it legal for a Board of Direct
ors to deputize one of its members to select a
teacher for a particular school; and if that
member select an improper person, have the
Board any riurht to set aside his selection ?
Citizen of Juniata county
ANSWER : It is not legal for a Board to del
egate its whale po\v*-F in the seleciion and ap
pointment of a tem-her to one of its members.
I It may authorize him to select a teachor for a
particular school, and report to the Board.—
But the appointment of such teacher is not
complete, till the selection is approved by the
Board ; at which time, if there be any objec
tions, especially of a moral nature, against the
person selected, it is not only the ricrht, but it
is the duty of the Board to reject the person
thus presented. Appointment of teachers,
must be the act of the Board, and not of a
member—section 23. paragraph 9, act o? $
May, 1854.— ■ School Journal.