Terms of Publication,
-r jiOGA COUNTY AGITATOR is published
j^ or sday Morning, and mailed- to subscriber;
very reasonable' -price of -
oXE DOLLAR PER ANNUM, ''
‘ally »« advance. It is intended to notify every
briber when the term for -which he has paid shall
by the stamp—“ Time Out,” on the mar
h»re I JJ e | a£ t paper. The paper>lll then be stopped
S*® 01 f ar iber remittance be received. By this ar
gemeat no man can be brought in debt to the
f n * \oitator is the Official Paper of the County,
large and steadily increasing circulation reach
«f.nto every neighborhood in.thc County I It is sent
posture to any Post Office within the county
r£<: ,.i but whose most, convenient’-post office may be
Coant y- ' '
Business C-wds, not exceeding 5 lines, paper Inclu
ss re r .w”': . ’ .
"BUSINESS directory.
fig. toWRET & S. F. WIESOIE
* jxorSETS a COUNSELLORS AT LAW, Will
A nttced tho Coart'of, Tioga, Pottor and McKean
, Mtie- 1 - [Wellsbord', Feb'. 1,1853.]
S, B. BROOKS,
.TTDRNEY and counsellor at. law
il ELKLAXD, TIOGA CO. PA.
. Ibe multitude of Counselors there is safety ."—BCMt.
tot «. i s :'’- ___
pit. W. W- WEBB. |
OPFICE over Cone's Law Office, first door below
Farr’? Hotel. Nights he will bo found «T his
i fir-t door above the bridge on Main Street,
Saatucl Dickinson’Sj
c:*. OARXX, DENTIST,
JC — L at his residence near the
JB»aiBiSL\ I Academy. All work pertaining to
UXTiTY^b ; ' hue of business done promptly and
' ' [April 22, 1858.]
warrant: 1 ! _ L ‘ - * J—
— PICKINSON house 4
fORX I X G , N. T.
Mu. A. Field Proprietor.
* r ‘ t 5 taken to anti from the Depot free of charge.
of if 1 IVA lUi IC U I
WKLLSBOKO’, PA.
L. D. TAYLOR. PROPRIETOR.
‘rwjoMmdU popular house is centrally located, and
NBuenda »Mf‘to the patronage of the travelling public.
\ y v. Jo. l?sv b-
' A MERIC AW HOTEL.
CORNING, N. Y..
B FREEMAN, - - - - Proprietor.
v M i g 2o els- Lodgings, 25 cts. Board, 75 cts. per day.
Coniine. March 31, 1859. (ly.)j
“ “j. C. WHITTAKER,
Hydropathic Physician and Surgeon.
ELKLAND, TIOGA CO., PENNA.
Will visit patients in all parts of the County, or re
vive them for treatment at his house. [June 1-I,]
H. O. COLE,
BARBER AMD HAIR DRESSER
CtllOF in the rear of the Post Office. Everything in
S }iU Hoc will he done as well and promptly as it
on be done in the city saloons. Preparations for re
coring dandruff, and beautifying the hair, for sale
cheap- Hair and whiskers dyed any colon. Call and
n elh-boro. Sept. 22, 3559.
GAINES HOTEL.
EC. V CRM IL YEA, PROPRIETOR .
Gaines, Tioga County, Fa.
THIS well known hotel is located within easy access
of tbehestfishing andhunting grounds in North'rn
Pa. No pains will be spared for the accommodation
cf pleasure seekers and the traveling public.
April 14. 1559.
THE CORNING JOIIRAAL.
George W. Pratt, Sditor and Proprietor.
I? published at Corning, Steuben Co.. N. Y., at One
Dvllar and Fifty Cenb per year, in advance. The
Jnunalrs Republican in politics, and has a circula
te reaching into every part of Steuben County.—
ILu«e desirous of extending their business into that
isdihe adjoining counties will find it an excellent ad-
Tirtising medium. Address as above.
DRESS MAKING^
ATIS? M. A. JOHNSON, respectfully announces to
AjL the mi/.ens of WelUboro ami vicinity, that she
uti taken rooms over Niles & Elliott’s Store, where
•be is prepared to execute all orders in the line of
DRESS MAKING. Having bad experience in the
h*me>s, she feels confident that she can give satisfac
u d to all who may favor her with their patronage.
Sept. 29. ISSO.
JOHN B. SHAKESPEAB,
TAILOR.
HAVING opened Ilia shop in the room over
Wm. Roberts Tin Shop,respectfully informs the
-miens of Wcllshoro' nnd vicinity, that he is prepared
uexecute orders’ in his line of business with prumpt
tess and despatch
Cutting done on short notice.
_Wellshoro, Get, 21, ISSS. — 6tn_
WA TCHES! WATCHES!
TOE Subscriber has trot a fine aasortment of hoary
EXGLTSH LEVER UUSTER-CASE
Gold nu(l Silver Walclies,
'inch he will sell cheaper than “dirt*’ on ‘Time,’ i. e.
will sell ‘Time Pieces* on a short (approved) credit.
All kinds of REPAIRING done promptly. If a
~t> of work is not done to the satisfaction of the party
rdering it. no charge will be made.
Past favors appreciated and a contiuance of patron
tfe kindlv solicited. ANDIE FOLEY.
WcMoro, June 21, ISIS.
HOME INDUSTRY.
THE SUBSCRIBER having established a MAR
BLE MANUFACTORY - at the village of Tioga,
'Lore lie is prepared to furnish
Monuments, Tomb-Stones, &c.,
'■ the l.ert
VERMONT & ITALIAN MAKBEE
i »‘u!d respectfully solicit the patronage of this and ad
•ame counties.
Having a stock on hand be is now ready to ex
hale all orders with neatness, accuracy and dispatch.
All work delivered if desired.
JOHN BLAMPIED. *
Lc-£3, Tiog.l Co., Pa.. Sept. 28, 3S$9.
W ill. terbell,
CORNING, N. Y
Wholesale and Retail Dealer, in
Mrc,«, A»d )hs [jcines, Lend, Zinc, and Colored
0!!i, VnrnishfPrushes Cmpheneand Hunting
b.je Stnjj\ S_nsh nud GlasJ, Pure Liquor* for
Patent Medicines, Artist* Paints and lirn*kcs,
r I u,l i€r>j, Fancy Articles, Elnvorinig Extracts, tfcc.,
ALSO,
—A general assortment of School Books—
Blank Books, Staple and Fancy
t < Stationary.
r . T «’.uiius t Druggiits and Country Merchants dealing
‘*iavof thy above articles can be supplied ut a small
Uudcc ou Xew York prices. [Sept. 22, 1557.]
| STOVE MD TO SHOP!
OPPOSITE ROY'S DRUG STOKE,
you can huy Stoves, Tin, and Japanned
, for onc-half the usual prices .
urge Xo. s Elevated Oven Cook Stove and Trim
-lii\ fw , $15 ' 00 -
kinds of
x Tiii and Hardware
for Ready-Pay.
an y OGO who wants anything in this line
‘ ’ a ad see our prices before purchasing elsewhere,
v the place — two doors south’of Farr’s Ho-
V* ,°Ppo=Uc Rot's Drujj Store. CALL AXD SHE
!So9. l.
I; v H. D. DEMING,
announce'to the people of Tioga County
if 1 *sjcdVk QuW prepared to fill all prders for Apple, Pear
Apricot, Evergreen and Deciduous
“ u tr> Al>,o Currants. Raspberries, Gooseberries,
| ' rril -s and Strawberries of all new and approved vari
i; of Hybrid, Perpetual and Sum
i. *'•.£>'.,, 0 , mer llom*r. Moss* Bourbon, Noisette, Tea,
? • ’itln na » and Climbing Boses.
$ • the finest netrva*
?' 3 . 1V 1 rioties of Althea, Calycanthus,
I s -' Pi A iaCa? Syringios. Viburnums, M'igilias £c.
p . Paeonies, Dahlias, Phloxes. Tulips,
T ariet!e l *,
I 1 *««•»»*■.*. -
i‘'*^^««°” r^rS 4dlnB " PrnDin * WIU ta
Kr ' U- D. DEMSG, TV.lUboro, P».
THE AGITATOR
ScUotcO to the srtnujion of the area of JFmfcom ana the Spread of healths Reform*
WHILE THERE SHALL BE A WRONG UNRIGHTED, AND UNTIL “MAN’S INHUMANITY TO MAN” SHALL CEASE, AGITATION MUST CONTINUE.
VOL. VI.
For tbo Agitator.
tJKDER THE SNOW.
The. Spring is coming to us at last,
Bat our Northern hills are bleak,
And bare and brown, the mountain sides
Will be for many a week.
And in shady spots, where the north-winds blow
Lie the last remains of the winter snow.
In such a spot, but a day ago,
I found such a pretty prize,
For peeping up at me thro* the snow.
Shone two little violet eyes.
Two purple buds/growing bright and still,
Under the snow-drift, on the hill. ,
O’er many a life the north-winds blow,
Aud from many a weary heart, •
As the changing seasons come and go,
The flowers of joy depart; ’*
But the blossom of Hope will live and grow
In the coldest places, under the snow.
Soon we shall hear the gong of birds,
And the summer sun will shine.
And flowers of many brilliant hues
Will over the green-sward twine;
“In the JvUness of time” and even thus,
Many a joy may come to us.
THE VOLUNTEER COUNSEL.
John Taylor was licensed when a youth of
twenty-pne. to practice at the bar of . He
was poor, but well educated,‘and possessed ex
traordinary genius. The graces of his person,
combined with the superiority of his intellect,
enabled him to win the hand of a fashionable
beauty.
Twelve months afterwards, the husband was
employed by a wealthy firm of the city to go
on a mission as land agent, to the west. As a
heavy salary was offered, he bade farewell to
his wife and infant son. He wrote back every
week, but received not a line in answer. Six
month? elapsed, when the husband received a
letter from his employers that explained all.
Shortly after his departure for the West/ his
wife and father removed to Mississippi. There
she immediately obtained a divorce by act of
Legislature, married again forthwith, and to
complete the climax of her cruelty and wrong,
had the name of Taylor’s son changed to that
of Marks, her second matrimonial partner.
This perfidy nearly drove Taylor insane.—
His career, from that moment, became eccen
tric in the first degree. Sometimes he preached,
sometimes he plead at the bar; at last a fever
carried him off at a comparatively early age.
At an early hour on the Cth of April, 1840,
the Court House, in Clarksville, Texas, was
tilled to (Overflowing. Save in the war times
there never had been witnessed so large-a gath
ering in the Red River country, while the strong
feeling apparent in every flushed face will be
sufficiently explained by the matter following:
About the close of 1839, George Hopkins,
one of the weathiest planters and most influen
tial men of Northern Texas, offered a gross
insult to Mary Ellison, the young a;nd beautiful
wife of his chief overseer. The husband threat
ened to chastise him for the outrage, whereupon
Hopkins loaded his gun, went to Ellison’s
house and shot him in his own door.
The murderer was arrested and held to an
swer the charge. This occurrence produced
intense excitement, and Hopkins, in order to
turn the tide of popular opinion, or at least to
mitigate the general wrath, which was violently
against him, circulated reports infamously
prejudicial to the character and standing of the
woman who had suffered such cruel wrongs at
his hads.
She brought her suit for slander. And two
cases, one criminal and the other civil, and both
out of the same tragedy, were pending at the
April Circuit Court for 1840.
The interest felt by the community as to the
issue, became far deeper, when it was known
that Ashley and Pike, of Arkansas, and the
celebrated G. S. Prentiss, of New Orleans, each
by enormous fees had been retained by Hop
kins for defense.
The trial of the indictment for murder ended
on the Bth of April, with the acquittal of Hop
kins. Such a result might well have been
foreseen, comparing the talents of the counsel
engaged on either side. The Texas lawyers
yrere utterly overwhelmed by the arguments
jhd eloquence of their opponents. It was a
fijgjht of dwarfs against giants.
"The slander suit was for the 9th, and the
throng of spectators grew in number as well
as in excitement. And what seemed strange,
the current of public opinion jjow i*an for Hop
kins. Ilis money had procured witnesses who
served his powerful advocates*^indeed, so tri
umphant had been the success of the previous
day, that when the slander case was called,
Mary Ellison was left without an attorney; all
had withdrawn. The pigmy.pettifoggers dared
not brave the wit of Pike nor tfoe thunders of
Prentiss. 1
“Have you no counsel ?” inquired Judge
Mills, looking kindly at the plaintiff.
“No, sir, they have all deserted me, and I am
too poor to employ any more,” replied the
beautiful Mary, bursting into tears.
“In such a case, will not some chivalrous
member tof the profession volunteer ?” asked
the Judge, glancing around the bar.
The thirty lawyers were silent,
“I will, your honor,” said a voice from the
thickest part of the crowd qjtuated bohind'the
bar.
At the sound of the voice many started half
from their seats, and perhaps there was no
heart in the intense throng that did not beat
somewhat quicker—it was so unearthly sweet,
ringing and mournful.
The first sensation -was changed, however,
into laughter, when a tall, gaunt, spectral figure,
that no person present, remembered to have
seen before, elbowed his way thro’ the crowd
and placed himself within the bar.
His appearance was a problem to puzzle the
sphynx herself. His high, pale forehead, and
his small, nervously, twitching face, seemed
active with the concentrated essence of genius ;
but his infantile blue eyes, hardly visible be
neath their massive, arches, looked dim.and
dreamy, and almost unconscious, and his clo
thing so shabby that the court almost hesitated
to let the case proceed under his management.
“Has your name been entered on the rolls
of thp State f” demanded the Judge suspi
ciously.
“It is immaterial about mj name being on
the rolls,” answered the stranger, hia thin lips
WELLSBORO, TIOGA COUNTY, PA., THURSDAY MORNING. MARCH 1860.
curling up in a sneer. I may be allowed to
appear once by the courtesy of the court and
the bar. Here is my license from the highest
tribunal in America,” and he handed Judge
Mills a parchment.
The trial immediately went on. In the ex
amination of the witnesses, th.e stranger evinced
little ingenuity as commonly thought. He
suffered each one to tell his own story without
interruption, though he generally managed to
make each one tell it over two or three times/
He asked few questions, which with keen wit
nesses only served to correct mistakes; and be
made no notes, which in strong memories only
tend to embarrass. The examination being
ended, as counsel for • the plaintiff he had a
right to the opening as w.ell as the closing
speech. But to the astonishment of every one
he declined the former, and allowed the defense
to lead off.
Then a shadow might have been seen to flit
across the features of Pike, and to darketi the
bright eyes of Prentiss. They saw that they
had “caught a tartar,” but who it was or how
it happened, it was impossible to guess.
Col. Ashley spoke first. He dealt the jury
a dish of that close, dry logic, which in after
years rendered him famous in the Senate. The
poet, Albert Pike, followed with a vain of wit,
and a half torrent of ridicule, in which neither
the plaintiff nor her ragged attorney were for
gotten or spared.
The great Prentiss concluded for the defend
ant with a gorgeous flow of brilliant os
a shower of falling stars, and with bursts of
oratory that brought the house down in cheers
in which even the sworn jury themselves joined,
notwithstanding the stern order of the bench.
Thus wonderfully susceptible are the Southern
people to the charms of impassioned eloquence.
It was the stranger’s turn. He had remained
apparently abstracted during all the previous
speeches. Still and straight in Ins \ scat, his
pale forehead shooting high like a cone of snow,
and but for that continued twitch that came
and went perpetually on his sallow face, you
would have taken him for a mere man of mar
ble, or a human form carved in ice. Even bis
dim dreary eyes were invisible beneath those
shaggy eyebrows.
Virginia.
But how, at last, he rises—before the bar, not
behind it—and so near the wondering jury that
he might touch the foreman with his bony fin
ger. With eyes half shut, and standing rigid
as a pillar of iron, his thin lips curled as if in
scorn, slightly apart, and the sound comes
forth.
At first it is low and sweet, insinuating
itself into the brain, as an artless tune, win
ning its way into the deepest recesses of the
heart like the melody of a magic incarnation—
while the speaker proceeds, without a gesture
or the signal of excitement, to tear in pieces the
arguments of Ashley, that melt away at' his
touch as frost before the sunbeams. Every one
looked surprised. Ilis logic was at once so
brief and so luminously clear, that the rudest
peasant could comprehend it without an effort.
Anon be came to the dazzling wit of the po
et lawyer, Pike. Then the curl of his lip grew
sharper, his smooth face began to kindle up,
and bis eyes to and dreamy nh lon
ger, but vivid as lightning, red as fire globes,
and larger than twin meteors. The whole soul
was in his eye; the whole heart streamed out
of his face. In five minutes Pike’s wit seemed
the foam of fully, and his finest satire horrible
profanity, when contrasted with the inimitable
sallies and exterminating sarcasms of the stran
ger, interspersed with jests and anecdotes that
filled the forum with roars of laughter.
Then, without as much as bestowing an allu
sion upon Prentiss, he turned round short upon
the perjured witnesses of Hopkins, tore their
testimony into atoms, and hurled in their faces
such terrible invectives that all trembled as
with ague, and two of them actually fled in
dismay froth the court house.
The excitement of the 'crowd was becoming
tremendous. Their united life and soul seemed
to hang upon the burning tongue of the stran
ger. He inspired them with the poison of his
own malicious feelings. He seemed to have
stolen nature’s long hidden secrets of attraction.
He was the sun to the sea of all thought and
emotion which rose and fell and boiled in bil
lows as he chose. But his greatest triumph
was to come.
His eyes began to glance furtively at the
assassin Hopkins, and his lean, taper finger to
assume the same direction. lie hemmed in the
wretch with a circumvolution of stronger evi
dence .and impregnable argument, cutting off all
hopes of escape. He piled up huge bastions of
facts. Ho dug beneath the feet of the murderer
and slanderer, ditches of dilemmas such ad no
sophistry could overleap, and no stretch of in
genuity could evade; and thus having, as one
might say, importuned his victims, and girt
about like a scorpion in a circle of fire, he
stripped himself to the work of massacre.
Then it was a vision both glorious and dread
ful to behold the orator. Ilis actions, before
graceful as the wave of a golden billow in the
breeze, now grew impetuous ns the motion of
aft oak in a hurricane. His voice became a
trumpet filled with wild whirlpools, deafening
the ear with the crashes*of power, and yet in
termingled all the while with a sweet undersong
of softened cadence. His face was as red as a
drunkards, his forehead glowed like a heated
furnace, his countenance was haggard like that
of a maniac; and ever and anon he flung bis
long and bony arms on high as if grasping for
thunderbolts.
lie drew a picture of murder in sueb appal
ling colors, that, in comparison, hell itself
might be conaidered beautiful. He painted the
slanderer so black that the sun seemed dark at
noon-day, when shining upon the accursed mon
ster; and then fixing both portraits on the
shrinking Hopkins; he fastened them there for
ever. The agitation of the audience nearly
amounted to madness. All at once the spea
ker ascended from his perilous bight. His voice
wailed out for the murdered dead, and for the
living—the beautiful Mary more beautiful eve
ry moment as her tears flowed faster—till men
wept, and women sobbed like children.
He closed by a strange exhortation to the ju--
ry, and through them, to the bystanders. He
advised the panel, after they should bring in a
verdict for the plaintiff, not to offer violence to
the defendant, however richly ho might deserve
it; in other words not to lynch the villain, but
leave his puishment to God.
This was the most artful trick of all and the
best calculated to insure vengeance.
The jury returned a verdict of $50,000, and
the night after, Hopkins was taken out of bed'
by lynchers and beaten nearly to death.
As the court adjourned, the stranger made
.known his name, and called the attention of the
; people to the announcement:
* “John Taylor will preach here this evening
at early candle-light.”; .
The crowd all turned out, and Taylor’s ser
mon equalled, if it did not surpass, the splen
dor of his forensic effort. This is not exagger
ation. I have listened to Webster, Clay, and
Calhoun —to Dewey, Tyng and Bacon—but
never heard anything in the form of sublime
words, evenly remotely approximating to che
eloquence of'-John Taylor—massive as a moun
tain, and wildly rushing as a cataract of fire.
As this is the opinion of aft who have heard
the marvelous man.
Matrimonial Advertisement Adventure.
The New York correspondent of the Charles
ton Mercury tells the following story.
The matrimonial advertisements continue to
*fill an ample space in the Herald , notwithstan
ding the damaging effect of Mr. Hill’s late rev
elation, (“.Matrimonial Brokerage in the Me
tropolis.”) A facetious fellow of myfoequain
tance, insatiate of female adventures? answered
'one of these advertisements the other day from
two young girls, twins, Blanche ana Ruse by
name. His overture was accepted, and he was
.requested by a return note to call at a house in
ySullivan street. The welcome billet was deli
ciously perfumed, and the writing in a fancy
like hand. »
• My friend’s romantic chord was touched, in
the face of his long and wicked city experience,
and straight way he began to have visions of a
pair of blooming girls like two cherries on one
stem, nothing less enhancing than' the original
Rose and Blanche in Sue’s “Wandering Jew.”
With a selfishness co-extensive with the male
human species, he determined to have the mo
nopoly of both. He went to the house, found
it a respectable looking mansion, rapped at the
door, was admitted by the servant on giving his
name, (an assumed one,) was shown up stairs
into a prettily furnished room, and was told
that the sisters would soon be in.
a few moments a fierce and spectral fe-,
male, over forty years old and rather drunk,
entered the room, and without a word, flung
herself, with, the recklessness of two dozen
Camilles, into the arms of this amazed adven
turer. Before he could recover his balance or
say a word, a tall ruffian hurst into the room
with a pistol in each hand, and cried frantically,
•‘You are the betrayer of my wife! I will kill
you both together !” The ferocious female (a
perfect gorilla in strength and appearance)
threw herself still .closer about the arms of my
misguided friend.
Fortunately he is a powerful fellow, a-splen
did gymnast, and a fine amateur sparer. With
one sudden, mighty punch of his right fist he
floored the woman ; with "a single bound he
planted his dangerous left upon the black muz
zle of the “injured husband,” knocking him
completely off his pins ; with a second | stride
he kad gained the door of the chamber, and
three more jumps took him down stairs and
out of the .house. He imprudently confided
this ludicrous affair to a few of his friends—l
say “imprudently,” because he has to stand in
numerable drinks on the strength of it. They
have orlly to say “Rose” or “Blanche,” and
with a deprecatory phrase or gesture from the
victim, the coctail or hot rum is always forth
coming.
“Last summer I took my four-year old,to see
his aunt in Washington County, N. Y. There,
for the first time, he had a near view of a cow.
lie would stand and look on while his uncle
milked, (the men do the milking there.) and
ask all manner of questions. In this way
he learned that the long, crooked branches* on
the cow’s head were called horns. City boys
only know of one kind of horns —i.e., little city
boys. A few days after obtaining this informa
tion, hearing a strange kind of bawling noise
in the yard, he ran out to ascertain its source.
In a few minutes he returned, wonder and de
light depicted on his countenance, exclaiming,
‘Mamma, mamma! oh I do come out here I
The cow’s blowing her hotnV ”
I think the following will satisfy you that the
ideas of the rising generation in Wisconsin are
sound on the Maine question :
“A three-year old, the property of my next
neighbor, saw a drunken man ‘tacking’ through
the street in front of their house. ‘Mother/
said he, ‘did God make that man V She re
plied in the affirmative. Tho little fellow re
flected* a moment, and then exclaimed,: T
wouldn’t have done it.’ ” /
in order to amuse the children on the Sab
bath, a lady in Brooklyn was engaged in read
ing to them from the Bible the story of David
and Goliath, and coming to that passage in
which Goliath so boastingly and defiantly dared
the young strippling, a little chap, almost in
his first trowsers, said, “Sister, skip that—
skip‘that—he's onlj blowing! I want to know
who licked I” A
Superintendent of the * Railroad(l) —
But, sir we must have repairs on the road ; the
cross-ties are rotten, and the rails are broken,
and’we endanger the lives of passengers every
day we run I President: Confound the pas
sengers, sir 1 the.road will have to do as It is.
If we spend any more money on it before the
first of January, we can’troakc our semi-annual
dividend of four per cent*
Punching.—“ Ain’t there no exceptions to
your law about punching a fellow ?” said a
scamp to a Judge.-“No, sir; no exceptions
whatever.” “Now Judge, I guess you are mis
taken, Just suppose, for. instance,! should
brandy-punch a man, what then ?” “No levity
in Court, sir. Sheriff, expose this man to the
atmosphere. ' ' "
Awnnai Report of the Superintendent of
Tioga County.
The educational interests of this‘county are
in a prosperous condition. All has been ac
complished that was expected, and in some re
spects more. Trne, tbqj;e has been a falling off
in the statistical tables in most of those things*
by which the editor of the School Journal es
timates progress. The salaries of teachers, the
average number of scholars, and the length of
the school term, have each been diminished*
, The late financial derangement must take
most of the blame for this. The taxes being,
collected with difficulty, and the cry of hard
times, induced the directors to both reduce the
wages of teachers and the length of the school
term. Most of the male.teachers who received
$25 per month last year only received $2O this.
This, however, does not argue that they taught
any poorer schools.
I think our progress can be estimated better
in the following specifications, than in the sta
tistical tables. ' i
School Homes. —Twenty-two school houses
have been built the past year. Many of these
take the places of those heretofore reported as
unfit. One in Tioga district cost $l,OOO, and
one in Middlebury, $BOO.
If the building, with its internal arrange
ments, inclnding pail, broom, cup and black
board, were all that is required to constitute a
first class bouse, I should say we now had at
least one hundred, and.l sec some superintend
ents have reported suchfas first class.
Liberty, one of tfTe largest and wealthiest dis
tricts in the county, ha§ for the first time levied
a building tar. The people (mostly Germans)
manifest some uneasiness, but nevertheless sub
mit to it with much better grace, and take a
more intelligent view of it than some of the
northern “Y mkee” townships.
Tho c e districts which’ have never levied a
building tax, arc easily distinguished by the
very low valuation of their school property.
They have not paid any better wages, nor kept
schools open any longer than those districts
which have the tax; and by-and-by, when those
having the tax shall have their houses all built,
and are ready to extend the school term from
six to eight or nine 'months, and also to raise
the salaries of teachers, they will just begin to
see that they have no houses to keep school in;
that some imist be 'built; that a tax must be
levied, and tvhile their funds are thus diverted
from the schools, they cannot compete with the
other districts in regard to teacher's wages.—
The best teachers will be driven away, and too
late to remedy the evil, they wil find themselves
much in the rear in all educational matters.—
j Directors* Report s.—There 1 still exists much
confusion in the annual reports of directors.
The whole number of scholars has always been
under-estimated, and the number over
estimated. The winter school is not usually
taught by the same person as the summer, and
thus even the new form of teachers’ reports
does-not tell the number who came in the sum
mer. but in the winter.
As to the avei.ige number of scholars, there
is loss fault this year than ever before, it being
the first in which the average in some districts
has not been reported as equal to or greater
than the whole number. I think the average is
not generally more than two-thirds the .whole
number, and often not mire than Half.
Teachers’ Institutes. —The county institute has
held two sessions, one at Mansfitfd, the other
at Tioga. The success at each was complete.
One would not suppose there couldi be such a
charm in associated effort. Saying motbing of
the knowledge gained, the spirit, the ambition
imbibed at each, was worth more fhan a thou
sand dollars to the county. Teachers went back
to their schools with a determination to do their
best. I must confess that the number of intel
ligent and promising young men and women in
the county far exceeds any estimate I had ever
made. The Superintcndency might be abol
ished, or even the whole law repealed, and not
chain the energies or materially limit the suc
cess of this noble band of earnest and devoted
teachers. I doubt not, that “the institute now
might live without the aid of the influence
which called it into existence.
Length of School Term. —The school term
wifi not be materially lengthened until there are
more school houses built. The taxes are now
very high in most districts. The sfthool houses
must be built, and there is no way of extending
the school term, but to either raise the taxes,
cease to build, or diminish the teacher-’s wages ;
neither of which seems to be practicable.
Teachers. —The great success of the school
year,-in this county, has been the improvement
in the qualifications of-teachers. When I com
menced the examinations of the year, I raised
tho standard of qualification some twenty per"
cent; so that those who held the poorest certi
ficates of last year would not obtain any this,
unless thdy had improved. Yet while I gran
ted only about four hundred last year, I have
granted four hundred aqd fifty this. 1 expected,
and indeed the Cry was raised in nearly every
part of the county, that teachers Would be
scarce, but the opposite has been the result.
While I firmly believe that rigid examinations
and thorough school visitations hare aided much
in establishing this progress, I would not forget
the earnest and self-sacrificing labors of the
teachers in the high school? and academies.—
Our two academies have sent out nearly one
hundred teachers, and most of them have done
efficient service. They reflect great credit upon,
the source of their instruction/
.Public Sentiment . —l know of no public vo
cation in which there is less opposition than in
the Superintendency of the common schools of
this county* Both as teacher and preacher, I
have found the croakers to be far more numer
ous than as superintendent. In this respect 1
world not change positions with any county or
State officer. Those who sympathise with the
educational cause at all, usually co-operate with
and sustain the superintendent in the discharge
of his laborious and responsible,duties.
Teachers* Salaries. —ln employing teacher?,
it has been the custom either to appropriate a
given sum to. each school, and let the director
living nearest hire.tha teacher as best he could,
or for the board to hire all teachers, giving each
the same salary irrespective of qualifications.
It gratifies ine to be able to state,' that now
nearly* one half of the’districts grade the teach-
Rates of Advertisings
Advertisements tv ill be-charged SX pe;> square of TO
lines, one or ihfee insertions, and 2J5 cents fur .every
subsequent insertion. Advertisements of Jefs jhnn JO
lines considered as s squire. Jhesnbjeined
be charged for Quarterly, Half-Yearly and yearly ad •
vertlsements
Square, -
2 do.
3 do.
$ column, -
* do.'
Column, -
Advertisements not having thetmmber of insftrtfot'S
desired marked upon them, will bo published unuboer
dered out and charged accordingly. „
Posters, Handbills, Bill-Heads, liefter-tfendsVnfta’l
kinds of Jobbing done in country establishments.-ex
ecuted neatly and promptly. _ Justices*, Constables’,
and other BLANKS constantly on band.
NO, 35.
er's wages according to tbe qualifications.—
.The others will soon be driven to do the same,
or elsejfi.il their schools with tba rejected teach
ers of other townships.- Where the wages are
graded, the good teachers, of course get more,
and the poor teachers less than the average.—
T!hus the former will seek those districts where
the wages are graded, and the latter those
where they are not.
Directors. —-The office of school director be
gins to be better appreciated. Men-of good
judgment and progressive views are quite gen
erally chosen. These, however, do not always
discharge their duties with that fidelity which
they ought. But directors, generally, manifest
a determination to live up to the law, and [
most earnestly desire that they should, fur the
districts where they have the poorest schools,
and where they comjplain most of the law, are
the ones where they have seen least of the law.
In my next report I should be. pleased to re
view concisely the advance and retrograde
movements of each township for the hist six
years. Personally and officially, I ajfi under
.many obligations to directors and teachers for
theirinvaluablc services to me in the discharge of
my duties. • X. L. Ketnoi ps.
Oceola, June 29, 1859- County Svyt*
“Winter Rules,” rare done after the manner
of .Dr. Hall's Journal rf Health, by the San
dusky Ectjisier:
Never go to bed with cold or damp feet. If
you discover that your.fect are cold and damp
and have no fire to warm them by, walk your
room until morning, play leap frog with tins
ottoman, do anything to pass away time until
the cook makes a fire down stairs, (always
maintaining a cheerful disposition,) but don’t,
on any account, go to bed with cold feet. Don’t
go to bed with any one who has cold feet.—.
Either sit up yourself, or kick tho cold feet out
of bed.
Never go to sleep at night with your head
lolling out of an open window, with tho ther
mometer at zero. Valuable lives have been
sacrificed, ere now, to this effeminate practice.
After being out several hours on a hitter cold
day, never sit, for more than five minutes at a,
rime, on the top of a red hot stove, however
tempted you may be to do it. The sensation
may be very agreeable, we grant <wou, but tho
consequences are dreadful.
Never begin a journey before breakfast un
less you are able to pay for your lodgings, ;h
which case you would, perhaps, be excusable
for taking an early shirt without putting tho
family to the inconvenience of getting you a
warm|meal,_ or otherwise disturbing them.
After exercising violently at a ball, never go
out in the cold air without bundling up well
with a shawl or overcoat. If yon haven’t any
overcoat, take the first overcoat you can fin J.
If you could find a pair of fur gloves, nr a
muffler, you would lesson the chances of taki ig
cold very materially.
If von are afflicted with hoarseness, talk hut
little, unless you are a female, in which case,
silence would be sure death, so perhaps yon
bad better take chances with the hoarseness.
Pencil Sketches of the Supreme Court
Judges. —A graphic writer in the CicvHand
Plaindealer, thus decribes the personnel of th«
U. S. Supreme Court:—“First on the bench
sat Clifford, fat and sleeky with no gray hairs,
and weighing, 1 should judge, two hundred.
Nest, Grier, about the same size, and quite
g»ay headed; then Wayne, with light, but not
gray hair, and about one hundred and fifty
pounds weight: next, McLean, with scarcely
a white hair, though far advanced in years, look
ing bale and hearty, and of about two hundred
pounds weight* Catron, with silver hair, but
not so large a man as McLean* Nest, Nelson,-
with whiskers from his ears round under hw
chin, and the only man who had a whisker.
He would weigh one hundred and eighty or
more. Last, Judge Cambell, the only bald
headed man. He had silver side locks, and in
above medium size. Altogether it is a weighty,
body. In.frunt of thej'udge's bench, (\ery fine
arm chairs) are the busts of the venerable Chief
Justice Marshall, Butledge, Jay and Eisworth.
The Court room is small, nut large enough to.
hold mure than fifty persons/ 7
A greenhorn, from somewhere, standing care
lessly upon the end of one of the Eastriyerpier«,‘
watching a Brooklyn ferry boat, accidently loose
his equilibrium, and found himself suddenly in
the “damp/ 7 lie, however, soon clambered up
again and while blowing off the superfluous
bri#e, he asked by a bystander how he
relished old Neptune's soup, to’which he replied;
“ Wall, I aint gut much again it; but all I have
to aa*y is, that whoever put the salt in warnt a
bit stingy/ 7 ,
Severe upon her own Sex. —Lola Mop tea
ironically remarks to young gentlemen : , “Ton
ought to know that there are four things which
always more or less interest a lady—a parrot, a
peacock, a monkey, and a man; and the nearer'
you can come in uniting these about equally in
your character, the more, you will be loved.
This is a cheap and excellent recipe for making
a dandy, a creature which is -always an object
of admiration to the ladies.” '
A runaway thief having applied to a blit 1-
smith for work, the latter showed him some
handcuffs, and asked him if he understood sm h
kinds pf work. “Why, yes, sir,-” said the
other, “1 guess I’ve had a hand in ’em afore.”
Dr. Franklin says; “When I see. a. house
well furnished with huuks and periodicals, them
I see intelligelbt and well-informed children ;
but, if there are no books' or newspapers, the
children are ignorant, if not profligate,”
A mind too vigorous and active serves only
to consume the body to which U.is joined, as (he'
richest jewels are soonest found to wear theie
settings.
Foley consists in drawing false coni lesions
from just principles, by which itis distinguished
from madness, which . draws just conclusions
from false principles.—iern-c. . -
3 MONTHS. 6 MONTHS. 12 MONttfr,
- $3,00 - $4,50 " *6.00
6,00 6,40
7,00. . 8,50 nyjo.
•- ' 8,00 0,50 12,50
15,0(T 20,00 Sfr.fftf
25,00 35,00 ’ 60,0( -
Winter Rules.