VOLUME I.
112 The American Citizen,
19 published every Wednesday iu tlie borough of Bntler,
by THOMAS KOBIHSON Sc C. B. AUTAMON on Main street,
o|ipudlte to Jack's Hotel—office top rtaira in the brick
formerly occupied by Kli Vetter, V a store
Tr.ftMs:—sl 50 a year, if paid inftdvance, or within the
first six month*. »r %'l if not paid until after
tion of the first six months.
KATKS or AnvKKTisixo: —One square n«»n., (ten lines or
lens,; three insertions sl***
Kverv subsequent insertion, per square. 26
Business curds of 1«J line# or less f<»r <>ii« year, inclu
ding paper, 6
Card of lo lines or less 1 yep withont paper 4 00
l A column for six months .. ..7
licolumn for oae yew.. •* 12 00
\ v rnisHnn f>r six months ~ w
£ column for one year ® ®0
112 column for six months '<£•»,
1 column for one year 60
From the Rchmond Examiner June 13.
B, chmond and the 4th of July.
The Convention if 15lack Republicans
in Baltimore have renominated tot- Fres
ident of their country Abraham Lincoln,
the llltnois mil-splitter, and for Vice Fres
klcnt Andrew inson, known in the
West as the Ifflii' -j^ f * tailor, one of the
meanest of that craft; they shall
fver be elected or not depends upon ibe
Confederate army altogether.
The people of"the enemy's country have
now two BhSk Republican 14 tickets be
fore them ; and the Democrats are tocome
yet. All these BCNeral,movements we are
obliged to watch '• P* flsiblc. under
stand—'J <e;iso» of .their po«siftifc effect* •
~..in the war ; or otherwise we have mr
earthly interest in the matter, and if we
were now at peace with that nation it
would be altogether indifferent to us what
ape, or hyena, or jackass, they set up to
govern them.
The great army of contractors, then,
and officeholders—in short those who live
by the war, and on the country —have suc
ceeded, at least, in sliirti* g Lincoln fairly
for another race. It an Mints to a decla
ration that those conu tioners desire to
see lour years moic i all respects like
unto the last four yen The// want no
change at all; to the > sent incumbents
of power and profit. a v.,rks well enough
as it is. They care li ■<■. perhaps, about
the " ('.mancipation l'i iaination," of the
exact definition which may be applied to
Lincoln, as he immediate, or essential, or
contingent Abolitionist; care little, in*
deed, about politics at all. or principles, or
the destiny of their nation, or other "ab
stractions" of that sort ; they are practi
cal men ; and what they know and feel in
their inmost souls is, that four more years'
of reveling at will in treasure and plun
der, will make them all rich enough, them
and all their descendants to the third and
fourth generatii n.
It appears, also, that Lincoln and bis
friends have been luc 1 v.for so far, in the
ill-success of Grant id Butler, and in
their precise measu of ill-success. If
p ; *'.v ••• vf'- two I 1 taken Richmond
before the Converii 1. then Butler or
(irant would have • n nominated for
l'tesidcnt. If they had been already ut
terly ami decisively defeated, and their ar
mies cut to pieces, then neither -Lincoln
nor any other Black Republican would
have had the slighted chance of election..
So essential was ir for ibe right guidance
of the *' invent mm this matter that
(■mat sh'.uld i ' ike Richmond, nor be
advancing' in triumphant march toward it,
that the New *1 k /' ;»'■». Lincoln's "or
gan." took care i ■ publish at length a dis
mal account, of lie bloody defeat inflict
ed on the rebels on the 3d of dune and to
express the opinion that it w.v a most
disastrous affair. Thi- was true ; but the,
Ti'ii .< did not state it because it was true.
Tho Tin stated it n that
it. w is true, in-order to lower Gen.Grant's
stock in the Convention, just in the nick
of timo —and succeeded. Our soldiers,
who on the 3d strew 1 the earth in front
of their intrenchuients. with 12,000 dead
and wounded Yankees, then and there se
cured the nomination of Lincoln over
Grant.
Lincoln, then, and his pang have been
lucky, we said, so fir. But to win his
election in November this indecisive work
of the Federal armies—neither triumph
antly victorious nor hopelessly cut to pie
ces —neither taking Richmond nor taken
by Richmond—will lot do at all. Grant
and Butler are now at liberty to achieve
the most brilliant si ecess they can, and
the New York Tin"* will not tell the
truth any more win i it is unfavorable to
them. \n fact, the Lincoln party hits been
reconciled to the delay in capturing Rich
mond by this consideration among others
—that the Fourth of .Inly approaches;
and they are awar of the theory enter
taiued by their old acquaintance, Pember
tou, now in high favor at Richmond, and
commanding the fortifications of the city,
namely : that the Fourth of July is the
very best day to surrender a place to a
Yankee ariuy because in the warmth of
their gratification at celebrating anniver
sary with a triumph, they give good terms.
It is like approachihg a uon vivant after
dinner to ask him for a favor. And, ac
.■ftccordingly, the Yankee nation is now
holding itself prepared to put on its most
gracious smiles aud accord to us the same
tender consideration which has beenshown
to the citizens of Vicksburg. Let them
only haul down our flag on that auspicious
morning, aud read their Declaration of
Independence on our Capital in our Cap
ital Square, and Lincoln is already elected
President. In this stage of the business
also, however, our army has a voice ; and
if it shall continue to baffle, repulse, aud
cut up the Federal forces, and finally drive
them from the soil of Virginia, as we fer
vently trus , theu this Baltimore nomina
tion will not gaii Lincoln a single vote in
November.
In that case will be the next Pres
ident in the eneaiy's country ? Not Fre
mont with his ' radical abolition." "J" nc
era for that sph>ol of politic^.will be past.
But there retinitis another party —the
Democrats; thiy boiqg also divided at
present into Wir Democrats, qqd Peace
. Democrats, t>ut who would all be Peace
Democrats in tyc event- supposed that is,
AMERICAN CITIZEN.
in the event of a total failure of the Fed
eral campaign of 1864. Now the very
latest intelligence brought us from that
country by a spec»l channel informs us
of these two futher facts: that'the popu
lar mind became at once violently agitated
on the announcement of this Baltimore
nomination ; and that in Maryland, espe
cially, disturbance was apprehended. In
fact, the democrats of the North, who
hive wai ed four years, not too patiently,
trusting to regain the power and profit
which they but lately held to be a Demo
cratic inheritance, must naturally be pro
voked beyond endurance at this audacious
attempt of Lincoln and Seward to ride
roughshod over them four years more.—
We learn that the Democrats are now uni
versally turning their thoughts to Frank
lin Fierce and Connecticut Seymour as
their nominees for Fresident and Vice
Fresident. Togive them the least chance
of electing those two advocates of peace,
Grant mast be defeated, the invasion must
collapse and die out, and the very name
of war must become a word of horror, ut
tered with loathing and execration.—
Therefore, it is the interest of the Demo
crats to do their very utermost to weaken
the Federal finance, in short, to extin
guish the war altogether, in order to ex
tinguish the party which invented tjic war
and governs it and lives by it.
The last oigrnificant fact, which .comes
to us by special ait\ue> ig.that immedi
ately on the Baltimore nomination, gold
rose to one hundred and ninety sevens—
Gold is a sensitive substance, and it feels
another shi'ver, and shrinks back yet a lit
tle more into its crypts, at the idea of an
other four years of Lincoln and Chase,
and those dreadful paper mills and steam
presses, the smoke of whose fatal machin
ery ascendeth up and ever.
Hero, then, are elements of trouble
and storm, which happily threaten to in
terfere, not only with Lincoln's election,
but with the peace of Yankee society. Be
fore November the whole North may be
writhing iu intestine convulsion, her
brute mass now pressing us so heavily
may be flungoff, aud the Confederacy may
be standing erect, redeemed, ridiaut, tri
umphant, shaking her invincible locks in
the sun.
For all this we look to the Confeder
ate army. Lee. Bfeauregard and Johnston
can both give the Yankees a Fresident
and make us well rid of them and their
Presidents forever.
Life in the South.
The Buffalo Comm>T< iat Advertiser
publishes a long letter from a gentleman
in the South, whose name and address
are suppressed for prudential reasons,
addresses to his mother in Buffalo, giv
ing a glowing picture of the condition of
the place of residence, said to be an im
portant-city of the South. The following
are extracts.
I think it would 1)0 hard for a north
ern man to realize the difficulty of living
as a Union man in the South. I know a
Unionist who is now a Colonel in the Con
federate service, and is likely to be pro
moted to the position of Brigidier Gen.
\il alike are carried forwtfrd by the irres
istible wave of civil war. The death
gripe is at the throat of every man and
boy between the ape* of seventeen and
fifty. The teeth of our political hyenas
will never be loosed till they are knocked
down their throats. There is no such
thing as rest for the North till it has
-wept all opposition, to the legally con
stituted authority out of existance , and I
hope that no man imagines that peace
can come in any other way. How much
those are sacraficing who have not been
driven into the army, each one knows
himself, but he does not toll his neigh
bor.
'• Perhaps it would be interesting for
you to know how we all live here, the
prices of things &e. I will give you the
prices in (Confederate Curreuev) of pro
visions as they might have been bought
yesterday, the 80th day of April, 1804 :
Butter 85 per pound : lard.B4 00(5,4 50;
flour, 8225(f1r 250 per barrel; rice, §45 to
850 per hutidrfed; meal, 87 per bushel;
bacon, 84 per pound ; fresh beef, 82 50(a>
3 per pound ; fresh pork, 83 50@4 00 ;
dried apples or peaches, 85 per pound;
green peas, in shell, 82 50 "per quart;
strawberries per quart with stems 85 ; a
cabbage head from 83 to 5; and all oth
er tilings in tUp eating line in proportion.
Tea is said to be 865 per pound, coffee,
820 00.
"A very common dress coat sells for
8350, aud from that up to 81,000. A
thin summer coat will cost"from 830 to
8100, such as you can get in Buffalo
for 81 50. A shirt can now be obtained
for 850. I have had only two vests, a
pair of pantaloons, and two pair of shoes
now in throe years. The shoes, one pair
of them, I got two years ago, for 825.
Subsequently I had them luenJed, and
paid 840. lam wearing my last coat,
and it is getting uumendable. Mary and
the children are yet tolerably well off;
but clothes will wear out, and calico is
only 812 j>er yard, which is called cheap,
as it has been as high as A neigh
bor of- ours sold a silk dress pattern yes
terday for 8 >OO, which will buy just 150
pounds of pork, or six pairs of ladies'
shoes.
You ask how we live. The answer is,
principally on corn meal! I have each
month a little over 8300, and yor. can
readily calculate the luxuries we an able
to buy. 1 give sixty cents a day for a
quart of milk, but the milkmen a»k *ne
dollar. \N fcy don't you a cow an d
y:.u say. A cow which will give
twelve quarts of milk will oost fVon BUOO
to (1,000, and is likely to be stolen by
hungry soldiers the first night you get
her. A dozeu, at least, have been stolen
recently ip our neighborhood. 1 am go-*
ing to, try the pigs— twenty-five dollars
each when sis weeks old—but expect
" Let us have Faith that Right makes Might; and in that Faith let us, to the end,dare do our duty as we understand it"— A - LINCOLN.
BUTLER, BUTLER COUNTY, PA., WEDNESDAY, JUNE 29, 18G4.
to have them taken. I have a passable
garden—about on aerc-and-a-half of corn,
and an acre of sweet potatoes, and hill of
Irish potatoes, the seed costing at the
rate of one hundred dollars per bushel.
Why don't you rwse more, yon say, aud
getrjch ? Ah I After working on them
all spring, some morning, when aßout
jialf grown, you would look where your
potatoes had been, and tin-i dead vines
reward y.our labor.
From the Chicago Journal.
A Swindler at Large.
" DEAR DAN—I am ruined. Gamb
ling has done its work ! lam about one
thousand dollars in debt, aud d*re not tell
Mr. Read. You take all ray things.—
Wh£nmy body is found have me into Ted
here ip Chicago. If I had but taken
your advice all would have been well.—
(Jive these leaves (memoranda of defal
cations) to Mr. Read. I hope my body
will go so far into tho lake it will never
be recovered.- God bless you.
JOHN E.WESTON."
The above "last will and testament"' of
a fancy mau and arrant swindler, address
ed to his room-mate, a railroad man, forms
the text for sensation articles in the morn
ing paperß, which swallow itat a gulp,and
return a verdict of suicide from gamb
ling. The writer of this article had some
acquaintance" .mtk Westo.i. lie was'too
penurious to run any risks at the gaitirtfg
table, and swindlers of his stripe never
commit suicide.
Three years ago, Weston deserted his
wife and child in Philadelphia, and came
to Chicago. His flight froift the city of
brotherly love was accelerated by the dis
covery of a course of systematic robbery
which he had practiced upon a clothing
house, where he was employed as •sales
man. amounting to between two and three
thousand dollars. He found employment
in Chicago as drummer for the wholesale
liquor establishment of Leander Read, 13
Dearborn street, where he remained until
Thursday last, when he absconded with
over a thousand dollars of his employers'
money and somewhere between one and
two thousand dollars of borrowed money
which he had obtained in small sums, go
ing so far, even, as to borrow money of
his room mate and intimate friend, under
the pretense of needing it to discharge a
debt incurred by gambling. The note
which he left behind him is a fair indi
cation of his mental calibre. He was
shallow minded and frivolous. The low
cunning displayed in the expressed hope
that his body would not be recovered, is
that and nothing more. A second tho't
would have caused the erasure of a sen
tence manifestly at variance with the ef
fect intended to be produced.
Five years ago, Weston married into a
respectable family in Wilui ngton, Dela
ware, and shortly thereafter removed to
Philadelphia, where he resided until he
absconded and came to Chicago, leaving
his wife and one child in Philadelphia.—
Representing himself to be a single uiau.
(except to his employers, to whom he ac
knowledged that he had a family,) Wes
ton soon became a "lady-killer 1 ' among
boarding-house misses, whose hearts lie
slaughtered at will. He carefully confin
ed his operations to that class with whom
good looks, fine clothes and "divine waltz
ing" make ample ameans for a deficiency
(/ mental qualifications or ordinary intel
ligence.
llis flight from Chicago was caused by
meeting, a few days ago a gentleman who
has latoly kucw Weston in Wilmington
and Philadelphia, and was fully acquaint
ed with his thieving operations there, ami
his subsequent escape from justice.
Exeunt Weston.
ABOUT SHOES.—It appears from his
tory that the Jews, long before the Chris
tian era, wore shoes made of leather and
wood; those of their soldiere were some
times formed out of brass or iron. The
Egyptians wore a kind of shoe made of the
papyrus. The Ind-ians, the Chinese, and
other nations, were shoes made of silk,
rushes linen, wood, or the bark of trees,
iron, brass, or of gold and silver ; luxury
has sometimes covered them over with
precious stoues. The Greek sand Romans
wore shoes of leather; the Grecian shoes
generally reach to the middle of the leg;
the Romans used two kinds of shoes, the
calcus, which covered the whole foot, some
thing in the shape of our shoes, and the
solea or slipper, which covered only the
sole of the foot, aud was fastened with
leather thongs. The calceus was worn
with the toga, when a person went abroad,
and slippers were put on duringa journey,
aud feasts. Black shoes were worn by
persons of ordinary rank, and white ones
by women. Red shoes were put on by
the chief magistrates of Rome on days of
cartmopj.
Hir Some men can be influenced only
by the cudgel. ' Their consciences are as
tough as alligator's back,' and their back
as ,'ensitive as alligator'* bellies.
#Yom Wavcrley Magazine.
COMRADES, FARE VOU WELL I
Comrade*! comrades! lam dyinjy,
I will soon the angels wod;
Boon, oh I soon I'll soundh -l-unber
In a cold and narrowtbed.
Yen, the angels soon will me,
Soon they'll take me home to dwell;
Closely, closely form aronnd me,
Comrades, "comrades, fare you well."
Chorvt. —Comrades! comrades! I am dying,
1 will soon with angels wed;
Soon, oh! soon I'll slumber
In a cold and narrow bed.
Comrades, bear It little longer,
For the traitor soon shall full,
When a wreath of shining laurels
Shall entwino the brows of all.
I am only going sooner.
For to meet those tone before,
And you soon will fbuow sfter
To that happy, peaceful shore.
Chorut. —Comrades! comrades !I am ftyl r«j, Ac.
Comrades ! comrades! I am dyi««" t
Fast, oh I fast I'm growing weal;
is dark and dreary.
L&y me, comrades, down to eleep.
Lay ine where the fight was raging.
Where the noblest deeds were d-<ne;
Where my comrades brave have Allien
For bright laurels they have won.
Chorut. —Comrades! comrades! 1 ain dying, Ac.
THOMAS MA*aba*.
WIT AND WISDOM.
THINK of ease but work on.
RICHES are but the fortune.
Busy BODIES never have anything todo.
MEN are but the dust of the earth, and
the storms of war lay the dust.
A WIT asked a peasant " What part he
played in life ?" " I mind my own busi
ness." • —■
MA i Y men and women have s*d occa
sion to know that two do not necessarily
make a pair.
"WELL, my boy, do you know what
syntax means ?" said a school-master to
the child of a teetotaler. Yes, sir; the
duty upon spirits.
AN able physiologist haß written that
one-fifth of the human body is composed
of phoshporus. l'unch remarks, that
most likely accounts for the number of
matches.
SWIFT said that the reason a certain
university was a learned place, was, that
most persons took some learning there,
and a few brought, any away with them,
so it accumulated.
Ip you see a miserly hypocrite praying
on a Mount of Ulives, probably ho is
about to build an oil-mill up there; if
weeping by the brook Kcdron, you may
conclude he is about to fish for crabs.
A DYSPEPTIC old hypochondriac makes
the following piteous inquiry:
"We have great cabbages, great goose
berries, great balloons, great crinoline pet
ticoats, great bulls, pigs and calves; but,
tell me, where are our great men ?"
A VERY religious old lady being asked
her opinion of.the organ of a church, the
first time she had ever seen or heard one,
replied,—
"It is a pretty box of whistles; but,
oh ! it's an awful way of spending the
Sabbath.
"IT is impossible," said one politician
to another," to say where jour party ends
and the opposition party begins." •
" Well, sir," replied the other, " if you
were lidiug a jackass, it would be impos
sible to say where the man ended and the
donkey began."
A CONSCRIPT thus relates his experi
ence : "As soon as I heard that I was
drafted I went up stairs on a double-quick
to inspect my 'pile.' scraping all
my available funds together, T found that
I lacked just two hundred and ninety
eight dollars of haying enough to pay my
commutation."
" WHEREVER I go," said a gentleman,
remarkable for his State pride, " I am
sure to find sensible men from my own
State."
"No wonder," said the gentleman he
was addressing, "for every man that
State who has any sense, leaves it as fast
as he can."
A LADY made a call upon a friend who
had lately been married. When her hus
band came hr me to dinner she said, —
" I have been to see Mrs. ."
" Well," replied the husband, " I sup
pose she is very happy."
" Happy ? I should thiuk she ought
to be, she has a camel's hair shawl two
thirds bojder."
CROWDED.—" Mother, where is the man
going to sleep ?" asked a girl of fifteen of
her mother, who had just promised a trav
eler a night's rest in their out of the way
hut.
" I'll have to put him in with you and
Jack and Kate and Sue and Bet, 1 sup
pose," was the reply, " and if its too crowd
ed one of you must turn in with me and
dad and Dick and the twins."
AN Englishman and a Yankee were
disputing, when the former sneeringly re
marked :
" Fortunately the Americans could go
'uo farther than the Pacific shore."
The Yankee stretched his prolific braip
for fi»» instant, a (id t(ius replipd,—
" Why. good
dy levelling the Ropky Mountains and
farting the dirt out West. I had a letter
last week from. who is living
two hundred miles west of the Pacific
shore, on made land I"
(Educational department.
From the Pennsylvania School Journal.
School Age. .
MR. EMTOR : —An article appeared in
the March number of the School Jour
nal, proposing that the present school law,
which admits scholars between the age of
five and twenty-one to our public schools,
be so changed as to admit none but such
as are between the ages of six and six
teen. I agree with thi writer, that 6is
young enough for children to commence
attending school, and I object to that part
on'y of the proposed alternation, which
would deprive scholars of being admitted
to, or continuing in our public shoolg af->
ter the age of 16.
As the writer has stated his arguments
undSr different heads, I will endeavor to
answer them in rotation.
Ist " A period of ten years is suffi
cient to complete an ordinary English ed
ucation."
I might first inquire what he means by
an ordinary English education. It might
properly embrace a wide field. But I
will agree to narrow it down to those
branches our teachers are required by law
to teach. And commencing with Arith
metic, I ask how many scholars there are,
who, beginning at six, can in ten years at
tain a thorough understanding of Frac
tions, Percentage, and Mensuration, so as
to he able to make a practical application
of them ? How many by the time they
are sixteen years old, will have that ma
turity and force of intellect necessary to
comprehend and appreciate the flue speci
mens of literature we find in our reading
series ? Without this, no one will ever
lnarn to readtwell. It ia of primary im
portance that ev.ery one should have a taste
for reading. This is developed and cul
tivated in our district schools, and it is
seldotfi acquired at an early age. Young
children may be taught to read, but older
ones alone can be taught to read well. To
dismiss a boy from school before he has
learned to read correctly, or tiflove read
ing for the pleasure and instruction it af
fords, is to do him and society a great
wrong. Eternity alone can disclose the
injury.
Again, how many can acquire such
clear and accurate ideasof the philosophy
of the English language, as will be of any
practical benefit to them, by the time they
have reached the proposed age of dismis
sion ? Or of Ueography; how many can
be made to understand the reason of the
change of seasons, why the days are long
er in summer than winter, the cause of
the tides and eclipses ? How many will
comprehend the theory and practice of
our General and State governments ? The
law requires all this to be taught. Not
only this, but Natural Philosophy, Alge
bra, aud Geometry, are now taught in
some of our common schools, andby teach
ers too who have acquired their education
from the same source, never haijtpg so
much as 'Tubbed their backs against an
academy."
s 2nd. " Our present arrangement takes
in a class hard to govern ; our fast boys
and young rowdies belong to this class."
These have never received the proper
training at home, as their present condi
tion abundantly proves, and if they are
deprived of all chanceof education at our
public schools, who are to fit them for so
ciety, or to make useful citizens of them ?
one will deny the vast influence for
good, a well conducted school can have
over these subjects. Under our present
arrangement, if boys do not behave well,
the directors have the power to suspend
them ufftil they reform. My short expe
rience as a teacher warrants me in saying,
pupils 6ver sixteen are no more difficult to
govern than younger ones.
3rd. " Our«chools are too crowded,and
our teachers have too much t<^ perform."
The remedy for this lies in more teach
ers and larger school houses, not in turn
ing redundant scholars out of school.
4th. " Parents, having so many years
to school their children, put it off from
year'to year, and keep them at home on
the slightest excuses."
The true cause of this evil lies in the
apathy of parents, and to correct it they
must be awakened to a proper sfense of
duty. Any one who realizes the necessi
ty of an education, knows it i8 of vital
importance that children should attend
school as regularly and constantly as pos
sible. The way to encourage this, is, to
increase the interest of scholars in their
schools by the employment of more effi
cient teachers, and not by enacting laws
like the one proposed.
sth. " Our boys being let goto school
until they are twenty-one, prevents them
from beiqg bound aa apprentices to learn
Useful trades and handicrafts."
This objection might with equal propri
ety be urged agains't our high schools and
colleges. What better right have the
class that attend them, to pursue theii
studies after they are old enough to be ap
prenticed, than those who attend our com
mon schools ? There is ample time, be
tween six and twenty-one, to obtain both
a good trade and a good education. A
boy while learning a trade, should haye a
few months schooling every year. Buch
is the practice in New York, and New
England. This policy produces intelli
gent farmers, mechanics, and artisans, who
are the' bone and sinew of sooiety in a re
public.
flth. " Our present arrangement dis
courages high schools, to a great extent."
Here, it what I ttupeel in the. rub. That
the district school will ultimately supply
the place of onr academies, and fit our
boys for the practical duties of agricultu
ral, mechanical and mercantile life, or for
entrance into the colleges and universities
of the country, is the hope and confident
belief of not a few of its friends and sup
porters. The Union schools of the west
are doing this now, and I confidently an
ticipate the samoblossed result in our own
State. Until they do accomplish this,
they will never securo the cordial assist
ance and active sympathy of the more op
.ulent classes. If the vast sums now ex
pended upon academies, where boys and
girls are boarded at an expensive rate away
from parents and guardians and the salu
tary influences of virtuous homes, were
diverted to the support of common schools,
graded schools would spring up.in every
village and township, and the teachers en
gaged in our academics would fiud remu
nerative employment in educating the
whole people. We liavo a proper respect
for academies; they # are still necossary
where district schools are poor, but we
wish to see them superseded as soon as
possible.
Having bri.efiy replied to his objections
to the law as it now stands, I will point
out a few only of the evils which I think
would necessarily follow the proposed
change.
Ist. " It would reduce the standard of
the district school throughout the State.
If 110 one can attend after the age of six
teen, our schools would be robbed of their
best scholars. It is not to be expected
that any future classes will make more
rapid advancement than tho best scholars
in our district schools are now doing, con
sequently the requirements of teachers
would gradually fall below the standard
now required, decrease, and the
best qualified be driven from the business
of teaching."
, 2nd. " The poorer classes would be de
prived of all opportunity of even a toler
able education. If it is true, as the wri
ter states, that " the schools of the rural
districts are tho main educators of the
people," I would ask how mauy of our la
borers, mechanics, or even land' holders,
can afford to pay from 8100 00 to 8200 00
a year to educate their children at anacad*
emy? In case a boy should arrive at his
sixteenth year in the middle of a school
term,'and while engaged in successful
study, he must either be turned out* to
mental starvation at the very time ho be
gins to take an interest in his studies, (un
less he has the means of paying his way
at an academy) or continue only as a mis
erable dependent on the capricious chari
ty of a board of directors. God forbid
that the children of the poor should be
reduced to such a sorry plight as that.
As a gTateful debtor to .the Pennsylva
nia School System, I protest against such
a change, and I am surprised that you,
Mr. Editor, one of its fathers should give
the least countenance to such an innova
tion.
Changing.
Parkerville, Chester CO., I'enna., April
1864.
The Ourang-Outang. —ln Sierra Le
-0110 is a species of Ourang-Uutang so
strong and so industrious, that when prop
erly trained and fed, they work like ser
vants. They generally walk upright on
their two hiud feet. Sometimes they are
employed tg pouud substances in a mor
tar, aud they are frequently taught togo
to rivers, and to bring water in small pitch
ers. They usually carry the water ou
their heads. Wheu they come to the
door of the house, if the pitchers are not
soon t''ken off, they let them fall; and
when they perceive they are broken, the
poor fellows sometimes weep like a child,
in anticipation of the flogging they are to
receive.
Buffon saw an ourang-outang that per
formed a multitude-of funny tricks. He
would present his hands to lead his visi
tors about the room, and promenade as
gravely as if he was one of the most im
portant personages of the company. He
would even sit down at the table, unfold
his napkin, wipe his lips like any other
gentleman, use spoon or fork in carrying
food to his mouth, pour liquor into a glass
—for it seems he had not become a oon
vert to the prinoiples of total abstinence—
and touch his glass to that of the person
who drank with him. When invited to
take tea, he brought a cup and saucer,
placed them on the table, putin sugar,
poured out the tea, and, after allowing it
i to cool, drank it with the utmost propriety
NUMBER 28
Pat's Adventure with a Wild Ballade
The following is from Col. Campbells
Indian Journal:
This morning, after a sharp gallop, I
succeeded in heading a fine, active young
bullock, before he oould. get into cover,
and drove him back toward the road, wbero
he arrived so completely blown that the *
men of the guard, who immediately sur
rounded him, had little difficulty in secu
ring him, by casting a slip-knot over his
horns. Two men dragging in front, and
two others picking him with their bayo
nets behind, urged the unwilling captive
toward the wagon—an operatjpn which
he submitted to with toleraDle resignation!
But when he found "himself surrounded
by gome twenty red coated " Feringees,"
all shouting like fiends, and found that
these unbelieving Kaffers—"may their
heads be defiled"—were resolved upon
attaching his sacred carcass to an unclean
baggage wagon, he became something
more than wroth, and plunged, and kick
ed, and butted, and bellowed, till bis cap
tors were either knocked over or lost their
hold: and away he went through the
crowd, knocking the men right and left
like ninepins. Oue of them (a man of
my company) in his hurry to escape,"tum
blod, neck and crop, into a prickly bush ;
the enraged bullock, taking advantage of
his position, charged him savagely, and
was just on the point of goring him, when
I fortunately laid hold of the rope, which
was still attached to his horns, aud taking
a turn round the stem of a tree, brought
him up with a jerk that almost threw him
on his side. So far, so tiood. But still
poor Pat Maloney was in anything but an
enviable position. There he lay, in the
midst of the bush, extended on his back
like a spread eagle, and so entangled that
he could do nothing but kick—which ho
did frantically—while the bullock by this
time thoroughly savage, kept bellowing
and butting him, within six inches of the
pit of hi* stomach—a tender and ticklish
spot— which Pat protected as well as he
could by drawing it in at each thrust of
the horns, till it nearly touched his back
bone, and kicking«out liko a maniac.—
"Ah, murther, murtherl" shouted Pat,
bellowing almost as loud as the bullock,
" sure it's kilt lam entirely ! Ah, you
divil, be aisy now ! Arrah captain dear,
for the lovo of the blessed Virgin, hould
on, or the baste's into me, as sure as the
divil's in Dublin." Tho scene was so ab
surdly ludicrous that, although I expected
every moment tho rope would give way,
and ihe bullock's horns bo sheathed in
poor Pat's trembling viscera, I could not
rosist roaring with laughter. Fortunate
ly for him the ropo held fast, Pat find
ing that the bullock was secured, rooover
cd his presence of mind, aud after a des
perate struggle regained his logs, and forc
ed his way through tho bush. I " let go
by the run,"and away went the bulloct,
rope and all, into the jungle, as if a legion
of devils had possessed him. " And tho
divil go wid him," shouted Pat, wiping
the dust and perspiration from his face.
THE USE OF MAN. —Tho world was
made to be inhabited by beasts, but stud
ied and contemplated by man; 'tis tho
debt of our reason that we owe unto God,
and the homage we pay for not being
beasts. Without this, the world is still
as though it had not- been, or as it was
before the sixth day, when as yet thero
was not a creature that could conceive, or
say there was a world. The wisdom of
God receives small honor from those vul
gar heads that rudely stare about, and
with gross rusticity admire his works.—
Those highly magnify Him whose judi
cious inquiry into his acts, and deliber
ate research into his creatures, return the
duty of adevotit and learned admiration.
Every essence, ereated or uncreated,
hath it* final cause, and some positive
end, both of its essence and operation.—
This is the cause I grope after in the work
of nature. On this hangs the providence
of God. To rise so beauteous a structure
as the woild and the creatures thereof was
but His act; but their sundry and divid
ed operations, with their predestined ends,
are from the treasury of His wisdom * *
There are no grotesques in nature ; not
anything trained to fill up empty cantons
and unnecessary spaces. * * * What reaj
son may not goto school to the wisdom,
of bees, ants and spiders'! What wise
hand teacheth them to do what reason
cannot teach us ? Ruder heads stand
amazed at those prodigious pieces of iflP
ture, whales, elephants, dromedaries, and
camels. These, I confess, are the eolos
suses and majestic pieces of his hand.—
But in these narrow engines there is more
curious mathematics ; and , the civility of
these little citizens more neatly sets forth
the wisdom of their >lA|. 1 could nev
er content myself comßnplation with
those general pieces of wouder, flux and
reflux of the sea, the increase of the Nile,
the cenversion of the needle to the nvrth;
and have studied to match and parallel
those in the more obvious and neglected
pieces of nature, which, without further
travel, I can do, in the cosmography of
myself. We oarry with us Ae wonders
we seek without us. There is all Africa
and her prodigies in us. We are that
bold and adventurous piece of nature,
which he that studies wisely*learns in a
compendium what others labor a di
vided piece and endless volume.— Sir
Thomat Browne.
■A, A person visiting a neighbor found
him disabled from having his horse step
upon his foot. Hobbling out of the sta
ble, the sufferer explained bow it hap
pened. "I was standing here, and the
horse brought down his foot on mine,"
said he. The man looked at the injured
member, which was of the No. 14. pat
tern, and said very quietiy: "Well the
horse mutt step somewhere