IN
surtrq.
THE POUR PHILOSOPHERS
Four great philosophers,
Como every your;
'reach in the open air;
Then disappear.
WINTER'S the STOW
So chill and heroic;
Ile sits In the mountain breeze, biting and pure,
And when to bring fear and doubt,
Damp nightly winds are out,
Wraps an old cloak about—ho can endure,
SPRING, at dull hearts to mock,
Coutes iu a farmlug-frook,
With garlauds and ploughshare a lesson doth give;
110 ship through the field awhile,
Turns up the soaking soil,
All haste and laughing toll—briskly can lire.
SUMMER, witb mantle free—
ESIOtrItEkN he—
Lolls in the cool shade like a tired boy;
While the blazing suns unkind,
Leave the stout mower blind,
Where faints the mountain ulud—ho can enjoy
AuTutta, when all are done,
Ite's a guod CIJIUSTIAN one,
Fins well the granaries, where seeds may lie,
New coming years to bless;
Then, ili his russrt dress,
All hope and quietnoss 7 sweetly.ean die.
TIME.
Yes, and the selfless worlds which navigate,
The unutlerable deep that 'lath no shore,
Will Nowa.; their starry splendors, soon or late,
Like tapers, queuch'd by Him whose will is ate I
Yes, and the angel of Eternity.
Who numb6rs worlds, and writes their names in light,
Ono day, 0 Earth, will look iu vaiq for thee,
And start and stop iu its unerring
And with the wings of sorrow and affright,
Veil ibis impassioned brow and heavenly tears.
31igr1iltinfoug.
From the Providence Journal.,
THE MYSTERIOUS TRACKS
In the winter of 1851, and the followi.
Spring, much attention was excited by my
terious tracks in the snow. These tract
were of the size that would be made by
yiailing . colt, and were deep in the snow,
though made by a heavy animal. Yet at tl
tame time their appearance indicated th.
they were made by a winged animal In son
cases they were 'traced up to a high wall, a,
commenced again on The other side, althot4
there was no aperture through which
animal large enough to make such a trai
could pass. In other cases the tracks appeal
ed for a few rods and then disappeared, :
though the animal had alighted, and aft
walking a little distance, had again tnkt
wing. The tracks were from eight to ten it
ches apart, in asingle trail, as though ma,
by a two legged animal. In one case it wi
said that a circular mark was observed in tl
snow, as though made by the wing of a grei t
hire.
These tracks :were first observed on tl
morning of Thanksgiving day, and were see
in many places distant from each other, al.
in various parts of the State. The doscril
tions of all corresponded,•and in some cast
were frozen in the sleet, and the impressi
was distinct and well preserved. It is ea:
that simPar appearances were found in
The explanation generally received was tilt
these tracks were made by the vnowy owl,
bird which belongs to a more northerly region
but which the extreme cold weather ha
driven south. This bird weighs from four t
five pounds, a weight quite sufficient to nab
a deep impression in the snow. Its foot i
covered with feathers which curve under
and when it stands with its talons bent under.
it would make an impression not unlike tb
colt's hoof. Some observers have not accepte
this theory, but we believe they have nut of
feret — itt other. In the neighborhood of Ap
ponnug, some boys made similar tracks wit
stilts, and we remember that they brought t •
our office the stilts with the ends carved i
the fashion of a hoof. This idle hoax ex
plained the marks only in one vicinity, an
was. not probably thought of till after the:
bad been seen in other plumb, and their orig ,
made a subject of discussion.
The same appearances which excited r
much wonder hero in 1851 and 1852, hal.
been observed this wintei in England, al. •
have caused - more superstitious dread the
the 4 1nysterions tracks" did on the side of ti
water. The following paragraph is from
Lopdon•Times of Feb. 16.
EXTRAORDINARY OCCURENCE.—ConsideraV
sensation has been caused in the towns •
Topsham, Lympstone, Exmouth, Toignmoutl
and Dewlish, in the south of Devon, in cm
4equence of the dicovery of vast number
foot-tracks of a most strange and mysteriM
desori, The supersticious go so , far as t
beliert than - hey aro the marks of Satan hitii
self; and that great excitement has
: been pre
duced among all clasBes may be judged fro!
the fact that the subject has been deseantt
on from the pulpit. It appears that, L
Thurtzday night last, there was a very ho::v.
fall of snow in the neighborhood of Exeter
and the south of Devon. On the following
morning the inhabitants of the above towns
were surprised at discovering the footmarks
of some strange and mysterious animal, en•
(lowed with the power of übiquity, as the foot
prints were to be seen in all kinds of unac
countable places—on the tops of houses and
narrow walls, in gardens and court yards, en
closed by high walls and palings, as well as in
open fields. There was hardly a garden in
I.,ympstone where these foot prints were not
observable. The track appeared more like
that of a biped than a quadruped, and the
steps were generally eight inches in advance
of each other. The impression of the foot
closely resembled that of a donkey's shoe, and
measured fr , m an inch and a half (in some
instances) two and a half inches across. Here
and thare it appeared as if cloven, but in the
generality' Of the steps the shoe was cOntinu;
ous, and, from the snow in the centre remain
ing entire, Merely showing the outer crest of
the foot, it must have been convex. The
creature seems to have approached the doors
of several houses, and then to hove retreated,
but no one has been able to discover the stand
ing or resting point of this mysterious visitor.
On Sunday last the Rev. Mr Musgrave alluded
to the subject in his sermon, and suggested
the possibility of the foot-prints being those of
the, kangaroo ; but this could scarcely have
been the case, as they were found on both
sides of the estuary of the Exo. At present
it remains a mystery, and many superstitious
pc 'pie in the above towns are actually afraid
to go outside their doors after night.
In the London Illustrated News of Feb. 24th,
is nn article stating the same facts, with en
gravings rof - the - tracks. The - writer-says :- -
"This mysterious - visitor generally passeti
once down or across each garden or court yard,
and did so in nearly all the houses Sta many
parts of the several 'towns above mentioned,
as also in the farms scattered about; this
regular track passing in some instances over
the roofs of houses, and hayricks, and very
high walls (one fourteen feet,) without dis
placing the snow on either side or altering the
distance between the feet, and passing on as if
the wall had not been any impediment. The
gardens with high fences or walls, and gates
locked, were equally visited as those open and
unprotected. Now, when we consider the
distance that must have been gone over to
have left these marks—l may say in almost
every garden. on door-steps, through the ex
tenaivo woods of Luscomhe, upon commons,
in enclosures and farms—the actual progress
must have exceeded a hundred miles. It is
very easy for people to laugh at these appear
ances, and account for them in an idle way.
At present no satisfactory solution has been
given. No known animal could have travers
ed this extent of country in one night, besides
having to cross an estuary of the sea two
miles broad. Neither does any kno‘tv animal
walk in a line of singly footsteps, net even
=IEIIIMI
man."
In the same paper of March 3d are several
communications upon the subject, ono of them
'llustrated with engravings. One of these
communications mentions a rumor that two
kangaroos had escaped from a menagerie, but
this was not considered as offering a plausible
explana . ion. The same correspondent says:
"A scientific acquaintance informed me of
his having traced the same prints across a
field up to a bay-stack. The surface of the
stack was wholly free from marks of any
kind, but on the opposite side of the stack, in
a direction exactly corresponding with the
track thus traced, the prints began again I
The same fact has been ascertained in respect
of a wall intervening.
No animal with Cushing paw, such as the
feline tribe—diminutiVe or large (cat or tiger)
1 - . - -exhibit, could have made these marks; for
'the feet of most quadrupeds tread in parallel
lines, some widely divaricated, others approxi—
mating very closely. The ass, especially,
among the animals daily seen, approaches the
single line. Tho fox leaves round dots in a
single line; the stoat two and one alternately.
Moreover, the feline tribe leave concave prints;
whereas, iu each of these mystic prints, the
space enclosed by the bounding lino was ton.;
vex, as in the print of the patten.
Early in the week we were informed that
two cranes had been shot at Otterton, below
13Jrleigh Salterton, and that these were the
mystical printers; but the well informed in
zoology at once rejected this offered explana
tion. Within the last four and twenty hours,
a Try shrewd and intellectual neighbor of
mine, about six miles distant, wrote riio word
that a gentlemen in the parish adjoining his
own had p.m:ed these peculiar prints through
his garden walks into a six inch cutter, and
there he saw the marks of claws. This has in•
duced some to suppose Them to ho, tracks of a
catamountain. Two other genthinen, resi
dents in the same Parish, pursued a line of
prints during three hours and a half, making
their progress under gooseberry bushee and
espalier fruit trees ; and then missing them,
;legitinecl sight of the impression On the roofs of
El IncJ houses to which their march of investi
gation brought them. These gentlemen 'swear
Zanisle peralb.
to claws.' Upon which my correspondent ( a
member of the society of Antiquaries)observes,
we are inclined to believe they must be otters
Driven out in quest of food.„ Our friend felt
toe-marks at the'contracted part of the print,
though they were not discernible by the eye
Som .chiel amang' the congr_igation where I
was discoursing three Sundays since had evi
dently been taking notes, and faith; he pren
ted tittine(its Burns would say, ;)nnd though,
without incurring the charge of the elightest
approach to irreverence, I I found a very apt
opportunity to mention the name of kangaroo,
in allusion to the report then current. I cer
minty did not pin my faith to that version of
the mystery, nor call upon others to receive it
ex cathedra; but the state of the public mind
of the villagers, the laborers, their wives and
children, and old crones and trembling old
men, dreading to stir out after sunset, or to
- go out half a mile into lanes or by 'ways, on a
call or message, under the conviction that
ibis was the Devil's walk and none other, and
that it was wicked to trifle with each a mani
fest proof of the great enemys immediate pres
ence, renderesl it very desirable that a turn
should be given to such degradingand vitiated
notions of a superintending Divine Providence;
and I was thankful that a kangaroo was "in
the wind," as we should say, and serving to
disperse ideas so derogatory to a chris
tianised, but assuredly most unenlightene •
community. I was reminded never the
less. by ono pertinacious recuennt, that it is
written that Satan should be unchained for a
thousand years, and that the latter days were
at hand. Still mine was a word iu due season.
and did good.
The generality of such of us as can reason
dispassionately. In .view of a ph.ctiometionwhich
80C1118, as yet, to be without precedent or prir•
allel, incline to believe it must belt bird o '
some unfamiliar tribe, wandering and hoppin
over this region ; but all inquiry seems to b.
fruitless. I have addressed communications
to the British MutCeum, to the Zoological So
eTc'tto the keepers of birds and beasts in the
Regent's park menagerie; and the universal
reply is, they aro utterly unable to form any
;conjecture on the subject. however correctly
the impressions bad been copied.
In the same paper is a communication from
Profeasct Owen. He has seen the •drawing
of the foot prints, and pronounces them those
of the badger. He says : •
"The badger sleeps a good deal in his win
ter retreat, but does not hibernate tie regular
ly and completely as the boar does in the seve
rer climate of Canada. The badger is noctur
nal, and comes abroad occasionly in the late
winter, when hard pressed by cold and hunger
it is a stealthy prowler, and most active and
enduring in its quest of food,
That one and the same animal should have
gone over 100 miles of a most devious and ir•
regular route in ono night is as improbable as
that one only should have been awake
'and hungry out of the number concealed in the
100 miles of the rocky and bosky Devonshire,
which has been startled by the impressions
revealed by the rarely spread' carpet of snow
iu that beautiful country.
The oous s of the proof that ono creature
made them in one night rests with the asser
tor, who ought to have gone over the same
ground with a power of scents and unbiassed
observation, which seems' not 'to bee° been
exercised by him who failed to distinguish the
truly single from t ended foot prints in
question.
Nothing seems more difficult than to see a
thing as it really is, unless it be the right in.
terpretation of observed phenomena."
DEATHS BY SCALDING.
We still ago reported, almost daily, an ap
palling number of deaths by burns and scalds
not one of which we take it upon ourselves to
say, need prove fatal, or would do so, if a few
pounds of wheat flour could be promptly ap
plied to the wound made by fire, and repeated
until ..the inflamatory state has passed. We
have never known a fatal case of scalding or
burning, in which this practice has boon pur
sued, during thirty yours experience, and
having treated hundreds in both public and
private practice. We have known the most
extensive burns, by falling into caldrons of
boiling oil, and even molten col per, and yet
the patients were rescued by this simple and
cheap reuiody, which front. , its , infallible suc
cess should supplant all the fashionable nos
trums, whether oil, cotton, lead-water, ice,
turpentine or pain extractors, every ono of
which has been tried a thousand times with fa,
tal results, and the victims have died in ex
cruciating agony, while a few- liandfulls of
flour would have calmed them to sleep, and
rescued them from pain and death. Human
ity should prompt the profession to publkh
and ro publish the facts on this subject which
are established by the authority of standard
medical works on both sides of the Atlantic.—
Flour is the remedy, and the only one, iu so
vend cases of s^alding and casual
ties which' eke so often destroy life. Let
us keep it before the people, ultilu the explo
sion.of steam,lAilers, and burning fluid lamps
air so rife all over the euuntry.—Rccst's .1/ed.
lea Ciazatc.
A PARADISE FOR A LAZY MAN
Lieutenant Gibbon, in his account of Mire
cent exploralion of the Valley of tho Amazon
gives the following account of the daily life of
Creole family, in the towt. of Santa Cruz, the
Capital of the Bolivian department of the same
name':
" Very early in the morning, the Creole,
getting out of bed, throws himself into a ham
mock ; his wife stretches herself upon a bench
noir by, while the children sent themselves
with their legs tinder them, on the chairs, all
in their night dresses, The Indian servant
girl enters with a cup of chocolate for each
member of the family ; after which she brings
some coals of fire in a silver dish. The wife
lights her husband a segar, then one for her.
e
self. Some time is spent reclining, chatting
and regaling. The man slowly puts on his cot -
ton trowsers, woolen coat, leather shoes add
vicuna hat, with his neck exposed to the fresh
air—silk handkerchiefs are scarce—and walks
to some neighbor, with whom he again drinks
some chocolate and smokes another segiir.
At midday. a small low table is set in the
middle of the room, and the family.- go to
breakfast. The wife sits next to her husband:
the women are very pretty, and affectionate
to theii husbands. lie choses her among five,
there being about that number of women. to
one man in the town. The children seat them
selves and the dogs form a ring behind: The
first dish is a chupe of potatoes, with large
pieces of Meat. The Man helps himself first,
and throws his hones straight across the ta .
ble ; a child dodges his head to give a free
passage, and the dogs rush behind her. The
second dish holds small pieces of beef without
bone. Next comes a dish of finely chopped
beef, then beef soup, vegetables and fruits;
then coffen or chocolate. After breakfast the
mn oils off his trowsers and coat and lies
down i the hammock. His wife lights him
a segar She finds her way back to bed with
her segar. The dogs jump up and lie on the
chairs—the fleas bite them on the ground !
The indien girl closes both doors and windows
taking the children out to play while the rest
of the family sleep. '
At two; P M., the church bells ring, to let
the people know the priest is saying a prayer
for them which minims them. The man rai
ses, stretches his hands above his head and
gaps , the dogs get • down and whinningly
stretch themselves; whjle the wife sits up in
the bed and loudly Cittle out for fire ; the In
dian girl re appears with a "chunk" for her
mistress to light her master another Bogar t
and she smokes again herself. The dinner,
which takes place between three and five, is
nearly the same as breakfast, except when a
beef is recently killed by the Indians, when
they have a boil. The ribs and other long
bones of the animal are trimmed of the flesh
leaving the bones only coated with meat ;
these ore laid across a fire and rorted ; the
members of the family while employed with
them, look as if all were practicing music.
A hCrse is brought into the house t,y an
Indian man, who holds him while " the pa
tron" smiles and bridles him ; be then puts on
a large pair of silver spurs, which costs forty
dollars, and mounting. he rides out the front
door to the opposite house ; halting ,ho takes
off his hat and cries out, " Buenas tardes,
senoritas"—good evening ladies. The ladies
make thear appearance at the door ; one lights
him a sager, another him a glass of
lemonade to refresh himself after the ride.—
HO remains in the saddle talking, while they
lean gracefully against the door poet, smiling
with their bewitching oyes. He touches his
hat and riles off to another neighbor. After
spending the afternoon in this way, he rides
into the house again. The Indian holds the
horse by the bridle, 'while the master die
mounts. Taking off the saddle he throws it
into one chair, the bridle into another, his
spurs on a third, and himself into the ham
mock.; the Indian leads out the horse, the
dogs pull down the riding gear to the floor,
and lay themselves on their usual bedsteads .
Chocolate and segare aro repeated.
THE OLD MAN'S SEUItET.—An Italian bishop
struggled through great difficulties, without
repining, and mot with much opposition with•
out over betraying the least impatience. All
Intimate friends of his, who highly admired
these virtues which ho thought impossible to
imitate, one day asked the bishop if ho. could
onamunicate his secret of being always ea
sy.
"Yes," replied the old man; I can teach
you my secret with gro't facility. It con
sists of nothing more than making a right use
of my eyes."
Ilia friend begged him to explain ,
"Most willingly," returned the bishop. - An
whatsoever 'state I tn,-J .first of 41 !kik up
to heaven, and remember that my principal
business hero, is to got there, I thou look
down on earth, and call to mind how small a
space I shall occupy in it when I game to be
interred. I then look abroad 1M the world
and observe what multitudes there are who
arc in all respecta more unhappy then - myself
Thus I learn where true happiness is placed
where nll our Cl res must end, and how very
little reason I have to refine or coirplaie.
STORY OF A BRAVE MAN.
The 'telegraph briefly announced the sui
aide at Jackson, Mies., of Col. Alexander K.
I . cClung. Our manuscript despatch read,
"Col. McClung, Duelist;" but lie was other
wise distinguished in a very eventful life in .
the south-west, than in his prowess under the
bloody' "Code of 'Honor," and deserves, in
death, to be remembered as the evil which the
telegraphic record ,would cause to live after
him. He was a bravo man for his country in
war, as well as a desperate one in defen 6
of his own perhaps too sensitive honor, in
peace. He was prompt gallant and distin
guished in the Volunteer Service in Mexico,
in 1847, under General' Taylor. Ho was,first
to scale the Blank ..Fort at Monterey, and for
this intrepidity in placing the Stars and Stripes
ou its captured Walls.rwas marked and pierced
by the enemy with wounds under which he
suffered the most agonizing pain for five or
six months, and so chafed that he could not be
rid of them to h ar his part on the field of
Buna Vista, withi a "few miles of which he
was invalided.
The personal story of Col. McClung, though
a sanguinary one, is not without its reliefs.—
He will called a de-perate duelist; not that
lie.wati by nature blood'thirsty, or loved the
practicer for the poor renown_it brought him ,
but because when he dill fight in this way,
which was not often, he made no compromi
ses for the chances of life; and exacted - as
well as granted, the extreme terms of the code,
as practiced Hi Mississippi fifteen or twenty
years ago, when extravagance and desperation
in every depai tnieot of life, appeared to run
riot. His first meeting was in 1833 or' 1834
with a-man - by. the - name - of — Allem -- The 144-_
pone, pistol:3, to be fired nt ten paces, or ads
•ancing nearer to each other, and then the
use of the how io-knife. Allen fell. The sec
ond meeting was five years afterwards, or
more, with - young Mennifee, the brother of
Richard 11. Mennifee, Member of Congress
from Kentucky in 1838—'89. The weapon,
the rifle,- both parties excellent shots, but
Mennifee fell at the second fire: There may
have been other altercations in Which he was
engaged, but they are not now remembered.—
Those two fatal transactions in which he. was
engaged, gave quite a sufficient notoriety to
the man which he was far from being proud
of, and the public recollection of which he .en
deavored to efface, in his riper years, by polit
ical and military service, first as the head of
the Whig press in Mississippi in the Presiden
tial campaign of 1840; then• as Marshal of
the United States for the Northern District of
the State, and afterwards as a volunteer to
Mexico, the Lieutenant Colonel of his regis
meat. After the war he was the political
friend of General Taylor, not to the exclusion
of Mr. Clay, of whose neighborhood in Ken
tucky McClung was a native, but in defeult of
his nomination at Philaielphia. Under his
administration he was appointed to a diplo
matic station as Charge ,d'ilffaites to Bolivia,
South America, the capital of which, far in
the interior of the country, ho no doubt had
too much difficulty to find to be impressed by
its greatness or captivated by its social or po
litical attractions. Ho returned to the Uni
ted States after a two years residence near
the Bolivian Government, in the year 1851,
since when we have heard little of him until
the present dreadful announcement of death by
his own hands. His ago must have been 46
years. —New York Times.
A WATCH.
I have now in my hand a gold watch which
combines embellishment and utility in happy
proportions, and is usuall7-m6nsiddered a very
valuable appendage to - the person of a gentle•
man. Its hands, face, chain and case, aro of
chased and burnished gold . Its gold seals
sparkle with the ruby, topaz, sapphire, and
the .klmerald. Ilpen it, and find that the
works, without which this elegantly furnish
ed case would bo a mereAbell, those motionless
hands, and those fingers wikhout meaning, are
made of brass. I investigate further, and ask
what is the spring by which all those are put
in motion, made of? lam told it is made of
steel.- I - ask - what is steel ? The reply is, that
it is iron, which has - unitergone a certain pro
cess. So then I find the min spring, without
which the watch would be motionless, and its
hands, fingers: and embelishments but toys,
is not of gold—that JO not sufficiently good
nor of brass—that would not do—bat of iror.
Iron is therefore the only precious metal;—
and this watch an emblem of society. Its
hands end fingers which toll the hour resem
ble the master spirits of the age, 'to whose
movement every eye is directed. Its useless
but sparkling seals, sapphires, rubies, toper.
and embelishments are the aristocracy. Its
works of brass-are the middle class, by the in
-creasing intelligence and power of which.the_
master spirits of the age are moved ; and its
iron main spring shut up in a box, always at
work but never thought of, except when it is
disorderly, brolon or wants winding up, sym
bolically, the laboring class, which, like the
main spring we wind up by the payment of
wages,And, which classes are shut up in ob
scurity, and though constantly at work and
absolutely as necessary to' the movement Of
socisty, as the iron main spt ing, is to the goid
watch rani never thought of, except when they
require their wages, or are in tionm.wl!!nt"
disorder of rents kind .r other,--1/17tcarii ,
(reit,