Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 May 1893 — FOB YOUNG FOLKS. [ARTICLE]

FOB YOUNG FOLKS.

LITTLE XUTMEG-GATIIKRERB. Fancy picking nutmegs! This is what the children of South America and the tropical islands do almost as soon as they can walk. Gathering nutmegs is something like gathering chestnuts. Nut-meg-trees are planted in groves. The trees are twenty feet apart and have long, green leaves, very dark and glossy. The nutmeg is enveloped in a husk about the size and shape of a ruaty-coat apple. When perfectly ripe, the husk splits, and a nut falls out. The kernel of she nut is the nutmeg of commerce. It is beaten from the husk by children, who climb the nutmeg-trees and thrash the branches with poles. The air is sometimes so heavy with perfume that tire young nutmeg-gatherers are overcome by its heaviness, and have to be borne from the grove on the shoulders of companions.—[New York Ledger. bird catching in it\ly. A well known gentleman relates the following story of the manner in which birds are captured in Italy: “Once when I was in Florence, a lady came to me and said, ‘Do come with me and hear those birds sing, oh! such wonderful notes!’ There was a room full of birds in very small cages, aud these birds were all blind; they had had their eyes put out. In the night the owners take them outside the city and hang the cages iu trees. The trees nre then all smeared with tar. These birds keep up their pitiful singing aud other birds are attracted to the cages, and they get stuck on the tar and then they are caught, and their eyes are put out. And, these birds are killed and sent to America for ladies to wear on their bonnets! After lienriug this story, do you think you can ever wear a bird on your hat?”

AN INTERESTING BEGGAR. One afternoon, while strolling along the G’alle Ancha in Cadiz, I met several acquaintances at the eoruer of that street aud the Plaza Constitution. AVe stopped for a friendly chat, and were about to separate, when my attention was attratced to a handsome French poodle-dog at my side, seated on his haunches, and looking up in my face. His comical little countenance expressed so much intelligence that I stooped and patted him on the head, when he commenced barking and violently working his fore legs, after the manner of dogs who have .been taught “to beg.” “What can lie wish?” said I. “Surely not my cigar?” But having seen dogs [who were fond of tobacco, I held my cigar towards him. As soon as he smelt it he snorted and bounded away, only to return immediately aud resume his previous position. I was now puzzled, but seeing several beggars in the neighborhood, concluded that he belonged to'one of them, and desired a piece of money. Taking a large “copper” from my pocket, I held it before his eyes. So great were his manifestations of delight that I was certain I had divined his wants. I threw the money to him, which ho caught in his mouth, and running across the street, disappeared into a bakery. To our astonishment, lie emerged from the shop in a few moments, bearing in his mouth a neatly wrapped bundle. One of my friends tried to take it from him, but he would not allow this, and insisted on placing it at my feet. I picked it up, removed the wrapper, and found a large bun dusted with sugar. This he ate with great relish. We remained for a while to see if he would besiege another passerby; but no, he had had enough for the present, and coiling himself up in the doorway, settled down for a quiet nap. This exhibition of intelligence I think worthy of note, and particulerly so for the reason that the dog was apparently acting independently, there being: no one near to prompt or direct him.—[Harper’s Young People. A WORD TO THE ROYS. Charles Dudley Warner, a famous writer, once wrote the following: “If I owned a girl who had no desire to learn anything, I would swap her for a boy. If the boy did not - desire to learn, I would trade him off for a violin or a Rook wood vase. You could get something out of a violin and you could put something into the vase. The most useless of things is that into which you can put nothing, and from which you can get nothing. The boy or girl who has no wish to know anything is the one and becomes the other.” The boy, who dosn’t care what people think of him, or whether he amounts to anything or not, is iu a vary bad way, iudeed. In the first place, it shows a lack of pride. Now, there are two kinds of pride; the true and the false. False pride is that which makes a boy ashamed to carry the market basket for his mother; ashamed to wear old clothes when his father can’t offord him auy better; ashamed to say “No” when he ought, and ashamed to ask questions about things he ought to know, but don’t. A boy who is all that is very likely to argue “what’s the use,” when he is advised to stick to his studies, to be thorough in his work and conscientious in all his dealings. There was once a little hoy who become interested in earthquakes, and he asked questions of everybody ou the subject of earthquakes until he was old enough to read about them for himself. Then he became so interested in the subject that he began to study the cause of these disturbances; from that he went into the study of electricity, and began to study machines, and finally learned to put up electric wires and bells. Before he was old enough to go to the high school, he was able to earn a lot of mouey doing these things and had several men working under his direction. That boy was too proud to go through life without learning something of the world he lived in. The golden rule that should guide a boy through life- is, “whatever you do, do it well.” One of the richest men in the country gives the following advice as the road to success; “I want to impress upon you, boys, the necessity of punctuality. If you engage to do anything at a certain day or hour, do not fail to do it. And if you find you cannot, notify the persons you have promised, so that they will not be disappointed. I regard punctuality as one—if not the very—cardinal rule of a successful busi-

n«M career in the store or the shop, be promptly ou hand the very moment you are expected to be there, and do not hurry off in the evening before the proper time. Boys who work by the clock are soon found out, and are not generally in demand when promotions arc to be made, and salaries increased. Cyrus W. Field once told me that he considered half of his success in life to be duo to his punctuality. He was always at lus office on the very minute each morning, and if he made an appointment to talk business to a man he never failed to keep it, “ ‘I have made thousands upon thousands of dollars by being on hand at the right moment, and I consider punctuality as strong a point in a business man's favor, as—well, it is second only to honesty!’ That is the secret of this millionaire’s success. ‘ ‘Once your employer understands that you are faithful in getting to work at the hour he has engaged you to begin, he will have more confidence in you, and yonr chances of promotion will be far better than those of the boy who sneaks in a half-hour late each morning with some poor excuse for his tardiness.” —[New Orleans Picayune.