Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 April 1882 — Page 3

FOR THE CHILDREN. J The Land of Nod. Did yon ever hear how Budge and Tod look a flying trip to the Land of Nodi They put on their night-gowns—climbed the stairs. Mumbled their innocent, drowsy prayers, Curled up in bed in a dimpled heap, And in forty winks they were fast asleep! ~ Then the dream man came, on a train of cars, With moonbeam windows and wheels of stars. The fires were lit by a comet, queer; And the man in the moon was engineer! A sea-weed cord held the engine bell, Made from a ringing ocean shell;— The railroad track was a rainbo" band, Reaching far over the sea and land, — And the ends of the road, I am gravely told, Were built upon pots ■ f soiid gold! “All aboard!”—and away went Budge and , Tod, Night-gowns and all, to the Land of Nod! IL The cars were filled with a curious crew; Sweet baby Triz, and the Wandering Jew;— Jack with his bean-s; ock,—the Giant Grim, Litttle Miss Mincer and Uncle Nim, Fairies and Spirits and Brownies rare, And mermaids, wrapped in their yellow hair, Sat, side by side, in the phantom cars With moonbeam windows and wheels of stars On, on they sped through the silvery band Ot the beautiful streets of the Wonder Land, The stopped in a cloud for a drop of dew, while the sea-shell rung and the whistle blew, They gathered blossoms that never die, That grew in ihe land of the “By-and-By,” And there at tho end of the route 1 ’m told, •Our travelers found the pot of gold!— When the dream man brought little Budge and Tod, Nipht gowns and all, from the Land of Nod! „ St. Nicholas.

What are Boys Good For.

The urchin who answered, “They are good o make men of made an admirable reply. But the sort of men we are to have in a few years depends upon the sort of boys we have now. A man is but a grown-up boy. The present crop of boys contains some hopeful specimens, who gave promise of useful manhood. But it also shows a large percentage of boys who must be reconstructed before they can possibly develope into a manhood that can fill any honorable or useful position in society. Boys who shun or shirk useful work or improving study, and spend their time in idle dissipation or vicious activities,can never become useful men. Boys who, being obliged to do something for their supper, assiduously seek easy work, are not hopeful prophecies of manhood. They will never amount to much. When we see the tendency of city boys to be industrious only in playing biilards or baseball, or in some other useless or demoralizing pursuit, and the disposition of country boys to seek in the city for easier or more respectaole (?) employment than the country offers, we feel unhopeful of the future. It is from these two classes that the constantly increasing armies of shyster lawyers, quack doctors, poor preachers, bummer politicians, drunken loafers, petty thieves, tramps, deadbeats, etc., are chiefly recruited. “Boys, if you want to be men of worth, don’t be afraid of hard work or hard study. * t * “Lives of great men all remind you You can make your life divine.” Read the lives of great men of the past and present, and emulate the virtues and imitate the example of their boyhood. Dr. Benjamin Franklin went from a soapboiler’s shop through a printing office, to fame world-wide and immortal, by dint of industry and st udy. What bt >ys have done you can do.

Thread and. Needle Tree.

The luxury of a thread-and-needle tree! Who can estimate the comfort of such helpfulness at one’s very door? Fancy the delight of matron or maiden dwelling under such overshadowing! Odd as it may seem to us, there is upon Mexican plains just such a forest growth. Imagine a “sewing bee” gathered under such fair foliage! No need of spools forever 'rolling hither and thither; no call for dainty reels compactly wound with snowy thread; or purchases of “Milward’s best.” Is there a seam ready for busy fingers or an appealing rent, just step outside the door of the much favored Mexican house-mother, lay your hand upon a slender thorn needle pushing itself persuasively from the tip of a dark green leaf, draw it carefully from its delicate sheath, slowly,slowly unwind ing wi h your hand the thread, a strong well-rounded fibre, already attached to the needle, and oh! so tenderly folded away by Mother Nature as to hold within itself possibilities of a long stretch of the cord. Travellers are enthusiastic over the resources of the manguey-tree; and of iis beauty no less, telling us of “clustering pyramids of flowers towering above aark coroni Is of leaves ” The roots well prepared are a most savory dish; with its leaves may be made a “thatching fit for a queen,” and no prettier sight can be met than the cottages of Mexican peasants so exquisitely crowned. The rich leaves also afford material for paper, and from the juices is distilled a favorite beverage. From its heavier fibres the natives manufacture strong cords and coarse strong cloth. No wonder the maguey-tree of tropical climes has attained world-wide fame!—[Harper’s Bazaar. *' -

' MISCELLANEOUS. Oame is fast disappearing from Arizona. Thomas Jefferson was bom 4 139 years ago. A vase was sold for $11,500 in London recently. Brooklyn bridge is to be done in 1883, perhaps. There are only six charcoal furnaces in Great Britain. Some Washington florists ao a busH ness of $2,000 a week. A lull of cooking clubs throughout the country is noted. Six of the planets officiate as evening stars this month. A_ good many farmers will try the foreign potatoes as seed. The industry of raiding geese is being introduced into Texas. Forty Chinaman make watches in San Francisco. Umbrella making supports 15,000 Philadelphians. Sumac fetches forty-five dollars a ton in Virginia. Morgan county, Georgia, has done away with fences. Yorktown, Virginia, has sunk into her ante-centennial placidity. The Massachusetts sea serpent is now off San Diego, California. Seventeen hundred Philadelphia brick-layers are on a strike. The people of Canada have four dollar bank notes in circulation. The wealthy Mormons have an average of twelve wiv«s each. It cost a Cazanovia, New York, man SI,OOO to steal a sack of flour. The Indian service wants $5,841,713.91 tor the next fiscal year. Baldwin county, Alabama, has no resident lawyer, nor has it a jail. Monkeys die of consumption. In that respect they are but human. Jesse James was “converted” and joined the Baptist church in 1866. A South Carolina lady has made feather fans of the value of $1,500. Venus and Saturn will be in conjunction on the night of the 19th. It is said the silk cocoons of California are the finest in the world. A black Guiteau fired sixteen shots at the president of San Domingo. Rome, Georgia, taxes traveling retail salesmen fifty dollars a month. T t is said the coming base ball seas \ ill be one of unusual activity. It appears to be true that at Waco, Texas, a hen has a full grown tooth. There is one Columbia that welcomes the Chinese—British Columbia. A $60,000 statue to John C. Calhoun will soon be erected at Charleston, S. C. Congress has 7,181 bills and resolutions to act upon before it clears the docket. A Venetian glass manufacturer is making a great success of ladies’ glass bonnets. t There are one.hundred woman journalists in Paris. The Chinese and Mormon must move on to Mexico. The country eats $1,000,000 worth of pop corn yearly. There are three China women in New York city. Many St. Louis ladies are learning to play the banjo. The Wisconsin legislature recently adjourned to see Booth. The southwestern floods have tended ro raise flour. An Jowa youth who recently applied for a marriage license forgot his s wee heart’s name. Nevada mail carriers are wearing snow shoes. Boston will indulge in $13,501 worth of fourth of July patriotism. Charles L. Williams has been postmaster at Taccochee, Georgia, for fifty-one years, One Chicago manufacturer mixes cotton seed oil with cheese. Florida cut three hundred million feet of lumber last year. Sour-krout is peddled in Philadelphia streets. During 1881 there were 18,830 deaths in Chicago. The census of 1880 will fill forty volumes. The St. Louis city directory has 139,151 names. There are 4,698 vessels on the North American lakes. Madame Patti’s three operatic performances in Boston realized $42.GUO. “Meteoric salesmen” is St. Louisian for commercial travelers. Chicago’s May musical festival will be, in all respects, a big thing. Something is the matter with Jeffer-son-Davis’ throat. Georgia furnishes much terra alba for candy making. Of the 195,326 population of Colorado, only 39,790 are foreign born. Guiteau’s bill of exceptions covers one hundred pages of legal cap. Immigrants continue to reach New York at the rate of 3,C00 a day.

HOUSE and HOME.

While tbe baby is down for a creep, draw little stocking legs over his-arms and. secure them by a safety pin. A baby should sleep on its side. When lying on its back the food sometimes rises in its throat and chokes it. No child should go to bed hungry, but food taken near tne hours of sleeping should be of tbe simplest nature—a cracker, a bit of bread or a glass of milk. Parents should teach their children to gargle their throats; for it may be the savin? of their lives. It is easier to teach them this difficult and awkward fear in health than when prostrated by desease. Let Nature wake the children; she will not do it prematurely. Take care that they go to bed at an early hour—let it be earlier and earlier, until it is found that they wake up themselves in time to dress for breakfast. Give your children plenty of outdoor air; let them sniff it until it sends the rosy current dancing joyfully to their cheeks and temples. Air is so cheap and so good ana so necessary that no child should be denied access to it. Just before each meal let a child have some ripe fruit or some fruit sauce. Apples slid berries are wholesome. Oranges should never be given to children unless the skin and thick white part underneath the skin and between the quarters is carefully removed. Cauliflower is an annual and our season is not long enough to enable it to matuer seed unless the plants are started in hotbed. It is thought, however, that in the course of a few years we Bhall be able to raise our entire supply, instead of importing most of it as at present. To prevent a child coughing at night Loi’. the strength out of 10 cents worth of “Seneca snake root,, to one quart of soft water; strain through a Cloth, boil down to a pint, add one cup of powdered sugar made into a thick molasses. Give one teaspoonful! on going to bed. Children are affected afien with ulcers in the ears after scarlet fever and other children’s diseases. Roast onions in ashes until done, wrap in a strong cloth and squeeze out juice. To three parts iuice add one part laudanum and one part sweet oil, and bottle for use. Wash ear out with warm water- shake bottle well and drop a few drops into the ear. Bathe children in the forenoon when possible, or if not too tired an hour before the evening meal; never for at' least an hour after eating. When possible bathe before an open fire, or In a warm room near’ and rub dry before an open fire. It is injnrious to bathe children on rising before breakfast, especially in cold weather. Washing the face’ neck and hands and dressing is enough before refreshing the body by eating. For sore mouth in nur.-ing babies, take a teaspoon each of pulverized alum and borax, half a teaspoon full of pulverized nut-galls’ a tablespoon of noney; mix and pour on it half a teacup of boiling water; let settle, and with a clean linen rag wash the mouth four or live times a day; or simple borax water is equally good. Half an even teaspoon of dowdered borax in two teaspoons soft water is strong enough. Dr. Osgood recommends as a' night suit for children a single germent ending in drawers and stockings. Over this, gin cold weather may be worn a flannel sack. At severe seasons, instead or putting an extra coverlet on the bed, he advises the use of a large bag made of a light blanket, into which the child maybe securely placed and closely butting around the neck. Light coverings generally are preferable to heavy ones, if tbe night clothing and the room are sufficiently warm, as they do not induce perspiration nor check exhalations. Hon. L. 8. Coffin pays thi^deserved tribute to the farmers’ wives: We take the ground, that other things being equal, the farmer’s wife can make tne best butter that can be made. Give her the improved method of setting milk, the improved churns, give her tbe knowledge the creamery man has, and with her twenty to fifty or a hundred cows, with the milk direct from the cows to the setting cans, and the cream direct from the cream cans to the churn, without it being carted about for hours in a summer 1 sun and mixed with all sorts of other cream, and good sense dictates that such a woman, with her private dairy all under her own eye and immediate control, can beat the best creamery men.

Dust. Dusters and wipe.

Do not dust, but wipe! Who would believe it the duster, that peacful emblem of domestic toil, may, under cert <in circumstances,become more dangerous to handle than a six-shooter, We are in dead earnest. An eminent scientist declares it to be a fact. Do you know just what you are doing when you brush away dust? You disseminate in the air, and consequently introduce into your own interior into your tissues and respiratory organs, all sorts of eggs, spores, epidemic germs and murderous vibiones which dust contains. One movement with a feather duster may be enough to poison both you and your neighbors—to inoculate you all with typhoid, varioloid or cholera —strange as it may appear. Instead of a feather duster take a cloth, w ipe away the dust instead of stirring it un. In short, wipe—nevder ust.

FARM AND GARDEN.

Poland China swine carried off the main prizes at the last great agricultural fair in Denmark. The demand for farm productions should be carefully studied, like the demand for the product of looms and machine shops. The production of small fruit is often very profitable in the vicinity of small villages. The cost of marketing is small, and good prices are obtained. There is the reverse of economy in using honey for ordinary cooking purposes when one pound of it will purchase three pounds of pure white sugar. Every farmer and gardner should know how to do his own grafting. It is the easiest thing in the world to do, after paying a little attention to one who is at work. The reports of the condition of live stock on the great Western plains are very favorable. The supply of food and water was ample during the winter, and the grass )s taking an early start. In selecting land to raise onions, a sandy loam should be chosen. Clay should be avoided, or a soil that is very gravity. A light mixture of clay on a sandy loam is regarded as the best, when it can be had. Physiologists are agreed, says the St. James Gazette, that the worst form of cruelty to animals Ib to starve them. Fiom an unsufflolency of food they suffer longer, and there is good ground for supposing, far more intensely, than from wounded or broketi bones. The best soil for radishes is one that is light and rich. They should be grown quickly, in order to be tender and crisp. They may be raised by preparing the ground and sowing the seed broadcast. They will generally grow so quickly that they will not be troubled by the weeds; a better way, however, is to sow the seed in di ills. To have a succession, a row should be sown every week from the time the frost leaves the soil in the spring till late in the fall. An education, even in taste, is not only well, but sometimes important; ana yet if a farmer, struggling hard to “get along” in the world, can’t appreciate tne difference between giltedged and common butter, is it not an advantage from the standpoint of personal economy? He may miss an educated enjoyment, but, uuderthe circumstances, may he not rejoice that the balance of good Is so slightly against him ? Butter is only a luxury at best, and as such might wisely be banisned from many a table. Havana seed tobacco should always be grown on a dark, rich loam, since the leaf is apt to be thick and leathery, without much grain, so that it is hardly fit for wrapping cigars, while it is almost of light sod by the Connecticut and Massachusetts growers, some ten or twelve years ago, when its culture was first begun, nearly resulted in an entire return to culture of tne seed lea f . Now, however, dark soil is chosen, and the leaf is now regarded as the finest cigar wrapping leaf grown in the country, and the demand is greater than the supply.

The “land reform” most uneeded in this country is that which reforms the land itself and makes it grow more productive under annual culture. On the other hand, a reform which would stop capitalists from investing in farm lauds and conducting operations ou a scale of common sense and vastuess which dwarfs ordinary farm operations, is just uo reform at all, but is much like the bowlings of ignorant laborers against machinery or most modern improvements, because those things “take the bread out of their mouths!” Two cases of pleuro-pneumonia recently occurred in YVest Manheim township, Pa., whLh is the third.outbreak of the kind during the past vyear, all tbe cases originating, as we are informed, in Maryland. Complaints come to us that the State of Maryland takes no pains whatever to suppressor keep this disease in check, and that the farmers and dairymen about Baltimore habitually take diseased cattle dnto the Baltimore markets and sell them, and this is the way the disease is dissemmina-t ed.

Some one asked some questions about cherry grafting, recently, but we have mislaid them, We will say, however, for his benefit, that the grafting should be done vety early, before tbe buds begin to swell. It ought to be done before the fro.-t is out of tbe ground, but this is impossible in most sections this spring. The process is the same as in other grafting, and can best be learned by seeing it done and doing it under directions of one who knows how. If you are grafting trees of some size, use the old-fashioned cleft-grafting. If graft aud stalk are nearly of same size, whip or tongue-graftine is perierabie. Last spring I was absent from home a few days, and found upod my return that one of my horses bad killed one of my Cotswold lambs, and as I bad another sheep that bad twins, I conceived tbe idea of washing one of the twins thoroughly in warm water aud then robbing it with tbe dead lamb’s skin. After I had done this I put the sheep on the barn floor by herself aud gave her the lamb, which she smelled of all over, and from that time on sbe was one of the happiest mothers X ever saw. - Her own iamb had been dead five days, but as her miik had been drawn out twice a day, her udder was not inj «red. If you have occasion, brother farmers, try it and see if it does not give entire satisfaction.

N. MARKS.

Cuyahoga Co., O.

SELECTED MISCELLANY.

To live long, it is necessary to live slowly.—Cicero. Happiness is like the echo; it an* swers you; but it does not oomes. Contradiction animates conversation ; that is why oourta are so wearisome. None but£he contemptible are apprehensive of oontempt.—Rochefoucauld. The two powers whioh constitute a wise man are those of tearing and forbearing. They that would not eat Kprbidden fruit, must not come near the forbidden tree. Justice without strength, and strength without justice: fearful misfortunes. What we charitably fdtglve will be recompensed as well as what we charitably give. The power to do great things generally arises from the willingness to do little things. Many often judge the person, but not the cause, which is not injustice, but malice. It is difficult to be sick without care, and easy to be happy without wealth. —Chaineld. Never exhibit too great familiarity with a new acquaintance; you may give oftense. Tne first sure symptom of a mind of health is rest of heart and pleasure felt at home. There is but one sure way to keep from being dunned, and that Is never to run In debt. The world does not require so much to be informed as to be reminded.— Hannah More. Happiness is always the inaccessible castle which sinks in ruin when we set foot ou it. The gods have a curse for him who willingly tells another the wrong road.—George Eliot. Nature has sometimes made a fool but a coxcomb is always of a man’s own making.—Addison. There are three ways of getting out of a scrape—write out, back out, and the best way is to keep out. A woman’s dress is like the envelope of a letter—the cover is frequently an index to its contents. A failure establishes only this, that our determination to do something was not strong enough.—Boue. Our chief want in life is somebody who sha{l make us do what we can. This is tbe service of a friend. To restore a commonplace truth to its first uncommon luster, you need only to translate It into action. Minds of moderate caliber ordinarily condemn everything which is beyond their range.—Beaconsfield. The hardest rock is made of the softest mud. Don’t allow the sentiment of habit to harden into vice. Men seldom repent as long as they are prosperous. It takes adversity to bring a person down on his knees. If you should have just what -you really deserve—no more, no less—would be as happy as you are now? The power of pleasing is founded upon the wish to please. The strength or the wish is tbe measure of the power. The greatest pleasure I know is to do a good action by stealth, and te have it found out by accident.—Charles Lamb. From the mahuer in which praise and blame are dealt out in this world, an honest man ought to covet defamation. Be courageous and noble minded; our own heart, and not other men’s opinions of us, forms our true honor. —Schiller. It is one thing to see that a line is crooked, and another thing to be able to draw a straig t one.—Principal J. C. Shairp. If you follow this rule you will save yourself many a heartache: “Never bite till you find out whether it is bread or stone.” Excess of ceremony is always the companion of weak minds; it Is a plant that will never grow in a strong soil.—Coleridge. The wise prove, and the foolish confess, by their conduct, that a life of employment is the only life worth leading.—Patey. Common-sense does not ask for an impossible chess-board, but takes the one before it and playa the game.— Wendell Phillips. Advice to wives: Man is very much like an egg— keep him In hot Water and he is bound to become hardened. —Philadelphia Herald. Love, hatred, jealousy, destiny, are blind; the eyes of justice are blindfolded ; and one oust then quit life in order to be able to see in it. J. N. Kinnear, of Kiusgville, Ohio, has a son five mouths old. which shows such unusual physical and mental tevelopem' nt as to cause considerable onrfament among the medical fraternltv about oere. The child, although only five mouths old, can walk as well as a man and talk quite as well. Its mind is as well developed as the average child of twelve years old. and has thought and discretion of mind, and shows remarkably rapid developement of the mental faculties seldom witnessed.