Rensselaer Union, Volume 2, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 March 1870 — Spicy. [ARTICLE]

Spicy.

There was a knot of sea captains in a star win Honolulu, the keeper of Iwhich had just bought a barrfl of black pepper. Old Capjain ,of Salem, came in, aid seeing the pepper took up a handful of it “ What do yon buy such stuff as that for?” said he to the storekeeper, “ it’s half peas.” “ Peas!” replied the storekeeper, “there isn’t a pea in it.” Taking up a handful as he spoke he appealed to tho-com pany. They all looked at it, and plunged their hands into the barrel, and bit a kernel or so, and then gave it as their imiverijal opinion that there Wasn’t a pea in it “ I tell ye there is,” said the old captain, again scooping up a handful, “and I ll bet a dollar on it.” The old Boston argument all over the world. They took him up. “ Weft,” said he, “spell that,” pointing to the word “P-e p-p-e-r," painted on the side of the barrel—“lf it isn’t half p’s then I'm no judge, that’s all” , The bet was paid.

-r t - yr. - Tux nessou of the superiority of jhc watches made in this country by machinery over the foreign watches made by band, is self-evident. It is an impossibility that the hand should be controlled and guided with the exactness of. a. machine. In Europe the dhlwrutit parts of a watch are made by different persons, perhaps a Jiuudred miles apart. One whole' family, father, mother and children, arc all cngpgfdin the process of making <>nr of the live Wheels of a wateh ; another fiunily make another wheel, and so on. These different parts are purchased -by tho Watch-makers, and the watch is put together and made ready for the market. Perhaps it is sent to this country, and after being sold, a part becomes broken, and the watch is useless. IV can be taken to a Watch-maker, and he can make by hand a new piece, but the cost of repairing will be great, and where the parts have passed through so many different hands in their construction and repair, it will be a miracle if they are all made with that curacy andLadjwted to each other with the nicety that is indispensable to the correct running of a wateh. In contrast to this crude and disorgauizefk system of manufacturing, the mind turns with relief to the method we havo adopted in this eountrv v us developed at the factory of the National Watch Company, at Elgin, 111. An immense building is erected, a corps of the finest mechanics that can be obtained is employed. A Bupetratandetit of unrivalled inventive reni»s is pitied in charge. Machines are then invented.and constructed for the manufacture of every plate, wheel, pinion and screw used in a watch. The different parts of the factory" are filled up with these machines. Men and girls are employed to operate them. The wheels, the pinions and the screws a re. turned out.by thousands, every part exactly alike. Those are brought together, under the same roof, made into complete watches, and sent out into the market. If after purchase, a wheel breaks,the dealer has but tosend tothe factory and purchase its duplicate, and the wateh is as good as new. Surely this brief comparison is sufficient to convince any reflecting parson of the superiority of the American mechanical swatem. It is superior in theory and fad. The Elgin Watchas ire soiling in «dl parts of the country, and are fecOg“ea'crs an< l exparts as surpassing in durability and correct time-keeping their foreign and other competitors. , Jn an English court of law lately a witness was called to attestto a person’s insanity. “ I know he’s mad,” said the witness, “because the poor fellow imagines himself to be the prophet Jeremiabt” “ Doyon consider that to be a proof of - Mental derangement ?” asked th® examining counsel. ?* I should rather think so,” confidently replied the witness*, “.seeing that I myself am the prophet < «- A MoxrpjtLiXß, VL, school teacher was recently Sued for damages (or punishing an unruly youth, and the damages awarded amounted to one cent and costs.