Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 September 1874 — Page 3

TO C ORRESPONDENTS.

Ail wwma ti itlon* tor thla I>ap<:r should be ao roit-prr.H’i' “ v :h« name of the author; not neceasa •iivtoriuU s>n, Hot as an evtUeaeeof treodfeith cm the pun ZTt ho writer. Writ e only onfeno miroftSp - paper Bi> r tr.UJOlarljr careful In clrfiig nuineshm 1 Sate? to hav the Utters ami figures plaid anil fflattatt prop*"" par;' 1 re often difficult to neetp.-dr. bnau*' of too card*. tunaer in which they are written.

THE BOBOLINK. Once on a golden afternoon. With radiant face* and heart? in tune, Two fond lovers. in dreaming mood, Threaded a rural solitude. Whollv happy, they only knew That the earth, was bright and the sky was blue. That light and beauty and joy and song Charmed the way as they passed along: The air was fragrant with woodland scents— The squirrel frisked on the roadside fence— And hovering near them, •• Chee , cheeft/dnk ?" Queried the,curiousJboholink,. _L Pausing and peering with sidelong head. As saucily questioning ail they said; While tne ox-eye danced on its tender stem, And all glad nature rejoiced with them. O'er the odorous fields w ere strewn Wilting winrnws of grass new mown, And rosy billows of clover bloom Surged in 'he sunshine and breathed perfume. , Swinging low on a slender limb The sparrow warbled his wedding-hymn, And balancing on a blackberry nrtar. The bobolink Cnag with his heart on lire—- “ 'Chink! 1/ you wish to kits her, do! Doit! do-1*! You coward you! , Ki*t her.' kiss, kiss her! Who will see! Only we (Tie-id we three! we three!'’' Under garlands of drooping vines. Through dim vistas of sweet-breathed pines, Past wide meadow-tields, lately' mowed, Wandered the ttnlolenf oountry road. Jhe lovers followed it, listoning.still, . And. loitering -lowly, as lovers will, Entered a gray-roofed bridge that lay', Dusk ancT-cooi, in their pleasant way. Under its arch a smooth, brown stream Silently glided with glint and gleam. Shaded by gracefui’etins which spread Their vef'dllfons canopy overhead— The stream so narrow, the boughs so wide, They met and mingled across the tide. Alders loved i;. and seemed to keep - Patient watch as it lay asleep. Mirrowing clearly the trees and sky. And the iliitering form of a dragon-fly, Save where the swift-winged swallows played In and out in the sun and shade, And, darting and circling in merry chase, Dipped and dimpled its clear, dark face. Fluttering lightly from brink to brink, Followed the garrulous bobolink, Rallying loudly with mirthful din The pair who lingered unseen within, And when from friendly bridge at last Into the rood beyond they passed, Again beside.: hem the tempter went, Keeping the thread of his argument—- " Kiss her! kiss her! chink-a-chee-cheef , I'll not no iitiou it! Don't mind me! I'll be SiUitinel—J can see All around from this tall birch-tree!" But ah! they noted—nor deemed it strange— In his rollicking chorus a trifling change—“Do it! du if!" —with might and main. Warbled the tell-tale — "Do it again!" —The Aldine.

THE TELEGRAPHISTS’ REVENGE.

There were eight of us,' and we had had another long and hard day’s journey. At a little before midnight we arrived with our two wagons at a pretty little town near Le Mans. As we reached the outskirts of the place the courier we had sent ahead met us with the billets for our quarters. As he handed them to us his face assumed an expression that I knew only too well how to interpret. “ Our quarters are none of the best, eh?” I asked. “There have been some Bavarians here for a whole week,” was his laconic reply, which said quite enough. It was only when they found a very great abundance and their stay was very short that our blue-coated allies left anything behind them. Well, our billets, in our respective judgments, promised very little. I, for example, was sent to the house of a linen-weaver. Now, at the mere mention of the word linen-weaver a feeling of hunger and misery comes over me, qjrobably on account of my having in my boyhood so often sung the song of “ The Weaverof Silesia.” The others, being no better pleased with their billets than I was with mine, readily acceded to my proposition to go to an hotel and pass the night at our own expense. The mail had arrived only a day or two previously, and consequently we all had money; not much, ’tis true, but enough to pay our reckoning for a night at least. The house to which we were directed was called “ The Shark.” If the name was somewhat ominous, we consoled ourselves with the thought, or rather the recollection, that, in the olden time, on a certain occasion, a very distinguished person found himself very comfortable in a tish’s belly. The landlord, when our troop entered the house, made an awful wry face; when, however, he learned that we had not been quartered' upon him, but came as paying guests, his physiognomy assumed an entirely different expression. We Germans, despite the hatred of the French for us, had a good reputation among the landlords; and lam convinced that, if countrymen of the proprietor of The Shark had presented themselves, he would not have been so well pleased as he was with us. But his suave manner did not? please us. There was something too fox-like in his physiognomy. While the tongue of the ltttle man was giving utterance to polite phrases, his little, sharp, dark eyes seemed to say, “If I only had the gold in my pocket, you might all go to the devil, for all I.care!” Such-like landlords were not new to us, and consequently the contradictory expression of his words and his mien gave us no uneasiness. He could indulge in any grimaces he plegsed, provided his larder was well rilled and his wine was -good. —. ——- The man knew his business, that no one could deny. He ran over the list of his culinary delicacies with wonderful volubility, and praised his wines with an eloquence that even a Geneva Calvinist would have found it difficult to resist. As for the former, they tasted very like the remnants of a dinner warmed oyer; and as for the latter, it had certainly been liberally watered. But our stomachs had‘riot been cloyed with luxuries of late, and, especially" for the last three or four days, our fare had been so very plain that we found the supper The Shark landlord set before us very palatable. Although we had had a hard day, we were, nevertheless, in a convivial mood, and, after our host had persuaded us to take one bottle of champagne,"he did not lind it difficult to persuade us to take a second, a third, and a fourth. So we sat drinking and merry-making until three o’clock in the morning, when we suddenly broke up and hastened to our beds.-^ - At six. o’clock we were all assembled again around the table, busy with our coffee, when the Shark appeared, and, with one of bis friendliest grimaces, handed me our reckoning. Great Heavens! I thought I should sink to the earth ■tfhen I .glanced it the paper! Such imposition shad never before witnessed.. * “ Two • hundred \atjd thirty-three francs!” I cried; {C fhatis impossible! it cannot Ire!” \ ■“ SL «i, monsieuyr, it is quite correct,”

answered the Shark, blandly. “Mon 1 Dieu! Messieurs les Prusstens have made everything so dear with us in France —what can we do?” ;u' “ The rascal!” I thought) and told my comrades what the fellow demanded of us. They, very naturally, were not less incensed than 1 was; but what could we do? There was no time to enter into a discussion, for our wagons were already waiting at the door, so we emptied our purses, and, with “Muh und Noth," made up the sum the villain demanded, which he pocketed with a nonchalance that, clearly showed it was not the first time he had preyed upon the unwary. Wo went our way, all feeling* very savage, I particularly, for it was my fault, if anybody’s, that we had fallen into the jawsoftbe monster. ~ I had no expectation of ever se'eing the little town or The Shark landlord again; but Providence willed that it should be otherwise, and kindly gave me an opportunity to be fully avenged. Nine days later we were ordered to repair a short connecting-line near Le Mans. Again we took the road to the little town of dear remembrance, which we reached about nightfall, and Where we were to spend the night. We reported ourselves at the Commissary Bureau, where I had the good fortune to find a good-natured acquaintance in the office in charge. In the course of conversation I told him how I and my comrades had been robbed by The Shark proprietor a few days previously. “ I know the fellow',” said he. “There have already been a good many complaints about him; but 1 have determined to send him as many of my billets as I can with any show of justice; in that way one can, perhaps, get even wiih the rascal.” “All, an excellent idea!” I cried. “Send me and my comrades to him —that is, if you can.” “ Why not? Eight men—yes, certainly I can send you to him. The fellow is rich; the other houses are full, and he lias only three or four Bavarians. Yes, I’ll send you to him for to-night.” Fifteen minutes later our wagon drew up before the door of The Shark. On the way I had unfolded a little plan to my companions, with which they were delighted. When our worthy host saw us he was radiant with delight, and his satisfaction was apparently increased when we excused ourselves for troubling him again so_ soon, and begged that he would have our tired horses well attended to. “ Oh, you are very welcome, gentlemen,” he replied, rubbing his hands with a sort of Satanic glee. “ You do my little house greathonor! ” (“ Here I have the eight dunces again,- lie~ thought to himself.) We made ourselves as comfortable as possible, and, in our endeavors in this direction, we were ably seconded by our host. When he asked us how many rooms we wished, we modestly replied that we were by no means particular flow many we bad; whereupon he hastened to allot to our occupancy eight rooms in a row, up two flights, of stairs, which, he assured us, were as comfortable as auy rooms in his house, and I have no doubt that, in making the statement, he was not wide of the truth. Of ordering our supper we made equally light work, leaving the selection of the bill-of-fare entirely to him. Yes, we even went so far in evincing our confidence in his judgment and discretion as to allow him to select our wine for us. “ Perhaps I shall put a bottle of champagne on ice?” he suggested. “I hope Messieurs les Prussiens found my wine to their .taste the other evening!” “If you choose, you may put two on ice,” I replied. “Perhaps three, messieurs?” “ Four if you like.” “ Bon, let us say six.” “You are very kind, monsieur.” “My duty, my duty! I think I know what is due to such guests as you are, gentlejnen.” And so we continued to compliment each other until our jaws were busy with supper, which, thanks to the generosity of our host, was truly Lucullian in its character. Our host watched our glasses with Argus eyes, and hardly were they empty when the waiters, in obedience to his wink, filled them again; this we gave Mm an opportunity to do very frequently, especially when lie brought on the champagne, which, to do the Shark justice, I confess was very good, and, unlike his claret, had not been watered. We swallowed with heroic courage whatever was set before us —and it is astonishing what eight healthy, willing fellows can accomplish in this direction under proper encouragement, after a hard day’s march, especially if they have been on plain fare for a few days, We repeatedly drank the Shark’s health, an honor the significance of which he was destined not to learn until the next'morning. Finally, at a late hour, with heavy heads and limber knees, leaving a formidable battery of empty bottles behind us, we retired to sleep the sleep of —the avengers. The next morning, bright and early, late as it was when we went to our beds, we were all assembled round the table enjoying our case ail lait, and., in all the hotter humor in consequence of the success of our little plot. It was w r ith a sort of triumphant satisfaction that I watched our host, as we drank our coffee, making a copy of what seemed -to be an interminable list of entries in a big- accountbook before him. “ Now he is slaughtering us,” I whispered to my comrades, just -as one of our drivers, a stalwart Pomeranian, presented himself at the door, and cried out, “ The wagons are repOtr gentlemen!” Before our landlord coulQrecover from his astonishment we were « u t of his house and in our seats. But he wasclosiE upon us with his bill, w'hich could ii&r-e* been measured with a yard-stick. 1 glanced at the sum. It was, as we intended it should be, larger than the previous one. “ What is it /ou wish?” I asked, with all the naicete I could command. “ The amount of my little bill, messieurs, if you please,” repeated the Shark, in his blandest tone. “ Your bill! how? why, we went quartered with you.” “Eh!wh—what! qua—quartered with me?” he stammered, and at each syll» ble his under jaw fell lower and lower. *• Certainly! Is it possible that I forgot last evening to give y°' x our billet? Why, here it is now!” «ud I drew the document from my p&cket and handed it to him. “ I be« a thousand pardons, nion cher monsieur! Driver, go on!” * , And away we drove, laughing heartily. The Jihark,’ however, did not seem to relish the joke* As long as we were in sight he stood still, “ with murder in his mien,” looking now at us, and now at his “little bill.” We. however, for the thousandth time struck up our favorite song, “The Watch

on the Rhine,”.which rang out merrily on the morning air.' Does anybody dqubt that the landlord of The Shark looked after the Quurtierbillet a little more closely after this adventure? Probably’ not!— Ftom the German, for Appleton's Journal.

Driblets.

BY JOSH BILLINGS.

A large proporsliun ov the welth ov this world iz only used and enjoyed to excite the envy ov other people. Mankind kan be divided into two klasses, thoze who lead and thoze who follow; and thoze who lead hav more vanity and stubborness than honesty. .. Lazyness is safer than idleness. There iz nothing like adversity to sho the strong spots and the weak ones in a man’s Jcarakter. The wize people in this world are thoze who think az we do, and the phools are thoze who disagree with us. One ov the most diffikult things for us old phellow’s to comprehend is, that we are most butifully' played out. It iz diffikult for me to tell whether luv or fear makes a man commitlhe most pbooiish akts. 7 I don’t rekolekt now' ov ever meeting a man who didn’t luv to phrovecy, and w T ho didn’t think he could beat ehny other man at it. Thare ain’t nothing that would ruin a man quicker than to giv him all he hank; ers for,. Friendship iz about seckond cuzzin to luv. It iz a very fu, if enny, hippokrits who liav been able to slip thru this life without being ketched at it. The majority ov people had rather say a sharp thing than a true thing. Avarice is its own whipping-post, it eats its own vitals out. It takes tuo to get up a quarrel, but one kan settle it. The wizest men that the world has ever produced, and at the same time the biggest phools, are the philosophers. Adversity iz the only thing that will set a lazy man in moshun, and it takes a good deal ov that sumtimes. Vanity and Envy are the tuo most unworthy, and at the same time most common, traits in every man’s karakter. Tliare iz advice enuff now laying around loose to run iust three sutch worlds az this—wdiat we are suffering most for, iz sum more good examples. A man haz got just az mutch right to be affeckted az he haz to limp when he aint lame. The only way to get thro this world and eskape censure and abuse iz to take sum back road. Yu kant travel the main turnpike and do it. Tliare is now and then a phool so well bred that he iz really quite endurable. Notoriety iz a short-lived deceit, and its ashes are like the ashes of a brush heap. A good reputashun kant be bought, nor inherited, nor stumbled into, it iz the personal labour ov a life time, and. aint fully ours, until we hav been ded and buried a fu years. Employment iz the absolute necessity ov our naturs. The man who kan liv in idleness and keep happy, and virtuous, haz got no more intrinsik value in him than a tudstodl haz. — New York Weekly.

Judging By Appearances.

In the other years, when Maine was a district of Massachusetts, Ezekiel Whitman was among the chosen to represent the district in the Massachusetts Legislature. He was an eccentric man, and one ol'tne best lawyers of his time, in those days Whitman owned a farm, and did much work upon his land; and it so happened that when the time came for him to set out for Boston his best clothes were a suit of home-spun. His wife objected to his going in that garb, but he did not care. “ I will get a nice, fashionable suit made as spoil as I reach Boston,” he said. Reaching his destination, Whitman found rest at Doolittle’s City Tavern. Let it be understood that he was a graduate of Harvard, and that at this tavern he was at home. As he entered the parlor of the house he found th'at several ladies and two or three gentlemen were there assembled, and he heard a remark from one of them, “ Ah, here comes a countryman of the real home-spun genus. Here’s fun.” Whitman stared at. the company, and then sat down. “Say, my friend, you are from the country,” remarked one of the gentlemen. “Ya-as,” answered Ezekiel, with a ludicrous twist of the face. The ladies tittered. “And what do ypu think of our city?” “It’s a pooty thick-settled place, anyhow. It’s got a swampin’ sight o’ housen in it.” “ And a good many people, too.” “Ya-as, I should reckon so.” Many people where you come from?” ' “ Wal, some.” “Plenty of ladies, I suppose?” “ Ya-as, a fair sprinklin’:” “ And I don’t doubt that you are quite a beau among them.” “Ya-as, I beaus ’em home—tew meetin’ an’ singing-schewl.” “Perhaps the gentleman from the country will take a glass of wine?" “ Thank-ee. Don’t keer if I do.” ~~ ’ The wine was brought. “ You must drink a toast.” “Oh, git eout! X eats toast—never heerd o’ sich a thing as drinkin’ it. But I kin give ye a sentiment.” The ladies clapped their hands; but what was their surprise when the stranger, rising, spoke calmly and clearly, in tones ornate and dignified, as follows: “Ladies and gentlemen, permit me to wiSM you health and happiness, with every o-fier blessing earth can afford; and may y<» u grow better and wiser with advancing yt-«.rs, bearing ever in mind that outward appearances ° r * x en deceitful. You misto-* me > from m y dress, for a country booby, while I, from the same superficial cause, thought you w ere ladies and. gentlemen. The misGtke been mutual.” He bad just spoken when Caleb Strong, the Governor of the State, entered and inquired for Mr. Whitman. “Ah here I ai». Governor. Glad to see you.” Then, tuning to the dumbfounded company—- “ I wish you a very evening.” And he left them feeing about as small and cheap as it is possnJe for fullgrown people to teei.—Christiafhzra. . » » A Mr. Wake man, in, Vermont, started out to borrow a hoe. That implement' must be scarce in Vermont, for Mr. Wakeman has now been gone sixteen years, and his wife is growing anxious about him.

The First Adventure.

The following stories are told of two Nantucket boys, who altorward became famous in their several walks of life. Both died within a few years, upward of eighty years of age—the one, Capt. Stephen West, sailing as a whaling captain most of the time, and always, except on his last voyage, in the employ of Seth Russell Sons, of New Bedford; other, Hon. Jacob Barker, as merchant and bankeT in New’ York and New Orleans, achieving and losing a colossal fortune, and swell known in this country and Europe for his shrewdness, energy and capacity. Capt. West commenced llis career as a boy on board the sloop Speedwell, of New Bedford, and it was while in the Speedwell that Jacob Barker, then eight years old, came to, him witii a ninepence (twelve and a half cents) which he had had presented to him, and said; “ Stephen, I wish tliee would invest this money, on thy arrival in Boston, in something. that will pay.” Stephen accepted the business, promising to give it his best attention. On the arrival of the vessel in Boston he looked about for a profitable investment. Going up Long Wharf he passed a table where an old woman had exposed for sale in tempting order her stock of apples, nuts and candies. Amongst this assortment Stephen’s attention was attracted by the sight of some beautiful sticks of sugar candy white in the center and entwined with stripes of red in the most attractive form. It was the first of the kind he had seen, and he immediately decided on a purchase and procured twelve sticks. On the arrival ot the Speedwell at Nantucket, Jacob was already ou the wharf, more anxious for the result of this first adventure. than afterward of the argosies of wealth that bore their burdens to his stores. The first salutation was “ Stephen, has thee purchased anything for me?” The reply w r as that he had, but the vessel must first be secured, the sails handed and the decks cleared before the cargo could be discharged. Jacob’s anxious hands soon aided in furling the jib and putting everything in when they “ went below” arid Stephen spread before his delighted eves the first mercantile investment. Highly delighted, he stepped on the wharf and was soon surrounded by a dozen boys, with whom he commenced his trade, and with such success that before he hadreached the'store at the head of the wharf hg had sold the whole adventure for thirty-seven and a half cents, realizing a profit of 200 per cent., making what he termed “ a very good turn of it.” This was the first act, or turn of business, that this great merchant and financier accomplished, and not even those very heavy loans to which our Government in the day of her financial difficulty was obliged to resort to him for aid gave him so much pleasure as this first adventure of his boyhood. But this adventure would be of slight interest had it not a sequel in the lapse of time. Several years afterward Mr, Barker had become confidential clerk to the substantial mercantile house of Isaac Hicks & Sons, New York. Mr. West arrived in New York an officer in the ship Brothers, Capt. Thaddeus Waterman, from Liverpool. While in Liverpool Mr. West had laid in an adventure in a lot of beer. On his arrival in New York he was much troubled and perplexed for money to pay the duties, then high, and the other matters relating to it. The adventure was in danger of being lost, when he recollected that his old friend and schoolmate, Jaeob Barker, was in New York. Jacob had already some fame as a clever man for business and shrewdness. As soon as West could leave the ship he sought out Barker at the counting-room of Messrs. Hicks, and stated his perplexities regarding his Liverpool adventure. “ Give thyself no uneasiness,” replied Jacob, “on that business, Stephen. I will attend to it for thee. Enter the beer at the CustomHouse ; I have plenty: of money by me to pay the duties. I will not only pay the duties, but attend to the selling of it for thee. Thee only deliver it to my order when I send one# The next day the order came and the beer was delivered. In the evening, while Mr. West was writing in the cabin, Jacob came on board and informed him that he had sold the beer excellently well, and in proof opened his handkerchief and turned out J>n the cabin table a largo sum of solid coin. The sale was indeed well done, and much beyond West’s expectations; but, sailor like, he shoved back the money, saying, “ Take your pay, Jacob, as much as you want.” “Not a cent. Stephen,”- was the response; “ not a cent. Does thee remember the sugar candy?” and with a hearty good shake of the hand they parted.— Boston Advertiser.

Possible and Impossible.

A great .deft! of wisdom of a man in this century js shown in leaving things unknown,* a great deal of his practical good sense in leaving things undone. ft is no longer possible to know everything. A universal scholar will be no more seen among men. The range of human knowledge has increased so vastly, has swept out and away so far and so fast, that no brain, be its quantity or quality what it may, can, in the years commonly given to man, even survey the field. A man, therefore, must make up his mind, if he proposes to learn anything, to be content with a profound ignorance of a great many other things. It is a bitter thing, perhaps, but it is the fact, that a man who would know anything in this century must purchase his knowledge with voluntary and chosen ignorance of a hundred other things. One must choose his specialty, and devotion and diligence in that is the price he pays for success. It is with doing as it is with knowing; there is only a certain amount of work in any case. He cannot do everything. Nevertheless, everything needs doing. All about him is undone work clamoring for hands. There are tw o courses before one. To -•—''rii.hc everything, to fret and avieve because thin asd mat is undone, and to make spasmodic efforts to do it—this is the way of failure. Resolutely to make up one’s mind to let, us far as he is concerned, the most that should be done stay undone still, to steel one's heart against demands and neces sities, to resist all inducements, to put forth a single effort, to close one’s eyes to it all, and to stick heart, hand, and life and lo7e to the thing a man undertakes and calls his own- that is the way of success. •' >■ Life is very ihort, and the single brain and hand at be»t very weak, and there are thousands of things to know and to do. One must choose and be' content with hiachoice. And so it comes to pass thft now at last tfe measure of a man’s will be th, amount of his vofunignorance, the wjasure G s his p tical amount of what he is convent to leave>, aattempt d w Ihave said tv is bit**. Rut we must •' *. • . 1 , \v r '

accept a changed world cheerfully. There is no use in fretting. Many a man wears his heart out with regrets pveT things he wknts to do and cannot; here and there one grieves over things he wants to know and cannot. ! A’ Neither God nor man demands impossibilities. The part of all the world’s knowing.or doing that I comes to one’s self is one’s own responsibility, and will be borne effectively and happily as one resolutely shuts his eyes to the enormous mass of things he cannot know and cannot do. Let others look to these. — Christian Journal.

The Planets of Our System.

Astronomical science is making rapid progress. Men make the study of the starry heavens their life-work, and starting where those of preceding generations left off, and aided by more and more perfect optical instruments, are discovering profounder wonders in that vast department of the works of God Ilian any of which Newton or the elder Herschcl ever dreamed. It is right that Christians should think of these things and learn what they can of them. 'David “considered” God’s heavens and the doing of it inspired his devotion and deepened his humility. Let us, then, for a little turn our attention—not to the far-off fixed stars which we know to be other suns, but so distant that we can discover nothing new—but .to our near neighbors, the planets of our own sun, members of our own family. Of Mercury, which is so near the sun as to be always in a blaze of light, but little is known, except that it is much less in bulk than the earth, and very considerably more dense. Whether it is an abode ot animal life is a problem which mortal men will probably never solve. Venus is very nearly the size of the earth, and has a day within a few minutes of the same length. It has water, as the earth has, because its sky has an abundance of clouds. That it has vegetable and animal life is highly probable, because all the conditions necessary for such life appear to exist, and it may be that there are beings there capable of knowing and worshipihg God. This, howeve'r, to the inhabitants of .the earth must ever be a matter of mere conjecture. But what we cannot know just now we shall know hereafter. Of the earth we need not speak other than to say that it is the third in the series of the planets, and is the first of the series that is attended by a satellite. Mars is much smaller than the earth, but in other respects very much like it. It has seas and clouas, and during its winters extensive tracts of snow can be seen. Its seas are much narrower than the ocean of this globe, and more numerous. They are more like the Mediterranean Sea. Its continents are more broken up, but whether there are mountains cannot be determined. It is highly probable that vegetables and animals exist in Mars, and that the" seasons very much resemble those on earth. Between Mars and the next great seines, of which Jupiter is the first and largest, there are perhaps hundreds, possibly thousands, of little bodies called asteroids, more than a hundred of which have been discovered and named, but of which nothing more is known or can be known than that they exist, and have their own proper orbits more or less eccentric. Some of them are so small that their entire surface would not equal some of our countries. It is probable that they are like our own moon, nothing but barren rock. The notion expressed by some that they are the fragments of an exploded planet is no longer entertained by men of science. But the broad track of the asteroids separates between two great families of planets, the first or inner system consisting of Mercury, Venus, the earth (with its moon) and Mars; the outer system made up of the tour great planets—Jupiter,with four satellites; Saturn, with its rings and seven satellites; Uranus and Neptune. The first four may all be the abode of life, as we know one of them to be; but recent careful observation shows that Jupiter, the giant of the entire planetary system, is not yet in a condition to admit of the existence of life of any kind. The remoteness of the other three renders any observation of their present condition well-nigh impossible with the best instrument yet made; but from all that can be observed it is believed that none of them have arrived at a condition fitting them for life of any kind. The diameter of Jupiter is more than ten times that of the earth, and has a volume exceeding hers 1,230 times. But while the density of the earth is nearly six times that of water, that es Jupiter is barely one and a third times that of water. It follows, therefore, that what we can see through a telescope is not the solid body of the planet, but the surface of a vast and vapory atmosphere thousands of miles deep. The amount of matter in Jupiter is about three hundred times that of the earth, and about one hundred times greater than ail the planets combined. We may well suppoo« that so vast a globe is the theater of tremendous forces. Tne cloud| Jupiter are arranged in belts, running parallel with the equator, but undergoing frequent changes both in width and color. During the year 1860 a yift in one of these clouds behaved in such a way as to demonstrate the startling fact that a hurricane was raging over an extent of the territory of the planet equaling the .whole surface of our earth at a rate of fully iuO miles per hour. Such a hurricane on our earth would destroy every tree and building in the territory over which it raged, and cause universal desolation. It raged six w eeks. 8o great is the diurnal velocity of Jupiter that it makes an entire revolution in a little less than ten hours, carrying the surface at the equator at the rate of seven and one-half miles per “ From the riaiug of the sun to the setting thereof” is but five hours. This great vfdocity has flattened its poles correspoodingly, so that its equatorial diafnemeter exceeds its polar diameter by 7,000 miles. Appearances indicate the presence of yery much water in Jupiter, that is, in its atmosphere; for it is almost certain that none is yet lying, upon its surface in sfeas and oceans, for the Creator has not yet “divided the waters which were under the immanent from the waters which were above the firmament,” and then, as Moses has written, “ the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” Then a vast and dense atmosphere, like that of Jupiter at present, enveloped the globe, and then the Spirit of God moved in fearful hurricanes upon the face of the waters, like that storm in Jupiter just spoken of. Thus permitted to see in another planet something of the energy of the Almighty mentioned in the first eight verses of the first chapter of Genesis; and thus is science made to interpret one of the profoundest and most difficult passages in revelation, j

Jupiter is yet red hot, “for, daring the last two or three years, a change of so remarkable a nature has passed over it as to imply the existence of forces more energetic than those at work in producing atmospheric changes.” In the autumn of 1870 Mr. Browning, an eminent optician and observer, “ called the attention of astronomers to the fact that the great equatorial zone, usually of a creamy white color, had assumed a decidedly orange tintand that “ the bright edges of the belts bordering upon this rudely equatorial zone seemea to he frayed and torn like the edges of storm clouds.” Our quotations .are from the Cornhill Magazine. It has been demonstrated that the light which reaches the earth from Jupiter is more than the reflected light of the sun could give, therefore some of it must be inherent. Another observation was upon the moons of Jupiter as they passed over the illuminated disc of the planet, themselves equally exposed to the shining of the sun. The result was that the satellite seemed almost black when it was upon the middle of the planet’s disc, as a cokl iron .ball would look if swinging across the face of a mass of molten iron. Here wehave intense heat, some light and a vast investiture of watery clouds. We say watery clouds. We say watery, for the spectroscope has proved that there is water there. Is Jupiter cooling, as our globe probably did in ages long past? Its enormous size requires for that process a correspondingly enormous period; but the time will come—it may he millions of years in the future—when the waters will lie upon its surface, when plants can spring up, and animals, and, it may be, intelligent, worshiping beings, shall cover the face of that immense w’orliL In all this we have dealt only with observed facts, and with legitimate £»ets. Mere speculations and guesses are foolish and unprofitable; but to know all we can know of the works of God is a duty and a privilege. That creative energy is still going on, and will go on forever, is a proposition which we may read in the heavens above us, and which the Scriptures of Truth do not either expressly affirm or deny.— United Presbyterian.

PHUNNYGRAMS.

—A little boy hearef his mother tell of eighteen head of cattle being burned the other night. “ Weren’t their ta!ls burnt also?” he inquired. —“ Did I not give you a flogging the other day?” said a schoolmaster to a trembling boy. “Yes, sir,” answered the boy. “ Well, what do the Scriptures say on the subject?” “I don’t know, sir,” said the other, “ except it is in that passage which says ‘ it is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ’’ —“Oh, no, dear Charles,” said the widow to her cousin on their return from the funeral obsequies of the lamented, “nothink—no, nothink can e’er assuage my grief. Bpt, ipr my friends’ sake, I must live on; and if you could order half a dozen of those nice softshell crabs and a porter-house beef-steak (rare) from around the corner I will try to be unselfish for love’s sake.” —Not long ago an officer of the London School Board was crossing Covent Garden at a late hour, when he found a little fellow making his bed for the night in a fruit basket. “ Would you not like to go to school and be well cared for?” asked the official. “ No,” replied the urchin. “But do you know that I am one of the people who are authorized TO take up little boys whom I find as I find you?” “I know you are, old chap, if you find them in the streets, but this here is not a street. It is private property, and if you interferes with my liberty the Duke of Bedford will be down upon you. I know the bact as well as you.”— Christian Union. —lt is said that a lawyer of this city purchased from a son of St. Crispin a pair of boots, for which he promised to pay six dollars. The boot-maker dunned him until he grew weary, and at length asked his creditor if he could sue a lawyer. “ Certainly you can,” said the lawyer. “ Then I will go and sue you at once.” “It is not worth your while,” said the disciple of Blackstone, at the same time writing out a hill and receipting it. “ Here is a hill of five dollars for legal advice, and one dollar greenback. That just square! the account. There is no use suing.” The hoot-maker thought so too, but does not press the lawyer for further orders.— Evansville Journal. —The boys of Pittsburgh have held a mass meeting, and resolved: “We will go in swimming whenever we please, and won’t come any extra shenanigan about getting our hair dry to sell the folks at home, and that we will have shirts to wear so that the big fellows won’t laugh at us when we are undressing;” that “ we are willing to do the square thing by our parents, but ain’t cut for tending to babies, and we won’t do any labor about home that does not properly come withiq boys’ sphere, and not that if it interferes with the hours of play, Which health demands hoys should have, viz.: Between seven o’clock in the a. m. and nine in the p. with necessary intermission for meals; that straps and taws nor cowhides nor slippers will have any effect in this rebellion. If they try that game, it will be good-by, John, for errands.” ✓

A Microscopic Architect—The “Brickmaker."

No bird, no other animal, not even man himself, can excel the beautiful workmanship of this tiny ''creature, scarcely visible to the naked eye, yet, under the microscope, assuming vast proportions. She not only builds her house, but manufactures her own brick, and lays them up one by one with no workmen to assist. The house is usually attached to some water-plant; but I have seen the young ones, upon a few' occasions,fan--chor their dwellings*to the parent-house. When the animal is resting or is in any way disturbed, she settles down in the lower part of*the tube; but when all is auiet and she is in good working conition, with no nursery of young ones around her, she is pretty sure to reward us with the sight of her four beautiful wheels, which she sets in rapid motion, thus forming a swift current whicbtoingS' the food and the material for the brick close to her head; and she has the power of selection, for she often rejects particles brought to her mouth. The apparatus for molding the brick is within the body. The material is brought through the action of the wheels to a small openrng, where it is passed down to the apparatus which is in rapid, whirling motion, soldering the particles together until they become, seemingly, a solid ball; now she ejects the brick from its mold, bendfc her head over, and securely places it on top of thp structure. It takes her about threejninutee to manufacture each brick.— Popular Science Monthly for Qeto -