Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 January 1876 — Page 6

RELIGIOUS AND EDUCATIONAL.

—The next meeting of the Ohio State teachers will be held at Put-in Bay, June 27, 1876, and will continue in session three days. . —Kansas sets a beautiful example to aome of our older States. She has expended $8 ,980.085 in school-houses and has a school fund of over f 1,000,000 and constantly increasing. —The Centennial Commissioners have s appointed Mr. J. Middleton, of the Methodist Episcopal Book Concern, New York, to take charge of the Sabbaih-school department of the Exhibition —According to the Dispatch there arc in Richmond, Va., 53 churches, with 26.958 communicants (an increase of 2,130 during 1875}, and 13,850 Sunday-school scholars. The Dispatch estimates that one person out of every two and a half of the population of Richmond is a member of some church. —The ladies of the Baptist mission to the Chinese inSPoftlana, Ore., report as the result of successful worU the conversion of fourteen Chinese youths, one of whom is preparing for the'ministry, an increasing moral and civilizing in fluence over forty other pupils in their schools, the majority of whom have renounced idol worship, and a strong impression on the Chinese population of .the superiority of Christian customs. —iome remarkable facts respecting th e spread of Christianity in India have lately been brought out by the census, which was prepared with great labor and care by the Indian Government. Two hundred and twenty-five thousand "Protestant native Christians are reported, showing that during the past ten years there has been an increase of 61 per cent of the Christian population, while the natural increase of the Hindu population has been but 5 per cent. —The eighth annual meeting of the Woman’s Board of Missions of the Congregational Churches was held in Boston a short time ago. The report showed the total receipts for the year 1875 to be $72,000. Three branch societies have been added dunng the year to the nine already in existence. The society has now twelve branches and 800 auxiliaries. There are now fifty-nine missionaries supported by the society, of whom five were sent out during 1875, besides fifty Bible women and native teachers. X— Under the old Constitution of Alabama one-fifth of the revenues of the State were appropriated to the publicschool fund. But owing to the delay of the Auditor of the State in issuing his warrants for the collection of the school tax until after the adoption of the new Constitution there are only $75,713.48 in available funds for the support of the public schools in that State during the present year. Unless further means are provided by the General Assembly most of the schools will have to close. —The full title of the proposed new National Church of Mexico is “ The Mexican Branch of the Catholic Church of our Lord Jesus Christ, Militant upon Earth.” This is abridged for popular use, thus: “Church of Jesus in Mexico." It had by the last accounts from the Rev. Dr. Riley fifty -seven congregations, nine day schools, two Christian periodicals and one orphanage. A commission of seven American Protestant Episcopal Bishops has now the general superintendence of this movement until a Mexican Bishop is appointed —Catholicism in? Minnesota, which, in the boyhood of its recently-consecrated Bishop, Ireland, consisted of a few' missionaries, ministering in log cabins to the pioneer settlers and the Indians, has grown to a hierarchy’ of three Bishops, one mitred Abbot and an army of seular and religious clergy, a monastery', a Jesuit and Benedictine college, a score of convents, with their schools and charitable institutions; magnificent church edifices dotted all over the State, with parochial schools attached, and a Catholic population of 150.000.

MECHANICAL AND SCIENTIFIC.

—Mi. Hossock, an English horticulturist, grafted the tomato on a common potato —both plants being species of Solanum. The result was curious in this, that the potato roots under these circumstances refused to form tubers. —A. piece of carbonized rough basket or wattle work has been discovered in the interglacial coal-bed at Wetziken, Switzerland, giving what seems to be clear evidence of the existence of man during one of the warm intervals of the glacial epoch. —Magnets prepared by compressing iron filings in tubes have been exhibited to the French Academy by M. Jamin. When soft iron tilings are forcibly compressed by hydraulic pressure they acquire a coercive power equal to that of steel. —According to Mr. John Young, the sandstone bottoms of iron furnaces assume, from the long-continued action of heat, a distinctly columnar form, the old lines of stratification being obliterated, thus showing that heat, as well as electricity and mechanical force, was an agent in the production of the columnar form of rocks.

—The new aeronautical invention, the parakite, has been exhibited to the public at the Alexandra Park; but,.as it was represented only by a small specimen, the results of the exhibition are not very tangible. The parakite, which resembles an ordinary kite in many details, ascended to an altitude of 1,000 feet or thereabouts, remaining steady while held by the string; but its descent was too rapid to suggest an idea that it would be sale or comiortable for a human being to trust himself to it as a passenger. —M. Treve has submitted to the French Academy a new system of signaling, with the object of diminishing the frequency of collisions at sea. He proposes to employ a signal which will permit the officer of the watch, on perceiving a vessel a short distance ahead, to make known to those on board of her the tack on which he intends to pass her, and that instantaneously. The method by which this is to be accomplished consists in the use of a green or red fire, ignited by electricity, the means of joining contact being close at hand. The green fire would show that the helm is put to starboard and the red that it is pot tr port. This is to avoid the danger •f collisions through both vessels going the same tack.

—According to a writer in the Let Mondee, a valuable method of extinguishing the flames of petroleum consists in applying to them—when water would be without effect—a certain quantity of chloroform, the latter being absolutely uninflammable, and mixed with petroleum in the proportion of one-sixth will render the oil also incombustible.’' More than this, if a litre of petroleum be poured into 8 shallow dish so as to expose the surface of 100 square centimeters, and then ig-

nited, fifty cubic centimeters of chloroform cast upon tlie flames will extinguish them and render the remainder incapable of reignition. In this case, as will lie seen, the quantity of petroleum would be nearly fifteen times that of the chloroform ; and if similar results can be obtained on* a large scale it would be obviously desirable for vessels laden with petroleum to carry also a supply of chloroform. For. notwithstanding the cost of the latter substance as a preventive, it" would of course be more advantageous ,to expend a Reasonable sum in this way than to lose a much larger amount in the names.

Fresh and Simple Attire.

One whq wjites in an English journal on “Clothes” declares that “men do but ask to see their mothers, sisters and sweethearts daintily clean and fresh in al! their arrangements and appointments, and as pleasing to the eve as modesty and moderation permit.” There is something really charming in this picture; simple as it is. “ Daintily clean and fresh in all their arrangements and appointments." We may concede that, for great occasions, ladies may elaborate a little on this basis; but, say, for the breakfast table, or for all ordinaryhome occasions, how delightful it is to see odr womankind arrayed in fresh and simple' attire—no crumpled hair in unwholesome reminder of last night’s elaborate coiffure; no silks or other once-costly fabrics, now soiled and dilapidated; no formidable wrappers, loud of color and wonderful of pattern; no twice used linen; no slatternly shawls, that horror in untasteful households; no touch of deshabille in the slightest or least suggestive degree. Unhappily, this picture is much too rare. There are many women who persist in wearing at the morning meal, and upon other domestic occasions,, old gowns, or apparel that has been banished from the drawing-room. Now, a ladymay be dressed in more rich and costly fabrics at one time than another, but there should be no degrees of neatness, of order, of purity, or of freshness. The morning dress may be a wholly inexpensive one,--<but a grease-stain or a rent is just as much an offense at breakfast as at dinner. In fact, if there must be a stain, we would rather see it on the evening silk than the morning muslin, which should always have the supreme sentiment of freshness and daintiness. Many women have little idea of how greatly they shock the tastes ana really endanger the affections of thdir husbands by their unseemly domestic apparel. There is not a man of sense and refined feeling anywhere who would not prefer some simple and chaste adornment for his wife in the morning to any ’extreme of splendor at the evening ball.v Let a woman by all means dress brilliantly on those occasions that render it proper; we have no desire to abridge her privileges nor baffle her instincts in this particular; but we claim that it is important for her, if she values her household serenity, that she should give equal heed to her customary domestic attire. The female who goes about the house untidily dressed has no right to the title of woman. She is without those marks and indications by which she can be classified. X We reject the notion that a person can really be a woman who is without those dainty instincts for sweet and pure apparel that traditionally pertain to the feminine sex. Such an individual has lost the characteristics, the qualities, the refinements, the distinguishing elements of the daughters of Eve; ana, as she has not by this elimination gained any characteristic of tlie masculine sex, she evidently belongs to some as yet undescribed variety of the human family. —Appletons' Journal.

The Chicago Rothschild.

He hadn’t any baggage, and after one look at him the brush-boy walked away and sat down. The average brush-boy of the average hotel knows when he can brush a quarter out oi a guest just as well as if he were a lawyer. The stranger wrote his name on the register with great deliberation. It was a long nann* It read: “Herbert Henry Washington, Chicago, 111.” The clerk regarded him for a moment with a keen glance, and then asked: “ How long will you remain here ?” “ About a week,” was the reply. “ Shall I credit you with ten dollars paid in advance?” "Who are you talking to?” demanded the stranger, as he stepped back a little. "Strangers generally pay in advance,” replied the clerk. “ Well, sir, I’ll be hanged, sir, if 1 was ever insulted before! Ask me for money in advance! Why, sir, do you know that 1 could buy this hotel and still have millions left?” ‘ * I have my orders. ’ ’ “ Am I to be treated like a dead-beat ?” continued the stranger. “ When a man comes to Detroit to lend $200,000 on a mortgage, do your people look upon him as a skulk and a thief?” "My orders are positive,” quietly replied the clerk. “ I want to see the owner of this hotel, and I want to take him to the Board of Trade, the Mayor’s office and the water works, and I want him to find out what kind of a man I am.” “The proprietor isrg’t in.” “ You don’t know me—you don’t realize who I am!” exclaimed the stranger, tapping the office counter with evefy pause. “ I didn’t care to be known, but since you have insulted me I want to inform you that I am the Rothschild of the West”? /

The clerk started off with a letter to his girl, but had only got as far as “beloved Sarah’’ when the stranger yelled out: “ Who advanced money to Chicago to complete her water works ? Who owns twenty-eight steamboats and six tugs’ Who owns six elevators and 100 miles of railroad?” “I don’t know,” was the reply. “ And yet when I come into this house I am insulted as if 1 were a loafer!” continued the stranger. “ Why, sir, come to the bank with me, sir, and see if my check for $50,000 will be dishonored!” , “I’ll go!” said the clerk, putting on his hat. “ You will, eh?” “ Yes, sir!” “ You needn’t go. I wouldn’t stop here if you’d give me SI,OOO a day. I’ll go to some other house, and when spring opens I’ll buy a site next to you and build a hotel ot my own and run your house out of sight!” “Call an officer!” said the clerk to one of the boys. “That’s the crowning insult!” shouted the man. “But I’ll bide my time. I’ll go over to the other tavern and send over a $50,000-check foryou to look at, hnd no matter how sorry you feel, sir, I’ll not accept an apology, sir—blast me if I do!” He went out, and at noon was seen eat-1 ing crackers and cheese in the Postoffice. —Detroit Free Preu.

Nerves.

There is nothing in animated nature that has such a weight of reproach to carry as the nerves. Let what will happen in a body’s ecqnomy that is at all obscure in its origin, the nerves are instantly held responsible and called to account, unless the burden Can, by any possibility, be thrust ujion the liver, a second terra, incognita. The stomach, to be sure, can get out of order, and one can have a cold in the head, and, the cause bjing se obvious, the poor nerves will escape blame; but hardly anything else can come to pass with us that we do not tax the nerves with the sin. Are we wakeful at night,' through chance of overheating, or of not' having eaten enoughs through too much excitement or surplus of sorrow, or through care and an uneasy conscience—the nerves are takpn to task. Have we no appetite as the tdble, the system not demanding furthers supplies just then—we are too nervous ft eat. Are we oppressed w ith fatigue and requiring a great deal of sleep—it is because our nerves tire all worn out. Have we a toothache, resulting from a defective tooth that courage has failed us to remove in season—we call it neuralgia, and declare that the excitement over recent events or over events to come has wrought injury to our nerves. Have we an attack of gout arising from too great self-indulgence, perhaps, on our part, perhaps on the part of our ancestors —we attribute it to the irritation that one untoward thing or-another has produced upon our nerves. Do we indulge ourselves in a rousing hysteric, throwing the whole household into confusion and alarm, and occasioning almost as much disturbance as a fire or a moving—it is quite out of the power of our feeble nerves to resist it. Do we imagine ourselves afflicted with all the ailments of the doctors’ books, conjure up phantoms of disease from our fears, detail our symptoms to every listening ear, and darken home with hypochondria—we say our nervous system is completely shattered. Are we cross and snappish, and finding tlie world out of joint generally—we say that our nerves are in such a state! Do we use every endeavor to curb our violent temper, keep silent under provocation, make a pleasant reply when the tongue tingles with a sarcastic one, return good| for evil on the spot — other people say: “Oh, well, they have no nerves.” Do we allow curselves to be annoyed bv every trifle, to have our teeth set on edge by every grating sound, to be upset by every disaster—we say it is our delicate nervous organization. We never say that we are wanting in self-control, and in the desire for self-control both as to our nerves and the appetites that we allow those nerves to excite; that we are wanting in patience and forbearance, in good temper, in good-will, in resolution, in health and virtue generally; but, on the other hand, we make tlie scape-goat of bur poor nerves, and send them out into the wilderness with all our sins packed and strapped on their back. We do not even have so much as a scirrhus tumor, bequeathed to us through the sins of some one among all our forefathers, but we dub it a nervous fungus. A smile is often kindled at the frequent iteration by the members of past generations of the fact that in the “ good old times” everything w’as conducted in a manner far superior to that of to-day; but in this regard, at least, there is some truth in the complaint. In those good old’ times, before there were any nerves, things were at any rate called by their right names. Irritability and selfishness had to bear the weight of their own misdoing, and when a person deserved either Newgate or Bedlam nobody ever dreamed of excusing him on the score of his sick nerves. Perhaps it was occasionally too heroic treatment, for there may have been cases in those days-in which really’ sick nerves were abused in consequence; but we fancy-that a little of the same treatment nowadays would not come badly into play once in a while. When an urchin throws a whole neighborhood into a fever, by screaming for a couple of hours without good and sufficient reason, instead of mothers and aunts and nurses running about distractedly to soothe the dear child’s nerves, we think a mild application bf some domestic Newgate would be more in order. When a person abandons herself to the delights of a hysteric, it is not impossible that if, instead of yield-

ing all the peace and comfort of everybody else in the place, she 'were treated as a gentle lunatic, and given to understand that Bedlam waited for her, she would not so readily surrender to the hysteric again. When another, who by suspicions, jealousies, sharp retorts and sarcastic addresses makes the surrounding region thoroughly uncomfortable, should be accorded the treatment once accorded a common scold, and “ducked” in the nearest water, there -would, as a rule, be clearer sky reigning in that region. And when the hypochondriac tlirows his gloom upon the face of creation, if we remember the old adage that “conceit can kill and conceit can cure,” we may do better than concern ourselves about him. In fact, we hardly believe in nerves at all, as they are commonly spoken of. Nerves, of course, anatomically speaking, must be acknowledged with countless forms of neurosis; but nerves, the bugbear with which the weak and the wicked control and tyrannize over the rest of the race, are a ghost that can hardly be laid too soon. The whole nervous system is yet an unexplored country, except for its mere outer boundaries; there are few things of which we are in more ignorance, the most learned confessing themselves mere sciolists in relation to it. Nervous, electric, chemic, magnetic—we scarcely know which is the ruling element in the vast machinery that carries us from one eternity to the other; and it is the part of a charlatan instantly to ascribe cause and cure to such mysteries.

And certainly it is more than a charlatan’s part to put off on the nerves the affairs that really belong to the virtues—or, shall we say, to the want of the virtues ? It would seem as if life might be made a pleasanter thing to many people if, instead of such common use of bromides and valerians and opiates as exists, each one of them playing on the nerves as on so many fiddle-strings, there were a little use of determined selt-restraint, steady purpose, resignation and sweet temper. Diseased nerve-centers are all very fine things to talk about, but very poor things to possess. It may cause a young lady to appear in an interesting light when her mamma speaks of her exceedingly delicate nervous organization as if it were a fine piece of lace and rather enhanced one’s social distinction, and were, at all events, a mark of refinement. But it is a light that should be interesting.chiefly to the medical student. For the man who so far forgets himself as to marry a wife with a delicate nervous organization has little but trouble before him and must consider himself as good as sold to her whims and the doctors for her life or until she drives him into an insane asylum or

goes into one herself. A delicate nervous organization ipeans the habit of tumbling over at every hit, of going to bed if the chimney smokes, of crying if the roast is burned, of having hysterics if a glass breaks, of indulging in an outburst if crossed in a desire, of imagining slights, resorting to sulks, sending for tlie doctor at a scratch, conjuring trbuble and making home a desert. A delicate organization may be interesting, indeed, exciting that pity which is akin- to love; but he who suffers himself to experience these tender emotions' concerning it walks on a quicksand, and would do much” lietter merely to look at it as a curious study in pathology. That young woman who is not aware of possessing nerves, to whose mother it has never occurred that she has an organization at all out of the common, is the only one with whom to secure happiness at the hearth, unless the other kind be held in hand by a moral principle and strength of will as robust as the nerves are delicate. Il would be good for all of us were we more in tlie state described by the old man at Haworth to some travelers of our acquaintance who were visiting the home of Charlotte and Emily Bronte. “What a dreary place,” said the travelers, “ for women with such nerves aS theirs!” “Naa, naa,” said the old rustic. “We? ha’ summat else to do here than to be thinkin’ o’ our narves.”— Harper's Bazar.

Ready Skill of Volunteers.

One of the hardest things for a civilian W comprehend in connection with the condition of an army in the field is how it manages to get along without the services of men skilled in various trades and callings. Conceding in the first place that the soldier’s life on campaign must, be ohe of hardship, the ouestion still occurs, how can he entirely dispense with tlie tailor, t|ie shoe-maker, “ the butcher, the baker, the candle-stick-maker”—with all those whose services we find indispensable at home? The answer is quite easy: he doesnot dispense with them at all. Our volunteer armies, it must be remembered, were drawn from the people, and embraced about all the occupations that the people find it necessary to pursue. Before experience had accustomed me to the thing it seemed very odd that in a regiment of soldiers whose uniform* apparently destroyed all individuality there was always to be found a man or a score of men ready and capable when any special or skilled service was called for; but the ease with which such demands ■were answered soon made it quite commonplace. Thus every regiment, often every company, had its tailors and shoemakers; and on long campaigns, where issues of clothing and shoes were impossible, their services were in continual demand. Most of the companies had a barber, often a professional one, who found steady and sometimes profitable employment. “ Company cooks”—two to each company—were recognized and allowed by the army regulations. There was never any difficulty in finding the right men for this most useful duty; Put in my own experience some of them were quite competent to serve on the cuisine of a first-class boarding-house. I once found a private soldier repairing a watch for a comrade. “ This was my business at home,” he said, “ and I have the tools with me to make any ordinary repair.” It generally happened that these hardy fellows had their tools with them; they had brought them from home with the idea that they might be in demand. Farriers and veterinary’ surgeons were found in the ranks and put in their proper places, as were carpenters, clerks and all the many special servants that the vast business of the Chief Quartermaster and Chief Commissary required. I must speak more in detail of the services of the carpenters. At New Iberia and Franklin, La., and in the vicinity of Winchester, Va., in the winters of 1863-4 and 1864-5, tlie winter quarters of the Nineteenth Corps w’ere a lot of villages of log hugs, each with a brick chimney, and as comfortable and picturesque as could be desired. This was entirely the work of the soldiers themselves, done under the direction of the many carpenters aud masons who were among them. These huts were not merely comfortable; many of them were fitted up with conveniences that would have done no discredit to a modest house in town; and they were the surprise and wonder of the many civilian visitors who saw the cantonments.

In Western Louisiana in the campaign of 18G3 beef cattle were abundant and were freely slaughtered fdr the use of the army. The carcasses ■were as neatly and as cleverly dressed and prepared for the cooks as though the work had been done in a city slaughtering establishment. In December, 1862, the steam transport Thames, carrying a detachment of the 114th New York volunteers, left Fortress Monroe with a fleet of transports for New Orleans. They were caught in a terrific storm off Cape Hatteras, which swept the deck of the Thames clean of everything on it; and tossed that ill-con-ditioned craft about like an egg-shell. In the greatest fury of a gale’hat last fortyeight hours the engine became disabled, and the Thames literally rolled about at the mercy of winds and waves. The Captain was disabled and the crew shorthanded. In this emergency two firstclass seamen came forward from among the soldiers and volunteered their services, whieh were most thankfully accep.ed. With their aid the vessel was kept afloat till the tempest moderated, and she was taken in tow by one of the large steamers, and a great share of the credit of saving her and her freight of 400 souls was cheerfully given, to these two opportune volunteers. But what civilian would have thought it possible that such help could come from the soldiers on board?

The minor annals of the war abound in the incidents of soldiers stepping from the ranks on call to act as telegraph operator, engine-driver and type-setter. There was no end to the capacity of one of our volunteer armies with such constituents. The fame ot Col. Bailey, a volunteer from Wisconsin, who devised the novel Red River dam in 1864, by means of which the shallow waters of the river were compressed into a narrow channel, and our fleet, imprisoned on the shallows, was released,.is justly preserved by the historians of the war.— Cor. N. Y. Timet. - ■ 8 Qs A new industry has started into being at the Halles Centrales, Paris. Large wagons loaded with fresh vine leaves arrive early every morning. A crowd of old women dressed as peasants surround them, purchase the leaves, wrap them tastefully about lumps of tallow, adroitly and then go from door to door and sell the stuff as fresh butter. I Good girls for household work can be secured at wages lower by about fifty cents per week than the prevalent prices paid before the hard times began. They are still well paid as a body, and no class in the community are more independent, and, it may be added, mere ready to assert their independence.— Botton Traveller.

Our Young Folks. TH ft- COUNTR Y BOY. “ I pitytthe poor little country boy. Away on his lonely farm! The holiday* bling him nd elegant toy; He ha« no mondy. tb’ere is no shop: Even Christmas morning his work doesn’t stop; He has cows to milk—he has w'ood to chop, And to carry in on hie arm.” Did you bear that. Fred, an you came through the gate. With yonr milk-pail full to the brim? No envy hid under your curly brown pate— Yon were watching a etar in the morning sky. And a star seemed shining out of yonr eye: Yonr thoughts were glad, you couldn't tell why; But they were not ol toys, or of him. * Yet the city boy.eald what he kindly meant. Walking on by his mother's side. With his eyes on the tdy-ehop windows bent, Wiehing'for all that hie eves conld see; Longing and looking went he. . Nor dreamed that a single pleasure could be AfSr in your woodlands wide. ■ . You ate your breakfast that morning, Fred, . As a country boy should eat; Then you jumped with your father upon the sled, And were off io the hills for a load of wood; Quiet and patient the oxen stood. And the snowy world looked cheerful and good. While you stamped to warm your feet. Then your father told you to take sfcrnn; And you started away up the hi 11; You were all alone, but it was such fun! The larch and the pine-tree seetned racing past Instead of yourself, you went so fast; But, rosy and out. of breath, at last You stood in the sunshine still. And all of a snddea there came the thought— While a brown leaf toward you whirled, And a chickadee sang, as if they brought Something they meant on purpose for you. As if the trees to delight you grew, > As if the sky for your sake was blutf- “ It is such a beautiful world!”/ The graceful way that the npruce-utees had Of holding their soft, white load a. You saw and admired; and your heart was glad, As you laid on the trunk of a beech your hand, And beheld the wonderful mountains stand In a chain of crystal, clear and grand, At the end of the widening road. Oh, Fred! without knowing, you held a gift That a mine of gold could’not buy; Something the soul of a man to lift From the tiresome earth and to make him see How beautiful common things can be— A glimpse of heaven in a wayside tree— The gift of an artist’s eye! What need had you of money, my boy, I Or the presents money can bring. When every breath was a breath of joy? You owned the whole world, with Its hills and trees. The sun and the clonds and the bracing breeze, And your hands to work with; having these You were richer than any King. When the dusk drew on, by the warm hearth-fire You needed nobody’s pity: But you said. a« the soft flames mounted higher. And the eye and cheek of your mother grew bright. While she smiled and talked in the lovely light— A picture of pictures to your sight—- “ I am sorry for boys in the city!” —Lucy Larcom, in St. Nicholas.

A WORD TO THE CHILDREN.

The following address was delivered by Mary L. Walker, of Chicago, to a Sab-bath-school class at Leavenworth, Kan.: People who seldom look deeply into any ot rife’s mysteries are apt to content themselves with proverbs and maxims which, often repeated, are at last accepted as axioms or truths, when in fact they are rarely anything but a cheap and tawdry imitation of wisdom. Among these you have often heard that childhood is the happiest period of human life. If this could be true what a poor foundation we must have laid, what a weak superstructure we must have raised, when the part of our lives leastdeveloped, least enriched by study and experience, can be truthfully called the happiest. Childhood has only its own proper share of human joys, and these are often imperiled by an eagerness, too often encouraged by parents, to reach forward and grasp at those which should come only in the proper coarse, with years and experience. No lovelier or more attractive sight does earth hold than that presented by a group of children, eager, and joyous and generous in their childish games, with sun and wind for their only stimulants. And few sadder spectacles are presented us than" childhood bedizened with fanciful array, aping and unconsciously caricaturing its elders, while the exb&ement of late hours and morbid stimulation bring a flush to the young cheeks which is akin to fever. On the return of your anniversaries you should have only a jubilant reunion if you have each faithfully performed your part, and it seems almost rude in any of us to offer you advice or give exhortations other than pleasant ones; but so well do we older people know how much of life’s after happiness and usefulness depends upon the foundation laid in youth that we cannot resist telling you in season, and sometimes out of season, how in our opinion this is best done. , The first suggestion I wish to make to you is the advantage oftfinding early some life work to do. Very likely few of you will fallow the aim chosen in childhood, but it is a great step in improvement to have something to look forward to from the first. Select, with the assistance of parents or friends, any calling which is suitable for you, and then work with energy toward your object. Each duty that comes to your hand, take hold of and do well, and at once; the fault of youth is procrastination, and almost equally detrimental is the habit of doing things in a half-hearted way, producing a cheerless condition of things, equally disagreeable to the doer and the looker on. Recreation or play that follows tasks slackly performed partakes of the same listless character, and contrasts unfavorably enough with the hearty and joyful outbreak which succeeds well-finished, work.

Make for yourselves, even from babyhood, interests of your own, so that you are not dependent on others to divert or entertain you. Let the first little books you read be lived over in jour plays, if you have not the faculty for invention; and as you grow in years you will find that a few good books thus thoroughly made your own are ever so much better than a great number carelessly studied. Don’t depend on anyone for things which you can by any amount of labor work out 1 for yourselves. I knew a very little girl who taught herself to read because she had a large family of dolls who could not, be allowed to grow up in ignorance; and later, she decided that that same family should make a trip to Europe and around the world; so she borrowed an atlas and set herself to the task of studying out tne journey for them, and learned enough of foreign languages to say “yes” and “no”, in French and German, and the result was, that not only the dolls but the cat and dog and pony made a triumphant imaginary voyage around the world also. To cultivate a cheerful, generous disposition is not only the first duty of childhood, but the most important; and with some natures a vast amount of perseverance is needed to establish such a character ; but what do you suppose the powerful “wills” which your parents often complain about were given you for, if not to use them toward perfecting yourselves? There is no one element in human nature that gives its possessor more happiness than a cheerful temper. Compare

two children, one of whom rises in the morning low in spirits, fretting at everything; each separate garment goes on grudgingly, with a great deal of grumbling Accompaniment: breakfast is all wrong, and a boy or girl who is an adept at this sort of misery will soon have the whole household disturbed and unhappy by the vicious indulgence of such propensities. Whil4 the child who hhs diligently cultivated a spirit of cheerfulness will present the pleasant morning face which is like a benediction; sb Comprehensive is its influence. ' Generosity in little things will cause what perhaps is an effort at first to become a habit so fixed as to lie a part of bne’s nature. Try to do “ little deeds of kindness;” never let a day pass without finding some generous, cheerful thing to do, for brothers and sisters. One woman I know, and there are many equally blessed, whose son hasfens not only to do the bidding of the “little mother,” as he calls her, but strives to anticipate her wishes, and withal is so bright and courageous that her very ideal of heaven is represented by this boy. Of course, most people in speaking of their affection say how terrible it would be for her should death take this idol; but none of you will believe that the tender mother could suffer as much as she would had her child been such that the general verdict would have said: “ How fortunate for him that life has not been prolonged. ’’ In striving to ennoble your lives you will often and often have discouragements and even failures, and constant effort will be required; but you all have a poor opinion of a child who, receiving a fall, lies crying helplessly instead of struggling to his feel and bearing his hurts with some degree of fortitude. Even so must you strive always toward the right, taking assistance whenever it is required. Many children need some beloved friend through whose opinion they adjust all questions by mentally inquiring what their decision would be. And surely no safer course could be followed than for boy or girl to stop in every’ emergency and govern themselves by their intuitive knowledge of what father or mother would wish them to do. I am intimately acquainted with a little girl who for the first five years of her life thought that as she grew up to womanhood her mother would “ grow down,” as she expressed it, to be a child; and the little maiden comforted herself, and bore bravely her numerous crosses, thinking of the time when she would change places with her mother and show what liberties rightfully belonged to little folks. Partially’ this is true, for as we grow into weaknesses and childishness common to old age we shall look for comfort and support to you, then in the fullness and strength of your maturity. Elderly people of this generation almost envy the children who are succeeding them, because they enter upon an era teeming with progressive thought. Science is doing wonders, while liberal culture is diffusing rapidly the knowledge thus wrought. Truly it is thrice blessed to have an earthly existence in such an age as this. Look well then to your use'of the talents given you ana make sure that when the Master calls you can return to Him His own, increased a thousand fold.

A Sad Day.

“We had a sad day at our house last week, auntie,” said little Kate. “The sun did not rise clear, and the wind was very cold. Sam stepped on Nellie’s shoe-string when she was going down to breakfast, and she fell all the way down and cut her face on his skates that he had thrown on the hall floor the night before. Trip stole one of baby’s kid shoes and chewed it all up. When Puss saw the little bare toes popping about she thought they’ were for her to play with or to eat; so she caught them between her sharp claws and her teeth and scratched and bit them till the blood came. Mamma and all of us had to kiss her little foot twenty timesJiefore it got over the pain. May lifet Bpr spelling-book, and it was found under the big apple-tree all wet and spoiled with the dew. She was late to school, and so was ‘kept in,’ and that made her cry’ so that she had the headache all the evening.

“In the afternoon Bam climbed up on the shelves of the china-closet to reach papa’s pistol. The shelf gave way, and he came down all mixed up with broken china and glass. His hands and face were badly cut, and mamma was very much grieved with him, beside. “We-were all ’rlad when bed-time came, so that we could get asleep and be out of danger, and mamma was more glad than anyone else. Wasn’t it an unlucky day? ” >. . . “ No, I do not call it so,” said the kind aunt. “God sends the rain, in love, to make grain and fruit grow for our comfort. If Nellie’s shoe-string had been tied at the proper time, and Sam’s skates hung up in their place, she would not have fallen and cut her face. "If nurse had put baby’s shoe in the toilet-basket in the closet, Trip would have found something nicer and cheaper to cut his new teeth on. Nurse’s carelessness did not make that *an unlucky day.’ Had dear little May put her book on the shelf made for it in her room she would have saved herself being * kept in,’ and crying till she had the headache. “ Sam’s trouble among the china and glass came from a greater fault than carelessness. He was disobeying his father. It may have been mercy instead of ‘ bad luck’ which brought him and the dishes down; for had he reached the pistol it might have gone off in his hands and killed him. If you all ‘ turn over a new leaf’ you will find that * bad luck’ vanishes before good order as the clouds do before the sun,” said Aunt Miriam.— Watchman.

Near Hillsboro’ N. H., lives a swain, who supports an aged father with the aid of about two dollars a week from the town. A short time since one of the Selectmen called on him and expressed the idea that a dollar ought in future to satisfy him. “ A dollar! you don’t mean a dollar!” was the reply of the astonished son—“ why, you ought to see the old devil eat!” The deduction was not insisted upon. Da. Pibrcb’s Pleasant Puboativb Pellets are so compounded from concentrated principles, extracted from roots and herbs, as to combine in each small grannie, scarcely larger than a mtutard teed, as much cathartic power as is contained in any larger pills for sale in drug stores. They are not only pleasant to take, but their operation Is easy—unattended with any griping pain. They operate without producing any constitutional disturbance. Unlike other cathartics, they do not render the bowels costive after operation, but, on the contrary, they establish a permanently healthy action. Being entirely vegetable, no particular care is required while using them. ’ SSOO .Reward is offered by ths proprietor to anyone who will detect in Pellets any calomel or other form of mercury, mineral poison or injurious drag. They are sold by Druggists.