but he had his own standard of the power of all reds, and he pertinaciously adhered to it.

There was another thing that Mr. Winthrop could see, and that was, that Samuel was continually pedering upon such profitable matter as interested

, and that he was scarcely ever idle; nor did father see, either, that if he ever wished his boy o become a mathematician, he was pursuing the ery course to prevent such a result. Instead of deavoring to make the study interesting to the ald, he was making it obnoxious.

The dinner hour came, and Samuel had not workdout the sum. His father was angry, and obliged be boy to go without his dinner, at the same time telling him that he was an idle, lazy child.

Poor Samuel left the kitchen and went up to his chamber, and there he sat and cried. At length his sind seemed to pass from the wrong he had suffered at the hand of his parent, and took another arn, and the grief marks left his face. There was a large fire in the room below his chamber, so that be was not very cold; and getting up, he went to a mall closet, and from beneath a lot of old clothes he dragged forth some long strips of wood, and commenced whittling. It was not for mere pastime bat be whittled, for he was fashioning some curions affair from those pieces of wood. He had bits of wire, little scraps of tin plate, pieces of twine, and dozens of small wheels that he had made himself, and he seemed to be working to get them together after some peculiar fashion of his own.

Half the afternoon had thus passed away, when his sister entered his chamber. She had her apron gathered up in her hand, and after closing the door softly behind her, she approached the spot where her brother sat.

4

Here, Sammy-see, I have brought you something to eat. I know you must be hungry.'

As she spoke, she opened her apron and took out four cakes and a piece of pie and cheese. The boy was hungry, and he hesitated not to avail himself of his sister's kind offer. He kissed her as he took the cake, and thanked her.

Oh, what a pretty thing that is you are making!' attered Fanny, as she gazed upon the result of her brother's labors. 'Won't you give it to me after it is done ?'

'Not this one, sister,' returned the boy, with a smile; 'but as soon as I get time I will make you one equally as pretty.'

Fanny thanked her brother, and shortly afterwards left the room, and the boy resumed his work.

At the end of the week, the various materials that had been subject to Samuel's jack-knife and piacers bad assumed form and comeliness, and they were jointed and grooved together in a curious combination.

The embryo philosopher set the machine-for it looked much like a machine-up on the floor, and then stood off and gazed upon it. His eyes gleamed with a peculiar glow of satisfaction, and he looked proud and happy. While he yet stood and gazed upon the child of his labors, the door of his chamber opened and his father entered.

What are you not studying?' exclaimed Mr. Winthrop, as he noticed the boy standing in the middle of the floor.

Samuel trembled when he heard his father's voice, and he turned pale with fear.

'Ha, what is this?' said Mr. Winthrop, as he caught sight of the curious construction on the floor. This is the secret of your idleness. Now I see how it is that you cannot master your studies. You spend your time in making playhouses and fly-pens. I'll see whether you'll learn to attend to your lesson or not. There.'

As the father uttered that common injunction, he placed his foot upon the object of his displeasure. The boy uttered a quick cry, and sprang forward, bat too late. The curious construction was crushed to atoms-the labor of long weeks was utterly gone. The lad gazed for a moment upon the mass of ruins, nd then, covering his face with his hands, he burst

into tears.

'Ain't you ashamed?' said Mr. Winthrop; 'a great boy like you to spend your time on sith claptraps, and then cry about it, because I chose that yun should attend to your studies. Now go out to be barn and help Jerry shell corn.'

The boy was too full of grief to make any explanation, and without a word he left his chamber; at for long days afterwards he was sad and downlearted.

Samuel,' said Mr. Winthrop one day after the spring had opened, 'I have seen Mr. Young, and he is willing to take you as an apprentice. Jerry and I can get along on the farm, and I think the best thing you can do is to learn the blacksmith's trade. I have given up all hopes of ever making a survey. or out of you, and if you had a farm you would not know how to measure it or to lay it out. Jerry will now soon be able to take my place as surveyor, and I have already made arrangements for having him sworn and obtaining his commission. But your trade is a good one, however, and I have no doubt you will be able to make a living at it.'

Mr. Young was a blacksmith in a neighboring town, and he carried on quite an extensive business, and moreover, he had the reputation of being a fine man. Samuel was delighted with his father's proposals, and when he learned that Mr. Young also carried on quite a large machine shop he was in ecstacies. His trunk was packed-a good supply of clothes having been provided; and after kissing his mother and sister, and shaking hands with his father and brother he mounted the stage and set off for his new destination.

He found Mr. Young all he could wish, and went into his business with an assiduity that surprised his master. One evening, after Samuel Winthrop had been with his new master six months, the latter came into the shop after all the journeymen had quit work and gone home, and found the youth busily engaged in filing a piece of iron. There were quite a number of pieces lying on the bench by his side, and some were curiously riveted together and fixed with springs and slides, while others appeared not yet ready for their destined use. Mr. Young ascertained what the young workman was up to, and he not only encouraged him in his undertaking, but he stood for half an hour and watched him at his work. The next day Samuel Winthrop was removed from the blacksmith's shop to the machine shop.

Samuel often visited his parents. At the end of two years his father was not a little surprised when Mr. Young informed him that Samuel was the most useful hand in his employ.

Time flew fast. Samuel was twenty-one. Jeremiah had been free almost two years, and he was one of the most accurate and trustworthy surveyors in the country.

Mr. Winthrop looked upon his eldest son with pride, and often expressed a wish that his other son could have been like him. Samuel had come home to visit his parents, and Mr. Young had come with him.

'Mr. Young,' said Mr. Winthrop, after the tea things had been cleared away, that is a fine factory they have erected in your town.'

'Yes,' returned Mr. Young, 'there are three of them, and they are doing a heavy business.'

'I understand they have an extensive machine shop connected with the factories. Now, if my boy Sam is as good a workman as you say he is, perhaps he might get a first rate situation there.'

Mr, Young looked at Samuel and smiled.

By the way,' continued the old farmer, 'what is all this noise I hear and see in the newspapers about those patent Winthrop looms? They tell me they go ahead of any thing that ever was got up before.' 'You must ask your son about that,' returned Mr. Young. That's some of Samuel's business.'

Eh? What? My son? Some of Sam The old man stopped short and gazed at his son. He was bewildered. It could not be that his sonhis idle son-was the inventor of the great power loom that had taken all the manufacturers by surprise.

'What do you mean?' he at length asked.

'It is simply this, father, that this loom is mine,' returned Samuel, with a look of conscious pride 'I have invented it, and have taken a patent right, and have already been offered ten thousand dollars for the patent right in two adjoining States. Don't you remember that clap-trap you crushed with your foot six years ago?'

'Yes,' answered the old man, whose eyes were bent to the floor, and over whose mind a new light seemed to be breaking.

'Well,' continued Samuel, that was almost a patteru of the very loom I have set up in the factories, though of course, I have made much alteration and improvement and there is room for improvement yet.'

And that was what you were studying when you used to stand and see me weave, and when you

used to fumble about my loom so much ?' said Mrs Winthrop.

You are right mother. Even then I had conceived the idea I have since carried out.'

'And that is why you could not understand my mathematical problems,' uttered Mr. Winthrop, as he started from his chair and took the youth by the hand.

'Samuel, my son, forgive me for the harshness I have used towards you. I have been blind, and now see how I misunderstood you. While I have thought you were idle and careless, you were solving a philosophical problem that I could never have comprehended. Forgive me Samuel,—I meant well enough, but I lacked judgment and discrimination.'

Of course the old man had long before been forgiven for his harshness, and his mind was open to a new lesson in human nature. It was simply this:

Different minds have different capacities, and no mind can ever be driven to love that for which it has no taste. First, seek to understand the natural abilities and dispositions of children, and then in your management of their education for after life, govern yourself accordingly. George Combe, the greatest moral philosopher of this day, could hardly reckon in simple addition, and Colborn, the mathematician, could not write out a common place address.

From the Wine Press.

Journey around the Tapioca Pudding.

Dr. Bushwhacker folded his napkin, drew it through the silver ring, laid it on the table, folded his arms, and leaned back in his chair, by which we knew there was something at work in his knowledge-box. 'My dear Madam,' said he, with a Metamora shake of the head, 'there are great many things to be said about that pudding.'

Now, such a remark at a season of the year when eggs are five for a shilling, and not always fresh at that, is enough to discomfort any body. The Doctor perceived it at once, and instantly added, 'In a geographical point of view, there are many things to be said about the pudding. My dear madam.' he continued, 'take tapioca itself, what is it, and where does it come from?'

Our eldest boy, just emerging from chickenhood, answered, 85 Chambers street, two doors below the Irving House.'

True, my dear young friend,' responded the Doc tor, with a friendly pat on the head; but that is not what I mean. Where,' he repeated, with a questioning look through his spectacles, and a Bushwhackian nod, 'does tapioca come from?'

'Rio de Janeiro and Para!'

'Yes, sir; from Rio de Janeiro in the southern, and Para in the northern part of the Brazils, do we get our tapioca; from the roots called the Mandioca, botanically, the Jatropha Manihot, or, as they say, the Cassava. The roots are long and round, like a sweet potato; generally a foot or more in length. Every joint of the plant will produce its roots like the cuttings of grape-vine.The tubers are dug up from the ground, peeled, scraped, or grated, then put in long sacks of flexible rattan; sacks, six feet long or more, and at the bottom of the sack they suspend a larger stone, by which the flexible sides are contracted, and then out pours the cassava-juice in a pan placed below to receive it. This juice is poisonous, and very volatile. Then, my dear madam, it is macerated in water, and the residium, after the volatile part, the poison, is evaporated, is the innocuous farina, which looks like small crumbs of bread, and which we call tapioca. The best kind of tapioca comes from Rio, which is, I believe, about five thousand five hundred miles from New York; so we must put down that as a little more than one fifth of our voyage around the pudding.'

This made our eldest open his eyes.

'Eggs and milk." continued Dr. Bushwhacker, 'are home productions: but sugar, refined sugar, is made partly of the moist and sweet yellow sugar of Louisiana, partly of the hard and dry sugar of the . West Indies; I will not go into the process of refining sugar now, but I may observe here that the sugar we get from Louisiana, if refined and made into a loaf, would be quite soft, with large loose crystals, while the Havana sugar, subjected to the same treatment, would make a white cone almost as compact and hard as granite. But we have made a trip to the Antilles for our sugar, and so you may add fifteen hundred miles more for the saccharine."

"That is equal to nearly one third of the circumference of the pudding we live upon, Doctor.'

'Vanilla,' continued the Doctor, "with which this pudding is so delightfully flavored, is the bean of a vine that grows wild in the multitudinous forests of Venezuela, New Granada, Guiana, and, in fact, throughout South America. The long pod, which looks like the scabbard of a sword, suggested the name to the Spaniards; vayna meaning scabbard, from which comes the diminutive vanilla, or little scabbard-appropriate enough, as every one will allow. These beans, which are worth here from six to twenty dollars a pound, could be as easily cultivated as hops in that climate; but the indolence of the people is so great, that not one Venezuelian has been found with sufficient enterprise to set out one acre of vanilla, which would yield him a small fortune every year. No, sir. The poor peons or peasants, raise their garabanzas for daily use, but beyond that they never look. They plant their crops in the footsteps of their ancestors, and if it had not been for their ancestors, they would probably have browsed on the wild grass of the llanos or plains. Ah' there are a great many such bobs hanging at the tail of some ancestral kite, even in this great city, my dear, learned friends.'

True, Doctor, you are right there.'

'Well, sir, the vanilla is gathered from the wild vines in the woods. Off goes the hidalgo, proud of his noble ancestry, and toils home under a back-load of the refuse beans from the trees, after the red monkey has had his pick of the best. A few reals pay him for the day's work, and then, hey for the cock-pit! There, Signor O d'ogie meets the Marquis de Shinplaster, or the Padre Corcorochi, and of course gets whistled earnings with the first click of the gaffs. Then back he goes to his miserable hammock, and so ends his year's labor. That, sir, is the history of the flavoring, and you will have to allow a stretch across the Carribean, and twentyfive hundred miles, for the vanilla.'

'We are getting pretty well around, Doctor.' 'Then we have sauce, here, wine-sauce; Teneriffe, I should say, by the flavor.'

" from beneath the cliff

Of sunny-side Teneriffe

And ripened in the blink

Of India's sun."

We must take four thousand miles at least for the wine, my learned friend, and say nothing of the rest of the sauce.'

'Except the nutmeg, Doctor.'

Thank you, my dear young friend, thank you. The nutmeg! To Spice Islands in the Indian Ocean we are indebted for our nutmegs. Our old original Knickerbockers, the web footed Dutchmen, have the monopoly of this trade. Every nutmeg has paid toll at the Hague before it yields its aroma to our graters. The Spice Islands! The almost fabulous Moluccas, where neither corn nor rice will grow; where the only quadrupeds they have are the musky crocodiles that bathe in the high-seasoned waters. The Moluccas

our Yankee, and politely requested him to favor the company with a song.

'A song!' echoed he, looking up. 'Yes sir, you sing, do you not?'

'I did once,' replied he, and I may add, it saved my life.'

Saved your life!'

All were eager to hear how this could be, and after some little urging, the stranger consented to gratify them.

'You must know,' said he, 'that I was one of the first to go to California when the report first reached us at home of its stores of gold. It was nothing then to what it is now-a perfect waste in fact, with hardly a mark of civilization, where now you can see flourishing towns numbering their thousands of inhabitants.'

'Being fond of adventure, I separated from my company and determined to find my way to the diggings myself. One night I found myself lying on the grass with my pack for my pillow, just ou the edge of a large forest. It did not enter into my head to be afraid until it became somewhat dark, and I heard with a fearful distinctness the cry of the prairie wolf. I listened again, and was alarmed to find the cry coming nearer. Evidently they scented me.'

At length a whole pack of blood thirsty rascals came bounding on till they came within a hundred yards of me, and then they stood stock still, and then began to draw nearer.'

'My hair rose on end. I was terribly alarmed; I endeavored to think of some possible way of scaring them. Having heard that they were terrified by fire, I lighted a match. They drew off a little, but immediately retraced their steps. This movement was repeated on both sides. I found this would never do, I must think of something more decisive. But what?'

'I recollected having in my youth attended a singing school for the space of two evenings, during which I received some indistinct notions of the manner of singing 'Old Hundred.' That recollection saved me.'

Without more ado, I began, and did as well as I could. By the time I had got through the first line, I observed that the wolves began to look a little wild and uneasy, and-will you believe it, gentlemen?' said the narrator earnestly-before I finished, every individual wolf, putting his fore paws up to his ears, scampered away as if old Jack was after him!'

A shout of laughter both loud and long, followed this narrative, at the end of which the speaker, who had not stirred a muscle, gravely continued:

'You see, gentlemen, I have been frank with you; I did not wish to take advantage of your very kind and complimentary invitation without forewarning you of the consequence. If, after what I have told you, you are still desirous of hearing me, I will en deavor to give you 'Old Hundred,' which is the only song I know, and to which, for reasons already given, I feel uncommonly attached.'

After that story, he was unanimously excused.

Three Winter Delusions.

A writer in the columns of the Boston Transcript makes some suggestions of general interest. He says:

"As a man is not furnished with down or fine fur on his skin, it is wise in cold weather, and our variable climate, that his clothing next to the body should be in imitation of that which God has provided for the most houseless animals. Weight and thickness are not the important considerations in selecting a material from which to make this compensating protection. A non-conducting character in regard to heat is the essential thing. Wool or silk cloth of any kind is suitable for under shirts and drawers, because they do not readily conduct off the heat generated within the body. On the other hand cotton cloth is comparatively a good conductor, and is not materially rendered other wise by scratching up a nap on one side of it and call it cotton flannel. Hence it is a delusion to rely on this cheap substitute for under garments-a delusion about as unwise as reliance on a policy from some modern insurance companies, because called such by name.

It is a delusion to attribute the increasing number of weak eyes in the community to a supposed unusual demand upon these organs for nice work, or modern systems of education. Neither thorough

lessons, nor fine sewing are new things; and ever midnight oil was familiarly known to past genera-tions of men and women who used their eyes as much to the purpose as young folks do. The causes of this growing affliction are to be looked for in the use and abuse of house furnaces-the abuse of flaring gas in excessive quantity-the increased facilities for having hot water constantly at hand, and a hydrophobia for that which is cold-ill-timed assemblies which run one day into another and rob both, at the time when the functions of body and mind are weary, and need rest, &c., &c.

It is a delusion to suppose that evaporating water in furnaces restores the air to its original salubrity. The air is made bad not simply by drying up its moisture within the furnace, but by decomposing it chemically as it comes in contact with the red hot iron. This has been completely demonstrated by collecting in a close vessel atmosphere which has passed through a heated cylinder of iron, and when sufficiently cool immersing a healthy animal in it.— Violent convulsions followed such immersion. Adding moisture to such air does not re-constitute it. Fine particles of vegetable dust are also brought in with the atmosphere, and likewise decomposed, and add to the impurity of the heated air. A good furnace requires nothing but an abundance of atmosphere, and if it cannot be used comfortably with out, it should be discarded. RICHARD POOR.

The Emperor of Russia.

The following biographical details of the family of the Emperor of Russia may not be without in

terest:

1.

12

Nicholas I., (Pawlovitsch) Emperor of all the Russias, was born the 7th of July, 1796; his age is therefore 58 years and 4 months; he succeeded his brother, the Emperor Alexander, the 1st December, 1825. He is the dean of sovereigns as regards the length of his reign, which has now lasted 29 years. He was married the 15th of July, 1817, to the Princess Alexandra Feodorowna, daughter of the deceased King of Prussia, Frederick William III.— * The Empress is aged 56 years and 4 months. She is the sister of the King of Prussia, and this relationship is one of of the most active causes in the vascillations of the court of Berlin, for dynastic alliances yet exercise great power in Europe.

Six children have been the issue of this marriage. 1. The Grand Duke Alexander, heir to the crown, aged 36 years, seven months and a half. 2. The Grand Duchess Marie, aged 35 years and 4 months. 3. The Grand Duchess Olga, aged 34 years and 2 months. 4. The Grand Duke Constantine, aged 27 years and 2 months. 5. The Grand Duke Nicholas, aged 23 years and 3 months. 6. The Grand Duke Michael, aged 22 years and 15 days.

The Grand Duke Alexander, heir presumptive, was married in 1841 to the Princess Marie, daughter of the deceased Louis II., Grand Duke of Hesse. He has four children, all boys.

The Grand Duchess Marie, widow of the Duke of Leutchtenberg, has one son, aged 2 years.

The Grand Duchess Olga is married to Charles Frederick Alexander, Prince Royal of Wurtemberg; without children.

The Grand Duke Constantine is married to the Princess Alexandra Josefowna, daughter of the Duke Joseph of Saxony. They have two children, Nicholas and Olga.

Thus the imperial family is composed of 18 persous, 12 Princes and 6 Princesses. The Czar has 4 sons and 2 daughters, 2 daughters-in-law and 1 son. in-law, 6 grand-sons and 1 grand-daughter.

The two youngest sons of the Emperor, Nicholas and Michael, bave just joined the army in the Crimea, and it was their presence which gave Buch enthusiasm to the Russian troops in the bloody day of the 5th before Sebastopol-a day that will long be remembered by the allied army as one on which, perhaps for the first time, Russian arms proved equal to their own. Both these sons of the Czar hold several high military titles in the army.

The wit of conversation consists more in finding it in others, than in showing a great deal yourself; he who goes from your conversation pleased with himself and his own art, is perfectly well pleased with you. Most men had rather please than admire you, and look up to be instructed, nay, divert ed, rather than approved and applauded; and the most delicate of pleasures is to please another.

Hen

Death by

salva

What is a Minie Rifle?

Every account received from the war in the Crimea is loud in praise of the "Minie Rifle." ¡These fire-arms in the hands of good marksmen deal certain destruction at an immense distance, and the wholesale slaughter of the Russian gunners at the batteries of Sebastopol, has won for this weapon of death the sobriquet of "King of Fire Arms." So dreaded is this fatal ball that a Russian gunner goes to his station at an embrasure as to certain death.

The barrel of a rifle has, running the length of its inner surface, spiral grooves or channels-hence the name of rifle, which means a rifled or grooved gun. The object of a rifled barrel is to give greater precision to the ball, by communicating to it a rotary motion. This motion it receives on its passage out of the gun, provided the ball is so crowded into the barrel as to fill up partially or entirely the grooves; and the more perfectly the ball fits into the barrel the truer its course, and the less windage there is: that is, the less space there is between the ball and barrel for the strength of the powder to escape. It is estimated that when the windage is only 1 20th of the calibre of the gun, one-third of the powder escapes and of course its strength is lost.

The great object therefore to be obtained, is a perfect fit to the barrel by the ball, thus to give the rotary motion, and to save the powder.

A French gunsmith invented a rifle which had its breech pin project wedge shaped, about two inches into the barrel. The ball, a conical shaped one, was then dropped into the barrel,and a few heavy blows by the hammer, drove the wedge or pin into the ball so as to fill the grooves in the barrel.

The minie ball, now so famous,is an Improvement upon all balls,inasmuch as it makes the powder slug or spread the ball, instead of the rammer doing that work.

The ball is oblong with a conical point. In its base it has a conical hollow running half or twothirds the length of the ball. A cup made of sheet iron is placed in the orifice of this hollow, which at the instant of firing is driven by the powder with great force into the ball, thus spreading it open, so as in its course out,to perfectly slug or fill the grooved barrel. This accomplishes the whole object; it saves time in ramming, it destroys windage, thus economising in powder,and makes the ball perfectly fit the barrel so as to give the ball a complete rotary motion, and certainty of direction. Thus the Minie improvement-taking its name from a French officer named Minie-is a minie ball, not a minie rifle. The conical shape of the bullet gives it greater weight of metal than a round one, affords less resistance to the air, and greatly increases the distance it can be thrown. This shaped ball, however, has been used for a long time by sportsmen.

A Paris correspondent of the New York Tribune, some months since, was witness to experiments made by Major Minie himself, with his ball, and saw that officer plant three balls in succession in a target the size of a man's hat at a distance of threefourths of a mile. And this officer said he could do it all day long, and teach any other man to do so.

It is not to be wondered at that the Russians have e horror of the French chasseurs and their Minie ball.

The present popularity of the rifle owes its origin to the skill of American sharp shooters, bred and trained in our new settlements, and who, in our Indian and other wars, have shown the efficiency of the rifle ball in picking off officers, gunners and prominent objects: but its perfection, we imagine, has been accomplished in the hands of the French.-Cleveland Herald.

Death by Lightning.

A late number of the London Athenæum contains the following summary of the result of a number of observations on the effects of lightning strokes upon human beings:

The French Academy of Sciences have received some interesting observations on the effects of the lightning stroke upon human beings. The following facts are the result of patient observations made by M. Boudin, chief surgeon to the Hospital du Boule: The number of people yearly struck by lightning in France averages 200. The number of people killed by lightning between the years 1835 and 1852 is no less than 1308; the number struck, but not fatally, is about three to one of the number killed. Of the

number struck there were nearly three men to one woman. The region where the lightning had been most fatal is the central plateau of France, comprising the departments of Cantal, Puy-de-Dome, and other departments which are mountainous or present elevated ground. The months during which people are less exposed to the fatal effects of lightning are the coldest months of the year, viz: November, December, January and February. Out of 103 people struck, 4 were struck in March, 6 in April, 8 in May, 22 in June, 13 in July, 19 in August, 14 in September, and 15 in October. One fourth of the people who have been struck may trace the misfortune to their own imprudence, in taking shelter under trees, which attract electric fluid. The greatest number of people killed by a single flash of lightning does not exceed eight or nine.

M. Boudin called attention to two curious facts in connection with this subject. The first was, that dead men struck by lightning had been found in exactly the upright position they held when killed; the second was, that other bodies bore upon them faint impressions of outward objects, probably somewhat resembling photographic shadows. Animals, however, are much more exposed to the influences of lightning than men; and suffer more by its destructive properties. More than once a single flash of lightning has destroyed an entire flock of sheep, and, according to M. D'Abbadie, flocks of 2000 in Ethiopia. The fires occasioned by lightning have amounted to eight in one week in the departments of La Meuse, Moselle, Meurthe, and Vosges. The little kingdom of Wirtemburg suffered by 117 fires in nine years, so caused. Before the application of lightning conductors, English ships experienced losses annually by the electric fluid estimat ed at from £1000 to £1400, but since their applica tion, such losses are no longer heard of, although some pretend to deny the efficacy of the lightning rod.

Strange Barometrical Revelations.

A chemist of St. Brienne, France, recently addressed the French Minister of War a communication, dated Oct. 27th, giving the results of a series of experiments instituted by him on the modifications which the atmosphere experiences from the effects of the tremendous cannonades that take place in the Crimea. The facts presented by him are singular and full of interest. They represent the comparative effects of the cannonades of Odessa, of the battle of the Alma, of the day of the 6th October, (cannon fired at the Invalides, Paris,) of the opening of the bombardment of Sebastopol, and of the 25th of October. By these he hopes to establish the fact that the barometer is not, as is commonly supposed, an instrument merely intended to indicate rain and fine weather, but a model apparatus excessively sensitive, which indicates all great atmospherical phenomenon.

He says what is remarkable is, that at from 600 to 800 leagues of distance an impression is produced on the barometer in a few hours, by the discharge of cannon! Thus it may become, in times of war, and under scientific management, of the highest utility.

The object M. Le. Maout had was this:-That he was enabled to announce to the Minister of War, by barometrical observations made by him, that on the 25th October a terrific cannonade took place in the Crimea, far exceeding any thing that had preceeded it since the Allies landed. This was within two days of the 25th, and therefore, before any communication of the fact could possibly have been received by him. On that day the affair at Balaklava took place!! The information contained in this curious communication was soon after officially made known to the Minister of War!

When will wonders cease? The barometer outstrips the magnetic telegraph in the conveyance of intelligence!!

M. Le Maout transmitted with his letter tables, diagrams, &c., indicating the peculiar changes observed by him on the occasions referred to. His observations were taken once in every three hours. Albany Register.

Buss, to kiss; rebuss, to kiss again; pluribus, to kiss without regard to sex; sillabus, the hand instead of the lips; blunderbuss, to kiss the wrong person; omnibus, to kiss all the persons in the room; erebus, to kiss in the dark; buss the boiler, to kiss the cook!

UPS AND DOWNS.-The sojourners at our city hotels are familiar with the modest tone in which the words 'New York Herald,' 'Tribune,' 'Times,' 'Baltimore Sun,' 'Intelligencer,' Union,' &c., fall upon their ears from a respectable elderly gentleman in the newspaper line. At break of day you may find him at the railroad depot, with his bundle of these 'maps of busy life;' at breakfast time he is at the hotels ready to exchange his commodities for ready cash; and again as midnight draws near you will still find him pursuing the even tenor of his way, pressing his sales. We have observed him for many years going regularly through this routine. Many wonder if he ever sleeps. If 'eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,' he is entitled to the largest that may be had. A curiosity is often manifested to know his history. Some say that he has by dint of such untiring industry and perseverance laid up something handsome for a 'rainy day.'

One morning, as the Hon. Lewis D. Campbell, of Ohio, was passing from the breakfast room at the 'National,' with his morning mail, this veteran newsvender met him at the foot of the flight of steps near the office. His eye caught the title 'Cincinnati Gazette' to a paper in Mr. C.'s hand, and with a peculiar expression he remarked

'Ah, the old Cincinnati Gazette !'

Mr. Campbell halted, observing, ‘You have it not in your package?'

'No;

but I took it once.'

Mr. Campbell. 'When?'

'In 1828, when Charles Hammond was editor, and I was in the firm of Carrington & Wells, wholesale merchants, Main street, Cincinnati !'

Mr. Campbell. I recollect the firm, for I was then a printer's boy in the Gazette office, and faithfully through the wintry storms carried the paper to you. We are the living monuments of the 'ups and downs of life.'

Here a strange expression passed over the countenance of Wells, and Mr. C., fearing that he might awaken unpleasant reminiscences in connexion with his change of fortune, left, with a 'God give you success; your energy deserves it!'

How illustrative of the changes of fickle fortune! The carrier of the news of that day to the wholesale merchant, is now a member of the American Congress, and the wholesale merchant now carries the newspapers to him.-Nat. Intelligencer.

FORCE OF PERIODIC VIBRATIONS.-Many curious instances might be mentioned of the great effects produced by periodic vibrations. One of the most familiar, perhaps, is the well known result of marching a company of soldiers over a suspension bridge, when the latter, responsive to the measured step, begins to rise and fall with excessive violence, and, if the marching be still continued, most probably separates in two parts. More than one accident has occurred in this way, and has led to the order, we believe, that soldiers, in passing these bridges, must not march, but simply walk out of time. Another curious effect of vibration in destroying the cohesion of bodies is the rupture of drinking glasses by certain musical sounds. It is well known that most glass vessels of capacity, when struck, resound with a beautifully clear musical note of invariable and definite pitch, which may be called the peculiar note of the vessel. Now, if a violin, or other musical instrument be made to sound the same note, the vessel soon begins to respond, is thrown into vibrations, its note grows louder and louder, and eventually may break. In order to insure the success of this experiment, the glass should be perfectly annealed. However, the tendency to break is invariably the same.-Polytechnic Magazine.

SLEEP. There is no better description given of the approach of sleep than in one of Leigh Hunt's papers: It is a delicious movement, certainly, that of being well nestled in bed, and feeling that you shall drop gently to sleep. The good is to come, not past; the limbs have been just tired enough to render the remaining in one position delightful; the labor of the day is done. A'gentle failure of the perceptions creeps over you; the spirit of consciousness disengages itself more, and with slow and hushing degrees, like that of a mother detaching her hand from that of her sleeping child, the mind seems to have a balmy lid closing over it like the eye-'tis closed. The mysterious spirit has taken its airy rounds.'

BARON DE KALB, for the relief of whose heirs a bill is now pending before Congress, was one of the distinguished foreigners who fought for the American cause in the war of the Revolution. He was a native of Germany, and was born about the year 1717. He entered the French army at an early age, and rose to the rank of a Brigadier General. He was in this country during the French war of 1755, under an assumed character, the object of his visit being to obtain intelligence for the benefit of the French Cabinet. He was suspected and seized as a spy, but escaped and returned to France after the conquest of Canada. He came to this country again in company with Lafayette, and entered our revolutionary army as a volunteer. He was soon promoted to the rank of Major Goneral. The Washington Union, in referring to this bill in behalf of his heirs, remarks that there is something peculiarly interesting in a history of Baron de Kalb, and says: "He commanded the right wing of the American at Camden, South Carolina, and in that fearful conflict he fell, in his last attempt to achieve a victory, pierced with eleven wounds. He was rescued from immediate death by the Chevalier du Bysson, his aid, who embraced the prostrate general, and received into his own body the bayonets intended for his friend, exclaiming, Save the Baron de Kalb; oh, save the Baron de Kalb.' The brave veteran survived the battle but a few days. Before his death he spoke these noble words: "I die the death I always prayed for-the death of a soldier fighting for the rights of man.' When General Washington visited Camden, many years after, he went to the grave of the German patriot. After gazing upon it with a countenance marked with deep thought, he exclaimed, with a sigh: 'So there lies the brave De Kalb; the generous stranger, who come from a distant land to fight our battles, and to water with his blood the tree of our liberty. Would to God he had lived to share its fruits!'"

ANECDOTE OF MR. CHOATE.-At the trial of the salvage case of the barque Missouri, at Boston, last week, the case in which a part of the cargo was embezzled by the masters of the two vessels on the coast of Sumatra, one of the masters was examined as a witness, and disclosed the plan of embezzlement, and stated the inducements that were offered to him by the other masters. He said that he ob jected at first, and told his comrade they would be found out and convicted, but was overborne by the assurances given him. Mr. Choate cross-examined him strictly and particularly as to what the inducements and assurances were. The witness had the appearance of holding back a little, but at last he said: "Well, sir, he told me that if we were found out, he could get Mr. Choate to defend us, and he would get us off if we were caught with the money in our boots." It was not five minutes nor ten minutes that it required to bring the audience back to a sober countenance. The counsel on the other side paid a tribute, in his closing argument, to the genius of Mr. Choate, the fame of which, extending to the antipode, was relied upon as stronger than the law and the evidence.-N. Y. Evening Post.

INKERMANN. Iukermann, or the City of Caverns, stands on the great bay of Akbar, and was built by the Russians about the year 1790. The bay was called Sebastopol by the Russians during the reign of Catherine II. whence the name of the strong fort besieged by the Allies. The great harbor of Inkermann, said to resemble that of Malta, is one of the finest in the world. It has a depth of water varying from 21 to 70 feet, in which the largest vessels can ride at a cable's length from the shore. The old town of Inkermann stood on the north of the harbor, but there are scarcely any vestiges of it remaining. The country surrounding Inkermann is the wonder of travellers. Here is truly a city of caverns, for the white rocks that overlook the bay of Akbar (white rocks) are full of excavations of a most extraordinary character. They consist of chambers, with Gothic windows,cut out of the solid stone. Near the harbor, the rocks are hewn into chapels, monasteries and sepulchres. They are considered by some authorities to have been the retreats of Christians in the early ages. There are several Grecian antiquities in the neighborhood of the ruined town, which travellers have endeavored to perpetuate and antiquarians to restore, but the Russians have made sad havoc of these splendid remains.

SOMETHING ABOUT SCHOOLS.-We know a man who last summer hired four colts pastured on a farm some five miles distant. At least once in two weeks got into his wagon and drove over to see how his juvenile horses fared. He made minute inquiries of the keeper as to their health, their daily watering, &c.; he himself examined the condition of the pasture; and when a dry season came on, he made special arrangements to have a daily allowance of meal, and he was careful to know that this was regularly supplied.

The man had four children attending a district school, kept in a small building erected at the cross roads. Around this building, on three sides, is a space of land six feet wide-the fourth is on a line with the street. There is not an out-house or shade tree in sight of the building. Of the interior of the school house we need not speak. The single room is, like too many others, with all its apparatus arranged on the most approved plan for producing curved spines, compressed lungs, ill health, &c.

We wish to state one fact only: The owner of those colts, the father of those children, has never been into that school house to inquire as to the comfort, health, or mental food dealt out to his own offspring. The latter part of the summer we chanced to ask him, "who teaches your school?" and the reply was, "I do not know. I believe her name is Parker; but I have no time to look after school matters!"

Have the courage to do without that which you do not really need, however much you may covet it. Have the conrage to speak to a friend in a "seedy" coat, even though you are in company with a rich one, and richly attired.

Have the courage to own you are poor, and thus disarm poverty of its sharpest sting.

Have the courage to make a will, and a just one. Have the courage to tell a man why you will not lend your money.

Have the courage to obey your Maker at the risk of being ridiculed by man.

Have the courage to wear thick boots in winter, and insist upon your wife and daughters doing the

same.

Have the courage to prefer comfort and propriety to fashion in all things.

Have the courage to acknowledge your ignorance rather than to seek credit for knowledge under false pretences.

Have the courage to provide an entertainment for your friends, within your means-not beyond. Have the courage to eat and drink sparingly and thus dupe the doctor.

THE MEANING OF WORDS.-Look not in the dictionary for the meaning of words. It is life that presents their significance to us in all the vivid realities of experience. Does the young and joyous maiden know the meaning of sorrow, or the inexperienced youth understand the significance of business misery? Ask the hoary headed debauchee for the definition of remorse, and go to the bedside of the invalid for the proper understanding of health. Life, with its inner experience, reveals to us the powerful force of words, and writes upon the tablet of our hearts the ineffaceable records of their meaning. Man is a dictionary, and human experience, after all, the great lexicographer.Hundreds go through life who do not understand the force of the most common terms; while to others their terrible significance comes home like an electric flash, and sends a thrill to the remotest part of the system.-N. Y. Sunday Times.

A BIG EGG.-At a recent sitting of the Paris Academy of Sciences, M. Geoffrey St. Hillaire gave an account of some portions of an egg of the Epyornis, the gigantic and very rare bird of Madagas car, which have recently been conveyed to France. These portions show, he stated, the egg to have been of such a size as to be capable of containing about 10 English quarts. The egg was considerably larger than that which now exists at the Museum of the Jardin des Plantes and which can only contain about 8 quarts. The learned naturalist also gave an account of his examination of some bones of the bird, which had been presented to him; but some of them he was obliged to reject as doubtful, and the others were not sufficiently numerous to enable him to state precisely the conformation of the bird: they, however, showed that it differs considerably from that of the ostrich.

UNHEALTHY PLASTERING.-A communication in the New York Journal of Commerce asserts that the hair used in plaster for new houses is, very frequently, so dirty as to emit unpleasant effluvia, which are quite sickening, and calculated to keep a room unhealthy for years afterwards. The writer

says:

"Hair used for mixing in mortar should be thoroughly washed, re-washed and dried, and thus deprived of the putrid matter that often adheres to it. The lime in mortar is not sufficient to cleanse the hair. It will generate an unpleasant, sickly effluvia whenever the room is heated, until, after a long time, the mortar is converted into nitrate of lime, or so much of it as is mixed with animal matter is incorporated in the mortar.

Adversity is not without its benefits; it is a neces sary part of the discipline of life, and tends to refine and purify the character. The poet of nature clearly observed this, and sung

Sweet are the uses of adversity.

In these hard times, let us learn lessons of wisdom from this faithful monitor; and while thus cherishing a patient and docile spirit, we shall find her strokes to fall, not as the lightnings upon the scathed tree, bruising and lacerating it yet more, but as the strokes of the sculptor upon the yielding marble. fashioning it to forms of life and beauty. Newark Advertiser.

FOUR GOOD HABITS.-There were four good habits which a wise and good man earnestly recommended in his counsels and by his own example, and which he considered essentially necessary for the happy management of temporal concerns these are punctuality, accuracy, steadiness, and dispatch. Without the first, time is wasted, those who rely on us are irritated and disappointed, and nothing is done in its proper time and place. Without the second, mistakes the most hurtful to our credit and interest, and that of others, may be committed. Without the third, nothing can be well done; and without the fourth, opportunities of advantage are lost which it is impossible to recall.

PRACTICE OF MEDICINE.-There are times, unquestionably, when pills are good things; but generally, pillows are better. We are of opinion that the former have often got not a little credit, which fairly belonged to the latter. When a man is ill, the doctor tells him to go to bed, and be contented; probably ho gives him a little taste of physic; but quiet, a recumbent posture, and temporary abstinence are in very many cases the successful remedial agents after all. Giving pills is the way the doctor has of turning the key upon his patient, keeping him at home, opening his body to healthy functions, and his mind to good advice.-Newark Advertiser.

If you would keep spring in your heart, learn to sing. There is more merit in melody than people have an idea of. A cobbler who smooths his waxend with a song, will do as much work in a day as a cordwainer, given to "illnature and cursing," would effect in a week. Songs are like sunshinethey run to cheerfulness, and so fill the bosom with buoyancy that, for the time being, you feel like a yard of June, or a meadow full of bobolinks. Try it on.-Alb. Knick.

In all your arguments, let your aim be to arrive at the truth; it is a paltry conquest to silence by hard words.

Who in the same given time can produce more than many others, has vigor; who can produce more and better, has talents; who can produce what none else can, has genius.

VERY UNGALLANT -The last Knickerbocker has the following upon a poetess with red hair: "Unfortunate woman, how sad is your lotYour ringlets are red, and your poems are not."

Virtuous persons are by all good men openly rev erenced, and even silently by the bad, so much de the beams of virtue dazzle even unwilling eyes.