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Food for the Soul.
To deny one’s selt is commonly un
derstood to mean that, one refuses
one’s self something; but what Jesus
says is, let a man e’isown himself, re
nounce himself, die as regards his old
self, and so love. And never was the
joy which in self renouncement under
lies the pain so brought out as when
Jesus boldly called the suppression of
our first impulses and current
thoughts life, real life, eternal life.
Always One Vacant Chair.
There Is no flock, however watched and
tended,
But one dead lamb la there;
There la no tlreaide howaoe’er defended,
But has one vacant chnlr.
The air is full of farewells to the dyiug,
And mournings for the dead ;
The heart of R ichel, f >r her chi Idren crying,
Will not be comforted.
Let us be patient, these severe afflictions
Not from the ground arise,
Butoftentl i.es celestial benedictions
Assume this dark disguise.
We see but dimly through the mists and va
pors,
Amid these earthly damps;
What seem to us but sad lunereal tapers,
May be heaven’s distant lamps.
There Is no death! What seems so is transi
tion;
This life of mortal brea'h
Is but a suburb of the life Elyslan
Whose portal we call death.
"Where Christ brings His cross, He
brings His presence ; and where He
is, none are desolate, and there 's no
room for despair. As knows His own,
so He knows how to comfort them
using sometimes the very grief itself,
and straining it to a sweetness of
peace unattainable by those ignorant
• of sorrow.
steamboat and was suffering with that",
disease, when Captain Harris informed
him that he was cured by some sort of
a freezing process, and advised him to
try it. Wnen the boat reached Louis
ville, he called ou two or three dentists
and three of the most distinguished
surgeons of the city, and they told
him they knew of no such remedj for
ueuralgia, and advised him not to
have aaything of the kind done. On
hearing this story we looked over our
old volumes of medical journals and
found not a single allusion to local
amesthesia as a remedy for neuralgia.
Now we must confess that all this
sounds very much like the story of the
superannuated clergyman who acci
dentally, while in the West Indies,
discovered a cure for consumption,
etc., only we don’t want any one to
send a stamp for particulars. Any
physician can purcuase a hand- ball
atomizsr for $1 50, and try it for them
selves. They may use either rhigolene
or ether, and it will only be necessary
to let the spray play upon the part
until the skin turns white. We
promised to offer no theory for its
action, but we will venture this opin
ion : That the intense cold, by its re
revulsive efiect, causes a complete
change in the nutrition of the nerve;
what this change is we will not at
present venture to assert, only hoping
that others who have better opportuni
ties will give the matter a trial and
fully test its merits.
South Sea Island Crabs.
Sanitary.
A CUBE FOB NEURALGIA.
A Teanesaes Physician's Experience
with Ether Spray.
In the spring of 1869 wo had the
most severe attack of facial neuralgia
which it has been our lot to witness in
more than eighteen years of practice;
for two weeks we had to confine our
selves to a darkened chamber, and the
lightest foot-fall on the floor caused us
the most excruciating agony. All the
remedies, local, general, regular and
irregular, were tried without any abate
ment of the trouble. One side of our
face was terribly swollen, so much so
that it was impossible to extract a
decayed molor, to which we charged
all our suffering, and it seemed as if
we were destined to sbuffls off this
mortal coil by exhaustion from pain
and want of sleep. We finally con
cluded to incise the swollen jaw,
thinking there was an abze^s about
the root of the decayed tooth, and as
the parts were so extremely sensitive,
and, moreover, having a vague dread
of chloroform, we thought we would
try local anaesthesia by evaporating
ether on the surface until the part was
frozen. Our attendant complied with
our instruction, and the spray was
turned on. The first sensation was
one of ^pitting pain, gradually subsid
ing until when congelation took place
we felt perfectly easy, and ordered the
cutting operation deferred. Then for
fifteen hours we slept the sleep of the
righteous, and when we awoke found
the rubor, et tumor, colore, cum do-
lore entirely vanished, and we arose
and went about our business, and t«
this good day, although we carry a
perfect cabinet of curious teeth in our
mouth, have never had a neuralgic
twinge or touch of that “hell o’ a
disease,” a toothache. Well, to be
honest about it, we did nofat the time
give the freezing process any credit for
the cure, we thought the attack had
about spent its force and was going to
act well anyway, and we paid but little
attention to the matter for a year or
more, when a relative, Captain Harris,
was visiting us, and took a spell of
neuralgia, of which we had for over a
year been periodically afflicted with,
rarely passing a month without an
attack. To give him present ease,
we did not think of any permanent
benefit, we tried the spray all along
the track of the affected nerve until
it turned the skin white. The relief
was immediate, and, he has since in
formed me, permanent.
Since then we have Used it in fifteen
or twenty cases with uniform success,
never having to make more than two
applications, and it came to be a stock
remedy, and we thought that in ail
probability it was so with most physi
cians, for we remember that when
Richardson first introduced it (like all
new things in medicine, it was
vaunted for everything), and would
probably have still thought so if a
gentleman hadn’t called on us some
time ago to know if we hadn’t a new
treatment for neuralgia, and stated
a couple of years ago he was on a
On many of the South Sea Islands
there also exists a species of crab or
lobster of most uncanny aspect, but de-
1 clous eating, and being both scarce
and difficult to procure is proportion
ally estteined by the whites as well as
by the natives. I refer to the Burgua
latro, or robbsr crab, as he is called by
the naturalists. He lives in a burrow
of his own making, at the foot of a tree
or among rocks, and daintily lines his
dwelling with an immense quantity of
line cocoanut fibre, which he prepares
himself from the husk. So well is
this latter habit of his known that any
native in want of fibre for canoe calk
ing, or what not, at once repairs to a
crab burrow to procure it, and rarely
fails in his object so long as he is able
to get to the bottom of the burrow—
which is not always the case, however,
as the animal ‘ is generally astute
euough to choose ground well intersec
ted with large roots and rocks. It is a
very singular animal to look at, and
more resembles the hermit crab out of
his shell than any other species, hav
ing, like the hermit, an exceedingly
tender and vulnerable abdomen, gath
ered up like a bag underneath him,
and of which he is uncommonly care
ful. He is armed with a formidable
pair of pincers, of immense size and
strength, by the aid of which he can
carry off a cocoanut, husk it, and then
break up the shell with the greatest
ease. To any one who has noticed the
great weight andsiza, and the extreme
toughness and compactness of the
cocoanut husk, it must be a matter of
amazement that a creature so appa
rently insignificant as this crab should
be thus able to tear open these husks
with ease, and still more to crack the
nut afterward. He manages the latter
operation by commencing at the soft
hole—the one out of which the young
tree finally issues, and out of which we
are accustomed to drink the juice—into
this he manages to insert the point of
his pincers, and working on this, is
euabled to break the n t to pieces. In
flavor they are as would be expected
from the nature of their food, very
much richer and more delicate than
our lobster, which has to content him
self with more homely fare; and those
1 was able to procure were either split
open aud fried in their own fat, or else
baked in a native oven, which latter
expedient generally answered best,
once heard of a native who, haviDg
found a very large burrow, incautiously
put in bis hand topullouttbeoccupant,
when the wary crab caught him by the
wrist in his terrible pincers, and in
spite of his frantic efforts to get free
held him there for a whole day, until
at last his friends, attracted by his
ci ies, came to his rescue and effected
his liberation by digging down on to
the crab, and attacking his Ubdomen
with a pointed stick, when he at once
let go his hold of his captive, who
never afterward fully recovered the
use of his hand.
A Vile Conspiracy.
Jehiel Jasper strolled into the gro
cery store aud post office of one of our
back country villages Saturday, and
after standing around with his back at
the fire until he was permeated with
caloric, said :
“Well, I guess I’ll read the news
and get along towards home. Squire
Perkinses paper come yet?” and he
stepped behind the post-office boxes,
as was his custom, to take it out aud
read it.
“Can’t let you see it, Jehiel,” said
the postmaster; government has issued
orders that any postmaster who allows
a non subscriber to read subscribers’
papers will lose his position.”
“No! You don’t tell me? Well, if
that ain’t a good idea? It’s a put up
job ; a gol darned conspiracy between
these ere newspapers and the gov’ment
to keep the multitude in ignorance, so
'hat they can domineer it over the
community. And they talk about this
’ere bein’ a free country. It’s drifting
right into despotism jest as fast as it
c*n. How in thunder’s a man to
know what’s goin’ on if he don’
read ; an’ now the gov’inent’s settin’
down on all ideas of eddication, an’
takiu’ away that privilege.”
“Oh, not so bad as that, Jehiel,”
said (he postmaster. “Thegovernment
doesn’t eay anything against your
subscribing for the paper yourself, you
know.”
“Sub cri bin’for it! What d’ye take
me for? D'ye suppose that I’m goin’
to subsoil be or a paper I’ve read four
teen yeaie ight here by the stove
without costin me a cent? No, sir;
Iaiu’ta-goin tr help ’em to oppress
me by keepin me in ignorance. No,
siree.”
And having go a supply of cheap
plug tobacco “put cn the slate,” he
jogged home—a boroughly oppressed
citizen,
will satisfactorily and economically
compete with nature in supplying a
commodity that has now become a
necessity. The science of aeronautics,
1o which the veteran Wise gave bis
life, aud others nearly as well known
have devoted so much time and skill,
have not yet been developed from flo
tation to guidance, still less to propul
sion. A spark of fire has terrors
greater far than the avalanche or the
glacier.
For these and hundreds of other
evils, inventive genius must, Drovide
the remedy, and as new and artificial
wants arise and develop into necessi
ties, upon the inventor, ever in the
vanguard, devolves the duty of ex
ploring the land of the possible and
providing for the regions of the actual.
It might be said that as science af
ter science falls into the ranks of
knowledge, and art after art is added
to the forces of man, the field of true
invention would narrow, and that of
improvement, combination aud ap
plication correspondingly widen.
And this distinction may not perhaps
be improper to draw or inappropriate
to apply. Certain it is that as obser
vation and experience lay down the
facts, aud reason d iduces therefrom
the.theories, and evolves from those
again the laws which govern things
tangible aud forces intanerible, the
plane of the inventor will rise higher.
It is to him that races unborn, na
tions unformed and countries unex
plored look for their betterment and
the achievement of their substantial
welfare. Through him the antago
nism between man and man—the foul
distinctions of caste and class—will
be swept away, and better men of
better lives, and higher pleasures and
comforts, achieve the destiny written
for them in the days when the rocky
ribs of the earth were formed.
The Illustrated Railway World, re
ferring to the production of steel rails
in the Uuited States, sa\s that in 1874
we produced 88 260 tons of steel rails
and Imported 5(),7ol tons. In 1880 we
produced 907,91.0 tons and imported
275,090 tons. Since the first steel rails
were produced here in 1878 we have
used 4,0 >0,090 tons of them, at a cost of
$184,000,000.
Tastes and Smtlls in Water.
Plenty of Room for Inventors.
Our wants have become artificial.
With successive generations, what
once was luxuries develop into cus
tomary grants and eventually become
necessities. Our condition is amelio
rated, and hence our appreciation
sharpened, while certain faculties have
become dulled, and invention must
supply their places or their deficien
cies. When invention has produced
an effect, it is for invention to ex
tend and perfect It. Thus in every
walk in life, it is for cunning brain
and deft fingers to effect combinations
or perfect the old, fearless of thwart or
limit.
In proof that with improvements
criticism becomes more keen and de
mand more imperative, we have only
to took about us for promising fields
to engage the inventor.
While the harvest of golden grain
no longer falls before the classic
sickle, and the haymaker has ceased
to be a picture! q te inspiration for the
poet, the root crops still demand la
borious delving and grubbing, aud
the ripened fruits still call for human
pickers to pluck them one by one.
For the inventor who would devise a
mode of removing half the blossoms
from a peach tree without iujuring
the buds whic a form the next year’s
bearing stems there awaits a magnifi
cent prize. Ramie and other fibers
still defy the textile art, and the gor
geous aniline dyes fade with a Bum
mer’s sun.
Household fires, once synonyms of
health and cheerluiness, are now the
gloomy aud noxious evidences of our
heedlessness of things sanitary. Ttio-e
domestic conveniences which should
minister to our comfort and well-being
poison us insidiously but not tbe less
surely. Our vaunted gaslights blacken
our paint, kill our window plants and
destroy cur shade trees. Our sewers
and drains are confounded in name
and function, and both of them are
poisonous. Our chimneys breathe
forth smote, which is uuconsumed
fuel, and hence wasteful. Our steam-
boilers with partly consumed fuel,
supply our engines with wet steam,
and the engines (whose cylinders have
to be supplied with oil through faulty
design and workmanship) waste part
of the remainder. Our horses, shod
with no reg*rd for humanity or for
tractive effect, draw wagons or cars
which rattle our teeth out, on roads or
rails which rattle the vehicles to
pieces. The explosives, which long
ago were constrained to throw hurtful
missiles for miles, have only in one
instance—blasting— been employed in
peaceful work, it we may except the
gunpowder pile-driver, the precursor,
perhaps, of a long line of explosive
motors yet to come.
There is yet no ice-machine which
Dr. William R pley Nichols, in a
paper ou “The Tastes and Odors of
.Surface Waters,” calls attention to the
desirability of competent persons
trained to scientific observation under
taking systematic daily examinations
of the water in reservoirs for long
periods of time—say for five years—to
watch the changes that take place in
its condition and the causes of them.
He also notices that the meani by
which water may be made unpleasant
are numerous and complicated, and
are not always animal in their origin
The worst smell that he ever obtained
was from allowing the seed parts of a
species of Potamogeton to decay in
water. Professor Brewer has obtained
a fishy odor from the decay in Water
of the leaf-stalks of a pickerel-weed.
Sometimes tire odors and tastes from
various plants differing from each
other seem to blend into a more or less
marshy or pond flavor. The water of
ponds and lakes that are surrounded
by woods acquires more of a bitter or
astringent taste, that may be referred
to the dead leaves. When a recently
felled tree is exposed to the action of
water, or when bushes or grass and
weeds are killed by being flooded, the
sap and more soluble matters are
leached out and putrefy or undergo
other forms of decomposition. If the
matter is alternately flooded and left
bate, decay takes place fust. As the
level is lowered those aquatic plants
which grow in shallow water die, and
if the water rises after a short interval
it becomes impregnated with the
products of their decay. If a considera
ble interval e lapses land-plants grow
upon the exposed surface, and, being
drowned by the rising waters, tend to
its contamination in the same manner
The substances which form the most
offensive part of the soluble vegetable
matter are albuminous in character
and the chemical efleot on the water
is to increase the amount of what is
called “albuminoid ammonia.” No
doubt ^ead fishes and animalcules and
their excrement add to the nitrogenous
organic matter in surface waters
but their piesence is not neoessary to
account for bad odors. As a rule, in
waters not contaminated with sewage
tbe animal matter forms only a trifling
proportion of the entire organic m atter
but the recent investigation of Pro
fessor Reinsert shows than in some in
stances the animal matter, as from
sponges, may be appreciable and of
practical importance.
It Is Said.
That the leaves of parsley eaten with
a little vinegar after partaking of on
ions, will prevent the offensive breath
that the latter impart;
That carbonic acid, diluted with ten
parts of water aud thrown into the
cracks and crevices where ants or cock
roaches abound, will drive them
away;
That flannel has become yellow
from being badly washed may be nicely
whitened by soaking it two or three
hours In a lather made of one-quarter
of a pound of curd soap, two tablespoon*
fuls of powdered borax, and two table-
poonfuls of carbonic of ammonia, dis
solved In five or six gallons of water;
'1 hat the yellow stain made by sew
ing machine oil, can be removed if,
before washing in soap suds, the spots
be carefully rubbed with a bit of cloth
wet with ammonia;
That a little water mixed in with
butter will prevent its burning when
used for frying;
That a teaspoonful of salt to a quart
of the soil in plant boxes will kill the
white worms;
That flour dusted on cabbages when
the dew is on, will kill off cabbage
worms. Probably by closing the pores
of the worms;
That tar may be instantaneously re-
moved from the hand or fingers by
rubbing with the outside of a fresh
lemon or orange peel.
Raking Oysters by Steam.
The Method of Dredging in Use in New
Haven.
Mr. Rowe, of Ease Haven, C inn.,
the owner of extensive oyster beds, re
cently took a number of gentlemen
connected with the newspaper press to
witness the manner of steam dredging
for oysters. Mr. Rowe took the party
down to the government breakwater, at
the junction of the harbor with Long
Island Bound. Here, within the
breakwater, and a mile or two outside
were three steam dredges raking up
oysters from the too thickly settled
beds, and placing them upon other
more sparsely populated beds in the
vicinity. At this time they were fish
ing in forty feet of water, but Mr.
Rowe said he had oyster beds further
out in the Bound that were 70 feet un
der water, and he could fish them up
about as easily as he could in 40 feet—
the difference being in the length of
haul. The dredge, attached to a chain
about an inch in diameter, which la
worked by steam, is cast off from the
side of the steamer. The chain rests
on a roller, and there are rollers at the
sides of the opening. This dredge is
slowly drawn over the oyster beds,
and at each haul two or three or more
bushels of oysters are taken. It re
quires from five to ten minutes to
make a haul. The little steam propel
lers of foity tons are capable of carry
ing 800 bushels from one bed to the
other. The sixty-ton steamer on
which the party were is capable of car
ry ing 1,300 bushels. Borne of the small
oysters taken at this time were opened
and they were of good flavor. A
schooner is employed by Mr. Rowe to
carry oyster shells and place them
upon the oyster beds that were raked
over last season. It is found that a
bed of shells is much better than
branches of trees for breeding purposes.
A thin layer of live oysters is spread
over the shells, to which the spawn
adheres, and in about two years good
size oysters are fished out. In this
way the oyster beds are made and cul
tivated, and the process has made
oyster shells worth eight cents a
bushel, whereas they were formerly
worthless. Steam dredging has
brought about this result. Mr. Rowe
says the oyster beds can be well sus
tained by steam dredging and by the
reproduction on oyster shells. Other
wise he would not use steam dredges
on his own beds. He finds that he
cannot only sustain but increase his
supply, by using modern improve
ments—equalizing his beds aud culti
vating new ones—all of wnioh he can
do readily aud with profit by the use
of smaller steam vessels.
Regarding explosions in flour mills
Thomas J. Richards, of the British
Board of Trade, says that th« elements
of danger exist in all corn mills, the
difference beiug in degree merely, and
not in kind. Although disasters of
the explosive sort are rare, they are
ever liable to occur in all oorn mills
and cause accidents more or less dis
astrous.
An Ornamental Grass.
One of the finest of ornamental
grasses, when means for saving it over
the winter may be had, (covering suf
ficient to keep the ground from freez
ing) will be found in the Pampas
(Jrass (Gynerium Argenteum) a native
of Bouth America, as its name sug
gests. South of 88 degrees it will stand
over wdnter. Unfortunately in
NorthMffst it kills, though by maki
a frame over the roots and cover
thickly with evergreen boughs
litter, It may generally be pr