Newspaper Page Text
180
BURKE’S WEEKLY
FOR BOYS AND GIRLS.
MACON, GA., DEC. 7, 1867.
Contents of No. 23.
Jack Dobell; or, A- Boy’s Adventures in Texas—
Chapter XY. —original page 177
Poetry —All Thy Works Praise Thee 178
Poetry —Rosette and the Whispering Fairy—ori
ginal 179
The Bob-o-link—illustrated—original 179
Editorial—
A Sunday School Paper for Nothing: South
ern Boys and Girls Monthly; The Effects of
Hunger; To Correspondents; Read This;
The Little Girl who Told the Truth 180—181
The Dog and the Shadow—illustrated 181
Do it Well 181
Poetry —The Wig, Cane and Hat—illustrated 182
Marooner's Island, by the Rev. F. R. Goulding—
Chapter XV., —original 182
A Little Help—original; Liquid Glue ; Caution
to the Young; A Schoolmaster and his Pupil 183
Our Chimney Corner—illustrated 184
CRANDALL’S BUILDING BLOCKS.
W 1 large consignment of j j
these admirable blocks for i fM 1 .
children, which we will JMpLjRI
They are pu- up in neat sfllliiifesr.
and substantial boxes, each
several buildings made
To the boy or girl who will send us three subscribers to
Burke’s Weekly, and $6, we will send a set worth SI50:
for four subscribers, and 88, we will send a set worth $2;
and for five subscribers, and 810, we will send a set worth
$3. Address J. W. BURKE &C 0„
Publishers, Macon, Ga.
Postage on the “Weekly.”
The postage on the Weekly, when paid quarterly or
yearly, at the office of delivery, is five cents a quarter or
twenty cents a year.
♦<*>«.
A Sunday School Paper for Nothing.
#NTIL further notice, we propose to send
the Weekly and either one of the fol
lowing Sunday School papers, for one
f, year, to all new subscribers who remit
us $2 00: The Sunday School Visitor ,
(Methodist,) published at Nashville,
Tenn.: The Child's Delight , (Baptist,) published
at Macon, Ga. ; The Children's Guest , (Episco
pal,) published at New York ; The Children's
Friend , (Presbyterian,) published at Richmond,
Va. ; or The Childs World , published by the
American Sunday School Union at Philadelphia.
1 hese papers are all beautifully illustrated, and
filled with stories and poems calculated to improve
the mind and heart.
Any one of our present subscribers who has
paid us $2 for a year’s subscription, will be enti
tled to receive either one of these papers by send
ing us an additional name and $2.
Southern Boys and Girls Monthly.
We are under obligations to the editor for a
complete file of this excellent publication. It is
ably edited and handsomely illustrated, and is de
serving of a large share of Southern patronage. —
Terms, $1 50 per annum. Address, Rev. E. P.
Baird, Editor, Richmond, Ya. We will send
Burke's Weekly and the Southern Boys and Girls
Monthly one year for $3.
BTJRKE’B WEEKLY.
The Effects of Hunger.
is impossible to say how long it will take
fvsp starvation to effect its end, but it has been
ascertained liow much waste will prove fatal.
?Chossat, a celebrated French writer, after
repeated experiments, asserts that death en
sues whenever the waste of the system
reaches two-fifths. Thus, an animal weighing 100
pounds will die when it is reduced to 60 pounds
weight. Life may cease before that point is reach
ed, but it cannot, ordinarily, survive beyond it.
But sometimes the average loss is greater than
40 per cent. For instance, a case is reported of
a very fat pig which was buried for one hundred
and sixty days under thirty feet of chalk, and it
was ascertained that his weight fell, during this
period, 75 per cent. Fishes and reptiles perish at
the same limit of weight as other animals, but they
require twenty-three times as long to reach it. A
bird, for instance, during warm weather will per
ish in a week, while a frog will survive, without
food, twenty-three weeks.
It appears, also, that the body wastes daily
“ one twenty-fourth of its entire weight,” and that
one twenty-third of its entire weight is necessary
daily in the way of food, to repair this waste.
Actual experiments establish the fact that car
nivorous, or flesh-eating animals resist starvation
longer than the herbivorous, or vegetable eating ;
and birds of prey longer than those feeding on
seeds and fruits. “The carnivorous animal eats
voraciously when food is within reach, but having
satisfied his appetite, lie remains several hours
before again feeling hungry, and in a state of na
ture the intervals between his meals are necessari
ly variable, because his food is neither abundant
nor easy of access. The herbivorous animal, on
the other hand, has his food constantly within
reach, and is almost always eating, because an
immense amount of vegetable food is needed to
furnish him with sustenance. The lion and the
cat become inured to long abstinence ; the rabbit
or the cow scarcely know the feeling. It is clear,
therefore, that the one will better endure long
fasting than the other.”*
Experiments have shown that the average dura
tion of life without food in birds and animals ex
ceeds nine and a half days—the longest being
twenty and a half days, and the shortest a little
more than two days. The young always die first,
and the adult before the aged, and this is true of
men as well as of animals. Some of the simpler
animals exhibit remarkable powers of endurance.
A spider pinned to a cork was found alive after
four months, and a stag-beetle kept in a box with
out food for three years, at the end of that time
flew away. A scorpion not only survived the voy
age from Africa to Holland, but lived without food
for nine months afterwards. In these cases, how
ever, “ the animals were quiescent, and did not
waste their substance by the ordinary activities.”
In man “we find that death arrives on the fifth
or sixth day of total abstinence from food and
drink.” But there are exceptions to this rule.
“Much depends on the peculiar constitution of
the individual, his age, health, and other condi
tions. Some die on the second and third days ;
others survive until the tenth, eleventh, and even
the sixteenth days. Considerable difference will
also result from the different situations in which
they are placed whether of quiescence or activ
ity, of temperature, moisture, etc.*
Some wonderful cases of abstinence from food
* Physiology of Common Life. f Lowes.
are reported, but they are not always reliable. A
young girl is said to have gone without food sev
enty-eight days, during which time she only suck
ed lemons. A woman is said to have remained
four months without food, and another lasted a
whole year. ‘‘A Scotchwoman is reported to have
lived eight 3 ears without taking anything except
a little water on one or two occasions.” A case
of ten years fasting is also mentioned in many
books, and a celebrated writer, who took precau
tions against deception, says that a girl named
“EvaFlegen neither ate nor drank during six
years. But all these stories are surpassed by that
of a woman who remained fifty years without food;
it is added, however, that she sometimes took
skimmed milk.”
But these stories must all be taken with allow
ance, as they are, most of them, certainly oppos
ed to the plainest teachings of physiology; be
sides, many of these wonderful cases have been
subsequently proved to be impostures. It is safe,
therefore, to conclude that whenever the loss of
weight of an animal reaches a certain point, death
ensues, and, “curiously enough, an insufficiency
of food causes death at precisely the same point,
viz; when the original weight is reduced to three
fifths. Men, therefore, reduced to an insufficient
allowance, whether from famine, shipwreck, or
siege, will inevitably perish unless the allowance
be increased ; it will be as if they had received no
food at all, only it will be longer before they suc
cumb.” An important lesson is contained in this
fact.
To Correspondents.
jVUR little friends continue to mix up their
I communications to us in such a way that
y/ we are sometimes unable to use them.
f Remember, that a request to send the
paper, or to change the address, or to send
a missing number, must not be mixed up
with matter for the Chimney Corner, for the
chances are ten to one that the letter goes on our
business file, and never gets on the “Chimney Cor
ner” file. We try to systematize our business,
but have no time to copy any portion of the large
number of letters which reach us, in order to.-ep
arate matters which could easily be kept separate
by the writers. Bear this in mind, little friends,
and if, in future, you send us matter for publica
tion mixed up with matters of business, don t
blame us if you never hear from the former.
♦♦♦
Read This.
QfOfVIANY a boy or girl eats a dollars worth
j| of candy or sweetmeats, buying them
little at a time, and when they are gone
the pleasure is gone with them, Jhe
same amount expended in paying tor
the Weekly will give solid enjoyment
and instruction for six months. Think ol this,
little reader, and advise your school mates to sum
their dimes for an investment which will furnish a
new pleasure each week, and at the end of the
year give them a large and handsome volume tor
the library.
When you send your own name, or an)
other, be careful to give us the name of the P°-j
office and State also. It is best to add the lu
address at the bottom of your letter.
JNames may be added to clubs at an) tin
during the year, at the regular club rates.