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THE STANDARD AND EXPRESS. W. A* MJRSiTULK,} Editors and Proprietors. TRUTH AftD FALSEHOOD. BY JOHN O SAXE. List o a tale well worth the ear Of all, who wit and sense admire, Invented, it is very clear. Some ages prior to Mathew Prior. Falsehood and Truth, “ upon a time.” One day in June’s delicious weather, (Twas in a distant age and clime). Like sisters, took a walk together. On, on their merry w ay they took, Through fragrant wood and verdaßt meadow, To were a beech beside a brook Invited rest beneath its shadow. There, sitting in the pleasant shade, Upon the margin’s grassy malting, (A velvet cushion ready-made), The young companions fell to chatting. Now, while in voluble discourse On this and that, their tongues were running As habit bids, each speaks, perforce, The one is frank, the other cunning. Falsehood at length, impatient grown, With scandals of her own creation, Said, “ Since we two are quite alone, And nicely screened from observation. Suppose in this delightful rill. While all around is so m-opitious, We take a bath 7” Baid Truth. “ I will ; A bath, I’m sure, will be delicious I” At this her robe she cast aside, And in the stream that ran before her She plunged, like Ocean’s happy bride, As naked as her mother bore her ! Falsehood, at leisure, now undressed, Put ofl' the robes her limbs that hamper, And, having donned Truth’s snowy vest, Ran off as fast as she could scamper. Since then the subtle maid, in sooth, Expert in lies and shrewd evasions, Has borne the honest name of Truth. And wears her clothes on all occasions. While Truth, disdaining to appear In Falsehood’s petticoat and bodice, Still braves all eyes, from year to year, As naked as a marble goddess. THE NARROW ESCAPE. A REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENT. Upon one of the lovely farms that lie along the Delaware dwelt Israil Israel and his fair voung wife, Althea The blasts of war, which was desolating the land, long delayed to reach their borders, and as yet. each true-hearted American, their neighbor, dwelt unmo lested uuder his own vine and fig tree. It is true that many of the young men, the forward, the enterprising, the crossed in love, and the bowed down with debt, had enlisted ; and in their communications, blood-stained from the various battle-fields, awakened sympathy and gladness, by turns among their friends at home. But Mr. Israel felt no call to leave the blooming wife, and the merry twins, whose voice was his home music, for the stern music of the war. He eerved his country in a more quiet but perhaps equally effi cient way, by working sedulously in his vocation, paying the large taxes incum bent on the war drafts, making an occa sional loan io the government from his thriving treasury, and nursing up the promising twain whom Providence has vouchsafed as the frnits of wedded love. But the sounds of strife began to come nearer his district. The de feats upon Long Island, and the dark season that followed, sent many a poor fellow back to his neighborhood, maimed or ragged, or starving, to tell iiow the heart of the great Washington was nigh despairing at the gloomy pros pects ahead, and to ask an aim of the full-handed farmer for God Almighty sake. Such appeals were not suffered to fall unheeded. There was bread and to spare in the buttery ; there was raiment and to spare in the old clothes press ; there was shelter and to spare in the big gable-roofe.l house. These were bountifuly dispensed to suffering patri ots at the hands of the kind-hearted Israel or his affectionate spouse. For Israil Israel was a free mason. It is with such as he that our pen is most pleased. There is a freer flow at its point when it glides upon this topic. Brother Israel was a fiee mason. He was what a writer styles “a born ma son ; a mason in the bud and flower ; a mason in the milk and grain; a mason in the lint and thread, in the cloth, dye and garment; thoroughly a mason! Therefore he was liberal—it is one of the virtues of masonry to be liberal— and patriotic; the world-wide attach mentsof the craft do not, in the least blunt the delicate home sympathies which are natural to us all. I he m asonic lodge in this vicinity ac knowledged the superior ability of Mr. Israel, and placed him at the head of the various finance boards and emer gency boards, which that emergent season demanded. This position neces sarily made him the medium of pay ment for the various masonic charities of the district. It must be confessed, however—and the circumstance is re lated not to disparage the brethren, for the aid of the poor at home, and the prisoners in the prison-ship at New York, were usually cashed from the pocket of Mr. Israel himself. Quar terly dues could not be collected to keep pace with the demand ; there was too much pressure from without to justify a resort to harsh measures for the col lection ; so Mr. Israel trusted to the future consideration of his brethren, and favored! the orders from his private funds. At the close of the war, when a general statement of the fiuauces of the lodge was made, there was found to be due this noble hearted mason more than two thousand dollars in gold and silver. When the suffering patri ots came near his door on their disas trous retreat from Long Island, an opportunity was offered for a liberal display of his disinterestedness ; for though provisions were scarce, and com manded a high price in the markets of the country, yet on the personal appli cation of General Washineton, Mr. Israel supplied the American forces with fifty laigo beeves, contenting him self with a plain commissary’s receipt, instead of the hard money. The war drew further and further south. Phil adelphia was occupied by the British, t he surrounding country was daily rav aged for their sustenance. Although the English officers were noted for their p ompt payments, and even generosity, where their own friends were concerned, yet where thß slightest snspicioa of a disposition favorable to the patriots ex isted woe to that farmer’s possessions ! He was well escaped if the foraging parties contented themselves by strip ping him of his grain and beeves. An empty roost, a vacant stock yard, un tenant! and fetalis, were but a light inflic tion. It, was oftener the case that the stalls were fired, tho dwelling consumed, and the poor farmer, whose only crime was to love his country better than his country’s foes, was left far-off to com mence the world anew. While the dark cloud still rested over the patriots Prospects, the Roebuck, frigate, an chored in the Delaware, not far from Mr. Israel’s house, and a detachment was sen - ashore to secure that gentle man, an 1 appropriate his cattle. Mr. Israel was easily taken, for he rather put himself in the way of the party, thinking no further evil than that of his property would be subject to a heavy draft. Mach to his surprise, the sol diers seized him, bound his hands, and sent him on board the frigate to be tried by court martial that very day ! All this happened in plain sight of his wife, who stood in the doorway; and no sooner did it pass, than she instantly divines that mischief was brewing. To prevent the capture of the stock, she hurried to the yard, turned all the cat tle out, and set the dog after them. He soon ran them out deep into the woodß. The horses in the stable were liberated in the same manner. By this time the detachment came np, and see ing her purpose, they fired their mus kets at her, but without effect. Some harsh language was used, bat. the English officer soon came up and ordered his men away, having received no instructions to damage the prop erty, and the strong-minded woman was left to rock her babies and ponder upon the fate of her husband, then in so dangerous a condition. Mr. Israel was taken on board the frigate, and while the officers busied about the final dis position to be made of him, one of the sailors approached him, and in a low tone inquired, “Harken, friend, ain’t ye a free mason ?” What prompted the question in the man’s month, can not be known; but the reader will pres ently perceive that Mr. Israel’s life wbs involved in the answer. Startled by the inquiry, but feeling: new heart at the very word mason, Mr. Israel whis pered in reply that he was. “Then,” pursued the sailor, hastily, for an offi cer was approaching, to order the pris oner below, “ you had better tell it, for the officers will hold a lodge in the cabin to-night.” Avery few hours sufficed to prepare an indictment, summon offioers enough for a court martial, and commence pro ceedings. Mr. Israel was led across from tbe forecastle to the cabin, where a speedy trial and a short shrift were in store for the rebel. And the rebel took a glance across the still water to his pretty homestead which he felt was not long to claim as the proprietor. The trial was a mere formality. Wit nesses testified to anything that was de sired of them. The Judge Advocate evidently felt that the whole matter was beneath him. He asked but few ques tions, and those in a careless manner. One witness, as a crowning point to his testimony, averted that when Lord Howe sent to purchase cattle with specie that the rebellions individual re turned for answer “ that he would rather give his cattle to Washington, than re ceive thousands of British gold !” “ Wnat have you to say in plea, prisoner ?” inquired the senior officer, in the same breadth giving a low order to the sergeant, which hurried him on deck, where the rattling of a block, fixed to a yard arm, could be distinctly heard. The rattling ceased. A file of marines marched across the deck. Something there was awful in all this, , and Mr. Israel’s lips paled as he an swered. He made a manly defence, j averring his devotion to his country’s | cause, and maintaining his entire inno cence of ever having committed any crime whica could merit such hard treatment. He was a plain man ; loved his country ; loved his home ; thought no harm to any one ; and hoped the court would not deprive an innocent man of his life in the very presence of his family and home.” At the conclusion of his last remark he gave the sign of the brotherhood. A hasty whisper passed upon the judges; an evident interest took the place of their listlessness. Their haughty bear ing was changed ; the senior officer or dered the Judge Advocate to recall the witnesses. This being done, the mem bers of the court cross-examined them searchingly. It was not difficult now to sift out of their evidence so much malioe .nd envy, that the senior officer dismissed them with a 6tern rebuke “for seeking to hurt so honorable a man as Mr. Israel.” The verdict was a unanimous not guilty. The court being dismissed, Mr. Israel was sent on shore in the captain’s barge, and a handsome present sent to his heroic wife, whose coolness, in defending her husband’s property, had been reported to the officers. So long as the frigate kept her anch orage, there were numerous exhibitions of friendship on the part of her officers, and Mr. Israel made frequent visits to the ship where he had been so lately a prisoner, but where he was now hailed as a brother. It is needless to add, no evil of any description was ever inflicts and on the fortunate man. The records of Pennsylvania show that Israil Israel was for many years grand master of the state. Ballooning in 1875. An Attempt at Crossing tile Atlantic Probable. Although Mr. Donaldson, the aero naut, did not succeed iu reaching Eu rope last year by the aid of the easterly current, his limited success has induced Mr. Barnum to make a further engage ment with him for the summer months of 1875. A few days ago an agreement was entered into by which Mr. Donald son agrees to devote his entire services to the furtherance of aeronautic travel ing during the next eight months, for which he is to receive the sum ot two thousand dollars, Mr. Barnum further agreeing to pay all expenses attending the experiment. During the last sum mer Donaldson made a large number of successful ascensions, during which hundreds of careful observations were made, none of the results have as yet been made public. It is considered proved, first, that it is possible to land a balloon successfully at any point named and to re-aseend without material loss of ascending power; and, second, that a fixed law governs the air currents, a knowledge of which will enable the voyager to leave any spot aud return to the same at pleasure. During the past winter Mr. Donaldson has been engaged in arranging compactly the results of his work during his many years’ experience, and possesses therein a more complete aerial chart than was ever before compiled. Extensive prep arations have been ma le for carrying on a successful summer campaign dur ing the coming months, to absolutely determine the existence of an easterly current. If these experiments continue to develop Mr. Donaldson’s theory, there is little doubt that by October of this year he and a selected company will have a try at the Atlantic. He is now at work upon six balloons of vari ous sizes, capable of carrying from one to twelve people.—iV. Y. World. An English picture collector reoently bought an enormously valuable “old master” on the Continent, and, in or der to get it into England under light duty, had a modern “daub” painte3 over the old mister. When they washed off the daub the oil master went with it, and left behind a portrait of George III; so it wasn’t a very old I master, Marriage and Longevity. In the recent published “ Study of Sociology,” Mr. Herbert Spencer as sails a theory that has long been cur rent with regard to marriage and lon gevity. That married life is favorable to longevity has generally been regard ed as satisfactorily proved by numer ous statistics, showing, almost without exception, a greater longevity on the part of the married. When the ratio of deaths in the two classes stands at ten to four, and even twenty four, there would appear to be little room for doubt. Bat to this astute social scientist the evidence, strong as it seems, furnishes no warrant for the current belief. He regards the case as a substitution of cause for effect; in other words, greater longevity is not the consequence of marriage; on the contrary, marriages are clearly tracea ble to influences favoring longevity. The principles of natural selection work so strongly in deciding between the Benedicks and the bachelors, that tbe long livers are drawn to the former and the short livers to the latter. Marriage, Spencer holds, is regulated by the ability to meet its responsibilities. The qualities which give the advantage here are intellectual and bodily vigor, pru dence, and self control; these, too, are the qualities which determine a pro longed life or a premature death. An even more direct relation is to be found in the instincts which lead most strongly to marriage. The reproductive in stincts and emotions are strong in pro portion as the surplus vital energy is great, and this in turn implies an or ganization likely to last; “so that, in fact, the superiority of physique, whioh is accompanied by strength of the in stincts and emotions causing marriage, is a superiority of physique also con ducive to longevity.” Another influ ence tells in the same direction. Mar riage is determined by the preference of women as well as the desires of meD, and, other things being equal, women are attracted towards men of physical and intellectual power, refusing the malformed, diseased, and ill-developed types. In the operation of those three elements Mr. Spencer finds all that is needed to account for the striking dif ference of longevity between the classes, and declares that “the figures given afford no proof that marriage and lon gevity are cause and consequence ; but they simply verify the inference which might be drawn a priori—that marriage and longevity are concomitant results of the same cause.” —London Medical Record. The Art of Conversation. The secret of a great talker is in his courage and presence of mind. The god of gabble helps those who help themselves to our ears and time. 0 tongue-tied friend ! what a fool you are, with your stammering and your rush of blood to the cheeks, your mistimed modesty and miserable struggles to be accurate! Shall we tell you a little an ecdote ? The scene is a library. The subject is an edition of the Greek tes tament just put out. The interlocutors are two gentlemen who have written for newspapers until they have forgot ten all their Greek, and another gentle man just from Oxford and dreadfully fresh in his Alpha-Beta-Gamma. He at once points out an error in the text —a wrong particle and not of the least consequence, so far as the salvation of the world is concerned. He waxes in dignant at the criminal carelessness of proof-readers. The two also wax indig nant. “Good heavens!” they cry, “what are we coming to ?” So the Ox ford man goes away, with a great re spect for their exegetical powers, and then—they look into each other’s faces and laugh" “Awful carelessness,” they say as they smoke over it—“Basker ville would never have nade a ‘typo’ like thatand then they smoke and laugh again. There is nothing like assuming erudition, though you have it not. Besides, it is usually safe, especially in this country, to take the ignorance of the other party for granted, unless you happen to know your man too well to try it on. If you are a fool, you will sometimes get caught; but, being a fool, you will not feel it. Accurate knowledge of any thing is the rarest acquisition of this superficial time. Don’t be scared ! When we are exceedingly dignified and moral, we express a great contempt for mere praters, and speak as if a gen eral massacre of the whole crowd of them would shove us several thousand leagues toward the millennium. Can anything be more embarrassing than the awful silence which sometimes falls down like an enormous wet blanket upon a company, left to look idiotically in each other’s face, and horribly to hem and haw? Your part of the work is but small—only a “Ye-e-es” dropped here and there to* keep things bobbing. Sweet then is the sounding brass— sweet the tinkling cymbol! Is it at dinner? Is not any noise better than a clatter of knives and forks ? Or, if it be at tea, a jingle-jangle of the spoon? Or in the evening circle, better by far than the thrums of the piano and the chirp of the family soprano ? So that when we are sometimes forewarned that “ Miss Multiglott is coming,” and that she “will ta'k us to death,” we are not in the least frightened, but rather consoled. We like her simple, honest hat. Sue will tell ns about our neigh bors. And we like doarlv to know all about our neighbors. She will make matters lively. She will sprinkle Wor cestershire sance upon the funeral baked meats, and pat a little tasto into the cold tea of young lady-lisping. It is so pleasant to 101 l back in one’s chair and be all receptivity! And the best of it is that we shall really be told some thing which we did not know before ; for it is astonishing what queer, odd things these petdeoated fetchers and carriers pick up in their constant trots. Magnificent Fishing in Florida. South from Jacksonville about two miles in Alachua Lake. Formerly this was a vast prairie of over twenty thou sand acres of good grazing land. In the midst of it was a deep hole or land sink, of which there are a great many in the state, into which the waters of McKinstry Lake, situated further north, and the surrounding country used to flow and And a subterranean outlet to the sea About four years ago the out let got more or less choked up, aud the su'plus water backing soon covered this vast tract of country, in which aqueous condition it has remained ever since, increasing and diminishing in area as the season varies from wet to dry. This lake is literally dive with fish. I have seen colored boys with an ordinary pole cut from the woods, a line not over four feet long, and a fly, rudely con structed of white and xed flannel, catch eighty pounds of black bass in a couple of hours. These iish average from two to twelve pounds. An eight-pound bass is common, A few days ago a gentle- CARTERSYILLE, GEORGIA, THURSDAY, APRIL 1. 1875. man residing in Gainville caught and weighed on Fairbank’s scales, in the presence of a number of northern visit ors here, a black bass weighing nine teen and one-quarter pounds. Tradi tion says one was caught here last year that weighed twenty-three pounds. All the small streams flowing into this lake are also lull of bass. Day before yes terday I saw three small boys standing in a stream, about three feet wide, and may be a foot deep, each armed with a piece of hoop iron, with which they killed, in the half hour I was present, eight good sized bass. Another boy of the same party, with a two-bushel corn bag, made one haul in the same stream of ten bass. Lucrezia Borgia. Kate Field having witnessed Ristori’s enactment of the character of Lucrezia Borgia in Victor Hugo’s drama, takes it upon herself to defend the truth of history from what she deems the dram atist’s misrepresentation. In a commu nication to the New York Tribune she says : “If Victor Hugo were not a poet, he might be called a liar. Being a poet his lyre is spelled differently. Lucrezia Borgia was an honor to her sex in an era when licentiousness was universal and the code of morals suffi ciently lax to gratify the most vicious. Her court became famous for its bril liancy, and her platonic friendship for Pietro Berrbo is historic. Bembo speaks of her as a princess who was more de sirous of ornamenting her mind with excellent endowments than her person the decorations of dress, applying all her leisure hours to reading or compo sition, to the end that she might sur pass other women as much in the charms of her understanding as she already did in those of external beauty, and that she might be better satisfied with her own applause than witn that, however infinite, of the rest of the world. Lib anori pronounced her a most beautiful princess, endowed with every estimable quality of mind and with the highest polish of understanding. She was ‘ es teemed as the delight of the time and the treasure of the age.’ In 1508, Ca viceo dedicated II Peregrino to Lu crezia, as a homage to her excellence. Ariosto declared that she rivaled in the deeorum of her manners, as well as in the beauty of her person, all that former times could boast, and in the forty second book of his great poem he as serts that Rome ought to prefer the modern Lucrezia to the Lucretia of an iquity as well in modesty as in beauty ! The mother of three sons, she superintended their education, and her husband reposed so much confidence in her that, when in the field, he gave to her the reins of government. For twen ty years Lucrezia was the life of Fer rara, her last years being rigidly de voted to charity.” Hawthorne on the Saxon. A London critic says that Julian Hawthorne’s Saxon Studies, in the last number of the Contemporary Review are “ marvelous pieces of writing, filled with his peculiar humor, and sometimes displaying gleams of insight that posi tively startle.” He thus attacks tne custom of listening to fine music in a beer garden: “ The Saxon’s sentimen talism is vitiated by his moral and phys ical in-healtb. He is continually doing things false in harmony, and incompre hensible, as all discord is. Who but he can sit through a symphony of Beethoven’s, applauding its majestic movements with the hand which has just carried to his lips a mug of beer, and anon returns thither with a slice of sausage ? It seems as if no length of practice could marry this gross, ever lasting feeding, to any profound ap preciation of music. He frowns down the laughter of a child, the whispering of a pair of lovers, as disturbing the performance ; but the clatter of kni e and fork, the champing of jaws—offends him not. He seems to recognize the noble beanty of the theme ; he nods and rolls his eyes at the sublimer strains. Does he comprehend them? He re minds me of the Jews, who, indeed, possess the Bible; written, moreover, in their native Hebrew; who peruse it daily, and can repeat much of it by heart; and who yet have never read so much as a single line of the word of God.” His final judgment is that the Saxon has a strong resemblance to the goose, “that pig of the bird race,” and he accuses him of a “cold, profound selfishness, which forms the foundation and framework of the national and in dividual character, in every walk of life, —the wretched chill of which must ultimately annul the warmth of the most fervent Germau eulogist, provided he be bold enough to bring his theo retical enthusiasm to the decisive test of a few years’ personal intercourse and conversation with the people.” Ostrich feathers. The raidfcof ostriches for the feath ers, so important a feature of the stoCK m trade of the milliners nowdays, appears to have become quite an industry on the Cape of Good Hope, whi'her the business has recently been attracted from up the country. A cor respondent saw a flock of twenty of them pasturing in a meadow near the observatory, aad was surprised to Lam that they were valued at $350 each. They feed on grass, like cattle, and re quire bnt little care. Usually they are tolerably docile, but at certain seasons they become irritable, and will some times go as far as even to attack aoy person who happens to approach the r vicinity. In such cases they do not use their beaks, but kick forward at their antagonist, and, as their legs are very powerful, and the middle toe ter minates in a sharp and massive claw, if the blow strikes home it is suie to in flict a severe and not unfrequently a fa’al wound. "When enraged they are not very easily driven off, and one of them is a rangerous adversary for t n unarmed man. Singularly enough, notwithstanding their long legs, a fallen log or fence a foot high is to them an impassable barrier—they will never try to over it, Each bird yields from $l5O to $250 worth of feathers per an num ; those from the females being gray, and those from the males all black, except a single white plume which grows under each wing, and which is the most valuable of all. As in addition to the feathers a number of young birds Rre reared each year, aid as the cost of keeping the flock is small, it will readily be seen that successful ostrich farming is a very lucrative oc cupation. The Sultan of Turkey employs in bis palace 6,000 servants of both sexes. He pays and feeds 300 cooks, 300 gardeneis, 500 coachmen, and 600 more to do odds and ends about the house. To feed these people and they- liangt-rs-cn 1,200 sheep aud 2,000 fowls are killed every day, and 60,000 francs for lights are expended. No wonder they call him the sick man of Europe, American Advantages Over Paris. On an average we dress better, far > better, sleep softer and combat the cold in winter and the heat in summer with more scientific persistency than do any of the so called luxurious nations of Europe. Take, for iustance, the mat ter of heating and lighting. A few of the leading hotels in Paris and a small minority among the most expensive suites of private apartments have gas introduced into all the rooms, but as a general thing it is confined to the pub lic rooms, and the unfortunate wight who longs to see beyond tbe end of hia nose is forced to wrestle with dripping candles and unclean lamps, known only by tradition in our native land. The gaslight, which is a common necessary in the simplest private dwelling in an American city, is here a luxury scarcely attainable save by the wealthiest. And we do not know how precious our gas light is till we have lost it. To sit in a dim parlor where four lighted candles struggle vainly to disperse the gloom, to dress for opera or ball by the uncer tain glimmer of those greasy delusions, is enough to make one forswear all the luxuries of Paris, and flee homeward forthwith. Then in winter comes the question of warmth. What is more delicious than to plnnge from the iced-champagne at mosphere of a sparkling winter’s day in America into the nest-like, all-pervad ing warmth of an American home ? Here such comfort is wholly unknown. The cold, though lees severe than with us, is damp, raw and insidious, and creeps under wraps with a treacherous persistency that nothing can shut out. The ill-fitting windows, opening in the old door-like fashion, let in every breath of the chill outer air. A fire is a handful of sticks or half a dozen lumps of coal. The caloritere, a poor substitute for our powerful furnaces, is a luxury for the very rich—an innova tion grudgingly granted to the whims of the occupants of the most costly and fashionable of private apartments. Warmth, our cozy, all - pervading warmth, is a winter luxury that we leave behind us with the cheerful light of our universal gas-burners. In sum mer we sorely miss the cold, pure ice water of our native land, and we long for it with a thirst which vin ordinaire and Bavarian beer are powerless to as suage. The ill-tasting limestone-tainted water of Paris is a poor substitute for our sparkling draughts of Schuylkill or Croton. Ice-pitchers, water-cdolers and refrigerators are unknown quantities in the sum total of Parisian luxuries. The “cup of cold water” which the traveler in our country finds gratui tously supplied in every waiting-room and railway station, every steamboat, every car and every hotel, is here some thing that must be specially sought for, and paid for at an exorbitant price. Ice can be purchased only in small quantities for immediate consumption. Ten cents for a few lumps swimming in water on a tepid plate is the usual term for this our American necessity, this rare Parisian luxury. Nor do all the deiicate artifices of French cookery suffice wholly to replace for an Ameri can palate the dainties of his native land. The buckwheat cakes and waf fles, the large, delicately-flavored, lus cious oysters, the canvas-back ducks, the Philadelphia croquettes aijd terra pin, find no substitutes on this side of the water. The delicious shad ui.d Spanish mackerel have no gastronomic rivals in these waters, and the sole must be accepted in their stead. We miss, too, our profusion and variety of vege tables, our stewed and stuffed toma toes, green corn, oyster plants and sweet potatoes.— Lippincoit’s. The Figure and Color of Wood. The figure of wood depends more up on the particular mixings and directions of the fibres than upon any difference of color. If a tree was found formed of merely circular rings, like the sec tion of an organ, filled with layers of peel instead of pulp, the horizontal seo tion would exhibit circles ; the vertical, parallel straight lines ; and the oblique section parts of ovals ; but few, if any, trees are to be found either exactly per pendicular or straight, and, therefore, although the three natural sections have a general disposition to the figures de scribed, every little bend and twist in the tree disturbs the regularity of the fibre, and adds to the variety and ornamenta tion of the wood. A perpendicular cut through the heart of the tree is the hardest and most diversified, because in it occures the most profuse mixture and density of the fibre, the first and the last in point.of age being presented in the same plank; but the density and di versity lessen as the boar and is cut furtln r away from the axis. Curls are formed by the confused filling in of the space between the forks of the branches. The beautiful figure thus induced causes a log, say of mahogany, to be valued in proportion to the number of curls it contains. There is great competition at public auction for such logs, and prices which seems astonishingly large are sometimes given for a log known by judges to contain several fine curls Oc casionally some disappointment may be experienced when the log is opened, but not often. The curl generally shows itself on the outside, where it can be seen, and there is always the possibility of there being interior ones as well, which do not show on the surface. Fig ure is also produced as follows: The germs of the primary branches are set at an early period of the growth of the par ent stem, and thus give rise to knots. But many fail to penetrate to the exte rior, and are covered over by the more vigorous deposition of the annual rings. Each branch is a miniature tree down to the smallest t wig, and this process goes on in each individual branch just as in the tiunk. These knots produce fignre in the foil owing manner: Wnen thegerm succeeds in forcing its way to the sur face, the future rings of the trunk bend and turn aside when they encounter the kuct, and in the softer woods do not unite with it. This accounts for white wood knots being so liable to fall out. The turpentine in other sorts of wood acts as a sort of cement and keeps the knot in its place The hardness of knots is due to the close grouping of the fibers and to their compression by the sur rounding wood, which itself is allowed expansion by the yielding nature of the bark. Loudness op the Latest Parisian Mode. —The latest mode of Parisian lady’s wear has been given out to thiß measure : The lady is wrapped around twice in a gauze scarf and thrice in a tulle veil; twenty yi rds of flower gar lands are next woven crossways around; having thus become somewhat of a package, she is still not sufficiently dressed, and something more is needed; a tail, or train, or declivity (however it may be prefeired) is next attached be hind with diamonds or pearls, and must be as heavy as the rest of the costume is light; the said tail to be covered with butterflies of gauze, birds of lace and sarcabenses of lophophore (which is not cotton jeans), with their respective claws tied by golden threads. The ladv thus clothed is kept warm down below ; but her upper half is kept fresh with no sleeves, scarcely any corset and thighs prominent. The toilet is then essentially complete. This looks as if the empire was under way again with its loudness. Leopard versus Cow. Sir Samuel Baker, in his interesting work on Ceylon. telL us that the leop ards in that country canse no little loss among the cattle. They are so daring that they will get to the sheep and cows by scratching through the thatched roofs of the sheds in which they are kept. Sometimes, however, they meet with their match in the small bnt active cattle, as in the following instance : About three years ago a leopard took it into his head to try the beefsteaks of a very savage and short horned cow, who, with her calf, was the property of a blacksmith. It was a dark, rainy night. The blacksmith and his wife wtre in bed, and the cow and calf were nestled in the warm straw in the cattle shed. The door was locked, and all was ap parently secure, when the hungry leop ard prowled stealthily around the cow house, sniffing the prey within. The strong smell of the leopard at once alarmed the keen senses of the cow, made doubly acute by her anxiety for her little charge, and she stood ready for the danger, as the leopard, hav ing mounted on tbe roof, commenced scratching his way through the thatch. Down he sprang, but at the same in stant, with a splendid charge, the cow pinned him to the wall, and a battle en sued which can be easily imagined. A coolie, slept in a corner of the cat tle shed, whose wandering senses were completely scattered when he found himself the unwilling umpire of the fight. He rushed out and shut the door. In a few minutes he succeeded in awakening the blacksmith, who pro ceeded to load a pistol, the only weapon he possessed. During the whole of this time the bellowing of the cow, the roars of the leopard, and the thumping, tramp ling and shuffling which proceeded from the cattle- shed, explained the savage nature of the fight. The blacksmith, who was no sports man, shortly found himself with a lan tern in one hand, a pistol in the other, and no idea what he meant to do. He waited, therefore, at the shed door, and holding the light so as to shine through the numerous small apertures, he look ed in. The leopard no longer growled, but the cow was mad with fury. She alternately threw a large dark mass over her head, then quickly pinned it to the ground on its descent, and then bored it against the wall as it crawled helplessly toward a comer of the shed. Tlxio w lilt) bccl-cttlei in lodnecj oir onmstances. The gallant little cow had nearly killed him, and was now giving him the finishing strokes. The blacksmith perceived the leop ard’s helpless state, and, boldly opening the door, discharged the pistol, and the next minute was bolting as hard as he could run, with the warlike cow after him. She was regularly “ up,” and was ready for anything or anybody. How ever, she was at length pacified, and the dying leopard was put out of his misery. The Mental Attitude ©f the Primitive Man. Comprehension of the thoughts gen erated in the primitive man by his con verse with the surrounding world can be had only by looking at the surrounding world irom his stand-point. The ac cumulated knowledge and the mental habits slowly acquired during education must be suppressed, and we must divest ourselves of conceptions which, partly by inheritance and partly by individual culture, have been rendered necessary. None can do this completely and few can do it even partially. It needs but to observe what unfit methods are adopted by educators to be convinced that evan among the disci plined the power to frame thoughts which are widely unlike their own is extremely small. When we see the juvenile mind plied with generalities while it has yet none of the concrete facts to which they refer—when we see mathematics introduced under the purely rational form instead of under that empirical form with which it should be commenced by the child, as it was commenced by the race—when we see a subject so abstract as grammar pot among the first instead of the last, and si e it taught analytically instead of synthetically, we have ample evidence of the prevailing inability to conceive tbe ideas of undeveloped minds. And if, though they have been children them selves, men find it hard to rethink the thoughts of the child, still harder must they find it to rethink the thoughts of the savage. To keep out automorphic interpretations is beyond our power. To look at things with the eyes of ab solute ignorance, and observe how their attributes and actions originally group ed themselves in the mind, implv a self-suppression that is impracticable. —Herbert Spencer. Another German Invasion of France. The Germans are getting back into France—this time on a peaceful mis sion, apparently. The French com plain and take consolation in a round of abuse, as follows: Germany is a shabby land, as it’s inhabitants can’t stay at home. Prussia sends back into Gaul her discharged soldiers, on the close of their war labors, to gobble up all the best paid positions which the Gaul is foolish enough to give them, generous hearts abdicating vengeance. These Germans are not only covetous, but spie3 of Bismarck, to ferret out all the secrets of the shop, families and state, and yet thrice silly Gaul persists in wearing her heart, on her elbow, for the daws to peck at. These Germans are permanent overseers, not discour aged by hatred and contempt, only thereby rather more 6limy. These Germans are Austrians and Poles, or give themselves out to be, while taking the front seats in trade and manufac ture. These Germans left us to get their weapons across the Rhine ; they came back and skinned us alive ; they then went home to hang up their bruised arms ; now, like vultures, they have come baok to pick our bones. Tuese Germans have been particularly spotted of late in the prefect’s reports. They prohibit the exportation of their horses to Gaul, whiob in turn should prohibit the importation of all their two-legged animals, not wanted and far more dangerous than quadrupeds. And so we go. The truth is, the Germans like France—love her—got a first-class taste in 1870, and subsequently belied to get back. France is a pretty girl ; her teeth are like a flock of sheep, and Prussians like sheep meat, Comme toxis lea chiena, The Earth—lts Beat and Contraction. Professor P. M. Duncan, F. It. S., recently delivered at the Royal Institu tion a course of lectures upon “ The Grander Phenomena of Physical Geog raphy. ” He pointed out that there is strong evidence that the earth is a solid body now cooling, because the deeper man can get in mines or in borings the hotter is the temperature, and the tem perature continues to increase at depths to which man cannot reach, a tempera ture of 3,680 degrees would be found at a depth of forty five miles. At this temperature granites and lavas fuse. Assuming, then, the earth to be a hot body now cooling, as it cools the rocks must contract; moreover, those rocks which are rich in silicia will not con tract so rapidly on cooling as others, consequently herein is a source of change of shape of the earth. It is well known that surface changes are going on, that some large areas of land are in course of slow upheaval, while others are slowly sinking, and that at one geographical period there was a great upheaval of the larger portion of the continent of North America. Tbe globe, therefore, is cooling unequally. The radiation from some parts is greater than at others, so in this there is a further souroe of disturbance. Sir William Thomson has calculated that every year ninety-two horse power of work —for beat means work—is got rid of from every two hundred and forty seven acres of the surface of the globe. The dissipation of energy and the con traction of rocks not being uniform, the effect of these disturbing causes is to produce horizontal thrusts, which form mountain ranges by crumpling np the earth, for mountains are formed by this crumbling action, and not usually by direct volcanic or other upheaval. The changes produced by the contrac tion are slow, and there is every reason to believe that our present sea floors and onr present continents are ex tremely old, geographically speaking, so far as their present forms are con cerned. He said that the upper part of Snowdon consists of sea land, fossil sea fishes, and volcanic ashes, fell mixed together ; in fact it appears to have been at one time in the same con dition that the Bay of Naples is at present, that is to say, volcanic ashes tell into it and sometimes buried fish. The lower part of Snowdon consists of vast streams of old lava. At some geological period the crumpling action already mentioned took place below the Bay of Snowdon; consequently the bottom of the bay was elevated and became the top of the highest moun tain in Wales. Rain, and rivers, and atmospheric changes then played upon it during the course of long ages, sculpturing out the beautiful mountain scenery which characterizes the Snow don range. The rattlesnake, the most dreaded reptile n# A ruarioa, i a brarolj Utt&Ckel and killed by the antelope. The man ner of attack is curious and effective. As soon as the snake is discovered, the male antelope commences trotting swiftly round the enemy, seemingly with the purpose of confusing it; then springing high into the air, and bring ing his four sharp hoofs together, as he descends with all his weight upon the snake. The instant he tonenes it he separates his feet with a quick move ment, and tears it to pieces before it has time to strike. Civil Marriages in Germany. The Berlin Staatsanzeiger publishes a royal decree laying down the particu lar conditions under which the imperial law on civil marriage is to be applied in the Prussian monarchy from the first of March. The marriageable age of the adult male subject is fixed at not under twenty years, of the female at sixteen ; bnt exceptions may be male by lawful authority. The consent ©f the father is necessary before wedlock up to the end of the young man’s twenty-fifth year, and the young woman’s twenty fourth ; but if the father be dead, then the mother’s is required ; but if neither parent be living, that of the sponsors. Sects that, under local customs, use no sponsors, are released from this last restriction. And where there is a law ful guardianship, in the absenoe of parents, by a family council, its author ity is recognized. For children born out of wedlock the mother’s consent takes the place of the father’s ; and the child of legal adoption requires the consent, up to the full age, of its adopted parent. In ail cases of refusal, after the first limit of marriageable age is reached, the son or daughter has a legal appeal to the district court. The forbidden degrees are of course those recited in the original act of the impe rial diet. Widows cannot marry, with out legal dispensation, before the end of the tenth month after their former husband’s decease. None of the spe cial restrictions now existing as to the marriages of military and civil Prus sian officials, or of foreigners residing in Prussia, are to be affected by the in troduction of the law, but all othe im pediments c xisting uuder former local laws are repealed. Violations of the x*estrictions prescribed are to be pun ished as offenses agaiDst the criminal code of Prussia. And, finally, all dis pensatory power is for the future to rest entirely in the ha ids of the Btate. The Worth of Life. Life is no commonplace matter: it may feel so when we are disappointed, when we are wearied with labor, or are disgusted with meanness, and then we ma< say with the Jewish preacher, “ Vanity of vanities, all is vanity ! ” But myself, how often in my more cheerful moments, and at those more thoughtful seasons, when my awakened faculties have made me most truly man, have I been awe-struck and breathless, whilst the great mystery of life has oc curred to my mind in sudden vividness! In such moments what a miracle have I felt myself I Excepting God himself, what is there more wondrous than the existence of the infinite; than this birth of .feeling, thinking, and active life, in our bosoms, which a short time since were inanimate, insensate dust ! What thought is there more wondrous than this, that we are living souls, abroad and active on the faoe of a world which was once without form and void ! Well might the sons of God shout for joy, when the first man of our race stood up erect amid the trees of Eden. It was the birth ef mortal spirit, and that paradisal woeder is repeated in the growth of every infant and throughout the life of every man \ -Mountford The Shakers have at present eighteen societies in the United States, compre hending fifty-eight families, with a to tal population of 2,415 souls, and real estate amounting to about 100,000 acres, of which nearly 50,000 belong to their own home-farms, VOL. 16--NO. 14. SAYINGS AND DOINGS. __ Some observer who has notioed the effect of great religions awakenings might do the good cause a servioe by publishing the number of old debts that are paid after each revival. There are scoffers who affect to believe that if a:i amount has been over-due a very long time no religion in the world will make the debtor hunt up and* pay the dc an he owes. The southern baptists have joined heartily in the plan proposed by the American Baptists education commis sion for the celebration of the ap proaching Centenary of American In dependence. The Nashville Advisory committee, which met Feb. 22, parsed resolutions urging the formation of st ate committees in the states it repre sents, namely: Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri, Arkan sas, Louisiana, and Texas. The com mittee recommended the endowment of the Southern Baptist Theological Semi nary, and of the denominational insti tutions of learning in each state. The legislative committee appointed a i hoc, lets the eagle out of the Napo leonic bag—an eagle, by the way, ever stuffed with meal. They discovered that the Brutals had already organized a secret empire, which wa3 carrying on functions throughout France, proselyt izing army and peasantry, intimidating judges, prefects molding more or less all others in executive authority, and distributing daily over 500,000 copies of imperial journalism. The commit tee advises the stopping of this busi ness, but does not say how it is to be stopped. The discovery of the secret empire gave rise to the recent fears of a coup d'etat. Mart E. Arbons was advertised by her husband in San Jose, California, as h iving left his bed and board without just cause, and so forth. Mrs. Arbons retorted in a card, in which she said that she had been married ten years, aid in that time had cooked about ten thousand meals, spent fifteen thousand hours over a hot stove, borne six children, milked cows over ten thousand times, and performed other housewifely duties in proportion. She adds: “ I have drawn the picture very mildly. I have m ade allowances for my sickness, when I have had help, something after the vs ay that a farmer would hire a horoe if his own was sick and unable to work. I had nothing when I went there, and nothing at the end of those ten years of servitude.’' Punch’s Advice to a Baby. —Don’t come into the world in cold weather. If you are the heir of a branch of the house of Smith, by no means permit your parents to christen you Howard, or Stanley, or Clinton, or Spencer. If you are a lady-babv, don’t let them call you Mary Ann, or Mary Jane, or Soph onisba, or Sophronia. Think of your future husband’s misery under such conditions, ne intensely cross to evexj body. Nobody asked whether you wished to enter the world, and you have a right to protest against being brought into it. Cry lustily. It is good for the lungs, and it generally results in some thing nice being produoed to quiet you. Allow no one to talk politics in your presence. Howl when you are smacked, and resist all attempts to put you to bed early. In the Malavan Peninsula large apes of naturally intelligent breeds are em ployed by their masters much in the sfme way that human slaves are made use of in some parts of Africa. The cocoannt palm is valuable for its fruit, bat this is very difficult to procure, so the landlord of a tope of palms trains his apes to climb the trees and judi ciously pick \he richest nuts for him. The apes seem to delight in the work. The apes thus employed in the neigh borhood of Singapore and Penang are bred in Atchin, and the owners itiner ate and hire them out. They go up the trees with a line attached, and obey the command of their masters, choos ir g the proper fruit. They twist the nut round and round till it falls down from its stalk, when the feat is hailed on the part of the apes by jumps and chuckles of evident satisfaction. Our secretary of legation at St. Pe tersburg has a Deutsche-sounding mime—Schuyler. It has been said of late that on account of his curious and deep dives into Russian matters, Prince Gortschakoff had asked his recall. The si.ving is denied from St. Petersburg. It. is a significant fact, however, that the Russians are extremely bitter against the Germans, and all that snacks of a German sound. They have so far received all their civilization imported by German heads and hands, and manifest a tendency to kick out ward from their own sterility. Clever Germans monopolize their big and diffi cult jobs and places, oould not be done without, reside in the country, and r eceatjarily excite jealously. Todtle t>en, thj defender of Sebastopol, was" Teutonic, and by that fact was a target for the national Slavonic spleen. The American traveler in England ran scarcely have failed to notice the embellishment of railway stations along the road by flower-beds and pretty lit tle gardens. These cultivated areas are commonly the unused land lying a ong each side of the track at the en trance to the station. Occasionally there is a somewhat fantastic taste ex hibited by the station-master; but a few freaks of design may well be par doned in view of the healthful ambition that led to them. These garden-spots become matters of pride and zeal with the station-masters; they employ what would otherwise be idle hours; and hence they are not only a charm to the t-aveler, but a means of agreeable change to the otherwise monotonous duties of tha railway officials. We should be glad to see in America as prevalent a teste for flower culture as finds almost everywhere in England. White Quails. A year ago from last fall a pair of white quails were netted in the western part of this country and were purchased by G. H. Ribble, Esq., of this city. They were very much like the ordinary quail with the exception of being pure white. Mr. Ribble kept them until last May and then, as they seemed drooping and despondent, turned them loose in the woods south of town. Nothing more was heard of them until early in the fall, when they were discovered on the Lackland farm, with an interesting family of thirteen chicks, all as white ss themselves. They are yet in that vicinity, our sportsmen, by common consent, leaving them unmolested. If it had only been a freak of nature, as was supposed by some to be tbe case with the pair captured, the progeny 1 would have been of the ordinary color. They are evidently a kind new to this country. What is their proper name end classification, and where did they come from? Wyi some, one ..who j* jjosted please inform ns.— Mexioo (Mo.) /ntelligenoer, &