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8
YOUTHS' DEPARTMENT.
["From the N. O. Picayune,] 1 !
What the Sparrow Chiips.
BT PBABL JUTJW
I am only a little eparTow,
A bird of low deforce ;
My life is of little rains,
But the Master carsth for me.
He flare me a coat of feathers,
It is rery plain I knew ;
With nerer a speck of csimeon.
For it was not mads for show—
But it keeps me warm in the winter,
And it shields ms from the rain ;
Were it ’broidered with gold or purple,
Perhaps it wonld make ms rain.
By and by, when the spring-time oometh,
£*T will bnild me a little nest.
With many a chirp of pleasure,
In the spot I like the best.
And the'Maeter will pirs rne wisdom
To build it of leares most brown ;
Warm and softitmnst be for my birdies.
And so I will line it with down.
I hare no barn or store-house,
I neither sow nor reap ;
fltod giree me a sparrow’s portion,
But aerer a seed to keep.
If my meal is sometimes scanty.
Close picking makes it sweet ;
I hare always enough to do me,
And "life ia more than meat."
I have no roof from the tempest.
But the Master will proride ;
When the tempest comes I always find
A shelter where I can hide,
I know there are many sparrows,
All orer the world we are found—
But o*r Heavenly Father knoweth
When one of us falls to the ground.
Though small, we are never forgotten ;
’Though weak, we are never afraid :
For we know that the Master keepeth
The life of the creature he made.
I fly through the thickest forests.
I light on many a spray—
I hare no chart or compass,
But I never lose my way.
And I fold my wings at twilight.
Wherever I happen to be ;
For the Master is my Father,
And no harm will come to me.
I am only a little sparrow,
A bird of low degree,
But I know that the Father lores me—
Haro you less faith than me ?
Hobolochitto, Hancock county, Mint., Jan.
ENIGMA.
I am composed of 15 letters.
My 3,4, 6, is a variation of verb to be.
My 4,3, 13, 7,6, is to lift.
My 2, 6, 4, 10, is not there.
My 4,3, 1, 12, is an instrument of
torture.
My 7, 14, 3, 12, 10, is a reptile.
My 14, 13, 11, 10, is a number.
My 8. 3. 1,12, is a boy’s nickname.
My 15, 13, 11, is what we all should
avoid.
My 9,3, 14, G, is a girl’s name.
My whole is one of Georgia’s noblest
-sons.
Answer next.week.
Answer to Last Week’s Enigma.—
Alexander 11. Stephens : Ale—Lead—
Ear—Axe —Gnat—East—Sheep—Peter
—Hand E. F.
Charleston, S. C., April 6 th, 1808.
Minnie’s answers to last week \s Enig
ma is correct.
Mary E’s answer is also correct.
A. G. L. —Your answer has also been
received. The error was unintentional.
Enigmas from Minnie and Lelawill ap
pear next week.
DROWNING THE SQUIRREL.
When I was about six years old, one
morning going to school, a ground squir
rel ran into its hole in the rord before
me, as they like to dig holes in some
open place, where they can put out their
head and see if any danger is near. I
thought now r I will have some fine fun.
As there was a stream of water at hand,
1 determined to pour water into the hole
till it should be lull, and force the little
animal up so that 1 might kill it. I got
a trough from beside a sugar maple, used
for catching the sweet sap, and was soon
pouring water on the poor squirrel. I
could hear it struggle to get up, and said,
“Ah, my fellow, 1 will soon have you out
now.'’
Just then I heard a *oice behind rne,
“\\ ell my hoy, what have you got in
there ?” I turned and saw one of my
neighbors, a good old man, with long
white locks, that had seen sixty winters.
‘ Why! said 1, "1 have a ground
squirrel in here, and am going to drown
him out.”
Said he, “Jonathan, when I was a little
boy, more than fifty years ago, 1 was en
gaged one day just as you are, drowning
a ground squirrel! and an old man like
me came along and said to me, ‘You are
a little boy now; if you were down in a
narrow hole like that, and I should come
along and pour water down on you to
drown you, would you not think I was
eruel ? God made that little squirrel,
and life is as sweet to him as it is to you,
and why will you torture to death a little
innocent creature that God has made V
I have never forgotten that, and never
shall. I never have killed a harmless
creature for fun since. Now, my boy, I
want you to remember this while you
live, and when tempted to kill any poor
little innocent animal or bird, think of
this; and mind, God don’t allow us to
kill his pretty little creatures for fun.”
More than forty years have since pass
ed, and I never forgot what the good man
said, nor have 1 ever killed the least
ereature for fun since. Now, you see it
is ninety years since this advice was first
given, and it has not lost its influence yet.
How many little creatures it has saved
from being tortured to death, I cannot
tell, but I have no doubt a great number,
and I believe my whole life had been in
fluenced by it.
“Now, I want all the dear little boys,
when they read this, to keep it in mind;
and when they see pretty birds or harm
less animals playing or hunting their
food, not to hurt them. Your Heavenly
Father made them, and he never intended
them to be killed for fun.- -Lessons of
Kindness to Animals.
TOYS.
ALL ABOUT THEIR MAKERS.
All the cheaper class of toys are of for
eign manufacture. Penny toys come
from Germany. They have their birth
in the black pine forests of Thuringia.
The Dryads and Hamadryads are not
dead, but sleeping. What roars of laughter
spring from these old gloomy pine woods.
The great toy capital is Sonneburg,
where men, women, and children are em
ployed upon their production. The cost
of toys at the place of their manufacture
is infinitely small. The wood, the only
material of which they are made, is no
thing: two pence half penny a tree. The
labor is scarcely more valuable. Toys in
these old forests are made upon the most
approved modern principle of division of
labor. Any toy we take up has gone
through half a dozen hands. By thD
means great rapidity is attained in their
manufacture, and the prime cost at home
is less than the third of a penny. Thy
transit along mountain roads, by water
carriage to Rotterdam, whence they are
conveyed by steam to England, costs
more than their manufacture, but yet there
is a profit left to the vender. ~l These are
true smashing toys ; but the more expen
sive, highly finished, and elaborate ones
still come from Germany or the adjacent
countries. Great numbers come from
Grunheiuscber, in Saxony, but the town
of Nuremberg maintains its old monopoly
for metal work, even in the matter ot
toys. All the leaden soldiers in boxes
are made here, whilst the tin railroads
and locomotives, and steam vessels of
every primitive character and form, come
from Biberach, in Wirtemberg. The
cuirasses, and helmets, and guns, como
from Hesse Cassel, a highly military
little kingdom : and from its by-neighbor,
Prussia, we have the pretty little toy
interiors of shops, drawing-rooms and
others, fitted with model hirniture and
goods.
It is no mean proof of the manner in
which the Prussians are educated, that
those very elegant little toys are all made
by prisoners under penal servitude. We
wonder what sort of a figure our sons
would make at the like occupation. Some
of the details are capitally modeled.
There, for instance, is a butcher’s shop,
with nil the joints hanging on their hooks.
They are made in paper, and show that
the modelers must have copied them from
the originals. The governing powers in
Germany do not think it beneath them
to give an art education to the children
engaged in the manufacture of toys. The
Duke of Saxe Mciningen has established
schools for this purpose, and the result is
that the most beautiful models of animals
made in papiermache come from bis king
dom. They are to > good, however, for
playthings, and are more likely to find
their way to the mantelpieces ns orna
ments. There is a tendency in this coun
try, we fear, to fall into the error of con
structing toys for boys that are not* only
too expensive for the general purse, but
too seieitific aud elaborate—model loco
motives, which go by steam, working
pumps, model steam vessels, mice running
by machinery ; and, for the girls, dolls
that move along the table, raise their
arms, and cry papa and mama. 1 his is
carrying machinery into the nursery with
a vengeance. It may be very well cal
culated to foster the mechanical spirit,
but not to relax the mind, the proper
object of toys. They are far too expen
sive, however, to come into general use,
so that their influence is not likely to
be great.
Dutch dolls, the most hideous articles
■Mill! ©I BIS
to look at, do n&t really come from Hol
land, but from the Tyrol. They are called
Dutch dolls, we suppose, because Holland
is the country from which they are
shipped for England. The most natural
dolls in the world are made in London.
They are admirably modeled, with real
red hair, and the busts and heads are
made of wax quite artistically. The
making of dolls’ eyes is quite a large
trade, we are informed, and a very profit
able one.
First class dolls are the only toys, ex
cepting the pieces of mechanism before
mentioned, for which wc are famous in
England. Birmingham is, indeed, called
the toy shop of the world ; but not in the
sense in which children understand the
word toy. They are nick-nacks, rather,
for children of a large growth. It seems
strange that our national genius does no
thing for the little ones in metal work ;
that we should have to go to Nuremberg
for toy printing presses with types, magic
lanterns, magnetic toys, and conjuring
tricks, with which our fast boys now en
tertaiu their seniors ; but such is the
fact. The toy that the English boy loves
best in the world is the model of a ship.
This, in past time, he fashioned and rigged
for himself; but in these degenerate
days be may buy bis model, and all the
details for fitting her out, even to pateut
anchors, guns, and gun carriages, blocks
and steering wheels —everything is made
for him. We wonder whether the young
sters enjoy them as much as we did,
when everything about our ship, from
the tip of the mast down to the edge ot
the keel, was made with a not over sharp
clasp knife
It seems to us that all the active toys
of our youth have passed away, or been
so modified that we scarcely know them.
Is the peg-top, with which we delighted
to split other peg tops in the pound, now
ever spun, or is the little colored metal
pretense for a top spun by a piece of ma
chinery substituted far it? Are there no
good solid hoops now trundled ? We
confess we meet with nothing but pieces
of circular wire that are not banged with
a jolly stick, but pushed along by a large
sized knitting-needle. And where are
all the kites that once carried our eyes
heavenward ? The boys of these days
let up model balloons instead, which they
pull down again with a long string.
But hold—let us not be carried away
by prejudice; no doubt the old boys of
every age look with contempt upon the
toys of the rising generation. There are
two things in which, wc may confess, our
juniors have the advantage over us—pic
ture books and sweets. In our days,
good reader (1 presume an old boy), there
were no such splendid fairy tales as can
be got anywhere now for a shilling.
Jack the Giant-Killer had to be imagined
with our minds. But now every Christ
mas the artists present the story to us in
anew aspect. “Sinbad the Sailor,” and
the “ Arabian Nights,” now glow with
colored pictures. There was no color in
the old days, and the pictures rather de
pressed than excited the boy's imagina
tion. But, as an old boy, we must con
fess the sweets of the present day have a
great advantage over the “ stick-jaw” and
the “ bull’s eyes” of the past. We never
dreamed of such delicacies as iced cocoa
nut or pineapple candy, and never saw
such a beautiful prospect as the sweet
shop now presents, specially laid out to
drive to madness the boys that have no
pennies to go inside.
[ Cassell's Magazine.
The True Story of Cinderella- —
The story of Cinderella is familiar to
every one and yet there are few that treas
ure it up as in every respect true. But it
has a foundation and a reality that really
needs no fairy godmother, with her pump
kins and her rats to make an entertaining
tale. It is as follows :
In about the year 1730, a French actor,
by the name of Thevenard, lived in Paris.
He was rich and talented, but he bad no
wife, and we may believe be had never
loved any one, but gave all his affections
to those ideal characters that he could re
present so finely on the stage. One day
as he was walking leisurely along the
streets of Paris he came upon a cobbler’s
stall, and his eye was attracted by a dainty
little shoe which lay there waiting for re
pairs. His imagination began immedi
ately to form the little foot that must fit
such a little shoe. He examined it well,
but only to admire it more and more.
On going to his own house lie seemed
haunted by the little shoe. He fancied it
tripping over his be could hear the
music of its tread —in tact, there was
nothing among all his rich, elegant treas
ures that seemed to him half so beantilul.
He went to the stall of the cobbler
again, but could learn nothing in regard
to the owner of the shoe This only in.
creased his eagerness, and made him
more determined to know to whom it be
longed. Day by day he was disappoint-
ed, but he was not discouraged.
At last the little foot needed the little
shoe, and Thcvenard met the owner, a
poor girl whose parents belonged to the
humblest class. But the ardent actor
thought not of caste or family. His heart
had already pronouneed the little one his
wife. He married the girl, with no ques
tion of what people would say, and felt
enough joy in hearing the tread es the
light nimble feet through his silent rooms,
to pay him for the sacrifice of people’s
approval. This is the true story of Cin
derella, and from which the child ro
mance sprang.
The Pinckneys of South Carolina.—
James Parton contributes to the New
York Ledger an interesting biographical
sketch of the South Carolina Pinckneys,
a family which is as much, if not more
distinguished, than any other in the
South. We give the following brief ex
tracts from the article before us:
“ Thomas Pinckney, the founder of the
family in America, standing at the win
dow of his house one day, with his wife at
his side, noticed a stream of passengers
walking up the street, who had just
landed from a vessel that day arrived
from the West Indies. As walked
along the street, he noticed particularly
a handsome man who was very gaily
dressed, and, turning to his wife, he said :
‘ That handsome West Indian will marry
some poor fellow’s widow, break her heart,
and ruin her children.’ Strange to re
late, the widow whom this handsome West
Indian married was no other than Mrs.
Pinckney herself; for Thomas Pinckney
soon after died, and his widow married
the West Indian. He did not break her
heart, since she lived to marry a third
husband, but he was an extravagant
fellow, and wasted part of her children’s
inheritance.”
Vegetation in the Moon.— lt was for
a long time the common conclusion among
astronomers that the moon was without
any atmosphere, and destitute of water;
and that, consequently, neither animal
nor vegetable life could be supported on
its surface. But several eminent modern
astronomers have maintained that the moon
has an atmosphere, though of a very lim
ited extent. And quite recently, Mr.
Schawbe, a German astronomical pro
fessor, thinks he has discovered signs of
vegetation on the surface of our satellite.
It is well known that there are certain
dark lines or scratches, as they appear,
extending across the slopes of thehighest
mountains in the moon. These have,
been variously expbiincd, some regard
ing them as the bed of dried up streams;
others as having some other origin. Prof.
Schawbe claims to have discovered in
these lines a greenish color, which ap
pears at certain seasons, lasts a few
months, and then disappears. He there
fore regards those lines as belts of vege
tation. If his observations should be de
cisively confirmed by those of other as
tronomers, it will settle the question that
the moon lias both air and water, and
will therefore remove any presumption
against the existence of animal life on its
surface.— English Paper.
«.
Empress Eugenie in a Romantic Af
fair — A correspondent of the Washing
ton Star, writing from Paris, after giving
a description of a ball at the Tuilleries,
relates the following bit of romance by
the Empress ;
I will now tell you a true story of the
Empress. Last Wednesday week the
Emperor aud the Empress attended one
of the small theatres to see the play of
“ Comte Jacques.” On the stage a charm
ingly young girl took a part in which it
was necessary to feign weeping ; but the
girl wept bitter tears, and the Empress
was so much impressed that she sent for
the stage manager, alter the act, to inquire
who the girl was, and desired him to ascer
tain the cause of her tears. The young
girl very innocently replied that she had a
lover to whom she was devotedly attached;
but his father would not permit him to
marry her until she would bring him a
dowry of a thousand francs, which she
had not, and so she would have to give
him ud, which would break her heart.
As this play represented her case, she
could not keep back the tears, but she
hoped no one would observe them. Her
grief, however, did not escape the Em
press, who found, upon inquiry, that the
girl was respectable and obliged to assist
in supporting her parents by peiforming
at the theatre, to which her mother al
ways accompanied her. The following
day the Empress sent one of her cham
bermaids to present the girl with a mar
riage portion of a thousand francs and
money to the amount of five hundred francs
for the mother.
Os all the agonies of life, that which
is the most poignant and harrowing is
the conviction that we have been de
ceived where we placed all the trust of
love.
WIT AND HUMOR.
Love Sick. —“ Amelia, for thee—yes,
at thy command, I’d tear this eternal fir
mament into a thousand fragments—l’d
gather the stars one by one as they tum
bled from the regions of ctherial space
and put them in my trowsers pockets ;
I’d pluck the sun, that oriental god of
day, that traverses the blue arch of heaven
in such majestic splendor —I’d tear him
frem the sky and quench his bright efful
gence in the fountain of my eternal love
for tliae!”
Amelia—“ Don’t, Henry, it would be
so dark.”
“ You are writing my bill on very
rough paper,” said a client to his solicitor.
“ Oh, never mind, sir, it has to be filed
before it comes into court,” replied the
lawyer.
Someone says the best way for a
father to train up a child in the way it
should go, is to travel that way occa
sionally himself.
A wag, in describing the effect of a
certain would be tragedian’s style, on a
particular occasion, said : “It caused
the hair to stand on every bald head in
the vast assembly.”
Monsieur Jacqueminat, ortce, in an
address to the electors of Paris, observed,
with a vehement shrug of the shoulders,
“ Gentlemen, I have shed all my blood
for my country, and I am willing to shed
it again.”
“ A city clerk and a naturalist,” asks
whether there is not a bird called the
Ditto Ditto. Is he not thinking of our
old acquaintance the Do-Do ?
Those who have been annoyed, while
undergoing the “barbarous” operation,
with the suggestions of the barber as to
hair oils, restoratives, etc., will appreciate
the following :
Hair Dresser—Hair’s very dry, sir !
Customer (who knows what's coming)
—I like it dry.
Hair Dresser (after a while, again
advancing to the attack) —Head very
scurfy, sir !
Customer (still cautiously retiring)—
Ya-as, I prefer it scurfy.
Assailant gives in defeated. Cannot
sell any hair water this time.
How to take a census of the children
of a neighborhood—employ an organ
grinder five minutes.
A conductor ordered Pat, who had no
money, to leave at the next station.
“ Aye, sir.” But judge of the conductor’s
surprise and wrath in finding him aboard
when fairly under way. “ Didn’t I tell
3 T outo get off?” said the conductor. “And
sure I did.” “ Why, then, are you here
again ?” “ And sure didn’t you say ‘ all
aboard V’’ This was too much for the
wrathy conductor, and notwithstanding
the decrees against “ deadheads,” Pat
was allowed to pass.
Parliamentary. —A minister having
preached the same discourse to Jiis people
three times, one of his constant hearers
said to him. after service, “ Doctor, the
sermon you gave us this morning has had
three several readings; I move that it
now be passed.”
This is the latest style of obituary :
“My husband is no more. He did not
wish to live longer, and if he bad it
would have made no difference, for trout
entered his stomach, and was soon fol
lowed by death. I shall marry the doctor
who so kindly attended my late husband.
I learned then to trust him. Soft rest
the ashes of the departed one, whose
wholesale liquor business I shall continue
at the old stand.”
The effect of eating horse-flesh for sup
per—Night mare.
“ Have any of Toby’s continued stories
been printed into bound volumes ?” in
quired a customer of a salesman at one
of our large book stalls the other day.
“ Toby continued ! Who’s he V*
“Why, the man that writes so manv
stories for the different publications. I
sec his name to more stories than any
other man, and I want to get ’em in
bound volumes.”
The salesman answered in the nega
tive, and the verdant customer went
elsewhere with his inquiry, which wc
dare say is : “ To be continued.”
“A Chip of the Old Block.”—Tad
Lincoln is attending school in Chicago,
whore he occasionally gives evidence
that he possesses a share of his father’s
droll humor. llis teacher, the other day
with a severity not altogether unheard
ot, had inflicted the penalty of “marks’
upon another boy for the misdemeanor
of blowing his nose. Pretty soon Tad’s
hand signalled the tutor’s eye, whereupon
Tutor (loquitor)—“Lincoln, what do
you wish ?”
Tad—“ Want to go out, sir.”
Tutor—“ For what purpose ?”
Tad—“To scratch my head, sir.”
lie goes !