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8 YOUTHS' DEPARTMENT* Little Golden Shoes. ANNOYMOCB, May bought goldon shoes for her boy. Golden leather from heel to too, With silver tassel to tie at top, And dainty lining as white as snow ; I bought a pair of shoes as well, For the restless feet of a little lad, Common and coarse, and iron-tipped, The best I could for the sum I had. “Golden,” May said, “to match his curls,“ I never saw her petted boy— I warrant he is but a puny elf, All pink and white, like a china toy ; And what is ho, that hia feet should walk All shod in gold on the king’s highway, While little Fred, with a king’s own grace. Must wear rough brogans every day ? And why can May from her little hand Fling baubles at her idol’s feet, While I can hardly shelter Fred From the cruel stones of the broken street ? I envy not her silken robe, Nor the jewel’s shine, nor the handmaid’s care ; But ah! to give what I cannot, This, this it is so hard to boar! But down I’ll crush this bitter thought. And bear no grudge to pretty May, Though she is rich, and I am poor, Since we were girls at Clover Bay ; And ask the Lord to guide the feet. So painfully and coarsely shod, ’Till they are lit to walk the street That runs hard by the throne of God. “Good.bye, friend Ellen”—“Good-bye, May,” What dims her eyes so bright and blue, As she look3 at the rugged shoes askance ? “I wish my boy could wear these, too ; But he wall never walk, they say.” So May, with a little sigh, has gone, And I am left in a wondering mood, To think of my wicked thoughts alone. It needs not that I tell you how I clasped my sturdy rogue that night, And thanked the God who gave him strength, And made him such a merry wight; Nor envied May one gift she held, If with it I must also choose The sight of little crippled feet, Albeit shod in goldon shoes. ENIGMA—No 13. I am composed of 21 letters. My 10, 2, 21,8, 12, 16, 1,8, is the wife of the most celebrated hero of anti quity. My 14, 11, 7, 16, 1. is a French verb. My 15, 2, 20, 19, is a point of the compass. My 17, 9,5, 13, 12, is a color. My 9,8, 4,4, 16, 19, is an animal. My 3, 18, 12, 1 i, is a tense of a Latin verb. My whole is the name of a Clergyman much beloved by the children of Wash ington, I). C. Frank. Answer next week. Answers to Enigmas— No. 11.— George Washington : Water—House —Agnes—Niger—Georgia—Rat—Sin No. 12,—Benjamin Franklin : Jane— Bark—Fear —Nine —I—Kiln—Mark— Name. F—Washington, I). C.—Your answer to No. 8 is correct. Herschel—Your answer to No. 10 is correct. Richard, Selma, Ala.—Your answer to No. 10 is correct. We shall find a place soon in this Depaitmcnt for your Enigma. Minnie, Sharon Ga.—Your answer to No. 10 is also correct. Your Enigma is received and will be published. F. X. R., Sav.; S. A.E., Aug.—Bot send correct answers to Nos. 11 and 12- POETICAL ENIGMA—No. 7. Our charming young friend, “Rubie,” sends us the following very neat and pretty answer to this Enigma. It isvery creditable “Rubio/’ and we give it a rdaee in our columns with great pleasure ; NIGHT. Night's the dark queen, who sprinkles her train With jewels more rare than earth can e’er gain. Her one pearl’s the moon, more brilliant and rare, “Than the loveliest gem in a Princess’ hair.” Night's the quiet mourner, who in solitude deep O’er crimes which she hides does silently weep, Propping her tears on the nightly-blown flowers, To be chased all away by the bright twilight hours. Night’s the deep comforter of all of man’s woes, To the he art of each weeping one her influence goes Bringing smiles to the face by her beautiful dreams. So through every woe one flash of joy gleams. Night’s the sweet maid that with footsteps light. Ever flees far away from her sister so bright, Ne’er waiting to kiss the sweet brow of the mom. But bounds swiftly away other lands to adorn. “ Rubik.” REBUS. The father of the Grecian Jove, A little boy who’s blind. The foremost land in all the world, The mother of mankind, A poet whose live sonnets aro Still very much admired. The initial letters will declare A blessing to the tried. Eureka. Answer next week. CONUNDRUMS. 1. When is a plant to be more dreaded than “ a mad dog ?” 2. Why is hot bread like a caterpillar ? 3. Why are bankrupts more to be pitied than idiots ? Eureka. Answers next week. TRADES CARRIEIToN BY BIRDS, BEASTS AND INSECTS. “Please tell me something to amuse me, uncle, will you ?” “Well, if I am to talk to amuse you, it must be about something entertaining. Suppose I tell you of the trades which are carried on by the lower creatures ?” “Trade* ? Why how can they carry on trades ? Do you mean to say that beasts and birds, and such like carry on trades ?” “You shall hear. The fox is a dealer in poultry, and a wholesale dealer, too ; as the farmers and the farmers’ wives know to their cost.” “That is true, certainly.” “Not satisfied with chickens and duck lings, he must needs push his trade among the full-grown cocks and hens ; and many a good fat goose is conveyed to his storehouse in the woods.” “And what other creature carries on a trade beside the Fox?” “The otter and the heron are fisher men, though they neither make use of a line nor a net. It is not verv often that we catch sight of the otter, for he carries on his trade, for the most part, under the water ; but the heron is frequently seen standing with his long thin legs in the shallow part of the river, suddenly plunging his bill beneath the surface, and bringing up a fish. You cannot deny that the otter and heron are fisher men. “No, that I cannot, but I never would have thought of it, if you had not told me.” “Ants are day-laborers, and are very industrious, too, in their calling ; they always seem industrious at their work. Catch them asleep in the daytime, if you can. They set us an example of indus try.” “Go on, uncle ; I am not half so tired as I was.” “You seem all attention, certainly, Henry. The swallow is a fly-catcher ; and the number that he catches in a day would quite astonish you. Often you have seen him skirmishing along the sur face of the brook and tbe pond.” “Yes, that I have ; and the swallows are as busy as ants, I think.” “The beaver is a wood-cutter, a build er, and a mason ; and lie is a good worker at all these trades. lie cuts down the small trees with his teeth; and after he has built his house, he plasters it skillfully with his tail.” “Well done, beaver! He seems to outdo all the lest.” “The wasp is a paper-maker, and he makes his paper out of materials which no other paper-maker would use. If ever you should examine a wasp’s nest, you will find it all made out of paper.” “How many curious things there are in the world that I never thought of 1” “Singing birds are musicians, and no other musicians can equal them in har mony. Hardly can we decide which has the advantage—the lark, the blackbird, the thrush, or the nightingale.” “I am afraid that you are coming to the end.” “O, never fear. The fire fly and the glow-worm are lamp-lighters. The fire flies are plentiful in this country, and at night light up the air. just as the glow worms do the grassy and flowery banks in other countries.” “Yes, I have seen them. I shall not forget the lamplighters soon.” “The bee is a professor of Geometry ; for he constructs his cells so scientifically, that the least possible amount of material is formed into the largest spaces with the least waste of room. Not all the mathe maticians of Cambridge could improve the construction of his cells.” THREE LESSONS. One of the first lessons I received was in 1813, when I was eleven years of age. My grandfather nod collected a fine flock of merino sheep, which were carefully cherished during the war of 18i2’-15. 1 was a shepherd boy, and my business was to watch the sheep in the fields. A. boy who was more fond of his books than of sheep was sent with me, but left the work to me, while he lay in the shade and read his books. I finally complained of this to the old gentleman. 1 shall never forget his benignant smile as he replied : “Never you mind; if you watch the sheep, you will have the sheep.” I thought to myself ; what does the old gentlemen mean ? I don’t expect to have any sheep. My aspirations were quite moderate in those days, and a first-rate merino buck was worth SI,OOO. I could not make out exactly what he meant; but I had great confidence in him, as he was MSlfll ©S Til 1©!1TI, a judge, and had been to Congress in Washington’s time ; so I concluded that it was all right, whatever he meant, and went out contentedly with the sheep. After I got to the field I could not get that idea out of my head. Finally, I thought of my Sunday lesson : “Thou hast been faithful over a few things, 1 will make thee a ruler over many things.” Then I understood it. Never you mind who else neglects his duty, but you be faithful, and you will have your reward! I do not think it will take many lads as long as it did me to understand this pro verb. I received my second lesson after I came to New York, as a clerk to the late Luther Reed. A merchant from Ohio, who knew me, came to purchase goods of Mr. Reed. He expressed his gratifica tion at finding me there, and said to me, “You have got a good place. Make yourself so useful that they cannot do without you.” I took his meaning quicker than I did the proverb about the sheep. Well, l worked on these two ideas until Mr. Reed offered me an in terest in his business. The first morning after the co-partnership was announced, Mr. James Geery, the old tea merchant, called to see me, and said to me “You are all right now ; I have only one word of advice to give you: he careful who you walk the streets with.” That was lesson number three. In this connection I must repeat an anecdote told of the late Robert Lennox. A country mer chant came into the store of Mr. Morton, a highly respectable Scotch merchant, to purchase goods. He spoke about credit, references, etc. Mr. Norton said : “I will give you what credit you wish.” “But, said the merchant, 1 am an entire stranger to you.” Mr. Morton, replied: “Did I not see you at church with Robert Lennox ?” “Yes, I was at Church with him.” “Well, 1 will trust any man whom Robert Lennox will take to church with him - ” I hope these three lessons of watchful ness over the interests of their employ ers, watchfulness over their partners’ in terests and their own after they are joined, followed by intense watchfulness that no black sheep creep into their folds, may be impressed by these anecdotes upon the mind of those for whom they are intended. One other lesson I feel it very necessary to inculcate—that of patience. With a little patience most young men will find a position as high as they have fitted themselves tc fill.—Jon athan Sturgis. ■— ■» e » [Prepared for the Banner of the South by Uncle Buddy.] FAMILIAR SCIENCE ELECTRICITY CONTINUED —LIGHTNING CON DUCTORS. A lightning conductor, as most of my young readers doubtless know, is a metal od, fixed in the earth, running up the en tire height of a building, and rising to a point above it. Silver and copper arc the best conductors of electricity, but all the metals are good conductors ; and the rod being higher than the buildiug, the lightning runs down that instead of the walls. Conductors are pointed because points conduct electricity away silently and imperceptibly, while knobs or flat substances would produce an explosion and endanger the building. A Leyden jar, as it is called, may he safely and si lently discharged by a needle an inch or two off. Blades of grass, ears of wheat, and other pointed objects serve to empty clouds of their electricity. If the rod be broken, the electric fluid, being dis turbed in its course, will damage the building; and so too if the rod be too small to conduct the whole current to the earth, the lightning will melt the metal and injure the building. The mechanical force of lightning is so great as often to break off great branches of trees which impede its passage. In a stroke of lightning the shock, is felt moat at the elbow, because the joint impedes the passage of the fluid, which leaps from One bone to the other. Dry air is not a conductor of lightning It parts the air because the air is anon conductor, but does not part iron, which is a conductor. It passes down the out side of a tree, but through the inside of a human being, as it always chooses the best conductors. It shatters imperfect conductors, and tears them to pieces. It separates the air with great force, produc ing the noise which we call thunder, breaks glass into fragments, and rends trees into splinters, when these bodies are in its way to the earth When it passes through perfect con ductors, its course is quiet, not even ruf fling a feather resting upon them ; hence it passes quiet and unperceived down a lightning rod, because that is a perfect conductor. Fulgurites are hollow tubes produced in sandy soil by the action of lightning. When it enters the earth it passes, or melts, the flinty matter of the soil into a vitreous or glassy substance crlled a fulgronite. Lightning turns milk sour because it, causes the gasses of the air, through which it passes, to combine, thus produc ing a poison called nitric acid, a small portion of it mixing with the milk, and so turning it sour. Sometimes, however, it is the mere heat of the air during the storm which turns the milk sour. The air is composed of two gases called oxygen and nitrogen, mixed together, but not combined. Oxygen combined with nitrogen produces five, deadly poisons, viz • nitrous oxide, nitric ox yde, hypo-nitrous acid, nitrous acied, and nitric acid, according to the proportion of each gas in the combination. When dif ferent ingredients, or substances, arc min gled together, without undergoing any chemical change, they are said to be mixed , but when the natural properties of each are altered by the union, then they are said to be combined ; thus, for exam- pie, different colored sands shaken to gether in a bottle will mix, but not com bine, but water poured on quicklime will combine with the lime, and not mix with it; because,the property of each grain of sand is unchanged, while the proper ties of the water and lime are altered. Oxygen and nitrogen mix together in atmospheric air, just as the grains of sand in the bottle ; when they combine they do not produce air, but poisons as we have stated, Lightning is said to purify the air be cause it produces nitric acid and because the agitation of the storm stirs up the air. The nitric acid acts very powerfully in destroying the exhalations which arise from putrid vegetable and animal matters. Lightning sometimes renders bars of iron and steel magnetic, sometimes reverses the needle of the magnet, and sometimes destroys its magnetism altogether. Re versing the needie means that that part of the needle of the compass which ought to point to the North is made to point to the South, and that to the South is made to noint to Iho North JACK HORNER. Most people have been made acquinted in the nursery with “Little Jack Horner, Who sat in the comer, Eating a Christinas pie, Put in his thumb And pulled out a plum, And said, ‘What a brave boy am I.” This was a real person. Tradition furnishes the following story of the for tunate fellow : When llenry the Till suppressed the monasteries and drove the poor old monks from their nests, the title-deeds of the Abbey of Mells—including the sump tuous grange built by Abbot Bel wood— were demanded by the commissioners. The Abbot of Gladstonbury determined that be would send them to London, and as the documents were very valuable, the roads invested by thieves, it was diffi to get them to the metropolis safely. To accomplish it he hit upon the following plan. lie ordered a pie to be made—as fine as ever smoked on a refectory table ; inside he put the documents—the finest filling a pie ever bad since pies were first made—he intrusted this dainty to a lad named Horner, to carry up to London, to deliver safely into the hands for whom it was intended. But the journey was so long, and the day cold, and the boy was hungry, and the pie was tempting, and the chance of detection was small. So the boy broke off a piece of pie and beheld a parchment, wondering* how it could have reached there, tied up tho pastry, and ar rived in town. The parcel was missing— Jack had them in his pocket. These were the juciest plums of the pie. Great was the rage of the Commissioners, heavy the vengeance they dealt out to the monks. Jack kept his secret, and when peaceable times were restored, claimed the estates and received them. Whether Mr. Horner deserves the title of “good boy, ’ bestowed on him by the nursery lament, is more than doubtful ; however, that’s the story, WIT AND HUMOR. ’Twould be odd to see a lobster smoking a cigar, or a toad chewing tobacco ; but to see an editor at ease with himself and all the world, and up to his knees in pros perity, would be still more strange. A fond parent, anxious that bis son should be sharp in his wits, and profound in his thoughts, has sent him to sea—so that be may be rocked in tbe cradle of the deep. An editor out West, being poetically gifted, writes as follows to delinquent subscribers : Everybody has heard of the famous letters that passed between the adverse chiefs of Sir Connell and Tyrone, the most laconic correspondence in history ; “ Pay me my tribute, or if you don't— “ O’Donnell.” “ I owe you no tribute, and if I did— “ O’Neal.” A California editor says be lately met a grammarian who bad just made a tour through the mines, cogitating thus: “ Positive, mine ; comparative, miner ; superlative, minus.” A crusty old bachelor, not liking the way his landlady’s daughter bad of ap propriating his hair oil, filled the bottle with liquid glue the day before a ball, to which the girl was invited. She stayed at home in consequence. An honest Dutchman, on being asked how often he shaved, replied : “ Dree dimes a week every tay put Soontay ; den I shafe cbery tay.” “ I think,” said Mrs. Partington, get ting up from the breakfast table, “ I will teke a tower, or goon a discussion. They say, if 1 collect rightly, that a party is to go to a very plural spot, and to mistake of a collection. I hope it won't be so cold as ours for the poor was, last Sunday : why, there wer'nt efficient to buy wood for a restitute widder,” and the old lady put on her calash. Avery smart boy on his return from college, attempted to prove that two were equal to three. Pointing to a roasted chicken on tho table, he said : “Is not that one ?” and then pointing to another : “Is not that two?” and do not one and two make three ?” Whereupon his old dad said : “ Wife, you take one and I’ll take the other, and our smart boy can have the third for his dinner.” “ During the recent w*ar, the Govern ment bought twenty-seven million pounds of gunpowder.” And succeeded in blow ing up the Union—after the gunpowder had been exhausted! It is related of two old Scotch minis ters that one asked the other if he was not sorely tempted at times to go fishing on Sunday afternoon. “ Oh, mon,” re plied his fellow-laborer, “ I’m never tempted long ; I jist go.” There is a young lady in town so re fined in her language that she never uses the words “ blackguard,” but substitutes “ African Sentinel.” “Are all these bells ringing for fire inquired Simon of Tiberias. “ No, in deed," answered Tibe; they have go. plenty of fire and the bell is now ringing for water.” Singular and Plural. —The Kev. J. L. Garrett was met a few days ago by a young ecclesiastic of Oxford University, accompanied by a few pupils under lib care, who very jocosely exclaimed : “Air, we have had a dispute in our school about the difference of the terms phenomenon ami phenomena ; what is your opinion of the difference ?” The question excited all the risible faculties of the philosoph r who, wihen sufficiently recovered, wrote as follows • “When one bright scholar puts the fool’s <. up ■> He makes himself a real phenomenon, If others join him, and like asses bray, They all together make phtuomena. ’ ’ “TOOK.” He took her fancy when be came; He took her hand, he took a kiss, He took no notice of the shame That glowed her happy cheeks at thi lie took to come of afternoons, He took an oath he’d ne’er deceive. He took her master’s silver spoous, And after that he took his leave. llow the railroads in this country were ! created and propelled—Vander-bilt and Daniel-Drew. “Now that you arc on my side, I hope you will stick to me,” as tho patient said to the plaster. A western paper says that an india rubber omnibus is about to be invented, which, when cram full, will hold a coup more. A western paper publishes an aecoiug of a hole on a bill side. The bank, it $ says, fell in and left the bole sticking out g some ten feet. J