Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

78 down at their will, and who retort the sneer of the “soft hand” by pointing to their tro phies wherever art, science, civilization, and humanity, are known. Work on man of toil! thy royalty is yet to be acknowledged as la bor rises toward the highest throne of power. Work on, and in the language of a true poet, be “ A glorious man ! and thy renown shali be Borne through the winds and waters through all time, While there’s a keel to carve it on the sea From clime to clime, Or God ordains that idleness is crime ! ” WAGES OF LABOR. For the laboring elapses, the state of things in Britain is growing worse and worse every year, so says Robert Dale Owen. Some, however, deny this, and say that the English laborer is now more comfortable than ever, but the latter opinion is contradicted by all history. The real comforts, essentials of life, were more easily obtained by the working classes of England one hundred years ago than now. The reason of this is that wealth is steadily accumulating in fewer and fewer hands. *ln 1775 the soil of England was owned by 240,000 proprieters; in 1815, the number had decreased to 30,000, and is still diminishing, and only one person in 800 has any ownership in the soil Os course pauper ism is steadily on the increase. ODT OF PROPORTION. One day Dick called to see his friend Cobb. C. happened to be absent for a few minutes, but on returning, who should he see but Dick, earnestly exploring a map of Asia that was suspended upon the wall, measuring the scale with a pair of compasses that he found on the table, and then applying them to a large ti ger, the artist had introduced to embellish it as one of the animals of the country. “By Hea vens, Cobb,” exclaimed Dick, “ I should nev er have believed it! Surely it must be a mis take. Observe now —here,” poiming to the tiger, u here is a tiger that measures two and twenty leagues. Why, it is scarcely credi ble !” JjJtyilosopljt] for tljc people. OIL FROM TURPENTINE. A correspondent of the Boston Post, writ ing from Newbern, N C., says there has late ly been started in that place a manufactory for the purpose of making oil out of rosin.— This is anew discovery, and promises to be anew source of profit in the great staples of North Carolina. There are some millions of barrels of turpentine distilled in the State ev ery year, and each barrel makes nearly a bar rel of rosin, besides seven or eight gallons of spirits of turpentine. The rosin is not half of the time worth the barrels and freight; con sequently they let it run out on to the ground ; fill up gutters, pave streets and wharves with it. By the process lately discovered, a bar rel of rosin heated to a certain point, will make nearly a barrel of oil. The oil is of a reddish color, smells of the rosin, and in con sequence of the large amount of carbon it contains, gives out too much smoke for a lamp oil. It bums well, and quite likely some way may be discovered for purifying it to make an excellent oil for lamps. If some shrewd genius should set his wits to work and make the discovery, he would coin his fortune by it; as North Carolina could fur nish oil enough to trim all the lamps in Chris tendom; and it can be furnished for fifteen cents a gallon. CURIOUS FACTS IN NATURAL HISTORY. T he rattlesnake finds a superior foe in the deer and the black snake. Whenever .a buck discovers a rattlesnake in a situation which invites attack, he loses no time in preparing for battle. He makes up to within ten or twelve feet of the shake —then leaps forward and aims to sever the body of the snake with his sharp, bifurcated hoofs. The first onset is most commonly successful, but if otherwise; the buck repeats the trial until he cuts the snake in twain. The rapidity and fatality of his skilful manoeuvre leave but a slight chance for its victim either to escape or to in ject his poison into his more alert antagonist. The black snake is also more than an equal competitor against the rattlesnake. Such is its celerity of motion, not only in running, hut in entwining itself round its victim that the rattlesnake has no way of escaping from its fatal embrace. When the black and rat tlesnake are about to meet for battle, the for mer darts forward at the height of his speed, and strikes at the neck of the latter with un erring certainity, leaving a foot or two of the 0IFM& IE ¥ ©ASSTFITB. upper part of his own body at liberty. In an instant he encircles his within five or six folds; he then stops and looks the strangled and gasping foe in the face, to ascertain the effect produced upon his corseted body. If he shows sighs of life, the coils are multipli ed and the screws tightened —the operator all the while narrowly watching the countenance of the helpless victim. Thus the two remain thirty or iorty minutes, —the executioner then slackens one coil, noticing at the same time whether any signs of life appear; if so, the coil is resumed, and retained until the incar cerated wretch is.completely dead. The moc casin snake is destroyed in the same way. THE FRENCH SEWING MACHINE. The inventor of this machine is an humble artisan who has a great mechanical genius, and who has been engaged for thirty years in the perfection of his invention. He receiv ed a patent for it in France a few years ago, and it is said that for twenty-five years he sought in vain to make it work, and that the thought flashed all at once upon his mind, re garding its true and perfect principle. The machine was introduced into London some time last year, and has attracted much atten tion in that city. It is very cheap. Some are sold for twenty dollars, and the price var ies from that to thirty. They are sold by a Mr. Schmidt, No. 28 Sutton Street, London. The machine is fixed on a table, and is a very small box. It is worked by a treadle, and every movement of the foot produces a corresjo.iding action in the needle; so that 300 stitches can easily be made in a minute. The hands are merely used to guide the ma terial being sewn, and by turning a screw the size of the stitch is instantly varied. The machine will sew, stitch and form cords and plaits. The stitch is the tambour or crotchet stitch. The whole value of the invention consists in making machinery to what was hitherto done by tne fingers, and thus resolv ing a problem supposed impracticable. The beauty of this machine is that it can work button holes and embroider. M. Mag nin, who exhibited it in London, wore an en tire suit worked by it, consisting of a coat, vest, pants and all their appurtenances. To France belongs the credit of this invention. M. Thimonnier is the name of the inventor, and his fame will go down to posterity with that of Jacquare. —Scientific American. ——.— i ■ i THE ELECTRIC LIGHT. An English periodical says:—On Thursday night we had an opportunity of witnessing another exhibition of Mr. Straite’s electric light, at the Bazar, Baker street. Certainly the light produced was most splendid, both as to quantity and quality. Although the light itself was no larger than about the size of a common pea, we could distinctly read small print (similar to the type in which this is printed)at the further end of the coach gal lery, a distance of about 130 feet from the light. Colored objects, such as flowers, rib bons, &c., appeared as distinct as they would by light of day; even the yellows were as distinct as if viewed by the light of the sun. ———i > LIGHT. A ray c>f light contains three principles, eaeh of which produces a different effect—the illum inative, the heating, and the chemical princi ples. The chemical element of the ray is the one which produces changes in the leaves of plants, and also upon dauguerreotype plates. It is absorbed in both cases. The images of leaves, therefore, cannot be impressed upon the plate of the photographer, for the chemical ray being absorbed by the leaf, is not reflect ed upon the plate. A ray of light which penetrates a pie"e of glass or a body of water in an oblique direc tion deviates from the straight line, whilst if it falls on a crystal of limestone, (calcareous spar,) it is split, and the parts deviate at un equal angles from the original direction. ADVANTAGE OF WETTING BRICKS. Few people, except builders, are aware of the advantage of wetting bricks before laying them. A wall 12 inches thick built up of good mortar, with bricks well soaked is stronger in every respect than one 16 inches thick, built dry. The reason of this is, that if the bricks are saturated with water, they will not abstract from the mortar the moisture which is necessary 7 to its t crystalization, and on the contrary, they will unite chemically with the mortar and become as solid as a rock. On the other hand, if the bricks are put up dry, they immediately take all the moisture from the mortar, leave it to dry and harden, and the consequence is, that when a building of this description is taken down, or tumbles down of its own accord, the mortar falls from it like so much sand.— N. Y. Sun Curious Invention.— The Newark Adver tiser states that Dr. Cotton is exhibiting in that city a curious invention—a circular rail- ( raod with an engine ! and car driven upon the track by electricity —but the electricity is ap- i plied only to the track, and herein consists the peculiarity of the invention. No power is applied directly to the engine and car, and yet they move off with wonderful rapidity up on an electrified trac k. Steam Carriages in Cities. —The St. Louis New Era staiesthat a project has been ! submitted by an experienced engineer in that city to the City Council to run an omnibus on Broadway, from North Market to the Upper Ferry, the vehicle to be propelled by steam. It is further proposed to water or sprinkle the street the whole contemplated line, by the same agency, thp persons living on the street to pay if they choose for the same. Ttnaleits. PROSPECTIVE POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES. The last number of Hunt’s Merchant’s Magazine contains the following startling calculation which is yet strictly within the ra tional limits of probability : ‘ In 1840, the United States had a popula tion of 17,068,666. Allowing its future in crease to be at the rate of 33 £ per cent, for each succeeding period of ten years, we shall number in 1940,303,701,641. Past experi ence warrants us to expect this increase. In 1790, our number was 3,927,827. Suppo sing it to have increased each decade in the ratio of per cent, it would in 1840 have amounted to 16,660,250, being more than a half million less than our actual number as shown by the census. With 300,000,000 we should have less than 150 to the square mile for our whole territory, and but 120 to the square mile for our organized States and ter ritories. England has 300 to the square mile. It does not, then, seem probable that our pro gressive increase will be materially checked within the one hundred years under consider ation. At the end of that period, Canada will number at least 20,000,000. If we suppose the portion of our country east and west of the Appalachian chain of mountains, known as the Atlantic slope, to possess at the time 40,000,000, or near five times its present num ber, there will be left 260,000,000 for the great central region between the Appalachian and the Rocky Mountains, and betwen the Gulf of Mexico and Canada, and for the country west of the Rocky Mountains. Allowing the Oregon Territory 10,000,000, there will be left 250,000,000, for that portion of the American States lying in the basins of the Mobile, Mississippi and St. Lawrence. If to these we add 20,000,000 for Cana ’a, we have 270.000,000 as the probable number that will inhabit the North American valley at the end of one hundred years commencing in 1840. If we suppose one-third, or 90,000.000 of this number to reside in the country as cultivators and artisans, there will be 180,000,0000 left for the towns, enough to people 360, each containing half a million. This does not seem as incredible as that the valley of the Nile, scarcely twelve miles broad, should have once as historians tell us, contained 20,000 cit ses.’ CELEBRATED TREES. There have been trees possessing the same associations of affection, awe, or reverence, which are awakened in the mind by old cas tles, the homes of genius, or the solemn tem ples of religion. The oak of Mamre continu ed through centuries to affect the wild inhabi tant of the desert ; the angels who appeared to Abraham seemed still to sanctify it in the eye of the wandering Arab. Till the time of Constantine, pilgrimages were made to these trees. Tradition points to a banyan tree, on the banks of the Nerbuda, beneath whose boughs the Indian beheld the retiring cavalry of Alexander. Some of our own oaks may have shone with the Roman eagle. In the garden of the convent of the San Onofrio, on ths Janiculum Hill, the traveller is shown the oak that sheltered the dying Tasso. The grave of Clopstock is shadowed by a lime, tree. The Persian poet, Hafiz, is said to be buried under a cypress which he had planted. The elm under which the founder of the State of Pennsylvania signed the first treaty with the Indians; the sycamore at Trons, where the Swiss deputies assembled in 1424 to take the oath to deliver themselves from bondage, i are interesting records of history. The ce- S dars at Wilton are genuine decendants from ! the sacred trees of Lebanon, having been ra ; s- j 1 ed from seeds which the traveller Pococks brought from that mountain. The fig tree planted by Pococks in the garden of Christ Church, Oxford, still flourishes, and recently gained a prize by the excellence of its fruit. The fig tree planted by Cramer in the garden of the Manor House at Micham, continued green until 1790. The admirer of romantic courage visits, at Ellerslie, in Renfewshire, the native village of Wallace, the oak where the Scottish hero concealed himself with 300 men; and, before 1816, the oak at Northam, under which Elizabeth breakfasted, remained to awaken thought of chivalry, and to recall the glories of the maiden reign.— Frazier's Magazine. Broom Reform. —A mechanic at the milta on the Rampo river has invented a machine for making brooms, which threatens to exter minate broom corn. It takes a billet of white ash, and in a trice cuts it fine like the Manil la grass used for brushes. The brooms can be made for two cents each, and they are said to work quite as well in every respect as corn brooms, and to be much more enduring. .fragments of .fun. POEMS OF PROGRESS. A pretty fair burlesque, this, upon all those ‘poems of progress, ’ which now’ find such con spicuous places in How its Journal , and other reforming periodicals; and thence get copied into many of the newspapers of the same class: THE WORLD-SOUL. Die Erdegeist flight Indem Grefacht der Erde.—Prosenkefeßw The World-Soul rusheth Into the World’s strife ; The morning blusheth Like youth full of Life t Noon comoth— So doth night ; Hope phuneth Her wings for flight. From the skies, Stars Fall; In the woods, Bars Growl ; What of that, O, Brave Heart f Art thou lab’rer — Labor On ; Art thou poet Go it Strong.— Express.. What Sal told Ned Bobbles. — u Marm r what du ye think Sal told Ned Bobbles last night, when he was a sparkin’ her?” “Shut up, child!” what are you talking about ?” “No, but I hearn her, 1 did, She told Ned Bobbles she kinder felt—” “ Hush, you lit tle rascal! Hush, or I’ll take your skin off! and poor Sally looked as reail as a boiled lob ster. “Oh, git out, Sal, I will tell! She told Ned Bobbles she kinder felt skeerd tu deth and tickled tur Tapering off. —The S. C. Advocate re lates an amusing anecdote which occurred between a couple of Dutchmen, one of whom was much devoted to “schnaps.” His friend was eloquently persuading him to “jine der dempranche,” and to obviate the errors of coming to pure water “all of a sudden,” sug gested the following expedient: “Veil, den’ Honnes, I dell you how you do. \ou go und puy un parrel viskey, und take it home, and put a fo.-'het in it, und ven efer you vant un schnap, go und traw it,, und sliust so much viskey ash you traw off'of der foshet, shust so much vater you pour into der parrel; den you see you has alvays a full par rel viskey, only, d’rectly afther a vile, it come veaker, undveaker, und at lasht you hatnot ; * n g l ju t un parrel of vater; dan you vant no i more use vor visky, und you jine der demper j anche.” “A great lie,” says the poet Crabbe, “is like a great fish on dry land : it may fret and fling, and make a frightful bother, hut it cannot hurt you. You have only to keep still I and it will die of itself.” - sl)c Dark Comer. i For the Southern Literary Gazette. ANSWER TO CHARADE IN NO. 7. Glass is a word of letters five, Which often casts reflections; Its panes we in the windows see; Its contents bring destruction. Take G away, we have it lass, Whose spell all hearts must own ; Then L and you will find it ass — I hope you are not one ! GERTRUDE.