Brunswick advertiser. (Brunswick, Ga.) 1875-1881, November 17, 1875, Image 2

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BRUNSWICK ADVERTISER, BRUNSWICK, GEORGIA. SCIENCE AND ART. The Zodiacal Light.—During his residence in the island of Jamaica in 1868 and 1869, M. Houseau assiduously nVtraawprl t.liA rod inc.nl light for six months consecutively, and has now communicated the results to the Bel gian academy. M. Houzeau has for more mail Thirty years devoted «re«l attention to this puzzling phenomenon, and he is fortunate in having now ob- “ tained such a fine series of observat ions the boundary of the, zodiacal light is having been carefully determined by him on 56 nights out of the 179. As far as these results go, it appears that the zodiacal light is not appreciably in clined to the ecliptic, and docs not ap proach to coincidence either with the plane of the sun’s equator, as Cassini supposed, or with that of the moon’s orbit, ns Jones has more recently sug gested. The observed deviations from the plane of the ecliptic are explained by M. Houzeau as the results of greater absorption of the light of the lower or southern side by our atmosphere, which is, of course, less transparent near the horizon. From these obser vations, M. Houzeau concludes that we must reject both the hypothesis which regards the zodiacal light as an append age of the sun, and that which assigns it to the moon; and since, if it were a ring round the earth, it would lie seen as a complete arch in the sky crossing from the east to west, the author is driven to the conclusion that it is a fan shaped sector, somewhat similar to the tail of a comet, spreading from the earth towards the sun, thinning off each side of this direction, so that it extends to about 40° on the side to wards which the earth is moving, and 60° or 70° on the other side. This must, of course, be modified, if we ac cept these observations in which the zodiacal light has been distinctly traced right across the heavens from east to west; butM. Houzeau’s conclusions are founded on his own observations alone For the period of his watch there was a sensible diminution of brightness, the zodiacal light being seen in January, 1869, as readily as a fourth-magnitude star in twilight, while by June it was not so bright as the fifth magnitude. From observations on his voyage to Rodrigues and back, with the Transit of Venus Expedition, Mr. Burton lms been led to very different conclusions. He was provided with a binocular spec troscope devised by himself specially for this work, and with this he deter mined the spectrum of the zodiacal light to consist of a continuous band with a bright line in the yellow (forming the boundary of the spectrum on that side) and a dark line in the green. This same spectrum was given by every part of the sky unoccupied by the Milky Wav, a most important observation, which, in combination with the change of form of the zodiacal light seen when the observer passed from S. to X. lati tudes, shows, according to Mr. Burton, that it reaches and probably surrounds the earth. From the sped rum soon, as well as from the fact of polarization in a plane through the axis of the zodiacal light. Mr. Burton further concludes that it is emitted by matterpartly liquid and partly solid, intermixed with gas. at being Besieged by a crowd of flatter ers ana strangers who made a pilgrim age to Abbotsford, and overwhelmed him with compliments, their knowledge of his works being based possibly on a single attendance at the ‘Donna del Lago,’ at the Italian opera; but in the presence of Sontag the great man was all ears, and eyes, too, I think. When she questioned him about her costume as the Lady of the Lake, he described to her with the utmost minuteness every fold of the plaid, and was greatly pleased when I produced a genuine satin clan plaid, the present of Lady Sinclair, while 5" IfimlinrnrVi fho Inoei^^"-'-- croak the raver,yoifyon ufose-grow u wall 1 of which I was delighted to promise to Sontag. He showed her the particular way the brooch should be fastened at the shoulder, and would not allow any alteration. Henrietta had two wor shipers that evening, the second being dementi, who seemed as much fascina ted as Scott. He got up from his chair and said, ‘ To-night I should like to play also.’ The proposition was received with acclamation.” “He extemporized with all the freshness of youth,” writes Moscheles, “ and we listened with in tense delight, for dementi very rarely played before company. You should have seen the ecstasy of the two old men, Scott and dementi; they shook each other by the hand, took it in turns to flirt with Sontag without seeming jealous of one another, it was a pretty duet of joint admiration ; of course the poet, musician, and songstress were the observed of all observers.” Farming in Holland. The trade of Holland is chiefly con fined to agricultural products and fish. The wide pastures of the island of Texel feed 2,000 horned cattle, 1,000 horses, and 30,000 sheep which are celebrated throughout Europe. Every year 12,000 of the last are exported, and the quarterly fair is very pic turesque, when these flocks of sheep and lambs are shipped off to the con tinent. Through the basins of Har lingen, the port of Friesland, pass oxen and sheej), pigs and fowl, with moun tains of cheese, fruits and eggs for this country; here resort the provision dealers of London, to carry away but ter barrels, which are piled lip on the docks like cannon balls in an arsenal. The canals are filled with heavy look ing tjalks, or market boats, which bring the good things of the country down to the port. Flax is a very important article of cultivation in Friesland; the market of Dokkum is one of the largest in Europe. The chief houses of Germany, France and England have agents in this little town. The soil is incredibly rich; and the peasants are well off; and there are few farmers who do not own some property in ad dition to the land they rent. It is rarely indeed that a tenant is turned out of his farm; families hold them for centuries, yet, the lease is only for five or seven years, and stipulates how many head of cattle are to be fed on the meadow, and how much manure is to laid on each aero. Thus the soil is kept up to a wonderful state of fer tility.—Chambers’ Journal. Female devotion goes almost wholly unrewarded in election times. Every man knows that there is every reason in the world why he ought to stay out until 1 or 2 o’clock in the morning if he wants to. he nlakes ui> his liiiuu U» uv »i, iuu Therefore, when he is steered home at THE GRAVE’S VOICES. FROM THE GERMAN, BY ANTONIA DICKSON. Sunk as In dreams, and lost in anxious thought, My footsteps brought me to this lonely spot To whom belongs the field ? this flowery bed? ‘The dead.’ Enter thou lu, my soul; why shouldst thou fear? Nought but swetfi buds and flowers are blooming here. Whence comes tne essence for these sweet perfumes? ‘From tombs.* f See heriS, O man! where all thy paths must end, However varied be the way they wend. Listen 1 the dead leaves speak; aye, hear thou must: ‘To dust.’ Where arc the careless hearts that on the earth Trembled in pain, or beat so high In mirth ? Those in wiw.se breasts the flame of hatred smoul dered ? ‘Mouldered. ’ Where are the mighty who take life by storm ? Who e’en l<> heaven’* heights wild wishes iorm. I all.’ Where are the dear ones in Death’s cold sleep lving, To whom Love swore a memory undying ? What wall yon cypress trees?—oh, hearst thou not? ‘Forgot.’ To see where these ones passed, did no eye crave? May no wild longing pierce beyond the grave ? The fir-trees shake their weird heads one by one; ‘None, none.’ The evening wind amid the trees is sighing. Fettered in dreams, my saddened soul is lying, The twilight falls, the red glow paleth fast— ‘Tls past.’ How He Wanted His Picture Taken. Yesterday a young man with a wart on his nose dropped in at the Sherman photograph gallery and remarked that he wanted some pictures taken. “Will you have it standing, or a bust?” queried the artist. “Bust!” exclaimed the fellow, as he f icked up his hat. “Bust, Mister! do look like a fellow that would come into a picture gallery to get on a bust?” They explained to him, and finally persuaded him to sit long enough for a negative. The picture was a good one, and the nose stood out like a black cat in a bay window. The fellow looked at it, and as.he handed it back, said: “Shoot again, old pard,” and see if you can’t make the wart look like a piece of chewing gum.” They told him that it couldn’t be done. Well, see here now, pard,” he pleaded, “my name’s Truffles, and I’m engaged to a girl back in Injiana,' she wants my picture. She don’t know I’ve got this wart; it’s growed here since I left there; and if you could just rub it out of the picture and make it look like something that she’s familiar with a slice of bacon, for instance—I’d feel better.” They fixed it lip for him, and when he went out he chuckled. “That’ll fetch her; she’ll just natu rally think I’m floatin’ round in solid comforts, like bacon and string beans and sich.” A Very Ancient Wall in Missis sippi.—About eighteen miles from Port Gibson, and one mile from Brandywine Springs, on the place of Mr. O’Q.uin, the existence of a great number of blocks of cut-stone has been known for an indefinite time, and the people in the neighborhood have them for props for their houses. Mr. James Gage, Jr. went out there a few days ago to ex plore, and had a specimen stone brought into town. It is about three feet long by about twenty inches square, resem bling in shape a bar of soap. It is probably a native sandstone. Mr. Gage took this block himself from be neath the roots of a large pine tree. It formed a portion of a wall about twenty feet broad on top, which Mr. Gage traced for a distance of 250 yards. His "nelghbOT does,niui T . he that one would natuia’ly l.L • ... Ail raw from this superficial view is that this must have been a city wail, but Labge and Small Farms.—By the census of 1870 the farms of the United States are divided as to size as follows, the whole number being 2,659,985: Under five acres 6,875- Five acres and under ten .-. 172,021 Ten acres and under twenty... 394,697 Twenty acres and udder fifty....... 847,614 Fifty acres and under one hundH-d.. 754,221 One hundred acres and under five hundred 505,054 Five hundred and under one thou sand 15,837 One thousand acres and over.... 3,720 Average size of farms 153- Twelve of the states have farms that average less than 125 acres in extent, which is less than the average else where, which 5?t some states runs up nearly to an average of 500 acres. These twelve states give the following as the average size of their farms: Maine....’ 93 New Jersey 08 New Hampshire 122 Pennsylvania 103 Massachusetts 103 Indiana 112 Rhode Island 94 Ohio Ill Connecticut 93 Michigan 101 New York....... 103 Wisconsin 114 While the total value of the farms in the United States is put down at 89,- 262,803,361, the value in the above small-farm states foots up $5,407,587,- 178, or nearly three-fifths of the total, aud this, too, while the area of the states is less than one-tenth of the area of the whole country. Xo more con clusive exhibit of the practical superi ority of the small-farm system could be given than this.—Rural New Yorker. One of the curses of Kentucky and other states to-day is too much land and too little capital. The individual who is in debt for his land,unless he is a man of rare push and energy, to enable him to get rid of the incubus, is much worse than an ordinary slave. His mind has lost its freedom. He is un able to give his thoughts to his busi ness. Every now and then the image of the party to whom he is in debt will rise up in horrible proportions before him. Young man, don’t be in too big a berry to own large tracts of land. Hasten slowly, as the old German proverb has it, and what you do, do well. The spread-eagle style of "agri culture is played out, and there is no sort of analogy between thousands of acres which the eye can not range and an immense mercantile project, every part of which is right under the per sonal inspection of its manager.— Farmer’s Home Journal. A husband and wife were celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of their wedding, and when quite a little circle was gathered about them the husband, with not a little self-complacency, said: “Here my wife and I have been mar ried for twenty-five years, and in all that time neither of us has ever spoken to the other ah excited or unkind word." “Thunder,” said the witty Dr. M—, “what a stupid time you must have had of it!” \ Governor Hartranft of nia is credited with doing the idiotic custom of hanging men on Fridays in that State. The propriety of hanging Pennsly van ians every day in the week should long ago have sug gested this change.—Louisville Courier- Journal. Pennsylva- away with NEW nil«l BEAUTIFUL INSTRUMENT. THE Piano-Harp CABINET ORGAN. 1 Ail exquisite combination, ud<lin* to the rarnrifv the ornaii much of that of the piano-forte and harp oublo-reetl oman. comnlote nn.i ■tl i'dmuus aiivr. IV ~i; jtieep exj “ On one occasion,” writes Mrs. Mos cheles, “ we had the happiness of enter taining the famous Sontag at a lafge party at our house. She was enchant ing, as usual. Sir Walter Scott, who happened to be in London, was present. He was delighted at meeting Sontag, whose introduction to Sir Walter, on the eve of her appearance in the ‘Donna del Lago,’ was singularly well-timed. Lockhart, it is true, tells us, in his l jui unusual hour, and, of gaslight through the window snuuers j l ti l 1 .' knows that ills wife is sitting up waiting for him, he feels it is not love on her part, but tyranny. It is this that makes him open the door stealthily, take his boots oft' in the front hall, aud go down and sleep on the basement sofa. “In children’s hearts thou shalt live forever.” What more touching or fit ting epitaph could good Hans Andersen have wished for? i ration might show it to be >i a fort, temple or other Anyway, its antiquity is probably immense, ante-dating the his tory of tiie red men—Fort Gibson Standard. A gentleman questioning a little boy, said: “When your father and mother forsake ypu, Johnny, do you know who will take you up ?” “ Yes, sir,” sa id he. “And who ?” said the friend. ‘ ‘The po lice,” was Johnny’s reply. With a do every ricj--.it,.-mound a now Instrument, t'lieVl- A uP.ine.f ties ot iv null are produced by steel flier.. - <.r bull., i.ifitily cot in steel phUes allixu.1 f a muinuiui; tins, r.nu errors tiv hammers. tu> in the ni- 1 lie tones are ot a pure, silvery, bell-liW mmnaiiuu or alternation ‘'iron may la. used alone. Him-fort quality, very beautiful with the oman tunes. Th ami is ill every respect as complete and perfect an or’ gall a» without the P1AXO-HA UP, nr mar be Used with the PIAXO-IIAl: P: the latter ii.avhe used sen. arately or in combination with any or all the stops of the organ, to which it adds greatly ip vtvaritv life and variety, adapting it to a much wider range of music. * i pon Its invention and introduction, about a year" since, this new instrument was received withsri much favor that the demand greatly exceeded the uiaiiti- factitrers utmost ability to supply, so that they have had no occasion to advertise it extensively. Having now perfected facilities for a large supplv they ofier it to the public with confidence. 1 ■ 111 > ('in uhire.'with drawings and full descrirtb'ns.fioe. MAM/X * HAMLIN OltUAX td |VI 'i c-mont Mrta-t, IliisTtiS; 25 1 nioii Square, h’hVOi»k-Jvv> niul vi Adams Street, CHICAGO.