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NORTH AND SOUTH.
Exchange of Sentiments Be
tween tlie two Sections.
Erroneous Impressions Corrected.
LETTERS SOLICITED.
We open here a department for inter-com-
mnnication between the two sections of onr
great country, which have bo long been in
astonishing ignorance of each other. The
thoughts, feelings, motives and actions of each
have been misunderstood and wofully misrepre
sented. This department is intended to circu
late correct sentiments among them, and to rec
tify the many erroneous impressions which ex
ist in both sections.
Nashua, N. H., January 3, 1877.
G. W. II, Esq., Atlanta, Ga.:
Dear Sir,—Knowing you to be a Northern man,
and a former Union soldier, and knowing you to
have spent many years in the South, 1 would like
to have you answer the following questions for me:
1st. Is the condition of affairs in the South, at
present, such as to render it unsafe for a respect
able Northern man, with his family, to settle
there ?
2d. If not unsafe, would his life, or that of his
family, be rendered unpleasant by either business
or social ostracism ?
3d. Would the treatment he received differ, in
accordance with the knowledge of the community
as to whether his political sentiments were Demo
cratic or Republican ?
4th. What lines of business are most open in
the South, or, in other words, what inducements
Goes the South hold out for Northern men to emi
grate there ? Yours, respectlully,
John H. Stevens.
Atlanta, Ga., January 10, 1877.
John E Stevens, Esq., Nashua, N. 11. :
My Dear Sir,—Yours of January 3d was re
ceived some days since, and, but for a press of
business, should have been attended to sooner.
Taking your questions consecutively, my response
to the first is, unhesitatingly, no. There is no
portion of the South to-day where it is not per
fectly safe for a respectable man from anywhere to
settle. Not only that, but there is no place in the
world where the respectable man, who will make a
good citizen, is more heartily welcomed than in
the South. Every Southern man recognizes the
great need of his section to be an influx of earn
est, enterprising, honest men to fill up the country
and to develop its resources; and the stories of
Southern outrage which you hear are falsehoods,
every one, and are narrated by the partisan press
of the North solely for political effect, it is true
that crime exists here, and that horrible murders
and daring robberies take place at times, but I
think the statistics of crime will bear me out in
the statement that this occurrence is not more fre
quent proportionately in the sparsely-settled
Southern States than in the more densely popu
lated North.
In reply to your second question, I assert (and
I assert it from my experience as a Northern man)
that no man suffers ostracism here who does not
deserve it. Respectable people do not associate
with rogues and scoundrels here any more than at
the North, and when a man who ought to have
been in the penitentiary, and who would shortly
have been had he staid at home, comes here from
the North, he is not received with open arms, if
the community once learn his character. But the
gentleman is invariably treated as such, and 1
think the Northern gentleman receives really a
more cordial welcome than the native of a South
ern State, on account of the prevalent feeling that
the one possesses more energy and enterprise, and
will make a more valuable citizen than the other.
As an answer to your third query, I will give
you a bit of personal experience. During my
eight years of Southern life, 1 have always, until
the recent election, voted and worked with the
Republican party. I have spent long periods in
Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas and Georgia, and
traveled somewhat in Alabama and Mississippi. I
Ed. So. Plantaiion: Should I arrive in Alabama
by February 1st, will I have time to prepare the
lands and raise a crop? Also, whether clover,
orchard grass or timothy has been tried in your
State, and with what results ? Yours truly,
M. E. B.
Cass Co., Ind., December 26, 1876.
Ed. So. Plantation: Will you please send me a
copy of the Plantation ? I am now closing up my
business with a view of coming South, and I
desire all the information 1 can get. Will prob
ably go to Alabama, if I can find a suitable place.
I desire a small farm, not exceeding one hundred
and sixty acres in all, capable of producing grain
and grasses. Yours, etc., Wm. T.
Van Buren Co., Mich., Dec. 17, 1876.
We clip the following from the Georgia, Wilkes
county, Gazette:
“ Ehitor Gazette,—As I know you feel a warm
interest in seeing the waste places of our county
and State built up by intelligent and enterprising
citizens, will j T ou make it known that some gentle
men from Quarryville, Lancaster county, Pa., have
made inquiries in regard to our county, with a
view of examining it, and if they are pleased with
the country, the price of land, and our surround
ings generally, they will very probably purchase
lands and cast their lots and make their homes
among us ? Now, should these gentlemen visit our
county, it would be mutually advantageous if those
who have land for sale in this and adjoining coun
ties would send me a description of their lands,
giving number of acres, how much in cultivation,
how much in original forest, the buildings on the
place, and everything else that could be of inter
est to any one who may be desirous of purchasing,
particularly the price per acre and the payments.
If those of our citizens who have lands for sale will
do this, and the gentlemen should visit our coun
ty, I will take pleasure in acting as inter agent,
without fee or reward, and may benefit both par
ties. Any information I can give will be cheer
fully imparted to any one who feels an interest in
the matter. Respectfully,
B. W. Heard.
have hundreds of friends and thousands of ac
quaintances throughout those States, all of whom
honor me as a Northern man (for the Yankee
will stick out some way), and many of whom
knew that I differed with them politically. 1 have
always been rather proud of the little army record
1 did make, and have told incidents of army life,
and compared notes with former Confederate sol
diers, hundreds of times. In all my travels, by
river and by rail, by stage and on horseback, I
have never carried a weapon, and have never re
ceived a harsh or insulting word on account of
birth-place, military experience, or political pro
clivities. 1 will add that 1 can point to hundreds
of Northern men living South whose experiences
are the same.
To your fourth question, my reply is, that to
the active, industrious, energetic man, all lines of
business are open. The man, the world over,
makes the business. The idle, thriftless fellow
is no more wanted here than at the North, and
the South holds out no inducements for him.
To the first character her inducements are legion.
Do you dislike the severity of your climate?
She offers you a climate most genial and de
lightful, neither excessively cold in winter nor
excessively hot in summer. The idea is a mistaken
one, that because the Southern winter is mild, the
summer must be intolerable. The mercury in
New York and Philadelphia last summer ranged
four degrees higher than at any point South, and
the heat of a Southern sun is always tempered
by a cool Southern breeze. Is the soil of your
section sterile and unproductive ? The South can
offer you the richest soil in the world, suited to
every variety of agricultural production. Would
you embark in manufactures of any kind ? The
South offers you locations where the materials for
whatever you desire to make can be found at your
door. For iron-work or machinery, the ore and
coal to smelt it are side by side; for wood-work,
millions of acres of the choicest timber; for brick,
for pottery, or for the choicest of porcelain, here
are the requisite clays; for cotton goods, this is
the home of the material, and for woolen goods, it
could readily be made such. In a word, the South
offers inducements to the emigrant superior to
those of any place in the world; and so, in the
words of the old song, slightly changed,
“ [Come along, coine along, don’t be alarmed,
For the South is big enough to give you all a farm.”
1 am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient
A Cool Northern Sentiment from the “Chris
tian Union.”—How thankful we should be for the
following suggestions about “What the South
Needs:”
The Bible tells us that the children of this world
are in their generation wiser than the children of
light. The leaders of the Republican party must
certainly be the children of light, else they would
have been wise enough to have furnished the South
long ago with what they so badly need, and that is,
an army of Yankee school teachers. To be sure
missionaries were sent to the freedraen ten years
ago, but their unfortunate white brethren have
been neglected. If there were free schools in
every city, town and village, and one at every cross
roads, and these schools presided over by faithful,
energetic, educated Yankee teachers who would
instill a little patriotism into the minds of their
pupils along with their geography, and a little re
spect for the rights of others along with their arith
metic, the disgraceful scenes that are being en
acted in the South would soon be at an end.
There is no law to prevent Northern teachers
from going there and opening as many schools as
they please If they were free, many would gladly
patronize them. Others would do so under protest,
knowing them to be the best schools.
The white population of the South ought not to
be expected to send their children to the same
schools with the blacks. They can hardly be ex
pected to employ Northern teachers of their own
accord.
Here is a splendid opportunity for missionary
work. Let the benevolent-minded of the Repub
lican party furnish South Carolina and Louisiana
with the means of finding out that they were not
born to rule the world. Books and teachers cost
less than bullets and soldiers.
Mrs. Sadie J. Cannon.
Did you ever? A good joke. Splendid. “An
army of Yankee school teachers!” Great heavens !
Just see what they think of us ! Can’t we learn
them something about the South ?”
Travels in Europe.
The Grand Old Alps.
Notes by the Hon. Graham Wil
liams, United States Minister
to Turkey Under President
Buchanan from 1858
to 1861.
In 1861, Minister Williams delivered up his
credentials to Mr. Lincoln and returned to his
home in Nashville, Tenn., and raised a company
for the army. In 1866, he applied for a pardon,
but President Andrew Johnson was slow in giv
ing it to him. After he had taken passage on a
steamer for Europe, his pardon was handed to
him, but it was then too late. He left his native
land and returned to Europe, and in the little
city of Gratz, in Austria, while apparently in
perfect health, and surrounded by his happy
family, he suddenly died, leaving a devoted
wife and loving children. His remains now lie
in the little Protestant cemetery in Gratz.
These notes, furnished us by his amiable and
accomplished widow in the original MSS., are
exceedingly interesting, and we invite the atten
tion of the reading world to them. He was
often sent as Minister Extraordinary to Palestine
to settle difficulties between the Turks, mission
aries and Christians, and of course visited many
sacred places, and had opportunities for seeing
hundreds of things which only crowned heads
usually see. We are delighted at the privilege
of presenting his notes to our readers.
RELIGIOUS INFORMATION.
servant,
G. W. H.
We find the following in the Southern Plantation,
published at Montgomery, Ala., which the editor
gives as_ specimens of letters received at his office.
We have not space for his excellent replies, but
will try to give them next week :
Ed. So. Plantation: There are many persons
here who would like to know more about Ala
bama, the government, people, lands, soils, cli
mate, etc. You will oblige us very much by
sending us a few copies of your paper and any
thing that will give us information on these
points. Yours truly, W. H. J.
Redwood Co., Minn., December 23,1876.
A true religious instinct never deprived man of
one single joy; mournful faces and a sombre aspect
are the' conventional affectations of the weak-
minded.
In the center of one of Gen. Magruder’s old forts
at Bethel, Va., there now stands a new, neat and
comfortable Baptist church, which is filled every
Sunday with a happy congregation.
We are sorry to learn that the Methodist pub
lishing House at Nashville is in immediate danger
of being lost to the Church for lack of funds. The
Bishops and Publishing Committee held a meeting
last week, and resolved to call on every pastor to
take up a collection in every charge in the Church
[South] in February next. Of course the Church
will respond liberally, and save this valuable prop
erty. It can not afford to do otherwise.
In 1869 the Southern Presbyterian General As
sembly, by way of experiment, authorized the
Presbyteries to qualify laymen as preachers or
rather as “lay-exhorters,” and the plan takes. In
the Presbytery of Augusta, Ga., there are no less
thad ten such preachers, and there are large num
bers in many other Presbyteries in the South.
A new mission has been undertaken by the
Methodists of Australia. Under the lead of Rev.
G. Brown, a party of about a dozen missionaries
and teachers—natives of Fiji and Samoa—have
gone out to the New Britain, New Ireland, and
Duke of York Islands, and have entered upon their
work. Several chapels have been erected, and the
natives, although to a large extent cannibal, have
so far been friendly.
One of the Episcopal papers objects to the state
ment that one hundred years ago the Episcopal
Church in this country stood third on the list of
denominations, and now stands last. It declares
for an honest count, and maintains that the object
of collecting denominational statistics is to let each
denomination know how it stands and what it must
do for itself in the way of work. The figures are
not for display. The exchange adds, with some
point: “There is a good deal of ‘paper counting’
which goes into the making up of ‘churches and
pastors’ in some quarters. In fact, a ‘union chap
el,’ with occasional services, sometimes gets on to
the list of three or four denominations as a
‘Church’ of each one.”
Summing up the results of the Moody and Sank-
ey meeting in Chicago, Rev. Mr. Cree, who has
been closely identified with the work, says that
the churches have been revived, the ministry
quickened, and many persons converted. All
classes of the community have had the gospel
preached to them, and for weeks all circles have
been more or less interested in the meetings. Al
though the services are closed, yet every day there
is at the Tabernacle, the noon-day meeting, a
meeting for men only, and for women only, three
daily meetings for reformed men, a meeting each
for young ladi68, boys, young converts and busi
ness men, and from 9 to 10 o’clock each night a
large meeting for young men. An inquiry meeting
is held daily from 1 o’clock noon till 10 o’clock at
night. The work outside of Chicago, carried on in
connection with it, has been proportional as suc
cessfully as that in Chicago. Peoria, Kalamazoo,
Fort Wayne, Osh Kosh, Racine,Kenosh, Belvidere,
Ottaway, and other points, have been visited by
evangelists working under Mr. Moody’s direction,
and much good has been done.
I left Vienna by the early morning train for
Gratz, to once more enjoy by the bright sun
light the grand and picturesque spectacle of
towering mountains, deep gorges, pleasing lit
tle vales, gushing streams, and ^he frowning
ruins of old feudal castles which mark the line
of the railway across the simmering Alps into
Styria upon its winding way to the Adriatic.
The recent brief but disastrous war was over,
and the startling results which followed its close
were the theme of every tongue in the Capital.
But the railways were once more free to all
comers; military transports no longer monopo
lized their entire carrying cajiacitj', and I seized
upon the opportune occasion to devote a few
weeks to rambling through the romantic scenery
and charming summer resorts for which Austria
is so famed.
In traversing the lofty heights of the Semrner-
ing Pass by the motive power of steam alone,
the wonder of the traveler is momentarily ex
cited that science, even with the aid of wealth
and sustained by public spirit, could achieve
such stupendous results. To the sagacity, en
terprise and liberality of the great banker, Baron
Sind, is Austria and the world in a great meas
ure indebted for this crowning triumph of en
gineering skill. When we remember that this
work, though only completed in 1856, was con
ceived and inaugurated nearly thirty-five years
ago, when railway enterprises, by comparison
with those of the present day, were in their in
fancy, our surprise is increased that one who
had acquired great wealth by his own labors
should have had the temerity to expend money
in such a hazardous, and, as was then thought,
so chimerical an enterprise. Happily, the origi
nators of the gigantic project had the persever
ing faith to prosecute it until the government
could be induced to complete what had been so
gloriously begun. Honor, then, to Baron Sind,
whose claim to nobility rests upon such a sub
stantial foundation as this and other benefits he
was instrumental in conferring upon his coun
try. His son, the present baron, inheritor of
his wealth, has increased the respect in which
his name was previously held by a like display
of discriminating liberality and public spirit.
Although individual enterprise instituted the
movement and laid, as it were, the superstruct
ure of the work, the Austrian government came
to their rescue, and their united labors achieved
the grand and unique result of crossing the Alps
by a railway which, in the altitude overcome, is
as yet without a rival.
The ascent of the mountain commences at
Gloggnitz, and from thence the railway winds
along the sides and upon the summits of these
hills through a labyrinth of tunnels and over
viaducts and around abrupt curves, which soon
produced utter bewilderment in regard to the
direction in which the train is moving. At
length, after sweeping around the top of a hill
and over a long-curved viaduct at the station
Bayerbach, * the track makes one or two more
rapid curves, rnd we find ourselves at an eleva
tion of seven hundred feet, looking down again
upon Gloggnitz and the romantic little river
Schwarzeau, which dashes through a ravine
opening into the valley below. The view from
here is well worth a five days’ journey. Again
the engine, after a brief pause, is put in motion
and the train dashes forward, now along the
brink of an overhanging precipice whence, far
below and far above we see the track over which
we have already passed or to which we have yet
to ascend, when another plunge into a tunnel
hides all from view. It is almost impossible to
realize, as we catch these occasional glimpses of
our line of travel that the same engine which
drags our train along has already drawn its
heavy burthen over that which we behold be
neath, and will pass with its long train of car
riages and their living freight over that which
towers above us.
Upon every side are to be seen the crumbling
ruins of ancient feudal strongholds, frowning
upon the valleys below from the tops of seem
ingly unapproachable cliffs, whence in days
past the robber chieftains swooped down upon
the unwary traveler, or levied unrequited contri
butions upon the defenceless, to return again,
laden with spoils, to the secure retreat of their
impregnable castles. A small number of these
old fortress abodes are still kept in a semi-habi
table condition; others, more easily accessible
and having a certain breadth of tillable land
around them, have been well preserved, and
present, doubtless, the same appearance now,
save in their aspect of hoary age, as when first
inhabited by their feudal lords. But the greater
number show but crumbling, roofless walls,
with here and there a solitary tower, which, hav
ing successfully withstood the ravages of time,
looks down like a sentinel of the past upon the
ruins by which it is enshrouded.
It is difficult, even with a previous knowledge
of the names and relative positions of these old
castles, to identify them as th6 train bears us
swiftly along, but they do not require _ such
knowledge to give them interest. Their pictur
esque effect is not less imposing, the impres
sions they produce upon the mind and senses
quite as vivid, and the train of reflections to
which they lead not less startling than if
we knew them all by name. They are historical
memorials of the past which tell more impress
ively than written records or human language of
the great changes which has been wrought since
the epoch of this creation. They are mementoes
of a period which may be regarded as one of
transition from barbarism to a dimly-dawning
civilization. They are now nothing more than
representatives of the past, and may no longer
be adapted to the uses of mankind, save in so
far as they may serve to point a moral or adorn
a tale. They have succumbed before the march
of civilization and the mechanical ingenuity by
which it has been accompanied, and the strong
est of these, even though restored to their origi
nal strength and grandeur, could not more ef
fectually resist the implements of modern war
fare than could the card castle of the child the
rude blast of the hurricane. Who can say that
the nearly impregnable fortresses of the present
day and the nearly irresistible powers now em
ployed to reduce them may not be regarded by
posterity, as we now look upon these old feudal
strongholds, as inefficacious as card castles of
children in resisting the more formidable im
plements of destruction which expanding sci
ence and mechanical skill may hereafter pro
duce ? If knowledge is in fact as it is in theory,
always progressive, posterity will indeed smile
derisively at our greatest achievements, for there
would be no limit to human discovery. When
we reflect, however, upon the brief period of
time through which our knowledge of the his
tory of mankind runs, and of the few centuries
which divide our epoch from the dark ages
which preceded the erection of these castles, we
are almost forced to the conclusion that by the
power of some agency independent of and more
potent than the will of man, the world in the
lapse of time is again and again thrown back
into chaos, the works of art destroyed, and with
them all knowledge of the elaborate principles
by which they were produced—lost, only to be
painfully and laboriously re-discovered by the
same tedious process and by the employment
of the same natural elements from which they
had been before evolved. In this view, the
dawning civilization of an age yet unborn may
rebuild these Alpine strongholds, and lordly
tenants may once more find them complete de
fenses against the most destructive appliances of
dawning science, secure retreats from all pursu
ers and strongholds from whence to assail the
unwary and make spoil of the defenseless.
After passing Eichberg, we look down into a
deep, narrow valley, overlooked by the Gostritz
mountains. In the gorge separating two tower
ing hills may be seen the village of Schottwein,
whose history recalls to mind the civil broils,
religious feuds and fanaticism, and maybe of
oppression for opinion’s sake in the now free
land of the “ fast-anchored isle.” That village
was once inhabited by a religious community
composed of Scotch and Irish, who left their
own country, perhaps, by compulsion, perhaps
from religious fervor, to find an asylum or to
propagate a creed in a distant land.
(TO BE CONTINUED.)
DOMESTIC.
Farm, Garden, and Household
Matters.
Writes a wide-awake farmer: A few years
since, I took a piece of wet, rocky pasture, that
produed nothing but flags and rushes, cleared it
from rocks and drained it with an open drain,
then ploughed and thoroughly pulverized it and
seeded it down. The first year there was from one
to two tons of grass per acre.
Maxim for Farmers.—So long as we go in debt
for all we eat and wear, we can never become
prosperous, but if we make all we can independent
of credit, and make our homes self-sustaining and
have no debts or mortgages to harass us at the end
of the year, we will be a prosperous and happy
people, and our homes will be a source of delight
and comfort to us.
How to Make Farming Pay.—Raise grain and
grasses. Feed them to your own stock, save the
manure for your own land, and thus you will make
a handsome profit off your stock, at the same time
add to the value of your lands. Fine pork, beef,
mutton and wool, horses and mules, always com
mand fair prices. Cotton does not pay except as
a surplus crop, and than it must be growu at less
expense than is usually put upon it. But with
wheat, corn, oats, peas and hay, and stock to fat
ten, there will be a sure road to independence. All
over the South there are farmers who are pre
paring to reconstruct their farming operations, and
to grow less cotton and more stock, and we could
hope that the number were daily increased.
Farmers’ Clubs.—We believe in farmers’ clubs,
not only because our reason tells us that the
mutual interchange of experience is productive
of more experience; not only because the experi
ence of many is more reliable than the experience
of one, and is useful to all; not only because an
acquaintance with the practice of others adds
power to ourselves to subjugate our farms to our
needs; but because actual practice—the actual
existence and living experience—has shown con
clusively that an active, working, well-sustained
farmer’s club has been, and is, of great value, not
only to the participants therein, but also to the
neighborhood wherein it is organized.
Each member should be an active one, and
should be willing to attend and take part in its
deliberations. In order that this may be so, he
must be put under an obligation to attend and do
his part. Such an obligation may readily be
formed by the pressure of the inherent force of
courtesy and hospitable neighborhoodship. Let
the membership of the club be limited by the num
ber of meetings that it is desirable should be held
during the winter, and then let each meeting be
held at the house of one of the members, turn by
turn. Have a regular hour for meeting, and let
an entertainment be prepared by the host, from
the productions of the farm, of a simple yet social
character. Fruits and nuts would probably be all
that would be desirable to be furnished. The offi
cers should be a president for each meeting—the
host—and a permanent secretary who should keep
the records, and a finance committee who should
arrange for and collect the simple dues, and take
care of the expenditures which might seem to be
necessary er of advantage. At each meeting let
the subject for the next discussion be decided on,
and one member assigned to open the discussion.
The subject should be one in which all are inter
ested—and preferably one which would be sug
gested by the farm practice of the host of the
evening. Thus, if the host be a butter-dairyman,
let him bring before the meeting a sample of his
butter, and explain his processes. If corn is a
leading feature of the farm culture, then let a
trace of corn be presented for inspection, and the
discussion based on this. Other members could
also bring of their butter or their corn, or of
whatever production relating to the subject dis
cussed, and the comparison of products and the
bringing together of the diverse practices and ex
periences would afford instruction and entertain
ment for the evening.
Table Manners.—A “young housekeeper”
finds it difficult to understand all that is im
plied by “table manners,” or the recognized
laws of “ table etiquette,” particularly the “ lit
tle things ” that come under those laws. Rules
which belong to home manners—rules which reg
ulate the minor proprieties of the table, which
should be an established home custom, a “ sec
ond nature”—are the ones about which our
“young housekeeper” is the most perplexed,
and fortunately they are similar in all places
where good manners and true politeness are felt
to be important elements in social or family life.
Most of these small rules should be as strongly
enforced at the home-table as at a fashionable
party, and it is these things which we greatly
desire to see recognized and carried out in every
phase of society.
There are some who insist that when a plate
is sent to be replenished the knife and fork
must be laid together on the plate. But we are
happy to say that idea is being generally dis
carded. If the plate is passed thus encumbered
it would be a marvel, even with the best trained
servants, if accidents did not often occur, and
usually under the most mortifying circum
stances. A quick movement of the arm which
just touches the waiter’s as the plate is taken
would most likely send a greasy knife or fork
off the plate into a lady’s lap, or against a gen
tleman’s coat.
The knife and fork should be taken from the
plate when it is passed, and either held in the
hand or laid down with the tips resting on the
solitaire, butter-plate, or a piece of bread. The
last way is less awkward and much more con
venient than holding them in the hand. When
the plate is no longer needed, lay the knife and
fork on it together, with the handles turned the
same way, and the points of the fork laid down
ward.
Little mistakes, and occasionally a trouble
some accident, may occur at the table, particu
larly where there are guests, either through
carelessness or diffidence on the part of the
host or guest, and sometimes they are of the
most embarrassing nature. But for the sake of
all concerned, it is best to meet such infelici
ties with quiet dignity and self-possession. The
more awkward and mortifying the accident, the
greater need of calmness, not indifference.
Pass your own part of the trouble off’ with a
smile, but let Jail the feeling which will find
utterance be shown in the kindest manner to
the one causing the accident, or the one who
suffers the most by it, if other than yourself.
If the accident occurred through the careless
ness of host or hostess, or stupidity or igno
rance of the waiter, continual reference to it
and apologies only keep the matter before the
mind and enhance the evil. If one of the
guests is the sufferer, common kindness and
sympathy for the culprit will lead him to pass
the matter over lightly, or with but a few quiet
words, sufficient to lessen the embarrassment
the host and hostess must feel* We once saw a
plate of soup poured across the sleeve and skirt
of an elegant dress, as one next to the lady in-
ad vertantly raised his arm just as the waiter
was removing the plate. The hostess, for the
moment, lost her self-possession, and, greatly
disturbed, hastened, with many exclamations,
to assist the waiter to remedy what, in a calmer
moment, she would have seen was past help.
But the owner of the dress, with a quiet smile,
begged the hostess to be seated, gently request
ing the waiter to resume his work, and taking
her napkin, wiped off what she could without
disturbing her neighbors; then, drawing a
light shawl over the dress as if nothing had
gone amiss, resumed the conversation which had
been interrupted. Quiet self-possession under
such circumstances is not hypocrisy, but a kind
and proper regard for the comfort of others.
Smacking the lips when eating, making need
less and unpleasant sounds with the mouth at
the table, is contrary to all rules, and exceed
ingly ill-bred and disagreeable. It is ill-man
nered anywhere, but at the table so offensive as
to destroy all comfort.
Reaching across the table, helping oneself
with one’s own knife and fork, are among the
improprieties that can hardly be excused in
good society.
Adjusting the hair, cleaning or cutting the
nails, spitting, blowing the nose, are all very
objectionable in company, but far more vulgar
at the table than anywhere else.
Whispering at the table is offensive—disre
spectful alike to the host and hostess and their
guests, if there are any. Let the conversation
be general, and, as far as possible, of a nature
to interest all. If from the forced seclusion in
cident to ill health, or from natural diffidence,
one is disinclined to bear a part in the conver
sation, it is but showing suitable respect to
those who are talking to be at least an attentive
listener. It is rude to sit silent, if one does not
by an attentive manner show that the conversa
tion is followed and fully appreciated. Yawn
ing and restlessness during the conversation
are very disrespectful.—Mrs. Ilenry Ward Beecher.
Fair Hair and Blue Eyes in Ger
many.
For a long time the idea of a German, more par
ticularly a German lady, was that he or she had
blue eyes and fair hair. The Germans themselves
have protested against this sweeping assertion,
and a careful examination of a German regi
ment or German school would have sufficed to
show the strong admixture of of black hair and
brown eyes. But anthropologists went on assert
ing their views, formed on what they called their
own long experience, till at last the public insisted
on having the matter settled by a regular census.
Government assented; and on a certain day every
school in Prussia had to make a return of the black
and blue and brown color of the children’s eyes.
Many of the pupils came home on that day telling
their parents, with a mysterious air, their eyes
and hair and skin had been examined at school.
Some of the parenst thought it an undue interfer
ence with their rights, but the thing was done,
and angry protests against what the Government
commands or allows to be done, are of little avail
in Germany. After a short time the results of
this anthropological mission have been published,
and they are at all events curious, though perhaps
not of much scientific value. The number of per
sons examined in Prussia amounted to 4,127,766.
Out of that number 4,070,923 were under fourteen
years of age. With regard to the color of their
eyes 42.07 per centum had blue, 34.31 per centum
brown eyes. With regard to the color of the hair,
72 per centum had blonde, 26 per centum brown,
and 1.21 per centum black hair. With regard to
the color of the skin, Prussia has only 6.53 per
centum of brunette complexion. In Bavaria the
brunette complexion claims 15 per centum, the
black hair 5 per centum, the brown hair 41 per
centum, the fair hair 54 per centum; and it is ar
gued from this that the darker complexion in Ger
many came from the south—rather a bold general
ization, if one considers the mixture of tribes in
Germany-even at so late a time as the invasion of
the barbarians into the Roman Empire. The re
port contains a number of curious observations;
for instance, that nearly one-third of the Jewish
school children are fair, which would certainly not
be the impression left upon a casual spectator by
the ordinary run of the Jewish population.—Lon
don Times.
How to Begin the Day.
Rise with the lark, but not for one. Be very
careful to attire yourself neatly; ourselves, like
our salads, are always the better for a good dres
sing. Shave unmistakably before you descend from
your room; chins, like oysters, should have their
beards taken off before being permitted to go down.
Start with a determination to be agreeable and
good-tempered, and like an overflowing fire, noth
ing shall put you out. Should the tea be hot, take
it coolly; should the ham be salt, emulate the phil
osophic Bacon, and having made a few pleasant ob
servations about the milk of human kindness, the
sugar of domestic felicity, the cup of happiness be
ing full, and the butter resembling an actor in a
fresh part, because it appears in a new roll, con
clude with the appropriate ballad of “Let the toast
pass, ” cracking fresh eggs and stale jokes simul-j
taneously.