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m t s e; e x. s. as r. From Trumbull's Genius of Italy. A SUNSET AT ARONA. “We have arrived at Arona, in the Sardinian States, a considerable village at the Southern ex tremity of the lake, when it stretches into a wide and magnificent expanse of water, the upper por lions being narrow and secluded. After re freshing ourselves at the principal hotel, we saun tered through the place, which is filled by a poor and cheerful population. As it is evening, the majority of the inhabitants are enjoying them selves in the open air; some seated upon benches smoking their pipes, other lounging under the shadow of the trees, or chatting with their friends, ollicrs sauntering in the principle square; and others listening to the music of a couple of stroll ing singers, one of’ whom plays the harp with tolerable grace, and the other a tambourine as an accompanyment. Two or three cases are filled with eager political talkers. Under the shadow of the trees there, a group are gathered, discuss ing with earnest look and gesture a protocol of Charles Albert, King of Sardinia, who has given a pretty liberal constitution to his people, the ne cessity of which no one acquainted with the state of Sardinia will question. This monarch sits un easy upon his throne, lie has more ambition than }>ower, more cunning than virtue. Should he maintain his position as a prince, he may deem himself extremely fortunate. As to his being the saviour of Italy it is pure ‘humbug.’ “ lint let us go towards the brink of the lake. The last rays of sunset are tinging, with supernat ural glories, the tops of die trees, some of which run down into the water, and cast long shadows in its pellucid depths. A few light clouds are hanging on the horizon, giving hack the amber radiance of departing day, and shading ‘the deep serene ’ which reposes far above, reminding us of those lines by James Montgomery, in which he so strikingly describes the beauty of a dead girl. “ 1 And clustering round licr brow serene, ITer golden tresses lay, As sunburnt clouds on summer lake Are hung at close of day.’ “White skills are gliding here and there, like shadowy spirits, and far ofF in the distance a small steamer is ploughing the placid waves.— Masses of shadows are beginning to fall upon the other side of the lake, and deepening in the low grounds to our right. A lute-like sound nowand then breaks upon the ear, apparently from one of the skiffs. Now it swells and vibrates over the waters with a sweet ringing tone, and then again dies away. All is hushed except the ripple of the waves upon the pebbly shore, or the splash of a distant oar. It is as if the spirit of heaven had cast its shadow upon the earth. “ ‘ It is a bounteous evening, calm and free ; The holy time is quiet as a nun Broathless with admiration; the broad sun Is sinking down in its tranquility ; Listen! the mighty Being is awake, And doth with his eternal motion make, A sound like thunder—everlastingly.’ “Yes, silence in such a scene becomes vocal. The heart listens while God himself speaks.— His infinite voice resound within the chambers of the soul, like the echo of distant thunder. “Still as it is here, so still as to seem instinct with divinity, what is Italy, in her great centres, doing at the present moment? Who can tell? One thing, however, is certain, her restless spirit is awake, and panting for freedom. Already has the struggle commenced ; and the issue cannot fail to be glorious—if not now; at least hereafter. “ But the shadows are deepening around us, and night settles upon hill and vale ; one after another the stars look out from the sky and mirror themselves, like thou gins in the heart of a good man, in the broad bosom of the lake. The light of the moon is gilding the towers of the old ‘Col legiate Church,’ for Arona boasts such an edi fice, and burning with ‘an unconsuming fire’ in the ‘leafy umbrage’ of the tall trees. Slowly we retrace our steps to our temporary home for the night, drinking the beauty of the scene, and con ning, as we go, the rich verses of Ippolito Pinde monte, the friend of Alfieri and Folcolo, and one of the most gifted and elegant of the modern Ital ian poets. “ ‘Night dew-lipped comes, and every gleaming star Its silent place assigns in yonder sky ; The moon walks forth, and fields and groves afar, Touched by her light, in silvery boauty lie In solemn peace, that no sound comes to mar; Hamlets and peopled cities slumber nigh: While on this rock in meditative mien, Lord of the unconscious world I sit unseen. “ ‘How deep the quiet of this pensive hour ! Nature bids labor cease—and all obey, llow sweet this stillness in its magic power, O’er hearts that know her voice, and own her sway ! Stillness unbroken, save when, from the flower, The whirling locust takes her upward way ; And murmuring o’er the verdant turf is heard The passing brook—or leaf by breezes stirred, ‘“Born on the pinions of night’s freshening air, Unfettered thoughts with calm reflection come; And tanev’s train that shuns the daylight’s glare To wake when midnight shrouds the heaven with gloom: Now tranquil joys, and hopes untouched by care, Within ray besom throng to seek a home; Where far around the brooding darkness spreads And o’er the soul a pleasing sadness sheds.’ “ Are these rooms to let ? ” said a polite gen tleman to a handsome young lady as he placed his loot across the threshold. “Yes, sir.” “ And are you to he let with them ? ” “No sir ! I’m to be let alone ! ” A THIEF STORY. Chambers’ Edinburgh Journal contains an in teresting article on the properties ol the Datura or Narcotic Plant, from which we make the follow ing extract : The common datura of Bengal is described by our correspondent as a rambling thorny plant, with a very large and hcautilul while flower ; and it may he interesting to our medical readers to know that its when heated by being held over the fire, are used by the natives for assuaging pain in the head. The root, however, supplies a powder which is turned to a less beneficiel account Thuggee, as every body knows—thanks to the energetic measures of the British Government, so u . zealously carried out by Col. Sleeman —is now almost, if not entirely, unknown ; but it has been succeeded by a kind of robbery, into which murder no longer enters as a necessary part of the crime. The victim is not, as formerly, strangled or pois oned, hut merely drugged —or hocussed, to use a slang expression—and this is ejected in a simple manner, by throwing a little of the datura powder into the Hour which the traveller is about to pre oarc for his dinner. Now and then, it is true, the druggee dies ; hut this is an accident, and by no means desired by the practitioner, whose interest it is that his patient shall merely he reduced to a state of temporary insensibility. The effects ol a liberal dose sometimes last for a couple of days. Although the powder retains ils energy for a long time, the robber makes it only in such small quan tities as may be reaaily concealed upon the person; and indeed, he has no occasion to do otherwise, as the plant is common, and grows throughout the country. The thoroughfares are beset with these people, who get into conversation with the way farers they meet, and induce them to join compa ny. If the traveller only consents to dine along with his new friend, he is undone. An account of the process may he given from the mouth of an approver, as the Indian King’s evidence is call ed, and we shall put into the witness box a gen tlemen of the name of Sookoo. “ I first learned the business of drugging,” said he, “ from 11am kishen, whom 1 met in Calcutta, some four years ago. He asked me to find out a good subject, and I told him of a man who had some 500 rupees’ (.£6O) w r orth of property. Ramskishen hired the house adjacent to this man’s, and next day picked up his acquaintance. Two days after that he contrived to put some powder in his shrub, and he became insensible. We then broke open his box, and went off with 409 rupees’ worth of property and jewels, which we realized and divided. Some time after this as I was going along the Gradd Turk road alone, I met a man returning from Calcutta. We began talking together, and walk ed to a well close to a police ollice, and around which there were some eight or ten travellers as sembled. I drew up some water, and gave him to drink, asking him at the same time, to eat some of the food I was myself eating, he did so. I mixed a little powder into the portion I gave him, and in ahoutan hour he became insensible. Some of travellers and the policemen asked me the cause. I told them he had been drinking freely, and was tipsy; they believed me, and I attended to the insensible man until I secured his purse, containing some 10 or 20 rupees. 1 then went off’ on some pretense, leaving him at the police ollice. About seven months after this affair, I and a friend met two merchants w T ho had been to Patna to sell goods. We got leave with them, and put up for the night at a scria; they brought some Hour, and went to the well for water, and I managed to put some of the powder into it. In an hour or less they both became insensible, and we took their property —some 300 rupees. We then want ed to get off, hut found the door of the serai was shut. On sa} r ing, however, that one of us was ill, we got out and made off*. About two years ago, I and Ramsha met a man on the road with a tin box ; we walked together some way, and on coming to a toddy shop stopped to drink. He would not leave his box, and requested me to bring him a little grog; I did so, and we walked on. In about three-quarters of an hour lie fell down insensible, and we relieved him of his box and all his clothes. We got nearly 800 rupees from the sale of the contents (jewels, ornaments, &c.) About 17 months ago, I and Gungaram met four men and two servants, and consented to carry their luggage for them ; and we all slept in a house in the village of on the second night, and there they wished to dismiss us, hut we begged to he entertained for a few marches father on to wards our homes, and they agreed. The man whose box I had charge of bought some Hour, and I contrived to drug it, he ate, and became insen sible. His companions were all asleep, and I, after five hours work, broke open the box, and, with Gungaram, made off’ with its contents.”— The class to which Soopkoo belongs do not, like Thugs, mingle religious notions with crimes, they are thieves, who do their spiriting as gently as they can, and are satisfied with small gains. In India a laboring man or servant can keep himself, his wife and four or five children for four rupees a month; and it is no wonder, therefore, that so many should he tempted to have recourse to the datura powder, and that drugging, though less deadly in purpose, should become a crime less eas\ to he dealt with by the Government than Thuggee. Out of 350 persons who arrived at St. Louis on Thursday of last week from New Orleans, 70 have since died of cholera. PRESENTIMENTS. D. P. Thompson, of the Green Mountain Free man, in an interesting article on Presentiments, relates the following anecdote : “It was once our fortune to be thrown into a social circle, in which were the near relatives of some of those who perished in the conflagration of the Richmond Theatre, in 1812, which so widely scattered the weeds of woe among the first families of Virginia. Two or three remarka ble instances of presentiments were told us as havingbcen felt and avowed previous to the fire, i)V those who become victims, but we have treas ured up one more peculiar than the others, be cause, instead of being followed by the death of him who was the subject of the premoniton, it was the direct means, in all human probability, of sa ving him and a family of accomplished daughters from destruction. The play for that night was an attractive one. The gentleman to whom we al lude, had proposed to his family to attend the theatre with him, and several times through the day spoke of the pleasure he anticipated in wit nessing the performance. But towards night he became unusually thoughtful,and, as theappointed hour drew near, lie took a seat with the ladies, and commenced reading to them a long and interesting story, evading all conversation about the theatre. This he continued until interrupted by one of the wondering circle, who suggested that it was time to start. Again evading the subject, he went to reading till he was a second time inter rupted, and told they must go immediately or they should certainly be belated. Finding he could not put them off till too late to go, as he had hoped to do, he turned to them and earnestly asked it as a favor that, they would all forego the promised pleasure of the play-house, and remain with him at home through the evening. Though deeply surprised and sorely disappointed, yet they dutifully acquiesced ; and in the course of the'evening, while engaged in their quiet fireside entertainment, they were aroused by the alarm of fire ; and in a few minutes more by the appall ing tidings that hundreds were perishing in the Haines of the burning theatre, in which, but for the request which seemed so strange to them, they too would have been found to be numbered among the victims. The next morning the gen tleman told them in explanation of his conduct the evening before, that as the hour set for the performance approached, he became unaccount ably impressed with the idea or feeling that some fearful calamity was that night to fall on the com pany assembled in the theatre ; and that the pre monition, in spite of all his efforts to shake it off, at length became so strong and definite, that he secretly resolved at any cost to prevent them from attending.” THE LIGHTNING ROD. “So early as 1783, I find Maximilien called upon to defend an important cause. The recent discoveries of Franklin had been adopted in France ; and even in the province of Artois a rich landed proprietor, M. de Vissery de Boisvalle, had erected a lightning conductor on his property, much to the scandal of the worthy citizens. 4 What!’ said they , 1 shall we rend the lightning from the hand of God? Shall man presume to intercept the wrath of the Deity. If God wills to destroy houses or farms, it is his will and pleasure —man’s duty to submit. These lightning con ductors are but the impious thoughts of Deistical philosophy! Away with them !’ Thus reasoned these obese and stupid citizens of Arras. Nay, more ; they not only reasoned, they threatened the demolition of the conductor. They applied to the Echevins of St. Omer, to order its removal; and the municipal authorities, equally bigoted, yielded to their request. M. de Vissery was not so easily to be conquered: he determined to try the cause ; and selected Roberspierre as his ad vocate. Robespierre’s practice was in the upper council, a court of appeal having an extensive jurisdiction, lie pleaded several times before the council, and obtained not only the compliments of his judges, but what is more rare, those of his brethren of the bar. This, however, was the first important cause he had received. He began by publishing an essay on the subject, in which the question was treated both legally and scien tifically. The pamphlet made some little noise, and when the trial came on (31st of May, 1783) he was triumphant.” — Life of Robespierre. Improved Machinery for Spinning Yarn. —Mr. George H. Dodge, of Attleborough, Mass., has invented a valuable improvement in machinery for spinning winding yarn, being a combination of the self-acting mule and throstle, and having many advantages over the common method of spinning, and equally applicable for filling and warp. In the room usually occupied for 1,000 spindles, 1,500 maybe placed, which will do the work of 3,000 spindles. It occupies the usual space required for warp spinning, but will, it is said, spin 50 percent more yarn to the spindle than the best ring bobbin spindle in use, and with a saving of two-fifths of the power. It is esti mated to spin 100 per cent more yarn than the flyer spindle, and with one half the power com pared to the quantity. The spindle is more du rable than the common one in use, being tapered to the top, and their being no bobbins or check pins used, it maintains its balance at any speed required. It is not liable to get out of order, and is much more convenient to piece up the endg when broken than the bobbin frame. Messrs. Dodge & Son have their entire mill upon fiji 3 method of spinning, and say that from twenty nine years practical experience with other spin ning they believe it to be the best in use, and know that it is worthy the attention of manufac turers. They are daily producing more yarn from 2,320 spindles, than they were able to do from about 4.G00 spindles of the old plan commonly used, and have averaged the product of the above 2,320 for nineteen successive weeks, with out making any allowances for stoppages, or hin drance from other causes, and have spun 61,. 257 J lbs. yarn No. 30 —seven skeins to the spin dle—per day. They invite all practical men and others that feel an interest in improvements, to call at their manufactory in Dodgeville, and ex amine the same. — Merchant's Mag. ‘From the German of Jean Pavl. —The sun is like God, sending abroad life, beauty, and happi ness ; and the stars like human souls, for all their glory comes from the sun. Does not the echo in the sea shell tell of the worm which once inhabited it ; and shall not man’s good deeds live after him and sing his praise ? The mind makes all the beauty on earth, as the sun all in the heavens. What is the universe but a band flung in space pointing alway s with extended finger unto God ! The pitying tears and fond smiles of woman, are like the showers and sunshine of Spring; alas! that unlike them she should often miss her merited reward —the sweet Howers ot alleclion. How like rain is the human heart—having no beauty in itself, but beneath the smile ot God, showing forth with all the rainbow’s glory ; or how like a star, which, though but dust, can yet be cherished into a semblance of the fountain of its light. The songs of birds, and the life of man, arc both brif, both soul-filled, and both as they end, leave behind whispers ol heaven. Business First and then Pleasure. —A man who is very rich now, but very poor when a boy, was asked how he got his riches. “My Father taught me never to play till all my work for the day was finished, and never to spend my money till 1 had earned it. If I had hut half an hour’s work to do in a day, I must do tliat first, and in an half an hour. After this was done I was allow ed to play; and 1 then could play with much more pleasure than if I had the thought of an unfinished task before my mind. —I early formed the habit of doing every thing in its time, and it soon became perfectly 7 easy to do so. It is to this habit that I owe my prosperity.” Let every bov who reads this go and do likewise, and he will meet a similar reward. Pcstalozzi. —Pestalozzi may be termed the first founder of the Ragged schools. At the age of 22, when he had purchased a small estate, at New hoff, in Switzerland, and determined to lead a simple country life, he became aware of the wretchedness and ignorance of the peasantry. — It was then that lie determined to devote his life to the benefit of the. poor, and assisted by his wife, whom he married the year after he settled at New hofF, he began to collect poor children, and even beggar children, into his house and instruct them. His efforts were treated by his neighbors and the world as all such eflbrts are—they were ridiculed, and pronounced to be actual folly 7 and insanity. Every well-in formed reader knows through what opposition, misfortune, and trouble, arising from the exhaustion of his own means, the revolutionary disturbances of the times, and the wranglings of those who even came forward to assist in his plans for elevating the people Pesla lozzi passed his life. His plans, however, succed ded, and have been introduced, more or less, into all popular systems of tuition, and to him the ed ucation of the people owes more than to .any’ other man who ever lived. Good manners are useful to rich and poor. — They make the rich man more admirable and more influential, and they pave the way before the poor man, and promote his advancement in life by means which are wholly unknown to himsell.— They secure his friends, who are gradually wooed and won, and who feel an increasing interest in his welfare, and finally, perhaps present him with a favorable opportunity of rising in the scale of society. They can never be a loss, at all events ; and we have no hesitation in saying that they never fail to bring a reward, in some mode or other, so as to make the condition of the wearer better with them than without them. Poverty, —Poverty has, in large cities, very dis sent appearances. It is often concealed in splen dor, often in extravagance. It is the care of a very great part of mankind to conceal their indi gence from the rest. They support themselves by temporary expedients, and every day is lost in contriving for to-morrow. There is a man in Grant County, Kyr, who is so very miserly, that whenever he sends his negro sevant down into the cellar for apples, he makes him whistle all the way down to the apple box, and back, to prevent him from eating any oi the fruit. Fact.