Southern world : journal of industry for the farm, home and workshop. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1882-18??, October 01, 1882, Image 2

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THE SOUTHERN WORLD, OCTOBER 1, 1882. Tbe Water-Caddies. They were a very curious tribe of Edin burgh residents, consisting of both men and women, bat the former were perhaps the more numerous. Their bnsiness was to carry water into houses, and, therefore, their days were passed in climbing up lofty stairs, in order to get into flats. The water was borne in little casks and was procured from public wells, which were then pretty thickly planted in the principal streets; and as there was far more candi dates than spouts, there was a group of im patient and wrangling claimants who, when not eloquent, sat upon their kegs. These encampments of drawers of water bad a striking appearance. The barrels when filled, were slung upon their backs suspended by a leather strap, which was held in front by tbe hand. Their carriage was made easier by leaning forward, which threw the back outward, and hence stooping was the natural attitude of these sons and daughters of the well. They were known by this peculiarity, even when off work. Their backs, which would otherwise hare never been dry, were protected by thick layers of hard black leather, on which the barrels lay; and the leather had a slight curl up at its lower edge, which, acting as a lip, threw the droppings, by which they could always be tracked, off to the sides. Still, however, with filling, and trickling, and emptying, it was a moist business. They were all rather old and seemed little; but this last might be owing to their stoop ing. The men generally had old red jackets, probably the remnants of the Highland Watch or of the City Guard ; and the wo men Were always covered with thick duffle great coats, and wore black hats like the men. They very seldom required to be called ; for every house had its favorite "water-cad die," who knew the habits and wants of the family, and the capacity of the single cis tern, which he kept always replenishing at his own discretion, at the price of a penny for each barrel. Their intercourse with families civilized them a little; so that in spite of their plashy lives, and public-well discussions, they were rather civil and very cracky creatures. What fretted them most was being obstructed in going up a stair; and their occasionally tot tering legs testified that they had no bigotry against qualifying the water with a little whisky. They never plied between Saturday night and Monday morning; that is, their employ ers had bad hot water all Sunday. These bodies were such favorites, that the extinc tion of their trade was urged seriously as a reason against water being allowed to get into tbe houses in its own way I A Commercial Experiment. Grimaldi, otherwise Honore V., ascended his throne of Monaco in the year 1815, and did not die until 1840. Three times only during his reign of twenty-five years did he set foot within the principality of Monaco; but he never ceased to bear his subject in mind. From his capacious mind he evolved a tamous fiscal scheme. Through the Intermediary of a French "man of straw" called Chappon, his High ness Honore V. became the Farmer and Miller General of his dominions. In his creature Chappon was vested the monopoly of dealing in grain and grinding it into flour. The wretched Monegasques were compell ed to tell their corn to the Prince's agent, who duly exported the sound grains to for eign parts, and he was good enough to sell them for the making of their daily bread flour ground from spoiled cargoes of wheat, which was the sweeping of the wharves of Marseilles and Genoa. Every one, the for eigner and the native alike, was compelled to eat this bread, and no other; captains of trading vessels who arrived in port with any surplus bread or biscuit on board were liable to a fine of $100 and the confiscation of the crafts; and the bakers of Monaco were forced to placard outside their shop- doors a statement of their daily consump tion of the staff of life by the families who dealt with them. If, in the opinion of the police, the peo ple did not eat enough bread, they were In duced to mend their appetites by means of domloillary visits, lawsuits and evictions. There was also a heavy tax on every lamb, calf, foal and kid born. Fruit trees were likewise subject to a grievous impost, and but that In the fullness of time Honore de scended to a more congenial world he might have crowned his fiscal scheme by taxing new-laid eggs, onions and shrimps. As it was, this unmitigated old rascal managed to amass in the course of his twenty-five years of plunder a fortune of over $1,000,- 000. Leas Crime Among Women. Tbe following is tbe relative number of men and women in the penitentiaries and reformatories in January 1880. Notice tbe comparison: Hale. Female. Arkansas 13 11 1 Connecticut 63 Delaware 8 Florida 3 Georgia 34 Illinois 2031 28 Indiana 68 Iowa 57 Kansas 5 79 551 38 408 22 Maryland 162 Massachusetts 839 Michigan 98 331 12 1075 151 Nebraska 3 Nevada 0 New Hampshire.. 2 New Jersey 119 New York 798 North Carolina... 55 189 o Pennsylvania 521 Rhode Island 75 South Carolina.... 16 33 Texas 20 Vermont J1 Virginia 80 West Virginia.... 5 0? 23 1 Montana 1 Washington 0 It is observed that the territories are given last, as far as reports from them had been made. The criminals of Dakota are sent to the Michigan prisons, and are enumerated in the list from that state. The complete ness of this table precludes the necessity of any analysis from me.— Woman's Own. A Welsh Servant. In Wales, a maid in servitude is consider ed much more respectable than the factory girl, or indeed any girl who works with her hands, unless it be the girl “in business,” who is what Americans politely call a "sales lady,” though in Great Britain she is not in frequently a seller of gin and beer—or in other words a bar-maid. Bar-keepers of the masculine gender, it may be remarked by the way, are nearly unknown to Wales, un less as an exotic of American origin. The masculine bar-tender of America Is an out growth of pioneer roughness—a condition of society in which pistols and bowie-knives were many and women few. There is hardly a better servant in the world than a really good Welsh maid. She more nearly ap proaches the best French model than any other I have known. Of course she has not the training in certain polished customs which the French servant has, but her deft ness, alacrity and politeness are equally great. The politeness of a servant to an em ployer is as clear and fair a thing as any po liteness on earth. Its proper expression is far removed from servility. The servant in Wales who is not polite Is thought to be lacking in tbe social culture befitting his or her station. The wages of servants, while very much below those now so common in the United States, are, as a rule, better than the earnings of any other women on their social plane. A situation in a wealthy fam ily is something to hope for and dream of— a genuine social elevation to the daughters of the humble cottagers. It is a bad policy to despise small persons or small things. A single grape-ehot settles the destiny of an empire, and a diamond necklace has contributed largely to a bloody revolution. The gabbling of geese s&ved Rome. The accident of two spectacle- glasses at proper focus gave the world tbe telescope. The fall of an apple revealed to Newton the law which hangs the world in space, the grandest law of the material uni verse. Written specially for Thb Southbbx Wools. THE PHENOMENA OP THE CLOUDS. The fundamental law of all cloud forma tion is to be found in the rising vapors from the earth. It is not a fact, however, that all this moisture comes from the water surfaces of our planet. A considerable portion of it is evaporated from the solid ground and Its fruits or vegetable matter. There is an im mense quantity of vapor lifted into the air daily from the decomposition of matter go ing on around us continually. It Is impos sible to estimate tbe tons of water thus taken up from the solids of the earth, much less to comprehend the processes of the compensa tion in the mystery of exhaustion and sup ply ; for the earth is a compound system of infinitesimal water ducts connecting with the main arteries or streams which flow through it and on its surface. But I have chosen the cumuli, as the most common of all clouds, as a starting point in the consideration of the phenomena of con densed vapors as observed in the air. It must be understood that in speaking of the cumuli as the most common, the remark ap plies to that zone area where tbe four seasons of the year are defined by the actual changes of temperature, and where the clouds vary most from one class to another. I doubt these being most common as we approach either the poles or the equator in any sea son. By observing the cumuli, it will be noticed that those driven up in the form of monuments or tall steeples, frequently break off at the top and topple over, the creet de scending like an avalanche down the sides. The fall is perceptibly slow, but it is much more rapid than we are apt to believe at the distance it is from us. The building, or car rying-up process of the pile of moisture, is due to the ascent of heated air below more especially in the reign of the dense volume at the base when the collection of moistures generate and give up vast quantities of heat. The tumbling of the upper pile results from a loss of equilibrium, due to the con densing and packing of a volume of vapor above its normal height. Electrical phe nomena often results from the condensing or vibration of molecules and pressure en suing therefrom. Nothing is more sublime in all nature than these electrical demonstra tions at times from the tops, sides or bases of these huge towers in the air. Some times instead ol toppling over and settling down the sides of these steeple clouds, the upper crest of vapors is pressed down, as it were, through the main body, giving it a more compact shape; and where a large collection of these gather in a given direction in the evening, we are reminded of volcanic groups pouring out fire and flame; especially is this the case, if, as the shades of evening gather over the heavens, we behold tbe electrical demonstrations that so frequently are seen from these groups of clouds in the distance. Where such a collection forms over our heads, the scene is quite different, for we are beneath the cumulo-stratus or the nimbus, and only are conscious of the effects as wit nessed at the base of tbe vast collection. At a distance from one point of observation the phenomena presents other, and, perhaps, often more Imposing appearances. But the cumuli are as often inclined to dissipate. They spread out into gause-like shapes, or are not unfrequently spun by the air currents into threads, some times like a knotted skein, some times In straight paral lel lines, and at other times in curled or folded fibres; and often these faint or airy threads die away until not a particle is left in view. This transition from a cloud to apparent nothingness proceeds frequently very rapidly. In this process of disintegra tion the particles either ascend higher or spread outward. They are never observed to descend, but the whole body of moisture is lost sight of in the separation of its vesicles Into Infinite numbers outward or upward. This is the explanation of the cirrus formation. We observe the cirrus as it ap pears in the disintegrated patches of other clouds, Invisible it may be for a time, but frequently reappearing in a clear sky upon the re-condensation of the moistures as they remain hidden in the atomic air interstices. The cirri, like the cumuli, belong to tbe primary division of the clouds. They are more conspicuous just before or after falling weather, and according to the law of their formation must be the most elevated as well as attenuated of all clouds. Carried upward in the ascent of warmer currents from be low, they rapidly radiate their heat and are congealed into frozen mist. So minute and transparent are the particles that they remain invisible, unless brought together they de scend to a lower air stratum. When any in crease of moisture by vapors from below causes these particles to unite and descend, they often settle down forming into the cir ro-stratus or cirro-cumulus. The cirrus is tbe haze cloud of our Indian summer. It not unfrequently deceives us in the distance as the sun goes down; for looking through its horizontal longitudinal mist we may im agine a cloud approaching which vanishes in tbe twilight of tbe setting day. We were only deceived by the bands of the cirrus, perspectively extending from horizon to horizon in longitudinal slopes. These are sure indications of rain, especially if the bands approach nearer and become denser in the evening. The shapes and appearances of the cirrus are varied. We see it sweeping above us like a huge feather, or spread out, ribbed at regular intervals like a fan. At one time it is the cat’s or mare's tail, hair- locks, trellis-work, etc., at another it lies in swirls like huge vortices, or rfses like a wave broken backward by the force that impedes its movement onward; or all these variety of forms of the cirrus may be presented at the same time. From its numerous appear ances of curled hair or threads it is called the curl cloud. When formed from what is left of original clouds we see the frame-work, as it were, of the primary formation; when coming into view from tbe dissipated parti cles of other forms of mlstures or vapors, it presents itself according to the quantity and direction of these vapors, and as it comes into sight its formation and movements in dicate the air currents and changes of tem perature going on. Not only are the longitudinal bands of the cirrus regarded as an indication of a change to wet after fair and dry days, but the weath er-wise think the waving-to and fro of the mare’s tail presages variable and falling weather; while after severe spells groups or threads of cirri indicate fair and pleasant days. All this is reasonable enough because we might expect the appearance of the cirri preceding foul intervals after fair or severe spells as the upper regions of the atmos phere, over-burdened with congealing va pors, not unlikely, and frequently do, reveal the fact in this manner first; while in pass ing from an interval of foul to severe weath er the disintegration of tbe lower strata of moisture is manifest in the cirri formation indicating a return to dry or settled weather. Nothing would seem more certain after very dry spells than rain indicated by the move ments of the cirri in the atmosphere wheth er in the shape of the mare’s tail or in thread like parallels; and after the exhaustion of the air by a precipitation of a great part of its moisture, nothing is more certain than the appearance of the cirrus clouds—the remnant of the dissipated vapors. I have observed tbe deep gray streaks of the cirri in the moon-light or star-light ex tend and contract suddenly, while the thin veil of their moisture spread out over head rose and fell in swells as if disturbed by some invisible force. These exhibitions only lacked the grand luminosity that gives viv idness to the aurora borealis to connect them with that phenomenon of the heavens. Not only in these features do we find in terest in the study of the cirrus clouds as distinct from all others, but in their transi tions from their primary form to the cirro- stratus their is much to excite wonder in their contemplation. It is then we have the marked and vivid exhibitions of those phenomena presented in halos, coronoe, para selenes, and some times parhelias or mock suns and moons, though the latter ate more often obscured as the stratus or nimbus is dissipated into tbe more attenuated cirro- stratus. And to these clouds we owe much of the beauty of breaking or closing day; for owing to their elevated position they hold tbe rays of the sun latest in the even ing and catch its first golden beams earliest in the morning. They tinsel the heavens in gaudy hues at early sunrise and give glory to the fading day ere evening twilight gath ers in the west, and oft as the sun quietly and serenely sets in a glow of light their zones of gray, blue aud silver threads, so well defined as to excite the wonder of the beholder, perspectively bind together the west and east in bands of beauty. Qxo. R. Cathbb. Aihville, Alabama. A beautiful eye makes silence eloquent; a kind eye makes contradiction an assent; an enraged eye makes beauty deformed. This little member gives life to every other part about us; and I believe the story of Argus implies no more than that the eye is in every part—that is to say, every other part would he mntllated were not its force represented more by the eye than even by itself. Two silk pocket handkerchiefs make a pretty tennis apron.