568 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



right with employers to "determine" of 

 men who are ready to destroy the establish- 

 ment if it does not discharge its most faith- 

 ful hands or overlook the transgressions of 

 its unfaithful ones at their bid, will have to 

 stand in the background till workmen have 

 learned the duties they owe to one another 

 and to society. 



The " Profits" of Silk-Culture. We 



published an article, last month, entitled 

 " An Experiment in Silk-Culture," in which 

 the writer made it very apparent that the 

 business in this country, even when con- 

 ducted with the most painstaking care, is 

 likely to prove anything but a paying vent- 

 ure. Here is more testimony to the same 

 effect, from a correspondent of the " Chi- 

 cago Inter-Ocean" : " Had I a pen of fire, and 

 the sky for a scroll, and could I fly on the 

 wings of the wind, I would at once start 

 on my 'mission of mercy,' and, soaring 

 through space from our blue Susquehanna 

 to the mighty Pacific, I would inscribe in 

 my flight in burning letters across our land, 

 1 Let silk-culture most severely alone ! ' I 

 know whereof I speak. I tried it to per- 

 fection under the most auspicious and ex- 

 ceptionally favorable circumstances with 

 every means and appliance at hand for 

 1 clearing ' two hundred dollars in the six 

 weeks required to attend to the ' crop.' 

 Within thirty miles of a market for the 

 cocoons, with every surrounding the most 

 encouraging, my hopes were high but it 

 was all a dead loss of time and money and 

 work. It all ended in just forty-five cents 

 worth of cocoons ! I know how plausible 

 it looks and reads. I know the induce- 

 ments held out by silk-culture associations. 

 I know, too, that the whole thing is as 

 empty as a last year's bird-nest, and I, who 

 have been so severely ' burned,' would fain 

 caution others about going near the fire." 

 The "Boston Herald" takes the same view, 

 and is equally emphatic. It says: "The 

 pleasant romance about the money made by 

 girls throughout the country in raising silk 

 comes to us every spring in an Associated 

 Press dispatch, stating that the Agricultural 

 Department is distributing silk-worm eggs to 

 sanguine and enthusiastic applicants. When 

 these worms are taught to look after their 

 own sanitary arrangements, and, like the in- 



dustrious ant, to garner food for their rav- 

 enous appetites, then the question of giving 

 them the use rent free of some deserted 

 shed or barn, in the hopes of getting a 

 slight return for such worthless real estate, 

 may be considered. Until the habits of 

 these helpless and hungry paupers are im- 

 proved, however, we advise all those who 

 place the slightest value on their time and 

 patience to shun the industry (an industry 

 it is, with a vengeance !) as they would the 

 advice of a quack advertisement. A few 

 eggs will give one an entertaining and in- 

 structive lesson in natural history ; an ounce 

 of eggs will lead to trouble and vexation of 

 spirit, an exasperating expenditure of time 

 and patience, and absolutely no return, even 

 for the rent of a wood-shed." 



Parsee Children. According to a writer 

 in the " Westminster Pieview," when a child 

 is born in a Parsee family, the exact time 

 of its appearance is recorded, to a second. 

 On the sixth night of its life, paper, pen, and 

 ink, with some red powder and a cocoanut, 

 are placed at the bedside of the child, so 

 that "the goddess who presides over the 

 infant " may record its destiny. In a few 

 days an astrologer it does not particularly 

 matter of what religion he may be is called 

 in to cast the babe's nativity from the care- 

 fully recorded date of its birth. By the 

 light of this sort of horoscope, he announces 

 the names from which a choice may be made 

 for the child, according to their affinity with 

 the stars that were in the ascendant at the 

 time of its birth. The Parsees having no 

 fixed surnames, the son adds the name thus 

 given him to the name which was similarly 

 given to his father, dropping the grandfa- 

 ther's name which the father had assumed. 

 If he be named Ardeshir and his father was 

 named Framji, he becomes Ardeshir Framji. 

 If his child, again, be named Pestanji, he 

 is distinguished as Pestanji Ardeshir, and his 

 son, in the following generation, might be 

 Jehangir Pestanji. The Parsees possess in 

 all about forty-nine names of Persian and 

 twenty of Hindoo origin ; hence there are al- 

 ways many persons bearing identical names. 

 Further to distinguish between them, it has 

 become customary to take as an atak, or dis- 

 tinguishing suffix, the name of a man's call- 

 ing. So we may have Manakji Kavasji Su- 



