NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



343 



I)eautiful flannels, single milled doeskins and wool 

 black cassimeres of thorounh fabric. Of the rifles, 

 it is but just to say that they are among the best, 

 if not the best, of any rifles manufactured in the 

 world, the Americans claiming to excel in this 

 species of manufacture. They are made from the 

 best selected Copake cold blast forge iron, and are 

 of an unpretending style, but remarkable for a 

 plain, substantial, and perfect finish ; they are 

 strong, simple and thorough in their workmanship, 

 and eminently adapted for real service." 



MAKING HOOKS AND EYES. 



The N. Y. Evening Post has a letter from a cor- 

 respondent in Connecticut, from which we make 

 the following: interesting extract: 



Upon the premises we were shown the works of 

 the Waterbury Hook and Eye Company, where a 

 capital of $16,000 is employed in the manufacture 

 of liooks and eyes. Here were arranged long rows 

 of little machines about the size of small wash- 

 stands, under which a constant shower of these lit- 

 tle feminine conveniencies was pouring down, but 

 from what cause or by what agency it was difli- 

 cult to conjecture. Upon a closer inspection, a 

 large spool of wire was perceived revolving slow- 

 ly in its rear, growing shorter inch by inch in me- 

 chanical harmony with the machinery, while iron 

 fingers curiously articulated, were ready to grasp 

 the severed fragment, and pass it along from change 

 to change until it finally dropped into the recepta- 

 cle beneath, a perfect hook or eye, ready for use. 



For a moment it seemed as if each machine was 

 instinct witli life and intelligence. The power of 

 speech seemed to be all that was lacking to com- 

 plete the delusion. There were but four or five 

 men in the room who passed around occasionally 

 trom one stand to the other, to oil the machinery, 

 to supply new wire when the previous spool was 

 consumed, or to empty the vessels when filled by 

 the silvery shower. The whole performance more 

 resembled a voluntary process of nature than the 

 result of mechanical art. The duty of the super- 

 intendent of one of these machines, seemed curious- 

 ly alike to that of the gardener who plants his peach 

 stones, which, after many days, sprout, grow into 

 a tree, blossom and finally bear peaches, which 

 when ripe drop from their branches and are gath- 

 ered for use. 



A C0UR.A.GEOUS Boy. — In a town not far from 

 Boston, a clergyman was visiting a district school, 

 where a little boy was put forward by the teacher 

 to "speak a piece," because he was bold. When 

 he was done, the clergyman praised him by saying, 

 "Why, my little lad,v/ow are not afraid, are youV 

 "No, I aint afraid of nothin'; — I aint afraid of 

 skunksP ' 



(!^° Crimes shock us too much; vices almost 

 always too little. 



Caiiics' Pc]Jtai-tmcnt 



PROGRESS OF ARTS. 



The facilities of getting a broadcloth coat are 

 much greater in our days than in those of our fore- 

 fathers. 



"Among the anecdotes detailed by Dr. Bushnell, 

 in his sermon at Litchfield, Conn., centennial an- 

 niversary, illustrative of the age of homespun, was 

 one which deserves to be told by itself, and better 

 than we can repeat it. One of the aged divines of 

 that county, still living, was married during the 

 Revolution, but under singular difficulties. There 

 was an cbstacle to the wedding which seemed in- 

 surmountable. He had no wedding coat, nor was 

 wool to be had to make one, and it was in the dead 

 of winter. Yet all parties were ready, and he was 

 anxious to be married without delay. At last the 

 mother of the intended bride discovered the difli- 

 culty, and promptly had some of her sheep shorn 

 and sewed up in blankets to keep them warm; while 

 of the v.'ool she spun and wove a coat for her in- 

 tended son-in-law." 



DRAWING. 



There is, says the Home Journal, scarcely any 

 more remarkable diversity between ordinary per- 

 sona! accomplishments in England and America, 

 than in the extent to which drawing is cultivated 

 in the former country, as a usual accompaniment 

 of good education. It is rarely that a lady or gen- 

 tleman among us possesses any acquaintance with 

 design, except in the cases where there are chances 

 to be uncommon talent for art, or where the thing 

 is taken up somewhat professionally. There, it 

 enters into the accustomed routine of instruction, 

 and is so familiar an acquirement, especially on the 

 part of ladies, and in those circles where intellec- 

 tual attainments are at all extensively pursued, 

 that the absence of a capacity to sketch is rather 

 an exception than the rule. In fact, drawing is 

 cultivated among them as music is with us. We 

 should be glad to see it made, in all schools and 

 systems 'of education in this country, a regular 

 branch of liberal cultivation. It is a popular hut 

 very great mistake, to suppose that it is impracti- 

 cable and without use, to pay attention to the prin- 

 ciples and practice of design, unless there be a 

 special genius for art in the person concerned. 

 Yet we instruct young persons in literature, and 

 exercise them in habits of composition, where it is 

 neither expected nor wished that they should be- 

 come authors. We do it lor the purpose of re- 

 fining and expanding the taste generally, and of 

 afibrding accessible resources at all times for calm 

 and harmless and elevated enjoyment. As a means 

 of self-employment and refined gratification — which 

 is independent of society — which accompanies its 

 owner wherever he goes, and sets him secure 

 from ennui under any circumstances of privation — 

 an acquired taste for sketching ought to be highly 

 valued. And such taste and capacity as are need- 

 ed for enjoyment are as much matters of acquisi- 

 tion by any one of ordinary intelligence, as tlie 

 proficiency which we hourly see in all other 

 branches of accomplishment where there has been 

 no specific gift of talent. All young ladies are 

 understood to be proper subjects for instruction on 

 the piano, and all do acquire facility enough to 

 minister importantly to their own amusement, and 

 that of their friends, though, in a majority of in- 

 stances, there is neither an ear for harmony, nor 

 any superior sensibility to the effects of music. 

 A study of the scientific rules of drawing, and 

 some manual familiarity with the pencil, are of 

 great value for enlarging the perceptions, and 

 strengthening the enjoyment to be derived from all 

 branches of art in its high and varied signification. 

 For the just appreciation of pictures, of sculpture, 

 and of architecture, and fi)r the extension as the 

 sources of pleasure connected with them, and es- 



