£l)c Javmcr's iHontljly Visitor. 



CQ 



Rural Life. 



The primeval employment of man is (he most 

 healthful of all occupations ; healthful for the 

 body; the mind, and the sold. What other pur- 

 suit by which men ohtain honest bread affords 

 such vigorous training lor the physical powers, 

 such various and extensive ranges of mental ex- 

 ercises .- 



And where may the moral nature of man be 

 preserved unsullied from vice, and grow and ex- 

 pand more, than amid rural scenes and beneath 

 the purest air of heaven ? 



The fanner's life is not scratch, scratch, with 

 the pen — rap, rap, with the hammer — nor an 

 everlasting unpacking and re-packing of the 

 product of another's labor. lie walks forth uu- 

 der the open sky, his broad acres spread out be- 

 neath his feet; the blue concave, sunlit or starlit, 

 or shrouded in clouds, is slill above him. Health 

 claims him as her favorite child, and the glorious 

 sun loves to kiss a cheek that is not ashamed to 

 wear the rud ly imprint of such affection. Na- 

 ture's own inimitable music of babbling brooks, 

 birds, breeze, or rustling foliage, enters his ear 

 on its glad mission to his heart. He listens to 

 instructive voices, continually speaking from the 

 universe around him. His eye gathers truth 

 from unwritten pages of wisdom, every where 

 open before him. Each day, each month, sea- 

 son after season, year after year, these teachings 

 are given to him, infinite in variety, and endless 

 in extent. 



When, towards the close of a sultry day, the 

 summer's blessing comes pouring down, and as, 

 in the beautiful poetry of the sacred volume, "the 

 trees of the field clap their hands," and "the 

 valleys, covered with corn, shout for joy," the 

 farmer, retiring from his labors to the friendly 

 shelter of his collage roof, improves his leisure 

 boms w nli the treasures of written wisdom. So, 

 too, while his fields are sleeping beneath frost 

 and snow, what profession affords more available 

 opportunities for self-culture ? Where was the 

 lyric poetry composed that makes Scotland 

 prouder of her Burns than of all her ancient 

 race of war-like kings? Was it not between 

 the handles of the Mossgeil plough ? 



Of all the employments that busy men here 

 in this present state of existence, the cultivation 

 of the earth is distinguished as affording the 

 best opportunities lor an extended range of men- 

 tal discipline, for advancing in true refinement, 

 for social, rural, ami religious improvement ! 



And now, last of all, agriculture shall put forth 

 her highest claim. Of all men, the farmer alone 

 walks in the path where God himself first took 

 the created image by the hand and led the 

 way " to dress and to keep " his garden — the 

 earth ! Confiding in God, the husbandman 

 ploughs his fruitful fields, while the birds of 

 spring are singing praises around him. Buoyant 

 with hope, he scatters the seed upon the ground, 

 and gratefully receives the early and the latter 

 rain, coming down from heaven to give the in- 

 crease. And never did rational man yet apply 

 the sickle to the golden grain without some 

 vague idea of gratitude to God, the Giver of 

 harvests! 



Indeed, the husbandman's whole life, rightly 

 viewed, is a " walking with God." And though 

 thousands may not often think of this, and but a 

 few, even in any small degree, appreciate it as 

 they ought, nevertheless the assertion claims to 

 be true. — Downing's Horticulturist. 



GEORGE JAQUES. 

 Worcester. Mass., Dec. 1848. 



California.— Letter from Goto Smith. 



[From the Washington Union.] 

 A gentleman in this city has received a private 

 letter by the last steamer, dated at San Francisco, 

 from the gallant and mei itorious Major General 

 Persifer F. Smith, commanding the 3d, or Paeili- 

 ic division of the United States Army ; which, 

 although not intended to meet the public eye, 

 we ii'ceui so highly interesting that we have ex- 

 tracted several paragraphs for publication— the 

 gentleman yielding to our wishes in that respect. 



"You only think of California in connection 

 with gold ; and indeed a most wonderful eon* 

 nec.lion it is. As to the extent of the country 

 holding the precious metal, and the comparative 

 facility with which it is procured, there has been 

 no exaggeration. The whole slope of the Sier- 

 ra Nevada, on the western side, for a length of 

 more than four bundled miles, and in a belt of 

 at least forty, contains it in greater or smaller 

 quantities; and it may extend still further, as 

 further research is made. It is found simply by 

 digging and washing the earth; no expensive 

 machinery and no intricate chemical process are 

 necessary to develop the magic board. A pick- 

 axe, shovel, or even a butcher's knife, to loosen 

 the earth and stones, and the most simple basin 

 for washing, having been as richly rewarded as 

 the most approved machines from other coun- 

 tries. Good luck in the laborer choosing his lo- 

 cation, has more than compensated for want of 

 skill. The real difficulties be in the hardships 

 to be encountered in the remote, uninhibited 

 spols where the gold is found. Want of food, 

 overworking excited by success, bad water, ex 

 posit re, and dissipation, all combine to exact a 

 heavy tribute for the wealth when found. All 

 are not successful; but every one works on, hop- 

 ing that the next blow of his pick will disclose 

 a treasure that will surpass all he has hitherto 

 heard of. Many die unheeded, many come off 

 sick; but there are ten arriving from each quar- 

 ter of the globe to re-place every one who goes. 

 Chinese, Sandwich Islanders, Chilians, Peruvi- 

 ans, Prussians, Mexicans, French, English, out- 

 number as yet the Americans, hut the hitler will 

 soon have their share. Provisions, woolen 

 clothing, liquors, kitchen and mining utensils, 

 sell at enormous profits in the mines : other ar- 

 ticles scarcely sell at all. Women's gear is alto- 

 gether a drug. 



"The amount of gold hitherto found is hard 

 to determine. It is said about §4,000,000 have 

 been exported. I shall be able in a few weeks, 

 from facts 1 am collecting, to make some ap- 

 proximation to it. 



" In the mean time, all this is disastrous to us. 

 No servants are to he had ; $250 a month has 

 been refused in my presence by a cook. All 

 my servants have quit, and yesterday I engaged 

 one at $100 a month, because he was too sick to 

 go to the mines; but I shall certainly lose him 

 if he gets his health. 



" The quartermaster pays .$5000 a year for the 

 house I have, and it would make a poor toll- 

 house for a country bridge. The climate is cold 

 all the year round, and foggy in the summer. 

 The hills are hare and the country is all hills — 

 (forgive the bull.) The beef is execrable, and 

 vegetables — none; and nobody has time to catch 

 fish, if there are any — voila la carte. 



"Any one who will come here to dig gold, or 

 bring goods with him to sell to the diggers, will 

 make money. No other business will succeed. 

 Whoever comes must bring a house with him ; 

 there are hut few here, and lumber is $(J00 per 

 thousand." 



Science and Agriculture. 

 Look at the wide valley, With its snow-clad 

 summits at a distance on either hand, and its 

 glassy river flowing, cribbed and confined, in 

 lowest bottom. Smiling fields, and well-trimmed 

 hedge rows, and sheltering plantations and com- 

 fortable dwellings, and a busy population, and 

 abundant cattle, cover its undulating sloops. 

 For miles industrious plenty spreads over a 

 country which the river formerly usurped, and 

 he lake covered, and the rush tufted over, and 



bog and mossy heath and perennial fogs and 

 drizzling rains rendered inhospitable and chill, 

 But mechanics have chained the river, and 

 drained the lakes, and bogs, and clayey bottoms! 

 and thus giving scope to the applications to the 

 varied practical rules to which science has led, 

 the natural climate has been subdued, disease,, 

 extirpated, and rich and fertile and happy homei 

 scattered over the ancient waste. Turn to an 

 other country, and a river flows deeply through 

 an arid and desolate plain. Mechanics lift ill 

 waters from their depths, and form a thousam 

 artificial channels, directs them over its parche 

 surface. It is as if an enchanter's wand had 

 been stretched over it — the green herbage and 

 the waving corn, companied by all the industrial 

 of rural life, spring up as they advance. An 

 other country, and a green oasis presents itself, S 

 busy with life, in the midst of a desert and sandy 1 

 plain. Do natural springs here gush up ; as 

 the ancient oasis of the Lybian wilderness ? I 

 is another of the triumphs of human industry, 

 guided by human thought. Geology, and h 

 sister sciences, are lire the pioneers of rural 

 life and fixed habitations. The seat of hidden 

 waters at vast depths was discovered by her. 

 Under her directions mechanics have bored ti 

 their sources, and their gushing abundance no 

 spreads fertility around. Such are more setisi 

 hie and larger triumphs of progressing ru 

 economy — such as men may boast of — not only 

 in themselves hut in their consequences, and v i 

 these may take their place wilh the gigantic ves-J 

 sel of war, as magnificent results of intellectual, _ 

 effurt. — Blackwood's Magazine. ( .. 



Brady's Leap. 



Much has been said and written about McCul 

 lough's leap, when pursued by the Indians near 

 Wheeling, Va., hut, says the Detroit Bulletin, in 

 temerity it does not exceed that of Capt. Brady, 

 who was celebrated in his day for his gallant 

 feats upon the hostile savages along the frontier 

 of Pennsylvania. The Bulletin relates the story 

 as follows : ** 



Approaching one of the forests occupied by 

 the Americans, one day, Capt. Brady discovered, 

 when too late to avoid it, that the savages bad 

 laid an ambuscade for him. In front, near the 

 left, large numbers of armed warriors lay con- 

 cealed, watching for their prey. 



As Brady approached, and got within the am- 

 buscade, the Indians in the rear closed in behind 

 him. He was surrounded on three sides, and 

 on the fourth ran a river, the bank of which was 

 eighty feet of nearly perpendicular descent. 

 The savages felt sure of their prey, and rushed ' 

 furiously on. |j 



Brady saw at once the extent of his danger, I 

 hut being mounted on a high mettled horse, he 

 resolved not to be taken alive. He reined his/i 1 

 horse toward the bank, and gave him the spur • 

 and rein ; the gallant charger went off like an 

 arrow, and approached the bank with such tre- 

 mendous speed that be could not stop on the 

 margin, and with a furious bound sprang off, 

 rider and all, into the air. 



Fortunately there grew a large crab apple tree 

 at the foot of the bluff, on the border of the riv- 

 er. The bushy top was thickly interlaced with 

 a wild grape-vine, and into the top of the tree 

 fell the horse and its rider. The fall was com- 

 pletely broken ; the captain toppled into the 

 stream, reached the opposite shore amid a show- 

 er of bullets, and marched off in salety. 



Boys. — If you have a family of boys, do not 

 permit them to lounge about the stores and sta- 

 bles, where they can scarcely fail to contract vi- 

 cious habits, hut keep them at work. They 

 may think you a hard father, but should they 

 live to become men they will bless you for eveiy 

 hour's labor you compelled them to perform. 

 .Many a youngster has been ruined by a neglect 

 on the part of his parents to provide him with 





*\ 



, 



