€l)c -farmer's ittowtljhj llisitor. 



173 



single small paragraph. It depends much upon 

 the individual aimed nt, whether die sting of » 

 sarcasm or slander sliall rankle or lie harmless. 

 It it were not so, authors, actors, politicians ami 

 public men generally would have a most misera- 

 ble life of it, tor their reputations are generally 

 considered a common target lor every critic and 

 slanderer to shoot his arrows at. It is astonish- 

 ing how much newspaper abuse a man can stand 

 without sufleiing in the esteem of his friends or 

 the public, or finding his own temper fretted, af- 

 ter hfi once gets used to it. Most editors have 

 experienced this truth, and there are very few of 

 them who cannot extract an infinite deal ol 

 amusement from paragraphs that would drive 

 more sensitive persons mad. — Public Ledger. 



Isaac Babbitt. 



Who is Isaac Babbitt? lie is a Boston man 

 of the self-made, Ben Franklin sort. A solid, 

 substantial, lion-like, wholesome looking man 

 fifty or so, and flourishing. He started in life 

 there as a watch-maker and goldsmith, in which 

 be succeeded well. Feeling that too close ap- 

 plication was injuring his health, he set himself 

 about some chemical experiments, which requir- 

 ed more action and resulted in the manufacture 

 of Britannia ware, which he established in this 

 town. His improvements in this important arti- 

 cle of domestic use soon drove the British ware 

 almost entirely out of the market, and excited 

 the wonder and astonishment of the London 

 manufacturers. Finding, as is too common with 

 inventors, that the profits of his improvements 

 were mostly the prey of others, he applied him- 

 self to brass founding, in which his success was 

 so marked that it attracted the attention of Mr. 

 Alger, the South Boston Founder, who took a 

 large contract of casting cannon for government, 

 relying upon Mr. Babbitt's skill to carry him 

 through it. His confidence was not misplaced, 

 for Mr. Babbitt succeeded in obviating the diffi- 

 culties of the business and casting of several 

 hundred pieces of heavy bronze ordnance of an 

 excellence never before attained. 



He next turned his attention to the reduction 

 of friction in heavy machinery. Friction is the 

 great destroyer of motion, and foe of engines. 

 Nature, in her machines, has taken wonderful 

 pains to guard against it. She not only supplies 

 a nice Inhiciating fluid, the sinovium, to all the 

 joints of her animals, but she sheathes the artic- 

 ulations with a very smooth coating, called a 

 cartilage. Were the bones allowed to rub and 

 grind together, they would, by any rapid motion, 

 burn through and set the animal's fat on fire. A 

 race horse, running his mile in two minutes, 

 without cartilages, would set himself in a blaze. 

 But who shall give cartilages to the Iron Horse ? 

 Mr. Babbitt has done it. It has been long 

 known that any metal runs easier on another 

 than on itself. But it remained for Mr. Babbitt 

 to discover an alloy of soft metals which being 

 confined in the journal boxes by a lip or fillet of 

 the hard metal, admirably serves the purpose of 

 a cartilage. With this lining the journal may fit 

 perfectly snug, and runs with very little oil, and 

 almost no heat or friction. The locomotive 

 which, on the old plan could only run eight or 

 ten thousand miles before its boxes were worn 

 out, can now run eighty thousand, and be as 

 good as new, or if by any accident the lining 

 should get out of order, it can be cheaply re- 

 placed. The saving of power, though not a very 

 large per centage, is of immense importance in 

 the aggregate ; even the saving of sixty percent, 

 of the oil, which it effects, amounts to an annual 

 fortune on any railroad. This alloy consists ol 



id' antimony. It has been adopted by the gov- 

 ernment of the United Slates, and its use is very 

 extensive in Europe. In fact, it marks a new 

 era in machinery. 



The happy competence which this great in- 

 vention has secured to Mr. Babbitt, has hy no 

 means seduced him from his labors in practical 

 science. With his new means he has set him- 

 self to the task of improving the great staple 

 comforts of life. Cleanliness is a most import- 

 ant condition of health, comfort, and intellect, and 

 by practical chemical inquiry Mr. Babbitt has el- 

 fected a most decided and palpable improvement 

 in the means of securing it, so that the engineer 

 will find as much advantage in "babbitting" 

 himself as his engine. The preparation which 

 Mr. Babbitt calls the " Cylherean Cream of Soap,'' 

 little as it may excite observation, and much as 

 it may sound like the thousand and one trumpe- 

 ry cosmetics that crowd the belle's or the dan- 

 dy's toilet table, is really an era in general do- 

 mestic happiness, a victory over one of its 

 fellest foes, and a blessing in store for the daily 

 life of every body. It is a perfectly effectual pu- 

 rifier without being a destroyer. It seizes every 

 particle of filth, excretion or miasma which may 

 attach to the coarsest or most delicate skin, and 

 carries it off leaving the wonderful tissue as 

 bale and beautiful as if fresh from its Creator, 

 and diffusing through the whole form the glow 

 of a new life. 



On such a subject, of course, we can produce 

 nothing like conviction in advance of experi- 

 ence. But curiosity will lead to experience and 

 experience to increased comfort every where, in 

 the almost religious ordinance of daily ablution. 

 As Mr. Babbitt's name is already incorporated 

 among the common nouns and verbs of the 

 English language, and is likely to become a 

 household word, we have thought this sketch 

 of the man and his doings might be interesting. 

 Taunton Daily Gazette. 



A Change for the Worse. 



In this age of general progress, there are some 

 changes which are not improvements! Among 

 these, we are disposed to regard the increasing 

 neglect oflndiau corn and rye its articles of food, 

 and the substitution of southern and western 

 flour instead. We would not advocate any 

 change whereby our farmers or their families 

 would be deprived of any of the substantial com- 

 forts of life, or of the indulgence in any health- 

 ful luxuries within their means. The coarser 

 fare which our good grandmothers so skilfully 

 prepared, was partaken of with its keen a relish, 

 and was as healthful as any of the more fashion- 

 able articles in modern cookery. A lady corres- 

 pondent of the Boston Cultivator has taken the 

 pen as the champion of Indian corn, having, as 

 she says, "a very feeling sense of the neglect, as 

 an article of food, into whicli it is falling." Af- 

 ter speaking of the change we have mentioned, 

 and describing the baked Indian pudding, which 

 she considers the most delicious of all dishes, 

 she thus continues : 



"Speaking of that old farm-bouse, and its 

 baking days, I can't help repeating the remarks 

 of one of our country girls, who, after several 

 years of city life, came home, to " rusticate," and 

 bring hack a bloom to her delicate cheek, by the 

 country fare of baked apples and milk, brown 

 bread, pumpkin pies, and " pudding and beans." 



" Why, grandfather," said she, "don't you raise 

 any corn now ?" 



"Corn," exclaimed the old gentleman, " why 

 certainly Polly — Mary, I mean. Don't you see that 

 field ? There aie. four acres of as stout corn as 

 ever grew on the place, and out heyond tin- 

 house are seven more." 



" Well, what do you do with it all • 



Why, we use some, keep a part of it for the 

 eighty-six parts of tin, four of copper, and eight stock, and the rest is sold." 



" Or, in other words, you carry it to market 

 and exchange it for wheat flour." 



The old gentleman stared, but she went on. 



" It (hui'l seem a hit lien: as it used to. I could 

 always find brown bread enough in the buttery, 

 but now it is all wheat loaves and pies, and I 

 came home mi purpose to get away from tlirin. 

 I should like some hasty pudding and corn-cakes 

 and brown bread." 



Now, my dear reader, the woman was half 

 right. The limes are changed, and I don't be- 

 lieve, in this respect, for the belter. A few 

 weeks ago, tit the table of a substantial fanner, 

 the mistress of the house absolutely apologized 

 to me for the appearance of some brown bread 

 on the dinner table. Said she. " we bake a loaf 

 once in a while, for the men-folks like some 

 with their meat." 



She was ashamed of it, when, in fact, she 

 ought to have beet) ashamed of its quality. I 

 could make heller brown bread myself. 



Hasty pudding I rarely find at our farmers' ta- 

 bles. Do not the good wives know that it is 

 the best of food, ami that fried hasty pudding is 

 one of the nicest dishes ever put on the breakfast 

 table? Or, have they ever had the good fortune 

 to meet with certain little cakes, brown and crisp, 

 known as fried bannochs? Or, do they ever in- 

 dulge their taste by baking on a plate before the 

 fire, one of the real, old fashioned, flat bannochs, 

 made of sweet milk and Indian meal ? or, do 

 they know how to bake those nice little bannochs, 

 known as corn cakes ? 1 fear not. These things 

 are out of fashion. Our grandmothers used to 

 make them, but we scorn such things. We can 

 make waffles, and lemon pies, and wafers, ami 

 buns, and soda bread, and cold water gjugerbread. 

 We should need receipts to make bread and 

 puddings of Indian meal. And plenty of receipts 

 can he bad in the cook hooks, receipts that would 

 make a substantial cook indignant, so many are 

 the ingredients to he used — eggs, and sugar, and 

 butter, and spice. I recently met with a recipe 

 (or receipt, if you choose to have il) for making 

 an Indian pudding, when a pint of molasses was 

 to he put in two quarts of scalded milk. It made 

 me think of the good woman, who, honored by a 

 visit from her minister, was pulling a quantity of 

 West India molasses into his tea. The good 

 man begged that she would desist, saying that 

 he did not care about any, but she had certainly 

 given him enough. 



"Oh," simpered the good woman, " if it was 

 all molasses it would not be any too good for 

 y°"" _ => 



Rise from a Humble Condition. 

 In a speech delivered by the Hon. and Rev. 

 the Dean of Ripon, at a late soiree of the Me- 

 chanics' Institution, Leeds, a few passages occur 

 worthy of being widely circulated: — 



"I like to think with pleasure, and satisfaction, 

 and wonder, of the extraordinary advancements 

 which in the providence of God, particular indi- 

 viduals have made, who have just been able to 

 apply the operations ol their minds according as 

 they" were able to exercise them, and thereby to 

 place themselves in extraordinary positions both 

 in relation to their own prosperity and to the ad- 

 vantage of the country. It may lie a very familiar 

 subject, but it is one whicli 1 do like to think of, 

 and I will just allude to it. There was a young 

 man who was the youngest of thirteen children, 

 and his father a very poor man; and the best his 

 fat: er could do with him was lo apprentice him 

 tu a barber. In teat humble and praiseworthy 

 class of public life, that respected ilidit idual de- 

 meaned himself honorably, as long as he chose 

 to continue in it. He then bestowed bis care 

 and enterprise upon preparing the beautiful hair 

 of our heads — improving it to that degree that it 

 should be til 10 make a wig of. In that he ex- 

 celled also. Then, gentlemen, be betook himself 

 to a weed which 1 have seen, and which is a little 

 more than like a weed — I mean the cotton plant 

 of Carolina. He betook himself to improve ihu 



manufacture of cloth made out of thai weed. He 

 gained a great success, adding merely to the ac- 

 quirements which he possessed— which you may 

 suppose were slender— the knowledge which lie 

 could pick up by associating with his Iclloyv- 

 meti, he gained that success whicli enabled him 

 to decide'lhe ware of the linen and the colton, 



