POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



717 



(lerbrush and the dead leaves on the ground. 

 In these cases the board suggests clearing 

 away the brush and the worthless trees and 

 careful burning over the ground. When the 

 work was first begun it was thought that the 

 moth occupied only a small part of one 

 town. It was, however, shown that it infested 

 thirty towns and cities. As the moth mul- 

 tiplies rapidly and eats everything that is 

 foliage, leaving nothing behind, the danger 

 arising from its presence is really a matter 

 of national importance. 



Superstitions about Snakes. In his refu- 

 tation of Some Superstitions about Snakes, 

 Dr. Arthur Stradling tells of a " weirdly hor- 

 rible " fancy of the Singhalese Tamils, that 

 every time the cobra di capello bites and 

 expends its venom after it has attained its 

 full length, it loses one joint of its spine. 

 The process of curtailment goes on until the 

 whole body has disappeared, with the ex- 

 ception of the head and hood, both of which 

 have undergone a sort of compensating en- 

 largement, while the mouth has widened 

 until the face of the reptile presents the as- 

 pect of a malignant toad. With increased 

 death-dealing powers, the exercise of which 

 subjects it to no further penalty, it now be- 

 takes itself to an aerial mode of life, flying 

 by the flapping of its extended sides after 

 the manner of a bat. A somewhat similar 

 fable is heard among the natives of Bengal, 

 who furthermore declare that this square- 

 winged fiend is the only snake that refuses 

 to be frightened away when the name of the 

 king of the birds (Garuda) is called aloud in 

 its hearing, and that the docking of the ver- 

 tebrae corresponds to the number of human 

 lives which the cobra has sacrificed in former 

 days. This superstition is curiously akin to 

 that held by the settlers in many parts of 

 America, to the effect that the rattlesnake 

 acquires a new thimble to its rattle for every 

 man it kills. 



Cruelty to Children. From the report of 

 the English National Society for the Preven. 

 tion of Cruelty to Children it appears that 

 poverty and large families are not a com. 

 mon cause of cruelty. On the contrary, the 

 worse the cruelty the better, on an average, 

 were the wages of the cruel parent and the 

 fewer the children to whom the cruelty was 



displayed. The report further shows that 

 the effect of warnings and even of prosecu- 

 ;ion and conviction on cruel parents is not to 

 nflame their passions against the children 

 who have been the occasions of their alarm 

 and punishment, but to increase the regard 

 of the cruel parent for the children, and for 

 those who interfered to protect them. The 

 cruel parent becomes less cruel when he 

 finds that the law concerns itself with his 

 hildren, and often seems to discover that 

 there is a good deal more to like and respect 

 in the children who had been cruelly treated, 

 and in those who took the children's part, 

 than he had perceived before. Summing up 

 the domestic effects of a visit of the society's 

 inspector, a mother said to one of the secre- 

 taries of the society, " It is like courting over 

 again." In other words, as an English jour- 

 nal views the case, the woman had risen in 

 the estimation of her husband as soon as he 

 found that the law and public opinion of 

 the neighborhood were on her side. Instead 

 of increased irritation against his wife for not 

 siding with him, he felt her to some extent 

 raised above him, and began to see her with 

 new eyes as a person whose approbation it 

 was worth while to gain. The prevalence of 

 cruelty among well-to-do parents rather than 

 among the lowly is, perhaps, to be explained 

 on the same principle. Cruelty is favored 

 by the sense of arbitrary power, and by the 

 absence of any feeling of responsibility to 

 others. Anything that stimulates the sense 

 of irresponsibility and independence in- 

 creases cruelty ; anything that diminishes that 

 sense, anything that brings home to the 

 heart the feeling of a social or physical 

 yoke, diminishes it. 



Steamboats on Long Island Sound. 



From a Review of the Past and Present of 

 Steam Navigation on Long Island Sound, 

 published by the Providence and Stonington 

 Steamship Company, it appears that experi- 

 ments to move steamboats were made by sev- 

 eral persons toward the end of the last cen- 

 tury on the Hudson and the Delaware. John 

 Fitch's was the first, and his skiff, rowed by 

 oars or paddles on the sides, moved by cranka 

 worked by steam machinery, was publicly 

 tried on the Delaware, July 27, 1786. An 

 amazing contrast is presented between its 

 portrait and those of the Stonington line's 



