28 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



JULY a*, 1839. 



MISCtLLANEOUS. 



WONDERS AND MURMURS. 



BY HISS MALL. 



Strange that llie wind should be left so free 

 To play Willi a fluwfir or tear a tree; 

 To range or ramble where'er it will, 

 And US it lists be fierce qr still ; 

 Above and around to breathe of life, 

 Or to mingle the earth and sky in strife; 

 Gently to whisper with niornin;;'s light, 

 Yet to growl like a fi'tlcred fiend at night, 

 Or to love and cherish and bless to-day. 

 What to-morrow it nilhlessly rends away ! 



Strange that the sun should call into birth 

 All the fair flowers and fruits of earth. 

 Then bid them perish and see them die 

 While they cheer the soul and gladden the eye ; 

 At morn its child is the prime ofspring, 

 At night a shrivelled and loathsome tiling ; 

 To-day lliere is hope and life in his brealh, 

 To-morrow it shrinks to a useless death : 

 Strange doth it seem that the sun should joy 

 To give birth alone that it may destroy. 



Strange that the ocean should corne and go, 



With its daily and nightly ebb and flow — 



To bear on its placid bieast at morn 



The bark that ere night should be tenipest-lorn ; 



Or cherish it all the way it must roam. 



To leave it a wreck within sight of home ; 



To smile as the mariner's toils are o'er, 



Then wash the dead lo his cottage door, 



And gently ripple along the strand. 



To watch the widow behold him land. 



But stranger than all, that man should die 



When his plans are formed and his hopes are high ! 



He walks a lord of the earth to-day. 



And the morrow beholds him part of its clay ; 



He is born in sorrow and cradled in pain, 



And from youth to age it is labor in vain ; 



And all that se\ enty years can show, 



Is that wealth is trouble, and wisdom wo; 



That he treads a path of care and strife, 



Who drinks the poisoned cup of life. 



Alas! if we murmur at things like these, 

 Which reflection tells us are wise decrees — 

 That the wind is not ever a gentle breath — 

 That the sun ia<pften the bearer of de.ith — 

 That the ocean wave is not always still — 

 And that life is checkered with good and ill : 

 If we know 'tis well such change should be, 

 What do we learn from the things we see.' 

 That an erring and sinning child of dust 

 Should not wonder nor murmur, but hope and trust. 



SUICIDE OF A MATHEMATICAL MISER. 

 On Friday week, a coroner's inquest was held 

 over the body of Jeremiah Hallet, of Yarmoutli, 



who, on the 28th ult., killed himself by hanging. 



The deceased lived alone, and was sixtyfour years 

 of age the day the inquest was held. The deceas- 

 ed was a miser. To accumulate money he sacri- 

 ficed all the comforts and conveniences of life, and 

 even severed the natural ties of kindred. The get- 

 ting of money and the mathematics were the two 

 aubjects which engrossed all his tlioughts. In 

 youth and till 25 years of age, he was employed in 

 farming and the fisheries. When at school the 

 mathematics absorbed all his thoughts, and though 

 ia afterlife he was engaged in school keeping, and 



was once a member of the school committee of 

 Yarmouth, he was on all subjects but one, a very 

 ignorant man. 



At 25, in consequence of over exertion, he lost, 

 or imagined he h;id lost, his health. He went to 

 Boston, and though e.xtremely debilitated, he pre 

 ferred walking twice from the north to the' south 

 end of the city to find Dr Rand, rather than pay for 

 a carriage to carry him. By that physician's ad- 

 vice he was salivated, by which he lost most of his 

 teeth. Though apparently well, he believed him 

 self sick, and kept his room nineteen years, being 

 rarely seen excepting by the members of his fath' 

 cr's family. During this long period, he was al 

 most constantly engaged in the study of the math- 

 ematics. The floor of his room was sanded, as was 

 the fashion in those times; this he would brush 

 smooth, and mark thereon with his finger. The 

 walls were also covered with figures and diagrams, 

 After the decease of his father in 1819, he occa- 

 sionally ventured out of the house, though he did 

 not engage in any laborious employment, and was 

 careful not to be seen by strangers. 



For ten years he has lived a hermit's life. He 

 was master and mistress of his own house, the doors 

 of which he kept fastened, rarely admitting any 

 one. His numerous relations and friends in this 

 town are highly respectable and worthy, and have 

 been unremitted in their labors and entreaties to 

 induce him to change his course of life. 



He had one elegant suit, which he occasionally 

 wore, and his every day habiliments were as de- 

 cent as are generally worn by laboring men. His 

 charities never warmed the hearts of the poor. A 

 relative who yet survives, and is in destitute cir- 

 cumstances, once went to him when pressed by 

 want, for a few quarts of meal ; but he turned her 

 from him empty handed. 



'I'he deceased was a monomaniac. On all sub- 

 jects save the getting and saving of money, he was 

 of sane mind. He could not afl^ord to marry. — 

 Pride and avarice were with him antagonistic prin- 

 ciples. He was desirous of concealing his real char- 

 acter from the world — and therefore occasionally 

 aflfected, in dress and manners, the appearance of 

 a finished gentleman. He was vain of his mathe- 

 matical knowledge, as well he might be; for he 

 had devoted more hoiirs to the study of that sci- 

 ence than perhaps any other man living. He was 

 profoundly skilled in the science of numbers, and 

 could boast of greater proficiency in the higher 

 branches of mathematics, than any man in this part 

 of the country. The readers of the old " Farmer's 

 Almanac" will recollect his initials. He has solv- 

 ed all the mathematical questions published in that 

 annual, and has furnished foritniany original prob- 

 lems to puzzle the brains of adepts in algebraic 

 lore. 



During the last months of his life he was much 

 depressed in spirits, and at times in conversation 

 exhibited decided evidences of insanity. He be- 

 lieved that the real estate had all been set off' by 

 execution for the payment of his father's debts, and 

 that he should have to want. Those to whom he 

 in confidence gave this information, could not un- 

 deceive him. He said they might go to the Reg- 

 ister's office and satisfy themselves. He also a- 

 verred that his woodland had been advertised in 

 the newspapers, and sold at auction. He imagin- 

 ed that his relations were getting his other proper- 

 ty from him, and while fully persuaded of the truth 

 of this delusion, he committed suicide. 



To trace the succession of steps by which he 



descended from frugality to parsimony, and at la 

 became emphatically a miser, would be a subject 

 curious and instructive inquiry. Jeremiah Hall 

 would have been indignant had he been calli 

 while living, a miser. Feeding on tlie coarse 

 fare he called economy ; sitting without fire whi 

 his wood was rotting in piles, was with him fruga 

 ity ; and using a shingle for the double purpose 

 a fire shovel and bellows, was, in his view, a savii 

 of expense. — Yarmouth Register. 



.REVOLVING HORSE R.\KE. 



The Revolving RaUe which has been in general use 

 most pirts of Penn*.>lvania and KeiA Jerscj is found to i 

 one of llie most useful and labor saving machines now 

 use. One man aud horse with a boy to lead, will rake i 

 an average from 25 to 30 acres per day, with ease, and i 

 the work well. They are are coming into very general u 

 in all parts of the country, and will, no doubt, in a lew yea 

 supersede the use of the common hand rake. There is 

 great advantage in this rake over all others, as the persi 

 using it does not have to slop the horse to unload the rak 

 For sale by JOSEPH BRliCIK &. GO., 61 and 52 Nor 

 Market Street. 



GRAIIV CRfVUliES. 



The Grain Cradle is an arlicle winch is coming into vi 

 general use in the New England States, where they were 

 of late but little known, although they have been in vi 

 general use in the southern and western Slates, for ma 

 years, and which is-found to lie decidedly the best mode 

 harvesting grain, as it is supposed one man will cradle ( 

 acres in a day when he cannot reap more than one 1 



le by JOSEPH BRECK &. CO., 51 & 52 North Marl 

 Street. 



July 10. 



FINE CA1,P FOR SAI.E. 



A fine young heifer calf, from J. P. Cushing's celebi 

 bull. Enquire of JOSEPH BRECK & CO. 



DURHAM SHORT HORN Bl !>!,. 



For sale, a very fine Durham Short Horned Bull, ih 

 years old. For further parliculhrs inquire at the New K 

 land Agricultural Warehouse. 



Boston, June 12, 1839. 



THE NEW ENGLAMJ FARMER 



Is published every Wednesday Evening, al S3 per ann 

 payable at the end of the year — liut those who pay wit 

 sixty days from the time of suiiscribing are emitted to a 

 duclionof 5W cents. 



TUTTLE, DENNETT AND CHISHOLiW, PRINTERS 



17 SCHOOL STREET BOSTON 



