KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



247 



great goodness has so lavishly provided all that 

 heart can desire to make us purely happy. 0, if 

 our pen could only express what the hand that 

 holds it would gladly instil into it (ifpossible),then 

 would our readers know more of us, and of that 

 which we call " happiness." In July we shall 

 in many places (D. V.), personally explain what 

 here may appear vague. Propinquity adds a 

 charm to sympathy, and the union is then most 

 sweet !— \V. K. 



Simplicity in the Nineteenth Century. — A 

 few days ago, I was returning by train from 

 the Caledonian Road to Kingsland — " en route " 

 for my own dwelling. Among the passengers 

 was a stout and uncommonly jovial looking, 

 elderly matron, somewhat about my own age. 

 She was accompanied by her equally. portly, 

 jovial daughter, — " Priscilla," and I imagine it 

 must have been the first time they had ever 

 trusted their goodly personages to this rapid 

 mode of conveyance. On alighting at Kingsland, 

 the mamma began to shake her capacious dress 

 and arrange the sides of her enormous bonnet. 

 Miss Priscilla did the same. Neither of them 

 were votaries of the present style of bonnet, I 

 assure you. " Prodigious ! " exclaimed mamma. 

 " Awful ! " ejaculated Priscilla, — " Never was 

 so horrified in all my life ! " Just at that 

 moment, an empty coal-train rushed past. The 

 mouths of both were now wide open, and their 

 eyes staring with amazement. Presently 

 mamma looks at Priscilla, — " Bless my soul, 

 darling ! did you ever ?" — " No, ma, — I never did ! 

 What is that?" " Why, my loveliest, that bes the 

 express train." " I thought it was ! Oh dear, 

 I'm so terrified ! " In order to be quite certain, 

 mamma grasped the arm of one of the porters. 

 "B'aint that the express train, man ? " " That's 

 a coal-train — madam — " " Oh, wonderful ! — I 

 thought so. Here, Priscy dear, that was the 

 express train to Cole. You can tell aunt you've 

 seen an express train . B'aint you delighted love ? " 

 " I'm over pleased, ma. How lucky we are, to 

 have just met the express train ! I've heard such 

 a talking about those awful hinges, and now I've 

 seed one. Who would have thought we should 

 sec the express train to Cole ?" Here the portly 

 couple ascended the staircase to continue their 

 journey ; and no doubt they did astonish aunty, 

 with their great good luck ! — Bombyx Atlas, 

 Tottenham. 



Superstition in the South of Devon. — They have 

 a curious custom in this neighborhood (South 

 Devon), of firing into apple-trees on old twelfth- 

 night, in order to make the trees bear well in the 

 coining year ! During the greater part of the 

 night, you may hear the guns firing in different 

 orchards. I have in vain endeavored to ascer- 

 tain the origin of the custom, which is, doubtless, 

 very ancient. The only answer I can get is, that 

 it is a kind of entertainment the young men keep 

 up. Or, " it is a superstition." Yet are these same 

 farmers, who so readily designate it a superstitious 

 rite, very reluctant that their trees should lose 

 the benefit of it ! Perhaps some of your readers 

 can tell us what the superstition is. — A Clergy- 

 man's Wife. 



[Superstition is common amongst farmers. We 



remember a farmer in Essex, some 33 years ago, 

 who declared that his crops had been bad ever 

 since he left off going to Church once a month. 

 He remarked, that he must turn over a new leaf, 

 or his harvests would never he what they ought 

 to be!] 



Heat of Animals. — The heat of the human body 

 will raise the mercury of the thermometer to about 

 98 degrees. That of "other animals varies very 

 widely. The heat of some fishes and reptiles is 

 below 50, while that of some birds is as high as 

 110. The wolf comes nearest to man in this 

 respect, his heat being 96. The dog, cat, hog, 

 sheep, and ox, are from 100 to 103; the shark, 83; 

 the whale, 104; the house-sparrow and the robin, 

 sometimes 111, which is the maximum, so far as 

 we know. It is curious to observe that the Arctic 

 wolf has a reasonable advantage of 9 degrees over 

 the wolf of our own latitude. — W. P. 



Addressed to " Home Birds. 1 ' — Beauty, says 

 Lord Karnes, is a dangerous property ; tending to 

 corrupt the mind of the wife, though it soon loses 

 its influence over the husband. A figure agreeable 

 and engaging, which inspires affection without the 

 ebriety of love, is a much safer choice. The graces 

 do not lose their influence like beauty. At the 

 end of thirty years a virtuous woman, who makes 

 an agreeable companion, charms her husband more 

 than at first. The comparison of love to fire holds 

 good in one respect — that the fiercer it burns the 

 sooner it is extinguished. — Q. 



Use of Pond Mud. — Some three or four years 

 ago, as an experiment, we drew out of the bottom 

 of a pond, filled during the season with back-water 

 from the canal, but dry in the spring, about fifty 

 loads of mud, which was applied immediately to 

 the land. For the first and second years, it seemed 

 to prove a decided injury ; but after being turned 

 up with the plough, and subjected to the action of 

 frost for one winter, the beneficial effects began to 

 manifest themselves, and the best of our barn-yard 

 manures have not produced so heavy a growth of 

 grain ; and the effect promises to be permanent. 

 Probably a better way would have been to have 

 piled it up for one year, or composted with other 

 manure, or with lime. — R. Merchant. 



The Vowels. — Some six-and-thirty years ago, 

 a holiday was proposed to the boys at Eton on 

 discovering the two words, within a given time, 

 which contain all the vowels in regular order. The 

 answer was — " abstemiously " and " facetiously." 

 — Violet, Worcester. 



Consumption of Spirits, Beer, d'C. — A return 

 has been made up by the Board of Trade, showing, 

 " as far as can be given," the quantity of spirits, 

 beer, &c, consumed in the United Kingdom an- 

 nually. In the instance of beer, the return has been 

 calculated upon the quantities of malt and sugar 

 used by licensed brewers, deducting the beer ex- 

 ported ; there is no account of the beer brewed in 

 private families, and therefore the quantity really 

 drank must be larger than is here stated. But, 

 taking this return as the most complete that could 

 be obtained, we have the following account for 

 1853 : — 4,931,639 gallons of foreign and colonial 



