26 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[January, 
A TREACHEROUS 
[COPYRIGHT SECURED.] 
FRIEN D .—Drawn anil Engraved for the American Agriculturist. 
Few pets are more attractive at first sight than a cat 
and kittens, so tame, playful, and affectionate. But the 
picture shows the other side of cat nature, sly, murderous, 
and cruel. The poor squirrel, lately so full of life and 
frolic, has fallen a victim to the ferocity of the cat, and 
the whole family are in high glee over the poor mutilated 
body. This can scarcely be wondered at when we know 
that the cat is first cousin to the lion, tiger, and leopard, 
and when wild is itself a most ferocious creature. Its 
habits are much changed by domestication, but the cat 
nature remains, ready to show itself on every favorable 
occasion. The lesson of the picture is very plain : do 
not keep cats and squirrels together, and be as wise in 
keeping innocent children away from smooth, purring, 
cat-like, vicious companions, who will kill with a smile. 
Eight Acres of Music. 
Not long since a musical gentleman of our acquaintance 
purchased a small piano of the kind offered in our pre- 
mium list. His house is situated in about the middle of 
an enclosure of eight acres, and by listening in different 
parts of the field he found that he could distinctly hear 
the notes of the instrument when played on, from every 
part of the premises. Our young philosophers know that 
sound is caused by vibrations communicated to the air 
from a sonorous body, and conveyed to the ear, passing 
thence through the auditory nerve to the brain. Herei 
then, was the air over eight acres in extent, all tremulous 
when a single note was struck, the whole caused by the 
vibration of a wire less than three feet long. It is a 
pleasant thought that one can thus make acres of music. 
Without doubt all the fine motes of dust floating in the 
air felt the influence, and were set to dancing after their 
own fashion, to the music of the piano. We have wit- 
nessed something even more wonderful than this. A 
pleasant thought given out by some warm-hearted writer 
and sent vibrating through the land by the press has 
brought music to tens of thousands of hearts. Play on 
the pleasant strings, boys and girls, and let there be a 
continued and happy chorus ringing through the land. 
Wood Places for Boys. 
Dear Sir .'—I would like very much to get a place as 
clerk in New York. I am sixteen years old, and have al- 
ways lived on a farm. I understand arithmetic pretty well, 
and think I could give good satisfaction in a store. If 
you can help me get a place, it will be doing me a great 
favor. Yours respectfully, 
Many such letters are received here every year. We 
have not time to answer each one personally, and as the 
matter is an important one to many young readers, we 
give the following general answer. First, to follow the 
Yankee way of answering one question by asking anoth- 
er. Why do yon wish to leave the farm and come to New 
York? The answer in most cases is, " It's easier than 
working on a farm." Perhaps so. It is easier in one 
sense to be good for nothing than to be valuable to your- 
self and others ; it takes much less work— simply do 
nothing, and be nobody, is the rule. But the question 
to be looked at is, Will it pay to have an easy time and 
get little in return ? Those who succeed in the city must 
do it by hard work. Many a rich merchant in New York 
performs more real labor in a day and is more exhausted 
than the hardest, worked laborer on a farm. He does not 
exert his muscles as much, but his brain, which is the 
seat of power, is intensely active, and he wears out fast. 
Those who "take things easy" in the city get the same 
small return as the loungers in the country: so nothing 
will be gained in that respect. " But," say, or rather 
think, many boys, " they have such nice things in New 
York ; shows, museums, circuses, aud something going 
on all the time." Yes, there are thousands of ways for 
spending money for amusement here, all of which bring 
no profit, aud what is worse, too many of them are sur- 
rounded with danger. Thousands of the young are every 
year amused by the shows and ruined by their corrupt 
surroundings, for the drinking saloon and the gambling 
rooms are close by the principal places of amusement, 
and every temptation to enter them is held out. But 
furthermore, there are thousands of boys and young men 
born here, accustomed to city life, who stand ready to 
fill all the desirable places. They usually have the best 
opportunities, having acquaintances and friends to help 
them, so that a boy from the country applies for a place 
under great disadvantages. A siugle advertisement for a 
boy by a friend of ours was recently answered by more 
than two hundred applican ts. It is true that a few, per- 
haps one out of a hundred, who come to this city, succeed 
by long self-denial and hard work in gaining an inde- 
pendence, but it is not certain that even these are better 
off than they would have been to have used the same 
energy and worked their way up in the country. Work, 
patience, perseverance, honesty, brains, and energy, will 
win anywhere, and the farm where you have already 
made a beginning is equal to any other place for working 
out the problem of life. 
A Spendthrift was advised by a friend to buy a 
neglected farm. " Why," replied the former, " there's 
not a passable road through the whole of it." " That is 
the very reason you should get it." replied his friend; 
" it will take you longer to run through it." 
Some do first, think afterwards, and repent forever. 
