AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
139 
their little friend who once supplied them with 
the Sun and Herald every morning. 
Perseverance .—It is the grand lever by which 
the most astounding results may be accom¬ 
plished. George Barrow, the author of Laven- 
gro says, “ Perseverance and a dogged deter¬ 
mination to conquer all difficulties, will invaria¬ 
bly make a man of the veriest dolt.” 
Do you hear that boys ? No matter how poor 
or ignorant you may be, perseverance, conjoined 
with virtue, will gain you both wealth and edu¬ 
cation. 
Capital for tiie Young. —It is a consolation 
for all right-minded young men in this country, 
that though they might not be able to command 
as much pecuniary capital as they would wish 
to commence business themselves, yet there is 
a moral capital which they can have, that will 
weigh as much as money with those people 
whose opinion is worth having. And it does 
not take a great while to accumulate a respect¬ 
able amount of this capital. It consists in 
truth, honesty, and integrity ; to which may be 
added, decision, courage and perseverance. 
With these qualities there are few obstacles 
which cannot be overcome. Friends spring up 
and surround such a young man as if by magic. 
Confidence flows out to him, and business ac¬ 
cumulates on his hands faster than he can ask 
it. And in a few short years such a young 
man is far in advance of many, who started 
with him, having equal talents, and larger pe¬ 
cuniary means; ere long our young friend 
stands foremost, the honored, trusted and loved. 
Would that we could induce every youthful 
reader to commence life on the principle that 
moral capital is the thing after all.— Token. 
--- 
A Cute Bor.— A little boy had a colt and a 
dog, and his generosity was often tried by visit¬ 
ors asking him—“just to see what he would 
say”—to give them one or both of his pets. 
One day he told a gentleman present he might 
have his colt—reserving the dog, much to the 
surprise of his mother, who asked: 
“ Why, Jacky, why didn’t you give him the 
dog ?” 
“ Say nothin’, say nothin’, mother, when he 
goes to get the colt, I’ll set the dog on him !” 
A Good Boy. —A touching incident occured 
recently at a steamboat sinking in the Missouri 
river. Among the persons swept overboard was 
a woman and a boy 12 years of age. A man 
upon the steamboat, seeing the boy buffeting 
the waters just beyond the boat, threw him a 
rope, and called to the little fellow to take hold 
of it He replied—“never mind me, I can 
swim—save mamma.” The little fellow, with his 
dear mamma, was saved. 
-»• «- 
Energy. —See how that fellow works! no ob¬ 
stacle is too great for him to surmount, no 
ocean too wide for him to leap, no mountain too 
high for him to scale. He will make a stir in 
the world and no mistake. 
_ Such are the men who build our railroads, 
dig up the mountains in California and enrich 
the world. There is nothing gained by idleness 
and sloth. This is the world of action, and to 
make money, gain a reputation, and exert a 
happy influence, men must be active, persever¬ 
ing, and energetic. They must not quail at 
shadows, run from lions, or attempt to dodge 
the lightning. Go forward zealously in what¬ 
ever you undertake, and we will risk you, any 
where, and through life. 
The Pure Breed.— “Are these pure cana¬ 
ries ?” asked a gentleman of a bird-dealer, with 
whom he was negociating for a “gift for his 
fair.” 
“Yes sir,” said the dealer, confidently, “I 
raised them ’ere birds from canary seed.” 
ISisaltoem 
HOW BOYS AND GIRLS ARE REARED. 
TO PARENTS. 
An article by Dr. Dixon, published in The 
Scalpel some time ago, is just now attracting 
some attention in the English papers. It is on 
the early decay of American women. 
We give (says the doctor) the girl two years 
the start of the boy, to make her condition 
equal to his at the outset. Both have endured 
the torture of bandaging, pinning, and tight 
dress at birth ; both have been rocked, jounced 
upon the knee; papa’d, laudanum’d, paregoric’d 
castor oil’d, and suffocated with a blanket over 
the head, sweltered with a cap and feathers, 
roasted at a fire of anthracite, and poisoned 
with the foul air of an unventilated chamber, 
according to the universal formula of some su¬ 
perannuated doctor or inexperienced nurse; 
probably both, for these people usually hunt in 
couples, and are very gracious to each other. 
We give the girl enough start to make up for 
the benefit the boy has derived from chasing 
the cat, and an occasional tumble in the hall or 
the yard, and the torture she has endured from 
her sampler and being compelled to “sit up 
straight,” and not to be a “ hoyden.” 
Our little couple start to school with such a 
minimum of lungs as the unnatural life they 
have led will allow, and a stomach that is yet 
fresh enough to endure bad bread, plum-cake, 
candies, and diseased milk. The reader will 
remember that Nature is beneficent, and will 
endure much abuse before she succumbs. Well 
they are off for school; observe how circum¬ 
spectly my little miss walks. Soon she chides 
her brother for being “ rude.” He, nothing 
daunted, starts, full tilt after a stray dog or pig; 
and though he often tumbles in the mud, and 
his clothes are spoiled, the result is soon visible 
in increase of lungs and ruddy cheeks. He 
cannot run without more breath; he cannot 
continue to run without increased dimension 
and power of lungs; he cannot have large 
lungs without good digestion ; he will feel well 
and thrive apace. 
They are now at school, seated on a bench 
without a back, and often with their legs hang¬ 
ing down, so that the poor back-bone has no 
earthly support. Thus sits the wretched child 
with book in hand, from nine till twelve o’clock 
and sometimes until three. The boy, with the 
aid of sticking a pin now and then in his neigh¬ 
bor, and' occasionally falling from his bench 
from pure nervous exhaustion, to the great 
relief of his half-stagnant blood vessels and 
torpid nerves, endures it until another merciful 
pig or dog-chase makes him feel that he is alive. 
But our unfortunate little miss is in a dis¬ 
tressed condition. She is charged to walk 
“ straight home,” where she is allowed to select 
her dinner from those articles that afford the 
least nutrition, such as pastry, cake, rich pud¬ 
dings, and apples. This, by the way, is her 
second meal of the same character, having 
taken one either at breakfast or lunch. 
After dinner, she either sits down at her 
sampler or piano, and in all probability finishes 
the day’s feeding with tea and preserves. She 
is then posted off to a feather-bed in an unven¬ 
tilated room, with the door shut for fear the 
little darling will take cold. A Nott’s stove or 
furnace keeps the upper chambers from 85 deg. 
to 100 deg., the feather bed and blankets retain 
all the heat of the body, and sweltering the 
wretched little creature lies till morning. What 
wonder she gets spinal curvature, or that there 
are actual deposits of tubercles in the body of 
her vertebrae or lungs. 
“My son,” said an old lady, “how must 
Jonah have felt when the whale swallowed 
him ?” 
“Down in the mouth,” was the hopeful’s re¬ 
ply- 
I CAN DRINK OR LET IT ALONE. 
“ I can drink or let it alone,” is a pass-word 
by which many young men have entered and 
become initiated into the lodge of intemperance, 
and have ultimately taken all the degrees, from 
the first social glass with a friend, when the 
bloom of health was on his cheek, the eye spark¬ 
ling and bright, the step firm and elastic, the 
head clear, and prospects for the future bright 
and flattering; from a time when a father 
looked with feelings of pride upon his son, and 
felt that the money he had expanded in his 
training and education had been well invested, 
and his name would be handed with honor to 
posterity—from the time, when a mother, who 
had watched over her darling boy so many anx¬ 
ious hours, and sleepless nights, and felt so 
much solicitude lest some lack of attention on 
her part, should cause sorrow or pain on his, 
was never douhly paid, as she looked upon him 
a man, feeling she had a staff to lean upon in 
her declining years—from the time when a sis¬ 
ter, with feelings of pride introduced to her 
friends and acquaintances, “My Brother ,—” 
down ! down !! to the time when that father’s 
grey hairs have been brought in sorrow to the 
grave—to the time when that mother had wept 
oceans of scalding tears over her wayward boy, 
and had only been borne up by the hope that 
she might yet reclaim him ere he was laid in a 
“drunkard’s grave,”—to the time when the 
sister had given up all her entreaties as fruit¬ 
less, and shuddered when she heard the name 
of “brother”—and, perchance, to the time 
when a wife, whom he had, but a few years pre¬ 
viously sworn at the alter to love, cherish and 
protect, and who had clung to him through 
every step of his downward career with a wife’s 
devotion, looked upon her husband and felt 
that she was more than widowed, and her chil¬ 
dren worse than orphans. With the excuse, I 
say, (that heads this article) of “ I can drink or 
let it alone,” more men have passed through all 
the degrees of intemperance, I have so poorly 
pictured, until they are laid in the churchyard, 
and have left in the minds of the community in 
which they lived the knowledge, (if not inscribed 
on their tombstones) that they were suicides, than 
any other excuse that was ever offered in exten¬ 
uation of the use of alcholic drinks. Young 
man! I know from observation and experience, 
that you cannot '■'■drink or let it alone." If you 
drink at all, you will drink as occasion offers, and 
the occasional “ social glass with a friend,” as 
you accidentally meet, will result in seeking a 
friend to drink with, and end in drinking as 
often as it can be obtained. 
The only safe course is, not to '■'■drink or let 
it alone," but to “let it alone." For one I 
shall do so, and the following are among my 
reasons: 
1st. I know it is injurious to my health, from 
this simple fact, if I had no other proofs, viz.: 
no person in a healthy condition can drink a 
glass of alcholic liquor for the first time without 
feeliDg an effect upon the brain and nervous 
system—in fact, without becoming to a certain 
extent drunk. Consequently any thing that 
throws the system out of its natural healthy 
action, must he injurious. 2d. I know that it 
is injurious to my character, because no respect¬ 
able man can be in the constant use of it without 
being sometimes thrown into the company of 
those far beneath him in morals and standing 
in society. “A man is known by the company 
he keeps,” and the natural tendency is to lower 
yourself down until the scales are evenly 
balanced with those who had been far beneath. 
I know it is injurious to success in business 
pursuits, because not an individual can be found 
who would employ a person in any important 
business transactions who is in the habit of 
using strong drinks; and on the other hand, the 
best recommendation is to be known as a “tem¬ 
perance man.” I know that it is injurious in a 
pecuniary point, because a moderate drinker 
who only takes his “ eye-opener ” in the morning, 
his '■'■eleven o'clock " in the forenoon, his “four 
o'clock" in the afternoon, and his “ night cap," 
