AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
235 
A WATCH. 
I have now in my hand a gold watch which 
combines embellishments and utility in hap¬ 
py proportions, and is usually considered a 
very valuable appendage to the person of a 
gentleman. Its hands, face, chain and case, 
are of chased and burnished gold. Its gold 
seals sparkle with the ruby, topaz, sapphire, 
emerald. I open it, and find that the works 
without which this elegantly furnished case 
would be a mere shell; those jnotionless 
hands and those figures without meanings are 
made of brass. Investigate further, and ask 
what is the spring by which these are put in 
motion, made of I lam told that it is made 
of,steel. I ask, what is steel! The reply 
is'that it is iron, which has undergone a cer- 
ain process. So then I find the main spring 
without which the watch would be motion¬ 
less, and its hands, figures, and imbellish- 
ments are but toys, is not of gold—that is 
not sufficiently good ; nor of brass—that 
would not do—but of iron. Iron is there¬ 
fore the only precious metal; and this watch 
an emblem of society. Its hands and fig¬ 
ures which tell the hour, resemble'the mas¬ 
ter spirits of the age, to whose movement 
every eye is directed. Its useless but spark¬ 
ling seals, sapphires, rubies, topaz, and em¬ 
bellishments are the aristocracy. Its works 
of brass are the middle class, by the increas¬ 
ing intelligence and power of which the 
master spirits of the age are moved ; and its 
iron main spring shut up in a box, always at 
work, but never thought of except, when it 
is disorderly, broke, or wants winding up, 
symbolically, the laboring class, which, like 
the main spring, we wind up by the payment 
of wages, and which classes are shut up in 
obscurity, and, though constantly at work, 
and absolutely as necessary to the move¬ 
ment of society as the iron spring is to the 
gold watch, are never thought of except 
when they require their wages, or are in 
some want or disorder of some kincl or other. 
Edward Everett. 
PARENTAL FIRMNESS. 
By this is meant that disposition, though 
at the greatest distance from all that is rigid, 
stern and.cruel, can master his own feelings; 
amid the strongest appeals to the tender 
emotions of mind, can inflexibly maintain its 
purpose, and in the way of denying improper 
requests, or administering correction can in¬ 
flict pain on the object of its affection, when¬ 
ever duty requires such an exercise of bene¬ 
ficial severity. For want of this disposition, 
of this fine and noble quality, how many 
have ruined their children forever by indul¬ 
gence. Those parents are sincerely to be 
pitied, who have not resolution and firmness 
enough to deny the requests of their chil¬ 
dren when they know them to be improper. 
Nor are they less objects of pity, who from 
ill-judged tenderness, withhold correction 
when it is known to be necessary. The 
children of such parents are objects of still 
greater commiseration. The consequences 
must be fatal as to the formation of a manly, 
virtuous character. I have heard a parent 
say—“ I love my children so well that I can¬ 
not punish them when they do wrong.” 
Strange love, indeed ! Had your child frac¬ 
tured a limb, what kind of affection would 
you express by saying that you loved your 
child so much that you cannot consent to allow 
the surgeon to operateu upon it 7 Hence your 
child must suffer the consequences of a de¬ 
formed limb all the rest of his life. And 
yet, I appeal to your reason if this course 
would not be more excusable than to let 
their temper and passions become perverse, 
because you have not steadiness enough to 
exercise judicious restraint, or inflict salu¬ 
tary punishment.— Hall on Education. 
FADELESS IN A LOVING HEART. 
Sunny eyes may loose their brightness; 
Nimble feet forget their lightness; 
Pearly teeth may know decay; 
Raven tresses turn to gray ; 
Cheeks be pale and eyes be dim; 
Faint the voice and weak the limb ; 
But though youth and strength depart, 
Fadeless is a loving heart. 
A Curious Anecdote of tiif. Rev. Sidney 
Smith. —Lady Cubebs had a great passion 
for the garden and the hot-house, and when 
she got hold of a celebrity like the Rever¬ 
end Sydney, was sure to dilate upon her fa¬ 
vorite subject. Her Geraniums, her Auricu¬ 
las, her Dahlias, her Carnations, Acacias, 
her Lillia Regia, her Ranunculus, her Mary- 
golds, her Peonies, her Rhododendron pro- 
cumbens, Mossy Pompone and Rose pubes- 
cens, were discussed with all the flow of hot 
house rhetoric. “ My Lady,” asked the 
Reverend wit, did you ever have a Psoriasis 
Septennes 7” “ Oh yes—a most b-e-a-u-tiful 
one. I gave it to the Archbishop of Canter¬ 
bury. Dear man ! and it came out so in the 
spring!” 
The Psoriasis Septennis, is the medical 
name for the seven years’ itch ! 
GOOD ADVICE. 
Eat only what is proper food; 
Drink only that which does you good ; 
Spend only what you can afford ; 
Lend only what will be restored ; 
Then you will have no cause to say, 
“ I was a fool on yesterday!” 
Steam Music. —A Worcester, Mass, paper 
says one of their ingenious mechanics has 
invented the art of rendering steam whistles 
musical—thus making those nuisances quite 
as ornamental as useful. What an im¬ 
provement that will be, when it comes into 
general use ! For instance, suppose we are a 
young married man (it requires some imagina¬ 
tion we admit) and have to leave the endear¬ 
ments of home for business elsewhere. We 
get into the cars feeling dreadfully if not 
worse—the bell gives the parting tinkle,-the 
wheels rumble slowly out of the depot, and 
at that moment the whistle strikes up, “ Oh, 
Susannah ! don’t you cry for me”—shouldn’t 
we be touched, and yet consoled l Then, 
further along, an ignoramus, as ignoramuses 
will, is seen walking on the track, and imme¬ 
diately, “ Git out of the way, Ole Dan 
Tucker !” startles him one side as promptly 
as the hiss of a snake, but still with 
an agreeable exhilaratton. But a dog 
is just to be run over—the thing is inevitable 
—but there is some consolation in “ Old Dog 
Tray,” played as a complimentary requiem. 
When not otherwise employed, didactic 
strains might be given as, “ Wake up, Jake ! 
the fire wants poking ”—or |the night train 
might soliloquize, “ We won’t go home till 
morning.” And one instance more—the 
young man, so ingeniously supposed above, 
having got through his business, is returning 
—as the cars begin to slacken their pace, 
what would be more touchingly appropriate 
than “ Home again, home again,” played 
with a forty horse power pathos 7 We have 
said enough—hurry up the musical engines ! 
SIMPLE TRUTH. 
There’s not of grass a single blade, 
Or leaf of loveliest green, 
Where Heavenly skill is not display’d 
Or Heavenly Wisdom seen. 
Self Dependence. —If you would have 
your son be something in the world, 
teach him to depend on himself. Let him 
learn that it is by close, strenuous personal 
application that he must rise—that’he must, 
in short, make himself, and be the the archi¬ 
tect of his own fortune. 
Rather a Mistake. —A friend of mine, 
was once present at the house of a French 
lady in Canada, when a violent thunder 
storm commenced. The shutters were im¬ 
mediately closed, and the room darkened. 
The lady of the house, not willing to leave 
the safety of her company to chance, began 
to search her closets for a bottle of holy 
water, which, by a sudden flash of lightning, 
she fortunately found.« The bottle was un¬ 
corked, and its contents immediately sprink¬ 
led over the ladies and gentlemen. It was a 
most dreadful storm, and lasted a considera¬ 
ble time; she therefore redoubled her sprink¬ 
lings and benedictions at every clap of thun¬ 
der and flash of lightning. At length the 
storm abated, and the party were “providen¬ 
tially ” saved from its effects, which the good 
lady attributed solely to the precious water; 
but when the shutters were opened, and the 
light admitted, the company found, to their 
horror, and the destructruction of their white 
gowns and muslin handkerchiefs, their coats 
waistcoats and pantaloons, that instead of 
holy water this pious lady had sprinkled 
them with ink.— Lambert's Travels. 
OUR COUNTRY, GREAT BY NATURE, GREAT 
IN ART. 
The greatest Cataract in the world, is the 
Falls of Niagara, where the waters accumu¬ 
lated from the great upper lakes, forming a 
river three quarters of a mile in width, are 
suddenly contracted and plunged over the 
rocks, in two columns, to the depth of one 
hundred and sixty feet. 
The greatest Cave in the world, is the 
Mammoth Cave, in Kentucky, where one can 
make a voyage on the waters of a subterra¬ 
nean river, and catch fish without eyes. 
The greatest river in the world, is the Mis¬ 
sissippi, four thousand one hundred miles in 
length. Its name is derived from an Indian 
word, meaning the “ Father of Waters.” 
The largest Valley in the world, is the 
valley of the Mississippi. It contains five 
hundred thousand square miles, and is one 
of the most prolific regions on the globe. 
The largest Lake in the world, is Lake 
Superior, four hundred and thirty miles long. 
The greatest Natural Bridge in the world, 
is that over Cedar Creek, in Virginia. It ex¬ 
tends across a chasm eighty feet in width, 
and two hundred and fifty feet deep, at the 
bottom of which a creek flows. 
The greatest solid mass of Iron in the 
world is the Iron Mountain of Missouri. It 
is three hundred and fifty feet high, and two 
miles in circuit. 
The largest Railroad in the world, is the 
Central Railroad of Illinois, which is seven 
hundred and thirty-one miles long—cost fif¬ 
teen millions of dollars. 
The greatest number of miles of Railroad, 
in proportion to its surface, of any country 
in the world—is in Massachusetts,’which has 
over one mile to each square mile of its 
area. 
The greatest number of clocks manufac¬ 
tured in the world, is turned out by the small 
State of Connecticut. 
The largest number of whale ships in the 
world, are sent out by Nantucket and New- 
Bedford. 
The greatest grain port in the world is 
Chicago. 
The largest aqueduct in the world is the 
Croton aqueduct in New-York. It is forty 
and a half miles long, and cost twelve and a 
half million of dollars.— Bridgeton Chron. 
How to do Good. —He who waits to do a 
great deal of good at once will rarely do any¬ 
thing. True greatness conststs in being 
great in little things. How are railroads 
built 7 By one shovelfull of dirt after another 
