AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
205 
DULL CHILDREN. 
COMFORT TO PARENTS. 
The following, the last paragraph of which 
our readers will find to contain some excel¬ 
lent advice, is going the rounds of our ex¬ 
changes without credit: 
No fact can be plainer than this, it is im¬ 
possible to judge correctly of the genius or 
intellectual ability of the future man by the 
indications of childhood. Some of the most 
eminent men of all ages were remarkable only 
for dullness in their youth. Sir Isaac New¬ 
ton in his boyhood, was inattentive to his 
study, and ranked very low in school until 
the age of twelve. When Samuel Wythe, the 
Dublin schoolmaster, attempted to educate 
Richard Brinsley Sheridan, he pronounced 
the boy an “ incorrigible dunce.” The 
mother of Sheridan fully concurred in this 
verdict, and declared him the most stupid of 
her sons. Goldsmith was dull in his youth, 
and Shakespeare, Gibbon, Davy and Dryden 
do not appear to have exhibited in their 
childhood even the common elements of fu¬ 
ture success. 
When Berzelius, the eminent Swedish 
chemist, left school for the university, the 
words “Indifferent in behavior and of doubt¬ 
ful hope,” were scored against his name; 
and after he entered the university he nar¬ 
rowly escaped being turned back. On one 
of his first visits to the laboratory, when 
nineteen years old, he was taunted with the 
inquiry whether he “ understood the differ¬ 
ence between a laboratory and a kitchen.” 
Walter Scott had the credit of having the 
“ thickest skull in the school,” though Dr. 
Blair told the teacher that many bright rays 
of future glory shone through that same thick 
skull. Milton and Swift were justly cele¬ 
brated for stupidity in childhood. The great 
Isaac Barrow’s father used to say, that, if it 
pleased God to take away from him any of 
his children, he hoped it might be Isaac, as 
the least promising. Clavius the great 
mathematician of his age, was so stupid in 
his boyhood, that his teacher could make 
nothing of him, till they tried him in geome¬ 
try. Carracci, the celebrated painter, was 
so inapt in his youth that his masters advised 
him to restrict his ambition to the grinding of 
colors. 
“ One of the most popular authoresses of 
the present day,” says an English writer, 
“ could not read when she was seven. Her 
mother was rather uncomfortable about it, 
but said as everybody did learn with oppor¬ 
tunity, she supposed her child would do so 
at last. By eighteen, the apparently slow 
genius paid the heavy but inevitable debts of 
her father from the profits of her first work, 
and before thirty, had published thirty vol¬ 
umes.” Dr. Scott, the commentator, could 
not compose a theme when twelve years old ; 
and even at a later age Dr. Adam Clark, 
after incredible effort, failed to commit to 
memory a poem of a few stanzas only. At 
nine years of age, he who afterward became a 
chief justice in this country, was, during a 
whole winter, unable to commit to memory 
the little poem found in one of our school 
books. 
Labor and patience are the wonder-work¬ 
ers of man—the wand by whose magic touch 
he changes dross into gold, deformity into 
beauty, the desert into a garden, and the igno¬ 
rant child into the venerable sage. Let no 
youth be given up as an incorrigible dolt, a 
victim only to be laid upon the altar of stu¬ 
pidity, until labor and patience have strug¬ 
gled with him long enough to ascertain 
whether he is a “ natural fool,” or whether his 
mind is merely inclosed in a harder shell 
than common, requiring any little outward 
aid to escape into vigorous and symmetrical 
life. 
TOBACCO. 
“ Tobacco is an Indian weed, 
Itwas the devil who sowed the seed'’. 
We give below a few extracts for the ben¬ 
efit of tobacco chewers. They are worth 
reading, and pondering upon. They are 
made by Fontana, a distingushed chemist. 
He says: 
1. I made a small incision in a pigeon’s 
leg, and applied to it the oil of tobacco ; in 
less than two minutes it lost the use of its 
foot. 
2. I repeated this experiment on an¬ 
other, and the result was exactly the same. 
3. 1 made a small wound in the pectoral 
muscles of a pigeon ; and applied the oil to 
it; in three minutes it could no longer sup¬ 
port itself on its left foot. 
4. This experiment repeated on another, 
resulted in the same way. 
5. Fintroduced into the pectoral muscles 
of a pigeon, a small bit of wood covered 
with the oil, in a few minutes it fell insen¬ 
sible. 
6. Two others to whose muhcles I ap¬ 
plied this oil, vomited all they had eaten. 
7. Two others, with empty stomachs, 
treated as above, made all possible efforts to 
vomit. 
8. One single drop of this tobacco oil put 
upon the tongue of a cat, has produced vio¬ 
lent convulsions, and killed her in the space 
of one minute. 
9. A thread dipped in the oil and drawn 
through a flesh wound of a cat, dog, or any 
other animal of their size, will kill it in 
seven minutes. 
A Ladv Seeking Information. —The Low¬ 
ell (Mass.) News says : One day last week, 
as a train on the Lowell and Salem road 
was approaching the “ target” station at 
Wilmington, the conductor observed the tar¬ 
get hoisted, and the train was stopped. The 
person who had occasioned the stoppage of 
the train proved to be an elderly lady, who, 
on being requested to get aboard, replied— 
“ Oh, no, sir, I do not wish to go—I only 
want to find out at what time I can go to 
North Reading.” A fact. 
Explanation. —One of two gentleman re¬ 
cently conversing about the Natural Bridge 
of Virginia, remarked that there was an ex¬ 
traordinary incident connected with it, for 
Gen. Washington once threw a dollar com¬ 
pletely over it, an achievement which has 
not been performed since. 
“ No wonder,” replied his companion, “ for 
a dollar in those days could be made to go a 
great deal farther than at the present time.” 
Their Password. —By dint of great indus¬ 
try and sharpness, says an exchange, we 
have discovered the password of the myste¬ 
rious order of Know-Nothings. Here it is : 
“ Ktsimm-Ka-Knourumbummsinmus-Kellill- 
il-mpst-Ksamuiximiuxiuximux-Max-euxeex- 
Leughxque.” 
Broken Bones.— “ Mr. Witness, you have 
said that while walking with an umbrella 
over your head, you fell into this reservoir 
and was badly injured. Did you break any 
hones, sir, at that time?” “ I did, sir.” 
“ What bones ?” “ Whalebones, sir!” 
Miss Gilmore was courted by a man named 
Haddock. “ I only want one gill more,” said 
he, “ to make me a perfect fish.” 
Our “ foreign relations ” are in a very good 
state ; five thousand of them landed in New- 
York on Sunday. 
A Hint. —Wear your learning like your 
watch, in a private pocket, and don’t pull it 
out to show that you have one ; but if you 
are asked what o’clock it is, tell it. 
It is a great disgrace to religion to imagine 
that it is an enemy to mirth and cheerfulness, 
and a severe exactor of pensive looks and 
solemn faces. 
There scarce can be named one quality 
that is amiable in a woman, which is not 
becoming in a man, not excepting even mod¬ 
esty and gentleness of nature. 
They that deny a God, destroy man’s no¬ 
bility ; for certainly man is like the beasts 
in his body; and if he is not like God in his 
spirit, he is an ignoble creature. 
Voluntary rigor and torment is unnatural; 
and it is as ridiculous to hate cheap and 
easy convenience, as it is mad and foolish 
to purchase expensive and uncommon deli¬ 
cacies. 
Camphor has been discovered to be an an¬ 
tidote for that terrible poison, strychnine. A 
man who had been thrown into convulsions 
by two doses of the poison—one-sixth of a 
grain each, administered for the rheumatism 
—was relieved by twenty grains of camphor 
taken in six grains of almond mixture. Dr. 
Suddoek, in a letter to the London Lancet, 
claims to have made the discovery. 
Remarks. —Flour has fallen 50 to 62'} cts. 
per bbl. the past week. Corn has declined 
5 to 6 cts. per bushel. Wool is more firm, 
and a short supply on hand. 
Cotton, and other Southern products, a 
slight decline. 
The Weather is moderately cold for the 
season. Three inches of snow fell on the 
evening of the 3d instant. 
NEW-YORK CATTLE MARKET. 
Monday, Dec. 4. 
During the past week there has been nothing particular¬ 
ly noteworthy in the Cattle trade in this city. Thursday, 
the principal market day, was the one set apart for Thanks 
giving, and this probably influenced the market somewhat, 
though not materially. There w’ere a few more cattle 
1 156) offered at the Washington Yards than the week pre 
vious. The prices were about the same, viz : First qual¬ 
ity, 91c. to 10c. Fair quality, 81c. to 9fc. Inferior, 71c. 
8}c , and some poor animals as low as 61c., or perhaps 
lower. The general quality of the cattle was about medi¬ 
um, and the number in market 1,895, against 1,739 of the 
weekbefore. Of these, Illinois furnished 208; Kentucky. 
211 ; New-Jersey,6; New-York, 326; Ohio, 242; Pennsyl¬ 
vanians'-’; Virginia, 162. 
The Erie Railroad brought 4C0; the Harlem Railroad, 
333; the Hudson River Railroad, 300; the Hudson River 
boats, 150, and 712 came on foot. 
The question as to the general market day is still as un¬ 
settled as ever. The brokers fixed upon Thursday, and 
we had hoped, from the appearance on last Thursday, 
that this decision would be acquiesced in ; but on Friday 
a targe meeting of butchers was held, and it was then re¬ 
solved, with considerable unanimity, that every means 
should be used to restore the former day—Monday. We 
w'ere quite sorry to see so uncompromising a spirit mani¬ 
fested, especially since the chief aim of those desiring a 
change is to avoid the desecration of the Sabbath. Any 
other day would be preferable to Monday. We think 
Wednesday the most appropriate day, though there is no 
material objection to Tuesday’ or Saturday. As the case 
now stands, the butchers have resolved to attend on Mon¬ 
day, and pay cash for all cattle brought forward then, and 
not to visit the yards at all on Thursday. We think, how 
ever, that some of them will be there on that day. 
