AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
311 
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USEFUL HINTS ON MATRIMONY; 
No woman will be likely to dispute with us 
when we assert that marriage is her destiny. A 
man may possibly fill up some sort of an exist¬ 
ence without loving; but a woman with nothing 
to love, cherish, care for, and minister to, is an 
anomaly in the universe—an existence without 
an object. It is as natural for a woman to have 
some one to look to for protection, some one to 
look to for advice and assistance, as to breathe. 
Without it, no woman ever was or can be happy. 
It is the want of her nature, and nothing can 
satisfy her heart with such a void unfilled. 
Now, with the exception of some occasional 
irregularities in the relative proportions of the 
sexes, produced by circumstances, such as the 
settlement of new countries, there is no reason 
why every man should not have a wife, and 
every woman a husband,, and this would easily 
be brought about by the exercise of common 
sense, and less ambition. Each sex is looking 
up for something above its own sphere. The 
son of an industrious and successful mechanic 
must be a professional man, instead of following 
in his father’s foot-steps; and this is folly the 
first. When he looks for a wife, the neat, in¬ 
dustrious daughter of a mechanic like his father 
is not good enough for him; he must make love 
to some fine lady, who is one age in advance— 
that is, her grandfather was a mechanic instead 
of her father, a very aristocratic distinction. 
On the other hand, the girl who works for her 
living, earning by her honest labors, would not 
deign to encourage the addresses of a laboring 
man; she would set her cap for a gentleman, 
forsooth. The mechanic’s daughter, educated 
on her father’s earnings to be a fine lady, en¬ 
courages the attentions of a set of fops and 
danglers, who drive honest men away from her 
in disgust, and she becomes the victim of some 
sorry sharper or shallow fool. Now, this is all 
wrong—deplorably, wretchedly wrong. Girls 
should know that men superior to themselves in 
education and position do not always associate 
with them for good. Men should know that by 
marrying girls educated in habits of life above 
their fortunes they are not likely to have good 
wives. A little sound sense will enable any 
man to see that it is better to have a wife grate¬ 
ful for more than she expected, than grumbling 
at less. It is delightful going up the hill of for¬ 
tune ; but horrible, jolting, aggravating work to 
come down.— Home Companion. 
Acts of Love. —Each one of a thousand acts 
of love costs very little by itself, and yet, when 
viewed altogether, who can estimate their value ? 
What is it that secures for one the name of a 
kind neighbor? Not the doing of half a dozen 
great favors in as many years, but the little 
every-day kindnesses, neither of which seems of 
much consequence considered in itself, but their 
continued repetition throws a sunlight over the 
whole neighborhood. It is so, too, in the family. 
The child whose good offices are always ready 
when they are wanted—to run up stairs or 
down—to get chips or rock the cradle, or to run 
on an errand and “ r ight back”—and all with a 
cheerful look and pleasant temper, has a reward 
along with such good deeds. If a little girl 
cannot take her grandfather on her lap, as he 
takes her on his, she can get his slippers, or 
put away his book, or gently comb his thin lock; 
and, whether she thinks of it or not, these 
little kindnesses, that come from a loving heart, 
are the sunbeans that lighten up a dark and 
woful world.— Child's Journal. 
_ Soulless. —Out West, a stump orator, descri¬ 
bing his opponent said: 
“I have heard some persons hold to the opin¬ 
ion that just at the precise moment one human 
being dies, another is born, and that the soul 
enters and animates the new-born babe. Now 
I have made particular and extensive inquiries 
concerning my opponent there, and I find that 
for some time previous to his nativity, nobody 
died. 
Children’s Answers. —We have somewhere 
heard of a child who was asked to define 
“ chaos," and the quiet reply was, “ a good pile 
of nothing with no where to put it.” 
Another child defined “ slander” to be “when 
nobody did nothing and somebody went and told 
of it.” 
Another amusing instance of a child’s un¬ 
sophisticated answer occurred recently in this 
city an account of which we clip from an ex¬ 
change : 
One of the ladies connected with the “Metho¬ 
dist Five Points Mission,” who has under her 
charge some thirty little boys, called them to¬ 
gether on the morning of Thanksgiving day, to 
perfect them in their answers to questions she 
intended to put. to them before the visitors 
during the afternoon. After arranging them 
properly, the first boy on the right, in answer 
to the question “Who made you?” was to 
say “ God.” The next, “ Of what were you 
made ?” reply “ The dust of the earth,” and so 
on through the Catechism. The all-important 
moment having arrived, the little “ shavers ” 
were told to stand up. The little head boy it 
seems, was missing, but the fact being un 
noticed by the teacher, she proceeded with the 
question, “Who made you?” which elicited 
the following laughable answer, “ I was made 
out of de dirt of the ’ert; but the little feller 
what God made has got the belly-ache, and 
gone home.” 
Wild Race of a Locomotive. —In The Cin¬ 
cinnati Commercial, of Saturday last, we find 
an account of a somewhat singular collision on 
the Miami road at Milford. The engine of a 
freight train ran into the rear car of a passenger 
train, which was standing still at the depot. 
The Commercial says: 
“ When Mr. Watt, engineer of the mail train, 
heard the crash of the collision he supposed his 
own train would be driven over him, and with 
his assistants, sprang off. The furnace had just 
been crammed with wood, and there was a full 
head of steam on. The force of the blow un¬ 
coupled the locomotive and tender from the bag¬ 
gage car, at the same instant jerking the lever 
and throwing the throttle valve wide open! 
Away sped the locomotive like an arrow, or, if 
we might so say, like a fiat of omnipotence, 
sweeping dowm the track at seventy miles an 
hour 1 God help any hapless train met or over¬ 
taken ; help the city, but full fourteen miles be¬ 
low, for that distance will be devoured in fifteen 
minutes 1 The escaped engine came howling by 
Plainville, visible for an instant to the appalled 
villagers, switched off into the double track, as 
lightning from one steel rod to another divergent, 
and thundered on to the city whose spires might 
now have been seen from the iron disc of this fiery 
comet; but there was none to see, for rider, or 
driver, or living human soul had the engine none. 
Haply the furnace door flew open, the dr aught 
ceased, and a little way above the upper engine- 
house, on a heavy up grade, the locomotive’s 
breath was spent; it came to a dead stand and 
stood there silent and cold, forming as much a 
part of the still wintry landscape as the whitened 
rock and shrowded trees on the hillside above.” 
Good. —A Western New-York farmer writes 
as follows to a distinguished scientific agricultu¬ 
rist, to whom he felt under obligation for intro¬ 
ducing a variety of swine: 
“- Respected sir: I went yesterday at the fair 
of M. I found several pigs of your species; 
there was a great variety of beasts, and I was 
very much astonished at not seeing you there!’ 
Enmities and Differences. —As horses start 
aside from objects they see imperfectly, so do 
men. Enmities are excited by an indistinct 
view; they would be allayed by conference. 
Look at any long avenue of trees by which the 
traveler on our principal highways is protected 
from the sun. Those at the beginning are 
wide apart, but those at the end almost meet. 
Thus happens it frequently in opinions. Men 
who were far asunder come nearer and nearer 
in the course of life, if they have sense enough 
to quell, or good sense enough to temper and 
assuage their earlier animosities. — Literary 
Chronicle. 
A Word or two about Bed-Covering. —Peo¬ 
ple are often “short” in that golden product 
called common sense—and in relation to nothing 
more than bed-covering. What one sleeps un¬ 
der has a vital connection with the health; and 
many a day is made miserable just as the sleep 
of the preceding night has been beneath proper 
or improper clothing. A popular writer has the 
following : 
“ Three-fourths of the bed-covering of our 
people consist of what are miscalled “ comforta¬ 
bles,” viz: two calico cloths with glazed cotton 
wadding laid between and quilted in. 
“ The perfection of dress, for day or night, 
where warmth is the purpose, is that which 
confines around the body sufficient of its own 
warmth, while it allows escape to the rest. 
Where the body is allowed to bathe protractedly 
in its own vapor, we must expect an unhealthy 
action upon the skin. Where there is too little 
ventilating escape, what is called insensihle 
perspiration is checked, and something analo¬ 
gous to fever supervenes. Foul tongue in taste, 
and lack of morning appetite, betrays the error. 
In all cases the temper suffers, and “ my dear, 
this is execrable coffee,” is probably the morn¬ 
ing salutation. 
“ How much is the rosy health of poor chil¬ 
dren due to the air leaking bed-rooms of their 
parents—and what a generator of pale faces is a 
close chamber! 
“ To be healthy and happy, provide your bed 
with the lightest and most porous blanket. The 
finer the better. The cheapest in price are the 
dearest in health. “ Comfortables” are uncom¬ 
fortable and unhealthy. Cotton, if it could be 
made equally porous, and keep so, we should 
prefer to wool. The same for daily underclothes. 
But more than all else, let your chamber be well 
ventilated. Knock in a hole somewhere to give 
your escaping breath exit, and another to give 
fresh air to your lungs in place of what they 
have expired. So shall you have pleasant dreams 
at night, and in the morning, cheerful rising, 
sweet breath and a good appetite. These bless¬ 
ings combined, will secure to healthful parents a 
household of bright, rosy-cheeked memorials of 
rich and fruitful affection.” 
Three Days’ Sight. —A Frenchman unac¬ 
quainted with business, received a draft payable 
at three days’ sight at a certain bank. The 
first day he presented himself at the counter, 
and taking the draft from his pocket-book, ex¬ 
tended it before the paying teller, and to his 
astonishment, said, “You see that once,” and 
folding the draft, he walked away. The next 
morning he appeared again, and going through 
the same form, said, “ You see that twice.” 
The third day he appeared again and said, 
“ You see that three times. Now you will pay 
him.” 
Politeness. —There is something higher in 
politeness than Christian moralists have recog¬ 
nized. In its best form, as a simple out-going, 
all-pervading spirit, none but the truly religious 
man can show it. For it is the sacrifice of self 
in the little habitual matters of life—always the 
best test of our principles—together with a re¬ 
spect, unaffected, for man as our brother under 
the same grand destiny. 
A man should never be ashamed to own he 
has been wrong, which is but saying in other 
words, that he is wiser to-day than he was 
yesterday. 
What 13 Man? —Chemically speaking, a man 
i3 45 lbs. of carbon and nitrogen, diffused 
through 5J pailfuls of water .—^-Quarterly Re¬ 
view. 
