AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
I February, 
6S 
A fine ride this litlle fellow was taking across tlie fields, 
with ids strong and weli trained team of dogs. They had 
often carried him safely before, and he could not have 
expected such a ludicrous and somewhat dangerous ex¬ 
perience as he is now having. The dogs did v'ery well 
until strong temptation came before them ; then they 
could see nothing but the hare, and forgetful of the voice 
and the lines of the driver, away tliey rushed, leaving 
their unlucky j-oung master to look out for the conse¬ 
quences. Prob.ably after this he will be careful how ho 
takes them over that road again. We have seen many a 
lad thus run away with, not by dogs, but by his own 
thoughts, when he had left the places and companions 
which his parents judged safe for him to have, and got 
into the way of temptations among bad company^. One 
poor young man we know, was lately thrown down from 
a fine position in a bank, being run away with by his pas¬ 
sion for gambling -his character ruined for life ; another 
is losing liis good name in tlie bar-rooms, where his ap¬ 
petites have drawn him ; and many more are in danger 
of having their lionesty shaken out of them by taking 
.short ciits “across lots ” in their haste to get rich. The 
‘•oldways^’ are safest, in driving a team, or in making 
llie journey of life. 
A jUaster Worlcman’.^ Tools. 
The great natural philosopher. Dr. Wollaston, was 
once called on by a scientific foreigner who desired to 
see his laboratory, and inspect llie .apparatus witli which 
lie had made his splendid discoveries. “Certainly,” was 
the Ieply, and he immediately brougtit out a small tray 
containing some glass tubes, a simple blow-pipe, or bent 
metal tube woith a few pence, three common watcli 
glas.ses, a slip of platinum, and a few otlier similar things. 
On another occasion, sliortly after Wollaston liad hi- 
spected a grand galvanic battery, he met a friend in the 
street, and seizing him by the button he led him into a 
quiet corner, when, after looking carefully about him as 
if engaged in some strange mystery, he took from his 
pocket a tailor's thimble, in which he had constructed a 
galvanic arrangement, and pouring into it the contents 
of a small vial, he instantly caused a bit of platinum 
wire to become quite hot.—Our young re.aders are famil¬ 
iar with the experiment of Dr. Franklin, who, with only 
a common kite, proved that the iightning in the clouds 
was of the same nature as the electric spark which had 
been produced by various contrivances. These and 
many similar incidents show the v.alue of “ brains,” that 
with an educated power of thinking, the highest re¬ 
sults can be gained with the simplest materials. 
Cofttosa on. llic liia,llows. 
Less than one hundred and fifty years ago, the masses 
of the people of Great Britain believed that the intro¬ 
duction of cotton clothing and its manufacture woiiLl 
ruin tire kingdom. "Woolen and linen garments were 
then almost rrniversally worn, and large manufacturers, 
employing many thousand workmetr, were engaged in 
supplying the demand for them. It was thought that the 
woolen and fla.x machinery would be useless and a total 
loss, and _^the workmen throwir ottt of employment, if 
cotton should take the place of the fabrics then worn. 
Even Parliament shared this belief, and in ITtll, 
passed an Act imposing a penalty of five pounds 
upon the seller of a piece of calico. The common 
people on one occasion, took a singirlar way to show 
their prejudice against the new fiber, and to bring it into 
disrepute. One Michael Carmody was executed atCor'k, 
in Ireland, for felpny; upon which the journeymen 
weavers (who were short of work, and who attributed 
the “hard times” to the introduction of cotton manu* 
facture,) assembled in a body and dressed the criminal, 
the hangman, and the gallows, in cotton, in order to bring 
the wearing of it into disgrace ; and at the place of exe¬ 
cution the criminal made the following remarkable 
speech “ Give ear, O good people, to the words of a 
dying sinner. I confess I have been guilty of what neces¬ 
sity compelled me to commit, wliich starving condition I 
was in, I am well assured, was occasioned by the scarci¬ 
ty of money, that has proceeded fi’om the great discour¬ 
agement of our woolen manufacture!?. Therefore, good 
Christians, consider that if you go on to suppress your 
own goods by wearing such cottons as I am now clolhed 
in, you will bring your country into misery, which will 
consequently swarm with such unhappy m;iIefactors as 
your present object is. and the blood of every miserable 
felon that will hang, after this warning, will lay at your 
doors.”—Nevertheless, happily for Great Britain, the 
W'earing of cottons continued to be extended, so" that 
in thirty years aflerward, their yearly manuficfure wms 
estimated at $1,000,000, and at the present day nearly 
400,000 ste:im looms are at work there upon cottons, di- 
redly employing at least 500,000 work people, besides 
the millions engaged elsewhere in producing the staple. 
A Ciiii'ioiis ISooIc-Woi-m.—A friend re¬ 
cently at a book sal® in New York, describes a book that he 
saw containing a singular mark made by a small worm. 
The insect had first bored through the outside cover, 
near the bottom, then worked his way through the pages 
on the m.argin below the print, until it came to the last 
page, where it had excavated a snug burrow for raising a 
family ; then it, or one of its progeny, continued on and 
made its way out ihrough (he hack cover, leaving through 
all its course a small hole as if made with a large pin. ' 
