MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER: AN AGRICULTURAL AND FAMILY JOURNAL 
[For the Rural New-Yorker.] 
GLEANINGS AND FANCIES. 
A man may possess a high degree of re¬ 
finement, large stores of knowledge, and 
even a well disciplined'mind, but if he is 
destitute of energy, which may be termed 
resolution of soul, he is like a watch with¬ 
out a main-spring—beautiful, but inefficient, 
and unfit for service. That employment, 
upon which is stamped the impress of a liv¬ 
ing and energetic soul, will do honor to any 
man, in any place, or in any age. 
“ Resolution,” says a writer, y a “ is omnip¬ 
otent.” If we will but solemnly determine 
to make the most and the best of all our 
powers and capacities, and to this £end 
“ seize and improve even the shortest in¬ 
tervals of possible action and effort,” we 
shall find there is no limit to our advance¬ 
ment A man who is deeply in earnest, 
acts upon the motto of the pickaxe on the 
old seal—“ I will find a way, or I will malce 
one.” Bonaparte, being told on the eve 
of battle that circumstances were against 
him, replied— “ Circumstances! I make or 
control circumstances, not bow to them.”— 
Let each and all take the motto of an an¬ 
cient philosopher, “Higher—still higher!” 
and we shall surmount all the obstacles in 
our pathway to success. Ho who resolves 
on any great end has scaled the chief bar¬ 
rier in accomplishing his design, and he who 
grasps the idea of self-cultivation, will find 
that thought a burning and living fire with¬ 
in him, prompting him “ onward and up¬ 
ward” to the acme of knowledge, light and 
understanding. 
How often do we hear the ejaculation, 
“ I can’t, I’ve not the means, nor the oppor¬ 
tunity to advance my mental culture.” To 
all such we would say, create the circum¬ 
stances and the circumstances will create 
the means. Embrace every opportunity 
which may present itself for the advance¬ 
ment of the man mental, moral, and phys¬ 
ical ; and though at times you may be ready 
to give up in despair, place your eye on the 
goal—meet the impediments with a “joy¬ 
ous, no surrender,” and when the task is 
finkWl you can congratulate yourself with 
the thought that victory is yours. 
Let the despairing look back at the lives 
and times of some of the most talented and 
educated men the world has ever produced. 
Linnaeus, the founder of the science of 
botany, was apprenticed to a shoemaker in 
Sweden; Holcraft, author of the “ Critic’ 
and other works, and Gifford, for years 
the editor of the London Quarterly Review, 
both of whose writings were the admiration 
of the literary world, were sons of Crispin; 
Rogbr Siierman, of whom Jefferson ob¬ 
served, that “ he never said a foolish 
thing,” a knight of the bench ; Frank¬ 
lin, the philosopher and the printer—are 
landmarks on the shores of time, pointing 
out to us what may be accomplished by 
dint of perseverance, and whisper in our 
ears the talismanic word “Excelsior.” 
In the promotion of self-culture let not 
an inordinate self-interest take a part. Be 
men in the broadest sense of the term.— 
Selfishness is the great enemy to the com¬ 
mon weal; it perverts all right, confounds 
all order, destroys all convenience and com¬ 
fort of society. The frame of our nature 
speaks that man was not made for himself 
alone. We shall find man if we contem¬ 
plate him, too noble a being to have been 
designed merely to satisfy his own ends, 
and single gratifications; his endowments 
are too excellent, his capacities too large, 
fo f so mean and narrow purposes. “A 
new commandment I give unto you, that 
ye love one another.” Remember, 
“The drying of a single tear has more 
Of honest fame, than shedding seas of gore.” 
. Nonpariel. 
Roclicster, December 1850. 
Strength in Weakness. —A man who 
undertakes to injure a woman, in America, 
gets a downfall, himself; which shows the 
same provision of Providence, for the pro¬ 
tection of the weak, that is shown in the 
following account of the weave-bird of India: 
“ This pretty creature thus contrives to 
elude its enemy, the squirrel. It weaves its 
nest of hay, closely intertwined, and in form 
like a steeple hive, with many winding pas¬ 
sages, round the various mouths of which 
are formed pent-houses or rims to carry off 
the rain. This structure is suspended by a 
thread so slender that the squirrel, however 
wistfully he may gazo on his prey within, 
dare not put his nose into it for fear of a 
tumble, while, at the same time, the little 
bird pops in and out perfectly secure.” 
THE PIONEER SETTLER, AND HIS PROGRESS. 
The “ History of the Holland Purchase ” 
by 0. Turner, Esq., contains a series of 
engravings representing most truly and 
graphically “ The Pioneer Settler and his 
Progress,”—from the rude log-cabin thrown 
up among the logs of his little clearing, to 
the elegant farm-house, surrounded by ev¬ 
ery comfort and convenience which the 
products of fertile and well-tilled fields can 
command. We have given in the previous 
volume (No’s. 50, and 51,) a portion of the 
series, and now give another, which will be 
followed soon by the fourth and last. The 
reader will find in another column a very 
interesting letter apropos to the subject— 
showing some of the difficulties encounter¬ 
ed, also the ways and means of advancement. 
Of the view above presented, Mr. Tur- 
MARMED FOR A JOKE. 
A young lady correspondent, who takes 
the nom de plume of “ Rose Rover,” relates 
the following romantic incident, as having- 
occurred somewhere in Tennessee. Truth 
is often stranger than fiction:— 
I have been playing the part of brides¬ 
maid nearly ever since I wrote last, and 
have, therefore, but little time left in which 
to indite this epistle. One of the marriages, 
in which I officiated in the capacity men¬ 
tioned, was quite a romantic affair; and as 
no harm will be done, I will give you the 
particulars—suppressing names, however. 
After the union of the couple, to whose 
marriage we were bidden, they had scarcely 
sat down before another stood up and de¬ 
sired to be joined by the holy bond. The 
minister was much surprised, as he expect¬ 
ed to officiate but once; but, feeling that it 
was not his business to inquire into the 
whys and wherefores that he was not pre¬ 
advised, lie asked for the necessary author¬ 
ity ; and it then for the first time occurred 
to the bridegroom, that a license was indis¬ 
pensable to the consummation of his happi¬ 
ness. He exclaimed— 
“ This shall not interfere.” 
And immediately left the house, saying 
he would return in a few moments. 
While he was absent, we learned that a 
few minutes before the union of the first 
couple, this young gentleman, in a lively 
conversation with several sprightly, mischief- 
loving girls, had told them he was about to 
make a proposition to test their courage,— 
of which it seems they were rather boast¬ 
fully speaking,—and this was nothing more 
nor less than that he would challenge either 
of them to marry him as soon as the ex¬ 
pected ceremony was performed. Several 
of them shrank from the ordeal; but one of 
them more courageous than the rest, accept¬ 
ed the challenge—thinking he would “back 
out” before the ceremony was finished. 
Some of the company told the young 
lady during the gentleman’s absence, that 
he would never yield, and that she had 
better do so unless she was seriously in¬ 
clined to have him for a life’s partner. She 
replied that she was as determined as him¬ 
self, and was not to be “outdone;” and 
seemed to think that it could be nothing- 
more than a joke. All arguments were in 
vain, so when the young gentleman return¬ 
ed, and presented the license—he having 
procured it at the clerk’s office, it being the 
county seat where we were assembled—she 
gaily laughed and again placed herself be¬ 
side him, in front of the minister. The old 
gentleman admonished them; but they told 
him to proceed; and the ceremony com¬ 
menced. The bridegroom responded affir¬ 
matively in a gay tone and as he did so, 
cast a triumphant glance upon her. When 
it became her turn to answer, she hesitated 
ner gives the following brief description: 
It is Summer. Ten years have passed; 
our pioneer adventurer, it will be seen at 
the first glance, has not been idle; thirty or 
forty acres are cleared and enclosed. Va¬ 
rious crops are growing, and the whole 
premises begin tb have the appearance of 
careful management, of thrift, comfort, and 
even plenty. The pioneer has made a small 
payment upon his land, and got his “ arti¬ 
cle” renewed. He has put up a comforta¬ 
ble block house, but has had too much 
reverence for his primitive dwelling- to re¬ 
move it He has a neat framed barn, a 
well dug, a curb and sweep; a garden sur¬ 
rounded with a picket fence. His stock is 
increased as may be seen, by a look off into 
: the fields. The improvements of his neigh- 
a moment, but presently said laughingly— 
“ You shall not triumph, sir!” 
And immediately uttered the little word 
that cannot be retracted, and which made 
them one during the remainder of their 
lives! The benediction was said, and the : 
words had hardly died away before the 
bride said, in a half-serious tone— 
“ Why, I feel as if I had been married in 
earnest!” 
“You certainly are,” solemnly -said the 
minister. 
She doubted it at first, but was at length 
convinced that she was really and de facto 
Mrs.-. For a time she wept violently; 
but her new relative, who, by this time, be¬ 
gan to see his folly, seeing also that the 
consequences of their hardihood was irrem¬ 
ediable, determined to make the best of it, 
and therefore used all his powers to console 
her, in which he at length succeeded. 
They had never met before that evening; 
and they little dreamed that at their first 
meeting they were to utter vows that were 
irrevocable, and which were to unite them 
to each other for life. Both of them belong 
to families of the highest respectability, and 
are both wealthy. They seem well suited 
to each other, and who shall say that their 
union so strangely brought about, may not 
be replete with happiness for each? They 
now appear to be reconciled to their desti¬ 
ny, and I, for one, believe that it will be a 
bright one.— Arthur's Home Gazette. 
SEVEN SEASONS OF SILENCE. 
1. It is a season for silence when we have 
no call or occasion to speak. 
2. It is a season to be silent when we are 
not rightly informed upon the question to 
which we must speak. 
3. When we know the state of a question, 
yet we must not speak without suitable 
preparation, either actual, or habitual. 
4. It is a season to be silent when what 
we speak is likely to be a snare unto our¬ 
selves. 
5. It is a season to be silent when men 
are not capable of attending to what we 
speak. 
0. It is a season to be silent when we are 
sure that what we say will be uninteresting 
to those to whom we are speaking. 
7. It is season for silence when what we 
speak may be a grief and burden to the 
spirits of any, especially to those that are 
already afflicted. 
There cannot be a more glorious object 
in creation, than a human being replete 
with benevolence, meditating in what man¬ 
ner he might render himself most accepta¬ 
ble to his Creator, by doing most good to 
his creatures. 
bors have reached him, and he can look 
out, without looking up. 
A school district has been organized, and 
the comfortable log school house appears in 
the distance. A framed bridge upon the 
stream, has taken the place of the one of 
logs. The pioneer, we may venture to as¬ 
sume, is either Colonel of militia, a Captain, 
a Supervisor of the town, or a Justice of 
the Peace; however it may be he is busy 
in his haying. And she, the better part of 
his household, must not be lost sight of; 
and she need not be, for the artist has been 
mindful of her. She is busy with her do¬ 
mestic affairs; there is quiet and even loneli¬ 
ness about her; but, depend upon it, there 
are in yonder log school house, some half 
a dozen that she cares for and hopes for. 
MAXIMS TO GUIDE YOUNG MEN. 
Keep good company or none. 
Never be idle. If your hands cannot be 
usefully employed, attend to the cultivation 
of your mind. 
Always speak the truth. 
Make few promises. 
Live up to all your engagements. 
Have no very intimate friends. 
Keep your own secrets, if you have any. 
When you speak to a person, look him in 
the face. 
Good company and good conversation are 
the very sinews of virtue. 
Good character is above all things else. 
Never listen to loose and infidel conver¬ 
sation. 
You had better be poisoned in your blood 
than in your principles. 
Your character cannot be essentially in¬ 
jured except by your own acts. 
If any one speaks evil of you, let your 
life be so virtuous that none will believe him. 
Always speak and act as in the presence 
of God. 
Drink no kind of intoxicating liquor. 
Ever live, misfortune excepted, within 
! your income. 
When you retire to bed, think over what 
you have been doing during the day. 
Never speak lightly of religion. 
Make not haste to be rich if you would 
prosper. 
Small and steady gains give competency 
with tranquillity of mind. 
Never play at any game of chance. 
Avoid temptation, through fear that you 
may not withstand it. 
Never run into debt, unless you see a 
way to get out again. 
Never borrow if you can possibly avoid it. 
Do not marry till you are able to support 
a wife. 
Never speak evil of any one. 
Be just before you arc generous. 
Keep yourself innocent, if you would be 
happy. 
Save when you are young, to spend 
when you arc old. . 
The Bewitched Pins. —Grace Green¬ 
wood, in one of her lively letters to the Na¬ 
tional Era, says:—“By the way, while on 
a late visit to Salem, I was shown the ver¬ 
itable bewitched pins with which divers 
persons were sorely pricked by the wicked 
spite of certain witches and wizards—often 
their neighbors, and sometimes their near 
relations, as their depositions show. Very 
annoying, such pointed attentions, even 
from one’s friends. These curious relics 
are kept in a small vial—verily a vial of 
wrath. They seem quite bright, consider¬ 
ing their great age—keen old pins yet, and 
very little rusted by the blood of the saints.” 
A HEART TO LET. 
To he let, 
To be let at a very desirable rate, < 
A snug little house in a healthy estate. ) 
’Tis a Bachelor’s heart, and the agent is Chance, > 
Affection the rent, to be paid in advance. 
The owner, as yet, has lived in it alone, 
So the fixtures are not of much value : but soot* 
’Twill be furnished by Cupid himself, if a wife 
Takes a lease for the term of her natural life. 
Then ladies, dear ladies, pray do not forget 
An excellent Bachelor’s heart to be let. 
The tenant will have a few taxes to pay. 
Love, honor, (and the heavier item) obey. 
As for good will, the subscriber’s inclined 
To have that, if agreeable, settled in kind ; 
Indeed, if he could such a matter arrange, 
He’d be highly delighted to take in exchange. 
Provided, true title, by prudence, be shown, 
Any heart, unincumbered and free as his owa 
So ladies, dear ladies, pray do not forget, 
An excellent Rachelor’s heart to be let. 
A HINT TO MUSICAL LADIES. 
A lady who plays well on the piano 
forte, and desires to make this accomplish¬ 
ment a source of pleasure and not of an¬ 
noyance to her friends, should be careful to 
adapt the style of her performance to the 
circumstances in which it is called for, and 
should remember that a gay-mixed compa¬ 
ny would be tired to death with one of 
these elaborate pieces which would delight 
the learned ears of a party of cognoscenti. 
It is from neglect of this consideration that 
many a really excellent performer makes 
her music a social grievance. Many a beau¬ 
tiful Sonata or fantasia to which at anoth¬ 
er time we would have listened with pleas¬ 
ure, has been thrown away upon a compa¬ 
ny, who either drowned it by their conver¬ 
sation or sat during its continuance in con¬ 
strained and wearied silence. We would 
never advise a performer to make a sacri¬ 
fice to vulgarity or bad taste, but there is 
no want of pieces which combine brevity 
with excellence—contain in a small com¬ 
pass many beauties of melody, harmony, 
and modulation, and afford room for the 
display of brilliancy, taste, and expression 
on the part of the performer. A piece of 
this kind will not weary by its length those 
who do not care for music, while it will 
give pleasure to the most cultivated taste; 
and with such things, therefore, every mu¬ 
sical lady ought to be well provided.— Sa- 
roni's Musical Times. 
FEMALE TACT. 
When a woman is possessed of a high 
degree of tact, she sees, as by a kind of 
second sight, when any little emergency is 
like to occur, or when, to use a more famil¬ 
iar expression, things do not seem likely to 
go right She is thus aware of any sud¬ 
den turn in conversation, and prepared for 
what it may lead to; but above all, she can 
penetrate into the state of mind of those 
she is placed in contact with, so as to de¬ 
tect the gathering gloom upon another’s 
brow, before the mental storm shall have 
reached any formidable height; to know 
when the tone of voice has altered; when 
any unwelcome thought shall have present¬ 
ed itself, and when the pulse of feeling is 
beating higher or lower, in consequence of 
some apparently trifling circumstance which 
has just transpired. 
In these and innumerable instances of a 
similar nature, the woman of tact not only 
perceives the variations which are constant¬ 
ly taking place in the atmosphere of social 
life, but she adapts herself to them with a 
facility which the law of love enables her 
to carry out, so as to spare her friends the 
pain and annoyance which so frequently 
arise out of the mere mismanagement of 
familiar and apparently unimportant affairs. 
And how often do these seeming trifles— 
these accidental betrayals of what there 
would have been no duplicity in concealing 
—how often do these wound us more than 
direct unkindess. 
THE WEDDING MORN, 
It is pleasant to contemplate the associa¬ 
tions clustering around this eventful occa¬ 
sion. It is the happiest hour of human 
life, and breaks upon the young heart like 
a gentle spring upon the flowers of earth. 
It is the hour of bounding, joyous expect¬ 
ancy, when the ardent spirit, arming itself 
with bold hope, looks with undaunted mien 
upon the dark and terrible future. It is 
the hour when thought borrows the livery 
of goodness, and humanity looking from its 
tenement, across the broad common of life, 
shakes off its heavy load of sordidness, and 
gladly swings to its shoulders the light bur¬ 
den of love and kindness. It is the heart’s 
hour, full of blissful contemplation, rich 
promises, and the soul’s happy revels. We 
cordially echo the sentiment, “ Happy morn, 
garmented with the human virtues, it shows 
life to the eye, lovely, as if 
" Clad in the beauty of a thousand stars.” 
A Beautiful Simile. — “ The tears of 
beauty are like light clouds floating over a 
heaven of stars, bedimming them for a mo¬ 
ment that they may shine with greater lus¬ 
tre than before. 
The future is purchased by the present. 
