MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER: AN AGRICULTURAL AND FAMILY JOURNAL. 
(£t)uc alio mil. 
BY L. WETHKRELL. 
“ Having light, we week to impart it.” 
PRESIDENT FOLK AT COLLEGE. 
The biographer of the late President 
Folk says, that “ he was distinguished when 
at college for laborious application to his 
studies, and strict conformity to the regula¬ 
tions of the institution. Jle was always pres¬ 
ent at recitations, and invariably attended 
morning and evening prayer sin the chapel.” 
These correct habits of his early life fur¬ 
nish a key to his success—these commend¬ 
ed him to public confidence. At 26 he 
was clerk of the Legislature of Tennosee 
—at 28 a member of the same body—at 
80 elected to Congress, and continued a 
member of the house of Representatives 
fourteen years, the last four of which lie 
was Speaker,—at 44, he was elected Gov¬ 
ernor of Tennesse—and at 49, President 
of the United States—the youngest man 
that has been called to fill the highest of¬ 
fice that the people have to bestow. 
If boys would be persuaded that the 
habits which they form when at school and 
college, are the elements of future charac¬ 
ter, there would be fewer morning naps, 
fewer tardy marks for coming late to recita¬ 
tion, and fewer imperfect recitations. Take 
heed, boys. 
MASTER AND PUPIL. 
Col. Jas. Tappan, a venerable citizen of 
Gloucester, Mass., now 84 years of age, re¬ 
cently addressed a letter to lion. Daniel 
Webster, reminding him that more than 60 
years ago he (Mr. W.) was one of his pu¬ 
pils when he taught school at “New Salis¬ 
bury.” The Gloucester News publishes 
Mr. Webster's prompt answer to this old 
friend and early teacher, and remarks:— 
“ We doubt if any letter that Mr. Webster 
lias written to public bodies, or any of the 
thousands of great and noble acts of his 
life, reflect more credit upon him than this 
kind letter and generous gift to his aged 
and unfortunate old school master.” 
Here is the letter from Mr. Webster, and 
its value and interests are enhanced by the 
fact that no allusion is made in it to an en 
closed fifty dollar bank note: 
Washington, Feb. 2G, 1851. 
Master Tappan: I thank you for your 
letter, and am rejoiced to hear that you are 
yet among the living. I remember you 
perfectly well as a teacher in my infant 
years. I suppose my mother must have 
taught me to read very early, as I never 
have been able to recollect the time when I 
could not read the Bible. I think Master 
Chase-was my earliest schoolmaster, prob¬ 
ably when 1 was three or four years old.— 
Then came Master Tappan. You boarded 
at our house, and sometimes I think in the 
family of Mr. Benjamin Sanborn, our neigh¬ 
bor, the lame man. Most of those whom 
you knew in “New Salisbury,” have gone 
to their graves. Mr. John Sanborn, the 
son of Benjamin, is yet living, and is about 
your age. Mr. John Colby, who married 
my eldest sister, Susannah, is also living.— 
On the “ North Road” is Mr. Benj. llunton, 
and on the “ South Road” is Mr. Benjamin 
Pettingail. I think of none else among the 
living whom you would probably remember 
You have indeed lived a chequered life. 
I hope you have been able to bear pros¬ 
perity with meekness, and adversity with 
patience. These things are all ordered for 
us, far better than we could order them for 
ourselves. We may pray for our daily 
bread; we may pray for the forgiveness of 
sins; we may pray to be kept from tempta¬ 
tion, and that the kingdom of God may 
come in us, and in all men, and his will 
everywhere be done. Beyond this, we 
lmrdly know for what good to supplicate 
the Divine mercy. Our Heavenly Father 
knoweth what we have need of better than 
we know ourselves, and we are sure that his 
loving kindness is upon us and around us 
every moment. 
I thank you again, my good old master, 
for your kind letter, which has awakened 
many sleeping recollections; and with all 
good wishes I remain your friend and pu¬ 
pil. Daniel Webster. 
Mr. James Tappan. 
The whole Roman language, says Wesley, 
does not aflbrd so much as a name for hu¬ 
mility, (the word from which we borrow 
this, bearing in Latin quite a different mean¬ 
ing,) nor was one found in all the copi¬ 
ous language of the Greeks, till it was made 
by the groat Apostle. 
THE DOOR-SCRAPER: 
OR, THE INFLUENCE OF SCHOOL 
ON HOME. 
It is to be regretted that committees 
pay so little regard to manners, in the 
selection of teachers; and if their morals 
are godd, and their acquaintance with the 
common branches of study respectable, 
employ them without much regard to the 
question whether they are courteous—are re¬ 
fined and gentlemanly in their address and 
behavior. Now, what the teacher is, in 
this respect, the pupils will generally be; 
and, unless they see better patterns at 
home, the standard of the teacher will be 
theirs also. If they see the teacher addict¬ 
ed to any habit, they will think it manly 
to imitate him ; if he spits upon the floor, or 
blows his nose with his fingers, and then, 
perhaps, wipes them on his pantaloons, the 
child will do the same. If his boots are 
seldom cleaned, the child will be likely to 
boast that he brings more mud into the 
school than the master. 
Wo were led into this train of remarks 
by an incident that took place in a village 
of Massachusetts, where the teacher was ac¬ 
customed to regard his personal appear¬ 
ance, and to require some attention to theirs 
from his pupils. When he took charge of 
the school, he noticed that the pupils, in 
muddy weather, were accustomed to enter 
the school room and stamp the mud upon 
the floor, or carry it to their seats and soil 
the floor for a large space around them. 
No sweeping could clean such a floor, and 
none had been attempted more than once 
a week. Determined to make an attempt 
at reform, the teacher obtained a piece of 
iron hoop, aftd nailing one end to the door, 
he fastened the other to a walnut stake 
that he drove into the ground. Every child 
was required to scrape his shoes before he 
entered the room, and the consequence was 
that the true floor became visible through, 
the crust that covered it The next step 
was to get a rug for the entry, and a neat 
farmer’s wife readily gave him an old rug 
that she could spare. It did not take him 
long to induce the habit of scraping and 
wiping the shoes, and a lad or miss who did 
not do this, was soon noticed by the rest, 
and made to feel that he or she had not 
done all that was required. Soon after the 
rug was introduced, the teacher ventured 
to have the whole floor of the room washed, 
not scoured, for lie had to do it himself one 
Saturday afternoon, and washing was all 
that he was competent to do. When the 
scholars came on Monday morning, it was 
evident that they were taken by surprise. 
They had never seen the like before, the 
very knots in the boards were visible, and 
they gave several extra rubs and scrapes 
before they ventured to set foot on the 
beauties so strangely exposed. This is al¬ 
ways the case; we hpve known a man who 
exercised the muscles of his under-jaw by 
chewing tobacco, and who would spirt the 
saliva without compunction upon the floor 
of the school room like a crazy man, to find 
a place of deposit for his filth. So sure it 
is that neatness begets neatness, and a nice 
school room is better treated by the unneat 
than a neglected one. The teacher thus 
introduced one thing after another, taking 
care not to get on too fast, and although he 
had no penalty for a breach of the rules of 
neatness, he introduced a public sentiment 
which restrained the pupils more effectual¬ 
ly than the rod; and as his own example 
was always made to second his rules, the 
children found no great hardship or injus¬ 
tice in them. 
Among the scholars was one little fellow 
about eight years old, named Freddy Ger- 
rish, whose parents were poor and cared 
but little for appearances, if the children 
had bread enough to eat from day to day. 
Freddy was the oldest of five children, and 
when not at school he was generally mind¬ 
ing his little brothers and sisters, as the 
Irish term what we call tending or taking 
care of them. 
One day on his way home from school 
he found an iron hoop, and before night he 
had a scraper before the only door of the 
house. It so happened that, when his fath¬ 
er came home, his boots were covered with 
bog mud, and almost for the first time in 
his life, lie looked around for something to 
clean them. The scraper that Freddy had 
placed there was just the thing, and the lit¬ 
tle fellow was praised for his ingenuity. 
Soon after a sheep was killed by a dog in 
the field near Mr. Gerrish’s house, and as 
no one cared for it, Freddy offered to bury 
it, if he might have the skin, which had but 
little wool on it. He borrowed a jack knife 
of a larger boy, and soon stripped off the 
skin from the body, and then cutting as 
large a square out of it as he could, he went 
home and proposed to his mother to nail it 
down in the entry. This was done to pleaso 
Freddy, and the baby was allowed to sit on 
it until father came homo. The effect of 
Freddy’s attempt at reform was soon felt, 
and his mother was no longer heard to say, 
as she often had done “It’s no use to sweep.” 
“Wife,” said Mr. Gerrish one evening, 
“your floor is whiter than the wall; I must 
get some lime and whitewash a little, for, 
Freddy’s scraper seems to have a tail to it.” 
The room was shining white before an¬ 
other day was passed, and the cooking 
utensils began too look ill, standing around 
the stone. Mr. Gerrish who was a good 
farmer, changed work with carpenter, and 
had a neat set of shelves made with a 
cupboard under them. One day after she 
had scoured the floor, Mrs. Gerrish said to 
herself, “I wonder if I cannot paint this 
floor well enough for poor people, for though 
a white floor looks well, it is easier to clean 
a painted one.” Freddy was dispatched to 
the coach-maker’s to ask what some suita¬ 
ble paint would cost. “How big is your 
room ?” said the man who had noticed that 
Freddy was never among the boys that 
were doing mischief. “Four times as long 
as I can reach one way, and five times the 
other,” said Freddy. The man applied the 
rule to his arms, and said, “ It will cost you 
a half a dollar? Who is to do the work?” 
said the man. “Mother, sir, is going to try, 
because she can’t afford to pay for the paint 
and the painting too, and she wants to do it 
before father comes home.” “ You love her, 
don’t you ?” said the coach-maker. “ I guess 
I do,”said Freddy,“and she loves me, too, 
because I made a scraper at her door like 
Master Hall’s at the school. She says if 
it had not been for the scraper, she never 
should have thought of the paint, and we 
are going to stay in the bedroom or out of 
doors till the paint is dry.” “I see through 
it,” said the man. “ Go home and tell your 
mother I will come presently and paint the 
floor for nothing.” The boy was starting 
off, when the coach-maker recollected that 
half the charm was to consist in the wife’s 
doing the work, and surprising her husband 
with a floor painted by her own hand and 
called the boy back and asked him if his 
mother had any money. “A little,” said 
he “ she bought some yarn and knit three 
pairs of stockings while the baby was asleep, 
and sold them.” “ Here is the paint,” said 
the man, “ I give it to you, my little fellow 
because you love your mother.” The little 
fellow’s eyes glared in astonishment at the 
idea of possessing so much paint, and of be¬ 
ing paid for so easy a task as loving his 
toother, and as the big tears began to roll 
Idown his cheeks, ho said, ‘Mother will be 
atble to buy the Bible now.” “What Bible ?” 
said the man, who had become interested 
in the boy. “The Bible for ma to read 
every night and morning, as the master 
does.” ‘I have some Bibles to give away,” 
said the man, and if you will not spill the 
paint, you may take one under your arm.” 
“I declare,” said Freddy, “I don’t know 
what mother will say to all this. How will 
she pay you, sir?” “Would you like to do 
a little work for me, my little fellow?” “I 
guess I should,” said Freddy, “If I was 
big enough I’d work for you ever so long.” 
“1 want just such a scraper at my door as 
you made your father, and if you will make 
me one, I will take it in full pay for the 
paint and the Bible.” “I can’t make one 
good enough for you,” said Freddy bash¬ 
fully. “That is my look-out,” said the 
man, “ so carry home the paint, and come 
when you can and make the scraper.” 
Freddy went home; and when his mother 
saw him with a book under one arm, and 
both hands holding on to the paint pot, she 
exclaimed, “Why, Freddy, what have you 
done ? I only told you to ask the price of 
the paint.” “I know it,” said Freddy, 
“but the man made a trade with me, and 
he is to give me all these if I will make 
him a scraper at his door, and I am going 
to do it.” 
To make a long story short, the scraper 
at the school door was the making of Mr. 
Gerrish and his family. The entire change 
of habits introduced into their humble 
dwelling, not only led to neatness and order, 
but to thrift and comfort. The scraper 
was made for the coach-maker, who con¬ 
tinued to do a hundred other friendly acts 
for the family. Freddy obtained an excel¬ 
lent education, and is an intelligent and 
wealthy farmer; and when he built his new 
house, he carefully placed the old scraper 
by the side of the door, as if it were a talis¬ 
man. Master Hall taught from district to 
district, and being of a slender constitution, 
his health early failed, and he was quietly 
luid in the churchyard of a retired village, 
unconscious that the seed he had sown had 
ever produced any fruit like that we have 
described. Freddy could never discover 
his resting place, hut erecting a neat ceno¬ 
taph to his memory near the school house, 
which he also rebuilt, and once a year he 
collects the children of the village around 
it and tells them the story of the scraper at 
the old school door.— Common /School 
Journal. 
Holden’s Dollar Magazine, having 
passed into the hands of the Editors and 
Proprietors of the “ Literary World,” will 
hereafter be issued by them, under the title 
of the Dollar Magazine. “ It will embrace 
many important improvements, and will in¬ 
clude the essential features of the best five 
dollar magazines.” * * * It will be 
embellished by a series of new and attract¬ 
ive engravings. Call at Dewey’s News- 
Room and examine specimen numbers, 
where it is for sale. 
A Man who is not ashamed of himself, 
need not be ashamed of his early condition. 
THE MOCKING BIRD. 
How shall I describe thee, most thought¬ 
ful of warblers! Shelley and Wilson have 
alone reached the fountain of thy inspira¬ 
tion, the first in the song to thy foreign 
friend, and listen to the song of the second: 
“ The ease, elegance, and rapidity of his 
movements; the animation of his eye, and 
the intelligence he displays in listening and 
and laying up lessons from almost every 
species of the feathered creation, within his 
hearing, are equally surprising, and mark 
the peculiarity of his genius. To these 
qualities we may and that of a voice full, 
strong and musical, and capable of almost 
every modulation, from the clear, mellow 
tones of the wood-thrush, to the savage 
scream of the bald eagle; in measure and 
accent he faithfully follows his originals; in 
force and sweetness of expression lie great¬ 
ly improves upon them. He sweeps round 
with enthusiastic ecstacy—he mounts or 
descends as his song swells or dies away ; 
and as my friend Mr. Barton has beautiful¬ 
ly expressed it * he bounds aloft -with the 
celerity of an arrow, as if to recover or re¬ 
call his very soul, expired in the last eleva¬ 
ted strain.’ ” 
But it is at night that the song of this 
bird is the sweetest. In front of a rude and 
lonely hut, in which I lived for many months 
on the banks of the Santa Fe, was the low¬ 
er part of the trunk of a large pine that 
had been cut down, lest in some windy 
hour it should demolish my dwelling though 
it was a hundred feet off. On this firm emi¬ 
nence, every moon-lit night, this bird, with 
so blithe a spirit, took up his musical tlirone; 
he would commence when the moon arose, 
and sing the night hours away, until early 
dawn; no cessation to tune his notes, no in¬ 
termission, no flagging of his indomitable 
spirit checked his harmony. I would 
awake towards reville, but the first taps of 
the drum-beat had frightened him away, 
yet still unwilling to cease, his last notes 
were heard when on wing for the woods: 
and in the sultry nights of the South, when 
your rest is broken by the off-slioots of dis¬ 
ease preying on your system, but to which 
you do not wholly succumb; by the sting 
and buzz of musquitoes; the howling of 
wolves; the hooting of owls, and the thou¬ 
sand and one annoyances that make night 
hideous in a southern wilderness; the im¬ 
passioned song of this bird is heard victo¬ 
rious, like the sweet melody that is in- 
woven into all the wails of life. How often 
has that bird been my consolation when 
stretched on an uneasy bed, and hay pillow 1 
Often have I turned over to listen to him 
with both ears, that not a whisper of his 
notes should escape me and then came to 
the conclusion that that last effort was too 
soul-inspiring for repetition, he had exhaust¬ 
ed himself there, nature could go no fur¬ 
ther, his physical powers surely would flag 
after that, if his mental ones did not: but 
no! he was apparently merely at the over¬ 
ture—he was elaborating and suggesting 
to you what was to come. But his time 
and measure were all his own, his song was 
a romance, his accents could not be written 
(unlike all other birds;) his notes were as 
uncertain as an aEolian harp’s, his next 
might be grave, or gay, time only could tell. 
Mocking birds are found over all Florida 
in great numbers; I have observed, however 
that they were always most abundant about 
the camp, or in the neigborhood of men.— 
They seem to like an open place in the 
woods, or some position where they can see 
everything around them; and generally sing 
seated on the topmost twig of a tree, or on 
the upper splinter of some pine or cypress 
that lias been broken by the winds or light¬ 
ning. Here they will imitate every bird’s 
note that is going on within hearing, or 
that they have heard for the week prece¬ 
ding; and I have often interrupted a merry 
fellow when in full glow in this position, 
with my imitation; he would stop instantly, 
turn round the side of his head towards 
the ground, and listen; but whether in as¬ 
tonishment or admiration 1 cannot say; he 
never would follow me, however, having 
evidently determined that all my notes were 
shams.— Literary World. 
It Iris been calculated that more than 
tlireo hundred pounds of blood pass through 
a man’s heart during every hour of his life. 
The average quantity of blood in an adult 
male is about 30 pounds; so that the same 
blood, we might say, passes thro’ the heart 
ten times in an hour. 
Latrkille describes a species of crab, 
found on the shores of the Mediterranean, 
whoso eyes are placed on the end of a long 
tube, having two joints, which enables the 
animal to move them in various directions, 
like the arms of an old-fashioned telegraph. 
Ten cubic feet of fresh air per minute, 
for one person, is the smallest allowance that 
should be made in order to ensure health¬ 
ful ventilation. 
When a small fish-pond is frozen over 
the fishes soon perish, unless holes be bro¬ 
ken in the ice, in order to admit a supply 
of fresh air. 
For the Rural New-Yorker. 
SIGH NOT FOR THE WORLD. 
Like dew upon the falling dust, 
Or damps to stay the cankering rust 
Ye waste your tears who wander thro’ 
The darksome world and weep. 
Will tears dispel the Bhades of woe? 
Will sighing move the sinner? No, 
No more than those in death who sleep. 
Ye tread the palaces of earth, 
Its titled courts—its halls of mirth, 
Among the haughty and the high, 
In fashion’s arts well skilled. 
Ye look on want—ah then a sigh 
Starts, and ye say while passing by, 
“ Depart in peace, be warmed, he filled.” 
As showers descend upon the main, 
So fall thy sighs where sighs do reign. 
Oh, teach thy hand and lips while here 
To move attuned with heart; 
Then drop the sympathetic tear. 
Let deeds of kindness aye appear, 
And warmed and filled will want depart. 
Caledonia, Feb., 1S51. J. H. McNaugiiton. 
BENEVOLENT MOTIVES. 
If wc closely attend to the operations of 
our mind, and carefully observe what pass- 
eth within us, at that very instant when we 
are doing a charitable or friendly office, I 
am apt to think we should find, that the 
pleasure which results from it, arises either 
from a sense that what we.are doing may 
procure us the approbation of men; or it 
proceeds from a sense of having done our 
duty, and recommended ourselves to the 
favor of the Deity. Our benevolence, as 
far as it is owing to the former, is not virtue, 
but a desire of fame and distinction; as far 
as it is owing to the latter, it is a virtue, but 
virtue founded upon the love of God. Joy 
undoubtedly, like the light of the sun, never 
rebounds so strongly back again upon our¬ 
selves, as when it comes reflected to us from 
others. The grosser pleasures soon flatten 
upon the sense, and grow insipid to a well 
turned mind; hut then we feel the most ex¬ 
quisite and delicate, as well as most lasting 
touches of pleasure, when we communicate 
it, in any great degree, to those about us. 
— Rev. J. Seed. 
DECISION OF CHARACTER. 
Decision of character is one of the most 
important of human qualities, philosophical¬ 
ly considered. Speculation, knowledge, is 
not the chief end of man; it is action. We 
may, by a line education, learn to think 
most correctly, and talk most beautifully; 
but when it comes to action, if we are weak 
and undecided, we are of all beings the 
most wretched. All mankind feel them¬ 
selves weak, beset with infirmities, and sur¬ 
rounded with dangers; the acutest minds 
are the most conscious of difficulties and 
dangers. They want, above all things, a 
leader with that boldness, decision, and en¬ 
ergy, which, with shame, they do not find 
in themselves. “ Give us tl\e man,” shout 
the multitude, “who will step forward and 
take the responsibility.” He is instantly 
the idol, the lord, and the king among men. 
He, then, who would command among his 
fellows, must excel them more in energy of 
will than in power of intellect.— Burnap. 
Tiie Rose among Thorns. —A pious man 
was one day pacing sorrowfully up and down 
his garden, and doubting the care of Provi¬ 
dence. At length he stood before a rose¬ 
bush, and the spirit of the rose spoke thus 
“Do I not animate a beautiful plant; a cup 
of thanksgiving full of fragrance to the Lord, 
in the name of all the flowers, and an of¬ 
fering of sweetest incense to him? And 
where do you find me? Amongst thorns! 
But they do not sting me; they protect and 
give me sap. This, thine enemies 'do for 
thee; and should not thy spirit be firmer 
than that of a frail flower?” Strengthen¬ 
ed, the man went thence. His soul became 
a cup of thanksgiving to his enemies. 
“Preacii Small.”— “Mother,” said a lit¬ 
tle girl seven years old, “ I could not under¬ 
stand our minister to-day, he said so many 
hard words. I wish he would preach so 
that little girls could understand him. 
Won’t he mother?” “Yes, I think so, if 
we ask him.” Soon after her father saw 
her going to the minister’s. “Where are 
you going, Emma?” said he. “I am going 
over to Mr.-’s to ask him to preach 
small.”— Christian Times. 
If a person would obtain a true knowl¬ 
edge of the Christian religion, let him study 
the Holy Scriptures, especially in the New 
Testament. Therein are contained the 
words of eternal life. It has God for its au¬ 
thor-salvation for its end, and truth with¬ 
out any mixture of error for its matter.— 
John Locke. 
I am of opinion that the Bible contains 
more true sublimity, more exquisite beauty, 
more pure morality, more important history, 
and liner strains of poetry and eloquence, 
than can be collected from all other books, 
in whatever age or language they may be 
written.— Sir Wm. Jones. 
When you think how good your parents 
are, just think how much better must that 
bein<r be who made them. 
