MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER: AN AGRICULTURAL AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER. 
(Bfoimitionnl Drfmrttmnt. 
BY Li. WETHER ELL. 
THE QUINCY GRAMMAR. SCHOOL. 
Friend Moore :—Last week I attended 
the exhibition of the Quincy Grammar 
School, John D. Piiilbkick, Master. I vis¬ 
ited in company with one of the Albany 
public school teachers, who remarked that 
the Quincy School edifice cost more money 
than all tho school houses in the city of Al¬ 
bany, whose population is about 60.000, 
while that of Boston is about 140,000. Upon 
inquiry it was ascertained that the Quincy 
School estate cost about 21.000 more than 
all tho public school estates in tho city oi 
Albany. 
There are in the city of Boston twenty 
Grammar Schools whose edifices and lots 
are valued at #762,744. The Latin and 
English high school estate cost #81,152 ; 
and tho cost of tho primary school estates 
#360.215,—making a total cost of all public 
school estates #1,271,274. 
There are at present in the primary, in¬ 
termediate, grammar and high schools about 
22.000 children; over 18,000 of tho entire 
number are taught by females. About 
three hundred female teachers are employ¬ 
ed, and sixty-five male; averaging about 
sixty pupils to a teacher. 
In the Quincy School there are about 800 
pupils, one master, ono sub-master, two 
ushers, ten female assistants, and ono music ! 
master. Tho salary of the master is #1,- 
500 per annum ; of the sub-master #1,000 ; 
of the ushers #800 each; of the assistants 
#300 ; and of the music teacher #100—ma¬ 
king an aggregate of #7,200 paid to the 
teachers of the Quincy School. This is 
the largest school in the city, and thought 
to bo tho most economically taught. Di¬ 
vide this school into two, of 400 pupils each, 
and it would require a master with a salary 
of #1,500; a sub-master of #1,000; an 
usher, #800; five assistants at #300, and 
music teacher #100—making an aggregate 
of #4.900 ; and a total for the two of #9,800 ; 
making a saving of #2,600 in favor of the 
present system. 
The Quincy School edifice is four stories 
high. The upper hall is occupied by the 
master with about fifty pupils. Tho third 
story is divided into four rooms; ono of 
them is occupied by tho sub-master, and 
the other three by female teachers ; the re¬ 
maining two stories are divided in the same 
way, each occupied by an usher and three 
female teachers. The scholars and teach¬ 
ers are all assembled twice a week in the 
upper hall where they aro exercised by the 
master, whose duty it is to maintain order 
and see that all aro making progress thro’- 
out his little realm of mind. 
Tho reading and declamation in this 
school were tho best on the day of exhibition 
that 1 have ever heard. I have my sincere 
doubts whether tho elocutionary exercises 
of the Quincy School have been equalled by 
any other school in our Republic. I have 
often hoard of the good reading of the Bos¬ 
ton grammar schools, but notwithstanding 
my high expectations, they were more than 
met in this school—not by faultless reading, 
but by what comes nearer perfection than 
any school-reading before heard. 
At the close of the exercises, twelve med¬ 
als, and thirty-six certificates, were awarded 
by the chairman of tho school committee. 
. The medals were awarded to members of 
the graduating class, which consisted of for- 
tv-nine boys. This was to me an unpleasant 
exhibition, for there were eager expectants 
whose disappointment was manifested by 
bitter tears. 
The fifty-ninth annual Medal Festival was 
commemorated at Faneuil Hall, Tuesday 
P. M. The modal scholars with their teach¬ 
ers. the school-committee and invited guests 
made up tho company. 
The Hall was appropriately docorated.— 
On the front gallery over tho eagle was an 
arch bearing tho names of the grammar- 
schools, supported by tho inscriptions, “Lib¬ 
erty ” and “ Education.” The cornices bore 
tho names of Washington and Franklin, 
while on the arch itself were tho names “Lat¬ 
in,” “High,” with.key stone bearing the city 
seal. On the left side of the clock was tho 
inscription, “ Free Primary Schools origina¬ 
ted in Boston, ISIS.” On the right was 
“Freo Grammar Schools originated in Bos¬ 
ton, 1635.” In front of the side galleries 
were the names of the different Mayors of 
the city, while in rear of the rostrum was 
the name of the present Mayor of the city, 
“Seaver.” The inscriptions, “ Franklin Med¬ 
als, instituted 1790,”—“ City Modal, institut¬ 
ed 1821.” The Hall was further decorated 
with flags,-streamers, and evergreens, which 
gave it a very attractive appearance. The 
exercises were commenced with a voluntary 
by tho Boston Brass Band. Prayer by the 
Rev. E. N. Kirk. S. W. Bates, Esq., Chair¬ 
man of the School Committee, welcomed the 
guests, after which lie introduced the Mayor, 
who addressed the audience. Other ad¬ 
dresses were made by Dr. Post, of St. Louis, 
Mo.; Dr. Nichols, of Portland, Me.; Rev. 
Mr. Cordner, of Montreal, and others.— 
After the speeches, the company partook of 
a fine collation, after which the medal schol¬ 
ars marched across the platform and re¬ 
ceived the customary bouquets from tho 
Mayor. 
An original Ode, written for the occasion, 
by Isaac F. Shepherd, Master of the Lyman 
School for Girls, was then sung by the medal 
scholars. 
The festivities were then closed with Old 
Hundred, and a benediction by Rev. Dr. 
Gannett. 
Boston, Mass. Aug. 5th. 1852. 
BOSTON CITY NORMAL SCHOOL. 
The Superintendent of the Boston Pub¬ 
lic Schools suggested in his first semi-annual 
report, the importance of a City Normal 
School, for supplying tho city with female 
teachers. Tho whole number employed in 
the public schools is about three hundred 
and twenty. About one-fourth of this num¬ 
ber leaves annually, owing to various causes, 
thus creating a demand for eighty new 
teachers, annually. 
Of tho 22,000 children in tho public 
schools, more than 18,000 of them are in¬ 
structed chiefly by females, and much the 
larger portion of those children never come 
under the instruction of a male teacher at 
all. The School Committee, in view of this 
demand, and the great importance of a 
specific ■preparation for .entering upon the 
! work to be 'done, in order that it shall 
bo well dono, have Ordered, “That a 
Normal School bo established in tho Adams 
School House, as a part of tho system of 
Public Schools, for tho purpose of supplying 
tho city with good female teachers.” 
The school goes into operation on the 
first Monday of September. Loring Lo- 
tiirop has been appointed Principal. 
Tho Committee for establishing the school, 
use the following language in their Report: 
“In desiring to employ teachers whose 
homes and associations are bore, we would 
not wish to bo understood, as cherishing or 
desiring to excite any narrow feeling of ex¬ 
clusion. We most heartily desire that our 
schools may bo provided with the best 
teachers that can bo obtained, como from 
whatever quarter they may; and we know 
that some of those, who now stand highest 
in tho service, are from abroad. But we 
think that our chief reliance should be in 
ourselves, and we believe that, from a pop¬ 
ulation like ours, an amplo supply of teach¬ 
ers can bo obtained to answer all our wants, 
if moans aro provided for tho development 
of the talent that now perhaps lies dormant, 
or, from necessity, is diverted to other em¬ 
ployments. Thus a Normal School, besides 
effecting tho primary object of furnishing 
our schools with teachers whose qualifica¬ 
tions would be such as to obtain for them a 
willing preference, would prove, in the 
course of time, a rich blessing to hundreds 
whose circumstances in life would otherwise, 
not only have cut them off from the means 
of making that preparation, so essential for 
the right performance of tho duties of a 
teacher, but have left them comparatively 
uninformed and useless members of society. 
In a community like ours, any institution 
which shall have the effect, whether inten¬ 
tionally so or not, of opening new avenues 
to useful and honorable employment, must 
commend itself to the favorable considera¬ 
tion of the wise and good.” 
Tho Committee recommend such a course 
of study as shall require for its completion, 
at least two years. The members aro to be 
“the graduates of tho city schools, or at 
least tho daughters of our citizens.” The 
Institution should be so organized as to ren¬ 
der it capable of annually graduating a class 
of one hundred teachers. 
This plan, we think, in good keeping with 
that system of “Intellectual Policy” which 
has so long prevailed in the capital of New 
England. It furnishes a noble opportunity 
for all the young women and girls who de¬ 
sire to do so, to qualify themselves to be¬ 
come good teachers. It is making a profes¬ 
sional education free to the girls of Boston. 
Self-Education. —Wo all of us have two 
educations, one of which we receive from 
others; another, and the most valuable, 
which we give ourselves. It is this last 
which fixes our grade in society, and event¬ 
ually our actual value in this life, and per¬ 
haps tho color of our fate hereafter. All 
the professors and teachers in tho world, 
would not make wou a wise and good man 
without your own co-operation ; and if such 
you are determined to be, tho want of them 
will not prevent it.— John Randolph to his 
Nephew. 
True liberty allows each individual to do 
all the good he can for himself without in¬ 
juring his neighbor. 
Rhetoric— the quackery of eloquence, 
which deals in nostrums, not in cures. 
THE LOCUST. 
The Locust is about three inches long, 
and has two horns, or feelers, an inch in 
length. The head and horns are of a brown¬ 
ish color; it is blue about the mouth, as 
also on the inside of the larger legs. The 
shield that covers the back is greenish; and 
the upper side of the body brown, spotted 
with black, and the under side purple. The 
upper wings aro brown, with small dusky 
spots with one larger at tho tips ; the under 
wings are more transparent, and of a light 
brown, tinged with green; but there is a 
dark cloud of spots near the tips. 
There is no animal in the creation that 
multiplies so fast as this, if the sun be warm, 
and the soil in which t’heir eggs are depos¬ 
ited be dry. 
The Scripture, which was written in a 
country where the locust made a distin¬ 
guished feature in the picture of nature, 
has given us several very striking images of 
this animal’s numbers and rapacity. It 
compares an army where tho numbers are 
almost infinite, to a swarm of locusts; it 
describes them as rising out of tho earth, 
where they are produced; as pursuing a 
settled march to destroy the fruits of the 
earth, and co-operate with Divine indig¬ 
nation. 
When tho locusts take tho field as we are 
assured, they have a leader at their head, 
whoso flight they observe, and pay a strict 
attention to all his motions. They appear 
at a distance, like a black cloud, which, as 
it approaches, gathers upon tho horizon, 
and almost hides the light of day. It often 
happens that tho husbandman sees t|*is im¬ 
minent calamity pass away without doing 
him any mischief; and the whole swarm 
proceed onward to settle upon the labors 
of some less fortunate country. But 
wretched is the district upon which they 
settle; they ravage the meadow and the 
pasture ground; strip the trees of their 
leaves, and garden of its beauty ; the visita¬ 
tion of a few minutes destroys the expecta¬ 
tions of a year; and a famine but too fre¬ 
quently ensues.— Library ofi Nat. History. 
THE TUFTED TITMOUSE. 
This is one of our American birds, active, 
noisy, and restless, hardy beyond any of his 
size, braving the severest cold of our con¬ 
tinent, as far north as tho country around 
Hudson’s Bay, and always appearing tho 
most lively in the coldest weather. The 
males have a variety of very sprightly notes 
which cannot indeed he called a song, but 
rather a lively, frequently repeated, and,of¬ 
ten varied twitter. They are most fre¬ 
quently seen during the fall and winter, 
when they approach nearer to the scenes of 
cultivation. They begin to build in April, 
choosing the deserted hole of a squirrel or 
woodpecker, and sometimes with incredible 
labor dig one out for themselves. They 
traverse the woods from treo to tree, tum¬ 
bling, chatting, and hanging from the ex¬ 
tremities of the branches, examining about 
the roots of the leaves, buds, and crevices 
of the bark, for insects and their larvae.— 
They also visit tho orchards, the sides of 
tho barn, and barn-yard in the same pur¬ 
suit. 
These birds sometimes fight violently 
with each other, and are known to attack 
young and sickly birds that aro incapable 
of resistance, always directing their blows 
against the skull. 
The crested titmouso is also an inhabi¬ 
tant of the United States, but is more com¬ 
mon in tho northern parts. 
A NARROW ESCAPE. 
Bayard Taylor, in one of his agreeablo 
letters from the Nilo, which appear in tho 
New York Tribune, gives the following ac¬ 
count of an incident which came near put¬ 
ting an end to his travels : 
The men were about to pitch my tent near 
some suspicious-looking holes, but I had it 
moved to a clear, open space not far distant. 
In the morning as Achmet was about rolling 
up my mattress, he suddenly let it drop and 
rushed out of the tent exclaiming, “ O, mas¬ 
ter; come out, come out! There is a great 
snake in your bed.” I looked, and true 
enough, thero was an ugly, spotted reptile 
coiled up in the straw matting. The men 
heard tho alarm, and my servant Ah imme¬ 
diately came running up with a club. As 
ho was afraid to enter the tent, he threw it 
to me, and with one blow I put tho snake 
beyond the power of doing harm. It was 
not more than two feet long, but thick and 
club-shaped, with a back covered with green, 
brown, and yellow scales, very hard and 
bright. The Arabs, who by this time had 
come to tho rescue, said it was a most ven¬ 
omous creature, its bito causing instant 
death. “ Allah keerem! ’ (God is merciful,) 
I exclaimed, and they all heartily respond¬ 
ed, “ God be praised !” They said that the 
occurrence denoted long life to me. 
Although no birds wore to be seen at the 
time, not ten minutes had elapsed before 
two large crows appeared and alighted near 
the snake. They walked around it at a dis¬ 
tance. occasionally exchanging glances and 
turning up their heads in a shrewd manner, 
which plainly said, “No you don’t, old fel¬ 
low !—want to make us believe you are dead, 
do you ?” They bantered each other to 
take hold of it.first, and at last the boldest 
seized it suddenly by the tail, jumped back¬ 
ward two or three feet, and then let it fall, 
lie looked at tho other, as much as to say, 
“ If he’s not dead, it’s a capital sham ! — 
Tho other made a similar essay, after which 
they alternately dragged and shook it, and 
consulted some time, beforo they agreed 
that it was actually dead. Ono of them 
then took it by the tail and sailed off thro’ 
the air, its scales glittering in tho sun as it 
dangled downward. 
A CONSCIENTIOUS DOG. 
My father had a dog of the Spaniel 
breed, whose name was Ponto. Now, Pon- 
to, though decidedly waggish in one point 
had given evidence of being more religious 
than many of his less canine neighbors.— 
True, ho would never turn the other cheek, 
and consequently while ho had a good char¬ 
acter with the peace society ho was scouted 
by the non-resistants. But Ponto was al¬ 
ways regular at church, and, in one instance 
at least, gave evidence that he went there 
with an idea that honesty and religion had 
some connection with each other. He was 
safe enough in this notion, for a more hon¬ 
est dog than he never barked. Ponto al¬ 
ways walked into church with the family, 
though he invariably took his seat on the 
lower stairs of tho sacred desk, and none 
but the oldest in the congregation remem¬ 
bered when his seat was vacant. 
I ought to have remarked sooner that 
Ponto had but one enemy in tho wide world, 
and who was that but tho deacon of the 
church, and our next neighbor. I forgot 
the cause, perhaps some slander against 
Ponto in the days of his puppyhood, when, 
it must bo confessed, lie was too much ad¬ 
dicted to fun to comport with a deaconish 
idea of propriety. Be that as it may, Pon¬ 
to growled at nobody but Deacon Drury ; 
and tho Deacon throw a stone at nothing so 
furiously as at Ponto. If either exemplifi¬ 
ed the golden rule toward the other, it was 
Ponto. » 
So things stood at a certain time when 
the good pastor was called away for a long 
journey. But, parson or no parson, tho 
family all went to church, as usual the fol¬ 
lowing Sabbath; and none with a longer 
face or more gracious step than Ponto.— 
His accustomed seat was taken ; and when 
the congregation rose for the early morning 
prayer, Ponto roso with the rest—as he had 
always done—and stood with closed eyes 
and open ears, waiting for the first word of 
supplication. To the utter astonishment of 
no one but tho sanctimonious Ponto, that 
word came in the voice of his old enemy, 
the pious deacon. If the big Bible had fal¬ 
len on Ponto’s tail, he could not have look¬ 
ed for tho cause with a more rapid glance 
than ho cast upward to tho pulpit, lie fix¬ 
ed his eyes on the face of tho Deacon, as if 
to ho suro of tho sacrilege ; and then, with 
a look of pious horror I shall never forget, 
and a step as fast as tho sanctity of the 
place would allow, he passed out of the 
house, and took a by-path across the field. 
From that day forth, as long as Ponto lived, 
he could never be flattered or exhorted to 
enter the church door again; and whenever 
from necessity ho passed it on week days, it 
was with a look that said, to all who knew 
him as 1 did, “If Deacon Drury prays, the 
church may count Ponto among tho back¬ 
sliders.” 
Instinct of tiie Turtle. —It has been 
observed that turtles cross tho ocean from 
the Bay of Honduras to tho Cayman Isles, 
near Jamaica, a distance of 450 miles, with 
an accuracy superior to tho chart and com¬ 
pass of human skill : for it is affirmed that 
vessels which have lost their latitude in hazy 
weather have steered entirely by tho nose 
of the turtles in swimming. The object of 
their voyage, as in the case of tho migra¬ 
tion of birds, is for the purposo of laying 
eggs on a spot peculiary favorable.— Bishop 
Stanley on Birds. 
There aro some who write, talk and think 
so much about vice and virtuo, that they 
have no timo to practice either tho ono or 
tho other. 
Uneasy and ambitious gentility is always 
spurious. Tho garment which ono has long 
worn never sits uncomfortable. 
Inbtintl) HfiiiiiiigB. 
HUMAN LOVE. 
Oh! if there is one law above the rest, 
Written in Wisdom—if there is a word 
That I would trace as with a pen of fire 
Upon tiie unsullied temper of a child— 
If there is anything that keeps the mind 
Open to angel visits, and repels 
The ministry of ill —-tis Human Love! 4 
Ood has made nothing worthy of contempt. 
Tiie smallest, pebble in the well of Truth, 
Has its peculiar meanings, and will stand 
When man’s best monuments wear last away. 
The law of Heaven is Lot and though its name 
Has been usurped by passion, and profaned 
To its unboly uses through all time, 
Still, the external principle is pure; 
And in these deep affections that we feel 
Omnipotent within us, can we see 
The lavish measure in which love is given. 
And in the yearning tenderness of a child 
For every bird that sings above i- s bead, 
And every creature feeding on the hills, 
And every tree and Rower, and running brook, 
We see how everything was made to love, 
And how they err, who in a world like this, 
Find anything to hate but htiman pride. 
A NIGHT THOUGHT. 
How oft a cloud, with envious vail, 
Obscures yon bashful light, 
Which seems so modestly to steal 
Along the waste of night 1 
’Tis thus the world’s obtrusive wrongs 
Obscure with malice keen, 
Some timid heart which only longs 
To live and die unseen. 
For the Rural New-Yorker. 
CONTEMPLATION OF GOB’S WORKS. 
There is a pleasure in contemplating the 
Great Creator’s handiworks that surround 
us at every step. If we study them aright, 
we shall tako in draughts from tho fount of 
Infinite knowledge, that shall greatly refresh 
our thirsty souls. 
Thero is a wisdom seen in the adaptation 
of each to each, of the infinite multitude of 
existences that make up the sum of animate 
and inanimate creation, which emphatically 
speaks of an All-wise Designer. 
And it is a wisdom which teaches man, 
frail creature as he is, to soar away from 
the petty things of this world’s strife, to a 
higher and nobler communion—a commun¬ 
ion with the freed spirits of that heavenly 
land where the glory of the Omniscient is 
seen in all its effulgence, and where happi¬ 
ness is merged in the full fruition of eter¬ 
nal bliss. t. e. w. 
RELIGION WITHOUT LIFE. 
A dull, unmeaning religious meeting is 
an anomaly. If a husband and wife should 
get together once a week, and without a 
particle of feeling or earnestnesss, go thro’ 
with an hour of courting and caressing, it 
would be regarded as a supreme absurdity. 
If business men should get together once 
or twice a week in grave consideration of 
things which 110 ono of them at the time 
cared any thing about, and talk them over 
on this side and on that, forgetting at the 
<loor, what ho and his neighbor had said, 
men would say that they were fools. 
Such things are seldom or never dono in 
things in which men are alive. But for 
months and months together, men will 
gather, without a ray of warmth, without 
any real earnestness, and talk in a drowsy, 
prosing manner, about the most startling 
truths that wero ever addressed to the hu¬ 
man knowledge, in such lifeless method, 
that not a single thought moved responsive, 
not a single emotion throbbed ! It is worse 
than absurd, it is monstrous, i'or men to 
mouth tho most profoundly affecting truths 
of religion, as if they were rolling marbles, 
or discussing somo trifle to while the hour 
away withal. Tho car of a congregation 
has been beaten as hard as a Macadamized 
road by tho weekly tramp of exhortation 
about truth and duty, and what not. Life 
is tho characteristic of Religion. Life is 
the characteristic of Truth. A dull assem¬ 
bly with lifeless men talking about dead 
topics, is a scandal on real religion.— Henry 
Ward Beecher. 
Tiie End of the World. — To-day, to¬ 
morrow, every day, to thousands.’ tho end 
of the world is at hand. And why should 
we fear it ? Wo walk hero as it wero in the 
crypts of life; at times, from tho great ca¬ 
thedral above us, we can hear the organ and 
the chanting choir ; we see tho light stream 
through the open door when somo friend 
goes up before us; and shall we fear to 
mount the narrow staircase of the grave 
that leads us out of this uncertain twilight 
into the serene mansions of life eternal ?— 
Kavanagh. 
Error is tho cause of man’s" misery, tho 
corrupt principle that lias produced evil in 
tho world ; ’tis this which begets and cher¬ 
ishes in our souls all tho evils that alfiict us, 
and wo can never expect a true and solid 
happiness, but by a serious endeavor to 
avoid it. 
When once a concealment or deeeit has 
been practiced in matters where all should 
be fair and open as tho day, confidence can 
never be restored, any more than you can 
restore the white bloom to tho grape or 
plum that you have once pressed in your 
hand. 
Study to be more consistent in principle 
and more uniform in practice, and your 
peace will be more unbroken. 
Slander is the revenge of a coward, and 
dissimulation his defence. 
