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MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER: AN AGRICULTURAL. LITERARY AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER, 
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Deposit Funds. The whole amount expend- j 
ed for public schools is $2,666,609, 36, of j 
which $1,929,884 49 was applied to the pay-j 
ment of teachers, and $47,657 06 lor the dis¬ 
trict libraries. The whole number of district 1 
schools reported for the year is 11, <93 ; and 
the whole number of children in the Stated 
the acre required to draw public money, 1,186, 
709. There have been 877,201 in attendance 
upon the District Schools in Academies un¬ 
der the supervision of the Regents of the Uni¬ 
versity, 37,406 ; 34,279 in unincorporated pri¬ 
vate schools, and 4,568 in colored schools.— 
The average number of months during which 
the schools have been kept in the several dis¬ 
tricts is eight. The number Oi volumes in the 
District Libraries is 1,571,270. 
The results exhibit a gratifying increase in 
the number attending the District bchools over 
the previous year. Dut it will still be seen 
that of the whole number of children of suita¬ 
ble age in the State there are 309,508, or 
nearly one-fourth of the whole number who do 
not attend the District Schools, and 233,255, 
or about 20 per cent, oi the whole number, 
who do not attend any school. In view of 
the provision that has been made for the ex¬ 
press purpose of securing the education of all, 
this proportion is much too large, and inui- 
cates some defect in the system pursued -be¬ 
cause it does not completely retain the object 
at 'which it aims. That it does not, may be 
partly due to the mode of distributing the pub¬ 
lic funds. 13v the existing law, two-thiids of 
the public funds are distributed among the va¬ 
rious districts of the State in proportion to 
the whole number of children of a specified age 
within their limits, whether they attend the 
schools or not. If the apportionment of the 
public money were made to depend upon the 
regularity of their attendance, it would become 
of which the ice boat may bo turned with the 
utmost certainty and rapidity. The velocity 
with which these boats are sometimes driven, 
by the wind, exceeds belief. It would be a 
match for an express locomotive, running at its 
highest speed, to overtake them, at times. 
Scats are arranged on the ice boats, and there, 
covered comfortably up with thick buffalo 
skins, the ladies and gentlemen find happy 
amusement. It is a beautiful sight to see 
twenty of these boats, crossing and re-crossing 
each other’s tracks on the wide bay, each of 
them attended by a knot of skaters, reminding 
one of the troops of small birds which are fre¬ 
quently seen hovering in the wake of a falcon. 
skill and flectness with iron winged feet.— 
Skating, if practiced prudently and safely, is a 
healthful and bracing exercise for youth, and 
ought to receive the sanction of parents. It is 
only when carried to excess, when indulged in 
upon unsound ice, or at the unreasonable hours 
of the night or on the Sabbath, that its prac¬ 
tice leads to immoral and lamentable results. 
Like all other benefits it becomes an evil when 
perverted. Who is there among us that can¬ 
not recall many an hour spent upon the glassy 
surface of a pond in the vicinity of his child¬ 
hood’s home, as among the happiest of his life ? 
sions of the ice boat. These are infinitely pref¬ 
erable to coasting, inasmuch as there is no 
Cissiphus-like toiling up hill for the purpose 
of riding down again. The ice boat can be 
propelled on any tack and as nearly into the 
teeth of the wind as a sloop, and its motions 
arc demonstrable on the same principle of the 
resolution of forces, as the sailing of a ship.— 
It consists simply of planks nailed together, 
upon the bottom of which, skates or pieces of 
thin iron are fastened. A mast is then erected 
in the fore part, and large sails attached. An 
oar is stuck out behind for a rudder, by means 
The inhabitants of warm climates know 
nothing, experimentally, of the bracing sports 
furnished to the denizens of our colder northern 
regions by the winter snows and frosts ; the 
sleigh rides, the coastings, and the skatings, 
which make the warm blood tingle and the 
ruddy cheek glow r . Just above our city, on 
the upper dam near the Valiev railroad station, 
there was a splendid ice field on the river, last 
week, and the boys were enjoying it in crowds. 
In many countries the women enter heartily 
and enthusiastically into the sports of the ice 
field, and challenge the other sex to trials of 
own garden, carrying home from the market a 
piece of meat, than they would be detected in 
an act of theft? and yet, the credit of these 
very individuals is at so low an ebb that a 
money lender would hesitate to accommodate 
them with a loan of five dollars. They enter¬ 
tain such false views of life, that a laborer's 
employment is considered more degrading than 
a violation of pecuniary engagements, and 
forget that the holy Evangelists, and even 
Christ himself, labored with their own hands. 
The cities, far more than the country, are 
cursed with this spirit of false pride, but the 
latter is not altogether free from its contami¬ 
nation. It is what fills the splendidly furnished 
pews of too many of our churches on the Sab¬ 
bath with rustling silks, costly furs, gold 
clasped prayer books, and the forms of religious 
worship, with the salvation of immortal souls, 
in the back ground, as a secondary and miner 
I consideration. 
JOHN FITCH, 
when a complaint reached me that the child, 
ren did not learn. I was at first confounded- 
T began to think whether it were really so. I 
remembered, 
children thus far without allowing 
form any bad habits, 
nral. (This, however, was 
A model steamboat, made by John Fitch, 
in 1790, is yet in existence. It has been in 
the family of Isaac N. Whiting, of Columbus 
—who is a descendant of Fitch—until a few 
months since, when it seems it was given to 
a Mr. Scott, of St. Louis, and taken to that 
city. So, of course, Ohio has lost this invalu¬ 
able relic. The St. Louis Democrat, in speak¬ 
ing of this model, says : 
Mr. McCord has procured this model from 
Mr. C. M. Scott, of our city, whose wife is a 
daughter of the late Col. Kilbourne, of that 
State, and grand-daughter of John Fitch—so 
there is no doubt of the identity of the origi¬ 
nal model , upon which the great mind of Fitch 
expended its energies—the result of whose la¬ 
bors was the application of the wonderful agent, 
steam, to practical purposes. 
This interesting relic has been placed in the 
hands of Mr. McCord, with the promise that 
it shall remain in our city, in the eveut that a 
Mechanics’ Institute is established among us 
—otherwise it will be deposited in Cincinnati. 
num- 
lst, That I had trained these 
them to 
Their reading was nat- 
not appreciated.) 
2d, That although they had been chiefly con¬ 
fined to the reading of words instead of senten¬ 
ces, i. e., they had been confined to the spell¬ 
ing book, yet they had much improved in 
spelling and pronunciation, and when required 
to read sentences, they read them much more 
readily than some who had sooner left the 
spelling book. 3d, That I had taught them 
intelligently,—I had awakened thought.,—and 
had given them much instruction of a moral 
and social character, and had reason to believe 
that they had profiled somewhat by the same. 
Ilence I concluded that they had received the 
worth of their money; and that parents may 
err in estimating the proper progress of their 
children in school. 
I have sometimes observed, that children 
| who had been slow in learning the alphabet, 
would often make ready progress for a time, 
and then appear to arrive at a stand-point, and 
remain apparently stationary, though their 
daily spelling and reading exercises continued 
the same. Now it would not be fair to con¬ 
clude that even at this time such children are 
| not really progressing. They are acquiring 
! familiarity with letters, words, and sounds, and 
: if properly instructed, are treasuring up ideas, 
! and in due time we accordingly find that, if 
| kept at study regularly, they at length “ take 
1 a new start,” and go forward with commenda- 
| ble success—even so as to “ make up ” for past 
! dullness—and in the end, become the best and 
j most intelligent scholars. Ilence I conclude, 
Written for the Rural New-Yorker. 
THE LIGHT BEHIND THE CLOUD. 
Tiie noon-day sun was overcast, 
By clouds of blackest hue ; 
Whose slanting shadows, stretching far, 
Obscured the ethorial blue ; 
Yet golden beams still found their way 
To where each mourner bowed 
And said—how full of hope and-choar— 
There's light behind the cloud. 
While gazing on this cheerless scene, 
The clouds all pass’d away ; 
And where before ’twas dark as night, 
Appeared the perfect day. 
The streaming sun-light brighter soomed 
Titan ore the sable shroud • 
Had wrapped the sun and hid from view, 
The light behind the cloud. 
And thus mothinks it is with life, 
When sorrows hover near, 
Behind afflictions darkest cloud, 
Are rays of hope to cheer. 
And sweeter than our joys will bo ; 
Our life will seem endowed 
With new delight, whan wo porclove 
The light behind the cloud. 
Misfortune’s victim 1 sad and lone ! 
When all seems dark and drear, 
Remember this—clouds pass away— 
And bid thy heart, good cheer : 
For though great sorrows are thy lot, 
And griefs thy heart enshroud, 
’Tis not ai.i. darkness. No 1 ah, no 1 
There’s light behind the cloud. 
Nunda, January, 1855. NETTE. 
IS RELIGION BEAUTIFUL P 
Accompanying the model, 
ber of the original manuscripts of Mr. Fitch 
— among which are a series, that were 
sealed by his own hand, and directed not to be 
opened until a certain period had elapsed an¬ 
terior to his death. His papers were all placed 
in the hands of some author in Philadelphia, 
who designs giving his biography to the world 
—among which was the mysterious package. 
The period of time named by him expired some 
few years since—during the time that the iron 
steamer Great Britain was lying in the port of 
Philadelphia, after her first trip across the At¬ 
lantic. The package was opened, and _ to the 
astonishment of all, was found to contain a de¬ 
tailed prediction of the passage of the Atlantic 
by steam vessels! And so clearly had “coming 
events cast their shadows before,” to the clear¬ 
sighted vision of the old man, that his manu¬ 
scripts, when read, proved to be rather a his¬ 
tory than a prophecy, with regard to the great 
| enterprise of navigating the ocean. 
HUMILITY OF SPIRIT. 
How many young ladies could be found in 
the higher walks of life—young ladies profess¬ 
ing themselves followers of the meek and lowly 
Saviour, and punctual in the performance of 
every outward form of Christian life and 
worship, who yet cherish in their heaits an 
innate pride directly antagonistic to the tiue 
spirit of humility. They would be tempted 
almost to deny the Saviour, rather than be 
detected in any domestic employment. Should 
pecuniary circumstances require their assist¬ 
ance in the duties of the house-hold, it is ren- 
Saturn. —This beautiful planet now ap¬ 
pears in the eastern heavens at great advan¬ 
tage. As a telescopic object it affords a splen¬ 
did view on a clear evening. The principal 
division between the two main rings is distinct¬ 
ly visible. The inner one seems considerably 
raised above the outer, and surpasses it in 
width. The outer is somewhat dimmer, like 
an edge or margin slightly sunk below a level. 
The ball of the planet presents two distinct 
shades ; the upper part (telescopic) being much 
dimmer than the lower, and resembling an 
acorn in its cup. The lower part Is very 
bright, apparently untarnished, except by the 
narrow strip of shade occasioned by the ring. 
The dusky belts are also visible. 
incorrectly in regard to the real progress of 
children in school. In the erection of a build¬ 
ing there may sometimes be a temporary sus¬ 
pension for the purpose of collecting additional 
materials. Yet as these are necessary to the 
completion of the structure, the work is really 
progressing during this suspension. 2d, That 
the real character of the man cannot always be 
determined by that of the boy. '1 he brightest 
children do not always make the most intelli¬ 
gent and useful men. 3d, That perseverance 
in study is really more valuable in one who 
would excel, than (what are commonly called) 
superior talents. Without entering into an 
explanation of the reason, the fact is obvious. 
I have seen examples of both. Persever¬ 
ance generally ensures success. 4th, That 
teachers should not be discouraged even if they 
do not immediately witness so great success as 
they wish. Let them discharge their duty 
faithfully, and their labors will seldom be lost. 
Out West, December, 1854. H. 
MY EXPERIENCE AS A PEDAGOGUE, 
I was once employed to teach a Common 
School, (I had taught such schools before, and 
have done it since.) Among my pupils were 
several A B C — darians. These were rather 
slow at first, but afterwards made respectable 
progress. The parents were highly pleased,— 
said their children had never learned so well 
&c. Of course I was highly gratified; the 
children had learned to read in wmrds of two 
and three syllables; and I felt quite secure 
from any complaint from that quarter. 
Another quarter came, and with it the 
children. I kept them still in the spelling 
book, till near the close of the quarter, occa¬ 
sionally exercising them in reading lessons, 
It is stated that the flame from a blow-pipe 
is from twenty to thirty times more electric 
than an ordinary flame,—from which it is con¬ 
cluded that there is a voltaic current, and that 
of no mean intensity, due to flame, and not 
dependent on hermo-electricity. 
A man whom no person pleases is more 
unhappy than one who pleases nobody. 
