AA.i''. 
Monday morning.—This morning com¬ 
menced teaching school in this town, in Dis¬ 
trict No. 3. After passing a few words with 
Mr.-the acting trustee, and making a few 
preliminary remarks to ths scholars, we com¬ 
menced the campaign. We soon took twen¬ 
ty-seven scholars’ names ; the oldest being only 
fifteen. Reading finished, examination began. 
We soon found a class in Geography of eleven 
scholars, those who formerly composed the 
first class. Two of them had Morse’s Geog¬ 
raphy, two Mitchell’s, two Smith’s ; the re¬ 
mainder were without books. Another class 
in Reading ; three had Porter’s Reader ; five, 
the Village Reader ; two Willard’s History, 
one Sander’s Fourth, and two have none. A 
class in Arithmetic, three or four have Davies’ 
two or three have Adams’, and five have no 
books. The school taken together have no 
spelling books at all. Most of them have 
studied Mental Arithmetic, some Colburn’s, 
some Thompson’s, but these books are as our 
fair weather, “ all gone.” A class of five in 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER: AN AGRICULTURAL, LITERARY AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER. til 
C \t (tetatur. 
STUDY OF THE LANGUAGES. 
For Moore’s Knral New-Yorker, 
ALL THINGS WORK FOR GOOD. 
class in Sander’s Primer, has one book for j 
four. And what is my class in spelling ?— j 
Eleven of them have three books. 
Mr.-, the Trustee remained all the fore¬ 
noon, to see and hear the proficiency of the 
school. First, came a class in Reading, eight 
or ten scholars and as many different books. 
This made Mr.-shake hi3 head. Then 
came a class in Arithmetic, worse than the 
Reading, if possible. Then came Geography, 
worse and worse. The Trustee was ashamed 
of it. Could that he so ? He say3 so, and 
we will take it for granted, as he says there 
shall be a uniformity of books. We hope for 
better days. e. h. 
ELEMENTS OF THE ENGLISH TONGUE. 
Suppose the English language to be divid¬ 
ed into a hundred parts ; of these, to make a 
rough distribution, sLxty would be Saxon, 
thirty would be Latin, (including, of course, 
the Latin, which has come to U3 through the 
French,) five would be Greek; we should thus 
have assigned ninety-five parts, leaving the 
other five, perhaps too large a residue, to be 
divided, among all the other languages from 
which we have adopted isolated words. Thus, 
just to enumerate a few of these latter ; we 
have a certain number of Hebrew words, 
mostly, if not entirely, belonging to religious 
matters, as “ amen, cabalo, cherub, ephod, 
hallelujah, jubilee, manna, Messiah, Sabbath, 
seraph.” The Arabic words in our language 
are more numerous; we have several arithmet¬ 
ical and astronomical terms, as “ algebra, 
cypher, zero, zennith, nadir, talisman, and 
almanaehand chemical, for the Arabs 
were the chemists, no less than the as¬ 
tronomers and arithmeticians of the middle 
ages ; as “ alkali, alembic, elixir, alcohol 
add to these the names of animals or articles 
of merchandize first introduced by them to the 
notice of Western Europe, “ giraffe, gazelle, 
saffron, lemon, orange, sherbet, lute, syrup, ar¬ 
tichoke, mattrass, jar, assegai, barragan, cof¬ 
fee, sugar, amber, mummy, jasmin, crimson,” 
and some further terms, “ assassin, vizier, di¬ 
van, sultan, admiral, arsenal, carat, tarif, so¬ 
fa, caffre, magazine and I believe we shall 
have nearly completed the list. We have 
moreover a few Persian words, as “ bazar, 
lilac, pagoda, caravan, azure, scarlet, taffeta, 
saraband of “ scimitar” it can, I believe, 
only be said, that it is Eastern. We have 
also a few Turkish ; as “ tulip, turban, chouse, 
dragoman,” or as it used to be spelt, “ trunch- 
man this last having hardly a right to be 
called English. 
The new world has given us a certain num¬ 
ber of words, Indian aud other—“tobacco, 
chocolate, potato, maize,” (Haytian.) “ condor, 
hamoc, cacique, wigwam and if “ hurricane” 
is a word which Europe originally derived from 
the Caribbean islanders, it should, of course, 
be included in this list. 
To come nearer home, we have a certain 
number of Italian words, as “ bandit, charla¬ 
tan. pantaloon, gazette.” We have some 
Spanish, as “ musquito, negro, duenna, punc¬ 
tilio, alligator, gala, cambist, palaver.” A 
good many of our sea terms are Dutch, as 
“ sloop, schooner, yacht.” Celtic things are 
for the most part designated among us by Cel¬ 
tic words ; such as “ bard, kilt, clan, pibroach, 
plaid, reel.” Nor only such a3 these, which 
are all of them comparatively of modern in¬ 
troduction, but a considerable number, how 
large a number is yet a very unsettled question, 
of words which at a much earlier date found 
admission into our tongue, are derived from 
this quarter.— English “ Past and Present.” 
GREAT SALT LAKE CITY. 
One of the most remarkable quasi-religious 1 
movements of modern times, is that of the 1 
Mormons ; or, as they call themselves, the | 
“ Latter day Saints.” Originating in our 
own State, and not many miles from our own 
city in the year 1825, the delusion has gath¬ 
ered strength and power until it pervades all 
Christendom and draws out of all nations its 
votaries and pilgrims. The persecutions—not 
perhaps altogether undeserved—the tragical 
death by the hand of violence of the original 
founder of the sect, the wanderi ngs and hard¬ 
ships of the people, and the strong ties of a 
common faith which binds them to each other 
have all contributed to fix their isolated posi¬ 
tion, and to build them up as a community 
both large and powerful. 
After having been driven out of Missouri, 
and subsequently from Illinois by a mob, 
they set their faces westward, probably with 
the original intention of settling either in Cal¬ 
ifornia or Oregon. But, during the progress 
of their journeyings, having come into the re¬ 
markable valley of the Salt Lake shut in upon 
all sides by lofty mountains, possessing a soil 
and climate favorable to agricultural pursuits, 
and capable of sustaining a large population, 
they at once took possession of it as the prom¬ 
ised land. On the borders of this lake beside 
a stream of crystal water which flows from the 
surrounding mountains, they built the New 
Jerusalem and laid the foundations of the 
temple. The streets of the city are broad and 
regular, and each habitation possesses a plat of 
ground sufficient for a garden. This causes 
the city to cover a vast area, at this time 
even, as large as the city of New* York.— 
Through the middle of each street a clear riv¬ 
ulet flows in an open trench, which cools and 
purifies the atmosphere and furnishes to each 
inhabitant the means of cleanliness and irri¬ 
gation. 
There has been much doubt existing in 
the minds of men, in regard to the Mormon ; 
CARRIER PIGEONS AND THE TELEGRAPH. 
Many of the readers of the newspapers, 
who wake up in the morning and find a col¬ 
umn of European news, by telegraph, ready 
for their perusal, in the morning paper, the 
steamer having arrived only the midnight be¬ 
fore, do not know the labor and the enterprise 
which are involved to procure this early 
transmission of the steamer’s news. The 
“ associated press ” have an agent for the ar¬ 
rival of New York steamers at the Sandy 
Hook light-house. He has fifty carrier 
pigeons, which are trained for the purpose of 
conveying news from the steamships to the 
shore. A man in an open boat, in all kinds of 
weather, drops along side of the steamer as 
she bears directly upon Sandy Hook. The 
news is thrown over in a water-tight can, aud 
it being taken out, a single sheet is affixed to 
a bird’s leg. The man then gives the signal 
to the bird, which raises his wings and away 
he goes, with all his powers of locomotion, in 
a straight line for the office, going a distance 
of three or four miles in as many minutes ; 
and popping in at the window, is received by 
the agent, who transmits the intelligence over 
the wires to New York, Boston and Phila¬ 
delphia, and thence to St Louis, New Or¬ 
leans, and all parts of the country, so that the 
news is frequently received over a large part 
of the United States and published before the 
steamer leaves the quarantine.— Phil. Ledger. 
The Beard. —The Mahomedans are very 
superstitious touching the beard. They bury 
the hairs which come off in combing it, and 
break them first, because they believe that an¬ 
gels have charge of their hair, and that they 
gain them their dismissal by breaking it Se¬ 
lim I. was the first Sultan who shaved his 
head, contrary to the law of the Koran. “ I 
do it,” said he, apologetically, to the scandal¬ 
ized and orthodox mufti, “ to prevent my vizier 
leading me by it.” He cared less for it than 
some of our ancestors, two centuries ago, did 
for their own. They used to wear pasteboard 
covers over them in the night, lest they should 
turn upon them in their sleep. 
fidelity to the Union ; and a vague suspicion 
has for some time been entertained, which has 
gathered strength from recent events, that an 
intention exists on their part, at some time to 
set the laws and authority of the United 
States at defiance, and to build up in the val¬ 
ley of the Salt an independent religious oli¬ 
garchy. The declaration of Brigham Young, 
the great high priest of the 3ect, and late Gov¬ 
ernor of Utah Territory, that he would be 
Governor until the Almighty said to him, 
“ Brigham, you need be Governor no longer 
the almost treasonable, and certainly blas¬ 
phemous declarations made time and again in 
public assemblies of “ the Saints” by the 
leaders ; the jealous coldness and suspicious 
conduct manifested towards the military and 
civil authorities of the United States ; the 
recent declension of Col. Steptoe to act as 
Governor, concerning which despatches are 
now passing between him and the government 
at Washington, all seem to point unmistaka¬ 
bly to future difficulties. 
The new political doctrine of Squatter Sov¬ 
ereignty, which permits the people of the terri¬ 
tories to make their own laws, opens a wide 
door for vicious legislation ; and under it the 
Mormons claim the right to legalize polgamy. 
This custom, so offensive to every Christian 
sense, so hostile to the peace and happiness of 
the household, so degrading to woman in all 
the relations of life, is now openly defended 
and practiced in Salt Lake City and all the 
other Mormon settlements of the territory.— 
Its blighting influences are vividly portrayed 
by a lady contributor to the August number 
of Putnam’s Magazine, who, as the wife of a 
government officer, has soujourned among that 
people, and had an opportunity to observe its 
workings. Thi3 single vice will in the end 
prove the ruin of the Mormons. If left to 
themselves, and not pressed upon by outside 
persecutions, the seed of discord and decay will 
; sooner or later overthrow the Mormon power. 
For Moore’3 Rural New-Yorker. 
MISCELLANEOUS ENIGMA. 
I am composed of 19 letters. 
My 1, 3, 7, 9, 5, 17 is a girl’s name. 
My 10, 12, 2, 16, 17 is the name of a village. 
My 6, 3, 4, 17, 19 is an indispensable article. 
My 18, 11, 9, 4, 17 is one of the United States. 
My 4, 9, 12, 17 is the name of a river. 
My 8, 14, 13, 12, 17, 5 is an article for deter¬ 
mining weight. 
My 18, 11, 4 is a noun. 
My 6, 7, 5, 17, 7, 18 is a place of amusement. 
My 4, 3, 8, 17 is a feature. 
My 13, 16, 15, 6, 5 is a man’s name. 
My 4, 11, 9, 12 is an article used in building. 
My whole is an institution of learning. 
Lyons, N. Y., 1855. R. A. 
pf => Answer next week. 
For Moore’a Rural New-Yorker. 
MATHEMATICAL PROBLEM. 
Two persons, A and B, are 450 miles apart. 
A pursues B at the uniform rate of 50 miles 
per day. B starts at the same time, and 
travels 8 miles the first day, 10 miles the sec¬ 
ond, 12 miles the third, &c., in'arithmetical 
progression. When will A overtake B ? 
Gowanda, July, 1S55. Snibbeis. 
gif’ Answer next week. 
Answer to Miscellaneous Enigma in No. 291: 
Et tu Brute. 
‘ ‘ I come for the saw, sir. ” “ What saucer?’ ’ 
“Why, the saw, sir, that yon borrowed.” 
“I borrowed no saucer.” “Sure you did, 
sir, you borrowed a saw, sir.” “ I never saw 
your saucer.” “But you did, there’s the 
saw, sir, now sir.” “0, you want the saw. 
Why didn't you say so ?’ ’ 
“ Together all things work for good 
To him who ioves his God ”— 
Who trusts alone his cleansing blood, 
And “ trembles at his word.” 
“ As loss, he counts all earthly gain, 
That he may win God’s love ”— 
By faith he lives, in ease or pain, 
On earth he lives above. 
“ His life is hid with Christ in God 
His treasure is secure ; 
He often feels the chast’ning rod, 
Yet knows the promise sure, 
- That though he slay, the soul may trust ” 
With confidence his love ; 
“ For he remembers we are dust— 
In kim we live and move.” 
God tempers all the storms of life 
With loving tender care— 
No soul will perish in the strife 
If he God’s favor share ; 
“ The spirit witnesses with his ”— 
Gives light that ne’er grows dim— 
“ He knows that hi3 Redeemer lives. 
And he shall live with Him.” 
Peoria, N. Y., July, 1855. A. B. 
LITTLE BENNIE. 
We shall see him no more. It seems but 
yesterday we held him on our knee, and listen¬ 
ed to his lively prattle. Then his eje sparkled 
with joy ; then the rose of health bloomed up¬ 
on his cheek, and hi3 light hair was parted on 
his forehead. Then we felt sure that he must 
live and gladden our heart with his presence 
for many a year. Memory and hope pictured 
him grown to manhood, the joy and pride of 
our being. We remember how he used to 
mount upon our knee, and how confidingly he 
would lay in our lap. When we opened the 
door how he ran to meet us! How happy 
when we came, and how sad when we went 
away! We felt that others might be bereav¬ 
ed of their children,—we knew that others had 
been ; but our loved one could not die. Thus 
we thought of little Bennie. But alas ! the 
Angel of Death came to our home, and touched 
our boy with his ashy pinion. He sealed his 
eye-lids and took him away. Never before 
hail we known what Death was. But now 
have we been taught the sad lesson ; now have 
we tasted of the bitter cup. That face whose 
smiles vie have often sought—those little hands 
that have so often been folded in our own, are 
no more! 
Come and see where we have laid our boy. 
Yonder is his grave, covered with the verdure, 
and fragrant with the breath of summer ; here 
lies that form so dear to our hearts. We 
stand beside the place of our darling’s rest.— 
While we muse, the rays of the sun are sweet¬ 
ly fallirg, and the tall grass is gracefully wav¬ 
ing in the morning light. Here, shall the 
earliest carol of the bird be heard ; here shall 
the yeliow butter cup and the modest daisy 
lift their dewy heads; here shall they wel¬ 
come our coming with their sunniest smile.— 
Upon the green turf that covers our boy the 
flowers of memory aud affection shall ever 
grow. 
Little Bennie was not ours, but His, and He 
but loaned him for a little while. We have but 
resigned him again to Him who will keep him 
for us. He has passed away and we mourn 
his loss, and yet we would not be selfish. We 
would remember the Father’s claim to his 
child. All we ask is that we may meet our 
boy in Heaven. 
HUHILITYflHElHIGHEST WISDOM. 
We read a pretty story of St. Anthony, 
who, being in the wilderness, led there a very 
hard and strict life, insomuch that none at 
that time did the like ; to whom came a voice 
from Heaven, saying :—“ Anthony, thou art 
not so perfect as is a cobbler that dwelleth at 
Alexandria.” Anthony hearing this, rose up 
forthwith, and took his staff, and traveled till 
he came to Alexandria, where he found the 
cobbler. The cobbler was astonished to see 
so reverend a father come to his house. Then 
Anthony said unto him :—“ Come and tell me 
thy whole conversation, and how thou spend- 
est thy time.” “ Sir,” said the cobbler, “ as 
for me, good works have I none, for my life 
is but simple and slender ; I am but a poor 
cobbler. In the morning, when I rise, I pray 
for the whole city wherein I dwell, especially 
for all such neighbors and poor friends as I 
have. After I set me at my labor, where I 
spend the whole day in getting my living, and 
l keep me from all falsehood, for I hate noth¬ 
ing so much as I do deceitfulness. Where¬ 
fore, when I make any man a promise, I keep 
it, and perform it truly ; and thus I spend my 
time poorly with my wife and children, whom 
I teach and instruct as far as my wit will 
serve me, to fear and dread God. And this is 
the sum of my simple life.”— Latimer. 
Folly of Pride.— After all, take some 
quiet, sober moment of life, and add together 
the two ideas of pride and of man; behold 
him, creature of a span high, stalking through 
; infinite space, in all the grandeur of littleness. 
Perched on a speck of the universe, every 
wind of heaven strikes into his blood the cold¬ 
ness of death; his soul floats from his body 
like melody from the string ;—day and night, 
as dust on the wheel, he is rolled along the 
heavens through a labyrinth of worlds, and 
all the creatures of God are flaming above 
and beneath. Is this a creature to make him¬ 
self a crown of glory; to deny his flesh, to 
mock at his feliow, sprung from the dust to 
which both will soon return.— Sidney Smith. 
It is better to throw a guard about the ba¬ 
by’s cradle than to sing a psalm at the bad 
man’s death bed; better to have a care while 
' the bud is bursting to the sun, than when the 
heat has scorched the heart of the unguarded 
bosom. 
He that sips of many arts, drinks of none. 
— Fuller. 
An explanatory remark, on what was said 
in last week’s Rural touching the study of 
the languages, may perhaps be necessary, and 
that is this: It is not expected that their 
pursuit is within the reach of every individual^ 
any more than is the pursuit of other branches 
of liberal learning. Much as we boast of the 
general diffusion of knowledge among our peo¬ 
ple, it is a lamentable fact that a great mass of 
depraved and ignorant humanity exists among 
us, especially in cities. Of the 1,186,709 
children of school age in the State of New 
York, 233,255, or nearly twenty per cent., do 
not attend any school, public or private. Of 
course a very large number of these youth are 
not wholly uneducated, as many of them have 
left school and engaged in laborious or other 
employments ; but the generality of them must 
of necessity possess limited advantages, and 
lack much of even the necessary qualifications 
for intelligent business men. 
Very many of the children of our farmers 
and mechanics are unable to attend any other 
than the Common Schools, and in but few 
instances, except in cities, are even the higher 
branches of physical science taught in these in¬ 
stitutions. But aside from them there is the 
very large class, especially of American youth, 
who either do or can attend Seminaries, Acad¬ 
emies, or Colleges. If they do not graduate 
with collegiate honors, they study for several 
terms at least, and might attend longer if earn¬ 
estly desirous of domg so. To this class of 
persons the study of the Latin language will 
be advantageous and is within their reach. If 
a man does not intend to fit himself for the 
learned professions, or any kindred pursuit, 
the study will not even then be lost. It stores 
his mind with brilliant images, gives him a 
command of language, enables him to clothe 
his ideas in becoming garb and polish up his 
periods. Every intelligent man has more or 
less occasion to write and speak ; and this par¬ 
ticular branch in the course of a liberal learn¬ 
ing enables him to do it with greater facility 
and grace. It will not give him facts and 
figures (except of rhetoric) it is true; it will 
net turn him out a logician, or a walking en¬ 
cyclopedia of all learning, any more than dress 
will make a man ; but all admit that “ becom¬ 
ing dress even is a great improvement on a 
man after he is made.” 
Aside from the professional man, others de¬ 
rive great benefit in a practical way also, from 
a knowledge of the Latin ; the druggist, the 
chemist, the artist, the architect, the engineer, 
the horticulturist, the farmer and a thousand 
others might be named, to whose employments, 
through the aids of chemistry, philosophy, 
mathematics or botany, classical learning is a 
band-maiden. Thousands in each of these em¬ 
ployments succeed without them, but it does 
BOt follow that they would be of no advantage 
even to these men. 
In studying the languages successfully the 
student should commence them young. The 
mind of a boy of ten to fifteen years of age 
seems peculiarly fitted to grasp and retain the 
technicalities and idioms of language, aud will 
generally outstrip one of maturer years, altho’ 
of equally brilliant intellect. A student of 
the above age will glide over a lesson in the 
Latin Grammar or in Yirgil with perfect ease, 
when another of twenty-five will flounder 
along like a heavy horse over a miry road; 
while at the same time, in other departments, 
the latter will grasp ideas and comprehend and 
analize a subject, which, for the other, would 
be quite impossible. 
A great fault in most of our Academies, not 
established with special reference to fitting 
students for College is, that they push them 
forward over mathematical and scientific stu¬ 
dies to the neglect of the classical branch of 
their preliminary education. The writer has 
a very vivid recollection of at least one stu¬ 
dent, who had passed over more than two 
years of the former branches, and was so fa¬ 
miliar with mathematics especially, as to be ex¬ 
cused from the class several terms; but was 
tasked and recited extra lessons both in Latin 
and Greek nearly a year to make up deficien¬ 
cies. It is strange that many teachers in 
Academies, themselves graduates, do not seem 
to understand the importance of attending to 
these things. 
In the New York Free Academy, the stu¬ 
dents have an option of the ancient or modern 
languages; and out of eleven hundred and 
sixty-four who entered between February, 
1849, and July, 1854, eight hundred and thirty- 
one chose the former course, without doubt by 
the advice of parents, guardians, or teachers 
more competent to judge which was the best. 
In many of our Colleges scientific departments 
are established, and in some others optional 
courses ; but the straight - forward classical 
course always has, and we venture to predict, 
always will, retain the precedence it unmista¬ 
kably deserves. 
Tub true perfection of discipline in a school 
ia the maximum of watchfulness with the min¬ 
imum of punishment.— Coleridge. 
usings. 
For Moord’8 Rural New-Yorker, 
UNIFORMITY, 
Harvard College. —Of the one hundred 
and twenty Colleges in the United States, 
Harvard College, in Cambridge, is the best 
endow r ed, and the oldest, having been formed 
in 1636, and has the most extensive library, 
consisting of over ninety-eight thousand vol¬ 
umes. In Boston, measures are being taken 
to establish a Club—literary and social in 
character—of the graduates of Harvard ; the 
Club to occupy two or more apartments in a 
central situation, one of which is to be a read¬ 
ing room. It is estimated that seven hundred 
of the twenty-three hundred living graduates 
of Harvard reside in the immediate vicinity 
of Boston, and that three hundred of these 
would be willing to join the Club, aud pay 
au annual assessment of ten dollars a year, if 
necessary. 
A LEAF FROM A TEACHER’S DIARY. 
