184 
MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER: AN AGRICULTURAL AND EMILY NEWSPAPER. 
OBfrinatunal. 
[Written for Moore’s Rural Nevr-Yoiker. ] 
“I CAN’T SPARE HIM.” 
“ I can’t spare him, —don’t see how I could 
get along without him.” Well, you cant spare 
him very well. You have got wood to chop, 
ground to plow, grain to sow, corn to plant, 
&c., &c., and you can't spare the boy. These 
aforementioned items are to be attended to, 
rather than your son should spend a few years 
at Seminary or College, preparing himself to 
take a position among men —qualifying him¬ 
self to become eminently useful. You “ never 
had much of a chance,” and you have always 
got along!” Yes, you had a good constitu¬ 
tion, and have toiled long and hard, and have 
accumulated something. You never have rel¬ 
ished the rich feasts, the intellectual repasts, 
which some have seemed to revel in, and you 
see no necessity for it. It’s of some importance 
to accumulate money — sordid dross—earthly 
pelf—your boy must help you. lie must be 
educated in the mysteries of money making — 
such mysteries as you possess a knowledge of. 
Certainly, you wish him to learn to “read, and 
write, and cipher !"— learn to write his own 
name legibly, compute interest, so as “ not to 
get cheated.” and his education is finished!” 
Must have money out at interest, stock in a 
Railroad or Bank, but what for? O, you 
want to start your son fairly in life, and leave 
him a handsome property. This is the highest 
hope you have for him! Leave him property! 
but suppose he should die first! —the Death- 
Angel should sriiite him. and leave you alive— 
could you “spare him ” then? 
What then would be your aim in amassing 
treasures? By a judicious use, you may pos¬ 
sess more earthly comfort. But by whose 
goodness do you receive so bountifully of 
earth’s fruits and earthly enjoyments? The 
same who gave your son a soul —a mind. He 
has given you the means whereby you may 
cultivate that mind — enlarge its capacity for 
enjoyment, not only on earth, but in Heaven. 
You will be responsible to the Author of 
mind for the improvement and increase of the 
little given you to cultivate. You are to set 
the ball in motion — to give direction as well 
as motion. That mind is to progress infinitely. 
Its moral and intellectual character are forever 
to be increased. 
Earth is the vestibule — here we are to lay¬ 
off, to leave behind this mould of clay, and the 
spirit part alone enters the golden gate. You 
are caring for the body, and feed, pamper and 
clothe it; but what are you doing for the death¬ 
less mind? Remember, the Lord of the Vine¬ 
yard must receive his own with usury. 
And now, my young friend, a word to you. 
If you are one of that class (“ their name is 
Legion ”) who “ can’t be spared ”—if time and 
money are not furnished you, with which to 
improve the facilities offered to all for obtain¬ 
ing an education— 
“ Never give up ! it is wiser and better 
Always to hope, than once to despair; 
Fling off the load of doubt’s cankering fetter, 
And break the dark spell of tyrannical care. 
“Never give up ? or the burden may sink you,— 
Providence kindly has mingled the cup, 
And in all trials or troubles, bethink you, 
The watchword of life must be, Never give up 1” 
Let every chip which flies from that log you 
are chopping, furnish a thought—each furrow 
you turn be deep; use the plow of study, and 
plow a deep wide furrow in the field of science. 
Don’t study superficially, nor let a stone throw 
the plow out the furrow — a difficulty, some¬ 
thing blind, perplexing, make you cease study. 
If the plow is thrown out, “ back up and take 
a new hold ”—don’t half plow it. Conquer all 
obstacles—you can! —make everything yield 
to the power of mind. Be taught by Nature. 
Buy a four cent pencil and some paper, and 
when your “ horses are puffing,” secure that 
last thought — add another to it, and another, 
and keep adding. They will continue to come 
with accelerated velocity. Suppose they are 
detached. This planetary system is composed 
of detached bodies. Is it any the less magnifi¬ 
cent? Cull the richest thoughts from the best 
authors you can get—make them your own.— 
Adorn and beautify them to suit your taste. 
Burn out the candles and oil. Don’t let sloth 
aud love of ease overcome these desires. Once 
in the habit of thinking, of concentrating your 
powers on a particular subject, and it be¬ 
comes easy. You must labor. “Things breed 
thoughts.” Pluck beauty from the “ grey old 
boulder,” and let the farm-sounds make music 
to your soul. You’ll be happy. The “Old 
Farm” won’t be able to hold you. You 
will have to be “ spared.” The “ Sire ” will 
“spare” you. Charlie Chestnut. 
What is righteousness, what is justice, but 
to give a hearing to every opinion, and to listen 
to the arguments by which it may be support¬ 
ed; to allow to truth wherever it may be found, 
the opportunity to disclose itself; to grant to 
all the liberty of free discussion.— Prof.Vinet. 
Melted snow produces about one-eighth of 
its bulk of water; hence snow two feet deep 
produces three inches of water when thawed. 
OREGON —HER EDUCATIONAL PROSPECTS. 
It would be a bad omen, indeed, for Oregon, 
if—with a population not much short of 40,- 
000, and still increasing at an unprecedented 
rate, and first settling into the order of a repub¬ 
lican State — no adequate provision had been 
made for the intellectual cultivation of her 
people. 
From the earliest settlement of Americans 
here, however, there has been a felt want of the 
means of educating the youth. A few, at least, 
in every class of society have manifestly been 
deeply impressed with the importance, not 
only to this people, but to the world, of en- 
stamping upon the civilization that is to be 
developed upon the Pacific coast, purity, liber¬ 
ality and intelligence. The most praiseworthy 
exertions have consequently been put forth in 
various quarters, for the establishment of per¬ 
manent and efficient institutions of learning.— 
These exertions, in spite of the difficulties in¬ 
cident to all new countries, have been so far 
crowned with success, that Oregon will now 
compare favorably with any State in the Union 
in respect to its schools and educational facili¬ 
ties—considering its age and position. Indeed, 
few of the old States have accomplished so 
much for the cause of education, within the 
first twenty years of their settlement, and the 
first eight of their civil and political existence, 
as Oregon. The Methodist Episcopal Church 
have three flourishing academies now in ope¬ 
ration, and a fourth soon to go into operation. 
The Willamettee University, chartered last 
winter, and located in Salem, is also under the 
direction of that body, and a faculty will soon 
be organized, and ample facilities provided for 
a full collegiate course. 
The Baptists have also a flourishing school 
in this place, under a charter which embraces 
all the powers and provisions of a college.— 
They have now a permanent teacher, aud al¬ 
ready afford to young men the advantages of 
collegiate education. Their institution, called 
the Oregon City College, has received a dona¬ 
tion of a tract of land near this place, and 
mostly free from financial embarrassment, bids 
fair to be a source of much good to the ter¬ 
ritory. 
There are also two institutions to which the 
Congregationalism are generally friendly, but 
which are really under the direction and con¬ 
trol of no particular denomination of Christians. 
These are the Tualatin Academy and Pacific 
University, and the Clackamas County Fe¬ 
male Seminary. The former is an Academy 
with Collegiate powers, and a professor already 
at work in the collegiate department 
The Episcopalians are also making a move 
toward the establishment of a Seminary or 
College for the education of young men. The 
Campbellites are making liberal provision for 
the immediate establishment of a high school 
for their denomination. 
In addition to these, there must be taken in¬ 
to consideration the village and neighborhood 
schools, besides many private or family schools, 
the number of which is not easily ascertained. 
There is a school fund, providing for the sup¬ 
port and regulation of public schools, in every 
County; but the sparseness of the country 
population, aud their mixed character—having 
come from various and different parts of our 
Union and the world, and being comparatively 
strangers to each other — have- rendered its 
provisions, as yet, of comparatively little use. 
Still, it is an evidence of a fruitful interest in 
the cause of education. 
The schools, so far as I know, are well pro¬ 
vided with books, of the very best kinds. The 
latest and best publications of your New York 
publishers have been introduced, and are gen¬ 
erally used. 
The public sentiment, however, notwithstand¬ 
ing all that has been and is being done, will not 
bear a high standard of scholarship — one at 
least that requires some years aud considerable 
expense to reach. Much of the interest felt in 
education, it must be confessed, grows out of 
considerations of its practical, immediate utili¬ 
ty. An education is deemed rather as a means 
of business and of gain, than as a means of en¬ 
nobling and refining human nature. Education, 
carried on according to the prevalent idea here, 
would, after one or two generations, provide 
only the qualifications of a nation of shop¬ 
keepers.— Cor. JY.Y. Times, March 9,1854 
MASSACHUSETTSJsCPOL STATISTICS. 
The following school returns furnish decisive 
evidence of the continued advance of our com¬ 
mon school system, in proportion to our in¬ 
creasing population and wealth; and nothing 
shows more conclusively the interest of a people 
in any public object, or their real estimate of 
its value, than the amount of money they reg¬ 
ularly pay for its support through voluntary 
taxation. Tried by this rule there can be no 
general diminution of interest or sense of fail¬ 
ure in respect to our public schools: they have 
been sustained with increasing liberality. The 
amount of money by tax for the support of 
schools during the past year, was larger than 
in any previous year by more than $50,000. 
The aggregate of appropriations by all the 
cities and towns of money raised by taxes for 
the school year of 1851-2, was $910,216; and 
for the school year 1852-3, the aggregate was 
$963,631, an increase of $53,415 in one year. 
The amount raised by tax for the school 
year of 1842-3 was $510,590; the amount for 
the last year wits $963,631, an increase of 
$453,041, or nearly eighty-nine percent, in ten 
years. 
The average increase for ten years past of 
appropriations of school money raised by tax, 
has been $45,304, per year. 
The sum raised for 1842-3 was an average 
to each person of the whole population, accor¬ 
ding to the census of 1840, of sixty-nine cents, 
while the sum raised for 1852-3 was an average 
to each person of the population, according to 
the census of 1850, of ninety-seven cents—an 
advance of twenty-eight cents to every man, 
woman and child in the state. 
The population of the state from 1840 to 
1850 increased thiry-five per cent., while the 
increase of appropriations for the last ten 
years has been eighty-nine per cent.— Extract 
from Mass. School Report. 
Every school-boy of the Northern States will 
recognize in the above bird tie portrait of a 
familiar friend, although he may not recognize 
the ear of grain on which life Bobolinkship 
happens to be perched; while on the other 
haud, the Southerner will recognize the grain 
but not the bird, in consequence of his having 
donned a “ coat of many colors.” different from 
the sober brown in which he fe wont to visit 
those warm latitudes—not as at the North, one 
of the merriest spring warbleis — but as a 
greedy gormandizer, and a great destroyer of 
the tender young rice crop, on a stalk of which 
he is represented as stauding, in the cut. 
Among us, this warbler is greeted with a 
welcome scarcely exceeded by that given to 
the Robin, and he is equally as secure from aU 
harm, except from brainless and inhuman 
sportsmen, and wanton boys, such as Shak- 
speare describes when he says: 
« The man that hath not music in himself. 
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, 
Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils; 
The motions of his spirit are dull as night, 
And his affections dark as Erebus: 
Let no such man be trusted.” 
At the South he is regarded as a pest to the 
rice fields, and his kind are slain by thousands, 
both because they are a nuisance while living, 
IMPORTANCE OF T HE COMPASS. 
Captains of ocean steamers differ considera¬ 
bly in their attention to exactness in compasses. 
Good compasses are doubtless furnished to all 
vessels of this important class; but the very 
best compass may be rendered worse than use¬ 
less, by a disregard of the petty circumstances 
on board that derange its action. Captain 
Shannon related to us a curious instance of a 
derangement in the compass, which had since 
rendered him punctiliously cautious. He had 
left Halifax with his vessel on the homeward 
bound voyage; it was during one ol the cold 
winter months, when fogs prevailed on the 
American coast. His directions at night to 
the officers of the watch were to run for a point 
thirty miles eastward of Newfoundland, so as 
to make sure of keeping clear of its rock- 
bound shores; and the point of the compass 
that would lead in this required direction was 
fixed upon. On coming on deck in the gray of 
the morning, what was his horror on seeing 
that the ship had just entered a small bay, and 
seemed about to be dashed in pieces on the 
lofty precipices that revealed themselves thro’ 
the mist. By instantaneously shouting or¬ 
ders to the man at the wheel, and by reversing 
the engines, he barely saved the vessel from 
destruction. After some trouble, it was pad- 
died out to deep water. His first impression, 
of course, was that the compass had been neg¬ 
lected. But to his surprise, he found that his 
orders in this respect had been exactly followed. 
The head of the vessel had been kept in the 
direction w’hich, by compass, should have led 
to the open sea, thirty miles from land, and yet 
here it was, running Tull in shore. To all con¬ 
cerned, the deviations seemed perfectly magi¬ 
cal — not on any ordinary principle to be ac¬ 
counted for. The truth at length dawned on 
the Captain. The error must have arisen from 
some local derangement of the compass. He 
caused all the compasses in the ship to be 
ranged on deck; and soon it was perceived that 
no two agreed. The seat of the disorder was 
soon ascertained to be a certain spot close to 
the funnel of the stove of the saloon. Could 
this funnel be the cause? It was of brass, and 
had never before shown any power of distract¬ 
ing the needle. On looking into it, however, 
the Captain discovered that at Halifax, a new 
iron tube had been put inside the brass one, 
without his knowledge, and the circumstance 
had never been mentioned to him. There, in 
that paltry iron tube, was the whole cause of 
the derangement, “which I speedily,” added 
Captain Shannon, “ made to shift its quarters. 
How near was thus a fine vessel being wrecked, 
from a petty circumstance which no one could 
have previously dreamt of; and it may be said 
how many first class steamers, assumed to be 
diverted toward rocks by currents, may have 
been led to destruction from causes equally 
trivial.— Chambers' Journal 
No man who has once heartily and wholly 
laughed, can be altogether and irreclaimably de¬ 
praved.— Carlyle. 
Discard jealousy, for it brings unhappiness, 
and makes him who harbors it ever wretched. 
and a rich and dainty morsel for the epicure 
when killed. To see the Bobolink hovering 
over the tall grass of the meadows, rising aud 
falling as the waving sedge on which he per¬ 
ches is swayed by the wind, and pouring forth 
such a gush of melody as is equaled by very 
few of our wildwood songsters, it requires a 
considerable stretch of faith to believe that 
when they become gregarious, and inhabit the 
warmer climates of the South, at such seasons 
as preclude their living here, they are anything 
but elegant and harmless songsters. But so it 
is, and it proves that birds as well as men are 
to some extent the creatures of external cir¬ 
cumstances. The individual who during a 
sunny day in June wanders in the fields, and 
listens to a Bobolink — who rebukes the wan¬ 
ton gunner that lets off a blunderbuss at the 
songster—who regales himself on strawberries 
and cream at that season, and would no more 
think of eating a Bobolink than he would 
think of eating the sacred bird of Jove, goes 
South and eats his singing friend in the shape 
of a Rice bird, with the relentless jaws of a 
cannibal. It is, perhaps, the bird’s fault rather 
than the man’s, for if he had not forsaken his 
gamut, and betaken himself to gluttony, he 
would not at last be baked in a pie. 
This beailtirul mill highly aromatic treo is a 
native plant of Oregon. The leaf is somewhat 
like the pear; the trunk and branches resemble 
the orange tree; the flower, the white jessiv- 
mine. It is fouud in small quantities in several 
localities of the Williamette valley, but in 
greater abundance at the foot of the Cascade 
mountains, north-west of Mt Hood. It is des- 
•tined to make more of a stir among the chem¬ 
ists and botanists of this age than one might 
at first imagine. What seems to attract the 
most attention is its peculiarly pleasant and 
odoriferous smell, a few branches of it giving 
a delightful fragrance to the parlor or other 
apartments. The leaf has a sweetish, slightly 
pungent taste, and the branch differs little in 
this respect 
Its medicinal properties have not as yet 
been tested, but we learn that steps have been 
taken, by persons in this city, towards having 
this done immediately, by scientific men in New 
York City. The nature, virtues, &e., of the 
leaf, flower, trunk and roots, are to be thor¬ 
oughly investigated. As to the quality of the 
perfume, little doubt remains—it is decidedly 
a rich one, and nothing is now left to accom¬ 
plish, but to carry out the plans already in con¬ 
templation. Many are very sanguine of its 
complete success as regards its rare fragrance, 
either in its natural state or as an oil. Its 
medicinal healing powers are thought to be of 
a superior nature. 
The tree grows to a height of eight or nine 
feet, but is more frequently found of smaller 
sizes. It is a beautiful evergreen, and will be 
of intrinsic value to place around our homes 
as ornaments. Some in our city, have already 
commenced this elegant addition to their for¬ 
mer improvements.— Oregon Spectator. 
The Oldest Book in the United States, it 
is said, is a manuscript Bible in the possession 
of Dr. Witherspoon, of Alabama, written over 
a thousand years ago! He describes it as 
follows: — “The book is strongly bound in 
boards of the old English oak, and with thongs, 
by which the leaves are also well bound to¬ 
gether. The leaves are entirely made of 
parchment, of a most superior quality, of fine¬ 
ness and smoothness little inferior to the best 
satin. The pages are all ruled with great ac¬ 
curacy, and written with great uniformity and 
beauty in the old German text hand, and di¬ 
vided off into chapters and verses. 
The first chapter of every book in the Bible 
is written with a large capital of inimitable 
beauty, and splendidly illuminated with red, 
blue and black ink, still in vivid colors; and no 
two of the capital letters in the book are pre¬ 
cisely alike.” 
Plains of Chaldea. —Layard says that 
these plains produce some of the finest fruit in 
the world. A very delicious peach has lately 
been introduced into England, which Inis crea¬ 
ted a good deal of excitement among nursery¬ 
men. The plains in the spring of the year are 
covered with gorgeous flowers. Truffles grow 
there in great abundance and are quite exten¬ 
sively used as an article of food. 
The hanging gardens of Babylon, Layard 
says, w’ere no fiction. He has found pictured 
representations of them in his researches. 
SA3EATH EVENING. 
Now the Sabbath light is (lying; 
Fading from the world away, 
While the autumn winds are sighing 
Farew ells to departing day ; 
And a blessed calm is stealing 
Peacefully on every thing ; 
While the solemn night revealing 
Silently its dusky wing, 
Foldeth up all earthly beauty 
In its dark and chill embrace; 
Thicker, faster come the shadows, 
Softly from each hiding place. 
I know a home where shadows gather, 
Deeper than the evening shade ; 
Where a husband and a father. 
In his winding sheet is laid, 
Death hath laid his icy finger 
On the old man’s weary eyes, 
But the morning light hath touched them. 
Opened them in Paradise 1 
To the Sabbath of the Holy, 
God hath led his trembling feet, 
He who loves the meek and lowly 
Giants to them a royal seat. 
At Ills heavenly table feeds them, 
Wipes the tear drops from their eyes, 
Ami in tender pastures leads them, 
Filling them with rich supplies. 
There. Death’s Angel shroudeth never 
Loving hearts, like mists of even, 
And God's ransomed ones shall ever 
See the light and bliss of Heaven. Editii. 
SLIPPERY PLAGES. 
“Let him that thinketh he standeth take 
hee<1 lest he fall,” is a solemn and sacred admoni¬ 
tion; and the frequent disappearance of our 
fellow men beneath the tide, is a forcible com¬ 
mentary upon the truth. Sometimes standing 
high and jubilant upon what seems a lofty and 
safe pedestal, the fatal plunge is all the deeper 
and more sudden. Sometimes occupying a 
position upon a lower platform, but one of 
broader dimensions, and apparently secure 
foundation, the treacherous planks give way 
beneath Lis feet, or he walks off the edge of it 
unawares. Sometimes he treads foolishly, and 
in a spirit of bravado, dangerous ground, just 
to show the power he possesses over time anil 
circumstances, and sinks unnecessarily. Some¬ 
times, led from his path through dangerous 
places, full of pitfalls and man-traps, he be¬ 
comes indifferent to danger, and falls at last 
unconsciously, like a man walking in his sleep. 
By day and by night — on the broad high¬ 
way of life and in the by-lanes and pathways 
— in the crowded marts and in the waste pla¬ 
ces of the wide world, the evil spirit and his 
potent ministers, mao’s appetites and passions 
unbridled or misdirected, are leading him 
wider and wider astray. 
Prominent among the fiends, stalks forth 
Intemperance. His victims are reckoned by 
the myriad, and the altars of their sacrifice are 
erected in all places. From the magnificent 
hotel, the gorgeous gin palace, the splendidly 
furnished saloon, down, down through all 
grades of the traffick, to the “Tom all Alone ” 
and the dark hole in the corner of some tumble 
down old wall, the demon seizes on and drags 
his prey to perdition. 
The love of gaining, the pursuit of unhal¬ 
lowed pleasures, habits of idleness and repug¬ 
nance to manual labor, false pretences in ap¬ 
pearing higher, richer, nobler than we are, false 
pride causing us to blush at our own or our 
family’s defects, false delicacy in concealing 
from ourselves, or those in whom we ought to 
confide, a mis-step or a wrong, all go to make 
up the great account! 
As we look back over the long vista of the 
past, how many places are left vacant, and 
mocking shadows occupying the spots where 
once stood noble structures! What guaranty 
have we that our own late may not be similar, 
except in eternal vigilance over our thoughts 
and actions; a careful prompting of our good, 
and an eternal guard over our bad impulses; 
and a constant enforcement of the admonition 
in our own case, “Let him that thinketh he 
standeth take heed lest he lull?” 
Divinity of Christ. —Two gentlemen were 
once engaged in a discussion on the divinity of 
Christ. Cue of them, who argued against it, 
said, “If it were true, it certainly would 
have been expressed in more clear and 
unequivocal terms.” “Well,” said the oth¬ 
er, “admitting that you believed it, were 
authorized to teach it, and allowed to 
use your language, how would you express the 
doctrine, to make it satisfactory and indubita¬ 
ble?” “I would say,” replied the first, “that 
Jesus Christ is the true God.” “ You are hap¬ 
py,” rejoined the other, “in the choice of your 
words, for you have happened to hit upon the 
very words of inspiration.” St. John, speaking 
of Christ, says, “This the true God and eternal 
fife!” _ 
A rich man once asked the poet Sadi why 
the learned were so often seen at the doors of 
the wealthy, while the wealthy were never seen 
entering the portals of the learned. “It is,” 
said Sadi, “because learned men know the val¬ 
ue of riches, but the rich are ignorant of the 
value of knowledge.” 
The Scripture is unto us what the star was 
unto the wise men; but if we spend our time 
in gazing upon it, admiring its splendor, with¬ 
out being led to Christ by it, the use of it will 
be lost to us. 
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