1 
KUKAL 
h 
ac 
[Written for Moore’* Rural New-Yorker.] 
“THE PEOPLE'S COLLEGES." 
“Our Common Schools are the distingniBhing 
blessing of our land," for they are the ednoatora 
of the great mass of the people. Hence, the im¬ 
portance of raising the educational standard in 
these “ colleges” to the position that it ought to 
occupy, in order to meet the urgent necessities 
of our rapidly increasing population, so that the 
rising generation can be thoroughly educated at 
home. 
The higher branches may be as successfully 
taught in the common schools, as in the college 
or seminary, for one-tenth the cost, while tiie 
children can always be at home, under the super¬ 
vision of their parents, Every school should be 
provided with a philosophical, chemical, and as¬ 
tronomical apparatus, with a cabinet of minerals, 
and with a manakin fur illustrating physiology. 
The higher mathematics, history, the science of 
government, declamation, composition, and even 
the classics, can be as easily laught, by qualified 
teachers, in the common school as in the Univer¬ 
sity of Oxford or Yule College. 
The time is not far in advance, when the intel¬ 
ligent people of, at least, the Empire Bute, will 
see the propriety of contributing liberally from 
their abundance to the elevation of the common 
schools, in which their children,—the future arbi¬ 
ters of the Republic,—are to be educated.— 
Through inattention to their schools, and other 
matters of vital importance, the people of the 
country have directly aided in transferring the 
seat of power to the cities and villages, and they 
in turn monopolize the educational, political,anti 
financial interests of the Commonwealth. This 
growing evil can bo remedied by expending at 
home the thousands of dollars that ure annually 
paid to the cities and villages for educational pur¬ 
poses. First, our sohool buildings, externally, 
should be models of architectural beauty, (not 
too expensive,) while they should be arranged, in¬ 
ternally, to promote the health, comfort and con¬ 
venience of their occupants, with high ceilings, 
good ventilators, cushioned seats, and desks with 
drawers for the books. An ample rostrum for 
lectui ing and declamation should also be provid 
ed, while the walls ought to be adorned with 
maps, charts, and a few historical paintings, to¬ 
gether with the portraits of some of the great 
and good of all nations. The school-room would 
thus become attiactivc to the juveniles who are 
ever delighted with the beautiful in nature and 
art. We have, of late, read several spicy essays 
on the importance of providing convenient stables 
and sheds for the cattle and sheep, and have seen 
and admired the plans of several premium bams, 
and suburban residences, but wo have looked in 
vaiu for the plan of a model school-house. 
“ The good time," about whieh so much has 
been aaid, will have come when school-house 
architcetilre shall receive the attention that it so 
justly merits,—when ill health shall no more be 
visible among the youth of the land, as the effect 
of the school-house treatment to which they ure 
at present subjected. “It will bo a happy time," 
a kind of millenium for the little people, when all 
of the old school-houses, with their rude and un¬ 
comfortable appurtenances, shall have passed 
away and given place to new and beautiful struc¬ 
tures, worthy to be called “ the People’s Col¬ 
leges." N. B. Ament. 
Mt. Morris, N. Y., I860. 
BOARDING ’ROUND." 
EDUCATIONAL MEETING IN BUFFALO. 
Ssubtoww, Jane 7,1860. 
Dear Rural:— Since I became a school-ma’am, 
“who teaches for nothing, and boards ’round,” 
I’ve grown quite aspiring, and had I not feared 
my humble communication would be thrust 
under the table, with all the other literary trash, 
as a footstool for your editorial shoe, l believe 
you would have heard from me some time ago; 
but “teaching the young ideas how to shoot,' 1 
has increased my courage consideiubly, and so I 
make the attempt. 
I wonder if the editor or the Rcrai, was ever 
initiated Into the beautiful system of “ boarding 
’Aund?"—wonder If be was ever put into a sb ep- 
iug-room with a cut and seven kittens, and ever 
so many bed-fellows, in the shape of “ red rovers?" 
—wonder if ho always had such a big piece of 
pie beside his plate t at it gave him the stomach¬ 
ache to look at it, aud had the pleasure of seeiug 
the longing eyes of all the young hopes of the 
family turned toward it?—wonder if his first 
trustee's name was Jones? —may be ’twas Smcth, 
but mine rejoices in the name of Jones, with 
whom I hold delightful converse every evening, 
after chore time. Mr. Jones is evidently glad 
(on my account) that there are live little Joneses 
to 9end, as l can spend five weeks iu bis family. 
At the present time he is giving me a history of 
all the pedagogues who have ever graced, or dis¬ 
graced, the school, in which sundry skirmishes 
of the “big boys” with the teachers are dwelt 
upon, to the great delight of the Jones boys, who 
have had some recent painful experience at 
school, and I overheard one uf them to-day say¬ 
ing “He guess if the school-ma'am touched him 
again she’d get a licking." So I am on the look¬ 
out for mutiny. 
However, I don’t spend all my time at Mr. 
Jones’, but circulate around the neighborhood 
In the character of newspaper. Don’t imagine, 
Dear Rural, that I am trying to take your place. 
Oh, no! My copy of the Rural is worn thread¬ 
bare before I Can get a glimpse at it. I am trying 
to get up a club, and you may expect to hear 
from me again after potato harvest 1 have great 
faith that the Rural will yet do much to elevate 
the character of District No.-, only give it a 
chance to circulate. Mary E. P. 
THE FIRST SCHOOLMASTER IN NEW YORK. 
A Joint Meeting of the American Normal 
School and National Teachers’ Association, will 
be held at Buffalo, N. Y., commencing on Tues¬ 
day, the 7th of August next, aud continuing 
through the week. The Normal Association will 
organize ou Taeaday, at 10 o’clock A. M. Intro¬ 
ductory Addsess by the President. The National, 
on the following day, at the same hour and place. 
Introductory Address by the President. 
Lectures will be delivered and papers presented 
by the following gentlemen, viz :— Messrs. B. G. 
Northrop, of Mass.; J. P. Wickersham, of Penn.; 
D. N, Camp, of Conn.; E. North, of Hamilton 
College, N. Y.; John Kneeland, of Mass.; Wm. 
II. Wells, of Illinois; E. 1.. Youmans, of N. Y., 
and others. 
It is expected that papers w ill be presented for 
discussion oil the most important themes per¬ 
taining to the several departments of instruction, 
government, and discipline, from the Primary 
School to the University. The Order of Exercises 
will be announced at the meeting. 
In view of the character of the gentlemen who 
are to lecture, the subjects to be presented, the 
sections of country aud departments of instruc¬ 
tion represented, the geneial interest felt for 
both Associations throughout the States, and the 
locality of the place of meeting, (within an hour 
of Niagara,) it is expected that this will be the 
largest and most important Educational Meeting 
ever held in the United States. 
The Local Committee, at Buffalo, are making 
all necessary arrangements for the meeting. The 
citizens of B. will eutertain the ladies gratuitous¬ 
ly- A reduction iu the charges will be made to 
those who put up at the hotels. Persons on arri¬ 
ving in B., may receive all necessary information 
by calling on the Local Committee, at the Library 
Rooms; of the Young M*-u's Association. 
On some routes of travel, a reduction of fare 
has been secured. Negotiations are in progress 
with others, which we hope may be successful. 
For further information, address Oliver Arey, 
Chairman of Luoal Committee, Buffalo; W. F. 
Phelps, Trenton, N. J.; J. W, Bulkley, Brooklyn, 
N. Y.; B. G. Northrop, Saxonville, Mass.; Z. 
Richards, Washington, D. U.; W. E. Sheldon, 
West Newton, Mass.; and James Cruikshauk. Al¬ 
bany, N. Y. W. F. Phelps, Pres’t of A. N.S. A. 
j. W. Bulkley, Pres’t of N. T. A. 
Brooklyn, N. Y., June, 1860. 
TnE first schoolmaster who ever wielded the 
ferule in New York, came here iu April, 1 ti33, on 
board the good Bhip Soutberg, from Holland, in 
company with stately old Everardus Bogardes, the 
dornlne who married Anneke Jans, and owned 
jointly with her so goodly a portion of worldly 
wealth, which aft'-rward came down to Triuity 
Church, in conjunction with much heart-burning 
and an interminable lawsuit. 
Adam Roelandaon (or Itolnndgon) was the first 
schoolmaster of Manhattan Island, and his name 
should be remembered as that of the local tutelar 
saint/»f the book and the terule. He came in 
other good company, too, for Wouter vanTwillor, 
the new Director General, was on board the same 
ship — good old Wouter, whoso luminous decia- 
sion and portly breadth of person have been so 
drolly caricatured by Irving, and who really 
seems to have been not only a thriving and pros 
perous merchant, but quite as good a Governor— 
spite of traditional ridicule — as the times could 
very well afford for such an out-of-the-way aud 
evcr-troublesoine colony as New Amsterdam. 
Adam Uoelandser. had not a pedagogic charge of 
great extent. The little tin hors, with which he 
called his dilatory charges from the school-house 
door on Bunshiny mornings, could be heard over 
all the settlement; aud the school-house itself 
was only of rough slabs, of height enough to clear 
the head of the pedagogue, and a dozen feel each 
way in extent 
-4-*^- 
EDUCATION AND SUCCESS. 
It is a solemn fact that bat few men have ar¬ 
rived at great eminence but such as have been 
well educated. This every oue who reads the 
lives of great men will learn for himself; and 
there is another les»on which he should learn at 
the same time, which, is—that education helps 
men to do whatever they have, to do, much hotter 
than they could do without it The mind, the 
hand, the eye, must be educated that they may 
assist each other. A well trained mind will guide 
aright the judgment which must be formed thro’ 
the medium of the eye. The eye controls the ac 
tion of the hand in all that it does in the accom 
plishment of anything that pertains to art or 
science. 
The mind drinks iu its knowledge through the 
eyes, aud knowledge is placed before them by the 
hands. The mechanic who accomplishes the 
greatest eud is the one whose well stored mind 
enables him to grasp the means through which 
his object is attained. Education, with a mind 
and heart in the work, makes a man abetter black 
smith, a more skillful doctor, a more successful 
lawyer, a wiser polltican, a greater author. Iu 
short, there is nothing in which a man or woman 
may engage which can not be more successfully 
pursued with than without education. 
The Heart Goes to School. —Think not that 
your work is done and your contract fulfilled 
when yon have made your pupils expert arithme¬ 
ticians and skillful grammarians; the heart has 
come to school to you as well as the head, and 
takes lessons as regularly, and often far more im¬ 
posing and abiding than those you assign to the 
intellect. You, yourself, feel the conviction daily 
stealing over you. 
Why is it that you almost involuntarily sup¬ 
press tiie cureless jest, the look of levity, or the 
scurrility, you, alas, may elsewhere indulge in, 
aud put on the air, at least, of candor and virtue 
in the presence of those little children? Is it not 
that you feel that eyes bright with faith and affec¬ 
tion are scanning every moment your actions, and 
imitative and impressible hearts are continually 
drinking in the manifestations of your mind and 
spirit; that your breath, if laden with profanity, 
would stain their souls with quick and iudeiible 
pollution? 
LOOK 
The vegetable world is full of objects of interest 
and beauty. Not only the tall oaks and the pities, 
but even the mosses that grow under our feet, and 
bear their pretty, though little and uunoticed 
flowers, proclaim the wisdom and goodness of the 
Creator of all. What a beautiful field for study 
and thought Is here presented to the young. It is 
a book—the great book of Nature,—and happy is 
he who learns to read therein, and treasures up the 
nstruction he receives. Let us look at two of the 
pages of this book: On one we find a little Moss, 
called the Pear Shaped Moss, from some resemb¬ 
lance it bears to that fruit. 
THE MENTAL FACULTIES. 
The mind haB much more influence over the 
body than most folks are apt to suppose. In 
matters of health, the will, or power of decision, 
has most wonderful control, even over real dis¬ 
ease, especially in its incipient condition. When 
the circumstances of the case require it, the 
symptoms of actual sickness have been kept down 
or controlled by the will, and pain Itself forced, 
by the superior power of the mind, to relinquish 
its control over the body. If the pain is altogeth¬ 
er a nervous oue, aud there Is no lesion of the 
bodily texture, any sodden event, which envolves 
a change iu the current of thought, will so en¬ 
tirely call off attention to the pain as to subdue it. 
A person in bed, suffering under a violent nervous 
toothache, has lost it in a moment, upon being 
told that the house was on fire. What the sud¬ 
denness in the change of the current of thought 
produces in this case, can be done by a strong 
will in any case. 
In the imaginary ills and sickness of life, the 
will Can govern supremely, and, in strong minds, 
will do so. It ordinarily argues a weak mind to 
give up to Imaginary ills and sufferings, for there 
are real ones enough for us to endure. In such 
cases employment is the best remedy. One of the 
ablest judges of the Supremo Court of our State, 
belonging to the generation before the last, a wit 
aud a scholar, as well as an eminent jurist, was 
much in the habit of indulging in a periodical 
depression of spirits, which was then called the 
“ Hypo." It was as unreasonable as it was unreal. 
It could always be driven off by an effort of the 
will, or destroyed by employment. It ofton was 
indulged iu from a morbid sense of gentility 
Like Ben Johnson's Master Stephen, to be “rod 
ancholy andgenth manlike " was very fashionable. 
This Judge complained once, when on a circuit, 
to the Shoriffof the county, that he had kept him so 
busy with Ids trials that he hadn't giver him time 
to have the hypo. The famous Judge Parsons of 
Massachusetts was another voluntary bypocon- 
driac. 
A story is related in one of the Health Journals, 
of a man who had, years before, exhibited some 
indications of insanity; upon being met by a 
friend, in after life, who inquired about his insan¬ 
ity, he answered that he had had too much to do 
to be crazy! Employment is the great medicine 
for a miud diseased or disarranged. There are 
many persona who might have driven oil" Incipient 
Insanity by a constant effort at work, and thus 
forced themselves to avoid the distracting con¬ 
templation of the possible approach of delirium 
We may learn, as the “ improvement” of these 
remarks, as the Divines call it, the necessity of 
inculcating self-control upon children. The body 
and the intellect are properly attended to by our 
educators, but the will and its control,— self- 
government and self-regulation, quietness in pain. 
Coolness in difficulty, and calmness In danger,— 
are tilings not to be taught on theory, and in ad 
vanco of experience, but must be rubbed in by 
the daily trials of life, and caught by the contagion 
of example, if parents are capable of serving as 
models .—Hartford ( Conn ) Courant. 
ABOUT PAPER. 
Character is Power. —It is often said that 
knowledge is power—and this is true. Skill or 
faculty of any kind carries with it superiority. 
So, to a certain extent, wealth is power, and rank 
is power, and intellect is power, and genius has a 
transcendent gift of masteiy over men. But 
higher, purer, aod better than all, more constant 
in its influence, more lasting in its sway, is the 
power of character — that power which emanates 
from a pure und lofty mind. Take any commu¬ 
nity, who is the man of most influence? To whom 
do all look up with reverence? Not the “smart¬ 
est" man, nor the cleverest politician, nor the 
most brilliant talker, but he, who in a long course 
of years, tried by the extremes of prosperity and 
adversity, bus approved himself to the judgment 
of his neighbors and of all who have seen bis life, 
as worthy to be called wwe aud good. 
It 
There is nothing that may not be made of 
paper. Our houses may be built and furnished 
with paper, doing in various forms aud consistency 
the duty of stone, brick, timber, tile, Blale, cur 
tains, carpets, and all that comes in a builder’s or 
au upholster'd bill. There is hardly any limit to 
the density, the tenacity, the rigidity, or the flexi 
bility which may be Imparted to the material, 
is true that the manufacture of the best kind of 
paper, iu the proper sense of that word, appears 
to be subject to narrow and peremptory condi 
tions. Good paper can only be made from good 
rags. But for inferior paper, aud for fabrics made 
of pulp, a great variety of materials are available 
and the use of them will help us to economize rags, 
But we have only to read letters from Japan to 
see what an important part paper may be made to 
play. It is trao that when we talk of solid fabrics, 
paper-makers exclaim Indignantly that this is not 
paper; but the Excise is not always of that opin 
ion, or, rather, it does not know what to think, 
and is always following paper through its endless 
transformations. Cloth—that is, the textile form 
—is one application of fibre; all others are paper. 
Felt is properly paper. Oar Japan trays are but 
sheets of still paper. It was a Bhcet of thick 
paper that Mr. Gladstone exhibited the other 
night as a bou-e tile. The manufacture, once 
emancipated from the Excise, will run riot thro’ 
the regions of invention. We may estimate the 
future from the past. Thirty years ago an em 
bossed card was a wonder ot art. For a few peuce 
we may now buy a fabric aa beautiful as the finest 
lace, and very like it .—London Times. 
MY HUMBLE OPINION, 
My humble opinion, Mr. Swell, is that you are 
somebody, or might be, at least, with the natural 
assistance of a very little more good sense. That 
you have talents, there is no just reason to doubt; 
but “ with the talents of an angel, a man may be 
a fool,” and it does seem, sometimes, us if you 
were trying to see how near an approximation 
you could make to that very thing. What if you 
are likely to become an author sometime, that 
would be nothing either new or strange,—for all 
men are authors,—yes. authors of their own hap¬ 
piness or misery, and it is barely possible that 
some others may accomplish as much In the 
rational scale of being, as your move important self. 
If your limber imagination, progressive wisdom, 
or extensive rhetoric, will ooze out at your fingers* 
ends in startling “black and white," why, simply 
“ let it cornu,"—only try and stop when you have 
nothing more to say. Of all foolishness, tho 
most idle is that senseless, frothy, though some¬ 
times pleasing, play of words, where ideas arc not 
guilty of appearing. 
It is indeed possible for people to be too brief 
in expression,—but that happens only in case wo 
have a well connected train of ideas on some 
subject which requires, or deserves, to be fully 
carried out,—though oiten in this, apart would 
answer better for the whole. After coming to a 
reasonable termination, lay aside the cop;y, to bo 
perused carefully when she “inspiration ” of tho 
time is past. If you are a person of good taste 
and practical sense, you will then be aa good a 
judge, and impartial a critic concerning its merits 
as any one. 
Instead of so doing, I have known some to 
hurry off to the Post-office, Smith’s or Jone’s, to 
get the opinion, or rarher the praise, of acertain 
clique of soft-brained time-killers, who will always 
hurrah at tho chance of dancing as satellites 
around a “smart man." “Smart," indeed! but 
this is a “ one-home " way of seeking honor, aud 
a man of your dimensions ought never to drive 
any such establishment. I know that to obtain 
power wo must cultivate humility, but if you. ever 
notice Charitable and Christian Humility, you 
will discover that she is neither impudent, over¬ 
bearing, or stoop-shouldered. Gene. 
Prattuburgh, N. Y., 1860. 
The engraving is made from a specimen highly 
magnified. It is found growing in shady places, 
where limestone rocks abound. On these rocks, 
wherever a little dust hus blown, tho mosses 
spring np and grow, and decay, and their decay 
adds to the soil, and then up springs another plant, 
which could not live but for this addition to tho 
soil. This also dies, adding more to tho soil, and 
In its place Hpringsnpthe little plant, and then the 
shrub, and then the tree. In this way soil Is 
formed and made fit for tho garden, in what but 
for the aid of the little mosses and plants, would 
have remained a barren rock. Rain aud time aids 
in this work. 
Now let ub turn over several pages, and look 
at the Royal Palmetto, a tree found in the Tropics, 
and described by Mr. Baud in his Adventures on 
the Mosquito Coast. 
/M 
stm 
WORK. 
Young Ritualists, if you would succeed in 
your avocations, make up your minds to work. 
We all like to have “good luck” on our side 
through our walks in life, but history, with her 
rocord of past ovents, points her finger upon no 
pago where is written "this famous deed was 
accomplished by means of chance." Perhaps 
circumstances may conspire to make it appear 
that the person, or persons, were helped by good 
luck; but if you take the pains to deliberate and 
look carefully beneath the surface, you will find 
U was accomplished by means of work. Young 
man, work out your destiny, whether it be au 
humble or an exalted one. Young woman, let 
the thread of your life and actions be woven in 
the warp of work. 
“ I am brother to the worker, 
And 1 loro hi* noble, manly look, 
As 1 love a thought of beauty, 
Living, star-like, in a book. 
I am brother to the humblest 
Iu the world’s red-handed strife,— 
Those who wield the sword of labor 
Iu the battle ranks of life!" 
Work —only four letters, yet containing a 
volume. In them yon find the essence of all our 
works of art,—of all the splendid architecture 
in our cities; it is the bulk of all that we love 
aud prize. The earth itself is all motion and 
action; its very bowels are made up of work. 
Let us never halt, although we bear burdens that 
make it seem impossible to press forward; but 
let us keep oHward until we work out our destiny. 
Onondaga Valley, N. Y„ 1860. W. H. C. 
COPYING PAPER. 
ft grows to a great height, often over 150 feet 
standing straight, like a liberty pole, and yetis 
not thicker than a man's thigh. Few trees can 
equal it in height or beauty. The trunk tapers 
nearly to the top, where it has ft crown of leaves. 
It is sometimes called the Mountain Cabbage, be¬ 
cause the part which is eaten is supposed to re¬ 
semble that vegetable in flavor. This cabbage 
part constitutes the crown of the trunk, and lookB 
very much like a vase. From the very center of 
this natural vase rises a tall, yellowish spatka, or 
sheath, terminating in a sharp point At tho bot¬ 
tom of this, and inclosed in the natural vase, is 
found a tender white core, or heart, varying in 
size with tho dimensions of the tree, but usually 
eight or ten inches in circumference. This may 
be eaten raw, as a salad, or if preferred, fried or 
boiled. In taste it resembles an artichoke, rather 
than a cabbage. The Indians climb this palm, 
and dexterously inserting their knives, contrive 
to obtain the edible part without destroying the 
tree itself. This is very curioas, but we have 
many things In our fields, and hedges, and woods, 
just as curious as this, which we can find by 
searching for. 
Eds. Rural New-Yorkkk: —In looking over 
the Rural, I noticed an inquiry for making paper 
to take the impressions of leaves, Ac. As I have 
the recipe for manufacture, I can give the de¬ 
sired information:—To make black paper, lamp¬ 
black, mixed with cold lard; red paper, Venetian 
red, mixed with lard; green paper, chrome green, 
mixed with sweet oil; blue paper, Prussian blue, 
mixed with lard. 
The above is to be mixed to the consistency of 
thick paste, and to be applied to tho paper with 
a rag. Then take a flanuel rag and rub till all 
color ceases coming off) excepting the green 
paper, which must be pressed between sheets of 
white paper for tea hours. Use thin printing 
paper. 
Directions for writing with this paper:—Lay 
down your paper upon whieh you wish to write; 
then lay on the copying paper, and over this any 
scrap of paper you choose; then take any hard- 
pointed substance and write as with a pen. For 
taking impressions of leaves, lay the leaf on the 
copying paper, over this any scrap of paper, and 
rub to get the leaf coated with tho color; then 
lay the leaf on white paper, and rab as before. 
I hope the above may benefit Mr. R. 8., and others. 
Hannibal, N. Y., June, 1860. E. 
Editor Rural New-Yorkbr:— In answer to 
M. It. 8., for a recipe for making impression pa¬ 
per, you can insert tho following: 
Blue paper—Frussian blue, mixed with lard. 
Black paper—lamp black, mixed with lard. 
Red paper—Venetian red, mixed with lard. 
Green pape^r—chrome green, mixed with lard. 
Melt the lard, and Btir in paint to the consist¬ 
ency of thick paste. Apply to the paper with a 
rag; then take a flannel rag and rub until the 
color stops coming off. Tho kind of paper used 
is printing paper. E. Engle. 
Winchester, Randolph Co., Ind., 1860. 
No man can avoid his own company—so he had 
best make it a3 good as possible. 
