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MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER 
AN AGRICULTURAL AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER 
W£M 3® 
Poetry by Miss Hazard. 
PUBLIC SCHOOLS OP ROCHESTER. 
From some advance sheets of the Report of the 
Superintendent of Schools, we are enabled to 
gather the following facts relating to the public 
schools of Rochester: 
The school department of this city is made up 
of seventeen organized districts, besides schools 
kept in one or more hired rooms. The schools are 
in charge of ninety-six teachers, to whom have 
been paid during the year $30,980 68, apportioned 
as follows;—Male Principals of Schools, $800; 
Female Principals, $325 to $350; Female Assis¬ 
tants in Senior Departments, $275; Female Teach¬ 
ers in Intermediate Departments, $235 to $245; 
Female Teachers in Primary Departments, $205 to 
$216; Music and Writing 'Teachers, each, $800.— 
There has been expended lor building and repairs 
during the year, $0,619 42; for library and appa¬ 
ratus, $357 64; for fuel and contingent expenses, 
$8,09573; and for Superintendent's salary, $778,80, 
making a total of expenditures for the year of 
$40,832 17. The amount raised by tax is $39,134, 
and the State appropriation amounted to $15,184- 
58, of which $695 15 was library money. The to¬ 
tal number of scholars in the city, showa by a 
special census, is 16,924, beiug an increase of 847 
during the year. The total number registered as 
attending school during the year is 7,592, with an 
average daily attendance during the last term of 
3,389. The whole number attending private and 
select schools is put down at 2,583, thus leaving 
near 7,000 scholars of proper age who attend no 
school. The cost per scholar during the year, ex. 
Hope is shedding ho 
Du - ty makes our future 
wipes the parting tear 
Gentle voices breathing near. 
ac - cents soft and low 
on our mission 
3. Friendship sweet has bound us Ion 
chain 
parting song. 
ne - ver meet a 
4. We may meet in that blest land, To swell our anthem there 
un - broken band 
Bright crowns of glo - ry 
wear 
Cheerful pilgrims, happy band, Hail the joy that will be ours-. Firm unmov’d O 
let us stand. 
we on our jour - ney stray, Sever’d far, perchance, and wide, May some bright, some heav’nly ray, For 
brighter shore, Where no tears be 
dim the eye; There farewells are heard no more. 
And hush’d the heart’s 
There beneatn that gold - en sun, Strike our harps to heavenly lays; There our voices 
praise 
For Moore's Rural New-Yorker. 
which if fondled too long, may inflict a mortal 
sting. Would that every patent were aware of 
this. Then they woald sweep from the land this 
corrupting influence. The minds of their chil¬ 
dren uncontaminated, would seek and learn wis¬ 
dom; judgment and thought would be strengthen¬ 
ed; and by true energetic minds the world would 
be lifted higher in the scale of virtue, and the 
rays of the Millennium would soon be chasing 
away the receding darkness. 
Nortfa Heading. M tsa., Isdi. w Evkiuitt Eaton. 
For Moore's Rural New-Yorker. 
DEATH. 
Gently fold the white drapery over the bosom 
now cold and stiff Softly close the drooping lids 
over the glassy orbs whose brilliant light is forever 
fled. Speak gently, tread lightly over the darken¬ 
ed chamber, as if ye feared to wake the dreamless 
sleeper’s calm repose. The heart's pulsations are 
forever stilled—that throne whereon life and reason 
tint so lately held thmv serene sway, is now tenant- 
less and silent. 
Calmly, with subdued emotion, consign again 
the inanimate form to its parent earth, and sorrow 
not, for angels have borne the weary spirit to the 
home of the blessed, where pain enters not and 
death is unknown. Hope, for there is life heyond 
the tomb. Linda. 
For Moore's Rural New-Yorker. 
SILENT INFLUENCES. 
Thb gentle sunbeam* ope the flowers 
That blossom in the ea>ly May, 
And waves that float on India’s shores 
Roil on their ouuiae U 1 <si aiicutlj. 
Green islets on the ocean's breast, 
The tny insect's toil hath made, 
And unheaved rocky moan tain crest 
Their sands beneath the ocean laid. 
The silent frost doth rend the rock 
That loog withstood the tempest’s force, 
And storms and earthquake's fearful shock 
Had silent causes at their source. 
The seed sown by the wayward wind 
Hath heavenward, towering branches sent, 
And ivy round the strong oak twined. 
Till, dying, iiiab trom limb was rent. 
And thus the silent and unseen 
Doth sway with power the human breast, 
Rouse storm-fiends in its depths serene, 
Or sooth the passion-wave b to rest. 
A glance, a smile can Memory wake, 
And long crushed hopes again illume, 
While coldness may the bea-t-lvre break, 
And give it echoes of the tomb. 
A trifle, oft repeated, binds 
A mountain barrier round the soul, 
A word dropped in the youthful mind 
May all the after-life control 
A loving heart and gentle hand 
May strew life's path with fairest flowers, 
Each hour we wields magic wand 
That gLves a shade to future hours. 
As ocean depths by pebble stirred 
Send ripples to the farthest shore, 
So evil by the soul incurred, 
Sends forth its wavelets evermore. 
West Sparta, N. Y., 1857. A* 
At the recent meeting of the Board of Educa¬ 
tion of New York ciry, William Cullen Bryant, of 
the N. Y'. Evening Post, made a speech upon the 
subject of "Music, in Schools,” from which we ex¬ 
tract the following: 
“ In making music a branch of common educa¬ 
tion, we give new attraction to our common 
schools. Music is not merely a study, ft is an en¬ 
tertainment; wherever there is music, there is a 
crowd of listeners. We complain that onr com¬ 
mon schools are not attended as they should be.— 
What is to be done? Shall we compel the attend¬ 
ance of children? Rather let us, if we caD, so or¬ 
der things, that children shall attend voluntarily— 
shall bo eager to crowd to the schools; and for 
this purpose nothing can be more effectual, it 
seemB to me, than the art to which the ancients 
ascribed such power that, according to the fables 
of their poets, it drew the very stones of the earth 
from their beds, and plied them in a wall around 
the oity of Thebes. 
"It should be considered, moreover, that music 
in schools is useful as an incentive to study. After 
a weary hoar of poring over books, with perhaps 
some discouragement on the part of the learner, 
if not despair at the hardness of the task, a song 
puts him into a more hopeful and cheerful mood; 
the play of the lungs freshens the circulation of 
the blood*aud he sits down again to his task in 
better spirits, and with an invigorated mind. Al¬ 
most alVoccupations are cheered and lightened 
by music.” 
trained. To be sure it may partake in a great 
measure of the nature of the parent: it may be 
passionate, or Inclined to wrong; yet, if properly 
taught, these unsiglit/y seams and defaces, before 
the mind has become fully expanded, will be over¬ 
grown, and strong in heart and love of duty he 
will go forth into the world. 
The full-grown man has donned, as it were, a 
second nature — habits are its composition, hence 
the saying, “Man is a handle of habits.’’ How 
important it is then, that parents should direct the 
miuds of their ohildren in the true channel, that 
right and proper habits may be formed! They 
should teach them both by precept and example. 
If they are forward, restrain them; if backward, 
spur them on; if passionate, learn them a lessou 
of self controL They should be jealous of their 
companions; allow them to associate only with 
those who are good and virtuous. Never place a 
book in the hands of your children, unless you 
know it will have a good, moral bearing upon 
their minds. Upon this subject let me dwell a 
moment. I shall speak plainly, for the times de¬ 
mand It, 
Parents, you would not place in the hands of 
your child a hook or a paper of gross immorality; 
but do you not know, that when you permit your 
child to read those papers and books which are 
thickly scattered throughout the land, and termed 
41 Bght literature,” that they will have, to a certain 
degree, the same tendeucy as the first? Like the 
demon. Rum, they create a morbid appetite for 
nothing but such kiud ol reading which finally eats 
like a plague spot into the mind, rendering it weak 
and Imbecile through life. Aye, it does more, 
too! 1 could point yon to blighted hopes, to deso¬ 
late hearth-stones, to premature graves! but I for¬ 
bear. I would not have yon believe by these re¬ 
turn ks that I am opposed to all novels, or novel 
reading, lo a story that conveys wholesome, 
moral truths, that contain noble thoughts aud 
ideas, and plays upon the nobler faculties of the! 
mind, I have no objection. But to these ** yellow 
covered” novels, these “love-and murder” Juries, 
which play upon the baser passions, 1 do have most 
strenuous and serious objections. I do not ex¬ 
pect that a child of teu or twelve years would 
road understandlngly Macaulay’s History of Eng 
laud, or Biskcukr’s Conflict of Ages. You would 
not expect the child to carry the burden of the 
man. Neither would l expect the mind of the 
child to digest the reading of one fully expanded, 
l»ut I would strengthen the mind as 1 would the 
body—adapt the reading to the mind, and lead it 
by degrees to reason and to think. 
Notwithstanding the evil influence of this kind 
of literature which fairly gluts the land, parents 
seem unaware of it; for it lies upon nearly every 
centre-table. They do not think that they are 
placing In the possession of iheir child an adder 
God in History. —The prayer of the patriarch, 
when he desired to behold the Divinity face to 
face, was denied; but he was able to catch a 
glimpse of Jehovah after he had passed by, and so 
it fares with our Bearch for him in the wrestlings 
of the world. It is when the hour of conflict is 
over, that history comes to a right understanding 
of the strife; and is ready to exclaim “Lot God is 
here, and we know it not” At the foot of every 
page in the annals of every nation may be written, 
“God reigns.” Events as they pass away “pro¬ 
claim their original,” and if you will but listen rev¬ 
erently you may hear the receding centuries as 
they roll into the dim distance of departed time, 
perpetually chanting “ Te Denm Laudamus,” with 
all the choral voices of the countless congrega¬ 
tions of the age.— Bancroft. 
For Moore's Rural Near-Yorker, 
UTILITY IN EDUCATION. 
Money is the great incentive to all human ac¬ 
tion. In every enterprise the first question asked 
and the first answered is—“will it pay?” To this 
teat it must be submitted-by this criterion it must 
be judged, approved or condemned. Not only is 
it thus iu matters of labor, but in morals and edu¬ 
cation, 
study, are- 
use can I put it? 
Hie first questions on commencing a new 
“what good will it do me?”—“to what 
” If the answer comes, “it will 
help you to make money,” then the study is pur¬ 
sued with all the diligence and ardor conceivable. 
There is an object iu studying it —there is money 
ahead. But If the answer is, "you can make no 
practical use of it, only the’pleasure ol acquir¬ 
ing the knowledge,” then the charm is gone, and 
it is either thrown aside entirely, or pursued with 
not oue-halt the energy It otherwise would be 
This is no fiction. It is true of thousands. But 
to the true student who studies for the sake thereof 
who stores his mind with intellectual treasures be¬ 
cause it results in good,—because he looks forward 
to a future eteruity of progression from the start¬ 
ing point,—to such an ouc this question has no 
weight. Bat there is auother, a deeper, a purer, 
holier question, which he asks —“ Will it tend to 
develop my soul to the true dignify of the man, 
God intended I should be?” “Will It bo an ad¬ 
vance step towards that eternal development by 
which I shall approximate to the infinite wisdom 
of God?” If the answer is, “yes, it will help to de¬ 
velop thy sonl, to mnko it pure and lovely in the 
sight of Heaven and of Oon,” then, all on fire with 
enthusiasm and intense desire, every energy is 
bent to the task, and the bouI grows in purity. 
The Spirit of the Lord’s Prayer,— The spirit 
of the Lord’s prayer is beautiful. The form of pe¬ 
tition breathes a filial spirit—“ Father.” 
A catholic spirit—Our Father. 
A reverential spirit—Hallowed be Thy name. 
A missionary spirit—Thy kingdom come. 
An obedient spirit—TJiy will be done on earth. 
A dependent spirit—Give ns this day onr daily 
bread. 
A forgiving spirit—And forgive our trespasses 
as we forgive those that trespass against us. 
A cautious spirit—Lead us not into temptation, 
but deliver us from evil 
A. confidential and adoring spirit—For thine is 
the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forev¬ 
er. Amen. 
For Moore’s Rural New-Yorker. 
IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN. 
“ Os’ all sad words of tongue or pop, 
Tho saddest are these, it might have been." 
So we plaintively murmur, looking backward to 
the sunshine we might have gathered, or the way- 
side flowers on which we rudely trampled, or com- 
plainingly utter it, when our cherished hopes are 
blighted, or our ambitious schemes laid low. We 
forget the sorrows that might have been ours; we 
know not where we might have strayed, but for 
the hedge of thorns that stayed our wandering 
feet- We idly dream of the bliss we coveted—the 
joys for which we longingly aspired, forgetful of 
the undeserved mercies that are still our own. 
Away in tho quiet church-yard—where the grass 
waves over a sleeping form that we are sure would 
nei'or have failed ns — our bleeding heart takes up 
the plaintive moan, ’till iu our anguish we almost 
lose sight of the solace left us, and forget to thank 
God for the dear ones He has spared. 
It might have been. Yes, where gleams the sun¬ 
shine might have been darkness; where now 
blooms the flower, have been only the thorn.— 
Alas! for ns, that in our repining for that, Infinite 
Wisdom sees fit to withhold, we so oft should 
“ Crush, 
The hearts ease at our feet" 
Sherburne, N. Y., 1867. Lina Lbb. 
1. Parents should seud their children to school 
constantly and seasonably. 
2. They should see that they are decently cloth¬ 
ed, aud cleanly in their persons. 
3. They should encourage them to respect and 
obey the rules and requirements of the school 
4. They should encourage them to be orderly 
iu their deportment, and studiously to regard right. 
5. They should encourage them to be studious 
by manifesting an interest in their lessons. 
G. They should have a regard for tho character of 
the books their children read, and see that they 
read understandlngly. 
7. They should cultivate iu their children habits 
of true politeness and courtesy. 
b. Besides visiting tho Hchool aud co-operating 
and sympathising with the teacher, they can do 
much (or its improvement and success, by mani¬ 
festing at all proper times and in all proper places, 
an interest in its welfare, and a deep solicitude for 
its reputation; by speaking well of the teacher 
and of all his judicious plans; by palliating or 
excusing his faults or failings, (of which every 
teacher must be expected to have some,) aud by 
inducing their neighbors to visit the school and 
take un interest In its exorcises; thus showing to 
their children, in the most convincing manner, 
(hat they feel that their present employment is an 
important one, and that the duties ot school are 
not to be regarded as of lit tie consequence.-Ohm 
Journal of Education. 
A Solemn Thought. —It has been observed with 
much significance, that every morning we enter 
on a new day, carrying an unknown future in its 
bosom. How pregnant and stirring the reflection. 
Thoughts may bo born to day which may never be 
extinguished. Hope may be excited to-day which 
may never expire. Acta may be performed to-day 
the consequence of whioh may not be realized till 
eternity. 
The Higher Joy. —We are told that the angelic 
choir chanted a morning psalm, when the heavens 
and earth, at the fiat of the Almighty, sprang from 
the deep. O, I am sure that the morning stars sing 
together, and all the sons of God begin to shout 
yes! that a morning psalm resounds mid heaven’s 
arches, when a poor sinuer, through the new birth, 
becomes a child of God, a citizen of the heavenly 
Jerusalem.— Tholuck. 
Reason cannot show itself more' reasonable, 
than to leave reasoning about matters,which are 
above reason. Rom. ix. 19, 20. 
If we are willing, God will help us; if sincere, 
God will accept us 
Aim at perfection in everything, though in most 
things it is unattainable. However, they who aim 
at it, and persevere, will come much nearer to it 
than those whoso laziness and despondency make 
them give it up as unattainable. 
