but an additional hundred weight of hay. The 
elephants lie down when they go to sleep. Two 
barrels of water moisten each elephant’s hay 
daily. 
Not unfrequenMy animals bring forth young. 
Some dozens of lions have been born in this 
country, but only a very few live to cut their 
second set of teeth. Until the young are two 
month s old they can not be exhibited on account 
of the jealousy of the mother, who .sometimes 
kiiu her young in her frantic efforts to get them 
out of the way when strangers are storing at 
them; she will pick them up in her mouth and 
fling them against the back of the cage to ge 
them out of sight. For this reason, when a 
lioness, or a tiger has a young fsunily she is shut 
off from the outer world and kept in wholesome 
quiet till her nerves acquire some tone, and she 
is able to receive visitors and exhibit her cubs 
without too great agitation.—A. T. Post. 
case also, for ages past, in Bunnah, near Ran¬ 
goon, and now higher up the River Irriwaddy 
very large springs are being discovered. At 
Bakeo. ou the. Caspian, from the most remote 
ages, this oil has beou worshiped, but never 
turned to any practical account of consequence, 
and certainly never developed as within the past 
live years by Americans, although it seems that 
about three million francs’ worth has been an¬ 
nually sold to Persia. 
In Parma and Modena oil wells have been dug 
for the last two hundred years. But as no 
method of purifying these oils has been adopted, 
they have never risen to much value. 
In Pennsylvania, while the French occupied 
Fort Duquesne, opposite Pittsburg, the Com¬ 
mander wrote to General Montcalm of attending 
of Indians on Oil Creek, which at 
WITH ALT. THY MIGHT 
Written Tor Moore’s Rural New-Yorker. 
THE AILANTHUS SILK-WORM OF CHINA. 
New developments arc everywhere met by 
new plans of procedure; sometimes are emi¬ 
nently chimerical, and sometimes really feasible: 
a plain, practicable theory is a desideratum, cer¬ 
tainly, when there is a sphere awaiting it. 
The present scarcity of labor and the high 
prices of all wearing materials, are well known 
facts; if, them a. product can be introduced 
meeting in part the consequent exigences, ought 
it not to receive a candid consideration? Those 
who have carefully tested its merits, tell us that 
the AlianthUfi silk-worm -of China Is admirably- 
adapted to meet such a demand. 
The natural food of the worm, though it is 
said to he omnivorous, is the leaves of the 
Ailanthus, a tree that is easily obtained, that 
grows and is multiplied rapidly, that will flour¬ 
ish on sterile soil and furnish food the first 
season, I think, if sown from the seeds*. The 
odor of its leaves renders it objectionable, as a 
shade tree, hut this odor protects it from ani¬ 
mals, so that no inclosure b. necessary. The 
trees should be planted closely together that a 
hedge may be formed. 
In weaving its cocoon, 
work like the mulberry cocoon; 
its cocoon 
cocoon comes 
“ Look at that boy! He is a stout, strong 
fellow, and one of the sharpest in our workshop. 
But he will not serve our purpose he must be 
dismissed.” 
“Why?” t inquired. 
“ Because he does not work with all his might. 
Just watch the drowsy, indifferent way in which 
he handles his tools. He is thinking about 
something else all the time.” 
This was said to me, the other day, by one of 
the proprietors of an extensive manufactory for 
machinery, as he conducted me through a part 
of hi3 enormous works. 
“ You must require great strength of muscle 
in your workmen,” 1 remarked. 
“No! not so much strength of muscle as 
strength of purpose. It is not men of might 
that we want, hut men who use their might— 
men who work with zeal and energy at what- 
It is not the 
a meeting 
night was suddenly lighted up by setting fire to 
the oil floating on the surface of the lake, just 
after the. manner of the lire worshipers on the 
Caspian. 
In Ohio, in boring for salt springs, a vein of 
this oil was struck, and as early as 1828, in the 
American Journal of Science, it was predicted 
that this sort of oil would he valued some day 
for lighting the streets of the cities of Ohio. Yet 
it was not till lHo-s. Col. Drake of Hartford, 
bored for oil, taking the hint, no doubt, from 
the above accidental result of boring, because 
others were milking oil by distillation from the 
coal. 
Four or five years before this a Mr. Young, in 
England, had distilled some of this sort of oil 
that had exuded in the coal pits, but the supply 
giving out. had taken out a patent for distilling 
the cannel coal. This had been done successfully. 
in this country, but of course from the moment 
of the discovery of this method of getting the 
raw oil, the whole of that business was super¬ 
seded. 
Perhaps nothing can more fully show the 
boundless stores of wealth laid up in every land 
for the use of man, to be developed by industry 
and education; nothing can more fully show the 
advantages to every country, of that diffusion 
of education, and those habits of thought so 
common in America, and so uncommon every¬ 
where else. Now the country surrounding this 
discovery Is rapidly becoming one of the most 
populous and wealthy in the interior of the 
Thk world is full of careless people, and con' 
sequentlv the newspapers are full of “ dreadful 
accidents,” and “shocking casualties.” Chil¬ 
dren are expected to he rattle-brained and care¬ 
less; but for their fathers and mothers there 
is no excuse! 
Only the other day our nerves were worked up 
to explosion point bv an account of a perilous 
surgical operation, by wliich a woman’s trachea 
was opened to remove a silver dime which had 
lodged there. And how on earth did a silver 
dime ever get Into a woman’s wind-pipe? Sim¬ 
ply became she was careless, and laughed, with 
her mouth full of small coins. Was there no 
other place - where she could keep her three-cent 
pieces? 
We do feel sorry for a creeping baby, when it 
gets hold of the bars of the grate by mistake, or 
cuts its fingers, or humps its head, but for grown 
people who suffer from their own recklessness, 
we have very little patience! 
What is the use of a woman’s converting her 
ever thev set themselves to do, 
strong 4 Samsons-' and the big ‘ Goliaths’ that do 
the most good: but lads, like David, earnest, 
active, and strong of purpose; doing one thing 
at a time, but doing that tiling well.” 
Alas! thought I, as I left the scene of intelli¬ 
gent labor, how many dwarf themselves down 
into forlorn and disappointed men, through no 
other fault than this! 
“ With all thy might!” It is God’s own com¬ 
mandment, as well as man's. It is the law of 
heaven as well as the general condition of 
worldly success. No man ever achieves any¬ 
thing permanently} great and useful without 
carrying out this) great and useful principle. 
Our work maybe head-work, or It may be hand¬ 
work! We may be the strongest among the 
strong, or we may be the weakest among the 
weak. No matter, the rule of duty is the same 
for all. Work “with all your might!” All 
famous men whose words and deeds have graven 
a name which fathers teach their sons to spell— 
all these—every man of them—worked according 
to the wise precept, “ Whatsoever thy hand 
findeth to do, do it with thy might, ” (Eccl. Lx. 10.) 
We cannot all be reckoned among the great 
and the famous, but we may all be reckoned 
among the useful ,and the earnest. However 
moderate our natural powers, however narrow 
our opportunities for action, life's motto should 
I still be the same 
the caterpillar does not 
the hitter closes 
all around, and when the perfect 
out. it sever* the threads so that it 
can not be continuously unwound: the Ailanthus 
leaves an opening for its exit, or the cocoon at 
that end is so thin that, the perfect insect can 
come out by pushing the threads aside and not 
cutting them. 
The silk thus obtained is not so valuable as 
that of the mulberry cocoon, but holds a medium 
place between that and wool, and its durability 
is such that In China it, cau be and is often worn 
by the second and third generation. The pro¬ 
duct of silk is as abundant as in the mulberry 
cocoon, and there is but little expense attending 
ita culture. It is also easily wrought; the. thread 
is strong, shining, amooth and supple. It forma 
“ an excellent material which has a great future 
for all industrials in raw silk.” 
The worms, when a few days old, are trans¬ 
ferred from the house to the hedge, they require to 
be looked after occasionally, and if any, by eating 
off tho base of the leaf, or otherwise, have fallen 
to the ground, they must be replaced, branches 
drawn together t hut are too far apart and 
guarded against wasps, worms and birds. They 
are left out during the entire season, through 
cold rains or heavy winds, without injury. The 
silk-worm can produce three generations during 
the summer months, but two broods are thought 
to do better. For ages it has been a source of 
wealth to the Chinaman. Not till 1860 was it 
introduced into Franco—there it was carded, 
and spun, and woven into a durable fabric, easily 
dyed and retaining its color. Since the latter 
period it has been introduced an<l acclimated in 
Philadelphia with good success. Those who 
know most of its habits and nature believe that 
it will flourish as vigorously here, unless it be at 
the extreme North, as in its native China,— 
those, too, who have not forgotten the insane silk 
speculation of thirty years. 
The advantages, then, of the Ailanthus Silk- 
Worm are quite numerous. The required labor 
can be performed mostly by infirm or elderly 
persons and children — such, for instance, as 
looking after the worm during - , its stay upon the ! 
hedge, hiking care that it has sufficient food, and 
protecting it against vermin. T But little capital 
is needed to begin with. There is no loss of 
time, as there is suflicient growth of leave* the 
first season to support the worm. It is adapted 
to our climate, because of the tenacity of life the 
Ailanthus has upon sterile soil, and the cheap¬ 
ness and durability of the fabric obtained. 
For a full and graphic account of the manner 
in which the Ailanthus silk-worn^is treated, the 
reader is referred to the Patent Office Report of 
1861, from which the above facts are mostly 
gathered. Mary J. Crosm an. 
Des Moines, Iowa, 186." 
NEWS FROM HOME —THE SOLDIERS’ MAIL. 
Home-sickness is a complaint that the world 
is apt to laugh at; but it kills, nevertheless. 
The doctors dignify it with a fine classical name 
—Nostalgia—but have no remedy for it in their 
repertory of drugs. It is of the soul, not of the 
body, and therefore there i« no cure for it in the 
materia medico. Many a gallant fellow in the 
ranks of the Union army (lies of it. This home¬ 
sick soldier gays little of the hunger of the heart 
which i* destroying him. 'What surgeon would 
sympathize with him ? He can show no wound. 
He Is simply dying to go home, but would think it 
very unmanly and “spooney ” to say so. Per¬ 
haps home forgets him. Perhaps the frequeut 
All thy might. ’ ’ W ork with 
all thy might. Love and serve thy God “ with 
all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all 
thy strength, and with all thy might .”—Jewish 
Missionary Herald. 
eel, superscribed with his name. Alas! much 
of the homesickness in the army is occasioned 
by home neglect, A gentleman writing from 
Chattanooga, says: 
“ It pains me to think that more than one man 
has let his life slip out of a grasp too weak to 
hold it, because his dearest friends did not >end 
him a prescription once a week, price three 
.cents—a letter from home. Is some poor fellow 
sinking at heart because you do not write him? 
I If there is, lay my letter down at once and write 
your own, and may He who sent a messenger all 
the way from heaven to earth with glad tidings, 
forgive you for deferring a hope ta some soldier 
boy. You would not wouder at my warmth had 
you seen that boy waiting and waiting, as I 
have, for one little word from somebody. Too 
proud to own, and yet too sincere to quite con¬ 
ceal it, he tries to strangle the thought of home, 
and goes into the battle, whence he ne ver comes 
forth. Ltd. me relate one incident:—An Indiana 
soldier was struck in the breast at Ckickamauga 
and fell. The bullet’s errand was about done 
when it reached him; it pierced coat and under¬ 
clothing, and there was force euongh left in it to 
wound, if not to kill him; but it had to work its 
way through a precious package of letters, in¬ 
dited by one heart and traced by one dear hand; 
that done, the bullet's power expended, there it 
lay asleep against the soldier’s breast! Have 
you been making such a shield, dear lady, for 
somebody ? Take care that it does not lack one 
letter of being bullet-proof.” 
Our troops are going into winter quarters— 
three or four dreary, weary months of inaction 
are before them. You that have sons, husbands. 
Whispering is a coward's weapon; it is a 
safe method of assassination: it is a safe way of 
killing a friend or foe without taking the risk of 
responsibility. It is like the fabulous air-gun 
that carries a deadly bullet without report or 
noise. Whisperers are the worst kind of poi¬ 
soners. They poison not the body, but the soul 
and heart. They scatter their words like im¬ 
palpable dust of deadly poison, and all who 
inhale it are filled with its mischief and malig¬ 
nancy. 
Give us an open-faced enemy! W e can honor 
him liis most wounding blows are not so pro¬ 
voking as the sly stabs of mean natures. You 
may parry the stroke of an honorable antago- 
i nist! or interpose some shield. But who can 
The w riter of a communication in the New 
York Evening Post has taken the pains to tjo 
through General Halleck's report and make the 
following summary statement of results: 
“ During the year our losses' were 
Killed. 10,070 I Gnns. 43 
- 1 8mail Arms.8,340 
Magnetic Mountain,— The story of the 
mountain that drew all the nails and bolts out of 
the ships passing near it, which the veracious 
Sin bad the Sailor tells in the Arabian Nights, is 
reproduced now with a scientific difference. A 
magnetic mountain has been discovered in 
Swedish Lapland. The veiu is the richest of 
natural magnetic ore at present known. Pieces 
weighing four hundred pounds have been ob¬ 
tained.. Specimens are being sent to all the 
European minendogical cabinets, and quite a 
traffic has grown up. They sell readily at from 
eighty eenUmcs to three francs the kilogramme. 
It Is already debated whether a magnetic pole of 
the earth should not be sought in Lapland rather 
than Siberia. 
•20,677 
51,718 
“ And 10,296 men reported under the heads of 
•our losses,’ ‘killed and wounded - or ‘killed, 
wounded and missing.’ 
” Our captures were 
Colors,_ 53 Boats,.. 153 
Prisoners,..88,786 Cattle .., 5,643 
Guns,. __ 386 Horses,.1,175 
Small Arms,_44.S39 
“ Besides in one place ‘ large stores,’ in another 
‘ four thousand four hundred pounds of powder 
and one hundred and fifty thousand rounds of 
and in another, in the language of 
Missing. 
HISTORY OF THE DISCOVERY OF PETROLEUM. 
A Regiment oe Woods aw yers.— The 
Dayton Journal says: “To the boys of Miami 
City, across the river, belongs the credit of first 
conceiving and carry ingjout the idea of organ¬ 
izing into companies.for the purpose of sawing 
wood for soldiers - families in this vicinity. Two 
companies were formed there, and thereupon 
the boys on this side of the river began opera¬ 
tions in good earnest; the four hundred cords of 
wood brought in here for the soldiers - families 
by the loyal people of Okl Montgomerv, on the 
7th instant, giving them an extensive opening 
for operations. Since last Monday, the 11th 
instant, ail over the city the nights have 
resounded with the screeching of saws, the 
clatter of axes, and the cheering of boys at their 
work of preparing wood for the families of sol¬ 
dier* in every purt of the city. Our readers at 
a distance must understand that these youngsters 
are not half-grown men, but boys from six to 
fifteen years of age. Not old enough to battle 
It is one of the most remarkable things con¬ 
nected with the immense trade suddenly spring¬ 
ing up from the distillation of our coal oil, that 
while the existence of oil spring* has been 
known from the most remote antiquity, the 
knowledge should never have been turned to 
any great practical purposes until our own times. 
Nothing will show more completely the value of 
that sort of practical education and intelligence 
which is eominou in America, than this simple 
fact. Here is a substance which the oldest natu¬ 
ralists of the world, such as Pliny, have 
written upon, which Tacitus and Vitruvius have 
both mentioned, yet never turned to any practi¬ 
cal utility of moment until within a few years, 
by a gentleman (Colonel Drake.) from Connecti¬ 
cut, the very centra! land of all Yankee notions. 
The oldest allusion to it probably is in Deut. 
xxxii.: ” He made him to suck oil out of the 
flinty rock.” At least it is well known that in 
the thicker and more resinous form of solid bitu¬ 
men It i« found in quantities on the shore* of the 
Dead Sea, and for thousands of years has been 
called “Jews’ pitch” on this account. Strange 
to say, Herodotus mentions a spring of this sort 
of oil in one of the Ionian isles recently relin¬ 
quished by the British government, no doubt as 
ignorant of its value as the Mexicans of tho 
gold of California. But for more than two thou¬ 
sand years, in the island of Zantc, that oil spring 
has been flowing and known in history, its value 
alone unknown. 
In Agrigentum, in Sicily, the petroleum was 
collected and used in lamps before the Christian 
era, as a substitute for oil. This has been the 
cartridge 
General Grant, ‘ arms and munitions of war for 
an army of sixty thousisid men. - 
“ From tins it appears that our loss during the 
year in killed, w ounded ami missing, was ninety- 
two thousand seven hundred and seventy men. 
LIONS, and all other animals of the cat •• If the Rebel ‘ killed and wounded, - of which 
kind, suffer, when imported into this country, we have no account in this report, bear the same 
from a kind of consumption. They wheeze, proportion to ‘prisoners’ that ours does, their 
lose flesh, their lungs become diseased, and they loss during the year must have been enormous, 
finally waste away and die. When one of these reaching to over three hundred thousand men. 
great beasts dies, he is submitted to tho Faculty, -•—*- 
and it Is a pleasant evidence that the proprietors A Prophesy in Jest.— The following ex- 
are not merely “ showmen,” but have an Imelli- tract from a burlesque article in the .\eie 
gent interest in these wosdere of nature, that Monthly MagaSne. for 1821, Vol. II.. entitled 
they have for many years contributed their do- •• Specimen of a Prospective Newspaper, A. D.. 
funct specimens to the collection of the Phiia- 4796,” is curious: 
delpliia Academy of Natural Sciences, in whose The army of the Northern States (of America 
halls may be found skeletons of lions, tigers and will take the field against that of the Southern 
other animals famous in their day. provinces early next Spring. l'he principal 
In the sub-division of labor one man takes Northern force will consist ol 1.490,OX) picked 
charge of four cages, to clean, feed aud attend troops. General Congreve's new mechanical 
upon all the wonts of the occupant*. The flesh- cannon was tried last week at the siege ol 
eating animals are fed but once a day, and not at Georgia. It discharged in one hour 1,120 balls, 
all on Sundays. The monkeys and other small each weighing five hundred weight, rhedis- 
animals are fed twice a day. The elephants tanee of the objects tired at was eleven miles, 
seem to browse all the day long. None but good and so perfect was the engine that tho whole ol 
beef is fed, and it must not have the slightest these balls were lodged in the space oi twenty 
grain of salt upon it. Water i« given four or feet square.” A subsequent article in this speci- 
five times a day. A full-grown lion eats from men states that, “by means of anew invention 
fifteen to eighteen pounds of meat per day. An Dr. Clark crossed the Atlantic in seven days.’ 
elephant’s rations are throe hundred pounds ot How little did the writer anticipate that in fifty 
hay and two bushels of oats per day when he is years these, to him wild fancies, would be at 
traveling; when standing still he goto no oats, most realized. 
Shoddy.—M any persons have heard of shod¬ 
dy who do not know’ its nature and use. It is 
made from woolen rags, which are torn and cut 
up by machinery for the purpose of mixing tho 
product with new wool, to be made into cloth 
and other wooleu fabrics. Cloth made with a 
mixture of shoddy is inferior In strength to that 
made from fresh wool, because much of the old 
rags from which the shoddy is made is rotten, 
and has lost its original strength of fiber. 
Shoddy is employed very extensively in tho 
manufacture of cheap woolen goods, which do 
uot wear half so long as those which are some¬ 
what higher in price, made of clean new wool. 
ITEMS FROM THE MENAGERIE. 
The Moon.— Professor Phillips, of England, 
has succeeded in obtaining drawings of the 
moon seen through a new telescope with a six- 
inch object glass. They exhibit many new and 
striking features, showing a volcanic action of 
which we of this world have no oouception. 
What would wu think if our whole continent 
was a collection of craters, with hills rising out 
of their midst and divided by radiating ravines 
of awful depth? The only approach to any 
such scenery in our world, is to be found in the 
Cordilleras of our gold regions .—Scientific .Bn. 
The Spaniards have a proverb:—“ The stone fit 
fora wall will not, lie on [the road.” Prepare 
yourself for something .better, and something 
better will come. The great art of success is to 
be able to seize the opportunity offered. Cheer¬ 
ful, patient perseverance in your lawful calling 
will best help you to do this, “ He that hath, to 
him shall be given, and be shall have an abun¬ 
dance-’' 
Wk can uot look through Christian countries, 
without seeing that Christianity is rather the 
flag under which the world sails than the rud¬ 
der that steers its course. 
