Isthmus Correspondence of tlie Rural New-Yorker. 
TROPICAL RURAL MATTERS. 
As polished steel receives a stain 
From drops at random Hung, 
80 shall a child when words profane 
Drop from a parent’s tongue. 
The rust eats in, and oft we find 
That naught that we can do 
To cleanse the metal or the mind, 
The brightness to renew. 
GENTLE WORDS. 
It is not much the world can give, 
With all its subtle art, 
And gold, and gems, are not the things 
To satisfy the heart. 
But oh, if those who cluster round 
The altar and the hearth, 
Have gentle words and loving smiles, 
How beautiful Is earth. 
« Winter is coming:” so said an old resident, 
yesterday, and his assertion is true, I think,-for 
this is the worst day we have had in sometime— 
a regular fall day. Not a cold piercing wind, 
n or a frosty ground — but only a bleak sky and 
plenty of rain. You will understand that 
"tropical summers” commence about the mid¬ 
dle of December, and continue till the middle of 
April, when it is succeeded by a month or six 
weeks of peculiar weather, which may be prop¬ 
erly called “fall.” Winter sets in about the 
first of June, and lasts till December. 
While farmers with you have nearly, if not 
quite finished planting and sowing their spring 
crops, the farmers about here have just har¬ 
vested and gathered theirs. The coffee crop of 
Guatemala, Salvador and Costa Rica, was all 
gathered in February and tho first of March, 
and is now on its way to market. The coffee is 
full and plump this year, and the crop abundant. 
If I am not mistaken, the Costa Rica coffee 
ranks next to the Java with some, while with 
others, it is called quite its equal. Perhaps, Mr. 
Editor, you would like to keep your “ grocery 
account"” down in this latitude, where coffee is 
only fourteen cents a pound, and good brown 
sugar seveu and a half cents by the half barrel? 
But when you come to pay gold for it here, and 
then pay freight and custom house duties (duty 
on coffee, five cents per pound) in specie also, 
and then find the worth of the “e.09t” in 
"green backs”—-I am thinking that your “gro¬ 
cery hook ” and mine, would “ foot up ” very 
different amounts. 
But, then, you have the advantage of me in 
another respect. You can go out and get a nice 
“quarter of lamb” for dinner, if you feel so dis¬ 
posed, any day—while I should consider myself 
well off, if I were able here to purchase a quar¬ 
ter of “ Billy Goat” once ft mouth. “Billys” 
are the only kind who lose their lives at the 
butcher shop, and they very seldom. J should 
like to ask you. Mr. Editor, why sheep can not 
he raised, and kept on the “Isthmus”? Are 
there not some kinds, with thin fleeces, that 
could soon get acclimated, so as to thrive “ after 
a fashion?” There, is good pasturing along the 
banks of the Chagres River, although the alli¬ 
gator-. in some parts of it. are inclined to dis¬ 
pute the rights of “man or beast,” to trespass 
along the shores—while the tiger cats claim 
the hills and ravines, as their private property. 
These tiger cats are very destructive to the fowl 
tribe, and young pigs — but never attack men, 
except when hard pressed. The young ones are 
OUR WINTER AND SPRING BIRDS. 
The American Bunting is the only beautiful 
bird that 9tays with us in our northern regions 
through the winter; and he keeps himself usual¬ 
ly in the warm woods, and seems to show that 
he does not need human society. To be sure the 
crow keeps himself among us, but he in no wise 
commends himself to us by his dregs, his man¬ 
ners, habits or disposition. He is avaricious, 
unsocial, a glutton and a thief. We don’t num¬ 
ber him among our songsters. In early spring, 
and long before the snow is off, Mr. Bluebird 
makes his appearance. He is always welcome, 
because he is the herald of spring. His blue 
coat sets him off to advantage; but I can’t say 
he is a favorite of mine, and that simply because 
his notes and tones of voice are so melancholy. 
He sings as if he had the dyspe; '<ia, and as if 
he was hardly dealt with by the rest of the 
world. He is like one of those people who al¬ 
ways sing on the minor key. and have sorrows 
and troubles more and greater than other folks. 
It makes you uncomfortable to come into their 
presence. They don’t open the mouth but to 
complain of somebody or something. Perhaps 
the bluebird feels as cheerful as any bird can; if 
so, he has a poor way of uttering his joy. He 
sings as if his boots hurt his corns, or as if he 
was in some hard pain. 
But there is our robin l He comes upon us 
suddenly, and at once opens his lips and pours 
out his song as if just waked up, ana every note 
as cheerful as if he were the happiest fellow in 
the world. He sings and flies as,if too well sat¬ 
isfied to have a want, too welcome to fear evil, 
too happy to keep silence. Every child and 
| every man greets his return. He brings with 
him the air of spring. Sometimes, indeed, he 
the compulsory wear of all who wore a crown 
or girded on a sword. Enriched with golden 
embroidery, it became the mantle of Kings; 
plain, it took the place of fur, and was used to 
line the hats or caps of citizens of quality. In 
1530, the use of it had spread so greatly among 
the nobility, that Henry VIII. was obliged to 
issue a sumptuary edict to compel the use of 
cloth garments. The manufacture of velvet, 
first introduced into Byzantium by Persian 
workmen, soon spread into the principal towns ) 
of Italy. In 1700, the velvet of Lyons, brought 
by that time to great perfection, competed suc¬ 
cessfully with that of Genoa, but its use was 
only general among the nobles of the kingdom- 
The ladies of quality wore, by preference, bro¬ 
cades, Pekin silks, damasks, satinettes, and 
striped and shaded silks; and this during all the 
eighteenth century. 
The velvets manufactured in the middle of 
the last century, are a proof of the astounding 
progress that bad been made in this manufac¬ 
ture. cut and uncut mingled together, shaded 
by five or six different toreads, repre-euting 
flowers of extreme finish and delicacy, waved 
among armorial designs of singular variety; all 
the velvets of that age are chef d'centres, not 
surpassed by our own. During the first years 
of this century, even up to 1820, plain velvets 
were but little worn among women. In France 
and other countries it was generally a thing 
above their means, and even above their wishes. 
The time is not long passed when a velvet vest 
in a trousseau was looked upon as a sign of a 
great fortune. Now, velvet, without passing 
the limits of a rich and elegant article of attire, 
begins to be more generally worn. 
district of the smallest area — three wards in 
New York city. 
Idaho is the largest territory, and has an area 
Mr. Donnelly, of Min- 
of 320,373 square miles, 
nesota, has the largest district of any member— 
his is 500 miles wide. 
The House has 25 members with bald heads, 
30 with moustaches, and two with wigs. 
Henry Winter Davis lives the nearest, 39 
miles, and has $32 for mileage. William H. 
Wallace, of Idaho, travels 7,997 miles, and gets 
$0,397.00 for mileage. 
The politest member is Reuben E. Fenton, 
New York. 
Three members represent each a State — 
Messrs. Snnthers, Delaware; McBride, Oregon, 
and Wilder, Kansas. 
There are 17 members who are slaveholders. 
There are 24 members from slave States, of 
whom It vote with the Union party and 10 
with the democrats. 
The best penman is Augustus Frank, New 
York; the poorest, Thaddeus Stevens, Pa. 
The member who is a by ays there, sound and 
true, is Henry L. Dawes, Massachusetts; the 
antipode, Benjamin Wood, New York. 
NOTES ON CONGRESSMEN. 
A Washington correspondent of some East¬ 
ern paper has amused himself by preparing 
the following notes on members of the present 
Congress: 
The best speaker on the Union side is William 
D. Kelly. Pennsylvania; on the democratic side, 
D. W. Voorhees, Indiana. 
The best parliamentarian. Union side, E. B. 
Washburne, Illinois; democrat, S. S. Cox, Ohio. 
The readiest debater, Union, John A. Kasson, 
Iowa; democrat. Geo. H. Pendleton, Ohio. In 
the last Congress, John A. Bingham, Ohio, C. 
L. Vallandigbam, Canada. 
The member with the best blood Is John Low, 
Indiana, whose patriot grandfather was a mem¬ 
ber of the old Continental Congress. 1773. His 
maternal grandfather was a member of the first 
Congress uuder the Constitution, his father was 
a member of Congress during the war of 1812, 
and Mr. Low, the present representative, is now 
g his second term. 
servin; 
Tho oldest consecutive member is E. B. Wash¬ 
burne, Illinois, who has held his seat for eleven 
years. In the last Congress, was John S. 
Phelps, Missouri, who was a Colonel in the 
Union army, and had been in Congress for 
eighteen years. 
The oldest man is Thaddeus Stevens, Pennsyl¬ 
vania, who is almost 72 years old. The young¬ 
est is Gen. James A. Garfield, who is only 32 
years old. Ignatius Donnelly, Minnesota, is 
just 16 days older. 
Walter D. Mclndoe, Wisconsin, a very effi¬ 
cient gentleman, has only one hand. 
The General of highest rank is Major-General 
Robert C. Sehenck, whose commission dates 
from August 30th, 1862. The other Generals 
are Garfield, Ohio; Dumont, Indiana: Blair, 
Missouri. 
The handsomest man is William Windom of 
Minnesota. 
The wealthiest man is Oakes Ames, a manu¬ 
facturer from Massachusetts, who is worth over 
two millions. 
The most rapid speaker is the Speaker, Schuy¬ 
ler Colfax, Indiana. 
The tallest man is Brutus J. Clay. Kentucky. 
The shortest members are J. W. MeClurg, Mis¬ 
souri; Augustus Brandegee, Connecticut; Ne- 
herniah Perry. New Jersey; Francisco Perea, 
New Mexico; the difference to be decided by 
the respective thickness of the soles. 
The smallest member is A A Cox; the largest 
is John I). Baldwin, Massachusetts. 
Tho most productive — Geu. Ebenezer Du¬ 
mont, the father of nineteen children. 
The most graceful man is William H. Wads¬ 
worth, Kentucky. 
The dignified man is Rufus P. Spaulding, Ohio. 
The most sarcastic man is Thaddeus Stevens, 
Pennsylvania. 
The social man is Gen. F. P. Blair, Missouri. 
The member who has sent away the most 
speeches is S. A Cox, this Congress; the last, B. 
Wood, the speech Fernando wrote. 
The largest farmer on the Union side Is Joeiah 
B. Griuuell, Iowa, who has six thousand acres 
of land, and keeps six thousand sheep. The big 
farmer on the “other side” is a good substan¬ 
tial Union man, Brutus J. Olay, Kentucky, who 
owns sixty-five hundred acres of land and whose 
home farm contains two thousand acres, worth 
$150 per acre. Mr. Clay has two hundred and 
seventy-five negroes, filly mules, two hundred 
sheep, ouo hundred aud fifty blooded cattle — 
gome of the most famous in the United States. 
His usual stock of cattle is about 400 head. 
The member who never fails to move an 
amendment is William S. Holman, Indiana. 
The member who lives the farthest East is 
Frederick A. Pike, Maine. West, John K. Mc¬ 
Bride, Oregon. North, I. Donnelly, Minnesota. 
South] Cornelius Cole, California, whose district 
reaches down to Mexico. 
James Brooks is the best read man, and has a 
HOW MEN ACT IN BATTLE. 
A letter from a soldier makes the following 
interesting comments on the manner in which 
battles are fought, and explaining why it is. that 
after a terrible conflict of perhaps hours dura¬ 
tion, there should be so small a proportion of 
killed and wounded. 
If you were never in battle you would not 
guess there were half the random shots fired 
that there are. Why, sir, 1 have seen whole 
regiments and brigades deliver their tire when I 
was sure that they did not even wound a single 
man. Such firing, besides wasting the ammuni¬ 
tion, does not intimidate the enemy at all; on 
the other hand it makes them feel that there is 
but little danger, consequently he is more bold, 
and delivers his lire more accurately. Be¬ 
sides, if men are allowed to make these ran¬ 
dom discharges, it seems to become a habit, and 
they become so excited at it that they would 
oftener miss a man at ten paces than they would 
hit him. J ust in that way battles are often lost, 
while the company commander, if he would only 
stop it and show them that they were doing no 
good, they would soon become collected, aud 
after they once knew their folly, would, of their 
own accord, fire deliberately, and probably save 
the day after it had been comparatively lost. 
Why, sir, in battle, you often see company 
commanders charging around, with their swords 
flourlsingabout their heads, crying out, “Give 
it to them, boys, give it to them! ” — manifest¬ 
ing m themselves, aud creating in others, all the 
excitement possible. Now, a second thought 
would show to their better judgment that they 
were doing more harm than good; for men be¬ 
come so excited under sueh circumstances that 
they would miss an elephant at ten steps. You 
often see the above blustering around when the 
enemy are off at a distance of at least one thou¬ 
sand yards; and to hear the roar of musketry 
and the excited commanders, you would think 
they would soon come to a hand-to-hand contest. 
What is It that excites a man in battle? Why, 
it is the danger. If you shoot at a man once he 
is very much excited; shoot at him a hundred 
times and miss him every time, and all his fear 
and excitement is gone; but reserve your fire 
until you can do some execution, aud when 
they come to fire into them, cut his clothes, 
wound his neighbor, kill the second man from 
him, and let him see it, and the day will be won. 
tying a string around their bodies, fastened to 
some stationary object, throw sticks at them to see 
how expertly they catch them in their mouths. 
But to return to marketing. Yeal is not to 
be had here, for a cow never gives sufficient 
milk to fatten a calf; and it is impossible to make 
good veal out of a “ weaned calf,” unless you 
THE LAW OF THY MOTHER. 
“Forsake not the law of thy mother.” 
Every day furnishes testimony to the wonderful 
influences of a mother’s words. We find, in an 
exchange, the following which every boy and 
girl, and every mother should read: 
“A mother, on the green hills of Vermont, 
stood at her garden gate, holding by her right 
hand a son sixteen years old, mad with love 
of the sea. ‘ Edward,’ said she, ‘ they tell me 
that the great temptation of the seaman's life, is 
drink. Promise me, before you quit your 
mother's hand, that you never will drink.” Said 
he, for he told me the story, * I gave her the 
promise. I went the broad globe over; Calcutta, 
the Mediterranean, San Francisco, the Cape of 
Good Hope, and during forty years, whenever I 
saw a glass filled with the sparkling liquor, my 
mother’s form by the garden gate on the hillside 
of Vermont, rose up before me; and to-day, at 
sixty, my lips are innocent of the toste-of liquor.” 
“ Was net that sweet evidence of the power of 
a single word ? And yet it was but half; ‘ for,’ 
said he, * yesterday, there came into my count¬ 
ing-room a man of forty, and said to me, 
‘do you know me?’ ‘No,’ said I. ‘I was 
brought once,’ said he to my informant, * drunk, 
into your presence, on shipboard; you were a 
passenger; the captain kicked me aside; you 
took me into your berth, kept me there until I 
slept off" my intoxication, and then you asked 
me if I had a mother. I said, never, that I 
knew of; I never heard a mother’s voice. You 
told me of yours, at the garden gate; and to¬ 
day, twenty years later, I am master of one of 
the finest packets in New York, and I came to 
ask you to come and see me.’ How far back 
that little candle throws its beam—the mother's 
word on the green hillside of Vermont 1 God be 
thanked for the almighty power of a single 
word.” 
A correspondent of the N. Y. Evening 
Posh with the army, describes a skirmish drill, 
as he saw it, in our army near Culpepper;—“In 
the valley half a dozen companies are drawn 
up; suddenly a part of the men arc launched out 
from the dump, and walk Iu a very open line 
leisurely up the hill. We are too distant to 
hear the word of command from the officer who 
walks behind; hut we see them, mow bending 
down and creeping warily forward, now turn¬ 
ing as one man toward the left; uow lying 
down. Now half of the line—every other man— 
fires: the men who have fired drop quickly to 
the ground, and load their muskets lying prone 
upon their backs. Now the other half tire, and 
load in the same way. Now they push ahead 
on to more level ground; and here, after they 
have fired, they load standing—but not standing 
still. Tho loader rests the butt of his musket on 
the ground, and walks about it much as a circus 
pony walks around the tent-pole. This is that 
the enemy may have no steady mark. 
This is skirmish drill; and it gave me a bettor 
idea of actual battle than any thing else I saw. 
The skirmisher’s movements are very deliber¬ 
ate ; he docs not run. but walks, though iu some¬ 
what tortuous course; no action is hurried—not 
even the firing, for he must take aim—it is his 
duty to hit his man. 
I never till now have seen poor hoys. But 
there are poor ones here. You can see them 
about the streets, at all times, and so poor that 
not only their ribs hut their chock hones and 
their hips seem ready to burst the dirty skin 
which covers them. The hogs are troubled 
with a small reptile or insect which inserts it¬ 
self in tho foot, just above the hoof, and lays its 
eggs and breeds; hence most that you sec have 
monstrous legs and thin bodies. The “coral 
snake,” about six inches in length, w ith black 
and white rings around the body, destroys a 
great many young pigs. Its bite is a deadly 
poison, and t he natives state that they can find 
no antidote for iL in former times, when pas¬ 
sengers crossed the Isthmus by going up tho 
Chagres. iu canoes, several lost their lives from 
the bite of the coral snake, which had stowed 
itself under the canoe seats. 
Chickens and turkioa are very plenty, but 
never fat and sweet, as you find them in colder 
latitudes. They are very apt to catch a disease, 
which consists of a swelled tongue, and unless 
the swelling is pricked immediately, they die, 
within thirty hours. 
By the way, Mr. Editor, in my walk through 
the juugle, a few days since, I picked a handful 
of cotton from a wild cotton tree, and if you are 
at all interested in cotton culture, 1 will send 
you tho specimen- Also a specimen from Clilli, 
South America. My watch tells me that it is 
time to stop writing and hasten to my legitimate 
duties. Mas poco tiempo, Isthmus. 
A spin w.'il I, April 27, 1864. 
Is Man a Ruminating Animal.— One of 
our dentists, says the New Bedford Mercury, 
has met with a man who ruminates like an ox- 
all his food iu due time, after being swallowed, 
being returned to the mouth and remasticated. 
This is done without any exercise of tho pa¬ 
tient's will, and is attended with the same quiet 
enjoyment that marks the countenance of a 
ruminating cow. The case is to be reported in 
the Dental Cosmos, and we may refer to it 
again. It is certainly a most extraordinary 
physiological fact. 
I’ll do it To-Morrow.—T here were two 
boys in a school I used to go to when I was 
young, which was about forty years ago. One 
was remarkable for doing with promptness and 
perseverance whatever he undertook. The 
other had a habit of putting off everything he 
could. " I’ll do it to-morrow,” was his motto. 
“ I’ll do it now,” was the motto of the other 
boy. The boy whs loved to put things off" had 
ABOUT VELVET. 
Gutta peucha is uow used to protect the feet 
of horses from tenderness and slipping. Itis first 
cut into small pieces and softened with hot water, 
then mixed with half its weight of powdered sal 
ammoniac, and the mixture melted in a tinned 
saucepan over a gentle fire, keeping it well stir¬ 
red. When required for use, melt in a glue pot, 
scrape the hoot clean, and apply the mixture 
with a knife. 
Mu. William C. Redfield, iu 1842, found 
a fossil foot-print iu the New Jersey red sand¬ 
stone, at Boouton, presenting three thick toes, 
furnished with claws or nails. The track meas¬ 
ured six inches in length, and three aud a half 
inches in breadth. Mr. Logan, about the same 
time, discovered reptileau tracks in the strata of 
the coal formation in Nova Scotia. 
Velvet is a fabric of Chinese origin; the 
manuscript of Theodulf, which dates in the 
eighth century, and consequently at a time 
when the fabrics of Byzantium and Italy were 
not iu existence, includes among its colored il¬ 
lustrations a pattern of figured velvet, of which 
the Chinese origin is evident. In the middle 
ages, in London, Paris, and Venice, velvet was 
the best natural talent; but he was outstripped 
in the race of life by his neighbor, whose motto M 
was “ I’ll do it now.” Let that be your motto, 
“ Never put off till to-morrow” what you can *|S} 
do to-day.—& S. Times. (m. 
