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THE'T E .A. C H E E. 
LIFE. 
Written for Moore’s Rural New-Yorker. 
MONEY. 
Money is the representative of labor,—the 
symbol of achievement. In other words, it is 
the medium by means of which man seeks to 
exchange the results of creative industry. We 
must, in the iirst place, consider man as capable 
of producing, through the industrial energy of 
the mind and hand, results far exceeding the 
necessary demands of his nature for subsistence. 
Hence, when he ha* satisfied his immediate 
wants, he either seeks to exchange that which 
he has treated for something be does not pos¬ 
sess; or he lays aside the results of his labor for 
exchange at some future time. Commerce first 
began in this way, and what is termed money 
is simply a form of commercial exchange. 
Among primitive societies of men, articles or 
products of labor, such that their quantitative 
value, cither through weight or measure, can 
be readily ascertained, are exchanged, or pass 
from one to another in the manner of coin. 
And a healthy commerce, based on the proper 
adjustment of a system of relative values, is the 
chief auxiliary, as it is the prime exponent, of 
the prosperity of a people. All this commercial 
exchange then, money included, is simply the 
measure of the industrial energy of manki nd. 
People love money because they love power; 
for money represents power, the same as every 
achievement of the hand represents power. 
What infinite sources of power, (money or com¬ 
merce. if you please,) were created in the steam 
engine, the printing press, and the electric tele¬ 
graph, not to speak of the numberless other 
devices and appliances man has called into 
action thus far m his march over the earth. 
There is among men an instinctive recognition 
of general principles, and this recognition is not 
less valid and unerring if the exceptions are 
overlooked, or the reason why of the truth un¬ 
discovered. So mankind respect money in that 
they respect power of any sort, and simple pos¬ 
session of this power is quite sure to secure the 
respect, because few stop to investigate particu¬ 
lar cases. 
It is only when the acquisition of money is 
perverted, or its possession abused, that it be¬ 
comes the “ root of all evil." For in money we 
have crystalized. as it were, into tangible form, 
the results of years of laborious action of band 
and brain, and these results pass into society at 
large, aud from generation to generation, the 
ever-living and creative impulse of the industry 
which first called them into being. 
We have hastily thrown together these 
thoughts, which must, hurried as they are, sug¬ 
gest almost infinite trains of reflection in the 
mind of every thinking reader, because the 
present time seems exceedingly appropriate for 
the reflections they suggest. The emergencies 
of the hour have obliged us to adopt a circulat¬ 
ing medium of which, although the basis may 
be wholly and permanently secure, its absolute 
value is nothing. In saying this we do not 
criticise the measures of the Government; we 
are only inviting people to the exercise of cau¬ 
tion and prudence under their action. 
Our money is in fact money not yet earned, 
or if we recur to first principles, it is not money, 
for currency obtained on bond or credit of any 
kind, becomes money only when the labor it 
should properly represent has been performed, 
whence it receives its value. Properly consid¬ 
ered, money or capital of this kind has no abso¬ 
lute value; it is simply putting the security 
upon which its accredited value rests in the 
market as a medium of commercial exchange. 
Any intelligent person can figure for himself 
the difference between au abundant circulating 
medium of this description, and one having a 
real and absolute value. The former shows 
how far we have outrun the measure of our 
productive industry; the latter exhibits to us 
its surplus. 
An inflated paper currency, such as we now 
have and must continue to use for many years 
to come, naturally gives rise to an extravagant 
abuse of money. And this abuse is not likely 
to be remedied, unless people entertain correct 
ideas of the value and nature of the capital in 
their hands. The almost unlimited resources 
of productive industry in our country furnish 
abundant means for liquidating our national 
debt, immense as it has already become; still, 
well directed and creative labor alone can ac¬ 
complish this end; and for the conscientious 
performance of this, every citizen of the Repub¬ 
lic is in reality responsible. L. w. 
Ann Arbor, Mich., 1SG4. 
A COUNTRY WITHOUT A REPTILE. 
Capt. Hardy writes an interesting letter to 
the Loudon Field newspaper, commenting on a 
statement that in Newfoundland there is not a 
snake, toad, frog, or reptile of any sort; nor any 
squirrels, porcupine, or miuk. Capt. Hardy 
says:—" Besides the above-mentioned deficien¬ 
cies, I found, when visiting Newfoundland last 
summer, several others. It was midsummer, 
and the fire-flies were scintillating in myriads In 
the warm evenings over every swamp in Nova 
Scotia; here not one could be seen, nor was 
there another pleasing summer visitor of our 
neighboring provinces, the night-hawk. Con¬ 
sidering the immense portion of this island 
which is el aimed by bogs and swamps, I think 
the absence of all reptiles very curious; and I 
plodded long and often round the edges of ponds 
and swamps, Loping to see some little croaker 
take a header from the bank; and by sunny 
slopes in the woods, where, on the main land 
they might be sceu at every other step, in 
search of snakes, but in vain. 1 believe 6omo of 
our common green-headed frogs were recently 
transported to this island, and turned out into a 
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1. The Teacher’s life! most pure and high! The opening mind with gems to store; To upward point the wandering eye, When Youth’s frail barque forsakes the shore. 
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2. The Teacher’s life boasts truest fame! ’Tis not alone the mind to fill: The heart, God’s greatest work, hath claim Up its highest, holiest Skill. 
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3. The Teacher’s life! not only know Cities the blessings by it showered, But where the fresh pure breezes blow O’er peaceful fields and ways embowered. 
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4. The Teacher’s life! ’tis not to roam In eye of man some towering height, But in the val - ley of its home For God’s broad eye to shed its light. 
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The world its hollow plaudits bears To fame that’s won amidst its strife; But deeper, loftier praise is theirs, Who, honored, lead the teacher’i 
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To guide its erring feelings right, De - stroy the weeds that spring so rife, Whilst opening realms to mental sight, This, this, oh! this the tether’s life. * 
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How oft the modest school-house there Is seen; far, far from bu - sy strife. In God’s own blessed sun and air, The temple of the teacher’s life. 
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How many, as they pass along The snares within their way so rife, With towering brow and footstep strong, Have cause to bless the teacher’s life’ 
swamp such as would be a grand residence for 
them at home, but in a few days, alas! they 
all lay stiff on their backs. In fact, Newfound¬ 
land seems to be destined to remain as it now 
indubitably is —a country without a reptHe.” 
Capt. Hardy is correct in his remark about 
frogs being brought to the island, a number 
having been conveyed across the Straits ot Belle 
Isle from the main land of Labrador to the 
island, a distance of but fifteen miles. The 
frogs lived but a few days. A theory has been 
advanced that the whole island is a continuation 
of the Green Isle, a belt or wall from Galway to 
Trinity Bay having been traced at the time 
soundings were made on the Atlantic for the 
telegraph cable, and that the influence of St. 
Patrick extended across the same, when he 
“ banished all the varmints." However, it is a 
singular fact that no reptiles exist in Newfound¬ 
land. 
FIRES IN BEDROOMS. 
Most people, even many intelligent reformers 
have the idea that to sleep in a cold room is 
good—essentia] to health. It is an error. It is 
better to have an open tire in your bed-room. 
The atmosphere is not only by this mean* con¬ 
stantly changed, but with the Are you will keep 
the window open, which will add greatly to the 
needed ventilation. But more than this, with 
the fire you will have fewer bedclothes over you, 
which is a gain, as a large number of blankets 
not only interferes somewhat with the circula¬ 
tion and respiration, but prevents the escape of 
those gases which the skin is constantly emit¬ 
ting. Even furnace or stove heat with an open 
window is better than a close, cold room. In¬ 
terchange with the external atmosphere depends 
upon the difference between the temperature of 
the air within and that without. But let us have 
the open fire. Let us go without silks, broad¬ 
cloths, carpets, and finery of all kinds, if neces¬ 
sary, that we may have this beautiful purifier 
aud diffuser of joy in all our houses. In my own 
house I have ten opeu grates, and find with coal 
at eleven dollars the expense is frightful, aud if 
it were in any other department of housekeep¬ 
ing I should feel 1 could not afford it; but in 
this I do not flinch, so important do I deem the 
open fire.—Hr. lewis. 
LONG AND SHORT HAIR. 
Many customs have prevailed among the fair 
sex respecting the mode of arranging the hair, 
and they have a right to adopt a variety of 
changes; but cutting the hair short and wear¬ 
ing it like boys is uot commendable. Men have 
at different times worn the hair long. This has 
ever been condemned as an unsertptural custom. 
In the days of Charles the First of England, 
t he Cavaliers who despised close religious forme, 
wore loug hair, while the Puritans cut theirs 
short, and were called “round-heads." It has 
been calculated that by continual cutting and 
shaving of the hair, about seven feet in length 
is removed from a man in twenty-five years. 
Some writers assert, that the practice of close 
cutting and shaving tends to weaken the body. 
Such writers draw a powerful argument from 
old Samson, who, when all unshorn, slew sev¬ 
eral thousand Philistines with the jaw-bone of 
au ass. 
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The world’s great meu have not commonly 
been great scholars, nor its great scholars great 
men. 
How the Soldier’s Talk. 
BT PRIVATE JULES O'REILLY. 
We have heard the rebel jell, 
We have heard the Union shout, 
We have weighed the matter very well 
And mean to light It out; 
In victory's happy glow, 
In the gloom of utter rout, 
We have pledged ourselves —“ Come weal or woe, 
By Heaven! we hght It out.” 
’Tis now too late to question 
What brought the war about ; 
'Tis a thing of pride and passion 
And we mean to fight it out. 
Let the “ big wigs ’*tse the pen, 
Let them caucus, let them spont, 
We are half a million weaponed men 
And mean to light it out- 
Oor dead, on* loved, .ire crying 
From many a stormed redoabt, 
In the swamps and trenches lying— 
" Oh, comrades, tight it out! 
’Twas onr comfort as we fell 
To hear your gathering shout, 
Rolling bach the rebels' weaker yell— 
God-speed yon, fight it out! 
The negro—free or slave— 
We care no pin about, 
But for the flag onr fathers gave 
Wa mean to light it out; 
And while that banner brave 
One rebel rag shall flout. 
With volleying arm and flashing glaive 
By Heaven 1 we tight it oat! 
Oh, we've heard the rebel veil, 
We have heard the Union shout, 
We have weighed the matter very well, 
And mean to light it oat; 
In the flush of perfect triumph, 
And the gloom of ntter rout, 
We have sworn on many a bloody field 
We mean to fight it oat'” 
How a Trade was Settled. 
A man belonging to the 44th Illinois, of our 
brigade, sauntered over to the rebel line with a 
nice little sack of coffee, which soon drew a cus¬ 
tomer. Tobacco is indispensable to the life of 
the army, but the amount of that article on 
baud is “ small and growing beautifully less,” 
likewise the wherewith to buy it, hence each 
man in trading with the “ Johnny’s” gets all 
of the beloved weed he possibly can, cheating by 
every name laid down in the *■ Yankee peddler's” 
vocabulary, aud cramping if necessary or prac¬ 
ticable. 
True to his Yankee instincts, the 44th man 
sought to drive a cheap bargin, but his custom¬ 
er thought himself as sharp as the next one— 
and the consequence was they could not agree. 
The dispute lay in the quantity—each demand¬ 
ing more than the other was willing to give. 
Neither would come down an inch: aud the 
probability is they would have been wrangling 
yet, had not a third party happily suggested the 
idea of settling the dispute by wrestling, the 
best in three being winner, who carries off both 
coffee and tobacco. Both being good solid men 
they jumped at the idea—and at each other— 
but “ Yankee ingenuity " and the trips, upset 
the " Johnny ’’ and his dreams of coffee, to the 
evident satisfaction of lookers-on (mostly gray- 
backs) who cheered lustdy, couching their terms 
of praise in words like these:—" Bully for the 
44th IllinoLs.” Ac. Happy as a King, the hero 
of the tussel gathered up his treasure and hur¬ 
ried homeward, whistling “Yankee Doodle," 
leaving his discomfited antagonist “ chewing 
the cud of discontent" behind him. 
What a Nurse Thinks and Says. 
I never stand in the door ward, looking 
down on the long row of white beds and 
pale faces which line it on either side, without 
a sense of shrinking. Can I give to each one, 
though ever so little, something of that which 
he needs!' ?hall I give the meet word to the 
one who wants it; the fit silence to the one 
who cannot speak ? Shall I lay by any pillow the 
thing longed for most ?—are my doubting ques¬ 
tions. 
Yet it seems not difficult to tell the agonized 
face past all speech, and the eager asking eyes 
which say:—“ Speak to me.” The eyes of the 
New England boys say more; they, “Ask me 
about myself: ask me where I was wounded; 
where I eame from; ask me about my folks,” 
“ Were you ever in Huntington? That’s my 
home,” said a Massachusetts boy to-day from his 
bed. “ I have been through Huntington many 
times," was the answer. The fact was sufficient 
to make tis friends immediately. 
“How are you, to-day?" I asked another 
Massachusetts boy, belonging to the Twenty- 
ninth regiment. “ Gay,” was the reply. This 
was displaying a taleut for being "jolly " undef 
unfavorable circumstances, which threw the 
genius of Mark Tapley in the shade. This man 
was terribly wounded, utterly helpless, yet the 
face which showed above the coverlet, was as 
radiant as if never convulsed with a pang. I 
could only say, has the world ever seen any¬ 
thing so morally grand as the manhood which 
this war has developed in American men? 
The Borrowed Middling. 
“Gamma," the Richmond correspondent 
of the Mobile Register, in a recent letter tells 
the following anecdote of the Bayard of the 
South:—“ Iu Gen Lee’s tent meat is eaten but 
twice a week—the General not allowing it of- 
tener, because he believes indulgence in meat 
to be criminal in the present straighteued con¬ 
dition of the country. His ordinary dinner con¬ 
sists of a head of cabbage boiled in salt water, 
and a pone of corn bread. In this connection, 
rather a comic story is told. Having invited a 
number of gentlemen to dine with him. Gen. 
Lee, in a fit of extravagance, ordered a sumptu¬ 
ous repast of cabbage and middling. 
The dinner was served, and behold, a great 
pile of cabbage, and a bit of middling about 
four inches long. The guests, with commend¬ 
able politeness, unanimously declined middling, 
and it remained in the dish untouched. Next 
day Gen. Leo. remembering the delicate bit 
which had been so providentially preserved, 
ordered the servant to ‘bring that middling.’ 
The man hesitated, scratching his bead, and 
finally owned up:— 4 De fac is. massa Robert, dat 
ere middlin’ was borro’d middlin’; we all did’nt 
hab nar a spec, an’ I done pay it back to the 
nun wharl got it from.’ Gen. Lee heaved a 
deep sigh of disappointment and pitched into his 
cabbage. 
General Geary and the Angry Colonel. 
AN incident illustrating the character of 
Gen. Geary occurred last night, daring the chang¬ 
ing of the troops. The night was dark, the 
place strange to Clio incoming officers aud the 
necessity of caution, so as not to attract the 
notice of the rebels, whose lines were within 
earshot of our own. necessarily occupied consid- 
i erable time, and some of the officers, if not the 
1 soldiers, seem to have become impatient. 
Riding forward in the darkness, an officer 
made some petulant remark, when the General 
said, “'You ought not to come in here as you 
are needlessly exposing yourself; besides, your 
horse is likely to make a noise in the bushes, 
and attract the enemy’s attention, and you thus 
jeopard the lives of the men.” 
“Well. I would like to know who the h—1 is 
running this concern, anyhow," exclaimed the 
angry Colonel. 
“I am. Sir,” replied the voice, in a low but 
dignified tone, and without a change of intona¬ 
tion, *• and my name is Gen. Geary; we have 
got along admirably thus far, but if you think 
you can manage it better, I would like to have 
your name and your plan.” 
The astonished officer suddenly rolled off' of 
that horse, and after sufficiently recovering 
from his chagrin, made 3 suitable apology for his 
unofficerlike demeanor. 
Humors of the Wounded. 
Although there is so much suffering, and 
so little to make one merry, in these depots of 
of maimed men, there is nevertheless sometimes 
something amusiDg happening. It is an era, for 
instance, when some of the one-legged fellows 
can take to crutches. When this occurs, spon¬ 
taneous congratulations from the recumbent 
crowd follow him wherever he makes his ap¬ 
pearance ; with an occasional “ go it, ye crip¬ 
ples!” “double quick!” “don’t kick me!" Ac., 
Ac., causing universal hilarity, sud bringing 
a smile to the lips of the worst eases. The 
happy convalescent takes all this in good part, 
and sometimes replies, “ It will be your turn 
next my boy,” "be patient, cap; when you get 
your cork leg on, it will be all right," “ this is 
jolly, but slow, ” “ legs are better than three- 
and-a-half on a retreat,” Ac.. Ac., forgetting his 
loss in the joy of the moment. And then when 
one is well enough to ask for a furlough to go 
home! It is the theme of conversation through¬ 
out the ward; and the happy fellow hobbles 
from one cot to another to communicate the good 
news. There are a great many sources of hap¬ 
piness in this world after all. 
How to Read Shoulder Straps. 
The rank and arm of military officers are 
designated as follows: The shoulder straps of 
a major-general bear two silver embroided stars, 
one on each end of the strap. A brigadier-gen- 
end has one silver star only. A colonel has a 
silver embroidered spread eagle: a lieutenant- 
colonel has two silver embroidered leaves, one 
at each end of the strap; a major has two em¬ 
broidered gold leaves similarly placed. A cap¬ 
tain has two gold bars at each eua of the strap. 
a first lieutenant one gold bar at each end; a 
second lieutenant no bar at all. The cloth of 
the strap, by its color, distinguishes the arm of 
the service. For general and staff officers, it is 
dark blue; for artillery, scarlet; for infantry, sky 
blue; for riflemen, green; and for cavalry, or¬ 
ange color. Non-commissioned officers are in¬ 
dicated by “ chevrons" or stripes on the coat 
sleeve in the form of a letter V. Corporals 
wear two stripes; sergeants three; wrderlv ser¬ 
geants have a lozenge, or diamond shaped 
figure withiu the angle of the chevrons, ser¬ 
geant-majors have the three stripes of a ser¬ 
geant completed into a triangle, base upper¬ 
most. 
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