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SOME INTEHFSTIHG PARAGRAPHS 
The Sponge Business.— Tne sponge business 
lias become a prominent depart ment of industry 
in the Bahama islands. It is almost entirely 
the growth of the last twenty years, and nets 
annually about $20,000, The sponge is fished 
and raked from the sandy bottom of the ocean, 
at the depth of twenty, forty, or sixty feet. It 
belongs to a very low order of animal life, or¬ 
ganization hardly being detected. When first 
taken from the water ft is black, and becomes 
exceedingly offensive from decomposition. It 
is so poisonous in this condition that it almost 
blisters the flesh it happens to touch. The first 
process is to bury it in the sand, where it re¬ 
mains for two or three weeks, in which time the 
gelatinous animal matter is absorbed and de¬ 
stroyed by the insects that swarm in the sand. 
After being cleansed, it is compressed and 
packed in bales like cotton. Tho sponge has 
been applied to a variety of new purposes, and 
within tbe past few years has quadrupled in 
value. 
Poisoning by Buttercups.— An English paper 
says:—An inquest was recently held at the Bull 
Hotel, Hartford, before Mr. C. J. Carttar, cor¬ 
oner, on the body of a child named .Sarah Eliza¬ 
beth Heron, aged six years. It appeared by 
the evidence of the moti*r and father of the 
child, that some time before the death, the de¬ 
ceased hart complained of feeling very unwell, 
and in great pain about the body and legs. Tbe 
mother afterwards discovered that, the deceased 
had been eating Buttercups from a field dose 
by, and sent for a powder from a chemists; but 
as the deceased vomited a groat deal, and pre¬ 
sented every appearanee of having been poi¬ 
soned, the parish surgeon was sent for, but that 
gentleman did not arrive at the house till the 
child was dead. A post mortem examination 
had been made, which proved the deceased had 
beeu poisoned by eating Buttercups; and the 
jury returned a verdict to that effect. 
Extracting Grape Juice. —A correspondent of 
the London Chemical Ne\os states that a Ger¬ 
man has devised a novel means of extracting 
juice from grapes, instead of pressing them in 
the ordinary manner, he .places them in a drum 
provided with a suitable strainer, and revolving 
at a rate of from 1.000 to 1,500 revolutions per 
rniuute. It is said the following advantages 
result from this plan;—1. The time required for 
the operation is greatly lessened, the whole of 
the must from one cwt. of grapes being obtained 
in five minutes. 2, The quantity of juice is in¬ 
creased by live or six per cent. 3. “ Stalking” 
is rendered unnecessary; and 4, the agitated 
must is bo mixed with air that fermentatiou 
takes place with great rapidity. 
Coloring Gas Light.—An ingenious English¬ 
man was lately permitted to try some experi¬ 
ments at the gas works at Mulines, in Belgium, 
the most successful of which was the sudden 
appearance throughout the city of a beautiful 
clear red light, which threw around rays of the 
most brilliant description. It is said that by 
the addition to the gasometer of some chemical 
salts, an increase of light and change of color 
can be instantaneously produced. 
Matches in San Francisco.— They manufac¬ 
ture matches in Sau Francisco which can be 
trodden upon or rolled under foot without ignit¬ 
ing , and which, after having been manufactured 
a month, may be immersed in water for ton or 
fifteen minutes, aud when taken out will not 
only ignite but hold a flame. The wood used 
is Port Orford cedar. They sell at wholesale 
for $1.70 per gross. 
The Arab Iiorse-slioe.— The Arab horse-shoe 
is a thin plate of iron covering the whole hoof; 
it is far lighter and gives more protection, 
but requires to be removed oftener than ours. 
ADULTERATION OF SILK FABRICS. 
What is Jute ? is a question often asked by 
the general reader. This article, well known to 
those engaged In the East India trade, played 
an important part in the recent great fire in 
London. It has been demonstrated that it is a 
rather unsafe article to stow away on account of 
its ignition and tendency to spontaneous com¬ 
bustion. It is also unsafe in another particular, 
for it is the great adulterator of silk. Jute is 
the liber of a species of hemp (botanieally 
speaking, tho corckorus cap sularas) which is 
grown in the East Indies, chiefly in Bengal. 
The same class of men who put shoddy into 
cloth, log-wood Into a villainous compound, 
and then call it port wine, adulterate silk with 
jute. It bas a Lustrous, silky appearance, and 
tho fraud is not easily detected. A recent Eng¬ 
lish writer In the Technologist Bays that, thanks 
to jute, there is scarcely a piece of sound genu¬ 
ine silk woven in the country, and the conse¬ 
quence Is, that the so-called silk fabrics, instead 
of lasting from generation to generation — as 
they did in the times of our grandmothers 
and great-grandmothers — barely last the brief 
period of the latest new fashion. The reason 
of this is evident—for in preparing this liber 
for the market, it is necessary to cause it to 
almost putrefy, in ordev to develop the fine 
silky character so much valued in the jute in¬ 
tended for expert. In India the cloth made 
from the fiber is much stronger and more dura¬ 
ble, because they do not take much care in 
steeping it for home consumption. In Dre’a 
“ Philosophy of Manufacture,” (newest odition) 
a writer says of jute *• that It is mixed with the 
cotton warps of cheap broadcloths, and also 
with silk, and from its luster, can scarcely be 
detected.” Why caunot jute be turned to more 
honorable and useful purposes thau adultera¬ 
tion? Dr. Forbes Watson says that Its “pro¬ 
duction admits of unlimited extension, aud who 
This city, a view of which we give the 
Rural reader, is situated on the southwestern 
entrance of the Bosphorus, upon a triangular 
peninsula formed by the Golden Horn, (its har¬ 
bor,) an Inlet of the sea, and tbe sea of Marmora. 
Its ancient name was Byzantium, and has been 
a city of note for nearly two thousand years. 
It was destroyed by an earthquake A. D., 413. 
Its size and population when under the rule of 
tho Byzantine Emperors may be estimated from 
the fact that once in the Sth Century 300,000 of 
its inhabitants fell victims to a pestilence. 
It is now the seat of government of the Turk¬ 
ish Empire, aud the residence of the Greek and 
Armenian patriarchs. Its population is believed 1 
knows but the great paper rag aad the cotton 
question may be somewhat solved by jute 
Journal of Commerce. 
ICE OVER THE CONTINENT. 
Prof. Agassiz, in the Atlantic Monthly, 
comes to the conclusion that the Continent of 
North America was at one time covered with 
lcc a mile in thickness. The proof is that the 
slopes of she Alleghany range of mountains are 
glacier-worn on the very top, except a few 
points which were above the level of the icy 
mass. Mount Washington, for instance, is over 
six thousand feet high, and the rough, unpol¬ 
ished surface of Its summits, covered with loose 
fragments, just below the level at which glacier- 
marks come to an end, tell us that it lifted its 
head alone above the desolate waste of iee and 
snow. In this region, then, the thickness of the 
sheet cannot have been much less than six thou¬ 
sand fea, and this is in keeping with the same 
kind of evidence in other parts of the country; 
for, wherever the mountains are below six thou¬ 
sand feet the ice seems to have passed directly 
over them, whiie the few peaks rising on the 
heights are left untouched. The glacier, he 
argues, was God’s great plow, and when the ice 
vanished from the face of the land it left it pre¬ 
pared for the hand of the husbandman. The 
hard surface of the rocks was ground to pow¬ 
der, the elements of the soil were mingled in 
fair proportions, granite was carried into the 
lime regions, lime was mingled with the more 
arid and unproductive districts, and a soil was 
prepared fit for the agricultural uses of man. 
There are evidences all over the polar regions 
to show that at one period the heat of the 
tropics extended all over the globe. The ice 
period is supposed to be long subsequent to this, 
and next to last before the advent of this earth. 
CANDY AS A DESSERT. 
Pure sugars and candies do not injure tho 
teeth, except indirectly, by their injudicious use, 
in exciting acidity of stomach or dyspepsia, as 
will any other kind of food, or drink, or beve¬ 
rage, if extravagantly used. At seasons of the 
year when fruit and berries may not be ripe, 
fresh and perfect, as desserts, pure sugars and 
candies may bp used as such in their stead to 
great advantage, because they are healthful, be¬ 
ing warming, nutritious and agreeable; hence, 
as a tabic article, they are very valuable, while 
the almost universal love of them shows that 
they were intended to be eaten. If a child is 
not allowed to eat anything containing sugar it 
will sicken and die in a very short time. Chil¬ 
dren ncts.1 the carbon — the fuel contained in 
sugar—to keep them warm; without it, they 
would perish from cold: hence the love of sweet 
things is an instinct, implanted by the kind and 
wise Maker of us all for the child’s preserva¬ 
tion. There are a parcel of stupid creatures in 
the world whose sole stock in trade of brains 
and logic amounts to this, that *• whatsoever is 
good is unhealthy.” It is not advised thatehil- 
dren should be allowed to eat sugar aud candy 
whenever they want it; but that as a dessert, 
after each regular meal, the use of pure sugars 
and candies would benefit, and not injure.— 
Hall’s Journal of Health. 
Mason 4 Hamlin’s Cabinet Organs.- 
Having taken some pains to satisfy ourselves 
respecting the merits of these nosv instruments, 
we are able to speak yery confidently in regard 
to them, and to recommend them heartily to 
our readers. We have not found any difference 
in tho opinions entertained of them by mu¬ 
sicians; all value them highly, aud all agree 
that their superiorly to all other instruments of 
the class, American or foreign, is indisputable. 
—iVsto Fork jfiztmiwer. 
VIEW OF 1 CONSTANTINOPLE. 
to be near 1,000,000—some think S00,WO a large ] 
enough estimate. Us harbor is eapab’e of con- i 
• taining 1,200 ships at once, and is thronged by 
vessels of all nations. The streets ire very 
irregular, narrow, crooked, dirty ; houses dilap- I 
. id a ted and tbe atmosphere filled with offensive 
odors. The streets are not named, are badly 
paved, are not lighted at night, and are thronged 
f with thousands of dogs. The houses are not 
i numbered and aTe mostly of wood. Fires are ; 
r frequent and of course disastrous. There are 
few public squares. It has fine mark-1 halls — 
- large fire-proof buddings, lighted from above, 
i in which hundred.-, of tradesmen and shop-keep-1 
11 era retail their wares. Some of these market 
TESTIMONY OF RICHARD COBDEN. 
I have traveled in most civilized countries, 
and I can say that the mass of the people in 
England don’t compare favorably with the mass 
of the people in other countries as I should wish. 
I find in other countries a greater number of 
people with property than there are in England. 
I don’t know a Protestant country in the world 
where the mass of the people are -o illiterate as 
the mass of the people in England. These are 
not bad tests of the condition of the people. It 
is no use talking of your army or your navy, of 
your exports or imports; it is no use telling me 
that a small po lion of the people a-e exceed¬ 
ingly well off. I want to bring the test to a 
comparison of the majority of the people of this 
country against the majority of any other coun¬ 
try.* I say it, with some knowledge of foreign 
countries, that we don’t compare favorably in 
that way. The English peasantry has not a 
parallel on the lace of the earth. I know no 
other peasantry but that of England, which is 
entirely divorced from the land. There is no 
other country ia the world where you will not 
find men holding the plow and turning up the 
furrow of their own freehold. You will not 
find that in England. I don’t want any revolu¬ 
tion or agrarian outrages to change this. But I 
find that wherever I go the eondit.on of the 
people is apt generally to be pretty much in ac¬ 
cordance with the power they have t*> take care 
of themselves. If you have a country where 
the people have no political power, and another 
country where they have, they will be treated 
with more consideration, will have greater ad¬ 
vantages, will be better educated, am, will have 
a better chance of obtaining property in the 
latter case than in a country where they have 
no chance of having the political franchise. 
SILK GOODS MADE IN AMERICA 
The following is a list of the artic es manu¬ 
factured of silk in America at the present time; 
Tram and organizine, sewing silks and machine 
twists, embroidery and purse silks, trimmings, 
cords and tassels, fringes and gimps, ladies' hair¬ 
nets, ueck-ties, beltings,upholstery goods, gauzes 
foulards, sareentes, heavy dress and mantilla 
sashes, carriage trimmings and mixed goods in 
groat variety. 
The duty ou thrown silk is thirty-live per 
cent., with ton per cent, added on all that comes 
from beyond the Cape of Good Hope. This in¬ 
cludes most that comes to this country—Italian 
silks being little imported—and China. Japau 
and Bengal furnishing nearly all that is manu¬ 
factured here. Raw silk, which has not been 
thrown, is free. 
The present tariff, with the high price of gold 
and rates of exchange, affords protection to the 
silk manufacture in this country; and even 
should a change couie in these respects, the 
business once established, as it is fast becoming, 
will bid defiance to foreign competition. The 
annual consumption of silk manufactured goods 
in this country, many years past, ha* bteu vrn-y 
large, and constantly on the iaoreasr. During 
the twenty years previous to 1860, the unports 
of silk amounted to $370 000,000. During the 
two previous years lhey amounted to $40 000,- 
000— equal to oue-thtrd of all tho dry goods im¬ 
ported. The revenue during the twenty years 
previous to i860, on silk u,oods, amounted to $00,- 
000,000. The wealt h to be gained from so large 
a manufacture would add immensely to the re¬ 
sources of our nation. 
In 1 Stiff the annual production of manufactured 
silk ia this country was estimated at $2,000,- 
000. It must have greatly increased by this 
time.—Afeio York Post. 
places inclose several covered streets. There 
are open markets for the sale of horses, cattle, 
fish, &c. There is an old clothes market which 
is called Bit Bazaar, or lice market. Arret 
Bazaar is set apart for the sale of female slaves. 
It has many public buildings, mosques, Ac., 
which it would be Interesting to describe had 
we apace. Among its charitable institutions 
are 101 imarets, or soup houses, in which 30,000 
persons are fed daily. In short, Constantinople 
is a very interesting city, in which there is 
abundant chance for study—the center of a 
Urge commerce and much wealth. Its local 
industry, however, is unimportant, but little 
attention being paid to manufactures. r | 
— 
GARMENTS OF MOURNING. 
£ . putting on black ” as a sign of mourning, 
was an essentially heathen custom, indicating 
the horror of death, and that all beyond the 
grave was a blank. Mrs. Ware, in her very 
useful little book, “ Death and Life,” has some 
excellent remarks upon these customs:—The 
early Christians recognized the new aspect 
which the knowledge of immortality gave to 
the death of the body; and they soon ceased to 
use the signs of morning for the dead, that till 
then had been universaL They felt that it was 
wrong to mourn for the dead; and their epi¬ 
taphs in the Roman catacombs still testify to the 
peaceful trust and the hopeful assurance that 
animated the minds of those who there de¬ 
posited the mortal remains, often sealed with 
the blood of martyrdom of those they held 
most dear. 
Among the thousands of inscriptions still to 
be read there, there is no aliusion to be found to 
the grief of those who were left to perform the 
last offices to their friends. No inconsolable 
relatives immortalized their tears on those 
walls. The simplicity of a childlike faith that 
to die here was to live in the mansions of the 
all-loving Father, seems to have been the 
abounding source whence flowed the countless 
phrases that speak of death as always a good 
rather than an evil. The bad Latin in which 
may of the inscriptions are couched, proves 
that a large proportion of the dead were of the 
lower and little educated classes ; but all ranks 
seem to have been animated by the same spirit. 
Selfish grief finds no expression there; and the 
historians tell us that all signs of mourning in 
dress were deemed unfitting in those who be¬ 
lieved in the Christian immortality.” 
A PLAN TO PROLONG LIFE. 
M. Robin, an eminent French chemist, in a 
memoir recently presented to the French 
Academy, expresses a belief that the human life 
may be greatly prolonged, and enters into an 
argument to show that his opinion is based upon 
sound reasoning. He gives the result of his 
personal observations on this subject, and pro¬ 
poses to demonstrate the truthfulness of his po¬ 
sition by actual experiments upon animals 
whose lives are of short duration. His argu¬ 
ment is. that the mineral matter, which consti¬ 
tutes an ingredient in most of our food, after 
the combustion, is in our systems to incrust and 
stiffen the different parts of the body and to ren¬ 
der imperfect many of the vital processes. 
He compares human beings to furnaces which 
are always kindled; life exists only in combus¬ 
tion, but tbe combustion which occurs in our 
bodies, like that which takes place in our chim¬ 
neys, loaves a detritus or residum which is fatal 
to life. To remove this, he would administer 
lactic acid with ordinary food. This acid is 
known to possess the power of removing or dis¬ 
solving the incrustations which form on the 
arteries, earfillages and valves of the heart. As 
buttermilk abounds in this add, and is, more¬ 
over, an acreeable kind of food, its habltuai 
use, It i. urged, will free the system from these 
o*nsc>». which inevitably cause death between 
the eeventy-fifth and one hundredth year. 
Cure for a Felon.—As soon as the part be¬ 
gins to swell, get the tincture of lobelia and 
wrap the part affected with cloth thoroughly 
staturated with the tincture, and the felon is 
dead. Au old physician says he has known this 
to cure in scores of cases, and it never fails if 
applied ta season. 
-+-*-+- 
Laughter and tears arc meant to turn the 
wheels of the same machinery of sensibility; 
one is the wind-power and the other water- 
' power. 
409 
easing fat tfec ffanng. 
EVENING PRAYER 
Erb In my bed my limbs I lay, 
God grant me grace my prayer to say! 
O God, preserve my mother dear 
In health and strength for many a year! 
And O, preserve my father too, 
And may l pay him reverence doe; 
And may I my best thoughts employ 
To be my parents’ hope and joy! 
My sisters and my brothers both. 
From evil guard, and gave from sloth; 
And may we always love each other, 
Oar friend*, our father, and onr mother; 
And still, O Lord, to me impart 
A contrite, pare, and grateful heart, 
That after ray last sleep I may 
Awake to Thy eternal day! Amen 
"I HA’N'T A MOTHER LIKE THE REST.” 
The weather had been uuusually mild for 
two or three days before Christmas, so that 
the ice of the big pond was rather rotten: bn t 
daring Harry thought be could brave it; it 
would be a pity to spoil (the fua now, and so 
many admiring eyes fixed upon him, tool He 
made a bold dash—his little figure, upright and 
graceful, was balanced upon the ice.' Thai 
there was a crash! the dangerous cake gave 
way: aad with a loud cry, Harry fell amid the 
rush of iee and water. 
The group at the window seemed for a mo¬ 
ment paralized with horror. Then there was a 
scattering for the pond, and a screaming and 
crying from one and all. “He’s under the wa¬ 
ter!—father! father 1 Harry’s going c ider the 
ice!” Every particle of color had gone from 
Farmer Mayfa face; he tremb'ed in every limb, 
and threw up his hands wildly. His strength 
seemed to have ebbed away in the tide of grief. 
“ O help me!” he cried. “ My boy—my boy! 
and I can’t swim!” “But I can!” shouted a 
voice, brave and clear as an angel’s almost; “I 
,<an swim, and I’ll save him 1 ” and dashing past 
weeping Mother May, Joseph Craig plunged 
headlong into the freezing water, swimming 
for dear life. How they watched him, breath¬ 
less and excited, their hearts hanging by a 
thread as it were! How they shuddered when 
they saw him urasp once, twice, ai a dark ob¬ 
ject under tbe water, and then rise, his face 
gashed and bleeding from contact with the 
ugly ice corners. He was some way out now, 
and made a third dive; then there wa3 a faint 
hurrah, and, breasting the ice, he just managed 
to swim to the bank, with one arm holding up 
poor Harry. 
“ My child! my boy!—thank God 1 ” cried the 
happy parent, folding him in his arms. They 
bore him to the roaring fire in the sitting-room, 
and rubbed him until he opened his eyes and 
smiletL Yery soon he was able to sit up, and 
laugh and talk naturally. And where was Jo¬ 
seph all this time? Sitting on the kitchen floor, 
squeezing bis wet etothes and rubbing the great 
painful gashes in his arms and face, from which 
the biood was still streaming. 
“Joseph!” He listened; it was Farmer 
May’s voice, unusually soft and tender. The 
poor apprentice Jad shook like a leaf; before he 
was aware a strong arm came round behind him, 
lifting him from the floor. He found himself, 
as if by magic, sitting beside Harry, and Har¬ 
ry’s bright head resting on his bosom, with 
great tears rolling down the grateful boy’s 
cheeks. 
“If there’s anything you wish for now, 
Joseph,” said the farmer, huskily— “ any¬ 
thing you’d like to have, just name it, my boy. 
You have saved us many a year of sorrow, and 
given us cause to remember this Christmas be¬ 
fore all others. Come, speak out, my boy.” 
How could he speak, when he felt so happy? 
Twice he tried to gulp down the sobs rising 
in his throat, sobs of joy they were. “ Only be 
kind to me, sir,” he gasped out at length; 
“only drop a kind word now and then, for I 
ha’nt any mother like the rest.” 
How was it now with Farmer May ? He fel 
all at once what great lack there had been in 
his otherwise kindly heart. It quite broke him 
down, that appeal to his better nature; so he 
leaned on Mother May’s shoulder, and sobbed 
aloud. Joseph sat as if in a dream; his beauti¬ 
ful Christmas had come at last, no more hunger 
and thirsting of spirit now. How the joy¬ 
ous red sparks of fire light ran up the white 
wall, the whole room shining! Harry squeez¬ 
ing him tightly with one arm, and Tiny, her 
cheeks flushed with crying, thrusting her pret¬ 
ty doll into his lap. whispering, “ There, there I 
keep it, Joseph. I don’t want it, indeed, and 
double-deed. I don’t, and then running away in 
the corner, her face turned) to the wall, lest by 
looking back she might repent the immense 
sacrifice. 
Well—well, tears caunot always fast, and very 
soon the May family were bright and smiling 
again, Joseph the happiest of all. And when 
the Christmas dinner was set on. and all the 
friends were gathered about it, they made a 
place for Joe among the children; and Mother 
May could not heap his plate enough with the 
good things; and the poor lad felt as. if he were 
more ready to cry than to laugh, at all the 
kindly words which every one had for him. 
Oh, what a blessing there is often in a few 
kind words. 
The true test of the purity of our feeling is 
whether we are rejoiced to see another receive 
greater approbation than ourselves lor a better 
thing than ours. 
Let us be patient to live. Not that we 
should not have aspirations; but, till the flying 
time comes, let us brood contentedly upon oar 
nests. 
