i AijjUKJUS J.JN LIFE. 
r [Concluded from page 150, this number.] 
Without pausing for a reply, \hey found them¬ 
selves in a humble dwelling where a man lay 
stretched upon a dying bed, around whom was 
gathered a group ofmouruing children to receive 
his last farwell. None of the children were old 
enough to work except a girl of seventeen, who 
seemed to be the eldest sister, and who took 
upon herself the household cares and duties. 
“ Oh, what Bhall we do if father dies 1” cried one 
of the younger members of the group. “God 
will provide for us, dear Nbttik, do not cry,” j 
rejoined the other, chocking back her own tears 
in the vain endeavor to soothe the child. 
“But how will he do it? We have no older 
brother and nobody but you to work for us and 
get us bread,” 
“Nettie,” said a young mechanic standing i 
beside the bed, who had come iu to watch with | 
the dying man, and aid the family as well as he i 
could in their extremity, “ I will be your older 
brother; and while I can earn a crust of bread • 
you and your little brothers and sisters shall 
have their part." 
The sufferer, who up to this time was lying 
in an apparent stupor, seemed to recover full 
consciousness at the generous speech. JJ?He 
reached toward his eldest daughter; taking her 
hand and placing it unresisting in that of'the 
young mau, his own dropped powerless by his 
side, and his soul tobk its immediate departure 
upon the returnless journey. 
“A failure in life for that young man ; ” re¬ 
marked the spirit. “He might have married I 
the daughter of his employer who loves him and | 
would have made him rich. True, he will aid I 
this poor family in becoming honorable uud | 
worthy members of society, and be the means | 
under God of bringing them all at last within , 
the fold ol the Good Shepherd; but then he has 
lost the opportunity of becoming a great manu¬ 
facturer and a millionaire. This is the same 
young mau who when a boy lost the prize at 1 
school, and who mended the beggar’s crutch.” 
Time sped on. The same humble roof that 
sheltered the dying mau with his helpless brood, 
had become the homo of the young [mechanic, 
with the eldest, daughter as his wife; but the 
other children had grown up and scattered up 
aud down the land, each reared by them to an 
honorable and Independent manhood; but au- ( 
other unfledged brood who called, him; fart her, 
and his gentle wife mother, had succeeded to j 
the old and weather beaten nest, and happy i 
they were in their parents’ and each other’s ! 
love. But times were] hard, and .streuuous 
exertions had to be put forth to feed their ! 
callow young, and the mother, none of the 
strongest at any time, was over-tasked with 
her domestic cares. 
“JENNY," said the father as he came in one 
evening, followed by a poorly dressed young 1 
German girl in evident distress, and unable to 
speak or understand a wdrd of English, “ I have j 
brought, you homo some help.” The wife look- | 
ed up with a countenance expressive of doubt | 
at the wisdom of the selection, but made no 
comment at the time. “ Give the poor girl some 
supper and a place to sleep,” continued the hus¬ 
band, “ for she is sadly In need of both.” 
When the necessities of the girl had been sup¬ 
plied, with a kindly spirit that soothed her grief 
and lighted up her countenance like a ray of 
sunlight, and when she and the children had 
been put to bed, the story of their humble 
guest was told. She had started with her father 
and mother and a party of emigrants from their 
German home, intending to settle in Wisconsin. 
The mother had died of ship fever on the long 
passage, and the father with his child had reach¬ 
ed this city, so far on their long journey, in the 
night; when the farther, stepping off the train 
in the darkness, fell into the race-way from a 
railless bridge and was drowned. The girl 
waited over, friendless and alone, looking in 
vain for her protector, until he was dragged a 
day or two after, half a mile below, from a grist 
mill flume. A coroner’s jury hastily summoned 
decided it a ease of accidental drowning, with¬ 
out any recommendation of indictment against 
a soulless railroad monopoly for keeping sueh a 
death trap ready set for friendless strangers. 
The young girl was left wandering around the 
depot, bewildered and despairing, and when res¬ 
cued by the narrator, was just falling iuto the 
toils of two miscreants, tenders to a devil’s mill 
that grinds the souls of destitute and despairing 
women to eternal death. 
“A foolish act. to assume this extra burden,” 
remarked the spirit; “ has he not euough to do 
already without encumbering himself with what 
the poor-house might have taken?” But as he 
spoke the time seemed passing, and the girl grew 
up to womanhood under the care and instrue- i 
'ion oi her self-constituted guardians, repaying i 
Uicin in greatful service forull their sacrifices in I , 
her behalf, until at length, virtuous and happy, 
she was married under the most favorable auspt 
Cflfi ; to 11 thriving young German farmer, who 
resided and owned a market garden iu the out¬ 
skirts of the city. 
And thus they passed from scene to scene aloug 
the good man’s earthly pilgrimage, observing : 
SPRING HAS C O M E ~ Y M _A Y SONG. 
_ Not too Slow. _ 
~3— *—# *—j~ 
*=fc=fc±=±= 
1. Ban-ish sad - ness, 
aSEEi 
j_ r I r 
sing with glad-neas; Mu-sic from a thou-sand rills, Ligkt-ly trip-ping, Gai-ly skip-ping, Gush-es ont a - mong the hills. 
2. Birds are sing-ing, 
na - ture springing. Beams with beai-ty, teems with health: See! the ze-phyrs’ wings are span-gled With the or-chard’s 
Z2—Z3L 
# j _ 
"#~r 
— 
_ 
m 
3. Through the heath-er, haste to - ge - ther, Singing of the new-born day, While the snowy buds are glisf zing, 
the ros 
s snowy wealth. 
1 *• * m i- 
mists of May 
* 
a 
[ W T_ i 
Through the din-gle, 
7-%9 - 9 - 9~0- 
Ma - pie boughs and 
J_ 
jin-gle; 
lim-pid chor-us swells! From the hill-side 
for-est. 
chime of matin bells. 
t=ri —r->~ : 
r~j —w & 
tas - sel’d wil-lows Wake to weave the earth a crown: Sun-beams o’er the 
raid clusters, Cast their golden tribute down. 
m 
diamond - crest 
blossoms; Loud your choicest welcome sing! 
tok-en 
weeping 
Tears of joy to 
# '# * r 
greet the spring. 
lojrifs. 
NEW ENGLAND VILLAGES FORTY YEARS 
AGO. 
1 hirty or forty years ago there lay scattered 
about our Southern New Englaud a great many 
quiet, inland towns, numbering from a thousand 
■ to two or three thousand inhabitants, which 
boasted a little old-fashioned “society” of their 
' own—which had their important men who 
! were heirs to some snug country property, and 
their gambrel-roofed houses, odorous with tradi¬ 
tions of old-t ime visits by some worthies of ttu 
| colonial period or of the Revolution. The good, 
prim damee, in starched caps and spectacles, 
who presided over such houses, were proud of 
their tiny parlors, of their old India china, of 
their beds of thyme and sage in the garden, of 
their big, family Bible with brazen clasps, and, 
most times, of their minister. 
One Orthordox Congregational Society ex¬ 
tended its benignant patronage over all the 
people of such a town; or, if a stray Episcopalian 
or Seven-Day Baptist were here and there living 
under the wing of the parish, they were regarded 
with ti 6crene and stately gravity, as necessary 
exceptions to the law of Divine Providence, like 
scattered instances of red hair or of bow legs in 
otherwise well favored families. 
There were no wires stretching over the 
country to shock the nerves of the good gossips 
with the thought that their neighbors knew 
blade of the monarch of the plains, when his 
horse stepped into a gopher hole, throwing the 
rider almost under the heels of the buffalo. 
Luckily the captaiu fell on the fleshy part of his 
back and sustained no injury. As the bull 
passed over him, he caught the animal by the 
fore hoof, and springing to Ills feet, drew his 
knife and threw himself on the bull’s neck, 
holding on to the long shaggy hair which 
adorns the head and shoulders of the masculine 
members of the bison family. His situation 
was not one of the most agreeable j for the bull, 
Hsjfttl, Jmmtiiic, vie. 
Written for Moore’s Rural New-Yorker. 
THE AX. 
The common or narrow Ax of the chopper, 
that simple wedge of iron and steel, when wield¬ 
ed by the power of the human muscle, becomes 
the agent — the primum mobile — of the spread 
aud westward march of the Pilgrims of Plymouth 
HOW TO COUNT RAIN DROPS. 
The Paris correspondent of the Chemical 
News states that M. Serve Mangon proposes to 
count the drops in a shower of rain in a very 
simple way. For this purpose he impregnates a 
paper 3creen with sulphate of iron, and faces it 
with a mixture of very tlnely-powdered nutgall 
and gum sandarac. Drops of water falling on 
this screen will make a black spot. If now the 
screen be placed on a drum which makes a com¬ 
plete revolution in twenty-four hours, succes- 
not liking the familiarity of his acquaintance, I to *he en dless west the want courier of lively exposing parts of the screen to the rain, 
acquaint 
endeavored to impale him upon on rof his horns. 
The captain avoided b-dt 1-frns of the 
dilemma, and, being a man of immense physical 
power, held fast, and did not relinquish his 
grip. For the space of ten miuutes he held fast, 
horns civilization—an important agent in creating this 
great, mighty and universal x an Kee Nation.'Pos¬ 
sessing the potentiality of dispensing life, liberty 
and happiness to countless thousands — more 
powerful than wind or wave or steam—the wild¬ 
erness of forests disappear before it 60 rapidly 
the boll meantime tanun* to tmUo the ^ of aa , tree ^ hccl 
nb 8 of bla tormentor. After waftxtog with h» t ot th)) frightened, retreating lndian-pre- 
hrteute partner nnt,l the an.rna .bowed signs of tte „ surf d „ ce neede4 
fatlgne and thrust out abont two yards of Iu. frnlu ot tt(J soil ttroTOta tte ^ 
tongue, the captain seized the bull by the nose , A > . 
with one hand, and catching one of his horns 0 ] < j^ 0r( j 
with the other, gave a sudden twist aud flipped a ; m 
the buffalo over on his side. By this time, some wg . .. { 
of the men, seeing the predicament their leader iQ t 
was in, came up and offered assistance, bnt the ))Ut om . 
captain told them to keep back, as he thought 
he could hold his own. The bull straggled most, 
violently, but the giant Mlnnesotiun held his ^ bardlv 
head down, and in a short time 9ent his knife 'with 
into the monster’s jugular, and the bull gave up Eur u 
the ghost. The contest lasted about 20 miuutes, the Fnc-lia 
emigrant and feed the starving millions of the 
more than they. There were no heathenism of and was the most scientific set-to that has takes 
wim mi hci protector, uum ne was dragged a the cities, no ten-pins, uo traveling circus, no 
duj or two after, half a mile below, lrom a grist progressive young men of heretical tendencies, 
mill flume. A coroner’s jury hastily summoned Such towns were as quiet as a sheepfold. Saun- 
dccided it a case of accidental drowning, with- tering down their broad central street, aloug 
out an} lecommendation ot Indictment against which all the houses were clustered with a some- 
a soulless railroad monopoly for keeping such a what dreary uniformity of aspect, one might, of 
death trap ready set for friendless strangers, a summer’s day, hear the rumble of the town 
The young girl was left wandering around the mill in some adjoining valley, busy with the 
* epot, bewildered and despairing, and when res- town grist; in autumn, the flip-flap of the flails 
1 m j l , t * K imnulor - was Just falling into tho came pulsiug on the ear from half a score of 
toi s o two miscreants, tenders to a devil’s mill wide-open barns that yawued with plenty ; and 
t rnt grinds the souls of destitute and despairing in winter the clang of axes on the near hills 
women to eternal death. smote sharply upou the frosty stillness, and 
A foolish act to assume this extra burden,” would be straightway followed by the boom- 
remarked the spirit; “ has he not enough to do ing crash of some great tree.— Donald G. Mltchcl. 
already without encumbering himself with what __ 
iUe poor-house might have taken ?” But as he I AN EXPLOIT ON THE PLAINS, 
spoke the time seemed passing, and the girl grew ( _ 
UOh of'hr,‘!,l!;“t U , D f’T.f ° “I? j A COMMISSION is MOW to KUloil to St LOUta 
Uisui iii i.r 'V 'nil I fqr toe examination of quartermasters in the 
IS.htuflu “m ” r‘",' tor “T“ c “ 1 .my.fouchin,their,n.uLtlons, Ac. Antong 
s . 1 eugt i. tritirons and happy, | the oltlcers summoned before title examining 
« r r*' ‘“f' *«*. '• Capt J. E. MeCusiek, A. Q. M. £ 
re.i .1 t imin S toting t.erman farmer, who Fort Wadsworth, Dakota Territory, a resident 
S” ofTheritv “ * a "‘“ iU Stillwater, Minn. Fort Wadsworth fs on the 
.a- Coteau river, near latitude 4ti, aud is a beautiful 
the ft. i i poss.'t ioniffct-iu'to scene aloug place in tho summer time. Itis a ucstof beauti- 
inaiivtfr r " Ul , V'. irt i' * U ’■' Ullia ~ t> ' observing f u ; takes, and its site was chosen by Capt. Me 
resulfr i lni, t o" conscience sake, that Cusick, who is familiar with that region of 
the 11,1 ,t( i Ut uty " apparent loss, until couutry, having huuted Iudians and buffaloes 
toge£ r the dawning day ijamo in over Smdreds of miles of it. 
“ Mv ft. , • , Some three or four months ago, Capt. Me 
time and mission are well n urh ended •» ^ • ■ * . ...... 
said u , i, tuaLa > Cusick went out with a scouting party to look 
Whtto W ., ,‘ S , T * WU °" MfU Ihdlmts, bnt lsiling to discover In, signs 
» 0( ”’ 0 t0,) l " ! tllru> ' J h “ “ u ™ uc, “ to 
t orded l.iy the angels! Know, oh young man, a lu ' rd of about two hundred buffaloes that were 
c.,, d (U ,|, li6 career is the one which you iu your grazing, rolling, pawing and bellowing on the 
'» ^ W tfortu. 
i 11 ‘V ft-'vIlttR akin lo I.. ,„\X. chamer, and armed with a Smith's earhlue, he 
Ik! ' . I’crct'tle the breast oi au Immortal, should t,1;U * e a cbl ®h at tho herd, aud succeeded in over- 
cessea wv.^i ° f hift , , aUuri ‘?’ tLa11 if . hl the sue- hauling a lazy old bull weighing about 2,000 
thetoS'' 1 ' SeS“l;S!kto* 7* *®» di « uiu -' 1 i »«»» c “ l - 
the v U,gKllu . P eerod bright and cheerful iuto tbo vul S ar ber ^ 01 hows, yearlings and younger 
hiirhftp chamber, and he arose with hulls of the drove. Leveling his carbiue he was 
uo j or views ol human life, preparing to lodge a bullet iu the shoulder 
place in Dakota for many a day. The victor cut 
off the bull's head, had it dried, aid sent it to 
Stillwater as a trophy. 
The fame of this exploit reached the ears ot 
the Indians, who were told that the e was a chief 
among the pale faces who would whip a buffalo 
in a fair fist tight. On learning th-se facts, Red 
Feather, a famous chief in Dakota marched his 
tribe to Fort Wadsworth aud sn rendered his 
whole band to Capt. MeCusiek. I e said he did 
not believe the story of the white man knock¬ 
ing a bull down with his list, but when he saw 
the brawny captain, be said it might be so.— St. 
Louie Democrat. 
CLOCKS. 
The precise period at which clocks were invent¬ 
ed has formed the subject of much ontroversy. 
Various maohiues were doubtless employed at 
a very remote date for the purpose of measuring 
time, but the most aucient clock made upon 
principles similar to the clocks of he present 
day was constructed by Henry De Wyck, a Ger¬ 
man artist, in 1364, and placed by lilrn iu the 
tower of the palace of Charles V ot France. It 
struck the hours, but did not record so small a 
portion of time as miuutes. 
Cloekmukers were first introduced into Eng¬ 
laud in 13t>>\ when Edward III grautil a license 
to three of these artists to come over rom Delft, 
in Holland, and practise their oeeupa ion in this 
country. The earliest portable clock of which 
any account has been given, is one dated 1525, 
made bv Jacob Lech, of Prague; soim years ago 
it was in the possession of a dockmaker of Lon¬ 
don. The oldest Euglish clock extaui is said to 
be ono In a turret of Hainptou Court PUace, con¬ 
structed in the year 1540, by a maker whose 
initials are N. O. 
■- r ----- 
Wuex the tongue is sileut and dares not speak, 
there may be a look, a gesture, au iuuendo, that 
stabs like the stiletto, and is more fatal than the 
poison of the aspic. 
This simple instrument —this inert mass, not 
weighing five pounds, that can be handled by a 
child, in the hands of an expert woodman is all 
but omnipotent. 
The American Ax, as now produced, is one of 
the most perfect implements in the world, and 
can hardly be over improved; and when com¬ 
pared with that queer contrivance now used in 
Europe, not unike an Indian tomahawk, sinks 
the English Ax into utter insignificance. 
An English lady traveling by railroad in this 
country, says in one of her letters, that she met 
with no little occurrence that astonished her 
more than the power residing in the Ax. While 
passing through a thickly wooded piece of road, 
the train was suddenly brought to a stop by a 
large tree that hud blown across the track; she 
looked at it with horror. She supposed the de¬ 
lay of removing snch a mass of timber would 
detain her beyond the time of the sailing of the 
packet ship, for which she had no time to spare; 
but what was her astonishment when one of the 
passengers of very gentlemanly appearance, threw 
off his tine coat and hat, stepped on the tree 
with an Ax, and in leas than five minutes called 
all bauds to wheel round one half of the tree and 
free the track, and in a minute more they were 
making thirty miles an hour. “ Truly,” she 
says, “the Ax in an American’s hand is an in¬ 
stitution worth looking at.” 
There is some skill required,as W’ell as strength, 
to exhibit the full power of the Ax. The cutting 
of two or three cords of wood is accounted a 
day’s work, but there are those that have cut 
their six cords of body wood. 
Ono of the exploits of woodcraft, is in a 
thickly treed forest to fall a windrow, by cutting 
the trees half or more down, on one side of a 
strip two rods in width and twenty rods in length, 
more or less, and when the wind is right, cutting 
doww the last trees, which, falling on tho others, 
all go dowu in a general crash, in proper shape 
and order to be burned aud got rid of. 
There has been some discussion and conjec¬ 
tures relative to the absolute force, iu pounds, 
that the Ax in a chopper’s hands impiuges upon 
the wood at a single stroke.—that is, as to how 
many pounds weight, resting on the head of the 
Ax, would force it into a stick of wood of an 
equal depth. Without coming to any definite 
conclusion, yet from a rather rude experiment, 
arrived at by means of leverage, it is estimated 
that the weight required is more than two thou¬ 
sand pounds, whioh is probably not far from 
the truth <j. a. d. 
*a.» •»£• me snower ana me numoer or 
drops will be clearly indicated by the black spots; 
and the time, the space of paper exposed at each 
moment, and the area covered by the shower 
being known, the rest becomes a simple arith¬ 
metical operation. The apparatus can also be 
arranged to show the direction of the fall, and, 
also, it is said, to determine the weight of the 
drops. 
Ccraw fer tb* fffliiitg. 
For Moore's Rural New-Yorker. 
MISCELLANEOUS ENIGMA. 
I am eompo&cd of 30 letters. 
My 18, T, 4 is a beverage. 
My T, 3, 3 la a rebel General. 
My 16, 8, 5, 3, 4, 20 la a mineral. 
My 9, 8,19,1.13 are the organs of respiration. 
My 14, 4, 9, 9 is to dispose of. 
My 17,10,3 is a kind of grain. 
My 90. IS, 16 ie part of a harness. 
My 15,8, 20, 7, 4,17 5s one who sells to soldiers. 
My 11, 2,18 is a large body of water. 
My whole is the rank and name of an officer in the 
Union army. 
Henrietta, N. Y. L. S. Jones. 
dy Answer in two weeks. 
For Moore's Rural New-Yorker. 
A PUZZLE. 
Forward and backward ’tis the same, 
The live letters read a noun by name— 
Or adjective, as it may be. 
Omit the first, also the last 
And there again a noun we see 
That forward and back is the same, 
And which will spell our mother's name. 
Courtland. Mich. 
Gustie M. Thompson. 
Answer in two weeks. 
For Moore’s Rural New-Yorker. 
AN ANAGRAM. 
Hwo dsia tath het rtsas no oro rbnaen ewre mdi— 
Thta rtlhe rlyog dha dfead yawa f 
Kolo pa dna delboh! who tbhrgl ghnroht heea dolf 
Ythe ear gftiliahs nad gsnimli yt-aod 1 
Enon Valley, Pa. a. d. p. t. 
Pgr- Answer in two weeks. 
ANSWER TO ENIGMAS, &c., IN No. 797. 
Answer to Illustrated Rebus: —I ouce saw a combat 
between an aligator ami a bear, and the aligator was 
defeated. 
Answer to Miscellaneous Euigma: — Let all yonr 
things be done with charity. 
Answer to Geographical Decapitations:—Po, Clarke, 
Hague, Iceland, Sable, Davis, Block, Staten. 
Answer to Anagram; 
Do not linger with regretting. 
Or for passing hours despond; 
Nor, the daily toil forgetting. 
Look too eagerly beyond. 
