AUTHORS AND PRINTERS 
SCIENTIFIC NOTES, 
CURING HAMS 
Written for Moore’s Rural New-Yorker. 
A SUNNY MEMORY. 
$ jAs to curing hams, doctors disagree. I be¬ 
lieve I have made as good hams as ever were 
eaten, by using C lbs. salt and 4 oz. saltpetre to 
100 lbs. pork, putting thesalt dry upon the meat, 
as soon as possible after it was dressed. We 
have also made excellent hams in a pickle made 
as follows: • 
Weigh the bams or shoulders and take 8 per 
cent, of the weight, that is, 8 lbs, per cwt. — of 
rock salt, and put it in a kettle of water and heat 
it, and skim off all the scum that will rise. Then 
add 1 quart of molasses, 2 lbs. of white sugar, 
lb. of salcratus, lb. saltpetre, lor 2 oz. allspice 
for 100 lbs. of meat. Boil all together and skim 
again, and let it cool, and pour it over the meat, 
adding water enough to cover it. 
To those who prefer sugar-cured hams we offer 
the following recipe: 
To cure a ham of 15 lbs. weight requires one lb. 
of good brown sugar, 2 oz. refined and ground 
saltpetre, % lb. of ground sea-salt. First appli¬ 
cation-saltpetre, and cover the face of tbe bam 
with sugar a quarter of an inch thick; on the 
fifth day rub the skin side with sugar. Second 
application—saltpetre and a mixture of three 
parts of sugar and one part, of salt; on the 
seventh day rub a6 before. Third application— 
half sugar aud half salt; in seven days rub as be- 
A VENERABLE TOAD. 
Most of your readers have no doubt beard 
sundry apocryphal stories of toads, who being 
in some antediluvian age accidentally embedded 
in the rock, retnse to make the same their mau¬ 
soleum, but insist on coming out at this late 
>y. 
1 “ Not like pale ghosts, or disembodied creatures, 
But with ail (heir bones, and limbs, and features." 
The latest story of the kind that I have heard, 
is told by the Leed’s “ Mercury,” England. 
The account is substantially as follows. The 
workmen engaged in the Hartlepool Water¬ 
works, recently found a toad embedded in a 
block of magnesium limestone, at a depth of 
twenty-five feet below the surface of the earth. 
The cavity In which ho had been confined was 
no larger than his body, and presented the ap¬ 
pearance of being a cast of it. The toad was full 
of vivacity on its liberation, but seemed to find 
some dillieulty in performing the process of res¬ 
piration. A minute examination ol this ant ique 
batrachian elicited the fact that its mouth was 
completely closed, and that a cert ain “ barking 
noise,” in which it indulged proceeded from the 
nostrils. The claws of the fore feet were turned 
inwards and the hind ones were of extraordinary 
length, and unlike those of the present En¬ 
glish toad. An eminent local geologist ventured 
the opinion that the animal must he at least six 
thousand years old. 
A MAMMOTH BRIDGE. 
An enormous bridge is now being constructed 
for the London and North-western Railway 
Company across the Mersey, between Runcorn 
and Liverpool. The bridge consists of three 
wrought-lron trellis girder openings, 805 feet in 
width each, and 75 feet above the level of the 
river at high water, thus permitting any vessel 
of ordinary size to pas6 under it. On the Lan¬ 
cashire, as well as on the Cheshire side of the 
river, the girders are supported by huge abut¬ 
ments crowned with castellated turrets, rising 
nearly forty feet above the railway level, whilst 
in the river the girders are supported by im¬ 
mense stone piers. Having passed the Mersey, 
the railway Is carried through the town of Run¬ 
corn by a viaduct of thirty-two arches. By 
this addition to the railway, eight miles are 
saved between Liverpool and London. 
ARTIFICIAL GEMS. 
A new artificial gem has of late become quite 
popular in Paris. It is a beautiful red-colored 
stone, called “ rubass.." When placed in ammo¬ 
nia the color departs. anff gem becomes a 
simple piece of rock crystal, it is aam to oe 
merely a piece of quartz, whose minute fissures 
are filled with a solution of carmine. M. Gannal, 
the French journals say, has succeeded in obtain¬ 
ing crystals having all the properties of the 
diamond, through the mutual reaction of phos¬ 
phorus, water, aud bisulphide of carbon on each 
otlierf These crystals cut glass, scratch the 
hardest steel, and in brilliancy and transparency 
are in no way interior to the best Jewels. 
A FOSSIL SPIDER. 
An English paper recently contained a de¬ 
scription of a fossil 6plder discovered by Professor 
F. Romer. The fossil was found in a piece of 
shale from the coal measures of Upper Silesia. 
The specimen is perfectly preserved, and shows 
the four pairs of feet with all their segments, the 
two palpi, and even the coriaceous integument of 
the body and tbe hairs attached to the feet. 
Spiders liave not hitherto been found in any 
rockB older than the Jurassic, but by thi6 
discovery their presence in Paleozoic rocks is 
proved. w - M - 
If life’s a journey—as we see 
’Tis indeed by many a token— 
Oh, then, I trow, the road will be 
Not always smooth or always broken. 
But march we over rngged stone, 
Or march we over trodden gravel, 
With friends around ue, or alone. 
We must keep moving on onr t ravel. 
Tramp, tramp, when skies are fair, 
Tramp, tramp, when storms are blowing: 
If we find 
We lag behind, 
A steadfast heart will keep us going. 
Many a path will seem more plain, 
Many a knave will lie and cozen; 
But hold thine own with might and main, 
And keep t he track that thon hast chosen. 
It’s in the light and in the dark, 
It’s over hill aud through the hollow; 
We’ll fix onr eyes upon the mark, 
And if we cannot lead, we’ll follow. 
Tramp, tramp, when skies are fair. 
Tramp, tramp, when storms are blowing; 
If onr strength 
Should fail at length, 
A stead Tast heart will keep us going. 
The horseman and the charioteer 
Go hastening by with mighty clatter; 
God speed them all! and if they jeer 
The tramps afoot, what doeB it matter ? 
Grudge them not the present hour, 
Nor faint and murmur like a craven, 
For when the day ba6 lost its power*; 
There is for all a common haven. 
Tramp, tramp, when skies are fair, 
Tramp, tramp, when storms are blowing; 
As the light 
Dies down to-night, 
A steadfast heart will keep ns going. 
{Cased's Family Paper 
Good-Night 1 
’Twas a little word and softly spoken, 
But it fell from a mother's lips, 
And that little word, its charm unbroken, 
From memory never slips. 
Good-Night 1 
’Twas a simple word and softly said,— 
But it came with a sweet caress; 
And the love it woke in my youthful heart 
Can never, no, never grow less! 
Good-Night! 
’Tis a tender word, and 1 hear it now, 
Tho’ the years are loDg aud sad 
Since it left me, a joyous aud happy child. 
With thoughts that were always glad. 
Good-Night I 
The twilight around me in purple mists 
FallB from the far-off skies; 
And once attain in a blissful dream 
I may look in a mother’s eyes: 
Good-Night! 
Yes 1 once again at the slill night-fall, 
I may hear that tender word 
That since that sntnmer, so long ago, 
I have never, oh, never heard! 
up till midnight to correct bad orthography ana 
worse punctuation. I have seen the arguments 
of lawyers, in high repute as scholars, sent to the 
printer, in their own hand-writing, with many 
words—especially technical and foreign terms 
abbreviated, words mis spelled, and few or no 
points, and those few, il there were auy, en¬ 
tirely out of place. I bave seen the sermons of 
divines sent to press without points or capitals 
to designate tbe divisions of sentences—sermons 
which, if published with the imperfections of 
the manuscript, would disgrace the printer’s 
devil, if he were the author. Suppose they had 
been printed; the printer would have been treat¬ 
ed with scorn and contempt—as an illiterate 
blockhead—a fellow better fitted to lie a wood- 
sawyer than a printer. Nobody would have be¬ 
lieved such gross and palpable faults were owing 
to tbe ignorance or carelessness ol an author. 
And no one but a practical printer knows bow 
many hours the compositor, aud after him the 
proof reader, is compelled to spend reducing 
to a readable condition manuscripts that the 
writer himself would be puzzled to read.” 
This, in whole or in part, will apply to at 
least two-thirds of the writers lor the press. 
Genius is too apt to consider itself too good to 
be troubled with the labor of finishing its work, 
notwithstanding it is the finishing hand that 
gives the master stroke. But too frequently, 
however, it is not laziness, it is ignorance that 
compels writers to leave their performances half 
done. Many who have something ot a reputa¬ 
tion as authors can neither punctuate, spell, nor 
write grammatically'—to say nothing of their 
sprawling penmanship. And as might be ex¬ 
pected, these are generally the ones to find the 
most fault, and put on the moat disgusting airs 
—we 6fty disgusting, because they are so to all 
sensible men, but those who assume them think 
them dignified! It is no small annoyance to 
have anything to do with such characters—and 
we have sometimes wished it was a penal offence 
to correct an author’s manuscript. But we sup¬ 
pose we shall always be bothered with the stupid¬ 
ity of the wise.— Exchange. 
FEMININE TOPICS 
The person who declared that there was a 
“ skeleton in every house,” probably had refer¬ 
ence to hoop 6kirts: and he might have said 
there were several skeletons—according to the 
number of females over two years of age—in 
every house. 
A fellow in Cleveland, named George W. 
Smith, stole a guitar from a young lady board¬ 
ing at the same house he did; was arrested with 
the Instrument in his hand ; was committed to 
prison; has since "got religion” and been vis¬ 
ited by the young lady prosecutor, and they are 
going to be married. 
To prevent the frequency of “ breach of prom¬ 
ise” cases in the English court, a bill will soon 
be introduced into parliament, enacting that a 
promise of marriage, to be held binding, so that 
the breach of it shall constitute a ground of ac¬ 
tion, must be given in writing, and attested by 
two competent witnesses. 
A German servant girl fell out of a third story 
window, in Cleveland, O., the other day, and 
would have been killed, had not a gentleman 
caught her in his arms. 
She asked him if 'wasn’t ashamed of him- 
anA film to be off “with his inper- 
. * M W 
Unonow.” 
A celebrated Earl of Chesterfield, in the lat¬ 
ter part of Hie life, called upon Mrs. Ann Pitt, 
the sister of Lord Chatham, and complained of 
his bad health, and hie incapacity to exert his 
mind properly. “ I fear,” said he, “that I am 
growiug an old woman.” 
“I am glad, ol it, my Lord,” she answered; 
“I was afraid yon were growing an old man, 
which yon know is a much worse thing.” 
Mr. Good, who is actively engaged collecting 
a list of the names of the dead on Antietam 
battle-field, and other information for the use 
ol the trustees, has discovered that a woman 
acting as a Union soldier in uniform was killed 
in that great battle. We have not learned her 
name or residence, but presume Mr. Good has 
all the information by which her friends will be 
able to identify her remains. 
The growth of grace in the heart may be com¬ 
pared to tbe process of polishing metals. First 
you have a dark, opaque substance, neither pos¬ 
sessing nor reflecting light. Presently, as the 
polisher plies his work, you will see here and 
there a spark darting out, then a strong light; 
till, by and by, it sends back a perfect image of 
tbe sun which shines upon it. So the work of 
grace, if begun In our hearts, must be gradually 
and continually going on; and it will not he 
completed till the image of God can be seen 
perfectly reflected in us. 
A roUNO lady once presented me with a book¬ 
mark, having the inscription, “ God bless you,” 
and exacted a promise that i’ should be placed 
in my 
will absorb it. Saturate the ham with sugar as 
you would in preserving fruit; the salt is only 
to flavor it; for hams intended for boiling, aud 
which require more salt, you may use salt ac¬ 
cording to your judgment, and gain more time. 
The ham is now cured, and for purposes of 
boiling it will be found delicious. 
One word more about the special advantage of 
curing with sugar; fat cured with salt is repul¬ 
sive to weak stomachs, consequently a large 
portion is trimmed off hams intended for the 
American market that in England is always 
retained, for two reasons—economy and pre¬ 
serving the juices. Sto.machs that reject lat 
when salted, find it palatable when cured with 
sugar .—Solon Robinson. 
How to make Bcgkwubat Cakes. —The sea¬ 
son lor buckwheat cakes has arrived. A writer 
in the American Agriculturist recommends the 
following method for making cakes:—“The 
finest, toiulerest cakoa can be made by mlding a 
little uubolted wheat (or Graham) Hour to tnu 
buckwheat. Less than a quarter will do. Mix 
„i,l» wM tfuw. M.uh, Mk iicali (not sweet) butter¬ 
milk, which is best. The soda (emptyings are 
dispensed with,) when put in cold water, will 
not act satisfactorily. Bake at once. The heat 
will start the effervescence, and as the paste 
rises it will bake, thus preventing It from fall¬ 
ing. Hence tbe culminating point of ligbtnoss 
is attained. The batter rises snowy and beauti¬ 
ful, and the pancake will swell to almost undue 
dimensions, absolutely tbe lightest and tender- 
"est that can be baked, with.not a toueh of acid. 
More sail, however, must be added than usual, 
to counteract the too fresh taste, when soda 
alone is used. Thus the bother of emptyings is 
all dispensed with. Pancakes in this way can 
HOW LOUIS NAPOLEON BECAME PRESI 
DENT. 
SLIGHTLY INCONGRUOUS. 
DcooaUer number of “ Hooks <>i Home ” 
contains a very interesting article, by Col. J. G. 
Wilson, on “Fere La Chaise the noted ceme¬ 
tery of Paris. The author, in his travels, has 
picked up an epitaph which illustrates the strug¬ 
gles between grief and commercial enterprise. 
It is from “Fere La Chaise:" 
“ To tbe memory of M. Jobekt, 
A most excellent husband. 
Uis inconsolable widow still carries on 
The Grocery Business in the Hue St. Denis, 
No. 242.” 
The two following obituaries are from Rot¬ 
terdam : 
“To-day died our much esteemed friend, Mr.- 
at tbe age of 3D years. K. W. H. Van -. 
August 7,1S6-. R. L. Van-. 
N. B .—Due •notice will be given of the re-opening of 
the Medical Glass Shop." 
“It Has pleased Almighty God to deprive me and 
mine by death of my beloved marriage-partner, - 
-, at tbe ace of nearly 47 years, L-. 
August 9,186-. Widow-. 
p. s,_ The business will be carried on upon the same 
jirlndples as before." 
We sincerely hope that the above gratuitous 
advertisements will not carry custom to these 
enterprising people. 
A Good Pickle for Hams.— Our correspond¬ 
ent who wants “a recipe for pickle for hams,” 
is answered as follows:—To 1 gallon water take 
\y. lbs. of salt, M Jb. of sugar, K oz. of salt¬ 
peter, ><; oz. potash. lu this ratio the pickle to 
be increased to any quantity desired. Let these 
be boiled together, until all the dirt from the 
sugar rises to the top and is skimmed off. Then 
throw it into a tub to cool, and when cold pour 
it over your beef or pork, to remain tbe usual 
time, say four or five weeks. The meat must be 
well covored with pickle, and should not be put 
down for at least two days after killing, during 
which time it should bo slightly sprinkled with 
powdered saltpeter, which removes all the sur 
face blood, Ac., leaving the meat fresh and 
clean.— N. Y, Tribune. 
ICE MANUFACTORY IN NEW ORLEANS 
CHANCE CHIPS, 
He that loves himself has only one joy; he that 
loves his neighbors has many. 
Mental Abstraction— stealing the ideas of 
another, and fancying them your own. 
Mi en adversity is requisite to make us hate 
life; a beckon from prosperity will recall this 
hatred instantly. 
Of all monarebs, Nature is the most just in 
the enactment of laws, and the sternest in pun¬ 
ishing the violation of them. 
To take events cheerfully, and to promote 
tbe happiness of others, is the way to insure an 
enduring spring of existence. 
Pleasure is a ball that a child runs after so 
long as it keeps rolling, but which he kicks 
away from him the moment it stops. 
When fame is regarded as the end, aud merit 
as only the means, men are apt. to dispense with 
the latter, if the former can be hud without It. 
An Irishman, on being asked which was the 
oldest, he or his brother, replied, “ I am the old¬ 
est, but if my brother lives three years, weshall 
be both of au age.” 
“ Pa ” said a little boy to his father, “has ma 
got beesin her mouth V ” “ No, my son, why do 
you ask?” “ ’Cause Capt. Jones caught bold 
Faithful to my promise, I 
took it home, and rubbing fnra the lids of my 
Bible the dust of a week, I phecd it in tbe first 
chapter of Mathew, and daily read a chapter, 
and changed its place. 1 had not read long be¬ 
fore I became Interested as 1 hud never been 
before in the good book ; and I saw hi it; tho truth 
that I was a sinner, and must repent if 1 would 
be saved. I then promised Gjd that I would 
seek his face at tho earliest opjortunity, and, if 
he saw fit to convert my soul, tint 1 would spend 
my life In Mb cause. It came; S iought his face, 
and received tbe smiles of his file; and now I 
have hope within me, “ big with Immortality;" 
and all do I attribute to that bookjraark and the 
grace of God.— Ex. 
Talleyrand was once iu tbd company ol 
Madam do 8tael and another crament French 
lady whose name we do not remciiber. “ You 
say charming things of both ol u ,* said Madam 
rip. fttuel t o him. “ which of us do yoo like best ?” 
Codfish, Egg-Sauce.— A fresh eoutisn 
into slices; put into a pan with water to cover 
it, and set on the range to cook until done. 
For the egg-Bnuce, take one tea-spoonful of but¬ 
ter, the same of flour, and mix aver the fire. 
Add half a gill of warm milk, one gill of warm 
water, salt to taste; stir constantly while cook¬ 
ing ; let it boil up once. The yolk of one egg 
then broken into a dish aud the butter, Ac., 
poured slowly over it, stirring at the same time; 
place on the fire and boil up once. The fish is 
now placed on a dish, aud the sauce strained 
over it. One egg boiled hard and chopped fine 
is placed on top of the fish. This is a very nice 
dish.___ 
1’ot age with Pumfkin. —Cut vp about oue- 
niwiith of a small nutnpkin in thir slices aud put 
left hand to Madam yonder 
An illiterate persop, who always volunteered 
to “ go round wit.h the hat,” but was suspected 
of sparing Ms own pocket, overhearing once a 
hint to that effect, replied, “Other gentlemen 
puts down what they thinks proper, aud bo do 
1. Charity’s a private concern, and what I give 
is ‘nothing to nobody.’ ” 
pose only one of us could be saved, WMch would 
you attempt to rescue?” Talleyrand's diplo- 
sultiug from the latent combustion oi an immi- 
tesinial and supererogatory vicissitude, Chron- 
onhotonthologos can lie sympathetically inocu 
luted with that perpendicular quintessence which 
is directly resolvable into the semidiametrical 
imponderability of Abracadabra. ’ 
nutcy was pushed to its severest test but not 
one whit discomposed, hc> turned to Madam de 
stael, aud replied “ Madam, you know so many 
things you doubtless know how to swim.” 
To Ci/he THE Sting of a Bee.—R ub t 
stung with a wet cloth and apply indigo. 
