llUMIlMflW 
Written for Moore's Sural New-Yorker 
“THE TEACHER’S PROFESSION.” 
UNITED STATES PRESIDENTS. 
Written for Moore's Rural New-Yorker, 
CONTRASTS OF THE OLD YEAR. 
Great Wabiiinoton was number one ; 
Then Senator Adams next canto on. 
Jefferson made the number three— 
Then Madison, the fourth was he. 
Monroo the fifth to him succeeds ; 
And sixth the Jnnior Adams leads. 
Then soventh. Andrew Jackson came; 
And eighth, wo count Van Duron's name 
Then Harrison made number nine— 
And tenth, John Tyler filled the line. 
Polk was the eleventh, aa we know, 
The twelfth was Taylor In the row. 
Fillmore, the thirteenth, took his placc- 
And Pierce, was fourteenth lu the race. 
Buchanan, the fifteenth is seen; 
Then Lincoln, aa sixteenth, came in. 
Johnson, the seventeenth and last. 
Still lives to close the illustrious past. 
Now let us stop until we see 
Who our next President will be. 
Friend Rural: — An article with the above 
heading appears in your issue c/f the 6th nit. I 
am sorry to see a man writing Professor to his 
name, take such an unworthy view of the teach¬ 
ers* profession. “I assert” he says, “that no 
man, unless he die young, has any call or busi¬ 
ness to be a common school teacher all hie days.' 
So much for the assertion And now let us see 
to the arguments sustaining it, as advanced by 
our Profeasor. He admits that teaching is a 
splendid discipline for a few years, but tkata 
young man soon finds mental stimulus lost and 
gets “ into a 7x1) t readmill and begins to grind,” 
I am ready to admit that when mental stimulus 
is lost, the young man ought cither to secure a 
Professorship or do something else to get him¬ 
self out of the 6chooI-room. If he does not 
“ educational boards and the public will most 
assuredly desire to get rid of them,” and it is 
no subject wonder that they do so. 
But it is a matter of doubt, If this be the case, 
and a teacher leaves his desk, because he feels 
that he has learned it all and feels no mental 
stimulus, whether he will succeed long at any 
thing else, unless he secures a situation as pro¬ 
fessor. The sooner the profession is rid of such 
wiseacres, the better for all concerned. I deny 
that teaching does lose its mental stimulus after 
a few years. No one of our common school 
studies lias been systematized to perfection or 
anything like it. If It were so, indolent teach¬ 
ers would find some excuse. But as It Is, no 
teacher who feels anything like a desire to do 
his whole duty to those committed to his care, 
can honestly say he has learned all there is to be 
learned in even such studies as Arithmetic, 
Geography or Grammar. Our text books arc 
1865 ! Has any year among its sisters of the 
present century left such an impress upon his¬ 
tory's tablet, unices indeed it bo the gloomy, the 
terrible days that lengthened out 1861? Has 
any year ever brought to our Nation such sudden 
and total revulsions of light and darkaess, uncon¬ 
trollable joy and unutterable anguish? 
A merciful, yet cruel year lias it been ! Long- 
deferred Hope has brightened many households 
only to go out in utter night, while others, all 
dreuched in despair, find comfort and joy again. 
One sister welcomed back the bronze-faced 
brother with a just pride for his scars aud service; 
another looked through tcare at the empty place 
in the ranks Acr.ii had filled, her faltering lips 
whispering, “Sleeping for the flag!” One wife 
with trembling gladness greeted the loved one 
whose prolonged absence had made the hearth¬ 
stone, oh, w lonely 1 Another stretched forth 
eager hands of welcome only to find the love- 
light faded out of the wistful eyes Just within 
One mother 
BE POLITE, 
of South 
It is said that George McDuffie 
Carolina, was very polite even when a little boy. 
One eve-niug he was holding a little calf by the 
care while his mother milked the cow; and a 
Good evening, my 
sight of the blue hills “ at homo 
thanked Gon that the prayer she had for months 
sent up at mom and noon and night in fervent 
trust, “Do Thou, oh Father, hear the sighing of 
tho prisoner and open wide liis door,” had been 
so tenderly, gloriously answered. Another leaned 
wearily back in the old chair at the chimney 
corner, with added farrows on her brow and 
deeper grief in her heart. “No hope, longer• 
Tortured, Btarved, murdered! No son to sup- 
gentleman passing by said, 
little son.” 
George returned, 
Good evening, sir,” with 
such a polite bow, that tho gentleman noticed 
him and said, “ Wt 
hat, my little man ? 
George answered, 
“ If you will get down and 
hold my calf for me I will pull off my hat to 
you.” 
George’s politeness and shrewd remark were 
the making of him. That geutleman Baid to his 
mother, “ Your son is a smart boy, and if prop¬ 
erly trained, will make a great man some day. 
If you will permit me, I will give George a 
good education, and give him a Btart lu the 
world. 
The mother thanked the gentleman for his 
kindness, and let him take charge of her son. 
Goorgc rose from taking cure of a calf to be a 
clever and successful lawyer; afterwards he be¬ 
came a member of Congress, and then was made 
Governor of South Carolina. 
[ wish all my little nephews and cousins to be 
polite. ApoUte bow and a “Good ovening, 
sir," cost nothing, bnt, are sometimes worth a 
good deal. One courteous bow was worth a 
fortune to little George McDuffie. Everybody 
likes polite children. 
When T used to go to school my teachers made 
it a rub- that every boy should make a bow and 
every girl a curtsey as wo entered the door every 
morning, and do the same ns we left at evening. 
And our instructor would invariably notice us 
with a polite bow, unless ho happened not to 
sec us. 1 like every rule that helps to refine our 
manners and improve our hearts. 
My little readers—scholars—salute your teach- 
or every morning with a graceful bow and a 
“ Good morning, Mr.-; ” and at evening, 
if convenient, part with him in the same way; 
and be polite to everybody, especially to old 
persons. _ _ 
“ Row On."—“F or the first five years of my 
professional life,” once said a gentleman, “I had 
to row against wind, and stream, and tide." 
“ And what did you do ?" 
“ Do,” replied he, “ do—why, I rowed on to be 
sure.” 
And so he did row »n, and to a good purpose, 
too, until ho came to the open sen, took favora¬ 
ble breezes* and brought his voagotoa most suc¬ 
cessful termination, leaving behind him a most 
enviable reputation for worth and wisdom, im- 
1 pressing the mark of bis strong mind and excet- 
' lent character deep and clear on the community 
l in which he lived, and obtaining an immortality 
f worth more than a monarch's crown in the 
1 respectful memory of thousands. 
close of America’s civil war, (longer at. four 
years than our fathers' at eight, 6inco events are 
now propelled by steam, and time moves on tel¬ 
egraph wires,)—and the death and burial of Pres¬ 
ident Lincoln. Seventy yeare hence octogen¬ 
arians will toll little children at. their knees how 
they remember the wild joy of the great Loyal 
North at Lhe's surrender, aud then will follow, 
in hushed tonen, the story of that foul deed on 
tho following Friday night, and how the heavens 
seemed hung with blackness, while tho. whole 
Nation felt like little children with their father 
Among many other 
mysteriously taken away, 
noble sacrifices Abraham Lincoln has the past, 
year been buried in the hearts of his people. 
Washtenaw Co., Mich. M. J. T. 
VALUE OF BRAINS AND INDUSTRY 
Tnn Philadelphia North American gives the 
following graphic sketch of what has been 
accomplished by one man through no special 
genlna, but steady and diligeut application; 
“ Working as an ordinary hand in a Philadel¬ 
phia ship-yard, until very recently, was a man 
named John L. Knowlton. Hia peculiarity was, 
that while others of his class were at ale-houaes, 
or indulging in jollification, he was Incessantly 
engaged in studying upon mechanical combina¬ 
tions. One of his companions secured a poodle 
dog, and spent six months in teaching the quad¬ 
ruped to dance a j lg Upon bia hind legs. Knowl¬ 
ton spent, the same period in discovering some 
method by which he could saw out ship timber 
ill a beveled form. The first man taught his dog 
to dance: Knowlton, in the same time, discov¬ 
ered a mechanical combination that enabled him 
to do in two hours, the work that would occupy 
a dozen men, by a slow and laborious process, 
aa entire day. The saw Is now in use in all the 
ship-yards in the country. It cuts a beam to a 
curved shape aa quickly aa an ordinary saw-mill 
rips up a straight plank. Knowlton continued 
his experiments. He took no part in parades or 
target-shooting, and in a short lime afterwards, 
he secured a patent for a machine that turns out 
any material whatever, into a perfectly spherical 
form, lie sold a portion of his patent for a 
sum that is equivalent to a fortune. The ma¬ 
chine is now in operation in this city, cleaning 
off cannon balls for the Government When the 
ball comes from the mould its surface is incrust- 
ed, and the ordinary process of smoothing it 
This machine almost 
STA.TTTE OH I-IOBACE MOANIN', 
INAUGURATED IN THE STATE HOUSE GROUNDS, BOSTON, MASS., JULY 4, 1865. 
Rural readers are herewith presented a fine 
representation of tho Statue of Horace Mann, 
inaugurated in the State House grounds, Boston, 
on the 4th of July last The man to whose honor 
and memory this statue was erected, wiw among 
the noblest of Americana while living, and his 
teachings and examplo—os an Educator, a Phi- 
lanthopiat and Christian—should ever be cher¬ 
ished and emulated by his countrymen. The 
statue, by Miss Stbbbtnh, la generally consid¬ 
ered in both faithfulness of likeness and artistic 
finish, a rare specimen of genius. On the 
occasion of the inauguration of this splendid 
monumental statue, Dr. S. G. Howe delivered 
the following appropriate address to the large 
concourse of people who had assembled: 
“ We to-day dedicate a monument to the 
memory of a man whose greatness consisted in 
his love for his fellow-men, in bis confidence in 
their innate goodness and their capacity for im¬ 
provement, and In his burning zeal to elevate 
and to improve his fellow-men. He loved the 
people; he lived for and labored for the people; 
nay, he died for tho people, inasmuch as his pre¬ 
men, aud treat them as they deserve. Public 
opinion is setting in the right way, and teachers 
who expect to teach as a profession are valued 
If men who teach only for a 
accordingly. 
“ malce-shifb 
this second argument will toil to piece-- of itself. 
And that time will come, 
It is already come 
to other professions that experts are preferred, 
and it will be so in this in good time, despite 
Prof. W. and all who write Prof, to tlieir name, 
and consider they have made 6iich a step In for¬ 
tune's ladder that they can alford to look down 
upon and sneer at their former associates in 
common school teaching. 
1 urn not u teacher, and not open to the charge 
of soreness in telling the truth squarely. 
Evanston, Ill. W. E. C. 
Picking up Thoughts. —Boys, you have heard 
of blacksmiths who have become mayors and 
rnogtot,rates of towns and cities, aud men of 
great wealth and influence. What was the se¬ 
cret of their success ? Why, because they 
picked up nails aud pins in the street., and car¬ 
ried them borne in the pockets of their waist¬ 
coats. Now you must pick up thoughts in the 
same way, and fill yonr minds with them, and they 
will grow into other thoughts; and you will find 
them strewed everywhere In your path. 
THOUGHT AND EXPRESSION 
was slow and wearisome, 
in an instant, and with mathematical accuracy, 
peels it to the surface of the metal, at the same 
time smoothing out any deviation from the per¬ 
fectly spherical form. Within a lew days the 
same plain, unassuming man has invented a bor¬ 
ing machine, which was tested in the presence 
of several scientific gentlemen a few days ago. 
It bored at the rate of twenty-two inchcB an 
hour, through a block of granite with a pressure 
of but three hundred pounds upon the drill. A 
gentleman present ofl’ered him ten thousand 
dollars upon the spot for part interest in the 
invention in Europe, aud the offer was ac¬ 
cepted. The moral of all this is that people 
who keep on studying are sure to achieve some¬ 
thing. Mr. Knowlton doesn’t consider himself 
by any means brilliant, but if once inspired with 
an idea he pursues it until he forces It into tangi¬ 
ble shape. If everybody would follow copy, the 
world would be less filled with idlers, and the 
streets with grumblers and malcontents.” 
UroN the opening of the Statistical Section 
of the British Association, Lord Stanley, the 
President, offered some excellent advice as to 
speakiug: 
“ You can say all you have got to say in a very 
few words if you will think it over beforehand. 
It is not abundance of matter, it is want of prep¬ 
aration, want of exact thought, that makes dif- 
fuseneas. A mau goes round and round his 
meaning, when be is not perfectly clear. Again, 
we don’t want preamble or peroration*. We are 
not a school of rhetoric; aud in adducing an 
educated audience a good deal may be taken for 
granted. Lastly, we only wish to get the truth 
of things." 
Quintilian has written to the same effect, and 
goes even further, for he says that a perfect 
thought will always clothe itself in appropriate 
language, aud that when people suppose that 
they are in want of words to express themselves, 
they arc really in want of thought, have only 
got hold of a part of a t hought instead of the 
complete thought, aud are in difficulty about 
the elotklug of an unformed thing. De Retz 
says that strong emotions fiud their utterances 
in monosyllables, and the language of the poor 
in grief is ofton of earnestness and simplicity 
rising to eloquence. Out of the fullness of the 
heart the mouth speaketh. It was said of an 
ancient writer’s negligence that it was that of a 
man studying his matter more than his express¬ 
ion ; but, if Quintilian he right, the author bad 
not completely mustered his matter, and there¬ 
fore fell into faults of manner. Quintilian may, 
perhaps, push the proposition a little too tor, 
but it is a safer general rule to suspect the com¬ 
pleteness of thought when its delivery in words 
is difficult, and calls for help. As Lord 8tanley 
well says, “a man goes round and round his 
real meaning when he is not perfectly clear,’ 1 — 
London Staminer. 
The New York Lancet, a new weekly journal, 
just started, offers the following excellent sug¬ 
gestions : 
“Every house should bo thoroughly venti¬ 
lated the first thing every morning, so us to allow 
the atmosphere of tho previous night, to escape. 
This can be done by first airing one part and 
then another. By doing this a house also can be 
more easily warmed. When there are many per¬ 
sons collected in a room care should be observed 
j to keep a few Inches of the window open from 
i the top, every one avoiding sitting close to or 
under It, as, after a time, when there are many 
collected together the atmosphere of the room 
becomes Impregnated with their exhalations, and 
the air is thus rendered impure. By perfect ven¬ 
tilation there is a uniform amount of oxygen, 
which is the vital part of the atmosphere, and 
which is necessary to our very existence, main¬ 
tained. Who has not noticed the disagreeable 
feeling produced on going from the fresh air 
into a room with many persous, In which tho 
ventilation is imperfect? At night, also, fresh 
air should be admitted into the room, for it is, 
if anything, more necessary that (acre should bo 
a plentiful supply of oxygen. We have often 
been asked the ridiculous question, if enough 
air did not come in through tho key-hole. Cer¬ 
tainly not That to not fresh air. Make it a 
rule always to sleep with part of your window 
open from the top, avoiding its blowing on you. 
Freeh air never hurt any one, for by it we live. 
It to the want of it that injure*. Persons seem 
I to forget that they spend one-third of their lives 
^ in their bed-rooms. We frequently see a man 
Pay Your Debts.—A writer in The Right 
Way quotes the saying of a witty New Yorkcr in 
1807, that property was returning to its ovvuers, 
aud says, “the sevens have so far becu years of 
settlement." 1817, 27, 37, 47, and 57 will be re¬ 
membered by all. From present appearance 
1867 will belong do the same category. The Sec¬ 
retary of the Treasury cannot present such a 
catastrophe. Ho is merely a borrower. But the 
“ pr was ever my invariable custom in my 
youth," says a celebrated Persian writer, “ to 
rise from my sleep to watch, pray, and read the 
Koran. One night, as I was thus engaged, my 
father, a. man of practical virtue awoke. ‘Be¬ 
hold,’ said I to him, ‘thy children aro lost in 
irreligious slumber, while I alone am awake to 
praise God.’ ‘Son of my soul,’ said he, ‘it is 
better to sleep than to wake to remark the faults 
of thy brethren.’ ” 
FOR BOYS AND GIRLS. 
“The Li/ttle Corporal" will gladden the 
heart* of the young people who are appreciative 
of a good thing, and are supposed to know just 
what a child’s paper.should be. If they don’t vote 
“ The lAlUc Coritoral" into their brigade by ac¬ 
clamation, wo must confess that our judgment 
is sadly defective. The premium picture to en- 
UiUiilaaticaUy admired by all who have seen it.— 
Marshall (Mich.) Statesman. 
“ Tho Little Corporal" to published monthly in 
Chicago, ILL, by Alekkd L. Sewell, at the low 
price of $1 a year. Specimen copies ten cents. 
Job a Printer.— At a printer’s festival in Min¬ 
nesota some year» ago, Judge Goodrich made a 
speech, iu which he referred the invention ol 
printing to a higher antiquity than to usually as¬ 
cribed to it. He undertook to prove that the 
patriarch Job knew all about it, by quoting 
from him the following passageOh, that my 
words were now written! Oh, that they were 
An American Ltnocist. — When the Hon. 
Caleb Cushing was Attorney General of the 
United States, he was said to be the only mem¬ 
ber of the Cabinet able to con verec iu any language 
besides his own. At a diplomatic dinner in 
Washington, given by Mr. Bodiaco, the Russian 
Minister, he conversed in French with M. Sarti- 
ges, the French ambassador; in Spautoh, with 
Don Calderon; iu Dutch, with Baron Von Ge- 
rolt; in Portuguese, with De Figanerc; and iu 
the purest Italian, with the representative of the 
two Sicilies. The distinguished party wer* sur 
prised aud charmed, and some thought the Yon- 
■ kee polyglot could have added the Chinese, had 
a representative of the Celestial* been present. 
printed In a book, that they were graven with an 
iron pen, with lead in a rock forever!” lhe 
Judge considered this undoubted evidence that 
Job understood the a«H of writing, printing, en¬ 
graving, • stereotyping and lithographing. He 
mentions them in their regular order, as they 
have since been discovered. 
“ Well, my boy, do you know what syntax 
cans?” said a schoolmaster to a child of a 
etotaier “ Yes, sir, it to the duty on spirits.” 
