WORDS FOR POOR BOYS. 
THE MISSION OF THE TEACHER 
When* I was a boy of twelve years, I was 
working for twenty-five cents a week for an old 
lady, and, I will tell you I had my hands full; 
but I did my work faithfully. I used to cut wood, 
fetch water, make fires, and scrub and scour 
mornings for the old lady, before the real work 
of the day commenced; my clothes were bad, 
and I had no means of buying shoes, so was often 
barefooted. One morning I got through my 
work early, and the old lady, who thought 1 had 
not done it, or was specially 111-humpred then, 
was displeased, scolded me, and said I was idle, 
and had not worked. 1 said I had; she called 
me a “liar.” 1 felt my spirit rise indignautly 
against this, and, standing erect,, I told her that 
she should never have tho chance of applying 
this word to me again. I walked out of the 
house to re-enter It no move. I had not a cent iti 
my pocket when I stepped out into the world. 
What do you think I did then, boys? I met a 
countryman with a team; T addressed him Jiold- 
ly and earnestly, and offered to drive the leader, 
if he would only take me on. lie looked at me 
in surprise, but said bo did not think I'd be of 
any use to him. “0, yes I will,” said I; “I can 
rub down and watch your horses, and do many 
things for you, If you will only let me try.” He 
no longer objected. 1 got on tho horse's back. 
It was hard traveling, for the roads were deep, 
and we could only get on at the rate of twelve 
miles a day. This was, however, my starting 
point, I went ahead after this. An independent 
spirit, and a steady, honest conduct, with what 
capacity God has given me—as he has given you 
— have carried me successfully through the 
world. 
Don’t be down-hearted at, being poor or having 
no friends. Try, and try again. You ran cut 
your way through if you live, so please God. I 
know it.’H a hard time for some of you. You often 
are hungry and wet with the raiu or snow, and 
it seems dreary to have no one in the city to care 
for you. But trust in Christ, and he will be your 
friend. Keep up good heart and be determined 
to make your own way, honestly and truly thro’ 
the world. As I said, 1 feel for you, because I 
have gone through it all—I know what it is. 
God bless you!— Gen. Mitchell. 
From an Address delivered before the Gradu¬ 
ating Class of the N. Y. State Normal School, by 
Rev. Samuel W. FrsHEii, D. I)., President of 
Hamilton College, we make the following extract: 
All professions and pursuits that are useful, are 
held by us as honorable: but all are not equally 
Some affect 
influential, nor equally honorable, 
the outward man, and are conversant about 
things of transient interest, others concern the 
soul, form the character, and build up a true 
manhood. Your work belongs to this latter 
class: your influence.as it is real and vital, helps 
to form the characteristics which distinguish the 
civilized and elevated man from the wild, untu¬ 
tored savage: you lay those foundations of char¬ 
acter on which the rest of us must build; you 
deal with the immortal mind in the freshness and 
susceptibility of youth, when the earliest, strong¬ 
est. most abiding impressions are given. Web¬ 
ster never uttered a thought more worthy of his 
great mind than when, in his plea for Christian 
education, he said, - if we work upon marble it 
will perish: if we work upon brass, time will 
efface it: it' we rear temples, they.will crumble 
into dust; but if we work on immortal minds, if 
we imbue them with principles, with the just fear 
of God and our fellow men. we engrave on those 
tablets something that will brighten through 
eternity.’' If Canuva and Raphael have won a 
name for themselves in history, by the creation 
of perishable formsfof beauty, where shall we 
place those whose work, indestructible by time, 
reaches on into eternity? You labor at those 
foundations which underlie and bear up all that 
is good and great in manhood; your work asso¬ 
ciates itself as a vital element with the advance 
of civilization, and all that is most excellent and 
glorious in the future of onr race. Its innate dig¬ 
nity springs out of these elements; as it, is among 
the most useful, so it is justly among the most 
honorable of human pursuits. 
But while your profession is thus honorable in 
itself, yet the estimate put upon it by society, will 
be greatly affected by the character and efficiency 
of its members. It is for you to bring out and 
demonstrate in your lives, and by the excellence 
of your workmanship, its real character; and to 
do this, you must, yourselves, sustain an elevated 
character; you must compel the respect of your 
fellow men by your own exalted virtues. Nor i3 
this all: you must aim to be masters iu yotirown 
profession: you must make your teaching a great 
power. Excellence in any useful employment 
commands respect, and creates a demand for the 
workman and lor a higher order of work. Ele 
who knows how to rear a structure adapted to 
the advanced Mate of society, wins confidence, 
and assists in cultivating the tastes of society. 
He who could dig a canoe out of the pine, or rear 
a log cabin, did a good work in the ruder state 
of civilization: bnt he who would uow prove his 
claim to be a skillful artificer, must know how to 
rear the tasteful dwellingor construct the power¬ 
ful steamship. And in this, our ad', uioing civil¬ 
ization, yon must be able nor only to keep ahead 
of other arts and professions, but to anticipate 
future advances, and lead on to their attainment; 
and to do this you must devote yourself to your 
work as your life-long business. Teaching is a 
high art, in which the consummate workman is 
not formed in a day. It demands tact, wisdom, 
high intelligence, and a thorough mastery of the 
springs of thought and feeling, a power of rousing 
the stupid, controlling the wayward, and guiding 
the active. No man can rise to high excellence 
in it in a year or two. If you take it up merely 
as a temporary employment. If you design to 
make it only a stepping-stone to some more 
lucrative business, you wil I most probably fail. 
u Totus in Ulis,'' is the old maxim by which most 
of the. success of tho world has been won. Give 
yourselves wholly to it; it is worthy of your 
highest efforts: it deserves to enlist your best 
powers. Enter with me the studio of yonder 
sculptor, whose genius has embodied so much of 
beauty in the senseless marble; mark with what 
patient toil, protracted through years of study, 
lie has ascended, step by step until, under his 
touch, the beautiful ideal awoke into the sem¬ 
blance of life, and learn the lessonl Think you 
that with less patient toil, with little effort and 
study, you can learn how to master the springs 
of this self-active, this thinking, feeling, immor¬ 
tal mind, so as to shape it into a character that 
shall bless others, and be itself the home of high 
intelligence and every noble principle? Depend 
upon it, that if you thus devote your energies to 
this work, if thus you become a true workman 
you will not only honor and advance your pro¬ 
fession, but, society will rise up to do you honor, 
and thousands, formed to a better life under your 
influence, will bless your name forever! 
ozsrrA.mo co„ isr. 'Y* 
apparatus, music, hat and shawl rooms, are four¬ 
teen feet high. The building is adapted to the 
use of stoves or a furnace; it has the means of 
free and healthful ventilation, and is supplied 
with mortar black-boards and modern school 
furniture. Thereare three broad stairways lead¬ 
ing to tlie upper story, and ladies and gentlemen 
meet only in recitation and general exercises.” 
The Board of Instruction of the Academy 
comprises the following competent teachers :— 
Melville M. Meruell, A. M., Principal — 
Professor of Ancient Languages, Natural Sci¬ 
ences, and Belles Lett res; L. G. Thrall, 
Teacher of Mathematics; Miss Sarah M. Thomp¬ 
son, Preceptress—Teacher of French, German, 
and Ornamental Branches; MissR. M. Meukell, 
Assistant; Miss Matilda N. Morton, Teacher 
of Vocal and Instrumental Music. 
ful and grand scenery. It contains about one 
thousand inhabitants, and exhibits great activity 
in business and trade. It is accessible by daily 
steam-boats from Canandaigua three-fourths of 
the year, by daily stage from Geneva, via Naples 
to Blood's Station, and by the Buffalo, N. Y. & 
Erie K. R. to Blood’s, which is five miles distant. 
It is thus removed f rom the annoyances of the 
great thoroughfares, while it enjoys all their ad¬ 
vantages. It is free from grog-shops, saloons 
and halls of low revelry. 
•• The Academy is a two-story brick building', 
and stands on a lot containing three acres of 
land. It consists of a central building *loxi5, 
wings 21x3i), and a front projection 12x21. The 
central building contains two large rooms below, 
undone above; the latter is eighteen feet high; 
the other rooms, including ten recitation, library, 
We take pleasure in presenting Rural readers 
the above fine view of the Naples Academy 
building and grounds. This is one of the most 
prosperous of the many excellent institutions of 
learning in Western New York. From its last 
catalogue we learn that “ Naples Academy was 
founded, and has been finished with the chartered 
conditions and privileges of a first-class Academy. 
The funds necessary for its completion—about 
twelve thousand dollars—were secured neither 
by taxation, nor the hope of cash dividends; yet 
it is free from debt and amply furnished for use. 
It is. therefore, a free-will offering to education 
and humanity, and will bear itself witness to 
the liberality and public spirit of its founders. 
“The village of Naples is near the head of 
Canandaigua Lake, in a region distinguished 
both for its health fill ness, and its varied, bcauti- 
enabliug us to say, lo, see what we have done I” 
While I admire the magnanimity of my friend in 
putting himself in for a portion of tho castigation 
which he deems due to reformers, I assure him that 
if he don’t belong to that hypocritical class, we 
will allow him to reckon himself out. The first 
radical defect that I seem to see in the above quo¬ 
tation, is its wholesaleness —he is doing a broader 
business than his stock of facts can possibly war¬ 
rant. A great many people are engaged more or 
less in the “reforms” that come under the ban of 
W, B. P. No two of them are impelled by precisely 
the panic motives, and no one of them but has 
bis motives somewhat ''mixed." Human nature 
has its follies and its foibles; W. B. P.’s experi¬ 
ence of these warrants his conclusion that re¬ 
formers are not free from fault. But when he 
traduced. The doctriuo that‘'reform comes not 
from onr own efforts,’’ is so far true as that The 
Source of All Good prompts and sustains it; but 
if it means that true reform is not helped or 
hindered by the agencies we employ, and is not 
essentially dependent upon human instrumen¬ 
talities, it is utterly and inexcusably false. 
H. T. B. 
read, and if they read the same lesson three days 
in succession it will do them no harm. Classes 
that can read well should practice reading in 
concert, and the teachers should ask many ques¬ 
tions in relation to the punctuation marks, in¬ 
flections, emphasis, and capital letters, iu the 
reading exercise .—School Journal 
THE MOUSE THAT WAS A RAT, 
A la dy sat alone in her chamber. There was a 
nibbling sound behind the fire-board, which was 
not a board, but only a frame covered with cloth. 
The lady had some funny notions; mice seemed 
to her like little plump children; she liked them. 
“ There.” said she, *• is a mouse;” and she dropped 
some crumbs behind the fire-board. This she did 
every day when she heard a movement in the fire¬ 
place. “Mice,” sahlshe, “are innocent. I never 
fear them. But rats! Ah! they are dreadful.” 
The lady hoped, by-and-by, to coax her mouse 
out Into her room. She lived alone, and was 
fond of pets. 
Once or twice there came against the frame of 
the fire-screen a gnawing so strong and loud that 
the lady was startled. “What if a rat were there 
where I think is but a harmless mouse?” was the 
quick thought that made her flesh creep with 
terror. But she would not allow herself to be¬ 
lieve such a thing possible ^neither would she re¬ 
move it. “ Pshaw,” she said; “ I am certain ’tis but 
a harmless mouse.” And she continued to pamper 
it with dainties. 
At last, one evening as she sat by her table 
writing, she heard a strange noise, and turning 
towards it saw, with great affright, a monstrous rat 
silting on her hearth-stone and gazing with bold 
and wicked eyes upon her. The poor, nervous 
lady was made quite sick by the disgust and ter¬ 
ror which this revelation caused her. 
Children, there is a moral to my story. Can 
you think what? I am thinking of It, ah! my 
blood runs cold as 1 consider that of which this 
story is a figure. How many of you are cherish¬ 
ing sins which you consider only as innocent 
mice; but which are really as strong and danger¬ 
ous rats, waiting their time to spring out upon 
you and have you in their power? How many 
such mice am I cherishing? Let us all examine 
BRAIN WORK 
INDUSTRIOUS JOHN CHINAMAN. 
What a truly industrious people the Chinese 
are! At work, cheerfully and brisk, (ill ten 
o’clock at uiglit. Huge piles of linen and under¬ 
clothing are disposed in baskets around the 
room, near the different honors. Those at work 
damping and ironing peculiar processes, both. 
A bowl of water is standing ai the honor's side, 
as in ordinary laundries, but used very different¬ 
ly. Instead of dipping the fingers in tho water 
and then snapping them over the clothes, the 
operator puts his head into tho howl, fills his 
month with water, and then blows so that the 
water comes out of his mouth in a mist, resem¬ 
bling tho emission of steam from an escape pipe, 
at the same time so directing his head that the 
mist is scattered all over the piece, of cloth he is 
about, to iron. The invention for ironing beats 
the Yankees all to tits. It is a vessel resembling 
a small, deep, metallic basin, having a highly 
polished flat bottom, and a fire of charcoal con¬ 
tinually burning iu It. Thus they beep the iron 
hot without running to the fire every five minutes 
ami spitting on it to ascertain by tho “sizzle” if 
it i« ready for use. This ironing machine has a 
long handle, and is propelled without danger of 
burning the lingers by the slipping of the “ iron¬ 
ing rag.” Ladies who use tho ordinary flat-iron 
will appreciate the improvements. 
vigorous brain of the morning. When mental 
labor has become a habit, however, we know how 
weak are the words of warning to make a sufferer 
desist; and we are reminded of tho answer made 
by Sir Walter Scott, to his physicians, who in his 
last illness foresaw that his mind would break 
down unless be desisted from brain work. “ As 
for bidding me not.work,” said he, sadly. ■ Molly 
might as well put the kettle on the fire, and then 
pay, now don’t boil.” It must not be supposed, 
however, that we wish to deprecate even severe 
mental labor; on the contrary, a well organized 
brain demands exercise, and, like the blacksmith's 
arms, flourishes on it. Wo believe that pleasur¬ 
able brain work cau be carried on to an almost 
limitless extent without injury. A poet in tho 
full swing of bis fancy, a philosopher working 
out some scheme for the benefit of humanity, re¬ 
freshes rather than weakens his brain. It is hard, 
thankless taskwork which tears and frets the fine 
gray matter of the cerebrum: It is the strain and 
anxiety which accompanies the working-out of 
great monetary transactions which produces that 
silentand terrible rcmoUissement which gradually 
saps the mind of the stroug man, and reduceshim 
to the condition of an imbecile.— Comhill Mag. 
them by a single motive—to 'magnify themselves 
—we have a right to ask further evidence than I 
ho has thought, proper to favor us with. Take 
the temperance reform. One man signs the 
“pledge,” and believes in the pledge, because he 
is conscious of an appetite that will overmaster 
him unless his resolution to govern it is strength¬ 
ened by enlisting his veracity and reputation in 
(he work, and because he is conscious of the 
power of sympathy and co-opcratlou. Parents 
whose ardent yearnings for the well-being of 
their offspring are as pure as anything earthly 
can bo—if what is inspired in heaven should be 
called earthly—lead their children to the tempe¬ 
rance altar to save their bodies and souls , and 
these motives have added more to the tempe¬ 
rance reformers than all other motives together. 
It is in the nature of the case that persons 
prominently before tho people do more or less 
to be seen of men;” when that is the sole con¬ 
sideration. “ verily, they have their reward;*’ but 
when men engage in a good work, having a real 
interest in the work itself, wo must pardon the 
vanity inseparable from a conscious performance 
of a good part. Nobody is and nobody ought to 
be insensible to the credit due to meritorious 
St. Paul did not befool himself into 
LETTERS TO SOLDIERS. 
A returned soldier, making a report to a 
r eligous society said:—“ 1 wish to speak of one 
way in which you can do great good to your 
soldier friends in the army. Write to them 
many letters. I am a sergeant, anil so I have 
had much to do with the mails of our regiments. 
I know that when a mail arrives, every man 
looks for a letter. All are looking. They want 
to hear from home. They think they ought to 
be remembered. And when the mail comes In, 
bringing no letters from loved ones at home. I 
I have seen men be.come exasperated under the 
bitter disappointment, and take to gambling and 
drinking, and anything to kill time. They will 
do these things out of spite. They will say, ‘Our 
frinds at homo care nothing for us, and they must 
not blame us if we care nothing for them.’ And 
so they will attempt to drown their sorrow in the 
indulgence of some kind of vice. It you could 
know how much good, kind, Christian letters 
from fathers and mothers, and brothers and 
sisters, and wives and sweethearts do to soldiers, 
in comforting, restraining and encouraging them, 
I think you wquld not be slow to write such letters 
to them. Ohl it you would save them from ruin- 
write many letters. Then they feel that your 
eye is upon them, and they are restrained from 
falling into many sins.” 
service, 
the belief that he had “ fought a bad fight,” and 
W. B. P., whatever ho expects from his “ lie- 
form" articles, puts the smooth side of his stones 
DEFENCE OF THE “ISMS 
I am ready to fight and bleed, &c., for the 
“isms,” assailed by my talented friend W. B. P. 
But I confess on the start, that, while I agree 
with the general views of E. A. W., I entirely 
disagree with his censure of the publication of 
W. B. P.’s article.* 
The last thing that a good man should over do 
is to shut out from discussion the fundamental 
principles of human action, and the tendency of 
popular measures. Most of all to be deprecated, 
next to the existence of error, is its disposition to 
sting in the dark, and elude pursuit. Sin is half 
conquered when it courts investigation, and 
truth essentially demoralized when it shrinks 
from it. While mere “sectarian” differences 
should be ignored in a journal like the Rural, 
it is not at liberty, claiming to minister to our 
social necessities, to waste its moral lessons upon 
generalities nobody disputes, and that nobody is 
wiser for the ten thousandth repetition of, but 
rather give us those practical applications, that 
are the real points of interest with earnest, intel¬ 
ligent men. 
For one, I thank W. B. P. and the Rural, for 
bringing into the arena of discussion matters of 
highest interest upon which it is well known 
there are essential differences of opinion. 
In his second article W. B. P. says “ The 
so-called ‘Reformers' are little gods of ours, 
their professed object being to benefit our species, 
while their real object is to magnify ourselves by 
* See W. B. P.’a article in Rural of July 11, and E. 
A. W.’s reply in that of July 25. 
Goon Luck.— Some young men talk about 
luck. Good luck is to get up at six o’clock in the 
morning; good luck, If you have only a shilling 
a week, is to live upon eleven pence and save a 
penny; good luck is to trouble your head with 
your own business, and let your neighbors’ alone; 
good luck is to fulfil tho commandments, and to 
do unto other people as we wish them to do unto 
us. They must not only work, but wait. They 
must plod and persevere. Pence must be taken 
care of. because they are the seeds of guineas. 
To get on ip the world, they must take care of 
home, sweep their own doorways clean, try and 
help other people, avoid temptations, and have 
faith in truth aud God.— la Frame’s lectures. 
under temptation to “ magnify" themselves, we 
may as well send Mkaok aud Grant and all 
the soldiers home, aud put our Governors and 
Judges into monasteries, where, upon second 
thought, I fear they will not be safe from all self- 
complacent attacks. I am not quite sure 
whether they would be in Fort la Fayette. 
Vaj.t.andioham is evidently pluming himself 
upon his “ persecutions,” and it is historical that 
in all times men have even gloried in their 
shame. The desire of doing something credit¬ 
able, and having the credit of it, is a wholesome 
principle planted by God himself, and giving 
rise to the isms, it is an effective agency In every 
erreat and good work,—without it Vicksburg 
would never have been won, nor Gettysburg 
witnessed the triumph of freedom’s hosts. 
Whoever looks upon humanity and its woes, 
and feels disposed to ridicule the "fina'lnism,” 
the nflidousness, the credulity, or the vanity that 
prompt the efforts to heal those woes, is entitled 
to commiseration. Whenever I see the gush of 
human sympathy I bow before it In profound 
admiration, let it be mixed with whatever 
measure of human weakness. Whenever you 
succeed in stopping the reforms, meu will relapse 
into barbarism and a besotted selfishness that 
finds its counterpart in those countries and those 
ages where the “reforms” have never been In- 
Tins important branch is very imperfectly 
taught in many of our common schools. Teach¬ 
ers tell their pupils to read slowly and dis¬ 
tinctly, without, iu many cases, endeavoring to 
do ?o themselves. In order to make good read¬ 
ers the teacher should take hi- turn as often as 
tue scholars, if there are but four or five in the 
class. No mistake, however slight, should escape 
correction. If the teacher fails to notice any 
error, the scholars should have the privilege of 
raising their hands and calling his attention to 
the fact, and if the teacher also makes occasion¬ 
ally (knowingly, of course.) a few trifling blun¬ 
ders for their correction, they will be induced to 
look on their books during the whole time occu¬ 
pied, by the class. If two or more scholars are 
allowed in each class, every day, to read a short 
suitable story, it will awaken an interest, and 
cause them to put forth efforts which will be 
crowned with success. Smalt scholars should 
always be questioned in relation to what they 
Speech is too often, not as the Frenchman de¬ 
fined it, the art of concealing thonght, but of 
stifling and suspending it so that there is none to 
conceal. 
Keen satirists are usually men of talent, who, 
thinking and feeling more correctly than they 
live, wreak on their neighbors the bitterness of 
their own remorse. 
Lowliness is the base of every virtue. And 
he who goes the lowest, builds the safest. God 
keeps all his pity for the proud. 
God gives every bird its food, but does not 
throw it into the nest. 
Whatever we love becomes thereby above 
self, and we pay unconscious homage to it. 
Milton leaves the adversary of mankind, in 
the test view which he gives us of him, under 
the lowest riato of mortification and disappoint¬ 
ment. On the contrary, our two first parents 
are comforted by dreams and visions, cheered 
with promises of salvation, aud in a manner 
raised to a greater happiness than that which 
they had forfeited. In short, Satan is represented 
miserable to the height of his triumphs, and Adam 
triumphant in the height of misery.—Atfriison. 
