may have read the article referred to, with the 
view of carrying out practically, East or West, 
an object of so much material importance as the 
manufacture of cheap linens. 0. S. Leavitt. 
Louisville, Ky., May 6, ISM. 
in a square inch of skin on the palm of the hand 
there exists a length of tube equal to 862 inches, 
or 73J feet. Certainly such an amount of drain¬ 
age as 73 feet in every square inch of skin,— 
taking that to be the average of the whole body, 
—is something more wonderful than all the u tile 
draining* in America; and the thought intrudes 
itself, What if this drainage be obstructed? 
How could we need a stronger argument for 
enforcing attention to cleanliness? In the pulp 
of the fingers, where the sensitive layers of the 
cutis vera are somewhat finer than in the palm of 
the hand, the number of pores a little exceeded 
that of the palm; and on the heels, where the 
ridges are coarser, the number on the square mob 
were not as many. To obtain an estimate of the 
length of tube of the perspiratory system. 2.800 
it is calculated may he taken as a fair average of 
the number of pores in the square inch, and, 
therefore. 7oO the number of inches in length. 
Now, the number of square inches on the sur¬ 
face of a man of ordinary height and bulk is 
2.500.—the number of pores, therefore, 7,000,000, 
and the number of inches of perspiratory tube 
1,750,000, that is, 145,833 feet, or nearly 28 miles. 
East Wilson, N. T-, 1863. Onto. 
THE PROGRESS OP COMMON SCHOOLS. 
Ip a Rip Van Winkle was to awake now from 
a forty years' sleep.be would find greater sources 
of astonishment than did the remarkable Van 
Winkle who opened his eyes after his long nap in 
Sleepy Hollow, some sixty or eighty years ago. 
He •would he no less astonished thau his illus¬ 
trious ancestor, that so much change could have 
been crowded into forty years—that (he young ua- 
tion which ho left trying its strength on the Atlan¬ 
tic coast, when he lay down to his nap, had strode 
to the Pacific—having scattered cities on its way 
in the grandest profusion, and woven the whole 
country over with a net work of railways, so 
that it were as if enchantment and not growth 
had wrought the change. He would be no less 
confounded to learn that many ideas and plans, 
which forty yeai’3 ago were pronounced absurd, 
impossible, and heretical, are fixed, majestic, and 
holy facts of to-day. "We may imagine the ven¬ 
erable gentleman's hair standing apart, his eyes 
opening to an astonishing wldeuess, and his eye¬ 
brows assuming a wonderful altitude, when some 
friend tells how the giant nation has cared for its 
children, and explains to him the grand system 
of Public Schools, thronghall the Northern Stales, 
from Maine to Iowa. 
We cau see the conservative old gentleman 
start with an expression of incredulity, if not of 
tear of impending destruction, when told that 
New York State alone spends annually four and 
a half million of dollars for the support of her 
schools. Wo may see Mr. Van Winkle's astonish¬ 
ment Increase, when—remembering the little low 
dirty school-house where he sat on the backless 
bench fifty years before—he learns that those 
splendid buildings which he supposed were cas¬ 
tles or monasteries are public Bchool buildings 
Wo may pardon Mr. Van Winkle if he thinks the 
nation is mad and he is the only sensible man 
left. 
The condition of schools in our Northern States 
is a wonderful and beautiful evidence of the 
growth of free people. Onr schools of to-day 
contrasted with the schools even thirty years ago, 
look somewhat as if Aladdin's Lamp might be¬ 
long to this era. That such order could have 
been brought out of such disorder, such comfort 
and elegance out of such discomfort and shabbi¬ 
ness, that what was so small and mean and rare 
and insufficient as our schools then were, could 
have become so grand, numerous ami so perfectly 
adequate to the most extensive needs, is one of 
the grandest facts of the nineteenth century.— 
New York Teacher. 
ABOUT A PARTRIDGE. 
FEMALE TEACHERS 
W hen I was a hoy my father had a piece of 
" new land” which he burned, I thiuk in the lat¬ 
ter part of May. A few days after the fire had 
gone through it. I was walking over a portion of 
it where the original growth had been very light, 
in fact consisted almost entirely of shrubbery, 
not more than twenty or thirty feet high, when, 
to my astonishment, I discovered a partridge 
(Ruffled Grouse) sitting ou her nest, burned to 
death. Her head and neck were burned to a 
rrisp, and the feathers were burned from her 
body, and the latter considerably charred, espe¬ 
cially on the back. I removed the body, and 
beneath it were the eggs, baked hard, but not 
burned. One or two adhered to the body when 
I raised it up. 
This I consider a very remarkable instance in 
a bird usually so timid, when wo consider that 
the fire that destroyed her did not come upon her 
suddenly or unexpectedly, but that it approached 
slowly, having been kindled on the opposite side 
of the lot She deliberately accepted her death 
to protect her nest. p. h. a. 
Avoea, N. V., Aug., I3G3. 
IS THE SUN INHABITED? 
Sir John Herscuel concludes that the sun is 
a planet abundantly stored with inhabitants; his 
inference being drawn from the following argu¬ 
ments 
On the top of mountains of sufficient 
height, at an altitude where clouds seldom reach 
to shelter them from the direct rays of the sun, 
are always found regions of ice and snow. 
Now, if the solar rays themselves convey all the 
heat on this globe, it ought to be the hottest 
where their course is least Interrupted. Again— 
Aeronauts all confirm the coldness of the upper 
regions of the atmosphere. Since, therefore, 
even on our earth, the heat of any situation de¬ 
pends upon the aptness of the medium to yield 
to the impression of solar rays, wo have only to 
admit that, on the sun itself, the elastic fluids 
composing its atmosphere, and the matter on its 
surface, are of such a nature as not to bo capable 
of any afl'ection from its own rays. Indeed, this 
seems to be proved from the copious emission of 
them; for. if the elastic fluids of the atmosphere, 
or the matter on the surface of the sun, were of 
such a nature as to admit of any easy chemical 
combination with its rays, their emission would 
be much impeded. Another well known fact is, 
that the solar focus of the largest len < thrown 
into the air will occasion no sensible heat in the 
place where It has beeu kept for a considerable 
time, although its power of exciting combustion, 
when proper bodies are exposed, should be suf¬ 
ficient to fuse the most refactory substances. 
Thus, from arguments based solely upon the 
supposed physical constitution of that luminary, 
he deduces the somewhat astonishing idea that 
the sun is inhabited.— Scientific American. 
CHEAP LINENS. 
IMPOLITE THINGS. 
1. Loud and boisterous laughter. 
2. Reading when others are talking. 
3. Reading aloud in company without being 
asked. 
4. Talking when others are reading. 
5. Spitting about the house, smoking or chew¬ 
ing. 
6. Cutting linger nails in company. 
7. Leaving a church before public worship is 
closed. 
8. Whispering or laughing in the house of God. 
9. Gazing rudely at strangers. 
10. Leaving a stranger without a seat. 
11. A want of respect and reverence for seniors. 
12. Correcting older persons than yourselves, 
especially parents. 
13. Receiving a present without an expression 
of gratitude. 
1L Making yourself the hero of your own story. 
15. Laughing at the mistakes of others. 
16. Joking of all others in company. 
IT. Commencing talking before others have 
finished Bpeukiug. 
18. Answering questions that have been put to 
others. 
19. Commencing to eat as Boon as you get to the 
table; and 
20. In not listeningto what one is saying in com¬ 
pany—unless you desire to show open contempt 
for the speaker. 
ENGLISH WEIGHTS AND MEASURES 
The School-House. —It is the duty of teach¬ 
ers, as well as parents and school committees, to 
see that the circumstances under which children 
study are such as shall leave a happy impression 
upon their minds; forwhatever is brought under 
the frequent observation of the young must have 
its influence upon their susceptible natures for 
good or evil. Shabby school-houses induce 
slovenly habits. Ill-constructed benches may 
not only distort the body, but by reflex influence, 
the mind as well. Conditions like these seldom 
fail to disgust the learner with his school, and 
neutralize tho best efforts of bis teachers. Ou 
the other hand, neat, comfortable places for 
study may help to awaken the association, en- 
cbduing the mind and the heart to learning and 
virtuous Instruction with links of gold brighten¬ 
ing forever. 
What a coward he is who will bite you in the 
back; and yet it is often done. And what long, 
sharp, crooked teeth one must have to bite 
another in the back. Noone but a dog can easily 
do it. 
There is a little follow who is going home from 
school. He has been good and obedient, and has 
done no one any harm. A little envious boy 
says, “ What a sneak 1” and lo ! he left a gash in 
hiB back. There goes another; he would not 
quarrel with that bully, and as he left to see after 
the cows, some one said, w He’s a coward!” 
There was a deep cut right In his back. w What 
a lie that fellow told on me!” said the boy, who, 
instead of going to school, went to tho circus. 
Hero was another bite right In the back. There 
goes a little girl to school. She is well-behaved, 
and holds by the hand her little brother. Some 
bad boys at the corner as she passes, laugh, and 
say, “She is not as good as she seems.” And 
her back is wounded by their cruel teeth. 
You may know all such backbiters. They 
have long teeth, and their lips are bloody. The 
poison of asps is under their tongues. God has 
set on their brow a red, flaming mark. Read- 
look close—it is “ slander ." 
« Relievo not cacti aeousive tongue, 
As soma weak people do; 
But ever hope that story wrong, 
Which ought not to bo true.” 
Education. — Make home an Institution of 
learning. Provide books for tho centre-table, 
and for the library of the family. See that all 
the younger children attend the bestschools, and 
interest yourself in their studies. If they have 
the taste for thorough cultivation, but not the 
means lo pursue it, if possible provide for a 
higher education. Daniel Webster taught at the 
intervals of his college course to aid an elder 
brother in the pursuit • f a classical education, 
and a volume of his works is dedicated to the 
daughter of that brother, who early closed a 
brilliant career. Feel that an ignorant brother 
or sister will be a disgrace to your family, and 
trust not the prevention of such a reproach to the 
casual influence of the press, existing institutions, 
and the kind offices of strangers. If the family 
becomes, as it may be, an institution of learning, 
the whole land will be educated. 
CONCERNING MILK 
to teaching little children. Male teachers sel¬ 
dom leave their impress clearly marked upon 
young pupils. They lack the requisite gentle¬ 
ness, the patience and perseverance in little 
things, the quick discernment of character, the 
instinctive power to inspire the youthful spirit 
and aronse its latent powers. Above all. they 
are destitute of those delicate arts which are so 
requisite to win the affections of children, to 
call forth and direct their earliest aspirations, 
and to impart the needful impure to their minds. 
Cheerfulness and enthusiasm, courtesy and kind¬ 
ness, and the power of easy, quiet, unconscious 
influence, are requisites indispensable to the 
attractiveness, order and efficiency of the school. 
Females are endowed with a more bountiful 
share of these desirable qualities. 
“ Facts on this point may be more satisfactory 
than arguments. In a certain school which I 
visited under both administrations, the last male 
teacher utterly failed in the maintenance of 
order, although highly favored with the old 
essentials of a good disciplinarian, ‘tall and 
stout,’ and although he used the rod with merci¬ 
less freedom and severity, his authority was 
nevertheless openly resisted. A female teacher 
has since, without difficulty, governed the same 
school, numbering over fifty pupils, of whom 
fourteen were over fifteen years of age, five over 
seventeen, and one over twenty. Her govern¬ 
ment was easy and persuasive, yet dignified and 
firm. Her intelligence, skill, tact and kindness 
made the school a model of good order. A sin¬ 
gle case. I am well aware, proves little, but the 
instance I have related is only a fair illustration 
of a multitude that have come under my obser¬ 
vation. Great care, of course, must be taken in 
the selection of teachers. Unless they are com¬ 
petent, the experiment will be likely to fail.” 
A CTK.iifs custom prevails among tho milk¬ 
men of Mexico, it is said, of driving their herds 
about the streets, and milking them to order, “ in 
large or small lots to suit, purchasers.” Tho live 
animals themselves are driven from door to door 
of the different regular customers, where they 
are milked, and there is a regular stand where 
the transient patrons are supplied, by milking 
into the vessel in which they take it home. Be¬ 
sides a drove of calves, with the cows all muz¬ 
zled, running and bleating after them, there is a 
gang of goats and asses driven along, that people 
may always suit themselves as to quality and 
price, as also their different tastes—for which 
there is no accounting. It is Impossible to derive 
the reason or origin of this mode of vending 
milk; unless it arose from the natural villainy of 
the people, and their distrust of each other—it 
being a preventive against adulteration, and of 
their disposing of a quality of milk Inferior to 
that represented. This plan has at least the 
merit which attaches to honesty and fair dealing. 
We should not like to see the cows from which 
city milk Is obtained driven about the streets. 
Such a sorry lot of lean klne as would be exhib¬ 
ited, would create an unpleasant sensation in the 
customer. We are credibly informed that the 
swill milk trade still exists, and that large quan¬ 
tities of it are sold .—Scientific American. 
A STRING OF PEARLS 
Happy is the hearing man; unhappy is the 
speaking man. 
The greatest misfortune of all is not to be able 
to bear misfortune. 
Men cannot make satisfaction for sin, though 
they seem to find great satisfaction in it. 
Treachery.— There is no greater treachery 
than first to raise a confidence and then to betray 
it. 
Good Breeding.—A man’s own good breed¬ 
ing is the best security against otherj people’s ill 
manners. 
Afflictions are but as a dark entry into our 
Father's house; they are but as a dirty lane to a 
royal palace. 
Praise is sometimes as hurtful as censure. It 
ia as bad to be blown into the air as to 'be cast 
into a pit. 
Perhaps the infant, when he sighs and weeps, 
hears as in a sea-shell the moan and roar of the 
ocean of life. 
A MAN is apt to think that his personal freedom 
involves the right to make his fellow-men do just 
as he pleases. 1 
The grief of some men vents itself in ferocity 
and not in tears. The clouds of tlieir hearts con¬ 
tain lightning but not rain. 
People, neither acute nor profound, often say 
the thing without effort which we want and 
have long been hunting for in vain. 
Written for Moore's Raral New-Yorker 
DRAINAGE OF THE BODY. 
A great deal is said about drainage of the 
soil, and not a word about the drainage of the 
system. Now, there is continually going on a 
drainage of the waste products of the body, in 
the form of insensible perspiration. The per¬ 
spiratory apparatus consists of minute cylindri¬ 
cal tubes, which pass inward through the cuticle, 
and terminate in the true skin, or evils r era. In 
their course each Little tube forms a beautiful 
spiral coil, and upon arriving at its destination, 
coils upon itself in such a way as to constitute an 
oval-shaped or globular ball, called the perspira¬ 
tory gland. The openings of the perspiratory 
tubes on the surface of the euticle, namely. - 1 the 
pores.” are also deserving of notice. Ia conse¬ 
quence of its upper extremity being a part of a 
spirally twisted tube, the opening is oblique in 
direction, and also has a valvular opening pre¬ 
venting the ingress of foreign injurious substan¬ 
ces to the interior of the tube and gland. 
To arrive at something like an estimate of the 
value of the perspiratory system, in relation to 
the rest of the organism, let us exercise a little 
mathematical calculation. The perspiratory 
pores on the palm of the hand, in number are 
found to be 3,528 in a square inch. Now, as each 
of these pores is the aperture of a little tube 
about a quarter of an inch long, it follows that 
The Pen, in the hand that knows how to use 
it, is one of the most powerful weapons known. 
As the tongue of the absent, how charming ? 
When self-respect gives It a new vigor, how 
pleasing ? When virtue guides it, how beautiful ? 
When honor directs it, how respected ? When 
wit sharpens it, how fatal ? When scurrility 
wields it, how contemptible ? ’Tis the weapon 
of the soul. 
Teach the ignorant as much as you can;— 
society is culpable for not providing instruction 
for all, and it must answer for the sight it produ¬ 
ces. If the soul is left in darkness, sins will be 
committed. The guilty one is not he who com¬ 
mits the sin, but he who causes or permits the 
darkness. 
Self-imposed Martyrdom.— The martyrs to 
vice far exceed the martyrs to virtue, both in 
endurance and in number. So blinded are we 
by passions that we suffer more to be damned 
than to be gaved. 
