FOREIGN BIRDS IN NEW YORK. 
A New York letter says:—“The importa¬ 
tion of foreign birds, ns a means of preventing 
the horrible, worm nuisance, has become a ques¬ 
tion of great Importance and interest here. 
To some extent, the importation of English 
Sparrows has boon a success, especially in a 
neighboring city of New dersey. Six years ago 
there were none of these useful and pretty little 
creatures in the. country, but now they fly in 
large flocks through the streets of that city, and 
have spread inlaud as far as Newark and Eliza¬ 
beth. We find them occasionally in Brooklyn 
and in the upper part of New York. In New 
Jersey special laws have bccu marie to protect 
them against sportsmen. Their utility is every¬ 
where acknowledged. Last summer thoy mate¬ 
rially decreased the worm-nuisance in Brook¬ 
lyn, and delighted that city with the prospect 
of having shade trees that grow leaves instead 
of caterpillars. A correspondent of the F.ven- 
AT HOME FOREVER, 
Written for Moore’s Rural New-Yorker. 
education in eukal disteigts. 
“ Traix up a child in the way be should go, 
and when he is old he will not depart from it.” 
A strange world is this, aud strange arc the 
mortals who walk over its earth-trodden paths, 
and strange it is that only the few ever learn 
what is for their real good; and, although the 
world is calling loudly for intellect, for knowl¬ 
edge, it is only the few who respond to the cry, 
who learn that “ there is no royal road to intel¬ 
lectual eminence." Education is needed not only 
in our rural school districts, but in the breadth 
and length of this wide earth; still, that it is 
neglected in our rural districts is a truth which 
ident as. that “ as soou as the sun rises it 
True, the farmers must till 
Can I forgot my father’s hearth. 
My mither by the ingle spinnin ’t 
Their well-pleased look to see the mirth 
O’ a’ their balrnles round them rinnin’ t 
It was a waeftp hour to me 
When I frau them and love departed; 
The tear was in my mUlicr’s e’e— 
My father blest me, broken-hearted. 
Forget—no, though the foamin’ sea, 
High hills, and many a sweeping river, 
May lie between their hearth and me, 
My heart shall be at hmne forever. 
OEIGIN AND SEALS OF THE STATES. 
is as ev 
begins to shine.” 
the soil, sow the wheat and gather it into the 
garner; yet they forget the living wheat which 
gathers around the family hearth and is depend¬ 
ent upon them for the support not only of the 
physical but of the mental. Parents, don’t 
starve your children, don’t wind your soul all 
up in a few acres of land, concentrate all your 
faculties and energy on the ouc object, “ the 
almighty dollar,” in order that you may be able 
to hand a little corrupted dust down to the next 
generation. We do not want this; as a people, 
as a nation, as a world, we are rich enough; it is 
an age of action, and we want intellect as well 
as acres, dollars and muscular strength. 
Again, you build houses, hire teachers just as 
cheap ns you can and give them the cou3olation 
that they will have a difficult school to manage. 
Sometimes they are told that there must be no 
corporeal punishment, for the district will not 
like that; or, on the other side, they must 
thrash everything out of the children and beat 
everything into them. School is commenced, 
and the trustee is not seen again until after it is 
closed. If it was a failure, the teacher “ wasn’t 
much.” Then, too, it is the duty of the teacher 
to visit the parents; hut the rule does not work 
the other way. In the school-room the teacher 
reigns supreme, that is If he have a good araonnt 
of musciilar strength. Now, in the. name of all 
that is good (I appeal to the mind and not to the 
pocket,) la this the right course to betaken? 
Must the land bo tilled and the live stock bo ten¬ 
derly cared for and watched over at the expense 
of immortal posterity ? 
Parents, it ia your duty to educate your child, 
to watch its progress from day to day. The 
the home lircside 
NUMBER ONE 
Wh propose to publish for our young readers 
a series of articles giving a brief history of the 
origin of each of the United States and an en¬ 
graving representing its seal or coat of arms. 
xmi / - r 
MA.IN1S. 
Maine lies farthest cast, and north of any of 
the States, and is generally placed tirat in enu¬ 
merations of them, and occupies one extreme of 
every patriotic antithesis, balanced by Texas or 
California at the other. It contains 35,000 square, 
miles, one-»lxth being water. Its most noticea¬ 
ble geographical feature is its deeply indented 
coast, which forms a continuous series of good 
harbors. In case of a foreign war, these har¬ 
bors. which all the navies of the world could not 
blockade, would be of the utmost importance to 
tlm country. The first settlement was made in 
1,630, tiic State was admitted into the Union In 
1820, and the present population numbers 028,000. 
I The motto on the seal, “ IHrit/o," signifies “I 
Maine is sometimes called “The Pine- 
A railroad 
Facts about Railroad Speed 
car moves about seventy-four feet, or nearly 
twice its own length, in a second. At this ve¬ 
locity the locomotive driving wheel, six feet in 
diameter, makes four revolutions in a second, 
the piston rod tlius traversing the cylinder eight 
times. If a horse and carriage should approach 
and cross a track at the rate of six miles an 
hour, an express train approaching at the mo¬ 
ment would move toward it two hundred and 
fifty-seven feet while it was in the act of cross¬ 
ing; if the horse moved no faster than a walk, 
the train would move toward it more than five 
hundred feet, which fact accounts for the many 
accidents at such points. When the locomotive 
whistle is opened at the post eighty rods from 
the crossing, the train will advance near one 
hundred feet before the sound of tho whistle 
traverses the distance to, and Is heard at, the 
crossing. 
ited more comment than did that which resulted, 
on the loth of January last, in Mr. Cobkuno’s 
election to represent the State of New York in 
the United States Senate for six years from the 
1th of March instant. The universal testimony 
of the journals of the country, of both parties, 
was that his eminent abilities litted him for, and 
bis faithful services in the House entitled him 
to, the high honor. And in addition to liia 
other qualifications, one of the many corres¬ 
pondents who commented on his election assures 
the public that ho “ knows how to ‘strike from 
the shoulder’ ”— which is said to be an impor¬ 
tant accomplishment to a legislator Itia not 
often that so young a mao is called to so high 
a position with such flattering and complete 
i omens of success. 
Hoscoe Conkuno, the original of the portrait 
above, was bom in Albany in 1828. Ho received 
a liberal education, adopted the profession or 
law, Bcttlod in Utica in 184(1, and in 1849 was ap¬ 
pointed District Attorney for Oneida county, in 
1858 he was elected to Congress, and has bceu 
retained in his seat by re-elections ever since. 
His record there has been an uncommonly clear 
one, and he is recognized as the leader Of the 
New York delegation. He has bccu pi eminent 
as a member of the Committee of Fifteen, to 
which was chiefly intrusted the work of recon¬ 
struction, and has shown himself not only bril¬ 
liant in the more showy parts of legislative 
business but thoroughly conversant with all tho 
details of its every-day work. Seldom has any con¬ 
test of the kind attracted more attention or elic- 
direct. 
Tree State, 
child needs the education 
needs it; your country needs it; the world needs 
it; and God demands it. Perhaps some may 
excuse, themselves for the reason that they arc 
poor; but, even though you are poor, and all 
that yon have of this world’s riches is earned by 
the sweat of the brow and the hand which is 
blackened and hardened by tho tolls of this Life, 
even then raise yourself from the dust of the 
earth; for you are the honest poor, the uobility j 
of this world; and while you toil on you are ; 
carrying out the great work which God himself 
commenced. Six thousand years ago this world 
was hurled into indefinite space by an Almighty 
hand; and here it was left In its rough and natu¬ 
ral state for the hand of man to hew down its 
mountains, chisel off its corners, bring forth 
from the rough, unhewn block of marble the 
life-like statues and erect everywhere Its tower¬ 
ing steeples which proclaim the belief in a Su¬ 
preme Being. 
In conclusion, don’t grasp your money too 
closely, or consider your time too precious to 
spend a little In visiting schools; for, if you do, 
there will be a call ere long from the Empire 
State for your dust, and it will have to come. If 
there is not a reformation in some of our schools, 
we shall be compelled to have another State 
prison and lunatic asylum built on a large plan 
and a wing added to our new idiot asylum. Let 
not poverty or the glittering dust of the earth 
keep your child from the school-room; and, of 
all things that yon will to posterity, will them 
an education, and with God’s help teach them 
how to live, so that when uature dissolves, when 
’tis said “dust thou art, and to dust must re¬ 
turn,” then the soul, the educated part, will he 
prepared for tho great change, prepared to meet 
its Creator, prepared for the world beyond the 
river. Libbie. 
Geddes, Feb. 2,186*. 
For Moore’s Rural New-Yorker. 
SHEEP ENIGMA. 
NEW HAMPSHIRB. 
New Hampshire was one of the original thir¬ 
teen States. Tho first settlements were made at 
Dover and Portsmouth in 1023. It was made a 
province separate from Massachusetts iu 1679, 
and adopted the Federal Constitution June 21st, 
1788. The State lies between latitudes 41° 42' 
and 46° 11 N., and longitudes 70° 40’ and 72° 30' 
W., containing 9,280 square miles. Its present 
population ia 326,000. The chief occupations 
of the inhabitants are Indicated on the coat-of- 
arrns, given above. It ia known as “ The Granite 
State.” 
forth warmth and comfort that was hospitable 
in its homeliness; while, the warm, hearty wel¬ 
come wc received compensated for all. Here 
is the very ample and truly luxurious bill of 
faro:—Roast spare rib ami turnip; chicken and 
potatoes; sausages; a back bone pic, mado of a 
pig’s back-bone; beets and pickles. In true 
Southern style all were desired to lay hold and 
help themselves to that they liked best. Des¬ 
sert— pumpkin pie, tarts, cakes, honey, pre¬ 
serves, and very nice boiled custards iu tum¬ 
blers. How much better this than the more 
dainty hospitality of the North, whore you are 
often placed in a cold, musty room that lias not 
been warmed for a month or more; the bright, 
unused carpet seems to demur to your clay- 
stained boots; even the gilded spittoon beside 
you scorns to say, * L am only to look at., not to 
spit in.’ Then every movement of maid or mat¬ 
ron proclaims their uneasiness, and how much 
trouble you have made them; fidgety fear lest 
she should violate conventional rules frightens 
away the self-possession of your hostess; and 
you feel bo ill at case that, you long for the true 
homespun hospitality and primitive comforts of 
the Old North State kitchen.” 
The schoolmistress says of her friends that, 
although they live in such dilapidated quarters, 
without either wood house, cook stove, or con¬ 
veniences by us considered indispensable, they 
are not poor whites, but, in the vernacular of 
the country, “ mighty nice people that raise 
craps." Iu point of information and culture, 
the whites were below her expectation; but the 
blacks were above it. Over one hundred fami¬ 
lies of freedmen have already purchased homes 
in that region; aud she thinks they are much 
better off mere than they would be at tho North, 
where they would come into unpleasuut com¬ 
petition with the Irish, their natural enemies. 
If you want to provoke a freed black, call him 
a smoked Irishman. lxxvi. 
I am composed of 20 letters. 
My 1,15,18, 8,17 arc very useful to sheep. 
My 3, 6, 0,10 Is what sheep do not have. 
My 4,19, fi, 9, 5, 9, 15 Is a fine place for sheep to feed. 
My 18,11, 12, 8 sheep ftre very fond of. 
My 20, 9, 111 Is what shepherds often do t,o sheep in « 
decoction of tobacco. 
My 7,14, G, 19,11,10, 8,3, 5 is what I wish every sheep 
dealer possessed. 
My whole is an excellent sheep book. 
Alabama, N. Y. Albert. 
839“ Answer In two weeks. 
A NEW ELEMENT IN AET. 
A painter of miniatures recently exhibited 
a collection of portraits, with labels attached, 
one of which read thus :—“ Countess Ori.oke of 
Russia, whose income is $25,000 per day.” What 
particular connection there was between the 
roubles of the fair Russian and the skill of 
the artist, we wore unable to determine. Has 
modern art criticism established such a rule as 
—the greater the “pile” the greater tin* paint¬ 
ing? Or is the announcement intended to be 
of similar effect as if it were stated that a land¬ 
scape had been drawn liy a man standing poised 
on one foot on top of a church spire? — the 
painter being expected to tremble in the awful 
presence of twenty-five thousand dollars a day. 
Are we to take it for granted that a lady with 
nine million dollars a year for pin money will 
be so elaborate In her “make up” that only 
the sublimest genius and the subtlest art are 
equal to the task of portraying her with accu¬ 
racy ? * 
In truth, this use of financial statements a?, 
personal characteristics is a vulgar absurdity to 
which Americans are too much addicted. And 
the publication of income lists, whatever may 
be its use in the way of correcting errors, inten¬ 
tional or otherwise, is to be deplored for en¬ 
couraging a reprehensible curiosity and giving 
factitious importance to that which is already 
too powerful. Where a mau has made it his 
ambition to amass wealth, and has met with 
notable success, though the object is not the 
most elevated, it may be well enough to men¬ 
tion it, j-ust as wc would mention any other 
successful achievement. For making money is 
proof of a certain amount ol‘ ability. But to 
give one prominence for accidental or inherited 
wealth is like making a hero of a man because 
he has crossed the ocean in the Great Eastern, 
or received a message through the cable, or be¬ 
cause he has had a cow struck by lightning. 
An artist, of ail men, should be above such 
nonsense. 
For Moore’s Rural New-Yorker 
A CHARADE. 
My first is seen in ocean’s depths, 
If one a little pains will take. 
My second, though both deaf and dumb, 
Is valued for the noise it makes. 
My whole I greatly do admire, 
And often seek through bush and brake. 
Mystic, Ct. Mary Walky 
X3T Answer In two weeks. 
VERMONT. 
Vermont, lying between the Connecticut river 
and Lake Champlain,has an area of 10,212 square 
miles. The surface is lillly, and Borne peaks of 
the Green Mountain range, which traverses the 
State from north to south, rise over 7,000 feet 
above the sea. Wool is the staple production; 
but great numbers of horses and cattle arc raised 
also. It was admitted into the Union in 1791. 
The present population is 815,000. Its poetical 
name Is “The Green Mountain State.” 
For Moore’s Rural New-Yorker 
ARITHMETICAL PROBLEM. 
A tract of land is to be laid out in form of an 
equal square, and to be enclosed with a post and rail 
fence fi rails high so that ouch rod of fence shall con¬ 
tain ten rails. How large must this noble square bo 
to contain just as many acres, aa there are ruilB in tho 
fence that encloses it, so that every rail shall fence an 
acre* t. w. c. 
Red House, N. Y. 
Answer in two weeks. 
FIFTEEN YOUNG MEN 
At a respectable boarding-house in New i ork, 
a number of years ngo, were fifteen young men. 
Six of them uniformly appeared at the break¬ 
fast-table on Sabbuth morning, shaved, dressed, 
and prepared for public worship, which they 
attended both forenoon and afternoon. All be¬ 
came highly respected and useful citizens, lhe 
other nine were ordinarily absent from the break¬ 
fast-table on Sabbath morning. At noon they 
appeared at the dinner-table, shaved and dressed 
in a decent munm r. In tho afternoon they went 
out, but not ordinarily to church; nor were they 
usually seen in the place of worship. One of 
them Ls now living and in a reputable employ¬ 
ment; the oilier eight became openly vicious. 
All these failed In business, and are now dead. 
Some of them came tc> an untimely aud awfully 
tragic end. Many a man may say, at did a worthy 
and wealthy citizen, “The keeping of the Sab¬ 
bath saved me,” It will, If duly observed, save 
all. In the language of its author, “They shall 
ride upon the high places of earth.” 
Written for Moore’s Rural New-Yorker. 
SENDING CHILDREN TO FREE SCHOOL 
ANSWERS TO ENIGMAS, &c., IN No. 892 
Answer to Enigma: 
Note.—W e have received several solutions of the 
enigma published two weeks ago, none of which are 
quite correct. The following is the author’s: 
If to solve me you’re inclined, 
The following process yon will find 
Direct and easy, short and plain. 
And sure to unravel the tangled skein 
First let my parts be duly scanned 
And left In order as they 6t«nd; 
And when i <> you the meaning’s clear. 
The following distich will appear; 
“ The cock crows at morn 
To herald the dawn, 
Then descends from liis roost 
To search for his toast.” 
You’ve got the clue—my parts are found; 
Yet still the whole is In mystery bound. 
But the final figures for letters exchanged, 
Will show you how the whole is arranged: 
“Alternation of letters will rend the fetters." 
To apply the suggestion, yon will now proceed 
The odd numbers first, then the e>:en to read. 
All mystery vanishes—there's nothing occult, 
While the long-sought couplet proclaims thu result: 
“ He is cornered at last 
And now make him fast.” 
Answer to Anagram: 
Our flag on the land, our flag on the occaD, 
An aitgel of peace wherever it goes,. 
Nobly sustained by Columbia’s devotion, 
The angel of death it -hall be to our foes. 
True to Its native sky 
8 till shall our eagle fly 
Casting his sentinel glances afar: 
Tho’bearing the olive branch. 
Still in six talons -1 much 
Grasping thebolU of the thunders of war. 
Tiie Waterloo Wooleu Company has dis¬ 
charged over twenty boys and girls uuder 
twelve years of age, os the only way they can 
induce the children’s parents to send them to 
school. Hereafter no children arc to he em¬ 
ployed iu the mill, who do not bring a school¬ 
master's certificate that they have had at least 
one quarter’s schooling within the current year. 
Strange as it appears, when the villages are so 
severely taxed to build large school houses, and 
to pay high salaried teachers, male and female, 
the poorer classes of the people, for whose free 
schooling the law was made, arc least benefited 
by it; because, with that false logic which keeps 
them forever poor, they think that which costs 
nothing is worth nothing. I know one very 
small freeholder who grumbled at paying a 
school tax because he kept his own children 
from school. * 
Written for Moore’s Rural New-Yorker 
WHAT IS SHODDY 1 
Twenty-five years ago woolen rags in Eng¬ 
land sold at $20 the ton and only for manure. 
Now they are sold there at $200 lhe ton, to be 
made into cloth. There is hut one factory in 
the United States where shoddy is made into 
cloth; but iu Leeds and its vicinity clotii to the 
value of $15,000,000 is annually manufactured 
from shoddy; and it ia supposed if the supply 
was stopped iu England, as our Senate have 
lately prohibited it by tariff enactment from the 
United States, it would close; one-tliird of the 
woolen mills in the United Kingdom. It would 
seem that our grave Senators are horrified at 
tho idea of wearing a shoddy coat of home 
manufacture, while they daily wear unwittingly 
one whose components, in part at least, come 
from the foreign Jew’s rag-bag. It was dis¬ 
closed at the great London Exhibition, in 1862, 
that sixty-five million pounds of shoddy was 
annually consumed in England. w. 
Written for Moore's Rural New-Yorker. 
SOCIAL LIFE IN NORTH CAROLINA 
A schoolmistress for colored children, em¬ 
ployed by the Society of Friends Freedmen’s 
Aid, writes from the interior of the “Old North 
State,” that she accepted an invitation to dine 
with a family who sent a wagon and mules for 
her aud her friend. “ The ride was four circuit¬ 
ous miles, through woods part of the way, which 
the raw-boned team accomplished much better 
than was expected with such a primitive wagon. 
I found ouv destination a very old house with 
plenty of rubbish aud dilapidated, tumble-down 
buildings around it, The house was unplastered 
and almost wiudowless; but sluiwls were put 
up to keep out the wiud; ami tho large fire¬ 
place, filled with blazing pitch-pine logs, sent 
Our passions never wholly die; but in the 
last cantos of life’s romantic epic, they rise tip 
again and do battle, like sonic of Ariosto’s he¬ 
roes, who have already been quietly interred and 
ought to be turned to dust. 
A member of Congress once said: — “ What 
the honorable gentleman has just asserted I con¬ 
sider as catamount to a denial.” “I presume,” 
replied his opponent, “ that the honorable gen¬ 
tleman means tantamount. I am not so igno¬ 
rant of our language as not to be aware that 
catamount and tantamount are not anonymous.” 
Let us give ill-humor aud anger ample room 
within, to be hunted and run dead against the 
inner walls of brain and heart; for it is easy, if 
the wolf in the heart- is killed, to be outwardly 
like lambs. 
*>ur most intimate friend is not he to whom 
we show the worst, but the best of our nature. 
Toe lawyer’s motto—Be brief 
