C>itf EfiiifftifK 
Written for Moore's Rural New-Yorker 
BIRD-SONG. 
“■Rackbonb:” Photographed from “The Scalpel.” 
r v Edward H. Dixon, M. D . New Yoik [400ppJ 
Published by U. M. I)e Witt. 13 Frankfort-st., N. Y . 
TIeke is a live work , by a physician of ability, large 
practice, and lar c independence. He paddles his 
own canoe, criticises all humbugs of all schools of 
medical practice, tells incidents of his experience in 
a spicy, earnest, instructive way, and gives a world of 
clear common sense on diet, habits, diseases, &c. 
NEW ^ORLEANS. 
HOW I GOT THERE, AND SOME THINGS I SAW. 
At early morn, before the light 
Has quite dispelled the shades of night, 
Delightful music greets my ear— 
It is the bird-song, sweet and clear. 
O, beauteous birds I your joyful song 
Is ne'er for me too loud or long; 
Though at my door you oft appear, 
You'll ever And a welcome here. 
You sing of Spring, of flowrets wild, 
Of sunny skies, of air so mild. 
Of verdant Helds, of shady wood— 
Your lays all tell me (ion is good. 
Welcome, sweet songsters at my door! 
Sing me yonr cheerful song once more, 
I’ll learn a lesson from your lay, 
And praise my Maker every day. 
New Jersey, 1867. s. 
The events of the last four days have, beeu so 
varied, tlae sights so strange, and the sensations 
created so new, that my mind has hardly yet 
digested them enough to make a letter as inter¬ 
esting as It might otherwise be to a far off reader. 
My business required that I should visit the 
headquarters of (Jen. Ord at Vicksburg, on my 
way to Gen. Sheridan’s at New Orleans. I 
therefore took the route via Chattanooga to 
Memphis. At Atlanta the peculiar topography 
of thmeastern slope of the Blue Ridge range, us 
well as the soil, and forests is iirat. reached, ami 
it continues most of the way to Chattanooga— 
growing more mountainous till you dually pass 
through into the valley of the Tennessee, and 
into the Alleghanian system. After crossing, 
the Yonah limestone appears, and through the 
>’ a u tin; good qualities of 
The Small Fruit Culturist. By A. S. Fueler. 
Ridgewood, N. J. 0 Judd & Co., 41 Park Row N. 
Y. Publishers. — 
A good book and much needed, The preface says, 
“ With the extended cultivation of small fruits in the 
past few years has arisen a demand for practical In¬ 
formation. Every one who owns a rod of ground in 
city or country, wishes to know how to cultivate-it 
and what to plant for market or home No work de¬ 
voted wholly to this has yet appeared." He gathers 
np the views of others, and gives his own large expe¬ 
rience and skill, on the propagating, culture, best 
kinds gathering, marketing, Ac., Ac., in various 
places and climates, of Barberry, Strawberry, Rasp¬ 
berry. Blackberry-, Dwarf Cherry. Currants. Goose¬ 
berry, Cranberry, Ac, —all in the way a man writes 
who has something to say, and In 870 pages he suys 
a great deal. _ 
The Health Reformer's Cook Book ; or How to 
Prepare Food from Grain, Frnits and Vegetables. 
By Mrs. M. L. Jackson. Published by F. W. Hurd 
A Co., office of “ Laws of Life," Dausville, N. Y. 
Let no one put aside this pamphlet of 70 pages 
with a sneer at “ Graham diet/’ It is of high Impor¬ 
tance that bread. Ac., and cooked vegetables and 
fruits, should be healthful and palatable, and to that 
end this work should he read in every home. It is 
filled with recipes in a great variety and with reason# 
wh{/ this or that should be prepared as directed,— 
largely the results Of practical housekeeping at. the 
flimed water cure of Dr. Jackson, where they do set 
a fine table of food, physically healthful, as well as 
palatable. 
‘Maoa" Social Papers. Tuckeman's Papers 
, About Paris. G, P. Putnam A Son, and American 
Written for Moore’s Rural New-Yorker 
OPTICAL ILLUSION. 
“Cherokee country 
limestone tend arc manifest. Fields of wheat, j 
red clover, thO graces in fine pastures, Well de¬ 
veloped stock, and often alongside of a wheat 
field a field of cotton might he seen, just plant¬ 
ed. Some day the upper and southwestern por¬ 
tions of Georgia will rival even the GouCsw 
Valley in extent and variety of products. 
This 1 “Cherokee country” is a marvelous tract of 
land, extending from the upper part of Georgia 
across Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas, and 
into Texas at least. As a farming region proba¬ 
bly it has no superior, or even equal in the 
union —and if the same people who settled 
Western Now York, and from thence the West¬ 
ern States, could have opened it up under the 
same free institutions it would now be the mar¬ 
vel of the world. The time may come when it will 
be safe for Northern men to seek these lands ; 
when it does, let the emigrant look at the “ Cher¬ 
okee lauds," in this State and Alabama, Or fur¬ 
ther east ou either side of the river, before he 
locates. The time has not yet come when the 
prejudices and passions of the secession element 
ill the people has got sufficiently calmed to make 
the residence of a Northern man among them 
desirable. It will come, however. Let a man 
who wants to see how good lands can look drop 
in on Huntsville, Alabama. 
I struck the Mississippi River at Memphis. 
After dinner I walked at once to the bluff near 
the hotel, and for the first time in my life looked 
It is full banks now, and 
Take a common tin tunnel of medium size, 
(say six inches iif length.) Immerse the wide 
end in a vessel of water, at the bottom of which 
a coin has been placed, the water being deep 
enough to admit the tunnel being entirely cov¬ 
ered with it. 
Holding the tunnel bv tlio spout pfrsh it down 
| slowly until the 'water nearly covers t!',« e6u!C~l 
part. Holding it thus steadily, hriug the right 
eye close to the spout, and through it look down 
at the coin, and admitting the light in the proper 
direction, notice which side of the coin is up. 
With a quick movement of the hand, suddenly 
push the tunnel downward to the bottom. A 
comical change in the appearance of the coin 
will be the effect; and although the effect on dif¬ 
ferent persons Is not the same, all will admit that 
the illusion iB perfect and pleasing. 
Tt. is better that ft second person hold and op¬ 
erate the tunnel, as the observer may not be 
able to bold It so steadily, and ftt the proper 
depth, and at tin* same time be ready to push it 
down suddenly, upon which the success of tho 
:h depends. 
“ Thei'e's a speckled “beauty!’ 
Crook’s hooks never fail. 
Twenty ounces, plump. Sirs, 
(Iloft him If you doubt -,) 
Silver, gold, and garnets— 
What can match a front? 
Lightly drops the “buckle,” 
Blithely sings the stream, 
Brightly burst the foam-bells 
Like a poet’s dream. 
Splash ! There goes a “ lummer! 
Wldr! and he is out! 
What school Is so charming 
As a school of trout? 
Rattle-snakes! and ’skaters I— 
Wet fetst and burnt races I— 
Who suys anglers’ linee arc 
“Cast in pleasant places?” 
Try It In “ Orem" River; 
But, before yon trout it, 
Just ask Mr. Editor 
What he thinks about it! 
Off before your mother 
Fairly knows you’re out— 
Goodness! ain't it jolly 
Tramping after trout 1 
Tripping over mosses, 
Blippltig over stones, 
Creeping through morasses, 
Chill’d through blood and bones ; 
“Dipping" Into spring-holes. 
Ripping something ont— 
Goodness 1 but ’tie pleasant, 
Whipping after trout. 
Stfiinbiing over saw-logs, 
Where they've made a jam; 
No one ran say thU stream 
Isn’t wetfth a dam: 
Water, “cold ** Mazes" 
Foams yonr feet about; 
Catch your death of—“ Whist man I 
Did you sec that trout?” 
Ply him gently—kindly— 
Horse-hair is but frail: 
experiment very muc 
Will the young folks, through the Rural, give 
their experience with this “Optical Illusion?” 
Williamevillo, N. Y„ 1867. A. B. W. 
DOG STORIES. 
upon the great river, 
spreading destruction over all tho lower count ry. 
For n long distance on the river the country is 
submerged from 80 to 40 miles on each side, and 
for nearly or quite a thousand miles to tho Golf, 
a tract of country, averaging sixty miles in 
width, is covered by the waters of this stream. 
The magnitude of the river is not comprehenod 
at the first view. Like .its kindred wonder, 
Niagara, it will bear acquaintance. Imagine ft 
body of water flowing, when in its banks, at 
least a mile wide and from 00 to 150 feet deep, 
and at the rate of from 5 to 7 miles per hour- 
noiseless as the tread of death, and as irresisti¬ 
ble as time, nowhere smooth and placid, but a 
scries of whirls and and eddies, ever pressing 
on, bearing in its turgid bosom the debris from 
half a Continent. It is tho largest, and longest 
river in the world. The Amazon is often called 
so, but measured by the surface drained, the 
volume of water discharged, and the extent of 
drained into its channel, the 
A gentleman of Statlordsnire, jsngiana, uscu 
to go twice a year to London on horseback, ac¬ 
companied by a dog—a terrier; but, lor feai of 
losing it in the metropolis, he always left it in 
the care of his landlady at St. Albans. Once, 
however, the largo house-dog of the ton and the 
terrier having a quarrel, the terrier was so much 
overmatched that it was with difficulty lie could 
crawl. He went silently away out of the yard, 
and for a week no one knew' what hud become 
of him. He then returned, and brought with 
him u dog both larger and stronger than the one 
by which bo had been beaten, and they both fell 
upon the inn dog and heat him most unmerci¬ 
fully, leaving him half dead. The terrier and his 
friend then disappeared ', and when the gentle¬ 
man, on Ids return from London, culled at the 
inn for ids dog and heard an account of the fight, 
lie gave him up for lost.. On reaching home, 
however, he found the terrier safe, and learned 
that he had come from St. Albans and coaxed 
I away the great house-dog, and then proceeded 
tive condition so long that the balance is de¬ 
stroyed, and nervousness or insanity follow. 
Bleep is that, negative condition in which body 
and spirit renew themselves. Fitly did the poet 
utter his intuitive perception of this,— 
“Tired Nature’s sweet restorer, balmy sleep.” 
Thus, too, wc see why brain muscle and 
stomach should he a* ease, with no work on 
hand to prevent their becoming negative and re¬ 
ceptive. Tax either, by hard study, or thought 
at night, by late labor, or late hearty meals, and 
you demand work, when Nature’s command Is, 
re.it, retire , recuperate for to-morrow' * work. You 
cannot overreach Nature. For a time all may 
mm to go well, especially with powerful con¬ 
stitutions; Lid. the draft must be paid, some¬ 
time, in waning power, in pain and shortened 
life. 
The lesson is -.—Read, think, work, or cat, lit¬ 
tle at evening; rattier recreate so far as possible, 
to supply teams to attend funerals. It was late 
when 1 got to the City Hotel, (which by the way 
1 specially recommend.) I was up early in the 
morning and took a walk to see the mud holes, 
and funeral procession?, A few steps brought 
me to Canal street. I rubbed my eyes to be 
sure I was not dreaming. A broad avenue, 
handsomely paved un'i* well le.pt, a beautiful, 
shaded street, ill its center used for a horac-car 
railroad, and stretching from the river to a long 
way towards tho rear of llie city, was the first 
wonder. No other city has a street that, com¬ 
pares with Canal street, New Orleans. It must 
be seen to be appreciated. In my subsequent 
Demorest’s Monthly Magazine, Ladies Literary 
Companion and Mirror of Fashion. 
Tina beautiful work is not only unrivaled as a 
“ Mirror of Fashion.” with its fine plate* of costumes, 
patterns, <£c , hut It ha? the choicest, muolo and en¬ 
gravings, poems and stories by the best writers, with 
topics of Interest and value for kitchen and nursery, 
as well as parlor. It is brilliant, yet not flashy, but 
sensible, and reflects credit on the womanly tact, and 
the genial feelings and taste of Madame Demorkst, 
who has large share In its management. Published 
at 473 Broadway, New York, at $8 per year. 
Universal Path-Finder, and Business Man’s Pocket 
Companion. By M. N. OlmstBad. J. Miller, 5«S 
Broadway, Publisher. 
Looking along the ISO pages of this compact vol¬ 
ume we find a great deal. The U. 8. Constitution, 
list of naval vessels, army leaders, events of the war, 
size of cities on both continents, valuation of the 
States, &c., &c. A “Vocabulary of Business” is a 
valuable matter,—pages of definitions of business 
terms,—for instauce“ Assets, Funds of one in busi¬ 
ness," <fee. It is just what its name indicates—a 
pocketful of information. 
navigable waters 
Mississippi has no equal on the globe. After 
gazing a long time I turned away tolerably-well 
satisfied that man was rather a small animal in 
the presence of the mighty 
though he hud 
at times fixed hounds to his vagabond waters, 
and would have to do so again or the vast coun¬ 
try now covered by them would cease to bo oi 
value. 
JTbcrc uot being any boat at the time which 
was going below, I sauntered about the town. 
Memphis looked to me very much like a town 
built upon Mississippi mud ttiat. had got a little 
ways out of the river and was making a very 
sickly attempt at hardening. They had some 
street railroads, but the curs were drawn by hip- 
popotamii, who came to the surface at stated 
times to snort. The ties were laid on negroes’ 
Mia# Raven el’s Conversion from Secession to 
Loyalty. By J. N. De Forest. New York : Har¬ 
per & Brothers 
This story or 500 pages will he read, for it deals 
with events and thoughts fresli in millions of minds 
and hearts, and is eloquent and vivid iu description, 
piquant yet not shallow, hut full of feeling, and 
healthy iu tone. The heroine is a New Orleans girl, 
and the incidents reach up the Red River and enter 
the North; with characters and habits such as we are 
familiar with in the varied phases of life brought bc- 
foro us in the live event ful years just closed. Bold by 
Steele & Avery 
EARLY TO BED-EARLY TO RISE, 
Benedicitb. Illustrations of the Power, Wisdom and 
Goodness of God, as Manifest is His Wort s. By 
G C. Child. M. D. G. P Putnam & Son, 061 
Broadway, Publishers. 
A beautiful reprint of an English work, the scope 
of which is explained by its title,— easy in style, ac¬ 
curate in description, broadly catholic in spirit and 
of much value to the intellect by its scientific infor¬ 
mation touching the wondrous phenomenon of Na¬ 
ture. and to the spiritual wants by its recognition of 
the Great 8oul of Things. 
This is the motto of Nature, carolled forth i» 
the glad song of birds at early dawn. All Na¬ 
ture gives and takes, aud thus keeps the bal¬ 
ance. All life is positive and negative by turns, 
throwing off and taking in vital force. 
In his waking and working hours mau over- 
Mental and spirit- 
llows with positive vitality. 
Hal forces glow and radiate from the brain, vital 
powers pulse and thrill through the nerves, aud 
the corded muscles swell with vigor for their fit 
work. As uight comes, the system changes its 
condition, takes in vitality, absorbs magnetic 
power from without, is negative and receptive, 
and in sleep this gathering in of vital forces is 
most perfect. 
Delicate experimeuts by RlEOHBNBACH, an 
able German chemist, show that this positive 
power of tho human system culminates about 
mid-day, and dwindles lowest near midnight. 
Thus we see that sleep should be at an early 
hour, that habit may accord with these subtle 
vital processes, so delicate yet so indispensable 
to best health. Titus, too, we see why early 
sleep rests ns most, coming when the vital powers 
Wc need most 
down the river. It was a clear starlight night, 
and after enjoying the quiet grandeur of the 
und yet ever changing,— 
scene- 
I turned into my state-room, laid myself out on 
a shelf arid slept, dreaming of sailing on a sea 
of muddy chocolate slate. 
The third night I was landed at Vicksburg. 
I loolt- 
Ohxgin of the Name of “Newspapers.”— 
In old times, (between t he year 1595 aud 1780,) it 
was the prevalent practice to put over the peri¬ 
odical publications of the day the initial letters 
of the compass, thus: 
On going to my window in the moruin; 
ed out upon the same wide expausc of waters 
that I had seen during the trip. The little town 
opposite was submerged. Some of the houses 
had floated away, others seemed getting ready, 
and altogether 1 thought I had some idea of the 
feelings of a rat which was floating in a huge 
mud-puddle ou a shingle. I had a decided moist 
feel, and did not really enjoy dry laud until ou 
the cars for Jackson. 
I never had my ideas of a town so completely 
upset as they have been in regard to New Or¬ 
leans. I expected to find a dirty, disagreeable 
town, the principal business of the inhabitants 
drinking mint juleps, gambling, fighting, aud 
cursing, undertakers about as common us truck¬ 
men iu other cities, and the business of hackmen 
By E. Ltnn Linton. New 
Sowing the Wind 
York: Harper & Brothers. 
A hkprint of an English story in a pamphlet of 150 
paces. It has the classic finish and graceful ease of 
the cultured writers of the mother country, and such 
style gives promise of characters and morale of the 
bettor type. For sale by Steele & Avery • 
need to draw into the interior, 
sleep in winter, because greater vitality is need¬ 
ed and expended in re6istiug the cold aud sur¬ 
mounting the rude obstacles in the way of labor 
aud travel iu frigid seasons. 
Wakefulness, long protracted, is au undue 
giving out of vitality, a keeping up of the posi- 
Nature’s Bee Book. A manual for rearing and 
Managing the Italian and Native Bee; the result of 
fifteen years experience. By W. A. Flanders, A. 
M„ of Shelby, Ohio. 
A pamphlet of 70 pages, with cuts of- bees, honey, 
aud hives of the author's invention, lor which many 
premiums have been given. Its style is straight to the 
mark, and therefore of value iu detail and suggestion. 
A valuable addition to the State Geological 
Rooms at Albany — known as the Gould collec¬ 
tion of shells — has just arrived from Boston. 
The collection consists of 60,000 shells, American 
and European, marine, fresh water and laud. 
They cost the State $(5,000. 
A MAN proves himself fit to go higher, who 
shows that he is faithful where he is. A mau 
that will not do well in his present place be¬ 
cause he longs to be higher, is fit ueither to 
be where he is uor yet above it. 
