either side twisted wire rings or “keepers,” 
through which the Egyptian finger passes to 
hold all more secnre. “ Regard rings ” were in 
vogue in Europe not long ago, the 6tones so 
selected and arranged as to spell the word thus: 
R—Ruby. 
E — Emerald 
G —Garnet. 
A — Amethyst. 
R —Ruby. 
D — Diamond. 
These were of French origin, and sometimes 
spelled names. Princess Alexandra, of Wales, 
is said to have one with her familiar name, 
“ Bertie,” thus spelled. 
WELL BORN PEOPLE 
Parents transmit their organization and 
character to their children. What father or 
mother is there who would not wish to leave 
his Issue a great estate of human virtue,—in their 
bone and muscles, health, strength, longevity, 
beauty, and in their soul, wisdom, justice, benev¬ 
olence, piety, rather than the opposite of all 
these? Everything must bear fruit after its 
kind, year after year. Men do not gather grapes 
of thorns nor figs of thistles. Men talk of good 
birth and blood. No man honors the well horn 
more than I; bnt who are they ? In America we 
say the sons and daughters of the rich; wealth 
is nobility; its children are well born. In Eu¬ 
rope we arc told they are the children of Lords 
and Kings. O foolish men! Of all the children 
of European royalty for eighty years there has not 
been born one who, In common life, would 
have won the smallest distinction. 
Among the decent people of Europe, kings of 
all others, are the most ill-born. Where do the 
rich families of New England go in the third 
generation ? Look over Boston and see whence 
come the noble talents, the great virtue, the 
poetry, the science, the eloquence, the literature, 
which adorn the land? They are not rocked in 
golden cradles. It is not royalty in Europe or 
wealth in America, which Is father and mother 
to the great masterly talent which controls and 
urges on the great mass of the people with its 
mind and conscience, heart and soul. No! it is 
the children of wholesome industry, of intelli¬ 
gence, morality and religion, who are the well¬ 
born. Virtue is nobility; all else is bnt the 
paint men write its name with. Health, strength, 
beanty —still more, wisdom, integrity, philan¬ 
thropy, religion — these arc well-born, noble, 
yes, royal if you will, for they are the kingly 
virtues of humanity, and whoso has them, 
though he be cradled amongst cattle, he only is 
the best born of men. Who is there who would 
not covet that royalty for himself, and still more 
achieve it for hie daughter and his son, that, 
when his bones are crumbling in some obscure 
churchyard, in his children the strong and flame¬ 
like flower of virtue may blossom fair and ripen 
its seed, and sow the green earth gladsomely 
withal ? — Parker. 
Written for Moore's Rural New-Yorker, 
USELESS. 
To be the thing we seem. 
To do the thing we deem 
Enjoined by duty; 
To walk in faith, not dream 
Of questioning God’s scheme 
Of truth and beauty. 
Casting self-love aside, 
Discarding human pride 
Our hearts to measure 1 
In humble hope to bide 
Each change in fortune’s tide. 
At God’s own pleasure. 
To trust, although deceived; 
Tell truth, tho' not believed; 
Falsehood disdaining; 
Patient of ills received; 
To pardon when aggrieved ; 
Passion restraining, 
With love no wrong can chili, 
To save, unwearied still, 
The weak from falling; 
This is to do God’s will 
On earth, and to fulfil 
Our heavenly calling. 
She was a Phantom of Delight 
When first she gleamed upon my sight; 
A lovely Apparition, sent 
To be a moment’s ornament; 
Her eyes as utars of twilight fair; 
Like twilight’s too, her dusky hair; 
Bnt all thing* else about her drawn 
From May-time’s brightest, liveliest dawn; 
A dancing Shape, an Image gay, 
To haunt, to startle and way-lay. 
I saw her upon nearer view, 
A spirit, yet a woman too I 
Her household motions light and free, 
And steps of virgin liberty; 
A countenance in which did meet 
Sweet records, promise* as sweet; 
A creature not too bright or good 
For human nature’s dally food; 
For transient sorrows, simple wiles. 
Praise, blame, love, hisses, tears and smiles. 
And now I see with eye serene 
The very pulge of the machine; 
A Being breathing thoughtful breath, 
A Traveler between life and death; 
The reason firm, the temperate will. 
Endurance, foresight, strength and skill; 
A perfect Woman, nobly planned. 
To warm, to comfort and command ; 
And yet a Spirit still, and bright 
With something of an angel-light. 
[Wordsworth. 
Dreaming anywhere on earth to find 
Sweetness save with bitterness combined. 
Thinking confidence of man Is gained 
By betraying confidence obtained 
Envying riches that your neighbor shares 
Whilst you would not take his wealth and cares, 
Letting precious years go idly round 
Whilst the richest, labi^flclds abound. 
{ 
Grnmhlilng over adverse, cruel fate, 
Lacking heart to lahor and to wall. 
Wasting present hoars that flee so fast, 
Grieving over misspent moments past. 
Longing for that which beyond you lies, 
Whilst that in your reach you do not prize. 
Trusting that your slu shall bring no corse, 
Since another mortal has done worse. 
Thinking that yourself you glorify, 
If another’s faults you magnify. 
Seeking greatest happiness in life, 
By among your neighbors kindling etrife. 
Playing Christian in your Sunday talk, 
Whilst you cheat men in your dally walk. 
• 
Vainly boasting of the golden store 
Lucky wind has wafted to your door. 
Which, upon some coming evil day, 
Adverse wind may boar as quick away. 
Looking with a hateful, haughty pride 
On some humbler mortal at your side; 
For, beneath a coat most soiled and tom, 
Who knows but a manly heart is borne 1 
THE CHILDREN 
Not without design has God implanted in the 
paternal breast that strong love of their children 
which is felt every-where. This lays deep and 
broad the foundation for the child's future edu¬ 
cation from parental hands. Nor without design 
has Christ commanded, “Feed my lambs,”— 
meaning to inculcate upon his Church the duty 
of caring for the children of the Church and the 
world at the earliest possible period. Nor can 
parents and all well-wishers to humanity be too 
earnest aud careful to fulfill the promptings of 
their very nature and the command of Christ in 
this matter. 
Influence is as quiet and imperceptible on 
the child's mind as the falling of Bnow-flakes 
on the meadow. One cannot tell the hour when 
the human mind is not in the condition of re¬ 
ceiving impressions from exterior moral forces. 
In innumerable instances, the most secret and 
unnoticed influences have been in operation for 
months and even years to break down the strong¬ 
est barriers of the human heart, and work out 
its moral min, while yet the fondest parents aud 
friends have been unaware of the working of 
such onsecn agents of evil. Not all at once 
does any heart become utterly bad. The error 
is In this: that parents are not conscious how- 
early the seeds of vice and virtue are sown and 
take root. It is as the Gospel declares, “ While 
men slept, the enemy came and sowed tares, and 
went his way.” 
If this then is the error, how shall it be correct¬ 
ed, and what is the antidote to be applied! Why 
this—if wc have “slept” over the early susccp- 
Written for Moore’e Rural New-Yorker, 
JEWISH FIDELITY TO DUTY. 
A gentleman being lately a passenger on one 
of the railroads of our State, was compelled to 
journey through the night. As daylight began 
to spread abroad he noticed, seated in front of 
him, two men, evidently foreigners, with the 
peculiar swarthy appearance of the Portuguese, 
to which nationality he immediately assigned 
them. But a little time elapsed ere each of the 
two drew from a small traveling sack beside 
him a long, leathern strap, covered with strange 
characters and terminating with a small block of 
wood similarly carved, which he proceeded to 
wind firs! about his wrists and arms, and so 
trailed over his shoulders that the strap passed 
up the back of his head and permitted the block 
to be brought directly upon his forehead. This 
arrangement consummated, he began earnestly to 
repeat, in a suppressed voice, with closed eyes, 
words of unknown import, but which were 
readily inferred to be bis morning prayer. The 
exercise was continued for quite a length of 
time, hut finally ceased; the strap was unwound 
aud again deposited in its place, an easy posture 
assumed, and a long breath drawn, as of satis¬ 
faction at having faithfully discharged a duty, as 
he turned his eye6 to see wbat passed outside 
the window. 
Our traveler, having viewed the whole scene 
with emotions of surprise and curiosity, now 
ventured respectfully to address one of the pair, 
aud in answer to his questions wus told, “I am 
an Hebrew, and these were my morning devo¬ 
tions.” The whole ceremony now was plain, 
and the literal fulfillment of the law of Moses 
apparent:—“ Ye shall lay up these my words in 
your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a 
sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets 
between your eyes. And ye shall teach them to your 
children , speaking of therm when thou fittest in 
thine house and when thou walked by the way , when 
thou lied down and when thou finest up. Aud thou 
shalt write them upon the door-posts of thine 
house aud upon thy gates.” 
None could fail to respect the earnestness and 
fidelity with which these traveling Israelites, in 
a foreign land, among strangers, in a public con¬ 
veyance, exposed, to the gaze of the curious and 
unconcerned, maintained the duties of their 
faith and the. practices which have come down 
to them from their fathers of the remotest peri¬ 
ods. And to their fellow traveler, a believer in 
that Messiah whom these Hebrews reject, was 
convcye-d a lesson which taught him to be as 
prompt, as unfailing and sincere in rendering 
homage aud thanks to the Divine Being, who, 
at home or abroad, while traveling or at rest, 
equally protects and blesses the Hebrew and the 
Christian. 
In further conversation our traveler repeated 
to the Hebrew the first verse of Genesis—“In 
the beginning God created the heaven aud the 
earth ”—and asked to hear ponounced the He¬ 
brew name of Deity. “ That is a sacred word, 
and I may not pronounce it all alone; I may 
read or apeak it only with other words.” What 
Christian, with his boasted superior light, and 
under the advanced gospel dispensation, will 
claim that he equally reverences the saered name 
of Him who spake the universe into existence ? 
Though we lament that these dispersed descend¬ 
ants ol' the Patriarchs refuse the prophet like 
unto Moses, whom their great Lawgiver fore¬ 
told, and will not have him for their Saviour, yet 
let us acknowledge their distinguishing rever¬ 
ence aud regard for the God of Jacob and His 
worship. Benj. W. Scobet. 
Watkins, N. Y., August, 1807. 
FINGER RINGS, 
Let us close our cabinet by a few more speci¬ 
mens, old and new, English, Venetian and 
Egyptian. 
Written for Moore’s Rural New-Yorker. 
COUNTRY SKETCHES,-No. IV. 
Swiftly the flying reapers sped over the undu¬ 
lating country, and the broad golden fields were 
shorn of their rich harvest, quickly by busy 
bauds were the sheaves gathered together, mer¬ 
rily the great wagons creaked under their weighty 
burdens, and anon the garners of the land were 
filled to overflowing. Never before was there 
a more bounteous bestowal of the gifts of pro¬ 
duce—never before was there a more prosperous 
season to secure these abundant stores. 
Oh, ye who have thus been generously dealt 
with, consider that the Hand that has given 
unto you is broad, and free and unsparing of 
its blessings, and learn a lesson! 
When the gladno^e iu your hearts wells up 
Into a tribute of thanksgiving, think that as our 
Father hath accompanied our labor with good 
gifts, perhaps it may be our duty, when it lies 
in our power, to gfse gladness to the hearts of 
our fellow-travelers in the journey of life, and 
THE BEAUTY OF YOUTH, 
How beautiful is youth,—early manhood, early 
womanhood, how wonderfully fair! What fresh¬ 
ness of life, cleanness of blood, purity of breath! 
What hopes! There is nothing too much for the 
young man or maid to put into their dreams. 
No picture of ideal excellence of manhood or 
womanhood that I ever drew that seems too high 
or beautiful for these young hearts. What aspi¬ 
rations ! How beautiful the instinctive affec¬ 
tions with their purple prophesyjof new homes, 
and generations yet to be. 
Hie high instincts of reason, conscience, love, 
religion,—bow beautiful and grand in the young 
heart. I love to see the pure eyes beaming with 
goodness aud hope, to see the unconscious joy 
of such young souls, longing for the heaveu we 
are to fashion here. 
So have I seen in early May, among the New 
Euglaud hills, the morning springing in the 
sky, and gradually thinning off the stars that 
hedge about the cradle of the day; and all cool, 
and fresh, and lustrous came the morning light, 
and a few birds sang, prophets ol‘ many more; 
and ere the sun was fairly up you 6aw the pink 
buds of apple trees and scented the violets, and 
thought what a fresh and lordly day was coming 
up the eastern sky.— detected. 
Fig. I. 
Here is a “gimmel ring” from the Londea 
boro collection, both open and closed. 
fellow-travelers in the journey of life, and 
not turn aside our bast, impulses and coldly say, 
“ I have little for injwell'und none to spare.” 
Life iu a country home is somewhat monoto¬ 
nous, but our young friends iu the little Anson 
farm-house were too buoyant with the glad spirit 
of youth, aud too much absorbed by the novelty 
of their new duties to feel that the days were 
long and tedious, or be preyed upon by that 
banc of fashionable idlers— otnui. Everything 
did not move in perfect harmony. There were 
rats in the cellar, and mice in the cupboards, 
and the cat caught the chickens, and the bread 
wouldn’t rise, and Susan looked sour, and Jane 
scolded. Then again the cloud* lifted, the atmos¬ 
phere brightened, aud there was sunshine. 
Mary was the presiding genius of the estab¬ 
lishment. I wish I could make you acquainted 
with her as wc knew her. But even if I conld 
paint a true picture it would be little like the 
living, breathing reality. She. possessed the 
rare faculty of doing everything without seeming 
to do it. She made no hustle or splutter about 
anything, but what she set to do was speedily 
accomplished. Let her be in a topsy-turvy 
room half an hour and the dust fled, ev erything 
assumed its proper place, and order reigned 
throughout,— a kind of quiet, graceful order 
that never repelled—and meanwhile you would 
hardly know there was anything going on in 
the house, while if Jane had arranged the same 
room, all the windows would have gone up with 
a squeak, the doors opened with a slam, every 
chair been set down so as to make a noise, and 
there would have been a kind of general con¬ 
fusion of things, until finally It would have all 
come back to its original condition. 
Out on the farm Robert's work of improve¬ 
ment went steadily ahead, Besides doing the 
accessary work of the season, a nice piece of 
new wall made its appearance in place of an old 
rickety fence. The barns were new-sided and 
shingled, the apple orchard grafted, the weeds 
trimmed out of the fence comers, and the place 
began to assume a more thrifty aspect even iu 
this short time. And the neighbors, riding past, 
nodded their heads, and pointed their Augers 
that way,—some to 1 praise his Industry and cal¬ 
culation, others croaking that young farmers 
thought too much of looks, and did not keep 
6t.eadilv enough iu view the almighty dollar. 
On the little low porch over which run a Vir¬ 
ginia creeper, clinging its tendrils to the mossy 
shingles aud swaying down Its shining, lingered 
leaves in graceful clusters, the family group 
gathered together to speud the pleasautest of all 
hours —the summer twilight. Bert, extended 
at full length on the floor, played with a little 
frolicsome Maltese kitten, aud the others laid 
away their sewing aud their books and joined 
their voices in singing some sweet sad song. 
But their glad young hearts had never felt the 
keen, hitter edge of grief aud suffering cut down 
into their depths, and though their singing 
floated dear and melodious out upon the sum¬ 
mer air, yet they could never stir the pathos 
that inspired the author of the song. 
Home, Aug. 1867. Erie. 
Fig. 2. Fjo. 8. 
Fig. 8 is an exquisite Venetian ring of the Six¬ 
teenth Century,— three raised stones with gold 
ornaments pendent from each, and set with gar¬ 
nets, that the gold and stones may move freely 
and glitter with every motion of the hand. Fig. 
8 is an East Indian ring with pear-shaped silver 
drops, beautifully wrought, afllxed to its center, 
which make a soft, jingling noise, as the hands 
move. 
MOSLEM MANNERS. 
The Paris correspondent of the New York 
World says that the Sultan is very remiss In 
those petite soins, which civilized cavaliers ren¬ 
der to the female sex. In the course of the pro¬ 
ceedings it, became proper that he should offer 
his arm to the Empress, Instead of which he 
turned her the most frigid of cold shoulders, and 
sauntered away solitary from her, a manner of 
proceeding more cavalier than chlvalric. An 
officious Embassador pursued the sauntering 
Sultan, to recall him to a sense of propriety, 
but Abdul became suddenly deaf, and wouldn’t 
be recalled. And when tho Sultan came to the 
dais, he mounted to that emiueuce slowly and 
alone, utterly careless that the Empress was 
coming up several steps behind him. Perhaps 
it was a knowledge of these little social idiosyu- 
cracies which modified the preparations made in 
England for the Sultan’s reception. The same 
correspondent thus describes the Commander of 
the Faithful:—He is a veiy corpulent man, with 
a small head aud diminutive features, and his 
people are afraid he will die of apoplexy before 
he can reach his native kingdom—a frightful 
catastrophe. 
FRIENDSHIP 
Life is to be fortified by many friendships. 
To love and to be loved is the greates^"happi¬ 
ness of existence. If I lived under the burning 
sun of the equator it would be a pleasure to me 
to think that there were human belng6 on the 
other side of the world who regarded and re¬ 
spected me; I could not aud would not live if I 
were alone upon the earth and cut off from the 
remembrance of my fellow-creatures. 
It is not that a man has occasion to fall back 
upon the kindness of his friends. Perhaps he 
may never experience the necessity of doing so; 
but we are governed by our imaginations, aud 
they stand there as a solid bulwark against all 
the evils of life. Friendship should be formed 
with persons of all ages aud conditions, and with 
both sexes. I have a friend who is a bookseller, 
to whom I have been very civil, and who would 
do anything to serve me; and I have two or 
three small friendships among persons iu much 
humbler walks of life, who, I verily believe, do 
me ft considerable kindness according to their 
means. I am for a frank explanation with 
friends in cases of affronts. They sometimes 
save a perishing friendship, and even place it 
upon a firmer basis than at first; hut secret 
discontent must always end badly. —-Sidney 
Smith. 
Fig. 4. Fig. 5. 
Here is a memorial riug, a fine diamond set in 
oval rim, with a concealed spring, which being 
pressed flings hack the 6tone and reveals beneath 
an enamel portrait of Charles I. This might 
have been worn by some faithful royalist in 
Cromwell’s days. Fig. 5 is a lugubrious de¬ 
vice. Skeleton figures support a sarcophagus, 
the Ud of which slides oft and rcvcal& a minute 
skeleton within. The skeletons are covered 
with white enamel, and the lid has a Maltese 
cross in red, on a black ground. These doleful 
decorations were a French caprice wheu Diana 
dk Poictiers became the mistress of Henry 
U. She was a widow, and thus obsequious flat¬ 
tery paid court to a gilded courtesan. 
A Bonnet !—In Philadelphia on Tuesday last, 
at Adams’ Express Office directed to the United 
States Hotel, Atlantic City, was a box made of 
larchwood, light almost a6 pasteboard, thus ten¬ 
derly inscribed : 
“to the express agent. 
“ This package contains a duck of a bonnet; 
Expressman, 1 pray you. place nothing upon it. 
’Tis* irunlc of a ribbon, a st raw, and a feather. 
The whole with a postage stamp fastened together. 
Its owner, a damsel, is youthful and fair: 
But, like Flora McFlimsey, has * nothing to 
wear.' 
Beware, then, ICxpressmau 1 I warn you take heed. 
And forward this bonnet with care and with speed,” 
Mount Hobmek, ou the Upper Mississippi, 
was, it is said, named in honor of Harriet Hos- 
mer, who challenged a number of athletic young 
men, on board of the steamboat on which she 
was passing up the river, to beat her in a race to 
the top of the bluff, until then not named. They 
accepted the “gage of battle,” and exerted their 
best efforts to leave her in the rear, but she 
readied Us summit in advance «f all of them, 
though only after a sharp contest; and so the 
admiring citizens of Lansing gave her name 
to this cliff, in honor of the deed she had per¬ 
formed. 
FACTS ABOUT SABBATH SCHOOLS, 
Fig. 6. Fio. 7. 
Modern Egyptians wear many rings. Fig: 6 
being a specimen of those among men of middle 
class; usually of silver, set with stones and 
made at Mecca, the sacred city, sharing, it is 
thought, of its sanctity. Fig. 7 is a hoop of gold 
with pendent ornaments of coral and gold, worn 
by Cairene fashionables. 
How to Cure Calumny. —“ If any one speaks 
ill of thee,” said Epictetus, “ consider whether 
he hath truth on his side; and if so, reform thy¬ 
self, that his censures may not affect thee.” 
Wheu Anaximander was told that the very boys 
laughed at his singing, he said, “Ah, then I 
must learn to sing better.” Plato, being told 
that he had many enemies who spoke ill of him, 
said, “ It is no matter; I shall live so that none 
will believe them.” Hearing at another time 
that an intimate friend of liis had spoken de- 
tractingly of him, he said, “ I am sure he would 
not do it if he had not some reason for it.” 
This is the surest as well as the noblest way of 
drawing the sting out of a reproach, and the 
true method of preparing a man for that great 
and only relief against the pains of" calumny. 
There is said to be iu the library of a Dunker 
in Pennsylvania, a printed manual of Sabbath 
school instruction, compiled by John Wcner, in 
1545. The Duukers came to Pennsylvania iu 
1784, and settled in Montgomery county, and 
there John Weisz established a Sabbath school 
in 1735. Whether the schools established in 
Germany and Pennsylvania were the enterprises 
of individuals or associations does not appear. 
Robert Raikes, generally supposed to be the 
founder of Sabbath schools, opened one in Lon¬ 
don in 1780. Peter Thompson, a Quaker, estab¬ 
lished one iu Philadelphia 1791. Samuel Slater, 
an Englishman, who built the first cot ton factory 
in America, established one in Pawtucket, Rhode 
Island, In 1795. In March of this same year, 
Mrs, Mary Lake, wife of Archibald Lake, an 
Englishman, established a Sabbath school in 
Campus Martins, Marietta, Ohio, and sustained 
it several years. 
Quite a number of women, most of them old 
maids, have issued a call for a convention, stating 
their object to bo “ to gaiu a true knowledge of 
the nature and attributes of men,” We respect¬ 
fully suggest to them that they are not going 
the right way to work. Why don't they get 
married ? 
Young man, are you waiting for some door to 
open into a broad and useful future? Don’t 
wait. Select the door aud pry it open, even 
though you get your fingers pinched. 
Be not aggressive in your expressions of re¬ 
gard ; a dog is never more troublesome than wheu 
he springs joyfully at his master’s return. 
Fig. 8, 
Fig. 8 is solid cast silver with a stone, and on 
