fV*v • y 
vi . 
ting every sound he heard, no matter what kind, 
and in fact being himself entirely governed by 
sound. He displayed a perfect adoration for 
music, and on a piano boiug brought into the 
house as a present for his master’s daughter, he 
appeared immensely delighted at its sound, and 
being allowed at length to touch the keys, to 
the ustouishment of all present he played over a 
piece which his young mistress laid just before 
performed. He was at this time four years old! 
Gon. Bethune took him to Columhus, where he 
exhibited his marvelous gift before a professor 
of music. Since then he has been playing every 
piece ho heard, and at the age of 18 is a perfect 
marvel. He plays two separate pieces at once, 
and sings a third at the same time; will repro¬ 
duce exactly a piece of music which he has never 
before heard, after heariug it played over once; 
recites, imitates, and reproduces the sound of 
every kind of instrument ou the piano. He is a 
prodigy uuequaled. 
Written for Moore’s Rural New-Yorker. 
LOUNGINGS — No. II 
THE CHILD’S GOOD NIGHT 
BY SYDNEY K, HOLMES, 
Moon, moon, where arc you going 
Through the clouds and over the sky ? 
The crickets are chirping, the night winds are blow¬ 
ing, 
And I’m at my window to bid you good-by. 
Good night, Moon 1 
Good night! 
Stars, you arc sleepy, I know by your winking, 
And your mother, the Moon, comes to put you to 
bed; 
She’ll cover you up, with the clouds, I am thinking. 
And tuck you all In till the morning is red. 
Good night, Stars! 
Good night 1 . 
Birds in their nests and chicks with their mother, 
Lambs in the fold, and calves In the stall: 
I in my tied, and the kits with each other, 
And the same Heavenly Father takes care of us all. 
Good night, All l 
Good night t {The Advance. 
II.--A METROPOLIS. 
Through great stores, with their treasures-of 
literature and art, where glitter in finest array 
the gilt and antique dresses of the old masters 
of literature, far more eloquent than ever in 
their magnificent, silentuess — where, photo- 
sculptured, or chiseled iu marble, are images of 
those we know and love, though perhaps only 
through deed or sutl’eriug for humanity—where 
framed in their dark lintels are stories of yester¬ 
day. pictured in feature or landscape, almost as 
consonant to nature as the curtain wherewith 
Zeuxis was deceived—inner worlds, where one 
can linger for hours, forgetful of the world with¬ 
out, and carry away somany beautiful memories— 
have I been loitering to-day, in the drlftiugness 
of quiet enjoyment. 
— Up and down Broadway, too, which is by 
no means the great wide thoroughfare I once 
imaged, but only a very ordinarily narrow street, 
peeping into windows where tiny girls with 
golden hair ride wonderful horses, which canter 
all day without tiring or going forward in the 
least, and startle you with their naturalness,— 
seeing otherwhere the most elegant furnishings, 
and only the plate glass in front seems to pre¬ 
vent the taking one’s most enjoyable ease on 
the splendid velvet,—jostled continually on the 
hurrying pavement by the jewels and rags, the 
haste and leisure, the beauty and deformity of 
life, mingled more strangely than the pictures of 
the cosmnrama on the corner, more changeful 
than the images of an opium smoker’s dream. 
It is hut a little way — through Bleecker or 
Houston street—to the Bowery, hut if we follow 
the leading'of the long way, we find shadow 
which sunbeams havc^never cast, darkness which 
is not of the night, life which is only dreary ex¬ 
istence. Bast comers whereon human souls are 
being tortured day after day by the burniug 
drink that^has ruined their bodies—past other 
comers where gambling, dark and deep, revels 
high over its dead victims—and still on, where 
the Prince of Darkness seems holding outer 
court all the year — one Bhiulders with aching 
spirit and pitying heart. Shudders for the 
swarms of Gon’s images who have lost every 
trace, save merest, outline, of likeness to their 
Maker —who creep a little way out of under¬ 
ground holes, for a breath of air, foul though it 
be, and are'eursed hack by fiends and devils. 
O New York, New York,— great city of the 
Five Points and ttaeJTen Avenues!—hast thou not 
been wept over, like Jerusalem of old, by Him 
who would have gathered thee, even as a hen 
doth gather her brood under her wings, and 
thou wuuldwljuot! 
Shadowy hands unlock the massive doors now 
and then, and'bld .uslook at the ghastly skeleton 
within; the golden roses, which we imagine 
everlasting, fade and wither even to the hidden 
thorns. Ah! yes,Jand we 
-^tremble by the harmless bed 
Of one loved and departed ; 
Our tears drop on the lips that said 
Last night, ’• Be stronger-hearted! ” 
O God, to clasp those Ungers close 
And yet to feel so lonely! 
To see u light upon such brows 
Whicbtis the daylight only 
Over the river on the splurging steamer which 
gives us two cents’ worth of the Hudson in 
exchange for the coin and two minutes of 
time,— past the great Navy Yard where blue- 
coated sentinels seem pacing on forever,— and 
we reach the high-fenced ground where Brook¬ 
lyn and VVilliamsburgh play so many of their 
games of base ball, — where champions are 
beaten aud fingers disjointed, where thousands 
upon thousands of human beings assemble to 
see less than a score of young men exhibit won¬ 
derful performances — driven hither and thither 
at the will of a little hard sphere which must be 
followed and kept cn regie at all hazards. And 
when some one exerts himself a little more than 
ordinary in the attempted capture, how the mul¬ 
titude cheer aud shout, as if it were any harder 
for the “beautiful play’’ to be made, than for 
the lookers-on to open their throats iu applause. 
Through Spruce street, with its stores of hides 
and leather, those necessities to human “ under¬ 
standings," —>long Nassau street, looking into 
dim book shops^where one oftentimes can pick 
up treasures cheaper than a song’6 price,— by 
Beekman street, where so many of those tiny 
levers which move the world are fashioned, 
shaped into little shining type, which few people 
know much about, except to find fault with in 
their newspaper, when one gets frolicsome and 
stands on its head. Wonderful types — telling, 
as Frank Taylor says, of a wedding yesterday, 
and announcing a burial to morrow, perhaps in 
the self-same letters. A world of themselves, 
with something in it as beautiful as spring, as 
rich as summer, mid as grand as autumn; flow¬ 
ers that frost cannot wither, fruit that shall 
ripen to all time. 
And so the day passes, and I stroll in where 
the gorgeous transformations at Niblo’s are still 
delighting—the scenes too fairy-like to be only 
stage work, but a sort of realization of child¬ 
hood’s images of wonderland, and which linger 
in memory like dreams of the possible existence 
we are always fancying. 
If I were not addicted to sleeping soundly, 
and my dreamings were not exclusively confined 
to daylight aud dusk, l should expect to-night to 
be roaming the New York which lies in the 
land of Nod, and which is a continual repetition 
of the reality, with all the exaggeration of op¬ 
posite mirrors re-rettecting iu convexity and 
concavity forever aud ever. BuFthe past is past, 
e per map re —gone, let us hope, always for good, 
and leaving now only the eager remembrance of 
the day’s vagaries, of the seen and imagined in 
HOW NATURE COVERS UP BATTLE-FIELDS 
“Did I ever tell you," says a correspondent 
of an eastern paper, “ among the allectlng little 
things one Is always seeing in these battle-fields, 
how, ou the ground upon which the battle of 
Bull Bun was fought, I saw pretty, pure, deli¬ 
cate (lowers growing out of the empty ammu¬ 
nition boxes; and a wild rose thrusting its 
graceful head through the top of a broken 
drum, which doubtless sounded its last charge 
iu that battle; aud a cunning scarlet verbena 
peeping out of a fragment of bursted shell, in 
which strange pot it was planted ? Wasn’t that 
peace growing out of war? Even so shall the 
beautiful and graceful ever grow out of the hor 
rid and terrible things that transpire in this 
changing hut ever advancing world. Nature 
covers oven the battle-grounds with verdure 
aud bloom. Peace aud plenty spring up in the 
track of the devouring campaign ; aud all things 
iu nature aud society shall work out the pro¬ 
gress of mankind.” 
OBIGIN AND SEALS OF TEE STATES, 
NUMBER TUIUTKEN. 
Our illustration represents scenery character¬ 
istic of a mountain range in California, having 
especial reference to Mt. Shasta and its surround¬ 
ings. The trees, seen so prominently iu the fore¬ 
ground, are of the spruce family, many of them 
attaining an altitude alike surprising aud impos¬ 
ing. The construction of the Pacific Railroad is 
lending new interest to the great mountain 
chain which lies across its track. Among the 
points more especially noteworthy and attractive 
is that here selected and delineated. In the rear 
of the trees is seen the snow-clad summit of 
Mount Minista, supposed, until recently, the 
most elevated in the United States. It is nearly 
fifteen thousand feet high, uud shrouded with 
eternal snow. When the iron horse has fVee 
course from the Atlantic to the Pacific, Mount 
Shasta and its scenery will be among the won¬ 
ders likely to attract the attention of travelers 
as they fly across the Continent. 
THE SEAL OF UTAH TERRITORY. 
Utah Territory is remarkable for many things, 
prominent among which are Great Malt. Lako aud 
the Mormons. The surface of Utah is an im¬ 
mense basin, evidently once an inland sea. Two 
great mountain chains run transversely across 
it—the liumboldt and the Wuhsatch—and some 
of their peaks reach the height of perpetual 
snow. Two nearly parallel chains of lakes also 
diversify the surface. It has an elevation of 
from 4,000 to 5,000 feet above the level of the 
sea, and possesses a fine climate, the winters be- 
iug mild, with little snow, and the summers 
warm, but varied by cool mornings aud eve¬ 
nings. It, lias Its own system of lakes and rivers, 
none of which communicate with the ocean. 
Great Malt Lake is seventy miles long by thirty 
miles wide; is so saline that no living tiling can 
exist in it; and lias no visible outlet. The area 
of the territory is 131,320 square miles, or 84,- 
044,880 acres. Only a small proportion is fertile, 
much of the soil being dry and unproductive. 
Mormon settlements occupy nearly all the avail¬ 
able parts. The number of inhabitants, accord¬ 
ing to the census of 1800, Is something over 
40,000, a large majority of which are Mormons. 
ASTRONOMY 
One of the most wonderful achievemeuts of 
astronomers is the weighing of the bodies com¬ 
prising the solar system. The mass ot the sun 
is 350,551 times greater than that of the earth 
aud moon, and 700 times greater than the united 
masses of all the planets. 
A (lash of lightning on the earth would be vis¬ 
ible on tile moon iu a Hoeoud and a quarter; on 
the sun in eight minutes; ou Jupiter, (when 
furthest from us,) in twenty-live minutes ; on 
Uranus, in two hours ; on Neptune, Iu four 
hours and a quarter; on the star Vega, of the 
first magnitude, In 4,000 years; yet such stars 
are visible through the telescope. 
La Place, the great French astronomer, says: 
“I have ascertained that between the heavenly 
bodies all attractions arc transmitted with a 
velocity which, if it be not infinite, surpasses 
Bevoral thousand times the velocity of light." 
His annotator estimates that speed as being 
eight mUlious times greater than that of light. 
the great metropolis. And a strange fancy 
steals over me. I am Aktitub Merlin, and 
Hope "Wayne comes to me and smiles, as Diana 
smiled on Endymion. “ Mee," she says, “Hove 
you. Look here!” And I look, and see a full 
moon in a summer sky shining upon a fresh 
grave upon a hill-top. 
BLIND TOM. 
A brief sketch, which we copy below, of this 
wonderful musical prodigy, brings fresh to our 
mind the surprise and pleasure that his perform¬ 
ances gave us about two years ago. We presume 
that many of our readers attended the concerts 
then given by him in ditfureut parts of the coun¬ 
try. His tour extended from Philadelphia to 
Chicago, and was, if we may use a stereotyped 
phrase, a complete success. We had heard 
something of the blind .icgro boy, whose piano¬ 
forte playing was considered almost magical, 
and took the first opportunity to see and hear 
him. 
Having listened for nearly two hours to music 
that in its execution would have done no dis¬ 
credit to a thoroughly educated artist, we left 
the hall charmed and mystified. Feeling quite 
an interest in natural curiosities, we made Tom 
a study, uud ou several occasions thereafter were 
given unusually good facilities for learning what 
he kuew uud what he could do. What he 
knew was readily summed up. Almost idi¬ 
otic ; this, in brief, exproBBcd his condition. 
Yet his guardian seemed doubtful upon this 
point. “Mometimes I think he don’t know 
any tiling,” he said, “ and then again I think 
he has a heap o’ sense." But coupled with a 
form ungainly and uncouth, and features abso¬ 
lutely apish, were actions not merely negroish, 
but, indicative really of idiocy. So entirely lack¬ 
ing in intellect, the idea that there was aught of 
divine harmony in his organization might very 
naturally be considered preposterous. 
He played for us, and some of his playing was 
characterized by a delicacy of touch and nicety 
of execution most exquisite. All the inner being 
iu that uncouth form seemed music. Through 
his Augers it was striving to interpret itself. 
Seated at the. instillment, he would laugh to 
himself like a pleased child, urid pass houre, if 
unmolested, in utter disregard of all around 
him, either drawing from the fund of compo¬ 
sitions he had heard rendered and had lain away 
in his memory, or improvising. In the latter 
he appeared to take most pleasure. What sur¬ 
prised us perhaps most of all, was his possession 
of what musicians term absolute pitch. Place him 
with liia back to the piano, then sLr'ike any note 
in the entire scale and he would unhesitatingly 
give you its name. Call for any note, and quick 
as thought he would sound it, vocally, and with 
perfect precision. 
Our tests and study satisfied os that he was 
no humbug, and yet they were unsatisfactory. 
They but enabled us to pronounce Bliud Tom a 
marvel, done up In ebony. Rather more than a 
year ago his former master took him to Europe, 
and he at once aroused the curiosity of music 
lovers over the water. Night after night, for 
many weeks, he astonished immense audiences 
in Egyptian Hull, Loudon; and his powers were 
tested by the most eminent of European pian¬ 
ists. To them all he was something to be won¬ 
dered over aud charmed by. Not long since he 
returned to this country, aud is now, we be¬ 
lieve, performing again in Philadelphia. The 
following, concerning his history, agrees with 
the statements made to us by his guardian, Gen. 
Bethune : 
Thomas Green, or Bethune, as lie is called, 
was bom in Muscogee County, Georgia, ucar 
Columbus, on the 2.3th of May, 1849. Ills pa¬ 
rents were slaves, belonging to Gen. Bethune, 
from whom he derives his name. Tom was the 
fourteenth of nineteen children, was blind and 
almost hail-witted from his birth; but from his 
infancy displayed a wonderful power of imita- 
ASCENDING MONT BLANC 
A St. Louis gentleman, Mr. 3. H. Leathe, has 
this year ascended to the top of Mont Blanc. 
He was two Jays in accomplishing the feat, hav¬ 
ing been driven back the first day to a point half 
way up the mountain by a blinding snow storm, 
lie thus describes his seusutious when on the 
topmost peak: 
“ My first feeling was disappointment that it 
was not higher. I hud not realized we were so 
near the top until within ten steps of the high¬ 
est point. I stood for a few minutes gaziug at 
the magnificent view spread out on all sides. 
All fatigue was forgotten in the excitement; iu 
fact, I never lelt better in my life; never cheered 
louder or jumped higher. If there had been a 
good hotel, should probably have remained for 
the season. The day was glorious ; bright sun¬ 
shine without a cloud, except low down iu the 
valleys. On the Swiss side the view is uninter¬ 
rupted from the Mediterranean to the Rhine, 
embracing all the Swiss and Italian mountains, 
with lakes and rivers. None of my guides had 
ever seen so fine a view from the summit. The 
wind was bitter cold and fearfully strong. Two 
of my guides suffered severely from the cold. 
One had two fingers frozen, and another was as 
black in the face as a negro. The blood seemed 
ready to burst through the pores of his Bkin. 
We stepped down a few paces under shelter, 
and the guides removed their packs to prepare 
a lunch, but found everything frozen solid ex¬ 
cept a bottle of brandy und a Husk of sherry. 
Claret und champagne were so frozen that we 
were obliged to break the bottles and eat the 
wine. I had intended making a sherry cobbler 
at the summit, but the water and lemons re¬ 
fused to ‘ cobble,’ and I drank the sherry with¬ 
out them. A bottle of eoffee, which one of my 
guides carried for me iu a pocket next bis breast, 
was frozen solid. Pretty cold weather for the 
season, July 20th. What will it be in January ?” 
We close our series of articles on the Seals of 
the States, tfce., by giving that of the Republic. 
_ *******^** ~ 
?V Mfh rtf - 
EUROPEAN LIBRARIES, 
The city of St. Petersburg was founded nearly 
one hundred years after New York, and the im¬ 
perial library of that capita! contains not leas 
than half a million volumes. The imperial 
library ol' France has long had the reputation of 
being the largest in the world. The collection 
is pul down m round numbers at two millious of 
volumes. For some years past it has been the 
ambition of the British nation to have the name 
of standing first in the world in respect to this 
matter, aud the library of the British Museum 
has been rapidly augmented to nearly a million 
of volumes. The annual expenditure in this 
department is now, we believe, not much short 
of one hundred thousand dollars. The city of 
Munich, with a population about twice that of 
Providence, has in a single collection more than 
sLx hundred thousand volumes. Florence, with 
the same population as Munich, has an aggre¬ 
gate of four hundred thousand volumes in its 
public libraries. 
SEAL OF THE UNITED STATES. 
Nearly every one is aware that the motto on 
the seal of the Uuited Mtatcs —E Huribus Unum 
— signifies “One from many." Thirty-seven 
States and eight Territories now make up the 
grand whole. We have given the seals of thirty- 
five Mtatcs, and there arc two others — Nebraska 
aud Nevada —which were so recently admitted 
that they are not represented in our series. The 
total area of the States aud Territories, includ¬ 
ing the recent purchases in Russian America, 
comprises in round numbers something over 
three millious of square miles. Of this amount 
but 820,680 square miles belonged to the Repub¬ 
lic when peace was concluded with Great 
Britian, in 1788. The remainder has been ac¬ 
quired by purchase aud treaty, at various times 
since. The population of the thirteen Colonies 
at tlie beginning of the Revolution (1775) was 
but 8,808,000, aud of this number 500,000 were 
slaves. The returns of the last census showed 
a population of 31,443,822 in the States and Ter¬ 
ritories. Within the limits of the United States 
nearly every variety of climate is found, aud the 
list of‘agricultural and mineral products in¬ 
cludes about everything known. It has become 
common to speak of our country as the greatest 
and best on the globe, and when we consider all 
that is comprised iu its vast extent we can but 
realize that the statement is perfectly true. Our 
national emblem glitters with thirty-seven stars 
now, aud let us reverently sing 
“ God bless our stars forever!" 
Hymen was a young man of Athens, obscurely 
born, but extremely handsome. Falling in love 
with a lady of rank, ho disguised himself iu 
female attire, the better to carry on his amour ; 
and as he was one day on the sea shore celebra¬ 
ting the Eleusiuian rites with his mistress and 
her female companions, u gang of pirates came 
upon them by surprise and carried them oil' to a 
distant island, where the pirates got drunk for 
Joy and fell asleep. Hymen then armed the vir¬ 
gins, and despatched the sleeping pirates, when, 
leaving the women upou the island, he sped to 
Athens, where he told his adventure, aud de¬ 
manded Ills beloved in marriage as her ransom. 
His request was granted, and so fortunate was 
the marriage that the name of Hymen was ever 
after invoked on ail future nuptials; and in pro¬ 
gress of time the Greeks enrolled him among 
their gods. 
THE CAVE OF THOR. 
A Salem (Oregon) paper has the following: 
“It is not generally known, but it is neverthe¬ 
less true, that nearly all the ice used in this 
8tate is procured from a subtemmeau cavern, 
where, from time immemorial, through all 
changes of season, the Winter King has asserted 
his dominion and held everything tangible 
locked in his cold embrace. This cave is 
situated on a stream called White Salmon, 
which empties into the Columbia River, on the 
Washington Territory side, abont 30 miles be¬ 
low the Dalles. The eutrance to this icy cham¬ 
ber is near the base of Mount Adams, which 
Btands 20 miles from the Columbia River, and 
whose melting snow constitutes the source of 
White Salmon. The scenery within this giooiuy 
prison house is sublimely grand. Its dimen¬ 
sions are vast, extending under the snowy moun¬ 
tain perhaps miles. The ice is found in columns 
or pillars, formed by water dropping from above 
and congealing as it falls. These columns are 
cut out in blocks and conveyed to the Columbia 
on puck animals, aud thence shipped to Portland 
and other markets, where it is selling at present 
for eight cents per pound." 
God Counts. —A brother and sister were play¬ 
ing in the dining-room, when their mother set a 
basket of cakes on the tea-table, and went out. 
“ How nice they lookt" said the boy, reaching 
to talie one. His sister earnestly objected, and 
even drew back his hand, repeating that It was 
against their mother’s direction. 
“ She did not count them," said he. 
“ But perhaps God did," answered the sister. 
So he withdrew from the temptation, and, sit¬ 
ting down, seemed to meditate. “ You are 
right," replied he, looking at Her with a cheer¬ 
ful yet serious air; “God does count; for the 
Bible says the hairs of our head are all num¬ 
bered.” 
A Great Bell.—' The largest bell iu this coun¬ 
try is in one of the towers of the Notre Dame 
Cathedral, at Montreal. It is nine feet in diame¬ 
ter, about ten feet in height, averages tea inches 
in thickness, and weighs 24,780 pounds. There 
is much silver in its composition, and its cost 
was great. In tone it is deep aud powerful, 
nearly deafening any person who may be stand¬ 
ing by when it is struck. Owing to its great 
weight >t is seldom rung, and then a number of 
men are employed at the ropes. The usual way 
of sounding it is by a hammer, worked by a lever 
spring. 
The Boys and Girls of to-day should remem¬ 
ber that they are to be the Men and Women of 
to-morrow, and govern themselves accordingly. 
Many people use their accomplishments as a 
spider ases his web —to catch the weak upon, 
that they may be mercilessly devoured. 
White water-lilies are like beautiful thoughts, 
rocked on the swells of a pure bosom. 
