Useful, ^(ientific, &t 
anaus lopes 
Written for Moore’s Rural New-Yorker. 
BRUNO, 
Written for Moore’B Rural New-Yorker. 
CRUELTY TO ANIMALS. 
Written for Moore's Rural New-Yorker. 
THE SNAIL. 
BY EBEN E. REXFORD, 
While reading, a few days since, some account of 
the societies established in our cities for the preven¬ 
tion of cruelty to animals, I wondered why the same 
measures should not as well be adopted in the coun¬ 
try. Surely something might be done xo prevent 
the cruel sights which so often meet our eyes. 
Every day dumb beasts stagger beneath their heavy 
burdens, and when, iu uncomplaining sileuce, they 
sink beneath their weight, they are urged on by the 
cruel lash. What a pity that every wicked blow in¬ 
flicted cannot react upon the back of the wretch 
who gives it! The poor animals live and toil, until 
too much worn out to work, when they are turned 
aside with no further care, and too often are left to 
suffer, even in want of food, 
Nor is the horse the only animal subject to cruel 
treatment. The patient ox and the friendly cow 
must bear their share. The dog and cat are too 
often ill-used by those devoid of kinder feelmge. 
Children are allowed to torture the innocent kit¬ 
tens, to deprive ilies of their wings and legs, and to 
practice many other unfeeling acts. Even the small¬ 
est insect, which exists but for a day, is liable to 
spend that day iu pain because some giant hand 
may, perhaps thoughtlessly, half crush it. And 
yet when merely an insect is injured by some rough 
hand, a life is maimed. Go© gave us life. We cling 
to it with a tenacity with which we hold to nothing 
else, audyet we can torture or crush out a little life 
like that, with no thought that we are committing 
an unkind deed. True, God gives us some animals 
for food, and life is fed by death,—but is this any 
reason why we should despise any other life ? 
The spider builds a web in your house; you sweep 
down his work, — a work which all your wisdom 
could never construct,—and crush him beneath your 
feet. Why not rather take him down and say, “ Mr. 
Spider, you are encroaching on my premises; the 
world is wide enough for you and me; I will put 
you out, and you may build elsewhere,” instead of 
destroying the little life which the Creator has given 
as well as your own! Is He, who notes the fall of 
even a sparrow, whose value is but half a farthing, 
pleased when oue tortures or tramples under foot 
the little life which He has made V—when one treats 
with cruelty the faithful beast He gives us to bear 
our burdens ? 
One morning Arthur Hale found a large, black, 
shaggy dog on the steps of his father’s house. It 
was quite poor, and the hungry, starved look in its 
eyes told that it had been homeless for some time. 
Arthur was delighted. He loved dogs verymuch, 
and here was just such a dog as he always wanted. 
He ran into the kitchen where his mother was get¬ 
ting breakfast, t.be dog following close at his heels, 
evidently much delighted at the cordial reception 
he met. 
“Oh, mother!” cried Arthur, “ see what a nice 
large dog I found ou the steps ! Ain’t he a beauty ? " 
Mrs. Hale was not much of a friend to dogs, and did 
not appear very much pleased at sight of the black, 
curly-haired fellow, who kept close to Arthur as if 
he knew well enough that he was his best friend. 
“Can't I keep him, marnma?” pleaded Arthur. 
“What will he he good for?” asked Mrs. Hale, 
as she thought of the amount the dog would proba¬ 
bly eat and the litt le use there would be for him. 
The dog seemed to know what Mrs. Hale said, for 
he started off down the path barking furiously. 
Some pigg were in the garden, and he drove them 
out through a crack in the fence where they had 
probably entered. 
“There!" cried Arthur, triumphantly. “He’s 
told you one thing he can do, and I’ll bet he can do 
a good many more that will be useful! Shan’t we 
keep him, mother?” 
“ We will keep him a while if your father is wil¬ 
ling answered Mrs. Hale, much pleased at the dog’s 
sagacity. “Hood fellow, \shat’s your name? " and 
studying its stricture, habits, etc ? If not, you can 
hardly realize with what interest an All-wise Crea¬ 
tor has invested it. 
First, notice that little house of his which he car¬ 
ries on bis hack; mark its shape and structure, 
winding like a Btaircase, Naturalists class this 
among the helices; and other shells of similar struc¬ 
ture belong to the same class.. 
“ Is there any thing so very wonderful about this 
house, or shell? 1 see nothing that appears re¬ 
markable.” 
Let us see if there is nothing of interest about it, 
or its inmate. First, we find when the snail, issues 
from its egg this shell accompanies it, on its back, 
ready formed; and, as the animal grows, undergoes 
no other transformation than an increase in size. 
The egg of the snail is about the size of a small pea, 
of a soft substance, and is laid in some sheltered, 
moist situation, usually under a little clod of earth, 
or in some cool cavity. 
Examine the snail divested of its house. It has 
neither feet nor claws, and yet it has the power of lo¬ 
comotion over any surface, perpendicular, horizon¬ 
tal, smooth or otherwise. To accomplish this feat, 
you notice that along each side of its form is a 
broad skin; by means of the power of motion pos¬ 
sessed by this skin, the snail is enabled to creep, 
and assisted by the glutiuous slime emitted from 
the body it is enabled to pass over the smoothest 
surface. See it iu motion, carrying its house on its 
hack. On its head are four little horns, two of 
which are set higher and are longer than the other 
two, and are deserving of especial notice. You will 
•observe that they are endowed with the power of 
moving in various ways. On the end are.two little 
blackish points,—the eyes,—which when examined, 
detached from the body, are of a bulbous, or round 
figure. One coat, only, encloses the aqueous 
and the chrystalline humors. By means of their 
horns they are enabled to direct their eyes towards 
different objects at pleasure; and sometimes, by a 
very swift contraction into the body, to hide them. 
Under the second, or smaller pair of horns is the 
mouth, furnished with no less than eight teeth, with 
which it chews leaves and other substances seem¬ 
ingly harder than its own body; ana eu in emer¬ 
gencies biting pieces from its own •-■.ell. If we 
break the shell of the snail, even in small pieces, it 
has the power of repairing the same by rn.ans of the 
slimy substance forced from the body, which soon 
hardens, and in a few days all the numerous chasms 
and cracks are closed up, often resembling .1 much 
patched garment. Thus far its power goes ; if once 
deprived of its shell, it has no power of producing a 
new one. 
The depredation which snails are capable of com¬ 
mitting in the garden and orchard are not incon¬ 
siderable, as may often be witnessed where numbers 
infest a given locality. If moist and succulent 
substances are not to be had they will feed on those 
of a dry and hard nature. Should we take one and 
place it under a bell glass, or tumbler, four or five 
inches in diameter, placed on a piece of blue paper, 
it will, if hungry, eat out the paper clean, within the 
circle covered by the glass, as if cut out, in a single 
night. The snail is an animal very tenacious of 
life,—perhaps there is no other animal as much so. 
They have been known to be revived after having 
been kept in a cabinet fifteen to twenty years, and 
supposed dead for that time, by immersing them for 
a while in water. 
There is no creature, however insignificant or 
repulsive, to delicate nerves, but that is Invested 
with interest to the inquiring mind, when we seek to 
learn its nature, habits, etc.; and the most common, 
if studied with that view, will often exhibit much 
that is wonderful, as well as interesting and useful. 
fifteen feet from tip to tail; the huge scales being 
distinctly visible, and the ridge of his back rcsem- 
bliognota little the teeth of some Brobdingnag saw. 
I stopped, raised my rifle, and was just about to tire, 
when James whispered — 
“Try yet a little nearer, fir.” 
So I crept forward some few yards, and should 
have tried to get even closer, but hitting a loose 
stout' with my foot, its splash as it rolled into the 
water disturbed our alligator, and he awoke. He 
was somewhat slow, however, about this, and look¬ 
ed round as if uncertain why or by wnat he had been 
disturbed ; sat isfied, apparently, that something was 
wrong, and that he would be better alloat than 
ashore, he then slowly began to creep towards the 
water. In a moment I tired, aiming, as well as pos¬ 
sible, at the eye, and I could hear, by the sound, 
that the bullet had taken effect, and the brute evi¬ 
dently hesitated for a moment as to whether he 
should advance or retreat. The next instant, to my 
surprise and horror, I found James rushing past me, 
and saw him, without a moment’s hesitation, seize 
tlie mugger, who seemed now inclined to take to 
the water, by the tail. Yes, there he was; there 
was no exaggeration, no mistake whatever about 
the matter. By the tail he had him, and gallantly 
did he stick to it. Here was Western civilization in 
its evening dress, white cravat, black coat, and 
chimney pot hat—humanity, if one may use the ex¬ 
pression, in its refined form of tailorized exterior — 
contending with the brute creation under, perhaps, 
its most disagreeable and most disgusting appear¬ 
ance. But the brute was not to win, for inasmuch 
as my bullet had injured the alligator under the 
spine, in the thick part of the neck, he soon began 
to lose the power of movement. 
Some twelve or fifteen years ago it chanced to be 
my lot to have charge of a large manufacturing es¬ 
tablishment on the Malabar coast, East Indies, and 
as our works were situate on the banks of the river, 
my Introduction to its principal inhabitants, the alli¬ 
gators—they are called out there muggers—very 
soon took place. I am not naturalist enough to de¬ 
termine the genus and classification of these huge 
amphibians. They infest all the rivers and back¬ 
waters of that district in immense numbers, and 
mugger-shooting was, if not a very successful sport 
amongst the younger members of our European 
community, yet the almost daily resort of many of 
the young men in the cautonmeut. Many aud many 
a shot I had at them myself, either as they lay bask¬ 
ing on the muddy river bunks when the tide was 
low, or now and then venturing, though with 
scarcely a hope of success, a suap-sliut at some fel¬ 
low’s no6e which would be popped above the water¬ 
line as its owner lazily floated, like some huge log of 
timber, down the stream. Never, however, with 
any luck, for even if my bullets Look effect it was not 
sufficient to stop my mugger friends, r:d pounds 
and pounds of lead and powueil did 1 thus expend, 
until one eventful morniog, 
No, it cannot he; nor does He suffer 
one to go unpunished for such wricked acts. Such 
wrongs must be redressed. 
We hope persons of kindness and influence will 
take up this matter, and introduce some-method of 
reform. We are glad to learn that Dr. Drummond 
of Ireland has written a work entitled “ The Rights 
of Animals.” We wish it might be circulated, and 
widely circulated, iu this country, and that others 
would interest themselves in behalf of the poor 
beasts which are the daily victims of man’s inhu¬ 
manity. May the time soon come when these uu- 
feeling hearts shall grow more kind, aud learn to 
treat with kindness whatever is placed withir their 
power, and when they shall not despise these lives 
whose existence is so brief, and still to them so 
sweet. E. Melbourne. 
One of “ the boys,” who saw actual service du¬ 
ring the late troubles, hits off the realities of war 
in the following graphic pen-picture: 
“ The popular idea of battles is derived from cer¬ 
tain writers—historians they call themselves—who 
have a trick of descriptions, whereby colossal hor¬ 
ses with distended nostrils are made to bear plumed 
troopers with bloody sabre6 through agonized in¬ 
fantry aud lost batteries, or long lines of gleaming 
bayonets are promiscuously “mixed”—while strug¬ 
gling men, with patriotic war-cries, are prodding or 
pommelling each other indiscriminately for hours, 
around waving flags, where shells burst with artistic 
precision, and slain horses encumber wounded he¬ 
roes, who still flourish defiant weapons; disabled 
pieces furnish picturesque couches for slaughtered 
cannoneers, and everything tells of the rage and ter¬ 
rible splendor of conflict, the agony of wounds and 
sufferings, or the beautiful abandonment of death. 
To the readers of such thrilling things, it would 
seem very tame to tell the story of a great battle 
without embellishment. They would turn disap¬ 
pointed from the simple story of a line of blue- 
coated soldiers toiling slowly across a broken valley 
or tangled swamp, against a crest or wooded slope, 
or a scarcely visible line of works; while a few dis¬ 
tant knolls are crowned with the Bmokeof batteries, 
and men are falling here aud there with little regard 
to artistic effect. Two murderous minutes of the 
“ double quick,” and one of close, hurried, and dis¬ 
ordered fighting, would not content the myriad 
readers of the imaginative historians. And yet this, 
repeated at moderate intervals through the day, is, 
perhaps, all that we could offer in truthful descrip¬ 
tion of auy of the great battles of the war.” 
wnqti I landed, or bag¬ 
ged, or secured, or whatever else may be the proper 
expression, my only alligator. 
My domicile, which was situate some six or seven 
hundred yards from the factory, stood upon a rock 
rising almost perpendicularly from the stream some 
forty or fifty feet, and down to the river side there 
was a winding path, half roadway half staircase, cut 
out of the laterite. Opposite, at a distauee across 
the water of some forty yards, lay a small island 
covered with cocoa-nut trees, aud again, beyond 
this, the wide expanse, say five hundred yards, of 
the main stream stretched away to the old fort of 
Farookabad, one of the remnants of Tiplpoo Saib’s 
mansion of Malabar. All around tije little island 
were favorite spots where, in the soft, slimy mud, 
my friends the alligators would enjoy their siesta.-; 
and we frequently used to get pushed round in oue 
of the little country canoes in order to have a shot 
at them, always, however, without success, uutil 
that time. It was a holiday, aud after my morning 
walk round the works just to see that the engines 
were in proper order (for we were compelled to keep 
them going without intermission,) I had returned to 
my bungalow, aud having done the regular matutinal 
tubbing, was just about to sit dowu to breakfast, 
when 1 heard one of my European engineers (a 
Welshman from Glamorganshire) talking iu the ve¬ 
randa to the head servant, and telling him that 
there was a huge mugger asleep on a little rock just 
at the foot of the pathway I have before mentioued 
as leading down to the river. I called out to James 
to come in, and iu a few minutes he was with me, in 
an excited state about the alligator, but dressed, as 
was his wont on festival days—although the costume 
but ill-suited the climate — in a suit of respectable 
black cloth, with a white neckcloth, and regular 
stand-up chimney-pot hat, just as if preparing to go 
to meeting In his native wolds. Indeed, he was on 
his way to a lecture at the neighboring cantonment 
when be had been told of the alligator’s presence. 
“Fifteen feet long at least, sir, and fast asleep. 
So if you creep down quietly, you’ll get a splendid 
shot,” said James. 
Well, I loaded my double-barrel, one of the finest 
manufacture, very carefully, putting a brass bullet 
in theright barrel, and a lead one in the left, and 
t hen, clapping a solar toupee on my head, proceeded, 
followed by James and several of my native ser¬ 
vants, cautiously aud as quietlyas might be towards 
the scene of action Dowu the path before:men 
tioued we went, not, however, seeing anything ou 
account of its zig-zag winding, uutil we had turned 
the last comer at tire bottom; and, that passed, 
there lay the mugger, reposing most calmly on a 
By this lime also 
I had more or ies» recovered my first surprise, and 
calling to James to hold on, which he boldly assured 
me he would, I got a coir-rope brought down from 
the bungalow, and making a running noose on it I 
cast it over the alligator’s nose, and then, watching 
an opportunity, slipped it under his forelegs, when, 
drawing it tight, we had him at last fast and secure. 
All this time, 1 should say that the native servants, 
except a couple of Moplat boatmen, or bearers, 
seemed paralyzed with fear, and it was only when 
they saw we had him fast and secure that they came 
forward to aid us iu hauling him up to the bunga¬ 
low. James let go, and we set to work at the task, 
but our mugger was not at all a willing party to our 
proceeding. He gnashed his teeth—a most formi¬ 
dable arrangement of three rows of incisors in each 
jaw, which, fitting into each other, produced a most 
singular dull kind of sound as the solid bony parts 
of the mouth were brought together at every fruit¬ 
less struggle. 
We got him up safely at last, aud substituting a 
chain for tire coir-rope, I fastened him to oue of the 
pillars of the veranda, and sat down with James to 
the consolation of some brandy pawnee, and the 
contemplation of our captured mugger. Hedidnot 
like his captivity at all, and furious were his strag¬ 
gles to get free, this, however, only tended to draw 
tighter the noose by which he- was fastened—and 
perhaps getting weary, or feeling extra pain at this, 
he became quieter»to wards the evening. 
Some friends chancing to ride out to dine with 
me that afternoon, we had him poked up, and made 
to show his teeth for their amusement and delecta¬ 
tion, aud for two days 1 kept the poor brute, fasten¬ 
ed as 1 have said. At the end of that time he began 
to be very offensive to the olfactory nerves, so l put 
a bullet intu his brain, and handed over the carcass 
to the stuffer. A finer specimen was seldom pro* 
cured; he measured thirteen feet four inches from 
end of snout to tip of the tail, and for many a long 
day formed the principal trophy of my veranda. 
This was my first and last mugger. I shot some 
hundreds of others, hut this was the solitary speci¬ 
men bagged: and for that success 1 am indebted to 
my friend James’ nerve and determination. — Cas¬ 
sell's Magazine. 
The Country Gentleman contains the following: 
When the clock stops, don’t take it to the repair 
shop till you have tried as followsTake off the 
pointers and the face; take off the pendulum and 
its wire. Remove the ratchet from the tick wheel 
and the clock will run down with great velocity. 
Let it go. The increased speed wears away the gum 
and dust from the pinions—the clock cleans itself. 
If .you have any pure sperm oil, put the least bit on 
the axles. Put the machine together, and nine 
times in ten it will run just as well as if it had been 
taken to the shop. In fact this is the way most 
shopmen clean clocks. If instead of a pendulum 
the clock has a watch escapement, this latter can be 
taken out in an instant without taking the works 
apart, and the result is the same. 
A Curious Barometer. —A Bostonian has a toy 
barometer on exhibition, which consists of a minia¬ 
ture cottage with two doors. At one of these stands 
a man clad in purple and fine linen; while at the 
other appears a female arrayed in like apparel. If 
there are signs of rain, the man steps boldly out of 
the house, while the woman shrinks into the cottage. 
But if the signs are favorable, the woman goes forth 
to shop and gossip, while the man stays at home and 
tends house and baby. 
LIVING WITHOUT SLEEP. 
Five young men in Berlin lately made an agree¬ 
ment for a wager, to see who of them could keep 
awake for a whole week. They all held out for 
about live days and a half, by drinking largely of 
strong coffee, aud keeping up a constant round of 
active exercises and exciting amusements. At the 
end of that time two of them yielded to drowsi¬ 
ness. A third soon after fell asleep while riding, 
tumbled from the saddle and broke his arm. A 
fourth was attacked by severe sickness and com¬ 
pelled to retire from the lists. The fifth held out 
to the end, but lost twenty-five pounds of flesh in 
winning the wager. 
Long ago, Frederick the Great and Voltaire made 
a similar experiment, making use of the same stim¬ 
ulant of strong coffee, but they did not succeed iu 
driving away sleep for more than four days. “ Tired 
nature” obstinately refuses to accept any substitute 
for her “sweet restorer.” 
A Great Clock.— The clock on St. Paul’s, in 
London, is very large. The pendulum is forty-four 
feet long, and the weight at the end of it is one 
hundred pounds; the dial on the outside is regu¬ 
lated by a smaller one; the length of the minute 
hand on the exterior dial is eight feet, and the 
weight seventy-five pounds; the length of the hour 
figures is two feet two and a half inches. 
Large Lens.—a lens, three feet in diameter, three 
inches thick in the center, and weighing 212 pounds, 
has recently been made for Mr, Parker, of London. 
In its focus small quantities of the refractory metals 
are quickly fused, and completely dissipated into 
vapor, aud the usually unyielding minerals are im¬ 
mediately vitrified. 
The Mighty Press. —There are printed in the 
United States jive thousand and sixty-two regular pub¬ 
lications — daily, trl-weckly, semi-weekly, weekly, 
semi-monthly, monthly, bi-monthly and quarterly— 
with a combined circulation of over seventy-five mil¬ 
lions a week. Nearly all country publications own 
two presses—some of them three; while the papers 
in large cities aud job offices generally own from two 
to fifty presses each. These offices will average four 
presses each, which will amount to about sixteen 
thousand, and adding, say eleven thousand for news¬ 
paper, we have twenty-seven thousand printing presses 
in use in the United States. 
■A man habitually finding fault, 1 Gems in Nevada.— In addition to its gold mines, 
;rt to detect folly or vice, with- Nevada may soon become celebrated for its precious 
a thought on whatsoever things stones. The Reese River Reveille of the 27th ult., 
nd of good report, is, as nobody 1 gives some account of the gem called turquoise, and 
;ny, morally halt and maimed. | of a turquoise mine existing in the Columbus dis¬ 
trict.. The turquoise stone is susceptible of high 
polish and is much esteemed by connoisseurs of 
precious stones. The choicest, specimens are of a 
pale blue with the faintest tinge of green; but in 
turquoise of an inferior kind the green predominates. 
In Persia this gem is must highly prized and the 
choicest specimens are obtained there. 
Youatt, the well known veterinary surgeon, who 
has been bitten eight or ten times by rabid animals, 
says that crystal of the nitrate of silver rubbed into 
the wound will positively prevent hydrophobia in 
the bitten person or animal. 
“ The sound of your hammer,” says Franklin, “ at 
five in the morning or at night, heard by a creditor, 
makes him easy six mouths longer; hut if he sees 
you at a billiard table, or hears your voice iu a tavern 
when you should be at work, he will send for his 
money the next day.” 
Foolscap pajjer is so called because the Parliament 
in Cromwell’s time substituted a cap aud bells as the 
watermark oh that kind of paper for the king's arms 
which it had previously borne. That mark went in¬ 
to disuse two centuries ago, but the name remains. 
Grief knits two hearts in closer bonds than hap¬ 
piness ever can; and common sufferings are far 
stronger links than common joys. 
Learn to control your temper now, children, or 
by-and-by it will control you. 
Life is rapid, art is slow, occasion coy, practice 
fallacious, aud judgment partial. 
