MISS HOSMER IN HER STUDIO 
Written for Moore’s Eural New-Yorker. 
HELPING MAMMA. 
A. STORY FOR LITTLE GIRLS. 
BT SUSIE V. ST0KM3. 
Mart sat on her little stool by the (Ire, watching 
mamma sew. She had been reading, and her book 
lay on the carpet by her side open at the story of 
‘ Helpful Mattie.' Have you ever read that story ? 
MART 
Correspondents tell us that Miss Hosmer’s 
studio is the prettiest in all Rome. There is a little 
’entrance court with dowers and singing birds; and 
in the center of the first room a beautiful fountain 
gives a sense of refreshing coolnesB, In the foun¬ 
tain’s basin “ three charming little fellows are be¬ 
striding dolphins, lying on the broad leaves of the 
aquatic plants. They are fascinated by the music, 
and one has his dimpled hand at his ear, listening 
intently, when the water spouts from the shells 
above." A copy of “ Puck," and a head of •‘Me¬ 
dusa," wonderfully beautiful, also ornament this 
room. One fill I length and several bust copies of 
the queenly “ Zenobia,” which won so much admi¬ 
ration while exhibited in this country a few years 
ago, are in a neighboring room. 
In the apartment where Miss IIosmer works is 
seen "The Waking Fawn," a Bequei to “The Sleep¬ 
ing Fawn,” exhibited at Paris. It is yet in clay 
only, still undergoing the molding of the sculptor’s 
hand. Said Miss IIosmer to a correspondent of the 
Chicagoan:—“ I should be ashamed to tell you how 
long I have been on that statue; but, no, I should¬ 
n’t. Mr. Gibson used to say, when I was in his 
studio, and working so long on that ‘Medusa,’ ‘No¬ 
body asks you how long you have been on a thing 
but fools, and you don’t care what they think.’ ” 
Speaking of the sculptor, personally, the same 
writer says:—"Miss Hosmer has a very vivacious 
1. There’s room e - nou 
2. What if our nei 
‘1 wonder If I could do like Mattie?” 
Mattie helped her mother a great deal, 
~ h “ 1 wish L could," Mart 
said, aloud, for she was thinking so buBily that she 
forgot any one would hear her. 
“ What does my little girl wish she could do?” 
Mrs. Gordon asked, smiling into Mart’s face. 
“I wish I could do something to help you, 
mamma,” Mart said, coming to her mother’s side, 
“can I?” 
“Perhaps so,” said Mrs. Gordon; “what would 
you like to do?" 
“Oh,” and Mary, thought for a moment without 
concluding what kind of work she had rather do. 
" I don’t know. Anything to help you.” 
“Well,” said her mother, after thinking what there 
was that her little girl could do easily, "I will tell 
you. Yon may help me put away the dishes after 
they are washed, and I will let you dust the chairs 
and keep the books and papers in their place.” 
“Every day?” asked Mart, delighted to know 
that there was something she could do. 
“Yes, every day,” answered her mother. And 
when you get larger there will be other things to 
be done.” 
"But will putting away the dishes and dusting 
the things and keeping the books put up help you 
much?" asked Mart. 
“ A great deal,” answered her mother. “ Doing 
those little things takes away an hour of my time 
every day. If you do them I shall be able to do a 
great deal other work, perhaps, that otherwise 
I could not.” 
Mart took hold of her easy duties with a will. 
Every day she was prompt to do her tasks, and the 
fact that she was helping mamma made them very 
light and pleasant. There were many other little 
things which she could do; and she worked as busily 
as her mother when there was anything on hand for 
her to perform. She soon had it completed in a neat, 
tidy manner, and was always ready for anything else 
that might come along. And her father and mother 
called her their “little housekeeper.” 
One afternoon three of her little friends came to 
make her a visit. They sat down after they had 
piayed very merrily Tor an hour, and took up one of 
Mart’s picture-books to look at the pictures. 
One of the pictures was about a frog that meant 
to be a man when he was grown up. The picture 
showed him trying to walk on his hind-feet as per¬ 
sons do ; judging from the face he made up, the trial 
was a hard one for Mr, Frog. 
“I mean to teach school when I get to be a 
woman,” said Lucy. 
“ ri1 write a book,” said Ellen, and the girls 
all had to laugh, she looked so very dignified. 
“I won’t work at all,” said Matilda ; “ Ill'marry 
some rich man, and I’ll wear silk dresses, and have 
lots of servants, and a big, nice house, and go to 
parties every night." 
Mart thought a long time before she concluded 
what she would do. Then she said as she was the 
only child mamma had, she’d "always stay at home 
to help mother,” she guessed. 
After the visitors were gone home, Mrs. Gordon 
told Mart she would write her a little story that 
night; she often did so, and Mart liked her mother’s 
stories, because they were always about something 
she could understand, and generally were made out 
of some Incident at home, and that made them very 
interesting. 
In the morning, after Mart’s work was out of the 
way, her mother told her to sit down and she would 
read her the stogy she had written. It was as follows: 
FOUR LITTLE GIRLS. 
Four little, happy, smiling girls I chanced one day to see; 
They talked of coming years, and told what they would 
like to be. 
Fair Lucv, with the curling hair, would like to teach a 
thought. J~ 
although a very’ little girl. 
sea is vast be - side, 
we tbe bet - ter health 
sour and sad. For there’s room e - nough for 
____ 3. We breathe the glorious air, my lads 
—J P—} — H - The same pure water share ; 
~ ag ~F^—H- The best of things are free, my lads, 
)•' ~7^r Are free to you and me. 
Then away, &c. 
* v r 
4. There’s plenty too for all, my lads, 
■I j That live in cot or hall; 
— m —\—||- To eat, and drink, and wear, my lads, 
h-ff— 1 - W e all may have our share. 
“1 ’ ^ Then away, &c. 
[From the Song Garden , Second Book, published b* Mason Brothers. 
s room e - nou 
universal correctness of the accountancy of China, 
when there is no purpose of fraud, and the rapidity 
with which all trading and commercial accounts are 
calculated, are facts of notoriety to all who have any 
acquaintance with purchases or sales made in that 
c o an try, —London A t h etueum. 
Written for Moore’s Rural New-Yorker. 
ATTRACTION OF GRAVITATION 
, Ticknor & Fields are preparing, for the holidays, 
a beautiful edition of Locksley Hall, with illustra¬ 
tions, by W. J. Hennessv ; a new edition of “The 
Poetry and Compliments of Courtship,” with ten 
illustrations on steel; the “Red-line Whittier,” the 
first complete illustrated edition of that poet’s 
v works; the popular illustrated edition of Longfel¬ 
low’s poems, complete; the "Christmas Carol,” 
illustrated by Evttnge ; Mrs. Stowe’s uew novel, 
"Old Town Folks;” Hawtrornk’s "American 
Journal,” two volumes; a collection of Rev. E. E. 
Rale’s stories; “Plain Thoughts on the Art of 
Living,” by Rev. Washington Gladden, reprinted 
from the Springfield Republican; and “On the 
tVing, a Book for Young Sportsmen,” by John 
Bumstead. 
Some thirty years ago Mr. Seba Smith, recently 
deceased, was quite a literary celebrity. His “Jack 
Downing Letters” were produced in the palmy days 
of Jackson’s presidential term, and were then de¬ 
cidedly popular. indeed they are about the only 
eli'orts of bis now remembered, though he published 
a romance in metre entitled "Powhattan," and one 
or two other works of a different character. He 
was the husband of Mrs. E. Oakes Smith, hemelf a 
writer of much ability; and Capt, Oakes Smith, 
whose uame acquired some notoriety a few years 
since, was his son. 
Mgzier, the American sculptor, whose work is 
ighly praised by the Athena?um, has finished his 
j t&tuo of Kizpah, the Hebrew mother, which is soon 
j :oming to this country. She Bits by the dead, hold¬ 
ing a staff in one hand and a torch in the other, typ¬ 
ical of her watch by day and nigbt. The royal 
widow of Saul, seated in sackcloth by the rock, 
watching over the dead bodies of her two sous, from 
the beginning of harvest until the coming of the 
October rains, Is a figure to seize and hold the im- 
’ agination with a singular force, and Mr. Mozier, it 
is said, has brought out his conception in his own 
“solid and archaic " style. 
During the past year ISO volumes of poems were 
issued from the press of this country. This fact 
forcibly proves the penchant of young writers, 
particularly, for rhyming. Many of the volumes 
were by persons all uuknowu to fame, and have 
doubtless found their way hack to the papermakers, 
greatly to the discouragement of their authors. 
In Lippineott’a Magazine, for August, it is stated 
• that, for the first hundred years of the Gentleman’s 
Magazine, there appeared on its title page a wood 
cut representing a hand holding a nosegay with tbe 
motto — afterwards adopted by the United States — 
“A' Pluribus Uuum .” This motto was taken from 
an obscure poem of Virgil. 
In a poetical welcome to Mr. Longfellow, given 
in the London Fun, the following verse tells very 
beautifully how our poet is appreciated in England: 
“ It’s cold in the clear blue ether, 
That the king of the eagles achieves : 
But the swallows have endless summer, 
And build close under our eaves.” 
The twenty-second Annual Convention of Delta 
Kappa Epsilon Fraternity will be held at Amherst, 
Mass., on the 7th and 8th of October next. The 
oration will be delivered by Gen. Francis A. Walk¬ 
er of the Amherst Chapter, and the poem by Mr. 
Wm. S. Lee of the Rochester Chapter. 
Irinity College has awarded the Tuttle prize 
of thirty dollars to Edward R. Brevoort of Lenox, 
Massachusetts, for the best essay oa "The System 
of Protection and Free Trade—which is bestadanted 
decays; robust manhood follows youth, and it is 
quickly exchanged for the gray hairs of old age. 
But truth is unchangeable and eternal. The same 
laws control the action of matter that controlled it 
six thousand years ago. We perceive that certain 
causes produce certain effects. Sometimes the finite 
mind of man, by repeated observations and investi¬ 
gations, is enabled to discover a rule of action and 
determine a law of matter. Philosophy is enriched 
by the development, aud history records the glori¬ 
ous achievement. Prominent among the discoverers 
in Science will ever stand tbe name of Newton, and 
her votaries will ever honor him for bis demonstra¬ 
tion of the law of gravitation. 
We apply certain terms to the operations of mat¬ 
ter .- we say such results are caused by attraction; 
an unsupported body falls to the ground; but 
whence is this secret power, this mysterious some¬ 
thing, exerting such a powerful influence upon all 
material things, however minute or etherial? A 
knowledge of its effects is among the rudiments of 
chiidnood education. The infant realizes the pres¬ 
sure of its parent’s hand upon its brow; it endeav¬ 
ors to raise a favorite toy by the strength of its 
puny arm, and finds an irresistible power drawing 
it downward and binding it to the floor. Weight is 
the measure of this power. We estimate the value 
of an article by the grasp the earth has upon it. 
We buy our potatoes and beef, wheat and corn, 
butter and cheese, spices and fruits, tbe material 
for our boots aud shoes, our cotton and wool, gold 
and silver, by the measure of their attraction. 
Gravity Is as incapable of annihilation as matter 
itself. We change the form and nature of a body, 
but its weight remains the same. The smoke aud 
ashes are as heavy aa the material previous to com¬ 
bustion ; the water in the kettle weighs no more 
than the vapor into which it is transformed by boil¬ 
ing. Gravity causes the rain and the due to descend, 
and the vapors to rise; it binds our rivers and seas 
to earth, revolving more than a thousand miles an 
character which is being extensively used in all 
parts of the country. The dye is prepared from 
acetate of lead, lac sulphur, rose water, and glycer¬ 
ine. The lead salt constitutes the objectionable 
feature of the compound, and several caseB of lead 
poisoning have been reported, from its employment. 
A serious case has recently come to our knowledge, 
in which a lady has become perfectly prostrated 
from its effects. AI£ the violent and distressing 
symptoms of lead poisoning are apparent, and 
they are directly traceable to the use of this dye. 
There are thirty or more different makers of the 
article throughout the couutry, and as many differ¬ 
ent names given to it. It may be known by the 
heavy sediment which Is usually present in the bot- 
ties, and which requires to be shaken up with the 
liquid portion before Using. A large number of 
people are so extremely sensitive to the action of 
lead upon the system that they suffer whenever it 
is brought In contact with the person.— Journal qf 
Chemistry. \ 
Written for Moore’B Rural Nm Yorker 
HINTS FOR INVALIDS 
A recent letter from a valued friend who is an 
invalid prompts a few suggestions for the benefit of 
this class of readers When the atmosphere is cool 
and braciug business men are apt to undertake en¬ 
terprises that require more labor, physical or men¬ 
tal, than they can well or easily perform Young 
America is peculiarly liable to overtask his brain 
and muscles, and. needs rest when his many engage¬ 
ments, and perhaps large interests, demand extra¬ 
ordinary exertlou. lie uses aud consumes his pow¬ 
ers. which are necessarily limited, in a way that 
inflicts permanent injury on his general health and 
constitution, and diminishes in all his after life his 
ability to act or think efficiently. Health is not 
only wealth, but something far better II is wiser 
to undertake too little and execute that little most 
thoroughly, than too much and fail to do full justice 
to one’s skill or talent. 
One of the (lrst duties or lessons to be learned, 
with a view to secure good health and’success in 
any laudable pursuit, is fully to understand this 
fact,— every effect has a cause; and no one should 
expect his bady or mind to do more for him than 
belongs to either. Man is condensed air, and his 
powers vary with the ever varying atmosphere that 
pervades and surrounds him The air we breathe 
varies m temperature, humidity and aridity, in the 
numerous gases it receives from decaying 
COST OF PARISIAN RECONSTRUCTION. 
The reconstruction aud embellishment of Paris, 
which M. Haussmann has been carrying on, have 
already cost the city two hundred millions of dol¬ 
lars; while the annexation or the suburbs, the 
construction In old Paris of public buildings, mark¬ 
ets, churches, &c., have cost two hundred millions 
more—in all, four hundred millions of dollars. Some 
opposition is manifested to the further prosecution 
of his schemes, and the hnancial condition of the 
city is getting to be a cause of alarm. M. Haussman, 
however, is said to be mere absolute in the city of 
Paris than the Emperor throughout France, and, 
notwithstanding opposition, he seems to have the 
energy and power to prosecute the work. He will 
leave Paris incomparably the most beautiful city on 
the planet .—New York Observer. 
vegetable 
and animal matter, and decompounding mineral 
substances in the earth. Some of these are health¬ 
ful, 6oine poisonous, and all such elements and 
conditions have much to do as causes in making 
man what he is. In districts much above the ocean 
he becomes more etheriai and spiritual in his 
thoughts and actions. It was on a mountain that 
Moses received the ten commandments which civil¬ 
ized, Christian nations have respected and veneruted 
for many centuries; while “ the cities of the plain,” 
wuose unmentionable wickedness was punished by 
a "rain of fire and brimstone from heaven,” felt 
the ceaseless pressure of a mephitic atmosphere as 
weighty as thirteen hundred feut of air below the 
level of the Mediterranean could make it. The in¬ 
habitants of Sodom and Gomorroh were, from gen¬ 
eration to generation, subjected to physical forces 
affecting injuriously alike the physiological, moral 
and mental parts of humanity in a way and to a de¬ 
gree that have no parallels on the globe. The low, 
sunken places on our prnnet are altogether un¬ 
favorable to either physical, moral or intellectual 
health. From New England to Alabama and Mid¬ 
dle Tennessee, the Alleghanles offer to invalids 
advantages, as a summer residence, which arc far 
from being duly appreciated. Pure water, pure air, 
all the elements of perfect digestion and respira¬ 
tion, sound sleep, with uncommon vigor of muscle, 
nerve and brain, make life something to be enjoyed, 
and especially, id this wild and fruitful region, 
enjoyed almost without money and without price. 
Ideas that run in thick and muddv currents to 
Injudicious Bathing,— "Sanitas,” writing to the 
Medical Press and Circular, refers to the folly of per¬ 
sons plunging into a bath after a full meal, thus risk¬ 
ing sudden death from congestion orsome other fatal 
mischief. Numbers who escape such a calamity are 
sufferers for their imprudent mode of immersion, 
shiverings, headaches, and other symptoms often 
succeeding, bfct their true cause rarely suspected. 
The writer therefore suggests that uotices should 
be put up in appropriate places requesting that no 
person will bathe within, two hours of a meal, and 
suggesting the desirableness of all persons consult¬ 
ing their medical adviser before taking a sea bath as 
to the ueed or benefit of doing so. 
The reference of Prof. De Morgan to the employ¬ 
ment of the fingers for purposes of notation, induces 
me to speak of the very ingenious application, in 
China, of this living abacus to arithmetical calcula¬ 
tions, of the faculty it gives for the settlement of 
accounts, and the easy solution of all sums, whether 
of addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division, 
from one up to one hundred thousand. Every finger 
on the left band represents nine figures, the little 
finger the units, the ring finger the tens, the middle 
finger the hundreds, the forefinger the thousands, 
the thumb the tens of thousands. The three inner 
joints represent from 1 to 3. the three outer 4 to G, 
the right side 7 to 9. The forefinger on the right 
hand is employed for pointing to the finger to be 
called into use; thus 1,384 would at once be denoted 
by just touehiug the inside of the upper joint of the 
forefinger, representing 1,000; then the inside of 
the second, or middle joint of the middle llno-er 
representing 200; thirdly, the inside of the lower 
joint of the ring-finger, representing 30, aud lastly; 
the upper joint of the little finger touched on the 
outside, representing 4. Or, again, 09,909 is repre¬ 
sented by touching the right side of the lower joint 
ot the thumb (00,000) and the lower side of the joint 
of the fore, middle, ring, and the little fingers, repre¬ 
senting respectively 9,000, 000, 90, and 9. The 
uveu m a warmer climate than ours. He 
never breathed the keen air of a zero-cold mor nin g 
But he knew what the boy3 and girls who make Ice 
cream know so well—that a mixture of snow aud 
salt, or pounded ice and salt, is much colder than 
ice or snow alone. Indeed, he thought that such a 
mixture was so cold that there could not possibly 
be any heat in it at all. So he concluded that the 
temperature of this mixture would be a good start¬ 
ing point from which to mark off the scale of his 
thermometer. Putting the bulb into the snow and 
salt, he marked the point to which the mercury 
which fills the tube fell, 0 (cypher) zero, nothing; 
because, as before said, he thought the amount "of 
heat was nothing. But had he lived in our cold 
New England, instead of Germany, he would have 
found, perhaps to his sorrow, that our wintry air Is 
often colder than his ice and salt. Then, if the 
air is even colder than this mixture, it follows 
that there must be some heat iu the ice and salt to 
make it warmer than the air. So Mr. Fahrenheit 
was mistaken about his zero’s expressing, as he in¬ 
tended it should, no heat. Indeed, chemists tell us 
that, by an experiment which they know how to 
perform, they can produce a degree of cold com¬ 
pared with which Fahrenheit’s zero Is quite hot 
I ihe Rev. B. r . De Costa, an accomplished schol- 
! ar in all that concerns Scandinavia and its literature, 
Wys the Round Table, will edit for Mr. Munsell 
"The Pre-Columbian Discovery of America by the 
Northmen." 
The elder Dumas has cleared $700,000 by forty-five 
years of literary labor, and hasn’t a dollar to show 
t 'V r il ’ 
W alt Whitman has a volume of prose in press. 
It is distinguishable from his poetry by typographical 
marks. 
John B. Gough has received more than eight hun¬ 
dred applicattyns for his services as a lecturer the 
I comiug season. 
I Elihu Burritt, the learned blacksmith, is con- 
I trxbuting to a London magazine " Fireside Lessons 
| in Forty Languages.” 
1 Gough realizes $33,000 per annum from his lec- 
I tares. 
The Ohio State Library has twenty-six thousand 
j volumes. 
Libraries have been caLled the mad-houses of the 
j human mind aud the tombs of books. 
simple construction. It resembles a piano with up¬ 
right strings, except that tbe latter are replaced by 
tuning-forks, which, to strengthen the sound, are. 
arranged between two small tubes, one above and 
the other below them. The tuning-forks are sound¬ 
ed by hammers, and are brought to silence at the 
proper time by means of dampers. The sounds 
thus produced, which somewhat resemble those of 
the harmonium, are exceedingly pure aud penetra¬ 
ting. They are very persistent, yet instantly ar¬ 
rested by the use of the dampers. The invention 
has elicited great admiration .—Musical Standard. 
The highest mountain iu the world is the Ivy 
Gamin, ;20,459 feet high. The highest peak in the 
world is Mount Everest, *20,002 feet. The highest 
permanently inhabited place in the world is Ladak, 
13,117 feet. The greatest mountain height in the 
world visited by man is beyond Gamin, 23,359 feet, 
i he highest point to which a man can ascend, with¬ 
out seriously affecting his health, is 16,500 feet. 
The highest balloon ascent yet made is.40,000 feet. 
