Written for Moore’s Rural New-Yorker. 
THE LOST CHILDREN. 
Thk manufacture of silk is of comparatively re¬ 
cent date in this country, aud has hut lately begun 
to attract much attention from the public. Silk¬ 
worms were introduced into Virgiuia at an early 
day, it is true, though without permanent success; 
and Louisiana and Georgia raised them not many 
years after, the first export of raw silk, amounting 
to eight pounds, being sent from the latter State in 
1734. But while cocoons were produced at the 
South in considerable quantities, for some time fol¬ 
lowing, and also in Connecticut, where a company 
was incorporated in 1788 for the manufacture of 
silk, little was accomplished in the way of manu¬ 
facturing. 
Now, however, we believe there arc several silk 
factories in the United States. One of these, pos¬ 
sibly the largest, is described at length in. The Pro¬ 
tectionist for November It is that of the Cheney 
Brothers, at South Manchester, Ct., and is a model 
establishment. A history of the origin and pro¬ 
gress of silk manufacture preludes the description, 
from which we condense the following: 
The discovery of the uses to which the cocoon of 
the Bilkworm might be applied, it is said, was made 
in China 2,700 years before the Christian era. Be 
that as it may, it is a well-known fact that when 
the existence of the silken fabric of China be¬ 
came known in other countries, its manufacture 
had attained a degree of excellence which showed 
a long practice of it among the Chinese. The silk¬ 
worm itselt was unknown, except to the inhabi¬ 
tants of the celestial empire. Aristotle and Pliny 
had obtained tolerably accurate accounts of it. 
Pamphlla, a native of Cos, one of the Islands of the 
Grecian Archipelago, was in the habit of unweaving 
imported silken fabrics, for the purpose of spinning 
aud weaving them anew into lighter fabrics, such 
as gauzes. Her practice was afterwards adopted by 
the ladies of Rome, where silken materials wree 
greatly prized. 
In the reign of Augustus, the article was but 
little known; and in the reign of Tiberius, silk 
from the East was worn only by ladies of the high¬ 
est rank, but the thinner manufactures of Cos were 
more general daring the hot season. Men were 
forbidden to wear silk fabrics, but a mixed material 
of an inferior quality was worn by both sexes. 
The great cost, as well as difficulty of importing 
silk to Rome, caused Marcus Autonius, in the 
second century, to send ambassadors to China to 
establish commercial relations with that people; 
but the embassy met with scarcely any success. 
To show the costliness of the article, a silken gar¬ 
ment is mentioned as one of the prodigalities of 
the Emperor Heliogabolus, while a dress of similar 
material was refused by Aureliau to his Empress, 
on the ground that it could only be obtained by its 
weight in gold. 
About the middle of the sixth century the west¬ 
ern world received a supply of silkworms’ eggs, 
which were couveyed from China to Constantinople 
by two Perslau monks. This occurred about the 
year 552, in the reign of Justinian, aud the eggs 
were secretly conveyed from China in a hollow 
cane; these were hatched at the proper season, and 
the caterpillars fed with the leaves of the wild mul¬ 
berry tree. From this small commencement sprang 
all the Bilkworms which hare, up to the present 
time, continued to supply the constantly increasing 
demand throughout Europe and Western Asia. The 
worm was gradually introduced iuto Greece; and the 
Greek empire, for uearly six hundred years, became 
the great seat of the European silk manufacture. 
In 1147, Roger L, King of Sicily, sacked Corinth, 
Athens aud Thebes, and carried off large numbers 
of the inhabitants to Palermo, who introduced the 
silk manufacture into Sicily, from whence it made 
into Italy and Venice; and Florence, Lucca and 
Milan became celebrated for the beauty of their 
manufactures. 
The introduction of silk into Frauce is assigned 
to Louis XI., who, in 1480, obtained workmen from 
Italy and established the manufacture at Tours; 
but it did not prosper, and in the reign of Frauds 
I., about the year 1521, a new importation of work¬ 
men was obtained from Milan, and established at 
Lyons, where, under the encouragement of the em¬ 
peror, the manufacture obtained considerable suc¬ 
cess. The manufacture spread through parts of 
France, and England was largely supplied from 
thence, although there was much earlier use of silk 
in England as an occasional article of superb dis¬ 
play. The more general use of silk in England, 
which followed from its successful manufacture in 
France, awakened a fear that home manufacture 
would suffer, and in the reicn of Mary, in 1554, a 
sumptuary law was made “that whosoever shall 
wear silk in or upon hia or her hut, bonnet, or gir¬ 
dle, scabbard, hose, shoes, or spur leather, shall be 
imprisoned during three months, and forfeit ten 
pounds.” Persons of quality were exempt. In the 
lirst year of the reign of James I. this law was re¬ 
pealed. 
At the commencement of the eighteenth century, 
however, the silk: machinery .of England was still 
so defective that the supply of thrown silk had to 
be chiefly obtained from Italy. In 1715, Johu 
Lombe surreptitiously visited a silk mill in Pied¬ 
mont, and obtained dra wings of the machinery, but 
with considerable difficulty and at the risk of losing 
his life. He returned to England in 1717, and 
erected his famous silk mill on the Derwent, at 
Derby, which was five stories high and one-eighth 
of a mile iu length. From this time the machinery 
in England, as well as the quality of the manufac¬ 
ture, continued to improve, so that now, silken 
textures manufactured in that couutry are unsur¬ 
passed iu the world. 
BY EBEN E. REXFORD. 
John and Nellie Grant were down by the brook 
at play, one afternoon, it was a warm, pleasaut 
day, and the birds sang very lazily, and the great 
yellow butterflies floated about iu the air slowly, as 
if they were half asleep. 
“How warm it is,” said Johnnie. “Let’s go 
down in the woods and play. It’s cooler there.” 
The woods to which Johnnie pointed were just a 
little way from where they were at play, and were 
part of a large forest that stretched away on the 
north side of the “opening” where their father had 
chosen his farm, for miles aud miles. Now perhaps 
some of my readers may not know what “ openings ” 
mean. Out West there are large tracts of land where 
no large trees grow, only low, shrubby, stunted 
bushes. These pieces of land are called “ open¬ 
ings,” and persons choose them for farms because 
they can be cleared so easily. 
“Oh, Johnnie!” cried Nellie, all at once. “I 
heard father say that strawberries were getting ripe 
in the woods now, and let’s get some for his supper. 
We can get enough, I know; and how glad he’ll be 
when he come3 home from work to see a big saucer 
full of them, with cream and sugar over them, set¬ 
ting by hia plate 1 ” 
“Sure enough'.” said Johnnie. “I don’t see 
why we did n’t think of it before. Bat what ’ll we 
do for a basket?” 
“I don’t know," said Nellie, thoughtfully. 
“ I’d go up to the house aud get one, if I wasn’t 
afraid mother’d see me, and we do n’t want her to 
know anything about what we're going to do. 
Won’t she laugh when she sees what we’ve got?” 
and Nellie’s eyes shoue with anticipation of her 
mother’s pleasure. 
“ Oh, I know,” said Johnnie. “ We can make 
some cups out of these great basswood leaves. I 
saw father make one to drink out of once. They’ll 
hold ever so much.” 
So the children gathered several large leaves, and 
by twisting them around their hands and pinning 
them together with little twigs they formed some 
very nice little cups. When their new - fashioned 
baskets were completed, they started for the woods 
where their father had told them the strawberries 
were beginning to ripen. At first they saw no 
indications of fruit; the vines grew plentifully, but 
there were no berries to be found under the shining 
green leaves. 
“I guess they grow in shady places,” said John¬ 
nie, “and we shall have to go where the trees are 
thicker.” 
“ L wish we had old Snip with us,” said Nellie, 
who could not help feeling timid aud almost afraid, 
the shadows were so deep and everything seemed so 
still and lonesome. 
“ We can get along without Snip well enough,” 
said Johnnie bravely, though he could not help 
wishing that the old dog had accompanied them. 
“But see, Nellie, here arc soma berries!” he 
cried, as he caught sight of a great red cluster half 
hidden in tufts of green leaves. 
Sure enough! they had found berries at last; and 
they kept wandering on from one patch to another, 
till their baskets were filled with luscious fruit. 
When they had heaped their leaf-baskets with the 
red berries till they eould hold no more, they began 
to think of going home. They had been so busily 
engaged in their pleasant task that they had taken 
no notice of the flight of time, and now they were 
. surprised to see that the woods kept growing 
gloomier and darker, and when they looked at the 
tops of the trees only the tallest ones were touched 
by the suushine. 
“It’s almost sundown,” 6aid Johnnie, “ and we 
must hurry, or it will be dark before we get home.” 
And talcing Nellie’s hand, they set off in the 
direction of home, as they supposed, but in reality 
they were going in the opposite direction. They 
wandered on, expecting to come in sight of home 
every moment. But no glimpse oi an opening in 
' the trees greeted their eyes, and all the while it kept 
growing darker and darker. 
1 “ Oh, Johnnie, I guess we’re lost! ” said Nellie, 
' very pitifully. 
! “ i don't know but we are,” answered Johnnie. 
1 “I'm sure we’ve come a good deal further than we 
: had gone from home after the berries.” 
“ What shall we do ? " asked Nellie, as she clung 
‘ closer to Johnnie’s arm, for it was quite dark now, 
3 and the shadows frightened her. 
1 “ I do n’t know,” answered Johnnie very slowly. 
1 “If we go any further we shall have more trouble 
- to find home, I guess, than we shall if we stay here 
t a u night, and try to follow our tracks back in the 
i morning.” 
3 8o they agreed to stay where they were all night. 
i An old tree had fallen close by, and they crawled 
1 into its branches, and made themselves a snug little 
5 bed of leaves. Johnnie drew Nellie’s head down 
1 on his lap and tried to quiet her, for she was crying 
t very bitterly. She could not help thinking of her 
! mother, who just then seemed very far away. She 
wondered if she should ever see her again. John¬ 
nie told her that nothing would harm them, and it 
would be very easy, he guested, to find their way 
home in the morning, but he was not quite sure. 
It was very still and quiet for awhile; then an old 
5 owl began to hoot in a tree over head. His dismal 
t croak made the night seem lonesomer than before. 
i Then they heard steps like those ot some animal, aud 
' Nellie clung to Johnnie, iu great terror, for she 
: was thinking of wolves and bears. But, whatever 
1 it was, it passed by. 
1 Then they were undisturbed for a long time. 
' Johnnie told her that God was just as near them 
1 there as at home, and after a while she laid her head 
> down on his arm, and tried to go to sleep. Just as 
* she was getting drowsy, the pat, pat, pat, of some 
: animal that was coming toward them aroused her 
f aQc i she clung to Johnnie, more frightened than 
! before. The stops kept coming nearer, and at last 
* they heard the branches rustle, as a large, heavy 
body, that looked shaggy like a bear, crowded iu 
among the limbs toward them. 
“Shoo-o-o!” cried Nellie, greatly frightened. 
1 “ Bow, wow, wow ! ” answered a glad voice. 
! “ It's Snip I” cried both of the children together, 
and if ever they scrambled, it was to get out of that 
! tree-top. Snip had tracked them; and close behind 
1 him came their father. 
Just as morning broke, they reached home, where 
their mother was anxiously waiting for some tidings 
of her children. I am sure they were glad euough 
when they felt her kiss, aud knew that they were 
safe home. 
a lively place if much shipping entered the harbor- 
But the lovely basin, so safe and inviting, seldom 
presents a scene of much activity. Though the 
gateway to the second mercantile city of Ireland, it 
is not crowded with busy sails as it ought to be. 
The Irish claim that English tyranny is the chief 
cause of this inactivity of trade. 
This land-locked basin is regarded by many as the 
most capacious and most beautiful in the world. It 
is large and deep enough to float the world’s navies, 
varying from one mile ( at the eu trance) to eight miles 
in breadth. It is formed by the estuary of the river 
Lee, upou which the city of Cork is situated, eleven 
miles above the entrance to the barbor, and which is 
navigable a mile or two above the city. It contains 
two islands, Spike and Hawlbowline, the first of which 
is the most prominent, is surmounted by artillery 
and barracks, aud is the place where criminals con¬ 
demned to penal servitude are confined. The little 
town creeping up the hillside, in the foreground of 
the engraving is Queenstown, which might be quite 
tor all. But men do drink, aud they will drink 
until a radical change is wrought in many, iudeed, 
in most of them. If whisky, the whole family of 
distilled alcohol, could be wholly crowded out, the 
curses and burdens of intemperance would be 
greatly mitigated. Were we to come np to the level 
of the grape growing districts of Europe in this re¬ 
gard, our case would be much improved. And yet that 
level would not and ought not to content us. Some 
of our rural districts and agricultural villages, in 
which no liquors or wines are sold, afford, doubt¬ 
less, the best models for imitation in character aud 
comfort ot any communities existing among meu.” 
ture in question waited to force open and examine 
minutely instrument by instrument. 
How strong the conventional imagination of the 
elephant is, is seen, even without respect to man, in 
his intense respect for the orgauic unity of a single 
herd or family, which he shows both positively and 
negatively. One herd will never, even when united 
by a common danger, admit another herd, or even 
a single individual of another herd, into the limits 
of its own group. Even when more than one herd 
are captured in the same corral, they will never 
unite or join in the same charges against the barrier. 
Any attempt to join them on the part of a stray 
elephant is resisted pertinaciously, even by blows. 
Here is the same high value attached to conventions 
which induced some fashionable man to assign as a 
reason for not saving another from drowning —that 
he had never been introduced to him. We should 
explain it by saying that elephants attach a higher 
superstitious or imaginative value to the strict 
unities of elephantine states or nationalities than to 
the immediate result of life or death to auy one such 
state or nationality. It is not a want of value for 
the power of organization. The wouderful descrip¬ 
tion of the placing of a picket by the leader of a 
herd ot elephants anxious to bathe near a human 
encampment, and the anxious generalship with 
which the leader examined his outposts, aud himself 
sarveyed the ground in advance, sufficiently proves 
this. Besides, whenever a herd of elephants is at 
bay it always follows one leader, and if the leader is 
6lain, follows the next, and so on till the last is left 
in isolation. 
The truth that matter passes from the animal 
back to the vegetable, and from the vegetable to 
the animal kingdom again, received a curious illus¬ 
tration, not long since. 
For the purpose of erecting a suitable monument 
in memory of Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode 
Island, his private burying ground was searched for 
the graves of himself and wife. It was found that 
everything bad passed iuto oblivion. The shape of 
the coffius could only be traced by a black line of 
carbonaceous matter. 
The rusting hinges and nails, aud a round wooden 
knot, alone remaiued in one grave, while a single 
lock of braided hair was found in the other. Near 
the grave stood an apple tree. This bad sent down 
two main roots into the very presence of the cof¬ 
fined dead. The larger root, pushing its way to the 
precise spot occupied by the skull of Roger Wil¬ 
liams, had made a turn, as if passing around it, and 
followed the direction of the back-bone to the hips. 
Here it divided into two branches, sending one 
along each leg to the heels, when both turned 
upward to the toes. One of these roots formed a 
slight crook at the knee, which made the whole 
bear a striking resemblance to the human form. 
There were the graves, but their occupants had dis¬ 
appeared; the bones even had vanished, There 
stood the thief—the guilty apple tree—caught in 
the very act of robbery. The spoliation was com¬ 
plete. 
The organic matter, the flesh, the bones of Roger 
Williams, had passed into an apple tree. The ele¬ 
ments had been absorbed by the roots, transmuted 
into woody fiber, which could now be burned as 
fuel, or carved into ornaments; had bloomed into 
fragrant blossoms, which delighted the eye of the 
passer-by, and scattered the sweetest perfume of 
spring; more than that—had been converted iuto 
luscious fruit, which, from year to year, had been 
gathered and eaten. How pertinent, then, is the 
question, “Who ate Roger Williams?” — Steel's 
Fourteen Weeks in Chemistry. 
CHEAP WINE AND DRUNKENNESS, 
Universal wine drinking as a preventive of 
drunkenness, has been urged repeatedly by a 
class of professedly temperance people. Its effect 
in different countries has been cited, in illustration; 
and the manufacture and use of light wines have 
been zealously recommended in lieu of prohibitory 
legislation. At times this side of the question has 
been presented in a very plausible light, and we 
doubt not has made many converts. Bayard Tay¬ 
lor’s extended observation has favored it; and his 
statement, in a letter from Germany, that the most 
temperate people he has ever found are the Greeks, 
every one of whom—man, woman and child—drinks 
wine, may have seemed to some minds conclusive. 
But there are two sides to the matter. Dr. Hol¬ 
land, writing from Switzerland to the Springfield 
Republican, shows the darker aspect. He says that 
a large amount of laud in the canton of Vaud Is sur¬ 
rendered to the cultivation of the grape, and all the 
wine made is drank within the canton. The vint¬ 
age is the chief interest, and the people seek to 
throw a glamour of romance around it. “The 
casks go through the streets with gay bouquets of 
flowers in their bungholes; but from what I have 
seen of the effect of wine here, the show is all a 
sorry farce. There is no question that the people 
would be better, healthier, happier, and much more 
prosperous, if there were not a vineyard in the can¬ 
ton. We have all been told In America, and I fully 
believed It, that if the people could be supplied with 
a cheap wine, they would not get drunk, — that the 
natural desire for some sort of stimulant would be 
gratified in a way that would be not only harmless 
to morals, but conducive to health. I am thor¬ 
oughly undeceived. The people drink their cheap, 
white wine here to drunkenness. A boozier set 
than hang around the multitudinous cafes here it 
would be hard to find in any American city, even 
where they enjoy the license of the Maine law.” 
This testimony is to the point, and bears the im¬ 
press of honesty. It is rendered still more emphatic 
by what follows. Alter telling ns that “ the grand 
difference in the drunkenness of an American and a 
Swiss city is found in the fact that a man who has 
wine in him iB good uatured, aud the man who is 
equally charged with whisky is a demon,” the Doc¬ 
tor adds; — “I firmly believe that the wines of 
Switzerland are of no use except to keep out 
w hisky, and that the advantages of the wine over 
the whisky are uot very obvious. It is the testi¬ 
mony of the best men in Switzerland, — those who 
have the highest good of the people at heart, — that 
the increased growth of the grape has been steadily 
and correspondingly attended by the increase of 
drunkenness.” 
Mr. Ellis II. Roberts of the Utica Herald, spent 
the last season abroad, and his observations do not 
quite agree with those of Dr. Holland. He re¬ 
plies to the Doctor’s letter, takiug Issue with some 
of its statements, yet in the final summing up really 
indorses all the objections to cheap wines. We 
quote his closing paragraph: 
“ What then shall Americans be advised ? Shall 
they be told to plaut grapes and drink wine ? Not 
at all. Let us agree that safety to the iudividuat is 
best secured by total abstinence. Let the preacher 
and the reformer accept that as their end and aim 
ANTE-MORTEM OBITUARIES 
CULTIVATING DYSPEPSIA, 
“ If I were colled upon, said Jame3 I of England, 
“ to provide a dinner for Satan, his bill of fare 
should consist of roast pig and a pipe of tobacco 
for digestion.” From the manner In which two- 
thirds of our adult population treat their unfortu¬ 
nate stomachs, one might suppose that they were 
as willing to destroy their own health os King 
James would have beeu to sicken Satan. In most 
countries, people who Indulge iu alcoholic drinks 
take them at meal times or immediately after eat¬ 
ing, when the membraneous lining of the stomach 
is in some degree protected from their inflammatory 
action by a poultice, so to speak, of masticated food. 
But the American Imbiber prefers to swallow his 
liquid poison when there is nothing in the organ 
into which he decantB it to qualify its fiery princi¬ 
ple, or prevent it from taking Immediate and full 
effect upon the viscera with which It comes in con¬ 
tact. The vicious wretch who throws vitriol in the 
face of his enemy scarcely misuses him more horri¬ 
bly than one of our “ perpendicular drinkers ” mis¬ 
uses bis own stomach. Is it any wonder, then, con¬ 
sidering the outrages which the people of this coun¬ 
try commit upon the internal machinery, that dys¬ 
pepsia is a “ national disease ?” 
THE IMAGINATION OF ELEPHANTS 
A writer in the London Spectator asserts that the 
elephant is a highly imaginative animal, aud pro¬ 
ceeds to cite numerous facts to prove the assertion. 
He says:—The Ceylon engineers say that when they 
survey' ways through the forests and plant wooden 
tracing-pegs to mark the levels during the day, their 
tracing-pegs are generally removed during the night 
by the elephants, who are uneasy till they under¬ 
stand these novel symptoms of human agency. It 
is clear, theo, that the elephants are rendered 
uneasy, troubled in their imaginations, by these 
curious marks of special and unexplained human 
interest in their dwelling place, just as Morgiuna, 
iu the “ Forty Thieves,” was rendered uneasy by 
seeing the chalk mark ou her master’s door. Indeed, 
it l.- a recognized and very generally successful way 
to escape a vicious elephant to throw down anything 
complicated in his path, which, in his caution, he 
will examine so oareiully before he proceeds as to 
give his chase time to escape. Col. Hardy, in 1820, 
saved himself from a vicious “ rogue ” elephant by 
throwing down his dressing case, which the crea- 
The Kennebec J ournal cites the opinion of a prom¬ 
inent citizen of Maine, a close observer of events, 
in which it is claimed that the cause of the falling 
off iu school returns the last two years, is not ou 
account of carelessness or mistakes in the return of 
the number of children, but that the children are 
becoming less in number yearly, except in manu¬ 
facturing towns, or where there is an iuflux of for¬ 
eign population. Forty years ago ten children was 
quite a common number in a family. The average 
in many places was a fraction over seven iu each 
family, of parents at the age of forty-five; now we 
seldom find more than ten, and the average is hat 
four to each family. The diminution in the returns 
may be accounted for from the fact that the births 
in many towns do not at the present period exceed 
the deaths. Fride, fashion and folly are iu a great 
measure responsible lor this state of things, in 
what manner it is not necessary to state. 
Railroad Sleepers.— The average life of a rail¬ 
road sleeper is seven years. There are 2,112 in a 
mile. The average cost is fifty cents each. Thus 
our sleepers are costing as 8150 a mile every year, 
for each of the 40,000 miles in the Union. The 
sleepers on the English roads last ou an average 
fourteen years, and when properly treated with pre¬ 
serving substances, they last tor a century. 
It is stated that there ui- 807 religious newspapers 
and other periodicals published in the United States. 
Ot these 00 are set down as Baptists, 54 Methodist, 
30 l’resby terian, 89 Lutheran, 20 Episcopal, 25 Catho¬ 
lic, 16 Congregational, 11 Unlversalist, and the re¬ 
mainder scattered among the small societies. 
Work for some good be it ever so slowly 
Cherish some flower, be it ever so lowly; 
Labor, true labor, is noble and holy. 
