494 
AU6. a 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
fled company, to think of the ridiculous chara tier 
of the methods In which you manifest yourselves 
to mankind. If 1 were a goblin, and f retained a 
particle of roy self-respect, I would keep away 
from grave-yards at night, 1 would refrain from 
haunting houses, and prowling about, making 
noises to scare timid women and children, I would 
refuse to come out at so-called spiritual seances, 
and thrum diabolical music upon cracked guitars, 
and tllb tables, at the bidding of long-haired and 
wild-eyed mediums. If a ghost who has been re¬ 
spectable in life cannot put In his spare time In the 
outer world In better ways than these, my advice 
to him Is to stay in the bowels of the earth right 
along and to let honest, people alone. Apart from 
the silliness Of such proceedings, they are disgust¬ 
ingly useless. Mow if 1 were a ghost, I would use 
my powers to reveal to living men truths that 
would be of service to them—such as knowledge of 
the spiritual state, and information, perhaps, as to 
the location of veins or coal, of the metals, and 
so forth; or, it these things are forbidden, I would 
rent my-self out tor exhibition for the benefit of 
good objects Of various kinds. A genuine ghost, 
for example, could alway s ilnd employment when 
Hamlet or Macbeth is performed at the t heaters; 
and If you can flit about with the rapidity com¬ 
monly attributed to you, some or you might earn 
good wages carrying messages, tor persons to 
places which the telegraph does not reach.” 
For a fuller account of this speech find the rest 
of Mr. Skinner’s adventures, we refer the reader to 
the book. There are, 1 n all twelve sketches, some 
extremely funny and all entertaining. VVc know 
of no better antidote for "dull care" or the 
« blues,” than a liberal dose of “ Random .shots.” 
♦- 
MAGAZINES. 
Harper’s Magazine for August, — Lake 
George, 8. G. W. Benjamin; with twenty-three 
Illustrations. The Nautical School “ St. Marys.” 
W.H. Rldelng; with twelve Illustrations. Chau¬ 
tauqua. l>. fi. Post; with eight illustrations, Little 
Barbara. A Poem, Will Wallace Harney; with 
one Illustration. The First, Mi’s, Petersham, Har¬ 
riet Prescott spofTord; with one Illustration. 
American Forests, G. W. Powell; Miss Mildred's 
Friend. A story, Elizabeth Stuart, Phelps. Snug 
Hamlet and Hometown, W. Hamilton Gibson; 
with flfteen illustrations. Watchwords. A poem, 
Helen S. Conant; Japanese Rock-crystal, Rev. 
W. E. Griffis; with five Illustrations. White Wings, 
A Yachting Romance, William Clack; with two 
Illustrations. Young Mrs. Jardino. A Novel, 1). 
M. Craik; with three Illustrations, The Foreign 
Indebtedness of the United States, Willard Brown; 
Mary Aueriy. A Novel. R. D. Blackmore. conse¬ 
quences of Defective Vision, Dr. Edward G. Lor- 
lng; Editor’s Easy Ghair; Editor’s Literary Re¬ 
cord; Editor’s Historical Record. 
The Destruction of gob Forests.— uf a deso¬ 
lation which is recorded far back of the days of 
Roman or even of Grecian glory, we read that, " a 
mao was famous according as he had lifted up t 
axes upon the thick trees.” In the days when 
American forests were considered practically lim¬ 
itless, our fathers were far too famous for lifting 
up axes upon the thick trees, and the resultant 
destruction is even now upon us, like the Phlhs- 
tines upon Samson. This destruction comes upon 
us In many forms, most of which are, In fact, 
rapidly and terribly cumulative. Here Is a beaut l- 
fui stream of water, for example, which was a 
great element of wealth to the region through 
which it flowed. It might not only have con¬ 
tinued to he so, but to have gained In usefulness 
Instead of being either dead or surely and swiftly 
passing away. The numberless little hollows on 
the hills where were the springs which grew into 
rivulets to food It have been stripped of the mois¬ 
ture-economizing verdure with which the Creator 
clothed them, and so the springs are dry, and the 
rills no longer murmur their once glad songs of 
labor as they hastened clown the valleys to. turn 
the mill-wheels of mechanical industry. In this 
one matter of destruction of hydraulic power with 
which we have been already smitten,, hundreds or 
millions of dollars of annual damage has been 
and is the actual result. That this drying up 
of the streams Is attributable not only chiefly 
to deforesting, but almost solely to It, common- 
sense—which ts In fact the very essence cf both 
fact and philosophy—must make plain to every 
candid mind. Rain feeds the springs. To feed 
them economically, It should be gentle and fre¬ 
quent, not violent and at long intervals, intel¬ 
ligent forest engineering would require that such 
portion of hills be clothed with a mantle of green 
trees as by Its cooling influence it would more 
frequently so contract the serial sponge as to give 
us showers at short Intervals. Tills is the case In 
forest-clothed, beautiful Britain. The reverse Is 
true iu tree-stripped Spain, whose people have 
become as proverbial for their hatred or trees as 
their coon try has for sterility ot soil and sleeping 
streams. There, and on eastward all through the 
Orient, a relentlessly brilliant sky and an appall¬ 
ing absence of verdure will teach one as nothing 
else can how beauttrul are clouds that weep, and, 
in its proper time, how delicious a drizzling rainy 
day. These deforested Eastern lands aro as fa¬ 
mous tor seasons of blinding storms, and valleys 
torn by terrible torrents, as they are for the re¬ 
verse. They will soon find their counterpart. In 
all these characteristics in America, unless we 
rouse-ourselves with a will to understand and to 
master these evils. Forests promote streams 
available for our precious manufacturing inter¬ 
ests, also by furnishing vast and almost Innumera¬ 
ble beds of fallen leaves and of moss, which act 
on the earth like a huge overlying sponge to check 
the sudden rush of the rainfall Into the valleys 
and down Into the streams, very rapidly In re¬ 
cent years are mournful instances multiplying in 
which the manufacturing streams aro trans¬ 
formed by freshets from spirits of blessing—to 
give homes and food and clothing to thousands 
who live lu the hamlets, by turning the machin¬ 
ery which helps them by their labor to help them¬ 
selves—to demons of destruction. Forests also 
promote such steadiness of flow of the streams as 
to make them sources of national wealth In giv¬ 
ing employment to skilled labor, by preventing 
the rapid evaporation of moisture. Probably 
more than half the water that falls on a defor¬ 
ested region in a dry season Is whisked off by 
evaporation Just at the time when it Is most needed 
to strengthen the depleted mill-streams. The 
steam-engine, to be of any practical use as a mo¬ 
tive power, must have Its action controlled by 
the conservative Influence of the balance wheel. 
Otherwise its wheels would whirl at one time 
with a fury which would result only In destruc¬ 
tion, and then they would move too slowly to be 
of service. Thus the forest, by increasing the 
frequency of gentle rains, and so decreasing the 
volume and the lengt h of Intervals between show¬ 
ers, also by regulating their too sudden plunge 
Into the Streams, is the great reg ulator provided 
by nature for their control in the service of man. 
AUoverthc manufacturing portions of our coun¬ 
try we may find Instances Where laige amounts of 
capital have been invested to develop and make 
available our once magnificent and almost num¬ 
berless hydraulic powers. Trusting to what 
seemed a certainty of employment for themselves 
and t heir families, thousands of skilled laborers 
have In many cases confidingly made their homes 
at a point where the stream seemed abundantly 
pow erful and permanent. Then, as the summers 
came and went, the rivers seemed to sicken, and 
grow more and more feeble, till there would be a 
week or two each year In which the spindles and 
the looms would be silent. As time weut on 
these periods ot Idleness have lengthened Into 
months, In which the labor struggle for bread and 
clothing, tor means to pay for the humble Utile 
home, or debts Incurred in sickness, was com¬ 
pelled to be suspended. The cause of all this was 
that the sources ot the river’s life had been de¬ 
stroyed or injured by the Ignorance, cupidity, or 
recklessness of men who "lifted up axes cm the 
thick trees” far up the mountains, where the mill- 
streams had their birth.— G. W. Powell, In Har¬ 
per's Mo amine.for A ugust. 
The Atlantic Monthly for August, 1879—Con¬ 
tents : Preaching; The Future of Invention, W. 
II. Babcock; The Inland Country, Christine Chap¬ 
lin Brush; An Experiment lu Play Writing, Joseph 
Kirkland; At Ivawsinouth station, Henry King; 
The Latest Literature of Art, Henry Van Brunt; 
Petite Marie and Benozot, II. 11.; Irene the Mission¬ 
ary, XVIIl. XXII.; Two Years of President Hayes, 
tValter Allen; A Bit of Bhoro Life, Sarah O. Jew¬ 
ett; The Deserted Cabin, Mrs. E. R, Lee; “Un 
Homme Capable,” Axel C. J. Gustafson; The Ne¬ 
gro Exodus, James B. Runnlon; Recent French 
and German Essays, Thomas Sergeant Perry; Wil¬ 
liam Lloyd Garrison, Lydia Marta Child; Vestigia 
ijulnquo Retrorsum. An Academic Poem, Oliver 
Wendell Holmes; Rural England, Richard Grant 
White; The Contributors’ club; Recent Liter¬ 
ature. 
Competition with Labor-Saving M.aciii-Jkkt.—, 
The great question, however, for the poor man Is, 
or shortly will bo, that of escape from competition 
with ahor-savlng machinery by occupying small 
tracts of land, particularly of such rough wood¬ 
land us cannot be successfully invaded by ma¬ 
chinery of less flexibility and adaptability than 
the human body. Here flesh and blood have the 
advantage, and he can live. Making hts work 
easier is a less consideration, but by lightening 
the labor at home he obtains more assistance from 
his family in his out-door duties. The time saved 
from washing and churning may go to weeding 
and chopping; sewing Is convertible Into sowing. 
Thus the certainty of a living arid or a fair ex¬ 
changeable surplus Becomes established. It Is a 
life which can be made a success, and which will 
be one day the rule rather than the exception. 
This change will of course strengthen all our In¬ 
stitutions, by broadening the base or our national 
life and multiplying the number of those who 
have a direct prop^ty Interest In public prosper¬ 
ity. It will not stop the growth ot cities, which 
Will still be needed as great distributing centres; 
nor will it lessen the number of inventions of a 
different sort from those last referred to. All that 
Is needed now will be needed then, and there will 
be more people in a position to obtain what they 
want. The chief revolution will be the general 
substitution of unintelligent matter for human 
bodies in nearly all subordinate work, and the 
greater liberation of the human mind and will, 
concmrent with this will be the more thorough 
development of the agricultural resources of the 
country, and the occupancy of Its many places 
now lying waste. All this Is not so far away as it 
may seem.— IV. H. Hahcogk, in August Atlantic. 
Domestic Monthly for August: Review of 
Fashions; Fashions for Gentlemen; Children’s 
Underclothing, Fans Jewelry and Parasols, Sea¬ 
sonable Fabrics, Trimmings, stockings and Shoes; 
Coiffures, Millinery, Lingerie; Domestic Ait. All 
the foregoing articles are illustrated. The stories 
are: Lost Alice and Her Three Lovers, followed by 
The Lost Kingdom, a poem; Miscellany, Small 
Talk; Household Department; Recent Literature; 
Mosaics; Answers to Correspondents. 
There Is one delect connected with summering lu 
the country which qul te possibly has been observed, 
though perhaps not. commented upon, by almost 
every body. It Is the mistake of permitting chil¬ 
dren to play from early morn to dewy eve without 
the pause of an hour, and without once withdraw¬ 
ing their attention from physical exercise to the 
small task of reading aloud or even nr,ling torn 
short hour every forenoon. A dally lesson In any 
thing that Is worth learning Is Invaluable to chil¬ 
dren; and plain sewing, taught not only to Utile 
girls but to small boys as well, may be made a 
charming occupation if Die mother-teacher will 
tell u story or read from some attractive book dur¬ 
ing the lesson. Even children need to rest from 
pleasure taking now and then, and a sjielllng-class 
organized on the old plan ot “ choosing sides ” will 
be hailed after a few trials as one of thedeUglits 
of vacation—providing It Is done as recreation and 
not as a compulsory work. 
What, a pity It Is that a disordered toilette Is so 
disparaging to a man, and that he looks so little 
like a god when ho Is In any disturbed stole of 
costume. It Is so different with a woman I Dis¬ 
heveled hair, tucked-up skirts, and up-rolled 
sleeves may make a picturesque enserrtUle for her; 
but take the very Apollo of the day and tie his 
cravat on one side, deprive him of bis coat, give 
him an old hat, and set him at work at something 
perplexing, and see what a monstrous thing he Is; 
A ny looker-on wlU admit t hat dress does make the 
man, whatever nature may have done with the 
preliminaries .—Domestic for Avaunt. 
-- 
GLEANINGS. 
TUB MAN AND THE PICNIC. 
Under the slid!bark hickory tree 
The picnic man lie elands, 
A wot'ul lookiug man is be, 
With brained and yrtnimy bauds; 
And the soil that sticks to his trousers knee, 
Is the soil of several lands. 
His liair is tumbled, his hat is torn, 
Ills clothes are like the ground; 
He wishes he had ne'er been born, 
Or born, had ne’er been found. 
Ho glares and scowls iu wrathful scorn 
As oft he looks around. 
At curly morn, all dressed in white, 
He sought tlie picnic park; 
His face was clean, his beurt was light, 
His loud Bong mocked the lark. 
But now, although the day is bright, 
His world, alas! is dark. 
In joyous mood, at early morn. 
He sat upon the stump. 
But soon, as though upon a thorn 
Ho sat, with mighty jump 
He leaped aloft, aud all forlorn 
In haste he did crump. 
For lo, in hordes the big Black nuts. 
With nippers long aud Blim. 
Wont swiftly crawling up his pants. 
And made it warm for him; 
Aud through the woods they make him dance. 
With gasp, aud groan, and vim. 
And when the rustic feast is spread. 
And she is sitting by, 
His wildwuod garland on her head. 
The love light i n her eye. 
He—woe. oh, woe!—would ho were dead ! — 
Bits in the custard pie. 
Aud now they send him up the tree 
To lix the picnic swing, 
Aud up the shellbark’s scraggy side, 
They laugh to see him cling i 
They cannot bear the words lie cried, 
" Dad fetch ' dog gone! dat bing!” 
And now he wisheth he were down, 
Aud yet he cannot see, 
Just how the giggle, stare and frown 
Escaped by him may bo; 
He knows ho cannot scramble down 
With his back against the trow. 
Sobbing, and sidling, aud wailing. 
Homeward alone he goes; 
Clay, pie. and grass stain on kin clothes, 
More aud more plainly shows; 
And lie vows to any more picnics 
He never will go, he knows. 
But the morning oomes. and its rising sun 
Brings balm to his shattered breaks; 
He thinks, after all, he had lots of fun, 
And hopefully, gayly ho speaks; 
And he goes to picnics one by one. 
Nine times in the next live weeks. I llaiakei/e. 
Judicious Advertising.—A man was denounc¬ 
ing newspaper advertising to a crowd of listeners. 
"Last week,” said he, “Ibadan umbrella stolen 
from the vestibule or the-church. It. was a 
gift; and, valuing it very highly, I spent double Its 
worth in advertising, but have not recovered It.” 
“How did you word your advertisement ?" asked a 
merchant. “ Here It is,” said the man, producing 
a slip cut from a newspaper. The merchant took 
It and read: “Lost from the vestibule of — 
church last Sabbath evening, a black silk umbrella. 
The gentleman who took it will be handsomely 
rewarded by leaving it at No. — San Fernando 
street.” " Now,” said the merchant, “ l am a 
liberal advertiser, and have always found that It 
paid me well. A great deal depends upon the 
manner In which an advertisement is put. Let us 
tiy for your umbrella again, and If you do not 
acknowledge then that advertising pays, I will 
purchase you a new one.” The merchant then 
took a slip of paper from Ills pocket and wrote: 
“If the man who was seen to take an umbrella 
from the vestibule of the — church last sabbath 
evening, does not wish to get into trouble and have 
a stain cast upon the Christian character which he 
values so highly, he will return It to No. — 8nu 
Fernando street. He is well known,” This duly 
appeared In the paper, and on the following morn¬ 
ing the man was astonished whon he opened the 
trout door of his residence, on the porch lay at 
least a dozen umbrellas ot all shades and sizes that 
had been thrown In from the sidewalk, while the 
front yard was literally paved with umbrellas. 
Many of them had notes attached to them saying 
that they had been taken by mistake, and begging 
the loser to keep the little affair quiet.— Satordup 
Magazine. 
It Is a fact for thoughtful people to contemplate 
that marriages in the United stales are believed 
to be decreasing In number in proportion to popu¬ 
lation, and divorces are Increasing corresponding¬ 
ly. several papers devoted to “matrimonial 
brokerage" have been started to remedy this; aud 
a Cincinnati society for the promotion of marriage 
is several years old. If. Is alleged to have over 
2,000 members and have branches lu forty cities of 
the country, [tow much It has actually effected 
the ostensible object in view Is a matter of doubt, 
but It advertises “ft grand picnic” on August 10, 
on which occasion one hundred couples will be 
publicly joined In th alleged holy bouds of matri¬ 
mony. This is a large-sized experiment, and It has 
a sharp business jingle quite paralyzing to senti¬ 
ment. Is hymeneal brokerage the hope of the 
future ? 
To all who are afflicted with the habit of pro¬ 
fanity, and who are desirous of curing themselves 
of it, the Louisville Courier-Journal suggests that, 
as a beginning, they resolve, and rigidly adhere to 
the resolution, that whenever they feel a disposi¬ 
tion to swea r they will take no other name In vain 
except that of the Aztec god of war, Huitztlo* 
pochtll. That will give their anger a chance to 
cool and to disappear before they get to the other 
end of the word, and they will not thus be guilty 
of the sin of a complet e oath. And If HvUtzilopochtll 
won’t break them, then their cuses are hopeless. 
BY AND UY. 
Thebe's a little mischief maker, 
Who is stealing half our bliss, 
Sketching pictures in a dreamland 
That are never seen iu this, 
Dashing from our lips the pleasures 
Of the present while ive sigh. 
You may know this mischief maker 
By the name of By ami By. 
He is Kitting by bur hosiThatonoB, 
With his sly bewitching; glance. 
Whispering of the coming morrow 
As the Hocial hours advance; 
Loitering ’mid our calm reflections, 
Hiding forms of beauty nigh; 
He’s a nimoot.h, deceitful fellow 
This enchanter. By and By. 
You may know him by his winning, 
By his careless, sprightly air; 
By his sly obtrusive presence, 
That is straying every v here; 
By the trophies that ho gathers 
Where his somber victories lie- 
For a bold, determined fellow 
Is this conqueror, By and By. 
When the calls of duty haunt us, 
And the profont seems to be 
All the time that over mortals 
Snatch from dark eternity. 
Then a fairy hand seems painting 
Pictures on a distant sky: 
Oh, a cunning little creature- 
Trust him not, this By and By 
Anachronisms in Art.— These are to be found 
in works of all ages. Thus we have Verrio's pert- 
triaged spectators of “Christ Healing the Sick;” 
Abraham about to shoot Isaac with a pistol; an 
Ethiopian King in a surplice, hoots and spurs ; 
Belln’s “ Virgin and Child” listening to a violin ; 
and In Albert Durer's “Angel Driving Adam and 
Eve from Paradise,” the angel wearing afouiiccd 
petticoat. Then we have Clgoll’s “Simeon at the 
Circumcision ” with spectacles on nose; the Virgin 
Mary helping herself to a cup of coffee from a 
chased coffeepot; and St, Jerome painted with a 
clock by his side. N. Poussin has represented 
“TheDeluge” with hoots; and “Rebecca at the 
Well” with Grecian architecture in the back¬ 
ground. Ancl, In a picture representing • ■ Lobsters 
In the Sea Listening to the Preaching of St. An¬ 
thony at Padua,” the lobsters are red; yet, it is to 
be presumed, undo tied. - Ch/i miters’s Journal. 
Locks lev Hall. -Some time since some one 
asked If Tennyson’s “ Locksley Hall ” had any 
foundation In fact. It would seem so rrom the 
following, which I cut from an English paper: 
M. E. 
“A clergyman has Just died at Lincolnshire, 
England, who. It is said, saw the man that won 
the affections of that ‘ shallow hearted ’ Cousin 
Amy, familiar to every one who knows Tennyson’6 
' Locksley Halland who does not 7 lie was very 
fond of horses, and extravagant stories are told of 
his love for dogs. It is to him that the following 
lines refer: 
"' As the husband is, the wife is ; thou art mated with 
a down, 
And the grossncsH of his nature will have weight to 
drug thee down. 
Ho will hold thee, when his passion shall have spent 
its novel forco, 
Something better than his dog, h little dearer thau his 
horse.'"_ 
The sign, “ English spoken here,” Is common 
enough In Paris shop windows, but one finds very 
little English on the inside. The other day an 
English milliner established In the French capital, 
put out a sign which said, “id un parlor Fran- 
caise." The French papers have taken this seri¬ 
ously, and complain that it is intended as an In¬ 
sult. They say It la an insinuation that the Parls- 
lslans cannot talk their own language. The most 
singular of all these notices, however, was one 
which appeared during the Exhibition, and read 
“ American spoken here.” 
ode to a cow. 
Why, cow, how count thou be so satisfied. 
So well content with all things bore below. 
So meek, so lazy, and so sLeepy-eyed; 
So unobtrusive and so awlul slow. 
Dost thoa not know that everything is mixed. 
That naught is as it should be on the earth; 
That grievously the world uoedH to bo fixed. 
That nothing we can do hath any worth ? 
4 to 
Even the. cud thou cheweut—is not what it seems — 
Get up, and moo! Tour round, and quit thy dreams 
The review passed splendidly through all oi 
Job’s afflictions, and the exorcises hail reached 
the question, “ W ho comforted Job 7” which was 
ooulldently put by the pastor and as fearlessly re¬ 
sponded lu by a little bright-eyed girl in the assem¬ 
bly, whose raised and agitated hand expressed her 
anxiety hi answer. Tlio pastor’s eye caught the 
zealous activity ot his little scholar, and pleased to 
gratify the child's desire, he said: “ Well, Oracle, 
speak up loud now; who was it comforted Job"" 
And the response came clear and with sincerity : 
“ ills slaters and his cousins and Ids aunts.” 
Buffalo Express: Joaquin Miller says that men 
who love the beautiful are never bad. This will 
be consolation to the man who runs away with hts 
neighbor’s wife. 
