1883.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
15 
the houses they pass, and receive small coins from 
the inhabitants. Original valentines generally afford 
the most amusement, especially if they contain ap¬ 
propriate allusions ; but the cards prepared for the 
festival this year are very beautiful, designed by 
skilled artists, and many will delight both to send 
and receive them. 
A Long-lived Plant.—The Date Palm. 
In former times, slow-growing plants were 
kept from year to year. The owners became 
really attached to them, and 
they seemed, after a manner, 
like one of the family. If 
any of the children wish to 
raise a plant which will grow 
slowly, and last them until 
they become old men and 
women, let them, when they 
have any fresh dates, plant a 
few of the seeds, or “ Date- 
stones,” as they are called. 
We have known them to come 
up when planted in the open 
ground in warm weather, but :: 
perhaps the safer way will be | 
to place them in a pot or box 
of earth in a warm place in 
the house. If the soil is kept 
moist, and the stones are 
fresh, in a few days a long, 
dark-green, curiously plaited 
leaf will appear. Subsequent¬ 
ly this will unfold itself, and 
then another and another. 
Tour little Palm, for such it 
is, will need a pot or box of 
good soil, and, being from 
the warm part of the globe, it must be kept from 
the cold. Year after year it will increase in size 
and beauty, and when five or six years old, if 
nothing has injured it, it will become a graceful 
young Date-tree, like that 6hown in the engraving, 
an ornament to the room in winter, and in summer 
to the piazza. It will be interesting to watch the 
{eaves as they appear, one after another, at rare 
caught the monkey with a fully organized sneeze 
upon his expressive features. One moment more 
and the explosion will come, with what results can 
only be imagined. Observe the peculiarly fixed 
and expectant expression of the eyes ; the raised 
arm, with the limp hand ; the open mouth, with all 
that it suggests of coming events. Even the curve 
in the tail intimates a suspicion of disaster. The 
monkey is a playful and lively creature, good-na¬ 
tured and active, and is no doubt a familiar object 
to most of our young friends. The menagerie 
is exhibited in all parts of the land, and the organ 
' V fej 
v III 
MORE THAN DE BARGAINED FOR. 
grinder and his impish attendant penetrate regions 
beyond the reach of the travelling collection. 
intervals, and should you, fifty years hence, say, “I 
planted the seed of that Date when I was a little 
boy,” or “ girl,” the plant will not be likely to have 
passed beyond the days of its youth even then. 
A Monkey-Shine. 
The monkey in our illustration has been in mis¬ 
chief, after the manner of his kind, and is suffering 
the consequences. He has ventured into the do¬ 
main of an old student, and made free with the 
properties that are lying around. It is reasonable 
to suppose that he has sat, his nose with spectacles 
bestrid, and made believe read the ponderous 
book that lies by hi# side. Weary of his work, he 
has turned for comfort to the snuff-box, in imita¬ 
tion of the absent student. The result is what 
might have been expected, and our artist has 
The Duckling's Development. 
“ Development ” is rather a large word to begin 
with. Do you know what it means ? You know 
what an envelop is ; you envelop your let¬ 
ter in a cover, that is, you wrap it up, and 
the thing you wrap it in is also called an 
envelop. To develop is the opposite of en¬ 
velop ; it is to unwrap, or unfold, to open 
out. When you watch the blooming of a 
flower, you usually say, “it unfolds.” If 
you wish to use a large word, you can say 
that “ it develops, and I am watching its 
development,” and if would mean the same 
thing. You may occasionally see some¬ 
thing said about development in books and 
in the papers, for there has been of late 
years much talk about different kinds of 
development. Some of the philosophers, 
because monkeys are in some respects more 
like men than are other animals, have as¬ 
serted that men originated from monkeys ; 
that in a long, long series of years, the 
monkey could so change and improve that 
it developed into a man. If this could pos¬ 
sibly happen, the change must be very slow, 
for people have known and kept monkeys 
for centuries, and they are still only mon¬ 
keys. It may be that some proof may he 
found on the other side of the question. 
We sometimes see men, who, it is not dif¬ 
ficult to believe, have started on their way 
back towards the original monkey. It is 
not always that we look to grown men to 
show this. Did you never see a boy, who, 
if he kept on in his present ways, would be 
more likely to develop into monkeyhood 
than into manhood ? The trouble with this 
monkey and man story is, that we do not 
find any half-way specimens. They are 
all “no mistake” monkeys, or all men, 
however poor specimens they may be. 
artists have no trouble with the development 
view. If they wish to prove the monkey origin of 
man, they have only to take a sheet of paper, draw 
a monkey at one end and a man at the other, and 
fill up the space with beings that are part monkey 
and some man, and some man and part monkey, 
and there you have the whole history of mankind, 
with but one fault — it isn’t true. Our artist does 
not think it worth while to begin with an animal so 
much like man as the monkey; he prefers to start 
with the duck. One of the ancient philosophers 
compared man to a fowl without feathers, and per¬ 
haps the artist thought he had only to get rid of 
the feathers to develop his duck into a man. • The 
pictures give his view of the way in which it might 
happen. There is that enormous bill and the pe¬ 
culiar voice to get rid of—to develop away. If his 
man was to be one of the advertising doctors, these 
might properly remain; it would he “quack” 
from first to last. The artist’s view of develop¬ 
ment will no doubt amuse you. Is there not some 
warrant in taking this view of development? for 
have we not heard persons spoken of as “ a duck 
of a boy,” or “ a duck of a man,” and does not this 
plainly point to what might have been the manner 
in which man was developed ? The great trouble 
is, that while the artist would have no difficulty in 
finding models for the extremes—the duck and the 
man, when he looks for the intermediates, the “be- 
tweens,” nature has something to §ay about that. 
Is It SSiglit or Wrong?— Not long ago, we 
had the pleasure of listening to a discussion on the 
subject of Santa Claus. Is it right to delude the 
children with the idea that their Christmas gifts 
come from an unknown person, who has a heart of 
boundless generosity, combined with marvelous 
fleetness of foot? The strongest argument advanc¬ 
ed by the negative side, was that anything tending 
to deceive is always wrong, and may lead to a dis¬ 
respect for parents, and a disregard for the truth. 
On the other side, it was argued that the whole 
truth is seldom told to children on any subject. 
The belief iu a secret giver does not have a bad in¬ 
fluence upon children, and oftentimes helps the 
real givers out of unpleasant places. If the child 
is to be told only the plain facts, what would be¬ 
come of all nursery rhymes so much relished by 
both young and old ? There would be very little 
Now, 
left of that song in which the father goes, gun in 
hand, to provide the skin of a fab bit in which to 
wrap the youngster. This world is full of poetry 
and petty deceptions. Let us have Santa Claus. 
