108 
AMERICAN AGrRICTJLTURIST 
[March, 
PERFORMING BEARS. 
named a boat which he fitted up with a very rude engine. 
Those who have been to New York city have no doubt 
seen the great stone prison called “ The Tombs.” Where 
this stands there was in the early days of the city a large 
pond called the Collect, from which a small stream ran 
through what is now Canal street to the Hudson Paver. 
It was upon the borders of this pond that Fitch fitted out 
his boat, and it was on its surface that moved, so far as is 
known, the first vessel propelled by steam. The boat is 
described as a very rickety affair, which would move off 
for a few minutes and then it would stop until more 
steam could bo made. The engraving made from an old 
model shows how the boat looked. It does not seem 
to have attracted a great share of attention, and finally 
the boat went to decay and was carried off in pieces by 
poor people to burn. It is said that Fulton was present 
while Fitch was making his experiments, and if this 
were the case he no doubt profited by his failures. 
Fulton has the credit of having first propelled a vessel 
by steam, as he was the first who put the idea to practi¬ 
cal use ; the same as Morse by his inventions made the 
telegraph practical. Telegraphs had been experimented 
with in a small way before Morse made his, but they 
THE FIRST STEAMBOAT. 
hand, and to him justly belongs the credit. An im¬ 
portant invention is rarely the work of one person alone; 
many fail, but we hear only of the successful one. 
Carrying a Ladder.— Did you ever see a person 
carry a ladder ? He puts it on his shoulder, 
or it may be puts his head between the rounds 
and has one of the sides resting on each 
shoulder, and having it nicely balanced walks 
along. A man with a ladder is an interesting 
object in a crowded street. He looks at the 
end before him, but the end behind him he can 
not see. If he moves the front to the right end 
to get out of the way of a person, away goes 
the rear end just as far in the opposite direc¬ 
tion, and the slightest turn of his body, only a 
few inches, will give the ends a sweep of sev¬ 
eral feet, and those in the way may look out 
for bruised hats and bumped heads, while the 
window glass along the street is in constant 
danger from the unseen rear end of the ladder. 
When a small boy, I was carrying a not very 
large ladder, when there was a crash. An un¬ 
lucky movement had brought the rear end of 
my ladder against a window. Instead of scold¬ 
ing me, my father made me stop, and said very 
quietly: “Look here, my sou, there is one 
thing I wish you to always remember; that is, 
every ladder has two ends.” I never have forgot¬ 
ten that, though many, many years have gone, 
and I never see a man carrying a ladder or other 
long thing but what I remember the two ends. 
Don’t wc carry things besides ladders that 
have two ends ? When I see a young man get¬ 
ting “ fast ” habits I think lie sees only one end 
of that ladder, the one pointed towards plea¬ 
sure. and that he does not know that the other 
end is wounding his parents’ hearts. Many a 
young girl carries a ladder in the shape of a 
love for diess and finery; she only sees the 
gratification of a foolish pride at the foivaid 
end of that ladder, while the end that she does 
not see is crushing true modesty and pure 
SQUARE-WORD. 
1. A city. S. Apart. 3. Above. 4. Notions. 5. Mean¬ 
ing. “ Sweet P.” 
NUMERICAL ENIGMA. 
My whole is a word of six letters, and is indispensable 
iu the formation of good habits. 
My 2, 5, 1, 3, 4, 6 is an unenviable emotion. 
My 3, 4, 6—2, 5, 1 is worn as an insignia of office. 
My G, 4, 5, 3,1, 2 is one form of destitution. E. S. B. 
ARITUMOBEMS. 
1. 200050500. 5. 40001900400. 
2. 4005010. 6. 1110016010900. 
3. 5001G01016015250. 7. 900110250. 
4. 15030150. 8. 100017250. 
O. A. Gage. 
ALPHABETICAL ARITHMETIC. 
Y A Y ) H Y T A T L R ( T Y I C 
H H It C 
C H T 
E C T 
YS L L 
Y L T T 
YE It It 
Y S S E 
Y S L Owego. 
GEOGRAPHICAL hour-glass. ' 
1. A strait of Asia. 
2. A city in Massachusetts. 
3. A city in Scotland. 
4. A lake in Asia. 
5. A city in France. 
6. One-fifth of an ounce. 
7. A river in Russia. 
8. A lake in Russia. 
0. A sea of Asia. 
10. A town on Long Island. 
11. A city in New Mexico. 
The central letters, read downwards, give a lake in 
North America. Beau K. 
pi. 
A drow cone kenpos ton anc eb hugtorb kabc yb a 
chaco dan rofa. A. W. P. 
ANSWERS TO PUZZLES IN THE JANUARY NUMBER. 
Anagrams.— 1. Antiquity. 2. Espousal. 3. Subaltern. 
Pi.— Every one’s faults are not written on his forehead. 
Numerical Enigma. —Hippopotamus. 
Concealed Trees and Flowers. — 1. Balsam. 2. Olive. 
3. Peony. 4. Elm. 5. Linden: 6. Ash. 
Double Acrosjic.— C- ivi -C 
B-ule- R 
O-utd-O 
S-tre-W 
S-iro-N 
Square-Word.— BLIND 
L E Y E R 
IVOR Y 
N E R Y E 
D R Y E R 
(R. S. Smith is the only one who seiids a solution 
to this.) 
Thanks for letters, puzzles, etc., to Mary C. S., 
F. M. Priest, Elkcim, Ira W. B., It. S. S., and others. 
S®ertf<>a*rsilaag- Bears. 
Bears, great clumsy fellows as they are, have no little 
intelligence, and they are capable o 
ous tricks. Among the street shows 
of large cities it is not rare to see 
bears who have been trained to go 
through various performances. The 
engraving represents a scene which 
one of our artists saw in the street 
some time ago. Among other things 
that the animals had been taught to 
do, one had the accomplishment of 
standing on his head, while the other 
would uncork a demijohn and take 
a drink from it, much to the amuse¬ 
ment of the bystanders. We never 
see bears thus treated but we wish 
they might get away to the wilds 
where they belong. To be muzzled 
and led about from place to place 
and made to perform what are no 
doubt very unpTeasant antics, and 
probably to be beaten, is indeed 
a great change from the free life to which they were 
born. There used to be a bear at one of the public gar¬ 
dens near New York which was quite a good customer 
to the proprietor’s bar. The bear was exceedingly fond 
of soda water, and visitors would buy bottles of it to 
give to the bear for the sake of seeing bow handily he 
4. Remedial. 5. Confiscated. 6. Remembrance. 7. In¬ 
coherence. 8. Colonnades. 9. Interpretation. 10. Ear¬ 
nestness. 
Cross-Words.— 1. Buffalo. 2. Money. 
would undo the fastening to the cork and swallow the 
contents of the bottle without spilling a drop. 
r l'l«e First Steamboat. 
friendship as she goes along thoughtlessly among the 
crowd. Ah ! yes, every ladder has two ends, and it is a 
thing to be remembered in more ways than one. 
Uncle Carl. 
Diamond Puzzle.— R 
EEL 
REFER 
LEE 
R 
Who built the first steamboat ? All the smart scholars 
will probably answer at once “Robert Fulton.” And 
the smart scholars would all be wrong, for the first 
steamboat was built in 1796, while Fulton did not build 
|xis until 1807. One John Fitch built in the year first 
It was not a very well-read farmer who told the sewing 
machine agent, who solicited him to purchase, that 
lie did not want any of “them air machines,” as his 
wheat came up well enough when sowed by band. 
