1868.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
265 
3B©YS (mUSfCHS. 
A Stosie’s Talk. 
I am older than you. My head is hald and smooth. It 
■was not always so. Once, when I lived in the woods, 
thick, mossy curls clustered around my brow; hut the 
trees were cut away, the sun shone hot upon mo, the 
moss faded and turned gray, and at last the rain, and hail, 
and wind, pelted it all off. When your great-great-greatest 
grandfather Adam was alive, I was older than he. Old 
people have seen and heard more than young ones, and 
so I think I can teach you something, especially if you 
are a girl. Boys think they know enough without learn¬ 
ing from a stone, or even from their father and mother 
sometimes. It takes them a long time to find out how 
much knowledge there is in the world, and how little of 
it is in their heads. When they do this, they begin to be 
wise. Girls are more wise ; they do not think they know 
much, and so are willing to learn. This is not the case 
with all girls, neither are all boys “ wise in their own 
conceit”; such children need not think this stone is 
thrown at them. When a stone is thrown up, why does 
it come down ? Because that is the law. A wise man, 
Sir Isaac Newton, discovered this law, which he named 
the “ law of gravitation.” All the stones in the world 
had obeyed this law for ages before the philosopher dis¬ 
covered it. No matter how high a stone is sent, even if 
it be shot from the mouth of a volcano thousands of feet 
into the air, back it will come to its place on the earth. 
Men have built tall columns and spires, and raised stones 
very high, but in a few hundred years most of them have 
found their way down to the ground : they always obey 
the laws made for them by their Creator. Do you? 
Ways of CSettlflag" a Saving'—2S. 
TEST YOUR LUNGS, SIR? 
Several years ago, when passing along Park Row, 
near our old office, we heard this question, and looked 
over the heads of the little crowd collected on the side¬ 
walk, to see what it meant. The picture above shows 
about what was to be seen. A pleasant-faced, keen-eyed 
man had an apparatus to measure how much air a per¬ 
son could hold in his lungs. A highly polished brass 
vessel was inverted in another similar one containing 
water, and a rubber tube was placed so that a person 
could blow underneath the inner vessel. As the vessel 
was filled with air from the lungs, it rose slowly, and a 
pointer on the side of the outer vessel showed on a scale 
how many cubic inches of air had been blown into the 
inner vessel. It was amusing to watch the different per¬ 
sons who tried the apparatus. Our artist has sketched 
one young man who is a fair sample of a large number 
that “took a blow,” as they called it. lie seemed to 
have more face than brains, and more curiosity than good 
sense. lie blew long and strongly, until his face red¬ 
dened, and in his earnestness his knees bent under him. 
But, spite of his utmost efforts, he could not make the 
pointer reach as high a mark as a broad-shouldered coun¬ 
tryman had just done. He would not have tried so hard, 
perhaps, if he had known a little more about his lungs, 
and that they would hold only a certain amount of air. 
15e C»«rtcojis. 
A friend of mine took his seat in a car for a journey by 
railroad. He noticed directly that the occupants of the 
scat before him were sailors, one a white man, a real 
“ old salt,” and the other black. As the seat they occu¬ 
pied was in a front corner of the car, and partly facing 
my friend, whom I will call the Doctor, he made some 
oft'-hand remark that led to conversation with them. He 
learned that they were just home from a long voyage, 
and also drew from them some interesting facts concern¬ 
ing it. They were much gratified with tho civilities 
shown them, which, in fact, amounted to nothing more 
than treating them as men. Soon the old sailor left his 
seat and drew out of his pack a beautiful cane of olive- 
wood. “ There,” said he, “ I brought that from the 
Mediterranean, and I want you to take it, for it’s not 
often that I find a man that knows how to treat an old 
salt.” The Doctor objected, but at last took it and set 
it near him. Within a half hour afterward, the sailor 
was in convulsions. The black man watched over him 
with the utmost tenderness, saying that he had had such 
fits before and would come out of it. He did soon re¬ 
cover, and while in the sleep that followed his recovery, 
my friend’s place of destination was reached. He thought 
of leaving the cane behind, but tho black man protested. 
“ I know him well,” said he. “ I’ve sailed with him for 
years. He meant what he said, and lie’ll feel hurt when 
he wakes if he finds you have not taken it.” The Doctor 
brought it away. Its chief value to him arises from the 
fact that the gift was a sincere expression of gratitude for 
what was esteemed a favor, although I am sure it was but 
the natural outgoing of my friend’s kindly heart; and he 
cannot but feel glad that he enjoyed and improved an op¬ 
portunity of brightening another’s pathway by a kind 
word. There are many lives that have little enough of 
joy in them, and a kind word costs but little. See how 
many such you can speak, young reader. Always and 
everywhere, “ Be courteous.” Uncle Paul. 
Tlae Fourth of «Baly. 
The good, old-fashioned custom of celebrating Inde¬ 
pendence Day, we hope will never be given up. We can 
even bear to hear the impertinent snapping of fire-crack¬ 
ers and torpedoes, and the stunning report of artillery, 
rather than neglect to honor the day that gave birth to 
our Nation. If such noisy demonstrations are the best 
you can make, why make them. But we hope for the 
time when the explosion of powder will be deemed a 
hateful rather than a joyful sound. “ There’s a shout of 
murder in the cannon’s boom.” Did you ever try to make 
a Fourth of July speech ? A boys’ and girls’ celebration 
with a procession and meeting, and some young Webster 
or Clay for an orator, would be interesting, especially 
if the speaker would talk as he felt, and not merely 
try to make a grand speech with borrowed words. 
flight years ago a boy contributed a Fourth of July 
speech he wished to make. We think he must have been 
a pretty old boy. As more than one hundred thousand new 
subscribers to the Agriculturist received since that time 
have probably never seen it before, we reprint it here. 
“ Hurrah for liberty! Three cheers for independence 11 
Columbia forever 111 I have a small voice, but it is full 
of my heart, and it shall come to you like an electric 
spark falling on powder. Who is so dead that his pulse 
does not beat quicker on this birthday anniversary of the 
nation 1 If there be one, find him out, fill his pockets 
with powder and his hat with gas, tie him to a bundle 
of rockets, touch him off, and send him up to get a new 
view and an exalted idea of the glorious land he is now 
unworthy to inhabit. But I leave him to his fate and 
return to you who do exult as Americans should. 
“ When the seed breaks forth from its prison in the early 
year, the spring rejoices, and men are happy at heart; 
but the fullness of joy comes when the harvest waves 
over the field. The world rejoiced when, in 1776, our 
forefathers declared their independence. It was the 
young growth of Liberty. To-day we are reaping the 
fruits of that spring-time, and our joy overflows from 
swelling hearts. This country then was like a farm with 
here and there a field planted. There were scattered 
villages, full of life and promise, but few in number, 
and far between. What a crop has been raised from that 
small beginning I They had strong roots, those noble 
men, that fastened to the soil. They were God-fearing, 
liberty-loving men, and from those roots have sprung the 
blossoms and the fruit of the intelligence, tho prosperity, 
and the happiness of our day. They had to fight hard, 
but they were brave because they were good, and fight¬ 
ing in a good cause, and what they won we enjoy. 
“ I hope the day of fighting with powder and ball has 
passed, in this country at least, and that we may always 
use our ammunition in fire crackers and rockets, and big 
guns, as we do to-day, without hurting any body; but I 
tell you, my young friends, the world’s great battles are 
not over yet. We’ve worse enemies to overcome than 
our forefathers met on Bunker Hill, Saratoga, and York- 
town. Ignorance, selfishness, and vice, are working at 
the foundations of our prosperity like rats gnawing off the 
beams of the building that shelters them. Every one of 
us that grows up uneducated, or a wrong-doer, or selfish, 
or mean, is cherishing an enemy of his country. Oh 1 if 
I could to-day bring out the biggest gun ever made, load 
it to the muzzle with knowledge and goodness, discharge 
it into the heads and hearts of these troublers of the coun¬ 
try, is there a boy that wouldn’t give a light, or a girl 
that wouldn't, if necessary, give me her new dress for 
wadding? But it can’t be done in that way. Wo must 
meet these enemies, book in hand, in the school-room ; 
we must shame them out of the laud by good examples 
of truth-telling, of generosity and love; we must fight our 
battles hand to hand in our own lives, by resisting and 
overcoming every bad habit; and if each will overcome 
himself, then we will all have a good time together, and 
all be able to shout liberty and independence orever!" 
Answers to FrokBomst and Puzzles. 
The following are the answers to the puzzles, etc., in 
the June number, page 229. No. 307. Illustrated Rebus .— 
Always be grateful for the gifts you possess _No. 308. 
Illustrated Rebus .—/ would not live always _No. 309. 
Arithmetical Problem. —The man who owned the five 
loaves should receive all the money, and should also re¬ 
ceive one-seventh of a dollar from the man who owned 
the two loaves... .The following have sent in answors to 
puzzles, etc., published in previous numbers. A. F. 
Curtis, Charles P. Anderson, A. E. Smith, A. B. Leach, 
Adam Corell, Jr., “ Crescent and Star,” Sarah Dowland, 
James Ferguson, Lorin Morrison, J. M. Wheeler, G. A. 
Arnold, L. W. Wright, Howard Harris, F. Armstrong. 
New ENszzles to lbe Answered. 
No. 310. Metagram. —This word means a change in a 
letter. The puzzle is made by describing a word, then 
changing a letter in the word, and describing the new 
word, leaving the reader to find out what the words are, 
by the descriptions given. Thus : A word of four letters 
surrounds the earth and marks the course of the sun. It 
also sometimes embraces a lady. Change its first letter, 
and it will be found in an animal’s back, also on a gen¬ 
tleman’s coat; sometimes on the dinner table, and fre¬ 
quently in a dispute. Change the first letter again, and 
it gives a sound, but change the first letter once more, and 
it can give none. What are the words of this Metagram ? 
No. 312. Mathematical Problem for the younger pupils. 
Deposit one cent in a bank, and double the amount de¬ 
posited for one year—as, one cent the first week, two 
cents the second week, four cents the third week, and so 
on for fifty-two weeks. How many farms of three hun¬ 
dred acres each, at seventy-five dollars per acre, could 
you buy with tho money deposited through the year? 
No. 313. Picture Conundrum. —Why is this unfortu¬ 
nate cat like some of our well-known authors ? 
