sides, but the force of the blow burst it open. The contents were well scattered, otherwise the organ bellows, just in line below, would have contracted under a pressure somewhat greater than that which the "blower" was accustomed to exert upon them. . . A much better clock could be built of the metal contained in the frame and main wehels of Trinity's. . . . None of these clocks keep accurate time. Trinity does best, the clock of the Dutch Reformed Church next. . . . During the late heavy snow storm the north window in the clock-room of St. Paul's was blown open. The snow came in, partially covered the movement, and drifted down into the box to the depth of several inches, nearly covering the ball; yet the old pendulum waded through it with the glee of a school-boy, and stowed the snow on this side and that, and pelted it with such pertinacity that by the next morning the clock was 15 minutes ahead of time. The first warm day that followed, it fainted, and stopped running. . . . There was an old German clock on the Post-Office, but it was removed a long time ago. It had but one hand. . . . Old St. George's clock is about 50 years old. It is smaller than the others, but has gained a reputation for accuracy. Twenty years ago a person who had not St. George's time was supposed, like a busy man, to have no time at all. As it is soon to be pulled down no care is taken of its inside, and the figures on the dial are grown so rusty that the time can only be guessed at. At the City Hall we find a good clock. The pendulum, 15 feet long, vibrates in two seconds. The ball weighs 300 pounds. To counteract the effect of heat and cold, the compensation principle has been applied to this pendulum. The contraction of the iron rods which would draw up the ball is opposed by the greater contraction of the brass bar on which the ball rests, thus letting it down. When the rods expand the greater expansion of the brass bar lets it down-only it don't-that is, not yet. I regulated it from June, 1866, to February, 1867, without moving the hands, but after the latter date, for three or four months, I set it every week although the variations never exceeded 30 seconds. The pendulum has not lost one vibration in more than two years. EDUCATION OF WOMEN. The wives of Luther, Jonathan Edwards, Burke, Fennimore Cooper, Mill, and Hitchcock, have shown how greatly educated women may aid their husbands in literary pursuits. Educated mothers are qualified to instruct their children and to awaken in them a taste for learning. The mother of Miss Maria Mitchell was much distinguished in her youth for her fondness of books. The distinguished and wise-hearted Duchess of Kent was able to arrange and superintend the whole manner of the education of her daughter, the illustrious Queen of England, and she did this making it her great purpose to train her to be worthy of the crown which she now wears. "I was mainly educated by my mother," says Sarah Josepha Hall. Alfred's mother "made him all he was in his own age and all that he is to ours." Felicia Hemans had an accomplished mother. The mother of the great and departed John Quincy Adams was a woman of rare attainments and of a bricht genius. Cuvier's mother was pious, a lover of nature, and used to accompany him to and from school, and to point out the interest ng natural objects they met, and to excite in him a taste for the study of the works of God. She stimulated his passion for reading, and judiciously selected his books, and he acquired in childhood an accurate and extensive knowledge. At the age of fourteen he formed a society of intelligent lads. Says M. Girardin: "There is no instance of a mother who can read and write, whose children are not likewise able to read and write." The mother, then, under whose sole influence the child is for years, from whom it acquires its tastes and its character, should not only be educated, but educated in the most thorough manner, and have her mind stored with varied learning, so that she may be able to answer the multitude of questions, that will be put to her by her inquisitive child, on art, science, literature, and religion, and thus to stimulate his curiosity and awaken his mind. An ignorant and narrow-minded woman will not be likely to make her son or daughter the opposite of herself. And if she is never to become a wife or mother, her happiness and her influence for good, other things being equal, as a teacher, physician, a writer, or in any capacity, will be in proportion to the extent of her edu cation. On this point history is full of examples.-Pittsburg Gazette. THE ESCAPE. BY MARY. "Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowler."-Psalm cxxiv, 7. How crafty, and full of all malice and hate, Like the net which held Magdalen fast in its threads And then, when we wake to ourselves again, Vain, vain the endeavor; and vain our weak might; When help, hope and mercy seem things that are not, With His sharp sword of Truth doth demolish each thread. Our soul is escaped like a bird! like a bird How free and how joyful our song should be heard! In our prison we struggled ourselves to set free, Its dust and torn meshes are fetters that clog The darkness and heaviness vanish away With your cradle-hymn bless Him, then, new-fledged souls: Wait thou on the Lord; and thy strength thou'lt renew; AN ORIENTAL NIGHT. It is impossible for those who have never visited the glowing East to form an adequate idea of the exceeding beauty of an oriental night. The sky-which bends enamored over clusters of graceful palm-trees fringing some slow moving stream, or groves of dark motionless cypresses rising up like Gothic spires from the midst of white, flat-roofed villages-is of the deepest, darkest purple, unstained by the faintest film of vapor, undimmed by a single fleecy cloud. It is the very image of purity and peace, idealizing the dull earth with its beauty, elevating sense into the sphere of soul, and suggesting thoughts and yearnings too tender and ethereal to be invested with human language. Through its transparent depths the eye wanders dreamily upward until it loses itself on the thresholds of other worlds. Over the dark mountain ranges the lonely moon walks in the brightness, clothing the landscape with the pale glories of a mimic day; while the zodiacal light, far more distant and vivid than it is ever seen in this country, diffuses a mild pyramidal radiance above the horizon, like the after-glow of sunset. Constellations, tremulous with excess of brightness, sparkle in the heavens, associated with classical myths and legands which are a mental inheritance to every educated man from his earliest years. There the ship Argo sails over the trackless upper ocean in search of the golden fleece of Colchis; there Perseus, returning from the conquest of the Gorgons, holds in his hand the terrible head of Medusa; there the virgin Andromeda, chained naked to the rock, awaits in agony the approach of the devouring monster; there the luxuriant yellow hair of Berenice hangs suspended as a votive offering to Venice; while the dim, misty track formed by the milk that dropped from Juno's breast, and which, as it fell upon the earth, changed the lilies from purple to a snowy whiteness, extends across the heavens, like the ghost of a rainbow. Conspicuous among them all, far up toward the zenith, lies Orion, with his blazing belt, meets the admiring eye, suggestive of golden memories and kind thoughts of home; while immediately beyond it is seen the familiar cluster of the Pleiades, or Seven Stars, glittering and quivering with radiance in the amethystine ether, like a breastplate of jewels-the Urim and Thummim of the Eternal. -Hugh Macmillan's Bible Teaching in Nature. EDITOR'S DRAWER. BRITISH JUSTICE. The late Sir Culling Eardley was for many years prominent in the leading religious movements of England. A son, who succeeded to his title and estate, is by his wicked life bringing dishonor upon the memory of his her. Some years ago he married an American lady. Afterwards he returned to England and married another. The American party prosecuted him before the English court for bigamy. The result is that Sir Culling Eardley is sentenced to eighteen months imprisonment at hard labor. What a grand thing is this sturdy impartial English justice, which bravely punishes crime, whether perpetrated by a beggar or a nobleman! The fate of Sir Culling Eardley should be a warning to all young men of fortune What a bright promising youth he enjoyed. A father admired and esteemed by the Christian world, with a vast estate at his command, doted over his boy, and tried to prepare for him a bright and prosperous future. The heir of an unblemished paternal character and estate, becomes a rake, whose soft hands are now toiling in the work-house. AMERICAN EMPLOYMENTS. The United States have a population of about 35,000,000. Among these are 3,219,495 farmers; 481,905 mechanics and manufacturers; 969,000 day laborers; 560,000 servants; 123,000 merchants: 185,000 clerks; 54,000 physicians; 38,000 ministers of the gospel; 33,190 lawyers; in all 5,662,590. This is something over one-sixth of the entire population. The remaining five-sixths consists of women and persons under age. LIFE IN SYBARIS. The inhabitants of the Island of Sybaris, in southern Europe, seem to be a very happy people. In the Capital of the island the dwellings are so arranged, that four families employ one set of servants, one cook does all the cooking for the four in one kitchen. Four houses, each with its half-acre garden, stand near each other. There is one large play-house for all the children. The four families have one "book room" or library. This contains four book-cases, one owned by each family. The four together make a large private library, each family having the privilege of using the books of all the rest. The people go to church in small steam wagons, run by means of naptha or petroleum. Sometimes as high as sixty-five of these wagons are hitched around the church, during services. Girls and boys, men and woman, all swim like fishes; they are taught the art at a very early age. After seven years no scholar is permitted to go forward with his studies in school unless he can swim. They say if you must be at the charge of training them, it would be a pity to have them drowned just when they are fit for anything. The pastor of one of the largest churches says, that for thirty-one years not one of his people has been arraigned before a court for misdemeanor. If such a misfortune did happen to us, every man I met in the street would stop me to sympathize with me. I should know that people thought we had made some bad mistake in our arrangements, if we should have a series of such things happen. Of course, we cannot help people's throwing themselves away. But it is supposed that if Christianity means anything, it means that Jesus Christ came to take away the sins of the world; and this church is regarded as his representative." ILL-MANNERED PEOPLE. We deem it a great kindness when a friend loans us a valuable book. Thereby we become an owner of the contents, and therefore if our mind is not too leaky, in part owner of the book. In a certain sense, the lender makes us a present of it. We should be guilty of stealing did we not return the book to the owner-and of ingratitude and ill manners did we not return it within a reasonable time, and return it as we got it, with its pages unsoiled and untorn. Perhaps our friend might feel a delicacy to ask for a return of the book, lest he might wound our feelings. Or not having kept a record of books loaned out, he might not know that we had it. How very rude and thankless on our part not to return the book. In reading the work a striking thought may here and there tempt us to draw a pencil mark on the margin of a page or write our comments there, thus seriously damaging another's property. We have sundry valuable works, thus marred by rude borrowers, whose pages excite anything but pleasant thoughts of those who thus abused our kindness. 1. Return your borrowed books and return them in time. 2. Do not presume to write a commentary on the margin of a borrowed book, until you are asked by the owner to do it. DEAD LETTERS. More than 2,500,000 letters were sent to the Dead Letter office at Washington last year, of these 1,000,000 were without signatures and misdirected. More than 1,500,000 were returned to their writers. These letters contained nearly $150,000 in money; bills of exchange, checks and deeds to the value of $5,000,000; and over 49,000 contained jewelry, photographs and other articles. IMMORALITIES OF FAIRS. A Rochester paper, referring to the results of the horse-racing, which has grown to be a leading feature of the cattle shows in Western New York as well as other parts of the country, says that, whether it is necessary to increase the breed of fast horses or not, it is plain that the numbers of fast young men and women are increased with an unnecessary rapidity, while their morals and manners are not in the least improved. Gambling and betting, drunkenness and |