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VOLUME II.
OXFORD, N. C., WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 1876.
NUMBER 16.
BUTY.
Look not mounifiilly back to tbo past;
The present's the hour of duty ;
And life, be it ever so dark,
Has moments of sunshine and beauty.
Look up, for the sun is still shining,
Although a black cloud may be there;
liemember the bright silver lining
From under the cloud will appear.
Sit -not with thy hands idly folded ;
Each one has a duty to do;
And if life has its struggles for others,
Why have only pleasures for you ’f
Seek not to pluck only the roses.
Faint not in the heat of the strife;
But put on the armor of courage
To fight in the battle of life.
Look round on the highways and gather
Not only the ilowers so sweet,
But take up the stones that are bruising
Some weary, worn traveller’s feet.
Seek out some cool spring in the desert,
And give to the lips that are dry ;
Speak a kind word of hope or comfort
To each sorrowing one that goes by.
Pluck a thorn from some poor bleeding bo
som,
Make strong some faint heart for the
stvile.
Rouse up the weak ones who have fallen—
Ah [ this is the mission of life.
Ask not if the world will apjiland you;
No matter, sinc'J duty is done :
There is one who will better reward you
With the crown you have faithfully won.
THE FEVEK THEE.
Among his other great public
enterprises. Garibaldi, the famous
Italian hero, is engaged in plant
ing the Eucalyptus of Blue Gum
tree about Rome, to prevent the
malarial fever with which the in
habitants of that city are afflicted.
As this tree is little known in our
country, some account of it may
not be unintere.sting. According
to the best authority, it is an
Australian production, and fir.st
discovered by the French scien
tist, La Nillardiere, wJio visited
Van Dieman’s land in 1702. It
was brought into the South of
France about the beginning of the
present centuiy, and noble speci
mens of it are now growing in the
promenades, and public gardens
of Nice, Cannes, Hyeres, and Al
giers. Ita medicinal qualities,
however, did not become known
until about thirty years ago. The
Spaniards first discovered that it
was a preventive of fever, and the
colonists of Tasmania used its
leaves for a variety of purposes.
It was not until 1860 its full
power became known, and, as a
In'gienio measure, it was intro
duced into the Sjjanish realm as
an antiseptic. Tlie people of
Nalentia tvere suffering from ma
larial fever; Eucalyptus trees were
planted about the city, and a
marked improvement in the
healthf'ulness of the locality fol
lowed. So popular did it become
that the trees had to be guarded,
the inhabitants stealing the leaves
every opporfuuity they had, to
make decoctions to drink. The
Spaniards named the Eucalyptus
the “fever tree,” and soon after
ward it was introduced into Alge
ria, It next traveled to the Cape
of Good Hope, Corsica, Sicily,
South America, and California.
Garibaldi’s attempt to introduce
it into Rome is not entirely new ;
some years ago a few dozen spec
imens were planted about the
walls, and although nearly all of
the trees lived, but very few of
them are vigorous. After a trial
of many years in Soutliern France,
it has failed to become hardy, or
suck up and destroy the pmisoii-
ous vapors of tlie swamps in which
it was planted. The Trappist
monks of the Tro Fontane have
recently set out large plantations
of Eucalyptus trees, and are tend
ing them with tlie utmost care.
It may be fairh^ looked upon as
a decisive experiment. The place
known as Tre Fontane, or the
Three Fountains, lies some miles
south of Rome, and is the seat of
a magnificent monastery. Its cli
mate, once health}', in conse
quence of the destruction of all
tlie timber in the vicinity, has be
come so deadly tliat, ” notwith
standing its splendid buildings,
rich in mosaics, marbles and fres
coes, the place is wholly deserted
during the summer months. To
live there in June, July, Augu.st,
it is said to be almost certain
death.
The record of the Eucalyptus
as an antiseptic and disinfectant
is excellent. The districts in
which it is indigenous are healthy,
and those into which it has been
introduced and thriven have be
come healthy. A few miles from
AI giers is a farm once noted for
its deadly levers. Life on it in
the summer months was almost
impossible. In the year 1867 the
owner planted 300 Eucalyptus
frees, and they grew nine feet in
thirteen months, and not a single
case of fever appeared. Nor has
there been any fever there since.
Now if the Eucalyptus will make
the sickly climate of Tre Fontane
healthy, it can safely be relied on
as an antiseptic and disinfectant,
and I advise tliose curious in such
matters to watch tlie success of
the Trappist monks in its cultiva
tion.
NearConstantine, Algeria, tliere
were vast swamps, never dry,
even in the hottest months,' and
productive of violent periodic fe
vers. About fourteen thousand
Eucalyptus trees were planted
there, and they soon dried uv ev
ery square foot of the swamp and
killed off tlie fevers. Maison Car-
ree, near Ilansch, was once a
great market for quinine, as there
was much fever; but since the
blue gum has been planted tliere
the demand for quinine has al
most entirely ceased. Mexico
and Cuba rvere also, not many
years ago, great consumers of
quinine, and as the mercantile
books of exporters in your city
will show, since the introduction
of Eucalyptus into these coun
tries, the demand has greatly
fallen off. It is reported a verjr
unhealthy railroad station in the
Department of Var, Southern
France, has been made healthy
by a grove of forty Eucalyptus
trees. Efforts are now being made
to introduce this wonderful tree
into Ceylon as antidote to jungle
fever, and it is also being carried
over in large numbers for plant
ing in the jungles of India. The
English have given it great atten
tion, but the most intelligent tree-
growers believe it is too delicate
tleman wlio planted several thou
sand trees at Wilmington, Cal.,
says : “ When set out they were
only from three to five inches in
height, and in one year they grew
six and eight feet high.”—’Neiv
York World.
IW SOU'fHEKlV
IRiJBIA.
to stand the cold weather of Eng
lish springs. The Eucalyptus
seems destined to make the tour
of the world, hut it will be found
to grow best in the La Platte
States and California.
Referring to our own country,
planters have met with the most
wonderful success in cultivating
it on the Pacific coast.
One gen-
‘Tell me something of the child-
life in India V asked a lady of a
returned missionary'.
‘There is so little to tell,’ was
the sad reply'. ‘Children there do
not play and laugh and sing as
the children lieie do. They do
not seem to have games nor play
things. One can scarcely con
ceive of a little girl here who does
not play with dolls ; but there,
poor native children do not have
even a rag baby, nor substitute of
any kind for a doll. Some girls
who once received from the mis
sionaries, as a holiday present,
European dolls, were in ecstacies.
Even women are pleased with
such a present more than with
an}' other tiling tiiat can be given
them.
Wiien a boy is born, the father
makes a great rejoicing and gives
presents to his friends, in propor
tion to his station in life. Tlio
birth of a girl, according to their
religion, is a curse upon the fam
ily, and is never alluded to. If
one asks a father how many chil
dren he lias, if there are three
girls and two boys, lie will tell
you he has two children. Only
tlie boys are counted. Girls are
considered a curse, because by
the law of their religion tlie father
is obliged to find a husband for
every daughter under penalties of
severe punishment alter death,
from wliich females, having no
souls, are exempt. For this rea
son children are betrothed when
mere infants. The bethrothal and
marriage are each attended with
numerous troublesome and ex
pensive ceremonies, all of which
must be conducted by a priest
who receives a fee for every step
lie takes in the proceeding. The
girl does not usually see her fu
ture husband until the marriage,
and, of course, is not consulted in
the matter. While she is a mere
infant herself sho takes care of
a younger child, and is relieved
from this only to do some greater
drudgery. Swarmsjot naked little
ones roll about in the open air,
without games or glees, some
times stupidly drawing figures in
the sand and sometimes joining
in a monotonous dance, There
are no play-houses, no play-fur
niture, not even broken bits of
old dishes to suggest playing
‘mother,’ or ‘visit,’ or keep Louse;’
games tliat fill so much space in
the lives of children in a Christian
land.
The education of tlie girls is
wholly domestic, unless we ex
cept the ‘nautch,’ or dancing-
girls, who are taught to read suf
ficiently to learn the poetry which
they are to sing. When this is
learned—and tlie dancing—they
becomes slaves to the rich, where
they may well envy their sisters
who are destined to domestic sla
very, and by whom they are held
in scorn and reproach.
At the latest the betrothed girl
is married by the time she is four
teen, having been a slave to her
brotliers and father since her ba
byhood. No wonder children in
India, particularly girls, do not
play.
The boys are sent to school as
long as tile means of the father
will allow,—and such a school !
If an American boy were travel
ling in that country lie Avoiild be
likely to hear tlie school before
he would see it, and, .seeing it,
would scarcely imagine what it
was.
On a ‘pile’—an elevation ot
ground open on all sides, but
covered overhead—sits the teach
er, crosslegged. Ills boys are
seated around him in the same
posture. If they have not }'et
learned their letters, there is a
basket of sand near, where the
master draws a letter and the
boys copy it until they have at
tained sufficient skill to entitle
them to a slate. If they can
read, they may be conning a les
son in their queer olla-leaf books,
Avliioh consists of prepared leaves
loosely strung on two strings.
They learn to ‘read, write and ci
pher,’—a little of each only com
pared with what an American
the family arrives at tlie little
wooden ciinrch, and the I'oindeer
is secured, the papa Lapp shove’s
a snug little bed in the snow, anu
mamma Lap;) wraps baby snuglv
in skins, and deposits it therein.
Then papa piles the sno\v around
it, and the dog is left to guard it,
while the parents go deeorouslr
into church, .and I never have
heard of one that suffocated or
froze. Smoke-dried litt'e eror-
tures, I suppose they are tough !
The First Fi’uiiert
boy learns before lie is twelve
years of age. In arithmetic the}'
do not ‘carry one for every ten,’
as we do, but write down the
vi'hole amount, and proceed in a
very clumsy, laborious way, un
less the}' have learned the Arabic
method from European teachers.
It is when the school is eiisrau--
ed m a reading exercise; which is
the greater part of the time, that
it may be heard before it is seen.
The teacher, in a high sing-song
tone, reads a portion from his
book, and all the boys, in the
same key, repeat it after him.
The book is usually one of na
tive poetr}', which is their chief
study and the text of their reli
gion. Most of the time in school
is spent in memorizing the poetry,
and the amount committed is as
tonishing. Children of different
castes never attend the same
school.
The low caste boy leaves school
to help in whatever work his fa
ther does. Sometimes he is in
the shop, sometimes in the rice-
field, and sometimes in the top of
a palm-tree, where he cuts off the
topmost buds and suspends a ves
sel to catch the sap from which is
made their favorite drink.
Tliere is no choice of trades.
The shoemaker’s son will be a
shoemaker, the baker's son will be
a baker. Only in the land where
parents believe in Him who took
little children in his arms and
blessed them, is tliere any true
child-life.”
It is a remarkable and most in
teresting fact that the very first
use to which the discovery of
printing was ajiplied was the pro
duction of the Holy Bible. This
was accomplished at Mentz be
tween the years 1450 and 1455.
Of the first printed Bible, eigh
teen copies are now known to be
in existence, four of which are
printed on vellum. Two ofthese
are in England, one being in the
Greenville collection. One is in
the Royal Library of Paris. Of
the fourteen remaining copies, ten
are in England—there being cop
ies, in the libraries of Oxford,
Edinburg and London, and seven
ill the collections of different no
blemen. Tlie vellum copy has
been sold as high as §1300.
Eaplaiad Infants.
A correspondent tells a strange
story about the Lapland infants,
and how they are kept still at
meeting. The Lapp mammas
don’t stay at home with the ba
bies oil Sunday. The Lapps are
pastors. Every missionary is,
sure of a large audieuoo, and an
attentive one' He can hear a
pin drop, that is, should he choose
to drop one himself. His oongre-
gatioii wouldn’t make so much
noise as that upon any consider
ation. All the babies are outside,
buried in the suow. As soon as
If tobacco ehewers could only
know before starting what the}'
are coming to, they might bo
frightened out of the bad habit.
The following calculation might
.startle the boldest lover of the
weed :
Some arithmetician calculates
if a o 'at CO i hewer consumes twoi
inches of a plug a day for lift}'
years, he will chew in tliat period
sixty-four hundred and seventy-
five feet, or nearly half a mile, an.
inch thick and two inches broad,
costing two thousand dollars.
And ejecting one jiint of saliva
per day for fifty years, the total
would swell into nearly twenty-
three hundred gallons—-a respect
able lake, almost enough to fi.oat
the Great Eastern in 1
A Fiu'io s Seed.
Every one knows liow wonder-
fill the thistle-seed, with its many
Innidred wings, is contrived to
spread its species over tlie eaith.
A plant in Oev Ion has a singular
provision for‘the distribution of
its seeds. These are contained in
a circular head, which is composed
of spine-like divisions that radi
ate in all directions, making a di
ameter of eight or nine incites.
When the seeds are ripe for dis
tribution, these spherical heads,
with their elastic spines, are blown
away by tlie winds and roll swiftly
over the level shores for for miles,
dropping seeds as they go. If they
come to the water they float easily,
and tlieir spines serve as sails, so
that they can cross estuaries. A
plant valuable for taking root in
from erosion is thus widely distri
buted, as it could not be in any
other way in a barren, birdless
region.
A Connecticut school-boy has.
written a composition on the
horse, in which ho says it is an
animal Jiaving four leg's, “one at,
each corner.”