nctt
j VOL. III.
OXFORD, N. C., WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1877.
NO. 38.
EVEMlNCi SOEACE.
The human heart has hidden treasures,
In secret keiit, in silence sealed;
The thoughts, the hoires, tlie dreams,
the lileasures,
Whose charms were broken if revealed.
And days may pass in gay confusion.
And nights in rosy riot fly,
While, lost in Fame’s or Wealth’s il
lusion,
The memory Of the Past may die.
But there are hours of londy musing.
Such as in evening silence come,
When, soft as birds their pinions clos
ing)
The heart’s best feelings gather home.
Then in our souls there seems to lan
guish
A tender grief that is not Tvoe;
And thoughts that once -vyrung groans
of anguish,
Now cause but some mild tears to flow.
And feelings, once as strong as passions.
Float softly back—a faded dream;
Our own sharj) griefs and wild sensa
tions.
The tale of others’ sufferings seem.
Oh! when the heart is freshly bleeding.
How longs it for the time to be.
When, through the mist of years re
ceding.
Its woes but live in reverie!
And it can dwell on moonli ght glimmer.
On evening shade and loneliness ;
And, while the sky grows dim and
dimmer.
Feel no untold and strange distress—
Only a deeper Impulse given
By lonely hour and darkened room.
To solemn thoughts that soar to heaven.
Seeking a life and world to come.
~Currer Bell.
■ffEE SCMOOE QUESTTION.
The school question presents it
self anew every year to thousands
of parents. To many the purse
solves the problem; the boys and
girls are sent to the public scliool
because none other can be afford
ed. To others the solution is not
so easy; it is to them we wish to
speak.
1. Do not send your child to
school too early. Nature’s way of
teaching is God’s way of teaching,
the way of question and answer.
Encourage your children to ask
questions; answer them; stimu
late them to find answer-s for
themselves. Spend a little money
on picture-books that will incite
in them to read. For little chil
dren the monthly visit of the
“ Nursery” is an admirable edu
cator. Alphabet blocks serve the
purpose of a primary school. In
no household where either father
or mother has any leisure, ought
children to he sent to school to
learn their letters.
2. The private school has some
great advantages over the public
school. Its associations are gen
erally healthier; its social atmos
phere cleaner; its classes small
er, its educational processes more
carefully adapted to the individ
ual ; it is less mechanical. But
above all there are opportunities
for moral and religious instruc
tion in the private school which
our heterogeneous population de
nies to our public schools. Pri
mary schools ought not to be
schools of theology, but, other
things being equal, the school
where the child is taught not on
ly to use his reason and his im
agination, but also his conscience,
his reverence, and his love, as
suredly the better one.
3. Boarding schools have suf
fered under an opprobrium, but
boarding schools furnish some
important advantages which the
day school cannot give. The
teacher is brought into closer
contact with his pupils. He can
study them more carefully. He
can train as well as teach them.
The studying is less liable to in
terruptions. The school is a lit
tle community by itself; in it the
child is constantly learning from
its companions aS well as from its
instructors. Sometimes he learns
more; for the boy Who has learn
ed how to carry himself among
boys makes the man who knows
how to get on successfully with
men. Of course there are dan
gers ; but the danger to a child
in a well-ordered Christian school
is less than the danger to a young
man or woman who has been
coddled and cradled and coaxed
at home. It is better that vour
child should eat of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil un
der the fostering care of a wise
teacher than that he should do it
on the sly, or go out into the
wilderness from his domestic Eden
without practically knowing the
difference between the two fruits
that often grow on the same tree.
4. Beware of cheap schools.
They are expensive luxuries.
Some locations are more econom
ical than others, but no school
can furnish pabulum for both
body and mind for less than it
costs you to keep a horse or a
cow. You would not starve your
children at home; yet it is no
better to do it by proxy than to
do it personally.
5. The first essential of a good
school is its hygienic condition.
Mens Sana in corpore sano. What
sort of food does the school pre
scribe ? What air do the pupils
breathe ? What is the ventila
tion 1 What are the opportuni
ties, what the incitements for
physical exercise ? Generally the
country school is better in these
respects than the city school.
And these conditions are funda
mental. If the body is ill sup
plied, its mind will be lean.
6. The large school has some
great advantages. It can grade
the classes more thoroughly. It
can provide a large corps of
teachers, and a more thorough
division of labor among them. It
can equip itself more adequately
with scientific apparatus. It can
secure lecturers on specialties.
But the small school also has
some great advantages. It pre
serves the type of a family. The
principal can know his pupils.
The moral atmosphere is likel}'
to be healthier ; the moral train
ing more careful and specific.
Faults are more easily corrected.
Incipient disease is recognized
and checked; accidents are fewer;
fagging and bullying and petty
tyranny are relatively unknown.
The small school trains best, the
large school is a finishing shop;
the small school is always best
for beginners, the large school is
often, but not always, best for
mature pupils.—Christian Union.
in existence) in France, two new
factories where paper is made
from the white portion of aspar
agus stalks. In the vicinity of
these establishments, the house
keepers hoard up the white scraps
of asparagus with a dilligence
not known, perhaps anywhere
else on earth. Only a very small
price is paid for them ; but the
people discern, without argument,
that little pay for an article
which was hitherto coosidered ab
solutely useless, and was there
fore thrown away as offal, is clear
profit.
So far as we know, paper from
asparagus has not yet been ex
hibited in this country. As the
well-known succulent stalks are
little more than a mass of tough
vegetable fibres, there is the best
of reasons for putting implicit
faith in the report that fine pa
per can be made of them. Flour
ishing luxuriantly throughout the
Middle and Southern States of
our country, asparagus is certain
now of being tested as a paper
stock by American paper makers
—all the more so, because the
new materials for paper, discov
ered of late years have invaria,bly
flourished remote from the cen
tres of American population, con
sequently entailing heavy costs
of transportation to the regions
where well-appointed paper mills
most abounded. Asparagus, grow
ing almost spontaneously here,
can be secured by paper makers
much more readily than in Fi’ance,
where it requires assiduous care
in cultivation. The time may not
be far distant when France will
he flooded with American paper,
made from asparagus stalks, for
be it borne in mind that we im
mense paper consumers of the
United States were heavy import
ers of paper twelve years ago ;
now the importation of paper by
us has entirely ceased.—Printer's
Circular.
THE TWO FRIEIVDS.
A NEW INDUSX'Kr,
In France, a scientific gentle
man has just made public what
seems to be a welHdigested plan
for converting the white or uned
ible stalks of asparagus- into com
mon brown paper, foolscap, and
letter paper of the finer descrip
tions. Not merely theoretical is
this scheme for utilizing a mate
rial for paper that has hitherto
I been wasted- There are actually
EEMONS FOB CONSUMPTION.
In the depths of a forest there
lived two foxes who had never
had a cross word with each other.
One of them said one day, in the
politest fox language, “ Let’s
quarrel.” “Very well,” said the
other; “as you please, dear friend.
But how shall we set about it ?”
“ Oh, it cannot be difficult,” said
fox Number One; “ twodegged
people fall out, why should not
wef’ So they tried all sorts of
ways, but it could not be done,
because each one would give
way. At last Number One fetch
ed two stones. “ There,” said he,
“ you say they’re yours, and I’ll
say they’re mine, and then we
will quarrel and fight and scratch.
Now I’ll begin. Those stones are
mine!” “Very well,” answered
the other, gently, “ you’re wel
come to them.” “ But we shall
never quarrel at this rate !” cried
the other, jumping up and licking
his face. “ You old simpleton,
don’t jmu know that it takes two
to make a quarrel any day ? So
they gave it up as a bad job, and
never tried to play at this silly
game again. I often think of this
fable when I feel more inclined
to be sulky than sweet.—Chil
dren's Magazine.
THE EFFICACY OF BREVITY.
An exchange gives the follow
ing recipe for consumption: Put
a dozen of whole lemons in cold
water and boil until soft (not too
soft); roll and squeeze until the
juice is all extracted; sweeten
the juice enough to be palatable,
then drink. Use as many as a
dozen a day. Should they cause
pain or loosness of the bowels,
lessen the quantity and use five
or six a day, until a little better,
then begin and use a dozen again.
By the time you have used five
or six dozen, you will begin to
gain strength and have an appe
tite. Of course, as you get bet
ter, you need not use as many.
We know of two eases where
both of the patients were given
up by the physicians, and were in
the last stages of consumption,
yet both were cured by simply
using lemons according to the
directions we have stated. One
lady in particular was bedridden
and very low ; had tried every
thing that money could procure,
but all in vain, when to gratify a
friend, she was finally persuaded
to use the lemons. She began to
use them in February, and in
April she weighed 140 pounds.
She is a well woman to day, and
likely to live as long as any of
us.
A modern instance of the effi
cacy of brevity in a good cause
may be cited. M. Dupanloup, the
eloquent Bishop ofOrleans, preach
ing in behalf of the distressed
workmen of Eouen, contented
himself with saying: “ This is no
time for long sermons, but for
good works. You are all acquaint
ed with the calamities of those
whose cause I have come this day
to plead. Once upon a time a
king, whose name is still cherish
ed by us, said to his companions-
in-arms, on whom he thought
with reason he could rely: “ My
good friends, I am your king,
you are Frenchmen. Yonder is
the enemy; let us march 1 I will
not address you in other words
to-day them these; I am your
Bishop; you are Christians. Yon
der are, not our enemies, but our
brethren who suffer. Let us flee
to their succor 1” The result was
the collection of more than three
thousand dollars.^Frffw^ Leslie's
Sunday Magazine,
DO YOU HEAR XTIAT J
COST AND NUMBER OF BIBLES.
A New Orleans paper tells us
of a printer who, when his fellow-
workmen went out to drink beer,
put in the bank the exact amount
he would have spent if he hud
goiiB with them to drink. He
did this for five year.s. He then
looked up his bank account, and
found that he had laid up fitm
hundred and twenty-one dollars
and eighty-six cents. Think about
the afflicted; In five years he
had not lost a day because of
sickness. Three out of five of
his fellow-wOrkmen had in the
meantime become drunkards. The
water drinker then bought out
the printing office) and in twenty
years from the time he began to
put up his money) he laid aside a
good many thousand dollars. The
story teaches a lesson which eve
ry little boy should lay to heart;
—Youth's Companion.
AN EEOHUENT EXTRACT.
Generation after generation
have felt as we novv^ feel) and
their lives were as active as our
own. They passed away like
Vapor while nature wore the same
aspect of beauty as when she first
existed. The heavens shall be as
bright over our graves as they
are around our paths. The world
will have the same attractions for
the offspring yet unborn as it
once had for our children. Yet
a little while and all this will
have happened; The throbbing
heart will be stilled) and we shall
be at rest. Our funeral will wend
its way) and the prayers will be
said and we shall be left in the
darkness and silence of the tomb.
And it may be but a short time
that we shall be spoken of, but
things of life shall creep on and
our names will be forgotten.
Days will continue to move on,
and laughter and song will bo
heard in the room where we died ;
and the eye that mourned for us
will be dry and animated with
joy, and even oilr children will
cease to think of us, and will re
member to lisp our names no
more.
One hundred years ago the
cheapest English Bible in this
country cost not less than two
dollars, and sixty years ago the
price was little less, and the
styles and sizes of the books
were poorly fitted for general
circulation. Now the Bible is
the cheapest of books, and of ev
ery form that necessity, conven
ience and taste may demand. At
the beginning of the century,- the
whole number of Bibles in the
world was not much more than
four millions; and this included
the book in all lands and lan
guages since the invention of the
art of printing. Now there are
more copies- of it in the English
language than in all other human
tongues together. Bible Societies
alone have published over one
hundred and forty-one millions of
volumes since 1804.—Dr. Taylor.
Self government is good, if
those wlio exercise it know how
to practice it. It is supreme folly
to expect any number of persons-
to govern each other if they have
never learned to govern them
selves. Putting a man in a state-
house, to make laws, before he
has been placed in a school-house
to learn how to study, and before
he knows the science of govern
ment, is as much foolishness, as
it would be to permit a man to
navigate a vessel,- who knows no
thing about navigation. The
right of universal suffrage 's
based on the duty of universal
education.
Dishonest and uneducated per
sons should never be permitted
to make our Teachers'
Monthly.
—Man’s love to God is like the
changing sand; His is like the
solid rock. Man’s love is like tlie
passing meteor with its fitful
gleam; His is like the fixed stars,
shining far above, clear and se
rene, from age to age, in tlioir
own cliangeless firmament.—Picv.
J. McDuff.
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