North Carolina Newspapers

THE FAEMEE AJSTD MECHANIC. AXUAKY K, v;. 98 J f i ; i i- , l ; It '. i i aiW portfolio. CThe ladies of North Carolina are invited to contribute short articles, recipes, suggestions, household hints, &c, for these columns. Name of the author will be seen by no one except the editor, whether the communica tion be accepted or rejected. SKETCHES ILLUSTRATIVE OF BIBLE HISTORY. The Kenites No. 7. BY ABI MORI. "Chesney," said I, "I have been thinking a great deal about our con versation of yesterday; and although I cannot help believing what you say, still I cannot avoid the conviction that these theories, if carried out, would destroy civilization." "Granted. But a vastly superior civilization would rise upon its ruins. What is civilization at present? Take England for an example; what is her civilization ? A nation of impoverish ed, ignorant, toiling millions, with a small (I mean comparatively small) class of wealthy gentry, and a still smaller class of wealthy nobility. I would make these toiling millions as learned and religious as the wealthy aristocrats. I would remove from them the horrible fear of starvation. I would make a cation of scholais and students instead of a nation of labor ers and paupers. " "Ah, I fear that in your long so journ in Europe you became tinctured with communism." "Not by intercourse with communists then ; for, as you are well aware, my father's positioa tlirew me entirely with the governing classes ; and I was accustomed to hear the communists spoken of, as a set of famishing, fero cious wolves, who were only waiting the opportunity to fly at our throats. But one night in Paris, I happened to hear an address made by one of their leaders to a vast multitude of the as sembled canaille. He had a voice like a trumpet, and its ringing tones yet sound in my dreams. "Brothers," he "shouted, "our enemies say that we do not believe in God ; and they take a few blasphemous utterances of the worst men of the worst class, who call themselves communists. And they publish theso sentiments to the world as the universal creed of the communists. But I, for one, believe in God. I believe in a just, a holy, and a merciful God. I believe in the God who "created of one blood all the nations of the earth ;" one great bro therhood. He who lets his brother die of starvation, while he has more than enough for his own wants, is as guilty as Cain. You are not idle ; you toil early and late. But you are hungry, you are cold, you are some times houseless. Your rich neighbor who spends enough oa a single ban quet to keep your little ones in food all of this long cold winter, he is the godless man. The money that he spends is made out of your own un ceasing toil. He is your employer, he thinks he does you a great favor to give you work ; and if the scant pay does not feed and clothe you, he is quite sure that it is no business of his. If his favorite dog suffers, all of his sympathies are called forth. But you, you his human brother, you, created in the. image ot God, you are less than nothing to him. He calls you canaille -he thinks your touch pollutes him; he thinks your pres ence degrades him. God often pun ishes this rich man, even in this life. Last year the Baron Z. would not sell corn to his hungry neighbors. He said if he did, his horses would suffer for the want of it. And the poor suf ferers took typhus fever, and the fever reached him in his lordly castle, and he and his only son, the heir of all his wealth, died !" Now, Cabell, you must not suppose for a moment that I endorse a single sentiment of this man. The evil lies far deeper than he or any of his fraternity ever sup posed. If all the rich men in Europe were to empty their coffers, it would not enrich the laboring millions. At the end of a year, the suffering would be as great as ever. The fault lies in our existing state of civilization. In order that the wants of one gentleman may be supplied it is necessary that there be a hundred laborers. Brick makers, brick-layers, carpenters, plasterers, plumbers, &c, &c, &c, to build his house; weavers, tailors, hatters, shoe-makera, &c, &c, to furnish his attire; cooks, butchers, bakers, farmers, millers, &c, &c. &c, to furnish and prepare his food, and bo on, in endless routine. If the Prince of Wales had twelve sons, and by some strange turn of fortune's wheel, they should be cast on some uninhabited island, and be compelled to spend their lives there, do you think he would make eleven of them tradesmen and laborers, in order tbat the twelfth should be a gentleman ?M "But, my dear felloe, you are not stating the case fairly. Tiadesmen supply the wants of the poor a3 well as the rich." That is not the grievance, Cabell ; you entirely misapprehend me. It is that they are condemned to a life that leaves no time for mental im provement; and this is what they are condemned to, if they are made trades men at all. AVe should never be wil ling to doom a fellow-man to a life which we would not be willing to lead ourselves. The twelfth brother the gent'eman. ought to be ashamed of himself.'" 'But it seems to me absolutely nec essary. What, for instance, would we do for shoes and boots if we did not have shoemakers ?" "Wear straw shoes like the clippers of the dainty belles of Long Br inch and Newport." "And who would make them for us?" ' The pretty fingers of our own wives and daughters. It is light, in teresting work; such as they call fancy work. And some species of straw are so strong that it will out last leather. In the Southwestern States, they plait strips of the inner bark of the linden tree, and find it strong enough for mule collars." I couldn't repress another shout of laughter. "You may laugh," said he coolly, "I expect nothing else. So the peo ple laughed at Fulton when he launch ed the first steamboat." "But you would abolish steam, would you not? It is part of the ex isting civilization." "No, I would not abolish steam," he replied, "not, at least, until we could adopt some better mode of tran sit." "And you would not, of course, abolish the printing press," I added. "Most certainly I would ! Disraelli ought to know as much about the highest forms of present civilization as any man living. His associates are princes and princesses; dukes and duchesses; earls and countesses, and the money kings of the world. He is, moreover, a literary man, and the son of the most literary man of his day. And what does he say about the print ing press? He makes his pet hero, Gaston Phoebus, say this : ''Printing has destroyed education. The great est misfortune that ever befell man was the invention of printing. Books are fatal ; they are the curse of the human race. Art is a great thing, and science is a great thing; but all that art and science can reveal can be taught by man and by his attributes his voice, his hand, his eye." He goes on to say that the highest educa- tfion was that of the Greeks, from the age of Pericles to that of Hadrian. Schools should bo numerous, but the teaching should be oral; lectures should be constant, and by the most illustrious professors; and the stu dents should converse on what they heard. "What a vast amount of vi cious and debasing literature would be swept away by such a change. In Lord Macauley'a masterly essay on the life of Bacon, the same ideas are ex pressed. "Plato," he says, "seems to have thought the use of letters oper ated on the human mind as the use of the go-cart in learning to walk; or of corks in learning to swim, is said to operate on the human body. It was a support which soon became necessary to those who used it ; and made vig orous exertion rir6t useless, and then impossible. He thought the powers of the human intellect would have been more fully developed without this delusive aid. Men would have been compelled to exercise the under standing and the memory, and thus make truth thoroughly their own. Now,on the contrary, much knowledge is traced on paper and but little is en graven on the mind. A man who trusts to books for his information, gleaned at a moment's notice, cannct in strictness, be said to know any thing." These opinions Plato put into the mouth of an ancient Egyptian king; but Macauley says they were evidently his own. "And you think the Kenites were a nation of students without any books ?" "I do." ''They did not write even their laws?" "Where trial by jury prevails, the system called 'common law in Eng land, follows. It is unwritten, and lecturers could teach all that it is neo r ssary for a law student to know." I remained silent for some minutes It was evident that he had thought out his subject with great care: I was trying to think of some argument to puzzle him, when he said, "Cabell, my father and I spent several sum mers in England. The parks there are so exquisitely beautiful, tint I al ways thought of Eden in wandering through them. You cannot realize Milton's description of Paradise until you see them. A roted American traveller, who received much atten tion from the English nobles preferred their parks to their pleasure grounds. He said: "There is a quiet pastoral beauty, a spaciousness of dignity, and a simple feeling of nature about them, which no highly decorated pleasure grounds or garden scenery can ap proach, as the continual surrounding of a country residence. The English park is, in fact, the poetical .dea of Arcadia, a sort of ideal nature ; sof tened, refined and ennobled, without being made to look artificial." Dr. B. who, you know, with all his cul ture can ask a direct question with as much sang-f roid as any Yankee, asked the Earl of C. which he prized most, his princly mansion, or his ances'ral acres. The Earl replied. "How little you know of Englishmen, to ask a question like that. I would not part with my land for a dozen such houses; in fact, I would rather live here without any house at all, than in a royal palace anywhere else." This re mark set me to thinking. Suppose the whole earth were like the park of tue Earl of C. and no houses in it. And suppose every man in the world had an opportunity of becoming as learned and pious as the Earl of C. But instead of useless trees in our parks, we would have only those bear ing both the Edenic characteristics, "goodness for food and pleasantness to thes'ght." And suppose instead of books, we had only schools where the teaching were entirely Oial. In short, suppose we should live like the Ke nites." "Ah, Chesney," I replied, "it is very easy to pull down a house, but it is not so easy to build one. Our civili zation has cost untold labr, blood and treasure. You say pull it down and build anew upon its ruins. Hadn't we young aspiraDts for fame better 'let well enough alone.'" 'Yes," he replied, "I would gladly let well enough alone, but it isn't well enough. It is infinitely bad enough, as the statistics of the world prove. Millions of ignorant, degraded, human beings, and a small minority of culti vated, upright people. I will read you this one sentence from the Lon don Quarterly of January, 1872 : "The condition of the proletariat (penniless people) is an opprobrium to half the countries in Europe, and more espe cially to our own. Millions of them lead a life which intelligent beings should' not consent to live and exist in a condition of struggle and wretched ness which makes existence a burden and not a bion." Our Savior wrought nearly all of his wonderful miracles for the relief of physical suffering. And we are expressly told that he who does not relieve his suffering brother when he can, the "love of God dwel leth not in him.'' If you and I fail to do all we can to improve the condition of our race, we are guilty men. The Bible points out the way to a higher and noble civilization. To attain it, the world must become Christianized. It is the only way faith in Christ is the life which alone can vitalize our deadened energies. This sp'ritual life is to us what the vegetable life is to the tree. Without it, no growth can be made, no leaves, no blossom?, no fruit can be borne. It is a dead and useless thing." "But, my friend, even if you could convince the community of the truth of your idea5?, I do not see how we would ever set about carrying them out." "By simply enforcing the Bible laws," he replied. "The laws of the Bible have been preached in our churches foi nearly two thousand years," said I. "But not in our law schoo's; not in our courts of justice, not in onr legislatures, not in our medical and agricultural colleges. Teach the laws of Moses in all these ; and teach Christianity in our churches, and the two will fit together like the two blades of a pair of scissors. Neither is complete without the other. You remember Dr. M's sermon from the text, "Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me." Swartztneyer to his wife : "Now, see here, mine lof, better as you had Jon ny let a leetle op von dat candy eatin', or der first thing you don,t know he haf some toothache in his teeth; and have been squallin' around all night mit der cholera morbus iu his jaw don't it !" Waiting for a Woman to "Get Ready." Arc you a man? It so you have probably had the pleasure of waiting for a woman to '"get ready" to go somewhere. Getting ready is a mighty operation lor a woman to perform. It has always lx-en so ; bu-, in these dajs of complicated costumes, and inume rable appendages of the toilet, it is a stupendous undertaking. You are in fatuated with Miss B, You invite her to ride behind your span of grays. You are wise en',ugh to know that all women, or most ot them, like a fine turn- out, and would much sooner be made love to by a man w ho owns a nice team than by one who takes his airings in borse cars or omnibuses. You set the time at 3:30 p. m. She asks sweetly if you could not just as well come at 4. " Of course she would like to go earlier, but she doubts if she can get read, auJ, of course, as you are not married to h r, you are only too happy to do just as she wants you to. After marriage as the French say, "we change all that," and when mo.iSaur bids her, madame must be ready or left behind. At precisely 4 the next day you drive to Miss Bs gate with a grand flourish its looks o d fog ish to be walking with your horses up to a hitt'h'ng post, and you have been showing yur a'.iniuls the whip ft few blocks away. They are stirred up by it and toss "their heads and purr up papa 15 s concrete, and snap at the shrubbery in a vicous way, and assure you eqinely that they bad just as soon not wait for a woman to get ready. You think ar first you won't hi ch them, for suiely she is radyy but re membering former experiences with those of her sex, you change your mind and give a small boy ten cents to have an eye on them. You ring the bell and are admitted, and the small boy engages in marble playing with another small boy and entrust the horses to Providence. "Is Mis B. ready?' you blandly ask the maid servant. She doesn't know she will enquire. You stand first on one foot and then on the other, and stare at tr e haMree and pull your new style collar, which outfit to stand up, but which bus de veloped an obstinate tend ncy to lop down, and you wonder where on earth that servant ha gone to inquire, and you run out to see your horses, and administer some sharp words to jour small delinquent groom, and he thumbs his nose at you the minute your back is turned. By the time you get into the house again Mrs. B. is coming down the stairs in a toilet made in evident haste. She is cordial and invites you into the parlor, and says Maria will bi down in a moment, and she is so sorry to have kept you waiting. From above stairs you can hear the sound of the notes of preparation. Much tr ading ba'.k and forth, opening of closet doors, shut ing of drawers, scolding of the maid in suppress :d tones, and livelinfss generally. If you could look into Marie's cham ber you would be in despair. Her "crimps" are not taken down, her boots unbuttoned, her puliback's elas tic cords are out of gear, and the maid is fixing them ; she can't find her bracelets ; one cuff pin is missing; she has put arnica on her handkerchief by mistake, thinking it Jockey Club"; there is a button off her basque fiora hurried buttoning, and oh, dear ! dear! where are her lemon kids, and her parasol, and her lace scarf, and that coial neck chain, and a shawl, and a white lace veil, and a doz.n other no cesary articles ? She has hurried so that her face is all ablaze, and she is sure she looks like a washer-woman, and she seizes her powder-puff, dabs a little chalk on her forehead, and hopes it won't be seen, as she is going out to ride with a gentleman and not with a woman. All unconscious of the tria's which beset your charming Marie, you aie striving to do the agreeable to Mrs B , with the souud of your horses pawing up that sidewalk in your ears, and you know the old man is particular about his grounds ; and directly you hear something snap and rush out to find that one of your spirited nags has bit ten off a fence picket ad is trying his best on another by way of dessert. Will she ever get ready ? You go back to tell Mrs B. that your horses are so restive that you must stand by them, and you retire to the sidewalk, painfully conscious that across tho street, in that big tenement house half a dozen children and young people, and as many more idle loafers, are watching you and laughing at your predicament, and t iling each other that that is the chap "that is trying to court Marie B., and she's had nine fellers already and every one of 'era went back on her." You consult your watch 5 o'clock ! You feel inclined to swear a little, but early piety forbids, and you try to pos sess your soul in patience. The door opens. She comes radiant and smiling, in the loveliest of new cost umes, pinned back so tight that she creep cowards you like a snail, and you mentally wonder Low she is ever going to st-p high enough to get into the carriage ; and her hat is so becoming, and her black lace scarf in creases the whiteness of her neck so much, and she tells you so sweetly that you feel infinitely obliged to her for doing it, and feel for a moment as if the highest and most supreme de light of exis esce couid be found only in waiting for her to "get ready." Kate Thorn. . A Parisian Love St ry. Af. the Jrdin des Plantts, a rising young sculptor, who was studying animals, made the acquaintance of a pretty girl in nursery service, who speedily brushed him aside and took up with a aoMier. The desolate joung artist thereupon took to writing upon nil the wall of the heart cry, "I love Adele !" hoping that it would meet her eye and touch her heart. The willful girl, determined to escape tUs perpetual ieproAch on her pertidy, a last made her habitual resort the inn bench in front of the rhiuocero. The seat cauld nrt ba written on, and th?re wa no will. Sh- and her soldier would sit there by the hour, watchtd from afar by tho jealous and distract ed lover. A Ut they came at the usual hour, acd the faithless girl glanced at the huue aud ferocioirs ani mal. On its horns wa carved a heart, beneath which were the word, "I still lore Adele. Am waiting at the duck pond." How could a woman's heart rsht thi? Tears came to her eyei. The soldier was piven the cold shoulder, and the nursemaid said to her youthful charges, "Come, my dears! let us go and see the pietty ducks !" Hygiene of Cooking. Our health and strength depend upon the food we eat. The value of the food depends upon its nutritious qual ities and the way it is prepared. A good flavor in any food promotes its easy digestion and its power of nutri tion. So we have a few words to say on cooking meat. Albumen is the leading constituent of animal food as starch is of vegetable. They differ, however, in their chemical composition aud in their way of digestion, and in the changes they undergo in the stom ach. Albumen is a compound, insolu ble in water, but the gastric juice dissolves it in the stomac h. Otherwise it would be useless as food. Every kind of nutriment must be soluble aud reduced to a fluid before it can enter the blood and nourish the body. We are now ready to consider the various modes of cooking Stewing, boiling, roasting, broiling, baking and frying are each worth a distinct con sideration. Stewing is conducted by slowly cooking iu a close vessel. The better the meat the better the stew, but the roughest aud coarsest meat may be so stewed as to become tender and digestible. This w.ty of preparing meat requires more time than any other, and so should be partially prepared on the day previous to its being served. Pieces aud trimmings of meat can be cheaply bought, and in this way be made into good, digestible and nutri tious food. Even bones may be broken into small pieces and simmered until the gelatine has exuded, Gelatine is not a very nutritious element, but may thicken the mass and add somewhat to its nutrition. Bones contain uvcr 40 per cent, of gelatine. Lean meat is the best for stewing. Cover the meat with soft water and a little butter and let it simmer for four or live hours. Stews may be thickened by vegetables, or by oat meal, roast potatoes or barley and flavored with herbs to suit the taste. This mode of cooking is usually done in stew pans with a closely fitting cover. A good stone jar with a well fitting lid is better. It retains the heat for a longtime and can be easily kept clean. The grey jar has no red glazing on the inside, that may peel off in the contact with salt. The stewing should go on slowly and the lid be seldom re moved. The sticking of the meat, etc., may be prevented by shaking the jar now and then. Closely allied to stewing is boiling. The vessel in which the meat is to be boiled should be completely cleansed, have a closely fitting-lid and have water enough to completely cover the meat. The fire should be just enough for a moderate boiling. The scum should be removed as it comes to the surface. Adding a pint or more of water will promote this rising. Pure rain water is usually the best for all cooking purposes. Whether the meat should be put into cold water or into hot depends upon the object in view. Place a piece of meat into water at a temperature of CO degrees Fahrenheit, and gradually raise it to the boiling point, its soluble and nu tritious properties will gradually exude and enrich the water. The albumen is partially dissolved and conies out of the meat, the fibres become hard, dry and stringy. The thinner the meat, the more easily the juices will ooze out and so deprive the meat of its savory and palatable juices. In this way the water becomes enriched and forms a broth. The value of the.meat is chiefly in the broth. The raea't has lost its former value. These facts show that soaking fresh meat in cold water before cooking is not wise. It should only be wiped with a moist cloth. Place a piece of meat in boiling water for five minutes and then reduce the temperature to 160 degrees Fitfir., or 40 degrees below boiling. The boiling water coagulates the albumen on the surface of the meat, more or less. In this way we have principles involved that always may be applied to all sorts of meat. Some of the juices will escape even if we plunge the meat into boiling water and coagulate the albumen. Broiling, by burying the meat in hot ashes, was practised in early times. Even now it is a favorite way of cook ing. Roasting is the royal way of cooking meat. It needs a clear, bright fire and frequent basting. Next to stewing or broiling, it is the cheapest way of cooking. The stoves of these modern days have superseded the open fires of former times, and so roasting is nearly unknown in private families. The gradual disuse of open fires and open grates has substituted baking for roasting. Baked meat never has the sweet and delicate flavor of roasted and so is not so digestible and nutri ous. Frying requires special care in temperature, otherwise the food may be spoiled. lrarie Farmer. POETRY. The Birthplace of B ;rr 1 timh c tUud botts f i ?., lUlllfS Of itno kii.c. and rer, Th roret. s.tau f !t of tj.em nil as lov-d iud cradl d here: li-'Tr- lived the Kuti- i 'Msar.r r n Tli losltij: Cr lei kir.v. "om'arMl with wuoiii ti-.f .;.- Is but atitle i il.b ir. Tis ut a cot roof. d in vs i 1 1 : tr - hovel made of c ay; On door shuts ut the mmw an.j One window tireet tfi day ; And yd 1 staod Uhtn this ro. m An.J hold a'l thrones iu scorn. For here, tuetth this lowly that, h Love's swe. tet bard was torn. WitMn this hallowed hut I f,-el Uke One who clasps a jdirlne. Whtu the glad lw' at lat have tu The something d-'eim d divii,..- And h re world through h!i ;j. As Iouk an day return. The trltute of Its Uv e and t:ir Will pay to Robert Hums. Poisonous Hats, Gloves, Stock ings and Clothing. It is not long since several , arseaieal poisoning were traced !. wearing of scarlet and blue iooki:, Next came a somewhat remark.-;, case in which the mie!uif was tr.u. to a highly colored hat-lining. .M r, recently English and German up medical and other, have called u:: tion to dangerous gloves. In j! London Times a w riter dcscril . t; poison effect of a pair of fa!ii.ip...', "bronze-green" silk goves, wli n wo ;. by a member of his laniilv. A!:, r wearing them a day r two the pit; : ; was attacked with a peculiar ii -, and swelling of both hands., which in creased to such an extent that forth;.. weeks she was compelled to cam !,. : hands in a sling suffering acute -' and being, of course, unable cither feed or dress herself, inquiries a:n the writer's friends discovered tin., other ladies similarly aillicted, A German medical journal report t case of serious poisoning b a juir .: navy-blue kids. Dress goods of w .,, en, silk and cotton have been but:t t contain arsenic in dangerous jiia;.ti ties; so also gentlemen's underch.t hii. socks, hat linings, and the lining boots and shoes. Professor Nit !i . of the Massachusetts Institute ..; Technology, reports the examinat i-t-of a iailv's dress which contained ei-!.i grains of arsenic to the square f..'.t. In Troy N. V., lately, the death . f a child was attributed to arsenic su k ed from a veil which iiad been thrown over the child's crib to keen oil" t;.. flies. At this rate it w ill soon become n. - essary to test for arsenic all goods ehas.-d before venturing to wear t or else the label "warranted to par In i, i ' i tain no poisonous dye"' will have t. be adopud by all honest and reliaU makers. Hit herto, w o believe, the re tail deakv ha not been held h gallv re sponsible for damage done in this wa. We do not k'low tiiat he can be c cept on the charge of dispen.-itu; poisoi.s w ithout a In cum-. Evidenth. however, something should be done t. put a stop ti- the 'rapidly iucr.-a! ;i evil. If th' obnoxious tints can i secured safely as well as cheaplv, tin :. they ought to be prohibited, and an other process of dyeing made imp -i . tive. Diir young chemists will tin i fruitful field for the exercise of th. : inventive powers in the production the heeded dyes. Paint, Oil n J) Two Kim, of Young Ladiks ( e your.g lady rises early, rolls up i. sleeves, oes into the kitchen to breakfast, or insists upon doing so. a: afterwards, with cheerful and sum smiles, puts the house in order wit li the assistance of 'mother." She v. make a g-od w ife, and render horn paradise. Young man, "get h.-r Another young lady is a parlor be-er paibd from company, dissipation .: want of company, reads novel almost dies of laziness, while the p old mother does her washing. h a useless piece of furniture, '"an am, -ancc to the husband she imiv "j. ; in." an J will go, willingly go to !.' grave. Young man, "let her a!: C:ih,dui;n Head. There i-, eight hundred pound candy elepi; ' on exhibition in a Heading, Pa.. fectionary store. The figure is 7; i in length, five feet high, and 2: I wide. It weighs nearly eight h ; dred pounds The tusks lire -clear white candy; the tongue is c po-ed of candy "of red color, an 1 a ' these exceptions the entire fii,'ui -composed of saleable nut candv. At a little social gathering i 1 was performed by two young ladi- . : the apparent delight of all the a---bled guests. The two executant- : doing their utmost to drown one ' other, and with such good enV: t: -: one could scarcely have heard th ' r port of a cannon fifty yards off. by rybody was radiant with the exc : r of one individual, to whom at leisg-'- ' friend addressed himself, "My i -fellow, what make you so peiivt': "Ah!" was the renlv. "I'm thinks- oi tne neighbors A little irl in the church at land, Va., has been one of the ban i -workers to raise money to coiii'---: the church building. She had eirr. -by her own work a considerable for a child, when heard her exp!"' "' great desire to own a canary bmi was sutrirested to her that she ; PMsilv mirr!i:isf one from tier i- " -j j ' purse. ' Oh !' she replied, get a thing for myself while the church on my shoulders." I I 1 i.tv' J- 0