The North Star (Rochester)/1848/01/07/Miscellaneous
MISCELLANEOUS.
Utica Steam Woolen Factory.—We take special pleasure in noticing the fact that dividend of ten per cent. on the stock has been declared to the stockholders in the Utica Steam Woolen Co. The first piece of finished goods was completed in this factory about the end of March last, and the establishment was not put into full operation till the latter part of April. This dividend is the result, therefore, of considerably less than a year's operation, and is a bona fide division of actual profits. It augurs well for our steam manufacturing enterprises.—Utica Gazette.
"Got a paper to spare?"
"Yes, sir; here is one of our last. Would you like to subscribe, sir, and take it regularly?"
"I would—but I am too poor."
The man had just returned from the circus, which cost fifty cents; lost time from his farm, fifty cents; whiskey, judging from the smell, at least fifty cents—making a dollar and a half actually thrown away, and then begging for a newspaper, alleging that he was too poor to pay for it!
That's what wo call "saving at the spile, and wasting at the bung hole."
Mountains of Eatables.—The annual product of provisions in this country is enormous. The statistics of the commerce of our state canals during the season just closed, prove this. Look at the mighty heap of eatables, for instance:
There were brought to the Hudson river, on all the canals of this state, during the year 1847, of
| Flour, | 3,952,972 | bbls. |
| Grain, of all kinds, | 14,055,916 | bush. |
| Peas and Beans, | 106,088 | bush." |
| Potatoes, | 108,369 | bush." |
| Dried Fruits, | 3,558,000 | lbs. |
| Pork and Beef, | 148,445 | bbls. |
| Bacon, | 4,902,000 | lbs. |
| Cheese, | 40,844,000 | lbs." |
| Butter, | 22,724,000 | lbs." |
| Lard, | 4,348,000 | lbs." |
Women in the Army.—Official documents state that there are at least 2,300 women attached to the American army, cooking, washing and tending the sick.
The Largest Church in the United States.—The First African Church, (Baptist,) Richmond, Virginia, is said to be the largest body of communicants in connection with a single congregation in the Union, being two thousand four hundred and seventy. The other churches of the same denomination in that city report in addition two hundred and 268 sixty eight colored members. Total 2,788.
What the Girls of the Bay State Do.—We have received the statistics of the various branches of industry in Massachusetts for 1845, taken with the census that year. To show our young ladies that it is no disgrace to work in the pilgrim land, we give them the particulars of the straw bonnets and hats, and straw braid, and palm-leaf hats made there in one year:
| No. | Value. | |
| Straw bonnets and hats, | 1,046,954 | 1,057,892 |
| Value of straw braid, | 102,367 | |
| Palm-leaf hat, | 480,337 | |
| $1,640,596 |
All this by females, mostly farmers' daughters. Worcester, Hampshire, and Franklin counties do most. Are not such industrious girls worth going after? Instead of street yarn, they are for dollars and cents. They don't constantly bother their parents and husbands with teasing for a new silk dress or $40 shawl. They have the money in their purses, from their own industry. There are lots of rosy cheeks who have their hundreds deposited in banks, from the straw braid employment. We once knew two sisters who bought a farm for $4,000 for their parents, from the savings of braid.—Rochester Daily American.
An Irish Compliment.—A lovely girl was bending her head over a rose tree which a lady was purchasing from an Irish basket woman in Covent Garden market, when the woman, looking kindly at the young beauty, said: "I axes yer pardon, young lady, but if it's pleasing to ye, I'd thank ye to keep yer cheek away from that rose; ye'll put the lady out of consait with the color of her flowers."
The Chicago (Illinois) Citizen, in an article on the colored population, thus speaks:
"We have made some inquiries into the condition of the colored people in this city. There are probably three hundred colored inhabitants here. Many of them are persons of property; none of them are in the lowest stages of poverty; and the day is yet to come when any one has seen a colored person begging from door to door, which cannot be said of the people of any other origin residing here. In moral character they stand on a par with any other class of our citizens."
Literature and Learning in China.—The Chinese are a reading people, and the number of their published works is very considerable. In the departments of morals, history, biography, the drama, poetry, and romance, there is no lack of writings, such as they are. The Chinese materia medica comprises forty octavo volumes; of statistical works the number is very large. Their novels are said to be excellent pictures of the national manners. China is full of books. New authors are continually spring up; the press is active, and the traffic in books is a lucrative and most honorable branch of trade. When examination take place in the capital of the palace, the most apt students are chosen to fill the office of bookmakers. There are, however, few really new works, and all that appear are compilations and quotations, the author never venturing an idea of his own; and in this consists their learning, according to Chinese notions. There is one work in the Royal Library on the topography of China, which is said to consist of 5,000 volumes: some of the best translators that have had access to some extracts from this giant, were sadly disappointed, as it appears to be a mass of confusion, without any attempt at order or proper arrangement. There are numerous small treatises similar to our tracts, gratuitously distributed by private, individuals, inculcating morality and virtue. Printing is evidently cheaper in China than in this country, when ten volumes, each containing 100 pages, can be purchased for less than a dollar. Every peasant, and the poorest fisherman, can read and write. Private and public schools are numerous in every province, and entirely independent of government. Occasionally, an examiner visits all schools, to ascertain the qualifications of the teachers.
The Mother.—Sheridan wrote: "Women govern us; let us try to render them perfect. The more they are enlightened, so much the more we shall be. On the cultivation of the moods of women, depends the wisdom of men." Napoleon said: "The future destiny of the child is always the work of the mother."
Chancellor Kent.-His health has been failing, by slow degrees, for some months past, and he was daily waiting for his departure. He expired, we are told, without suffering, and in the perfect possession of his faculties to the last. Up to within a few days of his death he was occupied in correcting the proof sheets of one of his works, an edition of which was passing through the press. In his death, we have lost a great man, a man of great judicial talent and erudition, and endowed with many virtues.—Eve. Post.
☞ A rumseller once visiting a victim of his murderous traffic on his death-bed, said to him: "Do you remember me?" "Yes," said the dying man, with a startling emphasis, "I do remember you, and I remember your shop, where I formed the habit which has ruined me; and when I am dead, my beggared widow and fatherless children will remember you."
For the Ladies.—The following scrap is taken from Henry's commentary:
"Woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam; not made out of his head to top him—not made out of his feet to be trampled upon by him—but under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved."
Female Courage.—A servant girl, remarkable for her fearless disposition, laid a wager that she would go into a charnel-house at midnight with a light, and bring from thence a dead-man's skull. Accordingly, the appointed time, she went, but the person with whom she had made the bet had gone before and hid himself in the place. When he heard her descend and take up the skull, he called out, in a hollow, dismal voice, "Leave me my head!" The girl, instead of displaying symptoms of horror or fright, very coolly laid it down, and said, "Well, there it is," and took up another; upon which the voice repeated, "Leave me my head!" But the heroic girl, observing it was the same voice that had called before, answered, in her own country dialect, "Na, na, friend; ye cana ha' twa heads!"
Gallantry.—Fontenelle, assisting at the marriage of Madame Helvetius, did not cease to whisper the most gallant things. Some moments after, he passed before her without perceiving her. Madame Helvetius, remarking his distraction, said to him:
"How lightly should I esteem your gallantries, since you pass me without looking at me?"
"Madame, replied the amiable old man, "If I had looked at you, I should not have passed you."
Correct Definition.—An intelligent female witness having been much perplexed by Old Blowhard in a long cross-examination, happened in replying to use the term humbug.
"Madam, said the man of the law, "you must not talk unintelligibly. What is the court and jury to understand by the term humbug?"
The lady hesitated.
"I must insist, madam," said the counsellor, anticipating a victory, "that you proceed no farther until you state plainly and openly what you mean by humbug."
"Why, then, sir," returned the lady, "I don't know how better to express my meaning than by saying, if I met a company of persons who were strangers to you, and should tell them that when they saw you, they might prepare to see a remarkably learned, courteous and agreeable man—that would be a humbug."