that it is so. No nation gives better ness, vigor and improvement, we should

certainly name the sound of the hammer. What on earth is there that is more cheering? It is the very note of preparation for business, and gives a thrill that is peculiar to itself, and to all that lie inert around it.

evidence of its degree of civilization, than in its care for the dead, and in its method of keeping alive their memory. Tomb stones, monuments, flowers planted on graves, all indicate a certain refinement of feeling which is not found in barbarous countries; and the What brings the morning so fresh tenacity with which men cherish the and vivid to the mind of the sluggish memory and guard the repose of the as the hammer which sounds from the dead, is the best evidence that can be neighboring roofs. It is the veriest given of their infinite belief in the im- reproach an indolent man can have, mortality of the soul. If the friends and speaks straight to the heart, in of yesterday were forgotten when the those quiet, manly tones, which only turf hides them; if the companion of the sincerest friendship employs. And long years of toil were remembered then, how much is in that sound be only as the dust in which he sleeps; if sides! What a range can fancy take the gentle fellow pilgrim of a life-time were laid in the mould to perish out of memory, then indeed might it be supposed that men believe that this clay, this life, this vision, was all, and that there was no more!

But it is not so. In every heart, and especially in every heart that has for its care a remembrance which death has created, but failed to destroy, there is a vision, more or less glorious, of a land in which sometime or other, the dead shall greet us again with familiar voices and loving embrace. The vision forces itself on men at all hours, and in those quiet moments when the soul is not unwilling to commune with itself, it is a welcome visitor, and men press it to their hearts. We are led to these remarks by an incident that attracted our notice, and though simple and of common occurrence, was nevertheless the cause of much thought. A child died, and when they buried it, the cheek of the boy was pressed literally on a pillow of roses. There was nothing unusual in this, but there was more than poetry in it, nor was there one who saw the sleeping boy, that did not turn away with the calm certainty that he would awake when the morning comes.

MUSIC OF THE HAMMER. But, after all, were we to seek out only one sound in the world, as a representative or expression of life, busi

when such a sound comes forth! There is the workman on the roof of a new building, or in the shop of a mechanic, or the store of the merchant. It is the carpenter, the blacksmith, the tinman, the jeweler, or the worker in marble; all industrious, all busy. The "sound of the hammer" is the note that forewarns the world of the whereabouts of the hard working man. About it there is no concealment. The man he owes, hears it, and waits contented, feeling that he is safe. There is a spirit in the sound of a hammer which affects more or less nearly all the world. Some people go through life without noticing one sound from another in the multitude of noises around them; but we will answer for the sound of the hammer, that no one ever heard it without being conscious of an expression either posi tively pleasant or certainly painful. Mechanics should stick to their hammers for they are sentinels of industry and bestowers of praise.

The hammer is an instrument of pow er and greatness. By it are forged the sword of contention, and the plough. share of peace. By it are forged the press of the free, and the shackles of the slave. Let our mechanics in the emblem of the hammer, always behold an instrument to unfetter the darkness of the mind and to drive truth and knowledge home to the hearts and consciences of those who look sneeringly upon labor as the Smith forges the nail or the spike which unites together the timbers of our leviathans of the deep,

or the timbers of the fabrics that canopy the proud, the fair, and gay.

A LETTER FOR THE GIRLS.

Come, girls, get on your sun-bonnets, find your old gloves, put on your thick shoes, and come out into the sunshine. It is quite time to begin to think of your out-door work. It is time for gardening and to see about improving your door yards.

Have you trees and shrubbery about the door, to invite the birds and the cool breezes, to gladden your homes in summer? If not, now is the time. Coax those tall brothers of yours to take the spade, and an old axe, if necessary, and go with you to the bor ders of the forest to procure shade

trees.

and buoyancy acquired by exercise in the open air will give a tone of beauty much more desirable than any "interesting paleness" you can acquire by sitting roomed up in the house all day.

Get an appropriation of ground for a flower bed or two, if possible. If not, see to it that the beds of common vegetables are bordered with flowers. Plant some around the doors and windows too-some pretty running plant like the morning glory, cypress vine, flowering pea or bean, and see to it that they do not get choked out with weeds.

Half an hour every day, will plant the seeds and keep in order an amount of beauty truly astonishing.

The humblest log cabin can be made an attractive home by a little labor, that should rather be called a pas time.

Perhaps you think your fathers will I wonder if you have any rose bushes hardly smile on your efforts. It may about your premises? If you have be that they even speak contemptuousnot, your neighbors have, and I know ly of flowers. If so, there is no need they would not grudge a few small of a better ministration to their spirits. roots, that by a little care will, in a I never yet met the man who was not few years, add much to the beauty of pleased after once witnessing a sucyour homes. A climbing rose, trained cessful effort to make home cheerful by over the window, and a honeysuckle such simple adornings. over the porch, will pay in perfumery When we remember that flowers are for the little trouble they cost; and any the gift of God to his children, renof your friends who possess them, will dered so cheap in their peerless lovebe happy to aid you if they see you liness, that the meanest condition of bent on improving your grounds. A small slip of honeysuckle that would be trimmed off and thrown away as a useless pruning, can be buried in the same manner that grape slips are, and in a few years you will have a beautiful vine to embellish your arbor.

life may be embellished by them, it seems almost a sin to neglect them, and the gentle influence they bring to weary hearts. I fear we do not suffi ciently estimate the effect of these things upon the human character. The gentle lessons, the holy feelings. By the way, don't forget how easily inspired by contemplation of these ingrapes are cultivated, and what a lux-nocent emblems, cannot possibly fail ury they afford. Keep an eye out, and to render our hearts purer and better if when there is an opportunity, secure a few dozen of fine slips, and get your father to appropriate a few rods of ground for the purpose of cultivating them.

Now, don't look sour, and say it isn't ladylike to work in the garden. I told you to get your gloves on purpose to keep your hands from being needlessly soiled, and your complexion will be sufficiently preserved from the sun by a good sun-bonnet; while the vigor

we receive them aright.

Enter upon this work, then, my dear girls, as ministering to a higher part of your nature than mere fancy, since every form of beauty is one of God's lessons of love to his creatures. Look up the flower seeds, exchange with your neighbors, and let the beauty of your homes testify to the cheerful industry of your hands.

I WAS A PEASANT BORN.

BY ROBERT STORY.

I was a peasant born, the straw-roofed cot
Contained my cradle. By my infant ear

The uncultured words which peasants speak were drunk

Till my tongue caught and uttered them.

In my youth I toiled with peasants; bearing as they came

The heats of August, and the winds of March.

The thoughts that paasants think were mine; and though

Some touch of learning, may have rubbed away
A little of its rust, I hope my mind
Smacks of the peasant still

I cannot dress

My face in smiles when my heart bids me frown.
I cannot pay respect, when my heart says
The man's a villian. In my soul I loathe
The smooth hypocricy which, ice-like keeps
A surface never ruffled by a storm:
Nor do I like his valor, who can see
The foe at work beneath his citadel
With the best will to batter it, and yet
Retain his temper, and extend the hand
Instead of pointing the artillery.
The generous man I love; the tyrant hate;
But would not veil my hatred or my love
For all the mines of Chili. Birth and rank
That wear their honors worthily, shall have
My deepest reverence, and if requisite

My heart's warm service; but they shall not chain
The freedom of my thoughts, nor soften down
The correspondent freedom of a word

That brands a meritless minion.

These are thoughts

That square not with the maxims of the times.
So much the fitter to be mine, then; who
Am proud, and well may be so. I
sprang not
From sires who sucked the blood of the people-lived.
And died detested-leaving to their seed

A world of infamy to purge away,

And not one virtue to achieve the work.

My father toiled like Adam; gained his bread
By his brow's moisture; died and went to Heaven,
Leaving me no legacy, save what

without them, when they have been accustomed to their presence, but that is all. Take them away, and replace t them by something, or some person else, and you soon learn to measure the strength of attachment in the ordi nary human heart. As for confidence, that is not the attribute of a little mind, especially if tinged with jealousy of mind more enlarged and noble than itself; it loves to keep its own frivolous plans and ideas a secret, for there seems indeed, a sort of folly to come into con tact with wisdom. Rely upon it, that the man who loves those higher in the scale of intellect than himself, is a hero undisclosed by circumstances. Folly hates wisdom, even the gentlest wisdom.

LABOR SAVING MACHINERY.

There are many who decry labor saving machinery and condemn its use as being injurious to the interests of working men and a benefit only to men of capital, by destroying the occupa tion of the former class, through the agency of capital doing that kind of work by machinery which had previ ously been done by manual labor. These views are entertained by many who have a warm side to the working man's welfare. We have charity to believe that such views are held in sincerity, but in ignorance of the subject in all its details. If labor saving machinery is injurious to the interest of the working man, at what point or ma chine shall we commence the proscription? To that paper which fulminates against labor saving machinery, we say, throw your types into the ocean and dash your press to pieces, and FRIENDSHIP. That desecrated name then you will give us some evidence of belongs only to the attachments of the your sincerity. If any labor saving finer spirits the rare and excellent machine is to be proscribed, it should among our race. A combination of be that one on which all the rest dequalities, on both sides, is necessary pend. Proscribe the hammer, and then to produce that precious and inestima- what? The farmer might turn over his ble sentiment. Of real, sincere affec- furrow with his feet and the backtion many men are not capable; they woodsman gnaw down the trees of have, indeed, a sort of attachment to the forest like a beaver. Abolish lathe things they live among, the people bor saving machinery, and we at once who fill their house and family-that become barbarians. is, they do not very well like to do

He taught me to extract from yon old Book
That tells old-fashioned tales of Heaven and Hell,
And that God hates a hypocrite.

The whole of labor saving machine

ry, without a single exception, has GOING TO BED.-Going to bed we been the means of advancing civiliza- have always considered as one of the tion and gradually elevating the labor- most sober, serious, and solemn opering classes from serfs to men. The very ations a man can be engaged in during musket, decryed as it may be by some, the whole twenty-four hours. With a was an invention which in the hands of young lady it is altogether a different England's plebians, first broke the sort of thing. When bed-time arrives, power of feudal tyranny on the field she trips up stairs with a candle in of Marsden. Manual occupations are her hand and-if she has had pleasant not to be created for the mere purpose company during the evening-with of giving employment, but for the pro- some agreable ideas in her head. ducing of something useful. It is a The candle is placed on the toilet and mistaken notion which some political her luxuriant hair speedily emancipated economists have, "that physical labor from the thraldom of combs and pins. is always necessary to the well being of If she usually wears "water curls." or society, just because it gives people uses the "iron," her hair is brushed employment." Employment can only carefully from her forehead, and the be of a benefit to society when it is whole mass compactly secured, if not, directed to create something for the why then her beautiful tresses are soon comfort of society. If this is not a hid in innumerable bits of paper. correct view of the subject, the man This task accomplished, a night-cap who carries a stone in his hat all day makes its appearance, edged may be long must be as advantageous to the with plain muslin, or may be with State as he who guides the plough, or fine lace, which hides all save her own wields the hammer. Those who paid sweet countenance. As soon as she fifty cents for a yard of coarse shirting ties the strings, probably she takes a in 1815, will surely have some feeling peep in her glass and half smiles half for the friendly power loom, that has blushes at what she sees. The light now reduced the price to twelve and a is out-her fair delicate form gently half cents. The working classes above presses the couch-she doubles up all others, are indebted to labor saving "spoon fashion"—and, like a dear, inmachinery, and we look to future in nocent, lovely creature as she is, she ventions in labor saving machinery, as falls gently into sleep with a sweet being the only sure ground and hope for smile on her still sweet face. A man, the future elevation of our race. We of course, under the same circumspeak merely in reference to physical stances, acts quite differently. Every comforts. While there is enough to movement in his chamber indicates eat and drink and wherewithal to clothe the coarse rough mould of his fallen nathe family of man, there certainly ture. When all is ready he snuffs should be no suffering for want, and the candle out with his fingers like a in whatever country there is suffering savage. For a few moments he thinks among the people, such as there is of of all the peccadilloes he may have ten among the manufacturing classes committed during the day-vows a of Britain and some other nations, it is vow to amend soon--grunts--turns not because of the great amount of la- over-stretches himself--then all is bor saving machinery there, but in the silent-and then the heavy snoring of abuse of its benefits. We might go the slumberer. Is there not something on step by step and fill volumes with preternaturally solemn about sleep? accounts of the benefits of labor saving A something about it of dread and apmachinery, were it not trespassing on prehension? The recumbent posi our rule of brevity. tion-the closed eyes-the parted lips -the pallid countenance-the operations of the mind suspended, and the breath alone indicating that vital principle.

Scientific American.

AN ALABAMA COAL FIELD.-Near fected. Take a pint of lard, add to it

Mr. Camp's bloomery, a few miles below Scottsville, the junction of the coal may be seen, the latter being almost vertical while the coal measures are inclined at an angle of 20 degrees. Near this place fragments of coal are imbedded in the sandstone.

eight or ten red peppers, melt it over a slow fire, and break into it one dozen fresh eggs, stir all together, making a kind of lard egg omelette, (take care and not cook it too much.) Now ap ply it liberally to your horse's shoulder, three times a day, rubbing it in with a cob, thoroughly. Should the omelette give out, repeat the dose, and a perfect cure will be effected.

THE PORCELAIN MANUFACTURE.

My examination of the Cahawba coal field extended as high up as Lacy's ferry, about thirty miles above Centreville. In this distance, its greatest breadth is directly west of Montevallo and is about twelve miles. From the little Cahawba which is its southern The number of workmen employed to boundary, to Lacy's ferry is 20 miles. finish one article of chinaware is al An undulating line drawn from Shultz's most incredible; a single cup is said creek near Scottville, and following the from the kneeding of the paste, to pass ridge east of the limestone to Roup's through seventy hands before it is ready creek, will mark its western boundary. for sale; each individual, in its proOn the east it extends to within one or gress performing as little as he can for two miles of Montevallo, from which the remuneration he receives. The point it gradually contracts till it Chinese decorate the exterior of their reaches within three miles of the ferry. dwellings, and their pleasure grounds, The coal of the Cahawba differs in with enormous pieces of porcelain many respects from that of the Warrior. both in the way of vases and figures; It is more lameller in its structure, these are formed each in several pieces, seldom breaking up into fragments of and each piece or portion in a mould; regular form like the latter. The beds the paste is first well-pressed into the are generally more highly inclined, moulds, which are then placed before a being often vertical, and they are also fire for a short time, to detach the figmuch thicker than any I have yet seen ures from their moulds; the various on the Warrior. On the right bank portions are then united and cemented of the Cahawba, I have determined the together, the joints are carefully smoothsuper-position of at least four beds, ed off by the chisel, and are varnished varying in thickness between ten and and painted over, after which they are four feet, and within one or two miles imperceptible. The designs traced up. of the river. These beds are low in on their porcelain or china are very the series-some of them below the inferior, but the colors used by the ar millstone grit, which leads me to think tists who paint these designs are far we have not reached the corresponding superior to any European coloring. thickness on the Warrior. The division of labor in embellishing and painting the chinaware is equal to that employed in the formation of it; one traces figures, another flowers, a third paints the figures, and a fourth the flowers-in fact, there is an artist for delineating, and another for painting each particular object; each goes on in one beaten track, without the least conception or attempt at improvement, or introducing new ideas in their de signs; and thus the same designs and figures are accurately copied by the ar tists of the present day which were in use in the days of Confucius.

Between the coal and iron ore I had the pleasure to find an excellent firestone that must one day be of great value. You have then, limestone, iron ore, fire-proof stone, coal and water power side by side and within the lim

its of a few miles.

Professor Tuomy.

CURE FOR A SWINNIED HORSE.-The following remedy has been tried within the past month, on a horse badly swinnied, and a speedy and perfect cure ef