The Youth's Companion Part 16

A STARVING RACE.

It is believed by some persons that the Anglo-American race in this country is tending rapidly to extinction. Both the birth-rate and the mother's power to nurse her children seem to be steadily diminishing.

Many persons refer the cause to our climate; others to the overaction of the brain and nerves in childhood and youth by our schools, and by the exhaustive excitements of social and fashionable life.

We have no doubt that the latter cause, especially, has much to do with it. But, besides this, we are inclined to attribute it, to a large extent, to a lack of proper nourishment.

We are the only nation that prides itself on the whitest of white bread.

Our housekeeping is based on this, and our tastes and the tastes of our children have become conformed to it.

The fine white bread we use is far enough from being "the staff of life." The elements that feed the brain, and nerves, and bones, and even the muscles, have been almost wholly eliminated from it. What is left is little more than starch, which only supplies heat. It should be remembered that on pure starch a man can starve to death as truly as on pure water. And it is this slow starving process that, as a people, we seem to be undergoing.

Our only alternative is to return to the bread which nature has provided,--that made from the unbolted grain,--in which there are about twenty different elements, and each element is essential to the vigor and health of our physical system.

A MOUNTAIN LION.

A Montana journal tells the story of a hunter who killed a mountain sheep, and then shot a mountain lion that claimed the game:

Mr. Wesley Curnutt took his gun and started to hunt the horses. About three or four miles from the White Sulphur Springs he discovered a band of mountain sheep, and as soon as he gained a proper location, he fired upon the game.

At the crack of the gun one of the largest mountain lions we have ever seen (you can imagine how large he appeared to the bold hunter) sprang from a cliff of rocks, and landed not over thirty feet from Curnutt, in an att.i.tude looking anything but friendly, and ready to contest t.i.tles to the game in question.

Mr. C------, being an old mountaineer and an experienced hunter, took in the situation at a glance, and saw there was no time to lose, as his antagonist meant business; so he immediately drew bead on the gentleman, and let him have a bullet before he concluded to give way, and as he ran he received a number of shots, which he carried but a short distance.

Mr. Curnutt, after dressing his sheep, which was a very large one, the head and horns weighing thirty-seven and a half pounds, returned to the battle-ground and found his antagonist dead.

Mr. C------, having procured the a.s.sistance of Col. Kent, brought the lion to camp, where they weighed and measured him, finding him to weigh two hundred and fifty pounds, and measure nine foot eight inches from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail, which the colonel (though a bear-hunter in the Rockys for many a year) acknowledges to be the "boss"

of the mountains.

"E PLURIBUS UNUM."

A correspondent of the Philadelphia _Press_ tells the history of the Latin motto, _E Pluribus Unum_ (from many, one). "The origin of the motto is ascribed to Col. Reed, of Uxbridge, Ma.s.s. It first appeared on a copper coin, struck at Newburg, New York State, where there was a private mint. The pieces struck are dated 1786.

"In 1787 the motto appeared on several types of the New Jersey coppers, also on a very curious gold doubloon, or sixteen-dollar piece, coined by a goldsmith named Brasher. It was there put _'Unum E Pluribus.'_ Only four of these pieces are known to be extant, and they are very valuable.

One of them, in possession of the mint, is supposed to be worth over a thousand dollars.

"When Kentucky was admitted, in 1791, it is said copper coins were struck with _'E Pluribus Unum.'_ They were made in England. The act of Congress of 1792, authorizing the establishment of a mint, and the coinage of gold, silver and copper, did not prescribe this motto, nor was it over legalized.

"It was placed on gold coins in 1796, and on silver coins in 1798. It was constantly used thereafter until 1831, when it was withdrawn from the quarter-dollar of new device. In 1834 it was dropped from gold coins to mark the change in the standard fineness of the coin.

"In 1837 it was dropped from the silver coins, marking the era of the revised mint code. It has been thought proper to restore it recently to our new silver dollar without any special sanction of law, although the expression is one very proper for our coins."

WHAT "B. C." MEANT.

A smart boy, who carried his point, forms the topic for a paragraph in the Boston _Transcript._ A distinguished Bostonian, whom his city and State have delighted to honor, bethought him lately to buy a new vehicle.

A bargain offered in the shape of a buggy, which a friend was ready to dispose of at a fair price. It was "second hand," to be sure, but it was a good buggy, had been made "'pon honor," had seen but little service, and bore upon its panels the initials of the original owner, "B. C."

The trade was made, and the buyer congratulated himself not a little on having got a good thing at a low price. But there was one member of his family who was not altogether pleased.

The son, a dapper young man, wanted a little more "style," and would have preferred a new vehicle of fashionable build. He said so much about it that his father at length lost all patience, and told him seriously that he was tired of his talk, and would hear no more about it.

"But, father," said time young man, "don't you think we had better have that 'B. C.' painted out?"

"I tell you," said his father, "that I will not hear another word from you about it."

"All right, sir," said the son, dutifully; "you know best, of course, but I thought that perhaps people might think _that_ was when it was made."

The father surrendered.

FARM LIFE.

A writer in _Scribner's Magazine_ a.s.serts that the farmer, having the most sane and natural occupation, ought to find life pleasant.

He alone, strictly speaking, has a home. How can a man take root and thrive without land? He writes his history upon his field.

How many ties, how many resources, he has; his friendships with his cattle, his team, his dog, his trees, the satisfaction in his growing crops, in his improved fields; his intimacy with nature, with bird and beast, and with the quickening elemental forces; his co-operations with the cloud, the sun, the seasons, heat, wind, rain, frost.

Nothing will take the various social distempers which the city and artificial life breed, out of a man like farming, like direct and loving contact with the soil. It draws out the poison. It humbles him. Teaches him patience and reverence, and restores the proper tone to his system.

Cling to the farm, make much of it, put yourself into it, bestow your heart and your brain upon it, so that it shall savor of you and radiate your virtue after your day's work is done.

WHAT IS MADE OUT OF PIT-COAL.

Once mankind saw nothing in mineral coal but a kind of black stone, and the person who first found out by accident that it would burn, and talked of it as fuel, was laughed at. Now it is not only our most useful fuel, but its products are used largely in the arts. A few of them are described below:

1. An excellent oil to supply lighthouses, equal to the best sperm oil, at lower cost.

2. Benzole--a light sort of ethereal fluid, which evaporates easily, and, combined with vapor or moist air, is used for the purpose of portable gas lamps, so-called.