One thousand secrets of wise and rich men revealed

Chapter 10

Chapter 1014,188 wordsPublic domain

COIN DEPARTMENT.

Complete and standard list of American silver and copper coins which command a premium:

UNITED STATES SILVER DOLLARS.

1794 Flowing Hair $ 20 00 1794 Flowing Hair, Fine 30 00 1795 Flowing Hair 1 25 1796 Fillet Head 1 25 1796 Fillet Head 1 60 1797 Fillet Head, 6 Stars Facing 1 60 1797 Fillet Head, 7 Stars Facing 1 60 1798 Fillet Head, 13 Stars, Small Eagle 1 50 1798 Fillet Head, 15 Stars, Small Eagle 2 00 1798 13 Stars, Large Eagle 1 10 1799 5 Stars Facing 1 40 1799 6 " " 1 10 1800 Spread Eagle 1 15 1801 Spread Eagle 1 30 1802 Spread Eagle 1 30 1802 over 1801, Spread Eagle 1 35 1803 Spread Eagle 1 35

1804 DOLLAR.

1804 Excessively Rare $500 00 1840 Liberty Seated 1 05 1841 Liberty Seated 1 05 1844 Liberty Seated 1 05 1845 Liberty Seated 1 05 1848 Liberty Seated 1 15 1849 Liberty Seated 1 05 1851 Liberty Seated 23 00 1852 Liberty Seated 23 00 1853 Liberty Seated 1 10 1854 Liberty Seated 2 50 1855 Liberty Seated 1 60 1856 Liberty Seated 1 50 1857 Liberty Seated 1 50 1858 Liberty Seated 23 00 1861 Liberty Seated 1 05 1862 Liberty Seated 1 05 1863 Liberty Seated 1 05 1864 Liberty Seated 1 05 1865 Liberty Seated 1 05 1866 Liberty Seated 1 05 1867 Liberty Seated 1 05 1868 Liberty Seated 1 05 1869 Liberty Seated 1 05 1879 Trade Dollar 1 05 1880 Trade Dollar 1 05 1881 Trade Dollar 1 05 1882 Trade Dollar 1 05 1883 Trade Dollar 1 05 1884 Trade Dollar 1 05

UNITED STATES PATTERN DOLLARS.

1836 C. Gobrecht's Name in Field $ 9 00 1836 Flying Eagle 4 00 1838 Flying Eagle 17 00 1839 Flying Eagle 13 50

HALF DOLLARS.

1794 Flowing Hair, Fair $ 2 00 1794 Flowing Hair, Good 3 00 1795 Flowing Hair 60 1796 Fillet Head, 15 Stars 17 50 1796 Fillet Head, 16 Stars 20 00 1797 Fillet Head, 15 Stars 18 00 1801 Fillet Head 2 00 1802 Fillet Head 2 00 1803 Fillet Head 55 1804 Fillet Head 7 50 1805 Fillet Head 55 1805 over 1804, Fillet Head 60 1806 Fillet Head, if Extra Fine 55 1807 Fillet Head, if Extra Fine 55 1807 Head to Left, if Extra Fine 55 1815 Head to Left, Fair 1 50 1815 Head to Left, Good 2 00 1815 Head to Left, Fine 2 50 1820 over 1819 55 1836 Liberty Cap, Milled Edge 1 50 1836 Liberty Cap, Milled Edge, Fine 1 75 1838 Liberty Cap 12 00

(Having "O" mark underneath bust, and meaning New Orleans Mint, under head like above cut. Ordinary 1838 half dollars without this mint mark are not wanted.)

1851 Liberty Seated $ 55 1851 Liberty Seated, Fine 65 1852 Liberty Seated, Fair 1 40 1852 Liberty Seated, Good 1 75 1852 Liberty Seated, Fine 2 00 1879 Liberty Seated, Fine 55

QUARTER DOLLARS.

1796 Fillet Head, Fair $ 1 50 1796 Fillet Head, Good 2 00 1804 Fillet Head, Fair 1 50 1804 Fillet Head, Good 2 00 1805 Fillet Head, Good 30 1806 Fillet Head, Good 30 1807 Head to Left 30 1815 Head to Left, Fine 35 1818 Head to Left, Fine 30 1819 Head to Left, Fine 30 1820 Head to Left, Fine 30 1821 Head to Left, Fine 30 1822 Head to Left, Fine 30 1823 Head to Left, Fair 16 00 1823 Head to Left, Good 21 00 1824 Head to Left, Fair 35 1824 Head to Left, Good 60 1824 Head to Left, Fine 1 00 1827 Head to Left, Fair 17 50 1827 Head to Left, Good 22 00 1853 (without Arrows and Rays) 2 50

TWENTY CENT PIECES.

1876 $ 25 1877 1 75 1878 1 75

DIMES.

1796 Fillet Head, Fair $ 75 1796 Fillet Head, Good 1 50 1797 13 Stars, Fair 1 10 1797 13 Stars, Good 2 00 1797 16 Stars, Fair 1 25 1796 16 Stars, Good 2 00 1798 Fillet Head, Fair 90 1798 Fillet Head, Good 1 75 1800 Fillet Head, Fair 1 00 1800 Fillet Head, Good 1 75 1801 Fillet Head, Fair 1 00 1801 Fillet Head, Good 1 75 1802 Fillet Head, Fair 1 25 1802 Fillet Head, Good 2 00 1803 Fillet Head, Fair 75 1803 Fillet Head, Good 1 25 1804 Fillet Head, Fair 1 25 1804 Filled Head, Good 2 22 1805 Filled Head, Good 20 1807 Filled Head, Good 25 1809 Head to Left, Fair 20 1809 Head to Left, Good 50 1809 Head to Left, Fine 75 1811 Head to Left, Fair 25 1811 Head to Left, Good 50 1811 Head to Left, Fine 75 1814 Head to Left, Fine 15 1820 Head to Left, Fine 15 1821 Head to Left, Small Date, Fine 15 1822 Head to Left, Fair 50 1822 Head to Left, Good 75 1822 Head to Left, Fine 1 00 1824 Head to Left, Fine 15 1828 Head to Left, Fine 15

1846 Liberty Seated $ 25

HALF DIMES.

1794 Flowing Hair, Fair $ 1 10 1794 Flowing Hair, Good 2 00 1794 Flowing Hair, Fine 3 00 1795 Flowing Hair, Fair 30 1795 Flowing Hair, Good 60 1796 15 Stars, Fillet Head, Fair 1 50 1796 15 Stars, Fillet Head, Good 2 00 1797 15 Stars, Fillet Head, Fair 1 10 1797 15 Stars, Fillet Head, Good 1 75 1797 16 Stars, Fillet Head, Fair 1 00 1797 16 Stars, Fillet Head, Good 1 75 1800 Fillet Head, Fair 40 1800 Fillet Head, Good 75 1801 Fillet Head, Fair 1 00 1801 Fillet Head, Good 2 00 1802 Fillet Head, Fair 20 00 1802 Fillet Head, Good 40 00 1802 Fillet Head, Fine 75 00 1803 Fillet Head, Fair 1 00 1803 Fillet Head, Good 1 75 1805 Fillet Head, Fair 1 60 1805 Fillet Head, Good 2 25 1838 Liberty Seated, without stars, Fair 08 1838 Liberty Seated, without stars, Good 20 1838 Liberty Seated, without stars, Fine 30 1846 Liberty Seated, Fair 75 1846 Liberty Seated, Good 1 00 1846 Liberty Seated, Fine 1 50

SILVER THREE CENT PIECES.

1855 Large Star in Center $ 10 1863 Large Star in Center 40 1864 Large Star in Center 50 1865 Large Star in Center 30 1866 Large Star in Center 30 1867 Large Star in Center 30 1868 Large Star in Center 30 1869 Large Star in Center 25 1870 Large Star in Center 20 1871 Large Star in Center 20 1872 Large Star in Center 20 1873 Large Star in Center 75

NICKEL, FIVE CENT PIECES.

1877 $ 25

NICKEL, THREE CENT PIECES.

1877 $ 40

COPPER TWO CENT PIECES.

1872 $ 05 1873 90

COPPER CENTS.

1793 Liberty Cap $ 1 25 1794 15 1795 Liberty Cap 10 1796 Liberty Cap 15 1796 Fillet Head 15 1797 Fillet Head 08 1798 Fillet Head 05 1799 Fillet Head 3 00 1799 Fillet Head 6 00 1800 Fillet Head 05 1801 Fillet Head 05 1804 Fillet Head 2 00 1804 Fillet Head, Fine 2 75 1805 Fillet Head 08 1806 Fillet Head 06 1807 Fillet Head 03

1808 Head to Left $ 10 1809 Head to Left 40 1809 Head to Left, Fine 75 1810 Head to Left 05 1811 Head to Left 25 1812 Head to Left 03 1813 Head to Left 15 1814 Head to Left 05 1817 Head to Left, 15 Stars 05 1821 Head to Left 08 1823 Head to Left 12 1857 Head to Left, Large Date 06 1857 Head to Left 06 1857 Head to Left, Small Date 06

EAGLE NICKEL CENTS.

1856 Fair $ 55 1856 Good 80 1856 Fine 1 10

HALF CENTS.

1793 Liberty Cap $ 1 00 1794 Liberty Cap 25 1795 Lettered Edge 20 1795 Thin Die 20 1796 Liberty Cap 7 50 1797 Liberty Cap 25 1797 Lettered Edge 85 1800 Fillet Head 05 1802 Fillet Head 60 1803 Fillet Head 05 1805 Fillet Head 06 1806 Fillet Head 06 1807 Fillet Head 06 1808 Fillet Head 06 1810 Head to Left 18 1811 Head to Left 60 1831 Head to Left 2 00 1836 Head to Left 3 00 1840 Head to Left 1 75 1841 Head to Left 1 75 1842 Head to Left 2 50 1843 Head to Left 3 00 1844 Head to Left 2 00 1845 Head to Left 1 75 1846 Head to Left 1 75 1847 Head to Left 2 50 1848 Head to Left 3 00 1849 Head to Left, Small Date 3 00 1849 Head to Left, Large Date 06 1850 Head to Left 05 1852 Head to Left 2 50 1854 Head to Left 05 1856 Head to Left 15 1857 Head to Left 08

AMERICAN SILVER AND COPPER COINS NOT ISSUED BY THE UNITED STATES MINT.

SILVER COINAGE.

DOLLARS.--First coinage, 1794; none issued 1805 to 1835, inclusive, and 1837.

HALF-DOLLARS.--First coinage, 1794; none issued 1798, 1799, 1816.

QUARTER-DOLLARS.--First coinage, 1796; none issued 1794, 1795, 1797 to 1804, 1808 to 1814, inclusive, 1816, 1817, 1826, 1829, 1830.

DIMES.--First coinage, 1796; none issued 1794, 1795, 1799, 1806, 1808, 1810, 1812, 1813, 1815 to 1819, inclusive, 1826.

HALF-DIMES.--First coinage, 1794; none issued 1798, 1799, 1801, 1806 to 1828, inclusive. The coinage of half-dimes was discontinued in 1873 by Act of Congress.

THREE-CENT PIECES (SILVER).--First coinage, 1851; and then the dates follow in succession until 1873, when the coinage of them was discontinued.

COPPER CENTS.

COPPER CENTS.--First coinage, 1793, none issued 1815; they then follow to 1857, when the coinage was changed to nickel. The nickel cent of 1856 was only a pattern, which continued during this year up to 1864, inclusive. The bronze cent was introduced in this year. In 1865 the nickel cent was discontinued, and up to date the bronze cents are issued.

HALF-CENTS.--First coinage, 1793; none issued 1798, 1799, 1801, 1812 to 1824, inclusive; 1827, 1837, 1838, 1839; in 1857 the issue of half-cents was discontinued.

In 1864 the two-cent piece in bronze was introduced, and discontinued in 1873, by Act of Congress.

In 1865 the three-cent nickel piece was first issued.

In 1866 the five-cent piece was first issued; a very few were struck in 1865 as pattern. In 1883 the die was changed to that of the current issue with liberty head. Although upwards of five million coins of the 1883 nickels without the words "cents" were issued, they will in the course of a few years command a premium. At present they are still quite common.

LOISETTE'S SYSTEM OF MEMORY.

So much has been said about Loisette's memory system, the art has been so widely advertised, and so carefully guarded from all the profane who do not send five or many dollars to the professor, that a few pages showing how every man may be his own Loisette, may be both interesting and valuable.

In the first place, the system is a good one, and well worth the labor of mastering, and if the directions are implicitly followed there can be no doubt that the memory will be greatly strengthened and improved, and that mnemonic feats, otherwise impossible, may be easily performed. Loisette, however, is not an inventor, but an introducer. He stands in the same relation to Dr. Pick that the retail dealer holds to the manufacturer; the one produced the article; the other brings it to the public. Even this statement is not quite fair to Loisette, for he has brought much practical common sense to bear upon Pick's system, and in preparing the new art of mnemonics for the market, in many ways he has made it his own.

If each man would reflect upon the method by which he himself remembers things, he would find his hand upon the key of the whole mystery. For instance, the author was once trying to remember the word _blythe_. There occurred to my mind the words "Bellman," "Belle," and then the verse

--the peasant upward climbing Hears the bells of _Buloss_ chiming.

"Barcarole," "Barrack," and so on, until the word "blythe" presented itself with a strange insistence, long after I had ceased trying to recall it.

On another occasion, when trying to recall the name "Richardson," I got the words "hay-rick," "Robertson," "Randallstown," and finally "wealthy," from which naturally I got "rich" and "Richardson" almost in a breath.

Still another example: trying to recall the name of an old schoolmate, "Grady," I got "Brady," "grave," "gaseous," "gastronome," "gracious," and I finally abandoned the attempt, simply saying to myself that it began with a "G," and there was an "a" sound after it. The next morning, when thinking of something entirely different, this name "Grady" came up in my mind with as much distinctness as though some one had whispered it in my ear. This remembering was done without any conscious effort on my part, and was evidently the result of the exertion made the day before, when mnemonic processes were put to work. Every reader must have had similar experience, which he can recall, and which will fall in line with the examples given.

It follows, then, that when we endeavor, without the aid of any system, to recall a forgotten fact or name, our memory presents to us words of a similar sound or meaning in its journey toward the goal to which we have started it. This goes to show that our ideas are arranged in groups in whatever secret cavity or recess of the brain they occupy, and that the arrangement is one not alphabetical exactly and not entirely by meaning, but after some fashion partaking of both.

If you are looking for the word "meadow" you may reach "middle" before you come to it, or "Mexico," or many words beginning with the "m" sound, or containing the "dow," as "window" or "dough," or you may get "field" or "farm"--but you are on the right track, and if you do not interfere with your intellectual process you will finally come to the idea which you are seeking.

How often have you heard people say: "I forget his name; it is something like Beadle or Beagle--at any rate it begins with a B." Each and all of these were unconscious Loisettians, and they were practicing blindly, and without proper method or direction, the excellent system which he teaches. The thing, then, to do--and it is the final and simple truth which Loisette teaches--is to travel over this ground in the other direction--to cement the fact which you wish to remember to some other fact or word which you know will be brought out by the implied conditions--and thus you will always be able to travel from your given starting point to the thing which you wish to call to mind.

To illustrate: let the broken line in the annexed diagram represent a train of thought. If we connect the idea "_a_" with "_e_" through the steps _b_, _c_ and _d_, the tendency of the mind ever afterward will be to get to _e_ from _a_ that way, or from any of the intermediates that way. It seems as though a channel were cut in our mindstuff along which the memory flows. How to make it flow this way will be seen later on. Loisette, in common with all mnemonic teachers, uses the old devise of representing numbers by letter--and as this is the first and easiest step in the art, this seems to be the most logical place to introduce the accepted equivalents of the Arabic numerals:

0 is always represented by _s_, _z_ or _c_ soft.

1 is always represented by _t_, _th_ or _d_.

2 is always represented by _n_.

3 is always represented by _m_.

4 is always represented by _r_.

5 is always represented by _l_.

6 is always represented by _sh, j, ch_ soft or _g_ soft.

7 is always represented by _g_ hard, _kc_ hard, _q_ or final _ng_.

8 is always represented by _f_ or _v_.

9 is always represented by _p_ or _b_.

All the other letters are used simply to fill up. Double letters in a word count only as one. In fact, the system goes by sound, not by spelling--for instance, "this" or "dizzy" would stand for _ten_; "catch" or "gush" would stand for 76, and the only difficulty is to make some word or phrase which will contain only the significant letters in the proper order, filled out with non-significants into some guise of meaning or intelligibility.[2] Suppose you wish to get some phrase or word that would express the number 3,685, you arrange the letters this way:

+-----+-----+-----+------+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | | 3 | ^ | 6 | ^ | 8 | ^ | 5 | +-----+-----+-----+------+-----+-----+-----+-----+ | a | m | a | sh | a | f | a | l | | e | | e | j | e | v | e | | | i | | i | ch | i | | i | | | o | | o | g | o | | o | | | u | | u | | u | | u | | | h | | h | | h | | h | | | w | | w | | w | | w | | | x | | x | | x | | x | | | y | | y | | y | | y | | +-----+-----+-----+------+-----+-----+-----+-----+

You can make out "image of law," "my shuffle," "matchville," etc., etc., as far as you like to work it out.

[2] You can remember the equivalents by noting the fact that _z_ is the first letter of "zero" and _c_ of "cipher;" _t_ has but one stroke, _n_ has two, _m_ has three. The script _f_ is very like 8, the script _p_ like 9; _r_ is the last letter of four, _l_ is the Roman numeral for _fifty_, which suggests _five_. The others may be retained as memorizing these two nonsense lines:

Six _shy_ _J_ewesses c_h_ase _G_eorge Seven great _k_ings _c_ame _q_uarreli_ng_.

Now, suppose you wish to memorize the fact that $1,000,000 in gold weighs 3,685 pounds, you go about it in this way, and here is the kernel and crux of Loisette's system:

"How much does $1,000,000 in gold weigh?"

"Weigh--scales."

"Scales--statue of Justice."

"Statue of Justice--_image of law_."

The process is simplicity itself. The thing you wish to recall, and that you fear to forget, is the weight; consequently you cement your chain of suggestion to the idea which is most prominent to your mental question. What do you weigh with? Scales. What does the mental picture of scales suggest? The statue of Justice, blindfolded and weighing out award and punishment to man. Finally, what is this statue of Justice but the image of law? And the words "image of law," translated back from the significant letters _m_, _g_ soft, _f_ and _l_, give you 3--6--8--5, the number of pounds in $1,000,000 in gold. You bind together in your mind each separate step in the journey, the one suggests the other, and you will find a year from now that the fact will be as fresh in your memory as it is to-day. You cannot lose it. It is chained to you by an unbreakable mnemonic tie. Mark, that it is not claimed that "weight" will of itself suggest "scales" and "scales" "statue of Justice," etc., but that, once having passed your attention up and down the ladder of ideas, your mental tendency will be to take the same route, and get to the same goal again and again. Indeed, beginning with the weight of $1,000,000, "image of law" will turn up in your mind without your consciousness of any intermediate station on the way, after some iteration and reiteration of the original chain.

Again, so as to fasten the process in the reader's mind even more firmly, suppose that it were desired to fix the date of the battle of Hastings (A.D. 1066) in the memory; 1066 may be represented by the words "the wise judge" (_th_ equals 1, _s_ equals 0, _j_ equals 6, _dg_ equals 6; the others are non-significants); a chain might be made thus:

Battle of Hastings--arbitrament of war.

Arbitrament of war--arbitration.

Arbitration--judgment.

Judgment--the wise judge.

Make mental pictures, connect ideas, repeat words and sounds, go about it in any way you please, so that you will form a mental habit of connecting the "battle of Hastings" with the idea of "arbitrament of war," and so on for the other links in the chain, and the work is done.

Loisette makes the beginning of his system unnecessarily difficult, to say nothing of his illogical arrangement in the grammar of the art of memory, which he makes the first of his lessons. He analyzes suggestion thus:

1. Inclusion. 2. Exclusion. 3. Concurrence.

All of which looks very scientific and orderly, but is really misleading and badly named. The truth is that one idea will suggest another.

1. By likeness or opposition of meaning, as "house" suggests "room" or "door," etc., or "white" suggests "blacks," "cruel," "kind," etc.

2. By likeness of sound, as "harrow" and "barrow;" "Henry" and "Hennepin."

3. By mental juxtaposition, a peculiarity different in each person and depending upon each one's own experiences. Thus "St. Charles" suggests "railway bridge" to me, because I was vividly impressed by the breaking of the Wabash bridge at that point. "Stable" and "broken leg" come near each other in my experience, so do "cow" and "shot-gun" and "licking."

Out of these three sorts of suggestions it is possible to get from any one fact to any other in a chain certain and safe, along which the mind may be depended upon afterward always to follow.

The chain is, of course, by no means all. Its making and its binding must be accompanied by a vivid, methodically directed attention, which turns all the mental light gettable in a focus upon the subject passing across the mind's screen. Before Loisette was thought of this was known. In the old times in England, in order to impress upon the minds of the rising generation the parish boundaries in the rural districts, the boys were taken to each of the landmarks in succession, the position and bearings of each pointed out carefully, and, in order to deepen the impression, the young people were then and there vigorously thrashed, a mechanical method of attracting the attention which was said never to have failed. This system has had its supporters in many of the old-fashioned schools, and there are men who will read these lines who can recall, with an itching sense of vivid expression, the 144 lickings which were said to go with the multiplication table.

In default of a thrashing, however, the student must cultivate as best he can an intense fixity of perception upon every fact or word or date that he wishes to make permanently his own. It is easy. It is a matter of habit. If you will you can photograph an idea upon your cerebral gelatine so that neither years nor events will blot it out or overlay it. You must be clearly and distinctly aware of the thing you are putting into your mental treasure-house, and drastically certain of the cord by which you have tied it to some other thing of which you are sure. Unless it is worth your while to do this, you might as well abandon any hopes of mnemonic improvement, which will not come without the hardest kind of hard work, although it is work that will grow constantly easier with practice and reiteration.

You need, then:

1. Methodic suggestion. 2. Methodic attention. 3. Methodic reiteration.

And this is all there is to Loisette, and a great deal it is. Two of them will not do without the third. You do not know how many steps there are from your hall-door to your bed-room, though you have attended to and often reiterated the journey. But if there are twenty of them, and you have once bound the word "nice," or "nose," or "news," or "hyenas," to the fact of the stairway, you could never forget it.

The Professor makes a point, and very wisely, of the importance of working through some established chain, so that the whole may be carried away in the mind--not alone for the value of the facts so bound together, but for the mental discipline so afforded.

Here, then, is the "President Series," which contains the name and the date of inauguration of each President from Washington to Cleveland. The manner in which it is to be mastered is this: Beginning at the top, try to find in your mind some connection between each word and the one following it. See how you can at some future time make one suggest the next, either by suggestion of sound or sense, or by mental juxtaposition. When you have found this dwell on it attentively for a moment or two. Pass it backward and forward before you, and then go on to the next step.

The chain runs thus, the names of the Presidents being in small caps, the date word in italics:

President Chosen as the first word as the one most apt to occur to the mind of any one wishing to repeat the names of the Presidents. Dentist Presi_dent_ and _dent_ist. Draw What does a dentist do? _To give up_ When something is drawn from one it is given up. This is a date phrase meaning 1789. Self-sacrifice There is an association of thought between giving and self-sacrifice. WASHINGTON Associate the quality of self-sacrifice with Washington's character. Morning wash _Wash_ington and _wash_. Dew Early witness and dew. Flower beds Dew and flowers. _Took a bouquet_ Flowers and bouquet. Date phrase (1707.) Garden Bouquet and garden. Eden The first garden. Adam Juxtaposition of thought. ADAMS Suggestion by sound. Fall Juxtaposition by thought. Failure Fall and failure. _Deficit_ Upon a failure there is usually a deficit. Date word (1801.) Debt The consequence of a deficit. Bonds Debt and bonds. Confederate bonds Suggestion by meaning. Jefferson Davis Juxtaposition of thought. JEFFERSON.

Now, follow out the rest for yourself, taking about ten at a time, and binding those you do last to those you have done before each time, before attacking the next bunch.

1 | 2 | 3 ----------------------+--------------------+------------------ JEFFERSON | _the fraud_ | _the heavy shell_ Judge Jeffreys | painted clay | mollusk bloody assize | baked clay | unfamiliar word bereavement | tiles | dictionary _too heavy a sob_ | TYLER | Johnson's parental grief | Wat Tyler | JOHNSON mad son | poll tax | son MADISON | compulsory | bad son Madeira | _free will_ | dishonest boy first-rate wine | free offering | _thievish boy_ frustrating | burnt offering | take _defeating_ | poker | give feet | POLK | GRANT toe the line | end of dance | award row | termination "ly" | school premium MUNROE | _adverb_ | examination row | part of speech | cramming boat | part of a man | _fagging_ steamer | TAYLOR | laborer _the funnel_ | measurer | hay field windpipe | theodolite | HAYES throat | _Theophilus_ | hazy quinzy | fill us | clear QUINZY ADAMS | FILLMORE | _vivid_ quince | more fuel | brightly lighted fine fruit | _the flame_ | camp fire _the fine boy_ | flambeau | war field sailor boy | bow | GARFIELD sailor | arrow | Guiteau jack tar | PIERCE | murderer JACKSON | hurt | prisoner stone wall | _feeling_ | prison fare indomitable | wound | _half fed_ _tough make_ | soldier | well fed oaken furniture | cannon | well read bureau | BUCHANAN | author VAN BUREN | rebuke | ARTHUR rent | official censure | round table side-splitting | _to officiate_ | tea table _divert_ | wedding | tea cup annoy | linked | _half full_ harrassing | LINCOLN | divide HARRISON | link | cleave Old Harry | stroll | CLEVELAND the tempter | sea shore | ----------------------+--------------------+------------------

It will be noted that some of the date words, as "free will," only give three figures of the date, 845; but it is to be supposed that if the student knows that many figures in the date of Polk's inauguration he can guess the other one.

The curious thing about this system will now become apparent. If the reader has learned the series so that he can say it down from first President to Cleveland, he can with no effort, and without any further preparation, say it _backward_, from Cleveland up to the commencement. There could be no better proof that this is the natural mnemonic system. It proves itself by its works.

+------------------+------------- | 0--hoes | -------------------+------------------+------------- 1--wheat |34--mare |67--jockey 2--hen |35--mill |68--shave 3--home |36--image |69--ship 4--hair |37--mug |70--eggs 5--oil |38--muff |71--gate 6--shoe |39--mob |72--gun 7--hook |40--race |73--comb 8--off |41--hart |74--hawker 9--bee |42--horn |75--coal 10--daisy |43--army |76--cage 11--tooth |44--warrior |77--cake 12--dine |45--royal |78--coffee 13--time |46--arch |79--cube 14--tower |47--rock |80--vase 15--dell |48--wharf |81--feet 16--ditch |49--rope |82--vein 17--duck |50--wheels |83--fame 18--dove |51--lad |84--fire 19--tabby |52--lion |85--vial 20--hyenas |53--lamb |86--fish 21--hand |54--lair |87--fig 22--nun |55--lily |88--fife 23--name |56--lodge |89--fib 24--owner |57--lake |90--pies 25--nail |58--leaf |91--putty 26--hinge |59--elbow |92--pane 27--ink |60--chess |93--bomb 28--knife |61--cheat |94--bier 29--knob |62--chain |95--bell 30--muse |63--sham |96--peach 31--mayday |64--chair |97--book 32--hymen |65--jail |98--beef 33--mama |66--judge |99--pope |------------------| | 100--diocese | -------------------+------------------+-----------

The series should be repeated backward and forward every day for a month, and should be supplemented by a series of the reader's own making, and by this one, which gives the numbers from 0 to 100, and which must be chained together before they can be learned.

By the use of this table, which should be committed as thoroughly as the President series, so that it can be repeated backwards and forwards, any date, figure or number can be at once constructed, and bound by the usual chain to the fact which you wish it to accompany.

When the student wishes to go farther and attack larger problems than the simple binding of two facts together, there is little in Loisette's system that is new, although there is much that is good. If it is a book that is to be learned, as one would prepare for an examination, each chapter is to be considered separately. Of each a _precis_ is to be written in which the writer must exercise all of his ingenuity to reduce the matter in hand to its final skeleton of fact. This he is to commit to memory both by the use of the chain and the old system of interrogation. Suppose after much labor through a wide space of language one boils a chapter to an event down to the final irreducible sediment: "Magna Charta was exacted by the barons from King John at Runnymede."

You must now turn this statement this way and that way, asking yourself about it every possible and impossible question, gravely considering the answers, and, if you find any part of it especially difficult to remember, chaining it to the question which will bring it out. Thus, "What was exacted by the barons from King John at Runnymede?" "Magna Charta." "By whom was Magna Charta exacted from King John at Runnymede?" "By the barons." "From whom was," etc., etc.? "King John." "From what king," etc., etc.? "King John." "Where was Magna Charta," etc., etc.? "At Runnymede."

And so on and so on, as long as your ingenuity can suggest questions to ask, or points of view from which to consider the statement. Your mind will be finally saturated with the information and prepared to spill it out at the first squeeze of the examiner. This, however, is not new. It was taught in the schools hundreds of years before Loisette was born. Old newspaper men will recall in connection with it Horace Greeley's statement that the test of a news item was the clear and satisfactory manner in which a report answered the interrogatories, "What?" "When?" "Where?" "Who?" "Why?"

In the same way Loisette advises the learning of poetry, _e.g._,

"The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold."

"Who came down?"

"How did the Assyrian come down?"

"Like what animal did?" etc.

And so on and so on, until the verses are exhausted of every scrap of information to be had out of them by the most assiduous cross-examination.

Whatever the reader may think of the availability or value of this part of the system, there are so many easily applicable tests of the worth of much that Loisette has done, that it may be taken with the rest.

Few people, to give an easy example, can remember the value of +-- the ratio between the circumference and the diameter of the circle--beyond four places of decimals, or at most six--3,141,592+. Here is the value to 108 decimal places:

3. 14159265.3589793238.4626433832.7950288419.7169399375.1058209749. 4459230781.6406286208.9986280348.2534211706.79 82148086

By a very simple application of the numerical letter values these 108 decimal places can be carried in the mind and recalled about as fast as you can write them down. All that is to be done is to memorize these nonsense lines:

Mother Day will buy any shawl. My love pick up my new muff. A Russian jeer may move a woman. Cables enough for Utopia. Get a cheap ham pie by my cooley. The slave knows a bigger ape. I rarely hop on my sick foot. Cheer a sage in a fashion safe. A baby fish now views my wharf. Annually Mary Ann did kiss a jay. A cabby found a rough savage.

Now translate each significant into its proper value and you have the task accomplished. "Mother Day," _m_ equals 3, _th_ equals 1, _r_ equals 4, _d_ equals 1, and so on. Learn the lines one at a time by the method of interrogatories. "Who will buy any shawl?" "Which Mrs. Day will buy a shawl?" "Is Mother Day particular about the sort of shawl she will buy?" "Has she bought a shawl?" etc., etc. Then cement the end of each line to the beginning of the next one, thus, "Shawl"--"warm garment"--"warmth"--"love"--"my love," and go on as before. Stupid as the work may seem to you, you can memorize the figures in fifteen minutes this way so that you will not forget them in fifteen years. Similarly you can take Haydn's Dictionary of Dates and turn fact after fact into nonsense lines like these which you cannot lose.

And this ought to be enough to show anybody the whole art. If you look back across the sands of time and find out that it is that ridiculous old "Thirty days hath September," which comes to you when you are trying to think of the length of October--if you can quote your old prosody,

"O datur ambiguis," etc.

with much more certainty than you can serve up your Horace; if in fine, jingles and alliterations, wise and otherwise, have stayed with you, while solid and serviceable information has faded away, you may be certain that here is the key to the enigma of memory.

You can apply it yourself in a hundred ways. If you wish to clinch in your mind the fact that Mr. Love lives at 485 Dearborn Street, what is more easy than to turn 485 into the words "rifle" and chain the ideas together, say thus: "Love--happiness--good time--picnic--forest--wood rangers--range--rifle range--_rifle_--fine weapon--costly weapon--dearly bought--DEARBORN."

Or if you wish to remember Mr. Bowman's name, and you notice he has a mole on his face which is apt to attract your attention when you next see him, cement the ideas thus: "Mole, mark, target, archer, Bowman."

FACTS WORTH KNOWING.

HANDY FACTS TO SETTLE MANY ARGUMENTS

London plague in 1665.

Telephone invented 1861.

There are 2,750 languages.

Two persons die every second.

Sound moves 743 miles per hour.

Chinese invented paper 170 B.C.

A square mile contains 640 acres.

A barrel of pork weighs 200 pounds.

Hawks can fly 150 miles in one hour.

Watches were first constructed in 1476.

Chinese in United States in 1880, 105,613.

Rome was founded by Romulus, 752 B.C.

Gold was discovered in California in 1848.

Phonograph invented by T. A. Edison, 1877.

The first balloon ascended from Lyons, France, 1783.

The first fire insurance office in America, Boston, 1724.

Jet is found along the coast of Yorkshire, Eng., near Whitby.

Napoleon I. crowned emperor 1804; died at St. Helena, 1820.

Electric light invented by Lodyguin and Kossloff, at London, 1874.

Harvard is the oldest college in the United States: established 1638.

War declared with Great Britain, June 19, 1812; peace Feb. 18, 1815.

Until 1776 cotton spinning was performed by the hand spinning-wheel.

Measure 209 feet on each side and you will have a square acre within an inch.

Postage stamps first came into use in England in the year 1840; in the United States in 1847.

The highest range of mountains are the Himalayas, the mean elevation being from 16,000 to 18,000 feet.

Envelopes were first used in 1839.

Telescopes were invented in 1590.

Iron horseshoes were made in 481.

A barrel of flour weighs 196 pounds.

A hand (horse measure) is four inches.

A rifle ball moves 1,000 miles per hour.

First steamer crossed the Atlantic, 1819.

Assassination of Lincoln, April 14, 1865.

German empire re-established, Jan. 18, 1871.

Storm clouds move thirty-six miles an hour.

First subscription library, Philadelphia, 1731.

Dark Ages, from the 6th to the 14th century.

The Latin tongue became obsolete about 580.

The great London fire occurred Sept. 26, 1666.

The value of a ton of pure gold is $602,799.21.

Ether was first used for surgical purposes in 1844.

Ignatius Loyola founded the order of Jesuits, 1541.

First authentic use of organs, 755; in England, 951.

The first newspaper advertisement appeared in 1652.

Cork is the bark taken from a species of the oak tree.

Benjamin Franklin used the first lightning rods, 1752.

Glass windows (colored) were used in the 8th century.

Authentic history of China commenced 3,000 years B.C.

Introduction of homoepathy into the United States, 1825.

Spectacles were invented by an Italian in the 13th century.

Medicine was introduced into Rome from Greece, 200 B.C.

First electric telegraph, Paddington to Brayton, Eng., 1835.

The Chaldeans were the first people who worked in metals.

First life insurance, in London, 1772; in America, Philadelphia, 1812.

Egyptian pottery is the oldest known; dates from 2,000 B.C.

Julius Caesar invaded Britain, 55 B.C.; assassinated, 44 B.C.

Soap was first manufactured in England in the 16th century.

The largest free territorial government is the United States.

First photographs produced in England, 1802; perfected, 1841.

First marine insurance, A.D. 533; England, 1598; America, 1721.

Professor Oersted, Copenhagen, discovered electro-magnetism, in 1819.

First American express, New York to Boston--W. F. Harnden.

Glass windows were first introduced into England in the 8th century.

Chicago is little more than fifty years old, and is the eighteenth city of the world.

Glass was made in Egypt, 3000 B.C.; earliest date of transparent glass, 719 B.C.

First public schools in America were established in the New England States about 1642.

The largest inland sea is the Caspian, between Europe and Asia, being 700 miles long and 270 miles wide.

The term "Almighty Dollar" originated with Washington Irving, as a satire on the American love for gain.

The highest natural bridge in the world is at Rockbridge, Virginia, being 200 feet high to the bottom of the arch.

The largest circulation of paper money is that of the United States, being 700 millions, while Russia has 670 millions.

The largest insurance company in the world is the Mutual Life of New York City, having cash assets of $108,000,000.

The largest empire in the world is that of Great Britain, being 8,557,658 square miles, and more than a sixth part of the globe.

The first electrical signal ever transmitted between Europe and America passed over the Field submarine cable on Aug. 5, 1858.

The longest tunnel in the world is St. Gothard, on the line of the railroad between Luzerne and Milan, being nine and one-half miles in length.

The loftiest active volcano is Popocatapetl. It is 17,784 feet high, and has a crater three miles in circumference and 1,000 feet deep.

Burnt brick was known to have been used in building the Tower of Babel. They were introduced into England by the Romans.

The most remarkable echo known is that in the castle of Simonetta, two miles from Milan. It repeats the echo of a pistol sixty times.

The largest volcano in the world is Etna. Its base is 90 miles in circumference; its cone 11,000 feet high. Its first eruption occurred 474 B.C.

The largest tree in the world, as yet discovered, is in Tulare County, California. It is 275 feet high and 106 feet in circumference at its base.

The largest desert is Sahara, in Northern Africa. Its length is 3,000 miles and breadth 900 miles; having an area of 2,000,000 square miles.

The largest suspension bridge is in Brooklyn. The length of the main span is 1,595 feet 6 inches. The entire length of the bridge is 5,989 feet.

The first deaf and dumb asylum was founded in England by Thomas Braidwood, 1760; and the first in the United States was at Hartford, 1817.

The largest diamond in the world is the Braganza, being a part of the Portuguese jewels. It weighs 1,880 carats. It was found in Brazil in 1741.

The grade of titles in Great Britain stands in the following order from the highest: A Prince, Duke, Marquis, Earl, Viscount, Baron, Baronet, Knight.

The largest number of cattle ever received in one year was that of Chicago in the year 1884, being 1,874,984 beeves, 30,223 calves, 5,640,625 hogs, 749,917 sheep and 15,625 horses. It required 9,000 trains of 31 cars each, which, if coupled together, would reach 2,146 miles.

The "Valley of Death," in the island of Java, is simply the crater of an extinct volcano, filled with carbonic-acid gas. It is half a mile in circumference.

The city of Amsterdam, Holland, is built upon piles driven into the ground. It is intersected by numerous canals, crossed by nearly three hundred bridges.

Coal was used as fuel in England as early as 852, and in 1234 the first charter to dig for it was granted by Henry III. to the inhabitants of Newcastle-on-Tyne.

Tobacco was discovered in San Domingo in 1496; afterwards by the Spaniards in Yucatan in 1520. It was introduced in France in 1560, and into England in 1583.

The present national colors of the United States were not adopted by Congress until 1777. The flag was first used by Washington at Cambridge, January 1, 1776.

Paris was known as Lutetia until 1184, when the name of the great French capital was changed to that which it has borne ever since.

The longest span of wire in the world is used for a telegraph in India over the river Ristuah. It is over 6,000 feet, and is stretched between two hills 1,200 feet high.

The largest library in the world is in Paris, founded by Louis XIV. It contains 1,400,000 volumes, 175,000 manuscripts, 300,000 maps and charts, and 150,000 coins and medals.

The tallest man was John Hale, of Lancashire, England, who was nine feet six inches in height. His hand was seventeen inches long and eight and one-half inches broad.

In round numbers, the weight of $1,000,000 in standard gold coin is 1-3/4 tons; standard silver coin, 26-3/4 tons; subsidiary silver coin, 25 tons; minor coins, 5-cent nickel, 100 tons.

The largest stationery engine in the world is at the zinc mines at Friedenville, Pa. The number of gallons of water raised every minute is 17,500. The driving wheels are 35 feet diameter and weigh 40 tons each. The cylinder is 110 inches in diameter.

The part of United States territory most recently acquired is the island of San Juan, near Vancouver's Island. It was evacuated by England at the close of November, 1873.

The highest monument in the world is the Washington monument, being 555 feet. The highest structure of any kind is the Eiffel Tower, Paris, finished in 1889 and 989 feet high.

It is claimed that crows, eagles, ravens and swans live to be 100 years old; herons, 59; parrots, 60; pelicans and geese, 50; skylarks, 30; sparrow hawks, 40; peacocks, canaries and cranes, 24.

The greatest cataract in the world is Niagara, the height of the American falls being 165 feet. The highest fall of water in the world is that of the Yosemite in California, being 2,550 feet.

The most ancient catacombs are those of the Theban kings, begun 4,000 years ago. The catacombs of Rome contain the remains of about 6,000,000 human beings; those of Paris, 3,000,000.

The quickest passage ever made across the Atlantic was that of the steamer Lucania, of the Cunard line, being 5 days 7 hours and 23 minutes from New York to Queenstown; the distance being 2,850 miles.

There has been no irregularity in the recurrence of leap year every four years since 1800, and will be none until 1900, which will be a common year, although it will come fourth after the preceding leap year.

The first English newspaper was the _English Mercury_, issued in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and was issued in the shape of a pamphlet. The _Gazette_ of Venice was the original model of the modern newspaper.

The Mormon Church in Utah shows a membership of 127,294--23,000 families. The church has 12 apostles, 58 patriarchs, 3,885 seventies, 3,153 high priests, 11,000 elders, 1,500 bishops and 4,400 deacons, being an office for each six persons.

A "monkey wrench" is not so named because it is a handy thing to monkey with, or for any kindred reason. "Monkey" is not its name at all, but "Moncky." Charles Moncky, the inventor of it, sold his patent for $2,000, and invested the money in a house in Williamsburg, King's County, N.Y., where he now lives.

The Union arch of the Washington Aqueduct is the largest in the world, being 220 feet; 20 feet in excess of the Chester arch across the Dee in England, 68 feet longer than that of the London bridge; 92 feet longer than that at Neuilly on the Seine, and 100 feet longer than that of Waterloo bridge. The height of the Washington arch is 100 feet.

The largest ship ever built, the Great Eastern, recently broken to pieces and sold to junk dealers, was designed and constructed by Scott Russell, at Maxwell, on the Thames. Work on the giant vessel was commenced in May, 1854. She was successfully launched January 13, 1858. The launching alone occupied the time from November 3, 1857, until the date above given. Her total length was 600 feet; breadth, 118 feet; total weight when launched 12,000 tons. Her first trip of any consequence was made to New York in 1859-60.

The most extensive mines in the world are those of Freiberg, Saxony. They were begun in the twelfth century, and in 1835 the galleries, taken collectively, had reached the unprecedented length of 123 miles. A new gallery, begun in 1838, had reached a length of eight miles at the time of the census of 1878. The deepest perpendicular mining shaft in the world is located at Prizilram, Bohemia. It is a lead mine; it was begun 1832. January, 1880, it was 3,280 feet deep. The deepest coal mine in the world is near Tourney, Belgium; it is 3,542 feet in depth, but, unlike the lead mine mentioned above, it is not perpendicular. The deepest rock-salt bore in the world is near Berlin, Prussia; it is 4,185 feet deep. The deepest hole ever bored into the earth is the artesian well at Pottsdam, which is 5,500 feet in depth. The deepest coal mines in England are the Dunkirk colleries of Lancashire, which are 2,824 feet in depth. The deepest coal shaft in the United States is located at Pottsville, Pa. In 1885 it had reached a depth of 1,576 feet. From this great depth 400 cars, holding four tons each, are hoisted daily. The deepest silver mine in the United States is the Yellow Jacket, one of the great Comstock system at Virginia City, Nevada; the lower levels are 2,700 feet below the hoisting works.

FATE OF THE APOSTLES.--The following brief history of the fate of the Apostles may be new to those whose reading has not been evangelical:

St. Matthew is supposed to have suffered martyrdom or was slain with the sword at the city of Ethiopia.

St. Mark was dragged through the streets of Alexandria, in Egypt, till he expired.

St. Luke was hanged upon an olive tree in Greece.

St. John was put into a cauldron of boiling oil at Rome and escaped death. He afterward died a natural death at Ephesus in Asia.

St. James the Great was beheaded at Jerusalem.

St. James the Less was thrown from a pinnacle or wing of the temple and then beaten to death with a fuller's club.

St. Philip was hanged up against a pillar at Hieropolis, a city of Phrygia.

St. Bartholomew was flayed alive by the command of a barbarous king.

St. Andrew was bound to a cross, whence he preached unto the people until he expired.

St. Thomas was run through the body with a lance at Caromandel, in the East Indias.

St. Jude was shot to death with arrows.

St. Simon Zealot was crucified in Persia.

St. Matthias was first stoned and then beheaded.

St. Barnabas was stoned to death by Jews at Salania.

St. Paul was beheaded at Rome by the tyrant Nero.

The capital of the United States has been located at different times at the following places: At Philadelphia from September 5, 1774, until December, 1776; at Baltimore from December 20, 1776, to March, 1777; at Philadelphia from March 4, 1777, to September, 1777; at Lancaster, Pa., from September 27, 1777, to September 30, 1777; at York, Pa., from September 30, 1777, to July, 1778; at Philadelphia from July 2, 1778, to June 30, 1783; at Princeton, N.J., June 30, 1783, to November 20, 1783; Annapolis, Md., November 26, 1783, to November 30, 1784; Trenton, from November, 1784, to January, 1785; New York from January 11, 1785, to 1790; then the seat of government was removed to Philadelphia, where it remained until 1800, since which time it has been in Washington.

THE SINGLE TAX.

This idea was first formulated by Mr. Henry George in 1879, and has grown steadily in favor. Single tax men assert as a fundamental principle that all men are equally entitled to the use of the earth; therefore, no one should be allowed to hold valuable land without paying to the community the value of the privilege. They hold that this is the only rightful source of public revenue, and they would therefore abolish all taxation--local, State and National--except a tax upon the rental value of land exclusive of its improvements, the revenue thus raised to be divided among local, State and general governments, as the revenue from certain direct taxes is now divided between local and State governments.

The single tax would not fall on all land, but only on valuable land, and on that in proportion to its value. It would thus be a tax, not on use or improvements, but on ownership of land, taking what would otherwise go to the landlord as owner.

In accordance with the principle that all men are equally entitled to the use of the earth, they would solve the transportation problem by public ownership and control of all highways, including the roadbeds of railroads, leaving their use equally free to all.

The single tax system would, they claim, dispense with a hoard of tax-gatherers, simplify government, and greatly reduce its cost; give us with all the world that absolute free trade which now exists between the States of the Union; abolish all taxes on private uses of money; take the weight of taxation from agricultural districts, where land has little or no value apart from improvements, and put it upon valuable land, such as city lots and mineral deposits. It would call upon men to contribute for public expenses in proportion to the natural opportunities they monopolize, and make it unprofitable for speculators to hold land unused, or only partly used, thus opening to labor unlimited fields of employment, solving the labor problem and abolishing involuntary poverty.

The largest producing farm in the world lies in the southwest corner of Louisiana, owned by a northern syndicate. It runs one hundred miles north and south. The immense tract is divided into convenient pastures, with stations of ranches every six miles. The fencing alone cost nearly $50,000.

The "Seven Wonders of the World" are seven most remarkable objects of the ancient world. They are: The Pyramids of Egypt, Pharos of Alexandria, Walls and Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Temple of Diana at Ephesus, the Statue of the Olympian Jupiter, Mausoleum of Artemisia, and Colossus of Rhodes.

The seven sages flourished in Greece in the 6th century B.C. They were renowned for their maxims of life and as the authors of the mottoes inscribed in the Delphian Temple. Their names are: Solon, Chilo, Pittacus, Bias, Periander, Clebolus and Thales.

The estimated number of Christians in the world is over 408,000,000; of Buddhists, 420,000,000; of the followers of Brahma, 180,000,000; of Mohammedans, 150,000,000; of Jews, 8,000,000; of atheists, deists, and infidels, 85,000,000; of pagans, 50,000,000, and of the 1,100 other minor creeds, 123,000,000.

In 1775 there were only 27 newspapers published in the United States. Ten years later, in 1785, there were seven published in the English language in Philadelphia alone, of which one was a daily. The oldest newspaper published in Philadelphia at the time of the Federal convention was the _Pennsylvania Gazette_, established by Samuel Keimer, in 1728. The second newspaper in point of age was the _Pennsylvania Journal_, established in 1742 by William Bradford, whose uncle, Andrew Bradford, established the first newspaper in Pennsylvania, the _American Weekly Mercury_, in 1719. The next in age, but the first in importance, was the _Pennsylvania Packet_, established by John Dunlop in 1771. In 1784 it became a daily, being the first daily newspaper printed on this continent.

GEMS OF THOUGHT.

POOR RICHARD'S ALMANAC

Benjamin Franklin.

POOR RICHARD'S ALMANAC.

COURTEOUS READER:

I have heard that nothing gives an author so great pleasure as to find his works respectfully quoted by other learned authors. This pleasure I have seldom enjoyed. For though I have been, if I may say it without vanity, an _eminent_ author of _Almanacs_ annually now for a full quarter of a century, my brother authors in the same way, for what reason I know not, have ever been very sparing in their applauses; and no other author has taken the least notice of me; so that did not my writings produce me some solid pudding, the great deficiency of praise would have quite discouraged me.

I concluded at length that the people were the best judges of my merit, for they buy my works; and besides, in my rambles where I am not personally known, I have frequently heard one or other of my adages repeated, with _as Poor Richard says_ at the end of it. This gives me some satisfaction, as it showed, not only that my instructions were regarded, but discovered likewise some respect for my authority; and I own that to encourage the practice of remembering and repeating those sentences, I have sometimes quoted myself with great activity.

Judge, then, how much I must have been gratified by an incident I am going to relate to you. I stopped my horse lately where a great number of people were collected at a vendue of merchant's goods. The hour of sale not being come, they were conversing on the badness of the times; and one of the company called to a plain, clean old man with white locks, "Pray, Father Abraham, what think you of the times? Won't these heavy taxes quite ruin the country? How shall we ever be able to pay them? What would you advise us to do?" Father Abraham stood up and replied: "If you would have my advice, I will give it you in short; for _A word to the wise is enough_, and _Many words won't fill a bushel_, as Poor Richard says." They all joined, desiring him to speak his mind, and gathering round him, he proceeded as follows:

Friends, says he, and neighbors, the taxes are indeed very heavy, and if those laid on by the government were the only ones we had to pay, we might the more easily discharge them; but we have many others, and much more grievous to some of us. We are taxed twice as much by our IDLENESS, three times as much by our PRIDE and four times as much by our FOLLY; and from these taxes the commissioners cannot ease or deliver us, by allowing an abatement. However, let us hearken to good advice, and something may be done for us; _God helps them that help themselves_, as Poor Richard says in his _Almanac_ of 1733.

It would be thought a hard government that should tax its people one-tenth part of their TIME, to be employed in its service, but idleness taxes many of us much more, if we reckon all that is spent in absolute sloth, or doing of nothing, with that which is spent in idle employments or amusements that amount to nothing. Sloth, by bringing on disease, absolutely shortens life. _Sloth, like rust, consumes faster than labor wears; while the used key is always bright_, as Poor Richard says. _But dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that's the stuff life is made of_, as Poor Richard says.

How much more that is necessary do we spend in sleep? Forgetting that _the sleeping fox catches no poultry_, and that _there will be sleeping enough in the grave_, as Poor Richard says. If times be of all things the most precious, _wasting of time must be_, as Poor Richard says, _the greatest prodigality_; since, as he elsewhere tells us, _lost time is never found again_; and what we call _time enough! always proves little enough_. Let us then up and be doing, and doing to the purpose; so, by diligence, shall we do more with less perplexity. _Sloth makes all things difficult, but industry all things easy_, as Poor Richard says; and _He that riseth late must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his business at night; while laziness travels so slowly that Poverty soon overtakes him_, as we read in Poor Richard; who adds, _Drive thy business! Let not that drive thee!_ and

Early to bed and early to rise Makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.

So what signifies _wishing_ and _hoping_ for better times? We may make these times better if we bestir ourselves. _Industry need not wish_, as Poor Richard says, and _He that lives on hope will die fasting_. _There are no gains without pains; then help, hands! for I have no lands_; or if I have they are smartly taxed. And, as Poor Richard likewise observes, _He that hath a trade hath an estate, and he that hath a calling hath an honor_; but then the trade must be worked at, and the calling well followed, or neither the estate nor the office will enable us to pay our taxes. If we are industrious we shall never starve; for, as Poor Richard says, _At the working-man's house hunger looks in, but dares not enter._ Nor will the bailiff or the constable enter, for _Industry pays debts, while despair increaseth them_.

What though you have found no treasure, nor has any rich relation left you a legacy, _Diligence is the mother of good luck_, as Poor Richard says, _and God gives all things to industry_

Then plough deep while the sluggards sleep, And you shall have corn to sell and to keep,

says Poor Dick. Work while it is called to-day, for you know not how much you may be hindered to-morrow; which makes Poor Richard say, _One to-day is worth two to-morrows_; and farther, _Have you somewhat to do tomorrow? Do it to-day!_

If you were a servant, would you not be ashamed that a good master should catch you idle? Are you then your own master? _Be ashamed to catch yourself idle_, as Poor Richard says. When there is so much to be done for yourself, your family, your country, and your gracious king, be up by peep of day! _Let not the sun look down and say, "Inglorious here he lies!"_ Handle your tools without mittens! remember that _The cat in gloves catches no mice!_ as poor Richard says.

'Tis true there is much to be done, and perhaps you are weak-handed; but stick to it steadily, and you will see great effects; for _Constant dropping wears away stones_; and _By diligence and patience the mouse ate in two the cable_; and _Little strokes fell great oaks_; as Poor Richard says in his _Almanac_, the year I cannot just now remember.

Methinks I hear some of you say, "Must a man afford himself no leisure?" I will tell, thee, my friend, what Poor Richard says, _Employ thy time well, if thou meanest to gain leisure_; and _Since thou are not sure of a minute, throw not away an hour!_ Leisure is time for doing something useful; this leisure the diligent man will obtain, but the lazy man never; so that, as Poor Richard says, _A life of leisure and a life of laziness are two things._ Do you imagine that sloth will afford you more comfort than labor? No! for as Poor Richard says, _Trouble springs from idleness, and grievous toil from needless ease. Many, without labor, would live by their wits only, but they'll break for want of stock_ (i.e. capital); whereas industry gives comfort, and plenty, and respect. _Fly pleasures, and they'll follow you. The diligent spinner has a large shift_; and

Now I have a sheep and a cow, Everybody bids me good morrow.

All which is well said by Poor Richard. But with our industry we must likewise be steady, settled, and careful, and oversee our own affairs _with our own eyes_, and not trust too much to others; for, as Poor Richard says,

I never saw an oft removed tree, Nor yet an oft removed family, That throve so well as those that settled be.

And again, _Three removes are as bad as a fire_; and again, _Keep thy shop, and thy shop will keep thee_; and again, _If you would have your business done, go; if not, send._ And again,

He that by the plough would thrive, Himself must either hold or drive.

And again, _The eye of the master will do more work than both his hands_; and again, _Want of care does us more damage than want of knowledge_; and again, _Not to oversee workmen is to leave them your purse open._

Trusting too much to others' care is the ruin of many; for, as the Almanac says, _In the affairs of this world men are saved, not by faith, but by the want of it_; but a man's own care is profitable; for saith Poor Dick, _Learning is to the studious and Riches to the careful_; as well as, _Power to the bold, and Heaven to the virtuous._ And further, _If you would have a faithful servant, and one that you like, serve yourself._

And again, he adviseth to circumspection and care, even in the smallest matters; because, sometimes, _A little neglect may breed great mischief_; adding, _for want of a nail the shoe was lost; for want of a shoe the horse was lost; and for want of a horse the rider was lost_; being overtaken and slain by the enemy; all for want of a little care about a horseshoe nail!

So much for industry, my friends, and attention to one's own business; but to these we must add frugality, if we would make our industry more certainly successful. _A man may_, if he knows not how to save as he gets, _keep his nose all his life to the grindstone, and die not worth a groat at last. A fat kitchen makes a lean will_, as Poor Richard says; and

Many estates are spent in the getting, Since women for tea[3] forsook spinning and knitting, And men for punch forsook hewing and splitting.

[3] Tea at this time was a costly drink, and was regarded as a luxury.

If you would be wealthy, says he in another Almanac, _Think of saving as well as of getting. The Indies have not made Spain rich; because her outgoes are greater than her incomes._

Away, then, with your expensive follies, and you will not have so much cause to complain of hard times, heavy taxes, and chargeable families; for, as Poor Dick says,--

Women and wine, game and deceit, Make the wealth small and the wants great.

And farther, _What maintains one vice would bring up two children._ You may think, perhaps, that a _little_ tea, or a _little_ punch now and then; a diet a _little_ more mostly; clothes a _little_ more finer; and a _little_ more entertainment now and then, can be no great matter; but remember what Poor Richard says, _Many a little makes a mickle_; and further, _Beware of little expenses_; _A small leak will sink a great ship_; and again,--

Who dainties love, shall beggars prove;

and moreover, _Fools make feasts and wise men eat them_.

Here are you all got together at this vendue of fineries knick-knacks. You call them _goods_; but if you do not take care, they will prove evils to some of you. You expect they will be sold cheap, and perhaps they may for less than they cost; but, if you have no occasion for them, they must be _dear_ to you. Remember what Poor Richard says: _Buy what thou hast no need of and ere long thou shalt sell thy necessaries._ And again, _At a great pennyworth, pause a while._ He means, that perhaps the cheapness is apparent only, and not real; or the bargain by straitening thee in thy business, may do thee more harm than good. For in another place he says, _Many have been ruined by buying good pennyworths._

Again, Poor Richard says, _'Tis foolish to lay out money in a purchase of repentance_; and yet this folly is practiced every day at vendues for want of minding the _Almanac_.

_Wise men_, as Poor Richard says, _learn by others' harms_; _Fools scarcely by their own_; but _Felix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum._[4] Many a one for the sake of finery on the back, has gone with a hungry belly, and half-starved their families. _Silks and satins, scarlets and velvets_, as Poor Richard says, _put out the kitchen fire_. These are not the necessaries of life; they can scarcely be called the conveniences; and yet, only because they look pretty, how many _want_ to have them! The artificial wants of mankind thus become more numerous than the natural; and, as Poor Dick says, _For one_ poor _person there are a hundred_ indigent.

[4] He's a lucky fellow who is made prudent by other men's perils.

By these and other extravagances, the genteel are reduced to poverty, and forced to borrow of those whom they formerly despised, but who, through industry and frugality, have maintained their standing; in which case it appears plainly, that _A ploughman on his legs is higher than a gentleman on his knees_, as Poor Richard says. Perhaps they have had a small estate left them, which they know not the getting of; they think, _'Tis day, and will never be night_, that a _little to be spent out of so much is not worth minding_; (_A child and a fool_, as Poor Richard says, _imagine_ twenty shilling and twenty years can never be spent), but _Always taking out of the meal-tub and never putting in, soon comes to the bottom._ Then, as Poor Dick says, _When the well's dry, they know the_ _worth of water_. But this they might have known before, if they had taken his advice. _If you would know the value of money, go and try to borrow some_; for _He that goes a borrowing, goes a sorrowing_, and indeed, so does he that lends to such people, _when he goes to get it again_.

Poor Dick further advises and says--

Fond pride of dress is, sure a very curse; Ere fancy you consult, consult your purse.

And again, _Pride is as loud a beggar as Want, and a great deal more saucy._ When you have bought one fine thing, you must buy ten more, that your appearance may be all of a piece; but Poor Dick says, _'Tis easier to suppress the first desire than to satisfy all that follow it._ And 'tis as truly folly for the poor to ape the rich, as for the frog to swell in order to equal the ox.

Great estates may venture more, But little boats should keep near shore.

'Tis, however, a folly soon punished; for, _Pride that dines on vanity sups on contempt_, as Poor Richard says. And in another place, _Pride breakfasted with Plenty, dined with Poverty and supped with Infancy_.

And after all, what use is this pride of appearance, for which so much is risked, so much is suffered? It cannot promote health or ease pain; it makes no increase of merit in the person; it creates envy; it hastens misfortune.

What is a butterfly? At best He's but a caterpillar drest, The gaudy fop's his picture just,

as poor Richard says.

But what madness must it be to _run into debt_ for these superfluities! We are offered, by the terms of this vendue, six months' credit; and that, perhaps, has induced some of us to attend it, because we cannot spare the ready money, and hope now to be fine without it. But, ah! think what you do when you run in debt: _You give to another power over your liberty._ If you cannot pay at the time, you will be ashamed to see your creditor; you will be in fear when you speak to him; you will make poor, pitiful, sneaking excuses, and by degrees come to lose our veracity, and sink into base, downright lying; for, as Poor Richard says, _The second vice is lying, the first is running into debt_; and again, to the same purpose, _lying rides upon debt's back_; whereas a free-born Englishman ought not to be ashamed or afraid to see or speak to any man living. But poverty often deprives a man of all spirit and virtue. _'Tis hard for an empty bag to stand upright!_ as Poor Richard truly says. What would you think of that prince, or that government who should issue an edict forbidding you to dress like a gentleman or gentlewoman, on pain of imprisonment or servitude? Would you not say that you are free, have a right to dress as you please, and that such an edict would be a breach of your privileges, and such a government tyranical? And yet you are about to put yourself under such tyranny, when you run in debt for such dress! Your creditor has authority, at his pleasure, to deprive you of your liberty, by confining you in jail for life, or to sell you for a servant, if you should not be able to pay him.[5] When you have got your bargain you may, perhaps, think little of payment; but _Creditors_ (Poor Richard tells us) _have better memories than debtors_; and in another place says, _Creditors are a superstitious set, great observers of set days and times._ The day comes round before you are aware, and the demand is made before you are prepared to satisfy it; or, if you will bear your debt in mind, the term which at first seemed so long will, as it lessens, appear extremely short. Time will seem to have added wings to his heels as well as his shoulders. _Those have a short Lent_, saith Poor Richard, _who owe money to be paid at Easter._ Then since, as he says, _The borrower is a slave to the lender, and the debtor to the creditor_, disdain the chain, preserve your freedom, and maintain your independency. Be _industrious_ and _free_; be _frugal_ and _free_. At present, perhaps, you may think yourself in thriving circumstances, and that you can bear a little extravagance without injury; but--

For age and want, save while you may, No morning sun lasts a whole day.

[5] At the time when this was written, and for many years afterward, the laws against bankrupts and poor debtors were extremely severe.

As Poor Richard says, gain may be temporary and uncertain; but ever, while you live, expense is constant and certain; and _'Tis easier to build two chimneys than to keep one in fuel_, as Poor Richard says; so, _Rather go to bed supperless than rise in debt._

Get what you can and what you get hold: 'Tis the stone that will turn all your lead in gold,[6]

as Poor Richard says; and, while you have got the Philosopher's stone, sure, you will no longer complain of bad times or the difficulty of paying taxes.

[6] In the Middle Ages there was a great search made for the philosopher's stone, as it was called, a mineral which should have the power of turning base metals into gold.

This doctrine, my friends, is reason and wisdom; but, after all, do not depend too much upon your own industry and frugality and prudence, though excellent things; for they may all be blasted without the blessing of Heaven; and therefore, ask that blessing humbly, and be not uncharitable to those that at present seem to want it, but comfort and help them. Remember Job suffered, and was afterwards prosperous.

And now, to conclude, _Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other, and scarce in that_; for it is true, _We may give advice, but we cannot give conduct_, as Poor Richard says. However, remember this, _They that won't be counselled, can't be helped_, as Poor Richard says; and further, that, _If you will not hear reason, she'll surely rap your knuckles._

Thus the old gentleman ended his harangue. The people heard it, and approved the doctrine; and immediately practiced the contrary, just as if it had been a common sermon. For the vendue opened, and they began to buy extravagantly, notwithstanding all his cautions, and their own fear of taxes. I found the good man had thoroughly studied my _Almanacs_, and digested all I had dropped on those topics during the course of five-and-twenty-years. The frequent mention he made of me must have tired any one else; but my vanity was wonderfully delighted with it, though I was conscious that not a tenth part of the wisdom was my own which he ascribed to me, but rather the gleanings that I had made of the sense of all ages and nations. However, I resolved to be the better for the echo of it; and, though I had at first determined to buy stuff for a new coat, I went away resolved to wear my old one a little longer. Reader, if thou wilt do the same, _thy_ profit will be as great as mine. I am, as ever, thine to serve thee.

July 7, 1757. RICHARD SAUNDERS.

THE WATER-MILL.

Oh! listen to the water-mill, through all the live-long day, As the clicking of the wheels wears hour by hour away; How languidly the autumn wind doth stir the withered leaves, As on the field the reapers sing, while binding up the sheaves! A solemn proverb strikes my mind, and as a spell is cast, "The mill will never grind again with water that is past."

The summer winds revive no more leaves strewn o'er earth and main, The sickle never more will reap the yellow garnered grain; The rippling stream flows on, aye tranquil, deep, and still, But never glideth back again to busy water-mill. The solemn proverb speaks to all, with meaning deep and vast, "The mill will never grind again with water that is past."

Oh! clasp the proverb to thy soul, dear loving heart and true, For golden years are fleeting by, and youth is passing, too; Ah! learn to make the most of life, nor lose one happy day, For time will ne'er return sweet joys neglected, thrown away; Nor leave one tender word unsaid, thy kindness sow broadcast-- "The mill will never grind again with water that is past."

Oh! the wasted hours of life, that have swiftly drifted by, Alas! the good we might have done, all gone without a sigh; Love that we might once have saved by a single kindly word, Thoughts conceived but ne'er expressed, perishing unpenned, unheard. Oh! take the lesson to thy soul, forever clasp it fast, "The mill will never grind again with water that is past."

Work on while yet the sun doth shine, thou man of strength and will, The streamlet ne'er doth useless glide by clicking watermill; Nor wait until to-morrow's light beams brightly on thy way. For all that thou canst call thine own, lies in the phrase, "to-day;" Possessions, power, and blooming health, must all be lost at last--

"The mill will never grind again with water that is past."

Oh! love thy God and fellow man, thyself consider last, For come it will when they must scan dark errors of the past; Soon will this fight of life be o'er, and earth recede from view, And heaven in all its glory shine where all is pure and true. Ah! then thou'lt see more clearly still the proverb deep and vast, "The mill will never grind again with water that is past."

D. C. MCCALLUM.

Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but for me, give me liberty or give me death.

PATRICK HENRY.

The law is a sort of hocus-pocus science, that smiles in yer face while it picks yer pocket; and the glorious uncertainty of it is of mair use to the professors than the justice of it.

MACKLIN.

OUR MISSION.

In calm and stormy weather Our mission is to grow; To keep the angle paramount And bind the brute below.

We grow not all in sunshine, But richly in the rain; And what we deem our losses May prove our final gain.

The snows and frosts of winter A richer fruitage bring; From battling with the anvil The smith's grand muscles spring.

'Tis by the law of contrast That fine effects are seen; As thus we blend in colors The orange with the green.

By action and reaction We reach our perfect growth; Nor by excess of neither, But equipoise of both. The same code binds the human.

That governs mother earth; God cradled her in tempest And earthquakes from her birth.

Our life is but a struggle For perfect equipoise; Our pains are often jewels, Our pleasures gilded toys.

Between the good and evil The monarch will must stand, To shape the final issue By God's divine command.

Our mission is to battle With ill in every form-- To borrow strength and volume From contact with the storm.

In the beautiful hereafter These blinding mortal tears Shall crystalize in jewels To sparkle in the spheres.

With weak and moldish vision We work our way below; But sure our souls are building Much wiser than we know.

And when the work is finished The scaffolding then falls; And lo! a radiant temple, With pearl and sapphire walls.

A temple far transcending The grandest piles below, Whose dome shall blaze with splendor, In God's eternal glow.

Wealth is necessary; let us not disclaim against it; every nation needs it to attain the highest achievements in civilization. But it is a blessing only as a servant, and is destructive as a master.

JOHN P. ALTGELD.

If I were a young man I should ally myself with some high and at present unpopular cause, and devote my every effort to accomplish its success.

JOHN G. WHITTIER.

Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates and men decay.

Princes and lords may flourish and may fade; A breath can make them, as breath has made; But an honest peasantry, a country's pride, When once destroyed, can never be supplied.

War preys on two things--life and property: but he preys with a partial appetite. Feasting on life, he licks his jaws and says, "More, by your leave!" Devouring property, he says, between grin and glut, "This is so good that it ought to be paid for!" Into the vacuum of wasted life rush the moaning winds of grief and desolation; in to the vacuum of wasted property rushes the goblin of debt. The wasted life is transformed at length into a reminiscent glory; the wasted property becomes a hideous nightmare. The heroes fallen rise from their bloody cerements into everlasting fame; the property destroyed rises from the red and flame-swept field as a spectral vampire, sucking the still warm blood of the heroic dead and of their posthumous babes to the tenth generation! The name of the vampire is Bond.

JOHN CLARK RIDPATH.

TO A WATERFOWL.

Whither, mid'st falling dew, While glow the heavens with the last steps of day, Far through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue Thy solitary way?

Vainly the fowler's eye Might mark thy distant flight to do thee wrong, As, darkly seen against the crimson sky, Thy figure floats along.

Seek'st thou the plashy brink Of weedy lake, or marge of river wide, Or where the rocking billows rise and sink On the chafed ocean side?

There is a Power whose care Teaches thy way along that pathless coast-- The desert and illimitable air-- Lone wandering, but not lost.

All day thy wings have fanned, At that far height, the cold, thin atmosphere, Yet stoop not, weary, to the welcome land, Though the dark night is near.

And soon that toil shall end; Soon shall thou find a summer home, and rest, And scream among thy fellows; reeds shall bend Soon, o'er thy sheltered nest.

Thou'rt gone, the abyss of heaven Hath swallowed up thy form; yet on my heart Deeply hath sunk the lesson thou hast given And shall not soon depart.

He who, from zone to zone, Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight, In the long way that I must tread alone Will lead my steps aright.

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.

ROBERT BURNS

(Considered by many the world's greatest Song writer and natural Poet.)

While Burns was yet a plow boy he was challenged by two highly educated gentlemen, who were seated awaiting their dinner to be served at an Inn in the town of Ayr.

The terms of the challenge was for each to write a verse on the event of their first acquaintance, the one writing the best and most appropriate short rhyme was to have his dinner paid for by the other two.

Burns wrote as follows:

I Jonnie Peep, Saw two sheep. Two sheep saw me. Half a crown apiece Will pay for their fleece. And I Jonnie Peep go free.

On another occasion while drinking at a Bar a hanger on who was notorious for his much drinking and was dubbed the Marquis, asked Burns to write an appropriate epitaph for his grave stone.

Burns, quick as flash and without any apparent effort, wrote:

Here lies a faulse Marquis: Whose title is shamed If ever he rises It will be to be damned.

TO A MOUSE.

Wee, sleekit, cowrin' tim'rous beastie. Oh, what a panic's in thy breastie! Thou needna start awa' sae hasty. Wi' bickering brattle! I wad be laith to rin and chase thee, Wi murd'ing prattle!

I'm truly sorry man's dominion Has broken nature's social union, And justifies that ill opinion Which makes thee startle At me, thy poor earth-born companion And fellow-mortal!

I doubt na, whiles, but thou may thieve; What then? poor beastie, thou maun live! A daimen icker in a thrave 'S a sma' o' request I'll get a blessin' wi' the lave, And never miss 't!

Thy wee bit housie, too, in ruin! Its silly wa's the win's are strewin'! And naething now to big a new ane O' foggage green! And bleak December's winds ensuin' Baith snell and keen!

Thou saw the fields laid bare and waste And weary winter comin' fast. And cozie here, beneath the blast, Thou thought to dwell; Till, crash! the cruel coulter past Out through thy cell.

That wee bit heap o'leaves and stibble Has cost thee mony a weary nibble! Now thou's turn'd out for a' thy trouble, But house or hauld, To thole the winter's sleety dribble And cranreuch cauld.

But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane, In proving foresight may be vain; The bes laid schemes o' mice and men Gang aft a-gley, And lea 'e us naught but grief and pain For promised joy.

Still thou art blest, compared wi' me! The present only toucheth thee, But, och! I backward cast my ee On prospects drear! And forward, though I canna see, I guess and fear.

ROBERT BURNS.