Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1851-05-28
NUTS FOR GRAMMARIAEs.


The Boston Transcript publishes "a con-
versation between young lady who writes
for the magazines and an old gentleman
who can speak English"
Old Gentleman there any houses
building in your village"
Young Lady.-"No, sir. There is new
house being built for Mr.. Smith, but it is
the carpenters who are building"
Old Gentleman. -"True sit corrected.
To be building is certainly different thing
from to be being built; and how long has
Mr.. Smiths house been being built?
Young Ladu.--(Looks puzzled mo-
ment, and then answers rather abruptly.
"Nearly year"
Old Gentleman.-"How much longer do
YOU think it will be being built"
Young Lady.-(ExplOsively.) 81 don't
know"
Old Gentleman.-"I should think Mr..
Smith would be annoyed by its being SO
long being built, for the house he now oc-
cupies being old, he must leave it, and the
new one being only being built, instead Of
being built as he expected, he cannot
The young lady leaves the room very sud-
denly.
We think it quite time that the innova-
ton or affectation rebuked by our intelli-
gent correspondent IN our columns some
weeks ago, and reproved in the above Gnu"
were abandoned. "Being built does not
express progress in building. A house 'be-
ing built' is house already built. Put
into Latin, it is eristente erecto. We say
for instance, "John sold his land to Peter
house being built on the land )" or, if
house be in the process of erection, we say
"a house being, at the time, building on the
premises" This is English. 1t means in
building, or on building. The proposition
is often supplied by the use OF the article a
Thus St. Peter says, "when the temple wa.
a building in jerusalem" Throw "belne
built" to the hypercritics.
As- Sleeping after dinner is a bad prac
tice. On awaking from such indulgence
there is generally some degree of febrilt
excitement, in consequence of the latte
stages of digestion being hurried on; 1t i
only useful in old people, and in some ca
ses of disease. Sleep becomes WHOLESOME
only to the healthy when taken at thos
hours pointed out by nature; an excess
Il produces lassitude and corpulency, AM
utterly debases and Supplies the mind.-
Corp6lent people should sleep little upo
hard beds, while they should take abun
dance of exercise and live abstemiously
that their unhealthy bulk may be reduced
DR.. Conbe.
AvAtANcHEs.-The Swiss journals al
, filled with details of the numerous avalancf
es occasioned by the mildness Of the winte
The Gazette de Schwit says that at Schss
cbeutal, in the canton of Uri, vast ava
lanche has overwhelmed forest, and sweE
away FIVE houses, which were fortunatel
, uninhabited. The band says that 1t is III
, possible to give any idea OF the mass
snow which fell from the 22nd to the 23l
I of March on the road to st. Gotnard. III
whole space between Andermalt and Ho
pital a full half league, is covered by =
avalanche which now resembles vast 81
cier. The snow in many parts is 20, !
! and even go feet deep.
d ID It appears that tunnels can be MAJ
t cheaper now than formerly, as steam drll
Y are used, which enter the solid granite
, the rate of sixteen feet per day, instead
v the old fashioned hand drills, which cou
only enter few inches. The tunnel OF t
: Nerthe, IN France, three miles in leng'
r six hundred feet under ground, and c
n through solid rock, cost, it is said, about S!
IS 100000.