The weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1852-1858, 1852-07-10

HOME AND WoMAN.-Our homes, wha
is their cornerstone but the virtue or wo
man, and on what does social well-beins
rest but our homes? Must we not trac,
all other blessings of civilized life to tn,
doors OF our private dwellings? Ar,
not our hearthstones guarded by the hol,
forms of conjugal, filial, and parental love
the cornerstone of Church and State
more sacred than either, more necessary
than both? Let our temple crumblc, ant
our academies decay let every public ed.
ifice, our halls of justice, our captols Of
State be leveled with the dust, but spar,
our homes. Man did not invent, and h,
cannot improve or abrogate them. A pri
vate shelter to cover in two hearts dear.
er to each other, than all in the world
high walls to exclude the profane eyes Of
every human being; seclusion enough fol
children to feel that mother is holy ant
peculiar name-this is home and here i.
the birthplace of every virtuous impulse
of overy sacred thought. Here the
kChurch and the State must come for theil
support. Oh! spare our homes! The
love we experience there gives aaus our
faith in infinite goodness; the purity and
r 8disinterested tenderness of home is our
forecaste and our earnest of better
world. In the relations there established
and fostered, do we find through life the
chief solace and joy Of existence. What
Friends deserve the name compared with
those whom birthright gives us. One
mother is worth thousand friends; one
sister dcarer and truer than twenty init
mate companions. We who have played
on the same hearth, under the light of the
same smile, who date back to the same
scene and season of innocence and hope,
in whose veins runs the same blood, do
we not find that years only make more
sacred and important the tic that binds us ?
GOODNESS may spring up, distance may
separate, different spheres may divide
but those who can love anything, who con-
tinue TO love at all, must find that the
friends whom God hims elf gave, are Who'll
: ly unlike any we can choose for ourselves,
and that yearning for these is the strong
est spark in our expiring Affection
Christian Inquirer.
FEEDING THE PIGEONS IN VENICE
The following extract from recent letter
by Mr.. Weed describes curious GUS
tom:
"At two o'clock we returned to the
Square to witness the novel and inter-
|esting ceremony of Feeding the Pigeons. I
Hundreds of people had collected with
the same object. The pigeons or doves
Iwere coming in from all directions and
lalighting about the windows and cor
nices of a marble palace, where they sat
Igravely till the first sound of the clock of
San Marco striking the hour of two was
heard, when the whole flock simultane-
ously settled down upon the pavement
under the window from which the seed
/ was thrown, and from which they have
been fed, at the same moment every day
from period SO remote that tho memo
Try of man runneth not to the contrary
"To-day we went again 10 the same
place. The pigeons began to collect al
quarter before two, evidently as intent
upon their dinners as the same number
of children or children of a larger growth /
would have been. Other bells sounded al
few minutes before, but not dove moved
until the hammer was heard on the clock
of San Marco, when instantly every wing
was spread and the flock again settled to
the pavement. While busily picking up|
their food, a dog gambolled round amongst
them, and children walked into the ring,
without disturbing them at all.
"Some say that the Government pro-
|vides the food for the doves. Others say
that lady, centuries ago, provided in her
Twill for the feeding Of the pigeons; but
none know when or why the practice
originated"
The Boston Journal says that DR.. E
Pratt processes to have accomplished a
desideratum in steam enginery-name-
|ly, paddle wheels that have no back wa
|ter-the advantage of which is great
acquisition of propelling power. The
|contrivance is simple enough; the intro
|duction of two eccentric wheels in the
paddle, connecting by rods placed hori-
|zontally ingrooves at the arms, and fric-
|tion roller at each end. In making the
revolutions the floats are in turn raised
out of the water perpendicularly under
the shaft, and let down again when re-
|quired for propulsion. In this way back
water is done away with, and no difficult
|ty can arise from the clogging of tn,
wheels by the ice or driftwood. A slight
alteration in the form of the circles is all
that is required to dip the floats in the
water at any point that may be required,
say an angle Of 45 degrees.
Pretty FAIR.-A Portland cores
pondent of the New York Commercial
advertiser, tells the following anecdote Of
Gov. Hubbard, of Maine, under whose
administration the Maine Liquor Law
was enacted, and who felt constrained to
sign the bill:
His personal predictions were alto
gether on the other side, and they impute