The Belmont chronicle, and farmers, mechanics and manufacturers advocate. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1848-1855, 1854-04-07

They seem to beat the time to some myste
rious marching music. Strength is magnif
Gently shown; no labor will better test the
thews and sinews of man. The same ir.
describable JOY arises from the simultaneous
steady movement that pulsates out from the
heavy tread Of marching men, and the sym.
metricsl involutions of hall of dancers
And there is rapid and continual progress.
| Abundant conditions of excitement are in the
operations Of band Of mowers. If strength,
action, rhythm, simultaneity, and success, in
concrete and vivid presentation, will not stir
pulses Of deep pleasure in mans soul, be
should be kicked out of decent society as an
undoubted treasoner and incendiary, or sent
to the School fer the Training and Teaching
of Idiots, as pitiabe instance of that anti
climax Of mental negation which two higher
degrees are (see DR.. s. G.. Howe's Reports)
simpeton and fool--as a fully undeveloped
idiot.
Away go the mowers, halfway round the
field; and now they stand erect, and the ring
ing reduplcating clash of the milestone
comes back upon their steps. But too must
perform my office. With ardor l inquire,
like the revolutionary orator, "Why stand we
here idle!" and with "peaked stick" | des-
cend in fury upon the slain. The red-top and
daises are tossed abroad upon the four winds;
and with an ennobling consciousness Of pow
er, and working out certain dim conceptions
Of grand military march, by brandishing my
stick IN unison with the alienation of ad-
vancing steps, sweep up and down the field
in centriiugacious halo of scattered grami-
nee, feeling, as nearly as can judge, very
mach like cyclone.
But over what tremendous volcanoes Of
thiny covered agonies and ho-rid throes of
pain are all hollow human Civilizations enact
ed! In the midst of my stormful march, a
frghtful dart of Eblis, sharp sudden stroke,
precpitated as by diabolcal propulsion from
some far distant sphere of malignant wrath,
smtes me full upon the forehead. A Shrek
ing dphthongal OU! and a lofty eatrechat
are the involuntary introductories of my debut
as "Le danseur malgre lui." Several millions
Of minute yellow devils, with black stripes
and "voice and hideous hum," stimulate me
into an inconceivably rapid and intricate war
dance, accompanied by solo obligato upon
the human voice. have, in short, trodden
upon yellow hornets nest. The Briarean
evolutions of my hands knock off my hat An
enterprising "brd' forthwith ehsconces him
self among my locks, and proceeds to harpoon
me at his leisure. l seem to scrub out every
hair, such Is the prompttude and velocity of
the friction which apply. But l despair Of
maintaining my position, the enemy having
made odgment within the citadel. | run
as nobody ever ran before, and suddenly turn
and flee at Il sharp angle to my first course,
n order that the momentum of my foes may
throw them off my track. Bat they turn as
quickly as |, sticking much cljser than either
u friend or brother would do. | see the
brook before me, go headforemast, splash!
into deep hole, where stumble; fall, choke,
and am picked out by the mowers, who are
nearly helpless with laughter. | have swal-
lowed several quarts of warm brook-water,
screeched until cannot whisper, expended
more strength and breath than it seems pos
sble that should ever recover; have endur-
ed and am enduring more pain than ten hy-
drophobacs; and with one eye fast shut and
sweled into hard red lump OF agony, and
sundry abnormal" Organs" extemporizng cram
ial evidence of u most unsymmetrcal charac-
ter, lie helpless, blind, soppng, and sobbing
in a swarth of fresh, cool, green grass, until
time, salt, and plantain leaves assuage most
OF the pain. know what hornets are, at
least in their foreign relations; but the single
item of knowledge is no equivalent for the
difficulties under which it was pursued. What
fends they are! Did the Iuquistion ever try
hornets on any particularly refractory captive!
Soon comes the dinner time, indicated TO
the observant farmers, by the proportions of
shadow and sunlight, upon the roof of u cer-
tain barn. We made nest in bushes and
long grass, within the shadow of great trees,
and squatted Turk-like around service of tix
crockery, brown paper aud bark, whereoh
were displayed salt beef, cold bQ.ited potatoes
| bread and butter, and specimen of rye GIN
gerbread, which, for weight and tenacity
/ might be mass Of native copper, from Lake
Superior. The food disappears rapidly, under
the direction OF jack knives and one -pronged
/ forks, whitfield from sticks. The jug clucks
and .;huck.es to the affectionate kisses of the
thirsty workmsn, and much refreshed, they
take short "nooning" to tell stories, goss
or sleep, and 60 to work again. a.
l. Haymakers cure in the afternoon what they
kill in the morning At two or three o'clocl
the moving ceases, and the raking begins
In this operation, the weakest goes first
the strongest man may take the heaviest ra
king; SO am ct oBicio leader. must fal
smartly to, to keep ahead, or my resr-ranI
man will rake my heels off; and for a while
| 20 bravely on. But the peculiar hold, ant
sliding manipulation OF the "rake's-tail'' sooT
tell on my city-bred hands. The insides o
my thumbs, and the space between them ant
: my fingers, is first red and then raw; and b!
the time that the grass lies in wnrews,
have done enough. Before sunset the win
rows are rolled into cocks. which are shape'
conewne, and skllfully shingle.aid for shed
, ding OF raini aud with small load Of new
, hay, hastily pitched upon the cart, for imme
date use, We return home. ... ,. ... .a
Close alter sunset is milking; after milk
ing supper; after supper, prayers; and aite
prayers, sleepi which, indeed, had made a
Eruption from its legitimate domain, in tn
= ch.mhara ahnya and Ia XII n0 me "A. n disAJ