The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1856-10-23

called upon very straight-laced member of
the congregation, who was expected to subscribe
Literally. The amount put down disappointed
them, and they told him so. "Oh," said he,
It's quite enough; as much as you've got
anywhere else" "Nsy," was the reply, d
has given double the sunni" $50 he should.n
rejolned our ready hero, "he goes twice as
much as doin
PHILOPENA-A- correspondent of the Tam.
ton Gazette writes from Berlin the following
account of this game, as practiced among the
Germans:
here, when couple exchange philopenas.
the object of each is not mainly to be the first
TO pronounce the common word at the next
meeting, but with the exchange the sport has
but begun. The after object of each is to
draw the other into accepting some offer; and
if that is done, the word philopena' is spoken,
and forfeit required. To illustrate it better
by example:
A and B exchange philopenas at a party,
and in few days after, A calls upon B at his
or her house. Il, instead of waiting to be
asked in, enters Just before the invitation ia
gwen II offered chair, takes seat on the
sofa II presses the butter to A at the table.
A takes cheese instead, and so on, ALWAYS ia,
king care to accept nothing, but in a quiet way
endeavoring to force the other party into &C
ceptance of some offer on his own side.
:" III, at that visit, either is successful he i'm.
mediately says philopena; but, if both should
always be on their guard, the thing may pass
On to subsequent occasion. The reader will
instantly see how preferable this method ia to
our own, where oftentimes there is rude haste
exhibited to be the first to speak, and where
the person who has the least on his mind is
generally successful"
REMARKABLE COURAGE AND PRESENCE OF
MIND.-The following story is told by the AL
bany Times, which gets its particulars from a
gentleman connected with the Hudson and
Boston railroad. The informant of the Times
says that boy employed in subordinate
capacity about the engine-house, on this oc-
casion, undertook to adjust switch for train
being driven by one of the fremen. By some
means his foot was caught in some portion of
the track, and before he could extricate it the
locomotive passed over and crushed it almost
entirely off below the ankle. The fireman was
so alarmed that he sprang from the engine
without shutting off the steam, and ran for a
physician. Seeing the train moving on with
no one to direct it, the injured boy got up on
one foot, aud dragged the mangled remains of
the other till he reached the locomotive, then
Crawled aboard, shut eff the steam made all
secure, and sat down, where he was found,
greatly to the surprise of the returning fireman.
Ether was administered at once, and the foot
amputated before he was conscious of the fact.
He is now doing well.
BEARDLEss BARLEY. We have received
from j. w. Briggs, of West Macedon, Wayne
county, New York, a few heads of barley with
out boards, and which aa accompanying note
informs us was originally discovered in the
valleys OF the Himalayan mountains. Wher
ever it originated, it is certain that the speci
mems before us entirely wanting in "those
annoying and poisonous boards attached to all
our common varieties" Mr.. Briggs informs
US that he obtained seven grains Of the new
variety a few years ago, and being much pleased
with Its general appearance-being, we pre-
sumo, an anti moustache and "Pro-Shavery "
man-spared no pains to multiply it Gas fast
as the Shanghais and other birds would allow"
That his experiment succeeded, would appear
from the fact that any person who will send
him their address, with one postage stamp, will
receive from him one head of barley, contain
ing from thirty to sixty grains. Mr.. Briggs is
very DESTROYS of having this remarkable grain
thoroughly tested, and hopes that every grow
er of barley in the country will at least give
1t a trial.-Phitadetphia Bulletin, Oct. 2.
AN INCIDENT IN THE LIFE OF PoET.-When
William Cullen Bryant wrote, thirty-six years
ago, what is esteemed to be his masterpiece
"Thanatopsis," and in which poem be speaks
of the magnificent river Columbia, or, as it was
them called, "Oregon," he little dreamed that
it would ever be read in q public assembly, on
the very spot Astoria where first the axe of
the woodman broke the stiffness of the wilds
and forests of those shores. Yet such is the
fact, as we see by the Oregonian papers that
Mr.. Stephen c. Massett has been reading
there, with marked favor, in his selections from
different authors, this gem of the great Ameri-
can poet