Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1859-03-04

hlmSelI Agreeable u CIe lauleS. lie
need not be ashamed of his perplexity.
Washington Irving, in oneof his early
sketches, confesscss that aawell- dressed
lady was an object. perfectly "awful'
to his young Imagination. We were
once acquainted with a gentleman of
distinction in public life, the father of
several accomplished daughters, who
could not, even to his fiftieth year, en-
ter a drawing room when ladies were
present, without painful embarrass-
ment. 1t is certainly good sign in
young man to stand in some awe Of the
beautiful sex. A person of coarse and
vulgar mind, who thinks more Of him
self than his friends think Of him, and
who knows little Of the worth of a good
woman's heart, rushes fearlessly in
where an Irving or an Addison would
fear to tread. After all, what is good
breeding but habitual good nature ,
The simple fact that you 'cish to please
is proof that you possess, or will soon
acquire, the power to do SO. The good
heart and well informed mind will soon
give grace to the demeanor, or will so
abundantly atone for the want Of it
that its absence will never to be no.
ticed.
Besides, the glrls-tha. is, the most
of them-like man who is simple in
his manners, provided they see that
there is substance and worth in him.
Graceful manners and ready wit are
! good as far as they go. But be sure of
this, O bashful, blushing youth, that,
both in the society Of ladies and Of
men, you will pass, in the long run, for
what you are worth-no less. The art
of pleasing, therefore, is nothing more
than the art Of becoming an honest,
kind, intelligent, and high-minded
nan. Such man, be he graceful as
, Chesterfield or awkward as Caliban, all
worthy women trust and love.
AN INCH OF RAIN ON THE ATLANTIC.
Lieut.. Maury thus computes the eff
feet of a single inch of rain falling on
the Atlantic ocean-the Atlantic ocean
includes an area of twenty FIVE millions
! of square miles. Suppose an inch of
rain to fall upon only one-ffth Of this
vast cxpanse. 1t would weigh, says our
author, $50, 100000 tons and the
salt which, as water, it held in solution
, in the sea, and which, when the water
was taken up as vapor, was left behind
to disturb equilibrium, weighed 49,
900, 900 more tons, or nearly twice as
much as all the ships in the world
! could carry at cargo each 1t might
fall in an hour, or it might fall in a
day !; but, occupy what time it might
in falling, this rainis calculated to ex-
ert 50 much force-which is inconceiv-
! ably great,-in disturbing the equilibri-
, UNI Of the ocean. If all the water dis
! ! charged by the Mississippi river in one
: Year were taken up in one mighty
measure, and cast into the ocean at
, one effort it would not make greater
. disturbance in the equilibrium Of the
ocean than would be the fall Of the
: rain supposed.
CURIOUS FAcTs.-The barking of
, dogs is an acquired hereditary instinct,
supposed to have originated in an at
t tempt to initiate the human voice. Wild
dogs and domestic breeds become wild,
never bark but howl. r Cats which so
disturb civilized communities by their
midnight "caterwaul,'' in the wild state
in South America aye quite silent.
The hair of the negro is not wool,
/ but curled and twisted hair. The dis
tinction between hair and wool is clear
/ ly revealed by the microscope.
The dark races have less nervous
}, sensibility than the white. They are
not subject to nervous diseases. They
sleep sound in every disease, nor does
any mental disturbance keep them
awake. They bear chirurgical opera
lions much better than white people.
|. Animalcules have been discovered so
small that one million could not exceed
grain of sand and five hundred mil
lion would sport in drop Of water -
Yet each Of these must have blood-ves-
sells. nerves, circulating fluids, etc.,
like large animals.
TEMPER -The temper Of mankind
is so inconstant that, he who to-day
loads us with caresses, may tomorrow
conceive for us a hatred which breathes
nothing but our ruin; so that the con-
fdence we have placed in a person,
whom VIC consider as valuable friend,
may one day, when his sentiments for
us change, forge those words which we
have incautiously entrusted him with in
to arrows that deeply wound us. The
daily experience this world affords US
admits no doubt Of the truth Of this
observation. However great our friend
ship or esteem may be of any man,
prudence directs to be cautious, and to
make our own bosoms only the reposi-
tory Of the latent secrets Of our hearts
The old proyerb truly says, "The words
Of the wise man lie at the root of his
tongue but those Of a fool play on
the tip Of IT'D
MAN.-Like God-created, fire.
breathing spirit we emerge from
the inane; haste stormfully across the
astonished earth, then plunge again in
to the inane. Eanh's mountains are
levelled, and her seas filed up in our
passage. Can the earth, which is but
dead and vision, resist spirits which
have reality and are alive? On the
hardest adamant some footprint Of us
is stamped in the last rear of the host