The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-09-24

brief and soon at an end. After day or two
they seem TO have sown heir Wild oats, and If
luck has favored them SO as to escape the taou-
sand voracious enemies that lie every where in
wait, or prowl about to prey upon their youth 4
and want OF experience, they finally settle .
down upon some suitable restngDlace, stone 4
or branch, and become steady domestic 4
oysters. But how fe v of them reach the goal I
when they start from their mothers cafe home, i
they count nearly a million; before they can
fLd new babitatioI, at least nins-tenths of
their number have pershed
After they have attached themselves by means
OF a Rlutinous substance, with which provldeut
Nature has endowed them, to some permanent
place on what is called q good spattiug-
GROUND, the little wings, nop useless, gradually
dwindle and shrink, until they disappear,
like the tail of tadpolo when IL changes
inte the tull-grown frog. Then thev begin to
grow, slowly, like all good things of this earth,
from the size of Plus head, at two weeks,
to that of pea, at three months; when
they are year old they are perhaps as large as
small lady's watch, and at the age OF FIVE
years they are In their prime The she'll re
mains frail aud tender until they reach the size
OF that rare coin, an American dollar, but is
hard and complete when they become ht for the
table, which is in their fourth year. As that
time, they are rudely torn from their native bed
by terrible iron prongs TO which they yield
with philosophic resignation, and are carried
upresisting TO busy cities and the hum of
crowds Ii they should rscage the oluttony of
man, they die at the appointed time, leaving
their SHE'LL thickened by old age, and adorned
with rings which sbo " their years like the rings
OF u tree, 10 serve as monument Tor times TO
come, and TO add, with millions Of their kind a
new laver to the crust OF the earth.
Such is their life, simple, and unromautic, but
by no means as void OF enjoyment as we are apt
to imagine. There are countless sueers at the
poor tmmovable oyster to be found in poet and
prose writer, as If TO be in perpetual motion was
to be the perfection of happiness. The oyster
has Its time OF merry wandering. when it
is young ; but 1t remembers, by times, that
a rolling stone gathers no moss, and settles
down quietly inis cool, pleasant home.
An oyster-bed In the sunny sea is the concen.
tration OF uDoisturbed happiness. The countless
creatures congregated there may seem to be
dormant, bat we are sure they lead each the
beatided existence of an epicurean god. The
world without does not trouble them; Its cares
and joys, it's storms aud cams, its passions and
SINS are all indifferent to the unheeding oyster.
Apparently unobservapt OF what passes around,
lis whole soul is concentrated In ITSELF and
like the sublime sage OF the East in his own
word ON, the oyster finds bliss in simple ex-
istence. And yet 1t does not enjoy itself slug
gishly or alphabetically; its pleasures are neither
few nor UNMARRIED, for its body is throbbing
with lie and thousand sources of enjoyment.
The performance OF every function with which
the Creator has endowed them-and we know
not yet half their number-brlpgs gs with it as
much happiness as they are capable Of ENJOYING.
The mighty ocean itself is subservieut to their
pleasure ana 3 its rolling waves Tait % ever fresh
and varied food Within their reach, They have
no care for the morning, tor He who feeds the
youpg lions provides an abundance or their
wants. they need no effort, no labor, for the
doors. Besides, each atom of water that comes
In contact with their delicate, sensitive gills,
sets free its imprisoned air to freshen and in
yigolate their pellucid blood. Nor can we doubt
that the gentle agitation OF the water as it flows
around them, the equal temperature of the
ocean, varying only from one degree of
peasantness to another the act of i'm
bibiDg the fluid and softly expeling again
what is not required for breathing, that
all these charges, increasingly affecting their
tender substance, afford them both whole
ph nj apnns ont No
little suspect, when looking at the rough shell
and the shapeless mass within, how beautiful
the structure of the animal is, aud at how
many countless poin's 1t is susceptible to in
huences from the outer world. But if we put
an oyster into vivarium, and then aid our
feeble sight by the inventions of science, we
are struck at once by the millions of tiny hairs,
CHA, which now are seen to vibrate necessarily,
and to keep time most maryellously, as they
beat on every hbre Of each irineing leaaet
hands of the greet LeeuW" "nhoeck made him
exclaim with amazement;-"Them motion / saw
was so incredibly great that could not be
satisfied with the spectacle, and it is not in
the mind OF man to conceive all the motion
which beheld within the compass of grain
of sand;" and yet his unframed eye saw but a
titbe OF what is now kno wn to careful observers
Well may we marvel, and adore the sublime
goodness which devised all this elaborate and
inimitable contriyance for the well being of
despsed shellhsh.
We take the following from "Louis Napo-
leon and mis- Empire" in the same magazne:-
To the stranger who for pleasure or business,
possesses rapidly from one country to another,
France wears beautiful mask. We Americaos,
especially, who come nom the land par excellence
OF railway and steamboat accidents aud dusky
stations, contemplate with wonder the regu-
larity, the comfort, and the rapidIty of the
french railway system; we, who read every
morning, when we are at home, OF daring
burglaries, OF the commission of crime in
hundred forms, are struck with the perfect
order OF the French cities, the surprising and
mysterious control of the police, and the rarity
OF those violations of law SO common with us;
we see with delight the sparkle of Partisan
society, the grandeur of Partisan streets and
monuments, the wealth of the Parisian world,
the bright and unanxious semblauce of pros
perlty which pervades almost every quarter of
the French metropolis. Passing beyond
Paris, we are yet more charmed to note every.
where the same cheerful and thrifty aspect;
there are fields with their golden burdens Of
wheat and corn, manufacturing towns bustliAg
Wilh occupation, quiet, sunny little villages
lying peacefully along the river. sides, where all
and miseries OF mans lot seem never to have
penetrated; stately cathedral towns, with their
famous memories. seemingly indOlent, prospe-
rous, ignorant OF want, apparently reVelllng in
complete sufficiency. Here, everywhere, all
is order, security, peace, content. France seems,
In some places, TO be resting from the turmoils
OF the past seventy years; in other places, to
nave reused herself, and to be seiZing the op-
portunlty which orderly government has pro.
Vlded, TO enrich herself and to rival the indus
trial progress of the Anglo-SaXon racea. Her
harbors you will find full OF ships; her
thrifty cullivation; her vineyards, in autumn,
groanng under the prolific yield of their pre-
clous fruit. You are surprised to find such
apparent prosperity everywhere. such order in