, 1881-05-20
About The Presidents.

| Washington survived his retirement a
| little less than three years, which were
| spent at Mount Vernon. He attended to
his plantation, carried on large cores
! prudence, and received many visitors,
and yet this was the only leisure his
busy life afforded. John Adams sur
viYed his office twenty-six years which
We're spent at Quincy, his native place,
in close retirement. He improved the
| leisure to publish his political letters,
and IN his eighty-siXth year sat at the
Massachusetts constitutional convention.
| Thomas Jefferson, on the close of his
| Presidential career, retired to his resi-
| dence at Monticello, he Was visited by
many distinguished men, the chief Of
whom was La Fayette. His residence is
| still an object of great interest to the
| tourist, ana Is remarkable for the grand
prospect. AS is well-known, he and
John Adams died on the same day the
4th of July, 1926.
Madison was poor when he left the
Presidential office, and on returning to
Montpelier, he became president of an
agricultural society. To aid him at this
time of privation, Congress purchased
his library, Monroe also retired poor,
and resumed his residence at Oak Hill,
Virginia, where he became justice of the
peace. and afterward moved to New York
to live with his son-in-law, at whose
house he died in 1881.
John Quincy Adams was the most ac-
tive of all the retired Presidents. He
was returned to Congress in 1881, two
years after leaving the Presidency, and
this service he continued until his death
seventeen years afterward. His services
to the cause of liberty at this time were
OF the most valuable and sublime char
acter. and he died at his post, in the
Capitol, being then in his eighty-irst
year. jackson survived his retirement
from the Presidency nine years, which
were peacefully passed at the Hermitage.
His favorite pursuit was farming and
raising of fine horses. Van Buren, after
the close of his office, appeared as a free
soil candidate. On the close of that can
vas he became close resident at Kinder
hook, where he died in his eightieth year.
Pierce sank into obscurity after the close
of his office, and died i'll 1863
The youngest of our Presidents at the
time of Inauguration was Grant who was
forty-six. The oldest Was Harrison, who
was sixty-seven. Our military heroes
We're chiefly advanced in years, Jackson
being sixty-twO, and Taylor sixty five.
The average of those to whom reference
has been made is fifty-seven, which is
the best period for ripe Judgments
time when experience unfOlds its les
sons unimpaired by the weakness of age.
How CAK WHEELS ARE KEPT ON.-Car
wheels are now kept in their place with
out being keyed on. In former times
they We're almost sure to precipitate an
accident; besides, keys would drop out
by the constant jar and be weakened by
the axles and wheels. Axles are turned
TO fit the wheel snugly and are driven in
place by hydraulic pressure Previous
to being driven the axles are covered with
a thin coat of white lead and oil, which
hardens in a short time and holds the
wheel so firIaly in place that a press sure
of from 100 to 40 tons is required to re-
move a broken axle from the wheel in
which il is placed.