Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-01-24

And laughed and rollieked the liyelong day.
Thev thought not at all of the " style" of then
clothes.
They never imagined that boys were beaux .
Other girls brothers and mates were they
Splendid fellows to help them play.
Where have they gone to -? Ifyou see
One of them, anywhere. send her TO me.
/ would give medal of purest gold
To one of those dear little girls of old
With an innocent heart and an open smile
Who knows not the meaning Of " firt' OF
style y
! Ella Wheeler in Burlington Hawkeve.
LEARN TRADE, BOYS.
The world is flooded with boys and
young men who mean to get their living
by their wits, or some genteel business.
Let me advise you, boys, to do neither.
First decide what your tastes and abilities
are, then go to work and learn a useful
trade. If Benjamin Franklin had given
his youth and mind to measuring dry
goods, the world would have lost one of its
greatest philosophers If Sir Isaac New
ton had watched his chances to get a
clerkship where his fingers would be I'M
soiled, the world of science would to-day
suffer by his error.
Are you smart at figures? Learn to
survey, and don't give up an inch short OF
the best engineers. Have you mechanical
skill? Learn carpenters or mason's trades.
! You will soil your fingers, but soap and
water are cheap, and plenty, and as an
offset you will expand your minds become
master-wOrkmen, and be the bone and
muscle of the nation.
Have YOU taste for literature, and are
YOU too poor to get an education? Learn
the printers trade, and you can not help
in a few years being learned, and perhaps
the poor ignorant boy of to-day may, in
the prime of manhood, stand at the head
of the largest publishing house in the
United States Learn a trade. No matter
how rich your fathers are, don't depend on
such uncertain capital as money and stocks ;
you have greater wealth than that if
rightly used Rev. Jas. Miller.
QUEER PLACE FOR A BIRDS NEST.
In the spring of 80, as passed through
an orchard in search of birds eggs, my at
tention was attracted by fiuttering in the
grass about a yard in advance of me. |
followed very cautiously, and whenever |
stopped the futtering also discontinued
On entering a field of short grass | saw
that the bird which produced the sound
was little chipping sparrow, which was
endeayoring to entice me away from its nest,
after the manner of a quail or woodcock,
by pretending to be wounded. The birds
cunning failed in this instance. Return
ing to the orchard | retraced my steps, the
grass being quite long, and found the chip
ping sparrow's nest, with three eggs in it,
built directly on top of field mouse's nest,
which was also inhabited, as the little
paths leading in different directions
showed. A week later as l CHANGED to
pass the same orchard, ! bethought myself
of the nest, and on visiting the place saw
the field mouse's nest, and about two yards
from it | found the chipping sparrow's,
with two young birds. How one nest be-
came separated from the other | cannot
tell, except by surprising that the wind had
something to do with it, Charles G.
Truesdell, Syracuse, y. y.
THE RED FIRE-FlsH.
The extraordinary creature known to
foreign residents by the name of red fire
fish, and to the natives of Ceylon by the
title of gini-maha, inhabits the greater
part OF the tropical seas, from Eastern
Africa, through the Indian seas, to Austria
liza.
This fish is remarkable for the singular
development of the dorsal and pectoral
fins, the latter being of such vast proper
tionate size that they were formerly sup
posed to act like the corresponding organs
in the tlying-lish, and to raise the creature
out of the water into the air. Such, how
ever is not the case, for the rays which
carry the connecting strength of bone as
in the true flying fishes, are far too
weak to serve that purpose. Indeed, the
object of this remarkable development is
one of the many mysteries with which the
inquiring zoologist is surrounded, and
which makes his task 50 exhaustlessly
The structure Of the entire skeleton is !
very interesting to comparative anato- |
mists, but is too complicated, and requires I!
too many technical terms to be described i
here
The red fre-iish is common OFF the Cey- |
lonese coast, and is said to be rather val |
liable as an article of food, its flesh being |
very white. firm and nutritious The |
native fishermen hold this species in some !
dread thinking that it can inflict an in !
cufaple wound Win the sharp splneS Whlcn ,
arm its person and stand out so boldly in |
every direction. This idea, however, is .
without any foundation; for, although the
thorny spines may prick the hand deeply /
and painfully, they carry no poison, and
nilict no venomed hurt.
The general color of the red fre-fsh is
barred with darker brown,
md the head is redder than the body.
The huge pectoral and dorsal fins are red
lish brown, crossed with bold bars of
black the ventral fin is black, dotted with
white spots, and the rest of the fins, in
,luding that Of the tail, are light brown,
potted with black. 1t is by no means
arge fish, being generally about seven or
light inches in length. There are nine or
en- species of this genus