The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1897-10-08

What kind Of wood is the strongest
and will boar tho greatest burden
What kind is the most elastic
What kind the hardest to split ?
What kind will last the longest in
the ground! What kind most suit
able for pianos, chairs, furniture or
wainscotingP What kind for mauls
or wedges or canesp DR.. Oliver
Holmes must have studied all about
these when he wrote the Zone Hoss
Shay"
$50 the deacon Inquired of the village
folk
| Where he could find the strongest oak
| That, ,scouldn't be split nor bent nor
broke;
That was for spokes and floor and sills;
He sent for lancewood to make the
thills;
The crossbars were ash from straight
eat trees;
The panels were white wood that cuts
like cheese,
And the hubs of logs from the settlers
elm"
But perhaps DR.. Holmes got it all
from some old honest wagon maker,
for they know. I'll bet that Mr..
Bradley, of our town, can answer
every question. The boys ought to
find out that black locust and chest
nut and Usage orange make the best
posts, and black gum the best hubs,
and persimmon the best wedges or
gluts, and sassafras the best bows,
and white oak tho best baskets. In
England it is claimed that a yew
tree post will last longer than an
iron one. The boys ought to know
that the barks of all trees are non
conductors Of heat and cold and
keep them cool in summer and warm
in winter, and the green leaves are
the lungs that inhale tho carbon
from the air and not only make
wood for the tree, but purify the at
mosphere that we breathe. And
hence every habitation ought to
have some trees about it, The boys
ought to know about those beautiful
islands in the sea that are of coral
formation and kept growing until
they got above the water, and then
some cocoanuts came floating along
and lodged there and sprouted and
grew and the leaves of the trees fell
down and rotted and made soil for
more cocoanuts, and in course of
time the island became paradise.
That is the testimony of the rocks.
The boys should watch the little
gassomer ball that floats away in the
air from the sweet little dandelion
plant. So light and 80 feathery that
it would take thousand of them to
weigh an ounce and yet the seed are
there for moro plants and they are
wrapped, as it were, in a blanket to
protect them from the winters cold
So it is with the seed of the Scotch
thistle that is blown about by q
breath of air like it was nothing, but
it has the germ, the embryo of life
in it, and will find a lodging place
somewhere and sleep until spring,
and then make no mistake. 1t will
not como up a dandelion, but will
surely make a thistle. In tho horti-
cultural gardens at London are rasp-
berry plants that came from seed
found in mans stomach who had
been buried 1,7O0 years
Study nature a little as you go
along, boys, and it will make you
visor and better and happier men.
Find out why it is that dead bird
weighs more than live one and by
what forco or power a buzzard can
sail round and round in the air
above you and never bat a wing nor
wave a feather.
1t isent every boy who can be
Ben Franklin, but every boy can
learn something every day, and even
one fact day will in course of time
make him q wise man. What boy
was Franklin! What man! The
youngest of seventeen children, ap-
prenticed to candle maker, next to
a printer; ran away from Boston to
Philadelphia when seventeen years
old and hired to Mr. Read, and
fell in love with Deborah, his daugh-
ter; was never idle; read and studied
in every leisure moment; mastered
French, Italian, Spanish and Latin;
became postmaster Of Philadelphia,
then postmaster general of all the
colonies; established tho Philadel.
phia library, the Philosophical So