sible development of purely physical health, strength and vigor. The child of a laborer inherits, in all probability, a good, sturdy constitution. His muscles are well developed, but his nervous system is not very fine or quick. It may be hard, therefore, for such a child to sit still, and difficult at first for him to learn; but when once he has got anything fairly into his mind it will be equally hard to get it out again. His memory holds like a vige all he has once acquired, and he applies it to everything. On the other hand, the child of some nervous, novel-devouring parent, who cultivates every shade of sentiment and idea, will probably have a keen and quick nervous system, with a poor, pale, physical development. If that child is sent to a forcing school, and excited from six to seventeen, on nothing but intellectual studies, he or she may be the head of the class, but all such cannot fairly run the race of hard study with the lad that runs about unrestrained from six to ten miles every day, and works hard or plays hard every bit of time not in school. The fear of spoiling nice clothes, and not being refined in hands, feet and company, is murdering the innocents, and preventing them from having strength of mind by the want of strength of body, and preparing them for consumption, dyspepsia, bronchitis, lunacy, or a sort of half life, for the rest of their days. The rich have their children taught riding on horseback, and in England, hunting, shooting, fishing, fencing, and so prevent these evils, which the poor boy averts by stockingless feet and heavy exercise. But none are so unfortunate as those classes, who, imitating the rich in clothes and intellectual education, fall wofully behind both rich and poor in the development and culture of the body; whose lungs are not educated and expanded daily, and whose stomachs are folded up dyspeptically, while their brains are overtasked.-Public Ledger. THE BAREFOOT BOY. Blessings on the little man, How the robin feeds her young, Quick and treacherous sands of sin. From the Living Age. THEY SAY. They say-ah, well! suppose they do! To speak of all the best you can? They say well, if it should be so, Men's lives should be like the day, more beautiful in the evening, or, like the summer, aglow with promise, and autumn, rich with golden sheaves where good works and deeds have ripened on the field. For Friends' Intelligencer. Will the Editor of "The Friends' Intelligencer" please insert the following appeal for the dumb from the "Country Gentleman," an agricultural paper, published in Albany? A gentleman suggests, in regard to meat brought from the West, that by placing it in a close box, and surrounding it with cloths saturated with a constant stream of water, the quick motion of the car, with the air playing upon nearly the whole of the surface, it would be kept at a low temperature by evaporation,-and thus bring to an end the cruelties practised by the present mode of transporting cattle to the East. HUMANITAS. CRUELTY TO ANIMALS IN TRANSIT. "Three ladies, now on a western tour, write to the Country Gentleman,' begging its investigation of a subject that ought long ago to have received the attention of men,-namely, the cruelty practised upon animals sent east ward on the railroads. They are iuformed that stock, closely packed in the cars, frequently remain so, without food or water or opportunity for change of posture, in the insufferably hot weather of the dog days, as at other periods of the year, for from twenty-four to sixty hours on the stretch! the feverish and unwholesome internal condition and external bruises, to which they have been subjected, they cannot make proper food for human consumption. No one knows how much disease exists, that might be prevented, with greater care to insure all articles of diet in fit condition; but, while we frequently hear of complaints about bad and stale vegetables, much less is said with reference to the no less important subject of meats,-except when they become notoriously offensive." AN EXTRAORDINARY WILL CASE. One of the most remarkable cases on record destined to rank high among the Causes Célèbres, is now the talk of Boston. The evidence, taken before examiners some months since, but only just published, fills a large volume of a thousand pages. The amount involved exceeds a million of dollars. The arguments in the case-before the United States Circuit Court, Justice Clifford presiding-commenced last Friday. It is a suit in equity, brought by Hetty H. Robinson against Thomas Mandell and others. Miss Robinson (now Mrs. Green) was, previous to her marriage, one of the richest, if not the richest, spinster in the United States; her property, which she inherited from "We have alluded to the subject before, and her father, was commonly reputed to be worth the result of the movement has been the passage $5,000,000. It appears that her aunt, Miss of a law in this State, compelling trains to be Sylvia Ann Howland, who died in 1865, left a stopped at the necessary intervals, or the stock, will bearing date September, 1863, and a codicil if necessary, to be unshipped, to afford them executed in 1864. By this will and codicil Miss food, water, and rest from the constant jolting Howland disposed of about $700,000 in private when in motion. The legislative authorities of legacies, the largest, of $200,000, to Thomas Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, should imitate the Mandell, her lawyer, we believe; $115,000 to example as promptly as possible, as well as those her physician, Dr. Gordon, and from $4,000 to in Pennsylvania and Maryland, through which $15,000 to each person in her employment. other leading lines are largely engaged in the She left, also, $340,000 for public and charitransportation of animals. On the Baltimore table purposes, of which the City of Newand Ohio Railroad, we saw this season a train Bedford, where she resided, was to receive $320,laden closely with hogs, for which the only re- 000. The residue of her estate, amounting, it freshment allowed was a very imperfect deluge is said, to about a million, was to be placed in of water, at the way station, occasionally, from trust, the income to be paid to Miss Robinson the spout used in replenishing the engines. during her life; the principal, on her decease, There were no conveniences for accomplishing to go to some of the testator's relatives. Miss even this in a satisfactory way; the water Robinson contests her aunt's will. This is, in poured out about as fast as it went in, so that itself, remarkable enough, seeing that the young very few of the crowded animals could get at it lady, already the possessor of millions, is entiat all. It was really pitiful to see them thrust-tled, under it, to an annuity that would add ing their panting snouts out, between the bars of their enclosure, in the vain hope of catching a few drops of the welcome shower; and one of the attendants remarked they would be pretty much all lard by the time they got to Philadel phia, a statement not overdrawn, as any spectator would confess. "It is not alone humanity which would lead to greater regard for the comfort and health of the stock coming forward to the eastern markets; but, slaughtered as it generally is, without affording the animals any time to recover from some $60,000 or $70,00 to her annual income. What she contends for is the whole of her aunt's estate, in fee, supposed to be worth about two millions. The ground upon which she contests the above will and codicil is noteworthy. It seems that Miss Howland had quarreled with her brother-in-law, the father of Miss Robinson, and being resolved, if possible, to exclude him from all share not only of her own property, but of his daughter's also, she proposed, about September, 1860, to her niece, then about twenty three years old, that if she (Miss Robinson) | deliberate purpose to make them so can explain would make a will so that her father should inherit no part of her property, she (Miss How land) would, in return, make a will leaving everything to her niece: the will of each to be deposited with the other, and neither to make any other will without notice to the other, and returning to that other her will. Miss Robin son agreed to this, and the wills were executed accordingly. But the subsequent will and codicil made by the aunt in 1863 and 1864 were executed without notice to the niece. Thus arose a question of law, a novel question in the courts of this country, namely, whether a contract for mutual wills, if proved, can be enforced as being without consideration and against public policy and good morals. the phenomenon. Mr. Crossman, for the defence, testifies that he has spent nearly five months in examining many hundreds of signatures of many well known persons; comparing the coincidence by superimposing one on the other on a glass in front of a window, and also by tracing and superimposing the tracings. He says there was greater similarity in Miss Howland's signatures, forty or fifty of which he compared with each other, than in any other case; and he considers the two signatures to the detached sheets to be genuine. On the other hand, Mr. South worth, after similar research, declares that the three signatures coincide with mathematical accuracy, not only letter for letter and space for space, but also that euch has the same slant to the base line of each paper, so that the eye sees them parallel. His testimony covers fifty pages, and he pronounces the two contested signatures to be forgeries, executed by tracing. But the most curious and interesting testimony of the whole is that of Prof. Benjamin Peirce of Harvard College, Superintendent of the Coast Survey, and one of the best mathematicians of the age, upon the doctrine of chances. He said: "He had had a large experience relating to the computation of chances; that the mathematical discussion of the subject of coincidence of signatures had never, to his knowledge, been proposed, but that it was not difficult, and a numerical expression applicable to this problem, the correctness of which would be recognized by all the mathematicians in the world, could readily be obtained." Then, having ascertained the relative frequency of coincidence by comparing numerous signatures of Miss Howland to bills of sale of vessels, etc., he concludes that, in her case, "this phenomenon (of coinci dence) could occur only once in two thousand six hundred and sixty-six millions of millions of millions of times, or 2,666,000,000,000,000,000,000." This number, the Professor remarks, "far transcends human experience. So vast an improbability is practically an impossibility. Such evanescent shadows of improbability cannot belong to actual life. They are unimaginably less than the least things which the law cares not for." And his conclusion from these data is thus expressed: "Under a solemn sense of the responsibility involved in the assertion, I declare that the coincidence which has here occurred must have had its origin in an intention to produce it." But the most singular feature in this case still remains to be stated. To the will originally made by Miss Howland in favor of her niece there is an addition, sewed on with fine thread to the first page, not changing any provision of the will, but a sort of protest by the testator against the validity of any subsequent will which she, under undue influence from those around her, might be induced to make. Part of the text is: "I implore the Judge to decide in favor of this will, as nothing could induce me to make a will unfavorable to my niece; but being ill, and afraid, if any of my caretakers insisted on my making a will, to refuse, as they might leave me or be angry. ... I give this will to my niece to show, if absolutely necessary to have it appear against another will found after my death." Miss Robinson testifies, under oath, that she wrote this appendage to the will at the suggestion of her aunt, and that her aunt signed it in duplicate in her presence. The defence to this is nothing less than a charge of forgery. It is denied that the signature to this additional page is genuine, and alleged that it was copied by tracing from a signature (admitted to be genuine) of the testator to the original will to which this appendage is found stitched. This opens up a wide field, in which not only questions of law but of science, and even of art, come up. On the question of forgery both parties have spent much time and labor. Two skilful photographers have been employed for weeks; and experts have expended months in procuring and comparing, in a great number of cases, numerous signatures by the same person, so as to determine the chances that any one person should write three signatures exactly alike. The testimony is to the effect that Miss How- A million of dollars has often been staked on land's signature to the original and genuine the calculation of chances; but there is not, in will, and the two signatures to the appended all probability, another example on record in paper, executed in duplicate, are in every letter which the verdict in a law case involving that and line and in the spaces between the three amount was liable to be determined by the teswords, Sylvia Ann Howland, so precisely coin-timony of a learned professor, following out the cident, so identical in fact, that nothing but a principles which La Place's great work has so ably set forth, and applying the unalterable | been inhabited after this period, only a few rules of mathematical science to determine what worked flints and bones, probably the result of may seem, to the uninitiated, a purely fortuitous an occasional visit, having been discovered on matter, namely, the chances of coincidence, in the upper surface of the cavern. its action, while writing, of the human hand. An important point seems to be established by There are other very curious details, to no-M. Dupont's researches,-viz. the extended comtice which would lead us too far. Among the mercial relations of these primitive people. The collateral questions raised was one interesting fint which was used for the manufacture of to photographers, as to the comparative merit their implements is not that of Belgium, but, acof the Voigtlander and Globe lenses.-Newcording to M de Mortillet, was brought from York Tribune, 9th mo. 11. From "Every Saturday." BELGIAN BONE CAVES. The explorations of the Belgian bone caves, which have been carried on for some time past by MM. Van Beneden and Dupont, have been referred to several times in the pages of The Reader. We have now to lay before our readers an account of the progress of the work up to the end of Nov. last, and for this purpose we make use of a report recently presented by M. Dupont to the Belgian Minister of the Interior. We may premise that all the bone caves in this locality furnish indisputable evidence of one fact, viz. that the cave dwellers were destroyed by a sudden inundation, which covered the whole of Belgium and the North of France, the evidences of which M. Dupont finds in the limon of Hesbaye and the yellow clay of the fields, and in the peculiar arrangement of the debris in the caverns. The cave at present under examination was discovered in May last, and is situated on the banks of the river Lesse, opposite the hamlet of Chaleux, about a mile and a half from the well-known Furfooz cave. At an epoch long before that of its habitation by man, this cavern was traversed by a thermal spring. It is well lighted, is easy of access, and its situation is most picturesque. The number of objects found in this cave is enormous, and would appear to point to an extended period of Occupation by these primitive people. The grand trou de Chaleaux, as M. Van Beneden has proposed to call it, has also been subjected to the inundation, but the contents have been preserved almost intact, and this circumstance gives a value to the discoveries which was to some extent wanting in the Furfooz caves. According to M. Dupont's theory, the former inhabitants of the caves, warned by the dangerous cracks in the walls and ceiling, suddenly abandoned their dwelling place, leaving behind them their tools, ornaments, and the remains of their meals. Soon afterwards the roof and sides fell in, and the pieces thus detached covered the floor. In this manner the remains have been preserved from the action of the waters, and have remained undisturbed until the present day The unfortunate inhabitants doubtless saw in this occurrence the manifestation of a superior power, since the cavern does not appear to have Touraine. Several specimens of fossil shells, most of which have been perforated, probably for the purpose of being strung together, and worn as ornaments, were collected, and were submitted to M. Nyst, the well-known palæontologist. He recognized most of them as belonging to the calcaire grossier of Courtagnon, near Rheims. Two species belonged to the department of Seine et Oise. Some fragments of jet and a few sharks' teeth were from the same locality. "We cannot therefore deny," says M. Dupont, "the relations of these men with Champagne, whilst there is no evidence to show their connection with Hainaut and the province of Liege, which could have also furnished them with their flint. Amongst other objects brought to light during the excavations were the forearm of an elephant, which appears to be that of the mammoth of Siberia, an animal which did not exist in Belgium at that epoch. "When we reflect that, till within a comparatively short time, these bones were looked upon as those of a race of giants, and gifted with miraculous powers, we cannot be surprised that our inhabitants of the caverns of the Lesse, whose civilization may be compared to that of those African nations, who are sunk in the darkest depths of fetichism, attributed similar properties to those enormous bones which were placed as a fetich near their hearth." Judging from the quantity of bones found in the cavern, the principal food of these cavedwellers was the flesh of the horse. M. Dupont collected nine hundred and thirty-seven molar teeth belonging to this animal, a number which corresponds to about forty heads, supposing each set to be complete. The marrow seems to have been in great request, all the long bones having been broken, so as to extract it. Most of them retain traces of incisions made by their flint tools. The large number of bones of water-rats would also lead us to suppose that they formed a part of the food of these people, as did the badger, hare, and boar. The number of objects obtained from this cavern is greater than that obtained from the whole of the caves previously explored. Of worked flints, in various stages of manufacture, thirty thousand were collected. Besides these, M. Dupont obtained several cubic metres of bones of all kinds, the horses' teeth already mentioned, and a vast quantity of miscellaneous articles. ITEMS. The Trustees of the Peabody Fund having deter mined to apply the funds which the munificence of ern States, by supplementing the work of the people in the cause of popular education, Amos, the North with the object of obtaining contributions in Southern agent of that fund, is now on a visit to the aid of the available means at the disposal of the trustees. Those means, though ample, are far from adequate to the wants of the population which it is sought to benefit. Hence the necessity for further help. Amos is furnished with testimonials of character from Gens. Grant, Thomas and Howard, and several influential gentlemen in the North have already signified their warm approval of his mission. In view of the benefit which will accure to the South, and, indirectly, to the whole Union, from the success of the plan which the Trustees of the Peawill no doubt be liberally responded to by those who body Fund have adopted, the appeals of the agent have faith in education as an ally of free government. The facts acquired by the excavations at Cha G. W. Peabody has placed in their hands in encouraleux, combined with those obtained at the Fur-ging the introduction of free schools into the Southfooz caves, form a striking picture of the early ages of man in Belgium. "These ancient people and their customs reappear, after having been forgotten for thousands of years, and like the fabulous bird in whose ashes are found the germ of a new life, antiquity becomes regenerated from its own debris. We see them in their dark, subterranean dwellings, surrounding the hearth, which is protected by the supernatural power of immense, fantastically-shaped bones, engaged in patiently making their flint tools and utensils of reindeer horn, in the midst of pestilential emanations from the animal remains, which their indifference allowed them to retain in their dwelling. The skins of wild beasts, having the bair removed, were stitched together by the aid of their sharpened flints and ivory needles, and served as clothing. We see them pursuing wild animals, armed with arrows and lances tipped with a barb of flint. We take part in their feasts, where a horse, bear, or reindeer replaces, on days when their hunting has been successful, the tainted flesh of the rat, their only resource against famine. Their trading extended as far as the regions now forming part of France, from whose inhabitants they obtained shells, jet, with which they delight to ornament themselves, and the flint which is so valuable to them. But a falling in of the roof drives them from their principal dwelling, in which lie buried the objects of their faith and their domestic utensils, and they are forced to seek another habitation.... We know nothing certain of the relation of these people with those of earlier times. Had they ancestors in this country? The great discoveries of our illustrious compatriot Schmerling, and those which Professor Malaise has made at Engihoul, seem to prove that the men whose traces I have brought to light on the Lesse did not belong to the indigenous races of Belgium, but were only the successors of the more ancient population. I have even met with certain evidences of our primordial ancestors at Chaleux, but the trail was lost as soon as found. Our knowledge of these ancestors stops short at this point." We have given in the above abstract an account of the most important features in M. Dupont's report, which is of great interest. We trust that these explorations, which have been carried on at the expense of the government, will be continued. One of the most useful inventions lately brought into practical use is the Marine Annunciator. Its chief design is to prevent accidents occurring through the misconception of orders to pilots and helmsmen in going into or out of port, or in moments of peril. It consists of an instrument with two dials, placed on the bridge, each one of these dials being conmilting dial," with another dial in the wheelhouse, nected by strong copper chains, one, the "transin which the orders "Port," "Starboard," or "Steady" are revealed, a gong sounding at the same time to call the helmsman's attention to the order sent, while the other, the "reply dial," is connected with the rudder-head. The orders are transmitted rudder is registered upon the reply-dial, the officer instantaneously; and, as every movement of the on duty can see whether his orders are properly obeyed. This instrument is the invention of John S. Gisborne, is simple in its construction, and its operations being entirely mechanical, is not liable to get out of order. sion on the North Platte, are reported to demand the The Indians, in council with the Peace Commiswithdrawal of the troops in the Powder River country, the abandonment of the Smoky Hill Route of the Pacific Railroad, and numerous presents of guns, ammunition, and other articles. by Russia, according to a military order issued by The territory recently ceded to the United States General Halleck, is to form part of the Department of California, and is to be called the military District of Alaska, Two companies of troops are assigned as the garrison at Sitka, and they will take with them a field battery and one year's supply of ordnance stores. Dr. Lieber has addressed a memorial to the Con stitutional Convention of New York, recommending the abolition of the rule requiring unanimity in jury trials-showing that it is not required in any country in which the jury is in use, except England and the United States. The French, German, and Italian rule, he says, is that if there are seven jurors against five, the judges retire, and if the bench decides with the minority, the verdict of the minority is taken, while it requires eight jurors out of the twelve to If a man does not make new acquaintances as give a majority verdict. This plan be condemns, as he advances through life, he will soon find him-pposed to our theory of the judge's position, which is that of an umpire. He proposes that the jury self left alone. A man should keep his friend-shall consist of twelve jurors, but that a majority of ship in constant repair. two-thirds shall be competent to give a verdict. |