y A Weekly Paper Devoted to Temperance, Literatura and Politico. NUMBER 10. TIMELY TOPICS. THK clay pits'mcar New Brunswick, N."J.,yield annually sumo 235,000 lons of clay, worth over ?1,000,000. Tm: Phoenix Cotton Factory, near Baltimore, on thc Northern Central Rail way, ivas sold' tinder the hammer, last week, for $95,000. Besides the mill proper, thc sale included machinery, tene ment ami storehouses, and loll j acres of ground* i ~? THE British Arctic expedition will winter nt a point only 450 geographical miles from thc north pole, and the explo rers expect to start upon their important mission in April. All that science and experience can suggest has been done to make this expedition ti success. RxPJ?ltlMKNT? prove that coffee can be raised in every portion ol'California where the soil is congenial. California plants produce twenty-two shoots,* while those of Europe produce hut one. The Cali fornia soil is believed to be more favor able, as, unlike those of European coun tries, it needs ho irrigation. "MOUE stoves are annually manufac tured, hy a single Albany firm, Utan ?ire made in France ?md England combined for Ute sante period. They employ 000 men ?iud a half million of capital, ?md their business last year amounted to $1,000,000. Thoy aro running to their fullest capacity to fill orders, foreign ?md domestic. PENNSYLVANIA has passed a new law to cover cases of abduction like that of Charlie Boss. The law imposes a fine not exceeding live tlujiistuid dollars, ?md imprisonment at harrtdabor not exceed ing fifteen years, on conviction of "com plicity in harboring, or concealing, or en ticing away, any child, either within or without that commonwealth. THE population of the original thir teen states of the Union in-1790, the .period of ?the first census, together with ' that of ^??Tne,"V.?rmont, TCcTi(t???ty|aud Tennessee, which were formed' from^tho on^riW-' tlifftcen? a*hy breaking up a formidable, monopoly, and greatly reducing the cost .? transportation* between thc eastern and western divisions of the continent as well as between the Atlantic arid Pacific I oceans. OUR soureesof wealth, says the. New York Expr?s, are remarkable. Thc gold and silver products of the. United States in 1874 was $72,000,000. Of this, California furnishes $20,300,000, Nevada $05,452,000, Utah ?5,000,000, Colorado ?4,191,000, Montana ?3.489,000, and Idaho ?1,880,000. Nearly all of this went abroad to pay for imports. Gold and silver, adds the editor, are an im portant source to wealth ; but compar ing their yield with some other products, thc mistake is found.' The United States corn crop is worth four times as much as the gold and silver crop, and thc wheat crop five times as much ; the cotton crop more than three times as much, and the hay crop four times as much. California, with all its gold would be a poor state but for its wheat ero]). Carlysle is right. Let us plant potatoes and corn, by all means, and do not busy ourselves too much digging for THE report of the Massachusetts bu reau of statistics shows that, the annual surplus earnings of the families of me chanics, as indicated by the earnings of 397 families, is ?24.72; of these 497 fam ilies, 58 ran in debt, 92 earned a surplus of ?9.80, 110 a surplus of ?20.25. 71 a surplus of ?32.48, 38 a surplus of ?57.77, 10 a surplus of ?49.51, 4 a surplus of ?105.80, 4 a surplus of ?129.35, 2 a sur plus of ?172, and 1 a surplus ol ?228.75 and of ?275.80. The wages of two fam ilies were over ?1,000, 64 between ?900 and ?1,000, and 331 from ?300 to ?1,000. The average earnings of the whole were ?702, and the average expenses ?738. Of 250 families, however, the seale of wages ranged from $500.to ?800, with a propor tionate scale of expenses, leaving an annual average surplus of ?5.13 to ?20.25* ' Only one workman in a hundred owns the house in which his family resides. THE failure of the Bank of California is now known to have been precipitated, in large part, by the unprecedented ship , men ts of gold from San Francisco from .lunusiry to July. The shipment of gold for the first six monthsof 1874 footed up ?2,311,400; for the same period in 1875, it reached the startling sum of ?18,257, 400! No such amount of gold had ever been shipped from that city in the same period. In fact it was more than the market could bear. Even during the London panic in 1800, no such volume, of coin disappeared. Hence the incon venience. But the coin movement be .gan-to.fall off in July, and has been still less this month to date. PERionsof financial depression,amount ing sometimes to panics, have, pervaded all nations. Of the cause no satisfactory solution can bc made. For more than two years past England has been subject to this depression. It seems to be greater now than at any previous time. Heavy and disastrous failures have ad ded to the trouble, and hence capital is unnecessarily cautious, and thereby a great existing evil, without apparent cause, has been greatly aggravated. Thc same state of things, toa considerable ex tent, exists on the continent. . -' A LATE London letter gives this report of thc condition of monetary affairs there : "The official minimum is stil 2 per cent., and in open market the best bills are taken at 1\ to 1 jj per cent. The supply of money seeking employment is very large, aud there is but little pros pect of any dtmunition. There ie just now, owing to the timidity of the public, a great demand for sound dividend-pay ing securities., These have been forced tip in' value tri a tKn?it which yields Ju t,ho investor but a small, return C -inter est, ; but aa aafety is every consideration i with the public, it ia necessary to be content with email profita, Among these arc United States government and firutj mortgage railroad bonds. These aros quoted at high prices. Second-rate se curities cheap and much neglected. ,THE president of the Continental in surance company of New York, in a con vention of insurance men held last week, made the astounding statement, that the hisses of insurance companies in this country are six times greater than ?iii England ; that in his. own company, he thinks twenty per cent, of the losses paid arc for fraudulent claims, saying nothing of claims that are fraudulent and not paid ; that legislatures often do all they can to help swindlers of insurance, com panies; thal the law courts " generally " strain the law in favor of incendiaries, and that the honest patt ol* the com munity has to make up for those-bur dens on thc companies. .This cannot be said to form an agreeable picture for contemplation. THE consumption of Brazil coffee in this country is enormous. During trie season of 187-1 it was 103,751 tons, or au average of 8,640 tons per month. This was thc largest consumption ot Brazil coffee in the United States that waa ever known, with theexception of t hat of 1 STU, when 108,502 ton.< were consumed. ' The coffee trade is now oil a firm footing, and the consumption stead ily increasing, especially in this couti try, where it is about one-fourth of that of the entire world. It is worthy of note that the world's consumption of coffee is nearly, if not. fully, 425,000 tons, or 1)35,000,000 pounds 1 The people of the United States consume more coffee than any other people on the glolx;.. The main source of coffee supply is Brazil, but Java, Ceylon, and the West Indies furnishes a considerable quantity. The yearly value of the coffee crop is esti mated, by an Amsterdam authority, at .first hands, at $125,000,000, and this amount is considerably reduced before it flows back from the consumer THE September report of the deparat ment of agriculture says bf the cotton crop:- Could it be thorouglyripened, its aggregate would exceed any previous crop, and the yield per acre would be one of the best, notwithstanding the losses by the overflow of bottoms and the saturation of heavy flat soils. Such losses have, proved less than the usual damages by drougth and insects, while the rains have greatly benefitted the crops on drier and higher sails. Nearly everywhere corn is late in maturing from one to two weeks. In general a high condition is still maintained, the average being one per cent, higher than in August. Thc state averages arc: Maine ----- 107'Ncw Hampshire - 100 Vermont ----- OBjMassuchuseetts - - li?) Connecticnt - - - 108|New York - - ' !?!? Pennsylvania - 108 Maryland - - - 1(18 North Carolina - !105 New Jersey - - lil Delaware - - - 100 Virginia - - - 112 .South Carolina - - 87 Florida - - - - 83 Mi.Hnissi]ipi - - - 116 Texas - - - - 8U Tennessee - - - - tu (ieorgia - - Ul Alabama - - - - ll?) louisiana - - S3 Arkansas - -. - - net [West Vfiginin - - 107 Kentucky - - - lOStOhio. :>7 Michigan - - - - 10111 adiana - - - - ?1 Illinois - - 05'.Wisconson - - - -. ito Minnesota - - - 72] Iowa - ... >.y> Missouri - - - lll|Kan?us - - - - UKI Nebraska - - - - 8?l;Cali?orniH - - - sr, Oregon - - - - 100 DIRECT Trade with South America, from S^outiicrn ports, is certain sooner or later to be accomplished. At thc present time there is no regular and reliable com munication willi Venezuela, and hence they are now importing steam engines from England. Our hold upon Brazil has sensibly diminished since thc failure of a Baltimore firm that was engaged in exporting provisions and manufactures thither in exchange, for Brazilian cottee and other products. This circumstance will result favorably to the efforts of the Mississippi Valley Company in establish Direce Trade in that i>ortion of the world. Their ships will have thc advantage, loo, nf ? shorter distance from New Orleans to South America, and all thc gains of interior watercommunication. Even the Philadelphia North American confesses that the interosts of the people of Ibo en tire country will be directly or individ ually benefited by Direct Trade between ?-kmtborn porta and South America, the enterprise being really National and not local. THE SECRET OF HEALTH.-M. Robing, an eminent Frencli chemist, announces to thc French Academy of Medicine his belief that life exists only in eomhuston which occurs in our lxidies-like that which takes place in chimneys-leaves a, detritus which is fatal to life. To re move this, lie would administer lactic acid with ordinary food. This acid ia known to possess the power of removing or destroying the intrustations which form' on thc arteries, cartilages, and valves of the heart; and, tts buttermilk ?.abounds in such acid, and is, moreover, an apceptable kind of food, its habitual use; it ja urged by M. Robing, will free the system from these causes, which in evitably cause death between the seventy fifth and ene hundredth yeur. MAN NOT WEGEXEUATING; Th? Modern Ktr.v|il,7ti4,000 francs -say ??00,000,000-exceeding that of 18o9 by about ?50,000,000, when the l?mpire was at the height of its prosper ity, and when Alsace and Lorraine be longed to France. The railwavs are con sequently doing a larger business. Thc Western line has improved 6,000 francs a mile; thc Northern, 7,000 francs; Lyons, 9,000 francs; the Eastern, 14,000 francs; ilie Southern, 10,0*00 fiancs. As far as Pi ris is concerned there are fewer failure.-!, and the theatrical receipts sign bf luxury-show an increase cf 7,000,00( (.francs over thoso O?1869. in spite of restle?* politicians*'flood* and other pi rtial disasters, there can bc no | thjubt th at Fruit? hu nothing to wm i plan, of, and that she has more than r c covered dint material welfare which is supposed tb have unnerved her under the immoral and luxurious empire. There is, ol* coli rsc, a dark side to this brilliant picture hot alluded to by the financial writer, to wit, thc extra burden-- with which tlie country is saddled. Deep Til li mr ami Undcr-lh'tthiilig. intelligent and observing tillers of thc soil in almost every eeetion of thc coun try where the drouth has prevailed to any considerable extent during the past season, have been strikingly impressed with the surprising advantage to the growing crops arising from thorough drainage of heavy soils in connection with deco tillage and abundant fertiliza tion ol' tile seed-lied. W hen the water line of a heavy soil that is disposed to bo wet, is sunk by means of a system of thorough undcrdraining, say thirty or more inches beneath the surface of the soil, if the seed-bed be broken up deep, thc lindy comminuted soil will retain a much huger quantity of moist-lire in dry and hot weather than if there were no under-drains. As the soil is deepened by under-draining and deep plowing, the capacity to absorb moisture from the at mosphere is greatly augmented. Hence, in a dry season, if the seed-bed be bro ken up deep, the roots of growing plants spread farther in every direction through ti io soil ; and us the mellow earth will ahsorh a much larger quantity of moist ure than if the entire st raia wcrconcsolid mass, every growing plant is, in a great measure, fortified against the trying in fluences of hot and dry weather. I'nder draining and deep ploughing, in numer ous instances, have, been thc means of saving large crops from utter ruin by protracted drouth. Hence, many farm ers have been led to appreciate thc ad vantages of under-draining and deep til lage where the soil was heavy, as they have never done before. It will pay weil to under-drain wet land and to plow it deep, whether the growing season is to bc too wet or too dry. Dull Lire in Portugal. A writer on Portugal life says: The larger of the country towns have streets full of gentlemen's houses, and here veg etate from year to year families who arc just rieh enough to livewithou!working. Trr llvepiTUeeti; us the Portuguese do in such (owns need cost but little. A large house, with a plot of cabbages,"a kale yard behind it; with whitewashed walls, Hours uncarpeted, a dozen wooden chairs, one or two deal tables; no fireplace, not even a stove, either in si tiing or bed room; no curtains to the windows, no covers to the tables, no pictures on thc willis, no mirrors; no tables pleasantly strewn with books, magazines, newspapers, and ladies' work; no such thing visible as a pot of cut flowers; no rare china, no clocks, no bronzes-none of thc hundred trifles und curiosities with which in our houses we show our taste or want of it, hilt which either wuy give, such an individual char acter and charin to English homes. All these negatives describe the utterly dreary habitations of thc middle-class Portuguese. Foroccupations the women do needlework, gossip, go to mass daily, and look out of window by the hour. Except the one short walk to church ut eight o'clock in the morning, a Portu guese lady hardly ever appears in the streets. As to the men, they lounge about among tho shops, they smoko innumera ble paper cigarettes, they take a "siesta" in the heat of the day. If there is any sunshine they stand in groups at the street corners, with umbrellas over theil heads; in-winter they wear a shawl ovei their shoulders, folded and put on three cornerwiseV ns a French or English wo man's shawl is worn-for this is a fashior in Portugal, and the Spaniards laugh 1 good deal at their neighlxirs on the score of their being a nation who invert thc due order of things. In these town: there is never any news, and if two mei are seen in cager discussion of some mat ter of apparently immense importance and if one. happens to be near enough t< overhear thc subject of conversation, IM sure that one of them is plunged in dc spair or killing with enthusiasm at a ria or fall of a half-penny in the price of i pound pf tobacco. There arc not evei fashions for them to think about; your.) men and old men dress alike, but tin younger men wear exceedingly tigh boots, and when they " take their walk abroad" it is obvious thal they do so ii considerable discomfort. Thc young mci however, have one occupation more im portant even than wearing tight boots thai of making the very mildest form o love known among them. The process indeed, is carried on in so platonic a man ncr and with so much proper feeling thu I doubt if even the strictest Engh'sl governess would find anything to objec to. Thc young gentlemen pay their ad dresses by'simply standing in front of th houses occupied by the objects of thei affections, while the young persons ii question look down approvingly. from th upner windows, and there the matte ends. _ AFRICAN EXPLORATIONS.-A compi ny hus been formed in Berlin which prc poses to found at Chou, the most sou tl ern province of Abyssinia, a permanen settlement,' in order to send out Rcicntifi expeditions into the unexplored porti? of Africa, and to develop the commcrc of Mia country. The objects of the con pany are, however, supposed to be mor commercial than scientific. r -Only nine, persons out of a hundre are insane from hereditary causes. Th jini-jiuns f instance, tire more read-hcac itary than hereditary. Mc ODY and' Saiikey will jjronn lt wardlv when they return to Chicago an find tho Uihfo banlshuil ftum th? jmbli FACTS AND FANCIES. -A tree in Ceylon is said to have been standing more than two thousand vcars. The Buddhist priests sell it? loaves as a panacea for sin, and it is a real bonanza to those pious teachers. -It is said that the game of chess was invented by a tender woman, more than two thousand years ago. She was a ?jileen, and played the first game with thc teeth she had extracted from one of her slaughtered enemies. Hans Tammer, an Austrian, is exhi biting in Paris a canine quartet. He has four dogs, and he luis taught each dog to bark in two notes, and each dog's notes are different from those of the other dogs. He thus commanda eight notes, and gives " IHJ donne mobile " ami some other pieces. -While a couple of women were dis cussing, the other day, the merits of a certain physician, one of them asked the other what kind of a doctor he was, " Sure, I dunno," was thc reply, "but I think it's" an alpaca doctor they call him." -Chateaubriand said, " Mme. Chat eaubriand would not diue later than five. I was never hungry till seven. But we compromised and (lined at six, so that wt; could neither of us enjoy it; and that is what people call the happi ness of mutual concessions." -lt will hardly lie necessary to tell thc haine of the facetious party who went into a village dry goods ?tore the other day, and was observed to be look ing about, when thc proprietor remarked to him that they didn't keep whisky. " It would save you a gootl many steps if you did," was the stage-driver's quick reply. -A tramping printer on the route be tween New York and Newburgh, is ac companied hy his wife. When asked the other day by a country editor, why he carted her around with him, re murketl that she took him for better or worse, and, having bad a good taste of the hitter, was endeavoring to i; \d out where the better came in. ? \ -"Job printing?" exclaimcd\ip old lady, the omer day, tts she peep ;over her'spectacle?, at the advertising1^ %e of a country paper, " Poor Job I t (y've kept him printing, week ai?ter week^ever since I larrit to read ; anoS-jf hejtwS"&^ the patientest man that ever was, he ? never could have stood it so loik no flow!" ' - -I was acquainted once with a gallant ioldier who nssured me that his only method of courage was this: Upon the (irst fire in tm engagement he immedi ately looked upon himself as a dead mun. He then fought out the remaui ler of the day perfectly rcgardle jj of all manner of danger, as becomes a dead mau to be. So that all the life or limbs ie carried hack to his tent he reckoned is clear gain, or, as he himself expressed t, "\so much out of the fire."-Sterns. How to Hold Fertility of the Soil. Gypsum attracts. It is not only a ma nir? in itself, but it attracts the atmos phere that comes in contact with it, which is abundant on windy days, but it ?atches and holds the fertility of the ?round that in some soils escapes. Lime ?rill also do this-so will clay. Clay, Iried and powdered, is an encellent thing o put on a barn-yard, or to cover a cern ios t heap with, or work through the heap; tenec we usc gypsum or lime in our sta lles or privies. Gypsum is best; it has ;he most attraction, besides other proper ties. A little should be kept by every armer for use, even at high cost, as the )cnefit is sometimes more important than die high price. But we waste our manure; ve not only permit its strength to escape, mit wc are glad toget it out of the way. riie same recklessness extends to the ?ind. It is well our land has a good pro portion of clay to hold its strength. We must conserve. The time is not ?tr distant wdien we shall be compelled to lo it. Already there 'are symptoms of ack in our soil; we do not raise as heavy :rops as we used U)-here and there a lela, herc and there a farm is less pro bative. It is not so much that weneed ilastcr here in the west to hold the itrength of the soil, aa to use it to ab itract it from the atmosphere, and to ?ave the ammonia of our barn-yards and ?tables. For tb is let us always keep a ittlc on hand. Let us save and improve ?ur manure and thus save our farms. Rural World. THE FAST MAIL TRAINB.-A feeling ms prevailed among commercial men ince the establishment of the new fast nail trains that their interests were being acrificed to those of the morning news mpers by the post-oihee department. The idea got abroad that mercantile let ers wc- ; delayed until morning, and that he time of transmission to the west was hereby increased instead of diminished tnder thc new arrangement. A number >f merchants and publishers of evening ?ewspapers met at No. 17 Broadway yes erday, and Major Bangs addressed tho isseniblage, explaining the system of ailway service of the United States very tilly, and said that the city could not jossibly lie better served than It i? flt iresent. The morning trains from this i ty had been arranged to catcli most of he through trains in the west. .Thus very thing combined to render a,.last ?vening train of no practical Jvalne.. m ?lannintr the new se?vico all these.tbjngs ind been carefully weighed, the pruicipal bicet being to accommodate trleJargo . ?ties which aro thc distributing