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lewis m. grist, proprietor.! Jitbepntbent JfamiljT ^tttospaper: Jor fjje |romotion of tfje |oIifical, .Social, Agricultural anb Commercial Jitfcrrsfs of % Sent]). j teems-^so a year, ut^mivasce. 70LUMEXIL YORKVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA, THURSDAY MORNING, 1ST NOVEMBER, 1866. NUMBER 28. IJJkellaneiras. The Genius, Character and Organization of the Confederate Army. From ao interesting and spirited article in the September Crescent Monthly, by J. Quitman Moore, of Mississippi, we make the following extracts, treating of the genius, character and general organization of the late Confederate army : The army of the late "Confederate States of America" (the glorious name of that bright, meteor power, now quenched, that shook its radiant splendors on the flaming crest of Mars !) was an eeleotic, or excerpted system from the high military models of Austria. Prussia, France and the United States. It was a beautiful and complete model of thorough scientific organization, full of interest and instruction to those who wish to learn how to make war terrible and destructive, and above all things else, that sprang from the master hand of that directing and all-informing mind that stood at the bead of the Southern revolution, attested its commanding genius. From Austria was taken the admirable organization of the grand field staff; from Prussia the firm and oompact general military anatomy; from France the model of its field ordnance and scientific artillery theory and practice; and from tne United States its tactical economy, j its infantry equipment and drill, its army regulations and its theory of military manoeuvre and stragetic praotioe. West Point confronted West Point, and accounts in e great measure for that phenomenon so inexplicable to the criticism of the foreign lookers on?great battles fought, with no marked or decisive results attained. Gen. Lee and his adversaries made the same moves on the hostile field that they learned to make on the chess-board of the common parent academy. Jackson, alone, repudiated West Point, studied Frederiok and Napoleon, and as a consequence, achieved more brilliant results in a brief career of twenty months, than the whole army of eminent nnmmanders. Federal and Confederate, com billed, accomplished in four years of war. The organization of the Confederate army was a oomplete piece of military mechanism methodical, harmonious, composite in all pertainiag to its exterior, practical arrange meat; bat there was a fatal defeot in its interior, vital economy, a morbid, organic derangement, that defeated every hope of healthy bodily action, preyed upon the seat of life, and causea its altimate dissolution. That disease was the absence of a rigid discipline. If it had possessed this one important quality the battle of Sharpsburg would have declared the independence of the South. General Lee crossed over into Maryland a fortnight before the happening of that battle, with eighty thousand troops; but on that field he could only put his hand on thirty-five thousand of that number.? Not that this more than moiety of his army had wilfully deserted their colors; but allared from their commands by the profuse hospitality of the people of Maryland, they lingered behind the advancing army, thinking to rejoin it in time to share io its lau rels. Such conduct the systems of Frederick and Napoleon pronounced desertion, and inflexibly punished with death. The great body of the rank and file of the South em army was composed of a social element that, in the armies of other countries, is seen only in positions of command and au thority ; and the officers elected from among themselves, and often their social and intellectual inferiors, left matters of authority and subordination to take care of themselves while their only oare was to make their reports correspond Irom day to day; and grave delinquencies were connived at in the same way that college students deem it a i badge of dishonor to act the part of inform | er against their associates. Under such a ; general relaxation of authority, discipline was impossible; and the Southern army was DOthing more than an association of patriotic gentlemen, animated by the enthusiasm of a oommon cause, and regarding discipline and army regulations as designed only for a race of slaves When once in battle, they fought with a dash, spirit, resolution aud desperation of valor such as has never been excelled by any soldiery in the world, ancient or modern. In the European sense of the word, there was no such thing known to the Confederate army as discipline. The punishment of desertion by death was the exception, rather than the rule ; and the band of the commander-in-chief was weakened jast in proportion as the severity of the discipline was relaxed. Jackson was the only geueral officer in the Confederate service, who applied the rigid discipline of the European armies to that under his own command; and in proportion to its numbers, and in view of the brief period within which its splendid operations were performed, no army in the world ever accomplished such brilliant results. His severe discipline held his troops firm, close, compact, in hand, and when he struck, it was with a full strength of his arm, and victory was the result Bragg made some ineffectual attempts to discipline the army of the West; U..* 5,-?Mthorn klnrifl mno tnr\ hicrh f.nhpnd UUt cue yjyuiu51u u.w- b? to what it oonceivod to be a degradation, and could not then realize that it was better than the eternal degradation that followed The infantry service of the Confederate army was the finest body of light foot, bating the discipline, the world ever saw. It possessed all the tenacity in line of the Austrians; all the confidence in column, boldness in attack, and cool self possession in defeat, of the British, and all the dariug intrepidity and fearless dash of the French Corps d' Afriqiie; while the deliberateness and precision with which it delivered its deadly rifle fire, inflicting nearly a double loss on the enemy in almost every engagement, attested its vast superiority over that of the enemy. The Confederate skirmishers were the terror of the Federal army ; and in all combined movements in the open field, and with numbers always inferior to : the enemy, the Southern infantry has never ' failed to win the field. This superiority ' prooeeded not from the greater bravery of ; the Confederate troops, but from their greater combined skill and intelligence, i flowing from that larger latitude given to ! individual aotion. Without their offioers to ! guide and direct them, the Federal troops were little better than an armed mob. The Confederate troops acted generally as well without as with their officers, whose superiority was only the temporary distinction of rank. There were men in the ranks of the Southern army, who could have supplied the places of their general officers. Gen. Roger A. Pryor, after gallantly serving his country as commander of a brigade, tendered his resignation, and fought totheend of the war in the capacity of a gallant private of the famous 9th Virginia cavalry. The English refer with just pride and enthusiastic praise, to the solid tenacity and /iAnwa/?A r\f fV?r* RrifioK infanfru ut C31UUUU! U VUUIO^o Ut buv JL/ltviou iu?uuv>j ?... tbe battle of Inkerman, where 8,000 British (ightfoot held ia check and finally repulsed 15,000 Russian infantry, but it cannot compare with tbe brilliant and spirited infantry charges of Ewell's and Longstreet's corps upon the fortified position,of the enemy at Gettysburg, on the evening of the second day's battle, where the Southern infantry moved to tbe assault under a withering artillery fire, and swept before it three heavy lines of battle. And nothing is so forcibly illustrative of that high intelligence that was the distinguishing characteristic of tbe Southern army, than the fact that it saw and felt, before tbe attack was made, that tbe assault of the third must prove a failure. The cavalry braich of the Confederate army was, strictly speaking, only a part of its infantry arm, clothed with equestrian powers and offices. It was only a superior body of mounted infantry that, as advanced videttes and daring scouts, formed the ears and eyes of that army that was never but once taken by surprise. The mounted force of the Confederate army resembled tbe Russian Cossack, whose office is to harass aud threaten, not to attack; and as guerillas, they beoame as renowned as the famous knights of the Cid Ashby, and Stuart, an/} T?,-vrrnaf on/} Humntiin on/} Miish?. and - "* ?j ??r?> j i Fitz Lee, recall memories of Villars and Fitz James?of Tanored and Alva?never of Rupert and Marat. But the essential pride and glory of the Southern army, particularly of that portion of it that was known as the "Army of Northern Virginia," was its matchless artillery arm. The world might have been confidently challenged to produce such a splendid array of high intelligence, practiced skill and discipline, as was centered in that renowned artillery corps that was wielded by that eminent patriot chief, Maj. General William H Pendleton. As a body it was composed of the very pride and flower of Southern chivalry, and fully attested its lofty claims to distinction on all those bloody fields, stretching from Manassas to Petersburg, and it is the especial glory of the famous Washington Artillery to have first wreathed the Confederate banner with the smoke of its guns on the field of Bull Run, and boomed the last hostile defiance on mournful Appomattox Walton, Walker and Long; Poague, Carter'and Haskell; Pegram, Mcintosh and Nelson, are names that will ever be honored in the proud pantheon of Southern heroism and devotion, aud will live as long as the fame of that immortal struggle which they so brilliantly signalized by their own lofty endeavor. The original organization of the Confed erate artillery was into companies, attached each to its infantry brigade, and subject to the orders of the brigadier; but it was soon discovered that commanders of brigades, the great majority of whom were from the walks of civil life, were not the class of officers to give the artillery arm that power and effectiveness which, under skilful, scientific direction, it was so emineutly susceptible. Thorpf^rp hefnre the onenine of the SDrioir ' -r o - - - ? t, campaign of 1863, a regular artillery aud ordoaDce staff was organized in the Army of Northern Virginia, with General Pendleton at its head. Battalions were formed, 1 numbering from sixteen to twenty guns ! each, and operating in the field with its respective iufantry division, and each under the immediate command of its own artillery chief, who had beeu assigned or promoted to it by reason of his distinguished fitness and qualification, as indicated by former tests of high excellence in the practice of I the field. And under the direotion of this ! able corps of artillery officers, the grand ! Southern field park, both mounted and horse, j ! proudly asserted its claim to a place in the very front rank of the artillery armament of the world. Pelham's and McGregor's famous cavalry batteries that operated with the dashing troopers of Stuart, won a distinction second not even to the celebrity of the famous flying artillery of Austria. For the first two years of the war the field 1 j metal of the Confederate park was greatly | iuferior to that of the enemy. The bat- ! ties of Bull Run, Manassas and the Seven Pines were fought with six pounder guns, i twelve-pounder howitzers and a few threeinch rifles; and it was not until the battle of Chanoellorsville that the Confederate ar-1 tillery armament was of sufficiently heavy metal to cope successfully wjth the formid- j able Federal field ordnance. By capture \ and foreign purchase the artillery of the ! Army of Northern Virginia was strengthened by a full field complement of ten and j twenty.pounder Parrotts, the twelve pounder Napoleon gun-howitzer, aud a few Whit- j worth and Armstrong rifles; but the twen-1 ty-pouoder Carrotts, and ttie twelve-pounder Napoleons were the weapons with which ' the Confederate artillerists chiefly won their bloody trophies, and wrote such a brilliant chapter in the records of high artillery per- ! foruiance In nothing was the Southern ' artillery inferior to that of the Federal, save in the matter of ammunition ; in ever^ other particular it was decidedly superior, as attested on every field where the two arms were brought in direct collision. The army of the United States, whether regarded in the light of its scientific theory or practical arrangement, stands conspicuously among the very highest models of modern military organization It stood confessedly high even before the opening of the late bloody drama, and has since added the fruits of a large and profitable practical experience to its former high theoretical institutes, making it a complete and finished specimen of scientific military arrangement and can be studied to eminent advautage by oil fVio mnrWn war.hnreans that wish to profit by the experienced results of novel military formularities and appliances. Secession North and South. In the coarse of an interview that we had with Jeff. Davis in January, 1865, the subject of the terms of peace was introduced. Mr. Davis asked us what was the chief objection of the North to the recognition of Southern independence We answered that the North knew perfectly well, as unquestionably he did, that if she should lay down her arms, and consent to a division of the Union into two Confederacies, she herself wonld very soon be dissolved? that State after State, States singly and States combinedly, would secede, and the whole North be split up into petty powers or no powers, all of them contemptible in the eyes of mankind, and not one of them willing or able to contribute to the payment of the national debt. Mr Davis replied, with his characteristic calmness, that this was certainly true, but that the same thing would happen, and probably happen all the sooner, if the North should continue to prosecute the war. We thought at the time that Mr. Davis was greatly mistaken, and told him so. We still trust that we were correct in our esti mate of the character of his opinion, but just now we can indulge no over-confidence that we were. The North continued to prosecute the war, and the South, after the bravest and must desperate resistance known in war's annals, was conquered. But now come the North's trials. Now we are to see the test of her internal strength. If, out of the dreadful war betweeu the North and the South, a Northern civil war arises, it JMorthem armies marcn against eacn ocner, vengeance before them aDd blood and death and desert behind, many Northern States will very soon weary aod sicken of the horrid work, and will probably adopt secession as the quickest and surest remedy, fully relying upon the mighty troubles aod perils of the Federal Government as a perfect security against coercion. Most likely the Northwestern States will go off first, repudiating, of course, their proportion of the public debt, and thus piling higher the monstrous financial burden upon the shoulders of the remaining States. These will have neither the will nor the ability to bear up under the crushing weight, and so others will secede, and then others, till the whole North shall be divided up into such poor little non debt-paying, feeble, mock-nationalities as a citizen of one of the Mexican States or of the South American republics or one of the petty, miserable German principalities might look upon with contempt and scorn Jeff Davis's declaration to us as to the consequences of the war to the North, if proseouted, will be amply vindicated, and whatever resentments, if any, he cherishes against the North, will be abundantly satisfied. We tell tho Northern fanatics, as a lover of our whole country we solemnly tell them, that, unless madness has seized upon their hearts aod brains, they will not insist on pushing the dissensions between the President and Congress to the fighting point. They may rest as sured, that, if the fight comes, it will be, to them, such a ooc as the; have no account of cither in history or tradition. They will find it an infinitely different thing from the war of the rebellion, dreadful as that was throughout all its annals They will find themselves a divided people, divided almost equally, divided and mutually hostile, whilst the whole population of the South will be a unit, able to strike for their friends or to stand afar from the flash, the crack, and the roar of war, as may seem best to them. The thick cloud now enveloping the South maybe partially lifted ; but night and storm, surcharged with bloody rain, will close over the North We say to the people of the North that a very large pro- j portiou of them have acted and are acting j most unwisely, most madly. Theirs is "tbe | very error of the moon." They seem in- j capable of profiting either by the South's i experience or theirown. They imitate and j follow tbe South in the most unhappy acts j she ever committed. The South, in 1861, I undertook to break up and destroy the Fed- j eral Constitution She rebelled against it. ! Sheset at naught its provisions, and attompt-) ed to maintain her attitude of hostility to it by force of arms. She failed. As graciously as she could, she recognized the result.? She bowed to tbe arbitrament of war, and has boen usiog whatever power and influence she possesses in support of tho Cqqstitution she strove so fiercely and desparately to subvert and annihilate. But lo! the Radical party of the North, claiming to bo an overwhelming majority of that great section, are uow violating and denying the .L. n__.i .. j I Uonsti tutioo even as me ooacn vioiaieu auu defied it. No sooner does the South give up rebellion, than the Northern fanatics inagurate it. It is as true that there is a Northern rebellion now, as that there was a Southern rebellion five years ago. Rebellion has simply changed its locality. But just as it failed in one section, it will inevitably fail in the other. It can have no other future than a future like its past?a future of blood, and humiliation and misery. For years we invoked all the patriots of the whole country to put down rebellion in the South?we now invoke them to quellrebellion in the North. Prentice, Louisville Journal. From the Georgia Citizen. A Precious Document. The following letter was found in the streets of Camden immediately after the army of General Sherman had left. The original is still preserved and can be shown and substantiated, if anybody desires, We can add nothing in the way of comment on such a document. It speaks for itself: Camp Near Camden, S. C., 1 February 26,1865 J My Dear Wife: I have no time for particulars. We have had a glorious time in this State. Unrestricted license to burn and pluoder was the order of the day. The chivalry have beeD etript of moat of theii valuables. Gold watches, silver pitchers, cups, spoons, forks, etc., are as common iu camp as blackberries. The terms of plunder are as follows: The valuables procured are estimated by companies. Each compaoy is required to exhibit the result of its operations at any given place?onefifth and first choice falls to the share of the commander-in Chief and staff, one-fifth to the corps commander and staff, one-fifth to field offioers of regiments and two fifths to the company. Officers are not allowed to join in these expeditions without disguising themselves as privates One of our corps commanders borrowed a suit of rough clothes from one j of my men and was successful in this place. He got a large quaotity of silver (among other things an old time silver milk pitcher) and a very fine gold watch from a Mr. DeSaussure at this place. DeSaussure is one of the F F. V.'s of S. C , and was made to fork out liberally. Officers over the rank of captain are not made to put their plunder in the estimato for distribu tion. This is very unfair and for that reas on, in order to protect themselves, subordinate offioers and privates keep back everything that they can carry about their persons?suoh as riogs, ear rings, breast pins, etc., cto., of which, if I ever live to get home, I have about a quart I am not joking?I have at least a quart of jewelry for you and all tbo girls?and some No 1 diamond riogs and pins among them. Gen. eral Sherman has silver and gold enough to start a bank. His share in gold watches and chains alone, at Columbia, was two hundred and seventy-five (275). But 1 said I could not go into particulars. All the general officers and many besides, have valuables of every description down to embroidered ladies' pooket handkerchiefs (I have my share of them too) We took gold and silver enough from the d?d rebels to have redeemed their infernal currency twioe over. This (the currency) when ever we came across it, we burned as we considered it utterly worthless I wish all the jewelry this army has could bo oarried to the "Old Bay State." It would dock her out in glorious style ; but alas 1 it will be scattered all over the North and Middle States. The damned niggere, as a general rule, preferred to stay at home? particularly after they found out that we only wanted the able bodied men, (and, to tell the truth, the youngest and best looking women). Sometimes we took off whole families and plantations of niggers, by way of repaying the secessionists. But the useless part of these we soon manage to lose ?sometimes in crossing rivers?sometimes by other ways. I shall write to you again from Wilmington, Goldsboro,' or some place in North Carolina. The order to march has arrived, and I must close hurriedly. Love to grandmother and aunt Charlotte. Take care of yourself and the children. Don't show this letter out of the family. Your affeotionate husband, Thos. J. Myers, Lieut, eto. P. S ?I will send this by the first flag of truce to be mailed, unless I have an opportunity of sending it to Hilton Head. Tell Sallie I am saving a pearl bracelet and ear-ring for her. But Lambert got the . . 1 ? . /?.! T necklace and breast pin or tne same set. i am trying to trade him out of them. These were taken from the Misses Jamison, daughters of the President of the South Carolina Secession Convention. We found iheso on our trip through Georgia." This letter was addressed to "Mrs. Thos. S- Myers, Boston, Mass " A great many aneodotes are related of personal bravery. We would like to see that man who would deliberately allow a woman to catch him making mouth's at her babe. Wrecking in the Mississippi ?The Cairo (Illinois) Democrat relates that nearly forty years ago the steamer Neptune sunk in the bend below Cairo, and it was reported that she bad a large amount of silver on board. As there were no Western bell or wrecking boats in those days, no efforts to save any part of her cargo was made, until , twenty or twenty-five years afterward, when a bell-boat, after long search, succeeded in finding the wreck, well buried in the sand. A large quantity of lead was recovered, and among other articles brought to the surface was a keg of butter, which, for a short time after being opened, was apparently as fresh and as sweet as when it left the upper air so many years before. But by the time all bands had examined it the delicious butter began to show signs of decay, and in a few minutes emitted such a detestable odor that the bystanders were glad to push it overboard with long poles, while their noses were tightly compressed by their fingers and thumbs. A carpenters' tool-chest was also found, the tools in which, when opened, seemed to be in a remarkably fine state of preservation, the wooden handles and the plane9 appearing almost uninjured, while the iron seemed to have only a small coating of rust. In a few hours, however, after being exposed to the air the entire wood work crumbled into dust, and the iron became so thickly ooated or eaten up with rust that it could be broken in pieces by the fingers. It was never known, publicly, whether any of the silver was recovered, but many persons thought that the divers could tell more about it than ever they did. If none of the silver was recovered, the own- e; ers of the bell-boat were nevertheless paid ii for their enterprise by the recovery of lead and other articles from the wreck. I n The Idiosyncracies of N. York Misers. t< It is not generally known that New York tl at the present time contains a large number n of misers as inveterate and degraded as any 1< on record, and if we had space we could tl give a series of portraits of avarice and p wealth whiob would make the reader shud- Ci der. Many of these misers are old business ii men, who have withdrawn from active life is and Still koop op their faded and waathor ?i worn signs, and beneath thegarbof trade, ply c their money-saving habits. These men ri will be found sitting solitary, in dingy offi- h ces filled with cobwebs, and thick with the w dust of years. Money borrowers know si where to go, and here these pale and thread- li bare fossils receive their best securities for daily loans. Some of these half starved e< wretches, whose trembling hands can hard- tl ly sign a check, can draw for sums that n would Bhake a bank. One of the richest si men in the city is now to be found in just ai such a dingy hole as we have described, d where he loans enormous sums daily. He r was a merchant once, and his old sign is u still up; and inside, all things remain as C they were half a century ago. He suffers si daily for the comforts of life, but all this is si compensated for by the pleasure of aocumu s< lation. "They come to me to beg," said r< the old man to an acquaintance, "and there p is not a beggar in New York that doesn't is live as I do," a statement which was quite a true u A specimen of the better class of this o1 genus was given in the late Exchange Place robbery, were Rufus Lord, a man up- P ward of fourscore, was the solitary occupant P of an office, which contained between 81,- a 000,000 and 82,000,000 in stocks and securities, all his own. Here this old man ai sat, day after day, accumulating at the rate te of 82,000 per week, no doubt hoping in 01 due time to get rich. Such a hord was worth tapping, and tho job was odo of the u neatest and most successful ever done in New York. " The late Stephen Whitney was a striking instance of the commercial miser. When we knew him he had made about $10,000,- ^ 000, and at the age of seventy five was trying hard to get rich. The person and courf- g tcnance of this wretched man were a study. The tremulous form, the sharpened features '^ and the solioitous eye told of the one idea which mastered the soul. Mr. Whitney was in his day to be seen habitually in Wall street, picking his way along among the brokers and sharpers, and buying notes, of whioh he was a good judge His son in- ^ law was in a heavy business, but his paper was not considered first rate; the only chances of his success being that the old man would keep him up. This chance we used to hear often discussed, and on its ^ probability his paper found a market. But the old man did not keep him up, and he showed himself too sharp to be gulled by so near a relative. Mr. Whitney was some- ^ thing of a politician ; on one ocoasioti the leaders of his party came with an applica- ^ tion for funds for electioneering purposes. "Gentlemen," was the reply, "I am with you, heart and body. As for money, I have none; but to help along, I will come and sit up all night and fold ballots " Some of these New York misers are utterly recluse, while others are social and of- e< ten meet to discuss methods of money ma- n king The group occasionally seen in a T certain old rookery; where a few millions tv are represented in hungry form and seedy 01 raiment, would be a study for an artist.? si The great complaint with this class is that ze "interest is down, money is cheap, and the id country is going to ruin Only tive per ti< cent, on good paper, and sis on bond and ry mortgage j and a9 for seven-thirties they ly pay well enough, but one may get his throat pi cut taking care of them. "The world's made w of thieves and beggars, and there's no use n< trying to get along."?N. Y. Citizen or Curious Facts About Water. hi The extent to which waters mingle with ar bodies apparently the most solid, is very of wonderful. The glittering opal, which at beauty wears as an ornament, is only flint pi and water. Of every 1200 tons of earth or which a land holder has in his estate, 400 ~~ are water. The snow-capped summits of tu Snowden and lien Nevis have many million ca tons of water in a solidified form. In every t"a plaster of Paris statue which an Italian to carries through our streets for sale, there is di one pound of water to four pounds of chalk. a The air wo breathe oontains five grains of water to each cubie foot of its bulk. The wi potatoes and turnips which are boiled for be our dinner have, in their raw state, the one seventy-five per cent and the other ninety per cent of water. If a man weighing ten P< stones, were squeezed in a hydraulic pres9, of seven and a half stone of water would run th out, and only two and a balf of dry residue ati remain. A man is, ohemioally speaking, all forty-five pounds of carbon and nitrogen, tai diffused through five and a half pailfuls of bi< water. In plants we find water thus ming- po ling no less wonderfully. A sunflower ar| evaporates one and a quarter pints of water dii a day, and a cabbage about the same quan- Sc tity. A wheat plant exhales, in 172 days, th ak/Mif inn nnn nroino nf tvafor An nfl of growing wheat, on this calculation, ly draws aod passes out about ten tons of wa- T1 ter per day. The sap of plants is the of medium through which this mass of fluid tu is oonveyed. It forms a delicate pump, up Ai which the watery particles run with the in rapidity of a swift stream. By the aotion lai of the sap, various properties may be com- th municated to the growing plant. Timber an in France is, for instance, dyed by various pe colors being mixed with water, and sprinkled tal over the root of the tree. Dahlias are also er colored by a similar process. bl "Never Had a Quarrel." Saoh is the remark of England's greatst General, and the following story may 38trnot and profit other persons: At a very late period of the life of the >uke of Wellington be wrote thns: "I am ot in the habit of deciding npon each mat >rs hastily or in anger; and the proof of bis is, that I never had a quarrel with any ian in my life.' Let any one consider the )ng and varied civil and military career of ae iron Dnke; the innumerable olasses of ersons with whom be was brought into ontact; his constant vexations in the Penisular, with red tapeism at home and Spanih pride and suspicions abroad; bis diffinlties in political lift*; thn habit* and haracter of the army, especially at that peiod, and then let him repress, if he can, iB wonder at this great Captain being able, hen quite over sixty years of age, to make rch a broad declaration as to his past te. It is very evident that be who oommandd others began by commanding himself; iat the coolness, self-possession and sharpess of view which were, perhaps, bis most ilient traits in a campaign, were, in part, t least, the fruits of a constant and careful iscipline of his own feelings under ordinap circumstances, "Never had a quarrel in ly life !" How many civilians, how many ihristians?aye I how many olergymen, can ly the same thing. Yet it is certainly posble to pass through life without quarrels, jeing the old proverb holds good, that it squires two to consummate any suoh unleasant business. A quarrels with B That i a misfortune whioh possibly A may not void. A may want to pick a quarrel for Iterior purposes, or he may be insolent or ffensive without knowing it, or he may ike a perverse delight in wounding other eople's feelings. But in any case, it deends upon B alone, whether there is to be mutual quarrel. If, like Wellington, he avoided acting in Dger or haste?always the two great foments of trouble?he will almost invariably 3me to despise the affront, if intended, or > overlook it, if not At all events he will ot "quarrel." He may give the offender a wide berth 1 the future; he may shun association with im, but he will have no altercation and he ill nurse no grudge. If required to make personal statement, oral or written, he will o it with judicial calmness aod coolness, voiding a reflection with others, and conning himself simply to the facts If these re questions he makes no reply, but leaves ie issue to Time, to Truth, and to God. The man who settles in his mind that, ith God's help, he will never quarrel with cy man, will almost certainly succeed.? he very resolution would out off ninesnths of the provocation of strife ; and any T >. r..tici ?iJ J: a. ?.i -IUIC IU IUIIUI iu wuuiu uiapuae ui IUC utuci nth. A Wonderful .Railroad Invention. The London Ucralda&ya: It is a curious ict that for the last four years au invention hich tray prove ooe of the most useful as ell as the most wooderful of this wonderorkiug age has been on view within an our's drive of Paris. The general public *c at this moment unaware that a La Jou iere, close to the pretty village of Bougial, they have an opportunity of witnessing very Sunday the extraordinary sight of a til way train ascending a steep gradient ithout the aid of- steam the carriages of hich are destitute of wheels. The invention is due to a French enginjr, M. L. D. Girard It is found on a ew application of an old principal, viz :? hat a layer of water introduced between vo metal surfaces, enables them to glide i each other with as little friction as a 1 ab of ice on the polished surface of a fro;n lake. M. Girard has conoeived the 1 lea of applying this principle to locomo- I on, and the experiment he has been carding on for the last four years, successful 1 demonstrates that it is applicable to the I opelling of railway trains. Io his system j heels are dispensed with, aod there can be ) doubt that were his invention applied to | dinary railways, an engine which is now } lly able to draw a train weighing, say five ( jndred tons, at the rate of twenty miles ( i hour, would with the same expenditure 1 ' fuel, be able to draw double the weight double the speed M. Girard, however, ( irposea to discard steam as a motive pow | . This is the weak part of his inveotion -the value of which consists in the substi- t tion of sledge carriages for wheels. These .rriages are fitted ou slides, which fit upon ils of a peculiar construction , by simply roiug a cock, a stream of water is intro ( iced between the slide and the rail, and ? gentle motive power being applied, the rriage mounted on the slide, shoots forird with a speed which really has no limit ( yond the consideration of safety. Southern Influence on National j 3litics. ? We notice that a great many the Southern newspapers are advertising s e people of the South to pay no further tention to political affairs, but to give up a 1 care as to whether or not their represen- a o? orlmittorl tn flnnm-oaa ftnH f.r? a. e ll?v.a ?.v ?? O 7 X de patiently the development of the par- ^ ses of their "Northern masters." They gut* that the appearanoe of affairs is so f scoaraging, and that the position of the a iuth is one of saoh utter helplessness, that ^ e best thing its people can do is to let litios drift, and devote themselves entire- fl to improving their material fortunes.? le advice, in a broad and prominent point a view is bad. It woald be a most unfornate thing that such a vast body of the merican people should settle down into difference upon suoh vital matters of popu- j r concern. It is absolutely essential to J e proper working and permament continuce of our free institutions that the whole n oplo of the country should at all times D ke an active interest in them. Our Southn fellow-citizens may, and uncjuestiooay do, feel greatly disoomflfted in their re- t cent political hopes; bat it oiaaot and will not be long until they are enabled to renew their activity upon a field in whioh, while tbey have made several terrible blunders, they have also taught the country some of its most valuable lessons.?N. Y. Times. A Touohing Incident. A young maD and his wife were preparing to attend a Christmas party at the bouse of a friend, some miles distant. "Henry, my dear husband, don't drink too much at the party to-day; yon will promise me, won't you ?" said she putting her hand upon his brow, aud raising her eyes to his # * ? ? M ..\T W11* . lace witu a pleading smile, "no, mime, I will aot; you may trust me," and she wrapped ber infant in a soft blanket, and they descended. The horses were soon prancing over the tarf, and a pleasant conversation beguiled the way. "Now don't forget your promise," whispered the young wife, as they passed up the steps. Poor thing ! she was the wife of a man who loved to look upon the wine when red. The party passed pleasantly; the time for departure drew near; the wife descended from the upper chamber to join her husband. A pang shot through her beating heart as she met him, for be was intoxicated; he had broken his promise. Silently they rode homeward, save when the drunken man broke into snatches of a song, or unmeaning laughter. But the wife rode on, her babe pressed closely to her grieved heart. "Give me the baby, Millie; I can't trust you with him," he said, as they approached a dark and swollen stream. After some hesitation she resigned her Srst born?ber darling babe, closely wrapped in a great blanket?to bis arms. Over the dark waters the noble steed safely bore them; and when they reached the bank, the mother asked for her child. With much oare and tenderness he placed the bundle in ber arms; but when she clasped it to her heart no babe was there; it had slipped from the blanket, and the drunken father knew it not. A wild shriek from the mother aroused him, and he turned round just in time to see the little rosy face rise one moment" above the dark waters, then sink forever, and that by his own intemperance ! The anguish ot the mother and remorse of the father are better imagined than described Crlascow flews. Prussia.?The London Times gives the following as the solution of the remarkable military strength of Prussia. The seoret is that her system makes more soldiers in proportion to population than any other: Sixty yean since, after the famous battle of Jena, Napoleon imposed on the defeated Prussians the obligation to limit their military establishments to a strength of 42,000 men. It was impossible to oontradiot the Emperor, and not easy as might be thought, to deceive him, but the device was accomplished by Scharohort, the War Minister of the time, who not only evaded the deoree of Napoleon, but laid the foundations of that military strength which has just been displayed in a oareer of unexampled triumph. Soharnhorst did restrict the actual or visible army of Prussia to the specified numbers, but he kept his army in a state of perpetual change. Its constitution never remained the same for twelve months together, but resembled the waters of a lake which receives a river at one end and dis charges it at the other. As soon as a recruit was thoroughly drilled and had become an effective soldier he was dismissed to his home and a fresh reoruit was received in his plaoe, to be again disciplined and again dismissed. The result of this system was that the standing army beoame but a specimen corps of a nation of soldiers. For every soldier in the ranks there were five as good as he in the body of the people, all ready at the first call of the trumpet to reenter the line of the army. When therefore, seven years after her great defeat, Prussia once more rose, a force of 200,000 men, admirably disciplined, appeared in the place of an army which Napoleon believed he had cut down to a fifth of that number. T*he Prussians were not ungrateful to their benefactor. To this day the statute of Scharnborst, in white marble, stands by the side of the great guard-house in the great thoroughfare of Berlin, a reoord of military lagacity as well as national fame. Courage in Every-Day Life ?Have the courage to discharge a debt while you lave money in your pocket. Have the courage to do without that ivhioh you do not need, however much your iyes may covet it. Have the oourage to speak your mind vhen it is necessary you should do so, and ,o hold your tongue when it is prudent you should do so. Have the courage to speak to a friend in i "seedy coat," even though you are in sompany with a rich one, and richly attirid. Have the oourage to make a will, and a net one. Have the courage to tell a man why you vill not lend him your money. Have the courage to "cut" the most igreeable acquaintance you have when you ,re convinced that he lacks principle. "A fiend should bear with a friend's infirmiies," but not with his vices. Have the courage to show your respect or honesty, in whatever guise it appears ; nd your coDtempt for dishonest duplicity, iy whomsoever exhibited. Have the oourage to* wear your old lothes until you pay for your new ones. Have the oourage to obey your Maker, t the riBk of beine ridiculed by man. Have the oourage to prefer comfort and iropriety to fashion, in all things. Have the courage to acknowledge your gnorance, rather than to seek credit for :nowledge under false pretences. Have the courage to provide entertainaent for your friends within your means? lot beyondtfSf Oregon has shipped 85,169,500 in rcasure in the last eight months.