to see the farmers congregate together in warm weather, under the shade of trees about the vicinity of the house, smoking their long pipes and drinking, hearing and telling the news and laughing and talking together for two or three hours before the funeral would move. This long stay at the house previous to proceeding to the place of interment, together with the great plenty of spirituous liquor distributed about, sometimes occasioned scenes of much noise, and very inappropriate to the purpose for which they had assembled. change which has since been produced in this practice is mainly to be credited to The THE EXERTIONS OF ONE GENTLEMAN, the Rev. Evan M. Johnson, then the rector of the Episcopal church at Newtown, who some years since proposed to the vestry of that church, that thereafter, at all funerals in that congregation, the friends should be bidden or invited at one hour and the interment should take place the next succeeding hour so as to allow them sufficient time to assemble and no more, and to induce its acceptance the rector agreed to relinquish his claim to a scarf on such occasions. He also proposed that the use of spirituous liquors at funerals should be discontinued; to all these propositions the vestry assented, recommending that in place of spirituous liquors wine should be handed around among the people; this was a great reform when we consider that it was long before the temperance movement commenced. This plan being seen to work well in that congregation, was also adopted by other congregations in other parts of the island, and after a while the use of wine itself at funerals was dispensed with. But expensive as was the character of the funeral on this island, and in New York, they could not compare in that respect with those among the Dutch inhabitants of the city of Albany. Judge Benson, in his memoir before the New York Historical Society, describes the FUNERAL OF LUCAS WYNGAARD, interment, as the custom then was, to the house of the deceased towards the close of the day, and a large number of them never left it until the dawn of the ensuing day. In the course of the night a pipe of wine, which had been stored in the cellar for some years before the occasion, was drank; dozens of papers of tobacco were consumed; grosses of pipes broken; scarce a whole decanter or glass was left, and, to crown the whole, the pall-bearers made A BONFIRE OF THEIR SCARFS upon the hearth of the room where they were carousing. This may have been a little more uproarious than most of the funerals at that period, as the deceased was a bachelor, and had no widow and children in the same house to control and in some degree to modify their proceedings; but yet all the funerals of that time were more than enough so under any circumstances. Even down to within the last fifty years Albany was noted for the expensive characters of its funerals. A funeral in a respectable old Dutch family at that place, and especially of the head of any principal member of it, often cost from three to four thousand dollars. That of the first wife of the late Patroon Hon. Stephen Van Rensselaer, it is said, cost him not less than $20,000! All his tenants were invited, and most of them were in Albany two or three days at his expense, and two thousand linen scarfs were given on that occasion. It was formerly the custom there for a young man immediately previous to his marriage to send to the | Island of Madeira for a pipe or two of the best wine, a portion of which being used in the rejoicings consequent upon his marriage, and the remainder being stowed away for his funeral and that of his wife. It was also the practice in that city to send out. SPECIAL FUNERAL INVITATIONS for all the friends and acquaintances of the deceased being about the same age, and likewise for all the clergy and professional men of the city and neighboring country, and general invitations from the pulpits of the churches for the citi who died in that city in 1756, a bache-zens at large. To the house of each lor, leaving some estate. The invitation to that funeral was very general, and those who attended returned after the person thus especially invited was sent a linen scarf, a pair of black silk gloves, a bottle of old Madeira wine, and two "funeral cakes," which were round and about the size of a dinner plate. This was done previous to the funeral, and was in addition to the great quantity of spiced wine and other liquors which with tobacco and pipes, were distributed and used at the house of the deceased immediately preceding and after the interment. When General Schuyler died in that city all the clergy, lawyers, physicians, and even students in Albany and its neighborhood for many miles were invited specially, and a scarf, gloves, a bottle of wine, with funeral cakes, given to each one of them. So particular were they about the linen of which to make these scarfs that in several instances they sent down by land to New York in the depth of winter to purchase it, and paid two dollars a yard. Common linen would not answer; the finer it was the better it was liked for that purpose.-Frank Moore's Antiquities of Long Island. Mother's Way. Oft within our little cottage, And in hushed and tender tone, Colloquial Provincialisms. We once heard an intelligent gentleman assert that he could generally tell where a person had been born and brought up, upon listening to his or her conversation for half an hour. "There are very few individuals, however well educated," he said, in explanation of his theory," who do not retain, in their ordinary conversation, some colloquialisms or peculiarities of pronunciation indigenous to the locality where they first learned to talk. A Virginian could be distinguished," he continued, “by one kind of intonation, a New Englander by another, and a Philadelphian by a third. A phrase would frequently betray whether the speaker came from the North or South, the Atlantic seaboard or the West. Words which have been, two centuries ago, good English, and which had been brought over at that time by colonists, had, in some sections, retained their meaning, and in others become obsolete; and the use of such words, or the substitution of more modern synonyms, betrayed the domicile of those who employed them. Even thorough masters of the English tongue, who, when they wrote, wrote with the greatest purity, fell often, in hurried talk, into the careless, slip-shod style of their childhood, and deformed their conversation with colloquial provincialisms." Every accurate observer will concede the truth of these remarks. New Yorkers have a fashion of using "dickering" for "bargaining;" the Yankee says "cute" instead of "smart ;" and in Georgia "do don't" is often inelegantly substituted for "do not." Many a Virginia woman, in other respects perfectly well bred, says "tote" when she means carry "—a habit acquired in youth from hearing the plantation negroes use the word. We know an excellent old lady, who has resided here for fifty years, who says bun-net" for "bonnet," because she so learned to pronounce it when a child, in Boston.. A Yankee says "hum" for "home," "heow" for "how." We might multiPly examples. Improprieties of speech not belonging to any particular locality Éven educated persons frequently say "I set down," in-Hearth and Home. I stead of "I sat down;" and the phrase This was our dear mother's way." Thus we keep her memory precious, While we never cease to pray That at last, when lengthening shadows Mark the evening of our day, They may find us waiting calmly To go home our mother's way! are as common. "I have saw," instead of "I have seen,' is actually heard. The most villainous barbarism is "I had went," which we believe is of exclusively Pennsylvania origin. "Let you and I go," is still a more ordinary mistake. "Learn your brother that lesson," instead of "teach your brother," is a phrase sometimes used even by cultivated people. "This fifty years," in place of "these fifty years," is a not unfrequent error. "Between you and I," is another colloquial error. We do not say that educated persons write in this way, but that often in conversation they talk thus. One who attends to such things will notice, even in the best companions, an astonishing number of similar blunders. Generally, these mistakes are the fault of parents, though sometimes they are unavoidable. If a mother is uncultivated, if she uses slang words, or if she leaves her progeny to grow up among servants, the children will acquire numerous provincialisms or other improprieties of speech, which, in after life, they will find it difficult to shake off. We knew a brother and sister, once, who had different nurses, and whose mother, being in delicate health, saw comparatively little of them. One nurse was Irish, the other German; and to this day each child retains more or less of the peculiarities of its nurse's pronunciation. We knew another case, in which a boy had been brought up wholly by the mother, who, years ago, fell into the error, as the phrase goes, of "talking like a book;" and the result is, that the child has few, or none, of the idioms of the language, and, instead of speaking the racy Saxon, converses like a Johnson in petticoats. Too much care cannot be taken, even in the nursery, to use pure English. There is, perhaps, no more certain method of telling whether a man or woman has been accustomed to cultivated society from infancy, than to listen to his or her every-day talk. Education, unless it begins with babyhood; cannot, in general, teach persons to avoid colloquial provincialisms. -Phil. Ledger. "God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." -1 Ep. John iv. 16. London. In few cities are there more than half-a-dozen railway stations. In London there are at least one hundred and fifty. Some of the railways never pass beyond the limits, and of one, the Tottenham and Hampstead, Punch says: "No one ever travels by it, as no one knows where it begins or where it ends." The Metropolitan and other intramural railways run trains every three or five minutes, and convey from twenty to fifty million of passengers annually. Clapham is the great southwestern junction, and through it seven hundred trains pass every day. Its platforms are so numerous, and its underground passages and overground bridges so perplexing, that to find the right train is one of those things that no fellow can understand. As a proof of the expansive nature of London traffic, it was supposed that when the Metropolitan Railway was opened, all the city to Paddington omnibuses would be run off the ground; but, although it carried forty-three millions of passengers last year, it has been found necessary to increase the number of omnibuses on the southern route, and they yield one per cent. more revenue than before the opening of the railway. Besides the railways, there are some fourteen or fifteen thousand train-cars, omnibuses and cabs traversing the streets; there are lines of omnibuses known only to the inhabitants of their own localities-such as those across the Isle of Dogs, from Poplar to Milwall; from London bridge along Tooley street to Dockhead, etc. The London Omnibus Company have five hundred and sixtythree omnibuses, which carry fifty millions of passengers annually. It is more dangerous to walk the streets of London than to travel by railway or cross the Atlantic. Last year one hundred and twenty-five persons were killed and two thousand five hundred and thirteen injured by vehicles in the streets. Supposing every individual man, woman and child made one journey on foot in London a day, which is considerably above the average, the deaths would be one in eleven millions, while the railways only kill about one in fifty millions of passengers, and the Cunard Company of Atlantic steamers boast of having never lost a passenger. Other instances of the immensity of the population of London are that threequarters of a million of business men enter the city in the morning and leave it in the evening for their suburban residences. There are ten thousand policemen, as many cab-drivers, and the same number of persons connected with the post-office, each of whom with their families, would make a large town. When London makes a holiday, there are several places of resort, such as the Crystal Palace, the Zoological Gardens, Kew Gardens, etc., which absorb from thirty to fifty thousand visitors each. The cost of gas for lighting is £2,500,000 annually; the water supply is one hundred millions of gallons a day. In the year 1873, there were five hundred and seventy-three fires; and for the purpose of supplying information on the passing events of the day, three hundred and fourteen daily and weekly newspapers are required. What London will eventually become it is idle to predict. It already stands in four counties, and is striding on to a fifth (Herts). The probability is that by the end of the century, the population will exceed five millions, and will have quintupled itself in the century. Should it progress at an equal rate in the next, it will in the year 2000 amount to the enormous aggregate of twenty-five millions; and the question that naturally arises is how could such a multitude be supplied with food. But the fact is the more its population increases the better they are fed. In the Plantagenet days, when the population was not a third of a million, famines were of frequent occurrence, but now, with the command of the pastures, the harvests and the fisheries of the world, starvation becomes an almost impossible eventuality, even with the twenty-five millions of mouths to feed. -Ch. Intelligencer. Pleasant Discipline. We take the following from the "Christian Guardian." Certainly the most agreeable kind of discipline to all concerned, and often the most effective. Fathers, try it! More parents than one have felt perplexed in not being able to keep the little folks quiet during prayers. To them the following bit of experience may not be uninteresting. My little George, nearly six years old, has, perhaps, as much mercury in his composition as most lads of his age. Indeed, he has always been a noted character for restlessness, and this he has frequently displayed, much to my grief, at the family altar. He has often been punished in various ways, but has soon forgotten it. A few weeks ago he had been about his best during the entire service, and when he rose from prayer, I kissed him. He looked astonished (had his mother done it that would have been no surprise), and said, "Pa, why did you kiss me?" "Because you were a good boy while we were praying." "O! well, I'm glad," and his eyes fairly sparkled with satisfaction, and off he ran to play. There has been no trouble in that line, and every morning he comes for a kiss. A similar trial may have a good effect in other cases. A slight reward, timely bestowed, may prevent the necessity of a heavy punishment. In the government of God over men He not only punishes for evil, but rewards for well doing. Surely it is safe to copy after the great Original. Finishing the Work. Education of Ancient Hebrew Chil- | nor near a river which had to be crossed dren. by an insecure bridge. The father himself, as a rule, saw to it, that the child Though the Bible does not fix the should be in the class at the proper precise age when the boy's education is time. Even so distinguished a doctor as to commence, the Talmud found it Rabbi b. Huna, we are told, never parnecessary to determine the period. Thus took of his breakfast till he had taken we are told, that "at the age of five the his son to school. The course of study boy is to begin to learn the Bible, at ten pursued in the metropolis was more exthe Mishna, and at fifteen the Talmud." tensive. Extracts from the law, the This is all the more interesting to us prophets, and the sayings of the sages, since there can hardly be any doubt however, constituted the lessons of all that this rule existed in the time of children alike. Thus we are told, that Christ, and that the parents of our the children had scrolls on which were Saviour and the apostles acted in accor- written passages of Scripture, such as dance with it. With the exception of the Shema, the Hallel or Festival Hymns, princes, who had priests and prophets to and the History of Creation. Instruceducate their children, and the public tion was imparted in questions and anlectures delivered by the prophets on swers, or in a catechetical form. After the festivals, the office of teaching in or- the master had delivered his dicta or dinary families devolved upon the theme, the pupils asked different quesparents. They were the teachers. This tions, which he frequently answered by natural duty was a welcome occupation parables or counter questions. Someto a people who led a rural life, and times the teachers introduced the subwhose Sabbaths and festivals freed them ject by simply asking a question confrom labor more than a sixth part of the nected with it. The replies given by whole year. In these leisure hours the the pupils constituted the discussion, parents, who were strictly forbidden to which the master at last terminated by engage in any secular work, were in pointing out the most appropriate anconstant contact with their children; swer. Thus when the celebrated R. and the many symbols, rites, and cere- Jochanan b. Zakkia, who flourished. monies connected with these institutions, about thirty years before Christ, wanted were used by them as so many illus- to inform his disciples what was the trated narratives of the dealings of most desirable thing for a man to seGod. It is this circumstance which cure, he asked them, "What is the best accounts for the fact, that the name thing for a man to possess?" One re"school" does not occur in the Bible plied, "A kind nature;" another, "A previous to the Babylonish captivity. good companion;" another, "A good When the Jews became entangled in neighbor;" another, "The power to foreforeign affairs, and when they en- see consequences;" whilst Eleazar said gaged in commercial transactions with "A good heart" Whereupon R. Jochaother nations, which involved the ab- nan remarked, "I prefer Eleazar's ansence of the father from home, thus de-swer to yours, for in it all your answers priving the child of his natural teacher, are comprehended." What a striking then regular schools had to be estab-illustration this mode of teaching furlished. nishes, of the questions put by our Saviour to His disciples in Mark viii. 27-30? We possess minute information on the education of children, and the arrangement of schools, which obtained after In addition to the instruction in the the Babylonish captivity and at the Bible and in the sayings of the sages, time of Christ. A school and teacher the greatest care was bestowed in teachwere required for every five-and-twentying the children good manners. They children. When there were only forty children in a community, they were allowed to have one master and an assistant. Not to impair the health or endanger the lives of the children, the school was not allowed to be established in the most densely crowded part of the town, were taught to salute every one whom they met in the street, and not to respond to a salutation was regarded as committing a robbery. An ordinary man was greeted with the words, "Peace be with thee;" a teacher, "Peace be with thee, my teacher and my master;" |