METALS,

I thought I would speak of lead to-day; for there is too much to be said about iron, to be half told in such a paper as this. But I thought I must say a few words about steel manufacture and loadstones.

Steel.-Iron is the cheapest metal when first melted out: a pound is worth but three or four cents. But when made into steel breastpins or hair-springs for watches, it is worth nearly as much as Gold. That shows the boys how much learning, attention, industry and labor are worth. Ignorant, idle, careless people, never make cheap materials into articles of great value, and therefore are commonly poor.

Loadstone is a kind of iron ore, a black oxide, which will draw iron to it. The cause of this wonderful attraction nobody knows. An iron rod or bar may get the same pow er by being galvanized, and in other ways, and is then called a magnet. This makes a compass point towards the north. Little tin swans are sold in the toy shops, with bits of steel in their mouths, and a magnet in the box with them, which they will swim after, when put in a bowl of water.

Letter from an intelligent aud obliging
young friend,

To the Editor of the American Penny Magazine. COINS.--One of the most curious American coins is the Pine-tree Shilling. The following notice of is from the "History and Antiquities of of the Northern States":

"The first money was struck in 1652.— The same date was continued upon all that was struck for 30 years after; and, although there are a great variety of dies, it cannot now be determined in what year the pieces were coined." Here he refers to the several pieces which were coined, the shilling, sixpence, threepence, and twopence, the whole set of these is very rare. I have seen but

one.

On the shilling, is this word: "Massachusetts"; and in the centre a pine tree.On the other side, in the center, is the date 1652, under this the figures XII., and around them are the words "New England, an. do." The coins are now very rare, but can be found in almost every good collection, espe cially the shilling piece.

MINERALS. There is scarce a city in the State of New York, but what furnishes some interesting or valuable mineral. Near Lake

George, numerous varieties are found, among which are Calcareous Spar, Limpid Quartz, Epidote, Chalcedony, Agate, Garnet, and Black Tourmaline, besides numerous others. Several are found on Lake Erie, also at Niagara Falls. Some of the minerals mentioned

above are very beautiful. The studies of Mineralogy and Geology are very interesting, and I hope your young readers will receive instruction and amusement from the treatises on minerals, which appear in each number of your paper.

P. S.-Please publish these when convenient. Yours, &c.,

VENEZUELA has made a treaty with Spain, wherein that country acknowledges the independence of Venezuela.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Jewish Press in Palestine.-Sir Moses Montefiore has presented his co-religionists at Jerusalem with two presses, and the necessary types for printing Jewish tracts. The office consists of twenty-two people of that persuasion. A number of works, as an almanac for the year, have already been printed at Jerusalem.

A Bird of Taste.-The Bangor Whig says: "One of our neighbors, a day or two since, had some laces out drying, when a robin, building near the house, had the good taste to select and take up three yards of the lace, and weave it into her nest."

Three whalers at Nantucket have cleared on their last voyage over $106,000.

An Ingenious Lock-The Lowell Journal says that Mr. Aldridge, Superintendent of the Lowell Lock Company, has lately made a padlock, "of which, although ef forts have been made for the last fortnight by a number of persons, yet they have not been able to discover the keyhole."

The American Circulating Library.— Some persons wishing well to the human race, and anxious to bring into operation all the means within their reach to affect an amelioration of the human condition, by enlightening the intellect and enlarging the kindly emotions of the heart, as well as strengthening the moral feelings, have adopted a plan of doing good very simple in its mode, and capable of immense benefit to society. They saw that thousands of volumes of books, many of them very valuable, were lying in the libraries, in odd corners and in various spots about almost every house, unused, covered with dust and probably doomed to furnish the moth or the worm a feast, unless some means could be adopted to bring them forth and get them read. They knew that many persons would read, who do not merely because

they have not the books, and they commenced accordingly what they have termed "The American Circulating Library." Any person may become a member by simply writing in some good moral, religious, historical or other work calculated to inform the intellect or improve the heart, as follows: "This belongs to the American Circulating Library. Please read it and hand it to your neighbor." The book being thus labelled is ready to start on its journey. There is no calculating the amount of information that may thus be thrown among the people, and the good that may be done. Who will lend a hand in the matter? Who will give a book or two? Who will read and then hand to his neighbor ?-Selected.

The "Ideal" of Steamships.-Dr. Darwin's prophecy of the wonders of steam has often been repeated, but notwithstanding the claims of all modern aspirants for the fame of being the first discoverers or suggesters of steam power, old Homer stands alone, it might appear, as the first ideal is in this field of fact and speculation. Hear what he says in his Odyssey, and then say if the old heroic poet has not caught the idea of the ages of steam navigation in his description of the ships of King Alcinous.-Phil. Gaz.

'So shalt thou instant reach the realm assigned,

In wondrous ship, self-moved, instinct with mind,

Though clouds and darkness veil the incumbent sky,

Fearless, through darkness, and through clouds they fly,

Though tempests rage-though rolls the swelling main;

E'en the stern god that o'er the waves presides,

Safe as they pass and safe repass the tides, With fury burns, while careless they convey Promiscuous any guest to any bay."

The Girard College, it is said, will be completed by the first of January, 1848!

ADVICE TO THE LADIES.

A neighbour, who has always menaged to keep the most faithful and obliging servants, till death or matrimony has dissolved the connexion, desires us to publish the following:

Captain Sabretash. in his lately published work, "The Art of Conversation," gives the following good advice to ladies: My friends never scold your servants. Instruct, reprove. admonish, as may be necessary: give warning, or if need be turn the worthless

out of the house, but never descend to scolding, or to the use of rude or harsh language, for there is, in truth, something very undignified in the practice.

There are, no doubt, plenty of bad servants, but there are more bad masters and mistresses in proportion, and for this very evident reason, that it is the object and interest of servants to please their masters; whereas the latter are independent of the former and need take no trouble about the matter; and as there is effort on one side and none on the other, the result will naturally be on the side of those who make at least a fair attempt. Besides, bad masters often make bad servants, when the servants cannot well influence the conduct of their masters.

If people could only see the undignified figure they make when in a towering rage, the chances are that they would contrive to keep their temper rather within bounds.We may excuse anger, and even passion, when the name, fame, or character of friends and relatives is assailed, but to fly into a fury about broken plates or overdone mutton, is to show a want of mental composure that few like to have described in its proper

name.

Recollect that servants are made of the same clay, that they possess feelingskind, generous, just feelings too-as well as their superiors; and is it not casting a stain upon ourselves to rail with ignoble language at those who are made in the same high image of which it is our boast on earth to bear the faintest impress ?-Selected.

Statistics of the State of New York.New York State Register contains a mass of information, valuable to all classes of the citizens, from which we learn that the number of colleges in the State is 12; students, 985; academies and grammar schools, 501 scholars, 34,563; primary and common schools, 10,871; scholars, 501,156; scholars at public charge, 26,266. There are 40,715 white persons over twenty years of age who cannot read and write.

There are three hundred and ninety-one periodicals published in the State. Of these, there are thirteen daily, six semiweekly, two tri-weekly, and eighty-three weekly Whig newspapers. There are eight daily, three semi-weekly, and ninetyfive weekly Loco-Foco papers. There are nine daily, five semi-weekly, one tri-weekly, and eighty-three weekly papers which are neutral, religious, literary, &c. There are two daily aad one weekly Native papers in the State. In glancing over the list, we

notice five agricultural, five temperance, five abolition, four Irish, four German, two French, one Welsh, two Odd-Fellows, one Masonic, one Miller, one Mormon, one Fourier, two Tailors', one Military, and three Bank Note publications. There are also five republications of Birtish Magazines and Reviews in the city of New York. It is difficult to ascertain the exact number of publications issued at any one time, owing to the mortality among newspapers.

There are eighty-five incorporated banks and sixty-five banking associations-making in all one hundred and fifty banks in the State with a capital of $42,734,833. In the Counties of Alleghany, Clinton, Cortland, Franklin, Hamilton, Queen's, Richmond, Rockland, Schoharie, Sullivan and Wyoming, there are no banks. There are fourteen Savings' Banks in the State.

There are forty Foreign Consuls resident in the city o New York.

There are 6383 miles of railroads in operation in the State, which cost for construction $19,606,737 and 30 cents; for repairs and running, $799.752 81 cents. The receipts have been $1,893,658 50 cents.- -Times.

ENGLISH PATENTS.

(From the London Repository of Patent Inventions for June 1845, abridgefd or the Amer. Penny Magazine.)

1. For improvements in working atmospheric Railways, and machinery to make the apparatus.

2. Improvements in making blocks for surface printing, stamping, embossing and moulding.

3. Improvements in making steam boilers. 4 Do. in dressing ores.

5 Do. in fastening on and reefing paddles, by Vice Admiral Hamond.

6 Do. in tubes for draining land.

7. Do. in getting rid of vapors in chemical works.

8. Do. in furnaces, flues, &c.

9. Do. in heating ovens for earthenware. 10. Do, in obtaining copper from ore.

11. Do. in the manufacture of oil and stearine.

12. Do. in the manufacture of farinaceous food.

Receipts.

From the Universal Receipt Book. Pickling-This branch of domestic economy occupies a great variety of articles, which are essentially necessary to the convenience of families. It is too prevelent a practice to make use of brass utensils, to give pickles a fine color. This pernicious

custom is easily avoided, by heating the liquor, and keeping it in a proper degree of warmth before it is poured upon the pickle. Stone jars are the best adapted for sound keeping. Pickles should never be handled with the fingers, but with a wooden spoon, kept for the purpose.

General Cautions in Country Cookery.— Soups are never to be filled up, or have even a drop of water, hot or cold, added; and are never to boil briskly. They are to be long over the fire, simmering, rather than boiling. And all soups having roots or herbs, are to have the meat laid on the bottom of the pan, with a good lump of butter. The herbs and fruits being cut small, are laid on the meat. It is then covered close, and set on a very slow fire. This draws out all the virtue of the roots and herbs, and turns out a good gravy, with a fine flavor, not what it would be if water was put in at first. When the gravy is almost dried up, fill the pan with water, and when it begins to boil take off the fat. Never boil fish, but simmer it till cooked.— Beef quick boiled is thereby hardened: simmer or slowly boil it. Veal and poultry are to be dusted with flour, and put into the kettle in cold water. Cover and boil as slow as possible, skimming the water clean. It is the worst of faults to boil any meat fast. In baking pies, a quick oven well closed, prevents falling of the crust.-Selected.

BREAD is the staff of life; and the art of panification, or bread making, which is carried to such a high degree of excellence in Paris, is thus described in that very useful book, "A Supplement to Ure's Dictionary" lately issued by the Appletons:

Bread.-I believe it may be safely asserted that the art of baking bread, pastry and confectionary, is carried in Paris to a pitch of refinement which it has never reached in London. I have never seen here any bread which, in flavor, color and texture, rivalled the French pain de gruau. In fact, our corn monopoly laws prevent us from getting the proper wheat for preparing at a moderate price, the genuine semoule out of which that bread is baked. Hence, the plebeian bourgeois can daily grace his table with a more beautiful piece of bread than the most affluent English nobleman. The French process of baking, has been recently described, with some minuteness, by their distinguished chemist M. Dumas, and it merits to be known in this country:

At each operation, the workman (petrisseur) pours into the kneading trough the resi

duary leaven of a former kneading, adding the proportion of water which practice enjoins, and diffuses the leaven through it with his hands. He then introduces into the liquid mass the quantity of flour destined to form the sponge (pate.) This flour is let down from a chamber above, through a linen hose (manche) which may be shut by folding it up at the end.

The workman now introduces the rest of the flour by degrees, diffusing and mingling it, in a direction from the right to the left end of the trough. When he has thus treated the whole mass successively, he repeats the same manipulation from left to right. These operations require no little art for their dexterous performance; hence they had the proper name assigned respectively to each, of frasage and contrafrasage. The workman next subjects the dough to three different kinds of movement, in the kneading process. He malaxates it: that is, works it with his hands and fingers, in order to mix very exactly its component parts, while he adds the requisite quantity of flour. He divides it into six or seven lumps (patons) each of which he works successively in the same manner. Then he sizes portions of each, to draw them out, taking only as much as he can readily grasp in his hands. When he has thus kneaded the different lumps, he unites them into one mass, which he extends and folds repeatedly back upon itself. He then lifts up the whole at several times, and dashes it forcibly against the kneading trough, collecting it finally at the left end. The object of these operations is to effect an intimate mixture of the flour, the water and the leaven. No dry powdery spots, called marrons, should be left in any part of the dough.

The kneader has now completed his work; and after leaving the dough for some time to rest, he turns it upside down. He lays the lumps of a proper weight, upon the table, rolls them out, and dusts them with a little flour. He next turns over each lump, and puts it into its panncton, where he leaves it to swell. If the flour be of good quality, the dough be well made, and the temperature be suitable, the lumps will swell much and uniformly. If after the surface has risen, it falls to a considerable extent, the flour must be bad, or it must contain other substances, as potato starch, beanmeal, &c.

Whenever the oven is hot enough, and the dough fermented, it is subjected to the baking process. Ovens, as at present constructed, are not equally heated throughout and are particularly liable to be chilled near the door, in consequence of its being occasionally opened and shut. To this cause M. Dumas ascribes many of the defects of ordinary bread; but he adds, that adopting the patent invention of M. Mouchot these may be obviated. This is called the improved boulangerie perfectionee.

Then follows a detailed description with accurate cuts of this new oven.

I AM WEARY.

I am weary of straying-O fain would I rest, In the far distant land of the pure and the blest;

Where sin can no longer her blandishments spread,

And tears and temptations for ever have fied.

I am weary of hoping-where the hope is

untrue;

As fair, but as fleeiing as morning's bright dew,

I long for that land whose blest promise alone
Is changeless and sure as eternity's throne.
I am weary of sighing o'er sorrows of earth,
O'er gay, glowing visions that fade at their
birth;

O'er the pangs of the loved, that we cannot assuage,

O'er the blightings of youth, and the weakness of age.

I am weary of loving what passes awayThe sweetest, the dearest, alas! may not stay;

I long for that land where these partings are o'er,

And death and the tomb divided hearts no