Most of these are in session again over the land. I do not mean those law-making bodies which meet annually at the State capitols to undo what they had done before, or otherwise make work for the courts and lawyers. But I allude to those little assemblies of young folks—lads and lasses—that weekly meet in the winter season in all the thousand and one school-houses and rural halls throughout our country. Legislatures did I call them? Not quite legislatures; but training schools in which legislators are made; and it is in these that our rising youth are qualifying themselves to govern the country that is so soon to be theirs.
Little as we may think of it, these assemblies, under whatever name they may be known—lyceums, societies, clubs, or “legislatures,”—are a power in the land; they do far more than most people think in forming the characters and fixing the opinions of the great multitude of boys and girls who participate in them. They are to-day more numerous than ever before, though they have been abroad in the land for more than half a century. Many of the leading actors on the world’s stage at the present day owe their position to the influence of one or more of these little associations of which they formed a part in their boyhood days. The writer of this could not count on his fingers the number of his associates in boyhood, who have risen out of these schools to positions of honor and trust in the country.
But there is a marked feature belonging to them now that did not exist a half century ago, the result of a vast change that has been made in public sentiment within that period. Then they were confined only to the boys; now the girls participate in them almost, if not quite, as freely as their brothers; and it must be confessed that in a great majority of cases the result has been beneficial to both sexes. The fogyism of that day stoutly protested that hens should not be permitted to crow, yet they persisted in learning the art, and conservatism has been forced to acknowledge that they can crow vociferously and to good effect. And these institutions have proven to be good crowing schools to girls.
Let these associations be encouraged in every school district; but care should be taken by the elder class that they be properly organized and conducted in an orderly manner. Youthful zeal and ardor will be apt to break out into rudeness and disorder, unless held in check by the aged and experienced. Let the older, then, wherever these associations exist, see to it that they are prudently managed—else instead of blessings they will become evils in the community.
The points to which these efforts should be mainly directed, should be—first, plain rules for their government; second, a strict adherence to them when adopted; a diversity of exercises—not too much debate, and not too many essays; fourth, the avoidance of all personal matters; and fifth, a judicious selection of subjects. With these points held well in view, and with a serious desire for improvement, these institutions can not but be useful; otherwise they should be discontinued.
Farmers everywhere ought to encourage the formation of these institutions in their respective neighborhoods, and aid their sons and daughters in carrying them forward. Give them your countenance and your counsel.
T. G.
[Walking Canes.]
The material of which walking sticks are made is as various as can well-nigh be conceived of. Many are imported woods—some from the tropics, China and the East Indies. The celebrated Whongee canes are from China, where they are well known and celebrated for the regularity of their joints, which are the points from which the leaves are given off, and the stems of a species of phyllosiachys, a gigantic grass, closely allied to the bamboo. The orange and lemon are highly prized, and are imported chiefly from the West Indies, and perfect specimens command enormous prices. The orange stick is known by its beautiful green bark, with fine white longitudinal markings, and the lemon by the symmetry of its proportions, and both prominence and regularity of its knobs. Myrtle sticks also possess a value, since their appearance is so peculiar that their owner would seldom fail to recognize them. They are imported from Algeria. The rajah stick is an importation. It is the stem of a plant and a species of calamus. It is grown in Borneo, and takes its name from the fact that the Rajah will not allow any to go out of the country unless a heavy duty is paid. These canes, known as palm canes, are distinguished by an angular and more or less flat appearance. Their color is brownish, spotted, and they are quite straight, with neither knob nor curl. They are the petioles of leaf stalk of the date palm. Perhaps the most celebrated of the foreign canes are the Malacca, being the stems of the calamus sceptonum, a slender climbing palm, and not growing around Malacca, as the name would seem to indicate, but imported from Stak, on the opposite coast of Sumatra. Other foreign canes are ebony, rosewood, partridge or hairwood, and cactus, which, when the pith is cut out, presents a most novel appearance, hollow and full of holes.