Category: Evening Book

  • History of Cocoa

    The cacao is a native of South America, where it was not only used for food, but the seeds served as money. The tree is not unlike that of the cherry in form, and seldom exceeds twenty feet in height. The leaves are oblong, and pointed at the end, and when young are of a […]

  • Adventures In India

    The following extract is from a work recently published in England, with the title of ” Pen and Pencil Sketches; being the Journal of a Tour in India. By Captain Mundy.” Some peculiarities of style will be obvious in the captain’s narrative; but few can object to his hilarity and buoyancy of spirit : ” […]

  • Necessity And Invention

    A curious catalogue might be made of the shifts to which ingenious students in different departments of art have resorted, when, like Davy, they have wanted the proper instruments for carrying on their inquiries or experiments. His is not the first case in which the stores of an apothecary’s shop are recorded to have fed […]

  • Fascination With Serpents

    There is a very general opinion, which has been adopted even by some eminent naturalists, that several species of serpents possess the, power of fascinating birds and small quadrupeds, by fixing their eyes upon the animal, so that the poor victim is unable to escape from his formidable enemy. Dr. Barton, of Philadelphia, published, in […]

  • Duels

    Duelling in England was carried to its greatest possible excess in the reigns of James I. and of the two Charleses. In the reign of the latter Charles, the seconds always fought as well as their principals; and as they were chosen for their courage and adroitness, their combats were generally the most fatal. Lord […]

  • Decision Of Character

    You may recollect the mention, in one of out-. conversations, of a young man who wasted in two or three years a large patrimony, in profligate revels with a number of worthless associates calling them-selves his friends, till his means were exhausted, when they of course treated him with neglect or contempt. Reduced to absolute […]

  • Hermit And The Vision

    It is told of a religious recluse, who, in the early ages of Christianity, betook himself to a cave in Upper Egypt, which, in the times of the Pharaohs, had been a depository for mummies, that he prayed there, morning, noon, and night, eating only of the dates which some neighboring trees afforded, and drinking […]

  • Superstition Of The Horseshoe

    The horseshoe was, of old, held to be of especial service as a security against the attacks of evil spirits. This virtue may have been assigned, perhaps, by the rule of contraries, from its being a thing incompatible with the cloven foot of the Evil One; or from the rude resemblance which the horseshoe bears […]

  • Grisly Bear

    The strength and ferocity of the Grisly Bear are so great that the Indian hunters use much precaution in hunting them. They are reported to attain a weight exceeding eight hundred pounds, and Lewis and Clark mention one that measured nine feet from the nose to the tail and say that they had seen a […]

  • Influence Of The Moon

    A late number of the Foreign Quarterly Review contains a notice of some scientific inquiries, made by a French gentleman, M. Arago, into the influence of the moon. The first question, which M. Arago undertakes to examine, is, whether the moon exercises any influence on the rain; and the result of his investigations is, that, […]