else. It soon becomes whispered around from one to another, "this man has had, I confess, surprisingly, good luck, but for all that, I have for a long time been looking and expecting him to get into trouble; he runs reckless, approaches stations too fast, follows trains too close," and every conceivable advantage is taken to ferret out all his bad qualities and leave his good ones covered up. This man, once the pride of their flock, is thrown out of their ranks, and not even countenanced, hardly has the privilege of walking over the road, much less riding. regions of His boundless universe. No wonder that God, from His holy throne, has sent out so many kindly messages and sacred promises of love to the solitary and forsaken, the friendless and the destitute; for oh, how much do they need the sympathy of Heaven who have no friends on earth; and how pleasant to the angels of consolation, to pay their unobtrusive and peaceful visits to men of loneliness and sorrow. Would it not repay us richly, yes, a thousand-fold, if we would act more brotherly to each other, and open the doors of sympathy to the unfortunate more freelyto those who hunger and thirst for words of kindness and friendship, and looks of affection and tenderness? No matter how low a man's condition in life may be, each and every heart requires sympathy; for it is like dew to the flowers; without it woe would be desperation, and our joy but feeble and fleeting. Every one who has felt the influence of a sympathizing friend, one cess, or whose face is sorrowful when ours is sad, will bear testimony to the truth of it. Are we rich? Our wealth is a sacred trust for us to deal out to humanity. I notice through life, adversity happens to all alike, without rank or condition; the good are apparently as little favored by fortune as the bad, the high as the humble. People are continually rising and falling. In all the grades of society we often see men of high expectations suddenly cast down from their lofty heights and left to struggle with despair and ruin. A man's fortune depends upon such an uncertain ba-whose eyes sparkle as we speak of our sucsis, there are so many causes by which it may be lost, that we cannot be sure of retaining for any length of time what we now possess. No matter what your station in life may be, banker, farmer or mechanic, all run the risk and share the same unhappy fate. If the happiness of mankind depended upon the caprice of fortune, their condition would be sad indeed. But it is possible to possess a mind which will not lose its tranquility in the severest adversity, or at least such an one as being disturbed and deprived of its wonted serenity by sudden calamity, will recover in a short period and assume its native buoyancy unimpaired by the shock which it has experienced. A mind that is possessed of warm sympathy and open to the pleasures of life, and at the same time is incapable of being cast down by adversity, or in other words, a mind that is capable of enjoying the blessing of wealth and favor, or being happy without them, is undoubtedly possessed of the highest attainable virtue, a virtue which can only be attained by looking beyond this visible sphere, and fixing a steadfast eye upon that eternal Being who dispenses virtue and mercy as the luminary of day dispenses light and heat throughout all the Are we rich with human kindness towards our fellow-men? It is a heavenly treasure of kind thoughts and sentiments wherewith to bind up the broken-hearted. Are we rich in wisdom and knowledge in regard to the interests of our fellow-men? It is an inexhaustible supply of precious jewels confided to us to scatter along the road of life. Do we chance to be superior in any one moral quality? Then do other poor mortals possess much greater claim upon our good examples, our constant patience and forbearance, our kindness, our interest and our love. How can we expect to fulfill the law of love and regard towards each other while we allow ourselves to cultivate a revengeful disposition, to wrong each other, and to impede our brother's interest, no kind friend to speak a word of consolation to them? If they have trials and misfortunes they must bear them in silence. How genius, virtue and modesty shrink away in some obscure and lonely hovel, while vicious monsters and hypocrites hide themselves so easily in silken robes. To do good we should mingle with to watch over her sick child, and to whisper society in order to give and receive instruction, to aid and comfort one another, to seek out not only our own individual interests, but the interests of our brothers and fellowmen, by love and sympathy soothe their wounded spirits instead of hiding our light in darkness. scene. to her sweet words of human sympathy. Blessed are they who can thus forget themselves and find enjoyment in caring for the happiness of those who sit unfriended and alone. The heart of the lonely mother is warmed by her coming; for blessed to the desolate is the fresh sympathy of the young and happy. She is no longer alone; they have a common hope; they can bend to Go abroad in some great city in the night; before you brightly shine the lights in that stately mansion where pleasure has gath-gether before the same Father; they read ered her votaries; the dance, the song are there, and gay voices, and exultant hearts and fair features that grow fairer in the excitement, and all goes “merry as a marriage bell." And most natural and fitting is it that the heart of the young should glow with fervid pleasure in the whirling and dazzling scene. But this is only part of the At this very moment, within sight of the brilliant windows, within the sound of the rejoicing music, a widowed wife or mother sits in her dreary room, and to her frame, sickness has brought its feebleness, and to her cheek its flush, and to her eye its unnatural light. Her children sleep around, and one that ever stirs with the low moaning of disease, slumbers fitfully in the cradle at her feet. Her debilitated frame craves rest; yet, by the light of a solitary lamp she still plies her needle that her children may have bread on the morWhile she labors through the lonely hours, her sinking frame admonishes her that this resource must soon fail and she be called to leave them alone, with no anchoring water to those who dwell in valleys of hope; and while her heart swells with anguish, the sound of rejoicing comes to her silent chamber; not one of that gay circle whose eyes will not close before hers this night. One by one, the wheels that bear them to their homes depart; the sounds of mirth grow silent. In midnight hours the lights of the brilliant mansion are extinguished, but still from her chamber shines her solitary lamp; the dying mother must toil and watch with the morning, and bright-not only I am interested in this ill-intended er than its footstep upon the mountains, behold, one of that gay throng, in the bloom of youth, leaving her home; she has entered the narrow late and opened the doors of that obscure chamber. She has gone to sit with this poor widow, to carry her needed aid, the same Gospel; they visit the same Cross together, and together watch at the tomb on the morning of the Resurrection; and as her visitor retires, grateful thoughts of sympathy linger behind like sunset in the air. The sense of God's kind providence rests on her soul; to her faith the distance is brought nearer, the dead live and await her coming to the better land. Her mind goes forward to the future: she rests above the clouds; serenely shines the sun, gently falls the love of God upon her heart. Sitting amid trials and darkness, and the ruins of earthly prospects, with calm spirit she builds her hope of heaven, the prosperity, the adverse fortune, the joy, the grief; all this might be seen in early age; amid all our adversity it is only hope that has brought sympathy to the suffering, hope to the bereaved, and brings light to dark hours, and faith in the future to those that dwell in sorrow. It is hope that softens and melts the ice of prosperity, which has smitten the rock and made it a fountain of liv row. below. I have hope which still from time to time kindles life anew. I have met adversity manfully, with all the obstacles that I have had thrown in my pathway of life to deter me or to impede my progress. I still extend to my enemies the hand of fellowship and forgive them. Perhaps they feel that my loss is their gain; but it is not certainly so intended; it is the desire and work of combativeness to injure me, and work: my family are equally interested in my welfare, and in adversity they must equally share the same fate. But in return to my worst enemies I will deal out to them kindness; I will make it my duty to treat my fellow-men with kindness, which will go farther and yield more happiness in this world, than all the haughtiness and asperity we can possibly assume. How much easier, too, it is to act kindly to our fellow-men than to affect a rude and boisterous manner, which is sure not only to make others despise us, but upon reflection, to cause us to despise ourselves. religion cry out, "forgive him." He who will not forgive has not the love of God in his heart. Let not the hope of worldly recompense prompt you to good actions. Be content with the approval of heaven and of thine own soul. A kind and sympathizing word from the lips, falls like oil upon the ruffled waters of the human breast. Every noble feeling which we exercise, every good action that we perform, is a round in the ladder which leads us to a renewal of friendship. How delightful it is to scatter the blessings of benevolence over the habitations of distress; to raise the drooping head of pining worth; to minister to the poor widow and friendless orphans; to promote the industry of the poor; to bestow rewards on the children of labor, and to search into the cause of sorrow and distress. Men think very little of the value of a bow, or a smile, or friendly salutation, yet how small the cost, and, often, how great the return. By a few soft words and pleasant looks, enemies have been made friends, and old attachments renewed that have been annulled for years. A smile beams upon the lover's heart like the ray of sunshine in the depths of the forest. A nod or a kind look has gained more friends than wealth and learning put together. A grasp of the hand is more potent in cementing the ties of affection than all feelings of self-interest. Be kind, for memory is an angel that comes in the night-time and folds its wings beside us, and silently whispers in our ears our faults or our virtues, and either disturbs or soothes our spirit's repose. The human heart rises against oppression, and is soothed by gentleness, as the waves of the ocean rise in proportion to the violence of the winds, and sink with the breeze into mildness and serenity. What a glorious thing on our part, to be generous and kind to our fellow-men; do unto them as we would have them do unto us. No matter whether through success or adversity, this much we are indebted to them. Let the world know that we intend to do right. Even if you have made a mis-step at any period of your life, repentance is at your hand if you confess your faults manfully. An open confession is good for the soul. Be firm and stedfast in the glorious cause you are pursuing and victory will be yours even if adversity overtakes you. He who will turn away a friend for one fault is a stranger to the best feelings of the human heart. Who has not erred once at least in his life? If that fault were not overlooked, to what depth of infamy would not thousands have descended? We know not the peculiar temptations; he may have fought manfully for months against the sin, and still kept the secret in his own bosom; at last he was overcome. He would give worlds to recall the act; he has mourned over it in secret, and repented in dust and ashes. Shall we forsake him? Earth and heaven, justice, humanity and Virtue is of intrinsic value and of indispensable obligation; not the creature of will, but necessary and immutable; not local or temporary, but of equal extent and antiquity with the Divine mind; not a mode of sensation, but an everlasting truth; not dependent on power, but the guide to power. Virtue is the foundation of honor and esteem, the source of beauty, order and happiness. In nature, it is what confers value on all other endowments and qualities of a reasonable being to which they ought to be absolutely subservient, and without which, the more eminent they are, the more hideous deformities and the greater curses they become. The use of it is not confined to any one stage of our existence or to any one particular situation we can be in, but extends through all periods and circumstances; many of the endowments and talents we may now possess, and of which we are proud, will cease entirely with the present state; but this will be our ornament and dignity in every future state to which we may be removed. Beauty and wit will die; learning will vanish away, and all arts of life be forgotten, but virtue will remain forever; this unites us to the whole rational creation, and fits us for conversing with any order of supe rior natures, and for a place in any part of God's works. It procures us the love and approbation of all wise and good beings, and renders them our allies and friends. But what is of unspeakably greater consequence is, that it makes God our friend, assimilates and unites our minds to His, and engages His almighty power in our defense. Superior beings of all ranks are bound by it no less than ourselves. It has the same authority in all worlds that it has in this. The further any being is advanced in excellence and perfection, the greater are his attachments to it, and the more he is under its influence; to say no more, it is the law of the whole universe. It stands first in the estimation of the Deity; its origin is His nature, and it is the very attribute that makes Him lovely. Such is the importance of virtue; of what consequence is it not, therefore, that we practice it; there is no argument or motive which is at all fitted to influence a reasonable mind, which does not call us to this; our virtuous disposition of soul is preferable to the greatest natural accomplishments and abilities, and of more value than all the treasures of the world. If you are wise, then, study virtue and contemn everything that comes in competition with it. Remember that nothing more deserves our anxious thought or wish; that this alone is honor, glory, wealth and happiness. Secure this and you gain greatly; lose this and you may make sure much is lost. Virtue is one of the most noble and sure possessions that a man can have; this no man can deny. If we want to be successful, and if others that stand aloof and point the finger of scorn at our success live to see the end of the unrighteous, they will not feel a particle of envy at their success. A man may live long, be vile and unprincipled and prosper through all his days; but does this prove that it is well with the vicious? Far from it. Mysterious are the workings of Providence. But the time will come when we shall see the wisdom of all the dealings of God. There is nothing like true virtue and benevolence to our fellow men to produce happiness and perfect peace of mind. Yours, &c., ANDREW ERWIN. ACROSTIC. Genial bard of Poesy and Song, Yet in our memory it will fondly dwell. Your pen use often for the good of the B. L. E. MESSRS. EDITORS: The excessive cost of maintaining American Railways as compared with foreign railways, shown in my last communication, pertinently suggests that there has been gross neglect, astonishing ignorance or criminal mismanagement in the conduct of our roads. Let us go back twenty-five years in their history and note the changes that have taken place in the character of managements-establish the cause, and show the results of such changes. These changes have been so numerous that a complete catalogue would be voluminous, hence I will select the most apparent and best known as subjects of discussion, and in this communication I will confine my self to the Rolling Stock Department, referring only to such other departments as may have been intimately connected and partially responsible for the changes noted. The marked changes in the construction of Rolling Stock during the past quarter of a century have taught some very interesting, and, it is to be hoped, instructive lessons. The immense increased weight of locomotives, and increased number of cars as compared with the tonnage of freight transported during that period seems almost incredible; locomotives having increased in gross weight from ten to twenty tons, and the number of cars to nearly treble the The writer well remembers that when, in '53, he was placed in charge of the then monstrous thirty-ton engine on one of Ohio's best railways, his daily average train consisted of twenty loaded cars, and, upon exceptional days, or when the demands of traffic required, he landed safely at the terminus of the road with twentyeight loaded cars, on time, and that, too, using only the maximum pressure allowed, viz: "100 pounds to the square inch;" and to-day the engines of this same railwaya railway with road-bed, superstructure and gradients much improved--are limited to eighteen cars, while they weigh from thirty-eight to forty-five tons, and are allowed a maximum pressure of 130 pounds. That the ponderous machines of to-day are capable of producing better results cannot be denied. Their efficacy has been crippled by the system adopted, a system that involves a surrrender of all the principles of economical management. The system referred to is that of long runs and slow speed. Long runs insure the neglect-at the proper time-of some portion of the machinery that seriously cripples its efficiency, and slow speed destroys the aid received from momentum. Momentum is an economical necessity in assisting the ascent of heavy grades, and slow speed has robbed the motive power of this valuable aid. Upon most of our roads the power of the machine is governed by its ability to ascend the heaviest grade upon its route, by approaching said grade at the maximum slow rates, hence they run light over the greater portion of their route. number required to transport the com- I charge, and propose to prove in this communication, and challenge successful contradiction, that the adoption of heavy machinery, long runs, and slow speed, has been among the most potent elements in producing the financial distress from which our railways are now suffering. First, let us examine and determine the positive loss to owners of American railways by the heavy machinery mania. I claim that the tonnage per locomotive has not been increased by increased weight, except, perhaps, upon the very few lines of light gradients, and my statements must be referred to the greater number of lines. No statement can be made that cannot be dis |