for Peeping Tom in the farce. I am now in the profession of a strolling player, my own master, but master, alas! of nothing else. However, I am not of a grieving disposition. If the sun smiles on me, I return the smile-If the clouds lower, I smile by myself.

I shall not dwell any longer on my theatrical career, well pleased if, at this time I finish, I leave all my readers with their eyes open.

TO FOREIGNERS.

ALIENS are informed, that such as have arrived in the United States since April 14, 1802, must report themselves to the clerk of some court of record, and wait five years before they can be naturalized, even though they may have declared their intention to become citizens, some time since. Those who have not made their declaration, must do that also three years before they can be naturalized. By the law of congress, the certificate of report and registry must be produced to the court, as an evidence of the time of arrival in the United States, at the time of application to be naturalized ;and by a law passed March 22, 1816, the certificate of report and registry must be recited, at full length, in the certificate of naturalization, otherwise such certificate will be of no validity.

A few miles above the Columbia, on Duck river, are a number of fortifications and mounds, into some of which some young men dug a small distance, and found several well burnt bricks, about nine inches square and three inches thick; also several fragments of earthenware; and a sword, about two feet long, different from any in use since the whites visited the continent; apparently once highly polished, but now much eaten with rust. A gentleman passing over one of the fields of ancient slaughter, on the banks of the Caney Fork, his eye caught some rude letters on a flat stone, he examined it, and made out "we are all cut off." Who were the sufferers we have yet to learn, and hope that some fortunate discovery will one day satisfy the curious.

306

THE USEFUL ARTS.

Collected and in part written for the Port Folio.

Chinese Paste. The method of making paste in China is much more economical than the mode followed in this country. Were it universally adopted by trunk-makers, book-binders and others, who use great quantities, it would produce a very material saving of flour, which in years of scarcity might be of the greatest consequence. The following formula used in China was lately communicated to Sir Joseph Banks, by a gentleman in Canton. Mix together bullocks' blood and quick lime, in the proportion of 1 lb. of the latter to 10 lb. of the former. It becomes a stiff jelly, in which state it is sold to the consumers, who beat it down with an addition of water, into a state sufficiently fluid for use. At Canton it will keep five or six days in the hot weather, and ten or twenty days in the cold. In Britain it would probably keep longer. Our country may be taken as a medium between these two

extremes.

To soften Steel.-Mr. Thomas Gill has published his processes for softening steel, by heating and quenching it, and on the hardening it at one operation.

It is well known, he remarks, that unless steel be heated to the proper degree, it will not harden on being quenched in water, or other proper fluid; but it has escaped the general observation, that steel heated rather below the hardening point, and quenched will be softened thereby, and in a much superior manner than by the usual methods of annealing it, insomuch that it can be more readily filed, turned, &c. and is entirely free from pins or hard spots; and as it is not at all liable to be injured by this process, and can be softened thereby in a much shorter time than by annealing it, so it ought to be universally adopted.

Steel springs are usually hardened and tempered by two distinct operations, being first heated to the proper degree, and hardened by quenching in water, oil, &c. and then tempered, either by rubbing them bright, and heating them, till they acquire a pale blue or gray colour, or by burning or blazing off the oil, &c.

It is, however, now found that both the operations may be performed at once, advantageously, in the following mauner:

The steel being heated to the proper degree, is to be plunged into a metallic bath composed of a mixture of lead and tin, such for instance as plumber's solder, and which is heated by a proper furnace, to a tempering degree, as indicated by a pyrometer or thermometer placed in the bath, when the steel will be at once hardened and tempered, and with much less danger of warping or cracking in the process than if treated in the usual way.

It would be a further improvement to heat the steel in a bath. of red-hot lead to the proper degree for hardening, previous to quenching and tempering it in the other metallic bath, as it would thereby be more uniformly heated, and be in less danger of oxi dation; and, indeed, it is an excellent method of heating steel, either for softening it, as in the first described process, or for har dening and tempering it at once, as in the last one, or even for hardening it in the usual method.

New method of seasoning Mahogany.-In " the transactions of the society for the encouragement of arts, manufactures and commerce," it appears that the sum of fifteen guineas was lately voted to Mr. James Callender for an ingenious method of seasoning mahogany. His plan is very simple. Having provided a steam-tight wooden box capable of holding conveniently such pieces of mahoga ny as are fit for chairs, &c. he adapts to it a pipe from a boiler, by means of which he fills the box with steam, (after the mahogany has been put into it), the temperature of which is about equal to that of boiling water. The time required for inch-and-a-half wood is about two hours, and pieces of this thickness will become sufficiently dry to work, after being placed in a warm room or workshop for twenty-four hours. The wood by this treatment is somewhat improved in its general colour, and those blemishes which are technically called green veins are entirely removed. It is also obvious, that the eggs or larvæ of any insects which may be contained in the wood, will be destroyed by the heat. By this method much capital which otherwise would be idle for many months, is saved; and as the small stuff from two to six inches thick is never seasoned, all articles made of such wood, as chairs, baliustrades &c., may be prevented from warping, by this expeditious

seasoning. Chairs, &c. thus steamed are not liable to crack or warp even though exposed to heat.

Substitution of Tar for Oil for the purpose of illumination.— Professor Hare, has contrived an apparatus for burning tar instead of oil, to light cities, manufactories, &c. with a great diminution of expense. He has ascertained that three pounds of tar, burnt in this apparatus, will give as much light as two pounds of oil or tallow burnt in the usual manner, and consequently, calculated on the usual prices of these articles, and the entire saving for wicks, which are not required for the burning of tar, it appears that the same quantity of light may be produced in this way at a very reduced cost. The apparatus consists of a fountain reservoir to hold four or five pounds of tar to supply the lamp at a uniform height, and a lanthorn with a draught pipe attached to it. The lamp presents at one end a cylindrical mouth for receiving the pipe of the reservoir; at the other end a cylindrical cup, in which the tar is ignited, the flame being drawn up through a central hole in the bottom of the lanthorn so as to occupy its axis in passing to the draught pipe. All the air which supplies this is made to meet in the same axis, and thus to excite the combustion. A lamp of this description will burn for nine hours, and it is found that by it the carbonaceous matter, which usually obscures the flame of resinous substances, is made to contribute to the light. Four or five barrels of tar used in this way, and they would not cost more than ten or twelve dollars, it is computed would give eight times the light of a common street lamp for one year.

Green Fruit in Winter.-Let cherries, strawberries, raspberries, plumbs, peaches, or any other succulent fruit whatever, be put into a vessel somewhat like that used by common confectioncrs for freezing ice creams, around which put salt and ice, exactly as they do. The fruit will soon be frozen, when it should be carried to the ice house, and placed in a hole dug out in the centre of the ice, and over the top of the hole a quantity of powdered charcoal should be placed, secured by a common watchcoat blanket. When the winter season arrives, the containing vessel may be opened, and the fruit taken out in its frozen state; then place

it in cold water to thaw, and it will be found as delicious as when first gathered. When salt and ice, in the manner employed by confectioners in general, shall be found inadequate to freeze some fruits hard enough, the mixture for producing an intense cold, is spoken of by Chaptal, the celebrated French chymist, of saltpetre and glauber salts, will effectually freeze it very hard.

Tar Fumigation.-Sir Alexander Crichton, physician to the emperor of Russia, has made some experiments on the vapour in boiling tar in the case of pulmonary consumption; the favourable result of these experiments has been published in EdinburgSuch of our readers who have friends labouring under the complaint, and wish to make trial of this remedy, should observe the following precautions; with each lb. or mutchkin of tar, mix half an ounce of the salt of tartar; care must be taken that the tar be not boiled in a cracked vessel, and, that it be only evaporated, not burnt. After adopting these precautions, the patient may inhale the vapour for several hours every day. At first it fréquently occasions head ache.

Deaf and Dumb.-We take great pleasure in announcing the liberality of the visiters at Saratoga and Ballstown, for promoting the objects of the institution for the Deaf and Dumb. Mr. Galaudet, the principal of the institution, having presented a subscription paper for the purpose of procuring funds to erect suitable buildings for the accommodation of pupils at Hartford, Connecticut, received in one week, at Saratoga, nearly five hundred dollars, and at Ballstown upwards of threee hundred dollars. We learn that gentleman from Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia, banishing local considerations and partialities, subscribed with great liberality.

To improve Ground, destroy Underwood, and at the same time raise a valuable crop of Potatoes.-As much land lies in a manner waste through the United States, by being overrun with brush or underwood, I have not, as yet, seen or heard of any method found to eradicate them, but by strength of men and money. However, what is to follow, may show the great treasure that may be