OCR Interpretation


The Delaware register, or, Farmers', manufacturers' & mechanics' advocate. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1828-1829, March 14, 1829, Image 1

Image and text provided by University of Delaware Library, Newark, DE

Persistent link: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84020593/1829-03-14/ed-1/seq-1/

What is OCR?


Thumbnail for

THE DELAWARE REGISTER
OR,
FARMERS', MANUFACTURERS' & MECHANICS' ADVOCATE.
they ought to be—"The vehicles of Intelligence, not the common Beweis of Scandal.
Our Public Journals
Voi,. I.
WTLMINGTON, Pel., SATURDAY, MARCH 14, 1829.
No. 20.
Tlie Delaware Register is published every Saturday
morning, by Jl. if H. Wilson, No. 105, Market Street, at
X in Dollars per annum, if paid in advance ; otherwise, Two
Dollars and Fifty Cents.
Handbills, Cards, Blanks, Pamphlets, and Job Printing in
miterai, esecuted with neatness and despatch, and at mode
rate prices, at the Office of the Register.
O- Advertisements inserted on reasonable terms.
FOR THE DELAWARE REGISTER.
SUNDAY SCHOOLS.
Among the benevolent institutions of the day, there
is not, perhaps, one which is calculated to produce
important and beneficial results, than Sunday
Schools. The moral lessons there taught are admin
istered principally to those of an ago when the heart
is peculiarly susceptible of good impression's ; and il
is a remarkable and pleasing fact, and one which
speaks volumes in favor of these Schools, and which
ought to put to silence the opponents of them, that in
the criminal lists of most of our principal cities and
towns, very few instances arc recorded of persons
who have enjoyed tin* blessings of a Sunday School
education, having beep brougut to the bar of jus
tice for a violation of the laws.
I did not set out to write an essay in favor of Sun
day Schools, or to adduce arguments to prove their
utility. My object was merely to mention a few cir
cumstances in which I sincerely hope a goodly por
tion of the citizens of this Borough will feel them
selves interested.
A few weeks ago I visited the Sunday School of
the Episcopal Congregation of Wilmington, which is
held in the Academy. 1 there beheld upwards of one
hundred anil twenty children, of both sexes, attending
with much earnestness to tho lessons and instructions
imparted by about twenty teachers. Tho scene, to me,
was one of deep interest, and could not fail to pro
duce in any thoughtful mind, a crowd of solemn
and important reflections,
labor bestowed on these scholars would not be entire
ly lost; and that many of them would thereby be
made more dutiful children, more faithful servants,
more useful members of society, and better qualified
to enter upon the discharge of its various reciprocal
duties. After thcs usual lessons had been gone through,
the Pastor of the Congregation, the Rev Mr Coit,
according to his usual custom, addressed the chil
dren. For such a task this gentleman appears to
possess a very happy adaptation of language and man
ner. 1 was pleased to observe anil to learn that in
this School no attempt is made to create any thing
ol' a sectarian feeling. Teaching to spell and read,
Snd enjoining the observance of the duties we owe to
onr Creator and our Mow creatures; duties acknowl
edged by all denominations of Christians, and by all
good members of Society, are the subjects to which
tint teachers devote their attention, and in the address
alluded to, I do not think there was a precept incul
cated, to which any parent, guardian, or master, in the
Borough, wolfed make exception.
• Some of your readers may not be aware that in
1321, the Legislature of Delaware made an annual
Impropriation of two hundred dollars for each county,
for the support of Sunday Schools, limiting the
aiJiQunt to be claimed for each ichite scholar, to twen
I.
I felt confident that the
ty cents, blacks being excluded nltogether.from any
benefit in its provisions. Tluse Schools have, how
ever, so greatly increased in this County, that when
the appropriation is distributed, the portion of each
is reduced to a pittance very scanty indeed. Owing
to this circumstance, with the constantly increasing
number of scholars in the Episcopal School, its funds
have been entirely exhausted and it is now in
want of Books. To supply the deficiency, the
Directors and Teachers have concluded, for the first
time, to make an appeal to a generous public. At
their request, the Rev Mr Coit has consented to preach
a sermon on the occasion, to-morrow evening , in the
1st Presbyterian Meeting House, when a collection
will bn taken in aid of the School. I heartily wish
that there may be a general attendance of the friends
and (if there be any in this place) the enemies of
Sunday Schools, and that the liberality of the audi
ence may be such as to onable this School to go on
with renewed vigor and increased means of doing
A Visiter.
good.
Communicated for the Delaware Register.
Observations on the Ileum: Srinnit, read before the De
laware Academy of Natural Science, Wilmington,
Feb. 1th, 1829'.
The House Spider is one of upwards of fifty species
of apterous insects comprehended in the genus Aranea.
The mouth is furnished with short horny jaws ; the lip
rounded.at the apex. It has two feelers incurved and
jointed, very acute at the tip, clubbed with the genitalia
in the male. It has most commonly eight eyes and
eight feet. The anus is supplied with papilla: or teats
for spinning. It fixes the ends of its threads by ap
plying those nipples to any substance, and the thread
lengthens in proportion as the animal recedes from it.
It can stop the issuing of the threads by contracting the
nipples, and re-ascend by means of the claws on its feet,
much in the same manner as sailors warp up a rope.
When a house spider purposes to begin a web, it first
makes choice of some commodious spot where there is
an appearance of plunder and security. The animal
then distils one little drop of glutinous liquor, which
is very tenacious ; and then creeping up the wall, and
joining its threads as it proceeds, it darts itself in a
surprising manner to the opposite place where the oth
er end of the web is to be fastened. The first threads
thus formed, drawn tight and fixed at each end, the
spider runs upon them backward and forward, still as
siduously employed in douhlingamlstrengthening them,
upon their force depends the stability of the whole
The scaffolding thus completed, tho spider
makes a number of threads parallel to the first, in the
same manner,
clammy substance of which they are formed serving to
bind them together. The edges having been well for
tified, the retreat is next to ho attended to ; and this is
formed like a funnel, at the bottom of the web, where
the little creature lies concealed. To this arc two pas
sages or outlets, one above and the other below, very
artfully contrived, to give it an opportunity of making
excursions at proper seasons, and of prying into every
If the outworks of the fortification bo touch
ed from without, the spider instantly prepares for at
tack or defence. If tho insect touching he a fly, its feet
are almost to a certainty entangled in the web. Great
exertions are, however, used by the deluded victim, by
means of its wings, to extricate itself. This it would
probably sometimes he able to effect, wereit not for its
wily enemy. At this juncture, as I have frequently no
ticed, the spider .cautiously approaches with a noose
ns
structure.
and then crosses them with others, the
corner.
of its own spinning, on one of its fore leet, ami dex
terously throws it: over the wings and body of the fly ;
instantly retires, and prepares another and another,
which it disposes in the same manner, till every part
is enveloped and every motion suspended. It then
approaches its prey, and with its sharp horny nippers
severs the head from the body.
It often happens that some larger animal destroys
or very much injures the labors which the housewife's
brush has spared. In this case, the spider is obliged
to remain a patient spectator of the ruin ; and when
the danger is past sets about repairing the calamity.—
In general, the animal is fonder of mending than ma
king, as it is furnished originally with but a certain
quantity of glutinous matter, which, when exhausted,
nothing can renew.
What appears to the naked eye to be but a single
thread in the web of a spider, is composed of a num
ber of strans or smaller threads drawn from as many
different openings in the papillae. IIow astonishing
must be their tenuity, when, according to tho calcu
lations of Lewenhook, ten thousand such threads arc
no thicker than a single hair of his beard.
Mr Disjonval, an adjutant-general in the Dutch ser
vice. while a prisoner, made a variety of experiments
and observations on the spider, which have shown that
it may he employed with advantage on meteorological
inquiries.
lie remarks "that spiders are particularly excellent
as prognosticators of changes in the weather, being
more certain than the barometer, giving their indica
tion a longer time beforehand, and having this advan
tage, to the lower class of people, that they cost no
thing." On the common house spider he made the
following remarks. "Against fine weather, it peeps
out its head, and stretches its legs out of its hole ; this
the further the longer the fine weather will continue.
Against bad weather it retires farther back ; and against
very tempestuous weather it turns quite round, showing
nothing but its hinder parts to the observer, thus ac
quainting him with the approaching change. At the
commencement of fine weather, the web with which it
surrounds its corner, is but of moderate extent ; if the
fine weather will be lasting, it enlarges it to two or
three inches ; and if it do this several times repeated
ly, we may be certain that the weather will continue
fine for some time."
On the 22d of July, 1795, Mr Disjonval foretold,
from the behavior of Ins spiders, a fortnight beforehand,
that tho waters of the Rhine would fall so as to render
it passable by a bridge of boats, and in this manner it
was passed.
His observations on the general conduct of the spi
ders in the winter season, are also important, as they
are prognosticators of approaching cold,
snow be coming on, they either seize upon the webs
already made, in which case obstinate battles frequent
ly ensue, or they make new ones, and labor diligently
at them.
Disjonval found, from several attentive observations,
that, from the first of the spiders putting themselves in
motion, to the setting in of the frost, nine days gene
rally slapsed. We have a striking instance of the jus
tice of this observation in tho circumstances which took
place in the beginning of February, 1793.
ther was fine, warm, and there was no symptom of ap
proaching frost. It might have been supposed that fires
would be no longer required ; but on the 4th of Feb
ruary Disjonval announced that a great alteration in
the weather would ensue, as, besides other remarks of
a similar kind, he had seen three spider's webs, one
over another, in a place where there was not one the
preceding evening. On the 9th of February there was
ice, and by the 13th all the canals were frozen over,—r
It was now probable, that with the breaking up of the
frost the winter would terminate. This was the ©piit»
If frost and
The wea-

xml | txt