hard and unyielding stomach. Here was a discovery. A custom-officer in pursuit of a smuggler is like a cat in pursuit of a dainty mouse. John was soon divested of his tunic and appurtenances, when lo, he appeared to have a tin stomach! A post mortem examination was held upon the tin corporation, and strange to say, it was found full of opium! His entire tin stomach, contents included, were confiscated as contraband, and were sold at auction for the benefit of Uncle Sam's coffers.

SUCCESS AND ITS MEANS.

Individuals or communities who depend for prosperity in their fortunes on foreign aid, never thrive, says the Belfast Signal. True, for the secret of success in life is self-reliance. There is a sort of meanness in all dependence which is revolting to a magnanimous spirit; while it is a condition never incurred, except by those who are destitute of energy. Assistance may be sought after and received, but no man of manly principle will ever seek or become dependent upon another. Greatness of no kind has ever been achieved either by States or men, but through the diligent employment of inherent power and resources; and all observation attests that abject weakness and pusillanimity are ultimately the lot of such as derive whatever of happiness or strength they possess from external sources.

"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread," though pronounced as a curse, has had, in its influence upon the material and social state of humanity, the virtue of a blessing, and it is fortunate that it is so. It was a wise and good Providence that imposed the obligation of labor upon mankind, and enforced it in every case by a law of compulsion none can violate with impunity. The natural necessity of personal industry and effort resulting from it, has compelled the exercise of human talent from the origin of the race, and produced that wonderful civilization to which we have advanced. All that has been accomplished by art and science in the progress the world has made-from the rude simplicity of primitive ages, to the refinement, power, and intelligence of the present time-is attributable to the inevitable need we are under to toil for every valuable addition to the comfort, elegance, and practical usefulness of life.

At no previous period has inventive genius been more busily employed in the cause of art. Almost every day witnesses some important contribution by it adapted to economize the operations of Commerce, and draw closer, by practically shortening time and space, the various relations of distant governments and communities. The world, in effect, is constantly contracting its dimensions under the magical influence of steam and telegraphs.

The age when "mountains interposed, made enemies of nations," has already passed away, and lands which once, "intersected by a narrow frith," abhorred each other, are now, through the agency of modern conveniences of communication, like kindred drops, mingling into one.

As a result of this growing intimacy, trade, with all its dependent industrial interests, is being continually stimulated; while its great metropolitan centers are daily multiplying in number, and respectively enlarging their capacity to receive the accumulated tides of wealth pouring into them through the thousand channels of traffic. Each, in a spirit of laudable ambition, is striving for ascendency. Advantages of position are measured, local pride is excited, and the energies of municipal populations are strained to reach the highest possible pitch of relative prosperity. From this eager rivalry of cities emanate increasing and magnificent improvements; while by the same means labor is kept perpetually active, mechanical skill perfected, invention exercised upon new plans of operative utility, and riches, instead of becoming amassed in the coffers of the few, are forced into wholesale circulation and distributed, with some fair and safe proportion of equality, among the toiling millions of a State.

The race for commercial empire among community has, therefore, its salutary uses, and should be encouraged for their sake. Nowhere on the earth, at this time, is this generous kind of competition carried on with more ardor and greater vigor than in the United States. The abundant elements for progressive growth, and the elasticity of our youthful nation, have changed the savage wilderness into a republic in an incredible short space of time, and thickly covered it with towns, cities, and splendid rival estates, embracing nearly thirty millions of people. It is with redoubling zeal and ability developing physical resources, exhaustless as they are diversified, and is destined to build up upon this continent the most colossal dominion, civil and commercial, of which history has any record.

HOW TO IMPROVE A BUSINESS.

Col. Maurice, who has recently opened his splended store in Chestnut-street, below Fourth, ascribes his success in business to judicious and liberal advertising. In a speech which he made to the press, on the occasion of opening his new store, he said: "I appropriate every year fifty per cent of my net profits to the use of 'Printer's ink. Many of my old fogy friends attempted to reason with me on what they considered the folly of throwing away so much money on silly advertisements-for, gentlemen, some of my advertisements were a little funny, and rather out of the old stereotype style. I found, however, that they were not only read, but remembered. This was just the effect which I wished to produce. I always listened respectfully to their remonstrances, and then told them that in five years, if God spared my life and health, I would outstrip them in the race, unless they cut themselves loose from their old fogy and Rip Van Winkle notions, and keep up with the spirit of the age. My business grew up around me like a little child, each succeeding week being better than the last, until now I can boast of having, what is considered by many of my friends, the Model Blank-book and Stationery Establishment of Philadelphia. It is my intention to keep a large assortment of the best quality of goods, and then, with the mighty power of the press, which I consider second only to Omnipotence itself, let the whole world and the rest of mankind' know where they can be procured; and, by selling at the lowest market prices, hope to keep my little bark sailing before the wind, with all her colors flying.

It is a great satisfaction for me, gentlemen of the press, to know, and I have no doubt but it will be equally gratifying for you to learn, that in the thousands of dollars I have appropriated to advertisements, I have never had occasion to dispute a single bill from any of your offices, nor have I ever suffered a bill to remain unpaid after it was due. I give you, in conclusion, the following sentiment:

ADVERTISING!-What oil is to machinery, and oxygen is to the existence of animal life, judicious but liberal advertising is to success in business."

A VERY SHREWD DEALER IN SMALL WARES.

There lives, says the Journal of Commerce, not a thousand miles from Gotham, a dealer in small wares, whose greatest fear is of being overreached. He goes without milk in his coffee, in dread of buying a spoonful of Croton, and never pays for a newspaper, lest it should not be published to the end of the year. His little shop is without gas, for he has no faith in the meter, and he even dips his own candles, to insure that they are all tallow. In one thing he is liberal; he makes large purchases of counterfeit detectors, and buys an Extra if there are any whisperings of a broken bank. A neighbor of his was imposed upon the other day with a bank note which had been ingeniously altered from one to five; and our dealer has been on the watch ever since, for fear of a similar imposition. The other day, a young girl from the country stepped into his store and purchased a pair of stockings, offering a one dollar note in payment. The old man eyed the girl so sharply that her face became suffused with blushes, and this was, to him, an acknowledgment of guilt. How dare you offer me this?" he asked, in an angry tone. "I thought it was good," she replied, timidly. What is the matter with it?" asked a bystander, who had been attracted by the dispute; "it looks like a genuine note." "Genuine enough," said the shopkeeper, his face crimson with passion, "but, don't you see-its a one altered from a twenty."

THE SALMON FISHERY OF CAILIFORNIA.

The State Journal says, there are four hundred boats on the river between Fremont and Suisun Bay, numbering two men and one gill-net to each boat. These boats are valued at $150 each, giving an aggregate value of $60,000. The gill-nets are valued at $200 each, or $80,000 in the aggregate. Besides these there are about 20 hauling seines valued at $300 each, with an average of five men to each. The fishing season lasts from the first of February to the first of August, during which time the estimated average of each boat per day will be $30, or an aggregate of $12,000. The hauling seines $100 each per day, or $2,000 in the aggregate. From these data, one can easily judge the importance and magnitude of the salmon fisheries in California The largest market at present for salmon is San Francciso.

THE THIRST FOR WEALTH.

We have taken the same liberty with the following homily from the Episcopal Recorder, that compilers of hymn books for public worship do with the authors of devotional piety, that is, altering, or varying a few of the phrases, and adapting the remarks to the unsectarian character of a Magazine which, like the Merchants', discourses from its monthly pulpit to " merchant," rather than "Christian" hearers.

How wise is the prayer of Agur! And how few there are who imbibe its spirit, and discern the perils of riches! Insensibly the desire of wealth grows upon us, and while our convictions are all the other way, we find our hearts clinging to the world's possessions as to their best good, and our hands are busily engaged in performing what the heart, wrapped in the love of the world, designs.

Our thoughts have been led into this channel by the account which the newspapers bring us, of the death of a very wealthy man-a person whose income was $36,000 per annum, or three thousand dollars per month, of which he was in the regular receipt. We know nothing of his previous life, or of the mode in which he acquired his property, but as he is said to have been a returned Californian, it is to be presumed that he was one of the few who amassed immense fortunes in that country. His immense wealth caused the dethronement of his reason, and having just purchased and fitted up a house in New York, in palatial style, he committed suicide by throwing himself under the wheels of a locomotive. The whole train passed over him, and he was almost literally ground to atoms.

Here, then, is an evidence how little wealth the most unbounded can do in conferring happiness. Thousands who read this account will only express their surprise, and declare that wealth could not thus have prostrated them. But none can tell what effect unexpected prosperity, or unlooked for adversity, would have upon their mind and characters. The only One who knows all our hearts can decide what is best for us; and many a man lives on against his wishes, in comparative poverty and obscurity, to whom prosperity might prove a trial greater than he would be able to bear. The desire for wealth, "covetousness, which is idolatry," is one of the most dangerous and deadening influences which can affect our Christian life. It cools our charity, and dampens our zeal. It closes our hearts against the appeals which must constantly be made to us, while the world is still filled with ignorance, poverty, vice, and crime. If all that is unwisely hoarded, and all that is worse than foolishly expended, could be turned to the great object of improving the moral, mental, and material condition of mankind; if men were more intent upon building up the reign of justice and benevolence, and less devoted to their own selfishness and pleasures, how different would be the report from the ends of the earth--and how would ignorance, vice, and suffering diminish in our midst.

COMMERCIAL VALUE OF HONESTY.

An old trader among the Northern Indians, who had some years ago established himself on the Wisseva, tells a good story, with a moral worth recollecting, about his first trials of trading with his red customers. The Indians, who evidently wanted goods, and had both money (which they called shune ah) and furs, flocked about his store, and examined his goods, but for some time bought nothing. Finally, their chief, with a large body of his followers, visited him, and accosting him with, "How do, Thomas; show me goods; I take four yard calico, three coonskins for yard, pay you by'm-by-to-morrow" received his goods and left. Next day, he returned with his whole band, his blankets stuffed with coonskins. "American man, I pay now;" with this he began counting out the skins, until he had handed him over twelve. Then, after a moment's pause, he offered the trader one more, remarking, as he did it"That's it." "I handed it back," said the trader, "telling him he owed me but twelve, and I would not cheat him." We continued to pass it back and forth, each one asserting that it belonged to the other. At last he appeared to be satisfied, gave me a scrutinizing look, placed the skin in the folds of his blanket, stepped to the door and gave a yell, and cried with a loud voice: Come, come, and trade with the pale face, be no cheat Indian; his heart big." He then turned to me and said: You take that skin, I tell Indian no trade with you-drive you off like a dog-but now you Indian's friend, and we your's." Before sundown I was waist deep in furs, and loaded down with cash. So I lost nothing by my honesty.

THE LIVERPOOL DOCKS.

The docks now in course of construction, as we learn from the Liverpool Mercury, at the extreme north end of the port of Liverpool, (the New York of Great Britain,) are rapidly approaching completion. The Huskisson dock, which is one of the largest in the world, is constructed for the accommodation of ocean steamships. The locks at the south end are finished. The dock itself is ready to receive vessels, water having been let in at the last spring tides; and workmen are busy paving the pier and parts of the quay, and constructing the locks at the north end. Large as the Bramly-Moore, Nelson, and other of the northern docks, finished in 1848, are, they are outrivaled by this new evidence of what the genius and enterprise of Liverpool can effect. The width of the east lock-gates is 80 feet, 10 feet wider than the lock-gates of any dock hitherto constructed at this port; the west lock gates, 45 feet. The water area of the dock, 14 acres 3,451 yards, with quay space to the extent of 1,122 yards. The water area of the east lock is 4,682 yards, with quay-space of 242 yards; and water area of the west lock, 3,650 yards, with quay-space of 330 yards. No sheds have at present been erected on the dock quay, which is still in an unfinished state; but sheds have been constructed on the lock-quay, where arrangements have been made for unloading vessels and for the reception of cargoes. A large space of the west end of the lock quay is set apart for a timber-yard, and the remaining portion by the side of the locks, will be used as the sites for sheds in which to stow away dry goods. The total water area of the wet-docks along the margin of the Mersey, belonging to the corporation of Liverpool, is now 177 acres 3,684 yards, with a quay-space of 12 miles and 1,412 yards; and of dry-basins, an area of 20 acres 892 yards, with quay-space of 1 mile 712 yards; making a total of 197 acres 4,576 yards of water area, and 14 miles 712 yards of quay-space; with a length of 5 miles and 20 yards of river wall. Independently of this large extent of dock space, other docks are yet to be formed, and excavations in reference to this object are going forward. The walls surrounding the Huskisson dock, as well as the north dock which have recently been constructed, and the Normanlike towers, to serve as offices to the gate-keepers, are built of granite, and combine considerable beauty and neatness with extraordinary durability and strength.

THE PURCHASE OF A BABY'S BONNET.

"One cold winter morning," says a gentle-hearted lady-writer in the Home Journal, "I looked into a milliner's shop, and there I saw a hale, hearty, and well-browned young fellow from the country, with his long cart whip, and lion shag coat, holding up some little matter, and turning it about in his great fist. And what do you suppose it was? A baby's bonnet! A little, soft, blue satin hood, with a swan's-down border, white as the frill of rich blond around the edge. By his side stood a very pretty woman, holding, with no small pride, the baby, for evidently it was the baby. And one could read the fact in every glance, as they looked at each other, and at the little hood, and then at the large, blue, unconscious eye, and fat dimpled cheeks of the little one. It was evident that neither of them had ever seen a baby like that before! 'But, really, Mary,' said the young man, is not three dollars very high? Mary, very prudently, said nothing, but taking the hood, tied it on the little head, and held up the baby. The man looked and grinned, and without another word, down went the three dollars, (all the last week's butter came to,) and, as they walked out of the shop, it is bard to say which looked the most delighted with the bargain. Ah,' thought I, ‘a little child shall lead them.'"

HOW THE DIME HIDES THE DOLLAR.

Dr. Buckley, in one of his lectures, made use of an illustration:-Holding a dime close to his eyes with one hand, and a half dollar at some distance with the other said he, "Now, I cannot see the half dollar with this eye, for the dime is so near, it obscures my vision. So it is with mankind; in their eagerness to save one dollar, they often lose sight of the fifty within their reach." This is a very apt illustration of the benefits the merchant would derive from a careful perusal of the pages of the Merchants' Magazine. As an illustration, a merchant informed us a short time since, that an article in one number had saved him more than the subscription price of the work from its commencement, and that he could well afford to pay the subscription out of that saving for a generation to come.

PATENT SHIP FIRE-ENGINE.

"We some time ago," says the North Wales Chronicle, "noted the performance of Merry weather's ship patent fire-engine Prince of Wales, on the Liverpool Exchange flags, before a numerous assemblage of agents for fire-insurance companies, chairmen of our corporate bodies, their engineers, shipowners, and others equally interested, and we are induced again to revert to it in consequence of the many recent catastrophes occurring through fire on shipboard at sea. It was certainly a wise regulation of the government, compelling all ships to carry a fire engine, but the generality of those used for the purpose are so ill adapted, that in sudden and fearful emergencies they are almost useless. Where these little "Sampsons" have been at hand and properly applied, they have invariably proved successful, and saved both life and property. The manufacturer (who as an engineer has had vast experience) claims for his patent the merit of combining great power of propulsion in a small space, and when we consider that it is capable of throwing a continuous stream of water, an inch in diameter, in an upright or vertical direction, seventy feet, and horizontally ninety feet, we think he is fully justified in publishing his achievement. In certain or suspected cases of fire at sea, by a trifling alteration, and the covering of a smoke-proof dress, a man is enabled to go below and seek out its locality, working an air-pump to assist him in applying the hose to its origin, and had the unfortunate Ocean Monarch, or the illfated Amazon, been able to have availed themselves of such a machine, what a blessing it would have created. The recent burning of the Independence is another instance of the necessity for such services. When the fire rages to an extent that people can no longer stand the decks, and hope gives way to despair, it may be hoisted into the ship's longboat, and applied at a distance, and even thus effect salvation. Finally, for sanatary purposes, or wetting sails in hot latitudes, for which the feathered jet is so admirably invented, it is pre-eminent. We have expatiated thus largely from impartial and philanthropic motives; for what is there in the world more harrowing or dreadful to contemplate than a ship on fire in the bosom of the briny ocean, far from the reach of human aid, or without anything to counteract the devastating element, than perhaps a solitary bucket, or the mockery of an inefficient engine! What an emollient to the feelings, under such circumstances, to know that a safeguard is on board.

PUNCH'S ELUCIDATION OF THE INCOME TAX.

Punch says, the In-come Tax is a fun-ny Thing. It is a Tax up-on a Man's Income. A Man's In-come is all the Mo-ney he gets in one year. Many a Man bas no-thing else in the World than the Mo-ney he gets in one Year. He pays In come Tax on all that Mo-ney. He pays Se-ven Pence out of ev-e-ry Pound of it. Money is Pro-per-ty. If a Man has No-thing else than the Mo-ney he gets in one Year, that mo-ney is all his Pro-per-ty. So, if he pays In-come Tax up-on it, he pays a Tax on all the Pro-per-ty he has got. But many Men have a great deal more Pro-per-ty than the Mo-ney they get in one Year. Some have Twenty Times as much Pro-perty as that. Yet they only pay a Tax on the Mo-ney they get in one Year. They pay no more than Se-ven Pence out of every Pound of that Mo-ney. They do not pay a Far-thing out of all their o-ther Pounds. So, the In-come Tax is a Tax on all one Man's Pro-per-ty and on on-ly Part of a no-ther's. Mr. GLAD-STONE says this is just. If Mr. GLAD-STONE had no-thing but what he could earn, he would not be so well off as he is now. And yet he might have to pay Se-ven Pence out of e-ve-ry Pound he was worth. Mr. GLAD-STONE Would not be glad then. He would be Sor-ry. I do not think he would call the In-come Tax just any longer; do you?

MACHINE FOR DETERMINING A SHIP'S LONGITUDE.

JOHN MOORE, of Wexford, Ireland, has taken out a patent for determining a ship's longitude. This instrument consists of two graduated brass circles intersecting each other, and a third circle equatorial to these two. The position of these circles is capable of being adjusted with reference to each other, and they are used in combination with a fourth circle, also graduated, which forms a great circle to the skeleton globe composed of the intersecting circles mentioned. The modes of using these circles vary with the nature of the particular position requiring to be solved.