THI The editor of the 4 TILE MISCELLANIES. cisco Gas Works, and The first apartment ga- from the coal PURIFYING ROOM. Is the from the retorts to pass thr, and some ammonia which ear warm. After passing threa into large purifying boxes, a sorbs the sulphur and carbon From the purifying room the RESERVOIR, OR HOLDER. I deep, without a top. Then th S' MAGAZINE AND ITS FRIENDS. pages of the Merchants' Magazine the vehicle of at this time, did we not feel that it was due to the ints and statesmen, who have been pleased to exon, their appreciation of our labors in a department modesty) remained unoccupied until we entered it Commercial Review," when commenced (in July, 38 and character, ever published at home or abroad. odicals bearing some resemblance have sprung up but none covering the broad and ever-expanding › in all its relations and all its bearings. But withremarks by simply expressing our full appreciato the Commercial Associations of St. Louis and gentlemen whose resolutions and letters we give e Press, North and South, East and West, without itting inside the cistern, bottle uniform favor and kindness it has manifested of the cistern is water, and there, and the enterprise to which he has devoted all upon the water and is held up by possesses-or that God and Nature have pleased to rises the vast tub, and when there This tub or holder is made of sheet its etters have been received during the last twelve The holder has a capacity of 5 of Mr. EVERETT's letter, since May, 1854. made by the works in 24 hours. T is necessary, and after the gas is ex a substance resembling charcoal, care excellent fire. This coke, after being CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, ST. LOUIS, June 2d, 1854. Magazine: drive the gas from other coal, so the resolutions of this Chamber, complimentary to purchasing its coal from which the cat 7 individual thanks for your useful labors, and my cess of your valuable Magazine. QUICKSILVER Yours, ALFRED VINTON, President. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, ST. Louis, June 2d, 1854. I have never since Iently worthy of the patronage of the commercial tile profession, for the industry and talent with icksilver oozing up a useful reports of mercantile usages, and judicial country that some pd the Statistics of Produce, Consumption, Trade, his interesting and useful biographies of distin Holutions be furnished Mr. Hunt, authenticated by ALFRED VINTON, President. YORK COURIER AND ENQUIRER.] borhood, from which azine has long been a universally admitted fact, auses, are questions action the tributes of the different commercial a rain or the melting merits. We take pleasure in crediting another, nder rocks, in the turg Board of Trade: THE TRADE OF CHARLESTON IN FLOUR. TO FREEMAN HUNT, Editor of the Merchants' Magazine :- CHARLESTON, July 1st, 1854. DEAR SIR-It is with peculiar gratification that we this year issue our annual circular. A new era has dawned upon Charleston, and she has just tasted the first fruits of her judicious appropriations to railroads connecting her with the Great West, and when that, the greatest of them all, the Blue Ridge Railroad is completed, she will reap the full benefit. Within the past year the Nashville and Chattanooga Road has been completed, and turned a considerable quantity of bacon and grain to this market, and we may expect a still larger quantity next season. The road from Loudon to Knoxville, Tennessee, is now in a state of completion, and will soon bring us the products of that fertile region, and will save the water carriage from Knoxville to Loudon, which, heretofore, has been a great drawback in our trade with that region in Tennessee. Other roads are diverging from the different termini, which will soon place Charleston in connection with all parts of the country, which, from her position, are naturally tributary to her. Charleston is now independent of the North for her breadstuffs and provisions. FLOUR. The receipts per railroad for the past year have been about 80,000 barrels, of which some 35,000 barrels have been exported foreign and coastwise. Heavy orders were received here from Europe, but could only be partially filled, as the majority of flour received here was in sacks, which merchants holding orders would not risk. This, we trust, will not be the case another year. We, however, filled an order for 3,000 sacks for Liverpool, which arrived there in good condition, and gave satisfaction. But, as a general rule, barrels always take the precedence. Charleston is now a flour market, and has a reputation to establish; and we would impress upon our friends the necessity of paying particular attention to the putting up of their flour, as to weight, classification of quality, and order of package. This is half the battle. Nothing retards the progress of a new trade so much as non-attention to these particulars. Nothing is to hinder Tennessee, Georgia, North and South Carolina flour from acquiring a reputation equal to any manufactured, as it is admitted that their wheat is equal to any grown. For consumption it would not make so much difference, but even then it would pay the manufacturer to establish a reputation for full weight, good order and quality, as represented by his brand. The past year, there has been considerable flour shipped coastwise to New York, Boston, and some even to Philadelphia and Baltimore; (the two latter places from which Charleston formerly received her supplies ;) and, we say with pride, stood the test with their best brands, and sold at equal prices, some sack flour from Tennessee bringing the high price of $10 per barrel; all the objection urged against it, being its irregularity in order and classification of quality, and in too many cases short weight. We would remark, however, that Charleston cannot look to these markets to take her surplus flour. She must look to the same markets they do, and there is nothing to hinder her from competing successfully; all she wants is the enterprise to open the trade. There is no occasion for flour to be from $1 to $1 25 per bbl. lower in Charleston (which has been the case for some time past) than in those markets. This can be only temporary, and the natural disadvantages of a new trade. Our flour inspection law has many serious objections, and has had our attention. The inspection fee is entirely too high. The reduction of the fee, and other changes required, will be brought before the Legislature at its next session, and we have every assurance of success. Flour opened last season at $5 50, but soon advanced to $6 25, and remained at that until the latter part of November, when the price was $6 75, which was the ruling price until January, when the certainty of a short harvest in Europe, and the anticipation of a war, advanced prices largely everywhere. Our market felt its influence, and prices advanced by the first of March to $8 37; afterwards, however, declined, but rallied again, and the closing price of the year is $8 00. The crop of Wheat in the United States, this year, will be 25 per cent larger than the year previous; and we would warn our friends from purchasing wheat, for the future, based upon last year's prices, as flour will range considerably lower this season. The principal cause of the high prices the last year, was the short crop in Europe, and the existence of the war had not as much influence upon prices as is generally believed. This year, Europe has the promise of an abundant crop, and while we do not look for prices to go down to a low point, we still would caution our friends from basing operations upon anything like present prices. Respectfully, NEUFFER, HENDRIX & CO. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MONEY AND MERCHANDISE. From an article written by a correspondent of the Boston Post : The assumptions that money is merchandise, and that money is made scarce on account of the usury laws, are not only false positions, but they are superlatively ridiculous. To these assumptions may be traced many of the singular errors of McCulloch, Wayland, and others, who have written on this subject. Money exists only by legislation; merchandise is the product of individual labor and enterprise. Money is the legal standard by which value is measured; merchandise is that which is valued by aid of this standard. Money, as such, has no intrinsic value; merchandise is songht for only on account of its intrinsic value. Money is perpetual in its nature, and is designed for use; merchandise is temporary and made for consumption. Money is concentrative, centering in the pocket or keeping of the few; merchandise is diffusive, being required and consumed by the many. Money is a certificate of value, and is transferable for what it represents; merchandise is the thing valued for what it is, or its uses. If money were merchandise as money, then a yard-stick would be merchandise as a measure, and the cloth would measure the yard-stick as much as the yard stick the cloth. Money pays a debt at the will of a debtor; but law recognizes no such power in merchandise. Money has minimum and maximum value according to law, otherwise it could not be a standard of value with any more consistency than we can have unlimited yard-sticks or unlimited bushels; but prices of merchandise fluctuate, and, in relation to the legal standard, according to demand and supply. Money is the instrument of exchange, of settlement among traders; merchandise is the stock in trade to be exchanged. Money is authorized by law for convenience, not profit; merchandise is produced by the labor of the people and for profit. Money as merchandise ceases to be money; merchandise as money nowhere exists except by legislation. Money exists only as a relative agent for measuring the value of other things; merchandise is prized for what it is in itself. Money is an agent to promote waut; merchandise supplies want. Money saves labor; merchandise sustains it. Money makes the price; merchandise pays it. As all products designed for use, ornament, or consumption, are to be either weighed, measured, tested, or valued, the governments of all nations prescribe by law the means; and hence we have weights, measures, tests, and money, so ordered that all may understand their uses and render them available at the least possible expense. KEY TO MERCANTILE CHARACTER. We like to get so good a definition of qualities in a man as the following: The differences of character are never more distinctly seen than in times when men are surrounded by difficulties and misfortunes. There are some who, when disappointed by failure of an undertaking from which they expected great things, make up their minds at once to exert themselves no longer against what they call fate, as if thereby they could avenge themselves on fate; others grow desponding and hopeless; but a third class of men will rouse themselves in such moments and say to themselves, the more difficult it is to attain my ends the more honorable it will be; and this is a maxim which every one should impress upon himself as a law. Some of those who are guided by it prosecute their plans with obstinacy, and so perish, others, who are more practical men, if they have failed in one way will try another. EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYED. We hear day after day of strikes and angry contentions, and we think we account for them by some alterations made in time or pay. But mostly they are the expression of long indulged feeling, of a brooding hate which is ever prepared to seize on any occasion that offers for its manifestation. Without doubt, the blame of this state of things rests on both the employers and the employed. Yet we cannot but think that the former, from their superior intelligence and the advantage of their position, might bring about a better understanding between the two classes. Hitherto they have treated this question with great apathy, but if they do not bestir themselves the time will come when it will be forced upon their attention. The sooner both classes learn that their interest are one-that neither can suffer or prosper without exercising a corresponding influence on the other, the better it will be for both their country and themselves.-Business, As It Is, and As It Might Be. ATMOSPHERIC TELEGRAPH FOR THE TRANSPORTATION OF PACKAGES. The Special Committee of the United States Senate, to whom was referred the memorial of Ithiel S. Richardson, asking for an appropriation to test the feasibility of his proposed atmospheric telegraph, have recommended compliance with the request, and reported a bill authorizing the construction of a tube, under the supervision of the Postmaster Genera), on a direct line between Washington and Baltimore. This was the method pursued to ascertain whether the Magnetic Telegraph invented by Prof. Morse, could be availed of for the various exigencies of business and social intercourse by persons widely separated. It was apprehended that the force of the electric current would be spent, or that some unforeseen obstacle would prevent its transmission, beyond a very limited distance, till actual experiment had resolved the doubt. And a similar success is hoped for by the Committee in the present case, to dissipate the fears of those who predict a less efficient operation through a long line of tube, than that which is exhibited in the model shown at the Capitol, which they declare works admirably, and seems to have overcome all difficulties, and some which have lorg been supposed insuperable in the practical operation of the atmospheric telegraph. This model is described in the Report as follows: It consists of a horizontal tube of one inch clear diameter, one half of which is straight, while the other half contains curves, designed to represent the sinuosities of the tube passing over uneven ground. One small air pump, placed near its centre, and communicating with either end of it, exhausts it at pleasure from left to right, or from right to left. A piston, or plunger, three inches long, and fitting the tube loosely, but followed by several detached disks, or washers of leather, which accurately fit it, is inserted in one end of the tube, separated by a cut-off; and a few strokes of the pump produce in the tube a partial vacuum. The cut-off is then reversed, and the plunger set free on the side of the vacuum, relieved from the pressure of the air in the tube, and propelled alone by the pressure of the atmosphere, passes through in a time wholly unappreciable by ordinary means.' Mr. Richardson refers to a still more practical test of the working and capacity of his telegraph, in a tube a mile long, of three inches clear diameter, and following the elevations and depressions of an ordinary ungraded field; and the certificates he produces show that the mile was traversed by the piston or plunger, to which was attached a weight of several pounds, in much less than a minute. If the tube be completely exhausted, the atmospheric pressure being about fourteen and three-quarter pounds to the square inch, the piston should pass through the exhausted tube at a speed equal to about six hundred and thirty-five miles per hour, modified by its weight and friction. But a perfect vacuum is not to be attained in practice. It is asserted, however, by the committee, that such a degree of exhaustion is easily attainable, as will secure a speed and power equivalent to the propulsion of fifty tons two hundred miles per hour. The mails which now consume twelve hours in passing between New York and Washington, may, in the opinion of the committee, be carried between those cities in two hours by the proposed atmospheric telegraph, and at a cost so diminished, that the Department might send six sets of mails where it now sends one, without increasing its expenses. AN ITEM FOR COTTON BUYERS AND SELLERS. There is now before the Legislature of Georgia a "bill for the protection, in certain cases, of planters and cotton sellers, which eflectually settles for that State the disputed question whether in the sale of a domestic staple, cash' means ready money, or money that will not be ready until seven days after the article is sold." The first section of the bill provides that " after the passage of this act cotton sold by planters and commission merchants shall not be considered as the property of the buyer, or the ownership given up, until the same shall be fully paid for, although it may have been delivered into the possession of the buyer; any law, usage, or custom, to the contrary notwithstanding." Section second enacts" that any person engaged in the business of buying cotton, either on his own account or for others, who shall buy or engage to buy cotton from a commission merchant, and shall fail or refuse to pay for the same at the time agreed on, or shall if no time shall have been specified then when required, and shall make away with, or dispose of any cotton purchased and not paid for, shall be deemed guilty of fraud and embezzlement, and shall be liable on conviction to be imprisoned in the penitentiary not less than one nor more than five years, at the discretion of the jury trying the case."-Charleston News. THE BOOK TRADE. 1.-Personal Narrative of Explorations and Incidents in Texas, New Mexico, California, Sonora, and Chihuahua, connected with the United States and Mexican Boundary Commission, during the years 1850, '51, '52, and '53. By JOHN RUSSELL BARTLETT, United States Commissioner during that period. In two volumes, with Map and Illustrations. New York: D. Appleton & Co. Mr. Bartlett has divided his Narrative into distinct journeys, each complete in itself. The first is from Indianola, on the coast of Texas, via San Antonio and the Northern route, to El Paso del Norte, about eight hundred miles. A second to the Copper Mines of New Mexico, in the Rocky Mountains near the Rio Gila, where he resided several months. A third, to the interior of Sonora, and back. A fourth, from the Copper Mines along the boundary line south of the Gila to the Rio San Pedro, and thence through another portion of Sonora to Guaymas on the Gulf of California. Fifth, a voyage from Guaymas to Mazatlan and Acapulco, and thence to San Diego, and San Francisco. Sixth, various journeys in California. Seventh, a journey from San Diego, by the Colorado and Gila Rivers, to El Paso del Norte; and lastly, a journey through the States of Chihuahua, Durango, Zacatecas, New Leon, Tamaulipas, and the south-western corner of Texas, to Corpus Christi, on the Gulf of Mexico. These several journeys embrace an extent of nearly five thousand miles by land. Mr. Bartlett furnishes what, we have no hesitation in saying, from our knowledge of his character, may be regarded an accurate and graphic description of the country, from the shores of the Atlantic to the Pacific. Every day's journey, the stream, lake, pond or spring--the mountain chains and their defiles--the plain and desert--the towns, villages, houses, ranchos, and farms where the traveler may obtain supplies-the spots where he may find grass for his animals, and where he can find none, are particularly set forth by Mr. Bartlett, who has aimed to render his book a useful guide to emigrant and other travelers. No work heretofore published covers so much ground; and replete as it is with interesting incidents, we regard it as beyond question one of the most practically useful works of travel that have ever been produced, and as such we cordially commend it to those who desire information touching the vast region of country described in its pages. The volumes are illustrated with sketches from engravings on wood, and six colored lithographs, executed in the best style of the art. 2.-The British Poets. Boston: Phillips, Sampson & Co. New York: J. C. Derby. This liberal and enterprising house have commenced the publication of a series of the British Poets, and already issued four volumes, embracing the Poetical Works of John Milton, with Notes and a Life of the author, by John Mitford, in two volumes royal duodecimo. The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Rogers, with a Biographical Sketch and Notes, edited by Epes Sargent, in one volume; and the Poems, Plays and Essays of Oliver Goldsmith, M. B., with an Original Dissertation on his Poetry, by John Aiken, M. D., and an Introductory Essay by our countryman, Henry T. Tuckerman, Esq. A critical notice of these authors would be ill timed, and out of place in the book trade" notices of a commercial review. But we may speak of the mechanical character of the volumes before us, although this would be unnecessary if all our readers were familiar with the good taste and sound judgment displayed by Phillips, Sampson & Co., in their varied publication of valuable and standard works. They are printed on firm, snow-white paper, a large, bold, and handsome type, and neatly bound. But, perhaps, the best idea we can give of our estimate of their edition, may be conveyed by saying, as we do, in all sincerity and candor, that were we about to select for our library, the three authors embraced in this series, we should give this edition the preference. 3.-Farmingdale. ton & Co. By CAROLINE THOMAS. 12mo., pp. 392. New York: D. Apple This is a New England tale, full of deep and tender pathos, well told, and moral in sentiment. It contains many well-drawn and graphic pictures of character. The Evening Post, good authority in matters of literature and art, pronounces it the best novel of the season. |