repeated until a number, say fourteen, of these thin layers of wool bave been spread upon one sheet. The whole is then taken off, and drawn over a table, part of which is covered with a perforated plate, lying on a steam box, through which, as it is two minutes in passing, the wool becomes thoroughly enlivened by the hot vapor. It then passes under an enormous weight, which by a peculiar motion as well as by its pressure, hardens or felts it into a fabric resembling a coarse flannel, only that no threads are visible. This is then thrown into a fulling mill, where, like any other flannel, it is greatly shrunk in length and breadth, the gain being in thickness. It is now passed over the gig, where cylinders covered with teazels, create a long nap on one surface. It is then colored and finished like an ordinary cloth. Our readers will remember the Petersham beavers, which instead of a smooth surface with the nap sheared close like a broadcloth, were covered with little knots, as if the surface had been sanded. Many of the felts are finished in this way, and the comparison we have given explains the method of operation. The cloth is passed under a press, the upper surface of which is covered with sand, fastened to the iron plate with glue. When the press, which is heavily weighted, is let down upon the cloth, it has a rotary motion given to it, which by means of its sanded surface, twists the nap into the little knots which make the peculiarity of the fabric. The new wave-like surface, recently exhibited, called, we believe, the tricot, is produced by the same process, except that the motion of the press is from side to side instead of twisting.

HOW THEY DIG ANTHRACITE COAL.

The Rochester Democrat has a letter from Scranton, Pennsylvania, descriptive of the manner in which the anthracite coal of that region is dug and conveyed to the surface:

The coal bed is entered by a horizontal digging through earth and sand upheld by timbers for a few rods, till the coal is reached in a bed perhaps six feet thick, lying in the midst of a floor of rock on the bottom and top. This bed lies at the bottom of a hill, sloping upward to the west some hundred feet, and containing other beds above, and separated from this and each other by strata of rock, 25 feet between some, to 70 or 80 feet between other beds. This bed extends through the hill probably, and covers some hundred acres. Here the entrance is nearly horizontal, but the coal strata often has an inclination to the horizon from 10 to 35 degrees, according to the variation in the upheaving power by which they and the whole rocks have been raised from under the ocean in times long gone by, doubtless long before the race of Adam was placed on earth.

The coal is broken out by blasting, and a great many men and boys are employed in this process, and in removing the coal into the open air and daylight. A path is cut (by blasting) into the bed, wide enough for the carts drawn by mules to enter. At the proper distances cuts are made at right angles to the main path. These are cut across by paths parallel to the main path, and the coal borne away, thus leaving solid blocks of anthracite, perhaps 20 feet square, to uphold the strong roof of the bed between which the coal is removed about 50 feet wide. Thus the bed is cut up into the figures of a chess-board, the blocks remaining for the support, and not being moved like chessmen. More than half a mile of these cuttings are already made in this bed. The air within is cool, and ventilation is secured by sinking shafts from the surface above down to the cavity formed. As yet, no inconvenience is felt from the combustion of the gunpowder or confinement of the air, so completely is the ventilation secured by the process adopted.

The excavation must of course be dark as the blackest midnight. The workmen use oil lamps to give them light. The boys who drive in the coal-carts and drive out the coal, have each a small oil-lamp fastened to his hat for his own illumination. Viewed from some distance within, the scene is wild and magical, and one thinks of pandemonium as the blackened Vulcans come along with their lighted lamps bobbing up and down. But the jokes, and songs, and pleasantry, and happy activity, soon convince you that this is another sort of pandemonium. The workmen and boys are said to be healthful, industrious, well paid, and prosperous, and find a competent support for a multitude of contented families, whose small and comfortable dwellings are scattered at various distances from the bed. The Lackawanna rolls on at a little distance, and has the power of whitening the coal-bearing faces and bodies of the laborers, especially if employed in adequate quantity.

MERCANTILE MISCELLANIES.

IMPORTANT SUGGESTIONS RELATING TO CERTIFICATES OF STOCK. We cheerfully give place to the following communication, containing some wellconsidered suggestions in regard to the form and method of issuing certificates of Bank, Insurance, Railroad, and other stocks. The fact that it comes from a merchant and capitalist of unblemished integrity and large experience in mercantile and financial affairs would, were we at liberty to publish the author's name, give more than ordinary weight to his valuable suggestions.

We can see no very important objection to the plan proposed, and we therefore hope that our correspondent's suggestions will meet with the consideration they deserve. Every avenue to fraud should be carefully guarded, and the most effectual way to secure trustworthiness, is by placing, if possible, the facilities of fraud beyond the reach of the agents and officers of corporate institutions:

TO FREEMAN HUNT, Editor of the Merchants' Magazine:—

DEAR SIR: Now that the excitement, consequent on the "Schuyler" and other frauds whose development followed so rapidly on the New Haven Railroad expose, has partially subsided, it seems a fitting time to be warned by the past, and seek for safety for the future.

With your permission then, I shall lay before the public a plan for transferring stock, which from its simplicity and ease will, when thoroughly understood, be gener ally adopted.

My plan is as follows:

On the organization of any new company for banking or other purposes, let it issue its stock in certificates of $1,000, or parts of $1,000, as subscribers may require, and then make a rule that no new certificates shall be issued, unless to take the place of such as may be lost or destroyed; and then only after advertisement has been fully made for the missing certificate, as in case of a lost note or bond.

As a further guaranty against fraud by such lost certificates, I propose that such new made certificate be marked as a substitute for the first issued, and bear the like number and be under the same date.

This is the form I would suggest for the certificates:

"This certifies that John Jones is entitled to forty shares of one hundred dollars each in the capital stock of the N—— Bank, of New York, transferable on the books of this bank, and by the assignment of this certificate.

CHARLES CAUTIOUS, Cashier.

What are the advantages of this plan

SAMUEL SAFE, President.

1st. It guards against all fraud by new made certificates, as any one can determine whether the stock is true, and certificate genuine, by examining the transfers on the back of such certificate, or by going to the books of the company and seeing if it has been there assigned.

2d. It is convenient for the holders, as such certificates must needs be acknowledged as good and original.

3d. It makes it impossible for any president or cashier to create new and spurious stock, as has been done by Schuyler, his imitators and predecessors, in similar frauds.

4th. It will serve those who may want to raise money on their stock, because no one who loans money can doubt the security of a good bank or railroad company, when he can see so easily that the certificates must be genuine, and hence there is no possibility of its value being lowered by the false issuing of spurious stock.

I trust that some men of influence and standing among our financiers will make exertions to have a law passed by the Legislature, obliging every new company that may go into operation, hereafter, to issue such certificates.

Any old bank or other stock company, that will call in its old certificates and issue new ones on this plan, will add materially to the value of their stock.

I heard a gentleman of large property say, that if he could have all his stock in old companies reissued under such certificates, he would cheerfully pay one hundred dollars for every ten thousand dollars worth of stock he holds, and that such a rule for issuing stock being adopted would save much to those who may be stockholders hereafter, and give a greater feeling of security.

In fact it seems to me the only kind of certificate that any one not a banker or broker can receive with safety.

Any objection made against this plan as taking up more time in the transfer than the present mode, is imaginary and unfounded.

I hope, Sir, you will give the influence of your Magazine, which I know is great, to the furtherance of this plan, by which the holders of stocks can feel assured of their security and worth, whereas as things are now, there is no real worth, as there is no undoubted security to stocks.

C.

"WHAT IS THE PROPER EDUCATION OF MERCHANTS?" NEWBERRY is a district in the north-west central part of South Carolina. Its surface is diversified by hill and dale, and its soil is fertile and well watered; and it is moreover quite an agricultural region, producing cotton, Indian corn, wheat, oats, potatoes, and grass as the leading staples. It has grist mills, saw mills, &c. The district of Newberry has an area of some 600 square miles. The post village in this district, bearing the same name, (Newberry,) contains a court-house, a bank, a number of stores and a newspaper, "the Newberry Sentinel," a cleverly (we use the word with its genuine English meaning) conducted sheet. This Journal (the Sentinel) visits the office of the Merchants' Magazine in exchange for our monthly, calling regularly every week. In glancing over its columns in one of its recent visits, our eye fell upon the words—“ Newberry agricultural report on the proper education of Merchants.” Interrested in every topic connected with mercantile affairs, and the welfare of “our parish," (and it is a pretty large one, as every one is in some sense a merchant or trader, having something to buy or something to exchange,) we read the report; and although not a very elaborate answer to the question submitted to the Committee of the Agricultural Society of Newberry, it speaks volumes in favor of the good sense and sound judgment of that society. It is in the right direction. It convinced us that the committee took a correct view of the intimate relationship of Agriculture and Commerce. That the former, the basis of the latter, felt a deep interest in the education of those who were to be intrusted with the sale and distribution of its products.

We were almost inclined to surmise that the chairman of the society's committee who made the report, had "read, marked, learned, and inwardly digested," the teachings scattered over the pages of the Merchants' Magazine. And now after having said thus much of the report-more than we intended when we took up our pen-we feel in duty bound to its author and our readers, to give it in extenso. It is short, but suggestive. Here it is :

“The committee on the proper education of merchants beg leave to submit the following report:

"MR. CHAIRMAN:-This is a subject that has been discussed so little in this country as to render it almost a new theme. It has been said and perhaps truly, that 92 out of every 100 merchants or those engaged in mercantile pursuits fail of success. If this be so, the subject presents at once matter for grave consideration. Premising this, let us consider the causes. In doing so we will find various reasons. One of which, however, is so prominent and glaring that we offer it in preference to any other, that is, the improper training or education of those engaged in the business of buying and selling. However strange the reasons we offer may appear to the casual reader at the first glance, we hold it nevertheless to be an incontrovertible fact, that a close and rigid apprenticeship preparatory to entering upon the duties of merchandising is absolutely necessary. Now in every profession and occupation of life it is indispensably requisite, and generally imperatively required, that men should be properly and rightly trained before they are allowed to enter upon a full practice of the same. This is required of the physician, the lawyer, and the mechanic. If this is so, then the argument is conclusive corroborating our premises.

"We find few men who claim to be merchants at the present day that have had such a training as we have alluded to, and when we find such it will be discovered that instead of 92 out of every 100 failing of success, that 92 out of every 100 are invariably successful.

"It is not unfrequently the case that we see men advanced in years and even after middle life, and who have had no commercial training and consequently have no knowledge of commercial affairs, launching into mercantile pursuits. Indeed, we might say that there are thousands of men that can scarcely read or write a plain note of hand, who have laid aside profitable avocations suitable to their tastes and mind, to enter into a mercantile business. It is useless to depict the results. It is a lamentable fact that men who are happily situated and in prosperous condition, should permit themselves to be drawn away from that which they are qualified to discharge, (by an erroneous impression which has diffused itself among the community,) that merchandising is of all other pursuits the most easily learned, and the surest and quickest way of accumulating a fortune. Hundreds of individuals forsake the quiet firesides where peace and plenty reign and dwell, influenced by this delusive idea, and in a few years terminate their career in ruin and bankruptcy. If indeed this matter was confined only to the man himself, it would not be so deplorable, but such is the continuous chain which connects commercial affairs, that it affects the community at large, and thus by the ambitious grasping ignorance of one, the many are made to suffer. This not only injures in a pecuniary point of view, but is actually a clog to the real genuine business man, and prevents him in a great measure from carrying out his operations on that scale and in a manner which would really benefit the community in a commercial point of view.

This brings us to our first proposition- What is the proper education of Merchants,' of course we but simply submit our opinion.

"There seems to be a prevailing opinion that if a boy can write legibly, has ciphered to the rule of three, and possessed of a fair amount of impudence, that he is properly qualified, worthy of a fine salary, and actually highly competent to take charge of the most complicated mercantile business. These are stubborn facts and of daily occurrence. According to our opinion, a boy intended for a mercantile life should have it impressed upon his mind at the outset, and everything appertaining to his education should be directed to that channel. His education should be thorough, complete, and as extensive as if intended for any of the learned professions. Mathematics, geography, and history, should have a high and prominent place in his education; and another important matter should not be overlooked, indeed it is the most important of all, viz: the moral culture of the mind, with a high sense of honor, honesty, and integrity. Those attributes are the bulwark upon which the solidity of the whole commercial fabric is based. Have this instilled and implanted into the minds of boys whom parents or guardians wish to prepare for a mercantile life, together with habits of unceasing, untiring industry, and liberal economy, and provided there is nothing radically wrong in the constitution of their nature, you will have thus prepared, when they shall have arrived to maturity, men deserving in every respect the name and title of merchant: who will undoubtedly succeed in all their undertakings, reflecting honor and character on mercantile professions. Respectfully submitted,

W. WALKER, (hairman."

THE NEW PLANET DISCOVERED BY FERGUSON.

A new planet was discovered on the first of September, at the National Observatory, Washington, by Mr. James Ferguson the Assistant at that institution. It is the thirty-first of the system of small planets which has been discovered between Mars and Jupiter, and the first discovered on this side of the Atlantic. The first of these bodies (Ceres) was discovered by Piazzi, in 1801; the discovery being entirely accidental, although the existence of at least one planet had been conjectured in the large space between Mars and Jupiter, and an approximate place given to it by an empiri. cal law first announced by Bode. In 1807 the number had increased to four, and the hypothesis was set up that these were probably the fragments of a larger planet which had exploded or been broken by some convulsion of the system.

There was no addition made to the family till 1845, when Dr. Hencke discovered Astræa, since which time the number has been increased year by year, till now we have thirty-one, the hypothesis of the exploded planet growing gradually weaker as the number of fragments augmented. These bodies have, by general consent of astronomers, been named after the Dea Minores of the old mythology, which it is now feared may not furnish names enough for so large a society. They are all small, show. ing like stars of from the 7th to the 10th magnitude.

There may be many yet undiscovered, though M. Le Verrier has recently determined, from the computed disturbance which they must occasion to the orbit of Mars, that their aggregate mass cannot equal one-fourth of the mass of the earth. The new planet has been named by its discoverer Euphrosyne.

TEN YEARS' MERCANTILE BLINDNESS.

The "Merchant," a " folio of four," published weekly in Philadelphia, was "got up" as an advertising medium for merchants and men of business. Aside from its character as an advertising sheet, it is enriched with maxims, morals and miscellanies that merchants would do well to "mark, learn and inwardly digest." From a recent number of this Journal we take the following good advice, however interested it may be, to merchants on the importance of advertising:

A man may be very sharp-sighted in one respect, and blind in another. He may be so intent on seeing pennies as to miss the dollars, and he may boast of the found penny when you know he has missed the dollar. We saw one of these interesting specimens the other day, who very enthusiastically asserted that he had been in business ten years, and never advertised at all! And what did that prove? What reason was that in favor of his wisdom? As well might a rural biped boast that he had always put a stone in one end of the bag to balance the corn or meal, and had always shunned the turnpike. If he had done well despite of his adherence to old methods, might he not have done better by adopting some of the improvements in business? The old minister said he was sure he preached better than ever before, and yet people hinted something else was essential, and talking with his beadle, who was a tailor, he learned what the neglected thing was. The beadle said he was sure he bought as good cloth, and put in as good work as ever into the garments he made, "but parson," said he, "it's the cut that is wanting-the new cut that I have n't got the hang of yet." And so we may say in all honesty. Advertising is the new cut in the fashion of business; and it is no arbitrary, silly, unaccountable freak of the multitude, but a matter of real business philosophy. "Ten years in business without any advertising" is ten years of mercantile blindness. A poor business has been made a good one, and a good one vastly increased by advertising; for advertising in all its varieties, is but an extension of the wisdom that puts up a sign, that has a shop-bill or card printed, that arranges goods in the window or at the door, or that adopts any means of attracting attention to the name, or business, or goods of a storekeeper. "Ten years in business and never advertised!" let such a man keep on a while longer, and he will be so singular an object-so out of all order-so completely an odd genius, that Barnum will give him a large price to add him to his curiosities, if General Welch don't get him for his new Philadelphia Museum. "Ten years in business without advertising !" put the man down in your memoranda as blind to his best interests-strangely blind !*