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Pledged but to Truth, to Liberty and Law; No Favors Win us and no Fear Shall Awe." VOL. 2. M'HENRY, ILLINOIS, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1876. Published Every Wednesday li^- ; * •J. VAN SLYKfe Editor and Publisher. Office in Riverside Block, Over Smith Bros. A Co.'b Store. THERMS OF SUBSCEIPTION: Dne Tear, (in Advance,) $1 50 If not Paid within Three Months, 2 00 <tubacri|»tions received for three or six months |n the same proportion. BUSINESS CARDS, II. T. BltDW.V, M. I». PHYSICIAN and Surjreon. Oflice in Brick Block over F. G. Maves Clothing Store Water Street, McHenrv 111. E. A BEERS M. D. PHTSictAN and Snrpeon. Office at residence, two doors west of Post Office, 3 HI. Mcllenry BUSINESS CARDS. E. BENNETT, M. D., SUROEON and Ac?onc!>er. Diseases of Women a Spccinliv. Ofiiceand Residence on Clay Street, Woodstock, 111. W. II. BUCK, M. D., HOMEOPATHIC Pbvtirian and snrpeon.-- Oflice East Side Public. Square, Wood- stock, 111. Office, hours 11 to 12 A. M., and S to 4 1». M. O. J. HOWARl>, M I). Jhtbictan and Snrpeon. Office at the store of Howard A Son, Mcllenry , 111. F. J. BAttBIAN. € IGAR Manufacturer, McHenrv 1^ tory No. 171. Orders solicited. ™ Fac- RICIIARD BISHOP, ATTORNEY AND COUNSELOR AT T.AW. Office in rear of Murphv & Bishop's Bank Horth Sicie Public Square, Woodstock, III. ^ GEO. A BUCKI.IN, NOTARY PUBLIC, Conveyancer and In­surance Ajrent. Office "at Bucklin & Steven's Store, near the Depot, Mcllenry, 111. E. E. RICHARDS. HAS a,complete Abstract of Titles to land in McHenrv County, Ill'nois. Office with County Clerk, Woodstock. III. liOBT. WRIGHT. Manufacturer of Custom Made Boots and Shoes. None but the best of material used and all work warranted. Shop Northwest •corner Public Square, Mcllenry, 11L FR. IIECIITLE. HOUSE, Sijm and Carriage Painter, McHen­rv in. Will do all work promptly and at -reasonable lates. E. M. OWEN. GENERAL Denier and Manufacturers Affent in Leailina: Farm Machinery. Prices low and Terms favorable. MCHENRY, ILLINOIS. S GEO. SCIIREINER. ALOON and Restaurant. Nearly opposite the Parker House, Mcllenry 111. 49~First.Class Billiard and Pool Tables. J. BONSLETT, ALOOfN and Restaurant. Nearly opposite Owen's Mill, Mcllenry, 111. Fresh Oysters lerved up i® any shape desired, orjor sale by it he Can. 4STQOOD STABLING FOR HORSES..** 8 JOS. WIEDEMANN. SJlTjOOX and Restaurant. Near the Depot McHenrv 11L Boarders by the day or vreek at reasonable rates. Warm and coJd Mil at all hours. S^Good Stablinp for H«rse-t.,(r<ir MCHENKY LIVKUY STABLE. H. E. W1GHTMAN, Proprietor. First clues rljcs, with «ir without drivers, fnvtiWwl at reasonable rates. Teaming of all kind* done on short not ice. W. W. ELLSWORTH. • REEDER o the Celebrated Maffic Hojt Also Light and Dark Brahma Fowls. Pigs •hipped to all points by express. P. O. Ad- dress, Woodstock, III., arranted ROBERT MURFITT, AWATCII-MAKERoflSyears experience, has located at Nunda, and willpive Jvis atten­ tion to the Repairing «r Clock's, VI" itches, &c. Shop iu Watson Co.'8 Drug Store. All Work W. H. SANFORD, Mereliant "Tailor. In the store of C. IL Dickinson, East1 side of Public Square, ; WOODSTOCK, ILL. ~A srood Stock of Fine Cloths for Suitings al­ ways on liani|., Sui ts made to order and a lit warranted- tiive tne a calL ' W. H. SANFORD. Woodstock I1L, Sept 27th, 1875. Waukegan Cigar Manufactory, E. M. DENNIS, Proprietor. Manufacturer and Wholesale Dealer m CIGARS, TOBACCO, --AND-- Pipes of Every Description. 55 GENESEE STREET, WAUKEGAN, ILL. The Fellow with a Crochet. Removed. FROM the Riverside House to the Brick Store, opposite Owens' Mill, where I w ill open, a llrst-class Saloon and Restaurant. J, WEBER. M. ENGELN. GUN-S3IITH. Will change muz­ zle loaders, both single and double, <11^%to breach loaders. Keeps on hand all v..v-- v/ kinds of Gun Ma- teriaL All work warranted. Shop Southern*t Corner Public, Square, McHenrv, I1L O. W. OWEN, WATCH MAM & JEWELER, : : ' . • ; Dealer in all kinds of American and Swiss Watches, Clocks from the best factories in the country. Silver, plaledware, Silver Spoons, &c., " ALSO AGENT FOR THE Weber and'Brii<llmry Pianos AND THE Bstey Oi'gfan ! Which we believe to be the l * :st Organ in the market. Wo think \ve know that by experi­ ence, and we believe it, i'oi- it is Incited up by the BeSi Musicians in the World. I also sell other Organs at less prices than the Estey, but can't reccoinuiend them to be as good. j O. W. OWEN. Julv 28. N E W B. i l l PETER LEICKEM. REPAIRS Watches, Clocks and Jewelry of all kinds. Also Repairs Violins in theneSt possible manner, on short notice and at rea­ sonable rates. Also Violins for Sale. Ahop irtrst door North of Riverside Block, Mcllenry flL " MCHENRY HOUSE. Mcllenry, 111. John Karges Proprietor. Centrally located and the best of accom­ modations furnished. Charges reasonable. U it'll MOND HOUSE. RICHMOND ILLINOIS. Frank Foster Pro. prietor. Good accommodations for all oarties. Samplerooms for Salesmen. Livery stable attached. Public Hall for Lectures, Shows Ac., The McHenry Brewery. King & Herbes, Proprietors. THE best of Beer Shipped to any part of the country and warranted as represented.-- Orders solicited and promptly attended to. FRED. RENICII, CIGAR MANUFACTURER, --AND-- WHOLESALE TOBACCONIST. WOODSTOCK, ILLINOIS. PATENTS. Persons desiring to take ont Patents, or de- firing Information from the U. S. Patent Office ihould consult F. A. LEIIMANN,SOLICITOR OT AMERICAN AND FOREIGN PATENTS, Washington, D. C. Examinations free. NO PATENT HO PAY. Send for Circular. For Sale. The undersigned offers for Sale, me Brick Store on Water Street, in the village of McHenrv, now occupied by Mrs. C. 11. Morey, as a Millinery Store. It is 14x35, the upper •tory being finished off asa residence. Terms It Karon mile. Inquire of C. 1L Moiiev ilolieury, 111. Nov. 1st 1375. JOHN LANSING, - M Having opened a New Meat Market, 'in his Block, XEAfi THE DEPOT, Is now* prepared to furnish all who may give him a call with FRESH AND SALT MEATS Of All Kinds, PO UL Til Y, SA I SA GE, d c.<&c At as Low Prices as at any other Market in the County. I keep none but the best of Meats, and mV Sausage is made by an experienced Sausage maker, and are warranted the best. ft«"Give mc a Call, JOHN LANSING. McHenry, Nov. 14th, 1876. B E A D T H I S PRICE LIST. I will not be undersold, and having bought mv full stock for CASH, will offer the follow­ ing LOW PK1CES for cash. Men's Boots, $3.50 and $3. Youths ?».50. liovs $1.90. Men's Shoes Womans Kid Side Lace and Calf $2.-••>. Slippers, 75 cts. and fL Child­ ren* 30 cts. $1.20 and Kid side lace $2. Rubbers 40.•«0. and 75 eenls. Tinware and Stove pipe verv cheap. Cnx kerv Ditto. Groceries new stock. Teas 5(1 and 75 cents good as can be bought for a dollar. Saleratus, \east and Soap. 8 cts. fl>. Fine Cut Tobacco 50.<5 best 90 cents. Smoking 35 cts. lvillickinick 40 cts. and PlugfiO and 75 cts. Candv,, Mixed 20 cts-, Stick, 18 cts., 1 ancy 30 cts., Notions, Paper, Envelopes furnished and Printed for 10 cents a bunch. Large stock of Pipes and lixtures. Flourall kinds. Check­ ers, Dominoes, Cards, &c. I can Insure you or your propertv, cheaper than ever. You will save monev to trade with me, TR\ IT! The highest price paid for Produce, yours, I. M. Mallory. Nunda, I1L, Nov. 8th, 187(i. XBIS PAPER IS ON IUE WlXtt wma An Emay rtad before (he McJ£cnty County Teacher if Association, Nov. 28^1876: BY A. W OVItlXB. Vvxtere Advertising Contracts can be mad LADIES ANI> GENTLEMEN:--This may appear to sortie of you as rather a queer text for an essay before the Teachers' Association, ami in order that you may understand how it was suggested to me, I will explain the matter: During the session of the Teachers' Institute at Nunda, a discussion arose upon grammar, in the course of which Prof. Hewett said, "I believe with the text books upon the subject, as teach­ ers do generally, except now and then some one with a crochet.* It is my in­ tention, first to see who this croehety fellow is, and what he has done, with a view to his defence; and secondly, to show that the first part of his proposi­ tion, about agreeing with the text books is impossible for anyone but a politician, whose business it is to in­ duce voters to believe that h« is on every man's side**-t-ill after election.-- Even the president of a Normal School will find it impossible to swallow, men­ tally, two contrary propositions at the same time. This fellow with a crochet, then, ac­ cepting the Professor's use of tlie phra.se, is one who, differs from the text books, and l'rorti him also, as a matter of course. I have not the least idea that he meant anything personal, al^ though there were those pre sent whose questions^ be tokened grammatical here- sy. The crochet possesses no danger now, although men, some of whom had no other fault, have died martyr§ to their crochets, which always consisted, as will bo shown, in differing from the text books, but my research has failed to find among them all,a.single presi­ dent of a Normal School. One who differs from the great mass of his lellows, so as to stand alone as it were, is said to be '•crochety" whim­ sical, "cracked,"' "loony." or "insane," but in the early part of the first centu­ ry such a one was said to have a devil Xow, what are the reasons this iudl vidual must stand all this fire of epi­ thets, if they are not to be found in these points? He thinks and has the courage to exR^eat Uis tUoy^S, oyster never differs from his fellow I.ammellibranch, for he does not think, so bivalves never have crochets. Think­ ers have made all the trouble and all tlw improvement in the world, white the conservative who does precisely as his grandfather did, looks on in hor­ ror to see the wretch assail the text books, venting his disgust jn such epi­ thets as mentioned above. Did any uf you ever consider how muoli easier it is to agree than to disa­ gree; to assent than to dissent? One cannot dissent without thought. As­ sent, commonly eallcd belief, but which is not,"burns qo midnight oil, nor ar­ gues a point; >his is too fatiguing, and is left for the crotchety one who uses his brains and has the cour&go to ex­ press his convictions. This following with a crotchet has been of some service to the world; the fallows who agree with the text books are heard from onljr in what they have consumed and, iu the progeny they have left. To the Jews there is no doubt that Jesus was one of these pestilent fel­ lows, for, although they did not say that lis had a crochet, they said "lie hath a devil and is mad." Then came another who affirmed that the earth is a globe, but the books were against him, and Lactantius said the lellows who were teaching these things were "mad and senseless,1' which is rather worse than "crochety." In that dajT it was doubted whether one of these fel­ lows who held to so absurd a crochet was not in danger of losing his soul in consequence. i « The text books of that day contain­ ed the following theory of the earth and planets, which to us is a trille ab­ surd, but was held by all who did the work of teaching. "The earth is a par­ allelogram, fiat, and surrounded by tour great seas, these seas are inclosed by four great walls and upon them rests the vault of heaven. This vault is ce­ mented to the top of this wall, and the whole contrivance resembles a box.-- This box is divided into two compart­ ments, the one above the other. In the lower one men live and stars move, and it extends up to the solid vault of firmament where live the angels, who employ their time, like scene-shifters in a theater,in pushing and pulling the sun and planets to and fro, and opening and closing the windows of fieaven to give rain or sunshine as might be re­ quired. Day and night were managed according to one school by pulling the sun behind a mountain at night, and according to the other by pushing that luminary into a pit. Virgilius ventur­ ed te express his doubts as to the cor­ rectness of this theory, but the bull of Pope Zaehary taught him better than to differ from the text books, and sflttslched his crochet. Six hundred years later two inor© of these trouble­ some fellows publicly asserted that the earth is a globe, and, Peter of Abano died just in time to save himself from the fate of Cecco d'Ascali, who, at sev­ enty years of age, had his crochet roasted out of him. At the beginning of the lGth century, after Colnmbus and Magellan had each proved the truth of this insane notion, not found in the books, of the rotundity of the earth, and when the generally (I should say universally) accepted theory was that known as the Geocentric--that the earfh is the cenlre of thie solar system; ah obscure scholar in Poland, Nicholas Kopernick by name, had thought out and proved the Heliocentric theory-- that the sun is the center of on# system --tO be the true one, but as it was not in the text books,of course he was one of those fellows with a crochet. He knew how unsafe it was at that day to fiml out so great a fact in advance of the president of a qiftlcge, and dared not publish it in his own name and time. Ilis friend, Osiander of Nurem- bllfg. finally published the book in 1543 as la theory but that would not be toler ated either, and the book, condemned lifc£ by Catholic and Protestant, found a place in tlie, Index Expurgatorium, Books forbidden to the faithful. Ko- pei nicksaw the publication on his death bed only, and soon was beyond the reach of believers in text books. A man named Bruno read the book, and ventured publicly to ayow his belief in tlie Heliocentric hypothesis. He was 'httftted from land to land until they burned him at the stake; and for what ? For daring to express an opinion con­ trary to the text books of his time. A few years later Galileo's telescope made demonstration of this theory possible; but they would not look through to see the four satelitesof Jup­ iter: for, were there not <scven goldeu candlesticks, the «et'en-&ravicAecicandle­ stick of the tabernacle, the seven churches of Asia: and of course Jupi­ ter must have seven satelites. That argument from the stronger party, ad­ mitted of no reply, and Galileo had to swallow his crochet at the bidding of those who believed in the books. K Tii^e would fail me to enumerate all wfef i» JkJSl of t^pw. who pinned their faith on the books, were men with crotchets, but Kepler came near being made a martyr to science. Jenner, Harvey, Luther, Ser- vetus, Fulton, Morse and Darwin all had crotchets, and you who are curious in the tfiatterof the Reformation will admire the sublime courage of Luther and Servetus; those who love physiolo­ gy will find interesting matter in the histories of vaccination and the Circu­ lation of the Blood; the lives of Fulton and Morse will furnish to the mechani­ cally inclined plenty of thoughts upon the theme of^the man with a crotchet. I pass now to my second point, to show that the first part of the proposi­ tion, in which he affirms his belief in the text books on grammer is impossi­ ble and absurd. These text books do not deal in principles, but in opinions ; in which respect this subject is unlike iny other. If we take arithmetic, we And that authors difl'er only in their modes of presenting some particular part of the subject,in the arrangement (f topics, or in the relative importance vhich they may attach to this that or the other part of it; so of history, ge­ ography, reading, or any branch of school study but this, where there is scarcely a point regarded as essential one author, that another does not iirectly or indirectly deny its exist- tnce. If that only is the science of the Inglish language which all grammar­ ians admit, it seems a hard saying, but it is true, that there is no such thing as English Grammar at all. They, do not even agree upon the lumber of tlie parts of speech, placing it all the wuv iroin two, as was done by forue Toofce in his "Diversions of Pur- ey," to Kirkham's ten in the body of lie work for the scholar, and seven iu lis philosophical notes for the teacher, fhe participle, tlie article, tlie word of tuphony, and the expletive, come and ;o at the hocus-pocus of the bookmaker ike actors on tlie stage, and each mthor's grammar is just his opinion, nodified, it may be, by that of some brmer bookmaker, but there is not ine principle in all that hare come irithin my reach, that will serve as the )asis upon which to rear that beautiful Kliflce that wilbat some future day be- jome what so many log hovels now pre- |end to be, "The Science of the English language." I suppose I must be specific if I would Ivoid the charge of dealing in "glitter­ ing generalities." i Several of our text books say that a Ioord is a part of speech ; others affirm jthat a part of speech is a word or yroup of words. Is there no difference here? All define in substance a noun to be a name, after which nearly all tell tlie pupil, (Greene and Kerl among them) that the thing itself may be a noun, while Clark would have us dis­ tinguish carefully between the name and the thing, the former is the noun, and then to cap the climax of absurdity they tell us that phrases and sentences are nouns, but they fail in such cases to stfow how we are to distinguish the gender, person and number of such nouns, although careful to inform ns that these are properties ef nouns. They tell us that number depends on the form of the word, but collective nouns, although they have two forms same as the others, determine the num­ ber by the sense, when men are subjects and almost any way in the other cases. Most of our text books follow their leaders blindly in the matter of pro- nouns. but Swinton denies that T "we" and "you" are pronouns at all, while the opinions as to the others are almost as various as th^ styles of the different textbooks. There are two different definitions of the verb, both of which no man with a crotchet however small, can believe, although to avoid argu­ ment he tnay assent to both. Case is defined so as to make "confusion #worse confounded,*' and whether it is modifi­ cation, according to Brown; condition according to Clark; relation, according to Wells, Harvey and others; ending, according to Swinton and Boltwood; relation, form and position according to Greene, or none at all, according to Sill; perhaps Prof. Hewitt will inform us when he learns that all these terms have the same meaning, or when he rises to explain how it is possible for one who is not a professor, to agree with the text books in this matter. From no case at all, in three of my text books ou grammar, to Swinton's possessive only, and the nominative, objective, possessive, independent, or absolute ot others, you can take your choice, but talk not of agreement with all of them. Passsing the adjectives aR game too small for my present purpose, I shall close this essay by noticing some of the agreeablethings taught us about tlie verb. "Itjis a word that signifies to be, to do,or to suffer." It, is a word that expresses the being, act, or state of a person or thing." "A word that affirms or asserts concerning a subject," and4"A tvord that asserts questions' or CoaujjMintl^' Jt. im possible, perhaps^ for a man without a crotchet to bring himself to believe that all these vari­ ous definitions mean the same thing, Jjufif so, why not take Swinton's "Verbs make statements," a seeing thaf is much the shortest. Verbs are said to have the following properties, to-wit: Voice Mode, Tense, Person and Number; but when they define voice we find that it pertains to the subject instead of the verb, and in mode we must take that only upon which all these authors -agree, else it might not sit well upon our mental stomach's, unless we are without a crotchet. Some of the books, I am un­ able to say what proportion, give us six modes, to-wit: indicative, sub* junctive, potential, infinitive, impera tive and participial, but several cal) the participle an adjective; others say thdt the infinitive is not a mode, but an ab­ stract noun; nearly all agree that the subjunctive has become obsolete; the potential cannot be found in many grammars of good repute, and all may see that the imperative is not in the arrangement of the predicate, or the form of the verb, but in the tone with which the words are pronounced. How is it possible for the Professor to agree with the textbook here? He must first show that the books agree in mere than two points, which are these--they contradict and oopy one another--then perhaps it would not be quite absurd for him to say, "1 agree with the text books upon this subject." That the fellow with a crotchet is after these makers of grammers, we find abundunce of proot in the fact that the so-called "language Lesson" is supplanting the systim of parsing and analysis once much the rage iu schools whose teachers thought that a pupil who could, with faultless precision, re­ peat meaningless definitions, and absurd rules, had learned something of the Science of language. To recapitulate : One who agrees with the text books in grammar, as Prof Hewett said he did, must believe that tlie number of the parts of speech can. and that it cannot be determined with certainty; that the noun is the name of an object, the object itself, a phrase and a sentence, although he will no where find any to inform him how to distinguish the gender, person, number and case of this phrase or sen­ tence. lie njust believe that nouns have four genders and only two gen­ ders; that they have three persons and that they have but one person; that they have four cases, two cases, one case, or no case, but he must believe all at once; that case is modification, position, form, condition, relation and ending, although these words are ntft synonymous; that a word is a pronoun because it has an antecedent, and that it is a pronoun when it has no antece­ dent; also that the so--called "pet* sonals" tfre not pronouns at all;that thi meaning of a word makes it a verb and that its use, not its import, makes it so; that verbs have voice, modes, tense, person and number and that they have none of these properties; that its form makes its transitive, and that this quality depends entirely upon its meaning; that it has any number of modes from one to six, and that mods is not a property of the verb; that thi infinitive is a verb having a subject or an object, and that it is not a verb but an abstract noun; that the participle is a mode of the terb and that it is not. but only an adjective. It i3 a well settled principle of logic that of two contraries both cannot be true, but both may be false; and I ap­ prehend that notmore than two per* sons in the universe are equal to tha above task, to-wit: the President Of a Normal School, and the fellow who never had thought, or a crotchet* THE BENEFITS. Even consitutional grumblers are b§- gluing to admit that business is gaitl# rally improving. The statistics what the nation has lost are abundant. Let us rather consider what has been gained. It is time to examine the precious jewels that have beeu extri­ cated from adversity. The first and most evident goo4 result of all periods of commercial. distress is that tire tendency to give large credit and to embark in wild • speculation is repressed. The result to the loser is to make him resolve here­ after to stick more closely to his legiti­ mate business: aud when men stick to their busiuess and give short credits, they rarely fail. It is generally conced­ ed that merchantile affairs were never in a more healthy condition in such respects than they are at the prcsem moment. Economy is the hardest of all lessons for the American to learn. It is also the most profitable. Compared with the efforts at economy during tho present period, it may be said that tht virtue has been generallv unknown in this country for nearly forty years. It has now suddenly prevaded all ranks and conditions from the National Gov* ernment down to the day laborer. Just at preseut it may be called the fashion. Let us hope that it will last for more than one season; while it lasts the nation will grew in wealth. In fact there is very little chance for any community to grow rich except by what it saves. That permanent habits * of economy have been accquired by any large proportion of Americans during two or three years of hard times, is too much to hope: but a be­ ginning has been made with the ma­ jority in the right direction, and many will be more provident for the rest of their lives. SENSIBLE ADVICE. "VVe advise everybody to read aud profit by the following, which we copy from an exchange : If more attention were paid to duns, both tnrough the papers and letters, there would not be so much necessity of resorting to the last alternative--the law--for collections. A man who sends you a polite invitation to settle ac­ counts does not always expect the money, but when he finds his demands are treated with silent contempt, his indignation is aroused, and the debtor must suffer. When you are notified that books must be settled, whether you have the wherewithal to cancel the debt or not, let the man you owe know the circumstances of your case, so that he may act intelligently. Your failure to respond to his cail creates a feeling of distrust that ends if he is a business man, in a law suit. fgf'Don't raise any variety of po­ tatoes that ripens after August 20th,1 says the Iowa State Entomologist, who has made the Colorado bug a study for some years. This plan starves out the last crop of bugs, which go into the ground and live over till Spring. If farmers would follow this advice a few years^ no doubt they would soon suc­ ceed in getting rid of this pestiferous insect. Reader, )«t us move to San Bernardo Valley, California. Here is a poor man's breakfast in that Arcadia: Tea. sweetened with pure, white, strained hone}*, thick cream and bread, milk, eggs, Hubbard squash, ham, pomegranate, black Hamburg grapes, £lauune de Tokay grapes, green figs, aaid peaches. Cost of breakfast for man and wife, fifteen cents. ftitT'The mince pie season has finally set in. and now deceased relatives peer over tlie foot of the bed, and seem to reach up uuder the clothes and seize A man under the waistland of hi9 pants.