considered a high price, as they commonly
swell the weekly expenditure of every family. In Edinburgh, at the period
to which we allude, a great deal of building was going on, and it was
impossible to walk the streets without passing, (especially in the
immediate environs) new houses in various stages of completion; but
invariably we found, that the custom of the workmen was, to collect in
heaps the shavings from the carpenter's work, and burn with other rubbish,
these, which might have been sold for fuel very advantageously; nor was
the waste of this practice the only thing to be reprehended; it was
dangerous, since such bonfires were lighted before the houses in the open
streets, to the great peril of passengers, and at the risk of frightening
horses and other cattle, as the high winds prevalent in our northern
metropolis carried about in all directions the light, blazing shavings,
and sparks.

M.L.B.

* * * * *

FEATHERS.

(_For the Mirror_.)

Valuable as are feathers, and essential as is that article, a feather-bed,
to the domestic comforts of the poor, who can rarely afford to purchase
one, it has often struck us, as a singular want of thought and economy in
humble cottagers residing on village-greens or commons, upon which much
poultry is kept, that they should not collect, (a work easily performed by
the youngest children) the numerous soft, short, downy feathers, which may
be observed floating about. These in time would amount to a quantity worth
consideration, but they are usually left, first to litter the land, and
secondly to be destroyed by rain and passengers. This is particularly the
case in Norfolk, celebrated as everybody knows as well for its geese as
its turkeys, and where, it is asserted, that the former fowls undergo
regular pluckings for the sake of their feathers, ere submitted to "the
poulterer's knife." But experience, unfortunately, only confirms the old
observation, that "the poor are the worst economists in the world," and
the least obedient of any people to our Saviour's command: "Gather up the
fragments, that nothing be lost."

M.L.B.

* * * * *

TO TAKE INK OUT OF PAPER, AND STAINS OUT OF CLOTH, SILKS, &C.

Mix one teaspoonful of burnt alum, 1/4 oz. of salt of lemons, 1/4 oz. of
oxalic acid, in a bottle, with half-a-pint of cold water; to be used by
wetting a piece of calico with it, and rubbing it on the spo