thumb of a chamber-maid is mayhem just as surely as if it were the thumb of the President.
And so we might go on enumerating their rights in general, but the purpose of this article has been attained—to point out some of the rights of servants more or less peculiar to their calling in life, in the hope that a due recognition of them by those whom fortune has placed on a higher social pedestal will contribute a little to mitigate the worst evil of housekeeping. That it will eradicate the evil, or even be a panacea for half the attendant woes, is not for a moment claimed or expected. There are too many other independent elements at work to keep up the evil. But as each single drop of water falling on the stone helps to wear it away, so the observance of one form of relief will do its little toward wearing away the trouble which began with Hagar, and will end—Heaven only knows when.
| THE NEW YORK GEOLOGICAL SURVEY.[1] |
By JAMES HALL, LL.D., State Geologist.
THE history of the Geological Survey of New York from 1835, when the Legislature passed a resolution requesting the Secretary of State to report a plan for a geological survey of the State, is very easily traced, through the public documents and published reports made since that period. The events preceding, and which led to that action of the Legislature, are, however, of great interest and importance, and would of themselves form a very interesting chapter in the history of scientific progress in the State of New York, and of the country at large.
The mineral resources of the State had been the subject of discussion and inquiry even during the period of the Revolution; and, soon after the conclusion of peace, societies were formed for the purpose of continuing these investigations, but so little of scientific knowledge was at that time possessed that no systematic progress could be made in this direction. The gradual but constantly increasing interest in agriculture and the arts stimulated inquiry, and there were not wanting men of intelligence, wealth, and position to foster and encourage such investigations.
These indirect influences, which resulted in shaping public opinion and making a geological survey possible, were for many years quietly in operation; and the Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, Arts, and Manufactures, afterward the Society for the Promotion of Useful Arts, instituted in the city of New York in 1791, laid the foundation of scientific inquiry in the State, and its transactions afforded the
- ↑ From advance sheets of "The Public Service of the State of New York."
