Valley Virginian

Among all our acquaintances, scarcely a half dozen standing at the head of families seem to appreciate the moral bearing of the right sort of home and the high influences which come from them. Home to a good many men is the place wherein to eat, and sleep, and loll, and snarl, and order children about, and put into practice generally small views of the rights of a husband and father. And then, something higher than these, stand a more intelligent and genial class who have a warm, social side, and are void of tyranny, and cherish every noble hope for their children, and yet do not quite see that home and its influences should be the main thing in the thoughts and plans of every father, instead of being held greatly subordinate to business and politics, and outdoor pleasure. To provide abundantly and keep the house warm in cold times, and send the young ones to school punctually and have family prayers once or twice a day are not all the things that need doing, but home should be made a really bright and happy place in every way. It should meet the wants of the whole nature of the young. Festivals should be instituted. Returning birthdays should be emphasized and made memorable. Little expeditions of the household to this place and that should be planned. The right kind of books should be sought and read, and talked over together. Indeed, scarcely anything helps a home so much as general and cheerful conversation. Music should be brought in. The taste of the children should be cultivated. - Decorations are excellent in a merely moral view. Flowers and greenery should be made to assist in the general culture. And if time is consumed and some money spent on these things, there is no folly in it, but the best wisdom. For boys and girls are blessedly guarded when they find all their faculties well met and exercised at home. they do not care to roam, and so they are detained from a thousand outside dangers. Their passions are kept quiet. They lie open to celestial influences. Tis easy, comparatively, for such to be christians. Indeed, we expect them to be Solomon's "train up a child" &c, is likely to be fulfilled in their case. - Tippling houses do not draw their pay from youth who have been made to love their homes heartily. Wayward girls are bred in unhappy homes. The mixed Christians (neither saints nor sinners) by whom the church is lumbered and made inefficient, that is, the Christians who have such obstinate kinks on their constitutions, that the grace of God is able to straighten them only by slow degrees and a weary drill, they are generally victims of untamed early influences in poorly managed houses.

This great discovery of our countyman Lorenzo Sibert, Esq., will now soon attract the attention of the whole mechanical world. The Steel produced by Mr. Sibert in his operations at California Furnace last fall was the product of a charcoal blast, and it was undecided how far, if at all the operation could be carried on by stone coal as a fuel. - A few weeks ago Mr. Sibert went to Baltimore to test this matter fully. He expected to have the use of one of the largest furnaces there long enough to have made a thorough trial of his flax with stone coal. But he only succeeded in getting the furnace for twenty-four hours. So confident was he of the success of his theory that he risked a trial of only 24 hours, where a failure might damage him seriously and on a first trial, with new fuel, was to say the least, problematical. The test was made and we understand that 10 or 12 tons of this new metal was produced, that, so far as judged, without actual chemical analysis, possesses all the characteristics of the 30 or 40 tons made at Rockbridge, at the Furnace in the fall, and which has been worked, tested and analyzed, and found to be steel of the most excellent quality. Mr. Sibert also prosecuted some interesting experiments in the shops of the Baltimore and Ohio R.R. Co., at Mt. Clare with satisfactory results. Officers in charge of the mechanical operations of that company have manifested their appreciation of the importance of this product by placing at Mr. Sibert's disposal all the vast resources and machinery in their shops for the practical application of his great discovery, at their expense in material and labor, a most liberal and advantageous offer, which he accepted.

Mr. Sibert spent last week in Washington preparing the necessary papers to secure the benefits of his discovery by patents in all the principle countries of Europe. These documents go out this week to the proper agents in Europe, where the patents will at once be issued to Mr. Sibert and his appointee and joint owner Mr. Brady, of Rockbridge. - The scientific journals of the day show that the subject of this discovery, a cheap process of making steel directly from Iron Ore, is engaging more attention from Iron men in this country and abroad than any other connected with the manufactures of the world. This is one of those discoveries that marks an era in the industrial arts throughout the world, and most immediate portion of Virginia. - No part of the United States - perhaps no part of the world - is so rich in the principle elements of this new manufacture. Iron Ore and manganese, in close proximity. - Timber, too, for charcoal is still abundant, and by the time it gives out, the Chesapeake and Ohio R.R., it is to be hoped, will open up the coal fields of the Kanawha Valley for the full development of the Iron interest between the Alleghenies and Blue Ridge.

The parties having control of this Patent are about to pursue the right policy not to push it upon the world, but let the world come after it. They will make arrangements to put in operation this Spring a single first class charcoal furnace here in the Valley and make 5 or 10 tons a day of Manganese Steel for Railroad purposes, such as wheels, axles and rails, and supply this material to one or two leading Railroads, and let its use proclaim its value. Thus by refusing to sell territorial rights, but offering the process to all who choose to adopt it and pay a small royalty, it will, in supplant all other modes of producing steel for general purposes and wants of the world.

The furnace first engaging in this feature will have a great start in the business and we hope it will be one of those in this county or Rockbridge, as it will lead speedily to the erection of others and thus create a new source of wealth to our favored region.