disposing of them to every applicant; a Tem
ple in which Flora was the presiding deity ; a
Bullfinch that sung sweetly every hour; a
Museum of relics and curiosities ; a gallery of
pictures, and a skating pond—a philosophical
toy by which fourteen little figures when moved
on a revolving disc, were made, by mir
rors, to represent thousands of skaters gliding
over ft surface miles in extent. More attrac
tive and profitable than any other, was a
Duclics county room one hundred years ago,
in which society at that period was illustrated
by living persons in real costumes and among
domestic articles a century old. I will des
cribe it:
The exterior of one side of a spacious house
w.is seen. The double-door was adorned with
a knocker which had done service one hundred
and twenty years at a mansion near Pough
keepsie. The ticket-holder would use it, when
the upper door would open and a pretty wait
ing maid would appear, dressed in ancient
petticoat and short gown. She received the
visitor and his ticket, and opened the way into
the mansion. What a change! Overhead was
a low ceiling with huge projecting beams, on
one of which hung a fowling-piece and powder
horn at least a century old. Before him was
a huge fire-place, ornamented with old Dutch
tiles, on which, in blue color, were illustrations
of Scripture history. Over the mantle-shelf
were hung silhouette likenesses, a “bull's eye”
watch, etc. Upon it were ancient plain flower
vases and other now obsolete ornaments, an
tique candlesticks, a tobacco-pouch, and a few
other things ; and below it were two immense
Holland tobacco-pipes. On the wainscoating of
the jamb was a “Poor Bichard’s Almanack,”
of 1754. On one side of the fire-place was an
ancient “corner-cupboard,” filled with an
tique china of all kinds, from the small tea
cup to the spacious punch-bowl. On the other
side was an old English clock in tall mahogany
case, and a delicate ebony candle-stand.
There was also the spinnet, the musical in
strument of two centuries ago, out of which
grew the harpsichord and the piano-forte.
There was a sofa brought into Duchess county
from Holland in 1690 ; and more than a dozen
old chairs of as many patterns. Two old
mirrors, one of them with candelabra attached,
reflected the scenes. The walls were hung
with ancient pictures and “ samplers,” some
of them brought from Holland, and upon a
high shelf were about a dozen books, most of
them printed in Holland, and bound in vellum,
and none less than a century old. Upon a
small antique table lay a fine old Dutch bible
with silver clasps; and upon a peg hung a
scarlet cloak and a turkey-down tippet, both
made in the middle of the last century. A
sword, with pistol attached, used in the French
and Indian war, hung on a hook; and in one
part of the room was a large round dining
table of solid mahogany, brought from Holland
Oxjb Daily
at the beginning of the last century, at which
Washington and many distinguished men of
the Revolution had sat. The windows were
shaded with curtains which did service in the
country before the Revolution. The entire
woodwork of the apartment was of the sombre
red-brown peculiar to old dwellings. Scarcely
an article in the room was less than one hun
dred years old. Such was its “ still life.”
Most attractive of all was the family who
inhabited the room during the Fair. It was
composed of ladies, some of them members
of some of the oldest families on the Hudson.
They were all dressed in the costumes of
their grandmothers or great-grandmothers —
the genuine dresses, full a hundred years
old. One was seen merrily spinning on the
great wool-wheel; another making thread
with an ancient flax-wlieel; and another, as
the mistress of the house, presided at the tea
table—the ancient one just mentioned—where
on might be seen an abundance of the silver,
pewter and china vessels and plates of the
olden time, with the substantials and dainties
that lay on a thrifty housewife’s table in those
days, and the lump of sugar suspended by a
string, that the tea-drinker might choose to
“stir or bite.” Moving about with dignity
was seen an apparent guest of the family, in
the costume of Mrs. Washington when she was
Martha Custis, in 1755. Others of the fami
ly were engaged in proper duties. A bright
and stirring Dutch housekeeper preserved order
in domestic affairs. Serenity was personified
in the quiet demeanor of a sweet Quakeress in
her grandmother’s drab silk dress; while the
aborigines were represented by an Indian girl
in full costume, wearing on her arm an em
bossed silver band, which was taken from an
Indian grave on one of the Thousand Islands
of the St. Lawrence. To makethegroup com
plete, in the chimney-corner sat gray-haired
l’ompey in patriarchal dignity, in small
clothes and scarlet waist-coat. Thus every
ingredient of society in our county a hundred
years ago was represented.
Our little Fair was a success, because the
net profits equalled the sum of one dollar for
each of the population ; and because it gave a
new impulse to our patriotism, enlarged the
action of our benevolent propensities, and ex
panded the orbit of our sympathies. Individ
uals and communities are enriched by such
moral culture.
Who can estimate the benefit we have receiv
ed as a nation, from the act of the loyal peo
ple in making a free gift of more than two
iiindred millions of dollars for the comfort
of the soldiers and their families? L.
Poughkeepsie, N. 17, June 1864.
The Eternal Providence is notv writing, in
characters of blood, a new and magnificent
chapter of Human History, and these great
Fairs are the arabesques that illuminate its
pages.
A “TIPPEE” WOMAN.
The term of the three months’ volunteers,
under the first call of the President, expired
in the fall of 1861. Most of those from Penn
sylvania having been enlisted at Harrisburg,
were discharged from service at that place.
At that time the arrangements for paying and
transporting large bodies of men were quite
inadequate, and the discharged soldiers were
necessarily thrown upon the hospitality of the
town until they could be paid and sent to their
respective homes. The houses of the citizens
were thrown open and every resident family
daily fed a certain number of soldiers. Of
course, at a time like this, the Governor's
house was considered very much in the light
of a hotel, and the run of custom was tremen
dous. It need hardly be said in Pennsylvania
that the family of the worthy Governor were
quite equal to the emergency, and that their
energy in procuring and their liberality in
supplying food for all who required it seemed
to be without limit. One day, after about one
hundred and fifty people had dined there, and
the household were completely exhausted by
the labors of the day, the indefatigable mis
tress of the house was observed by a soldier
to be still at her post, supplying with her own
hand everything that was required.
lie seemed unable to restrain the expression
of his feelings, and finally said to her: “I am
very much disappointed in you marm.” “Ah,
how so?” “Why I always heard you was a
proud woman.” “Why,who has done me such
injustice?” “Well,it was talked round generally
that you were proud; in fact I always thought
you were a ‘ Tippee’ woman.” What this might
mean exactly the lady did not know, but as it
seemed to be a class of female not very high
in the speaker’s estimation, she expressed
her gratification that she was not included in
it. Said he, “after the affair at Falling Waters,
where I was hurt, I came to a house near Mar
tinsburg, where a woman was setting sewing,
and I asked her for a glass of water. She told
me to go to h—l. I then raised my musket
and said to her: ‘Your needle and thimble or
your life.’ She handed over this needle and
thimble, and I intended to take them home to
my wife, but you have been so kind to me and
all of us, that I would like to present them to
you.” They were, of course, gracefully accep
ted, and are now highly cherished by the
owner as a testimonial that in the opinion of
at least one gallant man she is not a “ Tippee”
woman,
Tnri.Y hath Don Castelar, Professor of
History in the University of Madrid, declared
that America is now breaking “ the chain that
girdles the world.” What nation is there
within the borders of the civilized world that
does not show marks of the corroding influ
ence of American Slavery, deadening the sen
sibilities of mankind to the sacredness of hu
man rights ?