- • .* v bv :e\l:ls* & bi;.\fokd. WHOLE NO. 27 66. VOL 53. Select p o e t r5. r """- VA ( ' V". : V Fro n the I'r<;s-'. Tilt: SHOOTING STARS ! From IStt ratil -*r. ] BY CIIARLK-i I>. rSAKDETTK. '•Savc-t thou, Shepherd, that each star Is arbiter of human fate ?" ,-Aye, ch:iJ! I hus Heaven has placet! them fur From human passion Love and Mute!" "Shelf eril, men say that thou car.'st read The skies' t'retn! secrets! whose career .-••ts in that -tar, that, with mail speed. Doth downward stream, anil disappear/" "With that -tar's exodus, my child, A mortal s briet existence ends : With Bacchan wine ami wa<-uil wild, lie drank to life, amid his friends ! I nconscious. bv the bowl be drained, He lies! In- grief'--, bis hopes, his .cars'"— "Hold! Shepherd ; one more-tar hath waned; j Waned- Jownward stieams—and disappears !"' "That meteor, my son, is blest ! The Lite it h id was umtefileil, Scare was oia.blossom pret I'poll b r lir.nv; —:t iovir.e child— bestow ' on him srie'it loved so ion;— i A virgin sjne -e—the altar near—" "Hold ! Shepherd!—from amid the throne Another star doth disappear !" "Ala- : my ' T!. that direful glare A (Oiirlly c H ;axy deplores! A Diplomat, whose richest share Ol wealth treamed it.io' oppression's poies! j Those ev/'i <)/'/••• i. this idol wept, A "re In-, portrait with their tears—" •-Hold! Shepherd! down yon misty cleft A new star stream—and disappears ! " ••Mv -oi . the Poor Alan's grief is keen!— 77.-1- makes Ins hope of mercy dim : From othen Charity we glean — Wen.', /and hirmtrtl from him'. This very iii^lit toward his rool, For n.ariy a wtinderer -teers—" "Hold' '-riepherd, thro' the sparkling wool* A star still streams —and disappears ! "'Tis a great Monarch's star, my son ! Ah! ke p thine humble station still ! And neier let thy star be one J'he thorny heights of Fan.* to fill! For stioiild'st thou with an usele-s spark time thy Life, Mail will hut sneer, i.i.i rtv vrhe/t ail thy lamp is dark— "• " i it tr tilth —ft" ■" C fll'l, 1837. A Michigan BetHlng Story. Tib'editor id the Gram! Rapids Eagle litis a friend who ha* been stopping, as he allege*,at naeol'lfie hotels at Kalamazoo. His s!rv is • .vttv fasi'lv < .hi, and he possesses talent tit til-* , way 'il'spinning 1 'yarn 1 lliat would do credit to| ore who has entertained it is mess in the {ore cast oi a whaler, or relieved the tedium ola : wa!< it on deck: "V at see I went to bed pretty all fired used up, ah- r a iii.il day on the road before the plank was iaid, caikaiatm'on a >-1 soon/.". Wuai just as the shivers began to ease oli, I kind' r Mt siitinn Irvin'to pull oil mv shitl, and diggiu' their t'eet into the small ol my back, to git a gnod Itnid. Wriggled and twisted, double I and puckered—all oi no use—k< ; t agoiigit like all sin. Bitm bv got up and struck a itgl t to lonic around a spell—found about a peck ol hi-d-bugs scattered around, and more dropping oil mv shirt and tunnin'down mv leg every n.init. Swept offa place on the iloor, shook out a quilt, lay • iflw :i & kivered up tor a nap. ,\o use they mount ed : :ght oti me like a parcel <>r. lay tinw it on th * inside, ami felt comfoi table thai time anyhow. I left the !:ght burn in", and wat c lied 'em, see 'cm get together and have ;t camp ttieetin' snout it, and thev went o.'l its ;i squad, with an old grev headed one on lite top, tight up oil the wall an'to the ct ihn 1 , 'til they got to the right spot then dropped tight into my tace iiind in the course of years. Their met us lay ui a scholarly choice ol words, m a certain mu sical adaptation ot the sound to liie sense, and a charming continuation ol the music when ihe sense feji short; with, here and there, a passage of clear, manly, vigorous wining on winca our hopes of Air. i. .'s future chie;:y hung. But it , was tlie sad misfortune of U.is young mail to be come connected with Putnam's Monthly. A Certain little company ot Yankee stnoiars, poets, and college pioh-saois conceived the idea : ol ruling America Ihiuugh the columns of mat magazine. 1 hey ascended to so large a con ception of their own power, and ol the plastic so Itu ess of the American puuiic, that ttiey lancu ed that theories of society, elaborated in college closets, and smelling all uverot the lamp, could be made to supplant the organized wisdom ot the sages who liamed our constitution. Instead ol Conlining themselves to a province which, by virtue ot tneir scholarly strength, they mignt have swayed as lords, tney crept into fields of [discussion, where their poverty ol practical wisdom made ihem rank as beggars. The magazine, which it was boldly avowed at fne stair, oi .... ..., - meiican power of thought and speech, became the organ of a mere political clique, ot a clique small m numbers, small in influence, wanting patriotism, hungering lor jwwer. Everybody leiiK inbeis the wretched essays vviiich these ai t ihcers oi loiiv hammered out mouth aliei month; we Lave not lorgotleii their flippant attack up on 'or JV'tit? li isidcnt,' vv hen Air Pierce caiue into power, HI which they gravely leproached hi a, in making his foreign apfHJintiuents, with having passed ovet "young men ui i.'te old la iiHiies' —a charge, in a country i cognising no such tiling us an old family, auogaui and super cilious beyond tolerance. it is needless to sav that the sentiment v. hu.h ! united these philosophers with hooks ot steel was an intense hatred to the institution ot s.av ,.j y—to tne master, to the States wfi.cn saiic llulled it, n> the mti mal government, whicti re- CoaiHsed l.'ie right of the master to leCiallll his fugitive. In aii possible disguises, and oil en openly, t'liey gave their views upon tins dulling t .pic. i heir aim evidently was to broaden the ! boundaries of the abolition paiiy—to inspire in the northern mind a hatred to every thing south ern, and s to intlame the sentiment ot the I uorliwrn lepteseiitulion in Congress that hattie might come of it, and then disunion. W c don I think that since printing was invented there was evei such elaborate lolly garnered into vv i ltten essays ami given into t \ pe. When Air. Fremont v\us nou.mated foi tne presidency, the political milieuumm seemed to iliese philosophers very r.igh at hand. l'hey re ally tnought that tile cucmn .-is were gm_ to vjrid buiiiifHiiis without auy iuitiuT tlcixy i'hev iUucu-d tiiat tut' Auiv-'i'icaii .id, the agency ol their essay s, had been regener ated ami redeemed, and as liley WaH lie,i toe waning ot their subscription M '• tney cfieeieti V.'B Willi llit' l .'.'it liit- : 4U; V would soon lam its doilais into then urouthy pockets. .No men ever taonred as iney mi —in speaking, in writing, through the columns of tne Tribune, from the rostrum of B>- Melodeon, aided by tin* watching;. ami tastings and j rav ers of three thousand ciencai allies to sanctity trie briber v and falsehood ol theirou'd ' I lUOOI, ttie counti v trembled to its centre wdii then traitorous thunder. At this crisis, Mr. George William Cuitis, whither ol" his own good judgement, or by the persuasion of his brother sages we have not learned, conceived trie idea that lie was culled tube a statesman, and forsaking his pen, and leaving ".'.lrs. i'otiphur'' and the "iJ"i-'adji tc look after themselves, mounted the stump, and became an apostle ul the new doctrine. 11* spoke at New York; he spoke atJgjladelphia: he spoke, indeed, wherever let hiti speak. We remember seeing hiMwme upon ai enormous poster, in gigantic 'capitals, prefixed with the adjectives "distinguished, " "eloquent? "brilliant,''dec., with an unlimited accompani ment of notes of admiration. Now and tix-i "the Tribune" gave the public a synopsis ol tin "Howudji's" arguments, flattering the younj; man basely, and describing his audiences as "in telligent," "briiiiaiit," &.C., when everybody knew that thev were gathered up from' the out skirts of the metropolis, and were composed chiefly, of* "lewd fellows of the b;iser sort." As might have been expected, Mr. Curtis,o rather the people who went to hear him, soul discovered that the talents which lit a man t write "summer-books," or water-place sketches FRIDAY IVpNlNfi, BEDFORD, PA.. OCTOBER l(i, 1857. - do not necessarily involve a genius for govern ment, a power of eloquence, or the strJn-'th ot a popular leader. .Nevertheless, we must do . Curtis the justice to own that his theories, wnut. ever eUe they wanted, had at least the merit of novelty. VVe if member one address of his enti tled " file American Scholar," delivered before some college or other, in which he gravely laid down the proposition, that the material prosperi ty ot a nation was at war with the growth ot poetry, oi heroism, of the finer feelings ot the soui—that Holland lacked poets because it abounded in fat larins and mil barns—that America was hastening to the same tuiuous con dition, and that consequently, until the national e I now s Were out, we must wait in vain for a Ilomer, or the heroes to give maj. sty to an Jliad. VVe don't pretend to say what tne sentiment oi our iiei. hours may be; nut, fir our own part, we blush to confess a vulgar partiality fur tne reign ot good clothes and guod (ituneis, and a horrible snrmking from this poetic millennium—this tiiuusaud years oi glory and starvation. VVe all remember how Kiemont leil—how hai'J tie lei:, how tlat, how fow. t iie "/foui-Ar ji" leil witii him. Wherever he had spoken, the IJuchanan vote, it vvasu served, was unusu ally large. He retired to tie- walks of private lite. I here was no hope under the '"slave pow er" for the "young men of the old families," and so iVJr. Curtis wedded what little cash lie j had with tile declining furton .>* i'utnuin, and lost it, il we are correctly informed, by the de- ! ccjac ol t/.at jh*rioliiu . l i oeo j>lf wouldn't stand it any longer. Tin- t-xp-ru ment was a failure, and ttie ;Vi.ic.;.'.m>- ha> oem'; remodeled on another plan. VVe nave laid some curiosity to know wl,at mid become of Curtis ! since this disaster. VV e lancied that perhaps he had gone to Syria again, or was compo>in r an-' nthet "Summer Book" down ut Newpuit, or j was eating some rich man's dinneis in the filth avenue, with tlie harmless design c>! saiui/.iug his iiost as a "snob in some prospective Putnam or tnat, perhaps, he had linked ins fortunes with "the great I'aitilinder" himself and, in company j w it!) that illusti tons man, w as engaged in eating mule meat, and grass-hopper pies, and pfottmg another presidential light in latiO. In ail these conjectures vie were wrong. Air. Curtis is again delivering orations, not tins tune before the vulvas poputi , nut 1:1 open lots, or from tavern porticoes, but before the scholarly gentlemen who graduate at tne Yankee colleges 1 the incipient philosophers who to mould the next age, as Curtis Cn. Co., tried to mould this. lcLliif, St. Lawrence Republican of Septem. anybody who has tlie cut iosiiy to look w ill hud some four columns ot close print with the I 1- lowing title: "PATRIOTISM—AN ORATION: "Deliveied at 1 nion College, N. V., July •JO: at Dartmouth College, .N. 11., July 'ill: at the Norma! School Convent tnu, V\ ->ttield, Ma>>., July 31; and. at Brown 1 niveisity, R. 1., September 3. l*->7, ; y "(iEOIUin WiLLIA.'i CURTIS." VVe were quite ce1..011 that this oration must be a very good thing, or a man ul ol Curtis brn k to .1 sense of in tice, and a broad Jove :>l tlie whole land. "Patriotism," Webster tells us, "is the pas sion which aims t" serve on* s country,' and we thought it possible that the college oi.ilor meant lo serve ins, by unsaying somew hat of his for mer filly, and doing justice w here he saw it was owing. VVe exp"Cted, withal, that m a studied production like this, all that could he said of patriotism would he said s-> elegantly and n.usicaliv, with such power and grace, that his f fid ores on lite f'remont slump would be fo: "ottea altogether, or forgiven, for this bright production of Ins later genius, in all these ex pectations we o 11 ourselves wretchedly disap pointed. The iiterary graces for which, at least we had a right to look, w'e seek in vain. I' low ers of rhetoric are not wanting, it is true: but they do not spring gracefully from fields of thought, nor clothe tile idea with a natural bloom but resemble, tatlter, in their awkward adjust ment tlie wiper posies 011 a tavern mantelpiece. One specimen will suffice t<> prove what we sa v: "Gentlemen, amid the jargon ol corrupt poli ties, and the shivering sophistries oi timidity and iiiilifo-rence ami ease, which blow upon every g. neration of young hearts, as the Mtilocatmg sirocco blows over springing grain, remember steadily that laws are of two kinds," xc. But we might possibly have lancied we dis cerned some iragrance or beauty in these pre tentious weeds, which Mr. Curtis womd have us take as flowers, if they had been twined with manly thoughts and brave hopes, such as become a theme like this. L- t us see what tins man s ideas of patriotism are. The first column of his address concludes wt.h the following deduction: "Thus •fentlt inen, we see that a man s conn (r, is not a certain m of jand-"l rib,-, .10,1 woods—but it is a principle, and fill riot ism loyally "> ,tat lnc.[.lr . VV.- never supposed ltal "y!dv thoogld that love of country is • al.achmrtal to so nani acres of wheal potatoes, , h: ,.";hkl the elaborate argument -1 r <■ • '• prove tint it isn't gives us no I.v M? Mo l < 1;,.. intelligence ot ills college auditors. "e (rusl however tiiat this propositron was rstab ,| el loth" '■" lie satisfaction ol the young „ of Dart mouth, whose love of COUP. T i we are led to infer, up to the bearing ol his' addre' s , was KW >'>' 1 latch, ortheep walk, on the Connect.cot or having clearly Shown what pa- Freedom of Thought aid Opinion. triotism i.-n't, proceeds, in his lucid order of arrangemetf, to tell us what it is: '-.Now, as I conceive it, gentlemen, patriotism in an American, is simply fidelity to the Ameri can idea." "Fidelityjto the American idea." So far we entirely agree with Mr. Curtis. If we can on ; ly ascertain what the American idea is, we shall i know exactly whereto fi>: our lovaltv, how to he patriotic, and have a standard bv which to measure the patriotism of others. What, then, is the American idea? The idea, we think , clearlv wjiiout which Ameiica could not lie, n hich has jnade us a united nation, and which : keeps u- .'.'liter! to-day. The organized senti ment of America, wheresoever it is to be found, constitutes t> our thinking this American idea, loya'tv to which is patriotism. The place to find it seen s to us to be in the constitution train ed Jiy our fa tiers, sanctioned by the country at that day, and'at this hour unchanged in a single feature, not because the people have not the power to change if, but because they like it ■st as it is. Where, if not here, is the great idea oi the nation to be found? If''we, the people of tile l otted States, in order to tin in a more pet feet union, establish justice, insure do :ne>tic tranquillity, provide for the common de fence. promote the genera! welfare, and secure the blessings id liberty to on-s> Ives and our ; posterity," say what shall be the great ideasol our government, wh > shall impeach our power to say so, or deny that this deliberate utterance imbodies the American will? Loyalty to the . constitutions we conceive i- patriotism; ami in so lac 'as any th>-ory or sentiment, how ever line-spun or subline-, refuses to conform to that instrument, just so far is-it from the pro per standard. But hear Mr. Curtri: "And your dutv aspa j triots is to understand clearly that, by all its an ti cedents, your country is consecrated to the cause of freedom: that it was discovered when the great principle of hurt.an liberty was about to be organized into human institutions; that it was settled hymen who were exiled by reason of their loyhlty to that principle; that it separ ated politically from lis mother country because that principle i>.-s conceajr #ttt. "much fair • styech "•W'bateve'frn our government ->'■ *avici equality is ante American and urfpatrioVic, be cause A met ica it Liberty an- inseparable ideas." The "freedom and equality,'' to the destruction of which .Mr. Curtis alludes as "un-American and unpatriotic," are the freedom and equality of the black race. The context shows that this is what he im-ans—evety line of his address shows it —and we must do him the justice to say that he :s not at any pains to conceal it.— : .Now, Mr. Curtis very well knew when he wrote this fine paragraph that African slavery existed in this country long previous to the rwoiuti ■that it existed hen- when the Con stitution was firmed : (hut it was recognized by that instrument as an existing institution, and the right tn, he gtves them a precedent to cheer IJi on : When goo ! men ate sent to jail lor refusing t. > wrong, it there be any public conscience re will Soon lie a change. James II sent bishops to the tower, but to put them in the fer was not to put them in the wrong, and ?r a little while the people of England drove 'nes II across the sea." ft is a common trick of the abolition party to iresent the government at Washtugton as a stile government, and to seek analogies be een the workings of our law and the tyren- 1 nous grasping of the kingly power in other j tim p s and in other lands. But they forget, or ! wilfully shut tneir eves to the fact, that this is j "a government of l/ncs, and not ot men;" that j if a ruler exceeds his power, he is punished for the usurpation ; and that if he don't exceed it, j he does but execute the will of that majority j which, while the "American idea" lasts, must govern. But Jet .us „ hear Mr. Curtis once more ; "Will you obey, under the plea that it is law, and that you have no right to judge the law, hut • must try and alter it by-and-by ? By-and-by ? But Cod is God to day, and to day a child is bom 10 von : he is under two years old : to-day tlie thirsty wretch falls parched and panting at j your feet : to-day the captive from these indians j red as murder crouches on vour hearth-stone, and the law is knocking at your door : 'Give \ me that child, give me that thirstv wretch,give me that frightened fugitive : I am the law!'— Yes, and Cod is knocking at your heart: 'Who soever doeth it unto the least of these my brethren, doeth it unto me!'" With the working of a man's conscience, or the play of iris mind, as long as they do not j ma nitest themselves in open resistance to the ; law, we have nothing to do. But when an in- j dividual picks his neighbor's pocket, or cuts his ! neighbor's throat, or raises a defiant hand a- \ gainst lawful authority, and then tells us that his I conscience told him to do so, and that he o- ! he veil a "higher law," we have a right to show i him that, while he may spurn the obligation, J he must yet feel the power of the lower law ; ; that though he may think, and moralize, and | theorize as much as he pleases in defiance of its commands, his "daily walk and con versa- J tion" must be shaped by its precepts, and bow j to its m?j sly. We have chosen to touch at this length up on the leading idea of Mr. Curtis' oration—to which all the rest of his statements are but ac-, cessory—not because we regard his individual importance as giving any weight to what he says, but because he is the exponent of a sect, not numerous in our midst, but numbering in New Kngiattda vast body of the people. It is a rmewhat singular, and very suggestive fact, that the course bv which, in Mr. C.'s view, pa triotism is the best exemplified, consists in a re- ; sistance to the law of the land, which in any j other country would amount to To that large liberty of speech which the despised i constitution of the country guaranties, Mr. C. is j indebted for the safety with which he utters-his \ traitorous counsels. We might, if we choose, j expose still further tlje fallacies ou which he j tires th s.iphis- j We give at length his eloquent comparison be tween the dissolute cavaliens who settled the southern States of the f 'nion, and the godly pi!- ! grims who were driven by persecution, or lured ! by the CO i-lisheries -history cat A' exactly de cide which—to the shores of Massachusetts bay. The historic portions of the oration are, indeed, the only portions of it which have j much claim to originality, and impress us rath er favorably, we must admit, with Mr. Curtis' power of invention. \\ e had supposed that the Kansas panic had faded out ot memory long ago, but Mr. Curtis gives us one more shriek which our readers shall hear : "During the last year we allowed our broth ers and friends and fellow-citizens to be cruelly murdered fordoing precisely the same thing that we this year build statur-s on Bunker Hill to nn i) for doing eighty y. ars ago." We should like to see any authority for this! hold assertion to be found outside the" columns ul the New York Tribune, which honest peopie very generally agree is just no authority at ail. In some of his statements, however, Mr. Curtis is more correct, giving them tire sanction of iris own word : '■' l he theory of our institutions is our pride. But it is a pitiful truth that our public life bas become synonymous with knavery. If a poli tician is introduced, you feel of vour pockets. It is shameful tout it r* universally conceded ' that the best men—tlie men -.j intelligence ami \ probity—generally avoid politics, and that the ! word itseii has come to mean something not to i be touched without defilement. Consequently, ' what good men will t touch, bad men will.— ' It is understood that bribery carries the elec- ■ tion, and the presidency is the result of an a ilroit process of financial engineering, i have! myself been shown a handful of bank-notes, j publicly displayed in the ante-room of the legis- ! lature, and sagaciously told, "That is the for legislators.' " we may as well add a little circumstance i which the orator, in the hurry ol composition, doubtless, forgot to mention—that the lour black sheep who were scourged out of Congress for ' bribery and corruption were all apostles of that ! pure and sublime theory of politics which Mr. , Curtis delights to preach, and which he hopes I to make universal. \V e were not aware, how- ■ ever, until this startling confession of Mr. C.,! that he himself was in the ante-room, and an' i actual witness of these corrupt transactions. 1 What precious evidence the " Howadji " could have given beiore the corruption committee, if ! he had only told them all he knew ! The last quotation we shall make hom Mr. | Curtis is fearfully ominous : "Gentlemen, you will not be surprised when you discover, as will, that, notwith standing the cummn prosperity of our coun- ! try, there are wise metf who shake their heads already, and good men who despair." We hope the young gentlemen of Dartmouth am. the other colleges before whom Mr. Curtis has delivered and means to deliver this address, ! wi.i keep heart. For our part, instead of feel- 1 ing alarmed that these "goo'o they must, j and go they did. Rut a change came over the | spirit of their dreams. They found the tinsel |of the arena but the trappings of a miserable i life. They were subject to ill treatment, found j their rough companions "arigrv, surly ami i cross," and they took the opportunity to run ! away from the circus. In the rouise of their wanderings they reached Harrisbnrg, and from i thence made the best of their way home, tbm j oughly cured of their foolish delusions. Alter much weeping and manv promises the runaways 1 were taken into their houses once more. Both |of these hair-brained romantic, girls are under sixteen years of age, and very good looking. ; Having ventured so near the abvss of niter ruin ; if is wonderful indeed that they escaped.