The star of the north. (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1849-1866, October 17, 1860, Image 1

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IV, U. JACOSf, Proprietor.
Truth and Right God and onr Countrj.
Two Dollars per Annua.
VOLUMIi 12.
BLOOMSBURG, COLUMBIA COUNTY, PA., WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 17, I860.
NUMBER 41
W1Q 1 H. 11. o
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STAR DF THE NORTH
PUBLISHED EVERT WED2H5SPAT BT
WS. II.'JACOBY,
Office oa 3Inia St., 3d Square below Market,
TERMS : Two Dollars per annum if paid
within six mouths from the time of snbscri
tins c two dollars and fifty cents it not paid
withiti the year. No subscription taken for
a less period than fix Tnon'.hss tio discon
tinuances permitted until all arrearages are
paid, unless at the option ol the editor.
The let ms rJ advertising ctlt It aifollorts :
One square, twelve lines, three times, SI 00
Every subsequent insertion, 25
One square, three months, S 00
One year, . . 8 00
From the Fhilit. Evening bulletin.
THE LOXG AGO.
"Near a murmuring, son-kissed streamlet,
Gladdening as its waters flow,
Lived a maiden, lair ant! gentle,
One who loved me, years ago.
There's a mill upon that streamlet,
. Old and time worn, brown and low,
Where the dripping, slow, old mill wheel,
Turned in bdetice, years ago.
Where the rushing waters issr.e
Madly forth the mill below.
Having done their destined duty
In their prison, years ao.
Stamina wall of lie hen et! granite,
Where the blue eyed daisies grow,
Meeky looking np o. heaven ;
There I rr.et her, years ago.
AJany- a bl6ssom scented 'evening,
Vj Ul SlllKWIg 6UII was iwn,
"f h-id Kueet conversation,
Near thai mill-wall. years ago.
And when Winter o'er the meadows
-- Spreads his dazzling robe oi suow,
Vow of love still passed between us,
IV arm aod heart-telt, years ago.
'nw. she sleeps beneath the valley,
On ber g'.ive the violetsjyrow,
But in heaven her pure soul prays for,
Him who loed her, years ago.
Oft Fve wandered to that hillock,
In the chi.rch-ysrd. areeu and low,
And'in silent, biner sorrow,
Mourned my darling, jeas ago.
Hov we met, and loved, and parted,
None on t-arth can ever know,
Jnr hov pure a:.d gentle hearteJ,
Beamed that dear o:;e, f ars ago.
"When I've entered ihat'.Dreid Portal,
Leading from ihi vale o! wo,
ll,o-e dear hands shall reach to aid me,
Loved as once, long ears ago.
For the Stnr.
Ey Flrit Experience in School Tcachin;?.
BT CARLOS.
StranTe alord nay even ridiculous a?
it may appear to you, yet it is nevertheless
true, that I (I mean myself,) was one a
school teacher. Listeu whils. I relate a fsw
f my experiences, and I aver that what I
divinely assert In this article is true, tuy.
more than true ; it is refined truth. I had
"call" to a school in the Southern part of
county, known by the enphorious c?2-
nomen and descripiive appellation of ' Mud
Swamp " And well did it deserve the name,
for in extent and depth of mud it resembled
the far-famed Okeechobee. On Monday
morning the 14th day of November A D
1859, you might have beheld me wend.r.g
my way towards the shool house, having m
company a wheelbarrow in which was de
posited somo coal, an ax, and a dozen
panes of plass. Traveling in this manner
for two miles over a hilly conmry, d.d not
much elevate my spirits. On the doer
foond a life size representation of myself,
cut in with a knife. I could not at the time
give the artist much praise. Putting tew
Jeatber hiwge on the door-boarding up
places intended (or windows-chasing the
chickens from the ralters-tixing a board to
serve as a desk, and like employments,
'ieptme busy out il near school-time, and
-yet, my eyes had not been greeted by the
appearance of one scholar. Soon, however,
a lean, lank son of Adam made his appear
ance, and after taking a scrutinizing view
.of the schoolroom, turned round and
thanked roe lor my diligence, and hoped
that I would attend to the fires regulirly,
adding that he was to be ray teacher. My
foot was raised to commence an action of
ejectment, when happening to notice that
lie was taller than myself I desisted, and
politely informed the gentleman of my
.claims to the teachership. Muttering
threats of vengeance full of dire import to
nyeelf, he departed. But he had a successor,
whom 1 quickly sent however, to some
,6chool directors about ten miles distant.
Towards noon the scholars had collected
in, and a motley assemblage it was to be
nre. Though they only numbered seven,
yet there existed a remarkable variety, not
ionly in age, color, and talent, but in books.
One negro had Cobb's Spelling Book, one
.little girl in A, B, C's had a Pike's Arithme
tic, one boy had a Kirkham's Grammar in
which he wished to commence reading,
and the balance were bookless. On interro
gating a bright eyed little girl as to what she
could stndy, the reply was, liEec km net
fuik tktfiy." I found to my sorrow ttat the
PpVch language wac the prevailing one. A
JUlle disheartened I asked a little boy in the
corner what he would like study; when he
suddenly turned round, caught op his din
ner basket, and kindly proffered roe ti huge
phonic ol fried musb, and some bread and
molasse. ' i soon foond out that the poor
) ellow was dumb,and was sent to school so
( its to be out of the way. In two of three
t Jiours I had the school arranged and fclassi-
ed, and then proceeded lo4 make In long
.addrer-s, stating the aJvahtagesoJcduca
casion. In the meantime the younger
scholars wert to sleep", whihs the negro
made crooked faces at the others, thereby
keeping all a tittering except myself, who
considered the address as deeply affecting.
Towards evening, a friendly neighbor
called me out, and informed me that my
competitor for the school had made an ap
peaj to the inhabitants of the district. As
the matter had been kept strictly quiet, and
it was then near evening, had no oppor
tanity of electioneering, and, therefore, pre
pared to face an outraged constituency.
The evening came, and with it the whole
male population of the district, to whom the
affair was of momentous import. I stated
the objects of the meeting showed a letter
from one of the Directors giving me the
school and finally handed my ceitificates
of examination in two counties. My com
petitor bad no claim on the school had
been turned out of three examinations for
unfitness and declined my challenge logo
before the County Superintendent and abide
by his decision. Oa the vote being taken,
I was unanimously installed as teacher at
Mud Swamp, by the people in mass
assembled.
It required two or three days to get regu
larly started. The school house was 12 ft
by 14 in size It was built a great many
years ago at the cost of $70. The sides
were of slabs, inside of which a lot of tan
bark had been filled ; but the inner boards
rotting, the least motion scattered the bark
over the floor. The roof was of a sieve
character, and a tree in the swamp afforded
more protection than it. The floor was
composed of loose, unplaned boards, which,
however, had the advantage of being so far
apart that sweeping was unnecessary.
Sometimes, before I got used to them, 1
would t-tep on the unsupported end of a
board, and stretch my length on the floor to
the infinite amusement of the scholars, and
ray own disgust. I serioa-lj thought of
yoking some of the younger ones to prevent
their falling through and geaing lost. The
stove was kept up by a rail passing under
it, though extreme care bad still to be taken
to prevent it from being jarred over. The
pipe was rust eaten through, and whenever
a fire was built in thn stove, the escaping
sparks resembled lulling stars. The turkeys
would sometimes alight on the chimney,
and thereby throw the brick rattling down
the pipe to the terror of the superstitious
children, whose conscience troubled them
for jnisbehavtor. We nearly froze on
several occasions, on account of brick
lodging in the pipe and putting out the fire.
The seats were rough tlabs, with the flat
sides up, and young sap.ings stuck in for
legs in the shape of an X. Of course they
were backless, and if I leach there again I
shall have to get a small ladder for the
smaller ones to ascend to their seats. As it
was, I had to 'keep watching them, lest,
during a state of somnolency, they should
faU off the bench break their luckless
heads arid I be indicted for infant-slaughter
We had an abundance of ventilation,
and some were obliged to tack their copy
books to the boards to prevent them from
beinr blown away.
Alter several weeks teaching, I had
managed to collect ri about twenty scholars,
though five came from the neighboring dis
tricts. Several ol them banded together
with the no: very laudable intention of put
ting me out ol the school house. This
is a time honored custom among the Mud
Swampiies, and every one of my preJe
cessors had been poked ihrough the window
or jammed into a snow bank. Though they
were all larger than myself, I managed to
shut one of them outside putnother under
a bench, while the rest jumped out of
the window. After chasing around the
school house and through the swamp, I
caught one of them who was slicking fast
in the mud, severely punished him, and
from that on I had no flagrant instance of
rebellion. I have not the time nor space
to relate how they nearly upset the school
house plunged rae in snow-drifts, &c
Nor how I fared in "boarding round," living
mostly on sour kravt and shpec, while cold
buckwheat cakes and molasses constituted
my dinner. At come future time I may be
seized with the spirit of inspiration and
again jot down a few of my experiences,
and then I shall dilate especially upon the
advantages of walking ihrough slush and
snow three miles every morning and, night,
at the rate of twelve dollars per month,
payable in orders on the store.
Aocust 29th, 1360.
Fattening Turexvs. A writer in the
Germantotcn Telegraph furnishes that journal
with the following statement : ,;Much has
been published of late in our Agricultural
journals, in relation to the alimentary
properties of charcoal. It has been re
peatedly asserted, that domestic fowls may
be fattened on it without any other food,
and that, too, in a shorter time, than on the
most nutritive grains. I made an experi
ment, and most say that the' result sur
prised me, as I had always been rather
skeptical. Four turkeys were confined in a
pen, and fed on meal, boiled potatoes and
oats. Four others, of the same brood, were
also at the same time confined in another
pen, and fed daily'on the same articles, but
with one pint of finely-pulverized charcoal,
mixed with theirjmeaf andjpotatoes. They
aUoiaJJa plentiful supply of broken'char
coal in their pen. The eight were killed
on the same dayand'there was s'difference
of one and a half pounds each in favor of
the fowls' which had been supplied with the
charcoal, they being much the fattest, and
Dead Heading oa & Larre bill.
Several years when dead-heading" on
the railroads was a little more in the as
cendant than at the present time, I was
traveling on the Michigan Central Road, in
company with a lady friend. We took our
seals in the cars one fine morning in the
month of May, when the birds were sing
ing sweetly, and every thing denoted pros
perity aud happiness. Our train consisted
of, two baggage and our well-filled passenger-coaches.
We had not long been occu
pants of the car, before a well-known per
sonage, who had lately been in the employ
of Joe Pentland's circus company, made his
appearance. I soon fell in conversation
with him, and learned that the circus busi
ness had been unusually poor that season.
He said he was homeward bound, intend
ing to establish himself in a more profitable
occupation. I also learned that he was out
of funds, and unable to pay bis way home.
I offered to see him home, as I had plenty
of "spondulics but he would not avail
himself of my offer, until he would find out
how he would succeed in his own under
taking. I resolved to wail patiently untd
the conductor should make his appearance
Slowly the train began to move and soon
we found everything flying bj us with a
velocity 1 had never witnessed in all my
railroading. I had been fixing my eyes on
things without, but was now gradually turn
ing them on the individual who sat before
me for the conductor was then in our car,
and fast approaching us.
1 saw the circus man began to grow un
easy, and the conductor soon reached him,
and asked for his ticket. All eyes were
now turned upon these two persons, and
everything save the rumbling of the car was
silent. The circus man began to move un
easily, and asked the conductor how much
his fare would be. The genius of the rail
road company told him seventy-five cents.
The clown of the circus said :
'I have no change nothing but a very
Urge Bill, which I am afraid you could not
break ; and, as you wish such a small
amount, I guess you may as well give up
all idea of changing it, aud let me ride
free."
Now, I who had witneed all that had
transpired, concluded that the clown of the
cir.-us was trying to dead-head his way by
talking. But the officer of the railroad com
pany thought differently. He swore that he
could change any bill that might be pro
duced ; and, to confirm, what he said,
brought out a hundred of fives, tens and
twenties But the clown of the circus also
swore that he could not change his bill.
Everybody in onr car was now up and
gathered around the pair. The conductor
seeing how things were working, and think
ing that the man had neither a bill nor
money, proposed the following : That if
he (the conductor) could not change the bill,
the circus man should ride free, and have
five dollars in cash thrown in.
This pleased the fellow; for he had evi
dently been waiting for such a proposition ;
and suddenly out from his own pocket came
a roll of papr; and, giving it a sudden
jerk, be produced an enormous showbill
(what some people would call "of family
size") about six feet long, and half as many
wide.
The conductor was astounded. And such
a roar of langhter as shook the car, was
never heard before. The conductor, caught
in his own trap, gave the clown the five
dollars and vanished. It is needless to say
that the circus-man rode free, and received
the congratulations of his fellow-passengers.
About a month after the "above occur
rence, I received a le'.ter from our dead
header, slating that he had established him
self in the well paying business of a dentist,
and over the door of his shop a sign reads
thus : "Teeth extracted reel"
Pons Hearts. I think we must all ad
mit there is nothing so beautiful as a pure
heart a heart through which. Jesus has
gone as be went through the courts) of the
templ at Jerusalem driving ihence every
thing that offended all hatred, all malice,
all jealousy, all envy, all uncleanness a
heart whose thoughts are pure, whose de
sires are pure, whose affections are pure,
whose motives are pure, whose purposes
are pure, whose principles are pure, a
heart that is the house of the immaculate
Spirit of the infinite and eternal God ! O,
there is nothing beneath the sky so attract
ive, so beautiful, 60 desirable, so glorious
as a pure heart ? If not, if candor and con
science constrain us to answer in the nega
tive, let us aek another question would we
have pure hearts 1 Are we groaning after
conformity to God? Are we hungering
and thursting alter righteousness ?
One Ahead. A couple of girls put a bull
frog into thejhired man's bed to see if they
couldn't make "him talk. Dave threw it out
the window and never said a word. Soon
after he put a half bushel of chestnut burs
into the girl's bed. About the time he
thought their bodies would make the least
shadow, Dave went to the door and rat
tled the latch furiously. Oat went the can
dle and in wentltbegirls, but they didn't
stick, though the burs did. Calling to them
to be qniet, he said helonly wanted to know
if they'd seen anything of that pesky ball
frog. He'd give two dollars to find it
A Wisconsin paper, describing 'a'farm
which the advertiser want to sell adds :
"The snrrooding country U. the most
Vioini'ifnl ihAfind'of nature ever rr
The Thriftless Farmer.
The Ihriftless.farmer provides no shelter
for. his cattle during the inclemency of the
winter, but permits them to stand shivering j
iy mts siue oi tne lence, or to He in the i
snow, as best suits them.
He throws their fodder on the ground, or
in the mud, and not unfrer-uently the high
way, by which a large portion of it, and all
the manure is naisted.
He grazes his meadows in fall and spring;
by which they are gradually exhausted and
finally ruined.
His fences are old and poor, just such as
to let his neighbor's cattle break into his
fields, and teach his own to be unruly aud
spoil his crops.
He neglects to keep the manure from
aronitd the sills of his barn if he has one
by which it is prematurely rotted, and his
barn destroyed.
He tills or skims over the surface of his
land until it is exhausted, but never thiuks
it worth while to manure or clover it. For
at first, he has no time, and for the last, he
is not able.
He has a place for nothing, and nothing
in its place. He constantly wants a hoe or
rake, or a hammer, or an augur, but knows
not where to find them, and thus loses
much time.
He loiters away days and evenings, when
he should be repairing his utensils, or im
proving his mind by reading useful books
or newspapers.
He spends much time in town, at the cor
ner of the streets, or in the "rum holes,"
complaining of the hard times, and goes
home in the evening "pretty well tore."
He has no 6hed for his fire-wood ; con
sequently his wife is out of humor, and his
meals out of season.
He plants a few fruit trees, and his cattle
forthwith destroy them. He "ha no lack
in raising fruit."
One half of what little he raises is destroy
ed by his own or his neighbor's cattle.
His plow, harrow and ether implements
lie all winter in the field where last used ;
and jnst as he is getting in a hurry, the
next season, his plow breaks, because it
was not housed and properly careJ for.
Somebody's hogs break in and destroy
his garden, because he has not stopped a
hole in the fence that he had been intend
ing to 6lop for a week.
He is often in a great hurry, but will stop
and talk as long as he can find any one to
talk with.
He has, of course, but little money, and
when he must raise some to pay his taxes,
etc., he raises it at a great sacrifice in some
way or other.by paying an enormous shave,
or by selling his scanty crops when prices
are low.
He is a year behind, instead of being a
year ahead of his business and always will
be
When he pays adebt, it is at the end of
an execution : consequently his credit is at
a low ebb.
He buys entirely on credit, and merchants
and all others with whom het'deals rhurtj.
him twice or thrice the profit they chaw
prompt tpaymasters, and are 'unwilling "to
6ell him goods at-arty cost. He has to beg
arid promise, and promise and beg, to get
them on any terms. The merchants dread
to see his wife come into their stores, and
the poor woman feels depressed aud de
graded. The smoke begins to come out of his
chimney late of a winter's morning, while
his cattle are suffering for their morning's
feed.
Manure lies in heaps in his stable, his
horses are rough and uncurried, and his
harness trod under their feet.
His bars and gates are broken, his build
ings unpainled, and the boards and shin
gles falling off he has no time to replace
them the glass is out of the windows, and
the holes stopped np with rags and old
hats.
He is a great borrower of thrifty farmer's
implements, but never returns the borrow
ed article, and when it is seat for it can't
be found.
He in a person of great sloven, and never
attends public worship : or if he does oc
casionally do so, he comes sneaking in
when service is half over.
He neglects his acounts, and when his
neighbor calls to settle with him he has
something else to attend to:
Take him all in all, he is a poor farmer,
a poor husband, a poor father, a poor neigh
bor, and a poor Christain.
Manners. Young folks should be man
nerly but how to be,is the question. Many
good boys and girls feel that they cannot
behave to suit themselves in the presence
of company. They are awkward, clownish,
rough. They feel timid, bashful, and self
distrustful, the moment they are addressed
by a stranger, or appear in company.
There is but one way to get over this feel
ing, and acquire easy and graceful manners,
that is, to do the best they can all the time
at home, as well as abroad. Good manners
are not learned so ranch as acquired by
habit. They grow upon us by use. We
mast be courteous, agreeable, civil, kind,
gentlemanly, and womanly at home, and
then it will become a kind of second na
ture evreywhere. A coarse, rough manner
at home, begets a habit of roughness which
we cannot lay off if we try, when we go
among strangers. The most agreeable per
sons we have ever known in company, are
those that are most agreeable at home.
1oe Maroaites and Drnses.
They are a sect of the Romish Church,
composed of the followers of John Maron,
ho ned some peculiar views respecting
the nature of Christ. Although his doctrine
was denounced by the Pope, his followers
have joined the church of Rome and are sub
ject to the Pope. They have been the most
hostile opposers of evangelical truth, that
our missionaries have encountered in Tur
key. Such are the people who are called
Syrian Christians. The following account
of the Druses, which we extract from the
Philadelphia Christian Observer, will be
read with interest :
WHO ARE THE DR08E9
The Druses are an offshoot of the Moham
medans, and, like the Maronites, they derive
their name from a religious imposter, "El
Druse." None of these indicate a difference
of race. Three hundred years after John
Maron had preached his philosophy among
the peasantry of Lebanon, one of the pre
tended descendants of Fatima, the daughter
of Mohammed, ruled Egypt and Syria. El
Hakim was one of those strange men who
occasionally appear in the world, and being
half fool, half knave, succeeded in inducing
the ignorant to believe and follow him asa
god. Hakim was assisted in his imposture
by two abler men than himself, one of
whom was "El Druse," the prophet of the
Druses.
The religion of the Druses is kept secret
by their laws ; but in the several wars,
which have been so frequent of late years in
the Lebanon, many of their sacred books
have fallen into the hands of their opponents.
It was from the volumes so obtained that
the famous French oriental scholar formed
that history of the Druses which still holds
its place as the standard work on the history
and religious ceremonies of this strange peo
ple. The Mormon doctrine of spiritual
marriages is found in their 6acred book3
Their cardinal doctrine, however, is that
Hakim is tho last incarnation of the Deity ;
Hakim, who sacrificed 18,000 victims to his
ferocity, stands to the Druses in the place
of God. It is death to a Druse to reveal
any secret of his religion, and death to a
Christian to discover anything in relation to
their theology.; They believe in the abstract
unity of God, but believe him to ever re
main in a passive state. They believe that
there will be no other incarnation of the
Deity until Hakim shall appear airain
at the day of judgment. They also believe
in the transmigration and pre-existence oT
souls, and that men existed and fell in a
previous state. They believe in the crea
tion of a fixed number of souls, who are to
be saved, and that these are the souls of
Druses As a consequence, they desire to
make no converts. In practice, they are
free-mason, and they are sworn to support
each other ; it i for this reason that they
rush to warfare with such readiness at the
call of their leaders. They believe in the
blood revenge, and many instances are on
record where they have carried out this
principle to its fullest extent. They are,
howeer Senerous and hospitable, and he
With "I'0 .th ee.te.1 bread "y
sure oi uieir irienusnip anu support, in
1H52, when the Arabs were murdering and
plundering Christians around Damascus, a
Druse sheik took several of the Christian
villages under his protection. Such are the
people who are now arranged in hostile ar
ray. The Maronites more numerous the
Druse more warlike. At Damascus it was
not the Druses, but the Moslem mob that
murdered and slaughtered the Christians.
Thousands of the Maronites defenceless
1 women and children flying from their foes
have ought security at Beirut, and now
they depend for bread upon the Christian
residents and the Chri&lian missionaries.
During the sitting of Court in Connecticut,
not long ago, on a very cold evening a
crowd of lawyers had collected around the
open fire that blazed cheerful on the hearth
in the bar room, when a traveller entered,
benumbed with the cold ; but no one mov
ed to give him room to warm his shins, so
he remained in the back part of the room.
Presently a smart young limb of the law
addressed him, and the following dialogue
ensued : .
"You look like a traveller V
"Wal, I suppose I sm ; I came all the
way from Wisconsin ! What a distance to
come on one pair of legs !"
"Wal, I done it anyhow."
"Did you ever pass through hell, in any
of your travels ?"
"Yes, I've been through the outskirts.
"1 thought likely. Well, what are the
manners and customs there ? Some of us
would like to know."
"Oh, you'll find them much the same as
in this place the lavyeti $et neareit the Jire."
Not Bad 'First class in oriental philo
sophy stand up. Thibets, what is life V
'Life consists of money, a horse, and a
fashionable wife.'
"Next. What is death V
A paymaster who settles everybody's
debts, and gives the tombstone as receipts
in full of all demands.'
What is poverty V
'The reward of merit genius generally
receives from a discriminating public."
What is religion V
"Doing unto others as yon please, with
out allowing a return of the compliment.'
'Whtis fame?'
A WORD 10 TUB WISE.
Love hailed a little maid,
Romping ihrough the meadow ;
Heedless in the sun she played,
Scornful of the shadow.
"Come with me," whispered he ;
Listen, sweet, to love and reason,"
' By and by," she mocked reply ;
"Love's not in season,"
Years went, years came
Light mixed with shadow ;
Love met the maid again,
Dreaming ihrough the meadow
"Not so coy," urged the boy ;
' Lit in time to love and reason."
"By and by," she mused reply;
' Love's still in season."
Years went, years came;
Light changed to shadow ;
Love saw the maid agaia.
Waiting in the meadow.
"Pass no more ; my dream is o'er ;
I can listen now to reason."
"Keep the coy," mocked the boy ;
"Love's out of season."
The Road to Rain.
"That young man is walking the road to
ruin," said a lawyer, as he sat iu his office
door, and fixed his eye on a very smart
looking person passing.
The remark arrested my attention, and as
I looked upon the fair brow, the elegant
figure, and the elastic step of that younz
mao, a rapid train of thoughts passed thro'
my mind.
"Walking the road to ruin?" Could it
be possible ? Were all the loves, the hopes,
the purposes, which rested on his life, to
be disappointed ? Was he with that bold
brow and fearless step, walking into the
whirlpool of destruction, the shadows of
despair ? I felt a thrill of horror, and an
impulse to call after him, and warn him of
his danger, but he passed round a corner,
and disappeared from my sight.
Turning to the gentleman whose remark
had so stirred me, I said, abruptly :
"What do you mean, sir? What have
you teen in Frank Johnson to warraut such
a thought V
He said very slowly :
"He dresses too well, and keeps too much
company."
"And pray sir" I replied, somewhat in
dignantly, "is this all the reason you have
for your remark ? I feared you had discov
ered him to be addicted to drunkenness or
(rambling or 1 did not' know what terri-
i ble evil.
My friend was not one of those croakers
who are always grumbling about the de
generacy of the times, and prophesying
evil of the young, and his words surprised,
while they grieved me. He read my
thoughts aright, and continued :
"I think it is bad enough, however ; for
he is just as surely on the road to ruin as if
; he were addicted to '.he vices you mention.
! I do not say he is as far gone ; but what
! does that amount to ? Of all who are in
j that roaJ you cannot tell who will .land in
! perdition first. You look on the old toper,
j bloated and staggering, and say he is well-
! nigh there, but he may creep on and you
dashing young fellow, now bo far behind,
may pass and distance him before you
think of it "
"You certainly cannot think it a little
thing that a young man spends more than
he earns, or that he whatever his circum
stance makes his expenses exceed his in
come ? Such a course opens the very flood
gates of temptation" on his soul anJ p'aces
him in a position where the devil has noth
ing to do but to lead him captive at his will
A fearful step is he taking in the road to
min, who is contracting pecuniary liabili
ties which he has no means to meet.
Imtiation of aWidkAweke All who
enter the Black Republican Wide-Awake
Clubs, it is said, have to pass through a
certain inititatory service, and be submitted
to the following catechism :
Q. Do you believe in a supreme politi
cal being ? Q. I do ; the almishiy nigger.
Q. What are the chief objects of the
Wide-Awake Society ? A. To disturb dem
ocratic meetings, and to furnish conductors
for the underground railroad.
Q. What is your opinion on the great
question of the day ? A. I believe Abra
ham Lincoln was born, that he built a flat
boat, and split three million rails.
Q. Do you drink lager I A. Iam pas
sionately fond of that commodity.
Q. If you are admitted as a member of
this society, do you promise to love the
nigger, to cherish him as you would a broth
er and cleave unto him through evil as well
as good report, and hate the Democrats as
long as life lasts and water runs ?
A. All this I solemnly promise to per
form, so help me Abraham.
The candidate is then invested wiih cap
and cape, somebody gives him a slap on
the side of the head and tells him to be
WTide-Awake !
He who kneels and staggers most in the
journey of life, takes the straightest cut to
the devil.
Ir you think it an easy thing to square a
circle, just go aud settle your wife's bill for
hoops.
The man who travels a thousand miles in
a thousand hours, may be tolerably quick
footed ; but he isn't a touch to the woman
who keeps up with the fashions.
It Is said that the Tartars invite a man to
Italian Girls.
The idea of a girl in Italy is indissolubly
connected with that of being devoid of alt
moral sense, infallibly preferring wrong to
right, ami who can only be kept from barm
and evil by the most increased watchfulness.
A mother's whole maternal duties towards
her daughter, seem considered in Ituly to
be comprehended in the one act of vigi
lance. " My daughter has never been
twenty minutes at a time out of my sight,"
said an Italian countess, boastfully ; aud by
this declaration the appeared to think that
she merited to rank in the world's esteem
with the mother of the Gracchi.
A girl belonging to the upper ranks of
life in Italy is practically a prisouer until
khe marries. Into society she must not en
ter ; neither in the morning fete nor the eve
ning dance is she permitted to display ber
charms and graces. An occasional walk
with father or brother is permitted ; but sh&
must not go out of the bouse unless accom
panied by her nearest kindred. To be seen
alone, evea but a few yards from her fa
ther's door, would entail upon her the
deepest disgrace, and heartiest censure.
Kept under a perpetual surveillance, every
Ime she writes, and every line she receives,
are subject to rigid scrutiny.
The girl belonging to the humbler classes
of society shares also, in a great degree, in
the same restrictions on her liberty. Tha
grown-up daughter of a wcraaa keeping a
lodging house in Florence could not profit
by my offer io take her to see the ceremony
of the Lavanda, at the Pitli Palace, solely
because she was unable to procure escort to
the best part of the town to the place where
I resided A work girl going to her em
ployer's houe has to provide herself with
some companion ; and, in emergencies, I
have sometimes seen a little child do duty
as a duenna for the occasion.
In the country the same rule prevails; no
peasant-girl is ever to be seen alooe; and
equally in the higher as in the lower classes
of society, would any infringement of tho
social code, in this respect, be fatal to mat
rimonial expectations. Under these circum
stances, the proceedings of unmarried Eng
lish ladies excite the wonder and envy of
their sex in ?lla'y. Often have I been
amused at the way in which the most com
monplace exploits have been magnified into
heroic actions ; and not unfrequently did I
find myself elevated to the dignity of a
heroine, when utterly unconscious that I
had in an' way merited the name assigned'
to me.
A Chinese Genllcmaa's fionse.
He first took us lo his country houie, now
uninhabited. It was the perfect residence?
of a Chinese gentleman. There was a very
large garden with bamboo hedges and large
fish tanks, edged with walls of blue bricks
and perforated tiles. His pigs were in a i
rnirable condition, and as beautiful as the
Prince Consort's at Windsor. About the
grounds were nutmegs, mangosteens, plan
tains, cocoanuts, darions and small creep
ers, trained into ba-ke's and pagodas. In
side the house, the drawing-rooms hal
doors sliding acros circular openings. Wo
then went on to this good gentleman's pri
vate residence, entering by a Chinese tri
umphal gate. He tells rae he has ten miles
of carriage road rouud his estate. It is on a
fine undulating tract of land, reclaimed from
the jungle, and laid out with rare taste, la
the outskirts a tiger killed a man the other
day. In his garden I found Jacko, living in
a cane cage, next door to a porcupine;
there were also some rare birds. Further
on, some very small Brahmin bulls, a Cash
mere goat, and a family of young kangaroos.
There were all 6or!s of unknown beautiful
flowers placed about in enormous China
vases. Here I first saw the tea plant grow
ing. It is of the camelia tribe, three or foor
fet high, perhaps, and bears a small while
flower, like an open dog roe Also 1 was
shown the "moon flower," a kind of round
ed convolvulus that only opens at night.
There was a bower of "monkey cups," the
pitcher flower, which collects water, and
from which Jacko refreshes himself in the
jungles. The fan palm produced water by
being pierced with a penknife, of a clear,
cold quality. Several minute creepers were
trained over wire forms to imitate dragons,
with egg shells for their e-es ; and there
were many of the celebrated dwarf trees
the first 1 had seen little oaks and elms,
about eighteen inches high, like 6mall
withered old men. The house here was
6uperby furnished in the English style, but
with lanterns all about it. At six the gnests
arrived mostly English all dressed in
short while jackets and trowsers. The
dinner was admirably served, in good Lon
don style, and all the appointments, as re
garded plate, glass, wines and dishes, per
fect. The quiet, attentive waiting of the
lit lie Chinese boys deserved all praise.
After dinner we lounged through the rooms,
decorated with English prints of the Royal
family, statuettes, "urioto" from every part
of the world, and rare objects ia ada stone
and cracked China.
A "Confidence Mas." The man who
thinks he can help a good-looking servant
girl to place the slats in a bed.tead, without
exciting the suspicion of his wile.
A chap up country, speaking of the rainy
season the year he was married, said : "It
rained when he went conning, rained
when he got married, and squatted the same
fc