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THE LION AND THE SKUNK
A Dream
I met a lion in my path,
('T'was on a dreary autumn night.)
Who gave me the alternative
To either run or fight.
I dare not turn upon the track,
I dare not think to run away.
For fear the lion at my back
Would seize me as his prey.
So, summoning a fearless air,
Though all my soul was full of fright,
I said unto the forest king,
"I will not run, but fight."
We fought, and, as the fates decreed,
I conquered in the bloody fray;
For soon the lion at my feet
A lifeless carcass lay.
A little skunk was standing by,
And noted what the lion spoke:
And when he saw the lion die,
The lion's tracks he took.
He used the lion's very speech,
For stretching to his utmost height,
He gave me the alternative
To either run or fight.
I saw he was prepared to fling
Fresh odors from his busby tail,
And knew those odors very soon
My nostrils would assail.
So, summoning a humble air,
Though all my soul was free from fright,
I said unto the dirty skunk
I'll run, but will not fight.
Moral.
As years begin to cool my blood,
I rather all would doubt my spunk,
Than for a moment undertake
To fight a human skunk.
WORDS OF THOMAS MOORE UPON HIS BIRTHDAY.
"My birth-day"--what a different sound
That word had in my youthful ears:
And how, each time the day come round,
Less and less white its mark appears!
When first our scanty years are told,
It seems like pastime to grow old!
And as youth counts the shining links
That time around him binds so fast,
Pleased with the task, he little thinks
How hard that chain will press at last.
SOME FELLOW GETS OFF THE FOLLOWING
Youngster, spare that girl!
Kiss not those lips so meek!
Unruffled let the fair locks curl
Upon the maiden's cheek!
Believe her quite a saint;
Her looks are all divine--
Her rosy hue is--paint!
Her form is--crinoline!
A STRANGE EVENTFUL HISTORY
Quite recently a steamer from Green river landed at Evansville, Indiana, a man past 80 years of age, blind, and paralyzed, without friends, no one knowing from whence he came or where he was going. A benevolent negress gave him shelter in her cabin, and he died on Thursday.
After death, papers were found on his person which proved the neglected suffered to be Dr. John Pocock Holmes, a member of the College of surgeons, London, and formerly for sixteen years in the employ of the Hudson Bay Company, the friend of Capt. Parry, the Arctic navigator, and the associate of many of the first people of England. He was celebrated as an inventor, and among his effects were two large gold medals awarded him by medical societies for his valuable inventions of obstetrical and surgical instruments. When in the Hudson Bay employ he obtained information which enable him to render Capt. Parry good service in the manufacture of pemican for the exploring expedition for which Capt. P expresses many obligation, and the Admiralty voted Dr. Holmes an acknowledgment of (???)150.The old man had letters from eminent gentlemen in Tennessee and Mississippi, and was evidently a person of correct habits and great intelligence. The sum of $250 was concealed on his person, and in his last moments he spoke of a sister, but gave no clue to her name or residence or that of a friend on earth. His case is a painful lesson of the sad vicissitudes of life.
He is Only a Printer--Such was the sneering remark of the leader in a circle of aristocracy--the codfish quality. Who was Benjamin Franklin? Only a Printer! Who was the Earl of Stanhope? --he was a printer! Who was William Caxon, one of the fathers of literature? he was only a printer! What was Geo. P. Morris, N.P. Willis, Joseph Gales, Chas. Richardson, James Harper, Horace Greeley, Bhyard Taylor, Robert Sears, Charles Dickens, M. Thiers, Douglas Jerrold, Geo. D. Prentice, and Senators Hamlin, Bigler, Dix, Cameron and Miles? They too, were only printers! And last who was James Buchanan, who occupies the Presidential chair? he is a printer! Every one cannot be a printer--brains are necessary.
The LECOMPTON PERFIDY
Col. Fornet writes from Washington in very plain terms about the perfidy of the President in regard to Kanzas. He says:
"There are many written and unwritten facts in this whole transaction, which, when they see the light, will astound and mortify the country. Chief among these is the mannger in which the record was made up, that to the people of Kanzas should be submitted the work of their fraudulently-chosen representatives. I think it will appear, that not only has the public promise of the Administration, in this regard, been repeated in private and semi-private letters, to States North and South, and to the agents of the Administration in the Territory, but it has been repeated by the President himself, and by nearly all, if not all, the memebers of his Cabinet. There was an unstinted committal to the principle. It was as full and as unreserved as the principle is broad and eternal. There was no attempt to divide the question; to carve the Constitution, and to say that one portion only should be thrown to the masses to appease their appetite for a fair chance at their spoilers' schemes. The whole was conceded, and the arguments made in this direction, if they could be printed, would be found to surpass all the logic of Douglas and the eloquence of Walker. We should, in that case, hear no more snivelling about factions and traitors."
There is nothing in the conduct of Mr. Buchanan's administration better calculated to exemplify the intense poverty of spirit with which it seems to be pervaded, than the treatment which it accords to the negro. Perhaps the most striking example of the practice to which we refer is to be found in the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Dred Scott--which was not less remarkable for the illiberality of its tone, than for the untenableness of its positions; but there have been others which do not fall far short of that in narrowness and injustice. There is a sort of personal hatred of "niggers," because they are niggers, to be found among white people of a low grade, with which the government seems to have become innoculated, and which it appears desirous to discover occasions to display. It is probable that this is done with a view to exhibit its fealty to the South--its readiness to conform its policy, not merely to Southern interests, but to the least respectable of Southern prejudices; but whatever may be the cause, nothing can be more unworthy the character of the government of a great people than such practices. To deprive the negro of all hopes of a better condition in the future, by denying to him a humanity in common with the white race, is evidently the design of the ultra theorists of the slave interest, and to aid in this enterprise is one of the things to which the Administration has lent itself, with more vigor than it usually displays, to say the least, in any respectable cause.The last act of the kind to which we refer that has fallen under our notice, is the refusal, on the part of the government, through the Secretary of State, of a passport to the Rev. J. S. Rocks, a colored clergyman of Massachusetts, desiring to go abroad, a document which, as it forms the basis of the official permission to travel on the continent of Europe, is indispensable. In his letter of refusal the Secretary takes the trouble to assert that no change has been made in the policy of the government, in this respect, since the Dred Scott decision, but in this he is shown by an article in the Roston Bee, to be--to use no harsher term--mistaken. The Bee cites several instances in which such passports have been granted to colored persons, and nothing is better authenticated than the fact that by previous administrations they have been issued as a matter of course, on application. The governement, therefore, by its Premier, is placed in the awkward position, not merely of refusing to perform a simple act of official duty from a very mean motive, but of having attempted to screen itself from deserved censure by a palpable falsehood.--Cincinnati Commercial.
Gov. Floyd to be Driven out of the Cabinet.--The Washington correspondent of the New York Times, of Friday, says:"Evidences have appeared of a combined and determined effort to drive Governor Floyd out of the cabinet, to which end everything possible is to be done to embarrass and break down his administration of the war department. This secret explains the opposition to the deficiency bill exhibited by democratic senators--the motive being, not hostility to the bill, but to Secretary Floyd. Slidell and Bright are prominent actors in this movement, which also embraces others of equal note."
A little boy describes snoring as "letting off sleep."
PASSAGE OVER THE DODGE
A fortnight ago, when the English Dodge was before the House of Representatives, the following passage occurred between members. Hon. L. D. Campbell, of Ohio, it will be seen, placed the Bolters on record:Mr. Campbell, of Ohio, said that his colleague, Mr. Cox, at the commencement of the session, took the banner of popular sovereigntly in hand, and triumphantly defended it, but now, in full view of victory, he beat a retreat.Mr. Cox, of Ohio, wished to say that he thought the amendment which the House had passed to be the best, but as this could not become a law, he was willing to take the next best, under the circumstances.Mr. Campbell then asked Mr. Cox whether he understood the bill presented by the Committee of Conference, as submitting the Lecompton Constitution to a vote of the people.M. Hughes of Indiana, objected to Mr. Cox answering the question.Mr. Cox replied, however, that altho' the Constitution was not submitted directly, yet, in effect, the people of Kanzas will have the opportunity to say whether they want it.Mr. Campbell wanted an unequivocal answer. He then showed a letter, written by Mr. Cox, daten February 6th, in which the latter stated, that while he had a vote it never should be draggled in Lecompton mire, and that, so help him God, he never could do otherwise.Yes, remarked Mr. Campbell, my colleague said he would vote for no proposition which would not submit the Constitution to the vote of the people.Mr. Cox said he still endorsed that letter. Mr. Campbell referred to the fact that about twenty anti-Lecompton Democrats were pledged on a high point of personal honor to stand to the end by the Montgomery-Crittenden amendment, in company with the Republicans. Mr. Groesbeck of Ohio, replied that he had made no such pledge, and had no such understanding or consultation.Mr. Campbell replied that he did not make the assertion with reference to that gentlemen, and asked Mr. Groesbeck whether he understood this bill as submitting the Constitution.Mr. Groesbeck said, that, in effect it does.Mr. Owen Jones, of Pa., remarked that the had never given a pledge to Mr. Campbell, or any body else, that he would stand by the Montgomery amendment, or any other measure.Mr. Campbell asked whether he did not meet with what were know as Anti-Lecompton Democrats, and whether or not a committee was not appointed with power to represent and speak for them to another body.Mr. Jones replied that he met on one or two occasions with certain Democrats, but no committee of that kind was appointed or authorized to pledge his vote on any suject.Mr. Campbell then asked him whether the bill submitted the Constitution to the vote of the people.M. Jones replied that he was willing to let the people construe that for themselves.
Thomas Jefferson's Slaves.--Thos. Jefferson, speaking of the style in which Lord Cornwallis plundered his plantation, when the chances of war put it into Cornwallis's hands, said: "He carried off also about thirty slaves: Had this been to give them freedom he wouldhave done right, but twenty-seven of them died of small pox and putrid fever, then raging in Cornwallis's camp, and what became of the rest I nver could learn."
Slavery in Deleware.--The Peninsular News, published at Melford, Delaware, comes out in a long editorial article arguing cogently for the abolition of slavery in that State. In order to make good its cause, it institutes a comparison between Newcastle and Sussex counties, one free and the other slave. In the former improved farm land is worth over $53 per acre, while in the latter similar land is worth but from $7 to $8 dollars per acre.
The Jefferson City Inquirer, in speaking of some of the symptoms of the disease in Jefferson City known as "National Democracy," says:"The unfortunate patient as soon as the word abolitionist is mentioned in his hearing, begins to swear, jump, kick, hop, skip, reak, charge, tear, cavort, snort, rip, tumble, sneeze, cough, spit, whoop, stutter, squeal, howl, moan, groan, below, bewail, lament, despond, turn pale, look savage, froth at the mouth, roll his eyes, stamp his feet upon the ground, wheel round and round, fall down get up again, and then does all that over again. O horrible!!
I tell the Gentleman Distinctly it is Not.--In the House debate on the English substitute, Mr. Gilman, of Maine, asked Mr. Stephens, of Georgia, this question: "Is the constitution (Lecompton) submitted by this bill?" Mr. Stephens answered thus: "I tell the gentleman distinctly it is not!"
The Cincinnati Gazelle, alluding to the treachery of S. S. Cox, of the Ohio congressional delegation, says: "Of all the weather cocks of the day, he is one of the most remarkable."
Governor Wise, of Virginia, opposed the fast dodge of the Lecomptonites.Governor Packer, of Pennsylvania, regards it as even more atrocious than the Senate bill.
GEMS FROM HENRY WARD BEECHE
"Flowers are the sweetest things that God ever made, and forgot to put a soul into.""Many christians are like chestnuts--very pleasant nuts, but inclosed in very prickly burs, which need various dealings of nature, and her grip of frost, before the kennel is disclosed.""You need not break the glasses of a telescope, or coat them over with paint, in order, in order to prevent you from seeing through them. Just breathe upon them, and the dew of your breath will shut out all the stars.""One of the great troubles, as ministers, is to keep people from wishing to be awfully converted. There are those who will not come into God's kingdom unless they can come as Daute went into paradise--by going through hell."It is with the singing of a congregation as with the sighing of the wind in the forest, where the notes of the million rustling leaves, and the boughs striking upon each other, altogether make a harmony, no matter, what be the individual discords." "A week filled with selfishness, and the Sabbath stuffed full of religious exercises, will make a good Pharisee, but a poor Christian. There are many persons who think Sunday is a sponge with which to wipe out the sins of the week." "Men plant prayers and endeavors, and go the next day looking to see if they have borne graces. Now, God does not send graces as he sends light and rain; but they are wrought in us through long days of discipline and growth. Acorns and graces sprout quickly but grow long before ripening.""It is not work that kills men; it is worry. Work is healthy; you can hardly put more on a man than he can bear. Worry is rust upon the blade. It is not the revolution that destroys the machinery, but the friction. Fear secretes acids; but love and trust are sweet juices.""There is an ugly kind of forgiveness in this world--a kind of hedge-hog forgiveness shot out like quills. Men take one who has offended, and set him down before the blowpipe on their indignation, and scorch him, and burn his fault into him; and when they have kneaded him sufficiently with their fiery fists, then--they forgive him.""God designed men to grow as trees grow in open pastures, full boughed all around; but men in society grow like trees in a forest, tall and spindling, the lower ones overshadowed by the higher, with only a little branching, and that at the top. They borrow of each other the power to stand; and if the forest be cleared, and one be left alone, the first wind which comes uproots it."
Colonel Benton in his Family.--In domestic life he bore an exemplary character, and, as a husband and father, was what may be called a family man. A distingnished friend of ours, while, many years ago, prosecuting a Charleston claim in Washington, occupied a room at Brown's (then) Indian Queen Hotel, next to one tenanted by Col. Benton and his family, with but a thin partition intervening, and unavoidably overheard nearly all that transpired in Colonel Benton's apartment. The result was that our friend made the unexpected discovery that he whom he had regarded, to say the least, as one of the rowdies, if not bullies, of the Senate chamber, was the mild, gentle and affectionate conjugal and parental head of the domestic chamber, dealing in terms and acts of endearment towards the loved ones around him, and judiciously combining the offices of educational and moral preceptor.--Charleston, S. C., Courier, April 12.
Hard-Shell Baptists.--A Virginia paper mentions a singular case of conscience in a Baptist Minister of that state, who refused to furnish the statistics of the membership of his church, on the ground that to send up these statistics would be to commit the sin of which David was guilty, in "numbering the people." With such preachers, Missionary Societies and Sunday Schools are a species of priestcraft with which they will have nothing to do.--Christian Reflector.
Cane Cider.--The Nashville Homestead says that besides the excellent syrup and sugar made from the Chinese Sugar Cane, there is yet another article obtained from it which is of pleasant taste, and doubtless healthy in its consequences. It is obtained by putting the expressed juice of the cane into any clean wood or glass vessel allowing it to sit ten or twelve days, when it assumes the appearance of limpid water, and is fit for use. The flavor is similar to our best cider, and we suppose might be properly called cane cider.
How to Make Money.--Get a (???)tion in the mint.--[Economist.--Punch.
THE FATHER OF WATERS
The vastness of the great Mississippi River, is thus given by a newspaper correspondent, who writes from Maiden Rock, Wisconsin:"While I look out upon the river, three miles wide at the point, my mind seems to take in at one grasp the magnitude of the stream. From the frozen regions of the North to the sunny South, it extends some 3,100, and with the Missouri is 4,500 miles in length. It would reach from New York across the Atlantic, and extend from France to turkey, and the Caspian Sea. Its average depth from its source in Lake Itasca, in Minnesota to its delta, in the Gulf of Mexico, is fifty-feet, and a half a mile wide. The trapper on the Upper Mississippi, can take the furs of the animals that inhabit sources and exchange them for the tropical fruits that are gathered on the banks below. slaves toil at one end of this great thoroughfare, while the free red men of the forest roam at the other end. The floods are more than a month in traveling from its source to its delta. The total number of steamers afloat on this river and its tributaries 1,500--more than twice the entire tonnage of England, and equal to that of all other parts of the world.--It receives a score of tributaries, the least of which are stronger than the vaunted streams of mighty empires. It might furnish natural boundaries for all Europe and yet leave for every country a river larger than the Seine. It engulphs more every year than the revenue of many petty kingdoms, and rolls a volume in whose depths the cathedral of St. Paul could be sunk out of sight. It discharges in one year, more water than than issued from the Tiber in five centuries; it swallows up fifty rivers, which have no name, each of which are longer than the Thames. The addition of the waters of the Danube would not swell it half a fathom; in one single reservoir, (Pepin.) 2.500 miles from the sea, the navies might safely ride at anchor. It washes the shore of twelve powerful States, and between its arms lies space of twenty more."
The Streams in Texas.--Judge Bliss, late of Cleveland, O. writes from Port Lavacca, Texas, to the Akron Beacon. Of the streams and rivers of that country he says:The streams spring (in Texas phrase,) "plum" out of the earth, and dash on in their swift currents, carrying tides of pure and delicious water as ever gladdened the lips of thirsty travelers. The spouting out of these streams at their sources, especially that of the San Antonio, is a rare natural curiosity. The purity of most of our western rivers is surprising. Take note of me for a moment. I stand on the best wooded bank of the Frio; the river here is deep, and for that reason the current less rapid than in most places.--It is an excellent place to fish, and I see swimming leisurely about many fine silver, cat and trout--but they see me, also my fishing rod, reel and line; they discover the whole trick, for the water transmits light almost as perfect as air. They can only be caught when the wind blows, or when it rains, or after the sun-light is removed. The water here is fifteen feet in depth, although it appears to you to be only eight.The uninitiated horseman crossing this stream away from the ripples, urges his mustang into it, thinking it to be only "belly deep," and gets his "hickory shirt" wet with, perhaps, the first water which has touched it for a month. Thanks to the salubrity of the climate, he takes no cold or tooth-ache.
In a certain town in Rhode Island, says the Providence Journal, a letter arrived for a young lady from her lover, on the day of the election. The Postmaster, as is not unfrequent in the rural districts, knowing the eagerness with which a message of that character would be expected, took upon himself the pleasing duty of delivering it, but first, like a good Democrat, must vote, and of course in a separate self-sealing envelope. This was duly prepared, with the Democratic tickets safely enclosed, and this gluten stuck together. Stopping at the town meeting, he deposited the letter in the ballot-box, and proceeded with the separate and self-sealed to the house of the blooming maiden, to whom he gallantly handed the entire Democratic ticket, state and town. How the lady interpreted the missive we do not know, but the moderator and clerk ungallantly refused to count the love letter and the Republican candidate was elected by one majority.
Can a Husband open his Wife's Letters?==A legal question of a delicate nature is now exciting extraordinary interest in Westphalia, viz., whether a husband has a right to open his wife's letters. The question arose out of a suit for divorce, instituted by the husband, in which he obtained a decree; but the conclusive piece of evidence was a letter from the Lathario, addressed to the wife, and the contents of which would never have been known had not the husband been so ungallant as to break the seal. The divorced wife at once prosecuted him for opening the letter, and the tribunal has decided that he was wrong and has sentenced him to payment of a fine. An appeal is pending, the result of which is anxiously watched by the public.
A punster challenged a sick man's vote at a recent election, on the ground that he was an ill legal voter.
The LEVIATHAN
This great ship is 691 feet, or 230 yards, in lenght--ten yards over an eighth of a mile, and of course, four turns up and down her deck will make a mile; a possible walk, as her level deck is unencumbered with aught save the skylights of the saloons. The Leviathan is intended to carry 800 first-class passenagers, 2,000 second-class, and 1,200 third-class. For so large a freight of human beings, then most extensive accommodation has been provided both in saloons and sleeping cabins. The saloons are nine in number; the largest is 100 feet long, 36 feet wide and 13 feet high. Above are two others, one above sixty feet long, and another 24; both are 25 feet wide and 12 high. The smaller of these latter is used as a ladies' cabin. There are whole streets and squares of sleeping rooms, about 14 feet long by 7 or 8 feet wide, and above 7 feet high; in fact quite large rooms. If nothing else had influence, this would make the Leviathan popular. In most large steamers it is the sleeping cabin that is the discomfort. The main cabin is generally large and airy; the table perhaps better than many passengers enjoy on shore; it is in the berth that they find discomfort--the close crib, with perhaps another fellow passenger on the shelf above.
The Mad River Journal, Ohio, in speaking of the Free Love colony at Berlin, Erie county, in that State, says: "What was formerly occupied as a Water Cure at that place is now styled a "Love Cure" and carriages run from the establishment to the railway depot to bring in customers. It is said that the "Association" numbers about 30, and an accession is to be made of about 40 within the next six months. This association has a paper called the Age of Freedom, issued weekly, and not only sent to such as order it, but it is slipped at night under the doors of the villagers, and left upon their door sills, and the decent portion of that community are sadly grieved that midnight prowlers are thus attempting to undermine the virtues of their sons and daughters. From the copy of the Age before us, we select one entire paragraph, so that there can be no charge of perverting its meaning by severing it from the context. It reads thus:"Marriage is the Slavery of Woman: Free Love is the freedom and equality of Woman and Man: Polygamy is Marriage multiplied: free Love is marriage abolished."
Abram Kirk, the last slave in Pennsylvania, died lately in Lancaster county, at the age of 103.
The Rev. Henry Giles, the celebrated Lecturer and Essayist, has become a resident of Chicago.
The "Missouri Educator" is the name of a new monthly magazine, devoted exclusively to the advancement of education. Edited by Thos. J. Henderson, Jefferson City.
The citizens of St. Cloud, Minnesota, have bought a new press for Mrs. Swisshelm to replace the one destroyed by the mob.
The oldest couple alive are supposed to be a Mr. Snyder and his wife, who reside at Burnside, Penn. He is one hundred and eleven and she is one hundred and seven years old, and they have been married about ninety-three years.
"My German friend, how long have you been married?" "Vel, 'tis a thing vat I seldom don't like to talk about; but ven I does, it seems to be so long as it never vas."
A sentimental chap intends to petition Congress for an act to improve the channels of affection, so that henceforth the "course of true love may run smooth."
Among the numerous casualties detailed, the following is very melancholy: "The young man who recently went on a bridal tour with an angel in book muslin, has returned with a termigrant in hoops."
Charles Lamb is reported to have said: "The water cure is neither new nor wonderful, for it is as old as the deluge, which, in my opinion, killed more than it cured."
A young gentleman who had just married a little beauty, says, "she would have been made taller, but Nature couldn't afford it."
Orson Hyde, the Mormon High Priest, says that "If the Lord spares him, and he has good luck," in ten years more he will have sons enough to make a regiment by themselves.
An Original Postponement.--The following motion was made and carried at a recent meeting of a colored parish in Boston:Mistar Moderator--In consekens ob de full attendus at this meetin', I moobe de meetin' next Wensday ebenin atn postponed to dis Monday ebenin for de choir of directors."