Locomotive, Volume 8, Number 11, Indianapolis, Marion County, 12 May 1849 — Page 1

"BREVI T Y I S THE SOUL OF WIT VOL VIII. CITY OF INDIANA I OIjIS, SATUBDAY, MAY 12, 1849. No. 11

THE LOCOMOTIVE

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Advertising t or the hrst insertion, 5 cents per line; each, subsequent insertion 4 cents per line. Religious and benevolent notices, Births, Marriages, and Deaths, gratis. Comuunications and subscriptions must be addressed, Post Paid, to " The Locomotive, Indianapolis Indiana," or hande'i, into the Publication office, opposite Browning's Hotel.

. For the Locomotive. ' Curious Customs. The following account of a very curious and ancient custom in Wales, exhibiting a fine trait of social life, :s taken from an English publication, and is well worthy of notice from a community whose early wants and exigencies led them to adopt a similar practice of assisting one another in a different department of the social organization. Allusion is made, as will be readily understood, to the practice which has . subsisted from the earlist times in this city of members of the different religious persuasions, as they successively needed houses of worship, subscribing liberally for their erection. It seems hardly necessary to remark that, to this Catholic and well-timed liberality of feeling, so obvious have been its results, our thriving capital is indebted for its numerous and handsome edifices for public worship. Forever distant be the day when this conservative spirit shall cease to exert its happy influences upon the feelings and actions of our citizens ! The article to which reference istibove made is headed as follows : 4 Wedding " Biddings" in Wales.' Some correspondents have favored us with printed copies of the papers used as invitations to weddings among certain classes in Wales, in some parts of which it is customary for the persons invited to make donations of money or of such articles as may be useful to the newly-married pair, expecting similar assistance when a wedding takes place in their own family. This primitive custom is curious and interesting, and doubtless tends to the promotion of a neighborly and social feeling among the people where it prevails. We subjoin copies of the different forms of invitations : "May 7th, 1830. "As we, Benjamin Jones and Mary Corbett, intend to enter the matrimonial state on Friday, the 28th instant, the young woman intends to make a bidding on the occasion at her father's house, called Sliwforge, in the parish of Slardilotal-y-bont, in the county of Glamorgan, where your agreeable company is humbly solicited ; and whatever donation you may be pleased to bestow on her then will be thankfully repaid by her father and mother whenever, called for on a similar occasion." At some distance below, in similar print is added: " N. B. The young woman, and her father and toother, Thomas and Esther Corbett, and her brother Thomas Corbett, desire that all gifts of the above nature due to them be returned to the young Woman on the above day, and will be thankful for all favors granted."

The form, second in date, only differs from the preceding in going rather in the name of the young man and his parents than as that of the young woman. The third we give entire, with the exception of the postscript, which is similar to the above, except that it is equally addressed to the friends of both parties; and adds a request that all the

debts of this nature due to a deceased uncle of the

young man may be paid on this occasion. "Caermarthenshire February 1, 1849. Dear Friend. We take this convenience to inform you that we confederate to such a design as to enter under the sanction of matrimony on the 19th Febuary instant. And as we feel our hearts inclining to regard the ancient custom of our ancestors, Sef Hiliogaeth Gomer, we intend to make a wedding-feast ' the same day at the respective habitation of our parent; we hereby most humbly invite your pleasing and most comfortable fellowship at either of which places ; and whatever kindness your charitable heart should then grant will be acceptable with congratulation and most " lovely ac

knowledgment, carefully recorded and returned, with preparedness and joy, whenever a similar occasion overtakes you, by your affectionate servants, David Joshua Mary Williams." The customary form is that which is first given; the last seems a rather ambitious departure from the established precedent. The next to which attention is asked may be denominated ; Funeral Biddings in Germany. Some years since the writer of this article, while overhauling an old German chest, whose iron-bound exterior attested its capacity for defying the ravages of time, was fortunate to find in the lining of the lid a centre piece, which on close examination proved to be a highly ornamented manuscript in German text, evidently the labored product of a . professional writer. On refering this curious relic to professor C. Folen, then of Harvord University, he was kind enough to furnish the translations which arc annexed, and to accompany them with the following explanatory letter : " Cambridge, April 18th 1834. "Dear Sir: A multitude of engagements has prevented me from attending to the paper you sent me until now. I now return the manuscript with an English translation. The custom of sending round such formal invitations ( executed by a writing-master,) was formaly quite common in German towns, and still exists in some. I am told that a similar form is observed in Mecklenburg county North Carolina. Yours with respect, C. Follen." This manuscript is divided into four parts by a very ingenious and curiously Interlaced borderwork, exhibiting no terminating points, and executed with a pen. In the top division is a quotation from Scripture : . - " I have fought a good fight ; I have finished the course ; I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness. 2 Timo. iv, 7. 8." Immediately under, in the centre, are the following words :

" JURGEN SUTTERBRODT ' ' , '" - requests the honorable body of citizens, and each one in particular, that they will show him the friendship to render the last honor to his mother-in-law, ISABE SCHIVERS, now gently resting in God, and to assist in conducting to the grave her lifeless body, on Tuesday afternoon, the eleventh of July, this month,, from the house of Paridom Noosz, situated in St. Peter street, to the new church of St. Michael. He and all the relatives are ready to do the same, as far as may be in their power, for every one in return. The same friendly request is made by Paridom Noosz and Peter Schiver, as friends. ' Anno, 1702.' On the left of the centre the division contains the following: . " Now, you life-worn limbs, wander to the grave. Jesus will give you back what the worms consume. Though you rest in the sand, God's hand is over you and preserves all the bones that not one may be broken. He will let you rise joyfully on the last day and enter Eternal Bliss." On the right of the centre the remaining divission contains these words : " I go from the bustle of earth to soft sweet rest; my soul dwells in Heaven, until the body joins it to the True Safety, to the Eternity of joy, to the Battlements of the Golden Temple, to the Beautiful Seraphim; when I behold the Trinity with the highest delight." The manuscript, now one hundred and forty seven years old, is writen upon very course, stout paper, and is in most admirable preservation. The execution of this manuscript, as a mere specimen of chirographic skill, will not compare with the. beautiful efforts in the same line by modern artists; but the complex reticulated border and bold German text of this ancient memorial are in excellent keeping with that characteristic pains-taking and patient endurance of labor which distinguish its author's countrymen of the present day ; and we regret, humble as his labor appears, that his name was not permitted to: come down to us with this , curious product of his genius, now so long and far removed from its Father Land. M.

For the Lccomotive. Mr. Editor : You will oblige many of your readers by publishing, in your Locomotive, the fol lowing article, on the subject of railroads, written as will be seen, by Samuel Merrill, Esq. pursuant to his having been delegated by the citizens of this place to attend a railroad convention which was recently held at Steubenville, Ohio. The article in question, although brief, will be found to contain much for thought. From the cur. rent of public opinion it is no longer a matter of doubt as to the deep and absorbing interest which this important subject is every where eliciting. It has been significantly remarked, and often repeated, that this is a period of improvement. In the development of the future, it may be truly said, that next to the education of every child throughout this great valleyso rich in soil and prolific in valuable productions stands, conspicuously, that of the improve-