Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 October 1885 — Page 2

~ . SEPARATION. A w*’l *"• grown betweeS the two— > A zttStag. thick wall, though all un»e«n; None knew when the first stones were laid, Nor how the wall was build, I ween. And so their lives w re wide apart, Although they shawl one Ixiard, one bed; A careless eye saw naught amiss, j, Yet each was to the other dead. He, much absorbed in work and gain, Grew soon unmindful of his loss; A hard indifference worse than hate Changed love’s pure gold to worthless dross. She suffered tortures all untold; Too proud to mourn, too strong to die; The wall pressed heavily on her heart; Her white face showed her misery. Such walls are growing day by day , 'Twixt man and wife, 'twixt friend and friend— Would thev could know, who lightly build, How sad and bitter is the end, | A careless word, an unkind thought, A slight neglect, a taunting tone— Such things as these, before we know, Have laid the wall’s foundation Stone, AS USUAL. Now lovers fond in leafy lanes Together walk: And Corvdon exerts his pains, While Phillis coy to listen deigns, And suffers him To talk. Though poor, the youth protests he loves ' Her as his life. They'll live, he swears, like turtle doves, He begs her, squeezing tight her gloves, To be his own Dear wife. But Phillis has a richer bean, In love's ways deft. Next day he comes his fate to know, She’s going to ecoop him in, and so— J Poor Corry dear Gets left.

HISTORICAL

Origin of the Xotiopal Song. ‘•Hail Columbia’*—HoW People Traveled in 1800. George Washington Libeled." How Fires Were Put Out in the “ Good Old Times”— Low Wages, Etc, [From McMaster's new “History of the People of the United States."] ORIGIN OF “HAIL COLUMBIA” (1798). Thousands of men who despised John Adams, who detested the Federalists, who loathed the influence Great Britain had in Federal affairs, now (in 1798), turned to support the Government with vigor. Their hearts were still warm toward France. But they could not suffer even %o old and dear an ally to heap up insult on their native land. Such an outburst of patriotism had never before been seen. It began at Philadelphia, and spread thence as fast as the post-riders could carry the news. Night after night at the theater, pit, boxes, and gallery joined in one mighty shout for the “President’s March,” for “Yankee Doodle,” or for the stirring music of “Stony Point.” While the airs were being played, the wildest excitement prevailed. The audience, rose to their feet, stood upon the seats, waved hats and walking-sticks, sang, cheered, and, when the piece was finished, demanded that they should be played over and over again. Then a band of hardy Republicans in some part of the gallery or pit would call for “Ca Ira,” or the “Marseillaise” hymn, till their cries were drowned amid a storm of hisses and groans. Not to be outdone, the

Republicans thereupon bribed the musicians to play no Federal tunes. The first night they refused, a storm of indignation was raised in the theater, and they gave way. The next night they stood firm, and were well pelted for their pains. The Federalists were highly indignant The theater, said they, more than any other place, brings men of all classes together. The managers should therefore pay some heed to public feeling in the selection of the music. The present is no time to grate the public ear with those Gallic mur-der-shouts, “Ca Ira” and the “Carmagnole.” The enthusiastic clamor with which the “President’s March” had been called for, and the deafening applause with which it had been greeted, should have taught them this. Is it ..... the purpose of a theater company to please or to insult the public? The action of pelting the fiddler and smashing the fiddle is greatly to be condemned. The firm and dignified conduct of leaving the theater and keeping away till the managers solemnly promise that the “President’s March” shall be the first tune played in the house, is much to be preferred. The theater, the Republicans protested, was a public house, and the managers would do well to keep this in mind- If, however, they were determined to make it the resort of the British faction, then let them look to that faction for support. Every earnest Republican and true patriot would keep away. This, was the rejoinder, is greatly to be wished. Men of sense for the time when the Jacobins and their murder-shouts shall be driven from every decent resort Let them desert the theater, and with the shillings thussaved pay some of their old debts.

While the factions wrangled, the benefit-night of a favorite actor drew near. No man knew better than he how to profit by the popular will, and at no time in the whole course of his life had so fine a chance of profiting by the popular will been offered him. Politics ruled the hour. The city was full of excited Federalists, who packed the theater night after night for no other purpose than to shout themselves hoarse over the "President’s March. ” He determined to make use of this fact. He would take the march, find some one to write a few patriotic stanzas to suit it, and, on the night of his benefit, sing them to the house. Some Federalists were consulted, were pleased with the idea, and named Joseph Hopkinspn as the man best fitted to write the words. He consented, and in a few hours “Hail Columbia” was produced. The night for the benefit was that of Wednesday; the 25th of April, and the Gazette announced that the performance would comprise a comedy called “The Italian Monk;” comic opera of “Resina“More Sack,” an epilogue on the character of Sir John Fal staff; and “an entire new song (written by a citizen of Philadelphia), to the tune of the “President's March”, will be sung by Mr. Fox, accompanied by the lull band and a grand chorus: -F jin united let ns be. ]>«! yfi g around our librrtv: As a band of brothers joined, Peace and safety we shall find.’

Long before the curtain rose the house was too small to hold the thousands who clamored to be let in. Those who got in were too excited to wait quietly for the song. At last the comedy ended, and Mr. Fox appeared upon the stage. Every line was loudly applauded, the whole house joined in the chorus, and, when the verse “Behold the chief who noy commands” was reached, the audience rose to its feet and cheered till the building shook to its foundations. Four times the song was encored, was demanded again at the close of the play. A few called for “Cadra,” but were quickly put down. The words of “Hail Columbia” were printed in full in the newspapers of the following day. The Gazette hoped that every lady in the city would practice the music, learn the words, and sirig them at the next repetition; then perhaps the two or three FrenchAmericans who-remained might feel the charm of patriotism and join in the chorus of the song.

TRAVELING IN 1809.

The stage-coach was but little better than a huge covered box mounted on springs. It had neither glass windows, nor doors, nor steps, nor closed sides. The roof was upheld by eight posts which rose from the body of the vehicle, and the body was commonly breasthigh. From the top were hung curtains of leathery to be drawn up when the day was fine, and let down and buttoned when rainy and cold. Within were four seats. Without waa the baggage, Fourteen pounds cf luggage were allowed to be carried free by each passenger. But if his portmanteau or his brass-nail-studded hair trunk weighed more, he paid for it at the same rate per mile as he paid for himself. Under no circumstances, however, could he be permitted to take with him on the journey more than 150 pounds. When the baggage had all been weighed, and strapped on the coach, when the horses had been attached, and the way-bill made out, the eleven passengers were summoned, and, clambering to their seats through the front of the stage, sat down with their faces toward the driver’s seat. On routes where no competition existed, progress was slow, and the travelers were subjected to all manner of extortion and abuse. “Brutality, negligence. and filching,” says one, “are as naturally expected by people accustomed to traveling in America as a mouth, a nose, and two eyes are looked for in a man’s face.” Another set out one day in March, 1796, to go from Frenchtown to New Castle, on the Delaware. Seventeen miles separated the two towns, a distance which he declares a good, healthy man could have passed over in four hours and a half. The stage-coach took six. When it finally reached New Castle it was high noon, and the tide was making, the wind was fair, and the boat for Philadelphia was ready at the wharf. Yet he was detained for an hour and a half “that the inn-keeper might scrub the passengers out of the price of a dinner.” Dinner over, the boat set sail and ran up the river to within two miles ofjGloucester Point There, wind and tide failing, the vessel dropped anchor for the night. Some passengers, anxious to go on by land, were forced to pay half a dollar each to be rowed to the shore. At lin

the morning the tide again turned. But the master was then drunk, and, when he could be made to understand what was said, the tide was again ebbing, and the boat aground. Evening came before 'the craft reached Philadelphia. The passengers were fortyeight hours on board. Another came from New York by stage and by water. He was almost ship-wrecked in the bay, lost some of his baggage at Amboy, was nearly left by the coach, and passed twenty hours going sixteen miles on the Delaware. The Captain was drunk. The boat three times collided with vessels coming up the river. A gentleman set out in February to make the trip from Philadelphia to Baltimore. Just beyond Havre de Grace the axle broke. A cart was hired, and the passengers driven to the next stage inn. There a new coach was obtained, which, in the evening, overset in a wood. Toward daylight the whole party, in the midst of a shower of rain and snow, found shelter and breakfast at a miserable house three miles from Baltimore. But the host would not suffer one of them to dry his clothes by the kitchen stove. When an editor in* the town was asked to publish an account of their trip he refused. The owner of the coach-line might, he said, hinder the circulation of his newspaper. To add to the vexation of such delay “The Apostolic Assembly of the State of Delaware” had forbidden stage-coaches to cross their “hand’s-breadth of territory” on the Sabbath. The worst bit of road in the country seems to have been between Elkton, in Maryland, and the Susquehanna ferry. There the ruts

were so deep that, as the wheels were about to enter one, the driver would call upon the passengers to lean out of the opposite side of the coach, to prevent the vehicle from being overturned. “Now, gentlemen,” he would say, “to the right.” “Now, gentlemen, to the left” Yet another traveler had quitted Philadelphia for New York. All went smoothly till the coach drew near to the town of Brunswick. There one of a rival line was overtaken, and a race began. At Elizabethtown, a young woman, well mounted, rode up behind the coach, and tried to pass. In an instant half the men on the stage began to revile her most shamefully, raised a great shout, frightened her horse, and all but unseated her. One, indeed, ventured to expostulate. But he was

quickly silenced by the question: “What! suffer anybody to take the road of us?” At New York three of the passengers found lodgings in a single room at an inn. The custom was a general one, and of all customs was the most offensive to foreigners. No such thing, it was said, was ever seen in the British Isles. There every decent person not only had a bed, but even a room to himself, and, if he w'ere so minded, might lock his door. In America, however, the traveler sat down at the table of his landlord, slept in the first bed he found empty, or, if all were taken, lay down on one beside its occupant without so much as asking leave, or caring who the slireper might be. If he demanded clean sheets, he

was looked upon as an aristocrat, and charged well for the trouble he gave.; for the bedclothes were changed at stated times, and not to suit the whims of travelers. GEORGE WASHINGTON LIBELED. Twice had Washington been chosen by the unanimous vote of the Electoral College, and twice inaugurated with the warmest approbation of the whole people. Rut the times had greatly changed. In 1789 and 1792 every man was for him. In 1796, in every town and city of the land were men who denounced him as an aristocrat, as a monocrat, as an Anglomaniac, and who never mentioned his name without rage in their hearts and curses on their lips. Yet, much as his popularity had suffered, it was still great and powerful, and thousands of men in the Republican party would gladly have seen him’seated for a third term in the presidential chair. But he would not, and, on the 17th of September, made public his farewell address. \ Had it been a second proclamation of neutrality, or an open declaration of war against the French, it could not have provoked more angry and ill-timed replies. His character, said one,.having been founded on false appearances, can only be respectable while if is not known. His temper is arbitrary. His disposition is avaricious. He has a great passion for being seen. Without any skill as a soldier he has crept into fame by the places he has held, and by the success of the cause he espoused. Nor will the schemes of finance he has favored add much to his renown. If it be a merit to have laid a tax that raised an insurrection, then he shares it with the British Ministers who provoked the Revolutionary War. If it be a merit to have burdened the many to enrich the few, then he shares it with that infatuated monarch who brought about the present state of France. If it be a merit to have bound the American aristocracy to its Government by a large and everlasting debt, then he shares it with that British monarch who drove the Stuarts from their throne. History will yet tear the page devoted to his praise. It was France and his country that, in defiance of England, gave him fame, and it is France and his country that will, in defiance of England, take that fame away. Once his conduct had been guided by candor. Of fate he had sadly departed from that wise course. He had refused to the representatives of the people the papers they had a right to see. From that moment the brightness of his countenance faded. The glory that once shone round him dissolved in mist The enemies of liberty and his country claimed him as their own, and the name of Washington sank from the high level of Solon and Lycurgus to the mean rank of a Dutch Stadtholder, or the insignificance of a Venetian Doge. Posterity will look in vain tor anv marks of wisdom in his administration. They would, instead, behold a funding system, the worst of all diseases that, ever inflict a State. They would see an excise arming a freemen against their fellow-men, and they would say the great champion of American liberty retained the barbarous usages of the feudal system by keeping men in livery, and twenty years after the founding of the Republic, still owned 500 slaves.

HOW FIRES WERE PUT OUT IN THE LAST CENTURY. The law then required every householder to be a fireman. His name might not appear on the rolls of any of the fire companies; he might not help to drag through the streets the lumbering tank which served as a fire engine, but he must at least have in his hall-pan-try. or beneath the stairs, or hanging up behind his shop door, lour leathern buckets inscribed with his name, and a huge bag of canvas or of duck. Then, if he were aroused at the dead of night by the cry of fire, and the clanging of every church bell in the town, he seized his buckets and his bag. and, while his wife put a lighted candle in the window to illuminate the street, set off for the fire. The smoke of the flame was his guide, for the custom of fixing the place of the fire by a number of strokes on a bell had not yet come in. When at last he arrived at the scene he found there no idle spectators. Each one was busy. Some hurried into the building and filled their sacks with such movable goods as came nearest to hand. Some joined the line that stretched away to the water, and helped to pass the full buckets ! o those who stood by the flames. Others took posts in a second line down which the empty pails were hastened to the pump. The house would often be half consumed when the shouting made known that the engine had come. It was merely a pump mounted over a tank. Into the tank the water from the buckets was poured, and pumped thence by the efforts of a dozen men. No such thing as suctionhose was seen in Philadelphia till 1794. A year later one was made which became the wonder of the city. The length was 160 feet. The material was canvas, and, to guard against decay, was carefully steeped in brine. The fire buckets, it was now thought, should be larger, and a motion to that effect was made in the Common Council. But when it was known that the new buckets, if ordered, must hold ten quarts the people protested. Ten

quarts would weigh twenty pounds, and the bucket five pounds more. This was too much, for, as everybody knew, the lines at a fire were often made up of boys and lads not used to passing heavy weights. “Eight quarts was enough. Much could also be accomplished by cutting the city into fire wards, and giving a different color to the buckets of each ward. They could then be quickly sorted when thb fire was put out At New London five fire wardens took charge of the engines, and all who aided in putting out fires. To disobey a warden’s order was, to incur a fine of 1 pound. If a good leathern bucket was not kept hanging in some convenient place in the- house, and shown to the warden when he called, 6 shillings a month was exacted as punishment At New York, however, it was a long time before the bucket gave Way to the hose. There, if a householder were ojd, or feeble, or rich, and not d sposed to quit a warm I bed to carry his buckets to the fire, he 1 was expected at least to eend them by ’ i Al » ■ .

his servant or , his slave.. Whed-Ahe flames had- been extinguished, the buckets were left in the street, to be sought out and brought home again by their owners.

wages in 1800. The condition of the wages class of that day may well be examined; it is full of instruction for social agitators. In the great cities unskilled workmen were hired by the day, bought their own food, and found their own lodgings. But in the country, on the farms, or wherever a band Was employed on some public work, they were fed and lodged, by the employer, and given a few dollars a month. On the Pennsylvania canals the diggers ate the coarsest diet, were housed in the rudest sheds, and paid $6 a month from May to November, and $5 a month from November to May. Hod-carriers and mortar-mixers, diggers and choppers, who, from 1793 to 1800, labored on the public buildings and cut the streets and avenues of Washington City, received S7O a year, or, if they wished, S6O for all the work they could perform from March 1 to December 20. The hours of work were invariably from sunrise to sunset. Wages at Albany and New York were 3 shillings, or, as money then went, 40 cents a day; at Lancaster, $8 to $lO a month; elsewhere in Pennsylvania workmen were content with $6 in summer and $5 in winter. At Baltimore, men were glad to be hired at 18 pence a day. None, by the month, asked more than $6. At Fredericksburg, the price of labor was from $5 to $7. In Virginia, white men, employed by the year, where given £l6 currency; slaves, when hired, were clothed and their masters paid £1 a month. A pound, Virginia money, was, in Federal money, $3.33. The average rate of Wages the land over was, therefore, $65 a year, with food and, perhaps, lodging. Out of this small sum the workman must, with his wife’s help, maintain his family.

When Your Girth Increases.

There is that occasional visit to the tailor, who, tape in hand, announces in commercial monotone to the listening clerk the various measurements of our girth t and congratulates us on the gradual increase thereof. He never in his life saw you looking so well, and “fancy, sir, you are another inch below your armpits”—a good deal below—“since last year!” insiduously intimating than in another year or so you will have nearly as fine a chest as Heenan ! And you, poor, deluded victim, are more than half willing to believe that your increasing size is an equivalent to increasing health and strength, especial as your wife emphatically takes that view, and regards augmenting portliness with approval. Ten years have now passed away since you were forty, and by Weight i2< stone, a fair proportion for your height and build. Now you turn the scale to one stone more, every ounce of which is fat —-extra weight to be carried through all the labors of life. If you continue your present dietary and habitsand live five or seven years more, the burden of fat will be doubled, and that insinuating tailor will be still congratulating you. Meantime you are running the race ot life”—a figure of speech less appropriate to you at the present moment than it formerly was—handicapped by a weight which makes active movement difficult, upstairs ascents troublesome, respiration thick and panting. Not one man in fifty lives to a good old age in this condition. The typical man of 80 or 90 years, still retaining a respectable amount of energy of body and mind, is lean and spare, and lives on slender rations. Neither your heart nor your lungs can act easily and healthily, being oppressed by the gradually-gath-ering fat around them. And this because you continue to eat and drink as you did, or even more luxuriously than you did, when youth and activity disposed of that moiety of food which was consumed over and above what the body required for sustenance. Such is the import of that balance of unexpended aliment which your tailor and your foolish friends admire, and the gradual disappearance of which, should you recover your senses and diminish it, they will still deplore, half-frightening you back to your old habits again by saying: “You are growing thin. What can be the matter with you?" Insane and mischievous delusion. —Sir Henry Thompson, in the nineteenth Century.

The Foolish Friends.

In the depths of a forest there lived two foxes who never had a cross word with each other. One of them said one day, in the politest fox language: “Let’s quarrel." • “Very well," said the other, “as you please, dear friend. But how shall we set about it ?" “Ob ’. it cannot be difficult,” said fox number one; “two-legged people fall out, why should not we ?” So they tried all sorts of ways, but it could not be done, because each one would give way. At last number one fetched two stones. “There!” said he, “you say they’re yours, Mid I’ll say there’re mine, and we will quarrel and fight and scratch each other. Now I’ll begin. Those stones are mine!" “Very well,” answered the other, gently, “you are quite welcome to them.” “But we shall never quarrel at this rate !” cried the other, jumping up and lickjng his face. “You old simpleton, don’t you know that it take two to make a quarrel any day?” - ■ * ' So they gave it up as a bad job, and never tried to play at this, silly game again. I often think of this fable when I feel more inclined to be sulky than sw'eet. — Anon. w .

“Thanks,” or “Thank You.”

Stormonth, who will be accepted as good authority, gives “thanks,” in his dictionary, as the familiar form_ of “thank you,” without a hint that it is undesirable, and we have daily examples of its use by careful grammarians. The question here seems not so much one of grammar as one of taste and preference. Strickly speaking, “thanks’* is correct, but by a fastidious speaker it will scarcely be preferred to the deliberate and old-fashioned form.— Charleston Fetal _

REMINISCENCES OF PUBLIC MEN.

BY BEN : PERLEY POORE.

The Wilmot proviso, which was destined to play an important part in- politics, originated at the dinner-table oi a political club in the city of New York, which met weekly. It was composed of Democrats opposed to the extension of slavery, and among those present on the day in question were John Van Buren, Samuel J. Tilden, John A. Kennedy, Isaac Fowler, Andrew EL Greene, and other well-known Freesoil Democrats.

Mr. Howe, a Western member of Congress, was a guest, he having visited New York to confer with the Democratic opponents of slavery. During the consultation, John Van Buren said that the protest against the extension of slavery introduced into Congress was not worded right He suggested that the exact words of Jefferson, in the famous ordinace of ’B3 and ’B7, should be used. This was agreed to. Mr. Howe stated that it would be difficult to introduce the proviso, as thejSpeaker would not give the floor to any one friendly to freedom. Mr. Tilden, as the chief organizer of the movement about to be made, proposed that a ruse should be played. It -was agreed that each man, composing the little body of sixteen or eighteen Freesoilers in Congress, should have a copy of the proviso in his pocket. Each man should spring to the floor at the first chance, and shout; “Mr. Speaker!” It was thought that one of them would be recognized. Mr. Tilden, with other members of the club, went to Washington to aid in carrying out the plan. At a time agreed upon, the Spartan band, each with the proviso in his hand, sprang to the floor, and in concert shouted, “Mr. Speaker!” The Speaker was bewildered. He could not ignore the whole crowd. He selected Judge Wilmot as the most moderate of the party, and so the Wilmot proviso passed into history. Henry Wilson arrived at Washington in October, 1861, in command of the regiment and attached companies, raised by him in Massachusetts, and he at once turned over the command to Capt. Grove, a regular officer, who had come to Washington from Utah in command of a battalion of volunteers that was encamped on Franklin Square. Mr. Wilson had had some experience as a Brigadier General of uniformed militia in Massachusetts, but he found himself unable to command a body of men mustered into the regular service, and he wisely resigned. To avoid criticism, he solicited an appointment on Gen. McClellan’s staff, which “Little Mao” gave him, and he reported for duty at headquarters. A few days afterwards, he was shown on the orderbook an order directing him and two of the young regular officers on the staff “to go the grand rounds” of the cordon of forts which then encircled Washington, and to report on the condition of the improvised roads which connected them. So the next day the trio started. The two young men were used to the saddle, and they dashed away at a hard canter, soon leaving Mr. Wilson, who was mounted on a spirited horse, to follow as he best might. The entire winter’s day was consumed in riding over the roads to be examined, and when they returned, late in the afternoon, Mr. Wilson had to be lifted from his saddle, and he was sent to the Washington House in a hack. There was a demand for arnica, and several dayfc elapsed before the volunteer staff-officer was able to leave his bed. When he could go to headquarters, he did so, and tendered his resignation, which Gen. McClellan accepted.

Col. Tobias Lear, who was born in the vicinity, of Portsmouth, N. H., was educated at Dummer Academy, Byfield, Mass., and graduated from Harvard College in 1783. Three years afterwards he went to Mount Vernon by invitation of Gen. Washington, to act as his private secretary, and to instruct the grandchildren of Mrs. Washington. He remained at Mount Vernon, for fourteen years, during which time he classified and arranged Washington’s voluminous correspondence, civil and military, and he was present when the illustrious chieftian breathed his last. He was an accomplished gentleman, of courtly manners, and wrote with facility on whatever topic might present itself to his attention. He was the author of the first book on the District of Columbia printed in New York in 1793. Col. Lear was an especial favorite with M rs - ashington, two of whose nieces became successively his second and third wives.

Col. Lear’s first wife, a daughter of CoL Pierse Long, of Portsmouth, died in 1792 of yellow fever, in Philadelphia, leaving an only son, Benjamin Lincoln Lear, who died of cholera in Washington in 1832. Lincoln Lear was an eminent lawyer of high character. His first wife was a sister of Commodore Morris, his second, a daughter of Col. Bomford, Chief of Ordnance, U. S. A. After the death of Mr. Lear, this lady married the celebrated Richard Derby, of Boston, an eccentric man of fashion. CoL Lear’s second wife was a niece of Mrs. Washington, Frances, daughter of Col. Barwell Bassett, of Virginia, and widow of CoL George Augustine Washington, who died in 17Q3, a nephew of the General. The Colonel’s third wife was Frances Dandridge Henley, alsoaniece of Mrs. Washington, and sister of Capt. John D. Henley of the navy. I can remember seeing her at the reception of President Fillimore, a well-preserved matron, who wore her . own gray hair, then a novelty. CoL Lear has been charged by the biographers of Washington with abstracting from his papers, after his death, certain correspondence between himself and Mr. Jefferson, and transmitting the same to the latter, by whom it was destroyed, to prevent any knowledge of its contents ffom becoming a matterof history. And it was alleged tbatfor this sendee, he was rewarded by Mr. Jefferson with the place of Consul General at St Domingo in 1802, and that of Consul General at Algiers in 1804, which he held for eight years, when he returned home and was appointed by Mr. Madison, accountant of the War Department. He died in 18J6 by his own hand, in the “Wirt House? on G street, between Seventeenth and Eighteenth streets. He

was more intimately acquainted with the secret history of Washington’s life than any one else, and it is greatly to be regretted that he did not write his “Reminisences of Mount Vernon.” i

Social Life in Mexico.

With the wealthiest classes the mode of living is patterned after that of Spain. The morning repast consists of coffee and bread, the latter being slightly bitter and flavored according to taste with eggs, grease, or sugar. The noon meal, called breakfast, usually consists and several courses of meat, vegetables, and fruits, and duloa or sweets. Our pies are unknown to |he Mexican palate, but it delights in dulces, including the peloncillo, which resembles maple-sugar in color and flavor. Between 6 and 7in the afternoon comes the comida or dinner, which is not near so elaborate a meal as the breakfast. To the ladies of this class is denied the freedom of action permitted in the United States. Unlike our Vassar College beauty, the Mexican senorita, with bewitching black eyes and long raven hair, is barred out of society by her mother, who even insists on accompanying her to church. But where there is a will there is a way, and this is how it is done in Mexico: The young man “makes the bear;” that is, he walks up and down like a caged bear in front of her window. Behind the CTPeI bars of the window aforesaid sits the young lady, engaged at her embroidery or her guitar, or it may be be at her fan, into which, by indescribably graceful movements, she throws all the passion, the inspiration, the fire of love’s young dream. Their eyes meet for the first time, and both hang their heads; they meet again and their faces are illuminated with smiles conveying all the language of speech. The third time that this meeting occurs generally opens a conversation by signs, which in an advanced stage may lead to tossing the tatennamiqiiiliztli, the Aztec word for kiss, with a smacking pronunciation like the concluding notes of the nightingale’s song. This may be continued for months, the poor bird pining in the cage, until the attention of the parents of the young lady ij attracted, who then make inquiries as to the statute and antecedents of the young man, and if these are up to the standard, they invite him to call. He calls frequently after that, paying most’attention to the maiden, poking reserved politeness with just a little love at the senorita, and putting himself in line with the family peculiarities. These preliminaries successfully carried through, matrimonial arrangements are speedily consummated, and relatives hunted up all over the republic to attend the nuptials. The ties of kindred are very strong in Mexico, and next to them, perhaps, come the bonds of adoption. No Mexican will hesitate to visit a contagion-stricken friend, or adopt the orphan where its parents moved in his social scale. The latter beautiful trait of character draws to its support all the strength of cossanguity, and the foster-father at his death makes his adopted son or daughter a sharer with the other children in his possessions. As a general thing, with the exception of cases of jealousy, there is no friction in the Mexican family, and all pull together for their common good.

Comicalities in Plants.

, There is Jack-in-the-Pulpit; the flower of the plant known as Indian turnip (Arismma triphyllum), who could ever look at one of these singular blossoms without that same stirring of the risible faculties which one experience in perusing a parody or caricature, or witnessing a pantomime ? The very sight of one is prbvpcative of mirth. How many times in my school days did I challenge the teacher’s frown by involuntary giggles at the whimsical look of the imprisoned Jack! Monk’s hood of the genus aconitum has quaint, comical flowers, suggestive of an old lady’s head in a nightcap. The wellknown fly trap (Dionrna muscipula) strikes the mind with all the effect of a joke. The leaves of this plant are fringed with stiff bristles, and fold together when certain hairs on their upper surface are touched, thus seizing the insert that lights on them. Seeing the leaf standing temptingly open, a poor fly pops in sos shelter or food. No sooner has it touched its feet than some sensitive fibres are affected, and the cilia at the top closes in upon the intruder, imprisoning him as effectually as if a boy had taken and closed him in a box. The pitcher-plant or mon-key-cap of the east, although not particularly ludicrous, has a whimsical arrangement which borders closely upon the human economy. To the footstalk of each leaf of this plant, near the base, is attached a kind of bag shaped like a pitcher, of the same consistence and color as the leaf in the earlier state of its growth, but changing with age to a reddish purple. It is girt around with an oblique band or hoop, and covered with a lid neatly fitted, and movable on a kind of hinge or strong fibre, which, passing over the handle, connects the vessel with the leaf. By the shrinking or contracting oi this fibre the lid is drawn open whenever the weather is showery or damp. When sufficient moisture has fallen and the "pitcher saturated, the cover falls down so firmly that evaporation cannot ensue. The water is thus gradually absorbed through the handle in the footstalk of the leaf, sustenance and vigor to the plant. As soon as the pitchers are exhausted, the lids again open and to admit whatever moisturemay fall; and when the plant has produced its seed, and the dry season fairly- sets in, it withers, with all the covers of the pitchers standing open. The flower of the oee "orchis is like a piece of honeycomb, and the bees delight in it Then there is the snap dragon, the corolla of which it cleft, and turned back so as to look like a rabbit’s mouth, especially if pinched on the sides, when the animal appears as if nibbling. The flower of the cock’s comb-and the seed, pod of the mostynia proboscides bear curious resemblance to the objects which have suggested their names. Some kinds of < the mendicago have also curious seed pods, some being like bee hives, some like caterpillars, and some like hedgehogs—the last Being itself an essentially ludicrous object.— Floral Cabij n et