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GODEY'S LADY'S BOOK




TABLE OF CONTENTS.

VOL. XLVIII.


    A Bloomer among us, by Pauline Forsyth,                        396

    Advice to a Bride,                                             405

    A Few Words about Delicate Women,                              446

    A Great Duty which is Imposed upon Mothers,                    464

    A Lesson worth Remembering,                                    478

    Annoyance, by Beata,                                           452

    Blessington's Choice, by Fitz Morner,                          424

    Bright Flowers for her I Love, by Wm. Roderick Lawrence,       450

    Celestial Phenomena, by D. W. Belisle,                         403

    Centre-Table Gossip,                                           477

    Charity Envieth Not, by Alice B. Neal,                         417

    Cottage Furniture,                                             454

    Directions for a Letter-Band,                                  458

    Directions for Knitting a Work-Basket,                         458

    Directions for taking Leaf Impressions,                        443

    Disappointed Love, by W. S. Gaffney,                           449

    Dress—as a Fine Art, by Mrs. Merrifield,                       412

    Editors' Table,                                                462

    Embroidery with Cord,                                          458

    Enigmas,                                                       474

    Evangeline and Antoinette.—Mantillas,                          457

    Everyday Actualities.--No. XIX                                 393

    Farm House,                                                    444

    Fashions,                                                      479

    Female Medical Education,                                      462

    For the Lovers of Jewelry,                                     478

    Godey's Arm-Chair,                                             467

    Godey's Course of Lessons in Drawing,                          410

    House Plants, from Mrs. Hale's New Household Receipt-Book,     472

    Instructions in Knitting,                                      472

    Intellectual Endowments of Children,                           409

    Interesting Discovery at Jerusalem,                            395

    Lace Mantilla and Tablet Mantilla,                             457

    Letters Left at the Pastry Cook's, Edited by Horace Mayhew,    414

    Literary Notices,                                              465

    Mantillas, from the celebrated Establishment of G. Brodie,
      New York,                                                    458

    Manufacture of Pins,                                           404

    Marquise and Navailles.—Mantillas,                        389, 457

    May-Day,                                                       423

    May First,                                                     477

    New Revelations of an Old Country,                             427

    Ode to the Air in May, by Nicholas Nettleby,                   452

    Our Fashion Department,                                        478

    Our Practical Dress Instructor,                                453

    Painting on Velvet,                                            393

    Patterns for Embroidery,                                       456

    Plain Work,                                                    460

    Poetry.                                                        449

    Receipts, &c.,                                                 475

    Remembered Happiness,                                          433

    Silent Thought, by Willie Edgar Tabor,                         440

    Sonnets, by Wm. Alexander,                                     450

    Spring,                                                        464

    Spring Bonnets,                                                459

    Spring Fashions,                                          390, 457

    Stanzas, by H. B. Wildman,                                     450

    Stanzas, by Helen Hamilton,                                    450

    Teaching at Home.—Language,                                    442

    The Borrower's Department,                                     475

    The Economics of Clothing and Dress,                           421

    The Gleaner, by Richard Coe,                                   449

    The Mother's Lesson, by Elma South,                            441

    The Practical,                                                 463

    The Spring-time Cometh,                                        463

    The Toilet,                                                    477

    The Trials of a Needle-Woman, by T. S. Arthur,                 434

    They say that she is Beautiful, by Mary Grace Halping,         451

    'Tis O'er, by I. J. Stine,                                     452

    To Miss Laura,                                                 416

    To one who Rests, by Winnie Woodfern,                          451

    To our Friend Godey, by Mrs. A. J. Williams,                   468

    Treasures,                                                     420

    Truth Stranger than Fiction,                                   406

    Work-Table for Juveniles,                                      455

    Yankee Doodle with Variations,                                 473




May.


    The Gleaner.
    Godey's Colored Spring Fashions.
    Embroidered Dress Undersleeve.
    Preparing for Church.
    Music.—Let us be Friends. Words by David Bates, Esq. Music by P. K.
    MANTILLAS.—Evangeline and Antoinette; Lace Mantilla and Tablet
      Mantilla; Marquise and Navailles Shawl-Mantelet; The Albuera.
    Spring Fashions.
    Design for a Letter-Band.
    Painting on Velvet.
    Godey's Course of Lessons in Drawing.
    New Revelations of an Old Country.
    Farm House.
    Ladies' Dresses and Diagrams.
    Cottage Furniture.
    Back of a Watch-Pocket.
    Dice Pattern for Slippers.
    Patterns for Embroidery.
    Embroidery with Cord.
    Spring Bonnets.
    Night Dresses.
    The Broken Bust.

[Illustration: Preparing for Church.]

[Illustration:

    EVANGELINE.      ANTOINETTE.

The latest French fashions. From the establishment of Messrs. T. W.
Evans & Co., Philadelphia.]

A pattern of either of the above will be sent on receipt of 62½ cents.
Post-office stamps received in payment. These patterns are exact
counterparts of the original, with trimmings, etc. (Description on page
457.)




LET US BE FRIENDS.

WORDS BY DAVID BATES, ESQ.

Music Composed and Dedicated to his Friends, by P. R.

Published by T. C. ANDREWS, 66 Spring Garden St., Phila.

       *       *       *       *       *

    _Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1853, by T. C.
    ANDREWS, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Eastern
    District of Pennsylvania._


Moderato.

PIANO.

VOICE.

    Let us be friends, though far and near
      The outward world contends;
    With noble souls, and true hearts here,
      Dear friends, let us be friends.
    Let us be friends when fortune smiles,
      And blesses all our ends;
    She often cheats us with her wiles;
      Dear friends, let us be friends.

2

    Let us be friends; that heart is best
      That freely treasure spends,
    To cheer the drooping and oppressed;
      Dear friends, let us be friends.
    Let us be friends when, lifting high,
      The threatening wave impends;
    T'will harmless break or pass us by,
      Dear friends, if we are friends.

3

    Let us be friends, for life is brief,
      And friendship makes amends
    For days of toil and nights of grief:
      Dear friends, let us be friends.
    Let us be friends, for one by one
      The grave its summons sends;
    When we must tread life's path alone,
      Dear friends, let us part friends.

[Illustration:

    LACE MANTILLA.       TABLET MANTILLA.

SPRING FASHIONS.--Designed, by Mrs. Suplee, expressly for Godey's
Lady's Book.

A pattern of either of the above will be sent on receipt of 62½ cents.
Post-office stamps received in payment. These patterns are exact
counterparts of the original, with trimmings, etc. (Description on page
457.)]

[Illustration:

    MARQUISE.             NAVAILLES SHAWL-MANTELET.

PARISIAN FASHIONS RECEIVED BY THE LATEST ARRIVALS.]

A pattern of either of the above will be sent on receipt of 62½ cents.
Post-office stamps received in payment. These patterns are exact
counterparts of the original, with trimmings, etc. (Description on page
457.)

[Illustration: Spring Fashions.]

[Illustration: _Letters_

(Description on page 458.)]

[Illustration: THE ALBUERA.

[From the establishment of G. BRODIE, No. 51 Canal Street, New
York.]

(_For description, see page_ 458.)]




GODEY'S

LADY'S BOOK.

PHILADELPHIA, MAY, 1854.

       *       *       *       *       *




EVERYDAY ACTUALITIES.--NO. XIX.

ILLUSTRATED WITH PEN AND GRAVER.


PAINTING ON VELVET.

Numerous inquiries have been addressed to us for some instructions in
the elegant art of painting on velvet, and we have at length prepared
an article on the subject, which, we think, will satisfy our readers.
Papers on ornamental work are exceedingly useful, when, by the aid of
practical experience, they convey simple and precise directions which
can easily be learned.

[Illustration: Formula 1.]

Among the various accomplishments of the present day, no fancy work is
perhaps more elegant, produces a better effect, and is, at the same
time, more easily and quickly performed, than painting on velvet.
Possessing all the beauty of color of a piece of wool-work, it is in
every way superior, as the tints used in this style of painting do
not fade; and an article, which it would take a month, at least, to
manufacture with the needle, may be completed, in four or six hours,
on white velvet, with the softest and most finished effect imaginable.
Another recommendation greatly in favor of this sort of work is, that
it does not require the knowledge of drawing on the part of the pupil,
being done with formulas, somewhat in the manner of the old Poonah
paintings, except that in this case the colors are moist. If these
formulas be kept steady, a failure is next to impossible.

[Illustration: Formula 2.]

The first thing necessary to be done, after obtaining the colors and
the velvet (which should be cotton, or more properly velveteen, as most
common cotton velvets are not sufficiently thick, and silk velvet,
besides the expense, is not found to answer), is to prepare the formula
for the group intended to be painted. Get a piece of tracing or silver
paper the size of the cushion, mat, or screen you wish to paint, then
lay it carefully upon the group you wish to copy, and trace through.
Should the paper slip, the formula will be incorrect; it will therefore
be well to use weights to keep all flat. Having traced your flowers,
remove the thin paper, and laying it on a piece of cartridge paper the
same size, go over the pencil marks by pricking them out with a fine
needle, inserted in a cedar stick. Now that you have your whole pattern
pricked out clearly upon a stiff paper, take eight or nine more pieces
of cartridge paper, of the same size as the first, and laying them one
by one, in turn, under the pricked pattern, shake a little powdered
indigo over, and then rub with a roll of list or any soft material.
The indigo, falling through the punctures, will leave the pattern in
blue spots on the sheets of paper beneath; then proceed in like manner
with the remaining formulas until you have the selfsame pattern, neatly
traced, in blue dots on them all. Next, with a sharp pen-knife, you
must cut out the leaves, petals, and calices of the group, taking care
to cut only a few on each formula, and those not too near together,
lest there should not be sufficient room to rub between the spaces, and
that, for instance, the green tint intended for the leaf should intrude
on the azure or crimson of the nearest convolvulus; for it must be kept
in mind that in this sort of work erasure is impossible.

The foregoing diagrams will show how the formulas should be cut, so as
to leave proper spaces, as above mentioned. The shading denotes the
parts cut out.

Some leaves may be cut out in two halves, as the large ones in the
pattern; others all in one, as the small leaf: but it is chiefly
a matter of taste. The large leaves should, however, generally be
divided. In each formula there should be two guides--one on the top
of the left-hand side, the other at the bottom of the right-hand
corner--to enable the formulas always to be placed on the same spot in
the velvet. For instance, as in Formula 2, A and B are the two guides,
and are parts cut out, in Formula 2, of leaves, the whole of which
were cut out in No. 1; and therefore, after No. 1 is painted, and No.
2 applied, the ends of the painted leaves will show through, if No.
2 be put on straight; if, when once right, the formula is kept down
with weights at the corners, it cannot fail to match at all points.
Care should, however, be taken never to put paint on the guides, as
it would necessarily leave an abrupt line in the centre of the leaf.
While cutting out the formulas, it is a good plan to mark with a cross
or dot those leaves which you have already cut out on the formulas
preceding, so that there will be no confusion. When your formulas are
all cut, wash them over with a preparation made in this manner: Put
into a wide-mouthed bottle some resin and shellac--about two ounces of
each are sufficient; on this pour enough spirits of wine or naphtha
to cover it, and let it stand to dissolve, shaking it every now and
then. If it is not quite dissolved as you wish it, add rather more
spirits of wine; then wash the formulas all over on both sides with the
preparation, and let them dry. Now taking Formula No. 1, lay it on the
white velvet, and place weights on each corner to keep it steady; now
pour into a little saucer a small quantity of the color called Saxon
green, shaking the bottle first, as there is apt to be a sediment;
then take the smallest quantity possible on your brush (for, if too
much be taken, it runs, and flattens the pile of the velvet; the brush
should have thick, short bristles, not camel-hair, and there ought to
be a separate brush for each tint: they are sold with the colors).
Now begin on the darkest part of the leaf, and work lightly round and
round in a circular motion, taking care to hold the brush upright, and
to work more, as it were, on the formula than on the velvet; should
you find the velvet getting crushed down and rough, from having the
brush too damp, continue to work lightly till it is drier, then brush
the pile the right way of it, and it will be as smooth as before. Do
all the green in each formula in the same manner, unless there be any
blue-greens, when they should be grounded instead, with the tint called
grass-green.

Next, if any of the leaves are to be tinted red, brown, or yellow, as
Autumn leaves, add the color over the Saxon green, before you shade
with _full green_, which will be the next thing to be done; blue-green
leaves to be shaded also with _full green_. Now, while the green is yet
damp, with a small camel-hair pencil vein the leaves with ultramarine.
The tendrils and stalks are also to be done with the small brush.
You can now begin the flowers: take, for instance, the convolvulus
in the pattern. It should be grounded with _azure_, and shaded with
ultramarine (which color, wherever used, should always be mixed with
water, and rubbed on a palette with a knife); the stripes in it are
rose-color, and should be tinted from the rose saucer. White roses and
camellias, lilies, &c., are only lightly shaded with white shading; and
if surrounded by dark flowers and leaves so as to stand out well, will
have a very good effect.

[Illustration]

Flowers can easily be taken from nature in the following manner: A A, D
D, is a frame of deal, made light, and about two feet long, and eight
or ten inches in width. The part D D is made to slide in a groove in
A A, so that the frame may be lengthened or shortened at pleasure. A
vertical frame, C, is fixed to the part D, and two grooved upright
pieces, B B, fixed to the other part. These uprights should be about
nine inches high, and C half that height. There is also a piece of
wood at the end A of the frame, marked D, with a small hole for the
eye, and there is a hole in the top C opposite to it. S is a piece
of glass, sliding in the grooves in B B. In the hole H is placed the
flower or flowers to be copied. If a group is wished, more holes should
be made, and the flowers carefully arranged. The eye being directed to
this through the hole in E, it can be sketched on the glass by means
of a pencil of lithographic chalk. It is afterwards copied through by
slipping the glass out, laying it on a table, and placing over it a
piece of tracing-paper. When traced on the paper, proceed as before to
make the formulas.

[Illustration]

Of course, so delicate a thing as white velvet will be found at length
to soil. When this is the case, it can be dyed without in any way
injuring the painting. Dye in this manner: Get an old slate-frame, or
make a wire frame; add to it a handle, thus; then tie over it a network
of pack-thread; next, cut a piece of cardboard the exact size of your
group, so as completely to cover it, the edges of the cardboard being
cut into all the ins and outs of the outer line of the group; then
placing it carefully over the painting, so as to fit exactly, lay a
weight on it to keep it in place. Then dip a large brush into the dye,
hold the frame over the velvet (which should be stretched out flat--to
nail the corners to a drawing-board is best), and by brushing across
the network, a rain of dye will fall on the velvet beneath. Do not let
the frame touch the velvet; it should be held some little way up. Then
just brush the velvet itself with the brush of dye, to make all smooth,
and leave the velvet nailed to the board till it is dry. Groups,
whether freshly done, or dyed, are greatly improved, when perfectly
dry, by being brushed all over with a clean and rather soft hat-brush,
as it renders any little roughness, caused by putting on the paint too
wet, completely smooth and even as before. Music-stools, the front
of pianos, ottomans, banner-screens, pole-screens, and borders for
table-cloths, look very handsome when done in this manner.


INTERESTING DISCOVERY AT JERUSALEM.

The following, from a letter dated Jerusalem, May 16, 1853, has been
sent by Mr. James Cook Richmond, for publication. "I was spending
a couple of days in Artas, the _hortus clusus_ of the monks, and
probably the 'garden inclosed' of the Canticles, when I was told there
was a kind of tunnel under the Pool of Solomon. I went and found one
of the most interesting things that I have seen in my travels, and
of which no one in Jerusalem appears to have heard. I mentioned it
to the British Consul, and to the Rev. Mr. Nicolayson, who has been
here more than twenty years, and they have never heard of it. At the
centre of the eastern side of the lowest of the three pools, there is
an entrance nearly closed up; then follows a vaulted passage some 50
feet long, leading to a chamber about 15 feet square and 8 feet high,
also vaulted; and from this there is a passage, also arched, under
the pool, and intended to convey the water of a spring, or of the
pool itself, into the aqueduct which leads to Jerusalem, and is now
commonly attributed to Pontius Pilate. This arched passage is six feet
high, and three or four feet wide. Each of the two other pools has a
similar arched way, which has not been blocked up, and one of which I
saw by descending first into the rectangular well. The great point of
interest in this discovery is this: It has now been thought for some
years that the opinion of the invention of the arch by the Romans has
been too hastily adopted. The usual period assigned to the arch is
about B. C. 600. We thought we discovered a contradiction of this idea
in Egypt, but the present case is far more satisfactory. The whole
of the long passage of 50 feet, the chamber 15 feet square, the two
doors, and the passage under the pools in each case, are true 'Roman'
arches, with a perfect keystone. Now, as it has never been seriously
doubted that Solomon built the pools ascribed to him, and to which he
probably refers in Ecclesiastes ii. 6, the arch must of course have
been well known about or before the time of the building of the first
temple, B. C. 1012. The 'sealed fountain,' which is near, has the same
arch in several places; but this might have been Roman. But here the
arched ways pass probably the whole distance under the pools, and are
therefore at least coeval with them, or were rather built before them,
in order to convey the water down the valley. What I saw convinced me
that the perfect keystone Roman arch was in familiar use in the time of
Solomon, or 1,000 years before the Christian era."




A BLOOMER AMONG US.

BY PAULINE FORSYTH.

    "There was a general whisper, toss, and wriggle,
    But etiquette forbade them all to giggle."--BYRON.

    "The outward forms the inner man reveal."--HOLMES.


Throughout all the Union, there is no region more full of an abounding
life and activity than western New York. Its people, inheriting from
their New England ancestors their unresting energy in all practical
affairs, and their habits of keen and close investigation in everything
connected with their social or moral development, seem, in a great
measure, to have laid aside the conservatism, the wary circumspection
that the descendant of the Puritans has still retained. Enjoying the
gifts of nature bestowed with a more bounteous hand and a freer mode
of life, they have thrown off many of the shackles or restraints with
which the worldly prudence of the New Englander hampers him in action,
however loose he may suffer the reins to lie on his mind or fancy; but,
whatever result his reason or benevolence works out, a genuine New
Yorker would exemplify in his conduct, with a high disdain for all who
suffered the baser motives of prudence or fear of censure to withhold
them from the same course.

The people of that section of the country are so accustomed to see the
singular theories, that are only talked about in other places, carried
out into action by their zealous promulgators or defenders, that the
eccentricities that, in most country villages, would throw all the
people into a high state of astonishment, and supply them with a topic
of conversation for months, there only causes a gentle ripple over the
surface of society; or, to give a truer illustration, the waves there
are always rolling so fast and high, that one wave more or less makes
but little impression.

But when, from this unquiet ocean, a Bloomer was left stranded on the
still shores of our quiet little town of Westbridge, our dismay and
agitation can be but faintly described. Socially speaking, propriety
is our divinity; Mrs. Grundy, our avenging deity. We frown on short
sleeves; but when those short skirts were seen waving in our streets,
when they even floated up the broad aisle on the Sabbath, it would be
hard to say whether indignation or horror were the predominant feeling.

But, to begin at the beginning, as is in all cases most proper and
satisfactory, Jane Atwood announced at our Sewing Society, and Mrs.
Atwood mentioned, in the course of a round of calls, that they were
expecting Miss Janet McLeod, a niece of the late Mr. Atwood, to pass
the winter with them. We all knew Mr. McLeod by reputation, for Mrs.
Atwood was very proud of her relationship to him, and references to
her brother-in-law were frequently and complacently made. We had seen
him, too, when now and then he had passed a day with the Atwoods--he
never found time to stay in Westbridge more than a day--and were
astonished to find that the rich Mr. McLeod, who had been for some
time a sort of a myth among us, a Westbridge Mrs. Harris, was a plain,
homespun-looking man, with a comely sun-browned face, white hair, and
the kindest and most trusting brown eyes in the world. His manners
were hearty and genial, but their simplicity prevented him from making
a great impression on us; we like more courtliness and a little more
formality. His benevolence and uprightness, together with his immense
wealth, procured for him among us that degree of consideration which
such things always do procure among the numerous class who take the
world as they find it, and we dismissed him with the remark that,
though plain and unpolished in his manners, he possessed sterling
goodness and sound sense.

This last quality might not have been allowed him, if Mrs. Atwood
had not been careful in concealing, as far as possible, the peculiar
revelations he made in each visit of his reigning enthusiasm.

"That Mr. McLeod is a very strange man," said Mrs. Atwood's nurse to a
former employer of hers. "Do you know, ma'am, he spent all yesterday
pulverizing Miss Jane! Miss Jane went sound asleep, and I thought in my
heart she would never wake up no more."

It was found out afterwards that Jane Atwood had been undergoing some
experiments in mesmerism, which, although Mr. McLeod declared them
triumphantly successful, Mrs. Atwood was rather inclined to conceal
than converse about. This was on Mr. McLeod's first visit. On his
second, he found Mrs. Atwood suffering from an attack of rheumatism.
He pulled out of a capacious pocket-book two galvanic rings, which he
insisted on her wearing; and, for fear that they might not effect so
speedy a cure as he wished, he hastened to the city and returned with
a galvanic battery, by means of which he gave his sister-in-law such
severe shocks that she assured us often "that her nervous system was
entirely shattered by them." But, as I have known many ladies live and
get a fair proportion of enjoyment out of this life with their nervous
systems in the same dilapidated state, I have come to consider it a
very harmless complaint.

At another time, Mr. McLeod had wonderful stories to tell of spiritual
manifestations, and on his last visit he had been overflowing with
indignation against society on the score of woman's rights and wrongs.

Yet, notwithstanding these peculiarities, Mrs. Atwood loved and
esteemed Mr. McLeod with a sincerity that redeemed her otherwise
worldly and timid character. Her husband had been left dependent on
his half brother, and owed to him his education and his establishment
in the world; and, when a fortune was left by some relation of their
mother to be equally divided between them, Mr. McLeod refused to take
any portion of it, saying that he had more than enough. These, with
many other instances of his generosity and affection which Mrs. Atwood
had received since her widowhood, made her forget his eccentricities,
and listen with forbearance to his impetuous outbursts of zeal or
indignation.

There was another person in Westbridge who shared Mrs. Atwood's
affectionate gratitude to Mr. McLeod, and from similar causes; and this
was Professor Mainwaring. He was the professor of ancient languages in
the college at Westbridge, and the society of the place, as well as the
members of the college, thought it a high honor to be able to number
such a man as one of themselves. He combined, in a manner that is
seldom seen, the high-bred gentleman with the accomplished scholar and
the strict and severe theologian, for he was a clergyman as well as a
professor; and when to this it is added that he was still unmarried, it
will hardly be wondered at if he were an object of general attention,
carefully restrained though within its proper limits.

He also had been indebted in early life to Mr. McLeod; for, although
brought up in the habits, and with the expectation of being a rich
man, he found himself in the second year of his college life left, by
the sudden death of his father, Judge Mainwaring, entirely destitute.
With no friends who were able or willing to assist him, George
Mainwaring was about to give up reluctantly all hopes of completing
the studies in which he had so far been eminently successful, and had
already begun to look about for some means of obtaining a present
support, when Mr. McLeod heard of his position, and, with the prompt
and delicate generosity peculiar to him, came forward with offers of
assistance. He claimed a right, as an old friend of George Mainwaring's
father, to interest himself in the young student's welfare; and, with
some hesitation, such as every independent mind naturally feels, Mr.
Mainwaring accepted the offered aid.

The pecuniary obligation had long since been repaid, but the feeling
of gratitude to the one who had enabled him to pursue the career best
fitted to the bent of his mind remained in full force; and, from the
influence of this feeling, he had been induced to make an offer to Mr.
McLeod, which was the immediate occasion of Miss McLeod's visit to
Westbridge.

Mr. McLeod had been for some years devoting himself spasmodically to
the study of Revelations. He fancied that he had discovered the clue
to the meaning of many of the most mysterious parts of this book; but,
unfortunately, there were many little discrepancies between his ideas
and those apparently conveyed by the words of this part of Holy Writ.
These he attributed to a faulty translation, and had himself begun
one that was to be free from such blemishes; but, finding that his
knowledge of the language was insufficient, or that his patience was
soon exhausted, he determined that his daughter Janet should qualify
herself to perform this office for him.

She would have undertaken to learn Chinese, if her father had expressed
a wish to that effect, and therefore made no opposition to studying
Greek, nor to passing the winter in Westbridge with her aunt, that she
might avail herself of the proposal Mr. Mainwaring had made to her
father, that he should be her instructor. Miss McLeod had never been in
Westbridge, and Mr. Mainwaring had never happened to meet her. He knew
that she was a young lady of eighteen, and that, since her mother's
death, some three years before, she had devoted herself entirely to
making her father's home as comfortable and happy as possible. Her
filial affection had prepossessed him very much in her favor, and he
looked forward to aiding her in her studies with an unusual degree of
pleasure. Jane Atwood, too, was delighted at the prospect of renewing
an acquaintance that had languished since her childhood.

Mr. McLeod was prevented, by some of his numerous engagements, from
accompanying his daughter to Westbridge, as he had intended; and,
placing her under the care of an acquaintance who was on his way to the
city of New York, he telegraphed to Professor Mainwaring a request that
he would meet Miss McLeod at the Westbridge depot.

The cars arrived about twilight, and, punctually at the appointed
time, Mr. Mainwaring and Miss Atwood stood on the platform waiting for
the stopping of the train. The young lady looked in vain among the
group that sprang hurriedly out of the cars to find one that she could
recognize as her cousin. Mr. Mainwaring scrutinized the crowd with a
like purpose, but as fruitlessly. Their attention was arrested at the
same moment by the same object--the singular attire of a person leaning
on the arm of an old gentleman, who was looking around him evidently
greatly hurried and perplexed. Mr. Mainwaring gave but one glance, and
then looked away, apparently considering the individual hardly a proper
subject of curiosity; but Jane Atwood, less scrupulous, stood gazing so
absorbed in what she saw that she entirely forgot her cousin.

The person who thus attracted her notice was a small and youthful
woman, dressed in a sort of sack or paletot of black cloth, belted
around her waist and falling a little below the knee, and loose
trowsers of the same material gathered into a band around the ankle,
leaving exposed a small foot encased in thick-soled, but neatly-fitting
gaiter boots. A linen collar tied around the throat with a broad black
ribbon, and a straw bonnet and veil, completed the attire.

"That must be a Bloomer, Mr. Mainwaring," said Jane Atwood; "do just
look at her. I am very glad she happened to come in this train. I have
always wanted to see one."

"Indeed!" said Mr. Mainwaring, in a tone that expressed more surprise
than approval. "Do you see your cousin anywhere, Miss Atwood?" asked
he, after a moment's pause.

She replied in the negative.

"Allow me to leave you a moment, and I will make some inquiries."
And, after attending Miss Atwood to the ladies' saloon, the professor
hurried off to inquire after his charge.

Hardly had he gone before the old gentleman and the Bloomer entered.

"Excuse me, ma'am," said the gentleman, addressing Miss Atwood; "but I
am afraid to wait here any longer, for fear the cars will leave me, and
I promised Mr. McLeod I would see his daughter safely to her friends.
Do you know whether Professor Mainwaring is here to meet her?"

"Yes, he is," said Miss Atwood, with a sudden misgiving. "Is--is--is
this--person--lady--Miss McLeod?" Miss Atwood could hardly finish the
question.

The Bloomer threw back her veil, and said, somewhat timidly--

"Is this Miss Atwood--Cousin Jane?"

Miss Atwood bowed, and the old gentleman, saying, "I am glad you have
found your friends," hurried off.

There were a few moments of embarrassed silence, when Professor
Mainwaring reappeared.

"Miss McLeod cannot be in this train," said he. "Shall we wait here for
the next? It will be down in an hour."

"This is Miss McLeod, Professor Mainwaring," said Miss Atwood,
hardly conscious of the ungracious manner in which she effected the
introduction.

Mr. Mainwaring bowed with his usual ceremonious politeness; but he said
not a word, and his lips closed with a firmer compression than usual.
He was too indignant and astonished to speak. He wondered if his old
benefactor had quite lost his senses that he should permit his young
daughter to go about dressed in that outrageous costume. And he did
not see with what propriety he, the guide and controller of more than
a hundred young men, who required all the power of his example and
authority to keep them in proper order, could be asked to teach, or in
any way have his name connected with that of a Bloomer. He was more
than half inclined to walk away; but, restraining himself, he observed
that the carriage was waiting, and had instinctively half turned to
Miss McLeod to offer her his arm, but, catching another glimpse of
the costume, in itself a sort of a declaration of independence, and
remembering having seen a number of students lingering around the
depot, he bowed hastily and led the way to the carriage.

Miss McLeod's manner had all the time been very composed and quiet. She
could not help observing that her greeting was not a very warm one; but
this was her first absence from home, and her thoughts were so full of
those she had left behind that she was not fully conscious of all that
was passing around her. She seated herself in the carriage, and, after
answering the few formal questions addressed to her by her companions,
she sank with them into a silence that remained unbroken until they
reached Mrs. Atwood's door.

Declining Miss Atwood's invitation to walk in, Professor Mainwaring
bade them good-evening, murmuring something hastily about seeing Miss
McLeod again soon, and walked off, glad to be released even for a
moment from his distasteful duty of attendance.

Miss Atwood ushered her companion into the drawing-room, and then went
to seek her mother. She found her in the kitchen giving directions to
a new cook about the preparations for tea. She beckoned her into the
dining-room.

"She's come, mother," said Jane, with wide-open eyes.

"Yes, dear, I know it. Go and stay with her; I will come in in a
minute."

"She's a Bloomer!" continued Jane, unheeding the maternal bidding.

"You don't say so, Jane! What! little Janet a Bloomer! Oh, Jane!" And
Mrs. Atwood sank down on the nearest seat. This was worse than the
galvanic battery. Her nervous system gave way entirely, and she burst
into a flood of tears. "I cannot go in to see her," said Mrs. Atwood.
"I don't think I can have her here in my house with my children."

"Oh yes, mother, we must," said Jane; "remember how kind uncle McLeod
has always been to us. Don't be so distressed about it. Perhaps we can
induce her to change her style of dress."

While Jane was endeavoring to soothe her mother, Janet McLeod had been
trying to overcome the shyness of two little children whom she had
found in the drawing-room. She was telling them about a pony and a
dog she had at home, when the boy raised his head and asked, with the
straightforwardness of a child--

"Who are you?"

"I know," said the little girl, shaking her head with a very wise look.

"Do you? Who am I?" asked Janet, amused by her earnest manner.

"I don't like to tell oo; but I'll tell Tarley, if he'll bend down his
head."

Charley bent his head, and the child said, in a loud whisper--

"That's the little ooman that went to market to sell her eggs; don't oo
see?"

"Are you?" asked Charley.

"No; I am your cousin Janet."

"Oh, I always thought Janet was a girl's name. I am glad you are a boy.
I like boys a great deal the best."

Here Charley was interrupted by his mother's entrance. Mrs. Atwood had
composed herself, and had come to the conclusion that she might as well
make the best of it. She greeted Janet in a manner rather constrained
and embarrassed, and yet not cold enough to be wounding; and this she
thought was doing wonders.

The next day was Sunday, and Mrs. Atwood saw, with dismay, Janet
preparing to go to church in the same attire.

"Have you no long dresses that you could wear to-day, my dear?" she
asked. "We are so unaccustomed here to see anything of that kind, that
I am afraid it will attract more attention than you would like."

"No," replied Janet, with a composure that was not a little irritating
to Mrs. Atwood, "I did not bring any with me. I promised father that I
would wear this dress at least a year."

Jane Atwood had a convenient headache, which prevented her from
accompanying the rest of the family to church, and Mrs. Atwood had
to bear the whole brunt of the popular amazement and curiosity, as,
followed by a Bloomer, she made her entrance among the assembled
congregation. The walk up the aisle was accomplished with a flurried
haste, very unlike the usual grave decorum on which Mrs. Atwood piqued
herself, and, slipping into her pew, she sat for some minutes without
venturing to raise her eyes.

Miss McLeod did not share her aunt's perturbation. She appeared, in
fact, hardly conscious of being an object of general remark, but
addressed herself to the duties of the sanctuary with a countenance as
calm and tranquil as a summer's day. A very sweet and rural face she
had, as unlike her startling style of dress as anything could well be.
Having always lived in the country, surrounded by an unsophisticated
kind of people who had known her from her infancy, and loved her for
her father's sake as well as her own, and who, reverencing Mr. McLeod
for his noble and kindly traits of character, looked upon his many
crotchets as the outbursts of a generous, if an undisciplined nature,
Janet had never learned to fear the criticism or the ridicule of the
unsympathetic world.

Like most persons brought up in the sheltered seclusion of the country,
far away from the bustle and turmoil of the city, where every faculty
is kept in activity by the constant demand upon its attention, her
mind was slow in its operations, and her perceptions were not very
quick. At ease in herself, because convinced by her father's advice
and persuasions that she was in the path of duty, she hardly observed
the astonishment and remark of which she was the object. What Bulwer
Lytton calls "the broad glare of the American eye" fell upon her as
ineffectually as sunshine on a rock.

With a disposition naturally dependent, and inclined to believe rather
than to doubt and examine for herself, she had grown up with such a
deep reverence for her father, and with such an entire belief in him,
that the idea of questioning the propriety or soundness of his opinions
never entered her mind. It was hard labor for one so practical and
unimaginative as Janet to follow up the vagaries of a man like Mr.
McLeod, and it was one of the strongest proofs of her great affection
for him, that she had laid aside her own correct judgment and good
sense to do so.

That same evening Mrs. Atwood had a long conversation with Miss McLeod
about her dress. It was a disagreeable task to one of Mrs. Atwood's
timid disposition to find fault with any person; but she thought it a
duty she owed to her motherless niece, at least, to expostulate with
her about so great a singularity.

"Will you tell me, my dear," she said, "how you came to adopt that
costume?"

"It was my father's wish," Janet replied. "He was convinced that it was
a much more sensible and useful mode of dress than the usual fashion
of long trailing skirts, and he was very anxious that it should be
generally adopted; but he said it never would be unless it were worn
habitually by ladies occupying a certain station in society. He thought
that, as we had so many advantages, we ought to be willing to make some
sacrifices for the general good. I did not much like the idea at first,
but I found that father was right when he said that I should soon
become accustomed to the singularity of the thing; and indeed it is
hardly considered singular in Danvers now. Several of the ladies there
have adopted the same style of dress. We find it a great deal more
convenient."

Mrs. Atwood could not assent; she could not see a single redeeming
quality in the odious costume.

"Would you object, Janet, to laying it aside while you remain in
Westbridge? I am sure that you will effect no good by wearing it, and
I am afraid you will be rendered painfully conspicuous by it. Young
ladies should never do anything to make themselves an object of remark."

This aphorism, which was the guiding principle of every lady trained in
Westbridge, was a new idea to Janet. She pondered upon it for a while,
and then replied--

"It seems to me, at least so my father always tells me, that the only
thing necessary to be considered is, whether we are doing right or not;
and if this dress is to do as much good as father thinks it will, it
must be my duty to wear it. I promised father I would wear it for a
year at least."

"If your father will consent, will you not be willing to dress like the
rest of us while you remain here? It would be a great favor to me if
you would."

"Certainly, dear aunt, I will. But it seems strange to me that you
should be so annoyed by what father is so much delighted with."

Mrs. Atwood wrote what she considered quite a strong appeal to Mr.
McLeod, entreating him to allow his daughter to resume her former
attire. But in reply, Mr. McLeod wrote that Janet was now occupying the
position in which he had always wished a child of his to be placed. She
was in the front rank of reformers; giving an example to the people
in Westbridge, whom he had always considered shamefully behind the
age, which he hoped would awaken in them some desire for progress and
improvement. He was proud of her and of her position. He would not for
the world have her falter now, when, for the first time, she had had
any conflict to endure.

Janet read the letter, and, with a blush for her weakness in yielding
to her aunt's suggestions, she resolved to allow no pusillanimous fear
of censure to degrade her father's daughter from the high station in
which he had placed her. Mrs. Atwood was indignant at Mr. McLeod's
answer.

"I never read anything with so little common sense or common feeling
in it. I am sure he would not be willing to subject himself to all the
annoyances to which he is exposing his poor young daughter, persuading
her that she is in the path of duty, and that she ought to make a
sacrifice of herself. I have no patience with him," and Mrs. Atwood, in
her vexation, came very near giving Charley a superfluous whipping.

Meantime, the people in Westbridge were debating as to the expediency
of calling on the new arrival. They were in great perplexity about it.
As Mrs. Atwood's niece, Miss McLeod ought certainly to be visited; but
as a Bloomer she ought to be frowned upon and discountenanced. The
general opinion was decidedly against showing her any attention. One
lady did call, but repented it afterwards, and atoned for her imprudent
sociability by declining to recognize Miss McLeod when she met her
in the street. There were very few invitations sent to Mrs. Atwood's
during the winter, and those that came were very pointedly addressed
to Mrs. and Miss Atwood. These they at first declined, with much inward
reluctance on Jane's part; but Janet perceiving this, and divining
that politeness to her was the cause of the refusals, insisted on
being no restraint on her cousin's pleasure. She was willing to endure
mortifications herself for what she considered her duty, but it would
be a needless addition to her trials, she said, if those who did not
approve of her course had to suffer for it.

It seems a pity that there should be such a superfluity of the martyr
spirit in womankind, or that there were not something of more vital
importance to wreak it upon than the rights and wrongs that are just
now causing such an effervescence among them.

Meantime, Mr. Mainwaring had decided that, come in what shape she
might, Mr. McLeod's daughter ought to receive from him all the
attention that gratitude for her father's services might demand. Every
morning he devoted an hour to giving her a lesson in Greek, and though
for some time he continued to look upon her with suspicion and distrust
as a _femme forte_, yet his urbane and polished manners prevented Janet
from perceiving anything that might wound or offend her. She felt that
the gentle cordiality with which she was at first inclined to receive
him, as one whom her father loved and esteemed, met with no response,
but she attributed it to his natural reserve. The first thing that
lessened the cold disapproval with which Mr. Mainwaring regarded Janet
was the discovery that study was to her a painful labor, and that she
was not very fond of reading. There is a popular fallacy that a high
cultivation of the intellect implies a corresponding deficiency in the
affections, and profoundly sensible as Mr. Mainwaring was, he was, like
most men, a firm believer in this erroneous opinion; and therefore he
welcomed all Janet's mistakes as pledges that, though her judgment
might be wrong, her heart was right.

And there was a yielding docility about her that was exceedingly
pleasing to one accustomed, as Mr. Mainwaring was, to have his opinion
regarded as law by most of those with whom he was thrown. It was not a
mere inert softness either, but the pliability of a substance so finely
tempered and wrought that it could be moulded by a master hand into
any form without losing its native and inherent firmness and goodness.
He began at last to understand her, and to perceive that she had one
of those delicate and conscientious natures that, when once convinced
of a duty, seize upon it with a grasp of iron, and would suffer to
the death for it. With his admiration for Janet, his interest in her
increased, and he became truly distressed to see her throwing away, as
it seemed, her usefulness and her happiness in endeavoring to uphold a
fantastic fashion.

The life of seclusion and study to which the resolute neglect of the
people of Westbridge had condemned Janet was so unlike anything to
which she had been accustomed, that, strong in constitution as she was,
with all the vigor that a free country life gives, her health began at
last to fail. The spring breezes sought in vain for the loses that the
autumn winds had left upon her cheeks.

"It seems to me that you are looking rather pale, Miss McLeod," said
Mr. Mainwaring, one day.

It was the first time that he had ever spoken to her on any subject
unconnected with the lessons, and Miss McLeod colored slightly as she
answered--

"I am quite well, I believe."

"I am afraid you do not exercise enough. I see Miss Atwood walking
every pleasant afternoon. If you would join her sometimes, you might
find a benefit from it."

Again Janet blushed as she answered, with a frank smile--

"Cousin Jane is very kind; but I believe she would do anything for me
sooner than walk with me. At any rate, I would not like to place her in
a position that would be so painful to her. And I do not like to walk
by myself here."

Miss McLeod did not acknowledge, what Mr. Mainwaring had perceived,
that a growing shyness had been coming over her since her residence in
Westbridge, leading her to keep out of sight as much as possible. A
very faint-hearted reformer was poor little Janet, and I am afraid that
her co-workers would have disdained to acknowledge her.

"You have not made many acquaintances in Westbridge, I think, Miss
McLeod?"

"No, none besides aunt Atwood's family and yourself."

"I am sorry for that, for there are many very agreeable and intelligent
people here. Few country villages can boast of as good society. I do
not see you often at church lately, I think."

"No, I do not go so regularly as I ought," said Janet, sadly.

"How would you like a class in the Sunday School? It might be an object
of interest, and visiting your scholars would be a motive to take you
out occasionally. The clergyman mentioned lately that they were very
much in want of teachers."

The tears came in Janet's eyes. It seemed to her that Mr. Mainwaring
must be trying to wound her, or that he was one of the most unobservant
of men, that, with so little tact, he was reminding her of all the
social duties and kindnesses from which she was debarred.

"I offered my services the other day, but they were declined," said she.

"On account of your mode of dress, I presume," said he.

Janet bowed.

"If my obligations to your father had not been so great that they can
never be repaid, I might feel that I was taking too great a liberty, if
I should venture to express any disapproval of anything that you might
think proper to do. But I will run the risk of displeasing you, and
ask you whether you think it worth while, even supposing one mode of
dress to possess far more real superiority over the prevailing fashion
than the one does which you have adopted, to sacrifice not only your
social enjoyments, but your usefulness, for the purpose of making an
ineffectual attempt to change a fashion under which so many people have
lived in health and comfort, that it will be difficult to persuade them
that it is injurious?"

"At home, my style of dress was not thought so wrong," said Janet.
"There are not many places, I think, where I should not have met with
more liberality and charity than in Westbridge."

"All over the world, Miss Janet"--and, for the first time, the
professor called Miss McLeod by her Christian name--"dress is
considered as an exponent of character. When a person is thrown
among strangers, they are judged almost as much by that as by their
countenance. And when they adopt a style of dress, the mark of a
particular clique, they are considered as indorsing all the opinions
belonging to it. Now, the ideas of the Bloomerites are many of them so
flighty, and have so little reason or common sense in them, that I am
sure you are not acquainted with them, or you would not so openly rank
yourself with their party."

Poor Janet had heard her father talk for hours about the absurdity of
the usual mode of dress, and the advantages of the Bloomer costume;
but now, in her time of need, she could not recall a single one of his
arguments. Not that she was entirely overpowered by the professor's
reasons, but, partly from her own observation of his character, and
partly from general report, she had imbibed so high an opinion of Mr.
Mainwaring's judgment and understanding, that she felt unequal to
opposing him. There was a soundness in his opinions, with a firmness
and strength in his whole nature, to which she yielded an unconscious
deference.

This was by no means the only conversation Mr. Mainwaring and Janet
had on the subject of her unfortunate dress. Slowly and gradually the
young girl began to realize that she might have been wasting the whole
energies of her earnest nature in a Quixotic contest with what was in
itself harmless. At any rate, she became convinced that "_le jeu ne
vaut pas le chandelle_," and yet she was unwilling to take any decided
step without consulting her father. She was afraid that he would be
greatly disappointed in her, when he found her so weak that she shrank
from the notice and comments her attire attracted.

Seeing that Miss McLeod was disinclined to make the effort, Mr.
Mainwaring wrote himself to Mr. McLeod, who, although he was unable
to appreciate the "delicate distresses" which Mrs. Atwood had hinted
at, as the consequence of his daughter's singularity, was alarmed
and distressed at the idea of her illness. He came immediately to
Westbridge, and took Janet home to recruit. But, before he went, Mr.
Mainwaring had a long conversation with him, and, either by his cogent
arguments, or because some new crotchet had displaced the old one, he
obtained his permission that Janet should resume the flowing robes
against which he had once declared such unsparing antipathy.

During the next summer, Janet stopped for a few weeks at Mrs. Atwood's,
on her way to Saratoga, and we took advantage of the opportunity
to call upon her, acting towards her as though this were her first
visit to Westbridge, and considering it an act of delicate politeness
to ignore the fact that the young lady, whom we saw so simply and
tastefully attired, had any connection with the Bloomer who had
awakened our horror not long before.

The latest piece of news in Westbridge is the established fact that
Mr. Mainwaring is engaged to Miss McLeod. He who has withstood all the
charms of the well brought up ladies of our town has been captivated
by a Bloomer, and that, too, after having declared, openly and
repeatedly, his disapproval and utter distaste for all women who had in
any way made themselves conspicuous. But there seems to be naturally
a perversity in all matters of this kind. Love evidently delights in
bending the inclinations in that very direction against which the
professions have been the loudest and most decided.




CELESTIAL PHENOMENA.--MAY.

BY D. W. BELISLE.


COMA BERENICES.--This is a beautiful cluster of small stars, situated
about five degrees east of the equinoctial colure, and midway between
Cor-Caroli on the north-east, and Denebola on the south-west. The stars
that compose this group are small, but very bright, and are in close
proximity to each other; therefore the cluster is readily distinguished
from all others. There is a number of small nebulæ in this assemblage,
which give it a faintly luminous appearance, somewhat resembling the
milky-way. The whole number of stars in this cluster is forty-three. It
comes to the meridian on the 13th of May.

This constellation is of Egyptian origin. Berenice was married to
Evergetes, King of Egypt, and, on his going out to battle against the
Assyrians, she vowed to dedicate her hair, which was of extraordinary
beauty, to the goddess of beauty, if her lord returned in safety.
Evergetes returned victorious, and, agreeably to her oath, her locks
were shorn and deposited in the temple of Venus, whence they shortly
disappeared, and the king and queen were assured by Conon, the
astronomer, that they had been taken from the altar by Jupiter and
placed among the stars; and, to convince them of the truth of his
assertion, pointed out this cluster, and

    "There Berenice's locks first rose so bright,
    The heavens bespangling with dishevelled light."

This group being among the unformed stars until that time, and
not known as a constellation, the king became satisfied with the
declaration of Conon, who, pointing to the group, said, "There, behold
the locks of our queen." Berenice was not only reconciled to this
petty larceny of Jupiter, but was proud of the partiality of the god.
Callimachus, who flourished before the Christian era, thus adverts to
it--

    "Immortal Conon, blest with skill divine,
    Amid the sacred skies beheld me shine;
    E'en me, the beauteous hair, that lately shed
    Refulgent beams from Berenice's head;
    The locks she fondly vowed, with lifted arms,
    Imploring all the powers to save from harm
    Her dearer lord, when from his bride he flew,
    To wreak stern vengeance on the Assyrian crew."

       *       *       *       *       *

CORVUS.--This small constellation is situated east of the Cup, and may
be readily distinguished by four bright stars of the third magnitude,
which form a trapezium; the two upper ones being three and a half
degrees apart, and the two lower ones six degrees apart. Algorab, the
most eastern star of these four, forms the east wing of the Crow, and
comes to the meridian on the 13th of May. Beta, in the foot of the
Crow, is seven degrees south of Algorab, and is the brighter of the two
lower stars; and on the left, six degrees west of Beta, is Epsilon,
which marks the neck, while two degrees below it is Al Chiba, a star of
the fourth magnitude, which marks the head.

This constellation is of Greek origin, and it is gravely asserted by
their ancient historians that this bird was originally of the purest
white, but was changed, for tale-bearing, to its present color.

    "The raven once in snowy plumes was drest,
    White as the whitest dove's unsullied breast,
    Fair as the guardian of the capitol,
    Soft as the swan, a fair and lovely fowl;
    His tongue, his prating tongue, had changed him quite
    To sooty blackness from the purest white."

Apollo, becoming jealous of Coronis, sent a crow to watch her
movements. The bird discovered her partiality for Ischys, and
immediately acquainted the god with it, which so fired his indignation:
that

                  "The color left his look,
    The wreath his head, the harp his hand forsook;
    His silvered bow and feathered shafts he took,
    And lodged an arrow in the tender breast
    That had so often to his own been prest."

To reward the crow, he placed it among the constellations. Other Greek
mythologists assert that it takes its name from a princess of Phocis,
who was transformed into a crow by Minerva to rescue the maid from the
pursuit of Neptune. One of the Latin poets reverts to it thus--

    "For, as my arms I lifted to the skies,
    I saw black feathers from my fingers rise;
    I strove to fling my garments on the ground,
    My garments turned to plumes and girt me round;
    My hands to beat my naked bosom try,
    Nor naked bosom now nor hands had I;
    Lightly I tripped, nor weary, as before,
    Sunk in the sand, but skimmed along the shore,
    Till, rising on my wings, I was preferred
    To be the chaste Minerva's virgin bird."

       *       *       *       *       *

VIRGO.--This constellation lies directly south of Coma Berenice,
and east of Leo. It occupies considerable space in the heavens, and
contains one hundred and ten stars. It comes to the meridian the 23d of
this month. Spica Virginis, which marks the left hand of the Virgin, is
a star of the first magnitude, and is of great brilliancy, and, with
Denebola in Leo, and Arcturus in Boötes, forms a large equilateral
triangle, which, joined with Cor-Caroli, a star of the same brilliancy,
at an equal distance north, forms the _Diamond of Virgo_. The stars
in this diamond are of equal brilliancy, rendering it one of the most
clearly defined and most beautiful figures in this part of the heavens.

This constellation is probably of Egyptian origin. A zodiac discovered
among the ruins of Estne, in Egypt, commences with Virgo, and,
according to the regular progression of the equinoxes, this zodiac
must be two thousand years older than that at Dendera. This relic
of the earliest ages of the human species is conjectured to have
been preserved during the deluge by Noah, to perpetuate the actual
appearance of the heavens immediately subsequent to the creation.

The Athenians also claim the origin of this constellation, maintaining
that Erigone was changed into Virgo. Erigone was the daughter of
Icarius, an Athenian, who was slain by some peasants whom he had
intoxicated with wine; and it caused such a feeling of despair in
Erigone, that she repaired to the wood and hung herself on the bough of
a tree.

    "Thus once in Marathon's impervious wood,
    Erigone beside her father stood,
    When, hastening to discharge her pious vow,
    She loosed the knot and culled the strongest bough."

       *       *       *       *       *

ASTERION ET CHARA.--This is a modern constellation, and embraces two in
one. It lies north of Coma Berenice, and west of Bootes, and comes to
the meridian the 20th of May. Cor-Caroli is the brightest star in this
group, and marks Chara, the southern hound. Asterion is north of this,
and is marked by a small star about three degrees above Cor-Caroli.
These two hounds are represented as chasing the Great Bear around the
Pole, being held in a leash by Bootes, who is constantly urging them on
in their endless track. The remaining stars in this group are too small
and scattered to excite interest.

       *       *       *       *       *

URSA MAJOR.--This constellation is situated between Ursa Minor on the
north, and Leo Minor on the south, and is one of the most conspicuous
in the northern hemisphere. It has been an object of observation in
all ages of the world. The shepherds of Chaldea, Magi of Persia,
priests of Belus, Phœnician navigators, Arabs of Asia, and American
aborigines seem to have been equally struck with its peculiar outlines,
and each gave to the group a name which signified, in their respective
languages, the same thing--_Great Bear_. It is somewhat remarkable that
nations which had no knowledge or communication with each other should
have given the same name to this constellation. The name is perfectly
arbitrary, there being no resemblance in it whatever to a bear or any
other animal.

This cluster is remarkable for seven of its brightest stars forming
a dipper, four stars forming the bowl, and three, curving slightly,
shaping the handle. These seven stars are of uncommon brilliancy, and
need no description to point out their locality. The whole number of
stars in this group is eighty-seven, and it comes to the meridian the
10th of May.




MANUFACTURE OF PINS.


WE often hear the expression used, when talking of anything
comparatively useless, that "it's not worth a pin;" and from this we
might be led to suppose, did we not know it to be otherwise, that a pin
was a very worthless thing, instead of being what it is--one of the
most useful that is manufactured in this or in any other country. As
the use of pins is principally confined to the female portion of our
community, perhaps the following short account of their manufacture,
for which we are indebted to Knight's "Cyclopædia of Industry," a very
useful book, may not be uninteresting to our readers:--

"Pins are made of brass wire. The first process which it undergoes, by
which any dirt or crust that may be attached to the surface is got rid
of, is by soaking it in a diluted solution of sulphuric acid and water,
and then beating it on stones. It is then straightened; after which, it
is cut into pieces, each about long enough for six pins. These latter
pieces are then pointed at each end in the following manner: The person
so employed sits in front of a small machine, which has two steel
wheels or mills turning rapidly, of which the rims are cut somewhat
after the manner of a file: one coarse for the rough formation of the
points, and the other fine for finishing them. Several of these pieces
are taken in the hand, and, by a dexterous movement of the thumb and
forefinger, are kept continually presenting a different face to the
mill against which they are pressed. The points are then finished off
by being applied in the same manner to the fine mill. After both ends
of the pieces have been pointed, one pin's length is cut off from each
end, when they are re-pointed, and so on until each length is converted
into six pointed pieces. The stems of the pins are then complete. The
next step is to form the head, which is effected by a piece of wire
called the mould, the same size as that used for the stems, being
attached to a small axis or lathe. At the end of the wire nearest the
axis is a hole, in which is placed the end of a smaller wire, which is
to form the heading. While the mould-wire is turned round by one hand,
the head-wire is guided by the other, until it is wound in a spiral
coil along the entire length of the former. It is then cut off close
to the hole where it was commenced, and the coil taken off the mould.
When a quantity of these coils are prepared, a workman takes a dozen or
more of them at a time in his left hand, while, with a pair of shears
in his right, he cuts them up into pieces of two coils each. The heads,
when cut off, are annealed by being made hot and then thrown into
water. When annealed, they are ready to be fixed on the stems. In order
to do this, the operator is provided with a small stake, upon which
is fixed a steel die, containing a hollow the exact shape of half the
head. Above this die, and attached to a lever, is the corresponding die
for the other half of the head, which, when at rest, remains suspended
about two inches above the lower one. The workman takes one of these
stems between his fingers, and, dipping the pointed end of a bowl
containing a number of heads, catches one upon it and slides it to the
other end; he then places it in the lower die, and, moving a treadle,
brings down the upper one four or five times upon the head, which
fastens it upon the stem, and also gives it the required figure. There
is a small channel leading from the outside to the centre of the dies,
to allow room for the stem. The pins are now finished as regards shape,
and it only remains to tin or whiten them. A quantity of them are
boiled in a pickle, either a solution of sulphuric acid or tartar, to
remove any dirt or grease, and also to produce a slight roughness upon
their surfaces which facilitates the adhesion of the tin. After being
boiled for half an hour, they are washed, and then placed in a copper
vessel with a quantity of grain tin and a solution of tartar; in about
two hours and a half, they are taken out, and, after being separated
from the undissolved tin by sifting, are again washed; they are then
dried by being well shaken in a bag with a quantity of bran, which is
afterwards separated by shaking them up and down in open wooden trays,
when the bran flies off and leaves the pins perfectly dry and clean.
The pins are then papered for sale."

Pins are also made solely by machinery. There is a manufactory for this
sort (the Patent Solid Headed Pins, near Stroud) where nearly 3,250,000
are made daily.

A pin, then, is not such an insignificant article, after all. We see
it has to go through a great many processes and hands before it is
finished. If we take one, examine it closely, and mark how nicely it is
made, how neatly the head is fixed on to the shank, how beautifully it
is pointed, and how bright it shines, we shall see a very good specimen
of what the ingenuity and labor of man can do upon a piece of metal.
It is really surprising what a large number are made, and how many
persons are employed in their manufacture. We read, some time ago, an
amusing article from "Bentley's Miscellany," wherein the writer asks
the question: "What becomes of the pins?" and puts forth the rather
curious assertion that, if they continue to be lost and made away with
as they are now, some day or other the whole globe will be found to be
"one vast shapeless mass of pins."

In conclusion, we would recommend our readers always to bear in mind
the excellent maxim which Franklin attached to a pin, namely, "A pin a
day, a groat a year."




ADVICE TO A BRIDE.


I BEG to remind my daughter that the husband has a thousand
elements of disturbance in his daily avocations to which his wife is
an utter stranger; and it will be her privilege, and her title to the
respect of all whose respect is worth having, to make his own fireside
the most attractive place in the universe for the calm repose of a
weary body or excited mind. The minor comforts, which are the most
valuable, because the most constantly in requisition, will depend more
upon her look, her manner, and the evidence of her forethought, than
upon all the other occurrences of life.--_Parental Precepts._




"TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION."


MR. GODEY: Miss Snipe left my house in great haste on the
second day of April, forgetting, in her precipitation, several articles
of her wardrobe and her portfolio. While waiting an opportunity to
forward them to Wimpleton, a natural impulse of curiosity induced
me to examine the contents of the portfolio, when, lo and behold, a
letter, directed to yourself, fell on the floor. Being loosely folded
and unsealed, I ventured to open it, supposing it merely a business
communication. Imagine my surprise on discovering the nature of its
contents, for I had been unable to penetrate the reasons of her
hurried departure; but do not, I pray you, accuse me of having read it
_through_.

Finding, as far as I proceeded, nothing very heinous laid to myself,
nor any insinuations against my table, I judge proper to forward it
without delay, according to the address. However, I can with difficulty
forgive her for calling my boy a "cub," and think, moreover, that her
dislike towards my Irish inmate is unreasonable. As to Mr. Sparks--I
do not blame her so much--he has not yet paid me those gloves. And as
to the writer herself, I am really astonished--we all thought her such
a quiet and unobservant little body--on becoming acquainted with this
spirited volley from her pen. Will there not be both laughing and wry
faces in my household, if you publish it? And, though April is gone
(I am sorry the letter was not sooner found), do give the world the
benefit of her experience, to oblige and amuse

    Yours, faithfully,
    HELEN MASHUM.

       *       *       *       *       *

    _April_ 1, 1854.

MY DEAR MR. EDITOR: Such a tumult as we have all day been in,
by reason of that abominable practice of "fooling," has been enough to
destroy the patience of a saint. I am nearly out of my wits. Here have
I come, at my niece's invitation, to spend a fortnight with her, in a
boarding-house. "She was lonely," she said; "Mr. Sparks was so much at
the office; and it would be such a favor if I could stay with her a few
days."

So I have come from my quiet country home, fifteen miles off, to this
noisy town that calls itself a city, to visit Ann Sophia; and, between
you and me, I was an April fool from the beginning. There are several
other young married women boarding in the same house, who, like my
flighty niece, have apparently nothing under the sun to do but go
shopping and pop in and out of each other's rooms. Some of them are in
her parlor every evening when she is not out at parties or lectures,
and, as she spins street yarn every morning, I cannot for the life of
me see what opportunity she takes to be lonesome. But I do see that
she gives herself no time to keep her husband's shirts made up and in
order; and I find that I have no lack of employment, for she has kept
me sewing ever since I came.

"Sophy, dear," says I, the morning after my arrival, "give me some
sewing; I cannot be idle, and have nothing but this knitting to do for
myself."

Whereupon she brought out a whole piece of fine bleached cloth, and
proposed that we should amuse ourselves by making it into shirts for
her husband.

"Holton needs them so much," said she, "and you are so kind as to offer
your services, aunty; it would cost so much to hire them done, and his
salary is so small now, you know, and boarding so expensive."

And to work we began; but the truth is that it is very little which Ann
Sophia has done thus far. Well, what is a single woman good for unless
to make herself generally useful? A precious sight of twaddle have I
read first and last in the papers and magazines about the delights and
privileges of old-maidery. Delights of a fiddlestick! Pulled hither and
thither, perhaps--as I have been--at the beck of married brothers and
sisters, and a score of idle nephews and nieces; if you have a home of
your own, not allowed to stay at it in peace for more than one week
together. Sister Julia's children have all got the measles, and Aunt
Abigail must go and take care of them; or brother Peter's wife is dead,
and Abigail must pack up and go to keep house for him till she becomes
attached to the motherless tribe, and feels quite at home among them,
when he gets a new wife, and Abigail departs just as she begins to be
happy. To crown all, when she puts her own house in order, and has a
nice lot of sweetmeats and pickles made up, along comes a troop of
relations, male and female, young and old, to visit dear Aunt Abigail
and eat up all her stores, to say nothing of completely kicking out the
stair carpet. But I am wandering from my subject--a thing which I am
apt to do.

The house is quiet now, and, having finished one of Holton Sparks's
shirts this evening, I embrace the respite to retire to my own
room. After all, I do not feel like scolding about Ann Sophia. The
pleasant-tempered girl looks so much like her mother, brother Peter's
first wife; I brought her up, too, at least till she was ten years old,
when her father married again. Her chief fault is her youth, and she
will get over that, dear child.

However, to return, I cannot sleep till I have expressed my indignation
at the follies that have been perpetrated in honor--rather should I
say, in dishonor--of All Fools' Day, hoping that you, Mr. Editor, will
lift your voice in favor of putting a stop to such absurdities. In the
first place, I had scarcely risen, when I was myself made the victim of
imposition; for, while I was dressing, there was a rap at the door, and
I heard Sparks's voice--

"Aunt Abigail, are you up? Here is a letter postmarked Wimpleton. It
came by the night train, probably."

"As sure as fate," thought I, "there has something dreadful happened
at home." And, being much agitated, I tore open the envelop in great
haste, without observing that the superscription was not in brother
Sam's hand, and wondering why Sparks did not wait to learn the nature
of its tidings. As truly as I am a living woman, there was nothing
inside but a great foolscap sheet, and on it these words, in staring
capitals--

    "APRIL FOOL."

I could have cried, so vexed was I at first. Then I felt thankful that
no bad news had actually reached me; for, during the brief moment
occupied in opening the letter, you can scarcely imagine the many
terrible things that passed through my head. Mother had had a fit,
fallen down and broken her leg, though brother Sam had promised me
faithfully not to leave her alone while I was gone; or that stupid
Dutch boy, who takes care of the cow and the fires, had left live coals
in the ash-box, and the house was burned to the ground. Or Sam himself
had got one of those severe attacks of inflammatory rheumatism, and
nobody there but mother to take care of him, and take his fretting
into the bargain, and she almost eighty years old. When I recovered
myself a little, I took that wretched sheet of paper, and was on the
point of penning a dignified expression of my sentiments below the
odious words, and handing it in silent scorn to my nephew-in-law at the
breakfast-table. But better feelings prevailed; I smoothed it nicely
in my portfolio, and am now scratching this hasty epistle upon its
surface, intending in the morning to write it more legibly on some of
my own fair sheets of Bath.

A few among the follies of this tiresome day have, I must acknowledge,
given me a certain sort of satisfaction. Holton Sparks has been come
up with himself; not by any means of mine, I earnestly assure you,
for, besides heartily despising it, I cannot in any shape perpetrate
"April fooling." Sam often says that this is because I am so
matter-of-fact; but, matter-of-fact or not, I trust that there is not
enough matter-of-folly in my composition to attempt such performances.
I always did abominate practical jokes, and Sam knows _that;_ yet the
jokes which that boy still puts upon me, though I am three years older
than himself, would be deemed improbable.

Well, when the breakfast-bell rang this morning, I went down stairs
with an air as erect and dignified as a woman of fif----no matter--with
such a demeanor as one who has outlived the fooleries of early
youth should make habitual. Holton Sparks is very fond of eggs, and
invariably takes the biggest on the dish. I observed that our landlady
directed the servant to hand them first to Mr. Sparks, who was too
intent on securing his egg to notice her action. Indeed, he never
hesitates to help himself first, quite regardless of the ladies who sit
near, and even of Ann Sophia. Holton is a tremendous eater, seeming to
think of nothing at table but disposing of his food as rapidly and in
as large quantities as possible. The manner of this gentleman is to
place a large piece of nicely buttered toast on his plate, pour the
egg over it, pepper the whole thoroughly, and swallow it as if the
preparation were some unpleasant dose that it is his duty to dispatch.
Mrs. Mashum, who is altogether too much given to laughing, and too
volatile for her station, sat behind the coffee urn shaking violently
with suppressed mirth. He broke the shell of his egg as usual, when,
behold, his plate was flooded with a dingy-looking liquid, which proved
to be warm dish-water. On comprehending the joke, he sent it away with
an offended air, and made his breakfast on beefsteak, without deigning
to join in the universal laugh. It seems that last evening he laid a
wager with Mrs. Mashum that she could not succeed in playing him a
trick, he should be so constantly upon his guard during All Fools'
Day. The affair of the egg has put him out of humor to such an extent
that we have been saved the infliction of any more jokes at his hands.
He has worn his dignity all day, not even Ann Sophia succeeding in
laughing or coaxing him into laying it aside. I rather think that he
grudges the dollar which he will have to lay out for the gloves, as
Mrs. Mashum has won the bet, and Ann Sophia assures him that a pair of
her own will not do by any means. He proposed that expedient to settle
the matter. Holton _is_ stingy. But his wife declared that such a good
joke deserved a pair of Alexander's best. It is not because I approve
of betting that I mention this, for I hold the practice in great
abhorrence. It was only of a piece with the other follies of the day,
and shows up Holton Sparks a little.

A small fire of fooling was kept up throughout the morning. If the
door-bell has been rung once, it has forty times, by Mrs. Mashum's cub
of a boy, who would jerk the handle or toss up his ball at the wire,
and then run out of sight. In going from my own room to my niece's, I
saw a sixpence on the floor, and, stooping down to pick it up, found it
fast. Congratulating myself on not having been observed, I was passing
on, when that disagreeable urchin shouted, from behind a door--

"April fool, old lady!"

He deserves to be sent to the House of Refuge.

Ann Sophia herself has put me out of all manner of patience by saying,
as I sat sewing at the front window in her parlor, "Pray, Aunt Abigail,
whose carriage do you suppose that is?" when no vehicle was in view but
the milkman's. Or, suddenly, she would exclaim, "What ladies are those
crossing the street?" when none were anywhere to be seen.

But the meanest of all was a very rude thing, which she repeated
several times upon different persons, apparently delighted with its
efficacy. This was to rush up suddenly, and screaming out, "See there!"
throw her arm directly across one's nose with so much force as to
oblige that organ to follow the direction of her outstretched finger,
whether or no. Such a sort of fooling by compulsion struck me as
particularly reprehensible.

"I'd try it on you, aunty," said the volatile child, "if I were not
afraid of scoring my arm."

Such an insinuation against my nose! Had it been any one besides Sophy,
I could not have forgiven the speech. She is such a highty-tighty.

But one trick which she played was really good, especially as
its object was a man to whom I have taken a huge dislike. He is
an Irish gentleman connected with some legal firm in town, most
desperately polite, with a very long round nose and fiery red hair.
He is continually poking dishes at me across the table, and is
fairly oppressive with his attentions. Moreover, he calls me "Mrs."
perpetually. "Mrs.," indeed! Intimating that I am old enough to be a
"Mrs.," if not one in fact. As he rises very late, he never appears
at breakfast with ourselves; but at dinner we have the misery of his
presence. To-day, when we were almost through with the first course, he
entered with an air much flushed and uncomfortable.

"Are you ill, Mr. O'Killigan?" asked Mrs. Mashum.

"No, thank you, madam," said he, with one of his customary efforts at
politeness. "But I have been trying for a long while to shave, till
forced in despair to give up the attempt. The deuce has got into my
soap."

"You have forgotten that it is the first of April. The day may have had
some influence upon your dressing-case," remarked one of the ladies
present.

"I declare, I have not thought of that," said he, and, springing from
the table, he ran to his room, returning with something which he begged
the ladies to examine. It proved to be a thick, fair slice of a raw
potato, in size and color so much like his own soap, which had been
removed, that he had detected no difference, except that it refused to
form a lather. This was the work of my mischievous niece, who looked at
it very gravely, and remarked, with much demureness--

"I always knew that you Irish were fond of potatoes, but was not aware
that you carried it to such an excess as to shave with that vegetable."

It would have better pleased me had O'Killigan been angry; but the
Irishman took the joke, and all the speeches made at his expense, with
entire good-humor, laughingly assuring the ladies that he would be
revenged before night. And, as he knew not whom to suspect, he adopted
a course which involved most of us in its consequences. When we retire
for the night, those who are not better provided equip themselves
with a candle, of which a supply stands ready in the lower hall. Such
a fuss as I had with my light this evening! It went out as soon as I
reached my own door; and, after relighting it several times by means of
matches, the tallow was exhausted, and I discovered that the blackened
remnant of wick was stuck into a carrot. That miserable Irishman
had enlisted Biddy Flyn, the chambermaid, in his service, and this
afternoon they spent two whole hours in the basement at their nefarious
work, trimming off carrots and giving them a very thin coating of
grease. Mrs. Mashum herself did not escape, for, just as she began
taking her usual rounds to see that all was safe for the night, her
treacherous light went out, leaving her in total darkness--in the lower
regions, too, for she was on the point of inspecting a keg of mackerel
in the cellar.

At this identical moment, having used up all my matches in vain
endeavors to light a candle, which, like its manufacturer's locks, I
had found to be carroty, I was on my way to the kitchen in pursuit of
a more reliable means of illumination, when I heard Mrs. Mashum scream
out--

"Bring a light, Biddy, for goodness sake! I shall step into this
rat-trap that you've set, if I stir an inch in the dark."

And all the while the shameful Biddy stood holding her sides, and
laughing in a most unreasonable way. Several persons were running along
the upper hall calling for lights, the ladies in a sort of demi-toilet,
and one of the young men, a dry-goods clerk, who dresses his hair with
a curling-tongs, having on a black silk night-cap. But the real culprit
did not suffer, after all, for Ann Sophia has her own solar lamp.

While these distressing events were transpiring, that mean Irishman,
with his big nose and red head, sat in the parlor, as cool as possible,
reading the "London News" by the light of a brilliant camphene lamp. I
wonder his hair did not ignite and cause an explosion. It would have
served him quite right.

Strange to say, Mrs. Mashum is not at all offended either at O'Killigan
or his accomplice, but has enjoyed their mischief in a way to me
utterly unaccountable. I suppose Sam would say that she knows how
to take a joke; for my part, they are things which I do not wish to
know how to take myself; I wash my hands of all participation in such
knowledge.

I have obtained a lamp that shall last till I have finished this
narrative of to-day's outrageous proceedings. On passing the
parlor-door, I heard that disagreeable O'Killigan say to his landlady,
in reply to some of her pretended threats of punishment--

"At any rate, my good Mrs. Mashum, you cannot arrest me for incendiary
attempts; I have made such laudable exertions to put out the flames in
the house."

Impudent fellow! I had a mind to say something about the blaze on his
own head; but I forbore, passing on in offended silence.

Now, my dear Mr. Godey, set a good example, and lead the way in a
reform of these abuses, as you have in so many other praiseworthy
undertakings. Frown upon these April fooleries, especially as levelled
at the peace and quiet of respectable single women. If my letter is
too late to take effect this present season, please give it due notice
before a twelvemonth hence. You will thus oblige and gratify your
friend and constant reader,

    ABIGAIL SNIPE.

_Postscript._ I shall go home to-morrow, and finish Holton Sparks's
last new shirt in the pleasant seclusion afforded by my own
hearthstone. I cannot endure the thought of sitting at the table in
this house any longer, opposite that dreadful O'Killigan, hearing
him crack his dry jokes while he rubs his chin with his thumb and
forefinger. To be obliged to listen when he comments on the mishaps of
this evening would surely set me into a nervous fit. It strikes me that
I have read in one of Sam's old books--"Sal" somebody's writings--of
an elderly lady who "died of a Frenchman." If I were to stay here much
longer, I should assuredly die of this middle-aged Irishman.

Depend upon it, I shall not breathe a word to Sam of my trials at
Sophy's boarding-house, in consequence of the inmates all making fools
of themselves and me on the FIRST OF APRIL.




INTELLECTUAL ENDOWMENTS OF CHILDREN.


AN extremely intelligent boy, of about twelve years of age,
was once brought to the late Dr. Deville, an English phrenologist,
for examination, by a parent who was very proud of the intellectual
endowments of his child. Dr. Deville gave his opinion of the boy's
character, at the same time cautioning the father of the dangerous
course he was pursuing. But the father's reply was, "All that other
boys considered labor and hard study were merely child's play to him;
and that his studies could not be hurtful to him--he enjoyed them so
much." Again Dr. Deville endeavored to save the child, but the father
would not attend to the warning. Two years from that time he again
called on Dr. Deville, and, in reply to his inquiries about the child,
burst into tears, and stated that the boy was an idiot.




GODEY'S COURSE OF LESSONS IN DRAWING.


LESSON V.

The outline of the stem and the curve of the scroll of Fig. 54 must
first be drawn, the distances and proportions of the various parts
being carefully observed. In sketching the scroll in Fig. 55, the eye
alone will be the guide, the directions and distances of the various
parts being marked off before filling in the details.

[Illustration: Fig. 54.]

[Illustration: Fig. 55.]

[Illustration: Fig. 56.]

[Illustration: Fig. 57.]

The method of drawing the rosette forming part of the scroll shown in
Fig. 57 is displayed in Fig. 56, the circle being drawn first.

In sketching Fig. 58, the direction of the curve must first be
ascertained, its due proportions noted, thereafter filling in the
details.

The stem, leaves, flower, and buds of the wall-flower in Fig. 59 will
afford an interesting example for practice at this stage of progress;
the stem, its length and direction, should first be drawn, the position
of the leaves, &c. marked thereon, and the details thereafter filled in.

[Illustration: Fig. 58.]

[Illustration: Fig. 59.]

[Illustration: Fig. 60.]

[Illustration: Fig. 61.]

The sketch in Fig. 60, which represents the stem, leaves, and flower of
the yellow crowfoot, will be drawn in the same way as above.

The flower of the honeysuckle in Fig. 61 affords a good example for
free pencil-sketching. The stem should be drawn first, then an outline
made which will touch all the exterior parts of the sketch, as in Figs.
44 and 52; the distances of the leaves should next be drawn on this,
and the details put in. The pupil should endeavor to copy this example
correctly; it may appear very difficult, but, by a careful attention
to the rules we have given, and a little determination to "try again,"
if perchance she should once or twice fail, the difficulty will soon
vanish.

[Illustration: Fig. 62.]

[Illustration: Fig. 63.]

[Illustration: Fig. 64.]

[Illustration: Fig. 65.]

The sketch in Fig. 62, representing a human foot, may be put in by
first drawing the general outline, thereafter finishing the details.
Figs. 63, 64, and 65 will be drawn in the same manner.




DRESS--AS A FINE ART.

BY MRS. MERRIFIELD.


CONCLUSION.

WE look forward hopefully to a day when art-education will
be extended to all ranks; when a knowledge of the beautiful will
be added to that of the useful; when good taste, based upon real
knowledge and common sense, will dictate our fashions in dress as in
other things. We have schools of art to reform our taste in pottery,
hardware, and textile fabrics, not to speak of the higher walks of
art, painting, sculpture, and architecture. The handle of a jug, the
stem of a wine-glass, the design for dress silks or lace veils, will
form the subjects of lectures to the students of the various schools
of design; disquisitions are written on the important question whether
the ornamental designs should represent the real form of objects, or
only give a conventional representation of them, while the study of the
human figure, the masterpiece of creation, is totally neglected, except
by painters and sculptors. We hope that the study of form will be more
extended, that it will be universal, that it will, in fact, enter into
the general scheme of education, and that we shall hereafter see as
much pains bestowed in improving by appropriate costume the figure
which nature has given us, as we do now in distorting it by tight
stays, narrow and high-heeled shoes, and all the other deformities and
eccentricities of that many-faced monster, fashion. The economy of the
frame, and the means of preserving it in health and beauty, should form
an integral part of education. There can be no true beauty without
health, and how can we hope to secure health if we are ignorant of the
means of promoting it, or if we violate its precepts by adopting absurd
and pernicious fashions?

Surely it is not too much to hope that dress-makers will hereafter
attend the schools of design, to study the human form, and thence learn
to appreciate its beauties, and to clothe it with appropriate dress,
calculated to display its beauties to the greatest advantage, and to
conceal its defects--the latter with the reservation we have already
noticed. We hope, also, that the shoe-maker will learn to model the
shoe upon the true form of the foot.

Manufacturers are now convinced of the importance and utility of
schools of design, and whether the article hereafter to be produced be
a cup and saucer, a fender, a pattern for a dress or for furniture, for
a service of plate or diamond tiara, it is thought proper that the
pupil, as a preliminary course that cannot be dispensed with, should
commence with the study of the human figure. Yet, is not dress an
art-manufacture as well as a cup and saucer, or a tea-board? Are there
less skill and talent, less taste required to clothe the form which we
are told is made after God's own image, than to furnish an apartment?
Why should not dressmakers and tailors attend the schools of design as
well as those artisans who are intended to be employed in what are now
called art-manufactures? Why should not shoe-makers be taught the shape
and movements of the foot? If this were the case, we are satisfied that
an immediate and permanent improvement would be the consequence in our
style of dress.

We believe that many portrait painters stipulate that they shall be
allowed to dictate the dress, at least as regards the arrangement of
the colors, of their sitters; the reason of this is that the painter's
selection of dress and color is based upon the study of the figure
and complexion of the individual, or the knowledge of the effects of
contrast and harmony of lines, tissues, and colors, while the models
which are presented for his imitation too frequently offer to his view
a style of dress, both as regards form and color, which sets the rules
of harmony at defiance. Now, only suppose that the dress-maker had the
painter's knowledge of form and harmony of lines and colors, what a
revolution would take place in dress? We should no longer see the tall
and the short, the slender and the stout, the brown and the fair, the
old and the young, dressed alike, but the dress would be adapted to the
individual; and we believe that, were the plan of study we recommend
generally adopted, this purpose might always be effected without the
sacrifice of what is now the grand desideratum in dress--novelty.

The reasons why the art of dressmaking has not hitherto received the
attention which it deserves, are to be sought for in the constitution
of society. The branches of manufacture which require a knowledge of
design, such as calico-printing, silk and ribbon-weaving, porcelain and
pottery, and hardware manufactures, are conducted on a large scale by
men of wealth and talent, who, if they would compete successfully with
rival manufactures, find it necessary to study and apply to their own
business all the improvements in science with which their intercourse
with society gives them an opportunity of becoming acquainted. It is
quite otherwise with dressmaking. A woman is at the head of every
establishment of this kind a woman generally of limited education
and attainments, from whom cannot be expected either liberality of
sentiment or enlarged views, but who possibly possesses some tact
and discrimination of character, which enable her to exercise a kind
of dictatorial power in matters of dress over her customers; these
customers are scarcely better informed on the subject than herself.

The early life of the dressmaker is spent in a daily routine of labor
with the needle, and, when she becomes a mistress in her turn, she
exacts from her assistants the same amount of daily labor that was
formerly expected from herself. Work, work, work with the needle
from almost childhood, in the same close room from morning to night,
and not unfrequently from night to morning also, is the everlasting
routine of the monotonous life of the dressmakers. They are working for
bread, and have no leisure to attend to the improvement of the mind,
and the want of this mental cultivation is apparent in the articles
they produce by their labor. When one of the young women who attend
these establishments to learn the trade thinks she has had sufficient
experience, she leaves the large establishment and sets up in business
on her own account. In this new situation, she works equally hard, and
has therefore no time for improving her mind and taste. Of the want
of this, however, she is not sensible, because she can purchase for
a trifle all the newest patterns, and the thought never enters her
poor little head that the same fashion may not suit all her customers.
This defective education of the dressmakers, or rather their want
of knowledge of the human form, is one of the great causes of the
prevalence of the old fashion of tight-lacing. It is so much easier
to make a closely-fitting body suit over a tight stay than it is on
the pliant and yielding natural form, in which, if one part be drawn a
little too tight, or the contrary, the body of the dress is thrown out
of shape. Supposing, on the other hand, the fit to be exact, it is so
difficult to keep such a tight-fitting body in its place on the figure
without securing its form by whalebones, that it is in vain to expect
the stays to become obsolete until the tight-fitting bodice is also
given up.

This will never take place until not only the ladies who are to be
clothed, but the dressmakers shall make the human form their study, and
direct their efforts to set off their natural advantages by attending
to the points which are their characteristic beauties. A long and
delicate throat, falling shoulders, not too wide from point to point,
a flat back, round chest, wide hips; these are the points which should
be developed by the dress. Whence it follows that every article of
dress which shortens the throat, adds height or width to the shoulders,
roundness to the back, or flatness to the chest, must be radically
wrong in principle, and unpleasant and repulsive in effect. In the same
manner, whatever kind of dress adds to the height of a figure already
too tall and thin, or detracts from the apparent height of the short
and stout, must be avoided. These things should form the study of the
dressmaker.

As society is now constituted, however, the dressmaker has not, as we
have already observed, leisure to devote to studies of the necessity
and importance of which she is still ignorant. The reform must be begun
by the ladies themselves. They must acquire a knowledge of form, and
of the principles of beauty and harmony, and so exercise a controlling
influence over the dressmakers. By this means a better taste will be
created, and the dressmakers will at length discover their deficiency
in certain guiding principles, and will be driven at last to resort
to similar studies. But in this case a startling difficulty presents
itself--the poor dressmaker is at present over-worked: how can she
find leisure to attend the schools of design, or even pursue, if she
had the ability, the necessary studies at home? A girl is apprenticed
to the trade at the age of thirteen or fourteen, she works at it
all her life, rising early, and late taking rest, and what is the
remuneration of her daily toil of twelve hours? Eighteenpence, or at
most two shillings a day, with her board! As she reckons the value of
the latter at a shilling, it follows that the earnings of a dressmaker,
in the best period of her life, who goes out to work, could not exceed
15_s._, or at the most 18_s._ a week, if she did not, at the hazard
of her health--which, indeed, is frequently sacrificed--work at home
before she begins, and after she has finished her day's work abroad.
The carpenter or house-painter does not work harder, or bring to bear
on his employment greater knowledge than the poor dressmaker, yet he
has 4_s._ 6_d._ a day without his board, while she has only what is
equivalent to 2_s._ 6_d._ or 3_s.!_ What reason can be assigned why a
woman's work, if equally well done, should not be as well paid as that
of a man? A satisfactory reason has yet to be given; the fact, however,
is indisputable that women are not in general so well paid for their
labor as men.




LETTERS LEFT AT THE PASTRY-COOK'S:

BEING THE CLANDESTINE CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN KITTY CLOVER AT SCHOOL,
AND HER "DEAR, DEAR FRIEND" IN TOWN.

EDITED BY HORACE MAYHEW.


THE FIFTH LETTER LEFT.

(_Written on copy-book paper, apparently left by hand._)

    SHOWING WHAT KITTY THOUGHT OF GOVERNESSES IN GENERAL, AND OF ONE IN
    PARTICULAR.

NELLY, dearest, I have formed a great determination. Nothing
shall ever induce me to become that poor, absurd, ill-used creature,
called a governess. I would starve sooner, or make shirts (which is
pretty nearly the same thing), or emigrate and marry the first savage
I met, or be a "touter" at a bonnet shop, or even go into service at a
cheap lodging-house; anything, Nelly, sooner than be turned into that
hopeless, spiritless, friendless being a governess seems destined by
nature, or society, to be.

A governess in a private family is bad enough, but then she is not
totally deprived of the comforts of home. She has a room, or at least
a bed, entirely to herself, and her meals are generally the same as
those of the family. Besides, a certain degree of respect is always
paid to her. The servants are obliged to treat her with civility, _at
all events in the presence of their mistresses;_ and the mistresses are
compelled to show her a little attention, if it is only done to set
a good example to their servants. Then, again, their "young charges"
cannot invariably be amusing themselves at her expense. They cannot
always be teasing her. When they are taken out for an airing in the
carriage, or when they are brought down after dinner with their shiny
faces and glossy ringlets, or whenever there is company, or their
parents and strangers are present, the governess enjoys a brief respite
from that system of petty tyrannies she is the untiring victim of
elsewhere. She has her few pleasures, though perhaps they may come at
long straggling intervals; she has her distractions, her excitements in
moving about in the world, and going to places of public amusements,
and occasionally she knows what it is to enjoy the sweet success of
rivalry--for have we not seen, Nelly, many a poor neglected governess
who was doing the work of a musician at the piano, without his wages,
receive in the course of the evening more attention than the fine young
ladies themselves who were the worshipped idols of the establishment?

But the governess in a girls' school has a very different life of it,
Nelly. She hasn't a moment to herself. She is the first to rise and the
last to go to bed. She hasn't even the privacy of a bedroom to herself,
for she is obliged to sleep in the same room as the girls, to look
after them. The only privacy she knows is when she creeps into bed and
draws the curtains round her. Our play-hours are no play-hours to her;
rather on the contrary, for then her torments really begin, and only
end when the bell rings again for class. She is the target at which
every little chit fires her fun, and thinks she has a perfect right to
do so. She is the only game at which the girls never tire of playing,
and to see how they enjoy it you would imagine there was no amusement
like it. It is true, Nelly, I have not seen much misery yet, and hope
I never shall; but I can hardly imagine anything in this world _more
miserable than a school governess on a half-holiday_.

Why, look at poor Blight. I have only to look upon her to feel for the
sufferings of the whole class. Her nature seems to be sun-dried. She
never smiles, and there is such an air of resignation about her, such a
tone of despair that runs through all her words and smallest movements,
that it is perfectly clear Hope never whispers into her ear any of
those soft motherly words which soothe the agony of one's heart and
lull it quietly off to sleep.

She may justly be called our "mistress of all work." She does a little
of everything; she helps the smallest girls to dress; takes the junior
pupils; hears the reading; sees to the wardrobes; gives out the linen;
teaches needlework; and superintends the Saturday night's cleaning;
in short, she is expected, as they say of servants, "to make herself
generally useful," which means, in our instance, that she is worked
to death by everybody, and spared by nobody; besides being teased,
deceived, bullied, and ridiculed by every one who has a fancy that way;
and for leading a life like this, she only gets 16_l._ a year, and her
board and lodging during the holidays!

Snapp (another of our teachers) smiles at Blight's old-fashioned
learning. She says it is quite out of date, and only fit for a charity
school. Mademoiselle (the French teacher) quizzes her dress, and makes
fun of her melancholy, and talks of her contemptuously, as, "_ça_,"
which I am told is the same as if you were speaking of a cook, or a
poor relation, and called her "it." Fraulein (the German mistress)
mimics her, and laughs over her patient endurance and old-maidish
manners.

It must be confessed that poor Blight's appearance affords plenty of
temptation for this cruel ridicule. She is certainly very ugly, and
no one ever loses an opportunity of telling her so. The worst is, the
example set by the schoolmistress is followed with the greatest zest
by the schoolgirls, who indulge in all kinds of practical jokes at her
expense. She is unfortunately very short-sighted, and consequently they
are always hiding her spectacles, or else rubbing the glasses over with
butter or ink. No one considers there is any harm in this, for the
girls have grown to look upon Blight as "fair game;" and if any one can
put her into a passion, it is considered "rare fun," and thought just
as harmless as throwing bread-pills at one another when the mistress's
back is turned. When there is no other amusement going on, the cry
is always raised, "Let's go and tease Blight," and you see the whole
school rushing forward as eagerly as if a gypsy suddenly appeared at
the play-ground gate to tell us our fortunes. But if any one is in
trouble, Blight is the first to screen her. If any girl is ill, Blight
will sit up with her all night, and will pet and nurse the little
sufferer until she almost fancies herself at home; and when the little
invalid has grown well again, and has recovered the use of her tongue
and fingers, Blight never says a word about the ungrateful return, but
bears it all like a martyr, which, in truth, she really is. Ugly as she
is, I really think there are times when I could _throw my arms round
her neck, and kiss her for her goodness_.

I cannot tell you all the nicknames which they have for her face
and person, nor would it altogether be agreeable for you, Nelly,
I think to hear them. Suffice it to say, the poor thing, is very
old--_thirty-nine_, if she is a day; and she has the funniest little
head of hair, every hair appearing to be pulled as tight, and to be
almost as wide apart, as the strings of a harp. The top of her head is
mounted with a round knot of hair no bigger than the worsted ball you
see on a Scotch cap. It's a wonder to me she doesn't wear a wig or a
cap of some sort, though perhaps it would be too dangerous, as every
one would undoubtedly be trying to pull it off. The girls declare no
one can recollect her having a new gown. Every quarter a very thin,
snuff-brown silk, on a very stiff lining, is brought out as Sunday
best; but it is only the old one turned and altered a bit, for that
little wicked thing, Jessie Joy, put a drop of ink on one of the
breadths on purpose to find it out; and there it is still, journeying
about backwards and forwards, first in front and then behind; now on
the top, just under her chin, and next down at the bottom, sweeping
the floor, precisely as the faded silk is twisted or turned to hide
the creases and the ravages of old age. The girls calculate the period
they have been at school by this venerable gown; and it's no unusual
thing to hear them, when disputing about any particular date, settling
it at once by referring to the age of Miss Blight's brown silk,
saying, "I recollect very well it was in the ninth quarter of Blight's
Sunday gown;" and a reference to a date of this kind is considered as
indisputable as to a Family Bible, or an old almanac.

But these are small matters, Nelly, which I am half ashamed to tell
you, for under this poor garment there is a heart of so much goodness
as to make us wonder at the strange hiding-places in which virtue
sometimes delights in lurking, as if from modesty it had taken every
precaution not to be found out. What do you think, Nelly? I am told
by Meggy that poor Blight supports an old bedridden mother! She has
no positive proof of this, but she is morally sure of it. This, then,
accounts for the reason why the poor governess is always working so
hard--never resting from crocheting purses, and knitting antimacassars
sufficient to cover all the sofas in the world. If you ask her for
whom she makes this extraordinary quantity (you can't think, Nell, how
quickly and beautifully she works), she simply replies, her pale face
becoming paler, "_for a dear friend;_" and that is all we can get out
of her to reward our vulgar curiosity. This must be the truth, for at
all hours, both early and late, has she got a needle in her hand. There
is a story that she wakes up sometimes in the middle of the night,
and works whilst the girls around her are sleeping. But no one knows
the cause of her excessive industry, and I really think she would be
miserable if it were known, and her fingers would not ply their work of
love half so nimbly if she suspected that the girls, as they watched
her with such fixed curiosity, were acquainted with the sacred object
for which she was toiling. It is a puzzle when or where she sells all
the things she finishes, and no one exactly likes to find out, though
one or two attempts have been made, but always ending, I am happy to
say, in the most complete failure. It makes me sad to watch her anxiety
when there is a postman's knock at the door. She starts up in her seat,
and pauses for a while in her work (the only pause it ever knows),
until she gives out the letters; and then you would pity her with all
your heart to see how disappointed she is--what a vacancy of hope falls
like a dark shadow upon her face--when she learns that there is not one
for her! Though, when there is a letter, it is scarcely any better. She
sighs heavily, looks sometimes at a little locket she carries in her
breast, and hurries on with her work quicker than ever, as if the purse
she was finishing was to contain her own money instead of somebody
else's, and she had so much that she wanted the use of it immediately.

If you have any fancy-work you want doing (any braces or cigar-cases
you wish to give away as presents), will you send it to me, Nelly, and
I will ask Blight, if I can do so without offending her, to do it for
me?

I'm obliged to finish my letter, Nelly, for the fact is I have been
writing the latter part of it in our bedroom with a piece of wax candle
I took out of a candlestick there was in the hall, and there is only
just sufficient left to enable me to scramble into bed, and to assure
you how dearly you are loved by

    Yours affectionately,
    KITTY CLOVER.

P. S.--I intend that my bootlace shall come undone somewhere about
the grocer's, when we are out a walking to-morrow, so that I may lag
behind, and drop this in the post unobserved. Oh! dear--the candle's
gone out. What sh--

       *       *       *       *       *


TO MISS LAURA.

    SO let it be: what shall I lose or gain
      By looking less within those eyes?
    The promise made shall therefore firm remain,
    Though it may cause me care and pain;
      My passion will not die, but rise
      Beyond the earth, and pierce the skies.
    Thine image is impressed upon my heart,
      And though you hate, and even spurn,
    I still will love, though I do bleed and smart
    I'll be as true, nor seek to part;
      The love which binds me still shall burn.
      Though friends to foe should choose to turn.
    So it may be: yet hate me not, I pray;
      'Tis a pure love that fills my breast;
    Yet I have sought to tear that love away,
    To crush it in its dawning day,
      And, failing, am I curst or blest
      In living void of hope or rest?
    Curst you will say, and you may pity me,
      And look less cold, or even smile;
    A sweet, kind smile will not impov'rish thee,
    Or make thy heart less light and free;
      Me from my grief 'twill part awhile,
      From sadness and despair beguile.




CHARITY ENVIETH NOT.

BY ALICE B. NEAL.


"You don't say so!"

"True as the Gospel, _Miss_ Snelling. That velvet cloak of hers--_she_
calls it a Talma--cost every cent of twenty-five dollars. Then there's
her bonnet--that came from New York, too; _Miss_ Dunn's work ain't good
enough for her of late years. Well, that bonnet couldn't be bought for
less'n eight dollars. Why, the ribbon must be four and six a yard,
not to speak of the feathers. Then there's that new plaid silk, you
know, and that French merino; neither of 'em less'n twelve shillings,
and that's the way she dresses. Time was when she was glad enough to
get me to sew for her. I've had her beg, and beg, and _beseech_ me to
give her a day, or even half a day, in my spring hurry; and now she's
got a seamstress, as she calls that stuck-up girl, that sets in the
settin'-room all day. She makes the children's clothes, and _her'n_ are
cut and fixed in New York, when they ain't made there."

"She's dreadful extravagant for a church member," said Mrs. Snelling,
with a sigh, as she turned herself slowly round before the little
looking-glass. She was having a lining fitted by the village
dressmaker, Miss Prime, and a merino dress she had worn two years
was partly ripped up on the chair by the window. It was the only
dressmaking she had on hand for the season. It was a hard winter, and,
what with the sickness of the children, and Mr. Snelling losing so much
time by the frost, their means were unusually limited. No wonder that
she thought of the ease and plenty of the rich manufacturer's household
with a feeling of envy. She did not know it, though. She was a plain,
good-hearted person naturally, struggling on to do her duty through the
discouragement of ill health, ailing children, and very narrow means;
but she could not help thinking Mrs. Hubbard was getting worldly and
extravagant as, year by year, her household arrangements and personal
expenses increased.

Only the day before, at meeting, she could not fix her attention upon
the sermon for looking at the velvet Talma worn for the first time
by her old friend and still kind neighbor, Mrs. Hubbard. They were
members of the same church, of which Mr. Hubbard was the most liberal
supporter. He gave according to his means, and, at the same time,
desired his wife and family to dress and live as became his altered
position and prospects.

"Time was when she had to work hard enough," continued Miss Prime,
pinching in a side seam in the endeavor to produce the hour-glass
shape, orthodox when she "learned her trade." "I remember when they
first set up housekeeping, and she had to do her own work as well as
other people, and her own sewing, too. Now I don't believe she takes
a needle in her hand from morning till night, while you and I, _Miss_
Snelling, don't git _many_ play spells."

The leaven of uncharitableness worked on in Mrs. Snelling's heart.

"I'm afraid there isn't much spiritual growth, Miss Prime. The cares
of this world choke the seed." Poor woman! she thought it was only an
interest in her neighbor's best good that prompted such a constant
review of her conduct. "People that have their hearts set on dress and
high living can't have much time for better things."

"That's what I think. How do you like them _bask_ waists, Miss
Snelling? I hear they're all the fashion in New York. Miss Dunn said
she'd try an' git me a pattern when she went down in the spring. I
wouldn't ask Miss Hubbard to lend me hers to look at for nothing in the
world. How am I goin' to get out new backs, Miss Snelling?"

"There's the cape, you see."

"Why, so there is! I never calculated the cape. I was studyin'
an' contrivin' all the while you was to breakfast. Says I, 'Miss
Snelling'll have to have them backs pieced, and then everybody in
town'll know it's been made over.'"

As if everybody in Mrs. Snelling's community would not have known and
noticed, under any circumstances, that her brown merino of two winters
ago had been turned and made up again for her best dress. She had set
her heart, early in the fall, on a new style of plaids, for sale at
Brown & Chapins; but the doctor's bill was so much larger than she
expected, she was obliged to give it up. The sacrifice had cost her
many hours of calculation, alternate resolves, and reconsiderations.
Every purchase that she made, indeed, was of necessity turned over and
over in her mind for weeks.

Miss Prime went on with her fitting by the window, and Mrs. Snelling
with her task of washing up the breakfast-dishes, "jogging the cradle"
with one foot, every now and then, as her youngest child stirred in his
morning nap.

"That was a lucky thought, that cape." Miss Prime resumed her thimble
and her conversation together. "It don't seem to be worn as much as the
rest, neither."

"No, it isn't; I only kept it for very cold days. I thought of it in
church, Sunday, right in the middle of the sermon. Queer, wasn't it?
I was so dreadfully afraid you couldn't get it out. So, as soon as I
came home, I took it out and looked at it; sure enough, it was the very
thing."

"I see Miss James has got a new cloak this winter. She hain't worn
hers more than three winters, to my knowledge. Well, these rich people
are jist as worldly, for all I see, as if they wasn't professors."
Miss Prime was one of the most constant attendants of the church
prayer-meetings, and saw "no beam in her own eyes."

"Time was, as you say, Miss Prime, when we were all plain people
together, with good feelings towards each other. I think of it very
often--the days when Susan Hubbard and I used to send our little
presents to each other New Year's, and be neighborly all along. That
was before the Jameses moved here, or lawyer Martin's people. She's so
intimate with them now she hasn't got any time for old friends. Many
and many's the time I've sent her things right off my table; and, when
her Jane had the scarlet fever, I sat up with her night after night.
But I don't mind that. What I look at is Christian professors being so
taken up with dress, and going about, but dress particularly. It don't
_look_ right, and it isn't, according to Scripture."

It was a wearisome, fatiguing day to Mrs. Snelling, who did the whole
work of her household. Her oldest son was learning his father's trade,
and the dinner for the two had to be on the table precisely at twelve,
for they had but an hour's nooning. So, scarcely were the breakfast
things cleared away, when there were the meat and vegetables to prepare
for "a boiled dinner;" and twice she was obliged to stand and be pinned
up in the thick jean lining Miss Prime was fitting with unexampled
tightness. The afternoon was no better; she had Tuesday's ironing to
finish, her little boy was sick and fretful; though four years old, and
very heavy, he required to be nursed and tended as if he had been a
baby. She wanted to sew with Miss Prime; but, no sooner would she get
her needle threaded, and her thimble on, than some new demand would be
made upon her time, and so the short afternoon passed before she could
stitch up a seam, and tea must be ready by dark. Besides all this, Miss
Prime was disposed to continue her conversation with very little pause
or stint, discussing the affairs of the neighborhood and the church
with a train of moral, religious, and _personal_ reflections. Every one
knows how fatiguing it is to be expected to listen to such a discourse,
and respond in the right place, even when the mind is unoccupied;
and then the dress did not look nearly so well as Mrs. Snelling had
figured it in her mind, the new pieces being several shades darker
than the main body of the material. More discouraging than all, it
needed "finishing off" when seven o'clock sounded the signal for the
conference meeting Miss Prime would not miss on any account.

"I wouldn't mind staying over my time jist to give you a helpin' hand,
if it wasn't church meetin' night; but, you know, it's very important
all should be there that can. To be sure, _Miss_ Hubbard is so took up
with other things now, she never goes; and, though _Miss_ James joined
by letter when _she_ came, she's never been to a business meeting.
For my part, I think we've got just as good a right to vote in church
meetin' as the men, and speak, too, if we want to, though Deacon Smith
has set his face against it of late years. So, you see, I'll have to
go; and there's only the facing to face down, and them side seams to
stitch up, and the hooks and eyes to go on. The sleeves are all ready
to baste in--oh, and there's the bones; but bones are nothing to put
in--especially as John Lockwood is to be dealt with to-night for going
to the theatre last time he was in New York. For my part, I never did
put much faith in his religion--and the more some of us stay away, the
more the rest of us ought to go. Don't forget to take in that shoulder
seam a little. For my part, I think his sister ought to be labored with
for singing such songs as she does on the piano. Clear love songs, and
plays _opera pieces_, Miss Allen says. Now which is the worst, _I'd_
like to know, going to the theatre or playing opera pieces? _Miss_
Hubbard's Jane does that, when she's home in vacations, though. That
piece under the arm don't look so _very_ bad, _Miss_ Snelling--there
ain't more'n two hours' work, any way."

Two hours' work, to a person who could scarcely get time to do her
mending from week to week, was no trifle. Mrs. Snelling wavered for a
little while between the accumulating pile of dilapidated under-clothes
in the willow basket and the unfinished dress; but the dress must be
done before New Year's day, now close at hand, and she lighted another
lamp, and drew her little workstand up to the fire, as the clock again
struck eight. Her mind had opened itself to discontented thoughts in
the morning, and "the enemy had come in like a flood," until all the
brightness of her life had been swept out of sight. She saw only the
successive woes of ill health, loss, and wearing anxiety which had
rolled over them in the past, and a blank, dreary prospect for the
future. Her very occupation reminded her of it. If she could have
afforded Miss Prime's assistance two days instead of one, she might
have got ahead in her sewing a little; now here was another drawback,
and she had so little time. And "there was Susan Hubbard; but, then,
_she_ did not give up everything to dress and display, thank goodness!
as Susan Hubbard did, bringing scandal in the church, and setting
herself up over everybody."

A knock at the front door was a fresh annoyance; for the work had to
be put down again, the sick boy quieted, before Mrs. Snelling went
shivering through the cold, narrow hall to answer it.

The neighborly visitor was no other than Mrs. Hubbard; "and no fire
except in the kitchen," was Mrs. Snelling's first thought, as she
recognized her with a mixed feeling of gratification, "hard thoughts,"
and curiosity. Certainly it was a curious coincidence that the person
who had formed the subject of her thoughts and conversation, so much of
the day, should suddenly appear.

"Don't mind me," Mrs. Hubbard said, pleasantly, stepping on before her
old neighbor. "This way, I suppose?" And she led the way to the kitchen
herself, thus avoiding the necessity of an apology on the part of Mrs.
Snelling. "How bright and cheerful a cook stove looks, after all! and
your kitchen always was as neat as wax. We never used to keep but one
fire, you know." This last was an unfortunate allusion. Mrs. Snelling's
softening face grew coldly rigid at what she considered an attempt to
patronize her.

"Poor folks _had to_," she said, taking up her work and stitching away
vigorously.

"I haven't forgotten old times, Jane," Mrs. Hubbard went on, not caring
to notice the ungracious tone in which this remark was made, "when we
were all beginning the world together. You seem to, though, for then
you used to run in and see me, and I was thinking to-night you haven't
been up to our house since October."

Mrs. Snelling began to say something about "not going where she was not
wanted;" but it died away lower and lower, when she remembered Mrs.
Hubbard had been in twice since then.

"I know you have a great deal to keep you at home; I know how it used
to be when my children were little. You didn't let me pay three visits
to your one then, Jane." Mrs. Hubbard drew her thimble from her pocket
and took up the top piece of mending from the big willow basket, in
the most natural manner. "This is to go so, isn't it?" said she. "I
can work and talk, too, you know. Mr. Hubbard has gone to church
meeting; but I don't think it's exactly our place to attend to church
discipline, we women are so apt to make a bad matter worse by talking
it over among each other, and to people that it doesn't concern. So I
thought I'd just run in sociably, and bring my thimble, as we used to
do for each other."

Mrs. Snelling would have said, half an hour ago, that she was
completely fortified against Mrs. Hubbard's advances, in what shape
soever; but she began to find a mist gathering in her eyes, as that old
kindness and affection came stealing back again in recollection.

But Mrs. Hubbard was a wise woman, and she knew that a friend aggrieved
was hard to win, whether the offence had been intentional or not.

"It's pretty hard work to live right, isn't it?" she said, verging
round again to the old subject, after a little talk about the roads
and the weather. "Every lot in life has its trials. I used to look
at rich people, and think they hadn't a care in the world; but, now
Mr. Hubbard has done so well, we have to live differently and dress
differently, and there's no end to looking after things. I used to work
hard all day, and, when the children were asleep in the evening, sit
down comfortably to sew or read; but now there's something or somebody
to see to to the last minute. To be sure, as far as dress is concerned,
I don't think half so much of it as I used to, when I had to plan and
contrive about every cent. Why, I often used to find myself planning
about my sewing in sermon-time, if you will believe it, and how I
should get the girls two dresses out of one of mine. To be sure, I have
no such temptations now."

Mrs. Snelling looked up suddenly, as the recollection of her Sunday
plan about the cape came into her mind. Could it be that to _Him, into
whom all hearts are open_, she had been the less sincere worshipper of
the two?

"I should like to try a little prosperity, by way of a change,"
she said, more pleasantly than she had last spoken, but still with
bitterness beneath. "I'm tired of slaving."

"Oh, Jane!" Mrs. Hubbard said, quickly, "don't choose--don't choose
your trials. I used to say that very thing, and that it was all well
enough for rich people to preach." Mrs. Snelling saw the painful
expression that crossed her friend's face, and the current report of
young Robert Hubbard's dissipation came into her mind. "Everybody has
their own troubles; some don't stand out as plain as others, and don't
get so much pity. Rich people get very little, and they have hard work
enough to bring up their children right, and to live in peace and
charity with all. I've got so now I only ask for patience to bear the
trial of the time, instead of praying to have it changed, and thinking
that I could bear any other better."

The two women sewed in silence for a little while; each heart knew its
own bitterness.

"Jane," Mrs. Hubbard said, stopping suddenly and looking into the
bright grate in front of the stove, "shall I tell you what this puts me
in mind of, seeing this nice bright cooking-stove? Of that New Year's
night, the winter Robert was sick, and our children were all little,
when you came round and brought them over to spend the afternoon, and
boiled candy for them and let them pop corn. They brought us home a
plateful of braided sticks. Poor little things! if it hadn't been for
you, they wouldn't have had so much as a pin for a New Year's present,
their father was so sick, and I was so worn out. Why, only think, they
had been teazing me to buy them some candy, and I actually did not feel
that I could afford that quart of molasses! I've thought of it often
and often since. Somehow, this winter there's scarcely a day when it
doesn't come into my mind, and I always feel like crying."

Mrs. Snelling was crying, as Mrs. Hubbard's voice faltered more and
more; she did not attempt to conceal it, she remembered that New Year's
day so well, and how she had pitied Susan's poor little boys, and
brought them home and made them as happy as children could be made, in
the very kindness of her warm heart. The long struggle with poverty and
care had not seared it, after all.

"Don't cry, Jane. But you won't mind, and you won't misunderstand me
now, if I've brought you a New Year's present of a dress? I was afraid
you wouldn't take it as it was meant, if I just sent it. Here it is."
And Mrs. Hubbard unrolled the very raw silk plaid Mrs. Snelling had
so long coveted. "I wanted it to be useful, and I went down to get a
cashmere like mine; but you happened to be there when I went in, and I
saw how long you looked at this."

Mrs. Snelling remembered the day, and that she had come home thinking
Mrs. Hubbard had felt too grand to talk to her before the clerks.

"I was afraid you would find me out, and so I kept at the other end of
the store. Now, you won't misunderstand me, will you, Jane?"

"Oh, Susan, I had such hard thoughts, you don't know." And Mrs.
Snelling put her apron up to her eyes, instead of looking at the new
silk.

"Never mind that now, it's only natural. I could see just how you felt,
for the more I tried to be neighborly, the colder you got. It's grieved
me a good deal. But about the dress. Ann was not very busy, and so I
had her make the skirt, as we could wear each other's dresses in old
times, and every little helps when a person has a good deal to do. If
you will let me know when Miss Prime comes to make it up, she shall
come over and sew with her."

"Charity is not easily provoked, suffereth long, and is kind," was the
minister's text the next Sunday; but Mrs. Snelling thought of a better
illustration than any he could offer, and noted the rest of the verse
with humiliation--_charity envieth not_.

       *       *       *       *       *


TREASURES.

JOY makes us grieve for the brevity of life; sorrow causes
us to be weary of its length; cares and industry can alone render it
supportable.

SERENITY of mind is nothing worth, unless it has been earned:
a man should be at once susceptible of passions, and able to subdue
them.

MEMORY is like a picture-gallery of our past days. The fairest
and most pleasing of the pictures are those which immortalize the days
of useful industry.

IF you wish to make yourself agreeable to any one, talk as
much as you please about his or her affairs, and as little as possible
about your own.

PUT away presumptuousness and pride: if they assail thy heart,
think of the beginning and end of life. Narrow, indeed, are the cradle
and the coffin: in both we slumber alike helpless, to-day a germinating
dust, to-morrow a crumbling germ.




THE ECONOMICS OF CLOTHING AND DRESS.

REMAKING AND MENDING.


SHAKSPEARE tells us that "an old cloak makes a new jerkin;"
and with such authority and sanction for turning old materials to new
purposes, we will make no apology for giving our readers a chapter of
advice and instruction on some of the most feasible plans of turning
old garments to good account.

Many are obliged by necessity, or as a matter of good economy, to do
this; and those who are richer, and can afford frequently to purchase
everything new for themselves, will greatly add to their kindness to
their poorer neighbors, if, when they give a cast-off garment, it is
accompanied by a little judicious instruction as to how to make the
best of it.

We will suppose a poor woman receiving the gift of a lady's dress fully
trimmed all over, and so near a fit, that she might think it had been
made on purpose for her, if it was not a little too tight. Would it be
the wisest thing she could do to take and wear the dress just as she
received it? If she did so, the probability is that she would do those
about her, as well as herself and her dress, a great injury. She would,
most likely, be very cross in her family, for that is often one of the
ill effects of dressing too tight. She might, too, begin to think that
she looked so like a lady with this full-trimmed dress, that sundry
unbecoming airs would be likely to creep over her. And as to the dress,
nature would endeavor to free itself from restraint, and hooks and eyes
would be bursting this way and that, and the flounces, that were very
suitable to a lady's mode of life, would soon be torn and soiled in the
household occupations of a poor woman. And in two or three weeks, this
dress, that might have been made to do her good service for months,
will have such a slovenly and torn appearance, that it had better be
put out of sight.

We should recommend, as a preferable course, that, on receiving such a
gift, all conspicuous and needless trimmings be taken off, and the body
and sleeves be made a comfortable fit, by putting in pieces where they
are needed; for which purpose some of the trimmings will be useful. Or,
if it should be a very full skirt, it might be better to take a breadth
from that, which will serve to make a fresh body. If it is too long,
or if it is rubbed, and a little worn at the gathers, the skirt should
be taken from the body, and sewed on again at the right length, at
the same time placing the middle of a different breadth to the middle
of the body, so as to put the worst worn part of the gathers to the
place where they will have the least wear. This will oblige running
up the opening at the back of the skirt, and making a new one. All
this trouble will, however, be well repaid by having a comfortable and
suitable dress; and ladies are much more likely to repeat a kindness
when they see that their gifts are well used and valued.

When a mother has worn a dress as long as she can, it will be strange
if there is not enough which is pretty good left in the skirt, which
will make a frock, or perhaps even two, for a little girl. It is well
to bear this in mind in buying a dress, and to choose one of a pattern
that would not be very conspicuous or unsightly if it should afterwards
be used for children.

Another good use to which to put an old dress is, by altering the body
and sleeves, to adapt it for a petticoat. It is well, however, not
to be in a hurry to do this. Two mothers had each a good black satin
dress; in the course of time they became, as unfortunately all dresses
will, too shabby, or too old-fashioned for their wearers' use. One
mother picked hers to pieces, washed and ironed it, and made from it
two handsome-looking mantles for her daughters. The other adapted hers
for a petticoat, and spent five dollars in the purchase of new mantles
for her two daughters. The mantles made of the old material were far
the better looking, and the more serviceable. Now one dollar would have
bought a petticoat; and thus the saving of four dollars might have been
made for the pocket of the husband.

Bonnets may be lined or made from the cuttings of old silk dresses.
A lady benevolently disposed can find the means of assisting a
needlewoman in want of work, by employing her to use up odd pieces in
this manner. She will thereby give the workwoman the means of earning a
few shillings, and at the same time she will, at a comparatively little
cost, enable herself to rejoice the hearts of various old women by the
gift of a comfortable silk bonnet.

The remaining parts of some dresses will prove suitable for making
aprons and pinafores.

But what can be done with dresses that are so washed and worn as to be
of no service even for a child's frock or pinafore? Why, they may be
cut up for dusters, if they will do for nothing else, and they will
serve nicely for the little girls to learn hemming upon. Indeed, it
only wants an active, notionable mind to discover good uses for almost
anything that may be at hand, and render it applicable to some of the
requirements of the possessor.

About the worst thing to do with old dresses is to carry them to an old
clothes-shop, or to dispose of them at the door for something out of a
basket.

Woollen garments, such as coats and trowsers, offer rather more of
a puzzle as to how to dispose of them. They are, however, articles
to be by no means despised, as a peep into the working-rooms of some
old clothes establishment might soon convince our readers. Many a
second-hand waistcoat, cap, and even child's complete suit, have been
contrived from the refuse contents of an old clo'-man's bag. These
old clothes-merchants, however, never cut up garments that can by any
contrivance of piecing and cleaning be made suitable for wear, or to
fetch a price in their original form. This a good home manager should
also observe.

Cheap bought slop-clothes are scarcely worth the time and trouble
of remaking into anything. But a bit of broadcloth that has been
originally good may be brought into use over and over again, when its
original purpose has been almost forgotten.

In a family of restricted means, where the father is obliged, by his
line of life or connections to keep up what is called a respectable or
genteel appearance, if the mother is a good contriver very little need
be purchased for the clothing of her boys until they reach their teens.
The clothes that the father is, for the sake of appearance, obliged to
lay aside, will afford good material for clothing them. But how often
pride, more than a want of knowledge, comes in here, and prevents the
mother from doing what she might and could do. She is afraid that if
she herself makes clothes for her boys, she may be laughed at as "a
hen tailor." And if she should employ a needlewoman, who could do such
things well and inexpensively for her, she is afraid the woman will
speak of it, and think her mean for using old clothes; and she will in
preference buy cheap, ready-made clothes, which will not last so long,
and perhaps not look any better than what she might have obtained for
a tithe of the cost by using the materials laid by at home.

To keep up a genteel appearance with only a small income, is a very
trying situation to be placed in; nevertheless, it is the lot of very
many; and a wise woman will feel sure that she is not acting meanly,
while she acts in accordance with the limits of her husband's purse.
Nothing can be more mean than to increase his anxieties by indulging in
any needless expenses in dress.

When it is designed to make any cloth garment into a smaller one, it
is generally best to look upon it merely as a piece of material, and
not to attempt to bring any of the old seams into use. If it has been
previously worn in the same family, and not much soiled, a good dry
brushing may be all that is required for cleanliness. But if it has
been long worn and made dirty, it had better be picked to pieces and
thoroughly washed. Good broadcloth will bear washing just as well as a
bit of calico; and so will very many other articles that are frequently
considered unwashable.

Supposing the garment unpicked and brushed, or washed, it should be
well examined as to the thicker and thinner parts, and the smaller
pattern laid on and cut accordingly, always observing to keep the nap
of the cloth all one way, from the top to the bottom of the garment.
Much of the secret of the neat appearance of clothes made by tailors
is in their flatly placing and pressing down all their seams by means
of heated irons. The seams should be opened out--that is, each side of
the seam should be folded back, and damped and smoothed by a hot iron
before the lining is put in. As to a pattern, the best way to obtain
one is from a tailor; and great assistance in the making up may be
obtained by observing how the article picked to pieces was made. All
visible button-holes should be made with silk, and not thread; and a
strip for strengthening laid where buttons and button-holes are to be.
There is no reason why clothes of this description, made by women,
should either be bad fitting, or the work clumsy looking. This is not
always the case; and any woman who has learned the use of her needle,
and uses her powers of observation, might as well rival the tailor as
not.

Odd cuttings of cloth are serviceable for mending or remaking the tops
of boots. Foot-stools also may be covered with remaining pieces, and
if braided with a lively-colored braid, have a neat and ornamental
appearance. We have also seen made from the tails of a coat, a
work-bag, which had a pattern with colored wools worked on each side,
and really had a handsome appearance. Girls in a family might just as
well use such materials to exercise their fancy and ingenuity upon, and
so often save a good many wasted shillings.

Hearth-rugs are sometimes made by cutting cloth into strips half an
inch wide and two inches long, and knitting them together with string.
This is done by inserting the piece of cloth exactly at the middle, in
the loop of the knitting and drawing it in very tight; it is rather
hard finger-work, and some make the rug by sewing the strips of cloth
on to a piece of old carpet or any other strong material that may be at
hand. This sort of rug will in winter form a very comfortable addition
to a poor man's fire-place. Or the bits may be knitted into smaller
pieces for door-mats.

But when all the best bits have been employed as use or fancy may
dictate, there will still remain some rough or thin cuttings which
cannot be worked up any how; what is to be done with these? Perhaps
we could not easily have answered this question, had we not recently
heard a girl say, "Oh, mother is very glad indeed of such pieces; when
she gets any, she washes them thoroughly, and sets us children to cut
them up very small indeed, and fills a case with them to make a pillow;
all our pillows and bolsters, and even the beds at home, are made like
that, and we find them very comfortable; mother could never afford to
buy proper beds for all us children."

Linen and cotton, and even flannel under-clothing, may generally be
darned and pieced until the whole fabric is too much worn to be worth
making into garments of any other form. It may sometimes be worth
while, where the material has been originally good, to slightly make
from them shirts and petticoats for infants; as the growth of the
infant forbids their being worn any great length of time, and the
material having been previously used is softer than new.

       *       *       *       *       *


MAY-DAY.

The observance of May-day was a custom which, until the close of the
reign of James the First, alike attracted the attention of the royal
and the noble, as of the vulgar class. Henry the Eighth, Elizabeth,
and James patronized and partook of its ceremonies; and, during this
extended era, there was scarcely a village in the kingdom but had a
May-pole, with its appropriate games and dances.

The origin of these festivities has been attributed to three different
sources--Classic, Celtic, and Gothic. The first appears to us to
establish the best claim to the parentage of our May-day rites, as a
relic of the Roman Floralia, which were celebrated on the last four
days of April, and on the first of May, in honor of the goddess Flora,
and were accompanied with dancing, music, the wearing of garlands,
strewing of flowers, &c. The Bettein, or rural sacrifice of the
Highlanders, on this day, as described by Mr. Pennant and Dr. Jamieson,
seems to have arisen from a different motive, and to have been
instituted for the purpose of propitiating the various noxious animals
which might injure or destroy their flocks and birds. The Gothic
anniversary on May-day makes a nearer approach to the general purpose
of the Floralia, and was intended as a thanksgiving to the sun; if not
for the return of flowers, fruit, and grain, yet for the introduction
of a better season for fishing and hunting. The modes of conducting
the ceremonies and rejoicings on May-day may be best drawn from the
writers of the Elizabethan period, in which this festival appears to
have maintained a very high degree of celebrity, though not accompanied
with that splendor of exhibition which took place at an earlier period,
in the reign of Henry the Eighth. It may be traced, indeed, from the
era of Chaucer, who, in the conclusion of his "Court of Love," has
described the feast of May, when

    Forth goth all the court, both most and leas,
    To fetch the floures fresh, and braunch and blome;
    And namely hauthorn brought both page and grome:
    And then, rejoysen in their great delite,
    Eke ech at other throw the floures bright,
    The primerose, the violets, and the gold,
    With fresh garlants party blew and white.

And it should be observed that this, the simplest mode of celebrating
May-day, was as much in vogue in the days of Shakspeare as the more
complex one, accompanied by the morris-dance and games of Robin Hood.
The following description, by Bourne and Borlase, manifestly alludes
to the costume of this age, and to the simpler mode of commemorating
the first of May: "On the calends, or the first day of May," says the
former, "the juvenile part of both sexes were wont to rise a little
after midnight, and walk to some neighboring wood, accompanied with
music and the blowing of horns, where they break down branches from the
trees, and adorn them with nosegays and crowns of flowers. When this is
done, they return with their booty homewards, about the rising of the
sun, and make their doors and windows to triumph in the flowery spoil.
The after part of the day is chiefly spent in dancing round a tall
pole, which is called a May-pole; which, being placed in a convenient
part of the village, stands there, as it were, consecrated to the
goddess of flowers, without the least violence offered to it, in the
whole circle of the year."

"An ancient custom," says the latter, "still retained by the Cornish,
is that of decking their doors and porches on the first of May with
green sycamore and hawthorn boughs, and of planting trees, or rather
stumps of trees, before their houses. And, on May-eve, they from towns
make excursions into the country, and, having cut down a tall elm,
brought it into town, fitted a straight and taper pole to the end of
it, and painted the same, erect it in the most public places; and on
holidays and festivals adorn it with flower-garlands, or ensigns and
streamers." So generally prevalent was this habit of early rising on
May-day, that Shakspeare makes one of his inferior characters in King
Henry the Eighth exclaim--

    Pray, sir, be patient; 'tis as much impossible
    (Unless we sweep them from the door with cannons)
    To scatter them, as 'tis to make them sleep
    On May-day morning; which will never be.

But, about the commencement of the sixteenth century, or sooner, a
very material addition was made to the celebration of the rites of
May-day by the introduction of the characters of Robin Hood and some
of his associates. This was done with a view towards the encouragement
of archery, and the custom was continued even beyond the close of the
reign of James the First. It is true that the May-games, in their
rudest form--the mere dance of lads and lasses round a May-pole, or
the simple morris with the Lady of the May--were occasionally seen
during the days of Elizabeth; but the general exhibition was the more
complicated ceremony which we are about to describe. The personages
who now become the chief performers in the morris-dance were four of
the most popular outlaws of Sherwood Forest. Warner, the contemporary
of Shakspeare, speaking of the periods of some of our festivals, and
remarking that "ere Penticost began our May," adds--

    Tho' (then) Robin Hood, litell John, frier Tuck,
      And Marian, deftly play,
    And lord and ladie gang till kirke,
      With lads and lasses gay;
    Fra masse and een sang sa gud cheere,
      And glee on ery greene.

These four characters, therefore--Robin Hood, Little John, Friar Tuck,
and Maid Marian--although no constituent parts of the original English
morris, became at length so blended with it, especially on the festival
of May-day, that, until the practice of archery was nearly laid aside,
they continued to be the most essential part of the pageantry.

       *       *       *       *       *


BLESSINGTON'S CHOICE.

BY FITZ MORNER.

    "Be kind to thy mother, for lo, on her brow,
      May traces of sorrow be seen."--_Popular Melody._

"Well, Blessington, so you've come back to locate with us, have you?
Got enough of travelling and all its vexations, I presume?"

"Enough? As you please about that, George; but I find no vexations so
weighty as to overcome the pleasures to be enjoyed in travel, by any
manner of means. Still, I have returned to settle down in my native
land, and my good genius seems to have thrown Dallydale in my way; so
here I remain, and have commenced practice, as you see--or, rather,
_intend_ to commence, when any business presents itself."

"Excuse impertinence, Harry," said the first speaker, with a roguish
look, "but--you'll get a wife, I suppose? You know, that's an absolute
necessity in these days; to say nothing about performing an act of
kindness to the scores who are waiting but to be asked."

"Well, I am not so certain as to the truth of that last remark;
nevertheless, I _have_ some intentions of that nature. By the way,
George, can't you introduce me to some of the Dallydale ladies, that
I may find a maiden to my liking? You know, I'm a perfect stranger in
these parts."

"Good!" said George, springing from his chair, and thrusting his thumbs
in the arm-holes of his waistcoat. "'Pon honor, I should be delighted
to introduce you to some of my lady acquaintance. Ahem! 'Miss Jones,
my friend, Mr. Blessington, of--of'--where shall it be, Harry? Paris,
or London, or New York, or where? By my troth, Harry, you're the only
mortal that I'd give a fig to exchange situations with; but you, with
your fortune, your magnificent figure, your"----

"There! there, George; I declare, I was in hopes you had discarded
those old ways of yours. It's exceedingly disagreeable, if you knew it,
to be descanted upon in this manner to one's face. But come, when for
those introductions?"

"This very night, Harry, if you please. I'll go with you, and call on
some of my host of familiar acquaintances. By the way, there's one
young lady, Miss Somers, a cousin of mine, who saw you at church last
Sabbath, and who wishes to make your acquaintance. And--would you
believe it?--she even told me so slyly. Yet there's no great wonder;
for a man of your magnificent build"----

But Blessington closed his lips by placing his finger upon them, and
together they left the office and disappeared up the street. These two
young men were old schoolmates, and were quite familiar in their manner
with each other. Blessington had been travelling in different lands for
a couple of years previous, and, on his return to the United States,
had fallen in with his friend, George Hart, some years his junior, and
withal a pretty wild, though whole-hearted fellow. Both were wealthy,
both of very prepossessing appearance and manners; but Blessington, if
either, the more so.

On the evening of the same day in which we introduce them to you,
kind reader, they sallied out as they had agreed. We cannot detail
their pleasant evening's ramble; suffice it to say that Blessington
was convinced that Dallydale was possessed of as charming ladies, and
as kind and hospitable souls, as many other places of greater note.
The Miss Somers of whom Hart had spoken, Blessington found to be a
lady possessed of dazzling beauty, and a power of conversation he had
seldom seen excelled. Accomplished, elegant, and lovely, it may appear
strange to you, reader, when we tell you that our hero was not at all
prepossessed by her appearance. He saw, or thought he saw, a species
of contemptuous pride, a sort of glorying in her own attractions, and
a scorning of all "lesser lights," that, to a man of his generous
disposition, was anything but pleasing.

At another place, however, he saw a lady who was introduced to him as
Miss Ella Cole, who appeared possessed of all those good qualities of
the heart for which he sought. And, indeed, what beauty there was in
her expressive features owed its existence to the genuine artlessness,
affection, and sincerity shadowed forth in each particular lineament.
Hart was not slow to observe that Blessington appeared inclined more
strongly to "tarry yet a little" at this place than at any other during
the entire evening.

That night Blessington had a dream, in which a certain pair of
mild blue eyes, light sunny ringlets, and _petite_ figure bore no
insignificant part. There was another, too, whose ruby lips seemed to
curl contemptuously towards the meek one, and whose piercing black eyes
seemed to flash upon her the fires of hatred.

Some days after, Blessington met Miss Somers at the mansion of Colonel
Auberly, and she appeared delighted to see him. Blessington, in the
nobleness of his heart, was equally pleased at meeting her; and thus
was the finishing stroke put to the work that rent from Miss Somers
her proud heart and placed it in Blessington's possession, he all
unconscious of the precious treasure he had obtained, and with his own
safe in the place that God ordained for it.

Oh, ye that speak of the folly of prating of woman's wiles, know ye
that when she determines, with her whole soul, to win a man's heart,
it is twenty to one that, in spite of all human obstacles, she will
accomplish her purpose? This was the spirit now awakened in Miss
Somers's proud bosom. She saw, with her apt intelligence, the state
of Blessington's feelings with regard to her, and she resolved that,
come what would, she would obtain from our hero that which alone could
content her ambitious soul--his unbounded affections. Did she succeed?
You shall see.

From that hour forth, a change was noticed in the entire deportment of
Flora Somers, and many were the conjectures as to what might be the
cause thereof; but all were equally distant from the truth. Her haughty
bearing in society had yielded to one of apparent humility, kindness,
and a desire to gratify those around her. Blessington noticed it, and,
far from supposing the real truth, he concluded that such was her
natural disposition, and that his first impressions were the result of
some unaccountable state of his mind at the time of his introduction to
her.

However this might be, it was observed that his visits at Dr. Somers's
were of frequent occurrence, and soon every gossip of Dallydale
had another match in her eye. Few doubted that Flora Somers would
eventually be Mrs. Blessington. And if our hero had been interrogated
upon the subject, his replies--if he gave any--would not have been
greatly at variance with this belief.

Might a peep have been taken behind the parlor curtains of Dr.
Somers's mansion, on the occasion of some of these calls, one might
have seen how

    "Soft eyes looked love to eyes that spake again."

Thus matters stood. You who have passed the ordeal of love, and
are now roaming in the fair fields of Hymen, can imagine what were
Blessington's intentions and Flora Somers's expectations; while
you who, like myself, have only read of such things, must content
yourselves with the testimony of the initiated. Thus matters stood.

One evening, Blessington had sallied out for the evening rather earlier
than was his wont, and was on his way to Dr. Somers's, intending to at
once make known his intentions to "the most adorable of her sex," and
be consigned to "everlasting misery or the supremacy of bliss," as she
should decide.

Ha reached the door, and had laid his hand on the bell-knob, when he
heard a voice sharply enunciating words which struck a chill to his
heart's core, but whose pronouncer's voice sounded terribly like that
of Miss Somers. He paused and listened.

"Well, mind your own business!" was the sound that greeted his ear from
within, in a voice which there was now no mistaking.

"Flora!" reproachfully murmured the gentle voice of Mrs. Somers. And
then followed the doctor with--

"My daughter, are you never to desist from your unfeeling disregard of
a mother's love? Are you never to repay, even by respect and kindness,
that anxiety and devotion with which she watched over your earlier
years? It wounds me deeply that a daughter of mine should persist in
thus treating one who loves her as no other being on earth ever can.
Go to your room, Flora, and remain until you will ask your mother's
forgiveness."

The hall-door was then closed with a bang, and Blessington heard the
light foot of his heart's beloved ascending the stairway. He tarried no
longer, but turned away and retraced his steps to his office. Locking
the door behind him, he threw himself into a chair, and, from the
bitter emotions of his soul, exclaimed--

"My God, what have I heard! Can it be that my own dear Flora is
possessed of a heart like this? Though it tear the cords of my soul
in shreds, I never will take to my bosom one who can thus treat her
mother. Spirit of my sainted mother, idol of all my early dreams, never
will I forsake the vow I plighted o'er thy corpse!"

Bowing his head upon his hands, Blessington became lost in the memories
of the past. Hallowed associations arose to his view, and passed in
solemn retrospect over his mind. He thought of his boyhood's days,
of the old stone mansion that stood in the leafy grove, of the happy
hours he had spent in those ancient halls, and he murmured a prayer to
heaven, thanking his Maker for thus revealing to him the yawning abyss
of misery into which he had been about to plunge.

After this came a calmness and capacity for deliberation that ere
long recalled to his mind the recollection of Ella Cole--she that
months since had appeared so attractive to him. As it was yet early,
he sallied out, and a few minutes' walk found him at the door of the
humble brick dwelling at the foot of the main street in the village,
where Mr. Cole had long lived and pursued his honest calling. As he was
about to ring, his hand was again arrested by the sound of a female
voice; not in a loud tone, but softly, lowly, like the murmuring of
distant music. It was Ella Cole reading from the "Lady's Book" a tale
to her mother, who was listening with earnest attention.

"Ella, my dear girl," called a manly voice from an adjoining room,
"will you please to bring me the last number of the 'Living Age?' It
lies on the parlor table."

"Yes, father," said Ella, springing up. "Excuse me a moment, mother."

"Be quick, dear," was the mother's reply.

Light footsteps were heard tripping over the floor, and soon again was
heard the voice of the sweet girl reading to her mother. Blessington
could not resist comparing this scene with that of an hour previous.
Being reluctant to intrude upon so happy a scene, he again retired and
sought his office, but with far different feelings from those of a
short time before.

He called next evening, and was more than ever convinced of the good
qualities of Ella Cole's heart. She remained Ella Cole not long
thereafter. She now rejoices in the name of Blessington, and proves
a source of unceasing happiness to her worthy husband. Many wondered
at this marriage--none more so than the two ladies most intimately
concerned.

You have perused the simple truth, reader, related to the writer by
him we have called George Hart. Blessington is not the only one in the
human family who regards a mother in the light nearest approaching that
of an angel of any other mortal, nor the only one that knows that in
the degree which a girl is a good _daughter_, in the same degree will
she be a good _wife_.




NEW REVELATIONS OF AN OLD COUNTRY.

[Illustration: THE GRAND LAMA.]


WE are growing wiser in our generation. Two propositions we
have fully demonstrated, viz., that some things can be done as well
as others, and that some people know as much as others. The latter
proposition is confirmed by the developments of each succeeding day.
For a considerable period, we were contentedly wrapt up in the belief
which the old Grecians took unto themselves. We were assured that all
the enlightenment which had been vouchsafed to this sublunary sphere
dwelt with us, and that all beyond our narrow circle was shrouded
in the gloom of ignorance and barbarism. We were the chosen people.
Travellers have worked remarkable changes in that flattering faith.

Much has been written concerning Tartary, Thibet, and China. But,
upon reflection, we shall ascertain that our real knowledge of those
countries, which form so large a portion of the globe, is exceedingly
limited. We confidently receive and spread abroad the grossest
errors in regard to the nature of these regions, the character of
the inhabitants, and the peculiarities of their institutions. These
errors may now receive due correction, for which we have to thank two
adventurous French missionaries, of the Catholic Church, MM. Gabet and
Huc. About the year 1844, the Pope established an Apostolical Vicariat
of Mongolia; and, it being deemed expedient to ascertain the nature and
extent of the diocese thus created, MM. Gabet and Huc, two Lazarists
who were then attached to the petty mission of Si-Wang, were deputed
to obtain the necessary intelligence. Through incredible difficulties
they made their way to Lha-Ssa, the capital of Thibet and chief seat
of Lamanism. Soon afterwards, Ke-Shen, the famous Chinese minister,
had them arrested for political reasons, and deported to China, whence
they were allowed to proceed to France. These missionaries enjoyed the
best opportunities for observing the character of the inhabitants and
the nature of the institutions in the countries they visited, and their
statements may be relied upon as truth.

Tartary and Thibet are dependencies of the Chinese empire. The former
is a vast region, divided into Mongolia, Mantchouria, and Elé. Mongolia
comprises the territory lying between 35° and 50° north latitude,
and 82° and 123° east longitude. Its length from east to west is
about 1,700 miles, and its breadth about 1,000 miles. The surface
of the country may be described as an elevated plateau, inclosed to
the north-west by the Altai chain, and on the south by the Thibetian
ranges. In the centre is the great sandy desert of Gobi, or Shamo,
which is for the most part destitute of water and vegetation. Rivers
are numerous north of the desert, and south of it are to be found
several beautiful lakes. The climate is excessively cold, owing to the
great elevation, dry atmosphere, and want of shelter from the winds,
and the soil is almost entirely barren. As might be expected from
the nature of the country, the Mongols are nomadic, wandering within
certain limits with their herds and flocks. They pass the greater part
of their waking hours on horseback, or on their camels, where they
sometimes sleep. They are hardy and active, and have always been famed
for their warlike disposition. Under the great Timour, they subdued the
largest portion of Asia. But their power is now confined to their own
barren territory. Their religion is called Lamanism, and the Lamas are
at once their rulers, priests, and teachers. The tribes of that portion
of Mongolia called Koukou-Noor have princely chiefs, who are tributary
to the Emperor of China.

Mantchouria comprises the most eastern portion of the elevated plateau
of Central Asia, and lies between 42° and 58° north latitude, and 120°
and 140° east longitude. It has the Yablonnoi mountains on the north,
the Chinese seas on the east and south, and the Sialkoi mountains on
the west. The greater part of the country is covered with forests,
in which bears, tigers, wolves, deer, and numerous fur-bearing
animals abound. This region is well watered. Besides several lakes of
considerable size, it has the great River Amour, or Saghalien, which
is about 2,200 miles in length. Mantchouria is inhabited by a number
of roving tribes; but the principal are those called Mantchoos. They
differ but slightly from the other inhabitants of Tartary, and may be
spoken of in connection with them.

Elé is an extensive region east of the Celestial Mountains, stretching
from 36° to 49° north latitude, and from 71° to 96° east longitude.
Soorgaria occupies about one-third of the province. This territory is
the penal colony of the Chinese empire. Large bodies of convicts are
sent here to work, and guarded by Chinese troops. The country is wild,
and but a small portion of it is under cultivation.

Thibet is the most southern of the three great table-lands of Central
Asia. It is surrounded by lofty mountains, most of which are extremely
difficult of ascent. It has Gobi and Khoten on the north, Kokonor on
the north-east, Szechuen and Yunan, provinces of China proper, on the
east, and provinces of India upon the south and west. The average
length of this great plateau is about fourteen hundred miles, and the
average breadth about three hundred miles. The highest plains are at
least ten thousand feet above the sea. Thibet is divided by mountain
ranges into three distinct parts. The western one consists of the
valley of the Indus. The central one comprises an extensive desert
land. The eastern consists of a number of ridges and peaks. The number
of peaks above the line of perpetual snow is greater than in any other
part of the world. The Indus, Yang-tse-kiang, and the Brahmaputra,
three of the largest rivers in the world, have their primary sources
in Thibet. The lakes are large, and some of the isolated ones are
perfectly salt. The climate is pure and excessively dry. The soil is
better adapted for grazing than for cultivation; but the plain in
which Lha-Ssa, the capital, is situated, is remarkably fertile. The
Thibetians belong to the Mongolian race, and their general character
resembles that of the Tartars of Central and Northern Asia.

We have said that the grossest errors are entertained in regard to the
customs and institutions of the Tartars and Thibetians. These we are
now enabled to correct by the revelations of MM. Gabet and Huc, and we
begin with their religion, for by that their customs and institutions
are shaped, in a great degree.

It is generally believed that Lamanism, or reformed Buddhism, which
is the religion of about one hundred and seventy millions of people
inhabiting Tartary, Thibet, and China proper, is a species of degrading
idolatry, on a level with the dark heathenism of the Hindoo--brutal,
sensual, and deserving of the contempt of enlightened Christian minds.
An account of the origin and nature of this religion will show how far
we have been from the truth.

According to the Lamanesque chronicles, a shepherd named Lombo-Moke,
of the country called Amdo, in Tartary, married a woman named
Ching-tsa-Tsio, who shared with him the cares of a pastoral life. In
the year of the Fire Hen (1357) Ching-tsa-Tsio had a child, whose
birth was attended with many miraculous features, according to the
traditions of the people among whom his mission was to be performed.
The child was a marvellous being. At his birth he had a white beard,
and his countenance expressed an extraordinary majesty. As soon as he
saw the light, he was capable of expressing himself with clearness and
precision in the language of Amdo. At the age of three, Tsong-Kaba
resolved to embrace a religious life. Ching-tsa-Tsio herself shaved
his head, and threw his fine hair outside of the tent. From this
hair sprung a tree, the wood of which dispensed an exquisite perfume
around, and each leaf of which bore upon its surface a character in
the sacred language of Thibet. Tsong-Kaba withdrew into most absolute
retirement, and passed his days in fasting and prayer upon the summits
of the highest mountains. He respected the life of even the humblest
insect, and rigorously interdicted himself the consumption of any flesh
whatever. While he was thus engaged in purifying his heart, a Lama,
from one of the most remote regions of the west, visited Amdo, and
amazed the people by his learning and the sanctity of his life. His
appearance was remarked as singular. He had a great nose, and his eye
gleamed with something like seraphic fire. Tsong-Kaba sought him for an
instructor, and he, struck with the wonderful qualities of the young
man, took him for a disciple. After having initiated his pupil in all
the doctrines recognized by the most renowned saints of the west, the
stranger fell asleep one day on the summit of a mountain, and never
opened his eyes on earth again.

Deprived of his tutor, Tsong-Kaba determined to proceed westward, and
drink the precepts of sacred science where that tutor had quaffed
them. He reached the sacred town of Central Thibet; and there a
_Lla_, or spirit, all radiant with light, checked his progress, and
thus addressed him: "Oh, Tsong-Kaba, all these vast regions belong to
the great empire which has been granted to thee. It is here thou art
ordained to promulgate the rites of religion and its prayers. It is
here will be accomplished the last evolution of thy immortal life."
Tsong-Kaba then entered Lha-Ssa, the Land of Spirits, and began his
career as a teacher and reformer.

The ancient worship of Buddha was strongly rooted in the minds of the
people. But Tsong-Kaba made partisans rapidly. They were called Yellow
Cap Lamas, to distinguish them from the Red Cap Lamas who supported the
old system. In a short time, the reformers became predominant, and the
homage of the multitude was turned from the living Buddha, or Chakdja,
the head of the old hierarchy, to Tsong-Kaba. At an interview between
the two chiefs, a discussion was held, which resulted in the complete
triumph of the reformer. Thenceforward the reforms proposed met with no
obstacle; they were adopted throughout Thibet and Tartary. In 1419, the
soul of Tsong-Kaba, who had become Buddha, quitted the earth, returned
to the Celestial Realm, and was admitted to the heaven of rapture. His
body is reported to preserve all its freshness to the present day;
and, by a perennial miracle, it lies a little above the earth, without
being supported by anything visible. Besides reforming the liturgy,
Tsong-Kaba issued a new edition of the "Body of Doctrine," and left,
among his other works, an important one entitled the "Lam-Rim-Tsien-Bo,
or the Progressive Path to Perfection."

MM. Gabet and Huc were impressed with the striking similarity between
the Lamanesque worship and Catholicism. The cross, the mitre, the
dalmatica, the cape, which the Grand Lamas wear on their journeys, or
when they are performing some ceremony out of the temple; the service
with double choirs, the psalmody, the exorcisms, the censer, suspended
from five chains; the benedictions given by the Lamas by extending the
right hand over the head of the faithful; the chaplet, ecclesiastical
celibacy, spiritual retirement, the worship of the saints, the fasts,
the processions, the litanies, the holy water, all these are analogous
in the two modes of worship. Monasteries were founded by Tsong-Kaba,
and they now contain a very large number of Lamas. The principal one is
situated about three leagues from Lha-Ssa. It contains eight thousand
Lamas, who devote the greater portion of their lives to study. The
monastery of Hounboum is situated at the Lamanesque Mecca--the foot of
the mountain where Tsong-Kaba was born. Near it is shown the tree of
the Ten Thousand Images, which is said to have sprung from the hair
of Tsong-Kaba. MM. Gabet and Huc both saw this wonderful tree, and
they testify that Thibetian characters are distinctly traceable upon
its leaves. It is covered by a dome of silver, erected by the Emperor
Khang-Hi.

The French missionaries naturally conjectured that the Lama from the
remote west, who taught Tsong-Kaba, was a Christian priest. Upon a
further intercourse with the Thibetians, they learned that the only
two essential points in which the Lamas of Thibet differed from the
Catholic priests of Rome, were concerning the origin of the world and
the transmigration of souls. Two alternatives presented themselves
to the minds of the missionaries: To believe that the Thibetians had
enjoyed the blessing of a divine revelation, or that they had been
visited ages before by Christian missionaries. They concluded the
latter was the most rational and probable. The celebrated Swedenborg
declared that an Ancient Word, a revelation prior to the Mosaic, and
including the lost Book of Jasher, was still preserved in Tartary; and
the members of his church now assert that the discoveries of MM. Gabet
and Huc go very far towards establishing the truth of this declaration.

The Lamanesque Church has a regular organization like that of the
Church of Rome. Each Tartar kingdom has a Grand Lama, who is selected
from the members of the royal family. There is also a Grand Lama for
all Thibet. This personage resides in the Lamasery, like a living idol,
receiving every day the adorations of the devout, upon whom, in return,
he bestows his blessing. Everything which relates to prayers and
liturgical ceremonies is placed under his immediate superintendence.
The Mongol Grand Lama is charged with the administration, good
order, and executive of the Lamasery; he governs while his colleague
is content to reign. Each Lamasery of the first class has a Living
Buddha for its head. He is believed to be immortal. When his death is
reported, there is no mourning in the Lamasery; for it is believed that
he will soon reappear as a child. The augur, or Tchurtchur, indicates
the place where the child will declare himself, and this always occurs.
A certain precocious child announces that he is the Living Buddha, and
the people immediately display the most enthusiastic joy. The child
is rigidly examined as to the residence, habits, and property of the
deceased Buddha. If his answers are satisfactory, and they generally
are, he is conducted in triumph to his Lamasery, the people prostrating
themselves along his path.

The Grand Lamas who govern have a number of subalterns, who direct the
details of administration. After this staff, the inhabitants of the
Lamasery are divided into Lama-masters and Lama-disciples, or Chabis.
Each Lama has under his direction one or more Chabis, who live in his
small house and execute all the details of the household. These Chabis
are also considered as pupils, and when they fail to commit their
studies to memory they are severely punished.

All instruction, both in Thibet and Tartary, is ecclesiastical. It is
said that the majority of the people constantly act with a view to a
future life. They are, in fact, much more consistently religious,
according to their notions, than the so-called Christian nations of
Europe. As to the character of those notions, we may learn from the
Thibetian work entitled "The Forty-Two Points of Instruction delivered
by Buddha," that they are purely moral. According to this book, "there
are in living creatures ten species of acts which are called good,
and also ten species of acts which are called evil. There are three
which appertain to the body, murder, theft, and impurity; four, which
appertain to speech, are words sowing discord, insulting maledictions,
impudent lies, and hypocritical expressions; three appertaining to
the will, are envy, anger, and malignant thoughts." The wicked man
who persecutes a good man is compared to a madman who spits against
heaven, the spittle falling back in his face. The man who seeks riches
is compared to a child who cuts itself while trying to eat honey with
a knife. Voluptuousness is denounced as a sin, and the dominion of the
mind over the passions of the heart is rigidly enforced. The belief
in a spiritual God, who rewards good actions and punishes evil ones,
is common to all Tartars and Thibetians. They believe that he is the
beginning and end of all things, and that he has assumed the human
shape and appeared among men to stimulate them to do good. They divide
living beings into six classes, angels, demons, men, quadrupeds, birds,
and reptiles, corresponding to the six syllables of the prayer they
constantly repeat: "Om mani pad me houm." (Oh, the gem in the lotus,
Amen.) The meaning of this singular prayer is said to be an aspiration
after divine perfection. The reward of the just and perfect is believed
to be an absorption into the blissful soul of the Deity.

The monasteries of these people differ in some respects from the
Catholic establishments of Europe. It cannot be said that the Lamas
live in community. You may find among them all the graduated shades of
poverty and wealth that you see in mundane cities. Every third month,
the authorities make a distribution of meal to all the Lamas of the
Lamaseries without distinction. The voluntary offerings of the pilgrims
to Hounboum come in aid of this donation. Some of these offerings are
in money; but generally they consist of a tea-drinking entertainment,
to which all the Lamas are invited. These entertainments are very
expensive.

A large number of the Lamas gain a livelihood by the ordinary
occupations of life; but a certain class devote themselves entirely to
study and contemplation. Among the industrial Lamas, a number occupy
themselves in printing and transcribing the Lamanesque books. The
Thibetian writing proceeds horizontally from left to right. Stereotype
printing on wood is alone practised, no use being made of movable
type. The Thibetian books resemble a large pack of cards, the leaves
being movable and printed on both sides. The manuscript editions of
the Lamanesque books are enriched with illustrative designs, and the
characters are elegantly traced. The Lamas use sized paper and a bamboo
pen. Their inkstand is filled with cotton saturated with ink.

In each Lamasery there is a Faculty of Prayers, and the Grand Lama and
the students of this department are often appealed to by the government
to preserve their locality from calamity. On these occasions, the Lamas
ascend to the summits of high mountains, and spend two whole days in
praying, exorcising, and in erecting the Pyramid of Peace--a small
pyramid of earth whitened with lime, a flag, inscribed with Thibetian
characters, floating above.

[Illustration: THE PYRAMID OF PEACE.]

Each Lamasery has also a Faculty of Medicine. The physicians assign to
the human frame four hundred and forty-four maladies. In the medical
books the symptoms are described and the remedies stated. Bleeding and
cupping are sometimes resorted to. The books contain much quackery,
but also a large number of valuable recipes, the benefits of which are
confirmed by long experience and observation.

Four great festivals are observed by the Tartars and Thibetians during
the year. The most famous of all is the Feast of Flowers, which takes
place on the fifteenth day of the first moon. It is celebrated with
the greatest magnificence at Hounboum, where, at the appointed time,
a vast number of pilgrims congregate. Three months are occupied in
preparation, a Council of Fine Arts being appointed to superintend.
The most remarkable achievements are the butter-works--all the Asiatic
nations being represented with their peculiar physiognomies and
costumes in fresh butter. MM. Gabet and Huc state that this butter-work
and the arrangement of the flowers excelled anything they ever
beheld as the result of art. At night the exhibition was splendidly
illuminated. In front of the principal temple there was a theatre with
its performers and decorations, all of butter. The _dramatis personæ_
were a foot high, and represented a community of Lamas on their way to
solemnize prayer. The Lamas were movable puppets. The day after the
Feast of Flowers not a trace remains of these splendid works. All are
demolished, and the butter thrown to the cows.

The Thibetians have made extensive progress in those arts which are
generally considered the flowers of civilization. Their architecture,
though somewhat fantastical, often appears grand. Some of their temples
are very imposing. Most of the houses at the capital at Lha-Ssa
are several stories high, terminating in a terrace, slightly sloped
to carry off the water. They are white-washed all over, except the
bordering round the doors and windows, which is painted red or yellow.
The people of Lha-Ssa are in the habit of painting their houses once a
year, so that they always seem as if just built. In one of the suburbs,
the houses are built of the horns of oxen and sheep, and they present
a most fantastical appearance. Lha-Ssa is laid out with broad streets,
and surrounded with a beautiful wall of gardens. Besides the taste
and architectural skill displayed in the erection of the temples and
dwelling-houses of the capital, we find a number of grand mausoleums
in various parts of Thibet, which evince a high degree of development
in art. The Thibetians are not in the habit of burying their dead.
In general, the bodies are left upon the summits of the mountains,
or thrown to the dogs, being esteemed but as worthless clods; but
mausoleums have been erected in honor of famous Grand Lamas.

[Illustration: THEATRE AT THE FEAST OF FLOWERS.]

The manufactures of the Thibetians are various and valuable. Although
the severest labor is performed by the women, the men employ themselves
quite profitably, especially in spinning and weaving wool. The stuffs
they manufacture, which are called poulon, are of a very close and
solid fabric, and surprisingly various in quality, from the coarsest
cloths to the finest possible merino. By a rule of reformed Buddhism,
every Lama must be attired in red poulon. The consumption of the
article in Thibet is very large, and considerable quantities are
exported. The pastile-sticks, so celebrated in China, are manufactured
at Lha-Ssa, of various aromatic trees, mixed with musk and gold
dust. When these sticks are lighted they consume slowly, and diffuse
around an exquisite perfume. The Thibetians have no porcelain, but
they manufacture all kinds of pottery in great perfection. The only
tea-service used throughout Thibet is a wooden cup, which is either
carried in the bosom or suspended from the girdle. Some of the most
costly cups have the property of neutralizing poisons.

The agricultural productions of the Thibetians are very poor. They
cultivate a little wheat and still less rice. The chief production is
tsing-kon, or black barley, of which is made the tsamba, that basis
of the aliment of the entire Thibetian population. All the labor of
cultivating the ground is performed by the women. The implements used
are of the most primitive description, and the work is wretchedly done.

Thibet is exceedingly rich in metals. Gold and silver are collected
there so readily, that the common shepherds have become acquainted with
the art of purifying these precious metals. Specie is of a low value,
and, consequently, goods maintain a high price. The monetary system of
the Thibetians consists entirely of silver coins, which are somewhat
larger than French francs. On one side they bear an inscription,
and upon the other, they have a crown of light, small flowers. To
facilitate commerce, these coins are cut into pieces, the number of
flowers remaining on each piece determining its value--a very simple,
yet adequate arrangement. In the larger commercial transactions, ingots
of silver are employed. The Pebouns, or Indians settled at Lha-Ssa, are
the only workers in metals at the capital. In their quarters, you may
find ironsmiths, braziers, plumbers, tin-men, founders, goldsmiths,
jewellers, machinists, and even chemists. There all sorts of vases
are manufactured for the use of the Lamaseries, and some of them are
exquisitely ornamented. While these Indians are the chief manufacturers
of Thibet, the Katchi, or Musselmen, are the leading merchants. Their
religion and their trade are respected by the government.

The greater portion of the wealth of Thibet is the property of the
Lamaseries. The people experience all the misery consequent upon the
existence of an overpaid church establishment. Yet they are so devoted
to their religion that they are never weary of making rich offerings to
the Lamas. There are swarms of beggars throughout the country; but it
is only just to observe that the Thibetians are kind and compassionate,
and that those who are blessed with a goodly store give freely.

The condition of woman is always a fair test of progress in
civilization. Polygamy prevails, with the sanction of the Lamanesque
religion, in Thibet and Tartary. But the first wife is always the
mistress of the household, and the most respected in the family. MM.
Gabet and Huc thought polygamy a real blessing to the people of those
countries. Celibacy being imposed on the Lamas, and the class of those
who shave the head and live in Lamaseries being so numerous, it is
easy to conceive what disorders would arise from the multiplication
of young women without support, and abandoned to themselves, if girls
could not be placed in families in the quality of second wives. Divorce
is frequent, and it takes place without any intervention of civil or
ecclesiastical authorities. In Tartary, the women lead an independent
life, coming and going at pleasure.

The Thibetian women submit, in their toilet, to a custom or law
scarcely credible. Before going out of doors they always rub their
faces over with a sort of black, glutinous varnish, the object being
to render themselves as ugly and hideous as possible. This practice
is said to be about two hundred years old, and tradition says that
it originated with an austere Lama king, who desired to check
licentiousness of manners. At present, the women who bedaub their faces
the most hideously are esteemed the most pious. The women lead an
active and laborious life. Besides fulfilling the various duties of the
household, they concentrate in their own hands all the petty trade of
the country, whether as hawkers, as stall-keepers in the streets or in
the shops. Little or no restraint is imposed upon them. Their general
character for morality is good--in fact, if compared with that of other
Asiatic women, quite exemplary. They are strictly attentive to their
devotions, and will even go beyond the men in deeds of penance and
mortification of the body.

We hope we have given a sufficient idea of the recent revelations
concerning Thibetian and Tartarian life to awaken an interest in
further developments. The discoveries of the French missionaries have
but opened the way for others of the highest importance to mankind.
From what we have related, it will be inferred that the work of
Christianizing Asia will not be so difficult as has hitherto been
supposed; that reformed Buddhism is a good preparation of one hundred
and seventy millions of people for the reception of those truths which
Christians believe to be necessary to the salvation of man; and that
we have not false idols to throw down, but to a belief essentially
pure, spiritual, and godly, to add that definite knowledge of a new
dispensation, the universal prevalence of which must banish strife from
the face of the earth, and render it a realm of uninterrupted bliss.

       *       *       *       *       *


REMEMBERED HAPPINESS.

MANKIND are always happier for having been happy; so that if you make
them happy now, you make them happy twenty years hence, by the memory
of it. A childhood passed with a due mixture of rational indulgence,
under fond and wise parents, diffuses over the whole of life a feeling
of calm pleasure, and in extreme old age is the very last remembrance
which time can erase from the mind of man. How enjoyment, however
inconsiderable, is confined to the present moment! A man is the happier
for life from having made once an agreeable tour, or lived for any
length of time with pleasant people, or enjoyed any considerable
interval of innocent pleasure.




THE TRIALS OF A NEEDLEWOMAN.[A]

BY T. S. ARTHUR.

(Continued from page 334.)


CHAPTER VIII.

A BOY of more robust constitution and fuller of blood than Henry
Gaston, with that activity which a fine flow of animal spirits and a
high degree of health give, would have cared little for the exposure to
which he was subjected at Sharp's, even if clad no more comfortably.
But Henry had little of that healthy warmth natural to the young. He
was constitutionally delicate, and this caused him to feel more keenly
the chilling intensity of the cold to which he was frequently exposed
without sufficient clothing. His whole dress, intended to protect
him from the cold of a remarkably severe and trying winter, was a
thin shirt, the remains of one worn for nearly a year; the jacket and
trowsers, thin and threadbare, that Mrs. Sharp had made for him out of
some worn-out garment which her husband had thrown aside, and which
were now rent in many places; a pair of dilapidated yarn stockings,
with feet like a honey-comb. His shoes, the pair given him by his
mother, had been half-soled once, but were again so far gone that his
stockings protruded in several places, and yet neither his master nor
mistress seemed to take any notice of their condition, and he was
afraid to ask for a new pair. When it rained or snowed, or, worse, when
it rained with or after the snow, as it had done several times within a
week, his shoes were but a poor protection for his feet. The snow and
water went through them as through a sieve.

Before the first of February, the poor boy was almost crippled with the
chilblains. Through the day, he hobbled about as best he could, often
in great pain; and at night the tender skin of his feet, irritated
by the warmth of the bed, would keep him awake for hours with a most
intolerable burning and itching.

"Why don't you walk straight? What do you go shuffling along in that
kind of style for?" said Sharp to him one day, toward the last of
January.

"My feet are so sore," replied Henry, with a look of suffering, blended
with patient endurance.

"What's the matter with them, ha?" asked his master, glancing down at
the miserable apologies for shoes and stockings that but partially
protected the child's feet from the snow whenever he stepped beyond the
threshold.

"They're frosted, sir," said Henry.

"Frosted, ha? Pull off your shoes and stockings, and let me see."

Henry drew off an old shoe, tied on with various appliances of twine
and leather-strings; and then removed a stocking that, through many
gaping holes, revealed the red and shining skin beneath. That little
foot was a sight to pain the heart of any one but a cruel tyrant.
The heel, in many places, was of a dark purple, and seemed as if
mortification were already begun. And in some places it was cracked
open, and exhibited running sores.

"Take off your other shoe and stocking," said Sharp, in an
authoritative tone.

Henry obeyed, trembling all the while. This foot exhibited nearly the
same marks of the progress of the painful disease.

"What have you done for it?" asked Sharp, looking Henry in the face
with a scowl.

"Nothing but put a little candle-grease on it at night before I went to
bed," replied the child.

"Come out here with me. I'll doctor you," said his master, turning away
and disappearing through the back door. Henry followed as quickly as he
could walk on his bare feet, that seemed ready to give way under him at
every step. When he got as far as the kitchen, he found Sharp waiting
for him in the door.

"Here, jump out into that snow-bank!" said he, pointing to a pile of
snow that had been shovelled up only that morning, after a fall through
the night, and lay loose and high.

The poor boy looked down at his crippled, and, indeed, bleeding feet,
and, as may well be supposed, hesitated to comply with the peremptory
order.

"Do you hear, sir?" exclaimed his master seizing him by the collar, and
pushing him out into the yard. Then catching him by one arm, he set
him in the centre of the snow-bank, his naked feet and legs going down
into it some twelve or eighteen inches.

"Now stand there until I tell you to come out!"

The child did not scream, for he had already learned to bear pain,
without uttering even the natural language of suffering; although the
agony he endured for the next minute was terrible. At the end of that
time, a motion of the head of his master gave him to understand that
the ordeal was over.

"Now take that bucket of cold water, and let him put his feet into it,"
said he to a little girl they had just taken to raise, and who stood
near the kitchen window, her heart almost ready to burst at the cruelty
inflicted upon the only one in the house with whom she had a single
feeling in common.

The girl quickly obeyed, and sat down on the floor beside the bucket of
water. She handled tenderly the blood red feet of the little boy, ever
and anon looking up into his face, and noting, with tender solicitude,
the deep lines of suffering upon his forehead.

"There, that will do," said Sharp, who stood looking on, "and now run
up stairs and get a better pair of stockings for Henry."

"What do you want with a better pair of stockings?" said Mrs. Sharp, a
few moments after, bustling down into the kitchen.

"Why, I want them for Henry," replied her husband.

"Want them for Henry!" she exclaimed, in surprise. "Where's the ones he
had on?"

"There are some old rags in the shop that he had on; but they won't do
now, with such feet as he's got."

"What's the matter with his feet, I'd like to know," inquired Mrs.
Sharp.

"Why, they're frosted."

"Let him put them in snow, then. That'll cure 'em. It's nothing but a
little snow-burn, I suppose."

"It's something a little worse than that," replied Sharp, "and he must
have a comfortable pair of stockings. And here, Anna, do you run around
to Stogies, and tell him to send me three or four pairs of coarse
shoes, about Henry's size."

Anna, the little girl, disappeared with alacrity, and Mr. Sharp,
turning to his wife, said--

"Henry must have a good, warm pair of stockings, or we shall have him
sick on our hands."

"Well, I'll find him a pair," replied Mrs. Sharp, going off up stairs.
In the mean time, Henry still sat with his feet in the cold water. But
the pain occasioned by the snow was nearly all gone. Mrs. Sharp came
down with the stockings, and Anna came in with the shoes at the same
moment. On lifting the child's feet from the water, the redness and
inflammation had a good deal subsided. Mrs. Sharp rubbed them with a
little sweet oil, and then gave him the stockings to put on. He next
tried the shoes, and one pair of them fitted him very well. But his
feet were too sore and tender for such hard shoes, and when they were
on, and tied up around the ankles, he found that after getting up they
hurt him most dreadfully in his attempt to walk. But he hobbled, as
best he could, into the shop.

"Throw them dirty things into the street!" were the only words
addressed to him by Sharp, who pointed at his wet apologies for shoes
and stockings, still lying upon the floor.

Henry did as directed, but every step he took was as if he were
treading upon coals of fire. His feet, now enveloped in a closely
fitting pair of woollen stockings, and galled by the hard and
unyielding leather of the new shoes, itched and burned with maddening
fervor.

"Here, carry this hat home," said his master, as he came in from the
street, not seeming to notice the expression of suffering that was on
his face, nor the evident pain with which he walked.

Henry took the hat, and started out. He was but a few paces from the
shop, before he found that the shoes rubbed both heels, and pressed
upon them at the same time so hard as to produce a sensation at each
step as if the skin were torn off. Sometimes he would stop, and wait a
moment or two, until the intolerable pain subsided, and then he would
walk on again with all the fortitude and power of endurance he could
command. In this extreme suffering, the uppermost thought in his mind,
when on the street, kept his eyes wandering about, and scanning every
female form that came in sight, in the ever-living hope of seeing his
mother. But the sigh of disappointment told, too frequently, that he
looked in vain. He had not proceeded far, when the pains in his feet
became so acute that he paused, and leaned against a tree-box, unable,
for a time, to move forward a single step. While resting thus, Doctor
R----, who had been called to visit a patient in Lexington, came past
in his carriage and noticed him. There was something about the child,
although so changed that he did not recognize him, that aroused the
doctor's sympathies, and he ordered his man to drive up to the pavement
and stop.

"Well, my little man, what's the matter?" said he, leaning out of his
carriage window.

Henry looked up into his face, but did not reply. He knew Doctor
R---- instantly. How strong a hope sprang up in his heart--the hope
of hearing from or being taken back to his mother! The kind-hearted
physician needed no words to tell him that the little boy was suffering
acutely. The flushed face, the starting eye, and the corrugation of the
brow, were language which he understood as plainly as spoken words.

"What ails you, my little boy?" he said, in a voice of tender concern.

The feelings of Henry softened under the warmth of true sympathy
expressed in the countenance and tone of Doctor R----, and still
looking him steadily in the face, essayed, but in vain, to answer the
question.

"Are you sick, my boy?" asked the doctor, with real and increasing
concern for the poor child.

"My feet hurt me so that I can hardly walk," replied Henry, whose
tongue at last obeyed his efforts to speak.

"And what ails your feet?" asked Doctor R----.

"They've been frosted, sir."

"Frosted, indeed! poor child! Well, what have you done for them?"

"Nothing--only I greased them sometimes at night; and to-day my master
made me stand in the snow."

"The cruel wretch!" muttered Doctor R---- between his teeth. "But can't
you walk up as far as the drug store at the corner, and let me see your
feet?" continued the doctor.

"Yes, sir," replied the child, though he felt that to take another step
was almost impossible.

"You'll come right up, will you?" urged the doctor.

"Yes, sir," returned Henry, in a low voice.

"Then I'll wait for you. But come along as quickly as you can;" and
so saying, the doctor drove off. But he could not help glancing back,
after he had gone on about the distance of half a square, for his heart
misgave him for not having taken the little fellow into his carriage.
He soon caught a glimpse of him on the sidewalk, slowly and laboriously
endeavoring to work his way along, but evidently with extreme
suffering. He at once gave directions to the driver to turn back; and
taking Henry into the carriage, hurried on to the office. The child,
when lifted in, sank back upon the seat, pale and exhausted. Doctor
R---- asked him no question; and when the carriage stopped, directed
the driver to carry him in. He then, with his own hands, carefully
removed his shoes and stockings.

"My poor, poor child!" said he, in pity and astonishment, on beholding
the condition of Henry's feet. The harsh remedy prescribed by Sharp,
if the subsequent treatment had been tender and judicious, might have
been salutary; but, after it, to confine the boy's feet in hard, tight
new shoes, and to send him out upon the street, was to induce a high
state of inflammation, and, in the advanced state of the chilblains,
to endanger mortification. Several of the large ulcerous cracks, which
were bleeding freely, the doctor dressed, and then, cutting a number a
short strips of adhesive plaster, he applied them to the skin over the
heel and foot, in various directions, so as almost completely to cover
every portion of the surface.

"How does that feel?" he asked, looking into Henry's face with an air
of relief and satisfaction, after he had finished the first foot.

"It feels a good deal better," replied the child, his voice and the
expression of his countenance both indicating that he no longer
suffered so excruciatingly as he had but a short time previously.

The other foot was soon dressed in the same way. Doctor R---- then went
back into the house and got a loose pair of stockings and a light pair
of shoes, belonging to one of the apothecary's children, from their
mother. These fitted Henry comfortably, and when he stood down upon his
feet he did not experience any pain.

"That feels a good deal better, don't it?" said the doctor, smiling.

"Yes, indeed it does," and Henry looked his gratitude; and yet, blended
with that look, was an expression that seemed to the doctor an appeal
for protection.

"You're afraid to go back now, ain't you, since you've stayed so long?"
he asked, in a tone meant to encourage the child's confidence.

"Indeed I am. Mr. Sharp will be almost sure to beat me."

"What a very devil incarnate the man must be!" muttered Doctor R---- to
himself, taking three or four strides across the floor. "I shall have
to take the little fellow home, and brow-beat his master, I suppose,"
he continued. Then addressing Henry, he said, aloud--

"Well, I'll take you home to him in my carriage, and settle all that
for you, my little man; so don't be frightened."

Acting upon this resolution, Doctor R---- soon drove up before the
hatter's shop, and, lifting out Henry himself, led him into the
presence of his astonished master.

"What's the matter now?" asked the latter, roughly, and with a
forbidding aspect of countenance.

"The matter is simply this, sir," responded Doctor R----, firmly. "I
found this little boy of yours on the street absolutely unable to get
along a step farther; and on taking him into the drug store above, and
examining his feet, I found them in a most shocking condition! Why,
sir, in twelve hours mortification would have commenced, when nothing
could have saved his life but the amputation of both limbs." The sober
earnestness of Doctor R---- caused Sharp to feel some alarm, and he
said--

"I had no idea, doctor, that he was as bad as that."

"Well, he is, I can assure you, and it is a fortunate thing that I
happened to come across him. Why, I haven't seen so bad a case of
chilblains these ten years."

"What ought I to do for him, doctor?" asked Sharp, in real concern.

"I have done all that is necessary at present," replied the doctor.
"But he must be suffered to have rest; and, as you value his limbs,
don't let him be exposed to the wet or cold until his feet are healed,
and the tenderness and soreness are both gone."

"I shall attend to your direction, most certainly," said Sharp, his
manner greatly changed from what it was when the doctor came in. "But,
really, doctor," he continued, "I had no idea that there was any danger
in getting the feet a little frosted."

"The chilblains are not only extremely painful," replied Doctor R----,
"but there is great danger, where the feet are exposed to wet and
cold, as Henry's must have been to get in the condition they are, of
mortification supervening. That little boy will require great care, or
he will stand a chance of being crippled for life. Good-morning!"

Poor Henry! How eagerly had he hung upon the doctor's words! how almost
agonizing had been his desire for even the slightest intimation that he
was remembered by the physician, to whose mistaken kind offices he was
indebted for the place he held in the family of Sharp! But all was in
vain. A dozen times he was on the eve of asking for his mother; but,
as often, weak timidity held him back. In the presence of his master,
fear kept him dumb. It seemed to him as if life would go out when he
saw Doctor R---- turn away from the shop and enter his carriage. A deep
darkness fell upon his spirit.

As Doctor R---- rode off in his carriage, he could not help
congratulating himself on the good deed he had performed. Still he
did not feel altogether satisfied about the boy. He had been so
much concerned for his distressed situation, that he had failed to
make any inquiries of him in regard to his friends; and for this
he blamed himself, because it was clear that, if the child had
friends, they ought to know his condition. He blamed himself for this
thoughtlessness, and a consciousness of having performed but half of
his duty to the poor boy caused a shade of concern to steal over him,
which he could not shake off.

And Henry, as he stood frightened in the shop, felt, as the
carriage-wheels rattled away, the hope that had awakened, faint and
trembling in his heart, sinking into the gloom of despair. One who
could have told him of his mother; one who, if he had only taken the
courage to have mentioned his name, could have taken tidings of his
condition to her, or perhaps would have carried him home, had been
beside him for half an hour, and he had not spoken out. And now he was
gone. He felt so sick and weak that he could hardly stand.

From his sad, waking dreams he was roughly startled by the loud, sharp
voice of his mistress, who, attracted by the strong expressions of
Doctor R----, now entered the shop, exclaiming--

"What's all this? What's that little wretch been doing now, ha?"

"I wish I'd never seen him!" muttered Sharp, but in a tone that left no
doubt on the mind of his wife that something more than usually annoying
had occurred.

"What's the matter? What's he been doing? Not stealing, I hope; though
I shouldn't wonder."

"He's sick, and you've got to take care of him," was the dogged answer
of Sharp.

"Sick! He looks sick, don't he?" The tones of the virago were full of
contempt.

Any eye but hers would have seen sickness, sorrow, suffering, and want
in the pale, frightened face of the poor boy, as he stood trembling
beside the counter, and actually clinging to it for support.

"Who was that in here, just now?" she added.

"Doctor R----, of Boston," replied the hatter, who knew the doctor by
sight very well.

"What did he want?"

"He picked Henry up in the street and took him over to the drug store
at the corner. Then he brought him home in his carriage. He says that
he must be taken care of, or he will become a cripple; that it's the
worst case of chilblains he ever saw; and that his feet are in danger
of mortification."

"I don't believe a word of it. Here! you go off up stairs," speaking
sharply, and with a threatening look, to the child. "I'd like to know
what business he has to come here, meddling in affairs that don't
concern him."

Henry, thus spoken to, let go of the counter, by which he was
sustaining himself, and attempted to move towards the door. As he did
so, his face grew deadly pale. He staggered across the shop, fell
against the wall, and then sank down upon the floor. Mrs. Sharp sprang
towards him, not with any humane intention, we are sorry to say; but,
ere she had grasped the boy's arm, and given him the purposed jerk,
the sight of his ashen, lifeless face prevented the outrage. Exhausted
nature could bear nothing more, and protected herself in a temporary
suspension of her power. Henry had fainted, and it was well that it was
so. The fact was a stronger argument in his favor than any external
exhibition of suffering that could have been given.

The hatter and his wife were both alarmed at an event so unexpected
by either of them. Henry was quickly removed to a chamber, and every
effort made to restore him. It was not a very long time before the
machinery of life was again in motion; its action, however, was
feeble, as even his oppressors could see. Self-interest, and fear of
consequences, if not humanity, prompted more consideration for the boy,
and secured for him a few days' respite. After that, the oppressed and
his oppressors assumed their old relations.

       *       *       *       *       *


CHAPTER IX.

"I DON'T think I've seen anything of Lizzy Glenn for a week,"
remarked Berlaps to his man Michael one day during the latter part of
December. "Has she anything out?"

"Yes. She has four of our finest shirts."

"How long since she took them away?"

"It's over a week--nearly ten days."

"Indeed! Then she ought to be looked after. It certainly hasn't taken
her all this time to make four shirts."

"Well, I don't know. She gets along, somehow, poorly enough," replied
Michael. "She's often been a whole week making four of them."

While this conversation was going on, the subject of it entered. She
came in with a slow, feeble step, and leaned against the counter
as she laid down the bundle of work she had brought with her. Her
half-withdrawn veil showed her face to be very pale, and her eyes much
sunken. A deep, jarring cough convulsed her frame for a moment or two,
causing her to place her hand almost involuntarily upon her breast, as
if she suffered pain there.

"It's a good while since you took these shirts out, Lizzy," said
Berlaps, in a tone meant to reprove her for the slowness with which she
worked.

"Yes, it is," she replied, in a low, sad tone. "I can't get along very
fast. I have a constant pain in my side. And there are other reasons."

The last sentence was spoken only half aloud, but sufficiently distinct
for Berlaps to hear it.

"I don't expect my workwomen," he said, a little sharply, "to have any
reasons for not finishing my work in good season, and bringing it in
promptly. Ten days to four shirts is unpardonable. You can't earn your
salt at that."

The young woman made no reply to this, but stood with her eyes drooping
to the floor, and her hands leaning hard upon the counter to support
herself.

Berlaps then commenced examining the shirts. The result of this
examination seemed to soften him a little. No wonder; they were made
fully equal to those for which regular shirt-makers receive from
seventy-five cents to a dollar a piece.

"Don't you think you can make five such as these in a week--or even
six?" he asked, in a somewhat changed tone.

"I'm afraid not," was the reply. "There's a good day's work on each one
of them, and I cannot possibly sit longer than a few hours at a time.
And, besides, there are two or three hours of every day that I must
attend to other duties."

"Well, if you can't, I suppose you can't," said the tailor, in a
disappointed, half-offended tone, and turned away from the counter and
walked back to his desk, from which he called out to his salesman,
after he had stood there for about a minute--

"Pay her for them, Michael, and if you have any more ready give her
another lot."

Since the sharp rebuke given by Mr. Perkins, Michael had treated Lizzy
with less vulgar assurance. Sometimes he would endeavor to sport a
light word with her, but she never replied, nor seemed to notice his
freedom in the least. This uniform, dignified reserve, so different
from the demeanor of most of the girls who worked for them, coupled
with the manner of Perkins's interference for her, inspired in his mind
a feeling of respect for the stranger, which became her protection
from his impertinences. On this occasion, he merely asked her how many
she would have, and on receiving her answer, handed her the number of
shirts she desired.

As she turned to go out, Mrs. Gaston, who had just entered, stood near,
with her eyes fixed upon her. She started as she looked into her face.
Indeed, both looked surprised, excited, then confused, and let their
eyes fall to the floor. They seemed for a moment to have identified
each other, and then to have become instantly conscious that they were
nothing but strangers--that such an identification was impossible. An
audible sigh escaped Lizzy Glenn, as she passed slowly out and left the
store. As she reached the pavement, she turned and looked back at Mrs.
Gaston. Their eyes again met for an instant.

"Who is that young woman?" asked Mrs. Gaston.

"Her name is Lizzy Glenn," replied Michael.

"Do you know anything about her?"

"Nothing--only that she's a proud, stiff kind of a creature; though
what she has to be proud of, is more than I can tell."

"How long has she been working for you?"

"A couple of months or so, if I recollect rightly."

"Where does she live?" was Mrs. Gaston's next question.

Michael gave her the direction, and then their intercourse had entire
reference to business.

After the subject of this brief conversation between Mrs. Gaston
and Michael left the store of Mr. Berlaps, she walked slowly in
the direction of her temporary home, which was, as has before been
mentioned, in an obscure street at the north end. It consisted of a
small room, in an old brick house, which had been made by running a
rough partition through the centre of the front room in the second
story, and then intersecting this partition on one side by another
partition, so as to make three small rooms out of one large one. These
partitions did not reach more than two-thirds of the distance to the
ceiling, thus leaving a free circulation of air in the upper and
unobstructed portion of the room. As the house stood upon a corner,
and contained windows both in front and on the end, each room had a
window. The whole were heated by one large stove. For the little room
that Lizzy Glenn occupied, including fire, she paid seventy-five cents
a week. But, as the house was old, the windows open, and the room that
had been cut up into smaller ones a large one; and, moreover, as the
person who let them and supplied fuel for the stove took good care
to see that an undue quantity of this fuel was not burned, she rarely
found the temperature of her apartment high enough to be comfortable.
Those who occupied the other two rooms, in each of which, like her own,
was a bed, a couple of chairs, and a table, with a small looking-glass,
were seamstresses, who were compelled, as she was, to earn a scanty
subsistence by working for the slop-shops. But they could work many
more hours than she could, and consequently earned more money than she
was able to do. Her food--the small portion she consumed--she provided
herself, and prepared it at the stove, which was common property.

On returning from the tailor's, as has been seen, she laid her bundle
of work upon the bed, and seated herself with a thoughtful air, resting
her head upon her hand. The more she thought, the more she seemed
disturbed; and finally arose, and commenced walking the floor slowly.
Suddenly pausing, at length, she sighed heavily, and went to the bed
upon which lay her work, took it up, unrolled the bundle, and seating
herself by the table, entered once more upon her daily toil. But her
mind was too much disturbed, from some cause, to permit her to pursue
her work steadily. In a little while she laid aside the garment upon
which she had begun to sew, and, leaning forward, rested her head upon
the table, sighing heavily as she did so, and pressing one hand hard
against her side, as if to relieve pain. A tap at the door aroused her
from this state of abstraction. As she turned, the door was quietly
opened, and the woman she had seen at the tailor's, a short time
before, entered. She started to her feet at this unexpected apparition,
and gazed, with a look of surprise, inquiry, and hope, upon her visitor.

"Can it be Mrs. Gaston? But no! no!" and the young creature shook her
head mournfully.

"Eugenia!" exclaimed Mrs. Gaston, springing forward, and instantly
the two were locked in each other's arms, and clinging together with
convulsive eagerness.

"But no, no! It cannot be my own Eugenia," said Mrs. Gaston, slowly
disengaging herself, and holding the young woman from her, while she
read over every feature of her pale, thin face. "Surely I am in a
strange dream!"

"Yes, I am your own Eugenia Ballantine! my more than mother! Or, the
wreck of her, which a wave of life's ever restless ocean has heaved
upon the shore."

"Eugenia Ballantine! How can it be! Lost years ago at sea, how can she
be in this room, and in this condition! It is impossible! And yet you
are, you must be, my own dear Eugenia."

"I am! I am!" sobbed the maiden, leaning her head upon the bosom of
Mrs. Gaston, and weeping until the tears fell in large drops upon the
floor.

"But the sea gives not up its dead," said Mrs. Gaston in a doubting,
bewildered tone.

"True--but the sea never claimed me as a victim."

"And your father?"

The maiden's face flushed a moment, while a shade of anguish passed
over it.

"At another time, I will tell you all. My mind is now too much agitated
and confused. But why do I find you here? And more than all, why as a
poor seamstress, toiling for little more than a crust of bread and a
cup of water? Where is your husband? Where are your children?"

"Three years ago," replied Mrs. Gaston, "we removed to this city.
My husband entered into business, and was unsuccessful. He lost
everything, and about a year ago, died, leaving me destitute. I have
struggled on, since then, the best I could, but to little purpose. The
pittance I have been able to earn at the miserable prices we are paid
by the tailors has scarcely sufficed to keep my children from starving.
But one of them"--and the mother's voice trembled--"my sweet Ella! was
not permitted to remain with me, when I could no longer provide things
comfortable for my little ones. A few short weeks ago, she was taken
away to a better world. It was a hard trial, but I would not have her
back again. And Henry, the dear boy, you remember--I have been forced
to let him go from my side out into the world. I have neither seen nor
heard from him since I parted with him. Emma alone remains."

Mrs. Gaston's feelings so overcame her at this relation, that she wept
and sobbed for some time.

"But, my dear Eugenia!--my child that I loved so tenderly, and have
so long mourned as lost," she said, at length, drawing her arm
affectionately around Miss Ballantine, "in better and happier times,
we made one household for more than five pleasant years. Let us not
be separated now, when there are clouds over our heads, and sorrow on
our paths. Together we shall be able to bear up better and longer than
when separated. I have a room, into which I moved a week since, that is
pleasanter than this. One room, one bed, one fire, and one light, will
do for two as well as one. We shall be better able to contend with our
lot together. Will you come with me, Eugenia?"

"Will I not, Mrs. Gaston? Oh! to be once more with you! To have one
who can love me as you will love me! One to whom I can unburden my
heart--Oh, I shall be too happy!"

And the poor creature hung upon the neck of her maternal friend, and
wept aloud.

"Then come at once," said Mrs. Gaston. "You have nothing to keep you
here?"

"No, nothing," replied Eugenia.

"I will get some one to take your trunk." And Mrs. Gaston turned away
and left the room. In a little while, she came back with a man, who
removed the trunk to her humble dwelling-place. Thence we will follow
them.

"And now, my dear Eugenia," said Mrs. Gaston, after they had become
settled down, and their minds had assumed a more even flow, "clear up
to me this strange mystery. Why are you here, and in this destitute
condition? How did you escape death? Tell me all, or I shall still
think myself only in the bewildering mazes of a dream."

    (To be continued.)

       *       *       *       *       *


SILENT THOUGHT.

BY WILLIE EDGAR TABOR.

    SOMETIMES there steals across the heart
      A quietness of flow,
    Where gentle memories form a part,
    And bid in mythic tableaux start
      The scenes of long ago--
    Too holy and too heavenly
    For open utterance or fear.
    Across the mirror of the soul,
    A gorgeous, a transcendent whole,
    They pass--a train of silent thought,
    With spirit, bliss, and pleasure fraught.

    Then shut we out the world from view,
      And all its mundane care;
    Our hearts baptized with fresh'ning dew,
    Which we from seraph regions drew;
      Our minds with ambient air.
    We love to linger very long
    (As on some ancient harper's song,
    Floating through corridors of time,
    In all the majesty of rhyme),
    And silent thought alone express
    The acme of our happiness.

    These whispers language cannot tell:
      E'en imagery bows low
    Before the task; its gentle spell
    (Like zephyrs in some elfin dell)
      Will o'er the spirit flow.
    And moments pass unheeded by
    As visions to the spirit's eye
    Open their prospects, and lay plain
    Their tracery of joy or pain.
    With bliss or wo forever fraught,
    Within the halls of SILENT THOUGHT.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote A: Entered according to Act of Congress, by T. B.
PETERSON, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the
Eastern District of Pennsylvania.]




THE MOTHER'S LESSON.

A STORY FROM A GERMAN BALLAD.

BY ELMA SOUTH.


'TWAS night, the star-gemmed and glittering, when a bereaved
mother lay tossing on her bed in all the feverish restlessness of
unsanctified sorrow. Sleep had fled far from her weary eye-lids; and
her grief-burdened heart refused to send up from its troubled fountains
the refreshing stream of prayer.

The deep stillness that rested on the hushed earth was broken by those
saddest of all sounds, the bitter wailings of a mother weeping for her
children, and "refusing to be comforted because they are not."

"Oh, woe, woe is me!" was the piteous cry of that breaking heart, and
the piercing sound went up to the still heavens; but they looked calmly
down in their starry beauty and seemed to hear it not.

And thus slowly passed the long, weary hours of the night, and naught
was heard save the solemn chiming of the clock, telling, with iron
tongue, that man was drawing hourly nearer to the quiet grave.

And as the mourner lay listening to Time's slow, measured strokes,
Memory was busy with the images of the loved and lost. Again they were
before her in all their youthful beauty; she heard their gleeful voices
and felt their fond caresses. The night wind swept coolingly into the
casement, and, as it touched her throbbing brow, it seemed like the
soft kisses of her loving children.

Poor mourner! Could earth furnish no magic mirror in which thou couldst
always thus see the dead living? Oh, no! for as melts the fleecy cloud
in to the blue depths of heaven, so passed away the blessed vision; and
seeing but the coffin and the shroud, again arose on the silent air
those tones of despairing anguish: "Woe is me! my sons are dead!"

Then softly and sweetly sounded forth the matin chimes, blending their
holy music with the anguished cries of the bereaved mother. In the
midst of her sorrow, she heard the bells' sweet harmony, and, leaving
her sleepless couch, walked forth into the refreshing air. Morning was
breaking cold and gray over the earth, and the stars were growing pale
at the approaching step of the monarch of the day.

Slowly walks the mourner through the yet sleeping woods, whose flowers
are folded in silence, and whose birds give forth no carols. She
reaches the antique church and enters the sacred doors. A mysterious
light--light that is almost shade--is brooding over the holy aisles,
clothing in shadowy garments the pale images of departed saints;
wrapping in mantle of dimness the carved sepulchres; throwing strange
gleams over the tall white columns; and embracing, with pale arms,
cross and picture, and antique shrine. In the midst of this mysterious
light kneel a silent company; each head is bowed on the clasped hands,
and no sound is heard save a deep, far distant murmuring, like the
voice of the mighty wind when it passes through the leaves of the dark,
old pines, dwelling in some dim, solemn woods.

Suddenly every head is lifted, and the mourner sees in that vast
company friends who had been sleeping long ages in the silent tomb. All
were there again; the friend of her cloudless childhood, who went down
to death's cold chambers in all her stainless beauty, sinking into the
grave as pure as the snow-flake that falls to the earth. And there was
the sister of her home and heart, the tried friend of sorrow's shaded
hours, who, in dying, left a mighty void that time could never fill.
And there were the "mighty dead," they whose footsteps, when living,
tracked the world with light--light that now shed a halo over their
graves. And there were the meek, patient ones of earth, pale martyrs to
sorrow, who struggled hopefully through the dim vapors that surround
the world, and met as a reward the ineffable brightness of heaven. They
were all here, all who had passed from earth amidst a fond tribute of
tears and regrets.

All were here save two, those two the most dearly loved among the
precious company of the dead; and wildly scanning the pale group, the
mother called aloud as she missed her children: "Oh, my sons! my sons!
would that I could see them but once again!"

Then arose a loud voice, and it said: "Look to the east;" and the
weeping mother looked.

Oh! dreadful sight! there, by the sacred altar, rested a block and a
fearful wheel. Stretched on these dreadful instruments of doom, in the
coarse garb of the prison, wrestling fiercely with death in its most
awful form, were two poor youths; and in their wan countenances, where
crime and grief had traced their fearful march, the mother recognized
her lost sons.

Dismayed, heart-sick, despairing, she motionless stands; and the deep
silence is again broken by a voice speaking these words:--

"Mourner, whose every tone is a murmur at Heaven's will, whose every
expression is a doubt of God's love, let this teach thee a mighty
truth. See the dark path of crime they might have trod; see the agony,
the shame, the maternal anguish that might have swept like a desolating
tempest over thy heart; then thank thy God, in a burst of fervent
praise, that he took them in unsullied youth from a world of sin to a
place of safe refuge."

The voice ceased, and darkness fell like a pall on the marble floor;
but through the arched windows came streaming the pale moonlight, and
beneath its holy rays, the mother knelt and prayed.

There fell on her heart a blessed calm, as a voice whispered to the
troubled waves of sorrow, "peace, be still."

And the angel of death stole softly in, and sealed her pale lips
forever, whilst repentance and resignation were breathing from them in
the music of prayer.

Oh, weeping mother! who art hanging garlands of sorrow ever fresh over
thy children's tombs, take to thy bereaved heart, and ponder well, this
"Mother's Lesson!"

       *       *       *       *       *




TEACHING AT HOME.

LANGUAGE.


AS we are desirous of pointing out in what respects parents
may assist in the education of their children previous to their being
sent to school, we must remind them that it is at home that a child
learns to speak; and that there is, perhaps, nothing which helps more
towards his after instruction than the power of speaking well. There
are sometimes very strange notions on this subject amongst fathers
and mothers. They think, as long as they themselves can understand a
child when it begins to talk, that it is sufficient. They are rather
pleased than otherwise that the baby should have its own names for
the things it wants, and the parent learns to use these words for the
accommodation of the child. Instead of being helped forward in its
progress to plain speaking, it is allowed for several years to express
itself in a strange sort of gibberish, which is only laughed at and
admired by the rest of the family. The mother will tell with a sort
of satisfaction that little Susan can never use the letter S, or the
letter W; and no effort is made by her to conquer the difficulty. She
does not foresee, as most probably will be the case, that this will
be a sort of stumbling-block in little Susan's way when she goes to
school, and that she will pass for a sort of dunce, perhaps, for a
year or two, in consequence of her inability to read as well as other
children of her age. When she stands up in her class and begins to read
her portion of the lesson, she is told by the rest of the children
that they cannot understand a word that she reads; and the patience
of her teacher is sorely tried, in vain attempts to get a few words
distinctly uttered. And when Susan leaves school at last to enter
upon her occupation in life--say that of teacher--it is ten to one
that her imperfect utterance does not stand in her way in getting a
place; for mothers, who are well educated, like that their children
should be with those who speak well, and in the first interview with
Susan, the imperfection in her speech is discovered. The same, perhaps,
with Willy, her brother, who finds himself rejected several times by
persons to whom he offers himself to fill some situation for which he
is perfectly well qualified, only that the gentlemen think he must be
but a rough sort of lad from the countrified way in which he answers
the questions put to him. Clearness and correctness of speech have also
another advantage in securing correctness and clearness of thoughts. A
child who is made to put the right word to everything and to pronounce
it properly--to use the right expression in describing what he sees,
or in telling what he has done--knows and understands better than one
who makes up words or expressions for himself; and a mother or father
can, if they be not very bad speakers themselves, early accustom
their children to choose the right names for things instead of the
wrong in their talk. We all know that in many counties of England,
the people living there have words peculiar to themselves for many
things, different from the way in which they are called in London, or
in the great towns; at the same time that they know quite well what
are the right names and words used by the well educated. From early
habit they like to use these words, which perhaps remind them of their
own childhood or their home in early life; but it would be as well to
remember that to their children it would be an advantage to use the
more correct words and expressions, and therefore worth their while to
make an effort to employ them. It is also of great importance that the
_pronunciation_, or way of sounding words, should be correct. In these
counties, for instance, it is the habit of the people not to sound the
letter H at the beginning of a word; and though this may seem a very
trifling matter, it may on many occasions in life go greatly against a
young person, should he or she talk of a _orse_ or a _ouse_, instead
of a _horse_ or a _house_. The persons so speaking may have learned to
read very correctly, and write well, and be possessed of a good stock
of useful knowledge, and yet with a very large class of persons they
would, from such a slip of the tongue, be set down as ignorant and ill
educated--perhaps even be suspected of a rudeness and vulgarity in
thought and feeling which they were far from being guilty of. To secure
their children against such a disadvantage, it would be worth while for
any parent who knows how to spell, to take care that this important
letter _h_ is sounded in all words which it begins, there being only
two or three words in the English in which it is the custom not to
pronounce it, such as _hour_, _heir_, _honor_, &c., which are soon
learned to be exceptions to the general rule. This habit, it is true,
is peculiar to England; but it shows how carefully proper habits should
be nurtured in childhood.

There is a still more important point for parents to observe in the
language used by their children, and this is the avoidance of all
profane, vulgar, or indecent words. And in this respect the parent is
most particularly the teacher of his child. A father who uses an oath
in the presence of his innocent child, teaches that child to make use
of that expression some day in his turn. A mother who takes the great
name of God in vain, not only sets her child the example of so doing,
but takes away from its young mind some portion of the reverence which
it has hitherto felt towards the Great Being whom it is taught to call
its "Father in Heaven." Too much is it the custom, in the most trivial
events of everyday life, to utter that Name which should never be
pronounced but with reverence and love. It is called upon in moments
of anger and impatience, when the remembrance of His care and love
should lead us to leave the little as well as the great events of life
trustfully in his hands, knowing as we do that all is ordered and ruled
for our good.

       *       *       *       *       *


DIRECTIONS FOR TAKING LEAF IMPRESSIONS.

HOLD oiled paper in the smoke of a lamp, or of pitch, until it
becomes coated with the smoke; to this paper apply the leaf of which
you wish an impression, having previously warmed it between your hands,
that it may be pliable. Place the lower surface of the leaf upon the
blackened surface of the oil-paper, that the numerous veins, which are
so prominent on this side, may receive from the paper a portion of the
smoke. Lay a paper over the leaf, and then press it gently upon the
smoked paper with the fingers, or with a small roller (covered with
woollen cloth, or some like soft material), so that every part of the
leaf may come in contact with the sooted oil-paper. A coating of the
smoke will adhere to the leaf. Then remove the leaf carefully, and
place the blackened surface on a sheet of white paper, not ruled, or in
a book prepared for the purpose, covering the leaf with a clean slip
of paper, and pressing upon it with the fingers, or roller, as before.
Thus may be obtained the impression of a leaf, showing the perfect
outlines, together with an accurate exhibition of the veins which
extend in every direction through it, more correctly than the finest
drawing. And this process is so simple, and the materials so easily
obtained, that any person, with a little practice to enable him to
apply the right quantity of smoke to the oil-paper, and give the leaf
a proper pressure, can prepare beautiful leaf impressions, such as a
naturalist would be proud to possess.

There is another, and we think a better method of taking _leaf
impressions_ than the preceding one. The only difference in the process
consists in the use of _printing-ink_ instead of smoked oil-paper.

LEAF PRINTING.--After warming the leaf between the hands,
apply _printing-ink_, by means of a small leather ball containing
cotton, or some soft substance, or with the end of the finger. The
leather ball (and the finger when used for that purpose), after the
ink is applied to it, should be pressed several times upon a piece of
leather, or some smooth surface, before each application to the leaf,
that the ink may be smoothly and evenly applied.

After the under surface of the leaf has been sufficiently inked, apply
it to the paper, where you wish the impression; and, after covering
it with a slip of paper, use the hand or roller to press upon it, as
described in the former process.




FARM HOUSE.

[_From "Rural Architecture," published by C. M. Saxton, New York._]

[Illustration]


THIS is a plain and unpretending building in appearance; yet,
in its ample finish, and deeply drawn and sheltering eaves, broad
veranda, and spacious out-buildings, may give accommodation to a large
family indulging a liberal style of living.

By an error in the engraving, the main roof of the house is made to
appear like a double, or gambrel-roof, breaking at the intersection
of the gable, or hanging roof over the ends. This is not so intended.
The roofs on each side are a straight line of rafters. The Swiss, or
hanging style of gable-roof, is designed to give a more sheltered
effect to the elevation than to run the end walls to a peak in the
point of the roof.

By a defect in the drawing, the roof of the veranda is not sufficiently
thrown over the columns. This roof should project at least one foot
beyond them, so as to perfectly shelter the mouldings beneath from the
weather, and conform to the style of the main roof of the house.

The material of which it is built may be of either stone, brick, or
wood, as the taste or convenience of the proprietor may suggest. The
main building is 44 by 36 feet, on the ground. The cellar wall may
show 18 to 24 inches above the ground, and be pierced by windows in
each end, as shown in the plan. The height of the main walls may be
two full stories below the roof plates, or the chambers may run a foot
or two into the garret, at the choice of the builder, either of which
arrangements may be permitted.

The front door opens from a veranda 28 feet long by 10 feet in depth,
drooping eight inches from the door-sill. This veranda has a hipped
roof, which juts over the columns in due proportion with the roof of
the house over its walls. These columns are plain, with brackets, or
braces from near their tops, sustaining the plate and finish of the
roof above, which may be covered either with tin or zinc, painted, or
closely shingled.

The walls of the house may be 18 to 20 feet high below the plates; the
roof a pitch of 30 to 45 degrees, which will afford an upper garret,
or store, or small sleeping rooms, if required; and the eaves should
project two to three feet, as climate may demand, over the walls. A
plain finish--that is, ceiled underneath--is shown in the design, but
brackets on the ends of the rafters, beaded and finished, may be shown,
if preferred. The gables are _Swiss-roofed_, or _truncated_, thus
giving them a most sheltered and comfortable appearance, particularly
in a northerly climate. The small gable in front relieves the roof of
its monotony, and affords light to the central garret. The chimneys are
carried out with partition flues, and may be topped with square caps,
as necessity or taste may demand.

[Illustration: GROUND PLAN.

CHAMBER PLAN.]

Retreating three feet from the kitchen side of the house runs, at
right angles, a wing 30 by 18 feet, one and a half stories high, with
a veranda eight feet wide in front. Next in rear of this, continues a
wood-house, 30 by 18 feet, one story high, with ten-feet posts, and
open in front, the ground level of which is 18 inches below the floor
of the wing to which it is attached. The roof of these two is of like
character with that of the main building.

Adjoining this wood-house, and at right angles with it, is a building
68 by 18 feet, projecting two feet outside the line of wood-house and
kitchen. This building is one and a half stories high, with twelve feet
posts, and roof in the same style and of equal pitch as the others.

_Interior Arrangement._--The front door from the veranda of the house
opens into a hall, 18 by 8 feet, and 11 feet high, amply lighted by
sash windows on the sides, and over the door. From the rear of this
hall runs a flight of easy stairs, into the upper or chamber hall. On
one side of the lower hall, a door leads into a parlor, 18 feet square,
and 11 feet high, lighted by three windows, and warmed by an open stove
or fireplace, the pipe passing into a chimney flue in the rear. A door
passes from this parlor into a rear passage, or entry, thus giving it
access to the kitchen and rear apartments. At the back end of the front
hall, a door leads into the rear passage and kitchen; and on the side
opposite the parlor, a door opens into the sitting or family room; 18
by 16 feet in area, having an open fireplace, and three windows. On
the hall side of this room, a door passes into the kitchen, 22 by 16
feet, and which may, in case the requirements of the family demand it,
be made the chief family or living room, and the last one described
converted into a library. In this kitchen, which is lighted by two
windows, is a liberal open fireplace, with an ample oven by its side,
and a sink in the outer corner. A flight of stairs, also, leads to
the rear chambers above; and a corresponding flight under them, to the
cellar below. A door at each end of these stairs leads into the back
entry of the house, and thus to the other interior rooms, or through
the rear outer door to the back porch. This back entry is lighted by a
single sash window over the outside door leading to the porch. Another
door, opposite that leading down cellar, opens into the passage through
the wing. From the rear hall, which is 16 by 5 feet, the innermost
passage leads into a family bedroom, or nursery, 16 by 14 feet, lighted
by a window in each outside wall, and warmed by an open fireplace, or
stove, at pleasure. Attached to this bedroom is a clothes-closet, 8 by
4 feet, with shelves and drawers. Next the outer door, in rear end of
the hall, is a small closet opening from it, 6 by 4 feet in dimensions,
convertible to any use which the mistress of the house may direct.

Opening into the wing from the kitchen, first, is a large closet and
pantry, supplied with a table, drawers, and shelves, in which are
stored the dishes, table furniture, and edibles necessary to be kept
at a moment's access. This room is 14 by 8 feet, and well lighted
by a window of convenient size. If necessary, this room may have
a partition, shutting off a part from the everyday uses which the
family requires. In this room, so near to the kitchen, to the sink,
to hot water, and the other little domestic accessories which good
housewives know so well how to arrange and appreciate, all the nice
little table-comforts can be got up, and perfected, and stored away,
under lock and key, in drawer, tub, or jar, at their discretion, and
still their eyes not be away from their subordinates in the other
departments. Next to this, and connected by a door, is the dairy, or
milk-room, also 14 by 8 feet; which, if necessary, may be sunk three
or four feet into the ground, for additional coolness in the summer
season, and the floor reached by steps. In this are ample shelves for
the milk-pans, convenience of churning, &c. &c. But, if the dairy
be a prominent object of the farm, a separate establishment will
be required, and the excavation may not be necessary for ordinary
household uses. Out of this milk-room, a door leads into a wash-room,
18 by 14 feet. A passage from the kitchen also leads into this. The
wash-room is lighted by two windows in rear, and one in front. A sink
is between the two rear windows, with conductor leading outside, and a
closet beneath it, for the iron ware. In the chimney, at the end, are
boilers, and a fireplace, an oven, or anything else required, and a
door leading to a platform in the wood-house, and so into the yard. On
the other side of the chimney, a door leads into a bathing-room, 7 by 6
feet, into which hot water is drawn from one of the boilers adjoining,
and cold water may be introduced, by a hand-pump, through a pipe
leading into the well or cistern.

       *       *       *       *       *


A FEW WORDS ABOUT DELICATE WOMEN.

HOW essential is it to the well-being of a family that the
wife and mother should be cheerful, active, and healthy. Yet, looking
at those classes of the community a little above what may be termed
the laboring class, how frequently we find that the women are ailing,
nervous, and irritable; or, as they would call themselves, "delicate!"
How is this?

"Why," answers one, "some are the children of unhealthy parents, and
the inheritors of their diseases." Where this is the case, the fullest
sympathy and consideration are due; but the number of such would be
only a few in comparison with the class we speak of. We must look
further for the cause.

"Oh," suggests another, "is not the fact of being a wife and mother,
and having the care and management of a family and household, with
perhaps very limited pecuniary resources, quite enough to make women
weak and ailing?" We think not. Such circumstances are trying; but
with some women they have been the means of drawing out unwonted
cheerfulness and energy of character. Allowing, however, that some
women are so tried and harassed by the circumstances of married life
that their health and energy give way; still their number would be
comparatively few, and we must find some other cause for the fact that
there are so many females who call themselves "delicate."

Is it that they have an impression that there is something amiable in
being delicate?

Do they think it is lady-like to be delicate?

Is not this delicacy cultivated by some as a means of drawing more
largely on sympathy, especially the husband's sympathy?

Are not idleness and inactivity often excused or hidden under this
convenient cloak of delicacy?

We think that each of these questions may be correctly answered in the
affirmative, and that the commencement of these errors, with all their
attendant evils, may be traced to the education of the girl.

Years ago, Fanny was a healthy, active, and unaffected child, when her
parents sent her to a boarding-school. For the first few days, feeling
herself among strangers, and away from home, she was pensive and quiet;
but this soon wore away, and she became cheerful and happy again.
She had taken a skipping-rope with her to school, and one evening,
when she was in the full enjoyment of the use of it, the evening bell
rang for the scholars to retire for the night. When Fanny went to say
"good-night" to the governess, she was surprised to hear her say to the
matron: "You will be so good as to give Miss Fanny a dose of calomel,
she is in too robust health; see, her cheeks are like a milkmaid's."
So Fanny had to take calomel, and the next day she was languid and
listless, or, as the governess seemed to consider, "lady-like."
Another time, when playing with a companion somewhat actively in the
playground, they were stopped by a teacher, saying: "Young ladies,
are you not ashamed of yourselves? that is not the way to conduct
yourselves in this establishment. Why, what would be thought of you?
Pray let me see you walk like young ladies."

Fanny wished then that she was not to be called a "young lady" if she
might not play and romp about a little, for she was sure it made her
happy to do so. But it is astonishing what changes may in time be
effected by teaching and example. During the remainder of her stay at
school, Fanny had occasional doses of calomel when too robust health
began to show itself; and she had learned to believe that, to be at all
respected by her fellow-creatures, she must be considered a young lady,
and that all young ladies were of delicate constitutions, and that it
was very unlady-like to be healthy and active.

Poor Fanny! she had not only imbibed these notions, but she had also
lost a great deal of her vigor of constitution, and had become inert
and inactive. When she left school, she returned to the home of her
childhood, where family arrangements were such that her assistance
would frequently have been acceptable to her parents. But when anything
was requested of her, it was attended to in a manner so unwilling and
languid, that they soon ceased to ask anything of her, grieving and
wondering what was become of their cheerful and active Fanny.

Not being aware of Fanny's idea's about ladyism, and not perceiving
that the mind wanted curing more than the body, her parents consulted
the family doctor, who said that he could not perceive there was much
the matter with her; he, however, recommended fresh air and exercise,
and suggested that perhaps a few weeks by the seaside might do her
good. Now, this latter advice Fanny liked very much; it added to her
importance as a lady that she should be taken to the seaside because
she was in delicate health. However, as Fanny meant to be delicate,
she was as much so on her return as before, until at last it became an
allowed fact in the family that Fanny was "so delicate" that she was
left to do pretty much as she pleased.

Time passed on, and Fanny became a wife, and, with a vague idea that
she was to secure to herself the affections of her husband, just in
proportion that she made demands upon his sympathy, her elegant ailings
became more numerous than ever, and she has fully established her claim
to be classed among "delicate women."

Perhaps the custom of giving calomel to destroy health, as if it were
a weed too rank to be allowed to grow, is not very much practised; but
other injurious customs are taught and practised which as certainly
injure health.

The custom of confining the body in tight stays, or tight clothes of
any kind, is exceedingly hurtful to the health of both body and mind.
A girl has learned a very bad lesson, when she has been taught that
to gain the admiration of her fellow-creatures, she must, even to the
endangering of health and life, distort her figure from that which
nature has made, to something which fashion presumes to dictate as more
admirable.

The custom of preventing the active use of the limbs, and free
exercise of the body generally, and restricting every movement to the
artificial notions of boarding-school propriety, is attended with
mental and physical evils of all sorts. While a child is forbidden
to take the bodily exercise which nature would impel her to do, the
humors grow thick and stagnate for want of motion to warm and dilate
them; the general circulation is impeded; the muscles stiffen, because
deprived of their necessary moisture; obstructions take place, which
produce weakness in every animal function; and nature, no longer able
to discharge the morbid matter which constantly accumulates from all
her imperfect operations, gradually sickens, and the child is either
carried to a premature grave, or continues an existence of physical and
mental languor and listlessness; and another is added to the class of
"delicate women."

We cannot be far from right in saying that almost all the mental and
physical ailings of "delicate women" may be traced to a defective
education. And those who are now engaged in training girls, whether
at home or in schools, cannot too seriously consider the weight of
responsibility resting upon them. Upon their management depend much of
future health, and, consequently, the usefulness and happiness of those
committed to their charge.

As requisites to the promotion of bodily vigor, we will mention:--

A strict attention to personal cleanliness, which children should be
taught to cultivate, because it is healthy and right that they should
be clean, and not because "it would look so if they were dirty!"

The use of apartments that are well ventilated.

Frequent and sufficient active bodily exercise in the open air.

Entire freedom from any pressure upon the person by the use of tight
clothes.

A sufficiency of nourishing and digestible food.

And, in winter, the use of such firing as is needed to keep up a
healthful warmth.

All these will tend to promote health, but we shall have no security
against "delicate women" unless there be also added the cultivation of
mental health.

For this, it is necessary that girls should be taught to cultivate
_mental purity and mental activity_, by sufficient and well-regulated
exercise of the mind.

Habits of benevolence, contentment, and cheerful gratitude should
be inculcated, both by precept and example, to the exclusion of
selfishness.

And, above all, should be strongly impressed upon the mind the
necessity of the strictest integrity, which will lead to the abhorrence
of every species of affectation, which is, indeed, only a modified sort
of deceit.

Girls should also be early taught that they are responsible beings;
responsible to God for the right use of all the mercies bestowed upon
them; and that health is one of the chief of earthly blessings, and
that it is their duty to value and preserve it.

But much is learnt from example as well as from precept; therefore, let
no affectation of languid airs in a teacher give a child the idea that
there can be anything admirable in the absence of strength. We do not
wish that girls should cultivate anything masculine; for an unfeminine
woman cannot be an object of admiration to the right judging of either
sex. But a female has no occasion to affect to be feminine; she is
so naturally, and if she will but let nature have its perfect work,
she will, most likely, be not only feminine, but also graceful and
admirable.

The school studies of girls should be so arranged that they may afford
mental food and satisfaction; otherwise, as soon as the lesson hours
are over, they will, most likely, turn with avidity to any nonsense
they can learn from foolish conversation, or to reading some of the
trashy books of the day, to the injury of all mental and moral health,
and the almost certain production of "delicate women."

To those who are already women, and are unfortunately classed among
the "delicate," we would say: For the sake of your husbands, and all
connected with you, strive resolutely to lose your claim to such an
unenviable distinction. If you are conscious of the least feeling of
satisfaction in hearing yourself spoken of as delicate, be assured it
is a degree of mental disease that allows the feeling. If you ever
suppose that you gain your husband's sympathy by weakness, remember
you might gain more of his esteem and satisfied affection by strength.
Fifty years ago, it was well said that, "To a man of feeling, extreme
delicacy in the partner of his life and fortune is an object of great
and constant concern; but a _semblance_ of such delicacy, where it
does not really exist, is an insult on his discernment, and must
ultimately inspire him with aversion and disgust." It is not for
us to say how many put on the semblance of delicacy as a covering
for idleness, or from any of the weak motives that prompt such an
affectation--conscience will whisper where this is the case--and happy
will it be for the household of any one who can be roused from such a
pitiable state.

Could woman only know how many husbands are bankrupt because their
wives are "delicate;" how many children are physically, mentally, and
morally neglected and ruined, because their mothers are "delicate;"
how many servants become dishonest and inefficient, because their
mistresses are "delicate"--the list would be so appalling that possibly
we might hear of an Anti-delicate-ladies Association, for the better
promotion of family happiness and family economy.

Meanwhile, let each listen to her own conscience and the dictates of
her better judgment, and remember that health is a gift of God, and we
cannot slight a gift without also slighting the Giver.

[Illustration: Painted by F. Poole.

THE GLEANER.]




POETRY.


THE GLEANER.

BY RICHARD COE.

(_See Plate._)

    NOT the raven's glossy wing
    Is so beautiful a thing
    As thy locks of jet-black hair,
    Maiden, all so bright and fair!
    And a soul of beauty lies
    In the midnight of thine eyes;
    And a sweet, expressive grace
    Sitteth meekly on thy face,
    Like unto a statue seen
    Of some gentle, loving queen!

    Whatsoe'er thy name or station,
    Thine, sweet maid, 's a blest vocation;
    'Neath the dome that God hath spread
    All above and round thy head;
    Taking in the healthful breeze
    From the mountain-tops and trees;
    Thou dost toil from day to day,
    Knowing that "to work's to pray!"
    Conscious of reward well won
    At the setting of the sun.

    From thy thought-revealing brow
    Strength of intellect hast thou;
    In the harvest-fields of Thought
    Mighty minds of old have wrought;
    Thou hast followed in their way,
    Gleaning richly day by day:
    Gems of purest ray serene
    In the intervals between
    Constant toil and needful rest,
    Thou hast garnered in thy breast.

    In the brighter fields above,
    'Neath the beaming eye of Love,
    While the heavenly reapers stand,
    Each with sickle in his hand,
    Thou shalt take thy final rest
    On the Master's kindly breast;
    Ever, evermore to be
    Blest throughout eternity;
    Never, nevermore to roam
    From thy gladsome Harvest Home!

       *       *       *       *       *


THE PET.

BY ROSA MONTROSE.

    I HAVE a little nephew,
      He is scarcely three years old,
    With eyes of heaven's deepest blue,
      And ringlets palely gold;
    His mouth, a velvet rosebud red,
      All hung with honey-dew;
    But sweeter far our darling's lips
      Than rose that ever grew!

    I ne'er have found so dear a child,
      Or one so strangely fair,
    Or saw on infant brow like his
      The mind that's slumb'ring there!
    And oftentimes he utters things,
      Confounding wise and old;
    And from his baby lips we hear
      What wisdom bath not told!

    He's like a breath of summer air--
      A dew-drop pure and bright,
    That falls from Evening's closing eye,
      To kiss the morning light:
    A ray of sunshine, soft and warm--
      A straying golden beam--
    A silver singing rivulet--
      Or joyous dancing stream!

    He is the treasure of our heart--
      The sunlight and the joy;
    He'll lisp to you the names he bears,
      Sweet, lovely, darling boy!
    And when he comes with pleading words,
      My work is laid away,
    Or classic volume closed at once,
      To join him in his play.

    His voice is like a tiny lute,
      And when he sweetly sings,
    You'd think he was an angel, and
      Be looking for his wings!
    And oft I clasp him to my heart
      With strange foreboding fear
    That he's a straying seraph child
      God only lends us here!

    Such thoughts as these intruding come,
      For in this world of ours
    The loveliest things the soonest droop;
      The fairest human flowers
    Are ever first to pass away,
      The first to fade and die--
    Thus teaching us our treasures should
      Be sought beyond the sky!

    But we will love our "angel boy,"
      And never cease to pray
    That seraph forms may guide him here,
      _But call him not away!_
    And hope that till life's closing breath,
      As on his infant brow,
    So Intellect and Innocence
      May blend as pure as now!

       *       *       *       *       *


DISAPPOINTED LOVE.

BY W. S. GAFFNEY.

    OH! scorn him not--the noble soul
      Whose happy dreams have sped:
    Whose cherished hopes of blissful love
      Have ever, ever fled!
    For, oh! 'tis hard at best to bear
      Misfortunes from above;
    But deathlike to the manly heart
      Is cruel, shipwrecked love!

    Oh! scorn him not--but gently strive
      To soothe his troubled breast;
    For man's vocation here on earth
      Is wearisome at best:
    Then metre out true sympathy--
      Pour oil upon the smart--
    And, smiling angels, oh! beware
      To crush a manly heart!

       *       *       *       *       *


STANZAS.

BY H. B. WILDMAN.

    I STOOD beside a pleasant stream,
      Where spicy boughs were wreathing;
    Its gentle ripples came and went
      Like sleeping infants breathing.

    The lily press'd its dewy cheek
      Upon the kissing billow,
    And slumber'd like a summer bride
      Upon her nuptial pillow.

    Yet, by this stream a dark rock tower'd
      Like fane in forest waving;
    Deep furrows shown within its side,
      Wrought by the ripples laving!

    I gazed upon the sunny stream,
      And thought of sunny faces,
    And wonder'd how such gentle waves
      Could leave such angry traces.

    Again I stood within the hall
      Where Wealth her glow was shedding;
    The spacious dome seem'd lighted up
      For some grand princely wedding.

    The moon look'd down on golden spires,
      As if to give a greeting;
    One would have thought, amid the show,
      'Twas Pleasure's natal meeting.

    Yet there, within that hall, that night
      I saw the discontented;
    I saw pale faces mark'd with care,
      Like spirits unrepented.

    I gazed upon the princely hall
      Where wealth had blown her bubble,
    And wonder'd how, amid such show,
      There could be aught of trouble.

    And thus, I said, amid Life's glare--
      Amid this world of hurry--
    'Tis true that "tongues we find in trees,
      And sermons in the quarry!"

    Our life is like yon little stream,
      Where ripples are retreating;
    And Pleasure, though array'd in smiles,
      Hath spots where Care is eating.

    Our life is like a summer stream
      That lulls us into slumber;
    We dream we're happy for a while,
      While waves in countless number,

    Though gentle in their ceaseless flow,
      Are every day and morrow,
    Still chafing in the shores of Life
      Some secret marks of sorrow!

       *       *       *       *       *


BRIGHT FLOWERS FOR HER I LOVE.

BY WILLIAM RODERICK LAWRENCE.

    BRIGHT flowers for her I love
      Yes, flowers rich and rare,
    The rose-bud and the violet
      To grace her golden hair;
    Yet nature's gems--though beautiful
      And pure and bright they be--
    Are not so fair as she I love,
      Or beautiful to me.

    Rare gems for her I love!
      All sparkling in their light,
    A diadem to grace that brow
      So beautifully bright;
    Yet earthly crowns must fade--
      Immortal crowns above
    Alone are worthy to be sought
      By her I fondly love.

    Music for her I love!
      Melodiously low,
    Breathed soft from harps whose golden strings
      With songs of rapture glow;
    Such music as the angels make
      In worlds of light above--
    Such music would I have to cheer
      The heart of her I love.

    And peace for her I love!
      The peace religion brings,
    Renouncing fleeting, transient joys
      For bright and heavenly things;
    Let happiness be hers,
      And heaven her rest above;
    May this, my prayer, accepted rise
      For her I truly love.

       *       *       *       *       *


STANZAS.

BY HELEN HAMILTON.

    THOUGH thou art dying, yet I may not weep
      Such grief I leave to those who part for years;
    _We_ only part for days; it may be--hours;
      We have no need of tears.

    Ere thy last kiss is cold upon my lips,
      Thy dying clasp is loosened from my hand;
    I will be with thee--thou but goest before
      Into the better land.

    When thou hast reached Heav'n's golden portal, pause
      And cast one look adown Death's shadowy road;
    I will be near, nor tremble as I walk
      The road thou first hast trod.

    Would that together we might pass away!
      Would that one sound might ring our passing knell!
    Yet soon we'll meet where partings are unknown;
      For the last time--farewell.

       *       *       *       *       *


SONNET.--NATURE.

BY WM. ALEXANDER.

    NATURE! Well hath the Poet said: "Who can
      Paint like to thee?" Inimitably fine
      Seem all the hues and colorings of thine,
    Though microscopic eye may closely scan:
    Close search but lifts the mystic veil that hides
      Thy scenes of beauty. In the tiny cup
      Of thy fair flowers, what wonders open up!
    Lo! a whole insect nation there resides,
    Clad in rich vests of fine embroidery,
      Or coats of living purple, green, and gold.
      Such fairy scenes, so constantly unrolled,
    Declare design most manifest to be;
      And the least path Omnipotence hath trod
      Exhibits footprints of our glorious God.

       *       *       *       *       *


TO ONE WHO RESTS.

BY WINNIE WOODFERN.

    I THOUGHT my heart had cast away
    Each memory of its early day;
    I thought nor grief, nor change, nor fear,
    Could teach these eyes to shed a tear;
    And yet, a very child I be,
    Alas, I still remember thee!

    I often gaze with heart unmoved
    On lips that smile like thine, beloved;
    I often catch a deep low tone,
    That bears the music of thine own;
    Yet pass, without a tear or smile,
    My pulses calm and cool, the while.

    Thou, dearest, hast been linked to me
    By things which never more can be;
    By memories of that lovely place,
    That village, _quiet in its grace_,
    Like lilies, in the summer air,
    That stir not; knowing they are fair.

    And those who trod its mossy walks,
    And shared with me those woodland talks,
    'Till our hearts, hungry for the pain
    Of loving, to be loved again,
    Learned the deep meaning of a word
    Which had been better never heard.

    Thou, and thy love, were of that time
    When life was but a passion--rhyme;
    When I knew not that care might come
    Even to that sweet mountain home;
    When stars and streams and flowers were part
    Of this, then calmly beating heart.

    So, when the martyr's cross was mine,
    I chose another love than thine;
    Our hearts, but not our souls, were mates,
    Our love the same, but not our fates;
    And he who, in these later years,
    Seeks me, seeks also scorching tears.

    'Tis long since I have breathed thy name!
    It once could turn my heart to flame;
    But now, so changed and cold am I,
    I only speak it with a sigh,
    That dreams, whose proper home is Heaven,
    To hearts o'ertasked with Earth, are given!

    Oh, long forsaken! no fond dream,
    Floating (like flowers on a stream),
    Down the wild current of my mind,
    Counts o'er the joys I've left behind,
    A little thing has drawn these tears,
    For thee, and for our early years!

    A moment since I cast a look
    Within the pages of a book
    Which thou to me hast often read,
    Thy shoulder pillowing my head;
    A faint, sweet perfume thence arose;
    _There lay thy gift_--a faded rose!

    It was as if an altar burned
    With sacrifices, and I turned--
    Beloved, do not think me weak!
    Tears, wild with grief, fled down my cheek,
    And to my lips arose a prayer
    That I might _die_ while pausing there!

    My song is o'er; 'twill only tell,
    To some who know and love me well,
    At times, within my inmost soul,
    Are thoughts I cannot quite control,
    Because they breathe and speak of thee,
    Who can be nothing now to me!

       *       *       *       *       *


THEY SAY THAT SHE IS BEAUTIFUL.

BY MARY GRACE HALPING.

    THEY say that she is beautiful;
      They praise that speaking eye,
    That fair and softly rounded cheek,
      Its bright and changeful dye,
    That pure and polished brow that towers
      Like ivory temple high.

    But is that radiant being fair
      The light and joy of _home?_
    Doth from its loving inmates there
      Her heart forget to roam?
    Oh, is she not as false and fair
      As ocean's snowy foam?

    They say, unlike the tones of earth
      Rings out that music free;
    But only from the halls of mirth
      Are heard those tones of glee;
    They say that she is beautiful--
      She is not so to me.

    I've seen that sweet and smiling lip
      Give back a stern reply;
    I've seen the cloud of passion dim
      That proudly glorious eye,
    And on that pure transparent brow
      The shade of anger lie.

    I know that outward beauty sits
      Upon that queenly brow;
    Before its proud and gorgeous shrine
      Doth man admiring bow,
    While she, with false, capricious smile,
      Repays each idle vow.

    I know with seeming truth doth flash
      That darkly radiant eye,
    Yet beauty oft will sell for cash
      What love can never buy,
    Aside a loving heart will dash
      That time and change defy.

    Upon the thickly crowded street,
      I many a form have past,
    Whom grace gave not proportion meet
      From beauty's model cast,
    To whom the _soul_ a glory lends
      A radiance that will last,
    When beauty's tender floweret bends
      Before time's wintry blast.

    Yet _there_ I see no loving _heart_,
      No spirit pure and free,
    Though like a whited sepulchre
      An outward gloss may be;
    They say that she is beautiful,
      She is not so to me.

       *       *       *       *       *


ODE TO THE AIR IN MAY.

BY NICHOLAS NETTLEBY.

    AWAKE, O Muse! my trembling pen inspire!
      Infuse my words with unpolluted song;
    Touch every line with thine own sacred fire,
      And bear me by thy impulses along!

    To thee, sweet Air, that dost around me play,
      Touching ethereally each silv'ry string
    That vibrates in the golden Harp of May,
      To thee I dedicate this offering.

    Soft, gentle Air! unnumbered missions thine,
      Missions of mercy, kindness, and of love;
    Guardian to man thou art, almost divine,
      Doing below as angel hosts above.

    Thine is it, Air, at morn's first op'ning light,
      To hang rich curtains in the eastern sky,
    Which, casting back their own refulgence bright,
      Proclaim to earth that glorious day is nigh.

    Thine is the task, as heaven's all-wondrous orb
      Fills the eternal arch that o'er us spans,
    Within thyself its fiercest rays t' absorb,
      And make its milder, softer radiance man's.

    O'er the broad earth thou wingest; every day
      Lighting bright smiles in mansions high and low;
    Blessings uncounted strewing in thy way,
      Bright'ning the eye, kindling the cheek with glow.

    When burning fever mantles o'er the brow,
      And dire disease foretells the angel Death,
    Welcome is thy refreshing entrance. Now
      Gold hath not there the sweetness of thy breath.

    With flowers thou lov'st to sport in fondest glee,
      Sipping from velvet cups their rich perfume;
    Thou lov'st to dally with the old oak-tree,
      And with its broad green crest sweetly commune.

    That sombre cloud that far on high is seen,
      Shading the earth from Sol's intensest rays,
    Is upward borne by thee, a wondrous screen,
      Which both thy goodness and thy power displays.

    Within our path thy liquid waves are found,
      Constant attendant upon every hour,
    Bearing unto us many a moving sound,
      And messages from each surrounding flower.

    And if (when weary of a long repose),
      Thou dost invite an earth-refreshing storm,
    When three-tongued lightnings in the heavens disclose
      Terrific thunderclouds of grandest form,

    Mantling the sky in blackest robes of night,
      And rushing onward in confusion dire,
    While deep explosions cause the timid fright,
      And heaven and earth are filled with lurid fire;

    Then is it that thy majesty we love;
      Then we behold the wonders of thy power;
    Thou hold'st the elements that rage above,
      And guidest them in that sublimest hour!

    But over thee, sweet Air, another hand,
      Higher and stronger, holier than thine own,
    Presides. 'Tis He, who by a seraph band,
      Is circled round. HE upon Heaven's Throne!

       *       *       *       *       *


ANNOYANCE.

BY BEATA.

    I WAS thinking of the "Godey;" that it was out I knew,
    The month was just beginning, and the papers said so too;
    "A charming number," "brilliant," "a treat for ladies all,"
    And I wished to see its contents, and read "Fashion" on the fall.

    A rainy afternoon it was--not a dashing, roaring rain,
    With a trumpet-sounding wind, or a stirring hurricane;
    It did not rattle 'gainst the glass a lively, merry chime,
    But a dull and dreary drizzle, a stupid, yawning time.

    I almost had a mind to venture on the street,
    But I do detest the pavements, even when they're clean and neat;
    So I thought upon the "Godey," with its fresh and uncut page,
    And longed for something pretty, my moments to engage.

    It struck me that some pleasant chat would restore a cheerful tone,
    And rising with a sigh (for I, musing, sat alone),
    I gathered up my sewing and quickly took my way,
    Where it always wears an aspect bright, despite a rainy day.

    But scarcely had I entered, ere there fell, distinct and clear,
    The sound of _cutting pages_ upon my wondering ear;
    There sat my quiet brother, this dismal afternoon,
    With my number in his hand, as I perceived full soon.

    I asked, "Is that 'Littell' you have?" but I knew only too well
    The answer which I should receive, that it was not "Littell;"
    And had he read my wishes, and offered me the "Book,"
    I would not have accepted; but I love the first, fresh look.

    So I waited very patiently, and my reward was near;
    I saw that he was pleased, though it cost me rather dear;
    And when the day was closing, and the rain at last was done,
    I enjoyed the precious "Godey," and the glorious setting sun.

       *       *       *       *       *


'TIS O'ER.

BY I. J. STINE.

    'TIS o'er! the tender tie is broke
      Which bound my heart so close to thee;
    Though painful, though severe the stroke,
      I now can smile that I am free.
    The grief, the sorrow, and the woe
    That I was called to undergo,
    The bitter pangs, the heartfelt pain,
    All, all have ceased their tyrant reign.

    'Twas but a moment's pain, 'tis gone;
      I'm happy, though unhappy now;
    And Melancholy, meek and wan,
      Sits peaceful on my thoughtful brow.
    The world, with all its loss and gain,
    Me neither pleasure gives nor pain;
    With thee, false, heartless one, with thee
    I lost all joy--all misery.




OUR PRACTICAL DRESS INSTRUCTOR

[Illustration]


DESCRIPTION OF THE ENGRAVING.

_Headdress of the Lady on the Right._--Hair in bandeaux _à la Niobe;_
torsade of pearls. Moire dress, low body, with progressive revers
opening over a modestie of embroidered muslin edged with lace; short
open sleeves _à la Watteau;_ undersleeves of embroidered muslin;
half-long gloves; bracelets of pearls, or more often worn different,
according to choice.

_The other Figure_ (_Lady seated_).--Cap of tulle trimmed with lace and
ribbon. Low body, with revers open to waist; loose bell-shaped sleeves,
edged with a bouillonne; two skirts trimmed with the same; modestie of
embroidered muslin, edged with point de Venise; black velvet bracelets,
half-long gloves, and Venetian fan.


DESCRIPTION OF DIAGRAMS.

    (_See next page._)

Fig. 1.--Front of body as shown in the engraving.

Fig. 2.--Back of body, by placing the letters _a_ _a_.

Fig. 3.--The cape sommet worn for evening dress. Place the letters _b_
_b_, the upper part of the cape forming an epaulette over the shoulder.

Fig. 4.--The sleeve, showing the muslin sleeve underneath, as in the
engraving, _à Watteau_ shape, fastened by a bow of ribbon. We have
given the pattern of the whole sleeve.

[Illustration: DIAGRAMS OF THE DRESS SHOWN ON PAGE 453.]

       *       *       *       *       *

[Illustration: COTTAGE FURNITURE.

The above figure is a handsome pattern for a sofa. The castors are sunk
in the legs.]

       *       *       *       *       *


WORK-TABLE FOR JUVENILES;

OR,

LITTLE MARY'S HALF-HOLIDAY.

"WELL, my dear, I am glad to see you ready for work again."

"Here are six yards of pink satin ribbon, about an inch wide, some pink
sarsnet, some card-board, black net, and plaited straw. What kind of
straw is it, mamma?"

[Illustration: BACK OF A WATCH-POCKET.]

"It is called straw-beading, and is employed in the same way that
split straw was once used; but as it is flexible, and to be had in any
length, it is much more easily worked. Besides the things you have
mentioned, there is some pink sewing silk, and a little stiff muslin.
Now you have all your materials complete, and I have only to show you
how to use them. Begin by cutting out the shape for the back of the
watch-pocket. Here is a drawing of it. It is 7 inches long, and 4½ in
the widest part. Mark the depth of three inches from the bottom, and
form this into a half round, then cut it into a point from the widest
part to the top. The lower part, which is for the pocket, is thus three
inches deep, and the top four inches. You will require two pieces of
card-board of this shape and size, which must be covered on both sides
with pink silk. Tack them together round the edges."

"These pieces are for the backs. Are the fronts of the pockets made of
card-board, too?"

"No; you will use the stiff muslin for them. They must be in the half
circle form, 3 inches deep, but 5½ inches wide at the top. They must
also be covered with silk on both sides. Now cut out two pieces of
black net, rather larger than the backs, and two more (also allowing
for turnings in) for the fronts. Do you remark anything peculiar in the
net?"

"It is like the imitation netting you brought from Paris, mamma; is
it not? The holes are perfect diamonds, and much larger than in any
English net."

"Yes, it is part of that I brought with me. Being so open, it is easy
to slip the straw through it. Take the end of the straw, pass it under
two threads, and over three, in one line. Cut it off close to the edge
of the net. Run in as many lines as you can in the same direction, but
with intervals of four holes, five threads between them. Cross them
with others in the same way, both straws passing under the _same_ hole
when they cross. All the four pieces of net must be worked in the same
way, and then tacked on, to cover the silk on one side. Now sew the
fronts to the backs. The ribbon trimming must now be prepared. It is to
be quilled in the centre, in the way called _box_ quilling; that is,
one plait must be to the right, and the next to the left. Do enough
for the top of each pocket separately, and put it on, then a length to
go completely round. Finish each pocket with a knot of ribbon at the
point, and a small loop to pin it to the bed."

"Do you know, mamma, I was inclined to think you had not matched the
sarsnet and ribbon well? The sarsnet looked so much the darker. Now
they correspond perfectly. How is that?"

"You forget that the sarsnet is covered with net, which softens the
depth of the tint considerably. Had the covering been muslin, it must
have been still deeper, to correspond with the uncovered ribbon. It is
for want of the consideration of these small points that there is so
frequently a want of harmony in the tints of amateur needlewomen."

"And now, mamma, what next? For I have a good deal of spare time still."

"You said you would like to work papa a pair of slippers, so I have
contrived a design for you, which will use up all your remnants of
wool. We will call it the dice pattern. Of each color you may use, you
will require two shades with black and white. You can mark on your
canvas the outline of the slippers with a soft pen and ink; then work
from the drawing I have made, beginning at the toe. You may use any
number of colors, only let them be well chosen, and falling in stripes.
Do not put green and blue, or any other two colors which do not
blend well, close together. You may try the effect with shades in the
following order: violet, orange, green, crimson, blue. That part which
is quite white in the drawing is done in white wool, and there are two
spotted squares which are to be black. Then the upper side of each die
is in the darker shade of whatever color may be used, and the under
light. Fill it up with black. If you work on Penelope canvas, you will
find it much easier."

[Illustration: DICE PATTERN FOR SLIPPERS.]

       *       *       *       *       *


EMBROIDERY.--DRESS UNDERSLEEVE.

(_See Brown Cut in front of Book._)

_Materials._--Half a yard of fine Swiss muslin; embroidery cotton, No.
100.

TRACE the pattern upon the muslin with a quill pen and blue mixed with
gum-water; make the leaves, stems, and flowers in raised satin stitch;
the circles in button-hole stitch, either making them close or open, as
may be preferred; if close, a raised spot must be worked in the centre
of each. Work the edge in button-hole stitch.

       *       *       *       *       *


PATTERNS FOR EMBROIDERY.

[Illustration]

[Illustration: PART OF AN EMBROIDERED DRESS UNDER SLEEVE]

       *       *       *       *       *


EVANGELINE AND ANTOINETTE.

    (See engravings on page 385.)

EVANGELINE.--Silk embroidered, and trimmed with two rows of
guipure lace--one row of lace round the yoke, and one about ten inches
from the bottom, each row headed with a narrow quilling of ribbon,
which also goes down the front and round the neck. On the yoke and
between the rows of lace there is handsome embroidery.

ANTOINETTE. _An entirely new pattern._--The mantilla is
entirely formed of rows of lace or pinked silk on a silk or thin
foundation.

       *       *       *       *       *


LACE MANTILLA AND TABLET MANTILLA.

    (See engravings on page 388.)

LACE MANTILLA.--This mantilla has three capes--the first is in
depth twenty-three inches, the second eighteen inches, and the third
fourteen inches, with lace edging to match. The collar is six inches in
depth, with a bow of ribbon behind.

TABLET MANTILLA.--_Material._ Watered or plain silk. It is
made with a yoke, and falls low on the shoulders. For trimming, it
is cut in turrets, trimmed with narrow braid and netted fringe sewed
underneath.

       *       *       *       *       *


MARQUISE AND NAVAILLES.

    (See engravings on page 389.)

MARQUISE.--_Silk Pelisse._ The body is close; it is trimmed
with three rows of goffered ribbons disposed in arcades, and terminated
at each point by loops of ribbons one over the other. A row of ribbons
runs round the bottom of the body, which has also a lace trimming that
falls over the opening of the sleeve. The skirt falls in flutes; it has
three rows of ribbons and a lace flounce.

NAVAILLES.--_Shawl-Mantelet_, of taffetas trimmed with lace,
fringe, and silk ribbons having velvet stripes. It opens like a shawl
in front, and comes high behind. A lace of two inches in width turns
down on the neck as far as the bow on the breast; a point falls behind
like a little shawl, and is bordered with a ribbon sewed on flat, and a
lace of about five inches, besides a fringe; in front this lace forms
a bertha. The lower part of the garment, sewed on under the point,
is rounded, and hangs in flutes behind. It is bordered with the same
ribbon, accompanied by the same, and fringe. The ends in front are
pointed.

       *       *       *       *       *


SPRING FASHIONS.

    (See engraving on page 390.)

Fig. 1. _Dress._--Skirt of steel-colored gray silk, without any
trimming. Sachet of black velvet; the front opening to a point, and the
basque rounded and edged with a deep fall of black lace set on rather
full. The sleeves, which are demi-long and loose at the ends, are
likewise edged with lace chemisette and undersleeves of worked muslin.
A round cap of Honiton lace, the front edged with pointed vandykes. The
cap is ornamented at each side with bows of ribbon having long flowing
ends, edged with fringe. The ribbon has a white ground, and is figured
with a pattern similar to that called the Victoria plaid. The bows are
intermingled with bouquets of white roses. Hair bracelets, with snaps
of gold and turquoise.

       *       *       *       *       *

Fig. 2. _Little Girl's Dress._--Frock of dark blue glacé; the skirts
ornamented with four narrow ruches of ribbon, placed two and two
together. The corsage is in the jacket style, half high in the neck,
and fitting closely to the form. The basque is edged with a double
ruche of ribbon, which is carried up the front and round the top of
the corsage. The sleeves just descend below the turn of the elbow,
and are trimmed at the end with ribbon ruche. The undersleeves are of
jaconet muslin, drawn in a full puff, confined at the wrists by bands
of needlework insertion. The chemisette is high to the throat, and is
formed of two rows of drawn muslin, divided by a row of needlework
insertion, and finished at top by a row of the same. Short trousers of
white cambric muslin edged with a bordering of needlework. The front
hair banded on each side of the forehead; the back hair plaited, and
the plaits turned up and fastened by rows of black velvet ribbon, two
bands of which are passed across the forepart of the head.

       *       *       *       *       *

Fig. 3. _Promenade, or Carriage Dress._--Robe of brown gros de naples.
The skirt is trimmed with ten rows of black velvet, of graduated width.
The corsage is low, square in front, and partly open; the opening being
confined by bands of black velvet. The corsage has a basque at the
waist, cut out in castellated ends which are edged with velvet. The
sleeves are slit open to the height of the shoulder, and the opening is
confined by bands of velvet, like those in front of the corsage. The
chemisette is of worked muslin, and trimmed with Valenciennes lace.
Undersleeves to correspond. Bonnet of white silk, ornamented with vine
leaves and blonde. Undertrimming, a wreath of flowers.

       *       *       *       *       *


DIRECTIONS FOR A LETTER-BAND.

    (See engraving on page 391.)

    _Materials._--One yard and a half of sarsnet ribbon, two inches
    in width, and of any color preferred; one bunch of steel beads,
    No. 5; some sewing silk of the same color as the ribbon, and some
    perforated cardboard one row narrower than the ribbon.

Mark the letters and border with the beads on the cardboard, which
should be about four inches long; also a piece about two inches square,
worked with beads in any ornamental pattern; fasten the longest
piece of cardboard to the ribbon in the centre, stitching it at both
edges, then sew the smaller piece about two inches nearer the end of
the ribbon; sew a piece of the same ribbon under this small piece
of cardboard at each end--this forms a loop for the ribbon to pass
through. This completes the band.

       *       *       *       *       *


THE ALBUERA.

    (See engraving on page 392.)

This mantilla is one of great beauty. It is made of blue glacé silk,
but can be in any choice color. Lavender and lustrous pearl and mode
colors look especially well, as also the greens, in this garment. Its
chief peculiarity consists in its square front and its fitting so as to
just cut the edge of the shoulder. It is fastened at the top by a bow;
the back falls with an easy fulness; it is embroidered.

       *       *       *       *       *


DIRECTIONS FOR KNITTING A WORK-BASKET.

TAKE four needles, cast three stitches on each, knit plain
round once; put thread over needle; knit once so all round. Then plain
once round. Continue this process till there are five stitches between
the times of widening. Plain round once; widen, knit four narrow so
all round; plain round; widen, knit one, widen, knit three narrow so
all round, plain round, widen, knit three, widen, knit two, narrow so
all round, plain round, widen, knit five, widen, knit one, narrow so
all round, plain round, widen, knit seven, widen, knit one, narrow so
all round, plain round three times. Turn the basket inside out, knit
three times round plain, put thread over needle and seam two in one
all round, then twice plain. Continue this till you have six rows of
eyelets, then two plain, three seamed, four plain. Then make one row of
eyelets, knit three rows plain, hem down. Then your basket is done.

HOW TO FORM IT.--Prepare a solution of glue, dip your basket
into it when it is _very wet_, wring it out, have your form ready to
put it on, where it must lie for a day or two. Then you can paint it
any color you like. The block on which it is put to dry can be round or
not, as you prefer. If you wish a large one, cast on more stitches when
you begin. Four on a needle makes a large size.

       *       *       *       *       *


EMBROIDERY WITH CORD.

[Illustration]




SPRING BONNETS.

[Illustration: No. 1.]

[Illustration: No. 2.]

[Illustration: No. 3.]

[Illustration: No. 4.]


IN accordance with the popular fashion of the day, we "open,"
in the present article, a group of the most tasteful bonnets of the
season. We give them not only that our lady readers may see what is
worn, but as models for their own fair fingers. Is it known to them
that bonnet-making is now quite a fashion among those skilful in
fancy-work, the most sensible branch we have seen adopted for many
years? Why should not the taste and ingenuity exercised in lamp-mats
of old, and crochet tidies of the present day, be as well displayed in
the light and graceful task of millinery? The neatness and patience
required in covering the card-board of an ingenious needle-book can be
more fully exercised in disposing the folds of silk and lace on the
well-shaped frame easily procured for a trifle.

The peculiar trait of the hats of the present season is the great
quantity of mixed materials, as crape, silk, lace, flowers, and ribbon,
on one very small structure. Great taste is to be exercised in mingling
these judiciously--ornamenting, not overloading; in the first place,
selecting a good model as to shape and style.

No. 1 we have chosen for its simplicity. It is composed of three rows
of pink crape or silk, drawn in a puffing, with a blonde edging rather
wide on each. The crown is entirely of lace, and there is a fall of the
same on the cape. A knot of pink satin bows, to the right, is all the
decoration of the exterior. A full cap of blonde, with one or two pink
bows, carelessly disposed, inside the brim.

No. 2 shows the extreme of the shallow brim, and two-thirds of the
wearer's head at the same time. It is, notwithstanding, a neat and
modest-looking dress bonnet of pomona green silk, the crown piece,
which is in full flutings, extending almost to the edge of the brim.
This is crossed by a band of the same with bound edges (old style). The
front is a very full double _ruche_ of blonde, between the two green
silk cordings. A full cap of the same fills the space between the face
and the brim, with a spray of flowers set very high to the right.

No. 3.--A more elaborate hat of straw-colored silk and white guipure
lace. It has a small plume on the left, and has a full spray of bridal
roses inside the brim.

No. 4 shows the disposition of lace and bow at the back of a crown, a
great point in the millinery of the present season; a stiff crown will
ruin a graceful brim.

       *       *       *       *       *


PLAIN WORK.

WE often find our correspondents writing, "Are there any new
patterns for underclothes?" "Can you send me a good night-cap pattern?"
etc. etc. This has suggested to us the plan of publishing designs for
plain as well as ornamental needlework, and we commence the present
month by two selected from the large establishment of Madame Demorest,
late of Canal Street, now of 375 Broadway, New York. Besides the
infinite variety of outer garments, children's clothing, etc., to which
we have before alluded, Madame Demorest has patterns of everything for
a lady's under wardrobe, in sets or singly, so arranged as to look
exactly like the garment itself; and, as they can be sent by mail,
there is thus an end to the necessity of begging and borrowing in every
direction through a country neighborhood.

An article of practical instructions in the art of plain-sewing, for
it is, indeed, an art, will be given from time to time. It is a great
pity that this knowledge has, in most cases, to be acquired by the
married woman. We think it should be considered an essential part of
the education of the daughter. All the pages of instruction that may
be written or read upon the subject, can never give that aptitude and
ease in the performance of this very necessary household duty, which
would be acquired by seeing how others do it, and being taught while
young to take a part in the operation. A young mother who is not a
dressmaker or seamstress by profession, but who can quietly cut out
and make any article of dress that may be wanted, is looked upon by
her companions as a sort of marvellous prodigy. "Oh, how can you do
it?" "Well, I never had any genius that way!" are their exclamations.
And why have they no genius that way? In most cases, it is simply
because they have been taught at some "seminary for young ladies" to
despise such employments as mean and vulgar. Those who have genius
enough to knit fancy patterns, or work bunches of flowers upon canvas,
are quite capable of learning how to employ their needle for useful
household purposes. But express a wish to those who by profession
undertake the education of girls, that your children should learn to
employ the needle usefully, and you will most likely be told, "Oh, we
really have not time to attend to that; there is so much else that must
be learned, we cannot undertake plain needlework." And what does all
that is learned tend to? Frequently, to little more than a smattering
of this and that, by which the learner hopes to gain admiration, and
eventually a husband. Even the few years that are sometimes spent at
home, between school-days and marriage, are wasted in visiting and
frivolity and gaining a husband. How to fulfil those duties which such
an acquisition brings upon her, seems to be a problem which may be
answered by the assertion, "Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof."
In many respects, those children who are taught in public schools are
really better educated for domestic life than the children of the
classes a rank or two higher, who are brought up in boarding-schools or
day schools for young ladies. However, pages and volumes might usefully
be written on the inappropriate mode of bringing up the daughters of
families, who have nothing or little beside their own exertions to
look to for their maintenance; but this is not our present object.
Many there are who would willingly exchange the frivolities learned at
school for a knowledge how to make out and plan the clothes of their
families; and, for the benefit of such, we will endeavor, as far as
paper and print can do it, to teach them.

[Illustration: Fig. 1.

Fig. 2.]

The present models are--

Fig. 1.--A night-dress with plaited front and full sleeves, an
extremely neat and excellent pattern, designed and furnished by Madame
Demorest. The back may be either full in a yoke, or of a sacque form.

Fig. 2 is also one of Madame Demorest's designs, a chemise, plaited
front, and highly ornamented yoke, as is the present style. The
embroidery is with linen floss, and will wear as long as the garment,
a great matter in trimming. The shape combines neatness and ease, and
will be found extremely comfortable.




EDITORS' TABLE.


WE have before us several letters from writers of influence
and high consideration in different sections of our country, making
inquiries respecting the progress of Female Medical Education. We
cannot refuse these earnest appeals for information, and, as we trust
our myriad readers will feel an interest more or less in the subject,
we shall give the response to all who gather around our Table.

The third annual commencement of the Female Medical College of
Pennsylvania, located in Philadelphia, was held on the 25th of
February last, when the Degree of Doctor of Medicine was conferred
by the President, Charles D. Cleveland, on four ladies--Elizabeth H.
Bates, New York; Lucinda R. Brown, Texas; Minna Elliger, Germany;
and Elizabeth G. Shattuck, Pennsylvania--the latter belonging to the
Medical Missionary _protégées_ preparing to go out to China or India,
as opportunity may offer. The number of students in this college during
the past session was about thirty, and the applications for admittance
to the privileges of the institution for the next session, commencing
October 2, are already numerous and earnest.

There is only _one_ obstacle, viz., _the want of funds_. Those young
women and widows wishing to enter on this study are, usually, poor.
The expenses for board and books are all they can meet. If the college
were endowed, so that the tuition fees for all might be reduced to the
lowest sum[B] named for beneficiaries, while these last were admitted
_free_ of college charges, the school would be crowded. Are there
none among the rich of this city and State who will lend a helping
hand to this noble work of qualifying women to become physicians for
their own sex? _Fifty thousand_ dollars invested, so that the interest
could be annually applied for the benefit of the institution, would
be sufficient. There would thus be open a way by which those women
who have talents for the profession might enter on the study. What a
blessing this would be to them and to society! The sufferings which
delicacy imposes on the sex, while compelled to submit their complaints
to the knowledge of the male physician only, are shocking, and often
fatal--because concealment leads to death. Such a state of ignorance in
regard to all that pertains to the preservation of health and cure of
diseases should no longer be permitted to prevail among those who have
the direct and sole care of infancy, and are the nurses and watchers by
the sick. The good results of educating women for the profession are
thus truly set forth in the interesting "Valedictory Address," by Dr.
Elwood Harvey, one of the Faculty of the Female Medical College:--

       *       *       *       *       *

WHAT FEMALE PHYSICIANS CAN DO.--"No intelligent person doubts
that, if we were _obedient_ to the laws of health, so far as they are
now understood, sickness and suffering would be greatly diminished.
The average of human life would be prolonged, and its usefulness and
happiness increased. In the earliest ages of which we have any recorded
history, rules for the preservation of health, and regulations for the
prevention of diseases, constitute a conspicuous part of the legal
code."

       *       *       *       *       *

"In this country, where the people govern themselves, it is the
people that must be enlightened, that they may govern themselves
wisely. Though there is not a more law-abiding nation on the earth,
we are blessed in having but few laws to be obeyed. There is a larger
individual liberty here than elsewhere, and consequently a greater
individual responsibility. It is to the _people_, then, that you are
to convey a knowledge of the laws that govern their being. You have
ample scope for usefulness in this capacity. In your own sex, you will
find wives and mothers, ignorant of their own constitutions, bringing
wretchedness and misery upon themselves, discomfort and suffering upon
their families, and, worse than all, entailing enfeebled constitutions
and diseases upon their offspring. To enlighten these, to teach them
the duty they owe to themselves, to their families, to society, to
posterity, and to Him who created them, and instituted the laws they
violate, is your peculiar province. Do this, and the world will owe you
a debt it can never repay--but you will have your reward."

       *       *       *       *       *

FEMALE PHYSICIANS WANTED.--"Some of the obstacles that oppose
the entrance of the young practitioner to a remunerative practice will
offer less than their usual amount of resistance to you. It commonly
happens that the young physician has to wait long years of probation,
during which much work has to be done for small pay before he begins
to reap the full reward of his labors. Not only is it necessary for
him to acquire a reputation for skill and attention to business, but
a respectable age must be attained before he can hope to be employed
in some of the most profitable departments of practice. With you the
case is very different; there is an existing demand for your services
which none others can so well supply. Each city in this country is
ready to give employment to a large number of female physicians,
each lesser town and country village is waiting for one or more;
numerous applications from various parts of the country have been made
for female physicians. At a moderate computation, we may estimate
the number now in actual demand in this country at not less than
five thousand. You are wanted for a kind of practice that most male
physicians would gladly relinquish to you, whenever they are convinced
that you have been regularly educated, and are competent to perform the
duties of the position you have assumed."

       *       *       *       *       *

WHILE on this subject, we will give here an original article,
written for our "Book" by a professor in another institution,[C] which
shows that this liberal feeling towards female practitioners is fast
gaining public favor in this city:--

LADIES' MEDICAL EDUCATION.--That it would be very useful and
conducive to the health and happiness of families, if the mothers
of families, and women in general, were familiar with the principal
doctrines of anatomy, physiology, and pathology, so as to understand,
to some degree, the organization, functions, and diseases of the human
system, there cannot be any doubt. But whether it be in accordance
with the natural position of woman in society to take upon herself
the office, labors, and responsibilities of a physician is another
question, which need not here be decided. So much, however, may be
said with propriety, without at all deciding the question alluded
to, that such ladies as are desirous of obtaining a full medical
education, and devoting themselves to the study of the medical sciences
in good earnest, ought not to be refused such an education, but have
as much chance given to them as the other sex enjoy. For, however we
may disagree respecting the propriety of woman practising medicine
as a profession, certainly her _knowledge_ of medicine cannot be
detrimental to the good of society. If a more general diffusion of
medical knowledge among the ladies had no other effect than to enforce
a higher standard of education among the physicians on one side, and to
annihilate the greatest bane of ignorance, quackery, on the other side,
this alone would be a sufficient reason for spreading "more light"
among the ladies, though it be "medical."

We cannot, therefore, see any harm in the establishment of female
medical schools, but would suggest the propriety of organizing them
in such a manner that their teachings should not be confined to the
comparatively few ladies who enter them for a full medical education;
but also be made accessible to the generality of ladies, especially
young ladies, who do not want a "professional" education in medicine,
but who would study some branches, such as anatomy, physiology,
pathology, and perhaps chemistry, natural philosophy, and botany, with
much delight and profit, without asking for a diploma, but to carry the
delightful satisfaction with them that they possess that which may save
themselves and others around them untold disease and suffering, and
protect them against all sorts of knavery and quackery, not to speak of
the accomplishments and intellectual joys such studies are apt to give
to ladies.

       *       *       *       *       *

A VERY SENSIBLE DOCTOR.--Dr. J. Wilson, of Alabama, proposes, in the
_Southern Medical Journal_, that female classes be formed in our medical
colleges for instruction in anatomy--excluding the surgical and
pathological--human physiology, medical chemistry, materia medica, and
all female diseases. We hope those who have the direction of medical
education will act on this hint. Why should woman be excluded from the
study of medicine? She is the Heaven-appointed guardian of the sick and
of helpless infancy; she should know how to preserve health and how to
restore it.

       *       *       *       *       *

THE PRACTICAL.--We have lately met with a rather astounding and
extremely practical proposition, well suited to the genius of our
nation. We, the mightiest people on the face of the globe, will not
allow our scenery to remain scenery without some Barnum-like investment
upon it. We do not intend that our natural curiosities shall continue
natural. Jonathan must make his playthings useful, else he may as well
fling them behind him. The Falls of Niagara have been too long exempt
from the common lot; it is time they should be trained to propriety and
productiveness. No doubt it is extremely fine to see them wandering at
their own wild will, plunging madly down the precipice; but will any one
pretend to say that in all this there is anything practical? The fact
is, Niagara is of no use to us, and we can no longer tolerate her as a
drone; she must be forced to work. Let her be made the motive power of
numberless mills and manufactories. Thus would be secured a noble union
of Nature and Art! How much more manly and suggestive than the common
rhymes addressed to her grandeur and magnificence would be some such
invocation as the following:--

    Oh, thou that grindest buckwheat on thy way,
      Free and unfettered on thy watery wing,
    Creation's wonder! How much corn a day
      Doth thy sublimity to flour bring?

We wonder what our nation would do with Mont Blanc if they had it?
Place an ice-cream freezing establishment on its summit, perhaps; or
tunnel it, _à la_ Thames, and settle a Yankee colony within. We shall
next expect to hear that Mammoth Cave has been partitioned off into
comfortable apartments, to let to small families. Rooms containing
stalactites extra charge, as in such cases clothes-pins would be
unnecessary.

Imperial Rome folds her mantle grandly around her, and sits in
magnificent sadness at the base of her broken statues and fallen
temples--Niobe weeping for her children. Young America strides along
in broadcloth and beaver, and only sees that the statue might have
been a mantle-piece, or the temple a machine-shop. He forgets whence
the money-changers and sellers of doves were driven, because they made
the Father's house a house of merchandise. He does not see that stars
burn brighter than patent oil, or that earth was intended for another
purpose than a plantation. He is more eager to manufacture the napkin
than to improve the talent within it. His life is practical; his body
is practical; his soul is practical. He would make death and eternity
practical, if he only knew how to do it.

Oh, Niagara! are the clanking of machinery and the noise of the
water-wheel to be thy dirge? Shall a saw-mill be located on Goat
Island, or a stove-foundry near Table Rock? Shall thy rainbow span the
summit of a comb manufactory, or thy spray fall silvery on a button
establishment? Shall we bewail thy beauty and grandeur forever, as we
cry, "Niagara has fallen--has fallen into a mill-dam!"

       *       *       *       *       *


THE SPRING-TIME COMETH.

    The Spring-time cometh with her buds and flowers;
      But ah, those buds and flowers I ne'er may see!
    The Spring-time cometh with her rosy hours,
              But not for me.

    The birds will sing, among the vales and highlands,
      Sweet as they sang in the glad days of yore,
    And lilies fair will circle yonder islands
              For me no more.

    For me no more the sparkle of the river,
      Where droop the willows, fairest of the fair;
    For me no more the joys a bounteous Giver
              Sends everywhere.

    But scatter o'er my grave the buds and flowers--
      The buds and flowers that I may never see;
    And, as ye see depart those rosy hours,
              Think, think of me.

    H. L. S.

       *       *       *       *       *

HERE is a prose sketch on the same ever-fertile subject, the writer
modestly styling her collection, "_Shells from the Shore of Thought:_"--

SPRING.--Would that thoughts on Spring would spring up in my mind
radiant as the gentle flowers which the clarion voice of Spring awakens
from their wintry slumber! Would that I could array these thoughts in
eloquence as glorious as the vesture which she gives the lovely flowers!

She casts around them a mantle of vivid green, lifts their modest
heads beneath a pearly veil of mist, and crowns them with a diadem
of dew-drops, which the morning sunlight transmutes to amethysts and
rubies, emeralds and diamonds.

But, sad to say, my thoughts are less like the flowers, and more like
the seed of that tribe (thistle, &c.) which float through the air on
a silken sail in quest of a place of repose. Some find them bright
homes in lands far away, like the thoughts of the gifted, which become
household words; but others, the silk of whose sail is not fine, float
adrift on the waves, to be lost, like my thoughts, in the ocean of
years.

Spring is the symbol of the resurrection; flowers, of the human race.
In the autumn of life, man falls asleep like the flowers; but the icy
reign of the winter of death is broken by the glorious springtide of
immortality, where the circling seasons are no more, where there is
neither death nor tears.

       *       *       *       *       *

MEMORY.--Pleasure paints the Present, Memory paints the Past, Hope
paints the Future, and spans its shadowy portals with an arch of light,
radiant as the sunbow o'er the cataract. Memory tortures the wicked and
consoles the righteous. When the sunlight of Hope wanes away from the
landscape of life, then the moonlight of Memory its shadowy lustre sheds
o'er the scene. Memory--a stereotyped edition of the Past. Memory--as
the moonlight is to sunlight, so is Memory unto Hope.

       *       *       *       *       *

MUSIC.--Sacred music--that which on earth wakes an echo in heaven.
Music, the soother of the sorrowing. Music, the praises of One who loves
us; notes which dwell in the heart, like the lingering perfume of
withering violets, when the voice which created the beautiful music is
silent forever on earth.

       *       *       *       *       *

LOVE.--Life is a tangled web, but through its woof there runs the golden
thread of Love.

       *       *       *       *       *

PHILADELPHIA HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIRLS.--When is this institution to be
opened? _The High School for Boys_ has been sustained in the most
liberal manner many years, and now a new and costly edifice for the
school is nearly prepared. Will not the men of Philadelphia add beauty
as well as strength to the recent act of "Consolidation," by founding a
HIGH SCHOOL FOR GIRLS?

       *       *       *       *       *

A GREAT DUTY WHICH IS IMPOSED UPON MOTHERS.--Listen, good mothers: this
is not a question of one of those idle studies, the only aim of which is
to stock the memory; it concerns an important question, the most
important which can be agitated on the earth; so important, that the
manner in which you resolve it will decide, without appeal of your moral
life and death, of the moral life and death of your children. It is not
only a matter that regards yourselves, but also the flesh of your flesh,
the blood of your blood; those poor little creatures, whom you have
brought into this world, with passions, vices, love, hatred, pain, and
death; for these are, in truth, what they have received from you with
the life of the body; and these will, indeed, be miserable presents, if
you do not also give them the life of the soul; that is to say, arms
wherewith to fight, and a light whereby to direct themselves.

You are mothers according to the laws of our material nature, with all
the love of a hen which watches over its little ones, and covers them
with its wings. I come to ask you to be mothers according to the laws
of our divine nature, with all the love of a soul called upon to form
souls.

Assure yourselves well whether or not you owe to your children only the
milk of your breasts, and the instruction of the intelligence; and if
you interrogate the Gospel and nature, take heed to their answer--"Man
does not live by bread alone, but by the word of truth."

Truth is that which renders man free; it is the voice which calls us to
the love of God and of our neighbor, and to virtue.

Error, on the contrary, is that which renders us slaves to the passions
of others and to our own; it is that which causes us to sacrifice our
conscience to fortune, to honors, to glory, to vice.

Thus, virtue springs from truth; crime from error; whence we may infer
that a good treatise on education can only be in the end the search
after truth.

The destiny of your children depends then on the solicitude with
which you engage in this search. You may open out to them the road to
happiness, and precede them in it. A delightful task, which calls for
all the powers of your soul, and which will place you in the presence
of God, of nature, of your children, and of yourselves.

And mark well all that nature has done towards accomplishing this
difficult work. In the first place, she has brought you near to the
truth which is in her, by detaching your sex from almost all the
ambitions which debase our own; and secondly, she has given your love
to the tenderness of little children, at the same time that she has
filled their hearts with innocence, and their minds with curiosity.
Can you doubt the object of your mission, when you perceive the sweet
harmonies which unite them to you? Nature attaches them to your
bosoms, awakens them by your caresses; she wills that they should owe
everything to you, so that, after having received from you life and
thought, these earthly angels await your inspirations, in order to
believe and to love.--_L. Aimé Martin._

       *       *       *       *       *

TO CORRESPONDENTS.--The following articles are accepted: "And I heard a
voice saying, Come up hither," "Secret Love," "The Lost Pleiad," "To a
Friend on his Marriage," and "To ----." A number of long articles on
hand have not been examined; will be reported next month.

The following are declined, many of them because we have not room. Our
drawers are "full" of accepted articles, which may have to wait till
the writers suffer greater disappointment than a rejection at first
would have inflicted. So we return a number of the contributions sent
us last month, as their authors request, though we do not usually
comply with such conditions. Those who send articles to us should keep
a copy of the MS.; we cannot answer for its safe return. We decline
"Coming Events," "Her eyes are with her heart," &c., "To Ada, with a
Bouquet," "Our Thoughts," "The Dying Girl's Request," "The Wail of a
Broken Heart," "The Child's Wish," "Lines on the Birth of a Child,"
"The Deserted Lady," "Regina," "Cold Water," "Never say Die," "A Great
Prize," "My Friends," and "Conversation."

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote B: For the encouragement of ladies whose means will not
allow of the usual expenditure, a limited number of students will be
admitted on the payment of twenty dollars per session, exclusive of the
matriculation and graduation fees. Such arrangements will be strictly
confidential, and no distinction in point of courtesy and attention
will be made between the beneficiary and other students.

For further information, or for copies of the Annual Announcement,
application may be made to the Dean, David J. Johnson, 229 Arch Street,
Philadelphia.]

[Footnote C: The Penn Medical University.]




Literary Notices.


BOOKS BY MAIL.--Now that the postage on printed matter is so low, we
offer our services to procure for our subscribers or others any of the
books that we notice. Information touching books will be cheerfully
given by inclosing stamp to pay return postage.

       *       *       *       *       *

From HARPER & BROTHERS, New York, through LINDSAY & BLAKISTON,
Philadelphia:--

THE U. S. GRINNELL EXPEDITION IN SEARCH OF SIR JOHN FRANKLIN. _A
Personal Narrative._ By Elisha Kent Kane, M. D., U. S. N. As Americans,
we certainly have reason to feel, and may therefore be permitted to
express an honest pride and gratification in the rapid contributions
which our countrymen are continually presenting to the various
departments of literature and science. Among the more recent and most
valuable of these and similar contributions is the beautiful volume
the title of which stands at the head of this article. In 1850, Mr.
Grinnell, an eminent merchant of New York, actuated by a most humane
and liberal spirit, fitted out two of his own vessels and proffered
them gratuitously to the government to be employed in an expedition
to the Arctic region, in search of Sir John Franklin, who had not
been heard from after the 26th of July, 1850. The officers of this
expedition were appointed by the navy department. It was commanded by
Lieut. Edwin J. De Haven, and its first surgeon was Dr. E. K. Kane,
who, at the request of the commander, became the historian of their
perilous and romantic voyage. We say romantic, because the scenes to
which we are introduced by the graphic pen of the doctor seem more
like the creations of the imagination than the realities of sober
observation, or the experience of personal adventure. In addition
to the historical, scientific, and descriptive merits of the work,
it is profusely and beautifully illustrated by fine mezzotints and
wood-engravings.

       *       *       *       *       *

From D. APPLETON & CO., No. 200 Broadway, New York, through C. G.
HENDERSON & CO., corner of Fifth and Arch Streets, Philadelphia:--

BOYS AT HOME. By C. Adams, author of "Edward Clifton," etc. Illustrated
by John Gilbert. This is an English story, written especially for
the moral instruction and encouragement of young persons in adverse
circumstances. It inculcates the highest principles of duty and honor,
and, at the same time, shows the necessity of perseverance in the
accomplishment of virtuous designs.

THE CHEMISTRY OF COMMON LIFE. By James F. W. Johnson. It should be
read by the million, for it informs us all about the air we breathe,
the water we drink, the soil we cultivate, and the plant we rear. The
dedication is to Sir David Brewster, one of the most eminent scientific
men in England. We shall make some extracts from the work for our June
number.

THE SUNSHINE OF GREYSTONE. _A Story for Girls._ By E. J. May, author
of "Louis's Schoolboy Days." This is a handsome volume, with many
beautiful illustrations. Its greatest beauties, however, will be found
in the good sense, the high moral tone, and in the pure religious
feeling which pervade its printed pages.

       *       *       *       *       *

From J. S. REDFIELD, 110 and 112 Nassau Street, New York, through W. B.
ZIEBER, Philadelphia:--

THEOLOGICAL ESSAYS. By Frederick Dinison Maurice, M. A., Chaplain of
Lincoln's Inn. From the second London edition. With a new preface and
other additions. The author of this work is a learned clergyman of the
Established Church of England. The volume contains seventeen essays
on subjects intimately connected with the dogma of that church, and
explanatory of the general teachings of Christianity. These essays
were originally a series of discourses delivered before the author's
own congregation, and embraced numerous topics which he desired to
bring under the notice of Unitarians. They therefore partake of a
controversial spirit, but in a mild and charitable form.

THE WORKINGMAN'S WAY IN THE WORLD. _Being the Autobiography of a
Journeyman Printer._ This volume furnishes us with what purports to
be the true, and certainly is the very interesting history of the
struggles of an English journeyman printer.

CLASSIC AND HISTORIC PORTRAITS. By James Bruce. This volume is
devoted to a description of the personal appearance of a long list of
celebrated persons, male and female, ancient and modern, commencing
with Sappho, and ending with Madame de Stael. The peculiarities of
character, which accompany the "descriptive list," render this volume
interesting and instructive in a high degree.

       *       *       *       *       *

From TICKNOR, REED, & FIELDS, Boston:--

LETTERS TO A YOUNG MAN, AND OTHER PAPERS. By Thomas De Quincey, author
of "Confessions of an English Opium-Eater," etc. etc. Exclusive of the
"Letters," five in number, this volume contains seven essays: 1. Theory
of Greek Tragedy; 2. Conversation; 3. Language; 4. French and English
Language; 5. California and the Gold Mania; 6. Ceylon; 7. Presence of
Mind; in all which the great reputation of the author as an instructive
and philosophical writer is fully sustained.

       *       *       *       *       *

SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF HIS EXCELLENCY, JOHN BIGLER, _Governor of
the State of California_. Such is the title of a pamphlet sent us from
the press of George Kerr, State Printer, Benicia, and the address is
worthy of being thus distributed over the whole country. It is a clear
and able exposition of the progress and resources of that wonderful
portion of our Union. Aladdin, with his genii, could hardly have
effected greater changes than gold and the genius of American freedom
have effected in California. We are much obliged to the friend who sent
us this excellent address. The name of Bigler should be highly honored
in Pennsylvania.

       *       *       *       *       *

WESTERN DEMOCRATIC REVIEW. George P. Buell, Editor and Publisher:
Indianapolis, Jan., 1854. This is a new periodical, whose table of
contents embraces a variety of subjects, social, political, poetical,
biographical, and miscellaneous. We welcome every such manifestation of
the growth, the prosperity, and the mental vigor of the Great West. The
editor is evidently a man of ability and enterprise, and his articles,
varied as they are, are all written with spirit, and show a truly
liberal and patriotic mind.

       *       *       *       *       *

THE SOUTHERN QUARTERLY REVIEW. C. Mortimer, Publisher: Charleston, S.
C. We have often wondered that, excepting in political matters, the
South has so long been willing to do without a literature of its own.
We are glad to see that, at last, a publication devoted to subjects
of general interest, as well as to politics, seems to meet with the
success it deserves. The articles in it are written evidently with
care and thought, and, although generally of too abstruse a nature
to interest ladies, there are one or two lighter articles, pleasant
chronicles of the olden time, which can hardly fail to please. Rich
as South Carolina is in such themes, both from its old Huguenot
ancestry, and from the characteristic earnestness with which it threw
itself into the Revolutionary struggle, it needs only some one with the
patient and devoted spirit of the antiquary to rescue from oblivion
many scenes and incidents of romantic interest. The political articles,
exclusively Southern as they are in thought and sentiment, yet, by
their earnestness and acumen, justify the boast that the South is the
birth-place of politicians.

       *       *       *       *       *

From PARRY & MCMILLAN (successors to A. Hart late Carey & Hart), corner
of Fourth and Chestnut Streets, Philadelphia:--

THE PLANTER'S NORTHERN BRIDE. _A Novel._ By Caroline Lee Hentz,
author of "Linda," "Rena," "Eoline," etc. etc. We have not had time
to become acquainted with the true character of this novel. We have
read sufficient, however, to enable us to say that it is an effort to
reconcile the difficulties that are sometimes supposed to exist between
"true" lovers on account of their geographical positions. The name of
the popular author will be the best recommendation we could give of her
work. The volumes sent us are of the cheap edition, with paper covers,
price fifty cents each. We are told that an edition is published with
six engravings, two volumes, cloth gilt, $1 50. We might have been
enabled to speak more confidently of the merits of the work, had we
been favored with the plates.

       *       *       *       *       *

From HENRY CAREY BAIRD (successor to E. L. Carey), No. 7 Hart's
Buildings, Sixth Street above Chestnut, Philadelphia:--

CORINNE; OR, ITALY. By Madame de Staël. Translated by Isabel Hill;
with metrical versions of the odes by L. E. Landon. This is a new and
very beautifully printed edition of a work which, from its earliest
publication, has continued to be read, admired, and criticised by
persons of literary taste and judgment in all the languages of
civilized Europe. It cannot fail therefore to prove highly interesting
to that portion of our readers who may not have had an opportunity of
perusing it in the original French of the celebrated author.

VATHEK: _an Arabian Tale_. By William Beckford, Esq. With a memoir of
the author, and notes critical and explanatory. "Vathek" is an Eastern
tale, written before the author had attained his twentieth year, and
was composed at a single sitting of three days and two nights. For more
than seventy years it has held the highest rank among similar works
of imagination. It was a great favorite with Byron, who preferred it
even to "Rasselas." In its descriptions of oriental costumes and of the
manners of the people, its correctness has been established by writers
of judgment, and, for "exquisite humor and supernatural interest and
grandeur," is declared to stand without a rival in romance.


NOVELS, SERIALS, PAMPHLETS, &c.

From John P. Jewett & Co., Boston, and Jewett, Proctor, & Worthington,
Cleveland, Ohio, through Cowperthwait, Desilver, & Butler,
Philadelphia: "The Lamplighter." This is a tale of unusual interest,
written in a clear, natural style.

From Ticknor, Reed, & Fields, Boston: "The Barclays of Boston." By Mrs.
Harrison Gray Otis. A domestic story of great merit.

From D. Appleton & Co., 200 Broadway, New York, through C. G. Henderson
& Co., Philadelphia: "Marie Louise; or, the Opposite Neighbors." By
Emilie Carlen, author of "John; or, Is a Cousin in hand worth two in
the Bush?" etc. Translated from the Swedish. The author of this tale
is deservedly popular, as well on account of the beauty of her style,
as because she is always endeavoring to inculcate the purest morals.

From Blanchard & Lea, Philadelphia: Nos. 1 and 2 "Orr's Circle of the
Sciences." A series of treatises on every branch of human knowledge.
No. 1. On the Nature, Connection, and Uses of the great departments
of Human Knowledge. By the Editor. No. 2. The Physiology of Animal
and Vegetable Life. By the Editor and Professor Owen. With numerous
illustrations. Price 15 cents. These are the first numbers of a work
now publishing in London, designed to present in a popular style
and condensed space the leading facts and principles of the various
departments of human knowledge. The editors of this valuable series are
persons of the highest reputation.

From T. B. Peterson, 102 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia: "Kate
Clarendon; or, Necromancy in the Wilderness." By Emerson Bennett. This
is a very interesting and romantic tale of the West, connected with the
first settlements on the Ohio River.--"Miriam Alroy." A Romance of the
Twelfth Century. By B. D'Israeli, M. P. Three English volumes complete
in one. Price 37 cents.

From Bunce & Brothers, New York, through T. B. Peterson, Philadelphia:
"Carlington Castle: a Tale of the Jesuits." By C. G. H., author of
"The Curate of Linwood," etc. This is the story of an Irish heiress,
who suffered a fierce persecution and imprisonment in the British
dominions, on account of her religious opinions.

From Partridge & Britain, New York: "An Epic of the Starry Heaven." By
Thomas L. Harris. There are undoubtedly a great many very high poetical
flights in this volume, but really we are unable to judge of their
claims to peculiar inspiration or spirituality. We must leave those
claims, which we find enforced in the introduction, to the decision of
the "spiritualists," with whose peculiar tests we have not yet become
familiar.

       *       *       *       *       *

"THE THREE BELLS QUICKSTEP."--Another of D. B. Williamson's beautiful
productions. We cannot do better than publish the following letter from
Captain Crighton:--

    "NEW YORK, _Feb. 18, 1854_.

    "D. B. Williamson, Esq., South Fifth Street, Philadelphia.

    "DEAR SIR: Your kind note of the 15th, and _four_ copies of the
    nautical song, were received this day.

    "Among all the many expressions of gratitude which I have received
    from the American nation, for my simple duty towards suffering
    humanity, there are none I prize more highly than the song of my
    gallant ship, 'The Three Bells;' she, too, behaved nobly, and you
    are the first to acknowledge her merits. 'Permit me to write the
    songs of my country, and I care not who makes her laws,' said
    one who understood human nature, and I would hope through your
    instrumentality the name of my good ship will become a household
    word.

    "Yours, very respectfully,
    "ROBERT CRIGHTON."

       *       *       *       *       *

We are in receipt of another piece of music, "Happy Hearts make Shining
Faces;" a very happy title, and very pretty music and words.

       *       *       *       *       *

"THE LITTLE FORESTER," published at Cincinnati, is an excellent
publication for children, and, we are happy to hear, is doing well. The
terms are only 25 cents a year, or twenty-five copies for $5. We
designed to say something in this number about the "Little Pilgrim," but
we have not received the last number; yet we see it noticed elsewhere.




Godey's Arm-Chair.


OUR MAY NUMBER.--Another fine display of patterns; beautiful steel
plate; colored fashions; crochet patterns; novelties of different kinds.
We do not wish to boast; but we think that there is no magazine in the
country which gives the variety we do. The ladies may depend upon one
thing, that what we give is "the fashion;" and from the patterns that we
can furnish them, nicely trimmed, they can make up their dresses, and be
in time with the fashions here, for ours are always published in
advance. We lead, and what we give is sure to be followed.

       *       *       *       *       *

OUR COLORED FASHION PLATE.--Again we lead, with the fashions, not only
in the novelty of style, but in the beauty of the engraving and
coloring.

       *       *       *       *       *

"JOHN, why has the mill stopped?" "There is no water, sir." John's
reason was certainly a very good one. Well, we don't intend to stop;
but we should like our subscribers to know that money to us is like
water to the mill. Ladies, please look at the extract from a letter
in another part of our "Arm-Chair," and see how a wife jogged her
husband's memory to know if he had paid for the "Book."

       *       *       *       *       *

WE have published four editions of our January number, three of
February, and, up to this time, two of March. Another edition of the
last number is about going to press. From present prospects, we shall
have to print another edition of January and February soon.

       *       *       *       *       *

MEMBERS OF CONGRESS.--Gentlemen, we cannot thank you separately, but we
do collectively, for all the documents you have been so kind as to favor
us with.

       *       *       *       *       *

WE are complimented on all sides for keeping up the same number of pages
and embellishments we commenced the year with. We intend to do it.

       *       *       *       *       *

IF we had but one subscriber, and even if his name was Smith, and we
were to receive a letter requesting his "Book" sent to the place where
he "now resides," we should be able to make the alteration; but, among
60,000 names, how can we find out where a subscriber's "Book" _has been
sent_, unless we are informed? We are led to these remarks by our
continually receiving letters requesting the "Lady's Book" sent to "this
place." Once for all, we must always be informed where the "Book" _has
been sent to_.

       *       *       *       *       *

ONE WORD OF ADVICE.--When a person purporting to be a travelling agent
offers the "Lady's Book" at less than $3 a year, you may set him down as
an impostor. The Balt County "Advocate" says that a person named James
Rogers has been in that neighborhood offering the "Book" at $2, and has
succeeded in getting a great many subscribers. That is it; to save a
dollar, those persons who subscribed lost two. If you want a magazine,
the best way to get it is to send your money direct to the publisher.

       *       *       *       *       *

SEWING-MACHINES.--We will purchase and forward these machines on receipt
of the money. See advertisement on cover of April number.

       *       *       *       *       *

OUR PATTERNS.--Ladies do not seem to be aware that these patterns are
_fac-similes_ of the originals in color, trimming, &c. At a distance,
they would be taken for the garment itself. They could be worn in a
_tableau_ without being detected.

       *       *       *       *       *

WE do not doubt it, but wishing the ladies to be fully convinced about
the superiority of our fashion plates, we will trouble them to read the
following notices: The "St. Clair Observer" says: "The colored fashion
plates, and Godey is the only man in the Union that gives them, are
magnificent and reliable." The "Fort Plain Phœnix" says: "His fashion
plate is the most exquisite one we ever saw." The "Crescent Eagle" says:
"The fashion plate is the best that we have ever seen." The "Ohio
Register" says: "Its fashion plates are ahead of any we have ever seen."
That settles the question; if not, we have some five hundred more
notices to the same effect.

       *       *       *       *       *

"THE beautiful engraving of 'Christ Healing the Sick' is unparalleled in
the history of magazine plates. Among the crowd of readers who
carelessly glance at such an engraving, but few there are who appreciate
the vast amount of thought and labor expended by none but first-rate
artists upon it, and the consequent outlay on the part of a generous
publisher in freely offering such gems of art to the public. The fruit
of months, nay, sometimes years, of unmitigated toil, taxing the eyes
and brain, are thus laid before and received by the masses, without a
thought on the part of the latter as to what it cost to furnish the
feast."

The foregoing is from the Louisville "Great Valley Trader," a paper
of immense circulation in Louisville, Ky. How true are the remarks!
To engrave the plate mentioned would take one man, and he must be an
excellent artist, at least four months, working eight hours a day,
which are about as many hours as an engraver can work. By the time the
plate reached us it cost nearly $500. It took four months steady work
to print our edition, at a cost of $375; the paper cost $200. To sum
up, it was eight months from the time that the engraver took the plate
in hand before we could place it before our subscribers, and the whole
cost of this one embellishment was $1,075. This is only one item of
the expense of a number of the "Lady's Book." Our business, it will be
perceived, requires us to look ahead. Eight months is a long time to
wait for one engraving.

       *       *       *       *       *

CORRECTION.--In our April number, we stated that the price of mantilla
patterns was $1. It should have been 62½ cents. We can supply patterns
of all the dress articles we publish, jewelry, and almost every article
for a lady's toilet, dress, etc. Our orders last month were very large.

       *       *       *       *       *

MONTESQUIEU says: "I never listen to calumnies, because, if they are
untrue, I run the risk of being deceived, and, if they be true, of
hating persons not worth thinking about."

       *       *       *       *       *

BACK numbers of the "Lady's Book" can be supplied from January, as the
work is stereotyped.

       *       *       *       *       *

A. HART, Esq.--Our friend Hart has retired from the book business. Happy
man! He has not toiled so long as we have; but he has been more
fortunate in laying up the "siller." But will he be as happy in his
retirement as we are, quietly seated at our desk planning out new
surprises for our hundred thousand subscribers? We think he will, as he
has all the elements of happiness surrounding him--an honest man,
beloved by his friends, and respected by all who know him; a cheerful
disposition, a contented mind, a good heart--we were going to write
Hart; it would have been as appropriate. That old south-east corner,
Fourth and Chestnut, how well we know it! We remember Carey & Lea, and
Carey, Lea, & Carey; E. L. Carey & A. Hart; and last, A. Hart--no, not
last; it is now Parry & McMillan. Mr. Parry we have known--we will not
mention the number of years, as we believe our friend Jesse wishes still
to pass for a young man, albeit he is married. Matters will go on well,
there, under his management. And he has an able partner in Mr. McMillan,
who is not new to the business, having been a publisher in the British
Provinces. Success to the new firm of Parry & McMillan!

The following remarks were made by Mr. Hart at the Trade Sale, where,
by the way, his stereotype plates sold for $55,960, a pretty good day's
work. Previous to the sale, Mr. Hart turned to the auctioneer, Moses
Thomas, Esq., another of our good old friends, and said--

"You, sir, were the _first person to introduce me into the book
business_, having given me a letter of credit to purchase, at the
Boston trade sale, held in 1827, when I was but sixteen years of age,
an amount of five-thousand dollars, on my own judgment, a confidence
which I have remembered to this day; and, two years afterwards, you
were instrumental in arranging the partnership for me with the late
Edward L. Carey; and now, after twenty-five years of successful
business, _you_ are about to conduct me out of the trade, by disposing
of my stereotype plates; and I must here acknowledge my gratitude to
you for those acts of kindness and confidence extended towards a mere
boy."

       *       *       *       *       *

WE call attention to the advertisement of Boardman & Gray's Pianos on
our cover. _We know the instruments, and can recommend them._ There is
no firm in our country engaged in the manufacture of pianos upon whom
more reliance can be placed than upon the gentlemen who are the subject
of these remarks. A piano is an article that very few persons purchase
more than once in a lifetime; it is therefore the more necessary that
you select a manufacturer who is well known, and who can be vouched
for--one whose pianos have stood the test of experience. We have been
instrumental in selling a number of these instruments, and we have yet
to hear the first complaint; on the contrary, we have been thanked for
our recommendation of the house of Boardman & Gray. We give an extract
of a letter from one of our subscribers, hoping that Messrs. B. & G. may
take the hint contained in it:--

    "CAMPBELL CO., _Va._, Feb. 22, 1854.

    "No article you ever published possessed the hundredth part of
    the money value to your readers as your article on piano-fortes.
    Hundreds of thousands of dollars are every year invested in
    pianos, and a large proportion of them are not worth the cost
    of transportation. You have given us precisely that kind of
    information we needed, and in which we were greatly deficient. I
    shall shortly order one of Boardman & Gray's. These gentlemen ought
    to send to Mrs. Godey one of their best pianos, and, if it were
    accompanied by two hundred gold eagles, it would be only a fitting
    acknowledgment of benefits conferred.

    "W. L. G."


SOME EXTRACTS FROM OUR CORRESPONDENCE.

    "THE books for our Ohio club arrived this morning by way of
    Cleveland! and, although it was Monday, and my 'girl' busy with
    the week's washing, and the house in confusion, I took time to
    read 'Mustard to Mix,' and found others had felt much as I
    happened to feel this morning. But the story restored my good
    humor; and so, you see, the 'Book' has done some good
    already--at least, my husband thinks so.

    "Many thanks for the pleasant story accompanying your letter! I
    intend sending it to an old bachelor up town, who made remarks
    similar to those of the young collegian, when I solicited him to
    subscribe for his sister.

    "With earnest wishes for your happiness and prosperity,

    "M. C. P."

    "THE 'Lady's Book' is fast superseding all other periodicals of
    the kind in this section. The general impression is that it is
    the best magazine of the kind published.

    "J. R. S., _Ala._"


TO OUR FRIEND GODEY.

BY MRS. ADELINE J. WILLIAMS.

    COME, ladies all, and help me thank
    Our best of friends, so kind and frank;
    For in oblivion's stream we'd sank
            But for our good friend Godey.

    He makes us his especial care;
    There's _nothing_ with him _we'll_ compare,
    And _none_ with _us_ shall e'er impair
            The fame of our friend Godey.

    If puzzled in our crochet task,
    Our patterns poor as actor's mask,
    We need but turn the leaves, and ask
            Some aid from our friend Godey.

    His tales are moral, chaste, and true,
    His fashion plates all rich and new;
    Receipts for _goodies_, not a few,
            Come from our kind friend Godey.

    When, on the dreary winter's day,
    To ennui we fall a prey,
    Who then can chase the gloom away
            So well as our friend Godey?

    Proud of so good a friend to boast,
    EXCELSIOR! shall be our toast,
    And thanks we'll shower by the host
            Upon our kind friend Godey!

    PORTSMOUTH, _Va._, Feb. 11th, 1854.

    "THE little story you sent me reminds me of an incident which
    occurred here some weeks since. A young _orator_ was declaiming
    loudly against the literature of the day, and more especially
    'Godey's Lady's Book.' At the conclusion of his discourse, he
    accepted the invitation of a merchant, living near by, to tea.
    The lady of the house, a young bride, took occasion to place the
    offensive magazine, which she has taken for the last six months,
    in a conspicuous position on the parlor table.

    "'Well,' said he, as he entered the room and seated himself, I
    am really quite disconcerted to see this here.' 'Yes, it is the
    magazine to which you alluded in your discourse to-day, I presume.'
    'Certainly it is.' 'Well,' said she, 'I think, sir, that you must
    have been a close student of that bad book yourself, to be so
    well acquainted with its contents.' He was a little disconcerted
    _again_, and made no reply. 'Now, sir, pardon me, but I should
    regret very much to use my influence in obtaining the names of so
    many of the most intelligent ladies of our village for a book so
    pernicious in its tendency. However, I feel confident myself that
    nothing will appear upon its pages which I may not safely place in
    the hands of my young and only daughter.'

    "I have succeeded, notwithstanding the gentleman's advice, which
    was perhaps only a good advertisement for the 'Book,' in getting a
    club of eighteen names, and may still send you some more. Here are
    three.

    "The ladies wish the back numbers. Of course, I extol your
    magazine. I tell them that, for beautiful engravings, elegant
    patterns, fine paper and type, excellent reading matter, minute
    descriptions of the prevailing modes, and, in short, every little
    matter which we ladies like so well to know, and hear, and see,
    it cannot be surpassed by any other book in the country. I have
    done. If any lady has given you a longer list of names, or a more
    'substantial Valentine,' I should like to know it, that I may outdo
    her.

    "M. H."

    "You are a popular man in this neighborhood, and whatever we can do
    for you will be done with pleasure.

    "B. & Co., _Ala._"

    L. A. GODEY, ESQ.--DEAR SIR: For the last six months I have been
    travelling through the Western States, and I am glad to see with
    what joy the 'Lady's Book' is welcomed. I frequently had an
    opportunity of scanning its contents, and was never better
    pleased than when once I asked a lady to lend me her number; she
    looked up, and, with a mischievous smile, asked if I was a
    subscriber. Receiving an affirmative answer, she handed me the
    'Book,' saying: You are welcome to read it; but I never lend it
    to any one who will not _subscribe_.'

    "I only arrived at home last week; and, on Saturday evening, as my
    wife and self were indulging in a romp with our B----, the 'Book'
    was brought in. This put an end to the romp, for my wife at once
    commenced examining the patterns, &c. 'See, is not this beautiful?
    Won't this look pretty on Frank's sack? I wonder how Mr. Godey
    manages to collect so great a variety of fashions?' And questions
    of similar import followed each other in rapid succession for some
    time. But at length a change came o'er her mind: _with an arch and
    quizzing look, she asked if I had paid this year's subscription_.
    You _know what my answer was, and I know what it will be hereafter.
    So here is your three dollars_, and much good may it do you, for I
    am sure to get the worth of my money.

    "Mrs. B. says you must send a receipt, for she wants your
    autograph. Direct the 'Book' to her as heretofore, and oblige yours
    truly,

    "P. R. B."

       *       *       *       *       *

BARNUM.--The great Barnum is elected president of the Crystal Palace
Association in New York. There is now some hope of its success. There
was none under the former administration, for a more decided old fogy
concern we never heard of--kid-gloved gentry, who had about as good an
idea of managing an establishment like the Crystal Palace as they had of
earning the money which their fathers left them.

       *       *       *       *       *

CARRYL'S CURTAIN ESTABLISHMENT, NORTH-WEST CORNER OF FIFTH AND CHESTNUT
STREET.--It was generally remarked by the wholesale merchants who made
their purchases at this establishment for the spring trade, that they
found no such variety in any place either in New York or this city.
Prices they state are also very reasonable. Mr. Carryl furnishes suits
of curtains for from $25 to $200. We will attend to the purchase of
curtains from Mr. Carryl. We require the size of the rooms and windows,
and general character and color of the furniture.

       *       *       *       *       *

WHITE'S BONNETS.--Our orders for these beautiful spring bonnets are
amazingly on the increase. On a late visit to his establishment, we were
astonished at the amount of his business. At least two hundred boxes
were ready for the different express lines.

       *       *       *       *       *

MRS. HALE'S COOK-BOOK we will furnish at $1 25, and pay the postage.
Mrs. Hale's "Household Book" on the same terms.

[Illustration: "How nicely I have mended it! Nobody will ever notice
that it has been broken."]

       *       *       *       *       *

THERE is a great deal of good sense to be found in the "London Punch,"
given in a humorous guise. The following article upon the way that many
females wear their bonnets is to be commended. We may add that _ladies_
in this city do not wear their bonnets as Punch describes them.

       *       *       *       *       *

A WORD ABOUT BONNETS.--When Mr. Punch, in his fashion reports, stated
that ladies' bonnets would this season be worn on the small of the back,
he only slightly exaggerated the reality which has come to pass. We
believe that this article of the female dress has shrunk to a proportion
which renders diminution impossible. Lightly poised upon the remotest
peak of the hirsute promontory which decorates the head of beauty, it is
calculated to arouse feelings of wonder as to what is its practical
value, and why it is worn. Certainly, as a protection against the blasts
of winter, it is utterly worthless. If the wearers suppose that it adds
one iota to their personal charms, truth compels us to say that they are
the victims of a complete self-deception. It is destructive to that air
of modesty which every one wishes to observe in a sister or a mother,
and has a jaunty air of effrontery. We have a trembling hope that things
in this respect will shortly grow better, for we do think that human
ingenuity cannot concoct anything uglier, nor smaller, if resort be not
had to total annihilation. These gauze monstrosities may linger a little
longer, tenaciously clinging to the outermost frontiers of weak heads,
but the good sense of the community, we doubt not, would rather go back
to the scuttle-shaped formations that surrounded our grandmothers, than
suffer their relatives and friends to go to and fro in the microscopic
fixtures which the fashionable world charitably calls bonnets.

       *       *       *       *       *

THE following is a description of the residence of Madame Rachel, the
celebrated French tragic actress:--

The tragedian's dwelling formerly belonged to Walewski, the present
French Minister at London, but she has altered and remodelled it
to such an extent that nothing remains of the original fabric
except the foundation and the outer walls. The exterior presents
nothing remarkable; four windows on a floor in front, first floor
over an _entresol_, and servants' rooms over that. Entrance by a
_porte-cochère_, like almost all French town-houses, but the gate is
oak, and the carriage-way floored with wood to deaden the sound of
wheels. Square court-yard with fountain, and ivy round the sides.
Gothic staircase elaborately carved in stone, and mysteriously lighted
from above by a dome of colored glass. On the _entresol_ an antechamber
in oak; dining-room to the left in Etruscan style, containing a
splendid collection of antique vases. Between the dining-room and
kitchen is a butler's pantry, where a richly carved oaken closet holds
a magnificent service of plate, made partly in Paris and partly in
London, and valued at $20,000, or more. All this story is laid down
with Turkey carpeting, a rare thing in France, where the dining-rooms
and antechambers of even the finest houses have seldom anything to
show but the polished floor. On the right is a parlor opening on
the court by three windows, and commanding a fine lookout over the
neighboring gardens. The ceiling of this room is white, the walls hung
with chintz of a Chinese pattern, large crimson flowers on a sea-green
ground. Curtains, sofas, &c., to match; the rest of the furniture
buhl-work, except some fancy arm-chairs of different stuffs, silk,
velvet, and brocatel. Here is an endless collection of nicknacks,
Dresden and Sevres China, Louis XIV. enamels, ivories, bronzes; among
other curiosities a strange collection of Asiatic weapons. There are
also several valuable paintings by Boucher, Isabey, Tony-Johannot, and
other native artists of different periods. Chinese and Japanese vases
(for which clumsy objects all the French have a weakness) complete
the picture. This parlor opens into the library in a wing of the main
building. The furniture of this room is carved oak, the walls and
ceiling draped in myrtle-green cachemire. The tragedian's desk, richly
carved and covered with green velvet, stands on the left of the door,
with a Venetian mirror just behind it. The whole length of the wall
opposite the three windows, as well as the spaces between the windows,
is occupied by bookcases. Rachel's library comprises about four
thousand volumes, all in very quiet bindings.

The second story, or the first floor over the _entresol_, is in
white wood and gilding (a usual French drawing-room style), carpeted
with purple flowers on a white ground. A large crimson sofa in the
antechamber is flanked by two busts of Clesinger's on pedestals,
_Tragedy_ and _Comedy_. On the right is the grand drawing-room, running
the whole width of the house. The panels of its walls are adorned with
groups of children and cupids, by the celebrated painter, Charles
Muller. The white marble mantel-piece is carved with arabesque and
allegorical masques. The sofas and chairs are purple brocatel with
carved gilt frames, the rest of the furniture rosewood with bronze
medallions. The clocks, candelabras, and bracelets are or-molu of the
most costly workmanship. It is hardly necessary to say that there is
great abundance of looking-glasses; they all bear their owner's cypher
on their gilt frames. Among other objects of art in this room is a bust
of Napoleon as First Consul, by Canova. On the right of the antechamber
is the _show_ bedroom (Rachel, like many other Frenchwomen, has a
quieter one for use in the third story). The bed has purple velvet
curtains, a Turkish carpet of silk and gold embroidery for a quilt, and
a lion-skin for a foot-rug. The furniture is rosewood, with medallions
of Sevres china. A likeness of Adrienne Lecouvreur, in _tapestry_, and
a marble bust of Taglioni, are the most conspicuous of the works of
art in which this room abounds. A secret door near the bed leads into
a little boudoir on the Chinese style, all lacquer, vermilion, and
porcelain. The dressing-room is hung with chintz, garlands of flowers
on a blue striped ground. The walls of the bath-room are sea-green
stucco.

       *       *       *       *       *

THERE is no trifling with nature; it is always true, grave, and severe;
it is always in the right, and the faults and errors fall to our share.
It defies incompetency, but reveals its secrets to the competent, the
truthful, and the pure.

       *       *       *       *       *

THE following we extract from the "Journal of Health":

PALPITATION OF THE HEART CURED BY SODA-WATER.--A lady, about forty years
of age, had suffered for twelve years from periodical attacks of
palpitation of the heart, so violent as to shake the bed on which the
patient lay. During one attack, feeling thirsty, she expressed a desire
for some soda-water. No sooner had she swallowed the first draught than
her palpitation left her, and recurred no more until the period of the
next attack. As soon as it commenced, she sent for her medical
attendant, and told him what had occurred a month previously, and
requested to be allowed to try the same remedy a second time. He
consented, but, wishing to ascertain which of the ingredients of the
soda-water had relieved the complaint, he gave her a dose of citric acid
by itself. This had no effect. He then gave her a dose of carbonate of
soda, which also failed. He then mixed the powders, and gave her some
ordinary soda-water, placing his hand at the same time on her heart. The
moment she swallowed the first mouthful, the palpitation ceased, and
recurred no more for that time. From that period, whenever the
palpitation came on, she could always stop it by this simple remedy. It
appears, from the experiments made by medical men, that the carbonic
acid was the active element in relieving the complaint, because, until
the gas was liberated by the mixture of citric acid and the carbonate of
soda, no benefit accrued.

       *       *       *       *       *

A FRENCH surgeon has written a discourse to prove that the more a
patient cries and groans during a surgical operation, the more likely he
is to survive it.

       *       *       *       *       *

THE LAST PARIS ITEM ABOUT FASHIONS.--Dresses are more costly than ever;
gold, silver, and ornaments of velvet are still adopted for full dress.
For instance, a pink crape dress, with five flounces, each flounce
having an elegant and delicate wreath formed of black velvet. These
flounces, made to diminish in width as well as in the size of the wreath
as they ascend towards the waist, are also vandyked, the festoons being
edged with a black velvet stripe. The body has a bertha forming a point
in front and behind, trimmed with a narrow wreath, and surrounded with
deep frills in the same style as the flounces on the skirt. For sleeves,
a small puff, with a row of small velvet flowers, terminated with two
deep frills, the same as the bertha. Another style, which is quite
different, but equally pretty, is a dress made of white _taffetas_, with
three flounces, each one trimmed with five rows of green curly plush,
woven in the material, and separated by a velvet stripe. This plush and
velvet diminish in width and change in shade as they ascend, so that the
plush and velvet are of quite a delicate green towards the waist. The
body has a bertha forming a _rever_, and coming down as low as the
waist, in a point, both behind and in front.

       *       *       *       *       *

STEAMBOATS ON THE DELAWARE.--The numerous steamboats on our beautiful
river were put in motion early in the spring. They are now running, not,
indeed, in fearful and dangerous opposition, but each in its
"appropriate sphere," and competing only in the excellency of their
accommodations, and in the safe conveyance of travellers and
pleasure-parties to and from the various points which line the shores of
the Delaware from the Capes to the city of Trenton. Among the number
thus employed are the large and handsome boats of the Camden and Amboy
Company, the John Stevens, Captain Kester, and the Trenton, Captain
Hinkle. These boats, as well as their gentlemanly commanders, are old
and established favorites of the travelling and pleasure-seeking public.
It may be said with great truth that there is not on any route in the
entire range of the United States more safe, quiet, and punctual
conveyances, or better accommodations, than are afforded by these boats,
or officers more attentive to their duties, or more anxious to infuse
feelings of confidence and comfort among their passengers, than are
their commanders. We must not forget, however, to do justice to the
unwearied exertions of W. H. Gatzmer, Esq., the principal agent of the
company in this city. To his zeal and watchfulness, in the discharge of
his arduous duties, the public are indebted for many of the facilities
afforded for quick and speedy travel, as well on board the company's
steamboats as on their railroads.

Neither should we forget our old friend, Captain M'Makin, of the
steamer Edwin Forrest, who continues his exertions to accommodate the
public with the most commendable spirit of "competition," and who, we
hope, is reaping a just reward for his labors.

       *       *       *       *       *

THE "FLORIST AND HORTICULTURAL JOURNAL."--We have received the last
number of this beautiful and interesting work, containing a splendid
colored engraving.

       *       *       *       *       *

EARLE'S GALLERY, 216 CHESTNUT STREET.--A free admission gallery, and
where quite as many good paintings can be found as at any pay
exhibition. The walls are lined with beautiful pictures; but among them
we must particularize a school scene: The master is about castigating a
boy, when a new scholar with his father enters. The look of astonishment
of both of them is admirably painted; but the picture is full of
incidents, and ought to be seen by all. There are two other pictures,
"Sheep in the Fold and in the Field"--admirable productions. A new
painting has just been added by an American artist, George C. Bingham;
it is called "An Appeal to Buncombe." The principal figure is, of
course, the speaker, who appears to be stating his "platform" to the
gaping auditory grouped in varied postures about him. The chairman is a
man of prodigious size, and is probably a portrait. The newspaper
reporter is taking down the speech, as delivered, on the top of his hat.
We believe it is to be engraved as a companion to a former picture by
the same artist.

       *       *       *       *       *

"NEW YORK PICAYUNE."--There is great merit in the humorous engravings in
this paper; they are well designed and well engraved. The reading matter
is also excellent. The Lectures by Cesar Augustus Hannibal contain many
satirical hits, though made in the negro dialect. They deserve to be
republished separately.

       *       *       *       *       *

"THE BIZARRE," of this city, which, by the way, is an excellent
publication, says: "A better selection could not be made than 'Letters
left at the Pastry Cook's.' It is one of the most amusing and lifelike
descriptions of a girl's boarding-school ever written."

       *       *       *       *       *

SUMMER BEVERAGES.--Now is the time for our subscribers to provide
themselves with these excellent and temperance receipts. See
advertisement on cover.

       *       *       *       *       *

LA PIERRE HOUSE, BROAD STREET.--We are happy to find that our prophecy
about this splendid establishment has been verified. It is now the most
fashionable and best conducted house in the city.

       *       *       *       *       *

WE beg leave to differ with our friend of the "Western Pioneer." We have
not placed the "cap-stone" yet, and he will see that it is not
impossible to excel it. "There is no impossibility to him who wills." We
will not differ with him on this point: "_It is the best specimen of
artistic and mechanical skill we have ever seen_." We may thank Messrs.
Collins & McLeester, who made the type, and Messrs. T. K. & P. G.
Collins, who printed the "Book," for that. Thank you for your very kind
notice.

       *       *       *       *       *

WHAT LETTERS SHOULD BE.--Many people, and well-informed people too, sit
down to write a letter as if they were about to construct a legal
document or government dispatch. Precision, formality, and carefully
worded and rounded periods are considered all-essential, even though the
epistle be intended for a familiar friend. Others appear to be writing
for publication, or for posterity instead of making epistolary
communication a simple converse between friends. Away with such labored
productions! A letter on business should be brief; to a friend, familiar
and easy. We like Hannah More's ideas upon the subject. She used to say:
"If I want wisdom, sentiment, or information, I can find them better in
books. What I want in a letter is the picture of my friend's mind, and
the common sense of his life. I want to know what he is saying and
doing; I want him to turn out the inside of his heart to me, without
disguise, without appearing better than he is, without writing for a
character. I have the same feeling in writing to him. My letter is
therefore worth nothing to an indifferent person, but it is of value to
the friend who cares for me."

       *       *       *       *       *


RURAL FELICITY.

    When at eve thou sitt'st reclining
      By thy quiet cottage door,
    And the sun's last rays are shining
      On the smooth and polished floor,
    Then thy thoughts are blissward tending,
      And warm emotions like a flood,
    When an urchin softly whispers,
      "_Daddy, Bill won't saw that wood!_"

       *       *       *       *       *

WE do not hear much of the mothers of great men. What their
fathers were--what their reputation, qualities, and history--is
related to us with great particularity; but their mothers are usually
passed over in comparative silence. Yet it is abundantly proved, from
experience, that the mother's influence upon the development of the
child's nature and character is vastly greater than that of a father
can be. "The mother only," says Richter, "educates humanly. Man may
direct the intellect, but woman cultivates the heart."

       *       *       *       *       *

A PARENT would rush, in the greatest alarm, after a child that was
indiscriminately eating wild fruit and berries, for fear it should lay
hold of a poison. How much greater care ought to be exerted in
preventing an indiscriminate use of books, lest the morals should imbibe
a poison that will stamp the future character with irretrievable
dishonor.

       *       *       *       *       *


HOUSE PLANTS.

_From Mrs. Hale's New Household Receipt-Book._

PLANTS require much light and fresh air; a light garret is an excellent
place for them; even those which will not bear the outer air must have
the air of the room frequently freshened by ventilation, to preserve
them in health. They should not stand in a draught of air. In frosty
weather, the windows should be kept close, and at night the shutters. In
sharp frost, instead of stirring out the fire, leave a little on
retiring to rest, with a guard before it for security.

As a general rule, never water plants while the sun shines. The time
should be in the evening, or early in the morning, unless it be
confined to watering the roots, in which case, transplanted plants, and
others in a growing state, may be watered at any time; and, if they are
shaded from the sun, they may also be watered over the tops.

The water, if taken from a well or cold spring, should be exposed one
day to the sun, otherwise it will chill the plants. A small quantity
only should be applied at a time, that it may have the effect of
refreshing rain.

Rain water is the best for plants; next river water; hard spring water
is the worst.

       *       *       *       *       *

TO AIR PLANTS, AND VENTILATE ROOMS WHEREIN THEY ARE CONTAINED.--Plants
should have air every day in the year to make them grow well; but this
matter, in sitting-rooms, will not, of course, be regulated for their
sakes, especially in the colder seasons. Wherever placed, however, some
attention should be paid to airing and ventilating the rooms regularly,
by opening the windows, and occasionally the doors, in order to excite a
free circulation of air. This should be done to a certain extent every
day, according to the state of the weather, except in the time of severe
frost, when it would not be advisable to admit external air. But at such
times, if bad weather be of long continuance, the rooms may be
ventilated by means of the doors, and by exciting a current of air in
the passages or other parts of the house.

In very severe frost, or in a continuation of damp weather, moderate
fires should be made for the sake of the plants, if placed in rooms not
occupied. The window shutters should also be closed at night.

       *       *       *       *       *

HINTS TO LOVERS OF FLOWERS.--A most beautiful and easily-attained show
of evergreens may be had by a very simple plan, which has been found to
answer remarkably well on a small scale. If geranium branches taken from
luxuriant and healthy trees, just before the winter sets in, be cut as
for slips, and immersed in soap-water, they will, after drooping for a
few days, shed their leaves, put forth fresh ones, and continue in the
finest vigor all the winter. By placing a number of bottles thus filled
in a flower-basket, with moss to conceal the bottles, a show of
evergreens is easily insured for the whole season. They require no fresh
water.

       *       *       *       *       *


INSTRUCTIONS IN KNITTING.


THERE is not one art practised by ladies which is more deservedly
popular than knitting. It is so easy, requires so little eyesight, and
is susceptible of so much ornament, that it merits the attention of
every lady.

The first process in knitting is known by the term _casting on_. There
are two ways of doing this; with one needle and with two. Take the
thread between the second and third fingers of the left hand, leaving
an end of about a yard for every hundred stitches; pass it round the
thumb of that hand, giving it a twist, so as to form a loop. Take a
knitting-needle in the right hand, insert the point in the loop and
pass the thread from the ball round the needle; then bend the point
of the needle through the loop, which tighten, and one stitch will be
complete. Continuing to make loops over the thumb, with the end of
thread, and knit them with that from the ball until the proper number
is cast on.

_To cast on with two needles_ (generally called the Spanish method),
begin by making a loop on the end of the thread, into which slip the
point of one needle, holding it in the left hand. Take the other needle
in the right hand, and slip its point into the same loop; bring the
thread round the point of this needle, and bend the needle towards
you, so that the thread forms a loop on it. Slip that also on the left
needle, without withdrawing it from the right. Put the thread round the
right again, and repeat the process.

_Plain Knitting._--After all the stitches are cast on, hold the needle
containing them in the left hand. Pass the thread round the little
finger of the right hand, _under_ the second and third, and above the
point of the first. Then take the other needle in the right hand, slip
the point in the first stitch, and put the thread round it; bring
forward the point of the right hand needle, so that the thread forms a
loop on it. Slip the end of the left hand needle out of the stitch, and
a new stitch is knitted.

_German Manner._--The thread, instead of being held by the fingers of
the right hand, is passed over and under those of the left. The process
is exactly the same.

_Purling._--Begin by bringing the thread in front of the right hand
needle, which slip into a stitch pointing towards you; that is, in
the reverse of the usual mode. Put the thread round the point of the
needle, still bringing it towards you, bend the needle backwards to
form a loop, and withdraw the stitch from the point of the left hand
needle.

When knitted and purled stitches occur in the same row, the thread must
be brought forward before a purled stitch, and taken back before a
knitted one.

_To make a stitch._--Bring the thread in front, as if for a purled
stitch, so that when you knit one the thread will pass over the needle,
and will make a hole in the following row. The thread is put twice
entirely round the needle, and then brought forward, so that the next
knitted stitch will take it over a third time. In doing the next row,
knit one, purl one, knit one of these stitches; however many are made,
they must be alternately knitted and purled in the next row. When the
stitch following the made stitches is to be purled, the thread must be
entirely passed round the needle, once for every stitch to be made, and
brought forward also.

_Slip stitch._--Pass a stitch from the left needle to the right,
without knitting it. There are two ways of decreasing; first, by
knitting two, three, or more stitches as one, marked in knitting, as k
2 t, k 3 t, &c. Secondly, in the following way: slip one stitch, knit
one, pass the slip stitch over; this decreases one stitch. To decrease
two; slip one, knit two together, pass the slip stitch over.

A reverse stitch is taken off the left hand needle, in the reverse
way to knitting and purling. In both these, the right hand needle is
inserted in the middle of the stitch, and the point brought out towards
you or otherwise. But to make a reverse stitch, you insert the point
of the needle in the stitch _at the back of the work_, and bring it
forward through the opening in which it generally is inserted. The
thread is to be placed round it, as for a purled stitch.

To reverse two, three, or more stitches together, insert the needle in
them all at once, _from the last to the first_.

_To take up stitches._--Insert the needle in the loop, pass the thread
round, and knit it in the usual manner. Do not draw out any loop more
than can be avoided, while knitting it.

_To knit two pieces together._--To do this, there must be an equal
number of stitches on both. Hold the needles together in the right
hand, and knit as usual, inserting the left-hand needle in a loop of
each at the same time, and treating the two as one.

_To form a round._--The French manner of performing this process
is by casting the whole number of stitches on one needle, and then
distributing them on three, or perhaps four. But the English mode is
to divide the number of stitches, and cast so many on each needle, not
withdrawing the last stitch of each needle from the point of the next
needle. When all are cast on, the round is made by knitting the _two
first_ stitches on to the last needle. Four needles are employed for
stockings, five for doyleys and other round articles.

_To cast off._--Knit two stitches, insert the point of the left hand
needle in the first stitch, and draw it on the other. Knit another
stitch, and treat these two in the same way.

       *       *       *       *       *

THE EMPRESS OF FRANCE.--A correspondent of the "Morning Post,"
describing the appearance of the Empress of France at a ball, says: "The
grace and beauty of the Empress were observed to the fullest advantage.
Her faultless delicacy of feature, and the elegance of her figure, were
well displayed by a very chaste costume of white lace, ornamented with
ribbons of violet color, falling half way down the skirt. The headdress
was exquisitely beautiful. Her Majesty's hair is of a beautiful light
brown tint, and it was disposed last evening in tasteful rolls over the
forehead, leaving disclosed the ears, from which diamonds were pendant.
Her Majesty wore a diamond necklace of marvellous brilliancy, every
stone of which reflected its myriad hues, and a pair of somewhat small
bracelets _en suite_."

       *       *       *       *       *

Another writer says:--

"From some statistics of the Legion of Honor just published, it
appears that this body numbers about 52,000, or little more than a
two-hundredth part of the male population of France. It was usually
supposed to be larger; the English used to say that every third
Frenchman in a respectable position was a 'Knight' of the Legion.
In Louis Philippe's time it was conferred on some odd subjects, old
Galignani among others, whose chief merits were, keeping a circulating
library, printing English books (before the late international
legislation on that subject), and publishing a newspaper of selections
which put in all it can find in disparagement of the Americans.

"By the time a man has lived two or three years in Paris, he generally
fancies himself pretty well posted up in French cookery; but I came
across something the other day which knocked me, and will probably
astonish you too, as it is founded on what we are accustomed to regard
as a peculiarly national comestible. Every American is acquainted
with pumpkin pie, and a good many of us like it. But what do you say
to _pumpkin soup?_ Till you have tried it, you don't know of what the
vegetable is capable. _Purée de Poturons;_ it is made just like _Purée
de Pois_, or any other purée (and consequently is improved by the
addition of _croutons_), pleasant to the eye (a rich golden yellow),
and delicious to the taste."

       *       *       *       *       *

THE MANNER OF DOING GOOD.--When your endeavors are directed towards
doing good to an individual, in other words, doing him service, if there
be any option as to the mode or way, consider and observe what mode is
most to his taste. If you serve him as you think and say, in a way which
is yours, and not his, the value of any service may, by an indefinite
amount, be thus reduced. If the action of serving a man not in the way
he wishes to be served be carried to a certain length, it becomes
tyranny, not beneficence; an exercise of power for the satisfaction of
the self-regarding affections, not an act of beneficence for the
gratification of the sympathetic or social affections.

       *       *       *       *       *

YANKEE DOODLE, WITH VARIATIONS.--Who is there among our readers who has
not heard several of his favorite tunes played with variations? And who
is there that could, when the musician got pretty deep in said
variations, ever recognize the original tune? It should be with
alterations, instead of variations. A recent writer, in the following,
justly ridicules this "variation" business:--

A few evenings since, I had the satisfaction of being present at
Signor Sivori's farewell concert. I was exceedingly diverted by the
performances of that clever violinist, which also reminded me of an
idea that had occasionally occurred to me before on hearing Ole Bull,
Liszt, and other professors of musical gymnastics.

I perceived that the talent of these gentlemen lay principally in
executing variations on certain favorite airs; that is, in disjointing
their different portions, and filling up the intervals with divers
fantastical and eccentric movements of their own--runs, shakes, and
so forth; thus interspersing the original music, which was expressive
of some sentiment, feeling, or state of mind, with passages which,
having no meaning at all, formed an agreeable contrast to the melodies
wherewith they were blended.

Now, the idea that occurred to me was that the principle (so greatly
to the gratification of the public) acted upon by the musicians
might be advantageously applied to the sister art of poetry. I think
that Shakspeare with variations would very probably be received with
great applause. The variations, of course, should correspond in
expressiveness and intellectuality to those above alluded to. For
instance, let the line to be varied be--

    "To be, or not to be; that is the question."

The theme might first be recited entire, and then treated as follows:--

    To be or not, fiddle; to be, diddle; that, tooral; is, rooral;
      the question, lay.
    Fiddle, fiddle, iddle, iddle, tooral, looral, lay.
    Tooral, to be: looral, or not; lay, to be; that is, fiddle;
      the question, iddle de dee.
    To, yoddle; be, doodle; or, fol; not, dol; to, de; be, rol; that,
       ri; is, tol; the, lol; question, de rido.
    Yoddle, doddle, fol de rol, to be; hey down derry diddle dum,
       or not; whack rum ti oodity, to be; ho down, that; chip chow
       cherry chow, is; tra la la la, the question.
    Dong, dong, harum, scarum, divo, question
    Right fol de riddy, oody, bow, wow, wow!

Drowning men will catch at a straw; and, considering the present
declining state of the drama, I seriously recommend the suggestion to
the notice of the managers. Its adoption will doubtless astonish the
weak minds of many, to whom Shakspeare's sense, at present too strong
for them, will be rendered more palatable by dilution.

       *       *       *       *       *

A WOMAN was walking, and a man looked at her and followed her. The woman
said, "Why do you follow me?" He answered, "Because I have fallen in
love with you." The woman said, "Why are you in love with me? My sister
is much handsomer than I! She is coming after me; go and make love to
her." The man turned back and saw a woman with an ugly face. Being
greatly displeased, he went again to the other woman, and said, "Why did
you tell a story?" The woman answered, "Neither did you speak truth;
for if you are in love with me, why did you go after another woman?" The
man was confounded. We should rather think he was.

       *       *       *       *       *

GODEY'S GALLERY OF SPLENDID ENGRAVINGS.--We have received the first
number of this collection of over twenty-five of the finest of those
beautiful engravings that have appeared in the Lady's Book in former
days. Those who are wishing to procure books of engravings for the
centre-table cannot better consult their own interest than by sending
fifty cents to Godey for his beautiful "Gallery."

       *       *       *       *       *

BOOK OF THE TOILET.--This neat little publication contains a large
number of recipes for the preservation of health, and beauty, and for
the preparation of the various kinds of cosmetics in general use.
Personal beauty is a gift to be prized, and the preservation of a
youthful appearance is by no means to be condemned. The "Book of the
Toilet" will enable ladies to prepare their own cologne, toilet soap, et
cetera, at a much less cost, and less adulterated, than when purchased,
ready for use, at the druggists. Price of the Book, fifty cents. Address
Louis A. Godey, Philadelphia.--_Western Literary Cabinet._

       *       *       *       *       *

THE "Sandy Hill Herald" says: "How any lady can manage to get along
without Godey, is more than we can imagine. Why, if we were a woman, we
would not do without it any more than we would do without a husband, and
we would be sure to have both."

Friend "Herald," there is one woman we wot of that can't get along
"without Godey;" and she thinks that a certain ceremony that was
performed some twenty years since gives her a pretty good right to him.

       *       *       *       *       *

WE give the following as we find it--without vouching for its
correctness, although the paper was read before the Royal Asiatic
Society in England:--

HOW TO MAKE ARTIFICIAL PEARLS.--It was stated, in a paper read a short
time since before the members of the Royal Asiatic Society in England,
"that the artificial production of pearls from the mussel-fish is
carried on to a great extent at Hoochow, in China. The fish are
collected in April and May, and are opened by children, who place a
small bit of bamboo in the orifice to keep the shells apart. A piece of
brass or bone, a small pebble, or a pellet of mud, is then introduced, a
dose of three to five spoonfuls of fish-scales, pounded and mixed with
water, is poured on, and the stick removed. The fish are then placed a
few inches apart in ponds, the water of which is from three to five feet
deep, and which are well manured with night soil four or five times
every year. In these ponds, the fish are allowed to remain from ten
months to three years. Upon taking them out, the shell is cut through
with a fine saw, the pearl is separated from the shell and the pellet,
or other substance within it extracted. It is then filled with white
wax, and a piece of the shell carefully attached, to conceal the
aperture. Several millions of pearls are thus produced annually, worth
from about a penny to eight pence a pair."

       *       *       *       *       *

GENERAL AGENCY FOR PERIODICALS.--Many persons wishing to subscribe for
different publications do not like the trouble of writing several
letters. This may be obviated by sending the money to the subscriber,
who will attend to all orders punctually, whether for publications
monthly or weekly in this city or elsewhere.

Any information asked for by any of our subscribers we will cheerfully
give, if it is in our power.

We will attend to purchasing any goods that may be desired, and will
forward them at the lowest market price.




Enigmas.


ANSWERS TO ENIGMAS IN APRIL NUMBER.

13. A well. 14. Able, table, cable, fable. 15. A secret.

       *       *       *       *       *


ENIGMAS.

16.

    PRAY, what is that we enter, but ne'er see?
    And yet familiarized with it are we;
    Though ne'er created, yet existing 'tis,
    And with ourselves concurrent always is.
    Its property throughout our lives we share,
    And draw on its resources everywhere.
    Itself indefinite, yet marks the sum
    Of our career--past, present, and to come.
    Its current value, too (to this attend),
    Must on our working of that sum depend.
    In fact, its origin, its age, its death,
    May be explained away in one word's breath;
    Though of enigmas it must ever be
    To human minds the greatest mystery?


17.

    MY name's a paradox to you,
    Expressing what I'd fain not do,
      For constancy's my aim;
    I'm really such a loving elf,
    To you I would attach myself
      With ardor aye the same.


18.

    SOMETIMES, a minister of state,
      Scarlet and gold I wear;
    Faith o'er the world I circulate
      In many a form that's fair.

    No mediator ever aids
      The mortal in distress,
    Howe'er the tyrants of the earth
      His spirit may oppress,
    As I successfully can do.
      Whene'er he's destitute,
    Then finds he me a comforter,
      Where worldly friends are mute.

    For I can raise his mind above
      The vanities of life;
    Can banish all its jealousies,
      Extinguish all its strife;
    Can mitigate the miseries
      Attendant on the poor;
    And wretches, all disconsolate,
      With radiant hope allure.


19.

    MY character consider well,
    The deadliest quarrel I can quell,
      When folks by me are led;
    For satisfaction I can give
    To all who'd not dishonored live,
      And e'en avenge the dead.

    I'm dull and heavy, yet at need
    You may accelerate my speed,
      Upon a hostile course;
    Destruction's ever my good aim,
    Yet I've an honorable fame
      For equalizing force.




The Borrower's Department.

"_The wicked borroweth and payeth not again._"


    "_Md._, 1854.

"DEAR SIR: I present myself before you this morning another evidence of
the great inconveniences sometimes attending the borrowing system. My
books have suffered in various ways; some have had _rhubarb_ (!) spilt
on them, others ink, besides being otherwise maltreated and maimed. And
now I find the May number for 1853 has disappeared, and no trace of it
can be discovered. Can't you aid me in this emergency, and oblige me by
supplying the missing copy? Inclosed are postage stamps to the amount.

    "Respectfully yours,       M. A. T.

    "MR. LOUIS A. GODEY."

       *       *       *       *       *

FROM the "Ohio Clinton Republican:"--

"'LADY'S BOOK.'--The February number of 'Godey's Lady's Book'
has just been received. We fear there are not enough copies of this
excellent and popular periodical taken in this place, else there would
not be so many applications to borrow ours by our fair friends."

       *       *       *       *       *

FROM the "Schuylkill Banner:" "Although this magazine is entitled
'Lady's Book,' it is a book sought after by not only females, but males
of all grades that can read; and we are sorry to say that so many of our
readers would rather borrow than subscribe to it."

       *       *       *       *       *

    "_N. C._, Feb. 22, 1854.

"MR. GODEY: I shall be compelled, in _self-defence_, to get you a lot of
subscribers at this place. The copy you are kind enough to send the
'News' is literally worn out in the service of the ladies, bless them!
They will have it, and I cannot refuse to loan. I expect to be able to
send you some more shortly.

    "Yours truly,      T. W. A."


PHILADELPHIA AGENCY.

"Mrs. H. L."--Buff-colored note-paper and cards are now fashionable.
Can send you both.

"Miss J. E. P."--Black velvet headdress sent on the 12th.

"M. S."--Sent your sewing-machine by Adams's Express on the 13th.

"Miss C. H."--Sent your bonnet by Adams's on the 14th.

"Mrs. O. H. F."--Sent your bonnet by express on 16th.

"Miss E. O. P."--Sent bonnet by the person who brought the order on the
16th.

"J. B. G."--Paper hangings were sent _via_ Camden and Amboy Railroad on
the 11th.

"Emily L. M."--Don't know any more than what the acknowledgment
referred to conveys. Shall be happy to hear from you at all times.

"Miss B."--Sent port-monnaie by mail on 15th.

"Anna E. W."--Please see March, April, and this number for full
directions for crochet and knitting. Other portions of your letter will
be answered. Much obliged to you for your commendations. We will send
pamphlets postage free about the sewing-machine to all who may wish
them.

"Mrs. A. M. L."--Sent bonnet by Kinsley's Express on the 14th.

"H. E. G."--Sent apron pattern on 22d.

"S. E. W."--Sent apron pattern on 24th.

"Old Subscriber," at Godfrey, Ill.--Cannot publish the patterns, as
they are too large; but will furnish them at $1 25, and will get them
to match as near as possible. They do not come in sets. Patterns can be
stamped on the material, which is much better, as they can be stamped
ready for working.

"L. B."--Sent patterns by mail on 28th.

"Mrs. M. A. W."--Sent your order by mail on 4th.

"Miss H. A. J."--Sent duplicate on the 4th.

"Mrs. M. A. W."--Sent garment on the 4th.

"Mrs. A. V. Du B."--Sent patterns on the 9th.

"Mrs. M. A. L."--Sent "colors" by Adams & Co. on 10th.

"Mrs. S. H. D."--Books and patterns sent by mail on the 11th.

"Mrs. D. C. H."--Sent box by Adams's Express on 11th.

"Mrs. M. S. L."--Sent box by mail on the 11th.

"M. C. L."--Sent book by mail on 16th.

"Miss C. V. S."--Sent silk on 17th.

"Miss E. C. H."--Sent pattern on 17th.

In answer to several correspondents, we give the following directions
for

       *       *       *       *       *

STARCHING LINEN.--To those who desire to impart to shirt bosoms,
collars, and other fabrics that fine and beautiful gloss observable on
new linens, the following recipe for making gum arabic starch will be
most acceptable, and should have a place in the domestic scrap-book of
every woman who prides herself upon her capacity as a house-wife and the
neatness of her own, her husband's, and family's dress; and, if she does
not take pride in these things, her husband is an unfortunate man:--

"Take two ounces of fine white gum arabic powder, put it into a
pitcher, and pour on it a pint or more of boiling water, according to
the degree of strength you desire, and then, having covered it, let
it set all night. In the morning, pour it carefully from the dregs
into a clean bottle, cork it, and keep it for use. A tablespoonful of
gum-water stirred into a pint of starch that has been made in the usual
manner will give the lawns (either white, black, or printed) a look of
newness, when nothing else can restore them after washing. It is also
good, much diluted, for thin white muslin and bobbinet."--_Augusta
Chronicle._

No orders attended to unless the cash accompanies them.

All persons requiring answers by mail must send a post-office stamp.




Receipts, &c.


TO REMOVE GREASE FROM PAPER.--Scrape finely some pipe clay or French
chalk, and on this lay the sheet or leaf to be cleansed, covering the
spot in like manner with clay or chalk. Cover the whole with a sheet of
paper, and apply, for a few seconds, a heated iron. On using India
rubber to remove the dust, the paper will be found to be free of the
grease.

       *       *       *       *       *

STRAW may be bleached by putting it in a cask into which a few
brimstone matches are placed lighted. The same effect may be produced
by dipping the straw into chloride of lime dissolved in water.

       *       *       *       *       *

VARNISH FOR COLORED DRAWINGS.--Canada balsam, one ounce; oil of
turpentine, two ounces; dissolve. Size the drawings first with a jelly
of isinglass, and when dry apply the varnish, which will make them
appear like oil paintings.

       *       *       *       *       *

MOCK CREAM FOR COFFEE.--Mix half a tablespoonful of flour with a pint of
new milk; let it simmer for five minutes, then beat up the yolk of an
egg, stir it into the milk while boiling, and run it through a lawn
sieve.

       *       *       *       *       *

TO USE JEWELLER'S ROUGE IN CLEANING ORNAMENTS.--Mix it with a little
salad oil, and with a small tooth-brush rub the ornament till perfectly
clean; then wash in hot soap and water with a clean brush, and wipe dry
with wash-leather.

       *       *       *       *       *

A VERY pretty and economical finish for sheets, pillow-cases, &c., may
be made from the cuttings of bleached muslin: Cut one and a half inch
squares, and fold them bias, from corner to corner, then fold again, so
as to form a point, seam on to the straight side on raw edge and face on
a strip to cover the seam.

       *       *       *       *       *

TO GIVE A FINE COLOR TO MAHOGANY.--Let the tables be washed perfectly
clean with vinegar, having first taken out any ink-stains there may be
with spirit of salt, but it must be used with the greatest care, only
touching the part affected, and instantly washing it off. Use the
following liquid: Into a pint of cold drawn linseed oil, put four
pennyworth of alkanet root, and two pennyworth of rose pink in an
earthen vessel, let it remain all night, then, stirring well, rub some
of it all over the table with a linen rag; when it has lain some time,
rub it bright with linen cloths.

       *       *       *       *       *

FINE BLACKING FOR SHOES.--Take four ounces of ivory black, three ounces
of the coarsest sugar, a tablespoonful of sweet oil, and a pint of small
beer; mix them gradually cold.

       *       *       *       *       *

TO TAKE INK OUT OF MAHOGANY.--Mix, in a teaspoonful of cold water, a few
drops of oil of vitriol; touch the spot with a feather dipped in the
liquid.

       *       *       *       *       *

TO CLEAN PICTURES.--Dust them lightly with cotton wool, or with a
feather brush.

       *       *       *       *       *

TO CLEAN MIRRORS.--Wipe them lightly with a clean bit of sponge or fine
linen that has been wet in spirits of wine, or in soft water; then dust
the glass with fine whiting powder; rub this off with a soft cloth, then
rub with another clean cloth, and finish it with a silk handkerchief.
Dust the frames with cotton wool.

       *       *       *       *       *

MILDEW STAINS are very difficult to remove from linen. The most
effectual way is to rub soap on the spots, then chalk, and bleach the
garment in the hot sun.

       *       *       *       *       *

INK AND IRON MOULD may be taken out by wetting the spots in milk, then
covering them with common salt. It should be done before the garments
have been washed. Another way to take out ink is to dip it in melted
tallow. For fine, delicate articles, this is the best way.

       *       *       *       *       *

FRUIT AND WINE STAINS.--Mix two teaspoonfuls of water and one of spirit
of salt, and let the stained part lie in this for two minutes; then
rinse in cold water. Or wet the stain with hartshorn.

       *       *       *       *       *


DOMESTIC RECEIPTS.

CUSTARDS, CREAMS, JELLIES, AND BLANC MANGE.

[_Fifth article._]

DEVONSHIRE JUNKET.--Put warm milk into a bowl; turn it with rennet; then
put some scalded cream, sugar, and nutmeg on the top without breaking
the curd.

       *       *       *       *       *

KERRY BUTTERMILK.--Put six quarts of buttermilk into a cheese-cloth,
hang it in a cool place, and let the whey drip from it for two or three
days; when it is rather thick, put it into a basin, sweeten it with
pounded loaf-sugar, and add a glass of brandy, or of sweet wine, and as
much raspberry jam, or syrup, as will color and give it an agreeable
flavor. Whisk it well together, and serve it in a glass dish.

       *       *       *       *       *

WHIP SYLLABUB.--Whip cream, as directed above; mix a glass of brandy and
half a pint of white wine with a pint of the cream, which sweeten with
sifted loaf-sugar, and grate in lemon-peel and nutmeg; serve in glasses,
and set some of the whip on each.

       *       *       *       *       *

SNOWBALLS.--Beat the whites of six eggs to a froth, sweeten them to your
taste, and flavor them with rose-water. Drop them into a pot of boiling
water, in tablespoonfuls, for a minute or two, to harden them. Make a
cream of milk, eggs, and sugar to float them in.

       *       *       *       *       *

A FLOATING ISLAND.--Take a pint of thick cream, sweeten with _fine_
sugar, grate in the peel of one lemon, and add a gill of sweet white
wine; whisk it well till you have raised a good froth; then pour a pint
of thick cream into a china dish, take one French roll, slice it thin,
and lay it over the cream as lightly as possible; then a layer of clear
calves' feet jelly, or currant jelly; then whip up your cream and lay on
the froth as high as you can, and what remains pour into the bottom of
the dish. Garnish the rim with sweetmeats.

       *       *       *       *       *

FLOATING ISLAND--_another way_.--Beat together the whites of three eggs
and as many tablespoonfuls of raspberry jam or red currant jelly; when
the whole will stand in rocky forms, pile it upon apple jelly, or cream,
beaten up with wine, sugar, and a little grated lemon-peel.

       *       *       *       *       *

TO WHIP CREAM.--Sweeten a bowl of cream with loaf-sugar, and flavor it
with orange-flower water, any juicy fruit, or lemon or orange, by
rubbing sugar on the peel; set another bowl near the above, with a sieve
over it; then whip the cream with a whisk, and, as it rises in a froth,
take it off with a skimmer, and put it into the sieve to drain; whip
also the cream which drains off, and, when done, ornament with
lemon-raspings. This cream may be used before it is set upon custard,
trifle, or syllabub.

       *       *       *       *       *

A TRIFLE.--Whip cream, as directed above, adding a little brandy and
sweet wine; then lay in a glass dish sponge cakes, ratafia cakes, and
macaroons, and pour upon them as much brandy and sweet wine as they will
soak up; next, a rich custard about two inches deep, with a little
grated nutmeg and lemon-peel; then a layer of red currant jelly or
raspberry jam, and upon the whole a very high whip. A trifle is best
made the day before it is wanted.

       *       *       *       *       *

CAKE TRIFLE.--Cut out a rice or diet-bread cake about two inches from
the edge; fill it with a rich custard, with a few blanched and split
almonds, and pieces of raspberry jam, and put on the whole a high whip.

       *       *       *       *       *

GOOSEBERRY OR APPLE TRIFLE.--Scald a sufficient quantity of fruit, and
pulp it through a sieve; add sugar agreeable to your taste, make a thick
layer of this at the bottom of your dish; mix a pint of milk, a pint of
cream, and the yolks of two eggs, scald it over the fire, observing to
stir it; add a small quantity of sugar, and let it get cold. Then lay it
over the apples or gooseberries with a spoon, and put on the whole a
whip made the day before.

       *       *       *       *       *


THE SICK ROOM AND NURSERY.

COLD OR INFLAMMATION IN THE EYES.--A correspondent has met with the
greatest relief from the following application: Soak in cold spring
water, for half an hour, a piece of bread toasted brown, and then place
it on soft linen rag, one thickness, next the eye, and apply at bedtime
every night, until the inflammation is removed.

       *       *       *       *       *

FUMIGATING SICK ROOMS.--The chlorine fumigation is generally considered
the best for fumigating the apartments of the sick. To prepare it, mix
together equal parts of powdered oxide of manganese and common salt; put
one ounce of this powder into a basin, and pour on it a large
teaspoonful of water; then drop into the vessel about thirty or forty
drops of oil of vitriol, which may be repeated at intervals for about
three or four times. This will be sufficient for the perfect exhaustion
of the powder.

       *       *       *       *       *

TO MAKE ARROW-ROOT.--To a dessert-spoonful of powder, add as much cold
water as will make it into a paste, then pour on half a pint of boiling
water, stir it briskly and boil a few seconds, when it will become a
clear smooth jelly. It may be sweetened with sugar, and flavored with
lemon-peel, &c., to the palate, or a little sherry or other white wine
may be added; fresh milk, either alone or diluted with water, may be
substituted for the water.

       *       *       *       *       *

ANTIDOTE FOR LAUDANUM.--Give immediately twenty grains of white vitriol
dissolved in water, and assist vomiting by irritating the fauces with a
feather; after the stomach is emptied, give large draughts of vinegar
and water, and other vegetable acids, with coffee, brandy, &c.,
constantly rousing the attention of the sufferer, until the effects of
the poison subside. Recourse may be had to this until such time as the
attendance of a medical man can be procured.

       *       *       *       *       *

OPODELDOC.--This lotion being a valuable application for sprains,
lumbago, weakness of joints, &c., and it being difficult to procure
either pure or freshly made, we give a receipt for its preparation:
Dissolve an ounce of camphor in a pint of rectified spirits of wine,
then dissolve four ounces of hard white Spanish soap, scraped thin, in
four ounces of oil of rosemary, and mix them together.

       *       *       *       *       *

SUBSTANCES IN THE EYE.--To remove fine particles of gravel, lime, &c.,
the eye should be syringed with lukewarm water till free from them. Be
particular not to worry the eye under the impression that the substance
is still there, which the enlargement of some of the minute vessels
makes the patient believe is actually the case.




The Toilet.


GOWLAND'S LOTION.--Take one and a quarter grains of bichloride of
mercury, and one ounce of emulsion of bitter almonds; mix well. Be
careful of the bichloride of mercury, because it is a poison. This is
one of the best cosmetics we possess for imparting a delicate appearance
and softness to the skin, and is a useful lotion in ringworm, hard and
dry skin, and sun-blisterings.

       *       *       *       *       *

TO CLEAN KID GLOVES.--Draw the gloves on the hands, and then freely wash
them in turpentine until perfectly clean. Then blow into them and pin
them on a line to dry. The air will dissipate any smell the turpentine
may leave. Should this, however, not prove to be the case, a drop or two
of oil of lemon in a little water, rubbed lightly over the gloves, will
effectually destroy it.

       *       *       *       *       *

TO REMOVE FRECKLES.--Take of Venice soap an ounce, dissolve it in half
an ounce of lemon-juice, to which add of oil of bitter almonds and
deliquated oil of tartar, each a quarter of an ounce. Let the mixture be
placed in the sun till it acquires the consistence of ointment. When in
this state, add three drops of the oil of rhodium, and keep it for use.
Apply it in the following manner: Wash the face at night with
elder-flower water, then anoint it with the above unction. In the
morning, cleanse the skin from its oily adhesion by washing it copiously
in rose-water.

       *       *       *       *       *

TO PREVENT HAIR FROM FALLING OUT.--Make a strong decoction of white-oak
bark in water, and use it freely. Make but little at a time, and have it
fresh at least once a fortnight.




Centre-Table Gossip.


MAY FIRST

is signalized, in the annals of New York housekeepers, as a time of
change.

Boarders go to housekeeping; old housekeepers, tired of the wear and
tear of servants and marketing, give up their comfortable homes for
the confinement of a parlor and bed-room in some fashionable hotel or
lodging house. Or it may be that only a removal is contemplated, and
Mr. Leeds is called in to superintend the sale of furniture that has
got behind the times, like the street or square in which it has been
used, and carpets much too small for the enlarged views of the wife
of the successful merchant. Months before, the young married people
have been going from house to house, peering into closets and dumb
waiters, measuring floors with an accurate eye, or halls by sober,
long-reaching strides, and taking the altitude of windows for shade
or curtain. They stop at Berrian's, on their way to business, and
pause before Haughwout's huge windows of china and glass. Peterson &
Humphrey's carpets are more attractive than the prints at Goupil's
or the landscapes at Stevens's. They notice the price of flour in
the morning paper, and consult about the wet linen goods "from the
Humboldt"--a cargo that would seem as inexhaustible as the furniture
of the Mayflower. By and by, the mornings are passed at auctions,
and "bargains" begin to crowd their rooms, as heterogeneous in
manufacture as in use. All at once, they find their purchase brought to
a stand-still by lack of funds, and the house is not half furnished.
Ah, they had forgotten to make a calculation beforehand, and purchase
actual articles of necessity before matters of luxury!

Now they go on as they should have commenced, cautiously and
economically; still, the kitchen and chamber departments show
reprovingly for some time to come how they have been robbed for the
sake of the parlor curtains and mantle ornaments.

They should have had some good old friend, like ourselves, to say,
"Now, my dears, I like your plan of housekeeping; you will find it the
most comfortable and economical in the end, if you will only go the
right way to work. You have made a fortunate selection in your house.
It is neither too large for your means nor your family. How many rooms
in it? How have you disposed of them? Now take a spare scrap of paper,
and write them down in order.

"_Begin_ with your kitchen, _end_ with your parlor. Reverse the
usual plan, if your aim is comfort and not show. Only Mrs. M. or
N. will notice whether you have shades or curtains. If your family
lack comfortable bedding, or your kitchen needful conveniences, you
certainly incommode those you care most to please. Take the kitchen,
for example. How large is it? Will you have it covered with carpeting
or oil-cloth? How many yards, and at what price? Have you a range? If
not, count the cost of stove and boilers. How many chairs and tables?
At what price? The dresser, and delf necessary for cooking and
servants' use." Fortunately, the lists of the furnishing warehouses
save an endless amount of thought and trouble, especially in the matter
of cooking utensils. Those unlearned in such research will find one of
them in our answers to correspondents the present number.

As for the kitchen, so for the dining-room, the china-closet, the
linen-press, store-room, chambers, and finally the parlor. Make your
calculation as accurately as possible, to come within the limit you
have set yourself, remembering in all cases to take from articles
of mere adornment or show, rather than essential comforts, and that
infinite petty mortifications and care can be saved to a house-keeper
by making plenty, not superfluity, her rule.

       *       *       *       *       *


A LESSON WORTH REMEMBERING.

THERE are very few of our readers--we take it for granted--who
have not met with the little book, "A Trap to Catch a Sunbeam." A
longer story, by the same author, has made its appearance in England,
prettily illustrated by Gilbert. The title is "Influence," neither more
nor less; and the object in view is to show the weight good or bad
influence will have on the character, even from the nursery.

As most appropriate to our "Centre-Table Chat," which unites gayeties
and gravities, we give as a sample of the new book. Speaking of the
education of Cyril, its hero's sister--

"Yes, Julia was improving in every knowledge but one of the most
important, the knowledge which a mother's example could best have
taught her, to know and perform her mission here, the proper exercise
of _woman's paramount influence over man_."

There would be fewer wretched marriages, fewer dissipated, degraded
men, if this lesson were included in a woman's education; if they were
taught to feel the angel duty which devolves on them--to keep the
wandering steps of those who are tempted so much more than they in the
paths of virtue and peace; to make them feel that in the busy world
are noise and confusion; that at home there are order and repose; that
there "eyes look brighter when they come, that the smile of welcome is
ever ready to receive them, _the work, the books are ever ready to be
laid aside to minister to their pleasure_"--they would find amusement
then at home, nor strive to seek it elsewhere.

And not alone to the higher classes of society should this be taught.
It should be a lesson instilled into the minds of all, high and low,
rich and poor. Duty has seldom so strong a hold on men as women; they
cannot, they will not, for _duty's_ sake, remain in a dull, tedious, or
ill-managed, querulous home, but leave it to seek elsewhere the comfort
and amusement which fail them there; and, when riot and revelry have
done their work, the wives and sisters who have done so little to make
them otherwise are pitied for their bad husbands and brothers.

       *       *       *       *       *


FOR THE LOVERS OF JEWELRY.

THE great Koh-i-noor diamond displayed in the English Exhibition, and
shown by a model in the New York Crystal Palace, has a rival in one now
deposited in the Bank of England by the consignees, Messrs. Dory &
Benjamin, of London. It comes from Rio Janeiro, and weighs 254½ carats,
of the purest water. When cut and polished, it is expected to surpass
the Indian diamond in size and brilliancy. It has been shown to the
queen, and is the subject of general remark in the English prints.

Ball & Black, of New York, have still in their window the celebrated
necklace of pearls displayed at the Crystal Palace. It consists
of a single string of pure pearls, threaded like the gold beads of
our grandmothers, and about the same size. The cross attached is of
diamonds, in a rich and tasteful setting. The pearls are of such
unusual size and purity that at first it seems almost impossible that
they can be real.

Necklaces are worn much more than they have been, for full dress
especially. The most fashionable and costly style is of diamonds, and
quite flat, either set in a pattern or a single row of brilliants.
Ladies who cannot afford this costly appendage to their toilets adopt
a very fine Venetian gold chain, to which is suspended a medallion of
precious stones set with diamonds.

       *       *       *       *       *


OUR FASHION DEPARTMENT.

WE do not often allude to what we have done or intend to do in this
department, keeping the even tenor of our way, and letting our chitchat
speak for itself. But of late we have noticed that other publications
assume to have been the first to give detailed directions, in addition
to the meagre description of the fashion plates at first offered to the
public. Hailing as we do from the Quaker City, we shall "mildly
remonstrate," and only assert that _this is not the case_.

The present fashion editor was the first to originate the monthly
letter or record of the fleeting changes of the season, and since
that time has been engaged in collecting, with more or less research
and difficulty, from foreign _journals des modes_, the importer, the
mantuamaker, and the milliner, such items as will be of practical or
suggestive use, and setting these before our readers in a simple,
reliable style, differing from the French raptures of the "_Moniteur_,"
or the meagre descriptions of American prints, where the fashions
are a last consideration with the publisher--tacked on, because some
one else had set the example. To us it seems as consistent with the
scientific and professedly critical character they assume, as a lady's
French bonnet would appear as the crowning-point of costume on "a
potent, grave, and reverend seignior." But we have no quarrel with
them for assuming our especial badge as a "Lady's Book," nor are we at
all particular in demanding credit of them for our borrowed plumes; we
would only suggest that modesty might be a becoming addition to them,
and truthfulness an equal grace.

Now, any of our lady readers who have been invited by friends in
the country to "let them know what is worn this season," will at
once understand the time and trouble it takes to answer such a
request satisfactorily. To relieve them from this task is what we
have undertaken, at the same time giving variety to our chat by the
description of any new manufacture, article of jewelry, fashionable
shops, furniture, etc. etc. We did not plan or even dream of exciting
emulation or envious remark, nor do we feel the slightest malice or
ill-will towards those who thus confess their inferiority. Only, as the
school children say, "will they please to let us alone," as we do them.

       *       *       *       *       *


TO CORRESPONDENTS.

"A YOUNG AMATEUR GARDENER" will find the following effectual in keeping
the birds from his freely planted seeds. Mix together one pound of gas
tar, quarter of a pound brown spirits of tar, and quarter pound of
melted grease. Dip twine in this mixture, and weave it backwards and
forwards over the beds, on sticks firmly planted at the side, a few
inches high.

[Illustration: GODEY'S MODEL COLORED FASHIONS.]

We _have_ heard of "cherries without stones." Here is a French
horticultural receipt for producing them, which we have never seen
tested, however: "In the spring, before the circulation of the sap, a
young seedling cherry-tree is split from the upper extremity down to
the fork of its roots; then, by means of a piece of wood in the form
of a spatula, the pith is carefully removed from the tree, in such a
manner as to avoid any excoriations or other injury; a knife is used
only for commencing the split. Afterwards the two sections are brought
together, and tied with woollen, care being taken to close hermetically
with clay the whole length of the cleft. The sap soon reunites the
separated portions of the tree, and, two years afterwards, cherries are
produced of the usual appearance, but, instead of stones, there will
only be small soft pellicles."

"MRS. LOUISE M. C." will find farina boiled in milk the best food for an
infant, next to its natural substance. It is well to change with
arrowroot, in case of sickness; but, as constant food, it will fatten,
but not strengthen the child.

"MISS J."--We do not think the acceptance of a bouquet objectionable
from any gentleman admitted to the family as a visitor. Flowers, books,
and music are the most suitable gifts. Any article of dress or jewelry
given or accepted by persons with no other tie than ordinary visiting
acquaintance, is not in good taste, to say the least.

"MRS. S. D.," of Mobile.--Dress caps are of the lightest possible
description, a mixture of blonde, flowers, and ribbon. Much blonde is
used in trimming everything. The gold and silver embroidered ribbon is
only suitable for evening, or for dress bonnets.

"MILTON, Pa."--The "Dress Book" has been sent; the directions are all
practical.

"A YOUNG WIFE" has our best wishes in her new undertaking. If she is at
all systematic, she will not find furnishing so difficult as she
anticipates. We subjoin the desired list:--


_Kitchen Furnishing List for_ $30.

    1 Kitchen Shovel, Tongs, and Poker.
    1 Iron Tea-Kettle.
    1 Tinned Iron Pot.
    1 Tinned Iron Saucepan.
    1 Soap-stone Griddle.
    2 Tin Bake-Pans.
    1 Tin Dripping Pan.
    1 Tin Saucepan.
    1 Small Tin Kettle.
    1 Pepper and Flour Dredge.
    3 Tin Pie Plates.
    1 Tin Wash-Basin.
    1 Dish Pan.
    3 Table and Tea-Spoons, Iron.
    1 Chop-Knife and Bowl.
    1 Tea and Coffee Canister.
    2 Japanned Lamps.
    1 Match Safe.
    1 Chamber Pail.
    2 Smoothing Irons.
    2 Large Cedar Wash-Tubs.
    1 Wash-Board.
    3 Doz. Clothes-Pins.
    1 Pint Measure.
    1 Set Table Mats.
    1 Britannia Coffee Pot.
    1     "     Tea Pot.
    6 Knives and Forks, Stag Handles.
    1 Pair Carvers to match.
    1 Spice Box.
    1 Rolling Pin.
    1 Corkscrew and Tunnel.
    1 Large Waiter.
    2 Painted Pails.
    1 Coal Hod.
    1 Gridiron.
    1 Fry Pan.
    1 Cullender.
    1 Coffee Boiler.
    1 Tea Pot.
    1 Grater.
    1 Tin Dipper.
    1 Egg-Whip.
    1 Basting-Spoon.
    1 Skimmer.
    1 Ladle.
    1 Meat Fork.
    1 Meat Knife.
    1 Knife Board.
    2 Scrub Brushes.
    1 Dust Pan.
    1 Dust Brush.
    2 Brooms.
    1 Coffee Mill.
    1 Clothes Horse.
    1 Flour Sieve.
    1 Oil Filler.
    1 Knife-Box.
    1 Door Mat.
    1 Kitchen Table.
    1 Potato Masher.
    1 Flour Pail.
    1 Pastry Board.
    1 Clothes Line.




Fashions.

NOTICE TO LADY SUBSCRIBERS.


Having had frequent applications for the purchase of jewelry,
millinery, etc., by ladies living at a distance, _the Editress of the
Fashion Department_ will hereafter execute commissions for any who
may desire it, with the charge of a small percentage for the time
and research required. Bridal wardrobes, spring and autumn bonnets,
dresses, jewelry, bridal cards, cake-boxes, envelopes, etc. etc.,
will be chosen with a view to economy, as well as taste; and boxes or
packages forwarded by express to any part of the country. For the last,
distinct directions must be given.

_Orders, accompanied by checks for the proposed expenditure, to be
addressed to the care of L. A. Godey, Esq., who will be responsible for
the amount, and the early execution of commissions._

_No order will be attended to unless the money is first received._

Instructions to be as minute as is possible, accompanied by a note
of the height, complexion, and general style of the person, on which
_much depends_ in choice. Dress goods from Levy's or Stewart's; cloaks,
mantillas, or talmas, from Brodie's, 51 Canal Street, New York; bonnets
from Miss Wharton's; jewelry from Bailey's or Warden's, Philadelphia,
or Tiffany's, New York, if requested.

       *       *       *       *       *


DESCRIPTION OF STEEL FASHION PLATE.

The unusually beautiful fashion plate of this month gives a very
correct idea of prevailing spring styles.

_Fig. 1st._--A dress suitable for the morning at a fashionable country
house or watering-place, or for dinner. As a home dress, it is very
tasteful and simple. The robe may be of pink taffeta, cashmere, or
mousseline, open from the throat to the hem of the skirt, though the
waist is fitted close to the bust, as in an ordinary tight dress.
This opening is finished on each side by a double _ruche_ of the same
material, the edges pinked, and is laced across by narrow taffeta
ribbon. Chemisette in plaits, with a lace frill. Plain cambric skirt.
Shawl of cambric embroidery; close bonnet of pink taffeta and black
lace, with an edge formed of very narrow ribbons interlaced with black,
to resemble a plaid.

_Fig. 2d._--Walking or dinner-dress of pale green silk, made plain and
close; sleeves open and loose. Light mantle of flounces or volants,
of white guipure lace, headed by a narrow ribbon of violet color. The
bonnet is covered with lace to correspond, and has leaves and ribbons
of pale violet crape; tied with broad white taffeta ribbon. Parasol of
violet lined with white silk.

It will be noticed that our styles are suited to the May of our
Southern readers, and the June wardrobes of our Northern belles, being
exceedingly light and simple, as summer dress should always be. Readers
round about us are apt to forget that we have to be thoughtful of our
far away subscribers as well as themselves.

       *       *       *       *       *


CHITCHAT UPON PREVAILING FASHIONS

BRODIE'S MANTILLA EMPORIUM--SHADES OF FASHION, ETC. ETC.

THE present promenade of Broadway extends scarcely to the Astor, in a
downward direction; the crush of omnibuses, drays, business men
forgetful of especial courtesy in their haste, porters, and laborers,
conspire to make a chaos of confusion and discomfort below the Park
which few ladies care to adventure. The tide of shoppers sets downward
from the New York Hotel, and upwards from the Astor or Irving, meeting
in a grand confluence at Canal Street, where you may pat the curbstone
with your gaiter from three minutes to a quarter of an hour, watching an
opportunity to stem the current and cross to the other side in safety.

Standing on this upper corner, you are in full view of the large
freestone front of 51 Canal, the mantilla establishment of Brodie, to
which we have promised to introduce our readers.

At this present writing, when everybody wants a mantilla, the graceful
article of costume being considered as needful as a spring bonnet, the
lower front of Brodie's has a most inviting prospect. It is entirely
occupied by two enormous windows and a door of plate glass; the windows
being, in reality, small Crystal Palaces for the accommodation of two
slowly revolving dames in court costume of brocade or _soie d'antique_,
bearing upon their regal shoulders the _chef-d'œuvres_ of the
establishment, whether of velvet, guipure, or taffeta, as the season
represented may be. At their feet are thrown, in apparent careless,
but really artistic confusion, other designs not less elegant and
attractive. These figures are of wax, modelled and colored from life,
and, having supported the onerous public duties of the World's Fair,
are now in the honorable retirement of comparatively private, though
by no means secluded life. The room which you enter from the street is
fitted up with superb mirrors, ovals and pier, the central one being of
remarkable width as well as length. This is not, however, the principal
show-room, though the office and much other business is carried on
there in appropriate departments, handsomely fitted up. The stairs,
covered with velvet carpeting, as, indeed, the whole establishment,
lead you to the second floor, pannelled with plate glass mirrors set
between the long windows, and in every place in which they can well be
inserted. The walls are covered, as below, with delicate French paper,
of white and gold, and, with the rich carpet, a drawing-room rather
than a business establishment is suggested. Here there are piles of the
most elegant and costly styles of mantillas and scarfs, that have given
place to the heavy clothes and velvets of the just departed season;
and here is a fluttering of silk dresses, a waving of spring garlands,
as the busy crowd of purchasers flutter back and forth, exclaiming,
"rapturizing," choosing, and trying on the profusion of styles before
them. In the centre, is a light iron railing, still white, in keeping
with the style of the rooms, over which you can watch the proceedings
of the store below, or, looking upwards to a similar balcony, you see
another story, apparently fitted and furnished as the show-room in
which you now are.

This is the wholesale department, of course by far the most important
of all. Ordinarily, you would have no call to ascend the stairs; but,
being this morning a privileged visitor, you find there Mr. Brodie
himself, in the midst of his importations, designs, and manufactures,
his clerks, his saleswomen, whose patient shoulders and black silk
dresses give an additional air to the latest styles, and his wholesale
customers, for whom he is daily shipping packages, parcels, and boxes,
north, south, east, and west; but especially south and west, where
doubtless our own subscribers will be among the purchasers and the
wearers.

If your curiosity will carry you up still another flight, Mr. Brodie's
politeness will conduct you to a passing glance of the work-room,
occupying the floor above. It would not be polite to watch too long the
rows upon rows of girls and women busy with the silks, laces, ribbons,
and other delicate materials of their craft; but you see that they are
all busy and comfortable, with light and good fresh air in abundance.
Yet higher! You noticed below how rich and how abundant was the
embroidery, with what precision it was executed; here there is a row
of frames, where embroidery, the lightest and richest, is executed by
those to whom the work is not a pastime, but a regular and profitable
occupation. Here is the pure white _poult de soie_ of the "Snow-Drop,"
for instance, cut and ready for making up; the design traced upon
it, tacked as smoothly upon the frame as the canvas of a picture, is
stretched before the artist. The rapid and regular movement of the
needle is covering it with the rich work that the young Southern bride
will glory over, when the all-important box--the _trousseau_--reaches
her from New York. There is, besides these frames, a large embroidery
department, situated up town, under Mr. Brodie's constant supervision.
But here the new styles are first tried, that he may thus be able to
regulate the prices of work, the quantity of material, etc., to be
given out. In preparing for the winter season, this whole floor is
filled with quilting-frames for the mantle and cloak linings; still
another branch of female industry.

Some idea of the great amount of employment an establishment like
this gives to the industrious classes of the city, may be formed
from this bird's-eye view of the interior of Brodie's. Three hundred
workmen are engaged from season to season in preparing the piles of
costly draperies we have seen, as the raw material comes in only to
be manufactured. Thus, the velvets, cloths, silks, etc., with the
lighter fabrics, and trimmings of ribbon, lace, gimp, are imported by
Mr. Brodie himself, and his designs are furnished by leading Parisian
houses, known in the pages of "_La Follet_," "_La Modiste_," "_Petit
Courrier des Dames_," and other journals of fashion.

Last, but not least, this fine building, with its costly decorations,
this immense stock of goods, these busy purchasers and workwomen, are
the rapid products of a persevering industry and enterprise that, were
the story told, could scarcely be believed. The private history of most
successful business men is a commentary upon the proverb, "Diligence is
the mother of good-luck." Mr. Brodie's is a remarkable illustration.
His is the only establishment in the country entirely devoted to the
one branch of manufacture; his whole time, thoughts, correspondence,
and Parisian visits centering on its improvement and success.

We have given time and space to the principal theme of our "Chat,"
partly that our readers may see how various are the styles of every
article of wearing apparel, and how safely they may trust themselves to
a new and graceful form, even though Mrs. Jones and Mrs. Brown do not
happen to have brought it from New York or New Orleans. At Brodie's,
for instance, each style is made up in every prevailing shade of silk.
What folly in Mrs. Jones to say, "Green is the rage!" In a large city,
nothing is the rage; if it approaches such a culmination, it is given
up in a very few weeks.

As of mantles, so of bonnets. The milliner has her _Parisienne_ models,
and her working materials, and employées. No two bonnets in her
show-room must be precisely alike. So of the mantuamaker, who varies
her shapes and her trimmings to suit her material, the figure, height,
or complexion of her customer. Straw bonnets are perhaps the most
uniform of all in shape; but here, again, there is every variety of
ribbon and trimming. No two bows are made alike. _City people will not
submit to uniforms._

There is a general _style_ in the fashions of each season, but
inflections and shades as various as its grass and leafage. Our next
"Chat," as in the April number, will be of these, as June admits of
changes that our Northern May denies. July will claim, as usual, its
watering-place and travelling fashions, with nursery items, welcome at
any season to the busy mother of a household.

    FASHION.

       *       *       *       *       *

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    |                    Transcriber notes:                          |
    |                                                                |
    | P. 388. Closing brackets.                                      |
    | p. 397. 'Still unmarried', added incomplete word 'still'.      |
    | P. 404. 'Actaurus in Bootes' changed to 'Arcturus in Boötes'.  |
    | P. 416. 'find it out', joining word likely to be 'it'.         |
    | P. 432. 'whch is', changed to 'which is'.                      |
    | P. 466. 'haev' changed to 'have' in 'may not have'.            |
    | P. 473. 'Listz' changed to 'Liszt'.                            |
    | p. 473. Incomplete word added 'feeling'.                       |
    |                                                                |
    | Fixed various punctuation.                                     |
    +----------------------------------------------------------------+