1

!

i

ONE PEEP WAS ENOUGH.

There was a story of Mrs. Mary Smith, an an-
cient dame who lived on an annuity, and boasted
the gentility of a back and front parlour, that
she once asked a few friends to dinner. The
usual heavy antecedent half-hour really passed
quite pleasantly, for Mrs. Mary's windows over-
looked the market-place, and not a scrag of
mutton could leave it unobserved; so that the
extravagance or meanness of the various buyers
furnished a copious theme for dialogue. Still, in
spite of Mr. A.'s pair of fowls, and Mrs. B.'s
round of beef, the time seemed long, and the
guests found hunger growing more potent than
curiosity. They waited and waited; length

the fatal discovery took place-that, in place that, in the hurry
of observing her neighbors' dinners, Mrs. Smith
had forgotten to order her own.

117

post-office. The affairs of Dalton and the nation
were settled together; newspapers were slipped
from their covers, and not an epistle but yielded
a portion of its contents. But on this night all
attention was concentrated upon one, directed
to "John Williams, Esq., at the White Hart,
Dalton." Eagerly it was compressed in the long
fingers of Mrs. Mary Smith, of dinnerless memo-
ry; the fat landlady of the White Hart was on
the tip-toe to peep, while the post-mistress,
whose curiosity took a semblance of official dig-
nity, raised a warning hand against any overt
act of violence. The paper was closely folded,
and closely written in a cramp and illegible
hand; suddenly Mrs. Mary Smith's look grew
more intent she had succeeded in deciphering
a sentence; the letter dropped from her hand.
Oh, the monster!" shrieked the horrified peep-
er. Landlady and post-mistress both snatched
at the terrible scroll, and they equally succeed-
ed in reading the following words:-"We_will
settle the matter to-morrow at dinner, but I am
sorry you persist in sist in poisoning your wife, the hor-
ror is too great." Not a syllable more could
syllabi
they make out; but what they had read was

enough.

"He told gasped the landlady, that he expected a lady and gentleman to din ner-oh the villain! to think of poisoning any lady at the White Hart; and his wife, too-I should like to see my husband poisoning me!" Our hostess became quite personal in her indignation.

"I always thought there was something suspicious about him; people don't come and live where nobody knows them, for nothing," observed Mrs. Mary Smith.

"I dare say," returned the post mistress, "Williams is not his real name."

"I don't know that," interrupted the landlady; "Williams is a good hanging name: there was Williams who murdered the Marr's family, and Williams who burked all those poor dear children; I dare say he is some relation of theirs; but to think of his coming to the White Hart it's no place for his doings, I can tell him; he sha'n't poison his wife in my house; out he goes this very night-I'll take the letter to him myself."

It was in the month of March that an event happened which put the whole town in a commotion-the arrival of a stranger who took up his abode at the White Hart: not that there was any thing remarkable about the stranger; he was a plain, middle-aged, respectable-looking man, and the nicest scrutiny (and heaven knows how narrowly he was watched) failed to discover any thing odd about him. It was ascertained that he rose at eight, breakfasted at nine, ate two eggs and a piece of broiled bacon, sat in his room at the window, read a little, wrote a little, and looked out upon the road a good deal; he then strolled out, returned home, dined at five, smoked two cigars, read the Morning Herald, (for the post came in of an evening,) and went to bed at ten. Nothing could be more regular or unexceptionable than his habits; still it was most extraordinary what could have brought him to Dalton. There were no chalybeate-spring, warranted to cure every disease under the sun; no ruins in the neighbourhood, left expressly for antiquarians and pic-nic parties; no fine prospects, which, like music, people make it matter of conscience to admire; no celebrated person had ever been born or buried in its environs; there were no races, no assizes in short, there was "no nothing." It was not even summer; so country air and fine weather were not the inducements. The stranger's name was Mr. Williams, but that was the extent of their knowledge; and, shy and silent, there seemed no probability of Murder will out," said the landlord, the follearning any thing more from himself. Conjec-lowing morning, as he mounted the piebald pony, ture, like Shakspeare, exhausted worlds, and then imagined new." Some supposed he was hiding from his creditors, others that he had committed forgery; one suggested that he had escaped from a mad-house, a second that he had killed some one in a duel; but all agreed that he came there for no good.

It was the twenty-third of March, when a triad of gossips were assembled at their temple the

"Dear! dear! I shall be ruined, if it comes to be known that we take a look into the letter;" and the post mistress thought in her heart that she had better let Mr. Williams poison his wife at his leisure. Mrs. Mary Smith, too, reprobated any violent measures; the truth is, she did not wish to be mixed up in the matter; a gentlewoman with an annuity and a front and back parlour was rather ashamed of being detected in such close intimacy with the post mistress and the landlady. It seemed likely that poor Mrs. Williams would be left to her miserable fate.

which, like Tom Tough, had seen a little service; and hurried off in search of Mr. Crampton, the nearest magistrate.

Their perceptions assisted by brandy and water, he and his wife had sat up long past "the witching hour of night," deliberating on what line of conduct would be most efficacious in preserving the life of the unfortunate Mrs. Williams; and the result of their deliberation was to fetch

MODERN DICTIONARY-NEGROES OF CONGO.

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SLAVE MARRIAGE-CESAR'S GAMES-TRAGEDY-MILITARY CREED. 119

The individual who has succeeded in entrapping | devotion and commercial business, and disperthe victim, is raised to the honours of nobility. sed as rapidly as they had been convoked. Some Douville was himself more than once in immi- such spectacle of nations crowding upon nations, nent danger of falling a sacrifice on one occa- and some such Babylonian confusion of dresses, sion the priest had kept him incarcerated eight complexions, languages, and jargons, was then

days, and the people were impatiently awaiting the hour of his immolation, when he melted the hearts of his gaolers by an offering of a handsome red cloak, some cotton cloth, and a few bottles

of rum.

On a subsequent occasion, when at Youvo, where he discovered a gold mine, the Monatu or chief tempted him to stay amongst his tribe by the most extravagant offers, one of which was his niece, who had reached her hundred and forty-second moon, and was born to the happiness, as the uncle said, of becoming his wife-inchief. Douville, however, instead of listening to the invitation, evinced his anxiety to get away: the kind Monatu, as a proof of the vehemence of his attachment to him, took an opportunity of poisoning his attendants, in order that he might be incapacitated from gaining the coast. Here, again, the traveller would have been lost, had he not happily bethought himself of the priests' cupidity, and made them some rich presents, in aid of which came a lucky storm, which they announced as a manifestation of the divinity's anger

at the detention of the white man.-Athenœum.

witnessed in Rome. Accommodations within doors, and under roofs of houses, or of temples, was altogether impossible. Myriads of myriads lay stretched on the ground, without even the slight protection of tents, in a vast circuit about the city. Multitudes of men, even senators, and others of the highest rank, were trampled to death in the crowds; and the whole family of man seemed gathered together at the bidding of the Great Dictator.-[Blackwood's Magazine.]

REAL TRAGEDY.-While Cummings, a dıstinguished tragedian of the last century, was playing, at one of the provincial theatres in England, the part of Dumont in Jane Shore, when he had repeated the words

"Be witness for me ye celestial hosts,
Such mercy and such pardon as my soul

Accords to thee, and begs of heaven to show thee,

May such befal me at my latest hour,"

he tottered an instant, sunk down, and expired. The audience mistaking this for an intended point, rewarded him in the usual way; but, alas!

he was forever insensible to their notice! Real and mimic life were essentially mingled into a departed shadow, and the actor was now upon a level with the monarchs and heroes it had been his highest ambition to imitate.

MILITARY CREED. -The following Creed was adopted by the officers of the American army

our business here is to obey the orders of our superiors.

We believe that every soldier that does his duty will be happy here, and that every such one who dies in battle, will be happy hereafter.

SLAVE MARRIAGE.-There have been many elaborate works published on the marriage ceremonies of various nations, both savage and civilized. I do not, however, remember to have read of any so brief and unceremonious as the following, which I had the opportunity of witnessing, when on a visit to a gentleman in Caro- at Verplank's Point, in the year 1782: lina. A fine looking negro, and the handsomest We believe that there is a great first Cause, malatto, or yellow girl I had ever seen, were the by whose almighty fiat we were formed; and that parties who desired to be made one for life. The matter was thus arranged: In the course of our evening walk, my friend, the planter, was sheepishly addressed by the slave in these words--Please, massa, me want to marry Riddiky, (this is the nigger for Eurydice.) Does Riddiky want to marry you? Yes, massa. If you marry her, I won't allow you to run after the other girls on the plantation---you shall live like a decent fellow with your wife. Massa, me lub her so, dat me dont care nothing for de oder gals. Marry her then, and be cursed. Yes, massa. Washington then gave Riddiky a kiss, and from that day they became man and wife. No other form than that of permission from their owner, thus graciously accorded, being necessary to legalize their union.---Whittaker's Monthly Magazine.

SPECTACLES EXHIBITED AT ROME BY JULIUS CASAR.-Never before, according to traditions which lasted through several generations in Rome, had there been so vast a conflux of the human race congregated to any one centre, on any one attraction of business or of pleasure, as to Rome on occasion of these spectacles exhibited by Cæsar. In our days, the greatest occasional gatherings of the human race are in India, especially at the great fair of the Hurdwar, in the northern part of Hindostan; a confluence of many millions is sometimes seen at that spot, brought together under the mixed influences of

ndia,

We believe that General Washington is the only fit man in the world, to head the American army.

We believe that Nathaniel Greene was born a General.

We believe that the evacuation of Ticonderoga was one of those strokes which stamp the man who dares to strike them, with everlasting fame.

We believe that Baron Steuben has made us soldiers, and that he is capable of forming the whole world into a solid column, and displaying

it from the centre.

We believe in his blue book.

We believe in General Knox and his artillery. And, we believe in our bayonets; Amen-[Exeter News Letter.

DETACHED THOUGHTS.-The real lamp of Aladdin is that on the merchant's desk. All the genii, white, olive or black, who people the atmosphere of earth, it

puts

in motion at the antipodes. It builds palaces in the wilderness, and cities in the forest; and collects every splendour, and every refinement of luxury, from the fingers of subservient toil. Kings of the east are slaves of the lamp; the winds blow, the seas roll, only to work the behest of its master.

120

COMETS-CHOLERA-CARDS-FASHION.

THE AMUSEMENTS OF COMETS.-Some con- | haste to her master, informing him of what had jecture that comets are appointed to demolish occurred, and expressing her opinion that the decaying planets, or to supply them again with man had come to rob the house. The Rev. gen

materials for building them anew; others that they are so many hells to punish the damned with perpetual vicissitudes of heat and cold. We should rather incline to consider them the most glorious abodes in the solar system; if comets are tenanted with intellectual beings, they have doubtless the most splendid observatories for the contemplation of the wonders of the celestial canopy that can possibly be conceived, infinitely surpassing all aspects of the heavens as beheld clean; a little paint here, and a little whitewash

tleman, who was rather choleric, hastened up stairs in great wrath, when he discovered the smuggler surveying the furniture of his bed. "What do you mean, you impudent scoundrel, by coming up into Mrs. Pー's room, do you come to rob the house?" "By no means, Sir, only to return your visit. I have examined this room, and will now, if you please, go into all the others. As far as I have seen, you are very from the planets, or even the solar orb itself. A on the ceiling, may improve it; but on the whole, comet, on its return to the sun, if moving in it is highly creditable to both you and Mrs. nearly the same plane with the orbits of the P--." As the Rev. Gentleman had no intenplanets, combines all the diversities of the starry tion that people should return his calls, the pracheavens that are peculiar to each planet, with tice every other possible variety resulting from a change of position. Returning from the fields of space, it slowly approaches the outer planetary lic pri which have heard a story of a Catho

orbits, surveys the system of Uranus, soars over the stupendous apparatus of Saturn, and sees the orb, rings, and satellites in their beautiful concentric arrangement; if detained (as was the comet of 1770) among the moons of Jupiter, it pries into the mysteries of its belts. The whole system of primaries and secondaries are, according to their positions, seen in succession, as crescent, half oval, or full orbed; from being all at first inferior planets they all in succession

was discontinued.-Metropolitan.

A TEST. We

not whether it ever appeared in print before or not.

A jolly friar who was to read a homily to a congregation on a certain occasion, was, while waiting for the time for him to officiate, playing cards in an apartment adjoining the church. He stationed a lad at the door to give him notice when he was wanted-but at the moment that he was called he had just "dealt." His own hand

was an excellent one and determined not to lose

surplice, he walked into the desk, holding the end of his sleeve with his fingers.

become superior: this view is on the supposition it, he that the approach of the comet is nearly in the agreed with his comrades, that each should planetary plane, if descending at right angles keep his cards and continue the game after serto the sun, the comet sees the whole system vice. Clapping the cards up the sleeve of his spread out beneath, and presenting a most sublime appearance. A comet retreats so far from the sun that at its remotest point it must seem as a solitary wanderer amidst the firmament of fixed stars, all planetary bodies having disappeared long before it had reached its aphelion; the sun shines with diminished brilliancy, and with a scarce perceptible disc.-Literary

Gazette.

His subject was the remissness of parents in the moral instruction of their children. As he proceeded in his discourse he waxed violently in his gestures

gestures and motions-till forgetting the deposit in his sleeve, he struck the palins of his open hands together, and out flew the little spotted tell-tales, to the amazement of the congregation.

All were disconcerted but the friar. Leaning over the desk he called to a little urchin of five

or six, "Boy pick up one of those cards!" This done, the priest demanded of the lad-" Now tell me what it is." "It's the ten of spades," said the boy. "Behold here parents," said the priest," a proof of what I have told you. I scattered these among you to convince the congregation that these children understood cards better than their prayers!"-Lowell Compend.

CHOLERA CARES.-A very orthodox divine near the sea coast took upon himself to enter every house in his vicinity, and examine them from the cellar to the garret, to ascertain if all was sweet and clean. Amongst others, he ventured into one belonging to a smuggler, during his absence. The wife was afraid to refuse admittance, and as, fortunately, there were no run goods at the time in the house, he was permitted to poke his nose into every corner. "Really pretty well, my good woman," said the clerical gentleman, after a most deliberate examination; FASHION.-What could exhibit a more fantas"a little paint here, a little whitewash in the gar- tical appearance than an English beau of the rets, and the yard better swept, and, on the 14th century? He wore long pointed shoe faswhole, it does you much credit." So saying, he tened to his knee by gold or silver chains; hose duly informed of this inquisitorial visit. "This the other; short breeches which did not reach departed. The smuggler returned, and was of one color on the one leg, and another color on will never do,"observed he; "if he comes again, to the middle of his thighs a coat, the one half he may spy a deal more than I wish, so I'll put a white, the other half black or blue; a long beard,

stop to it." The following morning the smug- a silk hood, buttoned under his chin, embroidergler called at the parsonage; the door was open-ed with grotesque figures of animals, dancing

ed by a maid servant; he brushed by her, and ascending the staircase, walked into the bedroom of the clergyman's lady. The maid, horror struck and alarmed at such sacrilege, ran in

men, &c., and sometimes ornamented with gold and precious stones. This dress was the height of the mode in the reign of King Edward III.Henry's History of England.