The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-10-23 00:00:00

SUPPLEMENT TO THE LIVERPOOL STAN 148 sufficient to repel and disgust any true womanly mind, no matter in what station of life the woman may move. He addresses himself to the question as one of humanity, and because he deems it to be a case in which police interference should take place. The greediness of gain has sometimes to be met rather promptly ; and here is a very proper occasion for helping the helpless. Of the nature of the passions excited by these shows, of the treatment to which the unhappy babies are exposed, and of the general character of the scene, an idea may be formed from the following account of the proceedings at the Withernsea show. After describing the crowd and the confusion which prefaced the examination of the candidates, the reporter says— At half-past three the judges entered the building, and the previous quiet of the scene was changed into bustle and excitement. Nurses and mothers, with babies in their arms, fought their way through the crowd, and blushed not beneath the fire of jokes. How all were safely settled without accident we know not. Those who know what it is to carry a child through a crowd may appreciate the scene. Ultimately the competitors, on the laps of their mothers and nurses, were arranged all found, and in the centre of the building. That such mothers and such nurses should not "blush" beneath " the fire" of such " jokes" as were likely to be launched on the occasion, we can well believe—those who did not blush to be there at all had little to fear for their modesty. The " judges" proceeded to their examination, and during this, Great noise and confusion prevailed, .and attempts were frequently made to force open the front door. At about 5 o'clock the anxious duties of the judges were completed, and the children were placed in the orchestra, just in time, as the door was then forced open, the impatient crowd rushed in, and all order was at an end. The bones and the fat and the weight, of the poor little creatures having been duly tested, the decision as to the quarter in which Providence had acted most kindly (the profanity of the affair being another of its amiable features) had to be announced. Then the uproar reached its height. The time for sweet simpering to the.judges was past. Tender mothers expanded into viragoes, frantic protestations arose on all sides ; unsuccessful babies were held screaming up at arm's length by the excited parents, and a jury was demanded. The uproar, however, became so intense that the promoter of the display, after handing over the prizes to the parents of the successful competitors, left Hull without delay, fear ing that any longer stay might perchance prove personally disagreeable. ('We heartily wish that the " frantic" women had finished the display by dragging the fellow through the foulest horse-pond in the neighbour hood, hut this par parenthese.) Such is the treatment to which the babies are exposed —a hot crowd, a frightful noise and riot, and personal ill treatment. These are the boons proffered to babies by baby-shows. A great outcry, with great justice, was made when it was alleged that the humbler classes were in the habit of enrolling their infants in burial societies, with the frightful desire to profit by their deaths. This was a foul libel upon the mothers of England. But there was some ground for the charge—the practice, with the alleged object, was not—is not—unknown, comparatively small as is its extent. And if we had to investi gate the subject of burial societies, we should try to obtain a list of the women who join in baby shows. The mother who would pocket money from the degrading exhibition of her infant's limbs and proportions might possibly find conso lation for its loss in the money obtained at its death. But with such women Mr. Punch can hold no argument—the person to argue with them is the policeman.—Punch. LITERARY EXTRACTS. SYDNEY SMITH was an after-dinner writer. His words have a flow, a vigour, an expression which is not given to hungry mortals: You seem to read of good cheer, of beaming and buoyant enjoyment. There is little trace of labour in his composition ; it is poured forth like an unceasing torrent, rejoicing daily to run its course. And what courage there is in it ! There is as much variety of pluck in writing across a sheet as in riding across a country. Cautious men have many adverbs, " usually," " nearly," " almost ;" safe men begin, "It may be advanced ;" you never know precisely what their premises are, nor what their conclusion is ; they go tremulously like a timid rider ; they turn hither and thither ; they do not go straight across a subject, like a masterly mind. A few sen tences are enough for a master of sentences. A prac tical topic wants rough vigour and strong exposition. This is the writing of Sydney Smith. It is suited to the broader kind of important questions. For any thing requiring fine nicety of speculation, long elaborateness of deduction, evanescent sharpness of distinction, neither his style nor his mind was fit.— National Review. ANECDOTE OF DR. LINGARD.—The buoyancy of his mind, the playfulness of his wit, and the rich store of anecdote for ever at his command, gave to him a power over his companions which it was impossible to withstand. Connected with this subject, a ludicrous story is told among his friends. During the northern assizes, several of the leaders of the bar, among whom were Scarlett, Pollock, Brougham, and some others, were frequently in the habit of going over from Lan caster to Hornby, on a Sunday or other vacant day, to spend it with Lingard. As usual, one Sunday morning, before mass, a party of them drove up to the house, and informed the servant that they had intended to dine with the doctor. In an agony of dismay she ran to her master. The only leg of mutton which they had in the house had just been cut in two ; and what could be done in a country village, where nothing more was to be procured ? Lingard was not disturbed. " Sew the two pieces together," said he, " and roast them as one, and I will take care that it is not dis covered." She did so. The joint, just repaired, was served up ; and so entertained were the guests by his conversation, that the expedient passed off unobserved. —Biographical Sketch in the new edition of Lin gard' s History of En land. THE POWER OF EXTEMPORANEOUS ORATOR Y. — The performances of the Italian improvisatori, or makers of poetry off-hand upon any present subject, and in almost any kind of stanza, are generally cited as the most surprising efforts of this kind. But the power of extempore speaking is not less singular, though more frequently displayed, at least in this country. A practised orator will declaim in measured and in various periods—will weave his discourse into one texture; form parenthesis within parenthesis ; excite the passions, or move to laughter ; take a turn in - his discourse from an accidental interruption, making it the topic of his rhetoric for five minutes to come, and pursuing in like manner the new illustra tions to which it gives rise ; mould his diction with a view to attain -or to shun an epigrammatic point, or an alliteration, or a discord ; and all this with so much assured reliance on his own powers, and with such perfect ease to himself, that he shall even plan the next sentence while he is pronouncing off-hand the one he is engaged with, adapting each to the other, and shall look forward to the topic which is to follow and fit in the close of the one he is handling, to be its introducer ; nor shall the auditor be able to discover the least difference between all this and the portion of his speech which he has got by heart, or tell the transition from the one to the other. —Lord Brougham. THUNDER WITHOUT LIGHTNING.—The phenome non of lightning without thunder, with a perfectly clear sky, is too well known, and rests on too general experience, for it to be necessary for me to cite on this point the testimony of any particular meteorologist. Who, indeed, in our climates has not seen and re marked "heat-lightnings ?" Bergman tells us that in Sweden, where they are also very common , the peasants call them "barley-lightnings" (korn-bleck), because they are usually seen in August, when the barley is beginning to ripen. It is by mistake that it has been asserted that heat-lightnings always remain near the horizon. Their light sometimes overspreads IARD. the whole visible extent mark will not be without inquire whether heat-light existence, or are only the ri Seneca asserted that thu: without lightning. lam that as respects Europe Seneca's statement. Thy notwithstanding the poin, might afford solutions, h attention of observers. enabled to make from othl I think, little room to doul of the phenomenon. Thi in October, 1751, in his Observations at Martiniquk month on which it thundi without lightning." In No' only on one day; three rath , witho - ut lightning." On Cosseir, in the Red Sea, a consternation among the which the traveller Jam , This thunder-clap had S lightning. 7 -dirago's Mete; THE - . CRYSTAL PALAC : MATTERS OF HISTORY o: last year, while visiting t, serve the large number of had taken up their quart wrote a lengthened pape peared in the Naturalist attention, being copied journals. So completely wf that they nested there-- 1 their young families at through a whole round infinite amusement of 100, melodious were their unit( acres of glass! Were before, under similar circa little performers positively out—trotting along . the was indeed a charming sig, in those very pretty flower pended round the galleries, to get a peep at my little eagerly ; I sought for t, their song. Alas! no r silent. My mind misgay. $ yonng, amiss. Addressing myself t ° 6clte' a e , rightly guessed was a seasew soileit.ol„ sic plained to her the cause of 1 1 1,01, not escaped her observation. „pit fair daughter of Eve, with a '- countenance, yet visible to 01. 0 , dear robins, sir, have all been JO was On further inquiry, I found it had been voted " a nuisance" - IL after this, shall deny that " -11° (W) Treatise on the SCHILLER AND GOETHE.'" town, and visited the houses 0 1 ' How exactly did their respective . with the fortunes of the two modest and somewhat comraell that of a man who had neither t"' life sufficiently prolonged, to zit, ness of poetic circumstances. on the contrary, the handsolue politan old Geheimrath, who had of the world as of the poet in world, and made it serve him; enjoy it, and left some of its g ants. It was a great pleasure young friend, Mr. Von Goethe, ceive the cordial welcome of Von Goethe, one of the most lad, women in Germany. It inay be interest we surveyed thi s hous( handsome and yet unimposing. Goethe was still living, and reil walk into the room where we 11:1 was his drawing-room, with the of him, full of spirit and charaelr' - a , in his youth, with flowing he, r i, l 6o9etit handsome, by which the Frau v She cast of Lord Byron, which she saT i for fev.j would have been too great a tria l fo r Dr' but which she now th o ught be w i t OP There was his study as he left it, v- Air 1 - - re' ' )11, • e S P ' wl o io , J ' 8 4 er ne e l d ' a ! 6. e: o r e : 4 4.1 ,50 too I . , WO A iio ll6 ` l o' il l o a , r., a s o :all 1. ti til 'bill . t 00'1 lk , i r e I. ler °lll' Seth is 0/ t 'i asP - c c , e t „ . ~ i poer. nr. 1 , 4 42 look 0 )0 ' vori tie . 1, h e `,.,t pro f , 1 ~8 0- r u k,., •, ' , hat c' o f 1 li bode I ► of, 1 a tic 1 0 t of lo w il i ifif n l iceit / • w ho t°ol*9e l i t g to fi l ' a . at Il le e ;• ,1) : 1 4 i • mo- c pP l i f t is ~,_,, a a , ~ iy ll 7,iiieV.o e im is ;icli d o 4 ; `] 0 >e, s_no ,0 It, sin y 1 1 1gi 11 ,, 117 4 1 ,7 I f app., slid be ttoi , , las t O. 4 d i 1 1 ter. JO" if 1 . nfl .I,e ,d! , ,i' [Ocro / 23 : ta ble - 1 1; • (;, of the heat e ci eet b its use who' .'' de , tietql tnino.s hoe Ole not v 7eflegion of obberti, iliebl order soraethoe, ti , izrs 1 ashamed to hscery4 ii 'III l am ahnoef „11e,,, mnders witlioetiO„ i;rDe its of theory orl di:. V. have but little, 41'., :ail The • •' `°11) citatio ‘,)': 1 her parts of abetl th'e Ibt the reality aV4 the, libault de CV? 4.` elt •-t f 9.0 '''' eg:lb er 0 • c : .; ,r Lie :-- ' eigbt,, te o l , t ] ,dered, theree Fe/Pr , ih 1 ohvember,lreaaco (1;.! I her strong thi, If st,,c the 19th 3101% th l e t violent thunaery. tip e , 1 ) crew of the Or,„ . ; nes Bruce icai ri i' And ,tot been, preed` the ereo/ogien/ Psalfi' I,: CE R013155"'1,' 118 1NLy.....—1 was niticii 64 the Sydenhaln I'fi vi tit?e, of robins (0.11 so.,`ilo tie tiers in the blllll i tit 3r on the subject, el et, and e%citeel h 1 all of ,ti 1 into nearl, At. ,oi t, -0 ,ere these ;obiac Ijor ii"t;l introducing the01;01, 4,:l the dinner-table,i t ils f of diverting trieol';„ t okers-on. Aiia he, : r,edvoices W ittli 0 ..„',O 1.11 ever such .i.b;ror!, a ,nnstances F 1400 1)II lb. 1y sang the l'igrf /°' /.411 gbtors to the (!:,-cre 11,1, r ' Their 115tefF. ;t\'. baskets, '0 ' oil' to, Ili s. I Weilt tll./A. 1, friends, 1 lige' \VI '0; :hem carefalli? 0 1...4 c,, lot response. _, Jl-o,,,ltilieb ~ ve o e efia'..„,„ iak, v ''' 3 $O-6 1 c„, , 1101 er,,, t 1 AO i„ !3 t ria , vail!