The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-12-11 00:00:00

206 [DECEMBER 11 1)ECE1IBE 1555.. - c_ _ 400 D r men vi e ine t s are , Will face dicille titue, as c 4 th straw, ,c; Itißn are tl to exhibititc k ve E is n o philosophic ; r ,atoop unravel 02 Llvuere t occasionallie ''lTy....__l, this purstli the gre; ?lin be to k 1184 ally t, k Luestions i c IIENT •_„:,,0, e °,' TALI es Tn,„ SUPPLEMENT TO THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD. decided on drinking, he would be bundled at once into the river, he gasped out that his choice was made — he would " Eat !' "Do so, then," sneered Visconti, grimly ; " swallow this peace of lead and the silken fastening to your bull." The legate at once saw that remonstrance would be useless, even a wry face might be dangerous; so he munched the lead and silk in rueful silence. When he had eaten it, Visconti com plimented him on his digestion, and sent him about his business. It, is needless to say that the reverend gentleman never looked behind him.—Embassies and .Foreign Courts, by the roving Englishman. MIND YOUR MANNERS.—Manners make the man ; the want of them the fellow. Manners also make the woman ; and, above all, manners make the child. Nay, even manners make the dog. There are ill-behaved, untidy dogs (like poor unfortunate Launcelot Gobbo's), who only serve to bring upon their owners disgrace, abuse, and fisticuffs ; while there are cleanly, consi derate, praiseworthy dogs ;. dogs who will offer their paws to be wiped with a napkin before entering a drawing-room ; dogs who prepossess you in their favour as soon as you look at them; dogs whose refined and courteous demeanour will introduce you to the acquaintance of the very person you desire to know, picking them out for you in a public walk. In another sense, manners make the man ; that is, they make his fortune. A ready smile, a moderate as surance, and a patient and deferential power of atten tion, have carried a man further and higher than great talents or brilliant powers of mind. A pleasing address, if not the best letter of recommendation, is certainly the best assistant to a good one. A spoon ful of honey will catch more flies than a gallon of vinegar. Politeness is the current coin which pur chases the most for the least outlay. Therefore, all these things considered, mind your manners—young people who are just beginning the world.--Household Words. HOME AGAIN !—We are not going to be ungrateful to those bright clear skies which we have just left, and which take good care that no fibre or leaf, no nicest pediment of gate or temple, shall be lost upon you, and having set off the region to the best advan tage, naturally expect you to admire it. But there is a pleasure in finding out your wealth, in a sun that, like a discreet cicerone, can sometimes retire, and which, in place of dazzling you with a ceaseless blaze of commentary, is often content with a mere hint of light on upland or in valley. So we think, as the express dashes through green lands that have not paid the penalty of a cloudless sky ; by woods just tinged with autumn, now solemn and thoughtful, an anon brightened with a thousand chequered gleams, by hills on whose slopes the shadows sport, while, above, the mill whirls merrily in a white effulgence, and shrieks with joy to the riotous brook. This is our England, the land of homes ! Blessings on her ! May she forgive us, if ever in unfilial mood we have swelled the foreigner's reproach on her climate, if we have ever been bitter on her springs, and split our coals with impatient expletives in the heart of our Junes. May she forgive us if we have ever thought the bloused peasant of France better informed and more courteous than honest Giles, who leans there on his pitchfork by the gate, and of whose hearty welcome to his bacon we are thoroughly assured. May she especially pardon us if we have ever considered the Barriere de l'Etoile, on the whole a finer approach than the suburb of Peck ham ; or, if we have ever compared Trafalgar-square with the Place de la Concorde, to the disadvantage of the former. What ! try our England by the laws of beauty, or any such abstraction P No such thing : we will try her by our love. Her features are beauti fill to us, for they are hers.--household Words. SCHAMYL AND HIS FoLLowERs.---The whole of Schamyl's social and civil organisation rests on a theocratic basis. Allah has set the Caucasus as a barrier or protecting wall to the empire of the faithful, against Gog and Magog, against the unbelievers ; there he has planted the mountain races, and appointed them the watchful guards of this frontier defence ; their duty is to combat to the last with the unbelievers, whose hostility and dislike grow ever fiercer as the world's judgment approaches. But as the Khalif is weak, and surrounded by traitors and infidels, Allah, to meet this danger, has raised up prophets and leaders of the holy war. Kaxi Moollah was the first conse crated and appointed to this task, and through him Allah made known his will ; Gamzad Beg succeeded, and the office has now devolved on Schamyl. To these men the faithful are bound to render unconditional obedience. Schamyl declares openly and solemnly to the Murids and the people that he has direct revela tions from Allah and the prophets, and at important moments received their immediate commands. Before engaging in any great undertaking, Schamyl prepares himself by religious practices : he retires into a cavern, or shuts himself up closely ; no one is allowed to approach him. For three weeks he remains in seclusion, praying and fasting, and absorbed in the study of the holy books. On the last evening he summons the leaders and Moollahs, and communicates to them the revelations and commands which Moham med, under the form of a dove, has imparted to him. He then goes forth amonc , the people, who are collected in large multitudes before his courtyard ; he prays, recites verses from the Koran, and declares with a loud voice what Allah and the Prophet have com manded. The people all sing a solemn hymn; the men draw their daggers, and renew their oath to remain true to their faith and to extirpate the un believers.---.ffaxthausen's Caucasus. THE FLOATING. OF TIMBER DOWN THE RIVERS OF AMERlCA.—Thousands upon thousands form one dense breastwork, against and through which a boiling leap ing riv er rus h e d w ith terrible f or c e . Who that is un accustomed to such scenes, on viewing that pile of massive logs, now densely packed, cross-piled, and in terwoven in every conceivable position in a deep chasm with overhanging cliffs, with a mighty column of rush ing water, which, like the heavy pressure upon an arch, confines the whole more closely, would decide other wise than that the mass must lie in its present posi tion, either to decay or be moved by some extraordinary convulsion ? Tens of thousands of dollars' worth lie in this wild and unpromising position. The property involved, together with the exploits of daring and feats of skill to be performed in breaking that " jam," invest the whole with a degree of interest not common to the ordinary pursuits of life, and but little realized by many who are even familiar with the terms lumber and river-driving. In some cases many obstructing logs are to be removed singly. Days and weeks some times are thus expended before the channel is cleared. In other cases a single point only is to be touched, and the whole jam is in motion. To hit upon the most vulnerable poiniis the first object ; the best means of effecting it next claims attention ; then the consum mation brings into requisition all the physical force, activity, and courage of the men, more especially those engaged at the dangerous points. From the neigh bouring precipice, overhanging the scene of operation, a man is suspended by a rope round his body, and lowered near to the spot where a breach is to be made, which is always selected at the lower edge of the jam. The point may be treacherous, and yield to a feeble touch, or it may require much strength to move it. In the latter case, the operator fastens a long rope to a log, the end of which is taken down stream by a por tion of the crew, who are to give a long pull and strong pull when all is ready. He then commences prying while they are pulling. If the jam starts, or any part of it, or if there be even an indication of its starting, he is drawn suddenly up by those stationed above ; and in their excitement and apprehensions for his . safety, this is frequently done with such haste as to subject him to bruises and scratches upon the sharp pointed ledges or brushes in the way. It may be thought best to cut off the key log, or that which ap pears to be the principal barrier. Accordingly, he is let down on to the jam ; and us the place to be ope rated upon may in some cases be a little removed from the shore, he either walks to the place with the rope attached to his body, or untying it, leaves it where he can readily grasp it in time to be drawn from his perilous position. Often, where the pressure is direct, a few blows only are given with the axe, when the log snaps in an instant with a loud report, fol lowed suddenly by the violent motion of the " jam ; ' and ere our bold river-driver is jerked half-way to the top of the cliff, scores of logs, in wildest confusion, rush beneath his feet, while he yet dangles in air above the rushing tumbling mass. If that rope, on which life and hope hang thus, suspended, should part, worn by the sharp point of some jutting rock, death certain and quick would be inevitable.—Springer's Forest Life and Forest Trees. BOTANY IN A BONNET SHOP.—A married man's greatest joy is, or should be, to behold his wife in a new bonnet. The ladies all agree that bon, sential to existence ; that the " female f must be framed in silk, thatched over wit wreathed round with amaranths, in order ti beauty, intelligence, and innocence. The husband, who desires to understand and profound mysteries of life, will of course speculate on bonnets ; and his first step in of knowledge under pecuniary difficulties w fine a bonnet. As in the game of thirty q. must first ask, is it an animal, a vegetable, or a mine,r o f He orders home a fresh necessity, and, with the 00 dictionaries, microscopes, dissecting scissors, and encyclopcedia, sets about a definition. If made of strA s. it is vegetable, of course ;if of silk, mulberry tr 4 mogrified, vegetable again; lace, net, crape, ra us t y t taffety, paper—all vegetable. So far the basis of. ‘4, great necessity. The addenda, that is the triniot, tt 4 —the delirium trimmings, which sunder the const l ; tion of the Pet, vegetable again ; the silk, the rih,b° as before, mulberry welted by caterpillars, the qe ditto, and the flowers, all vegetable. Of the hull carcase—the framework, the skeleton, little canbelt e scientifically, except that it varies its shape lik e protens and its colour like the chameleon. the head and off the head—on the right side, the l ov e , side, and " the small of the back." It is very e1: 1 , 313 40 ful ; becomes ugly in a week, and, though the per o f not acknowledge it, is expensive. The philosoPaAs the hull, carcase, or skeleton, is therein exhaustedibei for the ribbons, they vary in colour and shape; „i s . are ephemeral, and that's all. The profound sPe c ,"iic tions, therefore, cluster about the wreaths of gor se . flowers. The office of art is to imitate nature, ne'.. gi t vilely, but within proper limits. Flowers of diffeJ' e it seasons may be grouped together if they eontrastif`f is It rides. ft or help out an idea in their combination. Bu t fro m the making of artificial flowers the artist depart s to e , nature and sets up as his model some dreamy r i s ng to tion of his own, he degrades his occupation, helps ifl corrupt popular taste, and makes himself ridieilt ri ns the eyes of sensible people. That he can invent is to more beautiful than those which nature pre s g e ki 'll is him is not to be admitted for a moment. Ifs ';., D ge to imitate closely, his invention to combine ana 2 S' - f sr• gracefully ; we may even allow, in the latitude e ' f the tistic license, the combination in the same groltP ° '4.44 snowdrop and the rose, but we cannot abide bil"fa covers, when he calls them daisies. The poo rest ducts of the vegetable kingdom are sufficiently calt ie to supply infinitely more models than the cam florist can ever use ; and when the market d email d something new, let him find a model with the help a " Pocket Botany," and a visit to Kew or Syde nho j or, better still, let him grow real flowers as make linen ones. It is as much a commercial question as a question of art-manufacture. The French cod o i 'nand the markets, because they know the e lements the art. They study flowers ; they apprenti ce thei f selves to the soil ; they cultivate flowers to perfe cto • and the love which springs up for such beauti ful ere !, i tions, as a necessary consequence of the care b estowed upon them, leads to a study of their forms, the, ir ,,, Pe t - s culiarities of growth, their combinations and contra as arranged by nature. As long as the girls in wor e work-rooms are ignorant of botany, as long as tbeYwith strangers to gardens, they must be familiar ow. wretched garrets and the pinch of want. Th i _ A e! r d c l ic cd petitors of Paris and Lyons, who from their Cilij breasts, have the love of flowers implanted in the% ra y Of will excel them in the delicacy and the acc— work, their productions, and claim fair prices for their low while these stupid English abstractions keep theblower place and low price which mark their worth. : culture would elevate these workers in the social scat:, and furnish them with the knowledge, the refinonq and the means to take a position in society from wh they will continue to be excluded As long as they tine an art in ignorance of its elementary princiPles* Home Companion. VARIETIES. SYMPTOKATIC.—When the heart is ou t of tune , the tongue seldom goes right. THE caprices of fashionable women are as gro • ss as poodles fed on milk and muffins.—Sydney AN idler meeting with a strolling play er asked him " What part in the grand drama of li fe do you per form P" " I mind my own business," was the reply.