Jenks's Portland gazette — Portland [Me.], 1799-08-26 00:00:00, page 4

IN the northern parts of Scotland the people
dill believe the doArine of wizards, fpeflres and
magic fpeils. An Englifh gentleman of fortune,
had purchafed and removed to a large eftate in
thofe parti : He took with him an old and
induftrious tenant, who by prudence & economy,
was able to live beyond the reach of real want :
The gentleman had an only daughter, and his
tenant a fon of the fame age t They were in love
with each other, and vowed eternal conftancy :
The father of the lady difeovered their intimacy,
difmifledhit tenant, and confined his daugter ;
he went farther; he infifted on her marrying
the fin of a neighboring lord, and fixed the
wedding day: a few days previous to which,
clothes of the tenants fon were found by the fide
of a large river, with a letter in one of his
pokets, indicating that as his life had become a
burden, he had concluded to refign it by throw
ing himfe’f in that river. When the wedding
day arrived, the guefts aflembled, and juft
before the marriage was to be bleft by the prieft,
a fingle chaife drove up to the door with a
black covering, on which was painted the mod
terrifying and hideous figures, the horfe being
of the fame complexion, and out hopped a
black and horrible fpeAre, with a long tail*
large hocking horns and cloven foot, and mill
ing into the apartment with difmal yell*1
feizing the intended bride, exclaiming In an
awful voice, “ by the death of the tenants fon,
thou ait mine : and hurrying her to the chaife,
drove off with great (peed. In vain were the
(hrieks and druggies of the lady j in vain did
the affl &ed father call on his gueds and ferv
ants to prevent the fpeflre’s forcing her away :
the fuperftition of the people operated violently,
they all took to their heels, and left the difeon
folate gentleman inconfolable. Sic months
elapfed when he received the following letfer
by mail.
Si*,
“ Your daughter (hall be redored to you in
three weeks, provided you will permit her to
marry the man rf her choice : if not, you will
never hear of her more—Send your anfwcr
immediately to the pod office, diic&ed to the
Burning Spirit.
Yours, &c.
DEVIL.”
The gentleman returned this anftvcr :
My daughter (h ill marry the man (he choof
cs, provided (he is returned in three weeks.
G-1”
To the Burning SnatT.
The lad dajr of the three weeks arrived, but
no tidings of his daughter ; his hopes were
finking into defpair when behold at eveting, hi*
daughter and the tenant’s fon fuddenly appear
ing kneeling before him.
i They acknowledged they had concerted the
plan which was tranfaflc J at the intended wed
ding ; the fpe^lrc was tlie tenant’s fon, and tho
lady aflifted in the deception.
The joy of the family was cxeefiive } they
were forgiven, the old tenant was fent for and
redored ; the young couple were married and
happinek crowned the proceeding prefects.
THE MAN OF HONOR.
A euriotu Neapolitan Anecdote.
AT Naples there was a very particular man
of honor, whofe name was BanJoli ; he was
the moft defperate bravo of his time and it was
faid that he had with his own hand difpatched
upwards of eighty perfons by aififianation, for
that was the profctCon he got his bread by—
He made ufe occafionally of piftol.fword, poig
nard, and ftiletto, but he fcorned to poifon any
one he was hired to make way with, alledging
that there was fomething unmanly in it. That
it was not an aftion any perfon fticuld be guilty
of, and that it was as much beneath a bravo
to turn poifoner, as it would be for a regular
bred phyfician to commence quack doflor.
Two Neapolitan gentlemen quarrelled one
evening at an aflcmbly, and according to the
honorable cuftom of the times, each fent fepa
rately for Bandoli, and gave him fifty piftoles
a piece to make quick wotk with each other.—
The laft man he difpatched as foon as he had
paid him, and then returned to the firft peifon,
who on hearing Bandoli relate how he had
flau^h’.ered his adverfary, commended the bra
vo greatly for his dexterity in his bufinrls.—
“ Yes, Sir, replied Bandoli, every one who
employs me fh ill always find me punctual, for
I am a man of honor, Sir, and to convince you
j that I would not forfeit ir, the gentleman wh m
I have juft fent home, by your own order, gave
me fifty piftoles to make an end of you ; now
I, although he is dead, and cannot call me to
an account for not doing what he employed
me in, yet I am fo much a man of honor, that
I fcOTn to be guiity of a breach of promife to
any gentleman he then thruft his ftiletto
deep into the other’s breaft.
CHRONOLOGY
Agreeably to an ad of Britifli parli
ament paffed 24th Geo. II. 1751, the!
year 1800 will not be reckoned a Bif
lextilc, or Leap Year, but will be com
puted a common year confiding of three
hundred and fixty-five days only :
Februarynext will, in confequcnce, con
fid of twenty eight days only, making
thereby a difference of twelve days be
tween the old and new (Files. This
difference of the two diies will continue
throughout the whole of the 19th cen
tury, in order that the Vernal or Spring
Equinox may be fixed on or near the
iailt of March yearly as it happened at
the time of the General Council of
Nice, anno 325.
In Hamilton Moore’s Navigation,
there are two didind tabic of the tun’s
declination for the year iSoo; one of
which is calculated for a Leap Year,
and the other for a common Year.—
j From which it appears he felt it an un
(certainty whether the year 1800, would
be accounted a Leap Year or net; as
far as refpeded other countries.—In the
United States the quedion is not deter
| mined : As a uniformity in the compu
putation of time, is of importance, it is
luppofed Congrcfs will take up the fub
jed in their next fedion.
DISCOVERY.
Extract of a letter from Germany.
lt A curious difeovery has been made
in the Pruflian territory. Mr. Richard,
the prefent director of the Pruflian aca
demy of arts and feiences, a celebrated
chymift, has difeovered, or rather veri
fied a difeovery of Margrafs, who is alio
a great chymift at Berlin, that Sugar
may be made, very good, and in great
quantity, from that fort of Beet, com
monly called Scarcity Root, Mangold in
German, which foreigners took for
Mangel Scarcity. It is Beta altijjima
Beckmanni, not in Linnaeus. They have
cultivated the root above a century in
grear abundance for the cattle. The ex
periment is made in upper Saxony and
in Brunfwic with luccels. It is eafy, fafe
and cheap, h in the prefent fcarcity of
Mufcovado fugar, they think they could
cafdy fupply the Prullian country.*
Thepirjyapi it tak'n from a life Irifbptftr.
“ Traveller* (houtd be careful 10 deliver iher La’g'i-'
to proper perfons, a Gen Uman a lew day* fmee, on
alighting from a 3ta;e Coach en rolled h,s IVft with a
ftranger, and he ha* not heard of her Cmce "
THERE is but one Hid plc.ifire in life,
and that is, our duty. Hjw mTerable then,
how unwile, how unpardonable are they, who
nuks that a pain.
Medical.
Fiotu the NewyorJt Ouette,
Communication m the Cow-Pox.
W£ have already given an account
of Drs. Jenner and Peerfon’s publica
tion on the Cow-Pox, which tended to
eflablilli the important fad, that thofe
who have had that difeafe, which never
proves fatal, and which may always be
fo managed as never to disfigure the pa.
tient, are not capable of afterwards tak.
ing the fmall-pox infcdion—a fad,
which, if properly followed up, pro
mifes fair to extirpate the latter difeafe,
to which more have fallen vidims than
to the pcfiilence itftlf* Drs. Peerfon,
Jenner, and Woodvile, with a zeal that
does them great honor, have fince be
fiowed much attention and labour in
afcertaining by proper trials, how far it
is prudent to perfevcre in fubflituting a
difeafe that has hitherto appeared no
ways dangerous, for one that fo often
proves mortal j and, we are happy to
add, with a fuccefs equal to the mod
fanguins expectations that could have
been formed t In confequence of which
the followingcircular letter has been ad*
drefi'ed to the gentlemen of the faculty:
/ticefer-Square, March 12, 1799.
Sm,
I HOPE you will pardon mi for taking the liberty
to inform you, by way of additional evidence to the
tfmonies I havepvbitjhod on the fulyefl of the Cow
Pox, that upwards of one hundred and fxty patients,
ft on two weeks to Jorty years of age. principally in
fants, have been inoculated, finee the twentieth of fa- 1
nuary lajl, by Dr. IVoodviOt, and myf.f f.purnteiy.
/ /ball, at prefent, only communicate the following
olftrvalions :—
I. Not one mortal cafe occurred —2. Not one of
j the patients Was confsdered to be d mgeroufly ill.—3.
A It ho the extreme caftt of the Jevere kind, which or di
nar's1 y occur in the fame number of cafes in the inocula
ted fmall pox, did not occur in the above praBice ;
and alt bo many of the patients were even merefight ly
dsfordcrtd corf it ut tonally yet the whole amount of the
conJUtuiional illnef femed to be as great as m the fsm
numbe' of patients in the inoou/ated fmall pox.—4.
None of the patients (namely, about frty) hitherto
inoculated for the fmall pox, Juhfeqaently to the vaccine
dftaft, took the inf Bion.—$. One of the mojl impor
tant fsBt is, that the heal a/feBon in the inoculated
part, on the whole, was left co ip derails, and of fieri,
er duration than in the inoculated /mail pox. — 6- ba.
many of the cafes eruptions on the body appeared,
of which could not be di fling tsifhed from the fmall pox. I
/ haw feat the matter of the cow pox pufl/e on tio{(
thread enclofed in order if you approve of the inquiry, .
to inoculate with it; and I intreat yw to favour me
with the refull of yotsr trials s But I mu/l trouble yu
to apply the Ujl of inoculating with various mat!
fubfequenth to the vaccine dxforder.
I have the honor to be, Ufc. Ife,
G. PEERSON.
From the (Ne^yoik) Spe<£Uton j
True Idea of the Poifon of Yellow Fever T
IF excrementitiou: and perijhable things!
corrupt in the cellars of a houfe or ftoie
in either of the wards of the city ol
Newyork, it is allowed on all hands,
that the exciting caufe of malignant ft
ver may be produced. This has hap1
pened a thoufand times in Newyork, .
and in every city in America. Nowr, “
is not the hold of a floipi her. cellar p
in which fuch things as are ufually pu v
into cellars ori Jliore, are ftoTed—tfb 1
fhould not the cellars of Jhips becorw
foul and peftilential like other cellars!
If people go down into poifonous cd ]
lars, whether on Jhip-board or on (hot} ^
it is very much like defeending- inti «
wells, vats and cferns, filled with ven *
omous and deadly air. Human being v
are frequently killed by going into® *
thefe holds of abomination and naftinds t
But the diftemper produced is not com p<
municahle from man to man in any <
thefe cafes. A perfon may inhale p« .
tilcnce or get a blaft of infection fro*
any of thofe fources of miichief ai
poifon ; but the diftemper flops thei
and is not communicable to anoth (,
pcrlon by morbid fecretion of cent apt ^
matter, but merely thro the agent] J
common corruption or putrefaction. f ’
fyyour (hips, then, which are amongi pr
manufactories of pefiilencc, and you ^ } j
have lei's alarm about Imported TelM «»i
Fever. But do not think that theyf f
clean by being merely pumped outm
frnoked out—No fuch thing. Ships » » i
be cleaned as houfe3 are cleaned •, # *si
every woman knows bow that is done. V.
■--* J1.1 — : J ■" r,.]
Every man fhould mind lib own buui» ti,
for, he, who torments binilelf with other ?!. 41
pic’s good or ill fortune, will never be at re ft