The New-Jersey gazette — Burlington [N.J.], 1785-10-17 00:00:00, page 1

from the Ne/Jersev Advertiser.
Mr. Printer,
Y'OUR readers, as well as most others up
on the continent, are frequently enter
tained with the uppleafing account of
the dullness of business ; the scarcity of
money; and the idleness, dissipation and
extravagance of the fair sex; while the other sex
are supposed to be perfed patterns of industry and
frugality: for not a word is said to the contrary.
In a country so lately independent, so rude of cul
tivation, so imperfect in the arts and sciences, and
so indifferently peopled, we naturally expect of the
men ©economy and simplicity of manners; of the wo
men industry and neatness.
An European of discernment must have formed an
excellent character of the Americans, had he heard
only of our manly exertions for liberty and indepen
dence ; but Should he have seen the various publicati
ons since the peace, he must suppose us funk irretriev
ably into an abyss of idleness and extravagance. The
fair sex, especially, he must suppose spending nearly
their whole time at the glass, and their dress com
'pofed of streamers of gauze, feathers arid ribbons.
That the great body of the people are more extra
vagant in their expenditures, more involved in debts,
more, idle and dissipated, than they were previous to
the late war, is, I believe, not a fad. Do the ladies
diefs with more expence now, than tlfoy did fifty
years ago? Let any one compare his mother's or
grand mother's inventory of her wedding dress with
the present. Is there a mechanic's wife in the town,
who does not earn as much in proportion to her
strength. and is not as plainly clad as her mate?
Compare the rich cloth coat, the silk vest, breeches
and flockings, the flioes, boots, buckles, fours, hat
and cane of a wealthy merchant, with his lady's dress
and appendages, upon which will you find devoted
the greater expence? observe a brother and fitter of
the lame family: does Are walk out for morning vi
tits? you will fee him early in the day, faunteriog
under his umbrella, or leaning on his cane, and if on
business, he must have a servant to carry the package,
faould it weigh but a pound; for he, poor man, has
no hands to Ipare, he must carry the umbrella.
The fortitude and perseverance of the American
women, in refraining from the use of tea, their nec
tareous drink, on a simple recommendation from Con
gress, when it was thought it would advance their
country's cause, highly deserves commendation; and
thews what the women will do when they know the
true interest of their country. Can a similar inftan'ce
be produced of the men ? did they refrain from horse
races when advised by an equal recommendation?
But what inducement have the women to be industri
ous, or to dress plainly? for they hear those only com
mended who dress in the most trifling, and expensive
manner. How lavilh are the compliments bellowed
upon a proper arrangement of feathers and gauze?
Bqt not even a cold nod of approbation is given to
the young lady who appears in her own silken or flax
en industry. To excite industry among the fair sex,
the men need only let the example—to make them
economical, let the men assume simplicity of man
ners.
From whence originate the complaints of hard
times, and the neceility of caffi ? not from the far
mers, for they have more money than was common
previous to the late war ; —not from the mechanics,
for their wages are considerably advanced (which is a
fare indication that there is more circulating calh)
not from the prudent careful merchant who attends
to his bufinefs' himfelf, for he will live within his in
€owe; but are they not from the American and
Eyopean adventures, mho have imported about
UOUR TIMES THE QUANTITY OF GOODS THE COUN
TRY wants or can consume? which being general
ly taken upon credit, are charged with an advanced
orice; and who estimate their wealth not by the nett
proceeds, after the goods are fold and paid for, but
by the many thousands they have in their hands; and
whole expenditures are fully equal to their imaginary
wealth? —If such persons fail in business, although
they may no longer corrupt the community, yet the
country is fligmatized with the want of that honour
[Vol. VIII.] THE [Numb. 388.]
^JEW-JERSEY GAZETTE.
TRENTON: Printed by ISAAC COLLIN S, Printer to the State.
MONDAY, October 17, 1785.
and punduality in business, so eiTential to an honest
people. Z.
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Foreign Intelligence.
^g====^ ^;;■/;-,=G^
FRAN K F O R T, July 4.
The Count d'Ofterman, Vice-Chancellor of the Im
perial Court of Russia, has caufeg to be delivered to
all the deputies at the Diet of Itatifbon, a circular
letter, in which it is said, that the empress, far from
wishing to diminilh the rights and privileges of the
empire, was on the contrary, determined at all times
to preserve the cooftitution of the Germanic body
[and to prevent every encroachment on it.—That she
farther referred to what the emperor had declared
by hrs ministers at foreign courts, relative to Bava
ria; and although in virtue of the 18th article of the
treaty of Baden, 1714, in which it was expressly
stipulated, that the elector of Bavaria might if he
thought proper, make an exchange of his dominions,
and that France did not oppose it, the ele&or Pala
tine of Bavaria had to proceed to such exchange.
Letters, however, from Vienna, make no mention of
any movement that can create the least inquietude;
they only fay, that next autumn the emperor will
form a camp of 25000 men in Moravia, one of 60,000
in Bohemia, and one of 80,000 men near Pest, in
Hungary.
LONDO N, July 20.
That there will soon be a war between the Ruf
fians and Turks is very probable, and that it will
^ove more* 'bloody than any former war, is no less
to be expected from the dispositions of the contending
parties. Mean-while, the confufed state of the Turk
-1(11 government portends the downfall of that once
mighty empire; nor is this an event which the phi
losopher, or the lover of humanity, will regret.
What is their present government but a combination
of minhaters to destroy one another; a series of
cruelty perpetrated at the will of a capricious despot,
and perfedly unconnected with any thing that has the
semblance of justice, order, and regularity ? By the
last accounts, a rebellion of a very alarming nature
prevails at this time in Turkey, in the course ofwhich
some hundreds of innocent men and women meet
with the cruel treatment of robbers and pillagers,
while others will decorate the gates of the Seraglio
with their heads. Unhappy must that country be, in
which the bowstring is the only method of reasoning.
DUBLI N, July 19.
The crew of the Friendly Adventure, captain Bro
deric, which was fitted out in the Thames, and loft
last month in the Greenland seas, are brought home
in the Young Eagle, arrived on Saturday in the river.
The loss of this ship was in the following manner:
1 hey were in a clear sea surrounded with ice, with a
moderate breeze at S. W. which on a sudden chang
ed to the N. by S. and blew in hard squalls; the
fields of ice began then to drive as is usual; and all
hands were employed with their ice-poles, &c. a large
piece of ice from which they could by no means escape,
came at length, and stove in the larboard bow, the
ship immediately closed, so that it was with difficulty
they got out any chest or supplies of provisions, and
in less than an hour the ship funk. Luckily there
were the Young Eagle, and two other ships in fight;
the Eagle being the nearest of them, sent a relief
and brought them off the ice, where they must o
therwise have perished. The Beaver, captain Shel
ly, foundered the fame day, and only part of her
crew escaped. Two Dutch ships from Flushing went
down in the fame storm, and it is believed every foul
on board perished. The weather has been exceed
ingly tempeftous in East-Greenland, and the ice
abundantly collected. The ships that kept their situ
ation there, were however very iuccefsful; those of the
N. W. had better weather, but the fifh were neither
so large or so plentiful. The Friendly Adventure
and the Beaver had both caught cargoes, which makes
their loss the greater.
July 20. Monday morning, between three and
four o'clock, a fire broke out in the middle floor of
a house in Myler's alley, which was immediately
productive of the most melancholy consequence.—
The particulars we have been able to obtain are as
follow: On the ground floor were lodged a trades
man and his family; on the firft floor, a woman of
the town; and on the second floor, a man who had
once been in opulence, but, through misfortune, was
constrained to put up with the dwelling he at this
time occupied, and by what he could snatch from a
small mercantile attendance, supported a wife, at
this time very far advanced with child, and a grown
lon and daughter. It appears (if report can be cre
dited) that the woman in the middle floor having
some dispute with a man who visited her, and who
was clamorous about a pocket-book, containing bank
notes, which he said she had flolen from him, poured
a quart of rum into a dish, and set fire to it, which
communicating to the furniture, set the room in
flames. Ihe fire soon reached the other parts of the
house, and the alarm being given, the unfortunate
man on the upper floor threw a bed into the street,
and was preparing to throw himfelf out, when his
feelings as a husband and a father being attracted by
the cries of his family, he ran back to their relief;
at the instant the floor gave way, and they all perish
ed. The occupiers of the other apartments made
their escape; but when the flames were got under, a
feene was presented of those who fell facrifices, too
horrid for recital. The fragments which remained
of them were put into three coffins, and buried in
the Hofpital-fields; but the woman who is supposed
to have caused the calamity was committed to New
prifon.
Mean-while we hope it may not hurt the feelings
of the few philosophical gentlemen among us, who
modefly believe that the DEITY is too great a
Being to have any hand in these hurliments of nature
called hurricanes, but let the Old Lady swing on
like a pendulum till her whole machinery goes to
pieces; if we who are credulous enough to believe
that the machine has still some dependence on its
Maker, prefer our humble petitions to him, that he
$ * s^^^^^^^^$ ^^^^^^^^ __.^
American Intelligence.
Extraft from the Royal Danifb Gazette of flu
^ 27.
CHRISTIAN ST2ED, in St. Croix.
" On 1 hurfday the 25th instant, we have had one
of the most tremendous gales of wind, which has been
experienced in this part of the world, since the aw
ful and deftrudive hurricane of the 31st of August,
1772. Some think the last has been the most de
ftruCtive of the two; and, indeed, if we estimate the
violence of the storm, by the ruinous effects of it,
perhaps we may have reason to conclude, that
the last was the most violent, especially in this island.
The threatening symptoms of the gale, began to shew
themselves about the middle of the foregoing night;
by heavy squalls and feuds of rain, which increased
gradually in violence, till about one or two o'clock
on Thursday, when the storm seemed to have arrived
at its highest degree of fury. At this pitch it con
tinued till above half after four, when it began to abate.
I he damage sustained by the Whipping in this har
bour, are inconceivable. Four ships, sugar leaded,
and most of them ready to fail, are probably
loft; some of them funk at their anchors, and others
wrecked on the shore. This has also been the fate
of many smaller and less valuable vessels. Not a sin
gle vessel in the harbour was able to ride out the
storm, all were driven on shore. Many valuable
houses in town are demolished, and we are informed
the country has fnffered still more in proportion, a
number of the best dwellinghoufes, boilinghoufes and
mills, being overwhelmed in one promiscuous ruin.
We have not yet been able to afeertain the number
of lives loft by sea and land during this ftrife of the
elements; though we have reason to believe it has
been very considerable: Perhaps in some future Ga
zette we may be enabled to give a more particular
detail. We await intelligence of the fate of the
neighbouring islands, with a trembling anxiety, and
sincerely hope it may have been more favourable than
ours.