The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-07-17 00:00:00

LITERARY EXTRACTS.

THE RUSSIAN MILITARY JESTER.—The Russians
have discovered a martial stimulus unknown to the
Western nations :---" There is often a buffoon attached
to each company, who amuses his comrades by his
jests and his antics, and is generally a great favourite.
On one occasion in the Caucasus, when the troops were
driven back by the eircassians, the buffoon was wounded,
and left behind. A favourite jest of his had been to
crow like a cock, and as he lay on the ground, he
thought of the only way to save himself, and crowed.
This had such an effect on his comrades that they
rallied, charged again, and saved him."— Seymour' s
" Russia."
THE NAUTICAL SKILL OF THE RussuNs.---Ilax-
thausen is quoted to show that Cruys and Byng would
have been esteemed in Russia, where the example of
Golovin is followed---the admiral who said it was his
rule never to fight unless he had three Russian ships
to engage two Swedes. Clearly, the maritime forces
of the empire are yet in embryo. At Sevastopol there
was an outcry against the English engineers of the
steam-vessels, and the Emperor consented to appoint
a Russian on trial, who took a steamer out to sea, and
damaged her machinery so much after a few hours,
that she was towed into port again by another steamer
sent out to fetch her. The Emperor then said that he
would continue to employ the English until his own
people were really able to undertake their duties.—
Seymour's " Russia."
LITERATURE FOR CHILDHOOD. Facts cannot
civilise ; but imagination, which sets all the generous
feelings of the young into motion, and which com-
mences its work at the mother's knee, is the first
humaniser. Heroism of the best kind has grown out
of children's old tales, such as, in the earlier stage,
" Jack the Giant-Killer," and the " Seven Champions
of Christendom." I can believe that these fabulous
heroes have been fighting for glorious battles. I
entertain a temporary Pythagorean creed. Cinderella
and the damsels rescued by the Champions have tamed
many a young savage. The boy who, in his dreams,
has never fought a giant, nor saved a lovely maiden
from a dragon, never will make a true man. The
well-developed man has borrowed from the tenderness
of a motherly-instructed childhood. The chivalric
spirit is the worker of civilisation. Let facts sink into
the earth, or die upon its surfaee like rotten leaves, if
they are accumulated and enforced into young minds
to the exclusion of generous fictions, that, promoting
love and valour, become by-and-by noble truths. No,
Eusebius. " Once upon a time," at a mother's knee,
and afterwards under the flickering light and shade of
a secret place in a greenwood, is the real talisman, the
" Open Sesame" by which excellent virtues enter
young minds : the rock of the heart opens to the
words. Let not facts smother the age of heroism....
Blackwood .

AMERICAN LADIES BATHING.- --I was greatly amused,
the following morning, observing the ladies bathing,
for as they are attired for the double purpose, as I pre-
sume, of bathing and being seen, there is no impro-
priety whatever in looking at the fair creatures in the
water. The garments worn on these occasions are of
the gayest colours, consisting of a Bloomer kind of
costume, in which the upper part contrasts strongly
with the lower. The head is generally surmounted
by a quaintly-shaped white cap, which seems to have
made a deep impression on the author of a poem on
Nahant, who says,---

" Still where the sea beats on the shore,
I sit and drink its music in—
The music of its thunder-roar,
And watch the whitecaps swirling o'er,
The blue waves restless evermore."
In truth, it is a stranze scene ; and does not abate in
interest when the ladies emerge from the water, in
their gaudy costumes, exhibiting trousers of all colours,
and countless pairs of little white feet, twinkling on
the sand. This early bathing must be as conducive
to health as it is to an exhilaration of spirits ; for,
during my travels, I saw no ladies with such glowing
complexions as those at Nahant. In the words of an
American enthusiast, " They come down to breakfast

after their bath, freshened up, looking as sweet and
dewy as an avalanche of roses."---A Vacation Tour
in the United States and Canada.
THE RussieN SOLDIER.---The morale of the soldier
is that of passionless, rigid, inveterate courage. He
obeys the Emperor, because it seems impossible, and
would be unnatural, to disobey. A soldier on duty at
the palace of the Emperor at Petersburg, which was
burnt a few years ago, was stationed and had been
forgotten in one suite of apartments that was in flames:
a Greek priest was the last person to rush through
the burning rooms, at the imminent risk of his life, to
save a crucifix in a chapel, and returning he was hailed
by the sentry, who must in a few instants more have
been suffocated. " What do you want ?" cried the
priest ; " save yourself or you will be lost."---" I can't
leave," replied the sentry, " because I am unrelieved,
but I called to you to give me your blessing before I
die." The priest blessed him, and the soldier died at
his post. The late Emperor himself on one occasion
attempted to pass a sentinel in one of the corridors of
the palace at St. Petersburg, who had orders to let no
person pass, but the man resisted him, and when the
Emperor tried to disarm him, wrestled with him, and
flung him back against the wall." The first of these
stories seems apocryphal. The Emperor Nicholas,
however, gave his troops credit for incomparable stea-
diness. The Jews, though good military artificers,
failed in the field.- - -The story is told of the late Emperor,
that on one occasion, when he was reviewing some
troops, he found out all the Jews by snapping his
fingers in each mans's face. If they stood immoveable
they were Russians, and if they flinched they were
invariably Jews."---Seynzour's Russia.
A VISIT TO AN ENCAMPMENT OF INDIANS. The
trip was delightful. At the head of Clear Lake, a
reach, not unlike that separating the upper and middle
Killarney lakes, occurs, studded by wooded islands.
On one of these the Indians were encamped ; but there
was no sign of life, nor could we detect, amidst the
dense foliage, a landing-place. A wild whoop
from my companion was answered by an Indian, who
burst through the bush, and motioned us to a little
creek, where we disembarked. Following our' swarthy
guide we came suddenly on a small clearing, in the
centre of which was the lodge. A more picturesque
spot could not well be conceived. The ground,
mantled by a - variety of wild flowers, sloped gently
towards the lake. Lofty trees shut out the oppressive
sun, and a tiny brook gurgled sweetly as it leaped into
daylight froni the gloom of the forest. The lodge was
constructed of birch-bark, open at the top for the
egress of smoke. Around were various hunting and
fishing implements. Portly fish, with strips of bear-
flesh and venison hanging on poles in process
of curing, attested how efficiently they had been used.
Pushing aside the buffalo-skin serving as a door, we
enter the lodge, from which, however, I was nearly
driven by the dense and acrid smoke. The family
consisted of the Indian's wife, mother-in-law, and two
girls, who were squatted round the fire superintending
a savoury mess of boiled ducks, fish, and squirrels.
The women and girls could not speak a word of
English. The excessive natural simplicity of the girls
and the freedom of their limbs were remarkable. With
thpr naked feet, which were beautifully formed, they
seized fragments of wood and cast them on the fire
with the same ease as we should perform the same
operation with our hands. The whole scene was suffi-
ciently wild and novel to be very interesting ; and I
sincerely recommend the tourist to turn aside from
the beaten track to visit the Indians in the bush.---
Weld's Towr in the United States.
SIR ISAAC NEWTON A LOVER.—It appears from
Sir David Brewster's life of Sir Isaac Newton, just
published, that the great philosopher, at the ripe age
of sixty, made proposals of marriage to a widow. The
lady was the widow of Sir William Norris, who died
in 1702. The following is Newton's philosophical way
of " popping the question :"—" Madam,—Your lady-
ship's grief at the loss of Sir William shows that if he
had returned safe home, your ladyship could have been
glad to have lived still with a husband, and therefore
your aversion at present from marrying again can
proceed from nothing else than the memory of him
whom you have lost. To be always thinking on the
dead is to live a melancholy life among sepulchres,
and how much grief is an enemy to your health is
very manifest by the sickness it brought when you
received the first news of your widowhood. And can
your ladyship resolve to spend the rest of your days in