The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-10-30 00:00:00

SUPPLEMENT TO THE LIVERPOOL STAN

158

apologies for leaving me, but said that as one of them
would be certain of being seized by the tiger if they
remained, and no one could say which, they thought
it best that all should try at least to escape, and I
readily forgave them ; after which they bore me home
with more than usual alacrity, and I enjoyed my re-
pose all the more sweetly for the danger I had escaped.
—Autobiography of James Silk Buckingham.
PASSENGERS BY AN EXCURSION TRAlN.—Facing us
sat an old woman, dressed in a gown of very seedy
black. For some time she had been silent ; but as
the train went on, she too had yielded to the mys-
terious influence,and had become quite chatty. Her first
attempt at conversation occurred when we were about
half-way on our -journey. She had then timidly ven-
tured to inquire if she were not near Portsmouth. On
being answered in the negative, she once more sank
back into silence. Again and again, at intervals of
very few minutes, the same question was put ; until,
being told that she must wait at least another hour,
she seemed resolved to make the best of it, and set
hard to work at eating bread and butter. All kinds
of luggage were strictly prohibited in the excursion-
train ; but by a dexterous adjustment of her shawl at
the station, the old lady had managed to smuggle in
her basket. As time went on, she grew impatient,
and often strained her eye across the landscape, in
hopes to catch a glimpse of anything that looked like
Portsmouth. No wonder she was anxious. When
she at last became communicative, we learned that
she was going down to see her son. His ship had
arrived at Spithead but the day before, and as " she
hadn't seen the poor dear boy for nigh upon two year,
she thought she might spare a few shillings, just to
see him now he was in England. It wasn't often that
she spent money for her own pleasure, For she had
three other children quite dependent on her, and it
was very little she could do for them." Poor woman !
A very common person, we have no doubt. In fact,
we know she was, for she accepted beer when the
bottle was handed to her by a neighbour, and, thanked
him kindly for it. Common though she was, the
mother's heart blessed the invention of excursion
trains. There was a young gentleman seated in a
corner of our carriage, who studiously avoided any
intercourse with his fellow-passengers. He must
have been a lawyer's clerk, or some one else accus-
tomed to move in good society. He smoked cigars,
which he carried in an elaborately-embroidered case,
and drank brandy-and-water, to which he used a glass
—a luxury not common in that carriage, the majority
drinking from the neck of the bottle. This poor young
gentleman we felt for deeply. He was so obviously
out of his element ; he seemed so very much afraid
that any one should see him in such company, and was
so evidently there under protest and without prejudice,
that it was really pitiable. We trust that he enjoyed
himself when he arrived in Portsmouth. He cer-
tainly did not upon the journey. Neither did an old
gentleman who sat beside him. While all around
were chatting, laughing, and drinking in draughts of
happiness, as they where whirled across the fair land-
scape, he seemed to think the whole affair a nuisance—
a disagreeable necessity, the sooner fulfilled the better.
For a long way he slept. Then he tried to read. Then
again sat bolt upright on his seat, his hands in his
pockets, and looking straight before him, frowned on
those who were so very merry all around him. What
did this man here ? While every one else had come
out expressly to be happy, what business had that
frowning face amongst them ? It was clear that he
was no excursionist ; not he. We felt convinced at
once that his journey to Portsmouth was purely a
matter of business, and that he had taken our train
for cheapness, not for jollity. Out upon this obtaining
carriage under false pretences !—Dickens's Household
Words.

Odessa, resolved to bombard the -city." The wicked
print then added, "the Emperor of Russia will not
visit Odessa." Haply, his Imperial Majesty has no
taste for fireworks

SPANISH ARITHMETIC.—In a Spanish paper there
is an account of the execution of twenty-five rebels.
The writer declares that " the rebels were all of them
taken out, and shot by fours." This comes of a na-
tion never paying its debts ; it inevitably loses the
knowledge of the first elements of arithmetic.