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

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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 river rushed with terrible force. 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,rof
He orders home a fresh necessity, and, with the 00
dictionaries, microscopes, dissecting scissors, and
encyclopcedia, sets about a definition. If made of strAs.
it is vegetable, of course ;if of silk, mulberry tr 4
mogrified, vegetable again; lace, net, crape, rausty t
taffety, paper—all vegetable. So far the basis of. ‘4,
great necessity. The addenda, that is the triniot, tt4
—the delirium trimmings, which sunder the constl;
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 like
protens and its colour like the chameleon.
the head and off the head—on the right side, the love ,
side, and " the small of the back." It is very e1:1,31340
ful ; becomes ugly in a week, and, though the per of
not acknowledge it, is expensive. The philosoPaAs
the hull, carcase, or skeleton, is therein exhaustedibei
for the ribbons, they vary in colour and shape; „is.
are ephemeral, and that's all. The profound sPec,"iic
tions, therefore, cluster about the wreaths of gorse.
flowers. The office of art is to imitate nature, ne'..git
vilely, but within proper limits. Flowers of diffeJ'eit
seasons may be grouped together if they eontrastif`f is
It rides.
ft
or help out an idea in their combination. But from
the making of artificial flowers the artist departs toe,
nature and sets up as his model some dreamy risng to
tion of his own, he degrades his occupation, helps
ifl
corrupt popular taste, and makes himself ridieiltrins
the eyes of sensible people. That he can invent is to
more beautiful than those which nature presgeki'll is
him is not to be admitted for a moment. Ifs ';.,Dge
to imitate closely, his invention to combine ana2S'-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 poorest
ducts of the vegetable kingdom are sufficiently caltie
to supply infinitely more models than the cam
florist can ever use ; and when the market demaild
something new, let him find a model with the help
a " Pocket Botany," and a visit to Kew or Sydenhoj
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 codoi
'nand the markets, because they know the elements
the art. They study flowers ; they apprentice theif
selves to the soil ; they cultivate flowers to perfecto•
and the love which springs up for such beautiful ere
!,i
tions, as a necessary consequence of the care bestowed
upon them, leads to a study of their forms, the,ir,,,Pet-s
culiarities of growth, their combinations and contra
as arranged by nature. As long as the girls in wore
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. Thi_Ae!rdcliccd
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.