The Sun.
London, England, 1837-07-26 00:00:00

THE YOUNG LADY WHO SINGS.

" Those who are at all acquainted with society in En-
gland must have remarked, that in every neighbourhood
there is invariably a young lady who sings.' This young
lady in general has a voice like that tin kettle if it could
speak, and takes more pride in reaching as high as D sharp
than if she had reached the top of the pyramid of Cheops.
Whenever she is invited out, her mamma' invariably
brings four songs, by that dear Mr. Bayly,' three Germrn
songs, two Italian, and one French song. Sometimes, but
not always, an ominous green box is brought in the fly
along with the music, inclosing the valuable appendage of a
guitar, with a sort of Scotch plaid silk ribbon of no earthly
use dangling from the handle.

" At tea, if you sit next to the young lady who sings, she
is sure to talk about Pasta, and beyond a doubt will ask
you if you are fond of music. Beware here of answering in
the affirmative. If you do, your fate is sealed for the night ;
and while half a dozen pretty girls are chatting delightfully
together in one corner of the room, as far from the piano as
possible, it will be your unhappy destiny to stand at the
side of the' young lady who sings,' turning over the leaves
for her, two at once in your confusion. At the conclusion
of each song, it will be your particular business to repeat
over again the words " most beautiful" three several times ;
and, while inwardly longing to be flirting with all the six
pretty girls in the corner, you will be obliged to beseech
and implore the young lady who sings' to delight the
company with another solo. Hereupon the young lady
who sings,' coughs faintly, and says that she has a severe
cold ; but, much to her private satisfaction, is overruled
by her " mamma ;" who, turning round from the sofa where
she is seated, talking scandal with the lady of the house,
says reproachfully, " Well, my dear, what if you have a
cold—does that prevent your obliging us? For shame!"
Then follows a short pantomime between mother and daugh-
ter, touching and concerning the next song to be sung. A
German song is fixed upon at last, which the daughter
goes through in the most pathetic style imaginable, quite
ignorant all the time that the subject is a very merry one.
All the company pause in their conversation, except the
six young ladies in the corner, and the old deaf gentle-
man who is playing with the poker, on each of whom re-
spectively " mamma" looks scissors. The young lady,
having gone right through from beginning to end, stops
at last quite out of breath, as might well be expected
when it is considered what a race her fingers have had
for the last five minutes, in a vain attempt to keep up with
her tongue. " How very pretty !" you observe ; now that
there is room for a word. " I think it is," replies the
young lady who sings' in the most simple manner imagi-
nable. " Mamma," now asks successively each of the other
mammas whether any of their daughters sing, and, re-
ceiving a negative, addresses her daughter thus :—" Julia,
love, do you remember that sweet little thing of Madame
Stockhausen's, which she sung the other evening ?"
Hereupon another song follows, and then another at the
particular request of the lady of the house, who is all the
time dying for her own daughters to exhibit. In this
manner the evening is spent ; and, if you are particularly
fortunate, you have in return for your patient listening, the
exquisite gratification of putting on the young lady's shawl,
before she steps into the fly, in which she hums all the
way home.
We have been a considerable frequenter of parties in our
time, and never went to one but the pleasure of it was in-
terrupted more or less by the appearance of the young lady
who sings.' At last, on this very account we gave up going
to parties altogether, till one day we had an invitation to a
very pleasant house, and received at the same time from
another quarter authentic information that the • young
lady who sings' was gone into Wales. This news led us to
accept the invitation at once. 'At last,' thought we, we
shall enjoy an evening in peace.' We went. Coffee came
in, and there was no sign of our enemy. Our heart leapt
with delight, and we were just beginning to enjoy a philo-
sophical conversation on raspberry jam with the matter-of-
fact young lady, when, to our complete consternation, in
walked the guitar, the younc, lady who sings,' and her eter-
nal mamma,' all three evidently bent on destruction. It
appears that the young lady, hearing of the party, had
kindly put off her departure for Wales just one day, on
purpose to be present.
" We can say nothing as to what followed this hostile in-
cursion. for having been unhappily fated to the possession
of a tolerable car, we were obliged to beat a retreat at
once. Since that memorable occasion we have never gone
to any party whatever, without first ascertaining, beyond a
possibility of doubt, that the young lady who sings' is not
to be one of the number.

SUPERIORITY or WOMRN.—Women have often
more of what is called good sense than men. They have
fewer pretensions : are less implicated in theories, and judge
of objeets more from their immediute and involuntary impres-
sion on the mind, and therefore more truly and naturally.
They cannot reason wrong ; for they do not reason at all.
They do not think or speak by rule ; and they have in general
more eloquence and wit, as well as sense, on that account. By
their wit, sense, and eloquence together, they generally con-
trive to govern their husbands. Their style, when they write
to their friends (not for the booksellers) is better than that of
most authors.—Huzlitt.

THE POWER OF WOMAN.--Shakespeare will
knew that there is no true pathetic, nothing that can perma-
nently lacerate the heart, and embitter the speech, unless a
woman be concerned. It is the legacy left us by Evo. The
tenor of man's woe, says Milton, with a most ungallant and
grisly pun, is still from wo-man to begin ; and he who will
give himself a few moments to reflect will find that the stern
trigamist is right.—Bentley's Miscellany.

---- - -- ----- ----- ---
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cases, 12 inches long, by 5 inches wide, each playing Four
,Amrirs:rwkiint:
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