Star.
London, England, 1831-07-04 00:00:00

SCINIILL.S.

Paoor PRRSUMPTIVE.—I am no Dandy,....
but I was ever ambitious of being thought a gentleman.—.
Two facts, and therefore stubborn things, are not a little
flattering to my vanity. First--the beggars, an observing
race, we know, always ask an elms; and that shrewd class of
able-bodied wags--the Toll Collectors, *overeat the ticket.
Sterne would say, " This might pass for something. F. E.
IRISH Potwr.—The following, by way of
postscript, or fill-up,from Remsgase,bas lately been received.
" I overheard just now the subjoined brief dialogue be.
tween a couple of atone.hreakers—l need hardly add both
were Irish—• Where is O'Dennis ?" Arra)), and I'll tell
you—he's in Galway just now digging up praties with hi,
sae nails, m honey.' To whom the other, more than hale
jealous of the new mode and occupation of raising pots.
toes in Galway, made answer— By my soul, it's a mighty
fine thing for paddy O'Dennis, that he finds pratti,
to dig !' " Your's, .k.c. &c. 0. R."
THE LATh LORD ERSKINI.—When Lord
Erskine appeared for the first time at the Bar, his aril*.
tion was so great, that it was with difficulty he could re.
cover himself, and was on the point of leaving the Hall.
" At that moment," said his lordship, " I seemed to feel a,
if all my children (for he had several) were dragging at my
gown, and the idea supported my spirits to a degree I
thought I was equal to —Of his eloquence as a lay
pleader—of his wisdom and justice upon the bench—of his
talents as a statesman—of his patriotism and Christian sir.

tucs, as a man—who is thus that anis information, or
will gainsay ?
Virtue will thew itself, and there's an andLmilase.fortifeas.
F. E.

VOLTAIRE.—This extraordinary man was not
much indebted to Nature, as we all know, for that—the
greatest of all her blessings—a good temper. la &moment
of spleen, he is said to have passed a somewhat harsh judg.
ment upon the genius of La Fontaine, insisting that not one
of his fables, if honestly and calmly considered, would stand
the test of criticism. This was a hard saying, and not very
easy to maintain against the Prince of Fabulists. Never.
theless, the gage was thrown down, and the pledge of de.
fiance accepted by another very remarkable character—no
less a personage than the great King of Prussia. The trial
and roof of the assertion stood over to &distant period, ad
re/ erendurn. N. t long afterwards, Voltaire, being in the
closet of his Majesty, Frederick put into his hands a splen.
did volume of Ls Fontaine's works. The Cynic turned over
the leaver of the book, then read a fable, afterwards a sc.
cold, and a third ; after shutting the volume abruptly—
" Diable "cried he, " peel homage," The King and him.
self, it should be remembered, were on the most familiat
footing. • Then, after a pause, " Morbleau," exclaimed
he, " the whole is a mass of ehefs.erceuvre." And as the
sore tribute of pre,: hardly got vent from his lips, be dashed
the book down on the table.-0 humanifas / humanness!
• Vide Correspondence. F. E.
EPIGRAM, by the late Sir Alexander Boswell,
Bart. on the marriage of Dr. George Wood to Miss Bunn,
George oft complain'd his house was cold—
And to an oven fain would turn it ;
The method, pray—can you unfold ?
Yes ! bring together Wood and Burn.it.
CURE FOR A SCOLDING WIFE.—A man, of
the name of John E. Burks, in consequence of some do.
mestic trouble, took Sam Patch's leap from the top of
the Genesse Falls. The cure was effectual.--Amerian
Paper.
TO PREVENT MISTAKES.—We learn from
New York Journal that same facetious gentlemen were in
the habit of ruling an ass up the stairs of an academy, on
wbich the owner posted up a notice, which was as follows :
—" Mr. —.. is determined to shoot the said ass, and Call.
lions any person who may be riding it at the time to take
care of himself, lest by some unfortunate mistake be should
shoot the sarong one."
A TRUE STORY.—" An old pilot of the Mo-
luccas," says Pigafetts, " assured me of a verity that they
had pigmies there who dwelt in caverns, and had ears ro
very long, that they slept upon one and covered themselves
with the other I"

A CRIER EXTRAOR DIN A RIC.—A gentleman
informs us that, while sojourning at one of the towns in
Virginia, he encountered in the street a stout, double-lunged
negro, who was ringing a band-bell most manfully. After
labouring at it some time the fellow made a dead halt, and
bellowed out something to the following effect--" Sale dis
nite—frying-pans—gridirons—book—oyster knives, and
odder kinds of medicine—Joe Williams will hab some hub
oysters at his 'stablishment--by tackler desire, Mr. Hewlett
will gib imitations ober again—two or three dozen damaged
discussion gun-locks, and—Rev. Mr. P—Q. will deliber a
sarmont on temperance, half-past six o'clock precise; days
not all I—without money or price—de great bull Philip will
be mutat at Squire 8--Ps and dat's not all nudder I—dare
will be a polite and coloured ball at Mrs. Johnson's ins aster
(Us is bin done."—New York Advertiser.

CHOLERA Rioartus.—A Ramsgate correspondent of Gun
says, that if it be true that this disorder is not contagious,
but comes from the atmosphere, which its irregular and ca-
pricious course would seem to confirm, because u if carried
according to the point the wind blows from. Would it not
be advisable, without waiting for its appearance in any coun-
try or place, to direct masses of brimstone to be burned in
towns and villages, and even on the high rosds,whenever the
wind be not actually in the East ? Would not such a fume
purify the atmosphere in the immediate circumference of
those towns and villages ? and, by afterwards coming in
contact with any infected air, would it not either counteract
or destroy the effects of infection ?
A widow lady, at Newington, who keeps a
boarding school in that neighbourhood, stated in her popu-
lation schedule that she was " a widow, forty years of age,
with four and twenty children," evidently alluding to the
two dozen scholars which she had under her roof. The
party who called for her return paper, observed, on glancing
his eye over it, that such a host of little ones was a great
number for a lady of her age. The schoolmistress, equally
labouring under a mistake, replied, " Aye, so it would be
if I depended upon my own exertions ; but I have jour as.
sistants—a drawing master, a teacher of the classics, a
French master, and, a professor of gymnastics !"
PURITAN ism.—Jeremy Taylor was sent to the
Tower in 1657, for having in one of his works praised a
portrait of Christ in the attitude of prayer—a spesics of re-
presentation considered little less than idolatry, and prohi-
bited by statute. It was to the interference of the cele-
brated Evelyn, the author of Sylva, that he owed his libe-
ration from this imprisonment.