The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-07-13 00:00:00

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CHILDREN.-Dr. Arbuthnot used to say, men might talk
what they pleased of the safe conveyance of tradition ; but it
was no where preserved pure and uncorrupt but amongst
children, whose customs and plays, he observed, were deli-
vered down invariably from one generation to another.
A LITERARY MEssENGEP..---A servant girl presented her-
self at a libraq in a neighbouring town, and asked the man
of books if he had any " rats' tails," for her mistress wanted
two or three. She was answered, that there were no com-
modities of the kind kept there; but that, if she chose, she
would have " Cratibe's Tales." " Ou, I kent it was some
queer beast's tails! Ye can jist gi'e me them. The ane
will be as gude as the ither, I wad think."

CHINESE CORONATION.-At the coronation of the Em-
perors of China, it was customary to present them with seve-
ral sorts of marbles of different colours, by the hand of a
mason, who was then to address the new emperor to this
purpose—" Choose, mighty sir, under which of these stones
your pleasure is that we should lay your bones." They
brought him patterns of his grave-stone, that the prospect of
death might confine his thoughts within the due bounds of
modesty and moderation in the midst of his new honours.

LONDON.—There is no place in the world which humbles
a man in his own estimation so much as London. It is all
very well to hold our heads high in the country, and to fancy
that we are persons of very great importance; but let any
one who entertains such notions be set down in Cheapside,
at four o'clock in the afternoon, and in the midst of that
hurrying, driving mass of intelligence, and he will feel him-
self as a mere atom—almost a nonentity. The metropolis is
the great reservoir of talent—from all parts of this vast empire
it gravitates to London; there the master hands are em-
ployed ; there the master minds are busied in conceiving and
presenting to the world their beautiful creations; there the
shallow pretender is exposed, and the inflated and prestiming
speedily find their level ; inferior abilities are thrust aside to
make room for the crowd of aspirants to excellence in every
department of occupation, whether of a physical or of a
moral character.—Sunbeam•

THE BOA CONSTRICTOR.—The velocity with which the
boa darts on his prey, not only overturns it, but hurls his own
body in advance of his head, and thus forms the first coil,
the rest of his length being rapidly turned at the same time.
Lieut. Hutton introduced a full-grown buck-rabbit into the
den of the largest snake. The rabbit eyed the monster in
evident uneasiness, with his ears thrown back, and nose
elevated, and stamping firmly with his hind feet on the floor.
The snake, in the mean time, was incessantly brandishing
his long-forked tongue, and gradually opening out the close-
drawn coils of his body, in order to give himself room for the
deadly spring. His head then slowly and almost impercept-
ibly glided forward over the upper coil towards the rabbit,
which intently eyed every movement of his foe. In an in-
stant, and with a suddenness which made me start, the snake
dashed forward; but, to my surprise, the rabbit eluded his
grasp, by springing over him. With a loud threatening hiss,
the boa sullenly gathered himself into his corner, where he
lay still for an instant, with his head still pointing towards
the rabbit. Not liking the position, the poor buck turned
to move away, and that movement decided- his fate ; for with
the speed of lightning, both snake and rabbit rolled in a fast
embrace, with a heavy crash against the side of the cage.
The boa had seized his victim by a fore leg, with one coil
round the throat, so closely drawn, that the eyes seemed
starting from the sockets; a second coil was thrown round
the body, immediately below the shoulders, and another
round the loins. So instantaneous was the spring, that not
even onescry escaped the rabbit ; and though the last con-
vulsive motion of the hind legs was strong enough to shake
the boa, it lasted but a few minutes, and all was over. For
some seconds after life had, to all appearance, fled, the snake
still held his firm position, as if to allow no chance of escape,
and proceeded first to disengage his teeth from the bold he
had taken, and then to uncoil from the neck; with the re-
maining coil he still held fast.—Asiatic Journal.