The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-12-27 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD, AND GENERAL COMMERCIAL ADVERTISER.

A FEW CLOVES added to ink will prevent its becoming
mouldy, and impart an agreeable perfume.
SUPPOSED TO BE NEAR THE MABR.—The Rev. B.
Brown, a celebrated preacher among the Independents,
made the following bold statement at the recent meeting
of the Congregational Union :—" We are Independents,
yet I have long had the conviction that it requires desperate
courage to be an Independent amongst Independents."
The assertion was received with loud cheers.—Blackburn
Standard.

A CONSOLING REPLY.—Lady Spencer asked Dr. Warren
whether the minds of physicians must not be frequently
embittered by the reflection that a different mode of
treatment might have saved the lives of their patients.
Dr. Warren thought otherwise, "The balance between
satisfaction and remorse must," he considered, "be greatly
in favour of satisfaction ;" and, as an instance of it, he
hoped he should have the pleasure of curing her ladyship
forty times before he killed her."—Household Words.
AN UNPROMISING OLD LADY. The Sunderland
Herald has the following amusing anecdote :—" The
whole of the ladies of the village who were voters, with
one exception, voted against the amendment of Mr. Elliott
in the Houghton contest of the present week. One of
them, entering the polling place with Hopper, was
about to record her vote, when the Be Lee ex-
claimed, That old lady, Mrs. Shield, promised me to vote
for the amendment.' Bridling up, she responded, with a
look of scorn, ' I never gave a promise to any man in my
life.' This intimation was followed by roars of laughter."
ECONOMY IN FOOD.—Although it is, perhaps, a matter
which should properly come under our " Reviews," we may
mention in this place that we have received a 41b. loaf of
bread—a most attractive looking and very palatable speci-
men of the flour-and-rice bread. It is evident that
"there's a good time coming" for editors, when bakers
begin to send them half-quartern loaves for review ; and
if the butchers only follow the example, with sirloins of
beef and legs of mutton, the good time will be really come
—not before it is wanted, perhaps.—English Churchman.
WHAT is the use of battering a man's brains full of
Greek and Latin pot-hooks, which he forgets before he
doffs his last round jacket or puts on his first long-tailed
blue, if he don't teach them the old Spartan virtue of
obedience, bard living, early rising, and them sort of
classics ? Where's the use of instructing him in hexame-
ters or pentameters, if you leave him in ignorance of the
value of a pennypieee ? What height of stupidity it is to
be fillip' a boy's brains with the wisdom of the ancients,
and then turn him out like an omadhaum, to pick up his
among the moderns.—Blackwood's Magazine.
HOME.—I have travelled some little in my day, and I
never yet saw the place over-seas where I could say, here
will I live and die. My steps have been arrested by
beautiful spots—by savage spots—by great and luxurious
cities ; a week, a month, I could spend in many—a year
in some, and spend it happily ; but not life—not all my
days. This may be prejudice, but it is the only prejudice
I have no wish to part with. I know of no pleasure that
will compare with going abroad except one—returning
home. I pity English colonists wherever I find them,
whether at Tours, or Pau, or Lausanne, or Brussels, or
Nice, or Florence. They all talk of delightful climates,
and delicious wines, and cheap living, and excellent society ;
and yet, I believe, there may be but two or but one
amongst them all, who, if they dared to appear poor,
would not turn their backs upon the climate, and wines,
and society of foreign lands, and seek the shores of Eng-
land. Travelling is a charming recreation ; but, after all,
England—to an Englishman—is the only country to live
in.—Dement Conway's Tour in Switzerland.
A SKETCH IN MUNICH.—How gay the streets look !
Such numbers of butterfly ladies, in gay muslin and light
kid gloves, and with bright-coloured parasols; such dandi-
fied youngofficers with their ridiculously smallwaists —they
lace themselves up as tightly as the smallest of the girls ;
such clean Burger-Lente ; such picturesque groups of
students, their hair so glossy from its Sunday brushing,
their scarlet caps set so jauntily on their heads, their gay
corps bands displayed over their snowy shirt fronts ; such
a pleasant sound of voices and trampling of feet along the
sunny pavements. I'm quite inspired to put on all my
Sunday apparel, and look as gay as the best- I suite long
to descend into my usual character of "young lady," and
go abroad for a pleasant un-exalts afternoon, drink coffee
with a gay party, under green trees, and criticise all the
faces and toilettes that pass before us. I wish Alfred were
here to-day ; we would for a few hours be as little in the
clouds as he could wish.—The Art Student in Munich.
ORIGIN OP MINCE-PIES AND PLUM-PUDDIN4I.—The
origin of mince-pies and plum-pudding, objects of such
absorbing interest to all of us, must not be forgotten in
our sketch of Christmas customs. It would seem that it
was, in primitive times, a practice of the bakers to make
presents to their customers of little images in paste,. iast
as in the present day the tallow-chandlers present a few
doll's candles to the children of their customers. These
presents were called yule doughs or yule cakes, and were
believed to have been originally designed to represent the.
infant Jesus. It was also the custom at Rome to present
boxes of sweetmeats to the fathers of the Vatician at
Christmas. From these, it is said, come the modern,
mince-pie and plum-pudding. The former was originally
of a long or coffin-shape, and was intended to represent
the manger wherein the child was laid. Plum-pudding is-
our national dish—it represents us in the imagination of
foreigners, who believe that we eat little else than " rest
bif and plum-poudin." And yet, strange to say, the his:
tory of this national dish is involved in the greatest oh.
scurity. Plum-pudding, like the Chinese empire, is defi-.•
cient in historical evidence. Its dominion over the•
tastes and imaginations of Englishmen is established;;
but whence came it ? People vaguely imagine that
our forefathers, and the fathers of those forefathers,.
knew the delights of Christmas pudding—that it graced.
the board beside the baron of beef—that it was contem-
porary with mince-piie--that its origin must be sought in
the aim. obscurity of the 'Madly age,. Th The ,
is indeed obscure, but apparently recent. So late as 17417,
Christmas pudding appears a thing unknown to cookery
books. There is a glimmer of tradition about it in the'
reign of Charles ll.—Family Friend.
ADORNING CHURCTIES AND HOUSES WITH MISLR2OE..
—The custom of adorning houses, churches, &c., with
misletoe, holly, and other winter shrubs and trees, is
perhaps of older date than any other Christmas observance,.
It had its origin with the Druids who were the priests of
the ancient Britons long previous to the invasion of this,
country by the Romans,. under Julius Caesar. It was their
wont, at a certain period of the year, to resort to the
forrests in which grew the largest oak trees, followed by
a great concourse of people of all degrees. There, with
many ceremonies, they proceeded to cut down a quantity
of the branches of the miseltoe growing on the oaks,
which, having divided into small pieces, they distributed
amongst the religious students and votaries who had ac-
companied them, and who, considering these branches are
so many emblems of good fortune, adorned their dwellings
with them. Therewas a sacredness attached to the custom
which preserved its practice for a long period, and we find
it mentioned in many of the old records. A peculiar
sanctity was attached to the misletoe.—
, Christmas, the joyous period of the year!
Now bright with holly all the temples strew,
With laurel green, and sacred misletoe."
This Druidical eustom appears to have survived the shock
attending the incursions of foreign races, and the over-
throw of the old, established religion ; and Christianity,
loth to wage war with every ancient usages, consented to
retain this one as, the most innocent of them all. Indeed,
green boughs seem to have been almost universally looked
upon as emblems of purity. Stowe, the old English
chronicler, relates that not only the parish church, public
offices, and houses were adorned with holme, ivy, bays, and.
other greens of the season, but that conduits and standards
in the streets. were likewise garnished. He tells that, "in
1444, by a tempest of thunder and lightning towards the
morning of Christmas Day, at the Leadenhall, in Cornhill,
a standard of trees being set up in the midst of the pave-
ment, fast in the ground,.nailed full of holme and ivy, for
disport of Christmas, the pole was torn up and cast down
by the malignant spirit (as it was thought), and the stones
of the pavement all about were cast in the street and into
diver houses, so that the people were sore aghast at the
great tempest." From that time even unto the present,
this custom, with the exception of the adorning of the
streets, has remained in all its integrity, amongst high and
low, rich and poor, and long may it be preserved to us and
to our children ; for we love the sight of the green holly
and its radiant red berries, even as we love the memory of
our childhood.—Family Friend.
" SERVANTGALISM" IX AMERICA.—FinaIIy,. a pretty,
skilful girl of twenty-two did make up her mind, after
hesitating and looking at her mother for a long time,
expressing the fear that she wouldn't be able to satisfy a
" foreign" lady, and premising to think about the matter.
Persia Wheeler—so she was called—had never yet lived
out herself; but her two elder sisters were in Boston, one
as cook, and the other as chambermaid. The last time
they came home on a visit, they had worn the most beau-
tiful dresses, and thrown poor Persis, in her shilling-calico
Sunday dress, entirely into the shade! Susan, the cook,
had shown her a card-case of tortoise-shell, inlaid with
mother-of-pearl, that she used to carry when she had her
afternoon and went out, just as the young ladies did when
they went out to make calls. It had only cost her the
wages of two or three weeks. Poor Persis had neither
money for buying nor giving away. When, therefore,
Clotilde urged her kindly, and promised her a dollar and a
half, that is, full city wages, a week, she could not resist'
any longer. " She only," she said, " wanted to get fixed
a little first; the young man there," she added, pointing
to Hubert, " might come for her with the carriage the
day after to-morrow." Clotilde replied, with a smile, that
if she could not find the way alone, and get her things over
herself, she would send the boy for her on the day
appointed. This was done. But Clotilde was quite
alarmed, when Eli drove up with a gaily-dressed lady
instead of a cook. It was Persis Wheeler in her best
Sunday clothes, in which she hoped to make a better
impression than in the Cinderella costume in which Mr.
and Mrs. Hubert had surprised her the other day. She
wore a white dress, and a string of blue glass beads around
her throat, a blue silk mantilla, lined with yellow calico,
and around her straw bonnet a wreath of artificial roses.
Fortunately, she had brought along a working dress in her
bandbox, and in this she soon presented herself to Clotilde
ready for work. The latter soon saw that her mother had
brought her up to it, and that a quick skilful girl had
entered her service. Persis had soon prepared several
palatable dishes. " Dinner'll be ready right away," she
said to Clotilde. " You can just be setting the table. Or
shall the coloured boy do it ?"—" He has to attend to
the stable." replied her mistress, " and I do not like
to employ him in the house. I expect this
from you, Persis. You can easily move the
dinner from the fire a little until you have set the
table, and we are ready." " Very well," said the girl,
" and I'll set the table for three ?" " For two only," Clo-
tilde directed, with a faint misgiving, and consequently not
without embarrassment. " Only for two—lsn't Mr.
Hubert going to dine at home ?" " Certainly, he and I
are two." The girl's face lengthened. Clotilde, unpleasant
as it was, thought it the best way to settle the matter
at once. " Persis," she said kindly, " a person that
cooks or does the waiting, can hardly eat at the same
table with the gentleman or lady of the house. It
would be entirely improper for her to leave her seat so
often; and kitchen-work and ashes prevent the dress from
being as neat as desirable for persons who are only ac-
customed to finer work." The tears had come into Persis'
eyes. She considered a while. " Very well," she said,

"-I don't care much about it, on the whole. Susan and
Mary Ann can't do it either. I thought people weren't
so proud in the country, but it's a fact, you get dirty and
sooty before you know it. After all, I wouldn't like to
show myself to Mr. Hubert in this trim," she added,
going to the looking-glass, and smoothing her hair, "
fix it up after dinner,"—The