The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-08-16 00:00:00

THE ROSE.

Mast thou no fears, 0 thou exulting thing !
Thus looking forth on life ? Is there no spell
In the strong wind to tame thee ? Thou ha' yet
To learn harsh lessons from the changeful hours,
And bow thy statel‘ head submissiirely
Unto a heavy touch., for here, bright shape !
Thy resting-place is not.

LITERATURE.

'We take a few more extracts from Mrs. Carmichael's
amusing and instructive work on the West Indies, which
we noticed in a former number :
" A West India kitchen is so different from an English one
that some description of it may be necessary to make those who
have not seen one comprehend how much 'less a cook is ex-
posed to the influence of the fire than in an English 'one. The
floor is either earth, brick, or stone; there are numerous win-
dows, not glazed, but with wooden shutters to fasten down at
night, with, probably, jalousies to exclude the sun and rain—in
this way the air is necessarily freely admitted ; the chimney is
extremely wide, and there is most frequently no grate, but
merely a piece of brick-work, about four feet long, and three
feet broad, upon which the wood is placed; and they make
more or less fire, according to the dinner they have to cook.
The face is in this way'not exposed to the blaze of the fire nearly
so much as in an English kitchen. There is an oven in every
kitchen, upon the same principle as a baker's oven ;—the wood
being put in and burnt down, so that when it is fully heated,
it is swept out before the bread or meat is put in. There is no
roasting -jack : many gentlemen have attempted to get the ne-
groes to use a jack, but in vain ; they must have their own way
,of it, which is simply accomplished by placing. two strong logs
of wood on each side the fire, and a strong nail in each log to
support the spit, which they employ some of their assistants to
turn,—and in this way they send up meat tolerably well roasted;
but the oven is often also employed• for that purpose. Tbis is,
I think, considered the whole duty of a cook, whether male or
female."

"I have paid great personal attention to the manner in which
negroes are lodged, because it seems to be thought in England
that they are in this respect quite neglected. After having-vi-
sited negro houses without number, 1 do not hesitate to say that
negroes are more comfortably lodged than the working classes
of either England or Scotland. You cannot fail to remark
upon every estate, that the work people's houses-are placed in
the healthiest situation, never so elevated as to be cold, nor so
low as to be damp : the drains round them, or water paths, as
the negro calls them, are watched with the greatest care, and
kept clean, and nothing that could create damp is suffered to
be near their houses. No inhabited house is ever allowed to be
out of repair; neither is it left to the negro to ask for what may
be necessary; the houses are examined very frequently by the
white people, and during their master's time, they are employed
in making all tight and comfortable before the rainy season
commences.

" I recollect walking one evening over a most lovely estate
in Kingstown valley : it was in the midst of crop time, when all
were as busy as possible. All the negro houses I passed were
shut up, excepting one, whose open door attracted my attention.
A nice clean-looking negro woman eyed me for a moment; I
said, " Good evening," as is usual in passing a negro : but she
looked again, and said, "Eh misses, you no know me." I was
sorry I could not directly say that I did, for negroes cannot
bear to be forgotten. She saw, however, that I did not recol-
lect her; and she said, "Misses, me L—, you no mind me
when I corned to make cake." I now did recollect her, and
,she added, "Never mind misses, wont you come in and see my
house ?" I did so, and she dusted two chairs, and two stools for
my children, and bringing out a plateful of cassada cake, she
gave each of them some, saying; she was sorry she had no ripe
plaintain or banana down to gie 'em. I said, "So you don't
work now.". "No misses, no for one month gone by." (She
expected to be confined in a month.) "And how do you em-
ploy yourself?" " I makes mobee, and takes it down to town and
sells it." " And what is your husband ?" "He just a field
negro." " You have got supper boiling there I see." " Yes
misses, the calialou pot." " You seem to have a very nice
house." "Yes misses, I'll shew you the chamber;" and she
accordingly opened a door which displayed their bed, with mos-
quito curtains, and their boxes of clothes. While leaving the
house of this common field negro's wife, and glancing at the
neatness and cleanness of the apartments, and the display of
useful articles of furniture, as much, or more than the climate
required, I could not avoid drawing a comparison between the
situation of this woman, exempted from toil, provided with
every necessary—with no anxiety as to the event at hand, no
doctor, no nurse, no cordials to pay for,—and the condition of
her who, among the labouring classes of England, must work
often to the very hour of he confinement; and whose hard
gained earnings, joined with that of her husband's, are all ab-
sorbed in the purchase of half the comforts which she requires.

" A head servant is too much of a gentleman to wear thick
or strong shoes. I recollect B—, a head servant of ours, who
was sent to a store in quest of shoes for himself, and brought
home a pair which cost 14s. 4d. sterling. I ventured to tell'him
that I disapproved of his choice, as they were light thin dress
shoes, which would not serve him many weeks;—but his an-
swer was given with great nonchalance in these words
Misses, me could not dance in tick shoes; they too heavy
and hot." In fact, this man would not have deigned to wear
such shoes as I wore every day in walking out. This class of
negro domestics are extravagant beyond bounds, and care not
how many clothes they destroy."

EXTEMPORANEOUS SONNETTA,
WITH VARIATIONS.
Composed for and inscribed to the Baron Paganini.

•' Envy Moth merit as its shade pursue,
And like the shadow proves the substance true."—Po PR.

Great hero of the fiddle-stick !—whose sway
O'er half the world asserts its wizard might,
Enchanting ears with almost crazed delight,
And rapture passing words :—great master,. say
Art of this world, or Caller, far away ?
Art thou indeed a disembodied sgrite,
" Revisiting the glimpses of"—gas-light—
" Making night" musical ?—Or dost thou play
With human finger each surpassing strain,
Which, from that wand of' power, thy fiddle-how,
Flies forth like sound's swift lightning,—then again
Melts, soft as distant vespers, or the flow
Of glad, bright streams that sparkle o'er the plain,
Or solemn dirges, wailing faint and low :
Then bursting forth as with the trumpet's blast,
Loud, shrill, and spirit-stirring. They do say
Things " passing strange " of thee—and round thee east
Dim shades and tragic myst'ries ;—therefore, pray
" Most potent, grave, and gifted signior,” tell
if Orpheus was another name for thee ?
And if, wbene'er thou play'd'st by mount or dell,
Whirl'd round in one vast waltz, rock, stream, and tree
And have You really such choice fiddle-string ?'
When do yon reckon on a fresh supply ?
Sunpose you should be out of these queer things
Before another Pope should choose to die !
Can't you eontrive by some dark midnight spell
To make the Czar of Russis's do as well ?
Some say you are, indeed, the wand'rine Jew,
Others (whom !believe are in the dark
In' all they speculate and say of you)
Vow that you hid your fiddle in the ark.
And played away the deluge ;—is it true?
Did you on Ararat then disembark.
And, with a grand march, marshal forth the crew
Of divers kinds, from elephant to lark ?
Perhaps you recollect some little air
Composed alsant that time? Some say you were
With good King David, when his royal ilanee
A,s Byron says, " excited some remark."
Others, with equal Passion for romance,
Declare you've studied sorcery in Prance !
Andthat his majesty.with ebon wing
From out his torrid realms ascending flew,
Mysterious Paganini ! to teach you
The art of fiddling on a single string,
And from its slender frame such tones to bring
As pass mere human skill. Thus envy fain
Would Genius ever with her slenderstain,
And, mean in art and aim, essay to flint
A cloud upon the height she cannot gain,
(Like wasps, who yield not honey, yet can sting.)
Olt ! that may lay were worthier, to sing
The power, the beauty of thy wond'rous strain,
And' execrate the malice that can cling
To one, "whose like we ne'er shall hear again."
Birmingham, July 26th, 1833.

L. A. T.

• An allusion to an absurd story which gained some credit in Italy,
to the effect that Paganini's fiddle-strings are from the interior of a
dead Pope.

His Eicellency Count Denison, Envoy Extraordinary and
Minister Plenipotentiary from the King of Bavaria, has arrived
in town, as successor to Baron de Cetto, to the British Court.
Baron de Cetto and the Baroness (an English lady, united to
the Count about two years ago,) are expected to leave for the
Continent in the course of the present week. .