The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-09-26 00:00:00

VARIETIES.

THE FIVE THOUSAND POUND MAN.—The next class
of emigrants are those who can command £5,000. This,
in my opinion, is the smallest sum with which a man
should attempt sheep-farming. To such, as well as those
of less means, I repeat, before you lay out one penny,
spend twelve months at least in gaining colonial experi-
ence in the bush. I have no hesitation i■ asserting that
a man with £5,000 judiciously laid out in sheep, living
at and himself superintending his station, enjoying all
reasonable comforts, may bring up and provide for a large
family much better than a man can with £20,000 in land
in England, but not if he spends any more than the time
necessary for business in the towns of the colony. I lay
stress upon this, because gentlemen come out with their
families, lay out a capital in sheep, which they entrust to
strangers. live in Sydney as expensively as they did at
home, and are surprised to find themselves ruined.—Life
in Australia.

SINGULAR ETIQUETTE AT BONI, IN CELEBES.—The
etiquette of this court provess how despotic it has become:
-..,L0n the patamanx.n- its, all sit; when he rises, all
rise : so far things are within .....nnable bounds but
should he ride and fall from his horse, all about him must
fall from their horses likewise. If he bathe, all must
bathe too, and those passing go into the water in the
dress, good or bad, they may chance to have on. I for-
got in its proper place to mention another custom of the
court : no one appears with an handkerchief about the
head, in the presence of the patamankowe. The lower
classes wear the skull-cap on the back of the cranium.
The sovereign and his brother wear it cocked to the left
side; other nobles to the right, and cocked according to
the rank. White skull-caps distinguish the young mlahs,
who compose the body-guard, if it may be so called, that
is, spear-bearers, sword-bearers, ciribox-bearers, spitoon-
bearers, shield-bearers, &c. to the amount of two hundred
or three hundred.—Journal of Mr. Brooke (the Rajah
of Sarawak).
KEAT'S OPINION OF WOMEN.—I am certain 1 have
not a right feeling towards women. At this moment I
am striving to be just to them, but I cannot. Is it be-
cause they fall so far beneath my boyish imagination ?
When I was a schoolboy, I thought a fair woman a pure
goddess: my mind was a soft nest in which some one of
them slept, though she knew it not. I have no right to
expect more than their reality. I thought them ethereal
—above men. I find them perhaps equal—great by com-
parison is very small. Insult may be inflicted in more
ways than by word or action. One who is tender of being
insulted does not like to think an insult against another.
I do not like to think insults in a lady's company. I
commit a crime with her which absence would not have
known. Is it not extraordinary ?—when among men, I
have no evil thoughts, no malice, no spleen; I feel free
to speak or to be silent; I can listen, and from every one
I can learn; my hands are in my pockets, I am free from
all suspicion, and comfortable. When I am among women,
I have evil thoughts, malice, spleen, ; I cannot speak, or
be silent; I am full of suspicions, and therefore listen to
nothing; lamin a hurry to be gone. You must be cha-
ritable, and put all this perversity to my being disap-
pointed since my boyhood.—Literary Remains of John
Keats. _ _

A WEAVER'S FAMILY FARE.—The mode of living at
my uncle's was of the simplest country style. At break-
fast, a brown earthen dish being placed on a low beaufet
near the middle of the floor, a boiling of water porridg.,
was poured into the dish, hot from the pan. A mess-pot
of the same material as the dish was placed for each one
about to partake of the breakfast, a quantity of milk and
a spoon were placed in each pot, my uncle took a seat and
asked a blessing, each of the children of the family stand-
ing around ; we then took our several messes of milk,
and helped ourselves to the steaming porridge as quickly
as we chose, and mixing and eating in the manner we
liked best, not a word being spoken all the time. The
porridge being scraped up, which they in general were
rather quickly, each would take a piece of hard oaten
cake and eat it to the remainder of his milk, after which
a little butter or a small piece of cheese, with more oaten
bread would finish the meal, and in a few minutes work
was resumed. My aunt would shortly after make her ap-
pearance, her face red, and herself disirmsed with cough-
ing; the kettle would then be set on fer`her, and when
the asthmatic paroxysm had sufficiently abated, she took
her breakfast, and sat down to her wheel. Our dinners
consisted generally of butchers' meat and potatoes, or
potatoe pie, or meat and broth, or barna dumplings, -or-
drink porridge, 6r-hasty pudding and in each case the
food was partaken in the same primitive manner. When
we had meat and potatoes each had an allowance of the
meat on a piece of oat cake, and the potatoes being poured
into a dish placed on the beaufet as before, we all stood
round and with spoon or knife as we chose, eat from the
dish so long as the potatoes lasted, after which we stole
out to play, eating our remnant of butchers' meat and
cake the while. There was not a word heard till we got
out of doors, and then we were, as noisy as others.
When we had potatoe pie for dinner, an allowance of the
crust was given to each ; the potatoes were then eaten
out of the dish as before, and the crust, as being the most
dainty, was eaten afterwards. When we had broth, each
received a mess for himself, to which he added as much
oaten cake as he chose ; the potatoes were eaten out of
the dish, and the meat being served in portions, each eat
it with cake at his leisure. When we had dumplings,
they were set on the heaufet in the same brown dish, or
one of the sort; a little dip was made from the water the
dumplings had been boiled in ; a lump of butter and a
little sugar or treacle being added ; the dip was then
poured upon the dumplings, and we fell to, and eat as we
liked, the only restriction being that there was not to be
any talking at meat. How different was this sententious
and becoming manner at table, from the one which now
prevails around fashionable boards, where, if a person
cannot, or will not, both gabble and gobble at the same
time, he is looked upon as vulgar, and where the highest
test of good breeding Is to keep both chin and tongue—
the latter especially—in motion, it matters not on what
subject, if it only elicit not a thought. Such is one of
the puerilities by which insane pride seeks to be distin-
guished from the thoughtful and earnest portion of society.
Our bagging or afternoon lunch, consisted of half an
oaten cake, with butter, treacle, cheese or milk, as cir-
cumstances rendered most convenient; and our supper
was generally the same as breakfast. On Sunday morn-
ings we had mint or balm tea, sweetened with treacle,
and oaten cake and butter ; on Sunday afternoons we had
tea of the same kind, and a slice of buttered loaf was ad-
ded, which was an especial dainty,—Samuel Bamford's
Early Days, No. 2.