The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-06-04 00:00:00

we it in their pouches

r," said the

mmandant

he listened to the Indian's voice.

laugh ; " it is my
' A what ?" cried

of the chie

n what part do you

' From (

" I am from the Old Ass..
mandant, "and if I have not met you before, you mus
have been an extraordinary quiet boy." "Alfa!" cried
the chief, forgetting 11:s present position in the recollec-
tion of his early days. " I was Black Mack, the leader
of bickers in the Nor' Loch ; and now I an black Hawk,
bead chief of the Chippewas• The smile instantly
passed off the lips of the stately wart:or as be said so.
and he became brave and stern. " I recollect of you !"

the acclivity of that bluff
ably Close "

cried the com-

cried the commandant, striking his hand.
" Shon Kennedy, the town guard, took you prisons.
he did me. You went to the sea, and 1 to the army.
The chief burst into a fit of loud laughter at the mention
of John Kennedy's name; and sitting down while he
waved his hands for his sons to retire, he exchanged re-
collections of Edinburgh—its ancient days and ways—
bickers and " toon rats," with his old comrade for an
hour. At last he took his leave after having recounted
his story. "Yes, comrade," he said "a lovelier girl than
White Feather never bleached linen in Beresford's Park,
and a better never wore silken kirtles. I became a son to.
her father, and she is now the mother of these boys.
lhdi ef.
friend,Fa Farewell
pendent of other circumstances, 'to regard me with favour,.
el‘ornynkeric°tie nledwgiet with ft
hthe English
gt
rl sdhe rts"induced
dtioleurtriinbcer,eiansdineg.:
d
Black Mack."—Hogg's Instructor.
nhdi papte lwaas t Chief,they e lße cl
at ectil,
itlnaew theira
sh ehaitsl
oc

together ;

superscription appeared on a letter which reached
SINGULAR DIRECTION TO A LETTER.--The following
istisngdesiatinsaltion this week.

-----Postman—take this letter
The sooner you do 50 the better
Come run man—do, now look alive
To John Oilier, Retailer St Nurnher 5
In Oldham Rmul, Manchester is the street
And that's in Lancashire, Postman sweet.
COMICAL CRITICISM.—The following
ablisean isf
orpre sufficientlytty
i
serveeetttre :etrier: el of funni-
mon f, on a recently published waltz, appears in a London
To judge par lo title-page, elle est written pour some
al) taliler will:— i
Eng-
lish, is spoken, and cornme notre criticism is intended
pour etre read par les Mlle
_persons—nous have adopted
place ou autre where a patois melte French, moite
le same style." Lange! seda ibelse remtoednat
neccerittoe.,

iLttiraturr.

TO A VASE 'OF FLOWERS RECEIVED IN A

MOMENT OF bEEFAFFEICTION.

(From "Sprays from the Hedgerows*," by Mrs. Hadfield.)

Bright flowers ! ye well might wake
The poet's warmest strain;
Come in an hour of deepest gloom
To beautify my little room,
And make me smile again.

Welcome ! thrice welcome ! to my heart
Which yet ye cannot cheer ; •
Why did ye leave your sunny bed •
For one short hour a grace to shed,
Then die in sadness here ?

Lovely ye are—but whilst I gaze
Ye're withering in my view ;
Too fragile for one chilling breath;
And is not love like you?
As rich an odour round us casts,
As sweet and beauteous while ielasts,
As perishable too.
*A neat little volume of well-written poems, composed
" daring brief intervals of leisure in the life of a busy mother,"
by an intelligent lady known to many of our readers. The
allusions to local circumstances impart an additional attrac-
tion, for Liverpool readers, to many of the poems; and we
shall be glad on future occasions to give further specimens of
their quality.

LET ME GET A START.

A little black-eyed girl once laid
Her book upon my knee,
And with a lisping voice essayed
To learn her A B C.

She tried in vain : she did not tell
A letter right—not once ;
At length I bade her take her seat,
And harshly called her dunce.

Tears filled the would-be laughing eyes,
I'd pained her little heart,
" Aunt Fanny, do just wait," she cries,
"''fill I can get a start."

My anger was all turned away
By that sweet artless plea ;
And patiently from day to day
I taught the A B C.

And soon the bright one " got a start,"
Each letter learned to tell ;
And ere three months had wax'd and waned
Could read her lesson well.

Now, when I hear a cold rebuke
Pour'd on some failing heart,
I think of Nannie, and exclaim,
" Oh ! let them get a start."

VARIETIES.

When Professor Webster was first told Dr. Parkman's
body had been found, he asked, " What part of it ?" So
does guilt convict itself.
The United Service Gazette, in speaking of the pot
animals which have at different times belonged to various
regiments, says that a regiment of cavalry now has a
favourite regimental donkey.
AN AWKWARD MiSSNOMER.-A poor woman in one of
the Middle States who lisped carried her daughter to
church for baptism. Being asked its name by the bishop
she replied, " Luthy, sir." " What ?" says the doctor.
" Luthy, sir," says she. " Lucifer, Lucifer, that won't
do," cries the bishop ; and baptized the child George
Washington. The poor mother, confounded, could not
speak until near the church door, when she told the par-
son the infant was a girl.—American paper.

THE ROMANCE OF AN ADVERTISEMENT.—The Times
of Wednesday contains the following pathetic appeal :
" To . If humanity has not entirely fled from your
breast return, oh ! return, ere it is too late, to the heart-
broken distracted wife you have forsaken—ere the expres-
sion of those soft eyes that won you be lost in the bewil-
dered stare of insanity—ere they may gaze even on you
and know you not ; write, tell her, oh ! tell her, where
you are, that she may follow you—her own, her all—and
die. See her once more." We hope the stony-hearted
monster is melted.
MR. JUSTICE TALFOURD WHEN A BOY.—In the
course of his address at the annual meeting of the Read-
ing Mechanics' Institute last week, Mr. Justice Talfourd
said—He recollected when a boy the feelings of ardent
joy with which he looked forward to the arrival of the
judges ; how childless;y he rnaneeuvred to obtain a place
near the judge's seat. On one occasion he repaired as
early as six o'clock in the morning to the Town•hall to
obtain admission, and by some great favour he entered
and seated himself near to where the awful judge was to
enter. At length the judge, whose name he should for-
bear to mention, appeared, and finding him seated on the
bench, said, " Who is this little boy ?—take him up, and
carry him down into the court !" A country gentleman
who happened to be near, said to his lordship, "My
lord, this young gentleman has a great desire to hear the
trials, for he thinks he will be a lawyer some day." The
judge again said, " Take him up, and put him down into
court ;" but Lie little boy obtained a place in the body of
the hall, and he thought his brother judges might at least
learn one lesson, • never to turn another little boy off the
bench.

BISHOPS' SIGNATURES.—The prelates of the Church
of England are sometimes accustomed, when signing their
names, to use the old Latin appellations, or abbreviations
of them, for their sees, instead of the English ones. Thus
Ebor. stands for York ; Cantaur. for Canterbury ; Vigorn.
for Worcester; and Exon. for Exeter. It is said that an
eminent bookseller once received an instruction, per letter,
of an author's intention to publish a " Life of Pitt." It
was signed " George Winton," and was thrown aside with
the most perfect indifference, the publisher never thinking
that George Winton was George Bishop of Winchester.
When the Princess Charlotte was ill, the Bishop of Salis-
bury sent frequent inquiries to her Scotch physician, sign-
ing himself " John Sarum." The doctor, after the receipt
of many similar missives, observed to a friend that he had
been much pestered with notes from " ane Jean Saroom,
that he kenned naething shoot. But (he added) I tak nae
notice of the fellow !"—Heraldic Anomalies. There is
an anecdote current among the "old standards" of New-
castle, that, when Shute Barrington first entered upon the
episcopal office in that diocese, lie sent unsolicited a dona-
tion to some charitable object ; and on the following Friday it was announced in a loca newspaper that a spon-
taneous subscription had been received from " S. Dunelm,
Esq."

NEWSPAPER MENSURATION.—The press sends forth
in daily papers alone a printed surface amounting in twelve
months to 349,308,000 superficial feet. If to these are
added all the papers printed weekly and fortnightly in
London and the provinces, the whole amounts to
1,446,150,000 square feet of printed surface, which was in
1849 placed before the comprehensive vision of John Bull.
The area of a single morning paper—says. The Times—is
more than 12-i square feet, or nearly five feet by four.
Compared with an ordinary octavo volume, the quantity
of matter daily issued, is equal to 300 pages. There are
five morning papers whose superficies is nearly as great,
without supplements, which they seldom publish. A
sixth is only half the size. We may reckon, therefore,
that the constant craving of Londoners for news is sun-
plied every morning with as much as would fill about 1200
pages of an ordinary novel; or not less than five volumes.
These acres of print sown broadcast produce a daily crop
to suit every appetite and every taste. It has winged its
way from every spot on the earth's surface, and at last
settled down and ranged itself into intelligible meaning,
made instinct with ink. Now it tells of a next-door
neighbour ; then of dwellers in the uttermost corners of
the earth. The black side of this black and white daily
history consists of battle, murder, and sudden death ; of
lightning and tempest ; of plague, pestilence, and famine ;
of sedition, privy conspiracy, and rebellion ; of false doc-
trine. heresy, and schism ; of all other crimes, casualties,
and falsities, which we are enjoined to pray to be defended
from. The white side chronicles heroism, charitableness,
high purpose, and lofty deeds ' • it advocates the truest doc-
trines, and the practice of the most exalted virtue ; it
records the spread of commerce, religion, and science ;
it expresses the wisdom of the few sages and shows the
ignorance of the neglected many—in fine good and evil
are as broadly defined or as inextricably mixed in the
newspapers as they are over the great globe itself.—
Dickens' Household Words.
OUGHT WE TO ADMIT THE IMPORTATION OF SLAVE
GROWN PRODUCE ?—As there is a very general tendency
to throw this twenty millions in the teeth of our West
Indian friends, and many still believe that sum to have
been actually paid, it is but right that the misconception
should be removed by a statement of the truth. The
argument, howeve!, is independent of this fact. Who
could have thought that England would tax herself to the
extent of some £BOO,OOO per annum to prevent her own
colonists supplying her with cheap sugar by means of
slave labour, and yet that, in a few years later, she would
pass an act which admitted slave-grown sugar the produce
of foreign possessions ? That there was a distinct bar-
gain or contract between the colonists and the mother
country, to the effect that slave-grown sugar never was
to be admitted into the markets of this country to com-
pete on equal terms with British colonial free-grown
sugar, and that the fact that they were to be protected
against the competition of slave-holders was an argument
used to make our colonists contented with the Emancipa-
tion Act, I am ready to prove—ready to prove it by a
mass of testimony, and to the satisfaction of the most
incredulous jury that ever were impannelled in a jury box.
Nay, more, I am ready to show that British Ministers
have again and again admitted that such was the fact;
that Lord Stanley, when, by mistake, he had used the
words
I, slave-grown" for " foreign-grown," when speak-
ing of a differential duty between foreign and British
colonial sugar, and when the mistake was noticed, replied
by admitting the mistake, adding that everyone must lave
seen that it was a mistake, inasmuch as no one could ever
think that Britain would admit slave-grown sugar into
her markets, after her costly sacrifice to prevent sugar
being made in her own colonies by means of slave labour.
And Lord Glenclg, at a later date, made a well-known
statement to the effect that they who were so foolish as to
believe that Parliament would break its faith with the
planters of the West Indies, by admitting slave-grown
sugar into equal competition with that produced by them,
displayed, by so believing, an "incapacity for conducting
the ordinary affairs of life and business." But apart from
the question of contract, which is one of evidence, there
is the natural, the necessary conclusion to be drawn—the
conclusion which no one could avoid drawing—from the
act itself. If at such cost England tied the hands of her
own colonists as to the kind of labour by which they
should make sugar, would any sane person have believed
that she would buy her sugar from foreigners who made
it in the very way she had so seriously and emphatically
objected to and protested against. The idea could not
have been entertained for a moment. I maintain, then,
that part of the compensation to be given to the British
colonist was, protection from competition with the slave-
holder of Cuba, Porto Rico, and Brazil ; and that the
same principle of justice was violated by depriving him of
this, as would have been violated in depriving 'himself of
s.portion of the twenty millions, which wee the compen.
Wahl nutney.—Baird's Wed

NEW ORLEANS AND THE OVERFLOWINGS OF

THE MISSISSIPPI.
(From " Baird's West Indies and North America in 1849.")

The Crevasse broke out while I was in the Crescent
City, and during my stay it formed part of the principal
topics of conversation. And well it might. Imagine,
reader, a mighty—the mightiest—river in the known
world, having broken (not merely overflowed, but broken)
its banks for a space of some half mile or so, and gradually,
despite all the efforts of the energetic human inhabitants
of the surrounding country, (by sinking of barges, steam-
boats, and otherwise,) increasing the extent of its debou-
chure, and pouring its waters into the lower level of the
conterminous lands. And imagine, too, that in the midst
of the scene, or rather at the point most exposed to its
ravages, the luxurious inhabitants were making the in-
crease of the waters, in their streets and around their
dwellings, the subject of light-hearted chat—that in the
morning your drive down the " shell road" was so sur-
rounded with water that you might almost have fished out
of the windows of the carriage as you passed along ; and
your evening journey, as you drove to the conversatione,
the dance, or the theatre, was through water, which
mounted some inches up the spokes of your carriage-
wheels ; and add to all this, that the occasional—l had
almost said constant—subject of conversation, was the
probability of New Orleans being, some fine, or at least
some floating day, washed down bodily into the Gulf of
Mexico !—many sage reasons being given, and many great
scientific authorities being quoted, to prove the exceeding
probability of such an event : and so imagining, you will
have some idea of the characteristics of New Orleans
society at the time of my visit, in 1849. It scarcely re-
quired the ravages of cholera, which was then visiting the
city, to sdd anything to the dismals of the scene • but so
it was. In the town of New Orleans, and specially in the
neighbourhood, and in the vessels on the river, cholera
was raging to a very considerable extent.
Certainly, therefore, it cannot be supposed that my visit
to the Crescent City was made at a time calculated to leave
on my mind a very favourable opinion as to its salubrity ;
and it is chiefly on that account that I have troubled the
reader with the above details. For notwithstanding the
fact that my opinion was formed under circumstances so
disadvantageous to arriving at a favourable one, I main-
tain and record the fact, that the unhealthiness of New
Orleans is much exaggerated. No doubt the yellow fever
visits it much oftener, and commits in it more fearful ra-
vages, than is at all desirable ; but there are few places
secure from the attacks of epidemics—and it is generally
conceded that, with the greater attention now paid to
sewerage and cleanliness, the deaths from yellow fever
have greatly decreased, so that there is every reason to
hope that the very circumstance of its being necessary to
adopt many precautionary measures against such pericdi-
cal attacks may, in the course of time, render New Orleans
as healthy a town as almost any in the American Union.
In connexion with the subject of the Crevasse, and in
the almost hourly speculations as to what part of New
Orleans was to be carried down into the Gulf, or whether
any part of it was to be spared that fate, I heard such fre-
quent mention of the "Levee," as to lead me to make
special inqliry as to its nature, uses, and history. The
Levee of which one is doomed to hear much during his
stay in New Orleans, and which occupies so important a
position, and discharges so important a duty, as fully to
justify such constant and respectful mention of it, is
neither more nor less than a simple embankment to pre-
vent the waters of the mighty Mississippi from inundating
the fertile though marshy plains which stretch away from
either bank. Opposite the city, the Levee is of consider-
able breadth, and looks as if it were competent to the
task assigned it of saying to the turgid waters of the
" Father of Rivers," thus far shalt thou come but no
farther. But farther up the stream—and it extends up-
wards for a great distance, above a hundred miles—it
seems singularly inadequate, being in many places little
more than a comparatively small earthen mound or
(Scottice) " turf dyke." During my stay in New Orleans
the Mississippi rose to a greater height than it had done
for many years before; and the consequence was that a
large portion of the Levee, about five miles above the city,
and to the extent of above half a mile long, gave way ; and
the waters continued for many days to pour through the
gap and into the surrounding country, destroying property
to a very large amount, and ruining many planters ; after
which it found its way down to the town, many strrets of
which were covered with water for days. During this
overflow large numbers of snakes, and other reptiles from
the swamps, found their way into the streets of the
Crescent City. Conger snakes—the most venomous
known in the country—were seen in the water in several
parts of the town; and a little girl in the Faubourg Tri-
ere, while wading in the waters flowing along the street.
was, in May, 1849, bitten by a snake or some other rep-
tile, and that so severely that she died in a few hours.
Such are part of the effects of a Crevasse in the Levee
which protects the town of New Orleans from the waters
of the great Mississippi. At the time I write great
fears were entertained for the safety of a considerable
portion of the town itself ; but by dint of great exertion,
sinking of boats, bales, and rafts—in the course of doing
which, many of the negro slaves employed at the work
perished of cholera or of fatigue—the Crevasses were
stopped, and, for a time at least, the Crescent City is safe.
I confess that it engendered somewhat of a strange feeling
to be in the city day after day, while the overflow was
progressing, and conscious that it had not been stopped,
and that thousands of tons of water were pouring in on
the plain in which was your dwelling—to listen and take
part in the conversation which speculated on the chance
of the site of New Orleans being some day or other added
to the Gulf of Mexico—or the town at least washed down
into the Gulf. There is a very prevalent opinion in New
Orleans that the bed of the Mississippi is annually rising,
and most plausible reasons are assigned to prove that
such must be the fact. Ido not feel warranted, by suffi-
cient acquaintance with the habitudes of this mammoth
river, nor have I sufficiently studied the science of hydro-
statics or hydraulics, to entitle me to pronounce an opinion
on the subject ; but, without troubling my readers with
the pros and cons of the argument, I may be permitted to
express a hope that they will concur with me in thinking
that, if the bed of Father Mississippi rises from under
him, Father Mississippi would be quite entitled to
resent the indignity by getting up from his bed. Se-
riously speaking, however, there does seem some cause
for the opinion referred to ; and it is to be hoped that
some one of the many courses which the science and skill
of modern engineers have suggested, may be adopted, and
may be found sufficient to ward off the apprehended
danger.

DEATHBED SUPERSTITION.—The practice of opening
doors and boxes when a person dies is founded on the idea
that the ministers of purgatorial pains took the soul as it
escaped from the body, and flattening it against some
closed door (which alone would serve the purpose), cram-
med it into the hinges and hinge openings; thus the soul
in torment was likely to be miserably pinched and
squeezed by the movement on casual occasion of such
door or lid. An open or swinging door frustrated this,
and the fiends had to try some other locality. The friends
of the departed were at least assured that they were not
made the unconscious instruments of torturing the de-
parted in their daily occupations. The superstition pre-
vails in the north as well as in the west of England ; and
a similar one exists in the south of Spain. where I have
seen it practised. Among the Jews at Gibraltar there is
also a strange custom when a death occurs in a house ;
and this consists in pouring away all the water contained
in any vessel, the superstition being that the angel of
death may have washed his sword therein.—Notes and
Queries.
A BILLINGSGATE AUCTlON.—Nothing can exceed the
gentlemanly manner in which the auction is conducted
except the mode of doing business at Christie and Man-
son's. Before the commencement, the salesman, with his
flannel apron protecting his almost fashionable attire from
scaly contact, is seen—behold him yonder !—seated behind
his stall enjoying a mild Havannah, with an appearance of
sublime indifference to all around him. Presently his
porter deposits a " lot" of fish between him and an eager
group of buyers. He puts down his cigar and mounts his
rostrum. " What shall we say, gentlemen, for this score
of cod ? Shall we say 7s. a piece ?" No answer.
" Six ?" Perfect silence. The auctioneer gives pause
for consideration, and takes a whiff at his Havannah.
Time is, however, precious where fish is concerned, and
he is not long in abating another shilling. " A crown ?"
" Done !" exclaims Mr. Jollings, of Pimlico. " Five
pounds, if you please !" demands the seller. A note is
handed over, and the 20 cod are hoisted into Mr. Jol-
lings' cart, which stands in Thames-street, before a second
lot is quite disposed of. This mild proceeding is going on
all over the market. On looking to see if the remotest
relic of such a being as a fishfag is to be seen, we observe
a gentleman who, though girded with the flannel uniform
of the craft, has so fashionable a surtout, so elegant a
neckerchief, and such a luxuriance of moustache and
whiskers, that we mistake him for an officer in Her Ma-
jesty's Life Guards selling fish by way of—what in Bil-
lingsgate used to be called—a " jolly lark." Inquiry
proves, however, that he is the accredited consignee of
one of the largest fishing fleets which sail out of the
Thames.—Dickens' Household Words.
THE AFRICAN RACE IN THE WEST INDIES.—There
seemed to me to be something in the Creole blood that
engendered a graceful courtesy and disinterestedness of
conduct—some generous peculiarity of mind, derived from
the fact that a tropical birthplace had dissolved something
of the natural caution of the northern race to which they
belonged, and warmed them into a more generous sympa-
thy. The observation applies to my Creole friends of
both sexes. As regards the ladies, I may be permitted to
add—and I make the condition with heartfelt sincerity—
that to a natural kindness (if I may so speak) of manner,
there is added an ease, a grace, and a beauty, which at
least proves that they have lost none of the charms of the
race from which they have sprung, by their parents being
transplanted into a warmer clime. I had heard something
of the beauty of the Creole ladies ere I visited the West
Indies. But I was not a week there ere I felt surprise
that I had not heard much more. And, did not my feel-
ing of what is due to propriety and the duties of private
life prevent me from even partially lifting the veil which
ought to preserve from publicity whatever the traveller
may have seen, through his having been admitted into the
circles of domestic life, I could name ladies, married as
well as single, in Barbadoes, Antigua, St. Kitt's, Sta
Cruz, and Jamaica, (particularly I confess in Antigua,)
who, in personal charms, as well as accomplishments,
would advantageously compare or contrast with any of
the fairer part of creation it had ever been my own good
fortune to meet. To the fulness and dignity derived from
their Norman blood or Anglo-Saxon origin, they add an
easy grace and elegance of motion, probably derived in
some way from the circumstance of their birthplace being
within the tropics. And, albeit their complexion is gene-
rally pale, this very circumstance supplies an additional
interest ; while the soft languor of their dark eyes, with
their long eyelashes, gave many of these Creole ladies a
very peculiar charm. Add to this, that it were difficult to
find, in any part of the world, north or south, east or
west, any ladies who better discharge their relative duties
as daughters, wives, and mothers, than do our fellow-
countrywomen in the British West Indian islands.—
Baird s Weil Indid Islands.