Martinsburg gazette and public advertiser. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1826-1833, 1830-04-15

4
IL envyings and evil surmisiug do not Green
an, Itis not IN consequence Of any salutary
Lessons taught by Monsieur ie .notmtebnak-
Now Is the time for new fashions. and
nounces, and furbelows, and fineries among
the DetteS; and Tor smart sayings and wise
looks, and genteel airs, and polite oaths. and
duns among the bandits. DoEorHY has be-
come too delicate for the dairy: she laces
tight and reads nOceiS. JONATHAN gives in.
dicatons of an expanded intellect: despises
The occupation of ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS to
do things which neither his father nor his ia
theirs father, before him have aspired 10 do:
and, accordingly. opens dram shop, and
speculates in lottery tickets. But his specuiu-
f'o's end not here.-He is deep in all the
mazes, and skilled in all the ,cisClom and
"knowledge" of the O,cenites Nothing
emancipates conscience from the unwelcome
restraints of moral principle, like the free
practice OF folly and dissipation in early life -
And that habit of genteel hstlcssness, which,
nobiy posing the scales Of candor, finds quite
as much evidence in favor pf error as of truth.
is most advantageously acquired by those
who have never been tied down to the unbeu-
ding doguas OF mathematical demonstration;
and who nave never been known enough of
logical deduction to perceive that one prop
osltIon Is better sustained than another Nor
does this "march ofmind' in Jonathan. won
deriui as 1t doubtless is, outstrip that of the
FAR Dorothy, She has learned quite as much
from the iictions of the norelisis, as he from
the wilder theories Of licentious philosophers
) l5oth are ripe for attending and applauding
the lectures of Miss Fanny Wright, whenev-
err she may pleaseto appear. Implicit conf
dence in the apostles Of Atheism viii secure
our hero; the love of novelty our heroine
The breaking up of the institution Of mar
rage would never startle him; neither his
principles nor habits would revolt from the
fe'aiailon. Scarcely more need it alarm
her HE witchery of romance has learned
her to make eUerg thing of iieadiong unbri-
died passion; and next 10 nothing OF what
are styled ''humah ties." At tie sight of
ti.ese, the love she cherishes spreads its
wings and III moment flies" What mar
vel, then, if she should ''renounce all Lt,cs save
those love has made"
Just imagine, kind reader, all the Jo,aafl.Gas
and Dorothys of a country village, transform
ed IN this manner. ''Imaginei" Let me re-
cali that word. Memory, observation, will
suffice Some may think the picture, its
darker colors, truer portrait of the to,oa
than Of the country. Once, indeed, il acas so
But nolc--
"Tbe town has tin gid the country, & the stain
a
The worse fer what 1t soils .
Peace to the Christian poet, and to him
who so sweetly sung ofthe "dese1ted riiage"
Gould string together the chords of these
two bards, kind reader, | would sing YOU
S1he TRANSFORMED vittage; on, a nation rain
ed" But this cannot be-
Pertness may pirate against all this, and
call IT mere preackng thing that savors
OF common sense takes that opprobrious
name, nowadays Simpletons may sneer at
the neutrality-suspicious. here attached to
the dancing school. But the sages of anti
putty sought for the sources of national cor
ruption and decay, in the light and vain a.
musements of their youth. Neither Scion
nor Lycurgus would have deemed the sub
jeet trivial, or the sentiment austere. Nor
need any rejecting mind be staggered with
these two propositions, 10 witt that habit of
idleness, dissipation aud prodigality may
subvert republic; and that these habits May
be introduced by dancing school
Let the appeal be made to the inauisitive
traveller. You drove through town, the
other day, and observed the stone walls in
ruins. The last generation had built them,
bat the present had not kept them in repair.
The dwellings bore evident marks of having
been painted forty years ago. Broken win
dows stuffed with old hats and rags. The
: crazy barns were propped to keep the wind
from blowing them down. The meeting
house, which had seen better days, was
standing unoccupied. The people found it
"ha,d times" and could not pay minister
The school-hou was scarcely In better
predicament, and cheap teachers were the
only ones in request. just enquire, as you
return through that town, and ascertain whe-
i Their there was not dancing school kept
! there about 90 or30 years ago.
/ There is parish, in the shops of which
! you may read an official notice from the ma
I gistrates, prohibiting the sale OF ardent spir-
: its to cei tain individuals, stated to be intern
perate, and whose names, nineteen in num-
Der, are conspicuously recorded. You will
! probably find the |inn" of some Timothy
Iapster, hard by, with Dancing Hall di-
! reetly over the Bar room.
There is a town in which majority Of the
real estates are in the hands of two or three
wealthy families And the presumptive heirs
| of this wealth not, themselves, very zeal
Gus stickiars for ''total abstinence" | guess
there have been frequent dancing schools in
that town.
In another village, still bearing the marks
Of gentility and refinement, and where the
houses are still bright with paint, il is wills
pered that there is more shot1 than substan-
tiai prosperity Public spirit has not yet be-
| come extinct, but 1t runs in the channel OF
the popular rather than of the asetm 0rna-
mental improvements are more talked Of than