Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1832-06-11
GAZETTE.
T From, The Mew York .amsrican. ]

luazine contains an article upon Mrs. TrOllope'
hook. which from internal evidence 1t Is easy to
discover is written by the author of Cyril Thorn.
ton, who last year passed through this country,
Col. Hamilton, if 1t really be he, is very face
/! tious in his comments upon the capital texts
which Mrs rs book offers for the display OF his
cleverness; of which we offer the following sPe.
| cimen:
con the offensive and brutal custom Of spit
| ting, Mrs. Trollope is very eloquent. There can
be no distinction of ranks in country where a
habit 50 filthy is even tolerated. Splitting is your
true leyeller; it reduces high and low, rich and
poor, educated and uneducated, TO the same
equality Of degradation. No traveller can be
| expected to smother his disgust and adherence
at the practice, which, from the moment OF his
arrival in the United States to that of his depar
ture, is continually obtruded on his observation"
This is severe rebuke; but it is not merited!
1t must be allowed that it is justly gwen: let it
be gravely taken. The force OF the lesson is,
however, much diminished by the humorous ex-
travagance of what follows:
.sAn American may be philosophicaily dis tin.
glished as splitting bped. He splits from the
cradle to the grave. at all times, in all places, in
all circumstances. in youth and IN age, IN health
and in sickness, in Joy and in sorrow, inprospe-
rity and adversely, at sea and on land, IN storm
aud in calm, on foot and on horseback, IN town
and in county, in the house of his father, at the
board OF his friend. in the drawlns-room OF his
President, at the feet of his mistress, at the altar
of hiss God The discharge is rs necessary to
him as the air he brea,hes; he salivates Tor some
threescore years, and when the glands OF his pa
late can secrete no longer he splits forth his spi-
ritz aud is gathered his fathers to spit no more
This IS very good, and reminds US strongly OF
some Of the best dashes of humor in Cyril thorn
ton; it wants one requisite ofmerit, however. and
that is originality. The accomplished writer in
the course of his extensive reading, cannot but
have met with the little treatise upon English
manners by that singular person Servin, OF whom
Sully gives SO interesting an account IN his me
mOirs:
Gan Engllshman," if our memory serves us
Alright it so runs,-'.a an Englishman may by ma.
turalists be distinguished as grumbl'ng blped.
Unlike the offspring of the French and other con-
tinentas, these Islanders come grumbllng instead
of weeping into the world; aud the very cries OF
their infancy have qucreious peevishness Who'll
ly unlike the sudden petuency of other children.
The first words they learn to utter, are said to
be those of fault finding; and their incessant
grumbing while in the arms OF the nurse, Is be-
eved to be the reason why the unnatural custom
obtains in England IF mothers leaving their In
fants TO be fostered By hirelings. They grumbe
at all times, and in all places, and under every
circumstance; at home they grumble against
their own. government: against English lack
evs in London, and French Wallets in Paris: at
tavern over ther porter, or a French coffee house
over their caret. do they grumble; beneath the
sullen sky of Britain. or the smiling heavens OF
the Levant, on the sunny plans Of Italy, in the
cool forests of Germany over their macaroni at
Naples. or their sherbet at Constantinupe, do
they grumble.
They have grumbled at every thing in Europe,
Asia and Africa; and should those strange lands
beyond the west, which men begin to talk so
much of, ever be better known than now, they
i'll probably c0onize them Tor the purpose OF
having something new to grumbe at. In the
meantime these heretics leave the souls OF their
friends in purgatory, because they could not tor
want OF cause OF complaint, be happyln heaven!
They grumble at all tunes and in all places-in
motion or at rest-on trot,lng dfomcdarY IN
the desert, bed Of elder at Whitehall, or in a
siIkea palanquin at Ispahan-in rivers or in
seas,a Thames wherry or caque OF the Esean-
in storm or in cam--in Dutch dogger in the
Bay Of Biscay, or Venetian gondola upon the
Adriatic--do they grumble! and sioald the air be
ever navlgated. or the bottom of the sea explored,
fore the invention Of balloons diving bells, )they
would traverse the skies to find fault, or go
erumhlins into the caverns of the ocen!!"
This was written so long ago. that few proba.
bly, will recognize the national trait here ascrb-
ed to our orefathers of two or three centuries back
and we quote the passage rather to show how near
ly the Biackwood Reviewer has approached the
crime of plagiarism, than from any Apostle
ness in the observations themselves.
THE CHIMNEY SWEEP AND HIS DOG.
II is BuLwER, we believe, who allows himself
the pleasant anticipation Of meeting in another
world the only faithful companions ne has found
in this, viz: welldisposed and welltrained Dogs.
We hold Is no such heresy, though we admire the
feeling with which that accomplished writer en-
forces his impressions, and have often thought
that if the faithful attendant upon our walks-if
the dutiful quadruped, who seems to have no wish
not derived from, or formed to meet, ours-if the
dog, whose love is sometimes passing the love of
woman, is not ssadmitted to that equal sky,''
4