Litchfield enquirer., 1834-03-06
FOR TIE rEou,RERI.

tasle which is the s0lectOG the suioined Quant dis qsi'ion. that, in the hope that may induce some of oar youth reflect, a republication oGtia your pa- per is requested by Some otr yOar teadens.
 From tke Ns'c-E gland Magasiae. ,
 GOOD. ADucE BUT BITTER.
 WEare accused of being thin-skinned people. and of being very unwilling t6 be told of our faults. Barge draugaits of un- qualified pfaise,' it is said, will alone sat- isfy us. The charge is in some measure, true; but we have an excuse in the fact> that our defects have not generally been pointed out to.us by friendly hands. We have been indiscriminatsly abused by for- eigners, who were eitlzer too narrow-min- ded to comprehe nd us, or too pFeludieed to do us justice. It is somewhat provoking, after stranger has travelled through our country, and been received with the most warm-hearted and unsuspicious hospitali- ty, to learn from his book, that all he re- members about us is, that we eat fast, make long speeches, have too much grease on our cookery, pour the contents of our eggs into wine-glass, are without a Sanscrit press, &c. &c. 'Tis not the arrow that we complain of, so much as the quiver out of which it comes. We certainly have not SO far taken leave of our senses as to inlag- inc that we have not national defects andy trust, that we arc not so weak as to feel the petlish irritation of spoited child, when they ure pointed out in manly, and, at the same time, in friendly manner.- At any rate, I have sufficient respect for my countrymen, to tell them a disagreea- ble truth or two, and they may be assured that have none but good and patriotic motives in SO doing; and I should be will ling to encounter storm of obloquy, if could, by my humble efforts, do any thing towards the correction of the oGensive pe- cuiari,y, of which am abous to speak, ' The vice { can call it nothing elssl l atlatfe to. is the. habit, so universal amongst us of backing, cutting, mangling, and des-
 troying every thing that is not proofagainst
 Rodgers patent penknives--of carving our names upon every smooth, and writing them upon every white surface, aud of dis playing, in an infinite variety oS ways, that faculty whick answers. in phrenology, to the bump of Destructiveness. Hany one asks proof of the correctness of my asser- tion.. he need but look around him, and he will find them staFias Gw in tue face from every side. A Yankee boys sooM after he is breecIed, gets possession of pocket knife and in this respect, at least, the child is father to the man. for it is never idle in the pocket moment afterwards. - His first essays, in the destroying liIe, ard made on the desks in his school, which ai- ter ornamentiDg with the initials of his name and sundry hieroglypbics, which would puzzle Champollion to decypher, he deliberately proceeds to cur uttopieces, which he generally accomplishes in three winters. The spirit, thus developed, is never put to rest. He goes through life, cutting and scribbling; inc meeting house belfry, his fathers chairs, the village fences, the ton,bs in the church-yard, bear witness to his &C., complishments. His knife is as unsparing as the scythe of Death, and nothing is sa- cred from its edge. Who is there that has not thousand times had occasion to blush for his countrymen as he witnessed some gross manifestation of this odious habit2 How much is the pride, with which we show a stranger the magnificent prospec. from the State House, dashed with shame, atwitnessing the names, flourishes, 6Cc. &Ec. carved on the inside of the lantern by some hundreds of boobies, who, if Nature had treated them as they deserves would have been born with long ears and a hairy hide 2 I aHs told even that one Of the galleries in the Representatives' Cbamber is dis6gur- ed in this manner, and not only by names, but by emblems and devices of the most indecent description. Every thing, indeed, chat belongs to the public. and which is meant for public convenience, is sure to be invaded by the paini-brush and the jack knife. whether it be the walls of . building, tue seats ofa court-house, a board fence, a tree or bench.
 There are some snbstapces, fortunately, that resist even steel but the same spirit of brutal irreyerence is displayed in regard. to them in different form. ! read with a. mixture of shame and indignation, in the papers the other day, an account, extracted from lhe'travels of an English gentIeman, of the appearance of the pavement in the neiebborhood of the Statue of Washington in our State House, ,---of the stains of tohac- cojuice, the quids, and the other abonina- tions, that were Reforming it and disgra- ciDg us. Even the cemeteries oftbe deads respected by she most barbsrous nations, are profaned and desecfsted by ruftian hands. One cannot go inte church yard. without finding the monuments more. or less jagged and broken at the edges and