Litchfield enquirer., 1838-06-21
TO A SHRED OF LINEN.
BY 1GRs. sIeoURNEY


 Here's littering shred Of linen left behind-a vile reprOach & ID ail good houeewifery. Right glad am That no neat lady, train'd in ancient tunes Of pudding-making and Of sampler york; And speckless sanctity of household cares Hath happen'd here to spy thee. She, no doubt, When looking through her spectecles would say. ,, Essenced and lily handed, had he chanced To see thy slight super6cies, twou!d be, This comes of writing poetry; Weli-weIE-, Canst thou by merry thought, or quaint conceit, Repay this risk that I have run for thee' Begin at alpha, and resolve myself
 Into thine elements. see the stalk And bright blue flower of flax, which erst oerspread That fertile land where mighty Moses stretched Hls rod miraculous. see thy bloom
 Tinging though scantly, these New-England wales. But To! the sturdy farmer lifts the brake, To crush thy bones, unpitying-and his wife,, With kerchiefed head, and eyes brim full ot dust, Thy fibrous nerves with hatchel tooth divides. hear voice of muslc-and behold,
 The ruddy damsel singeth at her wheel While by her side the rustic lover sits. r Perchance his shrewd eye secretly doth count The mass of skeins which hanging on the wal Increaseth day by day.. Perchance his thought. For men have deeper minds than women-~snre! Is calculating. what thrifty wife. ,. , The maid will make; and how his dairy shelves Shall goan beneath the weight of golden cheese. s Made by her dexterous hand-whlle many Reg May, transmigrated, on his back appear, In new thanksgiving coats: .,o,,ar .st Mine own New w-England, for thy once loved wheel By sofa and piano quite displaced
 Why dost thou banish from my parlor hearth That old Hygean harp whose magic ruled Dyspepsia, as the minstrel.s shepherds skill , Exorcised Saul's ennu! There was no need In those good times of trim cahsthenics, And there was less of gadding-and far more Of home-born, heartfelt comfort, rooted strong n industry and hnar1np auCh rare fruit -A' "'''' '''S-' ''''s' - - But come back, Thou shred of linen. did let thee drop In my harangue-as wiser ones have lost The thread of their discourse; What was thy lot When the rough battery of the loom had stretched And knit thy sinews, and the chemist sun
 AA' ''~''" 0'''f'~'>'''' o''' Methinks scan Some idiosyncracy, that marks thee out A defunct pilow-case. Did the trim guest, To the best chamber ushered, ger admire The snowy whiteness of thy freshened youth 4 Feeding thy vanity Tor some sweet babe Pour it's pure dream of innocence on thee? Say, hast thou listened to the sick one's moan, When there was none to comfort for shrunk back From the dire tossing of the proud mans brow2 Or gathered from young beauty's restless sgh
 ' Still, close and mute Wilt tell no secret, ha? Well then, go down With all thy churl-kept hoard of curious lore In majesty and mystery, go down Into the papssrmll and from its jaws, sh.,,h. Stainless ana 8moOtn, emerge. Ilappy euoA UC Fte The renovation, if on thy, fair page.
 Wisdom and truth, their halowed lineamen:s Trace for posterity. So shal! thine end Be better than thy birth and worthier bard Thine apotheosls immortaiiZe. ..t
 The British Steamboat Sir Robert PecL-A MT. Cossart, who was a passenger on board the iLtated vessel has made oath to the following circumstances: of the unfortunate burning of the steamer Sir Robert Peel, have to say that was passenger up the St. Lawrence, and that at about half past one o'clock on the morning of May 3Oth, while we were lying at were boarded by a band of unknown men, dressed m disguise and with painted faces, to the number of about twenty-five or thirty, armed with guns, bayo. 9den ana kes M the nd Ss door being clOsed we were all ordered to surrender peaceably. and on doing which we were all allowed to come deck, and were all sent on shore at the point of the bayonet, many of us with but small portion of our clothes upon us. We were told that none of us should be nloested if no resistance was made. A few of us succeeded in taking a little of cleared Of all the passengers she was set on fire and burned to the waters edge. Unfortunately, one man, first mate, who was asleep at the time of the assault, was much burnt. but jumped overheard and what roughly used. One of the men, who seemed to have some authority over the rest, msde use of the following ,eexpression' Gentlemen' remember the
 When the vessel wes completely on fire, the said ruffians took to their boats, three in number, and rowed towards the American shore, and we saw or heard nothing more of them.
 At day light, or thereabouts we were taken oil the island by Capt. Smith, of the steamer Oneida, who kindly returned with us to Kingston"
 Nine persons have been arrested by the authorities of Watertown, suspicion of having assisted in the destruction of the Sir Robert Peel. Three of them were committed to the jail at that village It is said that the patriots had an old grudge against the cap tain of the Sir Robert Peel, because he resided on the frontier during the winter, and transmitted re- ports of their movements to the British authorities
 Neu Way to raise the Wind-:A handsome young woman, with blue eyes, black hair and perfectly white skin, was offered for sale few days since, at the St. Louis street Exchange, by man who pre- tended that she was his slave. Her complexion was so fair and she destitute of all signs of negro extraction, that those present began to feel dubious, and uttered some suspicious. The girl herself said she was slave, and belonged to the man offering her not altogether safe had eoped through the crowd and was not to be found. Consequently, the woman of color'' was permitted to go free without pass. The crowd were well satisfied that it was mere swind- ling concem-a plan having doubtless been agreed upon that the proceeds of the sale were 10 be shared by the pseudo master and pseudo slave. after which an elopement to have taken place; and although whether the man would have got of as easy, had he been fOund.-N. o. PicoyHnc.
 Common School CommissioRers.-His Excelency the Governor, under the authority of the act to pro- vide for the supervision of Common Schools nomina- ted 10 the Senate Commissioners. the following gen. tlemen, which nomination. was confirmed by that " Barnard, 2d Esq. of Hartford; John Hal Esq. of Ellington Hon Andrew T. Juds0n. of Canterbury {;