The Minnesota pioneer. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn. Territory) 1849-1855, 1849-08-02
Lo! the Poor Immigrant.

migrant OF the present and the past few
years! What spectacle he is to exile our
compassionate sympathy as he stands upon
our shores! How much there is in his bag
gard apprenticeship his old and uDcouth-
fashioned clothes-and in his spiritiess gait
to call forth our cominiseration! There
pass himself aud his fa,niy-a wife. son
and daughter-froin the ship that bore them
across the Atlantic. that mighty waste of
waters. How they stare at everything and
every one; and how every one stares at
them! The supercilIous flop casts a ders-
i've glance at The old cauheen-the frieze
coat and corduroy shorts of the man, and at
the blne cloth cloak and shawl-covered head
of the woman! The thoughtlesss coldly
sheer at their odd and outre appearance;
aud the kind-of-heart bestow on them look
of sympathy which they are quick to re-
icognlZe; tor to the stranger and sorrow
stricken there is a qualification not to he
told III a compassionate look. But ragged,
haggard and uucOuth though they be, yet
is there not something in the detected Wis.,
age-in that eye of acute feeling, which
tells that the mind within is susceptible of
generous impulses, and kind emotions; and
that if sorrow has held it's seat and kept its
vigils there, it has not yet wholly supplanted
vivacity and humor:
What true and touching picture they
pressBs as they pass over the wide tevee-of
parental love aud fiiai duty! The mother
Is weak and ensrvated-the daughter Is wan
and sick. How affectionately the son sup
ports the former--carefully guarding her
from. contract with the drays that SO swiftly
rattle 10y; and with what parental soiicitude
the father assists the latter to reach The side
Waik-there to mingle for the first time with
the citizens OF one Of the great commercial
mafts OF the new world! Poor ueDpIe /!
they are now IN America-and many were
the sacrifices which they made to reach here
sacrifices not of fortune, but of privation
and of feeling.
That haggard, hungered looking man
was once hale, hearty rustic, of strong
arm and buoyant heart. He had an album
dance Of plain, wholesome and homely
food; and the beggar never went from the
cabin door of his beloved mother without
igetting a plate or trencher Of potatoes
thrown into his wallet, for the ''hOnor Of
God and the blessed Virgin Mary"
That wan woman of wasted frame was
the belle among The maiden villagers; and
while none than she was more pious at
church, or told her rosary with greater de-
votion; at dance none figured more briskly
in the jig, or moved more gracefully through
the mazes of the reel.
They married-and for years continued
TO be as in their more youthful days they
had been, happy for contenttnens and ,nu-
tual love were theirs, audthese are the base
and apex of happiness.
But blight came On their poor country
on their humble prospects, and they have
come to- America Think not that they
have no regrets for leaviag their home, all
lowIy as it was. They had. la the village
church of that home. before its unpretend-
ing altar, they mutually pledged themselves
to iove-erch other-through life and unto
death. In that home it was that son--the
first pledge Of their pure affcctions-was
ushered into this breathing world; and there
that daughter first giaddened their anxious
Iheholdmg. In the quiet grave yard of that
village, 10y the old UNCOVERED abbey's ru-
ms, lie the bones Of their parents, and the
Then wonder not, it with all the poverty
that came upon them; if with all the mis-
fortunes that hover over their wretched
country, they still had regret for leaving
that home from which before they never
ha,i wandered. True, they are buoyed up
with bright hopes of the good fortune that
awaited them in America. he anticipa-
ton of soon being beyond the sphere OF the
petty landlords oppression, the exactions
Of the tax gatherer, the vulgar despotism of
the policemen, aud the thousand other ills
to which. the Irish peasant is heir, should,
it would seem, make their parting one OF
pleasure, not of pain. But not SO. There
were memories connected with their simple
lives, which at such. rnotuent, clustered
closely round the heart, and started the tear
drop from the well-springs Of the eye.--N
O. Della.
PERFECT Cir OF SrAMME RING.-A black
smith in the State Of New York was sum-
muned as witness in court, between two Of
his workmen. The Judge, after hearing the
testimony, asked him why he did not, advise
them to settle, as the costs had already. a
mounted to three times the disputed sum,
viz: seventy-five cents.
He replied, 's to-o-old the fo-o-ools to
settle; for, said the Coo unstable would
take their coats, their shir-irts, and if they
got into your bonor's court, you'd sk-sk-skin
l'em!''