Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1849-11-17
Bugle Notes.-The. |.

l have been looking over some old manuscript
for the last half hour, hoping to find something
therein which would save me the trouble of
thinking just now; but alas my search has
been in vain! 1 would sooner undertake to
build a dozen new air-castles, and furnish them
in extra style from foundation to chimney top
or even to connect the loose and tattcrcd ends
of a thread Of history, than to dctach an idea,
with its tributaries and dependencies, from tho
heterogeneous mass.
Some time since most of the ideas which have
ever held the balance of power in the executive
department of the body corporate, suddenly and
mystoriously disappeared without saving so
much as with your leave, madam However.
as they all bear a striking family likeness to
each other, they will be easily identified and re-
ceived with q warm welcome, should they take
q notion TO return to their old habitation, which
must, of course, be cndcarcd to them by MANY
old and familiar associations. Whether owing
to an attack of congestion ad cuput, they found
the premises too hot to be longer tcnablc or
whether, like rats in a sinking ship, they
thought best to beat a retreat while there was
time and opportunity for SO doing, 1 have never
been able to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion.
But 1 am toleroblo certain of one thing-ideas
have been about as scarce in my Uranium for n
long time as butterflies i'll December. l have
some recollection of reading a story, a long timo
ago, about a man who was born and brought up
two or three years behind the times. Some two
years after the battle of Waterloo, he became
aware that such a battle had been fought; and
then communicated the astounding intelligence
to his friends as the most important item in tho
latest news.
Most sincerely did 1 pity him when 1 first
became aware of his situation, little thinking
however, that the bonds of sympathy between
us were to be drawn SO close by similarity of
situation. Did 1 possess his faculty to imagine
myself up even with the times, my case would
be less dcplorablc. But here l am, away back
in the rear of all my respected contemporaries,
and wide awake to know it! Happy was Van
Wrinkle while slumbering for twenty years in
blessed unconsciousncs of all passing events
alike ignorant of the fortunes or of the miserics
of the rest of human kind. Most deeply have 1
ever sympathized with him, thinking all the
NNNN ~ "N' W W lNACN
when he awoke to a realizing sense of his queer
situation, than while he was dreaming away,
year after year, undisturbcd by the din and up
roar of Lies great battle field. True, the chill
winds of winter must have sounded mournfully
in his ears, if they were not impcrvious to Garth
ly sounds, while he was slumbcring on his fros-
ty couch, o'crlaid with dripping, snowy drapcry;
but when the bright-eycd Spring came bound
ing forth as if o~'erjoycd to get released from
Winters cold embrace; when the flowers came
coyly forth as if afraid to seem to seek the wish
ed-for kiss from the fresh breeze; and when
the trees put on their fringed and tassel'd robes
of green as if to welcome back the singing tribes
which made their nests and raised their chirp-
ing broods among their sheltering boughs i'll
former years-ah, kings might wish to have a
resting place like his. Hcnceforth, come veal
or wo, l feel myself in duty bound to be his
true and sympathizing friend.