The Shasta courier., 1853-11-12
Curran,p Gratitude.


"Allow me. getlemen," said Curran, one eve
ming to large party, to give you sentimen'.
When a boy, was one morning playing mar
bles in the village of Ball alley, with light
heart and lighter pocket. The gibe and the
Jest went gladly round, when suddenly among
us appeared stranger OF remarkable and a
very cheerful aspect bis intrusion was not the
least restraint upon merry little assemblage.
He was beneyoient creature, and the days of
infancy, (after all the happiest ever
see) perhaps rose upon his memory. Heaven
bless him. | see his fine form at a, distance of
half century, just as be stood before me in the
little Ball Alley in the days of c,y childhood.
" His name Boyce; be was the rector of
Newmarket, To me he took particular fancy.
was winning and full Of waggery. thinking
everything eccentric, and by no means a miser
of my eccentricities: every one was welcome
to share of them, and had plenty to spare,
after having freghted the company. Some
sweatmeats easily bribed me home with him.
learned from Boyce my alphabet. and my
grammar, aud tsie radiments of the classics. He
taught me all he could, aad then sent me to
school in Middleton, In short he. made me
man. | recollect it was about thirty five years
afterwards, when had arisen to some emin-
ence at the bar, and when l bad a seat in Par
lament Oh my return one day from the court,
f,nnd a1 old gentleman seated alone in my
drawing room, his feet famiarly placed on each
side of the Italian marble chimney place, and
his whole air besPeaking the consciousness Of
one quite at home. taEE
.'He turned round. 1t was my friend in Ball
alley l rushed nstinctivey into his arms, and
burst into tears. Words cannot describe the
scene which followed. You are right SIR you
are right; the chimney piece is yours-the pic
lures are yours--the house is yours. You gave
me all | have, my friend, my beaefactorn He
ined with me; and IN the evening caught the
\. 4 l.
poor little Jack, the creature OF his bounty, RI
sing in the House of Commons. to reply to
right honorable, Poor Boy ce! he is now gone;
and 30 sHlter had larger deposit OF practical
benevolence III the court above, This ia wine
let us drink to his memerv-''
THE MAMMOTH 'fRfE-The proprletors of the
Mammoth Tree which has been on exhibition
near the Musical Hall for some weeks back al
taking it to pieces, preparatory to shipping it TO
the Worlds Fax New York. 1t has beer stated
that bat about thirteen hundred rings can be
counted In the section of ihe tree which has
been preserved this is true, but it has also
been concluded hence that this worlds wonder
is but thirteen hundred years old. We under
stand. however from gentleman well versed
in botany that after trees of this sp CT, attain
10 a certain age, the interior rings run together,
FIVE or six sometimes forming one; and that
therefore it is impossible to- tell the age of such
trees, after they had been tlourishmg time. In
addition to this, the rings in the interior per-
fectly hard, and it would be folly to Suppose
that ten years could produce tree of a size
equal to the circumference of the tenth ring
from the centre. Doubtless 3, 900 years, which
was the age claimed for the tree, after calcli-
lation made by counting several hundred OF the
trees, was too large an estimate. But think
it at Least safe to set down its age at eighteen
or nineteen hundred years Even at the lowest
estimate, 300 years, the tree is no infant and
should have been satisfied with It's hale old age.
Through how. many changing dynasties has it
stood undisturbed, fabricatng its slender It's
sues from the earth, the air, and the sunbeams,
and stretching forth higher and longer its great
brawny arms. 1t is a connecting link with the
distant past 1t reaches to the time when the
Empire of Rome crumbled. and when the older
civilization lapsed into darkness. 1t was living
during the earliest dawnings of the British En-
pire the days of Hengist and Horsa, and AL
fred it still hourished when Luther, and Cal
win, and Melancthon arose, and the dark ages
passed away. And it lived through the long
centuries since, while the world has been grow
ing brighter and brighter under the illumina-
ting power of thoroughly aroused mental
tivity. So thckly clustering are the associa-
tions connected with it. that it cannot fail to be
object of marked interest at the Worlds
Fair, for which it is destined.
Ey~We hardly know how to classify the fol-
lowing. There is touch of knight-errantry in
it; it is also slightly oriental; likewise it
smacks of Lippard: and it g favors withal the
celestial manner of Commissioner Lin. of China,
in his verlnilliop edicts against opium:
liking Dnmdudrum arose, and wrapped
around pim the mantle of his wrath He said,
> will frown, and he frowned, and sped him
with raretied celebrity to the Hill OF Savius.-
There, upon the top-most rock he. with his
courtiers, sqpnched their tripotodovical thirst
Again lie frowned, so that his eyebrows and
his mustachoes did mingle. King Dnndudrum
then drew forth his royal sabre, and treated it
TO concoetion of musquito stings, rubbed on
with an Illuminated brckbat from the hat of
an Irish mayor, and said Stubbsr
Again he speaks.
9 Bring forth the huge peretyinctum, and bind
it fast to the geptanh =
Dumdudrum is more His scepter is in
the mud, and pewter sheled CLAIMS respect it
not"
DREAMING A COSTRAcT.-''A married couple"
says the Gazette des Tri5unaur latter living to-
geher on bad terms for some time, agreed, a