Richmond daily times. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1853, 1853-05-14


everybody by pointing to papas portrait on I'D
wall, (papa himself being absent. These werd
respectable sclntlilatons, affordng good ground
OF hope, and we did not doubt that he would
soon, at least, overtake the Corbet baby.
| Unfortunately for us, for every new trait OF
sense in our child-and they were capital traitJ
IN themselves-there was sure to be report Of
fresh accomplishments from the Corbet olfshootl
| and these were always of a character someyhad 4
ahead OF any contemporaneous gifts in the Ballot
erstone prodigy. Thus, by the time that our
babe could point to portrait, and make signi-
hcant reference to its original, the little Corbet
could ask for ''mo' tea" By the time that ours
demanded more tea, the Corbet baby had attain
ed an artsof holding up her little finger and sha
king her head, in burlesque Of her nurse that set
the whole housein commissions daughter. When
at length, by great pains, our nurse had trained
the darling Tosy Mosy to mimic some little trait of
one or two of his sisters. just them in the midst
of the general delight we heard Of little Corbet
growing like cock, barking like dog, saying.
''chck'chick" at the mention of horse, and
initiating the NEW of the cat in a way quite raw
ishing to all hearers We thought we had got
great start, when our dear babe came down
stairs one morning with totally new and oIigi-|
nal 3eu d'esprtt. "How much do you love me-
Tosy!" said the maid By way of answer, he
flung his little arms wide open, implying that he
loved her as much as all that. "And abiding to
neighbours child who had looked cross at him
one day, when their maids walked out to-
gether. The dear child, held out her hand,
and indicated the space of about an inch with
his finger and thumb most comical little
trick we all thought it, and far beyond anything
as yet communicated respecting the scion of the
house of Corbet But in the very crisis Of our
enjoyment in came one of those pestilent neutral
ships, bringing news of little Corbet having al
ready eaten her way to P in cake of alphabet-
ical gingerbread, being understood to have mas
tnVn dali No., I.,,~. 1o+ko
voking; and am afraid that my good friend Su-
sannah had some difficulty in maintaining the
rule of cvility towards our informant during the
remainder of her visit.
So it has been ever since with those two ba-
bies, the one always keeping little in advance
of the other-I will not say to the discontinue,
but must admit, to the decided irritation of the
Balderstone family, whose wrath is not little
enhanced by what they hear from time to time,
of the exultant feelings of the Corbets. 1t being
our sincere conviction, that there never was finer
child than little Tosy Mosy, we are all of us a
good deal perplexed by those alleged traits of
superiority in the Corbet, which appear some
what to mar the theory; but one of our young
gentlemen, who attends philosophical insttu-
ton, has at length hit upon an idea, which seems
to bring all into harmony. Girls, he remarks,
have certain sharpness which does not belong
to boys, and which comes out before the more
solid powers of the intellect. They arc, there
fore, apt to seem clever at first; but after few
years this goes off, and the male superiority is
asserted. l cannot say that the mamma, sisters
and aunts of our baby have so much readiness to
embrace the explanation as the gentleman; still
1t has met with certain acceptance from all, and
for the present we rest in hope that it will be verb
fed by time, to the utter routing of all the boasts
and taunts launched against us by the house of
Corbet.
Thus matters at present stand between the
rival houses and their respective babies. If any
new facts worth noting shall emerge, / will en-
deavour to record them.
A Go HEAD PEoPLE.-I cannot accustom my
self to the Western fare in the hotels and on the
boats. Instead of giving few cleanly- prepared,
plain dishes, the table is covered with dainties,
with jellies and creams, ices, French sauces and
sweets-a most unfortunate attempt to match
England with French cooking, without the rude
cleanliness of the first, or the Savoury refine
ment of the latter. But the passengers obvious
ly do not care how the dishes taste, provided that
they sound well on the bill of fare, satisfied to
find on it everything they could command at the
Cafe de Paris or the Freres Provencaux. They
are fond of the idea that America is the first
country of the world, even as respects the cun-
airy art. Even the water looks unpalatable: it is
the Mississippi water, with all the mud of it's
bottom dissolved by the melting snow. elbow
do you like America, sir! Is it not great coun-
tIy odiu SeuLicudu W MI. III
course it u.s., was the answer. ''Haye you found
anything here which fell short of your expecta-
tions 60 "Your political institutions are admira-
ble," replied Mr.. Pulszky; ''your people are en-
terprsing and energetic; but, after all, there is
nothing perfect under the SUM-" "Well, sir, what
can you object to o. continued the American, a
planter, who probably wished to open thus dis
cussion on slavery. Mr.. Pulszky took up his
glass and said: "For instance, | object to the
mud in the Mississippi water which you drink
'Sir," retorted the American, sit has been chem
ically analysed and compared with the waters of
other rivers, and it was ascertained that the
Ganges as we'll as the Nile contain several per
cent more of animal matter than the Mississippi
81 have every regard for the sacred rivers OF the
1Iindoos and the Egyptians" said Mr.. Pulszky;
''yet am ready to give the palm to your father
of rivers. Only do not see why the mud of the
Himalaya and of the Abyssinian mountains
should justify you in drinking the mud of the
Western prairie. Don't you know here the use
of filters O. "Sir," exclaimed the American, in
dignantly, chow should we not o. ''Then why
do you not filter your water g. asked Mr.. Pulsz-
ky.-Without hestating one moment, the plan
ter replied, awe are such go-a-head people
that we have no time to filter our water. "-Aia-
dame Pulssky.
A VALUABLE HEAD OF HAIR Punch dis
courses upon the gold and silver hair powder
now in vogue: ]-"The Paris ladies are wearing
gold and silver dust in the hair. Their heads,
so dressed, must be worth mint of money.
We have heard of damsels being so distressed as
to be compelled to cut off their hair and sell it;
but these ladies would command large price