New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1854-01-06


Or the hour will strike at last;
And, from dreams of coming battle, "
You Will waken and find it past.
Little Children.
t No man can tell,'' wrote that good Bisbop
Of Down, Connor, and Dromore, whose elevation
to the m1tre in an unbelieying and proaipate
age is at least one jewel of pure water in the
besmirched diadem of Charles the Second. So No
man can tell" wrote Jeremy Taylor, &c but he
VINO loves his children, how many delicious ac-
cents make mans heart dance in the pretty
conversation of those dear pledges. Their child
lshness, their stammerng, their little anger,
thelr innocence, their imperfections their neces-
stiles, are so many little emanations of ioy and
comfort to him that delights in their persons
and society. With all due respect and reyer-
ence to my beloved author of the Golden
Grove, the g warbler of poetic prose- must
dissent from his first proposition. A man who
loves children can tell, without necessarily hay-
ing any of his own, how delightful is their soci-
ETY., how delicious are their persons, their little
ways. 1t may be | write these lines in cheer
less garret, my only friends my books, the only
other thing beside me that has life my lamp:
yet do you not think that / can synpathjze
with, without envying, the merry party at the
merry house over the way the house with all
the windows lighted up, the broughams and hack
cabs at the door; the prim white neckclothed
visitors taking off their paletos in the passage
the smiling ringletted, rosy checked, rosy rib
boned young person who attends to the ladies'
bonnets and the tea and coffee; the iangline of
Collard and Collard's piano; the tinkIinp of
Erard's harp: the oscillations in their upstairs
passage OF the negus glasses; the singing, the
dancing, the Irritation and the supper. Yet, /
know nothing about Mrs. Saint Bafin and her
evening party. She never invited me to
1T; she does not know. very probably, of my
existence; yet l am sure L wish most sin
cerely that her g at home ;" may be perfectly
satisfactory and successful; that every BODY
may get as much as he wants to eat and drink
at supper that the supply of lobster salad
ana sl lced champagne may not run short; that
Miss Strumminson's s'Cossacce della Volea s.
may be sung by that young lady amid general
applause; that all General Fogey's stories
may tell, and that none of young Millers Jokes
may have been heard before; that the right
men may secure their right hats and right wrap
pers; that all the young ladies may depart duly
shaWled and bonneted, to the defiance and con-
fusion of the demon cold; that all fnammas NAV
be placable; all true lovers satisfied with their
innocent firtations; all stolen camellias, scraps
OF ribbon and old gloves warmly priced; that
years TO come there may be little children laugh
ing and playing round papa and mamma, all un
eonslous that papa and mamma first thought Of
love and courtship and matrimony over lobster
salad, iced champagne, or the ualse 4 deur
temps at Mrs. Saint Baffin's cat home.''
Come! Though | am not hidden to the ban
quet-though there be no cover laid for me Mt
the table matrimonial-may not feast (though
IN no ogre fashion, upon little children: Some
day perhaps Hymen's table d'hote NAV lack
guests; and, messengers being sent out into the
highways in quest of the lame, the halt, and the
blind, may have q chance.
might speculate upon little children in n
purely negative fashion for some time. For in
stance: as regards the child being father to the
man: of men being but children of a larger
growth. These are both very easy things to
ay; and we get them by heart pat, and some
what in the parrot manner; and we 90 on re-
oeatlng our pet phrase, over and over, back
yards and forwards, time after time, till we
irmly believe 1t to be true; and, if any one pre-
hlne TO argue or dissent. we grow indignant.
md cry GO turn him out; p as the member of the
'eace Society did the other day, when an opin-
onated person happened to dissent from the
whole hog proposition that the world was to be
aclhcated, and universal fraternity established,
y the lambs shearing the wool off their backs,
nd taking it to the wolves in a neat parcel
nth speech about arbitration,
Now at the risk of being turned out myself
must venture to dissent from the axiom that
ne child Is father to the man | saw that he is
ot. Gan you persist in telling me that this
alr-halred lnnocent this little sportiye, pratt |
ng, loveable child, with dimpled, dumplinp
ands that almost fold themselves spontaneously
mo mo the attitude of supplication and prayer;
'ltn cnerry lip some bee has stung it new
-lsping thanksgiving and love; with arms |
hat long to embrace; with eyes be aiming con-
dence, joy, pity, tenderness: am to be told
hat this infant is father to yon hulking, sodden,
allow.taeed. blue-gilled, crop-haired, leaden-
yea' hVld.llpped, bow -shouldered, shrunken-
sgged, swollen, handed convict in n hideous prav
inform branded with the broad arrow: with
Ibbed worsted hose and fetters at his ankles.
lllenly skulking through his drudgery under
ie rattan of an overseer and the bayonet Of a
arlne IN Woolwich dockya Is the child
nom love and in whom hope, father to yon
retch with neck already half f-dislocated with
ar, with lips half dead, with heart wholly SO.
no droops on his miserable pallet in Newgate
III, his chin on his breast, his hands between
S knees, his legs shambling; the stony walls
'ouna nm; the taciturn gaolers watching him;
bible by his side, in whose pages, when he
les to read, the letters slide and fall away
ON under his eye? Is this the father to-can
IS ever become that
NOT only In your world yerbiage must the
nld be father to the man, but the man is
erely child of larger growth | deny it.
'ne eoys are tyrants, bullies, hypocrites, and
lrs Tor fear of punishment; thieves, alas,
rough ill-example oftimes. Some girls are
Il tales, jealous, spiteftll, slanderous, vain and
ddy, | grant. If you were to tell me that
ID boys and girls often grow up to be bad men
ID women, should agree with you The evil
ample of you bad me,i and women begins to
rrupt boys and girls early enough, Heaven
lows; but do not brand the child~you know
zen infancy begins and childhood terminates
with being but your own wickedness seen
rough the small end of the glass. The man a
lid Of larger GROWTH Did you ever know a
IN OF smaller growth---a child-to discount
lis at forty per cent, and offer you the bal.
ce halt cash, and the rest poison (put down
the bill as g wine y and opera stalls' Did
u ever know child to pa wn his sisters play
ngs, or rob his playmate of his pocket money
ramble, and to cheat while gambling, and 10