Butte record., 1855-01-06
YANKEE GYPSEES.

entitled Yankee Gypsies in the new
volume of Whittier's Literary Recrea-
tions and Miscellanies,'' viii be perused
by many ofour readers, who have doubt
less heard of the originals:
There was another class of peripa-
tetic philosophers, half peddIer, half
mcndicant,-w who were in the habit of
visiting US. One we recollect, lame,
unshaven, sinister eyed unwholsome fel
low, with his basket of pamphlets, and
his tattered blue umbrella, serving rath-
er as walking staff than as a protec-
ton from the rain. He told US on one
occasion IN answer to our inquiring into
the cause of his lameness, that when a
young man he was employed on the farm
of the chief magistrate of neighboring
State where, as his i'll luck would have
it, the governors hadsome daughter fell
in love with him. He was caught one
day in the young lady's room by her
father, VIII rupon the irascible old gen.
tleman pitched him unceremoniously out
of the window, laming him for life on
the brick pavement below, like Vulcan
on the rocks Of Lemnos. AS for the
lady, he assured us, ''she took on Won
derfully about it." Did she die - we
anxiously enquired There was cum
ming twinkle in the old rogue's eye as
responded, "Well, no, she didn't. She
got married"
Twice year, usually in the spring
and autumn, we were honored with a
visit from Jonathan Plummer, maker of
verses, peddler, and poet, physician and
parson,-a yankee Troubadour,-frst
and last minstrel of the valley of the
Nerimac, encircled to my eyes, with the
very nimbus of Immortality He bro't
with him with pins, needles, tape and
cotton thread for my mother, jack
knives, razors AID soap for my father !;
and verses, of his own composing coarse
ly printed and illustrated with wood
cuts, for the dclectation of the younger
members of the family No love-sick
youth could drown himself, no deserted
maiden bewail the moon, without fitting
memorial in Plummer's verses Earth
quakes, fires, fevers and shipwrecks he
regarded as personal favors furnishing
the raw material for song and ballad.
Welcome to US in our country seclusion
as Autolycus to the clown in Winter's
Tale, we listened with infinite satisfac-
ton to his readings of his own verses,
or to his ready improvisation upon some
domestic incident or topic suggested by
by his auditors. When once fairly over
the difficulties at the outset of a new
subject, his rhymes flowed freely, Gas if
he had eaten ballads and all mems ears
grew to his tunes" His productions
answered, as nearly as | can remmeber,
to Shakespeare's description of a proper
ballad -"doleful matter merriIy set
down, or very pleasant theme sung la
MENTALLY" He was scrupulously con-
scientious, devout, inclined to theologi-
cal disquisitions, and withal mi ghty in
scriptures. He was thoroughly indie
pendent fattered nobody; cared for
nobody trusted nobody. When invited
to sit down at Our dinner table, he inva-
riably took the precaution to place his
basket of valuables between his legs for
safe keeping. "Never mind thy basket
Jonathan" said my father (; eve shan't
steal thy verses" "I'm not sure of
that returned the suspicious guest
at is written trust We not in any broth
err
Thon too, O Parson B., with thy pale
Students brow and rubicund nose, with
thy rusty and tattered black coat over
swept by white, flowing locks, with thy
professional white neckcloth ecrupulous-
ly preserved when even shirt to thy
back was problematicaI art by no
means to be overlooked in the muster
sroll of vagrant gentlemen possessing the
cntree of our farm house. Well do we
remember with what grave and dignifed
courtesy he used to step over the thresh-
held, saluting its inmates with the same
air of gracious condescension, and pat
ronage with which in better days he had
delighted the hearts of his parishioners
Poor old man He had once been the
admired and almost worshipped minister
of the largest church in the town where
he afterwards found support in the win>
ter season as pauper. He had early
fallen into Incorporate habits; and at