The Nevada journal., 1855-12-21
The American Aladdin,

FROM A LECTURE BY G. W. CURTIss.
When we go out on Saturday after
moons to moralize and see new houses, We
usually take our young ones by Aladdin's
palace Aladdin was Yankee. He
started life by swapping jack knives, then
putting the halves of broken marbles to-
gether and passing them off as whole ones.
When he had gathered some brass he went
to school all the summer to learn the golden
rule of arithmetic addition for himself
and subtraction for his neighbor
At an early age Aladdin was considered
to be good at bargain-which meant that
he could always succeed in changing
worse for better:always keeping the. blind
side of the horse to the wall when he had
to sell it; and the village said that GER
tainly Aladdin would succeed. When he
left, che will be ricI," said the village,
with more approval than it would say 'he
will be generous and true" To Aladdin
the world was but market in which to
buy cheap and sell dear. For him there
was no beauty, no history, no piety, no
heroism. Vainly the stars shone over
him-vainly the south wind blew In the
wake of the great ship Argo, in which Ja-
son and his companions sailed for the
Golden Fleece, over the gleeming Medi-
terranean-w where the ships of Tyre, Rome
and of the Crusaders had been before
him-through the Pillars of Hercules,
through which Columbus sailed to find
fame in a new world-now sails Aladdin
to find fortune. To him all lands are
alike. No Homer sang for him in the
Kgean; he only curses the wind that will
not blow him into Odessa. No syrens
sing for him, but he loves the huge oath
of the lively boatswain: With the Bible
in his hand and quid of tobacco in his
mouth, he goes about the holy places in
Jerusalem, and Calculates" their exact
site. He sees the land of the Rameses
and the Ptolemies; and the reverend rec
ords of the Lybian desert, whose echoes
have slumbered since they were tramped
over by Alexander's army, are now ava
kened by the shrill whistle of Old Dan
Tucker. He insults the Grand Llama,
hobnobs with the Grand Mogul, turns his
back upon emperors, and takes a pinch
out of the Pope's snuf-box. He chews
with the Arabs, smokes opium with the
Turks, and rides for bride with the CAL
muck Tartars.
Aliddin comes home again, and the ad-
miring village points him out to the youn-
ger generation as successful man; 'My
son, look at him; he began with moth
ing-now see." "My son" does sec, and
beholds him owning million Of dollars
of all societies of which he is not presi-
dent, director His name is as good as
gold-he has bought pictures and statues
he has also bought Mrs Aladdin and
housed her in luxury; but he picks his
mouth with silver fork. He has home
for poet, but he makes it his boast that
he reads nothing but his newspaper He
goes to church twice on Sundays, and only
up when the preacher denounces the sin
ner of Sodem and Gomorrah, and these
though old Jews" of Jerusalem. His
head is bald and shiny with the sermons
which have hit and glanced off. He clasps
his hands in prayer, but forgets to open
them when the poor box is passed around;
and he goes home like successful man,
| luduhiDS NOO VlaI ue lS uoL dS OtlltI lueu
are. And after dinner he sits before the
fire in his easy chair, lights large cigar,
and looks languidly at Mrs Aladdin through
the thick smoke.
BY and by old Aladdin dies. The con-
ventional virtues are told over as the
mourning carriages are called out. The
papers regret they are called upon to de-
plore the loss of reverend parent, gen
erous friend, public-spirited citizen, and
pious man and the precocious snapper
of jackknives, and the model set up to the
young generation is laid in the dust :
Above his grave the stars he never saw
now burn with a softer luster which no
lamps about a kings tomb can emulate !;
and the south wind, for whose breath upon
his brow he was never grateful, strews his
lonely last bed with anemones and violets,
that his heel crushed when living; and We
who are to be formed upon that model,
carelessly remark, as we stir our toddies,
$50 old Aladdin is gone at last; and, by
the way, how much did he leave:"
RIGID NorIoNs OF DuTY.-A soldier