New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1855-11-29
E.Fa E.E &.55H ers
The American Aladdin !.
I[Ffom seosn. Lecture, delivered By q, ". cartiss

[From recent Lecture, delivered by g. WI Curtiss
When we go out on Sunday afternoons 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 together and passing them of as whole
ones. When he had gathered some brass, he
went to school all the simmer to learn the
golden rule of arithmetic addition for himself
and subtraction for his neighbor.
At an early sge Aladdin was considered to be
good at o bargain, which meant that he could
always succeed in changing Edrse for q bet
ter--always keeping the blind eye Of o horse to
the wall when he wanted to sell it.; and the yil-
lage said that certainly Aladdin would succeed
When he left, che will be rieh,' said the VII
lage, with more approval then 1t would say,
6 be will be generous and true" To Aladdin
the world was but q market in which 20 buy
cheap and sell dear. For him there was no
beauty, no history, no piety, no heroism.
Vainly the stars shone over him -Fainly the
South wind blew. In the wake of the great
ship Argo in which Jason and his companions
sailed for the Golden Fleece, over the cleaning
Mediterranean--wher the ships Of Tyre, Rome,
and Of the Crusaders had been before him
through the pillars Of Hercules, through which
sailed Columbus to find fame in q new world
now sails Aladdin to find fortune. TO him all
lands are alike. No Homer sang for him in the
Egean--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 boat
swain With Bible in his hand and qnid OF
tobacco in his mouth, he goes abont the holy
places in Jerusalem, and g calculates their
exact SITE He sees the land of the Rameses
and the Ptolomies; and the reverend records Of
the Ly bian desert, whose echoes have sluDbered
since they were trampled over by Alexander's
army, are now awakened by the shriH whistle
of Old Dan Tucker. He insults the Grand
| Llama, hoh-nobs with the Great Mogul, turns
of the Pope's snuff box, He chews with the
Arabs. smokes opium with the Turks, and rides
| for bride with the Calmuck Tartars. So
Aladdin comes home again, and the admiring
village points him out to the younger genera
tion as . successful mani .My son, look at
him: he began with nothing and now see.
I" My SON" does see, and beholds him owning a
| million Of iollars-of all societies of which he
| is not president, director. His name is good
| as eold-he has bought pictures and statues
| he has also bought Mrs Aladdin and housed
| her in luxury; but he pricks his mouth with a.
| silver fork He has home for @ poet, but he
makes it his boast that he reads nothing but the
| newspaper. He goes to church twice on Sun.
days, and only wakes up when the preacher
denounces the sinner Of sodom and aGomorrah,
and those Sc tough old Jews of Jerusalem,
His head is bald and shiny, with ths 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 a successful man. lthanking God he is
| not as other men 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 1sfe
By and by, old Aladdin dies. The eonVen-
tional virtues are told over. as the mourning
carriages are called out. The papers regret
| they are called upon to deplore the loss Of
reverend parent, generous friend, public spirit
ed citizen, and pous man; and II then the pre-;
cocions snapper of jack knives, and the model
set up to the young generation, is laid in the
| dust. Above his grave, the stars he never saw
4 now burn with soft lustre which no lamps
about kings tomb can emulate; and the
South wind, for whose breath upon his brow he
was never grateful, strews his last bed with
anemonies and yiolets that his heel crushed
living; and we who are to be formed upon tha,
model, carelessly remark, rs we stir our toddies
g So, old Aladdin is gone at last, and, by-ther
by, how much did hs leayai'