The south-western. [volume] (Shreveport, La.) 1852-1870, 1856-12-10
Total, 22,l64 20,709
Buchanan's majority, ,455


Buchanan's majority, ,455
DELIGHTFUL TALkERs-We hear great deal
Of lamentation now days, proceeding mostly
from elderly people, on the art of conversation
among us. Old ladies and gentlemen, with viv-
id recollectons Of the charms Of society fifty
years ago, are constantly asking each other
why the great takers of their youthful DAYS
have found no successors in this inferior present
time. Where, they nquiringy mourn-where
are the illustrlous men and women gifted with
capacity for perpetual outpouring from the
tongue, who used to keep enraptured audiences
delugcd in flow of eloquent monologue for
hours together? Where are the solo takers in
this degenerate age Of nothing but choral con-
yersation? Embal1ned in social tradition or i'm
perfectly preserved in books for the benefit of
an ungrateful posterity, which reviles their sur
viving contemporaries, and would, perhaps, even
have reviled them as bores. What change
seems indeed to have passed over the face of
society since the days of the great takers! If
they could rise from the dead and wag their un-
resting tongues among us now, would they win
their reputation anew, just as easily as ever?
Would they even get listeners? Would they
actually be allowed to talk? l should venture
to say, decidedly not. They would surely be
interrupted and contradicted; they would have
their nearest neighbor at the dinner table talk
ing across them; they would find impatient peo-
pie opposite, dropping things noise]y, and un-
ostentatiously picking them up; they would hear
confidential whispering and perpetual fidgetine
IN distant corners, before they had got through
their first half-dozen Of eloquent opening SEN
tences. Nothing appears to me so wonderful
as that none of these Interruptions Gfwe are to
believe report) should ever have occurred in
the good old times Of the great takers. read
long biographies Of that large class of illustri-
Gus individuals whose fame is confined to the
select circle of their own acquaintance, and |
find that they are to man, whatever other diff
ferenccs may have existed between them, all
delightful takers. I am told that they held
forth entranclng y for hours together, at all
times and seasons, and that l. the gentle, con-
stantand patient reader, am one of the most un-
fortunate and ptjable Of human beings in never
having enjoyed the luxury of hearing them;
but, stranyel enough, am never told whether
they were occasionally interrupted or not in the
course of their outpourIngs. | am left to infer
that their friends sat under them just as a con-
gregaton sits under pul pit, and I ask myself
amazedy remembering what society is al the
present day. whether human nature can have
changed altogether since that time Who can
enlighten us.
TIE CHINESE PorAro-This vegetable is
attracting considerable attention at the north.
Mr.. VIM. R. Prince, Of Flushing, n. York, has
raised a quantity of them and thinks the root
will become one of great Importance in this
country. He asserts:
1st. That the dioscorea batatos of Decaisnc
is perfectly hardy during our sevcrest winters.
end. That it is more nuricious than any other
esculcnt we cultivate. 3rd. That its culture is
easily and simple, and its product so great,
that it can be afforded incomparablv cheaper
than any other nutritious vegetable, it having
produced in France at the rate of above 500
bushels per acre. 4th. That the combination
of every useful property renders it the great
est vegetable boon ever granted by God to man,
and that its introduction to our county is even
more important than that OF cotton and that in
twenty years national statistics will report
the value of the annual" crop AS greater than
the cotton crop.
Such reliance is placed upon this root in Tie
Chinese empire, that according TO Mr. Prince,
one half the population would perish from the
effects of famine if suddenly deprived of it
ANCoiolI95 w VIC ooihC daehOiilt II WIN super"
cede every other potato, and in measure be
substituted for Indian corn and wheat. 1t is
said to make good bread, and the roots propa-
gate easily and rapidly. The Revue Horti,
cole, published under the direction of the
French institute, devotes twenty pages to this
subject, concluding as follows: This esculent
has now been tested in every department Of
France, even to its more northern limits-the
shores of the Rhine, and it is to be deemed
henceforth incorporated into the agriculture of
France"
''SrM WATsoS's Book the plantation
of James Watson, near Port Gibson, Mississip-
pi, may be witnessed an exhibition of memory
that is truly remarkable. An African girl,
about fourteen years of age, answers to the
same name which heads this article. It is the
custom of Watson to give rewards for over
work, and during the cotton picking season the
amount each hand picks is weighed twice per
day, noon and night. The girl stands by the
overseer, and listens to the number of pounds
announced to each hand, and at night the re-
suit is reported with the utmost accuracy. Her
correctness is repeatedly put to the test by Mr.,
Watson, and others, who keep memoranda
during the weighing and day or two after
wards sheis catechised, and her memory found
perfect Mr.. Watson works from so to 10