Southern shield., 1857-01-24
BEWARE OF DRIPPING.

"i'O0AoOAo"oly dIlu DcLoI6 IHVy @I0 aware of danger, the habits are con- frmed and require resolute and persis- ted effort to effects change. "Resist beginnings was 9 maxim of the an- cients, and should be preserved as 8 landmark in our day. ThoBaltimore Sun has good article on the light beginners of danger which end in fatal ruin:
 It was only the other day that a man fell asleep in his boat on the Nj agara River. During his slumber she broke loose from her moorings, and he awoke to find himself shooting down the rapids, directly towards the cataract. Invain he shrieked for help, in vain he tried to row against the cur rent; he drifted on, and on, till his his light craft upset, when he was borne rapidly to the brink of the abyss, and leaping up with Q wild cry, went over and disappeared forever.
 In the great battle of Gibraltar, when the united fleets of France and Spain attacked an impregnable for tross, one of the gigantic floating bat teries broke from her anchorage and began to drift directly into the hottest Pri+iah fire The thousand men who formed the crew of the unwieldly mass, vainly stroye to arrest its progress or divert 1t from its path. Every minute it drifted nearer to the English guns; every minute some new part took fire from tho red-hot shot-evcry minute another score of its hapless defenders were swept like chaf from its decks. The most superhuman efforts failed to prevent its drifting with its human freight, to inevitable death.
 A ship was wrecked at sea. The passengers and crew took refuge on 8 raft, the boats having been stove in the attempt to launch them. For days and weeks those unfortunate beings drifted about without oar or sail, on the hot, broken tropical ocean. At last their provisions failed, and then their water. Still they drifted about, vainly looking for 9 sail, or hoping for 9 sight of land. The time had now come when that fearful alterna- tive became ineyitable-death from starvation, or feeding on human flesh and they were just beginning to cast lots for victim, when 8 vessel was seen on the distant horizon. They abandoned their terrible design; the stranger would approach. She drew nearer and nearer. They stroye to attract her attention by shouts ard by raising their clothing; but the indoIent lookout saw them not. They shouted louder and louder, still they were not seen. At last the vessel tackled. With frantic terror they rose in one body, shouting and waving their garments. It was iii vain. The unconscious ship stood steadily away. Night drew on, and as the darkness fell, heIaft drif- ted and drifted in the other direction, till the last trace of the vessel was lost forever.
 So it is in life. The incorporate man who thinks he, at least, will never die a drunkard, whatever his neighbor may do, only wakes to find himself drifting down the cataract, and all hope gone. The sensualist who lives merely for his own qualification, drifts into an emasculated old age to be tor tured with passions he cannot gratify, and perish by merciless, agonizing diseases. The undisciplined, who never learned to control themselves; who are spendthrifts, or passionate, or indolent, or visionary, soon make shipwreck of themselves, and drift about the sea of life, the prey of every wind and current, vainly shrieking for help, till at last they drift away into darkness and death.
 Take care that you are not drifting. See that you have fast hold of the helm. The breakers of life forever roar under the lee, and adverse gales continually blow on the shore. Are you watching how she heads? Do you keep a firm grip of the wheel? If you give way but for one moment, you may drift holplessly into the boiling vortex. Young men, take care. It rests with yourself alone, under God, whether you reach port triumphantly, or drift to ruin.
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 PRETTY GoOD.-Thc following is the latest emanation from Terrell, the invctorate punster of the Lafayette (Ind. ) Journal.
 A tattling correspondent of the New York Herald, writing from Ian caster, pretcnds to give the gauge of a drink he had witnessed the President elect take,. one frosty morning at Wheatl2nd, recently. He irreyerently estimates it at "a couple of inches;;" and expresses the opinion that the Sage's potations visibly increase with his years. There is nothing wonder