Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1858-07-10
Anecdotes of Ayarioe.

'hSN'NbiN) IiIp NGhulJlOl MOulu
have been perfect; for an avaricious man
Is never to be cured unless by the same
medicine which perhaps may cure mad
dog. The arguments ofrcason, philosophy
or religion, will have little effect upon him
he is born and framed to a sordid love of
money, which first appears when he is very
young, grows up with him, and increases
III middle age, and when he is old, and all
his passions have subsidized, wholly cngross
cs him. The greatest endowmcnts of the
mind, the greatest abilities in profession,
and even the quiet possession ofun immense
treasure, will never prevail against avaricc.
The great captain, the Duke of Marlboro,
when lie was in the last stage of life and
very inGnn, would walk from the public
room in Bath to his lodgings in cold dark
night, to save siXpcnce in chair hire. If
the Duke who left at lis death more than
million and half sterling, could have
forescen that all his wealth and honors
were to be inherited by grandson of nv
Lord Trcvor's, who had been one of his
enemies, would he have been so careful to
save siXpcncc for the sake of his heir p
Not for the sake OF his heir; but he would
always have saved sixpcncc. Sir James
Lowthcr after changing piece of silver in
Georges Coffee house, and paving two pence
for his dish of coffee, was helped into his
chariot (tor he was then very lame and in
hrm,) and went home; same time after. he
returned to the same coffec-house on pur-
pose to acquaint the woman who kent it
that she had given him a bad half penny,
and demanded another in exchange for It.
Sir james had about $4,000 per annum,
and was at Il loss whom to appoint his heir,
| knew one Sir Thomas Colby who lived at
kensington, and was, | think commits
sioncr in the Vctualing- Office, he killed
hlmselfby rising in the middle of the night,
when he was in a very profuse sweat, the
effect of medicine which he had taken for
that purpose, and walking down stairs to
look for the key of his cellar, which he had
inadvertently left on table in his parlor :;
he was apprehensivc that his servants would
rob him of a bottle of wine. This man
died intcstate and left more than g2OO coo
in the funds which was shared among five
or six day laborers who were his nearest
relations. Sir William Smyth, of Bedford
shire, who was my kinsman, when he was
near seventy, was wholly deprived of his
sight. He was persuaded to be couchcd by
Taylor, the oculist, who, by agreement,
was to have sixty guincas if he restored his
patient to any degree ofsight. Taylor sue
cecdcd in his operations, and Sir William
was able to read and write without the use
of spectacles during the rest of his life !;
but rs soon as the operation was performed
and Sir William perceived the good effects
oft, instead of being overjoyed, as any 9TH
er person would have been, he began to la.
ment the loss Gas he called it) of his sixty
guineas. His contriyance, therefore, now,
how to cheat the oculist; he pretended
that he had only glimmcring, and could
see nothing perfectly; for that reason the
bandage on his eye was continued month
longer than the usual time, by this means
he obliged =" vlor to compound the bar
gain, and accept of twenty guineas for a
covctous man thinks no method dishonest
which he may legally practice to save his
money.
LAFAYETTE.-~The sympathy for Amer
lea which prevailed more and more in Eng
land, reached the Kings own brother, the
weak but amiabe Duke Of Gloucester. In
July he crossed the channel, with the view
to inspect the citadcls of France. When
he left Dover, nothing had been heard from
America later than the retreat of the Brit
ish from Concord, and the surprise of III
conderoga. Metz, the strangest place on
the east of France, was particular object
of his journey and as his tour was made
with the sanction of Louis XVI, he was re-
ceived there by the Count de Broglie as the
guest of the King. Among the visitors on
the occasion, came a young man not yet
eighteen, whom Dc Brogic loved with pa
rental tenderness, Gilbert Monitor dc la
Fayette His father had fallen in his TWEEN
ty-ffth year, in the Battle of Mindcn, leav-
ing his only child less than two years old.
The boyish dreams of the orphan had been
of glory and liberty at tho college in Par
is, at the academy of Versailles, no studies
charmed him like tales of republics rich
by vast ihheritances, and married at six
teen, he was haunted by passion to rove
the world as an advorturer in quest of fame,
and the opportunity to strike blow for
freedom. A guest at the banquet in hon
or of the Duke of Gloucester, he listened
with avidity to an authentic version of the
uprising of New England husbaudmen.
The reality of life had now brought before
him something more wonderful than the
brightest of his visions the youthful ma
tion insurgent against oppression, and fight
ing for thefight to govern themselves, took
possession of his imagination. He inquir-
ed; he grew warm with enthusiasm and
before he left the table, the men of Lexing-
ton and Concord had won for America a
volunteer in Lafayette. Bqacrotf.