The Potter journal. [volume] (Coudersport, Pa.) 1857-1872, 1859-03-10

II aux b3ll GDAt t8itAASSll tlltNN Cittti
Bang wasn't bad name from the shoul-
der-but when he heard that | should
drop his christian Que, and call myself
Excelsior-Hycr, he declined.
But | haven't yet told you how it is
that people don't get their right names,
and why ladies are called Angefnas, who
ought to be Devilettes, and why men are
called Joseph sometimes, when they are
no Josephs at all.
Every snow fake that falls" say the
Samovedes, "has name" Now, the first
time a snowflake falls on the head Of
child. if the child be barehcaded. and the
fake happen to fall in the middle of the
forehead ana melt, why Child gets the
right name But if he have cap on, or
hat, for that matter, why Flake is knock
ed of, and the name is lost"
have found out to my complete dis
satisfaction, that the first time | was out
in a snow storm, was in parlnr tabeau,
wherein [ was brought in young ladr's
arms, to represent The CHILD OF THE
Polish EXILE Ny virgin mamma
knelt in a graceful attitude with uprolied
eycs-indeed, the artistic conception was
a most immaculate one. and well deserv-
/ ing p5em-and knelt by her side 4
snow storm of torn visiting cards and mil
liners bills fell from IN Implying heaven
upon our defenceless heads, and gradually
rose in drifts on the carpet. Of course,
fake took me-but it didn't melt in
Pasteboard seldom does
/ My mamma wore her hair in what were
/ then called turrets. OF course they
caught the fakes:
! " Adieu, fair Snowdon, with thy turrets high"
! So sang David Lindsay. Poetry, you
know, is often prophecy; and if history
tells truth, the word for poet once meant
Iprophetalso. Things have changed since
then Poetry is no longer profitable,
while the very worst poetry we see now
&-days, is that Of the prophets-especially
Of the "astrologists" who show the face
of your future husband, ladies half price,
give love phIlters for half a dollar. | give
you specimen Of this poetry, on one of
the cards of celebrated New York witch {:
"Would you your fatal husband view
/ Or read the mystick future true
! Or find cure for drunkenness
! can relieve your fond distress
/ As for love philters---wel, [ never tried
them, but I believe that they have the
same result in common with water filters
they bring d0vn the dust. Whether
/ they bring down an attachment is another
matter. But as I have known a great
patron Of fortune teIlers to be sold out by
the Sheriff, l am iuclined to believe that
such is sometimes the case.
| have been rather discursiye in this
first paper, rather poIygonal and mixed
up, slightly various and not altogether
unitarian in my topics. In this [ follow
prccedeut-that of Oliver Cromwell, who,
in his first interview with anybody or cod
les, was always accustomed to fit about
from subject to subject, darting from
North East to South West, from post to
pillar from West to s. S. East, and from
one point to another, until his auditors
were not quite certain whether North was
South, or whether North South was ut
somewhere between West North and the
eleventh of January. Herein too l have
lollowcd--aIbcit at a great distance-the
eminent Napoleon, the Gun can Sybil,
Rev. Edward Irving, Lord Dexter, Or
pheus, Park Benjamin, Francatelli, the
Angel Gabriel, the Delphc Pythoness,
the musical critic of the-aud- hot
20 mentjon-and-alI of whom were
or are accustomed in their Introductory
speeches, or compositions, proemes, pro-
Iogucs, prctaces, commencements, or be.
ginnings, to pleasantly and ingeniously
entwiue such variety of disconnected
elements, that all who heard or tasted,
we're or are wont to sit in silent wonder,
narvelIing what thread Of continuity
would ever be severed from such hand
full of unsorted and rattled-up mosaic
stones.
For the thread of my discourse, see my
second Daper--I should say my thread
paper. Here endeth the first lesson of
your friend Diabolus S. Bang Go in
uaacpf