The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-11-17
NOVEMBER l. 1859.

L, lCOJ.
Ny DEAR Did it ever happen to you to take
"a realizing sense" that your trunks, and
drawers, and boxes, needed "clarin' out 2" If
it never did-if you are one of those inexpliea-
BILE individuals whose affairs always move in a
right line, whose collars never get rumpled,
whose pencils never are missing, whose back
hair never tumbles down when you are riding,
who never get the figure upside down in ma
king dress, and never overturn the inkstand
on Webster's large dictionary-if your worldly
possessions are always arranged in rank and
file, with the precision and dizziness of Spar
tan phalanx, SO that you can summon all your
resources in any emergency-a state of things
on which / look, / must confess, with an adj
miration not unmingled with awe-why, then,
YOU may as well skip this article, and go on to
the poetry and the politics, which, dare say,
you will find highly entertaining and instruct
i've. But if your sewingsilk has habit of getting
tangled in with your paper of pins, if there is a
steady and unexplained decrease of population
in your needle-book, if your gaiter-boots per-
sist in walking off separately on their own &C
count, if your scissors are continually proving
an alibi, and your thimble is the centre of per
petual occultation in short, if you have inseu
sibly and inevitably contracted the habit Of
looking upon your personal property as band
of conspirators, sworn to rob you of your time
and temper, then you will perhaps recolIect
that on one fine morning you arose, bright
and early, with the fell purpose in your heart
I al. g Ill.
crushing out the instruction, and forcing the
insurgents each into his proper place in the
body polite.
You began by emptying all your boxes and
bureaus in heap in the middle of the floor
Then you folded yourself up Turk fashion
beside them, and, as belt-ribbon hung owe
the apex of the somewhat irregular pyramid
YOU decided to hunt out all the beltribbons
first, and put them in one place. So you rol
the belt-ribbon round your fingers, and lay tina
aside, and begin your explorations; but tina
belt-ribbon was false flag for, although yol
know you have one to match every dress, yet
as you dive deeper, you find no more beltrib
bons but glut of gloves. You conclude t.
change your basis OF operations You will take
out whatever comes to hand, and arrange sepa
rate piles. The plan works well. You very
soon have a semi-circe of laces, and bows, and
stockings, and bracelets, as far as your arms
can reach. 1t is very interesting work, too
Here is little wrought rufle that disappeared
six months ago, and baffied your researches. II
was caught between the drawer and the bureau
1t has grown very yellow, and must be laid out
on the grass then it will be as good as new
Here is that Paris slipper that you raved about
50, when YOU were going to visit the BIS, and
couldn't find it to pack forgetting that you
had wrapped it up and tucked IT into that box
to send to your friend, that she might take a
pattern of the embroidery. What is this stuffed
into the thumb of an old woollen mitten We'll
done Those elegant buttons that you hunted
for. high and low, when your blue silk was
building-price six dollars a dozen-bough,
them yourself-iust brought them home-surt
you brought them home-charged everybody
with having found and concealed them on pur-
pose to annoy you--non est incent,tm-went
out in a rage and bought another set for shil-
ling, partly to punish yourself for your careless.
ness, and partly because your treasury was de-
pleted down to a crossed nine pence and brass
watch.key. How we'll now you remember
thrusting them in there, while you left the
room for a moment, lest the baby might swal
low them. You mentally resolve to run the
risk of his swallowing them next time, as they
are of no more use to you now than IT he had
being quite out of fashion. Feeling slightly
cramped, you conclude to place the several
parcels in their appropriate drawers, then you
go down and take lunch, then return to your
work great many things have been taken
out, vet the heap looks as large as ever. Here's
bundle of old letters-you break the string
look through half dozen of them-make the
modest reflection that they are not half so good
as the letters you sent in return-wonder how
YOU could have been SO interested in the cor
respondence, and where the writer is now-tie
up the parcel again, and toss it one side hum
ming,
"where are the birds in last years nesi'"
go on with your asserting, but hand Pdssiou'
eguis, yawn dismally, look at the clock, think
of the sunshine out doors, compare your non
descript heap to the widows cruise OF OIL and
at last, choking down few conscientious com
Functions, open your largest trunk, swoop W
all that remains, by the arnful, cram them IN
put down the cover as far as it will go, Jump or
it when it stops, lock it, hide the key, so that
your mother wont find it to constitute herself q
committee of one on unfinished business-and
10! your room is in order, and you walk off as
happy as bird.
Now for the application. Several hundred
years ago, counting time
By -throbs by feelings, net by fingers dial !"
waxing very cosmopolitan in my affections,
thought / would write few letters to the read
ers of the Era class which, as you very well
know, comprises the large majority of the re
spectablity, learning, wit, and wisdom OF the
country. 1 expected to do a great many won
derful things, and think of great many more
aud you know how pleasant it is to talk such
THINGS ovor With vOrr friands afterwards