Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1861-01-22

We find the following beautiful and
touching lines among the scraps in our
drawer. We fndit without heading or au-
thor's name, and lay it before our readers
as an appropriate waif for the season. There
are many-too many, alas Whose thoughts
will revert to their youthful days, when
reading these lines. and who will have cause
to ask, why have our days forgot such
goodly things?"-Balt. inner.
We did not fear them once-the dull gray morn
ings,
No cherries burden on our spirits laid;
The long night watches did not bring us warn
That were tenants Of house decayed.
The early SHOWS like dreams to US descended,
The frost did fairy work on pave and bough;
Beauty, and power, and wonder, have not end
How is it that We fear the Winters now,
Their house fires fall as bright on hearth and
chamber @t@-G1 ~
Their northern star light shines as coldly clear;
The woods still keep their holly for December;
The world a welcome yet-4er the new year.
And far away in aforementioned places
The snow drop rises and the robin sings,
The sun and moon look out with loving
Why have our days forgot such good things7
Is it that now the north wind finds US shaken
BY tempests fercer than its bitter blast
Which fair beliefs and friendship, too, have
taken aT1.:.t r:E s.@s@.
Away like Summer foliage as they passed,
And made life eafess in its pleasant valleys,
Waning the light of promise from cur day,
Till mists meet even in the inward palace
dimness notlike theirs to pass away?
1t was not thus when dreams of love and laurels
Gave sunshine to tho Winters of our youth,
Before its hopes had fallen in fortunes quarrels
Or Time had bowed them with hisheavy truth
Ere yet the twilight found us strange and lonely,
With shadows coming when the Are burns low,
To tell of distant graves and losses only.
The past that cannot change and will not 20.
Alas! dear friends, the Winter is within US;
Hard is the ice that grows about the heart,
For petty cares and vain regrets have won us
From life's true heritage and better part.
Seasons and skies rejoice, yea, worship rather;
But nations toll and ,tremble even as we,
Hoping for harvests they will never gather,
Fearing the Winters which they may not see.
PROGRESS OF VAccINATIoN-On the 18th
of May, 1896, Jenner vacciuated q boy named
Phipps, eight years old, from the hand of
dairy-woman who had the true cowpock.-
The boy went we'll through the experiment,
was inocuated for smallpox in July, and
failed to take it. From this time forward it
was the custom to make the l4th, of May
day of rejoicing in Prussia aud elsewhere,
and to publish the annual results of vaccina-
ton. For many years the vaccinations ex-
ceeded the births, showing that the people
were aware of their danger while any re-
mained unsecured. In Prussia the deaths
from smallpox had averaged forty thousand
annually before vaccination was introduced;
and within twenty years they had sunk to
three thousand, though there had been
large accession of new territory. Sweden
and Denmark and some territories in Ger
many remained absolutely free from small
pox for twenty years after the practice Of
vaccination had been properly adopted-a
sudden change from the few preceding
years, when six hundred thousand persons
died annually of smallpox in the world at
large, and two hundred and ten thousand in
Europe; and when every quarter of centu-
ry saw twenty-five million human beings
carried off by the foulest of distempers.-
Once Week.