The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1864-09-09

don't remember precisely how l tried to
squirm from the dilemma. family recollect
attempting political sommersault, and of
suggesting more Saxon title for the Tenn
pie OF Liberty on the hilltop, investing the
little editice with liberty.functons rather
more u, tul ihan honorable. Since then,
have been an observer rather than an actor
in politics, being fully convinced that nobody
had better assume the demagogue, who has
not the non.conmittal genius of Martin Van,
or the acrobatic dexterity of Weathercock
! Prince John.
But the Illustrative point of the matter
lies in this: that the two intervening decades
have not extingLlshed the antipathy then
and there fomented against you as an accom-
plice in my discontinue. You may chan ge
editors every year; whiggery and democracy
may become thrice dead and plucked up by
the roots; but SO long as you are THE CAL
EDoNIAN, all my consideration for you must
come Of " the sober, second thought"
The tenacity wherewith childhood's first
impressions, whether fo- good or evil, resist
the lessons, which, whether evil or good are
thrust upon the mind all along the hurrying
years of after life, is phenomenon OF late
specially pressed upon my observation. 1t
has once or twice been the sole, solacng
ruth to present in reply to anxious private
inquiries from the North, concerning the
moral welfare of certain sons and brothers
in the Gulf Department. There are hun
dreds of hearts among your readers to which
| wish, Though you to whisper a few sugges-
ticns upon this theme. But | cannot repel
the temptation first to give another ilIustra-
tion thereof, occurring Of recent experience.
Not many years prior to the above de-
scribed political initiation,-or rather, out
itiation-I learned from Peter Parley-( Now
there is humbug extant. started, suppose,
by lean. booky Mr. Goodrich, that there
vas no such man. But will | believe it !?
Haven't actually seen his portrait-a cor
pulent, kind-faced old gentleman, going with
a cane on his travels picking up funny
information for all good little boys 9)-from
Peter Farley, | say, learned there was a
wonderful river out West, called the Missis-
sippi, and, among other facts, that it fops
South a1d empties," etc. True, Miss
Johnston "a model of good schoolma ans,
whose name is hailed with gratitude by rea-
ders of yours in almost every State in the
Union,) told US Mr.. Farley only meant that
the general course of the river was South, -
that it had many little easterly, westerl y, and
even northerly crooks. Still, the dimly out
; lined little map was often before my eye
with not over warped river steering South.
1t happens that TIE street wherein | quarter,
has southerly drainage to canal which
starts near the evee, draining westerly into
Lake Pontchariran. Yet maugre the plain
city map and everything else, fnd it i'm
, possible to Danish the old impressions OF
l"runs S nth" BY any intrinsic would be
new-one wl,on pictures that portion OF the
river crescent most nearly parallel with our
Caroad.let ST., as flowing due North. q
potent Peter Farley, tina; can make the Mis-
sissippi flow up stream, or place to the sun
the alternative of perslstently rising in the
West and setting in the East
, But to the point, namely, the cheering
J phase of this demonstrated fact of the dura
S oility of early impressions. In the absence
: ments, soldier boy will, under the inexora
| ble law of association, become assmilated t
r his surroundings. Unless he has the mean
t to keep in constant exercise the percepliv
e and reflective faculties, and those of hi
d higher emotional being,-a supposition in
r compatible with his circumstances, all thos
e floating blelnishes which so readily attacl
y themselves to lazy, listless neutrality, Ia
for instance, unCOuth mannerlsms, cant vul
d garisms. irreverent calculations, and bad far
~ cies. both the blue and the scarlet, y ar
IS apt to arrav themselves in the foreground {
J. his appearance. and, with injustice to hin
It exclude from our view those good element
g Of character that he is really cherishing an
le retaining Whenever he returns home, |,
rot roushnesS at first sight, be reckone
lie ruffian'sm. For it is oftener the form tina
the substance-the repulsive shuck than II
n, poisonous kernel-of vice, which,
's But seen too oft. familiar with her face.
SO We first endure. then pity, then embrace"
In March number OF the Mdepender
n. was given an incident under the text, Arm
Sin," a brief extract wheretrom, as best
y may recall it, will we'll illustrate my mea
ly ing.
At Il heard Young soldier exclaim yeste
P day. hearing the song of robin, God , tn
f. sounds like home! How little that GA
Nv sounded ike home How all, that made
G to him the sweetness of home, would ha
III shrunk at hearing it, into fear and sorro
of 1t would have hurt the mother, who ga
a him, pure and noble, to the army for
,e- country's sake, as he could not have h.
nd her by blow. The cheeks OF the sisters
IN the net brother would have blanched W
fear, then crisomed with shame. Some +
maid-n. perchance, at the sound of it, wo,
me have fourd her tenderest purposes and fc
md dest atf,ctions reversed. But the heart
ing that boy surely was not dead if it were,