Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1866-02-27
For the Freeman.
Newspapers Fern-and little Of
Everything.

{" One great pleasure of my life hitherto" says
Fanny Fern in late number of the New York
Ledger, " has been reading newspapers. In fact
| was born with in my hands. When every
thing else failed me, have said thank Provi
dence, can bury myself in the newspapers. l
considered that person my enemy, who abducted
one from my desk before il read, or tore it for
a wrap er, in any wise marred ii, till had de-
voured the contents. | like to imagine what kind
of men It's editors Ike TO how they steal
literary wares and editorials and things" We
confess, also, to a liking of newspapers, not so
much for the purpose of detecting the stealing
propensities of editors, 10 be able to make
invoice of progress, by summing up the odds and
ends Of the world. But it seems 20 u.s. that many
Of the icares of the papers, whether stolen or
honorably obtained, will hardly pay for storage.
When We take up the Ledger, and glance at the
tales of Mrs. Southworth and Mss Depuy, already
divided into thirty and Fifty mortal long chapters
no wedding yet-and still " to be continued, - we
feel like saying with Shakespeare. s. Too much ado
about nothing " and plead excuse. We presume
there is not line that might not De read in the
family circle, as Mr.. Bonner asserts, or even in
church, bur after ali, cannot afford TO d-lve so
long TO get at the g oonsu,nnaatjon to use the
dealers phrase it ,1o MT pay But We do Mt mean
to be too ussy, it may De owing to our Inability to
appreciate polite literature, and though We prefer
substance to shadoto, bound to be chsrita
BILE still. Sylvanus Cobb presents his " wares +"
to better acceptance Somehow he has good
common sense practical way of telling story,
without exhausting the patience of the reader,
while the moral sticks out prominently un ercum-
bered by useless verbiage and rubbish. But among
all our newspaper "reminiscences none are remem-
bered with more interest than the Green Mountain
Freeman of State, and the Liberdtor of
old Massachusetts. We like to think of these old
pioneers Of freedom, when the press almost
universally shackled by the slave power. These
old 4" one idea" organs have lived like Asrons rod
to swallow up all the rest. The LiberatOr has
died and risen to glorious Immortality. Think
of the heroic Garrison in the morning of life plac
ing himself level with poor, despsed, de-
graded class of men, laboring rrlinchingly thirty
five years for their pation-breasting the
whole current of political chicanery and oorrup
tou-grappling with spiritual wickedness in high
places ''-declaring he would " not equivocate-
will not excuss-I will not retreat single inch
and ,ciu be heard" OF oppression he vows.
s'Iswear while lifs-b blood warns throbbing veins
Still oppose and thwart with heart and hand,
Thy brut aliEng sway, I'LL Afric's chains
Are burst, and Freedom rules the rescued land,
Trsmpng oppression and his iron rod
Such is the vow take-so help me Cod. F"
Thank God the pledge is nobly redeemed
pal, Eri,.
highest aspirations. Fortunate man What
name What fame The fame of thousand
Napoleons is ecipsed, and lost taper at noon
day, amid the halo of glory that surrounds him.
But here comes Fanny Fern again, and it must
be confessed that Fanny has way of putting her
short, pithy sayings and things together, in q
style peculiar to herself. In the following, from
the text Stones for bread" she gives the clergy
a very gentle, significant jog g. 1 sometimes wish
clergymen would study human nature more, and
their libraries less. II they would less often try
to unravel some doubled-twisted theological knot,
which if pulled out straight would not carry one
drop of balm to suffering fellow being, or teach
him how to bear bravely and patiently the trials
under which soul and body are ready to faint"
| Such bread cast upon the waters, peradventure,
may be gathered up after many days by Doctor,
of Divinity, and we hope unsparingly dealt out in
place of " stones" We were never more forcby
convinced of the truth of Fanny's position, than
We we're the other day on being presented by q
neighbor with Edwards on the Will )" mon
strous great book to prove machine wo MT &c
without a motive power. 1t was claimed ons
had ever attempted an ans wer The will in all it.
metaphysical windings was "pulled out straight
as arrow and yet, it never altered the vol
tions of a single mortal, ever fed, clothed OIL
warmed a single suffering son or daughter of hu
manity. Fanny tells US she has seen face loter
ing at church threshold, listening to the thrilling
notes of the organ, and longing to go in, were il
not for the wide gulf between itself and thos
who assembled-I will not say worshipped there.