The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1869-05-08
MAY DAY IN ENGLAND.-May

popular festivlty in England
Maypoles were reared, Queens of
the May chosen, the milkmalds |
had their peculiar dance, and
last, and most enduring of all, was
the Jack in the Green of the
Sweeps, a usage which survived
all the others, but is now nearly
extinct. In this, a boy goesarOund
inside conical framework of flow
ers and of green branches, attend
ed by comrades in fatastic dresses,
one a girl in a smart dress glitter
ing with spangles. The perform
ers, with a fife and drum, went
from house to house, and were
rewarded with money.
The reason and the meaning of
the usage is said to be this: A
lady Of rank had an only son, who
when a mere child, leaving the
house with the nursemaid, ran
away from her, and was lost for
some years. The disconsolate
mother used every exertion to re-
cover her child, but in those days
there were no telegraphs, no regu-
lar police, much less detectives,
so that the search proved Ruthless
Meanwhile the poor boy, losing all
means of reaching his home, be-
came thoroughly alarmed, and
when half dead with fright was
picked up by some strolling beg
gars, who, when they got tired of
him, sold him to a sweep. In
stead of being brought up in the
hard avocation to which he had
fallen, and one May day his Lon
don master sent him to sweep the
chimneys of his own mothers
house.
The sight of this awakened his
reeOllections, and on his first ex-
clamation his mother, even through
the CRIME and dirt that covered
him, recognized her child.
| III O1ACI W OOu4uJClutuOLdJG LuC
occasion, the lady gave a sum OF
money for all the sweeps to have
a dinner, and enjoy themselves on
the 1st of May.
The accidents that often befeil
the mummerS in the crowded
streets, led to their discontinue
ance; and in country parts the de.
cline of the rural population has
banished all traces of the sports
and gayety that gave England its
title of "Merry England"
THE EMPIRE is APPROACH.
ING.-We can conceive of no.
thing more certain, except
death and the tax-gatherer
t than that we are approaching q
military despotism. We have
met the incredulous smile OF
honest men, into whose limo.
cent craniums no thought Of
, guile ever entered, and resis.
, ted the argument of others
/. more accustomed to deal with
society as it stands, yet we can.
; not divest ourselves of the sol.
} emn conviction that we are
rapidly drifting into a new
phase of political existence
! which will be acquiesced in
> without revolution, and accept,
7 ed as the price of peace anG
the result of the late exhaust.
ing civil war.
The people are not vet edu.
, Gated, perhaps, to view this
complacently;honest men shud
) der at the contemplation of the
4 consequences, but no amount
OF regrets, however sincere, o.
: shaking of heads, or eloquentl1
expressed doubts will divert
our destiny from the heavy
tramp of the military heel
, The close observer of history
: will have constantly presented
to him examples Of peoples
! working through precisely the
same phases on a parallel plair
with our own. First, patriot
> ism; second, glory; third, cor
: ruption-and then military des
) potism. We have passed tn,
two first; are far on in the third
and the result is inevitable
[Ptttsburg Press.
One of the inmates of th,