Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1872-09-28
About Friendship.

The conventional phrase came very naCuTally lO
my lips, but it had, for the first time, strange
sound You know what startling looks famil-
lar landscapes sometimes put on.
After he had gone away Thcodosla and
talked it over together.
'Who are my friends p 1t is dangerous
question You can easily run over the names
of your acquaintauces but how many people
are there in the list ofwhom you are perfectly
sure-sure not only of their liking for you, but
of your liking for them L? Not true friends, .
as the saying is when you mean people who
will speak to you just as graclously the day
after your barns burn down as the day before
but people you care to have good deal OF,
barns or no barns
| think some of the friendliest people
know have the fewest friends. Ies-men and
women Of whom it is said, they make friends
everywhere, they adapt themselves so we'll to
others, they are SO winning to so many different
kinds OF people-not shallow, facile souls, mind
YOU, but deep and seadfast. Everybody likes
them, aud if they don't like everybody, at least
they are kind to and appreciative Of everybody
and they have their cronies here and there.
They have their cronies but friends-how
many? | think if they have one friend they
do we'll
Theodosia stopped me there. She said |
was talking about something beside ordinary
friendship that ought not to narrow the
word down to such use ; that she didn't be-
lieve in these violent, absorbing friendships
anyhow, or rather that she thought it terri
ble mistake to think that they are necessary to
ones happiness. She was surprised to hear
me talk in that cynical fashion, with
my romantic notions concerning the uni
versal brotherhood, who won't join the
lodge because | don't want any man to fish
~, No Of, oh
ed neighbor, merely because | can tip him a
wink aud the other poor devil can't
fnd however, that Theodosia doesn't SO
much object tc the violent cases, as she still
calls them, so long as they are in nc way forced
so long as the persons keep their proper rela-
tious Ia world Of philosophy in that little
phrase) But we should make up our minds,
she says not to be miserable if we are denied
the full cup OF sympathy
When [ come to think of it-some of the
happiest lives, apparently, I have known have
been utterly devoid of friendship, in an intense
Sence. Perhaps you can point. among your
acuuantances for instance, to a woman OF middle
age, with many Of her early comrades about
her, with children married and away, yet not
so far away that they never can be seen by her,
with husband still living, and yet with DO
real companion among them all. That might
seem dreary lot euough-yet behold the heart
of grace, the hand to help, the voice to cheer,
the face shining like the sun, the wilderness
that blossoms as the rose.
1t is Just this, that the human has its imita-
tons, and that the only happy Is the unsehsh
lite. Some one has written in great distress to
the Old Cabinet about what was said here
some time ago concerning the inadequacy Of
human sympathy. Only one side of the sub
ject was presented then. \ sympathy merely
human, can never suffice. First or last, that
is something very one has to find out tor HIM
self
But, dear heart unknown, did you think I
Shall [ tell you secret? | think that if it
were taken away from me to-day would do
tonight what Shargar threatened, but never
did, would cut my throat.-1he Old CuOa-
net, Sclbner's for October.
A GREAT AND USEFUL MAN-Parton, in
one of his papers In the Atlantic Monthly, tells
with what eagerness and industry MIR. Jetfer
son sought, when Minister to France, for infor
nation in regard to all useful inventions and
discoveries in order to communicate it to his
friends at home. IT do not know (says Mr..
Parton) what public man has ever been more
office conferred Of rendering solid service to his
country, to corporations to individuals He
kept four colleges Harvard, Yale, William
and Mary, and the College of Philadelphia
advised of the new inventions, discoveries, con-
lectures, books that seemed important. 1t
was he who sent to America ''the most oppor-
tune piece of mechanical intelligence that pen
ever recorded-the success Of the Watt steam
engine, by means of which peck of coal per-
torus as much work as horse, in day." He
sent to Virginia particular accounts OF the con-
Struction of canals and locks and of the devl-
ces employed in Europe for improving and ex-
tending the navigation OF rivers information
peculiarly welcome to General Washington and
the companies formed under his auspices to
extend the navigation OF the James and Poto-
mac back to the mountains. In his strolls
among the book stalls be picked up many hun.
dreds of prizes in the way of rare and curious
books for Madison, Wythe, Monroe and himself.
He seized upon every opportunity that offered OF
aiding the growth OF better taste lnAmerlca tor
architecture He sent information, seeds, roots,
nuts and plants to the agricultural societies OF
Philadelphia and Charleston-th only two then
in America. He attempted to introduce the
olive culture into the Southern States. Ascer-
tanning that American rice was reckoned lnterl-
or to that of Piedmont, and not SO well cleaned,
he crossed the Alps and traversed the rice
country on purpose to examine the hulling- mill
employed there Finding IL almost luepllca
with that used in South Carolina, he concluded
that the fault Of the South Carolina rice was IN
the seed and so he made arrangements to sup
ply the Italian seed rice to his countrymen lar
engagements which unfortunately failed. He
had to content himself with filling the pockets
of his overcoat and coat with the best rice OF
the best rice producing district in Italy, which
he sent in two parcels, by different ships, to
Charleston. This small store reached the
Charleston society and was distributed among
the planters, dozen or two grains to each
These were carefully sown and watched, usus i
ly under the masters eye. 1.-THE species sue
ceedcd well in the rice country, and er .abled
the South Carolina planters to produce me best
rice in the world. 1t the reader has had to-
day rice pudding of superior rice, its grains
We're, in all probability, descended lie neally from
those which Jefferson carried off in his pockets
IN 1881"