The Portland daily press., 1879-02-01
Y0rick's Drawer

1t was mentioned in the Drawer some.
time ago that Disraeli's famous ''The
critics? They are the men who have failed
in literature aud art" was anticipated in a
passage in Landor's Imaginary Converse.
tions:'' ''Those who have failed as writers
turn reviewers" A nearer suggestion
Yorick thinks, is afforded by Balzac's men,
tion of the critics as ''les inpuissants qui
manquent leur debut" But it is alto
getber probable that the thought came to
each of these writers independently.
-Iser, most helpful of correspondents,
favors the Drawer this week with notes on
many things. The following bit of praise
Yorick at once hastens to make public:
wish you could hear the concentrations
which have heard expressed for your sug-
gestions about giving children the Arabian
Nights to read l commenced with my
children, long before they were old enough to
listen to reading. by laying the book before
me to refresh my memory, aud telling them
the tales in simDe language; aud l was quite
delighted to find how strong an impression
was made upon their memories l called
out sternly, one night when they were m ak
ing great noise in their rooms, Fish, fish,
are Ye in your duty ?" the reply was prompt,
"You reckon, we reckon!' And when a
youngster was taken out othis papa's bed
and pat away in his own. i was always a
10 bed prince 10 GaiHo and wakea nip US
a pastry cook in Damascus. The first story
that can interest very young child in, is
that OF the cid woman and her kid, with its
reiterated burden of
81 see hyehe moonlight 'tis half-past midnight,
Time I'D and Us to home an hour and half ago."
F They call the kid pig nowadays, but I
shad alway have faith in the kid, as that
was the way had it from a big prentice-boy
who used to tell me fairy stories by the hour.
Edwin Plummer, whose elegant taste /
afterwards learned to admire when he was
the editor of the Portland Electic. But
children will listen TO Bible stories almost as
early as to fairy tales. think the story of
Joseph is the favorite with them, and have
seen party of children examine with de-
light field of stacked corn-fodder, because it
reminded them OF Joseph's sheaf of wheat with
those of his brethren standing about to make
obeisance to it. Lamartine speaks tendery
of the impressions made upon his childish
mnd by the pictures in the "belle Bible de
Royaumont," and the stories his mother
told him about them. 7 think the great
point in cu4.ivating their minds is to get
ahead of the weeds The first book caught
Gay eldest boy deeply interested in Was a bor-
roWed dime novel. I read sentence aloud
from it, "Bring forth the captive with the
sun-Iit hairW and showed him how ridicu-
lous 1t was, gave him volume of Marryatt to
read, and never had any more uneasiness on
that point.
-Iser returns to bis pipes and makes a
valiant defence of Shanly's poem. II would
appear that there are pipes made from the
brier-root, but these are not often to be
seen. Their manufacture seems to have
been suggested by the corruption of the
French word, and brier-wood is n0w a gen.
eral term for a wooden pipe, as ivory is fol
articles made from all forms of bone and
from the hardened kernel of the carrozo nut,
as well as FROM elephant tusks. OF course
the rarity of the real brier pipe gives it ar
added value. Iser says:
While l admit that many of the so-called
brierWOOd pipes are made of brugere, an(
still larger number, in this country, of lau-
rel root, because these roots can be obtained
in masses and cut into sections, yet hav,
seen real brierwood pipes. They are gener
| ally smaller aud of more fantastic form, be-
cause the root is so small that onl,
one pipe can be made from it, and that ou'
| must accommodate itself to the shape of tht
root. Our soldiers in Virginia used to di'
| both brier and laurel root to make their owl
| pipes of, aud am confident that Snanly's
soldier had veritable brierwood pipe.
-Iser also gives curious example of
Hiberncism. 1t may be remembered b
scme of the readers of the Drawer that Poi
son who knew about everything and probabl
had the greatest fund of useless know
edge any one man ever accumr
lated, always insisted that the Iris
started with blunder and that thei
Saint Patrick IS none other that Succat, th
Celtic evil spirit or Satan. Here is the late
bull to be caught, and Iser puts this hoe
through his nose:
1t is curious how ideas get reversed somt
times. The enthusiasm of our Irish Cath(
llc friends for 'Wearing of the Green
only exceeded by their hatred of Oraugemel
vet at the typical battle of the Boyne, eac
Otangeman wore green bough i'll his ha
while the native Irish and The French a
wore the white emblem Of the Bourbon
l A-S So-AO 1uiuS udppOucu tAO iOllOWiuS yCi
when the Orange army crossed the Shaunu
and captured Athlone.
Finally, Iser asks this question, whic
some one certainly ought to be able to al
swer:
Can any of your contributors tell whe
may be found the quotation He comes, Il
herald of noisy world, with tidings lumbe
ing at his backp" II was chosen as a mot
by Arthur Shirley, who was leading edit
IN Potland fifty years ago. l understo
MIN to tell me that it was from ShakspeI
but ind that it is not there.
We are told that the brunette is no
quite the fashion. With some OF US, she b
never been out of fashion. There are M
who never see brown woman that they a
not tempted 10 make love to her or do SON
silly thing. Curiously enough, blonde womt
affect them the same way. Yorick does n
clearly understand how either blonde or bI
nette can be in fashion to the exclusion OF t
other. Because we admire the golden sple
dor of that Princess Eboli (the head
often seen on porcelains), whom Titi