Year: 1863

BallOpning.

 There have been many happy specimens of slang literature of late, but the following, :" time and place considered" is certainly the most felcitous. It is going the rounds of the press, as an original account by Professor Ris- ley, the we'll known accomplished posture mas ter, furnished to an English paper, of his re- cept ascent in the Nassau Balloon with Mr. Green.

 There were couple of cars attached to the balloon, eight passengers occupying the first, and two in the lower one. Amidst my com- panious was my protege, the Young Herman deg, and couple of ladies. No sooner had vaulted into the car than felt as if already in: some new element, and unable to keep my position, I squatted like sailor on crosstree upon the hoop that unites the lashings of the car, and in that elevated position had an op- portunity of telegraphing tokens of good will with all my friends. l can only Gken my feel ings at the moment to those used to expert ence in my hobbledehoyish days when left the university at vacation for home, and have smart calculation that the machine must have been inflated for the occasion with oxy- gen that had efervesced from tun of cham pagne. A fair compagnon du voyage asked me what would take for supper in my eleva- ted lodging, and answered, "A boiled squab and brandy smash !"

 Boom P went the signal gun for starting as spoke, and the stays were cast off. leaped to my feet upon my perch, and saw every hat in the gardens waving. Off went my old beav- CT, and I ascended with the lightest heart eyer felt in my life. MT. Ferrars, the worship full secretary of the gardens, was as much ex- cited as myself, and leaped to the opposite side of the hoop. His enthusiasm kept pace with my own, aud each of us rigged our roarers, as we were about to join jubilee of the gods.

 We went ahead as if impatient to singe our pates against the sun, or as if old mother Earth was playing at football, and wished to try her strength on the Nassau balloon. Up we went walking in the upper regions like an oppossum up gum-tree, while the cheers of our friends and the clash of the band beneath produced a volume of sound not unlike the fthunders of Niagara. Talk of sensations l felt as if my soul had sloped slick from its clay, and was going holiday making with my heart in its hand.

 A young gentleman in the car thought it as nice as swing at country fair.

 More like japnt to Paradise,' said one of the ladies.

 Very likely quoth the gentleman, for we are lowering over one of it's rivers

 How can that be [? said I. Wonder stream is the Thames.

 Very wsll,' said my young friend; and aint that identical with the river Pison 9

 l should have gone down speeches. but for glass of the immortal sherry of my friend Green. It was drop out of the same bot tie that he preached for the ladies on his last ascept, after tilting their protectors on the parapet of house that had mt the manners to step aside when it found itself in the way of the balloon.

 We now began to clear the gardens, flying above the very birds, who piped farewell, like so many Jenny Linds. It was up-up-- up-soar-soar- the pleasure grounds we had quilted appeared like the garden plot in front of Camberwell cottage. The Thames twined over it's shallows like silver eel in sand basket. Houses became biFdcages, oaks dWindled into cabbages, men became specks, women dew drops, and began to think that the genus homo was in the habit of thinking a little too much of itself. To be serious, when l say the great globe swinging at my feet, and the mighty metropolis of the earth looking like village down-east at the foot of range of hllis' 1t struck me as thorough going eternal truth, that it mattered little whether the An des or the Grampian Hills were the chief scen- ic features of a nation; as it was only neces- gary to fly little higher than kite to reduce the mightiest mountain in the world to mere mole-hill.

 We now neared bank of clouds, and saw what 1 never thought of seeing as long as l lived-the moon beneath my feet. She was just topping the horizon. and We were at least mile above the highest point of the surface. A bank of clouds surged beneath us and, catching sunlight on one side. and moonlight on the other, gave notion of sea with waves washing silver from the east, and gold from the west. I thought what panorama the scene would make and, as we Aoated past a vista in the clouds. I thought also what an extensive bowling alley the divinites of heather mythology might have constructed there; playing with thunderbolts for balls, and using lightning instead of gas to illnmi- nate the place. But as we continued to mount, ny terrestrial imagipings gave way to ideas of another kind. was moving through that which forms the principles of both life and th-of that which nourishes and which decays that which waits the pIeasqre-boat to its destinatioD, while nurturing an electric force sufficient to shatter our entire planet snkn Asa~m~n+. uo.o va vora nsorasn, &ho