Year: 1867




of Gail Hamilton's '' Wool-Gathering," pub
lished by Ticknor and Fields. 1t is a hand
some book of $50 pages, uniform in style
with the authors previous publications, and
is made up wholly of new matter the maya
zinc readers not having had the first taste of
any of the piquant contents of the volume.
The writer commences thus:


About year ago | came into possession
Of fortune. 1t from entirely un-
expected source, and | naturally cast about
for the best mode of investment. The war
was bravely over, and there was no further
need of private contributions to prop up
public credit. Diligent Investigations showed
that wool growing was delightful and prof
liable occupation. Sheep are innocent, lambs
engaging, and wool marketable. | therefore
dispatched nv agent to Wisconsin, where he
bought twenty-five sheep at four dollars and
fifty cents a head This amounted to one
hundred and twelve dollars and fifty cents.
| gave him the odd half dollar for commits
sion, bade him put the remaining twelve dol
lars O forgot to mention that the original
fortune was one hundred and twenty-five
dollars) into the bank against a rainy day,
drive the sheep to Minnesota, and set them
spinning, metonymy. He wrote to me
soon that he had faithfully carried out ali
my directions the sheep had been bought
and driven home, and were in good condition.
He added, however, that there always a
degree of uncertainty connected with the es-
tablshing of a family of sheep. A greater
or less number generally succumbed TO the
severity of their first winter in a climate.
wrote back at once that | did not expect
the order of nature to be changed for my
benefit, but neither did | wish to be annoyed
by dead sheep dribbling through the winter
Ii could not be exhilarating to read, in every
letter that came. - there is another sheep
frozen" | therefore babe him not write any
obituary notice, but wait till the sheep were
all dead. and then say


| accordingly heard no bad news from my
sheep And some time during the following
summer word came that the sheep-shearing
was over. and my agent ready with his
first yearly report. 1t was a beautiful docu-
ment 1t showed that my profits were two
pounds of wool to each sheep. This my agent
La sold for forty-ive cents pound, making
ninety cents a head, which, multiplied by
twenty-five heads. made twenty-five dollars
and fiitv cents as a years interest of one
hundred and twelve dollars and fifty cents.
| have verified this reckoning by geometry
and the higher mathematics, and | believe 1t
t. be correct in every particular.


The thoughtful reader Will not fail to see
that twenty-five dollars and fifty cents is a
sam of money not to laughed at, and the
question at once became. how to get posses
sion of it. The United States post Office does
not refund the property which it fails to
transmit. and considering the heavy robber
les committed upon the Adams Express Com
pany, | could not trust my treasure to its
keeping. After a severe mental conflict
decided to 90 myself and fetch the money
Commentators differ as to the real motive of
my journey, but this is the explanation on
which the general opinion Of foreign nations
and the next age will finally settle.


Aware that mankind is ever athirst for
knowledge, | have decided to crafty it by
putting on record some of the more sagacious
thoughts which naturally occur to the in
quring mind on its tour round the world.
| shall not descend to the trivial details of
personal experience, which are necessarily
impertinent, but shall adhere strictly to such
broad and philosophic views as have ma
tional, | may say cosmopolitan, value. And
| shall from time to time add moral rehec-
tions and | am fond of making them.


The first requisite for long journey is to
take all your best clothes. 4 prejudice
prevails to some extent against this practice,
and it is indeed unwise if you regard clothes
solely as a means of warmth but the noble
soul lifts it's wardrobe into higher sphere,
and makes it an element of character. You
may in truth not need to array yourself in
all your glory, but the consciousness that
you do it gives peace of mind which
outweighs many trunks.


Next in Importance TO your best clothes
are two bottles of DIR. Hamlin's cholera mix
turc When | say that Dr. Hamlin is an
Orthodox Congregational clergyman, L need
give no further reason for my recommenda-
tion but ! can from my own knowledge
speak with confidence of the efficacy of his
medicine For nine weeks it travelled with
rs by field and flood, and not one of the party
had the cholera


\ bottle of brandy makes an excellent
travelling companion if your principles and
habits are good.


box Of mustard is an ounce of preven-
ton. If your eye-teeth are yet at an i'm
mature stage of development, you will order
five bottles Of potted tongue, beef, and her
ring,-small stone Jars, each one holding,
Judging from Your experience of meats,
enough to last through two lunches. Open
ing them, you find them packed with salted
fire, of which YOU endure morsel only
by spreading it on cracker with the tip OF
your fruit-knife to the last degree of imper-
ccptibility. If any person is designing to
provision fleet for Arctic explorations. let
him apply to the publishers of this book be-
fore purchasing elsewhere, and he will hear
of something very much to his advantage.


Beguiled by pleasant memories, you will
order also three dozen spIced and picked
lamb tongues; and believe me, gentle
reader, YOU will have no conception till you
see them together, how many tongues thirty
SIX spiced and picked lambs have When
you reflect that these are to be carried about
with you till they are eaten, you see that
lambs are not the only innocents which are
in Il pickle, and the situation becomes appal-
ling. But | forbear-


Let us suppose now that yonr various Vi
ands are snugly bestowed, and yourself fairly
started on your journey. The first thing you
know, your basket bounces off the seat
and rolls over and down the aisle
There is a rattling of crockery, and sudden
suspicion that your whole basket has turned
into a cholera mixture. You are too much
ashamed to take account of stock in public
but now and then put your nose down fur.
lively to the crack of the lid to ascertain
what smell seems to be uppermost, and are
relieved at the absence of any prevailing
perfume. By the time your series of obser'
vations are conducted to a satisfactory con
clusion you are in Albany, the capital of the
state of New York, the seat of a Legislature
remarkable in age of general uprightness
for the purity of its morals and the incor.
ruptibility of it's legislation


The book is in the writer's best vein, q
history of her travels to Wisconsin, Mime
sofa, Tennessee, Georgia, and home by the
way of Washington and Gettysburg; and
there is great deal of the authors wit
wisdom, philanthropy, satire, and reflections
enlivening every page, and perpetually enter
tanning the reader We look in vain, how
a,or Cor an1 further alIusiOu fo the WOO